TMNT x Reader | Boyfriend Scenarios

6| When He Longs For You - Donnie

//Donnie//

A voracious reader, Donnie loved to immerse himself in the world of stories. While some would argue that he lived a life all his own likely to be found within the pages of someone's favorite action novel, Donnie craved what he couldn't have.

Sure, maybe he had the brains and the agency to be the mastermind behind intricate puzzles of life and death, forcing characters through their mind-bending arcs. Or yeah, he had the skill and agility to be the indispensable source of help that the main character needs to enlist to defeat the formidable antagonist. And hey, maybe he even had a mind to be the shy, awkward nerd that people find weird at first, but grow to value.

But here's the thing, there was no reality for him in which he could be those people. These lives represented the unattainable. Things he could never be. But he could read and project onto the characters, pretending he was the one bracing for change, overcoming the impossible, braving the storm and receiving the acclaim. It helped that he was who he was. It helped him to better pretend. It was possible for him to fill any of those roles, plausible that he could do what they did.

Except there was always one aspect of every novel he read that left him feeling distant from the characters he imagined himself to be. An underlying plot that flowed through each story where the possibility of which was so remote for him that it was impossible for him to feel as though he could even pretend to understand the feeling.

Everyone knows it's there. It's inescapable. Some love it, others hate it, and people like Donnie wish they knew a life like it. The Romantic Subplot.

Imagining himself with another person was hard when he relied so heavily on pairing his attributes with those of the characters. He didn't really feel like he had any that were loveable.

The characters whose lives he purported to live did have something he didn't. They had the ability to live freely from the scorn of society. And with that ability came another to meet people, and fall in love, and be loved in return. An ability Donnie did not possess.

His mirror's image reduced all of that strictly to his imagination. He couldn't rely on who he was to be loved, so the more sexually tense scenes left a lot to be desired. And especially at a time like this, it sucked.

Donnie, stretched-out on his bed, one leg folded lazily over the other, held a book above his head as his other arm laid idly across his abdomen. Reaching another of these romantic scenes, he placed the book open-face on his plastron and let both hands slip up his face, rubbing his eyes. Then he let his hands fall to his sides, and his neck, too, let his head favor the left.

His gaze caught on the ground. Piles of books surrounded the far corner of his bed, each with a unique and sensual depiction of young love he'd never be able to resonate with.

Before, it hadn't bothered him so much. Underneath himself, he was aware of how depressing the reality of a lack of love truly is, but he had more or less come to terms with that reality. He realized that the likelihood of someone loving him the way he was was astronomically low. And he'd learned to live with it, despite a part of him always wanting to be someone someone else wanted.

But things were different now. Now, there actually was someone in the picture that he found himself deeply infatuated with, so the iconic subplot hurt all the more.

Now that he had a girl in his life that he held affection for, he imagined her as his love interest, as opposed to the faceless figure he'd mostly ignored while reading. But the hard part was that once he'd inserted her into his story, it was no longer his. He was once again just a mutant turtle behind a book, not the handsome, exciting protagonist Y/n had fallen in love with.

It killed him.

He rolled over, putting his hands together beneath his cheek, and crossing one leg in front of the other as he lay on his side.

This inadvertent mental separation between him and his character imitated the physical one between him and Y/n. Donnie was smart, he knew that deep down this was his subconscious' way of telling him that he and Y/n weren't going to happen... Maybe he just had to learn to accept that...

But then again, he had never felt anything like this before. This curious kind of adoration for an incredible girl who, upon first meeting him, didn't run.

In fact, she wanted to stay. She wanted to get to know him. She canceled on plans and reserved her whole night for him. She talked to him about the stars, his family, and about who he was as a person. And now, she was his closest friend, and they made every excuse to see each other, even if it meant waking the other one up at four in the morning to see Venus.

The planet of love. There was a reason Donnie wanted them to see it together. When he'd found out it would be visible, he immediately thought of only one person he'd want to watch it shine with.

That night was one he'd never forget. It almost fooled him into thinking - for just a moment - that Y/n wanted him too. There was a time that night when the world stood still, and Venus cast her opalescent glow on them both, harnessing an elusive magic that charged the darkness with a heightened intensity. Donnie had Y/n in his arms, and she was holding him close all the same. Eyes locked, lips inches apart, unknowingly, they'd been deep in the throes of all those scenes Donnie avoided in his novels. They'd made their own.

And Donnie, at least a little part of him, was sure that in that moment, they'd been united under Venus' spell. Marked as destined for one another. And that maybe, if what'd he'd seen that night held any real weight with Y/n, one day, they would be together. And they'd have their own story-book chronicle of love.

So Donnie rolled back over. And he picked the book back up. And he continued reading. Out of willingness to hold out hope for the future and a desire to bring that night back to him, he read on. He resumed his role in the story, and kept Y/n close beside.

Somewhere along the way, his eyes grew heavy. The noise from beyond his door died down, indicating his brothers' resignation to their bedrooms. And the tale of Donnie and Y/n left the page, transcending from the world of stories, to that of dreams.

Before Donnie knew it, he had fallen asleep. The book was collapsed on the floor by the others, open to the last few pages. But inside Donnie's head, Y/n remained. This time though, not as a book character, but just as she was.

Her head rested on Donnie's chest, with her fingers gripping the strands of his mask. Together, they looked up at the night sky. This time not at Venus, but at the deep and brilliant blue of Neptune.

A/N: Surprise! You didn't have to wait an eternity between updates again! (I will try my damnedest to get Mikey's out before a week passes lmao). Thank you all so much for reading, voting, and commenting, especially those of you that've left really sweet messages complimenting me on my writing. It honestly makes my day. I hope all of you are having a good day/night :)