One month after Don goes missing, Michelangelo finds Raphael in the dojo with their missing brother's bo staff.
Raph doesn't notice him at first, something that would provide Michelangelo with some pride if it wasn't for the situation. He hides in the rafters after opening the door, perching there, and for five minutes he goes undetected as Raph rages below him, hitting every dummy they own with a staff not made for his hands. His strikes are imprecise, his focus weak, and with every hit, Michelangelo can see the tears on their straw dummies grow wider.
It is only once the bo staff starts to splinter that he makes himself known.
"Hey Raph," he says, jumping down far away enough from his brother to avoid getting hit in an uncontrolled swing. Raph stills at the sound of his voice, his arms growing still, and Michelangelo remembers a time when only Splinter could get him to do this, to give up the rage before it grew to be too much.
Splinter does not have time to cater to Raph's moods anymore. When he is not looking for Donnie, he's looking for him mentally, curled up in his room for hours on end. Determined to prove Leo's worries false. That his son still lives.
Michelangelo isn't quite sure he believes his father's claims anymore. But on days like this, he desperately wants to.
"Leave me alone, Mikey," Raph says, voice low, but not angry. Michelangelo ignores him, stepping forward to put his hand on Raph's shoulder. It is a victory when Raph does not shake him off.
"Your hands are bleeding," Michelangelo says and sure enough, he's right. Raph has been holding the bo in his hands too tightly, letting the splinters dig into his palms enough to draw blood. "You have Donnie's old bo. The broken one."
Neither brother dwells on where the one their brother always used is now.
"Shit," Raph says, his grip loosening on the bo. Michelangelo takes that as his cue to grab it, and before Raph can say anything, his younger brother has pried the staff out of his hands and placed it gently on the ground. Michelangelo leads him over to another side of the dojo, far away from the staff and sets him down so he was sitting on the floor. When he reaches into his bag to pull out a roll of gauze, he doesn't miss the look of surprise on Raph's face.
"I thought I'd be prepared," Michelangelo says, giving Raph a weak smile. "You get yourself beat up a lot."
Raph says nothing in response to that.
Wrapping up his hands doesn't take long, years of practice combined with recent studying. At the end of it, Raph's hands are covered in enough gauze to make them larger than their usual size, something Michelangelo would usually laugh about if it wasn't for the circumstances. Raph bends his fingers, looking down at each one.
"I don't know-" Raph says, responding to a question Michelangelo has yet to ask. "I thought…it might bring him back…cus you know how he gets….when you touch his stuff."
Michelangelo does know. Touching Donnie's bo staff was a capital offense in their brother's eyes, along with his computers, his lab equipment, and his food. It had been one of the weirdest things about going through Don's stuff, when they tried to figure out where he'd gone; the fact Don wasn't screaming at them for getting greasy hands on his prized keyboard.
"-It was stupid," Raph says hanging his head.
"Nah. It isn't stupid." Michelangelo tucks the gauze back into his bag, getting up. As he heads for the door, he doesn't miss Raph's gaze on him.
"Hey Mikey?"
Michelangelo's hand hovers to push open the door. "Yeah?"
"Is that Don's medical bag on your shoulder."
Michelangelo leaves instead of providing an answer.