Full Summary: Settling into the Hamato clan has been hard for Melody throughout January. Some days, it doesn't feel worth it. Others? She doesn't feel she deserves them to begin with. But Donatello's sure her sun will rise, and he isn't the only one who thinks so.
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Drama, Romance
Rating: Teen for Mel's and Raph's mouths, as well as some mild sexual insinuations.
Universe: Set after "Hollow Hearts" and "Presence".

Author's Notes: Welcome to the new year, dear readers! Honestly, this almost didn't make it's intended date; but I'm sucking up my Flu for a moment and posting. SO I BETTER HEAR FROM YOU PEOPLE! Kidding. But it would be nice. Big Six? :'D

That said, please note that this mini-book is centered around Melody and Don. It's very character-driven, mainly on Melody's part since she has the most growth to work through. So, expect a lot of them. For those who don't know, Melody is a cyborg character introduced in "Hollow Hearts". If you don't read that...things will go over your head. If you don't want to, just know she's done some bad things and Don's her sanity. XD

Now, onward!

Disclaimer: TMNT belongs to Nick/Eastman/Laird. Nia Anders and Melody Gray belong to me. I'm in no way making any money. Thanks.

Chapter 01 - Sunrise Coffee

Hamato Donatello's sneakers sloshed through the slick, running water of a large culvert. He used careful speed to keep his clothes dry—he'd been sick one too many times from carelessness during the winter—and smiled at Melody standing on the culvert's metal ledge. The saturated sunrise from New York's cityscape created a brilliant contrast around her, giving the cyborg's shapely body a glow of yellow-orange that stole his breath when she partially turned towards him. Her half-robotic face was listless, yet Don held his smile, certain she was, in fact, interested in his presence.

"Why are you here?" she questioned monotonously.

"Bringing coffee," the purple-banded Chūnin replied while approaching her side. The culvert was wide enough for both to stand comfortably, so Donny didn't need to mind his movements as he offered the cyborg one of the two mugs he held.

Melody accepted his offer without hesitation or outward intrigue. "By now it is surely cold."

Don chuckled lightly before taking a simultaneous sip with his girlfriend. "Yup, just about," he noted at the cooled temperature of his drink. Still, he drank more, gaze set on the glistening daybreak of the city.

"Why are you here?" Melody repeated—a stern action. "You know I will return shortly."

"Doesn't mean I want you alone," answered Donatello simply. He grinned then side-glanced when he brought the mug to his lips again. The blonde didn't face him, yet he knew the red-tint across her organic left cheek wasn't because of sunlight. "So, what are you thinking about?"

"Your small talk has never worked on me," the woman remarked. Her blunt words accompanied her casual sip of coffee and when she sighed, it left a heavy vapor cloud in the January air.

"And yet I keep trying," Don added coyly.

"Donatello."

The mutant prematurely gulped his next sip of coffee, meeting Melody's fixed expression. "You do this every day, Mel. Morning and night—even before you were…changed."

"Your point?"

"While it's a means of contemplation, it's also an escape."

"I will be back." Irritation replaced listlessness then brightened the cyborg's blue-gray eye as her body twisted.

"To me, yes. To my clan? Not so much." Don's tone and face grew somber when the fire in Melody suddenly died—her means of defense against unwanted emotion. He wouldn't accept such aversion, especially since he already knew the reason for it. "Leo left for his sabbatical yesterday. Sensei's assured us it's for the best. Says there're too many memories in the city and he needs to find something lost on his own."

"I am aware of Splinter's speech," Melody interjected. "I was present."

The Chūnin sent her a strained smile. "From the outskits, yes."

"The outskirts are where I must be."

"So you think. Mel, we've been over this. Twice since Christmas."

"Your brother has left for South America"—the cyborg spoke breathlessly, although any outward signs of anxiety remained hidden under her even expression—"and no one has an idea of when he will return. The reason he must leave at all…is because of me, Donny."

"No; it was because of what Lombardo and Stephens did to him."

"Who brought him to them?"

"If I hadn't of hurt you in the first place, you wouldn't done any of those things." With a brusque sigh, Donatello reached for Melody's full-metal arm with his free hand, his fingertips gently brushing its smooth, chilled surface. "We're both guilty in this case. It was a mess. But…you can be forgiven. Like me."

The blonde let out a 'humph' before returning to her coffee and the yellowing sunrise.

"You don't believe me." Words dejected, the six-foot mutant shoved his hand into the deep side pocket of his stitched parka.

"Speaking with them is…difficult," Mel replied. Don almost swore she shivered, except her black-clad form turned rigid within seconds. "Nia falls into silence. Michelangelo talks on and on about matters I do not understand. While Splinter and Raphael…"

"I did say it would be hard to warm up."

"And I said I would not suck up."

Don sighed. "But you also said you would try."

"And I have been. It's just"—pausing, Melody glanced down at her coffee with a grimace—"I look into their faces and know that, in their hearts, they blame me for him leaving. He'd barely been home two weeks. Now he's gone again."

"Two weeks? Is that all it's been?" Don drew in frigid air, finding the thought surreal since the time felt much longer.

"How could Splinter send him in such a condition?"

The Chūnin blinked at the despondency of his girlfriend's tone then smiled lightly at her sun-lit profile. "Why not ask Sensei? He could give a better account than I could, anyway."

"He—"

"Will speak with you if you want it. You must want it, Mel." Reservations be damned; Don's free hand reached for Melody's organic left shoulder, shoving it sideways so her face had no choice except turn. He was met by a semi-frightened gaze she obviously didn't realize because it remained when his eye ridges knit and his voice strengthened. "Family is working through problems. Not avoiding them. The Lab and this culvert won't help you. You need to speak with my clan."

"Speak of what?" Melody snapped. Well, at least her fire returned; it was a sign of consideration.

"You know what," said Donatello morosely.

"I—I can't bring it up."

"We could do it together."

"That's not the problem."

"Then what is?"

"I know how they'll take it. They'll take it the wrong way."

"Huh?" Don froze with a hand on Mel's broad shoulder. "What do you plan to say?"

"I have no plans for words," the cyborg noted, frank. "I never plan them. In fact, I rarely use them outside of medical journals—unless it's a fight. That's my problem. I say the wrong things, Donny. I'll probably just piss your family off."

Could Don contradict her? No. It took him years to bypass her threats, so he knew she spoke the truth. Especially since she and Raph stood on tumultuous ground. However, he chuckled under the self-conscious reveal and stepped closer to the woman standing four inches shorter than him until the tips of their shoes met.

"Why are you laughing, Damn Mechanic?" she demanded.

He kept an easy gaze and half-formed smirk. "You're cute when you're nervous."

"I'm not nervous."

"Sure."

"I'm not!"

"Mel,"—he caught her mis-matched eyes like a spell—"apologizing isn't sucking up."

"Apolo—me?" Scoffing, Mel shook her head. "Whatever happened to 'we're both at fault'?"

"So I'll apologize with you."

Donatello spoke his words with such genuine intent it turned the cyborg's glare into wistfulness. A light smile replaced the smirk on his wide mouth, which died when his large hand fell from Melody's shoulder to encircle her waist, drawing her stiff form flush against his parka. The hand with his coffee circled her as well—though a little awkwardly—as the mutant leaned his right cheek alongside the hot flesh of the blonde's left cheek. It thumped lightly with her erratic heartbeat and while the placement of the pulse would be strange to any other, Don knew it was natural for his girlfriend.

"You're tired of being alone, remember?" he whispered into her scarred ear. "You want me. But I come with family. Ignoring them doesn't make them any less such. As messy as it might get, the matter needs addressed. You can't dance around each other forever. Eventually, your force will meet that of another. And by that point it may be a worse outcome."

"I've"—Melody sounded lost under Don's breath—"tried."

"Half-heartedly. Whatever you claim, when it comes to it, you're scared."

"I'm not—" The pressure of Donatello's arms cut of the woman's protest, like the new closeness of their torsos pushed the air from her lungs.

"Yes, you are," he insisted, still soft. "This is the first time you've ever cared what other people think of you. And it scares you."

"That's…not true," Mel grumbled unconvincingly. She buried her face into the crook of her boyfriend's neck as if to avoid the topic somehow—one of the few childish habits she's maintained over the years.

Don grinned when she sighed. "Don't be scared. Be Yourself. Be honest."

"Think about that statement."

"Uh…okay, don't be that honest."

"I'll say something they think is wrong and won't even understand," added Mel with a begrudged groan.

"You just got to get used to each other."

"General audiences are strange, Donny. And sensitive to simple facts. I mean"—she blew a puff of heated breath along the mutant's fleece collar, rousing a shiver from him—"how unusual is it to preserve animal tissue samples in the freezer?"

"A…what?" Don drew back so his wrists rested along the woman's collar bones. Eye ridges drawn together, he sent her an inquisitive look, which she seized under—like a kid caught in an act of wrongdoing. The siege lasted only a moment before her emotions cut off and eased her body into nonchalant movement.

"It was a rat," she said with a dismissive wave of her robotic hand.
"Well, part of one. I left that knowledge out when Michelangelo found it beside the ice cream, though."

"You put a rat in our freezer?" Donny asked near disbelief.

"Just overnight."

"A rat?"

"There is no other life abundant in the sewers. And I need tissue samples to work with."

"Aw, Mel." Don's head and arms fell, his face scrunched as if in pain.

'I can't believe Mikey didn't tell me as soon as it happened,' he thought. 'But I guess he has been trying his best to keep a positive outlook everything—especially Melody. Maybe that's why things went unsaid…'

"Hence my reasoning for not indulging you about the studies," Melody added when she stepped back. The Chūnin met her sidelong glance and noted a trace of disappointment below the sun's morning shine across her full lips. "You never could stand dissection."

Donatello hummed, saying stiffly, "Yeah, I'd rather dissect a computer. What're you studying anyway?"

The glance turned frontward, although Don already detected the glint in his girlfriend's eyes before the yellow light blinded it.

"Are you kidding me?" he asked with strenuous words.

"I must know more, Donatello," she responded like an automated message.

This gave rise to a sudden anger in the mutant that he couldn't bite back nor control. He gripped the cyborg's arm tightly with his free hand, crying, "Dammit, Mel; you know how I feel about researching Recro12!"

In the bat of an eye, Melody mirrored his glare, though she didn't rip out of her boyfriend's grasp like expected. "If I don't,"—she screamed so loud it echoed in the culvert—"something could happen to you or Leonardo! Or even…Kaiya."

The broken tone stopped Don's heart, his glare faltering. He remained silent as Melody's vision dropped to the running water at their feet, and the weight of grim memories hit him like a load of bricks. Even so, he didn't falter in his grip on her or his words when he said to the downcast blonde,

"All the research was lost with Black Lotus."

"Save for the information I recorded in my memory. That is substantial enough for experimentation."

Experimentation; the word left a queasy pit in Donatello's stomach. He wished he could erase it from Melody's vocabulary, yet was aware she didn't mean it like Lombardo or Stephens would. Mel's want to help was honest; he knew that. He also knew she was right.

'Like she can't avoid my family, I can't avoid this…drug. It's in me and Leo. We need to prepare the best we can for any future setbacks. The way it's escalated with Kaiya means we should...'

"Fine," Donny started while capturing Melody's surprised gaze, "you make a point. But promise you won't obsess like Lombardo. Ah, ah, ah"—at her opened mouth, he pointed a finger from the hand that held his coffee mug—"no debate. Long term effects may be unknown, but think of what it's done so far. It's saved mine and Kaiya's lives. It's—it's healed three of us fully in what should of taken months."

"Easy for you to say," the blonde countered in familiar attitude. "You didn't watch how many bodies that thing destroyed. You didn't—"

"Mel,"—the mutant lifted his hand to the right side of Melody's neck then ran a ginger thumb over the sensitive line between the metal and flesh down her cheek—"those effects were nearly instantaneous. People died within twenty-four hours, right? But I don't feel sick or strange. I feel…strong, actually."

"It frightens me not knowing," Mel whispered back.

Donny smiled. The pain in her wide, blue eye wasn't funny; it was uplifting. It sent the mutant's heart fluttering, so he didn't fight the strong urge to place his lips against hers. They kissed softly, her form trembling, until Don pulled back to place his forehead against hers.

"Then study it," he said. "Just don't…use it as a means to avoid my family. Okay?"

The kiss left her adorably flustered and she drew a shaky breath, nodding because she couldn't form words. No, she hadn't been convinced fully of what needed to be done. At least it was a start, though.

So Don regained his smile, tugging at her waist with hope, and asked, "Now, will you come home and have tea with Splinter and me?"