A/N: I've decided to make this a series. Yay!
Sometimes it was easy to forget how young Donatello still was. Leo stood in the doorway of their shared, currently trashed bedroom, probably looking every inch as shocked as he felt.
Donatello was hunched over his laptop at the desk, head in his hands and shoulders shaking with Leo fervently hoped wasn't tears.
"Donnie?" he said carefully, and watched Don jump about a mile. And then his heart ached for his little brother, who was clearing his throat and rubbing his face on his sleeve and putting himself back together in a handful of seconds.
"I—I didn't hear you come in," he said, muffled, without turning around. "Sorry for taking up your desk, I'll—"
But Leo had dropped his coat and the armful of patient charts Karai had given him to take home on his bed and was wrapping an arm around Don's shoulders a moment later. "Hey," he said, "talk to me."
And Don trembled for a moment under the weight of whatever it was, lips pursed tightly—then he darted a glance at Leo from under his fringe, brown eyes wide and wanting.
"I'll have enough credits to graduate early after all," he said slowly. "I have the highest GPA in school, and I've been submitting all those scholarship applications—we want to go to NYU together." Tears were forming in his eyes again, and Leo found himself desperately scrambling to piece together the situation, to understand what made it bad enough to warrant tears from stubborn, stoic Donatello, when his little brother added softly, "Me and Casey and April."
Oh. Leo's arm tightened around his shoulders.
He didn't pretend to understand the relationship Donatello had with his two best friends. They were inseparable, always had been, and there was a closeness and a familiarity between the three of them that Leo had never seen before. Casey and April were dating, but Leo had seen Casey hold Don's hand during the slow, sweet part of a sad movie, and he had seen April kiss Don when they were alone in a corner of the kitchen before Thanksgiving dinner, and he had seen that the way Donnie smiled when April's name lit up his phone was the same way he smiled when it was Casey's.
He didn't understand it, but he trusted Donatello, he trusted the three of them, to be smart and safe and work things out on their own. He certainly had no room to offer counsel or suggestion when it came to romance or relationships or dating in general, good lord. (He was half-hoping that Donatello or April would field The Talk with Mikey when it came down to it—the other half hoping they could avoid The Talk with Mikey forever, honestly.) But now, for Donatello to rip apart their room and cry in frustration and look at Leo with those big, beseeching eyes—
"Aw, Leo," Donnie said suddenly, under a watery laugh. "Don't look like that, no one broke my heart. Put your scary face away."
"I don't have a scary face," Leo retorted automatically, feeling his face redden words notwithstanding. Don shook his head a little, smiling smally, and Leo shifted around so he could sit on the edge of the desk. Don's hands hovered over the laptop for a second, like he was considering shutting it before Leo could see whatever he had open, and then he let them fall into his lap. "What's going on, Donnie?"
"It's—well, I just don't think," he hedged, barely making eye contact, "that university is something I—"
Not this again. "Donnie."
"We can't afford it, Leo!" he burst. "I know we've had this conversation over and over, and I know you want me to do whatever I want to do—I know you'll kill yourself finding a way to make it happen. And I want it so bad, so bad, I've been killing myself, too, I've been doing everything I can think of, and I put in my application, and I'm pretty sure I'll get in, but—" He blinked through a fresh sheen of frustrated tears, wiping his face with the heel of one hand. "Leo, even if I get a scholarship, even if I get grants, how can I justify spending thousands of dollars on college when we can barely pay rent? How could I do that to you and not hate myself for it?"
"Donatello, I work hard to give you guys the opportunity to do whatever you want," Leo said, hurting at the sight of Donnie hurting. "I want you to go to NYU, if that's where you want to go. There's nothing to feel guilty about, nothing at all."
"We can't afford it," Donnie said stubbornly, miserably. "We just can't."
"Donnie."
"You convinced Raph to finish high school, but there's no way you'll convince him to go to college," his brother said stoutly. "And good luck getting Mikey to talk about his future plans, it's like herding cats. "I'm not good at anything, Donnie," "Cooking/soccer/people skills don't count, Donnie," "I'm not as smart as you, Donnie, I'll probably just get a job like Raphie and Leo." I could strangle his math teacher for making him think he's stupid."
Leo's stomach twisted sharply, but he shook his head. "We aren't talking about them right now, we're talking about you. And you want to go to NYU with your significant o—your friends." Nice save, Leo. He ignored the way Donatello's whole body went frozen and tense, and forged ahead. "That's what you want to do. That's what me and Raph have all worked hard for. This is what all those midnight coffees, and apple-and-gronola sandwiches, and good luck charms Mikey brings you in the midst of your study sessions have been for. This is what you have earned, all on your own, by your own power, and all the time you've put into your education that other kids your age have spent being kids your age."
Donnie was blinking at him, and the bright wet in his eyes was something less edged and sharp. Leo didn't hesitate to run a fond hand through Don's brown hair; he didn't often get the chance to dote on anyone other than Mikey.
"You and Casey and April have all put a lot of effort into this. You three make a good team." Leo hesitated, then cupped Don's face and added, "I want to see you make this happen, and stick this thing out together. With them."
It wasn't supposed to make Don's face crumple, but it did, and his little brother muttered, "Of course you'd figure us out and be okay with it. No questions asked. You just want me to be happy, no matter what it costs you."
Leo blinked, and rubbed his thumb against Don's damp cheek. "Well, yeah."
He thought that much was pretty obvious.