literature

Courier part 3

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Courier
part 3
Contains Turtlecest - Don't read it if you don't like that concept.

Watching Michelangelo go through his day as though nothing untoward had happened the night before was a good reminder for Raph of his kid brother’s craftiness. If Raph hadn’t been out of bed to witness Mikey coming in and hadn’t seen that certain glimmer Mikey got in his eyes when he was attempting to cover something up, Raph might have thought everything was normal.

When Mikey had joined him in the dojo after his lunch, Raph had noticed that his brother was slightly ‘off’. Normally Mikey learned new moves much faster than anyone else but he seemed distracted. Master Splinter had called him out on it and of course Mikey had a ready answer, telling their father that he had eaten a little too much.

Raph didn’t believe it for a second. Mikey’s mind was definitely on something else but he wasn’t telling what. Right after the dressing down from Master Splinter, Mikey turned into his usual self and Raph had a hard time keeping up with him.

To Raph that little slip up by Mikey meant that his brother was contemplating doing something he probably shouldn’t. Raph was pretty sure it tied into whatever Mikey had been up to the previous evening and since little bro’ had decided to keep secrets, Raph was determined to ferret them out.

Doing so meant keeping a close eye on Mikey without seeming to. Being a highly skilled ninja helped with that but Raph’s knowledge of Mikey’s character helped even more.

As night fell Raph noticed that Mikey kept glancing at the clock. No matter which room he was in, Mikey’s first priority seemed to be finding out what time it was. Even when the family sat down to a game of cards at the kitchen table, Mikey took a seat where he could see the timer on the stove.

Seated next to him, Donatello was within Mikey’s line of sight whenever he glanced over at the clock. Since Don didn’t know what Mikey was actually looking at, he of course figured that his youngest brother was trying to cheat.

“Mikey, are you trying to see my cards?” Don asked in an amused tone.

Raph watched as Mikey’s eyes darted back to his own cards. There was a distinctly guilty look on Mikey’s face and Raph knew it had nothing to do with any attempt at cheating.

Laughing lightly, Mikey said, “Hey dude, if you’re gonna hold them out so far it must mean you want me to see them.”

“It isn’t much fun to win by cheating, Michelangelo,” Leo told him mildly.

Mikey made a face at his oldest brother. “It isn’t much fun to lose either, Leonardo.”

“Video game cheat codes are spoiling you,” Don said. “You’ve forgotten how to play by the rules.”

Mikey chuckled. “Cheating is as old as game playing, dude. Part of the fun is doing it and not getting caught.”

“Well you got caught,” Leo said. “Keep your eyes on your own cards from now on.”

After that Mikey managed to refrain from clock watching. That his focus was subdivided became obvious in the way he played though. Mikey was usually something of a card shark who kept everyone on their toes, but tonight his play was terrible.

Raph wasn’t surprised when Mikey pushed back from the table around ten o’clock, stretching his arms over his head and yawning widely. “I’m sleepy bro’s. You guys keep going if you wanna but I’m gonna hit the sack.”

After a few more prodigious yawns, which he made sure his brother’s saw, Mikey headed up to his room. The after effects were of course contagious, as Mikey probably knew they would be. They’d only just begun another game when the three remaining brothers were yawning repeatedly.

“Forget it,” Don said, tossing his cards down. His eyes were watering from trying to contain his yawning. “I’m going to bed. Next time Mikey does that I’m going to stuff a dirty sock in his mouth.”

Leo patted his mouth with the back of his hand as he tried to pretend that the contagion hadn’t spread to him. When Don got up he went around behind his older brother and leaned down next to Leo’s head.

“I like when you open your mouth that way,” Don said suggestively.

As he stepped back Leo popped out of his chair like a jack-in-the-box, waving to Raph as he started after Don. “’Night Raph!”

Raph chuckled, amused as always with how easily Don could manipulate Leo with a few well-chosen words. He quickly sobered as he remembered why his brothers were turning in so early.

Raking the cards into the middle of the table so they’d be out of the way in the morning, Raph got up and turned out the kitchen lights. The rest of the lair was in darkness and Raph looked up at Mikey’s closed door, his expression speculative.

Though he saw that there was no light shining through the door frame, Raph had no doubt that his youngest brother was shamming. Mikey had every intention of going out and Raph had every intention of being right on top of him.

Two hours later Mikey’s door opened and the turtle in question peeked out. From his hiding spot behind the television array, Raph watched as Mikey checked his brother’s rooms and the lab. Although Don and Leo were sharing a bed, Raph had closed the lab door to give the illusion everyone was sleeping separately tonight. He figured that would give Mikey a false sense of security in believing that no extra-curricular activities would cause any of his brothers to wake up in the middle of the night.

Raph saw Mikey stick a note on the fridge door and guessed that was his idea of keeping his promise to his red banded brother. He was relieved when Mikey left the lair without taking his skateboard since Raph would be hard pressed to keep up with him if Mikey was on four wheels.

Mikey had no idea that he was being followed and that irked Raph. It was bad enough that Mikey was utilizing his skills as a ninja to sneak out at night, but apparently he was leaving his caution behind when he did so.

Every once in a while Mikey would turn around to check behind him. To Raph it was a laughable effort; they had all learned at an early age how and when to duck out of sight. That was another thing Mikey should have remembered because his cursory glances weren’t any better than not looking at all.

When Mikey turned down a section of tunnel that was a dead end Raph was more than a little puzzled. He couldn’t follow his brother at that point because there was nowhere to hide, so Raph decided to wait a few minutes and see if Mikey would return.

Raph had just settled into a shadowed alcove when Mikey reappeared, this time carrying a very large black backpack. The straps had been adjusted to accommodate Mikey’s shell and when his brother slipped it on Raph could tell that it was empty.

After he had the backpack Mikey set off at a lope, moving faster than he had before. Raph let him have a decent head start before sprinting after him, careful to avoid any standing water he came across so that the splash wouldn’t give him away.

It was obvious that Mikey had a specific destination in mind and it wasn’t long before he reached it. Mikey didn’t even pause as he leaped onto a maintenance ladder and climbed to the surface, barely checking to see that the coast was clear before exiting the sewers.

Raph waited until he heard Mikey slide the manhole cover back into place before himself proceeding up top. He couldn’t afford to let Mikey have to big a head start on him so Raph had to give up some caution as he popped the metal cover open and peered out.

The sewer access opened out in the middle of a street and Raph saw Mikey’s feet as they turned off of the sidewalk and into an alley. Everything in the neighborhood was quiet and no cars were in sight, so Raph quickly made his exit and darted onto the sidewalk.

Hugging the shadows, Raph reached the alley but didn’t enter it, instead pressing his body against the corner building and leaning his head out just far enough so he could see what was going on.

About halfway down the alley there was a door in the side of one of the buildings. The light above it was on, its low wattage barely illuminating much beyond a space around the door itself.

Mikey had come to a stop in front of the door and now knocked on it, a quick rapping with his knuckles that sounded like some sort of code.

After he knocked, Mikey took three steps back and waited, his eyes fixed on the door. Raph’s teeth ground together in frustration as he observed his brothers complete lack of caution.

When the door opened two men came out. Both were big and burly, neither looked overly intelligent, and to Raph’s practiced eye, both carried guns in shoulder holsters beneath their suit jackets.

Liking the situation less and less, Raph resisted the urge to spring forward when he saw Mikey grin and greet them by name.

“Da boss is waiting,” one of the men said, standing aside to allow Mikey to precede him through the door.

The other man remained where he was as the door closed behind Mikey and the first armed man. Although his body remained completely stationary, the man’s head and eyes roamed continuously, even looking upwards at intervals.

Raph knew a seasoned bodyguard when he saw one. Whatever Mikey had gotten himself into, it involved the mob.

Cursing under his breath was all Raph could do and he did that, profusely and with feeling. He would give his brother ten minutes and then he’d find a way inside, even if it meant going through that bodyguard.

It was a few seconds shy of that limit when the door opened again and the bodyguard moved aside to allow Mikey to exit. Once Mikey was in the alley, the man went back inside and Raph heard the sound of a door bolt sliding shut.

Mikey looked exactly the same as when he’d gone into the building, except that now his backpack was filled with something. From the way it bulged and sagged, whatever Mikey had been conscripted to carry was heavy.

As soon as he was alone, Mikey bounded towards the end of the alley and caught hold of the bottom rung of the adjoining building’s fire escape. He swung onto the first platform with ease and trotted up the stairs until he reached the roof top, quickly disappearing over the edge.

Raph dared not take the same route. Since he now knew he was dealing with the mob, he was pretty sure there would be security cameras in that alley. Turning back to the sidewalk, Raph ran a couple of blocks at street level before using the arm of a street light to swing onto a window balcony and then leaping onto the roof.

Landing in a crouched position, Raph scanned the roof tops and caught a glimpse of Mikey in the distance. His brother was jogging along, not moving at full speed but not dallying either. He was headed someplace in particular and Raph decided enough was enough. Whatever his brother had gotten involved in, Raph meant to discover what it was before Mikey reached his next stop.

Raph raced to intercept his brother, remaining careful so that Mikey wouldn’t spot him too soon. As if doing something for the mob wasn’t dangerous enough, Raph was also getting a bad vibe from whatever it was that Mikey carried for them. Raph loved Mikey to pieces, but his younger brother could be just a tad bit gullible, and Raph had a feeling Mikey wasn’t street wise enough to know that what he was doing was ill advised.

Wherever Mikey was headed, he wasn’t making a straight line towards it. He altered his course fairly frequently, leaving Raph to wonder if Mikey had a suspicion he was being followed. Raph abandoned that idea right away; if Mikey thought someone was following he’d be moving a whole lot faster. When necessary, Mikey was capable of a great deal of speed and even Raph would have difficulty keeping up with him.

As it was Mikey’s zigzagging made it hard for Raph to anticipate his brother’s course so that he could head him off. He’d just decided that it was time to show himself and demand that Mikey stop, when Raph saw men stream out into the open on several different roof tops.

Mikey skid to a halt when he realized that he was surrounded. His hands went automatically to his nunchucks and he had them out and spinning in a flash.

Raph stopped behind a smoke stack for just a moment in order to get a head count and some idea of where each man was located. They had Mikey effectively boxed in and there were at least twenty of them. Although he couldn’t see down to the street from where he was, Raph had no doubt that there were some down there as well.

It wasn’t difficult for Raph to tell that these men were also gangsters and apparently from a different ‘family’. Leave it to Mikey to get himself caught in the middle of a mob war, Raph thought grimly.

The look of surprise on Mikey’s face reinforced Raph’s earlier theory that his brother had no clue as to what he was carrying. From the way Mikey had behaved, he’d half expected someone to try to steal his backpack from him, but he hadn’t anticipated anyone would want it badly enough to send practically an entire army out to get it.

“You just take it easy now, turtle,” one of the gangsters told Mikey. “All’s we want is that pack and ta know where you been picking up your deliveries from. Maybe if you play ball with us, we can cut you in for a better deal.”

“And if I don’t?” Mikey asked, not relaxing his defensive stance.

The speaker pulled a gun from his shoulder holster and leveled it at Mikey. “Then we ain’t gonna play at all. I’ll try ta plug you someplace that ain’t vital ‘cause we need you ta sing for us, but I ain’t a great shot. You got thirty seconds.”

Raph didn’t have to be a mind reader to see that whatever Mikey had agreed to do for the first mob, it did not include letting anyone get that backpack away from him. With a low growl, Raph slammed the side of his fist into the bricks of the smoke stack and then took off at a dead run, heading straight towards the gangsters.

He could only hope that he was faster than a bullet.

TBC……………..
Courier
part 3
by hummerhouse
Disclaimer: The TMNT are not mine. No money being made.
Word Count: 2,520 multi-chapter
Summary: Raphael discovers that Michelangelo is leaving the lair at night without telling anyone, but his evasive younger brother won't tell him what is going on.
Pairing: Raph/Mikey
part 3 Rated: PG-13

~~Kiriban request for orangebarmy Story behind the story: ob's request dovetailed beautifully with a R/M story idea that was sitting in my bunny pile.  Because the original idea was meant to be a multi-chapter story, the kiriban prize has expanded beyond a one shot.  I really can't help myself. :XD:

Part 1 fav.me/d7i85gu
Part 2 fav.me/d7iq69z
Part 4 fav.me/d7k0a94
© 2014 - 2024 Hummerhouse
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AriMarvelUniverse's avatar
Oh God, Mikey's carting for the mob. I bet it's drugs. Or weapons. Why, Mikey? You had such promise and potential! LOLZ Ah...