Brotherly Blunders

Heart to Heart Chat

Leo's POV

It was late on a Friday night. I was topside. I took deep breaths of the cold, crisp air, enjoying the way it felt in my lungs. Unfortunately, I am not up here for leisure. I'm looking for my temperamental immediate younger brother.

"Hey." I said, as I approached my brother from behind.

Raphael stood on a rooftop, his figure silhouetted against the sky.

"What do you want?" he growled.

I raised an eye-ridge. Raph had been very touchy lately. "You okay?"

"Why shouldn't I be?"

"You've been acting weird lately." I stated.

Raph scoffed. "How would you know?"

"Raphael." I said warningly.

He turned away. "Just shove off Leo. Leave me alone."

"Not until I know that you're okay." I said with my arms crossed over my plastron.

"And just how are you gonna determine that?" He asked, glaring back at me over his shoulder.

"By hearing you tell me so." I answered, matter-of-factly.

Raph frowned. "You expect me to lie?"

My posture stiffened. "No. But I intend to wait until you start talking."

"Have a seat then, Fearless. You've got a long night ahead of ya."

We've been sitting here for hours and Raph still hasn't said anything. I'm beginning to think this wasn't such a good approach after all. I check the time on my t-phone.

I don't want to break curfew, but I really want to get Raphael to talk.

His eyes met mine, slowly. Obviously he expects me to give up and head home. I frowned. Sorry Raph not this time.

I put my phone back on my belt and changed to a more comfortable position. I stretched out my legs and leaned back relaxedly against the wall.

His jaw clenched, but other than that he didn't react much. He stared out at the city with unseeing eyes. I couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking about. My eye-ridges furrowed as I caught a flash of sadness in his gaze, but as soon as it had appeared, it vanished.

This behavior really threw me for a loop. Normally Raphael was the easiest of my brothers to read.

I considered asking him what he was thinking about, but somehow I sensed it would break the peaceful atmosphere that had settled between us.

Suddenly, without any previous indication, he turned abruptly towards me, catching me in my inquiring stare.

I tore my gaze away and stared at the city as Raph had done earlier. But for some reason, I could feel his gaze lingering on me. I turned back towards him slowly and met his gaze.

Again there was silence.

My eye caught a dark bruise on Raph's shoulder. Undoubtedly that was from when I punched him in training this morning. I frowned, feeling guilty. A bruise like that had to hurt. Not that Raph would ever admit it.

Raph's eyes met mine once more. He must have seen the look in my eyes, because he spoke, softly, breaking the silence for the first time in three hours. "I don't enjoy fighting you much either."

"You do it often enough." I retorted. I wasn't angry with him, but I was frustrated. It wasn't like I'd intended to hurt him. I didn't mean to get into so many fights with him. He just really pulled my strings and got under my skin.

He made a grunt of agreement. "Doesn't mean I enjoy it."

"Then why...?"

"Don't know. Just happens." I frowned. One thing I didn't like was the way Raphael was making it sound as though it was all his fault. I was at fault as well.

I frowned. Silence returned. I decided to try and keep the conversation going. "Do you spend a lot of time here?"

He gave a non-committal shrug. "Yeah, place is abandoned. Might as well."

"Well it was condemned for possible health risks." I pointed out. "Doesn't that make it a little bit risky?"

He shrugged. "Eh, so it'll take a couple a years off. At least I have a place to think."

"What do you think about?" I asked, my curiosity peaked. This was the most level-headed conversation I'd had with Raphael in a long while and I was determined to try and make it last as long as possible. Opportunities to find out what was really going on in my younger brother's head were scarce.

He shrugged again. "Anything I want."

I smiled at him, "How to put up with your three annoying brothers?" I suggested with a chuckle. Goodness knows the four of us got on each other's nerves, and Raph was usually the one who complained the most about some of our more...perturbing habits.

He smiled weakly. "Not usually. No."

When I glanced up at him questioningly he answered, "This is where I come to deal with my problems. Most of the time they don't even concern you."

That seemed hard to believe. Raph usually runs off after we get in fights with one another, so I'd always figured he spent his alone time trying to calm down and unwind after having to put up with us all day.

"What kind of problems?" I asked quietly.

He shook his head. "Nothing you need to worry about." I didn't like that quiet tone in Raph's voice. There was something underlying it. Something I wanted to root out. I wanted to understand.

I reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'd still like to know."

Raph glanced at me with a look of denial on his face. "I'm telling you, Leo. It isn't worth your time."

My eyes narrowed. "Like shell it isn't! It's obvious that something is really bothering you. I wanna help."

"Why?" Raph asked, his eyes genuinely surprised.

I frowned. I stood up, so that I could look into his eyes. I put my hands on his shoulders. "You're my younger brother Raph. No matter how many disagreements we've had, we're still family. I still care."

"So what do you want me to say?" He asked. Raph had a seat on the edge of the building and signaled me to join him.

I began sit beside him and answered, "Nothing you're not comfortable with." His green eyes looked up at me questioningly. "I just want you to know that I'm here. So that whenever you do want to talk..."

Raphael smiled. "Thanks Leo."

"You're welcome." I stood up, with an inner peace that I'd seldom felt before. I glanced at Raph in my peripheral vision. He looked similarly relieved. This was a talk both of us had needed. I'm glad he opened up to me. He doesn't do that very often.

Even though nothing significant happened, even though we didn't fight anyone, or bust any heads, even though we weren't making up after a bad fight, I have a feeling I'm gonna remember this night for a long time.

This chapter reminds me of some of the earlier chapters in this story. It's very simple, very short. But it was a nice little moment between Leo and Raph, so I thought that I'd throw it in.

Review Please! Thanks for reading!