There was a long stretch of awkward silence in the dojo after Leo stormed out, Mikey was the first to break it.
"Dude, that was kinda intense." He sighed. "I didn't know Leo felt like that...but I kinda wanna know more about what you and Leo were talking about." Mikey said, directing the last part of his sentence towards the red banded turtle who had been staring at the floor since Leo left.
It was quiet again for about half a minute before Raph jumped up and stormed out of the dojo also, without a word to his younger brothers.
"Welp..." Mikey said as he frowned at his mate.
"I thought that once we worked things out everything would be okay...I guess we were too focused on each other that we didn't realise what was going on with Leo or Raph."
"Raph sounded super jealous when he started accusing Leo or liking one of us."
"I noticed that as well...I think Leo feels the same way about him."
"Should we talk to them?" Mikey suggested and Donnie nodded and sighed.
"I guess we should at least try."
When Mikey and Donnie exited the dojo they noticed that both Leonardo and Raphael's bedroom doors were closed.
"You wanna go to Leo or Raph?" Mikey asked.
"Leo." Donnie replied quickly, making Mikey groan.
"Fine." Mikey replied and began trudging up to his hot headed brother's room, standing there for a few moments before he knocked. "Raph? Can I come in?"
"Fuck off Mikey."
Mikey opened his mouth to reply to his brother, but decided against it and turned away from the door.
"Really? That wasn't much of a talk." Donnie commented as he reached Leo's door.
"Raphie's not exactly the talkative type Dee and I kinda don't wanna get my shell waxed either...good luck with Leo!" Donnie rolled his eyes at his mate, although he knew that they probably weren't going to get much out of either of their brothers, but at least Leo might be more inclined to listen to what Donnie had to say.
"Leo?" Donnie called out after he'd knocked. "Leo...you don't have to come out or even let me in...just listen to me...okay?" After a brief pause, Donnie continued to speak. "I'm sorry that none of us realised how much you were struggling, we were trying to deal with things on our own when we should have been doing that together...and then after me and Mikey...I know that must have caused even more stress and confusion. I can't say sorry enough, but locking yourself away from us isn't going to do any good. Your idea to have the four of us talk out our feelings was working until….until whatever it is going on between you and Raph got in the way. I'm here if you need to talk Leo, please come out soon." Donnie waited a few minutes to see if Leo was going to speak to him but he gave up, sighing as he walked away.
Inside the blue banded turtle's room, Leo had stripped himself of his gear, weapons and mask and was curled up on his side on his bed.
He'd listened to his brother through the door and as much as he wanted to talk to someone, he was still feeling embarrassed about his outburst in the dojo and wanted some time to calm down before he spoke to any of his siblings.
The two oldest Hamato brothers didn't leave their room for the remainder of the day, not even to use the bathroom or to eat, so Mikey and Donnie ate dinner just the two of them, deciding that if their brothers weren't going to come out by tomorrow, they were going to make them.
By the time Donnie and Mikey rose from their now shared bed in the morning, Leo was in the dojo but Raphael's bedroom door was still closed.
"You gonna try to talk to Leo again?" Mikey asked and Donnie nodded.
"Yes, it's a good sign that Leo's out of his room, it might be because he wants to talk." Donnie gave his mate a quick kiss before making his way into the dojo.
"Morning Leo." Donnie greeted, moving into the room, but keeping a good amount of distance between the two of them.
"Good morning Donnie."
"How are you feeling?" Donnie asked, taking a step forward as Leo sheathed his weapons.
"Embarrassed." Leo admitted, looking at his brother and Donnie tried to hide how happy he was that Leo was being open with his feelings.
"About yesterday?"
"...Yes, I know it's not good to hold in everything and I guess that's what I did and everything just came out after...after Raph provoked me."
"What exactly was it that Raph said that upset you so much...was it about your feelings towards me and Mikey?" Donnie asked.
"I don't have any feelings towards you or Mikey, I thought I made that clear yesterday." Leo said, growing angry.
"Yes, and every time it's mentioned you start to lose your temper." Donnie said, crossing his arms across his chest and watching as Leo tried to calm himself down.
"Because I don't like being accused of things that aren't true, such as trying to ruin your relationship because of my apparent interest."
"You told Raph that you were desperate for us to work things out."
"It would have made things very difficult if you two hadn't." Leo said and Donnie sighed, he wanted Leo to truly open up to him but his brother didn't seem to want to.
"Is that the only reason?"
"What other reason would there be?"
"Leo...a lot of what you said yesterday kinda made me think that…"
"Whatever you're thinking about Donatello I think you should keep it to yourself." Leo cut his brother off.
"Leo, you can speak to me about anything...you know that right?" Donnie said, lowering his arms and frowning at his brother who was beginning to close himself off again.
Leo nodded and turned away from his brother, taking out his swords to continue his katas that he'd been practising before Donnie had come into the dojo.
"Leo...just...just talk to Raph okay? And if you need me, you know where to find me." Donnie said and left the room, not waiting for Leo's reply as he knew that there wasn't going to be one.
Mikey had decided that since Donnie was trying to talk to Leo again, he may as well try and get Raph to talk to him.
"Raph?" Mikey called out as he knocked loudly on his brother's door. "Raph bro, come on, you gotta come out at some point."
Silence.
Then a thought came to Mikey.
"You're never gonna get Leo by hiding in your room all the time." Mikey said and smirked when he heard movement on the other side of the door and then the door swung open.
"What the fuck do you mean by that?"
"Nothing! Unless...it meant something to you?" Mikey asked with narrowed eyes.
"Keep ya' nose outta things that ain't got nothing to do with you." Raph said before slamming his door shut.
Mikey was smiling widely before the door was even shut, happy he'd got a reaction out of his brother that got him out of his room, even if it was only for a few minutes. He was also happy that Raph's reaction had solidified the suspicions Donnie and Mikey had about their older brothers.
Mikey had come downstairs at the same time Donnie had come out of the dojo, looking very defeated.
"No luck?" Mikey asked.
"Leo started to get defensive when I asked about him and Raph." Donnie explained as he and Mikey walked away from the dojo to Donnie's lab.
"Raph actually came out of his room when I said something about Leo."
"What did you say?"
"I said 'you're never gonna get Leo by hiding in your room all the time.'"
Donnie hummed as he and Mikey sat down at Donnie's desk. Donnie was clearly drifting off into his own thoughts so Mikey spoke again.
"I think we need to lock them in a room together." Mikey said, which caused Donnie to look at Mikey with a frown, but as much as Donnie wanted to disagree with his mate, it really wasn't the worst idea.
"We'd need to get Raph out of his room."
"Or we just shove Leo into Raph's room." Mikey suggested.
"Raph's room doesn't lock from the outside, how do you suppose we manage to keep them in there?"
"Break the handle? You can fix it later." Mikey said with a sheepish grin.
Donnie sighed, he had plenty of things on his to do list and another item added to the list wasn't very favourable, but neither were his two brothers being at odds with each other because they weren't able to talk about their feelings.
"Fine...when are we going to do it?"
"Probably best to let them cool down for a bit...maybe tonight?"
"Okay...just come grab me when you need me." Donnie said as he started tinkering with some items on his desk.
"Will do dude!" Mikey said, giving his mate a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving him to his own devices.
Not much happened throughout the day, Leo remained in the dojo, Raph stayed in his room and Mikey and Donnie went about their day, spending meal time alone with each other as Raph and Leo didn't seem to want to eat, despite both skipping dinner the previous evening.
"This is ridiculous." Donnie commented as he and Mikey washed up their dishes.
"Totally bro...I think now's as good a time as any." Mikey said as he handed Donnie the last dish to dry.
"Okay, I'll meet you upstairs." Donnie said as he put the dish away and followed his brother out of the kitchen.
As soon as Donnie started walking towards Raph room, Mikey made a mad dash into the dojo, straight into his brother, narrowly avoiding the sharp steel of Leo's katanas.
"Mikey! Be careful!" His brother warned him as he put his katanas away.
"Sorry dude! But you need to come with me now!" Mikey said as he took his brother's hand and tried to pull him out of the room but Leo refused to move.
"And why do I need to do that?"
"It's Raph, come on bro, I don't know what's wrong with him." Mikey said, pure panic showing on his face, hoping that his acting was enough to persuade his brother.
"What?" Leo asked, worried, allowing Mikey to pull him out of the dojo.
By the time Mikey had got Leo to their red banded brother's room, Donnie was inside, talking to Raph. Mikey didn't know how Donnie had managed to get Raph to let him, but right now he didn't care, he just needed to dump Leo in the room, drag Donnie out and break the door handle.
"What's going on?" Leo asked, looking at Raph, who seemed to be fine.
"Nothin'" Raph frowned deeply, looking back at Leo before noticing that Donnie and Mikey were trying to sneak out of the room. "What the fuck are you two doing?"
"Nothing…" Mikey said before pulling Donnie out of the room and slamming the door shut, noticing that the door handle was already broken and a push confirmed the door wouldn't budge.
"Did you already break it?"
"Yes, Raph caught me doing it but luckily you came along with Leo just in time." Donnie smirked.
"Awesome dude...well, I guess we just gotta wait for them to sort things out." Mikey said as he rocked on his feet, flashing a coy smile at his brother who rolled his eyes.
"I guess we can wait for them...in our bedroom." Donnie smiled and was immediately dragged into the mentioned room.
Raph punched the door when he realised that he wasn't going to be able to open it and then punched it again when he realised that he was trapped in his room with Leo.
"Fuck…" Raph grumbled under his breath and remained standing towards the door for a few minutes before turning around.
Leo was stood by Raph's bed, arms across his chest, eyes fixed on the ground and a frown on his face. Raph's sigh made his head come up, well...if they were gonna be stuck here for who knows how long they may as well talk.
"I'm sorry." Raph said, breaking the silence. "I didn't know what was going on in ya' head and it wasn't fair of me to put more stuff on ya'."
Leo's frown deepened before he spoke.
"I didn't want anyone to know...I thought I could deal with everything by myself."
"You ain't by yourself so you shouldn't have to deal with things by yourself...I'm sorry I made ya' feel like ya' had to." Raph said, moving closer to his brother.
"You've said sorry to me twice now, are you sure you aren't just apologising to me because you don't feel well?" Leo teased and Raph rolled his eyes.
"You deserve a hundred apologises Leo." Raph said, very seriously which made his brother frown even more, if that were possible. "I was so pissed at you I wasn't thinking of anything else."
"Because of how you think I felt towards Donnie and Mikey?" Leo asked but Raph didn't reply. "Honestly Raph, I don't know why you can't believe me when I say I have zero interest in either of them...romantically or otherwise...all I wanted was for them to get back together, to work things out between them...I know I must have come across as slightly...manic to you…"
"Yeah, just a bit, ya' can't blame me for thinking you were into one of 'em."
"I thought you might believe me when I told you I wasn't." Leo said, uncrossing his arms. He sighed when his brother shrugged his shoulders and avoided eye contact so Leo came closer. "Raph...I'm going to tell you something...please don't hit me."
"What?"
"Because I have no idea how you are going to feel about this...Raph...I…" Leo paused as he looked into his brother's eyes and tried to bring up the courage to say what he wanted to say. "The true reason I was so desperate for Mikey and Donnie to work things out was because I didn't want either or them going after you as a second option."
"What d'ya mean?" Raph asked and Leo sighed in annoyance, was it really that hard to understand?
"Because I wanted you all to myself."
"Well they're together and ya' got me." Raph said, still not fully understanding what his brother meant and Leo had to resist the urge to smack his brother's head into the wall.
"Oh my god, Raph...I wanted Mikey and Donnie to get back together because I didn't want one of them to become romantically involved with you because I want to be romantically involved with you." Leo ranted and waited for Raph's response.
A few minutes of silence passed between them, Raph's expression not changing from confused.
"Ya' wanna be with...me?" Raph asked.
"Yes."
"Not Mikey or Donnie?"
"Just you." Leo clarified.
"..Since when?" Raph continued to question.
"I...I don't know…I've always-"
"You don't know? Or are ya' just worried about being alone so ya' happy to fake wanting to be with me?" Raph asked and Leo's mouth dropped open in shock.
"That's not it Raphael! I'll admit these feelings are new to me, but they aren't really new at all."
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"When I first realised how I was feeling...I started thinking about us, our interactions in the past, I realised how close we've always been, we've always been a team of four but we split down the middle into pairs."
"We're the A team." Raph said, his expression softening.
"Exactly."
Silence once again fell between the two, a more comfortable silence now it seemed that Raphael was believing what his brother was telling him.
"I guess I got really jealous when I thought that you wanted them...I didn't know why I was jealous, guess I didn't even know it was either, I just felt really fucking angry." Raph explained. "I ain't exactly the best with my feelings so I guess that's just how it came out." Raph shrugged.
"Well...it would help if we communicated better," when Raph glared at him, he continued, "both of us Raph, I have a lot to work through as well." Leo said, referring to what he'd previously said about himself.
"I guess...we can work on stuff together?"
"I'd like that." Leo said and closed the small gap that remained between them. At the same time, they moved their heads in close to each other, slightly too fast and ended up smacking their head against the other.
"Shit." "Sorry." They both said at the same time before laughing.
"Wanna try that again?" Raph asked and Leo smiled as he leaned in again, tilting his head slightly.
The throbbing in both their heads soon disappeared as they kissed for the first time. Neither had expected their kiss to be more than just a few seconds of their lips touching but as soon as it started, the two couldn't stop, Raph was soon seeking entrance to his brother's mouth, which Leo more than happily gave him.
Leo had a tight grip on his brother's shoulders, pulling him closer to him but it also prevented his hands from wandering across Raph's body, he didn't want things to progress too quickly. Raph also seemed to feel the same way as he held onto Leo's hips tightly and didn't move.
When the two finally broke apart, they were both panting.
"Wow." Raph said first.
"Yeah, wow." Leo laughed before looking passed Raph to his door. "I guess we're not going to be able to leave here any time soon."
"Hm, yeah." Raph said as he looked behind him before looking back at Leo. "So, ya' wanna...stay here tonight?" Raph asked and Leo raised a brow at him. "Just to sleep." He clarified.
"Yeah, that sounds nice." Leo said, moving away from his brother so he could start stripping himself of his gear. His face flushed when he noticed that Raph was watching him undress, it also made him undress slower.
Once both were stripped of their gear, they crawled into Raph's bed and after some moving around they found a sleeping position that was comfortable for the both of them, with them both on their sides, Raph curled up behind him, an arm wrapped around his elder brother. It wasn't long before they were both asleep.