Late Night Conversation—Nothing Resolved

I don't own the turtles or Splinter…nor will I ever. That copyright belongs to someone else. This also takes place between the battle of the 2007 movie and the end of it.

Raphael leaned against the doorway watching Leonardo sleep. He wasn't about to admit it to anyone but he'd missed his brother. (Recent events had also led to him being extremely worried about his brother…but that was over with, at least for now.) Even though the two of them fought constantly he'd actually missed Leo. Michelangelo and Donatello had each other to kept themselves entertained, the two youngest always had almost always been closer to each other than they had to the older two, but Raph had been left alone.

At first it hadn't been that bad; he'd gotten the TV more and had to do less flips due to less fights—he and Donnie had only gotten into it a couple of times over said TV. He got to sleep in an extra half an hour since Leo wasn't forcing him out of bed to start early training. However the one-on-one training sessions with Leo was one of the things he had missed. He'd even gotten to hang out more with Casey. He'd gotten board almost a week later. He'd started picking fights with his brothers. They'd stopped taking the bait and soon after that he'd starting go for walks just to get away.

The first few crimes he'd stopped had been minor purse snatchers and muggers; nothing big-time. Things had changed quickly when he realized that he was developing a pattern of saving people, and the crimes he was dealing with were getting more frequent and bigger. He needed to hide his identity from those he was protecting and to protect his family, thus the Nightwatcher had come about.

Leo started waking up so Raph ducked out of the room and in the process almost backed into Mikey. "He still in there?" Mikey whispered looking slightly unsure of the answer. Mikey looked half awake and was clutching his pillow tightly less than one arm.

Raph nodded his head. "Yeah, he's still here." Raph took in his younger brother's appearance. He hadn't seen Mikey clutch a pillow like that in years, since Leo had given him "monster-spray" to help get rid of the nightmares the young turtle used to have.

"Good, 'cuz dude, we get him back and then lose him again and that's just not cool." Mikey rubbed his eyes tiredly and smiled tiredly at Raph.

Raph nodded his head again. "By the way, Mikey, what you doin' up? You look exhausted." Raph nudged Mikey towards the couch so he wouldn't fall asleep in the hall…or against Leo's door.

"Checking on Leo," Mikey answered shrugging his shoulders. "Had a dream that he left again." He paused looking unsure if he should continue. He thought for a moment and dropped onto the middle of the couch.

"I know what you mean. He leaves us with no word so we end up worrying about him. He comes back and then gets kidnapped. Anyone's bound to have nightmares after that," Raph replied sitting down next to him.

"Does that include you?" Mikey asked looking over at Raph. Raph looked away pointedly. Mikey smiled and leaned back into his older brother.

"I was sure he abandoned us." Mikey tilted his head indicating that he was listening. "When he stopped writing I was sure he'd died and left us."

Mikey nodded his head. "When his time was up, I expected him to come bouncing in with fresh fruit and hyper as…me to see us!"

Raph nodded his head. "I was so relieved and pissed off when he waltzed through that door. I didn't know if I shouldda hit him or hugged him."

"So you did the you thing?"

"Hey, I woke you two up so you knew he was back. I couldda just stormed out of the lair!" Raph exclaimed trying to defend himself.

"That is true…"

Two mugs drifted into sight. Raph followed the mug up to the arm and saw that Donnie was standing there. They took their mugs as Donnie sat down on the other side of Raph.

"What are you doing up?" Raph asked taking a tentative sip of his drink. As great at chemistry as Don was, he couldn't seem to master the kitchen. That was Mikey and Splinter's rolls.

"I was working and I heard you two talking."

"Thanks for the hot chocolate!" Mikey chirruped drinking happily out of his mug.

"Welcome," Donnie responded taking a drink out of his mug. "It's nice to have him back again, isn't it?" Donnie asked looking over at Raph. "He is-"

"He's still here," Raph stated guessing what Donnie was thinking. "I checked on him myself."

"Good." The boys sat in silence for a few minutes just enjoying each other's company. "What do you think kept him away so long?" Donnie asked looking to his older brother for answers.

Raph shrugged. "Hell if I know what he was thinking while he was away. I don't know what he's thinking when he's here!" Raph shook his head. "I don't know, maybe he just REALLY needed sometime away from the constant noise that this city always has."

"Do you think he missed us?" Mikey asked leaning closer to Raph.

Raph nodded his head. "Yeah, he missed us you dork. How could he not?" Raph shifted so Mikey was more comfortable.

Donnie reached across Raph and patted Mikey on the shoulder. "Yeah, he missed us. He wouldn't have come back if he didn't," Donnie stated leaning on Raph like Mikey was.

"Donnie, what did you think when he left?" Mikey asked lifting his head slightly to look at the purple clad turtle.

"At first I thought that he'd be back as soon as his training was up. Then when he stopped writing…I thought we'd lost him forever." He paused looking at the blank TV. "I didn't; I still don't understand why he didn't come back when his time was up."

"I was afraid that I'd failed you," Leo said dropping down next to Mikey. "Splinter sent me away so that I could become a better leader. I didn't want to disappoint him or you guys."

"You've never disappointed me!" Mikey exclaimed flopping against him.

"Yeah, really, fearless, we might get pissed at you but you don't disappoint us," Raph stated.

Donnie nodded his head and smiled at Leo. "Yeah really you've kept us alive this long, we trust you to keep up the good work."

"How come I always end up with your stinky feet?" Raph suddenly demanded; shoving Mikey's feet off of his lap only for Mikey to replace them again. Raph sighed and let the feet to stay on his lap, but only after rolling his eyes. Leo laughed at the way his brother acted like he didn't want Mikey cuddled up to him.

"Because—uh—so what was it like, Leo?" Mikey asked unable to think of answer for Raphael's question.

"It was amazing! Everything was green and bright. And clean, there was hardly any air pollution-" Leo began telling them about his trip and the things he'd seen. It wasn't long until Mikey had fallen asleep his head on his on Leo's lap and his feet still draped over Raph's lap. The other three lowered their voices to avoid waking him up again. Shortly after

Mikey's venture into Dreamland Donnie followed.

The older two paused and smiled at each other. "He was up late again last night," Raph explained. "For a genus he sure can't seem to figure out when to rest."

Leo nodded his head in agreement and nodded down to Mikey. "This one either. You'd think after falling asleep at the arcade games standing up he'd have gone to bed."

Raph chuckled. "Yeah I know. You have to admit it was fun watching him try to explain that to Master Splinter."

Leo nodded his head. "You know, he couldn't move his hand right for the whole day. He almost broke his wrist doing flips."

Raph nodded his head. "I know, I brought him ice for half the night after Donnie went to bed," Raph responded. He patted the foot on his knee. "But he's the baby what are you going to do?"

Leo nodded his head. "Yeah, I think we all give him more then we give each other."

Raphael gave him a strange look. "You mean more then the two of us give each other. We give Donnie almost as much leeway as we give Mikey."

Leo nodded. "Yeah we're always harder on each other than we are on the younger ones aren't we?" Leo asked.

"Yeah, why is that?" Raph asked looking over at Donnie who'd just slipped down onto his shoulder and nuzzled into it.

"Because we're the oldest?" Leo responded lamely. "I honestly don't know. I think it happened sometime after Splinter started training me for leadership."

Raph rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well suddenly my best bud lost time for me and only had time for training."

Leo's eyes wandered over to his sleeping brothers. "I was afraid of failing you guys. Still am sometimes."

"Yeah, we'll stop it!" Raph demanded harshly. "You aint failed us yet and you sure as hell aint gonna do it now!"

"Shhh…lower your voice!" Leo demanded. Raph rolled his eyes. "You know it wasn't always a picnic for me either." Leo told him. "I missed spending time with you guys too," Leo told him, trying to reach a discarded blanket on the floor. "I'd come out of training with Splinter and the three of you would be playing a game. After a while, you guys didn't even ask me to play any more."

Raph rolled his eyes again. "We started playing games because Mikey here was sad that you were no longer spending time with him. And we stopped asking you because you never would play with us." Leo looked a little shocked. "I got sick of the stupid kicked puppy look Mikey always got when you said 'no' and then would walk away."

"Oh." The two sat silently for a while looking over their two sleeping brothers. "You know, these two have always thought the world of you?" Leo asked looking up at Raph.

Raph nodded. "I know," he responded. "The same goes for you."

---

Splinter walked out of his room to make his morning cup of tea before he sat down to meditate. He was surprised to see all of his sons sound asleep on the couch. Michelangelo was still draped over Raphael and Leonardo's laps. Only now both of the older boys were pinning him down so that he wouldn't fall off. Donatello was also being pinned to the couch by Raphael's arm around his shoulders.

All four of them had matching smiles on their faces, and looked happier than Splinter had seen in years. The last time the four of them had all been piled on the couch like was the night before he appointed Leonardo as leader.

Smiling he went and made his tea before watching the boys sleep. Donatello was the first one to wake up. He looked around, surprised to find himself pinned to a still sleeping Raphael. He shifted trying to get off of the couch only for Raphael to pull him tighter to himself. Donatello rolled his eyes and carefully turned the TV on with the remote that was conveniently located on the floor.

Leonardo was the next to awaken in a similar situation to Donatello. Michelangelo was still sound asleep in his lap. He sighed and waved a sleepy good morning to Donatello who replied with a similar wave.

Raphael woke next and stretched his arms above his head, letting Donatello out of his vice like grip. He looked down at his still sleeping brother and stretched out his legs out as best as he could. "You know, he's going to stay here until noon if we let him."

"Yeah, but we have training in" Leo looked at the clock. "fifteen minutes. We'll have to wake him up before then."

"I'm pushing back training until after lunch," Splinter spoke up causing the three awake turtles to jump slightly. "I believe you boys deserve a little break…I'll start breakfast," he told the boys walking off.

"So…Donnie…could you, I don't know-turn to something OTHER than CSPAN?" Raph demanded. Donnie chuckled before changing the channel to something that they could all enjoy…or at least pretend to enjoy.