IT IS TUESDAY! And everyone knows what that means! Hehehehe. So yeah. new chapter today, this one is the start of two very important Arcs that are kinda mixed. One Leo, and one for the others. This chapter is mostly Leo, for all you Leo lovers out there! ;D
To S.S. Chewie: well….. Thank you! I'm really flattered you think that!
To Beakers47: yea, he would have to do that. Lol.
To efarraiz: Nah, Leo and Mikey don't feel jealous. That's one of the things Donnie was worried about, and they know that. They also know that they're all brothers anyway, but I like that theory. Hahah Raph? Meet with Slash? *cough cough* yeah…. Thank you for reviewing! You always make me smile!
To Raphfangirl28070: Raph's mother does not make an appearance, seeing as she is in prison. I do find it interesting that you like her, even though I do as well! Most of my readers aren't very fond of her, which makes sense. As for romance…. You'll just have to wait and see!
To OkamiShigure: oh! Thank you!? Raph's my favorite too lol in case you didn't see my username. Your English is fine, trust me. :D I have stayed up that late reading fanfiction too lol it's not just you. Thank you for reviewing! I'm glad you love this!
Disclaimer: I don't own TMNT! Dang I wish I did.
And now, Enjoy!
"Like this, my son," Dad explained, performing the kata slowly, Leo watched and then nodded, copying his father's movements. They were in the living room, since snow still covered the ground outside, and Mikey was watching them over the back of the couch. "Exactly."
"Wow, you look awesome, Leo!" Mikey chirped, Leo smiled, and watched as Dad demonstrated the next step of the kata. His mind, however, was elsewhere. Raph hadn't come home on the school bus, he'd texted Leo saying he would be back later, and it was almost four in the afternoon; the black haired teen couldn't help but worry what his foster brother was doing. As Leo went through the kata once more, he felt relief wash over him, as he heard the front door shut quietly, and someone walk through the kitchen to the stairs. He turned just as Raphael was halfway up.
"Raph! You're back! What were you-"
"Whatevah," Raphael grumbled, storming up the rest of the stairs and to his room. Leo frowned, shoulders slumping. Dad placed a hand on his shoulder.
"It is alright, Leonardo, I am sure Raphael is tired, I will speak to him later. But I still wish for you to finish this kata before we end." Leo nodded unhappily as Dad demonstrated the last step, and then copied it before doing the whole thing in quick succession.
"Very good, Leonardo." he praised, Leo smiled. "And yes, you may now go see if Raphael is alright; I must help your mother prepare dinner." Leo nodded and then ran up the stairs.
"Raph?" he called, walking down the hallway, "are you ok?"
"What do ya wan'?" Raphael's voice grumbled from his bedroom.
"Are you alright? Where were you?" Leo placed a hand on the handle to Raphael's door. "You seemed upset."
"Upset?" Raph asked sarcastically, "why on earth would I be upset, Leo?" Leo frowned, something was definitely going on with the green-eyed teen, he just wanted to know what it was.
"Please tell me," he asked, trying to door, it was locked. "Raph, you know you can talk to me. Is this about that meeting with Slash? Did you really think going was a good idea?"
"Shut yer face Leo!" Raph snapped, "I said earliah I don't wanna talk about it!" Leo frowned, jiggling the handle again. "Go away!"
"Raph, come on, tell me what happened!" he insisted, "I know something happened, don't make me pick this lock!"
"Good luck!" Raphael snarled, "I said leave me alone, fearless, get it through yer skull!" Leo sighed, releasing the handle and folding his arms.
"I could always stay right here until you have to come out." he decided, "come on, Raph, please talk to me."
"I am talkin' to ya!" Raph snarled, "I'm tellin' ya ta go away!"
"You know that's not what I mean!" Leo insisted, "I'm worried about you, Raph, please tell me." a long drawn out sigh/groan was heard, and Leo felt satisfaction, Raph couldn't keep at this for too long.
"Fine." he heard the lock turn and then the springs creak on Raphael's bed, signifying that the door was unlocked, and he'd sat down again. Leo opened the door. Raphael's room was cluttered, as always, and the red-haired teen was lying facedown on his pillows, arms up by the head of the bed.
"Raph?" Leo asked uncertainly, he sat on the chair at Raphael's desk. "You can talk to me, you know."
"I know dat." Raphael's voice was muffled. "But dere really ain't nothin' ta talk about, Leo, really. It was bound ta happen anyway."
"What was?" Leo asked, leaning forward to listen better. Raph sighed, sitting up with a scowling glare on his face, Leo almost gasped. Raphael's left eye was developing a large bruise over it and his cheekbone, and Leo had no clue how he might have gotten it.
"Raph! What happened?' he was instantly next to Raphael, sitting on the red blankets, a hand on his foster brother's shoulder. "Who did this?"
"I said dere isn't anythin' ta talk about!" Raph said crossly, folding his arms. Leo didn't speak, and Raphael sighed. "Fine, if ya really must know, I went ta dat meetin' with Slash, only it wasn' jus' him. A buncha his friends and he decided dat I was an enemy, and wanted ta make it clear dat dey didn't want me in da school anymore, happy now?"
"Raph, why would that make me happy? Are you ok? What exactly did they tell you, Raphael, please talk to me!"
"No!" Raph snapped, "ya don't get it, Leo! I don't care what dey think! I really don't! Dey don't want me here cuz they got it inta dere heads that I'm some kinda killer, and I know I'm not! I sure as heck ain't gonna talk to any of dem anymore, what am I supposed ta do? Get in more trouble fer violence?"
"Why did they hurt you?" Leo pressed, Raph rolled his eyes dramatically.
"Geez, chill, it's just a black eye. Slash wanted to make sure I fully undastood what dey were tellin' me, once things got physical I moved out and left. Alright?"
"Then why were you gone for so long?" Leo countered, wishing he could strangle Raphael's old friend.
"I didn't say I came straight home, Leo." Raphael rolled his eyes again. "So will ya please just back off and leave me alone fer once?" Leo hesitated, examining Raphael's face. He could tell that what had happened hurt Raph more than he was letting on, but he also knew Raph liked having alone time to sort things out. He stood.
"Yeah, ok, see you later Raph." he decided, smiling. "I hope you feel better later."
"Whatevah," he grumbled, Leo sighed and shook his head, walking to his own room to get a sweatshirt; the house had grown oddly cold since he finished training with dad. He shrugged it off, after pulling on a large blue knitted sweater that Mom's sister had mailed over from Japan for Christmas; the heater would turn on soon, in its usual cycle. With that in mind, Leonardo grabbed his novel and went out to read it, sitting on the large sectional couch a few seats down from Mikey and Donnie, who were playing Mario karts, very competitively.
"No way!" Mikey squealed with delight, "take that! Eat it, Dee!"
"Oh yeah?" Dan countered, "how about a little of this? Or that? Haha!" followed by a small moan of sadness from Michelangelo. "Who's eating what now, Mikey?" Leo smiled, opening his book to the page he had marked, pulled an extra throw blanket over himself for warmth, and began to read.
Leonardo climbed off the school bus and coughed into his fist, Mikey and Donatello were a bit ahead of him, and Raph joined him on the snowy sidewalk a moment later. The red-haired teen had a beanie cap on, and his hood pulled up over his head, somewhat shielding the fading bruise over his eye. Leo frowned in worry. Despite the police and the social workers promise that no news stations would discover his identity, the information had leaked and now most kids at school avoided him. Although, Leo thought Raph probably didn't mind this, seeing as he enjoyed his solitude.
"Back from space yet?" Raphael grunted, shoving Leo lightly on the shoulder, Leo blinked, then smiled. He had been lost in thought.
"Yeah, Raph, I'm back." he laughed as they started toward the school building. Those laughs descended into a burst of coughing, making Leo's eyes water.
"Ya alright there?" Raph asked, somewhat surprised, Leo smiled as the coughing subsided.
"Yeah, I guess I just got a cold or something, nothing major." he shrugged it off, "come on, it's cold out here." they walked into the building, causing a group of sophomores who were standing by the drinking fountain to look over with unreadable faces, before walking pointedly away from the two boys.
"Whatevah." Leo heard Raphael mutter under his breath. "We bettah get ta class; see ya in English, Leo."
"See you." Leo agreed, walking up the stairs toward his World Studies class, mind wandering to the studying he had done the night before, and he hardly noticed he was being approached until he ran straight into someone.
"Hey, watch it!" Slash said in annoyance, glaring at Leo as the black haired teen stumbled, "what do you want?" Leo coughed.
"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention." he apologized, moving to go around the other teen, Slash grabbed his shoulder, Leo rolled his eyes.
"Hey, Raph come to school today?" he asked. Leo frowned.
"Why do you want to know?" he asked cooly, backing a step away from him. "And, another question, why should I tell you?" Slash grabbed his shoulder and slammed Leo into a wall of lockers, his face inches from Leonardo's.
"You should tell me so I don't give you a bruise to match his." the boy snarled, "and as for why I wanna know, well, the little coward ran off yesterday before I could finish our conversation." Leo glared at Slash.
"Yes, Raph is here today." he hissed, "and another thing, he's not a coward. If I ever hear you say that about him again, you'll get more than just a bruise; can I go to my class now?" Slash snorted.
"Empty threat Leonardo." he growled, "whatever happened to Raphael after he met you was a mistake, he was better before this happened, of course," Slash grinned, "murderers aren't good anyway."
"He is not!" Leo yelled, "a murderer!" the black haired teen gripped Slash's arm and twisted it, just enough to make Slash spin around and release him, and by the time the larger boy recovered Leo was already turning the corner, out of his reach. Leo sighed as he sat down at his desk, next period he was going to have to warn Raphael about Slash, he wasn't good news. It still made Leo want to punch something when he recalled Slash's sneering tone when he said the word coward, but he wasn't a violent person, not usually.
He couldn't sleep. Whenever he closed his eyes, Leo saw Raphael's face again, shadowed by that bruise, and heard Slash's taunting tone when he informed Leo that he wished the two had never met. And on top of that, his entire body ached, like one big bruise, and he had no clue why. He hadn't had PE yesterday, and all that Slash had done the day before that was shove him against a locker, so why should he be so sore? Leo sighed, then coughed for about a minute straight before falling back down into his pillows. Stupid cold, why did he have to get sick now? It would wear off in a few days, though, Leo reasoned, pulling his blankets farther over his shoulders. He would just have to wait it out, he'd done that before. Leo sighed contentedly, finally finding a comfortable place to sleep and let his mind drift off into dreams.
Unfortunately, Leonardo's dreams were a swirl of emotions, faces, and words. None of which were particularly enjoyable.
It actually started out fairly good, from what he could tell, with him and the others playing a snowball fight. But then the park had melted away and he found himself in a closet, hands tied behind his back and a large wad of cloth stuffed in his mouth under duct tape, the sound of Oroku Saki's and Bradford's voices just outside. And then that changed, ever so slowly, until he was sitting on the couch in the living room, by the fireplace, looking down at a strange drawing of a half-turtle half-cat half-human, and he didn't know why there were three halves, just that he didn't recall that one being a drawing in Raphael's sketchbook.
And then Leo felt as if he was zooming into the picture, only when he arrived it was in the school courtyard, the creature completely gone, replaced by Slash and his buddies, and Raph, who were all standing around smoking cigarettes. Leo strode over to them, intending to reprimand Raphael, when the square of sidewalk disappeared from underneath him, sending Leo falling into darkness which ended in the kitchen, watching Donnie's little robot man make dinner when the robot suddenly had Mikey's face. Leo frowned, reaching forward to investigate, when the kitchen changed into a hospital room where he was the one lying on the bed, feeling the raw loss of his mother and Miwa.
He lay in the hospital bed for some time, pondering on the meaning of life, which for some reason involved pickles and rats, until he opened his eyes again to find himself on lying on the snow-covered ground, but the snow was like fire and started making his jeans smoke. Leo yelped, getting to his feet, as the world was slowly consumed by fire and heat. The black haired teen watched in despair as the house was burned to the ground, the roaring of the flames barely hiding the screams of his family as they perished in the fire. Then Leo found himself back in the closet, though this time he was accompanied by a tied up captain Ryan and doctor mind strong, characters from his favorite tv show space heroes, as that building also burned around them. And while the two fictional characters perished, Leo was left unharmed, tied up and sobbing on the cement floor.
Back to the kitchen, where Mikey's head had been replaced by Raphael's annoyed one.
"Geez, fearless, anyone would think ya wanted to skip school or somethin'." the green-eyed robot snorted, "get up already."
"I am," Leo said in confusion, reaching forward to figure out how the robot had received his foster brother's head. "Raph, why are you on the robot?"
"What the heck are ya talking about? If you don't get up yer gonna miss breakfast!" the robot started shaking Leo, who frowned.
"What are you doing...tiny robot?"
"Holy crap Leo." Raphael's head complained. "GET UP!"
Leonardo jolted awake, Raph stepped back with a smile.
"Ah, see Mikey? He ain't dead." he observed, "but it was hard ta tell under all those blankets ya got, Leo, gonna get up anytime before school?" Leo groaned and sat up, rubbing his head.
"Sorry guys, I guess I was dreaming," he muttered, the sharp details already fading.
"No kidding, I'm not a tiny robot in case ya didn't notice." Raphael snorted, "come on, Mike, let's go eat. He's up." the two other boys proceeded out of the room, Mikey chattering the whole way, and Leo pushed his mound of blankets aside, getting to his feet. A headache was forming at the place where his head met his neck, and Leonardo felt slightly nauseous. Nevertheless, the blue-eyed teen retrieved jeans and a long-sleeved shirt for the day, before pulling on a sweater and then a jacket. As Leo laced his boots, he had a small feeling of uneasiness, as if something was wrong, but he couldn't focus on anything and if it was important he would know more, probably. Leo grabbed his backpack and coughed into his fist wetly, grimacing, before running down the stairs to join his family for breakfast.
So that last part was weird, but you know how dreams are. I was trying to make this just as much of a real dream experience because my dreams are always very confusing lol. Anyway…. Any ideas as to what comes next?! Hahaha, you'll have to wait till Friday I'm afraid!
Until Friday,
-Jelly