Chapter Three. The Date

After what felt like an eternity, when it was really only about a day and a half, Valentine's Day had finally arrived. Donnie spent the early part of the day making sure his gift worked as anticipated, wrapping it, and then warding off the teasing of his brothers. Splinter had even let him out of the entire day's sparring sessions, so that he wouldn't be all bruised up for 'the big date'. Finally, the clock struck 5:45 PM, signaling the time for Donnie to meet up with April at the park.

"Here goes nothing." He said, taking a deep breath, and then he headed for the surface.

"Sorry Irma, something came up." April said, talking to her...for lack of a better term, friend, over her T-phone, as she sat waiting on a park bench. "I know we were supposed to go see a movie, but I accidentally made plans with someone else." She kicked at the ground lightly as Irma replied. "No, it is not a guy. Well...okay, it kind of is, bu – hey, stop yelling!" April pulled the phone away from her ear as her friend launched into a tirade of accusations about April finding a boyfriend before she could.

She sighed, rolling her eyes as she kept the phone held away until Irma calmed down. Irma was her friend, but she could really be exasperating sometimes, especially when she got into her 'man hunter' mode. Hearing the line go quiet at last, April brought the phone back to her ear. "Look, it's not a date, I promise you that. I just made a promise to hang out with him for a while today, that's all. ...Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow." April smiled. "All right, I'll bring that CD over for you to borrow. And don't you dare tell Vernon about this, he'll never stop hounding me then." She threatened her friend – that was the last thing she needed, was for that snobby Vernon Fenwick to start hounding her for a date again.

"...U-Um, sure, all right. I'll see if any of his friends would be interested in dating you. Or even his brothers. O-Oh, I didn't mention he had brothers? A-Anyway, gotta go. Gotta go. Bye Irma. No, I've got...bye!" She said, finally hanging up the phone as Irma went into another spaz-out moment upon learning that April's 'date' had brothers. She could only imagine how well that'd go over with the guys, if she introduced them to Irma...though she had to be a better option for Leo than Karai at least.

She sighed, and put the phone back into her pocket. Suddenly, a hand touched her shoulder, and she gasped, grabbing hold of it and flipping the person over her back to the ground in front of her.

"Oww!"

She gasped again as she saw it was Donnie. "O-Oh, it's you! S-Sorry Donnie." She said apologetically, helping him back up. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah." He said, rubbing his head and trying not to blush as he felt her skin contact again. "Not exactly how I want you to say hello every time we meet, but I'll be okay."

April laughed weakly, then froze. "How long were you standing there?"

"Standing where?" Donnie asked quizzically. "I just got here."

"Oh, okay." So he hadn't heard her on the phone. Phew.

"Anyway, um...what do you want to do?"

"Good question." April asked, not really sure what they could do. It wasn't like she could take a humanoid Turtle to see a movie. Or...could she... "I've got an idea."

April had managed to find a rather run-down theater that wasn't likely to have very many patrons, and had bought herself a ticket, and then found a back entrance for Donnie to sneak in through. They hadn't had a lot of choices for things to watch however, and they ended up watching an old movie called 'Surf Ninjas'.

"You have got to be kidding me." Donnie sighed, shaking his head. "This is just so...corny."

"Give it a break, it's from the 80's." April laughed, shrugging weakly as she got some more popcorn out of the bucket between them and ate it.

"I know, but I just can't buy that one guy as a martial artist, at all." He said, pointing at the screen. "I mean, look at him! He looks more like a...a pizza delivery boy, or something."

April laughed again, and turned back to the movie. A short while later, she reached into the popcorn bucket again, only to feel Donatello's hand on hers. She jumped slightly and looked back over at him, noticing how red his face was as he pulled his hand back. "S-Sorry!" He apologized quickly.

"It's okay." She said quietly, taking a piece of popcorn and putting it into her mouth quickly, and she focused on the screen. As she saw his hand go back into the bucket then, she squeezed her eyes shut momentarily and tried to clear her senses. She wasn't stupid after all. She could tell that Donatello had some kind of feelings for her. She just wasn't sure exactly how she felt about that fact, much less how she felt about him.

On one level, she was immediately balked by the idea, and almost sickened. She was a human, and he was...well, there was no way around it, he was a Turtle. A reptile. They weren't even anywhere near the same species or anything.

Every time she thought this way however, she instantly felt guilty about it. That kind of attitude towards Donnie almost seemed racist in a way, and that was just wrong. He was more human than he was Turtle anyway, wasn't he? The fact that he had feelings for her at all proved that. So shouldn't she be able to see past that, at least to the point that she could figure out exactly how she felt about him?

Pushing those thoughts aside completely, she tried to focus on the movie again. She didn't have time to figure out any of this anyway, she still had to figure out where the Kraang had taken her father this time, and what they were up to...everything else could come later.

"See, that wasn't so bad." April said as she had met up with Donnie again, outside of the theater, and the two of them had gone back to the park. This time they were at a small bridge over the top of a small creek though, leaning over the edge and looking down into the water.

"Yeah. Anything beats Leo having the TV on Space Heroes constantly." Donnie joked, laughing nervously, and he tried to stifle the laughter when April only smiled. He cleared his throat and looked up at the sky, desperate for anything else to say. "The moon sure is pretty tonight."

"Huh? O-Oh. Yeah, it is." April said, looking up at it, then back to him. She darted her eyes away immediately when his eyes turned towards her. She couldn't look him in the eye, but she would have to. On the walk back over, she had come to a decision. She had to find some way to let Donnie down gently, to tell him that she had too many things going on right now to think about anything with him or anyone else.

"The uh, the moon's light is pretty too. Look at the way it's glowing off of that flower down there." Donnie said, pointing to a flower on the bank of the creek. "...It's the same color as your eyes." He said, closing his own eyes and not daring to look at her for her reaction. Just as she was struggling to tell him it wouldn't work, he was struggling to get up the courage to say what he needed to say.

To April however, this just made things worse. He's not making this very easy. She sighed mentally, unsure of how to respond to his words. A silence fell between them then, as only the crickets around them chirped.

The dam of awkwardness would break finally, as April turned to face Donnie with her eyes closed. "Look, Donnie, there's something I need to tell you. I-"

"Wait, um...I had something I wanted to give you first." Donnie spoke up at last, reaching for a small pack that was on the side of his belt tonight, and pulled out a small box.

"What?" April blinked, looking at the box, then she held her hands up before her. "N-No, I really need to tell you this first Donatello."

Donatello could almost sense what she was going to say. He was about to lose, but he couldn't let all of his hard work go to waste. No matter what she had to say, he had to give this to her, and he knew he'd wimp out if she spoke first. "Please, just take this." He said, holding the box out to her.

April looked at it again, and sighed weakly. She took the box from his hands, and started to open it. She could tell him after opening the gift if he wanted her too. She wasn't the type to be swayed by presents however, and she'd feel guilty if she accepted, so she'd just have to return the present to him after seeing what it was.

Her eyes would widen as she finally removed the lid and looked inside. It was a watch, a very nice looking one. And inside the clock face...was a picture of her father.

"It's not much, but I um...wanted to give you something for coming out here today. You know, on...on uh..." Donnie cleared his throat again. "On Valentine's Day. E-Even if this isn't, you know, a date, I figured you could be with anyone you wanted to, so, uh...thanks."

"...I-I don't know what to say." April said, awestruck as she looked at the picture of her father. How had he even gotten one? Looking closely at it, she recognized it as a picture that was in many articles online. Regardless, her father was smiling as he often did even in press photos, and seeing that, when her most recent memory of his face was it shouting in terror...it was more than moving.

Without thinking, she put the watch on her wrist, and stared at it again. The moon would glint off of it, striking her in the eye, and it snapped her out of her stupor. She still had to tell him. "Donnie, I...I can't..."

"Oh, wait, I almost forgot the most important part." Donnie said, pointing at a red button on the side of the watch. "Press that button."

Without replying, April reached and pressed the button. Suddenly, a song began to play, and she gasped, the hand shooting back over her mouth. "T-This is..."

"It's that song that you put on Mikey's MP3 player." Donnie said softly, a smile on his face. "I remembered that you said it meant a lot to you, so I put a small speaker with it on there in the watch."

The song was more important to her than Donnie knew. This song always made her think of her father, because they sang it together on a karaoke machine ever year on her birthday. They'd done this every year since she was little. As she listened to the song, which was the only noise in the air now, small tear-drops would form in her eyes and begin to slowly roll down her cheeks.

When the song eventually ended, Donnie noticed the tears, and after hesitating, he reached out and gently wiped the tears away with a finger. "Um...d-do you like it?"

April nodded with a sniff, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand to finish drying them off. Her voice came out in a croak at first. "I-I do. Oh Donnie, I love it. Thank you...this is one of the most amazing things someone has ever given me."

"I'm glad." Donnie smiled, and he stood up, rubbing the side of his neck with one hand. "Um...Happy Valentine's Day, April." He said weakly, smiling and showing the gap in his teeth. April looked up at him and for the first time, noticed that the gap made him look rather cute.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Donatello." She said back, lowering her hand after one more glance at the watch. "Oh w-wow. It's a lot later now than I thought it was. My aunt's going to be calling the cops to look for me pretty soon."

Donnie laughed, and walked over to her side. "Want me to walk you home?"

"I think I can take care of myself. I am a kunoichi in training now you know." She smiled.

"O-Oh, right." Donnie said with disappointment, as he'd been looking forward to spending a little more time with her. "I guess I'll talk to you later then. Be careful walking home though, don't forget there are some ninjas out here that aren't as friendly as me." He said, waving to her as he started to walk away.

"What, Raph's out for a stroll?" She smiled back, and waved to him. Then, her hand slowly lowered, and she fidgeted. "...Wait, Donnie."

"Huh?" He stopped, turning back to face her. As he did, his eyes widened again, and he watched as she moved towards him, seeming as if to be in slow motion to his eyes. Her face approached his, her eyes closed, and his did briefly out of nervousness...and then he felt her lips on his cheek. They seemed to linger there for a long time, as he felt the soft feeling of them against his skin...and then she pulled away.

"...Thank you Donnie. Really." She smiled, her face bright red, and then she ran past him, heading for her apartment.

Donnie stood there a moment longer, completely frozen in place with a face redder than Raph's mask, and eyes bigger than should be possible. "S-S-She...She...kissed me..." He reached up, and ran a hand over the cheek, then he stopped for fear of rubbing off the feeling of her lips.

"She kissed me...she really kissed me..." He said joyfully, his hands moving to his side as they curled up into fists. Jumping lightly, he pumped one of them into the air, and screamed out for the entire world to hear. "BOOYAKASHA!"

Little did he know, the whole world listening included April, who had just reached the street in front of her apartment. Hearing his voice, she looked back towards the park, and smiled. As she walked up the steps to her aunt's apartment, she thought to herself that maybe she had room for something else in her life other than the search for her father after all.

THE END

And that brings this little story to it's conclusion. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

If you can't tell, I'm a major, major fan of this pairing, and I tried to debunk a lot of the things going against it during April's thoughts in this last chapter. A lot of what people bring up as why they couldn't be a couple is actually a pretty poor reason when you think about it, and could be taken in an extremely bad way if this were real life. I'm sure people don't mean it that way, but my point still stands.

Oh yeah, and obviously I tried my best for this story to be canon to some degree, but Irma and Vernon, if we ever see them in this version of the series (outside of Irma's very small, non-character cameo), they may turn out extremely different from my portrayal here. So please keep that in mind in the future.

I guess that's all there is to say. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Advanced Author Notes

As a fan of a lot of different authors and entertainment mediums, I always enjoy when the creators take the time to de-construct their work and show what went into various parts of it's creation, as well as listing any references someone might have missed. As such, I like to do the same myself, as a service to any readers out there.

- As I said before, this story was originally meant to be just a one chapter one-shot, but things ended up developing into three distinct arcs (the set-up; the planning; the date), culminating in this final chapter that...feels a little brief to me honestly, but I didn't want to drag it out just to extend it either. Maybe I should have a little bit though...
- Ahhh, Irma. There's so much fertile ground they coud use her for in this new show, that I had to use her again. And she technically DID appear in episode 11, 'Mousers Attack!'. Hopefully Nick's take, if we ever do actually see her, will gel with what I did with her character here.
- Reference #7) Vernon Fenwick was April's annoying cameraman in the 1980's original cartoon of TMNT. If they're gonna bring Irma back in, I really hope they bring him and Burne in too, so I had to reference Vernon as well. Hopefully Nick's version, if he comes in, will fit with what I did too.
- Irma's possible interest in one of the Turtles comes from an in-joke me, my girlfriend, and another friend of ours have. We just think it'd be funny to see Irma have a thing for either Mikey or Raph, as a direct opposite of the Donnie/April relationship.
- April's flipping Donnie over her shoulder was done to show her actually doing something combat related instead of just DODGING. That's my one complaint with April so far in the show, they're not really showing much of her development as a fighter despite her apparently training with Splinter.
- I almost made the old movie they see 'Critters', as a reference to Raph seeing it in the live action movie, but I opted not to since...I've never seen that movie myself. I would have been really limited in what I could say about the movie because of that. As for the movie they DO end up seeing...
- Reference #8") Ah, 'Surf Ninjas', such a great corny relic of the 80s (or was it 90s?). I had to use it here, just for the sake of referencing Ernie Reyes Jr. having been in it, by having Donnie say he looks more like a pizza delivery boy - a role he did play in 'TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze', as Keno. Despite my joke though, I believe Reyes is actually an accomplished martial artist from what I remember reading.
- I really wanted to get into April's head in this chapter, since we normally don't get much with her in the show thus far, and what little we do certainly isn't from her point-of-view. She has a lot going on in her life right now, so I really wanted to try to examine a lot of that from the inside out.
- At last, the gift is revealed! I honestly had no idea that it was going to be a watch until about halfway through chapter 2, so all of the 'hints' were retroactively added. That might explain how awful they are actually. I was happy with what it turned out to be though, as I think it feels like a legitimately sweet gift without seeming like it's trying too hard, at least to me.
- Speaking of the watch still though, remember Raph's comment about Metalhead in chapter 2? That was in part just a reference to the character's status in the show, but it was also a little poking fun at myself. I really DID briefly consider having Donnie's gift be a watch that either somehow turns into a mini-Metalhead drone that could save April in a pinch, or having it summon the real Metalhead to April, like some kind of mecha or...something. Yeah, both ideas were awful, so I nixed them pretty fast.
- The song isn't really meant to be anything in particular, and probably isn't really that 'sweet' of a song or anything. It's just something that holds a lot of importance to April's father and herself. Thus, it remains unmentioned what the song's title is. That and, I suck with music and couldn't think of anything that fit.
- Just a small bit of aborted plot, or script, rather: Donnie's comment about there being other ninjas out there that aren't as friendly almost contained a reference to the Kraangdroids too, but the line felt too unwieldy and didn't gel as nicely with April's retort, so I nixed that part.
- A bigger part of aborted plot however, was the idea that this chapter would have some more combat in it. Again, this is NINJA Turtles, so I really felt like maybe Donnie and April would run into some kind of trouble along the way. Nothing major that lent itself to becoming a huge thing, like the Foot or Kraang (though I did briefly consider Dexter Speckman - er, Baxter Stockman), most likely thugs like the Purple Dragons or something. This idea was nixed once I realized how long the story already was now, and because it just didn't seem to fit with the sweet vibe I was wanting to go for in this last chapter, though it probably would have made it feel more like an actual episode. I think the final nail in this idea's coffin though was that a lot of it came from the stray idea of Metalhead re-appearing in some capacity, so once I cut that, this had to go too.
- The kiss Donnie gets is ripped right from the pages of my own life, and was put there as it was as a memory for my girlfriend to re-visit with me when she read it. It really played out a lot like that, though I was left dumbfounded for a lot longer (so it felt anyway) before excitement finally pumped through me, heh.
- There had to be at least one Booyakasha somewhere, right?
- And so, the story ends without April and Donnie being a 'couple' per say, but with lots of hope for the future. This isn't really leaving room for a follow-up fanfiction though (not saying there CAN'T be one, but I have no current plans for it I mean), but is more of a way to keep the status quo. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it.