(3808 words)
The boys make a loud return trip home, all the while Leo and Raph bragging about how they won and the others lost. It was childish but nether cared. Mikey ended up smacking Leo in the arm after Raph had said something that just barely crossed the line. "Mikey! What did you hit me for? It was Raph who said it." Mikey puts his hands on his hips. "Well I can't hit Raph."
Raph looks at Mikey. "Why not?" He says with a glare. Donnie pipes up from the back, messing around with his phone. "Do you want to be hit?" Raph crosses his arms. "No." "There you go then" Donnie says. Raph doesn't like being treated like a delicate little flower. Raph reaches to the back and smacks Mikey upside the head. "that's what you get for bein' and idiot." Raph says, trying to act macho.
"Oh whatever man." Mikey says, rubbing his head, messing up his red hair. The rest of the ride didn't seem so bad. They blasted some music, most-likely going partially def as Donnie kept reminding them. They almost stopped at a fast food restaurant but in the end Donnie said they didn't have enough money to get something for everyone. Leo had been on edge about returning home without everything on Yoshi's list and tried to convince them ten times to go to another store to find it.
"Yo! Guys look! There's a sign for a skating competition!" Mikey shouts. "Where?" Raph asks, looking out the front window. "To the left!" Raph looks out the window still. "Where? I don't see it." Mikey hits the seat impatiently. "Left dude, LEFT!" Raph continues to look in the wrong direction before looking out his side window. "I am!"
"That's the right Raph." Donnie supplies for him. "Raph quickly changes his view to the left but Mikey sighs. "It's passed now dude." Raph's face heats up slightly. "Well Soorry." He says sarcastically. "It's cool man, it wasn't that interesting anyways." Leo says, trying to calm him down.
"Pfft, whatever." Raph grumbles. Mikey crosses his arms in the back and flops back. "It was a cool sign. Dude can't even tell left from right." He mumbles, not noticing how loud his mumbling voice was. "Mikey!" Leo and Donnie both yell at the same time, neither of them noticing Raph slouching down in his seat.
"What!? You guys weren't supposed to hear that and since you did, am I wrong!?" Mikey says, getting frustrated. "You don't just say stuff like that Mikey!" Donnie says. "That was kinda low Mikey." Leo says, keeping his attention on the road. Mikey shifts in his seat. "I feel so attacked right now." Leo rolls his eyes at the road. "As you should."
The boys walk into the house, having another contest over who could carry the most bags in. "Light as a feather!" Mikey says, holding four bags. Raph rolls his eyes. "Yeah, you keep tellin' yourself that princess." He says, carrying seven bags. "WHAT!? How come you got that many!?" Mikey yells in jealousy. "Because I'm not as much of a weakling as you" Raph says with his arms shaking.
Mikey notices and smirks. "How come your arms are shaking so much then smart guy?" Raph sets his bags on the table and sits down. "Because I went skating with you and ate pavement dumbass."
"Language Raphael." A commanding voice says. Raph jumps and looks behind him to see Yoshi had entered the kitchen. "Oh, heh-heh-hey." Raph says, a nervous laugh intertwined. Yoshi glares at him slightly. "Did you boys get everything on the list?" He asks. Leo bolts up straight, whipping his head around fast enough to give himself whiplash. "I- Father, the fish section was completely wiped out. I wanted to stop at another store and try and find the last thing on your list but the guys didn't want to stop and-"
Yoshi holds up a hand, stopping Leo's rant. "It is alright my son." He says with a chuckle. "It was not important." He sets a hand on Leo's shoulder. Mikey hops around the table, bouncing up behind Donnie and hopping up on his shoulders, holding himself up. "You know what we should do!? We should play a 'get to know you' game!"
"Really?" Donnie says, hands on hips. "Like truth or dare? Aren't those types of games reserved for ten year-old girl's slumber parties?" Leo smiles. "You know what? I think that's a great idea." Donnie looks at Leo like he'd betrayed him ten times over. "We get to know each other and it's all part of a game. So there's no need for feeling awkward." Raph rolls his eyes.
They just wanted to know about his past and he knew it. But there was the opportunity to know about them. How they worked and how he could make it in this family...
"Sure, why not." He says, crossing his arms. Donnie feels his hopes get demolished. "B-But guys! W-What- why?!" All three of them shrug and walk into the living-room, leaving Donnie standing in the kitchen. "uh-!" Donnie drops his head and he feels his father's hand on his shoulder. "You fought hard my son."
Donnie joins the rest of the group in the living-room where they all sit around on the couches. "So what do you guys wanna play first!?" Mikey asks excitedly as if he'd never gotten to play a game before. "Oh! no! wait! we should do truth or dare! That sounds fun!" Raph rolls his eyes and Leo shrugs. Donnie shrinks down in his seat. "Quick question, why don't you all just go watch TV or play a video game or somethin'?" Raph asks, trying to be nonchalant.
"Because we technically are on an electronics ban." Leo says, glaring at Mikey. "I told you man, it was a pop up ad!" He defends, turning red in the cheeks. Raph listens to the obvious past argument coming back up. "But I saw Donnie on the computer the other day." He says, breaking up the argument. They go silent and turn to Donnie. "W-Whaaaat? Noooo, You must've- I wasn't- I was studying for school!" Donnie says, obviously trying to lie but not well.
"Oh really? What were you studying?" Leo asks, crossing his arms. Donnie's face gets a bit red. "Okay! So it wasn't school! Lets just start this game already!" Leo gives him a look before shrugging. "Fine, but don't expect me to let this drop for long. We will be talking about this later."
Donnie crosses his arms. "Wow, okay mom." Leo tries his hardest not to snap back but he couldn't help mumbling. "What would you know about moms." Luckily no one but Raph hears Leo's mean hearted comment. "That was a low blow man..." Raph whispers. Leo ignores him.
Silence settles in the room, causing each teen to feel uncomfortable. "SO!" Mikey shout. "I'll Start! Leo, Truth or dare!" Leo slouches down in his seat. "I don't care. Truth." Mikey thinks for a moment. "Mmmm... Have you... Ever kissed someone?" Leo rolls his eyes at Mikey's question. "Mikey, that was such a lame question. But yes."
"Well, aren't you going to tell us who?" Mikey presses. "That wasn't part of the question." Leo says smugly. "Fine." Mikey grumbles. "Now you ask someone else a question." Leo looks around, realizing he only had two people to choose from. "Uh, Raph... Truth or dare." Raph is staring off in the distance, not paying an ounce of attention to their 'game'. "Truth..."
"Okay, um... How about what's-" Raph quickly snaps back to reality. "Wait, wait, wait! Can I change to dare? I-I wasn't paying attention." Donnie shrugs but Mikey shakes his head. "Nope! Rules are if you choose one thing you can't change it!"
"Ugghhh!" Raph groans. Leo glances away. "Well, uh... What's your worst subject in school?" Raph lets out a breath, glad it wasn't too bad. "Math. I suck at it, all those letters and numbers together, who decided to start putting the alphabet in math!?" Raph lies easily. It wasn't that he wasn't bad at math, he was. He was just worse at spelling, but most fifteen year olds don't do spelling in school as a subject on it's own.
Donnie looks past Raph slightly. "Hey, If you'd like, I could always help you study a little. I mean, I already help Mikey with a couple of his subjects." Raph shrugs. "Uh, sure, why not." He scratches his arm around the bandages. "Um, Donnie, truth or dare?" Donnie mulls over his options before deciding "I think I'll have an easier time doing truth." He says.
"Okay, how come you were so upset about school being called off? An' no skimpin' out on the answer." Raph says, crossing his arms. "Uh..." Donnie says. Mikey and Leo seem to already know what was going on so Raph decides this was common knowledge in this house. "I don't like change." He says simply.
"ah-ah-ah, that wasn't a full answer." Mikey tuts with a mischievous smile. "What do you mean, of course it was." Donnie shoots back. Mikey makes a forward twirling motion with his hand as if telling him to continue. "Dude." Donnie complains, but his little brother wasn't hearing it. "Fine. I have a routine. Wake up, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, go to school. That got interrupted and then changed without me knowing what to do."
"Then we went to the store and that wasn't going to be a thing until much much later." Donnie seems to start ranting so Leo budges him quickly to let him know. "Oh, oh yeah, sorry." He mumbles. "Mikey, truth or dare." He says a little quieter. Mikey smiles. "Since you guys all went the pussy route, I'm gonna go dare!" Leo glares at Mikey for his language but the hyper boy didn't notice.
"Um, I dare you to..." Donnie watches as Mikey squirms in his seat, his legs bouncing, his hands tapping. "I dare you to sit still for the entire rest of the game." Donnie says, smiling at his own observation skills. Mikey suddenly stops all his movements. "Got it dude, sit still." He gives his legs one final tap and sits stiff as a board. "Okay um, Raph truth or dare?" Mikey says quickly.
"Dare." Raph says, finally getting his head in the game. "I dare you to... do a back tuck! Off the couch!" Leo looks at Mikey, confused. "Mikey, that's not a good idea. It's dangerous and Raph hasn't been trained to-" Raph stands up. interrupting Leo's lecture. "Sure, I'll do it." Donnie looks on in astonishment as Raph steps up onto the back of the couch.
Luckily their living-room had extremely high ceilings so there was no way Raph would hit them. "Raph, don't do this, it's just a game. You're going to get yourself hurt!" Leo says, standing up like he was going to stop the other teen from flipping. "Na, I think I'm good." Raph says just before jumping up and back slightly off the back of the couch.
Once he reaches the height of his jump he pulls his legs over his head and opens up just in time to land perfectly on the floor. "How in the hell-!?" Donnie exclaims, hand on his head. Raph flicks some hair out of his eyes and climbs back over the couch, plopping down. "Mikey, your turn again. Truth or dare."
Leo feels slightly left out when Raph goes back to Mikey but quickly gets over it, seeing as this was a children's game. "Dare my dude!" Mikey nearly shouts. "Keep it down Mike." Donnie say angrily. "Dude, if I have to sit still and be tortured like this, I'm gonna be loud! Like seriously dude, this is like if I yanked your hair but ten times worse." Mikey complains.
"Hair?" Raph questions quietly. "Yeah dude, he freaks out when even a single hair is out of place!" Mikey whispers. "Vain much?" Raph smirks. "I have the perfect dare for you." Raph whispers in Mikey's ear for a moment and he gets a mischievous grin on his face. He stands up without a word and walks over to Donnie. "What was your dare Mike-"
Mikey yanks on Donnie's ponytail holder, pulling it half way out and leaving his hair a mess. "That!" Mikey says loudly. Donnie sits there in shock for a moment before his hands start twitching slightly. His eyes are wide and he went completely stiff. "Woah, dude, are you okay?I didn't think it'd be that bad of a dare..." Mikey lays a hand on his shoulder but Donnie swipes it off quickly.
He stands up and stomps out of the room, quickly heading down the hall. "Mikey!" Leo yells. "What!? It was Raph's dare, I had to do it! Plus I didn't know it'd be that bad of a thing!" Leo glares at Mikey. "You knew it would make him mad though, Raph didn't." Raph keeps quiet. He didn't want to say he knew just before he told Mikey his dare.
Mikey turns to Raph. "Raph, it was your dare, you have to make Donnie come back!" Raph frowns. "What? Why?" Mikey gets down on his knees and looks at him pleadingly. "Please! You just have to!" Raph stands up to get away from Mikey's pleading hands. "Fine! just get off me!" Raph stands up and leaves the room, brushing his hair out of his face. "I really need to get a hair cut." He mumbles.
Donnie stomps upstairs, his hair frizzed and half way pulled out of it's normal small ponytail. "Donnie, it was just a dare, I'm sorry!" Raph yells, dashing after him. The words felt foreign coming out of his mouth, he didn't normally apologize for things he did, let alone things others did.
Donnie doesn't respond, just going to his room and trying to slam the door closed. Raph catches it just before it closed and yanks it back open. "I didn't think it'd be that big of a deal. It's just your hair and you can fix it like no problem." Donnie obviously wants to say something but he holds it back, walking further into his room.
Raph goes after him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Come on man, let's go finish the game." Donnie forcibly shoves Raph's hand off of him. "Don't touch me." He says, his hands up close to his chest, fidgeting anxiously. "Dude, just finish the game so your bro'll get off my back." Raph says, grabbing Donnie's arm. "Don't touch me." Donnie says more sternly.
Raph doesn't listen, pulling him a little bit and grabbing his other arm. "It's just a game, why are you being so weird about it?" Raph says, exasperated. At this point Donnie had had enough. "I'm autistic! Stop fucking touching me!" He yells, pulling out of Raph's grasp as hard as he could.
Raph takes a step back, looking on in shock after Donnie's small outburst. "Go away! just go away!" The distressed teen yells, squeezing his hands to his ears almost too tightly. Raph backs up and turns to leave the room. He goes down the stairs and glances into the kitchen. "Uh, hey, Mr. Hamato?" He says, seeing Yoshi sitting at the table, drinking a cup of tea.
"Something's um, bothering Donnie. You might want to go uh, check up on him." Raph says awkwardly, thumbing back towards the stairs. "Thank you for informing me Raphael." He says calmly, standing up from his chair. "Is he uh, okay?" Raph asks as Yoshi passes him. "Donatello will be fine." He says, walking slowly up the stairs.
Raph watches the older man walk through the still open door, pushing it open even wider. Raph could see from where he was standing Yoshi sit down on the bed next to Donnie who still had his hands covering his ears. Yoshi says something and surprisingly The young boy shakes his head. Raph was sure he wouldn't be able to hear anything.
Yoshi just sits there next to his son who had started rocking back and forth slightly. Raph wonders why he didn't do anything, why he wasn't helping him or trying to calm him down in any way. He shakes his head, deciding it would be weird to continue watching. He goes back into the living room and sits down next to Mikey who had leaned over onto Leo, tears streaking his face.
"Donnie's not coming back." Raph says calmly, looking over at Mikey. "What's with him?" He asks. Leo brushes some hair out of Mikey's face and squeezes his arm. "He's just upset that he made Donnie upset." Raph nods and it goes quiet. "... So did you guys know?" He asks. "Know what?" Leo asks, still consoling his little brother.
"That Donnie is- well, different an' all." Raph mumbles. Leo nods and Mikey sniffles. "Yeah, Father isn't really one for keeping secrets like that. All our shit is all out in the open" Leo says, letting lose a small curse. "When did- When did you guys find out?" Raph asks, hoping he wasn't being too intrusive to this family's business.
"Well, I think He was diagnosed about a year or so after being adopted, so I think he was eight. Father only really started considering it after a big thing that happened back then." Raph, slightly frustrated with how Leo was handing him the information asks one more probing question. "What happened?"
Mikey shakes his head and Leo pats his curly head of hair. "It really scared Mike, seeing as how young he was. Whenever Don would get upset or mad or overwhelmed he'd start hitting his head really hard. He even gave himself a concussion one time."
The way Leo talks about this like it was nothing makes Raph feel weird, like he was watching a movie about this sad boy who hurt himself. But as soon as he turns the movie off it wouldn't be a problem. It was either fake or not his problem.
Raph tunes back into what Leo was saying. "After that We'd tried to get him to stop but it only half worked. We did get him to stop hitting his head and he was doing a really good job about it, we had this whole sticker board and everything, but he started hitting his arms instead." Leo feels Mikey sit up from his lap.
"All out in the open" He mumbles. He looks up at Raph, or rather over to him, seeing as they were about the same height, if not Mikey being taller. "Leo, You're not telling him what happened though." He says, still looking at Raph. "One day, I think I was seven or almost seven, We went to the zoo. It was an exhausting day for all of us but it took it's toll on Donnie the worst."
Mikey clears his throat and shifts completely out of his lying down position. "He seemed fine to all of us, just tired, but when we went to the lion's exhibit they were roaring a lot. I guess it was too much for him and he just kinda broke down. He screamed and hit his head and cried. I thought he must-a been mind controlled or something. He didn't stop, not for a long time."
Mikey chuckles oddly. "We actually got kicked out of the zoo after everything. Anyways, we couldn't move him. Any touch of any kind wold make it even worse. I think it scared everyone the most though when he scratched all down his neck. If you look close enough you can actually still see the scars." The boy shivers.
Raph looks shocked. Both at the fact that that that had happened to them and that they seemed so comfortable talking about it. "Oh, uh, I'm sorry." He says, unsure how to deal with the situation. "It's cool dude, he's learned how to deal better now." Once again the room goes quiet.
Raph goes upstairs after not seeing Donnie for the rest of the day. He knocks on the door marked as Donnie's with science posters and deep scratches in the wood. "Donnie?" Raph asks cautiously. He hears shuffling from inside before the door opens. Donnie stands there with a sectioned blanket around his shoulders.
"Hey, um. I'm sorry about the whole dare thing. I-" Donnie holds up his hand, stopping Raph's speech. "It's fine. I'm sorry for yelling. C-Can I just ask you something real quick?" Donnie's voice sounds choppy almost. Raph nods, not wanting Donnie to stay mad at him. "Can you not tell anyone? L-Like at school and stuff? People like me don't usually get treated so well if people know."
Raph nods again. "Yeah, of course." Raph says. Donnie smiles a little. "Thanks bro" he says, making Raph's chest tighten a bit. Donnie closes his door and Raph walks away towards his own room. "Bro... Heh, yeah." He says under his breath. "I can keep a secret."
I'll keep you my dirty little secret
(Dirty little secret)
Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret
(Just another regret, hope that you can keep it)
My dirty little secret
Dirty little secret
Dirty little secret
Who has to know
Who has to know
Dirty Little Secret
All American Rejects.
Hey! I know it's been a while but I hope you liked this chapter! I've been super busy with a lot of things including my original webcomic! If I've perked your interest check it out! (I know, self promoting is so stupid) Anyways it's at MissPunnyPuns on deviant art and the comic is called "Jo" If you like how I portray Raph, Jo is a lot like him, just a lot younger.
Thank you for reading! Go ahead and share your thoughts on this chapter and I'll write you guys next time!