I am officially going to rant for a moment. Why is it okay for girls to swoon over toxic stalker vampires, overly possessive werewolves, demons who demand their souls, angsty emo fallen angels, and a host of unhealthy nonhuman lovers, and yet I'M somehow creepy and weird for liking Ninja Turtles?
The original TMNT comics were gritty, dark, and absolutely not for children. The first movies had cursing and violence. The 2013 series had incredibly heavy themes. The Rise of the TMNT movie had actual body horror, some cursing, and I'd feel incredibly uncomfortable letting a young kid watch it.
Don't even get me started on the Michael Bay movies. We don't talk about those. Not for kids.
The argument I get is "it's creepy that you like characters from a kid's show." Bro, did you watch only the goofy 1984 show? Or have you taken literally any time to read the comics or watch any of the deeper stuff?
You may judge me for wanting Donatello to carry me away to the lair for snuggles, but is it really any unhealthier than wanting a vampire to assault you?
I've said my piece. Unfollow or block me if you wish.
Leo lamented as he laid in bed, his speaker blasting Eric Carmen. Ever since Lala left so abruptly, he had been thinking about what he said. And more importantly, what he didn’t say.
So many emotions threatened to spill over. First it was anger, then sadness, and then numbness. But right now, all he felt was regret. Maybe if he hadn’t gotten so irritated, she would’ve changed her mind. Maybe if he’d come to her apartment earlier, he could’ve talked her out of it.
Oh, who was he kidding? There was nothing he could’ve done to make her stay. He wondered what The Foot promised her that made her leave so soon. He knew she wanted to master her powers, but he felt there was something else she was hiding.
“I can’t tell you that, Leo.”
The turtle cringed at the venom in her tone.
Why was she acting like she didn’t care about their relationship?
Leo grabbed his pillow and pulled it tightly against his plastron, desperately wishing that it would morph into the Kunoichi. He imagined himself in her apartment. He would’ve came back from patrolling. Lala always left the window open in case she fell asleep before he arrived.
He remembered one night when he caught her eating a pint of ice cream in the kitchen. The turtle had said made a joke and Lala laughed earnestly. She got a bowl for him and they both shared the ice cream together, talking and laughing.
Together.
Suddenly, Leo’s bedroom door burst open. The force knocked over a pile of soda cans and quaked the mountain of pizza boxes stacked haphazardly in the corner.
The blue turtle started and swiveled his head to the intruder.
“Leo?” His older brother called out. “What’re you doin’ in here?”
Raph flicked on the lights, to which Leo hissed in pain from the bright fluorescents.
“Would it hurt to knock?” The blue turtle frantically switched off the sad music.
“We haven’t seen you all day, brother… or yesterday. Or the day before that.” The snapper neared his younger brother and sank into the edge of his bed. “What’s the matter? Hm?”
Leo suddenly felt embarrassed. He knew his brothers would eventually try to find out what his deal was, but that didn’t make admitting to it any easier.
“It’s noth—”
“Ahh ahh!” Raph wagged his finger. “Don’t say it’s nothin’. It’s clearly something.”
Leo averted his gaze to the floor, trying to organize his thoughts.
Before he could say anything, Raph asked, “It’s not about that girl, is it?”
The blue clad turtle felt tears begin to well up, and he cautiously nodded.
Raph sucked his teeth and shook his head. “I told you she was trouble, Leo.”
“I know…”
The big turtle sighed as he slung an arm around his brother. “She broke up with you?”
Leo hugged his knees against his plastron and leaned into his brother’s side. “No… well, yes? I don’t know! It was all so confusing…”
“Then what happened?”
Leo sighed. “She said she wanted space. I asked her how much and she said… ‘a lot’.” He buried his face in his hands. “I don’t understand what I did wrong.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Leo. Girls are weird.” Raph spoke matter-of-factly.
“I don’t understand them at all.” The turtle slumped his shoulders in defeat.
The two sat in a comfortable silence for a moment. Raph hated seeing his brother upset, especially over the girl he told Leo not to mess around with. There was something he had to do to cheer him up.
The red-clad turtle inhaled and exhaled slowly before patting Leo’s shoulder and standing to his feet. “Welp—you can’t stay in here all sad. Everyone’s worried about you. Come eat dinner with us. Mikey just made some pasta and garlic bread.”
That did sound tempting.
“C’mon,” Raph urged him, “I’ll tell the others to lay off ya. No more drama; just pasta.”
That made Leo genuinely laugh. “Okay, okay. Thanks, Raph. For talking to me.”
“What’s family for?” He smiled.
One Year Later…
For the first couple months of Lala’s disappearance, Leo lingered around his phone. He hoped that she would call and tell him that she was okay and that she missed him as much as he missed her.
But as he waited for weeks, the call never came, and Leo had decided to give up.
From then on, he pretended that he didn’t care in front of his brothers. He did everything to try and forget about her. He told himself that she never cared in the first place and she was just a trickster playing with his heart for the thrill of it.
However, he didn’t truly believe that. Regardless of how he tried to spin it, his mind always flashed to every time she genuinely smiled at him. The nights when she let him hold her were some of his favorites.
Their sparring matches were always so much fun. Leo didn’t mind being roughed up by her at all. The Kunoichi’s punches and kicks left the turtle dazed in the best way possible. All their fights were charged by excitement and thrill.
Believe it or not, Lala was incredibly hilarious the brief times she would lower her guard around him. That was either when she was exhausted from the day, or when they would FaceTime.
God, he missed her…
But why?
Lately, his mind had been screaming to hate her for all the emotional turmoil she had put him through. But he couldn’t convince his heart to accept the hatred. The same way Lala couldn’t look at him when he left, Leo couldn’t hate her despite the sadness and confusion.
Sorry I was in a doodling mood lol so enjoy the product of my chaos. <3
Also currently chonky eyebrows for Donnie are winning in the poll, so I used them above, feel free to vote here if you want to pick which brows I use for him in the final edit!
Donnie Eyebrow Poll
Also also, will have an update probably on Friday when I estimate Tattered Cloak will be finished. I actually started writing so yay for that <3.
Alright love y'all and have a great morning, noon or night!
writers note: hey, thank you for requesting! this been sitting in the drafts since it’s been requested and now finally finished, sorry if it’s dookie, wrote this faster than a car almost slamming into me.
readers pronouns are not mentioned nor included.
*◌ೃ࿔ ┆RAPHAEL.
✶ raphael would make it really special, taking you somewhere to eat for dinner, having a small, yet meaningful conversation with you, then finally building up the courage to propose to you in hopes that he’ll have you in a old, almost-going-blind-and-deaf age, a long time marriage. raphael doesn’t like the attention that much, said previously, he wants this to be a special moment, no interruptions from his younger brothers and father, he wants you alone. that’s when you started to notice the nervousness in raph’s body language, going to the stench to the fiddling of something captivated within his palm.
✶ that’s when he gets down on one knee, like in the movies, saying a sentence in meaningful quotes, your full name and finally saying the four words he’s been meaning to say all day. “will you marry me?”
*◌ೃ࿔ ┆LEONARDO.
✶ If you have been dating leonardo since his teenage years, there’s a lot of marriage jokes, or how he often, yet playfully proposes to you at the worst moment possible. however now doing the real thing, best believe he’s nervous than ever, he’s pretty unnatural. he’ll propose to you on your birthday, he thinks that’s a perfect opportunity for him, though april and michelangelo gave him that push. chance of him getting on one knee somewhere in lair, away from his brothers, or getting on knee after they sang ‘happy birthday’ to you.
✶ he’s always seen a life with you, and he always feared rejection, even when he first asked you to be his partner. whatever answer you give him, he respects your decision. if you agreed, he’s overjoyed, and the celebration doesn’t end there. expect him to cry during that moment of happiness, splinter even cried for his son.
*◌ೃ࿔ ┆DONATELLO.
✶ donatello fears commitment. he doesn’t know when is the perfect time to actually ask you to spend a long life time with him. the movies made it simple to ask their lovers to be theirs forever, he also fears of being divorced somewhere in life. his teen years, he never believed he’ll find himself with a beautiful small velvet box in hand, just waiting to ask his soon-to-be-spouse. hopefully. he wants this moment to between you and him, somewhere that doesn’t have his siblings or father involved. to be honest, he had bought the ring awhile back, afraid of asking you at the moment, now he’s ready to put it on your finger and has the perfect place to ask you too.
✶ he talks to you, meaningfully. asking you what you see in your future and if he is in it… data collection calms him down, that’s a sign to ask him what’s on his mind. he’s trying not to hyperventilate right then and there, however he’s got the sentences out and now waiting for an answer.
*◌ೃ࿔ ┆MICHELANGELO.
✶ michelangelo is positive that he’ll find someone that he’ll someday marry. he never expected for himself to blink and suddenly buy a ring in your finger size. and he went to his brothers for help, april being the only one to help him. being nervous, he started to cry. michelangelo was terrified of the outcome, yet a bit excited? If you were already with him in his teens, he already talked about marrying you, you know, average teenage junk. so, this is a very special moment for him, and taking advice from leo it’ll be interesting. he doesn’t want to propose to you at the lair, he takes you to a place, yours and his secret hideout. It was a place that was once abandoned now covered in his art.
✶ that’s where he wants to propose to you. he even decorated the room, baked also. he’s just waiting for the perfect moment to ask you to marry him. and when he does, he’ll only feel his heart beat stop and waiting for your answer, he could hope that you’ll say yes and spend your days with him.
end - this was pretty much mindlessly written, I really needed to throw this out there. my wifi got shut off and I ended up getting sick 😔 (lmao bozo). I’m also trying to finish up the headcanons and scenarios before finishing up the oneshots. (Idek if you call this a headcanon..)
Summary: When Donnie cooped himself up in his lab for ages, his brothers use their last weapon to get him out. Y/N. Y/N is one of the only ones that is able to keep up with his witty remarks which means when they get Donnie out of the lab, Leo and Mikey become wittnesses to a very interesting argument between the two that reveals a bit too much.
Word count: 2918
Authors Note: I hope you guys enjoy this one!
Request: Ohhh I've got a great idea. Rise Donnie with a reader who is sarcastic and snarky just like him. They are not as mean but dang do those two seem like a match made in heavenIf you need more of a prompt, they get into friendly banter and reader slips up and says something like "well maybe I wouldn't stare so much if you weren't that god damn handsome!" . Donnie teases the heck out of them and it ends up in a frustrated "I like you, okay?!? Now shut up >////<" and it's as sappy an ending as you can get with Don
“Why do you guys need my help? You are his brothers. How can I do anything about this?” Y/N crossed their arms in front of their chest, one eyebrow raised at three desperate looking turtle mutants.
Leo slung his arm around Y/N’s shoulders, pulling them closer, almost as if he tried to silently exchange secrets “Listen. We tried, we really did but frankly Donnie has way too much blackmail material on all of us and this time he didn’t even hesitate to threaten us with it.”
Y/N let out an amused snort “Then don’t do things that let you get blackmailed, easy as that.”
Mikey stepped to their other side, his mouth turned down into a frown “Please? He hasn’t eaten properly in days, and I think he only has slept maybe like an hour here and there. Someone has to pull him out of his lab, and we tried!”
When Raph also asked them in his most sincere tone “Please?” Y/N caved in.
“Alright. I’ll try since you guys think he could be listening to me. But you owe me. He can be nasty when he is so deep in his projects.”
Leo immediately let go of Y/N and lightly pushed them into the direction of Donnie’s lab “Good luck!”
Somehow, they felt like a lamb sent to the slaughterhouse. Sucks to be Donnie then because this lamb knew how to fight back.
Y/N walked up to Donnie’s lab and loudly drummed against the door, already knowing that he must have locked it. When he didn’t react Y/N tried even louder and more obnoxiously, drumming some sort of melody on the door.
“Donatello Hamato open the damn door!”
The magic words had been spoken. The door opening to their demand.
“Ah, open sesame.” Y/N spoke happily after the fact.
Donnie was sitting on his chair that he rolled over next to the door. His finger still on the button that opened it. He looked absolutely exhausted and annoyed. Even beneath his tired half lidded eyes Y/N could spot a murderous glint but Y/N was more concentrating on the bags beneath his eyes that they swore held almost the same color as his purple stripes. Open to the world for everyone to see since he didn’t wear his bandana.
“Oh, yikes.”
His arm fell down next to his side “Lovely to see you too, Y/N.”
He immediately turned around and begun rolling over to his workbench, but Y/N reacted faster, grabbing on the back of his chair to stop him.
“Nope. You are either getting a bite to eat and then you are going to bed, or you are going to bed and then grabbing a bite to eat.”
Judging by the way he groaned in annoyance he must have finally clocked why Y/N was really there. This was not a social visit as it seemed.
“How about a secret third option: Work.”
He tried to move along again but Y/N made sure to hold on to his chair with an iron grip. Normally Donnie would have no problem fighting against Y/N’s grip since he, as a ninja mutant turtle, was pretty strong but in his exhausted state he was struggling.
“Donnie, I am this close to just straight up roll you down to your room. If you go yourself, you can save some of your dignity.”
He hated how this struck a chord within him.
“I bet I could find embarrassing school pictures of you in just a few clicks, I promise I won’t do it if you leave me alone. I’m so close to finishing this project!”
He was at this point looking over his shoulder for Y/N’s reaction. Expecting them to finally back off but Y/N just smirked.
“Oh, go ahead. I was cute as a kid. I don’t mind people seeing it.”
“I still have that video of you falling into trash.”
He referenced a day where both they and Donnie hung out on the fire escape of Y/N’s apartment building. Y/N was sitting on the railing even though Donnie warned them that this was dangerous and yet they didn’t care and after a huge laughing fit Y/N fell down right into a huge trash bin and of course the lid of the bin had to also crash down on their head.
Donnie being Donnie who recorded almost everything, of course made sure to have a cut version on his phone of this moment from that day forward.
“Oh please, you’ve shown this video to everybody like twenty times. It lost its effect. Now come on Bootyyyshaker9000, do your name proud and move your butt into the kitchen.”
He grumbled something but did indeed finally get off his chair.
“Language, Donnie!” Y/N tried to mimic Raph best they could with voice and posture.
“You… heard that?” He asked, genuinely surprised.
Y/N let out a chuckle “Oh, no. I just know you better than you think I do.”
Before Donnie could make any kind of response to this, Y/N moved to his back and began pushing against his Battleshell.
At this point the purple clad ninja had given up and just began walking towards the kitchen. The way Y/N continued to push against his shell and would sometimes pull on his shoulders, they were kind of puppeteering him towards the room. As if he would try to flee and get back into the lab. Which he would have done if he wasn’t so exhausted.
Okay so maybe he was tired but that was a small price to pay when it meant that he could finish a new prototype in a timely manner.
Mikey and Leo were both in the kitchen when the two arrived. The two turtles gave Y/N a quick appreciative nod before turning their attention on Donnie.
“He lives!” Leo exclaimed loudly and quite theatrically. Almost acting like he was the mad scientist of the family.
Y/N steered Donnie to a chair at the kitchen island and finally let him go. Annoyed with this whole situation Donnie just slumped over on the table. The cool surface was actually quite welcoming on his skin.
“Here you go!” Mikey said cheerily as a plate got placed in front of his face.
Groggily getting back up, Donnie stared at the plate of pancakes “Pancakes? It’s like-“ he looked at the screen on his wrist only to wince “Uh… early.”
“One: You can eat pancakes at all hours of the day. It’s not just breakfast, man.” Mikey chided his brother “Two: Yes, it is breakfast time. Three: I’m glad Y/N managed to get you out when you clearly, at this point, lost any sense of time.”
“But why are you over here if it’s so early?” Donnie ignored his brother’s scolding, grabbing the fork next to the plate.
Y/N sputtered out a laugh “Man, I slept over here the last like four nights.”
“What?! How did I not notice?!”
“I’m joking, Don. It’s been only one night.”
“Yeah. I knew that. I would have noticed it because of my security system.” Donnie tried to cover up, finally digging into the food. Mikey had a proud grin on his face as he saw how Donnie cracked a smile at the taste.
Y/N made a point to sit across to him at the table, their elbows on the surface while they rested their chin on their hands “Mhm, that is why you knew that I slept over here in the first place.”
Once again Donnie looked at the screen on his wrist, tapping around on it until he seemed to find what he was looking for. What he was looking for was proof that they did indeed get into the lair yesterday and not this morning.
“Well, I did catch it!” He didn’t catch it, his system did though. So, good enough.
Y/N rolled their eyes as if they were able to read his mind and knew exactly what was going on “Just eat your pancakes, Donnie. You can’t fumble around when your mouth is stuffed. Less fumbling means the less dignity you’ll lose.”
“Don’t talk to me about dignity. You wouldn’t know the first thing about it. Also, you don’t need to stay here and stare. I’m eating right now and I’m promising I’ll be sleeping a bit. So, move along.” He waved his hand in a dismissive manner, but Y/N shook their head.
“Nuh-uh. This might have worked the first time but now it’s been years. Your fault for not taking care of yourself, means you clearly need someone to babysit you.”
Donnie would have looked towards his brothers for help, but they wouldn’t do anything of the sorts. For starters he was sure that they set Y/N on this task in the first place and judging by the amused looks on their faces, they were happy to let this play out. That reminded him, where was Raph? He would have maybe intervened.
When Donnie just continued to scowl towards Y/N, said human began pouting “Come on, Don. Go eat your pancakes and I promise you I will read you a bedtime story.” They made sure to sound as patronizing as possible.
This made Leo finally snicker. Frankly the brothers loved watching Y/N and Donnie go at it. Just throwing one sarcastic comment after another against each other’s head. At first, they all were just excited to see that their new friend had no problem keeping up with the sarcastic turtle in the first place but over time it kind of turned into more of entertainment for them.
One time the two were just going at it while they were in a middle of a movie marathon, they didn’t even notice when Raph paused the movie. It was all mostly lighthearted though even if they liked to really get into it.
Donnie ate another piece of pancake, this time noticing how Y/N’s eyes followed his movements.
He raised his eyebrow “You are acting like you have never seen a mutant before.”
“No, just trying to count how many bags beneath your eyes you have and trying to figure out how old you are. You know like rings on a tree stump.”
This finally made Leo belt out a small laugh and Donnie couldn’t help but get annoyed with how proud Y/N seemed of that.
“That’s not-“ he sighed, biting back his urge to correct them when they clearly made a joke. “Man, you must be old then.”
“Oh, now I know you are lying because other than you I’m taking my beauty sleep. It’s obvious you skipped yours for a while. You are delusional, turtle.”
He grimaced “Wait, you’ve been taking beauty sleep already? Then what is this?” Donnie used his fork to gesture towards Y/N’s general direction.
“What would you know about beauty, Mister Turtle Mutant.”
Donnie laid his hand over his heart, putting his best shocked expression on “Gasp! I cannot believe! Not only are you just plain wrong but you are also a xenophobe!”
Y/N immediately shook their head “Only when it comes to you. I would lay waste to the earth for your brothers but you? No. Kinda stuck with you when I want to hang out with the cooler turtles.” They laid dramatically the back of their hand on their forehead “I can barely look at you.”
He smirked self-assuredly “And yet I keep seeing you stare at me when you think I’m not looking.” Perks of being a trained ninja.
“Psh. I am not. You are imagining things. Go finish your damn food so you can sleep your delusions off.”
“Ah-ah-ah. I know you are. I could probably even bring some footage up as proof. Besides do you really think you can steal glances at a trained ninja without him knowing?”
“I did not!”
“Yes, you are! I have literal proof!”
“You do not! And even if, is it weird to look at their friend now and again?”
At this point both Mikey and Leo just kept looking from Donnie over to Y/N and back to Donnie. Following the argument along. It wasn’t much of an argument really. It was clear both were just trying to tease each other but it was interesting, nonetheless.
Mikey leaned over to Leo “I can’t tell if the two are good for each other or if they are just bringing out the worst out of each other.”
Leo shrugged “Eh, they are still smiling. I don’t know what exactly it is, but I think the same exact thing is wrong with them, otherwise they wouldn’t enjoy this, and I guess that’s… good?”
“Why are you squirming so much then, Y/N? I can even count off a ton of times I remember you watching me. The last movie marathon! Last week when you did some work in my lab and I worked on my project! When we all went into the hidden city in that clothing store! Technically even right now! When we hung out in your apartment last, and we all helped you cook!” Donnie put the ankle of his foot on his knee, leaning back a bit as he stared Y/N smugly down.
Y/N jumped up, slamming their hands on the table “Alright! Alright! Maybe I wouldn’t be staring if you weren’t that god damn handsome!”
Their cheeks were ablaze.
The room was dead quiet.
Somehow as Donnie counted the times off something must have snapped in them for this outburst.
Y/N looked to the ground “… Is that what you wanted to hear? Happy now?” A weak attempt to save this situation on their part.
Mikey’s and Leo’s eyes were wide open as they just stared at the two. Waiting for any kind of reaction. Suddenly they felt like they understood the appeal of Splinter’s obsession with romcoms and soap operas.
But their expression couldn’t even get close to Donnie’s shocked expression. Eyes wide with shock. His open-mouthed expression slowly turning into a huge smile. He just looked like he won a Nobel prize.
“I didn’t quite hear that. Can you repeat that?” He sounded giddy.
“That little shit.” Y/N just thought as they clenched their eyes shut. Not willing to look at Donnie right now. Honestly at this point they totally forgot that Mikey and Leo were in the room to begin with.
Donnie leaned over the edge of the table, his hand next to where his ear would be if he were human “Please, Y/N, may you repeat yourself? I didn’t quite catch that. I just want to make sure I’m not delusional, like you said.”
“I said nothing. Nothing important.”
“Nothing, huh? You are blushing because of nothing?”
Y/N crossed their arms, gripping their arms “Donnie. Don’t do this.”
At this point Donnie was slicking back his non-existent hair “Ah but you forget! I record everything and I am pretty sure you said that I am handsome, and I have to agree. I am handsome. First correct thing I have heard out of your mouth in ages!”
Finally, Y/N opened their eyes, pouting playfully, trying to act as nonchalant as possible “Just please shut up and eat the rest of the pancakes so you can go to bed and leave me alone. I was just saying things to make you shut up, okay?”
“Ah but I can tell that this isn’t correct. You are blushing. You are embarrassed because we both know you meant it, but your ego is too big to admit that.”
It was then that it seemed like someone flipped a switch in his brain.
“Wait, you actually mean that?”
Y/N’s eyes met his as he seemed to properly realize what they just said. Getting through the euphoria of having won this argument only to understand the implications of this.
Sure, Donnie always relied on his bad boy persona and his ego when it came to all of this, but Y/N knew there was a part in him that was not as confident as he tried to act.
They sighed, gulping down the last of their ego along with a part of their embarrassment “Yeah, I meant it.” Their voice quiet and shaky as they forced these words out. “I like you, okay, Donnie?”
“Oh.” There was an actual blush on Donnie’s face as well.
“Now can we move on because this is awkward as hell.”
Donnie coughed as he tried to find his composure “Sure. Yeah. Well. I think I’m heading to bed.”
“Do that.”
“What!” This was Leo, reminding the two that they were in fact not alone. “You guys can’t just leave it at that!”
Donnie’s eyes traveled from Leo’s disappointed expression to Mikey’s happy one. His gaze returned back on Y/N whose eyes never left him. Old habits die hard after all.
“Wanna hang out in my room and play games until we pass out?”
“Thank god, yes.” Y/N sighed out, scrambling after Donnie towards his room.
Leo had his arms outstretched. Completely shocked with how this turned out. This was perfect and then they both just moved on like… that?
Mikey put his hand on Leo’s shoulder in a supportive manner “For Donnie this was probably the extent of how romantic he can get and lucky for him Y/N can work with that. Just concentrate on the fact we definitely saw the eighth world wonder.”
This didn’t calm Leo down in the slightest, gesturing wildly towards the space were Y/N and Donnie used to be “But… That?!”
“Come on. We have to tell Raph about this. He will want to hear this.”
