Rating: T for Raph's Mouth

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.

Summary: ABC Challenge. F – 'It wasn't fair! Everything they had done for this city, the world, the whole damned multi-verse and this was how they were repaid?' On a day that meant a lot to his fallen brother, Raphael reminisces. One shot - 'AOtGO' tie-in, however you don't need to have read it to read this. Please R&R, concrit always appreciated.

Fools

Raphael awoke, a heavy weight settling deep into his very soul. It was no mystery to the hotheaded turtle why he felt like this, he knew exactly why. It had been just over a month and a half since his bright spirited brother sacrificed himself to save Donatello.

Lethargic and feeling slightly ill at the thought of the day ahead, Raph climbed carefully out of his hammock, gathering his gear and weapons. Without realising what he was doing, he put them on before finding himself walking from his room to the neighbouring bedroom. For several long minutes, Raphael stood outside, swallowing painfully and staring at the door looming in front of him. Finally he trudged inside, quietly closing the door behind him while hoping desperately not to alert the remainder of the family to his actions. He doubted anyone was up anyway; it was too early in their day but he hadn't slept well the night before, tossing and turning precariously within his unstable bedding. In truth he couldn't really remember the last time he slept well at all, though it wasn't like anyone in the family had during the last hellish, nearly two months.

He wandered slowly around Michelangelo's room, acknowledging and stepping around the piles of comics and junk littering the floor. Mikey had always sworn he knew precisely where to find whatever he was looking for within seconds and when challenged, he nearly always came through, not that anyone understood how he managed it. No one had cleaned up in here since that fateful day; no one dared to. They barely even came in here with the exception of Leo on occasion and more rarely Master Splinter whenever they wanted to remember the bright, infectious laughter and joy of their bubbly brother and son.

Actually, Raph realised with faint surprise, this was the first time he had even been in this room since the night before when he carried Mikey to bed. His brother had fallen asleep on the couch waiting for Raph to come home from a night of playing vigilante with Casey.

For a moment, Raph felt a surge of intense anger sweep through his veins at the memory of being out that last night but he quickly attempted to brush it away. It wasn't Casey's fault he had been out. It was the fault of those scumbags who hurt innocent people that night, almost killing them.

They were the reason why he hadn't been home in time to spend a last few, happy hours with his brother.

Raph stared despondently at the colourful posters adorning the walls, his eye particularly caught by the massive, signed poster of the heroic Silver Sentry, Mikey's favourite. It was beat up and torn but miraculously it had survived the destruction of their previous lair, something Mikey had been ecstatic to discover. The rest of the posters had been gifts from April and Casey after Raph and his family had finished turning this place into a new home. All had been found and purchased from various garage sales and second-hand stores but Mikey had loved each one and pinned or hung them in place with pride on all walls bar one. On that one, he had instead decided to paint a mural of their family overlooking their city, ready to fly into action to protect it but it wasn't complete.

And it never would be...

Raphael choked briefly on a lump forming in his throat as he stared at the unfinished masterpiece on the wall. It wasn't fair! Everything they had done for this city, the world, the whole damned fucking multi-verse and this was how they were repaid?

Unthinking, Raph struck out in a sweeping motion with his right hand, sending a brightly painted, cobbled together, wooden box crashing noisily to the ground, its contents scattering haphazardly across the already messy surface. For a few minutes he stood there breathing heavily, calming himself, before his eyes widened at the realisation that he just disturbed Mikey's room... his shrine. He quickly rushed to pick up the pieces before anyone else could discover what he had inadvertently done.

Several minutes later, Raph was done and he knelt there, staring morosely at the contents of the box in his hands; a couple of bags of unused water balloons, several fake cockroaches and other assorted bugs, a whoopee cushion, fake blood and a number of other items buried beneath.

It was all Raph could do not to simply throw the box of pranking supplies, smashing it hard against the nearest wall. It was all too much. He didn't need yet another reminder!

He was such a fool for daring to come into this room at all, especially today, Mikey's second favourite day of the whole damned year!

Raphael bitterly slammed the lid on the box closed and put it back where it belonged. He stood and stalked out of the room, somehow avoiding slamming the door behind him. The agitated ninja hastily headed downstairs to where a tedious breakfast of bland cereal and milk would be awaiting him. He wasn't actually hungry at all, he just needed to get out of that room.

As he strode through the entertainment area on his way to the kitchen, he heard Leo switch on one of the televisions. He kept walking, not bothering to speak to his older brother, not that he was likely to get much response anyway. As he walked, he pointedly ignored the dreadfully cheerful words of the ginger haired morning presenter as she brightly exclaimed, "Welcome to the morning edition of the Happy Hour News on this day, the first of April."