Of Turtles and Lizards

Head of the Dragon, Tail of the Snake

It had been two weeks since the Casey fiasco, and Raph and Mona had only gotten closer. Even so there were always times when they were apart, and now, as Raphael was preparing for his nightly patrol with his brothers, was one of those times.

"Raph! Come on its time to go!" The blue clad turtle yelled down the hall towards Raph's room where his younger sibling had gone to get his weapons.

"Wait a minute Leo, I can't find my frickin sai!" The younger yelled back, though it was muffled by the sheer distance between them.

Leo face palmed and sighed making his way swiftly down the hall and into his brother's room. "Where did you leave them this time?" The blue-masked turtle blinked as he took in the sate of Raphael's room. He must have been looking for quite some time now, Leo observed as he took in the massive amounts of stuff that littered the floor of his brother's humble abode. Despite how contradictory it might seem, Raphael is actually quite a neat freak. Not as bad as me, but...well, if what my brothers' have told me is anything to go by, no one is as bad as I am. Man, he is going to be so mad when he has to clean all this up later.

"Hey, I didn't do nothing with 'em! I left the them right here on my bed!" Raph yelled in frustration.

The leader's immediate younger sibling continued emptying drawers, throwing everything that had been stowed safely away inside them over his shoulders and Leo grinned evilly. Time to play tease the Raphie. "You do realize you'll have to clean all this up later, right?"

All movement ceased before Raph took a deep breath, a pouting look on his face. Both brothers looked up as their youngest sibling sauntered in through the doorway with a smile.

Bright green eyes narrowed fractionally at Michelangelo. "Where are they?!" he growled grabbing the youngest turtle in the room by the plastron and hoisting him off the ground with one arm.

Leo jumped up, attempting to calm him, but Raph wasn't listening. "Raphael stop it!"

Mikey held up his hands in surrender screaming, "Okay, okay, uncle! UNCLE! They're in the hall closet!"

Raph's eyes narrowed and he lowered the orange masked ninja slowly to the ground. "You better be telling the truth, Mike." The second-eldest growled, shaking a fist in Michelangelo's direction.

The red-masked turtle paused for a moment and stared into Leonardo's eyes. Fearless' gaze was cool and collected, as usual, but there was something swirling in his dark blue irises that Raphael definitely did not like: Disappointment. He's disappointed in me. Raph realized. Whatever, no sense staying and being lectured for it, he concluded as he retrieved his weapons from the hall closet where Mikey had, indeed, hidden them. He thought about heading back into the main room and apologizing, but honestly, he didn't want to deal with his brothers and their disappointment in him right now. Naw, right now I just gotta get my mind off things. Cool off a little. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Leonardo caught a glimpse of red leaving the lair and he jumped to his feet, only to find himself held back by a soft furry, appendage. "Let him go, my son. Your brother just needs some space, that is all."

The blue-clad turtle turned and looked up at the old rat. He still wanted to go after Raph, but he knew that he would have to adhere to his father's wishes. "I just hope Raph will come home soon, that's all." He turned away and sighed. "I guess patrol's out of the question tonight then."

"On the contrary my son, I think you may still go on patrol." Leo looked up at him in confusion, but before the leader could question him, Sensei he went on, "You may take Mona Lisa."

At that very moment the lizard mutant stepped into the common room and her gaze snapped over to them when she heard her name. "Take me where?"

"On patrol." Leonardo answered with a slight smile. "That is, if you're up for it."