Questions

I.

"Can I ask you a question?"

I stopped typing, my large fingers lingering over the keyboard. I sensed April standing right behind me and the tone of her voice made me nervous. I could already tell the question wouldn't be about what I was working on or why the Kraang Communication Orb hasn't picked up any signals lately.

Glancing over to the side, April stepped into my line of sight. She was still holding the screwdriver I asked her for earlier when I was fixing the centrifuge after Mikey tried to use it to make pizza shakes.

"U-um…" I stumbled over my words, sneaking a peak back to my computer and the code I was writing. It would have to wait. I wouldn't be able to concentrate on the rest even if I told her to hold off until later. I lowered my hands to my lap and pushed my chair back, "Shoot."

April leaned against my desk, "Would you still be a ninja if you didn't have to be?"

The question caught me off guard and I found myself rubbing my neck uneasily, "Uh, well…I never actually thought about it before…"

"Well, I mean…this," April pushed herself from the desk and waved her arms around the room to emphasize her point, "This is your specialty, Donnie. There's nothing you can't do in here. I've seen you work for days at a time on something even though the lack of sleep could slow you down in a fight. So, I was just wondering…if you were given a choice to stop fighting to focus all your time on science…would you do it?"

As she looked down at me and I looked up at her, I wondered if it was some sort of rhetorical question. But the harder she stared at me, the more I realized she truly wanted to know.

I scratched my chin, "Well…doing science all the time does sound like the dream," I noticed how she rolled her eyes but then smiled softly, "I've tried inventing stuff before to avoid fighting and it didn't turn out too well, so…"

She shook her head, "No, say you guys defeated the Kraang, and Shredder, and…and everyone else and there was no need for you to keep practicing ninjitsu. Would you give up the training?"

I couldn't help but pick up on the passion in her voice and it made me curious, "Why do you want to know so bad?"

A light blush flickered over her cheeks and her eyes suddenly held complete interest on the screwdriver, "Just wondering…"

It sounded like she wanted to say something more but nothing came. I saw that she was starting to feel a bit awkward at being questioned about her enquiry, so I finally just went with it.

"My initial response is to say no, I wouldn't give up ninjitsu because when we're all on a mission, the other guys expect me to be able to hold my own even when I'm trying to disable a device or close a portal, so I wouldn't want to put extra pressure on them by being helpless. But since you threw in the condition that all our enemies were defeated, my next response is to say yes, I would give it up to focus on science. I know I'm not the best ninja and there's no way I'd ever be able to surpass Raph or Leo, but with science…everything just clicks, ya know?"

I didn't notice I was rambling until I stopped and we were left staring at each other again. There was a shine in her eyes and, to me, it indicated true interest. Was she really that fascinated in my answer? But when she opened her mouth to respond, I cut her off:

"However, you did mention that I can sometimes work for days at a time. I can do this because of my ninja skills. The exercise and discipline help with concentration. If I stopped, I would become sluggish, thus tiring more quickly."

"So you would still be a ninja even if Splinter came in right now and said—," April straightened and clasped her hands behind her back, putting on her best impersonation, "'Donatello, my son, from now on, you do not have to practice with your brothers. Instead, you may focus on your lab work'—?"

I chuckled, "Hey, that was pretty good."

"Thanks!"

"Yes, I still would."

"Good."

"Good?"

She grinned, "Well, like you said, if you didn't exercise, you would become sluggish," she reached out and grabbed my arm above my elbow pad, "and lose your muscles. We—you wouldn't want that, now would you?"

I felt a blush heat up my face at her words and her touch, and chuckled nervously. I was relieved when her laugh matched mine. She pulled away quickly and used that same hand to push a few strands of hair behind her ear.

"Okay, I'll let you get back to work now, Donnie. Sorry for disturbing you," April finally set the screwdriver down on my desk and grabbed her backpack. I watched as she headed for the door to my lab.

"You can…disturb me anytime," I found myself calling to her and was surprised when she turned around with a huge smile that lit up my world.

"Ditto!" She must have thought she sounded fatuous because I watched as she turned back around and slapped her forehead, mumbling some nonsense about stupid, stupid, stupid—nothin' better than 'ditto'…

She disappeared out the door and I was suddenly left with my own question. Was the reason she asked the ninja question because she was trying to get to know me better? Or because she was bored and was curious for no real reason? And why did I have to think this hard about an innocent question anyway?

By the time I asked myself this last question, I realized I went over my one question and I was suddenly creating an essay exam. I suddenly wanted to ask April something that would help me get to know her better as well. I wanted to know more about April; the non-kunoichi-in-training, psychic-Kraang-power April. I felt terrible. Did I even really know her at all? Did she know me?

I pulled myself back to my computer and stared at the coded screen.

I needed to change my game plan. I was going about it all wrong. The next time I saw April, I swore there would be progress.

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AN: Thanks for reading! I plan on making more chapters (if that didn't seem obvious), so I figured I would take some requests for questions if any of you are interested. Each chapter will have them asking a question (next chapter will be for April). So if you want me to write a chapter about anything specific, please let me know!