Ch.1 Blamed

It had been a week after Master Splinter died. The four turtles had barely spoken since that terrible morning. Mikey, the chattiest of his brothers, didn't talk anymore. Raph stayed in the dojo, stabbing at his punching bag, and cursing when he punctured a whole in it. Don sat at the kitchen table, staring at Master Splinter's favorite tea cup, the one that he had used the night before he past away. Leo was the only one that was, still... alive, so to speak. He still practiced his ninjutsu and katas, cooked dinner (enough for the four of them even though he was the only one that ate), and did his chores.

He brought his brothers food and drinks only to get them turned down. He was starting to feel like something was wrong, 'why are they resenting me? I can understand that they are upset about our father's death, but why does Raph keep glaring at me, and Mikey refuse to let me comfort him, and why doesn't Don look at me when I speak to him?' Leo thought. This troubled him very much. At night he would go into his room and as hard as he would try, he couldn't hold back the tears as he thought about his father and how much he missed him. He tried to stop, he couldn't let his brothers see him cry, he had to be strong so he could lead them out of their depressions.

That morning, Leo went down stairs and strait to the dojo to practice, he was prepared to have Raph's evil glare bore in to the back of his head, as usual. But when he entered, instead of one pair, there where three pairs of eyes, two glaring, and one staring warily at him. "um, hi guys. You wa-" the blue masked turtle began, but was cut off "we wanna talk to ya! You got some explaining to do." the red masked brother snarled.

"okay" leo answered, glancing at each brother "why-" "Don't act so innocent and clueless! We know what you did!" this time he was cut off by the youngest ninja, Michelangelo. "what are you ta-" but he was unable to finish when he suddenly found himself on the floor. He looked up in horror as he rubbed his jaw and spit out a little blood. He didn't see the punch coming, but he sure felt it.

"Donnie told us everything! He told us that you were the one that made Master Splinter's tea that night!" Raph growled and let Mikey continue "and that when he was finished he said that he was feeling ill! He went to bed and died in his sleep. You KILLED our father!"

Leo, now propped up on his elbows, stared in disbelief "y-you think, I kil-killed Master Splinter?" Raph lost it "DON'T PUSH IT LEO! IT'S OBVIOUS, YOU WANTED THIS! YOU WANTED HIM DEAD!" he roared. Donatello put a hand on his shoulder to calm him, Raph just shrugged it off. Mikey gave a 'what the shell are you doing?' look at Don before turning back to the now standing Leo. "you wanted to be leader, so you took him out" he said calmly but with disgust in his voice. Donatello still hadn't said anything but now had a small bit of anger on his face.

"you think I did that?" Leonardo questioned, confusion showing in his voice. Raph crossed his arms across his chest "we don't 'think', we know. You traitor. I hate you." his words were sharp as his sais.

"I wish you where dead!" Mikey joined in with his brother.

"I'd rather have Master Splinter than you"

"I can't believe your our leader, anyone of us would have been a better one than you"

The insults came pouring in from Raph and Mikey, Leo couldn't take it anymore, he could feel tears welling up at the corners of his eyes. The only one who hadn't said anything was Donnie, he looked at leo with sorrow, anger, nervousness, and fright. This made Leo want to cry even more. "STOP!" Leo screamed. That shut his brothers up.

He looked back to Don and placed a hand on the purple masked turtle. Don pulled his shoulder back, causing Leo's hand to drop. "Donatello?" Leonardo said, almost a whisper. Don closed his eyes and looked down "just go" he said, barely audible. Leonardo could almost feel the sorrow and agony in Donatello's voice. He turned to the the side to show Leo the door.

On his way out he heard Raph talking fiercely to Don "what the shell Don? I wasn't finished with 'im!". He ran to his room, Leo slammed his door behind him and collapsed on his bed curling into a ball. The tears fell like rain, never seeming to end. Leo didn't know why, but Don, his most sensitive, quiet, kind, peaceful, genius brother's words hurt more than anything else said to him that morning.