"Booooooring," I yell turning off the TV. Why do TV programs always suck on Sunday? I'll never understand that.

I toss the remote on the couch. If I can't watch any good show, how the shell am I gonna survive till 6:00 p.m.? Too bad I've just completed the last level of Ugly Beasts from Mars.

I wonder what my brothers are doing. Maybe they're doing something fun. I jump off the couch and start looking for them. I immediately hear Leo's voice. His kiai shouts actually. I got an idea of what he's doing.

I follow the sound and prove myself right. He's in the dojo, training with Master Splinter. Man, does that turtle ever relax a little? No wonder he's always so uptight. I should teach him to enjoy life someday, he seriously needs to diversify his daily activities.

"Well done, Leonardo," I hear Master Splinter say. "Remember, insight is one of the most important weapons in a ninja's arsenal..."

I can't believe it. Master Splinter's "most important weapon of a ninja" changes twice a week! What was it last time? Maybe invisibility? Nah, that was older... Oh yeah, it was silence! I remember that because he hit me with his stick for something I said.

Ok, so Leo was a disappointment. But really, should've known. Now I wonder where Raph and Don are. Those two are fun!

I run to the bonehead's room and peek in, using my supercool ninja stealth. Love to startle him.

But the room's empty. Oh, come on!

"Hey, Leeeeo!" I shout. From this safe distance, I shouldn't risk being invited to join him and Master Splinter for training. "Do you happen to know where Raph is?"

Leo's kiai shouts stop. "Hasn't he taken his bike for a ride?" comes the breathless response after a few moments, "Despite I specifically told him it was a bad idea while it's still daytime, I might add..."

"He has?" I moan. "Why does he never tell me when he goes somewhere?"

"Actually, he said 'bye' to you before leaving. And you even answered back."

"I did?" I scratch my head pensively. "Must have been while I was playing with the Game Dude."

"You know, Mikey," Leo continues, "if you have nothing to do, you could always..."

"Yeah, thanks Leo!" I say before he can finish. Man, I took a real chance there!

Donnie's my last hope, I think while I run to his room. I just hope he's not in his computer technician mode. Or even worse, chemist mode. Engineer Donnie is definitely my favorite, at least you can understand what the shell he's doing. It also means that new shiny toys you can play with are coming!

I peek in Donnie's room. It's dark. That's odd. Donnie's room is almost never dark. When he's on his computer, there's always the screen to shade some light. And even Don needs to turn on the lights when he's studying, fixing something, building something... Yeah, that pretty much covers 95% of the stuff Don does in his room.

I take a few little steps in. "Donnie?"

There he is, on his bed. He isn't lying down though. He's on his knees and he's... praying? I turn on the lights and get closer. He's got his hands joined like Christians do when they are praying.

But there's something off. He hasn't said a word yet, and Donnie's not the kind of guy that would so outright ignore me. Besides, his breathing... It's slower than normal.

Is he... meditating? But why that strange posture?

"Hey, Donnie?" I whisper, poking him.

Nothing.

That's even odder. None of us has ever reached a level of meditation this deep before. I'm a little worried. I wonder if I should go fetch Master Splinter and Leo and ask them if they think there's something wrong.

Maybe I should wait a little more before panicking. After all, Donnie's posture indicates that he entered this trance state willingly. It's not like he was spiritually kidnapped or anything like that.

I sit on the bed, besides him. Other than Leo's kiai shouts in the distance, the lair is silent. There's no much else to look at, so before I know it I find myself staring at Donnie.

I gaze at his face. He looks so relaxed, it's almost like he's sleeping. Then my gaze drops lower. His right arm. A very muscular arm. Must be the one he always uses to carry around that magic bag of tricks of his. Not that I'm implying Donnie's a freak with a thinner left arm. It's just that I can't look at the other one from where I'm seated.

And then there are his legs. Man, I love legs! His are especially yummy. I wonder if... I timidly stretch out my hand and, after some hesitation, I rest it on Donnie's right leg. No reaction. Donnie's skin's so nice and warm.

Only now do I notice my heart's beating like crazy. I can practically feel it in my throat.

I gently run my hand over his leg, caressing it. Donnie doesn't seem to mind. I could probably do anything I want to him and he wouldn't mind. I gulp at the thought. What am I thinking? Bad, bad turtle! But there should be nothing wrong if I just...

I sit closer to him. And then closer, until our sides are touching. It feels weird, my body shaken by heartbeats, while his is so calm. I'm almost afraid to wake him up.

Now that we're so close I can distinctly smell him. I like this smell. In fact, I like it so much that I've just moved my nose closer, so I can smell him better. I lay my head on his shoulder, while I keep sniffing his neck. It feels so good like this. Slowly, I surround his body with my arms. One on his shell, one on his plastron.

"What the...?"

Donnie's body suddenly jerks. He rests his hands on his legs and moves his head away so he can look at me. "Mikey? What are you doing?"

I grin. "I thought you were sexy."

He smiles and lower his gaze. He looks a little embarrassed. Man, I'm so good at this!

"What were you doing?" I say, laying back my head on his shoulder, only sideways this time. "You scared me."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was... practicing."

"Practicing what? I know I'm often distracted during Splinter's lessons, but this doesn't look like something he taught us."

"I know." There's an awkward moment of silence. "Mikey, do you remember the Triceraton invasion?"

"The first and so far only alien invasion of Earth in whole history? They wrecked half the city? I got the chance to pilot an alien starship?" I pause to pretend to think hard about it, "Hmm, sorry bro, doesn't ring any bell."

"The one when they captured me."

I bite my tongue. I forgot this is a touchy subject. At least, I guess it is. It's not like Donnie ever talked about his time with the Triceratons. "Oh, that invasion," I say in a more serious tone of voice, "Yeah, who could forget?"

"Well, while I was on the Triceraton Homeworld, they... I tried to call for Master Splinter's help. Through meditation. And it worked!"

Another time I will make him tell me the whole story, I promise myself. He's obviously hiding something.

"I talked with Master Splinter about this," Donnie continues. "He believes the ability I employed is a form of 'astral projection'. It's a technique that normally requires a lot of study and practice, but he theorized that the extreme... stress I was subjected to in those circumstances helped me to use it intuitively. Considering it was very valuable to me that time, I've been training in its use since."

"That sounds cool," I say, "Why doesn't Master Splinter teach all of us?"

"I asked him as well, but he said you guys were not ready yet. Besides, I thought you hated meditation, Mikey."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot 'astral projection' is just a cool name for it."

Donnie's body shifts as he brings his mouth closer to my ear. "Want to try?"

I don't know if it's because he whispered or because of how he said it, but I can't help but think he's asking me if I wanna try something more than astral projection. That almost sounded like a sex proposal. Or am I thinking that cuz I'm horny?

"I thought you just said we're not ready," I say.

"You're not ready to drive yet, but," he smirks, "I can take a passenger." He shakes me off. "Come on, I'm going to show you. You just do what I say."

I grumble. I was so comfy. Who cares about that spiritual mumbo jumbo? I sure hope Donnie's not gonna turn into a new Leo. "Now sit like I how was sitting." Yeah, yeah, I'm doing it. "Now join your hands." He kneels behind me, his carapace against my shell. He takes both my hands with his and makes them join. Now, this is more interesting.

"Close your eyes," he instructs.

Having Donnie like this, behind my back, is making me sooo horny. I hope it ain't too evident, because I'm feeling a painful erection between my legs.

"Mikey, focus!" he says. "Your ki is flowing irregularly."

You ain't helping, Don! Ok, let's get it over with this exercise, so maybe we can get to more interesting stuff.

I focus.

I am focusing.

I am focused.

But nothing's happening. I wait for more instructions from Don, but he stays silent.

"You know, Don," I say, "I don't think this is working."

I open my eyes. Better, I try to open my eyes. Because I suddenly realize... I've got no eyes! I want to move, but I have no body to move. It's the strangest feeling ever. Somehow I can still feel myself. I even talked. I think. But I'm not here, I'm not anywhere.

There's another odd thing. Somehow I can still feel Donnie's body against mine, his warmth. Which doesn't make any sense, since I have no body and Don probably doesn't either.

"Donnie?" I call with a worried voice.

"I'm here, Mikey," I hear Don say, "Don't worry. You're doing great."

Since I have no freaking idea of what's going on, I obediently follow Don's latest instruction. Namely, I don't worry.

I am not worrying.

I am not worried.

I see a light! Meaning I've got eyes again!

I feel a little dizzy. Where am I? I rest my head on the ground for a moment. Wait, that's strange. Am I lying down? I am. My plastron's flat against the ground.

I push to get back up. Oddly, no matter how hard I push, I'm still on all fours. I look around once more, trying to understand where the shell I am. It looks like I'm inside someone's house. It's not the lair. Or April's home, or Casey's. I've never been here before. And there's something odd about this home. It's too big. Everything's too big. It's like the house of a giant in here. And if I'm inside a house, why am I standing on pebbles and why are there leaves everywhere? And is that a pool?

Suddenly, everything makes sense. An aquarium! I'm a turtle in an aquarium. I mean, a turtle turtle. Not a teenage mutant ninja turtle.

And I'm not alone, there's another turtle here with me. "Donnie, is that you?" I ask.

"Yes," I hear Donnie's voice say. I'm not really sure how he, or I, spoke. I simply heard his voice and somehow I know that it belongs to that other pet turtle.

"Donnie, how..." I begin. I'm so confused and have so many questions that I don't know what I should ask first. "I don't feel very well," I say in the end. That's the thing that's bothering me the most. I still feel very dizzy and I can't really move my body the way I want. It feels like when you can't move while you're dreaming.

"It's because we haven't completely merged with these turtles' spirits yet. We can't until we keep thinking like humans... or mutant turtles, if you will. Just stop thinking, stop remembering where you come from."

"I may be the dumb one, Donnie, but how the shell are you supposed to stop thinking?" Besides, I've got a terrible headache that's not helping at all.

"Just try," Donnie says gently.

Man, is this how being drunk feels like? Shutting down my mind surely sounds like a great idea right now, if only I knew how. Maybe I could just stop―

There be a turtle. A still turtle.

Mehungry. There be leaves.

Mewalk to leaves. Metake leaf. Mechew leaf. Meeat leaf.

Mehungry. Metake leaf. Mechew leaf.

Mespit leaf. Badtaste.

Mestay. Meheadturn back.

Mewait.

A weight on meshellback.

A swift. Weight on mewholeshell. Melie. Meheadsideturn.

Mesee a feet on meside. Mesee the turtle on meback. Meheadturn back.

A push on mebottom.

Thrust. Rub.

Widen.

Megood.

Thrusting.

Mehappy.

Meheadturn.

Mesee... Donnie?

I open my eyes wide, flinching. I'm back to Donnie's room, in his bed. It looks like I didn't move at all. Still, something's different.

I can't feel Donnie's body leaning against me anymore. But I can still feel his skin against my feet. I look behind me and see him lying down on the mattress.

"Donnie?"

"Sorry," he pants. "That was... quite tiring."

"What was tiring," I can't help but ask, "the sex or the spiritual thingy?"

Donnie covers his face with his arm, but I catch him smile. "You aren't tired, are you? That should answer your question."

Aww, Donnie's so cute when he's embarrassed. But I'll never understand why he's so bold when it comes to experiencing new things, and yet he always shies away when it comes to talking about sex.

"So how was I?" I ask, sprawling next to him. I enjoy the awkward silence that follows my question for a few seconds before adding: "You know... at the spiritual thingy."

"You were great," he answers with no more hesitation. "You didn't lose yourself in the host's body. You actually came back on your own, I didn't have to help you."

"You did," I say.

Donnie patiently waits for me to explain. "I woke up cuz I remembered about you."

"Oh."

I can't believe it. For the first time in my life, I left him speechless!

Donnie turns around on his side and places one of his arms on my plastron. His breath tickles my ear.

"Mikey, I..." he says hesitantly.

My heart could burst in my chest any moment, so much it's beating. Will he say it? What will I say if he does? Do I want him to say...

"I really enjoy..." Donnie interrupts my thinking, "...spending time... with you."

That wasn't what I expected. But I'm happy. There's something in the way Donnie said it that makes me feel euphoric.

It's time for a witty reply. "You know, Donnie. It might sound mushy but," I say, rethinking about what just happened, "you make me feel like a natural turtle."

Donnie stares at me in silence for a moment and then burst out laughing. And keeps laughing for like a whole minute. I had never heard him laugh this heartily.