Disclaimer:  I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; they are the property of Mirage Studios, Inc.  I am only borrowing them for the entertainment of those reading this.  Please don't sue me, I assure you—I have no money.  The other characters are mine, please don't borrow without permission.

Chapter 4: Boiling Point

Leonardo:

I'd tried to catch Athena later on in the afternoon to apologize, but she was nowhere to be found and I didn't want to disturb her in her room if that's where she was hiding out.  I'd acted like an ass and I knew it.  I needed to be honest with her.  I was frustrated and I felt helpless, and I absolutely hated feeling that way.  Practice used to be something I loved, something that gave me a sense of purpose and being.  Now it just reminded me of everything I'd lost recently, and how things would never be the same.  It wasn't the change that bothered me really, I guess.  Everything changes, that's a given.  What bothered me was just how empty I felt now.

I figured I'd try to catch her early, before practice.  I'd been up since before dawn and I already got a run in.  I checked the training room, but she wasn't there yet.  She wasn't in the kitchen having breakfast either.  As much as I didn't want to disturb her in her room, it was obvious that was what I needed to do if I wanted to talk with her before practice started.

I walked down the hall past the other sisters' doors.  Athena's room was at the end of the hall, across from Raphael's.  As I got about halfway down the hall, the door of her room slid open, to my relief.  At least now I wouldn't feel like I was bothering her.

Raphael walked through the doorway, rubbing his eyes.  He'd obviously just woken up.  He didn't see me and went straight into his room.  Athena's door slid shut, and then his, and I stood there, dumbfounded.

I knew I shouldn't jump to conclusions, and what business of mine was it anyway?  Yet I could feel my blood pressure rise.  I was furious.

I changed my mind about talking with Athena and went to my room instead.  I sat on the bed, trying to control my emotions—something that, until recently, I had been very good at.  Twenty more minutes until I needed to be downstairs for practice--I had to pull myself together; I couldn't let it show.

Raphael:

I decided on a quick shower before practice.  I needed to wake up and clear my head.  I had only been joking when I said I would crash in her room, but apparently I had and she let me.  I could hear the water running in her bathroom when I woke up and I slipped out without saying anything.  I didn't really have anything to say anyway.  It felt weird waking up in her room.

I toweled off and threw on our standard workout gear.  It was still strange to have to worry about clothes and pick out things to wear.  We all regarded it as a pain in the ass, except for maybe Mikey.  I think he liked getting to wear real clothes; it wasn't unusual for him to change two or three times a day.

Our practice clothes were light and loose-fitting with plenty of stretch so they weren't constricting to us as we moved.  By the end of a full practice they were always wet and I hated the way the fabric clung to you.  At least we didn't have to wear shoes during practice.

Michaelangelo was coming out of his room just as I was walking down the hall.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"So how was your nice run in the rain yesterday?"  I couldn't resist rubbing that in.  They'd had to run and they hadn't even done anything wrong.

"Swell; how was spending the afternoon in your room?"  Mike grinned at me as we stepped into the lift.

"Fine."

"Did you apologize to Athena?"

"We talked."

"You talked?"

"Yeah, then we watched movies."

"I think I missed something."

"Me too."

"I thought she was mad at you?"

"Well, she was."

"But she's not anymore?"

"Apparently not."

"What did you tell her?"

"Stuff."

The doors slid open and we walked towards the training room.  A bad feeling was developing in the pit of my stomach, but I wasn't sure why.

"What kind of stuff?"

"Leo and I, basically."

"Oh."

We walked into the training room.  Athena and Donatello were already there and warming up.

"I was starting to wonder if you guys were coming."

I hadn't realized we were late, but Athena had a thing about being punctual.

"Sorry, I thought we were on time."

"Did you see Leonardo up there?"

"No."

"Well, he's never late, I'm going to go see if he overslept or something."

Just then Leo walked in.  He did not look happy.

Athena:

Something was definitely wrong with Leo, but I'd have to tackle that later.  Now was not the time.

"Alright, why don't you three join us in warm-ups and then we'll begin."

I could feel the tension in the room already.  It didn't bode well for a good practice.  I supposed that was too much to ask for anyway.

We started going over basics again.  God knows we weren't ready to move on to anything else.  We went over the movements, time and time again.  They would go through the motions, but it was the other part of the technique that always stalled them.  Your mind had to make the movement as much as your arm or leg, and that was the part that proved difficult for them, being that their minds were usually elsewhere.

Donatello was thinking about the cloaking system that kept our home hidden.  He basically devoured anything he could read about our technology since he got here.  Michaelangelo was thinking back to a practice session they'd had many years ago when they were trying to master something new, wondering why this was so much harder now.  Raphael was worrying about spending the night in my room and whether that was really okay or not, and Leonardo was just angry.  I could have pried a little farther to find out why, but I was uncomfortable picking their brains that much without their knowledge.

Leonardo:

I was well aware of the fact that I was just going through the motions.  Normally that would have bothered me but today I didn't care.  Luckily Raphael was farthest away from me as we were lined up.  I was having trouble fighting the urge to attack him as it was.

Why had he been in her room?  Was something really going on between them?  It didn't seem that way, but he had obviously spent the night with her.  I kept telling myself that it was innocent, but I wasn't even buying it.  What legitimate reason would he possibly have for sleeping in her room other than the one I didn't want to think about?

Even if they'd screwed each other's brains out, the fact still remained that it wasn't my business.  So why was I getting so upset about this?  What difference did it make?

The doors of the training room slid open and Iris walked in.

"Good morning, everyone.  Athena, I'm sorry to interrupt, but Rhea is calling and she wants to speak with you."

"I'll be right there."

Iris left and Athena turned to us.

"This is earlier than I expected her to call, but that's okay.  This shouldn't take too long.  While I'm gone why don't you rotate pairs and keep practicing what we just worked on."

She turned and left and we all just stood there for a minute.  It was uncomfortable whenever the four of us were in a room by ourselves these days. 

Michaelangelo spoke first.

"Well, let's get started, I guess."

We turned and paired with the person standing beside us.  Donatello and I moved to the other end of the room to practice.  He actually had a few good kicks while we practiced, and I wished Athena had been there to see them.  I, on the other hand, was doing worse than usual, which was saying something.  Why was it so damn hard for me?

We swapped partners and Michaelangelo and I paired up.  He'd walked straight over to me; he knew Raphael and I paired up was not a good thing.

Michaelangelo was definitely making the best progress of all of us.  I almost felt a twinge of jealousy, but I was happy one of us was getting it.  He could definitely get the most power in his movements with this method, which was something that used to be a weakness of his.  His speed was always his best asset, not his physical strength.  Now he seemed able to have both.

Athena did not return as I had hoped before we paired off again.

I faced Raphael and found myself almost unable to control the sudden wave of anger that hit me.  He must have seen it in my eyes.

"What's your problem?"

"Nothing."

"Look, I don't want to do this any more than you, so let's just get it over with, okay?  I'm tired."

I tried to bite my tongue, but the words just came out too quickly.

"Well, that's what happens when you don't sleep in your own bed."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" 

I could tell from the look on his face that he knew exactly what I was talking about; he never had been a good liar.

"You know." 

I could see the struggle in his eyes.  He didn't know whether to continue to play dumb or just come out with it.

"What the hell do you know about it?"

"I saw you leave her room this morning."

"What are you, spying on people now?"

"I was going to talk to her."

"Yeah, well I guess I beat ya to it."

I swung at him.  I have no idea why, but I did it.  He obviously hadn't been expecting it, and I caught him right square in the jaw.  He recovered quickly though and we took our stances, ready to go.

"Knock it off, you two!  Athena comes back and finds you two fighting again and you're dead meat!"

"Stay out of it, Mikey!"  Raphael never did like it when anyone else got involved in our arguments.

"Leo's just having a little jealous fit."

"Why the hell would I be jealous of you?"

"Please, it's so fuckin' obvious!  You're pissed 'cause you're not the golden boy anymore.  You suck as bad as the rest of us, maybe more.  And now you can't go cry to teacher about it because she's already picked a favorite, and it ain't you!

Raphael:

I knew I probably took it too far with that last comment, but shit, he pissed me off.  I saw the anger flash in his eyes right before he came at me.  I was ready for him this time.

We struggled in a dead lock for a minute before I threw him to the ground.  I got a couple of good punches in before he flipped me off him.  I should have seen that one coming, but I didn't.

He was back at me again before I even thought he had time to get up off the floor.  I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen him like this.  The nice thing about him being this mad was that he didn't think real clearly because he wasn't used to the force of his own emotions.  That gave me the advantage for once.

I blocked his roundhouse and flipped him on his ass.  He looked surprised for a second, but came right back at me again.  He wrestled me to the floor, but I quickly got myself back on top.  I punched him in the face again and he grabbed me by the neck.  I couldn't remember him ever trying to choke me before.  I guess I must've hit a nerve with that last comment.  I grabbed him by the shirt and rolled us, ending up on the bottom and I flipped him up over my head.  Tsk, tsk—he should've expected that.

Donatello:

Leonardo hit the floor hard.  It was the kind of move we used to think nothing of because our shells protected us, but I winced now.  That had to hurt.  They were wiping the floor with each other.  Michaelangelo and I just stood back and watched, having years of practice at it.

Leonardo landed a great punch into Raph's solar plexus, another move that we'd previously been impervious to.  To Raph's credit, he recovered quickly, and returned the favor with a kick to Leo's head.  How he didn't block that, I don't know.  It was the sloppiest fight I'd ever seen them have; Raph seemed to be taking the upper hand though.

Raph was already bleeding from the corner of his mouth.  Leo had a nasty looking cut over his eye, and still they went on.  I started to wonder if we should do something about it.  Apparently Mike was reading my mind.

"You think they've had enough yet?"

"I don't know."

"Athena's gonna have kittens when she sees them."

"Yep."

Just then Raph threw Leo into the wall.

"She'll probably be mad at us for not breaking them up."

"Probably; it's their fight though."

"Yeah."

"Did Raph really sleep in her room?"

"Apparently.  He told me on the way down here that they talked and watched movies last night.  I guess he forgot to mention that he spent the night with her."

"You think anything happened?"

The distinct dull thump of skin on bone meeting skin on bone told us that Leo's last two punches had made direct connections.

"I doubt it."

"Me too."

"Which begs the question, why the hell are they doing this?"

"I'm sure they don't even know anymore."

"Master Splinter would have been pissed."

"Yep."

Just then, Athena walked in.  It took her a split second to assess the situation and then it was like a bomb dropped, only she was the bomb.

It's hard to describe what their fighting style is like.  It's so unbelievably deadly, and yet absolutely beautiful to watch, like a dance or something.  She had them apart in the blink of an eye, grabbing the fronts of their shirts and holding them out at arms length.  She didn't say anything right away, just kept looking from one to the other.

"Well aren't you two a pair."

She let go of their shirts and pushed, setting them both on their asses.

"You are unbelievable.  Really.  Un-fucking-believable.  I leave you alone for a minute and you're all over each other.  And you two--"

I felt my stomach sink as she addressed Mike and I.

"—what the hell are you doing just standing there letting them beat each other into pulp!  Look at them!  These are your brothers, for Christ's sake!"

I did look at them.  They looked terrible.  They'd look even worse tomorrow.  It wasn't our fault.  We didn't beat them up.  I figured this wasn't the best time to make that point thought.

"I want you two to go downstairs and clean yourselves up in the med lab.  I'll send Panaceia down to check on you.  When you're finished, go to your rooms.  Michaelangelo and Donatello, that's where I want you now."

"We don't have to run today?"

Leave it to Mikey not to understand that this was NOT the time for jokes.

"No, I don't want you to run.  I want you to go upstairs and pack your things.  All of you."