Season 3- Episode 1- The Next Day
—-Hey guys! Welcome to the third season of my fanfiction! Thank you so much for reading my story :D I would like to specify, in case any of you have gotten confused while reading the story, that the plot itself is not in a specific point in the timeline of the original show, and therefore some details are slightly different when it comes to the order of the events. Also, this is the season where the main story begins! The aftermath of learning about Donnie's secret identity. Do not forget that you can read this story on Wattpad as well! Now, the story begins!
—-It was now morning. Only yesterday the story about Donnie was revealed to him and his brothers. Since Donnie closed himself off in his room after the patrol where he found out about the secret and until now, they didn't do any ninjutsu training, due to the whole situation… Being messy. Splinter decided when Donnie told him that he found out about his parents that the best thing to do was take it easy since he understood that his son had learned something shocking about himself. Luckily, although everyone knows the full story about their brother now, their father allowed them to rest for today as well, and digest the news that they received yesterday.
The day started off awkwardly, since the brothers were still processing everything. Donnie could barely focus on anything. He hardly responded when someone referred to him as he simply stared at his laptop's screen, unfocused, as he sat with his family in the living room. His brothers weren't really focused either. They sometimes glanced at Donnie awkwardly, with the news still being on their minds, as Donnie was too distracted to notice their glances. They were mostly quiet as each of them kept themselves busy, doing their own thing, in order to keep their minds occupied. However, they never managed to clear their heads as the conversation from yesterday kept replaying in their heads.
It was easy to notice that yesterday had affected Donnie the most, as he was simply staring at nothing, with a blank expression, without doing anything at all. However, everyone felt like the situation was too heavy for them to bring up, which is why the lair was filled with silence for the first time in a while.
Everyone, aside from Donnie who wasn't really paying attention to anything, felt unnerved by the uneasiness that was in the air. It was as if you could cut the tension in the room with a knife.
At some point, Raph felt too annoyed and unnerved by the awkward silence and decided to break it himself when he realized that no one else was going to do it. He was known to be impatient about things that bothered him, after all. And everything, which was both the uncomfortable atmosphere and the story that he found out about yesterday, was bothering him. However, one of the things that bothered him the most was how off Donnie was acting. Although it was understandable, given that this whole situation is about him, it was still sad to see Donnie in such a big shock. That is why Raph decided to try and converse with the brother who was struggling because of everything that was happening the most.
"Hey Don, what are you doing?" Raph asked as he sat beside Donnie, looking at his computer's screen. Raph frowned as he saw that his suspicions were actually true, and that Donnie wasn't looking at anything in particular. It was kind of obvious by looking at Donnie's face during the day that his head wasn't in the game at all.
"H-Huh?" Donnie directed his gaze at Raph as he took some time to realize that the question was aimed at him.
"Oh, I'm… Just thinking." Donnie replied awkwardly, being surprised by the sudden disturbance that broke the silence.
Mikey and Leo looked at the two of them with interest as they listened in on the conversation while staying in the sidelines.
"About what?" Raph asked curiously as he crossed his hands while staring at Donnie, waiting patiently for his answer.
Donnie took a few seconds as confusion washed over him from the sudden questioning. He knew that deep down, Raph was actually a softie when it came to people that he cared about, but the fact that he was the first one to ask him about what was on his mind was a bit surprising.
"About the… Situation." Donnie replied shortly as he nervously scratched the back of his neck while looking away from Raph.
"Well… What about it?" Raph asked, hoping to get Donnie to open up a little as he slightly leaned in toward him from his sitting position.
After a few seconds of processing his thoughts and thinking about how to put them into words, Donnie replied hesitantly with tiredness being present in his voice.
"It's just kind of crazy and… Scary?" Donnie mumbled quietly, keeping his answer as short as possible as he looked down at his hands. Usually, Donnie was the type of person that keeps his emotions to himself and barely addresses them in front of others. Mostly because he was just shy or because he didn't really know how to address and deal with negative emotions in the first place. However, lately it was basically impossible to hide the way that he was feeling and act as if nothing had ever happened. But, he did feel a lot better given the fact that although he was found out to not be exactly like his brothers, and actually showed his family that he was struggling, they were there to support him.
"Dudes! Finally someone is pointing that out." Mikey replied, agreeing with his older brother while looking at him with wide eyes as stress laced his voice.
Donnie looked back at him, feeling slightly caught off guard. 'I understand why he would think that everything that was happening was crazy… But why does he find it scary too?' Donnie thought to himself, slightly puzzled. 'Shouldn't I be the one who is afraid of the consequences of my origin?'
Noticing the dumbfounded look on Donnie's face, Raph decided to further explain what Mikey was saying, with sadness that slightly managed to appear in his tone as he frowned. "Yeah, we all feel that way, Donnie." Raph sighed as he added, "Although you are probably having a harder time than us."
Donnie's gaze shifted to the floor as he felt tiredness wash over him.
"I guess…" He said awkwardly as he fiddled with his hands.
"You can always talk about it with us, Don." Leo said as he walked over to Donnie and put a hand around his shoulders, giving him a side hug while wearing a comforting smile. Leo felt happy that he could finally contribute to the conversation. He felt a little useless by just staying silent until now. As a leader, he should help his brothers and teammates that are in need of it, after all.
Donnie looked at Leo as he slightly returned the smile for a few seconds. However, his smile fell as uneasiness appeared on his expression. "Yeah, I know… I'm just trying to digest everything, like you were doing." Donnie bit his inner cheek as he clutched his hands together in anxiousness. Talking about emotions was never his thing, so being put in the spotlight made him feel exposed and unnerved.
"Which is totally fine." Leo replied confidently as Raph nodded in agreement. They noticed that Donnie was uncomfortable, but they knew that this conversation was too important to ignore. Donnie needed to understand that whatever he was feeling was normal and that he could turn to his family for help.
"To be honest, dudes? The mood felt super awkward this entire day. Silence isn't for me." Mikey said as he looked much more relaxed now that they were finally talking. He was always energetic and preferred it when the atmosphere wasn't quiet or dull, so it was a huge relief for him now that everyone started socializing again.
"You guys wanna watch something? To distract ourselves from everything." Raph asked, smirking in anticipation of finally having something interesting to do and lifting up the mood.
"Yes! Finally! I'm making popcorn!" Mikey nearly yelled in excitement as he ran in the direction of the kitchen.
"Watching TV sounds good right now." Donnie said, looking at his older siblings as he finally relaxed and smiled happily.
Leo and Raph returned the smile as Leo's eyes suddenly brightened up.
"Oh! I know what we can watch-!" Leo said in excitement until he was cut off by an uninterested Raph.
"No." He said with a bored expression.
"What?! You didn't even hear what I was going to say!" Leo said with an offended tone.
"I have a guess as to what you were going to suggest." Raph said with an uninterested tone as he lifted an unexisting eyebrow.
"It's kind of obvious, Leo." Donnie said, chuckling.
Leo huffed, crossing his arms as he looked away like an angry child.
"Fine, you pick something to watch, Donnie. Since you deserve it." Leo mumbled in dissatisfaction.
"Eh, surprise me." Donnie said, shrugging.
Mikey ran over, holding two bowls full of popcorn. He sat down to be with his brothers as he was smiling in happiness.
"Finally! We are doing something fun!" Mikey exclaimed with joy as the rest of the brothers mimicked his happy expression.
'Maybe this day could be relaxing after all.' Donnie thought to himself, his body relaxed as he smiled in delight.
Besides, they could all use a break every once in a while. Especially now.
—-This is the end of the chapter! I hope that you liked it :D Also, in case you didn't notice, the name of this fanfiction is actually a stupid pun about Donnie's gap that I came up with for the story's title. I swear that I'm not stupid xD Okay maybe I am. Anyways! Please tell me what you think of my story :)