tmnt imagines

turtles - birthdays

#20
Here's a little special in celebration of the 8th anniversary!!
Enjoy!

Often, the birthdays were shared amongst the four mutant teens.
Even with them being all the same species and coming from the same mom, no one was really clear on who was oldest. All together they decided that Leo was the oldest and Mikey was the youngest. With Raph and Donnie being in the middle.

No one was certain on how they came with the conclusion, but everyone went with it. Sure, there was a fight between them when they were ten on who was actually the eldest. But Sensei settled it by saying that they were all born on the same day but different times.

Sensei always knew what to do.

After everything they had been through, with space, the demon and shredder, they didn't notice that their birthday rolled around.
This time their cake was vanilla and not algae. They had candles and not worms.
It tasted better than their fifteenth birthday.
The only thing was missing was their father to wish them a blessed day.

They sat around the kitchen table, the cake in front of them, same seats as before. Karai, April, Shini and Casey were singing them a happy birthday. Mostly April.
But they weren't amused. They blankly stared at the cake in front of them, the icing that decorated it beautifully, the sprinkles that were showered on top of it. It seemed too good to be true.
No turtle was up to eat it.

Not even Mikey.

He just wanted his dad to retell the story that they've been telling every year. He didn't care how the story went (even though he was fully immersed), he liked how his father told it. His accent lightly feathering the words as he recounted the tale he's told more than his own age. The smile it brought to all of their faces that fate was generous enough for them to cross paths.

Even with the crazy people it came with, they did it together.

The only thing that they didn't do together was space and their birthday.

Mikey was the first to leave, then Raph, then Donnie, last it was Leo. The four humans looked at them confusingly. They were missing the best part. The cake!
But Sensei was the best part of everything.

"This doesn't feel right, dudes. Shouldn't- Shouldn't we feel happy?! We let him go; we saw him go! He was happy, we were happy; at least, I thought we were," Mikey rambled, clutching a stuffed animal he picked up from the living room on their way to the dojo.
Raphael was one to fidget with his sai to make him look cool or to take him mind off things. The sai was just a constant reminder of him. Raph remembered how happy he was to receive his weapon. Taking it from his father's hands proudly.

"Nothing will ever feel right," Raph grunted angrily. Nothing meant more to him than his father. The only person who knew how Raph felt and the only person that made Raph feel okay with who he was while he was struggling to find himself.

"Letting go is what supposed to make you feel better. I don't know why it's making us feel worse," Donnie stressed. He leaned against the wall and slid down. He wanted his Sensei to be beside him and give him weird advise to decipher. Sensei was the only person Donnie knew who had his back and believed in him. His brothers did believe in him, but they would always doubt it time to time.

"It's settled. We're not over Sensei's loss. Even though we saw him for the last time a few months ago." Leo was hit the hardest. His father was the sole person he looked up to as a person. No one else meant that much to him.
Not even captain Ryan.
Even though Leo was with him the most, he wished he was by his side for the last few months, despite Sensei's avoidance.

The rest wished they weren't so kept up with their hobbies and spend sometime with their father. The mutants were so caught up in that Splinter will be there when they're older.

Or at least twenty.

Mikey started to cry. He tried muffling his sobs but couldn't. He covered his mouth and dropped in the middle of the dojo. Raph smiled grimly, his own set of tears falling. Usually he would try to hide it, but what was the point? The red bandana turtle walked towards his brother and sat down beside him. They hugged each other, mostly Raph comforting his brother.

Donnie got up from his sitting position to sit on the other side of Mikey, his tears coming very slowly.

Leo didn't cry. He spent months crying over his dead father. He ran out of tears. Nonetheless, he joined his three crying brothers, sitting beside Raph and rested his head on his shoulder.
As brothers do, neither cared of the rare contact they shared. They all faced towards the shelf that they decorated of themselves and Splinter. Lotus flowers in bundles and candles to decorate. In the middle used to be a picture of Miwa, but she took it for herself. Now it was an old photo when they were eight.

It was cute.

Splinter watched from the sidelines, viewing his four boys that he raised as his own. That he had loved for sixteen years.
"Happy birthday, my children."