The Sewer Twins [PAUSED]

Chapter 3 - New friends

The year is now 2010, Raph and Mikey are 13 years old, Raph was out in the surface going through the trash of some big supermarket, for some reason, they throw away food once it reaches the expiration date, this happens every day, and Raph learned that the expiration day is not the end of the line for the food, it can still be eatable even days after said date, so he was always taking food from there and other markets and grocery stores that have the same habit so he and his little bro always have what to eat, but Mikey is not much of a fan of going out there, he is very sensible for sounds and the city makes al lot of noise practically all the time, not to mention the fact he is very anxious of being around humans, he didn't trust strangers or anyone besides his older brother, but it must have something to do with the horror movies and documentaries he watched, Raph even had to go through his cds and vhs's to make sure there's nothing too heavy for him.

That day in particullar was a thuesday night, nothing big seemed to be happening, Raph was about to head home until he heard weird noise, like if someone had jumped behind him, and then he saw a hockey stick flying in his direction, he dodged, Raph looked up to see who did this and his eyes met a guy covered in black clothes and wearing a skull mask to cover his face, the masked guy then yelled at Raph to get away from the dumpster, calling him a monster and a thief, Raph took that offence very personally and quickly positioned himself for a fight and so did his potential enemy, they were about to jump on eachother until the sewer entrance opened and Michelangelo suddenly appered to call his big brother home with an innocent and cheerful smile not noticing the presence of a third person on the alleyway with them.

Raph even tried to give him some hints for him to read the room and show him he is in the middle of something there, but Mikey naively hops out of the man hole to give his brother a big hug, still oblivious to the stranger that is standing right behind him trying his best to hold his laughter, that paralizes Raph of embaresment for receiving affection in front of an opponent and as he was about to scold Mikey for interrupting the fight he was about to have, the guy in black fell on the floor laughing out and loud like a maniac for how funny that whole situation was, the laughter quickly got Mikey's attention and freak him out, sending him into a panic, he began to run in circles screaming and than jumping back inside the sewers, making the guy in black laugh even harder nearly losing his breath, Raph was furious and jumped at the enemy pining him to the ground, just to be dragged back by his little brother in fear that he would get hurt.

The guy in black gets up and takes off his menacing skull mask and stands his hand to help the angry turtle up, he shoved his stupid human hand away while his younger brother is still hiding behind him, even though he was scared and wanted to run away as fast possible, he still refused to abandon his dear brother or leave him behind with a dangerous man from the upperlands, Raph stood his grounds and refused to soften up to him, unlike Mikey, who starts to see some kindness in him and thought he could probally not be so bad, but Raph just smacks a reality check in his face like "Yo, don't be stupid, he could be faking it, he could still crack our shells open, don't put your guard down." This made Mikey go a bit deeper on the sewer, still poking his head out to see what happens, the stranger then introduces himself.

💀- "My name is Casey, Casey Jones, but you can call me Cass if you'd like."

🔴 - "And ours is none of your bus_"

🟠 - "Oh, mine is Michelangelo!!! But you can call me Michael!! Or angelo! Or whatever, there's a ton of nicknames I can get out of my name."

🔴 - "MIKEY!!!"

💀- "pffftt hehehe, alright then, atleast someone here has a nice spirit."

🔴 - "I'LL SHOW YOU THE SPIRIT THAT WILL COME OUT OF YOUR BODY AFTER I KICK YOUR FAT ASS!!!

🟠 - "GOOD LORD, RAPH, LANGUAGE!!!!!"

🔴 - "NOT NOW, MIKE!!"

💀- "Haha!! HEY, you like pizza?"

Well, that was an odd first meeting but, for as incredible as it may sound, the three guys became friends overtime, days passed and they started to stumble upon eachother more and more frequently and eventually Mikey warmed up to Jones in a way that they became great friends, Raph still kept a close eye on him to make sure he wasn't dangerous or a bad influence on his little bro, like an owl staring deeply into it's prey, just waiting for the smallest of movements to snatch it by the throat and tear it apart in the most brutal way possible, but eventually, he proved himself to be worth atleast some trust after saving his brother from some drunk men late at night, he managed to earn respect and trust from the hot-headed turtle.

After months of friendship, they showed Casey their sewer home, that he found it very comfortable, it was cozy and it felt nice to be there, it felt like a home, more than his own home, the guys decided to have a movie night, and while Raphael went to the kitchen to get some snacks and popcorn, Mikey and Casey sat down on the TV area and began chatting, after Mikey kept pressing on the same issue over and over again, that he would sometimes show up with some bruises and scratches, that he never talked about his parents, and Mikey saw enough movies to know that this is not normal, Casey hesitated at first but he opened up to his friend, his parents are always splitting up and coming back together all the time, he fells like he never had much stability in life, they fight a lot so he ends up caught in the middle of those fights every now and then and it really sucks, specially now that his mom just had given up her sister to his aunt not so long ago, so he feels pretty bad staying there, he shares with Mikey his dream of getting a job, multiple if he needs to, but he wants enough money to get his own place and leave that horrible apartment he currently lives in.

That's when Raph barges in the conversation, he heard it all, he eavesdroped on them while the popcorn was on the microwave, he walks up to his friend and says that if he really needs a place to go to and call home, they are more than glad to take him in, they have some extra rooms after all, Casey can't help but tear up after hearing this, he hugs Raphael as hard as he can and Mikey joins in the big group hug, Casey is thankful but chooses to wait for a while before taking such a huge step for his life, Raph understands and so does Michelangelo, they sit together in front of the TV screen, Mikey puts on the best comedy movie he has and they spend the whole night awake watching movies and joking around like if there was no tomorrow.