Chapter Text
Part 1
In the past, winter had been a time when Raph and his brothers could hardly stay awake. Being sleepy and slow for almost three months gave a whole new meaning to the term seasonal depression. Being turtles, brumation was to be expected and they had dealt with it for the first eight years of their lives. The turtles were 11 now and staying awake long enough to do anything was still difficult.
Until tonight, it was Christmas Eve and Raph couldn’t fall asleep.
Raph was tossing and turning in his bunk. He could hear Mikey right above him shifting around and flipping the pages of a comic book. Unable to stand it any longer, Raph rolled out of bed and peaked his snout into Mikey’s top bunk.
His little brother was wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket holding a flashlight as he flipped through an old spiderman comic.
“Hey, Mikey,” he whispered.
Mikey quickly looked up from his comic, shining the flashlight right in Raph’s face. Raph jerked back and put his hand in front of his face.
“Geez, dude, you trying to blind me?” he grumbled
“Oops, sorry,” Mikey whispered, shining the flashlight at the ceiling. “What’s up?”
Raph blinked a few times and stepped up on the first rung of Mikey’s bunk ladder.
“I can’t sleep, wanna grab a snack?” He pointed a thumb at the door.
“Yes,” he said immediately. He flipped his comic book over and tied the blanket around his shoulders.
“Move, please.” Mikey gestured with his foot.
Raph stepped off the ladder and waited for Mikey to come down. He hopped off the last rung and plapped onto the floor. With his striped footie pajamas and blanket tied on his shoulders, Mikey looked like the world’s lamest superhero.
“Let’s go,” he said through a yawn.
Raph followed his little brother out the door, Mikey led the way with his flashlight.
They padded quietly down the stairs into the main atrium, careful not to wake their possibly sleeping brothers.
When they got to the kitchen however, Leo and Donnie were already sitting at the table. They had Donnie’s favorite glow lamp between them and were sipping tea.
“What are you guys doing up?” Raph whispered.
“Same reason you are, I assume,” Donnie said. “Couldn’t sleep.”
“We thought some green tea would help, want some?” Leo offered.
“Sure!” Mikey chirped, taking the seat next to Donnie.
“Okay, just a second.” Leo got up to grab another teacup from the cabinet. Raph grabbed a box of crackers from the kitchen counter.
“Raph?” Leo held out two teacups.
“Yeah, sure,” Raph shrugged as he sat down at the table in the leftmost chair.
Leo poured tea from the kettle that was on the stove, filling the cups about half way, and drizzled a bit of honey into them. He sat down with the cups and passed them to his younger brothers.
Raph gently blew on his tea before sipping it. It had been a while since they had all just sat at the table late at night like this together. Usually they were doing their own stuff or training in the dojo. Just sitting here on Christmas Eve with brothers was nice; Raph felt safe and cozy, not that he would ever admit that to his siblings.
After they had all finished their tea and nibbled a few crackers, Mikey yawned way louder than he needed to and leaned on Donnie’s shoulder.
“Guys, can we all go sleep in Papa’s room?” Mikey asked sleepily,
Raph smiled fondly at his baby brother, it had been a while since they had all piled on Dad’s bed to sleep. He wasn’t even sure they would all fit at this point. He glanced up at Leo, not wanting to be the first to say yes to it, he didn’t wanna seem like a baby.
Leo had already gotten up to rinse out the teacups, he was always on top of those sorts of things.
“I suppose we could,” Leo said as carefully poured the last bit of tea from the teapot into the sink.
“Donnie? Raph?” Leo asked, walking back to the table.
Donnie nodded his head and picked up his glow lamp with one hand, careful not to move Mikey on his shoulder.
“Yeah, sure why not.” Raph tried to sound as cool about it as possible.
All three of them got up at once, Mikey still half leaning on Donnie, and walked over to the old train car where Splinter slept most of the time. They snuck quietly, doing their best to not wake their father.
When they got there however, the train car was empty. Splinter’s bed had no signs it was slept in that night and the candles he kept in there were solid, like they hadn’t been lit at all.
“Where’s Papa?” Mikey said drowsily.
“Maybe he went to the bathroom?” Leo offered.
“Unlikely, his bed is still made.” Donnie held his glow lamp up to the mattress.
Raph suddenly felt agitated, Splinter had left them home alone before, but he would tell them first. He always told them, now he just leaves in the middle of the night without so much as a note! A thought crept into his mind, something Leo would scold him over. What if Dad wasn’t always honest about what he was doing?
A panicked Mikey brought him back to the present.
“We have to go look for him!” He flapped his blanket around, suddenly very awake. He took off down the dimly lit subway tunnel. His footie pajamas made a very loud shuffling noise.
“Mikey!” All three of his older brothers shouted in unison.
They ran after their baby brother. The little turtle was very fast, but with his flapping blanket cape and flashlight, was also easy to follow. That was a bit worrying. Raph wasn’t usually the worrier, that was Leo’s job, however he knew if they ran far enough they might run into some humans. Splinter had warned them how dangerous that could be, although after his Father’s disappearing act, maybe he wasn’t always honest.
They finally caught up to Mikey at a subway station. The bright fluorescent lights of the station made him blink hard a few times. Leo and Donnnie had to keep a hand above their eyes. Thankfully, it was empty, the top of the stairway was blocked off. Some rats were eating scraps by a wall.
Mikey had stopped right before the tunnel opened up to the station. He was sitting on the other side of the tunnel on the edge of the platform, just out of the light.
“Michelangelo!” Leo whisper shouted, He quickly walked over the tracks to where Mikey was sitting and wrapped him up in a hug. And just as quickly Leo pulled him out of the hug and held Mikey at arms length.
“What were you thinking?” Leo demanded
Raph and Donnie also hopped across the tracks and sat behind Mikey.
“Yeah! You can’t just run off!” Raph complained.
“It was really reckless,” Donnie chimed in.
The littlest turtle looked down and sniffled. His small shoulders shook under Leo’s grasp. Despite the four turtles being only a few days apart in age, Mikey really seemed so much younger.
“I’m sorry, guys.” Mikey’s voice shook. “I’m just so scared about Dad, what if he’s lost? What if he can’t come back?” He looked up at his brothers, a tear falling down his freckled cheek.
Raph’s chest hurt, his little brother was scared, so worried about their father. Raph wanted to keep them all safe no matter what, he was the strongest, he had too.
“Don’t worry Mike, I’m sure Pops is fine.” Raph wrapped Mikey in a big hug, which Leo and Donnie joined.
“Raph’s right, maybe Dad’s on his way home right now.” Leo rubbed the top of Mikey’s head. “Let’s head home, guys.”
“Yeah, these old fluorescents are giving me a headache,” Donnie complained.
They carefully crossed over the tracks to walk on the side platform home. Raph went to turn to Mikey to ask him if he wanted a turtleback ride, when he noticed the shorter turtle had stopped on the tracks.
“Uh Mikey, what are you doing?” Raph asked.
“Hold on, my blanket is stuck on a wire or something.” He was hunched over tugging on the end of his blanket.
Raph felt the rumbling before he heard it. A low whistle echoed through the tunnel. A shiver went down his spine. A train was coming.
“Mikey!" Raph shouted, “You gotta move!"
“I know, hold on, it's not…" Mikey looked up and saw the dim light that was growing at the end of the tunnel. His eyes went wide and he started pulling harder on his blanket .
“Help me!" He wailed.
The train was growing louder.
Raph jumped down into the track and also started pulling.
The track was vibrating and the tunnel was getting brighter.
Raph could hear his brothers screaming, but he couldn't understand what they were saying.
“Pull at the same time as me!" Raph urged.
They pulled together and the blanket ripped away.
The light was blinding now.
Raph grabbed Mikey’s wrist and jumped off of the track, pulling his little brother with him.
The force of the train sped past them, pushing them back. The wind wiped Mikey's torn blanket around them. The train’s echoing clacks roared in his ears.
Then it was very quiet, only the distant sounds of traffic and fluorescent buzzing proving they were still alive.
Raph was breathing so hard his lungs hurt. All of his muscles shook. He sat up on the ground and gripped onto Mikey for dear life, promising to himself to never let his baby brother out of his sight again.
He knew his other siblings ran up to him, but his ears were still pounding and he couldn't say anything. Whatever they were saying pelted him like ice.
“Raph!” He finally heard Leo shouting.
He felt his big brother’s hand grip his arm. Raph gasped one last time before steadying his breathing. He was suddenly aware he might be gripping Mikey too tight. He looked up at Leo, who was crouched down on one knee, his face showing so much relief. His hands were shaking. Donnie was standing behind him stiff as a board. His eyes darted around, checking to make sure they were all okay.
“Hey, Raphie?” Mikey said, all muffled in Raph’s embrace. “I’m okay, you can let go.”
As tough as it was, Raph slowly let go of his baby brother. Mikey’s eyes wet with tears again, but he wasn’t shaking.
“Raph, you’re okay, Mikey’s safe, we’re all safe.” Leo looked him in the eyes.
Raph nodded and wiped his face, not exactly sure when he had started crying. Leo stood up and held out his hand to help him up. He took his big brother’s hand and shakily got to his feet. Raph turned back to Mikey, who was still on the ground, and picked him up in a basket carry like he weighed nothing.
“Can’t leave you alone for a second, can I?” Raph mumbled.
“Guess not,” Mikey giggled softly and let himself be carried by Raph.
Raph turned back to his other brothers and gestured with his head for them to start walking ahead of him. He followed Leo and Donnie home, keeping up pretty well despite the extra weight of Mikey and his shaking legs. It took longer to get home than to the station since they weren’t running. Mikey yawned in Raph’s arms.
When they began to turn into the ghost line that was home, they saw a figure walking towards them from the opposite end of the tunnel. Raph held Mikey tighter until he saw the tail. It was Master Splinter!
“Papa!” Mikey called.