"What'cha doin', April?"
Michelangelo's voice broke her train of thought, and she lowered the book to find him staring at her with big blue eyes and a childish smile. She might have been annoyed that he had interrupted her studying, but she knew he didn't mean to be a bother. He was simply curious. So she rolled her eyes teasingly and smiled.
"I'm studying for my French test next week. I've got a lot to catch up on," she told him, hoping he would take the hint and leave her to her textbook.
Unfortunately, Mikey did not understand subtlety. He swung around the couch to look over her shoulder, and squinted at the paper. She turned her head to quirk an eyebrow at him, and he shook his head. "Man, it's like a whole new language!"
Despite her annoyance, April laughed. "Well, that makes sense, considering it is a different language..."
Mikey shrugged. "Still."
Leo burst into the room, in a rush, and plopped himself down in front of the TV. "Guys! It's Space Heroes time!"
Raph walked in behind him, rolling his eyes. "Do we have to watch this every night?"
Leo shushed him harshly, and Raph rolled his eyes once more, sitting down on the couch. "Eh," he shrugged. "It's not like I have anything better to do until patrol."
There was no way April could concentrate on conjugating french verbs with the guys in the room, so she closed her book and stood, resolving to find someplace in the lair where she could study in peace and quiet.
She peeked into the lab, where Donnie was studiously fiddling with his microscope, muttering softly to himself and jotting notes. She knocked on the door frame.
He didn't look up from his work, but called out, "come in!"
April walked over to the lab bench. "Hey," she said, and he looked up quickly, nearly knocking over the microscope with the sudden movement. Once he had made sure it was okay, he gave her a sheepish smile. "H-hey, April!"
"Do you mind if I study in here? I've got a big exam next week and I can't exactly concentrate with the guys watching Space Heroes in there."
"Yeah!" He replied enthusiastically. Then he winced at his show of emotion and lowered his tone. "I mean, uh, yeah, sure."
"Thanks!" As she turned away, she rolled her eyes, smiling to herself. He was such a dork.
As April did her studying, Donnie kept sneaking glances at her. He knew that his experiment required full attention... but he liked how her nose scrunched up when she was concentrating. He liked that she absentmindedly chewed on the end of her pencil. He liked the way she mumbled to herself while she read. Was she mumbling in french? He squinted at the book. Yes, he decided. Definitely french. And by the sound of it, she was having trouble. If only he knew some french... he would definitely help her with her studying. Besides, the textbook was one for second year français...
It was never too late to learn.
The next few days, he made as much time as he could to study. It had only taken him a month to be conversational in spanish, so another romance language shouldn't be too difficult. Plus, he was much more motivated to learn this one. When April came over, he would ask what she was studying. If she was studying french, he would offer his assistance. She might even be impressed that he spoke it! She knew he was multilingual, or at least bilingual in English and Japanese, but he had quite a few languages up his sleeve.
He set back to conjugating verbs... parler, donner, visiter, imagining her thanking him for his help... maybe she'd even be grateful enough to offer a hug... or a kiss! His face grew warmer, and he flipped through his notes with renewed vigor.
He woke up, later that afternoon, hunched over his lab bench with drool on his notes. Someone was shaking him awake.
"Hey, drool boy, wake up!" Raph's rough hands shook him again.
"I'm awake, I'm awake," he groaned back. He sat up and yawned, stretching backwards with his hands to the ceiling.
"We're getting ready for patrol soon. What's all this?" Raph asked, indicating the papers strewn about.
Donnie began frantically gathering them into a pile, realizing that if Raph knew what he was doing, he'd never hear the end of it. "Oh, it's nothing," he lied. "Just some science stuff. Nothing you'd be interested in."
"Hold on," Raph said, picking up one of the papers and staring at it. "Is this french? With... doodles of you and April holding hands on the side?"
Donnie balked and moved to grab the notes out of his hand, but Raph jumped back. "Ohhh, I get it!" He said slyly. "April was studying french the other night, wasn't she!" He began to laugh, dodging out of Donnie's way every time he lunged at him.
"Give that back!" Donnie demanded. Raph kept laughing, but he put the paper down, not really wanting to invoke his brother's anger.
"Alright, alright. Don't get your panties in a bunch, I'm just teasing ya."
Donnie seized the paper and set it on top of his stack. Then he sighed. He knew Raph would tell the others, but there was nothing he could do to stop it. He resigned himself to this fact, and trudged off to join the others in preparation for patrol.
As it turned out, cracking Kraangdroids proved to be a very good distraction. Fighting with his brothers was the most natural thing he could imagine, and he stood back-to-back with Leo, twirling his bo staff.
"So," Leo yelled over the clamor of battle, laughing. "I hear you're learning French."
Donnie whirled around, slamming another robot with his staff as he did so. "Really? You're bringing this up now?" He yelled back.
Leo slashed with his katanas, and a metal head bounced to the sidewalk. The alien inside the suit was ejected, and it flew at Mikey, who whacked it away with a swing of his nunchucks.
"Hey!" He protested. "Watch where you're throwing these things!" Then he ducked out of the way as another bot swung at him. Donnie intercepted it, swinging his staff like a club and knocking the head clean off. When the brain-creature leapt out, Raph threw a punch at it. It scuttled away in fear.
The four turtles stood, breathing heavily, as the creature's enraged cries faded into the distance.
Donnie glared at Raph, though he knew this would come.
"I think it's sweet," Mikey said, and Leo and Raph burst into a fit of laughter.
Donnie fumed, trying not to take their bait, and turned to walk back to the shellraiser.
They followed, although at a safe distance, making kissy noises and taunting him about the "language of love," but one murderous glare was all it took to get them to stop and mutter their apologies. They might like to taunt Donnie, but they knew when enough was enough.
That didn't stop them from occasionally snickering when they thought he couldn't hear, though.
The next day, April came with her backpack full of books, and Donnie hoped the others wouldn't say anything. He darted back to his lab before she could see him, and the other brothers were sitting around the TV. Just as he figured, April came and knocked on the doorframe.
"Hey, April," he said, storing the last of his french notes in a bin beneath the desk.
"Hi Donnie!" She cheerfully replied. "Mind if I take a little time to study in here?"
"'Course not," he told her. As she situated herself on the couch, he asked, "what are you studying?"
She sighed. "French. I just can't get it right. And my test is in a few days."
This was his moment. He had rehearsed, and he wasn't about to stutter or blush. "Well, hey, uh, I know some french. I could help you study, you know, if you want." Success, he sounded cool as a cucumber.
"Really? I didn't know that! That'd be great, thanks!"
Score! His plan was working perfectly. Now he only had to hope he had studied the right things.
He sat down next to her and picked up the textbook, checking to see what she was learning. He nearly sighed in relief when he saw that the chapter was on irregular verb conjugations.
"Okay, hold on," he told her, rising from his seat and walking over to rummage through his drawers. He eventually pulled out a pack of multicolored index cards and markers. "Ceux-ci pourraient aider." These might help. (Okay so maybe he had heard that girls like hearing guys speak french. After all, it was the language of love...)
That night and the few nights following, Donnie helped April make flashcards, conjugate irregular verbs, and pronounce words that he had only learned a few days ago. They sounded much prettier coming from her lips. He could listen to her say s'il vous plait and parlez-vous français for hours.
And even if April wouldn't admit it, she kinda liked the way it sounded when he asked, "besoin d'aide?"
The night before her test, they went over her class notes. She recited the conjugations of all her vocabulary words, with perfect pronunciation and spelling, of course.
"Très bon," Donnie told her. "You'll ace that test for sure!" They were seated very close on his couch, and he could feel the warmth radiating off her. He wished he was warm blooded, too.
"Thank you so much, Donnie, really. This means a lot to me."
He could only let out a delighted (if dorky-sounding) chuckle as she stood up to leave for the night.
Maybe if he was braver, he would have hugged her or something, but all he said as she walked away was, "tell me how it goes!"
She smiled back at him. "I will!"
As she climbed out of the sewers and walked back home for the night, she clutched her book close to her, wondering why she felt warmth seeping into her skin while the air was so chilly. She smiled at the sky, shaking her head slightly.
He might be a dork, but he was her dork.
The next day, she ran into Donnie's lab after school, a big smile on her face. He looked up from his work, and her smile brightened his world.
"Did it go well?" He asked.
"Pfft. 'Did it go well,'" she scoffed, sarcastic and teasing. She pretended to examine her nails. "Highest score in the class, one-hundred percent!" Then she looked up at him, the giant grin on her face as she wrapped him in a hug. "Thank you so much, Donnie! I couldn't have done it without you!"
He stuttered unintelligibly, frozen in shock at first. But when she didn't let go, he recovered slightly and put his arms around her as well. "You're welcome, April."
"Oh, taire et embrasse moi," she said slyly, looking into his eyes.
Shut up and kiss me.
Had he heard her right? Was it just wishful thinking?
Apparently not, because she lifted herself onto tiptoe and closed her eyes, her face tilted upward, and pressed her lips against his.
Maybe he had turned to air, he felt so weightless. Or maybe he was fire, for he felt intense heat coursing through his body. He might have even been struck by lightning, because he was feeling more sparks now than that time he accidentally touched an exposed wire while building metalhead. A dozen sensations flowed through them as he kissed her back, the world and his thoughts falling away until it was just April, just her lips on his.
When she finally pulled away from him, he felt like the air had been sucked right out of his lungs. She batted her eyelashes and gave him a flirty smile. "Next time I have to study for french, you're the first one I'll call." And with that, she turned on her heel and walked out to the TV room to join the others.
Donnie wasn't exactly sure how long he stood there, gasping like a fish out of water, but one thing was for sure: french was definitely the language of love.