Chapter Text
This had become a standard routine at this point. First he’d hear the yelling, then he’d hear a small timid knock on the door to his lab,opening it to see his little brother smiling up at him, then he’d spend the rest of the evening with said little brother locked away in his lab.
Donnie didn’t mind spending the evenings with Mikey, he enjoyed his company and his creative mind was helpful when Donnie needed to bounce ideas off someone; however, what he did mind was that everytime he opened the door, although his smile never faltered, his eyes just grew sadder, duller, and more exhausted.
The fighting had been going on since Splinter appointed Leo the new leader, and Raph thought he wasn’t taking it seriously enough. Donnie wasn’t bothered by the change really. He trusted both of his brothers, and probably wouldn’t listen to either of them anyway, but the fighting was getting obnoxious. It started off only here and there squabbles, nothing out of the ordinary, brothers fight like that all the time. Then as time went on things kept escalating, soon petty squabbles became full on screaming matches, and sometimes screaming matches would turn into physical fights until their father stepped in to make them stop. It was nothing more than an annoyance to Donnie, but the purple turtle could tell it took a toll on the littlest brother.
Tonight the routine continued, as Donnie prepared to airbrush his latest finished project he heard “Why won’t you listen to me, Leo?” Raphs exasperated voice echoed through the lair. “It’s like you always do the opposite of what I say!”
“I just knew my way would look way cooler,” you could hear the mocking tone in Leo’s voice. Donnie didn’t have to see his twin to know that he was giving raph his signature smart ass smile.
“It’s not about looks, Leo. It’s about defeating the bad guy and making sure your team is safe doing it.”
“Why are you freaking out so much, Raph? It was just Repomantis, it’s not that big of a deal.”
“Today was Repomantis, but tomorrow it could be The Foot, or Big Mama, or something bigger and scarier-“
“Bigger and scarier than Big Mama? No thank you.”
“My point is Leo, you have to treat every mission like it’s a big deal, which means you can’t just do what you want because you think it’s fun. Being the leader is serious, you have to look out for people other than yourself.”
“Hey!” The mocking tone left Leo’s voice, “I do look out for you guys.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
Here comes the screaming match
“If you don’t like how I lead, then why do you follow me?”
“Someone’s got to keep everyone else safe!”
Tic tic tic.
And there’s the knock.
Donnie got up from his spot at his desk and walked over to open the door.
“Hey Dee,” Mikey smiled up at him, “can I come hang out with you for a little while?” Despite his smile, Donnie could see the tears in Mikey’s eyes. He really did hate it when those two fought, but Donnie wasn’t very good at emotional talks so he decided that if Mikey wanted to talk about it he’d bring it up.
“You know you can, Micheal. I could actually use your help.”
“Really?” The box turtle lit up, he always loved actually being able to help his big brother with inventions, instead of just listing off crazy ideas until a good one came out.
“Yes, really,” Donnie answered as they walked back to his desk, “I was about to airbrush my newest invention and I could really use an artist's touch.”
“I can definitely help with that!” Mikey beamed. A loud crash came from the living room followed by more yelling. Every now and then they’d get mad enough to throw things. Not normally at each other, they'd just throw whatever’s closest out of anger. Things kept getting broken, and Donnie kept having to fix them. That was a loud one, so he was sure he’d have his work cut out for him.
Mikey flinched at the loud crash, but did his best to keep his smile for Donnie, “Just your signature purple?” He asked, his voice just a little smaller than before but enough for Donnie to notice it.
“Actually, Angelo,” he said thoughtfully, “why don’t you add some ‘razzmatazz’ as you call it.”
Mikey’s eyes grew wide, he was never allowed to just go wild on any of Donnie’s paint jobs. Not that Donnie didn’t like his art, he had a whole wall dedicated to the drawings and paintings Mikey gave him, he just liked all of his tech to be uniform and simple. “Are you sure that’s okay?” He beamed.
“Positive.” Donnie patted Mikey’s head with a robotic arm, “I have something else I want to work on, so you’ll be unsupervised to let your artsy instincts go.”
“What are you working on?” The curious turtle asked
“You work on your project and I’ll work on mine, and at the end we’ll show each other, deal?”
“Deal!”
They sat there in silence each working on their respective crafts, the fighting in the living room died down eventually leaving only the sound of Donnie’s music softly playing and the occasional hum of Mikey when he focused in. At one point Raph knocked on the door to let them know that pizza was there, but they both opted to eat in the lab instead of at the table. It was normal for Donnie to not join his family for dinner when he was working on something new, but Mikey always loved sitting around with everyone. Donnie guessed he was still upset about the fighting earlier and didn’t want to be around them.
A few hours after their pizza break Donnie stood up and stretched his back, “All done over here,” he announced. “How about you, Angelo?”
“I’ve been done for a while, actually” Mikey chuckled.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I like watching you work.” He smiled, “and you looked so focused so I didn’t want to interrupt.”
Donnie rolled his eyes but smiled at his little brother, “Well let’s see it then.”
Mikey held up the invention, which he guessed was some sort of scanner, to show his work. It was a pattern similar to a topographical map with different shades of purple all being joined together with thin strips of silver. The Genius Built ™ logo on the top. “Do you like it?”
“Like it? I love it!” Donnie beamed, grabbing it out of Mikey’s hands. “It’s so simple, yet so beautiful just like my tech! It’s perfect Mikey!”
The box turtle lit up, he was a little worried it was too much, but he was so happy that Donnie liked it, “Okay, Dontron. Your turn. What were you working on?”
“Oh, right!” Donnie turned around and handed Mikey a pair of gray headphones. “They’re noise canceling,” he explained, “It’s just the primer color I figured I’d let you paint them however you like, and I even gave them cat ears so they’d match mine.” Donnie looked down at his baby brother and was shocked to see tears in his eyes, “oh no, do you not like them? I can take the cat ears off if yo-“
“No.” Mikey said a bit more forcefully then he meant to, “I love them Donnie. They’re perfect.” He wiped his eyes, “Can I sit in here with you and paint them?”
“Of course you can, Angelo. Oh, but not tonight.” Donnie glanced at his clock and it was already midnight-thirty, “Raph will have my shell if he thinks I’m keeping you up too late.”
“I’m not a baby, Donnie, I don’t have a bedtime.”
“I am very aware of this Micheal, but that’s something you’ll have to take up with Raph.” He started ushering Mikey towards the door, “I know that if he thinks I’m keeping you up too long I’m going to get a lecture about my own sleeping habits and I don’t want to deal with ‘mother hen’ Raph, so off you go.”
Mikey rolled his eyes but walked through the door willingly, “Can I come back in the morning to paint them?”
“Bring us pancakes and I’ll allow it.” Donnie smiled.
“Deal.” Mikey gave Donnie a quick hug before running off to his room, new headphones in hand.