Work Text:
So? What’s his deal?”
Raphael blinked and turned his head slightly to look at Leon. “Huh?” He said, not sure what Leon was getting at. It had been a few days since his brothers and him had been dropped (literally) into this new universe. It hadn’t been much of a shock more so annoying really. It didn’t take long to find their counterparts and explain their situation, there hadn’t really been any problems between them. Or so he thought. He was simply sitting back, watching a movie one of the others had put on before Leon had approached him.
“Well-“ the blue clad turtles started, stopping for a moment to think his words more thoroughly. “Your brother– Leo, I mean, what’s his deal?” Immediately he could tell he didn’t think his words out as well as he thought he did with the way Raphael’s face pinched into a scowl.
“What do you mean ‘what’s his deal’? There is no deal.” He grumbled as he glowered at the other turtle.
Leon was waved his hands around as he tried to back track, maybe starting the conversation off with ‘what’s his deal?’ isn’t the right way to go. It should’ve been common knowledge but he wasn’t exactly known for that. “No! No not like that- I meant why won’t he talk to us? He barely acknowledges us unless we are directly talking with him. It’s like he’s actively ignoring us. Does he hate us or something?”
As the blue clad turtle began to explain what he really meant Raphael’s slight anger and overprotectiveness began to melt away. Now that he knew where Leon was coming from he couldn’t help but realize that his older brother’s actions may have caused some confusion, rightfully so. He chuckled a bit at Leon’s worry as he shook his head no.
“Leo doesn’t hate any of you, believe me.”
“Then why is he practically ignoring us?”
“Yeah uh…” his green eyes shifted over to the other people in the room before landing on who the topic was about. Leo seemed content, sitting back on one of the beanbags they had in the living room watching the movie that was put on. It was similar to Space Heroes so his older brother had been captured by it immediately. It was nice to see him so relaxed and content, something that didn’t happen as much back home. “I won’t say it’s complicated because it really isn’t, but it’s a bit of a touchy subject.” He started before he was cut off by Leon.
“Oh! You don’t have to tell me then if it’s a touchy sub-“
“I’m not done.” Raphael said as he give Leon a quick glare, a little annoyed at being interrupted. “It is a bit difficult but if it’s causing you guys to get all butt-hurt I can let you in on the basic stuff. Spare you all of the other details.” He said and waited for Leon to agree, once he got a Nod in response he took a deep breath, looking back at the movie.
“Alright, so Leo isn’t trying to ignore you, or At least not intentionally, he won’t talk to you because he’s mute.” He could see Leon’s as widen as he said this. The kid opened and closed his mouth for a moment before finally finding the words he wanted to say. “Is… is it a preference or…?” Raphael shook his head at the question.
“No… he used to be able to talk but a while back he got…” ambushed. He couldn’t say that. “He got a really bad injury to his throat, you can still see some scars around his neck, it really damaged his vocal cords according to Donnie which caused him to lose his voice. It was hard to get used to at first– especially for him.” He said as he glanced back to his older brother before looking at Leon once again.
“I’m-“ Raphael quickly put a hand up, cutting the other off, “don’t.” He hated the whole pity thing and he knew Leo hated it too.
Leon frowned looking down and after a moment looked back at Raphael. “But still why does he just… not try to communicate with us in other ways?” Raphael sighed. “Leo is awkward, believe it or not, he isn’t the best at communicating and the added stress of trying to get home makes him even more ass at it than he usually is.”
Leon didn’t know what to say, this was something he wasn’t expecting at all. He expected his counterpart to not like him or his brothers, for Raphael to say ‘yeah no he finds you all annoying and can’t wait to get back home.’ But for his counterpart to be mute and not by choice was something he didn’t even think about. Let alone put as a possibility. “So how do you communicate then? Giving that he can’t talk anymore.” In all the time their counterparts have been staying with them he never noticed how they communicated with their eldest brother, somehow.
“Oh we communicate through sign language.”
“Sign language? Like American Sign Language?”
“Sort of. We kind of made our own sign language—Donnie calls it turtle sign language or tsl for short— since we have three fingers only some signs in asl are a little difficult to do, so when we found out about Leo’s problem we worked together to make our own sigh language. Leo wasn’t very happy about it at first but he got used to it eventually.” He explained, a hint of a smile on his face. Leon stared with wide eyes, a small ‘whoa’ coming from him.
“That’s so cool! I’ve never thought you could do that but it makes sense!”
“Heh yeah, Donnie did most of the work, me and Leo helped throw in ideas while Mikey tested them out.”
“I see, why didn’t your brother like tsl at first though?” Leon ask, tilting his head a little to the side. Raphael sighed. “Leo is stubborn and he didn’t want to accept the fact that he couldn’t talk anymore. It took a lot of convincing for him to finally accept it and actually learn to sign.”
“Wow that must’ve… sucked.”
“Mmhm…”
“Can you teach me?”
Raphael’s head snapped to the side to look at Leon in surprise. “What” he asked, not sure he heard the other right.
“Teach me, can you teach me?” Leon repeated, picking at his mask tails starting to get a little nervous for asking. “I-I mean you don’t have to obviously I just thought it would be nice to learn and I could maybe communicate with your brother a little better that way.”
Raphael stared at the blue clad turtle for a moment before chuckling a bit. “Sure I’ll teach you a few basics, I’m sure Leo would appreciate your efforts to communicate better with him.” He said as he turned his body to face Leon completely.
For the remainder of the movie Raphael spent it teaching Leon a few basics of tsl.
From across the room dark blue eyes watched the two with a hint of fondness.