I'll be fine, I swear

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Who: [Bad username or site: gaijin_ninja title=Raphael @ livejournal.com] and [Bad username or site: i_speak_softly title=Donatello @ livejournal.com]
What: Brotherly weekend camping trip
When: Backdated to early this morning
Where: Near the western lake
Summary: Raph and Don take a much-needed break from civilization to regroup and recover from recent losses.
Rating: T


For the first time in weeks, Raph's actually excited to start the day. They'd done all their packing the night before, told Casey all about their plans in case someone started asking after them, and headed out for the west lake at the break of dawn.

The morning was warm, but not unbearably so compared to the heatwave the rising sun was sure to bring. Luckily they'd be traveling by the shade of the forest through the worst of it, and reach a suitable campsite by the cool relief of sundown.

Now Raph would never call himself anything but city-bred. He loves the noise and clamber of the streets far more than what's good for him. But walking through the dappled shade to the sound of summer breeze and birdsong is something he's learned to appreciate.

Quiet. God, he just needed quiet. Give him some time to get away from prying people and just relax for once.

He closes his eyes, shifts his pack, and sighs, sending another watchful look to his brother following not far behind.

"Reminds you of Northampton, don't it?"

Comments

[i_speak_softly]

For his part, Don is really just enjoying being outside. He's spent most of the past two weeks recovering in the clinic, and then being on a kind of house arrest in the apartment.

The joys of overprotective brothers.

He tilts his head at said brother, and smiles. "I think Northampton would be insulted."

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

"Hey, it ain't like I got a whole lot to compare to, yanno." He kicks up a rock on the path as they walk. "Trees, nature, the lake...put aside the talkin' animals and there ya go."

[i_speak_softly]

Don watches the rock bounce. "But in terms of the town itself... considering that Luceti is a nexus between worlds, I think Northampton still outclasses it in diversity and... local color."

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

"Didn't think about that." He was just thinking the whole middle-of-nowhere aspect, not the town itself. But when Don puts it that way, oh yeah, he can see where he's coming from. "There's is a lotta white folks, huh? And Japanese that uh...don't look Japanese."

[i_speak_softly]

Don nods. "A lot of young people, a lot of heroes. It's very strange." He glances up at the sky momentarily. "Makes me think the arrivals aren't quite random."

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

"Lotta heroes stealin' our thunder," he grumbles, kicking the rock farther down the path again. Then he thinks aloud. "Well they're supposed to be scientists, right? They gotta have some kind of plan for it."

[i_speak_softly]

That gets a raised eyebrow. "I wasn't aware we had any thunder." He listens to Raph's comment, and thinks about how to reply. "You know, I've been talking to people... and the consensus seems to be that the Malnosso really don't know what they're doing. They're trying to learn about these 'shifts', and how to control them, but right now they're not in charge of anything. They're trapped here, just as much as we are."

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he's not gonna go into the sciencey stuff with you, Don. He knows it's dangerous territory. "Maybe you didn't have any thunder. But me and Casey, we were layin' down the law with those Purple Dragon scum."

[i_speak_softly]

And he's not going to go into how ninjas should move like the gently blowing wind, and not like a noisy storm.

In fact, he can't come up with any reply that isn't likely to provoke a fight. So he simply settles for: "Well, there won't be any law-laying this weekend. What did you have in mind for recreational activities?"

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

What, Don asks him to actually have plans? Yeah right.

"All I know's I'm gonna hunt us some dinner." Because hunting for rabbits is about as close to hunting for wackjobs you can get around here. He's been really looking forward to it.

[i_speak_softly]

Well, that sounds like fun for all.

Don pauses in the shade of a tree, and shifts his bag on his shoulder. "You are going to let me do something this weekend, aren't you? I'm not walking all this way just to sit on a log."

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Raph stops and turns when Don pauses. "If ya feel fine, I'm not gonna stop ya."

He reaches for a low-hanging branch of a nearby maple tree, stripping the leaves off absentmindedly. "We should be hittin' the lake soon. You can help build the fire pit before it gets too dark, yeah?"

[i_speak_softly]

"Good to know."

Ah, so he will be allowed to build something, even if it's only a circle of stones and a pile of wood. "Sure. I can do that."

And with the promise of reaching their destination in the near future, he starts walking again.

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Shortly after, they arrive at the lake in time to catch the sunset stretching over the water, all shades of orange and purple. The grass is soft compared to the matted dirt of the forest. The turtles find themselves perched twenty feet over the water's surface on a lakeside cliff that's just too good for Raph to pass up.

He puts down his pack with a thump, then pulls out his sai, spinning them, then offering them to Don pommel-up. "Hold these, wouldja?"

Soon as Don takes his precious weapons, he'll sprint toward the cliff and cannonball off the side like the maniac he is. "Goongala!"

[i_speak_softly]

He'll just hold your stuff then, brother dear. While he waits for you to burn off your excess energy (why you even still have excess energy after walking all day is beyond him), he'll look around the area and mentally pick out a good campsite.

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

A few minutes later, he resurfaces up the cliff bank, sopping wet but looking content. "Man, you gotta try that."

[i_speak_softly]

In response, Don just hands Raph back his sai. Then he turns and walks down the sloping hill, zeroing in on the stretch of sand where he's decided to sleep tonight. When he gets there, he sets down his pack and draws a circle on the ground to mark where the firepit will be.

That done, he sits to enjoy the end of the sunset, gesturing for Raph to sit with him.

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Gonna play the quiet game, huh? Or maybe Donnie's just tired. He tucks his sai back in his belt, picks up his pack, and follows after his brother. The campsite he picked out looks nice, no rocks or tree roots to jab them while they're sleeping, so Raph approves.

He sets down his pack again, sitting beside Don with a sigh and wringing out his mask.

"Should be a nice night."

[i_speak_softly]

"Looks like it."

And that's all he has to say on that particular subject. When the colors fade from the sky, he'll stand up again. Better to collect the wood during twilight, so he can have a fire going before it's fully dark. "Coming or staying?"

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I'll come."

He pushes himself off the log with a bit of a groan. He's still sore, but healed enough to complain about it openly. It seems like a backwards kind of methodology, but it works just fine for him.

He jogs down the path after his brother, listening closely for any small animals rustling through the underbrush that could serve as dinner.

[i_speak_softly]

Don moves through the woods in no particular hurry, picking up sticks and stones as he goes. There's enough of both that finding suitable ones isn't much of an effort, so the collection of them is almost an afterthought. Most of his mind is occupied with just enjoying the evening. He'll stop occasionally to inspect an interesting plant, watch a bug crawl up a tree, listen to the night-song of a bird...

At this rate, he won't even make it back to camp before dark.

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

As Don wanders, Raph is busy playing he-man hunter, silently pushing through a mess of ferns and blackberry bushes after a skittering in the dry leaves. He disappears for several moments, listening.

Then, the scream of a dying rabbit erupts from the bushes, sticks snap in the undergrowth, and Raph emerges again, grinning his victory, a bleeding, and now very much dead rabbit in his hand.

"I killed it with a freakin' shuriken!" He beams, holding up his bleeding kill for Don to see. Anyone well-versed in throwing weapons would know shuriken are not meant for killing, but for distraction. Leave it to Raph to be...inventive.

[i_speak_softly]

Don might be more impressed by the kill if he wasn't so unimpressed by Raph's shameless bragging.

"Well, drain it and let's go," he says. "I have enough for the pit."

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Oh come on, that was totally awesome. You just don't appreciate the art of killing things in strange ways. Seriously.

Raph picks his way back out of the brush and lays the rabbit on the ground, fishing a pocket knife out of his belt and slitting its throat. Then he cuts the stomach, cracks open the ribcage, and scoops out the organs with his hands. If they were hungry enough, they'd eat them too, but it's cleaner if they don't bother. He's got some cans of food in his pack they can supplement it with.

Then he stands again, hands a bloody mess though he doesn't seem to mind. In fact, he seems to be enjoying it a little too much.

"I'll skin back at camp. Don't want it to go bad."

[i_speak_softly]

The pile of rocks balanced on his arm is getting heavy, so Don is more than happy to turn back towards camp and pick his way out of the darkening woods.

When they get back to the beach, he dumps his finds and starts building the fire pit - first a scooped out hollow in the sand, then a ring of stones, then a pile of wood. He has some waterproof matches in his bag, in case of emergency, but it's more fun to light the fire the old-fashioned way. A thatch of dried pine needles, two sticks, a quick back-and-forth of the hands, and he has a cheerful little flame ready to be nestled under the tinder.