A/N: Upon some encouragement (you people really are lovely), I thought I'd try to keep going with this one. This chapter was meant to be longer but I kind of like looking at this from just one point of view for now.

Despite the fact that the lair was extremely quiet, it had taken Leo longer than normal to settle into a meditative state.

He blamed Raphael.

Even now, he found himself letting out a small frustrated sigh for allowing the hothead to invade his thoughts, again, because the mere thought of the strong turtle now seemed to light up his nerve endings and increase his breathing as he saw flashes of the night before. Flashes of Raphael kissing him. And of Raphael's fingers trailing over his skin.

They hadn't gone any further than that and it had been practically morning when Raph had said goodnight and left Leo alone in his room. Leo had managed to doze off for a few restless hours of sleep before rising and heading to the dojo.

And now, practically an hour into meditation, he was still just as confused as when he'd begun the practice. Although, in truth, he wasn't spending much time thinking about what his own proper reaction should be to last night's events. Instead he spent the morning wondering what Raphael's reaction would be now that he'd had a chance to get some sleep as well. He knew that Raphael tended towards acting brashly without thinking through the consequences, leaving Leo to wonder if Karai's letter had just forced Raph to act in a way that he normally wouldn't just to keep Leo from leaving their family. He wondered if Raph would wake up and regret his every word. His every touch.

At that thought, Leo suddenly realized he didn't want Raphael to regret what had happened the night before. If his squirming stomach was any indicator, Raphael seemed to have woken something inside him that he would hate to have to crush and ignore.

He took a sudden deep inhale to try to salvage his meditative state and was surprised when he was hit with not only the familiar scent of his favorite tea, but Raphael's scent as well. His eyes popped open and he was startled to find a steaming mug of tea sitting in front of his crossed legs in the otherwise empty dojo.

A dorky grin covered his face as he continued to stare down at the thoughtful offering. He felt hope flare as he picked the mug up and took a drink. He was still unsure if what they had done so far was a good idea, but that thought wasn't his main focus. Instead, he focused on the happy feeling running through him as he realized that perhaps this meant Raphael didn't wake up full of regret after all.

Meditation forgotten, he slowly lifted himself to a standing position and took another drink of tea. Despite his sudden nerves, he began to cross the dojo. Due to last night's fight and Mikey's injuries, they wouldn't have practice today and they had all been left to sleep in and pursue their own personal agendas. This meant Mikey was probably still in bed and Donnie was probably already working in his lab. Raphael was clearly awake, but Leo wasn't sure what Raph's plans for the day would involve.

The pit in the main room was empty. As was their kitchen. Leo heard noises in Donnie's lab so he headed in that direction and soon found Donnie grumbling to himself as he stood under the raised party wagon.

"What's wrong, Donnie?" Leo asked.

"This whole brace is bent. I sent Raph to the junkyard to look for a replacement part."

"Oh," Leo said.

Donnie grunted as he pulled something loose from under the vehicle. "I'm sure he'll find one, Leo. We were in such a hurry to get Mikey home last night that you probably just ran over something by accident. It'll be fairly easy to weld in a new one."

Leo nodded, trying to recover as he realized Donnie had heard his disappointment and thought it was due to the vehicle's damage.

"Have you seen Mikey this morning?" Leo asked.

"I checked on him earlier. He was still asleep."

"I'll check on him again," Leo said.

He headed towards Mikey's room and pushed the door open wide enough to poke only his head inside. He heard Mikey mumble in his sleep and, reassured that he was still resting comfortably, shut the door and headed towards his own room.

He was about to pass Raphael's room when he realized Raph had left his bedroom door open. He wasn't even sure when he had last been in Raphael's room. But he stopped now in the doorway and took a deep breath in through his nose.

Had he never noticed how enticing Raphael's scent was before?

He moved quickly away from Raphael's room and headed to his own bedroom where he shut the door behind him. He was two steps in when his eyes narrowed as he noticed a piece of paper out of place on his desk. He lost the frown though, as he leaned over the desk and quickly recognized Raphael's handwriting.

Fearless,

Runnin to the junk yard for Don. I'll find ya when I get back.

R

Leo stared at the paper and at his brother's quick handwriting. Raphael had never left any of them a note before. In fact, Raphael disappearing without telling anyone where he was going had always been an issue of contention between them. And this note wasn't even actually necessary, because Donnie knew where Raphael had gone.

For the second time in less than ten minutes, a dorky grin covered Leo's face.

But he dropped the grin when he realized the note didn't really say why Raphael would want to find him upon his return. And Leo's mind immediately wondered if Raphael wanted to talk to him to make sure that Leo wasn't reading too much into what had happened the night before.

He frowned, wondering how he'd gone from happy upon finding the mug of tea to suddenly full of doubt over one small, completely neutral note. His eyes traveled around his room and he bent down to rescue Karai's note from where Raphael had tossed it on the floor. He glanced at the previously memorized words before sitting at his desk and pulling out a blank piece of paper to write his own note.