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“Leo…” Raph breathes, voice barely a whisper. His hand instinctively reaches for Leo’s, whose back is turned to Raph.
Leo pauses just out of Raph’s bedroom doorway and turns to fully face him. Panic sets in and Raph defensively crosses his arms before Leo could notice the uncharacteristically vulnerable gesture.
“Yes?” Leo asks completely unaware.
Raph forces indifference to set on his face. His usual sarcastic tone returning.
“Forget it.”
Leo blinks. He sighs, shaking his head, as he continues his exit and turns the corner.
Raph again softens, his eyes fixated on Leo making his way to the dojo to meditate.
“…I love you,” he mumbles alone.
———————————————————————
Raph’s singular eye spots Leo’s form lying amongst the rubble. Still. Lifeless. Raph’s voice, hoarse and aged, cries out towards him.
Towards it.
God.
Why?
Why?!
“LEO!!!—”
Raph stumbles, his vision blurring—from tears or the life leaving his own accursed body he did not know.
He didn’t care.
Not anymore.
“LEONARDO!!!” he wailed.
His wounds throbbed, his bones screamed, and yet, his withered body would crawl to Leo if need be—lurching forward, driven by his single-minded pursuit.
Leo looked to all the world as though he were sound asleep, arrogantly ignoring Raph’s cries out of spite.
“Leo…I—”
He heaved, all of the remaining air felt as though it were punched out of his lungs. He swayed, finally collapsing atop his beloved older brother’s corpse.
I love you.
But the words would never come.