Chapter Text
“Donnie!” Mikey called from the kitchen.
Said turtle glanced back at the screen sporting the grating (yet unfortunately accurate) assumption. They would have to come back to this after dinner, after all they would rather not deal with Mikey being upset (and it being his fault). The message had been marked as ‘non-urgent’ anyways. Besides, hopefully this would be quick. Get in, engage in the usual social pleasantries, get out, and carry on with his ever-growing list of work.
Donnie exited the lab and entered the recently renovated kitchen-slash-dining room-slash-living room. They’d had to downsize after the invasion when most of their rooms had caved in to the point of being unsalvageable. Thus, the kitchen had become an amalgamation for different uses. Mikey had done a good job of redecorating considering the circumstances, making use of the space well. One corner of the room sported beanbags, cushions, and blankets piled together. There was less of them than what they’d started with because of how often they were dragged into the tv room (which had miraculously survived as Splinter was happy to discover). The kitchen had maintained the same set up as before, however the island that used to house the coffee maker (rest in literal pieces, it will be sorely missed) had instead been converted into a seating area. Unsurprisingly when Donnie arrived, Raph, Mikey and Leo were already there.
There was a chair empty.
Other than the obvious change in location, it was clear to see why Mikey had insisted upon this. It was just like it used to be. Mikey was busying himself with dishing up, Raph was looking like he was barely holding himself back from jumping in to do it for him, and Leo was… on his phone. As per usual.
Looking at his brothers, Donnie would almost be touched at the scene of domesticity if it wouldn’t ruin their emotionally-detached bad-boy image. The only thing that was different was Raph, who would usually be seated on the left of Mikey at the end of the table. They had both switched seats, and it took Donnie a few seconds and a glance at Raph’s now blind right eye to realise why. The change wasn’t a welcome one, but it was necessary.
“Yes, yes, I’m here everyone, cool your proverbial jets,” Donnie said as he took the stool next to Leo as usual.
“Good,” Mikey said as he placed a bowl in front of Donnie (some sort of chicken and rice dish, jackpot), “Because if I had to wait 5 more seconds and god forbid my labour of love went cold…”
“Yes, I get it. I would feel your wrath Michael.”
Donnie immediately dug in. They hadn’t realised how hungry they were. Did he have breakfast? He couldn’t recall.
“Leo, get off ya phone, we’re supposed to be spending time as a family.” Raph scolded, but most of the bite had been taken out of it.
Raph was right, Donnie glanced over at Leo next to him who was staring at his screen expectantly. Leo jumped at the sudden attention, and Donnie tried to lean over to see what had his twin so enraptured, but Leo quickly turned it off and slammed it face-down on the table.
“Pfft, okay mom,” Leo said casually, “family bonding time is officially… a-go.”
…
Silence.
Donnie obviously wasn’t going to start the conversation, Raph was sweating bullets, and Mikey seemed so full of things to say that he couldn’t decide on one.
Leo rolled his eyes.
“So… what’s everyone been up to?”
Apparently that’s all it took for the flood gates to open. Mikey gasped excitedly.
“I’ve been cooking obviously, and look!” Mikey held his fork up, his hand only trembling slightly, “I’m barely shaking at all!”
“Nice one bud, I knew you could do it.”
“Thanks Raph!” Mikey beamed, “How’s your eye been?”
Donnie tuned out their conversation, instead focusing on his meal. The chicken wasn’t too seasoned to be overwhelming, but not so devoid of flavour that it was bland. Just the way they liked it. Mikey had outdone himself.
“So, what have you been doing, Donnie?” Leo asked around a mouthful of rice, “Or is it some sort of top-secret nerd stuff that we’re not supposed to know about.”
Of course Donnie couldn’t have escaped this without a few barbs thrown his way from a certain blue turtle. It was foolish of them to assume otherwise, reall.
“First of all Nardo- ew. Talk with your mouth closed, were you raised in a barn?”
“A sewer actually, but tomato tamato.”
“Ignoring that- I have actually been relatively busier than normal. Nothing I can’t handle, of course. I’ve been working on some important defence systems and improving the lair’s structural integrity.”
There was a pause. The kind of silence that usually came after Donnie accidently insulted someone. They scanned their words for anything that could have caused offense but drew a blank. Donne drew their eyebrows together in confusion and faced his brother.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Leo gestured vaguely with his fork, “I was just expecting you to go all ‘speech-mode’ on us.”
“’Speech-mode’? I was under the impression that you disliked it when I did that?”
It was true, as far as Donnie knew. Every time that they had talked at length about their new tech (complete with visuals and presentational flair, of course), Leo was always ready with a snarky comment about how much of a ‘snooze-fest’ it was. His brother had always stuck around anyways, citing that it would probably cure his chronic insomnia, but his distain had been made pretty clear. Hell, they’d nearly done a whole episode pertaining to the fact. So, Donnie had dropped the habit., out of necessity more than anything else. No one liked it when they did it and talking at length about his projects took time away from actually working on said projects. No matter how much he personally enjoyed it.
“No, I just-,” Leo’s trademarked grin dropped, just for a split-second, but then it returned with force, “I just didn’t want your nerdy ramblings to take away from Mikey’s amazing meal.”
Leo gestured to bring Mikey into the conversation, “What is this, oregano?”
As Mikey began happily explaining the apparent complexities of the dish, Donnie pondered his twin’s younger brother’s reaction. Donnie had never been good at identifying expressions, but what he was good at was picking up on patterns of behaviour. It was why he was so good at making gifts and problem-solving. He had an eye for detail that most others lacked, and one detail that he had learned to pick up on was expressions. They’d drawn their eyebrows on for a reason.
While the rest of their family wore their heart on their sleeves, Leo and Donnie kept their feelings under lock and key, set on fire, and sunk to the bottom of the ocean mob-hit-style never to be seen again. Leo was incredible adept at keeping his feelings in check and appropriate for whatever scheme they were concocting- he was the face of the team for a reason. This meant that he had very little tells to clue people into the difference between what he was actually feeling and what he wanted people to think he was feeling. Donnie, however, had lived with Leo their whole life and had learned to pick up on the subtlety of his brother’s facial expressions. He could tell that Leo wasn’t being entirely truthful, however that something in that sentence had stumped him. Could he tell what that something was?
Absolutely not why would you ever assume that.
But the fact remained that something was bothering Leo. So much so that he had let his mask slip for the first time in a long while. Donnie really wished that they had some of Mikey’s near-mystic-level empathy powers right now.
“-but overall, the key ingredient is of course: love,” Mikey finished up, “and a shit-ton of paprika.”
“Language,” Raph scolded, but there was less heat in it than usual, “But sounds great Mikey, it’s nice to see you so happy.”
“Yeah, I’m just glad to be back cooking again. I don’t think I could stomach any more takeout.”
“Blasphemy!” Leo cried dramatically, pointing an accusatory finger towards his younger brother, “We were basically raised by takeout and we turned out fine.”
“Pfft,” Donnie chuckled, “Define ‘fine.’”
Then Leo added.
“I’ll do you one better, define ‘raised.’”
They all look towards the empty chair.
Ouch. Awkward.
“What? It’s true. You complain about me being on my phone, and he can’t even be here.”
The sudden change in tone hit Donnie like whiplash. There was a rising tension in the room, like an elastic band that was about to snap. No one said anything for a second.
Raph was quick to fill the silence.
“That’s not- Leo you know that’s not fair. You know that Dad- that he…”
“I’m not trying to start something,” Leo said in an attempt to keep things light, “it’s just not fair that he gets to just… not be here. Especially with how important Mikey said this was to him. He said that he was going to be better.”
Raph stutters, “And he is, where is this coming from? Mikey made us all a nice meal and we’re going to eat it and enjoy it-“
“So what? We aren’t allowed to talk about it now?”
“Guys, stop!” Mikey’s voice is wet and oh Rutherford he’s crying, “Of course we can talk about it Leo, but dad went through a lot too. He’s just having a bad day.”
Leo moves a clump of rice around his bowl with his fork. His eyebrows furrow, then his gaze softens and he sighs, not meeting his brothers’ gazes.
“You’re right. I don’t want to get into a fight with you over this. Not over dad, not now.”
Raph exales too, and what little fight was in him leaves with it, “Sorry, Leo. Raph didn’t mean ta rag on ya.”
Leo’s glare softens, “No, I’m… I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have snapped. I don’t know where that came from.”
The room reverts to silence again.
“Woo family fun time.” Donnie chimes in.
He gets rewarded with a level 9000 Raph-glare.
“What, I’m just trying to do what Leo does and break the tension with a well-timed joke.”
Leo scoffed, seeing the social lifeline and grabbing it, “The key to that is well-timed. You see, as a master of comedy myself-“
This sparked an argument about whether Leo’s jokes are actually funny or not. Say what you will, but Donnie had actually succeeded in lightening the mood. Raph’s glare softened and he interjected with a few points of his own, Leo fought vehemently for the honour of his comedic genius, and Mikey dried his tears and recalled times where Leo’s jokes had gotten them in more trouble that they were worth. There was something hauntingly domestic about it. Even the sudden argument from before was familiar. Looking around the kitchen, if you ignored Mikey’s trembling hands, Raph’s eyepatch, and Leo’s… well, everything, Donnie could almost imagine that they were back in time before the invasion.
Mikey was right, this dinner did make everything seem normal again.
An alert sounded on his communicator- not a message this time, but an alarm. They’d been slacking off for too long.
“Well, as fun as this has been, I have important business to attend to, so if you’ll excuse me…”
“You’re leaving already?” Mikey looked up from his bowl, his voice sullen.
“Don, what happened to family bonding?” Leo started, looking more upset for Mikey’s sake than his.
“Yes, we have bonded. Love you all. Ecetera. But my work is very pressing so if you’ll excuse me.” Donnie moved to get up from his stool but a hand grabbed his arm and stopped him. He turned, expecting to see Mikey trying to get him to stay, but no- it was Leo.
He cracked his trademark grin.
“Honestly, ol’ Neon Leon’s getting tired too. Too much excitement for one day I think,” Leo made a show of yawning and stretching his arms, “Don-ton, can you help a poor, injured turtle back to bed pretty please.”
Ugh. Donnie shrugged off his brother’s grip.
“You can’t say that you’re well enough to go out on patrol but too injured to make it back to the med bay without me carrying you. Pick a side.”
“I didn’t say anything about you carrying me, just me using you as a mutant crutch.”
Donnie hesitated, this dinner had already put them behind schedule…
“Yeah, great idea Leo!” Mikey chimed in subtly, seemingly forgetting about Donnie’s escape attempt for now, “You two go while Raph and I finish up with dinner.”
There was a fire in his younger brother’s eyes. Dr. Delicate Touch hath spoken.
“Ugh fine… you can lean on me, but if you try anything else I’ll vaporise all of your Lou Jitsu action figures.”
“Deal!” Leo said happily as he hopped off the stool and threw himself dramatically into Donnie’s arms.
“I regret this already.” Donnie said through gritted teeth.
Leaving their other brothers behind, hey made their way back to the med bay, with Leo true to his word as he leaned heavily on Donnie’s shoulder. New York’s near-miss with the apocalypse resulted in a higher number of fractured bones than usual, so demand for actual crutches was high. Unfortunately for them, that also meant that the more in demand they were the harder they were to steal. It figures that they could get hard-core painkillers just fine, but a metal pole with a handle on the end? No chance. Donnie had offered to make him one, but Leo hadn’t thought it was worth it. After all, with the injuries he had sustained, it was unlikely that he would be going further than the fridge in a long time. Unfortunately, this decision resulted in Leo hanging onto Donnie’s shoulder like a sarcastic backpack.
“Do you have to hold on that hard?” Hours of sitting at their desk had made their back ache, and this wasn’t helping. Why could no one be considerate enough to throw out lumbar support backrests for him to scavenge?
“Trust me, if I didn’t have to I wouldn’t.”
And… he was probably right. While he was good at hiding it, Leo was shaking slightly, his shoulders tensed and his breathing heavier. He hadn’t been lying, today had taken it out of him. Donnie sighed.
“Uh huh, sure you wouldn’t.” Donnie countered, but put their arm under Leo’s anyways.
They shambled into the med bay and Donnie deposited him on the bed. Leo immediately fell in a heap on top of the covers like the drama king he is.
“Ouch!” Leo sat up, rubbing his shoulder, “Not exactly the 5 star treatment I was expecting.”
Donnie ignored him as Leo settled in. They opened their communicator and reflexively started to check the security cameras while Leo indignantly ranted about something or other. Camera 6 and 7 were still down, he thought that he’d fixed those already. They really needed to stop relying on their ninpo for serious repairs.
“Are you listening?” Leo asked dryly.
No.
“No.”
Leo puffed up the topmost of his many pillows and laid back on it, folding his arms behind his head.
“I was saying that I’m getting a tad board of infirmary life.”
Donnie closed the screen and folded his arms. Not this again.
“People who get seriously injured go in the med bay. Want to stay out of the med bay? Don’t get seriously injured.”
In true Leo fashion, he sulked.
“So when am I going to be allowed out of here then?”
When it stops being the room the most prepped for medical emergencies.
“When you can stand on your own for more than a minute without crumpling like a pile of wet leaves.”
“Hey, I take offense to that! I can stand for at least 2 minutes now.”
Donnie’s about to respond, but then they hear it. There’s a subtle clanging sound, like metal on concrete. It was faint, but to two trained ninjas it was like a claxon had gone off. Something outside the door had been knocked over.
“What was-“
“What was-“
Leo grinned.
“It’s a twin thing.”
“It is not a twin thing Leo. The chances of us saying the same thing is very high considering the circumstances.”
Before Leo could continue his never-ending teasing, Donnie checked the newly-updated proximity sensors- nothing. Time to do this the old-fashioned way- Donnie’s least favourite of the ways. He creeped towards the door slowly, then tugged the curtain open sharply as he summoned a bo in his other hand using his ninpo.
They glanced along the hall. Left. Right. Left again. Still nothing. Odd…
Donnie ducked their head back in and disassembled his staff, drawing the curtain closed again for good measure.
“See anything?” Leo asked.
“No… must of just been a rat,” Donnie said, then added quickly, “No offense, dad.”
The two brothers looked at each other for a moment. The tension bled out of them after the close call. Donnie’s not sure what else to say. Leo opens his mouth-
“Well, I’d best be off. I’m even more behind than I was before.” Donnie said stiffly as they turned to leave.
“Don?” Leo called.
They hesitated.
“Yes, Leo?”
Donnie moved to face Leo. He looked so small in the large bed. Like he had when they were kids and not quite grown. When he spoke his voice was softer than Donnie had heard it in a long time.
“Can you stay here for a bit? I haven’t been sleeping great and your monologues usually conk me right out.”
Donnie lingered in the doorway, hand gripping the metal pole that acted as a frame. They could, but…
He glanced back at the door to their lab; full of half-fixed equipment, a list that refused to get shorter, and a message waiting to be answered.
“I… can’t, Leo. There should be some melatonin in the draw next to you of you can’t sleep. Otherwise I can check if Mikey’s free?”
“Oh?” There was that flicker again- barely perceptible, “Nah don’t bother him. He’s probably tired after all that cooking today.”
Leo smiled.
Despite everything, Donnie had the nagging feeling that he was making a mistake.
“Goodnight, Leo.” Donnie called back as he left.
╚═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╝
Back in their lab, Donnie stewed. Something about his conversation with Leo had left him feeling uncomfortable. There was an itch- the one they felt when they had just ran a new line of code and it sprang up with errors. Not for the first time that week Donnie felt like he was missing something.
No matter, all he had to do was get through this chat and then they could move on to more important things. Sweet, sweet data collection was on the horizon, that should calm him down.
He opened the window. The chat was still exactly as Donnie had left it. They crafted their reply.
“Yes, they give us a range of suitable starter sentence to choose from.”
“Now, what can I help you with today?”
The response came a lot quicker than Donnie had anticipated, especially since there was a lot of time between the last message and this one.
“wouldn’t you like to know weather boy :P”
A vine reference? Seriously? Donnie hadn’t heard that in at least 6 years.
“That reference was severely outdated.”
“oh shit
I assumed this was an automated response thign
Your a person?”
Yes, by Newton Donnie was obviously a person. Time to prove it. He saw an opportunity and took it.
“*You’re”
“Asshole.”
“Hey, you’re the only one who’s been acting like an asshole so far.
You won’t even let me help you on a helpline.”
"You know you're pretty bag at this
*bad
What sort of training did they give you?”
Donnie sighed, if only they knew.
"Trust me, it's minimal."
"I can tell. It really shows :/"
Well, that was rude. Donnie wasn't sure why, but his fingers itched to tick a tally of some kind.
"I'm trying to help you, the least you can do is be a bit less sardonic."
"Trust me I would if I knew what that meant
Hold up let me google something”
Then a few second later:
“Bitch"
Despite himself, Donnie snorted.
“So, are you actually going to tell me what your problem is?
Our conversation would at least be a lot more constructive.”
“Nah it’s a lot funnier to let u guess ;)”
Donnie was about to respond with the list of potential problems people may come forward with but Vince responds faster.
“Besides what makes u think tht I’m not just here for a chat”
They backspace their aborted message. That was easier to answer.
“Because this is a crisis line, obviously.”
Then.
“And there’s much better people to be engaging in small talk with than me.”
[read 10:23pm]
[Vince is now offline]
Huh. That was abrupt. Well, at least Vince had taken his advice?
“Smashiest brother detected, disengaging lockdown protocols.” S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.’s voice crackled through the speakers.
Seriously did no one in this household care about privacy?
Donnie quickly switched tabs just as the door slid open to reveal Raph.
“Oh, er, knock knock?”
Donnie huffed, “Too late now Raph, might a well come in.”
Raph chuckled nervously as he stepped inside, “Heh, thanks.”
The two siblings stared at each other.
“…sooo did you need something or?”
“Ah yes! I just checked on Leo. Dinner must have taken it outta him because he was out like a light.”
Donnie turned back to his screen and started debugging the code that they had left there.
“Good for him. Did you slip melatonin in his drink?”
“No!” Raph said quickly, then rubbed the back of his neck, “Not this time.”
“Good, because I can’t be implicated in that again. That would be a serious invasion of privacy, and while usually I’d be all in for that, Mikey has informed me that I’ve reached my ethically-ambiguous limit for the month. Come back to me in June and then we’ll talk.”
“Noted. Although… Mikey does have a point about letting him make his own decisions.”
“That’s not what you said last week when you were fine with injecting trackers into him without his knowledge.”
“That’s not the- I know what I said but…”
Raph trailed off. He sighed and took a seat next to Donnie’s desk. He squared his shoulders and Donnie could practically see him switching to big brother mode. Then he says, quietly.
“Donnie, listen. I… think Leo’s right.”
Now that would be a cold day in hell.
“About what?”
“Moving outta the med bay and back into his room.”
So that sound they had heard…
“You were eavesdropping on us?”
“No! Raph was just… exercising his right to move around the lair as he pleases and he just so happened to be standing outside the door as you were talking.”
Donnie stared up at him, unimpressed. Raph sweated.
“Okay, okay, Raph may have been eavesdropping, but he didn’t mean to!” Raph grabs his mask tails and twists them in his hands, “I wanted to apologize to Leo… for dinner. But I bailed. He’s had enough of me mother-henning him for a lifetime. And that’s exactly my point. I can’t keep making him go along with what’s best for me, or best for you.”
“So- just to make sure that ‘m hearing you correctly- you still think that Leo, our very injured brother, should be let back into his room?”
Raph sighs, a familiar sound.
“It’s been a while, Don, and he’s obviously not happy there. Raph doesn’t want to push him to do something that he doesn’t want to do.”
Raph fidgeted under his sibling’s gaze. Out of all of Donnie’s brothers, Raph was the worst at hiding his intentions, especially when it came to protecting all of them. Sticking to Leo’s wishes, (even if it was against Donnie’s better judgement) was obviously important to him for some reason, and he was clearly having a hard time covering it up. Wow, Donnie was two-for-two at guessing his brother’s feelings today. Score. They patted their brother on the arm empathetically.
“Raphala, you know that I fully support Leo’s… feelings on the matter. But we both know that it’s the best place for him. It has all of the necessary equipment in it.“
“But he doesn’t really need it anymore, Don. It’s been a month, and we’ve fixed him up as much as we can.”
“He needs that equipment, Raph,” Donnie clenches their fists, he’s not quite sure where this defensiveness is coming from, “He needs to be there in case…”
In case of what? Logically, Raph was right. Leo hadn’t been hooked up to any of the machines in there for at least 2 weeks. Realistically the only thing that Leo was using in there was the bed. Gauze and medical tape could be easily moved, there wasn’t anything keeping him there. So the question remains: in case of what?
Raph put a gentle hand on Donnie’s shoulder. They looked up at him and saw Raph’s eyes looking all watery and soft. Ugh, he’d said something wrong hadn’t he?
“What if… we move the equipment to his room? Just for the time being? That way if anything happens-“
“Which it won’t.”
“Which it won’t,” Raph corrected, “he’ll be safe and happy. It’s not fair to keep telling him the best way to do thing. We’ve got to let him do what he wants even if… if we don’t think it’s the best for him.”
Donnie was smart enough to realise that Raph wasn’t referring to this particular issue, but he was also smart enough not to mention it. Raph made a good point, but should Donnie go along with it?
Logically it was the best course of action, but emotionally… A ball of anxiety that he didn’t have the strength or emotional knowledge to untangle settled on his chest when he thought about Leo outside the safety of the med bay. But the feeling wasn’t concrete, it had too many unknown variables.
Logic won out.
“Scoff. Okay, okay, fine. You’ve pulled my leg. He can move back to his room in the morning.”
“Great!” Raph gave Donnie a pat on the back which only dislodged his goggles a little, “I knew that you’d come around Don. I can do all the heavy lifting, but Raph’s hands are build for smashing, not for plugging and wires. Do ya think you can handle that for me?”
Donnie repositioned his goggles and fiddled with his wrist communicator summoning his calendar. According to the meticulous chart he was fully-booked in the morning with upgrading the security alert systems and rewiring the proximity alarm, but… this was important to Raph.
“I… should be able to make some time for it.” Donnie adds it to the list.
“Thanks Don,” Raph squeezes Donnie’s shoulder and lets go, “Go get some sleep- at a reasonable hour this time.”
“My reasonable and your reasonable are two separate things.”
“You know what I mean Donnie. Get some rest, you need it.”
Raph exited the lab with a swish of the hydraulic doors, leaving Donnie on his own again. Raph was right, their sleep schedule had been a bit skewed after the invasion- which is saying something because it was royally messed up before. He really should get some sleep.
But then he sees the list still lit up, hovering above his wrist and painting the dim room in a luminescent purple glow. There was still so much to do…
Sleep could wait, Donnie decided. This was far more important.