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

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

The cat yelps in surprise at the impact, scrabbling away a few steps closer to the brush, yowling in protest at the assault. That's when Raph creams it soundly against the head with a mighty thump, sending it reeling across the ground. As soon as it gets a foothold, it retreats into the bushes.

Raph stands there, panting slightly, wiping his beak with the back of his hand. He barks a breathless laugh.

"Well wasn't that excitin'?"

[i_speak_softly]

As soon as the cat takes off, Don crouches to feed more sticks into the fire, rekindling it so he and Raph can see if anything else is lurking in the shadows under the trees.

"That's one word for it."

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Raph's a little adrenaline high at the moment, so his night vision is terrific even without the fire. That and the sun is starting to rise rosey-pink over the edge of the forest.

When he deems all quiet on the western front, he tosses the log on the fire and takes a seat in the sand.

"Weird as hell would be another."

[i_speak_softly]

Don lays his bo down again, and sits beside Raph. "Do you think we'll ever go on a camping trip where something weird doesn't happen?"

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

"You ain't been on the trip where we got caught up with the blue girl from space, have ya?"

That would be a no.

[i_speak_softly]

Well, that certainly sounds like something to look forward to.

"No, but I remember the first time we went to the underground city."

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Raph just chuckles. "I won't spoil it for ya, then."

[i_speak_softly]

Don decides to push his luck. A blue girl from space sounds like a neutral subject that Raph might be willing to talk about.

"Oh, please do."

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

"Ha!" He rocks back on his elbows, tipping his chin toward the sky now turning murky with dawn. "Was out at Northampton, and we were healin' up from a big battle. We found this old saw mill, right? And we were climbin' up on the roof when we see this funky blue comet. Turns out it's no comet. Was some kinda robot."

Raph likes telling these stories, even if he does skim over a lot of the important details, he likes the chance to reminisce.

"Then Mikey said somethin' stupid to it in Klingon or somethin' and ticked it off."

[i_speak_softly]

Don buries his face in his hands. "Only Mikey could start an intergalactic war in Klingon."

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Raph snorts. "You're tellin' me."

Oh, Mikey. Losing you to this place hurts a lot more than losing Leo. Raph's not ashamed to admit it. And talking about him in the past tense sort of makes it feel like they're talking about the dead.

He shakes off the thought and starts the story again with a little less enthusiasm.

"So we fight this thing, and it turns out there's a girl inside it, and she's in rough shape. So we take her out and you patch her up best you can 'cause even though she freakin' attacked us, you're still gonna give her your bedroll." He shoves Don affectionately in the arm, a wolfish grin on his face.

[i_speak_softly]

Imply all you want, brother. It's called 'being a gentleman' and he would have done it for anyone.

"Was she all right?"

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

"She was fine. Even woke up and popped her own shoulder into place by smashin' it into a tree.

You shoulda seen Mike's face. It freaked him right out."

Not to mention it freaked them all out quite a bit. It's just Mike's job to be hilariously vocal about it.

[i_speak_softly]

That's... pretty impressive.

It's also an excellent opportunity to make a suggestive remark of his own.

"Sounds like your kind of girl."

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

"My kind?" His eyes widen in surprise. Donnie's totally spending too much time with him. It's rubbing off. His grin widens. "She was totally into you."

[i_speak_softly]

"What?" He draws back at the strangeness of this statement. "I haven't even met her!"

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

"You guys went on and on about politics for hours." He says that with a groan. That was painful, dude. "And when she left, she gave you her hair. Which is really freakin' messed up, by the way."

[i_speak_softly]

Ooh, a girl who's into politics. He likes her already.

"She gave me -" Don blinks, and his hand flies unbidden to his scalp. Then it comes down again, to point at Raph in a 'ha-ha, you almost got me' way. "You're making that up."

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

He smiles crookedly. "That's a stupid thing to be lyin' about, Donnie. If I was makin' up stories, I'd freakin' hope it'd be better than that."

Then again, he always did lack in the creativity department.

[i_speak_softly]

... You're serious.

Don shifts to face Raph directly, and pats his knee insistently. "No, explain this to me. She gave me her hair? To do what with it?"

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

He gives Don a look that clearly reads like I'm supposed to know.

"I dunno, she cut off her ponytail...thing. Left while we were sleeping. I don't even wanna know what you did with it."

[i_speak_softly]

His mouth opens and closes wordlessly. "I can't even imagine what I would have done with it." Then he nods decisively. "You're right. It's 'messed up'."

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

He claps his brother on the shoulder, giving him a rough shake back to reality. "Yeah, I ain't never goin' after space-broads. They're too damn weird for my taste."

Fancy that, Don. You're brother's a vanilla.

[i_speak_softly]

Well, at least he's a conservative in something.

Don leans back on his hands, his gaze drifting to the dark clouds gathering on the far horizon. "Looks like rain."

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

No kidding.

Raph's been watching the storm clouds move in. The distant ache in his sides would agree. "Should we put up the tarp?"