Is it possible to get a little sneak peek at the next chapter? It's okay if not! Love your fanfic mwa mwa mwa amazing work.
Sorry that I'm answering this like...a month later 😅 Please enjoy this little "dream room" scene below the cut from the upcoming Chapter 22!
“Raph?” Leo said softly, sounding hesitant. “…is this okay?”
“Is what okay?”
“Me bringing you here. I don’t want to bother you with my uh…whole situation.”
Raph’s reply was instant.
“You’re not bothering me.”
“You sure? You seem like, pretty down or something lately…”
Again, Raph answered immediately.
“I’m fine.”
“Uh, you forget the part where I’m an empath? Or that we’re literally sitting in my weird psychic headspace or whatever?” Leo said with a grin and skeptically cocked brow.
Oh. Right. Leo could feel other people’s feelings. How had Raph forgotten that? Honesty was the only option there ever was here.
“It’s just…hard. You not being around.”
“I’m sorry,” Leo said in a small voice. “Are, uh…you and Dad okay?”
Raph’s chest tightened sharply, and Leo’s hand flew up to grasp at his own plastron. Their eyes met, and Raph knew that Leo could feel Raph’s constricting heart as if it were his own.
“Okay, gonna take that as a ‘no’,” Leo choked out. “It’s that bad?”
“I don’t...wanna talk about it.”
“Okay,” Leo, nodding quickly. “Okay, that’s cool. We don’t have to.”
Raph was surprised. He would’ve expected Leo to press the issue and try harder to get Raph to open up. Leo must have felt his confusion over the subject being dropped so easily. His brother looked nervous as he continued.
“I still don’t really understand how this all works, but I’ve noticed that when you, uh…when you get like...upset, it’s harder to keep you here. And I don’t want you to leave yet, so we can just talk about something else.”
“Oh,” Raph said. He knew Leo could sense the shame he felt, but he apologized anyway. “I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry,” Leo sighed. “I’m sorry things are so messed up, and I’m sorry I keep bringing you here just because I’m…y’know, bored and lonely. That’s, like…pretty selfish of me.”
“No, it’s not. We’re not meant to be alone.”
Leo made a strange face at that, but unlike his brother, Raph didn’t know what Leo was feeling. He did know was that he didn’t want Leo to feel guilty about this.
“I’m serious. You can bring me here whenever.”
“Okay. Thanks, Raph,” Leo sighed. “And…thanks for not making me feel stupid about it.”
Raph didn’t need to be an empath like Leo to be able to tell that there was something deeper behind that sentence. He didn’t have to wonder long what it was.
“…Eyepatch is a pretty big asshole,” Leo mumbled.
“Who would’a thought,” Raph snorted.
“Yeah, right?” Leo chuckled softly. He was quiet for a second before going on. “I wish it didn’t bother me so much. I mean, you’d think the milking would be the worst part, but…after it’s over, all I can think about is the stuff he says.”
“What does he say?”
Raph thought for a moment that maybe Leo hadn’t heard him, because there was a long stretch of silence before Leo finally answered.
“I guess I don’t wanna talk about it, either.”