[Open]

[meanandgreen]

Characters: Raphael and YOU
Date: Catch-all for End of July and August
Location: Water, Wood, and Metal Sectors
Situation: Just a Turtle doin' his thing
Warnings/Rating: None

Things were getting better, much as Raphael would hate to admit it. Ever since they'd split his family up, ever since Don discovered his new power, things have felt off-kilter. Unbalanced. And that reflected on his own stability.

He started going to the fight ring in the Fire Sector again. Spent weeks stumbling home late at night with cuts and bruises he wouldn't talk about. Disappeared for days. Went quieter than usual, his thoughts turned inward, closely guarded. It's his own way of coping.

Lately, more than ever, he could feel things changing, feel the bones of his family shifting. The growing pains are hard to avoid.

But move on with their own cadence, building a new familiarity around him. Leo comes almost every evening, and they meditate. Talk. He and Mike spend quiet nights over home cooked meals and idle conversation about the kids he teaches at the dojo, the people they've met, and it helps. Makes the chaos in his head go quiet for a little while. The days get longer and hotter, and the heat soothes the aches.

As much as he'd hate to admit it, he hasn't felt this good in a long, long time, and it shows. After a long disappearance, he shows up at the dojo again, hoping he still has a job. Hoping he could pick a fight with Korra like they used to. He starts collecting books about building motorcycles with plenty of diagrams. Even starts gathering a handful of parts. But without Don, he doubts he'll get very far.

But things were getting better. Falling into a new rhythm that hurts a little less each day.

He has to tell himself to enjoy it while it lasts, because he knows all too well how fast these things can change.

Comments

[i_speak_softly]

"Okay..." Don sits up gingerly, expanding his survey to the trashed state of his room. "Remind me why."

[meanandgreen]

"You're lucky I'm even talkin' to you," he snaps. "Don't act like you don't remember."

[i_speak_softly]

"I think I have a concussion," Don says, just a little bit testily. "Give me a minute to remember where I am."

[meanandgreen]

Now that makes Raph feel a little closer to terrible, gives him this horrible little push to just run and not come back. But that'd leave Don all alone like this, and he can't do that either.

"Shit," he curses lowly, rolling himself onto his knees to face his brother. "C'mere."

If Don lets him, he'll grab onto either side of his face and check to see if his pupils are the same size. "You're talkin' fine."

He didn't mean to give his brother a freakin' concussion! But maybe Don's wrong. That's possible, right?

Leo is gonna kill him.

[i_speak_softly]

Don leans forward, a little unsteadily, to let Raph check him out. His pupils are even, but just a little bit too dilated. There's no visible head injury, and his pulse is steadily coming down from the adrenaline of the fight.

"Whatever I did," he mumbles, "I'm sorry."

It's such a cop-out apology, and yet coming from Don it always sounds so genuine.

[meanandgreen]

Raph hisses a slow breath through his teeth, his eyes snapping away the minute he's sure his brother is fine.

"Think you can get up?" He asks tonelessly.

[i_speak_softly]

"If I had to."

The floor is seeming like a pretty good place to be right now, though.

[meanandgreen]

"We should get cleaned up before Leo gets back."

It takes him some effort to get to his feet, but he doesn't show it. His face is a grim mask as he offers a hand to help his brother up.

Maybe he can clean up, leave, and pretend this whole thing never freakin' happened.

[i_speak_softly]

If Raph can get up on his own, Don can too. He rubs his head and tries again to fill in the blanks.

"We were talking about building motorcycles. I want to try to build a techno-organic bike, and you'll build a conventional one, and then we'll race them at the track." He wrinkles his beak, trying to see what's wrong with this scenario. "And then... ?"

[meanandgreen]

On his way to the door, Raph freezes in his tracks. Of course that's how Don remembers it.

"That's not what happened."

Don't freakin' try to turn this around on him!

[i_speak_softly]

Don doesn't move to follow just yet; his head is still spinning just from standing up.

"Help me out, Raph. What did I do?"

[meanandgreen]

"I don't want to talk about it," he growls, glaring at Don from the corner of his eye. He impatiently nods toward the bathroom door. "Now come on."

[i_speak_softly]

Well, okay then. Don moves slowly in the indicated direction, picking his way around the mess on the floor. Something is not right in his head, and the rest of it he doesn't really care about right now.

When he reaches the bathroom, he sits heavily on the toilet, resting his face in the heels of his hands.

[meanandgreen]

Raph takes care of himself first. He looks like something straight out of a horror movie with all the blood on his face and plastron. But it cleans up easy, splashing himself with cold water from the tap, the red giving way to rusty trails swirling toward the drain. It hurts, but he doesn't care.

When he looks halfway decent, he wets a cloth and grabs Don's injured arm, roughly wiping away the blood.

[i_speak_softly]

"Ow." Don knocks Raph's hand away, reflex trumping pain for the moment. "I said I'm sorry."

[meanandgreen]

"I don't care," Raph snaps, reaching for him again. "Hold still."

[i_speak_softly]

After a quick - if somewhat fuzzy - calculation, Don decides to submit rather than risk being punched in the head again. Whatever he did to deserve this, he will have to be sure not to do it again.

[meanandgreen]

Grabbing his brother's arm again, he mops away the blood enough to get a good look at the cut his sai had carved into his arm. Though Raph's first aid could never be considered gentle, he's not even trying to spare his brother any mercy as he presses the edges of the cut to open it and see its depth.

Yeah, that's gonna need stitches.

Without another word, he starts rummaging through the cabinets in search of the first aid kit Don's sure to have stashed somewhere.

[i_speak_softly]

Don swears when Raph jams a thumb into his wound; as soon as Raph turns away, Don attempts to ninja right out of there. It's tough to ninja when you can barely walk in a straight line, though.

[meanandgreen]

He ain't exactly stealthy, either.

"Sit down," he growls, opening another cabinet.

[i_speak_softly]

"No."

Don manages to steer himself through the door, and heads for his room. He's not exactly sure what his plan is if he gets there, but it's got to be better than being trapped in the bathroom.

[meanandgreen]

Oh, for cripe's sake.

Raph jogs after Don the second he makes it out the door. It's way too easy to catch up to him, grab him by the arm and try to drag him back to the bathroom.

"I told you to sit down!"

[i_speak_softly]

Don struggles a little, but it's obvious he'll lose this fight too, if Raph is serious about dragging him back.

"Knock it off, Raph. I'm fine. I want to know what happened."

[meanandgreen]

Oh, he's serious. Soon as he manages to drag Don back, he closes the door.

"I said I don't wanna talk about it! Now listen to me for once in your freakin' life and sit down!"

[i_speak_softly]

"You don't want to talk but I should listen to you?" Don throws up his hands, while remaining defiantly standing. "That's a big help."