This takes place during Season 1; Episode 3; 'Turtle Temper' from the 2012 series.

Enjoy

Monkey On The Back

"AHHH." Raph screamed completely fed up with this situation and was about to run backwards at the wall in an attempt to finally dislodge the several suction cup arrows stuck to his shell.

"You shouldn't do that." A voice suddenly proclaimed just before he hit the wall and he turned around the glare at his slightly younger brother standing in the doorway to his room.

"What do you want Donnie?" He growled and couldn't help but throw something at the wall as he heard his other two brothers laughing it up in the living room.

"Well I was going to help you." Donnie answered after a second. "It's physically impossible for us to reach the back of our shells and I didn't want you hurting yourself trying."

"Forget it; I don't need your help." Raph proclaimed immediately, before turning back to the wall and prepared to clobber the nuisances attracted to his shell once and for all.

"Fine." Donnie stated un-phased; as he moved to exit the room. "Then don't come crawling to me to fix them." He added before quietly disappearing around the corner.

It took the red masked Turtle a second to register that threat and paused. Master Splinter had been very insistent that the arrows not be broken, as that would have been a major waste of resources that they didn't have.

Looking at the wall he had intended to use as a weapon; he was suddenly more than aware that he would be in for a major punishment if he went through with his plan.

"Donnie." He called quickly and rushed out the door, only to find his brother leaning causally against the wall with a smug look on his face. That alone nearly made him turn back around and flatly refuse any offered help, like he normally did. But something kept him rooted to the spot.

He looked away and growled under his breath as Donnie turned to hear him out. After glaring at the floor for another minute Raph finally ground out through his teeth in so low a voice that even he had a hard time hearing it. "Will you - help - me?"

He had just turned to scream it again, fully expecting Donnie to give him the 'I can't hear you' treatment; like Leo always did. But instead he was cut short with a simple response of. "OK."

"What?" Raph asked on impulse, raising an eye-ridge at him questionably.

"O-K." He repeated slower, before walking into his brother's room and turned to see if he was coming. Raph blinked at this but quickly followed and closed the door behind him, so Leo and Mikey couldn't sneak in and get one finally round of laughs in.

"Bro." Donnie said exhaustedly after a minute of waiting. "I can't help you if you don't turn around."

"Rub it in why don't ya?" Raph declared quickly, his temper rising again in one last-ditch effort to retain his pride.

"I'm not rubbing it in, it's a simple fact." Donnie proclaimed truthfully. "Why is it so hard for you to accept help?"

"Because I don't need your help." Raph declared stubbornly, but his anger dissolved a full second later when he realized what he had just said and looking back at his brother knowing that his words had hit deep, even if he didn't show it.

Saying something like that any of his brothers would have generated the same response; however it hurt that much more because this particular brother was Donnie.

He knew very well that he wasn't strong or fast or skilled, from an early age he had; had to work for what Raph, Leo and Mikeynaturally had. It wasn't fair, but he had never complained and had found a way to make up for what he lacked by using his mind. He had tolled for years to give them a safer home and more comfortable life. So to tell him he 'wasn't needed' was just short of a death-blow.

"I didn't mean that Donnie." Raph stated quickly wishing more than anything that he could take those words back. Maybe Master Splinter was onto something about this anger problem.

"It's cool." He answered after only a second of hesitation. "Just let me get those arrows and I'll get out of your hair." He added and Raph couldn't help but smile as he realized his brother was giving him an opening.

"We don't have hair dude." He stated jokingly. "I'd of thought you of all people would have noticed that by now."

"Maybe I should work on that." He answered absent-mindedly as Raph finally turned his shell to him. "Who knows; a crazy hair-do might actually make you taller than me."

"Short jokes. Really?" Raph proclaimed sourly as he heard the little *pop* of a suction cup being removed from his back. "That's low; bro."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Donnie responded after a couple more pops. "It would probably only make you uglier anyway and we have enough people running from us as it is."

Raph growled under his breath and turned to give him a glare over his shoulder as the little pops continued. "Don't push it Donnie. Just because you're only a couple of hours younger than me; doesn't mean I don't still have big brother rights to pound you."

He just smiled in response and pulled the last arrow from its perch and laid it on the bed with the others. "There." He proclaimed before starting for the hall.

"Hey." Raph quickly called as he opened the door and turned around to see what he wanted. The older of the two quickly flipped his bandana tails in discomfort and muttered something under his breath, which caused the purple masked Turtle to smile.

"Anytime." He answered before walking around the corner and out of sight. Raph took another minute to reinstate his tough-guy motif and snatched the arrows from his bed before starting into the lair to return them to the Dojo.

Donnie was no where in sight when he reached the living room and couldn't help but laugh. 'Workaholic.' He thought to himself as he crossed the room, taking special care to completely ignore Mikey and Leo, who were both obviously trying hard not to laugh about something.

"Idiots." He said to himself as he carefully returning the arrows to the quivers leaning up against the wall and bowed respectfully to Splinter as he meditated in the middle of the room before heading back to watch some TV.

After several minutes of flipping through channels with little argument from Leo or Mikey, he quickly found it harder and harder to ignore them and finally jumped to his feet and turned to interrogate them.

"What is so funny?" He demanded but they only proceeded to laugh louder and fell over each other in their hysterics. "Whatever." He declared sourly and stormed into the bathroom where he slammed the door as hard as he could and turned to take a shower.

However before he'd even gotten two feet into the room, he saw something out of the corner of his eye and quickly rushed back to the sink where he studied his image in the mirror and discovered in the reflection of the reflection of the mirror behind him; a note taped to his back that clearly read; I'm even more confused than I look.

"DONNIE!"

The End

Hope you liked it.

(I promise I'm still working on my other story, since I really wasn't sure where I was going with part 3; I wanted to write the whole thing before posting it just to make sure I don't contradict myself. But I've been kind of busy and it's taking a little longer than I thought. But I am almost done; just a few more chapters and the rewrite then I will post again.)