lucetilogs | (no subject)

Who:

thesevencodes
What: Training. For real.
When: Mike gets sent home. Don does some really unimpressive solo training, spends a night guarding Polka, and eventually gets his head back together. Then this happens.
Where: Starting outside C6, and probably ending up elsewhere.
Summary: Don apologizes to Raph for being a jerk in the best way he knows how: by giving Raph permission to abuse him until he becomes an acceptably competent ninja again.
Rating: PG-13
Where has Don been for the past week? Why, making a new bo staff. Crafting the simple weapon doesn't involve slaving for hours over a hot forge in the smithy - rather, he's been out in the woods, using the peace and quiet, the meditative carving of wood, to get his head back together.

He needs to train. He's been doing some work this week, out in the woods, and he's managed to bring himself back to a level that wouldn't make his father cry in embarrassment. (Shake his head sadly, yes - but at least he wouldn't be asking the ancestors how he got such lazy, undisciplined sons.)

Now, though, he needs help. He needs someone on a higher level, who can beat him back into shape, and then beat him into a better shape than he's ever been in before.

Fortunately, he knows such a person. And he knows that the individual in question will be all too willing to do it.

He prods the journal open with his toe. "Raph - come meet me behind the building. ... And don't panic. It's good news."

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Leonardo feels it. The anger boiling in his chest that he almost cannot control - he takes a step forward, hissing through his teeth.

"We had no other choice. Make them a deal, or lose you. It was an easy decision, Donatello."

Even though it really wasn't; there were risks. Always, risks.

Edited 2010-04-25 18:15 (UTC)

Don doesn't often feel the urge to smack his brothers. It's even more rarely that he wants to smack Leo. But right now, the desire is almost overpowering.

Stockman could have given him anything. Asking that madman for help was only giving him carte blanche to do whatever sick experiment he had been fantasizing about since their paths had first crossed. And none of his brothers were nearly competent to inspect his "cure" and make sure it was safe.

"Who watched him?" Don demands. "April? The Professor?"

They had no other choice. The anger reaches its peak then quickly recedes; Leonardo turns away briefly, guilt picking at his mind. To Don, this must sound like they just handed him over to the Devil - especially since Stockman was involved. "You were going to...it was our only -"

He looks back at his brother. "Master Splinter was involved. So was Leatherhead - we turned to him before Bishop was even an option, but he just...it wasn't enough." He presses the heel of his palm into his eye. "Don, I'm sorry. We didn't know what else to do."

Don turns away, thinking. He had long wrestled with the problem of what he would do if a brother ever got beyond the reach of his limited medical skill, but he had tried not to dwell on what his brothers might do if it was him who needed help.

"You should have..."

Should have what? It's a question he's never been able to answer.

"Thank you..."

"Why?" The question falls out of his mouth before he can stop it. He turns the unopened jar of sauce in his hands. "You got no reason to thank us. You'd do the same for us, wouldn't you?"

Don leans heavily against the counter. The easy answer is Yes, of course I would. But the true answer is -

"I don't know."

Everything stops. The room freezes. "Whaddya mean you don't know?"

Somehow, that one question does more to clarify his thinking on the matter than anything else ever has.

Or maybe it's not the question.

Maybe it's the person asking it.

Don lifts his hand from the counter, for the express purpose of slamming it back down again. "Come on, Raph! If you were lying on your deathbed, and I came in and said, 'Hey, I have a plan - it involves putting the whole family in danger, but there's a small chance you might be cured!'... if I said that, I know for a fact that you would find the strength to get out of that bed and fight me over it. You would never let me make a decision like that."

He lifts his hand again, to poke his finger against Raph's chest.

"And if you wouldn't let me do it for you, you can't say you would let me do it for Leo or Mike either."

His hand falls away, and his gaze drops as well.

"If you wouldn't let me do it for you, I have no right to expect you would do it for me. So... thank you. For doing it anyway."

"It's always going to be like that." Leonardo's voice is quiet when he finally chooses to speak; he stares at some distance past the kitchen wall before looking back at his brothers. "That's how we are: all for one, one for all. None of us will ever leave the other behind, now matter how badly he may want it."