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chaoticspeedrun · 1 year

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Donnie x Fem! Reader The little merturtle 1

Summary: Prince Donatello was the third of four brothers, the prince of an underwater yokai city, but he has always been searching for something else far more interesting than the mystic arts he is used to, he wants to know everything about the human world, their traditions, their creations... But when he finds himself entranced by a human princess it might just be the last push he needs to make his dream of exploring the land a reality.

AN; It's done! The first chapter of what I think will be four, an AU of Donnie as the little mermaid and reader as the princess of the land with my own twist to the story!

Also, I made the banner art just a couple minutes ago at work and I didn't think I was gonna color it so much.

Warnings: Angst with a happy ending, tooth-rotting fluff

MASTERLIST • NEXT

A trove and a ship

Dark grey rain clouds fill the sky, but from the spaces in between bright rays of sunlight beam down into the ocean, illuminating its surface and the dolphins jumping through its waves as well as a ship coursing through its surface.

“Isn’t this great?” You beamed from your place on the deck of the ship “the salty sea air, the wind blowing in your face” you sighed deeply “A perfect day to be at sea.”

“Oh, yes, delightful” Casey responded from behind you, her extremely serious expression stiff and her cheeks green, you were too entranced by the sea to notice.

“A fine strong wind and a following sea,” One of the sailors said while pulling on the rope from a mast, you rushed over to help him tie it “King Splinter must be in a friendly type mood.”

“King Splinter?” You asked curiously.

“Why, ruler of the merpeople, lass” another sailor responded “Thought every good sailor knew about him” the man teased.

“Merpeople” Casey grunted slowly walking down the stairs of the boat “ma’am, pay no attention to this nautical nonsense” she rolled her eyes but it just seemed to spur a new wave of nausea.

“But it ain’t nonsense, it’s the truth!” One of the sailors said pointing at Casey with a fish though she only glared “I’m tellin’ ya! Down in the depths of the ocean they live! Oh!” The fish slipped from the man’s hands and Casey slapped it away before it slapped her face with its tail, the fish soon falling back to sea.

Deep down under the sea lived an entire society of yokai, merpeople with the appearance of different creatures mixed in between, half fish and half of a different species ranging from animals to even slime all mixed in with an aquatic species and conforming a big society hidden from the world up top.

These yokai were all ruled by king Splinter, a half-rat merman who was said to have been a formidable human once a long time ago, though those are only rumors passed quietly between the merpeople working at the castle who avoided being heard by the king and princes at all costs for who knows what would happen to them if their ruler, who hated humans so, ever caught their words.

The fish who had been thrown out of the boat swam far away to the bottom of the sea where eventually it crossed paths with a school of merpeople who were making their way to the big bright castle that was home to their king, illuminated with the power of the yokai in it and painting a beautiful picture to the residents of the hidden city.

Through a fanfare from the seahorses a smaller one made its way to the front where the crowd had reunited looking out at a stage “His royal highness, king Splinter!”

The king had a dramatic entrance on a small personal carriage pulled by dolphins and holding his trident up high which illuminated as he descended through the applause of his subjects, lighting up the chandelier on the ceiling.

The little seahorse continued “And presenting the distinguished court composer, martial choreographer, and youngest princess, Carassius Auratus Piebald!”

The fanfare and applause were back as Piebald, the overgrown goldfish princess made her way on a smaller carriage to her father who turned to look at her once she neared “My daughter, I’m really looking forward to this performance, Piebald” he said making Piebald chuckle sheepishly.

“This will be our finest presentation dad, you don’t know how hard the guys and I have been practicing, especially Leo” She murmured something her father couldn’t hear about Donnie and how he hadn’t been ‘as present’ before smiling once more “They’ll be spectacular!”

Splinter hummed in agreement “And especially purple with his big entrance, I am glad he was finally convinced to debut, he’s never used his ninpo in front of the public.”

Piebald nodded “He does have a great flair for the dramatic,” she said grinning before making her way to the front of the stage, losing the smile and replacing it with a frown once her father couldn’t see her expression anymore “If only he’d show up for rehearsals once in a while” she muttered.

Reaching the pedestal she would be standing on and letting go of the dolphins pulling her carriage Piebald pulled out a sheet of music and pulled out her baton, tapping it a couple of times on the stand to prepare the band and there it was, after beginning the swift movement of it the merry sound of the various yokai playing on her direction resounded through the room, entrancing the people watching as a curtain of bubbles dissolved to show three big clams standing in the middle, one blue, one red and one orange.

The blue one up front opened to show the middle prince inside of it donning an impeccable outfit for the occasion and the smug grin he was known for, the blue scales of his long merman tail glistening in the light “Ah we are the sons of Splinter” he sang while the two other clams opened up to show his brothers, both in their respective colors and with equally wide grins, they both joined in “Great father who loves us and named us well.”

“Raphael,” The eldest said before pulling out his sai and swimming with his bright red tail up to a bunch of demonstration dummies, a construction of his fists in bigger glowing form demolishing them after just a moment, now only rubble on the water, the crowd applauded the show of strength.

“Michelangelo!” The youngest sang, his orange tail sparkling under the lights of the chandelier and the light of his nunchucks of which the chain was glowing orange and growing in size enveloping him in a show of artfulness that the public awed.

“Leonardo~!” The middle son claimed, pulling out the pair of katanas on the back of his shell as he swam up to appear right in front of the public in a beam of blue, showing with dexterity the carefully crafted dance of swords using his teleporting abilities, the crowd cheered.

“And then there is our brother in his mystical debut” the three of them presented together reuniting in the middle as a bigger clam in purple twirled and they swam around it “We are presenting our dear genius brother to you to make a martial arts demonstration choreographed by our sister, his constructs will leave you in awe!” The clam started opening as the brothers formed a line to present it “He’s our brother Dona—” The three of them gasped at the empty clam in front of them, Piebald placed her hands on her head in dismay, eyes wide in panic.

“DONATELLO!” The voice of Splinter echoed through the palace, his trident illuminating his show of anger only emphasized by the full name of his son.

The son in question, a purple-tailed turtle yokai, swam around a mast at the bottom of the sea happily, looking at everything that used to be part of a boat with excitement, the small smile on his face as he examined the masts dropped when he heard a familiar voice calling for him

“Donnie! Wait for me!” A small purple turtle called.

“Shelldon, hurry up!” Donnie said before pointing at the full abandoned ship a bit ways ahead of them “Isn’t it fantastic?” He asked admiring the ship while his little companion, the regular sea turtle rolled his eyes at him.

“Yeah sure, it’s great dude, now let’s go before someone catches us” Shelldon was turning around before his tail was taken in between Donnie’s fingers, the yokai turtle holding him in place as the little one tried to swim away.

“Oh, you’re not getting cold fins now, are you?” Donnie asked, glaring in his direction before pulling him along.

“No way, dude! But if your dad or brothers found out—”

“Which they won’t,” Donnie said confidently. Entering the ship from a hole at the bottom “We’ll just look around, pick up anything cool we found and bring it back, they won’t even notice I was gone.”

“Yeah, like they didn’t find out the last three rehearsals you missed” Shelldon mumbled, and Donnie glared before swimming deeper inside the boat.

“Oh those presentations are just to exhibit our mystical skills and for Leo to show off” Donnie made a stern face and deepened his voice in an imitation of his father “Purple! The people must know that they are well protected, it’s good for their morale, scoff!” Donnie finished going back to his normal voice before gasping “Shelldon, look!”

He swam quickly over to a piece of metal laying on the captain’s deck, similar to his father’s trident but a miniature in silver with four prongs instead of three “Have you ever seen anything so interesting in your entire life?” Donnie asked, turning it around in his hands.

“Wow, cool,” Shelldon said examining it “But, uh, what is it?”

“I don’t know, but April can tell us” Donnie grinned, taking the object into a pouch at his side.

Shelldon hummed for a moment before getting back to their past conversation “But what’s the problem with raising morale?” Donnie rolled his eyes again.

“Oh please! Nothing ever happens down here, the people are safe, what would they even need to worry about? Sharks?” he joked, suddenly there was a rumble near the windows of the boat and Donnie’s eyes widened while Shelldon looked scared “Well I don’t even need to turn around to realize the irony of my words” Despite this, Donnie turned to look at the windows of the boat, where he could see a great shark outside “Well, I’ve turned around and I see.”

Despite the monotone of his voice, the moment he said that he took hold of Shelldon and swam towards the entrance of the boat as fast as possible, though, he did take a little something else he found on a barrel on his way, he received a glare from Shelldon for that one.

There was a great crashing sound from behind them as the shark destroyed the windows they had seen it behind, It only served to make Donnie hurry more, the shark persecuted them through the boat, twisting and turning, breaking wood when needed to get to them making the purple merturtle swim the opposite way, at one point his pouch got trapped on a piece of wood and despite it being closer to the shark Donnie made his way towards it, refusing to leave his treasure behind and managing to trick the shark into slamming against the ceiling.

Donnie found a window and quickly pushed Shelldon through before following right behind him, the shark immediately broke through it, following them while Shelldon screamed, they swam as fast as they could out of its grasp, Donnie saw a big metal rod, big enough for his companion, not enough for the shark, he made its way towards it hoping he was right, and after he and Shelldon swam through it there was the sound of a slam and a creak behind them, they turned only to find the shark trapped in the rod as he’d hoped, finally, Donnie and his companion sighed in relief.

So much relief that Shelldon swam toward the shark “Haha! Take that dude!” Shelldon stuck his tongue out and the shark opened its mouth wide, closing it quickly in front of the little turtle who scrambled away with his friend towards the surface.

Eventually, they reached a rock on the surface, near the human village, where a dark-skinned girl was taking the sun, Donnie popped his head out of the water discretely, glancing around to make sure no one else was close, feeling safe, he called out in a low voice “April!”

The girl glanced at the water and smiled seeing her green-skinned friend “Donnie! How are you?”

Donnie didn’t answer, instead excitedly offering her his pouch “April, look what we found!” he said offering the bag.

She took it in her hands examining the contents with a chuckle at her friend’s enthusiasm, she wished she could bring him more things from the surface, but his father would surely notice if he kept making these trips so frequently.

“Yeah, we were in this sunken ship, we were even followed by a shark to get it!” Shelldon said waving his legs around.

“Hmm,” April examined the things “Oh look!” She said in recognition when pulling out what Donnie had compared with his father’s trident, his eyes widened in excitement.

“What is it? What’s its use? Do humans use magic with it? No, wait, humans don’t have magic” He muttered the last part.

“It’s a fork,” April stated matter-of-factly, receiving Donnie’s still inquisitive face as he repeated the word to himself “We use it to eat! You see, we prepare a meal and put it on a clean plate, then we use this to poke the food and bring it up to our mouths, it facilitates eating without getting messy” she nodded confidently at his explanation while Donnie took the fork back into his hands.

“Fascinating, so is it bad manners to use your hands while eating? It’s like a whole ritual just to do so” he said examining the fork under the sunlight.

“What about that one?” Shelldon asked pointing at the artifact taken last from the boat, April took the piece of wood in her hands before making a small noise of amusement.

“Oh, this is a pipe,” She said once again getting Donnie’s attention “You see, some people put some particular plants on this extreme of it and then light it up with fire, they inhale the smoke that comes from it with this little part over here, it’s very unhealthy and some people die because of it”

Donnie sputtered at this “Wha- why?! If it’s so damaging why would they still consume it? It doesn’t make sense” He said, thinking there HAD to be some reason at least, but April shrugged.

“Some people just don’t care a lot about their well-being, they think it’s cool, or use it because they are bored or some people say it relaxes them a little when they’re stressed, in my opinion, it’s not worth it AT ALL, but it’s also addictive, so you should never do it because you might never want to stop.” Her explanation left Donnie in a thoughtful mood, he supposed it was similar to how some turtles would eat jellyfish and then start acting weird or lazy.

“Hey, Don” April called curiously “Wasn’t your thing today? That demonstration thingy?”

“What? No, no, I told you last time that it was a week from then” He dismissed, twisting around the pipe.

April raised an eyebrow “Uh, it’s been a week since the last time we met Dee”

Her green friend blanched “Oh no” he pulled his hands up to his face planting them there and groaning in anger “No, no, no, no! I forgot! Oh, pops is gonna be pissed, I gotta go April! Thank you!” He yelled, scrambling to take his things back into the pouch and submerging himself again into the water.

“Anytime!” April waved the two turtles as they disappeared into the waters.

Donnie and Shelldon swam away, ignorant of the eyes that followed them, two eel-like gargoyles followed them both quietly and through their eyes, a pair of yokai watched with a mystic orb.

“Yes, hurry home turtley-boo, we wouldn’t want to miss old daddy’s celebration now, would we?” A feminine voice cooed fakely before huffing “Ha! A celebration indeed, when I was queen, we had fantastical feasts and now I’m stuck here with you Draxy” She looked at the yokai across from her who watched the prince, his warrior, one of his own creations swim away “Banished, and exiled and practically starving while Lou and his flimsy yokai celebrate”

“Well, I’ll give them something to celebrate soon enough” Draxum glared at the orb his voice hoarse from misuse “I don’t want to have to endure your presence any longer when I should be leading my warriors against humanity, if he hadn’t taken them and destroyed my lab all those years ago” Draxum grunted before calling out to the orb “Huginn, Muninn!”

The gargoyles were startled and Muninn hit his head with the rock he was under before the voice of his master continued “I want to keep an extra close watch on this one of my creations, he is smart but too curious and passionate for his own good, that may just be the key to Lou Jitsu’s undoing.”

---

“I just don’t know what we’re going to do with you, my son” Splinter spoke looking at Donnie from his seat at the throne, the set of four siblings floating beside him each with a different expression, Leo was pouting.

“Papa, I’m sorry, it just slipped my mind—”

“As a result of your careless behavior—”

“Careless and reckless behavior!” Raph interrupted looking at his brother sternly, already aware of what he must have been doing

“The entire celebration was uh—”

“It was ruined!” Piebald interrupted this time, looking very angry “Completely destroyed! It is one thing to miss rehearsals, but my compositions and effort were for naught because of this!”

“The four of us looked like laughing stocks in front of an empty clam” Leo groaned “You even got your own special appearance, and you didn’t even use it!”

“But it wasn’t his fault” Shelldon attempted to cover for Donnie “It’s just uh, we were followed by a shark! Right, and then—”

Splinter didn’t seem to be listening to the little turtle, believing his tale was just falsehood to help his son.

“—and then we were safe, so we went to this human who was all ‘This is this and that is that—'"

“Human?!” Splinter exclaimed and Donnie’s four siblings all looked worried for him suddenly, their anger at Donnie dissolving at what they knew their father’s reaction would be ‘ough boy…’ Leo murmured while Shelldon quickly covered his beak, realizing his mistake.

Shelldon hid behind Donnie who glared at him in exasperation as his father continued “You went up to the surface again didn’t you?” Splinter asked tiredly rubbing his head

Donnie gave him a sheepish grin “Nothing happened.”

Splinter sighed “Purple, how many times must we go through this? That human only knows about us because she made an oath, if she were to betray us, she’d die or she would already have done so, that is the only reason I am not popping a vessel right now, but some of those barbarians could have seen you!”

“They’re not barbarians! How could a barbaric species create such wonderful things?”

“They are dangerous! And they would never accept our kind, they destroy anything they don’t understand, everything that’s different from them!” Splinter yelled before softening for a moment “Do you think I want to see one of my sons snared by some fish eater’s hook?” Splinter asked swimming over to his son who looked down after catching the worry in his father’s eyes.

“I’m twenty years old, I’m not a child anymore, I can take care of myself!” Donnie claimed, recovering some of the fire from before.

“Don’t you speak to your father like that Donatello!” His father took on his stern glare once more “You may be an adult, but I am still your king, and the security of my kingdom, including yours is my responsibility, you WILL obey my rules.”

“But if you just listened—!”

“Not another word!” Splinter turned around, his arms raised above his head “And I am never, never to hear of you going to the surface again, even with that human! Is that clear?!”

Donatello bore holes into his father’s back, his lips wobbling slightly at the promise of being unable to ever see his friend again or understand the nuances of a world he found so intriguing, he craved to understand, to learn, his anger transformed into grief and without answering he swam away as quickly as possible, his siblings and Shelldon watched Donnie go with worry and after a glance at their father they followed behind, leaving the king to his devices.

Splinter sighed leaning against his throne “Perhaps I’ve been too hard on him” He wondered.

The three merturtles and goldfish followed their sibling to where they knew he would be hiding, a cave hidden deep into the reef where he would hide all his treasures from the human world, far from their father’s eyes; they pushed the rock hiding the entrance and all went in except for Piebald.

“You take care of Donnie, I’m going to try to talk to dad,” she said pointing back to the castle, Leo nodded before seeing her go and closing the entrance behind him.

Inside, the cave was brimming with the trove that their purple-coded brother had reunited for years, all organized in a way only Donnie who knew everything about it could understand.

They found their brother resting over a rock at the bottom and playing with the new treasure he’d acquired with Shelldon on his shoulder, Raph spoke “Donnie, are you okay?” he asked nearing him slowly.

Donnie didn’t answer for a moment, nor did he take his eyes away from the fork, his brothers had settled around him by the time he spoke “If only I could make him understand” he said softly “I just don’t see things the way he does, you guys have met April, does she seem anything like a barbarian to you?” Donnie asked looking up into the eyes of his oldest brother.

The three shook their heads in negative, Raph tried to reason something “April is a nice girl, but dad is only looking out for our safety, she’s an exception, not the rule”

Donnie sighed leaning back again “I just don’t see how a world that makes such wonderful things could be bad!” He stated before lifting himself from the rock and showing Mikey the fork “Look at this stuff, isn’t it neat?” He asked and Mikey took the fork in his hands looking at it curiously before poking Leo with it.

“Ouch!” His blue-coded brother glared, snatching the fork from the youngest’s hands.

“You’d think my collection’s complete, it’s so full, just look at this trove!” Donnie said taking back the fork and adding it to a candle holder which instead of candles held a whole set of table-ware, only complete now with the fork “And yet there’s more, so much more out there that I don’t understand, they don’t have magic and yet they’ve progressed so much, they have so many things we wouldn’t be able to make, construct, how do they do it?” Donnie asked no one in particular, just floating around the cave and his brothers followed, looking around at all the curious artifacts and gizmos their brother had reunited.

“So what? You just plan on collecting every single thing they’ve ever made?” Mikey asked curiously “You’ve already got a huge collection of these things!”

“Who cares? In comparison it’s no big deal, I want more” Donnie admitted, shoulders hunched “I—I wanna be where they are, I wanna see them using these artifacts, creating them, look at this” Donnie grabbed a figure of a man and a woman dancing and showed it to Leo who looked at it attentively “Don’t you wanna see how they dance? Without floating in the water, without a tail, with two feet! How do they even lift themselves, and walk on those— things? Why do they cover them up with—uh, what were they called?” Donnie turned to Shelldon questioningly who hummed.

“Boots?” The little turtle asked and Donnie nodded.

“Yes! Boots!” Donnie agreed setting down the figure while Leo mumbled to himself about the boots and the feet ‘don’t those hurt?’

“What’s so special about flipping your fins when they have so many transportation methods that are so much faster? I’ve heard of carriages, pulled by seahorses with four legs! And they go fast, maybe faster than their ships!” Donnie said, Mikey was getting excited and Leo smiled understandingly at his brother, however, Raph seemed more worried now than when he entered the cave.

“What is so bad about wishing to be part of their world?” Donnie asked, “What would I give if only to see that just for one day, I bet they’d understand up there, my curiosity, my need to learn, I have so many questions, so many April alone wouldn’t be able to answer, I just want to see it, to-to be part of that!” He lamented a little softer swimming back down to where his siblings had found him as they too descended slowly, the smiles on the faces of the younger ones fading slightly at Donnie’s disposition.

“Donnie…” Raph began speaking while rubbing his fingers nervously “I know what you’re sayin’, but pops knows many things we don’t know, it’s only much safer for us here” Mikey and Leo looked at each other hesitantly through the eldest’s words, Donnie only sighed and Raph smiled softly at him before guiding him outside “Come, you’ve had a long day, how about we go home and I get you something warm to drink?”

“Donnie had started following Raph reluctantly when the light pouring from the small hole on top of the cave was eclipsed by a shadow “What do you suppose that is?...” He asked softly before leaving Raph’s grasp and swimming out of the cave and towards the surface, Raph calling out to him worriedly.

Donnie’s head emerge from the water, and he was in awe as he saw beams of colorful lights dancing in the sky, coming one after the other and exploding into many little pieces, they were being thrown from a ship which was softly illuminated by them and the moon, Donnie could hear the sounds of people cheering and laughing from its deck.

“Wow” The sight was hypnotizing, he hadn’t seen anything so amazing before, the magic from down below couldn’t compare in his mind, his grin grew and soon two of his brothers were floating beside him, Leo looked amazed, and Mikey was laughing at the show of light.

“Guys? What are you—” Raph, who had just joined them gasped loudly “no way” he mumbled in amazement but right that moment Donnie decided he needed to see that from up close and started making his way fast toward the ship to Raph’s dismay “Donnie! Donnie, please! Come back!” He said making his way toward his brother.

The sound of his brother’s voice was less than background noise to Donnie who was completely entranced by wonder, wanting, no, needing to see the inside of the ship, the people inside, and whatever they were doing.

He found a ledge where he would be able to see through and jumped, holding himself up, tail swishing below him and his eyes were finally greeted by the lights above the ship while his ears were enveloped by the sound of laughter and music.

He was fascinated as he saw a pack of humans all enjoying themselves but what excited him the most was to see how they danced, moving fluidly and happily on their two feet to hold them up, some type of creature, yellow and blue with stripes of red was dancing around them in four feet, making a weird but happy noise, Donnie was excitedly watching this being when it suddenly stopped in its place, smelling something and slowly as it sniffed it made its way to Donnie, the merturtle quickly moved aside from the ledge, breathing fast at the fear of being seen.

After a moment of relaxing his nerves, Donnie turned back, thinking it was surely safe now, but the creature was right in front of him, looking curious, Donnie was shocked at how much it resembled some yokai, but he was derailed from his train of thought when he heard a voice call out his way.

“Mayhem!” You called from deeper in the deck “Here boy!”

The being, who Donnie now knew was called Mayhem, turned back to the deck and happily left the merturtle alone who curiously glanced inside once again, his eyes following the creature who was now running circles around you as you laughed freely, hands reaching out to the pet that jumped into them “Aw come on mutt, what were you doing, huh Mayhem?” You asked with a bright grin which made Donnie stop in his tracks when he saw it.

“Good boy, good boy,” you said looking down endearingly at Mayhem in your arms as it tried to lick your face making Donnie’s stomach twist, he suddenly felt short of breath.

“Quite a show, eh?” Leo asked him, suddenly right at his side, Donnie panicked and shushed his twin quickly.

“Nardo they’ll hear you!” he chided, and his brother chuckled hiding slightly better, Donnie kept looking in but his eyes were now set on you while you took up a flute –is what April told him that thing was— in your hands and started playing around with it.

Leo followed the gaze of his brother who had been oddly silent instead of gushing, once he found what he had been looking at Leo gasped, doing a double take from his brother to the human dancing on deck, it was like a lightbulb had suddenly appeared on top of his head and he bit his lip before speaking “Stunning, isn’t it?”

“She really is” Donnie mumbled before realizing his mistake, he turned quickly to his brother who now had a smug smirk on his face.

“I was talking about the lights,” Leo said with a chuckle, his face being pushed away by his flustered brother as he groaned at him.

It would only make sense, Leo thought sadly, for his unknown craving brother Donnie to want something so far away from his reach, he was just glad Raph hadn’t seen his reaction to the human, the eldest brother and youngest still below in the water.

“Silence, silence!” Casey’s firm no-nonsense voice called out loudly and the rest of the humans quieted down “It is now my honor and privilege to present our esteemed princess Y/N with a very special, very expensive, very large birthday present” Casey said pointing proudly at a giant package with a red bow that had been standing there on the deck for a bit.

Meanwhile, Donnie felt a fluttering feeling all around his chest after hearing your name being called out, it echoed inside his mind while he processed that you were also a princess, he thought, deep inside on the back of his mind, that someone as gorgeous as you couldn’t be anything less than a princess.

“Aw, Casey! You crafty girl, you shouldn’t have” You said patting the back of your right-hand woman in happiness while a smug smile appeared on her face.

“Nonsense! It is a most special thing to celebrate!” she said as one sailor reached out to remove the cloth and reveal the present “Happy birthday Y/N!” Casey exclaimed when a huge statue was revealed showing you holding a heroic pose, a sword right at your side, and one of your legs propped up knightly-like while you looked at the sky.

You winced slightly, it was too much, you couldn’t understand why Casey would have someone depict you in such a…particular pose, it was kind of embarrassing, but you grinned sheepishly at your friend while mayhem barked

“Gee, Casey, it’s…really something,” You said getting a closer look.

“Of course, it is, I understand how much you like it, I commissioned it myself,” Casey said nodding triumphantly “Of course, I had hoped it would be a wedding present” She suggested, her gaze looking away from you, you barked a laugh.

“Oh come on Casey don’t start” You laughed taking a telescope in your hands before making your way over to where the brothers had been hiding, they quickly scrambled out of sight once you reached the edge “Look, you’re not still sore because I didn’t fall for the prince of Glowerhaven, are you?” you asked, turning back with your ever-present grin towards your companion who sighed.

“Oh princess, it isn’t me alone, the entire kingdom wants to see you happily settled down with the right boy.”

“Or girl” you murmured inaudibly, shrugging before going up on the edge of the boat your feet propped up before you “Well he’s out there somewhere I just—”

Leo, from his side of the ledge, looked straight at Donnie, who didn’t look back at him, his eyes lost in space as he listened attentively to your words.

“I just haven’t found him yet” You offered, making a vague gesture with your hand on top of your knee.

“Perhaps you haven’t been looking hard enough” Casey suggested, crossing her arms with a raised eyebrow, you just chuckled once again, looking out into the sea.

“Oh believe me Casey, when I find him, I’ll know” You assured confidently “Without a doubt, it’ll just, bam! Hit me, like lightning.”

The moment you said that Donnie wondered if humans might actually have some control of the mystic arts because immediately thunder struck not far from you.

#rottmnt donatello x reader #rottmnt donnie x reader #rottmnt x reader #rise donnie x reader #donatello x reader #donnie x reader #The little mermaid AU #Donnie TLM AU #rottmnt fanfiction

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chaoticspeedrun · 1 year

Text

Donnie x fem! Reader The little merturtle 2

"You started stirring slightly, your eyes fluttering open while you reached up to hold the scaly hand on your face, Donnie knew he had to leave immediately, he knew he should be back in the water, he couldn’t let you see him! But maybe…he wanted you to see him."

Warnings: Angst with a happy ending, tooth-rotting fluff

PREV • MASTERLIST • NEXT

Curiosity killed the turtle

“Stand fast!” A sailor called out from up on the mast as the rain started to fall and most of the lights on the boat went out “Secure the riggin’!”

You bolted up from the edge of the boat where you were sitting and hurried to help the sailors who rushed about to avoid what the sudden storm could cause.

The next lightning bolt to hit the sky was too close for comfort and the waves grew wilder and more dangerous, you pulled ropes with all the strength you could muster, accumulated from your love of traveling the sea to secure everything.

Leo and Donnie were holding tightly to the ledge on the boat where they had been sitting when Mikey suddenly popped up on it “Woah! The wind’s all of a sudden on the move here! Yo!” he called loudly to his brothers before slipping and falling back on the water next to Raph.

“Donnie! Leo! Come back down here!” Raph called out from the water.

At that moment the boat moved wildly hit by a wave that enveloped it almost fully, making the sailors above lose their footing, you managed to make your way over to the helm and turn the wheel that had been left to turn on its own the other way around, attempting to keep the ship on course.

Donnie and Leo fell back on the sea, reuniting with their two brothers and they all watched as a lightning bolt hit the ship, instantly setting the sails and mast it hit on fire to the dismay of the crew above, unable to direct the ship it hit a huge rock, opening an enormous hole at the base of the boat and kicking most of its crew out of it, they fell into the water as did you with a scream, the statue of yourself submerging rapidly into the waters.

Casey swam along with some of the crew on the surface of the water when you called out for her and helped her up into one of the life-saver boats with some other sailors, you were grateful at seeing your friend safe on the boat when you heard a familiar barking coming from the ship and when you turned you realized Mayhem was still trapped in it and unable to get out due to the flames.

“Mayhem!” You yelled before recklessly, going back into the water and swimming your way back to the ship, climbing the stairs at the side and onto the deck, one of the masts however was unable to stand any longer, burnt and now falling in your direction, it crashed onto the deck, breaking the wood, you managed to avoid it just barely, but the fire made its way to the fireworks still saved down there.

You found your pet and called for Mayhem to come into your arms, it did, being caught by you but as you made your way out of the boat your foot went through one of the weakened planks, making you stumble and Mayhem fell out of your arms and into the water, Mayhem swam to safety but your foot was stuck on the deck, you desperately tried to pull it out but the flames finally engulfed the gunpowder and the boat exploded with you still inside and Casey screaming out your name from below in the small boat.

The four merturtles gasped in terror at the catastrophe but Donnie made his way to the remainders of the ship that were falling into the water, eyes wide with worry and Shelldon left behind with his brothers calling out to him.

Donnie looked around the surface, between the barrels, rope, and pieces of wood floating when finally he found you unconscious and falling off from a piece of wood into the water. He quickly submerged himself, swimming your way and taking you into his arms, pulling you back to the surface.

Donnie made his way to the shore with you in his arms, hoping that you were still alive against everything he’d seen happen.

His brothers, and Shelldon who now laid on Mikey’s shoulder, followed him silently from a little way behind, the shore wasn’t too close but by the time you’d reached it the sun was coming up and the storm was gone.

Green arms and a purple tail pushed themselves along the sand to make sure you wouldn’t be touched by the water if the waves increased, Donnie’s obsidian eyes looking at you and searching, worried that you might be dead, that your little crusade had been as bad as it had seemed from where he’d seen it.

With a hand he reached out to your neck and chest trying to find a pulse, hopefully, humans had the same tell-tale signs as most yokai to make sure they were okay, or he would have no idea what to do.

The merturtle sighed deeply in relief when he found a pulse and saw your chest rise up and down slowly, you were alive and you were breathing! He laughed in relief, running a hand over his face trying to calm down from the stress of the situation a moment ago.

He’d been so worried for a stranger, it wasn’t common for him, the less empathic of his siblings, to care so much about what happened to a stranger and yet he’d been the one of them to jump to your rescue impulsively, and for a human! Oh, he could already hear the enraged voice of his father in his mind, telling him how dangerous humans were.

But looking at you, laying there after what happened…you had worried about everyone on that ship, making sure they were safe before you yourself were, hell, you’d even gone back into an extremely dangerous situation, just to save your pet?! He couldn’t decide if it was just dumb or brave, considering where that had taken you, and yet he admired it, he’d admired your attitude during the situation, your determination.

But one thing he was sure of, you weren’t a monster or a barbarian, how could someone like you be everything his father claimed humans were?

His mind screamed at him that the way you had acted before was endearing, but he tried to keep those thoughts at the back of his mind, untouched, it was ridiculous, he should just leave now that he knew you were safe, Raph was probably in the middle of a panic attack by now.

Except when his hand left his face, and you were once again the sole focus of his stare, his heart trembled in his chest.

You were beautiful, he couldn’t help but compare you to the many yokai he’d seen, even the ones who’d been there to get his or his brother’s attention, there was a wide variation of yokai and merpeople around his life, but never had he been so entranced by someone as he was by you, even Leo had managed to catch onto that and Donnie hadn’t even defended himself to say otherwise, he couldn’t think of a way to deny it at the moment, despite how full of snark and biting retorts he usually was.

How could he? Was it just the craving for the unknown that made you so interesting to him? Your feat of bravery before where you had saved so many people and still gone back for your pet? Your wide-open smile as you danced so beautifully on the deck?

He remembered the twist he felt on his stomach when he’d heard you laugh.

The thoughts on the back of his mind that he was trying so hard to keep there –Because they were ridiculous, because he didn’t know you at all, because he had never been so attracted to someone and it scared him— burst out and he melted, with one hand reaching out to your face, his fingers trailing softly down your cheek.

He was ridiculous, but couldn’t he indulge in that ridiculousness for just a moment? Just a moment to indulge himself in his lifelong fantasies of being on land, and just maybe enjoying that with you, how bad could that be?

“What wouldn’t I give to live up top? Right here in your world” He mumbled wistfully “To learn everything there is to learn, maybe…you’d guide me? You could show me and teach me…”

Vaguely he thought of April, dear April who had a limit on what she could teach him, cursed long ago by his father to limit their interactions though they’d found some loopholes.

“You’re a princess after all, if anyone knows the land, wouldn’t that be you?” He asked thoughtfully “If I could walk, if I could run, if I could spend all day in the sun…would you smile at me?” A tiny smile made its way into his face, Donnie was ignorant of his brothers laying on a couple of rocks and looking at him with extreme surprise.

Mikey had stars in his eyes, finding the situation so romantic! Leo had a smile on his face, but it was weary, and worried, a frown on his brow for he had never seen his twin act like that, and when he did it was with a human? Leo thought sadly –while glancing at his older brother who looked panicky and borderline angry at the interaction— that this could only end in tragedy.

You started stirring slightly, your eyes fluttering open while you reached up to hold the scaly hand on your face, Donnie knew he had to leave immediately, he knew he should be back in the water, he couldn’t let you see him!

But maybe…he wanted you to see him.

And through this war in his head, you opened your eyes, lidded, and looking back at him with the sun on his back stopping you from seeing much more than a silhouette.

“What would I give to know more of your world…of you” the thought slipped his lips as he got lost in your eyes.

The moment didn’t last, Donnie heard Mayhem making his way to where you were, followed closely by Casey who called your name, and finally, his common sense kicked in, quickly he made his way back to the ocean, disappearing under the water before he could be seen by them.

You raised your head enough to see Donnie’s tail disappear into the water when Mayhem reached you and started licking your face, you couldn’t get your eyes off the sea, off the place where he had just disappeared, Casey reached you, a rare smile wide on her face as she saw you, safe.

“Oh, Y/N, you surely delight in the sadistic strain to my blood pressure, don’t you?” she asked, helping you up, you held your head, feeling a throbbing pain make its way quickly onto it.

“A-a guy saved me,” You said, your eyes opening more as you stared out at the sea, ignoring Casey’s words as you tried to put the puzzle pieces together “he…he was talking to me” you claimed, getting out of Casey’s grasp and walking closer to the water, your heart was beating rapidly and you couldn’t tell if it was because of the lack of oxygen you had experienced.

Bam, it hit you, like lightning.

It had been mostly a joke when you’d said so at first, how you would find the right guy, but you knew you would be able to tell, you could just tell “He had the most beautiful voice…” You swooned before your knees started giving out of you from the catastrophe you had just endured.

Casey held you in her arms, chuckling slightly “Ma’am, I think you swallowed a bit too much seawater, off we go” she said, helping you stand with an arm around her shoulders “Come on Mayhem.” She finished guiding you back to the castle and you didn’t say much else, but you couldn’t keep the voice of your savior out of your mind.

Said savior still watched you, along with his brothers from behind one of the rocks on the shore, his heart that had already endured so many twists and turns that day only beating that much harsher at your words, he had been selfish in wanting you to see him, but your reaction to it, to his voice, made him want to scream in joy, his tail making rapid movements under the water, stimming in the overwhelming emotions he was feeling.

“We just gonna forget this whole thing happened, got it?” Raph asked making a closing motion with both arms “Pops will never know! You won’t tell him” He said pointing at Mikey and Leo firmly “I won’t tell him, and nothing ever happened!” He finished confidently before his gaze ended up back on Donnie who wasn’t listening at all with a dreamy expression on his face.

Donnie raised himself up further on the rock, his eyes never leaving your form, his little indulgence had opened the gates for something he couldn’t stop anymore “I don’t know when or how but somehow I’ll find a way to explore the land, to explore the human world” He claimed with a soft grin “Just you wait, one day I’ll be part of your world” he finished softly ignoring the various looks on his brother’s faces, probably even forgetting he wasn’t alone.

His determination had never been greater, it felt so real, so close, so doable even if he didn’t have a method at all, the possibility had never felt this way, like he just had to do it, to finally follow his dreams regardless of what anyone said.

Because how could a world that had raised you be so terrible?

However, none of the turtles noticed the two sets of eyes following them closely, Huginn and Muninn showing their master through their eyes all that had just happened.

Big Mama giggled “Oh no no no no no, I can’t stand it, it’s too easy!” She said thrilled with Draxum smirking beside her “The boy is in love with a human! And not just any human, a princess!” Big Mama laid herself down with a terrible grin on her face “Oh isn’t this just ironic, Lou will just love that.”

Draxum spoke “And his brothers, so loyal, would surely do anything for their dear brother to avoid the terrible fate that you have probably already concocted for him” he hummed, a smirk growing on his face as he made a couple of vines bring him some glass bottles, glowing in a scary fuchsia and green “Like let’s say, their freedom?”

A couple of days later, Leo, Mikey, and Raph were hanging around their living room, Mikey playing around with some seashells, trying to find a way to stick them together, Leo staring at himself in the mirror and Raph looking at a curtain of seaweed.

“Donnie! Come out, you’ve been there all morning” Raph called out at the curtain, sure already that his brother had probably not slept much, as usual.

Donnie emerged from the curtains humming softly, no groans, no smart retorts, no frown on his forehead.

Raph would have worried way less if he had done any of those things.

Leo and Mikey looked at each other knowingly when Donnie just took a flower from a rock and started playing with its petals, not in the way he’d normally examine and study his plants, just, gazing at it and floating away.

Donnie bumped into their father then “Oh whoops, morning pops” he said jovially before leaving them all behind, the flower in his hand suddenly forgotten and floating right there as he left the room, humming once again.

“Oh, he’s got it bad” Leo chuckled.

Splinter looked at his son questioningly “What? What does purple got?” He asked, Leo’s eyes widened, and his grin was tense as he realized what he had just done.

He was about to change the subject when Mikey, bless his heart, who hadn’t noticed Raph making panicky attempts behind their dad for him to shut up spoke “Oh isn’t it obvious dad? Donnie’s in love!” Mikey said happily to the dismay of his brothers.

“Purple? In love?” Splinter grinned wide, believing that out of his sons, the one colored purple would be the last of them to ever experience such a feeling, Splinter could already hear wedding bells!

Raph and Leo glared at Mikey as their dad left and they quickly made their way to Donnie who was resting on a rock by the reef, deep in thought as he looked up, ideas running through his mind.

“Donnie—” Raph called out only to be interrupted by Donnie who was now sitting straight and looking at his brother with a grin.

“I have to see her again, tonight!” He stated with a firm nod like it was just a clear fact “April knows where the castle is, she can tell me if there’s a water source nearby.”

“Donnie!” Raph called exasperated while his brother swam around still speaking of plans.

“I mean of course I need to know more about her, it would be stupid to expect anything to flourish from two people who don’t know one another, it’s imperative that we meet multiple times for a crush to develop into something more solid.” Donnie nodded, continuing his rant to himself.

“Will you get your head out of the clouds and back in the water where it belongs?” Raph asked putting a hand on Donnie’s shoulder.

And still, Donnie wasn’t listening “I’ll swim up to the castle, then Shelldon will splash around to get her attention, or maybe he can walk over to her, though it would take much longer, but it’d be a softer approach, and then we’ll go—”

“Down here is your home!” Raph groaned angrily, placing himself in front of Donnie to finally stop him “Donnie listen to me, the human world is a mess! Life under the sea is better than anything they have up top.”

Mikey and Leo pulled Donnie to sit back on the rock while their elder brother tried to make a point.

“Goin’ up there would just be a big mistake, just look around you, Donnie! Isn’t the hidden city already interesting enough? Life for yokai up there is unheard of, they chase us, they kill us, the world up there is dry and boring, magicless and strict” Raphael attempted the convincing, Donnie rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, looking at his brother like he wanted to say something “They work all day up there, under the sun just slaving themselves while we have every resource we need to just chill all day”

“Maybe I don’t want to just ‘chill’ all day” Donnie grumbled under his breath.

“Life is sweet here, full of variety while the humans can’t understand anything but themselves.”

As his brother kept up his lecture, Mikey nudged Leo’s side and though he was apprehensive Leo eventually nodded, unwilling to listen to more of Raph’s lecture, they both whispered at Donnie to follow them and the three left quietly without the eldest noticing.

“You see Donnie? You already have so many things you love down here! The balls held at the castle and the botanic garden under the—” When Raph turned around, he noticed there was no one listening there anymore and he sighed “somebody’s gotta nail his tail to the ground” he grunted”

“Your Highness! Your Highness!” A little seahorse called out to Raph.

“Woah, hey, what’s up buddy?” he asked while the seahorse recovered from his hurry.

“I’ve been looking all over for you, I’ve got an urgent message from the king, he wants to see you right away! Something about Donatello” The seahorse scrambled away once again leaving Raph gasping loudly.

“He knows” Raph lamented in panic.

At the castle, King Splinter looked at the flower his son had left behind, chuckling while he thought “Let’s see now, who could the lucky yokai be to have gotten the attention of my son with the highest standards of all?” He hummed “Hmm it has to be someone of high class of course” Splinter nodded wisely before noticing Raphael at the entrance of the throne room.

“My son! Come here, come” He signaled and the merturtle made his way over to the king, slowly and fumbling with his fingers.

“Okay Raph, ya can’t overreact, stay calm man” He whispered to himself, directing a big unnatural grin to his father “Heeeey pops! How’s it going?”

Splinter was thankfully too distracted to notice and continued “Yes, Red, I’m concerned about Purple, like you boys saw in the morning, daydreaming, humming to himself, and I am sure you boys know the person in question for this attitude of his, hmm?”

“Oh, well, I—”

“Raphael…” Splinter dragged “I know you boys are trying to keep it from me, it is okay my son, what you are hiding about your brother, you can tell me can’t you?”

What to Splinter was reassurance in case they were worried about his reaction to the love interest –maybe it was a merman instead of a mermaid? He wouldn’t judge his son for that— to Raph sounded like he was being coerced into telling the truth of what he already knows, and Raphael was a bad liar, he folded.

“Raph tried to stop him pops! But he wouldn’t listen, even when Raph told him humans were dangerous, they are bad, they’re trouble! You’ve told me stories so many times, but Donnie, he is just so smitten—”

“Humans?” Splinter raised his voice face directly in front of his son “What about humans?!”

And Raph realized he’d messed up badly.

The three other merturtles were making their way to the cave Donnie had made his sanctuary, Mikey and Leo stopping at the entrance dramatically.

“So, what is this? GASP, no, did you guys rearrange my treasures again?” Donnie groaned trying to swim past them, but Mikey blocked him.

“Now Donald, why would we do that?” He asked innocently and Leo snorted.

“Yeah, why would we do that after going almost deaf the last time? How ungrateful” Leo said rubbing the slit where his hearing canal was.

“Then what is this all about?” Donnie asked, arms crossed.

“Well,” Mikey dragged out “we got you a little something, just, close your eyes?”

Donnie sighed but reluctantly complied, trying to peak slightly but being covered by Mikey’s hand as he guided him inside the cave, the sound of the rock sliding back closed behind him was heard before Mikey finally let go.

“Okay, open them!”

Donnie complied and his eyes went immediately wide with surprise, right in front of him, illuminated delicately by the beam of light entering the cave from above was your statue, the statue left behind from the wreckage of the ship that night, It was almost true to size and he relished in how beautifully it presented you, heroic and determined like you had been that night, though it lacked your smile.

“Ta-dah!” Shelldon said swimming around the figure of the statue “Isn’t this cool dude?”

“You guys did this?” Donnie asked in surprise, turning to his orange-coded brother who chuckled before responding.

“Well, I did have the idea to bring it here, but Leo’s the one who found it, oh and Shelldon supervised” Mikey nudged the blue-coded one who rubbed the back of his neck while Shelldon nodded.

“Yeah well, even though I don’t want to, ya know, indulge this impossible romance—yeouch!” Leo rubbed his arm where Mikey had just hit him before rolling his eyes and smirking lazily at his purple brother “Okay fine, I went looking for it, happy?” he directed the last part at Mikey “I thought you’d probably like to have something from her.”

Donnie grinned wide at his two brothers, hesitating for a second, not knowing what to say and surprised that they would have done something like this, especially Leo whom he’d expected to just be downright teasing about the whole thing.

Which, he hadn’t been, at all, it had been a couple of days after the shipwreck and not a chirp had come out of Leo in the meantime, Donnie found it weird but was grateful for the temporary peace, so he returned the favor not saying anything and just turned back to the statue.

“It looks just like her, it even has her eyes” Donnie smiled, committing every detail of the statue to memory “Of course, a statue made out of rock can’t be perfect but the artist definitely knew what they were doing, her beauty was well captured” he was chuckling slightly, turning around to look at his brothers when he caught sight of who was behind them, he gasped in horror at the sight of his father, right there in his secret treasure cove “Papa?”

Splinter looked angry, angrier than he’d ever seen and Donnie wanted to curl into himself at the sight, Shelldon did hide behind your statue and Donnie briefly noticed that Raph was right behind his father “I consider myself to be a reasonable yokai” Splinter spoke in a low and dangerous tone, the voice was sending chills through Donnie’s shell and he unconsciously swam back a bit “I set certain rules and I expect those rules to be obeyed” Before Donnie could even mutter an answer Splinter continued “Is it true you rescued a human from drowning?” “I had to—!”

“Contact between the human world and the mer-world is strictly forbidden! Donatello, you know that! Everyone knows that!”

“She would have died!” Donnie cried out.

“One less human to worry about!” Splinter spat.

“You don’t even know her! How can you make yourself the judge and executioner of a whole entire race?!” Donnie said exasperated, tears welling in his eyes.

“I don’t need to know her! Spineless, savage, harpooning yokai eaters, if they can judge lives so different from theirs why can’t I do the same? I at least know more about them than they know of us!” Splinter spoke loudly, waving his trident around.

“How would you?!” Donnie yelled.

“Because I was human once!” Splinter yelled out, the sound of gasps resounding through the cave as the four brothers looked at their father with eyes open wide.

“W-what?” Donnie had heard the rumor, hell the whole castle had heard it, but it was the dumbest thing he and his brothers had ever heard, or that’s what he had thought his whole life.

Splinter sighed, running a hand through his fur before speaking again “Long ago I was an important figure in the human world, I had everything until I was tricked by someone I loved” Splinter frowned deeply “I was used as a source of entertainment for humans, surrounded by only violence, but even then I didn’t hate them, it wasn’t until I was turned into this, trying to save four lives from a mad-man where I realized who was truly on my side.” Splinter signaled to them, making it clear who those four lives were. “The moment I took this appearance everyone I thought I could trust turned their back on me, worse than that, they chased me, tried to capture me calling me a monster, the humans who knew about the yokai hidden in the sea made weapons and ways to get rid of them however possible, their whole race, celebrating those who would show up with the skin of a yokai as a hero” Mikey looked like he was about to throw up, Donnie looked horrified and Splinter softened “Everything I’ve done is only to protect you from them, that human you saved may have been grateful the moment she breathed, but once she realizes who saved her she won’t look at you as a hero but a monster.”

Splinter tried to reach out for Donnie, but Donnie shook his head violently, unwilling to believe that was true “But I love her!” His words stumbled out and the moment they did Donnie blanched while his brothers gasped loudly or looked at him scared.

Splinter looked enraged once again “Is that true? Is that truly whom you were sighing for?” He asked disbelievingly “Have you lost your mind?! She’s a human! You’re a Merturtle!”

“I don’t care” Donnie managed to say, his head hanging low but his frown firm.

“So help me, Donatello! I am going to get through to you” The king raised his trident up, the weapon shining brightly as he wielded it “And if this is the only way, so be it” The trident’s light engulfed the cave and was pointed straight to a globe which shattered in pieces, hit by its power.

“NO!” Donnie screamed at his father; Mikey rushed over to his side to hold him while the tears finally spilled from Donnie’s eyes.

Splinter pointed his trident the other way, hitting more of Donnie’s treasures, accumulated from ages since he was but a child, they blew up in little pieces, others melting in their place, losing their form completely, Leo rushed over to his father with wild worried eyes.

“Dad, stop! You know you’ll regret it later!” He tried calling but his father didn’t speak, hitting with bolts more of the treasures, Raph looked terrified at the destruction and Donnie kept calling out for him to stop.

Donnie got out of Mikey’s grasp and reached his father, trying to stop his arms as they pointed the trident over to the statue of you “Dad, please! Don’t!”

The bolt hit its mark directly and it crumbled from the inside, the whole of it in dust, tiny crumbly pieces devoid of form or sense falling through the cove.

It felt like all his hopes and dreams had just been shattered right before him, it almost was so in a sense, everything Donnie had ever longed for and the idea of you in the first place, gone in only an instant, he crumbled to the floor of the cove, his palms covering his eyes tightly as a sob wracked its way through his throat.

His brothers floated there uselessly, looking at the wreck that was made of their brother and avoiding their father’s eyes as he made his way out of the cove, not without turning back to look at his son once before leaving.

It sometimes bothered Splinter how on mark Leonardo usually was, he thought as regret started filling his body, but he continued, thinking the harshness would at least keep his family safe.

Raph felt the worst of all, nearing Donnie slowly to apologize “Donnie, I—”

“Just go away” Donnie gritted through his teeth “go away goawaygoaway” he rushed his words out angrily, his face still deep into the palms of his hands, Donnie knew the moment he looked up he would tear out his frustrations on his older brother, screaming, thrashing violently, and why wouldn’t he? It had been Raph’s fault in the first place that his father had found out at all, Donnie thought bitterly.

Raph winced visibly and lowered his arm from reaching out to his brother, he glanced up at the other two, who looked conflicted but knew better than to overwhelm Donnie with their presence at that moment, they followed Raph, who looked defeated, out of the place, leaving Donnie to process his feelings himself.

Shelldon though, stayed behind, close to the cove for when Donnie was ready to come out.

Donnie wasn’t as alone as he’d thought he was though, two pairs of eyes staring intently at his form, knowing that this was the chance they had been waiting for.

#rise donnie x reader #rottmnt donnie x reader #rottmnt x reader #rottmnt fanfiction #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise! donnie #rottmnt donatello x reader #donatello x reader #donnie x reader #The little mermaid AU #Donnie TLM AU

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chaoticspeedrun · 1 year

Text

Art for chapter 4 of The little merturtle!

As you see, I wanted to draw him looking out the window but gave up, also, DRAWING LEO AS A TURTLE AND TRYING NOT TO MAKE HIM LOOK LIKE A BABY IS HARD

#My art #timelapse #rottmnt x reader #rottmnt fanfiction #rottmnt donnie x reader #rise donnie x reader #rottmnt donatello x reader #Donnie TLM AU

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chaoticspeedrun · 1 year

Text

Donnie x fem! Reader The little merturtle 5 FINAL

"Donnie’s chest physically hurt and his hand was grabbing onto his shirt tightly, he felt like clawing at his chest for the pain to stop."

Warnings: Angst with a happy ending, tooth-rotting fluff

PREV • MASTERLIST

Shipwrecked wedding

“Good work” Draxum said in a low voice from down under the sea, while he and Big Mama looked at how things were turning out from Huginn and Muninn’s perspective.

“Oh, that boy is much better than I thought” Big Mama groaned before stopping to ponder “Though maybe he wouldn’t have gotten that far if that slimy one of his brothers hadn’t managed to turn them all so they could follow him, then again in the end it’s better that they did.”

“It was a little too close for us to keep laying about like this” Draxum grunted “The purple one is crafty, at this rate he’ll be getting what he needs before the time is due”

“Well, it is time Big Mama took matters into her own tentacles” At this, her form changed from her unassuming mermaid appearance to that of a gigantic half-spider, half-cecaelia yokai, the creatures at the entrance of the cave seemed to wither away, but Draxum remained stoic while she hummed and reached for a necklace on her chest, the very same that now held the powers of the turtles and Donnie’s voice.

“With the purpley one belonging to us the others will have no choice but to follow for their dear brother and Lou will fall alongside them, I’ll make him writhe” The sinister smirk on Big Mama’s face grew “And I know just the yokai for this job…”

You were looking far away into the horizon from the terrace of your room, thinking deeply about what had happened today.

You knew there was more to the relationship you had developed with Donnie in a month than the instant of strong infatuation you experienced with your savior; words Casey had said after one of your outings with Donnie, when she’d caught sight of the grin that hadn’t left your cheeks all day, reverberated in your mind.

“Far better than any dream man is one of flesh and blood” She’d said in a strangely wisdom-filled voice you rarely heard her use, it left rapidly though “He’s exhausting and picky though, I don’t know why you enjoy spending time with him so much” She huffed before leaving the room.

You chuckled slightly at that, remembering how in denial you had been about your growing feelings for the caramel-skinned man, that wasn’t fair to him of course, not when you thought back on your interactions and realized, his feelings for you were so evident they were almost tangible.

Donnie went out of his way to tease or laugh at your misfortunes, but the easy manner in which he did was playful and you could hold no grudge like you didn’t do the same to him; plus the soft smile on his face whenever he thought you weren’t looking when you know he barely did any more than grimace at everyone else or deadpan when he thought something was dumb made it hard for you to ignore how you knew he felt around you.

You looked up from your spot out there at the terrace and towards the balcony window of the tower that you had made his residence, his room for as long as he’d want it to be so; and there he was, you caught a glimpse of him, still learning how to do his voluminous hair all by himself, an arduous task but one he seemed to feel very accomplished about.

It made you smile, why were you wasting your time thinking about a man you might never see again when Donnie was right there?

So, you had to let go of that fairytale, once and for all.

Your face turned back to the sea for a moment before you turned around in the direction of Donnie’s room, determined to talk to him about it all, feeling you had made him wait long enough.

The moment you started walking away though, you heard a deep humming in the distance that sent shivers down your spine, your eyes widened immediately and your breath hitched under the recognition of the voice.

You hadn’t been able to get that voice out of your head yet.

Your mind scrambled and you hurried back to where you had been looking over the sea, leaning down as far as you could to find the sight you had been yearning for since the shipwreck.

Walking down the beach and in your direction was a figure dressed in purple, if you hadn’t just seen Donnie a moment ago at his window you would have believed from what you could make out of that silhouette that it was him.

You squinted your eyes, trying to make out the appearance of the person you were looking at, even though you could tell immediately from the voice that it was precisely the person you had been waiting for before today.

You managed to make out a small light on their chest, it seemed to grow stronger the louder the voice of this person became and through the fog you blinked as you seemed to have imagined that the light traveled through the fog and towards you.

You opened your eyes again, but your thoughts seemed to be dispersed, you could only think about the beautiful voice of the man who’d saved you.

Donnie woke up that morning unlike any other morning, he wasn’t grumbling and trying to hide himself further into the blankets, nor was he sleepily trying to prepare himself mentally before getting out of his cocoon, or pushing Leonardo’s insistent feet out of his face, no.

The sun streamed from the windows; the curtains wide open from his forgetting to close them the night before and Donnie awoke slowly with a smile on his face, he rubbed his eyes with a yawn before raising slowly, stretching his arms with a dumb grin still adorning his features.

Trying to avoid hitting Leo on the pillow beside him he got up from the bed lazily, wandering over to the window to rest himself against it and look out into the glittering sea with a deep sigh.

His mind kept replaying the events of last night and the more awake he felt the more his grin grew, he hadn’t noticed his legs wiggling underneath him in excitement at the thought of you or Leo finally waking up and laying close to him at the window.

You liked him, you definitely liked him, he couldn’t be reading that wrong, because he knew that last night you had been just about to kiss him and recapping the whole month he could now look back and think of little things you’d done that he had been, in Leo’s words, too dense to notice as proof of your growing attraction to him.

He was in the clouds.

And because he was, he hadn’t noticed Raph yelling at him from far below the tower.

Finally, having been called to attention by Leo almost biting his finger off, Donnie glared and woke up from his daydreams now in his usual mood when he noticed Raph had managed to reach your terrace and was talking to him from way over there.

“Donnie! Congratulations! You did it” Raph seemed to be tearing up and Donnie couldn’t understand why “Raph’s so proud of you little guy!”

“What are YOU TALKING ABOUT?” Leo yelled, trying to make his voice louder so Raph would hear, the eldest just chuckled at him.

“Oh, shut up Leo, you just want to show off that you knew first,” Raph said

“He didn’t do anything except go on and on about her highness last night!” Leo yelled with Raph looking weird at him.

“He can’t talk!”

“Well, he would have if he could!” Leo huffed; Raph just shook his head.

“Mikey and I heard close to town, everyone’s all excited about the princess finding her one true love, they’re saying something about her finally getting married soon!”

Donnie’s eyes were the biggest they had ever been in his life and his heart was hammering against his chest, if he had thought last night was a dream then he had entered a coma now, his expression went back to giddy, and then utterly elated while his hands were flapping right beside him, any doubt he may have had left was evaporated at the implications of Raph’s words.

You loved him, you really did love him, so much so your subjects were already thinking of wedding bells, he wondered who you had talked to that the rumor had reached town so soon but it didn’t matter, you loved him and he had to see you right this moment.

Donnie couldn’t even hear Leo calling out to him, he rushed to the closest mirror and fixed his bedhead slightly before hurrying out the door with his pajamas still on, he barely managed to process Leo hanging onto his clothes for dear life as his feet made their way down the hall and stairs as fast as he could go.

The moment he reached the first flight of stairs and looked down at the reception hall his feet faltered, making him stumble, but Donnie managed to catch himself, the sight in front of him though had his elated smile falling off his face faster than when his dad had found his secret cove.

You were right there in front of Casey, but what made his mind reel with a mountain of questions was the man you were holding so tightly onto.

Donnie quickly hid behind a wall, his eyes running through the scene once, twice, every detail of the picture getting burned into his mind.

You looked beautiful, he had never seen you wearing such formal clothing, you preferred to dress casually most of the time, which made the importance of the situation even clearer, and you had that look on your face, that fierce determination he had fallen for at the very beginning and that was suddenly making his stomach churn with anxiousness.

The man at your side was familiar to him, but Donnie couldn’t pinpoint how or if he had ever seen him around the castle, he was dressed in an attire resembling yours in formality, almost princely in fact, his locks of hair like his own but much shorter and obviously stylized by a professional. He looked calm, confident, almost smug even, and looked down at you who held so dearly onto his arm with a charming smile.

Donnie barely processed the fact that his breathing had quickened, he almost missed Casey’s voice as she started talking.

“Well Y/N, it appears I was mistaken,” Casey said, her voice as firm as always but seeming to hold onto a sort of confusion while the woman bowed to the other two “The mystery man of yours does, in fact, exist, I must thank you for rescuing our dear princess”

The other man chuckled, and Donnie instinctively reached out towards his own throat at the familiar timbre “Not at all, such a stunning vision as she is I believe it is I who was rescued by her deep eyes.” He said looking at you and placing one of his hands over your own still holding dearly onto him.

Holding so dearly, why were you holding onto him like that?

“Well, I must still say, congratulations to the both of you for finding each other” Donnie barely noticed but Leo saw Casey’s eyes stray momentarily in the direction of where Donnie and he were hiding.

Finally, you spoke “Danny and I wish to be married as soon as possible,” You said with that confident tone of yours.

And then the shattered pieces of Donnie’s heart were laying there on the floor, scattered everywhere almost to dust, he shook his head disbelievingly, but Casey continued.

“Yes of course your highness, I shall start the preparations” Before Casey could continue you interrupted, stepping into some of the pieces of Donnie’s heart.

“By Saturday Casey” You stated in a tone of no negotiation, that was in three days, right before the end of the spell “The ship will depart at sunset.”

Donnie wasn’t looking anymore, his back to the wall as he hyperventilated, barely hearing Casey’s response about getting everything done in time, Donnie’s chest physically hurt and his hand was grabbing onto his shirt tightly, he felt like clawing at his chest for the pain to stop.

Between Leo trying to grab his attention and the insistent ringing in his ears, Donnie ran away back towards his room, barely conscious of what he was doing as his body looked for a safe place.

It was hard to see where he was going with his eyes scrunched up like that and full of tears and even though he still managed to get out of there without being seen by you Danny caught sight of his figure, his smirk growing as he pulled you closer to his side, the necklace hanging from his neck glowing gently under the sunlight.

“Donnie, listen to me” Leo called out as Donnie slammed the door to his room closed, still breathing harshly “Donnie, think of your surroundings, what do you feel under your feet?”

He could feel the rug at the entrance of the room, he usually liked the sensation, unlike the other rugs around this one was soft, and he rubbed his toes on it.

Leo gave a couple of instructions to Donnie and slowly, he calmed down before laying his back against the closed door and sliding down to the floor, Leo quietened down.

Donnie rubbed his hand against his face, rubbing his eyes, wanting the feeling of the tears left to go away, his expression was angry and his eyes blotched and although for a moment he had just wanted to hit something and tear his chest open right now he felt empty, very empty.

If you loved him, you wouldn’t be rushing to get married to another man, he thought still glaring at the ground, the burning at the corner of his eyes returned, but he made no move to stop the incoming tears, just letting them fall down as he processed the whole situation.

Leo wanted to comfort his brother, tell him how suspicious this man was, tell him his voice was too much like Donnie’s for it to be a coincidence, that he looked too much like him, there were so many things on Leo’s mind about Big Mama and Draxum but he couldn’t bring any of those things up, not when his brother looked so devastated.

So, he sat there quietly, accompanying Donnie.

Three days was a much shorter amount of time than he’d ever thought it was.

After Donnie had gotten better Leo managed to convince him to talk to you, and though Donnie first refused strongly a part of him too hoped for an answer.

An answer he didn’t get because even though Donnie had managed to get all his courage to talk to you, he never managed to catch you, he wondered if you were avoiding him, and though it discouraged him to think so, seeing him with that man constantly only made his fury grow especially because Donnie knew he never got to tell you who he was, what he was, where he came from.

And that also left a bitter feeling in his chest that he tried to ignore because the man you were with wasn’t some idiot who you had to teach horse riding to or what a streetlamp was, he wasn’t constantly asking you about the most simple things.

Danny could speak to you without having to sign or write what he was thinking, he could be more useful to you in your royal tasks than Donnie could, barely even knowing the basics of human customs.

Worse yet, Danny was human, and Donnie was a mix of a turtle and a fish with three big fingers that wouldn’t comfortably rest with your five delicate ones and a tail that would never allow him to dance with you again.

Through discussions with Leo and a few talks he had at the beach with the rest of his brothers Donnie had managed to mostly keep on going, but he would be lying if he said his hopes weren’t already crushed; at night, his insomnia got worse than ever and he wished at times that he had remained under the sea like everyone had asked him to his whole life, maybe they were right, maybe his dad was right.

He thought all of this with a wrath that blocked the rest of his thoughts, if he’d never gone to the surface or learned so much about the human world, he wouldn’t be like this now.

He wanted to regret learning to dance with a pair of feet, or learning about blacksmithing and the various ways metal could be manipulated.

He wanted to regret learning about the different variations of flora in the human world and about all the engineering books that he poured hours in the library into.

He wanted to regret getting to know you and loving you.

He couldn’t regret it, and he couldn’t stop loving you.

So once again, with puffy eyes he wished he could hide, Donnie stood near the ship where you would be wed, arms crossed just staring at the boat and since he refused to get in the ship, he was now condemned to watch it slowly leave the harbor.

The further away the ship got the more it cemented in that this was it, it was over, you were marrying someone else and any moment now he would go back to being a merturtle, unable to even see you again.

He didn’t cry, he’d wasted enough tears, so he waited, just wanting to go home.

Donnie was lost in thought enough he didn’t see Leo get in the ship before it left nor did he see Raph and Mikey following in the water.

“Psst, Leo” Leo perked up at the sound of April’s voice calling him, he looked up to his friend with a smile before the smile fell at seeing her covering her mouth to stop from laughing.

“Yeah, yeah, just get it over with” Leo grumbled while April tried to calm herself down.

“Wooh, sorry, sorry, when Raph and Mikey found me and told me the whole situation, I didn’t actually expect you to be so small!” She said carefully picking him up in her hands and straying away from the eyes of the people invited to the party.

“Look, you can laugh all you want later, but we need to find this guy Danny, something is wrong about this whole situation,” Leo said looking around, April hummed.

“Um, Leo, are you sure about this? I don’t know, the princess seems to really love this guy” She said in a quiet voice, though she wanted Donnie to be happy and her heart had broken once she learned everything that had been happening to her friend she didn’t want to give them any false hopes, April had always been realistic with her expectations.

Leo sighed “That’s what’s weird, April, this guy pops out of nowhere one day and that same day she decides to marry him? She was about to kiss Donnie the day before that and call me a romantic but I don’t think she’s the type to jump directly into the next guy’s arms” He shook his head “No, April, something is wrong, this guy is extremely suspicious and his voice tells me it has something to do with Big Mama and Draxum.”

April looked at him curiously “His voice?”

The moment she asked that they heard laughter coming from one of the cabins, Leo shushed her and told her to go there, that was it, that was the cabin where the groom was getting married.

The both of them reached a window and peeked inside, there stood Danny and immediately April could understand Leo’s reasoning, red flags popping in her mind at the voice that was exactly the same as her best friend’s.

“Things are working out perfectly, mom” He called snickering while fixing one of his eyebrows in the mirror, his reflection though, was different from his physical appearance, Leo saw through the mirror a big rat yokai instead “The sun is setting, and that little stupid prince is so heartbroken he didn’t even get in to see the show!” Danny laughed while a shadow got closer to April and Leo’s view.

Leo looked pissed off as he realized whom that shadow belonged to, now wearing a new pair of legs right in front of him was Big Mama.

“Oh the poor turtley-boo, I can’t believe he’s missing it, but oh well, the show must go on, mustn’t it deary?” She said in faux sympathy before grinning “and while we accomplish this menial task, Draxum is down there getting me my crown, oh this is turning out even better than we thought, imagine, already having the sea, once you marry the princess the yokai can keep the land for themselves.”

“Just as you always wished Big Mama” Danny said bowing slightly.

“We have to get out of here, now!” Leo yelled and April ran away “We gotta tell Donnie! This is all a lie fabricated by Big Mama, he needs to get that kiss, or who knows what’ll happen! You stay and stall the wedding!” April nodded immediately, they got close to the border and April peeked out, finding Mikey in the water she threw Leo in, his brother carrying him back up to the surface.

The three brothers hurriedly made their way toward Donnie as Leo explained what was happening.

Thankfully the ship hadn’t gotten far yet “Donnie!” Leo called out once he was close enough, Donnie lifted his gaze and gave him a blank glare “Donnie, we went on the ship, Danny is not a human! He is a yokai sent by Big Mama, it’s all a trap! He has your voice!”

Leo’s hurried explanation finally made it into Donnie’s thought process and he looked at his other two brothers for confirmation, watching them both nod quickly was everything Donnie needed to look around in search of anything that could get him there in time.

There was a rowboat close, and Donnie immediately jumped on it, untying the rope and keeping it in place as Leo got inside and Raph went behind the boat on the water.

“Mikey!” Raph called the youngest “You need to go to dad, tell him what’s going on, now! Before Baron Draxum gets to him” Mikey nodded rapidly before submerging and swimming as fast as he could toward the castle.

Donnie took the rows and started going as fast as he could while Raph helped push the boat, Big Mama’s voice telling him he had a month to get the kiss kept playing in his mind while he saw the sun getting closer to the line of the sea.

Back in the boat, Danny was already waiting for his bride at the altar ignoring Mayhem who seemed to be glaring and barking at him from where the public stood; meanwhile, April was whispering into Sunita’s ears, the woman nodded and took one of the trays into her hands, starting to walk close to the man with the various pastries swaying precariously in it.

At that same moment, the bride was walking down the aisle in her white and long flowing wedding dress, finally reaching the groom who took her hand in his, they both stood before the master of ceremonies who started his speech.

Before much else could happen, Sunita screamed, her feet stumbling suspiciously on something and the tray with pastries flying from her hands over to Danny, falling directly on him and covering his wedding suit completely in sugar and cream.

Danny’s expression was absolutely furious and he glared at Sunita who made a show of gasping in panic “Oh dear! I am so sorry, how clumsy of me! I should have been more careful, and your suit is ruined, how can this be?” While Sunita kept rambling April reached down to help her.

“Oh, this is terrible!” April said “You can’t get married in this! Quick! We need to fix your suit, we must clean it, but it may not be salvageable…” Danny wanted to yell at the girls, but you didn’t react much, your expression dull.

Donnie was finally close enough and with agility, he reached the stairs at the side of the ship, a determined glare set on his features while he started going up as fast as he could.

The ship succumbed to chaos, Danny finally yelling at the girls and telling the master to continue the ceremony, but April was determined and she pulled on his suit “You can’t! Not like this! And your necklace is so out of place!” She pulled on the necklace and Danny pulled back with a vengeance.

“Let it go you trashy little-!” The necklace snapped from the chain and flew through the air just as Donnie jumped inside the ship, it crashed on the floor and broke into pieces, the glow leaving and rushing directly onto him.

Donnie gasped, loudly this time, like he had finally recovered his breath, realizing what had happened after a burst of shock he let out a relieved laugh, his eyebrows scrunched up together with a small smile forming on his face.

The breaking of the necklace and the sound of a desperate laugh seemed to wake you up from the trance you had been in for almost four days, your head was throbbing with a horrible headache, and you reached up to hold it reflexively, but once you processed your surroundings your eyes went directly to Donnie, your Donnie who’s laughter you could hear.

You called out to him confused “Donnie?”

“Y/N,” he said making you startled at how your name sounded with his voice, filled with so much relief, you started walking your way and though he looked nervous his smile was still in place, eyes never straying from you.

“You can talk?” You asked with wonder while he nodded, you walked faster to the end of the aisle and sighed after taking his hands on yours, one part of you screamed that you had been right, it had been him all along that you were looking for, it was his voice, of course it was his voice, who else could it ever be for you other than Donnie?

And yet another part of you remembered bits and pieces only of what had happened the last couple of days, one of these things you couldn’t get out of your mind was Donnie’s heartbroken expression, and through the confusion of whatever was going on right now you felt the need to reassure him somehow, so you squeezed his hands with yours, he seemed like he was breathing better.

“Y/N, get away from him!” Danny called out, but his nasal voice replaced the one he had been using before and he immediately covered his mouth after that, no longer having any control over you.

With a triumphant grin sent the way of his doppelganger Donnie turned back to you, holding your hands up with his as he looked directly into your eyes “I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know how to explain it so—”

In wanting to explain what happened, Donnie had forgotten about the time crunch he was in, and the other reason why he hadn’t just told you sooner, a sharp pain ran through his chest, and he grunted, falling to his knees and making you panic, wild with worry you leaned close to him, calling his name.

The sun was set and there was a collective gasp from the public as Donnie breathed rapidly, not failing to realize with horror that his skin was changing in texture, scales forming back and slowly turning from brown to a deep green hue.

“You are too late,” Big Mama said appearing from one of the cabins with a scary grin on her face while Donnie tried to cover his from your sight, his bandana which had disappeared hanging loosely from his face and with his now three-fingered hands he tried to hide behind it.

The screams from the crowd were loud as Big Mama turned to her big spidery form, even bigger than she normally was “You really should read the things you sign with more patience, nobody leaves the important bits at the beginning of the contract” She said with a sinister tone.

“Donnie?” You leaned down reaching for his arm but Donnie pulled away from you in panic, you managed to catch his eye, wide open under his fingers and bandana, trying to get away from you, you could barely breathe “Donnie please” you begged hoping he’d talk to you, explain what was happening, how could you help him if you didn’t understand what was going on?

Your mind kept telling you about the tail you saw back at the beach after being saved, it had been magenta with undertones of violet, you thought yourself crazy, that you must have imagined it, but it was right there in front of you, part of the man you knew had been there that day.

The same man who was trying to hide his tail behind himself.

“I’m sorry” He blabbered, trying to get closer to the edge of the ship “I lied, I lied I lied and I should have told you but I wasn’t, you don’t, you don’t deserve this and if I had just stayed human you wouldn’t have had to, I—”

Donnie was on the verge of a panic attack, everything was ruined, even if he had avoided your wedding everything was already crashing down around him and though you were still confused you couldn’t let him spiral like that, your hands lingered in the air close to him but you made no move to touch him when you didn’t know if he’d be okay with it.

“Donnie, darling, listen to me please, focus on my voice,” You said stopping his rambling “Donnie, love, it’s okay, you’re okay, tell me what to do,” you said and he finally managed to see your expression.

You weren’t disgusted or horrified like he had feared so many times when he pondered this scenario, you were worried for him, asking him to let you help him, being mindful of his limits and in his mind, he managed to connect the words you’d said.

Despite everything that had just happened, you’d called him love.

He was letting go of his face, about to say something when Big Mama’s loud laughter and the screaming of everyone else finally reached his ears again, he turned around only to see the big yokai pulling him with her claws, he yelled, reaching up to try and pull the yokai’s claws away from him.

“Donnie!” You yelled and Big Mama smiled.

“I am so very sorry for your wedding dear, but we have very important business to attend, wouldn’t want to leave your family waiting, would you turtley-boo?” She laughed throwing herself and Donnie out of the ship and into the sea.

“DONNIE!”

“Oh you have a lot of guts, purpley, but don’t worry, that was just a side gig, it would have been nice, but this is more important” Big Mama spoke while she pulled Donnie with her.

“Donatello!” His dad’s familiar voice called out and Donnie felt relief, it suddenly left though as he looked up.

There, in formation swam his father and brothers back to their original form, but the three of them had gold glowing chains holding their wrists together, and right beside them was Baron Draxum.

“Why Lou, haven’t seen you in such a long time, how are you?” Big mama chanted while Splinter growled.

“Let my son go” Splinter said and Big Mama laughed.

“Not a chance Lou, I’m sure my partner already filled you in but just so you are sure,” a contract, the very same Donnie had signed before was pulled in front of him “He is mine now as are the other three.”

“No!” Donnie growled “They didn’t sign anything, only I did.”

“Oh dear, really, the very last part of the contract is very important, in fact, I would have skipped the beginning that you did read and gone down immediately, what you signed gives me ownership of anyone who drank the potion, and your brothers drank it!” Donnie paled after hearing so.

“That makes no sense, my signature can’t count for them.”

“Oh but there’s a contract you didn’t consider at all, a contract of blood a pact of brotherhood” Big Mama grinned towards a deflating Splinter and the brothers glared at her.

Donnie looked devastated and his gaze went towards his dad the moment a pair of Draxum’s vines held onto his wrists “Papa, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to, I should have—”

Donnie’s voice was interrupted by Splinter attempting to destroy the contract with a beam of his trident, however, the contract stayed untouched.

“Let’s make a deal, shall we?” Draxum asked Splinter while the turtles complained and told him not to, their father looked down.

“What do the two of you want?” He growled.

“I for one want my warriors back” Draxum hummed pointing towards the brothers.

“Warriors?” Raph asked and Leo rolled his eyes.

“Hello? He called us that when we met, no? Not ringing any bells? Only me? Okay.” Leo sighed.

“Absolutely not, why would I even do that?” Splinter answered.

“Well, of course, I could settle for something else, I am reasonable” Draxum hummed “You will give us yourself in exchange for the turtles, but there are four of them, and only one of you, even your crown seems an unjust exchange.”

“You will give me back my crown Lou” Big Mama stated “And Draxy here will have control of all your powers and theirs, do we have a deal?”

“So you’ll create more warriors and champions to terrorize the humans and yokai alike?” Splinter laughed bitterly, but the contract still stared straight at him.

Back on the surface, you were now in one of the row boats, Casey calling out for you “Your highness what are you doing?!”

“I already lost him once! I am not about to lose him again!” You yelled going further into the sea and hoping to catch a glimpse of anything that could tell you where Donnie was.

At that moment, Donnie was going through sensory hell as he remembered the things that had grabbed onto him when he had entered Big Mama’s and Draxum’s cave, it hadn’t been a thing, it had been someone, and whatever had happened to them was happening to him.

His brothers yelled for him and Splinter had given in, pointing his trident at the contract, he signed, replacing Donnie’s name for his.

In an instant, Donnie was back to normal, and Splinter was turned into one of those things, Donnie cried out for him as did the others whose chains had broken at the signing.

“PAPA!” They all called swimming over to the king in his withered form.

Above, you were able to see a bright light coming from the water “gotcha” you said before throwing yourself into the water, your wedding dress had been torn to pieces for mobility and a harpoon was held tight in your hand.

“At last,” Big Mama said taking the crown in her hands, Draxum reached out for the trident, but she stopped him “up up up, Draxy, you know how much I love our partnership, don’t you? I just don’t think this is right for you” She said, taking the trident in her hands and laughing maniacally.

“We had a deal, witch” He yelled angrily while she chuckled.

“Oh, you really should all start reading the bottom lines of the contracts,” She said.

“You must be forgetting I still own all their powers, so help me, witch, this alliance may be over, but I assure you my goal will be completed,” Draxum said, his form appearing larger with the use of Raph’s ninpo.

While they were both distracted a strong sharp pain hit Big Mama’s side and she yelled turning back to see you swimming there and the harpoon having hit her.

Leo took advantage of the situation to take his swords and attack Draxum directly.

“Foolish! You cannot defeat me when I have every ounce of your mystic energy” The baron gloated as the other brothers reached out to try anyway.

Donnie yelled out your name, being held back by one of Big Mama’s claws “Look out!”

You swam back to the surface as fast as you could but were pulled down by Huginn and Muninn without being able to get much air, thankfully, Mikey noticed this and rushed to your aid “Let her go!” He yelled, pulling out his nunchaku to get rid of the gargoyles.

You were let go, but Big Mama still had you in her sight “Say goodbye to your sweetheart” She sang, pointing at you with the trident, Donnie desperately managed to claw his way to Big Mama’s arms and pull the trident into another direction before it hit you, Huginn and Muninn barely able to avoid being hit instead, they rushed away of the battlefield.

Big Mama was pissed, and Donnie followed you as you went up to the surface, trying to make sure you were okay while his brothers fought against Draxum.

Big Mama wanted power and if she needed to kill Draxum for it, so be it, a lightning bolt coming from the trident hit the yokai and he breathed harshly realizing what had happened, the turtles all gasped as he exploded into tiny little pieces, they looked out in horror and realized their mystic abilities where now the possession of the second person in the contract.

Big Mama grew and grew and suddenly she was a titan of an aquatic monster with the powers of a god.

“We need to go to Donnie, now!” Raph yelled and the three brothers rushed towards the surface.

You were gasping for air when Donnie’s head came out to the surface, looking at you for any wounds “Y/N, you have to get out of here!” He said reaching for you and trying to drag you towards the abandoned rowboat.

“I won’t leave you, Donnie!” You yelled looking straight at him “There has to be something I can do, even if it is from the ship.” Before you could finish your train of thought you were being pushed up by something.

It was big mama having achieved a monumental size, you quickly threw yourselves back into the water, Donnie holding you close to his plastron, but that didn’t last long, as the strength of the big waves Big Mama sent your way separated you, you falling far away from Donnie while he tried to reach you to no avail, screaming your name in worry.

“The sea and all its spoils bow to my power!” As she said this, the very ship where Donnie had first seen you was pulled out from the water and into the surface as Big mama made a miniature tsunami around herself.

The ship almost hit you, to Donnie’s horror from where he could see you, but you managed to grab onto a rope from under the water and pull yourself up into the old ship, thankfully reaching the deck and hoping the wheel still worked.

Big Mama looked at Donnie and shot the rock he had been holding onto, throwing him into her merciless waves.

“I got you!” Raph yelled taking grasp of Donnie’s hand before he fell further down, but it wasn’t over, Big Mama was trying to kill all of the brothers and shooting at them who barely managed to avoid the strikes.

When you finally reached the wheel of the boat you turned it rapidly Big Mama’s way, thankful that she was so distracted she would have never even considered you a threat.

You almost cried when you realized the wheel worked, and thanks to her majesty the ship remained afloat and the mast that once held the wooden figure of a mermaid was now sharp and broken, perfect for you.

“So much for true love!” Big Mama exclaimed about to hit the four turtles who held tightly onto each other when her side was impaled by your ship.

Big Mama let out the most horrendous scream of pain you had ever heard and it looked like the lightning she’d tried to inflict had hit her instead, she started crumbling into the ocean, clawing desperately for relief and managing to take hold of the ship, dragging it back down into the water with her.

You jumped out of it fast to not be dragged and swam on your way back to shore, not without looking back to make sure Big Mama was long gone.

You were exhausted, absolutely exhausted, and had too much water inside you, so you crumbled on the beach sand once you reached it, passing out again while the brothers looked at the end of the sea witch and Baron left behind, the feeling of power returning to their bodies, they swam down, hoping with her end, their father was back to normal.

The spell was broken, on anyone who had ever made a deal with Big Mama, thus including the king who with a beam of light returned to his form, finding his trident falling close to him.

“DADDY!” The chorus of his sons caught his attention before he was embraced tightly into a hug by four almost crying merturtles.

Splinter could hear the rapid-fire apologies of his purple-coded son and made sure to hold him much closer, a small smile forming on her face and tears in the corner of the old king’s eyes.

Donnie looked at you from a rock close to shore, you were only now starting to wake up from how you’d passed out earlier and he wanted nothing more than to go to you.

But how could he ever hope to hold you in his arms again? After everything he had done to his family and you for being so selfish.

He couldn’t do that to his father again, no matter how much his heart ached at the thought of leaving you forever.

Not far away the king and his sons stared at the merturtle who worriedly waited for you to wake up, knowing with his tail, Donnie would never be able to follow you again.

After a moment of contemplation, the king turned to Leo who had a bitter expression on his face “He really does love her, doesn’t he Blue?”

Leo chuckled slightly “Oh pops, you have no idea” Finally the turtle turned to his dad “And he wasn’t doing half bad there, it was like nerd paradise, you know?” Leo’s smile fell “Humans really don’t seem all that bad.”

The king sighed, looking back at Donnie “It is true that after this humans will go back to believing in yokai, someone has to be responsible for keeping relations between sea and land as peaceful as possible” Leo perked up at this and looked at his father with absolute shock, the king smiled softly “That’s one problem solved then since Donatello would be more than competent even if I am unsure of his people skills, surely you’ll help him with that from here Blue, so there’s only one problem left.”

Leo still couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and his other two brothers were close behind gaping at the words of the king, finally, Leo asked “And what’s that?”

“How much I’m going to miss him” Splinter smiled before pointing up with his trident to the second of his middle children, the trident glowing brightly before touching the surface of the water softly, the glowing light followed the water slowly and reached the magenta tail it had been directed towards.

The tail started glowing, sparkling under the light and grabbing Donnie’s attention.

The merturtle looked down to see his tail turning back into a pair of legs and with great shock, he looked towards his family who smiled at him happily, including his father, he couldn’t believe it, the nod of approval his father sent almost making him drop right there, realizing, despite everything they all wanted him to go back to you.

He almost jumped out of the rock and towards you but a lingering thought stopped him as he realized his legs weren’t like the ones he had before, they weren’t human, he wasn’t human, he was a turtle yokai able to walk on land.

Was that truly, okay? He’d lied to you, you hadn’t expected him to be like this, and he faltered, but the thoughts of those murals and your exciting tales of yokai and humans co-existing thankfully gave him a push.

He stood up, walking toward you slowly and remembering that despite everything you’d remained by his side, in fact, you had saved his life.

So maybe his hopes weren’t so foolish after all, and he did owe you an explanation.

With a soft smile returning to his face he watched you hold your head in your hands while you started to sit back up, the moment you looked up you saw Donnie, walking your way from the water in a pair of legs instead of his tail, you let out a sigh of relief knowing he was okay and rushed his way, he beamed as he felt you run into his arms, you collided against him with a huff making him laugh and you smile wide.

“You’re okay” You mumbled into his plastron, pulling him closer to you and making Donnie’s heart flutter, he hummed softly in response, his arms going around you before lifting you and spinning you along with him easily, making you realize how strong he was.

You wouldn’t let yourself think you had all the time in the world again, you were enjoying every second.

You laughed looking back at him, your forehead bumping against his softly before you pulled him close, finally getting that kiss that had been interrupted; he made a sound of surprise against you before melting into the kiss.

Months of dating and learning about each other’s culture led to teaching the world about yokai, and while not everyone was open to this you were grateful to those who tried and Leo who always seemed to know how to manage your situation, even when Donnie grumbled about his methods.

And eventually, that led to a wedding Casey could actually approve of and that you forced your people to approve of with pretty words about it being good for yokai and human relationships.

You were marrying the love of your life on a beautiful ship with guests from both worlds, especially Donnie’s family who had been practicing walking only for this event.

The music started and as the sunlight hit your wedding attire you held an appreciation for how much better you looked in this than the last time.

But more than anything, your heart was hitting your chest harshly once your eyes connected with his own pair at the altar, his whiskey-colored pair seemed to glow at the sight of you and a goofy smile you didn’t know if he was aware of made its way to his face, now a darker shade of green than normal. From the corner of your eye, you saw Leo smiling beside his twin and Mikey and Raph seemingly startled by someone they saw in the crowd, Casey, Sunita, and April stood close to your side of the altar and then the music quietened down, a green hand with three fingers reaching for your own as your groom smiled at you with more confidence and all the love in the world in his eyes, you took his hand, thinking about how perfectly it fit in yours before standing beside him, body towards the master of ceremonies, your eyes though never straying from him.

Though this is not the end, I will be making the sequel like you guys asked! Designing the OC child of Donnie and the reader might be something I will ask your help with through polls before that, also I will first be working on the Leo x reader Anastasia AU so stay tuned!

It is done! Thanks to everyone for reading this and your comments that always make my day! (Los que están en Español también, gracias <3) I am so happy!

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chaoticspeedrun · 1 year

Text

Donnie x fem! Reader The little merturtle 3

"Without listening to Raph trying to stop him, Donnie hurriedly gulped down the fuchsia liquid, it went down quickly to his brothers' dismay, and he left half of it untouched.."

Warnings: Angst with a happy ending, tooth-rotting fluff

PREV • MASTERLIST • NEXT

The alchemist and the queen

A pair of eyes stared at Donnie as he sobbed at the bottom of his treasure cove, now only filled with piles of dust and burnt memories, the gargoyles slowly came out of hiding, swimming in circles around him.

“Oh, poor guy” Huginn said “That was really tough, don’t you think?”

His companion nodded sympathetically while Donnie raised his head to see them, a glare prominent between his brow “Oh, yes it was, I didn’t expect king Splinter to treat one of his children like that! It was so unfair.”

“Yes! So unfair!”

“What do you want?” Donnie snarked “That was private, don’t stick your nose where it doesn’t belong” He growled.

“Man, sorry! We’re being rude Huginn” Muninn said, and Donnie heard Huginn apologize “We don’t have any ill will, we were just passing and hear the whole thing, it sounded like someone was in trouble.”

“Yeah, and after what we watched we just wanted to see if you were okay” Huginn finished, Donnie loosened his guard slightly, he was way too tired to fight them now, the crying had taken away all his energy and he just wanted a long nap.

Before he could tell them to leave again Huginn spoke once more “The collection you had was incredible, oh I love human stuff”

“Yeah! Master Draxum has a lot of their things lying around” Muninn said happily, grabbing Donnie’s attention.

“Draxum?” The turtle asked.

Hook.

“Oh yeah, you’ve heard of Draxum right?” At Donnie’s deadpan look that said he absolutely didn’t or he wouldn’t have asked Muninn continued “He’s a great warrior alchemist! He has been experimenting with human DNA since forever, he and Big Mama used to work together but that was, well, it was when Big Mama was still queen.”

Donnie raised an eyebrow, he had heard about Big Mama, at least briefly, but she had been long since dethroned by his father when Donnie was just a guppy, the only thing he knew about her was that she was dangerous and had been exiled because of that.

But of course, he thought bitterly, his father didn’t tell him many things it seemed.

“Why would he experiment with human DNA?” Donnie asked.

Line.

“Well usually Big Mama would give favors to her most valued subjects and a couple of times the requests were for them to be able to walk on land with the humans, with her magical powers as an energy source and Draxum’s alchemy they managed to find a way to give yokai the ability to live up top and vice versa, it was a time when both humans and yokai coexisted!”

Donnie’s eyes widened and he could have gotten whiplash with how fast he looked back at the gargoyle; the words that had just been spoken to him seemed like an impossible fairytale, it couldn’t be true, could it? A time when humans and yokai interacted together.

His mind went into overdrive, piecing all the puzzle pieces together, the mandate for yokai to not get in contact with humans was only put in place when his father acquired the throne, maybe that was how he himself had learned of yokai while being a human?

Donnie gulped loudly, his father had said he was ‘turned into this’, maybe the two of them had done that? And maybe that was why Big Mama had been exiled.

His eyes shifted between the gargoyles “So Draxum could help yokai walk on land?”

Huginn nodded “Definitely, why? Are you curious? It’s only natural, humans make so many cool things, it just makes sense.”

Donnie hesitated for a moment, he looked down at the pieces of debris covering the floor of his cove when he found it, his eyes paused wide on a piece of rock that had been separated from the rest, your statue had broken mostly in tiny pieces, except for your face, it lay there right in front of him sending a pang through his chest again, of both sadness and anger.

It pushed him to make a choice.

“Guide me to them” He ordered.

Sinker.

Huginn and Muninn smiled at him “Sure buddy, come on! Follow us.”

Swimming around in circles somewhere still in the reef were Raph and his two brothers.

“I didn’t mean to tell” He swore, “It was an accident!”

“We know, big guy” Leo said, kicking a pebble with his tail.

“We just need to give Donnie some space, what happened was…” Mikey cringed “Devastating to him, to say the least” He muttered, it didn’t make Raph feel much better.

He was about to say something else when they both heard Shelldon calling out to them, they turned to see the little turtle hurrying their way.

“Dudes! It’s Donnie! He’s going with some gargoyles far away from the limits!” He explained rapidly.

The guys all looked at each other worried “Which way was he going?” Leo asked.

They soon caught up to their brother who was swimming along the gargoyles, Raph recognized those gargoyles, he’d heard tales from the castle’s servants when he was little, of a banished alchemist and his subjects, it made him hurry as his mind alerted him of danger.

“Donnie!” Raph called swimming close to his brother “Where are you going?!”

“I’m going to see Big Mama and Draxum,” Donnie said in a monotone, a firm frown still set on his face that told his brothers he didn’t plan on changing his mind or listening.

Raph still tried “What?! Donnie no! Draxum is dangerous, he’s a demon!”

“Why don’t you go tell father Raphael?” Donnie bit back, looking at his brother for just a moment before continuing on his way “You’re good at that.”

Raph faltered slightly but Mikey gave him a reassuring look and the three all followed their brother into the lair of the exiled queen and warrior.

Donnie shivered and swam faster, wanting to get to the end quickly, maybe this was a bad idea.

“Wow” Donnie winced once they reached the entrance “Stunning choice of décor,” He said sarcastically, looking at the dry algae laying around the unkempt place, he saw then something that petrified him, in between the algae there was something else, something alive and looking dry, many of them shriveling where they stood stuck to the walls of the cave, some beings with eyes, staring straight at him.

One of those things took grasp of his arm and he gasped, pulling rapidly, grossed out by the thing, and feeling nauseous, he managed to unlatch it from his wrist, and without looking back he reached the end of the tunnel as fast as he could.

“Come in, come in~” A feminine voice called out to him, Donnie breathed heavily after the experience but turned to see a yokai with pink skin and white hair looking back at him with a sweet smile. “Oh my, you look so white! Such worry is not good for your emerald complexion, here, sit, sit, I’ll get you something to drink.”

The woman guided him to a seat and Donnie by reflex sat, now holding a flower in his hands as a cup, he recovered from his panic and looked attentively at the woman with skepticism “Are you Big Mama?” He asked.

“That I am turtley-boo, oh look, your brothers are here” She said smiling at the other three turtles that swam in with caution. “come, come, I do not bite, oh it’s been so long since we’ve had guests” The woman hummed, her attitude and his brother’s presence –Though he’d deny it— calming Donnie slightly and apparently his brothers too who while still weary sat down next to him.

Before Donnie could get to the point of his visit she spoke again “Now, you’re here because you have a thing for this human, a human princess at that! You certainly know how to choose them, darling, she is quite a catch.” Big Mama said nodding her head approvingly but making Donnie tense up once again.

“How do you know that,” He asked with his eyebrows furrowed, Mikey was surprised he didn’t deny it.

“Oh dear turtley-boos it used to be my job, as you might know, to know everything about my subjects, to help the hidden city prosper! And of course, you do not remember me, but I was right there the day you were all created” She hummed knowingly making them all look at her questioningly “Oh you were such adorable little turtles just before Draxy made you into what you are, better, stronger! So powerful and intelligent!”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, that’s nice and all, uh? Auntie? I guess, can I call you auntie? But I’m sorry, you just said we were ‘created’? As in, you know, do you mean born? “Ok, no, I’m confused about whatever you’re going on about” Leo blabbed looking for an explanation for this whole entire messy affair.

Big Mama hummed “You’re right, that’s so rude of me, perhaps Draxy can help me explain, Oh Draxy~!” She called out and from another room inside the cave a goat yokai walked out, firm in every step he took, way more serious than the old queen attending to them.

He didn’t have a friendly look to him, Raph thought, no wonder Big Mama was the one greeting guests with that attitude.

Draxum greeted them all as if he knew them personally to their shock, the two gargoyles hanging from his shoulders “It has been too long, my warriors.”

“Thank you, yes hi, this only raises more questions” Leo groaned loudly.

It wasn’t for long, the two exiled yokai used a magical orb to show them the day of their ‘mutation’ is what they called it, or bits of it at least, not that the boys would know.

It was explained to them how with Splinter turned into a merman they were mutated from mere turtles to merturtles and how Splinter was accidentally mutated into a rat afterward, what was left clear was that Draxum had created them, to Mikey that essentially made him their second dad and Big Mama had been there that day, working as the power source that helped in their creation.

“Your father and I had our disagreements” Big Mama looked sad, only Leo wasn’t buying it “After he was rejected by the human world he started going against all of our work in uniting both worlds, Draxum and I were exiled out here because we were the last connection between both” Big Mama lamented but then smiled softly at Donnie “Poor turtley-boo, longing to be understood, for a world he cannot have, humans are so full of curiosity aren’t they? Just like you, is that why you crave it so much? But thankfully, you found us, and what could be better for the relations between humans and yokai to thrive again than an alliance between the royalty of both worlds? Oh darling, wouldn’t it be beautiful?”

Donnie’s heart was beating hard in his chest with those suggestions, was it possible? Or was it dumb for him to believe? But his mind kept telling him that everything was right there in front of him! Draxum and Big Mama had just placed all of their cards on the table, while his own father had hidden the truth from them for their whole life!

His chest filled with hope when he saw how Raph and Mikey were much less tense, processing the situation with softer eyes, he could even see Mikey smile slightly.

Leo though wasn’t buying it at all, he could tell something wasn’t right.

“Donatello” Draxum spoke this time taking Donnie’s attention “Follow me for a moment will you?”

Donnie looked from the yokai who stood up to walk through one of the halls to his brothers, Leo was about to stop him but Mikey spoke first “Go! We’ll be right here!” He said cheerily and Raph agreed hesitantly, they were right there after all.

Donnie followed the yokai and they walked silently for a moment “Child, your curiosity is not a fault, in fact, without people like you our world would never get anywhere” The yokai assured finally looking back at the merturtle who was giving him his complete attention, his words reassured Donnie, no one had ever truly understood his fascination with the human world but this yokai had been working with humans before he was born, and Donnie, well Donnie craved the approval, he started smiling smugly at the older yokai’s words.

Draxum continued speaking “It is the intelligence you were blessed with that would make the world you seek a reality, do not let anyone fool you, here” Draxum stopped in front of a table filled to the brim with colorful potions, shining bright with unnatural colors, he took a fuchsia-colored one that reflected its light on his skin.

“This is the potion that you need, the only way to get what you want is to become human yourself, it requires a strong energy source which Big Mama will help you with, after finishing the correct ritual you will be fully transformed.”

“A human?” Donnie was hesitant before questioning “I heard you helped yokai walk along humans.”

“Well that is true” Draxum agreed, Big Mama and the rest of Donnie’s brothers entered the room then, listening by the door “However I fear humans have not seen yokai for decades, it might be dangerous if you kept your form, looking like a human would help you socialize with them,”

Donnie nodded his head and his father’s words from before were back in his mind.

“That human you saved may have been grateful the moment she breathed, but once she realizes who saved her, she won’t look at you as a hero but a monster.”

It pained him slightly to think it might be true, a new insecurity had made its way into his mind, turbulent as it was already through so many events, but with that potion, he wouldn’t have to worry about that, if he could meet you as a human then –his heart beat a little faster— his chances with you might be much better, and eventually, he could tell you who he truly was, once he knew you’d be open to it.

Donnie nodded taking the bottle in his hands, Big Mama placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“Now, before anything you must know this first, every spell has to be extremely specific and it has a cost as you boys may know” She began explaining “The potion and my magic will make you human for one month! It is very important that you keep track of the time because before the sun sets on the last day you need to make the princess fall in love with you.”

“What?!” There was a chorus of the four turtles exclaiming at the same time.

“But why?” Donnie asked blushing wildly.

“Well, the terms and conditions settle with a true love kiss as many do, I’m sure you know, but don’t worry I am sure you can do that!” Big mama pinched his cheeks, and he batted her hands away “The reason for that is the cost of the wish, to keep the form and remain on land for more than a month would be too expensive, only the true love kiss may seal the magic then.”

Donnie grunted in acceptance, he knew how costly spells could be and this wasn’t a simple one, his request was huge.

“If she does kiss you before the end of the month you may remain human, permanently! But if she doesn’t, you’ll turn back into a merturtle.” Big Mama finished.

Raph looked like he was about to say something, to pull Donnie away and tell him he shouldn’t go through with it, Leo beat him to it.

“That’s it?” He asked doubtfully “He’ll just be back, no other consequences?”

“Oh Poseidon, no” Big Mama assured, “Just like that! The only thing I ask of you Donnie is that you reunite our worlds, after all, you wouldn’t want to leave your brothers behind surely, nothing would be more perfect than that.” She said, turning to Donnie.

He was excited, a moment ago all his dreams seemed to have shattered into a million pieces and now he had a chance to explore the human world and its wonders like he had wanted his whole life and he could meet you! Properly, like he had wanted, there was only one more thing he needed to ask, even if he just wanted to dive right in for the potion before his brothers decided to pull him away.

“What is the cost to transform in the first place?” He asked and the attention of his brothers went back to the exiled.

“Your voice” Big Mama answered easily.

Raph gasped “His voice?! How is he even supposed to make the princess fall in love with him in a month if he can’t even talk?”

Donnie winced, his brother did make a good point, of course, the situation couldn’t be so perfect.

“Oh don’t worry, there are so many other methods of communication my dear! I am sure you will figure one out, and if she truly is worth it, I’m sure she won’t mind! So, whenever you want turtley-boo! You only need half of the potion and I’ll make the contract.”

“Donnie” Leo spoke quietly close to his twin “I know you want this but I don’t trust Big Mama, there’s something they’re not telling us.”

Donnie rolled his eyes “Oh come on Leo, this is my chance! This is the only way I would ever get to see the human world!” Donnie’s voice made Leo deflate “If I tried anything else dad would chain me down to the castle’s floor, I’m ready.”

Without listening to Raph trying to stop him Donnie hurriedly gulped down the fuchsia liquid, it went down quickly to the dismay of his brothers, and he left half of it untouched.

Rays of golden color started enveloping him, coming out of Big Mama’s hands, her eyes now glowing white, and a piece of paper floated right in front of Donnie, he took the pen in front of him and quickly signed his name on the paper, he tried to read its contents while doing so but only got so far because once his name was fully signed in it disappeared, the golden light turned green and Donnie started feeling a scratch on his throat, he coughed loudly before feeling like the water left his body.

His brothers looked at him in panic and determined Leo took the bottle with potion out of his grasp, chugging a whole gulp of it in before reaching out towards Raph and forcing the drink on the eldest’s mouth who coughed wildly after that having been taken by surprise, Leo did the same with Mikey and pulled them both toward were Donnie’s transformation had just begun.

“Wait!” Draxum yelled but the three other turtles were engulfed in the light too.

Mikey watched in terror as Donnie yelled, his tail separating in an instant and suddenly there was a pair of feet where it used to be.

He himself started feeling weird, but on his upper body, before he could think about it though Mikey felt someone pulling him to Donnie and he realized then that his brother could not breathe under the water anymore.

Donnie’s lungs felt like they were on fire, he was clawing at his throat and realized his gills were gone, he tried to pull himself up, but thankfully he was dragged up out of the cave by some pairs of…fins?

They reached the surface and Donnie gasped, breathing heavily, the air was sweet salvation from all the pain he’d just endured, two bodies pushed their way under his arms, pulling his tired body toward the shore, belatedly, he realized the fish pulling him forwards were his own brothers, transformed into fish, or well, Mikey was a fish, an overly grown goldfish.

It made Donnie wonder if they were more related to Piebald than they’d originally thought.

Raph however, looked like a full-grown alligator snapping turtle, it must have been the effect of drinking just a bit of the potion without the contract Donnie had made with Big Mama.

Donnie was deep in his delirium, trying to make sense of what was happening to deviate his mind from the pain he had just experienced, so he looked for Leo, assuming surely that like his tail he’d become a sailfish after the spell.

They were about to reach the shore, but Donnie couldn’t stay conscious any longer, unable to find Leo to distract himself, he blacked out.

You were walking outside the castle, the building lifted from the sea but overlooking it by rocks and pillars, you rested your back against one of its walls while Mayhem played around close to the water, Mayhem had always seemed to love the sea as much as you did, sometimes it seemed like if you left him alone he would swim deep into the waters like they were home.

Your smile was soft but was soon eclipsed by your thoughts as they wandered back to a couple of days ago, your mind kept repeating the words of your savior over and over again, it made your heart flutter, what you remembered him saying about wanting to know your world and you, you wondered what he meant exactly.

You were snapped out of your daydreaming by a bark from Mayhem, sighing softly you pulled yourself away from the wall and started walking away from the castle.

“Do you think Casey is right?” You asked your companion with a small frown “Maybe a did drink too much seawater? I mean I swear I saw a tail disappear into the water” you chuckled humorlessly, worried that so many mermaid tales had just messed with you that day and you had just imagined an impossible romance.

Mayhem’s bark in response made you smile again “You’re right, I can’t just give out hope already, right? I know what I felt that day” your confidence returned, at least slightly, maybe you should go around town again. You weren’t able to see him properly that time but you were sure you’d recognize his voice anywhere.

Donnie felt the beginnings of a headache and groaned while recovering consciousness, he must have been laying on the beach because he could feel the sand beneath his…actually, his back felt weird over the sand.

His hand reached up to his head to get rid of the headache when he felt it, Donnie jumped up to sit up straight at the feeling of five fingers on his forehead instead of three; his eyes examined the foreign hand in front of him with fascination and his expression turned gleeful at the realization of what he was looking at, a five-fingered hand in golden brown that was his own.

His gaze went down quickly to where his purple tail would rest to find in its place a pair of legs the same color as his arm, he was human! He was truly human! He moved his feet in fascination, the fingers moving almost one by one while his hands were flapping rapidly; he was so excited he could scream!

No sound came out of his mouth, but he was too elated to care or notice at that moment.

Mikey gasped with sparkly eyes “Donnie! You’re human!” His little brother screamed like he hadn’t noticed already “Ohmigosh, you look so weird but so cool! But what will dad say?! Oh what if he finds out, wait of course he’s gonna find out, oh and I’m a fish now, he’s gonna be so pissed, maybe he’s worried already! What if he comes looking for us? What if he mobilizes everyone and—”

“Mikey!” Raph called out beside him “Calm down! We can’t panic now! No one panic!” He said, already panicked, his eyes barely leaving Donnie who still looked too excited to care about what was happening around him, he was trying to stand up on both legs, at first, he almost fell down, but he managed to hold himself up, even though his legs trembled under his body.

That was until he heard Raph’s next words.

“We need to go back and tell pops, I should have done that the moment you started swimming to Draxum” Raph’s words sent Donnie into a frenzy, he reached out to his now more of a turtle brother, shaking his head over and over to express his discontent “Don’t shake your head at me, young man! Look at what’s happening! Maybe we can get Big Mama and Draxum to turn you back and give you back your voice! We’d go home and back to normal, then you’d just be…”

Raphael’s rant stopped slowly while he stared into his brother’s eyes which were just the same despite his human appearance, Donnie looked pained and it sent guilt straight into the core of Raph’s being “Just be…miserable for the rest of your life” Raphael conceded looking down at the sand and sighing, yes, he was worried, but it wasn’t fair of him to take away his brother’s final chance at everything he had ever wanted. He sighed before looking back at Donnie “All right all right, we’ll find that princess and get you that kiss.”

Donnie grinned wildly, his legs unconsciously moving up and down under him, making him unstable for a moment before he steadied himself again, he only then noticed one of his brothers must have covered him up with an old boat sail while he was unconscious because it was tied around his figure, ignoring that, for now, he instead punched the air to show his excitement, his brothers chuckled at him looking much calmer now.

“All right! We’re getting Donnie his smooches and giving dad a vacation, let’s go!” They heard Leo’s voice call out and looked around but couldn’t see anything “Right here big guy, ugh it’s weird calling you that instead of Raph” The merturtle mumbled.

Instead of what Donnie thought he’d find his eyes stumbled into a tiny red-eared slider turtle looking at him from over a rock and the now man couldn’t stop himself from falling backward on the sand as he tried to recover his breath, laughing soundlessly but wildly at the appearance of his twin brother.

Raph’s and Mikey’s laughter was much louder, and Leo only rolled his eyes “Oh give it a rest, would you?! I do all of this so we can help Donnie out and all I get from you guys is mocking!”

“You turned us into turtles and a fish!” Raph exclaimed “We don’t even know how to get back to our bodies! And how is Mikey going to follow Donnie on land?”

“Well yeah, I didn’t know what exactly the effect would be on us” Leo mumbled almost in a whisper “But! We do know when we’re going to be back to normal! We didn’t make a contract and only took a small dose of the potion, in a month regardless of what happens the three of us will just be back to normal no worries! Right, Donnie?” Leo said confidently and Raph looked from him to Donnie with skepticism.

Donnie who’d just recovered his breath looked thoughtful, he considered what Draxum and Big Mama had said and it seemed about right, he nodded in reply and started looking around for his mask which was nowhere to be seen, while he marveled about it being gone and realized finally that there was hair where it usually rested on his head Raph sighed and Leo looked smug.

“All right fine, now, how do we find this princess?”

You were still walking close to the shore when Mayhem suddenly started jumping around you, barking and trying to pull you further away “Woah, what’s up Mayhem?” You asked the pet who kept making motions for you to follow, and you gave in with a chuckle, following Mayhem as they ran far away from you.

“All right Donnie, can you just tie that better? It’s gonna fall any moment now and I really don’t wanna see THAT” Leo groaned pointing at the cloth over Donnie’s body who was trying to hold it over his shoulder and waist.

A familiar bark took their attention, nearing them quickly.

Mayhem rushed over Donnie’s way and not knowing what to expect he hurried over to a rock, trying to hide from the creature behind it, Mayhem jumped close to Donnie who looked back in amazement before he heard your voice, repeating the scene back at the ship when he had seen you for the first time.

Donnie’s knees wobbled for a moment but he stabilized himself again quickly seeing you reunite with your pet before your eyes went up and clashed with his.

You seemed to pause in surprise and he wondered for a moment if you had recognized him somehow despite how different he looked now.

Mayhem went back to Donnie, jumping around and turning back to look at you like he was saying ‘Here! He’s right here!’, when you looked at this man you had the same feeling from before with your savior, you were confident Mayhem was right, this was him, it had to be, he looked shipwrecked, his hair drenched and he was covered in only a battered sail that had probably belonged to your own ship.

“Are you okay sir?” You asked as you neared him, Donnie’s eyes never leaving your face as he smiled and nodded rapidly at you, you smiled back before looking back at Mayhem and reaching out to hold them in your arms “I’m sorry if my, uh, dog, scared you, they’re harmless, just a bit hyperactive sometimes” You chuckled trying to avoid his gaze, it made you a bit nervous, you wanted to ask, you really wanted to ask if he was whom you thought, but if your eyes crossed with his again you were worried you’d stutter your question instead.

If you could only hear him speak it would confirm everything.

“Have I met you before?” You asked still petting Mayhem “You seem very familiar to me” That wasn’t true, you had never seen his face before but the feeling wouldn’t leave your body.

Donnie’s eyes seemed to sparkle when he heard you say that, he wanted to answer ‘Yes! That was me!’ but knew he couldn’t, if you just looked back up, he could nod in confirmation.

As if you had heard his thoughts you looked back up at him again allowing him the chance to nod in response, your smile seemed to widen impossibly and he could have swooned, feeling dizzy from your reaction “We HAVE met! I knew it!” You said letting go of Mayhem to get closer to him, forgetting how nervous you had just been a moment ago at the confirmation “You’re the man who saved me, I had been looking for you! What’s your name?”

Donnie faltered, realizing he couldn’t tell you his name.

Your smile dropped slowly “What’s wrong?” You asked worriedly and Donnie tapped his throat with his hand, trying to explain he couldn’t speak, you caught on “You can’t speak?” Donnie nodded and noticed you looked surprised then a bit disappointed “Oh, then you couldn’t be who I thought, I’m sorry for mixing you up” You smiled in apology and Donnie felt like smashing his face on the sand, no! He was! This was recent, his mutism happened just now! Oh, but how could he tell you so? How would you even believe that?

Donnie could hear the groans of his brothers coming from behind him and felt the need to groan too, instead, he leaned over the rock he had been standing behind and tried to make signs with his hands, there had to be a way for him to explain this!

You looked up at him curiously as he once again tapped his throat trying to communicate something, he waved his hands away from his throat in a leaving motion, trying to explain his voice had left, your head tilted to the side in confusion “Your breath?” he quickly made a dismissing motion, repeating the signal from before and then making a wave with his hand to simulate swimming “You need help?” you asked and his movements became wilder, in his frenzy he leaned over too much and almost fell, you gasped but managed to catch him quickly before he did.

Donnie was shocked at realizing he was now in your arms, his movements halting while you tried to lift him back to his feet “Woah careful!” You said worriedly but his cheeks felt really warm and if he could speak he would be completely unable to form a coherent sentence, for once he was relieved for his mutism if only for a moment, how were you so strong?! Despite lacking his tail he knew he couldn’t be too light.

“You really must have been through something” He tuned back into reality when you spoke, you looked worried about him but then smiled reassuringly “Don’t worry! I’ll help you” You said, with him standing up again you still laid one of his arms over your shoulders thinking he might need help walking since he seemed to have trembling legs.

Donnie was surprised but happy, you were taking him to the castle! He looked back over his shoulder towards his brothers with a grin, Mikey and Raph were making signs of approval and smiling back at him, but Leo was once again nowhere to be found.

Or so did Donnie think before realizing there was a weight on the sail covering him, he looked down to see Leo sitting on it, traveling along without doing anything and smiling lazily back at Donnie, Donnie rolled his eyes at his brother, secretly thankful that he was small enough to follow along.

He kept walking with you, his legs a bit wobbly but you helped him keep steady all the way to the castle.

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chaoticspeedrun · 1 year

Text

Donnie x fem! Reader The little merturtle 4

“Do you hear that?” You wondered looking around curiously and Donnie just shrugged at you nervously, thank Poseidon he couldn’t speak, he was a terrible liar.

The change of ambiance seemed to be exactly what he had needed because when your gazes met again this time there was some charged energy in the air, very different from before.

Warnings: Angst with a happy ending, tooth-rotting fluff

PREV • MASTERLIST • NEXT

A month in writing

Donnie was on one of the castle’s towers, surrounded by huge windows with a beautiful view of the clouds and blue sky from where he sat inside a huge and luxurious bathtub; Sunita, your lady in waiting, whom you had introduced to him once reaching the castle, had taken him up there and sprinkled some sort of potion inside to make the bubbles appear.

“Washed up from a shipwreck,” Sunita said while making a signal to him, asking soundlessly if she could pour water on his head, Donnie was grateful for the warning and nodded, the water flowed and while it felt nice it also bothered him that his hair seemed to get in the way a lot, he tried to push it out of his face while Sunita continued talking.

“How horrible! But don’t worry, we’ll have you feeling better in no time, It might take a while for your long thick hair to dry but it will feel so much better!” She said; Donnie was mostly lost in his mind, excited to find out how the tub had been filled in the first place.

Leo was still somewhere on the sail that had covered Donnie, bored, he tried to get out when Sunita suddenly took hold of it, Leo was still tangled up there.

“I’ll send this to get washed! But we’ll get you some new clothes!”

As soon as Sunita said that Leo was suddenly pushed into some water, he scrambled up trying to get away from the cloth, but he was pulled roughly onto a metallic surface by the hands of a woman, he felt his carapace hitting pieces of metal repeatedly as he went up and down that thing over and over again, oh he felt like throwing up.

“Well, you must have at least heard about this boy” One of the ladies cleaning the clothes said.

“No!” Another answered, Leo was suddenly inside the water again, it tasted weird like someone had removed the salt and added something…sickly sweet?

“Gertrude says—”

The first woman scoffed interrupting “When has Gertrude ever gotten anything right?” Finally, Leo was pulled out of the water, he was hanging from the cloth and burped out…bubbles?!

He was thrown onto something firm “I mean really, he shows up in rags and doesn’t speak, not my idea of a prince.”

That tough thing started moving and Leo hid inside his carapace fast as he felt he was getting squished, he came out the other side and fell onto the rags, Leo moved wildly from one side to the other before the rags got hung from somewhere with him still in there.

The ignorant woman was still talking “If Y/N is looking for a boy I know a couple of highly available ones” While she said that, the rope holding Leo up started moving and then he fell on the floor somewhere else.

His legs felt wobbly, and he muttered angrily while standing on all fours “I have never been treated like this in my life, just wait until I’m back to my form, ugh”

His mumbling was stopped by what he saw next, Leo blanched at the sight, he could already hear his father’s voice telling him something among the lines of ‘I told you so’ and Leo felt his stomach that had been already unsettled enough twist again.

He saw the tail of a fish, cut in pieces by a sharp knife laying on the table, he could see an octopus’ legs pouring out of a boiling pot, and another fish was directly over the fire of the stove, was that a sailfish? He hoped it wasn’t a sailfish. Having seen enough, Leo wanted to get out of there immediately.

Yeah, he ate fish, it was the diet of most creatures down there in the hidden city, but the scene was grotesque, and he didn’t want to find a massacred turtle there somewhere, if he did THEN he would empty his stomach.

Somewhere else in the castle you were overlooking the sea from the dining room with a tall ceiling and windows just as large, Casey was trying to talk to you despite knowing that your mind was elsewhere.

“Your highness, be reasonable,” She said, she only called you that when speaking of royal duty, duty was of utmost importance to Cassandra who had been raised as your aid from a young age, and now she was repeating most of what she had already said for the past couple of days “Nice young men just don’t swim around rescuing people in the middle of the ocean and then flitter off into oblivion like some—”

You rolled your eyes finally looking back at her “I’m telling you, Casey, he was real, I couldn’t have made that up and I’m not going to stop looking for him” You concluded.

“And when you find him? Will you finally settle down?” she asked, almost hoping you were in fact right.

You just crossed your arms “That’d be too rushed, I may be infatuated with him but I’m not crazy” You said with a huff “Once I find him, I’ll get to know him, confirm what I felt is real, we can go from there, slowly” you emphasized the last word.

At that moment you heard Sunita close to the entrance of the room “Come on now, don’t be shy! You look great!”

It had taken a while for Donnie to be dressed, familiar with the human need to wear a cloth over themselves but uncomfortable with the texture of some of the ones he had received at first, he was silently thankful for Sunita who had seemed to catch onto that and got him something more comfortable.

And yet, showing up like that in front of you made him nervous now, but finally, Sunita got him to stand stiffly under the arch of the entrance, for a moment, he forgot he was meeting you as he examined the room like he had all the others, walking in completely in awe of the furniture and decorations inside.

As he got closer and was finally illuminated by the setting sun your eyes widened, you had found him handsome, of course, but still weren’t expecting him to clean up as well as he did.

You didn’t realize Casey had stepped close behind you, a smug grin on her face as she whispered in your ear, “Oh Y/N, what were you saying about your hero?” You turned to glare at her quickly before making your way over to your guest whose attention was back on you, he smiled tensely without knowing the proper etiquette.

“You look great, how are you feeling?” You asked, not one to forget your manners just because the sight of someone had made your traitorous heart glance away for a moment.

Donnie made a gesture to show he was better now and Casey guided him over to the table, speaking as firmly as ever “Come! It is important to get sustenance into your body after a horrible experience!”

You made your way to the table sitting next to your guest at the head of it, your mind wandered to the moment you found him at the beach, and you fought down the resurfacing disappointment from when you found out it wasn’t him you had been looking for.

The moment he sat on the table Donnie’s eyes drifted to the tableware, recognizing happily the instruments used for human eating traditions, he got excited, he would finally find out how a fork and spoon are used in practice! He was practically vibrating in his seat.

“Sunita, what’s for dinner?” You asked the moment your lady-in-waiting got close, hoping to divert your attention from the man at your left.

“Oh, you’ll love it, chef Swaggart is fixing his specialty, stuffed crab!”

Back in the kitchen Leo was trying to use his teleporting abilities to no avail, he huffed angrily “Really? I knew those two weren’t telling us something, why would the potion block our ninpo?” he asked himself before a singing voice interrupted him, Leo turned around to find the chef back in the kitchen.

It was his sign to run away, but his tiny turtle legs couldn’t get him far too fast, oh he hated being a regular turtle! He was so slow! His whole thing was to be fast!

So, lost in his mind as he was, the chef caught sight of him “What’s this? A red-eared slider?” The chef took Leo in his hand curiously “I didn’t ask for this, there’s just not enough meat on these tiny turtles” He hummed examining the turtle even closer “It’s also not flavorful enough…”

The chef was cut off, Leo had had enough and bit his nose the moment it was close enough, chef Swaggart yelled out in pain and Leo went out flying.

Not even Señor Hueso would treat him like this in the palace kitchen! Or well, he might have a couple of times, but at least Leo could defend himself then!

A battle began in the kitchen while Donnie was none the wiser.

Soon enough, the food was being served, and while it was, Casey was proposing that you take your guest over to see the sights of the kingdom.

You glanced up to look at her “Sorry, what was that?”

While Casey was scolding you about how you couldn’t keep moping about in the castle –Donnie wondered what you could have been moping about— a plate was served right in front of him.

Casey wasn’t looking at hers while lifting the cover, but Donnie was and he suddenly panicked at seeing his brother served next to a stuffed crab, Leo smiled sheepishly at Donnie who responded with an exasperated glare, how did he get there?!

Donnie lifted the covering of his own plate while you and Casey talked, signaling for Leo to hurry and hide in there, Leo didn’t have to be told twice, he rushed as fast as his tiny legs would take him and dove in, Donnie innocently closing the lid immediately and looking up as if he had been paying attention to the conversation.

“Well, what do you say?” You asked Donnie, smiling brightly at him and he nodded quickly, having no idea what he had agreed to.

Thankfully you explained right after he had already agreed “Great! We’ll go out tomorrow morning, is it Ok with you if we go by carriage for our tour of the kingdom?”

A tour of the kingdom, a tour of the kingdom! Donnie nodded ecstatic, not knowing how a carriage would be pulled on land and already wishing to find out, he was about to explore the human world like he had always wanted, in his immediate future! It was happening, and not only that, but you were going to be his guide, when he thought about it after saving you it had seemed like an impossible dream, and yet it was a reality now.

Casey herself seemed satisfied at your answer “Excellent, we shall start our dinner now before it gets cold, so you have energy tomorrow!” Casey looked at the crab on her plate, ignoring the empty space at the side of it.

Donnie observed your manners and use of utensils carefully throughout dinner, repeating motions the best he could and thanking April in his mind for telling him as much as she had about them, you got shy at seeing him pay attention to you so closely but continued eating and chatting like normal.

After dinner you guided Donnie over to the library, he looked curiously at the stacks of books that covered the walls when you reached a desk all by its lonesome on the far end of the library.

“I come here to read or work sometimes, when I don’t want to be cooped up in my office” you explained before pulling open a drawer on the dress and taking out something, a piece of parchment and what looked like a feather alongside a black container.

You looked shyly up at him before speaking up again “I, um, realized a moment ago that I never introduced myself, and was hoping we could do that now.”

Donnie faltered for a moment, it had started becoming infuriating not to talk, he ranted a lot, he liked doing that, and being unable to talk with you was becoming depressing.

You took him out of his thoughts by offering your hand to him with a small smile “My name’s Y/N” you said, and he smiled a bit, he grasped your hand shaking it firmly, instead of asking for his name though you offered the feather to him, he smiled, hoping really hard that the writing language was the same for humans as it was for yokai.

He leaned over the paper, and you watched attentively as the pen ran through the page.

Donatello.

You grinned while reading the name “Donatello” you said, taking him by surprise, he smiled sheepishly but was much more relieved now that you had a way to communicate even if it wasn’t ideal, with this realization he started writing again, your gaze following his hand again.

Or Donnie.

You realized he was giving you a nickname you could call him and nodded at him “It’s nice to meet you Donnie” you said smiling gently and he grinned while his heart fluttered.

Later that night Donnie was looking out the window of the room you had given him while Leo played around a table with a large mirror and jewelry that was left around.

“I hope you appreciate what I went through for you today, Donnie!” Leo exclaimed calling for his twin’s attention, Donnie just rolled his eyes, closing the window and walking over to the table, Leo kept rambling “It was humiliating, gosh, I miss Hueso, oh and just so you know the chef mentioned something about softshell turtle soup” Leo shivered and Donnie made a face of disgust.

Donnie took out a notebook you had given him to communicate and placed it on the table right next to Leo, he started writing and Leo rolled his eyes the moment he read the words.

‘No one asked you to come.’

“And leave you alone? Wandering around the human world all by yourself when your favorite brother could accompany you? Not a chance” Leo scoffed managing to hang a golden necklace over his neck.

Donnie thought for a moment before asking something he’d been wondering for a while, this could backfire on him easily and he’d never hear the end of it from Leo, but the curiosity was eating him up, so he just decided to roll with it, Leo was so tiny anyways, Donnie could just hide him in a drawer until everything was done if he bothered him, so he started writing and Leo only turned to read once he knew Donnie was done.

‘Why are you encouraging this now? Why did you go looking for her statue?’

“What? If you wanted the Leo special teasing you only had to ask, Oh I have been waiting to do this loverboy—” Leo had started with a grin but turned to look at Donnie’s serious face and faltered, Leo groaned loudly before continuing “Fine, It’s not fun if you can’t even complain about it.”

Leo removed the jewelry from his form and wandered off to the jewelry box to search for more things “At first, I just wanted you to forget it like Raph did, it was impossible and papa would have never approved, it was just a crush anyway, right? So, I thought you’d just move on.” Leo was throwing rings around, trying to find one that would fit his feet “But then I realized that you had never taken a real interest in anyone until now, it made me angry because why did you have to choose a human out of anyone? You just love making things hard for yourself don’t you Donton?”

Donnie made a face, but Leo was not looking at him yet, Donnie was about to write something else on the paper when Leo stopped his movements and continued talking “I just kept running scenarios in my mind of what would go wrong if you tried pursuing her, or the human world but…” Leo sighed with a frown “you were as insistent about her as you were about the human world and with just the tiny bit of hope that you had about meeting her, you just looked so happy.”

Donnie looked at his twin in surprise, but Leo kept ranting his tone immediately changing from the vulnerability that it held a second before to something easier “Don’t think I believe Big Mama and Draxum though, it’s just too easy, they’re definitely hiding something, but we’re here and you finally got a chance so why wouldn’t I help you?” Leo concluded by fitting a ring on his foot and looking satisfied about it.

Donnie turned his face the other way to hide his expression, Leo may not have been fully on board with him doing all of this, but it was obvious he had changed his mind for Donnie’s sake the moment he turned human.

Donnie smacked the side of Leo’s head with a finger “Hey!” Leo exclaimed but laughed while Donnie chuckled silently, he finally removed the jewelry and they both fell on the bed, Donnie jumped on it and bounced up slightly, and Leo bounced higher with a ‘Woah!’, almost falling off, Donnie looked surprised and then realized how comfortable the bed felt on his back, he could get used to that.

“Okay Casanova, tomorrow you start wooing her! I’m talking the whole nine yards Don, and with yours truly it would be impossible for you to not get your kiss before the month ends, better than that, you’ll get your kiss in a week, I guarantee.”

Leo didn’t realize Donnie had already fallen asleep, but the sea, even this late at night, was restless.

King Splinter was swimming in front of one of the castle’s windows when his messenger, the little seahorse showed up right in front of him in a hurry “Any sign of them?” King Splinter asked hopefully, but those hopes were crushed in a moment.

“No, your majesty” The seahorse reported “We’ve searched everywhere, we’ve found no trace of any of your sons, even with Shelldon’s reports.”

Splinter looked pained but continued firmly “Well, keep looking, leave no shell unturned, no coral unexplored, let no one in this kingdom sleep until they’re safe at home” he ordered before turning back towards his throne.

The seahorse sighed dejectedly “Yes, sire” they said before leaving with a bow.

Once alone, Splinter buried his face in his hands “Oh what have I done?” He lamented “What have I done?”

Night came and went, and soon in the morning, Donnie had dressed quickly with Sunita’s help, hiding Leo in his pocket without minding his brother’s grumbles and just chuckling at the poor turtle, Donnie then hurried to meet you near the doors where a carriage was waiting.

His gaze shifted into one of awe as he stared at the beasts that pulled the carriage, he neared them unconsciously before jumping a bit at the sound of your voice behind him.

“Do you like horses?” You asked, your head was tilted slightly to the side questioningly and your usual carefree smile was right there directed at him.

Horses? Like seahorses? He wondered; Donnie smiled sheepishly before nodding, you seemed to brighten up at his response “Me too! Have you ever ridden in one?”

Donnie shook his head negatively, even if you had been talking of seahorses, he had never been old enough and small enough at the same time to ride one of course, though these four-legged beasts were much bigger and different.

“Well maybe we can try that another day,” You said happily before walking over to the side of the carriage, Donnie looked at you in surprise before beaming at the realization that you were already planning the next time you both went out, he bumped the pocket where Leo was after hearing a small chuckle coming from him, receiving a small ‘ow’ he paid no attention to as he saw you opening the door of the carriage and offering him your hand.

Wait, you were offering him your hand! He stumbled to take it questioningly before realizing you were guiding him inside the carriage, he entered and sat on it, excited after the small burst of embarrassment had passed, you went in after and grinned at him “Also, good morning Donnie” You chirped before turning forwards and taking the ropes attached to the horses in your hands, thankfully fast enough to not see Donnie smile even wider at you.

You both turned to Cassandra and Sunita that were bidding you goodbye from inside the castle and waved before you pulled the reins and called out to the horses, the carriage quickly began to move on its way out of the doors being opened by guards.

Donnie looked around in awe, leaning slightly out of the vehicle to see how it moved without floating, he leaned down as much as he could and looked attentively at the wheels underneath the carriage wondering how they were attached, as he tried to figure it out he heard a light chuckle coming your way, he straightened up and turned around to look at you embarrassed when he realized the way he was acting, but halted when he noticed the soft expression on your face, and even though the expression left a dusted blush on his cheeks Donnie felt more confident after seeing it.

He got sidetracked when he saw some streetlights with intricate designs on the path you were following toward the town, when you realized what had grabbed his attention you started speaking.

“The lanterns are turned on when the sun starts setting, the design is Danish, actually most of our buildings—” You started talking about the town and the designs of most of its public services and buildings or the basic functioning of it, at some point you cringed at yourself, realizing you must be boring your guest with your rant, you turned your gaze from the road back to him to apologize but almost bit your tongue in surprise when you caught his gaze.

He had been paying you all his attention with an excited look on his face like he was truly interested in what you were saying, and though it was just basic knowledge you had about your kingdom as the princess it made you blush that he was so seemingly focused and happy to hear it.

You stuttered a bit before continuing your explanation with a bright smile on your face.

As the carriage walked over the water through a bridge, Leo, who had escaped the confines of Donnie’s pockets, leaned out after hearing some splashing, looking at the water he found Mikey swimming on the surface of the water, a spiky shell following him close behind.

“Has she kissed him yet?” Mikey asked with an excited smile and Leo rolled his eyes scoffing.

“No way, they’ve been talking about buildings or something, and he didn’t even listen to my plan to get him his kiss.” Leo knew Donnie had never flirted once in his life or been anything but curt to anyone he’d just met, his twin’s lack of experience made it so Leo could see his plans all going downhill.

“Aw,” Mikey whined still following from where he could reach in the water.

Leo looked back over to Donnie boredly, but his expression soon changed as he noticed the one on his twin’s face, Donnie was smiling more confidently at you while you explained something about the city and its architecture, holding every bit of his attention in your words, Leo was surprised at how his twin’s attitude had changed in just a moment, you both suddenly looked more comfortable around one another, like actual friends, a great contrast to yesterday when Donnie had seemed so sheepish at actually getting his wish and you both had only shared pleasantries.

Leo smiled a bit, realizing his brother might not be that much of a lost cause if the way you were smiling and speaking to him was anything to go by.

The day went by fast, with Donnie looking at everything with excitement and wonder that almost made your heart melt, everything new he found he looked back at you as if asking you what it was and you explained what the thing was or how it worked patiently, wondering more and more about the man that was hanging onto your every word like he was experiencing the whole world for the first time.

Where could someone as passionate and curious about learning as Donnie have come from? You asked yourself while seeing him grab onto a puppet happily before realizing he had taken the inanimate object from a hand, you laughed at his antics like you hadn’t laughed in a while.

Maybe his mutism had prevented him from learning about the world? You frowned at this thought, knowing there was a lot of bigoted people out there.

You realized after a moment that Donnie had stopped in front of a mural, you looked at it before humming and starting your explanations “This is one of my favorite stories, I used to love these murals as a child, they all speak of yokai and merfolk”

Donnie’s gaze never left the mural, but his eyes widened and his mouth parted in surprise at your words, you continued.

“Yokai were creatures that came from the sea many years ago, they could take many different forms, like birds, foxes, spiders, and most of all sea creatures, they all had tails when in the sea but were able to transform their tails into legs to walk alongside us and for a time they visited the land and co-existed with humans, helping them with the use of magic” you spoke while he looked at the beginning of the mural that showed various yokai coming from the sea.

You frowned again, remembering what you just had thought about how some people probably didn’t accept Donnie for his mutism, you continued your story “However there were some humans and yokai that didn’t accept each other at all, humans who feared yokai because of what they were capable of doing and yokai who thought of humans as a pest invading the seas” Donnie frowned at your words when he looked at a dark reddish figure in the mural, seemingly discussing with a human, there was something familiar about the figure, but he couldn’t pinpoint what.

“I don’t know what happened next exactly, but the tale says some humans started hunting yokai and the rest of the yokai returned to sea, furious at the humans and vowing to never return.” You finished your story before tracing the figure of a mermaid with your eyes “I’ve always loved the idea of yokai and merpeople, and never understood why the tale ended so tragically, wouldn’t it be amazing if a world like that existed?” You wondered softly, finally, Donnie’s gaze went back to you.

Just recently he had thought humans and yokai had never been able to interact and now, after what his father revealed, bits and pieces of the puzzle kept falling in place, while he was still angry at hi father, he could also understand why what Donnie could figure happened to him would make him have that attitude against humans, but watching you and this beautiful mural that had existed probably longer than the both of you, made it seem more unfair that because of a share of humans and yokai the rest had to avoid each other.

There were so many things he wished to tell you, but writing them down didn’t seem like the proper way to go about it, his heart felt calm though, realizing you longed for the same world he did.

He had an entire month and in that amount of time he was sure he’d be able to explain everything to you and how your fairytales were more real than you could think, he was the perfect proof of it, you both seemed to look at each other then, and smiled, like you had reached some sort of understanding.

The sound of music called his attention, and Donnie turned his head around to see a kiosk full of people dancing as a band played, Donnie grinned, studying the way the humans moved their legs to dance, he personally felt it was more of a show than just dancing while floating on a tail where you would depend much more on hand movement.

You, as you had been doing, noticed his gaze and smirked before walking right in front of him, Donnie looked at you curiously before his eyes widened, seeing you bow slightly and offer your hand, palm up to him.

“Would you honor me with this dance?” You asked, your eyes sparkling mischievously as you looked at him and Donnie took your hand in reflex with a confident smirk, it made your grin widen as you guided him through the crowd towards the kiosk, before Donnie’s confidence was hit by a blow.

While he had always considered himself the best dancer out of his brothers there was no way the same rules of dancing were applicable to this situation, he had barely learned how to walk, how would he go around on both feet without embarrassing himself? Donnie looked around at everyone else, studying the movement of their legs anxiously before you grabbed his attention, pulling one of his hands to your shoulder and holding the other one with yours.

“Relax, follow my lead Donnie, just one foot to the left like this…” You demonstrated and he followed “And follow with the other one like this.” You explained, and a couple of steps later you were repeating the part, you both were dancing.

Donnie relaxed into the movements as he got used to the rhythm, soon becoming second nature as he looked back up at you, his smile turned softer as he looked at you having fun with him, making his cheeks warm but the expression never leaving his face, he only got smugger the more you danced, adding his own flair to the steps much to your delight.

Feeling daring he tried to spin you and you naturally followed his lead before returning to your rightful place in front of him chuckling slightly, your bright laugh making him feel dizzy.

The day continued like that before you were back in the carriage on your way to the castle as the sun started setting.

As you reached the castle and got ready to go down you suddenly stopped, looking thoughtful “Donnie?” you called for his attention and he looked at you questioningly so you’d continue “Would you like me to get a sign language instructor for you?” You asked while he looked surprised “That way we’d be able to communicate better and you can tell me what you think about everything.”

Donnie realized you probably noticed his anxiousness when he couldn’t rant about the things he was seeing or make a tough question, he immediately agreed to your proposal, smiling happily at you and nodding, receiving a heart warming smile back “Great! I’ll see to it in the morning!” Your words were accompanied by you reaching down to step out but Donnie beat you to it, he got down before you and reached your side of the carriage, offering you his hand to step down this time and taking you by surprise, you smiled a bit more shyly before accepting his hand and stepping down the carriage, the nearby lanterns illuminating you both as the sun disappeared in the horizon “Well, you better go inside, I’ll see you in the morning Donnie” you said, finally letting go of his hand and waving goodbye to him.

He waved at you before you disappeared through the doors of the castle and he sighed, burying his smile on his hands giddily while Leo popped out of his pocket again, laughing at his brother happily, because he’d never seen Donnie smile so much in one day.

The chemistry between both of you was almost tangible, he could understand why Donnie had seemed so head over heels so fast.

The days went by like this, in the morning you would both have breakfast together, and then an instructor would teach Donnie sign language in the library for a couple of hours and tell you afterward that he was a really fast learner having already memorized most signs and started practicing them with sentences.

“Not like you were, your highness” The instructor teased, you blew a raspberry.

“I wasn’t that slow, Donnie is just kind of a genius” You stated, smiling unconsciously at your statement.

Then usually the day would go with either Donnie and you doing your own thing, exploring the library for you to answer any questions he had, or going out into town.

Leo, Raph, and Mikey however were getting a bit anxious as the days passed, and despite how much closer the two of you were getting there hadn’t been any attempts at being more physically affectionate.

“Do you want to ride a horse?” You asked during breakfast one morning, Donnie was a pro now at eating with a fork, knife, and spoon, he looked up at you with an excited grin, the one he had whenever you proposed something new for him to try, he nodded quickly and you started explaining what kind of clothes he should use or what he should be ready for.

Later, you both stood at the entrance of the castle, but the horses and carriage that were usually there when you were going out were nowhere in sight, instead there stood two horses, a white mare and a black one, with you holding the reins of both and waving at Donnie to come.

“These are Nero and Blanche, very original names, I know” You giggled as he deadpanned the moment you said their names “They’re both very docile, so you can choose which you want to ride.”

Donnie thought for a moment before reaching out carefully to Blanche, who rubbed their snout on his hand, you chuckled rolling your eyes “Of course, you would choose the white horse, like a prince” You chuckled without noticing how flustered you had just made him with your statement.

‘I’d love being your prince charming’ he thought to himself before hiding his embarrassment and walking over to Blanche’s side.

You taught him quickly how to get up on the horse and once he was up you guided them out of the castle by the reins, you kept telling him what to do to ride before getting up on your horse and guiding him from there, both horses attached to one another so one wouldn’t stray far.

After a while you were both riding through a meadow happily, Donnie still didn’t know enough sign language to hold a conversation but you had a lot of laughs trying and teasing each other with signs.

While the sun was finally setting and you reached a river close to the sea, Leo decided this was the perfect chance to finally get Donnie his kiss.

Wanting to give the horses some rest you tied them close to the river and pointed over to a canoe, both you and Donnie getting on it to explore the river, ignorant of the three brothers that had reunited in the water and watched you attentively.

“Move over, move your big shell, I can’t see anything” Leo whined behind Raph who huffed.

“Nothing is happening” He responded.

“There’s only four days left! What is Donnie waiting for?” Mikey asked worriedly, while Leo made his way on top of Raph’s shell.

“I keep telling Donnie time is running out, and at night he seems like he is listening to me and going to do something about it, but come day when her eyes are on his line of sight, and bam! He suddenly forgets we’re in a hurry in favor of getting lost in them” Leo huffed tiredly, and a bit worried, since he still couldn’t figure out what Big Mama and Draxum were planning if Donnie didn’t get that kiss.

“If Donnie doesn’t start puckering up soon, Raph is going to make his way over there and make him,” Raph said impatiently “Let’s see how he likes that.”

“If Piebald was here, she would be setting up the whole ambiance with music, it’d be so romantic” Mike gushed, and an idea came to Leo.

“Hey Mikey, how long have you been watching Piebald direct and compose for?”

“Like, my whole life, you know this” Mikey said looking curiously at his older brother before it hit him “Oh, oh yeah! I can do this baby!”

While Mikey disappeared into the waters for some animals to help him, Donnie and you were chatting calmly, you mostly spoke while Donnie shifted between writing in his notebook and showing you or trying to sign something with your help.

He was happy with just that when he started hearing music, he looked around trying to find out where the music was coming from but saw nothing, Donnie was confused until he noticed his little brother a little further away talking to some ducks and insects, imitating Piebald.

Oh gosh, his brothers were trying something, and while he was immediately embarrassed by the prospect, when he looked back at you under the light of the sunset he also realized he needed to take any chance he could, his infatuation only grew stronger every day so much so it wasn’t only a crush anymore, he was sure, and he wanted so badly for you to feel the same.

He was fascinated with the way you spoke of your kingdom, and how you were so willing to explain even the tiniest details to him and ready to wait patiently while he wrote something he was excited about sharing with you, always lighting up at his words and making his stomach flutter with your laugh.

But you were also so sarcastic and you never missed a chance to tease him with that smug look of yours, it drove him mad because despite the glare he would send your way most times he absolutely loved your attitude, you were so much more than the determined princess he had crushed on for her heroic acts, you were snarky and confident and yet would blush at the slightest hint of smoothness from him.

You were everything he’d already thought you were and so much more, so, while he was nervous about his brothers interfering, Donnie had to take the chance that you might be feeling the same way as him.

He was just glad his brothers had opted for only music and no singing; he didn’t know if he could have dealt with that embarrassment.

“Do you hear that?” You wondered looking around curiously and Donnie just shrugged at you nervously, thank Poseidon he couldn’t speak, he was a terrible liar.

The change of ambiance seemed to be exactly what he had needed because when your gazes met again this time there was some charged energy in the air, very different from before.

You cleared your throat shyly before looking away and continuing to row the boat, to Donnie’s dismay; but Raph seemed to have other plans, he’d managed to get some fireflies your way and their light grabbed your attention as they filled the late sky with their light surrounding the both of you, Donnie lit a lantern you had brought up on the boat as the sky darkened, it only served to make everything look even more beautiful and once again your attention was on him while he smiled softly at you, a warm smile that made your own heart hit your ribcage.

You returned his smile with one of your own but as his face grew closer to yours you looked away suddenly, feeling some sort of guilt in you.

You had spent so long looking for your savior, a man you might never even find again, and yet why did it feel like you were betraying him the further you fell for Donnie? It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair at all, the way you felt for Donnie ran much deeper than the way you felt for your savior, with Donnie you had actually talked and spent time together, laughing like you hadn’t in years.

“What would I give to know more of your world…of you.”

His words lingered in your mind, you felt like you had to give him that, you had wanted to show your savior your world.

And yet, hadn’t you done all of that for Donnie?

Your gaze lifted slowly back to your companion and your heart sank as you saw him looking far away into the water with a sad expression, you had never seen Donnie look like that and you couldn’t stand the fact that it was your fault.

Realizing this, you took a firm stance within yourself, your savior may have been a lightning bolt experience, but Donnie was here, and he was already the most incredible person you had ever met, incredibly smart, and funny in a way that allowed you to let go of all your dark humor, maybe mean at times and yet even that you found endearing.

You liked Donnie, maybe even more than that, you really did.

The thought of your savior was pushed to the far back of your mind for you to forget later, and your hand reached out towards Donnie’s face, he startled for a moment before turning to you and allowing your hand to rest on his cheek, his eyes suddenly hopeful when he saw the smile on your face directed solely at him.

Without you noticing, the boat went under a weeping willow, hiding you from the moon in its darkness, and yet the lights of the fireflies and lantern still enveloped you, coloring you with soft yellow hues under which you looked like a painting from the eyes of a lovesick artist.

Donnie reached out to your other hand with his and your fingers got intertwined together, you squeezed his fingers lightly, the hands resting on his knee while you looked at each other, there wouldn’t be any chance for him to write or sign something.

That was Ok, you didn’t feel like saying anything either, not with the way he was looking at you right now, like you were the only thing that mattered, like he wanted this just as much as you did, so you closed your eyes, feeling his breath near your face and wondering when you both had gotten so close.

The moment you were about to kiss, the boat shook underneath you and you both were thrown into the shallow water.

You sputtered out water and Donnie helped you up worriedly, you smiled at him, apologizing for having lost track of where the boat was going, it probably hit a rock or something. The moment was completely gone and you cursed your absentmindedness, but when you looked up at Donnie who was trying to help you dry and get back on the boat you smiled, looking at him dreamily, you had all the time in the world.

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We're almost at the end guys! I'm so excited for this, once the fic is finished I will start working on the Leo x reader Anastasia AU and at the same time on some of the requests that are already on my inbox, no more than the ones that were there before I closed them though!

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