Title: Going On (2k14 my AU)

Rating: T

"Donnie, it's time to clear this room sweetheart," Asha said. She was standing there surveying his lab with him, a moving box in his hand.

"I know," Donnie sighed.

He'd been cleaning it and promising her he'd clean it out for years. His lab wasn't used as much anymore, not like it used to be. They were older now. Much older. The years of running rooftops, and fighting crime, and keeping the city safe thanklessly were far behind all of them. He and his brothers had done it until it couldn't be done anymore. Splinter had passed on so many years before, and still they soldiered on in a misguided attempt to honor his memory. It was Mikey who had spoken up first, and suggested that they lay down their arms so-to-speak.

When they were young it felt as if they would never get old, but here he was an old man now. Donatello had kept himself up over the years, seeing the need for more exercise the older he got. He cast a glance at his beautiful wife. Asha seemed ageless. He smiled his gap-toothed smile at her, the one she'd loved so much that she used to kiss his teeth.

"What?" Asha asked, a knowing smile on her face.

"Just gazing at the moon and stars, getting lost in them," Donnie said, his voice full. How many times have they had this exact exchange? He'd look at her googly-eyed, she'd ask 'what', and he'd tell her he was looking at the moon and stars.

"You're so silly Don-Don, but I love it," she said, her smile easy and warm.

"Now, come on. You've gotta go soon, and these things won't pack themselves," Asha said striding across the room to the dustiest shelves waiting for him to follow.

Donnie followed her, would follow her anywhere she chose to lead. He crossed the large space to stand next to her, himself surveying the contents on the shelf long forgotten. Slowly he began to take things and place them in the box, each item invoking a memory, some welcome and others not so much. His old smoke bombs from that time the Kraang invaded, Mikey's old worn chucks for whatever reason, an outdated toolkit, all of it useless now.

Donatello cleared the storage shelves, then moved on to the file cabinets. He grabbed another empty box and began to fill it with papers. Old instructions on how to do a blood transfusion, long solved equations that he couldn't bring himself to throw away after the many hours invested in solving them. Flash drives that didn't work anymore, computer parts he'd scavenged over the years, even though Asha had begged him to stop gathering them. He couldn't help it, and once she realized that he couldn't, that doing certain things were simply a part of him, she'd left him alone about it.

"You're doing good Don-Don! See, it's not all that bad. All those years of putting it off, and for what?" Asha said smoothing circles into his shell, like she always did.

"Yeah, I know, but you know how it is. Raph's got his weights, Leo has his meditation…"

"Which is just an afternoon nap now, but he denies it," she interrupted giggling, and making Donnie smile at the thought. It was the truth too.

"Yeah, Leo's got his afternoon nap that he swears is meditation, Mikey's got his art, and I've got my stuff," Donnie said, still smiling but sighing a little as well. It was overwhelming.

"Thanks for helping me Asha. You always could get a fire lit under my shell," Donnie said sitting the now full box on the floor, and grabbing another. It felt good to be doing something.

"I can get a fire lit in more ways than one," she said winking at him saucily, and taking a seat on the edge of his old desk.

"Stop distracting me," he said smiling that other smile at her, the one that always got her going even when they were young.

"That's not a distraction, this is," she said as she dragged a well-manicured finger down the crease of her breasts. They still sat up pretty well considering. He smirked and let his eyes linger on her body and smile.

It was always easy between them. All it would ever take to seduce her were a few words, a touch here or there, or even his mere presence sometimes. At first, he thought she was pulling his leg when she told him that just watching him made her aroused, but over the years she proved it to be no hyperbole. It was easy to be with her. He could calm her with a few words, she didn't make a habit of arguing with him, and she never stopped him from being who he was. He had always thought of marriage as constricting, but being with Asha was freedom. All she wanted in return for never being an encumbrance, was him. She demanded his attention, his mind, and his body. She wanted him to talk to her, to teach her things, to ramble about things that were important to him even if she didn't always understand.

Suddenly, he couldn't hold back anymore. He was always so measured, calculating, precise, and always trying to be in just as much control over his emotions as Leo, but the dam broke inside. Tossing the empty box to the side, Donnie closed the distance and leaned his tall frame down over his wife, bringing their foreheads together.

"Why?" He asked in a choking watery breath, not able to find his full voice. The familiar scent of coconuts, heady. Asha smiled at him knowingly, kindly, lovingly, sorrowfully.

"Because it is as it should be Don-Don," she tried. He shook his head.

"No! It's not as it should be, nothing is as it should be Asha!" He said with more vehemence than he wanted, but it couldn't be helped. He was learning, just now after all these years, and all those close calls, and near deaths, and brushes with death, that some things simply could not be helped.

"Because you are strong, you always have been. Because I have not had a single moment of regret being with you Donatello. Not a single moment," she said as the tears began to fall.

"I love you. Asha, I love you so fucking much," Donnie whispered fiercely in her ear, his rare use of profanity driving the point home even more.

"And I love you too baby, and that will always be so," she said still smiling that knowing, sorrowful smile.

Donnie nodded his head wearily and stood straight, wiping the tears from his cheeks.

"You ready Don?" Leo asked in a gentle voice. He was standing in the doorway of the lab, holding Asha's staff out to his brother. It was wrapped in ceremonial cloth tied by a string of gemstones. She'd told them that her ancestors believed the stones helped the spirits of the dead find their way.

"Yeah, I'm ready now," Donnie said, casting one last longing glance at the woman he'd called his wife. She was ageless.