Chapter Twenty-One - The Dinner
As soon as the hosts prepared everything, Yugar went to the prison to fetch Leonardo's earthly family. He walked to the cell slowly and prepared himself mentally to make a good impression.
"Someone's coming," he heard a whisper. Then, an angry growl came.
"If it's that Oberon then I'm gonna-"
"Raph!" a third voice hushed him.
It's not going to be easy, Yugar thought. He stepped in front of the cell, with the key in his right hand.
"Greetings. I am Yugar, the general of our army and trusted friend of the king. I am here to-"
"Yugar?" Raphael narrowed his eyes. "Yer the one who kidnapped Leo, ain't ya?"
"Well, yes, but I did it for the royal family's sake."
"For the royal family's sake? And what about us?" Raph clenched his fists, but stayed sitting on the floor. "Do you know have any idea what you've done?"
"What do you mean?" Yugar was puzzled.
"Raph, please, let it go," Donnie placed a hand on his shoulder to prevent an explosion. Raph released a sigh and closed his eyes. Donnie turned towards Yugar. "Are you here to take us to the dinner?"
"Yes," Yugar said and smiled at him as a thanks for saving him from Raphael's outburst. He opened the door and let the family out. He didn't miss Raph's glare.
When they entered the lunchroom, the table was already set. They didn't get time to wake up from their amazement, the lunchroom was just as glamorous as the palace's other parts.
"The royal family will arrive soon," Yugar said, then disappeared.
"Please behave during the dinner," Master Splinter looked at the others, especially at his sons.
"Of course."
"No problemo."
"Eh."
"Raphael?"
No reply.
"Raphael."
"...Fine..."
"Good."
"Hello," came a voice behind them. They turned around and saw Leo smiling and waving.
"My son," Master Splinter returned the smile. "It is good to see you."
"Leo!" Mikey jumped and pulled Leo into a hug. Leo hugged back a little awkwardly. As Leo was patting Mikey's shell, Mikey's grab was getting tighter.
"Uf, Mikey," Leo pressed the words out of his throat. "I can't... breath"
"Oops, sorry, bro," Mikey let him go and grinned at him.
"Why don't you sit down?" Leo walked towards the long table and pointed at the left side of it.
"We didn't know where we can sit," Slash admitted.
"Well, you can sit on the left side... or the right side if you want to," Leo rubbed the back of his head, then went to the chair next to the head of the table and pulled it out. "Sensei, perhaps you should sit here," he said, then stepped to the head of the table. "Here will be sitting my..." dad. Oh my, he almost said it. He got used to the fact that he has another father and in his thoughts, he started to call him 'dad', but he knew, it would be unfortunate to say it aloud. He didn't want to upset his family, especially his father. "..khm, I mean, Aerglo," he sighed mentally and went to the right side. "Here..." mom. "…Rona, then Oberon, then me, then Venus, and for the rest of the seats, you can decide who will sit where," he smiled nervously. He didn't want to ruin anything. This dinner had to be peaceful.
Soon, the royal family arrived and after a short greeting and introduce, they sit down too. Firstly, there was a little chit-chat, Aerglo was asking questions about the Earth, New York, and their home. After that, he was curious about the mutants. For that, Donnie answered. He explained who had brought the mutagen to the Earth and how it affects the creatures that were touched by it. In exchange, Aerglo and Rona told them about their planet and how they are living there. Everyone joined the conversation, even for a little bit, except for Raphael. This whole situation was a mess, and Raphael was not willing to accept it. He didn't want things to change. He just wanted to go back to Earth with his family, with Leo. Leo, his brother. He shouldn't be here. He should be on the Earth with them. After 18 years of living without him, why couldn't they continue this lifestyle? They were the royal family. They had another two children, so there were heirs. Their life was just perfect, in all respects. They never knew Leo, so why did they miss him? Raphael couldn't understand. He just wanted this dinner to end. He just wanted to forget this all. He looked up from his plate and looked at Leo. He was sitting between his new siblings. He was chatting and laughing. He was having fun. With them. His heart clenched at the thought. But his sadness turned into anger. Usually, Raph's sadness and worry brought the anger too. He wasn't paying attention to the conversation. His own thoughts muted everything else. With each new thought, his anger was growing. He clenched his fists on the table and shut his eyes tightly. He had to calm down, he promised he would behave. He opened his eyes and looked at Leo again. He saw as Oberon wrapped and arm around Leo's shoulder, and Leo smiled at him. He couldn't help but growl. It was a little louder than he expected because everybody turned to him.
"What?" he asked impolitely.
"Is there a problem?" Aerglo asked a little worried. Everything was just so fine.
"You."
"Pardon?"
"Raph," Donnie hissed next to him.
"Just swing with it, bro," Mikey whispered from his other side.
But Raph ignored them and spoke again. "You are my problem."
"What do you mean?" Venus asked.
"You destroyed our family," Raph continued in a dangerously low tone. "We were totally fine before that Yugar came. He kidnapped Leo, we were worried sick about him during that week. When he finally came home, nothing was the same. He was avoiding us! He was not himself! And why? Huh? Because of y'all! He locked himself in his room to text or call ya! He disappeared during nights, and the next mornings, he always almost drop on the floor in tiredness!"
"Raph, ple-" Leo tried, but Raph interrupted him.
"No! Shut up, Leo! Now, I'm speaking and y'all will hear me out, 'cause I have really enough of all of ya!" he raised his voice and hit the table angrily. "Everything was fine, but ya had to come to mess up our family! Ya took him away from us. I'm sure ya want him to leave the Earth and live here. Ya want him to abandon us! Why? Tell me, why did ya do that? Y'all were okay without him for ages, then why couldn't ya leave him alone now? Ya saw that he has a family, that he's happy with us, then why?!"
For a minute, only Raph's angry breathes filled the room.
"But ya know what's the worst?" he continued in a lower tune. It wasn't furious anymore, rather... sad. "Right now, he's sitting with ya and not with us. He kept it as a secret. He visited ya in secret. He let that Mordou or who the damn was that to threaten him just to be with ya. I guess he likes the fact that he has another family. His blood family. And he wants to be with ya. Maybe he wants to stay here with ya and not going back to Earth."
"Raph, that's not true!" Leo said desperately.
"Oh yes? Do ya think I didn't notice that ya almost called Aerglo yer dad? Or Rona yer mom?" Leo opened his mouth, but Raph held up a hand. "Save it, Leo. That was expected. Perhaps I can say, it's natural. Ya want to be with yer real family. I don't want it, it really pisses me off, but still, I know I shouldn't blame ya."
Raph looked deeply into Leo's eyes. The red-clad turtle knew he shouldn't have said all of the things, he should have shut up, but as he started he couldn't stop. The words were flowing out of his mouth, and as a weapon swung at the others, especially at Leo.
"Raphael," Oberon pushed his plate away, and he clasped his hands on the table. "You feel betrayed, disappointed right? You feel like it shouldn't have happened, right?"
"Yeah, what if I feel this way, huh?" Raph glared at him. A strong dislike was still in him towards the older turtle.
"I can relate to that. I felt this way too when I learned about Leo's adoptive father. I thought Leo didn't trust me. I thought he would never see me as his brother. But after that, we talked, and we both understood the other's situation. I don't want to argue, and I think you don't want to either. It's just your temper. Before you feel offended, I tell you, I'm a hothead too, I can understand you. This is why I'm willing to forget your outburst. But you have to listen to our story, and I hope you will understand our situation."
For a few minutes, nobody said a word. Raphael took deep breathes to calm himself wholly and prepare himself for the stories. Raph's family and friends didn't dare to move or speak, they were afraid that they would just make things worse. On the other hand, Aerglo was proud of his eldest. He expected some kind of war between the two hotheads, but Oberon handled it very well. Oberon's changed a lot since they found Leo. He became calmer, more mature. Aerglo knew one day his son would be a good king.
Rona placed her hand onto her husband's one. This broke Aerglo out of his thoughts, and he looked at his wife. Rona smiled kindly at him. It gave energy to him to tell the story again, this time to so many more people. He looked at them in turn, then he cleared his throat. Every eye in the room was on him.
"It happened eighteen years ago..."
Stunned silence filled the room. The story made even Raph to shut up. Leo's earthly family and friends lost in their thoughts. Somehow they felt embarrassed. And some of them felt guilty because they had agreed with Raph minutes ago.
Leo buried his face in his hands and sighed. After a minute, he stood up slowly. He steadied himself with his knuckles on the table. The others looked at him curiously.
"I guess this dinner is over here and now. If you all excuse me I return to my room," he didn't wait for an answer, he turned around and walked towards the door.
So much for having a peaceful dinner together, Oberon thought bitterly.
After Leo left, the others finished the dinner too. Vornu showed the room to Leo's earthly family. They could stay in the palace. They got four rooms. One for April and Karai, one for Splinter, one for the turtles and Casey and one for the Mighty Mutanimals. In the evening, they gathered together in the turtles' room. The room was nice, elegant. There were four beds, two tables, and two garderobes. Though they met to speak about the dinner, for a long time, nobody said a word.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Raph blurted out suddenly.
"It's not us you should apologize," Donnie said. "I can understand you, but you really should have controlled your temper."
"I know," Raph looked away ashamed.
"So what now?" Mikey asked.
"First of all, we should speak with Leo," Donnie replied. "I think he wanted this dinner to go well. It upset him certainly. He wants peace between his families. Right now, this is the most important thing for him."
"So we will go to Leo's room?"
"Yes. Better idea? Anybody?"
Raph jumped up of the bed. "I will go. Alone."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I make it up."
"Speak with your brother, Raphael," his father said. Raph nodded, then left the room a little nervously.
As he was walking, he realized that he didn't even know where Leo's room is. Can he just ask someone? But who?
"Raphael."
Raph stopped and turned around. He got a little scare when he saw that Oberon was behind him closely.
"What?!" he snapped.
"Still angry, ain't we?" Oberon huffed. Raph pursed his lips. "I don't want to fight. I just want to give you something." Oberon took a paper out of his black coat and gave it to Raph. Raph looked questioningly, but took it.
"What's this?"
"I also had an outburst about this situation and I upset Leo too. Leo wrote me a letter about his feelings. He wrote it in our native language, but I translated it for you. I hope it will be enough for you to really understand Leo." and with that, he turned around and went back where he came from.
Raph's eyes wandered to the paper. His eyes ran through Leo's handwriting. He couldn't understand a word. But after that there was a new handwriting, he guessed, it was Oberon's. It was in English.
Dear Oberon!
And he began to read.
A/N: HeyHo~ Unfortunately, there was a big break again. Since there's no school, just this digital teaching I got more tasks to do. And heh, this is my last year of high school and the high-school graduation is comiiiiing. So I don't know when I will come again, but hopefully when the exams are over, I can post more frequently.
Has it happened before with you that you were just speaking and you knew you shouldn't have?
Are you okay with the digital teaching (if you have)?
Take care of yourselves! Vigyázzatok magatokra!
sonavelkovskaa5842: Спасибо за вашу поддержку ! :*
countrygirl35: Yes, I'm native Hungarian from Hungary :) Thank you ^^
zaylo267: It'd be awkward for Leo if his letter had been misspelled or something :D Thanks :)
See you later~
