Brotherly Bonds

Losing Control

"I told you guys that this whole thing was bogus. But did you listen to me? NO!" He blew up.

Donatello's lip curled. "Can it, Raph!"

Raph drew up to his full height, even though that meant he still had to look up to meet Donnie's eyes. "Seriously, what crawled up your shell, huh, Donnie?" He asked, his voice sounding a little tired.

Leo blinked in confusion. It wasn't like Raph to let something like tiredness slip through his angry mask. He drew away from the edge of the building where he had been looking down into the alley below and approached his bickering siblings. Donnie looked really mad.

"You did, Raphael! You're always blowing up at everyone, including me, and acting like an ungrateful brat all the time! You're seventeen years old, Raphael, GROW UP!"

Leo and Mikey both went rigid. There was a tenuous moment of silence and murderous anger flashed in Raphael's eyes. Leo's hands reached up to grip his katanas, ready to jump in the middle if need be. Surprisingly, Raphael's reply was not as loud as Leo had expected, in fact it was about the volume of Raph's average speaking voice, just with an angrier edge.

"Oh, I'm the one who's not grown up?! You're mad because you were wrong and I was right!"

"What?!" Donnie was seeing red. "No I'm not."

"Yes you are! You can't stand it when your answer for everything isn't the right one, huh, Donnie? You just hate the idea of anyone outsmarting you!"

Don's eyes narrowed and he grabbed his bō tightly in his hands. "Shut up!"

"No, I don't think I will. You just can't take it, can you, Donnie? You were wrong! Our intel wasn't good! It was bogus! It was unconfirmed! And yet you—"

"I said shut up!" Donnie said, gritting his teeth and gripping his staff so hard that his knuckles were turning white.

"It hurts, doesn't it, Don? It hurts to have people yelling at you for being—"

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Donatello shouted as he leapt forward. Raphael had seen it coming. He knew that it would happen. But he also knew that Donnie needed to get all the rage out of his system. So instead of avoiding the blow, he braced himself. But he underestimated the brainiac's strength.

Donnie hit Raphael with everything he had. With a pained noise that was part gasp, part grunt, the hothead hit the roof.

To Leo and Mikey, everything had happened too fast. Mikey had been watching, worriedly as Raph had gone on and on and on. And when Donnie had moved, the brainiac was little more than a purple blur.

Leonardo's world had slowed the second that Donnie shouted and jumped towards Raph. He had wanted to intervene, yet his mind seemed unable to command his feet and he had simply stared in shock. Leo, however, had seen something that Mikey and Donnie had not. He had seen Raph's balance shift. He alone had seen that Raphael, the hothead of destruction, had decided to let Donnie hit him. Shaking his head, Leo focused in on the present situation. His heart stopped.

Donnie was still enraged. He was going to try and hit Raph again.

The hothead was down, but he groaned and looked up as Don approached and raised the bō staff high over his head. Raph stared up into his immediate younger brother's eyes with a calm that could rival that of Leonardo in the midst of meditation. "Don't be like me, little brother. You're better than that, Don. I know you are." Raph whispered.

Leo and Mikey were too far away to hear Raph's words, but as Donnie brought the staff down, they yelled, "Donnie, no!"

Raphael smiled as the brainiac cast the staff off to the side. Leo and Mikey reached them and immediately the eldest turtle dropped to his knees at Raph's side. His forest-green hands gripped his emerald green sibling tightly, frantically looking him over. Raph gently pushed Leo's hands away. The eldest sighed in relief and then turned upon Donnie, angrily.