meanandgreen | IC Inbox

(After This)

Hours later, Raph returns to the house in a hell of a lot fouler mood than he left. His thoughts are racing along with his heart, cataloging every single word he's got in store for his dear brother when he gets back.

Did Leo seriously make yet another deal with the devil? Does he really need to put up with this crud again!? Whose side does he think he's on, anyway?

And that woman. That freakin' woman. He wishes he could've torn her face off when he had the chance.

Teeth grit, he paces the living room floor just inside the front door, huffing like a mad bull. He didn't get a chance to bury his knuckles in her head, and the wall is a cheap substitute, but it's something. At least it's something.

Edited 2014-03-30 05:11 (UTC)

Even if the slam of the front door was some how miraculously missed, which by the way it wasn't, the pacing and punching and gnashing that followed would be kind of hard to overlook. And so Mike doesn't he bother to try.

He emerges from his bedroom still carrying the book he'd been reading, and pads his way towards the kitchen.

"Hey Raph," he says easily, as if his cousin were behaving in the most natural way possible.

Let's be honest...he really kind of is, for Raph anyway.

Raph is so caught in his angry little bubble he hardly pays attention to Mike's approaching footsteps until he's invading his space by trying to talk to him. It interrupts his furious train of thought like a rock pitched into the gears of a rusty machine, dissolving the mechanic drone of rage inside his head into a shrieking shudder-clanging.

"What!?" He snarls, wheeling around like he's seriously considering eviscerating him on the spot. How dare he interrupt the storm he's got brewing. How dare he even freakin' exist right now.

Mike freezes mid-step, his hands raised in a surrender, his eyes wide with shock.

"H-hey. As in hi. As in hello. Just hello. hi?"

It takes a second, just a flash of eyes and a snort of breath before he's pacing back toward the window again. Focus on Leo. It's Leo he's really pissed at.

"Yeah. Hi. Whatever," he grunts, glaring at his reflection in the dark window. Leo better hurry his ass up.

Mike remains frozen, hands up and eyes wide, long after Raph turns back towards the window.

Something's up. Way up. And for once, it's not Mike's fault. A wave of joy washes over him. Of course...it recedes just about as quickly as it arrived.

If Raph's in the house, pacing like a caged tiger, because he's angry at someone, and that someone isn't Mike? That someone has to be Leo.
And that...is quite the opposite of good.

"The Pizza Guy's late again, isn't he?"

Rather than continue on his course towards the kitchen, Mike has decided to perch on the back of the couch. A sure sign he's not going anywhere anytime soon.

Mike's poorly-timed humor isn't funny. It's never funny. In fact, it only pisses Raph off more. What he really wants to do is punch through the whole damn window. It takes more than a little restraint to pound his fist on the window frame, growling like an animal.

"Is your Leo stupid?" He snarls, wheeling back on Mike again. "Because I think mine was born a few brain cells too short. Makin' the same mistakes over and over and draggin' me into it! Makin' me out to be the bad guy while he's gettin' all buddy-buddy with another evil chick that's put it in his head that makin' nice with freakin' Evandau is a good idea."

He grabs at his own head like the sheer stupidity of this whole situation is gonna make it explode. And it might. Man, it feels like it might. With a frustrated growl, he lets his hands fall back to his sides.

"I can't believe it! I can't freaking believe it."

Mike winces when Raph's fist connects with the window frame, and nearly loses his balance when the enraged turtle turns on him.

"I don't know that stupid is the word I'd use," he starts, trying to choose his words as carefully as possible. In time stupid might be a word Mike would use to describe his eldest brother, but a lot more has to happen to his family for that to occur.

"He does seem to keep fighting the same fight over and over again."
Usually that fight is with Raph, and it usually ends the exact same way every time. Raph storms off, goes out into the night, and doesn't return home until the morning sky is just starting to go blue around the edges.

"Maybe it's just a defect in the model?" he offers.

Raph snorts bitterly, a sardonic kind of grin twisting his mouth sideways. "Oh, he's defective, all right. So freakin' defective he can't learn from his own mistakes even after they stab him in the back!

I try to talk some sense into him but no! I'm the bad guy here. I'm always the bad guy. But you know what? I'm done playin' this little game of his. Next time he needs me to bail him out, I'm done. I'm just walkin' away."

Snarling through his teeth, he starts pacing the room again. "He can get his sorry butt killed for all I care."

Edited 2014-04-07 04:24 (UTC)

As Big Fat Lies^tm go, this is the gran'daddy of them all.
The very idea that Raph, any Raph, would abandon any of his brothers in a time of need is laughable. At least, to Mike it is.

However, far be it from Mike to get in the way of some well-placed hyperbole.]

I don't know that anyone would blame you, honestly. I mean, you can lead a horse to water, and all that...

The words have barely left Mike's mouth when another figure comes slipping through the window, landing on all fours with all the sleek grace of a serpent. The only thing that breaks this image is when he straightens up, grabs the windowsill in one hand, and slams it shut with enough force to rattle the whole room.

His gaze tears across the suite, passing over Michaelangelo like he's barely more than another piece of furniture in the room, and locks onto Raphael. His dearest, most infuriating brother. No one asked him to come along. No one asked him to make a complete ass out of both of them. All of this effort he's put into building an alliance with Monet, and Raph might have just flushed it all down the sewers.

His mind is blank. He's not even thinking about words to say. He just stares, face dark and expressionless, all but inviting his brother to strike first - verbally or physically.

Raph charges him like a bull, every step pounding the floor closing the gap by just inches, glowering hate into his brother's eyes.

"Oh, so you're mad at me, huh?" He snarls, poking Leo hard in the plastron. Then that poke quickly turns into a shove. "Are you freakin' stupid!? Do we really got to do this again, Leo? Because I'm gettin' real sick of playin' your little game."

Edited 2014-04-07 05:27 (UTC)

Not a moment sooner does Raph touch Leo than his calm shatters, exploding outward in a violent force that colors his eyes and face with nothing but pure, righteous fury. He barely stumbles back at the push, planting his heel and shoving forward so he's right back within breathing distance of his brother.

"You don't have to do anything, Raphael! You're the one who forced yourself in on it, thinking it was all some kind of game. I told you to stay the shell out of it!"

"You're lucky I was there," he rumbles, the taste of spite bitter on his tongue. "Somebody's gotta watch your sorry shell, because you sure as hell ain't gonna do it! You're too busy with your little girfriend's genius plan of makin' nice with the enemy to even bother!" He jabs his finger into Leo's chest again. "And the fact you were hidin' it says you know you shouldn't be doin' it in the first place!"

"Girlfriend?!" it's out of his mouth before he can even help it, so incredulous that there's no room for anger in his voice. It's back in no time at all, and within seconds he regains his composure and violently slaps Raph's hand away.

"I was only hiding it because I knew there's no way you'd listen to reason. I know what you're thinking, Raph, but she is nothing like Karai!"

How does Leo even do that? Is there some sort of special Big Brother Ninja skill that gives him the ability to have pitch perfect timing? At best it's uncanny, at worse...creepy as all get out.

Mike barely has time to wince at the slamming of the window before Raph lunges. He has no idea what they're talking about, but judging by how quickly Leo lowers to Raph's level, it's something serious that's been festering.

Helplessly he watches as the event unfolds before him, unable to move due to a mixture of confusion and being caught off guard. That is, of course, until Leonardo uses "shell" in the place of profanity. There's something so ridiculous about that, that it manages to break Mike free from his passive spectating. He slides down off the couch and attempts to move between the feuding brothers.

"Guys guys guys! Hey, come on...back to your corners."

Isn't Karai the girl that had a beef with Leo?

This isn't Mike's fight. He's got nothing to do with this, and him trying to pry them apart just pisses him the fuck off. This is important, damn it! And if Leo's too stupid to listen to him this time, he has to make him listen!

Mike gets shoved out of the way with hardly a second thought, the sting of his brother slapping away his hand makes his stomach burn with vitriol.

"Nothin' like Karai!? Just like Karai was nothin' like the Shredder? Just like the Shredder almost won you over with a freakin' sword? And you thought I was doin' nothin' but blowin' hot hair then, too!"

He isn't thinking when he grabs Leo's shoulder, hard, pressing his thumb deep into the old scar tissue, right into the joint he knows still feels the old pain. If Leo can't remember, can't learn, he'll remind him. He'll remind him so hard he'll have to listen.

He can't stand the idea of Leo getting himself into this mess again. He can't stand seeing him hurt because of the same dumb mistakes. He'll hurt him himself, first.

"But you remember this, right?" He snarls, just inches from his brother's face. "How's that feel? It ain't nice, is it!?"

Leo opens his mouth to fire back, but he doesn't have time to get anything out. Raph grabs his left shoulder and digs with a meaty thumb, and then anything else Leo might have had to say dies in his throat as white stars cloud his vision, electricity skittering up and down his arm in fire-hot bolts, like someone opened up his shoulder socket and jammed a live wire inside.

"Nngh -"

One of his knees buckles and he grabs onto Raph's arms without thinking, pitching forward and gasping into his chest. And just like that, it all returns to him in a rush of clarity. Oh hell. Raph's lost it. He can't believe this feeling of his arm being severed from its joint is because of his own brother.

"Damn it, Raph!" he snarls, clenching his brother's arms with numb fingers.

Damn it. It hurts just how he remembers it.

Edited 2014-04-07 20:40 (UTC)

Mike is reeling from Raphael's accusations, rather than by his brute force.
Shredder almost won Leonardo over with a sword?
And then there's the injury, the one that no one ever talks about, and how Raph is using that previous hurt in the present. When Leo's leg begins to give way, Mike steps forward once again. This time though, he doesn't reach for either cousin.

"Raphael, that's enough!"

He hasn't lost it. In fact, he feels clearer now than he ever has. A feeling of righteous fury swells inside him when Leo's legs buckle, gasping into his plastron like he's reliving that moment on the ship. He has him at his mercy. He's finally teaching him the lesson he always refuses to get. It makes him sick to hurt him like this, but it just feels so good.

"Is it really enough!?" He snarls, releasing his grip on his brother's shoulder with a shove. "Really!? You listening to me now, Leo!?"

He jabs an accusing finger at Leo, not caring about what damage he might've just done. Right now it's his turn to say his piece, and he's gonna roar it at the top of his lungs. "I'm sick of you makin' the same mistakes over and over! I'm sick of you bringin' the rest of us down with you! And I'm sick of you trustin' people like her!"

He stumbles back at the shove this time, his shell hitting the wall and tearing another gasp of pain from his throat. Leo hunches forward, raising a trembling hand to grip at his left arm.

They've hurt each other plenty of times before. Really hurt each other more times than he will ever forgive himself for. But that was new. That was personal. That was digging up every cell of scar tissue to the surface and slashing it into newly-blooded meat, sewing it shut with barbed wire and leaving it to fester in the cold, open air.

His teeth grit together so hard it presses all of the stars in his eyes into one flat line. He bares them in another snarl at Raphael, and this time the pain in his voice is gone, ground into dust under the weight of cold fury.

"The only one around here acting like Karai and the Shredder is you."

Just like that, something inside him snaps, taking all that adrenaline high clarity with it. Numb, nothing but fury crackling like electricity in his veins. Fire burning like hot oil in his gut. And then he swings with a roar of fury that echoes straight from the darkest part of him. Straight from freakin' Hell.

He'll punch him square in the fucking teeth with everything he's got for even thinking something like that.

Leo isn't listening. He doesn't understand. No one ever understands!

There's no amount of No big enough for what this situation devolved into.
This has all been pushed too far, too fast, and there's not a damn thing Mike can do about it.

Not that this will keep him from trying.
To stand by idle will likely result the death of both of his cousins; one from being beaten, and the other for doing the beating.

"Raph no!" he bellows as he tries to insert himself between them both before the blow is landed.

The instant the words leave his lips, his mouth feels sour.

What the hell? How could he say that?

Any physical wound Raph inflicts on him tonight will heal. But Leonardo can't take the words he's just said back. How dare he? How dare he accuse his own clan, his kin, his brother of being like the enemy bound to them by blood? What is wrong with him?

Raphael telegraphs that punch miles ahead, just as he always does when he's angry - but Leo moves neither to dodge nor block it. He deserves this one. He deserves it and more.

Until Mike throws himself forward, ready to take that blow for him. No, no no no. Poor Michaelangelo has nothing to do with this - it was Leo's error, his sin, and he's not letting Mike, who's done absolutely no wrong from the first day he appeared in the world, take the hit for him.

Absolutely not.

Just as Mike darts forward, Leo does as well, reaching out with his good arm in an attempt to push him away and ensure he takes the blow himself.

Mike and Leo's scuffle lasts less than a minute, hardly enough time to register through the red haze clouding Raph's mind. The hit lands, right where it was meant for, crushing Leo's face with a massive amount of force.

It feels good.

Raph knows without a shadow of a doubt that he's nothing like them. Nothing like the Shredder or Karai. The accusation isn't what's got his vision going black around the edges. It's knowing that, no matter how hard he tries, Leo will keep on making those mistakes over and over. That his opinion doesn't matter. That Leo will never value anything he says about this. That he knows he's right.

He always was before, and now they have to go through this again. He can't do it this time. He just can't.

Much as he wants to pound Leo into a pulp, it's useless. He just stands there, fist raised for another strike that doesn't come, panting heavily as the fog clears out of his mind. Desperation prickles in his chest, replacing anger with a sick frustration that just makes him want to scream until it's gone.

He never takes his eyes off of Leo, narrowed into a glare that burns like hot coals.

"You...," he rumbles. "You never listen to me! Even when you know I'm right!"

Then he straightens, gesturing at Leo aggressively while he raves.

"I'm done, Leo! You don't care what I gotta say, fine! Then I don't need to be here!"

He storms his way to the door, but stops just short, something darkening visibly inside him. "Just don't expect me to be there the next time you get stabbed," he hisses. "Maybe next time they won't miss."

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