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Sometimes, Leo wasn’t entirely sure how his younger brother’s brain worked.
90% of the time he was a raging fireball, blasting through anyone or anything in his way to his goal.
But then the rest of the time, he was the most caring person you’d ever meet. Especially when it came to Mikey.
Leo was pondering these thoughts during meditation when he heard a loud clatter and overlapping voices coming from the den.
He broke out of his trance and rushed to the front of the lair.
Different voices filtered through as he ran.
“——eeds help Don!”
“What hap———“
Finally, he reaches the den and the sight in front of him stops Leo dead in his tracks.
Raph was covered in blood, standing in the doorway. However Leo soon realizes that it wasn’t his own. That calms him a bit, before his next realization hits him like a truck.
It was in fact his youngest brothers, who lay limp in Raphael’s arms.
Seeing the grim expression on Raph’s face, Leo takes charge of the situation.
“Raph, take him to the lab. Don, do what you can. Raph, when you’re done with that I need to talk to you.”
The two nod and head off to action. Leo sits down on the sofa, very slowly and calmly, then panics. What happened? They were only on patrol! Who attacked them? We haven’t heard from the Foot in months! Was it Bishop? Maybe Karai had ditched their peace treaty? Was Raph okay? What happened to Mikey to make him bleed like that?
“—— ess.”
Donnie could fix it, right? Yeah! Donnie could fix anything! But who attacked them? Maybe the purple dragons? No, that was a slim chance. Raph probably destroyed whoever did that to Mike. If he did then I won’t be angry, they deserve it. Maybe it was Kluh and Ammag from the Battle Nexus? Coming back to finish what they started? No, that’s not it either.
“ Fearless.”
It had to be the Foot or Bishop, they were the only ones capable of taking down one of their own. He shivers, reminded of his own defeat at the hands of the foot. Maybe Karai had decided the peace treaty was useless, and decided to attack anyway. Or maybe Bishop came back to attack them, he’d always seemed to have it out for Mikey specifically. May-
Suddenly, he’s ripped out of his thoughts by someone shaking him roughly by the shoulders.
“Fearless!”
He looks up to the bloody face of his younger brother. Who has a small look on concern on his face.
“Leo, you okay?”
“Y-yeah Raph, just got lost in my thoughts there for a second.”
“Good.”
Raph sits down next to him, weight pushing down the sofa.
“So, Raph. What happened?”
Raph takes a deep breath, then lets out a low whistle.
“We were out on patrol as usual, there wasn’t much activity, so we were gonna cut it short.”
This earns him a look from Leo, which he scoffs off and continues.
“Anyway, so we were getting pretty close to the sewers, when we saw some lady getting mugged in an alley. Mike wanted to help her of course, so he jumped down and started whacking guys left and right.”
Leo interrupts, “You let him go alone?!?”
“I figured he’d be fine! I mean it was only a few muggers, but that’s when I saw it….”
Leo’s worried, “Saw what Raph?”
“One of the muggers had a gun.”
Leo’s sharp intake of breath is the only response Raph needs.
“I couldn’t get to him in time, and Leo I tried. I really did. He fired and I watched it hit Mike and…”
Raph’s head was in his hands. A few tears slipping down his face. Leo rubs small circles on Raph shell and gently comforts him.
“I got so angry Leo, like more than usual. I.. I.”
“You what Raph? It’s okay. I promise I won’t be mad.”
“I killed them. I killed them all.”
Leo’s silence is unusual, but not completely unexpected.
“I get if you’re mad.”
“I’m not.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“I wished you’d left one so I could’ve killed him.”
This earns a small smile from Raph.
“I ripped off all their heads Leo. I feel like I belong in an asylum. I did some messed up shit.”
Leo pats him on the shell, rubbing small circles on it.
“You did what you had to do to protect this family. I respect that. Now Mikes gonna wake up soon and I don’t think he’ll want to see you covered in blood, so why don’t you go wash off?”
Raph nods and heads toward the bathroom.
…………………………………………………………
Leo was heading to bed that evening when he passed the infirmary.
A soft murmur of voices canes from inside, and he peeked the door open.
Mikey and Raph were having a quiet conversation, the prior having bandages around his plastron where the bullet hit him.
Leo smiles and softly closes the door. He heads to his room and crawls into his bed.
Just as he was about to drift off, he had a thought.
I still don’t entirely understand how Raph works, but I’m getting close.
The he drifted off into peaceful slumber.