#2012 raph

[imagionationstation]

12 Donnie 🎲

🎲 -> The most unlucky day

Leo's surprised when Donnie joins him.

He looks dead on his feet when he trudges into the kitchen. That's not surprising. It's almost four in the evening. He's up earlier than he normally is. He slumps onto a chair, laying his head in his arms and looking off at the wall, and Leo tries to recall when he last slept.

His sleep schedule had actually been doing better over the past few weeks. Leo watched him go to bed the day before. He'd been smiling as he did, helping Raph tease Mikey about the horror film that they'd watched. The eye bags were not this massive.

He contemplates saying something, but he's too tired to interrogate him over whether or not he actually slept. He'll save it for when Donnie makes it a weekly endeavor.

But, he might as well- 

"There was no nightmare." Donnie announces, sudden enough that Leo almost spills the tea. Dull gaze lingers on the neon sign. "Yes, my eye bags are heavy. Yes, I should head back to bed. No, I'm not going to. And no, I don't want to talk about it."

The building conversation sputters out.

Leo pours his drink. Donnie doesn't move.

Since his brother is clearly feeling moody, Leo decides to excuse himself to focus on more pressing matters. Namely-

"Can I join you?"

Leo looks at his younger brother. He doesn't look back.

Donnie admits, "I know you're going to watch Space Heroes and I know you got up this early so you didn't have to deal with us, but can you please make an exception?"

"Um." Leo's tempted to deny him, but he sounds so... Defeated. Wait. How did he know that? Leo never told them. He was always meditating by the time that they came out. He was careful. 

Double wait. Is he misinterpreting Leo's mornings of peace as avoidance? Sure, maybe they were a little avoidy, but not like that.

"Sure." He agree awkwardly. "But-"

"No negative commentary. No fun facts. No interruptions of any kind." Donnie hauls himself to his feet. His looks at Leo and the leader notices his reddened eyes before he turns away. "I know."

Leo's concern mounts. He follows him out of the kitchen. The tea is left forgotten on the counter.

He expects him to find a place on the couch to collapse, so he goes to claim his own area. He does not expect him to go to his room, come back with a blanket, and drop himself against Leo's shoulder in a suspiciously cuddly fashion.

His knees are tucked close to his body, arms closed in a self-hug. Up close, his younger brother looks pale. For more pale than he'd been the night before, worn down by an unexplained enemy. It makes the bags under his eyes bigger than he originally thought.

Leo watches at him. Donnie looks numbly at the tv.

Captain Ryan heroically proclaims the adventure of the episode as Leo sets the back of his hand on his younger brother's forehead. It's not warm. Donnie leans into the touch. Leo slowly removes it, and Donnie follows it momentarily.

He blinks, the haze gone, and pulls back.

Okay, that's it.

"Donnie," He says, cool. "What's going on?"

"I should have chosen Raph." His younger brother tells the tv. "At least he'd have given me a few hours."

"Too bad." Leo tries to meet his eyes, "You're stuck with me and if you don't tell me what's going on-"

"It's a time loop."

Leo pauses, "Excuse me?"

"I stopped counting a while ago." Donnie's tone is even, recited. "It resets every night at midnight. Renet won't tell me how. She can't tell me why. I lost track of days. I used to tell you guys. You never believe me. None of you eher bulieve me."

His voice stutters, wet with quiet sob. He inhales, shakily, repressing the weakness. “Y-You keep going out. You keep dying. I’d tell you not to go and you’ll go anyway. Someone has to die out there. Someone always has to die.” 

Alarm has Leo swallowing, heart pounding as his hand instinctively comes up to brace his brother. Donnie won’t look at him. “I thought it would be easier if it’s me. I thought maybe once it was me it would end. It didn’t end. I woke up!” 

His voice shatters. Leo furrows his brows, feeling less than half awake. The tv is too fuzzy to watch so he looks back at his brother, “I don’t understand.”

“You can’t.” Donnie admits. “No matter how many times I tell you… You can’t.”

Leo stares at him. Donnie pleads, “I can’t watch you die again.” 

Something deep in his being softens, recollecting old moments where a much smaller Donnie would invade his bed when his brain got a bit to much for him to handle on his own. He watches his eyes as they’re cloaked with tears and brushes his thumb against his arm. “It was just a nightmare.”

“It’s not.” His voice drops into a whisper. “It’s not. It’s not.” 

“I can prove it.” Leo prompts gently. He’s seen how bad his brother’s stress dreams can get. Not to mention the repetitive ones. Leo personally knows that those are always the worst.  “We’ll go out tonight. A quick patrol.”

“I want it to end. I want it all to end.”

“They won’t last forever.” He presses as images flit by on the screen. He’s missing the episode. “You’ll get through it.”

“I thought it would end if I was the one to die.” Donnie's voice goes flat, contemplative. “Maybe I also need to be the one doing the killing.”

“Hey,” Leo cuts in, startled. “Hey, hey, don’t talk like that. You’re going to be fine. You’ll get through this. That’s never the answer.” 

“I’m so tired of being mad at you.” Donnie presses further against Leo’s shoulder. He blinks, hazily, trying to remember why Donnie might be mad. What did he do this time? “I can’t keep hating you and then watching you die.”

Oh. Nightmare Leo. Right. 

“Gee.” He roll his eyes, fondly. “Good to know you’re consistent, at least.”

He turns up the volume, relaxing onto the cushions, leaning into his brother’s heat.

“I love you.” Donnie breathes, abruptly. “I don’t think I told you that yet. You’re a good big brother. A really good one. Even when you drive me nuts. You’re really great. A-and you try so hard for us. I know you do. There’s so much I need to thank you for-”

“As much as I’d love a long list of reasons that I’m great,” Leo murmurs, taking note of the wild burst of tremors. “You’re freaking yourself out. And that’s admittedly freaking me out. We can talk about this later, okay? When you’re less frazzled.” He wraps his free arm around him, rubbing the blanket. “I should have respected you when you asked me not to the first time.”

Donnie wipes at his eyes, “Okay. Yeah. That’s- that’s what I wanted.”

He sniffs. Leo suggests, “How about you get some more sleep? You look tired.”

“I’m dead tired.” Donnie agrees, sounding the part. He closes his eyes, beginning to nod off instantly, only to violently gasp back in consciousness. He doesn't even give Leo a chance to ask.

“Once I fell asleep and you left without waking me up. You have to promise that you won't do that again. You have to. Please?” Donnie tilts his head, scanning his expression desperately. “Please?” 

“I won’t leave you behind.” Leo sighs because it’s so not fair that his brothers are able to pull on his heart strings like this. “You don’t gotta worry about me.” 

He laughs, short and brief, but it doesn’t sound happy.

Leo tries to grasp the joke.

Donnie lets his eyes close, curling into Leo as he does. His older brother tucks the blanket further up his shoulders, leaning his cheek against his forehead. Absently, he wonders how someone so tall could make himself so small. 

“I love you,” Donnie whimpers, barely audible.

Leo smiles, grateful that he made an exception, just this once.

“Love you too, little brother.” 

Awe how completely and utterly fluff. Just two bros sharing some nice bonding time 💙💜 Nothing else happening here.

[forgetful-nerd]

Look at these innocent, little baby turtles. Not a thought goes on behind those eyes. Sure hope nothing bad happens to them.

[idiot-mushroom]

i missed making tmnt art, i missed my muse(s)

[shantechni]

"Leo's such a mother hen, I can't 💕😭"

I'm sorry, have you met Raph:

Look at how he stood up from the chair when Leo just cringed in disgust, my gUY HE'S FINE CHILL OUT💀

[supine-ly]

Brucie and raph

[zipper-vhs]

i have one more season of 2012 and i NEED MORE OF IT i love 2012 tmnt so much 🥲

[kaysdenofchaos]

12 raph w them overstimulation issues

[sirwolficus]

the fabled part 2

og

[el-pada]

tried making human 2012 designs

[cookieturtle26]

TMayNT

ART COMBO!!🎉

Day 9: Best Raph

Day 10: Fav turtle CurseWord

There are 3 types of people Raph:

Day 1/Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4 - Day 5 - Day 6 - Day 7 - Day 8 - Day 9/Day 10 -

[imagionationstation]

I don't know if you read the comics they put out for the 2k12 series but there's a lot of brother interaction in there which is cute and possibly analytical. They're not technically "canon" (I think the Panini comics were intended to be 'side-stories' at least) but I believe they were written to be true to character. There's stuff like Leo immediately giving in to Mikey's puppy dog eyes to goof off/watch a magic show, Raph blatantly lying to make himself look dumb for Donnie's sake after he(Donnie) creates a pheromone spray for April, Mikey stepping up to focus and protect his brothers when he's the only one unaffected by depression gas, the boys all riding each other down giant piles of garbage, Leo needing to create a "B- team" to rescue his brothers, etc. There's less focus on combat too. Also a Raph-Donnie focused comic which is nice, that dynamic didn't get enough attention in the show.

I have read many of these comics on a totally legit website and still go back to reread them to this day. But because of their questionable direct connection to canon, I normally leave them out of analysis.

THOUGH THE FACT THAT I’M NOT RECALLING SOME OF THESE SCENES TELLS ME THAT I’M MISSING CRITICAL INFORMATION

So yah I’ll be rereading every comic I can get my hands on now ✌️

I absolutely ADORE a LOT of what they do in the comics and just the way that Donnie is drawn sometimes is so soft and cute and jkgjgkgj

Look at him with his little insecurities and fears.

We must pat him on the head and then send him out into a world of pain and suffocating traumas that he’ll never get over!

He should freak out more. He deserves it <3

Oooh and him and April hang out it’s not weird it’s SO PRECIOUS

Raph blatantly lying to make himself look dumb for Donnie's sake after he(Donnie) creates a pheromone spray for April

Mikey stepping up to focus and protect his brothers when he's the only one unaffected by depression gas

Also a Raph-Donnie focused comic which is nice, that dynamic didn't get enough attention in the show.

✨✨✨I agree I agree I agree I agree! ✨✨✨

But of course, we cannot forget to focus on the important things like:

Mikey adopting a Footbot

April O’Reporter

…This Kraang!

Splinter expanding his horizons

And the long-awaited turtlesitting episode but reverse

And so forth and so forth, you get the idea

[doughliciousfrosting]

I almost forgot to post this on here!! I don't think I'll ever finish this, if I see that I really won't then later I'll give a run down of what was supposed to happen. I hope they don't sound too horrendously out of character, I know my 2012 interpretation is very fanon but I do try to keep some semblance of their original personalities lol

[forgetful-nerd]

No I will not elaborate on this.

[idiot-mushroom]

trick or treat 🎃🍭🍬

[shantechni]

Splinter doesn't meditate 24/7 for spiritual refinement, he does it to build up immunity to the turtles' guilty faces

Mikey's his toughest opponent💀

[supine-ly]

drew 2012 in rise style