Title: Family and Fireworks
Author: vashsunglasses
Rating: T
Fandom: Ninja Turtles
Disclaimer: TMNT belongs to Mirage.
Summary: Independence Day. One Shot. Post TMNT Movie. The Turtles and their closest family members watch the fireworks from April's roof and have some much needed discussions.
It was Independence Day and April had invited the gang to join her in watching the fireworks from the roof of her building. She had been worried that they wouldn't accept her invitation, but the bright smiles that appeared on their faces told her that her fear had been in vain. Even Raphael had smiled a bit before remembering himself and covering his smile over with a scowl. She didn't have the heart to tell him that his smile still shone pure and true from his eyes.
It was chaos now, with turtles running around everywhere and herself trying to direct the chaos into some sort of movement towards bringing everything they needed to the rooftop. Despite the chaos, she couldn't help but grin. Finally, after everything having been so crazy over the past few years Leo was back, and it was safe enough to risk a party.
She had never felt happier, though it would be nice if Casey would actually help out a bit instead of sitting there like an oaf. "Casey!" she yelled, "Get off your lazy butt and take these chairs to the roof!"
Casey Jones rolled his eyes and stood up slowly, stretching out his muscles and turning off the television. "Hey Raph, help me with these chairs would ya?" Casey said, grabbing a heavy old metal folding chair under each arm and carrying them up the stairs to the roof of Second Time Around.
Raphael picked up the remaining five chairs, hooking them over his arms, and stomped up the stairs after him. Casey rolled his eyes when he saw him, "Show off!" he muttered.
"Pansy," Raph snapped in return. "It's not my fault you're such a wuss Case."
Casey unfolded his chairs and carefully positioned them towards where the fireworks would be going off. As he did so he thought that maybe wearing the Nightwatcher armor had given Raph the strength to carry so many chairs at once…
"Geeze, you're taking forever," Raph snapped, lowering his arms and allowing all the chairs he held to fall to the ground with a clatter.
"Hey jackass, you're a ninja! Stealth, remember?" Casey growled. Obviously being the Nightwatcher hadn't helped his best friend's patience any.
"Yeah, yeah whatever," Raph said dismissively as he walked back to the stairwell.
"We've got the rest, Raph," Leo said as the two of them met at the head of the stairs. Leonardo was carrying a heavy cooler full of soft drinks and water.
"Let me help with that," Raph said, eyeballing the large cooler.
"I've got it," Leo replied.
"Let me help already!" Raph snapped, watching his brother's muscles twitch from the strain.
"I said I've got it," Leo replied coldly.
Raph opened his mouth to say something harsh, but the hurt look on Leo's face after he had broken his Ninjakin flashed through his mind, and he pulled back at the last moment. "Nevermind," he muttered, turning his back on his older brother and moving forward to claim a seat for himself.
Leonardo's eye ridge rose as he contemplated his retreating brother's shell. 'Since when does the thorn in my side, Hamato Raphael himself, back down from a challenge like that?' he thought pensively.
"Yo! Dude, you're holding up the line!" Michelangelo's frustrated whine floated up from behind him.
"Sorry!" Leonardo replied, moving out of the doorway to the stairwell and carrying the cooler to where the chairs were arranged. His muscles quivered and he wondered, 'Was this thing this heavy when I first picked it up?' He dropped it to the ground with a loud thump and glanced over towards where Raphael was sitting, sure he'd see him smirking back at him with that 'I told you so!' look on his face. But his brother hadn't even glanced in his direction.
He walked over to the chairs and stood in front of the chair next to Raph, "Is this seat taken?" he asked, looking into his brother's eyes.
Raphael stared at him coolly for a moment, then smirked slightly, "I was saving it for you, Fearless," he replied, waving his hand over the empty seat, "second best seat in the house."
"With yours being the first I take it?" Leonardo said dryly as he sat down.
"Nah, I saved the best seat for Master Splinter," he pointed to the chair on the other side of him that had a cushion placed upon it.
"And what makes my seat better than yours?" Leo asked curiously.
Raph rocked his chair back and forth, showing how wobbly it was. "Mine's missing a few of the rubber thingies on the legs," he said.
"Oh," Leo replied, momentarily taken aback, "Um thanks…"
Raph just shrugged.
"It's nice to see you two getting along!" Michelangelo exclaimed from behind them, leaning his head in between them with a grin, and slinging an arm around their shoulders.
"It's about time…" Donatello muttered icily as he walked past.
Michelangelo's grin slipped a little and he gave his purple wearing brother a calculating look. "Um, sorry to run off on you two like this," he said looking back at his two older brothers with his most innocent face, "but I've got… umm… very important and totally un-Donatello related things to do!" He pulled back and wandered over to where Don was setting up the card table.
"Hey Don!" Michelangelo said cheerfully.
"Hello Michelangelo," Donatello muttered as he kicked the one leg that just refused to straighten all the way.
"Umm, well I kind of-" Michelangelo started.
With one particularly vicious kick, the leg snapped into place and his brother flipped the table over so that it was upright. Then he leaned on it and leveled a glare at his little brother, "I thought you had, and I quote, 'very important and totally un-Donatello related things to do'."
"I do!" Michelangelo squeaked, fidgeting with his hands, "But I need your help to do them."
Donatello gave his brother a sardonic look, "Yeah, sure you do"
Mikey clasped his hands in front of his plastron and gave his best puppy dog face, "Please?"
Donatello gritted his teeth for a moment, showing the anger that had been more and more frequent lately, "You're going to keep bugging me until I say yes, aren't you?"
"Yeah, probably…" Mikey nodded firmly, though he had the decency to blush a bit at his stubbornness.
"Fine I'll help you," Donatello hissed in a way that made his brother jump. "And let me guess, these 'very important and totally un-Donatello related things to do' need to be done in the basement where it's out of earshot of everybody else. Am I right?"
Mikey's eyes widened and he laughed nervously.
"I thought so," Donatello said, walking around the table. "Well, we might as well get what this over with so we don't miss the fireworks."
The sun had almost set as the two brothers walked back across the roof and down into the stairwell. A few curious glances watched them as they went but neither one of them said a word as they disappeared from view. The trip down to the basement almost silent, with one brother seething and the other one humming nervously to himself.
The basement was dark when they entered it and Donatello fumbled with the light switch before flicking it on. The room was dusty and mostly filled with cardboard boxes and piles of junk that couldn't be sold in the shop above. Donny stomped down the wooden stairs and sat with a huff on a box labeled 'books'.
Michelangelo shut the door behind them, and then slowly made his way down the stairs, stopping at the bottom and wringing his hands anxiously. "I know we don't have much time till the fireworks start so I guess I'll just blurt it out… You're angry, because even though Leo was gone for more than a year, everyone listens to him in a way that they never listened to you the whole time he was gone."
Donatello's head snapped up and he glared bitterly at his brother. "So what if I am? What does it matter to you anyway?"
"It matters to me because I'm your brother…" Mikey replied softly.
"Well it obviously doesn't matter to RAPH, and he's my brother too!" Donny yelled.
"Yeah, well Raphael's a complete asshole!" Michelangelo snarled, shocking Donatello into silence. "He's a bastard jerk, and he treated you like crap for months, and it really pissed me off! You don't know how many times I just wanted to strangle him for the way he spoke to you! You don't' have any idea!"
Donny gaped, "Well… well why didn't you?" he asked accusingly. "Not strangle him of course, but why the hell didn't you do anything?" He leapt off the box and got into his brother's face. "You just sat there with that stupid grin on your face and did nothing!"
"What good would it have done if I had said something?" Michelangelo screamed, balling his fists, "No one listens to me anyway cuz I'm just the stupid younger brother! You wanna know what Raph would have done if I told him to stop? He would have laughed in my fucking face! Hell he's done it million times already…"
Donatello's eyes went cold at seeing the sheer bitter rage dancing in his brother's eyes, "You know what Mikey? I think I'm actually starting to hate Raphael for being so sadistic…"
Michelangelo's eyes were bitter poison, "Not that Leonardo's any better mind you," he said flatly.
Donny's eyes flared, "Yes! Exactly! That self-righteous twit ditched us for more than a year, out playing Tarzan. He never writes, he never calls, he just leaves us to wonder if he's a rotting corpse somewhere! And then when he comes home it's just like 'Hi guys!' and he takes right back over as if he still deserved to lead us!"
"It wouldn't be so bad if he would have taken the time to really apologize for his actions or something…" Michelangelo muttered viciously. "I gave him the benefit of the doubt at first, you know? I waited and waited for him to get around to apologizing for jerking us around like that… But it's been months now and he hasn't said one damn word on the subject."
"I agree with you completely Mikey, but what can we do?" Donatello said, sagging against the wall next to the staircase. "You and I both know that they're a couple of dicks, but everyone else is so happy that Leo's returned and that him and Raph are finally getting along… If we came out with our accusations now we'd end up as the bad guys."
At that, Michelangelo sad down hard on the bottom step and buried his face into his knees.
Silence. And then a series of muffled booms vibrated through the building as the fireworks started up outside.
Donatello straightened up and placed a gentle hand on his brother's arm, "Come on, the fireworks have started."
"Do I look like I care?" Mikey muttered, not moving an inch.
"I'm not feeling it either Mike, but if we don't go up there with smiles on our faces they're going to come down here looking for us," Donatello replied with the echoes of his anger still in his voice. "Come on, let's go pretend to be happy."
Several minutes later two turtles walked back out onto the roof just as the fireworks began to explode in earnest. They smiled their best smiles at their friends and family, and pretended not to notice when two turtles and a rat looked over at them with questions in their eyes.
Note: The next chapter is a rewrite of this chapter with an Alternate Ending (YAY). I was bitten by a very creative and strange plot bunny about halfway through writing this story, and so I wrote the Alternate Ending (YAY) to amuse myself and pacify the bunny.