"Pops, you wanna spar with me?" Akito asked.

Raph looked over to Leo and watched as Leo's eyes moved steadily over the new tablet Raphael had recently given him for his birthday, probably deeply invested in some new story. Leo waved a hand at him without looking up and Raph took it as decline to join them.

"Sure, bud," Raph said. "Let's head down to the beach." He turned to his brothers and nodded his head in the direction of the stairs as an invite to join them.

"Spar time," Mikey said with a grin as he pulled Woody up from the couch, "and you're going down, Woods."

"Language, Mikester," Woody said as his eyes teased Michelangelo, "there's children around."

Leo glanced up at the two of them and quickly ducked his eyes back down to the story he was reading when he saw Mikey's eyes darken in Woody's direction.

"Yes, there are children around," Donnie said, pushing both Mikey and Woody towards the stairs.

"What'd he say?" Gabe asked, trailing behind Donatello. He reached up and tugged on his dad's hand. "Was it a bad word?"

Donnie scooped Gabriel up into his arms and glared at his own smirking baby brother as he followed them down the stairs.

Casey watched the group head out without a backwards glance or an offer to join them. April watched too and finally spoke up.

"Why don't you go with them?" she asked Casey.

"Nah, I actually promised to go for a walk in the woods with Shadow after lunch anyway," Casey said. "Ready, kid?"

"Yup. Machi you want to come with us?" Shadow asked, heading towards the door.

"Sure!" Machi said, jumping up.

Casey stood as well, and although he tried to ignore it, he could see Leo visibly tense out of the corner of his eye.

"I'll go too," Leo said, standing to follow the girls down the stairs.

Casey tried not to groan out loud at the thought of Leo joining them. He knew he had a strange love-hate relationship with Leo. He and Leo had fought not just battles together, but wars together, making them brothers in arms. On top of that, Leo had played a key role in helping him escape from his abusive father. And Leo had also stepped up to protect April and Shadow from Stockman without even being asked. Of course, Leo had been friends with April before Casey had even met her. And Shadow was, of course, just as much April's daughter as his.

Regardless, Leo was part of his family. So he loved him.

But Leo was also the appointed leader of his family, which Casey didn't appreciate. Maybe it was his issue with authority, or that he just didn't see the point in having a family leader.

Casey's eyes darted to April, silently pleading with her to come too. But she only pursed her lips and shook her head slightly before turning back to her previous conversation with Sadie.

After he'd played such a major role in Usagi's trap to capture Leo, Casey reminded himself that he was partially responsible for the strain in his relationship with the clan leader. Although, honestly, and he'd never admit this out loud to anyone, but he might have honestly tried a little harder to thwart Usagi's plan if the rabbit had been after anyone else. But it had been Leo Usagi wanted. And since Leo was the best fighter Casey knew, Casey kind of figured Leo would be fine. Plus, Leo and Usagi used to be pals, so how much harm would come to him? And how was Casey to know Usagi had some weird tech that would make Leo untraceable from Donnie's special Leo-finding machine?

Casey, and most of the rest of the clan, still hadn't heard what exactly had happened to Leo when Usagi had him in that other dimension. But Mikey did mention to Casey that Leo had come home in shock. Shaky. Spooked.

All words that Casey was pretty damn sure had never been used to describe Leonardo.

And of course, Mikey hadn't filled him in until after Casey had run into Leo in the hallway and offered a somewhat half-assed apology. If he had to do it over again, even though Leo had quickly tried to brush off the apology Casey was trying to offer, but if he had to do it over again, he probably would've put a little more effort into it.

Because if he had, maybe Raphael wouldn't be ignoring him.

Casey's shoulders slumped as he followed Leo and their daughters down the stairs and into the backyard. Leo kept his eyes forward, although he was fully aware of the discomfort radiating off of the human who was insisting on walking two steps behind him instead of next to him, no matter how slow Leo moved his feet. The teenaged girls ran ahead of them through the trees, laughing and thankfully oblivious to the quiet tension between the two fathers that followed them.

The trees in this forest were old and impressively tall and Mikey had once described the vines lining them as looking like tinsel based on how they draped over all the branches and trunks. Leo and Machi left the human pair behind a couple times to scale the trees in races to the top and Machi grinned over at her dad often as they jumped from one tree to the next. His eyes had been wary when they started but she watched as he quickly noticed how easily her clawed hands could grip the tree bark and she was grateful that he was willing to focus on having fun with her instead of worrying about her safety.

Almost two hours had passed when Shadow finally complained that she was hot and wanted to go back so they could swim. Casey happily turned around and headed back in the direction of the house without a word. He noted that returning didn't take as long since Leo and Machi weren't taking them in random directions as they jumped through the trees like monkeys. They'd almost reached the break in the forest when Shadow and Machi suddenly took off in a sprint. They shouted thank yous over their shoulders to their dads as they headed for the beach.

Leo smiled fondly as he watched them go. He stepped over a large fallen tree as he continued towards the barely visible house, but turned to eye Casey when he realized the human had stopped walking completely.

"Casey?"

Casey stared at the sandy dirt and tree roots lining the ground in front of his feet as he mentally argued with himself to just keep his mouth shut. It was an argument he lost.

"Why'd you come out on this walk?" he asked, lifting his eyes up to Leo now that their daughters were gone

Leo's eyes narrowed at the harsh tone and the anger he could see in Casey's eyes.

"What?"

"Ya weren't gonna leave the house until Machi decided to join me and Shadow."

"Machi is my daughter," Leo said, his own tone of voice turning cold as Casey continued to glare at him. "And we know from experience these woods are not guaranteed to be safe."

"Exactly," Casey said, a triumphant note to his voice as he took a step closer to Leo. His own eyes narrowed further as he spoke. "So why don't ya just admit ya don't trust me to watch out for yer kid by myself?"

Leo blinked at Casey as he finally realized where Casey's anger was coming from. His eyes moved away from Casey and down to the forest floor as he realized that, although it had been done subconsciously, Casey had nailed the exact reason he joined this little field trip.

"I knew it," Casey growled over to him. He knew Leo well enough to know what those down-turned eyes meant. He turned and stalked a few feet away from Leo in order to lean his back against a tree with crossed arms.

Leo thought for a moment about why his first instinct was to join the group and his brain's response was to immediately flash images of himself chained to a bed with Usagi's fingers sliding over the skin on his arm. He fought off a violent shudder and lifted his own glare up to Casey's smug face. His reward was a quick flash of shock from Casey on seeing Leo's famous fierce gaze.

"And why should I?" Leo grit out, the growl clearly evident in his own voice. "What has trusting you ever gotten me Casey?"

Casey stood up straight, refusing to cower under Leo's glare. "I tried to apologize for that," he said, although he realized growling the words at Leo made the mentioned apology seem even more insincere. "You, on the other hand, have never apologized to me."

Leo's glare intensified. "And why exactly would I owe you an apology?"

"Its yer fault Raphael is refusin to talk to me!"

"That is between you and Raphael. I have nothing to do it."

"You have everything to do with it," Casey yelled back at him. "Every problem between me and Raph has always been thanks to you!"

Leo rolled his eyes and tipped his head at Casey. "Every problem? That's a little dramatic don't you think?"

"No," Casey said, refusing to back down. He could feel the anger in his chest heat up at the sight of the clan leader's suddenly calm, patronizing face. Leo was clearly no longer taking him seriously. "I don't. Not after this many years. Raphael was mine, Leo. Mine." Warning sirens began to alarm in Casey's head. An attempt at self-preservation before the next set of damning words could escape his mouth. He ignored them. "Mine until the almighty leader of the turtles decided he wanted a fuck buddy."

An immediate chill ran through him as he saw Leo's eyes flip to white. Casey cursed his stupid brain and his stupid mouth and quickly braced his shoulders as Leo moved to attack.

Raphael scaled the front of their house and landed on the second floor deck. Shadow and Machi had just joined the rest of them on the beach and when Raph had asked where they'd been, Machi had told him about their fun walk through the woods. And based on Machi's level of excitement, he kind of wished he could've gone with them.

A few minutes later he was actually thinking about calling Leo's T-phone when he hadn't found him anywhere inside. He headed behind the house and paused for a moment, unsure which direction to even walk, when suddenly Casey came walking out of the forest in front him. Alone and rubbing a spot on his arm as if it was sore.

"Where's Leo?" he asked. He watched Casey's head jerk up in his direction.

Casey froze. It was the pretty much the first direct thing Raph had said to him in weeks.

"Look, Raph," Casey said, putting his free hand up in front of himself in an attempt to hopefully keep Raph standing here with him for a moment. He met Raph's eyes and silently pleaded with him to hear him out. "I know yer still pissed at me for helpin Usagi trap Leo. And I deserve it. And I'm sorry."

Raph stared hard at him for a moment. Although Leo didn't startle when Raph touched him in their sleep anymore, Leo was still having nightmares related to his time with Usagi. But Raphael was beginning to feel ready to admit that the whole ordeal wasn't fully Casey's fault.

"Okay," Raphael said, slowly.

"That's not all," Casey said, talking quickly before Raph could say much more. He rubbed his hand over his upper arm again. "You and I used to be really close. I mean, for a while, you were pretty much my only friend." He paused again. These words were harder to say, especially since the anger that had fueled his conversation with Leo earlier was entirely burned out. "But something changed and we didn't hang out as much and I gotta be honest, I've always blamed Leo. Always. Like years' worth of blame."

"Leo?" Raph asked. "The turtle who's forgiven you for being a total bonehead in the past?"

"Yeah. And I actually just said some stuff to him that was pretty uncool."

"Like what?" Raph asked with narrowed eyes.

"Let's just say I was pretty shitty to him," Casey said. It was up to Leo whether he told Raph exactly what Casey had said. But Casey was in no way repeating anything.

"Where is Leo?" Raph growled out.

"He went to cool off," Casey said.

"Cool off?" Raph asked, the shock clear in his voice. He could count on one three-fingered hand the number of times Leo needed time to cool off. "What the fuck happened, Casey?"

"Look," Casey said, raising his hands up. "I just – I need to apologize to you. As his – his mate. I'm sorry for what I said to him. At the time, in my brain, I really believed those thoughts. But as soon as I said them, I realized I shouldn't be blamin him for what was happenin between you and me. I apologized to Leo already. A real apology, which he accepted -,"

"Of course he did."

"- right after he scared the shit outta me," Casey added around Raph's interruption. His mind raced back to the words he'd said and the sight of an immediately furious Leonardo. Casey hadn't even had time to blink before Leo's hand had been wrapped tightly around his arm, his back had been slammed into a tree and Leo was openly growling in his face. Between the attack and his own realization that he shouldn't have been blaming Leo, Casey had never scrambled to take back anything so quickly in his entire life. "I shouldn't have taken my anger out on him."

Raph stared hard at him. He still wanted to know what exactly had been said, but he could see that Casey looked sincerely upset about the whole thing. And he was doing the honorable thing now by admitting it directly to Raphael. He eyed Casey's arm and saw the large bruise forming.

"Did Leo do that?" he said, nodding towards the large bruise.

"Yeah," Casey said. "I'm not sure I've ever seen him move so fast. He can be really fuckin scary when he wants to be."

Raph tried to fight the prideful smirk from his face, but wasn't successful.

"Yer really not gonna tell me what you said?"

Casey shook his head. "I told Leo I wanted to talk to ya. He said you'd know where to find him when we were finished."

"Are we finished?"

Casey's eyes moved quickly to Raph's eyes where he saw the real implication from his question.

"I wouldn't like that."

Raph crossed his arms and sighed. "I wouldn't either, Jones."

Half of Casey's mouth lifted in a crooked grin.

"Ya can't be blamin Leo for our shit, though."

Casey nodded. "I think it'd just been festerin for too long, Raph. And I am sorry."

Raphael nodded as well. "If Leo said he forgave ya, then we'll drop it. I'm going to find him. I'll see you at dinner."

Casey nodded again and began walking back to the house, feeling a little lighter than he'd felt in several weeks.

Raph pulled his T-phone out as he headed into the forest and sent a text to Master Splinter, asking him to keep an eye on Machi and letting him know that he and Leo would be back in time for dinner. Then he moved into a sprint until he was beneath their hidden platform. He scaled one of the trees and didn't even pause before landing himself on top of Leo who lay sprawled out on their hammock.

"Hi there," Leo said softly as he wrapped his arms around Raphael.

Raph pressed his face into Leo's neck and pressed kisses there before pulling back so he could meet those blue eyes.

"Casey said he was a real shit to ya," Raph said.

Leo let his fingers trail down Raphael's arms as he felt himself calm with Raphael's solid weight pressing him down into the hammock. "He was," he responded before moving his hands up to Raph's neck so that he could pull that emerald face in close to kiss him.

Raph slid his eyes shut and let his mouth move with Leo's for a few moments before pulling away again to ask Leo what exactly Casey said to him.

"It doesn't matter," Leo said and watched as Raph rolled his eyes at him. "No, really, Raph. What matters is that as clan leader, I shouldn't have been ready to take a family member's head off because of a few inappropriate comments."

Raph's eyes widened. "Ya never react that way, Fearless. So he must've said some serious inappropriate comments. What did he say?"

Leo met Raph's eyes and thought about it. He didn't want Raphael further upset with Casey, especially since he felt like he'd already handled the situation, but he also didn't want Raphael continually wondering what happened between him and Casey, either. He wasn't in the habit of keeping secrets from his mate. He sighed as he decided he'd better just tell him. "He indicated that you were his first and that I stole you from him because I wanted someone to keep my bed warm."

Raph's eyes widened again as he stared down at Leonardo. "He said that to you?"

"Yes, although his word choice was slightly different."

"I'll bet it was," Raph growled as he tightened his hold on Leo's sides. No wonder Casey wouldn't repeat it to him.

Leo shut his eyes and shook his head from side to side as the images of what happened after ran through his mind again. "The instinct to attack him was so strong, Raph. That's not the way a ninja behaves. I apologized to him for hurting him."

"You apologized?" Raph groaned and ducked his head down so he could rest his forehead against Leo's plastron. "What am I gonna do with ya, Fearless?"

"I shouldn't have hurt him. I owed him an apology. I mean, what kind of ninja, clan leader am I?"

"I know you know yer not just clan leader Leo all the time," Raph said, lifting his head back up. "Casey blamed ya for what happened between me and him and said some nasty, personal shit. And yer allowed feel upset when someone says nasty, personal shit to ya."

"Feel upset, yes. Physically attack him, no."

Raph stared down at his stubborn turtle. "We can vote Casey off the island if ya want." It earned him a small smile from Leo but he could see Leo was still beating himself up over the whole mess. "Fine, you physically attacked him, which is exactly what I would've done," he said with a grin, "and now yer conscious is yellin at ya about it. But, Fearless, ya already realized yer mistake and apologized to the idiot. My orders are that yer to quit feelin guilty right now."

"Your orders?" Leo said with a bigger smile and a raised eye ridge.

"Yeah, my orders. Leader Leo doesn't think he's rubbed off on me over the years?"

"Oh, I know I've rubbed off on you."

Raphael groaned and bit into Leo's neck in retaliation as he felt Leo's lower plastron grind up against his own. "That's really the tactic I shoulda used to get ya to shorten yer lectures when we were younger."

"Are you finished lecturing me?"

Raphael nodded and shifted his own lower plastron against Leo.

"Well, then it does seem to be a pretty efficient tactic," Leo purred up at him as he shifted his hips forward again.

Raphael moved his lips across Leo's neck again before whispering, "I've always been yers."

A/N: I'm not sure I'm quite finished with this train of thought so maybe it'll show up later. In future one-shots.

On an unrelated-to-this-story-author's-note - I want to take a moment to say a great big THANK YOU to whoever nominated 'Stamina' for the Best Comedy category of Stealthy Stories' 2015 TMNT Fanfiction Competition. Most of my stories have ratings that are too mature for the competition, so I was surprised and then giddily happy to see 'Stamina' included.

I hope everyone gets a chance to review the ballot, read new stories, and vote! From what I can see so far on the ballot (which can be found on the TMNT Fanfiction Competition Tumblr page for those of you interested), there are a ton of my own personal favorite stories included, as well as new ones that I'll be busy reading over the next couple weeks – after all, who better to recommend TMNT stories than other TMNT readers?