Lost in the Fight

Chapter 34 - Sewer Bunnies!

How's it going, D?

If the genius turtle hadn't already noticed that the text had been sent from Leonardo's phone, he would've guessed it had been Mikey who had typed the message since his oldest brother rarely referred to him as just 'D.' Apparently, Leo wasn't motivated enough to type out the five additional letters necessary to complete the word 'Donnie.'

I guess I should be grateful that he's going through the effort of using proper punctuation, unlike Mikey.

The smartest turtle took a small amount of solace in the fact that at least one of his brothers was capable of keying a grammatically correct sentence.

A ghost of a smile passed Donnie's lips as he started composing his response. Texting had proven to be rather difficult with one arm in a sling, but he was starting to get the hang of it.

It's going just swimmingly.

Need us 2 bring anything back for u?

Donatello rolled his eyes in disgust.

I stand corrected. Would it have been too much work to type 'to' and 'you?'

Sometimes Donnie wondered if text abbreviations and internet acronyms were truly the root of all that was wrong with the world today. People had grown far too reliant on shortcuts and cyberslang. It seemed rather ironic to him that technological advances were causing people to go through a 'dumbening' process.

Lightly shaking his head, Donnie scrunched up his face in concentration as he typed his answer.

A southbridge chip, a compressor fan for a refrigeration unit, a one-hundred-fifty watt regulator/rectifier, and a puppy, preferably of the non-shedding variety.

Donnie didn't actually need any of these items, but he thought it would be funny to ask. He really wished he could've seen the look on Leo's face when he read the message.

??? =(

The brainiac turtle couldn't help but smile at his big brother's usage of the primitive emoticon.

Donnie was about to send another snide response when Leo texted out of turn.

We should be home in a few hours.

\ ( ^ O ^ ) /

Smart aleck!

( ; _ ; )

CUL8R, D :)

Okay, that's just plain lazy, not to mention it looks like it says 'Culeightrd,' Donnie mentally groaned. He was almost tempted to text Leo back and ask him what the heck a 'Culeightrd' was just out of spite, but what he ultimately typed was . . .

Yes, I will see you later, Leonardo.

There was no denying that the sentence had been meant to mock his big brother, but whether or not Leo actually realized that, Donnie would never know, because no response followed.

That was it. Just like that, the conversation was over.

It was practically the same text exchange as the night before, and the night before that, and the one before that . . . et cetera, et cetera. One of his brothers would start by asking him how it was going, then they would ask him if he needed anything, and finally, they'd tell him they'd be home in a few hours and that they'd see him later. After that, the phone would remain silent for the rest of the night.

For three weeks, his brothers had been back out on patrol, and for three weeks, Donnie had been left behind to wallow in his boredom. His only escape from his misery would come in the form of a lone text conversation that usually lasted all of a dozen lines or so. Well, he supposed technically that wasn't his only escape. Sometimes, Master Splinter would come to see him in his lab while the others were gone, but hanging out with Sensei wasn't quite the same as hanging out with his brothers. It was a lot more . . . awkward.