Cake Wars

Raph awoke to a warm bed beneath him. Not a makeshift bed, but a real bed. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and felt a mass beside him. It was still dark and so his eyes had nothing to focus on. Creeping out of the bed, he felt two hands grasp onto him briefly and he pushed them away. In the darkness, his hands touched upon every corner and smooth surface until wood textured under his fingers. Where there was wood, there was a handle, and with a slight turn of it, he opened the door with a quiet swing and crept out. Breathing as lightly as possible, he listened for the sounds of other people and signs of where he was. Potentially back in the house, but what of Leatherhead then? Reaching out blindly as he walked forwards, toeing his way in front of him before committing to the step, his bony hand fell upon the familiar banister once more and he held steady. At least he was somewhat oriented now. With the banister in front of him, that meant that behind him was the long hallway, and nearby should be the stairwell, right?
Turning around, he began his toe-hand search as he advanced. Right foot swept for anything beneath his feet and hands arced out for anything in front of him. He never had gotten used to the complete darkness of nighttime. Mainly because he slept through it until it was bright enough to see his shadows, or unless Gecko led him, but rarely alone. In all honesty, it scared him. His hand fell upon another wooden door, and he turned that handle too. Sticking his head inside, he heard light breathing followed by sleepy snores and shuffling. Someone's room. He gently closed the door and continued on his way. Not even a foot apart was another door, and he could only guess that, too, was another room.
Opening it slowly, he waited until he heard breathing before proceeding. After a few moments of nothing, he stuck his foot inside and slowly crept towards the center of the room. Feeling the air to the side, his hand came in contact with something plastic and heavy. Reflexively, he backed up to stumble over something metallic and heavy behind his ankles. He caught himself on a cold edge nearby, his shoulder slamming into the wall and causing a clamor of more metal to hit the floor.

"What are you doing here?"

The voice froze him to the spot. In trying to recuperate, he stood up abruptly; his head slamming against the corner of a wall mount. Letting out an aggravated growl, a migraine suddenly spiking to dangerous levels out of the blue, he stopped moving until he felt someone tugging his arm. Raph dug his toes into the carpeted floor with every stumbled step until the two hands began checking his head for any wounds.

"Who is this?"

"Leonardo."

Came the curt reply. A frown tugged at Raph's lips as he tried pushing him away.

"What's the deal? Where am I?"

"In my dead brother's room. Get out. Sensei said you could stay the night, but not in here."

Accepting the answer, he stuck up a hand and felt Leo's face, feeling his eyebrows had been knit together in anger and jaw tensed up.

"Where's Leatherhead?"

"Dad's taking care of him."

"What do you mean?"

"Your friend got in a knife fight. He's fine, before you fly off the handle. He's in the guest room downstairs. His stomach is cut open."

Raph began to shake. He knew something bad would happen to him.

"If you promise to not freak, I'll bring you to his room."

Without missing a beat, Raph's head bobbed up and down. Letting out a sigh through his nose, Leo took Raph's hand and placed it on his shoulder and began leading him out.

"You came into my room."

"Sorry."

"Don't be. Don's been watching you all night too. Mikey's too trusting."

Raph pursed his lips and felt another hand on his shoulder. "It's Donatello."

"So all night, huh?"

"Hey, man, you'd do the same if a stranger were in your house. We're just watching out for Mikey."

Don finished. It didn't surprise him, honestly. There'd been nights where he had watched over Gecko and Pete for the sake of Hob not doing anything to them. Of course, that was before when he was fifty pounds heavier and not so damn tired all the time.

"Stairs."

Leo spoke, snapping Raph out of his thoughts and taking them on one at a time. Within moments, Raph could hear heavy breathing with a wheeze of exhaustion.

"He doesn't look too good..."

Donnie whispered, Raph letting go to examine his friend. He felt around for his face, twisted in pain, and he then tapped his finger down along his torso until he felt bandages.

"It's full of blood...I'll try and change it."

"Wait, no, don't. If it's stopping the blood from seeping out, you gotta keep putting more on."

Raph whispered back, "I had to do this once. I wanted to change it but it yanked off the scabs and stuff."

A choke escaped his throat as he was suddenly yanked towards Leatherhead and a hand around his neck.

"What the heck- let go of him!"

Donnie's hands instantly flew over to the man's closed fist around his guest's throat. Panic driven, he dug his heel into something soft and pulled back on both his wrist and fingers. The instant response was nearly lethal as Leatherhead let out a wail and released Raph, sending the two tumbling backwards. Groaning, Raph's migraine now in full bloom, Leatherhead stared at Donatello dead on before seemingly falling asleep again.

"He's...sleeping?"

Leo inched closer, prodding his shoulder with a childlike curiosity that was bound to get him in trouble. Donnie wrapped his hands under Raph's arms and helped him up carefully, resting his hand on his back.

"Let sleeping dogs lie, Leo. You too. You've done enough. You know he's here, now it's time for-"

"CAKE!"

Mikey's voice carried to the living room, his face coming into view as the fridge illuminated his carefree features. The three of them tensed up, expecting Leatherhead to wake up at any moment. The painfully loud noise of Michelangelo tearing open the tupperware and getting out four plates made them cringe all in unison.

"Will you be quiet!?"

Donnie snapped, Leatherhead snoring deeply now with a few groaning noises mixed in. Donnie's hands were warm to the touch, and Raph could feel himself growing sleepy once more now that he knew that Leatherhead was close. Not necessarily unharmed, but alive. If the family was taking care of him, then it didn't merit urgent care.

"Guys, you want a slice?"

Mikey asked, already serving heaps of cake on each plate before waiting for a response. Donnie let his head fall back and let out an irritated groan lasting all of three seconds before he pushed Raph in the direction of the kitchen. Once more, Raph's toe-arm sweep guided him out of harm's way until he felt a set of hands seat him on a chair.

"Here." It was Leo's voice? "Uh..."

"It's Leo."

Yeah, Leo, he confirmed. His command, however, was used to indicate a fork being pressed into his hand and closed around it.

"I guess we should all be Nightwatcher and eat in the dark, huh?"

"Mikey, that's really-"

"I think that'd be kinda cool."

Raph piped up, cutting Donnie off. He could feel his eyes upon him and so he shrugged.

"Just an experiment, you know? Mikey told me about his training and stuff. If you guys did any sort of ninjustu training, then you're like ninjas, right?"

The room fell silent, and honestly, Raph couldn't recall where he stumbled across that sort of information. It was Leo who had grown a keen interest in what he had to say now.

"Go on..."

"Well..." Raph smirked, "ninjas are masters of the shadow and night? So how about trying to just eat in the dark?"

"Is that a challenge, Nightwatcher?" Leo couldn't help himself. If it was a challenge, he had to beat it. He couldn't be outdone by this Nightwatcher stranger in his kitchen eating his cake. Well, technically Mikey's cake, but still. The ethics of the situation was that he couldn't be beaten by a stranger in his kitchen.

"You bet it is."

Something was riling up inside Leo. He couldn't place his finger on it, but it wasn't something new, per se. It was old...something blue...

"We're gonna get in trouble with sensei..."

"Relaaax, bro. Technically, we're ninjas. And what good are ninjas if we can't do some sneaking around?"

His cheeks hurt. Raph hadn't realized it, but he had been grinning like an idiot the entire time. He was having fun. He had his moment's panic, sure, but everything was okay. Now, he wanted to actually almost bond with these people? It was weird, honestly.

"Okay, okay, cake eating contest in the dark. Onetwothree GO!"

A scuffle of chair and scraping forks on plates and plates on table, in the darkness, Raph could only imagine the scene before him. The idea of it all was ridiculous. In the midst of it all, Mikey began laughing. The laughing turned to coughing and sputtering and soon it grew contagious. Donnie joined in closely followed by Leo and Raph, causing Mikey to laugh even harder for the sake of the situation.

"AUGH it's in my NOSE!"

Donnie suddenly cried out loud, Raph's forehead pressing into the table as he held his sides from all the laughter.

"Nightwatcher just-"

Mikey had called out, pointing an accusing finger at Raph. Tears jumped to Mikey's eyes as he smacked the table with his hand in uncontrollable laughter.

"Shh sh sh..."

Leo giggled, trying to contain himself and the others but it was definitely not going to happen. Just as the laughter had reached it's peak, the lights flickered on and everyone went dead quiet except for Raph. It took Mikey slapping a cake-covered hand over Raph's mouth to silence him until he realized that it had stopped.

"What is the meaning of this?"

With the lights on, the teenagers' faces turned red with trying to hold back laughter. Donnie's face was smeared with icing; Raph's forehead and hair smushed with cake; Leo's cheeks and chin covered; and Mikey's overall coverage of the dessert had made an impression on Yoshi.
An impression.
Holding back laughter of his own, Yoshi coughed a few times in attempt to clear his throat and pointed towards the nearby bathroom.

"Wash and bed."

"Let the kids laugh, I'm already up."

Leatherhead's gravelly voice came from the living room followed by him sticking an arm up in the air to demonstrate that he really was awake. Raph became hyper aware of the situation but couldn't help but giggle.
Leatherhead, on the other hand, felt a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. From eating dirt to eating cake, the kid he had blossomed into someone he barely knew overnight.

"Now."

Leo was the first to comply closely followed by Donnie and then Mikey, who took Raph by the arm and waist and pushed him forwards, giggling still.
Wiping tears from their eyes, they each grabbed face cloths (except for Mikey, who grabbed an extra one for Raph) before filing inside the bathroom to clean themselves up.
Yoshi, on the other hand, had begun snickering behind his hand the moment the boys were out of sight.

"Hey, Hamato."

Leatherhead called out, groaning as he tried to sit up as best as he could. Yoshi made his way over to him and stopped him from moving further.

"Are you in pain?"

"It's manageable. Was the kid doin' alright with the others?"

Yoshi's mouth curled up in thought first, then morphed into a smile.

"No, but perhaps because they just need some warming up."

"Right..."

He laid back down with a hiss and felt his wound. In the light, he could see it seeping lightly with bright red blood.

"I'll fetch-"

"Nah, change it in the morning. These kids are gonna kill me. Us."

"Not quite, but yes, they are a handful sometimes. As boys are."

"As boys are..."

Leatherhead repeated softly, his head swimming momentarily with the sounds of Raph laughing in the bathroom before he drifted off to sleep. Yoshi covered him up once more and returned to the slap-happy teenagers.

"Yame."

They all stiffened at once, the laughter stopping. Even Raph strangely knew that it meant he had to stop. After examining each of their faces from afar, studying Raph's a bit more closely, he crossed his arms.

"Due to the fact that we are housing guests tonight, you are excused from cleaning your mess."They were about to cheer until he cleared his throat rather quickly and added, "until morning."

"Hai, sensei!"

The three chorused, Raph nodding along. Satisfied, Yoshi allowed them each to make their way back to their rooms. Mikey tugged on Raph's arm until he entered his room with him and shut the door. Before he could ask, Mikey spoke up.

"I've got the futon here, you can sleep in my bed. 'Kay? Night, Nightwatcher! Don't watch the night for too long!"

Raph grinned and plopped backwards into the bed, not wanting to fight over it.

"It's always a long night for me, buddy."

Mikey answered back with an exaggerated yawn and tucked himself into his futon on the ground. Raph slipped under the sheets and felt his entire body sag with fatigue. He had barely realized that his headache had pounded the entire time until everything grew tranquil.

"Hey, Mikey?" Raph called out to him before he realized it, hearing the final sounds of everyone returning to bed. Another massive yawn was his reply.

"Yeah?"

"I had fun tonight."

Mikey positively beamed at the comment.

"Me too, bro."

AN: Reviews and favs after resubbing this in the right place. Thank u Iz uwu