Of Turtles and Lizards

Explosion

Raph's POV

I stumbled back into the lair after my brothers. It was ten past twelve. Oh great. And early morning training is tomorrow, perfect. Shell, I'm so tired. I was just about to collapse on the couch when Leo reached out and stepped in front of me.

"You're not going within three feet of the couch looking like that." He pointed at me.

Fine. If that's how it's gonna be. I literally fell to the floor with a loud thud and sprawled out on my plastron, face-down. I groaned with relief. Leo kneeled down and put a hand on my shoulder. I turned my head and looked up into his dark blue eyes, answering the obvious question. "I'm good. Go see how Don's doing with that cut on Mikey's leg." My big brother gave me a dubious and wary glance before doing as told. I watched him go for a moment, and then turned and lay the side of my head flat against the cool concrete. Damn.

My arms hurt. Which isn't surprising. After all they're practically raw with bits of shrapnel embedded in the skin. My eyelids began to droop, but I forced myself to stay awake, no need to worry them any more than necessary. 

The next thing I knew, Donatello was bending over me. "Nuh, Don. Do Mikey first." I grumbled, tiredly.

"Mikey's fine." Donatello answered, immediately going to work on removing the shrapnel. I winced as he yanked out a small piece of metal that had embedded itself in my shoulder.

"Hey bro." My baby brother said as he moved into my line of sight, a smile on his face.

"Here Don." I stared up at Leo, who was holding a box of...something, with a questioning glance. "Tweezers bandages and disinfectant." He answered.

My bottom lip pushed out in a frown. Oh, great. Now they're babying me.

"Come off it, Raph, it's not going to kill you."

"Ya never know." I muttered. Leo rolled his eyes.

"Stop it." All three of us stared at Mikey with surprise. "Just stop it." My little brother's smile had faded, replaced with a gentle frown. Mikey, not relentlessly happy? Something was wrong. Very wrong.

"Mikey, what-" Leo began but Michelangelo cut him off.

"How can the three of you be...how do you take this so lightly?! Raph could have DIED!"

"But I didn't! Mikey, calm down." I said comfortingly, but my little brother only turned away from me, and began heading towards his room. No way in shell is that how this is going to end. Not if I have anything to say about it. "MICHELANGELO HAMATO! You get your tail over here RIGHT now!" Leonardo and Donatello, who were still on sitting beside me, jumped up in shock. Leo just stared at me in shock.

Michelangelo froze. I'd never called him by his full name before. I mean I'd called him Michelangelo, of course, whenever I was really upset with him, but never ever ever had I used his surname. The freckled turtle turned, his bright blue eyes meeting mine, fearfully. I felt awful that I had to scare him like this but I knew no other way to make certain that he listened to me. I pushed myself up into a seated position, despite Donatello's protests. I could see worry flicker in my baby brother's eyes as he stared at one of the bleeding cuts on my shoulder.

The orange-masked turtle approached me reluctantly. I opened my arms, which were soon wrapped around my little brother's shoulders. I patted his shell gently. My mind briefly registered the presence of my two other brothers, and I pulled out of the hug. "What matters is that I'm still here, Mikey. Don't let yourself, be distracted by what ifs. In the end, it only makes it hurt more."

Third Person POV

Donatello was making fast work of Raph's injuries. Thank goodness most of the shrapnel that hit him had lacked the force to lodge itself too deeply under the skin. Leonardo was assisting him and the two of them were just about finished removing the bits and pieces of metal and Raphael, thankfully wasn't bleeding too badly.