Secrets
Donatello x reader
a lovey request; What about 🤫 secrets relationship with Donatello. I can just see him sneaking off during patrol to visit you in your apartment when Leo follows him one night and finds out.?
How’d he meet you? The internet of course.
At first he wanted a friend, interested and studied in the art of astrology. Thankfully, he found you. You were an undergraduate who passed her AP astrology class with flying colors. You of course proved yourself by having a few chats with the genius himself and he had practically fell in love. Science was overall Donnie’s passion and finding someone who loved it as much as yourself was liberating. Of course your love for science came more with the exception of earth science. Just as exciting though!
He stayed up all night sending you texts as he went through his astrology textbook, you stayed up with him until the late hours of the night. You never minded until he’d comment about the time. He found that odd, but never questioned you.
Though you liked to keep things professional, in a teacher- student kind of way, you were the first to propose calling. At first, he had declined, fearing his brothers would find out about his secret teacher. Who was human and very much, against the rules, or tease him for needing a teacher. Either way the third time you asked to call you explained it would make it easier for yourself to explain things to the 4 eyed turtle. He caved, pretending it was necessary for his learning. He did fear that soon you’d ask to video chat, but one night you had sent a video showing him an example instead of just video calling him and doing it yourself. You both never touched the subject, but were both certain you knew each others boundaries and never over stepped them. Donatello respected you and you respected him.
Though after a year of learning the material with you and ‘graduated’ in your terms, Donnie had grown accustomed with your late night talks. So after a week of not speaking to you, Donnie still couldn’t come up with a single excuse. But, before he could work the nerve of texting you first, you did! Texting him a simple ‘hey!’. Jeez, why hadn’t he thought of that?
Simple and straight to the point, just like you. Thankfully you texted him first and kept texting him after. He helped you with your calculus class and you assisted him with all his botany science questions, which was a new science he picked up and was trying to learn. Though, he told you it was just an ‘extra class he signed up for’, you didn’t even second guess him. The first time you video called him he declined S O quickly. He came up with some bullshit excuse and you shrugged it off when he apologized.
Thankfully you didn’t find it odd, and was why he liked your relationship, he found you very endearing. He thought your voice was very cute and soothing. He always thought that you being a university teacher was a great choice, you had a very good teacher voice. You never let Donnie slack when you both worked, you were punctual, and you expected fast results and if you didn’t receive them you’d start again from scratch. He respected you, and looked up to you. It wasn’t until one day that he stayed up working, after he hung up on you that he and woke up extremely late the next morning for training and was sent to the hashi, that he ranted to you. Leo had sold him out, claiming he heard Don awake and didn’t even bother to wake him up. Letting Splinter deal with him, he didn’t even let his brothers wake him up either! The man set him up!
Either way, he ranted to you. And you listened and gave him real and good advice. Reminding him about the stone cold truth, that he shouldn’t have been up so late anyway, and sent the purple terrapin to bed for a nap. Your study-sesh could be moved to tomorrow, his health was more important.
That might have been the afternoon he fell hard for you, you cared? Like, you cared because his health was important to you, not because he was related to you or because if he slipped up it could affect you too. You cared because he was your friend, and that’s exactly what sold him. After that you had called him in the middle of the night by video call and he almost had a heart attack. But declined it anyway, apologizing for not being able to pick up your video call. You apologized profusely soon after, saying it was an accident, you meant to press regular call. He shrugged it off, feeling worse that he could never show his face to you. Still, it was strange that’d you press the wrong button. Don never judged or questioned you, he had his own flaws to be questioning.
Though one night, fessed up with the responsibility of being a ninja, turtle, and a teenager all wrapped in one, exploded in his head. He was tired of who he was, tired of science and his recent failed experiment that tipped him over. Exhausted of saving a city of humans who would never understand or care for existence. Fed up with his older brothers who were better than him in every aspect that mattered. Spent with himself, his faults and fighting his inner demons. He texted you in the middle of the night, asking if you were awake. Thankfully it was a Thursday and you didn’t have school on Friday’s, so you were binge watching Kevin Hart stand up comedies on Netflix.
“Yes, are you alright?”
D-”yes’
D-”not really, if I'm being honest. I'm having a bad day.”
“Would you like to talk about it? I think an extra ear might help”
D-....
D-”could I call you?”
You opted to call him instead of texting him an answer, however, seeing as you pressed the wrong button, again,the night got a lot more interesting. He didn’t want to break, but the fact he couldn’t even pick up your video chat just because he was a mutant turtle had pushed him over the edge. He sobbed quietly as he typed on his phone, his skinny 6 fingers trembled on his screen. Why couldn’t he be normal? Like you?
D-”i’m not allowed to video chat. I’m not normal like you. You can’t see me”
“Normal? HA! Donnie I’m blind! I’m far from normal hun, but if your more comfortable talking on an audio call that’s fine by me, It’s the reason I keep touching the wrong buttons.”
Blind? You were blind! He could actually talk to another human on video chat, without the fear of being judged. Would he take it? What if you were lying? He’d just have to point the camera to the ceiling and see it were true. No turning back now.
Ring…. Ring.. Ring…. Ring..
“Donnie? Hun, are you there? Are you okay?” As he sat on his bed and saw your beautiful face. You were sitting on a chair and your phone was propped up by something and showed you from your torso up. You were wearing a white pajama tank, your hair was tied up/let down, framing your face perfectly. Your baby hairs fell above your eyes, and Donnie could see you were indeed blind. Your eyes were completely white. He couldn’t hold back the sobbed that escaped him once it was clear you were blind. He knew it was extremely selfish, but he could finally feel normal, attractive for once. You calmed him down and reassured him that he didn’t have anything to hide because you could never judge him. You sweet reassurances sent him straight to a good night’s rest. You couldn’t tell until you were certain he was no longer sobbing and ask if he was alright and once he didn’t respond, you shut the phone off and went to sleep.
Ever since that night he video called you every other day. It was just so relieving to be able to stay on the phone with someone and quite literally look at the camera like any other normal teenager.
Donatello’s attitude changed overtime. Participating in more family activities with his brothers with the boost of confidence. More nights than others he was excited to go to bed because it meant that he could talk to you. Though Don still struggled with social interactions with April and Casey, he always felt better prepared after talking to you about it. He felt closer to you after a month. He practically knew you after the next 4. And after another 3 months he felt confident enough to share his state with you, and what do you know? You live in New York too!
After a year of knowing you intimately his brothers suspected something but never dug on it. After a year Donnie started to imagine moments he knew could never happen with you. Leo began to grow suspicious of Donnie, knowing he was hiding something. His other brothers brushed him off, “he’s a really private guy Leo. He doesn’t like to talk about new inventions until he’s finished with them.”
What Donatello didn’t know was that after a year of getting to know him and deeming him the sweetest soul you have ever met, you started to slowly fall for him. He was such a blast! He even made blind jokes with you, that’s how you knew he liked and accepted you. And you returned the favor. He was always so sweet and so curious. You fell in love with his little snort and quirky squeak whenever he got excited or the way he stuttered whenever he felt shy. Gosh, you wanted to meet him so bad, but you were afraid that once he met you, he’d think you were as helpless like everyone else did. There were times where you met people and than when everything was going fine they would mother hen you and you hated being controlled. You liked trying new things, but you couldn’t really do that if your partner refused to do everything out of fear. Fearing something new should be your own concern, not anyone else’s.
You weren’t the only one who wanted to see the other. See, donnie was afraid that once you felt his shell, his scaly skin or three fingered hands, you’d be afraid and want nothing to do with him. He avoided the possibility as much as possible, afraid of the truth. It didn’t matter if you did accept him for what he was, you could never love him. Because he wasn’t normal. Didn’t matter how patient you were or open minded, no woman could love a monster like him. That was just the truth. He kept his selfish wants out of this friendship.
But your birthday was coming up, he of course was going to get you something and mail it, or make you something in all honesty. That’s not what you asked for your birthday, though. “I want to meet you hun, in person.” God, why did you have to say it like that? Of course he promised he would meet you, you suggested a cafe close by that you could walk to. He laughed pitifully, smoothly suggesting a picnic under the skies on your apartment rooftop. You seemed skeptical at first, and Donnie stuttered up a storm trying to save his own neck and you laughed, agreeing to his idea. “I’ll have to bring lavender, since I never really been up there before.” Ah, yes, lavender, your grey pit bull and guide dog. Donnie didn’t want to miss this for the world,even though he knew it was a bad idea.
It was pre-planned. Everything set, written in stone. He made you a beautiful music box with the song ‘Sleepwalk’ by Santo and Johanny, with smooth brail on the bottom that read “The memory of you lingers like a song,'' a line from your favorite song. He couldn’t wait to go out to see you. The weather said zero winds or rain. So you knew you’d be okay. And with lavender, you knew you wouldn’t walk off an edge.
As the boys prepared to go to bed early and leave for patrol later than usual because, well, it was spring, Don was preparing everything he had to take for the picnic. God, he really must be stuck on you to be doing this. As he snuck out, tool bag and box hiding everything a voice stopped him, “Donnie? Where are you going?”
Leo.
He was prepared for this, practiced his lines in case this would happen, “another bird made a nest on the satellite, I’m going to fix it up. Perhaps upgrade it a bit for more channels.” Leo thought about it and nodded at his explanation. Yeah, it made sense and sounded credible, so he let Don off the hook and out the lair. As he arrived close to your rooftop, he spotted your white dress, and his jaw almost dropped. You were beautiful. And lavender was just as big as he’d imagined. He was nervous now. One touch and the truth was out. You’d know what he truly was.
He took a deep breath and ran into the storm of doubt, fear and regret head on. There was no backing up know. It was too important and he had come too far. “Hey (Y/N), i-it’s me!”
You turned to look at him, staring at his direction but not his face. You stared right at his chest, “Donnie! I’m so happy you made it.” You were trying to hold lavender back as she wiggled in excitement to meet Don. You took off her service dog vest so she knew she was off duty and could greet Donnie. “She’s a big ol’ sap! She loves meeting people, she must recognize your voice”, he knelt down to hug the ball of sweetness. “She really is, she very well trained.”
“Oh yes, she knows only to greet the people who greet her first! Now come over here and give me a hug Don!” You said with a grin arms open wide waiting for him to step forward because you really couldn’t. He swallowed hard, unsure of what to do next, “I should warn you right now. Tell you the truth now that we’ve known each other for more than two years. I-..I-If I told you that someone you care about was using the identity of another? O-Or that your close friend wasn’t who o-or what you believed him to be.. Would you resent him?” You smiled kindly at him, you could never resent Donnie, never could you ever think of a life without him!
“Donnie, I don’t care if your skin was green and you grew antenna and people called you an alien. I can’t see, I don’t even remember what humans really look like. As long as your serial killer, I think I’d still love you Donatello.”
“Really?”
“Positive, now show me exactly what about yourself that makes you so different!” You said while holding your hands out again with your palm towards him. He took a deep breath, his anxiety seeping into his core of calm. He pushed his hand against your own, his palm facing yours like that scene from Tarzan. You quirked an eyebrow amusingly, not really phased by him only him have three fingers. He grew eager, truly believing that you could accept him. He put his things down gently and grabbed your other hand and laid it against one of his arms. His scales were against your soft human skin and it felt like sin. Your eyebrows, furrowed up in confusion, why was his skin so rough? He then grabbed both of your hands and placed them against his plastron, and your mouth opened agape. And your hands began roaming on their own. He slowly knelt down as you tried to reach his shoulders. You began roaming his shoulder and your fingers brushed against his shell. Fingers grasping the edge of it and your jaw slacked, “Donnie, I don’t understand? What-”
“Those four mutants you hear about on the news? Those are me and my brothers. I-I know i’m not what you expected or wanted for as a friend, but I hoped, I-I wanted for you to accept- Oof” you cut him off by jumping into his arms and hugging his neck with your tiny arms compared to his own. “I-I don’t care! Your my best friend! I love you, I don’t care! I’m so sorry, you must have been killing yourself over this and I didn’t even try!” He was shocked but hugged you back, rubbing soothing circles on your back to reassure you. “Not at all, you just made my night.”
You pulled back and shakily took his face into your hands, holding each cheek against your palms. Feeling for his snout, lips and forehead with your thumbs. He could feel his temperature rise as you leaned forward. Kissing his forehead, “I-”, next his snout, “like-”, than, “-you”, his lips. He couldn't have dreamed of it being any better. It was exactly as he had prayed for it to be to whoever would listen. You attacked his lips after a second of getting him used to the feeling of a kiss. Hungrily attacking him, and he let you, because he enjoyed it immensely. Lavender whimpered in the back and covered her big dog eyes with her paws, and you lifted up for air. “I guess I forgot i‘m the only one can’t see,” you both laughed and lavender walked over to you as Donnie passed you your gift and set the picnic up. It was absolutely beautiful, with wonderful engravings and beautiful music.
“Oh hun, it’s beautiful, it’s the best gift I've ever gotten!” He sat down next to you, showing you the brail part and you squealed, “is it worthy enough for a second kiss?” You laughed and leaned against him, “those kisses are already yours, you’ve just gotta take ‘em Don~”
From that week forward Donnie tried as much as possible to meet with you, and take his kisses. It felt good saying that. He was getting good at that, kissing you, he was a natural. You could kiss him all day, if only the night would let him. Donnie had become frantic for your kisses as well, he left almost bi weekly to see you, coming up with all excuses imaginable to tell Leo and his brothers. He was turning sloppy though and snuck out to see you weekly, and Leo was catching on but Donatello couldn’t help it not after the way you both spent your last date night.
You had ordered food and laid in bed, he fed you and you cuddled him. Once he bent down to kiss you, you were ready to kiss back. You had missed him, you kissed him very good, slow and sensual. Laid up against him, you both kissed all night and he was loopy by the time he got home. You did things to him, that he could never tell you. But you didn’t mind and neither did he, you had ways of making him talk and he liked those ways better. He loved the way you’d lay next to him and you’d whisper the sweetest things while pecking his face and neck with kisses on your couch.
This week was no exception, he had to go see you. He was craving your lips and when Leo blocked his exit out, he came up with the same excuse as last week without noticing; rookie mistake and Leo had his answer. He is going to get to the bottom of what Donnie was hiding, because his brother could get hurt, it was getting out of hand.
He had brought a blanket and you brought up Lavender’s doggy bed to the rooftop as you and Donnie laid on the blanket and lavender on her bed. You trailed patterns on Donnie’s plastron as he rubbed circles on your hip, you were both wrapped around each other, contently talking science nonsense and theories when he leaned down for a kiss. And wow, what a kiss, if Donnie kept learning like that, you were gonna jump him! You felt a rumble and vibration in his chest against your hand as your licked his bottom lip. “Ohh what was that hun?” He chuckled nervously, “it’s called a churr, we make it when were very happy or excited,” his soft little voice only encouraged you more to tease him, “then please, don’t hold back, I like it~” you whispered as you took his lips and hungrily feasted on the taste of him. You both pulled back to breath, and when he leaned down to steal a peck, he tensed up.
Afraid you had pushed him a little too far you pulled away from him completely, “what’s wrong?” You asked looking as what you hoped was his face. (It wasn’t)
“Donnie, what the hell are you doing?” There was someone else on the roof with you? Lavender, unconsciously left her seat on her bed to sit next to you as Donnie got up from his spot on the blanket. You tried to do the same, looking to wherever he went worriedly. Who was here? Looking for lavender, desperate for a set of eyes, an explanation of who was here and what was going to happen!
“Leo, what are you doing here?” Leo? As in his brother? Looking towards the ground, ashamed of yourself, you couldn’t even greet his brother by yourself. Lavender finally appeared against your hands and pointed towards where Leo and Donnie were. You patted her twice on the side to let her know you received the information. You felt helpless, knowing Donnie would be ridiculed for being with someone as pathetic as yourself. You couldn’t even walk up to greet him because you were scared to walk over to Leo without assistance, scared for once because of your disability.
“I followed you, hoping I’d find anything but… but this! Donnie your putting our family in danger, your putting her in danger! She could tell anyone!” Donnie tried to defend you, as you curl up into lavender and she whimpered sympathetically and tried to hold you back. “Donnie, how can you be sure? She knows what we look like, she has enough proof for anything, one threat or one change of heart and she’ll-“
“stop it.”
You had enough, no longer would you be accused of something so low! Sure you were blind and needed help with basic everyday things, you were used to being overlooked because you were blind, but you had empathy and learned to never be unkind to others. Not having a sense as a kid had been very hard, life was unkind to you, but it didn’t mean you should pass it on. “I’m blind. I’d never betray Donnie like that, he means too much to me. And even if someone forced me to talk or bribed me, NO ONE would find what I say credible. Because I’ve been blind since I was born and people believe that blind people make things up, because we can’t see.” You were furious and tired of being treated as less of a person because of your disability.
The awkward silence made you chuckle at yourself, hanging your face low again, “I’m looking the wrong way again aren’t I?” Donnie chuckled before walking back over to you, directing your face to where Leo was standing. And you continued, “I’ve never met anyone like Donatello, everyone treats me like a piece of glass. They harbor me and try to control me. Not Donnie, he helps me, he lets me explore my limits without making me feel bad if I can’t surpass them.” You turned over to where you felt he was standing, “hopefully I’m looking at you when I say, Donnie I’m in love with you, and I pray every night you’ll never change, that you’ll never leave.”
Leo couldn’t help the little smile that appeared once you . His little brother had found love. Real and genuine love, and he couldn’t have been happier for him. Maybe he was too harsh on you, but he was thankful for it. Because after that, he was certain that Donnie was in good hands and he could see you did love him. You were blind and you still sensed his presence as if it were your own. “Than I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have expected any less from my brother. He’s too smart to have made such a rash decision, you must be a very special girl.”
You grinned widely, smiling over to where you believed he was-(he wasn’t),”I am because I have him.” He sighed happily for the love you both shared. And took his leave, “I’ll see you at the lair Donnie, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”
Donnie could care less about some lair and explaining to his brothers. You loved him! You loved him, and he couldn’t be happier and he was going to show you. Pulling you closer and looking down at lavender to send her back to her bed with a smile, he turned to you and you giggled. “Why do I get the feeling your going to try something new?” You asked. Oh, he most definitely was!
“I am…”, one hand on the small of your back and the other holding the back of your head. Turning you around in a half circle to dip you. You giggled and arched your back as Donnie peppered kisses down your cheek and neck. Kissing his way back up and giving your nose the last peck. “I love you too, dove. I’m so glad I met you.” You nuzzled your nose against his snout humming contently. “Less talking, more kissing”, he gave you exactly what you wanted.
He never wanted to go home, having to explain too… “SPLINter”
Uh oh!