His T-phone rang for the tenth time. It was probably Leo wondering why Raph was so late. His lips left the skin of Casey's neck for a moment as he reached over the arm of the couch for the device that had fallen on the floor after Casey had slapped it from his hands. Casey groaned at the loss of contact and Raph had to agree with the sentiment but he knew that if he left Leonardo in the dark he'd eventually come looking for them and that's not the way they wanted to come out to Raph's family.

Raph's fingers brushed the phone and pushed it further away by accident. He cursed and lifted himself off Casey who had been pinned under him since the ending of the movie they were meant to be watching. The menu credits had been playing on a constant loop for a while now. He grabbed the phone just as it stopped ringing. It was 1 in the morning.

"Just tell him you're spending the night here." Casey said, one arm over his flushed face and his right knee raised hiding the erection tenting his trousers. He seemed to be pretending he hadn't been grinding against Raph's thigh for the past 15 minutes. Raphael's eyes studied him for a moment, trying to figure out what he meant by those words.

After a while in silence Casey peeked from under his arm. It had been a few weeks since that first face-smashing peck in Raph's room and they'd been taking things very slow, to his frustration. Both of them were new at this but Raph had been very prickly and hard to manage, embarrassing easily and stopping things whenever they got exciting. They'd done nothing more than light kissing and a few soft caresses. Some of them had ended in Raph slapping his hands and shoving him away to storm off with a deep purple flush over his face, neck and shoulders.

Until a moment ago Casey was happy to find himself at the receiving end of Raphael's aggressive affections for once and he hadn't wanted it to stop. Usually it was him trying to coax a kiss out of an overly self conscious Raph so the change had him aching for more. Admittedly, he'd been working on softening Raph and trying to make him feel comfortable with his touch all night. He found out Raph enjoyed having the gaps between his scutes on his carapace scratched and he'd been going at it throughout the movie, his fingers feeling out the edges and sliding all over the smooth surface. Raphael had slowly been scooting closer and leaning into him as the movie advanced.

"We don't have to do anything." He corrected quickly. "I just don't want you to go yet." He reached out as Raph looked down to the screen on his phone and caressed his carapace gently, palming the whorls and his nimble fingers finding the more sensitive grooves again.

Raphael hesitated for a moment and then got up quickly off the couch and away from Casey's touch. "I better go." He mumbled as he typed a quick 'omw' to Leo. Casey sighed and got up, turning his body away to pull on the front of his trousers discretely. He was surprised when Raph pulled him in by hooking a finger in the waistband of his trousers and turned him back to capture his lips in a soft kiss.

"I'm sorry, I..." He hesitated, he didn't want Casey to think he was running away, even if he kind of was. "I'm trying." He rubbed the top of his head with the palm of a large hand. "I just need some time..."

Casey smiled realising how hard it was for him to admit. "Hey, it's okay I just wish I could have you here all the time, ya know? I had a great night Raph, talk tomorrow?"

"Yeah, talk tomorrow." Raph gave him a crooked and relieved smile, blushing slightly. He felt a bit lighter as he ran across the rooftops on his way home.