The Family Way

26: You're Gonna Go Far Kid

(2955 words)

None of the Hamatos knew that Raph knew the boy on the local news. The boy who they criticized and shamed. The boy who Donnie swore to 'take down' if they ever met for breaking into April's place. At that Raph freezes up. He doesn't want to move for fear of them somehow knowing he was a part of it too.

"Really, who does that kind of thing?" Leo says, more to himself than the rest of the family. "People who need money or people who are just kleptomaniacs." Donnie replies, getting up and pacing just in front of Raph who stood behind their couch. "I hope April's okay. If that big of a guy broke in, he could've really hurt her."

"I am sure that we would've heard if April was injured." Yoshi says in an attempt to calm his son's nerves. "Maybe, but what if she is scared and completely alone? Her dad is out of town or something." Raph sighs. "Dude, I'm sure she's fine." Raph mumbles. Donnie glances at him and shakes his head. "How would you even know."

"Uh... Well, she just seems like the kind of person to be okay in this kinda situation?" Raph replies quietly. "Well, you can ask her if she's okay at school tomorrow." Leo interjects, getting up from his spot on the couch and walking down to his and Mikey's room. Raph sighs, forgetting that school was starting up again. There was a few moments of silence before a loud groan was heard from the room.

Mikey jumps up, his curls messy from sleeping, and dashes for the door that would take him down to the dojo. "MIKEY!" Leo shouts just as the boy swings the door shut. Leo sprints out of the room holding an older looking comic book with globs of paint all over the back side of it. The oldest boy doesn't take any time to look in the livingroom before going out the same door Mikey did.

"Oooo... Mikey's dead..." Donnie says, holding back a laugh. "That was Leo's original issue one Space Hero's comic." Raph cringes. He knows how some of those comic geeks get when their comics even get touched. "Remember boys, fifteen minutes until training." Yoshi says, still watching the tv as the news plays out.

Donnie replies respectfully before Raph clasps a hand down on his shoulder, making him shiver. "Don, can I talk to you for a sec?" He asks quietly. "Uh, sure?" Donnie says, taking Raph's hand off of his shoulder. "Don't touch me."

The two move to their room, sitting on their respective beds in silence. Raph felt bad. Worse than bad. He needed to do something to make it up to April, even if it was something small. For his own sake more than hers. The problem came when Raph doesn't know anything about her. He knows small things, but nothing personal. Luckily he knew someone who did.

"So... Uh, really fucking weird question, but what do- what is it that you like about April?" Raph asks awkwardly. He hopped that Donnie would look over how odd the question was in favor of ranting about her like he would about computers and such. "Well, she's really nice and smart and pretty. She likes school and not a lot of people like school-"

As Donnie spouts off all the things he liked about the redheaded girl, facts and opinions. Raph was sure that Donnie could've talked for hours about April but he was cut off when he notices the time. "She loves animals and she talks about being a vet for all types of creatures too and she could totally do it- Oh crap..."

Raph glances at the clock and cringes. They were already five minutes late. Donnie tears out of the room, leaving Raph behind to slowly trudge towards the door. He wasn't a big fan of training. He was very much behind the brothers and it made him feel inferior. There was also the fact that whenever things got too heated things turned bad.

He makes his way down to the dojo and takes a seat next to where Yoshi stood, already giving directions and orders to the brothers. They were about to start a warm up round of last man standing sparring and Raph opted to sit this one out. As the round started Mikey was immediately moving everywhere, making himself a moving target, nearly impossible to hit.