Author's Note: Hey guys. Around this time of year is 'Homecoming' and I decided to make a special one-shot based on it. This is based after the 2012 season 1 finale and before 'The Good the Bad and Casey Jones'. Hope you guys enjoy!

Never Knew I Loved You

April let out a clearly annoyed sigh as she walked home, Casey alongside to her.

"What wrong, Red?" Casey asked while smirking. "Something got you down?"

She looked down at her feet, taking some time to respond to him. "No, I'm fine. My day is just not going the way I wanted it too, that's all."

She tried to sound convincing, after all, she was lying. She was upset all day because of the stupid rules her father set for her.

She thought about his words in her head, 'You don't understand April! I want you to be safe, I don't want you to risk your life everytime you go anywhere or do anything. I don't want you doing anything after school, just come straight home. Have a friend take you, yeah, have a friend walk you home. I don't want you to go to any friends house's, except the turtles, I know I can trust them. And I know you will be upset with me, but you can't go to the school dance this year. Please try to understand, but after what happened last month with that invasion, I just don't want to risk anything to happen to you.'

All day she was upset about it. She didn't think it was fair for the most part. He did allow her to see the turtles, so, that was a good thing. As much as she hated to admit to herself, she did understand where her dad was coming from, and this made her more upset, but she wouldn't disobey her fathers only wishes for her.

But no homecoming!? That's what upset her. She was a high school sophomore after all, why wouldn't she want to go to the dance after all? 'I'm probably the only girl who is not going,' She thought to herself.

The two walked to their homes, Casey tagging along, going in the same direction as her. They shared small talk, nothing important.

"April are you ready for the biology test tomorrow?" Casey asked while he was kicking a rock with his foot.

"Yeah," She said. "Are you?"

Casey chuckled and said in a sarcastic voice, "Yes. I'm ready for it."

She shook her head and smiled at his comment.

There was an awkward silence until Casey spoke up again. "So,...uh, April, I wanted to ask you something."

April had a feeling she knew what it was going to be and was pretty sure of it, she couldn't believe that she didn't think of what to say before. She nervously responded with, "Yes?"

"I was wondering," He was his hand behind his neck, and was talking in a more confident voice then he was a second ago. "Do you want to go to Homecoming together? Its no big deal or anything."

April stiffened in her stance, although she was slowly walking backward, barely noticeable. "Well, uh, Casey, you see, I… uh, I'm not sure that I'm going to Homecoming this year, I don't really want to go. You understand right?" She put on a clearly fake smile to hide her nervous lying face.

"Wait you don't want to go? Last week I heard you talking to Irma about it," Casey questioned.

"Yeah well, it's just a whole thing, plus I don't think that it would be a good idea to go wi-"

She was cut off by her shell shaped phone ringing in her pocket. She felt so relieved and secretly sighed in relief. Well, until she saw who was calling her. Donnie. She just decided to pretend it was her dad calling, for Casey's sake. He couldn't know who was calling her.

She answered it immediately. "Hey, Dad! What's that? Yeah, I'm right outside, coming in right now. See you in a minute." She was still standing by Casey.

"Casey I got to," April started. "I'm really sorry."

He shrugged. "It's alright Red. I'll just go someone else, not really a big deal," Casey said, while April felt kind of offended by his comment but continued to listen to him. "But, If you do decide to come, just let me know. I'll cancel on whoever I asked." He joked around and winked at her.

"Alright," April said, her phone against the front of her shoulder so Donnie couldn't hear on the other line. "Bye."

She watched him walk away, still acting like his regular confident self. April waited until he was not near her anymore before finally talking on the phone.

She put it to her ear to hear Donnie on the other line saying, "April, April, hello? Is something wrong? Why aren't you answering? Apr-"

She cut him off. "Hey, Donnie," she said. "No, everything is fine. I'm coming down right now, see you guys in a minute."

"Okay, good," Donnie said before April hung up the phone.

After hanging up she went to her text to tell her dad that she was going to the lair to hang out with the turtles, which later he responded with an 'okay'.

She walked over to the alleyway manhole cover, looked both ways to make sure nobody was looking and went down.

April walked in the lair to find only Mikey on the couch.

"April! Guys, April is here!" Mikey shouted out loud.

Donnie then exited his lab to find her and Mikey sitting on the couch. "Hey April," Donnie greeted her.

"Hi," She reciprocated. "Where are Leo and Raph?"

"Oh, they are in the dojo, probably fighting," Mikey said.

April was still a little upset, although she tried not to show it, unfortunately, failed on doing so.

"What's wrong April?" Donnie asked. "Is everything okay?" He bent down, putting his green hand on her shoulder softly.

"Yeah, I guess," She responded.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm fine. It's just, my dad is being really strict. I can't go anywhere after school, well I can come here, but he's not going to let me go to Homecoming, so that blows," She said clearly irritated.

"Homecoming?" Mikey asked.

"Yes," April started. "It's the school dance. It's really fun...but I can't go."

"Oh, I wish I could go to a school dance," Mikey sympathized with April.

"Yeah, It's really fun. Everyone dresses up, music plays all night, there a slow dance, there's punch and pizza, and everyone has a great time there," She started but ended kinda hopefully. "I wish I could go this year, but I can't."

April started to tell Mikey about the annual school dance, as he kept wanting her to tell him more about it. As she was talking to Mikey about it, Leo and Raph came into the living room, them in the conversation now too.

Donnie listened to her talking about it from the other side of the room, not really having anything to add to the topic as usual, but instead, an idea popped in his head.

Boring was the word to describe April's day at school the next day. Nothing really interesting happened, except for taking her biology test, and Casey didn't really bug her too much. It was more of those more casual days. Not too much excitement there.

After the end of the day bell rung, she immediately got up from her seat to dash out of the door, straight for her locker.

Getting all her books and homework in her bag, she finally had a chance to take a look at her phone, revealing a single text message from Leo: Come to the lair at 6:00. Wear a dress!

Confused, she didn't respond to his text and just walked home.

She did her homework right away. 'Geometry and History. Not that hard,' She thought to herself.

Getting it done early she just relaxed on the couch, eating a snack.

She thought about the weird text she had received from Leo and checked the time: 5:10.

"Oh, what the heck," She said out loud to herself, in a playful voice as she walked into her room.

"Leo are you sure she's coming?!" Donnie asked in a kind of stressed out voice.

"Yes! April's, not the type of girl to just diss us, so stop worrying. She'll be here any minute," Leo reassured him.

"I can't believe we're doing this! I don't even want to wear this thing!" Raph said in a complacent voice.

The four were 'dressed up' each wearing a long tie, matching their masks colors. Raph had a red tie on, Donnie's was purple, Leo's was blue, and Mikey's was orange.

"Oh just deal with it Raph!" Leo rolled his eyes, while his red-clad brother crossed his arms.

"She's here!" Donnie said excitedly, his facial expression shifting into a nervous one with his face turning as red as Raph's mask.

He saw that she was wearing a slightly tight golden yellow dress, the length was a little bit above her knees. Her yellow dress was short sleeve, almost looking like a tank top on the shoulders, but still a little bit on her arms. Her hair was straightened down with her usual matching yellow headband placed gently over her red hair.

Mikey looked at his friend and said, "April you look-"

"Beautiful…," Donnie said interrupting his little brother. As soon as April heard him say that, she gave him a happy smile, he blushed some more.

"Thanks," She said. "You guys look cool too. Now, do you mind telling me why I am here all dressed up?"

Leo walked up to her. "Well, you see, you were talking about how you weren't going to your homecoming dance, and we felt bad," About ten feet above them, a large poster paper released to hang from the top of the ceiling reading: Happy Homecoming!, in colorful letters. "So, welcome to Homecoming!"

"Wow! Thanks, guys, this is really sweet. Who's idea was this?" April looked at the four of them.

"It was mine," Donnie cleared his throat.

"Thanks, Donnie," She walked over to give him a hug, with the surprise he had from this, he still immediately gladly accepted.

"Hey, April! Could I assist you in some food? Preferably pizza, because that's all we got," Mikey said.

April laughed at that and gladly accepted his offer.

"Music anyone?" Raph asked, but without the answer, he put it on anyways.

The music played and the five of them danced and had fun just like how she described it to them not that long ago.

Raph, Leo, and Mikey left to get ready for nightly patrol, grabbing their weapons and such, leaving Donnie and April with the music still on.

With that, the two of them sat awkwardly while Donnie was debating with his thoughts. 'Come on Donatello you can do this! Ask her to dance. You don't know until you try, so come on and do it!'

Donnie finally gave in and backed away from his nervousness and struck up a brave conscious as he got up to walk to her. But as soon as he got up to her he started to get nervous again, but still stuck with his decision.

"Hi, uh, April. I was wondering… if, uh, you know, if you wanted to d-dance?" He asked nervously for the answer.

"Yes! Sure, I'm mean. I would love to," April smiled and grabbed his hand while they started to dance to the hyped up and quiet-loud song playing.

As the two danced the night away in the next few songs, they laughed and had lots of fun, just feeling like normal teenagers in the moment.

"WOW, that was fun!" April said excitedly to Donnie who was standing before her.

"And tiring," He added which made them both laugh a bit.

After the last song that plays ended, a relaxing romantic slow song started to play, setting the tone just right.

"Do you," Donnie started. "Never mind," He said quietly, convinced she would say no to him. He started to walk away nervously.

April quickly walked up to him, put her hand on his shoulder and spun him around, she faced him and tugged gently on his long purple tie.

"Care to dance?" April asked, her blue eyes gazing up to his reddish-brown ones. He smiled as he nodded his head.

The two danced together to the romantic slow song, Donnie's hands on her waist, Aprils hands on his shoulders. Both of them gazing into each other's eyes, the two of them lost in the moment somehow.

The song continued, as they danced around the room together, just them, both smiling and being happy. As the song went on, both of them gradually got closer to each other, at the moment become more than 'just friends'.

When the song faded, they didn't know. For once in both of their lives it felt like everything was right, and like the moment could never end, something special that could not be taken away.

For those moments together, April's eyes were opened. She saw things in him that's she had never noticed before. She saw all the times he had helped her, fought for her, projected her, and overall, loved her. she felt it now. She knew it. Something had changed within her making her only see him, the way he always saw her

For seconds they just gazed in each others eyes, lost in the moment.

She had grabbed the purple strands of his mask and tugged it toward her as she went on her toes to meet his height, his face getting closer to hers. She then took both of her hands put them on the sides of his face and pulled him to hers.

They shared their first kiss. It was full of passion, effortlessnesd, and the strongest love in the world. Even if it was for that moment, they both felt that the world had stopped moving, that time had frozen, just for them. They liked it that way.

Donnie was so overwhelmed with joy, in he had waited more than a year for felt like he was walking on air.

They both pulled away from each other for what seemed to be the length of a full eternity, a perfect eternity, to stare in each other's gaze again, even more compellingly.

"Why?" Donnie broke the silence. "Why did you do that? I didn't think you felt the same way."

She took a moment to respond. "When I now ask myself If I would ever find the percent guy, I said no. But even then I felt like I had something to hope for, but I never suspected I could. But little did I know the perfect guy all along would be right before me, with a purple mask and all. I think that I have always been in love with you Donatello Hamato, just never knew," she finished her short speech.

"I'm sorry," she said, now looking down, a little teary eyed.

Donnie tilted her head back up with his finger so she would face him. "For what?"

"For never noticing how much you meant to me. Sorry, I never showing you the respect you deserved. Sorry for being just your friend and nothing more," she sulked. "Do you...do you think we can change that?"

He looked her straight in the eyes again and said, "Yes."

With this, Donnie pulled her in for a second kiss, even better than the first.

Authors Note: Did you guys like the Apritello at the end? Please review!