Hi guys! Thanks again for all the lovely comments. I love reading them!

Today another hurt/comfort chapter, since I like writing them and I guess you guys like to read them. This way everyone is happy ;-).

Have fun!

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Late Night Talks

He heard it, it was close. Not knowing what it was, or what situation he was in, he leaned in further. Suddenly he felt the ground behind his shell disappear. Weird, since when was the ground behind him? Then it hit him; he was asleep. Knowing what to do, he let his subconscious drift to the surface of his mind. At that moment he woke up with a start, slightly confused. He noticed he was sitting up right, his hands holding his thin blanket tightly. Something was going on; his big-brother-sense was tingling, as Mikey would put it. He dangled his feet over the edge of his bed and stood up, walking through his always open door. First he walked towards Mikey's room, which was the closest. When he looked inside, he saw his little brother safely asleep, twitching and turning every now and then. Slightly relieved he closed the door again and started to walk through the hallway, looking for the source of his anxious feeling. Then he saw light coming out of the bathroom and he walked over, suddenly hearing the sound of a running shower. As he walked he looked at the clock, noticing it was almost half past two.

"Weird time for a shower," he mumbled to himself and softly he opened the bathroom door. When he peeked his head around the doorway he saw his younger genius brother sitting half on the edge of the tub, running water over half of his upper body. Curiously Leo walked further, causing Don to look up surprised. "Oh, hey, Leo," he greeted half-heartedly and he managed a small smile on his face.

"Hey, Donnie. Whatcha doing in the middle of the night in the bathroom?" Leo asked as he walked over. Before Don could say something, Leo looked at the side of Don which was practically in the tub. He then saw the once olive green shoulder, now raw, dark red and blistered, clearly burned. Immediately he was at his brother's side. "Don! What happened?" he asked a little frightened as he took over the shower head from Don and continued cooling his shoulder.

"Relax, Leo. It's not as bad as it looks like," Don tried to convince him. Ignoring his comment Leo narrowed his eyes. "Who did this?"

"Leo, come on… I'm fine. I -"

"Who did this to you, Don?" Leo interrupted. Don looked at him and sighed. "Well, practically I burned myself," he began. "Though the fire wasn't started by me, luckily."

"Fire? Don, what happened exactly?" Leo said fiercely while he looked his brother over for more injuries. He saw some scrapes, cuts and bruises here and there, but couldn't find anything serious. Relieved he looked back at the big burn mark, covering his full shoulder and a large part of his upper arm.

"Well, I went out because I needed some parts in order to fix the mechanism of the garage door. At the junkyard there is this pile with lots of electrical devices, of which the majority could work again with a little tweaking. I found this really neat auto transmitter, and with the right adjustments I could use it for the Battle Shell. Speaking of which, the network contemplator need an update. If I just -"

"Don! You're rambling. Stay with me here," Leo interrupted, his fierceness gone as Don started to talk.

"Heh, oops." Don smiled apologetic. "Eh, so I was at the junkyard and suddenly there was a group of Purple Dragons. I was kinda distracted, so they noticed me and started a fight," he told, watching the water flow away in the shower drain. "It wasn't a real big deal. I was doing perfectly fine and if this guy didn't put half the junkyard on fire, I could have found the device I was looking for and fix the garage door tomorrow," he finished wryly.

"Someone set fire to the junkyard?" Leo looked unbelievably to his brother, who nodded. "Yeah, they burned down my electrical pile and ran off scared when the fire got out of proportions. I tried to save some stuff, but I kinda failed when it collapsed, practically on top of me. It sucks, because some things are real treasures, you know. Anyway… I called the fire department after I got away. I waited for them and then I went home." He moved his head to the side, wincing a little when pain shot up his shoulder, but tried to talk over it. "I just hope they could extinguish it in time and save some things." When he didn't get an immediate response he finally looked at back at his brother, who didn't look amused. "For crying out loud! You're more concerned about some junk than yourself."

Don bit his lip. "Well, yeah. I'll heal, the pile is gone forever."

A moment Leo didn't say anything, too astonished and angry to come up with a word. His fist was itching to give Don a real good punch, instead he raised the shower head and pointed the jet at Don's face, who didn't expect this. "Leo, what the heck!" he choked out, trying to get away from the water. Slowly Leo lowered the jet and looked his brother straight in the eyes. "Don't you ever put your life in danger for some unimportant stuff. I don't care about some random shit on a junkyard or otherwise... I care about you! Junk is replaceable, you're not. I don't dare to think what would've happened if something worse happened to you," he said angrily. Don looked down embarrassed. "Leo, I…" he tried to defend himself, but he knew his brother was right.

"We could have lost you, bro," Leo continued, his anger slightly replaced by worry. "And I just can't - I can't lose you..." Silence overtook the bathroom, lightly disrupted by the running water, which was flowing freely over Don's shoulder again.

"I'm sorry," Don said quietly. Leo breathed out hard and smiled softly. "I know you are." He shut off the water and put the shower head down. Slowly he stood up and grabbed a towel. "You are so smart, Don. Really, I envy you. But sometimes you think too much about things that don't matter at the moment. You really need to sort out your priorities." He slowly dried off Don's arm, avoiding the burned area.

Don snorted. "I guess you're right." His eyes found their way up again and he looked at Leo. "Thank god you're the leader, right?"

Leo stopped and looked up, meeting Don's eyes. "Don't give me that. You're a good leader and I know you take the right decisions when we're all together. But when you're alone, it looks like you don't care about yourself."

Don breathed in as he put his head back at his neck and breathed out slowly. "I screwed up, didn't I?"

Leo smiled. "Yeah, you did." He put down the towel and grabbed a washcloth, which he made a little damp. "But I hope you learned from this." Again he looked at Don, who straightened his head and looked back. A crooked smile appeared on his face. "I did."

"Good." Leo shifted a bit on the edge of the tub and placed the wet washcloth gingerly on the burnmark, noticing he couldn't completely covering it. He heard a painful grunt. "Sorry, bro."

"It's alright," Don answered as he rolled his shoulder and he gave a small smile. "If you want to you can go back to sleep. I'll be fine."

"Oh come on, really?" Leo asked slightly offended. "You can forget that. First we're gonna take care of that." He stood up and grabbed Don's good arm, helping him standing up. At that moment Don started to sway. "Don!" Quickly Leo steadied him and put his brother's arm around his neck. "Come on, buddy. It was a long night," he said softly. Don didn't say anything, but squinted his eyes in pain. Looking at his brother, Leo sighed worriedly. He slowly led Don out of the bathroom to the infirmary, where he put him on a cot. "Lay down, I'll find some stuff to wrap you up."

Don shook his head. "I don't wanna lie down." He shifted in a better position and took the washcloth off his shoulder. When he saw the burnmark he scrunched up his face unhappily.

Leo frowned at the comment, but didn't push further. "Suit yourself. But if you feel weird or something, tell me immediately."

"Yeah, sure," Don answered without looking away from the wound. He touched it with his hand and sucked in a sharp breath when a burning pain shot up his shoulder.

"Don't touch, Don," Leo warned as he walked to the medicine closet. He opened the door and looked inside. He scanned the various vials and supplements, looking for something to relieve some of Don's pain. Problem was, he had no clue what to look for.

"Heh, I know. Just have to make sure the nerves aren't damaged." Don shot a teasing smile to Leo, who quickly turned around with wide eyes. "Don't worry, I was joking. It isn't bad enough for that," he assured Leo. "It's only a second degree burn. It just needs time to heal."

Annoyed, Leo barked out a laugh. "Stop doing that."

"Doing what?" Don asked innocently, while Leo put his hands in his sides. "Brushing this off like it's no big deal. Yeah, I know you'll heal, no doubt about that. But stop trying to make this better with words."

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry. But basically it's not really a big deal. I just -" At the sight of his brother's angry look, Don stopped talking. Before Leo could respond he pointed at a drawer. "In there I have special gauze for burns."

"And you just come up with that now?" Leo retorted, dropping the previous topic and he started walking to the drawer. He knew Don was fine aside from the burn, but being the oldest, he was always worried when something like this happened to one of his brothers. On the other hand, he probably would've reacted exactly the same as Don, but he wasn't going to tell him that. With a hidden smile on his face he opened the drawer and grabbed some packages, which he spread out on the counter.

"It's the yellow one, which says 'disinfection'," Don called from behind him. Leo took the package and walked back to Don. "Do you have some cream or ointment or something to reduce the pain?"

Don shook his head. "Yeah, I have that, and no, we're not gonna use it." He looked at his shoulder again. "Some blisters are open and it's better not to smear anything on it. The gauze is just fine."

Leo looked doubtfully. "Are you sure?"

Don looked up to him. "A hundred percent, bro. Just put it up." He smiled. "Gently, please."

"Of course I'll be gentle. Why wouldn't I?" He unwrapped one of the gauzes and looked for a place to put it. His brows creased in worry when he took a good look at the burned area.

"Cuz I haven't been the best patient tonight," Don admitted. Leo snickered. "True." He carefully put the gauze on the top of the wound, smoothing the edges with his finger. When he heard Don grunt, he shot him an apologetic look. "Sorry. Just a couple more."

"Hm-hm." Don looked away and tried to put his focus on something else. Leo smiled at him sympathetically and started covering up the full wound as fast and cautious as he could.

"There," he said finally as he looked at his work. "Now all I need is some bandage." He walked to the closet and came back with the first aid kit, which he put next to Don on the cot. He watched as Don looked at his shoulder. "Looks good, Leo. Nice work," he said satisfied.

"Hey, I'm not completely clueless," he said jokingly as he grabbed a roll of gauze bandage. "Now hold still." Carefully he started wrapping up Don's shoulder, followed by his upper arm. Don watched silently as his brother finished the roll. "Thanks, Leo," he said softly. Leo looked up and gave a friendly smile. "Don't mention it. Just promise me to be more careful and to take better care of yourself." He looked around and saw what he was looking for. With one hand he hold the bandage in place, while the other reached out to get some medical tape. "Deal?" he added. Don smiled. "Deal."

"Good." With that he finished bandaging his brother and he leaned back. "All done," he said and stood up. "You want to stay here for the night and sleep on the cot, or you prefer your bed?"

"I'll choose my own bed, thanks," his brother responded, getting up wincing. Quickly Leo was at his side, but Don dismissed him. "I'm fine, it just hurt. Don't worry."

Leo shook his head disapprovingly. "Fine, but I walk with you. Not that long ago you were swaying where you stood."

"Sure, no problem," Don said as he walked out of the infirmary, in the direction of his bedroom. Leo walked behind him and watched him getting into bed. "Don't go to sleep just yet, Don. I'll get you some painkillers," he said quietly, while adjusting the blankets. Don mumbled something in response he couldn't understand and he stood up. "Just hold on." Quickly he went back to the infirmary and grabbed a strip of Tylenol from a drawer. Closing it, he bend over and reached for the mini fridge on the floor, taking a bottle of water. With the things in his hands he walked swiftly over to Don's room, only to find Don already asleep. He smiled and watched the rather cute scene for a few seconds before walking up to him. He put the pills and the water bottle on the drawer, so Don could take them when he woke up. He hesitated a moment before laying his hand on top of his brother's head, stroking his thumb affectionately over his forehead. He felt Don leaning into the touch, but he didn't wake up. "Sleep tight, bro. If there is anything I'll be there for you," Leo whispered and let go. He got up and grabbed the desk chair, where he sat down worriedly. With a gloomy, but relieved smile on his face, he looked over his brother, hoping he would have a restful night.

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I have a feeling I'm kind of neglecting the relationship between Leo and Don, but I'm working on it!

Please tell me whether you liked it or not!