Living In Fear

The Meeting

Donnie laid in his bed and stared at the ceiling. The sleep he had been searching for was refusing to come, so he allowed his over-active mind to do another once-over on his day. He could still picture the way the bike looked after the explosion. The vivid dream that had come from the explosion was, once more, filling his head with images he didn't want to see.

He was constantly reminding himself that Mikey had survived, that his brother was fine, that he never actually witnessed Mikey's death. This was a belief that had only seemed real once Mikey had finally left his room and joined them for the patrol.

Once they were alone doing the rounds, Donnie had given his younger brother the promised apology and was surprised when Mikey quickly swatted it away.

Mikey seemed convinced that Donnie wasn't at fault and insisted that he was being over-dramatic. When Donnie tried to explain why he wasn't, Mikey ended the conversation by pointing out every single bird he saw the rest of the night. Annoyingly enough, there were a lot of pigeons out.

What was it with New York and pigeons?

Donnie shifted in his bed, hoping to find a comfortable position that would help him sleep. His body wasn't used to him trying to sleep this early in the night and was severely against it. But Leo had insisted that he start getting proper sleep, and Donnie figured that tonight wasn't a very good night to start up an argument about it.

With a sigh, Donnie sat up and momentarily glanced at the doorway. It had been a while since his brothers had all gone to bed. Something that had been easy to figure out, considering they all had a certain routine that occurred beforehand.

Ralph would always end the night by striking up an argument with Leo about anything and everything, proceeding to end the night my stomping through the hallway and slamming his door shut behind him. Donnie couldn't help but wonder if the raging helped the hot-headed turtle to blow off energy and steam so he could get better sleep.

Mikey always hung around until the nightly cartoons ended and then he'd head back into the hallways screaming his 'goodnights' through the lair. Then he'd proceed to stand outside each of their bedrooms waiting for any kind of response to his cries. 

Since the start of Donnie's scheduled bedtime, Leo was usually the last one awake. He'd move about the lair turning of the tv, which Mikey always left on, and other lights before heading back into the hallway. Donnie always made sure to watch for his footsteps before pretending to be asleep, as Leo always made sure to check up on him before retiring to bed himself.

Donnie knew he should probably be annoyed that Leo found it necessary to check on him, but he knew Leo only did it because he was untrustworthy when it came to his own health.

Now, Donnie didn't purposefully - as Leo put in - endanger himself by skipping meals or not sleeping for long periods of time. He would just get so engrossed with whatever he was working on and lose all track of time.

Secretly, it was nice to know that his older brother cared enough to make sure he was taking care of himself. Ever since Splinter's death, Leo had become very concerned with protecting his family from outside dangers and inner dangers. He even tried to force Raph to have a one-on-one talk about his anger issues and the dangers they present.

Raph disappeared for three straight days after that...

Donnie shivered, remembering the furious expression Ralph wore before disappearing. They never found out where he'd gone, andeven Leo didn't dared to ask.

Needless to say, none of them ever brought the subject up again, though Leo still tried to convince Raph that it was unnecessary to unleash his anger on Mikey whenever he was annoyed.

Even though it was usually Mikey's fault...

Donnie's glanced back at the door as a nearby creaking caught his attention. The genius turtle froze, eyes locked on his closed door, and brain racing to figure out who would have woken back up at such an hour.

The sound of movement outside his door caused him to stand up, his body tensing as he realized that he hadn't heard any of his brother's doors opening. 

Moving stealthily, Donnie got off of his bed and walked over to the door, grabbing the staff he had set in the corner earlier that night. Careful not to make any noises or sudden movements, he pulled open the door and peered into the hallway.

At first, everything was still. His brother's doors all being closed and the hallway empty. Donnie stepped out, hands gripping his staff nervously, eyes darting along the hallway. When nobody presented themselves, Donnie turned to head back into his room, deciding he must have been hearing things.

And that's when the tv came on.

Donnie jumped and whipped around, staff flying in front of him. Donnie could see the tv lights dimly dancing across the couch, a shadowing figure was shown blocking the screen. Realizing the only person who would sneak out in the middle of the night to watch tv was Mikey, Donnie put away his staff and headed down the hallway.

A scowl decorated his face, completely annoyed at the scare he had just been given, and the fact he knew there was no way he'd be able to lull himself to sleep after that. Walking next to the couch, Donnie snapped. "Mikey! What are you doing up this late?! I have half a mind to tell Leo-"

Donnie stopped and his eyes widened when he realized that it wasn't Mikey standing in front of the tv.

Blood-red eyes met his brown as a shadowy figure smirked knowingly.

"Hello, Donatello. Nice of you to finally join me."