Raphael leaned on the railing of the porch, looking out at the clouds in the sky. He was more relaxed than he had been for a long time. He breathed in the crispy air of winter. He still didn't like the idea of moving away from New York for a whole month, but Master Splinter had ordered it and, of course, Leo did not argue with their father.

Even though Raph did not like the idea of moving away from the city for a month, he had to admit that the country side was beautiful, even in winter. They were living in April's camping home. It was a nice two story cabin, even room for the four mutant turtles and their Sensei to have some space from one another. It was far up in the mountains, but sense it was winter, little wildlife had been seen. Mikey had scared off a deer that had wondered into the front yard the first week. Donnie had told their youngest brother to be quiet when wild animals were around so that they would not get scared and run off.

Raph then looked over his shoulder as the door opened and then the screen door creaked as it was opened.

Leonardo, the eldest of the four, and the leader of their little team, walked out to stand beside Raph. The red masked turtle turned his gaze back to the wilderness for a second, and then glanced at Leo out of the corner of his eye.

"You seem quiet." Raph commented, realizing his brother was being quite silent.

Leo looked at him and offered him a small smile. "Just enjoying the silence sense Mikey is asleep."

"Ah, the spaz has finally settled down?" Raph asked. Michelangelo had been crazier than a chipmunk on a sugar rush this morning, having been allowed to drink Mt. Dew by a not so awake and alert Donatello.

"Yes, once I and Donnie got him relaxed, he was out like a light bulb. I wonder how long he really slept last night."

"Not long, I mean, it's Mikey we are talking about here." Raph said with a sly smile. He then let out a small huff. "He probably didn't even blink once you made him go to his own room." Raph commented. The first night they got here, Mikey had been in his room, sleeping so soundly that anyone could have thought him dead. It had been in the middle of the night that Mikey's screaming had woken the whole household up. They had all hurried to their little brother's room, only to turn on the light and realize all it had been was a baby fruit bat. But sense Mikey had read so many magazines and comics on 'vampire bats' and how all bats sucked blood, the orange masked turtle had freaked out like a grizzly bear was in his room. Leo had been the only one to take pity on Mikey, while Raph and Donnie were beyond annoyed at the stupid freak out. Leo took so much pity on Mikey, that he had let Mikey sleep in his room every night sense then. It was only Mikey's constant turning and kicking that had forced Leo to make his brother go back to his own room almost every night.

Leo rolled his eyes at Raph's comment and chuckled. "All I have to say is that he needs to stop reading and watching those monster movies and comics." Leo said.

"You're telling me." Raph said with a small laugh.

Just then a huge explosion from inside the house made both brothers turn around, and draw their weapons.

Both exchanged shocked glances before racing back into the house to find the living room raining in soda-pop.

"Michelangelo!" Donnie bellowed from his hiding spot from behind the couch. Mikey must have woken up and made a soda bomb or soda fountain, or a mix of the two, as it looked like to Raphael.

"Whelp, Leo. It's all yours." Raph said, backing up, his hands up in mock surrender.

Leo glared at him for a second and then made his way through the shower of soda to where the soda sat on a coffee table and taking a rag, covered the top of the 2 liter. Once it stopped completely, he turned and stormed over to another coffee table and stopped, folding his arms over his chest.

"Get out from under there right now, Mikey." Leo said in an irritated tone… At first nothing happened, then two light blue eyes appeared and then slowly a green head, wearing an orange mask and then the rest of Michelangelo appeared as he crawled out from his hiding place. When he stood up, he barely came up to Leo's chest. Mikey was the youngest out of the four, and the smallest, but he was tiny compared to Leo, sense the blue masked turtle had grown a lot over the last year…

"H…Hi L…Leo." Mikey said in a small voice, blinking up at his eldest brother.

"Don't 'hi' me Michelangelo." Leo said through gritted teeth. "You're in a ton of trouble, and you know it." Leo scolded. "Why did you do this? What was the point, other than to test our patients?"

"I was just having a little fun…" Mikey said with a low whimper, looking up at Leo with wild, scared eyes.

"This is not fun, Mikey. This is just making a huge mess and annoying your older brothers." Leo said.

"That and probably ruining my laptop in the middle of talking to a client!"

Raph jumped a little, he had not heard Donnie come up behind him, but as he looked around, he seen the purple masked turtle standing only inches behind him, holding up a silver laptop, covered in grape soda, which had been the type of soda Mikey had let off.

Even though this was a serious situation, Raphael could hardly keep from burst out laughing… Donnie was covered in soda pop and looked like a drowned cat. His mask strings were sticking to his right shoulder and he looked beyond mad. Raph loved it when Donnie got mad, because then Donnie's eyes twitched and it was so hilarious.

Mikey looked down at his feet, ashamed. "I'm sorry everyone… I didn't think it would explode like that. Yes, I knew it would explode some, but not like that…"

"Mikey, when you take a soda that is beside the heater and start to shake it up like crazy, what do you think it is going to do? All that Carbon Dioxide comes racing to the top to get free. How do you think volcanoes erupt? It is all the same, gas released from a volcanic explosion is—"

"Ok! That is enough of Science class!" Raph said, cutting off his nerdy brother.

Donnie glared at Raph for a second, then turned and mumbled something about getting cleaned up and trying to save his laptop and most likely his job.

Raph rolled his eyes as Donatello walked off and looked back at Leo and Mikey.

Leo turned his attention back to Mikey and sighed. "You will clean this all up, and then go up to your room and stay there until I come up and tell you that you are allowed to come out." Leo ordered.

Mikey flinched as if Leo had hit him, which Raph knew Leo would never do, but then the young turtle nods. "Ok…"

He then turns and walks into the kitchen and returns with a rag and some soapy water in a small pot and starts to work on cleaning the living room.

Leo stood beside Raph as they watched their young brother clean up the mess he had made. Soon Mikey approached Leo slowly.

"I'm done..." He said.

Leo nodded and took the rag and pot and nodded to the stairs. "Up to your bedroom, now." He said and Mikey went without a word. Only when the sound of Mikey's door closing, did Leo take the rag and pot back to the kitchen and then he walked back out and leaned against the wall and sunk down against it. Sitting down, he bowed his head and covered his face with his hands.

Raph raised a brow at Leo and then sighed, leaning against the wall as well, but stayed standing. "Man. Mikey is so bored that he has reduced to exploding overheated 2 liters." He said as he looked at the ceiling.

After a second, Leo removed his hands from his face and looked up at Raph with narrowed eyes. "And what do you mean by that, Raph?" He asked in a slight warning tone.

"You know what I mean Leo." Raph said, not taking his eyes off the ceiling.

There was silence. Then Raph heard Leo stand up and out of the corner of his eye, seen his older brother turn to him, arms crossed over his chest and his eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Don't even start about that again, Raphael. You know Master Splinter wanted this. That he wanted to get us away from the city and all the crimes there and just relax." Leo said.

Raph just growled deep in his throat. "I know, I know. But you could have fought back a bit, or is that too hard to ask from Master Splinter Jr.?"

More silence…

Raph glanced at Leo to see he was not looking at him and had turned his back on Raph and was starting to walk away.

Oh no. I'm not letting him get away that easily! Raph thought and turned to the retreating back of his brother. "Oh, I forgot! Jungle Boy likes the wilderness more then he likes his home and family!"

That hit a nerve. Raph knew that the second he had said that it would.

Leo stopped dead in his tracks and after a minute or two; he turned to look at Raph with rage reflecting in his dark blue eyes. "You didn't just go there…"

"Yep, I did." Raph said.

After a second, Leo let out a deep growl and moved swiftly back over to Raph, he only stopped when he was face to face with the red masked turtle.

"I thought I told you to drop that a long time ago!" Leo's voice was low, but full of boiling rage. "Now drop it!" He snarled and then turned his back on Raph, going to leave.

"How can I drop it even you left your family for almost two years?! It's like you never cared about us, and I wonder if you ever did! You seem to care more about your 'missions' and 'training' then you ever did for us!" Raph growled.

There was absolute silence. Neither moved, Raph was even shocked about what he had just said and tried to fix his mistake… "Leo, I—"

SMACK!

Raph staggered back, shocked beyond his wits… The side of his face stung like crazy and his eyes watered at the sudden blow. The blow had been so sudden, harsh and unsuspected that Raph had fallen against the night stand beside the couch. There was a crash as the glass stand fell to the ground and shattered. Raph was cut and bleeding from the glass, but he just kneeled in the wreckage… Leo had back handed him! He had smacked him!

Raph stared up at his brother in shock, never had Leo done anything like this, he had never raised a threatening hand to his brothers before, well, not counting the fight Leo and Raph had gotten into that one horrible night on one of Raph's night Watcher shifts..

Leo glared down at Raph, there was no hint of shock, or remorse. Leo had meant it, he had, had full control of his actions!

"Don't ever say anything like that ever again, Raphael!" Leo yelled in rage.

Raph was to shocked to even speak. He watched as Leo turned and walked to the stairs and climbed them, not even glancing back.