Leo's brothers have had enough of Leo's attitude recently. So they find a way to make him talk. Just a short one shot I thought of one day.
Disclaimer: I don't own tmnt and I never will.
As Raph, Donnie, Mikey watched Leo run through his kata yet another time, saying he hadn't gotten it right, they sighed. As far as they could tell-as far as Master Splinter could tell, Leo had done it perfect every single time he'd performed it. Yet he still remained convinced he'd done something wrong.
Ever since their final battle with the Shredder, Leo had been acting more and more aggressive, like Raph, instead of like himself. This confused the brothers to no end. With the Shredder gone, their problems with the Foot Clan had evaporated, at least for now. So why did Leo keep practicing like this? Preparing to fight Shredder, it would make sense. But Leo didn't need all this extra training to take on the Purple Dragons and Bishop's goons (Bishop, maybe, but they didn't fight him as much as others). Don, Raph, and Mikey had all tried to talk to him, but he'd shut them out.
"What are we going to do? He can't continue like this, it isn't healthy." Don asked, watching Leo with a look of worry.
"I don't know Don. I'd suggest threatening to beat him into stopping, but that'd never work with Fearless. And talking to him doesn't work." Raph pounded his fist into his open hand.
Mikey added his two cents in. "Maybe he'd open up if he thought we knew where he was coming from. He probably thinks we don't understand-"
"And he's right!" Raph interjected. "This came out of nowhere. Sure, he's been depressed before, but nothing like this! I just don't get this! Karai stabs him, and he beats himself up over it when it's her he should be beating!"
Mikey's eyes went wide. "Oh, shell! We're such idiots!"
"Huh?" Don and Raph chorused.
Mikey shook his head. "No guys, listen. Out of all of us, Leo was the one who trusted Karai the most. She came through for him at least half the time. He saw her as honorable. Then, after he saves her from falling to her death, she turns on him and he ends up getting stabbed with his own blade. To him, that must have been like either Casey, April, or any of our other friends turning around and attacking us!" Raph and Donnie's eyes widened, "And the ship! He came up with idea to blow it up to stop the Shredder. We all agreed to it, yeah, but it was his idea. Remember how he was at the farm that one time. He felt he let everyone down because he couldn't defeat all those Foot Ninja. He's got to feel like he let us down!"
Raph was the first to speak. "Aww, shell! Mikey's right. And the comment I made about Karai at the farm probably only made it worse!"
Donnie was on another train of thought. "It also explains the training. He feels that if he trains hard enough, he'll be able to stop any enemy and prevent something like that from happening again."
Silence fell, as each turtle absorbed the information. Don was the first to find his voice. "We should have talked to him sooner. April said she tried back at the farm, and he had been kind of willing to talk. If we had realized this sooner, maybe we could have helped him."
"Don, as much as we might wish we'd talked to him sooner, we didn't. That's our fault, but we can't worry about it now. What we need to do is figure out a way to make him talk now." Raph said. A few minutes later, he snapped his fingers. "I've got it." As he explained it to the others, Donnie looked nervous, but resigned, as did Mikey.
The next morning
Leo woke up feeling groggy and very annoyed. Instead of training in the dojo last night, Master Splinter had forced him to come to the table to eat with them. He'd only drunk a cup of tea, reasoning that a full stomach might slow him down, and this kata he was planning on practicing the rest of the night required speed. After drinking the tea, he had suddenly felt extremely sleepy and hadn't been able to fight it, for some odd reason.
The annoyance evaporated into fear and anger, however, as he found himself tied up on the floor of the dojo, with his brothers, who were similarly bound. Their weapons were gone, and he couldn't reach the ropes with his teeth.
As his brothers woke up, he asked "What happened."
Donnie moaned. "The Foot attacked the Lair! Somehow, they found us. We tried to fight back, but there were too many. I don't know where they took Splinter." He added, seeing the question on Leo's face.
Leo was confused. "How could I not have heard them? Unless…" he looked accusingly at his brothers, a suspicion about the tea forming in his mind. "Was there a reason I suddenly felt sleepy after drinking the tea?"
Donnie looked sheepish. "I felt like you were running yourself into the ground with your training Leo. So, I kinda felt it would be okay for you to take a quick break…" He trailed off, seeing the fury in Leo's eyes.
Before Leo could unleash his fury on Don though, Raph spoke up. "Don't you dare yell at Donnie, Leo. It was my idea to begin with. You were killing yourself, even if you didn't know it. Why don't you thank me for the favor?"
"Raph! I was perfectly fine! How could you even think of that!" Leo was about to go on a rant when Donnie interrupted.
"Leo, you weren't fine. You haven't been fine for a while." Donnie said angrily. "You work yourself to death, you nearly get yourself killed acting like Raph sometimes, you hardly talk to us except to make us train more! That is not fine!"
"It is. What do you know!" Leo shouted.
"More than you think we do Leo," said Mikey, speaking up for the first time. "We know how you are with what you call 'failing.' We know what you believed about Karai-"
Leo cut Mikey abruptly. "Mikey, you spend so much time in your stupid comic books to really know anything, yet you act like you know things you don't have any idea about it. You all do. Why do you guys have to be so stupid!" He immediately realized what he said as his brothers stared at him. Though Leo might not be into comic books, he never insulted Mikey for liking them, and he sure as shell knew that none of his brothers were stupid. "Guys, I…Let's change the subject, we need to figure out how to get free from the Foot."
"No." Mikey said, plain and simple.
"Mikey-"
"No." Mikey said again, looking Leo straight in the eye with an uncommonly serious expression, joined by Donnie and Raph.
"Why Leo?" Mikey asked.
"It's nothing, I'm sorry. I just lost my temper. Let's see if we can escape."
"No." the other three chorused.
"Not until you tell us why Leo." Mikey said.
"I just did."
"No, you didn't." replied Donnie, not dropping his gaze for a second.
Leo didn't have to ask what they meant.
"I…" he gave up. He owed it to his brothers to tell them something after what he'd said.
"I believed Karai was an honorable warrior and person. I thought she was an ally, even with her loyalty to the Shredder. So when she stabbed me with my katana, I felt like April had turned us into the authorities or Casey had sold us out to the Purple Dragons. Then, since it I was the leader who came up with the idea to blow up the ship, our deaths would have been my fault. I felt that it would've been different if I'd been better at ninjitsu."
After some silence, Raph spoke up. "Leo, it may have been your idea, but you didn't order us to do it. We were all agreed."
Donnie added, "You aren't responsible for Karai's actions either Leo."
Leo would have protested, but what Mikey stopped him. "We're not going to pretend we know everything you're feeling Leo, because we don't. But we understand enough that you can talk to us about it. And you need to talk to us about it. Remember what you told us when we were kids. 'I can't help you if you don't let me.' You're no exception, and you know you need to talk to someone."
Leo thought about it. If he had to be completely honest with himself, he'd admit that he did want to get these feelings out, and he knew on some level they were killing him. He sighed. "All right, I'll talk to you guys and Master Splinter, but not now."
"Why not now?" asked Don, perplexed.
Leo fought the urge to roll his eyes. "Because we've got to figure out a way to stop the Foot." he reminded them.
"But once we're free of the Foot, do you promise?" asked Raph.
Leo nodded. "I swear." When his brothers looked suspicious, he added "On my honor, I swear." To this day, Leo never broke a promise he made on his honor.
His brothers nodded. Mikey smiled and turned towards the door. "Okay Master Splinter, we're good." To Leo's shock, Master Splinter opened the doors, revealing a Foot-free lair, and started to untie his brothers.
"What. The. Shell?" Leo couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Donnie smiled. "We knew you didn't want to talk to us Leo, so we had to find a way where you couldn't use training to get out of it and a situation where you'd get angry. When you're mad, you say things you don't mean, like you did earlier. Then you'd feel guilty and maybe start opening up, and we could get you to promise to tell us everything. Which you did. This whole scheme was actually Raph's idea."
Raph smirked at Leo's incredulous expression. "We understand you better than you think we do Leo. Me included. I knew this was the only way to get you to talk."
"The tea thing was my idea though." Mikey piped up. "We knew that for this to work, none of us could have our weapons. But trying to get your katanas away from you? Nearly impossible to do. So we told Master Splinter our plan and had him slip something into your tea to make you sleep, then we took your swords and tied you up in the dojo. Master Splinter tied us up there about ten minutes before you were due to wake up. You know how the rest went."
"Yes my sons," said Splinter, speaking up for the first time. "You have done well. But now I think it is time for a long overdue discussion with Leonardo." He motioned for his sons to follow him to his room.
After some hesitation Leo followed.
After they'd all gathered in a circle in Master Splinter's room, everyone turned to Leo. He didn't want to do this, but he'd sworn on his honor to tell them everything. He decided to start with the most obvious problem-Karai.
"When I saved Karai from falling on the ship, I was hoping she'd help me afterwards. I guess I always believed she had honor in her. So when she turned right around and attacked me again…well, I told you guys it felt like Casey or April betraying us. Afterwards I felt stupid for trusting her. And since I trusted her, that allowed her to nearly kill me and prevented me from being able to help you guys.
"And since none of us could take down the Shredder in his new suit, we knew he'd kill us when he got back in the engine. I felt that I wasn't good enough, that I hadn't learned enough. If I knew more, than maybe I could've beaten him, or at least made a bigger impact, but he didn't even get a scratch on him.
"When we ran out of options to stop him, I felt like I failed. If the Utroms hadn't come we would've died. Because I didn't come up with a better plan or fought harder, we would've died." Leo couldn't continue anymore.
Throughout Leo's entire explanation, Master Splinter had forbidden his other sons to interrupt as he felt it was better for Leo to let it all out all at once. When it was clear Leo had finished, Master Splinter allowed his other sons to speak.
"Leonardo, you must not hold yourself accountable for Karai's actions. You do not control them."
Leo shook his head, "Sensei, she worked for the Shredder. I should've known I couldn't trust her. I was stupid to."
"No you weren't Leo." To everyone's surprise, it was Raph who had spoken. "I never really trusted Karai myself, but you did. At least half the time, she would prove herself too, like on the ship, where she couldn't bring herself to kill you. I can't believe I'm saying this, but you had a good reason to trust her. On the ship, though, she took advantage of the fact that you trusted her and attacked you. Her actions were her fault, not yours."
Leo was stunned. He hadn't thought about it that way, but Raph had a point. "But because of that, I couldn't help you guys fight Shredder."
"Leonardo, after seeing what that exoskeleton could do, I am sorry to say it, but your help might not have made a difference."
"What do you mean, Sensei? Of course-"
Don interrupted. "I doubt it Leo. After the Utroms rescued us, I asked them about Shredder's exoskeleton. You know what the answer was?" As his brothers looked on, he said "That suit would have taken mass heat and pressure or a bunch of electricity to stop. It would take a huge chunk of metal falling from a great height to even make a dent in it. We had little next to no chance of stopping it."
"Indeed my son. As for the destroying, the ship," Splinter looked at Leo gently, "I believe you and your brothers made the best choice. It was clear we could not stop the Shredder ourselves. But if sacrificing our own lives meant his death, you, your brothers, and I all agreed. You said that to me yourself when I was hesitant to let do it. It takes great courage to sacrifice your own lives like that. Although I didn't say it at the time, I was never more proud of you and and your brother's bravery and honor."
Leo seemed unable to speak.
Then Mikey spoke up, his words striking Leo to the core. "Killing yourself training isn't going to change the past, Leo. And all it's doing in the present is killing us watching you do it. Yeah, we don't expect you to be back to normal by tomorrow, and we don't completely get all you feel, but we hate standing by and seeing you like this and not being able to do anything. We're sorry we didn't talk to you about this back at farm right after Shredder's attack, but we want to help you now.
"Michelangelo is correct Leonardo. This training regime of yours is slowly killing you, and you have refused to allow anyone to help. How would you feel if you were forced to watch a beloved family member waste away before you and be able to do nothing? And if that family member doesn't waste away, they will die because they engage in reckless behavior. It destroys us from within to watch you like this."
Leo looked like he'd been struck to the gut. Master Splinter's voice softened. "No one can expect a warrior to be invulnerable, Leonardo. Some battle will be won, others lost. But we cannot allow our losses to destroy us. It only does our enemies a favor, and causes pain to our family and friends."
Leo lowered his head for a while, and then raised it again. His eyes looked moist. "I'm sorry, Sensei." Turning to his brothers, "I'm sorry guys." He shook his head and a small smile appeared on his face. "I'm such a shell head."
His family all put their hands on his shoulders. "Healing from your wounds will take time, Leonardo. But your family will help you."
"Yeah, I'll gladly take a break from video games to listen. And so will Klunk." said Mikey.
"Same with me Leo. Except for the video games and Klunk. But you're more important than whatever I'm building." added Don.
Raph looked Leo straight in the eyes. "Remember when you were recovering at the farm from when Shredder blew up April's place. I told you that if you needed anything, I'd be right outside. I never said that had changed."
"The same holds true for me Leonardo. Can I trust that you will now talk to us if your feelings trouble you?"
"Yes, Sensei," Leo smiled, and Master Splinter knew Leo meant it.
"Good. Now, it is time for lunch. You need to start eating properly again." Master Splinter said.
The brothers raced out of the room. Mikey began making lunch. Both he and Raph threatened Leo with thirds while Don threatened him with vitamin supplements to make up for not eating properly for a while.
Leo smiled. He still couldn't believe what his family had pulled, but he felt grateful too.
I would like to thank BubblyShell22 for the advice on how to make this story better. I think it's a whole lot better than my first draft. Thanks BubblyShell! I love your stories!