A/N: Hello, all. I'm not new to the TMNT fandom but I am new to TMNT fanfiction. Most of what I write is based off the new cartoon and any random comic snippits I enjoyed. The below piece features homosexual pairings. If this isn't your thing, then please spare me the pain of having to be annoyed at your narrowmindedness and go read the bible or something. I do not own the turtles.

They are beautiful.

They stand together in the moonlight, still bloodstained and marred, their clothing ripped and weapons dripping. It is a moment of calm after the fury of battle; not even a bird makes a sound, for the crows have yet to discover the bodies that litter this place. I should not be watching them, but I cannot help it; they are as the brightly glowing threads of the Emperor's robes, warning and whispering and tempting all at once.

It was they who delt the most damage to our enemies this day, and their blood covered bodies are testament to that. They are alone, only because none dare face them. They do not seem to mind this solitude, indeed, they seem most used to it, and I can tell that they have battled in darker places than this.

I wonder, momentarily, how they came to be. They are much alike- fire and steel and sorrow. Perhaps too alike, yet as I think this I already discard it. My own lover and I have oft been called twins, for the similarities if not in our species then in our mannerisms and codes. I should not be surprised that a bond like this exists.

One raises his hand to a cheek higher than his own, three large fingers tracing sharp, pale cheekbones. His eyes glitter- they are gold, the color of demons and gods. Against the charred destruction his skin is emerald green, the color of new leaves and jewels. His sai are safely sheathed, but even from here I can see their menacing metallic glint. His hand travels up, tangling in his companion's dark hair, as he draws the warrior close.

His friend willingly allows this, head tilted down, strong hands wrapped around a small waist. He followed us willingly into battle, I recall, although he has never been to my world, and his is not the language of nature. He is a child of the concrete jungle that my lover and his family call home. His eyes, when calm, are chips of sky, blue and bright. On the battlefield they were ice, cold and biting and sharp behind the pristine white mask he is accustomed to wearing. They are soft now, gazing at his smaller companion with a look that was not meant for another's eyes.

I know that look, for I have worn it before. I know that heat, for I have felt it before. I know that what I see is secret, unknowing, unseen- a love in darkness, a love formed in yin, never to see the light. Two like souls, forged from the same materials.

When they kiss it is not with a lusty fervor, but with a soft understanding, a whisper of things to come. For a moment they are one being, the black of his coat and the yellow of his plastron melding like molten metal.

I turn away.

The fire is burning merrily, and my companions sit quiet, thinking on tomorrow and what is to come. I sit beside my own lover, who turns to look at me, his large eyes like sapphires behind a sweat-soaked blue mask.

"Usagi, where are Raphael and Casey?"

I lean against him under the approving gaze of Splinter-San, who smiles at us across the yellow flames.

"They will be along, Leonardo."

And they will still be beautiful.

A/N: Okay…how was it? This thing went through a lot of revision before I decided to put it up. Once again, all warnings apply- no flames, constructive crits welcome.