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The next day brought some relief. With the weekend starting up, Donnie was able to actually, restfully sleep for 8 hours. And because he was able to wake up and feel rejuvenated, he felt more comfortable tackling all of his weekend errands.
As always, he started by picking up his weekly box from the food bank. It covered the non-perishable essentials, but still left out quite a bit of others. To supplement, he picked up the refrigerated and frozen essentials from the local grocery store.
With the food in hand, he focused on the kitchen chores. He started by re-organizing the pantry and putting away all of the new supplies. He then moved on to the fridge and freezer, clearing out what was going bad to make room for everything else. The dishes also got done with no issues, and he swept up the mountain of crumbs by the dining room table.
“Perfect.”
He was about to start scrubbing the stovetop, but was interrupted by Casey and April inviting themselves in.
“Getting second winds?” Casey jokingly asked.
“No, I don’t think so… What are y’all doing over here?”
“What, your best friends can’t just pop by?” April quipped.
“Of course you can.”
Casey set a basket of food on the dining room table, and April set up a board game in the living room.
“I wanted to make y’all some food. Mikey said he wanted to try something new, and Leo is going off to South America.”
“So… what are you making?”
“Well, you wanted carbonada. Raph wanted asada, Leo wanted to try chimichurri, and Mikey wanted some empanadas. So we’re having an Argentinian sampling feast.”
“That sounds like fun. But I mentioned carbonada 2 months ago? How did you remember all this time?”
As they chatted, everyone else congregated in the living room. Leo helped April set up the Monopoly board, and Raph and Mikey squabbled over the pieces. Splinter organized all of the cards to keep himself busy. Donnie finally came out and sat with everyone else.
“Ooh, is this a new edition?”
“No, just one I’ve had for a while. Found it in my dad’s attic when I was last over there.”
“Fun.”
They all sat around the coffee table and started the game. As Casey cooking started his spread, everyone else had been peacefully enjoying the game. Donnie tried to start by explaining the rules, but nobody listened and just started the game.
Trouble didn’t officially start until Raph went bankrupt. This was a trigger enough, but him being the first one out just made it that much worse. He just threw his game token and property houses hard at Donnie before storming off to sulk. Donnie shrugged it off the best he could and just cleaned up the pieces, but April picked up on the fact that he was starting to tremble.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, of course.”
April shot a knowing look, but said nothing else. The game continued for about another 10 minutes before Splinter went bankrupt. He didn’t throw or hit or show any physical signs of displeasure, but his glare said more than he needed to verbally.
“This is all your fault, Donatello. You should have explained the rules better.”
“I thought I did, Master Splinter.”
Splinter just groaned and slapped Donnie across the face before storming off.
“I need to meditate.”
Donnie hid his slapped cheek as Splinter left, and his trembling became more intense. Again, he tried to ignore his physical discomfort and keep the game going. He fought off tears as they auctioned off Splinter’s old properties and tried to keep his breath steady. But buying the properties backfired on April, and she ended up going bankrupt. She just shook her head and set her pieces back in the box.
“This game is just rigged, huh? You have to be a real genius to master this.”
She chuckled and reached out to Donnie. Even seeing her hand near him caused him to involuntarily flinch, so she pulled back and cautioned herself.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
He just nodded in acknowledgement, and April took that as her cue to get up. Donnie threw the game so he could take some time for himself, and divided his assets between Mikey and Leo before heading out. He found himself back in the kitchen, where he helped Casey plate up and garnish the finished plates of food.
“Game didn’t go well, I’m assuming?”
“No…”
“Sorry about that. Here, have some carbonada.”
Casey dished up a smaller bowl of carbonada for Donnie, and he took it gracefully. And dinner went peacefully from that moment. Leo put the board game away after winning, and Mikey helped set up the table for dinner. As they ate and chatted like the shitshow of a game never happened, Donnie just sequestered himself away in the pantry to finish his food.
As they ate, Casey picked up more on Donnie’s declining mental state. The overstimulated turtle didn’t even finish his helping before cleaning up everyone else’s mess, and his breath shuddered as he tried to hold back the building tears.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
Donnie just nodded and handed Casey the leftovers. The couple left, and Mikey decided to walk over to the dishwasher.
“I’ll help clean up. You take some time, okay?”
Donnie nodded again and retreated to his lab. He drowned himself in his blueprints and projects to hide the onslaught of frustrated tears that had finally escaped, and Mikey just spent the rest of the evening taking care of the dishes.