The purple siblings (a ROTTMNT au)

Chapter 3 - Growing and Struggling

It's been 2 weeks since Splinter lost little orange, he found a home in the sewers for him and his sons to have a roof to live under, he spends his days searching for his lost son with hope of finding him and proving to himself that this won't be another one of his many failures, but as time goes by, he starts to be so focused on getting the young turtle back, that he starts to bring less and less food home, by now, a month or two go by in a blink, what makes him realize that mistake was when he looked over to his boys and saw them getting weaker and a bit thinner than they should, noticing he's also been getting skinny, the realization is painful.

He's so concentrated on fixing his mistakes that he's committing even more of them on the way, the more time he wastes on that stupid search, less time he gets to feed his own children, he had to make a decision, to let go of the past and focus on the present and future, he abandoned his quest to find his son and dedicated his time to his sons, he fed them properly and they quickly went back to normal, he also decided a name for each one, Raphael, Donatello and Leonardo, he saw these names on a history book when he was a child, he was still struggling with the whole parental role thing, but the kids seemed to be fine and happy, and so was he, but as time went on, he noticed something was off, the turtles were behaving weird,

Red would search around like he was looking for something, then he would just pick up the others and hold them close for a while.

Purple, out of nowhere, would curl up into a ball, he would start to shake like if he was cold and cry until someone comforted him.

Blue was suddenly getting emotional and needy for some reason, usually cuddling with his brother to help him feel better.

These behaviors weren't very specific, but it were hard to not notice, Splinter assumed it might be because of their missing brother, but he can't bring himself to tell them about what happened, so he promises himself that he'll tell them once they're older, when the time is right, but the time never comes, they grow up and the odd behaviors kind of dissappear with time as they eventually forget his brother's very existence, like if he just never existed, and then, they met April O'Neil around the age of 5, while their father was chilling on a park bench with their disguises, they go play by a small lake and meet the young girl, they all quickly became friends and started to hang out together ever since, she became a part of the family and deeply appreciated it.

Her parents were always at work so she always had a lot of freedom to do as she pleased as long as she didn't get in trouble, so she would go to the sewers after school and stay by for as far as she pleased, going home before bedtime that was a bit before her parents arrived, they almost caught her once but she brushed them off with the "I was in my friend's house" excuse, not really being a lie, her parents believed it and basically forgot about the issue, once she turned 15 they started to go on business trips more often what gave her even more time to spend with her new found family, now being even able to have sleepovers at eachother's places, it was so much fun.

One day, in one if those sleepovers, April was talking to Splinter and the turtles about the Lou Jitsu movies while going through some old stuff on his cabinet looking for a specific movie he has kept from back in the day, but while looking on the upper shelfs, her hand meets a small piece of paper, folded and hidden away like it wasn't supposed to be found, she picks it up and takes a look at it, it's a picture, a child's drawing, probably made by one of the turtles when they were young, she analyzes the figures and sees something odd, there is a big rat man, obviously Splinter, a boy in blue, Leonardo, a boy in red, Raphael, a boy in purple, Donatello, and... a boy in orange, very smaller than the other ones, it was different, unfamiliar and something about it felt... uneasy, wait... is it... really the dra_

🐀 -"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

🟡 - "AAAHH!!"

It was Splinter, he snook up behind her and was now questioning what she was doing, she shows and comments to him and the others about the picture and makes the question.

🟡 - "Who's this orange one?"

She says it while pointing to the image, it catches the attention of the brothers and their father, the boys are confused and puzzled about it, as they discuss the awkward situation, Splinter holds the drawing with shaky hands and trying desperately to hold in his tears, April notices the state of distress her father figure was in and gently puts her hand on his shoulder to ask if he was ok, having this gesture pulling him back to Earth, he brushed off the tears and said he got emotional from the nostalgia or something and tried to cover up the person in the picture as an imaginary friend of Leo that he made up because he was being pouty about being the youngest so he made up an even younger brother to make himself feel better, and surprisingly, everyone ate that up, it didn't seem too out of character for Leo to do something like this so no one questioned it, April still felt like something was off, but decided to play it off not wanting to cause unnecessary conflict.

Leo stepped up to the cabinet and quickly found the DVD, making everyone forget about the issue and run to the couch to watch that cinematic masterpiece as a family, while the intro of the movie began, April glanced over to Splinter one more time to make sure he was alright, it was clear he looked a little less excited, the whole situation aparently took a lot of his energy away, he looked exhausted and tired, but he kept smiling regardless, she looked back around and the movie started, her mind was too crowded to focus on the movie so she just spaced out for a while

She was remembering her first day back at high school, she remembered meeting thi new boy that seems to be with the purple dragons, Donnie was with her and he definitely didn't like him, he didn't look mean like the others, i mean, he helped her pick up her stuff from the floor and apologized for bumping into her even though she was the one who basically ran him over like a high-speed truck crossing a red light, besides, he was really gentle, it was hard to believe someone like him hanging out with Kendra and the bad boys, despite the fact Donnie is highly distrusting of the new guy, he seems to be mostly harmless, April reflected, until she realized the amazing fight scene that was going on in the movie that immediatly brought her out of any line of thought she was having at the moment to enjoy the moment with her family.