Ironhearted

Two Sides of the Same Coin

"So...how are you mentally on a scale of 1-10 after all of that?"

Leo seemed to freeze up when the question was asked. He hadn't expected Donnie to start up a conversation, especially now. But Leo shrugs, that stupid grin lacing his face, "Is ten the worst or is one? Because my answers are very different depending on the situation."

Donnie pretends to be annoyed, "Well, naturally ten is the worst, Nardo. Scoff!"

Leo then went quiet, thinking about it. Well, he's been out like a light ever since he collapsed onto the marina of Staten Island (ew). And the only things he remembers...well, he'd rather block those out. It was hard, though. The booming voice of the leader of the Kraang echoed in his mind, as if it continued to fester there.

Leo sighed, letting his guard down for a moment, "Probably...probably a 9.5. Just don't tell the others, alright? I don't want them stressing out over me, and you should stop doing that too."

Donnie looks away, as if guilty for a crime, "Maybe. If it helps, I'm not...doing the greatest either. I will not specify, but my ranking on the scale is close to yours."

"I don't think any of us are going to recover from this, Dee," A forced laugh is torn up from his throat, "We've- we've all been traumatized in one way or another. Physically, mentally, I don't know, all of the above? This- this shouldn't be normal." His voice starts to break as he finishes his sentence, eyes feeling hot with tears he wishes to not fall.

There was a beat of silence, and Leo would have been fooled into thinking Donnie left if he wasn't staring at him. Donnie looks like he was conjuring up the right thing to say, mouth opening and closing, without any words spilling out. Leo wipes the tears away, avoiding Donnie's gaze now.

"I'm sorry," Leo says, voice small. Pathetic, "It- it was all my fault- I'm the one who's ego got too god-damned big and messed up the most important mission of my life. I was the one that let the Kraang let free, I-"

"Stop."

Leo looks back at Donnie, his tears out of control as they roll down his face, pupils shrunken.

Donnie looked close to being like Leo, "Just...stop. Stop blaming yourself, just. Stop. We didn't know this was going to happen, we...just did what teenagers do. You did what 'normal people' our age are supposed to do- Leo, we're still children, " Donnie's hands curled into fists, his emotions shining through for what felt like the millionth time in a day, "Stop blaming yourself. Please."

Leo looked at Donnie, pupils shaking slightly as he took in his twin, the only fraction of a hair younger twin, in all his glory. He's never seen Donnie as vulnerable as this, he's come close, but this vulnerability hasn't been shown to Leo since they were tots. Leo lets out a sigh, not sure of what to say. He still blames himself wholeheartedly for this whole situation (and he won't tell anyone, but he thought he should have stayed in that prison dimension, to repay his sins by letting that evil roam free again, making sure it never did such a thing again), and frankly Donnie's small speech didn't help too much.

Leo's silence was all the answer Donnie needed, "Christ Leo, just...don't hold that grudge against yourself again, okay? And- and on missions if we go back to any, don't- don't put yourself in front of us. Being a leader doesn't mean you have to do any of that, I have read somewhere. Sad sigh... " He begrudgingly headed back to his recovery bed, trailing the IV with him. His left arm felt better at least.

"I promise."

Donnie looked back at the slider.

"I promise I won't do that."

Leo doesn't break his promises often. He's at least faithful to that. Donnie sits down on the bed, bringing his knees up to his plastron, resting his head on them. He rocks himself back and forth slightly, trying to keep the bubbling emotions at bay. He doesn't like them, he doesn't understand them. They scare him. He takes the breaths he taught himself when he was young, when this sensation first happened to him. He didn't know it wasn't classified as normal until he grew older, researching. For as long as Don could remember, he's been an outcast to his family. He just started using mystic magic only two years ago, when his brothers had started a year prior. He was the last one out of the whole family to use mystic powers, hell, even April was able to harness the magic in her baseball bat.