Chapter eight:
It is the next day and Raph is bringing Leo some breakfast. He has already eaten himself. He hopes that the other will let him inside. He decided to bring both toast and cereal. He knocks on the door though doesn't get a response. "Leo. It's just me. I brought food." He waits for a few moments then hears the door unlock. He opens the door heading inside.
Leo is standing in the middle of the room not looking at Raph.
Raph moves over feeling at least relief to see him. He had a hard time sleeping last night as he kept wanting to be with his mate. He knows that his mate needs someone, though he knows that just busting in the door isn't going to help. He kicks the door shut behind himself. "If you want to get things off your chest you can. Also you should eat." He sees Leo head to the bed and sit on it keeping his head down. He moves over to the other setting the plate and bowl on the floor. He joins his lover on the bed. "Hey. Are you okay?"
"My head hurts a little." Leo admits not looking up. "It's just at headache point. Not a migraine."
"I can get the pills from Donnie just in case." Raph offers to him feeling the worry start to return. "Why don't you try to eat something? It'll be good to get something in you." He offers. "I'll get the medication for you. So we're prepared."
"Before you go." Leo finally turns to him letting their eyes meet. His gaze seems rather troubled, as if things in his head are still making him feel troubled. "Take the spare key in the drawer under the picture. Only you."
"Only me." Raph promises and gives a soft loving kiss to Leo's lips. He smiles softly to him. "Thank you for at least letting me inside." He gets up and grabs the spare key before heading to get the pills from Donnie. He enters the lab and glances around. He pauses as he comes across the spare bed Donnie must have put here for late nights. He finds Donnie and Mikey cuddled on it still sleeping. He turns wondering if he should let them wake up first.
"Hm? Raph?"
Raph turns back to see that Donnie is blinking awake. "Sorry. I just was hoping to grab the migraine pills."
"Oh." Donnie shifts managing to get out of the cuddle hold with Mikey. He stands with a stretch before heading off. "This way."
Raph follows him and gratefully takes the pills when they are handed to him. "Thank you so much."
"Yeah. Well even if I'm angry Leo is still my brother. I'm not going to just sit back and let him suffer." Donnie points out and Raph smiles softly to this.
"It does mean a lot. I know." Raph then heads off to return to Leo as Donnie watches him go. He makes a quick stop to grab some regular pain medicine as well as some water. He makes it back and heads inside closing the door behind himself. He is glad to see that Leo had indeed started eating at least. He puts the bottles of pills and the cup of water down by the bed. "I brought the other pain meds if you wanted to try to get rid of the headache pain."
Leo nods his thanks and he decided to finish eating before taking the regular pain medicine. He drinks the water to swallow it then puts the half filled glass back in its spot.
Raph pulls his mate close to him focusing on helping him right now. He pulls him onto his lap to cuddle him as close as possible. "There you go. Just relax for now." He tells the other as he continues to cuddle him. "We're skipping training today. I don't care what the others will say. You're more important."
Leo closes his eyes truly feeling grateful for Raph as his mate. He lets him relax in the others hold as even the scent of his mate helps him. He feels safe and like Raph can protect him from everything. His thoughts going to a haze as he just enjoys the others scent.
Raph doesn't plan to go anywhere anytime soon. He will throw anyone out if they try to come in to disturb him. He does think that Splinter will probably just ask for them to be left alone. He still will do it if anyone does try to come into the room. He blinks as he feels Leo go a little limp in his arms. He looks down to him. "You okay?"
"Tired." Leo admits in a slight mumble. "Didn't really sleep."
Raph shifts them so they can lay down. "Okay. I'm not going anywhere. Get some rest."
Leo mumbles appreciatively to his mate before actually speaking. "Stay here tonight."
"Okay. I will." Raph soon finds his mate has fallen asleep on him. He looks to the ceiling as he lets him rest. He hopes that the rest will help with the headache too. He doesn't want Leo to stress out to the point of having a migraine. He finds that he also ends up drifting off into sleep. His whole being feeling better with his mate here where he can take care of him. He'll make sure that even if he has to make something he'll make sure that Leo will eat at least supper.
For now they can rest.
The next day Raph awakens first though he stays to wait for Leo to awaken. He doesn't want him to wake up to find him gone, even if it is to get them breakfast.
Leo shifts then blinks open his eyes with a groan. He seems more dazed than just being sleepy.
"Leo?" Raph feels his heart quicken a little. His words however makes Leo groan in slight pain. He realizes that Leo must have stressed, about the whole telling Mikey and Donnie, to the point that he did give himself a migraine. He shifts grabbing the migraine pills and gets one from the bottle. "Leo take this." He speaks quieter to try to help not cause more pain. He helps sit him up a little then encourages him to take the pill. He even gives him some water to help wash it down. He sets the water down once done and carefully lays them back down. He holds Leo so he should only be able to smell his scent. He hopes that this will help the other through this migraine. He'll have to wait for the other to start feeling better before he goes to get breakfast.
Leo doesn't move a lot as they wait for the medicine to kick in.
Raph stays quiet not wanting to make it any worse. He keeps his arms around the other, with one hand gently brushing Leos arm comfortingly.
After a little while Leo sighs relaxing indicating that the medicine has kicked in. He shifts to look to Raphs face appearing more alert than before.
"It's good to see you feeling better." Raph still doesn't make his voice louder as he doesn't want to bring it back. "I'll get us breakfast. You rest up." He kisses the others cheek then gets up. He makes sure that Leo is comfy on the bed then heads to get the food. He enters the kitchen finding Donnie and Mikey there.
"Things getting better?" Donnie inquires as Raph gets the breakfast.
"Thanks to the medicine you made." Raph glances over his shoulder to his brothers. "Woke up to a pretty bad one."
"Well at least the pills are helping." Donnie agrees and Raph nods his head. "Splinter has excused you two from training for now. And I agree by what you told me." He smiles softly as Raph gives him an appreciative look.
Raph takes the breakfast to Leo's room. He plans to make sure that Leo eats before he eats his own breakfast.
Three days have gone by and Leo has gotten much better. He keeps his focus away from what caused him stress, and has his focus more on his mate. He just has refused to leave his room.
"Do you want to at least go out to the living room today?" Raph offers to his mate hoping to finally get the other out.
Leo shakes his head. "No." He turns to look to Raph. "Look. I don't want to go out at all right now. I don't have to deal with the pressure to come clean in here. So right now I'd rather stay here."
Raph clenches his teeth. "Oh come on. You can't just live in your damn room." He hisses as they slightly glare at each other.
"I don't want to go out." Leo stays firm on this for now.
"This is stupid." Raph tells his mate with his own firmness. "You know it too. Surely this whole thing hasn't turned you dumb. Just go out."
"Raph. Right now I'm staying right here." Leo doesn't even flinch as Raph slams a frustrated fist on the ground.
Raph growls a little before he gets to his feet. "I'm gonna leave this room. So come to your senses and join me." He leaves the room and waits for a little bit out of sight. He heads off when Leo doesn't come out. He hurries to the training room and takes in a punching bag. He lets growls escape past his lips as he slams punch after punch into the punching bag. "Damn it! Leo!" He slams a pretty hard punch to the bag. "You're being stupid!" He slams another one. "And it's driving me crazy!" He slams another one then another until he feels his frustration start to slip away. He grabs the punching bag to stop it from swinging. He is lightly panting from all that he had done just now. He lowers his hands to his sides staring at the bag. "What am I supposed to do with you?" He questions the inanimate object as he tries to think of what to do about Leo.
Leo is truly being stubborn and seems convinced that he shouldn't reveal the truth.
That something bad will happen... Unless...
Raph blinks as it comes to him. He knows what he should do... He will have to go behind Leo's back to do it. He just feels like it is what Leo needs to snap out of the mental state he's in. "It's for your own good." He mentions the words intended for his mate. He leaves the training room and looks for Donnie and Mikey. He turns as the two just arrive back from being out. He catches Donnies eye and gestures them to the living room.
Curious Donnie leads Mikey to the living room where Raph is waiting. "What's going on? Are the pills not working?" He blinks in concern that Leo's migraine is even worse than ever.
"No it's not that." Raph admits bringing now confusion to the two. "This is actually something rather important. It's about all the secrecy." He sees their interest rise at the mention of it. "Let's sit down so we can discuss it." He has a feeling they'll need to be sitting down when they receive this news.
The two sit on the couch while Raph sits on the floor between them and the Tv.
"Okay. So what's all this about?" Donnie inquires as he and Mikey stare at Raph.
"Well. You remember that discussion we had not that long ago? About the what if scenario." Raph reminds them to which they both nod. "Well there was more to it than I was telling. Because I wasn't allowed to say anything then. I really shouldn't even be telling you any of this right now. But I need your help. And it'll be easier if you both are in the loop so to speak." He pauses as he doesn't like that he has to go behind Leo's back. He reminds himself that he has to.
"What's going on?" Mikey asks as encouragement for Raph to continue.
"Well. Yes Leo does get migraines as you both know. However some, not all, of the days of the migraines wasn't actually that." Raph sees them lean a little forward. "There was another reason Leo had to go away for a few days. Because the truth is Leo did present not long after he became an adult." He notices the twos eyes widen in the surprise. "Since he was the first Splinter gave him a solution to hide his scent. He helped Leo hide it. However a consequence was that we couldn't know the truth. Leo was forced by the circumstances to hide it even from us." He wants to confirm that they heard him right. He can see it as needed by the look on their faces. "Leo is actually an omega."
Donnies gaze drops down as his mind tries to process this information.
Mikey just stares at Raph lost in shock of it all.
Both of them quiet as they let the news sink in, glad that they're sitting down.
Raph is giving a little time to let it all sink in for them.
Mikey snaps back to reality as Donnie speaks.
"So... Some of those days he had to be away alone was because he was in heat?" Donnie looks back to Raph in time to see him nod in confirmation.
"He did want to tell us. After he and Splinter let me find out it started out as him trying to figure out how to tell you two. It's just that events happened. And he started becoming convinced the truth would only cause trouble for every one of us. He even worried you two would leave out of anger, or if you thought the truth would put on problems you didn't want to deal with." Raph pauses letting his words truly sink in a bit more. He continues when he thinks he's waited long enough. He doesn't have all the time in the world. "That omega scent you smelled on me. That was Leo. Yeah when I learned the truth we talked and actually ended up becoming mates."
Mikey tries to find the words to say though he seems to come up empty. He glances to Donnie then turns back to Raph. "Can we back up a little? So Leo had to hide the truth because something could have happened?" He sees a nod from the other.
"Well I suppose it does make sense." Donnie admits and rubs his chin with his hand. "Alphas wouldn't be as threatened by us compared to when Mikey presented. And we all have seen how others out there can treat omegas."
"Exactly." Raph is glad that they're understanding so far. "Now after both me and Splinter tried to convince him to go through with the plan to tell you... Well he just wants to stay hidden, and is convinced something bad will happen if the truth is revealed. I even tried to point out he doesn't have to let the whole world know. Just all of us."
"I suppose I didn't really help with that." Donnie shifts his feet. "I focused a lot on my mate and wanting to protect him. Though I do think you're right. Plus if the others don't know the truth then we should still be as safe as we can be. I don't think I'd feel as threatened for our safety if it's just us who know."
Raph is relieved to have heard Donnie admit he's okay with it. "Glad to have you on board. Now we just need to figure out a way to try to encourage him out. That it'll be okay. I needed to wait as him stressing over the what if it all goes wrong gave him a migraine. Luckily Donnie you made more of the pills which helped a lot." He adds as they continue to listen. "However one problem. I did promise only I would enter his room. I'm doing enough of going behind his back by telling you two. I don't really wanna go further on that."
"It's okay Raph. I think I actually have an idea." Mikey admits bringing the attention to him. He explains the plan and the two alphas think that it just might work.