#atwlpart

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Donnie didn’t touch people.

Well, that wasn’t true. He participated in the occasional high-five and of course he had to grab random civilians to push them away from danger from time to time.

Donnie was… particular about how he touched people.

Unwanted physical contact made his skin crawl. Hugs with his family were fine. Bordering on annoying (looking at you, Leo), but fine. Shaking hands with clearly unwashed strangers or receiving hugs from well-meaning citizens just trying to express their gratitude was something Donnie relegated to his brothers. 

On occasion he would greet Mikey with a gentle head pat and Leo with a shove to the shoulder. Every so often he would find himself draped over Raph’s back, especially after a particularly long training session. And sometimes he would curl up next to April and allow her to run her nails over his head and the back of his neck.

But you… you were messing up all of Donnie’s data.

The two of you basically communicated in touch. A knee touch ‘hello’, a foot tap to say ‘thank you’, a squeeze of a hand to remind you that you were there for each other because that was the deal you made. Dancing with you was a whole other ballpark all together, Donnie didn’t think he’d had that much physical contact in his whole life.

And when he woke up with you wrapped in his arms? 

Donnie wasn’t prepared for it.

If anything, he wasn’t prepared to realize that he had very little motivation to move away. Your face was buried in his neck, your mouth blowing out little huffs of warm air across his skin. Your hand was under his arm and gripping the edge of his plastron. Donnie’s own arm was completely around your waist and keeping you close to his chest. That familiar scent that was always left behind when you stole his hoodies was in full force, completely flooding Donnie’s senses.

Donnie caught himself, just for a split second, pulling you just that little bit closer. You hummed in your sleep as he did so, rubbing your face against his neck.

Donnie’s entire body went stiff as his sensibilities finally caught up with the rest of him.

This was… this was not appropriate friend behavior. The opposite of appropriate, in fact. Holding another person this close does not a friendship make. This was for lovers, not lab partners that spent an inordinate amount of time together.

Not that Donnie really had any experience in the department.

In regards to lovers, that is. You had schooled him plenty the last few months on how working with another person could be.

The last few wonderfully productive and exuberant months.

Focus, Donatello! There is a task at hand!

Donnie removed his arm from your waist, moving slowly so as to not wake you up. He gently eased your grip off of his plastron and attempted to place your hand on your stomach.

Key word: attempted.

Your eyebrows furrowed in your sleep from the movement. Donnie stilled for just a second, worrying that he accidentally woke you up. You, however, stayed blissfully asleep as you clung further onto Donnie. You wrapped the same arm around Donnie’s back, this time slinging a leg over his upper thigh while you slotted yourself against him. 

You hummed contentedly at your new position. Donnie, on his part, was having a crisis.

His shell, his shell, you were touching his--

Deep breaths. Set the shivers from your palm aside.

He didn’t know what he would do if you woke up in this position. Would you push him away, disgusted at your closeness? Would your friendship be doomed to be awkward for the rest of time before fizzling out into unremarkable nothingness?

Or would you laugh it off and poke him in the sides, acting like nothing was wrong or strange about this at all?

There were too many variables and Donnie could risk none of them. 

Not when it came to you.

Donnie somehow managed to extricate himself from your hold. He had to bite the inside of his cheek at you protesting the movement. He delicately tucked the comforter around you and pushed your hair away from your face. You wrinkled your nose at him, but quickly curled up under the weight of the blanket.

Donnie let out a soft sigh as he stretched his arms out behind himself. He rolled his neck around to release some of the tension there. He pulled on his tech gauntlet and pulled up his cue of things to do today. He smacked his forehead with his hand when he noticed the time.

It was barely 6 am. He, or anyone else in the lair for that matter, wouldn’t normally be awake for another five hours minimum.

Donnie looked mournfully at his bed where you were sleeping. He knew how warm his spot was next to you, how your breath felt as it danced across his skin. If he really wanted to, he could slide right back in and wake up with you in his arms and know exactly where you were, know that no harm could come to you.

If he really wanted to, he could put on a show and act like he had no clue how the two of you ended up intertwined with each other.

...Would that even be so bad?

Donnie took a deep breath in and out to steady himself.  He pulled off his mask to freshly retie it and set off to work for a few hours in the lab.

The two of you weren’t even like that, anyways.