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“The point of the armor is to not get hurt!”
“Wrong, Donnie-boy. The point of the armor is to look badass!” Raphael smirked just before flinching as the needle pierced his skin.
“We have shells for protection already, the fact you’re getting hurt—”
“Don’t say it,” the brawler growled.
“Means you’re being impatient and hot-tempered!”
“Ya sound like Leo!”
“Well maybe someone in this family should! Because it’s not Splinter and it’s not you!”
“After you’re done stitching up my arm, ya can stitch up your mouth.”
“Clever,” Donatello rolled his eyes. “Hope you didn’t burn out a neuron making that connection.”
“Ya don’t like it then ya shouldn’t have helped me with the armor!”
“You would have just went ahead and did this anyway—”
“Damn right I would have!”
“—So I’d rather reduce the risk of you being hurt.” Hearing the emotion in his immediate younger brother’s voice, the hothead calmed down and sat quietly for the few minutes the medic needed to finish stitching up the cut.
“It’s the same stuff we did before…” the baritone voice muttered as he rolled his arm to stretch the muscle.
“It’s different. We were a team working together, but you’ve got a rogue attitude now…” the other spoke gently as he cleaned up the supplies he just used.
“I’m picking up the slack! Someone needs to do something so these dirtbags don’t all run free.”
“Why does that someone have to be you?” Donnie waited patiently for a response, but when no answer was given he sighed tiredly. “You’re risking the safety of our family.”
“I’m protecting our family!” Raph snapped, slamming a hand against his plastron.
“No, you’re not! You’re putting yourself in danger—which means you aren’t protecting yourself ergo not protecting our family!”
“Says you!” Raphael growled and although Donatello flinched, he refused to stand down.
“You think fear is the best way to accomplish things, but you’re wrong.”
“You're right. You got me all figured out.”
“I don’t, but at least one of us is acting on logical observations and not just visceral emotions!”
“Donnie, we got an agreement. We’re doing this for Mikey.”
“No, I agreed to not tell Leo if you promised to not tell Mikey.” The purple-banded turtle paused. “Granted, I expected Master Splinter to ask by now…”
“So that was your loophole, huh?” the red-masked turtle smirked. “Yeah right, the same guy who sent our brother away is gonna do anything to fix this empty shell of a home?” Seeing the other look down dejectedly, he shook his head and he placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Come on, Don… ya got your business for work experience and keeping Mikey busy with his own job—”
“Yeah,” the genius rolled his eyes. “Jobs we’re already burned out on. You’re the only one who’s actually doing something he enjoys.”
“Yeah, but I’m the only one not putting pizza on the table neither.”
“I have to trust Mikey with a driver’s license and watch how you behave ever since Leo didn’t return home,” he sighed. “Whenever I try to talk to Sensei, he just repeats I have to be strong when everyone is weak. It’s been a year and…” His voice grew shaky and, growing concerned, Raph reached over and wrapped his arms around Donnie. Taking a deep breath, the latter continued after a few moments.
“The longer he’s gone, the more I start to worry he won’t come back home…”
“Why would he?” His hug tightened and the younger brother could feel the bitter shrug surrounding him. “Jungle boy gets to enjoy the sun, who’d want to return to sewers after that?”
“No,” Donnie shook his head, but his hands still gripped the emerald arms embracing him. “Leo has at least three reasons to come back! Why can’t we go look for him? He has to be somewhere hurting or, or…” His voice faltered again and he felt himself pulled back, fiery eyes burning into his own.
“Leo ain’t dead! He’s just a smug asshole who… Who thinks we need him to guide us through our problems!”
“We do though, because we’re not handling the problem of us missing our brother very well.”
“We’re getting along just fine without him!”
“We’re not just fine! Even Mikey comments about how this place used to be fun.”
“So what? The kid gets bored easy! Just book him some extra parties or something.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Just asking for a little help, Don.”
“I’m on it. I always am. But this isn’t sustainable, something’s gonna break…”
“Then it’s a good thing we have ya…” Raphael patted Donatello on his shell. “Maybe we’re a bit broken, but you’re both our family doctor and fix-it handyman. We’d be lost without our last line of defense.”
“Spoken by our first line of offense,” the genius replied, offering a small smile.
“See?” the brawler returned the smile, bigger and brighter. “Where would everyone be without our middle child nonsense of brains and brawn!”
“I don’t even want to think about it,” Donatello said somberly. “We’re half of the team and Leonardo is already gone, leaving Michelangelo alone as the last turtle—”
“Hey, that ain’t gonna happen!” Raphael interrupted. “Me and ya, we won’t let our bro down.”
“What if Master Splinter sends you away for training next?”
“I ain’t going. Just that simple since I ain’t a teacher’s pet!”
“That’s not fair…”
“What about ya? What if ya could go off and make the world a better place with your mind and not just your muscles like me?”
“I can study online, but the rest will never happen and you know it.”
“Just saying…”
“What are you saying?”
“Splinter sent away his best student, so if Golden Boy ain’t good enough to stay then where’s that leave the rest of us?”
“We…” Donnie hesitated to suggest, “could leave?”
“Ain’t ya worried about us being gone if Leo comes back to an empty home?”
“I’m more worried he’s not okay. Besides, Master Splinter can tell him we left to look for him. He can call us when he returns!”
“Splinter said we can’t go interrupt his training, else he fails.”
“It was only supposed to be a year…”
“Exactly. Something’s keeping him and if we show up, we’ll never hear the end of it.”
“But what if he needs us?”
Silence again fell between the two as often happened with them, but it was usually a comfortable quiet in which both understood the other needing time to think before talking…
“He’s fine. Well, fine other than his attitude about being the mighty and powerful Leonardo.”
“How can you be so sure? There’s no evidence to support that—”
“I feel it in my gut, okay? I just… I just know these things.” Raphael playfully poked Donatello on the forehead. “Sometimes there ain’t a rhyme to reason, Brainiac. Ya gotta trust your instinct!”
“My instinct says you’re going to have a fractured finger if you jab at me like that again,” Donnie teased.
“Good thing I know a smart guy who knows how to set broken bones!” Raph grinned. “So… we done talking out our feelings and whatnot? Like, we communicated good or whatever?”
“Yeah, I think we did,” the younger smiled.
“All right, that’s what I’m talking about!” the older lightly punched his brother in the arm, smiling proudly at him.
~*~*~*~*~
