Raph stood in front of his two brothers, the third next to him with a supporting hand on his shoulder. He stepped forward, making Leo drop his hand, and squared his shoulders.
"Guys, I… I'm the Nightwatcher," he said. Michelangelo burst out laughing. His brothers all stared at him, nonplussed. Raph was the first to recover.
"You think that's funny, Mikey?" he said with a slight growl. Mike got a hold of himself enough to answer,
"No, but you telling us that like you're coming out of the closet is." Raph's mouth dropped open. Mikey continued. "And Leo's even standing there like you're going to tell us he's your boyfriend!"
Mike fell back on his shell, laughing hysterically. Leo and Raph shared a horrified look, and then by silent mutual agreement, took a slight step away from each other. Don chuckled.
"Seriously, Raph, we already knew," he said, sidestepping his comedian little brother, who was having trouble breathing. Raph recoiled.
"What? Why didn't you say anything?"
Don sighed.
"To be honest, I just didn't want to have that argument with you, Raph. Besides, I knew what would happen. We'd get into a huge fight, and either things would be horrible between us, or you'd pretend to relent, and another superhero would pop up to replace the Nightwatcher. Also…" Don looked embarrassed. "I was… kind of jealous. That you were brave enough to do what I wanted to do."
Raph was silent for a moment, and then punched his brother on the shoulder softly. Don returned the gesture, and Mikey stopped laughing, smiling contentedly at his brothers, who were smiling at each other as they hadn't done since Leo left.
Leo doesn't miss the fact that none of them are looking at him.