A TMNT Fanfic based on the 2003 series
Rating: T
Warning: Tcest and other male slash couples, violence later on, language
Summary: Mikey and Don have been acting strange lately. Leo wants to know why and asks Raph for assistance.
To Find the Impossible
Ch. 1
Shimmering could be seen as the water rippled lightly. The current moonlight shining down moved in sync with the darkened liquid.
Funny, most observations such as these weren't usually the first priority to the owner of the eyes that took note of this.
A sigh escaped before the eyes drifted up to the grate above where the light was showing through. Another strange fact was that he was here instead of up there; topside. Normally, he would have his sais in hand while beating petty criminals. However, this was a time where he could not mindlessly go off and let out his anger. He was not actually angry at all. This matter at hand was too important to simply ignore. This course of action could no longer be taken. It was time to face everything and either get what he wanted or die trying.
It all started a little over a few months ago…
"Hey Don!?" Was heard shouted through the lair. Currently, the one who yelled was Michelangelo with his light-green skinned hands on the doorway to the lab while blue eyes peeked in with curiosity on the whereabouts of his brother.
During this interaction, it was all being ignored by an emerald colored turtle with a red band who continued to watch sports on the television. Raphael was a huge fan of motor races but not of Mikey's voice, so most from him was ignored.
The eldest turtle and leader was not in on this interaction because he resided in the dojo. Their father and the blue banded turtle would often meditate together during the afternoons if nothing of importance was at hand. Though, the meditations together did not happen anymore and now Leo meditated alone.
Hearing the sound of a door closing, Raph finally looked back to see a missing Mikey and a closed lab door. Usually, Don's door would be shut due to either being in the middle of an experiment, to keep his brothers out, or both. For some reason, the purple banded brother had been leaving his door open more during the mornings. Once Mikey shows up, he goes in and the door shuts. It remains that way all afternoon and beginning of the evening until the youngest leaves to prepare supper.
Without thinking further, the second eldest turned back to his TV program. A soft sound of a door sliding open was then heard but unnoticed by the one sitting on couch.
Movement was felt in the seat by Raph. Turning, he nearly jumped out of his shell in surprise to see his older brother sitting next to him. Other than feeling the change of level in the couch, he did not even realize Leo had left their father's room.
"Surprise you?" the eldest asked with a slight smug tone.
"No," Raph answered a little too quickly.
Lips turned upward in a smirk which caused anger to rise in the second eldest. Despite feeling amusement from this, Leo knew an argument would surface if he continued and he had other matters to discuss with his hotheaded brother.
"Raphael." Leo began. The younger knew better to interrupt when the eldest used his full name and that tone of voice, well, sometimes anyway. It didn't usually work during arguments, but in this case when both were so calm with one another, then Raph knew his brother had something important to say.
"I wanted to speak with you about Mikey and Don."
"Okay…" the red-banded turtle answered with uncertainty.
"They have been acting strange."
"How so?" Despite asking, Raph had a pretty good idea what Leo was getting at.
"Don and Mikey have been spending more time together," the eldest began, "Which is not bad of them but odd."
Raph cut in, "Why? Cause Donnie's spending more time with Mikey? Or is it the other way around that's crawled under your skin?"
"I'm not jealous Raph," Leo rebuked, "I just find it strange, alright? Which, in case you haven't noticed, Donnie's hasn't quite been himself; more so than Mikey."
Not saying anything at first, Raph knew exactly what his brother was talking about. Don had been coming to practice late, which he never used to do. When getting to practice, there would be bags under his eyes. The genius looked like he was about to fall over sleeping during practice. It was really weird of Don but Raph tried to not bother his brother about it. Not like he listens to any of them anyway if he stays up late because of working on an experiment.
In Mikey's case, he just wasn't as talkative lately, but he figured that was just because he saw him less often than he used to.
"I know Fearless, cause Donnie's been late to practices and shit." He finally replied after a minute in thought. "Just leave him be Leo. You know he's been kinda stressed lately due to the increase of Foot. Don's always tryin' to think of new stuff to help us."
"I won't just leave him be", Leo argued, "I would if it was just that but I think there's something else."
"Oh really? Like what?" the second eldest asked with a hint of taunting in his voice.
Despite hearing the taunt, the leader chose to ignore it. "Donnie doesn't look well at all. I know you've seen the bags under his eyes during practice. But also, I saw him this morning, after we got back from early patrol you and I took, and there was no practice session. Instead of in his lab, he was in the kitchen getting something to eat."
"Okay…" Raph cut in unimpressed.
"Would you let me finish Raph?" Leo glared. The younger just shrugged which caused a sigh to come from Leo. "Anyway, when I saw Don this morning, he looked pale, and I mean really pale. I think he might be getting sick."
"Hmm…" Raph hummed for a moment. "Maybe. A lack of sleep can do that."
"I just hope he okays," Leo responded quietly while his eyes fell to the floor. Raph glanced over at Leo. Despite always getting mad at one another, he didn't actually like to see his brother upset about other stuff.
Turning back, Leo began, "I tried to talk to Donnie yesterday about his tardiness to practice and why he appeared so tired but he refused to talk to me."
"Yeah, Donnie's kinda stubborn about that kinda stuff with less sleep, especially if it deals with his experiments." Raph agreed.
"Do you think you can talk to him?"
Eyes widened in surprise at the request, "Why? Don's less likely to talk to me than ya."
"I don't' know about that," the elder argued, "Don talks to you about all sorts of stuff. I think he would more likely speak with you about this because he knows you wouldn't give him a lecture or anything on it."
Which was true. If it had to do with Leo or anyone getting on to him about it, then Don never really talked about it.
Raph was surprised for two reasons by this talk between him and Leo. One, that Leo actually asked for his help on the matter instead of continuously trying to do it on his own. Second, that he admitted to lecturing the genius if he knew what was really going on. The only guess that Raph had was that Leo must really be worried about their younger brothers, especially Don.
"What about Mikey?"
"I haven't talked to him yet but I was hoping to catch him sometime tonight to do so."
"Jesus Leo! Can't you just leave them alone? They ain't lil kids anymore. They can take care of themselves."
"I try to think so but all of you prove me wrong sometimes, especially you; like when you go out all hours of the night by yourself and come back with gashes all over."
"That has nothin' to do with this," Raph argued, "We're talkin' about Don and Mikey, not me. Besides, I never come back that bruised up."
Leo's glare just pierced right through Raph. If looks could kill, that would have killed him several times. Anger rose in both of the brothers but the younger tried to keep himself calm as he continued.
"Look Leo, just cause Splinter isn't here no more don't mean that you have to play the father figure. Yeah, you're our leader. We know that and follow it, but geez, Donnie and Mikey can take care of themselves. When they wanna talk 'bout, whatever it is they wanna talk 'bout, then they will."
Leo's shoulders tensed from the remark about Splinter but he made no movements declaring anger or uneasiness as his eyes suddenly became glued to the floor.
Splinter had been a big problem for all of them, but especially the eldest. Their sensei passed away a few months ago due to age. They all saw it coming, but it did not make it any easier to handle. Since then, Leo took it upon himself to almost replace Splinter; be the best leader and father figure in the house. He led the practices, which Leo did anyway from time to time before Splinter's passing, but now ran all. There was also the new sense of responsibility to fix any and all problems, big or small, in the house if possible. Of course Leo had always tried to help with any personal problems but now took it upon himself to fix everyone's but that was just close to impossible.
Because of all the problems that Leo had been facing, Raph had tried to be a better brother. In meaning, he tried to argue with the eldest brother less and didn't go out as much as before. He tried to help all of his brothers as well but only where he really saw it fit for him to help. If any of his brothers needed him for anything, he would be there, not force himself there. That was Leo's problem; he tried to force himself there.
Taking a few deep breaths, Leo finally answered, "Maybe… But I am still worried if Donnie is not at least getting enough sleep since he looked sick earlier." Turning back to Raph, he tried once more, "Could you at least talk to Donnie about getting more sleep. I think I will have morning practice cancelled to make sure Don can sleep in."
After a moment, the second oldest let out a sigh of defeat, "Alright, I'll go talk to him, but don' expect any more favors. An' just so were clear, I'm not gonna ask what he's doin' or nothin'. I'll just see if he'll get some extra sleep."
A genuine smile formed on Leo's face. It was quite a site really. It wasn't often the eldest smiled like that, especially towards the hothead. "Thank you Raph."
A slight blush of embarrassment formed on Raph's face as he got up and turned his back to Leo. "Yeah, yeah. Just don' ask for anythin' else from me."
Raph headed towards Don's lab while Leo retreated to his room. His guess was that Leo planned on meditating further until supper. His hand reached up to the door once he stood in front of it and was about to knock. However, the door flew open to reveal an almost panic looking orange banded turtle.
"Oh Raph!" Mikey jumped in surprise, "What are you doing here?"
"I was comin' to talk to Don about somethin'. He in?"
"Yeah…" the youngest let out kind of nervously, which the older caught, "But he was about to go to sleep."
"Oh," Raph replied, pretending to be slightly surprised before asking, "Is that why you're out here? You never usually leave the lab until supper."
"Oh, eh, you noticed that?" Mikey asked with a stronger sense of unease than previously.
"Yeah, it was kinda hard not to notice." The hothead shrugged in response.
"Well, I'm out here cause I got to go, you know…"
"Yeah yeah! Just go! I don't wanna know what number ya gotta take on the toilet!"
Mikey just roared in laughter as he ran to the bathroom. Before closing the door, he peeked his head out and said, "By the way, all I have to do is take a numero uno." Along with holding one finger up.
The glare held by Raph's face could kill worse than the glare that Leo had previously held. "You little shit!" Was what was yelled but Mikey closed and locked the door before the whole statement came out.
Taking a deep breath, Raph opened the lab door and entered. Walking in, he noticed Don sitting at his desk with laptop sitting in front of him. However, it looked as if the genius was not really focusing on anything in particular, for his eyes looked slightly glazed as if deep in thought and yet not completely there.
Leo had been right, Don did look pale. It was a strange look for him. Sure, he became a little pale sometimes when he didn't sleep much, but he did look really sick. The sense of worry flooded Raphael at that point. Now he understood more of what Leo had meant. He would never admit it that to him though.
Looking over, Don's eyes widened when he saw the second eldest walk into the room. However, no words were exchanged at first, as if both tried to get a hold of the situation that was, or was about, to take place.
Raph decided that Don would probably not say anything, so he started the conversation. "Hey Don."
"Hey Raph…" His voice sounded a bit hoarse as well. Despite all of these factors, Raph did say he would not grieve Donnie with worriedness or a lecture like Leo.
"You look tired." The older replied and felt like he could hit himself right then at the stupidity of stating the obvious.
Don smiled his ever sweet smile before answering with a slight chuckle, "Yeah, I feel pretty tired."
Hearing Don made Raph worry more, but he did not want to push his younger brother. "Leo cancelled morning practice tomorrow. I just thought I would let you know…" he paused a moment in thought before continuing, "Make sure you get some extra sleep, ok?"
Smile broadening, Don asked, "What, worried about me?"
Raph knew he was only teasing but the statement held true. Without thinking, he answered, "Yes."
The happiness faltered slightly. "I'm sorry Raph."
Stepping closer, the older replied, "Don't be. It's just that, you look kinda pale and have bags under your eyes. Just make sure ya sleep plenty tonight, ok?"
Those dull eyes brightened up a bit from the request. Smiling again, Don answered, "Alright. I will, for you Raph."
The red-banded turtle couldn't help but smile back at his genius brother before retreating back to the living room. He hoped that Don would actually sleep. He could be stubborn about that sometimes.
*Hey everyone! This is my first TMNT fanfic so be nice please. I have wanted to write one for a while but haven't actually sat down to do it. Tell me what you think so far. Thanks for reading!
Also, I haven't told the couples here yet but I kind of want to keep that a surprise but if you really want to know, or at least really want to know what the TCest couple is, then just let me know because I know that not everyone likes every couple. Thanks guys! You're awesome!
