Chapter Text
After getting told off by his dad for, once again, being a bit too protective, Casey casually strolls in with Donnie. Raph tries to walk up to him, to explain himself and apologize, but his father walks up to Casey faster and takes him to the side to talk.
So instead he talks to Donnie.
“Why were you two walking together?” And maybe it comes out a bit more threatening then he thought, because his brother responds saying,
“Calm down, I’m not stealing him from you anytime soon. I just found him crying in the sewers on my way home.”
Raph falters, “…crying?”
“Yeah, something about you being overprotective. You know, you really need to work on that.” Donnie rolls his eyes.
“I know. Dad already scolded me.”
Just then his dad walks back into the room. Casey’s not looking up, he looks guilty.
“Boys,” he calls to his sons, “it seems we need to have an important conversation.”
Leo and Mikey look up from their phones as the rest of the family head over to the kitchen table to sit with them.
“Is it about the dryer? Because it wasn’t me.” Mikey says.
“No, it’s about why Casey’s here…”
—— —— ——
Despite making the decision to man up and let Splinter tell the boys what happened, why he’s here, Casey just couldn’t stand to be there while they were being told.
I won’t be able to stand any looks of pity or sympathy or, or anything. He thinks
So instead, he busies himself with doing the dishes. It’s not something he’d usually do, but every way he can pay them back he’ll take.
Eventually the family starts making their way into the kitchen and he tries so hard not to make eye contact with any of them. Donnie walks by and pats him on the shoulder.
Of course he had to do that. Casey rolls his eyes.
When Mikey walks up to him, he’s worried he’ll do something similar. But instead he takes the dish and sponge from Casey’s hands and nods his head towards Raph.
Casey frowns at himself and thinks, now’s as good a time as any to talk to him.
He walks up to Raph and they go to talk in the boy’s room.
Sitting side by side on Raph’s bed, Casey takes a deep breath and speaks.
“Look, I’m really sorry about lashing out like that…”
Raph cuts him off, “I’m the one that’s sorry, Casey. I was handling you like you were fragile, when I should have let you deal with it your own way. I didn’t even let you tell anyone, I barely let you tell me.”
“I get it,” Casey laughs, although it sounds more like a huff, “Protecting those you love and everything. Don can be insightful sometimes. Besides, you weren’t the only thing stopping me. I wasn’t exactly letting myself talk it out with anyone either.”
Raphael looks surprised but quickly gets over it. “I hope you’re feeling better now. Sorry I made you cry.”
“Shut up, you didn’t make me cry. But I am feeling a lot better now. It doesn’t seem like such a scary thing now that more people know about it.” Casey turns to hug Raphael. Who tenses at the contact but quickly melts into
It. “I promise I’ll try to talk to some authority or representative about it tomorrow.”
“April’s coming over in the evening for movie night. Maybe it can be a way to destress after you start the whole process.” Raph leans his head on Casey’s shoulder.
“Yeah” He sighs, “My mom made us a plan for a situation like this. If I start early enough tomorrow I can probably make it to movie night.”
Rubbing his eyes, Casey goes to lay down. Along with the stress, the crying took a lot out of him. Soon he’s fast asleep.
—— —— ——
When Raph wakes up that morning, the two have once again traveled in their sleep. He’s by the wall instead of the edge of the bed and Casey is now half laying on Raph. He feels himself flush warm.
Well fuck, that isn’t supposed to happen. Raphael thinks.
But there isn’t time to dwell on it because,
“Oh shit! The pamphlet!” Casey shoot’s up from the bed, hitting his head on the top bunk.
“The what…” Raph mumbles, disturbed by the sudden shouting.
“The pamphlet my mom gave me for the representative! I tossed everything in my backpack into the wash!” Casey’s out the bedroom door and Raph can hear the lid of the washer being slammed open.
He walks back in holding a trifold that’s information is partially washed off.
“Fuck, all the information is basically gone.”
Raph looks over his shoulder. “There’s a phone number.” He points at the small numbers on the back.
“You’re a genius.” Casey mutters, rubbing his head as if he just noticed he hit it.
“Want me to get you some ice for that?” Raph gets up.
“Nope. No ice. I’ve got bigger things to worry about.” Casey grabs his phone and leaves the room.
Well at least he knows what he’s going to do. Raph shrugs and debates going back to sleep.