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"Another movie, then?" Casey offers, hitting a wad of paper off the wall with his hockey stick. After bouncing off various obstacles--almost including Leo's head, if he hadn't sensed the projectile's path in time--it lands in the trash can.
"Case, if you didn't bring a flick, we can't exactly watch one," Raph shoots back from the couch, crossing his arms. "Y'know, 'cause it's kinda hard to hit up a store on the surface with looks like ours."
Mikey grins, calling from the kitchen, "Killer looks, obviously!"
Raph snorts and shoots back, "If by 'killer' you mean some poor old lady's weak heart givin' out after seein' your ugly mug, then sure, Mike."
Leo shakes his head in amusement, leaning back in his chair. He and April flip the last cards from their stacks simultaneously, revealing their draws to each other. April laughs when she has the better card, taking her reward gladly. "Don't let these guys fool you, Casey," She adds to the conversation as Leo reshuffles the deck. "They have plenty of movies to watch around here."
"Yeah, and they all suck," Raph cuts back in. He sits up, leaning over the back of the sofa to peak at their card game. He asks, "What're you two up to, anyway?"
Leo deals to April as he says, "A good old-fashioned game of war."
Mikey groans, skating back into the room with a bucket of popcorn in his hands, "Ugh, don't we deal with enough of that junk out on patrol? Why would you want more of it at home?" He steps off his board effortlessly, letting it steer into Casey's unsuspecting path. Casey swears and hops on one foot in pain as Mikey leans on the table, suggesting, "How about BS? That game's way better."
"No way," April shuts him down, frowning, "I have the worst time when I play that game- especially with you, Mikey."
Raph vaults the couch, already sold on the idea. He pokes, pulling up his seat, "You're just mad that he can read your poker face better than you can read his."
Mikey drops into his awaiting chair, whining, "C'mon, April! It's tradition! It's BS!"
"I'll show you BS," April mutters pointedly. Still, she scoots over, giving more room for Raph and Casey to join the table at their usual spots on either side of her.
Despite the show of annoyance, they all get sucked into the game immediately. An hour easily flies as they make up random rules and cheat mercilessly, making teams and betraying said teams over and over. Much popcorn is thrown, among other relatively non-lethal objects within reach. Raph cackles when Casey's head snaps back, having been smacked with a nearly-complete stack of cards -- as will occasionally happen when someone gets called on their B.S.
"Careful: having this much fun just might get in the way of Donnie's mission-moping," Mikey warns playfully on their fifth round, tossing three supposed Aces onto the pile messily. April straightens it out, shooting a look to the cards that are most certainly not Aces. She doesn't call him out though, set on getting her revenge at the last possible moment this round.
Raph frowns, looking towards the door leading to his twin's room, "Is he seriously still down in the dumps over that?" He had initially assumed that the genius had been planning on working late again rather than hanging out with their friends tonight, but Mikey's comment definitely recontextualizes the empty seat next to him. He sighs, "I should go check on him."
"Maybe just give him some space?" Leo suggests, slapping a card on the growing stack. He calls it a three, but Casey glares at the top of the pile with great suspicion. Leo smiles at him, daring the man to call his bluff. Casey backs down with a huff, having learned his lesson the last two rounds. Leo says to Raph, "He might just need time to himself. You know, to think."
Raph scoffs, "Yeah, like I ever let you get away with that sorry excuse either." Leo mumbles to himself, probably about how sulking in solitude is a perfectly normal way to recooperate, but otherwise he doesn't argue his point further. Raph stands, "I think I'll sit this round out. Mike, you get my cards."
Mikey squawks, "Hey! No fair! I'm only six cards from winnin', dude!" Casey and April laugh at his misfortune. Leo grins, tempted to allow it. Eventually, though, he gives into Mikey's incessant complaints, taking Raph's abandoned cards and distributing them evenly amongst the players. April shoots him a half-hearted glare, and he shrugs sheepishly.
Raph climbs the ladder to the balcony, knocking on Donnie's closed door. His brother doesn't answer--he considers the chance that his twin's already asleep. Unlikely. "Hey, Don?" Raph pokes his head into the room. "Are you.."
Unsurprisingly, Raph's right about Donnie being awake. Unexpectedly though, his brother isn't parked at his desk, tinkering away, or even perched on his bed with a book in hand. No--instead, Donnie's simply laying on the floor, a leg bent at the knee and both hands clasped on top of his plastron gently. He frowns thoughtfully at the ceiling.
Raph looks down at him, his face a picture of confusion and concern. "Uh.. Donnie? You alright down there?"
Donnie blinks with a start, finally tilting his head to meet Raph's narrowed gaze. Belatedly, he greets, "Oh, hey. Uh, yeah, I'm just.." He searches for a better response than the flat truth, but such a genius as he automatically recognizes the futility. He sighs, "Ah, who am I kidding? I've been laying on the floor the past few hours."
"Yikes. Don't look too comfy to me," Raph jests lightly, entering the room and shutting the door with a quiet click. He takes his seat a foot away from his brother, resting his shell against the bed frame. Donnie huffs a breathy laugh, eyes on the ceiling once more. "Eh, you'd be surprised. A little tough on the carapace but otherwise not too bad."
Raph hums vaguely. Silence rises and rolls away, gentle tide lapping at the lone bay. He says, "I'd ask what's eatin' you, but Mikey already gave that one to me."
"Darn," Donnie jokes, a half-baked smile lightening his face. "Here I thought I'd be asked a question to which I already had an answer."
"You know that you gave it your best shot, Don," Raph states, cutting to the chase, "but that whole thing was outta control. Don't take it too hard; you did what you had to do."
Donnie sighs, smile dropping and frustration leaking through, "I know that--logically, I know. But man, I just can't get it out of my head. I mean, imagine one of us in that position. We wouldn't know any better, and the idea of someone taking matters into their own hands like we had, something seemingly so permanent- it just.. I don't know," He finishes lamely, sagging in defeat. "I've been thinking about it non-stop, but I can't come up with anything more emotionally intelligent than.. something didn't feel right this time, Raph."
Raph understands that much; it hadn't felt quite right, having to take out something with such a childish demeanor, enemy or not. He almost felt.. dirty for it, afterwards. Like he crossed some sort of line--especially when all the kid had really wanted was a family. A dangerous and twisted parody of a family, sure, but the desire was still so real, so open.
They had to do something, though, regardless of that desire. And now? It's over. It's been over for days. Just about everyone has since moved onto the next item on their schedules; there's always a million and one objectives for a team like theirs. Yet here sits Raph's soft-hearted, ever-hopeful twin -- his twin who's arguably the busiest of them all -- still stewing in his hurt over the incident. Raph can't just ignore that.
So he pats his leg in offering, and Donnie looks over to him. It takes a second to click, but when it does, he shuffles closer to his twin, resting his head on Raph's thigh. They sit like that for ten or so minutes: Raph messing with Donnie's mask to make him grin or smack the offending hands away playfully, and Donnie pressing against his twin while they chat all the same.
Inevitably, Donnie winces, arching uncomfortably. Raph smirks smugly as his brother finally admits, "Okay, you win. This is the worst position I could've chosen."
"See? Told ya," Raph teases, flipping Donnie's mask tails into his face. Donnie blows them out of his face, unimpressed. He sits up slowly to stretch. Raph slides from under Donnie's lifted weight and rises to his feet. "Hey," Raph begins, headed for the door, "What do you think about cheatin' our friends outta a whole round of BS?"
Donnie scoffs, already following him, "We are not cheating at BS again."
"You always say that, then I magically end up with your cards on all the right turns.."