Title: "After the Battle"
Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: G
Summary: Donatello's most cherished book has no pages.
Warnings: Drabble
Word Count: 500
Date Written: 27 May, 2012
Challenge: For a TMNT-Tuesdays LJ comm's prompt
Disclaimer: Donatello, Splinter, all other characters mentioned within, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are ﾩ & TM their rightful owners, not the author. Everything else is ﾩ & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
They know better than to touch his bookshelf. He has many sacred volumes of science lining the old, oak shelves. Experiments he has not yet had time to finish or, for some other reason, have not yet been brought to completion also dot the rows. Only Donnie knows which ones would bring the world to a shattering end if used incorrectly. Yet his most important belongings he keeps all the way on the top shelf.
He has to climb a ladder to get to them, but it's worth it on nights like these when everything hurts but, most of all, his heart is aching. His brothers, his entire family, have gone through so much again. He just needs another reminder of why they do this, of why they risk everything to try to stop the Foot from conquering New York, the galaxy, or the whole Earth as they tried again tonight to do.
He climbs to the top shelf after all the others are sound asleep, selects the book he seeks, and climbs back down. He moves to his chair, sets the book on his cluttered desk, and opens the cover almost reverently. There are no pages in this particular book. Instead, it is a casing meant to remind him of all the good things about being a turtle.
He lifts out his first bandana which is now so small, in comparison to the rest of him, that it would barely wrap around two of his green fingers. Next, he picks up his first creation. It's a simple doll made with wooden legs that can kick. He smiles fondly at the memory. He sculpted it to cheer Michelangelo up when he was sad that he had no one else but Donnie and their other brothers to play with when they were children. Mikey used to hold to this figure whenever Donnie doctored him. Back then, it was just minor bruises and small scrapes from falling in the sewer, not like setting his arm tonight when it had almost been ripped off.
He lays the action figure to the side and picks up photographs, each of which he developed himself. He's still looking through the pictures of his family when they were all younger when a gentle, furry hand clasps his shoulder. Donnie turns, already knowing the look he'll receive, but tears nonetheless spring to his dark orbs as Master Splinter smiles reassuringly down at him. "You did well tonight, my son."
"We almost didn't win, Sensei." Donnie's voice breaks. Though he knows stopping Shredder from conquering the Earth should be most important, it is instead the injuries that his family has sustained and the fact that they almost lost Mikey, Raph, and April all in tonight's battle that weighs the heaviest upon him.
"But you did, and every one is safe because of you." Splinter holds his son until, at last, Donatello has no more tears to cry and then tucks him into bed as he did so many years ago.
The End