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There’s a new trick with the dialogue; if you see “this” and “this” on the same line (not in a paragraph), it means 2 or more people are talking at the same time. Why? Because I’m lazy. There I said it, happy? But… if enough people comment that it is bothersome I will go back and change it. A * indicates notes at the end, so prepare to be educated.\n \n (WARNING! There will be crude language and suggestive themes mentioned in this chapter, but if you’d paid any attention to the rating, you would be aware of this by now. So yeah, deal with it.)\n\nAnd yes this IS a romance, I just want to build into it slowly with a few more chapters of drama and feels first.\n", "description_bbcode_parsed": "This chapter takes place a whole minute after where the last chapter left off.  There’s a new trick with the dialogue; if you see “this” and “this” on the same line (not in a paragraph), it means 2 or more people are talking at the same time. Why? Because I’m lazy. There I said it, happy? But… if enough people comment that it is bothersome I will go back and change it.  A * indicates notes at the end, so prepare to be educated.
  
 (WARNING! There will be crude language and suggestive themes mentioned in this chapter, but if   you’d paid any attention to the rating, you would be aware of this by now. So yeah, deal with it.)

And yes this IS a romance, I just want to build into it slowly with a few more chapters of drama and feels first.
", "writing": "As a ninja, there were many advantages to being a turtle instead of human; \n\nThey could hold their breath for long periods of time, which came in handy if you were stalking the enemy by hiding under water. They had shells that were great for tucking their softer limbs into in order to avoid dismemberment via katana*. Their skin didn’t produce any kind of natural oil that left fingerprints or caused acne (unless you were dumb enough to sprinkle experimental mutagen on yourself like a certain turtle with nunchaku)*. \n\nBut the best advantage had to be the flexibility of their turtle necks, which was very handy if, for some reason, they decided it would be a good idea to piss-off their bro, and if said bro decided to take a shot at their head like it was an 8-Ball into the corner pocket.*\n\nRaphael loved being a turtle.\n\nHe was pretty sure that, at the worst, he was going to walk away with a bad neck sprain. He was also pretty sure that if he didn’t get his butt off the Dōjō floor soon, his oldest and younger brothers were going to have a panic-attack. \n\nMaster Splinter seemed to disagree with him though, and before he could even start to get to his feet he felt the familiar, warm sensation of paw-like hands on his shoulders.\n\n“Be still, my son.”\n\nRaph needed to figure out how his father was able to get across the room in the blink of an eye without making a sound; it was creepy but awesome.\n\nIn a voice far more scratchy than he thought it should have been, Raph tried to brush off his father’s examination,\n\n“Sensei, I don’t need-“ \n\n[i]“Hush” [/i]\n\n The order was spoken softly, but it was an order none the less and Raph remained still as his father kneeled down and carefully examined him for serious injury. \n\nSplinter’s 4 fingered hands were firm but soft as they traced the bruise forming on Raphael’s chin, careful not to add too much pressure as he checked for any sign of fracture to the bone. A second cautious hand lightly hovered over the back of his neck, checking his ki* points from the base of his skull and down his spine, to make sure there was nothing more severe than whiplash. Just because Raph had been able to sit up on his own didn’t mean Splinter wasn’t worried about neck injury. \n\nOnce the rat was certain that there was no great risk in doing so, he gently tilted his son’s head back so that he could look into his eyes. \n\n“Close your eyes for a count of 3, then open them.”\n\nRaph sighed but did as he was told. Counting to 3 slowly in his head before re-opening his green eyes to look into his father’s reddish-brown. Splinter nodded his head, pleased with the way the turtle’s eyes had contracted and dilated, alleviating any fears of a concussion. And the small sigh of relief he allowed to show told Raph that his father [i]had[/i] been afraid, even if just for a moment.\n\nRaph hated whenever his Sensei fussed over him. Not that he didn’t [i]appreciate[/i] the concern over his well-being; he just hated seeing Splinter worried. His father had always been a strong, reassuring figure and seeing him even a little shaken up was just… [i]wrong.[/i] \n\nPlus, Leo and Mikey were right [i]there[/i], watching the whole thing, which was just plain embarrassing.\n\n“Are you light-headed, my son? Do you feel ill at all?”\n\n“Sensei, I’m [i]FINE![/i]” Mostly fine, anyway, at least his voice sounded less strained now. He just wanted to get up off the floor already.\n\n“Good-“\n\nThe muscles in his right arm all seemed to spasm then seize up tight, each nerve screaming like tiny pinpricks with hot needles as Master Splinter pinched a pressure point in the red-banded turtle’s shoulder. Apparently the tender moment of fussing was over-\n\n“I never want to hear such [i]higo[/i]* from your mouth again! UNDERSTOOD?” \n\nHe pinched a tad harder for emphasis.\n\n“HAI!* Sensei, Ha-[i]iiiii[/i]!” \n\nFortunately, Splinter didn’t let him squeal like a girl for long. Releasing his son from the pressure hold, he calmly rose to his feet and folded his hands behind his back while Raphael tried to rub some relief into his still aching arm.\n\nWalking past the sore turtle on the ground, Splinter made his way towards the Dōjō exit. He paused a moment, turning his head slightly to the side to regard his other 2 sons;\n\n“Leonardo, Michelangelo; Help your brother up.” There were no protests as Leo and Mikey each took a side and wrapped 1 of Raph’s arms over their own shoulders, slowly easing him back on his feet before waiting further instruction.\n\nTheir father wasn’t looking at any of them now, and from the rigid posture in his back it was easy to tell that his priorities were now focused on another turtle.\n\n“Take him into the kitchen and give him some ice. I must go and have a [i]word[/i] with Donatello.”\n \n “Hai, Sensei” “Hai, Sensei”\n\nWith that, Splinter calmly left the Dōjō and made his way across the lair to the shut door of Donatello’s lab where the purple-banded turtle was no doubt still fuming inside.\n\nRaph kept quiet and didn’t bother to struggle as his brothers escorted him into the kitchen; he was too busy trying to look at his own steps and [i]not[/i] watch his father knock swiftly on the metal sliding door before entering his brainy brother’s sanctuary. \n\nHe hadn’t [i]meant[/i] for Donnie to get in trouble, the possibility never even crossed his mind when he was coming up with this stupid plan. \n\n\nOnce they were in the kitchen and Splinter was far out of sight, Raph felt secure enough to wrench out of his brother’s hold before plopping down on 1 of the stools by the large rectangular metal box they used for a kitchen table (it wasn’t really a box, he thinks Donnie once told him it was a plenum*? It had something to do with the furnace maybe? Or gas, or [i]whatever[/i]. He hadn’t really been paying attention.)\n\nLeo tried to place a comforting hand on his shoulder but he removed it quickly when Raph glowered in his direction.\n\n“I’m [i]FINE[/i], alright? Lay off!” If nothing else, at least he [i]sounded[/i] like himself again.\n\n Leaning over and folding his arms on the table, Raph contemplated a rather [i]not-so-interesting[/i] stain on the metal surface. He was sore, embarrassed, and now, of all things, feeling [i]guilty[/i]. He hoped his bros would just take the hint and leave him be.\n\nNo such luck.\n\nMikey and Leo had grown immune to their bro’s sour moods years ago and weren’t going to be dissuaded from being [i]“helpful”[/i] so easily. The blue-banded turtle stayed by Raph’s side , glancing him over for his own assessment of his physical condition while his brother in orange slid across the kitchen floor, skidding to a halt in front of the refrigerator before throwing the freezer door wide open;\n\n“Ice-cream-kitty! We need an ice-pack, STAT!”\n\nHe got a [i]“Mrow”[/i] in response as the tiny half melted ice-cream cat mutant handed him what was requested before the door was slammed back shut. Spinning around with a flourish, Mikey all but flung himself across the table to present the ice-pack to his grumpy brother with an out-stretched hand.\n\nRaph cringed and, not for the first time, wished Donnie would make them a second ice-box. Everything Mikey’s pet touched ended up being sticky. \n\nHe really didn’t want to put anything with Neapolitan* paw prints on it against his face, but the blue-eyed puppy-dog look he was getting from the turtle in front of him, as well as the impatient tapping from the turtle still off to his side, reminded him he didn’t really have much of a choice. \n\nMumbling out a small [i]“thanks”[/i] Raph begrudgingly took the proffered ice-pack and gingerly held it against his chin. Mikey was pleased enough with himself for being able to [i]“help”[/i] his injured brother that he didn’t notice the emerald skinned turtle try to hide a wince before bringing his other hand up to knead at the back of his neck. Leo noticed everything.\n\n“Is your neck okay? Do you want me to try to use Reiki*?” He sounded genuinely concerned.\n\nRaph didn’t know why everyone was being so overdramatic; Donnie got a lucky shot in but he was [i]fine[/i], why couldn’t they just get over it already?\n\nRaphael turned his head as much as his sore neck would allow in order to fix Leonardo with the best glare he could manage at the moment.\n\n“You can keep your [i]hands[/i] to yourself; I told you I’m [i]fine.[/i] Stop making such a big deal-”\n\n“DUDE!” -of course Mikey couldn’t keep from throwing his 2 cents in, “Donnie [i]totally[/i] knocked you on your shell, you got [i]spanked[/i] big time!”\n\nA low, warning growl from Raph’s throat was enough to snap Mikey’s mouth shut.\n\n“It was a [i]lucky-shot[/i], got it?”\n\nFearless Leader was less than impressed. He raised a skeptical eye-ridge and crossed his arms over his plastron, a good sign he was readying himself for a long talk that Raph wasn’t going to enjoy in the least.\n\n“[i]Lucky shot[/i], r-i-i-i-i-ght. So do you wanna’ tell us what that was all about?” \n\n Leo may not have had their father’s keen hearing, but he didn’t need it to know that whatever had set their bō-wielding brother off; Raph had been the cause of it. And as [i]“Team Leader”[/i] it was his job to butt into everyone else’s business. As if Raph wasn’t in [i]enough[/i] pain.\n\n“I don’t need you riding my shell about this,[i] Leo[/i], it’s not that big a deal-“\n\n“[i]Really?[/i] That bruise growing on you [i]face[/i] looks like a [i]big deal[/i]. Donnie storming out of the Dōjō certainly looks like a [i]big deal[/i]-“\n\n“Yeah, bro, what did you say to him?” Seeing Raph’s anger redirected at their oldest brother always managed to give Mikey his courage back. \n\n“-I don’t think I’ve [i]ever[/i] seen D so mad before, like, EVER! He looked madder than the time I used his laptop for a pizza plate, or the time I was trying to help him mix stuff for the retro-mutagen without asking, or the time that I accidently put my T-Phone in the microwave, or the time that I-“\n \n “WE GET IT!” “WE GET IT!”\n\nRaph groaned in frustration. He did [i]not[/i] want to have this conversation, but the odds of his bros dropping the issue anytime soon were about as likely as the Shredder baking cookies for a local homeless shelter. \n\nGlancing down at the table again so he wouldn’t have to meet his brother’s eyes, the red-banded turtle wondered just how much detail he actually needed to go into; Leo and Mikey probably didn’t need to know the parts about him suggesting April was giving after school hand-jobs, or that Donnie suffered from [i]“limp dick syndrome”[/i].\n\n“I… [i]might’ve[/i] been hassling him about still being jealous over Casey and April.”\n\nThat was the gist of it, anyway; short, simple and straight to the point. More than enough information for Leo and Mikey to piece together what had happened… and apparently enough to make them gape at him like he’d grown a second head-\n\n“[i]WHY[/i] would you say something like that? What were you thinking?!”\n\n“Dude… mega [i]harsh[/i]!”\n\nSlamming the ice-pack down hard on the table, Raph raised his head to scowl at both his blue and orange-banded brothers. He already knew that they wouldn’t understand, but that didn’t mean he was going to just sit there and let them rip into him like this.\n\n“I was t[i]hinking[/i] that Donnie’s been moping around like Sally-Sad-Sack for the past week and [i]somebody[/i] needed to do [i]something[/i] to snap him out of it!”\n\nLeonardo’s eyes narrowed back at Raph. \n\n “And that was the best you could come up with? Ticking him off?”\n\n“It’s a lot better’n anything [i]you’ve[/i] come up with”\n\nLeo was practically in his face now, his eyes wild at the accusation. \n \n“And what is [i]that[/i] supposed to mean?!”\n\nRaph rose from his seat so that he and Leo were eye level; if [i]Fearless[/i] wanted to start something he was welcome to it, but he wasn’t going to be looking down on him while he did it.\n\n“The 4 of us should be topside, keeping the streets safe from scuzz-buckets- doing our [i]job[/i]. Instead, we’re [i]stuck[/i] down here while Donnie’s feeling sorry for himself and all [i]you’ve[/i] done is baby him!” He practically spat out that last part and it was enough to back Leo up out of his space.\n\n“I’m not [i]babying[/i] him!”\n\nRaph snorted at the weak reply, “Oh puh-[i]lease[/i], you’ve been tip-toeing around him for days. I’m surprised you haven’t tried bottle-feeding him yet.”\n\nLeo balked at that; if Raph thought his bro was looking at him like he grew a second head before; he probably had a Kraang sticking out of his stomach now. \n\n“What [i]exactly[/i] do you expect me to do?! He’s having an emotional crisis right now; we have to be delicate about this… Donnie’s… he’s…”\n\n“… a wimp?” Raph offered.\n\nLeo’s eyes narrowed again, his fluster replaced by annoyance.\n\n“I was going to say [i]sensitive[/i].”\n\nRaph smirked at that. “Same thing.”\n\nThe blue-banded turtle grit his teeth and took a calming breath. Raph was trying to divert from the issue by getting under his skin and they both knew it. If past experience was anything to go by, Leo would try to pull out the ole’ [i]“I’m the rational older brother that understands but who knows better than you do”[/i] routine any second now;\n\n“Look, I get what you’re saying and I don’t like waiting around anymore than you do…,”\n\nYup, right on schedule.\n\n “But Donnie needs [i]time[/i]-“ \n\n“[i]TIME?[/i] Seriously? It’s been more than a week, Leo, just how much [i]time[/i] does he need?”\n\nRaph wasn’t sure if he felt pleased or disappointed in the exasperated expression Leo was giving him now; it looked like [i]Big Brother[/i] was just as much at a loss as he was. The fact that even Leonardo didn’t have some sort of plan for this mess just made the whole thing seem to suck even more.\n\n“I don’t know, [i]ok[/i]? I just know you can’t rush things… it’s like…” Leo made a broad, rolling gesture with his hands, struggling to grasp for just the right words.\n\n“…like-“\n\n“It’s like baking pizza!”\n\nThe 2 older turtles were stuck speechless by this; all anger forgotten for the time being, they slowly turned their heads to focus on the youngest with matching looks of confusion on their faces.\n \n “Huh?” “Huh?”\n\nAt some point while they had been yelling at each other, Mikey had pulled out 2 slices of left-over pizza that he had been saving for dessert later tonight, and was now holding each slice up in 1 hand like he was balancing them in on a scale.\n\n“Ok, so check this out; on the [i]left[/i] we have a thin-crust pepperoni, sausage and bacon with chocolate sprinkles-” He held his left hand a bit higher so that his bros could see the slice in all its glory, \n \n “-and on the [i]right[/i] we have your classic hand-tossed crust with extra cheese, olive, peppers and cucumber.” At that, he lowered his left hand so that the slice in his right would be the most prominent.\n\nRaph and Leo shared a concerned look before nodding at their baby brother to continue.\n\n“So like, here’s the thing; even though both are [i]totally[/i] amazing, you have to bake them at different times. The pizza on the right takes longer than the pizza on the left. If you tried to leave the pizza on the left in the oven as long as the pizza on the right, the crust would get all burnt, the cheese would turn brown and splotchy and the meat would get all dried out...” \n\nHe paused a moment to cast a sympathetic look at the left pizza slice, as if the horror of its possible fate was too much to bear.\n\n“…And if you tried to leave the pizza on the right in the oven only as long as you did the pizza on the left, the dough would still be all soft and kinda soggy inside, all the cheese wouldn’t have melted all the way, and the veggies would still be cold in the middle.”\n\n He bit his lip as he looked with pity on the hapless slice in his right hand.\n\n“And you can’t just crank the heat up either, I mean, yeah that might speed it up but it’s wa-a-a-a-y easy to overdo it and then you end up with a crust that’s all black on the bottom, rock hard around the edges, the veggies get all shriveled up, and sometimes, like, once, everything catches on fire.” \n\n With those sage words of wisdom, Mikey looked up at his bros who were both staring agape at his explanation and gave them 1 last knowing nod before stuffing both slices into his mouth.\n\nRaph was the first to recover the power of speech.\n\n“What the [i]fu[/i]-“\n\n“-I THINK,” Leo interrupted, with a cautious glance back towards the shut lab door, “What Mikey is [i]trying[/i] to say is that everyone heals at their own pace, and by trying to rush them, you only end up making things worse.”\n\nMikey’s mouth was too full to give a verbal response at the moment so he made do with an approving thumbs-up.\n\nRaph sighed in defeat and plopped back down on the stool. Palming his forehead, he dragged his hand down his face in frustration, wincing when he touched his still bruised chin and bit back a few choice words.\n\nThis day was getting worse every minute and he didn’t know which stung more; the fact that he couldn’t deny that he had messed up [i]big time[/i], or the fact that Mikey had compared [i]“getting-over-it”[/i] to PIZZA, and had actually made [i]sense[/i]…. Sorta.\n\nRaph [i]hated[/i] doing nothing. He was a turtle of action and it killed him to just sit around and wait, especially when it came to his bros. Usually he was the first 1 to jump in and feed a mouthful of steel to anyone who tried to put the hurt on his family. Problem was, the thing that was hurting Donnie right now was his own feelings; that wasn’t an enemy Raph could attack to keep his bro safe.\n\nAnd like the hothead he was, he’d ended up attacking Donnie instead.\n\nHe’d screwed up. He knew it, Sensei knew it, Leo knew it, [i]Shell[/i], even [i]Mikey[/i] knew it! The issue now was how the heck was he supposed to [i]fix[/i] it?\n\nCringing at his lack of options, he turned his gaze over to his katana-wielding brother. He wasn’t too thrilled about what he was about to do, but the last time he’d tried coming up with a plan on his own, he’d ended up flat on his back and he wasn’t too eager to repeat the experience. \n\n“So now what? I’m open to suggestions.” \n\nLeo’s eyes widened at hearing his prideful brother ask for help, and just as expected, they filled with a look that said he was [i]way[/i] too pleased with himself for the hothead’s liking. Raph probably wasn’t going to hear the end of this for a long time coming if that smug look on his brother’s stupid face was anything to go by.\n\nBefore Leo could play dumb and ask Raph to repeat the question, the lair was filled with the sound of metal sliding against metal as the door to Donatello’s lab opened just wide enough for Master Splinter to step through before closing again.\n\nFor some reason his father’s approach filled him with a slight sense of panic. Raph quickly snatched the abandoned ice-pack from the table and pressed it to his face in an effort to show that he had been doing exactly what he had been told. Leo and Mikey also seemed to feel the need to hide the fact that they’d been talking about their genius brother;\n\n Leo had leaned himself against the counter by the sink, arms crossed and glancing off to the side, forcing himself to look as casual as possible. Lame-o-nardo was about as good an actor as the moron Captain on that stupid Space show he liked so much.\n\nMikey was way more experienced with feigning innocence, (it came with years of pulling pranks and practically getting away with murder just because he was the youngest, the little shit) and he quickly buried his head deep inside the fridge, humming a stupid little song he’d heard on a frozen Pizza TV commercial while he acted like he was pulling out ingredients to make dinner. \n\nKeeping his own eyes down at the weird stain on the table (seriously though, what [i]was[/i] that?) Raphael counted his heartbeats as his father entered the kitchen. He didn’t know what happened between Master Splinter and Donnie in the lab, but he was pretty sure Sensei was coming after [i]him[/i] now.\n\nThe red-banded turtle didn’t need to look up to know his father was right behind him, he could [i]sense[/i] his presence, all 190 lbs of raw ninja-butt-kicking power in 1 furry, kimono wearing package. He held his breath and waited for the sound of his Sensei’s voice commanding him to get up so that they could have a little [i]“talk”[/i] of their own.\n\n…But it never came.\n\nThe Japanese-man-turned-rat didn’t even look at the turtle waiting at the table for his punishment. In fact, he didn’t spare any of his sons a passing glance as he calmly made his way into the kitchen, pushing aside the noren* that marked the entrance into the Dōjō, and disappeared. \n\nRaphael let himself breathe again once he heard the decorative shōji* to his Sensei’s room open and slide shut.\n\nHe couldn’t be off the hook* [i]that[/i] easily. \n\nNo, if anything, Master Splinter was probably still thinking about what his punishment should be… Maybe he even [i]wanted[/i] Raph to wait, let him stew a little bit; make him nervous. Waiting for punishment or a lecture was sometimes a lot worse than anything their father could come up with. \n\nIf Sensei was playing mind games, it meant Raph was in serious trouble.\n\nDaring to lift his gaze off from the table over to his brothers, he could tell they were thinking the same thing… Well, Leo was- Mikey was busy slicing up tomatoes for whatever he was planning on putting together for dinner tonight (apparently the knucklehead wasn’t acting after all).\n\n Ignoring the [i]way[/i] too chipper turtle chopping up vegetables (He didn’t care [i]what[/i] Donnie said, a tomato is a vegetable, dammit, you wouldn’t put it in a fruit salad, would you? No.) Raph focused his attention on Leo;\n\nThe blue-banded turtle was no longer leaning against the counter but he had yet to move from that spot. His body may have been stark still, but his steel-blue eyes were darting between the entrance to the Dōjō and the opening to the common room of the lair, all the way to their brother’s closed lab that lay waiting on the other side. \n\nRaph knew t[i]hat[/i] look, and it was a welcome relief- his brother was assessing the situation and coming up with a plan of action. \n \nThat was just fine with him; let Leo worry about making the plan, just as long as Raph knew where to go and who to hit, he was fine with letting Big Brother stress over the tiny details of how to get from point “A” to point “B”. If anything, it was about time their [i]Leader[/i] got his butt into gear on what to do about the [i]“Donnie situation”[/i].\n\nThat had to be what had been bugging Raphael the most about this whole mess; \n\nSplinter had told them to be patient and wait for Donnie to come to them, and Mikey and Leo had a point about their bro needing [i]“time”,[/i] even if they didn’t know how much time he needed. Raph was a big enough turtle to admit that it wasn’t fair to expect Donnie to get over April as quickly as he had gotten over Mona Lisa. (But if Mikey ever compared him to a thin-crusted pizza again, he was gonna’ make him eat his own nunchaku). \n\nBut the problem was nobody had been talking about it at [i]all[/i]. What happened when Donnie finally decided he [i]did[/i] want to come to them? What were they supposed to do? This wasn’t exactly a situation Sensei had prepared them for in ninja training. \n\nYes, the whole thing was awkward, and yes, he wouldn’t appreciate it if his family was talking about how to [i]deal[/i] with [i]him[/i] behind [i]his[/i] back, and honestly, Raph had no idea how to handle any of it. He sure as [i]Shell[/i] wasn’t going to be the 1 to start the conversation either, what would he even say?\n\nBut not doing anything was getting them nowhere fast. \n\nPushing Donnie’s buttons to try to force him into snapping out of his funk may not have been the brightest idea, but at least it seemed to have clued everybody in that they needed to do [i]something[/i], and that was enough to ease his guilt a little. He’d wanted to get the ball rolling and that’s exactly what he’d done. .. More or less.\n\nNow, Leo was going to come up with some crazy plan to get Donnie talking, the nerd would forgive him for being such a [i]dick[/i], Mikey would say something random that would get everybody to lighten up, Splinter would say some old, wise Asian metaphor that would chalk this whole experience up to them learning some valuable morals, or something, and then everything would go back to normal.\n\nThose hopes were quickly deflated however when Leo let out a deep sigh before turning to face his red-banded brother.\n\nThey met each other’s gaze and Raph didn’t like what he saw;\n \nThis wasn’t the confident Leo that had a bold and daring plan that he expected to be carried out without question. ([i]Uhgg[/i], would he ever get that “Space Loser” garbage out of his head? Damn you, Leo, this is all your fault!) His shoulders were sagged a bit and he was worrying his lip- if this were a TV show, this would probably the part where a foreboding violin would start to play in the background instead of Mikey chopping up vegetables.\n\n(Wait, are you [i]supposed[/i] to chop up ears of corn? Don’t they just peal or something?)\n\n This Leo was hesitant, he was about to [i]wing it[/i]* and Raph had the distinct impression he was about to be thrown under the bus.\n\nNodding his head towards the general direction of the lab, Leo spoke slowly and a bit too loud considering Raph was only sitting a few feet away from him;\n\n“Maybe you should [i]go[/i] ask Donnie to check you over…” He gestured towards the lab again, as if Raph didn’t know where their purple-banded brother would be.\n\n“…You know, just to make sure everything’s [i]OK[/i]?”\n\nRaph could’ve done without all the nodding and gesturing, he could take a hint. [i]Shell[/i], if Leo was any [i]less[/i] subtle he’d be seen from space…\n\n“Dude, for [i]real[/i]? Don’t you think Raph should, I dunno’, apologize or something first?” \n\n…Or not.\n\nLeonardo let out another deep sigh as he looked over his shoulder at their baby brother; \n\nMichelangelo had paused in his chopping of a random assortment of vegetables (What the heck is that dark purple squash looking thing supposed to be?! [i]Screw it[/i], from now on [i]he[/i] gets to review the grocery list before they hand it over to April) and now he was looking quite concerned at the lack of consideration for Donatello’s feelings.\n\nGroaning, Raph got up from his stool, abandoning the ice-pack yet again on the table, and trudged his way out of the kitchen. He would let Leo be in charge of explaining things to Mikey, Big Bro was better at it anyway.\n\nRight now, Raph had a geek to talk to.\n\n\n\n[b][i]To Be Continued[/i][/b]…. I’m already working on the next chapter, I promise!\n\n---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Katana is the Japanese word for “sword”, any traditional Japanese steel sword is a katana; short swords, long swords, square-hilts, round-hilts, they are all katana. They may each have their own specific names in addition to describe special features, like tantō, daitō, ninjatō, ect, but they are all swords and thus, they are all referred to as “katana” in general, the same way rapiers, cutlass’, scimitars, shortswords, and broadswords are all swords. \n\n* Remember the episode where Mikey got Shellacne? The reason Leo tried to assure him that it was a natural part of growing up but insisted he never had pimples was because it’s the truth; they’ve all probably seen magazine and TV ads for acne medication for teenagers, but being turtles ( reptiles), their skin does not produce the oil that human skin does to cause such blemishes. That same oil on human skin is what causes fingerprints to be left behind when you touch a smooth surface, that’s why the term is “dusting for fingerprints” the dust clumps onto the oil left behind by your hands. SCIENCE!\n\n*” 8-Ball into the corner pocket” is a term used in the game of “Billiards”, also known as “Pool” in the United States of America.\n\n* ki is energy or life force, in several Asian cultures it is believed that you have several points where the flow of ki is strong on your body that can be manipulated by adding pressure or acupuncture and this can either help hinder or heal.\n\n* Higo is Japanese for “vulgar words” this can apply to profanity, slang, or lewd innuendo.\n\n*Hai is Japanese for “yes”\n\n* a Plenum is a metal casing that houses multiple ducts for forced-air systems such as heating, air-conditioning/cooling, even ventilation or filtration, and depending on the building’s needs, it can be in the ceiling, under the floor, or mounted on the wall. I’ve studied the images of the 2012 turtle’s kitchen as best I can to figure out what the heck that thing they use for a kitchen table is, and considering that their lair is an abandoned subway relay station that may or may not have ever been completed, I think this is the most likely explanation. Based on an official map that gives the basic layout of the current lair, it shows the kitchen is too close the subway tracks for the pipes that go into the metal casing to be water related, and electrical turbines or power converters are more round in shape, not rectangular, and would be far larger. However, if someone with experience in piping, HVAC systems, old New York subway construction designs, or electrical systems has an alternative theory I will be more than happy to take it into consideration and make changes. \n\n* Neapolitan is the type of ice cream that Mikey’s mutant cat is made of, it consists of layers of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.\n\n*Reiki is the “healing hands” technique that Leo learned in season 3, in the episode “Deadly Venom”.\n\n* Noren is a traditional Japanese fabric curtain with 1 or more vertical slits cut from the bottom nearly to the top that is hung in doorways or hallways to act as a separator for the rooms.\n\n*Shōji is a traditional Japanese sliding door, or room divider consisting of translucent or painted paper over a frame of wood which holds together a lattice of wood or bamboo. Remember in “I think his name is Baxter Stockman”? Splinter’s shōji is decorated with a scene depicting ninja fighting against armored samurai.\n\n*”Off the hook” is an expression that means “no longer in trouble” much like how a fish that frees itself from a fisherman’s hook is no longer in danger. (I’m saying this because I know English is not everyone’s first language and some cultural expressions do not always translate so easily on the internet, I found this out the hard way trying to read other fanfics in Spanish and French.)\n\n*”Wing it” means to improvise as you go.\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "As a ninja, there were many advantages to being a turtle instead of human;

They could hold their breath for long periods of time, which came in handy if you were stalking the enemy by hiding under water.  They had shells that were great for tucking their softer limbs into in order to avoid dismemberment via katana*.  Their skin didn’t produce any kind of natural oil that left fingerprints or caused acne (unless you were dumb enough to sprinkle experimental mutagen on yourself like a certain turtle with nunchaku)*.

But the best advantage had to be the flexibility of their turtle necks, which was very handy if, for some reason, they decided it would be a good idea to piss-off their bro, and if said bro decided to take a shot at their head like it was an 8-Ball into the corner pocket.*

Raphael loved being a turtle.

He was pretty sure that, at the worst, he was going to walk away with a bad neck sprain. He was also pretty sure that if he didn’t get his butt off the Dōjō floor soon, his oldest and younger brothers were going to have a panic-attack.

Master Splinter seemed to disagree with him though, and before he could even start to get to his feet he felt the familiar, warm sensation of paw-like hands on his shoulders.

“Be still, my son.”

Raph needed to figure out how his father was able to get across the room in the blink of an eye without making a sound; it was creepy but awesome.

In a voice far more scratchy than he thought it should have been, Raph tried to brush off his father’s examination,

“Sensei, I don’t need-“

“Hush”

 The order was spoken softly, but it was an order none the less and Raph remained still as his father kneeled down and carefully examined him for serious injury.  

Splinter’s 4 fingered hands were firm but soft as they traced the bruise forming on Raphael’s chin, careful not to add too much pressure as he checked for any sign of fracture to the bone. A second cautious hand lightly hovered over the back of his neck, checking his ki* points from the base of his skull and down his spine, to make sure there was nothing more severe than whiplash. Just because Raph had been able to sit up on his own didn’t mean Splinter wasn’t worried about neck injury.

Once the rat was certain that there was no great risk in doing so, he gently tilted his son’s head back so that he could look into his eyes.

“Close your eyes for a count of 3, then open them.”

Raph sighed but did as he was told.  Counting to 3 slowly in his head before re-opening his green eyes to look into his father’s reddish-brown.   Splinter nodded his head, pleased with the way the turtle’s eyes had contracted and dilated, alleviating any fears of a concussion.  And the small sigh of relief he allowed to show told Raph that his father had been afraid, even if just for a moment.

Raph hated whenever his Sensei fussed over him. Not that he didn’t appreciate the concern over his well-being; he just hated seeing Splinter worried. His father had always been a strong, reassuring figure and seeing him even a little shaken up was just… wrong.

Plus, Leo and Mikey were right there, watching the whole thing, which was just plain embarrassing.

“Are you light-headed, my son? Do you feel ill at all?”

“Sensei, I’m FINE!”    Mostly fine, anyway, at least his voice sounded less strained now.  He just wanted to get up off the floor already.

“Good-“

The muscles in his right arm all seemed to spasm then seize up tight, each nerve screaming like tiny pinpricks with hot needles as Master Splinter pinched a pressure point in the red-banded turtle’s shoulder.  Apparently the tender moment of fussing was over-

“I never want to hear such higo* from your mouth again! UNDERSTOOD?”  

He pinched a tad harder for emphasis.

“HAI!* Sensei, Ha-iiiii!”  

Fortunately, Splinter didn’t let him squeal like a girl for long. Releasing his son from the pressure hold, he calmly rose to his feet and folded his hands behind his back while Raphael tried to rub some relief into his still aching arm.

Walking past the sore turtle on the ground, Splinter made his way towards the Dōjō exit. He paused a moment, turning his head slightly to the side to regard his other 2 sons;

“Leonardo, Michelangelo; Help your brother up.” There were no protests as Leo and Mikey each took a side and wrapped 1 of Raph’s arms over their own shoulders, slowly easing him back on his feet before waiting further instruction.

Their father wasn’t looking at any of them now, and from the rigid posture in his back it was easy to tell that his priorities were now focused on another turtle.

“Take him into the kitchen and give him some ice. I must go and have a word with Donatello.”
        
            “Hai, Sensei”     “Hai, Sensei”

With that, Splinter calmly left the Dōjō and made his way across the lair to the shut door of Donatello’s lab where the purple-banded turtle was no doubt still fuming inside.

Raph kept quiet and didn’t bother to struggle as his brothers escorted him into the kitchen; he was too busy trying to look at his own steps and not watch his father knock swiftly on the metal sliding door before entering his brainy brother’s sanctuary.  

He hadn’t meant for Donnie to get in trouble, the possibility never even crossed his mind when he was coming up with this stupid plan.


Once they were in the kitchen and Splinter was far out of sight, Raph felt secure enough to wrench out of his brother’s hold before plopping down on 1 of the stools by the large rectangular metal box they used for a kitchen table (it wasn’t really a box, he thinks Donnie once told him it was a plenum*? It had something to do with the furnace maybe? Or gas, or whatever. He hadn’t really been paying attention.)

Leo tried to place a comforting hand on his shoulder but he removed it quickly when Raph glowered in his direction.

“I’m FINE, alright? Lay off!”  If nothing else, at least he sounded like himself again.

 Leaning over and folding his arms on the table, Raph contemplated a rather not-so-interesting stain on the metal surface. He was sore, embarrassed, and now, of all things, feeling guilty.  He hoped his bros would just take the hint and leave him be.

No such luck.

Mikey and Leo had grown immune to their bro’s sour moods years ago and weren’t going to be dissuaded from being “helpful” so easily. The blue-banded turtle stayed by Raph’s side , glancing him over for his own assessment of his physical condition while his brother in orange slid across the kitchen floor, skidding to a halt in front of the refrigerator before throwing the freezer door wide open;

“Ice-cream-kitty! We need an ice-pack, STAT!”

He got a “Mrow” in response as the tiny half melted ice-cream cat mutant handed him what was requested before the door was slammed back shut.  Spinning around with a flourish, Mikey all but flung himself across the table to present the ice-pack to his grumpy brother with an out-stretched hand.

Raph cringed and, not for the first time, wished Donnie would make them a second ice-box. Everything Mikey’s pet touched ended up being sticky.  

He really didn’t want to put anything with Neapolitan* paw prints on it against his face, but the blue-eyed puppy-dog look he was getting from the turtle in front of him, as well as the impatient tapping from the turtle still off to his side, reminded him he didn’t really have much of a choice.

Mumbling out a small “thanks” Raph begrudgingly took the proffered ice-pack and gingerly held it against his chin.  Mikey was pleased enough with himself for being able to “help” his injured brother that he didn’t notice the emerald skinned turtle try to hide a wince before bringing his other hand up to knead at the back of his neck.  Leo noticed everything.

“Is your neck okay? Do you want me to try to use Reiki*?” He sounded genuinely concerned.

Raph didn’t know why everyone was being so overdramatic; Donnie got a lucky shot in but he was fine, why couldn’t they just get over it already?

Raphael turned his head as much as his sore neck would allow in order to fix Leonardo with the best glare he could manage at the moment.

“You can keep your hands to yourself; I told you I’m fine. Stop making such a big deal-”

“DUDE!”  -of course Mikey couldn’t keep from throwing his 2 cents in, “Donnie totally knocked you on your shell, you got spanked big time!”

A low, warning growl from Raph’s throat was enough to snap Mikey’s mouth shut.

“It was a lucky-shot, got it?”

Fearless Leader was less than impressed. He raised a skeptical eye-ridge and crossed his arms over his plastron, a good sign he was readying himself for a long talk that Raph wasn’t going to enjoy in the least.

“Lucky shot, r-i-i-i-i-ght.  So do you wanna’ tell us what that was all about?”  

 Leo may not have had their father’s keen hearing, but he didn’t need it to know that whatever had set their bō-wielding brother off; Raph had been the cause of it. And as “Team Leader” it was his job to butt into everyone else’s business.   As if Raph wasn’t in enough pain.

“I don’t need you riding my shell about this, Leo, it’s not that big a deal-“

“Really? That bruise growing on you face looks like a big deal. Donnie storming out of the Dōjō certainly looks like a big deal-“

“Yeah, bro, what did you say to him?”  Seeing Raph’s anger redirected at their oldest brother always managed to give Mikey his courage back.  

“-I don’t think I’ve ever seen D so mad before, like, EVER! He looked madder than the time I used his laptop for a pizza plate, or the time I was trying to help him mix stuff for the retro-mutagen without asking, or the time that I accidently put my T-Phone in the microwave, or the time that I-“
        
             “WE GET IT!”   “WE GET IT!”

Raph groaned in frustration.  He did not want to have this conversation, but the odds of his bros dropping the issue anytime soon were about as likely as the Shredder baking cookies for a local homeless shelter.

Glancing down at the table again so he wouldn’t have to meet his brother’s eyes, the red-banded turtle wondered just how much detail he actually needed to go into; Leo and Mikey probably didn’t need to know the parts about him suggesting April was giving after school hand-jobs, or that Donnie suffered from “limp dick syndrome”.

“I… might’ve been hassling him about still being jealous over Casey and April.”

That was the gist of it, anyway; short, simple and straight to the point. More than enough information for Leo and Mikey to piece together what had happened… and apparently enough to make them gape at him like he’d grown a second head-

“WHY would you say something like that? What were you thinking?!”

“Dude… mega harsh!”

Slamming the ice-pack down hard on the table, Raph raised his head to scowl at both his blue and orange-banded brothers. He already knew that they wouldn’t understand, but that didn’t mean he was going to just sit there and let them rip into him like this.

“I was thinking that Donnie’s been moping around like Sally-Sad-Sack for the past week and somebody needed to do something to snap him out of it!”

Leonardo’s eyes narrowed back at Raph.  

 “And that was the best you could come up with? Ticking him off?”

“It’s a lot better’n anything you’ve come up with”

Leo was practically in his face now, his eyes wild at the accusation.
 
“And what is that supposed to mean?!”

Raph rose from his seat so that he and Leo were eye level; if Fearless wanted to start something he was welcome to it, but he wasn’t going to be looking down on him while he did it.

“The 4 of us should be topside, keeping the streets safe from scuzz-buckets- doing our job. Instead, we’re stuck down here while Donnie’s feeling sorry for himself and all you’ve done is baby him!”  He practically spat out that last part and it was enough to back Leo up out of his space.

“I’m not babying him!”

Raph snorted at the weak reply, “Oh puh-lease, you’ve been tip-toeing around him for days. I’m surprised you haven’t tried bottle-feeding him yet.”

Leo balked at that; if Raph thought his bro was looking at him like he grew a second head before; he probably had a Kraang sticking out of his stomach now.

“What exactly do you expect me to do?! He’s having an emotional crisis right now; we have to be delicate about this… Donnie’s… he’s…”

“… a wimp?” Raph offered.

Leo’s eyes narrowed again, his fluster replaced by annoyance.

“I was going to say sensitive.”

Raph smirked at that.  “Same thing.”

The blue-banded turtle grit his teeth and took a calming breath. Raph was trying to divert from the issue by getting under his skin and they both knew it.  If past experience was anything to go by, Leo would try to pull out the ole’ “I’m the rational older brother that understands but who knows better than you do” routine any second now;

“Look, I get what you’re saying and I don’t like waiting around anymore than you do…,”

Yup, right on schedule.

 “But Donnie needs time-“  

“TIME? Seriously? It’s been more than a week, Leo, just how much time does he need?”

Raph wasn’t sure if he felt pleased or disappointed in the exasperated expression Leo was giving him now; it looked like Big Brother was just as much at a loss as he was.   The fact that even Leonardo didn’t have some sort of plan for this mess just made the whole thing seem to suck even more.

“I don’t know, ok?  I just know you can’t rush things… it’s like…” Leo made a broad, rolling gesture with his hands, struggling to grasp for just the right words.

“…like-“

“It’s like baking pizza!”

The 2 older turtles were stuck speechless by this; all anger forgotten for the time being, they slowly turned their heads to focus on the youngest with matching looks of confusion on their faces.
        
                 “Huh?”  “Huh?”

At some point while they had been yelling at each other, Mikey had pulled out 2 slices of left-over pizza that he had been saving for dessert later tonight, and was now holding each slice up in 1 hand like he was balancing them in on a scale.

“Ok, so check this out; on the left we have a thin-crust pepperoni, sausage and bacon with chocolate sprinkles-” He held his left hand a bit higher so that his bros could see the slice in all its glory,
 
 “-and on the right we have your classic hand-tossed crust with extra cheese, olive, peppers and cucumber.” At that, he lowered his left hand so that the slice in his right would be the most prominent.

Raph and Leo shared a concerned look before nodding at their baby brother to continue.

“So like, here’s the thing; even though both are totally amazing, you have to bake them at different times. The pizza on the right takes longer than the pizza on the left.  If you tried to leave the pizza on the left in the oven as long as the pizza on the right, the crust would get all burnt, the cheese would turn brown and splotchy and the meat would get all dried out...”  

He paused a moment to cast a sympathetic look at the left pizza slice, as if the horror of its possible fate was too much to bear.

“…And if you tried to leave the pizza on the right in the oven only as long as you did the pizza on the left, the dough would still be all soft and kinda soggy inside, all the cheese wouldn’t have melted all the way, and the veggies would still be cold in the middle.”

 He bit his lip as he looked with pity on the hapless slice in his right hand.

“And you can’t just crank the heat up either, I mean, yeah that might speed it up but it’s wa-a-a-a-y easy to overdo it and then you end up with a crust that’s all black on the bottom, rock hard around the edges, the veggies get all shriveled up, and sometimes, like, once, everything catches on fire.”

 With those sage words of wisdom, Mikey looked up at his bros who were both staring agape at his explanation and gave them 1 last knowing nod before stuffing both slices into his mouth.

Raph was the first to recover the power of speech.

“What the fu-“

“-I THINK,” Leo interrupted, with a cautious glance back towards the shut lab door, “What Mikey is trying to say is that everyone heals at their own pace, and by trying to rush them, you only end up making things worse.”

Mikey’s mouth was too full to give a verbal response at the moment so he made do with an approving thumbs-up.

Raph sighed in defeat and plopped back down on the stool. Palming his forehead, he dragged his hand down his face in frustration, wincing when he touched his still bruised chin and bit back a few choice words.

This day was getting worse every minute and he didn’t know which stung more; the fact that he couldn’t deny that he had messed up big time, or the fact that Mikey had compared “getting-over-it” to PIZZA, and had actually made sense…. Sorta.

Raph hated doing nothing. He was a turtle of action and it killed him to just sit around and wait, especially when it came to his bros.  Usually he was the first 1 to jump in and feed a mouthful of steel to anyone who tried to put the hurt on his family.  Problem was, the thing that was hurting Donnie right now was his own feelings; that wasn’t an enemy Raph could attack to keep his bro safe.

And like the hothead he was, he’d ended up attacking Donnie instead.

He’d screwed up. He knew it, Sensei knew it, Leo knew it, Shell, even Mikey knew it!  The issue now was how the heck was he supposed to fix it?

Cringing at his lack of options, he turned his gaze over to his katana-wielding brother. He wasn’t too thrilled about what he was about to do, but the last time he’d tried coming up with a plan on his own, he’d ended up flat on his back and he wasn’t too eager to repeat the experience.

“So now what? I’m open to suggestions.”

Leo’s eyes widened at hearing his prideful brother ask for help, and just as expected, they filled with a look that said he was way too pleased with himself for the hothead’s liking.  Raph probably wasn’t going to hear the end of this for a long time coming if that smug look on his brother’s stupid face was anything to go by.

Before Leo could play dumb and ask Raph to repeat the question, the lair was filled with the sound of metal sliding against metal as the door to Donatello’s lab opened just wide enough for Master Splinter to step through before closing again.

For some reason his father’s approach filled him with a slight sense of panic. Raph quickly snatched the abandoned ice-pack from the table and pressed it to his face in an effort to show that he had been doing exactly what he had been told.  Leo and Mikey also seemed to feel the need to hide the fact that they’d been talking about their genius brother;

 Leo had leaned himself against the counter by the sink, arms crossed and glancing off to the side, forcing himself to look as casual as possible.  Lame-o-nardo was about as good an actor as the moron Captain on that stupid Space show he liked so much.

Mikey was way more experienced with feigning innocence, (it came with years of pulling pranks and practically getting away with murder just because he was the youngest, the little shit) and he quickly buried his head deep inside the fridge, humming a stupid little song he’d heard on a frozen Pizza TV commercial while he acted like he was pulling out ingredients to make dinner.

Keeping his own eyes down at the weird stain on the table (seriously though, what was that?) Raphael counted his heartbeats as his father entered the kitchen. He didn’t know what happened between Master Splinter and Donnie in the lab, but he was pretty sure Sensei was coming after him now.

The red-banded turtle didn’t need to look up to know his father was right behind him, he could sense his presence, all 190 lbs of raw ninja-butt-kicking power in 1 furry, kimono wearing package.   He held his breath and waited for the sound of his Sensei’s voice commanding him to get up so that they could have a little “talk” of their own.

…But it never came.

The Japanese-man-turned-rat didn’t even look at the turtle waiting at the table for his punishment. In fact, he didn’t spare any of his sons a passing glance as he calmly made his way into the kitchen, pushing aside the noren* that marked the entrance into the Dōjō, and disappeared.  

Raphael let himself breathe again once he heard the decorative shōji* to his Sensei’s room open and slide shut.

He couldn’t be off the hook* that easily.

No, if anything, Master Splinter was probably still thinking about what his punishment should be… Maybe he even wanted Raph to wait, let him stew a little bit; make him nervous.  Waiting for punishment or a lecture was sometimes a lot worse than anything their father could come up with.

If Sensei was playing mind games, it meant Raph was in serious trouble.

Daring to lift his gaze off from the table over to his brothers, he could tell they were thinking the same thing…  Well, Leo was- Mikey was busy slicing up tomatoes for whatever he was planning on putting together for dinner tonight (apparently the knucklehead wasn’t acting after all).

 Ignoring the way too chipper turtle chopping up vegetables (He didn’t care what Donnie said, a tomato is a vegetable, dammit, you wouldn’t put it in a fruit salad, would you? No.) Raph focused his attention on Leo;

The blue-banded turtle was no longer leaning against the counter but he had yet to move from that spot. His body may have been stark still, but his steel-blue eyes were darting between the entrance to the Dōjō and the opening to the common room of the lair, all the way to their brother’s closed lab that lay waiting on the other side.

Raph knew that look, and it was a welcome relief- his brother was assessing the situation and coming up with a plan of action.
 
That was just fine with him; let Leo worry about making the plan, just as long as Raph knew where to go and who to hit, he was fine with letting Big Brother stress over the tiny details of how to get from point “A” to point “B”. If anything, it was about time their Leader got his butt into gear on what to do about the “Donnie situation”.

That had to be what had been bugging Raphael the most about this whole mess;

Splinter had told them to be patient and wait for Donnie to come to them, and Mikey and Leo had a point about their bro needing “time”, even if they didn’t know how much time he needed. Raph was a big enough turtle to admit that it wasn’t fair to expect Donnie to get over April as quickly as he had gotten over Mona Lisa.  (But if Mikey ever compared him to a thin-crusted pizza again, he was gonna’ make him eat his own nunchaku).

But the problem was nobody had been talking about it at all. What happened when Donnie finally decided he did want to come to them? What were they supposed to do?  This wasn’t exactly a situation Sensei had prepared them for in ninja training.

Yes, the whole thing was awkward, and yes, he wouldn’t appreciate it if his family was talking about how to deal with him behind his back, and honestly, Raph had no idea how to handle any of it.  He sure as Shell wasn’t going to be the 1 to start the conversation either, what would he even say?

But not doing anything was getting them nowhere fast.

Pushing Donnie’s buttons to try to force him into snapping out of his funk may not have been the brightest idea, but at least it seemed to have clued everybody in that they needed to do something, and that was enough to ease his guilt a little. He’d wanted to get the ball rolling and that’s exactly what he’d done. .. More or less.

Now, Leo was going to come up with some crazy plan to get Donnie talking, the nerd would forgive him for being such a dick, Mikey would say something random that would get everybody to lighten up, Splinter would say some old, wise Asian metaphor that would chalk this whole experience up to them learning some valuable morals, or something, and then everything would go back to normal.

Those hopes were quickly deflated however when Leo let out a deep sigh before turning to face his red-banded brother.

They met each other’s  gaze and Raph didn’t like what he saw;
 
This wasn’t the confident Leo that had a bold and daring plan that he expected to be carried out without question. (Uhgg, would he ever get that “Space Loser” garbage out of his head? Damn you, Leo, this is all your fault!)  His shoulders were sagged a bit and he was worrying his lip- if this were a TV show, this would probably the part where a foreboding violin would start to play in the background instead of Mikey chopping up vegetables.

(Wait, are you supposed to chop up ears of corn? Don’t they just peal or something?)

 This Leo was hesitant, he was about to wing it* and Raph had the distinct impression he was about to be thrown under the bus.

Nodding his head towards the general direction of the lab, Leo spoke slowly and a bit too loud considering Raph was only sitting a few feet away from him;

“Maybe you should go ask Donnie to check you over…” He gestured towards the lab again, as if Raph didn’t know where their purple-banded brother would be.

“…You know, just to make sure everything’s OK?”

Raph could’ve done without all the nodding and gesturing, he could take a hint.  Shell, if Leo was any less subtle he’d be seen from space…

“Dude, for real?  Don’t you think Raph should, I dunno’, apologize or something first?”

…Or not.

Leonardo let out another deep sigh as he looked over his shoulder at their baby brother;

Michelangelo had paused in his chopping of a random assortment of vegetables (What the heck is that dark purple squash looking thing supposed to be?! Screw it, from now on he gets to review the grocery list before they hand it over to April) and now he was looking quite concerned at the lack of consideration for Donatello’s feelings.

Groaning, Raph got up from his stool, abandoning the ice-pack yet again on the table, and trudged his way out of the kitchen.  He would let Leo be in charge of explaining things to Mikey, Big Bro was better at it anyway.

Right now, Raph had a geek to talk to.



To Be Continued….  I’m already working on the next chapter, I promise!

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* Katana is the Japanese word for “sword”, any traditional Japanese steel sword is a katana; short swords, long swords, square-hilts, round-hilts, they are all katana. They may each have their own specific names in addition to describe special features, like tantō, daitō, ninjatō, ect, but they are all swords and thus, they are all referred to as “katana” in general, the same way rapiers, cutlass’, scimitars, shortswords, and broadswords are all swords.

* Remember the episode where Mikey got Shellacne? The reason Leo tried to assure him that it was a natural part of growing up but insisted he never had pimples was because it’s the truth; they’ve all probably seen magazine and TV ads for acne medication for teenagers, but being turtles ( reptiles), their skin does not produce the oil that human skin does to cause such blemishes. That same oil on human skin is what causes fingerprints to be left behind when you touch a smooth surface, that’s why the term is “dusting for fingerprints” the dust clumps onto the oil left behind by your hands. SCIENCE!

*” 8-Ball into the corner pocket” is a term used in the game of “Billiards”, also known as “Pool” in the United States of America.

* ki is energy or life force, in several Asian cultures it is believed that you have several points where the flow of ki is strong on your body that can be manipulated by adding pressure or acupuncture and this can either help hinder or heal.

* Higo is Japanese for “vulgar words” this can apply to profanity, slang, or lewd innuendo.

*Hai is Japanese for “yes”

* a Plenum is a metal casing that houses multiple ducts for forced-air systems such as heating, air-conditioning/cooling, even ventilation or filtration, and depending on the building’s needs, it can be in the ceiling, under the floor, or mounted on the wall.  I’ve studied the images of the 2012 turtle’s kitchen as best I can to figure out what the heck that thing they use for a kitchen table is, and considering that their lair is an abandoned subway relay station that may or may not have ever been completed, I think this is the most likely explanation. Based on an official map that gives the basic layout of the current lair, it shows the kitchen is too close the subway tracks for the pipes that go into the metal casing to be water related, and electrical turbines or power converters are more round in shape, not rectangular, and would be far larger.  However, if someone with experience in piping, HVAC systems, old New York subway construction designs, or electrical systems has an alternative theory I will be more than happy to take it into consideration and make changes.

* Neapolitan is the type of ice cream that Mikey’s mutant cat is made of, it consists of layers of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.

*Reiki is the “healing hands” technique that Leo learned in season 3, in the episode “Deadly Venom”.

* Noren is a traditional Japanese fabric curtain with 1 or more vertical slits cut from the bottom nearly to the top that is hung in doorways or hallways to act as a separator for the rooms.

*Shōji is a traditional Japanese sliding door, or room divider consisting of translucent or painted paper over a frame of wood which holds together a lattice of wood or bamboo. Remember in “I think his name is Baxter Stockman”? Splinter’s shōji is decorated with a scene depicting ninja fighting against armored samurai.

*”Off the hook” is an expression that means “no longer in trouble” much like how a fish that frees itself from a fisherman’s hook is no longer in danger.  (I’m saying this because I know English is not everyone’s first language and some cultural expressions do not always translate so easily on the internet, I found this out the hard way trying to read other fanfics in Spanish and French.)

*”Wing it” means to improvise as you go.
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