Donatello and April are dating because I said so. UwU

Also, the 2012 boys are 20.

"Alright, Leo," Raphael groaned in despair, rubbing one hand sleepily over his eyes. "You better have a good explanation on why you woke us up in the middle of the day…"

"Don't worry," Leonardo nodded, also wishing he wasn't awake right now, and was honestly just as tired as his brothers. "There's a good reason." He yawned, too, and Michelangelo echoed it right back.

"Alright, let's hear it." Donatello nodded, who actually had been awake and pouring over an experiment when Leonardo had called the family meeting. He bounced his phone in hand, anxiously awaiting the call April would give him over her lunch break. It was good that April would soon be on the line, because Donatello would probably take up the entire phone call panicking and venting to her, and she wouldn't panic because she'd guess it was a random conspiracy thought Donatello had. Leonardo could explain to her how very real this situation was afterwards.

Meanwhile, Leo could focus his energy on making sure Raphael didn't run off on his own to try to find and kill the Shredder, with Michelangelo, of course, providing overeager accompaniment. They'd fail on both fronts; they always did. Shredder always found them first, and, it appeared, he never stayed dead. It was time to get down to business. He could deal with the consequences properly afterwards.

"Please try to remain calm." Leonardo instructed, not surprised when it just made his brothers look simultaneously significantly more exhausted and worried. "But I just had a vision. I believe that the Shredder is back."

In the following pause, Michelangelo stopped breathing, his normally bright face dropping several shades. Donatello squeezed his phone so tightly that the screen began to crack, and Raphael started hyperventilating, withdrawing both sais and started waving them about, vision narrowing.

All in all, it was going just about as well as Leonardo expected!

He forged on, keeping his mind on target and reminding himself that any effort made to soothe his brothers' anxieties would just end up in them freaking out even more once he shared the finer details. It'd be easier to handle one massive freak out at the end then multiple smaller ones. "I'm not sure about the details, since I wasn't able to see much. But in my vision, he wasn't attacking any of us. They had the same kind of hands, so it was probably another mutant reptile, maybe even a turtle." He crossed his arms, regarding his brothers.

Michelangelo, at the very least, already seemed to be getting a hold on himself and was looking rather excited over the prospect of a new turtle friend. Raphael was still brandishing his sais and breathing too quickly to be healthy, and Donatello was tapping his phone anxiously, his expression saying that he was already coming up with everything that could possibly go wrong.

"But," Leonardo continued, "I'm fairly certain that Shredder isn't back physically. I can't explain it, but I felt like his existence was only spiritual."

"But you and Master Splinter always say that the spiritual world often affects us physically." Michelangelo pointed out, biting his lip. "How are we supposed to fight Shredder when he can hurt us both in here," he tapped his heart, "and here," he flexed his arms, "but we can only fight him in here?" As a finishing touch, Michelangelo prodded his own temple, looking to Leonardo for an answer.

"I'm not sure." Leonardo admitted, shifting his attention to the dojo entrance. "I'm going to consult Master Splinter's scrolls to try and figure out how to deal with him. Mikey, I could really use your help with that. You're a quick reader, and you're more in-tune with the spiritual than Donnie and Raph."

Michelangelo relaxed from being given a task, and he brightened. "Bro, with both of us looking through them, we'll figure out how to banish Shred-Head in no time."

"Donnie," Leonardo turned to his genius brother next, approaching the second-youngest and letting Donatello grab his wrists, squeezing tightly in an effort to relieve tension. "I need you to use the energy inputs you managed to get from Kavaxas to try and track down Shredder. Do you think you can do that?"

Donatello nodded, his shoulders sagging. "Yeah, I… I think I can. I'll get on with it right now! I should have it done in just a few minu-" his phone rang, cutting him off, and Donatello jerked to regard it, eyes widening. "Ah, that's April. I'll catch her up on the situation while I'm tuning my energy-seeking radar."

"Sounds great." Leonardo nodded, pulling away from Donatello to move over to Raphael.

"Leo," Raphael growled, making a stabbing motion with a sai, shoulders shaking. "What are we gonna do? If Shredder's back… how are we going to get rid of him again? We've just gotten weak, and what if he's gotten more powerful? Smarter?"

"I'm not sure yet." Leonardo shrugged, and knew that wasn't very comforting. He pressed his forehead against Raphael's, humming a soothing tune. "But we'll figure it out. We always do, right? Turtle luck; everything might go wrong, but we manage to fix it. We'll all be just fine."

"Good." Raphael grunted, leaning into the touch. "Because if any of you get hurt, I swear I'll-"

"If you go solo, you're grounded." Leonardo warned, abusing his sensei privileges and earning a sharp chuckle from his immediate younger brother. "But seriously, Raph, I'm positive we'll all be fine."

Michelangelo joined them, shoving his way in between Leonardo and Raphael, looping an arm around both of their shells. Donatello had already vanished into his lab, but his voice intermingled with April's slight static-y one carried through the lair. Leonardo hugged his brothers to him and allowed his mind to be calmed by hearing Donatello's voice.

Ever since the beginning, in every mission, it had been the four of them against the world. It didn't matter how many near-death experiences they had, or how often they did temporarily die, they always overcame. Even against Shredder, who had taken everything from them, who had stolen away their father, Leonardo had confidence they would be fine. They had each other, and that was more than Shredder had.

"Eureka!" Donatello yelled, coming back into the living room after he had been gone for about ten minutes, holding his invention high above his head. "It took a few minutes longer than I expected because it wasn't picking up on anything. I had to really fine-tune it in order to find a signal, and then I had to redo it to find out if there were any others. It looks like there's only one spiritual energy signature in the entirety of New York City, so that really narrows down our search! We can search surrounding areas, and maybe even have Karai search Japan, if this proves to be fruitless."

"That's great, Donnie!" Leonardo congratulated, pulling away from his other brothers to give Donatello a high five, beaming affectionately at him. "Let's get started!"

"Alright, loading up the virtual map now!" Donatello nodded, pressing a couple buttons on the device. He glanced up at his brothers, and arched an eyebrow. "Are you guys going to get all geared up, or are you leaving the lair like that?"

His siblings looked down in sync at their bodies, which were notably lacking in belts, elbow and knee pads, and weapons. Leonardo and Raphael were off like a shot, but Michelangelo followed a little slower with a groan of remorse over this absolutely not being a short mission, and that he was tired. His brothers, sympathetic to his concerns, ignored him.

All four turtles met up again after only a few minutes, loaded up fully with weapons and spare smoke bombs. Leonardo had even packed a few extra kunais in the expectation that wherever they went, a fight would surely follow. Raphael showed much the same, wearing a couple of his sharper pieces of armor from his final battle ninja gear.

Donatello sighed a breath of relief when they returned, leading the way out of the sewers to the much too sunny surface above, following his tracker across the rooftops.

"According to this, the signal is around street level." Donatello reported, scowling up at the sun. "Unfortunately, since it's the middle of the day, and not our usual middle of the night, we can't exactly search street level. So we'll wait until we're right on top of it. Thankfully it looks like it borders a river."

"Hey," Michelangelo cooed, "it may be the middle of the day, but look! No giant rats everywhere. Without the rats, it definitely is pretty around here!"

"Kind of bright, though." Raphael complained, squinting at their surroundings.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Donatello sarcastically quipped, "is the natural lantern of the upper world too bright for your delicate mutant eyes?"

"I can see you squinting, too, Donnie!" Raphael snarled, turning to face his younger brother. "Don't try to mock me if you can't hold up!"

"At least I'm not complaining!" Donatello snorted right back, holding an air of superiority about him. "More than I can say about you! Which, say, reminds me, aren't you supposed to be the-"

"Children," Leonardo chided, adopting the same tone of voice that Splinter had used on them too many times to count, turning to face his team, "might I remind you about the mission, and how it revolves around Shredder himself?"

"Pfft, dudes, you just got sensei'ed." Michelangelo teased as Donatello and Raphael deflated, turning their backs on each other and looking in opposite directions. "Now you know how I feel all the time."

"Mikey, I will sensei you next." Leonardo threatened, wondering if Splinter ever felt this powerful when his sons obeyed him so quickly. If he had, Leonardo almost felt sorry for him, because they would obey just to rebel behind his back later. With that in mind, Leonardo would have to keep an eye on his brothers for a while to make sure they didn't fall back into an arguing pattern later on.

For the time being, at very least, his brothers refocused on the task at hand, following Donatello's lead as he navigated across the city rooftops. They kept perfect time with one another, leaping in sync. Even though the sun was up, and they were all tired, they navigated the city with practiced ease, recognizing each landmark and some of their usual haunts as they bounded about.

Donatello's tracker was less helpful than their own mind. The further into the city they got, the more he had to recalibrate it to make sure they were still on the signal's trail. It kept alternating between strong and surprisingly faint, and sometimes the device glitched and didn't show it at all. However, Donatello was confident that the signal was still there, and easily refound it each time.

Finally, Donatello came to a stop underneath one of the smaller, lesser known bridges of the Hudson on a short expanse of beach. He held the device carefully for a few moments, flashing it around and circling an area of beach. "Found it." He announced after a couple moments, grinning up at Leonardo. "Anything spiritual should be right here."

Leonardo narrowed his eyes at the spot, settling down to his knees. "Alright, I'll try to meditate and connect." He warned his brothers, closing his eyes and separating his attention from them, simultaneously closing himself mentally off from his brothers while also opening his senses to the world around him, stretching his attention wherever he could.

"Kinda weird spot for spiritual warfare." Raphael noted once Leonardo was focused elsewhere, sniffing at the air experimentally. Nothing caught his attention, and he realized that he wasn't really any help in this situation. Like Leonardo said, he was no good at the spiritual stuff. "If Shredder's attacking someone, wouldn't we see them here? Heck, maybe they're underground."

Donatello checked his monitor. "It is weird, honestly. But, hey, I'm not the 'spiritual' guy. If there is someone here, that doesn't bode well for that person. This baby is three-dimensional, and tracks everything to an accuracy of about a meter. So they'd be buried in the sand, and we all know a buried man…"

"…is probably a dead man." Raphael grunted, tapping the ground beneath their feet with his foot. He couldn't smell rotting fresh, or even blood, so, thankfully, they didn't have a corpse on their hands. The sand wasn't disturbed, either, except from where their feet had just stepped, which meant nothing was probably buried, either.

Raphael glanced at Leonardo, who had already started breathing deep as if he was sleeping, completely dead to the world. Leonardo was good at these things. Figuring out how to save the day every time, or, well, even now he was connecting to spirits and figuring out how to deal with threats. He'd be telling them how to deal with Shredder in no time, and be conducting a masterful plan that didn't make sense and yet made perfect sense all at the same time. They just had to be patient.

"Hey," Michelangelo dropped to a crouch, staring at the surrounding area and glaring at the concrete support of the bridge they were under as if it was threatening his position on the team, "we've been here before, right?"

"What do you mean?" Donatello inquired, perking up suddenly and letting his hands fall with his device, resting it on his thigh and no longer holding it in front of his face. Recognition filled his face as he looked around, seeming to understand what Michelangelo was getting at.

"Well, uh, remember how a couple months ago, your dimension-anomaly thingy glitched or something? We followed the signal here! It was already gone by the time we got here, but you said something about a blip still being here." Michelangelo rubbed the back of his head, smiling nervously in Leonardo's direction. "We didn't really do anything because Leo wasn't there, since he was helping Karai, I think, and, well, the process you described was very…"

"Stupid?" Raphael helpfully suggested, finally catching up to his brothers and figuring out the familiarity of the area around them. The brief adventure had faded to the back of his memory, and hadn't remained long enough to keep a lasting impact, even though, at the time, it had been the first real threat they had dealt with in two months, and it had just… vanished. Within fifteen minutes, it had just glitched out of existence again. "We hadn't wanted to finish the job, since it sounded pretty boring."

"No need for your 'insulting O'Tello' voice." Donatello grumbled. "It was the only plausible, not to mention possible, solution, and I also voted against doing it. It's a good thing we didn't, though. Otherwise Leonardo wouldn't have sensed Shredder."

"'A good thing', he says." Raphael accused, crossing his arms and pointedly not looking at either brother. "We could've just stuck to our own dimension, but nooo, we're stuck playing hero again because our fearless leader can't stop his savior complex, and we'll get tangled up. Heck, maybe it's not even our Shredder at all, but Leo just sensed his matching aura or something! Can't we ever keep our heads in our own shells and out of other people's?"

"Oh, please, Raph, you're getting bored here, anyway." Donatello scowled. "You're always complaining about the 'lack of action'. Don't pretend like you're not just as eager to leap into a new adventure!"

Raphael wasn't as eager in the slighest. He had a good thing going here with Mona. Sure, a little more action would be nice as it had been deadly silent for nearly six months now, but he was sure trouble was just around the corner. Renet had mentioned something about them being fierce turtle warriors who never stopped battling threats across time and space… which meant something big was coming. And if they weren't here to deal with it… something might happen to their city and friends. Raphael wasn't willing to take that risk for total strangers.

"Anyway…" Donatello continued, already scooping up his energy tracker again, and setting it back to its default, dimension-tracking setting. He had first built the device after their second run-in with their dimensional counterparts, and had mostly invented it to give them an early-warning system if something entered their dimension. Since then, the only signal they had received was the one aforementioned.

For about a week, Donatello had theorized restlessly about what had caused such a blip to still leave behind a tear in reality, and while one had been something teleporting between dimensions in such rapid succession that the delicate spacetime hadn't been able to properly repair, and another had been an explosion caused by a single atom being unraveled from its molecular layer and vanishing from existence, thus defying the scientific law that mass can neither be created nor destroyed, no definite answer had been reached. He had planned to come back later to study the rift, but he had forgotten, along with the rest of his brothers.

"Leo mentioned something about seeing another reptile… or maybe another turtle's hand, right?" Donatello continued, squinting at the dimensional frequency he was picking up. He compared it to their own, and hummed out a noise of victory. "Well, this definitely reads that whatever's on the other side of this rift is a parallel dimension. It's not 7-8-9-1, like the other dimension we entered was, and not 2-8-9-1, like the dimension I visited with other-Donatello, but a new one. This looks like 8-1-0-2, which is a closer frequency to our own than the other two."

"Wait, huh? Didn't the Kraang-Prime-Cousin thingy from the other dimension… 2-8-something… keep talking about the 'ten dimensions'?" Michelangelo inquired, pouting at his fingers as he counted. A full hand came out, and one finger from his other hand popped up. "And four of them are parallel?"

"Huh." Donatello didn't really have an answer for that, equally confused as his brother.

"Wait, if there's only ten, then why the shell are we using four digits to count them?!" Raphael scowled in confusion, finding that his mind could more easily keep track of the dimensions without the needlessly long numbers. "It should only be single digits! Or, since there's ten of the, only use letters, like Dimension X did!"

"Well. I mean." It had always made sense to use four digits to Donatello. The frequency he found the dimensions with always counted to four digits, so he referred to them as such. But… man, Raphael's way made way more sense.

"Wait, we met that Batman guy from another dimension! That means we know of six of them! Ours, the other turtles, the prime turtles or whatever, Dimension X, this new one, and Batman!" Michelangelo regarded both of his hands, either one with all their fingers out, in shock. "I thought we saw thousands of portals in the Kraang's portal… thingy… room! Did they just all lead to the ten dimensions, or are there more dimensions the Prime-Cousin thing didn't know about?!"

"And if there are only ten, we also met Usagi in another dimension." Raphael remembered. "Seven of ten isn't too bad. We keep this up, we'll be to all ten by Christmas."

Donatello groaned, never before having felt this stumped before. "This is painful to think about! Technically speaking, every major decision should form a new dimension, and slight alterations could have lasting consequences. There shouldn't be just ten alternate dimensions, there should be an infinite amount by this point. Even if we just started with ten dimensions, each one should have branched out trillions of times, forming new realities with different possibilities. There might be a new dimension, where, say, Newton never sat underneath that one apple tree, and someone else is credited with figuring out gravity exists. There's so many possibilities!"

"Dimensions are weird." Michelangelo breathed, staring at Donatello in shock. "So there's a dimension where I don't like Jelly Beans on pizza?!"

"Maybe? But, I mean… you're still you across timelines. So you probably still would have the same tastes. But differences in how you were raised might affect personality? Maybe some tastes would be different, but I'm not sure." Donatello frowned, "it's just the nurture vs nature debate coming back in dimension form."

"I don't like that." Michelangelo pouted, crossing his arms stubbornly.

"You don't have to like it." Donatello shrugged. "That's just the way it-"

Leonardo jolted to awareness behind them, huffing out a breath in frustration. Raphael pivoted on his heel to face Leonardo, reaching out his hand to help Leonardo up to his feet. Leonardo gratefully accepted it, allowing Raphael to pull him to his feet. "Thanks."

"Uh-huh, are you okay?" Raphael grunted, looking their leader over and checking him for any wounds. Naturally, he found nothing, and he let go carefully, trusting Leonardo to be fine.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Leonardo nodded, glaring at where he had sat. "I definitely connected to whoever Shredder is haunting. I saw their arm again, and it's just a mess. They got pretty badly hurt by the Shredder, and I also felt him in their mind. He didn't notice me at all, but he's angry. More angry than he's ever been. Yes, Mikey, including when Tang Shen died." Leonardo glanced around at his brothers, taking them in. "I just… I don't know how we're going to find them. This was a deadend, and didn't bring us anything new. We need to stop him before he breaks his host's mind, but we're stuck in an impasse."

"It's alright, Leo!" Michelangelo was quick to assure, wrapping his arm securely around Leonardo's arm that was gripping his strap, pulling it away from his sheath. "Dee already figured it out!"

"With Michelangelo's help." Donatello beamed at the youngest, turning his device around to show Leonardo the readings. Leonardo arched an eyebrow, confused at the graph, and Donatello was quick to elaborate. "It's another parallel dimension. The arm you saw, the one that belonged to another mutant reptile, is probably one of the variations of us! I'm not sure how our Shredder even got there, or if he's even our Shredder at all, actually."

"I'm certain he is." Leonardo assured, nodding rapidly. "He's unmistakably the same. When I was looking out of… the other turtle's eyes, he looked just like Super Shredder, and he just… I don't understand how he could possibly be anyone else."

"Great. I'm guessing you're already coming up with a plan?" Raphael groaned, closing his eyes in resignation.

"Thinking of one. Donnie, how soon can you make sure it's safe to cross into the other dimension?"

"Already perfectly safe. I just need to open up the rift big enough that we can actually fit through it." Donatello assured, turning away to make some calculations on the portal now that he had been assigned a task.

"Raphael, I'm going to need you to go to Karai and pick up as many scrolls as you can, especially ones regarding the spiritual plane. I know the Foot Clan has more than Splinter does in their collection" Leonardo instructed, nodding at his brother. "And Michelangelo, we need to get home and start reading the ones we already have. We don't have much time, and we've got to know how to face Shredder on his playing field."

"After I get back, I'll read with you guys, too." Raphael volunteered, and Leonardo turned his attention back to him. The oldest turtle stared at Raphael, as if trying to figure out if he was serious. "Hey," Raphael grunted, "there's no way I'm letting you face Shred-Head on your own."

"Then don't read." Leonardo ordered. "Mediate instead. Try to get used to the spiritual plane, and I'll try to help you learn how to enter others' spiritual planes." He turned away from his brother, facing Donatello and Michelangelo. "You all have your jobs. Let's do this!"

(:)

Leon didn't sleep the rest of the night. After patching up his injury, Leon's eyes remained fixated on his forearm, his wound wrapped securely with bandages dyed with his signature shade of blue. His mind was a jumbled mess of real! Shredder's back already, and Shredder… I… what can I do?! I can't…?

He couldn't do this alone. He'd never… When Shredder was first there, he couldn't do anything on his own. He needed his whole family line to back him up, and now that Shredder was targeting him specifically… Why him?! It didn't make sense!

Leon didn't have much power. He hardly contributed anything to the victory over Shredder, other than providing a single opportunity for Raph to get in close. There was no reason for Shredder to seek him out personally, but he had done his rounds and checked on each brother, and they had looked relatively alright.

Mikey had been sound asleep and didn't look like he was in the midst of a nightmare, and Donnie had been wide awake, but completely uninjured from what Leon had seen of him. Donnie had caught Leon lurking near his doorway, and had tossed his tissue box at him. Leon had dodged like a pro, of course, and the goosebump that had developed on his forehead as of fifteen minutes ago was from a completely… unrelated incident. Upon discovering that Raph's room was empty, Leon hadn't bothered hunting him down. He didn't want to get punched in the face or, worse and more likely, cause another mental breakdown. In any case, Leon was pretty sure Raph hadn't slept enough to dream, or get attacked by a dream demon.

In any case, for now, Leon was alone in this. He'd take a closer look at his brothers in the morning and make sure they were uninjured. He had doubts that Raph would sleep at all, so Mikey was his main worry. Mikey wasn't necessarily good about hiding injuries, either, gaining all the attention he possibly could. Heh, he got that from Leon.

But, honestly, the way Shredder was only targeting Leon, and only bringing attention to him, made Leon doubt that his brothers were in danger. Maybe if Shredder mentioned them it'd be different, but…

As long as they'd known of him, Shredder had only been able to be in one place at a time. He could teleport, yes, but that didn't break the rules of space-time. Just like Leo, try as they might, only one place was available to them.

Which brought the question… Why him?

Leon hadn't been a good overall contributor to the takedown of Shredder. He had been one of… what, two dozen, maybe three dozen, souls devoted to Shredder's destruction. It would make more sense to go after someone like Raph, who got them all to unlock their ninpo, like Splinter, who was the true, blood-born Hamato and who Shredder had already tried to harvest the essence of, or Donnie, who crushed him with a drill, or…!

Yeah, Leon really wasn't worth the trouble. That wasn't self-preservation or self-doubt talking, that was the truth, he really wasn't!

Unless…

Unless Shredder was targeting him for being the leader.

The thought was so absurd, and yet to Leon's sleep-deprived mind, it made everything click neatly into place. After all, Raph had been the leader for a long time. There were so many things that bothered him that he didn't tell them, out of pride, concern, or just because they were younger then he was. They hadn't understood the depths of the sheer stress he was under until they broke down crying, and… well, Leon doubted they ever would fully get it.

And… Well, as already established, it didn't make sense for Splinter to remove Raph from breaking down crying. They had seen Splinter suffer through similar things, and nobody removed him from being their dad. Splinter had even seen Leon being pretty vulnerable in recent months. A couple months ago, Leon had been near tears when he demanded Splinter explain why nobody trusted Leon. It wouldn't add up to have Leon take Raph's place as leader, especially if it was over moments of emotional weakness.

But it would make more sense to have Leon take over for Raph if their big brother was actively being attacked because of his position. Family lines and their connection to one another was a big thing for the Hamato Clan, after all. It would make sense to have a little brother take over for an older brother while he was under stress, and…

Leon was taking Raph's place in this. So Raph could… could rest. Just like Splinter wanted, without fear of demons.

And it was Leon because he was tougher and a better fighter than Donnie. Because he wasn't the little baby brother who needed to be protected like Mikey. Because he had trust given to him, because he was fast, and tough, and…

Maybe it was because Leon was Leon.

And he felt just a little better.

(:)

Raph took another sip of his coffee, scowling slightly at the aftertaste. He never had been one for coffee. That was more of Donnie's thing, because he needed the caffeine to operate. Raph never had before, and he didn't need it now, but he sure wanted to. He wanted to be able to make sense of everything while Splinter's decision and words were still fresh.

Because… because Splinter had been right. Raph's mind had been ramped up to the max lately. Too much had happened in too short of time, and his stress levels had caused his energy to plummet far too quickly. It led to many nights where he slept like a log and then woke up not feeling recharged at all. He hadn't slept well since… maybe when the Kuroi Yoroi fully formed. As good as it felt to be them, it hadn't held up too well against the threat of Shredder. And it had stung to have Shredder tear through them time and time again until Leon showed up with, of course, the perfect solution. Them, with their best and most confident selves, couldn't do a thing to beat Shredder. They hardly stalled him for more than a few seconds, too. And it just… it just stung.

And yet, true to form, Leon had known just what to do to stop Shredder. He made Big Mama do what he wanted, and while they still didn't know all of the details, likely because Leon felt embarrassed about being set up in a suite while they were fighting for their lives, they just knew how impressive it was. It was one of those things that made Leon so skilled and… well, one of those things that made Raph know that Leon would be a good leader. If Raph was missing or… dead or something, he'd choose Leon to take his place.

However, that didn't mean that being removed from his position, so quickly and without warning, didn't hurt any less. Leon would be a great leader, but… at the expense of Raph? It just… it hurt!

Raph's thoughts immediately after Splinter's announcements had been distorted, desperate pleas raging in his mind for answers, for hugs, for Leon to refuse, to say no, to wave it off. Raph didn't really remember what had happened on Leon's side other than the desperate wave of please don't talk about this that washed over him whenever Leon turned to face him or said anything. Because Raph was just… he was so scared that Leon was going to rub it in his face.

Just like he did whenever he perfected a skateboarding move before the rest of the family, or when he mastered a kata, or… really any time Leon did something the others couldn't. It always ended in Leon bragging and the others getting frustrated at him.

But Leo… Leon wasn't really like that. Not about something so… so important. Whenever he teased or bragged, it was never about something that would actually… hurt. Annoyed? Exasperated? Sure. But… never truly upset. He was good about that.

Shell, he was good at so many things that Raph wasn't. Which was… probably why Splinter made him leader. He could throw together amazing plans quicker then it took Raph to come up with half a subpar plan. He wasn't always the best at communicating, but that just meant he had to learn, and…

Okay, Raph could see the appeal to Leon being the leader. He didn't like it, but he… he could understand. Leon could lead them to a faster, safer victory then Raph could. And it… it hurt that Raph hadn't been told or consulted. It hurt so badly, and that wasn't something he could just wish away.

Raph was pulled from his self-destructive thoughts at the sound of a footstep, and his head jerked up to face the kitchen door, surprised to hear anyone this late at night.

Maybe it was Donnie, but he has a coffee machine in his lab, and Raph was fairly certain that it hadn't been destroyed in Shredder's attack. Donnie's lab was closer to his bedroom, anyway, so the likelihood of Donnie coming around here was slim. Even if Donnie was worried about Raph, he wouldn't show it openly enough to seek him out in the middle of the night. Despite his attempts to wrangle Raph to bed earlier, because he needed sleep, he had given up pretty quickly when Raph had brought up Donnie's own sleep habits.

Splinter, perhaps, but he never heard his father approaching. He was too… ninja-y for that. He wouldn't be heard unless he wanted to be heard, and he never wanted to be heard. Mikey, on the contrary, was too springy that so little noise would be suspicious, even so late at night. Finally, there was no way April would be here so late on a school night.

Which left one other person.

Low and behold, as the prophecies, and Raph's mind, foretold, Leon stepped out from around the doorway.

In the dim glow from the oven's top light, Raph could make out the bloodshot eyes Leon sported as well as his rigid body, full of exhausted shutters. His arms curled in front of his abdomen protectively, and they just clenched more firmly together when Leon caught sight of Raph sitting at the kitchen table, mug in hand.

"Ah." Leon blinked, snapping his mouth shut nervously, his gaze tearing away from Raph to stare back at the hallway he just came from, feet starting to twist him away again. He thrust a thumb over his shoulder, indicating the outside of the room. "I'm… yeah."

"Leo." Raph huffed out before Leon could disappear entirely, "…come here."

Leon froze halfway to stepping out of sight, turning his head back around to face Raph. "…okay." He reentered the kitchen, going towards the mug cabinet instead of sitting down. Raph had hoped Leon would join him at this table, but this made more sense. Leon had come to the kitchen for a reason, and it was probably to get tea for his insomnia.

…Raph hated to think that he was the reason Leon had been kept up tonight.

"Leo, you know I'm not mad at you, right?" Raph asked, wanting to clear that up right away. He really hoped that Leon didn't think he did, but from the way Leon froze for half a second before resuming rummaging, he thought he might.

"Yeah, I know." Leon turned around, sporting a tea bag in one hand and a mug in the other, trying to lounge classically against the countertop but ultimately failing. It was too tense to be anything close to casual, try as he might to deny it. "It's just a stressful situation. I get it! Really, Raph."

Raph curled his lip, not liking how it sounded like Leon was trying to escape. He could see his little brother already starting to anxiously eye the doorway, not wanting to linger. "Yeah, but, it wasn't fair for me to treat you like that. You were just as surprised as any of us-"

"It was plenty fair." Leon shrugged, trying to avoid eye contact with Raph by staring intently at his mug, filling it with boiling water from the water dispenser, still trying to face the door while he did but ultimately failing.

"…Leo, no, it wasn't. Please." Raph tried again, trying to figure out why his little brother refused to meet his eye. He… his little anxiety spiral really had hurt Leon, hadn't it? His little brother had dashed off long before it was time to bed down, and had stayed hidden in his room until he thought the kitchen would be completely unoccupied. Whether or not he knew Raph was up, Raph hardly ever used the kitchen as a place to calm down, so it'd be a safe gamble to come to if he wanted to still avoid Raph. And really, Raph couldn't blame him. He just wanted Leon to understand. "Just because Pops could'a told us it was coming doesn't mean it was right for me to shut you out. I panicked, but I shouldn't have taken it out on you. You're… you're going to be a great leader, Leo. I just need some time to adjust-"

"I get it, Raph." Leon reassured, flinching back as Raph stood up from the table, grip on his mug tightening. "You were… you were just trying to protect me. But we're fine now. Everything's going to be just fine, 'cause Leon's here. I'll figure it all out, and… you just focus on enjoying your vacay. Don't worry about me, and just-"

Raph reached out hesitantly for Leon's arm, brow clenching, "Leonardo," but Leon snatched his wrist away, finally rounding his wide-eyed gaze on Raph, letting his biggest brother see his eyebags. And now that Raph was looking fully at Leon, he could see the red-rimmed eyes, the exhaustion that pulled on every bone in his body, the slight tremor, and… Leon wasn't wearing his pajamas. Had he even tried to sleep? One glove was missing, replaced by blue wrappings the same shade as Leon's mask. It felt important, but not as important as the fact that Leon was shaking slightly.

Was he… scared of Raph? "…buddy, please. I can tell you're hurting. Can you please tell me what's wrong? Or what I can say to make it better?"

"Raph, please! I've got this! Just… just trust me! Pops said he trusted me with this, and I know you're scared, but can't you, too?!" Leon snapped, cradling the arm Raph had tried to grab to his chest, twisting it so that Raph could only see the front of the arm. The position looked uncomfortable. "I'm trying to figure this thing out, okay?! I know you're just trying to protect me, but it's not… it's not helping! You can't… you can't help right now, not unless you have advice for me or something!"

"Leo…" Raph whimpered, withdrawing his hands into himself and reminding himself harshly that Leon's sudden jerks away from him that touching was not helping. But that didn't make sense, Leon was the most touchy person in the family aside from Mikey. "…I don't… are you okay?"

"What?" Leon's head snapped back up, eyes filled with nerves and worry. He paused for a moment, staring at Raph as if trying to figure out what he was thinking, and then- "Sorry, sorry, of course I'm… I'm fine! Just… got a little heated there. That was weird. Heh. It's cool, I'm cool, just gotta keep a cool head, yup, no worries here! Just need to try and not get shredded, y'know what I'm saying?"

Raph stared at him, not knowing what Leo was saying at all. "…wha-?"

"I'm going to head back to bed." Leon interrupted, turning on his heel and waving his hand dismissively as he paced away, his arms folding over his chest protectively. "Cya, Raph." He hurried as fast as he could, leaving Raph behind to scratch his head.

Leon, meanwhile, panted out a nervous breath as he headed out. That was… well, Raph had to know he was starting to dream about Shredder, right? Raph had acted so confused, and… no, no, Raph hadn't thought he had fallen asleep yet. They were cool. Leon would just pretend that nothing was wrong for a while to ward off Raph's worry. Later, much later, once Raph was fully rejuvenated, they could make a plan to take down Shredder together. No problem, no big deal!

Heh heh….

Right…?

In the back of his mind, something began to wiggle.

(:)

To be clear, Raph has not been haunted by Super Shredder at any point in time. Leon is just trying to figure out why Super Shredder would be hunting him.