Mikey bursts into the lab in a swirl of chaos, just like he always does—well, always did. But Donnie had gotten used to the silence the lair carried nowadays, and the moment Mikey loudly shoves through the door, Donnie jumps.

"I can't do this anymore," Mikey blurts out, clearly agitated. "This sucks and it's stupid, and I don't know how to fix this!"

Donnie's staring. He knows he's staring, but he can't seem to make himself move. His eyes trace the angry path Mikey stomps through the lab; he's probably looking for something to take his anger out on.

Which. That didn't use to be a thing. Mikey angry. That was a Raph thing. Sometimes it was a Donnie thing, too, but only if he was running on less than two hours of sleep and out of coffee. Maybe even a Leo thing if he got irritated by being ignored before Master Splinter died. But it was never a Mikey thing. Never. At least, never like this.

When Mikey slams his fist into the metal door of Don's lab, Donnie's done staring. He's out of his seat before he even thinks about it, abandoning his broken toaster and rushing to his baby brother's side, stopping another stupid punch to his very solid—now dented—lab door. He holds Mikey, and it's very reminiscent of the time Mikey did this for Raph—another time all hope had been lost and they'd been down two family members—except Mikey doesn't settle down and accept it.

"Mikey. Mikey, stop it. Stop," Donnie babbles as Mikey strains against him. Donnie's barely even breathing at this point, and he doesn't know what to do. This doesn't happen—has never happened before. "Mikey calm down and—hey! Mikey, look at me, okay?"

Mikey just screams in—Donnie doesn't know what it is. It might anger, frustration, sadness, grief, or a hundred other things, but one thing is made crystal clear. Mikey's hurting and Donnie is doing a shit job of helping him out.

What is he supposed to even do?

"Mike!" Donnie yells again, heaving Mikey away from the door when the other turtle goes to punch it again. It's a good thing Mikey's a lot littler than him. If this were Raph, Donnie probably wouldn't be able to do much. "Mikey! Stop it!"

Mikey struggles with him for a few more seconds, but as suddenly as Mikey burst into his lab and shaken Donnie to the core, the fight bleeds out of the youngest turtle, and then Donnie's on the floor with an armful of a sobbing baby brother.

Donnie's heart aches in ways that have become much too familiar lately, and he's reminded painfully that he really doesn't know what he's doing. Mikey's hurting, and he doesn't know how to help.

They're all hurting, all in their own ways, but Mikey's hurt seems tangible in a way that Donnie has never seen in him before. And it isn't just like he can scare away the monsters haunting Mikey so easily; Donnie is already struggling with his own grief. To deal with Mikey's on top of that? It'd be near impossible.

But that didn't mean he wouldn't try. This is his baby brother, after all. Donnie would give up the world for him, so what were a few extra monsters?

The sobbing tapers off, and when Donnie looks down, Mikey's gone still. He's holding his breath, and Donnie's not really sure what to make of it. As far as Donnie knows, this isn't normal, and Donnie knows a lot.

"Mikey?" Donnie tries. "You with me?"

A shuddering nod is all Donnie gets in response, but it's more than he was really expecting, especially with the glassy look Mikey's got in his eyes.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?"

"No." Mikey's voice is raspy, and the sound of it makes Donnie wince with sympathy. He was probably going to be feeling that for a little while.

"Okay. That's okay," Donnie tells him. He holds Mikey a bit tighter. "You, uh, you don't have to say anything you don't want to. Just- Just know that I'm here and not going anywhere."

Mikey mutters something along the lines of "thank god" and turns his face into Donnie's plastron. They stay like that for a long time, on the floor of Donnie's lab, with a broken toaster sitting on his lab table waiting to be fixed.

The toaster can wait. Mikey can't.

Donnie gains a little insight on what happened to Mikey hours later, when Raph slides the door to his open hesitantly, but honestly, it's not insight he can really do anything with. The toaster is finally getting the attention it needs, and Mikey's asleep on the infirmary cot, basically dead to the world. There's a dent in the door from when Mikey punched it earlier, but besides a passing glance, Raph doesn't bring attention to it. Instead, he sidles forwards into the lab like he isn't sure he's welcome, eyes sweeping the room.

Poison green eyes finally settle on Mikey's sleeping form, expression crinkling in confusion at the closed off way Mikey's curled in on himself. A pang reverberates through Donnie's chest as he follows Raph's gaze. Mikey is definitely not meant to look that small and sad, and Donnie's about ready to screw the toaster and join Mikey on the cot.

But he doesn't. He doesn't do a lot of things these days, it seems.

Raph sits down on the stool next to him, and the silence that follows him in turns from somewhat comfortable to kind of awkward.

Finally, Raph speaks up. He looks hesitant, but hesitancy was never one to get in Raphael's way. "What happened?"

"You tell me."

"I…haven't been here since Mikey finished cookin' dinner, so I don't- I don't know, either."

The silence fills the air again. Raph's shifting uncomfortably in his seat, and Donnie wonders what it was that he came in here for. If he just got back to the lair, then there was no way he'd heard anything but the always present silence, no way he heard it break with Mikey's screams for just a few moments. That had been hours and hours ago, and it's almost dawn now. There's just no way.

Donnie sighs and gives in, abandoning the toaster for his brothers—a decision he would make time and time again.

"Did you need something?"

Raph looks alarmed and wholly unprepared, which is stupid, because he's the one who walked in looking for something.

"What d'ya mean?"

"I mean," Donnie says, holding back a sigh, "you obviously didn't come in here for a chat, Raph." He drops his volume a little, eyes softening of their own accord. "You didn't get hurt on patrol, did you?"

Raph cringes, and Donnie's mouth tightens into a frown.

"Raph."

"S'just a small cut, Don," Raph waves him off. "I just came in here to see if you had somethin' to cover it up. It's fine."

Raph shows him the underside of his arm, and…it is fine. It really is just a small cut. Donnie fusses over it anyways. He cleans it out, and wraps it up with gauze, and Raph's good to go. Donnie tells him as much.

"Thanks, Don."

Donnie hums, and appreciates the fact that Raph stays right where he is. This is nice, now that he thinks about it. He has two out of three brothers here with him in the same room, and whatever had been splintering between him and Raph, it seems to be patching itself up. Repairing itself. It's a good, warm feeling, and Donnie doesn't want to ruin it, so he stays silent, basking in the fact that he and Raph have been in the same room for over five minutes and haven't had a single argument.

Raph's gaze sweeps over Mikey again, and Donnie goes back to his toaster, appreciating that there's something he can do besides sitting on a chair staring at Mikey, feeling totally useless.

"Was it Leo?"

Donnie pauses and looks up. So much for the silence. "What?"

Raph gestures helplessly. "Did Leo do that? To Mikey?"

"Oh. I don't- I don't know. I don't know if we'll ever know," Don says.

"What do you mean?"

Sighing, Don puts down his screwdriver and fixes his attention on Raph. "It's…complicated."

Raph looks severely unimpressed, arms crossing over his chest and hardness creeping back into his eyes, basically threatening all the goodness the two had accomplished in the past few moments. "Then uncomplicate it," he says.

And Donnie feels familiar irritation whelming up inside him, because he had been about to explain it to Raph. He isn't going to leave Raph in the dark when Don knows Raph feels just as protective as Donnie does. But he swallows it down, and tries not to snap, "I was going to."

There must have been something to Donnie's tone because the tension bleeds out of Raph real fast.

"Sorry," Raph offers weakly.

Donnie shakes his head. "I don't know what's been going on, but Mikey came in to my lab a couple hours ago, and he was angry."

Raph didn't get it. "So what? Mikey gets angry all the time."

"No," Donnie says, "he gets irritated. That's not the same thing at all." Donnie doesn't wait for Raph to respond to that. He keeps going. "He was…I don't even know. He punched the door, and then he started screaming and crying. It took a while to calm him down."

Raph scans Mikey once more. "It's gotta be Leo."

Donnie blinks, not really making the connection. "What do you mean, 'it's gotta be Leo?' Leo hasn't come out of the dojo all day, not even to eat. He doesn't even interact with Mikey anymore."

But Raph's shaking his head before he can finish, and Donnie really wonders what Raph knows that he doesn't. Raph's not even home half the time, so how would he even know what happens with Leo and Mikey?

Donnie deflates when he realizes where his thoughts are leading. It isn't the least bit fair. Raph may not ever be home, but it's not like Donnie's out much either, much preferring the sanctuary of his lab to actual interaction with his brothers, who are just as broken and shattered as he is, maybe even more, now that he thinks about it.

It's not their fault that everything is so messed up, and instead of building each other up, Don thinks that they've just broken each other down, again and again. And everything is so messed up.

"Don-" Raph starts, and Don just shakes his head, hiding his face in his hands and pressing.

"What is happening to us?"

If he's expecting an answer, he's severely disappointed, because all Raph does is shrug, sigh, and echo Donnie's earlier statement. "You tell me."