Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chickens. Why does everything in Raph’s life lead back to chickens?

It’s late at night; later than they usually stay up, Raph knows, but he thinks they’ve earned it. Defeating a mass army of robots that went and defected from their original code to kill all of humanity deserves some type of reward, doesn’t it? Well, he thinks so. And his brothers seem to agree after being separated for so long.

Walking April home, still high off adrenaline, was a walk in the park. Everyone talked over each other the whole way there to make sure their adventure was captured at the right angle with the right amount of awesomeness. Of course, Raph’s adventure was still the coolest, but he hadn’t minded hearing what his brothers did in the hour and a half they were separated. 

Walking back to the sewers was a similar affair, this time with Leo embellishing how he might have been able to strike some type of chemistry with April. Prime teasing material, right there. Donnie had latched onto it like a leech, Raph following his lead after a hopefully invisible wheeze.

Now, after a bunch of video games and two movies, he sits shoulder to shoulder with Mikey. Raph shifts to see his brother’s phone screen better, fighting back a groan of pain as something inside him moves. 

Normally, he’d also be on his phone and doom scrolling through a random social media app by now. That’s clearly what Leo’s doing on his bed, letting the audios play aloud even with the old TV show on in the background that no one seems to be paying attention to. And doom scroll he had! It just… didn’t last long as his stuff positioning reminded him of his injury.

Yeah.

That injury.

The injury where Raph’s pretty darn sure his ribs got broken. The injury he has not brought up yet. The injury he’s currently hiding.

Mikey dies once again on Crossy Road. Raph frowns as the chicken meets an unfortunate end for the millionth time. Hun wouldn’t be happy about Crossy Road’s existence, would he? Does the guy even know the game is — Raph doesn’t know — a thing? Hun didn’t exactly seem very… aware.

Across the way, Raph hears a snore. His head perks up, eye ridges narrowing at the yellow tent Donnie had been playing Minecraft in. He expects to see his youngest brother wide awake still. That’s not what he finds.

Instead, Donnie’s headphones are halfway off his face. His arm is outstretched with his hand still holding his prized gaming mouse, cheek on his shoulder with drool dripping to the floor. His other hand still lays on the keyboard. 

“Oh man,” Raph whispers, an incredulous smile on his face as he tries to think back to the last time Donnie was the first one to fall asleep at a brotherly hang out. “That’s not something you see everyday.”

Leo pauses his scrolling and looks over his shoulder, a smile crawling onto his face. “Wow, yeah. He must’ve been exhausted!”

Mikey stretches, nearly hitting Raph in the face as he does so. Raph grumbles and shoves himself away from the orange clad turtle. “Well he did sorta program a lot of things, reprogram a lot of things, do a lot of other tech magic… I’d say he earned some shut eye,” Mikey says with a nod.

“Plus he did all the fighting we did, too,” Leo adds quietly, watching as Mikey yawns.

Raph rolls his eyes, carefully getting up. He winces at the movement but makes his journey over to Donnie. “Yeah, yeah, he has the potential to be cool at certain moments. You say anymore and it’ll get to his head, Leo.”

Leo huffs as Raph slowly kneels next to his sleeping brother, stealing the laptop gently to save the game. He closes it quietly before carefully taking off Donnie’s glasses and headphones, setting them down on top of the laptop and off to the side.

“Worried you won’t have the ‘Highest Ego Award’ anymore, Raph?” his older brother teases with a smirk.

Mikey “oooh’s” at Leo’s come back, making Leo grin triumphantly while Raph mutters under his breath. His brain is too tired and his body too in pain to give a retort. A feat to be told, really. He usually always has some sort of smart thing to say — even if it ends up making whatever situation he’s in worse.

Quietly, Donnie snores again. Raph tilts his head at him, worried their antics woke him up. Mikey and Leo freeze, too, at the sound. When Donnie doesn’t move, they all sigh.

“Hate to break it to you guys, but I think he has the right idea,” Mikey murmurs as he yawns again. He shakes his head. “I’m heading to bed too.”

Shortly after, Leo yawns as well. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. At least it’s a weekend and we don’t have school tomorrow, right?”

Raph hums in acknowledgment and mentally prepares himself to stand up as Mikey climbs into the bottom bunk behind him. He pushes himself up and rolls his shoulders, frowning under the spike of pain that laces his plastron.

“Really? Thought you’d be disappointed, Leo,” Raph teases again as he walks over to turn off the overhead lights. He flips the switch, hearing Mikey fluff his blankets.

“And why would I be disappointed?”

Raph grins wickedly as he makes his way over to the ladder. “Oh, well, I don’t know. Thought you’d be excited to see April again, considering the progress you made today,” he cheekily says.

Mikey starts snickering as Leo gasps. Raph laughs with him, ducking as a pillow comes flying at him. It ends up hitting Mikey instead, making him yelp in surprise.

“Guys,” Donnie whines from his place on the floor, making everyone jump. 

“Sorry!” they all chorus.

The TV suddenly turns off, letting Raph know that Leo or Mikey had stolen the remote. He looks up to his bunk and narrows his eyes. Internally sighing, he puts his hands on the rock and prepares to go up.

Raph hesitates at the ladder. Maybe he should’ve claimed the bottom bunk before Mikey had. They switch a lot, which may seem weird but it makes sense to them. Sometimes it’s easier to chill in a bed that doesn’t have a ladder attached. Whoever’s not in said bed by the time they’re all passing out gets to climb the ladder. It’s whatever.

He quickly climbs up and into bed. It’s a bad decision. His ribs protest loudly at the action. He nearly passes out as he lands on his chest, spots dancing in his vision. He grumbles to himself as he pushes his body closer to the head of the bed, before flopping completely.

Ow, he thinks. It takes another minute before any other thought flows through his brain. A long minute. 

Should he have mentioned his possible broken ribs to his brothers? Maybe, yeah. It’s a thought that’s run through his brain more than a couple times now. But he’s decided that he’s not going to until the morning.

Which may beg the question… Raph, why don’t you tell them now instead of later? Get some pain killers, be spoiled, the whole works! It’d be better than this, right? Than suffering?

Mentally hyping himself up, Raph turns onto his shell. He grits his teeth as his injury seems to disagree with everything he does. He settles into the pillow pile he made last night to sleep on his shell, grateful he happened to claim the top bunk the night before so he didn’t have to rearrange everything right now.

What’s that thing about broken ribs? Don’t put pressure on them or something? Raph doesn’t actually remember. Normally, he’d be sleeping on his side in his little pillow pile or on his plastron like how he always ends up being in the morning. But tonight is definitely a shell night, as uncomfortable as that is. Better to be safe than sorry.

He huffs and stares up at the glowy stars on the ceiling. Mikey put them up ages ago. His eye twitches and he casts a glance towards the blankets at his feet.

Is he desperate enough to grab a blanket? Is he in that dire need of one? Because everything really, really hurts. 

Carefully, Raph reaches a foot out. It takes a couple tries, his foot swinging and missing the blankets at the end of the bunk, but he’s able to hook them and pull them closer. As soon as he deems them close enough, he quickly shifts to pull them up to his chin before lying down again.

Double ow! his mind sends him. Raph agrees with Mind Raph. Now that he’s up here and settled, he’s somewhat rethinking his decision of not telling his brothers anything.

But if he had given a peep of information about his injury earlier, it’d be chaos town in less than five seconds flat. They already experienced that multiple times tonight and again when Donnie mentioned his shell’s impromptu shaving in a subway tunnel on a train. Sue Raph for actually caring about his brothers, but he wanted a peaceful night with them for once. 

For a second — for a split second and nothing more! — Raph had thought he was alone. No brothers. Just him, alone, dealing with killer robots and a mad lady. No Leo for plans, no Donnie for numbers, and no Mikey for talking their way out of things. None of that. Just Raph, alone.

And not even that! Not just Raph alone. 

Just Raph, alone, and with a potentially fatal injury.

He knows now that his ribs aren’t going to kill him, of course. Has he been coughing and wheezing? A little bit, sure! But no blood has reached his taste buds yet, which meant he was fine. No need to freak everybody out after their many near death experiences tonight. It can wait till morning.

… just like the fact he almost lost a finger could also wait till some indescribable amount of time later. Seriously, he only had six fingers! Nobody needed to take one of them and his brothers didn’t need to know that he was almost basically trafficked. Hadn’t happened, Raph wasn’t thinking about it, nuh uh. Past is past. Instead, he spun the tale that he was captured and kidnapped while conveniently leaving out why. It was half the truth so his brothers had thought nothing of it.

He doesn’t know when he absentmindedly started rubbing his knuckle, but he stops immediately once he realizes. He fights back a frustrated growl, deciding to grip the blankets on top of him instead. 

This is going to be a long night, isn’t it?

At first, Leo thinks his nightmare is the only reason he’s awake.

It makes sense in his mind. Superfly, nearly dying, people hating him, people hurting his family, robots, nearly dying again — it’s a lot to process in a short amount of time. It’s no surprise that he’s gasping awake, hands reaching for katanas that aren’t on his shell as his mind reels from the memories he just relived.

He slumps as his hands reach air, eyes fluttering shut as he leans back against the wall. The fact that he’s not dying and not in danger smacks into him like a well thrown brick of relief (why the brick has a poorly drawn face on it, Leo will never know). He drags both hands down his face as his breathing slowly evens out, thankfully without him needing to use a breathing exercise. He sighs and pulls his blanket closer, peering around the room to see if he woke any of his other brothers up.

The soft sound of Donnie snoring is what draws his attention first. Leo looks over at his youngest brother who had curled up since he last saw him. Donnie was now on his side, a proper pillow under his head with a thick weighted blanket over top of him. 

One asleep, Leo thinks to himself. Good. He hates waking everybody up due to his own nightmares. 

Let him help his brothers every day. He’ll jump to their side in a heartbeat, no judgement over what had them scramble awake! But being the one who accidentally woke them up? Being so emotionally vulnerable? He’d prefer that they stay asleep, despite the rare occurrences he was there to have a helping, comforting hand.

Next, he looks to Mikey and has a hard time not laughing at the scene he finds. Mikey’s on his plastron, of course, with his arms and legs spread out in such unnatural positions Leo’s sure they’ll all be hearing about how stiff he is tomorrow. However, his beak isn’t scrunched up like he’s having a nightmare so Leo lets it be. 

That’s two.

Finally, his gaze reaches Raph’s bunk. Because of the angle he’s at, he can’t exactly see his red brother all that well. Leo opts to listen for him instead, settling his head against the wall once again while closing his eyes to focus his hearing better.

Donnie’s snores nearly cover up any other sound in or outside the room, so it’s a little hard to hear Raph over all his ruckus but Leo manages after he fights back a chuckle. He relaxes a little as he hears Raph before frowning to himself, opening his eyes once again.

It’s slow and steady, Raph’s breathing. Leo mentally adds a check to the list of sleeping brothers and makes it three for three. However, it also sounds… wrong, somehow. Scratchy. Raspy, even. Wheezy.

Leo frowns harder as he remembers the night they had. Raph hadn’t mentioned any injuries, sure, but that didn’t mean they didn’t all get hurt a little bit. There were bruises and scrapes — and a scratch on a shell, in Donnie’s case — but everyone had looked fine, all in all. No one fessed up to a big injury of any sort and no one looked particularly in pain, so Leo didn’t do the body checks he normally did and decided that their dad didn’t necessarily need to know right away that they saved New York again… right?

But wheezy breathing isn’t a normal thing. Wheezy breathing isn’t a thing they do. Wheezy breathing means something is wrong.

After a moment more of hesitation, Leo gets up as quietly as he can. He fights back to urge to slap himself awake. Should he have done his checks? Should he have poked and prodded his brothers? He trusted them to come forward with their injuries. Didn’t they trust him enough to mention when they were hurt?

It could be nothing, he reasons with himself. He’s very aware his worry can blow normal situations way out of proportion, like he was starting to do just now. You could just be freaking out like normal. It’s Raph! Raph’s, well, Raph. He’s fine!

Up and closer to the top bunk, Leo can now see how Raph’s situated. His heart sinks as he sees his brother laying on his shell. Raph hates laying on his shell!

His worry starts to climb in sync with him. Step by step, Leo goes up the ladder to get a closer look. The wheezing feels much louder now that he’s up close. 

Careful to not wake Raph, he peers over to see if he can spot any external injury. He grips the ladder tighter as none appear. Instead, he sees Raph’s scrunched and sweaty face. His mouth is ever so slightly open, like he’s not getting enough air. 

Fear grasps Leo tight at the sight. He freezes, unsure of what to do. He should wake him, right?! He’s not getting enough air! And he’s in so much pain! But wouldn’t waking him make that pain worse?!

What had happened?!

Oh, geez, he should go get their dad. But then he’d know that they all lied to him! And fought robots! And didn’t ditch the party because they wanted to hang out!

Well, he was going to end up finding out anyway but they were going to tell him in the morning since Dad can be so overwhelming and overprotective sometimes. Not that Leo blames him, but seriously. A breather is needed after a hard fight! 

Again, speaking of breathing, Raph isn’t breathing right! What should he do?!

“Raph!” he hisses, hand shooting forward to shake Raph’s thigh. 

Awake, Leo decides. He needs to wake up Raph. He needs to be awake. Awake because Leo needs to get Dad. Screw consequences! Screw everything else! Raph is hurt and he could be dying. 

Leo’ll take the fall. Say it was his idea, since every part of their night was technically planned by him in some way. It’s the truth, somehow. This injury was due to him and his bright ideas. Almost dying was thanks to his big brain telling him to lead his brothers into saving the city once again. But all of that and all the guilt he feels is unimportant right now. Now, Leo just needs his brother to wake up and be okay like he thought he already was.

He… he thought he lost his brothers earlier tonight. It was the worst feeling ever. He’s felt that feeling way too many times in his short fifteen years on Earth, in his professional opinion. He’s not going to lose his brother now, after all they’ve been through.

Is he?

As Raph doesn’t wake, Leo’s panic grows. He shakes Raph’s thigh with more urgency. “Raph!” he calls a bit louder. “Wake up!”

There’s a groan from the bottom bunk. “Leo?” Mikey mumbles, still sounding half asleep.

“Go get Dad!” Leo orders, proud his voice comes out more commanding than shrill. His hands shake as he continues to try to get Raph to wake up. 

That startles Donnie awake across the room. He hears the snores stop abruptly as Mikey — again, half asleep but still listening somehow — falls out the bottom bunk in his hurry to do as told. 

Leo hurriedly climbs into the bunk with Raph, not caring if he accidentally hits Raph’s legs. He starts to tap Raph’s face. “Raph, wake up. Raph!”

“Wait, why do we need Dad?” Mikey slurs from the doorway, wiping the sleep out of his eyes.

Leo looks between him and Raph, trying not to yell at Mikey to just go already. “Raph’s hurt,” he says before turning back to his very important task of getting Raph up.

“Wait, huh?!”

“What?!” Donnie whisper-yells from his tent. There’s a bunch of tent noises and then Donnie is suddenly in his periphery, looking up at the bunk.

“Mikey, go,” Leo snaps, glaring over his shoulder as Mikey doesn’t move. It snaps him into action. There’s the sound of slapping footsteps and then he’s gone.

“What’s wrong with Raph?” Donnie asks, kicking a beanbag over to use as a stepstool.

Leo doesn’t answer him. He refocuses back on Raph — who still isn’t awake. Gently, he cups Raph’s face before shaking it wildly. “Wake up!” he shouts.

Donnie stumbles back at his suddenness, but it seems to have worked. Raph’s eyes flicker and then he groans, pulling at Leo’s heart as his head shifts to the side and his face scrunches even more. He must be in a lot of pain. Still, as Raph’s brown eyes reach his own, Leo lets out a sigh of relief.

“Leo?” Raph asks, his voice sounding more airy than Leo’s ever heard it. “What—“

Just then, their dad rushes in with Mikey on his heels. Donnie quickly moves out of the way as the rat wastes no time coming to the bedside. Leo moves his hand so their dad can see Raph’s face.

“Raphael,” his dad starts in a tone that’s both comforting and threatening. Oh, they’re all in so much trouble now, aren’t they? “What’s wrong?”

Leo leans back, fiddling with the wrist bands he forgot to take off as Raph blinks at the answer. He tries to sit up and, at the pain it causes him, gives up. Raph blinks again, as if trying to compute what’s going on.

That’s not good. That’s so not good. He casts a glance at Mikey and Donnie, seeing they seem to feel the same way. They’re shoulder to shoulder, lips pursed and leaning closer as if that’ll help clear up their confusion or help them spot what’s actually wrong with Raph. They look uncannily alike, reminding Leo that they’re all quadruplets somehow. He looks away as Raph swallows noisily.

“Nothing,” he finally grumbles, putting an arm over his eyes. His voice sounds strained. “Just lemme sleep, Dad.”

Leo sees Dad’s ear flick. Raph definitely gave the wrong answer. 

“Not until you tell me what’s wrong, my son,” their dad says. He reaches up and cups Raph’s face like Leo had done a minute ago. 

The surprising part? Raph leans into it heavily. 

They all adore their dad. They all lean down to him for hugs or for him to hold their heads. But they do not put their weight into it. It’s embarrassing, showing that kind of love sometimes. It’s easier to give it sparingly, when they’re in the mood, when they mean it and aren't forced to give it as a goodbye. Normally, they give a strong meaningful hug before bed to make up for their lackluster attempts earlier that day. 

But here’s Raph. Raph, who rarely seeks that deep fatherly touch, leaning into their dad’s hand.

Leo thinks that might be the scariest part of all this.

“It’s fine,” Raph whines in a voice Leo hasn’t heard him use since they were seven years old. “Don’ worry ‘bou it…”

Leo places a hand on one of Raph’s shins, unsure what to do or how to help. He looks towards his dad who looks nearly as lost and frustrated as he feels. Raph can never make things easy, can he? He just has to avoid the question. 

And avoid telling us anything, apparently, a bitter part of him thinks. He fights back a sigh, watching if his dad will finally speak up. However, the rat seems lost in thought and, somewhat, lost in fear.

At his dad’s lack of answer and the worry in his younger brothers’ eyes, Leo purses his lips. His turn. What’ll make Raph talk? What’ll always get an answer out of him?

“Little late for that, man,” he teases lightly, squeezing Raph’s leg gently. He gets a glare for his efforts. “You sound like a bad squeaky toy.”

Rise to the bait, Leo silently pleas. Give some smart remark like you always do. Raph rolls his eyes at Leo and snatches his leg up, away from his hand. 

“You try getting your ribs broken,” Raph snaps, trying and failing to sit up once again. This time, he lets out a moan of pain at the failed attempt. 

Despite the terrible news and terrible scene in front of him, Leo nearly slumps in relief. At least his plan worked. A smart remark, Raph’s most favorite thing in the world. 

Their dad rubs the tears that start to make their way down Raph’s cheeks away easily. “Oh, my little red… why didn’t you say anything?”

Raph clicks his mouth shut, averting his gaze. Leo leans away and curls up on the other end of the bunk, wondering the same. They could have helped! He could have got some medicine by now! But Raph stays silent. Clearly, he’s not going to answer right now.

“Can I go back to sleep?” 

Leo barely hears the plea. That’s what it is though. A plea. Raph’s begging their dad to let him sleep. His nails dig into his skin as his worry threatens to drown him. None of this is like Raph at all. None of it.

“Not yet, but soon,” Dad promises. He looks to Leo. Of course he does.

He tries to gather himself as best as he can. He’s the oldest. He leads in the tough situations. He cracks, sometimes, and usually his brothers are there to help him not fall completely. But he’s the oldest. He helps them. He carries them. He protects them. 

He can’t do all that with the stinging in his eyes that threaten to turn into tears. Leo shoves that feeling down as far as he can and nods at his dad. 

“Get Leatherhead and set up in the living room,” his dad asks him softly. “I will stay here.”

Again, Leo nods. He looks over to Raph before climbing off the bed, surprised to find his eyes on him. He doesn’t know what his facial expression currently looks like, but Raph near flinches at the sight of it. 

Leo really doesn’t want to leave. He does as told anyway.

His feet touch the cold concrete. He grabs Mikey’s hand and throws an arm around Donnie’s shoulders, carefully ushering them out to the hallway.

“Is he okay?” Donnie whispers, looking at Leo with wide eyes.

And despite not knowing for sure, he pulls Donnie closer and reassures him with an easy, “Of course he is. He’s Raph. He’ll be fine.” He silently hopes he didn’t just outright lie.

Donnie nods as they make it to the living room. “Yeah… yeah, I mean, he is the strongest of us.”

Mikey joins in on that train of thought. “Exactly! It’ll be okay, even if he’s… not right now.”

Leo nods absentmindedly before shaking his head. He points towards the sewer tunnels. “I’m going to go get Leatherhead and Wingnut. You guys want to get the living room set up for a sleepover?”

Mikey gives Leo a thumbs up while Donnie mock salutes. They still look as worried as Leo feels, but they agree to do their task easily. 

“You got it, Leo!”

And, as quick as he can, Leo runs to go get the two resident medics. His heart pounds as he does. He won’t be too late, will he? Broken ribs can be fatal. He knows his dad said only Leatherhead, but Wingnut and the big alligator are a pair. They come together. Surely his dad knows this, right? That’s why he’s racing to get both.

Besides, if Raph’s ribs really are that bad… Leatherhead’ll need the help.

But it’s Raph. They’ve all survived worse than this.

He has to be okay.

Right?

Chapter Text

Him and Donnie are left standing in the living room, alone. It’s awkwardly silent and not in the funny, uncomfortable way. No, the awkward silence that hangs over them both has a sense of foreboding — like a warning that’s yet to come. Mikey shifts under its weight, breaking whatever trance it had on him and Donnie both.

Slowly, they start rearranging the living room into a suitable sleeping space. They grab the cushions from the couches and place them in a pile on the floor. Donnie disappears to grab some blankets, leaving Mikey to stare at their poor pile. He frowns at it before eyeing the leftover decorative pillows lying on the naked couch.

Those’ll do, he thinks. He picks them up and throws them at the end of the cushiony pile he thinks their heads will go. He takes a couple steps back to observe their handiwork.

It looks like how their couch had been disassembled when the mutanimals had been living with them — minus the blanket fort, of course. It hadn’t taken long before their cousins were situated in a different part of the sewers, having wanted to be close to them yet away from their old home with memories of Superfly. Mikey doesn’t blame them for that. It helps in these types of situations, too.

He frowns at the thought that being injured may become a common thing. He’d rather not. He prefers his brothers whole and laughing, thank you very much.

Just as his thoughts drift towards the idea of making a fort, Donnie makes his way back in with a bunch of blankets in his arms. The blankets pile so high that Mikey can barely see Donnie’s eyes, making him snort as he walks over to take some of the load off his younger brother’s shoulders. 

“Gee, Donnie,” he starts lightly as he tosses a particularly heavy quilt to the cushions on the floor. “You grab enough blankets?”

Donnie huffs behind his blankety prison. “No, definitely not,” he says sarcastically, fumbling forward and tripping when his foot meets the end of the couch cushions. He falls and lands face first into his pile of blankets.

Mikey snickers. “Seems the cushions disagree with you,” he teases before choosing to follow Donnie’s lead. He falls forward and onto the cushions, snuggling the ratty old quilt he happened to take from his purple brother seconds earlier.

Donnie grumbles and kicks him lightly, but Mikey doesn’t retaliate. He sits there and sighs, allowing himself to sink into the rather comfy cushions they managed to find years ago. Idly, his finger traces a mystery stain that they had never been able to get out despite the hours they spent cleaning the fabric. 

Him and Donnie lay there, staring off and thinking who knows what as that oppressive silence crawls back into the room. It hangs on the ceiling, overlooking them all with something akin to boredom if Mikey had to guess. He frowns.

Of course, he knows what he’s thinking about. He’s thinking about Raph and his broken ribs. How rudely he was awoken, how stern yet scared Leo had sounded, and how much pain Raph seemed to be in. He keeps replaying waking up and seeing Raph in pain over and over unintentionally, like his brain is still half asleep and not entirely processing what is going on. 

And maybe he isn’t awake enough for that yet, if he’s being honest. Mikey is scared. He is worried. He’s waiting for the other shoe to drop while trying not to. He knows he is. But it’s all rather surface level in his mind. The panic and fear hasn’t settled in his bones yet, like he’s in deep denial that this is happening. Like all of this is just a bad dream.

He yawns, confirming his suspicions. It does take him a while to wake up. Still, feeling this disconnected at a time like this feels… horrible, for lack of a better word. Almost apathetic instead of his normal empathetic self.

Quickly, he glances at Donnie. It doesn’t look like he’s doing much better, nearly having an exact copy of Leo’s Worried Face™ on his own. Mikey frowns harder before holding a hand out for Donnie to take. Donnie does.

Well, maybe he now knows what Donnie’s thinking about too. He squeezes his hand gently before face planting down on the itchy quilt beneath him. He inhales it, trying to ground himself and wake himself up. His brother is hurt, for shell's sake! He needs at least some brain power.

There’s a rush of footsteps and wingbeats. Mikey shoots his head up like Donnie, eyes wide as Leatherhead and Wingnut pass by without a greeting. They share a glance. Should they be worried they weren’t greeted?

Down the hall, more voices join the soft shushing of their dad. Mikey scoots closer to Donnie, eyeing the direction of their room. One of the voice’s — clearly Leo’s — grows a little louder before dying off completely. The voices continue after a brief pause, but without Leo as he appears in the hallway. He looks quite disgruntled. Apparently, he was kicked out too.

They both watch him walk over and collapse onto their couch cushions, his head nearly colliding with Donnie’s as he slams onto his plastron with a huff. Mikey offers Leo a pillow, which his oldest brother gratefully takes.

Mikey and Donnie allow their newest member of the couch club to have a moment of silence. It’s not a long silence but it’s worth it, seeing Leo’s shoulders slowly deflate by an inch. Mikey once again squeezes Donnie’s hand before taking his arm back, putting it under his chin.

“How is he?” Mikey quietly asks. 

Leo huffs again, averting his gaze and tightening his hold on the yellow pillow he has. “Don’t know. They kicked me out before doing anything else,” he mutters.

“Figures,” Donnie mumbles, shaking his head. “I mean, it’s not like we don’t deserve to know what’s happening. No, not at all.”

“Come on,” Mikey says good naturedly, rolling his eyes. “You know Dad didn’t kick us out because we didn’t deserve to know. He kicked us out because we’d be in the way and he’d have more children to worry about, obviously.”

Donnie and Leo both glare at him for his wisdom, but Mikey knows he’s right. It’s not often he’s the voice of reason — that job goes to Leo, somehow the most mature out of all of them and the designated leader. However, Mikey has his moments. He’s always right in these moments. It’s a true talent of his.

“Yeah, okay,” Donnie allows grumpily. “But I still want to be in there…”

Mikey shrugs, humming in agreement. He does too. Raph being hurt is something scary for all of them, and not just because he’s their brother. 

Raph has a tendency of making himself seem infallible. He can’t get hurt; he can power through whatever comes his way. It’s not true, they all know that. And yet… it’s easy to fall for it — to believe it. Probably because they all want to believe at least one of them can never get hurt, that at least one of them can and will be safe. No matter how many times Raph does get hurt, they all end up falling for his lie again and again so when he does get hurt once more, it’s a shock when it really shouldn’t be.

“We all do,” Leo agrees quietly, looking towards the hallway. 

“I just don’t get why,” Mikey suddenly spits, a burst of frustration sprouting from nowhere. “Like, broken ribs don’t just suddenly spawn overnight! So why didn’t he tell us he was hurt?”

And that’s the big question, isn’t it? Why didn’t Raph tell anybody? It’s not like him not to! Usually, he mentions when he has a crazier injury. Scrapes and bruises he tends to keep to himself, sure. He’s got the tough guy image to keep up. Mikey isn’t blaming him for that. But the other stuff? He usually tells someone. So what’s different this time around?

“Who knows,” Donnie answers bitterly, rubbing an eye tiredly. “It’s Raph. Maybe something bruised his ego and he decided to tough it out.”

Leo snorts and rolls his eyes. “Yeah. Or he thought he could ignore it and it’d go away. You know, how injuries definitely do. Cause they surely heal overnight, right?”

Mikey shakes his head. “You two are not helping, you know that?” he says, giving them a pointed look.

Both his brothers deflate guiltily. Yeah, Mikey may be mad at Raph too for lying to his face. But insulting him when he’s not around isn’t going to solve anything. 

Though… the scenarios they both voiced are very probable. It is Raph, like Donnie said. He does tend to hide away and ignore things when they get too vulnerable. Really, they all tend to do that. It’s like some weird form of turtle instinct that happened to transfer over in the mutation. Instead of happening when physically vulnerable though, it happens when emotionally vulnerable. 

“I’m sorry.”

The words shake Mikey out of his thoughts. He frowns and looks at Leo curiously. What’s he sorry for?

Donnie nods beside him. “Yeah, me too. You’re right. We shouldn’t be ragging on Raph right now.”

Oh? Mikey didn’t really expect them to apologize for that. Like, Raph’s not around and while he wasn’t gonna allow it to happen, he wasn’t like… mad on Raph’s behalf. He goes to say it’s not a big deal when Leo shakes his head.

“No, I mean… yeah, I guess I’m sorry for that too,” Leo says, starting to pick his nails like he does when nervous. “But I’m sorry for dragging you guys into everything that happened last night… tonight? Whatever, I’m sorry.”

Mikey and Donnie share a glance. A glance that communicates a simple yet very loud What?

Donnie pushes himself up, eye ridges furrowed and clearly ready to argue. Mikey does the same. “What do you mean? You didn’t drag us into anything!”

Leo pushes himself up as well, sitting back on his legs. “It was my plan to use the fireworks, my plan to help Bishop, my plan that split us up for the EMP—“

“And we followed you cause we trust you,” Mikey interrupts, giving Leo another pointed look. Donnie nods furiously in agreement.

What is Leo thinking?! Is he trying to blame himself for Raph getting hurt? Blame himself for what happened tonight? Because that’s ridiculous!

Leo waves a frustrated hand. “Well, yeah, but still! My plans could’ve killed us! Especially dropping that cargo container that was apparently full of fireworks. You trusted me and I nearly got you guys killed multiple times. Raph trusted me and now—“ he cuts himself off with a frustrated groan, rubbing a hand down his face. “So I’m sorry.”

“No, nuh uh, no you’re not,” Donnie immediately snaps, making Mikey and Leo jump at his tone. “Those were good plans! Plans that helped keep us alive!”

Leo opens his mouth to argue but Mikey beats him to it. “And helping Bishop was worth it, before you say anything about that. It’s what we do, isn’t it? Help people — keep people safe! That’s our job!”

“But it nearly got you killed!” Leo reiterates, eyes suspiciously watery. 

Donnie crosses his arms and shakes his head. “You’re being stupid.”

Leo gapes at him, his face starting to flush. Mikey blinks at the sudden insult and shoves Donnie’s side, giving him a warning look. But Donnie doesn’t back down.

“What?!” he exclaims, gesturing in Leo’s direction. “He is!”

“I’m not—“

“You are!” Donnie snaps. Mikey watches as his frustration gets the better of him. “You didn’t control the robots and order them to kill us. You didn’t tell Bishop we’re monsters and tell her that we killed her sister, to get revenge. You didn’t tell the gang that kidnapped Raph to kidnap him. You didn’t do any of that! None of that’s your fault, Leo! Stop acting like it is!”

Leo deflates, clearly having lost that battle. For once, Mikey’s glad Donnie didn't listen to his glare. He looks over to Leo as he opens his mouth once again.

“The fireworks were a stupid plan though,” he retorts, giving half a smile in their direction. It’s a bitter smile and it’s his final attempt to protect his fragile ego. 

Is Leo hurting his own ego by blaming himself? Yes. Yes he is. But Mikey doesn’t like it when he’s proven wrong either, so it’s understandable why Leo tries one more time to win this war. So, Mikey gives him some false hope.

“They were,” Mikey agrees, now ignoring Donnie’s shocked and frustrated glare. He continues on. “But you didn’t know they were full of fireworks. None of us did. I know we’re not human, but that doesn’t mean we don't make mistakes either. Besides, we lived. Without that plan, who says we would have escaped Bishop at all?”

Leo grumbles but nods, as if he’s upset he was proven to be a great leader and brother. Mikey leans back on his hands, turning his head up to the ceiling while Donnie sighs next to him.

“I’m still sorry,” Leo adds quietly, sounding more like the nervous wreck Mikey’s come to know. 

“Don’t be,” Donnie assures confidently, pushing up his glasses and giving Leo a small smile. “Your plans are awesome, man.”

Mikey nods enthusiastically. “And when they’re not, we’ll tell you. That’s what having a team is for, right?”

“Exactly!” Donnie chimes in agreement, knocking his shoulder with Mikey’s. “We’re here for you, dude.”

Mikey feels the stress lift thoroughly off his shoulders as Leo slowly nods. He shares a smile with Donnie, proud of their win against Leo’s self esteem. 

“You know, I didn’t really ever think that the promise of you guys tearing down my plans would be comforting, but I guess it sorta is,” Leo muses thoughtfully. “I mean, you guys rag on me anyways, but—“

“It’s what we’re supposed to do,” Mikey interrupts with a cheeky grin. He gestures lazily between himself and Donnie. “You know, as your little brothers, it’s sorta our job.”

Leo snorts and rolls his eyes, settling down into a criss cross applesauce position. “Gee, thanks.”

“Anytime, Leo,” Donnie promises, eyes twinkling yet tone holding much more fondness than Mikey thinks the sarcastic remark should require.

It’s a serious promise. A serious promise to help Leo keep his head above water. It’ll be a hard task, sure, but he and Donnie have definitely done more grueling ones. It’ll work out.

At least Leo looks eternally grateful for it.

A yipe comes from the other room, making each brother straighten and snap their heads towards the hallway. Mikey stares wide eyed at the ruckus from down the hall. What was that about?!

“Uh… should we go check on them, or…?” Donnie questions, looking between Mikey and Leo. 

Leo frowns like he wants to say no, so Mikey begins to lean back like he has. It’s not like Leo would suggest — oh, Mikey doesn’t know — eavesdropping or something. He’s a rule follower and Dad’s most trusted. They’ll listen to what their dad said to do and stay in the living roo—

Mikey blinks as Leo pushes himself up, sneaking over to the wall leading towards the hallway. Donnie quickly follows, leaving Mikey behind in a dazed stupor before Leo finally waves him over.

Seems like all rules are out the door when Leo’s in Big Brother mode! He eagerly follows along, sneaking the entire way down the hall. 

Leo’s the first one to stop, crouching near the doorway. Mikey pushes forward to join him, letting Donnie tower over them both as he leans closer to hear better what’s going on inside. However, they all freeze as a low hiss reaches their ears.

“-idn’t tell me he was a biter!” 

That’s Leatherhead, Mikey notes belatedly. But a “biter”? Did Raph bite her? That’s who’s hissing?!

“Oh dear,” Wingnut’s voice murmurs from inside. “Looks like he got you pretty good. You sure you’re alright to continue patching him up, dear?”

“Gah, sure I am. I’ve had worse, you know! I’d rather get his ribs more secure anyway,” Leatherhead answers gently.

There’s more shuffling around inside. With their small conversation teetering off, now Mikey can hear the small reassurances his dad seems to be whispering to Raph. He can’t see inside, but there’s no one else his dad would have that kind of tone with. Slowly, the wheezy hiss that’s been reaching their ears dies off as well.

Instinctively, Mikey grabs Leo before he can lurch forward and ruin their stealth mission. His brother in blue barely looks like he registered moving forward. His mouth is slightly open and, while he’s not panting, he doesn’t have to be to clue Mikey in that he’s severely stressed by the sound that’s now absent — Raph and his hissing. He snaps his head over to Mikey, eyes slightly dazed.

Gently, Mikey squeezes his arm. He tries his best to be reassuring, recalling the stories of what happened after Superfly. Leo, too busy protecting them three to realize he was the most hurt out of all of them, had protected them from the crowds and ushered them back to the sewers. However, his protection didn’t stop there. When they got home, he had hissed at their new cousins and their dad.

Mikey had been passed out at the time. That probably didn’t help Leo’s panic, nor did his blood loss. His actions did remind them all that they were still pretty young and still mutants, despite their intelligence. When stressed, sometimes things happen.

Plus the years of Dad telling them no one else was trustworthy might have had something to do with it. Just maybe.

Leo nods at him, swallowing quietly. Mikey gently works his way down to hold his hand instead, relishing in the thankful squeeze he gets in return. He tries not to scrunch his nose at how clammy Leo’s hand ends up being.

Gross!

“Do you happen to have bigger bandages? Not sure how wrapping ribs will work with a shell, I’ll admit, but it’s worth a shot, yeah?” 

Mikey frowns at Leatherhead’s questions. She… doesn’t sound like she knows what she’s doing. Should they have finally bit the bullet and found a vet? Or a doctor? A mix of the two?

His dad answers something in kind, still super quiet. That means he must be by Raph’s side, then. That’s good. His hearing is so good he might have—

“Ahem.”

Found them. He might have found them. That’s what Mikey was going to think. He drops Leo’s hand in shock.

Sheepishly, he and Leo stand up to full height as Donnie twiddles his thumbs. Their dad stares at them, unimpressed by his sneaky little ninjas. Mikey knows because of the ear twitch. He averts his gaze and his dad sighs.

“He will be fine,” Dad reassures in a quiet voice, starting to usher them back to the living room.

All three of them deflate with relief at the news. They trudge along back to their little pile, Leo collapsing first onto the blankets. Mikey sits down next to him, his thoughts on the fact that Leatherhead, again, didn’t seem to know what she was doing. He crosses his arms and starts to bite his cheek. If she didn’t know what she was doing, would Raph really be okay?

“Donnie,” his dad says, looking carefully over the living room. “Help me gather some bandages.”

Donnie, seemingly surprised at being given a job, sends a look to Mikey and Leo. Mikey doesn’t know what Leo does, but he nods in Donnie’s direction. They’ll be okay being left out of searching for bandages.

“Yeah. Yeah, okay, Dad,” Donnie answers, following close behind with a nervous pep in his step.

Mikey hums as they disappear down a different hall, towards the bathroom or the dojo closet. Leo hums back. Neither move for a good moment or two.

“On a scale from one to ten, how likely is it that Dad will interrogate him for information on what happened?” Mikey asks, still eyeing the hallway.

Leo snorts from his side. “A twenty.”

Mikey is inclined to agree.

Donnie doesn’t know what he did to deserve this punishment. He wonders why life hates him, how he could escape his doomed fate, and comes up empty. No solutions. Just nerves.

His dad leads him on their well worn brick path. Donnie follows dutily down the hallway, the brick cold on his feet. He hovers in the doorway as the rat man in front of him kneels down to open their bathroom cupboards, ignoring the scattered towels and mess he and his brothers have made since the last time they cleaned it. 

Should he be nervous about why he was asked to help gather bandages? Everything points to yes. It’s a one person job. Donnie knows Dad does not need his help to gather bandages, which means he has an ulterior motive. A much scarier goal than gathering bandages together ever could possibly wish to live up to.

His dad wants answers.

The cupboards close noisily in his dad’s hurry. Donnie scoots out his dad’s way as he exits their bathroom. They continue down the hall and to the dojo, where more first aid kits should be.

Really, Donnie shouldn’t be surprised he was called over to give answers. Out of all his brothers, it makes the most sense for him to give the recap. His reports are short and sweet — they highlight the important matters and gloss over the feelings. Donnie gets the point across. He’s quick and precise. He values the truth and rarely hides anything.

His brothers? Not so much.

From their dojo closet, his dad waves him closer. Donnie gulps and does as told. He holds his arms out and watches as different bandages get piled into them, waiting for the inevitable question to be sprung.

Leo’s finicky with reports. They make him nervous so he forgets to mention certain key details. Sometimes his nerves make him rearrange the timeline of his recap, not something Dad prefers when making sure his sons are safe and relatively untraumatized. He works better in a group recap setting, after calming down. And he’s definitely not calm right now.

Mikey, however, remembers too much. He remembers the smells, the sights, the sounds, the feelings — anything and everything gets spouted out during his tales. It’s the theater kid in him, if Donnie has to guess. The love of telling a proper story. Except then his recaps take too long! Dad likes it short and sweet in precarious times… like now. 

Because Raph’s ribs are broken. Raph — the big meaty guy, the biggest, the strongest of his brothers — has broken ribs. If he’s being honest, Donnie’s rattled by the circumstances. Like, what do you mean Raph is the one hurt? He has a tendency to shield them too much, sure, but hurt? As in actually, really, painfully hurt? 

He sighs. If he’s rattled, his dad is too.

More bandages pile into his arms. Donnie frowns at them all. There’s a menagerie as they’re used to tiny little cuts and mishaps from training, especially from their early days with their weapons. However, Donnie doesn’t think Leatherhead meant she needed all sizes of bandages for her wrappings. 

“Uh… Dad?”

His dad pauses his search through their small closet, turning to look at Donnie over his shoulder. “Hm.”

“Yeah,” Donnie expertly explains and agrees, shifting under the weight of his gaze. His dad has already spotted the problem. A roll drops to the floor. “I’m not sure we need the tiny ones.”

“You’re right,” his dad agrees, smacking his own cheeks gently. His tail scoops the tiny roll right up. “I’m sorry, my son, I didn’t mean—“

Donnie shakes his head and cuts in. “It’s fine, Dad. You’re worried. We all kinda are given the… you know, circumstances.”

A truer statement hasn’t been uttered before. He tilts to the side to prevent another bandage roll from falling out his arms. Really, they’re all a bit high strung since Raph got hurt. Leatherhead and Wingnut had passed them by without so much as a hello! And waking up to hear Leo’s panicked order… not a pleasant experience.

The rat puts the roll of bandages back in the closet, giving a short nod. “You’re right. And I’m so proud of you boys for how brave you’re all being,” he adds, turning back to look Donnie in the eyes. 

He blinks at the compliment. He doesn’t feel really brave. He’s terrified, actually! Broken ribs could be fatal! “I mean, I think we’re all a bit shaken… but thanks, Dad.”

Suddenly there’s two pink paws in his face. He smiles sheepishly before bending down to oblige to his dad’s request. Gently, his dad rubs a finger over his cheek as he cups his face. 

“Raph will be okay,” Dad promises once again. His eyes are sure and sturdy as steel. Donnie has no choice but to finally believe him, even though he’s sure the rat man has said something along those same lines multiple times in the past hour. He lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in, relishing in the fact and not the hope that Raph will be fine. 

“Okay,” he agrees, trying to keep any more bandage rolls from falling out of his arms thanks to him leaning over.

Dad pats his cheeks good naturedly. “Now…” he starts with a tone that makes Donnie pale. Oh no. The interrogation! How could he have forgotten?! “What did you boys really do tonight?”

Donnie sheepishly smiles, slowly pulling away from his dad’s comforting paws. “Ha, wow, you’re gonna laugh at this, Dad! It’s really a crazy story…”

His dad merely raises an expectant eyebrow, crossing his arms. Oh, great. No way out of this or to lighten the mood. Why is it always Donnie’s job to break the bad news?!

He shrinks under the weight of his father’s stare. “Uh, well, we were gonna tell you in the morning what happened since it probably sorta went viral, but, uh… you know. Here it goes.”

“You boys did WHAT?!”

The first one to acknowledge him as he walks back into the living room is Mikey, surprisingly still awake. Donnie pays him and Leo no mind, opting to collapse on the cushions with a loud groan. He picks his head up and pouts, glaring at their naked couch.

Sure, just leave him alone with their worried dad to explain everything. That’s fine, guys! Donnie totally enjoyed being scolded without anyone there to take some of the load and is so looking forward to the second round that’s going to come the minute Raph isn’t deaf thanks to pain. 

Then again, Donnie thinks back to the small disagreement he and Mikey had with Leo before going off with Dad. Hm, maybe they needed a moment to themselves. 

And it’s not like they willingly left me alone, he begrudgingly thinks. Still rude though.

“So…” Mikey cautiously ventures, lowering his phone as Leo yawns from his place on the opposite side of their makeshift mattress. “How grounded are we?”

Donnie glares harder at the couch in front of him. How grounded does Mikey think they are?

Leo straightens in his periphery. He too puts his phone down. “How long?” he questions.

“You don’t wanna know,” Donnie mutters, choosing to faceplant into the cushions once again. Maybe suffocating would be better than staying grounded!

“Great,” Leo groans. There’s a couple of muffled noises and then the cushions Donnie’s on sink down even more.

He picks his face back up to see Leo getting comfortable next to him. Mikey sighs and does the same on Donnie’s other side. Together, they lay on their plastrons and glare at the couch. A pity party, in the wise words of Melanie Martinez…

Donnie scrunches his nose. Actually, scratch that. He does not want to be associated with her and what she’s done. It’s just a normal Turtle Pity Party™. Nothing else. 

“Please tell me Raph’s grounded longer than we are, at the very least,” Mikey grumbles, rubbing his eyes frustratedly.

Donnie snorts and crosses his arms under his chin. Oh, does he got news for Mikey! “Dude’ll be lucky if he’s ungrounded after Christmas break.”

“He totally deserves that,” Mikey says with a satisfied nod before placing his head down, eyes suspiciously closed. 

Leo sits upright and yawns again. “Yeah, well, that means we have to put up with a cranky cooped up Raph. Is it really a win?” he asks as he reaches over to grab the blankets.

Mikey hums and Donnie’s surprised to feel the vibrations through their soft cushions. He scratches his arm idly as he thinks up his own answer. A cranky Raph is never fun, of course, but…

“Doesn’t that mean he takes over our chores once we’re ungrounded though?” he asks, a small smirk starting to climb on his face at the thought of how much freedom that would bring.

They don’t have many chores, per se, but it isn’t exactly easy to keep a hidden home in the sewers clean. It’ll be sparkling for the next month they’re grounded, and probably even after if their dad keeps handing chores over to Raph!

Leo throws the blanket over top of his and Mikey’s shells. He settles down once again, pulling an old quilt over his own form before humming contemplatively. “Now that would be proper payback for not telling us he was hurt.”

“And memorable,” Mikey murmurs, scooting closer to Donnie. “When’s the last time he was the only one grounded? A year? Two?”

“A year and a half,” Donnie corrects easily as he slips off his glasses. He gently places them down a foot above their heads. “Remember when he snuck out on his own to spray paint? Scared the absolute shell out of Dad and Leo.”

He grins as Mikey snorts at the memory of Leo freaking out that their brother had gone missing. It was absolutely hilarious since anyone going missing at that point in time had felt like such a small deal. They were mutants in the sewers! No one knew about them! Sneaking out once and a while wasn’t going to get them killed.

Except… now it almost had, in a weird way. He shakes that thought away best he can.

“I wasn’t scared out my shell, Donnie,” Leo grumbles, stretching his arms out in front of him. “I was just worried! We always went out as a group!”

Donnie huffs, amused at how oblivious Leo still is even today. “Uh huh, always,” he says sarcastically. Mikey elbows him harshly for the response.

Oh, was that still a secret even though they were free? Oops!

Leo blinks at them, clearly scandalized. “You guys snuck out too?!”

He must’ve thought at least one of them stuck around the sewers growing up. No, not at all. To be cooped up like that for years was horrible! Suck with the same people — though Donnie loved his brothers very much — was practically torture! A small trip away from their home ended up being a life saving event for many of their cases (especially when a mad Raph was involved). 

“Oh wow, look at the time!” Mikey exclaims, turning on his side and away from Leo. “I need my beauty sleep!”

Smart move made by Mikey. However, it left Donnie completely alone with Leo’s wrath! What happened to having each other's shells?!

“Wha- buh- Mikey!” Leo sputters, hands flailing before his gaze locks onto Donnie. 

Uh oh.

Donnie fake yawns under Leo’s stare. “Man, I’m so tired! Sorry Leo, looks like Mikey has the right idea. It’s shut eye time for me!”

Leo stares, absolutely gobsmacked. Donnie fights back a laugh as he snuggles into his arms, pretending to fall asleep so Leo wouldn’t question either of them further.

Did he go out alone? Yeah, twice. He had been on the search for some better wifi as theirs had gone down due to a storm. That had been his reasoning both times. It wasn’t like he was unarmed though! He had always brought his bō!

He feels more than hears Leo settle down beside him. Then there’s a big sigh and a couple of unintelligible mutters, making him snort. He can only imagine what Leo’s saying. Maybe it’s That was so dangerous! or How didn’t I know?! Donnie tries to ignore his thoughts, they’ll make him laugh otherwise.

“Yeah, yeah,” Leo mutters beside him. “Laugh it up. I snuck out too, ya know! That’s why I’m not offended.”

Donnie drops his sleeping act after hearing that. “No you did not,” he immediately argues, giving Leo a skeptical look.

There’s no way! One of them would have noticed if Leo broke the rules! It’s Leo!

His oldest brother rolls his eyes. “Uh, yeah I did. It was never to the surface like I bet you guys did, but you were all so annoying sometimes. I ended up wandering the sewers so I didn’t murder any of you with my bare hands.”

Donnie blinks at the blunt answer. Huh. Actually… that sounds about right. He knows that’s why Mikey and Raph sometimes snuck out too. “Murder?” he decides to ask, a little curious for the answer despite the unsettling certainty that Leo’s tone had when he said the word.

Leo raises a single eye ridge, as if to say Really? “You bit me hard enough to scar. We were being trained to fight at the time and I was having a really bad day. Let’s just say the thought passed through my mind.”

“Dude,” Mikey whispers, suddenly turning over to stare at Leo incredulously.

“What?! I was seven!”

“Seven is old enough to understand murder, Leo!” Donnie shoots back, flicking his shoulder. Leo opens his mouth to defend himself further but Donnie wasn’t done. “Then again, I’d be lying if I said the thought hasn’t passed my mind too.”

Again, living under the same concrete with people for years while sharing a room… a recipe for disaster. They were rambunctious boys that all had some sort of anger issues at differing ages, though only Raph’s seemed to really stick around. Fighting was bound to have happened.

“Murderers… I’m surrounded by murderers…” Mikey mumbles dazedly.

Donnie laughs at his brother’s poor realization. What can he say?! Living with and seeing the same people everyday was bound to drive them crazy! Honestly? Dad’s lucky they’re all alive at this point.

Leo chuckles along with him before pausing. “Actually, it’s potential murderers, Mikey. Not sure we’ve killed anyone yet.”

“Yet is totally the key word here.”

“Come on! You’re the one who threatened to skin me alive before chopping me up and making me into turtle soup!” Donnie retorts, copying his move from earlier and elbowing Mikey hard.

He had been particularly annoying that day, he’s not ashamed to admit.

Mikey guffaws, rolling his eyes with a whole lot of sass. Donnie snorts as Mikey says, “That was like… one time.”

Leo hums and says, “Still oddly specific and detailed.”

“You know what? Fine. Imma skin both of you alive and make you into turtle soup if you don’t shut up!” Mikey declares, stealing more of Donnie’s blanket as punishment for their annoyances. Not that Donnie minds less blanket. He’ll survive or steal it back later in the night. 

He has always been a blanket hog.

“Morbid, dontcha think?” Donnie comments, eyes slowly falling shut.

“I think I’d make a beautiful turtle handbag but not an appetizing turtle soup, if I’m being really honest.”

“Shut up!”

“Good night to you both!”

The only response Donnie gets are matching grumbles. His grin doesn’t leave his face until he falls asleep.

Chapter Text

The first sense that welcomes him back to the land of the living is taste, of course, because Raphael can have nothing good in life.

Seriously, smell would’ve been better, right? He could have woken up to the essential oil diffuser Leo sometimes leaves on and smelled a pretty lavender, right from the lavender fields or wherever else lavenders are. Or he could have woken up to the smell of countless energy drinks Donnie has managed to secretly sneak into their home without their dad noticing, fruity yet full of a buzz all at once. Or, maybe, he could have even woken up to Mikey’s many Yankee Candles. He likes to use them all at once which can give Raph a headache, but even that would be better than this.

What is this, you may ask? Well, Raph’s bitten his lip enough times to know what blood tastes like. Actually, he’s taken enough hits in his lifetime to last a, uh, lifetime and he likes to think he knows the taste of his own blood particularly well. He’s at least familiar with it in some sense.

All that to say he wakes up tasting somebody else’s blood in his mouth.

No, he doesn’t wake up to hear Dad’s comforting words or some random TV show in the background. He doesn’t wake up to a soft hand caressing his head or a gentle kiss to his temple. He doesn’t even wake up the normal way, squinting his eyes open against the bright light of someone (probably Donnie) getting ready in the morning.

Raph wakes up tasting somebody else’s blood… in his mouth.

It’s weird on all accounts. It’s a type of weird that Raph has never wanted to face, never thought about facing, and was sure as shell gonna make sure he never faced again. Why is he tasting somebody else’s blood? What had happened to have it be in his mouth? Was there a fight? Did Raphael — of all turtles or mutants or people or whatever you want to say — forget a fight?!

Trying to think, of course, gets his other senses going. He feels his nose scrunch first before a huge wave of pain from his torso inflames his entire being, making him whine a sound he hasn’t heard leave his beak in years. Or since Superfly, really. Cracking his shell had hurt, what can he say?

But pain is linked to memory in some way and memory chained to pain, so his midsection absolutely killing him under his poor, terrorized plastron helps him remember what happened.

Raph had broken ribs.

His family found out about his broken ribs.

Raph — in such pain and probably a little fevered because of it considering he’s starting to remember how sweaty he felt when he woke up to see Leo looming over him with an expression of pure terror — had lashed out in a way he hadn’t done since he was four. He had bit Leatherhead. Hard, if the blood taste that was still in his mouth was to go by. 

Oh great, he whines to himself in the comfort of his own head. Another apology I’ll have to dish out!

He groans once again, finally deciding to open his eyes. Maybe there’s someone around. There’s gotta be, right? He’s hurt, his family has a bad habit of being attached at the hip, and he’s hurt. Surely there’s someone in the room that can get him a glass of water so he can rinse his mouth out? 

Right as he opens his eyes, a pink paw falls into his vision. He goes cross eyed, watching as it cradles his cheek oh-so-gently in a way only his dad could. If he’s mad, Raph can’t tell. He doesn’t bother looking towards him and instead, as the pain grows ever brighter, hums and nudges his face into the hand gratefully.

“Good morning, Raphael,” Dad says softly, rubbing his thumb along Raph’s face. He takes a risk and looks over at the rat mutant.

He was right. His dad isn’t mad, or isn’t currently mad. But the worry that swims behind his eyes makes Raph’s heart churn and hurt more than his aching ribs ever could. It feels like disappointment, his dad’s gaze. It feels hurt in a way Raph caused, and Raph has never in his left ever meant to cause anybody but his enemies pain.

Well… his brothers are the exception depending on how annoying they were, but even this type of pain isn’t something he wouldn’t purposely cause them to feel.

“Hi, Dad,” he replies weakly, his guilt and shame rising as he looks away from his dad. 

As it is, he’s still too tired to even consider masking his more… vulnerable emotions with his close companion called anger. It’s much easier to try to hide them by looking away or even not saying anything at all, not that he thinks he’ll be able to keep his mouth shut for long but… it’d be better than having to explain everything right now in a burst of uncharacteristic rambling.

Rambling is more his brothers’ thing, ya know? And now matter how guilty he may feel right now, how much he wants to say sorry for hiding something that has caused his family — or at least his dad — so much worry… Raph clamps his mouth shut.

It’d be easier to not have to repeat everything more than once.

At his words, Dad lets out a relieved sigh. “Come on, let’s get you upright,” he says, removing his paw from Raph’s face after a light tap and to his shell.

Gathering his courage, Raph nods. He leans on his dad as, together, they help him sit upright. He grits his teeth the entire way up, his ribs protesting loudly that they do not want to do any of this. It’s too bad for them. Raph wants to sit up and they’re his ribs. They listen to him.

He’s left breathing heavy thanks to the pain, head back against the concrete wall of what he now realizes is the bottom bunk instead of the top bunk he fell asleep in. How did he get here? He doesn’t remember climbing down or anyone moving him… does he?

He silently wracks his brain to see if he does remember and finds nothing. Huh. That’s… did he pass out or something? Was the fever worse than he thought and he just legitimately forgot? Sure, he still feels clammy and it’s obvious whatever painkillers he had managed to swallow last night were fading, but a fever that bad would still be lingering, yeah? So how the heck did he get down here?

Dad mumbles something Raph doesn’t catch and quickly disappears from the room. He watches with a faint sense of frustration. Well, there went his chance to ask what had happened to get him down here. It’s not an important piece of information to know, of course, but Raph would appreciate it. He’s not particularly a fan of this weird brain fog he has going on.

His hand ghosts over his bandages. He looks down at them and wonders if they’re doing their job properly considering his shell is in the way. He can’t feel a difference between having them on and his faint memory of not having them last night. Leatherhead did a good job wrapping him, at least. They’re tight. He’s somewhat sad he has nothing to fidget with.

Raph sighs and looks back at his room, frowning at the empty beds around him. Right, his brothers must be in the living room. If they knew he was awake they’d be in here already, poking and prodding and questioning and worrying in a way only they can and in a way Raph rarely allows. 

Which is great. Raph’s so excited to sit here for who knows how long while his dad gets — what, a glass of water? Raph’s really hoping for a glass of water and some pain killers. Or an entire meal, that would be so good right now—

His stomach growls at the thought. Double great, he thinks as he crosses his arms. Now I’m bored and hungry!

Suddenly, there’s a crash from the doorway. More accurately, there’s a crash as Raph’s older brother skids into their doorway, looking at Raph with frantic wide eyes.

Ah, shell. He jinxed himself by thinking about how bored he was, didn’t he? Now here come his brothers. A welcome distraction but also a sign of Raph’s imminent doom by feelings, because if he was uncomfortable with the way their dad looked at him then he cannot stand the way Leo is looking at him like he’s a ghost. He's not a ghost. Raph didn’t die. He almost did but he’s very sure he didn’t since all evidence has proved otherwise.

Raph’s barely able to say “Take a picture, it’ll last longer,” before his younger two brothers blast past Leo like two turtles on a mission, trying to slide to a stop but their momentum is too great and they nearly land in the bed with Raph. And really, that was probably their first instinct anyways! He’s just glad they didn’t since at least one of them would have nudged his plastron a bit too hard. They end up kneeling on the floor next to the bunk instead.

“You’re awake!” Donnie exclaims, grinning from ear to ear.

Mikey swats their youngest brother’s shoulder. “Uh, duh? Dude, we saw Dad race into the kitchen. He’d never leave Raph’s side if he wasn’t awake.”

Donnie, of course, rolls his eyes at this. “Sure, Mikey. Like he totally didn’t leave him with Leatherhead and Wingnut to get some answers from me.”

That’s news to Raph. Not surprising news, Donnie’s always been really good at categorizing and recapping things in a way their dad likes. But news nonetheless.

Then again, everything from the past who knows how long (wait, how long was he asleep for?!) is gonna be news since he decided to go and get his ribs broken. Triple great. I hate not knowing things!

Oblivious or uncaring to Raph’s inner dilemma, his younger brothers continue on with their bickering.

“That’s called an exception, Donnie,” Mikey drawls, raising an unimpressed eye ridge. “Dad did that cause he wanted to figure out what happened to Raph.”

“What did happen?” Leo cuts in and effectively ends the mini fight, sitting on the end of his bed and making Raph look over at him.

His oldest brother still looks shaken but Raph’s starting to wonder if that’s his default. It’s rare Leo isn’t worried about something, but it’s been a while (again, since Superfly) that his worry has been pointed in Raph’s direction. And his overwhelming, all encompassing, well-meaning and somewhat heartwarming worry is now over Raph again. 

Raph hates it.

Mikey and Donnie look expectantly his way at Leo’s question. They too seem eager to know what happened and, if Raph looks a little closer and he will so he can stall his response, they also seem a bit shaken as well. They look tired. Donnie’s inching closer to the bed like he needs to be right next to Raph to be okay and Mikey has an indent on his cheek, a sure fire sign he’s been chewing on his cheek for a while at least and that’s he’s worried over something. 

Quadruple great, his mind blares as more shame and guilt begins to grow. I’ve worried everybody. The one thing he was trying to avoid and he didn’t, probably cause he’s Raph; he’s about as subtle as a bull in a china shop. 

“You sorta owe us, you know,” Donnie prods, pushing his glasses up. “We saved you from an untimely death.”

Despite himself, he snorts and crosses his arms. “I wouldn’t have died,” Raph protests with a roll of his eyes. “They’re broken ribs, Donnie. We all know from Leo’s lame medical shows that those don’t kill people.”

“Hey, Grey’s Anatomy is a work of art for, like, the first few seasons at least,” Leo defends, pushing himself deeper into the bunk with Raph and putting his shell against the wall. “And broken ribs do kill people, Raph, if they puncture an organ like — oh I don’t know — a lung?” His oldest brother fixes him with something like a deadpan expression.

“Hate to break it to you, but I did not have a punctured lung,” Raph easily corrects before looking back at Donnie. “So I wouldn’t have died.”

Donnie purses his lips like he wants to argue but can’t. Mikey can though and Raph squints at his direct younger brother to try and guess what might pop out of his mouth since the expression he’s making is way too bitter to be something nice and on the injured turtle’s side.

“Doesn’t mean you should have hid it from us,” Mikey says with a disapproving frown, poking his thigh in distaste. “Pretty sure that’s ninja rule number one, ‘Don’t hide things from each other’.”

Raph shifts, uncomfortable at the reminder of his choice. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the greatest idea. Just… just maybe.

“I thought ninja rule number one was ‘Be silent and deadly’?” Donnie questions, looking Mikey’s way with a raised eye ridge. Raph almost laughs at his incessant need to correct and be right. 

“Donnie,” Leo and Mikey both groan, shooting him twin glares.

Donnie holds his hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay, geez. Just saying…”

“Then don’t say it,” Mikey grumbles, ignoring the look Donnie gives him.

Leo ignores both of them, seemingly focusing back on Raph himself. “Why did you hide it? Didn’t you trust us? And again, what happened?!”

Raph blinks at the onslaught of questions before sitting up straighter… and wincing because of the movement. “What? Of course I trust you guys,” Raph says, glaring at Leo for even implying otherwise.

He trusts his brothers more than anyone in the world! More than even their dad, because Dad is the parent and his brothers his brothers. It’s different. Brothers are closer than fathers — that’s just how it is! His brothers were the ones that fought with him and let him rampage before having his shell in the surprising amount of life threatening situations they seem to get into. It’s always his brothers if Raph has to choose. Always.

Why would Leo think otherwise?

“Then why didn’t you tell us you were injured, Raph?” Leo demands, his voice wavering in a way that only happens when he’s been severely hurt in some way, shape, or form. “We’re a team — no, more than that — we’re your brothers! And you just… suffered alone? Why?”

Raph tries to swallow and fails, wincing under the sound his throat makes. He looks away, that guilt and shame rising ever higher. It threatens to drown him and he may actually die from it if he happens to look at any of his brothers’ pained expressions.

There’s only one area where Raph’s been weak. Well, two if you count his anger issues, but he’s not for now. So yeah, only one area: his family.

His family is the most important thing in the world to him, as cliché as that may sound. He came into this world with three brothers by his side and a rat man corralling them all — he’s never known anything else and, at times, it was the most frustrating thing ever. Kids need privacy. In a sewer, sharing a room, it’s nearly impossible to find said privacy. It may have led to a majority of his blow ups growing up. 

Then again, he’s never known anything else. He’s never known a life without an older brother that pushes him forwards even when he himself is scared, or holds him back at the appropriate times to make sure he’s safe. He’s never known life without a younger brother that makes comedy and skateboarding his livelihoods, bickering with Raph and talking him down from some of his worse moods. He’s never known life without a younger younger brother that’s so brilliant and eager to learn that Raph feels like he needs to be better just to protect him from the harsh lessons the world has to offer, that teases him just as mercilessly as Raph does him.

He’s never known life without a father that loves him more than Raph could ever imagine. One that gives love as effortlessly as breathing, that holds him when he’s in pain and cheers him on when he gets a kata right. One that is learning (slowly but surely) to give him and his brothers the freedom they need to grow up. 

And Raph hurt them in a huge way, even though all he wanted was to protect him.

His breath hitches painfully. He grips his blankets tighter and stares at the blankets that are still on his legs. He tries really hard not to cry, of course, he’s got the tough guy image to keep up! But under all the pain and exhaustion that’s weighing on him like 1,000 tons, under all the guilt and shame, under it all… Raph breaks a little too easily for his liking.

“I’m so sorry.” Raph’s voice cracks. He can look nowhere but the blankets. “I’m — I didn’t mean to hurt you guys, I swear, I—“

And then Leo’s pushing his legs to the side and sitting as close as he can while Donnie pulls the pillows next to him right off the bed, plopping them on the floor before replacing them with himself. Mikey takes Leo’s spot at the end of the bed, throwing his legs over Raph as if he’s trying to trap him, like Raph would escape. He’s in too much pain for that but he appreciates the thought.

“I trust you guys,” Raph continues, looking them all in the eyes to let them know he’s super serious. He blinks back the stinging behind his eyes. “I do, but I thought you guys were gone! I thought it was just me!”

His brothers stare at him. Leo’s not offended like he was when Raph first said that in Bishop’s lab and if he is he hides it well. They’re listening. They’re understanding. They’re here. 

Raph isn’t alone.

He shakes his head as tears start to fall without his permission (rude). “And then we met back up and— and I didn’t want to worry you guys,” he mutters, wiping his face with the back of his hand. “I didn’t want to worry — worry you guys or, or ruin the reunion and… and I thought I could handle it,” Raph hiccups.

“Raph…” Donnie starts, looking at him with big, sad eyes.

He ignores him. “I thought I could handle it, I was gonna — gonna tell you in the morning, I swear,” Raph rasps as his hiccuping sobs start to really hurt his poor abused ribs. “I’m so sorry, so sorry, I swear, I trust you guys, I—“

He’s suddenly wrapped in a hug. He doesn’t know who exactly he’s hugging, but he returns it just as eagerly even if they pull him a little too far forward and make his ribs twinge. He cries into their shoulder and feels the other two brothers missing from the equation join in.

“I’m sorry,” Raph hiccups again, wincing under each breath. Everything hurts really super bad, but it’s worth it to be in his brothers’ arms. They’re alive and Raph’s not alone. It’s all worth it. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay!” Donnie’s voice from his right reassures, a hand gently rubbing his shell. “I mean, don’t do it again, but it’s okay. We forgive you.”

Mikey’s watery voice, clearly crying with Raph, comes from ahead of him and practically on top of his legs. “Yeah, man,” he warbles. “Don’t do it again. We love you, dude.”

Which means he’s currently tucked away into Leo’s neck. Raph should’ve known. He tries to take a breath to respond and finds it’s much harder than he thought it would be, his breathing choppy and pain radiating from inside outward. His brothers don’t seem to notice, too busy holding him.

“You gotta tell us next time, man,” Leo murmurs, arms wrapped tight around Raph as he slumps further into Leo’s hold. “But yeah, you’re forgiven as long as you don’t do it again.”

Raph nods, trying and failing to catch his breath. Again, really hard to breathe. And really painful. As in really, really painful! He tries to suck in another breath and ends up hissing at the sharp, electric twinge of pain that he gets in response. 

“Raph?!” 

Suddenly, his brothers are pushing him back against the wall he was previously leaning on. He leans back against it and grits his teeth, wrapping an arm around his plastron. His tears begin to slow as the pain either subsides or he grows used to it.

“Gah,” he breathes, fighting hard to put a smirk on his face. “Yeah, guys, can’t say I’ll ever do this again.”

All three of them wear matching looks of fear and worry. His face drops as he realizes he caused that before he winces again at another breath. 

“Maybe we should get Dad,” Donnie says, looking between the doorway and Raph with way too much concern — Raph’s fine, thank you. 

Actually, he thinks to himself. That’s a lie. Every breath feels like a bus running me over.

“I got it,” Mikey tells them from the end of the bed before hopping off. He disappears out the doorway.

Leo frowns as he leaves before looking back to the blankets. 

Oh no. Nope, nuh uh. Raph knows that look. Leo’s debating something up in that big old head of his. Raph grimaces as his body breathes once again and then flicks Leo’s arm, raising an eye ridge when he looks over. Leo’s eyes widen at being under his scrutiny before he looks away once again, chewing on his lip.

Donnie spots this. “Dude, what?” he asks, tilting his head curiously.

Leo sighs like he has the world on his shoulders before looking over at Raph (uh oh) with a resigned expression (double uh oh). “Just…you need to tell us when you’re hurt.”

Raph snorts despite himself at the words before crying out at the pain that brings, beginning to lean heavily into Donnie’s side. “Thought we covered that?” he mutters as fresh tears crowd his eyes.

“We did,” Leo agrees, eyeing him wearily before grabbing his hand, letting Raph squeeze it tight with every breath. “But that was as brothers. I know you guys joke about me being ‘leader’ and the ‘plan guy’, but this is stuff I need to know when it comes down to it.” He shifts uncomfortably under Raph’s and Donnie’s gaze. “You get hurt, I need to know and need to know how hurt. Like, do we need to leave the area now kind of hurt or can I still use you as part of the plan? That kind of stuff.”

“That makes sense,” Donnie says slowly, watching Raph like a hawk as he inhales and exhales. Normally he’d be mad at the scrutiny but breathing is pretty important and he knows he ain’t breathing right right now, so. “And Leo, you know we’ll follow you anywhere.”

There’s something in that tone that makes Raph narrow his eyes. He flicks his gaze between his two cooler toned brothers. He missed something. What did he miss? Should he ask? Will he be told later? Again, Raph doesn’t like not knowing things.

Still, he easily agrees. “What he said.”

Leo huffs, scratching his arm. “I know you will,” he mumbles, like it’s a bad thing. “That’s why you need to tell me.”

“Deal,” Raph automatically agrees. Donnie nods alongside him.

Leo smiles at them both. “Thank you.”

It’s then that Mikey bounces back in, a water bottle in hand and a container of Tylenol in another. Now, a normal amount of Tylenol wouldn’t work well cause they’re mutants, but taking double the recommended human dose? Does the trick and knocks them out just as hard. It’s great. Annoying when trying to move through life with a simple headache and it’s either nap time or nothing, but great nonetheless.

“Got the goods for ya, Raph,” Mikey chimes, climbing back into the bunk expertly. He hands over the water bottle with a smile.

“Have I told you I love you?” Raph wheezes, taking the water bottle eagerly. He opens it and quickly takes a sip. “I’m so glad to not be tasting blood anymore.”

Leo pales at this, gripping Raph’s entire arm with both hands. “You’ve been tasting blood?!” he screeches.

Raph blinks at the sudden volume, eyes wide. “Uh, yeah? Not mine though. Did… did I bite somebody?”

His oldest brother immediately deflates at the admission. His younger brothers immediately share matching, mischievous grins with each other. Raph narrows his eyes. 

What. The shell. Did I do?!

“You bit someone big time,” Mikey informs him, smiling way too wide and with way too many teeth for his liking. He also hands over four pills, so Raph lets it slide in favor of sweet, sweet pain relief.

“And you were hissing up a whole storm,” Donnie teases, poking his shoulder. “Nearly set off Leo’s instincts again.”

Leo’s face flames at that, letting Raph know it’s a hundred percent the truth. He pops the pills in his mouth and takes another swig of water before swallowing them down, hoping they kick in fast.

“I was worried,” Leo protests, hand still in Raph’s and the other still gripping his arm like he hasn’t remembered that Raph is hurt but alive and well. “He stopped hissing out of nowhere!”

Raph hums, trying to push down the embarrassment that springs forward due to the news that he hissed at multiple people. He hasn’t done that in years. Ugh. Instead, he redirects and takes a deep breath in to tease his older brother.

“Wow, Leo. And I’m the one who doesn’t know how to control their instincts.”

Leo gapes at this. “Wha— You were the one who bit Leatherhead, not me!”

Donnie and Mikey “oooh” as Raph lets that slowly sink in. He blinks. Looks at his water bottle. Blinks again. And feels his face flame up just as much as Leo’s did mere seconds ago.

“I what?!”

Mikey snickers at him, falling sideways onto the bed. Oh, so this is funny? The fact he bit Leatherhead — a giant alligator — hard enough to bleed is funny?! He remembered the taste of her blood! That’s a weird thing to remember! That's a weird thing that he now has to live with! What the shell, man?!

Donnie, who was also chuckling along and is now the perfect picture of innocence, nudges his shoulder. “She doesn’t blame you, man, promise! She’s more impressed by the bite force than anything.”

Raph groans at the news, making all his brothers laugh again. He has broken ribs. Can’t they leave him alone?!

“Yeah, I dunno, Wingnut looked a little too interested,” Leo muses, sending a smug smile his way. “I think some bite tests are gonna be in your future, Raph.”

Raph glares at him. “Bite tests,” he repeats as Mikey snorts.

Leo nods, waving a hand. “Bite tests. You know, to see how strong our jaws are compared to normal turtles? Pretty sure she’s already made Leatherhead go through the same thing…”

Raph’s jaw drops. Bite tests. Bite. Tests?! Like a dog?! Raph is not a dog! He’s a turtle! A mutant turtle! He’s not gonna do some bite tests! Nuh uh! No way!

“That’d actually be really cool to test, though,” Donnie says, eyes alight with curiosity and anticipation already. He sits up even straighter. “Like, our bite force could be twice what could be predicted because of our mutation!”

Raph scoffs (and winces, but that’s neither here nor there). “Then you can be the lab rat. Or maybe Mr.Giggles Mcgee over there can go in my stead.”

Mikey stills and his laughter ends abruptly, even as Leo starts to snicker along with Donnie. “You can’t say that, Raph. Our dad is a rat! It’s rude.”

Raph nods, leaning into Donnie conspiratorially. “Notice how he didn’t protest being part of your experiment.”

“Seems like you’ve got a new test subject, Don,” Leo agrees, squawking when Mikey pinches him in the arm for his words. “Hey!”

“I have breakfast!” 

Their dad’s voice makes them all jump, jostling his poor ribs. Raph glares at his brothers and hisses when Leo dives over his legs to help their poor dad, handling all four plates with expert care as he walks into their room. 

“Ow,” he says, pointedly looking Leo’s way as he takes two of the plates.

Sheepishly, he glances Raph’s way. “Sorry.”

Raph grumbles beneath his breath as plates are head their way. Soon it’s Mikey at his side and Leo back at the end of the bed, Donnie in the same place as Dad kneels in the middle. The rat looks at him with a lot of concern — enough that Raph feels his guilt bubble up again and make him nauseous besides the beautiful plate of eggs and sausage in front of him. Or maybe that’s the Tylenol since he took that on an empty stomach. Who knows?

“I’m fine, Dad,” he tells him, trying to alleviate at least some of the guilt he feels. “And sorry.”

Their dad hums, placing a paw on his shin and squeezing gently. “You’re forgiven.”

Mikey, mouth half full of food, decides that Raph hasn’t clarified enough. “Well, he’s mostly fine. He’s been wincing with every breath but that’s for the Tylenol to fix, yeah?”

Raph glares at him from across the bed. “Snitch,” he declares, shoving a bite of eggs into his mouth. They taste so much better than blood. 

“Hm, Leatherhead did say it would hurt for a while,” Dad says, starting to rub Raph’s shin idly. “Luckily, you will be on bed rest most of that time.”

“Lucky for who?” Raph mutters under his breath, smirking when Donnie elbows him in the side while trying hard not to laugh.

If their dad heard him, he doesn’t show it. Instead, he continues. “However, you are very much grounded young man.”

Raph blinks, nearly dropping his fork before throwing his head back and groaning. “Aw, what?! The broken ribs aren’t enough of a punishment? C’mon, Dad!”

Dad just stares, amused if anything. “Your brothers are grounded too. You all decided to fight robots and then not tell me about it, yes? You’re not the only one being punished.”

All four of them wince under the reminder. Quintuple great, Raph thinks, shoving a bite of sausage into his mouth so he doesn’t complain more and get them in trouble. 

“We didn’t want to worry you,” Leo tells him, staring down at his plate of food before blinking, snapping his head up at Raph. “We… we were gonna tell you in the morning…”

Huh. Seems like they’re all gonna have to work on getting out of that mindset, not just Raph. He feels like that should’ve been obvious. He blames his pain as to why he didn’t notice.

Dad simply hums. “I know, my sons, that my worry can be… overwhelming. But I mean well. I want you to trust me to take care of you, even after events that may scare me. You are more important than my ‘What If’s’. Next time, come to me. If I happen to be too overbearing, tell me. We will work on it together. You are my sons. You’re worth stressing over.”

Again, all four of them wince before sharing a glance. Together they nod, a promise to be more forthcoming. 

Their dad really doesn’t ask a lot, does he?

The meal goes on without problem. Raph focuses on his plate (as small as it is, his dad clocked that he wouldn’t have much of an appetite, somehow) and lets his brothers carry the conversation. Again, they recap what happened the night before, this time with more flare. 

They may be grounded but it sure as shell makes a good story. He lets them tell his part, too, feeling his eyes grow heavier as his pain fades away.

Broken ribs are not for the weak. Raph feels exhausted as his muscles finally untense. After having an emotional talk, being in pain, and sobbing his heart out? Yeah, he doesn’t mind passing out.

Before he does, he’s reminded that he somehow forgot to tell them how he got the broken ribs along with what his kidnappers were planning to do with him. Huh. 

Oh well, he thinks, feeling his head fall onto Donnie’s shoulder. Another story for another time. And another reason to be grateful I have all six fingers!

The sound of his family echoes around him. He smiles softly to himself, relishing in the way Leo laughs and Mikey guffaws at something stupid. Even Donnie snickers, his shoulder moving up and down under Raph’s head. It would be annoying if Raph had the energy to be annoyed. Instead, he finds himself endeared rather than anything else. 

All of this is a simple reminder that he’s not alone. And, really, what else could a turtle ask for?

“Your finger was almost WHAT?!”

“Dude! What do you mean you were almost trafficked?!”

“You’re never leaving my sight again, oh my gosh, I’m gonna be sick—“

“Please tell me these Purple Dragon guys aren’t going to show up again. They’re not, right Raph? Right?”