This story was inspired by the wonderful fanart by tallgirl14 on Tumblr. You guys should totally check out her work! Now, without further ado, onwards with the turtle tots drama!

Disclaimer: The characters and the artwork that inspired this fanfiction do not in any way belong to me. I have permission from the artist to reference her works.

Chapter One: The Fight

Donatello was in his lab, tinkering contentedly on a new invention that was going to make life in the sewers just a little bit easier for him. He had complete focus on his task and was nearly done with the internal wiring. The little soft-shell would have finished the wiring, too, had he not suddenly felt like someone was watching him. Given that his dad was unlikely to abandon the television to get him until mealtime, Donnie could only assume it was one of his brothers coming in to pester him to take a break. But he couldn't just stop now! He was so close to finishing this machine, and his family would be a little more comfortable as a result. Try as Donnie might to stay focused on handling his machine, his concentration slowly began to slip away towards whomever was behind him.

"What do you want," Donnie groaned, looking over his shoulder to see, "Leo?"

The red-eared slider grinned when his brother finally acknowledged him and said, "I wanna see what my twin is up to! Whatcha working on?"

"We're not twins, and this is something that takes a lot of concentration," Donnie said, trying to ignore Leo's presence and return his focus on his invention. "Go away."

It didn't work, and Leo naturally didn't listen to the order. Instead, he came further into the lab and started browsing through all of projects and machines on the floor and shelves. Donnie clenched his fingers around the tools in his hands, his eyes started to pull every few seconds towards Leo's wandering form, and his skin and shell began to itch underneath the surface where he couldn't scratch.

Why won't you just go away? I can't focus as much with you here.

"Hey," Leo crowed, pointing at something on the desk Donnie was working on. "What's that thing?"

Donnie looked up as Leo started crowding around his workspace, hovering over the domed metal beside his current project.

"It's a prototype shield for my shell that I'm working on so I can have something stronger than a backpack for protection," Donnie grumbled. "Please. Go. Away."

"Whoa, cool!" Leo admired the work in progress, completely ignoring Donnie's order. He even climbed on top of the desk to get a better look at it. "Do you need any help with it?"

"No," Donnie said shortly. "Get out."

"What's going on?" Mikey asked as he peeked in from the doorway.

"I'm playing 'Lab Assistant' with Donnie," Leo announced. "Wanna join in?"

"Yay!" Mikey cheered as his little legs carried him to the other two turtles. "Donnie wants to play with us!"

No, no, no, no, no! Leo was bad enough, but now Mikey's here?! Leave me alone!

The itching was getting worse, almost a burn now. Donnie couldn't focus on anything more than holding onto his project thanks to his brothers' mere presences interfering with his work. Why did they always do this? Why couldn't they leave him alone when he was inventing things?

"What can I do to help?" Mikey asked.

"You can both get—" Donnie tried to order them to leave again, but Leo cut him off.

"You can help me get a better look at Donnie's project here," Leo said, pulling Mikey up onto the desk.

Leave already!

Wait, maybe Donnie could ignore his brothers to the point that he wouldn't be able to notice them. Maybe that would make the unbearable itching go away. Taking a breath, the soft-shell redoubled his efforts to focus on the completion of the invention in his hands. He pretended that he couldn't see Leo and Mikey out of the corner of his eye, lifting his prototype shielding onto its edge, as he soldered wiring into place. He pretended he didn't see them struggle with the unexpected heftiness of the metal dome when he got up to put away his welding tools. He could not pretend that he failed to hear their shouts after loud clanging and shattering rang through the lab while his back was turned.

Donnie took a small moment before he slowly turned around. Leo had leapt off of the desk and was yanking Mikey after him, but Don didn't see that. All he could see was his prototype shield wobbling over the shards of what remained of his newest invention. He went numb. It had taken him months to get all of the parts for it, weeks to gather enough gas to light his welding tools, days of laboring over it in his lab; and in seconds, it was gone. The burn became a blazing fire!

"Donnie," Leo tried to get his attention, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Donnie, I'm sor—"

Donnie slammed his fist into Leo's face, knocking the blue-clad turtle onto his shell. Don was quick to hold Leo down with one hand to land more blows, but Leo was also smart enough to try pushing Don back with a foot planted on the purple-masked turtle's plastron. Leo winced as another hit landed on his cheek, but it did nothing to dampen Donatello's anger. Donnie had been focused, Donnie had told him to leave! But instead of listening to him, this blue pain and the orange baby came in and ruined everything!

"Raph!" Mikey wailed over Donatello's snarling.

Don kept swinging until the hulking eight-year-old known as Raphael yanked him to his feet. Raph pressed Donnie's shell into his side with a one-armed embrace, most likely to calm Donatello down. But Donnie didn't want to be calm. He didn't want to be held back! He didn't want all these people in his lab! He glared down at Leo as he pushed himself into a sit, gripping Raphael's arm tightly with his own.

He broke it!

"Brothers don't treat each other like this," Raph said. He gave both Leo and Donnie a disappointed frown.

He's right, Donnie realized. Brothers don't act this way.

Working with his anger and new logic, Donnie snarled, "That's the thing, we aren't brothers."

Don loosened his grip in the shocked silence that followed his declaration. It was true. They were all as different as four mutant turtles could be. Raphael glanced down at him with surprise, Leo looked up with worry, but Mikey stared on in confusion. Donnie was so mad at everything and everyone that he refused to look at anything or anyone. Just as quickly as the silence rolled in, though, it was broken.

"Donnie!" Raph chastised sharply.

"It's the truth," Donnie groaned to the ceiling. "None of us are related!"

"We aren't brothers?" Mikey asked slowly, softly, in a tone begging for Donnie to be telling a lie.

Instead of bringing the soft-shell down from his upset, all the question did was feed Donatello's anger. Are you stupid or something?!

"You never thought it was weird that none of us look alike?!" Don asked incredulously before sweeping an arm out towards the youngest turtle. "You're the only one who can fit in his shell. If we were related, we all could!" Or none of us could.

He didn't care about the way Mikey seemed to shrink without going into his shell; he didn't hear Raph saying "Donnie, stop" halfway through his rant. All Donnie could see was his invention broken by Leo's carelessness, all he could hear were his frustrated and angry thoughts, and all he could feel was the need to make them leave him alone!

"Raph is only one year older than me and Leo," Don continued, "and he's twice as big!"

"That's enough!" Raphael thundered.

Donatello ducked more out of surprise than fear of the shout. Glancing up, he could see the anger simmering in Raph's eyes. But it's not enough! They're still here!

"I didn't ask for you to be here," Don edged on. "I didn't ask for you to boss me around, or to bother me when I'm working, or to be general pains in my shell!" He saw the other three flinch. Good. Time to put the final nail in the coffin. "I never asked for you to be my brothers! Now get out of my lab!"

A silence as thick as New York's smog filled the room. It was so heavy that even the quiet whirrs of old computer fans sounded like gale-force winds and the gently vibrating equipment rumbled like an earthquake. However, Donatello didn't feel even a hint of satisfaction from his statement. He regretted it almost immediately, in fact. The flaming rage inside of Donnie dampened down to embers when he heard a small sniffle from the youngest turtle in the room.

"I'm sorry," Mikey whimpered. His shoulders were bunched up, and he was looking at the ground while grabbing his elbow. Arms suddenly dropping, he looked up at Don with eyes overflowing and choked out, "I didn't mean to—" Mikey broke off with a sob and ran out of the lab wailing.

Donnie's heart sank further when he saw how glassy Leo's eyes were. Leo hadn't said anything after Raph broke up their fight. Now, he finally stood to he feet and quietly left the lab just as Donnie had told him to so many times before. Only Raphael remained. The arm that had been so confining a moment ago was suddenly gone, and Donatello fell to his knees. He whipped his head towards Raph just in time to see the red-loving turtle stomping out of his lab.

"Raph—"

"Why would you say any of that?!" Raph cut him off sharply. "Do you really think—?!" He took a deep breath, and said, "You better find a way to fix this with Leo and Mikey, or you really won't have any brothers in the end."

Donnie heard the anger and hurt in Raph's voice and saw the tears making their way over the fabric of the red mask. The fire that had been put out by Mikey's tears reignited with a vengeance, directed this time at Donatello himself. A few bitter tears slid down his cheeks when Raphael left his sight. He returned to his desk and flipped the shield off of his ruined project to better assess the damage. Four foot-long fragments of the technological bō staff prototype he'd been building remained intact while many metal shards lay scattered between the pieces. His heart hit the pit of his stomach.

How am I going to fix any of this?