Work Text:
All things considered, among the world-changing and life-ending technology Donnie had developed over the years, he should probably have a better door lock.
And to his credit, Donnie really did have advanced security measures. Ways to protect his brothers, if an explosion were to take place inside or outside of the walls. Ways to lock down the base if the incredibly small (growing ever larger) threat of a nuclear meltdown occurred in the lab. Ways to ensure that no living person, creature, or AI with decently advanced intellect could get through the locked door.
Alas, none of that preparation did much against one Leonardo Hamato, the most infuriating twin brother ever. Not when he could simply portal himself through the cyber security walls.
Which, of course, is what he was doing now.
Donnie tried to dredge up an ounce of indignity, maybe gather some self-righteous anger about how long it took to perfect something to help his siblings for once. But mostly Donnie felt resigned.
“What’s up, Don-tron?” Leo asked, sword resting on his shoulder as he strolled past a door that Donnie knew would take two years to break through manually.
Instead of slamming his head through the desk, Donatello sighed.
“Hello, Nardo. What do you want from me?”
“Hey!” Leo said, with the gall to sound offended. He strutted over, where Donnie pointedly ignored him. “I’ll have you know sometimes I just wanna talk to my favorite twin brother!”
“Sometimes,” Donnie agreed, goggles slipping back down over his eyes. He was tempted to start welding on his project again - a new enhanced body for Shelldon, one that could withstand supernatural forces - but restrained himself at the last second. Leo didn’t seem to mind bright flashes of light after the whole Prison Dimension Rescue debacle, but still, Donnie didn't feel like risking a potential emotional moment in his very toxic, explosive-riddled base. “Though I’ve yet so see any evidence in support of that hypothesis. As I recall, the last visit was you asking me to fix the TV. The one before that was the wifi being down. The one before that was the TV again, then-“
“Yeah, yeah,” Leo cut in with a huff, shoving Donnie’s head away with one hand as he levered himself up onto the desk. The papers smudged instantly under the added weight of a turtle shell, and Donnie vaguely decided it was just Leo’s presence that did these things. Smudging papers and raising his blood pressure and causing violence, everywhere he went. “We get it, alright, shush. I…”
It took a moment before Leo continued, face scrunched in thought. Don paused on instinct, setting down the tool in his hand.
He tried not to think about how often they all did this. Waiting for Leo, expecting him to have all the answers. Which, granted, leader’s job and all, but still. Donnie knew that personally, he’d rather sink into the floor and vanish than have everyone he loved stare and wait for him to fix everything.
“I just wanna ask you about something,” Leo said at last, setting his sword off to the side. The most ‘I come in peace’ gesture he knew.
Interesting. In Donnie’s mind, the invasion of his lair switched from ‘Leo wanting to bither Donatello’ to ‘Leo actually needing something.’ The genius tilted his head just a little, as though a new angle would straighten this all out.
“Sure, Leo,” Donnie answered slowly. “You know you can always talk to me.”
That’s why you have six locks on your door, keeping all your brothers out, the nasty voice in the back of Donnie’s mind - that sounded suspiciously like himself - hissed.
Leo didn’t look comforted by the words, but resolve tightened against his eyes. “Well, Draxum told us that story about how he found all of us in a surface pet shop. Remember?”
“Of course. Mikey’s only made him tell it a hundred times now,” Don snarked, relieved to hear Leo snort quietly with laughter.
It only took fifteen years, but maybe Donnie was getting better at this whole brothers thing.
“You have to admit, it’s fun to watch Draxum squirm when Mikey calls it adoption.” Then Leo’s face fell, almost with a wince. “I’ve just been thinking about how we were all in the bin together. But, you know, we’re not even the same kind of turtle, and we don’t even know why Draxum got us four, right? What if there was another turtle he left there?”
Donnie stared for a minute, as Leo twitched in place. The slider had gotten more and more agitated as he went on, and Donnie… For the life of him, Donnie didn’t know what was happening in Leon’s head right now.
“But there wasnt another turtle,” Donnie said, more patronizing than he aimed for. Leo didnt react well if he thought they were implying he was stupid. “Just us. And he got all of us.”
Leo scowled suddenly, face stormy. “That’s not the point,” he argued.
It took everything in Donnie not to inform him that actually, it was exactly the point they’d just argued. But he knew his twin, knew that look meant trouble, and bit his tongue.
There was something else going on here.
“Raph’s spent his whole life taking care of us,” Leo said abruptly, voice shaking. His eyes were downcast, hiding his emotions, and boy howdy that wasn’t a good sign. “Maybe he would have been better off alone. Or Mikey - shell knows he could have done anything he wanted without three helicopter big brothers.”
Two helicopter big brothers and an aloof genius, Donnie thought, and bit his tongue harder. Not the time.
“Or- or even you, Dee,” Leo said, spinning to gesture wildly to the space between them, where at least three projects waited patiently on the table. “You’re a genius! You could build anything you want, except you’re trapped inside a sewer station with brothers you constantly have to take care of. You spend half your day just repairing our stuff. Imagine what you could have done without us.”
Well. Donnie’d be lying if he said he’d never considered it. In fact, there was a sixty-eight percent chance he would be running the entirety of New York by now, were his brothers not in the picture.
None of that mattered, right now.
“Leo,” Donnie said, and cut himself off. Leo wasn’t meeting his eyes, actively staring anywhere that didn’t involve this conversation, and Donnie twisted the words around in his mind like a Rubik’s cube, desperate for an answer.
More than anything, more than wanting to rule the world or keep his annoying twin out of his lab, Donnie wanted to get this heart-to-heart right.
“You know, tomorrow we could all just wake up and collectively agree not to be brothers,” Donnie suggested at last.
It got shock value from Leo, who froze on the spot. His arms locked on the edge of the counter with a white-knuckled grip, zeroing in on his twin.
For his part, Donnie fought to keep his expression nonchalant as he mixed a few chemicals from their beakers. He had no real plans for an experiment, but he always functioned better when his hands were busy.
“We could all just agree that this whole brothers thing isn’t worth it, and we could go our own ways. Dad can keep the lair, I guess, and it’d be a pain to split up our comic book collection, but we could do it.” Donnie shrugged, as though it were trivial stuff worth discussing and not their entire lives. “If things are better if we’d never met, better late than never, right?”
Leo didn’t react, other than keeping up that deer-in-the-headlights stare. The perfect time, Donnie decided lightly, to press his advantage.
“Or Dad could kick us all out. He never really planned for kids, he could just leave us.”
The gobsmacked expression slowly receded from Leo’s face, melting into something sadder and more insecure. “He wouldn’t, Dee, you know that.”
“Sure. But why not - we only have a little speck of his DNA, we’re not even the same species as him. I’m sure he wouldn’t have any problems with it,” Donnie pushed, setting down his respective vials and facing Leo. “Or, different example, us. Me and you. We could forget it.”
“Forget…?” Leo asked, hesitant as he perched on the table edge. Like an animal who could be spooked into fleeing, given the right moment.
“Us being twins,” Donnie elaborated. Leo went perfectly still in the background. “It was fun when we were little, and it made it easier on Dad to have only three birthday parties to plan, but we’re adults now. We don’t know when we were born, don’t even know our real turtle parents. We could just decide we’re not twins.”
“That’s not how it works,” Leo argued, sliding down to match Donnie’s stance on the floor. Donnie took half a step up as Leo moved in closer. “Stop it.”
“I’m being serious, Nardo,” Donnie challenged, determined to drive this home. Maybe it was cruel, but it was necessary. “The four of us have Lou Jitsu’s DNA, but that doesn’t really make us brothers.”
The tension held against them like a knife, eyes locked. Donnie refused to back down, no matter how badly he ached to give in.
He needed Leo to understand.
Suddenly, Leo blinked, swiping hard at his eyes and shoulders hunching in on themselves. Donnie jerked forward instinctively, hand landing on his twin’s, and felt infinitely grateful when Leo didn’t pull away.
“We’re brothers,” Leo said. It was a statement of fact, underscored by plain hurt, and Donnie leaped at his chance.
“Yeah, we are, Nardo. We’re family. All four of us, and April, and Dad, and even Draxum,” Donnie said softly, bumping their foreheads together. “It’s not because we have to, or that we feel obligated, or that fate’s just worked it out this way.”
Donnie struggled for a moment, trying so hard to find his message. Leo, blessedly patient, simply waited with red-rimmed eyes.
“It’s a choice. A choice we make every single day, to love each other and take care of each other,” Donnie finally said, gripping his brother’s shell so tightly it hurt. “Maybe if we hadn’t been in the pet store together, we wouldn’t have been brothers. But everything since then was us, Nardo. That was us, picking each other, all the time.”
Leo’s eyes spilled over, and to Donnie’s horror, his own vision clouded over with tears, too.
“Maybe there’s a universe where we’re all better of without each other,” Donnie whispered, hoping he didn’t sound as tired as he felt. “But I promise you, Leo, it’s not this one.”
“I believe you,” Leo answered, voice cracking.
And after that, there wasn’t much left to say. Just to hold Donnie’s twin and try to forcibly shove the knowledge that he mattered so flipping much into Leo’s skull. An undignified way to spend his night all things considered, hugging his brother.
Ah well. Undignified, perhaps, but important.