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They were fighting Tigerclaw, Bebob and Rocksteady again. Honestly it became part of a routine, fighting bad guys almost every single night. It was tiring, draining in fact.
He noticed how Donnie's pulling all nighters again, trying to find a cure for Karai. He realises how Mikey seems more out of it than usual. Hell, he's even seen him dozing off during an episode of Chris Bradford and that's staying something. Leo was still Leo just, a little more jittery than usual, and lot more stressed about Karai, Master Splinter, and his brothers.
Apparently he's not the only one to realise how they've all changed slightly with the increasing weight and pressure.
And him?
He was fine.
He keeps telling himself that anyway, seriously.
He's still the over emotional, impulsive, hot headed fighter of the group. Nothing about him really changed to he honest, he's only been sleeping less which isn't really that big of a deal.
They're just fighting more. That's all. He tells hinself as he jumps above Rocksteady who was running straight at him a second ago.
He tells hinself it'll all be fine, and that everything will be back to normal soon.
He's so lost in thought that he barely registers Tigerclaw jumping from the buliding (where he and Leo were supposedly fighting) towards him. His breath is knocked out of him as Tigerclaw pins him to the ground, and he feels something that shouldn't be in his throat.
He spits blood out from his mouth as his head is knocked to the ground, his world shakes and spins as he hears the loud thunk of his head hitting the concrete floor.
From far away he can hear Leo scream as he dives at Tigerclaw, pushing the Tiger off of him as he tries to get up slowly. Trying his hardest to ignore the spinning of the world around him, the black and white dots in his eyes that refuse to go away.
And despite that he stands, grabs onto his Sai, and charges at Bebob who was currently trying to sneak up on Donnie. But before he could even reach Bebob, Tigerclaw had yelled at Bebob and Rocksteady to retreat which caused both mutants to grumble but run away from them nonetheless.
The four of them watched as Tigerclaw vowed vengeance upon them before running away.
Leo let out a sigh of relief, "That was close." He murmured, before turning around, "Anyone injured?"
"Nope."
"Nuh-uh."
It took him a second longer to register the question but Raph just shook his head, ignoring how it only made the spinning of the world worse.
He felt sluggish. He felt like he was moving slower than usual. The street lights felt brighter than usual and Mikey's ramblings felt louder and more irritating. And the fucking dots, the spinning of his world still refusing to go away.
Signs of a concussion, he noted.
Oh and his vision. It was blurry as fuck. He could barely see Mikey's mouth moving as he talked nonstop about how he made Rocksteady crash into a dumpster or something.
He wasn't really listening to be honest.
But through his blurry vision, he was unable to see Leo look back at him with uncertain eyes, like he knew something Raph didn't.
The walk back to the sewers was uneventful. Thankfully. He wants sure it he was able to fight and hold onto the facade that he was fine.
He had to be fine.
Leo didn't need to worry even more than he needed to.
He could handle this. He could keep this to himself without Leo having the need to find out. He's done it before, he could most certainly do it again.
That said, he could barely fucking handle the increasing pressure that was being applied on his head, there was no way he would be able to fight in his condition.
They made it to the lair Raph noted, judging by the sudden intensity of the lights that were absent a minute ago in the dark sewer hallway. He had to fight the instinct to flinch at how glaring the lights were for him. He briefly heard Donnie and Mikey saying that they were going to their rooms, which good call by the way, and he was going to follow them before Leo stopped him.
"What now Leo?" Raph asked, tugging his arm out of Leo's grip.
"Raph, are you sure you're okay? Just now Tigerclaw had jumped at you, from five stories. And you had hit your head, I could hear the thunk of your head all the way from up there."
"I'm fine Leo. Quit being such a mom." Raph muttered as he stomped away, barely registering how the corner of his vision were slowly turning black.
"I'm just worried Raph!" Leo exclaimed as he caught up to speed with his twin. "I think you might have a concussion." He noted as he looked at Raph's glassy eyes.
"I said I'm-"
----
The first thing he noticed when he opened his eyes, was that he wasn't staring at his bedroom ceiling. The second thing he noticed was the sudden pain he felt on his head, which he groaned audibly at.
The third thing was that he noticed Leo was crouched next time him, eyes lighting up as he realised Raph was awake.
"Hey, how're you feeling?" Leo asked.
"Sluggish."
"Though so." His twin remarked. "Donnie said that you'd probably have a concussion. And that you can't go out on patrol for the next 3 days."
"What?!" Raph exclaimed, sitting up to quickly which just cussed the pain in his head to increase. "Ow- fuck." He cursed.
"Don't!" Leo exclaimed, sighing heavily. "If you don't want to lie down just lie on the wall okay? Donnie said you can't over exert yourself or move too fast right now."
He grumbled something unintelligible before lying with his back up against the wall.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Leo asked after a long silence. "Why didn't you just tell me? Or Donnie? Or even Mikey? Why do you have to always bottle everything up Raph?"
Stop it.
Stop.
I don't need to feel guilty right now Leo.
He kept silent.
"Raph, can you just answer me?" Leo asked.
He didn't even sound angry, he just sounds worried.
Stressed.
He failed at hiding it from Leo.
"I didn't want to worry you okay?" He blurted out quickly, refusing to look at his twin brother.
"What?" Leo asked, genuinely having not heard what Raph said.
"I said, I don't want to worry you okay?" He said forcingly saying it louder and slower.
He watches out of the corner of his eyes, Leo's eyes widen slightly.
"You just, you have to worry about Karai, about Splinter, and I know that you see how Donnie's having more all-nighters. I know you see that Mikey is more out of it than he usually is, and I know you worry about Shredder and Kraang. I just don't need you to worry about me, okay."
Leo smiled and said nothing, surprisingly.
And even though Leo said nothing, it felt like he had said everything. The underlying words in his silence, Raph understood too well.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't hide things like this from you. But you know I just don't want you to worry."
"I know."
Raph watched as his twin spread his arms welcoming him for an embrace which Raph, as much as he hated to admit, melted into.