Work Text:
Contrary to popular belief, Leonardo actually loves to read. When he needs some alone time, the first thing he does is head to the small pile of books he’s collected (or stole from his brothers) in the corner of his room, trying to find something he hasn’t read yet. He gets easily invested in stories, eager to learn what happens next.
It’s even easier to get excited about something like that when your “twin” brother is into the same thing. Donatello will read just about anything that’s set in front of him. It helped the two of them bond closer, and helped Donnie express his emotions more.
There was a time that Dad was able to get his hands on a few books that he thought his sons would enjoy. Why someone would throw perfectly good books in the trash was beyond him, but you know how the saying goes: one man’s trash is another rat’s present for his two very bookish sons.
Since there was only one copy of The Lightning Thief , the boys had to share. Both Leo and Donnie immediately went for the book to start first.
“Lemme see it!” Donnie tried to pull the book out of Leo’s hands, but the latter persisted.
“No, I wanna start it first!” he exclaimed, “Give it!”
“You can barely read anyway, Leon, just let me start it!”
Frustrated at the comment, Leo yanked as hard as he could, succeeding in tearing the book from Donnie’s hands. “Fine! We’ll play for it. Rock paper scissors?” He held out a tiny fist.
Donnie glared at his brother’s fist, sighed, then held up his own fist as he pushed his glasses up further on his face. “Fine. Ready? Rock…”
“Paper…”
“Scissors… shoot!”
The problem with these two playing RPS, is that Leonardo always knew how to win against the other: Donnie always picks scissors.
“Ha! Rock beats scissors, Donnie!” He grinned as he bumped his rock over the other’s scissors. “I’ll let you know how the beginning is!”
Crossing his arms, Donatello grumbled and watched his brother happily saunter away with his prize and sit in the corner of the room to begin reading. He started to walk away toward the TV room when he noticed that Leo wasn’t really… well, reading the book. His eyes were a little squinty like he was confused, mouth slightly open and silently sounding out a word on the page.
“What does that even say…?” Leo muttered under his breath.
Donnie wasn’t exactly correct in his comment earlier. Leo did know how to read, but he just really started. Donnie just read more and faster than the others. It’s hard, especially when you’re given a book that is the size of your head and you’re only four years old.
Growing increasingly frustrated with his inability to understand the words that were swimming in front of him, Leonardo slammed the book shut and put it down beside him, curling in on himself. With angry tears forming in his eyes, all the excitement that he had expressed before about wanting to read this incredible new book was gone. Donnie, across the room, saw him trying not to look at the book on the floor.
The purple-clad turtle walked over to the corner where Leo sat and knelt in front of him. Leo barely looked up at him.
“Just take it,” he said through gritted teeth, “I don’t wanna try it anymore.”
Donnie glanced down at The Lightning Thief , then back up at his brother. “I’m sorry,” he said flatly, “I didn’t mean what I said, about you not being able to read.”
“Well, you’re not wrong. I didn’t even get to the end of the second page.”
“Do you want help?”
“No…” Leo sniffled and pushed his blue bandana out of his eyes before going to stand up. “Just take it, Don.”
An idea popped into Donnie’s head as he grabbed Leo’s hand before he could slip away.
“Wait! Don’t go just yet.” He pulled his twin back down to the floor gently. “Wanna try it together?”
Leo thought it over for a bit. Then, he shrugged and picked the book back up, putting it in Donnie’s lap. “If you want.”
Donnie gave him a small smile as he sat against the wall next to his brother, opening the book to the first page. “I can read it to you! That way, we’re both starting it at the same time and reading it at the same time.”
“... Okay!” He returned Donnie’s smile with a big grin as he leaned his head on the other’s shoulder. The story began.
“‘Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood. If you’re reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now…’”
The pair did this often, especially if there was only one copy of the book they both wanted to read at the same time. Sometimes, however, they would get lucky, and Splinter would be able to find two of the same book for the twins. In that instance, they would sit back to back so they couldn’t see the other’s reactions to something, in case one got further in the book than the other twin. Once they met April and became good friends, that got to happen much more often. A few years later came a great surprise.
Leo could practically feel the ground shaking as he heard rapid footsteps getting closer to his bedroom. When he looked up from trying to fix the wheel on his skateboard, he saw Donnie nearly trip over his own feet running into the room.
“Leo! LeoLeoLeoLeoLeoLeo, guess what!” Donnie held his hands behind his back. “Guess what April managed to get for us?”
Judging by how excited he was and how he kept bouncing on his toes, it had to be something pretty awesome.
“What, what is it?”
Unable to contain his excitement, Donatello revealed from behind his back two copies of–
“ The Titan’s Curse ?!”
“YES!” Donnie shook his arms as best he could with two heavy books in both hands with glee. “She said they had two copies at her school library, and this is where we left off last time!”
Tossing his skateboard aside, Leonardo instantly grabbed one of the books, gazing at it in awe. “Awesome! She’s the best! Is she still here?”
“No, she had to go home, she just dropped these at the entrance. I snuck up to get them just now! Are you doing anything right now?”
Leo opened his mouth to answer, but then froze and looked at the skateboard by their feet, the wheel he was fixing laying a few ways away from the board. “Not anymore!” He grabbed Donnie’s hand and pulled him over to the two little cushions he had in the corner of his room for them to sit on.
When they had two copies of the same book and wanted to read them at the same time, the twins sat shell to shell so they couldn’t see each other’s reactions. It was more so for Donnie than it was for Leo: the latter has a tendency to zoom through the pages and show his reactions physically. There was one time, about a year prior, that Leo had gotten to “the sad part”, as it has been dubbed since, to a book much before Donatello had. When he had looked up from the pages, he saw his brother in tears.
“What? What’s wrong? What happened?” he had asked worriedly.
Through shaking breaths and sobs, Leonardo had been barely understandable. “... s-so sad, the… Sparky… hurt a-and, and–”
“THE DOG DIES?!”
After Splinter had two inconsolable children over a fictional dead dog, they tried to avoid that kind of situation again.
As the brothers got older and their interests broadened, Donatello and Leonardo didn’t read together as much. In fact, Leo didn’t really read much at all anymore. It’s not that he didn’t want to or he lost interest completely. Too many things going on at once, becoming less focused on one thing in front of him, other interests taking priority, saving the world multiple times… You know, the usual stuff that’d prevent someone from picking up a 400-page book and finishing it in a timely manner.
But now that they actually did save the world, and their future, he had all the time in the world.
It had been about an hour or so since someone had been at his bedside in the medbay to let him sleep, the only sounds were his breathing and the soft, steady beeping of the machine beside him. Leo had his eyes closed, but he wasn’t asleep. The pain meds Donnie’s feeding him through an IV kept him comfortable, as well as made his eyes heavy. Maybe it was all a ploy from his brothers to get him to sleep? He’ll never know.
“Hey.” A soft greeting and a knock on the doorframe caused him to open his eyes and glance over.
Donnie stood in the doorway, having changed since he was last here. He’s taken his battle shell and his tech goggles off, replaced it with his usual purple sweatshirt and glasses. He looked… exhausted. He leaned against the doorframe like he needed the support to not fall over. There was a faint smile on his face when the two made eye contact.
“Hey, Dee,” Leo said, voice a little raspy from disuse. He cleared his throat and tried again, “Hey. Everything alright?”
Donnie nodded. “You aren’t sleeping.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious. Am I ever?”
Rolling his eyes, Donnie wandered a little bit further into the room. “Fair enough. Can’t say I’m exactly surprised. How you feeling?”
Leo gave a little shrug as he attempted to pull himself up a little bit more. If he wasn’t going to sleep, he didn’t need to be laying down completely. “Honestly, not that much different than the last time you and Raph asked me, like, an hour ago. Really sore, but I’ll live. You?”
“‘M okay.” He didn’t elaborate any further. Instead, he pulled a chair over to the side of Leo’s bed to sit.
It dawned on Leo as Donnie sat down that he had his hands in the pocket of his sweatshirt, something rectangularly shaped sort of bulging out of it. “What’s that?”
Donnie gave another small smile as he pulled the contents of his pocket out. Two copies of The Lightning Thief . One was significantly more beat up than the other, the cover wrinkled and the pages stained with food and drink from how ever long ago. He kept that one for himself, placing the other one on his brother’s lap.
Leo stared at it for a second, mouth slightly agape. Memories of the two of them, years and years ago, reading this book for the first time. How Dee had helped him get through it at first. All the joy the two of them felt when they were able to finish the series together. The countless hours they sat back to back to finish a book at the same time. The slider looked up at Donnie and smiled. “Really?”
“If you wanna,” he replied, “If you’re too tired, I can go–”
“No, it’s fine,” Leo interrupted, “it’ll be fun.”
They both opened up to the first page, and started to read in comfortable quiet. The meds, though, were making the words swim before Leo’s eyes, making it hard for him to concentrate. Barely halfway through the first page, he put the book down and pressed his palms into his eyes. “Mmph…”
Donatello glanced up at the noise, and raised his brows a little bit. “You alright, Leo?”
“Mhm… Just, I’unno, hard to read it right now.” He took a deep breath to steady himself. “The pain meds… ‘m sorry, man…”
Even though he knew Leo wasn’t looking at him, Donnie shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not surprised, that stuff is pretty strong.” He reached over to take Leo’s copy off the bed when he looked over at Donnie. “Do you want help?”
Leo knew exactly where he was going with this, the same way it did when they were little. “Okay.”
Donnie pulled his chair closer to the top of the bed, so Leo could kind of see the words, too, and started speaking aloud.
“‘Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood. If you’re reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now…’”