We don't need you to survive Leo.
He had said this once. He didn't regret it, he didn't. Of course, he had expected a reaction. For a moment he felt as if he were a typical school bully picking on someone smaller than him. There was only one problem with the picture, Leo wasn't the small, frightened victim.
He had expected an expression of pain, some kind of hurt to cross the blue banded turtle's face, but still, that Fearless Leader mask remained there on his face. He had said it two weeks after his eldest brother had returned from his two year training period. He had expected, heck he was decisively convinced that Leo, or anyone like him, would show some fission of pain in his heart. But there had been none. After three seconds he simply shrugged and walked away. It wasn't really saying that he didn't care, but that he accepted it as the universally adopted truth.
Truthfully, it was the purple clad turtle that had felt that pang against his heart, not exactly hurt, or sorrow, some kind of anger. When you tell the big brother you've had all your life, that normally sacrificed a lot to care for you, that you don't need him anymore, you expect him to express some form sorrow or maybe some kind of regret but there had been nothing.
These were the thoughts that ran through Donatello's head as he knocked against the door to his eldest brother's room.
"Leo will you please let me look at that stab wound? The chemicals that were on that blade could've been extremely harmful."
"Don," Leo said from within slowly, "I've already dressed my wounds. I'll be fine."
"But Leo-"
"I'm fine."
Don growled, "Fine, When you wake up ill or dying don't come crying to me."
Silence.
The purple clad turtle growled and stomped off, heading to his lab to work on…shell whatever he could grab first.
Raph yawned as he made his way down towards the dojo. Despite how tired he felt, he couldn't get to sleep. No doubt Leo was up, exercising. The red banded turtle rolled his eyes when he found his older brother doing just that at 3:00am in the morning.
Leo smiled when he turned in the movement of a kata and caught the sight of his hotheaded younger brother, "You're up early."
"Yeah, can't sleep," Raph said with a bored expression as he walked into the dojo.
Leo sheathed his katana and headed over to the weight set, freeing up the space so Raph could use his punching bag. The red clad turtle was able to focus for all of a miraculous10 seconds. He recognized the sound of weights being slipped onto the 2 pound metal bar, but the problem was, he heard too many thuds of weights against other weights. He turned to see that the weight lifting bar was loaded down with what he guessed was all but two of the weights available.
"Want me to spot ya?" he asked.
They all knew about the danger of lifting so much weight, that's why you always had someone there in case you couldn't lift the weight and ended up dropping the weight down on your throat.
"No thanks," Leo said and started on the exercise.
Raph reluctantly turned back to his punching bag, looking back at his older brother every few seconds. As time flew by, although he really didn't notice it, Raph was biting his lip about his age old normal request for a sparring match. He hadn't really been up to sparring or any form of competition with Leo since that…night.
I'm done taking orders.
Raph pushed away the sentence, there was no use thinking about it now. Forget it.
The clank of the bar back on its stand had the red masked turtle glancing back at his brother. Leo didn't say a word or even look at him. It was like he wasn't even there. The blue clad turtle made his way to the door before he suddenly fell against the wall. Raph was by his side in a second but the eldest pushed him away.
"I'm fine," he stubbornly said and pushed himself off the wall before making his way out of the room, still slightly shaking and stumbling.
When he was gone Raph's expression was something between a frown, a scowl and a slanted line of curiosity.
Ok, he and Leo had always had their pride but even if he hated it, Leo was normally grateful for help and he hadn't exactly seemed angry or embarrassed when he had stumbled. It was more like it was a normal inclination for him to get up on his own. Shaking away the thoughts.
For Mikey, things had only gotten better since his family had come back together. Of course something, he wasn't sure exactly sure what it was, but something new was in the air during the weeks following Leo's return.
Plus, Leo had been acting so strange.
First, it was his refusal to let Don treat his wounds.
Second, was his reluctance to seek Splinter's counsel for anything.
Third, he never bothered to even watch TV any longer or have anything to do with anything mechanical.
Forth, he had stopped eating cooked food, so a lot of fruit now decorated their table and fridge along with may vegetables.
Five, not wanting cooked food, he had never asked Mikey to cook his old favorite dishes.
Yeah, Mikey thought it was kind of nice but as the youngest, he had a natural inclination to want to make his older brothers proud of him but now…
Mikey looked across the room and into the dojo as his eldest brother walked outside. Raphael was just walking out of his room after getting up in the late afternoon and Don was coming out of his lab. For a moment the youngest feared a three way impact but all his older brothers stopped but then when they froze the orange clad turtle feared a violent confrontation.
Don and Leo were staring at each other and Raph was tapping his foot impatiently, wanting them to move so he could get to the kitchen.
They didn't move.
The red clad turtle sighed and walked around them but before he could reach the distant countertops of the kitchen Don spoke up.
"We don't need you to survive Leo," Don said slowly.
Silence.
Raph and Mikey just watched in silence. Leo hadn't flinched, they too, like Don had expected some kind of reaction from the eldest.
Silence.
Leo took a deep breath and for a moment, that seemed to be all he was going to add to the short conversation until he did speak.
"Good. The feeling's mutual."
Three shocked stares.
Leo smirked, "Yeah, feeling's mutual."
And with that the blue clad turtle disappeared out the door leaving the other three with mixed feelings.
The eldest didn't need Donatello to care for him when he was sick or injured. He didn't need Raphael to help him train or support him any longer. He didn't need Michelangelo's cooking skills to get his needed nutrition or his smile to make himself content. He also didn't require counseling by his father for the confidence to make a decision he believed was morally correct.
Yeah, the feeling was mutual.
Ok weird piece huh? Yeah I've always read the little sentences in stories that always have Raph, Don and Mikey claiming that they don't need Leo around anymore. And then there's always a long paragraph or four about the blue clad turtle feeling a mass of guilt. I don't believe that the guilt thing is true. If they feel that way, then he probably feels the same, after all, if he did stay in a jungle countries away he obviously had to be self reliant when it came to keeping himself in good health.
And actually, I think I understand Splinter's reasoning for the training period for Leo. Maybe I'll bring it up someday. ^_^
~Moonsetta