Dear Brother,

How dare you leave us? You left us all in the dust. You said that you would be back. Splinter said that it was just a few weeks.

It's been a year since the date you were supposed to return.

I would've never had believed that this would've happened to us.

After that date had gone and past, our family changed. Yours and mine.

I can't talk to Mikey anymore. He doesn't laugh or joke anymore. He's stuck in a stupid dead end job where he wears plastic over his head and a fake zipper down his shell.

He has no dignity anymore.

Donny doesn't talk anymore. He grabs the mail, fixes everything that is broken and has taken on a job. He has to talk to stupid people all day who don't know how to run a computer, being the fucked up job our genius of a brother took.

He has no voice anymore.

Splinter sits and watches soap operas every day all day. But, then again, he did that before you left. Now, he watches with blank eyes and doesn't pay much attention to us anymore.

He seems to have aged more in this past year than in the sixteen before.

Our household has grown quiet and lonely, and, the best part is, it's all your fault.

No, I'm not mad. I'm furious. I hated when I found out you had left. I hated that my only older brother had decided to duck out on us in our time of need. I figured that you just missed the plane or was taking a long way home. No, you're still there in Central America.

You don't plan on coming back.

I understand that. I would've left too, if I could've. But I wouldn't have left my family in the time of need.

You are seventeen years old, Leo. Grow the fuck up and get your ass back to New York.

I'm sure everything will be fixed when you return.

You know, I found a girl about a week before you were supposed to be back.

Her name is Emily. And she seems to be the one thing keeping us from falling apart into a depressed lifestyle, not that we aren't almost there.

I'm sick of relying on her to make everyone smile. I'm sick of having to look at her for advice and leadership. I'm sick of not having you here.

I hate to say this, but we need you here Leo. Yeah, I know, I'm just some sap that needs to get a life, but it's true. When your family becomes something it's not because one of us leaves, it tears us apart. All of us.

Except, maybe, you.

But, then again, if you cared, you would be here.

I hate you for leaving us.

I hate you for making us this way.

I hate you for leaving without saying good-bye.

I hate you!

I fucking hate you!

I hate you.

And, I bet that you hate me too. We were, after all, different in almost every way. We probably still are. I wouldn't know. You're a stranger.

I don't know you.

You don't know me.

I've changed.

You've changed.

Leonardo Hamato wouldn't have left his family in their time of need.

Leonardo Hamato would've written back to his family's letters if they reached him, which I'm sure they have.

Leonardo Hamato would've, at the very least, said goodbye to his brothers.

Leonardo Hamato, my older brother, would've been here by now.

Yet, you are still gone and we rely on Emily.

Just as that one song she likes says, we are broken.

But, you know what, I'm done.

I've said just about everything I needed to.

I'm sure as hell not satisfied.

But, it'll have to do.

You're my older brother for God's sake. Act like it because you haven't been very brotherly of late.

How did I find out that you never planned on coming back, big brother? Simple, it was when you sent your last few letters.

I'm just really tired.

I'm sorry I haven't been writing very often.

And, very lastly;

Just forget about me. I'll be home soon.

That is a load of bullshit and you know it, Leo. I don't know what's important to you now, but we were back then, before you left and became this empty shell. And, you know what, I'm glad I intercepted the last letter before Splinter could. It would've given our Father false hope on your return.

I know you won't read this, Leo. You wouldn't because it's too painful to know that your brother, the hard headed Raphael, cares more than you do about OUR family.

I hate you!

I fucking hate you!

I hate you!

I hate you.

But, no matter. I'm done.

Goodbye Leo.

Your brother,

Raphael.

Raphael looked at the tear stained papers, ashamed of what he had written. How could he have said such horrible things? But, no matter, it was what he was thinking since the day that Leo left.

"Raph, are you alright?" Emily said from the kitchen, setting down her washcloth as she made her way across the room to the door where the red banded turtle stood. "Is something bothering you?"

Raph didn't look up. "I'm fine, Emily. I just need to put something in Leo's room." The girl with the red streak smiled a sad smile at her friend and made her way back to the kitchen area, busying herself again with cleaning the cheese mess that Michelangelo had created just the hour before.

As Raph walked into the dusty room, he looked around, seeing the possessions of his older brother. The walls were a cool blue, unlike Raphael's red ones. Few pictures hung of Leo's wall, all of the mutants, April O'Neil and Casey Jones. The bed remained in perfect condition, the blue comforter covered in a layer of dust, seeing as how it had become too hard for any of the family to enter the room of the eldest turtle since the day he left.

The letter was placed on the box at the end of the bed. Raph figured Leo would never read it, that it would remain there for the rest of eternity.

Nobody expected Leo to appear later that night, feeling more than ready to lead the unpracticed team of four. Especially not the red banded turtle who had written the letter.

After a long while, Raph stepped into his room and found a single piece of paper lying on his unmade bed, starting with the words;

Dear Little Brother.