Chapter Text
“What’re you doing here?” they said to each other at the same time.
There was a brief pause between the two of them, both of them expecting an answer from the other. Donnie began fidgeting with the back of their neck
Eventually, Donnie said, “This is where I live.”
“Oh.” Leo averted from Donnie’s gaze. “Nice place you got here. Lots of…machines”
“No, this isn’t, it’s notー I don’t think I’ve ever even been in here.” Donnie looked around the room for the first time since entering. So much old machinery. They’d have to come back another time.
But back to Leo; He didn’t say anything in response, which left Donnie standing awkwardly in the doorway. What do you even say to someone you stumble upon crying? There there? My condolences?? Cowabummer???
Tentatively, Donnie walked over to Leo and sat down next to him. They gave a few pats to his shoulder, and absolutely nothing else.
Leo glanced towards Donnie. “What was that?”
“My attempt at comfort.”
Leo sniffed. “You kinda suck at it.”
“Thanks for the constructive criticism,” Donnie said, dryly with narrowed eyes.
“You’re welcome,” Leo joked, though his heart wasn’t in it.
There was a long pause between the two of them; Donnie didn’t think they’d ever been in silence with another person for so long. Then again, Donnie only knew two other people.
“Soooo.” Donnie had tried to think of a way to organically bring this up, but failed to think of a way to do so. “You never said why you were here.”
Leo curled more into himself. “I don’t know how I got here.”
“What, did you blackout?”
Leo shook his head. “No, Iー” Leo began to choke up again.
“Oh, heyー” Donnie moved his hands around Leo, not really sure what to do.
“I thinkー” Leo said, just a fraction away from crying. “I think you may have been right.”
“You’re going to have to be more specific, I’m right about a lot of things.”
“I think we might be siblings.” A few tears began to stream down Leo’s face.
“Oh,” was all Donnie said.
“My papi, I overheard my papi and Angie, andー” Leo took a second to breathe. “He’s not my papi. Not my actual papi.”
Donnie let out a tiny “ah.” They wanted to tell Leo that was an illogical conclusion; Presumably, this man had raised Leo with love, which made him his papi, regardless of blood. Just look at Donnie’s papa, they weren’t related, but they were still family. But Donnie’s search for their own blood siblings made this dialogue feel…hypocritical.
Instead they gave another pat to Leo, who quickly wrapped himself around the softshell. He outright sobbed into Donnie’s chest, which Donnie did not like the feeling of at all. But they could see Leo needed this, so instead of shoving him off, they gently rubbed the back of his shell to comfort.
“Don?” Leo’s voice eventually croaked out. “Can I…can I stay with you? Just for a while? I don’t really..wanna go back home yet.”
“Uh, sure,” Donnie said. There was a brief pause before they added: “We can’t let my papa know, though.”
Leo’s face scrunched up. “Why not?”
“Teenage rebellion,” Donnie said, half-joking. They didn’t feel like now was the best time to tell Leo how their papa got around strangers, nor did they want to deal with the actual event of them meeting. Donnie wasn’t even sure how to tell their papa they had siblings (or how they so recklessly found out).
“Fair.” Leo slowly got up, using his sword as a poor prop-up while he wiped his face with his other arm. “Lead the way.”
“Nice digs you got here.” Leo stood around in Don’s lab, taking in all the bleeping lights and flashy computers reading off formulas he didn’t recognize at all. And so much purple.
“Thanks,” Don said, only half-paying attention to what Leo was saying. They were mostly focused on whatever program they were setting up on their largest computer.
The two of them had snuck into the lab, avoiding the rat-yokai sleeping soundly away in some half-curtained room, which Leo presumed to be Don’s papa (Was Don adopted too? Nah, that couldn’t be).
The quiet of the place disturbed Leo. He was so used to the hustle and bustle of the restaurant; Even after-hours the place was full of employees who called the place their home. But here? The most Donnie had (besides their papa) was the roaches, and that odd smiling goldfish Leo saw in the kitchen. It was no wonder to Leo why Don was trying to find their siblings, it was destitute down here.
Speaking of siblings.
“Ok, it’s set up.” Don wheeled over to Leo in their chair. “Give me your DNA.”
“Huh. What.” Leo was not paying attention.
Don let out a large, annoyed sigh. “ Great Galileo …I am running an algorithm that’ll test our DNA against each other, comparing each genome to see if there is a high enough match to determine a blood relation.”
Leo leaned down over the computer. “Mhm hm, mhm, now can you say that in normal person terms.”
Don shot a glance towards Leo. “...I’m seeing if we’re actually siblings.”
“Oh. Cool.”
Don turned his chair towards Leo, unsure if they should say this or not. “You know…Even if the results turn up negative, I’d still consider you my brother.” Donnie hastily looked away and quickly added: “Only if that’s cool with you, y’know, never mind, it’s fine–”
Leo’s eyes grew wide for a moment at Don’s suggestion, before turning into a mischievous grin. “I suppose I do need another little sibling to boss around.”
“I’m not little.”
“You seem little to me, Don.”
“That’s because I’m sitting.”
“Oh, Don, I’m sure it is.”
“Wait.” Don wheeled out their chair. “You know my name’s Donnie, right?”
“Wah.”
“You keep calling me Don, which, technically, is correct.” Donnie said. “Just not the way you’re using it.”
“What…But… No. ” Leo looked genuinely concerned and confused at his mistake.
Donnie waved it off. “It’s not a big deal, and anyways, I still need your DNA.”
“Well how are you getting that?”
“Blood.” Donnie all too quickly pulled a syringe from out of nowhere.
Leo quickly covered his arms. “Uh uh.”
“Skin?” Donnie swiftly pulled out a scalpel from nowhere, again.
Leo quickly backed away, shaking his head furiously no .
“Ugh.” Donnie begrudgingly put away their tools, and rummaged through their desk for a spare tube. “I suppose your saliva will suffice.”
Leo carefully approached the tube, casting glances back and forth between it and Donnie. He quickly spat in it before detracking away from Donnie again.
Donnie gave him a “you’re such an idiot” stare, before inserting the tube into a small compartment in their computer. “I built this last week, so it’s not exactly perfect yet.”
“How so?”
“Well, I built it with blood and skin samples in mind.” Donnie shot Leo a glance. “So it’s optimized for that. But it’ll still work with the saliva. It’ll just take. A. Lot. Longer.”
Leo gazed up at the numbers and wavy lines. “How long exactly?”
Donnie hunched forward. “Thirty minutes,” they grumbled.
“Oh, that’s…it?”
“What do you mean ‘That’s it?’” Donnie said. “That’s forever!”
“Dude, I’ve had orders wait longer than that.”
“That sounds like terrible service.”
“It’s fine, I’m pretty.”
Donnie rolled their eyes at Leo’s confidence. Then they got out of their chair and headed over to one of their cabinets. They grabbed out some sheets and threw one at Leo. “Help me set these up.”
Leo held out the blanket in front of him. “Set what up?”
“A hammock.” Donnie already began setting theirs up between two pipes. “Sometimes I work late in the lab, so this was the best solution to avoid my papa’s nagging.”
“Uh huh.” Leo looked puzzled at the cloth in his hands. He had no idea how this was supposed to work.
Copying Donnie, he found a spot in between this one giant blinking machine that sounded like it was screaming in Morse code, and one of the pipes Donnie attached their own hammack to.
Leo was able to tie the blanket to the two of them, but the end result was the blanket being all twisted together, and unbudging. Frustrated, Leo tore it down and tried again, only for the blanket to droop all the way to the floor. Donnie watched Leo’s continued (and fruitless) attempts while sitting criss-cross applesauce in their own perfectly made blanket-hammock, with a juicebox that once again seemed to come from nowhere.
After the 32nd time, Leo yelled into the blanket. “Why don’t you just get an actual hammock?” he groaned.
“You try finding a good-quality hammock in a dumpster,” Donnie shot back, while taking another slip of their juice.
“I guess that would be– Wait are these blankets from the garbage ?!” Leo quickly dropped the blanket to the ground.
“Uh, no, these are from April, yes,” Donnie said, each word just a bit too pronunciated.
“Uh huh.” Leo narrowed his eyes at Donnie. He didn’t even know who April was. “Sure they are.”
“They’ve been washed. Extensively.”
Keeping his glare on Donnie, Leo carefully picked up the blanket and handed it to them. “If I have to sleep in this, you have to set this up.”
Donnie rolled their eyes. “Fine.” They hopped out of their hammock, and grabbed the blanket from Leo, only for a loud chime to sound through the room. “Finally!” Donnie yelled.
The two ran over to the computer with the results spread out on its screen. It was a complete jumble of nonsense, but Donnie let out a very soft gasp, and lifted their hand to their face.
“What, what is it?” Leo wanted to shake the information out of Donnie.
Donnie didn’t seem to hear Leo. “I’ve never actually tested my DNA before.” Their eyes traced every line of the screen taking everything in. “I had it preset for this, but I never actually checked…”
Leo flicked Donnie in the head. “Don. Don-Tron.”
“Right, sorry.” Donnie collected themself. “Sorry, it’s just, I always thought I was just a mutant turtle–”
“Sorry, mutant–”
“–But these results are showing our DNA to be a hybrid of our respective turtle species, and a human.”
“Sorry, human? ” Leo’s face contorted in disgust.
“It’s fascinating,” Donnie began mumbling to themself. “So it seems our average turtle DNA was split and forced to merge with the added human DNA; one could suppose that this is still a mutation, although it seems to be different from what I originally hypothesized. If that’s the case, how does that affect genetic parentage? What traits were changed or lost–”
Leo shook Donnie out of their thoughts. “ Don I’m about to start panicking am I a human or not– ”
“Oh. Not technically.” Donnie shrugged. “The results indicate that the human DNA was the added source, not our turtle DNA.”
“I’m gonna take that as a no.” Leo looked back at the computer. “So…are we siblings?”
“Our turtle species are completely different,” Donnie said. “I’m a soft-shell turtle, and you’re a red-eared slider.”
“Oh.” A wave of disappointment washed over Leo, for reasons he didn’t know.
“But,” Donnie continued. “Our human DNA is a complete match, whoever they are.”
“Meaning?” But Leo already knew the answer.
The two looked each other in the eye, a shimmering effect in both of their eyes. Softly, Donnie said, “We’re half-siblings.”
Bonus:
“Are you sure these pipes are sturdy?" Leo twisted and turned in the hammock, getting a feel for how sturdy it was. "I’m not gonna fall and hit my head and die?”
“Of course they’re sturdy, they’re reinforced titanium," Donnie said, for the thirteenth time. "Now go to sleep.”