by: Dailix.
Fandom: Ninja Turtles
Rating: K+ For mild language
Pairing: Don/Leo SLIGHT Turtleslash
One-Shot
The Trouble With Stressing
The soft sizzle of flesh against a pan accompanied by a short yelp echoed throughout the room as Donatello cursed sharply to himself. The burn was already stinging.
He'd been baking for an hour now, the day's previous events having put him in a crappy mood.
And why was the turtle wasting his time baking while he could be up in his room working on a new invention?
Two words:
Stress relief.
Whenever he needed a few hours to himself, he'd taken to retreating to the kitchen in an attempt to take his mind off of things.
When he got into fights with his brothers, for example.
Like today.Dear Leonardo had gotten on his bad side this morning during practice.
...okay. So he hadn't EXACTLY done anything wrong.
But in Don's eyes, the spar had gone as bad as ever.He hated it when he went against Leo. Mikey he could take. He'd even gotten lucky and had beaten Raph quite a few times.
But he'd never came close to beating Leo.
It made him feel weak.
Weaker, he should say.He knew he wasn't a great fighter...
but Leo just made him feel stupid, like all of his knowledge was being tested and failed every time. Like he was defenseless against him.Which he was.
Leo took it a bit farther everyday.
And today...
Well, he'd gotten a bit too rough.Let's just say that Don and the floor had never been so thoroughly acquainted.
Don...
He was in a pretty bad mood.And so, here he was, a giant green turtle stumbling around in the kitchen, wearing a white baking apron and trying to move his pan into the oven while nursing his burnt fingers.
Consumed by his frantic baking methods, he barely had time to acknowledge his brother leaning against the wall, smirking.
When he did, however, he glared to himself, not turning around to look at him, but knowing that Leo knew he'd noticed he was there.
"Come to embarrass me some more today?"
Leo gave a short chuckle. "You seem to be doing that yourself."
Don's fists gave a terse clench in anger, yet he continued his task.
He heard his brother coming closer and he could only hope to God that he wasn't going to try and cheer him up.
Well, he'd been wrong before.A hand settled itself on his shoulder.
"Hey." Leo tugged gently in an attempt to get Don to look at him. "Come on, what's bugging you?"
After a moment, Don simply shrugged the hand off of him and replied with a less than convincing, "nothing."Leo leaned against the countertop, an indication that he wasn't about to drop it.
Don slid the pan into the oven, closing the door and setting the temperature. The cake was still undercooked.
"Don." Leo said knowingly. "You're baking a cake. Something's up."Don snarled lowly and proceeded to clean up his supplies.
Leo stayed quiet, silently observing him.
After a few minutes, Don began to get annoyed.
"Are you just going to stand there?" He snapped.
Leo's eyes narrowed a bit, concern flooding them. "What's wrong Don?"
"Answer my question.""Well, yes, I'm going to stand here until I get your answer." Leo answered, placing his hands on his hips. "I asked you first. Now what's wrong with you today?"
Don spun around to face his brother. "What's wrong with me?"
"Why are you acting like this? And whatever it is, why are you taking it out on me?"
"Why? Because you're the problem!" Don pointed an accusing finger across the room. Leo acquired a questioning look.
"Me?" His tone was almost incredulous. "What'd I ever do to you?"
Don's fists balled up again and he growled, trying desperately to get the right words out, but they wouldn't read right. After a few moments of sputtering, he sighed angrily. "Just forget it, okay? Leave me alone."
But as he went back to the counter, Leo stepped in front of him, blocking his way. "No, Don." He replied, his voice serious. "What is it?"
Getting really angry, Don tried once in vain to get passed his brother, but Leo stood his ground. Finally, he threw his arms out and stormed away, Leo hot on his tail.
"Don, come on! Just tell me what it is. Whatever it is, I'm sure I can fix it."
Don snorted. "Oh, I highly doubtthat, Leo."
"Just..." Leo grabbed him by the arm. "Tell me, Don!"
"Let go of me, Leo.""No."
Don snarled. "Ugh, WHY do you always have to BE like that?! So DEMANDING and controlling? I said let GO of me, dammit!" He yelled, wrenching his arm from his brother's grasp.
Don continued up to stairs and down the hall, but Leo persisted.
"Like what? I'm not controlling, I'm your brother, I want what's best for you! I want to help! Why can't you just let me do that?"
Don could only take so much more of this,
"What am I doing that's so WRONG? Please, tell me, I assure you I can fix whatever it is!"He could only control his anger to a certain point.
"Don, ANSWER me! What's wrong with you?"
But Leo had already crossed the line many times.
Don snapped.
"You want to know what's wrong with me, Leo? HUH? You wanna know? Well, now let's see," He mockingly contemplated his answer. "Who's the one that makes me look like I have no idea what I'm doing in combat?" he yelled, flinging whatever he'd been holding across the room.
"That's-"
"And let's think. Who was the one that rubbed my beak on the mat this morning? Oh, and who was the cause of my passing out during our cool down?"
"I never-"
"And who was the one that had FLED for a year only to come back, take charge, and make me look like I couldn't keep anything under control?!"
"I didn't FLEE." Leo lowered his voice dangerously. "And that has nothing to do with this Donny."
"Yes it DOES Leo! Have you been listening? It has everything to do with it." He stared hopelessly at his brother. "How could you possibly understand what it's like to be humiliated by your brother day after day?" He turned his head. "How could you even fathom how embarrassing it is when your YOUNGER BROTHERS are sitting on the side, watching, snickering and commenting to themselves about how pathetic you are?"
Don lifted his eyes after a moment, filled with a look of disreputability.
"How could you know what it feels like to work so hard and still feel like a failure?"
Leo stared at Don, his arms lowering, a look of understanding coming over his features. "Is that what this is about...?"
Don sighed. "I just-" He lowered his gaze. "I don't know Leo. I guess I'm just...sick of losing."
He felt Leo walked closer to him. He felt him nudge his arm lightly in an attempt to get him to listen. "Hey." Don felt a hand on his head. "You may not believe it but...I do know what it feels like."
Don gave him questioning glance.
"Why do you think I left in the first place? To become a better leader, yes, but...it was because I felt..." He paused almost thoughtfully. "I felt...like I needed to do...something. Anything to make me seem any less of a failure to you. My brothers." He took his hand away. "Every time Raph would get angry and leave, or whenever Mikey would play games instead of taking our training seriously...how could I not feel like I wasn't doing a good job as a leader?"
Don thought about this for a moment, before pointed to himself. "What about me?"
"...what about you?"
"Well...you mentioned Raph and Mikey...what did I do to make you feel like a failure?"
Leo pondered the question. He smiled. "Well..." he kind of mumbled. "You always were the smart one."
Don raised a brow. What did that have to do with anything?
As if he'd read his mind, Leo continued, "I've always been envious of how you're the brain of the group. I think I felt that...since I was a leader, I was supposed to look after you guys...know how to help in any situation. I think that it scared me how...sometimes I wouldn't know what to do and you were the one ordering me around."
Don could understand that. It must be hard for Leo to feel like he has no control over a stressful situation.
"As for this morning..." Leo lowered his head sheepishly. "I know I got...a little rough with you today. I mean, rougher than usual, and..." He twiddled his thumbs. "Well, I didn't mean it or anything...I thought maybe if I tried harder there'd be no way...well..." He sighed. "I guess what I'm trying to say is...I'm sorry, Don."
Donatello watched him carefully. Leo noticed his look and continued his thoughts.
"You don't give yourself much credit, Don. You're a really...really good fighter." Leo smiled. "I was...honestly getting a little worried that I'd lose if I didn't step it up a notch. I didn't mean to embarrass you."
Don's eyes widened.
"Do you...really mean that, Leo?"
Leo smiled warmly. "Of course, Don."
Don returned his brother's smile, a grateful gleam in his eye. "Leo...thanks."
"Don..." Leo's eyes then strayed into the kitchen, his grin widening only by a centimeter. "Your cake's blowing up."
Don gave a questioning tilt of the head before turning and giving a slight gasp of surprise.
"Shit."
Rushing into the kitchen, Don desperately tried to close the oven on the rapidly growing cake. Meanwhile, the smoke detector had started to blare it's alarm.
Leo, keeping his distance, shouted over the noise of the detector. "How much yeast did you use, Donny?!"
"Just-" Don nearly lost his grip on the handle as something inside the appliance seemingly exploded. "-well...uh..."
Leo turned over the container, but all of the yeast was gone.
"ALL of it?!"
"Hey, I was mad okay? I wasn't paying attention-!"
Apparently the cake didn't like being locked up in such a small oven, because Don slipped as it gave a powerful shove. He scrambled over to the side of the table.
"Don, get out of there!"
Unfortunately, Don had only gotten about a foot away from the table when-
It happened all at once.
Oven door, table, cake, table, Don keeling over, table!, Leo shouting, TABLE!
pop.
It took him a moment or two to comprehend what had happened.
From what Don could tell, as he was crawling away from the mess, the cake had pushed to door open, Leo had been telling Don to move out of the way, but Don was too late and the door hit him, temporarily stopping his movement. The cake managed to get caught on the table which promptly fell over, another thing to add to the pile. After a few moments of chaos, the cake finally just burst, as though filled with hot air.
The light went out.
...had it hit the light?
Don honestly had no clue how the hell any of this had happened. At the moment the only thing he could focus on was getting out from underneath the rubble.
A hand grabbed at his own, yanking him up and out of the mess. Leo, laughing hysterically, attempted to ask him if he was okay, but failed almost miserably.
Don pouted, trying to stay angry at Leo for laughing at him, but could barely keep a straight face. He soon joined him in his laughter.
"You..." Leo said breathlessly. "You should see...your face!"
Strangely enough, Don just been inspecting his frosting-covered beak. Leo wiped some of the pink icing off, licking his fingers clean. He made a sound of approval. "Well, the frosting's good."
"Hm. Figures. I didn't make that part." Don said, helping Leo rid his face of the stuff.
"Well, you were bound to find something you weren't good at eventually." Leo glanced at his hands. They were fully covered in icing, as were Don's.
But there was still frosting on Don's head.
Looking around for something to use, all Don saw were broken pots, a collapsed table and bits of bread and pink goo all over the place.
Suddenly, Leo gave a little noise, almost as to indicate that he'd thought up an idea.
But as he motioned Don to move his head lower, Don felt his heart skip a beat as he felt something soft and velvety on cheek.
Leo-
...was he-?
He was...licking it...off?
Don suddenly felt his cheeks go warm, his eyes widening.
This certainly was...unexpected.
He was especially surprised when it didn't stop. Leo, seemingly unaware of Don's reaction, continued to rid Don of the sticky icing, his mouth moving down his cheek and just to the corner of Don's.
Don almost had a heart-attack.
Leo, thinking nothing of it, pulled away and smiled at him. "There. You're good."
Don gave him a short half-smile, but was unable to stop the blood that was rushing to his face. What's wrong with you, Don? Pull it together.
Leo watched as Don brought a hand to his forehead, concern showing in his eyes. "Don? You okay?"
Don tried to say something...anything to get rid of the stuffy feeling he'd gotten. When he couldn't find the right words to say, he turned abruptly, preparing to leave, before turning around. His mouth opened again to say something, but he decided against it and continued on his way.
Leo just stared blankly in the direction he'd left.
"...was it something I said?"