TMNT - T-Tots - Birthday Presents

It was the day before the turtle brothers turned five years old and Raph was in search of presents. He had always been a procrastinator, but he really overdid it this time. Time was closing in and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to find anything for his brother’s in the sewers. Shopping for gifts was difficult for the turtles. If they were to find anything, it would be used and old, and often times broken. But there was a plus to sewer scavenging: it was always free. He found a thick packet on the construction of a diesel fuel engine he could give to Donnie. It was water logged and written all over, clearly someone’s discarded homework, but it was the best he could do given the circumstances. After more searching he stumbled upon a toy racecar lying on the bank of the sewage. He picked it up and took a closer look at it. It was missing a wheel and the paint was worn away. But he was sure Mikey would find some kind of use for it.

“Mikey would love this.” Raph smiled throwing a small toy car into his plastic bag of sewer junk.

He still had one more brother to shop for. Shopping for Leo had never been an easy task. Raph didn’t spend enough time with Leo to know what he actually liked. He couldn’t think of a single thing that he knew Leo enjoyed. Aimlessly, he trudged through every tunnel looking for something he could give Leo for their birthday. Raph found many things, but he couldn’t find anything that Leo would like. After hours of searching, Raph could see the sun setting through the slotted grates and returned home, upset he had not found Leo a present.

He wrapped the packet and toy car in some newspapers he had stolen through the grate. He thought they looked horrible, but he had no other option. There was no wrapping paper in the sewers. He put the presents for Donnie and Mikey in his closet to hide them, just in case either of them went in his room, which was highly unlikely. No one ever went in Raph’s room. But better safe than sorry.

He was still worried about a present for Leo. It would be different if he had not been able to find anything for any of them. But since he found something for Donnie and Mikey, he had to give Leo something too. Or he risked hurting his big brother’s feelings.

He sat on the floor of his room thinking of something Leo would like. He went through everything he owned. All of his comic books, all of his action figures, and all of his toys. But he couldn’t find anything Leo would like (or that he was willing to part with). As he cleaned up the huge mess he made, an idea hit him. He dug though his collection of miscellaneous items and found a piece of paper and a box of crayons. After clearing a spot on the floor, Raph laid down and started coloring a picture for Leo.

He drew the family. He tried as hard as he could to find the green that corresponded with the color of their skins. That was the main way they were told apart. Raph was the darkest green. Donnie’s skin had more of an olive color. Mikey had more yellow skin. And Leo’s was just a regular green. Other than the color of their skin, it was almost impossible to tell them apart. They had their features, but it took a lot of examining to pick them out that way. Besides their individualized voices. But you can’t draw voices.

Raph colored away, trying to be as accurate as he could. Donnie was few centimeters taller than the rest of them and his head was more slender. Raph recalled the slight gap in his teeth. Leo’s head was rounder and his neck was thin. He knew Leo was the second tallest. Mikey had freckles on the peak of his cheeks and his shell was slightly rounder on the top, opposed to the oval shape of everyone else’s. Raph knew his head was far more angular than his brother’s heads. He, though he hated to admit it, was the shortest turtle, but only by a hair.

He then drew their father behind them. He was taller than them all by much, clothed in his usual maroon robe with his staff at his side. His ears were erect as they usually are, at least when he wants to hear closely. He had his hands around them all, as if it were a real family photo.

The background was Raph’s next concern. He put the crayons down and thought for a minute. He considered drawing the sewer as the background; it was where they lived. But he thought that he should do something a little brighter. He picked up the yellow crayon and drew a large sun in the top corner. He colored the sky in blue, leaving some spots empty to be white puffy clouds. Picking up the green crayon, he colored he grass below their feet. Satisfied with his masterpiece, he signed his name on the back and wrote Happy Birthday Leo above it.

He put it in the closet with the rest of the presents just in time for Leo to run into the room, “Hey Raph. Dinner’s ready!” He announced.

Raph smiled and followed Leo out of his room to join his family for dinner.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Next Day~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Splinter sat his sons down in the middle of the living room, “Close your eyes.” He instructed, holding his hands behind his back. The boys covered their eyes and waited for Splinters instructions to open them up again.

Splinter set a different colored cloth in front of each of them. Leonardo’s was blue. Donatello’s was purple. Raphael’s was red. And Michelangelo’s was orange. “Okay, open your eyes now.” Splinter smiled as he sat back down.

The boys opened their eyes in excitement and looked down below them. “Cloth…yay.” Mikey stated no longer as excited as he was before.

“No, not just cloth. Ninja masks.” Splinter smirked. “Put them on.” The boys picked them up and pressed them against their faces, lining up the eye holes with their eyes.

“Daddy, can you tie mine for me?” Donnie asked having trouble getting in a perfect knot. A jumbled mess of “me too” came from the other three struggling turtles. Splinter stood up and helped each of them tie their masks.

The boys smiled at the feel of their new masks. They loved them, and became trademark symbols. Leo was now the boy in blue. Donnie was recognized for his purple bask. Raph was known for his red mask, and the orange mask characterized Mikey. They each thanked Splinter with a hug and then moved on to exchange gifts among themselves.

Leo went first. He gave Mikey a stuffed bear, Donnie got a computer chip, and he gave Raph an action figure. All were obviously found in the sewer. Mikey’s bear was missing an eye and there was a hole in the side. The chip went who knows where or what was on it. It looked like something Donnie would use. And the action figure looked like it had been through more than the super hero himself. But it was the thought that counted. They each thanked Leo for their gifts and moved on to the next exchange.

Donnie went next. He pulled three books out from behind his back. All of them came from his lab, and it was obvious as they had ‘property of Donatello’ written on the side. Donnie passed a book on space over to Leo. Since he loved that Space Heroes show so much, he might want to know more about space itself. Mikey got a book of old knock-knock jokes. It was pretty think, so they figured they’d be hearing those jokes for quite some time. Then Donnie gave Raph a comic book. It was one that Raph had seen in Donnie’s lab before, and always wanted to read, but Donnie wouldn’t let him have. Raph smiled ear-to-ear when he received the book and wanted to start reading it right away.

Mikey went next. He gave Leo a Captain Ryan picture that looked like it fell out of a magazine. He gave Donnie a really big book that had a lot of big words on the front. Mikey couldn’t pronounce any of them, so he figured Donnie would love it. Flipping through it, there were some black and white pictures that were more like diagrams with a lot of numbers and arrows. It made Raph’s head hurt just looking at it. Mikey then looked over at Raph, waiting patiently for his gift. Mikey stood up and left the circle, running off to his room. He came out a minute later with a small cardboard box. He placed the box in front of Raph. Inside the box was a small normal turtle. Raph picked him up and tried to coax him out of his shell. When he came out, he looked up at Raph, expressionless. Raph smiled at the small thing and looked over at Splinter to approve of it.

“Michelangelo found him in the sewers a few days ago. He asked me if he could give it to you for your birthday, and I allowed it.” Splinter smiled, seeing how Raph was already bonding with baby turtle.

Raph smiled and thanked Mikey. “What are you going to name him?” Mikey asked.

Raph looked closely at the turtle, “I’m going to call him Spike.” He smiled, setting him carefully on his shoulder. He was so excited that he almost forgot about the presents he had to give to his brothers.

He pulled out the packet and the toy car from behind his back. He was the only one that even attempted wrapping the presents. He gave the packet to Donnie and the toy car to Mikey and watched them open it up. He became much less proud of his drawing than he was the previous night. No one else had given a home-made gift. Donnie seemed enthused about his fuel packet and Mikey was already rolling the car around on the floor.

Leo looked at Raph sadly and tapped him on the shoulder, “Do you have anything for me?” He asked in a tone that dripped with sadness. It looked like Leo was about to cry. His lips curved down into a pout when he saw that Raph’s hands were empty.

Raph hated seeing Leo so sad. He sighed and turned around to get the drawing. “I made you something. I couldn’t find anything for you when I looked in the sewers.” He handed the drawing over to Leo.

Leo looked at it and smiled. He loved it. Donnie and Mikey seemed to like it too, as they dropped their new toys and ran behind Leo to get a better look at it. Raph was suddenly feeling very proud of his gift again. He smiled as he watched his brothers go ga-ga over the drawing.

“It seems your homemade gift was a success, Raphael.” Splinter spoke softly, also seeing how happy the rest of his sons were. Raph nodded, pulling Spike off his shoulder and setting him gently back in the box.

After a little more raving over Raph’s artwork, the boys collected their presents and put them away. Splinter was in the kitchen getting the birthday cake ready with five candles.

As Raph walked back to the kitchen, he saw Leo standing on the outside of his door, taping the drawing to the front. Raph smiled as he walked over to Leo. “You really like it that much?” He asked.

“You made it yourself. And that makes it special.” Leo smiled back, putting the last piece of tape in the corner.

Raph looked at it again, “I just need to make one change.” He ran back to his room and grabbed his crayon box. He pulled out the blue, the red, the purple, and the orange. When he got back to Leo’s room, he colored over the skin where their new masks were in each respective color. “There. Now it’s perfect.” Raph smiled.

“Yes. Perfect.” He looked back at Raph, “Now come on. It’s time for cake!” Leo grabbed Raph’s wrist and pulled him to the kitchen.