Raph could hardly get scared by anything, except for bugs and his family in danger, much to his lack of admittance. However, right now, he felt like his heart had turned into ice. Don's chocolate orbs locked him and Leo in place, unable to move, unable to breath. He didn't even feel the forest green hand taking his and squeeze on it. What did he mean by the result in the blood test? Why was he wearing such a frightening face? The result shouldn't be that horrible... or was it?
From across the table, his own expression must be reflected on Mikey, with a tad of fury added to it. The orange clad turtle clenched his fists on the table, his sky-blue eyes sparked fire as he shot dagger toward the genius. Don's mysterious attitude, along with Mikey's unknown anger, caused the fear and confusion to rise even more.
Don swept his eyes over his brothers, taking in the sight of Raph's fear, the frightened look of Leo, and finally, the expression that carried many hidden messages of his youngest brother. How did he and his family end up in this situation anyway? It was bad enough for his feeling to ricochet from one person to another, but life proved to be the ultimate bitch when his computer shoved the blood test result to his face. If he told them now, how should his family move on from it? Don's mouth slowly fell agape without his consciousness, his throat all dried up as he searched for word to speak.
"What does the result say, Donnie?" Leo asked, as calmly as he could, but inside he's already assuming the worst.
"The test... it's... it's..."
Seconds ticking by seemed to be stretched into hours as both his eldest brothers stared at him, while the youngest looked like he's about to tear his own genius brother apart the moment Don spoke his next word. Funny, and he thought Mikey said he loved him, looked up to him like an idol.
"... It's ruined. Mikey messed up while setting the instruments." Don said finally.
"How the hell could you… WHAT?"
Mikey was all but to bite Don's head right off if his ears didn't catch what the genius just said. He just sat there, dumbfounded, his jaw almost hit the floor.
"I'm really sorry." Don continued, his eyes downcast "I guess you guys have to wait some more while I do the test all over again. I'll set it up myself, that is, if Mikey's not willing to help."
Darting his eyes for their baby brother, he almost blurted out laughing for god knows why as Mikey stared back at him with utter confusion. But he caught on quite fast.
"Oh, right! I'm really sorry, bros." He smiled sheepishly "I told him I can't be trusted with his high-tech stuff, but he didn't listen."
"I should get to it asap." Don stood up, his face completely neutral "You guys bring dinner to master Splinter. Let's go Mikey, we need to make up for wasted time."
The two of them left the dining table immediately after, leaving the couple. Raph still had his hand squeezed tight by Leo, to the point he almost felt his fingers going numb. They both let out a breath neither of them realized they were holding, feeling their hearts beating at their chest again. A sad smile crept over Leo's face as he softened his hold on his lover's hand.
"He lied." He stated simply.
"Yup." Raph leaned back to his chair "But why?"
"Probably has something to do with Mikey. Did you see how he reacted to every single word Donnie said?"
"If ya mean he looked like he's about ta rip brainiac's head off, then yeah, definitely."
"Nevertheless, he lied to us about the test. Something must went wrong... or horribly right." Leo let go of Raph's hand, still feeling the ice cold grip on his heart a few minutes ago.
"I know. Never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad not ta know the truth, even though I'm the one asking for it in the first place."
"Things really changed around here, right? Come on, I can almost hear sensei's stomach growling. We can always investigate on them later."
Raph was more than happy to oblige.
:::
Mikey's mouth was a thin line as he followed Don to the lab, his insides flipping with both shock and happy. As soon as the door was closed behind them, Don let go of his muscles, leaning back and leaving it For Mikey to catch him. The orange clad turtle gracefully welcome his genius brother into his open arms with a smile.
"That was... one shell of a lie you said there." He whispered.
"I... I lied to them. I don't know why, but... I couldn't bring myself to tell them the truth." Don held dear to the sea green turtle, his voice cracking.
"I believe you did the right thing, Donnie. I'm really proud of you."
"Proud? You looked like you'd kill me if I tell them." Don chuckled bitterly, wiping a tear from his eye.
Mikey didn't say anything, just cradled his brother close. Don must, without a doubt, have went through one fierce inner battle to reach the point that he lied to his own brothers, something Mikey knew rarely happened. He gently settled them both down right to the floor, caressing Don's shell with light stroke, easing the sob out of his brother. They sat there in sorrow silence, often disrupted by Don and his machines. After what seemed like an hour or so, Don finally lifted himself up.
"I could see the look on their faces when they came down the stair for dinner. It was... determined."
"They're willing to go to any length just to find their happiness, just like what we're doing now." Mikey soothed him.
"Somehow I... I had no idea what came over me." Don rested his face on to the sea green shoulder. Since when did his baby brother's shoulder become so big?
"May be you just want them to face the truth. Nobody can blame you for that."
"Then why did you stop me? You didn't want me to destroy their hope, didn't you?"
"Maybe, maybe not. But even I couldn't believe you came up with that kind of lie." Mikey chuckled lightly. The shock from it was still in his chest.
"That makes two of us. When I looked at their faces, with all the hope and fear in their eyes... They leave their whole happiness for me to decide, I just... couldn't bring myself to say it. I take it you'll never forgive me if I told them."
"I didn't fell for you for no reason, Donnie. You just proved that I didn't make the wrong choice."
Don lifted his face to take a look at his brother. Those sky-blue orbs that reflected his image were so clear they carried the purity from his innocent baby brother. How come Don hadn't seen this before? He's been chasing after a mirage of someone he could never have. He should've realized it the moment April's eyes met Casey's for the very first time. Don kept wondering what she could possibly see in a man like him, but he didn't realize that the heart needs no reason to love another, just like... just like him, in this moment, staring at those sky-blue orbs of his brother.
As if there's a switch snapped into place, Don launched himself toward Mikey, capturing those sea green lips in a feverish kiss. Caught off guard, they both stumbled to the floor, but the kiss went on like nothing in the world matter. This was it. this was what he should be having, for Don felt like everything had fallen into place, and he believed his brother had the same feeling as well. Mikey was more than eager to let himself be lost in that kiss, in those olive green arms that held him tight yet tender. The orange clad turtle had been lost in the abyss of loneliness for too long, masked by dry laugh, corny jokes and childish pranks. Was it a coincidence that his distraction for Don had turned out to be true love? Who cared? Right now all he wanted was to be ravished by his genius brother, turning off every other thoughts and worries.
Their first kiss together seemed to last forever, if the need to breath didn't put it to an end. Reluctantly parting lips, Don pulled Mikey up to an embrace, their breath ragged as their lungs protested from the abuse. Mikey chuckled:
"That... totally beats their first kiss."
"We're not competing here." Don lightly shook his head, still feeling like walking on air.
"Don't care, that's my first kiss, and I'm gonna brag about it when this mess is over." He patted on the genius's cheek "Which reminds me... How are you going to deal with that lie? It's not like we can change the result..."
"I didn't say anything of the sort." Don let go of Mikey to walked up to his computer "There's must be something we missed, maybe some minor details that I overlooked that caused all this. We won't know for sure unless we went through everything again."
"Everything? That'll take forever. I'm gonna whine all the way, can you stand that?" Mikey faked a painful look.
"As long as you whine to my ear, I don't mind." Don smiled softly.
"Does that mean we're... 'official' now?"
"... Yes, I believe we are." Don smirked at his unbelievable brother.
Saying that, but the youngest didn't utter a sound of complain. He obediently followed Don's every single instruction down to the letter, making sure not to skip or forget anything that might potentially cause the test to have the same result. Meanwhile, Don went through all the data that's been collected, his fingers typed at light-speed on the keyboard, occasionally looked over Mikey to give out instruction. Aside from that, there's not much adjustment that could be made, since the equipment Chaplin lent to him were of state-of-the-art quality, so Don decided to focus solely on the data streaming down on the screen. So far nothing out of place showed up to him, and that's when he's been reading from word to word. It was what he's been collecting from their body ever since he could remember, for the purpose of researching on their mutation. Hold on a minute... the mutation...
"Damn..." Don cursed without realizing.
"What's wrong, Don?"
"One sec, I need to double check something." Don hastily halted his brother.
Closing every windows, he brought up a transmission screen with one hand and dialed his shell cell on the other. His calls were answered almost at the same time by Chaplin and Leatherhead, both looked a bit surprised to see the purple clad turtle practically rushed at their faces.
"Hi, guys! I'm sorry to call both of you so suddenly, but I'm conducting an experiment that's a little pressed on time. I need to collect all the data that each of you have regarding the Utrom, mainly their wasted ooze that mutated us. I hope that kind of information is not classified."
The young scientist and the crocodile were taken a little aback at this, but seeing that Donatello never demanded for something without reason, neither of them asked any unnecessary question. The moment Don cut off the calls, Mikey arched an eyebrow toward his brother:
"Care to explain what's that all about, bro?"
"Not until I'm sure of this. It's just all a hypothesis right now. I need to confirm..."
"Just give me your best shot, Donnie. I promise I won't say anything."
"... Alright. It's just... I might figure out what went wrong with the test."
"Which mean..." Mikey coaxed.
"Things might not what we think it would be. Keep your fingers crossed, though..."
Mikey couldn't help but beaming bright. Now that's more like it, the turtle he 'accidentally' falling in love with...