ruru⋆｡☾

Donatello raised a brow and went to inspect what his siblings were raving about. The source of the sound actually came from one of the unused hallways in the subway. They’d intentionally left it empty for Mikey to use for art when he felt the urge. Of course the rest of the walls were also open to it, but the box turtle appreciated his own space for it. 

He found all three of his brothers and Comet—a young mushroom yokai they’d practically adopted—holding what looked like water balloons. Must not be the case though given the massive splatters of paint on the far wall. 

“What is going on?” He asked.

Everyone turned to look at him. Comet immediately waved, the spots on their cap lighting up green.

“Paint!” They spoke with telepathy, pointing to the balloons.

“That’s right. Mikey’s new art project.” Leo tossed the balloon in his hand up and down. 

“And you didn’t invite me.” Donatello frowned.

Mikey shrugged. “I asked and you said you were hanging with Jase today.”

“Excuse me, but you just generically asked if I wanted to help with an art project. You provided no details.”

“Gotta show up for details.”

He scoffed. 

“Aw, does Don Tron want in on the game?” Leo smirked and then rolled his shoulder like he was preparing for a pitch. “Bet I can help out.”

He immediately picked up on the implications of that. “Nardo, don’t you dare.”

“Get ready!”

“Stop!” He shrieked but ran anyway, not wanting to test his brother’s bluff. A good thing too. Just as he darted out of the doorway he heard the massive splatter of paint as it exploded. He could smell the oddly sweet tang of it.

“Aw man, I missed.” Leo’s voice came after him. “Next one for sure.”

“Knock it off!” Donnie tried again and kept going. If he made it for the kitchen, surely Leo would stop. He wouldn’t dare risk getting paint on Mikey’s cookware. 

“And he aims—”

“Leo!”

“And fires!”

He ducked, though it seems that wasn’t necessary. The balloon sailed way over his head and promptly slammed into the security camera that Donnie set up in the main room. 

He froze.

The condition of the camera was impossible to interpret underneath the green goop, but it dipped downward and then fell off its hinge entirely. The mechanics smashed onto the floor. 

“Huh,” Leo said. “Well that wasn’t what I was—”

The emergency alarm blared through the lair. 

Multiple security doors that Donnie set up all slammed shut, thick sheets of metal that wouldn’t budge easily. 

“What is that?” His brother screamed.

“The security that you set off with your terrible aim.” Donatello tried to shout over the noise, and then into his gauntlet. “Shelldon? Shelldon! Shut the security off. False alarm!”

The blaring horns at least cut off, along with the flashing lights. But the doors were a different matter.

Donatello cursed and pulled up his schematics of the lair. He had to tap each door individually on the map and enter in the code to unlock it.

Leo leaned around him. “Kind of a slow system there, huh?”

“It’s for security!” He hissed. “If, in theory, someone was able to bypass the shutdown and cut the alarms, they would need additional knowledge to undo the locks. This is to keep them from breaking in any further.” 

Though it was tedious, and as he went through number after number, he could hear Raph smack Leo on the back of the head. 

“Way to make a mess of my project.” Mikey mumbled.

“Aw, come on. I was just trying to have some more fun with it!”

“You’re cleaning up the paint over there.”

Donatello huffed and finally undid the last door. There, now he could return to— 

“Jase!” Comet’s voice suddenly pinged in his head.

He looked at them. “Huh?”

All of their spots had turned a sickly yellow and they clung to Raph. “Jase! Scared! Scared!”

Donatello immediately sprinted back to his lab. 

Even though he undid the security lock, the massive doorway wasn’t open. He often shut it whenever he went out, so that wasn’t a surprise. A simple press of the button and the metal doors slid open. 

He found his boyfriend on the floor. 

Jase lay there, half curled up and clearly breathing far faster than he should be. His eyes were unfocused, glasses sitting sideways on his face.

“Jase?” Donatello dove onto the floor next to him, but didn’t touch him, not yet. “Jase, can you hear me?” 

For whatever reason, his boyfriend flinched and his hands flew up to cover his ears as he squeezed his eyes shut. 

Okay, really not good. 

“Jase, it’s Donnie.” He tried not to shout, but there was no telling if Jase could hear him like this. “Can you at least look at me?” He waved his hand where Jase’s vision should be centered.

His boyfriend finally blinked, trailed the motion, then blinked again. His breathing still wasn’t slowing down as he gasped. 

At least he finally stopped covering his ears. His hand snatched Donnie’s out of the air, clinging to it so tight that it hurt. Donatello didn’t even realize his boyfriend had this kind of strength. 

In spite of the pain, he squeezed back. “It’s okay, Jase. It’s okay. We’re okay. It was a false alarm.” 

Jason clearly tried to steady his breathing, taking in deep breaths, but he couldn’t seem to hold them before gasping again. Tears slid down his face as he shook. 

“Home…” He finally managed to say something, though it came out as a high pitched whine. “Take me home.” 

Donatello wouldn’t argue with that. “I’m going to pick you up, okay?”

Jase gave him a weak nod Donatello tossed his jacket off and called for his hover shell. The second it attached itself to his back, he carefully slid his arms under his boyfriend.

“Come on,” he whispered. “I’ve got you.” 

Jase curled up in his grip and Donnie sprinted for the exit. 

Once outside, his shell sprung to life, taking them both into the air. Donatello knew the route to Jase’s house well enough by now he didn’t need to think too much about flying, so he put more of his attention on Jase.

Still shaking, still breathing too fast, and holding on tighter Donnie could even feel how fast his heart raced. 

He pressed his nose into his boyfriend’s hair. “It’s okay. You’re okay.” 

The words didn’t seem to help a lot, but at least Jase finally stopped gasping for oxygen. 

Donatello landed at the front door and nudged the doorbell with his shoulder. Jae-won should be home, the light was on. 

The man thankfully answered the door within just a few moments. He grinned the moment he met Donnie’s gaze, but that smile vanished when his eyes fell to Jase.

Jae-won threw the door completely open. “What happened?”

Donatello cringed. “Truthfully, I’m not entirely sure.” He glanced down at Jase, to see if his boyfriend would say anything, but he remained silent. “Something frightened Jase, a lot, he asked me to bring him home.”

Jae-won’s brows pressed together but he took a step back so Donatello could step inside. 

“Hey kiddo,” the father whispered to his son. “Do you just want to go to your room?”

Jase gave a small nod, so Donatello went up the stairs. He carefully deposited his boyfriend on the bed and Jase immediately clung to his pillow instead, hiding his face in it.

While Donatello took a step back, wanting to give him space, Jae-won didn’t hesitate to sit next to his son.

“Panic attack?” He kept his voice quiet.

Jase nodded.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

A quick shake to say no.

“Okay, we’ll leave you to rest for now. Give us a shout if you need something, okay?” Jae-won gently rubbed his son’s head and then leaned down to kiss his temple.

Then the man got up and nudged Donatello towards the door. The pair stepped out into the hall and Jae-won closed the door all the way.

He didn’t speak until they got downstairs. “Seriously, what happened? He hasn’t had an attack like this in over a year.”

Well that just made Donatello feel eighteen shades of guilty. He wished he had his jacket to fiddle with, but as it stood he just had to pull at his own fingers. “Well, we were hanging out in my lab. Jase got hungry so I headed to the kitchen to get snacks when I heard my brothers doing something in the nearby hall, throwing paint balloons at the wall.”

Jae-won raised a brow. “You’re allowed to do that at your place? I seriously need to come over.” 

Donatello continued, “Leo chose to pester me by trying to throw some in my direction. Both missed, of course, but the second one struck one of my security cameras, and the damage it caused triggered the lair’s security system.”

The man crossed his arms. “Which means…”

“Loud alarm and complete lockdown of the lair. There are weapon systems too but only on the perimeter.”

“So I shouldn’t come over uninvited.”

That at least got him to crack a smile. “It is highly inadvisable.” 

Jae-won waved a hand. “But alright, lockdown, what does that mean?”

He straightened up a bit. “Well, I fitted every doorway with some pretty sturdy steel doors, though most of them only close in an emergency. Additionally the only way to undo the lock is to enter a specific code on each door. I had to do that all manually after shutting the alarm off.”

Jae-won suddenly got quiet. His hand rested against his chin before moving up to rub the lower part of his face. “So Jase was in your lab, and it locked down, with an alarm going off.”

Donatello nodded.

“And he couldn’t open the door.”

The realization finally struck.

Jase was shut in a room that he couldn’t get out of, on top of the emergency alarm blaring in his ears. 

His boyfriend probably thought they were under attack. And then he got trapped. Just another repeat of one of the worst days of his life. One that he told Donnie more than once he had nightmares about.

Donatello cringed as he clenched his fists. “I should have warned him about the system. I didn’t think that it would—”

Jae-won held out a hand. “Hey, it’s not your fault. The whole thing was an accident. Jase will be okay. Let’s just give him the space to calm down and check in a bit later.” 

He nodded, then glanced up and down the foyer. What exactly was he supposed to do in the meantime?

Jae-won gestured towards the living room. “Want to come watch some TV?”

—-----------------------

It took almost an hour for Jase to come back downstairs.

Donatello stood the second he saw him, eyeing the blanket wrapped around his shoulders and the lack of glasses on his face. 

Jae-won stood as well. “Doing okay, kiddo?”

Jase took a steady breath. “Better,” he mumbled. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t apologize.” Donatello stepped toward him. “I’m sorry. I should have informed you about the lair’s security systems.”

His boyfriend rubbed the side of his face. “What even set it off?”

“Leo threw a paint filled water balloon at one of the cameras.”

A groan. “Of course he did. Then if anyone owes me an apology, it’s him.”

Donatello gave a faint smile. “I’ll be sure to inform him of such.”

Jae-won came over and ruffled Jase’s hair. “Think you can eat?”

A nod.

“Then I’m going to start on some dinner. You two relax.”

Donatello went to follow. “I can—”

“Relax.” The man emphasized. “It’ll probably be more helpful for you to cuddle with my son on the sofa anyway.” 

His cheeks burned a bit at that suggestion, for reasons he didn’t quite understand. He glanced down at Jase again. “Do you want to cuddle on the sofa?”

His boyfriend’s response to that was to take a step forward and rest his forehead against Donnie’s chest. 

Donatello pulled him into a hug. “I didn’t mean for you to get trapped in there.”

“I know.” Jase wiggled so he could get even closer. “I’ll be okay. Let’s just follow my dad’s suggestion for now.” 

Yeah, that sounded good. Donatello gently tugged Jase towards the sofa and they both collapsed onto the plush material. Neither of them bothered to change what was on. Jase curled up against his side, almost hidden by the blanket.

Donatello kissed the top of his head and then pulled out his phone, opening his texts with Leo.

> You owe Jase a huge apology dumbdumb 

He didn’t wait for a reply to that. He dropped his phone on the cushion instead and wrapped both arms around Jase. 

sorry i haven't posted in the past few days, i've been sick for a whole week 'cause of this dumbass bipolar multipersonality weather 🤒

reference photo:

and a bonus edited photo that i originally saved from somewhere:

His father evidently didn’t do much to decorate, as Jason learned last year, but the little rainbow christmas tree in the living room was always a nice touch. The man even decorated it with little photos of his friends and partners. 

And that was fine, because Jason wasn’t crazy about the holiday for a number of reasons. Overblown, overhyped, and he had zero attachments to the religious connotations, or what little remained of them. 

Still, celebrating with Donnie would be fun. First time they would be since they started dating. Donnie said he’d bring over dinner, they could swap presents, and then wander around the city looking at lights among other things. 

And Jason’s father planned to be at a Christmas party all night so…

It’d be nice.

But right now he was bored, and hungry, seriously it was almost seven. Where the heck was Donnie?

Finally, the doorbell rang.

Jason groaned, in a mixture of frustration and relief, and got off the sofa. He hoped it was Donnie and not some last minute package delivery. Surely he and his father weren’t waiting on anything. 

Jason opened the door, more than glad to see his boyfriend standing there, grinning at him. He wanted to take a second to admire the turtle’s makeup, and the amount of gem stickers lining his eyes, but his gaze couldn’t help but move down.

“Donnie?” Jason said.

“Yes?”

“Why do you have two buckets of KFC?”

Evidently that wasn’t even all given the brown bag also tucked under Donnie’s arm, but the buckets were impossible to miss with that bright red. 

“Christmas tradition, obviously.” Donnie straightened up and walked inside.

Jason let him, closed the door, and then followed. “Tradition? For who?”

“From Japan, actually.” The softshell went to the kitchen to deposit the food on the table. “That’s what Papá always said, and then I actually researched it when I got older.”

Jason squinted, having a lot of trouble believing that, but it couldn’t hurt to look it up himself. He rapidly tapped through the letters on his phone and stared at the browser window as everything loaded in. Huh, that was a lot of results. He combed through a few of the pages, which more or less confirmed what Donnie said.

“That’s almost wild to think about.” Jason muttered.

“Well, what do you eat for the holidays?”

“Honestly, Dad and I just hit up a local Chinese place.” 

“Oh that would be good.” Donnie tapped his chin and then shook his head. “Too bad, we have two buckets of fried chicken to eat now. Plus sides.” He pointed at the bag.

“Two buckets?” Jason almost shouted. “Donnie, how much do you think I eat?”

“More a question of how much you need to eat.”

“If I try to eat that much chicken, I’m going to puke.”

Donnie grinned and grabbed Jason’s face. “It’s the holidays, we’re going to try anyway. Now one thing I did not buy is drinks, so what do you have?”

The pair of them picked out a few cans of soda and then took everything to the living room along with a bundle of napkins. Jason cleared off part of the coffee table so they had space to eat, then flipped on The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. 

“This isn’t even a Christmas movie.” Donnie mumbled as he curled up on the sofa.

“It has Santa in it, it counts.”

Jason grabbed some food, knowing he at least needed to try and put a dent in it before Donnie complained. But only a few minutes in, he swiftly realized he’d never seen the softshell eat fried chicken before. 

The terrifying snap is what drew his attention in the first place. Donnie held nothing more than that nub end of a drumstick in his hand as his teeth crunched through the rest of it, gaze fixed on the television. Then he tossed the last bite into his mouth before grabbing another. 

Jason squinted. “Donnie, what the fuck?”

He glanced over, brow raised. “What?”

“Are you eating the bones?”

“Waste not.” The turtle stuck his nose in the air. “My brothers and I are more than capable of chewing through bone, though Leo despises the sensation of it. Besides, it makes eating this stuff much faster.” He held up the thigh with both hands and bit into it with his incredibly sharp teeth. 

Jason very briefly had the passing thought of, “God I wish that were me,” before he shook his head and tried to focus on eating. 

He only made it through four pieces—plus sides—before he had to quit. One more bite would probably have him puking. He didn’t dare touch another sip of soda either for a few minutes. 

Donnie tried to insist he eat more, so Jase glared at him until he shut up. 

When the movie ended—and Jason’s stomach didn’t feel like it’d implode if he rolled in the wrong direction—they cleaned up any trash and left the leftovers in the fridge for Donnie to take home later. 

“So, do we wanna do gifts before or after we go walking around?” 

“Before.” Donnie grinned and tapped at the gauntlet on his arm. “I can’t wait for you to see this one.”

Jason refrained from rolling his eyes. He thought about the custom keyboard that sat in his room and worried about what his boyfriend decided to pull this time. “Did you even bring it with you?”

“No, it would have been a hassle to carry.” The turtle waved a hand. “Shelldon will deliver it momentarily.”

A hassle to carry? Just how big was it? Jason really hoped it wasn’t some kind of vehicle because he did not have a license nor did he plan to get one anytime soon. The tank driving lessons were only done in case of emergencies. 

Well, if they were waiting on Shelldon, Jason might as well go get what he made for Donnie. He signaled for his boyfriend to wait downstairs and then headed up to his room. He’d kept the box wrapped and under his bed for the past week. Not really christmas paper—he and his father never wrapped presents—but a bunch of rainbow dots were festive enough. 

Just as he walked down the steps, the doorbell rang. Donnie hopped a couple of times before rushing over to answer it.

Thankfully Shelldon hovered on the other side, a rather tall box just below him. The droid smiled at Donnie and then flew inside, twirling around Jase a couple of times.

“Heya, Jase.” The droid stopped in front of him. “Happy holidays.” 

“You too.” He reached up to scratch under one of Shelldon’s ears. “Donnie got you something nice, I hope.”

Shelldon rolled his eyes. “Nah, he insists I don’t need presents.”

“You don’t.” Donnie barked. 

“Give me my flamethrower back.”

“No!”

Jase chuckled and put the gift on the floor so he could hold Shelldon in both hands. “Aw, come on Donnie, look at his face. How could you leave your son presentless?” 

“Yeah!” Shelldon said.

“Besides, you could at least give him a fresh polish. Or maybe a new game.”

Donnie kept working on getting the box inside the house. Evidently it wasn’t that heavy to the softshell, but the shape made it a bit awkward. “He can already download almost any game he wants.” 

Jason shook his head and held Shelldon against his hip, scratching the drone once more. “Not helping your case, Donnie. You ask him to deliver that giant box and you’re not getting him a present?”

“Ugh! Fine.” Donatello managed to push the box close to the stairs. “I will think of something to get him by tomorrow. Happy?” 

Shelldon chuckled and flew out of Jase’s grip, swirling around his head again. “Thanks, Jase. See you nerds later, I’m headed back.” 

Jason gave him a wave as Shelldon rocketed out of the house. Donnie frowned and walked over to the front door to close it.

Jason couldn’t help but shake his head again as his boyfriend approached. “Cannot believe you don’t get your drone a gift.”

“I didn’t think it was necessary!” 

“Cruel, cold, heartless—”

Donnie lightly jabbed him in the side.

Jason bit his lip to keep himself from laughing as he jumped back. 

“Now, if you’re done criticizing my relationship with my sort-of invention, sort-of child, sort-of sibling, open the box.”

Jason knew he should shove Donnie’s gift into his hands, but the turtle probably wouldn’t quit pestering him until he opened this thing. So he approached the cardboard, noting it was only a few inches shorter than him, and pulled out his multitool to cut through the tape.

Donnie practically vibrated next to him. 

Thankfully, his boyfriend did not structure this container so that you had to pull something out from the top. After cutting through a few rows of tape, the side simply fell to the floor, and one more cut had the rest collapsing as well. 

In the center of it all was a chair. 

A desk chair, from first glance, but of course it was purple. And judging by the line of buttons on one of the arm rests it had a number of features.

“Isn’t it awesome?” Donnie rushed behind his creation—because there’s no way he didn’t build this—and clung to the headrest. “Not only is this thing designed for good back and shoulder support, but I’ve decked this thing out with massage features, self heating, and a few customizable buttons if you want to attach it to devices. You could start the kettle from your room.” 

Jason walked around it as his boyfriend rambled, noting the rather large compartment in the back. “What is that?”

“Oh, the ice maker.”

“...Why does it have an ice maker?”

Donnie’s eyes went wide, staring at the wall. Then he blinked a couple of times. “I… am not sure. I don’t remember why I thought that was a good idea.”

Jason couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, I bet I’ll find a reason for it.” He stepped over to actually run his fingers over the softer parts of the chair. He wasn’t sure if it was real leather—probably not—but it felt that way. If he pressed down hard enough he could feel the harder components for the massage features. 

Still, Jason glanced up at Donnie. “You really want me to take better care of my posture, huh.”

“Well obviously.” His boyfriend huffed. “Did you feel how stiff your shoulders were for that last massage? You’re going to wreck yourself doing that. You can say, ‘thank you for saving my shoulders so much horrible pain, Donnie,’ whenever you want.” 

Jason rolled his eyes as he smiled. Yeah, no way he was saying that. But he still tugged his boyfriend into a hug. “Thanks Donnie, this is awesome.” Then he leaned back. “But for the love of god do not start replacing all the furniture in my room.”

“Really?” Donnie frowned. “Because I have some new ideas for bed frames and—”

“Open yours.” Jason immediately cut off that train of thought before it went anywhere else. He darted over to the box he left on the floor and turned to hand it over. 

Donatello went through the mildly frustrating ritual of shaking the box a few times, clearly thinking long and hard about what it might be, and then carefully popping all of the tape off the paper instead of just tearing through it. 

Jason heard about this behavior from Leo. The slider was certain that Donnie just did it to aggravate everyone, not because he actually cared about saving paper. 

But Jason left him to it, because it’s not like revealing the box would do much. It was a plain box meant for wrapping clothes in.

But the interior was filled with little, purple, cubic pieces. 

Donatello tilted his head. “What is this?”

“Puzzle.” Jason crossed his arms as he smirked. “3D puzzle, to be exact. Modeled it and all the pieces myself.” 

Donnie’s face brightened. “Really? What’s it supposed to make.”

“Figure that out yourself, genius.” He stuck his tongue out.

“Huh? Come on, Jase, you have to give me some kind of visual to work off of here.”

“Nah, I think you’re smart enough to work it out.” Jason was not about to spoil that when all the pieces were together, it’d make a smaller model of Shelldon. The droid even volunteered to let Jason do a model scan of him to get all the details right. Mapping out all the individual pieces had taken hours, though. 

Donatello shut the box again, making sure it sealed tight. “Very well, I’ll have it finished within the week, you’ll see.” 

“I look forward to it.” He glanced at the chair. “Now how are we getting this up to my room?”

“I got it.” 

Jason let his boyfriend heft the heavy looking chair up the steps and into his room. 

With that taken care of, they got ready to head out. Jason didn’t need to bundle up much, but he made sure to get one of his heavier jackets and a scarf. He was shocked to see Donnie came well prepared, with a thick jacket, pants, boots, and even a fur lined hat. In fact, the turtle complained about his lack of winter wear.

“I’m warm blooded.” Jason grabbed his house keys and opened the door. “Now come on.” 

Donnie couldn’t really fly them anywhere with his coat on, which was ultimately fine. All of the cold air blasting against his cheeks probably would have made Jason second guess dressing this light. Instead they walked to the nearest train station. People in the subway almost never gave Donnie more than a single glance, so they had no trouble getting in and out. 

When they reached the Rockefeller Center, it was just about as crowded as Jason expected for Christmas Eve. If people weren’t walking around to marvel at the massive tree or the lights, they were skating in circles on the ice. 

Donnie held Jason’s hand as they walked through the crowd. He spared most of the lights a quick glance, but they did come to a stop near the tree to take a few selfies, pointed upwards with all the lights in the background.

“Hang on, I have to adjust these settings.” Donnie tapped on the screen. “Those lights are making us blurry.” 

“I dunno, the one that makes it look like you dropped your phone is pretty funny.” 

After a few more decent looking shots, they started to wander again.

“Anything specific we should do here?” Donnie asked. “Do we want to do any store browsing?”

“Well, there is a toy store around here.”

“The toy store!” His boyfriend immediately grabbed hold of his arm and dragged him off. “Let’s go!” 

The store itself wasn’t any less crowded than the plaza. Dozens of parents and even plenty of children were running around the interior trying to look at everything on the shelves. Donnie wasn’t much better than the toddlers as he went straight for a marble run display.

“You know, I used to have one of these when I was little,” he began to ramble. “Father happened to find a box next to a garbage bin and brought it home for us. I spent a lot of time finding different combinations of pieces.” 

Jason had an easy time imagining that. “Do you want a new set?”

“As delightful as it would be, I think I should just make my own. It would tower over everything else. A marble run that could last thirty minutes.”

He snorted. “You’re gonna watch a marble for thirty minutes?”

“Don’t act as if you wouldn’t.”

Yeah, he probably would. 

They kept browsing the shelves. Sometimes they’d talk about toys they used to have, things that they missed, and occasionally even stare in confusion at something they’d never seen before. Jason wanted to judge the strange things kids played with these days, but it probably wasn’t that much stranger than anything from the 2000s. 

Eventually they left the store, less because they ran out of things to do and more because Jason could see the way his boyfriend would flinch anytime a young child screamed in excitement or started crying. 

Jason gently led him out of the store, which was only so much quieter, but at least the sounds of kids lessened. 

Donnie muttered out a thank you, hand sometimes pressing against the side flaps of his hat. Did he have his goggles on under that?

“Going to buy you earmuffs next year.” Jason nodded.

“Those won’t fit over my goggles.”

“Wear your goggles less often then.” He glanced around the plaza. “Did you want to check out another store?” 

“Why don’t we try some ice skating?”

Jason groaned. “No thanks, I don’t know how.”

“Huh? You’ve lived here for how long and you never learned?” Donnie held out a hand. “Come on, I can show you how.” 

“So I can fall on my ass a dozen times? No thanks.” 

“Come on.” His boyfriend waved his hand but never actually grabbed Jase’s arm. “Just try it?” 

Jason sighed. He could already feel the pain in his legs, his hands and his butt, but let his boyfriend drag him towards the rink. It took a few minutes for them to even be waved in, limits on people in the rink and all that. As they waited Jason blew warm air on his hands a few times, his knuckles finally feeling the bite of the cold air. 

“See, you should have worn gloves.” Donnie nudged his side. 

“I’ll be fine.” He put his hands in his pockets. “How are you holding up?”

“More than alright since I came prepared.” 

Jason just rolled his eyes and kept waiting for their turn.

He thought on a loop of what a terrible idea this was as he fitted on the ice skates and barely got on his feet. Donnie held onto him, with one arm around his waist, and carefully pulled him out onto the ice.

Which made it even harder to keep his balance. The second both of his feet touched the ice, the skates tried to slide forward. He would have fallen on his back if Donnie didn’t hold tight.

“Here, just hang on.” Donnie tugged him up straight. “You taught yourself to dance with me, so this shouldn’t be too difficult.” 

Jason trusted his boyfriend, but this didn’t feel the same as dancing, mainly because they were facing in the same direction. He managed alright with going straight, but the minute his boyfriend would try to turn a corner Jason would keep sliding in the wrong direction. His attempts to correct it had him either almost hitting the ground or just slamming into the wall. 

Donnie laughed. 

“Shut it.” Jason mumbled, but let his boyfriend keep dragging him around the ice. “How did you even learn to do this?”

The turtle hummed. “Truthfully, Cassandra made us all learn after we became friends. At first she just challenged us to a hockey game and then found out only Mikey knew how to ice skate so…” 

“Bet she makes a fun teacher.”

“If you can deal with the volume of her voice, she does quite well actually. Besides, I found it all rather fun. Just a new way to dance.” Donnie drifted toward the wall and took Jason’s other hand, placing it there.

Jason held on for dear life, because the second he grabbed the wall his boyfriend slid away without him. There wasn’t exactly a ton of space on this crowded rink, but just enough in the center for Donnie to drift out and start swirling in circles. 

Jason straightened up, just to get a better look at his boyfriend grinning ear to ear as he twirled. A few children that he spun past gasped and clapped their hands. 

Jason became so enamored that he foolishly loosened his grip on the wall. One of his feet moved and that was all it took for him to slide out of control. He failed to catch himself on the wall properly and his chest slammed against the ice. He tried to shove himself up, but when he opened his eyes he realized his glasses fell off in the process. What if someone—

“Are you okay?”

A woman and her child came to a stop next to him. From this close he could see his glasses in the child’s hands, so he gratefully took them and put them back on his face. 

“Yeah, I’ll be okay.” He wheezed out. “Thanks.”

“Jase.” Donnie shouted as he skated back over, weaving around the mom. “You were supposed to hang onto the wall.”

“Yeah, well, that didn’t work out.” He tried to use it now to pull himself up, but Donnie practically lifted him off the ground. 

The mother flashed a smile and tugged her daughter along back into the moving crowd.

“Can we be done with skating now?” Jason sighed. 

“For tonight, maybe.” Donnie led him along the skating path. “I am now determined to teach you.”

“Not sure why that’s necessary.”

“Maybe I’ll just hand you off to Cassandra.”

Ugh.

Jason refused to quit arguing about it. They filed out of the rink and got their shoes back, moving through the plaza once more. Jason let his gaze linger on the lights again and he almost missed something tiny fluttering through the lights. A lot of them. Almost like dust in sunlight, but with a bit more sparkle to them.

Now his gaze moved up, seeing the flurries much clearer from this angle. “Ah, there’s the snow they mentioned on the forecast.” 

“Oh? I didn’t realize we’d get a white Christmas this year.”

“Assuming it sticks. They said it might not.” Jason shrugged and turned to look at the tree again, watching the snow dance in front of it. “Still looks nice, at least.” 

Donnie hummed in agreement, and for a few minutes they just stood in silence, watching. Jason wasn’t holding onto his boyfriend, but he still stood close enough to feel the faintest movement when Donnie shivered. 

“Cold?” Jason asked.

“I’ll be fine.” His boyfriend’s shoulders raised up as he pouted. “But it may be wise to avoid staying out much longer.”

Jason reached out and tugged at the collar of Donnie’s coat. “Unzip your jacket for a sec.”

“Huh?”

“Just do it.”

Donatello did, and the minute the thing was open, Jason pressed himself against his boyfriend, wrapping his arms around his back underneath the coat. 

He glanced up at the turtle. “You’re cold because you’re an idiot who doesn’t wear a shirt under this thing.”

“The layers would only do so much.” Donnie snapped, then tugged his jacket all the way around Jase before zipping it back up. “Hah, now you’re trapped.”

“Oh no.” Jason gave a fake whine. “Whatever will I do?” 

Donnie chuckled and nuzzled his nose into Jase’s hair. 

Once again the pair fell silent. Jason even let his eyes close, just focusing on the sensation of his boyfriend’s slow heartbeat and the occasional kiss of a snowflake on his cheeks or his ears. 

“Feeling warmer?” He mumbled into the turtle’s chest.

“Yes, but we still shouldn’t stay out much later.” Donnie kissed his head. 

“Wanna just head back and warm up?”

“Oh?” Donnie let out a faint growl. “What did you have in mind?”

Jason snorted. “Probably what you’re thinking, but we can also just get some hot chocolate and watch another movie.”

Another kiss. “How about we warm up first? Then get some hot chocolate.” 

Yeah, Jason would be more than fine with that, but he didn’t make any effort to free himself and start walking. “Donnie?”

“Yes? Are you asking me to free you?”

He cracked a smile. “Nah, I just wanna say that I’m really glad you’re here. First time in a while that I’ve enjoyed this holiday.” 

His boyfriend hummed. “I hope I can make it enjoyable every year after too.” 

Jason returned the hum and finally straightened up. “Alright, let’s get walking before I just fall asleep in here.” He tried to wiggle free, but that didn’t work with how tight the jacket was. “Donnie, unzip this thing.” 

“What if I just leave you trapped there forever, hm?” Donnie laughed and then tried to take a step forward, only to stumble when their legs bumped into each other. Thankfully he didn’t crash into the ground because Jase did not want to do that a second time.

“Just let me out, you idiot.” He laughed. 

“But it’s gonna be cold,” the turtle whined.

“Not for long.” Jason tilted his head to kiss Donnie on the throat. 

Now his boyfriend scrambled for the zipper, almost knocking them both over a second time before finally freeing Jase.