This is a LONG overdue prize for Mahara-Fushiki on Deviantart, who requested a piece about Mikey finding a little turtle. Which, of course, my brain took as an opportunity to explore Raph and Mikey's different reactions to their fear of abandonment.

Yeah.

In any case, I hope it is acceptable. Apologies for the wait.

"What is it?" Leonardo asked, stretching forward to inspect the object in his youngest brother's hands.

"It appears to be the offspring of a graptemys versa." Donnie replied, pushing his glasses closer to his eyes to see better.

"What's that mean in English?" Raph crossed his arms, maintaining his distance from the thing, in case it decided to attack.

Donnie pulled away from his examination to stand tall. "A baby turtle. Texas Map Turtle, I think."

"What on earth is it doing way out here?" Leonardo once again queried.

Don placed a hand to his chin in thought. "I dunno. Maybe it fell into a sink? It's certainly small enough to fit through the pipes."

Raph snorted. "Probably got flushed down a toilette."

"In any case," Leo shot his brother a careful glare. "we should try to find it's hom—"

"NO!" Michelangelo clutched the baby turtle to his chest protectively. "I found it! I want to take care of it!"

"Mikey—"

"Come on, Leo! Who better to care of a turtle than us? We know all about taking care of baby turtles!"

"We're not the same kind of turtle." Leo tried to reason.

But his younger brother was already preparing his counter. Widening eyes and pushing his bottom lip into the biggest pout his six year old body could muster, Michelangelo pled. "Pleeeeeeeeeeease!"

The young turtles stared at the small creature a moment, contemplating, looking from Mikey's wide eyes to Leo's firm stance.

"It doesn't have a collar, it's possible it doesn't belong to anyone." Don offered, always unable to resist his little brother's pout (not that he'd ever admit it).

Leo, already slightly taller than his youngest brother at six years old, stared down at Michelangelo's wide eyes. A large sigh blew past his lips. "Fine." Mikey was already smiling, celebrating his victory with a fist pump to the air, when Leo stopped him with his final reminder. "But you're gonna have to tell Dad."

A large grin crept across Raph's face as Mikey froze in his frolic. "Ha! I definitely wanna see this."

"I can't believe it. I can't believe he just did that."

"It's not that surprising, really." Donnie shrugged as he moved past an aghast Raphael. "Considering how we got to be a family, it's clear Father has a soft spot for turtles."

Raph shot him a glare as Mikey waltzed passed him, smile plastered on his face and finger petting his new addition to the family. "I knew he'd go for it! Once he saw your cute little face, there's no way he'd say no. Isn't that right, Spot?"

"Spot?" Leo raised a brow in curious humor. "You know it's not a dog, right?"

"Yeah, but I've always wanted a pet named Spot!" Mikey pet the small turtle's head when it suddenly clamped it's mouth on his finger. It didn't hurt, so Mikey only stared in amusement. "You must be hungry, huh? I can fix that! Hey Donnie, what do baby turtles eat? Will he eat the same stuff as us?"

"Actually, given his specific species, he'd probably—"

"AH BUH BUH!" Raph suddenly speared a finger right at Don's face, silencing him immediately. "Dad said the little freeloader was his—" he flung a hand out in Mikey's direction. "—responsibility. He don't get no help from us."

The youngest turtle huffed, sticking his beak in the air. "Fine. I can figure it out for myself! Come on Spot." He stalked off to the kitchen, flung open every cabinet in the room, and stared at the food before him. They didn't have much beyond cereal, chips, and some half eaten bits of food in the fridge. Mikey reached towards the cereal, glanced back at Donnie, then pulled away. He reached for the chips, looked to Don, then pulled away. He did this several times before finally reaching towards the leftover bits of lettuce in the fridge. This time when he peered back at his brother, Raphael followed his eyes and found Donatello holding Mikey's gaze and nodding subtly.

"HEY!" Raph gave his immediate younger brother a smack across the back of the head before huffing a "Fine!" and storming away.

"What's his problem?" Don's annoyance was clear as he rubbed the back of his head, looking to their eldest for an answer.

But Leonardo could only shrug, staring off after their most temperamental sibling. "Don't worry about it, Don. He'll get over it."

Whatever it was.

"Leo! Leo! Come look!" A vibrantly excited Michelangelo was already pulling his eldest brother toward the dining table without waiting for a reply. Don sat on a chair, staring intently at a box on the table as the two approached.

Leo tilted his head inquisitively. "What is it?"

"It's a maze! D-Man built him a maze!"

Don smiled with near the same excitement as his younger brother. "It's fascinating! Spot already solved some of my easier prototypes, so I had to bump up the difficulty, and he's still finding his way through without trouble. He's almost to the center already! Look!"

Leo peered over the top of the box to see the small turtle crawling around another corner, nearing the center of the maze where a lettuce leaf sat as his reward. It only took a few moments more for Spot to find his target. Don stopped the timer he held and stared at it in awe. "Thirty seconds! It only took him thirty seconds to get through all that!"

"Better watch out, D, Spot's on track to be the next genius around here!" Mikey grinned with pride, swiping up his small charge and petting it's shell in praise.

Leo nodded. "He's certainly not slow."

"Was that a turtle joke?" Mikey couldn't help but chortle. Leo was terrible at jokes.

"Actually that's a common misconception about turtles. Only very specific species are incapable of moving at—"

Don's sentence trailed off as another presence entered the room, glaring at all three of them without acknowledging their presence.

Mikey tried to make peace. "Hey Raph! You want to see a cool trick? Spot's on the verge of replacing Don as resident genius!"

The large huff of air as Raph turned sharply and left the room was answer enough.

Mikey's smile faded as he turned to his eldest brother with wide, sad eyes. "What did I say? Why doesn't he like Spot?"

"I don't know." Leo stared after his brother with a curious worry, but quickly wiped it away as he placed a hand to Mikey's head, ruffling it slightly. "You know Raph, he just takes a while to adjust to change. I'm sure he'll come around."

Eventually.

"How do you know!?" Mikey clutched the baby turtle to his chest, staring at the paper on the table. "It could be any turtle! How do you know it's Spot?"

Don pointed to the shell in the picture. "It's colouring is all the same. And this line on his plastron matches too."

"I'm sorry Mikey." Leo placed a hand on his brother's sagging shoulders. "But clearly someone is still looking for Spot. We can't keep him when—"

"But I found him! I—We've been taking care of him! He's family now! We can't just—"

"Michelangelo." Splinter's deep voice brought all eyes to him as Leo stepped aside so he could kneel in front of his son.

"But dad! We're family! We can't just give away family!"

"This—" Splinter held up the piece of paper, pointing to the picture at the bottom where a young girl was smiling to the camera with the small turtle in her palm. "—is his family. The right thing to do is return him to them." As his son's eyes wilted, Splinter placed a hand on his head. "Doing what is right is not always easy, my son. But we must still do it."

The youngest nodded feebly, petting his small friend as he sniffled back tears. "Hai, Sensei…"

Giving his son's shoulder a light squeeze, the old rat stood. "Come. Let us reunite this family."

"I'm coming too, Sensei." Leo stood tall, already looking to the door, ready to leave.

"Me too." Don wrapped his arm around Mikey's shoulder, offering a light smile for support.

Splinter nodded. "Together then."

Raph was the only one who stayed behind.

"Mikey?"

"Go away, Don."

"But I—"

"Come, my son." Splinter ushered Donatello from the door. "Your brother mourns the loss of a friend. Let him have his space."

As the door to his room closed, Mikey sniffed into his pillow, utterly heartbroken and not wanting to be around anyone. When he heard his door crack open again, he buried his face deeper into his pillow, mumbling "Leave me alone, Don!" But the door never closed, and the presence in the room didn't leave. Mikey huffed. "I want to be alone! Go—"

"No you don't. You never like being alone."

Mikey sat up to realize it wasn't his bespectacled older brother in the room, but the hot-head. "What do you want?" He asked curtly, wiping his nose on his arm. When there came no reply, Mikey's eyes glared. "Go away, Raph. Spot's gone, Ok. You got what you wanted, so leave me alone." As tears bristled in his eyes again, Mikey turned away to bury himself in his pillow once more.

A hand fell to his shoulder as Raph whispered a tentative "I'm sorry."

Mikey almost couldn't believe it. But he was still too upset to acknowledge it.

So Raph continued. "You were right. Family doesn't give up on family. Even… Even when something new and cute and easy to get along with comes along… Family doesn't give up on family."

The realization was slow, but Mikey peeked at his brother from the pillow with wide eyes. "You were jealous?"

"NO!" Raph folded his arms and quickly looked away, huffing out a breath of annoyance. Embarrassment. He sighed. "Maybe… a little…" Mikey's continued wide-eyed stare started to make the hot-tempered turtle feel uncomfortable. He squirmed slightly as he forced out his next words. "But I shouldn'ta… I didn't mean to…"

Mikey didn't move. Only stared with those big, wide, blue eyes of his.

Raph couldn't take any more scrutiny. He huffed in embarrassment once more and mumbled a quick "I'm sorry, ok?" before standing to head for the door.

He didn't even make it off the bed.

Mikey was suddenly wrapped around his waste, burying his head in his older brother's chest and crying openly. "Don't leave! I don't want to be alone! Please don't… don't leave me alone…"

"Idiot." Raph didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around the younger's shell, holding him tight. "I ain't gonna leave. None of us are."

Mikey sniffed, tears still streaming down his face. "Promise?"

"Promise." Raph shook his head as his brother buried himself further into their embrace. "Bone-head."

With their shells to the door, neither noticed it slightly ajar, and a pair of blue eyes looking in on them.

Leonardo smiled to himself, watched his brothers comfort each other for a moment longer, then silently closed the door.

Yup.

End of Line

-TRAaP