#ruby is currently too scared to interact with the other turtles aside from Raph

[dottie-writes-tmnt]

Family Bonding Time? We don’t Even Know

This is part 2 of my fic A New Kind of Familiar! Tags and other chapters can be found here!

Raph has breakfast with the rise Hamatos, somewhat unpacks what happened, and then brawls with someone. Well-rounded plot, right?

If you’d told Raph that he’d be meeting a smaller version of him; one without as much experience with control, a little vulnerable kid, he might have laughed. He was just now getting the smaller to sleep, having noticed his yawning around 20 minutes ago.

It was more of a challenge than he’d thought it would be. At first, he just suggested sleep, being brushed off immediately. Then, he tried for a different route, rubbing the other’s shell, but that didn’t work either.

Currently, Small Raph’s eyes were barely open. The snapper stood, bringing a slightly confused Small Raph with him, the mentioned still clinging to his Kuromi plush.

“Tired, bud?”

“Mmmnuh-uh,” came the quiet answer, coupled by a head shake before the other’s face was shoved into the plushie he held.

He simply hummed. The smaller had already established that he would be sleeping in the living room, leaving Raph to put a hand on his shoulder and talk to him a bit, quietly of course, and walk that direction.

As smart as a Raph would be, the other red-wearing turtle realized three times, mumbling a protest and turning them back around. On the fourth, he finally fell onto the couch, though he got a hold of the snapper’s tail.

“Whatcha doing, buddy?”

A bunch of nonsense mumbles.

“I see.”

There was no removing the box turtle’s hand. Not easily, at least. He simply patted the other’s hand, inching closer until said hand was near one of Kuromi’s ears.

Loosening each finger slowly and gently took around 10 minutes, and he made sure to keep the smaller “talking” (if you count gibberish as talking), until finally he transferred the hand from his tail to the ear, which went basically unnoticed.

“Oh wow, buddy, is that a life size dinosaur in my living room?” he questioned dramatically, receiving no answer.

The smaller was asleep finally. This was a bit more difficult than it was to get any of his brothers to sleep, but an accepted challenge. He risked another glance backward, his mind going back to earlier.

 

When he bumped into something small, his immediate thought was Mikey, but, 1. This was smaller, and 2. Mikey had just run off. He looked down to see red and paused for a moment.

This was the Raph the twins had brought home, which he wasn’t questioning right now. An apology was on his lips before he realized the tears running, the dumbfounded expression, the shaking hands. He was immediately concerned, but said nothing.

Then the smaller lowered his head into his shell slightly, shame coating his expression as he shifted his gaze.

“You must be the Raph they brought home,” he said, getting a nod.

He simply went for a smile, speaking again. “Are you angry, or are you just upset?”

The other clarified that he wasn’t mad, and they went to his room after a bit. He was questioned a bit more heavily than he’d anticipated by the little turtle on his carpet, and found out that his guest was trans.

Their conversation allowed him to make a few deductions about his home life but he said nothing. Raphael’s reaction to dinner made his night. He inspected the box turtle while being inspected, himself.

The smaller sported green eyes, a small missing chunk in his plastron, a much smaller tail, and a few scars.

After they were both satisfied in their evaluation, he took note of how the smaller visibly relaxed once they were immersed in Hello Kitty. He had some things to think about, later.

 

Later, indeed. However, the entire ordeal of getting Small Raph to sleep had taken an hour. He was tired, himself. He could think about this all, tomorrow. Raph collapsed onto his bed without much other thought in his mind after that, tail curling around himself. A good night’s sleep would help him think better, anyway.




—




Raph woke up on the sofa, curled around a Kuromi plush, not noticing much else at first. He didn’t move his gaze around yet, waiting to fully wake up, then his eyes went to the screen that was playing some weird space show.

The volume was off and the captions were on, which drew his eyes to the slider sitting against the arm of the sofa, who had nodded off. There was some quiet talking in the kitchen, and Raph, recalling what happened yesterday, decided to listen in.

 

“Look, I don’t know how they got him here. I don’t know where he came from. It’s gonna take me a while to figure that all out, not to mention figuring out how to even create a portal! And an interdimensional portal? That’s insane. It’s gonna take a long ass time.

“And we talk about what the first thing he said was? Well not the first, but one of them. He said I’m not gonna fucking cry like they want me to, talking about his brothers.”

“He didn’t seem all too happy talking about them yesterday.”

Big Raph’s voice sounded.

“Maybe they got into a fight before the whole accident. You guys talk bitterly about each other after fights. Let’s just help the guy feel at home here until he can go back. And no more questions about his brothers.”

Muttered agreements could be heard. The box turtle went to return Big Raph’s plushie, not really knowing how to feel about what he’d heard.

At least Big Raph warded them off? How bad had he been feeling to let that much slip? The prospect of that ever happening again scared him. He’d just have to be more careful. He set Kuromi down with the others and turned back around to see the other Donnie, who frowned.

“Breakfast’s ready.”

“‘Kay.”

The softshell squinted at him before walking away. He frowned, considering just not attending until voices came from the room he’d just been in.

“We dunno how he’s here, but you gotta be nice to him, Jr. Help him adjust until we can get him back.”

“Of course! I’ll help as best as I can!”

“Thanks, Case.”

“It isn’t a problem. I think I can empathize pretty well. Also, Michelangelo says you should come in for breakfast.”

Casey? The hair was longer, form different, mask marked in red. The slider which he now recognized as this world’s Leo was sitting with him, the two talking about him.

“Alright, I’ll be in, in a minute.”

Casey simply nodded, leaving the room. Leo spoke again, his tone somewhere between taunting and empathetic, if that was even possible.

“Dude, I can tell you’re there. I dunno what to call you, but Mikey’ll be looking for you if you don’t hurry up.”

He said nothing, but he did find himself going to the kitchen. He stood in the doorway, simply watching the people in the kitchen interact.

A tall girl with brown hair that was in an Afro being mildly tamed by a head scarf was swamped in a white sleeveless hoodie, socks dragging across the tile as she muttered into her phone, which was pressed to her ear by a shoulder.

A plate in each hand, she started to the table. Casey was pouring drinks and Mikey was making conversation with Big Raph and Donnie while bringing a few more plates to the table.

“Yeah, Cass, Drax probably won’t mind. Text him, he should be up and about. I’ll call back after breakfast, kay? Bye,” murmured the unknown girl, hanging up afterward. He finally stepped into the kitchen and Big Raph acknowledged him first.

“Morning. How’d ya sleep?”

“Fine.”

“Why don’t you eat with us? I made you a plate,” Mikey offered, and fuck him because Raph sucked at saying no to Mikey recently.

“Sure.”

Donnie leaned against the counter, plate in hand. Mikey noticed Raph’s questioning expression, waving him off with a ‘bad morning, no-contact corner’, like that explained anything. He didn’t question further, his eyes instead straying to the stranger in the room.

“April, you’re close to the cabinet. Can you grab me Donnie’s mug?”

“Mhm,” hummed the girl. That was April? He shrugged after a few moments, watching the family shuffle around the table and arrange however they pleased.

After a few rounds of musical chairs, April finally dragged up a chair between herself and Mikey and ushered him to it. He muttered a thanks as he sat, the others glancing at Mikey briefly.

The box turtle took a bite of his food and apparently this was a cue for the others to do so, too. Raph started on his own food, humming happily. This Mikey had the best cooking.

The table was tall, meaning the chairs were also tall, meaning his feet didn’t touch the ground. He didn’t know how he felt about that. It was weird, sitting at such a tall table. He simply continued with his breakfast, feet kicking happily. April huffed a laugh beside him as she looked at her phone.

“Cass convinced Barry to be her practice buddy.”

“Uh oh. For sparring or for hockey?” Big Raph questioned, an amused smile on his face.

“Hockey. Send him good luck, he is going to need it.”

He had no clue who those two were. He didn’t really care. Mikey cleared his throat.

“Names. What are we gonna call you two?” came the question, both Raphs being gestured to.

“I could always go by Red. He literally named us colors.”

“We could call him Little Raph,” offered Leo.

“We can call you Dumbass,” Raph retorted instantly, the venom pouring into his tone as easy as breathing. He chewed another forkful and observed.

A challenging smile arose on the slider’s face. He kept his expression even for now, staring across the table without lifting his head, not pausing his actions.

“There’s no need to get short with me, you know. I’m just trying to contribute, Little Raph.”

He stared at the grinning blue idiot for all of two seconds before he decided today wasn’t the day. He simply sighed, ignoring the other completely. He was tired. The remainder of the oddly large family looked around awkwardly.

“We’ll figure something out.”

“I don’t mind being called Red, guys, he can keep the name.”

“It’ll still get confusing pretty quickly. You’ve been responding to Raph for years.”

“Just consider it a temporary fix, Leo.”

“I also respond to Ruby,” he finally volunteered.

The entire table went silent and the eyes on him made him want to disappear. He finally stilled, not risking the glance up. He didn’t want to see Leo across from him, giving him that look. He hated that look, he hated what it meant. He hated that he got it so often. But he was forced to look up as the silence stretched on and he was met with a probing look, smugness gone.

“Nevermind,” he muttered. “I’m sure you guys’ll figure something out.”

“Ruby’s good! I’ll try to remember that,” Mikey said, nodding. The others agreed after that, nods following their responses like a big group of mirrors. It reminded him of his brothers. He huffed a tiny laugh.

He finished up and stood, putting his plate in the sink and leaving the room. His tPhone was dysfunctional so he had no clue what he planned on doing. He should ask this Donnie to connect him to their wifi or something. Later. He should probably work on avoiding Splinter for as long as possible after making a fool of himself yesterday. 

Meanwhile, because he hated idle time, what should he do? He could try to unpack everything that was going on, but did he really want to do that? Not particularly. After some thinking, he decided against leaving the lair, and found nothing to do. Still. Guess he was unpacking.

 

So, he’d fought with Leo all week, the older trying to corral him into a box so he would be easier to work with.

A figurative box, he reminded himself, and Raph still didn’t know how to feel about it. He was fine to work with. He wouldn’t ever let anything happen to his brothers and if a situation got dangerous he’d gladly let himself take the damage for the sake of his brothers. Would they do the same? He wasn’t sure.

Anyway, with Leo fighting with him and slipping up with his name more often and the constant taunting, he’d been feeling like shit. And when he felt like shit, he got angry, and when he got angry, shit happened. Bad shit happened. And bad shit did happen— he lashed out at Donnie, re-broke his already shaky bond with Mikey, and they gave him hell for it.

Then the whole situation happened and now he was here and he had no clue what was going on now. Who could he trust here? Big Raph, for now, he supposed. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the others. Well, except for Splinter. And even then, he still didn’t know.

There was a sudden crash somewhere in the lair, followed by chattering. One voice rose above the rest, however, and Raph glanced a little ways away to see the family crowded around someone, Big Raph’s tail lashing and hitting the floor as his concerned voice rose higher in volume.

The person simply yelled louder: “I am fine, I do this all the time! Now, where is the other Red One? I wish to battle with him to measure the strength of our new ally!”

This was his cue to either gear himself up to probably go too far or just walk away. The group parted to reveal a ravenette with red eyeliner, a buzz cut, and black lipstick, the girl somewhat tall and exuding a fiery energy that Raph found a bit more familiar.

Finally, something that wasn’t weird and backwards. The girl wielded a hockey stick and was slinging a white skull mask off to the side, dressed in a pink skirt and a dark red hoodie. She had a black skirt on and platform boots. She had a pretty face and brown eyes, a grin on her face as she looked around.

Her muscles were quite obvious if you knew how to look and Raph found himself pretty psyched to fight this chick. When she laid eyes on him, she grinned, canines glinting with her coal black eyes.

“Red One! As per the rules of the Hamato Clan, we must fight for you to remain in everyone’s honor,” the girl lied. “I am Cassandra Jones, but my friends call me Casey.”

“Wait, so now there’s… two of you?”

“Weird story that we aren’t explaining right now.”

“Oookayy.”

Well, the one in front of him looked like she was probably the rabid teen he was used to. He decided to train his attention on her for now.

“Uh, I’m obviously Raph, but you can call me Ruby.”

“Well, Ruby, we are to battle to determine which of us is stronger! Prepare to lose!”

Younger Casey rolled his eyes, huffing with a smile. Big Raph stepped between them before any weapons could be drawn.

“Rules. You two, be respectful, and no murder, Cass. Keep stabbing to a minimum, neither of you aim for tiddies, no breaking or dislocations of bones, and I’d say no hair pulling, but…”

A few snorts behind the snapper.

“The first one knocked out of the ring loses. Of course, Mikey is gonna draw the ring on the floor, so be cautious of it.”

The rules all seemed fair enough, and soon, Ruby and Casey were standing at opposite sides of the “ring”, a bright orange square drawn to take up the majority of the area in the pit. Raph quickly surveyed his location, things in it that could be used to his advantage, and finally, his opponent.

The girl grinned, showing no intent to take it easy on him. Good. Ruby, grinning, pulled out his sai. He didn’t know her, he could go as far as he wanted as long as he didn’t break bones, draw excessive blood, or actually murder her.

He spun his weapons in his hands, relaxing. This would be fucking fun. Big Raph took this time to announce each of them like this was some official match.

“Alllllrighty, folks, we have what will no doubt be the battle of the century here! Lemme hear ya!!!!”

Cheers and claps resounded accordingly.

“In the corner to our left, we have the almighty, the fierce, the powerhouse; Casey Jones!!!!” Raph announced, and the others whistled and clapped.

“And to our right, we have someone never seen before! With a strong fighting style and the willpower of a fucking tank, please give a warm welcome to the fearless crimson chaos, Ruby!!!!” Big Raph boomed, his tail wagging and indicating his excitement as he made his voice growl more than enough while carrying the notes of each word so he genuinely sounded like an announcer.

He drew out Ruby’s name in a way that almost made him laugh, rolling out the r’s in each of his sentences.

“Match begin!” the snapper commanded, stepping out of the ring.

Casey rushed toward him before he could make a move, coming in with her hockey stick from the side. The box turtle ducked, sweeping her legs from under her. She sprung back up quickly, though now, she faced a ferally grinning Ruby, the mentioned running at her.

Their weapons met and Ruby kicked her in the stomach. She stumbled back, before coming at him and landing a blow that nearly knocked him on his shell. He found himself laughing. This shit was fun.

His ears picked up on a very mixed selection of cheers from those outside the ring, Big Raph cheering for him with Mikey on his shoulders rooting for him as well. Donnie and Leo cheered for Cassandra, and Casey Jr. cheered for his mother— she was his mother?? —as Raph barely avoided another attack, leaping over her head and stumbling slightly when he landed.

He’d mentally mapped everything out, noted how the air felt different near the barriers. He was close to the boundary line. She was charging again, he could slide underneath her when she rushed at him, then take her by surprise.

Not surprise because she knew he was behind her, but still. Whatever, he was starting to sound like Leo. The blow to the face is what really kicked him into gear. It was that moment when anger made him impulsive, as Splinter and Splinter Jr would say.

He dropped his weapons, running toward her. Expertly dodging most attacks and simply taking those he couldn’t, he advanced on her. And as predicted, anytime he got past her stick, she stepped back, trying to keep him at bay with hits that, rationally, should’ve downed him.

And probably would’ve, but anger made him numb. A perk, he believed. A blow to the head made him dizzy, but a swiftly executed kick to her head seemed to knock her woozy as well.

He was near a boundary line. He came back to himself in time to watch Casey run at him. Her momentum would throw her out, and if it didn’t, he would.

He sidestepped her attack, watching her stumble to avoid falling out, and with a less-than-gracious shove, she was out. She growled, launching at him and ditching her hockey stick, the two simply tussling on the floor until Big Raph pulled them apart.

Ruby simply laughed, not even struggling as the rabid girl grinned at him.

“You are a worthy opponent, but that was just luck.”

“Nobody normally wins against her on the first try,” Raph explained.

“I’m just good like that.”

“You won’t be if I don’t check for concussions and loss of brain cells. Casey’ll be fine, though,” Leo said with a shit-eating grin and a shrug.

“I will feed you to my dogs,” Casey threatened, jabbing a finger at the slider.

“We carry salmonella,” the blue-coded turtle drawled.

“He’s lying,” protested Donnie and April.

“If Donnie biting April made her sick for two weeks, I think I can say we’re carrying something.”

“That was because I was sick, dumbass.”

“My point still stands!”

Ruby simply watched them all interact before Casey ran up to him, slinging her arm around his shoulders.

“WWE’s on tonight,” she drawled, hearing the happy gasps behind her.

“Ghostbear’s up against Skullcrusher! We must acquire snacks to watch the match!! And you are paired with me and mini-me,” she finished, jerking a thumb in the raven-haired boy’s direction.

The box turtle considered this statement for a few moments.

“Sure.”

He knew, with the Hamato luck, that they’d get into trouble. He was so fucking excited for it.

Previous chapter | Next Chapter