Affections for an Idle Heart

By Zye

I do not own the TMNT characters; we should all know who does (sighs).

An epic story trailing a coupling between Raphael and Donatello; adult theme slash (?) relations

Could a wounded heart ever learn to love again?

Confirmation by Evening (chapter 3)

Donatello yawned as he took a brief moment to stretch his stiff muscles, his eyes burning from hours of decoding genetic sequences. With about three million bases in a single percent of DNA and only one-tenth vary from one individual to the next; comparing the two samples was tedious, time-consuming work.

Raphael had been an encouraging advocate throughout his research… thoughtfully provided sandwiches when he skipped meals…listened quietly to any frustrations and explanations of his work…Donnie sighed. He had so desperately wanted to tell Raph, how much he adored everything about him. A warm fuzzy feeling surged inside his chest as he pictured Raphael's strong confident figure…fearlessly ambitious…valiantly determined…boldly independent…sarcastically humorous…chivalrously passionate…electrifyingly erotic…! Don closed his eyes, acutely aware that Raphael had captured his heart long ago.

"Hey! What cha doing in here?" Mike bellowed peering into the lab. "Can Donnie come out and play?" he teased "I'm so bored! We can play Monopoly, you can be the wheelbarrow."

Don snapped out of his daydreaming and replied "no thank you, I'm kind-of in the middle of something important," then promptly turned back to his computer screen.

"Oh, alright you can be the shoe" smiled Mikey undaunted by his brother's blow off.

Don shook his head smiling, "Maybe later."

"How about the hat? The thimble? The car? P p p pleeeease." Mike pleaded to Don's sympathetic nature, knowing if he pestered him long enough he'd get his way.

Raphael suddenly stormed into the room, "I told you to stay out of here. " He roared at Mike "Don's busy…now scat!"

"But I'm so bored…wait a minute…Do you want to play Monopoly? You can be the rusty screw we used to replace the horse," Mikey snickered.

Raphael hated playing board games but if it will get his little brother out of the lab…"Fine, go set it up." he growled. As Mikey pranced off down the hall, Raph looked tired as he inhaled deeply and shook his head, "Sorry I thought he'd watch TV a little longer." Anxiously he turned his attention to Donnie, "How's it coming anyway?"

"Hopefully, I should finish my analysis of the samples later today." Don said "Then we can…" Don was cut off when Mikey screech from the living room "Come on Raphie, or I'll roll for you!!"

Raphael huffed, "Is that supposed to be a threat or something, shell, he can play for me for all I care."

Don giggled "I don't think you going to get away that easy, Raphie."

Raph rolled his eyes and smirked, "You know I hate being called Raphie."

Deep in meditation, Leonardo examined his mental notes attempting to understand Raphael's bizarre behavior over the past few days. He was alarmed when he saw Raph's tear stained face the morning it all started. It raised a great deal of concern for his normally hard-shelled brother. What would breach his impenetrable defenses deep enough to show? He sensed that his brother was hiding something…but what?

Even more perplexing, was Raph's anxious preoccupation with Don's current obsession. Don was studying blood samples for some unexplained reason. Something was going on, Leo just couldn't figure out what. Whatever it was, he'd never seen his hot-headed brother this subdued and silent before.

Leo opened his eyes and carefully scrutinized Raphael. He had been enduring a game of Monopoly with Mikey for almost three hours now. Throughout the game Mikey playfully provoked his hot-headed brother who remained strangely tolerant with only minor outbursts of frustration now and again.

Raph was soundly getting his shell kicked and didn't seem too upset about it. Leo shook his head; something is just not right about him lately, he said to himself.

Donnie suddenly burst into the room, by the look on his face he was clearly excited; "Raph, I did it!"

Raphael leapt out of his chair, knocking it over, and tripped in his haste to get to Donnie. "You did!" he said recovered from his stumble "How? With that Y-chromosome analysis you mentioned?!" He beamed with genuine interest as the pair quickly raced back to the lab.

Mikey a little stunned by Raph's sudden departure, looked at Leo bewildered…"Did he just say chromosome?" Mike asked, "What's a chromosome?" Leo simply shook his head as a response.

Overcome with curiosity, Leo and Mikey followed the enthusiastic voices down the hallway. As they approached the lab, their brothers became abruptly silent. Leo peered into the room and saw his two brothers in a strong embrace. "What's with all the excitement in here?" he asked suspiciously cocking his head to the side.

"Awwwe they're hugging." Mikey gushed, as Raph and Donnie quickly parted, their cheeks flushed pink.