semilethal | LEO - POST MOVIE

[This close, Leo may be able to see the odd marks on Mikey's hands and forearms, nearly Lichtenburg in style if not for their precise geometric shape. It doesn't keep him from returning his brother's hug, as close to climbing into his lap as he dares without agitating Leo's wounds too badly.]

Don't it, though?! Dad said we were gonna have to take it down tomorrow but you know what? I think we should pull saviors of the world card to keep it.

[He does see it, his eyes lingering on those marks and tracing them up from Mikey's hands to his elbows where they start to fade. Whatever Mike was able to tap into to get him out, he hopes it doesn't have any lasting effects. Or further use would make it worse.]

I mean, I'm sure between the fo- [Wait no there's April and Casey] six of us, we could get Pops to leave it up.

[Pops, who is currently taking a great deal of time making sure his chair can fit in the pillow-slash-blanket fort.]

Whaddaya say guys? Team effort?

[For a moment Mikey beams, his huge, gap-toothed grin that shows up when he's comfortable in the knowledge that he's surrounded by love and comfort-

only for it to slide off his face seconds later as he casts a worried look toward Donatello's lab.] ...we're not a full team right now, though. I dunno...feels weird.

[He follows his little brother's gaze and.. yeah.]

I know. It's... He'll come around. One of you will definitely have to go get him though. If it's me, he'll just yell at me some more.

[He lays his head back again on the now-only-a-little-mushy ice pack and stares at the ceiling.] Some pizza from Run of the Mill might be good to lure him out.

Leo...

[Mikey hesitates, hovering over his brother until Raph approaches, not really trying to hide that he was eavesdropping a bit.] Mikey, snack duty.

[It's not smooth, but Mikey just gives Raphael a semi-sullen look before sliding down off the cot. He takes one more moment to give Leo the quickest, gentlest cuddle he can manage before he leaves for the kitchen.

Raph folds his arms and looks down at Leo, disquiet plain on his face.] Run of the Mill probably ain't even open. The whole city's a mess up there.

[Man, Leo cannot ever express how much those brother cuddles mean to him now, the thought that he might never have gotten them again still on the forefront.

He watches Mikey go before Raph has to come rain on his nonexistent parade.]

Can't I have some wishful thinking? Senor Hueso's probably fine [Probably], he wouldn't let anything happen to that place.

[If anything, he can see Bone Man begrudgingly letting youkai hide out there from the damage while saying he hates it and doesn't want to but nothing stopping him. Hueso's a big ol' softy when it comes down to it.]

[Another sigh before Raphael -the truest testament to how bone-deep exhausted he is- sinks down and sits on a few pillows on the ground, holding his knees even if it means he has to crane his neck to look up at Leo on his cot. Maybe he'll figure out how to use the lever thingies on it to make it collapse down so they can just wheel it into the blanket fort, rather than make Leo move.]

April went to check on him, [Raph offers, picking at one of his fingernails, first with his nails, then his teeth. Half his body still doesn't feel like his.] I dunno what to say to him either. I don't like us spendin' the night apart, not after...that.

[He watches that motion, what Raph is doing. And he gets it, he really does unfortunately Understand it. How conscious had Raphael been for all of it? Was he aware of what his body was forced to do? Did he have any way to fight against it, or is it all jsut a big blank space in his memory for an entire day? Leonardo wonders and knows this isn't the time or place to ask.

(But then when's the next chance they'll have Mikey and Donnie out of the room? When one or both come back, they likely aren't going to leave again for some time.)

Leo carefully reaches for that hand.]

I know. I don't either, so I- Maybe he won't yell at her. I'd have to kick his butt if he does. [He knows Donnie won't. But it's nice to feel in control of literally anything, even if it's just saying something.]

[And unlike Donatello, Raphael takes Leo's hand almost immediately, all gentle care as per usual. His brothers are all so small.]

You know he won't. Even if he did, she'd straighten him out even better than any of us could.

[Jiggles Leo's hand slightly, pulling in a slow, tired breath before letting it out.] ...hey. [Looks up at Leo, tooth catching on his lip as he works his jaw, thinking.] I don't want you feelin' bad about this.

[Leo's fine letting Raph take the hand. It was freely offered as a touch point so Raph wouldn't just... chew his own hand off to prove he's in control. He still wants Donnie down here with them, still wants to make his brother understand now instead of in the heat of the moment like Leo did.

But he looks up at Raphael with those words.]

What? Please, it's me. We all got out, saved the world, nothing to feel bad about.

[He feels so bad about every moment of it. He will never be able to get that image of Raphael hovering over him protecting him from the Krang's stab out of his mind.]

Little brother.

[Gently shakes Leo's hand again, like he took Leo's hand to comfort him- which he did. Raph's not about to think he won't have his own nightmares later. He's very carefully not poking at the fuzziness of his memories between when the Krang interrogated him (tortured...? no, surely not) and when he woke up to see his brothers on that ship. He's not asking any questions, he's not turning that loss of time over and over in his head, because-

Because. Because- remembering won't do any good. Yeah. It'll just upset him, and everyone else. There's no reason to mess around with it.

But Leo's not like that. Leo acts like he doesn't have a thought in his head, but he's always thinking of what happened, what could happen, what he wants to happen. Raphael isn't the sharpest tack in the box, but he's not a complete fool. He saw the look on Leo's face when he put that escape pod on his chest.]

[He squeezes Raph's hand weakly, still a little shaky all things considered. He wishes he could fix this the way he could fix a lot of things. He wants his big brother to never have to think about any of this again, he wants his little brothers to feel safe and like they won't lose either of them again. He wants his family to be safe and happy more than anything.

And seeing the look on Raph's face tells him it's going to be a long road there. Probably some setbacks here and there, but probably nothing to stop the progress forward.]

Big brother. [He says it knowingly, that lilt in his tone that's annoying on the best days.]

[For a moment Raphael looks like he's about to argue, about to press. He holds Leo's hand a little tighter as if to keep him from running off (like he's going anywhere right now, though) but before he can get a word out, Splinter comes up and tells Raphael to go find a place to sleep and then do it.

And that, for now at least, is that.

Casey makes his way to Leo's side at some point and figures out how to lever the cot's hardware in order to sink it further down to the ground. It does have wheels, which Casey unlocks, Raphael had just found it easier to carry it and Leo both out of medical.

Casey and Mikey together maneuver the cot with Leo on it, protesting when he tries to get up (embarrassed over the fuss, maybe?), but it truthfully doesn't take much effort to get the cot under the blankets and into the aforementioned 'ballroom.'

Mikey piles pillows near and against the side of the cot for his own nest, eventually locating and corralling a drowzy Raphael over to their side as well. When Raphael lays back down he flings his limbs every which way, used to his brothers using him as a mattress wherever possible. Mikey does just that, happily squeezing between Raphael's arm and the cot by Leo's thigh, pulling a blanket over all three of them and burying himself beneath it until not even the top of his head is visible.

Splinter comes to tell them goodnight, takes a moment longer to pass a hand gently over the heads and shells of his sons, and disappears into a different section. Casey fumbles about awkwardly for a moment until Raphael grabs his pant leg and sleepily pulls him down into the pile. Eventually April joins them as well, casually draping herself over the other side of the cot with her own blanket, yawning a quiet 'good night' at Leo before settling down.

And so...they sleep. Some of them. With fits and starts, with one or the other or multiple members waking just to be shushed by the others.

At some point during the night -or perhaps now, the morning- Donatello leaves his lab and quietly bypasses the blanket fort, heading straight for the kitchen without a word or a sound.]

[Everyone sticking close by is nice. It's a comfort, in more ways than he can count. He can't remember the last time they did something like this - pillow-blanket-fort in the main area for them all to pile into. Somewhere down the line, they got used to having their own spaces, all of them rebuilding after Shredder destroyed their home, Leo moving into a rundown subway car.

But this is nostalgic in a way Leonardo didn't think he could be at sixteen. And while the others start dropping off to sleep, he lays quietly. Listens to their steady breathing, the quiet shuffle of fabric as they shift in their sleep. But insomnia is always his companion in the night, and Leonardo does not sleep. He knows if he does, only worse things will find him in his subconscious, so the mix of fear and natural insomnia become the mix with the sore muscles and bruised limbs.

Worse, probably, is the lingering taste of copper in his mouth. He's fairly certain the spackle is mostly dry now, and the pains are minimal as he starts to climb out of the cot long-ways and crawl out of the fort. Water is easy enough, he can get his own water. Even if he's a little slow going, it's fine.

But he stops in his tracks when he sees someone else in the kitchen.]

[and that someone is so lost in his head that he doesn't hear leo enter, even with how painstakingly he shuffles.

in front of the coffee maker as it quietly hisses, percolates, is donatello with his hands spread atop the counter, head down as if a great weight is hung about his neck. one of his more luxurious battle shells sits squarely over his shoulders, though it seems more like a cage than a shield.

his shoulders hitch, just briefly. settle, but then again, softer, twice. his next inhale is shaky and wet.]

[He's distracted first by the realization. Then sidetracked mentally trying to figure out if getting the water is worth the second round of yelling and insults. But he is, indeed, very thirsty and probably dehydrated so the water is worth the risk, but how to get it- and the battle shell, obviously Donnie lost his and wants to feel better and protected and-

And then Leonardo hears it.

Crap.

There's a fifty-fifty coin flip chance of saying anything could go well, or could go very very badly.

Everyone else is asleep, and he may as well hash this out without an audience right now. So his voice is a low whisper, one hand out but not touching.]

Donnie?

[donnie starts and whips around, eyes wide and noticeably red before he turns back to the coffee maker just as quickly. he scrubs at his eyes and cheeks with the heel of a hand, the other reaching for the cabinet to withdraw a mug.]

What are you doing walking around? [hard, somehow angry-sounding sniff] The plaster needs twenty-four hours to fully set.

[That weird moment in time passing on fully now, he sighs a bit. Goes about his business grabbing a cup from the dry rack and heading to the sink.]

I wasn't going to wake one of them up to get me water. Took them too long to finally fall asleep.

[the look on donnie's face shows how acceptable he finds that excuse, but at the very least he doesn't deem it important enough to argue. truth be told, there isn't a person in this household who doesn't know about leo's chronic insomnia even on good nights.

the air is charged with something though, some kind of energy or...expectation. and donatello hates expectations remaining unspoken because he always misreads or misses them entirely. the sound of the kitchen faucet sounds way too loud as leo pours himself a glass of water, like it'll wake their family and they'll come running in any second.]

-I'm not apologizing.

[There's a sense of relief hearing those words. It's visible enough in the way his shoulders slump, holding that glass in both hands.]

Wasn't going to ask you to.

[But he will take a slow sip. If it were Raph, or April, maybe Splinter, he's sure one of them would be telling Leo about what a Good Leader does, smooth things over, make it easier. Apologize and try to work things out. But that just isn't him, he's not apologizing for something he doesn't deem he did wrong. And saving the planet? Literally his duty since he was the only one left there.]

I'm not either.

Wouldn't even hold my breath. [only mild sarcasm with that one, not that it sounds terribly different from donatello's typically flat tone. though maybe the fact that he does sound so emotionless is more telling, given how animated he was the last time leo saw him. he clearly got some aggression out in his lab, not that his projects are any better off for it.

...still. without the panic and anger, the irritation and terror roaring in his ears, he can finally sort out his wants from his needs and make a plan going forward. this is easier. data collection, categorization. these aren't his own emotions, or the sharp-edged shards of his own broken heart. it's just excogitation.] I need something else from you.

[Has water always tasted this good?

Granted, parts of the water lines above are messed up, so they're pulling from their own source down here, but it's better than the alternative. Still, savor it as much as he can.]

What's that?

[It's not a promise or agreement to provide whatever it is. With Donatello, there's no way to really guess at what it could be, not with the way he's forcing his tone flat like that.]

Let me fix things. Including you. Stop fighting me and let me do my part already.

[donnie's proud of his abilities and he likes to think he's fairly objective about his contributions to the team, but nobody could say that he provided a fair share during this entire debacle. he only even managed to get to the ship's computer thanks to mikey's quick thinking, and he didn't even manage to get the krang ship all the way into the portal fast enough before he got ripped loose.

if he'd just been less- less him, if he hadn't hesitated and have dove right in like his brothers always seem to be able to do, maybe he could've done it. if he was someone just a little different, maybe leo wouldn't have felt like he needed to-

well. back to the point, which is- it's that his greatest contribution to the team is always preparation and then recuperation. he fixes what's broken. he's usually the least hurt because he usually does the least fighting, so he can at least look after his family this way. if he can't come up with incredible strategies, if he can't put villains in the ground with his own strength, if he can't rip open space-time to save his brothers when they need it the most, he can at least do this.]

[Something in Leo's expression shifts, from an eagerness to listen to confusion. Had he been fighting Donnie on the way back? He doesn't fully remember, he remembers the van and the bumps, that moment of excruciating pain in his side, but not a lot else. The whole ride back had been a faded mix of pain and exhaustion and relief that his brothers were all right (mostly).

He chances stepping closer, almost in arm's reach now.]

How?

[It isn't an accusation, it isn't meant to make Donatello feel like he can't do whatever it is. Leo's genuinely asking, wanting to know how to help his brother.]

Tell me the truth. Don't brush off my questions. Don't try to redirect my attention, or my concerns. I need data, not reassurances. [this is really what donnie spent most of his time doing sequestered in his lab, besides melting down two of his busts to start on new battle shell components. figuring out how to articulate this without sounding pathetic and/or demanding, so he sounds sure and so his requests are clear and easily understood. the nuances of what he wants to ask are exhausting, and with how often he and leo vibe on the save wavelength, they seem to miss each other just as often.]

And trust me to take care of you, and them. [raph and mikey.

maybe donnie's no good in an actual fight, maybe donnie can't always get the job done out there, but here in the aftermath? he will mend every tiny tear, ice every miniscule bruise. he will use every ounce of his considerable capacity for project management to make sure his family mends in the most efficient, painless way possible. it's his specialty. it's the only thing he's truly good at, when it comes to this.]

Edited 2022-09-04 05:00 (UTC)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject