Work Text:
He turned over in bed for the tenth time, exhausted but unable to truly sleep. He was fed up with not being able to fall asleep as easily as when he was still in the city, with the cars and sirens in the background drowning out intrusive thoughts.
Casey sighed in frustration, deciding to get up heavily and take a breath outside the house, maybe at midnight, with a cold breeze so deep and visceral that he knew it would help him forget his anguish. He sat on the bed and after confirming that physical exhaustion was getting the better of him, he stood up and walked clumsily to the bedroom door, stopping to look around the room one last time before turning the doorknob and finding himself facing a wide, empty hallway to wander through.
It wasn’t the first time this had happened. After escaping devastated New York, all the teenagers managed to reach the old O'Neil farm to take refuge among its ancient walls and thick forest. The dark-haired boy thought about his father, about his little sister asking for him; he should also think about his friend’s father and Splinter, but at this point, he was grateful they had managed to get out of that hell alive.
Walking aimlessly, he contemplated each of the dim shadows cast by the poor moonlight seeping through the windows, giving the house a mystical touch, as if the night had a fascinating quality that had suffocated his life in recent days. He could go to the living room, to the kitchen, knock on Mikey's door and check if he was awake reading a comic with a flashlight under the covers... but he didn’t feel like doing any of that; he simply walked down the hallway in silence as the moonlight caressed his profile while he approached the entrance of the property. Fresh air, ambient noise, he needed to distract his mind and cleanse his soul in some way.
He was about to press down on the doorknobs when a detail made him raise an eyebrow in confusion: the door was open, which was strange considering he himself had been responsible for securing all the locks hours earlier. He assumed Donnie had gone out to check something in the barn, so he pushed the doubt to the back of his mental vase of worries and opened the door, inhaling the early morning air, feeling as if tiny cold fingers were moving the rebellious hairs on his forehead and making them dance back and forth across his skin.
Jones, who still didn’t fully understand the situation, paused to inspect the front for a second, realizing that, in fact, someone was outside the house and seemed to be going through the same thing as him. Sitting on the swing chair at the entrance with his legs crossed and his eyes lost in the stars, Raphael looked dejected in the middle of the night.
“Raph...?” Murmured the brunette as he approached his friend, causing him to jump slightly in his seat and take a moment to look at him. His green eyes emitted a particular feeling that Jones didn’t remember having seen up close before.
It was fear.
“Casey? What are you doing awake at this hour...?” He asked in a whisper that was supposed to come out with annoyance but ended up sounding more like a sigh of relief.
“I could ask you the same thing,” Moving closer until he was practically sitting beside him with a slump, Jones chuckled softly, not believing what was happening, “I can’t sleep.”
The mutant looked at him attentively, analyzed his features, and limited his actions to a slight nod, regarding him with an increasingly neutral expression, unlike the fearful one he had upon encountering him.
“I understand...” He paused prudently, letting out a heavy sigh in the process, “I can’t sleep either...”
“Are you still...thinking about everything that happened...?”
They had agreed not to touch that subject again, not to remember that horrible day when the lives they knew were sucked down a drain to perdition. The turtle bit his lower lip as a nervous habit, showing his discomfort with talking about exactly that.
“I would be lying if I denied it, but... you know the answer.” He understood; Casey knew that falling into that memory and replaying it in his head like a movie a million times was his torture, especially since their leader remained unconscious and injured from his encounter with Shredder.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to judge you...” His voice was soft, almost like velvet, “this has all been a mess...”
“Yeah...”
They fell silent for a moment, a prudent amount of time for both boys to draw closer to each other, the dark-haired one wrapping his left arm around the green-eyed boy's back while he rested his head on his companion’s shoulder, seeking warmth and security in his arms. Conveniently, before what happened with Splinter and everything else, Raphael had confessed his feelings to Casey, giving him a couple of days to think things over and, if all went well, allowing themselves to start a relationship.
However, the universe did not agree that this should happen, but it did allow Leonardo to be beaten almost to death by Shredder.
The human felt the little turtle trembling, not knowing if it was due to the temperature or something else, resting his jaw on the other’s head, opening his heart for whatever he needed in those moments. Peace, tranquility, whatever he needed was within reach in the form of the lanky hockey player’s body.
Time passed slowly, wrapped in the night sky filled with stars and the gentle tinkling of the wind around them, Casey holding onto the ninja and the ninja gripping tighter to Casey with each passing second, not wanting to let go, afraid of losing him too.
“Everything will be alright...” He repeated over and over like a lullaby, deciding to stroke the exposed shoulder of the mutant and comfort him as best as he could. The green-eyed one tightened his arms around the other’s torso, trying to hide and escape from all the emotions that overflowed in his heart and made it bleed with every heartbeat.
Of all of them, one of the most affected had been Raph, taking care of his older brother without any rest, making sure that his other two brothers stayed together, striving for things to get better. He couldn’t say that the rest didn’t suffer or that they suffered with less intensity, but he knew that most of the weight had fallen on his best friend, and he had accepted it.
“Casey…”
“Tell me.”
Whatever was meant to be said never came; instead, a clumsy sob eclipsed their world in that moment. They had never seen or heard each other cry, but as they sat there, inhibitions no longer existed. Warm and abundant tears soaked the neck of the dark-haired one, alongside gentle caresses on the green skin at the mercy of his calloused and worn hand.
Words weren’t needed; they never really were. Both teenagers curled up in the worn-out chair, reflecting on their lives with an implicit embrace answering each of their questions.
Casey felt no more sleep; he just stayed there soothing and comforting the turtle who allowed him to show vulnerability, proving once again that what they had was special, that they understood each other, that they fit together perfectly. The dark-haired one closed his eyes, tired but without the strength to fall asleep; he just wanted to spend the entire night with him, being his support, serving as a real anchor for the storm trapped in his shell.
In a silence broken only by the soft cries of the younger one, neither wanted time to pass or come to an end. They were together, and together they could face anything.