gave me a lot of uploading issues, sorry folks! Hopefully this time we're all good.

For the new year, I'm uploading a story I've been writing a long time, and putting on tumblr for months already. It does contain some disturbing material in regards to burning and fire. Please tread carefully in reading!

As this is historical fiction, due to the nature of the time period and event, I have been meticulous in researching for accuracy. This is why the characters are human in this case and story-though you can picture them in any way you wish! Enjoy the story.

This is the sixth week since Raph ran away.

It's still so odd, waking up without his brother's soft breathing nearby. The other morning sounds are the same, as Leonardo lies there on the bedrolls: mothers cooking breakfast, people biking to work, the occasional radio giving war news. There are more than usual after the raid got everyone up.

Leo should be getting some sleep, but he's always restless on an air raid night. Which means that lately he's been sleeping very poorly, with how often they blare out over the city these days. They've been awake for hours this time, in the neighbourhood shelter, but that won't stop sensei from getting up as usual to start breakfast.

Which he has, from the sound of his footsteps on the tatami mats outside their room, pulling out pans and dishes. Leo groans, stretching as he sits up and tries to wake up fully.

Beside him, Dante shifts. At six years old, the nightly raids are the hardest on him. He's still wearing his air-raid hood from last night, his eyes squeezed shut. Leo smiles fondly.

"Hey, baby brother," he says. "Time to get up. Don't want to miss breakfast."

Dante groans, rolling over into Leo's pillow. Donnie and Mikey are sitting up too, already rubbing the sleep out of their eyes. They don't need an older brother alarm clock so much, being only a few years younger than Leo himself.

"Will there be rice today?" is the first thing Mikey asks. He's old enough to remember when they had it every day, without thinking much about it. And fish, and pickled plums, and all kinds of things too expensive to get for people like them.

"It's Monday," Donnie says as he stands up. "I counted the ration last night, and we should probably only be eating it every other Sunday now. It's just not enough."

"Ugh," Mikey exclaims. "I'm so sick of sweet potatoes. I bet Raph doesn't need to eat sweet potatoes every day."

"He'll be eating worse than sweet potatoes at the front. Assuming he gets to eat anything."

"Well, he's not there yet! Yoshio's brother went in January and he didn't leave training for three months."

Leo sits Dante up himself and begins to untie his nightclothes, reaching behind him to get the little uniform their desk. He lays it out carefully before bed, every night.

Dante finally stands up, which means Leo can too, and begin to get dressed for work. People will be late at the factory after the commotion of such a long raid. No rush to get out of the house today.

"You don't have to put on my clothes," Dante says, frowning and pushing Leo's hands away from his buttons. "I'm not a baby."

Leo smiles at him, but he's only half-listening, thinking about Mikey's comment. Is Raph getting rice? Is Raph getting enough to eat at all? The war has been hard on everyone, even the imperial military.

They're only slightly late for breakfast, so sensei says nothing as he lays out their meals. Leo feels a little guilty, for not getting up to help today—but their father usually lets it go when an air-raid lasted as long as this one did.

For complaining about sweet potatoes so much, Mikey devours his immediately. Donnie is frowning at something, gaze distant, until Leo pokes him in the ribs.

"What's the matter?" Leo says, popping another bite into his mouth. They tease Donnie about this a lot, his many day dreams and deep gazes inward.

"Oh, nothing," Donnie says. He sounds agitated. "I was just thinking about the U.S. We were pretty close to growing up there, weren't we? Things could have been different."

Sensei frowns, standing up to refill the teapot. "Your mother wanted her children to grow up in the home country," he says. "So you did. We didn't anticipate the war when we came back."

"Yeah." Donatello doesn't look satisfied, and to tell the truth, neither is Leo. They talk very little about America now since sensei's second marriage, and even less since the war made them a sworn enemy.

"It's war over there too, anyway," Leo says. "No air-raids, but definitely less food and lots of work to do." He knows it's much more complicated than that, and his answer is too simple for intelligent Donnie, but someone might overhear them on their way to work. They've already been reported once because sensei lived in California for so long. The keipeitai, the secret police, are probably already watching him at the university.

"Leo," Dante asks, frowning into his bowl of sweet potatoes. "Why didn't you go join the Army?"

Leo looks up sharply. In the kitchen he sees sensei stiffen, back straight as a rod. "Well, I'm not old enough to be conscripted yet," he says. "So I don't have to-"

"But that's where Raph is!" Dante says. He's agitated, too. "And he's one year younger! My teacher said it's an affront to the Emperor if boys don't join up now, even if they're not old enough. He said it doesn't matter as long as-"

"As long as, what, Leo goes off and dies like all those other high school boys?" Donnie asks. His eyes are hard. Beside him, Mikey has already finished his meal and is eyeing Donatello's unfinished bowl with interest. "We're not going to win, Dante. Better Leo stays here and we hope the war is over before the US lands on the beach."

Dante's mouth is in a round little o of surprise. "But-"

"But nothing," sensei says, leaving the kitchen. "America has Okinawa now. There's not enough food and all the big cities have been bombed. We can only hope that the Emperor sees sense before it's our city's turn, and before Raphael is finished his training."

"But sensei-"

"Eat your sweet potatoes," sensei says. The subject is closed.

"Sensei is way smarter than your teachers," Mikey says cheerfully, setting down his chopsticks."Don't say that at school or you'll get us all in trouble, but they only say that Emperor stuff because they're supposed to."

"Absolutely," Donnie says. His eyes are still dark. "It's all propaganda, Dante."

"Pro-pa-ganda..." Dante mouths out. "What does that mean?"

Leo is suddenly not at all hungry, but he eats the last of his food regardless. They're lucky to have it and he can't let it go to waste. Ignoring the thought of Raph boarding a battleship, he checks his watch. 8:06.

"It's after eight, Mikey," he says without looking up. "You'll be late."

"Oh!" Michelangelo jumps up, running back into their bedroom and reappearing in seconds with a backpack over his shoulder, a cap over his head. "I actually was supposed to leave early today, ha! We're making firebreaks downtown, so I should have made it for roll call!"

Sensei frowns, but Leo expected that—he hates the war, so why would he approve of wartime student labour? Mikey is only 13.

"Pay attention to the air raids," he says. "And come straight home after work, no jumping on the streetcar with your friends."

Mikey is already out the door. "See you later!" he calls over his shoulder. Leo's brothers finish their meals quietly, listening to his footsteps fade away.

Leo looks at Donnie, who is beginning to stack the breakfast bowls. "You're not working today?"

Donnie gives him a rare smile. "Not today, thank goodness," he says. "Our mobilization starts tomorrow, so we have the day off."

School is such a joke these days that Leo is grateful to hear that. Donnie deserves a real education and not the imperial recitations. Even worse is imagining his bookish brother pulling down houses, hard work far outside the classroom.

"Well, Dante and I don't," he says, standing up. "Are you ready to go, kiddo?"

Since the air raids started, Leo has been walking Dante to school. It's silly, since he might well be safer with his class in that sturdy building, and many other children walk that way, but Leo likes to keep a special eye on him all the same and know he got inside. He's never liked the thought of him walking so far alone anyway.

Dante is just standing up when sensei stops him, looking stern.

"Take your breakfast along," sensei says. "We've discussed this, my son. No wasting food, so eat it on the way. Leonardo will take the bowl home on his way to work."

It's probably impolite to eat breakfast out in the street, but this kind of concession is normal just to get a full meal into Dante. He frowns. "I'll meet you outside, Leo," he says, turning to get his backpack out of their bedroom. "I'll just be two seconds!"

Leo shares another smile with Donatello as he turns toward the yard. Mikey's cat is grooming herself in the window and sensei has started clearing the dishes, Donnie standing to take the bowls to the sink.

It's a warm morning, and it will be even hotter later today. Whenever he steps outside now he always half-expects to see Raphael, leaning against the house with a cigarette he'd begged off of soldiers. They'd all complained about the smell of smoke, but now Leonardo finds himself missing it. Maybe at the training camp Raph gets cigarettes as part of his rations, a luxury in exchange for the hard training.

Leo frowns. They haven't gotten even one letter yet, and it makes him fret about his brother being sent into battle already, though there would at least another month before he's sent into combat.

He's wondering what Raph is doing now, watching the neighbour girls disappear down the road to school, when he is blinded by a white-hot flash.