The Heir

The Heir

Raphael was having an fairly moderate night.  His feet was warm in front of the small space heater, a good mystery novel was on his lap and the house was quiet.  Klunk was flicking his tail sluggishly as he curled up against an emerald ankle enjoying the electric version of a fire place, taking a nice little cat nap.  Leonardo was meditating with their father in the dojo and Donatello was safely in his room taking a nap after he managed to hurt his finger with a hammer three times in a row while simultaneously getting motor oil all over him while working on the battle shell.  The genius finally figured out that it was not smart to work on projects running off of no sleep for three days straight.  Now that he was cleaned up and tucked away in bed Raph could take some time for himself.

He wasn't always at his punching bag or practicing with his sai.  He liked to read; but when his brothers tease him about how slow he was at it he became self conscious and only read when he was alone.

On that thought Raphael looked up from his book.  Michelangelo had not been around the last three minutes to bother him.  Frowning he turned to the clock above the VCR taking note that it had been at least an hour he had been by himself.  Now that was very strange.

Deciding he was going to get up and make sure the little brat wasn't getting himself into trouble when all of the sudden the orange clad turtle came rushing into their home.  He looked one way then another as if he was looking for someone.

“Mikey?” Red spoke up a little worried at how hard his brother was panting.

“Have-” he took a second to calm his breathing, “Have you seen Leo?”

“He's in the dojo.  Why?”

“Because I think I'm going crazy and need someone stable to talk to... that excludes you.”

A deep scowl, “Very funny Blank-Spot.  What's gotten into you?”

“Oh nothing, just seeing and hearing talking cats,” Michelangelo waved his hand as if it was nothing.

“Talkin'... cats?”

“Yeah, you know the ones that say 'you gotta tell Tom Timble that so-and-so is like dead'.”

The older of the two closed his book and motioned to the couch seat next to him, “I think you better sit down before you hurt yourself with thinkin' again.”

“Haha, I burst at the seams from your creative humor,” the sea-green turtle folded his arms.  But still, he rounded the couch and took a seat next to his sibling who propped his elbows up on the back of the couch and just stared at him.  It was a tactic to get him to talk.  Well he wasn't going to.  He was only going to talk to Leo or Master Splinter, no one else.  That's right.  “So I was out up top trying to prefect my grind on the skateboard right?”  Wait... damn it!  Raph got him to talk.  “How do you do that?”

“Huh?”

“How do you get me to talk with out hitting me or yelling or being the bully you usually are?”

Dark eyes rolled as the larger ninja gave an exasperated sigh, “Just tell me what the shell happened or I really will hit you.”

Orange thrust out his bottom lip in a pout, “Fine.”  Relaxing a little, he twisted and brought a knee up onto the couch so that he was facing Raphael, “Okay, so I was up top right?  And it's all dark and night time and starting to storm so everyone was pretty much gone and it was like a free invitation to go play.  So there I was totally owning the park, shredding railings, and monkey bars and-”

“You were on the swings again weren't you.”  It was a statement, not a question.  Mikey didn't have his skateboard with him, thus he couldn't go and “shred” or “grind” anything.

“Uh, I believe you are mistaken my dear brother.”

“You take your skateboard.”

“Fine!  So there I was, on the swing set minding my own business when a funeral procession totally passed by me.  But it wasn't like normal people or anything, it was cats.  One in front and four carrying the coffin.  They were all black, but the one in front had white back paws, but the really weird thing was that they were walking on their hind legs, like people.

“The one in front motioned to the others to stay where they were can came over to me.  He spoke, don't laugh.”

“I'm not laughin',” Raph smirked and tried hard to suppress the giggles that shook his shoulders.  Mikey came up with some out-of-this-world stories before but this one was the best so far.

A little glare, “Anyway, the one with white paws came up and said, 'tell Tom Timble that Tim Timble is dead'.  And then the cat curtsied and went back to the front of the coffin and the funeral procession continued.  That's when I came running back because I'm sure I'm now officially insane.”

“That's it?  I mean, usually your weird stories have some action in them and something blowing up.”

“This isn't something I made up Raph!”  Michelangelo grabbed a throw pillow and whacked his brother with it, the raising of his voice waking Klunk on the floor. “I'm telling you the cat said 'tell Tom Timble that Tim Timble is dead'.  I didn't make it up.”

“Tim is dead?”

The two froze at the foreign voice, two sets of eyes turning down to the cat on the floor who was now standing on his hind legs.

“Uh... Mikey... you seeing this?”

The sea-green turtle nodded slowly.

“You said Tim is dead, are you sure?” Klunk jumped up onto the couch between the two turtles.

“Um... yes?” Michelangelo replied not sure if this was number one on his Weird Things To Live Through list or not.

“Hazzah!” Klunk clambered up Mikey's chest and gave him a good long lick on the cheek before jumping off the back of the couch and doing a dance, “This means I am now King of the Cats!”

“King of the... So you'll leave me?”

Raphael swatted Mikey, “You're cat walks and talks and all you can think of is him leaving?”

“Well, Klunks me baby Raphie.”

“Oh, I will not leave you my dear adoptive father,” Klunk scampered up the back of the couch, claws digging into the fabric of the upholstery. “I merely will have to leave from time to time to govern my rightful Kingdom.  Now, I must leave to make preparations.  Do not fret,” the orange feline managed to give Michelangelo a hug around his neck. “I shall return on the morrow.”

With that Klunk quickly left leaving a room in silence.

After several minutes ticked away Raph finally broke the quiet with his voice, “I blame you for his weirdness.”

“Hey, don't start messing with me.  You heard him, I'm the father of a King.”

END