Staying In Sight

[supersmashbrother]

Who: Raph, Donnie
Where: Subterranean Farms - Donnie's Garden
When: Shortly after the Fete of Knowledge
What: How to check on your brudder while checking in on your brudder :(

= = =


Despite having the slightest clue about how gardens work, Raph readily volunteers his time by prioritizing certain things over other things — spending it by hanging out with his younger brother, for instance.

Not in a clingy kind of way, but more in line with just physically being present now that the rescue mission is behind them. And maybe it is kind of clingy. Still, Raph has his reasons and he's sticking with them. Donnie needs the support, and he wants to continue being there for him, helping him in any way that he possibly can.

Weeding becomes one way he can be productive while hanging out with Donnie, quickly running into an issue with the flowers being, well, flowers. These are small and delicate. In comparison, his hands are large and laden with sausage-like mutant fingers. He doesn't let it discourage him completely, though, figuring out a way to work around the problems so that he can carry on with the task.

It's the application of what dad has taught him:

...Slow...

...Motion...

...Jutsu.

Hunching over, the large turtle controls his movements, making smaller, slower gestures that gradually pick at the tangled weeds among the petals. He squints as another weed is plucked, letting its roots drift in the air before dropping it into a little basket.

He then turns partway to look for Donnie's approval.

Comments

[purplexing]

His brothers fought evil of some kind, even back home. It's kind of sad that they have to fight at all.

"...the only fighting we ever did here was sparring against each other. We didn't really know about the Empire, only that we shouldn't go to the city. That'd be Elysium. ...but of course we did, because we were curious and that's where father would go and come back with interesting things."

Donnie sighs. Simpler times. He longs for them, but he also wonders just how long they could have kept ignorant about the Empire and its ways.

Raph gets his attention again quickly enough. The news of anything threatening to tear apart their family cuts to the core, his expression crumpling.

"I-I'm sorry," he can't help but say, gaze dropping back towards the dirt. "I should've tried harder... But I was so scared...."

[supersmashbrother]

A faint smile crosses the lower half of Raph's face as Donnie recalls the memory, immediately thinking about how often he sparred with his brothers at home. Wondering if they were just as troublesome as they were in this realm. "Bet you guys put in the hours. You held your own out there."

Plus his father sounds just like his dad. There were plenty of odds and ends Splinter had in his possession and Raph only noticed how out of place some of them were once he was older.

The second Donnie looks down, Raph already regrets saying anything about what he and his have been through. At the same time, he needs to tell him. Needs to reassure him despite how awful it is. "Hey," he says, lowering his voice as he gets up, taking a few steps to sit next to his younger not!brother. "You did what you could. That Maleficent lady, she had an unfair advantage." He slings his arm around him, resting his hand on a shoulder as he pulls him in sideways for a hug. "It's normal to be scared. Things are just scary sometimes."

He may not be the best at explaining, but he tries his best speaking from experience.

"When we faced the Krang for the first time, they were too strong for all of us. When dad got hurt bad, I was scared he wouldn't make it out alive. An' when Leo didn't listen or take his job seriously, I was scared he'd get hurt, too."

[purplexing]

Donnie doesn't realize Raph's gotten up until he's right there beside him and he finds himself pulled into a hug. Gut reflex has him stiffen at the arm around him, but he melts into it almost instantly. He's safe. Raph's here. Someone came for him, him and Aira. He has people who will risk their own safety, just for him. It makes him feel guilty, but it also makes him relieved.

"I know, but...I still should've tried, maybe. I don't know how much help I would've been though. Maybe it wouldn't have made a difference," he says quietly, tensing again under Raph's arm as he thinks of what happened when he didn't obey the orders of a noble.

Slowly he lifts his head, his face full of concern. It's hard to imagine their father- if he's as similar to his own- ever getting hurt aside from complaining about a bad back. It's a scary thing to think something so dire could happen that would make Raph worry for the worst. Leo seems more understandable, knowing his brother, but also just as much so from Raph's perspective.

"...I've probably made them worry so much," he says, voice hitching. It's not a new thought, a familiar track that tends to spiral when he lets himself slip into it. He doesn't know if his family's okay, if they've gone deeper into hiding or risked their safety trying to find him. The worst part is that Donnie isn't sure what would hurt more, and that's what's kept him from ever trying to go back and see for himself.

[supersmashbrother]

"They can't help but worry. That's what makes them family." The edges of Raph's vision blur slightly as he tries to keep his voice steady for Donnie. "If your family is anything like mine, then they'd want you to be safe an' sound with folks who care about you."

As he squeezes Donnie, he lets his gaze drop, looking down at the large crack on the lefthand corner of his plastron. "...I know what it's like. Being controlled." Seeing Donnie walk toward Maleficent with a smile on his face was unsettling. That level of obedience resonates, making his stomach churn as he remembers what Krang Prime had done to him. "It wasn't for very long, but...it was horrible. An' lonely. If it wasn't for Leo, you, an' Mikey — I'd still be stuck like that, an' things could've gotten worse."

Which, to be fair, did get worse in one timeline for them. But he is grateful they managed to shift that narrative, if just barely.

"We may not be able to change anything that happened, but I was reminded of something," he says after a few beats, easing back into the silence that he let slip in after his last thought. "When it got tough with Shredder, I thought I was supposed to take on all the responsibility on my own. But that wasn't it. April-Gram-Gram-Sensei told me I was not alone. When I asked for help here, the Corsairs responded. Them comin' together echoed that lesson. I wasn't supposed to fix things myself."

He then gently shakes the turtlekin with the love of an older brother. "That also means you are not alone. You have a whole support system who will fight for an' alongside you. They still count as family, an' I'm not goin' anywhere either."

[purplexing]

That's a startling revelation, the very thought that one of his own brothers could be in such a similar position feeling like the floor's dropped out from beneath him. It also stirred that protective instinct, that simple fact that he'd do anything for his brothers.

Donnie's eyes stray towards that crack. It had been one of the first things he'd ever noticed about this Raph, and the matching chunk taken out of the shell just over his brother's shoulder just made his stomach twist any time he thought about it.

"Is...that how...?" he starts to ask, and yet simultaneously not wanting to know the details, but he can't help it.

He'd never asked about who this Shredder-person was, but it just sounded like an unpleasant name that he wasn't sure he wanted to know the details. And while this is the first he's ever heard of an April-Gram-Gram-Sensei (whaaaa?), it's the words that follow that strike him, sinking in so deeply that he sways where he sits, even beside Raph. But maybe it's not felt given that Raph's giving him a bit of a shake as it is. It's nauseating, it's comforting, how can it be two opposite things at once?

All this time, he's never really been alone. Yet, he's kept his distance some, hasn't he? It's hard though, especially when you don't really want to be apart from anyone, when you missed your family so much. A shudder goes through his slimmer frame as a sniffle escapes him.

Maybe he's always known it. But he just needed to hear someone actually say it to make it click.