Chapter Text
When the ache in your chest started, you didn’t think anything of it.
It was an occasional clench that didn’t last for more than a few uncomfortable inhales. Nothing too unusual there. You chalked it up to the recent cold snap (to put the plunge from 50°F to 5° lightly), or the increase of airborne irritants that resided in your home. Both from bugs seeking refuge, and layers of dust and dirt that seemingly manifested everytime you turned a corner. Gotta love New York City. What a town.
You were a bit behind on chores, since you and your roommates have all been increasingly busy with work prospects. Casey's impromptu dojo had now enough business that it went from a side gig to a full career. He still has yet to officially name it, looking wistful each time he tries. April had a recent breakthrough with a story that, when done, will make April O'Neil a household name. She hoped to either do work in front of the camera, or end up as a Reuters investigative journalist. Either route had her excited with stars in her eyes. That left the usual slack from when one of you is inevitably indisposed instead now wrung taught. For you couldn't pick it up either- your new life's work was just getting rolling.
You had just been awarded a grant and your own lab by your university to research the subject of your doctoral thesis. If it all panned out, you'd be the spearhead of the movement to better investigate and understand the mystic arts and yokai- a joint operation with both human and yokai, backed on an official scale. Goal was to make it less… abstract. Bringing it all together in a way that could maybe one day thrust the world into a new age!
You inwardly cringed while reminiscing, because as with anything lately, your mind had wandered to Donnie. He’s one of the (okay, only) reasons you even had the idea to pursue this in the first place. His innate distrust of “magic” led you to believe there had to be a way to quantify it. This gave way to countless nights of debating and brainstorming, until the two of you had been able to hash out and agree upon a viable research direction. He was thrilled to help, and you were thrilled to have it.
You had always enjoyed his company, all the way back when you first met the turtles. Leonardo might likely be your best friend, but when you needed to get away from all the action or have someone to chat intellectually with- Donatello was the one you sought out.
Waxing philosophy or shooting for breakthroughs was typical fare, but these research conversations felt like they were otherworldly and electrically charged. Over meals, all through the night, sometimes going into the early morning where you’d both collapse in a heap to sleep at Raph’s insistence. Sometimes by force, an emergency turtle pile called. Only for the two of you to start it all up again upon waking before anyone else, chattering quietly over coffee. Always the same order- black dark roast with honey. You had a lot of the same interests and preferences, synergy was palpable between you.
Then it all fell to pieces.
Your chest ached, and you knew it had nothing to do with dust. Heartache, from heartbreak.
Totally avoidable, but you went and screwed it all up just the same. You had to shake your head to remove the disgust Donnie had shown on his otherwise neutral face upon your confession. It was seared into your brain.
To his credit, he did attempt to let you down gently. Even going so far as to throw in a small joke to help ease tension as you awkwardly sank back into your chair and tried to settle yourself into drafting emails to colleagues. You hoped the laptop screen could hide your mortification.
There was no change in how he acted around or treated you. You couldn't decide on how to feel about this, but knew not to question it. You didn't want to ruin things further.
To your credit, you were able to somehow shove it all deep under lockdown and go back to your previous disposition.
It did nothing to stop the pain.
Blessedly sweet Michelangelo had somehow been able to pick up on your distress, and on your way home one night volunteered to walk you. This wasn't too uncommon, when he wanted to get out of the sewers and have some time away from his brothers he'd do this and hang at the apartment. This is what you thought was the case, until he pulled out Dr. Feelings. It didn’t take much for him to wrangle the truth out of you, and upon hearing the news swore to keep it secret. This was done with a tinge of regret at his extracting the knowledge, a quiet apology that you muffled by a hug.
It worked out in the end.
He became your ace-in-the-hole, able to detect when you needed to get conveniently dragged away from any conversation. It was surely a superpower, since he’d sometimes be across the lair on an entirely different floor when it’d happen. Donnie was busy enough with new tech that he seemed to not notice the frequency to which this occurred. Which shouldn’t have hurt you as much as it did.
Logically, the sting would eventually fade. Though you doubt your feelings for him ever would.
~~
The aches in your chest started to concern you when it became gradually harder to breathe. You found yourself coughing a lot now. Felt akin to asthma, which you knew was exacerbated by wintertime. So, you did the proactive thing and dug out your inhaler.
Only to find it expired, so you had to go through the hassle of getting another. Steroids too, just in case there was an attack coming. You dimly considered it could be anxiety related. Common in circles such as yours, both for hero and scholar. Or more likely because you had a bit of a drag-out fight with Donnie after a run-in with an old foe.
It was an elephant-looking yokai that could control concrete to make it like water and able to bend to his will. The pair of you and Raph once upon a time had fought him, but hadn’t seen tusk nor tail of him since. This time around, it was just you and Leo.
You were done early checking on part of your field research with Hueso, when you spotted Leonardo. After the three of you had caught up, you decided to help Leo back to the lair. You were headed there anyways, might as well go together. The two of you made a good pair after all, although the others might (would) disagree. The shenanigans you got into when left to your own devices often had lasting effects, usually leading to a lecture from one of the friends or family (that you two definitely totally 100% paid attention to).
Arriving at the nearest manhole cover, Leo set the bag securing the precious boxes down on the ground. He was about to lift the cover when an explosion went off nearby. The two of you paused, looking at each other. Twin grimances appeared on your faces.
“We… we should get that shouldn’t we?”Leo’s voice betrayed he had already accepted the answer you were going to provide.
You just groaned in response, which he echoed by dragging a hand over his face. Taking out a portable shield device, you placed it to protect the pizza and your bag. As you stood back up you willed your own onto your arm, appearing in a flash of magenta.
“Yea, yea..” he summoned his own weapon with practiced ease and portaled the two of you onto a nearby roof to survey the scene unfolding.
Elephante was taking apart the side of a building along with half the street. You swore under your breath, and Leonardo looked over to you.
“His name’s Elephante, he can control concrete and some other stuff like it’s second nature. At this point, probably it is. We’ve gotta hit him hard and fast, he has more endurance than either of us.”
Leo put a hand over his chest, an exaggerated look of offense on his face, “I’ll have you know I can go allllll night long,” he drug out the L with a waggle of his brow ridge.
Rolling your eyes, you were about to retort with a comment about his lack of game when you spotted movement. You barely had time to throw up a wall of magenta before a wave of concrete and asphalt slammed into it.
Leo jumped and let out a cry, before swiftly recovering and calling out “cover me!” before falling backwards into a portal. Which left you to redirect the wave into an alleyway behind you, seeing it solidifying in a spiral form.
You risked a glance downward, and met Elephante’s glare. He squinted at you, before recoiling in clear recognition.
“You!” he pointed, making an aggressive shaking fist.
“Me!” you agreed, readying yourself for either Leo reappearing or Elephante advancing on you.
Unfortunately, both happened in tandem.
As Elephante took more of the building behind him apart, Leo popped in and delivered a few well- placed kicks and cuts.
Which left him wide open for the freshly gathered wave of material.
“Leo!” you shrieked, forming a ramp that you dove down, surfing on the end and able to barely turn it to get under Leo as he jumped back. You completed the slide next to him, forming a dome overhead. Right on time, the onslaught washed and crashed over the shield. It was like a freight train, in both sound and weight.
You groaned at the sudden encumbrance, and were driven to your knees. The magenta around you sparked, and for the moment you held your breath. Only when it stabilized did you make the struggle to inhale.
“Too many close calls,” you ground out.
Leo hummed, thinking. Then:
“I hate to ask this, but do you think you could do that again?” he put a hand on your trembling shoulder, “I have a plan.”
The plan was, the both of you knew, admittedly pretty ballsy. But in the heat of the moment it was the best you had.
So that’s how after several attempts to set up the right circumstance, you were directly in the warpath of an oncoming wall of building materials. It had gone exactly how the plan was supposed to, and you were able to funnel it into Leo’s waiting portal. To which the other side was directly behind Elephante. He went down, and was swept up in his own wrath.
Unfortunately, you hadn’t been paying close enough attention to the fact that debris from nearby construction had been mixed in the wave. So when a piece of a ladder worked itself free and came hurtling towards you from above your shields- you couldn’t dodge it.
It hit you square on- shoulder, ribs, and head. Concentration broke, and what little of Elephante’s wave was left to crash into you as your mystic energy faltered and failed. The wave had turned mostly solid, so as you were swept up it cut and ripped into you. You foggily fought your way to the top, only to have one of your elbows remain under as it came to a full rest. The world spun, and you willed yourself not to pass out.
Elephante was starting to recover, and you still hadn’t been able to trap him like you were supposed to. He rose to his feet, clearly disoriented but with a crazed grin shining.
“Like a fly on a trap!” he cackled, raising a hand once more.
“Oh no you don’t!” Leonardo yelled as he went after him, sword raised.
While he distracted Elephante, you summoned up your shield on your free arm and began bashing concrete to get any sort of crack to form. It hurt a lot, but you were able to crack it enough open to form a sliver of a shield around your elbow. Bursting forth you were made to realize you didn’t get enough out, because you immediately felt a pop and twist.
White-hot pain lanced through your arm. Tears swarmed your eyes, but you didn’t have time to feel just yet.
You needed to wait for an opportunity to attack, so you held your shield up and readied yourself to throw. Leo spied this, and gave you an immediate chance as he flipped backwards over Elephante- causing him to turn to follow the taunting turtle.
Taking the opening, you threw it and gave an accelerated spin with spikes towards the base of his spine.
A direct hit!
This time when he went down, you promptly and aggressively summoned two walls of magenta over and under him. This left Leo time to finally portal away for help.
You struggled to hold Elephante in an immobilized state. Your head was spinning and beginning to throb in waves that came with agonizing and increasing levels of pain, followed by echoes of ache in the other spots that had taken hits.
Your vision was starting to go, yet still you held on.
Held on, until you saw the brilliant blue swirl of the portal reappear. Raphael, Leonardo, and lastly Donatello came crashing through. Tech and mystic energy swirled around them. What a sight.
“Drop the shields!” Leo commanded, and you complied with a stuttering exhale of relief. Knowing the fight was over and being properly handled, you fell backwards onto the street and rested. Cradling your arm, and closing your eyes…
Before being roughly and rudely jostled back awake, with what felt like an electric shock. You rolled your eyes open, distractedly rubbing the skin that had been zapped.
Your eyes were met by a very upset Donnie, Leo leaning in from behind him. Raph must be dealing with those cops you could distantly hear chatting. You must've passed out if they were already carting Elephante away and wrapping up the crime scene perimeter.
Donnie had apparently been saying something you didn’t catch, because you were shocked again.
“Ow! D! What?” you wheezed.
“I said, you can't go to sleep until we assess you.” Donnie’s voice sounded like he was talking from underwater.
“We’re pretty sure you have a concussion, but you can’t go asleep yet until we make sure that’s all you’ve got,” Leo’s voice followed up. He sounded even further away than Donnie.
Something was bothering you from the recesses of your mind, and so you ignored the twins. This was important.
“Papers… pizza?” you asked. Attempting to look around for what you needed proved too much. Everything swirled dark, and even the frantic shouting and zaps to your skin didn’t stop your descent.
