* THE SMART ONE .

“he’s a monster, april. a MONSTER. don’t look directly at him.”

“i hope you’re getting paid because you are going to be working some looooooong hours, i imagine.”

     breath, he’s only trying to get between your shell. 

“at least i get the girl.”

“at least i get the girl.”

Feet drag towards his twin’s room hurriedly. Hauls his battered but slowly healing shell to seek solace away from intense thoughts and sleep terrors, each step eliciting a meek wince. The nightmares weighed more on his mind than the heaviness in his body trying to convince it to keel over. Yes, he should be resting. He shouldn’t be up or attempting to walk when concerned brothers were just a call away. But in such desperation to not face the arising panic alone, it slipped from common sense.

“Sorry…” Is said aloud, head hanging as his arm supports himself against the archway.

I’m sorry for being so problematic.

          oh, he KNOWS that isn’t his twin brother.   it can’t be because his twin should be laying in the med-bay because he is on bed rest & most likely will be for the foreseeable future!   it was true that their mutated genetics made healing faster & easier, & truthfully, had their DNA not been of the mutant variety, leo would have been murdered in that prison dimension.   donnie knows that there were many moments where their mutant blood had saved them, but none so evident as what leo must have experienced in those few minutes spent alone with the kraang.   leo still has never come out & explained precisely what happened, & no one pressed  ( for his sake or theirs?   donnie tells himself that he doesn’t ask despite his curiosity because of his twin, not because he’s afraid of the answer )  but it isn’t hard to make an educated guess.   as donnie spins in his lab chair his thickly painted brows furrow in anger.   it’s a surface-level anger that comes from caring about someone so much & he is on his feet in an instant.

          “’nardo!   what are you doing, dum-dum?”   his voice is incredulous & it comes out meaner than he even intends.   donnie tries to hide it with a sigh but he feels his throat tightening already.   he listens to leo talk, his voice thick with the threat of a sob & exhaustion rooted in each syllable.   donnie’s lips purse & he nears the other with over-exaggerated frustration.   “hey, hush.   be quiet & sit down, at least.   you’re still recovering.   do you WANT to exacerbate your wounds?”   one hand on leo’s shell, the other on his plastron as he guides him to the bed to sit him down.   he sits down beside his brother & extracts his hands.  he sits a good couple of inches away uneasily.   he loves his brother dearly, but these kinds of situations, though more apparent after the kraang invasion, was still difficult to navigate for the soft-shelled turtle.

pvrpletech asked: ❛  when i think of you i smile, and when i smile i think of you. i don’t know if it’s the thinking that makes me smile or the smile that keeps me thinking. all i know is i’m always thinking of you and smiling.  ❜

          he is certainly taken aback by the sudden embrace, though it was not unwelcomed.   strong hands go to support her weight, holding her beneath the legs against his plastron.   it still bewildered him that not only was this sort of affection fine with him, but he actually welcomed it ;   at least, when it was coming from april.   at times he still found himself avoidant or unresponsive toward physical attention, & when those times occurred, april was always more than understanding.   could he get any luckier?   he yelps against the kiss in surprise but not in displeasure & yes, okay, maybe he’s grinning like a complete fool when she pulls away.   his eyes dart to the side & a flush creeps up into his cheeks.