Not Your Edgy Bitch (ROTTMNT Donnie X Reader)

Falling

Author's note: INCOMING FLUFF (with a dash of angst) —BUCKLE UP BITCHES! 🚨

———

When I take Donatello into the bathroom, I gesture for him to sit up on the long sink counter. I begin to get medical supplies as he climbs up.

"Can you take your hoodie off for me?" I ask.

"I uh... I don't know..." he says shyly, "Maybe I shouldn't take it o—"

"Donnie..." I say softly.

"Okay okay fine." He carefully takes off his hoodie, folds it, and places it next to him.

The front view of him seems okay. There were a bit of scratches and bruises but nothing too severe.

Although, I already knew where most of his wounds will be. "Can you turn around so I can see your shell?" I ask.

He nods, "I must warn you, it's not going to be pretty..." He stops dangling his legs from off the sink counter and sits crisscrossed. Slowly he uses his hands to turn himself around revealing his shell.

My eyes widened and a gasp escapes my mouth, "H-HOW ARE YOU STILL STANDING?!"

It was the most horrendous sight! His shell looked swollen and was covered in bruises and open wounds that seeped with blood. And some sort of thin metal pipe was pierced through his shell.

"Told you it wasn't pretty..." he says tiredly.

"I didn't expect it to be this bad! I can't believe you'd hide something like this and pretend it's all fine! Wounds like these need to be taken seriously!" I say as I quickly open up the first aid kit and pull the essentials out.

Donnie doesn't respond.

"Donnie?"

"I'm used to it... I can't endure as much as my brothers a-and I don't like slowing them down so..."

"So you've become accustom to hiding things like this?"

He nods, "It doesn't happen as frequently as you think it would. My battle shell solves that problem most of the time. But when it doesn't, I take care of my soft shell after the fact."

"Your brothers really care about you though— surely they'd—"

"You don't get it. That's the problem, they care too much. I can't have them worrying about me in combat— they can barely think straight in general! It's better if they don't know, trust me. As long as I have my battle shell on, they won't worry about me as much. My tech and intellect has to make up for everything I don't have so they'll forget that I'm not as strong as they are."

Damn, I would've never known how hard it was for him. That's probably another reason why he didn't want to go home tonight; he didn't want anyone to see him like this.

I sigh, "You're way too hard on yourself. I understand where you are coming from but keeping this struggle a secret might get you killed. That's your team and your family, believe it or not but you all have strengths and weaknesses regardless! And look how far you've come, clearly you've proven you can handle just as much as they can! That should be enough for them to have faith in you and not worry as much."

Donnie opens his mouth to say something but nothing comes out, you had a point. He pouts."I'll... I'll think about it..."

I nod my head in approval, "Good."

"Thankyou..." he says quickly.

"No problem." I say with a slight smile.

I prepare a sanitized cloth, I was about to place it onto his shell but I stop myself.