TMNT One-Shots

Donnie x Child!Reader: Friendship is...

He wouldn't say that he found you. Nor would he say that he had rescued you from the Kraang or the Purple Dragons or The Foot. In fact, it was quite the opposite. You had found him. And you were so small that it was rather incredible that you were unafraid of the large villainous creatures around you. That you were smiling as you scampered up to him, giggling and tugging on his bo staff.

Even more a surprise had been that you kept finding him and his brothers, everywhere. In the middle of patrols, in the middle of fights. You were drawn to them like a moth to a flame. And a very hot, dangerous flame at that. But you had never been afraid.

"You can't keep her, Donnie." Leo had reasoned one night as they all sat in the lair on the beat up, stained couch. It had definitely seen better years.

"I know but..." It was difficult to find the right words. How could Donnie explain the attachment he felt towards you? The responsibility he felt on his shoulders to keep you safe from the world? You were just a child, sitting there and playing with your stuffed toy that Mikey had found in a bag one night on the side of the road by the alleyway. "I can't just tell her to leave."

You looked up, staring at the masked creature. "Leave? No!" Those words were all too familiar to you. They spoke them often. "I wanna stay with Donnie!" You dropped your precious stuffed turtle and hugged around Donnie's neck, small arms reaching around as much as possible. "When I go home to mommy and daddy, I tell them all about you! They say one day I will have to say goodbye." You hated that word. Goodby.

They said you had to say goodbye to your pet turtle, Shellie, because he went to a happier place. But you missed Shellie. He had liked to crawl all over the floor and play hide and seek! Mommy had always gotten scared when you played hide and seek though. "But I don't want to! Donnie is my best friend!" Who else would play with you?

Other kids thought that you were weird.  They were just stupid, and didn't like the same games that you did. Some of the older kids called you a liar because you told them about your friendship with Donatello the turtle who was a ninja. So no one ever wanted to play with you. It was lonely sometimes, but you always had Donnie right there. Afterschool you told your parents you were at Jessica Martin's house, but you weren't. Instead you crawled into the sewers and went to see Donnie.

The first few times you went it had been stinky, but now it was not so bad.

"We aren't saying you can't come visit us." Leo began, already using the tone that made it obvious he was going to try to persuade you to listen and agree. "I just mean that you can't stay here forever. Your mommy and daddy would miss you." He made sense though, and you nodded in agreement. Mommy and daddy would be sad if you never went home. And you would miss them too.

"Okay." A shrug, and then you picked up your stuffed turtle and decided you wanted to go see what Raph was doing. He was always doing something cool. You often visited him when Donnie was working with the Mutagen - he did want you to get mutilated, he said.

"You know this is bad for her. Being with us all the time. I know you guys are friends and she loves you like family but Donnie she is a human child. She is going to get hurt being around us." That tone again.

Donnie knew he was right but didn't want to believe it. "What's wrong with her visiting? She has been safe. She feels safe here!" It was not a good reason to keep her from her own type of people and he knew it. But for once he felt like someone truly cared about his ideas and what he talked about. He felt appreciated. And he knew you felt happy and like you found somewhere to fit it, even if it was among mutated turtles and a rat.

"What if Shredder finds out about her? What then, Donnie?" A question. A challenge. Not something he had not thought of before, but hearing it aloud and from his older brother was a slap in the face.

"We can protect her. We protect April. She is no different!" You were his friend. His child human girl who asked him questions about his experiments and called him superhero smart. Even compared him to someone called Iron Man. You called Raph the Hulk, which no one understood but you.

"Hate to agree with Leo, I really do, but he has a point Donnie." Raphael's voice piped up as he walked in with Spike in his hands. "She deserves a normal life. To fit in with people her own age and her own kind." Were they telling him to say goodbye? He couldn't.

Act like you made them up? As if they were your imagination? Figments of your childhood to be remembered as fictional? Donnie was not sure he could accept that, even if everything they said had a valid reason and made perfect sense. Even if.... even if it hurt to think you could be better off without being a part of his life...

"She's just a kid.... she won't understand. " A last ditch effort that sounded weak even to his own ears.

"I know, bu-"

"AHHHH!" Your scream pierced their ears, and they reacted at the speed of sound. Donnie moved the quickest of the three, pinning your voice to the exact location of where you were.

What happened? Is she okay? She went to play, but with who? He couldn't calm the nerves in his gut. When they reached you, the sight made him swallow. Curled in the corner of his lab, you were covered in goo.

"It's sticky and stinky get it off!" You had found the sample of a new experiment of his. It was for April to protect herself when the Kraang attacked and she was around. She was learning, but she still could not fight very well. He didn't want her to be without some sort of safety. The plan was to put it in some sort of collapsible object he was also in the process of building.

A sigh of relief came from his brothers, followed by a pointed look from Leo. He swallowed. "You know not to come in the lab." That could have been much worse. Just some harmless sticky goo. He could hear, "this time" echoing in his head.

"I know but I was looking for my Donnie notebook!" You pointed to the sketchpad you had gotten so you could try to draw Donnie to show your friends at school. Your mother said it was for your nice friend lady who was called a therapist. She liked your pictures a lot.

"Alright here you go. Now let's get out of here." Donnie wanted you out of the risky lab. He began to usher you out after grabbing your notebook for you. You nodded and followed behind, only to trip over your own shoelace and fall into a shelf.

"Ow." You picked yourself up and brushed yourself off. You studied a lot of what Donnie did. He was your best friend. You had to prove he existed to your mean friends at school who did not believe you, and who insulted Donnie. So when he helped you up, you grabbed onto his shell.

The turtles were half asleep in the lair, you curled on Donnie's lap. It was the weekend so you could stay over, which he knew was a bad idea. He didn't realise he had passed out until he felt someone shaking him excitedly. "Donnie wake up! Donnie I did it! Donnie guess what!" Your voice had him slowly rubbing his eyes to wake up. He yawned, and looked at you. "I can be with you guys forever now!"

Before him you stood.

"Y/n?!?" He woke up his brothers with his shout. "What did you do?"

A mutated child turtle.

You even tore your pink dress to make a jaggedly cut mask, like theirs. A huge smile on your face.

A/N: I tried to play with this a bit. Try out a newish and different style...thoughts?