Chapter Text
“And then she said ‘My friends call me Ash. So you can call me that too.’ What does that mean? Is she interested, or is she trying to ‘let me down easy, ’ as they say?” Donnie grumbled, laying on his plastron and sprawled across the end of April’s bed. Said girl was sitting against the headboard, scrolling on her phone and completely uninterested.
“I dunno, Donnie. Why don’t you just ask her?” She said, without looking up from her phone. As happy as she was for Donnie for finding someone he liked, it got old quick once his excitement wore off and turned into him just whining to her about it.
“Oh!” Donnie shot up as if he had never thought of doing that. “No, that’s stupid.” He flopped back down. April groaned.
“Donnie, I’m not gonna go through this with you again. I don’t have the answers, only she does. Either ask her directly, or just feel it out.” April leaned down to look her friend in the eye.
“Feel it out?” He raised himself to rest on his elbows as he looked at her confused.
“Yeah, you know, keep talking to her and hanging out and see if she seems interested in dating or if she’s just chill with being friends.”
“And…how does one achieve that?”
“Oh my lord. Just ask her questions! What she likes, what she doesn’t like. Find things you have in common. Flirt a little even! Just keep doing what you’re doing and feel things out. ” She explained, making a ‘go with the flow’ motion with her hand. Donnie just stared at her, looking unsure.
“Donnie, listen. You’re a good guy, and if this girl is worth anything, she’ll see that too. Just don’t give up yet, y’know, and maybe—“ She tried instilling him with confidence before being cut off by the turtle leaping off her bed almost manically.
“Eureka! I’ll just simply feel things out! Ask her questions and find things that we have in common! Sprinkle in some flirtation here and there!” Donnie rejoiced as if he came up with the idea himself, even copying April’s hand gesture as he mentally patted himself on the back. Behind him, April looked at him incredulously before slapping a hand to her face.
“Wow, Don. You figured it out. What a genius.“ April voiced sarcastically with a deadpan expression that the turtle didn’t seem to notice.
“Yes, well, I certainly couldn’t have done it without my beloved sister.” He preened, and April rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, well, I hope she’s worth it—“ She waved him off, ready to go back to her free mobile game when Donnie jumped back onto her bed with a goofy grin.
“Oh, but she is! She can be vicious to people, but is surprisingly nice, in a cute snarky way, to me. Her hair is this adorable wolf cut, and her makeup is so dramatic and cool! She’s so small and dainty, but she looks so broody and dark~.” Donatello continued to ramble on about her, and April couldn’t help but smile at how happy he looked. She didn’t know this girl, but if she ever hurt her little brother, there would be hell to pay.
“Hey,” She cut in, putting a hand on Donnie’s battle shell, “She sounds great. But maybe you should be telling her instead of me?”
“Oh, right!” He nodded, standing up and quickly heading towards April’s window. He paused for a moment before turning back to her and avoiding eye contact.
“Thanks, April. Really…” He looked a bit flustered and left without waiting for a response. April chuckled and shook her head. Despite being head over heels for someone, he was still Donnie.
———
| What’s your favorite movie?
Idk why?? |
| Just curious.
Uhhh probably the princess bride ig |
| Nice.
??? Lol ok wbu? |
| Jupiter Jim PV 4, of course.
| The best JJ movie of the entire collection.
Jupiter Jim damn |
I haven’t thought about him since middle school |
| Why would you deprive yourself of quality cinema for so long???
| This shall not stand. When are you free? We’re having a watch party ASAP.
i'm pretty busy with work and midterms for school for the next couple of weeks so sci-fi is gonna have to take the sidecar |
| Damn. Well then, when’s your lunch break?
Like 3-ish usually? Please don’t bring in a movie during my break I will kick you out |
| Nonsense, I just want to plan ahead.
Like how? |
Donnie??? |
———
And that’s how Aster found herself sitting across Donnie at the farthest corner table at the cafe, while she munched on an everything bagel and he drank his coffee in front of his (purple, of course) laptop. She was honestly pretty peeved that the guy had to interrupt her one break at work but he offered to pay for her lunch and looked so…genuine, that she decided to give him a chance.
He was quiet as he typed something out on his laptop at Mach speed, he still hadn’t explained why he was here but Aster was hesitant to break the silence, it was surprisingly comfortable as she ate and just watched him in the zone.
“To the best of your ability, name every Jupiter Jim film you have seen in your lifetime.” Donnie said suddenly as his head shot up to look at her and Aster almost choked on a seed.
“Uh…the first few?” She guessed. She had only seen them during a sleepover with some friends. She remembered them being fun, (and that there were a lot) but not much other than that.
“Elaborate on ‘a few,’ would you? Are we talking the first ten? The first thirty?” Donnie asked all too seriously in a way that almost made Aster nervous if she didn’t know that they were talking about family adventure movies.
“Thirty? Man, I don’t know, I was like 12. Um…I remember the red panda almost turned into a dinosaur alien?” She tried to recall.
“Ah, Jupiter Jim Vs the Triceratons. A classic.” Donnie smiled knowingly before typing furiously once more.
“So, is this all you came in for? Just to talk about what movies I’ve seen?” Aster wondered aloud as she picked a couple of loose poppy seeds off of the table, sounding a bit disappointed. Donnie’s typing stopped altogether, looking up to see the barista bored and playing with the crumbs of her lunch.
“Noooooo….” Donnie trailed off, eyes darting around the room as he frantically tried to find something else to talk about. The weather? NO, that’s stupid! Just ask her something. Anything!
“What’s…your favorite food?” The turtle forced a smile, hoping the question sounded genuine. Aster raised an eyebrow as she looked at him suspiciously.
“What’s with the 20 questions?” She squinted at him.
“Nothing! It’s just…I find data collection to be an enjoyable pastime.” He explained, and it was the truth. While he was cataloging every Jupiter Jim movie she had seen in the past so they could continue where she left off in the future, he wouldn’t lie and say he didn’t have an excel spreadsheet dedicated to her likes and dislikes thus far.
“Oh.” Was all she said in reply. Surprisingly, she understood such a hobby. She remembered being in high school and doodling little characters in her notebook, writing down little biographies for them in the margins instead of listening to her teacher. She didn’t get what was so interesting about her, specifically, but she couldn’t say she didn’t feel flattered by it.
“I don’t think I have one.” She spoke honestly, and all at once, any lingering shyness from Donnie quickly transformed into bewilderment.
“What? How do you not have a favorite food?” He questioned.
“Just don’t. I like a lot of foods and want different things at different times.” She shrugged and almost smiled as she watched Donnie struggle to comprehend such a thing.
“I don’t understand. There must be something that you prefer over everything else.” He used hand gestures as he spoke, showing just how much disbelief he was in.
“There is.”
“Then what is it?”
“I dunno, it changes.” Aster smirked when Donnie’s eye twitched. She couldn’t help it, it was too easy to get on his nerves.
“Fine. Then what is it, currently?” He enunciated the word harshly. Aster decided to make a show of really thinking about it, humming as she tapped a finger against her chin, enjoying the sight of the turtle rolling his eyes in her peripheral vision.
“Sushi, I guess.” She shrugged again. It’s what she’s been craving lately so it’s a good enough answer. Donnie nodded sagely and calmly typed something down.
“Do I get to ask you something now?” Aster asked with a cheeky grin and he nodded again before he could consider the consequences.
“What kind of turtle are you? Do you know?” She looked him up and down as if examining him despite his purple hoodie covering him up. Donnie blinked in surprise, he was not expecting that question at all.
“Spiny softshell turtle.” He answered and was even more surprised when Aster gasped excitedly, smiling the largest smile he had ever seen on her.
“A softshell? Aw, no wonder you look so grumpy all the time.” She teased, and Donnie gasped in faux outrage.
“I do not—!” Donnie began to object before cutting himself off at the realization that such a statement may be accurate. He does, according to Leo, have what is commonly referred to as RBF. “Hmm.” He ran over the related data and evidence he could recall offhand and Aster laughed at his quick switch.
“Are you like, super fast too?” She asked jokingly, and Donnie responded genuinely;
“Not any faster than my brothers. At least not significantly.” Hm, maybe that’s something new for Donnie to record. And if he did end up being faster than his brothers, he’d certainly want to know, for bragging purposes. Aster opened her mouth to ask another question, but he cut in before she could.
“My turn. Why do you know this about softshell turtles?” Donnie leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table, his laptop and excel spreadsheet momentarily forgotten.
“Oh, I had a bunch of different phases of being super interested in different animals growing up. First was reptiles, then I had a dinosaur obsession for a bit, and then in high school it was birds.” Aster chuckled, leaving out some of the shorter lived hyperfixations with other mammals and the like.
“Ornithology, huh?” He thought for a moment, hands coming back to his keyboard and making a new column in excel. She shrugged, ready to mock her younger self before Donnie asked something she didn’t know she wanted to hear.
“What’s your favorite bird then?” He questioned and Aster was shocked at how quick her answer came to her.
“Mourning Doves! Did you know the whistling sound they make comes from their wings?” She gushed. Donnie smiled and typed it down.
“I did not.” He noted, “You must love all the city’s pigeons then.” He said sarcastically but to his surprise he was right. Aster suddenly had this sparkle in her eyes as she rambled on about pigeons and doves, something Donnie had little to no interest in before but now found that he was fascinated when it was coming from her voice.
They went back and forth, the subject of conversation evolving continuously as they spoke, trading fun facts as they became relevant, and laughing more than either of them can remember doing over the past week. Donnie’s computer was fast asleep, untouched for a good while as they got sucked up in each other’s company. Soon enough, Aster’s coworker had to yell for her to come back to work, audibly irritated as the girl’s break had stretched far longer than it was supposed to.
She apologized to Donnie for her job cutting their time short, despite it being her fault for getting distracted during her lunch break. But whatever, it’s not like this job was any more fun than pulling teeth. She’d much rather be chatting and infodumping with Donatello, but unfortunately such a thing doesn’t pay for college.
Donnie collected his things and said they’d continue this at another time, to which she agreed. For the rest of the day, Aster’s coworkers noticed she was far more easy going than they could ever recall, but chalked it up to her simply having an extra long break.
———
| Hey, do you like trading card games?
Trading card games? Like magic the gathering and stuff? |
| Precisely.
Uh, I used to play Pokémon as a kid. Does that count? |
| I found this game online and thought of you.
| It’s called Wingspan, a card game about many species of birds.
:0 !!!!! |
| I’ve already memorized the rules.
| We should play a game sometime.
Lol for sure |
———
Hey Tello |
| Yes? (Is that my new nickname?)
You like EDM right? (Yes, yes it is) |
| I do enjoy it, yes. Why? (I approve.)
I found this playlist and I thought you might like it. |
Its got some funky stuff on there. (Good. Because I’d be using it whether you liked it or not lol) |
| Thanks. I’ll listen to it later.
| Update: This shit is full of bangers.
LMAO ikr |
———
From then on, not a day went by where Donnie didn’t speak to Aster in some form. They called frequently, sometimes playing video games when she had the time, and texted near constantly. Despite his brothers teasing him all the time, Donnie hadn’t felt so happy in a while.
He’d thought this ‘feeling it out’ process would be torturous and drag on for ages, but he enjoyed getting to know her without the pressure of romance looming at the back of his mind. The internet did say that some of the strongest relationships started out as friends!
That was the only problem, they were friends. That, Donnie was sure of, but the journey from here to the destination of significant others was a foggy road to say the least. He tried to ‘feel’ things as best as he could, but all of his collected data for romantic evidence could easily fall under the close friends category.
There was some mild flirting that was groundbreaking for Donnie at first, until he analyzed it further and realized that fake flirting was also a thing that friends did. (Example: April and Leo, both gay and obviously incompatible. Yet he could recall several times they’ve said disgusting things to each other as a joke.) Could Ash just be teasing him, or was she trying to send him a signal of some kind?
It’s been several weeks since they first met, and Donnie’s feelings have not faded in the slightest. In fact, he suspects they may have grown stronger, and yet he is still no closer to making his big move. Should he just take a ‘leap of faith’ as they say? To dive in headfirst with little to no supporting data is something that chills him down to the bone, but he’s becoming impatient.
He wanted to go out with her like the couples in movies do, but instead of kissing in the rain or whatever, he just wanted to listen to her talk. Nonstop, he wanted to hear what she had to say about everything. She was smart, funny, and endearing, even when she was grumpy. (especially then) He lacked concrete evidence that she was romantically interested in him, but he also didn’t have any evidence that supported that she wasn’t interested in him!
“Hey chrome-dome! Mikey ran into the Sando brothers on his pizza run. We’re heading out!” Leo called out as he knocked obnoxiously on Donnie’s door. Donatello sighed in exasperation and grabbed his bo staff, he was going to figure this out.
———
Aster, for once, was not at work. No, instead of wanting death at a cash register, she was coming home from wanting death at a school desk instead. She swore, it was like some of her professors had it out for her. Why else would her art history professor have office hours at asshole o’clock where it was already dark out when she left and even darker when she left campus to take the subway home. She still carried that mace she always had on her, but ever since mister bald bigot man shoved her against a wall…well, call her a pussy but she was scared .
She already had her keys between her fingers, her mace ready to be grabbed in the side pocket of her bag, what else could she do? She could call a friend, except she didn’t have any of those… And she really didn’t wanna call her grandma just to freak her out more about her living in the city.
‘Hey Halmi! Yeah, I'm good! Just calling in case some crazy man tries to mug and kill me before shoving my body in the nearest dumpster!’ Aster thought to herself bitterly. She could call Donatello, he was a friend. Or something like that anyway.
If she was a sweeter and more genuine person, she’d probably say that Donnie was her best friend. But she wasn’t, so you’d have to beat her up to get her to admit that. She loved talking to him, and hanging out was basically the highlight of her shitty days full of ignorant customers and bossy professors. But there was something else…
She thought he was cute, and she didn’t think he was getting the hint.
She wasn’t great with words sometimes, and Donnie wasn’t either when it came to expressing feelings, so she took a more physical approach. Arm touching, hand grazing, shoulder bumping, you name it she’s tried it. At first he seemed to freeze up whenever it happened, even flinching at times. After that, Aster backed off, not wanting to make him uncomfortable.
But then he started initiating them himself, seemingly unaware that he was doing so, or maybe he was just really good at acting nonchalant. So she kept it up, throwing in a hug here and there to see how he’ll react, but she must’ve done something wrong.
Donnie hadn’t responded to a single message she had sent today. She had even called a couple times too, and nothing. Did she push it too far? Did she do something else that icked him enough to stop talking to her? Was she just overthinking again? Quite possibly.
So that’s why she couldn’t call Donnie on her way home, because she knew he wouldn’t pick up. Sighing in frustration, Aster anxiously power-walked her way towards the subway station and waited for her train in paranoia. On the subway ride to East Village, she couldn’t help but read over their messages, trying to read between lines and see if she could’ve done something wrong.
Hey Tello did you watch the new sonic real time fandub yet? |
Lol is that a no |
Hey Donnie you busy? |
Alright my bad |
BTW im running over to campus real quick to talk about my project with my professor, just in case i dont reply… |
Ugh, she sounded so clingy. One day with no reply doesn’t mean he hates you, Ash. His phone could be dead! Ok, no, Donnie would not let his phone die. What if he was hurt? NO, Ash, he’s fine! You’re just freaking out over nothing again. The speaker over the subway gave a muffled and barely coherent confirmation that she arrived at her station, and she sighed again.
The moment she stood however, the train lurched to a halt so abruptly she lost her balance and fell to the dirty floor. That wasn’t normal, something was wrong. The speaker came on again and said something else that Aster could not translate for the life of her. They didn’t sound alarmed, but then again when did the MTA ever show any emotion in their voices?
She got back to her feet and brushed herself off when the subway car lurched again, this time like something was hitting the side of it. Without anything else to do, Aster tried to look through the door windows and didn’t see much until another jerk happened. She grabbed the subway rail for balance and looked again, this time seeing a red and green blur fly into the station wall. Was that…a turtle?
The dots connected in Aster’s brain, and it was like the subway gave a foley sound to the lightbulb going off in her head as the car gave a pleasant ding and the doors creaked open to a less than pleasant scene.
The big turtle in red, Raph, she recalled, was up again after leaving a giant shell shaped spider web of cracks in the wall. She watched him run up to a big crab mutant guy (Martin was right??? ) and jump with an elbow raised for impact. Raph was unfortunately intercepted by the crab throwing one of his brothers at him, leaving them to fall on the concrete on top of each other.
The crab mutant just laughed as a screaming flash of orange flew by overhead, followed by a loud crash and another crab guy coming to join the first with a high five. High claw? Whatever.
Blue and Red were still groaning in pain on the floor, and orange had a flight to catch. Ash had no clue where Donnie was during all this, but she had to do something. She didn’t know what, after all she was just a normal girl standing at 5’4” with her big boots on and no self defense training other than pepper spray that may not even work on crab-men. But her veins were coursing with adrenaline, and she felt like she would jump out of her skin if she just stood there any longer.
———
Donnie was trying to catch up with Raph and Leo when a screaming Mikey almost flew right into him. He dodged out of the way just in time, but almost felt bad for not catching his brother as he crashed into the subway turnstile behind them, it spun slowly with Mikey still inside as he tried to recover.
Donnie struggled to pull his little brother out of the turnstile as he listened to the distant sounds of Leo and Raph continuing the fight. Mikey, still dizzy and hurt from the impact, practically had stars floating around his head, and Donnie groaned angrily as he held Mikey by his shell and ran to catch up with their brothers.
One of the Sando brothers had torn a ticket machine out of the wall and started to try and bash Leo with it, ultimately failing as the turtle was too fast, so he tossed the giant machine to his brother, who caught it easily and somehow got it to start shooting out METROcards as projectiles, hitting Raph in the face over and over again.
Leo spotted Donnie and tried to shout out an order before being grabbed by a big meaty claw and getting tossed over the subway car to the other side of the tracks. Donnie set Mikey down and prepared himself to jump back into the fight, the same crab that threw Leo now turned to him and caught both ends of his bo staff. Donnie prepared himself to be thrown as well when a loud BONK sound enacted, and the Sando brother’s eyes crossed as he suddenly went limp and fell to the floor, revealing Aster holding a fire extinguisher up as a weapon.
“Aster?!” Donnie couldn’t help but shout as the other Sando brother turned to meet their new attacker, only to be greeted with a face full of fire foam.
Suddenly, Leo portaled himself back on the platform, seeming all too casual for the fight that was still ongoing. He immediately pointed one of his swords at her with a big grin, the girl flinched with her fire extinguisher still in hand.
“YOU’RE the girl Don won’t shut up about?!” Leo sounded elated despite just being thrown across a subway station moments ago.
“Leo!” Donnie yelled angrily. Not only because now wasn’t the time, but because he didn’t need his twin ruining his already slim chances with her.
Raph, having successfully spat out all the subway tickets from his mouth, took that moment to grab the fire extinguisher from Aster’s hands as the one remaining Sando brother struggled to wipe fire foam from his face, and hit him across the head like his brother, leaving both crab mutants unconscious on the floor.
“Uh, Sorry.” Raph apologized awkwardly and returned the fire extinguisher back to Aster.
“S’alright. Not mine.” Was all she could manage to say before tossing the thing back into the subway car where she got it, hearing it hit the floor with a loud thunking noise. She had wanted to meet Donnie’s brothers at some point but this was not how she imagined it.
“Are we still getting pizza?” Mikey mumbled as he joined the rest of his family, rubbing the bump on his head. Leo laughed and nodded as he began checking over his little brother’s head. Raph began talking about how to go about transporting the Sando brothers to a police station, and Donnie was still looking at Aster.
“What were you doing here?” He asked, unable to think of anything else.
“I- I was just going home…I didn’t know you guys were…” She trailed off, not looking at him at all. She could be in shock, he realized, and he immediately threw his arm around her in case she fell, trying to ignore the little ‘eep’ that came out of her.
“Sit down. Focus on your breathing.” He guided her to sit on the concrete floor, sitting down next to her. She followed his slow breathing and began to calm down as the adrenaline started to wear off.
“Do you feel nauseous at all? Feel like you might faint?” Donnie took her wrist in one hand and started to measure her pulse with his other one. Aster didn’t say anything, she felt fine, just tired as hell. She moved in Donnie’s grasp to hold his hand in hers. He was significantly colder than a human, but there was still warmth there, there was still comfort.
Donnie’s head shot up to look at Aster, breath hitching when he saw she was staring right at him. Neither said anything for a while, both with cheeks flushed red before they avoided eye contact altogether.
Even after looking away, Donnie couldn’t get the image out of his head. Aster had never been in a fight before, yet she felt the need to help them out, and basically turn the tides to their advantage. It was objectively stupid for a normal civilian to do and yet…
“Sorry, um, I- I’m ok.“ Aster cleared her throat before Donnie turned to look at her again.
“Go out with me.”
“Huh?” She said, shocked. Suddenly, Donnie lost all the confidence he had mere moments ago.
“Uh, if you want to! I mean, you don’t have to, its just a suggestion. I- I mean I’d like you to, or- I’d like to— date you, that is. But you don’t have to—“ He tried to backtrack before Aster quickly leaned over to plant a kiss on his cheek.
“I’d like that.” She smiled and unfortunately, Donnie’s brain just stopped working entirely. She stood on now surprisingly sturdy feet, waved goodbye to his brothers, and walked off. Leaving Donnie with a big dopey grin on his face and a black lipstick stain on his cheek that said brothers would proceed to tease him relentlessly over for the rest of the night. Probably for the rest of their lives.
———
Here’s more doodles lol
