"—that makes no sense, why would Leo be mad at you?"
Mikey sighs, paintbrush long put away and arms wrapped around his small frame as he leans against the back of the couch. Smushed in right beside his oldest brother, he doesn't know how to exactly explain what he's been feeling.
"I dunno," Mikey answers honestly. "He just is."
"I don't think so, Mike. Leo's been acting weird to all us lately. Heh. Like he caught Donnie's strangeness or something. I'm sure it's fine, I'll talk to him for ya—"
"—nobody talk to me, nobody look at me, or so help me you will suffer the consequences—" A flash of purple and green whisks by, and it takes Mikey a minute to realize that's Donnie, returned surprisingly soon from junkyard finding. Mikey normally always goes with him, and on most days he's lucky if they leave before sunrise.
He blinks, and then Don's gone. And within literal seconds, the brother they'd been discussing appears and disappears just as fast.
"Leo!" Raph calls and Mikey shakes his head no. Tries to make him stop. Raph normally always listens to the input of his brothers, but he's also apparently curious as to why Donnie and Leo are moving at the speed of light. Fortunately he only focuses on that, and Mikey sighs in relief when the few simple words tumble out of his mouth. "What's going on?"
Leo rounds the corner after Donnie, not answering, and then there's the loud scream of "get away from me!"
There's a door slam—probably Donnie. Leo makes a noise of protest after that, and then he bangs once, twice, three times on the lab door. He stands, and he apparently waits, because the whole lair is silent for several minutes afterwards.
Donnie doesn't emerge. There's no click of an opening door, nor is there a discussion going on between the two. And within another minute, Leo sulks back off to the main room. Apparently giving up, he droops down onto a beanbag.
Raph and Mikey exchange looks. They're both seated on the faraway left side of their brother. Leo holds a pillow to his chest and sighs. And Mikey looks at a encouraging Raph before he scoots himself a little bit closer, toward Leo and the floor.
"What happened?" Mikey asks. It's always good to be direct with these kinds of things. "If you wanna tell us."
"I am not desperate for attention," he grumbles, arms crossed and clear scowl on his face. "Donnie's just—just—"
"Uh, Leo?"
Leo tears his eyes away from the floor, and sees Raph and Mikey both staring at him.
He turns his full body, slower than ever before, to take a look at them. "What?"
"Why you two so worked up?" Raph tries this time.
"...We're not worked up."
Raph snorts, not buying it, and mumbles a quick yeah, okay under his breath.
"I'll go talk to Dee," Mikey says quietly, but he still stands up quick as can be. Leo's eyes widen, and in a flash he is standing up and grabbing his baby brother's wrist. "No, it's fine, it's fine. Stay."
"Okaaaay..."
Leo nods, and returns to his sulking on the beanbag. Pillow pressed up against chin, he sighs for what feels like the hundredth time in a span of three minutes.
This explanation's not gonna be good, but he's gotta tell them something, or god forbid they go to Donnie about it. Leo tries to keep his normally so nonchalant demeanor when he speaks, but ultimately falls short of that several times when he keeps throwing glances in the lab's direction. "Uh. Don's just mad because I broke some stuff, you know how I do."
"You broke stuff... how much stuff? What, did you just followed him around breaking everything he grabbed or something?"
"No, Raph. I just destroyed random things."
"Sometimes I break stuff when I go with him," Mikey offers. "It's no big deal, Leo. A lot of the stuff there is broken to begin with. Donnie'll forgive you, don't worry about it."
Leo calms himself just enough to shoot a tiny, sympathetic smile at his younger brother—and Mikey grins back, a bit bigger and wider, just before scooting closer. Leo opens his mouth to respond, but Raph, still processing this whole thing through, speaks first.
"What exactly is it that you broke though? You break all kinds of stuff, that ain't new," Raph confirms, making a face. "Don should be used to it by now.."
"He's clearly not used to it, so." The blue masked ninja sinks further down, grumbling under his breath the whole time.
"He's not gonna want you to go back to the junkyard. Hope you know that."
Leo rolls his eyes, but he gazes back in the direction of the lab. Returning to the junkyard is the least of his problems. His brother doesn't even want to talk to him.
He had good intentions, didn't he? He didn't make jokes about any of it—when their conversation started, Leo was so proud of that. He handled it in what he at least thought was a good way. He spent a lot of time thinking about it, hours longer than he's thought about most things. No, Leo really, truly tried. And yet—
Donnie is a bigger mess of emotions than he was when they started, and if anything Leo hopes that the one big, bright, beautiful breakthrough in this is that maybe just maybe Donnie will realize he actually feels things. Because he's clearly angry and willing to strangle Leo at any given second, and that's a feeling, whether Leo wants it to occur or not.
His brother can deny whatever he wants to, 'cause Leo knows. Nobody gives him credit for his brain, Leo is not the genius, nor does he always take things seriously. Leo is the one who hangs out and knows how to have a good time. But he's smarter than his family thinks, and he's made it this far in their lives, and he knows Donnie would love it if he backed off and shut up forever, but he shouldn't have to this time. This is a big deal, clearly. And Leo is far from oblivious when it comes to his brothers.
Mikey taps Leo's shoulder, and Leo lifts his still drooping head upwards. When he looks at his baby brother, he sees another tiny smile forming.
"Talk," Raph whisper-hisses from the other side of the room. And Mikey nudges him away and waves an arm dismissively before going back to Leo.
"Hey. Uh, we're... you and I aren't mad at each other, or anything, right?" Mikey asks, big wide eyes focused and concentrated as he waits for Leo's reaction.
"Uhhhh, are you mad at me?"
Mikey answers, confident and unnerved. "No."
Leo watches him for a moment or two, but Mikey keeps his focus, staring and sitting upright, and Leo eventually resigns himself to leaning back against the beanbag. "Ughhhh, everybody is so weird lately."
"Yeah, everybody but you," Raph replies in what is clearly a sarcastic manner. He rolls his eyes, but smiles while he does so. And Leo doesn't even think about questioning that comment this time.
Mikey's smiling harder now, overly elated even though Leo just got done telling them how angry their brother is. Mikey doesn't seem to have a care in the world when he wraps his arms around Leo's waist.
"I just wanted to make sure," Mikey confirms, not letting go. "You've been busy worrying about Donnie."
Leo doesn't quite know what to say to that, but he pats Mikey's shell a couple times. Finally he figures he should say something so he says, "well... until Donnie's forgiven me for, uh," he mutters the next two words under his breath. "breaking everything. you probably don't have to worry about that."
"Dee will forgive you by tomorrow, no sweat. He's never that mad about a few metallic casualties."
Leo meets Raph's eyes, who's nodding proudly. Patting Mikey's shell once again, Leo answers, "you're probably right."
Mikey is, of course, not right.
Leo realizes this almost immediately the next day, when he's knocking on Donnie's door and his brother refuses to come out and speak with him. Leo keeps that knowledge in his head throughout his every action, even when he finally does give him personal space. Even now, stuck in an intense game of ping pong with Mikey, Leo is still very much aware that Donnie is not speaking to him.
Mikey didn't—doesn't—know the full story, so how could he really know how long Donnie would be mad? Regardless of that, Leo still hoped that somehow, someway, Donnie would have forgiven him within a few hours. That hope is crushed into teeny tiny pieces anytime he leaves the lab.
He rarely does, he's locked himself in there with entry only allowed to Mikey and Raph. And Splinter, of course, but the old rat has no interest in going inside. Leo is starting to really get sick of that place, why does Donnie get to lock himself in his lab and ignore his problems constantly?
Both Mikey and Raph have slipped in a couple times, and neither have came out screaming at Leo, so he figures Donnie can't be venting his heart out in there or anything.
"He's still angry at you I think," Mikey had said hours ago. "but he says he's way too busy working on stuff to focus on it."
Leo seriously doubts that, given the times where Donnie has exited his favorite room and upright glared at Leo, sometimes even doing things just to spite him. When Leo had stood outside the lab door, narrating what his plans were for today—which included watching tv, Donnie had stormed out and deleted his recordings.
When Leo reached for milk at breakfast, Donnie took the entire jug and drank it himself. Despite the purpose being to tick him off, Leo is still somewhat impressed by that. Raph and Mikey, on the other hand, were rightfully horrified and very confused.
Donnie retreated so fast and ignored every word Leo said to him, those brief moments of forced interaction really did not get them anywhere. Leo was hoping by upping the annoyance factor Donnie would come out and tell him to shut it. That plan only seems to backfire on Leo, and he's more than sick of it.
If his brother wants to act like that, fine by him, but Leo's not gonna sit around doing nothing.
Or maybe he is, just until the next time Donnie shows himself. He never really knows what to do while he waits. Pacing didn't work. Standing by Donnie's door didn't work. Simply screaming Donnie's name was the worst of it all, he got more than an earful from their father who didn't want to hear it. There's nothing to do now to change things, so he distracts himself and plays ping pong with Mikey.
He probably should be spending more time with his younger brother anyway. Since apparently Mike got it in his head that they were mad at each other, Leo's gotta at least make a point to prove that wrong.
And truthfully, he has been bailing on his younger sibling several times this week. It's not completely Mikey's fault he thought that, given how this whole thing started with Leo annoyed over Mikey's injury and need to return home. Throw in several semi-harsh comments and Leo being so distracted by Donnie, and you got yourself a self-conscious turtle.
Leo's trying not to be distracted by Donnie right now though. Trying to actually focus on spending time with his younger brother. This whole week he has been so preoccupied, and he knows he needs to try to step away. So, until Donnie chooses to leave the lab himself, Leo will do what Mikey wants for the time being.
Even if it means losing ping pong.
Leo dodges the stray ball, diving towards the edge of the table and lifting his racket up a little higher. The ball bounces off, smack dab onto the floor and Leo watches it roll around for a few good seconds.
Mikey watches it too. He comes up on Leo's right side, racket still in hand.
"You kind of suck today," Mikey comments. Leo grins like his defeat doesn't even matter.
"Eh, no problemo. You must've mastered ping pong or something."
Mikey squints suspiciously at his brother, curious eyes darting up and down like they're searching for secrets. "I don't think so," he says, while motioning to the many balls he lost. "I kind of suck too."
"Must just be an off day. That... happens. To people. Sometimes." Leo talks as though the very notion of an off day has never been put in his mind until now. Shaking that thought out of head, he smiles and declares, "let's do something else!"
"You don't normally have off days though.." Mikey mumbles, dragged off toward the skateboard ramps. He brightens a little upon seeing that and decides to put his comments to rest for at least a couple more minutes. He wouldn't have time to discuss anything anyway, Leo is already running forward.
Mikey grins when his older brother kicks his skateboard towards him. Mikey jumps up, landing on it perfectly and sliding forward. Leo hollers something and is already ahead, and Mikey kinda laughs.
He feels weird when Leo starts encouraging him to show off though, silently wondering what he's not being told.
Donnie peeks out of the lab late at night. Everyone is still up thanks to their nocturnal schedule—sleep during the day, stay up and live at night—but there's no noise alerting him that anyone, especially not Leo, is nearby, so he slips out anyway.
His father is sprawled out in his armchair, sipping on milk and watching whatever late night rerun is on at this time. Donnie doesn't pay any attention to it. He shoots Splinter no more than a distant glance as he creeps by, footsteps silent. Ever the ninja in training, he has never been more grateful he knows the art of silence.
"Purple. I believe Red is looking for you."
He flinches on instinct. The purple-clad turtle mentally chides himself on his failed attempt to sneak by, and then even more so for flinching right afterwards. Splinters not supposed to see him. No one is supposed to see him. He's supposed to be gone. Out of the lair. No problems whatsoever. Just for a while. Just until he can breathe again.
Donnie stands taller, hand clenched tight on his backpack strap. "O-Oh. Okay. I'll go find him."
He has no intentions to go find Raph, and although Splinter seems to realize this if his long, curious stare is anything to go by, he does not say anything.
Donnie finds Raph anyway.
He doesn't mean to, but Don bumps into his brother within 5 minutes of leaving the lab.
Raph starts by telling him how they should all probably be more on the lookout for oozesquitos, another celebrity just mutated after all, and ends with a flurry of questions about just what the heck Donnie is doing and where does he think he's going.
"I'm going to April's," Donnie answers, confidently. Holding the draw string backpack a little tighter, he avoids eye contact.
"Why are you going to April's?" Raph questions. All hope is lost, in Donnie's typically correct opinion.
"You know what—never mind. You are right, I have more than enough projects to occupy my time in the lab. I just, just, thought.. that we ran out of some wiring that April would likely possess. But it's fine. Heading back now, forget any mention of this conversation, I'll just—"
As he starts to walk away, Raph reaches out and grabs his wrist. "Don."
Only freezing for a couple of brief seconds, he tugs his hand out of Raph's grip immediately afterwards. "Yes, Raph?"
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he promises. "Obviously."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, Raph. I believe I'm quite sure, thank you."
"So you and Leo are what? Fighting? Ignoring each other?" Raph holds back a comment about how Leo is clearly not doing that last part, especially if the way he screamed at the lab door was anything to go by. "Or are you guys good, 'cause everybody's sorta lost here."
Donnie shoots Raph a flattened look. Leo is many things, but a decent secret keeper he is not. Probably rambled to everyone about everything the second they returned home. Couldn't act like everything's fine, had to make it sound like he was some brother helping hero. Figures.
"Donnie," Raph presses.
Blinking a few times and trying to get out of his stupor, the genius speaks slowly,
"Leo and I are fine. There is simply no need for me to interact with him anymore."
"...Uh huh," Raph counters. "Donnie. He's your little brother."
Swallowing back harsh bites of technically none of us are related, Donne instead answers with, "as is Miguel."
"And you're mad at Leo because... he broke some stuff at a junkyard?"
"What?" Donnie lowers his guard a smidge, suddenly frowning in confusion. "No. I... he... You know what? It does not matter. I'm going back to the lab."
"Leo said he's sorry, right?" Raph confirms, keeping the conversation going. "I heard him yelling it for hours. What did he even break? You're a genius, I'm sure it could be fixed. We could help you fix it."
Donnie regains his composure, slowly but surely, and, leaning on his tech bo for support, answers simply, "it can't be fixed."
"How can it not be fixed?! You turned an old, abandoned movie prop into the turtle tank! You built motorcycles from scratch! I have never seen anything that's too broke for your standards, why is this any different—"
"—because I said it is!" Donnie fires. "Does this affect you? At all? NO. If I wanted your input, I'd ask for it! But thank you so much for this helpful conversation, really appreciate it."
Don starts to walk away again, back to the safety of his lab where maybe this time Raphael won't be allowed in either, but his brother calls out his name again and, against his better judgement, he turns bitterlyaround just to see why he's wanted.
"Does April know you're going over there?" Raph asks, and Donnie's eyes grow wide.
"Yeah. Her, um. Her parents are out of town, so of course, she said it's fine if I stay for awhile."
Raph nods, gaze fixated on the stone ground. "You're gonna have to make up with Leo sometime."
Donnie really does not want to do that. He has no plans for that in the foreseeable future, but whatever makes Raph happy.
"...Yeah," is all he tells him. "Sometime."
"You're gonna miss out on bug catching if you stay there too long," Raph affirms in what is clearly another last ditch effort to get Donnie to stay. Donnie was willing to, but only because he thought it'd get him out of another tough conversation. Sneaking out again in another attempt to head off to April's would have occurred within the hour. "We're gonna go patrolling for Draxum's bugs soon 'nuff."
"That's fine," Donnie retorts. He holds off on informing Raph that he has several inventions just for that. It's fine. Raph knows that already. They have his inventions at the ready, they don't need him there.
"And this is all 'cause Leo broke something?" Raph repeats. This time he looks Don directly in the eyes, his own cautious as they scan his brother's face for any secret truths. "You want to stay with April 'cause Leo broke stuff?"
Donnie nods, and Raph sighs. Gaze darting away from the genius, he agrees, "Okay. Whatever, I guess I can't stop ya."
Donnie cannot help the huge that spreads on his face when he hears Raph's words.
He's not tempted to brag about his victories, like he usually would be when he's successfully gotten through on something. No, this time Donnie keeps his composure. He swallows down his inexplicable joy and he whispers stiffly, "thanks."
"Pops is gonna be wondering where you are, I'm gonna have to tell him."
Donnie brushes it off. "Dad loves April."
"Mikey and Leo are probably gonna want to drop by."
Donnie shoots Raph a serious look, and Raph backs off.
"Just... be alright, okay? All I'm asking. Tell April I said hey, too."
Donnie nods again, feeling like his whole body is on a entirely different level. The last thing he expected was for one of his brothers to accept his runaway. He expected a lot more fighting from Raph, a lot more demands, and a lot more attempts to make Leo and Don buddy buddy again. Raph did try, sure, but the whole thing worked out a lot better than Donnie ever thought it would.
Donnie hikes his backpack up a little higher; watches his brother who's watching him. "Thanks," he tells Raph with a curt nod. "I'll tell her."