Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had been easy to like April. As a person, as a friend, and in a romantic sense. She was smart and pretty and the kind of girl that his dad probably wanted him to date. She seemed to somewhat like his flirting and they went out on “hangouts” that were suspiciously date-like. 

It had been much harder to like Donatello. Within a few days of knowing the turtles, it had become obvious that Donnie also liked April. He wasn't expecting to have any competition, but it wasn't anything that Casey Jones couldn't handle! Or so he thought at first… turns out Donnie was much smarter than himself (or anyone he had ever met), and seemed to captivate April with any new gadget he was working on. It also didn’t help that he seemed to think Casey was the most annoying thing he’d ever met (except maybe for Mikey). 

He had started to like Donnie as a person the first time he watched the turtles fight together, but didn’t really consider him a friend until they started to connect at the farmhouse. Everyone seemed surprised that forcing them to live together didn’t result in them killing each other, but rather quite the opposite. They still annoyed and teased one another, but it was much more lighthearted. After facing an alien invasion together, they knew that the other had their back. 

Donnie seemed pleasantly surprised when finding out about Casey’s mechanic skills. Turns out that they made a pretty good team when they weren’t trying to compete against each other. 

Fighting against Speed Demon was the first time he had called Donatello his friend and risked his life for him. And the Dream Beaver incident was the first time he actually thought he might lose Donnie. Fighting for the fate of the world against super powered, demonic beavers suddenly became very unimportant when April screamed that Donnie had stopped breathing. Casey barely had to think about the outcome before smashing the machine and watching as Donnie came back to life. He didn’t even feel that jealous when April kissed him. 

Soon the turtles were on some sort of spirit quest. They were gone for days, which left Casey an opportunity to tease Donnie about April and him being left alone together. But in reality, not much happened when they were gone. Casey thought about trying extra hard to pursue April but…somehow it seemed wrong without Donnie there. In typical Jones fashion he had chalked it up to him having good sportsmanship. Not fair to play if the other team doesn’t even have a chance, right? 

The farmhouse had had a lot of firsts for him and Donnie, all of which April seemed pretty happy about. But all good things must come to an end. They headed back to New York, defeated the Kraang, and then things went back to normal for a couple months. 

Then they spent six months in space. It was a chance to reconnect since they were living together again. They didn’t have any big moments like at the farmhouse, but gradually…things still changed between all of them. During movie nights, they didn’t even try to steal the spot next to April from each other, and often April would save spots for them on either side of her. 

Casey blushed as he remembered the time that they had all fallen asleep on the couch together. Casey had woken up first to find himself across April and Donnie’s thighs. He had peered up to find April leaning against Donnie’s shoulder and plastron, drooling a little, while Donnie’s head was tilted over the back of the couch with his mouth wide open. His movement woke them and he used the opportunity to fondly tease them both about their sleeping habits. 

Fondly tease them both , Casey repeated to himself. He put his head in his hands and groaned. And now… Now he didn’t know what to think. 

The crystal had controlled April and he had watched as his crush killed his… other crush? All he knew was that as they were running across the city to find April he only had three thoughts: the first involved a lot of swearing, the second was mostly worrying about April, and the last…was that he wished he had kissed Donnie once before he died. 

As Casey had watched April reform him he promised himself that he wouldn’t waste his second chance. With either of them. Call him selfish, but he didn’t want just one of them, even if that is how relationships go. He wanted to kiss both of them (and maybe watch them kiss each other). 

But now he was sitting on his bed, alone and unkissed, pondering the question: how do you tell your two friends that watching one destroy the other made you realize that you wanna have a threesome with them? 

“Fuck,” he cursed. 

Yeah…this was not gonna be easy.  

Chapter Text

With the death of Splinter and the plan to kill Super Shredder set in motion, it felt kinda wrong to dwell too much more on it. Even though Casey wasn’t fond of Splinter, his death was taking a toll on everyone else. Usually it’s seen as pretty messed up if you ask somebody out right after their dad dies.

But the Shredder is finally killed.

The turtles mourn, but Leo becomes their new sensei (and is actually decent at it), and the lack of the murderous foot clan gives Casey the opening he’s been waiting for.

Now…how exactly do I do this?

Even though Casey knew what he wanted, he didn’t exactly know how to go about getting it. He had a feeling that April and Donnie weren’t going to just jump right into bed with him after he told them…

Fuck, he thought, I don’t even know if Donnie is into guys! With the way he fawns over April, it’s not looking good.

He didn’t even have a plan yet and somehow it was already going downhill.

Normally, Casey Jones didn’t need a plan. He just went in with guns blazing and saying whatever came to mind first! But this wasn’t something he could afford to mess up, God knows how much he’s messed up with those two already… He was gonna have to think about what he said, what he did, and how he went about this.

For once Casey Jones had to be careful.

He groaned, both at his lack of a plan and at the worksheet in front of him. Goddamn, I hate school…

Between his less than stellar intelligence and the fact that he had been missing school on and off because of some doomsday device or another, he was ready to call it quits and just get his GED. But his Dad and April had somehow managed to convince him to graduate. He had only just started his senior year and already regretted promising to them that he would stick it out.

He looks away from his paper and tunes back into the world around him. The kid in front of him was playing cookie clicker on his computer. Boring. The people in the front row were actually working and, as he watched, one of them went to turn their paper in. Stuck-up nerds. Casey finally turned his attention to the people on his left. They usually had something slightly unboring to talk about: AKA highschool gossip.

Don’t get him wrong, Casey loves some good gossip, but, well… when your friends crush turns out to be the daughter of your worst enemy but is actually his long lost adopted sister, the gossip of regular teenagers just doesn’t really do it for you anymore. Still, he listens in.

“Ryan told me he caught Santiago hooking up with Kylie at a party this weekend.” The first girl starts.

“But didn’t she just start dating Ze-”

“Exactly!” She interrupts. “So, like, what the hell, but I just talked to her today and apparently they’re still dating? Even though Ryan told Zeke about it, obviously.”

“Eh, maybe they’re poly or something,” the second said in a bored tone.

The first pauses for a moment. “Like…an open relationship or something?”

“Um, kinda. I think it’s different, it’s not like ‘fuck whoever you want.’ It’s more closed than that. Like, it’s some in between shit.”

They kept talking, but Casey had zoned out at that point. Something in between…

It was time to turn to Google.

***

The first thing to pop up after typing in “poly” was the dictionary feature with some long words that he didn’t understand. He quickly scrolled past, trying to kick his shoes off and stuff shit in his hockey locker at the same time.

He ignored a couple of links to websites before stopping at the “people also ask”, reading the questions there while his other movements slowed down. What is Poly slang for? Yes, thank you, Google, he thought as he clicked on the question.

“Polyamorous: having or relating to the practice of having sexual or romantic relationships with two or more people at the same time.” That just sounds like an open relationship. Which was fine, but…he actually wanted to date both of them. He didn’t want any of them to just go off and start kissing other people.

He moves on to the last line of the definition. “Anna, James, and Sorrel are in a poly relationship.” That made him pause, now standing in just a tanktop and boxers in the almost empty locker room.

Okay… just three people. I’m likin’ the sound of that.

He’s about to click on the link underneath when somebody calls for him. “Jones!”

Shit. Gotta figure that out later. “Uh, yep! Be there in a sec!” He shouts back and shoves his phone into his locker.

Chapter Text

So, he figured out what polyamory was. Now he just has to figure out…everything else. Mainly: how was he going to bring it up to April and Donatello? In person or should he write it out? Separate or at the same time? Lock them all in a room together or try to be normal about it?

All the romance movies that he had watched with Angel made it look so easy. Even the “difficult” parts seemed easy! You just went and cried in the rain together for a little bit and then boom! All relationship problems solved and you get married!

Not that there was anything easy or normal about his life. Especially not when some of your closest friends are turtles. And especially not when you want to be in a polyamorous relationship with them.

Oh god…they are totally gonna freak, aren't they? They had been through some weird shit, but this was a whole different flavor.

At least April already knew that Donnie and Casey liked her. Donnie probably still thought that Casey hated him or something.

I gotta tell April first, he realized. If April wasn’t down for it, then there was no way that Donnie would be.

After a few half written notes ended up in the trash, he decided that he better just tell her in person, no matter how awkward it might turn out to be.

He sent her a quick text. “Yo can we meet tomorrow smwhere? Gotta talk to u”

***

He had written some vague notes for himself to follow, but they were kinda confusing, seeing as he couldn't remember the last time he took notes for anything, much less something so important.

He had gotten to Murakami’s earlier than the time that he and April had agreed on so that he could go over them. He jotted down a few more bullet points and a couple of sentences that he wanted to say word for word.

Of course, April was right on time, causing Casey to have to quickly fold the paper back up. He flashed her a smile, trying to look normal. “Sup, Red?”

“Hey,” she greeted him while sitting on the stool next to his.

They ordered and talked about trivial things, Casey getting more nervous as his window of opportunity shrunk. As soon as there was a pause long enough for him to work up the courage to open his mouth, April would start talking again. Thankfully, after a while, April seemed to sense his struggle.

After Murakami had brought them their food she put a hand on his arm and looked up at him. “Are you okay?”

“Of course,” he replied on reflex before pausing. “Uh, there was just something that I wanted to talk to you about.” He slipped his piece of paper out of his pocket and angled it away from April as he read the first bullet point: "What you like about both."  He looked back up at April, who was trying to look at the paper and eat a spoonful of soup at the same time. Okay, I can do that. “You’re, like, really pretty and nice to me and stuff.”

She didn’t look very impressed. “That’s what you wanted to talk about?” She asked while setting down her spoon and turning towards him.

Shit… That is not how he meant for that to sound. “No?”

He looked back down at the paper. The words hardly seemed to make sense in the current moment.

Fuck it. He shoved the paper back into his pocket. He was done trying to be macho by pretending he didn’t like her. No more sarcasm and double-meaning jokes! It was time to get real.

He looked up to look her in the eyes. “I like you, Red.” He quickly looked away, not wanting to be anymore vulnerable than he’s already being. “Like, a lot. But, uh, I like Donatello, too. And I did some…research.” Said research consisting only of a google search and reading a few reddit threads. He looked back up at April, trying to gauge by her face if he should just stop talking. But she was…smiling?

“Yeah?” She asked, wanting him to go on.

Casey didn’t know what else to say, stunned at her reaction. “Uh, so…how would you feel about dating us? Like, both of us? I mean, I haven’t asked Donnie yet, but, like, he obviously is-” Casey is cut off by April cupping his cheeks with her hands, “...into you.”

April looked ecstatic. “Casey Jones, you have no idea how much I would like to date both of you.”

“O-oh?” Am I dreaming? Oh, god, I hope not.

April leaned forward and squished her smile against Casey’s mouth for barely a second. He hadn’t even had time to close his eyes. It was more a booping of noses than a kiss- but wow. It still sent shivers down Casey’s whole body.

“When did you figure it out?” April asked.

He cleared his throat, quickly composing himself. “Like, a month ago. When you went all, uh, alien, on us.”

April’s smile immediately faltered, but didn’t disappear completely. She faced the counter with her soup again. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean, I had to figure out what, uh, polyamory was,” he replied, worried that he was pronouncing the word wrong, “but I…realized that I want to be more. And that I don’t wanna just live the rest of my life wondering if it could happen.” He ignored the chopsticks next to his plate of pizza gyoza and just picked one up with his fingers. He stuck it into his mouth before continuing to talk, but in a more upbeat tone. “I’m worried about Donnie, but this is amazing! I mean, I had no idea if you would be up for it or not.”

April gave him a soft smile. “I couldn’t agree more. This is amazing.”

Chapter Text

They ate in silence for a while, Casey still shocked and excited that this was received so well. But there was still another piece to the puzzle. “So…how do you think we should tell Donnie?”

April was quiet for a moment, long enough that Casey thought she might not have heard him.

“I don’t know,” she finally replied, looking over at him. “He’s…sensitive.” Casey rolled his eyes at that. “We have to be careful about this. Ease him into it.”

Haven’t we been waiting long enough? Casey thought, but he knew that April was right. Donnie had a habit of getting stressed easily if too many things were dumped on him at once.

They would, in fact, need to be careful.

Ugh.

***

They decided to have Casey try flirting with Donnie to see if he’s even interested. If not, there was little point in asking him about being in a relationship that involved him.

But life with the turtles doesn’t stay calm for long, and soon Tigerclaw was back with an army of little Shredder weirdos. They were trying to resurrect the Shredder, which would totally kill the mood he and April were trying to make. And, y’know, be bad for other reasons.

Although, maybe it wasn’t all bad, since Casey swooped in to save both Donnie and April while fighting Kavaxas. Then he used his awesome skills to take down Tatsu. Well, Leo and Karai took him down, but Casey gave them the idea. Or, rather, he did something that gave them the idea...and then ended up in the hospital. Close enough.

So maybe it was all bad since if there was anything Casey hated, it was being side-lined. Ugh, it was just a little electrocution! Why didn’t they just bring him back to the lair!? Now he was on bedrest trying to convince the nurse of his fake story about trying to rewire his toaster.

“Yeah,” he chuckled, hoping to sound sheepish. “Probably shouldn’t have left it plugged-in, huh?”

The nurse smiled at him, but it was obviously forced. “It’s alright, it happens more than you’d think. You were unconscious, though, when you were outside of the building. Did someone bring you there?”

Her voice wasn’t accusatory, but Casey still found himself panicking a little. “Well, uh, I was with one of my buddies. He must have brought me.”

“Ah.” She wrote down something on her clipboard.

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know if my insurance is covering this?” Casey asked quickly, eager to change the subject. Plus, it would be nice to know. His dad was already gonna be mad, but if he had to pay for this then he’d be extra pissed.

The nurse flipped up a couple of papers. “I’m not sure, but I can try to find out for you?”

“That’d be great, thanks.”

“There’s a button on your bed there, just press it if you need anything,” she told him before heading for the door.

Casey nodded, already knowing the ins-and-outs of an ER visit from the other couple of times he’s been. He watched the door close before snatching his phone from the counter next to him and turning it on.

“Yes!” He whispered excitedly, thankful that it was somehow not dead. There’s several texts from his dad. The hospital had called him once they found out who Casey was and probably informed him of everything. Not wanting to deal with the angry messages (not that he ever did) he ignores them and clicks on his conversation with April instead.

“WHAT HAPPENED!? And why tf did you bring me to the hospital 😠”

It was past one in the morning, but their fight with Tatsu wasn’t that long ago so hopefully she was still awake.

Casey set his phone down, not wanting it to die before he got a reply.

The late night hour was catching up with him and making him tired; plus his body wanted to heal. He lazily lifted up his couple of layers of shirts to look at his sore chest as he tried to fight his sudden exhaustion. It was obviously starting to bruise, but thankfully his clothes seemed to have protected him from the worst of any electrical burns. Speaking of clothes…some of his gear seemed to be missing. He remembered one of the turtles taking off his mask, and he hoped that they had been smart enough to do that with his other gear, too.

Buzzing vibrations on his thigh brought his attention back to his phone. April’s contact looked back up at him. Couldn’t have texted? He thought, but still answered.

“Did we win?” Casey asked right away.

“Oh, yeah, hello, Casey, I’m doing fine, how are you?” April said back, voice deeper and warped slightly by the phone.

He rolled his eyes, almost wishing that April could see it. “C’mon, Red,” he groaned. “Y’know I can’t stand that.”

“What? Being considerate?” She was being sassy, but Casey could hear her smile behind her words.

Casey scoffed, making sure that it was loud enough that April could hear it. “No, all that fake casualty stuff. Get to the goods!”

He heard what he assumed was an exaggerated sigh before she informed him that they did indeed win. “Hell yeah!” The news made him lean forward and sit up taller.

“But…” she said, long and drawn out in the way that made Casey slump back and groan. “Tigerclaw showed up and got the kabuto.”

“Oh, cmon!”

“Everyone’s fine for the most part, though. Uh, well, except for Tatsu. Kavaxas kinda sucked out his soul, I think.” She said the last part quietly, in a way that Casey knew meant that she was scared.

“Yikes,” he replied, not sure what else to say. When April didn’t answer right away he pushed his luck to ask, “So…what’s the plan now?”

“I literally just got home, Casey.”

He shrugged his shoulders even though she couldn’t see it. “C’mon, the guys didn’t even give you a hi-” he started to ask, but was interrupted by a buzzing from his phone. He pulls it back from his ear to see a photo of his father lighting up the screen.

“Casey?”

“My Dad’s callin’ me,” he groaned.

“Oh.”

“Yeah…he’s been texting me, he’s, uh,” Casey stopped himself, not wanting to say pissed as hell and give April the wrong idea. “I should probably answer.” Even though he really didn’t want to.

“Yeah. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

“Alright, Red,” he said, keeping his mouth open to continue before he paused and rethought what he was going to say.

The first time he had said it to her it had been out of reflex over the phone, but it had still been awkward, April stuttering out her own goodbye before hanging up. He had caught himself the next couple times they said goodbye to each other, but then it had slipped out again. Instead, though, April had smiled and said it back while waving him away. Rationally, Casey knew that at that point it had probably been meant in a platonic way, but it had still made his heart flutter the whole bike ride home. His suspicions were confirmed when he had heard her say the same thing once to the turtles as she left the sewers. They had said it to each other a few more times over the years, mostly out of reflex, and no more awkwardness lingered. Now, though…it could be seen as something more. They were technically dating after all.

“Uh, talk to you then. Bye,” he finished his goodbye with instead of saying love you…

“'Night.”

Casey sighed as he heard her hang up and took the phone away from his ear. He looked down at it, only to see April’s contact instead of his fathers. Sometime when he was saying goodbye his phone had stopped vibrating. He had missed the call.

“Oops.” As he was speaking the screen went dark, and there was a buzz as his phone notified him that it had died. “Shit.”

Chapter Text

Casey and his father took a taxi home and the ride was painfully silent.

They had already played their game of anger at the hospital, when Casey’s dad had sternly talked (almost yelling but not quite) to him after another nurse left them alone. Casey had glared at him and crossed his arms, enduring the guilt and frustration and anger that wiggled its way into him. He had stopped making excuses for himself years ago. He had been threatened with things taken away, his gear, his phone, his hockey practice, but they both knew that it was just for show. Casey Jones could not be contained, no matter what he did or didn’t have.

They were both still silent as they walked into a dark apartment and through a dark living room and into separate, dark rooms.

That night Casey dreamed of kicking and punching but it wasn’t in a good way. Instead, his hits seemed to do nothing against his attackers and his limbs were slow and weighted down. He was overpowered and quickly pushed into a deeper, darker sleep.

***

Casey didn’t hear anything from the turtles for a couple days. It was fairly normal, but it still made him anxious and restless.

When he did it was a simple text from Leo early in the morning telling him and April that tonight they would do a reconnaissance mission. Of course, that made it even harder than usual to focus on school, and when he realized that he forgot to take his adderall he groaned and put his head down on the table in front of him. Screw it, he decided. I don’t even need to be here anyways. During the walking time to his next class he ended up slipping out of the school instead and skipping the second part of the day.

As he walked away from the school he opened up Raphs number only to pause and then close it again. It was still very early in the afternoon, and the turtles were all probably still asleep.

Instinctively, his feet lead him in the direction of their lair home, even if he logically knew that he would just be sitting around and waiting for them to wake up. Oh well, if nothing else he could always start getting ready for the mission earlier. Or take a nap…

He pulled out a small flashlight from the back pocket of his pants and turned it on once he got down into the sewers. There was some light coming from manhole covers and grates, but it wasn’t nearly enough to help him see, especially as he got deeper in the sewers and closer to the turtle's home.

The turtle's home itself was completely dark. Except, of course, for the sliver of light from underneath the lab door.

Casey groaned. Why the hell is he still up?

Casey roughly pushed open the door and walked in. “Alright-” Casey started to say loudly, fully intending on dragging Donnie to bed, but stopped when he saw Donnie blinking sleepy around.

“Mm?” Donnie hummed before he yawned and wiped at his eyes.

“Were you… sleeping?” Casey asked. Donnie spent late nights in his lab but usually knew when it was time to quit and always went to sleep in his room.

“Uh…I guess so,” Donnie replied while looking down at his desk and the mechanical parts on it, including a backpack looking structure. There was a print on his cheek from the couple of screws he fell asleep on. “Must’ve been more tired than I thought, jeez.” He said with a little laugh.

Then, he stood up and stretched his arms up, groaning loudly as his body tensed and shook. More movement brought Casey’s gaze downwards.

Holy shit, Casey thought as he saw Donatello’s tail curl out from under the lip of his shell. It curved up as much as it could and tensed, obviously also stretching. All of the turtles (except for Mikey) were pretty protective and secretive about their tails. Casey’s heart fluttered a bit at the fact that Donnie trusted him enough to willingly reveal his. Or he’s just too tired to care…

Casey was brought out of his thoughts by the tension leaving Donnie’s body and his tail tucking itself away from sight again. Donnie took his T-phone from its holder on his belt and tapped the screen. “You’re here really early for a school day,” Donnie said before narrowing his eyes at him.

Casey grew defensive under the intense look. “I forgot my meds, ok? You know I can’t do shit without ‘em.”

Donnie rolled his eyes. “It still would’ve helped you to just sit in class. Your brain absorbs some of the information, even if you aren’t paying attention.”

“Pretty sure that’s just yours that does that, man,” Casey replied, smiling and adding a friendlier tone to his words. Hopefully, that would make Donnie stop bugging him about his lack of education.

Donnie stepped away from his chair and desk after tucking his T-phone away. “Highschool is important, Casey. At least in-” He interrupted himself with a yawn.

“Yeah, and sleep is important. What are you still doin’ out here?” Casey replied as Donnie walked over to him, and Casey walked next to him as they went out of the lab.

“Couldn’t really sleep,” he said with a weary sigh. “We tried to get the heart back before Tigerclaw could, but…” Donnie shook his head. “Now they have all the pieces to bring Shredder back.”

Casey stopped walking and turned to Donnie with wide eyes. “Really!? Why aren’t we on our way to kick their butts right now, then?”

Donnie rolled his eyes but also stopped walking. “It’s never that simple, Jones. We have to prepare ourselves and make sure we’re as strong as we can be. I don’t if you remember, but last time we were the ones getting our butts kicked.” Donnie groaned and ran a hand down his face. “I’m too tired for this conversation.” He turned away and started walking towards the hallway again.

Casey followed behind, deciding that Donnie was probably right about being in top shape tonight. Hopefully, a nap would help with that.

Donnie stopped and looked back at Casey when he got to his door, which was actually just a large curtain. “What’re you doing down here?”

“Was thinkin’ about taking a nap in Raph’s room,” Casey replied with a shrug.

Donnie's eyes scanned him up and down. “How are you feeling? Tatsu hit you pretty hard a couple times, and I know your taser has some seriously high voltage.”

Casey grinned at Donnie’s worried tone. “Aw, you really do care,” Casey cooed while sticking his face closer to Donnie’s.

Donnie’s large hand enveloped Casey’s face and pushed it away. “Nevermind, actually. You're clearly fine.”

“Of course I am!” Casey replied with a wink, but Donnie had already turned away and pushed aside the curtain in front of his room. “Okay! Uh, see ya later.”

Ugh, that probably could have gone better, Casey berated himself while turning towards Raph’s room. I am supposed to be flirting with him… Thought it would be a little easier.

With a sigh, Casey trudged towards Raph’s room.

Chapter Text

Casey flopped onto Raph’s small mattress on the floor after toeing off his shoes. He groaned as he immediately regretted it and realized he may have lied a little to Donnie.

He rolled over onto his back and poked at his chest with his fingers. His body instinctively flinched at having his bruises irritated even more. “Ugh…ow.” Yeah, he was definitely still sore from his fight with Tatsu. He sighed as he reached down to drape some of the ratty blankets on himself.

“If yer gonna be in here then shut up,” Raph said from inside his hammock where he had cocooned himself in a blanket.

“Right. Sorry, dude.” Sometimes he forgot how light sleepers the turtles were. He clicked off his flashlight and the room was almost completely black.

Raph just grunted in response and shifted around.

Casey did the same, quickly getting comfortable but his mind was still busy. It returned to thoughts about Donatello asleep in his lab. Something must have been weighing pretty heavily on his mind for that to happen. “Yo, Raph?”

“Mm, what did I say about shutting up?” Raph mumbled.

Casey ignored him, knowing it was very unlikely that he would be thrown out of the room. “What’s up with Donnie? I know that it sucks that those foot creeps have all the pieces of shredder, but I didn’t think you guys would be that tore up over it. Y’know we can still kick his undead butt, right?”

“What does this have to do with Donnie?” Raph grumbled.

“He was passed out in his lab when I got here,” Casey explained.

He heard Raph move around and he sounded more awake when he spoke again. “You woke him up and made him go to his room, right?”

Casey rolled his eyes even though he didn’t think Raph could see him. “Yeah. I walked him there and everything.”

“Good.” There was a moment of silence. “Don Vizioso was the one who had the heart.”

“Damn…that’s the dude who tried to dissect Donnie, right?”

“Yep,” Raph confirmed. “He was still pretty pissed about it.”

Even though it didn’t happen often, Casey knew that Donnie could hold one hell of a grudge. “Yeah…musta been.”

Raphael sighed again. “Can I go back ta sleep now?”

“Yeah, yeah, go get yer beauty sleep.”

“Shut up and go to bed. You should rest, too,” Raph told him, a bit of emotion shining through in his tone.

Casey smiled but decided not to push his luck by commenting on it. “‘Night, Raph.”

“‘Night, dickhead,” Raph replied.

Casey let out several barks of laughter since it was rare that Raph swore while in the lair. With Master Splinter no longer around it was becoming more commonplace but it still took Casey off guard from time to time.

When Casey didn’t quiet soon enough for Raph’s liking a stuffed animal was thrown at him.

“Hey! You’re attacking a wounded man right now,” Casey teased.

“Imma ‘bout to make you into an even more wounded man.”

“Okay, okay, jeez,” Casey said with a smile still on his face. Casey turned over on his side and found that his mind was calmer now that some of his questions about Donatello. “‘Night,” he said again, but much more softly this time. Raph just grunted in reply.

Chapter Text

After they took down Tigerclaw, hopefully for good this time, it was back to the plan. A couple days later the perfect opportunity arose in the form of a party. It was actually a meeting to get the Mutanimals caught up with the recent events with Tigerclaw and Kavaxas, but it didn’t take long and they decided to hang out longer.

The Mutanimals had set up in another abandoned warehouse, but one much closer to the turtles. It was smaller and more broken down, but it had been filled with lots of stuff to make it cozier.

The vibes were a little dim since the last time everyone had gotten together was the night Splinter had died.

Mondo and Mikey were trying to teach Shinigami some skating tricks while Karai and Leatherhead watched. Spike had somehow managed to get his hands on a small case of beer and Leo was guarding the table with his life, shooing away Mikey whenever he would try to sneakily take one. April and Rockwell had opted out of the party, both claiming that they were too tired to have any fun. Raph and Spike had disappeared a couple minutes ago, probably to spar. Donatello was by himself on the couch, scrolling on his phone. 

This is my chance. Casey grabbed two cans of Sprite (under Leo’s watchful gaze) and made his way to the couch.

“Hey! Gotcha somethin’,” Casey said as he sat down next to Donnie, a little closer than he normally would, just enough so that their thighs were brushing against each other. He held out the can.

Donnie looked up and over at him, hesitating before he lifted one of his hands from his phone so that he could take the drink. “Uh, thanks?” He brought the can up to his nose and sniffed it before looking skeptically at Casey. “You didn’t like…spike this did you?”

He scoffed at that. “What kinda heathen do ya think I am?”

Donnie kept looking at him, making Casey grow defensive under the pressure. “What? I can’t get my buddy a drink without it being some kinda prank?”

“I didn't know we were all buddy-buddy,” Donnie replied, but he was smiling as he said it, and took a sip of soda afterwards. It still made Casey cringe a little.

“Yeah, well. I would like us to be,” Casey admitted, taking a sip of his own drink and looking away.

“Oh.” Donnie replied, suddenly sounding serious. “I was just joking, I mean…we’re not as close as you are to my brothers, but we’re still friends.”

Yeah, just friends, Casey thought sourly. But also…he thought that he was closer to his brothers than to him? Sure, he and Raph are best friends, but he doesn’t necessarily hang out with Mikey and Leo all that often. He would much rather bicker with Donnie then participate in whatever the hell it is that Leo does with his freetime.

“Well, I’d love for us to get closer,” Casey replied, smirking at Donnie and putting one of his arms around the couch behind him.

“Okay…?” Donnie replied, seeming suspicious again. “Why?”

Casey faltered, the question taking him off guard. “Uh, why not?”

Donnie rolled his eyes. “I could think of a couple different reasons. And after four years I’m not sure how much closer we could get.”

His words gave Casey another opening. “I can think of a few things we can do,” he replied, trying to lower his voice to sound sexy.

Donnie raises one eyeridge. “Like what?” He sounded genuinely curious.

It made Casey hesitate again. “Uh…” He obviously couldn’t say what he was actually thinking. But what family-friendly shit could he say that would actually sound believable? “Well, y’know…I could help out with any projects you’re working on? Like, uh, how’s the shellraiser doing? I could help do some tune-ups.” A beautiful save from Casey Jones! He gave himself a mental high five.

“Oh,” Donnie replied, voice high pitched with surprise. “Yeah, you could help me with that if you wanted.”

“It would be my pleasure.”