Leo leaned back at his desk and tapped a finger in time to the beat of his heart. A brand new, an actually brand new notebook rested in front of him. The cover was open, and the first perfect milky-white page was ready to be written on. He had plenty of pens, and four full hours to write in. But not a single idea came to him. Not one. All he knew was he wanted to write about a ninja warrior. But he didn't even know what the ninja looked like.

He tapped a bit longer, then grabbed a pen, and stared at the paper, with new determination. But the determination crumbled almost instantly. Sighing he got up and paced. It was no good. He was no writer!

Five minutes of pacing passed and more thoughts of quitting passed. Then a thud and a mumbled line of curses that would have gotten a bunch of flips from Raph's room caused Leo to pause and glance in that direction. Then his eyes widened, and he glanced back at the notebook. Then, in a flash, he has seated again and writing at a furious pace.

Raph too was having a hard time getting started. He stared at his notebook like the idea would start to write itself if he could intimidate the notebook enough. He ran laps around the room. He did pushups. He doodled. He swore under his breath. Finally, realizing that the first page had nothing but doodles on it, he threw his chair with a curse anyone could hear that time. Gulping, he glanced at the door apprehensively, more than half expecting Splinter to burst in and give him more back flips than he can do for a year. Thankfully, that didn't happen.

Silently, he decided to slip out of his room, and peek in on the others. Surely he wasn't the only one to be having trouble! He first glanced in at Leo. And snarled softly. The little twerp. He should have known Leo would be able to write. In fact, Leo was writing so hard that he didn't realize Raph was there. Huh, must be deep in his idea, because Leo is never, never that unaware!

Mikey's room was on the other side of Leo's, but when Raph peeked in, he was amazed to see the most hyper of them also busily writing away. Not at the desk, he was lying on the floor, and with a marker on a giant art pad, but still! There was a stack of paper beside the smaller turtle, and as Raph watched, he pulled off another sheet without looking at it and put it on top of the stack. And he was supposed to be the one who can't stay still. Or focus on anything. And here he was, writing so fast, Raph swore that the marker was smoking at the tip. Raph was tempted to try and grab a sheet when he saw it was liberally supplied with sketches as well as words. But there was no way the little twerp would not notice that. He was surrounded by geeks! Speaking of geeks…

Donnie's room was the last in the hall, with a barely functioning bathroom between. A side project of Donnie's was adding a bathroom to the second floor since they were now to sleep up there. But he said that the parts were slow in being scrounged. HE glanced in it, as he passed. Heh, there is a toilet now! Then he glanced in at Donnie's room, expecting the little geek to be writing harder than any of them. Surprisingly, he was not. He was sitting on the floor, staring at a spread of papers with a dejected air about him. Raph was always the first to tease his brothers and the last to comfort them, but he was both bored enough now, and sympathetic enough with what appeared to be a shared problem to sneak in. "You okay?"
Donnie jumped and stared at Raph with wide eyes. "Don't do that!"
"Do what?"
"Scare me like that!" Donnie took a deep breath and let it out as Raph smirked at him. "Besides, you are supposed to be writing?" Donnie added, calmer, as he frowned thoughtfully.

"Ain't you?"
"Ain't is not a word."

"Ain't"
Donnie's frown deepened. "Didn't you hear me? Ain't is not a…"
"Ain't. Ain't. Ain't. Ain't."
"Raph, cut it out!"
"Ain't ain't a word and I ain't going to use it!"

"I said cut it out!"
"I ain't going to cut it out. Ain't I? Nope, I ain't"

"Urgh! You are so hopeless!"

"No, I ain't."
"Ain't you…" Donnie gasped and covered his mouth with both hands with a horrified expression on his face. Raph stared at him for a moment, the started roaring with laughter. He laughed so hard he had to clutch his sides with his arms as he leaned on the doorframe, his laughter coming out in choking gasps.

Donnie slowly lost his horrified expression, as his hand slowly dropped. He glared at Raph, and the glower became angrier and angrier as Raph's laughing fit continued. At last, he barked. "Are you completely done?"

Raph couldn't speak, he was too busy drawing air in his lungs, but he nodded. He looked up, his green eyes sparkingly with a mirth Donnie didn't have the heart to completely quell. It was a nice change from the emo Raph that had been around since their last mutation day ceremony. Still, Donnie didn't like being the but of Raph's jokes. And partial quells won't hurt him any."Then get out."
"Aww, come on." Raph managed to say.
"Don't aww come on with me. I am trying to get something done and you are wasting my time."

"Having trouble?"
Donnie blinked up at him, Then reluctantly nodded, and looked away.
"Me too."
Brown eyes locked on green ones in surprise. "I thought you'll be having no problems!" Donnie exclaimed.

"Me? I ain't got a quarter of yer brains. So what makes you say that? When did I ever look like a writer? Huh?"

"Well, maybe not a writer. But you can be almost as creative as Mikey when we are doing the story game."
"Bah, that ain't real writing. It's goofing. And Mikey always starts it off."
"So you're having trouble coming up with an idea to get started on?"
"Yeah. See, you are the smart one."

Ignoring Raph's sarcasm, Donnie glanced at the papers beside him with a thoughtful air. "I almost wish I had that problem," he said listlessly.
"Whatcha mean by that?"

"Well, I have so many ideas, I can't decide which one to use." Donnie glanced at him again, for a second. "If you want one, be my guest."
"What do you mean, if I want one? Whatcha got there?"
"Outlines. Twelve of them so far. Father said that we can plan for today, plan the story, I mean. so I did. The problem is I kept having ideas, and all of them are dumb, but I like them too, and I don't know how to settle on any of them."
"Let me see em."
"Please, be my guest."
"Kay, let's see what crawls in ya big brain here," Raph said, settling down on the other side of the pile and picking one up at random.

He glanced through it. Then glanced through another. And another, until he was done. He stared at Donnie in surprise. Donnie shifted uncomfortably under the intensity of the gaze, and finally blurted out. "What? Are they dumb? They are really dumb, aren't they?"
"They ain't geeky!"
"Huh? What does that suppose to mean."
"Well, the spaceship one is kinda geeky. But in that geeky cool kind of way. So it's good. All of em are real good! Like a movie."
"Really? You like them?"
"All but the romance one."
Donnie blushed at that. "Yeah, that was lame." he agreed sheepishly.

"Why you wrote it then?" Raph asked, curiously tilting his head as he continued to stare at Donnie with an unblinking gaze. Donnie turned even redder. "A...it came to me in a dream and I couldn't get it out of my head until I outlined it."
"Oh. That bites."
"Yeah, I know. It really was distracting. If this is how writing is, I think I'm better off being an engineer."
"I want the Ranger one."
"Oh, that one? You like that one?"
"Yeah, it looks like it could be fun. I can make him a total bad ass."
"Raph!"
"What? Splinter ain't here. Besides, saying ass is not swearing If I mean a donkey."
"You want to make him a bad donkey?"
"Shut it! You know that ain't what I mean."

"But you said that was what you mean."
"I meant that it wasn't swearing if I mean that, not that I mean that! Dweeb!"
"It pays to be precise."
"It pays not to be a dweeb."
"Fine. Take it and get out of my room!"

"I ain't ready yet."
"Sorry, but I insist.
"I ain't going till we fix you too."

Donnie stopped and stared at Raph in surprise. "What?"
"Ya heard me. I ain't leaving till we get you started too. It's only fair since ya helped me out."
"You would do that for me?"
"I just said that, didn't I? Ain't you listening?"
"I...how?"

Raph grinned. "Easy. Well, I got an idea anyway."
He grabbed the outline he said he wanted, and stuffed it in his belt. Then he energetically started spreading the other papers out till the carpeted Donnie's floor like a rug. Ignoring Donnie's flinch at the mess, he stepped back, with a smirk. "Got a coin?"
"You know all the coins we find go to Father."
"Got something small then, like a disk of metal?"
Donnie went to his tiny desk and started fishing in a jar there. He came back at last with a bit of metal, with a hole in it. "Got this washer," he said, offering it to him.
"That what you call em?"
"Yes. See they…"
"Tell me later." Raph interrupted, as he took it. Then he glanced at Donnie again, who had a hurt expression on his face. "No really. Tell me later. When you talk tools and stuff, it's not as dorky as the rest."
"Okay," Donnie mumbled, but his expression did brighten a little.

Raph tossed the washer in the air, and it landed between two papers that were near Donnie's bed. "Well, it's a start," Raph said off-handedly, as he picked up the others and put the on the desk. Then he picked up the two and handed them to Donnie. "Think ya can choose from these two?" He asked. "Or ya want me to do that again?"
Donnie glanced at the papers, then put one aside. "Raph, that was brilliant!" He smiled. I think I can stick with this one."
"See? I ain't dumb."
"I never said you were."

"Don't lie. You always call me meathead and all kindsa things!"
"I didn't mean that you were dumb," Donnie said, earnestly. HIs entire frame seemed to vibrate with the intensity of his earnestness. "I just never understood why you wouldn't take the time to think about things because I know you are smart. And it is frustrating to see you not think when I know you can. The only reason you do dumb things is because you don't stop to think before you act, not because you are not smart!"

"Geesh, don't get all mushy on me!" Raph grumbled, turning bright red. But then he surprised both of them, by giving Donnie a quick, awkward hug. Then he hurried away, leaving a stunned Donnie in the wake.