A/N: Okay, here's another chapter, yay... nom nom nom. Anyways, I almost didn't finish this on time! I was actually working on an essay earlier :3 I had pre-written most of this, so it was manageable.
Disclaimer: I do not own the TMNT nor any other characters associated with them with the exception of my OCs.
The pale snow crunched under the tires of a battered old van as it pulled into the driveway of an old wooden house that towered over the snow covered landscape. The van shuddered as its driver killed the engine. The sun, still hiding behind thick clouds, was only just rising above the horizon and would only cast dim and muffled light over the frigid landscape. The trees that surrounded the farmhouse, and made up the dense pine forest, were caked in snow and ice. The sliding doors to the van rigidly skated open on a frozen track. Two muscular figures stepped out of the van, followed by one more. The fourth figure stood hunched over in the van and began handing bags off to the other three.
The front doors to the old farmhouse opened and a fair-skinned and red-haired woman stepped into the cold air. Her bright green eyes shone even in the dim light. She huddled in a heavy gray coat; a bright green scarf was wrapped about her slender throat while her black gloved hands tugged at the edges of her coat. Her crimson hair was neatly tied back in a bun. Her cheeks flushed a rosy pink as a light breeze shifted a chill of air at her. Her eyes lit up at the sight of the figures by the van and her hand shot up into the air as she shouted happily. "Guys!" She cried out happily.
The three outside of the van turned about at the sound of her voice. She ran forward, down the wooden steps and onto the snow, her booted feet left light prints in the snow behind her. She wrapped her arms around the nearest figure and he embraced her gently before releasing her. His red mask tails fluttered as yet another breeze breathed a chill upon the winterscape. His amber eyes darted back towards the open doors of the farmhouse, the wooden building was grayed with age and the wood seemed to have been worn by the elements. Another human form, heavily clothed as well, began the short walk towards the van, the wood of the steps creaked under his weight. April embraced Mikey and moved onto Don, not noticing the subtle shift that the purple masked turtle had taken in order to avoid as much contact with her as possible. He stood stock still as she gently embraced him. The scent of her lilac-scented-shampoo swarmed him as did the gentle warmth that radiated from her body. He awkwardly lifted a hand to pat her back and suddenly her hold on him was gone. He hid his relief with a nervous smile, though he grimaced as she turned her back to him.
"Where's Leo?" She asked with a cursory glance about.
The blue masked terrapin casually stepped out of the van, right in front of her. His face was hardened like a mask of iron. April gasped at the sight of his scarred face and instinctively took a step back. Leo's one hazel eye bored into with a calm acceptance. Her green eyes darted wildly over his features, studying the scars on his features. They traced over the intense burnt patch of skin on his cheek and then to the sewn shut right eye of his mask. She could barely make out discolored flesh under the edges of the mask.
"What happened to you?" She whispered. Leo's eye remained staring deep into her. He stood silently, his hazel gaze was piercing and it seemed to stab through her as easily as one of his katanas could.
"The Shredder," Raph cut in. April's eyes widened at that and her eyes darted to the grim faced Leonardo. He seemed to cringe slightly at that but made no move to speak or embrace her as his brothers had. Donatello stared at her horror stricken expression as he tensed, expecting Leo to say something threatening.
"Yo guys!" A deep male voice called and all eyes turned to regard the speaker.
Casey approached, clothed in ragged jeans and a navy blue windbreaker. His wild raven-blue hair cascaded onto his broad shoulders while his bright blue eyes sparkled in response to the grin that was plastered on his chiseled features. He waved with a gloved hand as the snow crunched under his sneakers. He bumped fists with Raph and moved to do the same with a dour faced Mikey until he spotted Leo. He paused; staring at the blue masked terrapin's scarred features. Leonardo's hazel eye flicked towards and his gaze bored into Casey much like it had with April. He stared past the human and at Don. The purple masked turtle's face had hardened and his usually serene features had been drawn into a tense and extremely forced smile.
"I'll just put my luggage up. I need to take care of a few things." Leo said as he shouldered a mottled brown duffel bag, breaking the silence that had settled over the group. He made his way through them and towards the house, his mask tails fluttered gently behind him.
Casey shook his head quickly. "Wait a minute. What happened to your face? Oh and where's Master Splinter?" He asked loudly, the latter to all of the assembled turtles. Leo froze, dropping his bag with a soft thud into the snow. He quickly picked up the bag and hurried into the house, failing to pretend he hadn't heard Casey's questions. The other three turtles were frozen by the sudden and painful question while Casey stared at them in ignorance. April smacked the back of his head with a stern frown. He ducked his head and rubbed the now sore spot. He shot her a look as if to say "what did I do?"
"It's a long story… but, the Shredder did that t'Leo's face… and he… killed… our father." Raph sighed. "Leo didn't tell us much 'bout his experience, but, we think we know how it went down from what he did tell us. We'll tell ya' what happened, but, we should probably get settled down first. It's a really long story."
Don glanced at the red masked terrapin. "You and Mikey will have to explain it; I still need to finish encoding the security program." Don dismissed himself, grabbing onto his bags and breaking away from the group to disappear into the farmhouse.
"Hey, Don! You want me to help you with writing the codes?" April called after him. Don tensed and slowly looked back with his forced smile. "No, but thanks, I can handle it." He spoke with a shake in his voice before turning back to the house, hiding his torn expression before she could notice.
~.~.~.~.~
Don sat at his laptop in the darkness of the basement, extremely relieved to be away from both April and Casey. The glow from the laptop's screen illuminated his tired features as he tapped the keys. His worn gaze scanned the screen with methodic preciseness. He leaned back, ignoring the creaking of the wooden chair. He glanced at the clock on his desktop and frowned with a glance in the direction of the stairs that led out of the basement and onto the ground floor. He turned back to his laptop and tapped something into the keyboard with a sense of finality. The laptop hummed as it processed the information Don had inputted. It uttered a single note that forced Don to narrow his eyes at the device. He leaned over the keys as he scrutinized the screen.
"What the hell…" He muttered as he saw the error in his coding. Instead of entering the proper code that would have ended the trigger portion of the program, there was a mash of random but clearly angry words on the screen. Don muttered a curse under his breath as he leaned back with his hands on his head. He sat staring at the screen for a long while; the only movement was his involuntary breathing. The pale white of the screen burned the angry words into his mind's eye.
He dropped his head into his hands with a heavy sigh. "Dammit Leo, why the hell did you agree with them? Why couldn't you just take my side for once, considering all the things I've done for you? Now, I'm stuck listening to that imbecile "woo" her as if she were some lesser female creature and it was mating season. She deserves more fucking respect than what he gives her…" Don hissed angrily, albeit he did so quietly. He stood up. "I'll clean up the damn code later; I need to get out of here before I break that simpleton's neck." He sighed in exasperation as he made his way up the stairs.
~.~.~.~.~
Donatello found himself shivering as he walked past more pine trees. His feet left the lightest of foot prints in the pristine snow. He marveled at its perfection, its pureness, and its cleanliness. The pines towered high above him, he was deep in the forest, glad to have left the farmhouse behind him. It was as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. A pang of guilt had crept into his mind of course; he was ashamed of his quiet but violent words against Leo and Casey. No matter what the two of them did to upset him, he couldn't help his peaceful and forgiving nature from doing what it did best: being peaceful and forgiving. Don rolled his eyes, he knew that his nature made him seem weak to his brothers, it was a weakness to everyone. He slowly closed his eyes as he continued his walk, the light from the hidden sun filtered through the branches of the pines. It was muted light, unclean, unworthy of playing its colors upon the snow.
The forest was silent, as if holding its breath in anticipation of something. Don noticed this. The birds were silent. The denizens of the forest were all silent. Even the wind had ceased its whistling through the branches of the pine trees. The silence pressed in on him and he could feel it begin to crush him. It slowly pressed the air from his lungs, leaving him struggling for breath. His eyes snapped open. Flakes of snow gently floated about him, but he ignored them. His coffee brown eyes were instead glued onto a fuzzy dark and shadowy figure leaning against a far off pine tree. The figure was tall, thin, and lanky. It seemed weak and ungainly in its lanky form. Don stared, unable to remove his gaze. The figure lifted its heavy head weakly. It stared at him, through him, and Don could feel it. He slowly but shakily reached for the bo staff secured to his shell. The figure raised an arm; Don could feel the snapping of its joints as it moved. It stretched out a large hand with thin spindly fingers, and pointed to Don's right.
The purple masked turtle, although on edge and suspicious of the figure, could not stop his curious gray matter from turning his head in the direction that the figure had pointed. Don tensed. Standing not twenty yards away was his brother: Leonardo.
The blue masked turtle stood in a clearing and seemed to not have noticed Donatello. He had his arms crossed over his plastron and his shell to Don. Leo's head was bent so that he seemed to be talking down at someone. Don frowned and slowly crept forward, years of ninja training took over. He glided over the snow covered ground, not leaving so much as an indent in the pale ground. Don slid behind a pine, coming into earshot of his brother.
"-not going to deal with your bull. You're the one trapped, I'm in control. You should be a little more grateful that I haven't looked into how to remove you from my system." Leo snarled. He was silent for a moment, as if listening. Don furrowed his brows, wondering what his brother was talking about and, more importantly, who he was talking to. The purple masked turtle's eyes darted about, but there was no one in sight. His eyes turned back to Leo's form. His brother had seemed to relax, though only slightly.
"Finally, something useful, but don't take it as acceptance. You've done enough to my family to justify my hatred of you. I'll never accept you, but, I suppose I don't have a choice as to working with you. Now then, show me this "weakness"." Leo began but he paused. "Someone's here?" He breathed so silently that Don barely made out what he said. Don froze up, not daring to move. He had no idea what was happening to his brother, sure he had a few hypotheses, but he was nearly as confused as Mikey would be if he had taken the batteries out of the remote for the television.
Leo's head whipped about, his mask tails fluttered with the swift movement before gently settling on his shoulder. "I heard it." He said, before turning his head away from Don. The purple masked turtle chose then to make his getaway. Don eased back, Leo's right eye would have been able to pick the movement up, but the blue masked turtle's right eye had been gouged out. Don's gaze flicked behind him, he barely registered a dry branch in time to avoid stepping on it. His gaze went back to Leo to discover that the turtle was gone. "Where'd he go?" Don thought to himself frantically as he eased back more. He bumped into something hard and looked up.
His brother's scarred face filled his vision. The single hazel eye was trained on him and an uneasy feeling settled in Don's stomach. The blue masked terrapin held out a hand to Don and the crouched turtle tentatively took the offered hand. He rose to his feet and immediately took a step away from his brother with a sheepish look plastered on his features.
"How long were you planning on watching me?"
"Um, until you performed the kata that kicks my shell every time," Don covered quickly. Leo's eye narrowed but he didn't press the subject further. He turned his shell to Don. "Don't push it, Donnie. You're a terrible liar."
Don's brows furrowed as his brother began walking away. His eyes narrowed as he remembered the reason he had come out to the forest for a walk. "Hey," He called after Leo, but the older turtle ignored him and continued walking. Don growled and gave chase, he whirled Leo around after catching up to him. They were nearly snout to snout now. "I'm the one who gets to be mad here, asswhole. You dragged me here, knowing my issues with April and that idiot. What the fuck, Leo? Why'd you throw me under the fucking bus?" Don snapped angrily. Leo blinked calmly, serenely even as the turtle who never cussed had cussed at him, as if to say "I don't give a rat's ass". In fact, Leo opened his mouth with that blank stare and said: "Look at all the fucks I give."
Don glared. He drew back a fist. "I'm going to mess up your ugly face with all those fucks, Leo."
A/N: Well, Don's got a bit of a potty mouth for such a calm guy. Please review!