"What do you mean, Splinter's sending you away?" Mikey asked, his voice thin and shrill with shock. His bright blue eyes were wide and staring, his jaw slack.
"I said what I meant, Mikey." Raph snapped, crossly.
"But that's, I mean, why would you..." Mikey shuddered, then he visibly seemed to pull himself together. Forcing a wide smile on his face, he managed a. "well, cool, dudes. I guess it could be fun. Who knows, I might come out looking for you. Hang out and stuff."
"When are you leaving? Asked Leo, ever the practical one.
"Did he say where? Did he say why?"
"Nope and nada. Kind of wish he did, though. To be honest, I could use a little more advice, ya know/" Raph shrugged. Still, I can handle it. Like knucklehead said, it could be fun."
"I know what you mean." Leo smiled a bit, somewhat sadly.
That surprised Raph, it seemed to have surprised Mikey too. He turned his stare t Leo and blurted out. "Splinter didn't send you to Brazil? I thought he sent you!"
"He did send me away, but I got to pick where it was I went."
"Why South America, then?" Raph wanted to know.
"I, well, I wanted to pick somewhere as, well, um, New York like as possible, to be completely honest. Being in an actual rain forest, well, it was, I did end up liking it there a lot. Except for eating grubs. That was kind of gross. But I really felt like I did a lot of good down there. Like I helped the people there somehow."
"You never told us much about what you did down there." Mikey mused, thoughtfully. "I bet there is a few stories in your adventures..." He fell silent, while Leo and Raph stared at him in shock. Stories? What in the world was Mikey talking about, Raph wondered. Mikey wasn't any writer. But Mikey distracted them by adding with a wide, real grin. "Hey, idea time! Someday, we all can go down to the rainforest. You know? Drop some baddies, gansta jungle style!" he struck a pose as the other two stared at each other for a long startled moment. Raph finally chuckled. "Call me crazy, but I think I like the knucklehead's idea."
"Okay, crazy." Leo grinned back, a small, patient grin built from long association with the two crazy brothers before him. "I like the idea too. Actually, a lot. I can show you my old haunts, and Raph, they have crazy fighting rings and bare knuckle fighters there, some of them wear the craziest costumes! And Mikey, you would love all the new foods and recipes and all the celebrations down there! And Don would have a blast studying all the flora and fauna! I bet he could learn all the languages down there in a year or two! You know, that could really work!"
"Calm down, or I'll toss you out in the sewer." Raph griped, but He was getting pretty excited about the idea himself. Provided, of couse, he still had brothers by the time he came back. The thought sobered him down quickly.
"Wha Hoo! Road Trip!" Mikey crowed. He didn't seem to notice Raph's up and down moods, he was already thinking of something else. "Hey, Splinter sent Leo out to learn on his own, right? And now he's sending Raph out, right?" He said, his forehead wrinkled in thought. Then he grinned. "Do you think Don and I will get trips of our own too?"
Mikey looked so excited about the prospect that Raph didn't really want to rain on his parade, but Leo's face lost all color at the bare idea. Raph laughed, but it sounded uneasy, even to his own ears. "Yeah, right. You, on your own, Mikey? I don't thinks so. Does the word apocalypse hold any meaning for ya?"
"Dude that is, like, so uncool! I can so take care of myself." Mikey protested. "And so can Donnie!"
"Don would get distracted by some shiny brick-a-brack and end up getting eaten by a lion or something." Raph snorted. "There is no way he can take care of himself."
"Then he and I can go together, and I'll take care of both of us. I can take care of myself, you know."
"We know you can." Leo said in a soothing voice, which did the opposite of actually soothing Mikey. "We just mean that, um, well, it's not probably going to be, well, necessary for either of you to go anywhere." Leo added haltingly, with a worried glance toward Raph, "I mean, I went to learn to be a better leader, and Raph is going because, well, maybe he wants him to be a good leader too. He is often when I'm not around."
"Yeah, he's probably just training me to be Leo's second in command or something." Raph nodded. "Sides, I'm the strong man in the group, maybe he wants me to get even stronger."
"Exactly what I was thinking." Leo nodded, with what Raph thought was a relieved smile. Sap.
"Are you saying I'm never going to be leader?" Mikey asked, looking angry and hurt. He stepped back a pace, and stared at the floor hard, as though unable to look at them.
"Mikey, please don't take any of this the wrong way." Leo protested. "It's just, well, I don't think your strength lies in leadership. I think its elsewhere."
As much as he enjoyed watching confident Leo flounder around like this, Raph decided to help him out. Besides, he didn't want Mikey to burst into tears or anything over this. They already had one turtle mad at them after all. And Mikey can be vicious in his pranking when he was mad.
"Yeah, like the kitchen." Raph added. "You're a killer cook. You're more of a caregiver than a leader."
Leo looked at Raph in shock. Raph stared back as though to dare him to say anything for him trying to be nice. Leo smothered a laugh, and nodded. Following Raph's lead, he said. "Yeah, imagine Raph trying to cook for the rest of us."
"Hey, watch it toaster boy. You're the only one I know of who managed to burn water."
Mikey laughed out loud at that even as Leo Protested. "That was one time!"
Raph didn't mind. And he didn't press the point. He was just grateful that at least two brothers were at least trying to make it seem alright that he's going away. OF course, Don don't know yet. Raph started to worry, keeping his worries to himself as he half-heartedly listened to Leo and Mikey banter about each other's cooking skills. He wondered how Don was going to act. He himself wasn't sure how to act. He knew one thing. Splinter ordered him to do this. Raph is known as something of a troublemaker. Okay, he was an out and out rebel. But disobey this? No, he couldn't. Like it or not, He's heading out, well, somewhere in a month. No matter what the others thought about it. Then he realized he knew something else. When he glanced toward the lab, he got a glimpse of purple bandana and brown eyes. Then the eyes vanished, and the lab door closed again. He couldn't prove that Don was there long, but he knew deep in his gut, the truth. Don knew too.