Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Casey stumbled into a nearby alleyway, clutching his arm to his torso. His racing heart stopped him from feeling the gigantic gash in his right forearm. 

Good thing too, he slapped his good hand over his mouth to quiet his breathing. He waited until the gang of purple dragons left the street. Not daring to move until he couldn’t hear their footsteps anymore.

Now, don’t get him wrong. 

Casey Jones was and is not a coward and if he was ever going to go down, he would make sure it was in a fight. But there's just a point in a fight. A small moment where anyone would question whether it was actually worth it or not.

For Casey, it was when close to forty more completely jacked gang members spilled out of nowhere, adding onto the group he was already fighting. 

They had guns, actual firearms.

Casey may have been a moron, but even he knew he was lucky to escape with just a shallow knife wound.

His arm twitched and a spurt of fresh blood gushed out.

Okay,

Maybe not shallow-

He dug into his pocket for his oddly shaped T-phone and his fingers fumbled trying to scroll through the short list of contacts, trying his best not to panic as he watched droplets of blood steadily drip into perfect little circles on the screen.

The device buzzed in his hand. One ring.

It buzzed again. Two rings.

Pleasepleaseplease oh c’mon, please-

“I’m busy.”

Casey nearly sobbed in relief. He had never been so happy to hear the voice of someone perpetually irritated with him.

He swallowed and put on the most cheerful tone he could muster. Best not to scare anyone.

“Hey, Donnie… can you come pick me up?”

The turtle's reply was short and sweet.

“No.”

Well, maybe not sweet, but Casey couldn’t help but feel just a little bit better after hearing his voice.

Just a little bit though. He was still technically bleeding out.

“You should’ve been back on your own hours ago. I’m not driving the shellraiser halfway across Manhattan just because you're tired.”

Casey grit his teeth, hearing the receiver move further away from Donnies mouth.

“Wait! Don’t hang up. Please.”

His voice cracked with the last word and he hissed in pain.

Donnie must’ve realized something was actually wrong and that this was not yet another (there were many) stupid prank call, because while his stern tone didn’t change, it was flooded with concern that wasn’t there a second ago.

“Where are you?”

Casey heard the sounds of something being roughly put down on a desk.

“Got hurt. Kinda stabbed… it was a really lame purple dragon goon…”

There were clear sounds of things clattering to the floor as Donnie scraped his chair back. The garish noise made Casey drop the phone, adding yet another strand to the web of cracks on his phone screen. Donnie would kill him if he ever saw how broken the glass was.

At least, if the blood loss didn’t get him first.

“Goddamnit Casey! That’s not what I asked! Where are you?!”

Black was starting to pool around Casey's vision, looking down at the blood staining his already filthy clothes.

His head was pounding, making it harder to think. His words started to slur together as his eyes trailed the rivulets of blood dripping out of his arm. Bile rose in his throat but he forced it down.

“M’ next to the laundromat… in th’ alley…”

He closed his eyes, just for a moment.

“Hey, hey! Stay with me, Jones! Stay conscious!”

Donnie swore and Casey could hear his footsteps through the phone, running at full sprint while yelling- No, begging Casey to stay awake.

He might’ve liked hearing Donnie’s voice more than he would admit with a clear mind, but it’s not like he ever actually listened to the turtle before.

⋅ ⋆ ⋄ ✧ ☆ 𓆉 ☆ ✧ ⋄ ⋆ ⋅

(A/N hey hey, wouldja look at that- I figured how to make cool page breakers)

Donnie ran across the rooftops so fast, he nearly flew. He cursed Casey Jones with every single step. Cursed him and his stupid vigilante tendencies, his stupid hockey gear that he always insisted on wearing on patrols, his stupid idiotic ludicrous moronic impulses that got him involved in every fight within a five mile radius of his person.

Donnie landed with a near silent thud in the dark alley right next to the laundromat that Casey and April used. It was near their apartment complex and Donnie had passed it many times on patrol.

He listened intently to the dark quiet, ears straining for any sign of life.

A ragged breath caught his attention.

“CASEY!!”

Behind a dumpster laid his friend, slumped against the rusted metal with crimson flowing onto the dirty ground.

“Yay… Donnie…”

The boy's eyes opened slightly wider and his mouth cracked into a weak grin, showing his missing teeth.

“Sewer apples!! Casey! This is not the time to be fooling around!”

Donnie dropped to his knees, trying to figure out how to best carry him.

He ended up hooking one arm underneath his legs and the other behind his back, palm splayed against Casey to feel his heart beat. It was hammering away now, but it was only a matter of time before it slowed.

And then stopped…

He pressed his hand more firmly to feel that reassuring ba-bump ba-bump through layers of protective hockey gear that Casey swore protected him.

Fat load of good that did him.

Donnie slung his uninjured arm around the back of his neck and he placed the arm with the still gushing wound on top of Casey’s stomach. There wasn’t anything sanitary to staunch the bleeding, so that would have to do until they got to the hospital.

“N-not the h-hospital… Don’t- don’t go there…”

Casey shakily murmured out as if he had read Donnie’s mind.

“Have you lost your mind! You’re bleeding out!!”

As much as Donnie wanted to physically shake some sense into the boy in his arms, that would’ve been counterproductive to the extreme. Instead, he held Casey closer to his body and started off in the direction of the nearest hospital. Mutant turtle appearance be damned, Casey was going to be admitted if it was the last thing he did.

“Can’t… Can’t afford…”

Donnie stopped in his tracks. Groaning internally, he screwed his eyes shut.

Of course… American healthcare at its finest.

He didn’t miss the way that Casey’s heartbeat was beginning to decline or the way his speech was gradually getting more slurred.

He needed to get back to the lair fast.

“I… I still beat their asses though… ha…”

“Casey, what the-“

Donnie paused right before he was going to scold the adrenaline junkie, taking a good look at his face.

His eyes were dazed and unfocused, his skin pale.

Delirious from blood loss. Of course.

Donnie’s expression softened. He wasn’t going to get anywhere by scolding someone who was so completely out of it.

He broke off into a run, heading back to the sewers with a pained sigh.

“Yeah, okay. Good job, Casey.”

“Yay…”

In faint celebration, he tried to raise his arm. The arm with a ten inch gushing slash in it.

Donnie fought the urge to scream from this absolute imbecile. The absolute imbecile he was trying to save.

“Keep that arm down for me, m’kay? Don’t move it too much. Also, keep quiet to save your energy.”

“Kay…”

Casey complied for all of ten seconds.

“I think you should kiss me.”

Donnie nearly stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk.

“What?!”

He shot an incredulous glare downwards, getting another view of Casey’s dopey smile.

Delirious, right.

He quickly recovered, taking solace in the fact that Casey likely wasn’t going to remember this part of their interaction. His mind had obviously lost too much blood.

He reached his bleeding-out arm to weakly poke at Donnie’s lips. 

“Yeah, you’re so pretty…”

Clearly he was delusional too. Perhaps even hallucinating.

Casey mumbled through a grin. His eyes were still not entirely focused, but clearly looking at Donnie’s face.

The turtle leaned his face back, pulling away from Casey’s fingers. He was almost halfway to the sewers. Why did Casey have to live so far?

“What did I just say about your arm?”

“Oh yeah…”

He looked at his arm, watching the dark river streamed from the cut like he hadn’t noticed it before.

“Huh, S’ lotta red.”

“Your arm has likely gone into shock. You’ll feel it again soon enough.”

“Cool.”

Casey closed his eyes and for a while, the only sounds between them were his ragged breaths. Donnie let him sleep for a few miles until he felt his heartbeat drop again, gently shaking him awake. 

“Stay awake.”

Casey made a noise and Donnie heaved a sigh in relief when he could feel a more regular heartbeat through the boy’s sweatshirt.

“Still think you should kiss me.”

“Not happening, Jones.”

Donnie was never- never going to bring this night up ever again.

“Why?”

Casey whined and Donnie nearly threw him off the roof.

“Because you’re bleeding out!! How are you still not understanding?!”

The boy slow blinked at the arm resting on his stomach. It looked like all the motion from running across rooftops was helping him stay conscious.

“Fine… What about after?”

“Still no.”

Once Casey was patched up and right as rain, they would be back to their normal cycle of arguing, pissing eachother off, and generally being nuisances to each other. This whole situation would be forgotten and taboo.

“But I wannaaa”

“I’m fairly sure you don’t.”

Donnie scoffed, pushing his legs to go faster. His mutated, green turtle legs. Legs that matched the rest of his mutated, green turtle body.

Casey had clearly lost a near fatal amount of blood if he saw anything attractive in him.

“Ughhh, you’re so mean to yourself, Donnie…”

Donnie ignored him, focusing on the fact that they were now nearing a sewer entrance.

“Normally, I would say keep talking to keep yourself awake, but now I think I want you to shut up.”

“See? you don’t know how cute you actually are…”

Casey’s unfocused stare stayed planted on Donnie’s face and the turtle looked away to scan the streets for a manhole cover.

“Like… you’re so tall. Like, sooooo… tall.”

He sighed, eyes going even more unfocused for a moment before gazing up at Donnie.

“N’ pretty too… Wait… I already said that- Hold on…”

Casey’s face scrunched up as he searched for more compliments that Donnie absolutely did not want to hear.

“Your eyes! They’re sick! Are they red or brown? I wanna know.”

With his good arm, he grabbed Donnie’s jaw and weakly pulled him down to squint hard into his eyes. Casey’s gaze felt like it was going deeper than just his eyes, he was staring into his very soul, looking at thoughts and feelings rather than just colors. Donnie felt his face heat up fast.

Ignore him, Donnie… Ignore-

Donnie told himself in his mind as he shifted Casey in his arms, pulling away. Meaningless questions, inability to follow conversation patterns. Casey’s deliriousness was getting worse.

“Like, sometimes they look red and sometimes they look brown. I can’t figure it out! I look at you a lot y’know- When you're not looking at me… In the kitchen your eyes look red, but in your lab your eyes look brown. Outside at night, your eyes look brown too… S‘pecially when you’re focused.”

Donnie chose to ignore the detailed report Casey gave on his eyes. Just how much did he look at him?

He was quoting details from before he was injured. Casey was observing him in his freetime and Donnie didn’t know how to feel about that.

“Fascinating. I didn’t know you were a stalker.”

Donnie quipped sarcastically, squatting down to shimmy his two fingers underneath the manhole.

“I… I kinda wish you would look at me more.”

Casey curled into Donnie’s plastron, eyes just nearly fluttering closed. He pulled his good arm from Donnie’s neck, using his fingers to trace lazy patterns into the shell scutes with a somber look on his face.

Donnie paused, right about to lift a manhole cover.

And looked straight down at Casey.

The boy reached up and lightly grasped his chin with both hands, the latter too shocked to protest.

“See? Brown eyes right now. Dope.”

That was the last thing he said before he passed out, the blood loss finally becoming too much for him. 

He should’ve listened when Donnie told him to stop moving his arm.

Donnie slipped into the sewers, clutching Casey tight to his chest, feeling a reassuring and steady heartbeat.

Well, good thing they were home.

⋅ ⋆ ⋄ ✧ ☆ 𓆉 ☆ ✧ ⋄ ⋆ ⋅

The first thing that hit Casey’s nose when he woke up was the pungent smell of disinfectant. The distinct smell of Donnie's lab. He's hung around it so often, he was able to recognize it by just the fumes alone.

He groaned, gathering his breath to complain to Donnie about the smell. The turtle was likely nearby, he would never let Casey alone in his precious lab. No matter how injured.

Wait-

He was injured.

“You’re awake.”

Casey startled, Donnie was way closer than he expected. Way closer. Like, crouched down next to his face close.

“Ack!”

He tried to scramble away from those wide, red eyes, but found himself unable to move.

“What the heck, dude?! You tied me to your table?!”

Donnie rose up from his crouch, towering over Casey in the way only he could do. He closed his eyes and pressed his fingers to his temple.

“Do you remember anything from last night?”

Casey, still wiggling from underneath his bonds, glared at the turtle before him.

“Yeah. I kicked bunch of purple dragon ass on patrol, skated back to the lair, fell asleep peacefully, and then you tied me to a table-”

With a particularly hard thrash, the bandages caught against the edge of the table, sending a fresh spike of pain up his arm. A wave of memories flashed through his mind.

Okay, maybe he lied about just falling asleep and getting back to the lair on his own… and about kicking purple dragon ass.

“Stop that!- This is exactly why I restricted your movement.”

Donnie grabbed his arm as he grumbled, reapplying gauze with focus evident in his brown eyes.

Brown.

With his head down and out of the light, Casey mentally noted that Donnie’s eyes were now brown.

“You’re staring.”

Casey immediately darted his eyes to the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. 

“Pshh- Uh, yeah- Gotta make sure you don’t screw u- aaAAAAAHH!!”

Forgetting he was tied down, he tried to sit up, resulting in his head thunking back down onto the metal lab table.

“The hell did you just do?!!”

He curled around his arm the best he could. It felt cold and fizzy and painful.

“Hydrogen peroxide. Keeps it disinfected.”

Donnie had a shit eating smirk on his face. Casey pouted, flexing his wrist as the pain quickly subsided.

“Did that on purpose…”

He mumbled under his breath, hearing the turtle snicker.

The two were left in silence once again as Donnie finished reapplying the gauze and wrappings and other medical things Casey should’ve known the name of but didn’t.

“Do you remember… anything from last night?”

Donnie suddenly spoke up, quieter and more tentative than the first time.

“Erm. Well, I remember getting uh-”

Casey glanced down at his arm.

“Foolishly stabbed after making a series of reckless decisions?”

Donnie supplied.

“I remember getting stabbed.”

He shot a glare at him.

“And then I kind of remember calling you, but after that it’s real fuzzy…”

Donnie gave him a look that he couldn't quite decipher. Casey racked his brain to supply the missing information to no avail.

“Ohh, don’t tell me I like, passed out in your arms or somethin’!”

And just like that, the look was gone. Donnie snorted, turning away to get up.

“Ha! Something like that.”

Casey burned up with shame as he watched Donnie cross his lab, pausing in the doorway to look back at him. He quickly moved his eyes elsewhere.

If Donnie ever found out how much he looked at him, he would simply die of embarrassment.

“Don’t pop any stitches while I’m gone, okay?”

At his warning, Casey looked back, pretending he was looking over for the first time.

“Yeah sure, whatever, Gaptooth.”

Casey also pretended like he didn’t love the way Donnie’s fiery eyes held him in an angry glare.

“Gaptooth?!! You’re missing more teeth than I am!!”

Donnie spun on his heels, finally leaving the lab.

“Unbelievable…”

Casey heard him mutter as he stomped away.

In that moment, he decided that Donnies eyes weren’t red nor brown. They were their own special color somewhere in between.

Terracotta.

Donnie’s eyes were the color of the flower pots that lined his apartment's fire escape rails. The ones right outside his bedside window...

Aw, great. Now he's going to be thinking about that every time he saw those damn pots. 

He was sure that if he ever told the turtle that, Donnie would more likely than not make fun of him. Probably make some kind of remark about his intelligence like ‘Wow Jones, I didn’t know you knew words longer than three syllables.’ and he would say it so sarcastically. And then Casey would counter it with something dumb or call him a name that he didn’t really mean.

Casey had had their usual pattern of banter memorized for months now.

He smiled up at the ceiling, trying to raise his good hand to move a strand of hair from his face, only to find that it was strapped down-

Wait-

WAIT-

“HEY! COME BACK AND UNTIE ME, YOU PSYCHO!!”

Chapter Text

Donnie shifted the unconscious mass in his arms, the only source of comfort being the steady thrum of the boy’s heart underneath his palm. He maneuvered Casey so his cheek was pressed against his shoulder, facing Donnie’s neck. The new position freed one hand so the turtle could quietly push the turnstiles to enter his home.

Casey was going to be okay.

He had to be okay.

The lair was empty. Everyone who was in their right mind was clocking out in their own rooms after patrol.

Except Donnie. Because he was busy handling this idiot.

He quickly made his way to the lab, making sure to close the door as silently as possible. He could feel Casey’s weak breaths ghosting the side of his neck, hoarse and ragged from exertion.

He shoved the rest of his experiments and doohickeys off of his workbench, hearing them clatter against the floor and fully knowing he would feel the sting of regret later.

But Casey came first.

Donnie positioned the sleeping boy onto his back. He looked paler than ever.

The sight was striking to Donnie, to say the least.

Casey Jones. The boy who was always way too loud and way too wild, his boisterous attitude constantly bordering on the territory of narcissistic. Casey, who never had a dull thought in his 16 years of living and practically bounced off the walls with unbridled energy. The boy who was always so full of life.

Casey Jones, who now laid motionless, eyes closed and skin dangerously light.

Donnie made quick work of staunching the bleeding with sterile gauze from a first aid kit. He cringed at the way the blood blossomed like unwanted flowers on the white surface of the gauze as it soaked through.

Eventually though, the constant flow of blood slowed to a clotted stop and the turtle heaved a sigh of relief, applying generous layers of bandages with the proper amount of tension.

He was an internet-trained medic, after all.

“D… Don…?”

A slight tinge of color had returned to Casey’s face. 

Donnie met his eyes and-

Yep. Still unfocused. Casey was still going to be delirious and out of it.

How fun. There was sure to be a repeat of the nonsense that had happened on the way down to the lair.

The relief of Caey waking up quickly faded away upon that realization. Donnie hovered over his laying form, frowning slightly as he examined him.

He didn’t have any major injuries besides his arm, which was good, but it also meant that Casey would be back to his normal self soon, once his heart restabilized his blood levels.

Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, Donnie didn’t know. On one hand, there would be no more of this weird alternate universe version of Casey who wasn’t an ass. But on the other hand, he would have to explain everything that happened and why he was in the lab. And he did not want to explain any of the things that had happened in the past few hours with Casey in his arms.

Nope.

Actually, Donnie had already forgotten that whole ordeal. He wasn’t thinking about Casey said or what it could’ve meant. Not. At. All.

“Welcome back to Earth. You had me worried there, Casey.”

He crossed his arms, looking down at the boy.

Casey was okay.

That relaxed Donnie enough to fall back into his usual attitude. The turtle turned away from the workbench to grab a few more supplies to continue working on him.

The boy’s reaction came a bit late, but that was expected. He was still recuperating and gaining balance.

What was not expected, however, were the words that came out of his mouth.

“Earth? Nah, I must be in heaven ‘cause I’m seein’ an angel!”

Donnie nearly dropped the dark plastic bottle of painkillers. Casey just lay there on the table, a dreamy look in his eyes and a lazy grin in his mouth.

“I wanna call you pretty.”

He unscrewed the cap, shaking a few of the round pills into his hand. They were the strong ones that Donnie had formulated for him and  his brothers. In all honesty, he had no idea what effects would be on Casey, but what he did know was that the boy was going to be in a hell of a lot of pain soon.

“Well, don’t.”

The answer tumbled out of Donnie’s mouth. Right then and there, he decided: the sooner Casey got back to normal, the better.

“Whyyy? It’s true. You’re so so SO-“

Donnie whirled around, smacking his hand over the boy’s mouth while also simultaneously stuffing the pills into his mouth.

“Are you trying to wake the entire lair?!”

He hissed, low and under his breath.

“I am trying so hard not to yell at you right now because I know you won’t remember any of- DID YOU LICK MY HAND??”

He recoiled in disgust, looking down at his palm which indeed now had a shiny trail of spit on it. Casey just grinned, mischief oh so apparent in his eyes.

“Who’s bein’ loud now, Dee?”

Donnie wrinkled his nose in distaste, going to wash his hands with antibacterial soap (He would’ve acetone-dipped and flamed it if he could). He spoke over the sound of the tap, still making sure to be quiet enough that no one would wake up.

“Don’t call me ‘Dee’.”

“Dee, Donnie, Don, Deedee, Darling, Doll-“

Donnie cut him off by flicking water into his face, though it only served to make Casey laugh.

“But really though, you are pretty.”

There was a note of actual, genuine affection in his voice that Donnie didn’t know what to do with.

“I’m not.”

“Ughhhhhh-“

Casey groaned aloud, tilting his head back against the metal of the workbench. For a split second, Donnie considered slapping his hand over his mouth again, but he did not want a repeat event of that. 

“Are you serious, Don? You’re pretty and smart and funny- Even though I pretend not to laugh sometimes.”

Casey’s face scrunched up in confusion.

“Wait, why do I pretend not to laugh?”

Donnie sighed and turned, finally fed up and ready to tell him off, when he suddenly got an eyeful of red. Casey had bled through the bandages when he hadn’t been looking. The turtle cursed, taking off the soiled cloth and reinspecting the wound to see what had gone wrong.

It didn’t look like it needed stitches, but all of Casey’s movement and wriggling on the table had broken the fresh scab that had started to form. Donnie released a breath of relief, simply putting on new wrappings. He had plenty, afterall.

“Whoa… That’s a… That’s a lotta blood. That mine?”

Casey pushed himself up into a sitting position, much to Donnie’s alarm.

“Casey-“

The boy held his head on his good arm. For a moment, Donnie thought he was actually okay, but then Casey promptly slumped forward, smushing his face into the crook of his neck. On instinct, he wrapped his arms around his torso to steady him.

The first thing that Donnie registered (It was rather worrying that is the first thing) was how warm Casey was. Were humans supposed to feel that hot? He could feel Casey’s heart thrumming in overtime in his chest, which was (increasingly worryingly- why was he so fixated on these details?) a sensation he found himself not minding. It reassured him that Casey was recovering and would be just fine.

Also… This kind of felt nice.

Just a little bit.

Donnie stood frozen, unsure of what to do with the boy resting his weight on him. He didn’t panic, he could feel Casey’s warm breath against his neck. That meant he was still breathing.

He was finally snapped out of it when Casey turned his head, peaking a dark eye up at him.

“Can you kiss me?”

Yeah, that definitely jolted him out of whatever was going on in his head.

“No.”

He answered plainly, taking his arms away from his waist and peeling the boy off of him.

And now they were back to this. Donnie explaining why he was never not ever going to make lip to lip contact with Casey Jones for the second time that night.

“Why?”

“I already told you why.”

Donnie kept his answers short and curt, attempting to shut down any notions in Casey’s mind. He was going to have to wipe the security tapes in his lab later.

“What if I said please?”

Wow, he really wasn’t letting up on this. Donnie should’ve known, Casey was always just so stubborn over the stupidest things.

“What if I said that I was a green mutant turtle who lives in the sewers? I don’t know how much blood you’ve lost that’s making you think I’m some sort of ‘Prince Charming’ but it’s obviously enough to be concerning. Stop moving your arm around so much.”

Casey huffed, blowing a strand of hair that had fallen across his face.

“I know, you're a turtle, Donnie. I got eyes. And my eyes see the prettiest damn turtle in the sewers.”

He reached a hand up, draping both his arms over Donnie’s shoulders, reattaching himself to the turtle.

“One kiss? Please? Cause I’m hurt?”

If Donnie wasn’t so preoccupied with the fact that Casey was now trying to bury his warm face in his neck, he would’ve reacted faster. Jeez, why did Casey have to be so warm? It was distracting- Uh, disturbing, really.

“S-still no.”

Casey sighed into his neck. A feeling that made Donnie want to both bodily throw him across the lab to watch him smash into a shelf full of glass beakers and… oddly enough… just let him continue. Since Donnie was trying to help Casey stay alive, he opted for the second. Casey’s (warm, warm, very warm- why was everything so damn warm?) cheek smushed into his collarbone.

“Fiiiine. Casey Jones gets it. He doesn’t play the game unless everyone’s betting.”

Of course the moron phrases consent like that because of course he does.

“But… Can we just stay like this? Just for a lil while. You’re comfy, Don… Real comfy.”

The tired tone in Casey’s voice is really what convinces him to let up. They’ve both had a long night, even if only one of them would remember it in the morning.

“…Sure, Casey. Just for a little while.”

Donnie doesn’t hear a response, but he can feel Casey smiling into the crook of his neck. He can feel it. 

A silence settles between them and Donnie tentatively reaches up to touch Casey’s head. He places a hand on his hair, unmoving and just feeling the strands which were surprisingly soft. Casey’s heartbeat slowed down, not enough to be concerning, but enough to tell Donnie that he was relaxed.

The two sat like that, together for a few minutes before Donnie suddenly cleared his throat. 

“Uhm- Casey? Are you still awake?”

That damn smile. He can feel his teeth right up against the skin of his pulse point.

“Course. How can I sleep when all I can think about is kissing this pretty neck? Y’know, my offer still stands.”

He feels Casey’s grip tighten around his shoulders. It’s the feeling of the cloth bandages against the back of his neck that grounds him back in reality.

Casey Jones injured.

Lost blood.

Delirious.

Pain meds probably kicking in.

Right.

“Pfft, what offer? You asked me to kiss you.”

He moved Casey off of him until he was sitting upright and separated from him.

“Uh, yeah, an offer to be the one to smash lips with the Casey Jones.”

Donnie just rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t help the small smile that crept onto his face from Casey’s delirious blood-loss antics.

“ Enticing. Now, stop moving your arm so much. I can’t have you losing more blood.”

He should’ve known the boy was up to something the second he saw that smirk.

“Say you’re pretty and I’ll lay down.”

Oh ho ho, so that’s how Casey wanted to annoy him?

“Hah! No .”

He uses his forearm to take Casey by surprise. He was much taller than the boy so it doesn’t take much to pin him down to the table. Donnie was still gentle of course. He wasn’t stupid. Casey simply went down easily.

A little too easily.

“WHOA-“

At the last moment, Casey flung his good arm around Donnie’s neck, latching on and bringing him down with him. In an split second, Donnie instinctively slid a hand underneath Casey’s head to stop it from crashing into the metal. He still lands heavily on top of him at an awkward angle. 

“CASEY!!”

The boy in question only snickered into that same damn spot on his neck.

“Oh no… I’m down…”

Donnie could feel the exact same smile, missing teeth and all.

Suddenly, the door to his lab swung open noiselessly- Donnie oiled his hinges on a bi-weekly basis.

“Donnie, my T-phone…”

Raph looked up from the glitching screen of his T-phone, pausing mid sentence at the sight in front of him. His eyes darted from Donnie to Casey and back to Donnie.

“…broke- WHAT THE SHELL?!!”

Donnie squirmed in a vain attempt to get off of Casey, but the boy clung on like a koala.

“It- It’s not what it looks like- I swear!”

It definitely definitely was not what it looked like! With Casey’s face still buried in his neck, cackling wildly, with Donnie’s hands over his chest and under his head, and with Casey’s injury hanging off the other side of the workbench- out of Raph’s line of  sight.”

“UH- It better not be!! Ugh, GOD my EYES-“

Donnie finally managed to wrench the boy off of him, blushing madly. Raph had the heels of his palms pressed into his eyes and was groaning audibly in despair and disgust, T-phone dropped and forgotten on the floor.

“Raph- I can explain!”

“I don’t WANNA hear why you’re making out with my best friend at two in the goddamn morning, DONNIE!!”

He didn’t think it was possible, but he blushed even harder.

“Wha- We weren’t- I did NOT kiss him!!”

Raph took a deep breath, seemingly steeling his nerves as he took his hands off of his eyes.

“So I didn’t walk in on some secret make out sesh?”

“NO!!”

He heaved a dramatic sigh of relief, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Thank god, I was about to bleach my eyeballs.”

Raph bent over to pick up his T-phone. 

Donnie made the mistake of thinking everything was going to end up alright after all.

“S’ too bad…”

Raph’s head whipped over to face Casey so fast, at any other time it would’ve made Donnie laugh.

“What.”

“It woulda been reeeal nice to be mackin’ on a hot turtle. Raph, tell Donnie he’s pretty.”

The silence in those two seconds could’ve been set alight with a match. Donnie buried his face in his hands.

“WHAT.”

Raph roared. If they kept this up, the whole lair would be in Donnie’s lab soon.

“No no!- Not in like, a weird way! I’ve been tryna kiss him all night and he’s just been all ‘I’m an ugly mutated turtle n’ stuff even though I’m a dope buff scientist hur dur dur ’ Tell ‘im he’s pretty.”

Much to Donnie’s relief, his brother did not call him pretty, but instead opened his mouth in shock. His eyebrows bunched up on his forehead as he slowly turned his head to face Donnie with a look of utter, putrid disgust. Once again, the situation would have been comical at any other time. As in a time when it wasn’t happening to Donnie.

“I can explain…”

“You better. I’m gonna go to sleep- try to wipe my memory, wake up at a time that is not two in the morning , and you are going to come out and explain… aaaaall this.”

Raph gestured to Casey’s general direction with both hands.

“I know what it looked like, but I swear I’m not-“

Donnie could feel his face burning up again.

“JEEZ! Not that kinda ’come out’, man!”

With that, Raph turned and left, muttering something about ‘his brain stem’ as he made his way back to his room with his broken T-phone in hand.

Donnie waited for his brother’s footsteps to fade away before he shut his door. He whirled around to face Casey, eyes set on fire with anger.

“Casey. Jones. I am beyond mortified!! Why did you say that?! Do you even know what you just caused?!”

He felt a grip on his hand and looked down to see Casey staring dreamily up at him. His five fingered hands were small and softer than Donnie’s own despite the blisters on the palms and the calluses over the knuckles. Nothing like April’s hands.

Why was he thinking so hard about Casey’s hands?

“I mean… We’re alone now, aren’t we, doll?”

Maybe it did take him a few more seconds than usual to respond after that. After Casey rubbed a small circle with his thumb over the back of Donnie’s hand. Who knows? Not Donnie. He was already thinking about for he was going to wipe those security tapes clean after this.

He yanked his hand away, grabbing at his head in frustration.

“UGH! Even half crazy you’re still infuriating!!”

Out of the gap between his arms, Donnie spotted the partially used roll of bandages that he had used to patch the boy up. Now, he wasn’t proud of his irrational split second decision, but he was so irritated with Casey, it seemed like it might just be a good idea.

“Your hands are rad. I wanna hold them.”

Casey began to reach out again with his injured arm and Donnie pulled away.

If that boy wasn’t going to stay still, then yeah, Donnie was gonna do this.

Starting with those grabby arms, he unraveled a long strip of white cloth and tied them down. He worked his way over the rest of Casey’s body, making sure the boy couldn’t move.

“There. Now you have to stop moving your arm.”

Proud of his handiwork, Donnie brushed his hands together and looked over at Casey who…

Who had the nerve to fall back asleep.

Donnie sighed, sitting in the rolling chair he kept by his workbench, resting his face on his hands with a tired sigh.

He was warmer than usual.

That wasn’t good. That usually meant that he was sick. Did Casey gove him some kind of disease?

Well, he felt sick every time he had to look at the vigilante. Gross, rough palms with dirt under his fingernails, a crooked nose that looked like it had been broken multiple times, missing teeth- granted some of that was from patrolling with the turtles…  those patrols where Casey looked kind of good fighting… dark eyes that had smile lines when he laughed a bit too hard… that small scar on his bottom lip…

Donnie hadn’t realized how close he had gotten to Casey’s face. 

He shook himself out of the trance he had put himself under, sparing just one more glance to Casey who was still conked out.

At least those pain meds worked.

Probably worked a little too well.

Donnie rescued one of his discarded projects from the floor where he had shoved them off his workbench to make room for Casey. The corner was a little dented, but not too badly. He sighed, already feeling slightly regretful about pushing them off like that.

Time always seemed to pass faster when he was tinkering. The clinking of gears calmed his nerves as well as his aggression. He still tried to keep relatively quiet out of courtesy of Casey.

Donnie rubbed at his face, taking a look at the time once he finished the thingamabob he was screwing around with.

Ugh, Raph would be up again soon, demanding answers.

He was not looking forward to that.

He darted his eyes to the side, looking at the bound-up culprit of his annoyance that night- scratch that, the culprit of his annoyance all the time. Casey was still asleep while Donnie looked him over.

…

Was he checking him out?

Donnie silently scolded himself as he pinched the space between his eyes, his weird brown-red unnatural eyes that he never really thought to much about before Casey’s detailed report on them.

If- a huge, major IF he was human, Donnie guessed he wouldn’t exactly mind giving into Casey’s relentless begging for a kiss. Just a small one on the cheek. Just enough to satisfy him.

A kiss that didn’t mean anything at all. Because it wouldn’t, even if he did give in. Because he did not want to kiss Casey Jones.

Because… that would be sort of nice.

He stared a little bit longer, committing every detail of his face to memory.

Hey. Casey himself had done it to Donnie. The latter could to the same.

Donnie guessed that Casey’s hands were objectively nice because they were warm and the skin was soft. He guessed that his nose wasn’t that awful to look at, maybe even a little bit charming if he really looked at it hard enough. It suited the rest of his features quite nicely. He guessed that those gaps between his teeth weren’t all that bad. It’s not like Donnie himself had a set of perfect pearly whites.

Donnie leaned in, just a little more. For… observational purposes.

The lips surrounding his teeth were slightly open with a snore and-

And then Donnie was kissing them.

And it felt… nice.

Granted, he wasn't doing much in terms of reciprocation, but Donnie moved his lips over Casey's warm ones. The heat radiating off the boy's skin was enough to keep Donnie distracted. He slipped a hand under Casey’s ear, tilting his face to get a better angle, slotting his mouth right back over. The fact that Casey was missing about a fourth of the teeth that were supposed to be in his mouth was extremely noticeable, but Donnie couldn't care less. 

He pulled back. it was just one kiss- a long one, yeah, but just one. Casey was still asleep but had a strangely satisfied smile on his face. 

Maybe he should’ve had some qualms about kissing a boy while he was asleep. Phrasing what he did: Drag a half conscious 16 year old boy into the sewers, load him up the wazoo with ultra powerful pain medication, tie him to a table, and then give mouth to mouth- Yeah, that didn’t sound all that great on his part.

Donnie noticed that a few locks of Casey's black hair had fallen out of his bandanna and and across his face. He started moving his other hand (the first one still tenderly holding Casey's face) to tuck the hair back when-

“DONNIE!! YOU READY TO GET YER ASS OUT HERE YET?!”

Raph’s voice nearly shook the lair.

Shit.

“CAN IT, RAPH!!”

Casey began to stir underneath Donnie’s hand.

Shit!

He quickly pulled his hand away before Casey woke up, hoping that the boy couldn’t feel it. He crouched down to monitor the boy as he came back to life, long eyelashes fluttering about as he adjusted to the bright light of the lab. Oof, maybe Donnie should’ve accounted for that.

Casey wasn’t writhing in pain, so Donnie theorized that while most of the painkillers wore off while he was asleep, there was still enough going through his system to keep it bearable.

He caught a glimpse of the bandages on Casey’s arm. Rats, he needed to disinfect the wound again soon.

He was still crouched down close to Casey’s face when the boy turned to him.

Donnie blurted the first thing that came to his genius mind.

“You’re awake.”

“ACK-“

Donnie winced as he heard Casey’s head hit the metal of the workbench in surprise.

Oh, maybe he shouldn’t have been so close.