"Hey, Raph! Wanna play Smash Bros with me?"
Raph, tired, smiling. "Gee, I'd love ta, Big Man, but Raph's wiped. I'm gonna take a quick nap."
Mikey, suspicious. "You've been taking a lot of naps lately. You feeling okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine! Just tired. Been, uh...been training a lot."
"Wrong? Nothing's wrong! Why would you think anything's wrong?"
"I saw you and Leo the other day. In the medbay. You guys were whispering about something."
"Ah, he was checkin' my eye."
"He was checking your arm."
"Mikey, I'm fine, there's really nothing for you to worry about!" Starts leaving.
Mikey grabs his arm. Raph winces. Mikey lets go in horror, then pulls up Raph's hoodie sleeve.
Bruise-colored veins spider all over Raph's arm and up to his shoulder.
Raph yanks his arm away, pulling the sleeve down hard. "It's okay! We're figuring it out!"
"Hamato Raphael, what IS that???"
"It's just some bruising."
"You're lying again!" Mikey cries, balling his fists. "I can smell it on you!"
"Fine! We THINK it's bruising. Leo and Donnie are still running tests—"
"DONNIE knows too??? Am I the only one you haven't told?"
"Hey, I didn't want to tell EITHER of them in the first place—"
Raph is taken aback. He suddenly sways and pinches his brows. A wave of pain roars into his forehead.
"I didn't wanna worry any of you."
"What, did you just think it was gonna go away on it's own? If you ignored it?"
Quietly, worried, "Did you?"
"I'm tired. I'll play Smash with you later, promise."
---------------------------------
This one is mostly just a rough back-and-forth bit of dialogue, and I just like how it turned out. It's for another AU that I've shared one other snippet about before. I called the AU "Toxin". Idk how deep I'll go into this concept, it's a bit needlessly convoluted, but I do like thinking about this one once in a while, so maybe you'll see more of it someday. Idk :)
