Regrets: Part 2

The Perfect Family

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

Raphael Hamato rolled over as he yawned and groaned, trying to block out his alarm. He was having a great dream and was desperate to get back to it. He was about to fall asleep again he heard his bedroom door creek open. He listened and heard the pitter patter of feet walking to his bed.

Before he could brace, however, a large lump suddenly cannonball onto his front.

The hit knocked the air out of his lungs. He opened his green goo eyes and smiled when he saw his four year old daughter, Brooke Y'Gythgba, giggling as she smiled at him. She was turtle/ salamander hybrid. She had dark sea foam green skin with dark spots on her body and a leather back shell with her father's eyes and a salamander tail swishing behind her.

She wore a bright, yellow flowery summer dress and white tights.

"Wake up Daddy! Wake up!" Brooke giggled happily before heading back downstairs. Raphael sighed and stumbled out of his bed to get dressed. As he rummaged through the closet trying to find some clothes, a cardboard box on the shelf above him fell onto his head and it's contents spilled out all over the floor.

He yelped in pain and glared at the box.

But his gaze softened greatly when he saw what was left of his little family. His life with Leona and Yukiko. The box was full of pictures and a few memorable treasures from his time with his ex girlfriend and daughter. He felt his heart ache at the memories. They had been gone for eleven years now.

He and Leona were thirty now and Yukiko would be thirteen, nearly fourteen, now.

He wondered what she would be like. What she liked, what she hated, did she have a new dad, how was she in school. Sometimes he wondered if he ever saw his daughter again. But then he thought about how awkward it would be if Yuki and Leo just suddenly showed back up out of the blue.

He held onto to hope that Leo had built a life for herself and their baby girl, just like he had.

He admitted that after they left, he'd been a wreck. He had started drinking heavily and lost his jobs and his apartment, forcing him to move back in with his parents and brothers. There had been many times when he'd gone out drinking and woken up on a sidewalk until he went to rehab.

That was where he had met Mona Lisa Y'Gythgba.

He remembered it like it was yesterday. He had woken up with a bad hangover in some gutter on an empty street and stumbled back home. When he finally got back home he found his mother waiting for him and started to scold him for his behaviour. She told him she'd had enough and dragged him to a rehab centre the next day. 

During the meeting he met another alcoholic named Mona.

She was sassy, smart and had a great sense of humour. The two of them hit it off almost instantly and found comfort and support in each other. From that moment on, his life seemed to get back on track. He quickly sobered up, went to college and even opened his own bar six years ago.

He did still have an odd pint every now and then, but never as bad as before.

He and Mona started dating and they too had a child together. Their little Brooke. Except this time Raph wasn't going to make the same mistake and stood by them every step of the way. He now had the most perfect family. He knew that with Leo's looks and smarts that she'd of found someone by now too and had her own family with her new man and Yuki.

He cleared everything back into the box and stuffed it back into the shadows of the closet.

It hurt just to look at it. He quickly finished getting dressed and tumbled down the stairs of his house. There he saw his daughter eating breakfast with Mona Lisa, who was cooking some bacon in the pan. Mona Lisa was a twenty nine year old salamander who was the colour teal and had white, pearly spots on her.

She had pale gold eyes.

She had five long fingers and toes and a long tail as well. She wore a grey tank top with black sweat pants. She was a waitress in a diner in the city.

"Good morning sweetie." She smiled and placed a plate of bacon and eggs in front of him.

"Mornin' babe." Raph yawned as he gave her a kiss and ate his breakfast...