A/N: HELLO!

I know it's been ages since my last update on ANYTHING, but I'm hoping that now that I'm done with college, I'll have more time for my stories! Anyways, here's a little something for you guys whilst you're waiting for my other stories. It's been stuck in my head for WEEKS, and I've been to busy to actually sit down and write it until now.

P.S: Again, there is some strong Raph/Casey in this one, and it takes place only a little while after the first one. And again, if you don't like this kind of stuff, then please don't read it. If you do, then cool :)

I OWN NOTHING!

Enjoy!

Reckless

"GOONGALA!"

With an almighty swing of his baseball bat, the unfortunate Purple Dragon was sent flying into his partner, the two of them crashing into the barrels of oil that sat by the wall of the factory with twin groans of pain, and Casey grinned like a maniac behind his hockey mask. This fight was a piece of cake, just like all the other ones against the likes of the Purple Dragons. And with a blow like that, there was no way they were getting up again -

"Casey, look out!"

His partners' warning came a second too late, for as he whirled around, the large face that was headed towards him made contact with his face, making him stagger backwards unsteadily as stars danced across his vision. Shaking his head, he looked up to find that the largest of the Purple Dragons was looming over him, his mouth twisted into an unpleasant grimace as he pounded his fist into his palm.

"You're gonna be sorry you messed with us again, skull-faced punk!" he cursed, taking another swing at the boy.

With a startled yelp, Casey quickly darted out of the way of the strike, readying his bat again as he snickered. "Dude, we've wasted you and your dudes enough as it is," he taunted smugly with a hand on his hip. "How many more times do you need to get your asses thrown in jail before you get that you're no match for Casey J-"

WHACK!

A horrible wave of pain and dizziness washed over Casey as he toppled to the floor, groaning as he fought to lift his head and glare at the guy who'd hit him with the crowbar. Apparently, that blow hadn't been enough to keep them down for the count as one of the scrawny guys, Fong, stood over Casey as he laughed, waving his weapon about mockingly.

"What was that you were sayin'?" he jeered, before swinging his foot straight into Casey's gut. Casey's eyes widened, and he let out an agonized scream as his hands flew to the spot where Fong had kicked him.

Damn it...not there...not again...

He had only seconds to recover from that blow before they were both pelting him with more, striking him with their feet, fists and crowbars as they laughed. All Casey could do was futilely cover his head with his arms as they pounded him into the ground.

Suddenly, an enraged shout followed by the goons being ripped away from him and the sound of breaking bones and cries of agony filled his ears, before all went quiet once more. Groggily, he lifted his arms from his head and looked up, only to find something far more frightening and powerful than the Purple Dragons as he gulped.

An angry Raphael stood over him, his arms folded over his chest and a deep scowl set on his mutant features as he glowered down at his human companion. The lights hanging from the ceiling cast shadows across his face, giving him an even more threatening appearance than Casey was used to seeing.

The two of them stared at each other in silence for an eternity, before Raph offered a single hand down to the boy sprawled on the ground. Huffing with effort, for his whole body was throbbing and burning, Casey reached up and took Raph's hand, letting himself be hauled back onto his feet again before patting the dirt and splatters of blood off his hoodie and ripped jeans. With a small sigh, he turned back to Raph. "Well, that was fun," he said with a chuckle.

But Raph wasn't laughing. In fact, he looked angrier than before as he took a step towards Casey, his mouth set into a thin, firm line. "Lift up your shirt," he said.

His eyes widening again, Casey took a small step back, one hand subconsciously drifting to the spot where Fong had first kicked him. "Um, no, I think I'm good," he said nervously, which was a total lie, and he was glad he was wearing his mask now, for he was sure his face was turning red. He could feel a warm, unpleasant something underneath his hoodie, but he'd be damned if he let Raph see it. "I'm totally fine, dude. Those Dragons had nothing on Casey Jo -"

"Lift up your shirt, Casey," Raph repeated, his tone darkening.

Lifting up his mask so the turtle could see his irritated frown, Casey folded his arms. "Seriously, Raph, I'm fine!" Casey pressed, though it took everything within him to not wince in pain at the pressure he was putting on his midsection. Damn, what did those Dragons do to him? "You don't need to nanny me! It's healed up already, so quit-"

"Lift up your damn shirt, Jones!" Raph shouted.

With a defeated growl and a roll of his eyes, Casey finally did as he was told and rolled up his shirt, revealing his stomach to the red clad turtle. He looked down at himself, and all the frustration he'd felt vanished in an instant as he fought the urge to cry out at the sight of the blood trickling from the bandaged wound just below his rib-cage.

That's a lot of blood. The wound must've...

Slowly, his horror filled gaze met Raph's, whose own eyes reflected Casey's fear for a split second before morphing into what Casey and the brothers all referred to as 'Worried Raph'. His eyes were narrowed, his fists clenched, and his breaths came out in angry hisses through his teeth as his shoulders shook.

Casey felt his heart drop into the pit of his gut as he bit his bottom lip. If the blood-loss didn't kill him first, then he was pretty damn sure that the mutant turtle would. "L-Look, Raph," he began shakily, "I'm sorry, man. I-I didn't think that-"

He was quickly cut off when Raph suddenly lashed out and grabbed his right hand and tugged him harshly towards the exit of the factory, leaving the unconscious Purple Dragons for the cops to come and pick up again. His grip was tight and tense, making it impossible for Casey to even try and wriggle his gloved hand out of it, not that he would even think about doing so at this point unless he wanted a broken wrist, too.

"We're going home, right now," Raph snarled. "Keep putting pressure on that wound, and don't even think about passing out on me before were get there, 'cause I'm not carrying you this time!"

Instead of arguing or making a half-assed comeback, Casey just nodded and kept his mouth shut, using his shirt to apply pressure to the bleeding, gaping hole in his gut as Raph tugged him by the hand out of the factory and into the darkened city.

He didn't need April's psychic powers to tell him that he was in a lot of trouble...

When Casey opened his eyes again, he was half startled to find that he was laid out on the bench in the living room of the lair, and was met with Donatello kneeling beside him shining a light in his eye.

Wait...what? What happened? How did he get here? He didn't remember walking into the lair...

"Casey? Can you hear me?" the purple clad turtle called, snapping his fingers in front of his face to gain his attention. "Do you know what city you live in? Do you know where you are?"

Confused, Casey blinked rapidly in the light currently blinding him. "Uhh..." he mumbled.

Before he could answer, Mikey's head popped from over Donnie's right shoulder. "Do you remember that video where the cat plays chopsticks with the chopsticks?" he asked, and then yelped as Donnie shoved him away.

"Stop being annoying, Mikey!" he snapped, before turning the light off and leaning away from Casey to allow him to, slowly, sit up again as he groaned. His gear was gone, piled in the far corner of the bench, making it easier to move about now, much to his relief. Rubbing his aching head, he looked around the room to find Leonardo standing beside April, her face creased with worry as she looked down at him, and Splinter just as he emerged from the dojo. "How are you feeling, Casey?" the old rat asked him as he approached the group. "You were bleeding profusely when Raphael brought you here."

Casey blinked hard at the ninja master. "...wait, what?" he stammered. "You mean...I actually passed out?"

Behind Donnie, Mikey tilted his head and quirked a brow. "You don't remember what happened, dude?" he asked, before leaping over Donnie's head like a frog (a move which startled Donnie considerably) and sitting in front of Casey. "Raph told us everything. He said you two were out bustin' a few Purple Dragons when one of them got lucky and took you to the ground, bro," Mikey said whilst using dramatic gestures to prove his point. "Then he said that you started bleeding all over and you passed out halfway to the lair."

"It was pretty scary," Leo said, patting April once on the shoulder reassuringly before turning back to Casey, giving him a pointed look that was often reserved for his hot headed younger brother as he folded his arms. "You lost a lot of blood, and probably would've needed a transfusion if Raph hadn't gotten here sooner. From what Donnie explained after looking you over, that gunshot wound reopened, big time."

Casey gasped softly, before lifting up his shirt and looking down at his stomach, only to find more layers of bandages wrapped around him. There was more now than back when he'd first gotten shot less than a week ago...

This was just like the last time. Casey had been hurt, bleeding non-stop, with a panicked green eyed turtle carrying his limp body in his arms all the way to the lair before he bled to death...all because he'd been reckless enough to take a bullet through the gut, which had done more damage than any gun should have.

And now, even a week after that, the wound still hadn't fully healed, and Casey's bone-headed stubbornness to get out there and stop crime with his best friend, who along with everyone else had warned him to take it easy, had almost gotten him killed. And it was Raphael who'd had to carry him back home...again.

Casey had been an idiot. No, he'd been a total jerk to the guy that'd saved his sorry ass time and time again. He had to make it right this time. Somehow.

Frowning deeply, Casey looked up and met Donnie's eyes. "Where is he?"

Blinking in surprise, Donnie turned and shared a nervous look with the rest of his family, indicating that wherever the red turtle was, he clearly didn't want to be bothered. But hell if that was going to stop Casey Jones.

"He's in his room," April answered at last, casting a glance over to where the turtles' rooms were with a sad sigh. "He locked himself in there as soon as he knew you were gonna be okay, and he hasn't come out since. Though if I were you, I wouldn't go-"

But Casey was already standing up, with Mikey's aid, and was across the room in seconds, heading determinedly for Raph's room.

April's expression flattened. "...of course you'd go in anyway," she huffed under her breath as they watched him venture into the 'dragons' den'. He was going to be okay, so she wasn't all that worried that he was standing up and walking about, but something told her that he wouldn't be for much longer.

"Well, it was nice knowing him," Donnie shrugged. The others, even Splinter, hummed and nodded in agreement.

Deliberately ignoring the others as he limped towards the door that held a bright red 'STOP' sign on the front, Casey squared his shoulders and knocked hard on the metal surface twice. "Raph, I'm coming in," he called firmly, not waiting for an answer as he opened the door and stepped inside. He found his friend sat at the edge of his bed, his arms crossed over his chest and dark gleam in his emerald eyes as he glared at Casey, as if he were attempting to physically pierce him with his stare.

Despite the obvious danger, Casey wasn't swayed as he shut the door behind him and approached the turtle. "Look, Raph," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I know what I did tonight was stupid, and I never should've gone out there like this, but I'm -"

"Don't," Raph cut in, slowly rising from his bed and pinning Casey with a glare so intense that it could have burned a new hole through the human boy. "Don't even bother telling me you're sorry, because we both know that you don't mean it."

Insulted, Casey's eyes narrowed down at the shorter turtle, his hands balled into fists at his sides. "What the hell, Raph?!" he barked. "Of course I mean it! What, you don't want me to apologize for bein' stubborn and dumb and -"

"You'll say you're sorry now for almost getting yourself killed, again, but you'll be back out there two days later to get banged up some more!" Raph shouted as he shoved Casey backwards, though the boy noted that he wasn't as rough as he'd normally be. "What's so important that you'd risk your stupid ass for?! We can go out and fight when you're better, not when you're still tearing apart at the seams! What're you trying to prove?!"

"Are you kiddin' me?! I'm not trying to prove anything!" Casey shouted back after giving Raph his own little shove (though the brute didn't even budge an inch). "I'm just doing what you guys always do; get stuff done! I don't have time to sit back and wait to heal whilst there're still mutants and robo-ninjas running around terrorizing the city! When you guys get messed up, I don't see you sitting around -"

"You're just a human, Casey!" Raph screamed, the words coming out of his mouth before he could stop them. "You're not like us! And if you do this again, you could easily die out there and I wouldn't be able to protect you!"

Casey moved to argue but stopped short, his mouth clamping shut as Raph's words sunk in. "...wait, what?" he muttered.

And it was then that Casey finally got a good look at his friend. Though his fists were clenched, they were trembling. His breaths hissing through his teeth were shaking. And his eyes, whilst as fierce and angry as ever, were brimming with tears.

Casey's eyes widened. Raph wasn't just angry. He was terrified.

"...Raph..." he breathed, hesitantly reaching out a hand towards Raph as the turtle ducked his head down, almost as if he were ashamed of himself for letting the vigilante see him this way. "I...I really am sorry, man. I didn't know that you'd be...I mean, I'm..." He sighed in agitation, his hand flopping to his side uselessly. He was really bad at this kind of stuff.

But before he could even hope to try again, Raph moved so fast that Casey hadn't even registered that he had moved until the turtles' muscular arms were wrapped around his waist in a tight, unyielding embrace, his face borrowed into his chest as he held him.

On his part, Casey was as rigid as a board, his eyes wide a staring down in shock at the top of Raph's head. What was he...why was...huh?!

Casey had been hugged before by the turtles, many times. Mikey was a natural hugger, so his were unexpectedly but freely given. Donnie, whilst the two of them were still on the fence with each other over April, had hugged at least once (though in all honesty that had been when a rat had appeared out of nowhere, so Casey had leapt into his arms in fright.) And Leo's hugs were more out of greeting, but they were warm nonetheless.

Raph never hugged him. A pat on the shoulder or head-butt, that he was used to. But now that he was, his embrace was strong, desperate and yet warm all at once. And strangely, though this entire situation was strange in itself, Casey actually felt...well, he felt safe. Awkward, but safe. So it was with care and hesitation that Casey slowly wrapped his arms around Raph's shoulders, waiting to see how the turtle would react next. "...Raph?" he said quietly when the silence had become too thick.

"Don't ever do that again, you ass-hat," came Raph's muffled voice from Casey's hoodie as he tightened his grip around his waist, "or I'll kill you myself. Got it?"

At that, Casey finally smiled, and he returned the hug full-force as his cheek came to rest atop Raph's head, not caring in the slightest if his gut was aching from the strength of the turtle's embrace. "Sure thing, dude," he replied. Though this wasn't at all how he'd planned his apology would've gone, he deemed that this was better than whatever he would've decided to do, which now that he thought of it, would've only ended with bruises.

"And don't you dare breathe a word about this to the others," Raph snapped, lifting his head up to scowl at the taller human threateningly, or as threateningly as he could manage with the red tinting his cheeks.

Casey snickered as they drew away, and Casey punched him playfully in the shoulder. "Wouldn't dream of it, bro," he said. And Raph returned the smirk with one of his own, declaring them back on good terms again.

"Too late!"

Their hearts in their throats, the pair only had seconds before a camera flash went off to register that Mikey, along with Donnie, April and Leo, were peering through the door with large grins on their faces as Mikey waggled his T-Phone in the air tauntingly.

Raph and Casey' eyes flew wide open, their faces turning a very dark shade of red as they turned to each other. Then, their switches flipped on as they rounded on the others, growling like rabid dogs through their grinding teeth. "WHY YOU LITTLE -!" they hollered in unison before charging after their siblings, who all scampered away as fast as they could. Soon, the lair was filled with sounds of curses and screaming laughter.

And even if a few bones were broken in the process of getting their revenge, Casey didn't care. He and his best friend were good. That was all that mattered.

A/N: Gotta love these two, eh?

I'll be updating my other stories very soon, so be patient and thanks for all the comments! Love you guys!