It was shortly after breakfast was cleaned up and put away, when the household witnessed the first real conflict pop up between the brothers since Leo's return.

Leo fingered the bridge of his snout, trying to remain diplomatic and not entirely lose his patience. "Brothers, I've missed you all dearly, and believe me when I say that I can't wait to spend as much time with each of you in the coming days as I can, but that doesn't change the fact that none of you guys are following me into the freaking bathroom!"

Leo had spent over a week living on the streets, dressed in clothing he had dug out of a reject bin of a thrift store. He, to put it lightly, needed a bath. Quite badly, to be frank. And currently he was standing firmly in the doorframe to the room where he could accomplish such a task. With heated, indoor plumbing even! And while Raph, Donnie, and Mikey seemed to agree that, very much yes! A bath something that he desperately needed, they apparently differed as to how it should be done. Currently, all three of them were hovering close by, obviously growing frustrated by his stubbornness.

"Dude! We're not saying that we all need to be in there with you, bro." Mikey tried explaining soothingly. "You're right, it'd get waaay too crowded in there! We're just saying that one of us probably should be in there with you to help you out. Y'know. Just in case." As he spoke, he tried to push his way forward to wiggle past Leo into the bathroom, but was soundly denied.

"No, I don't know." Leo huffed indignantly, arms out stubbornly and not letting him past. "Just in case of what exactly?"

"It's not that we doubt your skills, Leo, but you're not familiar with the layout of the room, nor with how anything functions in there." Donnie tried to sooth him, obviously trying not to sound incredibly frustrated with his brother's apparent stubbornness. "You've just arrived back home after an incredibly harrowing experience, and you're still not completely physically recovered from the... the 'incident'... back in the garage! There's absolutely no shame or dishonor or whatever hangup you're currently caught up in letting us help you!"

Even though he couldn't see his brothers right now, Leo narrowed his unseeing eyes in the general direction of their three agitated auras. "Guys, I managed to travel around the world, across the entire Pacific ocean, and three continents. I'm just going to take a bath, I'll be fine."

"Leonardo..." It was obvious that Donnie was now trying to pull the 'Authoritative Doctor' card on his blind brother. "As your primary medical provider, it's my orders that, to avoid any accidents, you have assistance around the lair for at least a few days. And that includes navigating the unfamiliar mechanisms in the bathroom. "

"No." Leo crossed his arms. "It's not necessary."

"Oh fer crying out loud!" Raph growled, and turned to the amused auras of the humans still seated in the kitchen around the laptop. "Guys! Quit laughing and help us talk some sense into this stubborn idiot!"

"Oh, nuh-uh!" Casey sounded way too amused over there. "Ain't touching this fight!"

"Personally, I'm betting on Leo here." Karai's voice added cheerfully from the laptop speaker.

"Probably the safe bet." April agreed amiably.

Leo felt some sympathy for his brothers, and tried to reason with them. "Guys, Mikey's already showed me where the soap and towels are located, and I can sense the layout of the room. You guys are seriously underestimated just what I'm capable of! Just because I'm now blind doesn't mean that things have changed that much! I'm still a ninja!"

"Leo, things in there are Donnie-Made, and are probably going to be so much more complicated then you realize! Especially when you can't, y'know, see!" Mikey pointed out. "Plus, what if you trip and fall and need our help or something?"

"What?! I'm not going to trip while taking a bath!" Leo said in exasperation. "I've lived with 'Donnie-made' inventions my whole life, and I'm quite familiar with how he works. Unless Donnie's hooked the plumbing up to a nuclear reactor while I was gone, then I can figure out how to flush a toilet or turn on the faucet!"

"Gah! Why do you have to be so stubborn about everything!" Raph sounded frustrated. "Leo! Just let us freaking help you! You're acting like this is something all new or some crap, when it's something we've all done before! It ain't a big deal! We've all helped each other in the bathroom when one of us was hurt before! Even me! It's what family does!

"I agree wholeheartedly. And trust me, if I need help, I will ask for it." Leo said curtly. "But I am not currently hurt, thank you very much, and thus do not require the assistance."

"What are you talking about?!" Raph asked with an undercurrent of disbelief in his voice. "Leo, you're... you're..."

"Blind." Leo finished for him firmly. "Yes. Yes I am. But I'm not hurt. Any injuries healed a long time ago, and I've adjusted. I will not be coddled over this, thank you very much!" He stepped back into the bathroom behind him and pushed the door closed, stating, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a much needed soak."

He managed to click the door closed behind him, and, after spending a moment to make sure that they weren't going to try and push their way in after him, Leo leaned back against it, exhaling. He suddenly felt a little pang of guilt when he sensed the three auras lingering uncertainly on the other side of the door. Had he been too harsh? Maybe he was too harsh. His brothers were only worried about him and trying to help, after all. But, at some point, he had to draw the line. He had to show them that he wasn't helpless! That he was still Leo, their big brother, and he could still protect them. At the very least, he needed to show them that he could use the freaking bathroom without somebody holding his hand!

He sighed. Okay. He would give them extra cuddles after he was clean, to try and make it up to them.

But first things first...

This was the first real bathroom that Leo had been in in nearly two years, and it was time to savor the experience! Leo turned his attention to the bathroom around him, and tears almost welled up in his eyes. Oh gods. Indoor plumbing!

He straightened up as he thought of something else. Wait! Waitwaitwait. That would also mean that.. There would also be...

He pushed away from the door, and stepped forward, feeling around eagerly. Where was it? Where was... Oh! There!

His fingers gently felt the roll of soft toilet paper hanging on the side of the vanity.

"I swear, I'll never, ever take you for granted again!" he breathed reverently.

"Well, it seems like Leo has had no problem filling up the tub, and it sounds like he's enjoying a deep soaking at the moment." Donnie updated the waiting kitchen of Hamatos as he stepped in, fiddling with the digital screen attached to his wrist.

"Poor guy probably deserves it." Karai commented from the laptop screen, and then she exhaled and shook her head, wiping her face. "Oh man, I still can't believe that Leo's really alive! Leo, you wonderful, amazing turtle you! Always full of surprises!"

"He's going to be okay in there?" Raph frowned, leaning back and looking in the direction of the bathroom with a frown on his face. He was standing at the sink, helping Mikey wash the dishes from the large breakfast they had just had.

"I think so." Donnie nodded, looking up from his wrist communicator as he moved over towards them. ""From what I could make out, while exploring the bathroom, he also apparently found Mikey's radio in there, and after a bit of experimentation, he's now listening to soothing classical japanese music. From the smell of it, he also somehow found and lit a stick of chamomile incense for maximum relaxation."

"We could make that spa day so much better if he'd just let us in there to spoil him a little." Mikey pouted, leaning against the sink. "I'd give him the best shell scrubs ever!"

Donnie set a small plastic white speaker on the table next to them, from which they could faintly hear stringed and wind instruments playing softly. "I estimate that'll give us at least a solid twenty minutes to half an hour before he rejoins us. Just in case, I have an auditory monitoring device set up just outside of the door while we wait for him."

"You mean you set up a baby monitor?" Mikey asked dryly, dropping a rather heavy pot into the sink with a kerplunk and splashing Raph with soapy water.

"Do NOT let Leo hear you call it that." Donnie warned him, taking a seat at the table next to April.

"Well, actually, this gives me a chance to show you guys something that came up. Karai, you'll want to hear this too." April reached down for her purse, setting it on the table and digging through it. "It's one of the reasons I stopped by this morning, other then the groceries. I was going to bring it up earlier, but that whole shock of finding Leo still alive sort of took me by surprise. And then, when I remembered it, Raph was freaking out on us about telling Leo anything for some reason and so I held off."

"Yeah. What's up with that?" Shini asked bemused, standing next to Karai.

"Leo's been through enough, and I didn't want to overwhelm him." Raph defended himself, throwing Mikey a dark look as he dried off his plastron with a towel. "We don't need to swamp him with trouble the moment he finally gets home."

"Well, trouble might find us anyways." April said seriously as she pulled a handful of photos out of her purse. "One of my co-workers at the news station took this while covering another story, and when I found out, I managed to sneak into their computer and make copies without them noticing to show you."

She spread them out on the table for them to see.

Raph and Mikey glanced at one another, then, drying off their hands with dish towels, they walked over to see.

Raph's face darkened as he picked up one of the pictures. It was grainy and hard to make out too many details, but the black clad uniform of the figures crouched on a rooftop was unmistakable. "The NeoFoot."

"They're back in New York City." Karai's voice went flat, her golden eyes narrowing as April held up one of the photos for the webcam to pick up.

"Two of them, at least." Mikey leaned over April's shoulder with a frown.

"Fuck." Raph ran a hand over his face.

"Don't swear, Raph." Donnie frowned, examining one of the photos closely himself.

"Nah, this is exactly the kind of situation that calls for a good curse word or two." Casey looked seriously around the table.

"Apparently they were skulking around the neighborhood of the old lair a few days ago." April explained. "My coworker was covering some fluff piece about a neighborhood park that's been cleaned up when they caught these two in the background. They were only there for a brief moment, but it was enough to get few seconds of film in."

Karai sat back in her chair, arms crossed. "Rather suspicious timing, I'd say, considering what we know now, don't you think?" She had obviously come to the same conclusion that they were all arriving at.

"They're after Leo." Donnie commented coldly as he looked up from the picture, jaw tightened.

"He's after Leo." Raph corrected him, his electric green eyes narrowed into deadly slits as he threw the pictures down onto the table.

"Of course he is!" Karai's face was twisting into a snarl, and her fists tightened. "It all makes so much sense! That's why he was willing ignore all of us to pull the entire NeoFoot force out just to hunt down one turtle in the jungles halfway across the world!"

"Leo's the one who killed the Shredder all those years ago." Shini finished her thoughts for her. "And thus, he needs to prove himself against Leo, blind or not! That's the only way he legitimizes himself!"

"But he ain't going to touch him." Raph's hand wandered down to touch his sai attached to his belt, his whole body tense. "Ever."

Mikey's face darkened uncharacteristically for a moment, then immediately relaxed into a more typical Mikey expression, only his smile had turned slightly shark-like, and he was studying the black clad ninjas in the photos like somebody figuring out how to take care of a troublesome fly. He chuckled darkly. "Man. Took them long enough to figure out they were left chasing imaginary shadows back in the jungle."

"Well... that delay gave Leo enough time to find you guys, thank goodness." April shuddered, staring at the photos. "But who knows how long they've been up here. They could've been already here and searching for him when Leo was still out there on the streets looking for you. And if they had stumbled on him first! With how dangerous they are now... And Leo being blind and alone..." She hugged herself tightly at the unsettling thought.

"Leo's... Leo's so much luckier then he could possibly know. He doesn't know the danger he was actually in." Donnie ran both of his hands over his face, leaning back in his chair. "He has no idea what exactly happened with the NeoFoot while he was gone, or who... who their new leader is now. If... if they had caught him out there, and handed him over to that... that monster..."

"Leo wouldn't have just been killed." Raph growled, his lip curled in a snarl. "He would've been tortured to death. And his body dragged up here to taunt us with."

Everybody paled at the thought, looking a little bit ill.

"Goddammit!" Karai snarled, grabbing her hair in frustration. "I want to be over there. I NEED to be over there!" She grabbed a pen and flung it across the room angrily. "But Shini's right! If I bail on those meetings now, I might as well broadcast Leo's return to the entire underworld in bright neon letters!"

"Guys, not everything is lost yet." April reminded them, looking around with steely resolution in her eyes. "We've only seen these two so far, and they're obviously looking in the wrong place. It could be that they're still not sure Leo's here, and this is just a scouting party, feeling things out to see if he's made it this far." She sat back in her chair and waved a hand. "So, the way I see it, we still have several things working in our favor. We know that they're here. And they still don't know where we are. Most importantly of all, we have Leo now. We can protect him."

There was a moment of silence as they all thought about that.

"So... should we tell Leo everything now?" Mikey wondered, looking around. "I mean, this is pretty serious business, and he should probably know."

"No." Raph crossed his arms stubbornly. "He's got enough on his plate to worry about right now."

"Raph..." Donnie frowned uncertainly. "I'm not sure..."

"Guys, as much as it sucks, we have to face the facts!" Raph hissed fiercely, obviously not wanting to raise his voice too loud lest their blue brother hear them in the other room. "Leo's fucking blind now! If... If the NeoFoot's little science fair freak get his claws on him, Leo's not going to be able to fight him off. He can't protect himself anymore. And, more importantly to Leo, he can't protect us anymore. And you know Leo! You know just how badly that'll mess him up in the head!"

Karai gave a deep exhale. "Raph..." she finally said, leaning forward to look into the camera seriously. "As bad as it seems, being blind isn't exactly a death sentence. Leo's already proven himself through extraordinary trials on his journey home. He might be more capable then you think, even blind."

"Do you really want to risk it?" Raph said quietly. "Put Leo up against him? Karai, you've seen what that bastard is capable of."

Karai grew silent once more, looking away and rubbing her arm.

"Listen. Our whole lives, Leo's always been there for us. He's always taken care of us." Raph continued, more gently now. "But then we fucked up. I fucked up. And Leo should've died back then, after falling off that plane." Raph's fists clenched at his side, and he looked up at the others, his electric green eyes burning with determination. "But he didn't. Leo went through hell and back to give us a second chance, and I for one ain't about to take that second chance for granted. Leo needs our help. Now... now it's our turn to take care of him."

"Right." Donnie exhaled, and ran a hand over his face. "This isn't going to be easy."

"No kidding, man." Mikey frowned, looking around. "We're going to have somehow try to keep tabs on the NeoFoot, and try to keep Leo from finding out?! That's a pretty tall order!"

"We're going to need a plan." Donnie nodded in agreement, thinking this over. "We'll have to assign duties to care for Leo, find a way to keep him comfortable and entertained and his thoughts off of his current ailment, and somehow still schedule reconnaissance patrols." He turned in his chair and got up. "We'll start with a flow chart. I'll go get the tagboard and markers."

"Well, I trust you guys, but I hope you know what you're doing." Karai said with a sigh, then looked up dangerously. "You are to keep me updated, do you understand me? Even just a hint that they've found you guys, and I'll have the whole Foot army over there within the day, the Yukuza be damned!"

"Thanks, Karai." April smiled at her and Shini gratefully. "I know we can always count on you two."

"And that's good, because, man, I think we're going to need all the help we can get." Casey agreed.

"Well, if the interaction we just had with Leo is any indication..." Mikey rubbed his head and glanced at the closed bathroom door across the Lair, and turned the others to shrug helplessly, observing dryly, "then taking care of our big brother is going to be quite the full time job!"

A/N

It's my little headcanon, which isn't exactly disproven by the show in any way, that Leo has carried a slight phobia of public bathrooms ever since Splinter's lecture about them in the beginning of the show.

Thus... it was a VERY long journey home for him!