and so, the door must close.
The Other Side of the Wrong Door
Epilogue: Homecoming
Two days after the fight, Raph's watching TV with Casey, Angel and April when Donnie peeks his head into the living room. He's smiling.
It's a smile Raph doesn't see too often on his brother – the smile that means everything's gone right, for once. The smile Donnie wore when they first took the Shellraiser out, and when they all learned how to make smoke bombs, not just him. The smile he wears when April's perfected a new kata, and when Metalhead took his first steps again.
"Raph?" he says. "I think I figured it out. Time to send you back."
They all pile into Donnie's room, looking through the window into Raph's New York. Raph's lair, to be precise; the portal is open in Donnie's lab, and his little brother is asleep over his desk, his hand clutching a beaker and his face smushed against his keyboard. "That's the one," Raph says, with an air of finality. "Guess I'll go home."
Mikey hugs him first, a shell-crushing thing that leaves Raph seeing spots in front of his eyes. Leo's at least a little gentler. "What about you guys?" Raph asks, when Donnie finally steps back. "I mean, the Kraang can still get into your world, right?"
Donnie looks to Leo, who nods slowly. "We'll close it," he says. "The portal. It's for the best. The fewer doors the Kraang have, the better. If we close the door, it'll hopefully be a while before they realise which universe is gone for them."
Makes sense. It doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt, a dull thud in his chest. They're not his brothers, but… these are his brothers.
"Take care, Raph," Leo says, making a gentle, ushering movement towards the portal.
Raph swallows, then smiles as he steps through. On the other side, his other brothers are tinged in pink, and their Donnie's already reaching up to close the way. "Yeah. You guys too. Good luck finding… uh. Your me."
Of all the things Raph expects as part of his welcome-home lecture – the relieved, grateful, deeply disappointed look on Master Splinter's face, for example – the one thing he can really do without is five whole minutes of Donnie's voice, shrill and screaming: "EIGHT PORTALS, RAPH. I had to look for you across EIGHT PORTALS, NIGHT AND DAY, we were dodging so many Kraang I thought there was going to be another INVASION, AND," he took a breath, "and, if I have to watch Karai PUKING GREEN DOGS AGAIN I WILL BLAME YOU."
Raph can't be sure his facial expression is truly expressing his inner-reaction of dude, what?, but in the face of Hurricane Donnie, there's nothing he can do but wait for the storm to pass, which it does, as Donnie's storms always do – blowing themselves out with a whoosh of air and a look on his little brother's face that is absolutely gutting.
It's like he's just kicked a big, green puppy while stealing his toy, with the sad brown eyes to boot.
We never did find our Raph.
"We were lucky this time," his Donnie says, quieter this time. "Whoever you were with, they were good people. But I don't know if– next time– If I couldn't get you back, I'd never forgive myself."
"They were good people," he replies, thinking of the other Donnie, tall and brittle, and Casey with his arm slung around Donnie's shoulders and April tucked between them. Leo, mother-henning, and Mikey, with the same smile as Raph's Mikey. Of Angel, and the other lair.
He thinks of the sad little clone, and the way TCRI went up like a bonfire with the rest of her copies inside.
All good people.
Donnie huffs at him. "Like I said. We were lucky."
When Donnie finally dismisses him, with his hands jerking as though not sure whether or not it's okay to throttle him or just hug him, Raph heads to the kitchen to go fridge-diving.
As he crosses the lair, he figures that he's going to have to get used to the moon-eyed looks from his brothers over the next few days – yeah, I'm back, I'm not going anywhere, can we please stop with the staring? – the same way Leo had to deal with the YOU'RE NOT DEAD parade way back when, and how Donnie got all of the fuss after Slash almost tore his arm off. Leo actually stops watching his nerd-show, while Mikey beams at him from over a comic book, and actually, it's not the same smile at all. This one's brighter, warm like the sun in June instead of the thaw of winter-chilled hands coming in from the cold.
There's some leftover bologna in the fridge, some cheese and one of those bags of pre-packed salad that April keeps buying them and only Splinter seems to eat. It's not the tidiest sandwich Raph has ever made (the butter is too cold and tears a chunk out of the bread), but it'll do, and he sets it up on a plate with a mug of coffee, because god knows Donnie won't even consider anything that's not going to rot his empty stomach if it'll keep him awake another hour or two.
The lab door is still open when Raph heads back. Donnie's still sitting at his desk, his head bowed, hands together and mouth pressed against his fingers. It's Donnie's go away I'm thinking pose, and Raph doesn't care.
Mikey's easy – well, not easy, now that Raph has lived in Mikey's place, but easier than others. Raph doesn't even know where to begin with Leo just yet. Better to start small, start simple. Leo can wait one more day.
He shoves the sandwich under Donnie's arm, so that it appears right under his nose.
"I– what?" Donnie asks, blinking, and then peering up.
Raph stares resolutely at the wall, before side-eying him. "Did you even eat at all while I was gone?"
Donnie opens his mouth to reply, and then closes it. No, he didn't, Raph fills in, because Donnie doesn't eat when he's working on something. Donnie doesn't eat when he's distracted, or busy, or freaking out about something or other. The most he would have done would have been a grudging chug of miso soup that Leo stared him into drinking, or a handful of algae to shut his stomach up.
"Just eat." Obediently, Donnie crams half a piece into his mouth, and barely chews it before swallowing it. Raph rolls his eyes, nudging over the coffee. "Here, before you choke."
Donnie sniffs it lightly, taking a sip before pulling a face. "Decaf?"
"At eleven-thirty at night? Decaf."
"What are you, gelding me?"
Raph doesn't even know what that means. This time, though, he sits on April's chair and asks for the definition, first, before he tells Donnie what a nerd he is.
("Dude, gross. Shut up and drink.")
and that's it, we're done!
huge enormous thanks to dawntreaderflynne, snuffes (on tumblr) and theherocomplex for letting me reference their excellent fics, Adventures in Turtle Sitting, the Sea Turtles AU and Gates of Summer respectively, as the worlds seen through the portals.
more importantly, a huge thanks to everybody who reviewed: BubblyShell22, RascalKat, zodiology, Wolfy5678, Koalagriton, Silexwitch, GuestGirl, and all of the anonymous guests, and everyone who followed and favourited - it really meant a lot. To those who followed this story when it was first posted on Tumblr, thank you as well - from the bottom of my heart. Until next time! -tea