Work Text:
(untitled video file. Date: Sep 21, 2017. Time: 16:42:37)
Donnie, wearing his mask and goggles, adjusts the camera. The view shifts as he does. He is in his lab at his desk. The lighting is dim and purple tainted. Leo leans against his chair in the background tiredly. Donnie stands back, moving sluggishly.
"Alright, log entry one," he starts in a tired voice. Leo gives a faint cheer behind him. On the mostly empty desk sits a pad of paper with some notes already scribbled on it that can't be read from the angle, as well as a few bottles of colored liquid and test tubes to the side.
"Today we are starting my new project: making— oh!" The video tilts and falls suddenly, tilted to only show the scratched desk surface.
"God, I'm too tired for this," a voice mutters before the tape cuts out.
------
Donnie slowly pried his eyes open to see the warm light filtering into the atrium of the lair as he pulled himself from the depths of sleep. His body felt warm and heavy, and it felt harder than usual to move his limbs and lift himself up. He yawned and brought a hand up to rub his eyes, startling when he heard a voice over his head.
"Well, good morning, sleepyhead!" Donnie looked up to glare at Leo, who was standing over him cheerfully with his hands on his hips, looking more well rested than he had in a while. He shifted, noting the blankets wrapped around him and the absence of his mask, and the fact that he wasn't in his bedroom.
"Why am I out here?" he asked, ignoring him in favor of getting answers. Leo opened his mouth to answer with a smirk before being cut off by Mikey's entrance.
"Omigosh, did he finally wake up?" he shouted oh-so-loudly. Donnie winced slightly as his younger brother bounced over to him, grinning delightedly. "About time," he continued. "You were asleep for almost twenty hours!"
Donnie blinked.
What?
Mikey gave him no time to ponder the number before tugging at his arm and pulling towards the kitchen as Leo laughed after them, urging, "Come on! After all that you definitely need food, so I made you pancakes. They might be kind of cold though, since we expected you to be up HOURS ago!"
When they stumbled into the kitchen, Raph was already sitting at the table, obviously eyeing the stack of pancakes on the table and trying to pretend he wasn't before getting distracted by Donnie's abrupt appearance.
"Aye, you're up!" he exclaimed. "About time. Raph was gettin' worried." He glanced at the pancakes again, which Mikey noticed immediately.
"RAPH! Stop staring at the pancakes," he scolded. "You already had yours!" Raph shrunk back at the rebuke, mumbling an apology. Mikey turned to his purple brother, pushing him into a seat and putting a plate together for him. As he bustled about the counter, he moved a large bottle of shimmery pink liquid off the surface and into the medicine cabinet. Donnie puzzled at the bottle; he couldn't remember ever having seen it before.
Before he could think too deeply about it, Leo took one of the pancakes from the plate and chucked it at his face. Donnie squawked in outrage as Leo grinned and reached for the plate to retaliate.
Despite Mikey's protests, the pancake fight lasted until Raph restrained Donnie in a bear hug and Leo had to be kicked out of the room.
------
Donnie sat on the couch, setting up the movie on his phone as Raph made more popcorn in the kitchen and the others lounged on the beanbags on the floor below. April was over for one of the few days their father gave them access to the television room. They had pushed Papá's armchair to the side and moved the couch into its place so more of them could sit, but the beanbags were proving more popular.
It had been somewhat short notice, and no one had a movie they particularly wanted to watch, so they had resolved to rewatch one of their favorite Jupiter Jim movies, and though Donnie was pleased that he had gotten his choice, he was a little concerned that Leo hadn't fought him over it more.
April seemed to be thinking along the same lines.
"Hey, you feeling okay Leo?" she asked the blue-banded turtle where he was already wrapped in three blankets across from her. Donnie looked up at the question, though Leo seemed to take a moment to register it, blinking sluggishly before digging a hand out of his pile of blankets to rub at his face and nodding.
"Yeah, totally," he said, pulling a tired grin. "I just haven’t really been able to sleep all that great the past few days... Insomnia, you know how it is." He sunk back into the bundle and rubbed his eyes as April frowned in sympathy.
"Oh yeah, that must be tough," she said, leaning back, "especially since you can't really take any meds for it. Since you guys just burn through everything." It was quiet for just a split second before Mikey gasped and darted out of the room, nearly knocking the massive bucket of popcorn out of Raph's hands as he was coming out of the kitchen.
"Whoa, what's up with him?" Raph questioned as he went to sit next to Donnie on the couch. He moved over slightly as he answered, "Not sure. Nardo was just talking about his insomnia flare up and he just ran out." Raph looked concerned toward Leo.
"Oh, really? Are you sure you're up for movie night then? We don't have to do this tonight if you aren't," Raph fretted. Leo shifted and sat up more.
"I'm good; don't worry, big brother," he assured. Raph opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by Mikey loudly returning to the room, exclaiming in triumph.
"Aha! Got it," he declared, holding up a large bottle of pink liquid Donnie only recognized from a few weeks ago. April furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Mikey questioningly, but Raph and Leo's faces both lit up in recognition. "Almost forgot we had this," he continued, "but when we used it last time, it worked like, almost like MAGIC."
"What is it?" Donnie asked, and his brothers all turned to state at him in surprise for a moment before Mikey shook himself out of it to explain.
"It's a sleep medicine," he said, looking between him and April, "but like, super strong so it actually works on us. So Leo can actually use it!"
"Oh yaaaay!" Leo exclaimed, moving his arms up and reaching for the bottle. "Sleep! Gimme!"
"Now hold on," Raph cut in, standing up again. "Did you bring in the cup measure-y thingy?"
"The medicine cup?" Donnie asked at the same time Mikey said, "No... I don't know where that is."
"Okay, I'll go get it," he said, striding out and back into the kitchen.
"Should be in the medicine cabinet, right?" he called back, to which Donnie shouted back an affirmative. Soon enough he came back with the cup dwarfed in his large hand. He took the bottle from Mikey and sat back down on the couch to put the medicine on the table.
"What line do I fill it to again?" he asked uncertainly, to which Leo just pointed, indicating a line about two thirds up the cup. He diligently opened the bottle of medicine and filled it to the line before capping it again and handing Leo the cup. He took it eagerly and downed the shimmering medicine immediately, then handed the cup back and snuggled into his blankets comfortably.
"I guess this means Leo won't be watching most of the movie," Donnie commented as Raph took the medicine back to the cabinet, "so I guess I can just keep this up here—"
Leo gasped as he reached for the bucket of popcorn Raph had left on the table and shot up from the blankets immediately, shouting, "I'm not asleep yet, bitch, don't you dare —"
"LANGUAGE!"
Donnie took advantage of Raph's distraction to snatch the popcorn off the table and shovel a handful into his mouth as Leo cried out and April laughed at them.
Leo lunged toward him, and he just barely managed to throw the popcorn towards Mikey, who dove to catch it, to avoid spilling it before he fully collided with him and tried to pin him down. He fought back and tried to wrestle Leo off of him while Mikey sat down to share the popcorn with April on the floor. Raph came back in and sighed at the wrestling twins before taking Donnie's phone from the arm of the couch and playing the movie.
Less than a half hour later, Leo was fast asleep, still draped over Donnie on the couch as he watched the movie over him. Idly he wondered where his brothers had gotten such an effective medicine, especially without him knowing. Their metabolism was no joke; they tended to burn through medicines and painkillers almost as fast as they could take them. Where they possibly could have gotten one strong enough to be effective without his assistance was a mystery, though Donnie knew he tended to miss things a lot, since he spent a lot of time in his lab and away from the rest of the happenings.
Still, it was a bit odd, but Leo had looked truly awful before falling asleep, so his quick slumber may be more of a testament to his tiredness and a placebo effect than the actual effectiveness of the medicine.
Donnie tuned back into the movie, idly rubbing Leo's shell. A question for another day.
------
Donnie worked his way around the lab, picking through every overstuffed drawer and shelf and throwing away the excess. He'd been working on two of his most recent projects for the better part of the last eighty hours now, only occasionally taking breaks to nap, get food, and assure his brothers he was still alive, and he'd been making good headway on both, but he had gotten to the point where the lights were too loud, the pressure of his battle shell on his back was making him want to vomit, and every stray piece of paper in his workspace was making his skin crawl, and his only options were to clean up his lab, take a break, or sit helplessly at his workbench, stare at the tools in his hands and try not to tear his scales off, and since he'd already tried options two and three over the past few hours, he had settled on cleaning.
Lots and lots of cleaning, he sighed to himself.
Donnie would often get tunnel-vision when working on a project and put everything else on hold for it, and then forget to clean up the consequences afterwards. This tendency led to a very messy lab that he could only ignore in short bursts, but his brain had chosen now to get unreasonably hung up on it and Donnie was now cleaning up the aftermath of dozens of projects he had swept into the corners over the past year or so. He picked up a stack of papers from a cluttered shelf and glanced at the barely-legible notes scribbled over them, finding the third page covered in translucent purple stains that stuck to the surrounding pages. He lifted the paper up to smell it, and recoiled at the overpowering artificial berry scent. Ugh. He tossed the pages into the trash and moved on.
He startled when someone knocked on the lab door from the hall, the sound echoing painfully through the metal room, and Donnie scrambled to hit the button to unlock the door before they could knock again.
"Donnie?" Raph called as he entered the space, his volume making the softshell wince. "You in here?"
"No, Raphael, I am obviously elsewhere," he snapped. Raph spun around to face him, his expression softening when he noticed Donnie's hand cupping the side of his head.
"Sorry," he said, significantly quieter, "was that too loud?"
Donnie didn't respond, but he knew his relief was likely clear on his face. Instead, he asked, "Why are you in here, El?"
Raph's face hardened slightly before he stood a bit straighter and told him, "Because I'm calling it, Don." Donnie raised an eyebrow.
"Calling it?"
"Yep," he said. "You've barely left your lab in days. Last time we saw you you looked terrible. So I'm calling it. It's time for you to actually take a break and sleep."
"I've been sleeping," he protested. "I've been taking breaks—"
"Short ones," Raph cut him off. "Naps, maybe. That doesn't really count, buddy."
Donnie glared at him for a moment before turning around and going back to his task. Raph sighed behind him as he threw away another stack of papers. He was quiet a moment longer before...
"What are you doing?"
Donnie paused before answering shortly: "Cleaning."
"Why?"
Donnie bit his lip and leaned on the desk.
"Couldn't work," he admitted softly. "Too messy." He heard Raph shuffle closer behind him and watched as a large hand moved toward his shoulder, and let it settle there without moving away.
"Then it seems like you're at a good stopping point, huh?" He glared up at Raph, who offered a toothy grin in return. "C'mon, little brother. You can finish cleaning in the morning, and maybe you'll feel better then."
No, he thought. I want to finish now.
It was probably spur-of-the-moment anyway, he figured. Raph was just going his nightly rounds when he noticed Donnie wasn't in his bedroom. He wasn't actually monitoring Donnie that closely. And Raph tended to sleep heavily. Donnie could probably just go back to cleaning after Raph went to bed. The lab was mostly soundproofed. And anyway, Raph could be profoundly stubborn. It would likely be much easier to go along with it and sneak back later than to plead his case now.
"Fine," he sighed, slumping his shoulders. Raph smiled softly and moved his hand from his shoulder to his shell, using it to guide him out of the lab and down the tunnel towards their bedrooms.
"Do you think you'll have trouble sleeping?" Raph asked offhandedly when they reached Donnie's room. Donnie narrowed his eyes at the question.
"Noooooo?" he responded unsurely. Raph stared at him, unamused, for a moment before muttering a quick, "Wait here," and shuffling back up the tunnel. Donnie uneasily complied, shifting on his feet. It was dark, late in the night. The other members of the family were probably already asleep. It was a bit odd that Raph wasn't in sleep clothes this time of night. Why wouldn't he be? Donnie leaned back onto the wall, wincing when the pressure pressed his battle shell into the bruises on his shoulders. He hadn't taken it off much in the past three days, since the extra arms were useful for welding and it would be too much trouble to take it off in between use.
He was massaging his shoulders around where the false shell sat when he heard Raph coming back up the corridor. He looked up to see his older brother walking towards him holding a miniature cup in his hand, filled about two thirds up with—
Donnie froze as he realized what exactly Raph had fetched.
"What."
Raph smiled sheepishly.
"Raph just wanted to make sure you got a full night's rest," he said, rubbing the back of his neck with his other hand. Donnie stared at him with a flat expression. Raph sighed before, a little more sincerely, he whispered, "I just need you to actually sleep for a few hours before you go back to overworking yourself."
Donnie clenched his teeth. As if that wasn't exactly what I was planning on doing. Raph held the medicine cup out to him, the shimmering pink liquid swishing inside. "C'mon, buddy," Raph murmured, "please? For my sake?"
Donnie stared at it, considering.
It probably wouldn't work anyways. Even better, it wouldn't work and Raph would think it did work and go to bed and he could go back to working.
He wasn't sure why that idea wasn't as appealing as he thought it would be.
It probably wouldn't work anyways.
He sighed, rolling his eyes, and took the cup as Raph grinned, swallowing the dose in a single gulp. He handed the cup back and turned to walk into his room without another word. He stumbled toward his bed, not changing both because he didn't plan on staying there and because he was too tired to consider it. Raph stopped him before he could actually collapse onto the blankets.
"Nuh-uh, buddy, battle shell off first," he ordered in his 'big brother voice.' Donnie groaned but obediently felt for the button along the side to remove the metal contraption. Raph caught it as it released, and Donnie winced at the sharp inhale behind him as Raph saw the bruises.
"Donnie..." he muttered under his breath. Donnie heard the metal shell fall to the floor before Raph came around to stand in front of him, gently grabbing his shoulders and guiding him to sit at the desk in his room.
"Y'know, bud, if you didn't always let it get this bad, we wouldn't have to step in like this," Raph said softly as he grabbed the tube of bruise cream off the desk and started to spread some of the cream thinly across the dark, day-old bruises. Donnie sniffed.
"S'not that bad," he mumbled, reaching up to rub at his face. Raph caught his hand before he could smudge more grease on his face. He pulled a wet wipe from the nearby container and gave it to him to wipe his hands.
"The fact that you think that is exactly why we can't trust your judgment on these things," Raph commented. Donnie glared at him as he wiped his hands clean, and tossed the wipe at him when he finished. He went to stand, but Raph caught him again and made him take off his mask. He leaned over him to clean the black smudges on his face, bracing a hand against the other side of his head when he moved back from the wipe he held. Donnie leaned into the touch as Raph rubbed at the smudges with cool, firm swipes.
It felt good, he supposed. A lot of the grease that Raph was cleaning away with slow strokes and gentle touches had been there for at least a day or two. And the contact was sort of nice, even if he'd never tell his brothers that for fear that they'd get too enthusiastic and try to do it all the time. But Raph doing things like this, caring about whether or not he got enough sleep, cleaning his face... it quieted the voice in his head telling him that the only thing about him that mattered to his family was his tech. Because it couldn't be if Raph was actively telling him to stop .
Besides, he didn't really have the energy to stop him anyways. It wasn't just that he was tired, either; it felt like he was getting heavier somehow. His limbs were harder to move and all the lair's background noises were fading out of focus. It was odd; he had been feeling a little disoriented before, but nowhere near how hazy he had felt in some of his worst moments of sleep deprivation, when he couldn't even remember most of what had happened then. This definitely hadn't been one of those times, though.
Maybe it was the medicine.
Raph finished cleaning his face and stood back. Donnie looked up and said, "Can I get up now." Raph scoffed and tapped his head lightly with his knuckles.
"Yep," he answered, stepping back to let Donnie stand, if with some difficulty. He stumbled to his bed and flopped onto the blankets, nuzzling into them for a moment before turning to Raph, who was still standing in the same place and looking at him with a fond expression.
"Shoo," he told him, motioning vaguely with his hand. Raph scoffed as he went to sit on the bed next to him.
"What, so you can sneak back to your lab as soon as I leave?"
Oops. Busted.
"Not that you really could at this point," he continued.
Now what the hell was that supposed to mean?
"I could if I wanted," Donnie huffed indignantly, curling up with eyelids drooping. Raph chuckled.
"Sure ya could, buddy," he assured. "You could do anything if you set your mind to it."
Raph stayed until he fell asleep, rubbing his shell through his blanket.
Donnie didn't go back to his lab that night.
------
Donnie savored the taste of the warm coffee on his tongue, focusing on it to try and block out his other senses, namely the sound of his twin loudly singing the praises of the fancy new sleep syrup.
"—like, so quick! I always take like, hours to fall asleep, but I was just out! In like, less than a Jupiter Jim comic! I swear—"
As it turned out, Leo only got more talkative when he had a full night's rest. He was practically vibrating in his seat at the kitchen table. While it was a little annoying, ordinarily Donnie wouldn't mind so much except...
"—just so effective—"
"Yeah, super effective," Donnie muttered into his coffee. Raph chuckled knowingly at him from the other side of the kitchen. Leo, despite his rambling, immediately took notice of the exchange and puzzled for a moment before grinning.
"Ooh, someone sounds salty," he teased, leaning toward his twin. Donnie just sighed and rubbed the side of his head. It wasn't really a necessary movement, as his head felt perfectly fine; he was, after all, well rested, and was no short amount of annoyed about it.
"I just don't get it," he complained. "Literally every other medicine we've tried has worn off in minutes—"
"Oh yes," Leo cuts in, rolling his eyes good-naturedly, "because clearly it's a normal, human medicine—"
"It's 'cause it works with love!" Mikey declares from the stove, cutting through the argument before it could start. "It works because we love you guys and want you to sleep!"
"Implying that you didn't love us when we were trying the previous ones," Donnie muttered to Leo, who chuckled before Mikey cut in again.
"Like a love potion!"
"What," he deadpanned immediately, but unfortunately Raph was already looking thoughtful.
"It does look kind of like a love potion," he considered, "since it's all pink and sparkly."
"That's not—" Donnie protested while Mikey grinning and Leo burst out in laughter. "That's not how love potions work!"
"It's not?" Raph tilted his head.
"No," he sighed, "love potions are supposed to use other ingredients or spells to induce feelings of love. Not do other things with the 'power of family' or something. And in either case, love potions don't exist!"
Mikey groaned. "Says who? That's so boring! I say love potions totally exist, and they work because you are our brothers and we love you and want you to be happy! And well rested!"
Leo hummed at Mikey's declaration. "So it's a love potion, huh? You know, we never did get around to naming that thing..."
"It doesn't need a name!" Donnie shouted. "It's sleep medicine! That's it!"
"Ugh, but that's such a mouthful! I think it should have a name, and that name should be love potion!"
"We are NOT—"
"We are TOTALLY naming it love potion!" Mikey shouted. "I'm gonna write it on the bottle!" He then made a mad dash for the medicine cabinet as Donnie knocked over his chair trying to intercept him and Leo and Raph both burst out laughing.
By the time Donnie made it around the table to the cabinets, Mikey had already found the bottle of 'love potion' and a sharpie and was in the middle of labeling it in broad strokes. When he noticed Donnie rapidly approaching him, he scrambled onto the counter to hold the bottle over his head and finish the words, adding a few hearts for good measure, as Donnie shouted.
"Angelo, give me the damn bottle—"
"IT HAS BEEN DECREED!" Mikey shouted over him, lifting the large bottle clearly marked 'LOVE POTION' above his head for his brothers to see. "The fancy sleep medicine is now love potion!"
Leo and Raph cheered as Donnie groaned.
Despite his best efforts, the medicine stayed 'love potion.'
------
Magic is dumb, Donnie decided.
Useful, sure; the people of the Hidden City seemed to have put it to use in a number of truly impressive ways, but that didn't mean it's existence wasn't utterly absurd.
The beauty of science was that there was always an explanation. Even if there was no why, you could always know how, or at least trust that there was a how.
With magic, there was no how. It just did. It just could, for absolutely no logical reason. Things that shouldn't exist in anything other than theory or fantasy were suddenly both possible and real.
It had been driving him crazy. He felt like he couldn't focus on anything else. He wasn't sure why the absurdity of the world he lived in had chosen now to bother him; there were plenty of things in his life that didn't make sense that he'd accepted. But some part of this whole thing was just too much for him.
He was in his lab again, for the second sleepless night in a row, looking for something to distract him after trying and failing to sleep with his swirling thoughts. Was anything possible? Were there limits? There were always limits, but then again, that was a natural law of reality, and mystic energy was already breaking plenty of those.
So what was possible? Considering the situation, it might be logical to assume everything, right? So everything he had considered impossible was now up for debate; meaning time travel, teleportation, love potions—
Wait.
Donnie sat up ramrod straight in his desk chair.
Was love potion a potion? Not an actual love potion , obviously, but could it have mystical properties? Of course, it had mysteriously appeared in the lair before he and his brothers had found out about mystics (he never had gotten around to asking where they'd gotten it from), but what other explanation was there? It definitely wasn't human medicine; abnormal effectiveness aside, it wasn't exactly printed like one, with a normal bottle cap and completely unlabeled container before Mikey had taken the initiative to name it himself. There was no brand name or child lock, so his brothers obviously hadn't gotten it from a pharmacy. Plus, there was its appearance to consider. What human medicine was so glittery?
It had to be mystic. Wasn't there some kind of Witchtown down there? They could've made it. They must've. And wasn't that what Mikey had said all that time ago? When they first used it, it was almost like magic?
He scrambled out of his chair. The only way to confirm his increasingly more convincing theory was to ask his brothers. They should be in the television room; they had said earlier they were going to watch a movie, though Donnie had declined joining them, intending to get some sleep after his all-nighter the night before, although that... hadn't exactly worked out as planned. Still, it hadn't been more than a few hours since dinner; it should still be going.
He stumbled down the tunnel, trailing a hand along the wall for support, and quickly reached the TV room, finding his brothers huddled together, Raph and Leo on the couch and Mikey on the floor, all eyes fixed on the projected screen.
"IT'S A POTION!" he yelled, drawing startled shouts from his brothers as they turned to stare at his disheveled form. He was wearing his usual purple hoodie, but it was ruffled with an oil stain on one sleeve, and one of the hoodie strings was longer than the other. They glanced at each other.
"You feeling okay, Don?" Leo started. Raph shifted beside him.
"I thought you said you was going to bed," the snapper added. "What are you talking about?"
"Love potion!" he exclaimed. "It's an actual potion! It's mystic!" Leo sighed.
"No, buddy, no," he said. Mikey ducked his head, shoulders shaking.
"Yes!" Donnie insisted. "It has to be! Mystic energy opens up a whole universe of possibilities! Of course it would be able to create magic medicines!"
"Do you need some love potion, buddy?" Raph asked with his brow furrowed. Leo pursed his lips and leaned forward.
"Hate to break it to you, Don," he said, "but love potion is a hundred percent science, bro."
"How do you know?!" Donnie shot back, waving his arms violently. "Mystic energy is everywhere, Leo! You never even notice it! How could you possibly be certain magic has nothing to do with anything?!" Leo stared at him for a moment.
"When was the last time you slept, Donnie?" he eventually asked.
Donnie opened his mouth to answer; last night, obviously. Except, he hadn't actually slept yesterday, did he? Or the night before, really...
"...When was the last time you slept, Leonardo?" he deflected lamely. Leo saw through it immediately.
"You don't remember, do you."
Donnie sputtered. Of course he remembered! He hadn't slept much last night, or the night before that... but, the one before that one, probably! Though that answer probably wouldn't go over very well...
"Have you been having trouble sleeping recently?" Mikey asked in his therapist voice.
"I have been sleeping spectacularly, actually," he lied blatantly, crossing his arms, "and anyway, that's not the point! The point is—"
"Love potion, yeah," Raph interrupted. He lifted himself up off the couch and lumbering toward the kitchen. "I'm gonna go get you some."
"That's not—"
"Come on, Donnie, sit with us!" Mikey whined, reaching for him. "Finish the movie with us!"
"I'm not watching the movie," Donnie protested, "and I'm NOT TAKING ANY LOVE POTION!"
"Sure you are," Mikey said, waving his hand dismissively. "You just need some love!"
"Just get over here, Tello," Leo insisted tiredly, holding out an arm. "We'll debate with you in the morning. Come on."
Donnie wanted to fight more, or just go back to his lab, but a moment later Raph returned with that stupid medicine cup and a dose of sparkly, equally stupid, one-hundred-percent-magic love potion inside. He groaned and turned to leave, muttering about leaving some gadget or another running in his lab despite knowing he didn't turn a damn thing on, including the lights, to all of his brothers' protests.
"Come back and sit down," Raph ordered sternly. Donnie reluctantly complied, knowing Raph would probably catch him if he made a run for it. Raph handed him the cup of medicine, and Donnie stared at it for a moment before bringing it to his mouth and swallowing the contents.
After handing the cup back, he immediately flopped over onto Leo, knowing he'd be asleep within the hour. He didn't bother paying attention to the already half-over movie, or bother fighting the heaviness in his limbs and eyelids, drifting off as Leo fiddled with his mask tails.
By the time he woke up eleven hours later, he entirely forgot to ask about love potion again.
------
Donnie was startled from his reading by a knock on his doorway.
It was late; he probably should have gone to bed hours ago, but he was busy with his latest research spree. He'd ordered these textbooks ages ago, but only recently gotten into a place where he was comfortable just sitting and reading for a while without any big projects to work on.
It had led to many late nights holed up in his room rather than his lab, though he didn't usually have visitors.
"Come in," he called softly to whoever was outside the purple curtain serving as his bedroom door. After a few seconds, Donnie's baby brother hesitantly pushed aside the edge of the curtain and came to stand just inside the doorway. His shoulders were hunched slightly and his eyes glued to the floor.
"Hey Mikey," Donnie said, setting his book to the side. "What's going on?" Mikey shuffled his feet for a moment.
"I just," he started before taking a shuddering breath. "Can I stay in here with you for a bit? I can't sleep and I... don't really want to be alone in my room right now." He looked up at Donnie hopefully.
Rather than verbally responding, the softshell merely lifted an arm in invitation. Mikey eagerly darted forward, climbing up to snuggle into his brother's side immediately. He curled up, still in his soft orange night clothes, and rested his head on his shoulder as Donnie opened his book again with the arm not hugging Mikey.
For a few minutes, they just sat together, Donnie continuing to flip through the textbook and Mikey idly watching him read as he matched his breathing to his.
"Wanna talk about it?" Donnie asked after a while. He didn't particularly want to— emotions made an icky topic of conversation, he thought— but if Mikey needed to talk about something, he was willing to suffer a bit to make him feel better. Luckily though, Mikey just shook his head slightly, closing his eyes and nuzzling deeper into Donnie's hoodie. Donnie went back to reading.
Eventually, when Donnie had finished the section and was halfway through the next, Mikey broke the silence.
"What does taking love potion feel like?"
Donnie startled at the quiet question. He rubbed Mikey's shoulder idly as he considered his answer. What did it feel like? It was a little hard to remember; by the time he got to the point of using it, he was usually too tired to recall much about the experience, but he could sort of remember the feeling.
"I always think of it as like a weighted blanket," he started softly. "It kind of wraps around you and makes you feel heavy. Eventually keeping your eyes open feels like too much effort, and you just... go to sleep." He shifted to look down at Mikey's unmasked head. "Why do you ask?"
"Jus' curious," he mumbled. "You an' Lee are the only ones who ever use it. I was just wondering what it was like."
Donnie hummed, thinking.
"If you can't sleep right now, I can give you some, if you want."
After a second, Mikey asked, "Do you ever remember your dreams after taking it?" Donnie raised an eyebrow.
"No, but I don't usually," he answered. "You'd have to ask Leo. It might not give you dreams."
After a few moments more of hesitancy, Mikey pushed himself up and looked up at him. "Can we do that please?"
Donnie climbed off the bed, Mikey right behind him, and wordlessly led him out of his room, down the tunnel, and into the kitchen. Mikey sat down at the table as he took out the now nearly half empty bottle of love potion and filled the medicine cup to just under the two thirds mark.
He turned to hand it to Mikey, who took it hesitantly and just held it, staring at the swirling shimmer of it in the glow of the white fairy lights strung on the ceiling that they liked to leave on at night. Donnie tilted his head in question, and the box turtle glanced between him and the cup a few times before shakily taking a breath.
"What if... it doesn't work?"
A scoff.
"Of course it'll work. It works on love, doesn't it?"
Mikey stared at him, eyes wide in shock. Donnie just reached out and pushed the pink medicine towards him slightly. Mikey grinned.
He never found out if Mikey dreamed or not, but he was smiling the next morning. Before he went to make breakfast, he gave Donnie a hug and whispered a short message.
"Thanks for taking my nightmares away."
------
Click. Click. Click.
Donnie flipped from camera to camera, the feeds displaying on the monitors set up in his too-empty desk. He had a half-full cup of cold coffee beside him, and after a moment, he paused to take a sip of it before returning to the feeds and checking the main entrance again.
Donnie had ordered more supplies, but they still wouldn't arrive for a few more days, and in the meantime, the new lair was painfully defenseless. He'd salvaged enough scrap to install a full camera system, but until he had more undamaged materials, there were no alarms, no defense systems, not even any motion sensors . Cameras were all well and good, but they were only helpful if you already knew about the threat. Otherwise, they were a pointless security measure.
To try and remedy this, he'd resolved to watch the feeds personally, at least at night— during the day, if something came to attack them, they'd at least be awake to defend themselves. But for nighttime defenses, this seemed to be the best solution.
He saw Raph walking towards the new lab before he even approached the door. Raph was always out and about at this specific time of night, making the rounds and making sure everyone was accounted for. It was a habit that he understood and even practiced on occasion, but due to the nature of his expertise, never needed to leave his lab to complete.
Raph hadn't bothered him last night, when they were still getting freshly settled in and Donnie was feverishly working to set up his lab and the lair with what enhancements he could manage with so few undamaged materials, but it would stand to reason he would make a point to check on him the night following.
He took another sip of coffee.
When Raph reached the new lab, he entered with ease, as there were no locks yet. Donnie could've managed it with the material available, but it wasn't a high enough priority to justify wasting the scarce supply. Donnie did his best to ignore the additional presence as the snapper turtle looked around and took in the unfamiliar new space; there were several tables already strewn about, most loaded with torn metal and tech pieces and bits of wires. There was a wall of boxes in the corner that he hadn't yet taken the time to unload. It was dark, the only light coming from the monitors and the light purple fairy lights he'd put up earlier in the evening.
It was kind of sad.
He continued to switch between camera feeds as his brother came up behind him, coming to a stop a few inches from the back of his desk chair. He stood there for a minute, just watching Donnie check through the subway tunnels, then check again. It was a while before he spoke.
"Donnie, this can't be good for you."
He held in a sigh at the opening.
"I know. However, this is the best option at the moment."
Raph was silent at his response, which Donnie took as prompting for further explanation.
"The new lair currently has no defense system," he said, leaning back in his chair, "and I won't be able to properly put one in place for at least two days. I have cameras, but no alarms for them. Something could happen and I would never know until I went back to check."
Raph moved from his silent vigil to come up beside Donnie's chair. He settled down on the floor next to him, his large stature allowing to still see easily over the edge of the desk. Donnie reached for his cold cup of coffee again, and Raph stopped him by wrapping a gentle hand around his wrist and settling it onto the desktop. He relaxed into the warm pressure on his arm, though his eyes never left the monitors.
Click. Click. Click.
"I'm sorry," Raph murmured into the silence. "I know you don't like sudden changes. I'm sure everything happening recently has been really tough on you."
Donnie took a few deep breaths before answering.
"You aren't gonna go get some love potion to shove down my throat?" he asked, his voice a bit more shaky than intended. Raph sighed.
"People need sleep, Don," he started tiredly. "Even genetically engineered mutant warriors. You never notice, and your tech is always just as good as ever, but you get to be a mess when you're sleep deprived, bud.
"You get so fixated on working. It's like you get stuck in this loop of the longer you don't sleep, the harder it is for you to just go to bed, until eventually you just crash. No one likes that, Donnie. We just want you to be able to sleep without going through the whole process."
Donnie had stopped switching through the feeds, fingers frozen and screen stuck on the camera outside his own barely-slept-in bedroom.
"You do need help sleeping, Don," Raph continued, "just the same way Leo does, even if his problem's physical and not mental. We're not just trying to be mean to you."
They both sat in silence for a minute. It was only when Donnie started flicking through the feeds again that Raph broke the silence once more.
"I'm the protector, Tello," he said, closing his eyes and leaning his forehead onto the desk, the position muffling his voice slightly. "That ain't changing no matter who's leader. Everything I do is to keep you bozos safe; when we're fighting, and making sure we train so we can defend ourselves. I'm the one who protects us when we're out there fighting baddies and bein' heroes. But..."
Donnie glanced down at him, and startled when Raph turned his head and locked eyes with him.
"You're the one who protects us the rest of the time." Raph tightened his grip on his wrist for a moment before letting go, resting his hand next to Donnie's on the table. "All your tech and backup plans and defense systems... that's how you keep us safe. I'm sorry we don't notice that more."
The words caused tears to well up in his eyes, and he quickly looked away. Raph was kind enough not to mention it.
"I don't wanna mess with your process," he said instead. "I know you're doing your best with the circumstances, so if you say this is the best thing to do I'll trust you, but if you’re goin' ta be in here all night, I'll sit with you.
"Is that okay?"
A tear managed to slip from his left eye, jolting him into movement. He was quick to wipe it away with his hand, nodding in response as he did. Raph smiled softly and leaned against the desk, turning back to the screens.
He ended up falling asleep, and Donnie spent the rest of his night watch with snores as background music.
He still welcomed him into his lab the next night.
------
"Hey."
Donnie startled at Leo's voice behind him and turned to see his twin enter the kitchen wearing his night clothes with bags under his eyes. He stumbled slightly as he walked to the refrigerator and opened it, scanning the contents with his eyes.
"Hey," he responded, using the quiet tone the hour required. "What are you doing up?"
"Trying to not be up," he sighed. He reached into the fridge and pulled out a bag of leftover pizza. "Figured eating might help."
"Hate to break it to you, but eating before sleeping generally does not help," Donnie commented, drawing on dozens of binged articles about the science behind sleep and help. "Though, I could make you tea if you wanted."
Leo glared at him for a moment before putting the pizza back in the fridge and going to slump into a chair at the table.
"Go on, then," he said as dramatically as he could with how tired he was. "Make me tea."
"Well now I don't want to."
"Donnie c'mon! I'm your favorite twin!"
"You realize you're not convincing me, right?" he said even as he turned to get the tea bags from the cabinet.
"Thank youuuu," Leo drawled. Donnie allowed himself a small smile before smothering it and filling the new kettle with water.
Making tea was a process that everyone in the family had long since memorized, and though it was a bit trickier at night when it had to be as quiet as possible, it was still relaxing with how easy it was. The kitchen was quiet as he set up the cup with the tea bag and set the water to heat up. In the silence as he waited for it, he decided to ask the obvious question.
"Is there a particular reason you're not taking love potion right now?" he asked without turning around. Leo sighed heavily behind him.
"Look, love potion is great," he started, "but I feel like I'm too dependent on it sometimes. Like, I hardly ever go more than a few weeks without having to take some for a bad night. Plus, with the whole... everything recently, we're kind of running out of it."
"What?" he startled, turning around to look at his insomniac brother, who didn't even open his eyes as he responded.
"Yeah, man, you can look for yourself. There's only like, a few doses left, max." Leo yawned. "You should make more."
"Why are you asking me? I didn't make it," Donnie said as he went to check the bottle out of curiosity. He hadn't actually seen it in a long time.
"Yeah you did."
Donnie took a second to process the words before they registered.
"What? When?" he asked, incredulous. Leo forced his eyes open and propped his head up on his arms to look back at him.
"Three years ago, bro," he said. "We were both having a hard week sleepwise, and you were in a medicine spree at the time, so Raph asked if you could make an effective sleep medicine for us, and you made love potion." He tilted his head, considering. "You didn't actually name it love potion, though. I think we all remember that one."
"... What ." Donnie thought back, trying to remember. "Why do I have zero memory of this?"
"Well, you were super tired that week, bro," Leo said, closing his eyes again. "Y'know how you can't remember stuff sometimes when you get really sleep deprived? Well, you were already running on fumes when Raph asked you, and then you slept even less while we were making it. By the time you decided to test it on yourself, you were on the brink of collapsing anyway. Thinking about it now, I'm not all that surprised you don't remember it."
Trying to process the new information, Donnie got stuck on one word.
"We?"
"Well yeah, bro," Leo shrugged like it was obvious. "No way was Raph gonna let you mess with chemicals without supervision when you were that tired, especially since we were planning to drink the product. Plus you needed someone to test it on."
"You worked on it with me," he realized.
"Yep. I spent a lot of that week asleep doing time trials. I was kinda bored for the rest of it, though. Did a lot of tidying."
Well, that explains why he never noticed an additional project if Leo was cleaning up the aftermath of it.
Huh. That is... a lot of mysteries solved.
They fell into another silence while Donnie tried to process the new information, and when the kettle started to whistle quietly he scrambled to take it off the heat before it got any louder.
In a few seconds, he was handing Leo the steaming cup. Leo took it eagerly with a tired grin, wrapping his hands around the mug and waiting a few moments before taking a sip.
Donnie sat down at the table across from him and folded his hands together, thinking over the situation. It made sense. So much sense, in fact, that he felt stupid for having never put together the pieces.
"I don't know how I made it," he pointed out eventually. "If there were any notes left over they're gone now. I may not be able to recreate it."
Leo glanced up from his mug and shrugged.
"I remember," he assured easily. "I'll help you." Donnie hummed in response, a smile playing at his lips. When he finished his tea, Leo got up and put the cup in the sink. He took a moment to pat Donnie's shoulder before leaving the kitchen to return to his room. Donnie followed his lead soon after.
The second batch of love potion was a little more red, a little less glittery, but worked just as well when tested and was placed into the medicine cabinet with a much more official label decorated with hearts.