A/N Okay, here it is, the chapter I personally have been waiting for. I'm a huge fan of the Raph/Leo (non-slash) pairing. Hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did.


It had been over three months since the night Raph and his younger brothers had found Leo unconscious in the sewer, and Raph's relationship with his older brother was no better than it had been that morning Leo had awoken and flinched away from his brother's touch. Oh, Leo's relationship with Mikey and Donny was well on the mend. This newer Leo was much more lighthearted than the old one, but only with his two youngest siblings. When it came to Raph, however, Leo still had that hunted, self-defensive attitude; Raphael was about to get sick of it. So, Raph being Raph, he decided to do something about it.

With a quiet word to Donny and Mikey, Raph was able to arrange an entire evening alone with just him and Leo. After waiting for Leo to start his evening workout, the two youngest brothers quickly made their escape. By the time Leo was done for the evening, Donny and Mikey were safely away from the Lair. Leo's first question upon exiting the dojo was the location of the two missing turtles.

"They stepped out for the evening," Raph told him, setting aside the newspaper he'd been pretending to read. "It's just going to be you and me this evening." Raph couldn't miss the flinch his brother gave at hearing that news, and with it, all plans for a nice, calm discussion went out the manhole.

"All right, Leo, I have had about enough of this crap," Raph said, or rather, shouted. "For three months, three months you hear me, you have been avoiding me. You don't look at me, you cringe every time I speak to you, you keep your distance so that I won't accidentally touch you, and you watch me like you expect me to start using you as a replacement for my punching bag at any moment. What the shell did your version of me do to you wherever the shell you came from that could make you this afraid of me?"

Immediately, Raph regretted his angry tone, for Leo had literally tucked himself against the couch and curled in on himself as soon as Raph started yelling. Regret and guilt blooming inside him, causing his accent to thicken, Raph said, "I'm so sorry, bro. I…I didn't mean to scare ya. Ah, shell, I didn't even mean to yell at ya. I just want m'best friend back." This last was said in a voice so soft Leo had to strain to hear it, but the heartfelt words gave him the strength and the courage he needed to uncurl himself and move next to where his brother had seated himself on the floor. Very carefully and cautiously, he reached out and placed a hand on Raph's shoulder. When his brother didn't shake out of the grip, Leo said,

"Be…before I begin, explain what you meant by 'your version of me wherever the shell you came from'? How did you know—"

"That you weren't our Leo," Raph finished the question for him. "I could tell you it's because you have a number of scars my Leo never had, but are missing quite of few that he did. That would be a partial truth. But the real reason is, I know for a fact our Leo is dead. I found his body, or what was left of it, just about a year ago. It was right around the time Master Splinter got sick, and I couldn't bring myself to take away from my brothers even the smallest hope that he might return, not when everything else was looking to grim. Ya see, around that same time Casey got himself killed in a stupid mugging on his way home from a date with April. April was so torn up about it, she up and moved away, too. So you see, within the space of a year, Leo had disappeared, Casey had died, April had left, and then our father had become extremely sick. I think we all knew from the beginning he wasn't going to make it, so I couldn't bring myself to tell the others that any hope of getting Leo back was gone, too. It would have been too much."

"But, if you know I'm not your Leo, why are you fighting so hard to gain my trust," Leo asked, truly perplexed.

"Because when we found you in the sewer that night, it was like an answer to a prayer," Raph said. "Leo, you don't know how much we have needed you. After our father died, the family began to fall apart. Don was spending more and more time in his lab. Nothing I did or said could pry him out of there. Days would pass, and we'd never see him. And then there was Mikey. Until we found you, he had not smiled in over six months. He basically lost all interest in life. None of his former hobbies interested him; all he did was mope about the Lair all day. And me? Well, I was almost at the end of my rope. I think if too much more time had passed, I'd have found a way to end it. Probably would have found the biggest batch of Foot ninjas available and let them do the deed for me. You see, Leo, we need you; need you to prove that the world was still worth living in. But beyond that, bro, I need your trust, because Leonardo, whatever dimension, time, or place you may be from, you are my best friend. When my brother died, I literally lost my best friend, and that nearly killed me. When I tripped over you in that sewer that night, it was like my upside-down world had suddenly righted itself." Raph lifted his head to meet his brother's tear-filled eyes. "I love you, big brother, and it's ripping me apart that being here with us, with me, doesn't provide the same comfort and security that having you here does for us."

Leo did not fight the tears that began rolling down his face, though he did self-consciously drop his gaze away from Raph's earnest look.

"I…I need to explain about where I came from," he said hesitantly. "About how it was with my other brothers. You see, my original brothers, the ones I grew up with are, well were, nothing like you and your Donny and Mike. I mean, while we were pretty close growing up, we quickly began to lose our bond, or at least they began to lose their bond with me. I think it started the day Master Splinter announced his decision to name me the official leader of the team. Although I had always felt responsible for looking after the others, at that point being the 'leader,' the responsible one became my role in the family; a role I was never allowed to forget. If one of my brothers snuck out at night, a trait my original Raphael was infamous for, our sensei made it clear that it was my fault that he left. On the other hand, when I tried to circumvent the riskier behaviors of my siblings, I was the boring stick in the mud who didn't know how to have fun. I was constantly torn between what my brothers wanted from me and what my father expected of me; I was never allowed just to be myself, so eventually I stopped trying. It was far easier to just shrug off my own identity and simply apply myself to being the protector of my family."

"So, you became their 'weapon, ' huh," Raph commented, recalling what Donatello had revealed to him a few weeks prior about Leo's view of his role in the family.

"Exactly," Leo confirmed. "For a long while, that worked. My brothers, well even if they weren't happy with me, they at least didn't seem to mind over much. At least, I thought they didn't. For some reason, though, Raph took began to resent all the training I was doing to hone my skills. At first, he would just make snide, sarcastic remarks about how 'perfect' I was trying to be; that I was just a suck-up. Eventually he moved to highlighting every fault I had or mistake I made. If I made a poor command choice, Raph would be there to rub my face in it, and soon Don and Mike were doing it too. Even worse, Master Splinter did nothing to stop it. I think a part of him silently agreed with them. It seemed the harder I tried, the worse and more often that I failed. And then came my big screw up. I wasn't paying enough attention, or something, and led my brothers right into an ambush by the Foot. We got our shells handed to us, and then some. We were lucky to get away alive, though we were all pretty badly banged up. The very next day, Master Splinter removed me from the position as team leader, and named Raphael in my place."

Raph couldn't help himself; he wrapped an arm around Leo's shoulders in response to the clear pain in his brother's voice. Huddling closer into the offered comfort, Leo continued with his heartrending story.

"At first, it was nice having Raph be in charge for once. Being the leader seemed to calm him down some, and he really didn't do a bad job out in the field. But it seemed he wasn't content just to be in charge, because he kept looking for ways to belittle and humiliate me, and Mike and Don were quick to follow his lead. Mike's practical jokes, while not truly dangerous, became painful, and Don flat out began ignoring me. In fact, that wound to my shoulder got infected because Don didn't 'have the time to see to it,' so I had to care for it myself the best I could. Finally, I did the inexcusable, and disgraced my family." Leo described that fateful fight with the Shredder and his father's response in all but disowning him. "That's when I decided to put an end to it. My family didn't want me anymore; I didn't want me anymore, so I was going to get rid of myself. I went in my room, tied a rope to my ceiling, and tried to hang myself. Through a trick of fate, I ended up here, and you know the rest. Surely now you understand why I can't let you close. I'm not worth it, Raph. Despite what Mikey and Donny say, deep down inside I'm worthless and a failure, and I can't pretend to be otherwise with you."

For a long moment, the brothers sat in silence. For Leo, it was a heartbreaking moment, to lay his faults and weaknesses so plainly before his brother's far too shrewd gaze. At any moment he expected this Raph to react as Leo's original brother would have done, with a condescending laugh and a snide remark about Leo's weakness. What he wasn't prepared for was the gentle touch of Raph's hand, softly cupping his cheek and lifting his head until their eyes met.

"I want you to listen, and to listen good," Raph said quietly but firmly. "You may have been raised with those bastards, and you may have looked out for them and bled for them, but they are no brothers of yours. Brothers don't destroy each other; they look after and build each other up. And if your sensei let them get away with that crap, he's as guilty as they are. But I want you to understand this: you are not worthless, or a failure. I know Mikey and Donny have tried to tell you this, but I hope you'll actually believe me when I tell you. You could never be anything but the best big brother in the world. Leo, you didn't just offer your body and your blood to protect your ungrateful brothers, you offered your heart, soul, and entire existence to keep them safe, and they didn't appreciate it. My counterpart, idiot that he was, was jealous that he could never be half the turtle you are, and I'm not just talking about your ninja skills, though let's start there. Leo, having watched you, not my deceased brother, but you as you've worked out the past several weeks, I can only describe the way you fight as perfect grace and poetry. Please don't take this the wrong way, but there is something absolutely beautiful about you when you are in the zone, and that's not something you can learn, bro, you have to be born with it. But beyond the battlefield, you absolutely shine both as an individual and as a leader. You have a natural presence that demands respect. You know how Master Splinter always told us to choose the harder way? Well, you have never though twice about setting foot on that more difficult path. For you, it was as natural as breathing."

Raph had to pause there as his voice caught, and the tears began running down his face, matching the tears the streamed from his brother's eyes.

"You are everything I have ever wanted to be," Raph said once he felt he could continue. "I have loved you since the moment I became aware you were my brother, you are the best friend I coul ever have, and there is nothing I wouldn't do to keep you safe. So I'm asking, no, begging you to come back to us. Let us show you what a real family can be like. You're safe now, Leo, if you will let yourself be. Trust us, please. We won't let you fall."

In less than a heartbeat, Leo had flung himself into his younger brother's arms. Head tucked under Raph's chin, Leo sobbed out all the pain, fear, and guilt that had built up over the years. Finally, here, with this new brother to guard his back, Leo was able to acknowledge that his former brothers had been wrong all this time. Yes, Leo had made some mistakes, but he was no failure because of them. If anything, they had made him stronger because he had been forced to learn from them. And his sensei had been wrong; the disgrace wasn't Leo's, it was his brothers', for turning on him like they had, and his father's, for not stopping the behavior that should never have been allowed to start.

Raph just held his older brother as he cried, sympathetic tears running unashamedly down his own face. But while Raph's heart hurt for the pain Leo had endured at the hands of his own brothers, he couldn't help but feel honored that Leo had finally trusted him, out of everyone in the family, to reveal his pain to. Raph made a silent vow then and there, that if he ever met up with Leo's ex-brothers, they would pay for the agony they had put Raph's brother, for they had forfeited their claim on him, through.

At long last, Leo's tears dried up, though he stayed in the comfort of his brother's embrace for a while longer. Finally, he sat up, though Raph kept an arm around his shoulders that he couldn't get too far away; Leo basked in the attention. A short while later, though, he moved to face Raph. Reaching up, he untied the blue silk that made up his mask. Ceremoniously, he handed the blue band to his brother.

"What's this, Leo," Raph asked, as he took the former mask.

"The symbol of my old life," Leo explained. "I can't destroy it; it's too much a part of who I am. But I'm giving it into your keeping, because you more than anyone understand what it means and represents for me. Besides, I'm pledging myself to a new family, and my former mask would just get in the way." With that, he pulled a brown leather mask, similar to the one Raph was wearing, from where he'd had it tucked beneath his empty katana sheaths. Raph immediately recognized it as one of Donny's spares, but someone had taken and reworked the stitching so that it was blue rather than purple. "I had been considering making this switch for a while now, but the time never felt right. I definitely think tonight is the night."

Leo tied the mask secure in place. It felt very different from his old mask, but the fit was oddly familiar and comforting. Clutching the old mask in his hand, Raph just beamed at Leo.

"Welcome to the family. Brother."