Like Father Like Son [ROTTMNT]

Chapter Eleven: Lost and Found

"You mean why am I not outside running around looking at red herrings and dead ends? Or why am I in the arcade in particular?" Donnie retorted, except suddenly he winced, one hand reaching up to lightly run over his bloodshot eyes. "No, sorry, forget I said that Mikey. I just. Sorry." He took a deep breath and sighed. "That was. That was wrong of me. I'm just... tired. Regretful chuckle but, you were right about that observation."

Mikey tilted his head, critically looking his brother over one more time. Despite not having gone out at all, his heavier battle shell was still on his back. In fact, Mikey hadn't seen Donnie take it off since that night. The taller turtle didn't quite meet his eyes, blinking a bit as he tried to hide a yawn.

Mikey shot a discreet glance at his phone, tapping the screen to light up his notifications. Nothing from Raph, so he had a little bit of time. "Do you wanna talk about it with me?" he offered, taking a few more steps forwards. "When's the last time we really spoke, huh, Donnie?"

His brother snorted, and Mikey is pleased to see a small smile appear. "Like last week. I caught you crying while making a sandwich at two am."

"That was about me, and thus, does not count for this."

Donnie shot him his famous raised-eyebrow look of skepticism that only the brother with visible eyebrows could manage, but conceded the point, nodding slightly. "There was that time thirty-eight days ago. We went out for smoothies and talked for three hours about varying topics of consideration. Or even seventeen days ago, after I yelled at Raph," Donnie scowled. "Look, Mikey, you know I'm bad at this kind of thing."

"You don't have to be good at it. Just... try?" Mikey stepped over to the machine, close enough that he could pull Donnie into a hug if the situation called for it.

Donnie glanced at his face, looking for something, and apparently finding it. "Okay," he agreed softly. "Okay, it's just- these past three weeks I have been nothing but thorough," Donnie said, waving one hand in the air as he talked. "I've built software that scanned through every piece of footage from that night and the days since, hacked phones in the area for their personal photos, did a phrase search across almost every major social media website, and still, nothing. Raph has triple checked with every villain we know, April has kept an eye out among humans, and you've talked to all of the friendly local yokai and checked Leo's popular hangout spots." His other arm joined in on the wide motions. "Heck, I think even Dad exhausted all the resources he could think of!"

His brother shifted, pushing himself off of the video game machine, his figure backlit by the screen, his eyes shimmering slightly with the glow of the room's lights. "Look, Michael, I just don't know what else we can possibly do. I've beefed up our lair security, upgraded S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. three times, and created new communication panic devices for us. What else do you want me to try? Because I," he said, jabbing at his plastron. "Am all ears! Honest! And no-" he slammed one fist against the arcade game's screen, the glass cracking slightly. Mikey flinched but didn't move, ignoring the mess of pixels and cracked glass to watch Donnie's face. "Look, I didn't exactly want to waste my time playing video games of all things, but even though I can't come up with anything more to do, my mind keeps going and going and I can't sleep, okay? Fine! I admit it! It's not even stubbornness this time, like Raph seemed to think, it's just my brain being a great big dum-dum and keeping me up."

He sighed. "So. Yeah. That's why I'm in here." He turned his head, examining the damage to the machine with a critical eye. "I can fix that for you," he added under his breath. "At least I'm still able to do that."

"You don't have to prove you can be helpful-" Mikey started, but Donnie wheeled around, staring at him with a glint in his eyes.

"Well, if I can't show some sort of quantifiable advancement, then what do I have to show for all of my work?" he asked.