Chapter Text
The sounds of clanging and banging filled the turtle's lair. light could be seen coming from donnie's lab, or was it an evil lair? Donnie flipped his goggles up and glanced at his phone, wincing when he saw the time and wincing again when he saw all of the messages his brothers had left him. "Oops'' donnie mumbled under his breath "I promised them I wouldn't hole myself up again" He sighed, spinning around to look at sheldon "sheldon unlock the lab please ``''It is already unlocked sir"
what? Donnie thought his eyes were widening slightly, usually when his lab was unlocked his brothers came in and bothered him until he finally gave up, hence the locking of his lab, but in some cases he liked the coming and going of his brothers.
It gave him peace of mind knowing they were still here and hadn’t left him.
Why would they not come and visit him?
Reaching his arms above his head to gain a series of pops along his spine he fussed over his battle shell before giving up and popping it off.
He placed it among his other babies and pulled on the large oversized hoodie that most likely needed to be washed, sniffing it he shrugged “good enough for now” as he slowly snuck out of his lab making sure to avoid the empty soda cans and pizza boxes on his way to the kitchen. He rubbed at his eyes, ever since they had lost Leo to that..place he had never been the same, always plagued with terrible nightmares.
Maybe if he had been stronger then..donnie shook his head he already knew he wasn't strong enough that's why he was so captivated with tech, it helped with his hindrances, like his shell and his brute strength. He could not compare to raph in that sense, he couldn’t do cool karate movements like leo and he was too down to earth to be constantly happy like mikey.
He was afraid of them succeeding that's why he was always so happy to brag about one of his wins, they did not come often. Even though most of the time his brothers were not too interested in his tech.
Opening one of the cabinets and pulling out his all time favorite mug, it was purple with a #1 genius on it. His twin, Leo had given it to him on their birthday and to be even more of a jerk he gave it two minutes after he received all of his presents. Claiming he was two minutes older. He smiled fondly at the memory and ran his fingers over his mug.
All of a sudden he felt arms around his waist and someone pick him up. He screamed and in his panic he dropped the mug. Hearing it shatter, he elbowed the attacker and kneeled to the ground staring at all of the tiny pieces.
“Donnie” it was leo’s voice
“Donnie??” leo stepped in front of him and looked down his eyes widening at the mug
“Oh, it's okay! It's just a mug '' Leo patted him on the shoulder and left the kitchen.
Just a mug? Leo knew how much that mug meant to donnie, did this mean that he didn’t think he was a genius anymore? Has he been..replaced?
Donnie gently scooped the shards of the mug into his hands, ignoring the cuts he got and hurried off to his lap to try and fix it. He did not acknowledge the tears flowing down his face.
Sitting in his chair donnie deposited the shards of the oh so dear mug and scrubbed his eyes
“Leos right, it's just a mug you idiot” donnie looked at his hands, he had some pretty deep cuts but he needed to fix the mug. It was one of the last things that he had that was so precious to him. Leo, Ralph or Mikey had never said anything remotely nice since the day leo had been ripped away from them. Well, he knew why it was his fault he should have been the one to go there, at least then they wouldn’t be so upset.
Donnie slapped his cheeks and looked down at the mug
“Maybe I could program Sheldon to glue it back together? Then it would be precise” donnie mumbled to himself as he rolled to his computer pulling up his coding interface he quickly opened up sheldon's code and getting to work he slowly, very slowly wrote every line of code meticulously.
He continued to work well into the night until he had finally finished the last line of code
“Perfect! Now Sheldon will be able to glue ANYTHING back together!” Donnie kicked his legs in his excitement. Pulling away from his desk he looked at his phone.
“Oops I guess I pulled an all nighter again, sheldon run protocol fixer”. Donnie got up and walked out of his lab, he needed coffee very badly. He had so much he had to do, fix leos heater, fix the vent, work on the turtle tank and help- do aprils science project. He could not afford to sleep on the job. He scrubbed his hand across his face, unknowingly he smeared blood over his face from his hand. His eyes were downcast as he walked into the kitchen making a beeline to the coffee maker.
“Donnie?” mikey called
“Mh yeah wassup” donnie lifted his head a little only to hear mikey gasp
“Your face!!”
Ouch, that one stung and donnie turned away as he pulled his freshly brewed cup to his body
“Yeah sorry, I’ll leave now I gotta go fix leos heater” donnie spoke in a hushed voice trying to avoid his voice shaking as he tried to dart out of the kitchen only to be caught by raph
“Donnie you are not working on anything today” ralph declared in that big brother voice of his
“What!?” Donnie was flabber ghasted he needed to work!
Leo got into donnie's face and pulled his hood down and looked at the blood
“It doesn’t look like you hit your head. Where did the blood come from d?” Leo asked in an almost demanding but still soft voice.
“Blood? Oh.” Don slowly put his hand behind his back and laughed “blood what blood definitely no blood! Definity not on my hand” He mentally hi-threed himself.
Leo gently took donnies hand gasping “donnie these cuts are so deep! You need stitches, there is no possible way you can work!”
“You didn’t care last night” donatello mumbled looking away “put me down Raph”
Donnie was slowly lowered to the floor
“Last Night? What do you mean?’ Donnie's eyes widened “Oops did I say that outloud?” his brothers nodded.
“Uh you see I was um, I was trying new pre recorded responses!” Donnie darted out of the kitchen, running as his brothers tried to catch him again only for him to make it to his lab and slam the door, locking it.
Panic filled his breath as he slowly sunk down to his knees, burying his head into his hands. He never meant to cause problems. He never wanted to make his brothers upset. How could he continue on the team if he constantly made them panic? Donne sighed walking over to his med bay he slammed his fist onto the big red button which lowered the bed. Sitting on the cold metal table he looked down at his hand seeing the deep gashes that danced all along his hand. The skin around the cuts was angry and red it almost reminded him of Raph, an angry hot head but really he meant to warn and care for his brothers. Donnie shook his head, trying to fight a dainty smile stretching across his face. He all of a sudden felt a drop on his hand, followed by several more. Touching his hand to his face to feel the wetness of tears falling down his face.
Suddenly he was thrown back into the time they lost leo.
He could still remember the pure and utter panic that he felt in his heart he couldn’t lose his twin, his other half.
“Sir? I have repaired your mug” Sheldon hovered over to donnie.
“Thank you Sheldon” Donnie brushed his hand over Sheldon's head.
Donnie grabbed a roll of gauze to bandage his hand.
When donnie had slammed the doors leo, mikey and raph slammed into the door. Groaning as they rubbed their poor snouts.
“Ouch!” Leo whined stumbling back giving a glare to the offending door.
“Why would Donnie do that?” mikey sniffled, looking down.
“I don’t know, I think he's going through something” Raph put a hand on mikey’s shoulder.
“I think it's about me,” Leo said suddenly, his eyes sadly looking at the door.
“What do you mean leo?” Raph asked leo
“I think he feels guilty about me going to the prison dimension, he feels like he needs to atone for losing me by creating tech to keep that from happening again. Haven’t you guys noticed? He has barely slept at all these past few months. Plus I think I also might have accidentally broken his..#1 genius mug ``Leo added the last part quietly. Sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck
“YOU WHAT?” Mikey yelled, slapping his hands to the sides of his face.
“He adored that mug! He Legit never let any of us even WASH it” Mikey started to panic
“Oh he is probably so freaking out right now!!” Raph copied Mikey, running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
Leo face palmed, dragging his hand over his face as he sighed.
“I’ll talk to him” leo announced
“How idiot”
“Uh the door?”