Chapter Text
You were relaxing downstairs, taking up as much of the couch as possible and enjoying your alone time, when there was an outburst of barking upstairs from your dog. You sat up and listened intently for any other sounds under the barks, quietly making your way up the stairs. Close to your room, you could hear someone.
“No! Ahh! Bad dog, no!” They whispered. You peaked around the corner, all tension draining from your body at the sight of your friend Donatello trying to wrestle his staff from the jaws of your oh so ferocious Corgi.
“Ginger! Put it down!” You commanded and they both stopped dead, Ginger letting the staff fall from her mouth and turning to pant at you excitedly. You squeaked a toy from the floor a couple times, cooing:
“You want the toy Ginger? You want it? Go get it!” You tossed it down the stairs and off she went, leaving you to raise an eyebrow at the haggard turtle before you.
“What’re you doing Donnie?”
“Well, you said we could come over while your parents were gone… right?” He sheepishly rubbed his neck, hoping it hadn’t been a rhetorical offer.
“Well yeah but… I guess I’m just surprised someone took me up on the offer,” you shrugged, heading back down the stairs.
“I mean, I can go! I don’t wanna bother you.”
“It’s fine, I promise,” you smiled at him over your shoulder and he looked away with a bashful smile. You headed to the fridge and offered Donnie a spot on the couch, which he accepted.
“You want a drink?”
“Oh, no thanks, I’m okay.”
“Cool, catch.” You tossed a can across the room, the ninja catching it without even trying. You knew he’d be too awkward to accept your offer, so you had to force your hospitality on him.
“So.” You flopped down next to the turtle and put your feet up on the coffee table, opening your can with a satisfying hiss. “Were your brothers getting on your nerves? Or did you just miss me?”
“A little of both,” he teased.
“Well lucky for you I am very pleasant company,” you handed him a controller, “and I have violent video games.”
Donnie was more than happy to accept. The two of you settled on fighting games, because fighting each other is more fun than working together, and the next few hours flew by. There was a lot of smack talk and shoulder shoving, Donnie at one point knocking the controller from your hands entirely, frustrated at constantly losing. The skill gap wasn’t enormous, but it was pretty clear, mostly because you didn’t have to spend time training and saving the world. As such: more time for video games. The turtle had won about a third of the games and now after he finally got one more victory under his belt, he put the controller down.
“That’s it! Tapping out! I’m ending this on a victory.” He crossed his arms proudly and you rolled your eyes. Without the loud sounds of ass beating, you could hear something pelting against your window.
“Is it raining?” You both turned to the window instinctively, forgetting the curtains were closed so wandering eyes didn’t see a mutant on your couch. Just then, there was a flash and an unsettlingly loud crack of thunder that shook your home, taking the power with it. You jumped and reflexively smacked your hand against your friends chest. Silence.
“…Donnie?”
“I’m here.” He put his hand on your forearm and you groped around for your phone, using the flashlight to illuminate the room. You looked back to Donnie who quickly removed his hand from your arm and you couldn’t help a small breath of relief from being able to see again.
You left the phone face down on the table to let the light shine, heading to the kitchen. There was a small lantern under the sink that held tea lights, so you grabbed and lit it, bringing the gentle orange glow back to the couch and turning off your flashlight.
“So now what?” You asked, sitting and facing Donnie. You brought your knees to your chest, afraid some demon would come out from under the couch in the darkness and grab your ankles. “Should we go to the lair if the power doesn’t come back?”
“No, this is…this is fine. If you’re okay with it,,” he shrugged awkwardly. “Spending time together. Talking.”
“Ugh, like we’re friends or something,” you teased and he rolled his eyes.
“What should we talk about?”
“I dunno.” You rested your head against the back of the couch. “Wanna tell me about the science of thunderstorms?” You teased again. Since you brought the candles, his focus had been slowly waning and at this point he was only kind of listening. You were looking at him, all curled up against the couch in the gentle glow of the candlelight, and his brain was functioning at about half capacity.
“Sure,” he said quietly, “I can do that.” But he didn’t. Right now, with the sound of the rain lulling you both into a comforting haze, there was no chance. In the small reach of the candles glow it was as though you were the only two in the world, everything else gone with the power.
Had Donnie always been this cute? You’d be the first the admit you’d always had kind of a thing for him, finding his brains and dorky demeanor charming, but right now something seemed… different; the gentle motion of his breathing and the way he was looking at you, almost like admiration.
The mutant tried really hard not to stare at your lips for too long, but the way they were parted just gently so made it really hard. He was incredibly nervous suddenly, but neither of you noticed the gap between you getting smaller.
“Then go ahead.” You swallowed thickly.
Closer.
“Impress me.”
Closer and then a pause. Finally, the gentle pressure of your lips meeting.
The kiss was brief and sweet, just what you’d expect from someone like Donatello. When he pulled away there was a moment of lingering between you; another crack of thunder and lightning snapped you both out of it. You’d turned to look out the window again and when you turned back there was just a turtle shell in the furthest possibly corner of your couch.
“Donatello,” an endeared smile graced your lips, knowing how he was most likely hiding from embarrassment, “you can come out.”
“I’m sorry!” His lanky self popped back out. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to- I mean, I did but- it was just, the light and the rain and your eyes-” he smacked his hands over his face, blushing furiously, “I’m sorry.” The atmosphere had gotten to you too, but the mention of your eyes caused you to color as well.
“It’s alright,” you laughed, gingerly grabbing his wrist. “I wanted you to kiss me.” He peeked out from between his fingers.
“…really?”
You chuckled, pulling his hands down and holding them between you. Donnie was suppressing a goofy grin at the sight of his hands in your own.
“Maybe you’re not as smart as I thought,” you teased.
“Hey, I can reverse engineer alien technology, but I don’t know anything about-” he brought a hand up to gesture between the two of you, “-this. If I didn’t know then maybe you weren’t giving me the right signs,” he pouted and turned his head away.
“Oh, I’m sorry, was this-”, you dramatically batted your eyelashes at him, “-not enough of a sign I wanted you to kiss me?”
“I don’t know! I was too busy staring like an idiot! I wasn’t thinking!”
“Well good thing because otherwise I’d be sitting here unkissed.”
Donnie just sighed. A few moments passed before a grin slowly started to form.
“What?” You laughed at his expression.
“We totally kissed,” he said with a dorky chuckle and you rolled your eyes.
“We could do it again,” you offered a bit shyly and Donnie snapped back to reality.
“What?”
“Oh,” you then realized maybe you shouldn’t have said that. “I mean, nevermind, forget I said anything,” you laughed awkwardly, immediately wanting to fall through the floor.
“No! I mean, yes! Please!”
There was an extended period of the two of you awkwardly trying to figure out how to go about this; shifting around, not knowing where to put your hands. Now you were sitting in front of each on your knees, hands resting on your thighs.
“Okay.” Donnie steeled himself. “I’m gonna do it.” Neither of you being lost in the haze of a romantic moment made this surprisingly nerve wracking. You nodded reassuringly. He leaned forward slowly, closer, and right as your lips were about to meet you couldn’t take the tense atmosphere anymore and started giggling. Donnie’s whole face flushed in embarrassment.
“Don’t laugh at me!” You grabbed his face and pressed your lips against his in response, the ninja immediately melting.
“Gotta rip off the band-aid.” You pulled away and Donnie drunkenly swayed for a moment before falling off the couch and crashing to the ground.
“This is the best day of my life,” he mumbled. A few moments later the lights returned and you checked your phone for the time, which turned out to be a lot later than you thought.
“I think it might be time to head home, Casanova,” you smiled down at him and he sat up, suddenly remembering this wasn’t a dream and that other things did exist in this moment.
“Oh! Right, it’s probably-” he stood and was abruptly cut off by the jelly legs he didn’t know he had, bracing himself on the coffee table. You stared at each other for a brief moment in surprise and he let out an embarrassed laugh. You stood as well, lifting the lantern and blowing out the tea candles before glancing back up at the turtle who had just been admiring you while he thought you weren’t looking.
“Um,” he spoke suddenly like he just found his voice, “I uh- you-” He struggled to find the words. You waited patiently, but your small smile and the way you were just looking at him was not helping.
“Do you think- I mean, would you-”
“Hey Donnie?” You walked past him and he followed you up the stairs. “Did you know I have a boyfriend?” He didn’t say anything, confused as to what you were talking about. Didn’t you want him to kiss you? Why would you want that if you had a boyfriend? And how didn’t he know you had a boyfriend?
“He’s funny and cute and really smart.” You entered your bedroom and opened the window. “He’s pretty dorky but,” you turned and leaned against the wall to face him, “he’s a ninja so, he’s kind of a badass.” It finally clicked for Donnie who got a whole new wave of euphoria, another smile spreading across his face.
“He sounds great,” he sighed dreamily and you reached out for his hand.
“Be careful going home, okay?” Donnie opened his mouth to speak. “Yes, you can tell your brothers.”
He let out a cheer and swung out the window up to the roof and when you went to stick your head out, he appeared upside down in the window.
“I um… I’ll call you?” He offered awkwardly and you laughed and nodded. Donnie kissed your forehead before leaving for good this time, spending the next ten minutes silently cheering and celebrating on the rooftop.