Your Typical TMNT Fic That I Don't Want to Title

Finally! A Solution! (Rise)

 Raphael was laying on the couch with Cassandra leaning up against him. Leon sat beside Mikey playing skip-bo. Donald and Draxum posted up in the lab as they continued to chip away at a way to get the Mikey's home. Raphael moved his arm to wrap around Cassandra. She had her laptop open running the numbers for her brownie business. Raphael looked down as he watched her work. He had no clue what he was looking at. He was the worst at math. Cassandra continued to type a way with numbers and make emails with her employees and customers. Raphael smiled proud of how much she had turned her life around after leaving the Foot Clan. Cassandra leaned her cheek up against Raphael's arm as she continued to work. She would sometimes abandon her work to text April back. The two made a plan to go work out at a human gym once April was done with classes.

"Aw come on you have to be cheating!" Mikey threw his cards on the ground as Leon won the fifth round of Skip-bo in a row. Raphael looked up to see a small portal open behind Leon's back. The slider's phone is sitting at his side. Raphael shifted a bit to grab the pillow behind his back hucking it at his brother. Leon fell with the force that Raphael threw the pillow while revealing his portal. Mikey let out an offended gasp as he got up playfully storming out of the room ranting about how betrayed he felt. Leon lay on the ground laughing hysterically holding his cards to his chest. Mikey soon came back and kneeled beside Leon and started to shake him around. Leon started to laugh harder, going limp so Mikey could shack him around as much as he wanted. Leon stuck out his tongue once Mikey stopped reaching up to boop Mikey's nose. Mikey started to laugh, booping Leon back. Raphael smiled as he went back to watching Cassandra work. Her eyes were glued to the screen being as intense about her work as she was about her fights. He tried to ignore the painful tightening of worry as he watched Leon play with Mikey. Raphael closed his eyes for a few seconds to compose himself. He felt Cassandra shift around trying to get comfortable in the tighter hold he now had on her. Raphael slowly opened his eyes and felt a metaphorical punch to the gut. His dumb brain decided to play a trick on his eyes, and for a split second, he saw his baby brother. He could see Leon and Michel wrestling on the ground. He forced himself to blink a few times and he could see reality away. The non-box turtle freckle-covered copy of his baby bro.

"I'm going to go lay down," Raphael muttered, giving Cassandra a pillow to lean up against instead. Cassandra looked up at him with a frown. Leon and Mikey stopped playing around on the ground looking up at Raphael confused. Raphael silently cursed himself knowing his tone must have given away what he was feeling.

Leon started to get up, "Can I do something or?" Raphael chewed on his tongue seeing Leon's giveaway when he felt guilty, which was to pick at his fingers. Raph smiled at Leon gently patting his head to try and comfort him. He knew Leon was sticking around Mikey for a reason.

"Nah. You stay resting. Your body is still healing," He smirked, grabbing the knot of Leon's bandanna and twisting it around his head to temporarily blind him. Leon started to smack Raphael's chest with an angry whine at the big brother bullying.

"Hey, I was being nice!" Leon protested fixing his bandana so his eyes were lined up with the hole again. Mikey laughed as he watched them smiling at the dork as he watched. Raphael chuckled to himself walking off to his room. Once he knew he was out of their sight Raphael let his shoulders sink. He slowly closed the curtain behind him letting himself melt into his bed. The stress of sitting on Raphael's chest helping the bile of blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals help shallow Raphael into its warm embrace. Raphael brought his hands to his face. His breathing slowly became more shaky and hollow as tears started to flow. He turned onto his side to grab a giant teddy and pulled it close. He clicked the hidden button inside the ear that made the bear warm up. He smiled fondly remembering how shy Donnie had been when he brought him this bear. It was Donne's way of comforting Raphael when Mikey was too old to want to share a bed with him. Raphael buried his face deeper into the bear. He closed his eyes, taking the time to breathe through the tears. His body started to numb as his mind started to clear. The worry and guilt are slowly being pushed aside leaving Raphael in a blissful state. He felt like he was floating in the air even though he could feel the fuzzy blankets under him and his bear still squeezed up to him.