Slash felt content with Raphael's slight weight leaning on his side. The couch groaned under him, not used to his sheer size, and the spikes on his shell pierced the cushions. Splinter said he'd fix them later; the old rat seemed to have a lot of spare time on his hands. Raphael's eyes were closed, but Slash wasn't entirely convinced that he was asleep. His owner had a habit of resting his eyes, stemming from the mishap of getting ooze in them the day he and his family mutated. Donatello had once concluded that Raph's eyes would have been brown like his own if not for that. It gave them their uniquely vibrant green colour, but also caused them to sting from time to time.

"You awake?," Slash murmured quietly, low enough to not wake Raph if he was wrong.

"Yeah, I'm awake," the smaller turtle replied drearily. Not yet, Slash thought with a smile.

He muted a chuckle in his chest, then carefully wrapped an arm around Raphael's shoulders and squeezed him closer, silently offering comfort and protection. His friend seemed to accept, tilting his head to nestle against Slash's bicep. He chuckled again, then watched the rest of his friends busy themselves around the pizzeria.

Casey and Leo were hauling furniture out of the way to set up blankets and pillows on the floor for their guests, hissing and snarling at each other about which way to carry a table. April was tending to Jack and her Father, handing them mugs of hot coffee. He could hear Donatello and Tyler arguing in the lab in back, but it didn't sound too heated. Leatherhead was helping Mikey reapply some boards that had fallen off the front windows. Worryingly, he couldn't see their mascot.

"LH, you seen Pete?," he called to his second in command. The alligator promptly acknowledged him with a polite smile.

"I believe he was helping Splinter empty one of the fridges..." Right on cue, there was a loud clatter from the back of the pizza joint, startling Raph out of his dozing. Slash winced and sighed, rubbing at the bridge of his snout. Leatherhead shrugged and smiled sympathetically, before going back to helping Mikey.

"Relax, it was just Pete being an idiot," Slash said to sooth Raphael. "You can go on back to sleep."

"I wasn't sleeping," he insisted, squirming but clearly not inclined to leave his comfy spot.

"'Course not. My bad, Raphie." The juggernaut of a turtle grinned wryly and looked back at the Leonardo and Casey, who had finally managed to stack all the tables and chairs at the side of the room, making space and simultaneously reinforcing a wall. They now sat on one of the upturned tables' undersides, Leo bumping his heels together idly, while Casey tried to chisel some gum off the surface with one of the ninja's kunai knives.

Mikey's burst of laughter caught his attention, as Leatherhead lifted the youngster into the air in order to patch up a hole in the roof. "I'm so high up!," he squealed. "I'm even taller than sensei!"

"That you are," the gator chuckled warmly, cradling the turtle's shell in his palm. Slash watched them; his team mate side stepped carefully to help his friend reach different points on the ceiling, trying not to knock anything with that gargantuan tail.

Slash studied the lumbering appendage twitching across the floor. Leatherhead generally had very good control over his tail, though it did occasionally obtain a mind of its own when the gator was distracted or upset. Their two smaller team mates had made a habit of sitting on it when they were travelling a long distance, and Leatherhead didn't mind one bit. Slash had noted in the past how it sometimes acted like a puppy's tail; wagging when he was happy, drooping and tucking between his legs when he was sad or intimidated.

It was ridiculous to think of something twice the length and breadth of his own arm as such, but Slash somehow found Leatherhead's tail was very cute. It helped him read his usually stoic and collected friend, as well as entertained him when it unexpectedly whipped around and startled the gator.

It was currently docile, rippling across the checkered floor like cloth in a gentle breeze. Leatherhead was calm, content. Being with Mikey made him happy, and that was all Slash needed to know. The turtle smiled and settled back further into the couch, which protested noisily.

"Are you staring at Leatherhead's tail, or his butt?" He looked down snappily at his old owner, whose eyes were only half lidded and peering up at him sleepily. Raphael canted his head over slightly and blinked, curiosity far more noticeable when he was so unguarded. Not that Slash had ever been incapable of reading Raph.

"I wasn't... That's not... Neither," he replied clumsily, glancing every which way to avoid those green eyes. Raph blinked blearily once again, then a sleepy smile spread over his face.

"Do you have a crush, Spiky?," the little turtle cooed, almost like a parent teasing their child.

"Slash...," he grumbled. His eyes darted back to his second in command, who had lowered Mikey from the roof and was simply holding him in both hands like a plush toy. The tiny turtle giggled and flailed around, prompting his huge friend to bounce him up and down and spin him round. Without realising, a warm smile drifted onto Slash's face.

"You so do." He looked back down at Raph just as his owner stretched his short arms as far as they would go around Slash's belly. He closed his eyes and nuzzled a cheek against the behemoth's chest, gladly submitting to slumber now. "My Spiky's in love," he hummed, happily cuddled against the large mutant he still considered his baby. Slash's brow furrowed, but he curled a hand over Raph's shell all the same.

"You're weird when you're exhausted, Raphie," he muttered, before nodding good night to Leatherhead and Leo, and following his owner into sleep.