Did We Just…?
About this story: Based on a dream I had on 4-22-2006 (party scene). In my storylines of the TMNT, I'll say it happens on 12-31-06 and 1-1-07 (New Year's Eve and Day 2007), when the TMNT would've still been 22. Raph and Don have hangovers the morning after a party, and regret drinking—not just because of the hangover, but because of another "side effect"—causing them to reach a new complicated level in their relationship. Rated M (R), for the "adult themes" of slash/gayness/yaoi/Turtlecest or whatever you wanna call it, as well as drinking and partying. Though I would actually describe this story as more of a humorous story than a romantic story. One of the chapters is even NC-17, for the love scene, and I will provide chapter warnings as well. Don't like? Don't read! Be warned…
Warnings about this chapter: Talking on the PG-13 level, with some references to medical jargon, pregnancy, lactation, and basically anatomy.
Pairings: Raph/Don
"So the plan is," Leo recounted for everyone on the back porch, "Splinter and I want to do some hiking and sparring in the woods, and Casey and Raph wanted to do some hockey practice in the barn. The rest of you can do what you want before a light lunch or snack, since we plan on having a bigger dinner later this evening."
Mikey yawned, "I feel like taking a nap upstairs, since making and cleaning up after breakfast wore me out. I need to get rested before helping cook dinner."
"Hey, you deserve it!" Raph applauded. "Have a good nap!"
"Thanks, bro!" Mikey stretched as he turned to go back inside.
"I may lounge around the house, too, before helping with dinner." April smiled.
"So, that leaves you, Donnie," Leo and the others looked in Don's direction. "What are you doing until dinner?"
Don shrugged at first, "I may help April and Mikey with dinner, and maybe do a few mechanical repairs for any household appliances and farm equipment—like I've been doing for the past few days since we've been here."
Raph gun-pointed his finger in Don's direction as he turned to head toward the barn with Casey, "Well, don't forget to wash your hands after 'playing custodian' before you 'play lunch-lady'!"
Don just held up his hand to acknowledge Raph, so he wouldn't have to make eye contact.
Leo and Splinter turned to begin their hike and spar adventure, waving as they left.
Don noticed he was the only one left on the porch.
Right behind him, he heard the backdoor open. He glanced toward it, and noticed April was coming outside with a blanket around her shoulders.
"I didn't even see you go inside," Don noted.
"I followed Mikey," April began, "But for now I just wanted to get a blanket and a book so I could curl up and read on the porch swing."
"You won't get too cold out here?"
"Well, being this pregnant, I have more than the normal amount of blood to keep me warm. I may even get too hot if I stay in the kitchen long enough. But I may just read one chapter, since the local weather report said there's supposed to be a blizzard tonight that may start this afternoon."
"Really?" Don pondered. "In that case, I'll get an extra blanket before coming back to join you." He quickly went inside to retrieve a blanket from the living room couch.
He returned to the back porch before April could finish a paragraph in her book. "For now, it's kind of nice out here." He sat curled on the porch railing, across from where April was sitting curled on the porch swing, with his head by her feet, and his feet by her head.
"Yeah," April added, "I'm glad you're feeling better since this morning. I was a little worried about you for a moment, there."
"Oh, I'm sorry about all that. I guess it's nice to be reminded why I don't normally drink. I could think of it as a science experiment where I learned my drinking limits."
"I don't know my official limit, but it's probably somewhere around half of Casey's limit—you know, when I'm not pregnant, of course." She lowered her voice, and seemed to mumble.
Donnie turned to her, "Are you still talking to me?"
"Oh, I'm reading aloud. Sometimes I do that. It's mostly for the baby." She rubbed her belly. "I read somewhere, and heard it confirmed from my OB that it's good for them, and may improve their literacy rate as they get older if you start reading to them in utero."
"Really?"
"Oh! I even felt a little kick! I think I have a little ninja cooking in the oven. Would you like to feel the kicking, Donnie?"
"Uh, OK…" Don nervously reached out his hand, as if he thought the baby would bite him.
"It's right about here…" April guided his hand to rest on her right side, within an inch or two of her hip. "Did you feel that?"
"Yeah! That's absolutely incredible! As an engineer, medical science still amazes me. I still don't know everything about the human body, mostly because I'm a turtle. But oddly enough, I know more about human anatomy than mutant turtle anatomy, probably since there's more information on the subject."
April chuckled, "It's just another marvel of engineering, if you think about it."
"That's true…" Don sighed and withdrew his hand, since he stopped feeling the baby's movement. There was a brief moment of silence.
April looked at Don. "Even though I'm female, I know more about computers and engineering than I do about pregnancy and lactation. I'm glad I can talk to you about the subject, and you at least don't freak out like some of the other guys when I say words like 'uterus', or talk about breastfeeding."
"Oh?" Don asked, "What other guys are afraid of a uterus? To me, it is what it is. Like you said—another 'marvel of engineering'. And lactation? I mean, it's practically a mammalian trademark that's beyond my expertise simply because I'm a reptile. To think that even Master Splinter could lactate, given the right balance of hormones…"
April shared a laugh with Don.
Don asked, "So, how long do you plan on breastfeeding?"
"Oh, some of the information I've read makes me at least want to try it for a few months. As Baby gets teeth, I'll definitely try working in more solid or semi-solid food. But I'll see how it goes."
"How does Casey feel about all this? Or how much say does he have in the matter?"
"Well," April thought for a moment, "I go to OB visits with a lot of questions, while he just looks nervous. If I try asking his opinion on things like that, trying to include him in the parenting, he often just shrugs and says, 'Hey, you're the girl, you do the girlie stuff.' Sometimes he's looked very uncomfortable during OB visits with me, especially when we couldn't view the ultrasounds abdominally and had to view them vaginally. He even started getting lightheaded during those ultrasounds. You'd think he had nothing to do with me getting pregnant and that I did it all by myself, sometimes."
Don laughed, "Well, I'd be lying if I said I was completely comfortable having these kinds of conversations, but at least it's good family-bonding conversation and you're professional about it. It brings back memories of when I told you about when Raph and I first got Angelic's Disease. Even Raph was uncomfortable talking about any of the male-specific problems at home among just Splinter and our brothers…" He trailed off, since talking about this brought back memories of Raph and his 'male-specific' anatomy he had experienced the previous night.
"Donnie?" April asked with concern. "Is something bothering you?"
Donnie sighed, "Well…it's Raph right now. I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been uncomfortable around him today."
"I've noticed you haven't been your usual self around him today. Even before you guys got Angelic's Disease, the two of you have always gotten along great. Raph has always been calmer and more at ease around you, compared to with Leo or Mikey. He doesn't fly off the handle with you. And since you've both gotten Angelic's Disease, you've been very close, and I've seen more brotherly affection between the two of you. Today, you've seemed…distant from him. I don't know what he did to hurt you, but I think the distance is starting to hurt him, too. What happened between the two of you, Donnie?"
Don looked nervous. "Well…I just feel really awkward around him today. Last night…let's just say he saw a side of me and I saw a side of him that we'd never seen before—thanks to the alcohol. And now I look at him and I'm not so sure I want him to see me as a drinking buddy or a party animal. I'm not sure if that's how I want to see him, either."
"So, how do you want him to see you? Or how do you want to see him?"
"Good question. I miss seeing his vulnerable side, where he can come to me and confide in me. I miss that brotherly companionship we had. I also need him to be strong for me when I have Angelic's Disease episodes, and protective of me when we're in danger from other enemies."
"And what is keeping you from just talking to him about that?"
"I feared you would ask that." Don looked around to ensure they were alone. "Um, can I ask you to keep it confidential? Somehow, I want to talk about it with Raph, but for now, I really want this to keep a low profile."
April nodded, "Sure, Donnie. I'd like to be the big sister you can talk to without feeling judgment—kind of like how you want to be the brother for Raph. So it's confidential."
Donnie took a deep breath and began, "Thank you, April. At the party last night after Raph and I had our drinks, we explored the bed and breakfast with some college students staying there on their winter break. We started playing Hide-and-Seek as an excuse to look around, and Raph and I ended up in one of the third-floor executive rooms alone. One thing led to another, and because of the vodka-spiked champagne…we ended up having sex in the closet of that executive room. Whew!" He looked over at April.
April sighed nervously, "Well…I don't really know what to say or how to respond after that… That picture of you and Raph holding your belts?"
"Yeah, that was the two of us—literally 'coming out of the closet'."
April smiled in spite of the awkwardness, trying to ease it. "I thought you guys had a special 'glow' about you in that picture…"
Don laughed, "I know…I'm really sorry that the consequences of my agreeing to drink last night may tear our family apart." He looked down with regret, looking like he may cry.
April got out of the swing and put her hand on Don's shoulder. He looked up at her, not crying, just brooding. "Donnie, our family has been through worse. You can't tear it apart by yourself, not even Shredder, the Foot, or the Purple Dragons could do that."
"I still feel bad, since Raph may still see me as a drinking buddy, party animal, or a sex buddy—and I'm not sure if I'm the best one he's had. I don't know what he's done in the past with Casey or when he went topside by himself at night. I guess it wasn't the way I planned on losing my virginity."
"So, it was your virginity, but you're not sure if it was Raph's?" When Don nodded, April continued, "Well, since he is your brother—that would be something you could ask him about, once you finally get the courage to talk to him. But Casey has assured me that he and Raph may have shared drinks together, but at Casey's old apartment or on the roof of some building, just the two of them. They haven't been to bars or strip clubs or anything like that. As crazy as Casey can be sometimes, I trust him. I mean, how could he go to a strip club if he's queasy even at the mention of female anatomy?"
"That does encourage me, a little." Don turned to April. "Does it seem weird talking to me, and knowing that I'm not a virgin anymore—especially that I lost my virginity with another male, who is also my brother? I think I woke up this morning feeling that it couldn't have happened, that it was all a weird dream…"
"I'm obviously a non-virgin, too." April glanced down and rubbed her belly. "But I guess, like you, the loss of my virginity with Casey on our wedding night involved champagne. And we woke up the next morning feeling like the night before was a weird dream. But life does go on. I think it is very admirable and sweet that you had been saving yourself. My mother told me it's like a gift you can give to your future spouse."
"I don't know what I was saving myself for, since I'm a turtle, I don't know what 'spouse' wants a turtle as a gift—even a virgin turtle."
"Well, you never know… And my mother also said that even if you don't marry, it's at least a gift of dignity for yourself. Sometimes I thought I was missing out on all the fun in high school or college, but many of my friends who gave themselves away prematurely regretted it. I was just too busy with my studies to have relationships that led to giving myself away. I realized I was missing out on a lot—but none of it really seemed fun—all the fear of diseases, high-dose antibiotic regimens, unplanned pregnancies, and all the drama. However, we all make mistakes in life, and most of them aren't fatal, giving us a chance to start over."
"Thanks, April, for all the encouragement, support, and especially for not judging me for all I shared."
"Of course not, Donnie. It's completely confidential." She looked around, "Well, it looks like it's starting to snow. Maybe we should go inside so we can get started with dinner."
Donnie got up and helped April get up. "Good idea." He looked out at the snow, "So much for my farm equipment maintenance. I may try the truck in the barn sometime later."
As they entered the farmhouse, April looked back outside and noticed Leo and Splinter were returning from the woods. "And, Donnie, you might want to talk to Splinter if you need help trying to talk to Raph. He's helped Casey and I work out some of our marital and relationship issues from time to time."
"Oh, I never thought of that. Maybe he can help me get the courage to talk to Raph again."
"And you let me know how that goes, and let me know if there's anything else I can do to help, OK, Donnie?" With that, April put her arms around Donnie's shoulders in a hug.
Don returned the hug, "Thanks, April. You've already helped more than you know." He rubbed her belly, "It almost felt like Baby was hugging me, too."
"Of course, Baby loves Uncle Donnie, already!" April said with a laugh.
A/N:
I kinda went out on a limb in assuming that April and Casey saved themselves for the wedding night. There are some sources, like the TMNT 2007 movie, where the director's commentary mentions that they lived together (cohabited) for a while, and if you're the kind of TMNT fan that I can be, you probably saw that, too. But in the actual movie, maybe since it's PG, they leave that to the imagination. I like that it's left to the imagination, so I "imagined" it more in favor of them waiting. In the words of Olive (Emma Stone's character from the movie, "Easy A"): "I may lose my virginity 5 minutes from now, 6 months from now, or on my wedding night. But whenever it is-it's none of your business!"
For the record, I'm actually a virgin, and I posted a similar lament to April's "missing out on the fun" reference on one of my DeviantArt journal postings, called "My Upside-Down Scarlet Letter". It was written before I saw the movie "Easy A", but knew what "The Scarlet Letter" was about, and that the "A" is for "Adultery" or "Adulteress". So I just turned the "A" upside-down and made it a "V" for "Virgin" (kinda the other side of the coin...).
As far as this story goes, the love scene was written by my imagination that I got from reading other similar stories, rather than from personal experience. I wondered at one time if a virgin writing a porn story is like a vegetarian making a barbecue... :)