Work Text:
It’s one of the Brothers
There were two assassination attempts in the past week. Two of the four princes were nearly dead in the infirmary.
Raph and Leo.
Donnie’s two big brothers — were almost killed.
So many things about that left a bitter taste in Donnie’s mouth.
At the bottom of his long list of worries was a rather selfish one. It was the one his realistic brain forced him to listen to.
Raph, Leo, Donnie, Mikey was the order for the throne. Raph and Leo had attempts on their lives made in that order.
Donnie was next, wasn’t he?
As much as this thought kept Donnie awake at night, he chose to focus on his brothers now instead.
The third in line walked in the infirmary with a heavy heart. He was there for two reasons.
To visit his brothers, (only one of which had woken up).
To get Mikey to leave and go to fucking sleep.
They had too much pressure on them as the royal family at the moment for Mikey to be losing sleep. As hypocritical as Donnie was being in his point, he knew Mikey had to leave his brothers and go to bed. Even if only for a few hours.
Mikey was sitting exactly where he sat last time Donnie had come up to this tower. On a chair in between Leo and Raph’s beds. Although last time he wasn’t asleep on Leo’s bedsheets and drooling just a touch.
Donnie was tempted to wake his brother up but decided against it. Leo’s bandages needed to be changed anyway.
He filled a bowl of warm water in the sink and grabbed a rag from the cabinets. Then he grabbed his bandages and turned only to see Leo wide awake and attempting to sit up.
Donnie rushed over and gently placed a hand on his injured brother’s chest. “Just rest Leo, just rest.” He wasn’t an emotional person but he really wanted to cry right now.
His brother looked up at him with big, sad eyes. Donnie noted that the bruises on his neck looked better but still held a miserable deep purple hue.
Leo held up his hands and pointed to Mikey with a smirk on his face. At least Leo was still the same positive jester he was before someone tried to kill him.
(Just thinking someone tried to kill his wonderful big brothers made Donnie more mad than he cared to admit in polite company.)
Leo then signed ‘when did Mikey get in here?’
Donnie chuckled. “You’ve been asleep for almost 12 hours, Nardo. He’s been in here for most of it.”
Leo frowned and signed ‘That’s not very healthy.’
“I know, I came in here to tell him to go to bed. I was going to have him sleep in my bed while I worked at my desk but apparently he had other plans.” Donnie laughed just a touch. “I was planning on drugging him if he refused but I suppose that won’t be necessary.”
Leo just smiled.
Donnie sat down on Leo’s bed and started mindlessly rubbing his baby brother’s shoulder. Mikey seemed to lean into the touch.
Absent-mindedly, Donnie spoke a question into the air.
“Is it going to be okay?”
He turned to see if Leo would respond. After a moment of hesitation Leo raised his hands and signed ‘it will. I’m sure it will.
‘Things like this happen in royal families sometimes. We all lived, we will recover, then we will rule like literal kings one day.’
Donnie let a smile creep onto his face before it fell again as he glanced over at Raph.
He couldn‘t bring himself to speak so he instead signed ‘maybe not all of us are okay.’
Leo turned towards Raph. ‘He still hasn’t woken up yet, has he?’
Donnie sighed and shook his head. They sat in a painful silence for a moment, only broken when Mikey let out a soft snore.
He took a deep breath and walked over to his little brother. “Whelp, if you don’t mind I’ll be taking this,” he scooped up Mikey bridal style. His head fell into the crook of Donnie’s neck. “I would let him keep napping in here with you guys but—“
‘—It’s unhealthy to stay cooped up in one room like he has for so long,’ Leo nonverbally interjected.
Donnie would have shot his brother finger guns of approval if he weren’t holding Mikey so instead he just said “Bingo.” He turned towards the door and heard a banging sound behind him.
He turned and Leo quickly signed “I love you.”
Normally Donnie would roll his eyes or scoff at the emotion but this time he was compelled to repeat it.
“I love you too bro.”
And that was that.
~
Donnie hadn’t known when he had fallen asleep, but he woke up in his bed with a book across his chest. He was facing one of his windows and could clearly see it was nighttime. Most likely some ungodly hour of the morning.
He had an awful feeling deep in his stomach, not helped by the fact that tonight was a blood moon and the typically calming moonlight that would be streaming into his room was a violent shade of crimson.
Was it an omen?
It also didn’t help that when he looked to his side and expected to see his baby brother peacefully sleeping, he just found wrinkled bed sheets.
Shit.
Donnie’s theory was that Mikey woke up and went straight back to their brothers. It was stupid and irresponsible and totally something Mikey would do.
Donnie slid out of bed and upon feeling the cold stone floors made a beeline for his slippers. Once he had his feet shields on he made his way out the door and to the infirmary.
The castle halls were bathed in an ominous red glow. He yawned every few steps he took on his midnight brother hunt. He probably should’ve been paying more attention to his surroundings but he just couldn’t be bothered right now.
When he got to the infirmary the door was wide open. Donnie walked inside expecting to see Mikey curled up on his brother’s bed sheets like earlier.
Instead he saw blood.
Blood was splattered on the walls and across the floor, but it was concentrated on…
Oh no
…his brothers’ beds.
Immediately he ran to Leo’s side and knelt down next to him. His face looked too calm, too peaceful for the blood splattered across it. His neck bore a massive gash that nearly made Donnie gag to look at it.
This was horrific.
Before Donnie could collapse on top of his brother and sob his little heart out over the death of one, he recalled the brother laying in the next bed over.
Raph.
He ran around Leo’s bed and fell at Raph’s side only to find a similar gash across his neck. The blood was fresh…
…this was recent.
He watched Raph’s chest for a rise and fall he knew wasn’t present. He reached for his big brother’s wrist and scrambled to find a pulse.
Nothing.
They were dead.
They were dead!
That was the last conversation he would ever have with Leo.
And he couldn't recall his last moment with his eldest brother before Raph had been poisoned.
Tears made their way down Donnie’s face and a sob pushed past his lips.
All Donnie wanted to do was bring his brothers back. Close behind that was lay by their bedsides and sob forever.
But a single thought crossed through his mind that stopped his plans to never move from his brothers’ sides again.
Where was Mikey?
~
Donnie sprinted down the bloody red halls in a blind panic. He was scared of calling out for Mikey in case the attacker was after him. He constantly checked his surroundings. There were no guards in any of the hallways. Where they had gone, Donnie had no idea. He would have gone back to his room and grabbed his bo staff but he had no time.
Mikey…
He wasn’t losing another brother today.
Donnie dashed down the stairs and past the throne room. As he passed by he spared it a glance.
Would he inherit that throne one day?
But then he saw something and stopped running.
“Mikey!”
Mikey was kneeling in front of the throne on one knee. Donnie could see the glint of a blade from where he stood.
“Mikey I’m so glad I found you. We have to run, I can’t find any guards.” He stepped closer and closer with every word.
Mikey stayed silent.
Donnie became suspicious.
“Mikey?”
Mikey didn’t move an inch.
When Donnie was about ten feet away he reached out a timid hand. “Mikey?”
“Don’t come any closer Donatello.”
Mikey's voice was dead and chilled. It was nothing like the voice of the brother Donnie loved.
“Mikey,” Donnie said, frozen in place, “we have to leave. It’s not safe here.” A pause. “Mikey, Raph and Leo were killed by an intruder and I have reason to believe they are coming for us.”
“‘Us’?” the cold voice asked.
Donnie was getting frustrated and still scared out of his mind. “Michael, we have to go! We are in serious danger!” The idea that his shouting would attract the assassin was an afterthought.
He started walking towards Mikey again. Donnie grabbed his baby brother’s wrist, the one that wasn’t holding the blade, (for self defense, right?), and pulled him up. He began to drag Mikey towards the throne room doors.
“We are leaving because we are in danger here Mikey.”
Once again, the voice asked “‘We’?”
Then Donnie heard it.
Awful, chilly little,
giggles.
Donnie finally turned to face the youngest, and almost immediately regretted it.
Mikey’s face was downcast and his small frame shook with each unwarranted chuckle.
Then he did something he regretted.
“Why are you laughing?”
Mikey responded quietly through his little giggles. “We— we Donatello…
“…we are not both in danger.”
In an instant the giggles stopped and Mikey swung his weapon. Donnie narrowly avoided the silver of the blade and fell down to the floor.
“Mikey what the fuck!” he exclaimed. The second youngest, (Oldest?), began to scutch away from his attacker on his butt. Michelangelo approached with a stoney and haunting expression on his face, one Donnie wishes he could erase from his memory forever. His eyes were lacking their normal life and love, replaced with an empty happiness that matched far too well at this moment. His sword was held lamely at his side and his posture was stalky and intense. “Mikey…”
Just before Mikey could strike again, Donnie reached behind him in a desperate attempt and found a weapon on one of the suits of armor lining the room. Just before the sword can cut through his midsection, Donnie blocks with his own.
Like that, a fight began.
Donnie had to block several more times whilst on the ground. He eventually pushed himself up and began to properly defend.
He wasn’t looking at his brother’s face but he heard Mikey giggle once again.
He couldn’t help himself. “What?” he asked.
Mikey giggled again between swings. Donnie could see the familiar face of his brother past the shining sword blades. “What, what?”
How was any of this real? “How are you fucking laughing right now Michael?”
Mikey let out one more breathy laugh as he dodged a hit to the back of his neck.
“Funny, is all. None of this feels real. I feel like I’m floating right now. My dream for years and years has been to be the oldest child, and now it might just come true!”
“But why Mikey?” Their swords clashed. “Why did you have to kill our brothers!”
Donnie’s yelling seemed to snap Mikey out of it and suddenly the mood shifted.
“Why do you think, Donnie? Why do you think? I think you’re the only one of us who can understand the pain of being last in line.”
“Us!” Donnie exclaimed. “There is no us! You killed them, Mikey, you killed them!”
“Donatello, I love all of you with all of my heart, but I was going mad. Our whole lives our purpose was to inherit the throne, something I would never do.
“I did this to prove myself. To Raph, to Leo, and to you.”
Donnie saw a small tear drip down Mikey’s.
“I want you all to see me. Watch me lead. Watch me rule.”
He giggled for the one thousandth time that night.
“I got support from unexpected places, sponsorships that approved of my unruly methods and affinity for the darker things in life.”
Suddenly Donnie felt his feet be swept out from under him. He landed on his butt and his weapon went flying in the process.
“But,” Mikey chuckled, “but none of that is of any concern to you, Donatello.”
“I love you.”
And then he struck.