Chapter Text
You watched from your place on the lab cot, all bundled up in warm dry clothing with a hot cup of hot cocoa in your hand and purple blankets wrapped snugly around your body, as Donnie poured his notes over at his desk. He was leaning back in his chair, one foot propped up onto a knee as he held a folder in his hand, his eyes reading over the inked words on the file inside as he rested his cheek in his palm.
His side profile was facing your direction, as if Donnie wanted to keep you in the corner of his vision instead of turning his back to you to face towards the desk. It didn’t stop you from sneaking a sniff at the borrowed clothing on your body though, which of course belonged to Donnie.
Yes, it’s strange. You know it is, but you still do it anyway. You don’t know how to describe it, but something about his scent is just so comforting. You could almost even imagine it was Donnie giving you a hug.
“Whatcha reading about?” You asked, eyes roaming over the mysterious file.
He pursed his lips, seeming to be debating to himself internally on whether or not he should tell you. You wait for him patiently.
“It’s a file on a yokai device.” He mumbled, furrowing his brows at something he read.
“Hm, no wonder. You never use real physical paper to read stuff.” You teased him.
He let out an amused huff. “I do not rely entirely on my technology.”
“If the wifi goes out, you go feral.” You set Donnie’s mug down on the ground, the one that you gave to him as a gift. You flopped onto your stomach, resting your chin on your arm as you stared at him.
He scoffed at you. “As if you don’t do the same.” He set the file down and picked up a tablet from his table, scrolling through it rapidly.
“... Is it the Purple Dragons?” You ask curiously. You pause. “Am I bothering you?”
“No, you’re not.”
He scooted over to you, still atop his chair. The wheels squeaked slightly and the sound only stopped once he was right next to you. You perked up slightly at the tablet screen that was held out towards you.
You observed the profiles projected onto the tablet screen curiously. There were three people on screen, their profile pictures were mugshots presumably taken when they were arrested. One was a skinny man, his glasses askew atop his nose as he nervously held the placard for the camera. The second was a large man with a blond buzzcut, his yellow shades that were resting on his nose cracked from some sort of apparent physical altercation. The last was a woman with purple dyed hair, her dark natural hair growing out from her roots, and her teal lipstick smeared across her chin. Unlike the first two, she looked dangerous, a sharp glint in her eye that spoke of her anger directed at the camera.
“Are these the Purple Dragons?” You mumbled, tapping on a profile. It opened up to a multi-page document containing all sorts of information, presumably about the individual.
He nodded. “As mentioned earlier, I’ve been tracking them down for quite a bit. Though this isn’t the first time, they have escaped my clutches before.” He grumbled at that, pulling the tablet away from you. “But as of right now, they are not too big of a threat.”
“Where are they now?” You backtrack after that sentence. “If you feel comfortable sharing, that is.”
He waves off your worry. “Currently, they’re stationed at an abandoned warehouse somewhere near Pier 17. Based on the reports of yokai and mutant victims they targeted as of recently, they seem to be trying to gather information on the whereabouts of the yokai device, the one that I mentioned earlier. I have a feeling they’re also trying to get down to the Hidden City.”
“What do they want with the yokai device?”
He shrugged. “The sources I’ve found do not say much about the device itself. There is little to no information available, even in the yokai archives I was able to dig out.”
“Probably nothing good if the Purple Dragons are trying to get it.” You hummed, leaning into him to gaze into the tablet curiously. “Can I get another look?”
“Knock yourself out.” He handed you the tablet, leaning back in his chair once he did so and closing his eyes. He let out a sigh, tension easing from his shoulders from listening to your mindless humming.
You scrolled through the documents, feeling curious about these Purple Dragons. You have never in your life heard of them, but based on what the document was saying, they were the ones behind some of the major technological attacks within the city, which you were definitely aware of. You just didn’t know that a group of three people were behind it.
There was one case of a breakout of some sort of corruption virus at the stock exchange building and another hacking incident on an Amazon building that involved any and all warehouses carrying building materials of high value being ordered out, despite the fact that no money was ever exchanged in the databases.
“Hey Don,” He hummed in response. “Why have I never heard of them before if they’re such big players behind some of this stuff?” You scrolled back to the stock exchange case, showing it to him.
“I imagine that New York officials don’t want to seem incompetent to the public if they are so easily attacked by a small group of hackers. As such, the actual culprits are swept under the rug, hidden from the public. In most cases, the blame is put onto some sort of internal coding error.” He crossed his arms. “That is why you have never heard of them.”
Although there was a hint of the Donnie that you were familiar with, the rest was shrouded over by the vigilante side of him that was sitting before you. His gaze was focused and sharp, yet his calculating gaze told you that a million things were running over in his mind, most likely trying to come up with potential strategic plans or all the possible game plans and motives of the Purple Dragons.
His jaw is clenched as he stares at the tablet clutched in your hands, his fingers tapping against the armrest of his chair.
The sight was, quite honestly, a little jarring. Most of the time he’s so deadpan and always joking with you. It’s a little unnerving to see him more serious as usual, because honestly, you didn’t think it was possible. This was on a whole nother level.
Suddenly, the seriousness of his side hobby catches up to you. His work really is dangerous if the Purple Dragons of all people is the least of his worries.
“Be careful whenever you’re going after them.” You mumble, shoving the tablet in his direction as you let your head plop down onto the soft blankets. “Come back in one piece, not fifty please.”
A hand landed atop your head, musing your hair. The touch was warm and reassuring, his fingers scratching at your scalp slightly. You hum, pushing your head slightly into the hand to let him know to continue with his actions. You let the blush take over your face, only doing so because of the fact that he couldn’t see it from the way it was buried in the blankets.
“I’ve faced bigger threats.” He assures you. “Like I said, the Purple Dragons are the least of my current worries.”
You lift your head only slightly so he could only see your eyes, and glare at him. His hand paused, but the offending noise you let out made him resume his massage once more. If you focus really hard, you could almost feel slight tugs accompanied with every movement of his fingers.
“That doesn’t make me feel better y’know.”
“Okay, let me rephrase.” He said. “The Purple Dragons may be technologically advanced than most, but they themselves are not too dangerous. Without their tech, they are almost completely harmless. Meanwhile, I can stand against enemies without my tech eighty percent of the time. And for your information, I calculated that myself.”
You let out a snort. “Okay okay. I get it. You’re better than everyone else.”
He gave you an aggressive head rub, shaking your head along with it for a little bit, before taking his hand away from your head. You grumbled, trying and failing to fix your hair.
“Was that not obvious already?” He scrolled mindlessly on the tablet, his finger tapping against the side in thought. A few seconds passed between the two of you.
“... Your hair is soft.” He mumbled.
“What?” You lowered your hand, your hair somewhat neat once more.
“Your hair.” He grumbled, looking embarrassed as he looked off to the side. “It’s soft.”
“I mean, yeah. I use conditioner.” You were confused, yet strangely flattered. A quiet settled over the two of you afterwards.
You lay there on the cot, wondering why Donnie seemed fascinated with your hair. Now that you think back to when his hand was on your head, you were pretty sure he had pinched strands of your hair between his fingers. You had felt the slight pull of it, which wasn’t painful, but it was obvious that your hair was being fiddled with.
Then it hit you.
Of course he seemed fascinated with your hair, he himself didn’t have any to begin with!
You snickered to yourself. Holy cow, he was technically bald!
Soon enough, Donnie caught onto your quiet laughing. His brows furrowed, confused as to what could have possibly been funny at the moment.
“What is it?”
You plop your head down, smushed face-first into the blankets. But your laughs were still escaping through, making him more and more curious as the seconds passed.
Before he could ask you one more time, your head shot up. Your giggles were still escaping from your mouth, but you were able to speak.
“You’re bald!”
Immediately, his brows lowered in annoyance.
“Is that seriously what you’re thinking of right now?” He grumbled. The sound of your laughs filled his lab. “You are aware I am not the only one in this lair that is bald, right?”
You were too lost in your giggling to hear him clearly. Donnie sat there, an annoyed look across his face as he waited for you to calm down.
You didn’t.
He drags a hand down his face. He didn’t know what happened the next moment, but a feeling suddenly overcame him and he felt like plopping himself down atop your body to silence you.
And that’s exactly what he did.
You let out a startled yelp at the sudden heavy weight that landed on top of your body, desperately trying to wiggle around once you realized that you were trapped. Donnie’s body completely squished you onto the cot and you don’t think you could buck him off.
It was probably his muscles that were making him so heavy. Stupid muscles.
“Donnie.” You grumbled. “Get off me, you’re heavy.”
An exaggerated snore answered you back. You felt the deep vibrations within his chest rumbling against your back. You sigh, a smile curling at your lips, and succumb to your fate. He was lucky that you liked him.
Mikey tiptoed to the lab, knowing that you were in the lair at the moment. An hour ago, Donnie had come back from his walk, with you cuddled under his arm in tow. You had greeted the box turtle warmly, cheeks red from the freezing temperature outside. Immediately, he had set to making you some tea to warm you up, making sure to use Donnie’s mug.
“Thanks dude-man.” You thanked him, smiling brightly. Mikey had given you a salute and a wink before he watched as his older brother huddled you over to his lab.
Now, Mikey was curious what the two of you were up to in his brother's lab. He had passed by it a while ago and heard some talking, but now that he was passing by again, it was completely silent.
Peeking his head out from behind the metal door, his eyes immediately landed on the large lump on the cot in the corner. Donnie seemed to be slumped over a lump of blankets, the tablet slipping off from his hand and onto the bed. From the head of hair sticking out from underneath the lump of blankets, Mikey could safely assume that you were the lump of blankets that Donnie was resting on top of.
He snickered at the sight before he leaned out from the lab doorway. The two of you were obviously napping and he wouldn’t dare disturb the two of you.
You let out a yawn, fluttering your eyes open and blinking the blurriness away from your vision. You didn’t remember falling asleep, but you did remember feeling incredibly warm before unconsciousness took over your mind.
There was a heavy comforting weight on top of you, the pressure feeling similar to one of those weighted blankets people use to sleep more easily. A soft huff of warm air near the back of your ear startled you completely awake and you turned your head slightly to gaze at Donnie’s dozing face, nestled right behind the crook of your neck and buried into your hair. His arms were limp over your lump of a figure underneath the blankets, looking almost as if he was hugging you.
You let out another yawn, quickly turning your head away before squirming at the feeling of hunger stabbing sharp into your stomach. It’s been several hours since you had lunch, you now realize. There were no windows in the lab, so it was hard for you to tell what time it was.
With some effort, you were able to yank your arm out from underneath yourself and reach out underneath the blankets to blindly reach for your phone, which you knew was resting somewhere on the bed. It took some shuffling and stretching of your arm before your fingers finally felt the familiar cold smooth surface.
Snatching your phone up, you squinted against the brightness of the screen before quickly lowering the brightness level. The numbers 5:48 PM stared back at you.
You have to get back home to make dinner, a thought that created a twisting feeling in your stomach. You don’t want to go back to your apartment.
You decide to bite the bullet and wake up Donnie, even though you feel bad.
“Donnie.” You whispered.
You drop your phone onto the bed and use the same hand to slightly shake him awake.
“Donnie.”
“What.” He breathed out, sounding irritated.
You look back to see his half-lidded eyes staring at you, the drags of sleep still very evident in his gaze.
“I have to go back home, it’s getting late. Gotta make dinner and all that.” You continue to whisper.
You feel his arms tighten around you from on top of the blankets.
“Then stay here for dinner then.” He said, his eyes already fluttering back shut.
“But… I would be intruding…”
“No you won’t.” His face snuggles into your hair, breathing in your scent. “Just stay.”
“...Do you want me to stay?” Your heart felt like it was going to beat out of your chest. Any moment it could grow a pair of legs and hop right out of this lab. He was so close, and held you as if you were some oversized teddy bear.
“...Yes.”
“Okay.”
You wouldn’t exactly say that you fell right back asleep after that. It was more so you fell into a state of a sleepy daze, your eyes closed as if you were sleeping, yet you were distinctly aware of your surroundings. Every puff of warm breath from Donnie against the back of your head, the warmth underneath the blankets that was slowly turning a little too hot while you were under them, the muffled voices from deeper within the lair somewhere. It seemed as if your senses were sharper when you closed your eyes.
Soon enough, Donnie seemed to have had enough of his nap and blinked his eyes open. He stared at the back of your head, silent for a few moments.
“Are you awake now?” You asked, voice slightly muffled from your face that was smushed against the blankets. “‘Cuz I’m getting kinda really hungry.”
“The syntax of that sentence was utterly horrid.” He grumbled, lifting a hand to rub at his eye.
“Whatever you say.” You roll your eyes, voice still muffled. “We grabbing some grub or nah?”
“Fix the syntax of that sentence and then we shall go.”
“I don’t even know what that means!”