Promise?

》3《

It had been a week since the park incident. Leo was in his room staring at the painting of what he now knew were his brothers. April had visited him throughout the week to see if she could help Leo out around the lair to ease some of his stress. However, Splinter would eventually ask her to leave, mostly whenever he needed Leo to train, or not even acknowledge her at all when she greeted him.

"Okay that is it!" April shouted as she entered the turtle's room. Leo was startled as he jotted up from his bed.

"April? What was a 'good morning' not enough?" Leo said as he sat with his legs hanging at the edge of the bed. April shot him a look before grabbing his arm. "W-wait a minute! April stop!"

"Grad the painting." April ordered. Leo quickly did as told, not wanting to piss off the all ready angered sixteen year old.

Once the painting was in his hand April dragged him down to the living room where Splinter sat watching TV. He was mindlessly watching a show of a man running on a treadmill covered in soap. He laughed as the man almost slipped before eating some popcorn from the bowl on his lap.

April stood right in front of him and sat Leo down next to her on the ground. She shot him a glare as Leo attempted to crawl away making the red slider sit back down with his head down.

"Splints you and your son need to talk." She started.

"Blue," The rat man glanced at Leo then back at April. "ask your friend to move. She's blocking the TV." Splinter said as he glared at brunette. April eyes narrowed on him as she step a bit closer.

"Listen Splints, you can kick me out and forbid Leo from ever seeing or talking to me, but you and your son need to talk. Can't you see how much this whole situation is affecting him?" April said as he gestured at Leo. Leo had tried crawling away once more only to be pulled back from his shell and plopped back down. "Sit down I'm not done."

"April I get it that you want to help but I don't think this is going to work." Leo said as he turned his back on his Dad. "So let's just drop it."

The protection on the wall shut off and the sound of the sofa creaking echoed throughout the large room. Splinter had stood up from his spot and was behind Leo with a saddened expression. He motion for April to step aside as he walked to stand in front of his son.

April hesitated at first before seeing what Splinter had in his hands. He held a small stack of papers, some were sealed in envelopes while others where just folded in half. She nodded and decided it was best to wait outside the room and give them their space to talk. She of course was willing to step in if things got violent like last time.

"Leonardo." Splinter started. Leo brought his knees up to his chest as his dad stood right in front of him but refused to meet his eyes. "I- The thing is-"

"Do you hate me?" Splinter's eyes widened in shock at the question.

"W-What!? Of course not! Why would you-" Leo punched the ground hard. He was sure he broke or at least injured one of his fingers.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" Leo spoke as he noticed his father struggling to form a sentence. "Why did you keep this a secret?"

"I didn't know how." Splinter replied honestly. He glanced at his son's hand and noticed some blood on the floor. He would have to patch him up later.

"You could have lied and said you were only able to adopt one of us." Leo mumbled.

"Would that have been better?" Splinter asked.

"No." Leo sighed as he folded his arms over his knees and rest his head on them.

"I always thought that if I told you about your brothers you would want to go looking for them." Splinter said as he took the fist paper from the pile and held it out in front of him. "I thought, 'How would I tell him that his brothers are dead? That I'm the reason why he has no siblings.' I couldn't. Guess I don't deserve that 'greatest dad' mug after all huh?"