Chapter Text
"Dee, no offense but i'm not much of a writer like you-"
Leo mused awkwardly, he wasn't sure where this came from but there he was, sat on his bed with a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach and a way too thick book placed neatly in his hands complete with an overbearing and obviously cross brother staring at him with this gaze as if he were expecting something. At Leo's words though, the purple clad sighed deeply and rolled his eyes.
"It's a journal…"
The soft shell started carefully, his sharpied brow already twitching in irritation.
"...And we got it for you to write about your feelings."
Leo snorted, studying Donnie for any tell-tale signs of the soft shell's lame attempt at a joke but when his brother stood straight shelled with a pout and a deep frown, arms crossed and tapping impatiently on his own arm, the slider cleared his throat and coughed, allowing for his vision to fall back onto its leathery cover. As stated before, Leo was never much of a writer, for fun and dramatics maybe he could manage, but to write about something as serious and complicated as his feelings? Impossible and clearly there was no room for protest, not with the cold hard glare he was getting.
If looks could kill he would've been dead the moment he opened his mouth to say anything but thank you.
With a hesitant hum, he traced his finger along the book's spine and edges and with an encouraging nod from the obviously still irritated Donnie, he opened it.
To our dearest brother, Hamato Leonardo, who has not left his rooms in weeks other than to eat and do other life saving activities. May this journal help you come to terms with your feelings and may you know that we are always here for you.
From the superior brother and the rest of your family. We love you dearly.
Ignoring the unnecessary claim of superiority, he stared at the first page for a long while, picking absent-mindedly at the unicorn stickers (more than likely the work of Mikey) and flattening them back down. Well, this is a family project it seems. With the book still opened on his lap, he ran his finger over everyone's signature on the page and clicked his tongue. He wasn't sure what to say to this, it was a thoughtful gift he supposed but it was one he wasn't entirely sure how to use. Again, writing was not his strong suit.
"You don't have to write perfect english. It's your journal, go crazy."
As if Donnie had read his mind, Leo snapped out of his thoughts, looking back towards his brother who's expression was now much softer than it had been previously. Leo opened his mouth to respond but paused when Donnie raised his hand to continue speaking.
"We got this journal for you because we know you have a hard time talking about how you're feeling so we hypothesized… that maybe it'd be easier if you wrote about it instead."
Now, Leo definitely had nothing to say. Donnie huffed, the awkward tension finally getting to him as he took a step back towards the door and then turned his shell fully towards Leonardo to exit the room, only making the effort to pause once, just in case Leo had something he wanted to say. When the slider could only offer up a gentle chirrup as his final say, the soft shell chirped back quietly and left, shutting the door behind him and leaving Leo alone with a book in his hand.
In the familiar silence of his room, the slider pursed his lip and hummed to himself, gliding the book out of his lap and relocating it onto his desk, having to use his arm to shove away the wrappers and bottles to make room for it. He kicked away dirty clothes that stopped his chair from sliding out all the way and promptly plopped himself onto it, turning to a new page, lips still pursed and his eyes wide as he stared with thoughts as blank as the page in front of him.
"Okay." He finally said, his voice a gentle whisper as he reached for a pen with a unicorn topper, uncapping it and placing it onto the blank page, the ink pooling before he finally moved his hand across the page. "Let's do this."
THIS JOURNAL BELONGS TO HAMATO LEONARDO!
IF LOST RETURN TO HIM!
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, IF YOU AREN'T HIM.
DO NOT READ.