Work Text:
Everything hurts. Bad . It’s the type of hurt where he knows if he curls up in a ball like his brain is telling him to, he’ll get locked up and unable to uncurl . His chest is especially bad, every breath just rattling and jarring the pain more rather than giving him relief. It sucks.
There’s only one other person in the lair right now who’d truly understand the type of pain he’s in. Who’d been with him that whole time.
Which is why the sight in front of him is baffling .
“Dude. Are you seriously going back to work after we got the shell beat out of us?!”
Donnie jolts, and Mikey knows he knows he’s been caught, because his eyes go all wide and guilty before the genius stamps it all down with an irritated neutral expression. Yeah. Not happening-
“It’s been way over a day Mikey, it’s not right after.”
“Nuh uh! It’s close enough dude! Sensei said you still shouldn’t be standing up!”
“I’m just gathering-“ Donnie starts to defend, before his jaw clicks and he squawks, “Mikey, you shouldn’t be walking right now! Your chest and shell-“
Mikey slides a rolling chair into the doorway, plops down on it, and uses his feet to slowlyyyyy make his way over to Donnie. Said purple clad turtle meets the stubborn glare with an exasperated one of his own.
“Mikey…”
“Not walking dude~” Mikey taunts, ignoring how his hurt ribs burn in favor of settling to smugly watch Dee , “ So are we gonna talk about how you’re being a big hypocrite now or what?”
“It’s just notes, Mikey. I’m not bullheaded enough to try mixing mutagen with one arm. There’s barely enough left from the canister to do anything substantial anyways.”
“You should be getting ready to sleep, like the rest of us. Like sensei told us to.”
“I have a concussion, remember? I’m liable to die if I fall unconscious in this state.”
“What?!” Mikey shoots up right in panic, “you told me that was a myth!”
“It is.”
“ It is -well now what am I meant to think! You-“ Mikey has to stop, because oh, ow , he can see Donnie’s alarmed expression through the blurry watery filter over his eyes but everything else is just taken up by coughing- ow-
“-key, Mikey! Hey, take it easy, it’ll pass…”
There’s a hand rubbing his shell, when there shouldn’t be-because this isn’t why he came in here! Once his head doesn’t spin, Mikey shies away from the touch, but Donnie hovers, looking him over for like-some,part of him he thinks is about to explode or something.
Mikey eventually lets out one last hoarse cough and weakly swats him, “‘m, ‘m good, Dee, just got something in my throat,” Mikey finally rasps out-and Aw man! Is that his voice? Gahhh-
Donnie looks unconvinced, and hands him a glass. Mikey takes it, goes to chug-then pauses and squints, “this is water right?”
“ Yes, Mikey,” Donnie irritably answers, and Mikey keeps his eyes narrowed a second more, before contentedly shrugging and bringing it to his lips.
Dee suddenly snatches the glass, hurriedly swirls it under his eye, then laughs and nervously shoves it back.
“I-It’s water.”
“… dude.”
Once he’s drank as much as he can handle, Mikey bonks Donnie on the head, and he gasps.
“ OW?!”
“Ha! So it does still hurt!”
“Cause you HIT ME?!”
“To check dude!”
“ You were worried about my concussion so you HIT my HEAD?!”
“Gently! If anything this is proof you aren’t okay!”
Donnie seems to be blinking away tears, so Mikey whines and leans closer, “did I actually hurt you…?”
“ No , you-Mikey. You’re more hurt than me, stop…fussing, okay? You should go back to Master Splinter so he can check your injuries-“
“He just did dude. You missed it cause you were cooped up in here!”
“I’m not- cooped up. If Master Splinter just saw you, that means you should be in bed now, continuing to recover!”
Mikey smooshes his face into the back of the chair so he doesn’t have to hear Dee, “you are so cooped up dude. You’re like some, stubborn nerdy chicken. All cooped up with all the test tubes, and science stuff, and-“
Hey wait a minute, isn’t that…
“You collected up the mutagen on Raph’s floor?” Mikey kicks himself and the rolly chair away from the table, and Dee knows it’s bad because he glances away , “When’d you find time to do that?!”
Donnie tries way too hard to sound casual, “Earlier, while Sensei was getting the story from Raphael. I went back into his bedroom and scooped up what I could back into a new canister.”
“…that. Was insanely reckless of you to do with one arm bro,” Mikey deadpans, before recoiling again, “I can’t believe I just said that! Look what you’re doing to me man!”
Donnie falls into silence, obviously now trying the never successful ‘ignore Mikey and hope he goes away’ technique. Mikey gives it to him for now, but only because he’s incredulous , staring at the bubbling ooze Donnie kept. Like it didn’t just cause all of this. Like collecting it couldn’t have caused them to loose him anyways, after all that, like he doesn’t ever care -
Anger bubbles up in Mikey’s damaged chest, but he stamps it down and locks it up and stamps on the key too.
“Can I hold-“
“ Don’t.”
Mikey pauses. Something about the drained and fragile way Donnie says it must make the little part of his brain built to ignore protests switch off, because Mikey slowly draws his hand away and looks at his older brother with an expression of growing and growing concern.
The look isn’t returned. Donnie’s too busy trying to move lab equipment back into place when he can barely stand up straight.
“You gonna sit down…?” Mikey hesitantly asks, because he’s not sure what emotion he’s feeling now but he does know Donnie won’t be able to stay standing much longer and that Mikey isn’t in any condition to catch him.
“I’m fine.”
Well that’s the biggest lie ever…
“April’s back, you know. You don’t gotta be all like, wacko over all this.”
Donnie makes a sound like he’d been struck by Slash all over again.
They stare at each other. It’s a staring competition Mikey isn’t going to loose, that Donnie was doomed to loose from that start.
He hunches defensively as soon as Mikey wins.
“…I-I’m not wacko , as you so elegantly put Mikey, and yes, I do need to do this. In fact, it’s more imperative than ever that I do this, so she doesn’t-“
“Leave again?”
Donnie makes a face like he swallowed a hedgehog.
“…look man, we’ve had a rough time.” Mikey states finally, and the seriousness of it seems to surprise Donnie enough to listen. Mikey tries not to be offended, “can’t you at least give it a rest til we know your brain won’t fall out of your ears?”
“Not how concussions work.”
“You know what I mean bro!”
“Yes! And I know what I know, which is that I’m perfectly fine to do simplistic tasks right now!”
Mikey feels the anger start to show it’s face again, “You should be resting dude!”
“ You should be resting Mikey!”
“Just stop -“
“I CAN’T!”
The mutagen bounces, and both teenagers hold their breath as it wobbles, then steadies before it can go crashing to the floor. There’s a hurt whine before Donnie can stop himself, and he grabs tight at his shoulder, having jostled it by slamming his hand down on the table.
“ Ow…”
Mikey reaches his hand out, to try comfort his brother like he did for him earlier, and Donnie growls . It’s an instinctive, scared thing, one that can’t be held responsible by their human DNA, and he looks immediately nauseated about making it. Mikey shys away from him anyways.
“Dee, you’re freaking me out man…”
“I’m not…” Donnie swallows, then finally slumps down into his chair, voice quiet, “I-I’m not meaning to, I just…”
“Just…?”
His brother runs his good hand down his face and doesn’t immediately answer, instead starts shivering slightly. Mikey didn’t think it was possible for him to seem more tired.
“April’s dad is still mutated, and now Timothy is a whole other type of messed up! I can’t… fix… I can’t waste time when they’ve already lost so much because of me.”
“That’s been the situation for a while now bro,” Mikey points out bluntly, and he forces himself to carry on even when Donnie looks miserable , “how’d this make it worse?”
There’s a long breath.
“…if I had’ve solved this already, Slash wouldn’t have happened. Raph was right to be angry at me, I endangered you guys cause I keep- screwing this up, I’m not…making progress.”
Mikey can’t see his brother's face now, despite the alien blue illuminating the two. He’s facing away from Mikey into the shadows, but his voice gives him away. He sounds broken .
“All I’ve done so far is make my mistakes even harder to fix….”
…
“…if I tell you to cut yourself some slack, you ain’t gonna listen, are you.”
Donnie almost looks wounded, slapped by Mikey’s dull tone, and he’d feel bad if wasn’t just so…numb.
“Mikey, I…”
“I’m going to bed.”
“ Wait -“
Donnie’s hand clasps around Mikey’s desperately, and the youngest pauses, before turning to face him expectantly.
Donnie looks like he has a lot he wants to say. All he manages to get out however is a small, “Don’t…don’t go. You got so hurt Mikey, more-more than we’ve ever been hurt. I-it was my irresponsibility and failures that brought this on you, and Raph. I’m so so sorry…”
It’s a sincere apology. That’s why it’s scary.
“Will you rest?” Mikey asks finally, and Donnie flinches.
“I can’t…” Donnie trails off, breathing catching as he stares at the bubbling mutagen. What’s left anyways.
Mikey’s feels sick and not from his injuries.
“…yeah. Right.”
Donnie lets out a quiet upset whine Mikey knows he wouldn’t do on purpose, and he clings to his younger brothers arm with both hands now. Mikey can feel him trembling because of it, and despite his wish to remain stubborn he feels his anger start to sap away.
Aw man, Donnie…
“I’m just looking over my notes. I swear. I-I’ll join you guys in getting some sleep soon.”
“You swear ?”
“ Yes. ”
Hating the feel of the room, Mikey lets out a forced shaky laugh, “…pff, well, you shouldn’t, it’s not very nice…”
Donnie lets out a startled snort and covers his snout right after. Mikey’s laughter comes a little bit easier after that.
“ What?”
“I’m not explaining my joke to you man! That ruins it!”
“It was barely a joke,” Donnie points out, because he’s an asshole, but he’s smiling .
Mikey grumbles, moving away to cross his arms, while the majority of him is simply relieved , “you’re not a joke…”
“Thank you.”
They fall into a silence far more comfortable than the first.
“Hey,” Donnie voice is soft now, calmer , and he looks like he wants to get up and take Mikey’s hand again-but his injuries seem to finally be stopping him, “…how are you holding up, anyways?”
“ Pssch, me? Fit as a feather and light as a bee dude!”
“I-what? What does that-“
“Don’t worry your scrambled little brain about it Dee.”
Mikey pats Donnie’s head, softly this time, and gets an amused grin at Donnie’s immediately annoyed expression at it. He shoves the chair out of the way when Donnie tries to swat him him.
“ Mikey… ”
“Can’t stop dude! Wheelychairs got a mind of it’s own! I’m rolling awayyyyyy…”
Donnie fondly watches him go all the way to the door, even if the amusement flickers as Mikey forces himself to stand up and immediately nearly collapses. Oops -
They both know the only reason Donnie doesn’t bolt over to help him recover is because his own injuries have won him over. Mikey can see it in the way he’s using his own chair fully as support, how he’d gone to rush to his feet only to crash back near instantly.
What a pair they are…
“Make sure to stop and get some sleep soon man, I mean it. We don’t want you doing something all stupid you’ll regret just cause you can’t think straight.”
Donnie nods, gaze worried, but he works up a smile to match Mikey’s half serious one.
“Yeah, I know. Now go bother Leo.”
“Yes sir!”
The lab doors slide shut. Donnie waits a few moments, until the sound of his little brothers footsteps have completely gone away.
He then shudders, bracing his chest for the pain of moving, and slides his safety goggles down.
“…sorry Mikey…”
He reaches for the canister.