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truths33k3r4 · 2 months ago

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CHAPTER 6 - Brotherly Intervention

Don woke with an undignified SHHHNRK screeching out of his nostrils. A lean thread of spit gracelessly hung from his mouth, pooling into a disgusting puddle around his cheek.

Ew- gross- no- WHY??

His brain sent a signal to his right arm to lift and wipe away the offending slimy fluid now adorning his face.

Apparently his body had a bad wifi connection- cause his arm refused to move. Something heavy was pressed down on his upper bicep, making it impossible for his hand to reach his face. With a quick test, he found that his left arm had fallen to the same fate.

Before claustrophobia began to take its toll, the whispered snores of his brother swiftly brought him back to reality in an instant. His twin’s shell was still flopped lifelessly over Don’s body, crushing any and all of his vital organs, as well as smushing his face deeper into the mattress below him. The pressure uncomfortably pressed his glasses further into his face.

Ah, yes. How could I forget? I’m being held against my will.

After shaking away the fogginess of sleep, he weaseled his hands and knees below Raph’s body and shoved as hard as he could. Raph’s more quiet snoring faltered in glitchy spurts as his body slowly rose with each push from his smothered twin. Finally, with one last heave, Raph came crashing down off the side of the bed, pulling off the red blanket with him, and releasing Don from his twin’s cuddly prison. The fiery brother let out a few unceremonious expletives as he rubbed the back of his head.

“-GAhhhhhhh Don! What the actual shell????”

Don unapologetically smirked as he sat up at the edge of the bed looking down at his fallen brother. But before he could shoot back his own insult, something caught his eye. He leaned his head to the side to get a better view.

“Why did you DO THA-”

Don shushed his twin by whipping up one of his fingers to his lips. At Raph’s questioning brow, Don pointed to what he had seen:

Lotus, sound asleep and snuggling Leo’s blanket into her beak.

Don watched as every ounce of anger in his twin’s body evaporated into thin air. With a defeated huff, Raph yanked off his hoodie and gestured with his head to the doorway of the bedroom. Don nodded, and both twins ninja’d their way to the hall, making sure not to disturb their slumbering guest.

. . .

“So… how was your nap?” Raph smirked knowingly as the two brothers walked through the hall.

Don rolled his eyes and scoffed.

“Oh, just wonderful. I love sleeping with one hundred and fifty two pounds of dead weight crushing my organs.” He deadpanned.

Raph snickered at that, but then his face changed. Don ran through the different emotions in his head, trying to decipher what was going through his fiery twin’s mind. As his brain calculated, Raph eventually spoke up.

“...So um…Are you uh… Are ya doin’ better now?”

Don’s brow rose at such a sincere question from his twin, until he remembered how he had found his way into the brother’s bedroom in the first place.

Oh…right…

“I’m fine now, Raph. Promise.”

Don watched as his twin’s expression went from concerned to unimpressed. Raph’s single brow rose interrogatively.

“Oh come on, I’m being honest. I swear I’m okay now. Just had a… moment, that’s all.” Don counteracted his twin’s scrutiny of his words. He wasn’t lying, of course. Raph would see right through any kind of badly disguised deception he could play out, so there was never a point to hiding the truth from him.

“Yeahhhh I know what that’s like..” Raphael sighed to himself, and then turned back to Don. “I’m sorry, man.”

“Tis but a bump in the road.” Don stated sarcastically, “Guess it would have been wrong if we had come out of something like that unscathed.”

Raph shuddered, a choked breath escaping his lungs, as he began to rub his shoulders. Don wished the icy fear in their hearts could be relinquished by a gesture so small.

The twins soon arrived just outside the living room, but were abruptly halted at the broken sounds of… weeping.

What in the world?

The twins froze in place. Don and Raph simultaneously turned toward each other with wide, pleading eyes. Heterochromatic irises searched the other’s for any answers, but found none. The sounds of their brother’s sniffles and tears only grew the awkwardness of the situation. What are you supposed to do in this kind of moment anyway? Just go and join those who are mourning? UH- NO THANKS.

Don and Raph leaned their heads in the hall’s archway, attempting to identify the tragedy unfolding in front of them.

Don had to hold back a thin gasp as his eyes fell on Leo and Mikey in a tight embrace on the couch. He would’ve expected Mikey to be crying- his littlest brother had always been more sensitive, and would be found countless times mourning over things like a dead mouse in the tunnels, to a fallen prey animal on the Nature Channel. The youngest’s tender heart had resulted in hundreds of meltdowns and crying sessions over the years. So yeah, that was to be expected.

But Leo was crying too.

Leo doesn’t cry in front of anyone. Not if he can help it. If there ever were times in the past when his oldest brother had reached that kind of breaking point, he would go and run off into one of the forgotten tunnels of the sewer they call home. Don recalled a time years ago when Mikey had broken Leo’s special mug, ending with the oldest scrambling away in an emotional whirlwind. Raph had simply told him that Leo “just needed a break of whatever”, as his fiery twin pressed an ice pack to his swelling right eye.

The point was- Leo doesn’t break easily.

Therefore, something was seriously wrong.

Don knew his twin shared his thoughts on the matter, as he arched his neck to meet Raph’s gaze. The fiery brother shrugged with a helpless expression. Don sighed, then gestured with his head to go to their brothers. Raph’s shoulders rose in discomfort as he took a quick inhale, and steeled himself.

Let’sss get this over with.

Don grabbed Raph’s hand and led his slightly embarrassed twin to their whimpering brothers. Raph followed Don’s example by purposefully making their ninja-silent footsteps far more detectable, so as to not frighten their brothers. It worked, because with one single footstep of the twins onto the fluffy carpet, Leo’s head jerked up as he immediately began wiping away his tears.

Yeah, nice try oh perfect leader.

“D-Don! Raph!” Mikey shouted in surprise, as he too began slowly wiping away what was left of his tears.

“H-How… how long have you been-” Leo started.

“-Long enough.” Don finished.

The oldest’s face fell instantaneously at Don’s curtness.

“What happened? I can expect this from Mikey, but not you, Leo. What is going on?”

“Hey!” Mikey squawked, clearly offended.

“Can it, Mike,” Raphael added, “you’d hold a funeral for a ‘DEAD END’ sign on the road.“

The red hue left from Mikey’s tears quickly spread to his cheeks as he gasped dramatically.

“That’s not true! Ugh! You sound just like when we found poor Mr.Parmesan- JUST CAUSE HE WAS A MOUSE DIDN’T MEAN HE DIDN’T MATTER, RAPH. That poor little thing probably had a family!! A wife, fifteen kids, and another on the way- AND THEN HE’S DEAD!!! Who would pay the mortgage?? Who would bring home little cheese wheels for dinner?? WHO, RAPH? WHO?!?!” Mikey mournfully bellowed in a burst of anger.

Oh BROTHER.

Before Don’s twin was given a chance to continue this fruitless argument of a mouse’s worth in the world, Don changed the subject to something that actually mattered.

“Enough of that, Mikey. Not the point.” Don scolded with a raised finger at the youngest, to which Mikey huffed and fell back into the cushions of the couch with his arms crossed. “Leo, spill. What’s going on?”

The oldest’s eyes widened as he quickly realized he wouldn’t be let out of this awkward situation so easily. He didn’t speak a word, only just finishing wiping away the remainder of his tears.

“Well??” Raph pressured.

“It’s fine. We’re uh.. We’re fine, right Mikey?” Leo asked, silently pleading with Mikey to support him in the obvious attempt at deceiving.

“Leo, dude, it’s a sin to lie. You know that.” Mikey scolded the oldest with a finger of his own waving in the air. “Nice try, but this time you’re not gonna ninja your way outta this one.”

Leo’s face hardened from the treachery of the youngest, but his resolve slowly fell through his fingers as he came to the conclusion that he was, indeed, caught.

“We… we were just talking-”

“-About what?” Raph interrupted, knowing Leo was trying to evade his answer to the question.

“- I’m GETTING THERE, Raph!” Leo burst, slamming his fists down onto the cushions below him. With a strangled sigh, the anger on his face soon vanished and was replaced with something else. His fists slowly opened as he took a long exhale. He looked like he was thinking. Planning.

“... We were going over what… happened.” Leo's vobrato diminished with each word, eventually ending his sentence in a barely heard whisper.

“Are you allergic to being specific? Afraid that if you tell the absolute truth you’ll just combust??” Don shouted exasperatedly, waving his hands into the air.

“-IT WAS MY FAULT YOU GUYS WERE TAKEN, OKAY?!?” Leo screamed as he shot up from the couch, and jabbed a self-accusing thumb at his plastron. “You never would have been found if I hadn’t allowed you to go that night! You would have never gone th-through… through HELL if I HAD JUST MADE A BETTER CALL!”

Everyone in the room went deathly silent as Leo finally broke right in front of them. In a pained whisper, he spoke,

“It was… it was all my fault.”

Don didn’t know what to do. He legitimately had no clue how to handle this situation. Because…

Leo was right.

Had the leader not given permission to him and his twin to go to the scrap yard, they would never have been attacked and sent to the labs.

It was Leo’s fault.

But he can’t agree!! Even if it’s true, siding with the oldest would only break him more. But Don can’t lie! That won’t do anybody any good! - AND STAYING SILENT WILL ONLY CONFIRM LEO’S SUSPICIONS THAT HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT IT BEING HIS FAULT!

WHAT THE SHELL DO I DO?!?!

“Leo, all you did was make a mistake.”

Everyone’s heads turned towards the quiet voice of Mikey. The youngest’s eyes held a deeply-rooted concern in them that made Don realize he and Raph weren’t the only ones who were wounded during their time taken from their family.

Leo must have been blaming himself this whole time… How could I be so stupid to think me and Raph were the only people affected by what happened?

They must’ve been so worried…

“Guys, please back me up here! Tell him!” Mikey turned towards Raph and Don with his brilliant blue eyes glistening with unshed tears. “Tell him it’s not his fault!”

Don froze as he was mentally backed into a corner.

Fact- It was Leo’s decision to allow us to go to the scrapyard. If he hadn’t, we never would have been captured.

Fact- Leo never would have expected our capture to occur that night, so technically, it was indeed an accident.

Fact- Accident or not, his decision is what led to the unfortunate outcome.

Fact- You are screwed and there’s no right answer here.

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Don clenched his teeth and felt sweat begin to bead on his forehead as every single set of eyes in the room fell onto him. On top of the heavy layer of scrutiny, there also came another weight in the form of silence, seeping from the cold of the room into his brain, and eliminating every brain cell trying to coach him out of the situation.

Panic forced his mouth to open before his brain could fight back.

“It is his fault, Mikey.” Don briskly stated, resulting in a shocked gasp from the youngest and a horrified expression to loom over Leo’s face. Even Raph’s scowl twisted in surprise. “In all accounts, if Leo had never allowed us to leave, we never would have been caught.”

Shame dragged the eldest’s gaze to the floor.

“-BUT!” Don shouted with his hands held up in a calming motion towards Leo, “...You never could have known that would happen. We don’t-...”

Don turned towards Raph for a confirmation, and his fiery twin nodded supportingly. The freckled brother took a breath as he slowly walked up to his wounded leader. With a hand calloused from years of repairs and tools, Don firmly planted his palm onto Leo’s shoulder as he knelt down. The eldest slowly lifted his head to meet his little brother’s gaze.

“...We do not blame you, Leo. I promise to God, we don’t.” Don spoke resolutely, as he gazed directly into Leo’s icy irises. He kept eye contact, however awkward, to instill in his oldest brother how sincerely he believed what he said.

“This was your fault.” Raph added, joining his twin at Leo’s and Mikey’s side. His expression mirrored Don’s, full of confidence and sincerity, but Don noticed that Raph was refusing to look Leo in the eye. “Even the golden child screws up sometimes. We can’t hold it against ya that you’re only human. Er- well, sort of- YOU GET WHAT I MEAN.” Raph flushed almost as brightly as the hue of his mask, getting swallowed by all the emotions swirling around the room like an inescapable mist. The flustered brother’s attempt at condolence sparked a few warm smiles to alight on his brothers’ faces.

Even Leo’s. Though his expression resembled confusion and surprise more than joy.

With a defeated sigh, Leo sat up straighter and looked at each of his brothers standing at his side. His gaze traveled over every one of them: Mikey, Don, and hesitantly Raph. When Don’s fiery twin eventually looked Leo in his eyes, the leader’s face warmed into a meek smile. Raph’s brows creased in thought, as well as shared hesitance, and eventually landed into a subtle returned grin.

“Th-thanks guys.” Leo spoke as he reached his hand to land gently onto Don’s arm. He gave it a firm squeeze as his voice hitched. “I’m.. I’m still so sorry it happened.” He let out in a strained whisper. “We…we searched for so long.. I’m so sorry.”

Don and Raph turned towards each other with concern carved into every line on their faces. Raph instinctively reached his hand to land on his right arm, massaging the scarred limb. Don automatically went to fix his glasses, quickly being reminded of how grateful he was to be able to see properly again. He could feel the rooted chill of their past stretching its clawed hands over him and his twin, and he recognized the stiffness in Raph’s posture, a sign that he was forcing himself not to shiver. A question so simple, and one he should’ve asked long ago, but somehow never thought to:

How long had we been captured?

Don had never really thought about it. He tried to count the times he had been “fed”, but the minutes and hours blurred together and he quickly lost track. The lack of windows kept them from ever seeing the sun fall or rise, so that was no help. And the little sadists called doctors made sure to not have any calendars in their hell holes. Once Leo and Sensei burst into the lab to save them, no questions were asked. There was just no time. And once they got home…

Flashes of Leo shouting at someone blurred past Don’s mind.

Blood and bruises.

Someone hurriedly pulling needles out of his skin.

Leo carrying Lotus’ still form into the Medbay.

Mikey telling him he had been asleep for two days.

…There had just been too much happening at once.

“Leo..” Don carefully spoke. “How…” He gulped as the weight of the question he was about to ask truly hit him. “How long were we gone?”

Leo looked into Don’s face, his shy smile falling once again, as the jaws of pain and guilt came crashing down on him. The sharpness of the question’s fangs pierced into Leo’s heart in horrendous agony to the point that he let out a faint whimper. The eldest’s head fell solemnly into his hands, and with a mournful tone, he whispered words that shook Don and Raph’s hearts.

“Eighteen days.”

GUESS WHO'S BACK HAHAHHAHA!!!!! It felt AMAZING to get to writing again! This chapter holds a lot of, as we call it in filmmaking, "build up". Many different plot points are being established of what's going to happen in this story. Let's see how many of you can catch where they'll lead. ;)

BIG THANK YOU to @poetique823 for proof-reading this, and helping me with great suggestions! :)

@writer-in-wonder, @allyheart707, @oddartistl3, @risebabyx2, @joyjoygorl, @

Thanks for reading! Feel free to reblog!

To God be the glory!

~ Melissa

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