I stared, for a very long time, I just stared.

He'd been sitting there for so long now, what's he doing?

"Raph?"

He does not respond.

"Raph?" I call again.

This time he furrows, "Hm?" but still does not turn to me.

"What're you doing?" I questioned, curios and cautious.

"I'm brick dancing on thin ice." He first replied, soon looking at me, annoyance clear in his gaze, "What does it look like I'm doing?" he mutters.

Humored, I giggled, "I'm not sure, that's why I'm asking." I eyed the pencil in his hand then the paper, "What's that?"

"Nothing that concerns you." He muttered again.

Undaunted, I smiled still, "Need help?"

"No." he flatly and dryly answers.

For another very long moment, I stared.

A short moment later, he twitched a smile and then scribbled something, paused, re-read what he wrote, added a little more, and then pressed the eraser, that's on the end of the pencil to his chin, thinking; his teeth now slowly gnawing on the eraser, and he furrows, staring at the paper. Again, he scanned the small paper, that was actually a small textbook, not too big, it only had a few blank pages.

I walked away towards the couch and sat down, the couch's puny seat bounced me, and I grinned, now kicking back and relaxing. I sat myself on the couch with such force, it caused the remote to jump into the air where I grabbed it with ease, now surfing through the channels. After a good half hour of surfing, I stopped at a cartoon, the grey bunny and the hunter, like usual.

I stared at the silver screen, but not actually watching, my eyes were fixed to the corner of my vision, directed to my red masked brother. He had been working on that textbook for a good week now, whenever we have free time, after training or practice sessions, after meals, and before bedtime, when he's not in his room, he's just sitting at the far corner of the living room, shell to the wall, and reading, or writing, I'm not sure.

Nether me or any of my other two brothers were not able to prey an answer from him, nor could we dare and snatch the text book from his hand, plainly because Sensei forbid it; not that we haven't tried, though. The last time we tried to steal a glance, Raph was one step ahead, and when we tried to read what he was working from over his shoulder, he'd close it shut, and then when we finally managed to snatch it, he dealt me a nasty dragon kick, while master Splinter did not look too pleased when he found out.

You rep what you saw, I guess.

Thirty back flips, and my arms still hurts.

Undaunted, I ignore the silver screen and watch him, Raph is so intensely engorged into his writing, I think I know someone I could relate to that expression, but I'm not saying, or Raph would beat me up. I rest my knees into the puny seat, and cross my arms over the backrest of the couch, resting my chin over my folded arms, and now I'm watching my brother as he scribbles some more.

I think he feels my gaze, for he glared at me for a moment, but says nothing.

I smile and wave a hand, hoping that he would respond with a friendly gesture.

He shakes his head and goes back to his scribbling.

With a pout, I'm growing more curious to what he's up to, and why he's so secretive over the textbook. I mean, it's not like he's writing his dairy or something, right? I mean, this is my hotheaded, red masked brother Raphael! Raph doesn't write these kinda things, it's just so silly! Knowing him, if I told him that I though he was writing a diary, he'd probably sock me one.

"Raph, what'cha doing?" I asked once again.

He sighs, getting irritated, controls his temper, and then ignores me.

Stubborn, I stand on the couch and lean towards his direction, "Aw C'mon Raph!"

He keeps ignoring me, now his brow ridges arch and he stops gnawing on the pencil, he goes back to his scribbling.

Annoyed, I stepped off the couch and sat next to him, no words said.

He shifts a bit away from me and goes back to his writing.

I smile, and snuggle closer to him.

He keeps ignoring me, now he's done writing, he's back to chew on the eraser.

I see his hand holding the text book, and I carefully try to sneak a peek.

With a groan, he stops writing to glare at me, "Some personal space here?" he complains.

Sheepishly, I scoot a little back.

"Thank you." He says, very annoyed.

After a moment, I just sit there next to him, and he goes back to his writing.

I don't know why, Raph is pretty cool, but sometimes he can be such a jerk, then again it's a part of who he is, even when he picks on me, mostly when I say something that ticks him off. I guess I'm more curious to what he's doing, that I'm risking myself to my curiosity, I have to know what he's doing, because he's been working on this for a whole week, and he's not telling anyone.

I sit back and try every few minutes to steal a glance into the notebook, but Raph had probably figured out my plan, because he unfolded the textbook cover and blocked my vision, I can't read what he wrote, and I can't see what he's writing. I pout and glare at him, and he suppressed an amused smile, so I pout more and cross my arms over my chest, he lets out a chuckle, shakes his head and then slowly, goes back to his blank, uncaring expression.

I stayed pouting for a good five minutes, but that didn't faze him one bit, he kept ingoing me. Defeated, I sighed and leaned back, now toying with my fingers, very, very bored. I really need a new hobby, I have nothing to do. I've read all my books, and I've played with all my toys, there is just nothing interesting to do around here anymore, I'm bored! Staring idly at my fingers, touching about my nails, I let out a small breath, wondering if I should just leave Raph and try to bother someone else.

Before I could, he surprised me.

Ripping a blank paper from his textbook, he gave it to me, "Here, fold this ten times."

"Huh?" I accepted the paper and looked at him, confused.

He grinned, "That ought to keep you busy." He chuckled and got more comfortable, he went back to his scribbling.

Now staring at the blank paper at hand, I blinked.

Shrugging, I didn't rally care why Raph asked me to fold it, I just did.

I folded it the first five times pretty easy, at the sixth and seventh time, it got a bit harder, the eighth was the hardest, but the ninth was impossible! The paper just won't fold! It really, really confused me! How does Raph want me to fold it ten times, when it won't even fold eight or nine? It completely bewildered me! Was this a trick? Is he just trying to keep me occupied?

Glaring at the paper, I forced it to fold the ninth time, but it didn't look too convincing, so I sighed and showed it to Raph. He didn't move at first, he was busy scribbling still, but seeing I stayed still, he took note I was gesturing something to him, so he tore his attention from the paper, pretty much by force, he was really deep into writing at that moment, and then looked at me.

Eyeing the paper, he grinned.

"Give up?"

"Yeah, how do you fold it ten times?"

"You don't." he chuckled.

I gawked a him, "Then why did you tell me to fold it ten times?" I grumped.

"Because I wanted to see if you could do it." He laughed.

"Did you do it?"

"Nope."

"Then why did you ask me to do it?" I frowned.

"Because." He shrugged indifferently.

With a pout, I glared at the paper, I tossed it away.

For a moment, Raph just watched me, he gave me a thoughtful look and a lopsided smile. He got up, walked towards the thrown paper, tucked his textbook under his arm as he put the pencil inside, and as he walked towards me, he unfolded the paper. Without a word, he started refolding it, but differently than the way I did, and while doing so, he sat next to me again.

I stared, curious to what he was doing.

With a grin, he uncapped his hands to produce an origami, it was a paper doll made to look like a swan. It was a bit crunched up and shabby, because of my force-folded folds I've done before, but still it looked pretty neat. The wings were a bit crunched and the neck was tilted, but the rest of the structure was in good condition, the swan looked really pretty in white.

Offering it, I cupped my hands, and Raph put it there.

"Take it." He said, "It's yours."

I looked at him, mouth open, "But you made it."

He smiled, "Nah, no thanks, I can make lots of other origami."

I looked at the paper doll, and I touched it's head, the paper was too crunched up.

"Look, if it's ugly," he ripped a page from his text book, "I'll just make you a new one."

"Ah! No, Raph, you don't have to!" I told, but too late.

He started folding up the paper, almost as if he had done so a thousand times, he carefully folded the paper in such a crafty way, and produced another swan, now he put it into my palm next to the first one, "There."

I smiled, now comparing the old, crunched swan with the new, pretty white one.

"Master Splinter once told me that there was an old story," he began, now eyeing the cover of his text book, smiling rather dreamily, "the story said that if you make a hundred origami swans, your wish will come true!" he slowly skimmed through the pages.

I toke note half the paper was missing from his textbook, "Did you ever try?" I asked him, interested and curious.

"Well," he paused, pondering about the question, "I figured wasting all that paper on paper swans was just a big waste of time, I'm sure we can do better stuff with paper than that." he shrugged, sounding a bit guilty.

"Oh…" I looked at the two humble swans in my hands.

Eyeing the paper, I smiled.

The old one looked pretty battered and old, like a very old swan, and the second one looked pure white and new, like a young, pretty swan. It was funny, they were both made of paper, but the texture and state of the paper affected the outcome. I wondered, if we grew older, will we look this shabby? Will we look so tired and worn out?

Does master Splinter feel that way?

"Raphael," Sensei stepped into the small room, his walking stick gently hitting the floor, "Are you done with your essay, my son?"

Raph and I turned to Sensei, and I perked, 'Essay?'

"Almost Sensei, just a few more pages left." Raph replied.

Sensei nodded, smiling; paused and then eyed me, "What is that in your hand, my son?"

I extended my cupped hands to Sensei, showing him the paper swans.

Sensei picked them up and put then both in one hand, he smiled, "Did you make this?"

I shook my head, saying no, "No Sensei, Raph made these."

When I turned to Raph with a smile, I blanked; he looked like he just got himself in so much trouble! He was nervously fiddling with the pencil, and I was pretty confused, eyeing Sensei, his tail lashed about, not angry, just when he's expecting something, and I felt a little uneasy, I wanted to know what was going on, but didn't know if I should.

"Um, did I do something wrong, Sensei?" I tried to take the blame.

Sensei looked at me, a bit perplexed, but then he chuckled and patted my head with his free hand, "No, my son, it is not you."

"Is it Raph?" I eyed my red masked brother.

Raph just winced, and then glared at me, he was holding back the yell, to tell me to shut up.

"It seems to me you have gotten better in making origami, Raphael." Sensei began, fingering the old looking swan, caressing it's delicate features, "I can also tell you have had enough practice?" he arched a brow.

Raph shrunk to his shell, sighed and then bowed his head, "Sorry, Sensei. I'll put them with the others." He mumbled.

"There will be no need." He replied, and extended the new white swan to me, while keeping the old battered one in his hand, "After all, you have made this one for your brother, did you not?" Sensei smiled, knowing.

Raph now practically blushed his face off, he looked away and didn't answer.

Sensei chuckled, "Whenever your essay is done, my son, please do deliver it to me."

"Hai, Sensei." Raph replied obediently.

After a very long moment, I looked at Raph.

"Sorry if I got you in some kind of trouble, Raph! I didn't mean it, honest!" I explained.

Raph chuckled despite himself, he was still blushing, "Ah, it's not you, silly." He shook his head, "Just, whatever… forget about it."

I furrowed guiltily, and snuggled next to Raph. "Sorry."

He sighed and went back to his writing, he just rest his head on mine for a few seconds, then nuzzled my forehead.

I giggled, now we snuggled and cuddled, usually when Raph does that, it's a silent 'You're forgiven, let bygones be bygones.'

We snuggled next to each other, and Raph finally allowed me to spell check his essay.

Turned out to be some sort of punishment from Sensei, because Raph wasted too much paper creating origami, but when I asked him what he was wishing for, he never told me. Raph was supposed to write a hundred pages about recycling and the value of paper, so he was pretty stuck the past couple of days, because Sensei gave him the textbook to write his essay.

One reason was so Raph will have to search for information, while scavengers hunting with Sensei, kind of ninja training to gather information; plus to give his hand some practice, since Raph's handwriting isn't all that readable, though he admitted that his fingers have been hurting for holding a pencil for so long. Raph also admitted that he managed to make sixty paper swans, before he was out of paper.

That's when he started 'borrowing' some from our sketchbooks, that was a wrong move, because that's when Sensei took note of the missing paper, and figured out what Raph was up to. So Sensei took all the paper swans to his room, he didn't crush them or get rid of them or anything, he neatly sorted them on the table top near his bonsai trees, like a display or decoration.

I fingered the paper swan in my hand, it was still really pretty.

I snuggled into Raph, and he didn't ignore me, he stopped writing and we cuddled.

Getting comfortable, snuggled into his side, I yawned, growing tired.

"Go to sleep, bro. it's pretty late." He said quietly.

"Did you finish the essay, Raph?" I mumbled sleepily.

"Un, it can wait, I'll give it to Sensei in the morning." He said, now easing me down, I rested my head in his lap, "Get some shuteye."

"Un, G'night Raph." I rest my head on his legs, curling up for a nap.

"G'night, bro." He brushed my cheek.

I smiled and drifted into sleep.

I've never forgotten about the swan ever since.

I look at it now, back then we were only little turtle tots, and now more than ten years later, resting on my desk, glazed under a soft layer of transparent plastic for protection, in a glass canister, beautifully standing on the small pedestal that resembled the ripples, as it swan through a pond, a few lilies here and a few reeds on the side, it was something I carved especially for it, eyeing it sitting quietly between my books.

I look at it every time I feel down, every time I feel that I've reached a deadened and can't go on, every time I feel alone, that my dreams shattered to bits, I look at it and it reminds me. I feel hope, and I remember our dreams, it helps me keep an open mind and not close off when I'm feeling hurt, or neglected, so I just look at it and smile.

We turtles know nothing is impossible, especially when we put our minds into it.

I chuckled, Raph probably thinks I lost it after the old lair collapsed, I don't think he knew it was in the old toy trunk they brought back, huh. Oh, little does he know it's probably one of my most treasured possessions, every time I look at it, I remember how close we were back then, and then reminisce how we just drifted apart, it's a part of life, I guess.

"Donny, practice session in ten minutes." Leo says as he walks past my lab.

"Be here in a few." I reply, not bothering to turn around.

He simply nods and walks away.

I eye the swan and smile.

Sometimes, wishing is all we can do, yet, others, we can make our own wishes come true.

I let the blueprints of the Shell Cycle's new accessories visible where Raph could see them, and then walked away.

'Yes, it's nice to be the master of your own magic.'

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

A/N: Um, Donny centric in a way, even if it does focus on Raph, so yeah, whatever… xD

Btw, No, I don't own the turtles, they're copyright to mirage comics, so yeah…