A Brother's Intuition

Thicker than Water

Leonardo's voice rang out from Raph's t-phone. Good. The hotheaded turtle thought, internally relieved. Of all his brothers, Leonardo was really the only one he wanted to talk to right now. Even though Don might have been the safest choice, given his medical prowess, after his disagreement with Donatello earlier, Raphael wasn't too eager to hear the genius' snide comments.

"Raphael, where the shell are you?" Leo yelled, making Raph pull it a short distance away from his ear.

"You alone?" He countered, trying to keep his voice level so that his older brother didn't catch on to the fact that he was injured.

"What does that matter?" Leo asked, suspicion clear in his voice.

Raphael sighed. Leonardo was too observant for his own good. But Raph's wound was still bleeding, he was running out of time, and his control was slipping. He snapped angrily, "Just come and get me, will ya? I'm just beneath Twelfth and Main, in the sewers. And hurry it up, okay?"

"Wait Raph, why...?"

Click.

Raphael hung up, leaving his older brother with a plethora of unanswered questions.

When he arrived at said location, Leonardo found no sight nor sign of Raphael, which put him completely on edge. His cerulean eyes narrowed suspiciously. Leo cursed under his breath as he lost his footing and made a soft, shuffling noise. A quiet, disembodied voice floated towards him through the darkness, an almost inaudible whisper, "Leo, is that you?"

The eldest's muscles relaxed and he let out a relieved sigh. "Yeah, it's me. Where the hell are you?" He could see in the dark quite well, but it was absolutely pitch black in the direction Raphael's voice had come from. As far as Leo could tell, Raphael was lurking in the shadows.

"You're staring straight at me." Came the flat, and very Raph-like reply.

"I know you have unusually good eyesight, but this is ridiculous!" Leo stated, his voice relaxed and filled with playful mock-annoyance.

He's in a good mood today, Raphael thought, then he sighed. Not for much longer.

Before Raph could speak, Leonardo asked, "So what's the big idea making me come out here and get you?"

Raph shifted nervously and settled for a rather vague reply. "I didn't think I'd be able to make it back on my own. Now I'm not sure I'll be able to make it home at all." He said softly, allowing the weariness and pain of his injury seep into his voice. Raph watched his older brother's relaxed, playful stance vanish as the muscles in the Leo's body began to tense.

There was a moment of heavy silence before Leo whispered quietly, his emotions tightly controlled, "How bad?"

Raph's eyes slowly searched Leo's face. "Just promise me one thing."

"Name it." Leo replied without hesitation.

"Don't freak out." Raph said, hoping his brother would accept.

Leo shifted subtly, but the pain in Raph's voice made him agree. "Alright I promise."

Raph stepped into the light slowly, leaning heavily on the wall of the tunnel to keep from falling over. Leonardo shot forward and caught Raph as he stumbled. He felt something sticky and wet on his hands. Leo pulled one of his hands away and stared at it. It was covered in blood.

"Leo." Raph whispered, or more accurately, whimpered as everything began to sway.

The older turtle lowered his younger brother to the ground. Thankfully these were old tunnels that hadn't been use in years and were drier than the rest of the sewers.