Chapter 5

"Suicide Prevention Lifeline. My name is Donnie. How are you today?"

"Changing up your script, Don?"

"Oh, Vince, hey."

Something lackluster must've made it through the turtle's voice, because Vince paused before he spoke again. "Are...are you okay? You seem kind of...down."

"Yeah, no, I'm totally fine."

"...did you forget that I have brothers? I'm pretty good at knowing when someone is lying. So what's eating you?"

Donatello's shoulders slumped and he traced the rim of his long-since empty coffee cup. His eyes flitted to the clock on the wall. Thirty more minutes until he got off. "...I don't know, just...do you ever feel like nothing you do is good enough?"

"Good enough for who?"

"Anybody. Everybody. Ugh, that doesn't really make sense. Sorry. It's...it's been a long week, and I-"

"It's okay, Don," Vince replied softly, cutting him off. "Stuff doesn't have to be great all the time. You're allowed to feel like crap every once in a while."

"Tell that to my family." The response stunned Vince into silence, and Donnie was quick to amend his words. "Look, I-I shouldn't even be telling you this stuff. This is your time to talk about what you need to talk about, and here I am complaining."

"Actually, I just kind of wanted to have a regular conversation with you. I mean, discuss some regular stuff. Not...y'know...depression and all that."

Now it was Don's turn to be surprised. He blinked, swallowed, and managed to gather his thoughts into cohesive sentences. "You- you just want to talk? To me?"

"Now, see, I just said I want to talk about something other than depressing stuff, but you gotta go and drop a heartbreak bombshell like that."

"Sorry. Force of habit. My brothers never seem to want to just have normal conversations with me. Aaaaand I'm oversharing again. Sorry." Wow. I'm really contributing to the whole "Sorry is overused" stigma tonight.

Vince huffed a laugh, but somehow the sound was a little off. "It's all good, Don. Anyway, tell me what you're into."

The change of subject was abrupt but welcome, and the genius soon found himself grinning and chuckling as his companion cracked jokes about him needing to get out more - an unrealistic thought, but well-meant nonetheless. And the jokes did wonders to cheer him up.

Donatello was finally having a good night.

Leo allowed himself to smile as he said goodnight to Donnie and hung up the phone. Tomorrow, he'd monitor his sibling a little more closely to see if there was anything he could do to rectify the mistakes he'd unknowingly made when it came to their relationship, but tonight he wanted to celebrate a bit.

He'd managed to cheer Don up with nothing but his own cheesy jokes (apparently they were funnier when they came from someone who wasn't named Leonardo - how that worked, the leader couldn't understand) and a few well-timed grins that fed right into his voice.

Distraction is a ninja's best friend, Leo mused. His father may have said that the shadows were a ninja's best friend, but things had changed over the years, and Leo was more inclined to believe that distraction had played a huge part in his clan surviving as long as it had.

Leo's gaze fell on his phone again and he plugged it in to charge before slipping off his belt and pads and heading into the living room for one more check of the Lair. Mikey was long since in bed (or at least in his bedroom - though, judging by the light snoring he could hear, the youngest turtle's monster movie marathon had been cut short about three hours ago). Raph was dozing in his hammock, but he woke enough to offer his oldest brother a warm half-smile before shutting his eyes again.

The blue-banded ninja was about to step into the lab when the door slid open and an exhausted but happy-looking Donatello slipped out. "Oh, hey. Did you need something?"

"No, I was just checking on you before I turned in."

"I was actually, um, about to go to bed," Don admitted.

Leo smiled at that and nodded. "Alright. I'll see you in the morning then." He turned on his heel and headed back upstairs, but before he made it to the landing he called over his shoulder. "Oh, and Don?"

"Yeah, Leo?"

"Thanks for everything you do around here. I really appreciate it."

Before Don could even formulate a response through his surprise, Leo had disappeared into his bedroom and shut the door.

Tomorrow will be better, Leo promised himself, and he found he was able to drift into an easy sleep - because for the first time in a long time, he truly had a purpose, a real goal in mind.