**These short fics WILL contain Tcest. Please mind the tags!**

Chapter Two
Prompt: Dark
Rating: T
Pairing(s): OT4
Tags: Turtlecest, Established Relationship, Trust Issues
Summary: During a training exercise, Donatello is blindfolded.

~*~.~*~

Donatello swallowed, his eyelids fluttering under the weight of heavy, black cloth. His brothers held him in place from all sides. Michelangelo at his back, Leonardo and Raphael at his shoulders, the weight of their silent stares, coupled with the heat of their bodies as they leaned into him almost too much in the rapidly contracting space of the room.

He expected to hear Leonardo give the command to begin, but there was no sound other than the pounding of his own heart and the quiet shuffle of Michelangelo's feet as he fidgeted. The longer they stood there the more charged the energy between them became until Donatello could barely stand it. He lifted his chin, searching for cooler air.

The moment stretched as he waited for them to do absolutely anything at all, then... ...emptiness, the absence of breath, a void in the darkness... and he was alone.

Silence.

Not daring to move, Donatello shivered, each of his remaining senses a vivid cascade as they rushed to replace his lost sight. The air was cool and dense, smelling of candle smoke and old sweat and the permeating stench of sewer rot. He rolled his shoulders to release some of the tension building in his muscles and the bamboo mat beneath his feet creaked softly. One of the air circulator fans in the ceiling was rattling, the metallic jangle so quiet he almost missed it, and he turned his ear to the sound, contemplating the nature of the repair, the tools he would need, the length of time it might take to accomplish the work...

Two heavy footsteps. Calloused hands on his shoulders. A body flipping over his head. Gone.

Donatello huffed.

"Contact." Leonardo's voice was ethereal, coming from every corner of the room. "If we were your enemy, you'd be dead. Focus."

Focus.

Breathe.

In through the nose, out through the mouth, in through the nose...

Scent. Sugar and salt and the tang of citric acid... Michelangelo...

Donatello widened his stance as he prepared to leap away, but the youngest had always been the quickest of them all. Half a heartbeat and there was a body sliding between his legs, hands ghosting up his thighs. Gone.

Raphael was laughing somewhere in the dark, a low chuckle that vibrated deep in Donatello's bones.

"Contact, Donatello." Leonardo sighed from everywhere all at once. "Our success as a team is built on trust. We cannot allow even the smallest distraction or lapse in judgment erode that."

Donatello frowned like he always did when Leonardo was speaking in riddles. None of this made sense. Of course, he trusted his brothers. Implicitly. Why would they think otherwise? He knew he never needed to worry, knew that they were always looking out for him, because of his undeniable trust in them.

So, if this was about trust, then Leonardo was dead wrong... unless...

Oh.

Unless this wasn't about his trust in... them...

Slowly, Donatello shook his head, the dark fabric covering his eyes wrinkling where it rested on his nose. "Is that what this is about? You believe me blind to my surroundings... that my focus is singular? That's not true..."

The whisper cracked in his throat as he strained to find his brothers in the blackness. Their continued silence was all the confirmation he needed. "I count every inch, every step that separates us. When we're in the thick of a mission, the first thing I do is map the field in my mind, so I always know where each of you are, no matter how chaotic the situation becomes."

The room was heavier now as the darkness pulsed around him, in sync with the thumping of his heart. He took a step, and he could sense them, the dense pockets they made in the void just ahead, Raphael and Michelangelo, close to each other but not anywhere near close enough to him.

Something shifted behind him, a subtle change in pressure, and Donatello dropped to avoid Leonardo's grasp. He swept the floor with his leg, only just missing his target as the eldest jumped away. Then, to his left, the whisper of displaced air and Donatello spun and pushed up and flipped backward, leaving Michelangelo to hit the mat with a quiet 'oof'.

He danced around the room, always staying just a breath out of reach. Static sizzled across his skin, bringing into sharp focus the point his brothers were trying to make. This wasn't about his attention span. It was about the lengths to which they would all go to protect each other. They didn't mind watching his back while he was focused on other tasks. They were questioning if they could count on him to do the same.

Donatello stopped in the middle of the room, surrendering to the currents that circled his body and tingled down his spine. Enough was enough. The game was played out. One long, slow breath escaped his lungs.

"I'm sorry my actions caused you to doubt your confidence in me." He whispered with sincere remorse.

Spots of light burst against the back of his eyelids. He wanted to touch them, needed to feel his brothers, solid and real beneath his fingertips, to reassure them that he was always present, no matter where they were or what they were doing.

He reached out his hands, Raphael to his right, Michelangelo to his left, Leonardo...

Leaning back, he fell into his brother, reaching up to clasp the strong forearms that immediately circled his chest as warm lips came to rest against his ear. "It's not our confidence in you that has wavered. We only wanted reassurance that you're there with us, mentally as well as physically."

Donatello smiled in the dark, the blindfold damp where his tears soaked into the fabric.

"I know. I am. Always."

~*~ tmnt ~*~