A/N: Hello everyone! It feels like ages since I last posted a chapter! Thank you all for your patience! These two chapters were very difficult for me to write. You guys are so faithful to this story, I always want to post my very best which is why it took so long to get these chapters just right. I rewrote them at least three times, just to make sure there were no plot inconsistencies. And yes, I did say TWO chapters! So, chapter 14 will be posted later this week….it's the least I can do since it's been so long since my last post! Thank you so much for hanging in there with me. I want to say a huge thank you to Ravenshell for being my beta and also Sewersurfin for sharing her thoughts and 'inspiration juice' (smile). Alright, as promised, here's Raph/Donnie :)

Chapter 13

"That ain't how you found it. Put it up right!" I growl as I whack my nitwitted brother in the arm with a fly swatter. Leaning back on my bed, I cross one leg over the other.

"Ow! Okay, okay!" He rubs his arm as he sets my upturned drum set in an upright position against the wall.

"And you better get all that pink crud off it. If I see one speck of glitter, I'll give you a shell wedgie.

"Dude, harsh! You gave me more than enough of those during practice this morning!"

"Ah, stop your whinin', and get to cleanin'." Mikey gets away with everything cause he's the youngest. And who has to suffer for it? Me…. always me. I still have circular pieces of condoms stuck to my plastron and glitter embedded in the crevices of my carapace. I smirk to myself. At least this time Leo didn't stick up for the runt and made him clean up my room. I can hardly contain my satisfaction.

Screw it, I ain't containin' jack.

"Hey! You missed a spot!" I snap at him as I crack the fly swatter over his fingers.

"Ow! ...that stings!" he yelps as he shakes out his swatted hand.

"Good. Serves ya right for trashin' my room, you little twerp." He sticks out his grimy little tongue at me. I swat him on the back of the head.

"OW!...dude seriously lay off the back of the noggin, bro." He gives a pained whine as he rubs the back of his head under his mask. I catch a glimpse of a sizeable bump before he tugs the back of his mask back over the spot.

"What'd ya do?" I jut my chin out just as he conceals the bruised spot.

"Oh, that?..." I glare at him with concern. "Must've hit my head harder than I thought when I was rolling on the floor laughing my shell off at your 'pink love gloves' video yesterday."

My concern shatters like heated glass. My eyes narrow to slits with resentment. "You videotaped it?..."

He doesn't seem at all fazed by the low, venomous tone of my voice. "Yep… and in High Definition. Pleasurable entertainment for years to come!"

I am so teed off right now, I just want to throttle the little twit. I whack the dopey smile off his face as my pillow collides compulsively with his head.

"Dude!" He fearfully holds his arms up to protect his head as I rear back for another hit. Good. I like the sight of a groveling sibling. "That was a two-turtle show, you know! I'm not the only one who earned this horrible treatment."

"Oh, don't you worry. Donnie-boy's got a fistful of payback waitin' for him." I crack my knuckles for emphasis. Speaking of the Beanpole, he was supposed to be in here cleaning with Mikey. I hop off my bed.

"Uh… You know what? ...On second thought, I totally got it covered from here." I give him a once-over. Is he covering for Don? ...Oh, that makes me wanna pound him even more.

"Oh, that's real cute, takin' the fall for Don and all, but it's too late for that. I'll be back. If you try and sneak out I will crush you." I swat him with the fly swatter in the forehead for good measure.

"Alright, just quit it!" he pouts as he scrubs the orange soda off the wall. With a cocky smirk I walk out and join Leo at the arcade game. He's leisurely shifting the joystick, not nearly with the intensity that Mikey plays it.

"Where's the Gloomy Green Giant at?" I ask Leo while leaning against the side of the arcade. "He's supposed to be cleaning my room with Dr. Dorken-stein."

"I was going to send him back after practice, but Sensei wanted to have a word with him first."

"Huh…. Splinter finally fed up with his pissy girl mood swings?"

"Possibly… or maybe the fact that his kata forms were horrible during practice. It's like he wasn't even trying."

"Yeah, he's really milking the whole 'woe is me and my gigantic feet' card," I snort as I cross my arms over my chest.

"Your bullying wasn't helping matters."

I gape at him dubiously before purposely leaning into his egoistical space. "Really, Fearless? … Are you kidding me? You were riding him like a freakin' slave driver in the dojo, and you're lecturing me 'cause I rib him every now and then?" I point to myself for emphasis before sucking my teeth and sizing him up. "You're such a stinkin' hypocrite!"

"I'm not a hypocrite! I was correcting his form! You on the other hand—"

"I DON'T CARE! IT'S RIDICULOUS AND—" Our stupid argument is cut short as Leo and I nearly break our necks turning to the dojo entrance at the sound of Donnie's raised voice. It wasn't so much his voice that drew our attention but rather the rare noise that followed.

Even Mikey pops his head out from my doorway in surprise. "Dude, did somebody just get a Splinter-slap-in-the-face special?" Both Fearless and I shush Mikey as we stealth our way to the dojo entrance. We've all at some point gotten pimp-slapped by Splinter, but dang, I bet you could hear that open-handed slap from the topside.

We lean into the entranceway. Surprise, surprise. Donnie's already settin' up his Hashi as Splinter eyes him with that look that he usually gives me when I can't keep my temper in check; it's the look that makes me squirm with shame. Strangely, the look on Don's face doesn't resemble anything close to shame… more like disdain. I nearly stumble through the threshold as weight is added to my shell. "Get off," I growl under my breath as I shove Mikey back. He immediately clambers between Leo and me to get a look at the show. Sheesh, lately Don gets sent to the Hashi more than I do.

"Your ninjutsu training ends now until you stop this belligerent behavior!" No more training? ...Whoa. Splinter is seriously teed off. He turns away from Donnie who's gaining his balance on the wood plank. He chants something we can't hear as he closes his eyes. After a minute or so Sensei looks over his shoulder at Don. "My son, you make choices in life, and then there are times when choices will make you. I suggest you take time to think about the choices you are currently making."

"He's coming," Mikey squawks. We all scramble from our eavesdropping just quick enough to line up…. too late to pretend we were doing anything else.

Sensei pauses in front of us and we immediately bow our heads. "You are not to disturb your brother." His solemn tone is like a block of ice. I clench my fists to keep from shuddering at his dangerously cold demeanor.

"Sensei, I thought you wanted me to supervise his Hashi session." I roll my eyes. Don't your lips ever get tired of kissing tail, Leo?

"That will not be necessary. Donatello has much to consider and think about; he does not need any distractions. Understood?" Sorry, Fearless. Guess you'll have to find someone else to boss around.

"Hai, Sensei," we answer in unison. He seems satisfied with our response and continues his trek toward the kitchen, muttering something about needing tea.

"I wonder why he's being so contrary with Sensei," Leo says when he's sure Splinter's out of hearing range.

"Oh, well, let me dig through my pocket of 'I know everything' and find that out for ya…." I mockingly look in my belt pocket and clasp my hand into a fist. "Well, whatdaya know? All I have is a pocketful of How the Shell Should I Know?!" Leo glares with his usual sour disapproval of my sarcasm. I promptly ignore him and roll my eyes.

"Whatever, Raph. Just don't bother him," he commands just for freakin' sake of commanding somebody and then pointing to Mikey. "…and you, get back to work cleaning Raph's room." Mikey gives an overly exaggerated groan as he drags himself like a zombie to my room. "I mean it, Raph. Sensei said no distractions." Yeah, because obviously my sole purpose in life is to be an annoyance to those around me. I think Mikey's pretty much got that role covered.

"Sheesh, Fearless, alright already!" I shoo him away with my hands. Leo finally moseys off to his room to meditate or do something else as equally boring, leaving me alone at the dojo's doorway. I peer inside at my nerdy brother as he handles the spinning motion and bouncing ping-pong balls of his hashi with ease. Huh…. Guess practice really does make perfect. I smirk as he dutifully endures his punishment. Sorry, Fearless, but I can't let this opportunity slip by.

Arms crossed, I causally scroll into the dojo. When he sees me, he automatically avoids eye contact and frowns at the space in front of him. "Ah. Revenge…. isn't it remarkable how quickly it comes back to bite ya in the shell?" The bitter expression on his face from hearing his words smeared back in his face like day old dog turd is priceless. "If you're trying to break my record, you're gonna have to do at least 40 more Hashi's."

"Sixty-seven. You've had Hashi sixty-seven more times than I have." It amazes me how he can be so doggone cocky and when he's the one on punishment.

"Either way, you're not gonna break it, so you might as well quit while you're ahead, Bigfoot." His face hardens like a brick wall as he tries to ignore me. I smirk at him. I always know what buttons to push with my brothers, being just nasty enough to make them react. I'm an action kind of turtle, so I push until I get a reaction.

I push each of my brothers differently. When I push Leo, it's usually to knock his arrogant shell off that freakin' pedestal he's always barking commands from. I shove Mr. Goody-two shoes hard enough to jolt him back to this reality; the reality where he's allowed to make mistakes. He ain't gotta be perfect for Master Splinter or anybody else for that matter. He can be such a self-righteous prick and I'm just the turtle to take him down a notch.

I give Donnie a once-over and sigh heavily. Don's been a regular resident of angst-ville for the past few months and it's really getting on my nerves. As good as payback sounds right now, it'll have to wait until I figure out what's going on with 'Emo boy' over here. "So what's the deal? Why've you been actin' like a broad on the rag?" No response.

Pushing my younger brothers can be a little tricky. Don and Mike are wired different from me and Leo. When we were kids, Don and Mike cried all the time. I took their toy, they cried; I called them names, they cried; I knocked 'em on their shells, they freakin' cried. It was downright embarrassing. They were always so tender-hearted and crap. So what did I do? ...I teased them, yelled at them, and bullied them. Somebody had to toughen them up. It took a while, but Mikey finally started pushing back. He pushed back with wisecracks, pranks, and that annoying sunshiny attitude of his. But hey, if he wants to deal with stuff with the glass half full mentality, then fine, whatever. I don't care, as long as I know he can deal.

I give Don a hard look as he makes another rotation on the plank. I fight the urge to kick the soccer ball from beneath the beam of wood he's balancing on.

It's really hard to make Don push back. When I heckled him as a kid, he just cried, and it wasn't even a self-indulgent agonizing cry like Mikey's; he just sat there mute with tears runnin' down his face. He was like that until he started sticking his nose in books and makin' stuff. Then when I pushed, he hid behind a wrench and an oversized textbook. Nowadays when I try to get a rise outta him, he throws some highfalutin words at me, but it's always half-hearted…. he never really pushes back.

"You deaf or something?"

"Leave me alone, Raph."

"Oh, look he speaks!" I proclaim, arms in the air sarcastically acknowledging his muttered words.

Donnie doesn't deal with things—at all. He's like a bottled soda that's been shaken and beaten. Unscrew that lid and you're bound to have a crap load drama to clean up. Everything people dish out to him, he just… takes. One day, Don's gonna snap and we won't have a loony bin to send him to. He's stronger than that, I know it…. just wish he'd show it sometime. Keeping all that crap inside ain't good for him. Yeah, I know, who am I to talk, but I don't have a problem givin' folks a piece of my mind or my fist when it's necessary….. and sometimes when it ain't necessary.

So I'll just keep pushing until he pushes back.

"Seriously, what is your problem? Even I don't give Splinter as much lip as you've been spewin' out. I think he let ya off easy with that pimp slap." I nod my head toward the glaring red mark on his cheek. "I'm surprised he didn't pull your shell inside out."

"I don't have a problem, so do yourself a favor and mind your own business." I raise my eye ridges. Okay, he's asking for another pimp slap and a beat down if he keeps flauntin' that attitude with me.

"Shell, you're the one walkin' around like someone killed your favorite science experiment. You're makin' it my business, Sasquatch." I'm not so great at this emotional crap, so I'm offering my help the best way I can. He can take it or leave it.

Then I finally see it. A small chip in his robotic armor as his stance hardens, and he nearly loses his balance. "Stop calling me that!" he barks at me.

"Whoa! Look who's finally got a backbone!" I step back with faux intimidation. Now we're getting somewhere. If I don't know anything else, I know anger when I see it, and Donnie-boy's just about filled to the brim with it. I see that familiar glossy-eyed glare and I think maybe if I push a little harder, he'll break outta this stupid funk he's in. "What, you gonna cry now? Shell, I call you names all the time… dork, nerd-boy, poindexter, bigfoot—" I stop my list of brotherly nicknames when his eye twitches and I can practically hear his teeth grinding from pent-up rage.

"What? ...You mad about 'bigfoot'? ...Really?" I look down at his feet which are practically hanging off the edge of the balance beam. "Dude, get over yourself. What, you think you're the only freak around here? You mope around like we're supposed to feel sorry for you. So what? ...Your feet are humongous, you eat like a freakin' hippopotamus, and you got a few extra spots and scales…. nobody cares!" Seriously, I couldn't care less about his silly growth spurts; he seems to be the only one who has a problem with it. He's clutching the paddles in his hands so tightly his knuckles are white. Good, I'm getting through to him. He's gonna start yelling, cursing, and maybe even throw his paddles at me. He'll get whatever's buggin' him off his chest and we can move on from this.

"If you're done degrading me, I would like to finish my punishment in peace." And just like that he pulls everything back inside to be shaken up until he explodes later like a volcano. I growl as I narrow my eyes. Shell, I don't have time for this. Yelling, I can deal with. A good knock-out-drag-out, heck yeah, I can work through that, but not this. Let Leo or Mikey deal with his drama. "Screw it, sit in your stinkin' self-pity as long as you want. Matter of fact, I hope you beat my hashi record. I'm going out with Casey."

I turn abruptly on my heels as I head for the door, but the bitterness in his tone makes me pause as I catch the tail end of his whiny venting.

"….always side with that toothless punk…. not like you ever had my back anyway." He says it so low, I almost think he's talking to himself, but it's enough to make my blood boil. I stomp over to him and slap the plank he's balancing on so it spins him faster than he's prepared for.

"I don't have your back? ...I don't have your back?! That's a load of crap and you know it!" His eyes widen as he's caught off guard by the sudden change in momentum and my shouting. He regains his balance on the spinning plank while still hitting the ping-pong balls in rhythm. "Who the shell do you think texted Casey when you were on your little date night with April, huh?" I disgustingly emphasize 'date night' with air quotes. "I knew you'd crash and burn with Casey there… I was trying to help, ya moron! You're such an idiot!" He stares at me, his mouth hanging open catching flies. "Don't look so surprised, genius."

"I didn't need your help."

"Riiiight…. whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy, and for the record, I don't side with Casey." He snorts bitterly, which only serves to further tick me off along with his stupid accusation. "You got something to say, Brainiac? ...'Cause frankly, I'm gettin' really sick of this pissy attitude of yours."

"If you're so tired of me, then go screw off with Casey and leave me the shell alone! "

Instead of taking a moment to breathe out my frustrations like Sensei taught me, I grab the end of the plank and spin it with enough force to make Don look like one of those spinning top toys. He yelps as the paddles come flying from his hands and the ping-pong balls bounce to the floor. As the balancing plank comes to a wobbly stop, Donnie sways like a drunk before tumbling to the floor.

"Screw you! You have no idea what you're talking about. I don't take Casey's side over yours—ever." Shell, when Casey's being a butthole about Don, I'm the one who shuts him up. I'm the only one who gets to talk about what a pansy the Beanpole is.

"You treat me like a worthless piece of crap…. but then again, you've always seen me that way."

I glare at that ungrateful idiot. Why is it when I try to help, I get accused of being this horrible person? I hate when people put words in my mouth. I pull my fist back ready to make him swallow those words, but I stop when I get a good look at him. He's trembling and looks a few shades paler than he was moments ago. I flinch when a gag reflex jerks him forward as his hand hovers over his mouth.

"If you puke in here, I ain't cleanin' it up." My words are crude, but the sentiment of "are you okay?' is clearly behind them. When I'm sure he's not going to barf on me, I offer him a hand up. He glares at me before indignantly slapping my hand away. Pushing himself to his feet, he sways a bit as he holds his hand to his temple. "Geez, will ya sit down before ya fall down?" I try to maneuver him to one of the cinderblocks of his hashi, but the Beanpole curses loudly and pushes me away with a tenacity that takes me by surprise.

"I'm not weak, so back off!"

Where the shell did that come from?... "Okay, you looked like you were gonna toss your cookies five seconds ago, but I guess you're just dandy now, huh?" I roll my eyes, shoving him back with just a much force as he dished out to me. "Stop being such a stinkin' drama queen and—"

"Raphael!..." I nearly jump out of my shell as my name cracks like a whip from my Sensei's tongue. "Were my instructions unclear when I told you not to disturb your brother?"

"No, but I was just tryna—"

"Then you intentionally disobeyed me?"

"But he was—"

"Hashi, now!"

"WHAT?!" I stare at him dumbfounded by the turn of events. I turn back to Donnie and to my surprise, the green skyscraper managed to slip out unseen. "But... but…." Here I am checking on nerd-boy, making sure he ain't turning into some suicidal emo, and I'm the one gettin' in trouble. My skin burns hot with rage at the unfairness of it all. I scream a single swear that makes Splinter's ears flatten against his head. I drag the tricycle from the corner of the room and snatch the knitting needles and ball of yarn from the shelf. I wish I were an only child.

TBC...

A/N: So what did you guys think? Did I do Raph's character any justice? I have to admit he is the most difficult for me to write out of all the turtles. Also there was a Guest who left a very endearing review about this story and I just want to say thank you for your kind words and I hope I didn't shaft Raph too badly :) And also this Guest was worried that I had lost interest in this story and just stopped writing. I would just like to say I will NEVER just stop writing a story without giving my followers and readers some kind of Author's Note or notice. I don't like being left hanging when I'm reading awesome fiction by authors who have abandoned stories, so I would never do that to my readers. If it takes me awhile to get chapters out its more than likely because working out plot details and trying to really 'wow' you guys XD ….oh, and real life has a habit of demanding my undivided attention as well ;) I would leave you guys a spoiler for the next chapter but since I'll be posting it within the next day or so I'll spare you guys the snippet.

As always, please leave a review! You have no idea how much your thoughts and feedback mean to me. When I get writer's block, sometimes I'll go back and read all the wonderful reviews you guys leave and it's like fuel to my writing muse!

Later!

~Poetique