it's you i like! (jonatello)

the beginning

A/N: sorry this chapters gonna be a little bit boring/short but i promise it will get better!!!

donnie woke from his dreamless sleep to discover he was back in the blanket-nest he had constructed the night before. blinking sleep from his scarlet eyes, he groggily climbed up out of the big cocoon. he looked at his surroundings.
the tv was on some infomercial about dishwasher detergent, the rest of the living room was pitch-black except for the tv and the dim light on in the kitchen, and april lay sprawled out across the couch, her lithe frame rising and falling with each unconscious breath.
donnie didn't know how or why he liked her so much. she was gorgeous, sure, but she was so smart, too. he never thought he would meet someone who was almost as smart as him, but look where we are.
and then, his eyes landed upon casey jones. donnie's sworn rival, the hotheaded punk teenager who wouldn't just back up. they had gotten a little closer over the short period of time that they knew eachother, somewhat agreeing to be friends. but casey and donnie still despised each other, and it was all because of april. the two were both madly in love with her, and were constantly fighting for her approval.

she seems clueless, donnie thought but didn't want to think. how can she really not see how much me and casey compete over her?

he immediately shook his head and cleared this thoughts. he was under no circumstance allowed to think poorly of april, not ever, even if she was a human, even if she said terrible things to him in the past.
with one last hostile glare at the sleeping casey, donnie fully emerged from his nest and started making his way towards his lab. suddenly, a sharp pain exploded from his ankle and fizzled out into a lingering ache. he flinched, remembering how hard he had landed on it the night before after a bad fight with some kraang-droids. grimacing in pain with each step, donnie slowly and carefully limped into his lab.

he gradually opened the sliding door as to minimize the harsh, screeching noise it emitted. walking in, donnie caught a glimpse of the poster he had made charting every possible way to make april hang out with him. it was a clever plot, but ultimately, he had never come around to actually making use of it. probably a good decision, especially considering how upset she was when her father got mutated. donnie folded up the paper and slid it into one of his desk drawers, probably never to be opened for a long time coming. he figured he might as well keep working on that retro-mutagen, at least while he still could, since there was probably no chance of him going back to sleep. but as he worked, donnie's mind kept going back to casey. he kept forcing himself to think terrible things about him, but something deep down didn't hate him as much as he wanted to.

the harsh sound of glass breaking snapped him back to reality. while lost in his thoughts, an empty beaker had managed to slip through his claws and fall to the ground. he hissed through his teeth, wincing, hoping that the sound hadn't woken anyone.

he nearly jumped out of his scales as he heard the lab door open behind him. he turned, bracing himself for whatever the other had to say to him.

"what are you doing?" it was april.

"oh-uuh- hey april! uh- just working on the retromutagen, why?"

"it's eleven o'clock at night. you go work in the morning. for right now, go to sleep. i know your sleeping habits fucked up." she growled.

he sighed. he knew it was true, after all. he said goodnight to april and, leaving the pile of broken glass to be cleaned up later, went back to bed.
_______________________________________

A/N: this chapter hurt me to write bc i dont whatsoever ship apriltello so dont yall say i never did anything for you 💀
p.s. next chapter is super gay so stay tuned 🙏✨️