Disclaimer - I own nothing.
It was 2012 and Donnie just procured a copy of Orc Blades and Human Swords. He had been following development for a year now and couldn't wait to start it. He had carefully planned out his character design - the alchemist, of course - and even hunted down what gear he would use for the next fifty levels. His free time would definitely be preoccupied.
He installed it on a freshly repaired computer and immediately dove in. He was shaking with excitement the first quest he did. He got to level fifteen without even breaking a sweat. Definitely caught the attention of a few players who asked him to join their guild. He declined and travelled solo, reaching level thirty before lunch.
When he got back from grabbing a quick sandwich, he had gotten several friend requests. He accepted them all, but only one started messaging him. They claimed to be called Marian and asked if he had a mic. He figured why not, scrounging around for a table mic he had. He found it and plugged it in before contacting this MaidenMarian29.
"Hello?" Her voice came through the speakers. "Hello Mr. NinjaScientist15."
"Hi, MaidenMarian29," he said, smiling slightly.
"You should make a character named after Robin Hood. Then everyone will know we're a team."
"What? I just got this character leveled up! And I just met you. Why should I?"
"Because we're team awesome. Plus I'm only 10, so you would catch up easily."
KDonnie, while finding this entire thing a little weird, couldn't help but laugh and agree to do it. He made N1njaRob1nHood and met up with her on a private server. Her avatar stood there, playing the idle animation of picking her tusks.
"So, I'm Marian. What's your name?"
"Donnie."
"Cool! We can name the next private server after us then, once we get up to higher levels of course."
He couldn't quite figure her out but whatever this girl was, he knew he liked it. He smiled to himself and followed her avatar into the pixel sunset.
It had been three months since the incident with Shredder and Sacks. April managed to get another job reporting, this time being allowed to chase leads by a very understanding boss. She was grateful for the second chance, not to mention now she had the addition of getting info from her friends when they could help.
The turtles and their master were going strong. While nothing as big as the Foot clan had terrorized the city, the gang of ninjas still found plenty of gangsters, hoodlums, and even a mafia boss or two to deal with. They kept up their training as usual, but always found downtime. While Michelangelo and Raphael tended to skate through the sewers and explore the night world above, Leonardo worked on his perfection in martial arts and some lovely landscape paintings.
Donatello had shrunk back into being a recluse, but today, he was showing April one of his favorite games. While not as fascinated by video games as he was, she felt she needed her own escape once in a while and this would work.
"Come on, April! You'll love it!"
April frowned as she stared at the screen Donnie kindly sent up for her. It was what he called an MMO, something something Swords. She felt bad for not remembering. It was obvious he was excited to teach someone how to play. She took a seat, grabbing hold of the mouse.
"Okay, when you get to the screen to pick your server, pick the private one called D&MForever," he said. "You'll be able to meet my friend M too! She said she would help out with getting you leveled up. She's a pretty good gamer."
"D&MForever? Donnie, do you have an online girlfriend?" April teased.
He blushed and quickly sat at the desk across from her. He handed her a headset.
"No! She's just a friend… It was her idea for the server name."
"What's her name?" she asked as she created her character.
"Marian. Her screen name is MaidenMarian29. I'll be N1njaRob1nHood."
April shook her head at the screen names. She wondered if he noticed their screen names matched or if he was just too shy to admit it. She finished making her character – a male orc barbarian dubbed little_J0N so she could fit in – and entered the server. She started off in a small town with no other players in sight save for a green-clad human alchemist and a blue troll woman in white cleric robes.
"We ready to play?" a feminine voice asked, coming through the speakers of the headset.
"Yup!" Donnie said, adjusting his headset. "Good to hear you, M! Thought you were dead for a little while."
"Might as well have been with how life's going," she said with a chuckle. "Good to finally see you in avatar form, April. Love the overbite."
"Thank you. Love the tusks."
April smiled and their quest began. In only an hour, she rose from level one to level twenty. Though she supposed with two level eighties helping her, she would of course rise quickly.
"Doing good for a noob," Marian said with a laugh. "You should play more often! D and I have need for a good tank."
"While I do like this, I think I better take it slow to keep hold of my social life," April said. "You know how addictive these things are."
"Oh we know!" Donnie said happily. "Our longest streak was three days straight with two three hour naps in between sessions and fifteen minute breaks every two hours for bathroom and food."
"Holy crap, that's a lot of gaming."
"We do our best," Marian said. "We're team awesome over here!"
April noticed Donnie typing on his screen with Marian. She thought it was cute how excited he was to talk with this girl. She had never seen him this ecstatic unless it was about technology. She turned back to her screen to run away from higher-level monsters.
"So how old are you, Marian? Have you known Donnie for long?"
"M, please. All my friends call me M. I'm twenty-one and I've known him for two years. You?"
"Twenty-eight and only a few months," she said, feeling incredibly old. She was amused that Donnie, despite his grand stature and matureness, was just barely eighteen and chasing after a woman three years older than him.
"Hey M, want to have a raid, later?" Donnie asked. "We can do a low-level one to sell some of the big items on the auction house."
"Sure! I actually need to skeedadle soon, but I'd love to have a late night raid. Shall we role-play our characters like usual too?"
April laughed out loud at Donnie's face. From his expression and way Marian said it, their role-playing was a little more personal. She clicked on the menu button, trying to find a way to save. Meanwhile, Marian had already logged off.
"Smell ya later, suckers! See you tonight, Donnie," Marian said and then made a kissing sound before ending the chat.
"Not your girlfriend, huh?" April said slyly. "Do your brothers know you 'role-play' with her?"
"Please don't tell them, April!" he begged. "They won't let me live it down otherwise!"
"Only if you help me get off of this screen. There's no save button."
"April, you don't save MMO's. You just log off and then start back up where you were when you sign back on."
She shook her head at her own silliness and logged off. She took off the headset and set it on the monitor. She stood up, going over to Donnie and patting him on the back.
"Go get her, tiger,"she said teasingly before walking away to find the others.
Donnie smiled and went back to his game. However, he didn't realize that all three of his brothers were eavesdropping. Mikey was snickering, Leo was pretending to disapprove at their actions but his smirk said otherwise, and Raph grinned evilly.
"We gotta catch him in the act! Role-playing with his girlfriend," Mikey said. "That would be so awesome!"
"We need to find a way to hook up his headset to a speaker or something so we can hear what they're talking about," Leo said, rubbing his chin. "Got to set up a second screen too, so if there's anything typed we can see it."
"Should be easy," Raph said. "Google's your friend, right? And we can always snatch up that Vern guy and make him do it."
"Nah, brah! We got this!" Mikey smacked Raph on the shell.
The three broke off to get supplies for their scheme. Leo helped get April out quickly so she wouldn't be a distraction. Mikey procured a second screen and second set of speakers, though he dodged Leo's questions on where exactly he got them. He did promise he didn't steal them, at least. Raph lured Donnie away with a broken TV. He claimed he was just practicing juggling his sai when it happened. Donnie didn't quite believe him, though he was more concerned about fixing the tv quickly.
Leo and Mikey quickly set up the wiring and led it to the next room. They hid it underneath some bamboo rugs and stashed the screen and speakers until the time was right. A few hours later, after they had evening practice with Master Splinter, the four supposedly went to do their own things. Donnie went straight to his computer, turning everything on and putting his headset on.
The three rascals quickly set up their own station. They grinned when the speakers worked, turning it down just enough to that Donnie wouldn't accidentally hear. Leo got the monitor working and they were able to watch the game play.
"Lord Dominus, we meet again," Marian said, her character walking up to Donnie's
"Dominus? Oh god, this is gold," Raph snickered.
Leo smacked him then shushed him.
"Ah, hello Lady Maeve. How lovely to see you again," Donnie said.
In the chat box, he typed up "kisses hand" and he made his character bow. His brothers broke out into quiet giggles ad started hitting each other to shut each other up. This continued for a little while, the two online players getting more and more into it as the time passed. They even had a dramatic scene where Donnie's character died and Marian grieved over him, only to have his character respawn and the lovers reunited.
Leo, Mikey, and Raph could barely contain themselves. Mikey was covering his mouth with both hands. Raph pinched himself repeatedly to stop his laughter. Leo had to put himself into a brief meditative state so he could stop snickering. It was reaching the two hour mark when Donnie paused his game.
"It's getting late, M," he said. "I'll need to head to bed in a bit."
"No! Donnie, how can you leave your poor little Maeve all alone in the cruel world?" She said dramatically.
"My lady can easily handle herself."
"True that! I'm just... I guess I was hoping for a little more tonight."
"More?"
"The role-playing is fantastic, but I want it to go farther."
Mikey's eyes went wide and Leo's jaw dropped. Raph could feel the heat from Donnie's face radiating into the room they were in.
"I-I don't know how, I mean that's really... Um, uh... Okay."
"We should probably jump in now," Leo whispered.
"Noooo! Boobs, Leo, boobs!" Mikey whined.
"I'm with Mikey on this one. Let it play out a second," Raph said with a smirk.
Leo sighed and turned back to the screen, feeling guilty that he was happy that he was outnumbered.
"I'll go first," Marian said. "Then you go-wait, you still don't have a webcam, do you?"
"Yeah, I'm sorry," Donnie said. "You really don't have to if-"
The screen switched and there was a video chat open. On the screen was a round-faced woman with two streaks of baby blue in her platinum blonde hair. She was smiling, sitting up straight and showing off her shirt. It was just white, but it showed the floral print of her bra underneath.
"Nice to meet you at last, stranger," she said. "Now you know I'm not a crazy, fat cat lady."
Donnie was eerily silent. Mikey bounced in excitement. Marian hummed a light-hearted tune and slowly pulled her shirt over her head.
"I vote C's," Raph said.
"Damn, dude, I think she got D's!" Mikey said. "Leo?"
"...C's," he said quietly.
She got the shirt over her head, gingerly tossing it to the side. Mikey pumped his fist up in the air, silently celebrating winning the vote. She kept humming, staring directly into the camera. She leaned forward.
"Want to see them, Big D?"
Mikey laughed loudly at that, then immediately went quiet. Raph and Leo snapped their heads at him, giving him wide-eyed looks. He cringed.
"Oopsie..."
"Marian, I greatly apologize for this," Donnie said almost robotically. "But I think we got other onlookers and I need to beat some heads. I'll get a hold of you tomorrow."
Marian didn't get a chance to respond. Donnie yelled out in fury as he sprinted through the door and tackled the nearest turtle, which happened to be Leo. Three were so surprised at this uncharacteristic outburst that they failed to react fast enough. He quickly whipped out his Bo, extending it and knocking Raph in the jaw before swinging and hitting Mikey.
"You goddamn motherfuckers!" He yelled angrily, taking another swing. "How long have you been here?!"
"Calm down - ow! - Donnie! We didn't mean any harm!" Mike pleaded, diving away to get out of his reach.
"Mean any harm?! I was finally getting to see her and you three idiots had to spy on me! Can't I get one break from you guys?"
"Stop hitting me with that stupid stick!" Raph snarled, then promptly got hit again in the jaw.
Leo grappled Donnie, managing to get the Bo staff away from him. With Raph's help, they pinned him to the ground. He roared and flailed around, trying to break free. The chaos paused when Marian, still on the screen, whistled.
"Donnie, I can hear you're fighting. Forgot to take your headset off again, probably," she said. "Look, don't be embarrassed! Just do whatever you need to do then come back. I'll be patient."
She smiled before pursing her lips together and blowing him a kiss. Donnie panted, staring at the screen. He glanced up at Leo.
"Let go of me, please," he said.
Leo and Raph let him go. He stood up, readjusted himself, and calmly walked away. A minute later the screen just shut off and the speakers made a clicking sound as they were unplugged.
"That was interesting," Raph said, almost chuckling.
"Let's leave him be," Leo sighed. "We've done enough looking today."
Mikey started to sneak towards the room but Leo grabbed him by the back of the shell and hauled him away.
Donnie was humming the same tune Marian did at breakfast. He happily made pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs for everyone. He served the first plate to Splinter, followed by the rest of his brothers. He ignored Mikey's knowing smirks.
"You are happy today, Donatello," Splinter commented.
"I bet he is," Mikey snickered.
Raph kicked him under the table, silencing him quickly. Donnie grinned at Splinter.
"I guess I just slept really well, Sensei!" He said and finally sat down next to Splinter to eat. "I feel energized and ready to do anything right now!"
Splinter nodded slowly and took a bite of eggs. He dabbed his whiskers with his napkin.
"Does this have anything to do with your online friend?" He asked.
The table went quiet. Leo looked at Donnie to see his expression change from surprise to fury. He glared at his brothers then looked at Splinter.
"How did -"
"I have known about this for quite some time. However, your brothers are not as subtle as they should be and that's how I know about the recent events," Splinter said and gave each of his other sons a pointed look.
Donnie looked down at his plate, poking at his food. Splinter reached across and put his hand on top of his son's.
"Donatello, I am happy to see you so happy with your friend, but I beg that you express caution. She may soon have questions for you and I do not want you getting hurt."
"Marian won't hurt me, Sensei. She... She's not like that. Plus I only just yesterday saw her in person. I think both of us are on the side of caution."
"Heartbreak can happen on both sides, my son. If she becomes worried about not seeing you, she will start questioning her trust in you. It would hurt her as much as it would you."
"Sensei, I promise I'll be careful." Donnie finally looked at him, gently pulling his hand away. "Forgive me, but I'm not hungry anymore. Excuse me."
He left the table and made a beeline to his computer. He sat down, put his headset on, and immediately checked to see if Marian was online. She started a video chat with him. He smiled slightly when she came into view.
"Hey baby!" She said happily. "Get a good night's rest, I hope."
"I did," he sighed. "But... My dad kinda caught me."
"Oh god, that's awkward. Did he walk in while you were..." She made a jacking-off motion with her hand.
He turned red but kept his composure. "No, he just caught my brothers and I fighting. I guess he saw the end of what they did. He gave me a little talking to a bit ago."
Marian giggled and gave him a sympathetic smile.
"I can show you something to make you feel better, if you want," she said and raised her eyebrows. "A little dance never hurt anyone."
"Not at the moment, I'm sorry. I just kind of wanted to talk to you," Donnie sighed and leaned back. "You are truly my longest relationship with a girl and... And yesterday was the first time I saw you. It got me thinking on what's next."
"We elope, duh! Perfect plan, I say."
"Big leap for a girl I just saw yesterday."
"I like my relationships how I like my sex, big build up then ending in a giant fiery explosion."
He snorted and laughed at that.
"Plus it would give me the perfect chance to finally escape this hell."
"Escape?" He grew concerned. "Why would you need to escape?"
She just waved him off and kept smiling.
"I'd want a beach wedding. We should go to Hawaii."
"Marian, why would you need to escape?"
The blonde sighed and shrugged. "You really want to know? I'll tell you, but you got to do something really quick for me."
He bit his lip and agreed. Marian got up, walking away from her computer just enough that the cord to her headset still had slack, about five feet.
"Back away from your screen, please."
Donnie stared in confusion and didn't move. He heard muffled yelling in the background being picked up by the mic. Marian grinned and ran forward. His monitor began crackling, blue and white electricity shooting out and frying everything near. He let out a cry of shock then was hit with something heavy and squishy . He went flying out of his chair, landing on his shell on the floor.
"Woo! It worked, babe!"
Donnie groaned and adjusted his glasses. He froze at the sight of Marian. She was completely naked, her hair floating in a static-charged aura. She bit her lip and started squirming on top of his plastron.
"Mmm, you're even cuter when it's not through a screen," she said, leaning down and kissing his lips.
"M-Marian...?" Donnie said weakly.
"Donnie, are you okay?"
Leo came rushing into the room and stopped short at the sight of the naked woman. Mikey followed, also stopping abruptly. His mouth flapped open and close like a fish. Marian grinned at them and waved.
"Hi, boys!" She said, standing up and getting off of Donnie. "Do you happen to have any clothes?"
On a side note, I've finally got the chapter looking the way I wanted to (after editing a good ten times it seemed). Took forever. See you next time.