“Give me back Teddy!” Nick cried, jumping to try and retrieve his beloved friend from his older brother.

“No!” Brian shouted.

“Give him back!” Nick screeched.

“Nyah! Nyah!” Brian taunted, waving the bear above his brother’s head. “Nyah! Nyah!”

“Brian, give him back his bear,” Kevin ordered, scratching a spot on his green-skinned arm.

“No,” Brian replied. “Finder’s keepers.”

“I wanna my bear!” Nick shrieked, throwing a miniature tantrum. “I wanna my bear!”

A.J. plugged his ears. “Give Teddy back; please! We’re sick of hearing him whine.”

Brian ignored them and continued to torment his younger brother.

“What is going on in here?” A voice demanded.

Brian and Nick both froze, and looked over at their sensei.

Howard looked from Nick’s tearstained face, to Brian’s haughty one, waiting for an answer.

“He stole Teddy!” Nick said, tears streaming down his small light green face, as he ran to his furry rat master for a hug.

Howard hugged the child, before eyeing his darker green-skinned brother warily. “Brian Thomas?”

“He was bugging me,” Brian told him, his blue eyes shifting a tad nervously. “He wouldn’t leave me alone.”

“So you took his Teddy Bear to get back at him?”

Brian nodded.

“Did you not realize it would just make him more of a pest?”

“He wasn’t bugging me,” Brian shrugged. “I was havin’ fun.”

“Yeah, you were, but we weren’t,” A.J. piped up from his spot on the floor. He was an olive green colour, though his shell was the same shade as his brothers. His eyes were also chocolate brown, the same as their father, Howard. “He was too loud. I couldn’t hear my cartoon.”

“So what?” Brian demanded. “It was just some dumb cartoon.”

“My cartoons aren’t dumb!” A.J. protested. “Yours are!”

“How much you wanna make a bet?” Brian challenged. “Hmm?”

Howard interrupted them. “Brian Thomas, leave Alexander James alone; and Alexander James that’ll be quite enough.”

“Yes, Master,” they replied.

“Brian Thomas, give Nickolas Gene back his teddy bear, then go to your room.”

“But…” Brian tried.

“No buts. Do as you are told, or suffer a more severe consequence.”

Brian huffed, and glared at his littlest brother as he handed him his teddy bear.

“I don’t want to hear a word out of you, until supper, understood?”

“Hai, Sensei,” Brian sighed, as he headed towards his room.

“Thank-you,” Nick whispered, staring up at his father gratefully, his light blue eyes still shining with tears.

Howard looked down at his young son, and couldn’t help but smile at him.

“You are welcome, my son. Now, go play.”

Nick nodded, then hurried over to Kevin to see if he wanted to play a game with him.

Howard awoke to the sound of someone screaming, and quickly headed to his sons shared room to see what was wrong. When he entered the room, he found Nick lying on the floor, half under his bed, screaming like mad.

“Sensei!” Nick screamed, tears streaming down his small, scared face, once he’d spotted him. “Help!”

Howard quickly scooped him up, and soon heard snickering coming from under the bed. He glanced around the room, noticing that the other three beds we unoccupied.

“Kevin Scott, Alexander James, and Brian Thomas,” he began, suppressing the sigh that wanted to escape. “Come out from under there.”

He watched, as three green heads slowly poked out from under Nick’s bunk. He waited until they were standing before him before prompting an explanation out of them.

“What is the meaning of this?” He demanded. “Why have you gone and upset your brother?”

The three six-year-old turtles looked at the floor, not answering his question.

“I am waiting for an answer, my sons.”

“You tell him!” Brian hissed.

“No! You!” A.J. hissed back.

Suddenly, they both turned to Kevin.

“Nuh-uh,” Kevin said shaking his head. “I’m not telling him.”

Howard knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere if this kept up, so he asked the son he knew would be honest.

“Alexander James?”

A.J. grumbled something incoherent, but got a sheepish look on his face when he realized his master was watching him.

“Brian said it would be funny,” he admitted. “Kevin said so too.”

“So because your brothers said it was okay, you figured it would be okay to scare the daylights out of your brother?”

“Hai, Sensei,” A.J. answered.

“Brian Thomas?”

“It was just a joke,” he replied, shrugging.

“A joke that made your brother cry,” Howard snapped. “You boys know how much he hates the dark.”

“We’re sorry, Master Howard,” Kevin piped up. “We didn’t think we would scare him that bad.”

“My sons, it is not nice to use your brother’s fear against him,” Howard informed them. “Tomorrow, you three shall be doing extra chores as well as extra practice.”

“Aw, Sensei,” Brian whined somewhat, a scowl forming on his small face. “That’s not fair!”

“I believe it to be perfectly fair, Brian Thomas. Hopefully it will teach you all a lesson,” Howard said, as he shooed them into bed. “Sleep now. You will have lots to do in the morning.”

Howard looked down at the small turtle still in his arms, and sighed, before going out into the den with him.

“Sensei?”

“Yes, my child?” Howard asked, as he sat down in his chair.

“Is the Boogie Man gone?”

Howard chuckled slightly. “Little one, there was no Boogie Man under your bed. It was just your brothers playing a joke on you.”

“So the Boogie Man wasn’t trying to kidnap me?”

“No, Nickolas Gene,” Howard smiled softly. “The Boogie Man was not trying to take you from me.”

“You sure?” Nick double-checked.

“I am sure, my son,” Howard replicated, as Nick snuggled into him even more.

“Master?”

“Mm?”

“Will you sing me something?” Nick queried. “Please?”

Howard looked down into the big blue eyes staring back up at him, and sighed lightly.

“Alright, my son; I shall sing you something.”

He then sang a song his Master Yoshi had taught him a long time ago. He sang until he was sure Nick had fallen asleep, then carried him back to bed and tucked him into it once more.

“Sweet dreams, Nickolas Gene,” he whispered, as he kissed his son’s head. “I promise all will be well tomorrow.”