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It all started at the dumpster– Christmas shopping to be exact.
On these occasions after a heft of new products and toys, five mutants wandered about to find whatever old systems ended up thrown out for the next year. Sometimes it was new furniture, other occasions, multiple new gadgets and gizmos to fix up their homemade lair. Though with the year being 2020 of all things, some items were trickier to find with a lack of human outings.
Two of them, Leo and Raph, looked for some new fighting equipment with their dad, Splinter. Together, they found some punching bags and rusty brass knuckles here and there, but in general the entire find was more-so lackluster.
In the corner, however, Donnie looked around, darting his eyes and digging alongside Mikey. That is, until Donnie bounced up, almost losing his glasses to the floor in his excitement.
“I found it! I found it!”
Raph turned to them confused, but he soon blinked up after seeing what was in Donnie’s hands. He immediately ran over to them.
Though from behind, Leo tilted his head, asking, “What are you guys looking for exactly? –”
Then he saw it.
“An entire PS4! Doesn’t even look that used!” Donnie tried dusting off the scratches of the box. Raph joined in with Mikey in the awe of the new system released seven years prior.
“What is that,” Splinter had to ask.
“It’s…” Leo tried to explain it, “Remember that Wii we broke a while ago?”
“Oh! Yes! I liked the bowling game; why did you have to break it?”
They all looked at Raph.
He had to defend himself at least. “Look, Mario Party was intense for us.”
“Says the fifteen-time loser,” Donnie spat back.
“Do you want me to break the PS4?”
As a result, Donnie hugged the box with his life.
“Dad, can we please take this back home? Donnie can set it up for us!” Mikey pleaded with the baby eyes again.
“It’d be a pretty nice Christmas present, Dad,” Leo backed them up.
The rat looked at all of them, barely almost teenagers, but still very much kids looking like they begged for candy instead of a box. He grinned at them.
“Yes, you can have the new Wii. Merry Christmas.”
They all celebrated, and continued to do so as they left into the sewers with the console at hand.
-
Some days followed after Donnie realized they didn’t have remote controllers. Luckily, he had already discovered how to scam Amazon delivery beforehand, ignoring the credit card fraud.
Raph, finished with reading a comic (stolen from Leo), goes over to the living room where Donnie toyed around with the PS4.
“What’re you doing?”
“Making us all separate accounts, mainly so Mikey doesn’t get stuff in my game history.”
“Hm…” Raph sat down beside Donnie. “What games do we have right now?”
Donnie shrugged, “The basics: Minecraft– The Last of Us was already on file so I’m binging that one later– Oh, and Fortnite.”
“Really? Huh…” Raph twiddled his thumbs, causing Donnie to catch it and squint.
“You wanna play right now, don’t you?”
“I’m bored! And I never played an FPS.”
“Well good luck; they’re boring as hell.”
“You grinded Osu for a month!”
“It’s a good game!” Despite the minor argument, Donnie handed the remote to him and left.
Raph took this chance quick enough and went to the Fortnite application immediately, though Donnie popped back up again and plopped some headphones with a mic over him. Adjusting the headphones, Raph looked back at Donnie.
“I set up online access, so have fun in chat.”
Now with Donnie gone, and the game booting up, Raph eyed upon the menu in their janky TV. He spotted the online play option and hesitated at the hover. Of course, Donnie’s talked to people online already. He accidentally did so three years prior and never told Dad about gaining, then losing, then gaining online friends back and forth. The anonymity was a blessing for all of them, but the rest of the brothers still never tested the waters yet. Raph at least witnessed online games from streams and whatnot, but who knew if he could actually keep up a conversation with strangers like Donnie supposedly could. Any twelve-year-old would be terrified.
Yet, there was always that chance. The small, sliver of a chance that whoever was in the online lobby would be someone he could talk to for years to come, and in the sewer life, it may as well be a survival tactic.
So, he clicked for online play, only to accidentally click the duos mode immediately after.
He panicked, trying to back out but the screen already loaded in front of him, and there he was in a waiting lobby for someone else to join. Sure, maybe a group setting could have him talking in the sidelines while everyone else talked, but having a one-on-one conversation for your first interaction outside of family? Terrible. Horrifying even. In reality, he couldn’t figure out where the menu button was fast enough for said person to join, and god knows he would never ask Donnie where it was. That would just turn into an inside joke for the next three weeks.
All Raph had to do was swallow up the middle-school anxiety and accept his fate. Quietly, he read the username to himself, squinting at the small, low-res text.
Skullcandy_PD2
“Um… Are you gonna say anything?”
He jumped. It was a young voice like his, though more soft and high-pitched. But unfortunately, he kept them waiting.
“Sorry! Sorry, I’m new at this.”
“Oh, well I kinda just got on here a few days ago, so count me as new too.”
They say nothing while their avatars run around the lobby.
“I like your username,” Raph commented.
“I like yours too,” they replied, “Red_Dead… Is that a reference?”
“I think so? Don– My brother mentioned it one time.”
“Cool… Cool, cool, cool. So, you want me to call you Red?”
“Sure,” he said. “Do you want me to call you, uh… Skully?”
“God no. Do I sound like a pirate?”
It was so over.
“You can just call me by my nickname. It’s Casey.”
He was so back.
“If we’re working like that, might as well have you call me Raph.”
“Okay Raph.” He could just feel the mental note being made by them. “You said you’re new, but you do know how to play, right?”
“Nope, not at all.”
They laughed over the mic. They actually laughed. At that point, Raph had no clue whether to feel the shame or to appreciate someone’s laughter.
“Sorry, sorry. I can teach you what I know at least, then we can talk strategy for the match.”
From behind, Leo caught Raph playing with the stranger, at least without the audio heard.
“Sounds good to me,” Raph said, not even noticing.
After Leo left, and after the Casey-patented tutorial, Raph knew the very basics of how to shoot, setting aside the lack of fingers needed for some controls. With the new knowledge, Casey’s avatar walked over close to Raph’s.
“Okay, okay, okay, I have a genius strategy.”
“Oh yeah? Well shoot.”
For some reason, Casey waited for a dramatic pause. “Do you wanna do something really funny?”
Somehow, the funny meant stall camping and being an absolute little shit to the opponents. Miraculously enough, that also meant winning.
“HA! Eat that you bitchass!” Casey’s excitement peaked throughout the match, to Raph’s surprise as they finished it with the victory.
“Not gonna lie, this was kinda stupid.”
“Oh really? I think you’re the stupid one here.”
“I don’t think that’s how that works, dumbass.”
“Baboso.”
“What is that? Italian?”
“No, it’s Spanish. It means dumbass.”
“Okay wait hold on.” He raced to look up swears in different languages. “Sukkel.”
“I know you just Googled that.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
They laughed again, and this time Raph joined in too. It lasted quite a bit of time, as they kept interrupting themselves with giggles over the dumbest interaction only participants can laugh over. Though it died down by the time they returned to the lobby.
“You know what? You’re pretty cool for a guy.”
“What? Are you a girl?”
“Mayhaps, but you’d be surprised at the low-bar... Here.”
A friend request popped up at the corner of the screen with Casey’s username on it.
“I have hockey practice soon, but I’d be down to play again. I’ll be online again at 5 tomorrow so… GGs.”
Casey left the room thereafter, leaving Raph to stare at the request.
He accepted it, a small little smile sneaking up on his face meanwhile. Before another matchup, he turned off the console entirely, and took off the headphones.
“So, who was that?”
Jumpscared by Mikey, Raph backed away from the curious brother.
“Nobody,” Raph answered.
“No, you were talking to someone.”
Backing off again, Raph raised his hands up in innocence. “Not important. Not relevant.”
Becoming even more pestering, Mikey made his little cheeky grin pop up. “If you don’t tell me, I’m telling Dad.”
“What?!” In the meantime, they move back to their bedroom. “You never told Dad about Donnie’s friends!”
“Yeah, that’s because Donnie bribed me.”
“That I did,” Donnie confirmed from inside his tent.
With that, Raph could only groan at the deal, “Okay fine, what do you want?”
“Chores for a month.” Both Donnie and Mikey said it at the same time.
Raph looked at Donnie’s tent. “How many times did you bribe him?”
Donnie finally peaked out of said tent. “Trust me, there’s a lot of things I’ve gotten away with. Mikey’s my accomplice.”
“And I’m proud of it.”
Raph glared at the younger brothers. “Fine, but just because we’re playing again tomorrow.”
Both of the other brothers’ eyes spark up in interest as Raph leaves the room, and right before Splinter came back from grocery errands.
-
Doing Mikey’s chores was a mistake. Though mainly because it caused Raph to be late. Every day.
He absolutely rushed to get onto the couch and log on to the dumb game. The dumb game which he probably would have been bored from already. But there was someone on the other side of the screen, as stupid as it sounded even to him. He smiled once seeing them online. There was this entire burst of excitement whenever they said hi to him. Sure, he tried not to make it obvious; they sort of curse each other out through every match, but obviously, that was cursing each other out with endearment.
After washing dishes one day, he jumped onto the couch, jammed the headphones on, and entered into the invite lobby where Casey was waiting.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said as soon as he got on.
“Hey, it’s all good. At this point we can make 5:30 the meeting time.”
Serotonin just rushed in at the sound of their call-muffled voice, didn’t it? “And that’s good for you?”
“Yeah, I don’t do anything afterschool nowadays.”
They started playing, which at some point it had turned into background noise for them to talk, as per routine.
“So… you go to school?”
“Yeah, I’m in one of the shitty school districts that opened up in-person early. I’m guessing you guys are still online?”
Unfortunately, Raph did not think this far ahead, but at the same time he always made up the story as he went along anyways. “Yeah, still online, but like I said, my place was always shut-in, so it isn’t like, that much different than before.”
Through the mic, Casey sighed. “Bro, I wish I was still online. Middle school is absolute ass.”
“Really?” The comment actually made Raph more lost than anything. After all, middle school seemed like high school… or maybe just the baby version of high school.
“Teachers hate you, of course, but now every kid has the balls to look at you funny and talk shit.” As Casey’s voice grew more aggressive, their play style added more bullets to each move. “I just wanted to work with my dad and avoid makeup but no that just makes you more like a freak apparently.”
Raph heard the grumbling. The tenseness of the room increased just by Casey’s theoretical presence. Thus, he came up with the best solution: “Why don’t you just like… punch them or something?”
“Oh, trust me, I believe a punch can solve all of life’s problems when it comes to asshats. Bad news about that though: I got suspended.”
He bit his lip, trying to find another answer to the issue. –
“At least there’s high school.”
“What?”
“New school, new me hopefully. Gotta wait like two more years though. Same for you, yeah?”
Raph darted around the sewer of a home he lived in. In front of him even was a leaking ceiling in the corner. “… Yeah–”
“Oh, FUCK OFF you bitch-ass!”
At the sound of the rage, Raph raised his eyes from the mood brightening up. “Someone shot you?”
“They SNIPED me! Could you get over here and snipe ‘em back?”
“Here, I’ll no-scope them.”
He ran over, getting the opponent down with ease.
“Nice,” Casey exclaimed. Though the praise was soon interrupted by Raph spamming emotes button. He giggled causing Casey to take it back. “Okay don’t be lame as shit in front of me.”
“Join me, Case.”
“No.”
“Join the emote-gang.”
Raph’s avatar continued to do it, and finally Casey joined in the emote-spam.
“Okay, yeah we are the shit.”
“Exactly!”
They said that as they both got shot down.
… Cue the hysterical twelve-year-old laughter.
-
5:30 hit, though the bribery deal already finished as Raph went over to the couch. However, before he could get comfortable and meet up with the online bestie of all time, there was a certain blue turtle sitting on the couch already. His legs are crossed as he skim-reads one of his many comic book collections.
“Leo, what are you doing here?”
“You know Mikey’s not the only one who’d tell on Dad.” Despite the nonchalant tone, Raph saw the other cheeky ass grin sneaking up on Leo’s face.
“Okay, now what do you want.”
“Oh, nothing. I just want the couch space.”
He groaned, logging in with his brother right next to him. Of course, Casey was already online, and immediately asked a question:
“Hey, how short should I cut my hair?”
“Go bald.”
Casey huffed. “Unfortunately, I think that’d kill my mom.”
“Well, how long is it right now?” From the corner of his eye, Raph spotted Leo trying to peep into the conversation. He glared at him to keep reading.
“It’s like… down to my hips? My mom made sure it grew all healthy and pretty, but I think I kind of hate it now.”
“Hm…” He actually turned to Leo this time. “Hey Leo, how short should Casey cut her hair?”
“Uh… A dad mullet?”
“How about a dad mullet,” Raph repeated.
“Mullet huh… you might be onto something here. Hold on.”
Raph could hear Casey leaving behind their headphones, so he was left there to wait.
“… Casey, huh?” Leo had to ask.
“The rest of you were going to find out anyways.”
Leo shrugged, “True, but we were just calling her Skully.”
Raph pushed him out of the couch for that one.
“Okay I’m back,” Casey said muffled, “I got it cut! It looks horrible, and I love it.”
“Wait, you just cut it right now?” Leo was recovering back on the couch meanwhile.
“Duh, it isn’t that hard when you have the fancy scissors.”
The two chilled in the lobby for a bit, playing with newly accessed skins and weaponry.
“Ugh, I wish you could see this right now. It’s awesome.”
Raph imagined the haircut on the friend. “I bet you look great.”
“Why, thank you sir,” they said, almost sarcastically.
They started another duos game, versing some guys they already have seen before. They knew how to deal with them. No big deal for a first match.
“… Hey Raph.”
“Yeah?”
“You said you’re in NYC, right?”
“Mhm…” He did not know where this was going.
“I live there too, we could just meet up one day.”
His heart skipped a beat at that moment. Maybe it was fear. Maybe something else. His hands got all clammy after all. Then again, they got clammy all the time when they played.
“Who knows, maybe we’ll end up in the same high school. I know my mom wanted me to go to a different school in the area.”
What am exciting little thought. One that could only come out of dreams made out of multiple other dreams Raph had. Though all Raph had to do to remind himself of reality was to look at himself: the green skin, the three fingers, the entire mutant turtle of it all. He gripped onto the controller tighter than before, thinking of all the possibilities broken up by the mere fact of who he was.
“Raph?”
He shook his head, keeping the dream as a mere dream. “Sounds awesome.”
Despite the response, Casey hummed, “You sound dramatic as hell. What’s wrong?”
He shoots down one of the enemies in the game. “It’s nothing.”
“C’mon, I vented in chat before, so I think you have the right to vent back.”
He looked to the side, seeing Leo still chilling in the room beside him. “Yeah… Not right now.”
From the answer, Casey’s avatar appeared in front of Raph’s standing right in front of him as if it was a stare-down. “… Suit yourself.” The avatar left, instantly killing off one of the enemies running toward them. “By the way, you have discord, right?”
While Raph knew what the app was at least (according to Donnie), he glanced towards his ancient-looking iPhone 5 that was about to perish. “I’ll… get back to you on that.”
Thirty minutes later, they talked for hours through text.
Raph even got himself a picture of Casey in the meanwhile. They looked more like a boy than anything with that haircut.
It was cute.
-
The fabled tales of Casey “Skullcandy” NoLastName was something each brother looked forward to.
Sometimes Mikey or Leo sat beside Raph, watching him play, talk, and have the time of his life. Really, the reason as to why it was entertaining was because Raph basically turned into someone else with the friend, though they also liked to pester him with questions moments after. Donnie on the other hand, tried talking with Casey after spotting their Discord ID.
“I think one of your brothers found me online,” they brought it up, of course.
Raph figured the inevitability, especially with the amount of questions he would get per week, but he still grumbled nonetheless. “Let me guess, Donnie?”
“Double-A-Seven to be exact.” Luckily it sounded like Casey thought of it as funny. “I think that was the first time I was ever interviewed.”
“He asked you stuff?”
“Name, pronouns which was polite, ‘anime backstory if applicable’,” they chuckled at the end. “I mentioned I watched Gurran Lagann a few years back and that got him distracted enough.”
He blinked for a second. “Wait, what are your pronouns?”
“Eh, I’ve been trying out they/them lately, but I never felt the need to mention it.”
Eventually, that comment evolved within the next two months.
“You know how I said I might be a girl?” they said. “Yeah I’m pretty sure I’m a dude.”
It would have been monumental if it were not for the fact that Raph was fighting off an ambush at the same time. “That is so cool; would you like to know that I am dying right now?”
“Ah shit, coming right now.”
“Thanks, man.”
“… No prob, dude.”
Their text messages between one another boiled down to the two of them rambling about the most mundane things, spamming gibberish, giving life updates and Casey very specifically sharing outfits that made them happy. Sometimes they talked until both their eyes burned at two in the morning. Other times, they both fell asleep listening to each other’ music recommendations of the night. Raph admitted, Casey’s taste was weird, at least comparing screaming metal to his liking of Drake. Casey even mentioned Raph’s ‘basic ass’ taste in music.
Still, they gave each other good nights, and then greeted each other with good mornings as soon as they woke up. They even celebrated each other’s thirteenth birthdays, with apple cider that they sipped during call.
For Raph, it was all an endless joyride that took him away from a life of hiding. He understood Donnie’s connection to the internet in that sense; he reveled in the escapism. But he always came to wonder if it was the escape from his day-to-day life he looked for every day, or if it actually was the person he got to escape with.
The question rose up one day, where he logged on and waited for Casey to join.
Then waited…
And waited even some more.
He looked at the clock on his phone. An hour passed since he opened up the game. He checked their messages in the chance that Casey got occupied with homework or his mom’s job. It happened once or twice, but they always gave a warning.
“Are you gonna keep waiting,” Mikey asked. Both him and Leo sat on the sidelines playing competitive word search. “We wanna watch the new Loki episode.”
Leo offered up, “You can watch with us. They have previews.”
“No… no,” he brushed the offer aside. “Casey said they’re seeing their dad some more again. Maybe it’s just that.”
“What does their dad even do?”
“They work in business, I think?” Leo was the one to answer, to which Raph raised a brow-ridge.
“How do you know that,” Raph asked him.
“We can’t get Donnie the best headphones in the world.”
To that, Raph can only sigh, and lay back at the lobby screen. “They’re coming, so you guys can wait.”
Another thirty minutes passed with Raph scrolling on his phone and starting at the screen in front of him. With some mercy for everyone’s growing boredom (and Raph’s worry), Casey appeared online. Raph sat up straight seeing the green icon, while the other two in the room almost had to wake each other up.
“Sorry I’m late. Let’s just start playing.” There was a grumble in their voice, one similar to a bad school day according to the patterns Raph picked up. This time however, it lacked the usual angst behind it. Really, it just sounded like a pissed-off Casey.
This revelation put Raph in a newer spot than usual, so all he did was squint and see where the rest of the match took them.
“I need a body count today, so back me up.”
Casey set up the game at record speed, fast enough so Raph just watched buttons and filter options fly on screen until the match loaded up in front of him.
“Okay, let’s get these bitches.”
They immediately started on offense, shooting down the first opponent seen in front of them. Raph played the stall-game. “You want me to take snipe shots?”
“Sure, just make sure that we get to finals.”
“The turns have tabled…” Mikey muttered watching, though Leo elbowed him.
The game continued onwards, with Casey taking out multiple opponents on the front-lines as Raph backed them up. He saw everything in the game, from other players messing around to Casey sweating without any sort of strategy. He already shot down a couple of players that were about to get them with backs turned. It was easy to sneak up on Casey this time around, considering they lacked any attention in favor of highest kills.
“So, Case…”
“Yeah? — Okay bet, that’s 14. – What?”
“You uh… – Did anything happen? You’re being way off in-game and out.”
They huffed, or well, sighed with more aggression than anything else. “Sure, you might as well should know.”
“You don’t have to?” Although admittedly he was curious.
“Nah, just give me a second. I’m gonna get loud.” They cleared their throat and made a deep breath, hiding in one of the game’s building to stall. “APPARENTLY, I GOT A FUCKING SISTER NOW!”
The news took Raph aback. Hell, Casey’s yelling peaked through the headphones causing Leo and Mikey to flinch. “Uh… congrats?”
“It will never be a congrats. This is so bad.”
“How bad is a baby?”
“Not a baby; she’s some random girl that just popped up in my dad’s house like she owned the place!”
Everyone in the room squinted. “Yeah I’m gonna need more context here.”
“From what I heard, she’s like a year younger than me and managed to break the fingers of two of my dad’s employees, so then my dad heard about it and said ‘Oh hey, she seems cool for the job. Might as well adopt her!’.”
At that point, every detail about Casey’s family brought both more answers about Casey and more questions about everything else, which said something considering his own family.
“Doesn’t help that she’s basically top employee material for my dad’s gig, so the fuck am I supposed to do?! I’m supposed to be the heir here!”
Some of the angst popped up, which Raph knew how to deal with. “You said you’re getting training for the job right now. Is she getting any training?”
“No, but according to my dad, she’s ‘a natural’. Doesn’t help that my trainer hates me.”
They started playing again. “Teacher thing?”
“Teacher thing. I’m good at fighting, but if I get how-to tutorials, I’m going to say fuck all even if I might get my ass beat. That’s how every fight works!”
Casey never got to specifics as to what the training centered on, but the subject matter seemed a lot more interesting than Raph could have hoped for. “… My dad trained me in fighting since I was a kid. I can give you pointers.”
“… You know how to fight?” They beamed through the mic. “Man, you just get better every day.”
Raph just chuckled, mainly to hide the giddy feeling popping up that his brothers giggled over.
“One day we can go and beat up all of my bullies together, affectionately.”
Now it was a nervous chuckle, for multiple reasons.
“Wait, if that was the problem, what’s with the battle royale this time around?”
“Oh, Angel said she had a higher kill count than me so I wanted to– and now I’m dead.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll avenge you.”
“Ah, thank you. Mwah.”
Raph’s eyes widened, resisting any sort of blush from deeper thinking. Though when on-mic and in front of family, his mouth just read, “The fuck does ‘mwah’ mean?”
-
The next year turned into what felt like a highlight reel. Splinter finally let Raph and his brothers get all of the groceries instead of him leaving to the nearest bodega. Consequently, this led to Donnie finding out every way to sneak them into events in the city. This meant Raph finally had some stories to tell in chat, and he got excited over it every night.
“So, we snuck into a goddamn Stevie Nicks concert.” He smiled, knowing what would happen next.
“STEVIE NICKS? You little shit! You should’ve taken me with you!”
“Oh really? And what were you doing last night?”
“… Night shift, but that’s irrelevant. I would have thrown that shit at Angel to watch Stevie with you.”
“I’ll be real, my brothers were really bored when they were there so–”
“Shut up! She is an icon, a legend of my childhood, a–”
“Hey, I didn’t say I got bored.” Technically not a lie.
“Okay then we’ll sneak back in there together. Call it a date.”
Raph shot an opponent right as they said the last part. He nearly missed as a result, but he barely gripped onto controller after, asking them then and there, “Deadass?”
At that moment, Casey shut themself up for a good two minutes.
“Casey? Case? You cannot leave me on a cliffhanger here.”
“… Can we leave it as a cliffhanger?”
“We are literally in a match right now.”
“I think it’s perfectly fine to leave it as a cliffhanger.”
“Casey motherfucking– I don’t know your last name– I need to know if you’re deadass.”
On the mic, Casey stammered at every single attempt of a sentence, which in itself caused Raph’s own blush to darken. “I mean– I thought that’s where things were going. I– Jesus I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“But did you mean it?”
“… Maybe?”
The blush got accompanied with a frown. “C’mon, cut to the chase.”
They sighed, smoothing out the words, stopping the hesitation. “Sure, it can be a date. It doesn’t have to be a date. But… really, I just want to see you. We’re like 5 miles away from each other, we can hang out anytime. You want that too, don’t you?”
“… Maybe.”
“You did not just maybe back at me–”
“Okay, okay, I do.”
“Then, why don’t we? We’re about to turn fourteen, quarantine policies are breaking down. We can actually meet up.”
He bit his lip, trying to think of what to say. Even the game ended before he said anything. “I… I don’t know. My dad’s really strict. –”
“You talk to me about sneaking out all the time. We can just work it like that.”
“I’m gonna be honest, it’s a lot more complicated than that.”
“More complicated?” Casey paused. “Too complicated that you can’t say it?”
“Basically…”
The lobby screen appeared again.
“Okay… I’m not mad if that’s what you’re worried about. I never explained too much about my home life either.” They did, just by accident on most occasions, but not enough for Raph to connect dots. “This is gonna be stupid of me to ask but… do you still wanna go on a date? It could just be a movie online.”
He softened, letting go of the controller.
“I’d like that,” he said. “What movie are you thinking?”
“Bloodsport,” was the answer, “if you like, well, what’s in the title.”
“I think it sounds awesome.”
“Then it’s a date.” Raph could just hear the soft smile Casey had. “I’ll text you what times I’m available. Night shift’s about to start.” They quickly log off, and Raph turned off the console and TV.
He sat there for a bit, contemplating what just happened, until it finally hit him.
“Holy shit I have rizz.”
“You have what?” Mikey giggled behind him, and Raph jumped on him as soon as he noticed his presence.
“Do NOT tell anybody!”
“Okay! Okay!”
Two nights later, Raph borrowed Donnie’s computer in exchange of more chores, and there he was watching Bloodsport with Casey. Wonderful movie, beautiful amounts of fists, but they watched while texting in the DM chat, distracting each other with comments they would contemplate for the next few days.
He told them how he always thought they were cute, a secret hidden since god knew how long by then. And at some point, they told him through text, “I don’t really know how to say it, I just liked you for a while now”. In a certain way, Raph understood the sentiment. In the best way, it made him glad that the guy just liked him back. Just him, no details attached. That was all he could ask for.
By the time the movie was over, the two barely kept themselves awake, and Donnie was waiting for the computer back.
-
Casey started going online less and less as time went on. The same went for Raph, busy with family, and busy with Splinter having an even closer eye at all four of the brothers, especially with whatever was going on in the living room while he was gone.
Though there was one night where the turtles went out for groceries. They snuck through rooftops and hid before any human could see them. Same old, same old.
“How’s Casey doing,” Leo asked. He picked up a box of sports drinks to bring back with them. “Haven’t heard in a while.”
Donnie said, “I tried texting them–”
“And why are you texting them?”
“I think I can be friends with your online friend, Raph.”
The comment made Raph roll his eyes, while Mikey observed the situation with eyes that knew all.
They relaxed on a rooftop, taking a break and goofing around as per routine. Donnie looked up places to go while Mikey found things to do on the spot with Raph. However, Raph soon overheard some noise from below. He lingered at the sound, until picking up the familiar voice that caught his attention.
Looking over, he saw a whole group of kids, seemingly goofing off just like them. They all pushed and jumped over each other as if in a competition. However, the ruckus stopped at the call of the ringleader.
Raph knew it so very clearly. It was Casey, older than pictures from ages ago, but still Casey. Their shitty mullet turned into more defined curls, with a black bandana slapped around it, and a vibrant purple coat covering up the mess of black clothes underneath. That was the best details Raph spotted from afar, but the evolution still caught his eye.
The kid rolled around in heelys, something Raph would totally pick on if Case ever mentioned it, and they talked to their team in pure snark and cockiness. A girl threw them off from behind them, probably Angel, if the stories were true. But regardless of the context, Casey was there. Right there within talking distance. The temptation to hop off and say hi boiled over him. He kept staring, not knowing what to do except be with them.
“Raph…” Leo called out. “Raph?”
Shaking his head, he turned to his brothers who were all packed up.
“We gotta head out. There’s too much commotion here.”
He looked back, seeing Casey make air-swings in front of everybody’s laughter. Towards it, he lowered his head, glancing away. “Let’s go.”
They all left right before Casey got pushed over by one of the members, and right before they gave the okay to break the window of a pawn shop.
-
“Do you think it’s possible that I can just… quit school?”
“I dunno, can you?”
Summer break was nearing for Casey’s last year in middle school. Apparently, they ignored all of the events for the occasion, from formals to rallies, to their mother’s disappointment from what they said.
“I think I can get away with it. I know a guy.”
The two entered the playground-mode of the game, mainly to just talk in open space. Raph jumped around, building whatever came to mind. Though the PS4 itself blew through its heating fan while the two played.
“What have you been doing? It’s been a month or two at this point.”
They stammered. “Sorry, I just thought,” trying to find words, “I thought I should work with my dad some more.”
“Oh…” The memory of their prideful face came back to him. “I get that.”
“Thanks…” They lingered in their thoughts. Words were slower than usual, less energy than when they first started their calls, Raph realized. “You know, it’s weird. When I was a kid, so many people told me about how great he was, how I could be just like him when I grew up. I’ve always tried. I’m still trying even, but… I’m rambling, I’m rambling. How about you?”
“It’s all the same,” he said. “We’re going to an Adele concert in a few weeks I think.”
“Adele? That’s nice. I think I listened to her when I was seven.”
The comment got Raph’s avatar to jump. “Excuse me? She’s an amazing singer?”
“So was Minnie Riperton.”
“Why are we comparing here?”
“Because I’m petty, duh.”
The two of them proceeded to laugh in the little void they made for themselves. The moment lacked any real chaos, no enemies firing, no back and forth yelling, no brothers to interrupt them. It was just them.
He thought of that night he saw them again, the fun mixed with what Casey said during the call. He needed to know one single thing.
“… You’re like, happy where you are right now, right?”
Hesitance. Pure hesitance hit the mic. “... Yeah. You’re doing good too, aren’t you? Mr. Adele-Enjoyer.”
He huffed back, “I am.”
Silence sat between them, nothing too uncomfortable, but entirely noticeable.
“… Are we lying to ourselves?”
“Maybe.”
They burst into laughter again, this time a bit louder for their own faults.
“I’m trying to make this work out,” they giggled.
“With your life, not us, right?”
“Of course,” they corrected, “though I’d still love to see you.”
“I know, maybe I’ll figure it out one day,” he said. “I’m just… scared, of everything staying the same, yanno?”
“You want things to change in life?”
“Always have.”
“Then change it.”
His eyes lowered. “You’re making it easier than it sounds.”
“Who knows, sometimes you just gotta say fuck it. That’s how you and your brothers sneak out, right?”
“I guess I know what you’re saying but…”
“Look, things will happen, for the both of us.”
He imagined one of the many dreams he had. “Yeah… I guess high school’s coming up”
“It’d be a miracle if we saw each other there.”
Maybe Casey had the same dream too. “Totally,” he said back.
“... Hey I know I keep seeing– or well, hearing you less and less, but I just wanted to say–”
The feed cut out. In fact, the entire screen froze once the console’s heating fan stopped hissing. Raph pressed the buttons on the controller back and forth to no avail. He set the headphones down and called out to the room. “Donnie, something weird’s happening!”
His brother walked over and panicked once seeing the screen breaking down in front of them. He ran to the console, cursing at himself and giving Raph a good sign of what happened.
Knowing the situation, he got his (no longer ancient) phone and went to Casey’s messages. He called him, and Casey answered within seconds.
“So… I think my PS4 broke.”
“YOU WERE USING A PS4?!” they spat. Or really, they laughed hysterically through the phone, to Raph’s confusion. He walked over to his bed during the laughter, and sat down.
“Uh… what were you going to say before I went?”
The laughter died down, calming down for the message. “I was gonna say you’re still some of the best parts of my day. I wanted you to know that.”
No matter how lost Raph would get with this random guy, they never failed to shine a light on everything Raph ever wanted. Even then, the comment gave him a smile, warmed him up, made him curse all the rules of the sewers that stopped them from seeing each other eye to eye. So, of course, “You’re the exact same for me, Casey.”
“... If you actually meet me, if you knew what I do or who I am outside of this, you’d still like me, right?”
“Duh,” he said, not knowing what Casey’s actual job was. “You wouldn’t judge me back?”
“Of course not,” they said, not knowing a single thing either.
The two of them continued talking, in some ways content, in others, still waiting for when those questions are finally put to the test.
-
2023 finally rolled around with the occasional movie night and daily texting, though more importantly, the change came around.
The turtles went through hell and back for two weeks and now they were accepted by the entire human society of New York City, partially because Leo had way less control than Raph when it came to simping, who would’ve thought.
They all went on the news and did interviews because wow, who would have known some giant turtles and a rat were living in the sewers? Well, that honestly was the most NYC part of the story, maybe even Floridian-esque. Though most importantly, all of the boys applied to school, April’s school in particular.
With the brand new life experience came an orientation from a student representative. The representative herself was fairly nice, with the latest fashion trends and sweet demeanor. During the tour of the school and meeting some of the students however, Raph asked a single question.
“Hey,” he raised his hand to interrupt a previous conversation, “do you know if there’s a kid named Casey here? Kinda small, plays hockey?”
The other turtles were also curious, but the representative made a rather disgusted face. “You mean Casey Jones? Why do you wanna see them?”
He frowned. “What’s wrong with them?”
“All they did in the middle school around here was pull stupid pranks and beat up random kids. They don’t even bother to go to classes here anymore.”
“Oh…”
All of the brothers looked at Raph, worried. They checked up on him now and then, noting that he stayed quiet for the entire rest of the tour. The girl didn’t even question it.
It was only once they came back home did Raph make the call.
The dial lasted a while, more than usual, but once Casey picked up, they made the immediate start to the conversation:
“I’ve been waiting for you to call.”
“Saw the news?”
“’Course I did,” they said. “Didn’t think I’d hear the names of you and your brothers and figure it out?”
“No, I thought you would,” he said. “And I thought I’d surprise you at school.”
“Unfortunate to say that I did figure out how to quit school.”
“Great timing.”
“I know, right?”
They stood there in silence, knowing what this meant for the both of them.
“I’m busy today, by the way.”
“Well, that sucks,” he said.
There was a pause, up until Casey straightforwardly said, “Run of the Mill, E. Yukon Street, eight o’clock.”
They hung up, and Raph processed what was just said. It was currently a half-hour before the time set. His eyes widened as he ran out of the lair, passing through the rest of his family eating dinner.
Splinter caught him, but lacked the speed to ask him up front, “Where are you going?”
“Oh.” Mikey knew the situation. He buttered some bread casually as he told the dinner table, “Raph’s dating Casey.”
“WHAT?!” The rest of the family jumped to the not-at-all news, especially Leo. Though after a second, Donnie shrugged it off. The rest of the Stockmans looked at each other without a clue of what was going on.
But Raph ran, rushed through the streets at sundown. Some people still backed away in fear, others simply moved out of the way as he couldn’t care less of the difference. He passed through families, couples, other teens, all the make it to the address given.
Half an hour away, his phone told him. He had the chance to make it in time. The growing New York crowds never helped though. After a few minutes, he gave up and climbed on the roof. Everyone saw him jumping around from above. Some recorded; he elected to ignore it. The only goal was making it through that doorstep one way or another.
He hit the streetway and slid down the ladder of the rooftop he stopped upon. Stumbling his step, he sped through the street, disregarding the car about to hit him. It was from opening the restaurant door did a bell ring. Then and there did he realize his eyes were closed shut, and he slowly opened them to find himself in a less-than-busy pizzeria. He blinked, the adrenaline dying down as people passed by him.
A woman at the bar counter spotted him and gave a small smile. She turned toward the tables, saying, “Casey, mijo, he’s here.”
Slowly, he looked to see where she was talking, and there sat a boy. They stared at their phone, wearing their nicest tank top and purple coat tied by the waist. Setting the phone down, they saw him, almond eyes wide and crooked grin appearing. They stood up, wiping away whatever stains came from the dining area, and gave Raph the tiniest punch to the plastron. “Took you long enough,” they said.
It took Raph a second, seeing Casey so close to him without any hesitation. “You look prettier in person.”
“Why thank you. I try my best.” The voice was clear, no more muffled sound came through whatsoever. “My mom’s house is a couple blocks down. Do you wanna hang out there?”
“Didn’t you say you were busy?”
They shrugged, “Angel can handle it.” Soon, Casey reached out their hand, lingering it around Raph’s. “May I?”
Instead of saying anything, Raph took up the offer to hold onto their hand. Casey gripped it, pulling the two of them out of the restaurant as the bell rang once more through the door. They started rolling with the same heelys Raph saw before, dragging him in the meanwhile and he fell in love with the vigor.
The world was their oyster, with so many things to ask, so many more stories to share, and now more stories to make. The two reveled in the fact while they ran across the streets, with no care as to what came ahead for them. It lifted them up, brightening each other’s night for the better, and that’s all that mattered.
“By the way, Case,” Raph said, “what are we doing when we get there?”
“Oh, I didn’t think about that yet.” They chuckled, brainstorming then and there for their first real date. “… Wanna play Mario Party?”