This was a really random bout that popped into my head one day. I don't know why. Well, here it is.

I don't own TMNT.

A Brother, A Shield

Don sighed and glanced up from the book he was reading. They were all still asleep. The purple masked turtle placed a bookmark on the last page he was reading, closed the book with a resounding thud echoing around the room, set it down and walked over to the two cots in his lab where his older brothers were lying unconscious. He chose to look over Raph first, because Mikey was curled up at Leo's side which would make an examination difficult. Looking over all the wounds, Don began counting them like an employee would take inventory at a store. Raph had a swelled right wrist, three bruised ribs, 30 bandaged wounds, 10 of which had been from bullets, and a long, but thin scratch down his right arm. There hadn't been a mass of blood loss though, so the genius turtle was grateful for that. After the examination Don looked up at the sound of stirring, oh it was just Mikey waking up again.

The orange masked turtle sat up and got to his feet. He looked at Don with a question in his eyes.

"All of Raph's wounds have stopped bleeding," Don said with a slight smile.

Mikey slightly smiled back before climbing onto the cot beside Raph and curling up next to him, "And Leo?" Mikey mumbled.

"Just about to check him over," Don assured his younger brother before moving to his eldest brother's aside.

Mikey mumbled something else but was quickly asleep. The genius turtle smiled affectionately at his younger brother. Ever since they had managed to get Leo and Raph home and get them patched up the youngest turtle had been switching back and forth between them, sleeping by their side for a good hour before waking up and moving to the other's side, curling up next to them, like when he had nightmares. When Mikey started muttering random words in his sleep Don turned his attention to the team's leader. Leo, you would think, would be awake by now. He had sustained less injuries than Raph but their style of fighting also meant that the two eldest brothers had different styles of getting injured as well. Leo fought at a fair distance with his twin katanas, not allowing his enemy to get too close. He was also the most talented in nin-jutsu among all of them, so the attacks that hit him were bound to be few but also bound to be more accurate, more promising. Raph was rather the opposite, he fought at close range with his twin sai, he got hit more often that way but his fighting style was more fierce so the attacks that hit him were more random, less accurate.

Over all, you'd think Raph would be worse off with 35 wounds against Leo's only 15 wounds, but what it came down to was the injury itself. There was a difference between getting cut across your arm and then getting cut across your collarbone. Getting a bullet fired into your ribs was much worse than one in your arm. All in all, Leo had a long scratch across his collarbone, had four broken ribs from the two bullets fired into his rib cage, had a large gash on his side from a large knife, which caused a lot of mass blood loss, three bruises on each arm, a small crack on his plastron, a thick scratch near his temple and had had a dislocated shoulder before Don set it back. As the purple masked genius turtle ran a light finger over Leo's plastron he shivered, remembering that the crack had come from Hun.

Yes, they had been out fighting the Purple Dragons, since they couldn't find any trace of the Foot lately. As Don sat back down in the computer chair he had occupied for most of the night he thought back to that fight as Mikey woke up and switched back, curling up to Leo again.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" Raph shouted, running forwards and tackling the nearest gang member that dared pull out a gun on his immediate younger brother.

"Thanks Raph," Don said as he turned and knocked a line of purple dragons into the nearest brick wall.

"Watch your back, brainiac!" Raph yelled as he charged for another gun aimed at Don, ultimately taking the bullets in his arms and legs as he dashed forward.

Mikey shivered from his nightmare and glanced up at his eldest brother. He reached out attentively and lightly ran his fingertips over the crack in Leo's plastron.

"Mikey?" Don asked when he sensed the movement.

"He jumped right in front of me," Mikey murmured.

"Ye-yeah, he did," Don said uneasily, glancing at random spots on the floor.

"Mikey!" Leo yelled and threw himself between Hun's swinging fist and his youngest brother, ultimately taking the hit.

Leo fell back as Raph ran in and tackled Hun, knocking him against more purple dragons and into the nearest brick wall.

"Leo!" Don shouted and kneeled down to look over the now visible crack in Leo's plastron that was rapidly growing crimson.

"I'm fine," Leo said stubbornly and jumped to his feet to continue fighting.

"Those idiots," Don muttered as he stared at his older brothers.

They had both passed out during the battle. Leo had went down first, after his scream echoed out from his arm being dislocated by Hun. That made Raph very angry, of course, and he shot after Hun like a wild, starving cat after a mouse. The hothead went down next, after he punched Hun so hard in the head he managed to nearly break his wrist. His swelled wrist along with the bullets and blood loss he fought long enough to knock away any purple dragons trying to get to Leo and enough to ensure that Don and Mikey wouldn't be hurt.

"Don?" Mikey mumbled as he switched beds again, curling up at Raph's side.

"Yes Mikey?" Don said as he fought the sleep that wanted to cloud his mind.

"What do you think they're thinking about?"

"Well, right now Raph's probably thinking of tearing out Hun's throat and Leo's probably panicking since he doesn't know if we're ok."

"Well, yeah that's true, but I meant, what do you think they're thinking when they're protecting us? When they're our shields?"

"Shields?" Don asked and frowned in thought, well it was true, the two oldest protected the younger turtles making themselves shields if needed, "Well, I guess they just have very strong protective instincts."

"They're different though," Mikey insisted, "Their ways of protecting us."

"Huh?"

Mikey sat up before getting to his feet and standing in between their unconscious older brothers, "Well, Leo's more of a self-sacrificing shield while Raph's more like a," Mikey paused and let a soft smile spread across his face, "Speeding bullet interceptor."

"Hmm," Don mused, "Yeah, I think you're right Mikey. Leo's more likely to throw himself between the enemy and us, while Raph more likely to tackled the enemy head on."

A long paused followed, "Idiots," the younger turtles agreed and then turned to the sound of mumbling, it seems Raph was waking up.

Yeah, I was just noticing the different ways Raph and Leo were likely to protect their younger brothers.

Raph-Speeding bullet interceptor

Leo-Self sacrificing shield

This was so random. This time, I don't even want a review. But if you want to review, go ahead.

~Moonsetta