Donatello stood awkwardly, staring down at Aria and unsure what he should say next. Everyone had left to eat except for April, and Aria was clearly upset after having her hopes dashed once again. Why couldn't he just remember how they met? It felt as if he were letting her down somehow. "Uh….hey…I didn't mean to—"

Though the turtle began to apologize, April stood from her seat cleared her throat to cut him off. "Why don't we get something to eat? I mean, before Mikey eats everything," she joked with a smile before holding out her hand for Donatello.

The techy turtles heart skipped a beat when she offered her hand, but he was hesitant to take it. Normally, he'd jump at the chance, but wouldn't that be a slight to Aria? She had confessed to him after all. She'd only be hurt further if he took another girls hand right in front of her. However, he also didn't want to brush April off. Honestly, he felt as though he were standing on thin ice and each girl was at opposite ends of the lake. He'd have to run in one direction, right?

His head was spinning while considering every outcome, but before Donatello's thought process was over, Aria had already stepped forward and smacked away Aprils hand away lightly. Donatello tensed up at once. He tried to see what kind of expression Aria was making, but since he was so tall and Aria kept her head down slightly, he couldn't see anything.

"You're being awfully rude, miss O'Neil," Aria began in a flat tone.

"Me?! You're the one who just smacked me," April huffed back. "Donatello is my friend, I'm allowed to—"

"—I want very much to be on good terms with Donatellos close friends, however, I am not so kind that I'd turn a blind eye to what you're trying to do."

Donatello was surprised to hear Aria talk like this. Her voice was usually so cheerful and bright. Now, it sounded cold and flat. It also felt off to see her being so unfriendly. Was she really this upset over him not being able to remember?

"I'm not trying to do anything. I came here to make sure my friend doesn't get hurt." April insisted.

Aria lifted her head in order to look at April properly and her expression took Donatello by surprise. Though she looked mad it also appeared that she was holding back tears. This was getting out of hand. "O-okay, you guys…let's just relax, huh?" He offered an awkward smile, but April had already been offended by Arias actions and her temper got the better of her.

"You wanna know what I'm trying to do, I'm trying to make sure Donnie isn't getting tricked by some stalker psycho!" April barked out in a huff.

Donatello tensed up at once, but tried to keep his composure, hoping that Aria wouldn't start yelling back. "A-April! That's too far—" he hissed urgently.

"I agree," commented Lawrence as he came up from behind. "Perhaps you should get some air miss O'Neil."

Aprils face scrunched up a bit, "um…I'm sorry, that was—"

"There are balcony doors just beyond the piano." Lawrence said simply, not allowing April to finish her apology.

April nodded and sighed sadly, clearly regretting her lose of temper as she turned and walked away.

Donatello wanted to follow after her, but he wasn't sure how to handle this. While he panicked internally, Aria turned to him.

"I should freshen up a bit. …please have something to eat. I'll be back in just a moment." Her voice sounded cheerful, but her smile didn't reach her eyes and Donatello could see her hands trembling as she fiddled with the charm on her bracelet. Before he could say anything, Aria rushed off in the opposite direction. He was now troubled with another girl to follow after. A big part of him wanted to see April and ask her what that was all about. Could she have actually been jealous? If that was the case, maybe he did have some hope.

On the other hand, Aria was the one that had been insulted. It wouldn't be right to leave her alone when she was trying so hard to make them all so comfortable.

"Miss Aria usually goes to the ninty-ninth floor. It's where her bedroom is located. Second door on your right when you leave the elevator." Lawrence muttered to Donatello, but cleared his throat quietly afterward to pretend he said nothing at all.

Donatello nodded his head and rushed over to the elevator. It was only four floors up, but he wished the trip up would last a little longer so he could figure out what to say. He had a tendency to put his foot in his mouth in situations like this. When the elevator doors opened, he made his way to her bedroom and steadied his nerve before knocking on the door.

"Why did you follow me?! I told you to make sure the guests—"

Donatello smiled awkwardly, waving his hand slightly as Aria opened her door. She was clearly expecting Lawrence and looked rather shocked to see Donatello standing there instead.

"I-I'm sorry! I—"

"—-No, no," Donnie stopped her. "I uh…just wanted to make sure you were okay…" his voice trailed off as his gaze drifted down to her hand. "What's that?" He asked, pointing at a small, silver, robotic turtle in her hand.

Aria panicked and thought about hiding the robotic creature behind her back, but instead, she lifted him up a little further. "Th-this is D-3…" she explained while offering the tiny turtle.

Donatello held out his palm and the turtles purple eyes blinked open before it cheerfully walked into his hand. "It's interactive? That's interesting…"

D-3 made a a few cheerful beeps while Donatello curiously watched it lay down against his palm as if it was about to take a nap. "Where'd you get this?"

Aria shrunk slightly, "I…I made him…" she replied reluctantly.

"You did?" Donatello asked again in surprise as Aria lifted the sleeping turtle from his hand.

"Yes…"

"Why didn't you tell me you were interested in robotics and engineering?" Donatello was happy, but quite confused. If she could make something like this, she was surely rather bright. But she acted as if she didn't want him to know this. Why? It was a shared interest and something he would've loved to discuss with someone who knew what they were doing.

Aria frowned and the freckles on her nose crinkled slightly, "I…wanted to surprise you…when you remembered everything."

His chest tightened and that guilt was stabbing at his heart once again. "…you must have been really disappointed when you met me again. You said you've been waiting a long time…."

Aria didn't try to hide her heartbroken expression this time. She stepped forward and reached up with her hand to place her palm gently against his cheek. As she looked up into the embarrassed turtles eyes, she smiled, her own eyes glistening with tears. "I know I should just be grateful I even got to see you again. …but…I have to admit…it hurt when we finally met…and you looked at me like a stranger. I did so much to prepare for when we reunited, but like your friend said…I must just seem like some crazy stalker to you."

Donatello swallowed back his nerves and couldn't help blushing when he felt Arias soft hand caress his cheek. "You're not crazy…and you're not a stalker," he replied, feeling rather nervous when he slowly removed her hand from his face so he could hold it in his. He glanced down at the charm bracelet on her wrist. "You must have been important to me if Master Splinter knew to save the charm you gave me. I really wish I could remember."

A tearful smile laced her face, "it's not something you can control. It's silly for me to be upset over it. After all…it's not your fault."

When Donatello saw a tear slip down her cheek, his body moved instinctively to reach over and wipe her tear away tenderly with his thumb. "Don't cry," he pleaded, only realizing after he'd done it that he was quite close to her. His cheeks grew hotter and he stepped back to pull away and place his hands behind his shell with a nervous chuckle. "Ah…I'm sorry."

Aria smiled, surprised by Donatellos sudden show of affection. "No, I like when you touch—" she stopped at once, her face suddenly burning red.

They seemed to both panic at the same time over Aria's words. Donatello blushed and Aria clearly didn't mean it the way it sounded.

"I-I mean—I wasn't saying—I mean, you can touch me, but—-" she lifted D-3 and held him to cover her panicked expression. "…just…you know what I mean…"

Donatello cleared his throat and tried to change the subject. "You know…what if I built something that could help with my memory?"

"Hm?" Aria lowered the robotic turtle and cradled him in her arm so they could speak. "No. You shouldn't mess with your head." Aria sighed and smiled, "I waited a long time to see you again…and yes, it hurts sometimes that you don't remember, but I'm willing to wait. Your friends words just got to me. …I know you care about her…so I think what she said stung a bit more…"

"April is real nice. I think she was just worried about me. We don't usually make a lot of human friends after all." Donatello tried to explain, not sure it would help to defend another girl to someone who confessed to him.

Aria pouted a bit and D-3 made a few annoyed beeps as it looked up at Donatello. "…I'll try to get along with your friend…" she relented. "…but I won't be able to remain pleasant if she touches you right in front of me."

Donatello blushed again, "it was just holding hands. I'm sure she didn't even think—"

Aria reached over and took his hand, squeezing it gently as she stared up at him. "Well, it means something to me," she replied. "I want to be the only one holding your hand."

Donnie tensed up and his heart skipped a beat. He simply wasn't used to a girl saying these kinds of things to him. He still wasn't sure how to feel about this, but Aria was sweet and she really seemed to like him. Even if he didn't know why. Swallowing his nerves, Donatello closed his fingers around her hand. It was just holding hands, but the turtle worried Aria would be able to hear his heartbeat against this shell. "We-we should get back, yeah?" He stuttered, averting his eyes to the side, afraid that if he looked at her, he'd lose confidence.

"Yes," Aria replied cheerfully, using her free hand to place D-3 on her head. The metal turtle practically chirped and plopped down to lay flat as Aria and Donatello walked hand in hand to the elevator.

He held her hand even as the elevator descended. Donatello glanced down at Aria discretely, even more embarrassed by this when he saw how elated she was. He quickly looked away, but couldn't help grinning himself. At least, until the elevator doors opened and he saw the chaos his brothers had caused while he was just a few floors up. Mikey was covered in chocolate from head to toe and sliding across the floor, seemingly by accident considering his blank expression. Raphael's fist was stuck in one of the arcade games and he wouldn't let Lawrence help him while he continued to try and kick it off. Meanwhile, Leo was standing on the couch, holding his comic in the air to keep it from getting dirty or damaged, his waist covered in chocolate smears.

"Wha—-what did you guys DO?!" Donatello shouted, causing everyone in the room to freeze. None of the brothers wanted to be the one to speak up first, but since Mikey had slid in front of the elevator door and was within arms reach of Donnie, he decided to speak first.

"Okay, first of all…this was totally Raphs fault!" He insisted, pointing back at the still trapped turtle.

"WHAT?! You're the one that covered yourself in chocolate and ran in front of me!" Raphael barked.

"I only did that because Leo kicked me in front of you! What about Leo's messy feet on the couch?!" Mikey shouted back.

"You tried to grab my comic with your messy hands! What did you expect me to do?! This is mint condition!" Leonardo explained.

"I needed help standing up! Chocolate is slippery! And no one cares about your dumb comic!" Mikey pouted, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, shut up about it!" Raphael added as Lawerence was finally able to pry his fist from the game.

"You're all just jealous!" Leonardo huffed, still holding his gift in the air in case something happened.

Donatello slapped his hand over his face, completely mortified. All he asked of his brothers was that they behave. Instead, they made a mess of Arias nice things and were bickering back and forth. "Aria…I'm real sorry about this! They—-"

To everyone's surprise, instead of getting angry, Aria burst out laughing as if she'd been holding it in. Though there was some relief that she wasn't angry, Donnie still felt anxious.

"Here," Aria began, bending down to offer a hand to Mikey.

Michelangelo still seemed rather stunned over her reaction, but took her hand anyway. However, when he tried to stand, the chocolate slipped him up again and he ended pulling Aria down into the mess with him.

"Aria!" Donatello called out in a panic, quickly grabbing her by the waist to hold her up, gently nudging his candy coated brother with his foot to slide him further away from them. "I'm really, really sorry about all this. I didn't think they would cause such a mess. This doesn't normally happen." He may have lied at the end, but he didn't want Aria to think that because they were mutants that they were wild animals.

"It's…it's really fine…" Aria replied, her cheeks laced pink.

Suddenly, Donatello realized that he'd been so concerned with the chaos, he had grabbed Aria without thinking. His arm was around her waist and she was pressed against him as he held her up. His heart jumped from his chest and he swallowed hard, looking down at Arias bashful, yet cheerful expression. She smelled like lavender flowers and he couldn't help noticing how soft her body was against his shell. The turtle felt something electric bristle up his back as his cheeks burned a bright red.

"I got your robot!" Mikey called out, holding D-3 in his hands and trying to keep it from slipping away since it wriggled in his slippery grip, beeping in a huff.

Only then did Donatello realize he'd been staring and wondered just how long he'd been looking at her. With a small gasp, he released Aria and pulled his hands behind his back. "Heh…sorry again…" he mumbled with a nervous chuckle.

Aria smiled at the turtle before she turned and carefully stepped toward Mikey, doing her best to avoid the chocolate. Donatello watched as she received D-3 from his brother. The bun she put her hair in was coming undone and the purple dress she wore was now smudged with chocolate stains. Even though they caused such a mess, she seemed happy.

"If you keep staring at her, she's gonna get weirded out," muttered Raphael as he came up from behind and smacked his brothers shell playfully.

Donatello flinched and cleared his throat. Only realizing now that he'd been staring. "I was just worried she'd fall again."

"Mmhm." Raphael hummed with a smirk.

"More importantly, you guys need to apologize to Aria for this mess!" Ordered Donatello. "You broke her stuff and the floor is covered in chocolate. And Leo, get off the couch now!"

Leonardo lowered his head shamefully and slowly stepped off the couch, still being as careful as possible so he didn't drop the comic. He made his way to his brothers and bowed his head towards Aria, forcing Raphael to do the same. "Donnie's right. We're very sorry for all the trouble."

Mikey still couldn't stand, but he looked up at Aria and nodded his head, "yeah. Sorry."

Aria shook her head, "it's really okay. This place is always so quiet. It was nice to see such a lively scene."

"We'll help to clean up of course," offered Leonardo.

"No need," Lawrence insisted quickly. "It would go smoother if—I mean, the staff can handle it when they return." He added while handing Mikey several hot towels to wipe the chocolate clean from his body.

Since everything had calmed down, Donatello noticed that someone was missing from all this. "Hey, where's April?"

His brothers shrugged their shoulders and Donatello panicked slightly. "You guys weren't even paying attention?!"

Though she didn't like watching Donatello worry so much over April, she looked over at Lawrence and he nodded at her silent instruction.

"I'll locate miss O'Neil." Lawrence informed the group.

However, their search was cut short when the elevator doors opened and revealed April, clearly shocked over the messy scene. "Wow…what happened here?"

"Where'd you go?" Asked Raphael.

April tensed up, but she put on a smile, "I was thinking about leaving…since I made such a fool of myself. I didn't want to ruin your visit. But, you know, you guys are my ride…so…"

"It's water under the bridge miss O'Neil," Aria said with a smile, stepping towards the red hard who just got off the elevator. "I'm also at fault for being rude when I pushed your hand away."

April smiled back, but the turtles felt a chill in the air. "That was a little silly," the red head agreed. "I mean, it's not like you're his girlfriend. So I was really confused."

"But I do believe I made my feelings for Donatello very clear," Aria replied with a cold smile of her own. "So, even if you don't have romantic intention, it was a bit insensitive of you, don't you think?"

Donatello had a panicked wave of Deja-vu. "The important thing is," he interjected quickly, sliding in to stand between the girls, facing Aria. "We don't have to search the whole building anymore, right?"

Both girls were clearly upset, but with Donatello between them, their remarks ended and Aria smiled up at Donnie with D-3 in her hands. "Yes, that's a very good thing. It would have been an exhaustive search."

"Well, we should be heading back home," Leonardo said apologetically, helping Mikey to his feet once he was finished getting the chocolate off. "Sorry again for the mess."

Donatello was honestly reluctant to leave. He wanted a chance to ask Aria about her interest in robotics, but it was probably better to go before she and April started fighting again. "…yeah, we don't want Master Splinter to worry…"

Arias shoulders slumped a bit. This place would feel rather empty without them after this, but she didn't want to hold him up. "I'm really glad you all came tonight. You're welcome any time."

"Us too?!" Mikey asked excitedly, earning a smack from Leonardo at his shoulder.

"Of course," Aria replied.

April grabbed Mikey and Leonardo's shells and pulled them towards the elevator, "okay guys, let's get going. Don't wanna over stay our welcome."

While they piled into the elevator, Donatello hung back in order to say a proper goodbye. "Um…I'll try a few methods to help my memory. …maybe something will come to me soon…"

Aria leaned forward on her tiptoes and planted a playful kiss against his lips. "I appreciate the effort," she said softly. "Maybe next time, just you and I can go down to my workspace."

Donatello was once again shocked by Arias affection. More so since she'd done it in front of everyone. He smiled awkwardly, his cheeks burning red, "heh heh—um yeah! That sounds…really—I mean I'd like that!" He stammered nervously.

"Come on, lover boy," Raphael sighed, reaching over to grab his brothers shell and pulling him into the elevator.

With everyone inside, the doors began to close and Aria waved goodbye. Donatello was immediately subject to teasing from his brothers, but April frowned. She had already decided, this girl was trouble and she intended to prove to the others that they needed to be careful.

After a long, awkward ride back home, they finally returned to the Lair. Like Aria said, all the presents had been packed into the Shell-Raiser. So once they returned, the others were busy showing Splinter what they received and admiring their new possessions. Donatello however, had taken his gifts into his room without unwrapping them. Of course he was curious, but his mind was preoccupied at the moment.

April didn't say a word the entire way back and she rushed home the moment they returned. He had a lot to ask her and honestly, he was slightly annoyed that she would avoid him after making such a scene. He text her and said they needed to talk, but she had yet to reply. Either way, April wasn't the base of his concerns right now, though she was certainly a factor. He laid back onto his bed and held up the hand that held Arias. Even in the moment, he wondered why it was so nerve wracking. They had held hands before. This time however, Aria made it clear that these kinds of things meant something to her. Maybe that's the reason it felt bigger than any other time. After all, to hold her hand after she stated that, meant that he basically agreed it meant more, right?

"Gah!" Donatello groaned, rolling back and forth on his bed for a moment. All this time, his thoughts had been primarily on April. So when he found himself staring at Aria, everything felt so strange. He couldn't just give up on April. His love for her wasn't that weak, right? "…but maybe it's not about that…" Donatello mumbled with a deflated sigh. Especially after the conversation they had, Donnie knew his feelings wouldn't be returned, so why did he stupidly keep grasping at straws, hoping she might show just a glimpse of loving him back? Even tonight, he wanted her to be jealous. He didn't want them to fight of course, but when it looked like April might be fighting for his attention, he was excited. However, like always, he ended feeling like a fool.

Donatello sighed and pulled the bracelet out of his belt, holding it up to look at it against the light. The star charm that hung from it glistened and he sat up, staring down at the charm in his hand. "…there's gotta be someway to remember…" he mumbled. Suddenly, an idea struck Donatello and he jumped from the bed and out of his room. The turtle raced to the Dojo and called for his Sensei.

"What is it, my son?" Splinter asked curiously.

"Master…if you had this bracelet…than you must know what happened, right? Couldn't you help jog my memory a little? Just…I don't know…a small detail that might trigger something, anything?"

"You're sure you want to know? Are you not afraid the memory might be painful for you?"

Painful? Donatello thought. Perhaps it was the way they parted? Did they have a fight? Regardless, he'd made up his mind. "I'm sure, Sensei. I need to remember what happened."

Splinter nodded and pat his son on the shoulder, "then tomorrow after training, I will help you to recover those memories."

Donatello bowed, "thank you, Sensei."

With that, he went back to his room and decided to open a couple of the gifts. He felt much better knowing that Splinter would be helping him. Surely he'd regain those memories soon enough. He grabbed the smallest box, worried the others would be something too grand. Unwrapping the it, he smiled with a sigh when he saw what was inside. It was a key card to her building engraved with his name. "Heh…she really doesn't know how to hold back, huh?"

Donnie decided the other gifts could wait for tomorrow. The first one was so big, the others would probably be just as surprising, if not more so. He placed the key card onto his nightstand and set the bracelet beside it. Thinking about April right now only made him feel down. If she wanted to avoid him after the way she acted, he'd let her. For now, he was going to focus on his memory. He owed that much to Aria. With that in mind, Donatello got into bed and shut off his light, actually rather excited for morning to come.