𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚒𝚗'𝚝 𝚊 𝚍𝚛𝚘𝚙 𝚘𝚏 𝚋𝚊𝚍 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍.

Chapter XXI

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐗𝐗𝐈

A Slight Query
——————

Donnie had went home after the two had finished their breakfast and when he did he found Mikey nervously sitting on the couch with his leg bouncing.

But when he saw Donatello enter the lair he hopped up and ran over, he gave his older brother a crushing hug repeatedly saying how he was happy that his "favourite brother" had made it home safely and was relieved that—and I quote:

"That mysterious J-guy didn't eat Donnie while he slept."

When Donnie got him to calm down he got an explanation on what happened while he was gone, he found out that when their other two brothers got worried about his absence Splinter told Leo and Raph that he had sent Donnie out and that he would be home later; apparently they believed it and relaxed enough to go to sleep.

All except Mikey who knew where he was and had been worrying his little brain to bits the whole time.

After Mikey checked to make sure a bite wasn't taken out of his brother he went to bed; Donnie would have went as well but he had to speak to his father about something first.

"Master Splinter?" Donnie stood in front of the sliding bedroom door—only now considering that he might be asleep.

"Come in, my son."

I guess he wasn't asleep.

Donatello did as told and opened the door, Splinter sat with hot tea already made and set out waiting.

"How is your friend?" Splinter asked as the turtle sat down in his usual spot in front of him.

"He's good, his mood is definitely getting better." He commented already picking up the warm tea. "He had an idea that I wanted to run by you before I did anything, though."

This intrigued the rat which was shown by the slight widening of his eyes. "I'm listening."

Donatello took a quick sip to try and stall; he needed to think of the right words to say before just blurting it out and receiving a definite 'no'.

"He mentioned that tomorrow is Halloween and he wanted to spend it with me since it's his favourite holiday..." Don paused to glance at his father's expression, it didn't change from questioning so the turtle continued.

"His caretaker said she'd let him skip school and take him out for the day; he wants me to be there with him and that he'd dress up so it would look like we're both just be regular teenagers in costumes."

He said all of this in one breath and waited in anticipation as his sensei thought about his response, it took about a minute for him to think but that one minute felt like time stopped entirely.

"Will you be extremely careful?" Splinter asked.

"Yes, Sensei."

"Will you stay close to your friend?"

"Yes, Sensei."

Splinter was almost convinced but had one more question to ask out if curiosity before letting his son go.

"Is this a date?"

Donatello looked shocked but that didn't stop the red growing on his cheeks.

"No, Sensei!" He stated; much louder and defensive then he intended. "He only flirts sometimes and he always apologizes for it after he does, so I really doubt he would think of this as a date either."

It was almost suspicious at how much information he gave to his father because of that one simple query.

"It was only a question." Splinter stated as if he had said nothing wrong; and technically he didn't. "You may go as long as you rest and be sure to tell me when you leave."

Donnie nodded and stood up from the floor and left the room to hibernate in his for the rest of the day and maybe a little into the night, too.

—

He really would have slept more then half of the night if his brothers weren't being so loud, he knew Master Splinter probably told them not to wake him because of he had a "big day" planed but it didn't help when the walls of his room were so thin.

So, despite his best efforts he couldn't go back to sleep.

Instead of just laying in bed for the rest of his time home he got up and went to the kitchen to get something to eat—too tiered to put any of his gear on before doing so.

"Hey, I thought you were supposed to be sleeping in." Leo commented while sitting at the island.

"I wish I was; but Raph chasing Mikey around doesn't really help with that."

Donnie looked in the fridge only to find day old pizza and with no other options he picked up a slice and started eating it cold; his mind wandered to the pancakes he had eaten only twelve hours ago and how he'd rather have that every morning instead of pizza.

"You seem upset, did something happen?" Leo asked drawing his brother's attention back to the present.

"No, why do you ask?" Donnie didn't know what else to say, if he said the wrong thing it might give Leo a hint as to what he's been doing for the past few weeks.

"You just have this look on your face, did an invention not go as planned?"

"Yes." Don though quickly. "I don't have the right screws so I have to go out and get them later on, it should take a while though so I'm going to go out after I finish reorganizing my lab a bit."

Totally believable.

"Alright?" Leo seemed confused, never has he witnessed his smarty-pants younger brother choose organization over keeping a project going.

Whenever something like this had happened before he would go out and get the things he needed right when he found out he needed it, and now would have been the perfect time to get it, too, it was dark and very few people would be out; it was almost midnight after all.

"Better get to it." Donnie sighed, already finished with his pizza. "See ya' later."

"Yeah, see ya..."