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(I don't own them... unfortunately...)

enjoy...


Chapter 9: The Three Brothers

It was hot in the lair that night as three of the four brothers sat down for their regular Tuesday night movie.

Michelangelo - per usual - grabbed a bowl of freshly popped popcorn before nestling down into their old scavenged couch.

Donatello put away his latest gadget in favor of grabbing a seat next to Mikey or, next to the popcorn; both options were fine with the smart turtle.

Raphael let out a long breath as he eased himself into his chair next to the couch. He was stiff from leaning over his bike all day fixing the motor and tightening up some springs that had become dislodged when Mike decided to take it for a spin the other day.

Leonardo was nowhere to be found. It had been a week and a half since the bathroom incident and Don's outburst. Leo had spoken little since Don told him he hated him. He knew to keep well enough alone and only spoke when the need arose. He liked being silent and after a few days decided that he preferred it even. After being forced to remain silent for months under penalty of electrocution he found that keeping his mouth closed was strangely comforting.

It was border line impossible for him to say the wrong thing to any of his brothers if he was silent. He would get no snarky remark, snapped comeback or accusation if he kept his mouth closed. If he stayed quiet then he couldn't give Don or any other of his brothers the chance to tell him they hated him.

Yes, being quiet was nice to the blue turtle...

Raph looked around the Liar from his seat in his chair scanning for his older brother.

Probably in his room, the hothead thought.

"What movie ta'night Mike?" Raphael grumbled giving up his search. He was already comfortable in his seat.

If Leo doesn't wanna watch da movie I aint gonna force 'im Raph thought.

Donatello jumped up to look through their large stash of movies the family had acquired over the years. "Well," he began flipping through their selection. "There's Pirates of the Pacific."

"Seen it" Mikey called from the couch.

Don flipped to the next one, "Oliver Swiss?"

"What's it about?" Asked Raph lazily pulling out a sai to twirl expertly in his calloused hand.

"A rat named Oliver who is orphaned asks for more cheese and this big fat rat in charge is all like," Mikey put up a finger and changed his voice into a bad English accent, "More? You want more? Oliver Swiss just asked for more! Then the fat rat starts laughing and Oliver gets-"

"No, we ain't watching tha Mike," Raph interrupted Mikey as he went into painfully adequate details over the simple movie. "Next" the hothead grumbled again.

Don smiled before continuing on, "We could watch Y-Men: Second Class."

"Seen it, saw it, I can live without it" Mikey threw up a piece of popcorn before catching it in his mouth. The jokester smiled triumphantly before pulling another piece out to catch again.

Raph, seeing his brother, smirked to himself pulling his other sai out from his brown belt and placing them both on the small wooden table beside his favorite chair.

"We could watch Spider-Sham 2: The Wall Crawler or The Dork Night or you know I could hardwire the Ethernet cord into a fire wire and get a single running parallel up the sewer to get some-" The brainy turtle was too busy thinking of ways to improve the turtles already advanced television system to see Raph smirk at Mikey as the youngest brother throw up another piece of popcorn.

Faster than a swinging blade Raphael lunged forward grabbing it out of the air then ate it in Mikey's face.

"Hey!" Mike yelled throwing a hand full of the still hot popcorn at Raphael. Raph laughed before jumping on top of his little brother succeeding in spilling the popcorn bowl all over the couch.

"Ahh!" Yelled the youngest in mock terror "Someone help me! Hungry Raphie is trying to eat me! Ahhhh!" He squeaked in a high voice while laughing hysterically.

Raph growled in amusement pinning Mike to the couch "Don't call me that, Knucklehead."

Don stood up having already decided on their movie choice for tonight. "Guys!" He waved his hands gaining his laughing brothers attention. "You spilled the popcorn," the genius laughed.

Raph shoved himself playfully off of his little jokester brother. "Don' worry Donnie, I got 'cha" he called over his shoulder making his way to the kitchen to pop more.

He chuckled as he searched the kitchen to find a bag. Finding it, he placed it inside their recently fixed microwave. Raph laughed out loud as he remembered the look of horror on Donatello's face when Leonardo had somehow managed to break the damn thing the third day after coming home.

Whatever the leader had been trying to warm up had exploded in a mess of noodles and hot water. Fearless had managed to scald himself pretty badly on his hands that day. Ralph remembered how the genies turtle had yelled at Fearless for a straight five minutes about how he should be more careful and think before he does something.

Thinking back on it Raph felt a twinge of guilt deep in his gut. He shouldn't have let Donnie yell at Leo like that for so long. He should have helped defend Leonardo claiming that he had been gone for a long time with no means of technology so naturally he wouldn't remember how to use a microwave. At the time though, the hothead had been too preoccupied hating his leader and playing Nightwatcher.

Though he had relinquished his title of Vigilante the red turtle still thrived going out at night to bust some heads. Thoughts of his time as the Nightwatcher slowly crept into Raphs mind making him smirk. The thug bashing was by far the best part of being a vigilante he concluded watching his popcorn start to pop in the microwave.

Raphael was truly the families' berserker for as he thought back at the thugs he'd smashed he chuckled amused at his own brashness.

The old microwave gave off three long beeps.

I'm better than you

Raphael paused with his hand holding onto the microwaves handle. It seemed that small bits of his and his older brother's fight on the rooftop entered his mind often in the weeks since everything happened.

He had spat horrible things at his brother. Things that, at the time, he had meant.

Leonardo had questioned him, berated him, degraded him down to nothing before defending against his attacks and blows. That fight was the first time his leader's eyes shone the fire that had graced his features before leaving for his training period. It looked as if Leonardo had been born again during that fight.

That is, until Raphael stupidly shattered his beloved swords. The look on his leaders face broke the hothead's heart and stole his resolve; all anger had instantly vanished from his body.

Raph looked down at his green hands with disgust.

We were doing just fine without you!

Leonardo had visibly shrunken when Raphael attacked him with his vicious words.

Familiar guilt seized Raphs stomach as he thought back on the things he had said to his brother. Horrible things meant to hurt the blue banded turtle.

The red turtle often thought about that fight as one of the worst moments in his young life. In that fight he had forgotten that Leonardo was his brother, not just his leader. He had broken the only rule he had set for himself when Leo had been named leader. He had promised his older brother that he would always have his back but, in that fight he didn't have his leaders back. He hurt his leader and for that he was ashamed.

Raph pulled the still hot popcorn from the microwave then made his way to the door of their kitchen thinking about his immediate older brother. He had hardly spoken since his return. He spoke even less after the fight with Donatello.

Leonardo always looked haggard even if Splinter had put them through an easy routine or training exercise. Raphael couldn't help but notice the way Leo practiced as hard as he could just to keep up with his younger brothers. Their first night of rooftop runs a week after seeing Leo again the three brothers had made fun of him for being slow. Raph himself going so far as to call Leonardo a "weak Jungle Boy." Don and Mike had snickered at that but Leonardo kept on running refusing to acknowledge Raphael's statement.

The quietness wasn't all that surprising to the three. Leo never really was one for words unless he was lecturing them. Thinking hard on it Raph realized that Leo hadn't lectured any of them since he came home from Central America.

Now that he was really thinking about it Raph noticed all the changes in his brother. The dull look in his eyes, his quietness, the weight loss, the muscle reduction, the timid way he moved when outside the lair, the disdain to physical touch he had whenever a member of their family got too close to him.

Leo was different.

The thought struck Raphael like a boulder; something happened in Central America. Mentally he kicked himself for not noticing sooner. His brother never talked about his time gone in that jungle. If any of the brothers asked about it he would either brush them off or outright refuse to talk about it.

Something's definitely wrong

Sure he had heard Leo retch in the bathroom over a week ago but the leader had just brushed him off so coldly claiming to not need him. Raph had been so stunned and mad he hadn't even tried running after his brother to demand an apology or an explanation. He was too busy holding a weeping Mikey to care about what was going on with Leonardo.

The Lair was quiet save for Don and Mikes' quiet bickering over the movie for tonight. A light swooshing sound come from the dojo caught his attention as Raph stepped out of the kitchen.

He had been hearing the sound every night since Leonardo returned. It was almost comforting in some weird way. It signaled that the leader was home; safe and sound.

Raph placed the fresh popcorn on the kitchen table then made his way to the door of their dojo. He stopped at the entrance leaning against the open door frame, arms crossed.

Leonardo's back was to him, his mask askew over his eyes and ear buds coming out of his ears. White cords flowed down his plastron to collect at his belt where a small IPod shuffle was stashed. Raph could hear the music from where he stood at the door. It occurred to him that Leonardo couldn't see or hear him. He could rush him and Leo would be none the wiser.

Sweat washed down the blue banded turtle as he went through set after set after set of blind and def katas. Raph could see what muscles his leader had ripple with exertion.

Swiftly Leo pulled back his arms to grab his twin katanas. The unsheathing was automatic and beautiful. Hardly a sound escaped the swords. Leo began working on a series of round about kicks using his swords as blockers while his feet attacked. It was a dangerous kata if you were blindfolded. One had to know exactly where their legs were to avoid slicing himself. Raph still struggled with this particular kata.

SLICE KICK KICK SLICE DODGE KICK DOGE SLICE

Raph knew the whole kata completely.

Leonardo's breath began to come in gasps and his arms started to shake halfway through. The sweat on his body became torrents as he staggered slightly after a roundhouse kick. The leader stopped and sagged breathing too hard for the amount of work he was doing.

"Leo!" Raph yelled taking a step forward only to be stopped by a gentle paw on his shoulder. He looked back spotting Master Splinter, eyes on Leo and paw to his lips signaling Raph to stay silent. Like Leo could hear me anyway Raph thought still hearing the music coming from Leos shuffle.

Leo swayed dangerously but did not fall to the dojo floor. Rather, he lowered his twin swords so the tip rested on the mat. Leo stood breathing hard as his face twisted into a horrified expression; he looked like he was in pain. Raph could see his teeth clench and unclench sporadically. After a minute he relaxed again. His brother then seemed to deflate right before Splinter and Raphael's very eyes. His shoulders slumped forward and he stood that way for what seemed like forever before standing straight up and expertly stashing away his swords in their sheaths. He then ungracefully dropped to the dojo mat crossing his legs. He was still blinded by his mask and deaf by his music.

He was shaking.

Leo took three deep breaths letting them out at once slowly. He continued this process completely oblivious to that fact that his brother and father were watching.

"What the shell?" muttered the hothead more to himself than to his father.

Splinter turned Raph gently to face him. "Raphael please return to your brothers I wish to speak to Leonardo alone." Splinter eyes never left his eldest son. Raph nodded glancing at Leo one last time before leaving the dojo, closing the door behind him.

He made his way swiftly back into the brightly lit living room wide eyed and confused at what had just happened.

"Come on Raphie it takes a minute to pop popcorn!" yelled Mike nestled down on the couch.

"Yeah Raph, we thought you fell into the sink or some-" Don paused looking at Raphs horrified expression for the first time. Mike, seeing Don looked to Raph who had sunk down into his chair.

Don was the first to speak, "Raph what's wrong?"

"Guys," he began, "somethin's wrong with Fearless" as the words left his mouth the sound of yelling voices filled the sewer air and the three brothers froze.

"You do NOT understand what happened. What I went through!" A voice screamed.

"You will not talk to your Sensei in such a tone. I am trying to help you Leonardo." Splinters voice was firm.

"I don't care ANYMORE! You stopped being my Sensei when you sent me away to ROT in the jungle!" The three turtles looked to one another in shock.

Leo never, never yelled at their Master.

Not a minute later the dojo door opened then slammed shut followed by the swift padding of feet hitting the ground. After a few seconds the entrance to the lair opened. Leonardo didn't even look back at his stunned brothers as he violently closed the door behind him and disappeared into the dark sewer tunnels.

A scream like nothing the three brothers had ever heard echoed through the lair. Raph winced, Mikey grabbed at his ears, Don jumped to his feet.

Suddenly the scream was cut. Empty silence followed.

"Oh shell" Don muttered grabbing his Bo sprinting to the door. Mike and Raph only steps behind.

Never in their lives had they heard Leonardo scream with such heartbreak and anger.


Thoughts?

Also, so sorry for such a long delay.

Have a good day fellow readers!