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Success.
Donnie managed to sneak out of the lair unnoticed. It was just after sunset, and, knowing his brothers would be asleep until at least 11:30 when Raph’s alarm inevitably woke him up, Donnie took the opportunity to steal away and get out into the early night’s moonlight in order to meet…
April. Oh, how that girl captured his attention! She was fascinating; intelligent and witty, always keeping up with his banter and at least some of his scientific jargon. Not only that, but she was kind, too, and completely non-judgemental, which made sense because…
She was a mermaid.
Which, for the record, Donatello only previously believed to be make-believe. Now he had irrefutable evidence that he got to talk to and personally study almost every night. Who was he, a man of science, to doubt with such knowledge in his repertoire?
He’s lucky his brothers haven’t noticed, really. While April was intelligent and open-minded, she was also… pretty. Like really pretty, and it scared Donnie sometimes that he would think such a thing about anyone . It used to be that he had no time for even the idea of romance, let alone any kind of pursuit of others- he had his projects, his brothers, and his hero work. What more could he want?
Well, turned out, he kind of wanted April. At least… if nothing else, he wanted to be her friend. Initially he just wanted to study and understand her, but no one has ever intrigued him the way she does, with or without fins.
So. As most nights, Donnie was now racing across rooftops, admiring the moon in its waxing hours and thinking about his favourite mermaid. He was only too excited when the piers came into view, just a little ways off now, and he picked up his pace.
Sliding down the ladder of the last building between him and the final stretch to the water, Donnie had to force himself to slow down and think- which, that’s new. Donnie did more thinking than anyone he knew, so this shouldn’t have been a conscious task. Yet it was. It was almost irritating that he had to slow down, halt his progression toward his goal, in order to make sure he wouldn’t be seen.
Luckily, he seemed to have picked the perfect time of night, as usual, not to be caught. Human pedestrians, and their prying eyes, were scarce.
With that knowledge in mind, he leapt the last little ways to the ground and began racing toward the docks beside the pier, bobbing on the water. A wide grin split his face as he saw the water's edge stir, and he knew April knew he was coming because this is where they always met.
Sliding to a stop on the wood ( ouch , that was a horrible sound and sensation he would have to work to avoid in the future) and taking one last glance about himself, he got down on his knees and leaned over the water.
“It’s safe, April,” he said softly.
A head of curly, black hair peaked through the surface of the water, instantly losing its shape as it met a much less dense environment, followed by vivid, wonder-filled eyes and rich brown skin.
April surged up to the edge of the dock, with just enough upward momentum to half-leap out of the water and suspend herself on her palms, which rested surprisingly delicately on the wood. The action, however, splashed Donnie and he made a face.
“Hello, Donnie,” April greeted.
“Hi,” Donnie replied, quirking an amused brow at her and pointedly wiping water off his face. “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.”
“Oh, you definitely kept me waiting. You’re ten minutes late!” April exclaimed, only half teasing. She leaned down to rest on her elbows in order to tap on her wrist as though in gesture to a watch that wasn’t there, and Donnie grinned sheepishly.
“Leo was in the kitchen! I didn’t want to get caught,” he explained, sitting back on his heels. April gave him a look.
“You still haven’t told your brothers about me?” she said, sounding unamused.
A moment passed in nervous silence, at least for Donnie. April just stared him down, which was ironic given Donnie had the lateral advantage here.
"...no," he eventually came up with. He played with his hands some, twiddling his thumbs and avoiding eye contact. “But I will! Eventually… When they’re ready.”
“When they’re ready?” April echoed, raising a brow at him. Donnie mentally cursed her intuition.
“When you’re ready?” he tried, grinning nervously and knowing full well that wasn’t the right answer.
April rolled her eyes. “Alright, genius, but I was ready ages ago. If you’re the one who's not ready, just say so. Anyway, I’m getting antsy, and dry, so are you coming or what? I found a new little alcove I think you’d like.”
Donnie, brushing over the callout, nodded eagerly and leaned forward on his hands so as to swing his legs out from underneath him. He scooted up to the edge of the dock and dropped his feet into the water, shuddering as he adjusted to the cooler temperature. April laughed and dropped back down, dipping into the water and bobbing back out just long enough to look up at him. It was a clear invitation to follow her.
Donnie watched as she dove with fascination, noting the way her tail curled as she went, the scales shining briefly in the moonlight. It was, quite frankly, a beautiful sight to behold, and he couldn’t help admiring the beautiful silvery-sheen.
As soon as she had disappeared, Donnie reached up to the straps of his battle shell, just to make sure they were secure, then slid off the edge and into the dark water below. One of the compartments on the back of his battle shell opened up just long enough for a mechanical arm to rush out, wielding a flashlight which Donnie took before putting the mechanical arm away. His vision wasn’t that bad in the dark, but the water was rather severely lacking in light of almost any kind, and for every few feet deeper he went, he seemed to discover a darker shade of black.
Turning on the flashlight and glancing around, he was almost startled to find April’s face again, only a few feet away. She smiled at him and gestured with one arm to follow her before taking off.
Now Donnie was not a slow swimmer, so he followed and kept up pretty well. He wouldn’t acknowledge aloud that he could swim much faster with his battle shell off, nor that April was definitely slowing down for him- though he might not deny that last one if asked, either. April was fast , and it was one of the things he admired about her. Still, though, he liked to think he was a pretty fast swimmer, too. Faster than his brothers, and certainly faster than any human. He beat olympic world records for swim speed pretty easily, thanks to his mutation and particular species.
As he followed April, doing his best not to simply stare at her, he shone his light on everything they passed in his practiced hypervigilance and found himself wondering how long it would be before he did have the courage to tell his brothers about his discovery. And make no mistake, it was his discovery- April was, she was his discovery, and he was very proud of that. But… when he eventually told them… Mikey would be scary intuitive and pick up on his little crush much too quickly. Leo would pick up on Mikey picking it up, as would Raph, and then would come the teasing.
And oh, it would be merciless! Leo could never let things well enough alone, so why would he this? Not to mention Donnie's brothers wouldn’t believe him if he said he found a mermaid, just to start- A real, genuine mermaid, with an enormous, fishy tail. Then there’d come the part where, to prove his claim, he’d have to introduce them, and that was a whole new can of worms- a phrase that was… something-something about cruel irony.
So lost in his thoughts as he was, he almost bumped into April when she came to a stop, and it was then that he realized he was beginning to run out of oxygen. April picked up on this, taking in the discomfort in his posture, and swam up to him to grab his hands.
Instantly his heart-rate picked up, and it was a wonder that didn’t make his breath feel all the more constricted. He was surprised by the warmth of her hands, but had no time to think on it as he met her eye. She was trying to reassure him, silently asking him to trust her- and he did. So he nodded, and she gave his hands a gentle shake before turning and leading him straight into a narrow, pitch black passageway.
Donnie shined his flashlight on the spot she disappeared to and found that the rock itself was actually black- or at least it appeared that way, and he grimaced a little at how much of a tight squeeze it looked to be. Mentally, he took a stabilizing breath and followed.
The first dozen feet or so were fine, rather roomy, even, and Donnie had little problem exploring the walls as he went, finding odd patterns created by the shifting tide all over them.
As he reached what had to have been the 2/3s point of the tunnel, it narrowed in rather suddenly and he felt his battle shell scrape against rock with a horrible grating sound. He cringed but pushed onward, making it another 5 or 6 feet before he got stuck .
Panic panged in his heart briefly as he realized it, especially when he noted a faint burning sensation in his lungs, but he quickly squashed it down. He glanced up, turning his flashlight toward his battle shell, and found two large chunks of rock sticking out. The first one he squeezed past, somehow, but the second caught on the lip of his battle shell, and it left him sandwiched. There was rock pushing uncomforrably against his plastron, too, and his right bicep was already pressed up against another wall at his side. He was… well and truly stuck, with no literal wiggle room to move backwards or forwards.
That’s when the panic returned. Squishing it down didn’t seem to be an option anymore, and it left him feeling breathless- which was definitely not a good thing where he was currently. As a matter of fact it seemed rather a bad thing, and it only increased the panic, boiling hot and uncomfortable in his stomach before it radiated out to the core of his chest and to the back of his head. He was stuck!
There was a surge of water rushing into his face, and for a moment he wondered if he accidentally took a gulp of it into his lungs and squeezed his eyes shut. He was sure that if he were above water he’d be dripping sweat, and his heart-rate seemed only to confirm the somatic symptoms of his anxiety, skyrocketing and becoming harsh and loud in his ears.
When he opened his eyes again, some little voice in his head screaming that this was it, he was met with April’s face again. She looked worried but relatively calm at the same time, and once she realized she had his attention, she pointed to the rocks keeping him pinned in place. Donnie, at first, was confused. Then, she held her hands out, as though holding a large invisible stone, and twisted . Donnie creased his brow, still not understanding, and April would have rolled her eyes had her friend not been predominantly an air breather and running out of it.
Once more, she held her hands out, but this time she placed them on each of Donnie’s shoulders. She squeezed then withdrew, and again made the same twisting motion.
This time Donnie understood. With April’s help, they twisted his body, positioned as it was, carefully clockwise, until his battle shell scraped free and occupied the empty space where his right arm had been .
From there Donnie let his panic take over long enough for him to scramble the rest of the way through the tunnel, frantically flailing to get to the surface of the water- which he realized was much, much closer than he thought it would be.
Breaking through the water’s surface with a loud, gasping breath, he greedily gulped in lungful after lungful of air, his mind flooding with relief. April surfaced only a moment later.
“Are you okay?” she asked, sounding a little breathless herself. Donnie nodded, panting.
“I think so. Maybe a little scraped up, but fine,” he answered after a moment.
Quickly, he noticed that they were, technically speaking, still underwater. The rock walls he had been a minute ago cursing sloped up and curved to create a circular pocket of air- a small cave of sorts, underwater . The longer he looked, the more he couldn’t tell if the walls were glitering or if the light of his flashlight was just casting strange highlights from the curvature of the ripples in the water.
April laughed a little at the look on his face, which, no doubt, was nothing short of absolute awe. It was a strangely beautiful little spot, and he couldn’t help wanting to look at every part of it. While doing so he finally took note of a sturdy looking shelf in the water and the opportunity had him flooding with relief all over again.
Still panting a little, Donnie swam up to the ledge and pulled himself up onto it with a grunt. April followed, folding her arms on the edge of the ledge and resting her head atop them.
“Are you certain you’re okay?” she asked him, serious. “Like really okay? Didn’t inhale too much water, didn’t break skin or crack your plastron?”
“Yes, yes, I am fine,” Donnie answered, waving a dismissive hand at her. “Well, maybe I scratched the surface of my plastron, but not to any extent worth worrying over,” he amended.
“Good,” April replied curtly. Then, standing on her hands and quickly moving to give him a slap , she said, “Because I am going to kill you if you ever scare me like that again, Hamato Donatello, so help me.”
Donnie had the good grace to look abashed as he brought a hand up to touch his cheek where she slapped him. “Sorry.”
“No, don’t apologize for getting stuck, I knew it was gonna be a tight squeeze. What you should apologize for is the thing on your back, like really? What is that thing that you have to wear it every time we go swimming?”
“Oh. Ah-hah,” Donnie vocalized nervously. Glancing over his shoulder at the “thing” in question and rubbing his shoulder, he said, “that’s my battle shell.”
“Battle shell?” echoed April skeptically. “What do you need a battle shell for? Extra weaponry? Underwater?”
“Uh… well, no,” Donnie admitted. “It’s more for when my brothers and I face off against our various nemesies…”
“Uh-huh,” April said. “What, are you worried you’ll find one of them out here? Because I’m not.”
Donnie made a face. “Well, no. I mean yes! Yes, that’s exactly it! What if Hypno shows up? Or the dastardly RepoMantis? Who would protect you?”
“Uh, me,” April deadpanned. “I would protect me. I may look like a fairytale creature, but I’m not exactly a frail maiden in distress. So cut the nonsense and tell me what’s really going on with that thing.”
Donnie hesitated, puffing out his cheek nervously. The truth of the matter was he didn’t know what she’d think of him once he revealed his carapace- he’s a mutant turtle, and she accepted that, but of he and his brothers he was the outlier- the softshell. Not to mention the numerous scars; he couldn’t even have just a soft shelled carapace, he had to have one marked by failure after failure, permanently.
“It helps me swim,” he fibbed.
April gave him a distinctly unimpressed look. “Donnie. I’ve literally been swimming my entire life and I can tell you that thing is a handicap.”
“W- well yeah but the tools! The flashlights, the mechanical arms, they help me explore while I swim!”
“Mm-hm, I’m sure that’s it,” April said, seeing straight through his words.
“Alright! Alright, fine,” he conceded, hanging his head in defeat. He reached up to the straps cautiously and hit the release buttons on either side.
With a hiss, the battle shell came loose and he pulled it off, setting it on the rocky ledge beside him. Grimacing as he anticipated her eventual disappointment, he twisted around and showed her his soft-shell. “I was scared of showing you this. My soft shell. My damage. All my shortcomings and failures.”
He squeezed his eyes shut, some illogical part of his mind hoping it would take away the sting of being rejected by his only friend.
“Oh, Donnie…”
And there it was. The pity, probably followed by some form of regret.
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Donnie whipped around to face her. That was not the reaction he was expecting, not in the slightest. April burst into laughter and almost fell back into the water at the expression of shock on his face.
“Excuse me, I’m having a very vulnerable moment, here!” he exclaimed, going a little red in the face.
April laughed harder, putting a hand to her chest and helplessly waving a hand at him in an attempt to silently apologize. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she bursted out between giggles.
As she began to calm, wiping a tear from her eye, she said, “Donnie, none of this is news to me.”
Donnie frowned confusedly. “It’s not?” he said kind of dumbly. “I’ve had my carapace covered every time we’ve met up, though.”
April quirked a brow at him. “First off, you have scars of every shape and size littering pretty much every part of your body. Second off, you think I need to see your carapace to know you’re a soft shell? Your markings, the texture of your skin, and the shape of your torso make it pretty clear to me what species you are, Dee. I’m a mermaid, I know these kinds of things. And, for the record, spiny softshells are some of my favourite turtles. Such mean, particular little things.”
Donnie was dumbfounded as he listened to her, sitting back a little and chewing on his lip. He seemed a little lost for words as he digested hers, confusion settling over his features.
“I may have lied a little, actually,” April added after a moment of silence, the water sloshing quietly in place of their voices.
“You don’t like spiny softshells?” Donnie questioned, his heart dropping a little.
“No! Dummy!” she said, smacking his shoulder with a chuckle. “I mean that… maybe part of what you said is news to me. Do you really think your scars are marks of failure?”
Donnie’s eyes widened a little. “Well… aren’t they? They each come from a time when I wasn’t paying attention, or when I couldn’t be fast enough or block an attack the way I should have. Or worse, from my own lack of physical prowess and resulting clumsiness. It’s all… damage I could have avoided, and everyone can see it.”
“Donnie… No,” April decided aloud. “It doesn’t matter if you have scars, and it does not mean you failed. It means you got hurt, and that isn’t a failure, that’s an unfortunate happenstance. You’re not damaged. You’re certainly not at fault. And all I care about, really, is that you aren’t hurt now. ”
“Oh,” Donnie said after a moment, the statement, once again, rather lacking in his usually prodigious vocabulary. “Really?” he added, daring to be hopeful.
“Of course!” April affirmed, smacking his shoulder again and grinning. “Donnie, you’re my friend. I care about you for you . I don’t care what you look like or how many scars you have; just you. Promise.”
A small smile crept onto Donnie’s face, and he couldn’t help the way his cheeks heated up just slightly. “That’s actually very reassuring. Thank you, April.”
“You’re welcome, Dee. Let’s not get too sappy, though; I know you can swim faster without that thing on and I wanna see it. Let’s get back outside and then I challenge you to a race! From the dock to that one ship that never seems to leave. Got it?”
“Oh, you are on ,” Donnie said, nodding vigorously. He grabbed his battle shell, not putting it back on, and pushed himself back into the water, flailing a little as he adjusted for the large item in his hands. April giggled and held out hers.
“Give that thing to me, I’ll take it back to the dock and you can get the use of your arms back,” she offered. Donnie smiled, something warm blooming in his chest as he did, and clumsily handed the synthetic shell to her.
“Thanks,” he said. “After you, then.”
WIth that April dove, her tail flicking at the surface of the water as she did. Donnie dove after her, and he had to admit the cool water on his carapace felt amazing. He wouldn’t have said it before, but it was getting itchy and uncomfortable with his battle shell on in the water.
This time around as he went through the little tunnel leading into the alcove he had no trouble at all, although he did anxiously glance down where he’d scraped up his plastron before. Relief flooded him as he exited the tight space unhindered and sped toward the dock where this all started, following closely behind April. She was faster than he was, said the subconscious part of his mind, already cataloging their speeds for reference, but he didn’t mind.
He got a lovely view of her scales, shining brightly under the light of the moon, after all.