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The brothers held Leo in a tight embrace after his stupid remark. It had only been a minute or so but he was back…and more damaged than ever. Eventually, Raph stood “Mikey and I will start ahead and find a transport for ya Leo,” he said “can’t have you walking like that. Cmon Mikey. Leo’s got Donnie if anything happens.” The smaller turtle nodded before giving Leo one last hug before skipping away behind his older brother.
All that was left was the twins now. Leo smiled as he watched Mikey. However, he turned to Donnie when he noticed he wasn’t letting go…which was a bit odd for him. “Ah…Donnie, you can let go now,” Leo chuckled nervously as he tried to shift. That didn’t work though. It only caused his brother to latch on more.
So this was serious if he was acting like this. Leo got a bit worried. “Hey…what’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” Donnie repeated “what’s WRONG? We almost lost you up there!” Donnie looked up with a glare as he pointed to the broken sky. The blue turtle followed his hand. To think he was just up there not even a few minutes ago since being portaled back to Earth…
“Ah, yeah. Cause you guys took your sweet ti-”
“Now is not the time for jokes Leonardo!”
Oh.
THAT bad that Donnie used Leo’s name in full.
This got the turtle nervous.
“We could have LOST you up there…” Donnie’s brows furrowed worriedly at his twin. “I could have lost you…”
Leonardo and Donatello sat for a few seconds in silence. Leo looked like he opened his mouth to say something but Donnie beat him to it. “We’re twins Leo…We’ve never been away from each other for longer than a mission or so…” He gripped his hands over his thighs and looked down “we…do you have ANY idea what it would be like…to not have you?”
Leo tensed a bit. He needed to sway things. “Ah, no? C’mon Don,” Leo started but his purple twin sat fully on his bottom and crossed his legs. “Leo,” he sounded stern, “do you KNOW what can happen with twins?”
“Telepathy!” Leo snapped his fingers then winced from the action. His arm and shoulder were in a lot of pain. “If I LOST you, it’d be like losing HALF of mySELF!” Donnie placed a hand to his chest and leaned forward to Leo a bit. Leo leaned back slightly. The Staten Island breeze moved their bandana ends as they stared at each other. One with a more serious look, the other waiting nervously. Donnie sighed and lowered his hand from his chest “I love Mikey and Raph…I do…and even I was upset when we found him…y’know…like that,
“But if I did lose you….I…again, that’s HALF of an equation right there. You can’t do math with only HALF an equation. You understand?” Donnie raised a brow and gestured to Leo. The red eyed turtle made an ‘aaaaah’ noise outta not really understanding and also from a possible concussion forming from all the blows he took.
“So you’re saying….it’d be like half of a pizza then?”
“....Sure….Sure, yeah, go with THAT analogy,” Donnie scoffed and gestured his hand in the air before placing his forehead in his fingertips. He KNEW Leo knew…he was just playing stupid…Maybe. Maybe it was just brain damage. The soft shell sighed and looked at his brother once again “point being…I can’t be without you…I don’t want to be…I really can’t…”
“Don…” The red eye mused lightly “Donnie I…I love you too, if this is your weird way of saying it-”
“Weird wa- WHY ARE YOU MAKING THIS A JOKE!?”
“IT’S HOW I COPE!!”
Donnie let out an aggravated noise as he leaned his head back with his hands over his face. Maybe Leo should have been stuck in the prison dimension instead of them bringing him back. Before long, he leaned forward again and rubbed his face before dragging his hands down with a sigh. His eye sockets were a bit exposed as he gave Leo an irritated look. Leonardo gave a nervous smile and chuckled at him. The two twins sat in silence before Donnie sighed again and leaned out to hug Leo as tight as he could. “I love you Leo…” he said softly.
Leo’s eyes widened as he tried to look at Donnie “What was that?”
“Nothing. I said nothing.” Donnie muttered.
“Noo nonono, you’re not playing that card, you said you loved me!” Leo used his ‘good arm’ and pulled the purple masked turtle before him with a wide grin on his face.
“I don’t know what you’re implying-”
“Say it again.”
“What?”
“Go ahead, say it again! That you lo-lo-looooo-” Leo tried to encourage his brother to say the word. Before long, there was a blaring car horn and he came to a quick turn stop. The car shook a bit as Casey stuck his head out the passenger window. “Master Leonardo!” He shouted.
“Casey!” Leo shouted back, raising his arm in the air and cupping the other around his hand as a megaphone “guys, Donnie said he loves me!”
“I did not!” Donnie growled, shoving a hand in Leo’s face, causing the leader to fall back on his shell. Mikey got all giddy and started to stim with his hands “REALLY? HE SAID THAT?!”
“I DID NOT!”
“Aight, aight, let’s just get Leo in the truck and head home,” Raph shook his head with a chuckle as he made his way to the bickering twins. Raph and Donnie helped Leo up and on the way to the van, where April and Casey opened the back door for everyone. Leo looked over at Donnie who had a mad look on his face with a scowl and furrowed eyebrows.
“Donnie?...” Leo spoke softly.
“What,” his brother replied dryly, not giving him a look. Leo chuckled “I love you too…”
Donnie’s scowl loosened up a bit as he gave Leo a sideways glance. He didn’t have to say anything but Leo knew…He knew that he accepted his words.