This is very much in tandem with 'Home' and 'Forever and Always' of Brotherly Bonds. Can be seen as a kind of Prequel, I guess? In any case, it's earlier on that same timeline. If you haven't read those, I highly recommend it. This will be easier to understand that way, but it can stand on it's own. Enjoy!

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"Look, you don't wanna talk about it, that's alright, we get that. We aren't gonna push ya—well, I ain't gonna push ya. Leo's probably gonna get on your case, he's certainly jumping on mine. I mean, it was my fault, so I get it. I'm the last person you want to be talking to right now."

"Go away," the purple-masked turtle ordered flatly, without sparing his sibling so much as a glance. He swiveled around in his desk chair and put his carapace to Raphael.

"Don—"

"Just go." Don spat, in eerie monotone.

Raphael's strong posture withered. "I'm sorry." He felt so small.

For some reason, however, Raphael's remorse made Donatello's beak wrinkle in disgust. "You think that's gonna cut it this time?"

Light flashed in the bright green eyes. Strong shoulders rippled with tension, and emerald-green hands became fists. "What more would ya have me do, Don? Do your chores for a month? Dance around dressed as a pumpkin singing songs for Halloween?"

Donatello still refused to look at him. "You're so stupid."

Raphael growled, stomped over to Don's chair and yanked it back around. "Wanna say that to my face, brainiac?"

"This only further proves my point," said Don, rising to his full height, towering over Raphael. "This attitude is what got me into that situation in the first place. You have a temper Raph, we've always accepted that, but somewhere we've got to draw the line. Sorry isn't going to cut it. Not anymore."

"It's all I got to give." Raph said, distressed.

Don narrowed his eyes. "Then you don't care what happens to us."

Raph grit his teeth, green eyes sparkling. "Don't care?" His voice cracked. "I don't care? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN I DON'T CARE?"

It was silent, the only sound that of Raphael's heavy breathing.

Their other family members, Master Splinter included, rushed into the room. Mikey and Leo went forward to intervene, but the old rat blocked their path with his stick. His whiskers twitched as he frowned solemnly.

Don's voice was low and airy. "They wanted to cut into my brain, Raph." The statement hung over them all like a banshee's wail. "They wanted to pry apart my skull!"

Raphael reached out. "Donnie, it's okay, we—"

"No thanks to you!" Don shouted, swatting Raphael's hand away violently. "You were the one who got us into that mess! It was all because of you! You and your temper and your pride and you intolerable stubbornness!"

Leonardo shifted his weight. His throat tightened. He glanced at Raphael and saw pain in his little brother's eyes. Raphael... He wanted to speak out, to come to Raph's defense, but Don was right. Raph's temper had gotten them into it. What they didn't know, couldn't possibly know, was that Leo initiated all of it.

He was the one who'd challenged Raphael to a rooftop race. It was his accidental slip up that had landed them in the middle of the fight. Raph had come to his aid. Raphael had saved him, but when Leo called the retreat, Raphael had refused to listen. He should have expected it, though, he should have been able to force the hothead to follow, but he wasn't, and he couldn't.

He had to call their little brothers for backup. He'd told them that he and Raph had gotten in over their heads and that they needed help. And Donatello had been captured. They'd managed to rescue him in time, but it was harrowingly close. Donnie had every right to be mad, but he should be yelling at Leo and Raph.

Leo tried to clear his throat, tried to squeak out his own guilt in the situation and to defend his brother, but all he could manage was, "Donnie, it isn't—Raph's not—"

Donatello laughed bitterly and the sound shook the Hamato Clan. Mikey, with a rare frown on his face, pushed past Master Splinter's stick.

"No, Donnie's right. Raph's temper almost...we almost lost..." That was all he could manage. He averted his eyes when Raph's crestfallen face turned towards him.

Pressing a finger to his temples, Donatello smiled. It was a bitter, vindictive, resentful smile. "Leo's on your side, how ironic. The brother you've injured more times than helped."

"Donnie, stop, it isn't—"

Ignoring the eldest turtle's protest, Don looked Raphael straight in the eyes. "You'll always be my brother, Raphael, but if you can't change, you'll only be putting this family in more and more danger."

Raph turned and burst out in a sprint, past the calm, reassuring hand of his father, and Leo's worried looks. He rushed straight to his room, like a turtle possessed, and bent down, hurriedly feeling around under the bed. He yanked a box from under his bed. On the side of it, in childish scrawl it said: Plan X. He'd always hoped it would never actually happen. He'd started more than once, but he'd never been able to go through with it. Momentary upsets were easily mended and life went on as it always had, but this...

This wasn't going to go away. He'd never be able to escape from this. So now he'd have to escape his family.

From the 'Plan X' box he grabbed a small satchel. He stuffed it with weapons and meager provisions and started out the door, turning the light off, but he doubled back. Even in the dark, he could see the dull outlines of his brothers in the picture tacked on his wall. With hesitation, he pulled it down and tucked it safely away in his belt pocket.

His temper had nearly gotten Donnie killed, put their entire existence in jeopardy. He was an added danger they couldn't afford. So he'd save them the trouble of getting rid of him.

He was leaving New York. He was leaving the only home he'd ever known. And he was never looking back.

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It was almost midnight before Leonardo was able to rack up the courage to face Raphael. He went straight to his brother's room and knocked softly on the door. No one answered. Curious, he tried the door and was even more uneasy when he found it unlocked.

The door swung open. Leo poked his head into the room.

"Raph?" He called softly. There was no one inside. He stepped in to get a better look around. Everything seemed to be in its usual place, though he seldom ventured into Raphael's private domain. After all, there was a 'STOP' sign on the door for a reason.

He didn't bother to turn on the lights. If he had, he might have noticed the bare patch on Raph's photo and poster-covered wall.

He headed straight to the dojo. His sudden entrance made the old rat inside break mediation and look up at him questioningly.

"Raph's not in his room."

"Then he has gone out."

"I should—"

"No. Your brother needs time, Leonardo. That is all that we can give him now. Both of them need time."

"You mean Donatello."

Splinter nodded. "Donatello is angry. Sooner or later he will come to his senses and realize that the same quality which got you into the situation, is what got you all out alive."

"Raphael's stubbornness?"

Splinter nodded again. "You four are no longer children, Leonardo, no matter how much my old eyes see otherwise. I cannot sort out these quarrels any longer. You must learn to repair them yourselves. I will not always be here to do it for you."

Leo said nothing to that. The thought of an existence without Master Splinter was just too hard to even think about. He relied heavily upon his Sensei for advice and comfort. He frowned.

"Some of the things Don said were really...I wanna make sure Raph's okay."

His father sighed. "Get some sleep, my son. You may speak with Raphael when he returns in the morning. It is very late."

Leo bowed respectfully to his Sensei and went straight back to his room. He stretched across the bed with a breathy little sigh, but something prevented him from falling asleep right away. Eventually, his eyes closed and he drifted off, his mind blurrily thinking about his family.

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They had all taken for granted the fact that Raphael would be back the next day. By the time noon had rolled around and there was still no sign of him, they carried on as usual, though Leo was noticeably uneasy. Raph had holed up in abandoned buildings for the day once or twice before after a bad argument, so they all felt there was nothing to worry about.

But when it came time for evening patrol and his red-masked brother was still nowhere to be found, Leo was worried. He looked up at Mikey, noticing that the youngest seemed a bit concerned at Raph's continued absence.

Don sighed. "Probably holed up with Casey for the weekend," he suggested.

Nodding in agreement, Leo whipped out his t-phone and called their hotheaded brother. A flashing notification, made him pull the phone away from his ear to see the screen. 'Error: Terminated Receiver'. Leo's eye-ridges pulled together.

"Don, what does Terminated Receiver mean?"

Don's head tilted to one side. He was puzzled. "What? Were you calling Raph?"

"Yes."

There was a flicker, just the briefest flicker of barely-masked concern in those deep brown eyes. "It means Raph's t-phone has been permanently deactivated or destroyed."

Leo was more worried than ever. "I'm going to call Casey."

Donnie nodded, but Leo could see from the far-away stare that the brainiac was slowly coming to his senses about Raph. Anger was fading and worry was quickly replacing it.

Leo's fingers tapped nervously on the couch as he waited through what seemed like a million rings for the human hothead, Casey Jones to pick up.

"C'mon Casey...pick up...pick up." He muttered.

"Hmmm—Leo? What's up, dude?"

"Casey, put Raph on."

"Huh?" Casey responded, elegantly.

"My brother, Casey, put him on the phone."

"Raph's not with me, bro."

"Just put him on, Casey." Leo demanded, urgently.

Casey's voice sounded emphatic and touch worried. "He's not with me, Leo!"

Leo's heart fell to the pit of his stomach.

Casey went on, "I haven't seen Raph in like two weeks, dude. Haven't heard from him at all since last Friday. What's up? You guys lost him or something?"

There was no mistaking the worry in Casey's voice now. It was undeniably present.

Leo sighed. "Raph and Donnie had a fight. He left sometime last night."

Casey sigh echoed Leo's and he said, "How bad was it?"

"Scale of one to ten?" Leo asked.

"Radioactive? Or complete nuclear fallout?"

"Probably something closer to the second one." Leo admitted.

Casey swore. Leo could practically envision the human shaking his head from side to side. "Alright, look, I'll do the best I can, but if Raph doesn't want to be found I don't think anyone's gonna be able to find him. Give him a couple days. He'll come back. You know Raph."

Those words made something in Leo's lower back twinge. Sure, he knew Raph, better than some might have thought he did, but...there was something that felt wrong about this. Raph wouldn't do this. He'd know that he was worrying them. Okay, he'd done things like this once or twice in the past, but...this time...something felt...different.

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A full week passed. The turtles were in a complete state of panic. Every night they scoured the city for their missing sibling. Every night, they came home disappointed.

Master Splinter, from where he sat in the dojo, could hear their return and every time he sensed just three sets of light footsteps, his ears sank a little.

That night—a full week from the date of Raphael's disappearance—Leonardo finally dared to enter his brother's room once again. Part of him didn't want to know what Raphael had taken with him, but part of him had to. Carefully, he poked about, neatly cataloguing each and every missing item, or at least, the ones he could recognize as missing. Finally, he turned to Raph's photo wall. When he realized which picture had been removed, it felt as though a little part of him had died. With a primal cry of rage and hurt, Leo took a page from Raphael's book and punched a wall. His knuckles were slowly turning crimson as he dropped to his knees, feeling lost.

His family came running. They burst into Raph's room and stopped flat in the door at what they saw.

"Leo..." Mikey murmured, his voice sounding scared.

Leo didn't look directly at any of them. He stared off into the distance thinking of Raphael. Somehow, his lips managed to form the words: "Raphael's gone."

"What?" Donnie asked, his entire body petrified.

"Raphael is gone." Leo repeated, his faraway gaze drifted even farther and he added, "He might never come back."

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That was three years ago. They had all begun to despair, but surely enough, Raphael had come back. Their brother was different now. So different that Leonardo found that sitting the same room as this new Raphael was like sitting in the same room as a total stranger. That and Raphael was skittish, avoiding too close interactions and getting tense at most kinds of physical contact unless he initiated them himself.

Leo had hoped to put the fight that split them apart behind him. It seemed as though Donnie and Raph had already made up on that point. Raph seemed to spend more time with Donnie than he did with anyone else. But much as Leo wanted to move on, he was stuck on the past. Did Raph know the reason behind his silence way back then? Could Raphael forgive him for not saying more, for not defending him better in the face of Donnie's anger and resentment?

He had no idea. All he knew was that he had to say something because of this not knowing was tearing him apart and wreaking havoc to his sleep schedule. With that thought, he rolled over in bed and forced himself to go to sleep. He'd talk to Raphael first thing in the morning.

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Well, how was it?

I've been thinking about making a short series based upon this idea, but I don't know. I haven't worked all the kinks out yet. What would you guys say to that? Yes? No? Maybe? Feedback is very much appreciated :)