"Can I come in?"
Raph nodded, not understanding why his brother was asking in the first place.
"You really will hurt your shoulder doing that." Donnie informed him as he took a few careful steps inside.
Raph sighed and leveled a stare at his brother, who seemed to wilt and Raph stopped and turned back to his hands.
"That's the idea, Sherlock." Raph grunted.
"To hurt yourself?" Donnie demanded, suddenly sounding very Leo-like.
"To distract me, genius." Raph snapped. "What do you want?"
Donnie opened his mouth to reply before snapping it shut again and motioned to the mat.
"Can I look at your shoulder?" He asked. "To make sure you didn't hurt it?"
"I'm fine," Raph replied shortly. "Go bother Mikey-"
"I have a feeling Leonardo wouldn't agree with your assessment." Donnie cut him off. "I can go ask him, if you want..."
Raph glared at his immediate younger brother's threat, trying to determine whether or not he would go through with it.
As if sensing his thoughts, Donnie started to back out of the dojo threateningly.
"Fine!" Raph growled, finally giving in. He didn't know if Donnie would have actually made good on his threat, but the thought of hearing Leo tell him off about taking care of himself was enough to almost give him a headache at the mere thought. Then Sensei would hear and, well, Raph thought that he might fare better with his younger brother rather than his older.
Donnie seemed satisfied when he sat down on the mat and he kneeled down beside him and began undoing the wrap around his arm and Raph was suddenly reminded of this exact scenario not so long ago when they were in the cells.
Donnie didn't say a word as he carefully examined his shoulder and Raph didn't know if his brother was normally this quiet or if he felt as awkward as Raph did. But Raph didn't know- he didn't know his own brother- and that was killing him. He hated how awkward this was when it shouldn't have been. He should know Donnie like he did Leo and Mikey, but the hard fact was that he didn't.
Raph sighed. No, he didn't really know Donnie, but that didn't mean that he couldn't start.
"How's it looking, doc?" Raph asked, then winced.
You really got to know him, he thought to himself with a shake of his head. He was never good with this stuff. It wasn't like he tried to get to know Mikey and Leo- he just did. It was gathered through years of living under the same roof- or sewer drain, more accurately- but he didn't know how to do this, not really.
"You may have agitated it, but I don't think you pulled it out of socket." Donnie answered him as he began to redo the wrapping.
Raph nodded, unsure of what else there was to say, and watched as Donnie sat beside him, although he kept a fair amount of distance between them.
Neither of them said anything and they didn't look at each other.
"I'm sorry."
It was a whisper, said so quietly that Raph almost thought he had imagined it before realizing that it was Donnie who had spoken.
Raph looked over to see Donnie staring at his hands as if deep in thought.
"Everything that happened, it was because of me and I'm sorry." Donnie continued.
Raph didn't know what to say to that.
On one hand, Raph wanted to punch him. He knowingly put his family in danger and almost got them killed. On the other, Raph understood that he didn't understand what he was doing, not really. He had pretty much been raised by Shred-head, and Raph had to guess that such a thing would have a lasting impact on someone.
Raph wanted to say that it was fine, that he understood and that he was home now.
It was what Leo would have done.
Mikey would have hugged the daylights out of him and told him that it wasn't his fault.
Raph couldn't do any of that, not while he could still feel his own injuries, not while he could so clearly see Mikey and Leo's.
"Why'd you do it?" Raph asked, well aware of how loaded a question that was, but not knowing a better way to word it.
At first, it didn't seem like his brother was going to answer as he stared at the ground, fingers intertwined together.
"It would be easy to say that I didn't have a choice, but that wouldn't really be true." Donnie finally answered, fleetingly meeting his eyes before they dropped back to the ground. "I don't have an excuse, Raphael. Not an acceptable one, anyway."
It wasn't the response that the hothead wanted, but it was the response that he could accept. He didn't want to hear a halfhearted lie or an excuse and he was thankful that Donnie didn't try it.
Raph nodded to his brother. Maybe he didn't understand why he had done it, but he could accept that maybe he would get an answer in time, once his brother figured out that answer for himself first.
"Let me know when you find your answer." Raph told him.
He could wait. He would wait.
"That your bike?"
Raph glanced over at the junk of a vehicle that he and Casey had hauled from the junkyard a few weeks ago.
"If you wanna call it that." Raph replied.
I'm truth, Raph had been the one to suggest that fixing up a bike would be cool, but what he didn't anticipate was all the problems. First, the bike wouldn't start, so they had to try and figure out the reason for that- which they never did- and Raph had gotten so aggravated with it that he had eventually ended up kicking the bike into the corner where it still sat.
"That's an Crotch Rocket, I'm pretty sure." Donnie stated in a matter of fact tone, looking over the junk approvingly.
Raph stared at him. How his brother could not only tell the exact type of bike it was in the deteriorated shape it was in, but think that it was good, was beyond him.
"It's junk." Raph said in the same matter of fact tone as Donnie had.
Donnie stood up and, with a glance at him to see if he was going to stop him, and kneeled beside the useless, unworkable vehicle.
Donnie examined the bike, looking at it with an almost giddy expression.
"That's a Kawasaki Ninja H2R!" Donnie told him. "It's fastest speed is two hundred and nine miles an hour. It's got three hundred horse power and is fifty percent more powerful than the fastest street legal motorcycles!"
Raph couldn't help but stare as his immediate younger brother spurted off facts about a bike that he hadn't even recognized when he was working on it. He knew what the Kawasakis' were, he had even wanted one for the longest time, but the bike had been so trashed that he hadn't recognized it.
"What are you, a fact book?" Raph asked with amusement as he stood up and made his way toward his brother.
Donnie's grin at seeing the bike abruptly dropped at the comment and he looked back toward the vehicle, averting his brother's eyes.
Raph paused. What had he said? Raph didn't think that he would take it too personally- he was only teasing him.
Raph sighed and kneeled on the other side of the bike.
"You know what a joke it, don't you Genius?" Raph asked, totally serious with the question.
Donnie nodded and rubbed the back of his neck like he could rub off the awkwardness. "Yeah, I do. Sorry."
Raph decided that ignoring it was the best play for the moment.
"May I?" Donnie asked quietly, motioning to the bike and Raph understood the idea.
"Sure." Raph responded, not knowing why his brother wanted to mess with the junk.
Donnie nodded his thanks and grabbed a nearby screw driver and went to work trying to get the seat off.
"So, how do you know bikes?" Raph asked, honestly wanting to know the answer. He found it doubtful that Donnie had been allowed to explore much of the hobby on Shred-head's whim.
Donnie shrugged. "I like to build stuff. When I had free time, I would use scraps from my projects and make whatever I had in mind."
"What did you build?" Raph asked, genuinely interested in the answer.
"Whatever I had the mind to, really." His brother answered with another shrug, like it was such a normal thing to do in one's spare time. Donnie glanced up at him with an amused smile. "I built a little robot once. It was supposed to help me in the lab, get the materials I needed, you know? It took me a little while to perfect it's program because it kept knocking over and breaking everything that it was supposed to be getting."
Raph let out a laugh at the image that created and saw Donnie grin in return.
"So it got your stuff and that was it?" Raph asked, not believing that his little brother's apparent and obvious creativity stopped at that one little task.
"Well, I was going to design it to carry conversations with me so that I had something to bounce ideas off of, but Stockman found it while I was on ordered training and, well..." Donnie frowned and gave another half hearted shrug. "I didn't make another one."
Raph frowned.
The fact that Donnie's robot had presumably been destroyed angered Raphael to no end, especially when he saw the proud gleam in his eyes when speaking about it. But what angered him more was the undertones of what he had said. The realization that Donnie had been in the process of trying to design the robot to talk back to him made Raph realize just how lonely it must have been if his little brother felt he had to make his own company.
Raph didn't know what to say to that. What could he say?
He watched Donnie tinker with the bike for a moment, obviously trying to figure out what was wrong with it before speaking again.
"Why don't you make another one?" Raph asked conversationally, helping Donnie take the seat off so that he could get to the battery.
"What?" Donnie asked, looking back up at him with surprise.
"You should make another one." Raph told him more firmly.
"I don't have any pieces to make hi- it with." Donnie stuttered, keeping his eyes firmly on the bike.
"We can go to the junkyard and get whatever you need." Raph assured him.
"I don't know..." Donnie responded hesitantly.
"How about this? You help me with this bike, and I'll help you with your robot." Raph said, holding out his hand over the bike. "Deal?"
Donnie hesitated, biting his lip, before shaking his hand.
"Good. So what's wrong with the bike?" Raph asked and almost laughed at the relieved expression on his brother's face.
"Well, for one, I think your battery is wasted. It's been sitting too long with of it being used, but your spark plugs aren't looking that great either." Donnie told him quickly. "It's a safe bet to say that it needs an oil change too and probably some new wires by the looks of it."
Raph made a mental list of this, once again wondering how Donnie knew so much of this when he and Casey had been trying to fix the stupid thing for weeks.
"We can get those at the junkyard, or have Casey get it." Raph told him.
Donnie nodded and they went to work removing the battery, spark plugs, broken and frayed wires, and anything else that Donnie thought they might need to replace.
They talked idly as they worked and Raph slowly grew to enjoy his immediate younger brother's company. He wasn't annoying like Mikey or bossy like Leo. He tended to be on the quiet side unless he started to ramble about some fact or statistic and knew the answer to literally any question that Raph asked.
They talked about the things Donnie had invented in his spare time, barring the robot Donnie had told him about earlier. They didn't talk about what he had designed or built for Shredder, nor what it was like living with the Foot. Raph desperately wanted to know the answer but knew that asking would ruin the peaceful mood that had resided between the two.
Raph told him of some of their earlier missions, about Mikey's pranks, about anything that Donnie wanted to know, which mostly consisted of things that the family had done.
They worked while they talked, draining the bad oil that had sat too long, testing the ignition, looking at the carburetor.
The two were so engrossed with their work that they didn't realize that they had company until they were suddenly being assaulted with water balloons and heard a roar of laughter from the entrance.
Raph jumped to his feet, spinning around to face his youngest brother and Casey, both with a water balloon in hand.
"Oh you two are so dead!" Raph growled.
"At-at," Mikey grinned, waving a finger at him. "I'm injured, Raphie. Sensei would have your shell if you attacked me."
Raph balled his hands into fists. "You should've thought about that before you came in here-"
"It was Casey's idea!" Mikey declared- an obvious lie- holding up his hands in a placating manner.
"What?" Casey yelped, turning toward the youngest turtle with betrayal written clearly on his face.
"Mike-"
"What is going on in here?"
Everyone in the room turned to see Master Splinter standing behind Casey and Mikey, his expression unreadable.
"Um, nothing." Mikey lied with a nervous grin that fooled no one as he and Casey hid their remaining water balloons behind their backs.
Splinter was obviously not sold as he took in the state of the room and it's occupants; his son's guilty expression.
"Michelangelo, what have I told you about throwing water balloons in the Lair?" Splinter asked, gazing down at the youngest turtle.
"Only throw them in the sewers." Mikey recited. "Sorry Sensei."
Casey looked back toward Raph, not noticing the room's other occupant.
"We got pizza Raph, come on." Casey grinned. "We're celebrating, Mike and April have it all planned out."
Raph sighed and set aside his tools. He had really liked the private time he had gotten with his estranged brother.
"Come on, Donnie, we'll work on this later." Raph said, turning back to his immediate younger brother.
Donnie, still kneeling next to the bike and now drenched from his younger brother's attack, simply nodded and set aside his own tools and stood, wincing almost imperceptibly as he did so.
Raph's eyes automatically shifted down to his wrapped plastron to realize that it hadn't escaped Mikey's attack either, plastered to his brother and nearly see through.
"Oh, sorry, Donnie." Mikey apologized, seeing the wasted wrap as well. "That was meant for Raph."
"Raphael, take your brother to Leatherhead and ask him to replace the bandage." Splinter instructed before Raph could retort to his youngest brother. "We will wait for you."
Donnie opened his mouth to protest, Raph could tell by the set of his mouth, but Raph was already hauling him up and out the door, despite his quiet protests.
"I'm fine, Raphael." Donnie told him as they approached the lab. "I can re-wrap this later."
Raph took note of how reluctant his brother seemed to be as Raph practically forced him into the lab.
"Hey Leatherhead, you in here?" Raph asked, which turned out to be pointless because he spotted the large mutant not even a moment after he had said it.
"Raphael, Donatello." Leatherhead said as way of greeting.
Raph saw Donnie's eyes narrow but he seemed to relax a moment later and Raph reminded himself to ask about that when Leatherhead wasn't around.
"My shell for brains little brother decided that a water balloon fight was the best way to get his shell cracked today and Donnie got caught in the crossfire." Raph answered. "Do you think that you can re-wrap Donnie's, uh, injury?"
Leatherhead nodded and motioned to the cot.
"Please sit, Donatello." Leatherhead said.
Donnie winced slightly as he sat down but seemed determined not to show it as he steeled his face into impassiveness.
Raph couldn't help his own wince as he saw the mess of his brother's plastron when Leatherhead removed the wrap. It looked better- much better now that it was clear of blood- yet Raph still found it hard to look at.
Donny didn't flinch when Leatherhead had to touch him in order to rewrap his plastron, but he leaned back, just a little, every time he got close.
Raph frowned and wondered why Donnie would be having such a bad reaction to Leatherhead when the two of them had just been working together for hours.
If Leatherhead noticed this, he didn't comment on it as he silently went about wrapping Donnie's plastron, but Raph did think he saw Leatherhead give him a look when Donnie's head was turned.
The words releasing Donnie from Leatherhead's care were barely out of the alligator's mouth before Donnie bounded off the cot and strode through the doorway, completely ignoring the room's occupants.
Raph shared another look with Leatherhead before following his immediate younger brother out of the lab.
He led the way to the kitchen where several stacks of pizza boxes were already laid out on the counters as well as some homemade food that April and Casey must have have brought.
Casey was arguing with Mikey over who had cheated at the racing game that they were playing, Leo was playing chess with Sensei, both looking deep in thought. Just as Raph was about to ask where April was, said red-head bounded from the hall and looked over at them, obviously trying not to stare at the only brother that she had never met and failing.
"Don, April O'Neil." Raph grunted. "April, Donnie."
April smiled sweetly and held out her hand at the same time that Donnie bowed low in a way that Raph had rarely ever done.
Though Sensei had ingrained in them the traditions and customs of the Japanese, they had all lived in America long enough that acting in those customs had become rare unless the situation required it.
April hesitated, glancing up at Raph as if asking a question, before trying to imitate a bow back.
"It's nice to meet you." April said with a wide smile. "I've heard a lot about you."
Donnie grimaced at the words.
"I'm sure you have." He responded.
April seemed to be trying to come up with a way to correct her statement when Mikey's shout rang out.
"Come onnnnnnn guys, I'm starving over here!"
"You're always starvin' Mike." Raph muttered as he made his way to the kitchen, trusting Donnie and April to follow when they were ready.
"What can I say?" Mikey demanded. "I'm a growing turtle!"
Raph rolled his eyes and snatched two pieces of pepperoni pizza before his youngest brother could devour it.
"Actually, most turtles stop the growing process by the time they're five years old, although with the mutagen in our blood it might be hard to tell since we more closely resemble humans, so we may stop growing at the same rate they do, which is usually around eighteen or twenty."
As the rest of the room stared at the second youngest, April took this as her chance to better get to know the turtle she had just met.
"It may perhaps be a mix of the two." April suggested eagerly. "Your genes are so unique that it would be difficult to determine without further examination."
Donnie and April then proceeded to launch themselves into a conversation about their differing theories, which began with the turtles' anatomy, but evolved into a lot of geek talk that Raph didn't understand.
A few minutes into their discussion, Leatherhead made his appearance, though he didn't eat.
He had left his lab coat behind and quickly joined in on their conversation. Raph kept waiting for Donnie to move away the way he had when Leatherhead was wrapping him up, but it didn't happen. The more the three of them talked their geek-speak, the more comfortable his second youngest brother became.
Gone was the shy, subservient, anxious turtle that they had brought home. He was in his element now, comfortable and taking the lead in the conversation and seemed happy to be having it.
It was like flipping a switch.
Raph and Leo shared a look and the younger knew that their leader in blue saw the same thing.
Raph smirked as he took another slice of pizza.
Maybe the whole 'getting to know his brother thing' wouldn't be too hard. He might have to fake a little geek-speak until Donnie was comfortable and they could always go back to fixing the bike if he wanted, but Raph was determined to get to know his immediate younger brother one way or the other.
This was mainly a Raph- centric chapter. I very much feel like Raph, despite how he acts, does love his brothers and understands them. I think in a lot of fanfics, Donnie and Raph are very close and I kind of wanted to show that starting out. For those who have stayed with this, thank you so much! The comments and votes are amazing but I also just love the views. Thank you all so much!