This is an idea that I was playing around with probably two years ago. I was cleaning through my documents today and found a fair few stories that were either finished, like this one, or halfway done. So I've decided to finally use my account and upload them here. I'm not the best writer but hey I gave it a shot right. Anyway, enjoy!
A chill went up Leonardo's spine as he sat atop one of his favourite lookouts over the city. The twinkling of artificial light and the glow of light pollution on the horizon a vast contrast to the thousands of stars blanketed in darkness he became accustomed to in the past year and a half. Leonardo felt a pang of remorse that he couldn't marvel at the stars as he had during his time away, however the familiarity of the New York skyline reminded him that he wouldn't trade this view for the world.
He shivered as another gust of wind hit him on his perch. Winter was a few weeks away and he suddenly regretted leaving the lair without a jacket. Still, he was in a rush to get away. Hostilities between Donatello and Raphael were beginning to show again, and Leo found himself coming down with the sudden need to get air. After spending the majority of his life in the sub-terrain of the world's busiest city, he never thought he would get feelings of claustrophobia. It was just another adjustment that had to be made after his return from Central America's jungles.
The soft sound of feet against concrete behind him drew Leonardo out of his thoughts. Much to his surprise he was greeted by his youngest brother, Michelangelo, clad in an oversized orange hoodie another jacket draped over his arm. Wordlessly, Michelangelo approached with his offering and handed it to his slowly freezing eldest brother, who accepted it gratefully.
"The lair was getting pretty stuffy tonight." Leo stated as his brother moved to sit next to him on his perch, both admiring the view. "How did you find me here anyway?"
"Call it a hunch." Mikey shrugged, "That or it's no secret to any of us that this is your favourite brooding spot." he smirked at his older brother. Looking back over the city he continued "Though I understand why you come here. This view would help put anything into perspective."
They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, admiring the city, listening to the commotion below them that even the late hour didn't seem to quell.
Michelangelo was the first to break the silence. "So what are you brooding about anyways?" he asked, the smirk gone from his features and a rarely seen serious expression taking its place.
Leonardo didn't reply straight away, contemplating his answer. Why was he up here? Was it the claustrophobic feeling he had gotten before? Was it the growing tensions between the middle brothers? Was it something else?
"I really don't know" he sighed. Leo looked to his brother, "I think it's a couple of reasons, but I think I just needed to see this view again." He looked back over the city. "As you said," he continued, "it really puts everything into perspective. I didn't realise how much I missed it until now".
"If you missed it, why didn't you come back to it sooner?" Mikey asked. There was no malice in his question; however Leo felt the familiar pang of guilt in his chest all the same.
"I wanted to come back so bad Mikey." Leo stressed, "But every time I thought of coming back…I, I just couldn't. I failed all of you as a leader. I allowed you all to get hurt during the final battle with the Shredder." Leo began to get flustered in his answer, the stress of the past failures finally starting to show.
"I LET YOU DOWN!" He yelled to the city, anger and self-loathing flaring in his eyes. The anger diminished as quickly as it appeared.
"I let all of you down" he said despondently.
"I didn't come back because I felt like I didn't deserve to be your leader anymore" Leo admitted, once again facing toward the skyline.
They both sat in silent contemplation for a few minutes which was abruptly broken when Leo felt a sudden sharp pain to the back of his head. His head jerked forward at the sensation, and he sharply turned to face his brother. The source of the pain became evident as he saw the anger on his younger brothers face and the hand descending from its attack.
Michelangelo had just slapped him upside the head. If Leonardo wasn't so annoyed, he probably would have seen the situation as ironic.
"Mikey! What the heck was that for?"
There was another minute of tense silence between the brothers, both staring down each other with serious and annoyed expressions. Eventually, Mikey broke eye contact and looked down to his lap, the anger slipping from his expression and morphing into tired frustration.
"You idiot" Mikey murmured. "We would never shun you because you were a bad leader. Which you're not, by the way." He added hastily. "But, you know what Leo? During the year that we didn't hear from you, I don't think at any time any one of us thought that we wanted our leader back." He paused, looking back over the city. "No. No, what we wanted was our older brother back."
He turned to directly acknowledge Leonardo's shocked expression before continuing. "You saw the result of your absence Leo. And leadership had nothing to do with it. When you left, a pillar of this family left. Without that pillar, the foundation became unstable, and the structure that is our family began to collapse. We tried to change the arrangement of the foundation in order to try and support the structure until you returned, but it still began crumbling all the same."
Mikey sighed. "What I'm trying to get at here Leo is that we never needed our leader, we needed our brother."
Leonardo looked back over the city, contemplating the meaning of what his brother had told him. It was true; the family was left to struggle to hold itself together in his absence. The stress of his absence was particularly evident in Raphael and Donatello's relationship. Once quite companionable with each other, their relationship had become strained with Donatello taking the role of temporary leader and having to control a rebellious Raphael. Their now constant arguments were a remnant of that time, even with Leonardo's return. It was distressing for even Leo to witness. He now wondered how the fighting between his brothers had affected Michelangelo over the past year-and-a-half.
Seeing the fractures in the foundation, Leo had stepped back into what he usually turned to in the past to fix situations with the team dynamic, the leader role. Leo now realised that he had only saw the cracks in the team. He neglected the cracks in the bonds between those in his family, arguably the most important out of the two units, even though they were made up of the same.
"Ah look at me, spouting philosophical nonsense like Splinter would." Mikey continued. "I'm not even sure that what I just said made sense. Guess that means its right though. I don't even know the meaning of half the philosophical stuff that Splinter says" He chuckled.
Leo had to chuckle lightly at Mikey's jab at Splinter's constant referral to famous prophets in his lessons to his sons. Although, all four turtle boys were convinced that Splinter made up half of his words-of-wisdom.
Didn't mean that those phrases and lessons were wrong though.
"Anyways, I'm cold. And hungry. You up for some pizza bro? Mikey asked, standing up and moving away from the edge, signature grin back and joker personality evident in his voice and features.
Leo smiled over the fact that Mikey was back to himself so quickly after revealing such feelings. Mikey was staying true to his happy-go-lucky personality. This alone meant that all hope wasn't lost to try and fix his family now that he was back.
"Sure thing. Race?" Leo asked. Though his proposition fell on deaf ears. Mikey was already off, his laughter heard from two roofs over.
"Catch me if you can Leo!" Mikey laughed as he retreated, his reputation as the fastest turtle showing true to form.
Leo laughed at his brother's antics before giving chase. Although he had a head start, poor Mikey was going to get the shock of his life when Leo beat him. His time in the jungles of Central America weren't a total waste, after all.