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

[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.

[supersmashbrother]

The longer Raph didn't say anything about it, the more it would have felt like he was hiding something from Donnie. That was just it, though; with Donnie, he was always careful to break the bad news to him, always mindful of how his brother would react to criticism, protecting him the same way he always did.

He tries, however. Tries to speak of it without shocking him further than he already has. But it's hard softening the sharpness of a memory. "It happened before that," he says quietly. "That Krang did something to us. Our mystic powers were sealed off, an' we couldn't use them anymore. When I saw we weren't gonna win that battle, I called for a retreat." Shaking his head, he exhales, easing his way through the rest of his thought without bias. "Leo was set on completing the mission of getting the giant key away from them before they could do more damage...but in doing that...if I didn't get there in time to protect him like I tried with you guys...it would've cost him his life."

And it is a lot to take in, having this part of the story and portions of the other to weave together, forming the encouragement he gives to his brother.

He feels that heaviness, allowing it to sit with him as he continues to sit with Donnie. Like a solid, brother-shaped rock.

He notices the sniffle, hugging him again to comfort him.

"...I'm sorry if I'm making you worry," he says after a time, trying to keep his own voice steady.

[purplexing]

It's difficult to hear of any sort of his brothers in any shape or form in a life-threatening situation. Being cut off from powers isn't too much of a stretch to relate to when he's had it happen only recently. Ironic that the same device is what he suspects jump-started his mystic abilities in the first place. Having it sealed away once he's become so accustomed to it had been an awful thing.

But he's getting himself off topic, although hearing about Leo narrowly escaping death because of their older brother's sacrifice is not any better a thing to reflect upon.

When Raph hugs him, Donnie clings back. What a horrible thing, to go through such experiences only to be separated from the brothers he'd been protecting. Maybe Raph's using him as a substitute just as much as Donnie knows he is his own Raph, but...maybe in that way, they need each other.

"I made you worry first," he says, although it's clear he's trying not to cry given his words are all mashing together, and their being muffled against Raph probably doesn't help. "I'm not letting anything happen to you. S...so you can go back home, and your brothers won't have to worry about anything more..."