The Protector and The Listener

Raph was sitting in the kitchen eating his breakfast, when Leo came in. Raph mumbled good mornings to Leo his mouth full of cereals.

"Morning", Leo answered, but his tone got Raph to raise his eyes on his brother. Something wasn't right, Leo had sounded distressed.

Raph observed his blue clad brother. He looked tired, kept his eyes downwards and worst of all, his shoulders were all flattened. Usually Leo had such a great posture, shell, Raph was pretty sure Leo didn't relax even while sleeping.

"Ya okay bro?" Raph asked carefully.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine", Leo answered avoiding Raph's gaze.

"Ya sure? Ya look a little… off to normal." Raph had been about to say 'like yer spine has snapped broken', but that might not had been very good idea, if he wanted Leo to talk to him. "Has somethin' happened?"

"No Raph. Nothing has happened, I'm totally fine so you don't have to worry about me."

Raph wouldn't give up that easily.

"Really? Care to take off yer mask? I bet ya have bags under yer eyes. If nothing happened, are ya sick then?"

"No Raph, I-"

"Then tell me, what's botherin' ya!" Raph stood up feeling his anger raging in.

"I told you, nothing's wrong! Why are you being so stubborn? Can't you just let it go?"

Raph was about to answer something but changed his mind and sat back down to finish his cereals.

"Fine", he mumbled putting spoon into his mouth. They both stayed silent for a while, and then Don came into the kitchen.

"Morning", he said cheerfully. Leo answered quietly to Donny and Raph just gave a quick glare. Donny turned from the kitchen cabinet to look at both of them. Raph kept his eyes on the empty plate in front of him and Leo stared at his hands.

"Oookay, what's wrong with you guys?" Don asked raising his eye ridge.

"Nothin', why ya think there's somethin' wrong?"

"I wonder why. It has probably nothing to do with the heavy atmosphere or you two avoiding the eye contact with me. Are you okay Leo? You look a little pale."

"He's perfectly fine, so ya shouldn't bother him", Raph said suddenly feeling angry again. Leo hadn't told anything to him so why would he talk to Donny. Not gonna happen. Though Raph knew Don had this magic ability to get them all to talk to him when he wanted. To Raph's luck that wasn't very often.

Raph stood up again and this time left the kitchen, but he didn't go far. He decided to stay listening what was going to happen. Would Don actually get Leo to speak and if did, how? So Raph hid himself behind the kitchen's corner and listened.

"Did you two have a fight?" Raph heard Don asking Leo.

"Not really."

"Okay. It doesn't bother you if I stay here?"

"What? Of course not. Why would it?"

"Just wanted to make sure."

Raph peeked behind the corner and saw Don sitting down opposite to Leo. Don started silently eating his breakfast. Raph waited for a while Donny to start to ask questions from Leo, but he just kept silent. Slowly Leo raised his eyes on Don who didn't seem to notice anything. To Raph's surprise, Leo started to speak to Don.

"Don, I… Umm… Everything's not really… okay", he stuttered.

Donny raised his eyes on Leo's and they stared each other for couple seconds until Leo turned his gaze away. "Do you want to tell me what's wrong then?" Don asked.

"No, I… I don't really want to talk about it."

Don just nodded and continued eating. Raph couldn't believe it! Now if ever was time to force Leo to talk. If it had been Raph there instead of Donny, he would have already brought his fists into the conversation. But no, it was Don in there and Raph was pretty sure there was nothing that would make him to force the words out of Leo. They kept their silence and Raph was just about to give up and leave when Leo opened his mouth again.

"I shouldn't be the leader", Leo sounded so miserable that Raph almost pitied him.

"Hmm?" Donny looked at Leo the question in his eyes.

"I'm a terrible leader. A good leader should make sure in every way that his team is safe. He doesn't let enemies get past him to the others, he always knows what's going on around him and he thinks of every possible outcome so enemy can never surprise him. He-"

"Leo, no one's perfect", Don interrupted Leo giving him a weird look. "The person you're talking about does not exist. You want to be some kind of god?"

"No Don. I should be more like that, I should be like that, but I'm not! Not even close! I'm not able to protect my brothers, shell, I'm not even capable to not let one ninja to get past me!"

"So this is about yesterday's patrol?"

"You could have died", Leo whispered. "If Raph hadn't been there…"

"You're blaming the wrong turtle about what almost happened. It was my own recklessness that that ninja surprised me. I should had kept my head hundred percent in the fight and be on alert all the time. But like you said, Raph was there and nothing happened, Leo." Don kept speaking with a gentle tone.

On their yesterday patrolling a group of foot ninjas had attacked them. There were a lot more of them than they would had liked to fight against at the same time, but it's not like the foot asked from them if it was okay to come with fifty on four. So the fight was on and for some reason most of the ninjas were on Leo's shell. Still the other three were busy with the ninjas they had. Then suddenly one of Leo's ninjas attacked Donny from behind. Leo couldn't stop the one ninja for having twenty other ninjas still coming on him. Luckily Raph had noticed the situation and protected his purple clad brother's back. After the foot had realized that they wouldn't be able to win them, they left. The four turtles had survived with some minor injuries, even though Mikey had complained the whole way home that his ankle hurt and someone should carry him.

"It's still my fault; I let him get past me." Raph woke from his thought as he heard Leo to speak again.

"Leo, there were so many ninjas on you, how in the shell could you had been able to stop that one?"

"I've slacked in trainings."

"Well that's a lie and you know it. Isn't it you who came up with the idea of us protecting each other's backs? Raph is supposed to take care of my back and he's done it faultlessly. He has done his part of the job that our leader gave to us. So your plan worked and because of that I'm okay."

"But Don", Leo started hesitating.

"It's not enough that the team trusts the leader. Leader has to also trust the team. You have to trust us Leo", Don said calmly but emphatically.

"I do trust you guys Donny, it's-"

"Then there shouldn't be any problems, should there?"

"Don…" Leo sighed and gave a little smile to the turtle sitting in front of him. "Thanks. You're right. I guess I was overthinking everything."

Don chuckled. "You think?"

"Fine fine, I was overthinking", Leo laughed. "But really, thanks. I feel better after talking with you."

"No problem bro", Donny smiled and stood up.

Raph didn't move from his place behind the corner when he heard Donny coming out of the kitchen. Don stepped out and saw Raph standing there.

"Raph? You're still here?" Don frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Nothin'." And with that Raph left Donny to stand there confused.

Raph was furious and only thing that could calm him down was his bike. So he went to work with it, hoping he could forget about Leo and Don's talk. Raph had just kneed in front of his bike when he heard someone coming in.

"What do ya want?" He asked, not caring who it was.

"Nothing really." He heard Don's voice answering. Of course Donny had followed him.

"If ya have nothin' to do here then ya can just leave."

"Don't feel like it."

"Well I don't care what ya feel-", Raph started, turning around to Don. He wasn't even looking at him. He had found something from the floor and was now examining it. "Whatever", Raph ended his sentence and turned back to his bike.

After two minutes of silence Raph turned again to Donny. This time he was looking at Raph. Raph wasn't sure if it was because of that that he felt even more angry.

"Don't think that's gonna work on me! Ya're not gettin' me to talk!" Don looked confused but Raph didn't care about it, he decided to ignore Donny for now on.

"I wasn't really trying to do anything", Don said quietly, clearly more to himself than to Raph.

They stayed silent for five more minutes and the whole time Raph could feel Don's eyes on his back. He couldn't take it anymore.

"THAT'S IT!" Raph stood up overwhelming with the anger. "Ya! Stop starin' at me and go out from here!"

Don just kept his calm eyes on Raph's furious ones and said nothing.

"Why did he talk to ya?" What the shell am I saying? "I was there first! I tried to ask him what was botherin' him but he kept denyin' anything was wrong! Ya didn't even say anythin' and he talked to ya and now ya're gettin' me to talk to ya!" How does he do it?

"Raph, I've never forced any of you to tell me what's bothering you guys. The truth is that it just usually feels better after you have told it to someone", Don said a little on alert.

"Why is it ya?" Raph asked bluntly.

"What is me?" Don looked confused.

"The one who we talk to. Why did Leo talk to ya and not to me?" Raph had already calmed down a little bit but he wanted to know. Why was it Donny?

"Oh. Well maybe because I'm that type, I guess. I haven't really thought of it. It's just always been that way."

"He still could have talked to me", Raph said pouting. "But clearly I'm not trustworthy. Ya guys just can't come and talk to me, because…" Raph didn't know how to continue his sentence.

"We trust you Raph, all of us. And it's not that we can't come to talk to you, it's just that it's not really the role you have in this family."

"Role? Then what is it? Or do I even have one?"

"Of course you do. Don't you guess what it is?" Raph shook his head; he didn't really feel like starting to play the guess game. "You're the protector. You're the one who takes care of us when Leo isn't there. Even though you have to watch only for one back in a fight, you watch for three. You keep us on our feet. You're the most enduring part of this family, Raphael."

Raph didn't know what to say. He hadn't known Don thought of him like that. He felt a little flattered.

"Okay, so I'm the hotheaded… protector. And ya're our genius scientist to whom we all open to."

"Uh, I don't know about the genius part and it's not that you guys open to me, it's more like I'm there on the right time", Don said looking a little embarrassed.

"Yeah right brainiac", Raph smiled and took Don on the headlock. Suddenly he realized something and let Don go.

"Hey Donny, if we all talk to ya… Then who do ya talk to?"

"Me? Well…" Don gave a smile to Raph and left the room leaving Raphael without an answer.

Raph stood still for a while until he snapped out of it and ran after Donny. Not to pressure him to answer to his question, but just to spend some time with his brother. Well yeah maybe a little bit of a pressure would be fine.