Chapter Three: Aria in the Sewer

Since exchanging numbers with Aria a few days ago, Donatello was being spammed by an abundance of messages. This girl seemed rather keen on keeping in touch and mind describing every moment of her day to the techy Turtle. There was always a 'Good morning,' to wake him up and a 'Goodnight' before she went to sleep. Donatello was having a little trouble keeping up with her to be honest and he found this situation annoyingly reminiscent of his encounter with Bigfoot. Though Aria was not physically there, he had to put his phone on silent so it wouldn't constantly get in the way of patrol or general daily life. It wasn't as if she were being pushy, she just seemed bored. Still, it was a bit exhausting and hard to keep up with her. Perhaps it was his fault. Whenever Aria would bring up the subject of seeing him again, the turtle dodged the question and perhaps it made her feel a bit dejected. He just wasn't sure how to handle this yet.

After meeting with Aria, he had searched his brain for any memory of her, but came up empty every time. When could they have met? She looked like a girl who came from money, so when would their paths have crossed? He was raised in the sewer after all and it took Splinter 15 years to allow them up to the surface. There was one thing however, that seemed to strike a chord. The star charm bracelet that she pulled out to show him; it seemed familiar. He couldn't place it, but something about it felt nostalgic in a way. Perhaps it was just that he was thinking about it too much, but if they did have a connection, that bracelet might have had something to do with it.

Back in the lair, it wasn't just Donatello who found this all curious. His brothers and April could tell that something was going on with him. At first, the turtles assumed he was texting April, but when she denied it, they were back to square one.

"I say we take the phone…" whispered Raphael as he and the others huddled together to make their plans while Donnie worked in his lab.

"Isn't that going a little far," asked April, "we should just ask him who he's talking to."

"That's no fun at all," interjected Raphael, "we take the phone."

As the others whispered in their huddle, they didn't notice Donatello coming up behind them.

"What are you guys doing," asked Donatello as he loomed over the huddle with a suspicious gaze.

The huddled group jumped back with a start and quickly went on the defensive, "NOTHING," they all shouted at once.

Donatello sighed in exhaustion. "You guys are terrible liars."

His Brothers and April exchanged looks, seemingly working out what to say. However, before any of them could explain, an alarm went off in Donatello's lab. The techy Turtle had set up sensors down in the sewers that would sound whenever someone or something might wander a little too close to home. Wasting no time, they rushed for his monitors and once Donatello turned on the screen, they were all shocked to see a rather finely dressed young woman. Her hair was tied back in a braid and the purple sundress she wore was tied in a knot just above her ankles. No doubt to keep the sewer water from staining it in any way. Although her shoes looked expensive and she didn't seem terribly worried about them getting dirty. She held a rather large picnic basket in her arms, struggling to keep it from getting too low, afraid it might dip into the water.

While the others puzzled over what such a girl was doing down in the sewers, Donatello immediately recognized the girl as Aria. The Turtle panicked and quickly stepped back from the group, turned his back to them, and pulled out his phone. He had set it to silent and by doing so, it appeared that he missed a slew of messages from Aria that day.

10:22am
"Hey! What are you up to? My schedule suddenly opened up."

10:40am
"I thought I would try my hand at cooking up a lunch for us!"

11:56am
"I think I made a pretty decent meal. It would be perfect for a little picnic."

12:08pm
"Oh, but you can't come up here for a picnic, can you? That's too bad. "

12:10pm
"I know! I'll come down into the sewers to see you! I'm sure you know a little place that we could enjoy the food. "

12:30pm
"Which Manhole cover would be closest to you? I feel like I might get lost down there."

12:35pm
"Oh! Nvm, I'll just use the one I pushed the gifts down into. Lol"

As Donatello scrolled through all the unread messages, his internal panic began to show on his face. He turned back to his brothers and stared at the monitors with them. He watched with the others as Aria tried to navigate the sewers and seemed to be doing her best not to gag at the smell of it. Clearly, the girl was not used to such aromas.

"What do we do?" Mikey asked Leonardo, turning to his older brother for an answer.

However, before Leonardo could say a word, Donatello sighed heavily and cleared his throat. "I-I know her. ...Let me go and um…talk to her."

His brothers all turned to stare at Donatello in surprise before playful smirks laced their lips.
"You know her?" they asked in unison, leaning in around their brother in curiosity.

Donatello blushed hard and his gaze found April, who didn't seem to be as curious as his brothers. She simply stood by the monitors, staring at the turtles in surprise. A part of him was worried about her hearing all this, but there was a bigger part that hoped she might be a little jealous. Still, he was too embarrassed to try and make this work for him.

"W-we've just been talking a lot. She's like—a texting buddy." Donatello stammered as he tried to explain.

"A texting buddy that also comes to visit you with a large picnic basket for a romantic lunch?" teased Raphael.

Donatello reached his limit and nervously pushed his brothers away from him.
"J-just stay here! I'll go and talk to her!"

"Why not invite her over? We'd love to meet your new girlfriend." Leonardo added with a sly smile.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Donatello shouted as he quickly made his way from the room and towards the exit.

They waited until Donatello was out of sight and they looked at one another.
"We're gonna follow him right?" Mikey asked seriously.

"Duh." Leo and Raph answered in unison before turning to leave. Though they turned back to address their red headed friend. "You coming?" Leonardo asked with a smile.

April stared at them for a moment. It was strange. Normally, she would be teasing Donatello with them and eager to go meet this new girl, but she felt a small pit in her stomach. She wasn't upset or anything, she was just…surprised. Yeah. That had to be it. It was just surprising that Donatello had a new friend that he didn't tell her about. After all, didn't he tell her everything?
April took a deep breath and shook her head to bring herself back from her thoughts.
"Y-yeah, of course!" she replied, trying to ignore the funny feeling in her gut.

In the tunnels, Donatello was rushing to go and meet with Aria. Splinter wouldn't be happy to know they were bringing more people to the lair without discussing it with him and he was not ready for Aria to meet his brothers. He wasn't embarrassed by her, but he wasn't eager for his brothers to keep teasing him about her.
Since he saw where she came in on the monitors, it didn't take him long to find the young woman. He turned the corner to see Aria as she suddenly slipped on a bit of algae and fell on her bottom, dropping the picnic basket.

Luckily, he was fast enough to dash over and catch the basket before it fell into the sewer water.
He sighed in relief once it was in his hands, but a blush rushed to his cheeks once he realized his position. He was standing over Aria as she sat down on the floor, holding herself up with her hands to keep from falling further. Their faces were rather close, since he had to lean over to grab the basket.

Aria stared up at Donatello with a nervous smile, a pink shade tinting her cheeks, causing her freckles to stand out even more.
"Thank you…" she began softly, unable to tear her eyes away from his own.

Donatello flinched and fumbled backwards with a nervous smile of his own. He placed the basket down away from the water and swiftly tried to gather himself, offering Aria a hand to help her up.
"It was nothing."

Aria stared at his hand and slowly brought her hand forward, placing it in his own and allowing him to help her steady herself.
She made no attempt to take her hand from his and smiled up at him.
"I wasn't sure I would see you. Since you didn't answer my texts…I started to worry that you might be sleeping or…training…"

Donatello was all too aware that they were still holding hands, but he felt it would be rude to pull his hand back. He still wasn't entirely sure how to act around girls and Aria clearly had some sort of attachment to him. Though he wasn't sure where it came from or why.
"Oh! N-no! It's just…I can't always check my phone so…I didn't see them right away. You know…it's dangerous for you to come down here alone. You already slipped."

"I don't care about that. As long as I get to see you," Aria replied with a smile, stepping forward and closing the distance between them.

Donatellos shoulders stiffened a bit when she edged closer to him. Her emerald gaze seemed so optimistic and cheerful; he felt a strong sense of responsibility not to upset her.
"W-well…if you want to see me…we probably shouldn't meet in the sewers. You look really out of place and doesn't the smell bother you?" He asked in concern.

Aria blushed a little further, looking a bit troubled now as she pulled her hand from his slowly.
"Do I really?" she asked, playing with some loose strands of hair that framed her face. "I wanted to look nice when I saw you…so I…"

"You do!" Donatello added in a panic, worried that he had said something wrong.

Aria felt her heart jump in her chest and she glanced back up at Donatello, unable to hide the smile on her face. "…Really? Well a little slip was worth it then. I don't mind looking out of place as long as you think I'm cute." She admitted with a blush.

The Techy Turtle was not used to speaking with other girls. Even less so when that girl seemed so keen on pleasing him. Well, there was Bigfoot, but that was vastly different. This was a young human woman around his age, and she was admittedly quite attractive. What could he have possibly done to make her so eager to be around him? He would have remembered saving someone like her from danger and according to her texts, the girl had only just recently returned to the states after spending most of her life in England for school. Where could they have met?
Donatello gathered his thoughts and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.

"Well, since you're here, I guess we can eat whatever you made. I mean, since you went to so much trouble."

"OH! Of course! I brought a blanket to sit on. So if you know a nice place to sit down…" she trailed off, rushing over to the basket to pull out the purple blanket checkered blanket.
"I hope my coming down here wasn't a bother for you. …if it's better I don't come down here, I understand. It's just…" her voice trailed off once more, holding the blanket to her chest and wondering how to convey her thoughts. "…you could always come and see me at my home. It's very private…and you wouldn't get exposed coming to see me. There are lots of things to do and eat there. …so if you…ever wanted…"

Donatello cleared his throat and glanced away, noting that her embarrassing expressions were rather endearing.
"W-well—we can talk about that later. You don't have to worry about being a bother or anything. We're friends after all, right?"

Aria gripped the blanket tight.
Donatello clearly still didn't remember her, but he was willing to see her and speak with her, so she had to be patient. Though, it was difficult to hold back. Even if it didn't seem like she was, Aria was actually working hard not to smother Donatello with her affection.
"Yes, we're friends…" she replied with a small smile.

A/N: First, I should apologize for being away so long. Without saying too much, it was a difficult Medical/Family issue. It took a long time for me to settle back into my daily life, but I'm back now. I hope that you will all continue to Follow Donatello in his own little side story.

I updated my profile in order to inform everyone on what days they can expect weekly updates for each story. Please take a look if you are curious. :)
See you all again soon!