[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

Backdated to Monday evening

[royalguard_style]

While not cataclysmic, something, or rather, someone was about to change things up, mainly by moving in and being as shady as possible. It isn't really his fault; Dante was thrown into this world headfirst without any warning and then told that he was being roomed with two other people. He didn't exactly have room to object, especially since his soul was there, and he didn't know how much two strangers could be trusted to not damage something as important as that.

He hasn't had to introduce himself in this manner before, and had no idea how to be a courteous roommate; even when he didn't live alone at home, he was the one who invited people over. With that in mind, he handled the entire situation as tactfully as he knew how; he covered his weapons in cheap cloth so he wouldn't scare any civilians, and tried to slip in quietly that evening. Surely the emperor told them that he was coming, right? They wouldn't just assign him a room and then not tell the people currently living there, because that would be mean.

[Closed to Donatello]

[meanandgreen]

Lately, things between him and Don haven't been easy. The disaster of their last conversation still rings clearly in his head, stuck on repeat. Invades his conscience and his sleep.

He wishes he could hit rewind, do things over again. But how? In the end, it was still his mind getting invaded. He had every right to get angry. Just... maybe not that angry.

They spend a lot of time away, not talking to each other. Raph can't even dredge up the courage to call him on the consoles. Instead, he collapses in on himself. Keeps himself even more carefully guarded from than he usual. Hardly talks to anyone.

Leo helps, as much as he'd hate to admit it. He comes every evening for days to sit and talk. Meditate. Help Raph get his head together in a way that doesn't involve bloodshed and broken knuckles. (Though that method of coping helps, too.)

He'd been distracting himself with thinking about building a motorcycle. Pours over diagrams. Wishes there were magazines he could be reading instead. He never really was a book sort of guy, but it takes his mind off things, so he tries.

After a week, he calls Don up on the consoles, and they spend hours coming up with the schematics. Make a lengthy list of parts they need. And finally, Raph agrees to come down to the Metal Sector to get things started.

So he packs up his books and his notes and heads out sometime in the late afternoon. The walk is long and hot, and he feels a little queasy as he lets himself into their suite.

Talking over the consoles was one thing. It was safe. But meeting his brother face-to-face meant putting himself at risk for another psychic invasion, and that wasn't something he was looking forward to experiencing twice.

Don had gotten better at controlling it. They had promised him up and down. And even though the gamble he's taking still puts him on edge, Raph just misses his brother.

He can't keep hiding behind a computer screen. He's better than that. Stronger than that.

He can do this.