Archive of Our Own ^beta

Raph checked the pocket on the inside of his jacket, triple checking that the brooch was in there. He carefully walked past the living room and looked into it to see her little brothers all curled up on the couch. They stared at the screen, watching Jupiter Jim shoot down enemy aliens. The projector being the only light in the room.
"Hey guys! I'm heading out for a bit!"
"Kay kay! Bye Raphie!" Mikey calls over their shoulder, eyes still pinned on the screen.
"Bye/Farewell!" Leon and Donnie speak at the same time. They pause for a moment before giving a quick glare to each other. Though that frustration is short lived as the movie catches their attention once again.
"Remember to text me often. and I'll be back with pizza later so remember to text me what you three want," Raph's separation anxiety has thankfully gotten better throughout the years and can leave his brothers alone for longer periods of time as long as she knew they were okay.
"Don't worry we will, now go have a fun time," Mikey finally turns to look at Raph, an arm now resting on the back of the couch. Raph gave the younger a small smile and continued walking to the entrance of the lair. She walked out and continued down a few abandoned subway tunnels before stopping and looking behind him. She quickly stepped behind a corner and pulled the brooch out of his pocket. Draxum had gotten brooches made specifically for the turtle brothers. Raph's was spikey, silver, and had a beautiful red crystal in the center. She made sure the brooch was secured on the front of his red varsity jacket. The jacket had nice memories of when Donnie had gotten them all one for Christmas last year. Each of their colors with the Hamato symbol square on the back. Raph smiled thinking about it and activated the mystic jewelry. She pulled out her phone and looked at his reflection. He took a moment to admire his human look. She had gorgeous dark brown skin, long, black hair in box braids, a red bandana tied around his head, and silver earrings. She looked at the time and almost choked, Shit! I'm late!
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The children sat around in a circle, listening to the stories about knights and royalty and far off lands. Raph stood in the center, telling twisted tales of fights and heroism. She projected his voice so all of the children could hear. She did voices for all of the characters and moved his body as if it was just another tool to tell the story.
"But then…" Raph paused for a second to build suspense, all of the children eagerly leaned forward, "A DRAGON!" The kids squealed in delight. Raph put on a heroic voice and continued, "'You think you can take me down, beast?!' The knight shouted." Raph again put on another voice, this time more menacing, "'Oh, but I do. You and your kingdom!' The dragon threatened the knight. The princess walked over and laid a hand on the knight's shoulder," Raph looked over at the doorway to see the teacher standing there, looking over the students with a look of peace on their face. Raph again tuned back into the story and continued from the princess's perspective, "The princess knew what to do. She had learned a lot about dragons from her years in the isolated castle. 'Let me handle this' she said. Determination filled her voice. The knight stepped aside and let her take over." The teacher signaled to Raph and pointed at the clock. "And sadly that will be it! It appears that I am out of time." The kids whined and begged for him to finish the tale. This time the teacher stepped into the middle of the circle and helped calm down the children.
"Don't worry Red will be back next week and we'll find out what happened. But for now we need to get back to class and Red needs to get going," the teacher says motioning for the students to get up and go back to their seats. The children get up groaning about how they want more story but still complying and head back to their tables. A few kids go over to Raph excitedly, holding pieces of paper tight in their grips. They giggle among themselves as Raph gets down on one knee to get closer to their size.
"We had made you pictures as a thank you!" A little girl says, handing him the paper she was holding. Raph looked at it and saw the scribbles of stick figures in gowns and crowns, knight armor and swords. Raph was about to start tearing up as he was handed a few other drawings. One was an obviously traced dragon, the other being a disney princess colored outside of the lines, and the last being another one with stick figures. The only difference was that it was her in the middle with a smaller one representing the kid who gave it to him. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Raph started tearing up from wholesomeness.
"Aweee, thank you guys so much. I am seriously going to keep these forever," Raph folded the papers together and put them in her pocket and wiped the tears from his eyes. The kids grinned and rushed back to their seats.
The teacher walked over to Raph, "Thanks for coming in, kid, your payment will be in the office." Raph thanked the teacher and started walking down the hallways. Half the school was just destroyed from the invasion a few months ago. Just looking at the damage caused her pain.
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"Okay and here is your payment for the week," the lady behind the desk handed Raph an envelope. Raph took a quick look inside it and shoved it in his pocket. Raph thought that was it and was about to leave before the lady stopped him, "Hey, uh- Red! Thanks. For everything."
"Oh! Well it's the least I could do. Ya know. With everything that's been happening."
"Ya but you probably have your own problems. And yet you're here. The kindergarteners love you. I honestly think you're the only reason they have been feeling safe enough to come into school. You're a sweet kid and I hope you never change." Raph's face flushed a slight bit from the compliment.
"Gee, thanks! I never really thought of it that way. I just really like telling stories and the kids seem to like it so-" Raph twirled a braid around his finger and sputtered out the quick thank you.
"Well that's enough of me holding you here. Go live your life Red. See you next week," the lady turned back to her work and started typing on a computer.
"See ya next week," Raph walked out of the building and pulled out the envelope and started counting the cash on her way to the grocery store. Mikey has been complaining they've been running out of spices and Donnie's been complaining about being out of baking supplies.
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Raph was in the checkout lane when she remembered his brothers and checked her phone. Relieved to see the messages she read through them.
~
BootyyyShaker9000💃- Hey Raphie! Just wanted to text to tell you we're not dead. Just made popcorn.
~5 minutes later~
✨✨NeonLeon✨✨- Gues whos checking in? UR FAVE BROTHER :D. Anywhizzle we chillung on the couch
✨✨NeonLeon✨✨- *Guess
✨✨NeonLeon✨✨- **chilling
~10 minutes later~
BestChef👌👌- Sry thid topk a bit were aboyt to play hide n seek so wr wont bw responginf
~30 minutes later~
BootyyyShaker9000💃- Okay I'm telling you our orders for pizza because obviously I'm the only turtle in this dum dum house who can text coherently🙄.
BootyyyShaker9000💃- Angelo wants mushroom and bacon(weird but okay), I want pepperoni, and Nardo wants 🤢Hawaiian🤢.
BootyyyShaker9000💃-I swear there ain't no way Leo wasn't dropped on the head as a child. Pineapple on pizza is DISGUSTING!!!!

Raph laughed a bit at Donnie's aversion to pineapple on pizza as the cashier rang up the groceries.
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