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Chapter Text

“STOP! Put your weapons down.” A new voice rang out over the warehouse just as Leo had put his hand up – a signal that had his well-attuned team of brothers cease fighting immediately.

Leo’s excellent situational awareness had just clocked that they were surrounded. Not only by the rough-looking gang members on the ground floor with them, but now by several goons with guns on the second level catwalk. He’d been loath to give up that high ground of course, but it’d been empty moments before and there were so many thugs grouped together on the ground floor in need of that special brand of ninja diplomacy – the only language these grabby city startup gangs seemed to understand.

“It’s so good of you to join us, really, I’m – can I say I’m honored? I’m honored. You’re a legend. More of an urban myth. I’m so excited and I think I speak for all of us and – AND – the boss when I say it’s a delight to meet you.” A man stepped out before them, and Leo took in a million details all at once. His clothes: a suit, pristine. His stature: slim, short, no muscle. His speech: oily and confident. This guy was the gang mouthpiece. “There’s no need to fight!” He held up his hands as if in surrender. A gesture utterly belied by the number of guns and fists targeted on the four turtles. “We have a proposition of sorts for you! I think you’ll like it. Really win-win stuff. Of course, let me introduce myself: the name’s Hermy. And you must be….?” He actually extended his hand towards Leo as if offering for him to walk over and shake it.

Bluffing. Leo scoffed to himself. This man “Hermy” no more wanted to shake his hand than he would to stick it in alligator’s mouth. Leo stoically stood where he was, and Hermy quickly withdrew his hand and continued.   

“This place is no good for doing business though, look at this mess. Every whisper in here just echoes all over the place, eh? So,” Hermy squared his gaze straight on Leo, “how’s about me and Blue go somewhere a little more comfortable to chat?”

“We can chat here.” Leo stated. His katana were lowered but both still firmly in his grasp. His ears took in a soft clacking of bullet rounds on the catwalk above. Something clearly larger than a pistol or rifle was up there. This had been an ambush. No way out. At least not without somebody getting hit.

“Ahh, well, here’s the thing… It’s so hard to do business off-site. Negotiations, eh, these things take time, right?” Hermy shrugged his smarmy shoulders. “And listen, these guys all here?” Hermy gestured to the brutish looking men surrounding them. “They’re on the clock right now and frankly, that ain’t cheap. So, I really only need the one of you. The rest of your guys – hey, go get a sandwich. Go take a nap. That was some grade A stunt work you did a minute ago, go take a break, you earned it. Blue here will be back home before you know it.”

“Leo’s not going anywhere with you.” Raph growled.

Leo cringed internally. Real names, Raph. Why would you even give him that?

“Oh! Oh, my apologies, Leo.” Hermy said smugly.

“You greasy piece of sh –“ Raph moved forward and suddenly the whole warehouse was on edge again. Leo put a hand on Raph’s chest and stopped him immediately.

Hermy looked on with a calculating gaze. He smiled. “Of course, you should talk this over, the whole team. Go on, take your time.” He motioned for the surrounding thugs to back off a few steps. “Take all the time you need. The thing is….” His smile dropped “I really do hope you’ll play ball with us here. We could have a really good thing going. But if you weren’t amiable…. if you were just out there, unaccountable while we were trying to run operations over here, well, that’d just be bad business, eh?” His eyes narrowed, something metal and heavy in the catwalk shifted slightly, and the threat was clear.

Leo turned his back on Hermy and met the wide and worried eyes of Donnie and Mikey.

Raph jumped in his face to be dealt with first though. “No. No way. We don’t even know these creeps. They could be working for Bishop for all we know!”

“Do you see another way out of here?” Leo’s tone was a response to Raph, but his eyes directed the question to Donnie.

Don shook his head. “They’ve got everything covered. There’s an M249 machine gun up there!” Donnie looked excited despite the situation.

“Dude, I am so flattered. Bring this up to me every day after we get home and out of here.” Mikey glanced nervously about the warehouse.

“I’ll go with them –“ Leo started

“No.” Raph said.

“Just until there’s an opportunity to break away – “

“No.” Raph said again.

“Or negotiate us out of this mess.” Leo finally finished with an exasperated look at Raph.

Raph glared for a solid second. “Then I go with you.”

“Raph,” Leo frowned. “I need you to look after Don and Mikey –“

“We can’t split up!” Mikey squeaked, interrupting. “That’s the worst strategy!”

“Uh, Don and Mikey will be fine, thanks, but let’s talk about how this is a terrible idea –“ Donnie started.

“I really hate to rush you,” Hermy’s voice called over to them, “But it’s not sounding like we’re making a lot of decisions over there…? It’s just, I’m just gonna point this out, so we’re not wasting each other’s time here and all, that you really only have the one choice….” His hand raised, a signal to the gunman above. Apparently, time was up.

“Alright asshole,” Raph spoke before Leo could. And then, alarmingly, Leo felt Raph’s hand clench onto his wrist. “Let’s go do some negotiating. Me, you and Blue here. Ain’t that how negotiations work? We say four guys, you say one, I say two?”

 Leo tried to test the hold and get his hand wrist free of Raph’s grip, but it only tightened. It was clear he wouldn’t be able to break free without completely flipping his brother in front of a room full of enemies. Nice, Raph. I’m going to kill you.

Hermy looked displeased for a moment before his oily smile was back to cover it. “Of course, that’s the game, after all.” He made a gesture to some men behind him, who came forward with restraints. “Just a precaution, you understand. I’m sure we’re all gonna be good friends once we get to know each other.”

“Best friends till the day one of us dies.” Raph didn’t bother to mutter under his breath, and the man starting to tie his restraints swallowed nervously.

Donnie watched with his best poker face as Leo and Raph were relieved of their weapons, cell phones, gear and anything else that could’ve been used to track them.

“It’s a bit of drive, hope you don’t mind.” Hermy started walking to the back doors, obviously expecting Leo and Raph to follow him with hands bound behind their backs.

“Wait.” Leo commanded, looking back and Mikey and Donnie and the room full of hostility they were leaving them in. “They walk free out of here, then we follow you.”

“Oh – of course!” Hermy backtracked. “Where are my manners. After you two!”

“Dude,” Michealangelo stepped towards the door hesitantly, shaking his head at Leo and Raph. “Have fun making friends with the super friendly new friend guys...” The uncertainty on his face made Leo’s stomach twist. Get out of here, Mikey!

Donnie followed after Mike, but not before catching Leo’s eyes and mouthing: “This is really bad idea.”

Yes, Donnie, we all see that. But thanks for the one last vote of no confidence. Leo glared at him until he too was out the door and out of sight.

“Shall we, gentlemen?” Hermy started walking and Leo and Raph reluctantly followed.

Step one, Leo thought, away from the machine gun. So far so good.

Chapter Text

“Okay, okay, so what’s the plan?” Mikey nervously bounced on his toes on the rooftop next-door to the warehouse, where he and Don had a full view of their brothers being blindfolded and ushered into a black SUV below. “Do we drop them now? Later? Once they’re gone, they’re gone, right? No trackers? Can you shoot a tracker onto the van now? Can I just run down there real quick and stick it on? You think they’d notice?” Mike babbled, already feeling the loss of Raph and Leo being there to tell him to shut up so they could focus already.

“Stay here Mikey.” Don shook his head. “We’re not going down there just to be right back in the same predicament, and now Leo and Raph are hostages….” He ran a hand down his face and muttered to himself “License plate…traffic cams…Shit,” Don cursed when the SUV doors closed, and Mikey’s stomach sank to hear it. Don may have been keeping calm on the outside, but he was panicking just like Mikey right now.

The engine started and wheels started rolling. “Dude, we’re losing them. The traffic cam thing, you got that now? Like right now, that’s gonna work? Yes, no?” Mike anxiously looked from the car to Donnie, his legs bouncing even more, ready to propel him on a chase.

“No, I don’t got that right now. It’s all back at the lair! Mikey!” Donnie hissed as Mike was already trotting away from him.

“Sorry dude! It’s now or never, sorry!” With one last apologetic look over his shoulder, Mikey was gone, sprinting over rooftops after the car.

“Mikey, wait!” Don gasped in vain. He picked his feet up and forced himself to follow, but he knew from plenty of experience that it would be impossible for him to match Mike’s speed. And to add to the frustrating futility of it all, there was almost no way Mike was going to keep up the with SUV either.

He kept running as fast as he could, rooftop after rooftop, Mike and the car always somewhere ahead, until his lungs were straining and he lost track of their last move. He had to stop to get his bearings, racing heartbeat drowning out his hearing. He scanned the skyline and felt relieved to see Mike’s silhouette a few rooftops ahead, thankfully, blessedly, standing still.

“I lost them!” Mikey said, distraught, as soon as Don came near. “I can’t keep following, they took the highway, there’s not enough rooftop.” Mike paced.

How can you possibly still have movement left in you? Don thought, catching his breath.

Mikey stopped suddenly, looking right at Donnie. “The guys back at the warehouse! We get one of them, they tell us where to go, right?”

“Uh, possibly -” Don quickly tried to think through every fault in this new plan, but Mike wasn’t waiting around to hear it.

“Crap, and they’re all leaving right now.” He turned on his heels, back the direction he came. “I gotta go get one! Okay, Donnie, meet you there!” his voiced trailed out, leaving Don gaping at his retreating back.

“Mikey!” Don called. And maybe it was exertion, or maybe it was that the whole world was moving too fast in the wrong direction, but Don felt moisture prick his eyes. I can’t believe he just left me again! “Michealangelo!” He growled out of frustration, not that Mike could hear him.

Okay, think… Don jogged in the direction Mike had left, but at a much more reasonable pace. Wherever he was going and whatever he was doing next, showing up breathing like an asthmatic wasn’t going to help.

Leo and Raph were gone. They can handle themselves. At least, for a little while. Everything he needed to learn about their captors, he could find out once they were back in the lair. Every move you’ve ever made, every transaction, every name you’ve ever used… there’s nowhere you can hide from me.

But right now, Mikey was barreling at his breakneck speed back towards a house full of thugs and possibly the barrel of a machine gun. You idiot, why can’t you slow down? I’m gonna lose every brother I have in one night!

At this thought, Donnie did pick up the pace, overexertion be damned. What a sucky night…please, please, PLEASE be doing reconnaissance when I find you, Mike.

But clearly that was not what Mike was doing when Don finally arrived within earshot of the warehouse. Grunting and fighting and the unmistakable sounds of his brother’s nunchucks over the whole thing reached his ears, but the scene was far better than the worst-case scenario he’d been imagining. Firstly, they were outside the warehouse with no machine gun in sight, and secondly, it seemed only a few guys had hung around the area, and Mike was in control of the fight so far.

“Aw c’mon, man” Mikey deftly dodged to the right of a pipe coming down where his head had been a split-second earlier. “I just need to nab you like, real quick for a little Q and A…”

Another thug ran out of the warehouse and, seeing the fight, yelled back through the doors “Get Johnny with the boombox!” before circling up with his buddies around Mikey.

Get who with the what now – oh shit! Don had only a second to ponder before someone, presumably ‘Johnny,” came out hauling the machine gun with him.

Don jumped into action, the end of his bo connecting with the top of the gunman’s head just as the weapon was cocked. “Johnny” crumbled to the ground.

“Now to get rid of you.” Don muttered to the M249, lifting it upright and inspecting the cover. He lifted it and hastily cleared bullets and brass from inside. Oh –definitely could’ve put the safety on before I did that. Oh well. He belatedly flipped the safety switch and manipulated the back stock until it hinged backwards, revealing a series of pins that Don quickly undid with delight until the gun was mostly disassembled parts in a pile in front of him. Nifty.

It had only taken seconds, but he looked up to scope Mike’s situation worriedly, feeling like he’d abandoned him with no Raph or Leo out there to watch his back. There were still two goons looking furious at Mike as he weaved and danced just out of their reach.  

“Dudes, I don’t wanna have to knock you out or anything! Then I gotta wait around for you to wake up, possibly work through some brain damage…it’ll just be so much easier if you could calm down and tell us where the car went. Woah – ah!” In the heat of his taunting, Mike’s foot caught on some scrap cable lying on the ground, and the two thugs seized the opportunity and lunged at him.

Don’s heart squeezed every ounce of adrenaline it had into his muscles and he leapt, successfully intersecting one of the men headed towards Mikey with his bo right before the back of his head erupted in pain and his vision exploded like fireworks.

“Donnie!” He heard Mike cry, and then there was a series of movements and sounds around him that felt weirdly like it was happening a hundred miles away. Keep fighting! He thought blearily, but by the time his fists came up at the ready (when did I drop my bo?), his two attackers were lying still on the ground in front of him, their faces bruised and bloodied by the extreme force of the nunchucks that had stopped their dancing for a much more serious finale.

“What the heck, Donnie! I had them!” Mike came over to pick Don’s bo off the ground and hand it back to him. “What were you thinking, man?” He peered into Don’s slow blinking eyes. “You okay?”

“Uhhh…” Don said intelligently, his hand reaching for the back of throbbing head. “He got me…”

“Yeah, no kidding he got you. That's what happens when you randomly jump in the middle of someone else's fight! Wait,” Mike held up two fingers and waved them in front of Don’s face. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Mmm,” Don shut his eyes tight, ignoring Mikey’s question. “Ow, gah, my head hurts. I think I just need to sit down a sec.”

“Yeah, okay,” Mikey put a hand under Don’s arm to help steady him. “It’s just, I really can’t carry you and one of these chonk boys at the same time, y’know?” He tilted his head towards their would-be informants lying motionless on the ground. “So are you about to pass out, or…” He stopped as the sound of tires pulling up interrupted him.

“Crap.” Mike muttered. It could be backup goons, it could be police, heck, it could be random joyriders, it didn’t really matter. “Okay, can you-“ Mike paused and looked at him worriedly before sighing, and Don’s sluggish brain realized that he’d been assessed and found wanting. “Never mind. Okay, up we go!” Mike slung Don’s arm over his shoulder. He called back to his body count laying on the ground, “Next time, dudes!”

Chapter Text

Leo sat on leather seats, uncomfortable with his hands restrained behind his back and the blindfold robbing him of his sight. Raph sat beside him in the same predicament, and two armed thugs rustled around the back seats with them. They rode in silence while Leo mentally counted traffic lights, left turns, right turns, and his best guess at their speed. To his growing frustration, it was turning into a long drive, and his mental map was far more attuned to city rooftops than streets.

Beside him, Raph shifted his head as if trying to look out of the car and back from where they’d come.

Wishing you were back there right now, Raph? Out of this car, back with Mike and Donnie, and about a thousand times more helpful than you are currently? Leo huffed through his nose. Their captors were too close for a private conversation, but he felt safe risking a few whispered lines in Japanese to his brother, “You could’ve stayed. I hope you’re happy.”

He could feel Raph’s stubborn glare in his direction even through the blindfold. Raph understood every word Leo spoke, but getting him to speak back in fluent Japanese was like pulling teeth. “You. Need. Me,” he ground out. “I am happy.” And then, because he knew it would annoy, he finished in the most Brooklyn accent possible: “Domo arigato.”

Leo didn’t bother reacting to that. With his “I told you so’s” out of the way, he was never one to dwell on the past, especially when their immediate future so desperately needed his attention.

“So, what’s the plan?” Raph whispered.

Annnd his annoyance was back. Whatever it is, it would be so much easier with only one person to worry about… Leo stopped his train of thought and breathed deeply. No, his emotions were getting in the way, and it wouldn’t help anything. Raph was Raph: loyal with every fiber of his being and never afraid to shoulder the load of any problems facing them. At the end of the day, Raph was probably the one person who could make him feel less alone in the world.

He caught Raph turning his head back again and knew his thoughts without even having to ask.

“They’ll be fine.” Leo assured. “They’ll probably figure out where we are even before we do - and we’ll run into them on the outside when we get out.”

Raph grunted an affirmative.

_________________________________________________________________

Mike made his way back through the sewer tunnels, and Don seemed steady enough trailing a step behind him, much to Mikey’s relief.

That relief lasted until about halfway back when Don stopped suddenly and looked at him. “Oh, did you pick up those gun parts? I took it apart back off to the side –“ Don waved a loosey-goosey hand over to his left, “closer to the warehouse…?”

“Uhh…” Mike glanced at his hands, which had been very obviously empty for the duration of their walk. “Noooo…?” he tried to answer unsuspiciously.  Yoohoo Donnie, where ya been, bro? Kinda thought you were right behind me this whole time?

Don looked disappointed and confused. Mike would have none of that. “It’s okay though, we can grab it when we come back and bust Leo and Raph out!” Mike reassured him, pulling an arm around him so they could both start walking again. And when you’re back to normal. Pleeeease be back to normal soon.

They made it back through the lair doors and Don bee-lined for his mass of computer screens in the corner, thinking out loud as he brought programs online, “I’ll run the search on warehouse address in the background and start checking street cam footage manually…”

 Mike followed and rested his chin against the back of Don’s computer chair as his brother typed. Windows of databases and running lines of code popped up all around them with flashes of blue light and green code, and Mike unfocused his eyes for a moment so the colored light would wash over him like a fireworks display.

He was brought out of his dissociative state when Don groaned and rubbed his thumbs into his eye sockets. Mike frowned.

“Hey, isn’t that bad for you? Like, if you have a concussion, you’re not supposed to stare at screens, right?”

“Well…it’s more about it being painful more than anything. It’s not going to cause any permanent damage,” Don answered, finally opening his eyes and blinking them rapidly as if trying to get them ready for another round of blue light.

Right, and we both know you can’t exactly stop and take a break while I play super hacker instead. Mike thought miserably. “Okay, so Tylenol then? A buttload of Tylenol? All the Tylenol you can take until you’re one pill from away from being one of those loopy dental patients that everyone takes videos of?”

Don snorted. “Tylenol won’t do that,” then he added with a smirk “So yeah, a buttload of Tylenol, please and thank you.” 

“You got it!” Mike skipped to the kitchen, relieved that the crushing weight of feeling useless was pulled off him, at least for a moment. He returned with the pills and big glass of water, setting it down on the desk.

“T-Thanks,” Don stopped typing to down the pills, then rubbed at his shoulders with chattering teeth.

“You cold bro? You want a blanket?” Mike reached over to the couch and pulled off the well-worn ‘movie comfy time’ blanket that resided there. “Here you go,” Mikey draped it over Don’s shoulders and tucked the edges around his chair before he took stock of the fact that it wasn’t really that cold at all in the lair. He looked at Don quizzically.

“Thanks Mikey,” Don said, sighing. “It’s probably a fever. It’s a symptom of a concussion, sometimes.”

“Oh…” Mike said, racking his brain for another way to help and coming up empty. He must’ve looked as uncomfortable as he felt, shifting his weight and standing there uselessly in the glow of Don’s computer screens, because Don took pity on him and turned his swivel chair around to fully face Mikey.

“It’s okay Mikey. There’s really nothing much you can do about it. You know that.”

And Mike did know that – they all did, all having a good grasp and plenty of practice on first aid. But it still sucked, not being able to help.

“I’m gonna get these guys though,” Don continued, “I hope they like frozen assets. And every dirty little secret they’ve kept since the fifth grade exposed to the FBI…” he trailed off darkly, before reining it in to hit Mike with a reassuring, if a little unfocused, gaze, “Leo and Raph can take care of themselves too though, and I’ll be fine, so try not to worry.” With that, he turned back to typing.

“Yeah, okay…”   

That’s not as reassuring as you think it is, Don. Want if I want to worry a little, huh?

Mike didn’t voice his objections though, instead dragging one foot and then the other as he meandered over to the opposite side of the large living space, coming to a stop in front of Raph’s punching bag. He wrapped both arms around the bag, giving it a giant hug and lifting his feet off the ground until he was swinging softly. Just a big turtle hugging a squishy column and swaying aimlessly. 

If Raph were here, he’d be making the bag beg for mercy right about now, the steady thwack, thunk of his punches echoing in the living room. And Mike would be standing close by, maybe chatting, maybe quiet, but it wouldn’t matter because Raph hated waiting around and feeling useless just as much as he did, and having each other’s company meant the world when they could endure the downtime together.

The bag turned slowly, slowly, until Mike could see the back of Don’s computer chair, the solitary silhouette of Don’s head against the harsh light of the screens. And that was another thing wrong with this picture - if Leonardo had been here, he would’ve been standing right by Don, one hand holding the back of the computer chair as they pored over info and planned together.

Leo would’ve handled Don’s concussion too, telling him to take a break and rest until he could think straight, if that’s what Don really needed. Then Mikey wouldn’t have to be the responsible one with this burning uncertainty in his gut.

Mike hopped off the bag and steadied it before giving it an experimental thwack of his own. The noise broke the silence that was oppressing the lair, and Mike decided he liked it. He laid into it with a roundhouse kick, followed by three jabs to the front and then a side kick. He kept going, sweat starting to drip, punch after punch, until he didn’t miss Raph so much, because it didn’t sound like Raphael was missing at all.

His energy eventually waned, and Mikey found himself in the kitchen, as he so often did. His domain, his refuge, his sanctum. His bag of chips. He grabbed handfuls while he decided what to actually eat.

Something easy like – bingo, mac and cheese. He yawned hugely before grabbing the box from the cupboards. Oh my god, what time is it? It’s waaaaaay past bedtime. Did we just skip right past dinner today? I can’t even remember.

He set a pot of water to boil and tried to imagine what Leo and Raph were up to at that same moment.

 Leo notices an opening when their guards aren’t paying attention and they sneak off quietly – but wait, one big guy still guards the door! Raph gets him in a sleeper hold before he can even yell, and down he goes. Out the back door they slip, back home to eat all this mac and cheese before I can even get a bite. It’s okay, I make a second box. Everybody is happy. Annnd scene.

Mike sighed. Maybe his brothers were actually about to walk right in, eager to share their epic escape story. It wasn’t unlikely, after all. They were both next-level ninjas and both of them together could probably do anything. They would take of each other. They’d be fine.  

It’d be for the best, for sure. Mike was starving, exhausted, and about ten minutes away from crashing face-first onto the couch for a few hours of sleep. Executing a rescue mission while he felt so bone-tired and brain-dead wasn’t good judgement. Not that he’d often been accused of good judgement, but hey, he could be responsible too sometimes.

He stuck his hand back into his bag of chips only to discover it was a mostly empty mess of crumbs. Nooooo tell me I did NOT just stress eat this whole bag. Uhhhg, I’m such a wreck.

“Mikey,” speaking of wrecks, Don stood in the kitchen doorway, looking awful. “Come in here, I found something.”

“Already? That was fast…”

Don led him back to the computer where a map was pulled up on the screen. “Yeah, well, I’m still working on getting some real info on these guys, but I do have this,” He pointed to a location on the map. “It’s an office building with several basement levels, and I’m…” he tilted a hand left to right, “eighty-five percent certain that’s where they went.” Don stood up and grabbed his bo from the corner where it was leaning. He was still shaky, with a layer of sweat now covering his forehead. He looked at Mikey with sunken eyes, “I’m grabbing a few things for the bag, then we can go.”

Mike watched him leave with that sinking feeling in his gut growing. It made his stomach full of chips queasy, and Mike could image the acid bubbling around in there, almost as if it was gurgling at him: Bad, bad, bad. Do something. Say something.

“Hey, Donnie?” He said as Don came back, shoving the gadgets in his crossbody bag around so he could zip it. “Maybe…maybe we shouldn’t go.”

Don paused to look at him, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, just not right now. I’ve got a bad feeling about it because, well, you,” Mike gestured to all of Don and tried to put it politely, “you look really bad.” Don scowled at him, and Mikey quickly changed tactics to put the focus on himself, “And I’m like, zonked out right now, dude. I’m hungry, I’m tired, and I feel like I could be fighting some guy like whoosh whoosh whoosh,” Mike mimed holding his nunchucks “and then BAM! Right in my own face! It’s no bueno. Plus, Leo and Raph could be totally fine, too, because they said they would be! Leo was like,” and here, Mike made his best serious face, “‘I got this, I’ll be right back guys.’ And Raph was totally: ‘It’s dangerous to go alone, take this!’ and the ‘this’ was himself, so they’re probably okay…”

Mike trailed off, looking at Don’s still scowling face. He obviously wasn’t on board. Please listen. I’m really serious about this. Please don’t push me, bro. I’ll cave; I’ll seriously cave so hard…

But push back Don did.

“Mikey, every second counts right now. The longer we wait to do something, the worse odds of something bad happening to Leo and Raph. Or they get moved to another location. We can’t wait around and I’m not putting them in jeopardy because you’re tired and hungry and you ‘have a bad feeling.’”

Mikey bristled at this. “It’s not a bad feeling, it’s a bad idea, okay! I’m not ‘putting them in jeopardy,’ I’m saving us from doing something stupid! Which you would agree with if you weren’t so concussed and acting like -”

“I don’t believe this,” Don cut him off vehemently, “An hour ago, you were running around, chasing every flighty idea that entered into your distracted brain, and now, now that we have a plan, you want to be the responsible one?”

“Hey!” Mikey stood straight and pointed a finger at Don, “I had a plan. I ran back and would’ve got one of those guys. We could’ve asked him what we needed to know, and we would’ve already been at this building where our bros are, if you hadn’t freaked out and randomly jumped in the way of some dude’s pipe!”

“I had to! You weren’t paying any attention! You were all over the place, Mikey! No focus, no one to watch your back -”

“I had that fight! I had everything under control! And my idea would’ve worked – “

“You left me, Mikey. Twice.” Despite his conviction, Don’s voice had a desperate edge, enough that Mike took note of something behind in his brother’s eyes besides the anger: fear.  

Oh…is that what you’re really upset about? Mike swallowed hard. If there was anything he could relate to, it was fear of being left alone.  

“I wasn’t leaving you,” Mike started, softer this time. “I mean, I ran pretty fast because I had to, yeah, but I knew you were behind me the whole time. And I wasn’t being careless with those guys, either. They would never have even touched me. You gotta believe that.”

Donnie turned his gaze to the ground, finding some spec to stare at on the floor. He worked his jaw silently, and Mike started to wonder if Don was actually taking his words to heart, or if he was about to try grounding him in his room for week.

“Did I…” Don started, hesitantly, “did I really freak out? You were really…fine?”

Mike let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. “Yeah, dude. It was kinda, like, cringey to watch. I mean, you’re over here telling me to ‘look before you leap’ but then…yeah, wow.”

Don grimaced at Mike’s words, keeping his gaze on the floor.

Mikey sighed, “It’s like, Leo and Raph aren’t here and suddenly you think you have to do everything. Like you’re the only one who can do everything. But I’m right here! You could trust me…?”

Don flinched at those words. “I do trust you, Mike. I’m sorry, I’ll do better, but right now, can you grab your gear and we’ll talk after we get back?”

 Mike stood where he was. After all that, and you still ignore me?

“Or…. you could start trusting me right now.” Mikey crossed his arms, fixing Don with a hard glare, “We’re not going yet, Donnie. It’s not a good idea. You could at least lay down until you feel better and we see if Leo and Raph come back on their own. And you know what else? You can make fun of me getting a bad feeling about things, but you can’t name the last time I was wrong about it!”

Don stared at him with an incredulous expression, like he couldn’t believe Mike was putting his foot down. He shifted towards the exit, as if Mike would jovially change his mind and follow him.

Mikey pulled out his trump card, “What, are you gonna leave me now?”

“No,” Don ground out. “No, I’m not.”

They both stood there for a moment, uneasy. They were hardly ever at odds with each other. They were best friends; they had each other’s back on days when Leo and Raph were both willing to plow over anyone who got in their way, even family. Donnie almost never got offended, and Mikey forgave so easily. This standoff was new territory.

Don finally broke the silence, rolling his eyes and walking away with one last glare back at Mike. “Well. I’ll be asleep in my room, then. Wake me up every couple of hours and make sure I’m not dead.”

Ouch, nice reverse-guilt trip. Mike may have been mad, but it still worked. He wasn’t about to let an argument be their last words to each other.

He yelled after Don, letting all the frustration seep into his voice until it almost sounded sarcastic: “I LOVE YOU!”

There were a few moments' pause before an equally angry voice yelled back: “I LOVE YOU TOO.” And then Don’s door slammed shut.