The next morning I felt maybe 100 times better than I did the night before. Sadly, along with my new found sanity came my sense of logic and reason. It was a bad first thought to wake up with, but it's all I have for now. Raph was turning me into a person I wasn't, that person being soft and tender. No leader I ever knew of was soft and tender. It was simple though, I came up with a quick solution that would result with me being able to keep my relationship with Raph AND still maintain my role as the leader of my brothers with the exact amount of power and respect I needed.

Don was right, I wasn't the leader I was back when Raph and I were just…Raph and I. I guess last night I thought the only solution was to give myself up to Raphael, but now I know it's not. I feel like Splinter visited me in the middle of the night and slapped me a million times on the face demanding that I look at the solution that literally was sitting right in front of me.

I hoped no one came upstairs right now because I think I was literally grinning into the distance. I couldn't believe I almost gave up so easily.

I looked over at my sleeping brothers and then at the clock on my nightstand. It was almost 5:30 in the morning, time to go to work.

I got out of bed and put on all my gear. Before I woke up the army, I stole all their bandanas off their nightstands and put them in my belt.

I woke up Donnie first.

"Leo?" He rolled over and looked at the clock. "It's 5:30 in the morning. Why do I have to get up?"

I told him to get up one last time and then went over to Mikey's bed. He was definitely the hardest to get up so finally I punched him under the arm where his soft spot was. He rolled out of bed and crashed onto the floor, waking up Raphael.

"The hell?!" His voice was heavy with sleep but everything about it said he was pissed off. Good. He looked at the clock and then swore he would kick every last ass in the room if we didn't go back to sleep. That's when I stripped him of his blankets. "LEO!" He jumped out of bed and approached me but I stood still.

"Keep your voices down or you'll wake up the others." I told them. "Get your stuff on."

"Where are we going?" Don asked with a yawn.

"Don't worry about it."

"No way! It's 5 in the morning. I'm going back to sleep." When Raph sat back down on his bed, I raised one of my katana to his neck.

"Get up. I'm the leader of this team and you'll do what I say." I kept my sword still but the palms of my hands were sweating.

"Inappropriate role-play." Mikey snickered.

"Shut up and get your stuff on!" I pointed my other sword at him.

"EEK! Sorry Miss. Hannigan!" He jumped off the floor and started to get dressed.

When I gave my glance back to Raphael, he was staring straight at me with both his hands on the bed. I couldn't quite tell what his expression was, though. It was something between a scowl and an "I dare you" look; two of the worst emotions he could show at the same time. I didn't let it get to me though, not today, not now when I finally had a grip on things.

"Everyone's listening but you." I told him.

"Hey, where's my bandana?" Donnie asked.

"Yah, mine's gone, too." Mikey said in astonishment. They were both suited up and ready to go.

"They're in Leo's belt." Raph growled, eyeing his red bandana. I was hoping now that he saw I had his precious little garment he would cooperate. However, I had a second plan if he didn't. I would just leave him here. I guess it would completely kill the reason why I got everyone up this early so let's try to use that as a last resort.

"Raph just do what he says. Even after everything that's happened he's still the leader and you do technically have to listen." Don supported me, like I knew he would. "Plus I feel naked and I want my bandana back."

"Sure, after yah tell me what's going on." Raph crossed his arms over his chest.

I drew my swords back into the sheath. "Training exercise."

There was a brief moment of silence before Michelangelo clapped his hands and that the explanation was good enough for him.

"Just as long as I can come back and sleep after all is said and done."

"If you do well I won't bother you for the rest of the day." I smiled.

"The rest of the day?" Don asked.

"Yah, what about tomorrow?" Mikey's eyes darted back and forth with a smug look on his face.

"Meet me in the barn." I told the both of them. I couldn't get Raph to cooperate if the two of them were spitting out dumb comments left and right.

So they both casually headed towards the stairs but Mikey didn't go down before looking at Raphael and running one of his fingers across his neck.

"Why do you have to be the difficult one?" I crossed my arms over my chest when he got up.

"What? Are yah to afraid to be rough on me now that things have changed?" He grinned at me and then started to put his gear on. "I do have to admit, that doesn't make anything very fun."

"I guess things have to change." I stated.

"Yeah, that's the only reason I'm going. Not because I'm obedient to you." He shoved past me and headed down the stairs.

I stood in the empty attic for a minute and just took a few deep breaths with my eyes closed. So far so good, right? I headed down from the attic and met my brothers in the old Jones' barn. They were all standing in a line, some looking happier than others.

"So what's up?" Donnie asked first.

"I know this may seem like a vacation, but it's not. Yes, we came here to escape the problems in the city but that doesn't mean we can slack off while we're here." I pulled Raph's red bandana out of my belt and tied it around my left arm. I then walked up to Donnie and tied Mikey's bandana around his left arm and his bandana around Donnie's arm. I stepped in front of Raph, pulled my bandana off and handed it to him. He held it in his hand for a brief moment and then slowly, with a bit of attitude, tied it around his right arm.

I rolled my eyes and let it go. I was lucky enough to get him in here and I wasn't about to test my luck with his cooperation.

"Get your bandanas back from the person who has it. You can take others' but they have to be tied around your arm at all times." I announced. You can see why I took Raph's as my own.

"Wait, how do you win?" Mikey asked in a panic.

"You don't. It's like keep away." Donnie crouched down low to the ground and then jumped up onto a beam in the barn. "How far can we go?" He asked.

"Farm borders." I quickly turned on my heel and ran out the barn door.

"It's so on!" I heard Mikey scream before I was blinded by the morning sun and the dusty texture of the dirt was underneath my feet. I wish I knew what to do next because up to this point in time, I haven't thought anything else through.

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