the hunt - 2 - [rottmnt Donnie - COMPLETED]

#41

Donnie stood in his room and pulled the thick purple hoodie over his head. He had unusually taken a much longer shower than Shiro. He felt as if he had needed the time to collect himself from the impressions that had assailed him in the last hour.

The slaughter, the dance, the connection to Shiro and both of their Ninpos. The cruelty of their actions and their absolute indifference to it. Donnie now knew what it was like to have not only his Ninpo an impact on Shiro, but hers on him as well. It was stirring, infinite, contradictory - and he had gotten an inkling of why she herself was very careful with it.

Reverently, he had paused for a few moments in the shower when Shiro had still been with him. Leo's words had not left him entirely unaffected after all, and so he had asked her

"Doesn't it bother you that these men died today at our hands?"

And her look had suddenly become calculating as she answered

"At most, that I didn't make them suffer more. That was the yakuza, Donnie. They would have deserved it. All of them."

Only to hum, good-humoredly, a few minutes later, the song they had heard together, during their slaughter. Completely unimpressed, she seemed to him, just as she had then during her solo mission at the brothel. Maximum mercilessness towards her victims - deepest affection towards the weakest.

Donnie took a deep breath. Today, for the first time in his life, he hadn't been stopped, hadn't been held back, Leo hadn't been there to delay him with an admonishing voice - and it had been liberating. Indescribably liberating. What was possible with Shiro by his side, he wondered. What else were they capable of?

"So now you two are chosen to rule the world. To make it your own, to improve it, to make it unified and perfect."

Donnie sighed and grabbed the external hard drive as he felt the flame shine within him. Bright and different. Like it was spreading for a second. He frowned.

-

"What. Was. THAT?" whispered April, suddenly quite sober, from under the covers as she stared with Shiro at the rapidly fading lines on her hands, both lying on their stomachs.

"What do you mean? The kiss or my lines on your hands?" Shiro had quickly collected herself and grinned teasingly at April, who responded by hiding her head between her arms with a groan. Shiro laughed softly and looked at her own lines, which were slowly losing their radiance as well.

"I'm so sorry, Shiro." came April's muffled voice, and Shiro shook her head.

"You have nothing to be sorry for. No one got hurt." she replied, and April began to squirm.

Shiro raised her eyebrows.

"Oh God." said April, her voice suddenly sounding choked, "I think I'm going to puke."

And the next moment she ripped the blanket off and ran into the bathroom.

-

"Shiro?"

...

"Shiro?!"

"Hey Donnie! Not a good fit right now!"

Donnie heard April gagging in the background and looked puzzled at his gauntlet.

"Uh, I was going to start evaluating the hard drive and Leo told me to-"

"Go ahead and start without me!"