The beginning of a long journey

Oh god

Oh my bloody god.

Why was this chapter so hard to rewrite? At least I feel a lot better about this version, I hope it's too you're liking, I don't want you to dislike the newer chappies so tell me if you'd rather the old ones, I won't be happy to have the other ones up but I also want you guys to be able to enjoy my stories to the fullest.

So anyway

enjoy

The clouds were dark and the scent of rain was heavy in the air, people who were outside quickly began to seek out shelter from the oncoming rain. The thunder let out a threatening growl which soon ended as a roar, kids flinched and took refuge in there parents room and college students groaned with annoyance at the noise while some smiled as the sound of water dripped onto their rooves. Within minutes the gentle sing song of rain vanished and was replaced by a heavy and loud downpour, the lightning flashes every few seconds, illuminating the dark sky and making monsters out of the trees shadows. Drains began to flood and the sewer system became a very dangerous place, people who had sewer jobs at this time at night were evacuated in fear of them gaining injuries that'd be permanent or the cost of their lives.

Now there was something special about New York's sewers, well maybe not the sewers themselves, but the occupants certainly are. Near an old subway track, was a big room filled with a long sofa covered in comic books, science textbooks, batman figurine characters and drawing books. Going down behind the obvious lounge room was a hallway with five doors, two on the left, two on the right and one more at the end of the hallway. In the first door to the left was a very messy bedroom, and within the bed lays a whimpering turtle. A mutant humanoid turtle to be more precise, was tossing and turning within his bed, soft whimpers escaping his open mouth, soon enough tears began to squeeze out from his closed eyelids. The young boy flew upwards, his eyes wide with fear and sweat tickling down his face. Michelangelo looked around the room shakily before leaping out of his bed and running out into the hallway, his footsteps were unusually quiet as he quickly made his way to the last door on the right, without hesitating the boy opened the door and crept up near the bed further in the room. Mike's small chubby hands reached out to the arm of another turtle and began to shake them, a whimper escaping Mikey's mouth as he did so.

The turtle in bed flung up into a sitting position, eyes wide and alert as he grabbed his baby brother and pulled him into the bed, his eyes scanning the room quickly before grabbing Mikey's face into his hands gently. The older turtle, Leonardo, searched his baby bros face, looking for any injuries, once he deemed Mikey uninjured; he looked at Mikey in confusion while wiping away his tears and picked up a tissue for the tissue box and had Mikey blow his nose, having the snot filled ward thrown into the trash afterwards.

"Weo, I had a bad dream" Mikey quietly squeaked after gaining the courage to confess his reasoning for waking Leo. Leonardo sighed tiredly and glanced towards his left to see what the time was on his digital clock, 4:59am; Leo looked at the clock in disbelief before turning to his brother again. Mikey was searching the room and shivering in fear, he started to worry about Leo sending him back into his room, where the monsters hid in the shadows and where there was no one to protect him from them. Leo groaned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, gave a small yawn which alerted Mikey. Mikey watched as his older brother shifted away from him and patted the empty space of the mattress beside him.

"Come on mike, hope in, can't have you falling asleep in training" came Leo's mumbled encouragement made Mikey smile widely before leaping under the covers and cuddling into Leo's side, Leo turned and wrapped his arms around the smaller turtle before closing his eyes.

Only to have them open at the sound of loud snoring, shifting his eyes down he saw Mikey sound asleep with his mouth wide open, groaning in annoyance, Leo closed his eyes once again to try and get some sleep. Unfortunately for him, sleep would not come for a few hours.

Ah, the dark was wonderful; the silence was such a beautiful song. I felt like I was floating and it was great, sleep was great.

KNOCK KNOCK!

At least it is when its undisturbed.

"Come on spwinter junior! Twaining!" came the gruff yell of my younger brother, Raphael. I grumbled and turned head first into my pillow and snuggled into it, sleep began to overtake me again. Then my eyes shot open and I sat up faster than bullet, I looked terrified at my digital clock to see in bright red numbers, 6:57am. I had slept in, as quickly as possible I got out of bed, unfortunately my feet got tangled and I fell on the floor, right onto my chin, crying out in pain, I sat up and gently rubbed my chin before getting up slower and heading out of my room and into the bath room. I took the quickest shower and brushed my teeth, I skipped breakfast and headed into the dojo, I arrived third. Raph chuckled at me and sneered before looking forward with a smug expression, I guess he was first seeing his attitude and mood. Mikey sat there looking nervous and a little worn but besides that he looked fine and rested enough, lucky him. I went and kneeled next to Mikey and gave him a little smile as he looked at me in concern, I tried not to look tired so that mike didn't feel guilty, after all I'd do anything for my bros, even lose some sleep.

"Good morning Leonardo, I see you've finally decided to join us" came the wise voice of our sensei and father and though it was hidden well, I could hear the disappointment that his voice held; I sat up straighter trying my best to not disappoint father worse.

"Sorry I'm late sensei!" squeaked Donnie, my second youngest brother, as he came running in, last.

"Donatello, this is the third time this month you've gotten distracted and been late to training, please try to be quicker next time" my father spoke warmly to don, not a trace of disappointment in his voice, no surprise there, maybe one day I'll become good enough for fathers approval. Donnie flushed a dark green before kneeling down next to me; I gave a small smile and nod as a welcome and good morning before looking at sensei and waited for our training instructions.

Five days later

I stood up straight and walked into the dojo and was greeted by a pair of bright, green, smug eyes of Raphael and two warm, disappointed, brown eyes of my father. I didn't slouch or retreat despite the fact that my mind was screaming at me to get away from those unimpressed brown and mocking green eyes, I kneeled next to Donnie, Mikey looked worried and glanced at me from his spot next to Raph, I glanced at him and tried to calm him with my eyes, it seemed to work a little.

"Leonardo, you arrived last and are five minutes late" my father shook his head and didn't look at me, my heart wilted a bit.

"Sorry sensei, I, uh, slept in by accident, won't happen again" I stuttered out slightly, trying to ignore Raphs' snickers. Mikey looked guilty and looked over to me with apologetic eyes; I just smiled over to him, he did try to wake me up earlier so he had nothing to feel bad about. Father glared at Raph slightly, stopping Raphs humour before starting the lesson. We started with warm up stretches, Mikey did flips, Raph did some punches and kicks, Donnie did some full body stretches that he says make the possibility of pulling a muscle lower, and I did some standing positions. Standing positions are when I get into a stand that pulls most of my muscles slightly, not enough to hurt but enough to wake them up, I normally do three to four different stands that aim at different areas but today I did two, and I wobbled a lot for those two. I could feel fathers disappointed gaze, my bottom lip began to wobble so I bit it to keep it still. I was really trying, I was just a little tired since Mikey's taken a liking to waking me up after a nightmare and then snore loudly, toss around and even slap me in the face a few times. I frowned to myself, no, I just wasn't putting my all in our training, Mikey had every right to seek comfort after a nightmare, he didn't need to worry about waking me up, he's the youngest of us all so he needs the sleep the most. After about five minutes we were called to a stop and then given our training instructions. Mikey was to practice his passes and catches with his nunchaku. Raph was going up against Donnie to practice blocking, which he normally doesn't use, while Donnie was training to be on more of the attack side instead of the defence side. I was assigned with some more difficult kata's, I've always notice how my brothers had it a little easier while I was always the one pushed to the limits. But I understand, I'm the eldest, which means I need to be better and stronger so I can protect my brothers, especially if a human ever encountered us. I didn't really want to be cut up and experimented on, Donnie may be the smartest of us, but I'm the more aware one, I know what humans could and would do to freaks like us, they do bad things to their own species anyway so there's nothing stopping them from being even worse towards us.

I shook my head clear of those thoughts and focused on trying to make my kata moves somewhat steady, but I kept tripping and dropping my Bokken, my stance was sloppy and my legs kept shaking and buckling beneath me. I was so tired, at one point I just stood in a very simple stance, pretending to be doing something, and nodded off. Sensei slapped my head to wake me and sighed in disappointment. I squeezed my eyes shut and bit my lips, I wouldn't cry, I won't.

After nearly an hour of training Father called out "Yame!" ending the session. We all went up to our seating area and kneeled down, well, I more liked collapsed onto my knees. I tried to stop my shaking, I didn't want father seeing me as a weakling after such an easy session, but my muscles were screaming and my eyes were close to tears as they so badly wanted to close.

"Leonardo, my son, why is it you are falling asleep during training, do you think the art Ninjutsu is some sort of joke!" my father sternly said with an angry stare, father always hated it when someone disrespected the ancient art of Ninjutsu. I sat straight and looked into his eyes and said calmly "no master splinter, I don't think this is a joke, I know that being able to defend ourselves is very important and that we need to keep in shape and become the best we can be" sadly this just made my father look even more upset and displeased. I lowered my head.

"Then, Leonardo, explain to me why it is that I see you dozing off and not giving these lessons your all, you are not sick and it's been like this for three days, so please do explain to me why you're not focusing on these lessons at all!" His stern tone forced me to look into his eyes; my eyes were starting to tear up as my father had the ultimate look of disappointment and frustration that was pointed only at me. I swallowed thickly, in the corner of my eyes I could see Raphael glance at me smugly and with self-pride at the fact that I stuffed up, I blinked away the tears that were close to falling and stated in a emotionless tone "there is no excuse for my actions sensei, Gomen'nasai (I'm sorry)" I lowered my gaze to the floor and my head soon followed, I could hear Raph 'hmf' in happiness. I closed my eyes; I clenched my teeth and slowed my breathing to stop the hiccup and sobs from escaping. I heard my father let out a long sigh.

"Leonardo, what is the reason for this lack of dedication and focus" I bit my lip, how was I going to explain it without getting mike in trouble and giving Raph a reason to tease Mikey. I notice that Mikey was about to speak up, a nervous expression back on his cute and chubby face, no, not on my tail.

"Master splinter, I-" I cut mike off "I've been having nightmare lately!" I said rather loudly luckily father didn't hear Mikey; he looked at me in confusion and slight concern. Mikeys head flew to the side to stare at me in shock, Raph spluttered out a barely held back laugh and Dons shoulders shook in silent laughter. Sensei gave them a look that made them stop, except for Mike who still watched me in shock.

" I'm sorry my son, but I cannot just let this slide, twenty push ups and fifteen sit ups as punishment for the lack of will and focus, a ninja must be able to push past his or hers body's limitations, the rest of you are dismissed." I looked at master Splinter in shock, I knew for a fact that if this was any of my brothers then Master Splinter would be concern and make sure they had some nice food before making them go straight to bed, of course he wouldn't with me. Raph snickered as he passed me, don didn't look at me and Mikey gave me the most loving, concern and thankful gaze ever, it made my heart swell in glee.

I bowed my head low as my father exited. Once I knew everyone was out of eyesight and earshot, I sobbed, my cries have always been silent, father said that even as a baby I had been silent when crying and it often caused a lot of problems. Such as when I still had nappies and cried at night wanting to be changed, father didn't know until morning because of the lack of noise, I often got nappy rashes because of it. I wiped my eyes and silently sniffled before getting on with my punishment. I fought the war I was having with my eyelids all throughout my punishment; I'd get in even more trouble if I fell asleep.

.

. Thirty-six minutes later (hey leave him alone, he's tired as all hell so it's gonna take him longer to do his workout punishment)

.

Once I was done with my push ups and sit ups, I exited the dojo completely exhausted and weak. I just wanted to go straight to bed, but I decided to go have a quick shower first to get rid of the sweat, after my shower I came out to an empty lounge room, I shrugged and headed for the kitchen to have a small handful of worms since I skipped breakfast and my stomach was now telling me how bad of a decision that was. I notice that Mikey was at the table eating some algae while reading a comic; I decided not to disturb him. I nibbled on my small snack as I went down the hall to my room; I gobbled the last worm and then opened my door.

"RAAAWWW!", "AHHHHH!" Sharp teeth and dripping, red skin jumped out at me, my heart leaped in my throat. "Oomph!" I landed on my bum; I looked up at the sound of laughter and saw Raphael and Donatello take of their monster masks. Donnie looked a little sympathetic but seemed to have enjoyed the outcome all the same and Raph was cackling without a care or sliver of sympathy. My mood lowered considerably, this week just wasn't meant for me. "HA, maybe Weo isn't spwinter junior after all, father never gets scared and neither do I, who's fearless now, blue" Raph taunted as he and Donnie left me alone in my room, giggle as they headed off to play. Tired and upset, I got up and slammed my door shut before I flung myself into bed, tears that had been yearning to escape all week finally were released from the prison. I cried and sobbed quietly; I hugged my pillow tightly and allowed all the hurt and shame be release by tears. Soon I cried myself to sleep, exhausted from my nightly interruptions and pushing myself more than normal in training. I had a dreamless nap.

I awoke to a soft knocking on my door, my eyes hurt and felt dry from the crying I did before, I rubbed my face and prayed my eyes weren't a bright red. I made my way off the bed and over to my door and hesitantly opened it a little, Mikey's chubby, freckled face was meekly looking up at me. I opened the door wider, I noticed the TV was on in the lounge room where Raph and Donnie were watching, I became sad once again after remembering what they did before. "I'm sorry" my head wiped towards Mikey, he's gaze was lowered and his bottom lip trembled. My heart clenched, why do I keep stuffing things up? "Mike, what's wrong" Mikey just whimpered and walked past me into my room, he sat in the middle of my bed and curled up into a ball.

"Mikey, what on earth is wrong?" I question again as I follow his lead and sit next to his curled up form.

"It's all my fault" came the barely audible whisper, my eyes widened and my arms circled around Michelangelo. He sobbed into my arms and I rocked him gently, trying to settle him. "What's your fault Mike?" Mikey just sobs louder. "It's my fault that your falling behind, that you're getting in trouble and that you weren't warmed about Raphie and Donnie!" Mike whined loudly. I sighed and patted his shell, did he really think all this was his fault? It seems I've stuffed up more than I originally thought. "Michelangelo, listen to me, you've done nothing wrong, ok? You've been a great help for me all week, making sure I wake up early and that I get some breakfast before lesson, you've also been helping revise what we've been doing in those lessons, you've been a huge help, ok. You've done nothing wrong" I said slowly and sternly, hoping it would sink in.

"But Leo, if it weren't for me, you wouldn't be sleepy, I'm sorry, I'll try and stay in my bed" we both heard the rest of the sentence that was left unsaid 'even if I do get the nightmares' I could accept that, nope, what kind of big brother would I be if I wasn't able to protect my brothers, even if it were just nightmares. But, I did need sleep and I didn't want Mikey to feel guilty because of me, there had to be something I could do to help both of us. Then, like a light being switched on, an idea began to form in my tired head.

"Hey Mike, hang in a sec, I may have something to help you sleep better" Mikey looked up from wet and slightly snotted over plastron; I ignored the mess and gently push him from me so I could climb off the bed. I walk over to my worn out toy box, after digging in it for a couple of minutes I finally found what I had been searching for. I climb back onto me bed and gave Mikey a child sized teddy bear, it was a light, brown bear with a dark green heart sewed onto its chest, Mikey looked up at it since it was a little bigger than him.

"Mikey, this is Sir Tickle me Thimble, he's the trusted knight of the king teddy bear of Toy kingdom, the king gave Sir Tickle to me once he found out that nightmares kept bothering me, so if I slept with Sir Tickle, than whenever a nightmare would try to get me, Sir Tickle would whip out his trusty sword and vanquish the evil nightmares. I haven't needed Sir Tickle for a long time, so he went back to the kingdom but comes back to check up on me, I told him and the king though, that you've been having nightmares now and that I needed help, Sir Tickle would be very happy and very honoured to fight against the bad dreams for you, if you want" of course all of what I said was a story, but it's something that used to help Raph and even my intelligent bro Donnie, so I was hoping it would work on Mike too ,however the stories I told Raph and Don were suited to their hobbies and likes. Mikey's baby blues eyes grew and sparkled in awe, I smiled at that, Mikey's eyes had always been beautiful, Don's eyes were doe like, so innocent and Raph's eyes were exotic, bright, illuminated green eyes. My eyes compared , were dull, very dull.

"Sir Tickle me Thimble, would protect, me" Mikey stressed with a hopeful expression, I didn't trust my voice so I just nodded with a smile, Mike squealed in happiness. "Thank you Leo, thank you thank you thank you!" Mikey yelled as he glomped me and nuzzled into my plastron, luckily I wiped it before getting my teddy. I giggled and hugged Mike back, I was happy to make him happy.

"You're the bestest biggest brother, ever! I love you Leo, thank you" Mikey teared up, I chuckled and wiped his tear, my brother's so emotional he is. "Come on Mike, don't start the water works again" I joked. "Aw Leo, I just can't help it, you know that!" Mikey whined jokingly. I shook my head. "Come on Mikey, let's go and play", "YAY! Let's go play that new racing game with the weird animals and the funny talking people, I'm gonna beat you" Mike yelled out as he ran out of my room and to the lounge room, I laughed, happy that everything worked out. When I walked out of my room, I noticed that Mikey hadn't gone to the lounge room, but went to tuck in Sir Tickle into his own bed.

"Thank you Sir Tickle, I'm happy you decided to help me, I'm happy Leo also asked for your help, isn't he the best? Yeah I agree" I was shocked and very touched. "Hey, Mike, you better hurry or I'm gonna choose your favourite character!" I called out, startling Mike. I smiled at him and he smile back, I then laughed and ran towards the lounge room, "Last one there's a rotten egg" I heard laugher behind me "Hey! You cheated" I laughed.

I pretended to trip over and let Mike beat me.

Yes! I'm finally done!

I would normally try and start on the next chappie but I unfortunately have exams next week and need to study, UURRRGGG. T^T

I hope you enjoyed the first rewritten chappie, I'll try and get them up faster but writers block is still with me, can someone come and take it away..please.

Please tell me your thoughts on the rewritten chappie.

Anyway, if people are still interested in this story, please leave a review/follow/favourite, but if people are done with this story then it'll disappear into the darkness of angels.

Bye