This story was inspired by this cute story by a friend of mine about Donnie and April, "Walls" by Adoradork. It made me think more about Donnie's and April's connection, and it led to this. This chapter is some sort of a prologue, as Donnie thinks about his connection to April and connections in general. From then on, I intend on writing about the episodes, to go deeper into Donnie's and April's thoughts by putting some scenes out and explore them a little more. And I intend on writing some sort of missing scenes. I hope you're going to enjoy it. :)

Chapter 01: Connections

She's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen.

With this said, their connection had been set up. From the moment on, Donatello had thought these words, they had been connected. From then on, April O'Neil had been a part of his life, and she was always going to be.

Connections are there, always, and even if they are cut, something else remains in the place, like a cut thread. The thread is still there, it just doesn't connect any longer, but it can't be erased completely. Something stays in its place, like a road that suddenly ends in a dead end. The road is still there. It always will be.

Donatello tilted his head at the thought of how April had entered his life. No, not only his life. All their lives. She was part of their family now, and they all had been going through a lot together. It looked like they were connected, in good times as in bad.

He suppressed a chuckle. Wasn't that part of the marriage vow – in good times as in bad? Had he really just thought that? But on the other hand, what other thing than a connection was marriage after all? Even if he knew it would never happen to him.

Sure, he loved April, more than anything else in the world, but marriage? That was a bit far-fetched, and a wishful dream. No, not even that. How could he dream about something that was impossible? Even if April returned his feelings – and he had no clue of that yet, just hints sometimes, and most of the times not even that –, they could never get married. So while he could dream about April and him being in love and doing all this lovey-dovey stuff these couples in movies did, he could never think of getting married. That April could return his feelings was a possibility, marriage wasn't. And his genius brain refused to waste time on things that could never happen. He had thought about it a little, but only to come the conclusion that marriage would never happen to him and his brothers. It would always be out of reach. And if they would ever experience mutual love was still written in the stars. But at least, this one was a possibility.

Donatello thought of how this one night on the surface had changed their lives forever. If he hadn't set eyes on April at that particular moment, the Kraang would have kidnapped her, and everything would be different now. From the moment he had first seen her, he had felt this connection between them, not only him and her, no, between April, his brothers, his sensei, even the Kraang and the Foot. They all were connected, some bonds stronger than others, but on the whole, it was just a map of invisible threads that bound them all together, some threads delicate like spider webs, some strong as ropes. And he hoped, no, he knew April and himself shared the latter.

As their connection to the Kraang, he had to confess, it was a difficult one. Without the Kraang, he and his brothers would still be ordinary pet turtles. They would never have mutated, they would just live their dull lives in a tank, where the most exciting thing that could happen was feeding time.

Sure, the Kraang were their enemies, and their intentions were one-hundred percent evil, but a teeny-tiny part of him was thankful to them nonetheless. Without them, he would never have turned into a mutant, he would never have been able to do all the things he loved so much like studying and inventing things, he would just be a pet turtle which's brain was run by instincts mostly.

And without them he would never have met April in the first place. Well, maybe he would have seen her, but would he ever have had the courage to talk to her? If the Kraang hadn't shown up and tried to kidnap her – and succeeded in doing so thanks to Mikey's nunchuck – he probably would just have watched her walking down the street with her father and then lost sight of her forever.

And April was connected to the Kraang, just like he was. She was important to the Kraang, she was partly Kraang herself, although they had just found out about this later. If April weren't important to these aliens, he probably would only have seen her once in his life.

But now he and April were connected by the strong rope of their friendship, and then there was this thin thread that connected them through the Kraang.

But connections weren't only a good thing. His sensei's connection with Shredder and the Foot was one of the bad kinds. But again, as deadly as their feud was, without it, Splinter or rather Hamato Yoshi would never have moved to New York, he would never have bought four baby turtles, he would never have fought the Kraang in the alley, and he would never have been mutated – and four baby turtles with him. So even bad connections could lead to something good – or not as bad. It must have been terrible for Splinter to find himself being turned into a huge rat, losing his human life too after all what he had lost already. But without it, would he still have retreated to the sewers and started a new life with his new family of four mutant turtles there? Donatello wasn't sure about that. If Splinter had stayed human, their life wouldn't have turned out like it had. Yes, maybe Splinter would still have taken care of them, no, he most certainly would have, but would their connection be as strong as it was now without the link of all of them being mutants? He wasn't so sure about that.

But he now understood what his sensei had meant when he had once told them that he had still gained something. He had lost everything, but all his loss, all these connections had led to the family they were now. And that, for once, was a good thing.

And the more he thought of it, the more Donatello realized that everything seemed to be connected with everything, there were good connections like friends, and there were bad ones like foes, there were strong ones like love and hatred, and there were weak ones like the farthest link of a reaction chain. But they all were connections.

So this was what this was all about, Donatello thought, a traffic system of well-lit freeways and cart roads, well hidden under brushes and dirt. Some people would do their best to cut connections, to hide them, to bury them as deep as they could, but they couldn't get rid of them completely. The lose end of the thread was still there, even if it didn't lead anywhere any longer. And even the smallest connection that was buried under so many more important things would never disappear. It was still there, it could still be retrieved and turned into a bigger, more powerful connection. And Donatello was sure that these connections – the denial and the enhancement of some of them – was what made them who they were. So this was what really mattered. Connections.