#Iris belongs to digitl-art-monster

[lec743]

Writing Trade For @s-s-ironnie

           Donnie was in his lab working on upgrading his personal computer. His lab was slightly vibrating from the dubstep that he was listening to as he was trying to drown out the shenanigans his family was doing. What shenanigan-er-ies could his brothers be doing, he does not know, nor does he care currently as he was installing a more proficient coolant system into his computer, to keep it from overheating from all the songs he’s downloaded from the Internet that reminds him of Iris.

           He was laying on his side, underneath his desk, as he was holding in place a difficult nut and bolt with one hand, while trying to find the proper sized wrench with the other hand, “S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. Will you hand me the ¼ wrench!”

           There was no answer.

           “S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.!”

           Still no answer.

           Donnie sighed, irritated as he let go of the nut and bolt and the nut popped him in the middle of his forehead as he shimmied his way out from under his desk.

           Sitting up he turned off the dubstep and yelled, “S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.” even louder.

           There wasn’t even the sound of tiny rotor blades humming, implying that the little purple turtle drone is around, but is just ignoring him. Donnie then realized that the house was relatively quiet to begin with, minus the sound of Splinter snoring in his recliner as a Korean drama played in the background.

           Donnie stood up as he got a sudden bad premonition. Usually when S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. doesn’t talk to him, it’s after having a big fight, but the two of them haven’t had a fight like that in a whole month. Which is their best record so far. So Donnie could only conclude that his brothers have done something to his baby and are trying to fix it before he finds out.

           Donnie stormed out of his lab as he rushed through the lair to try and find them. He speed-walked through the living/skateboarding room. He investigated each of his brother’s rooms. He then immediately ran to the kitchen and found his brothers congregated around the kitchen table.

           Pointing dramatically at his brothers, he shouted, “Where’s S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.!?”

           Flinching, Raph turned around as Mikey and Leo slid on either side of Raph. All three of them were trying to block his view of the kitchen table.

           Having none of it, Donnie engaged his extra robo-arms in his battle shell and used them to push them out of the way, much to their pleading cries to wait. Donnie gasped at the sight on the table.

           S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. was a mess. His little turtle head was caved in on the side and his eye lens was sloppily glued back in place. He was missing his front right roto blade. There was a big, jagged crack across his back, and he looked like he was fished out of the muck of the sewer and only recently, hastily cleaned up.

           Donnie usually has all the words, any words, to describe a bad situation; your incompetence is as mind blowing as a bad yelp review, you’d struggle with throwing away a paper ball, your voice is as grating at a cheese grater on glass, or even babies are smarter than you. For Donnie, this takes the cake and his words as he picked up S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. and glared at his brothers as he walked by them.

           “Donnie, we didn’t—” Raph tried to say but was cut off by the soft-shelled turtle.

           “Not. A word.”

           With one last glare at his brothers, he stormed off to his lab.

           First and foremost, Donnie made sure that the most important part of S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. was well and intact, his memories. Once he was in his lab, Donnie gently sat the little drone down on the table next to his computer set up while pushing aside his previous mess, then quickly got into S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.’s hardware and extracted his protected memory bank, then he plugged it into his computer. He did a diagnostic check on the software to see if any files were corrupted by the external damage.

           There was damage, not surprising, considering the damaged state the little drone is in, with most of the corrupted memory files being from that day before he got hurt. Also, not surprising since these are all categorized as short-term memory and deemed not needed to be saved, via his special programing.

Then he saw smaller chunks of corrupted memory that’s set in his long-term memory files. The memory of them overcoming their differences and the Purple Dragon’s meddling. The memory of them fighting beast mode Shredder together. The memory of S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. finally developing speech.

           Donnie felt his lip quiver at the thought that S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. considered these memories worth holding on to, but he coughed that feeling away to replace it with anger at his brothers. He wanted to scream but he settled for groaning loudly as he leaned hard into his swivel chair. He turned away from his computer monitor and looked towards S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.’s busted frame.

           He was doing mental calculations for what the little drone would need, and whether it would be a good idea just to remake his body entirely. Then as he was doing the math in his head, a simple thought slipped into his mind. The fact that this accident, this incident that completely destroyed S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N., will change him completely. Even if he makes his body just the way it was before he was broken, the little drone won’t be the same, even if he manages to find copies of the corrupted memories, they won’t be his memories.

           Donnie’s vision started to blur as this thought ricocheted through his head. Trying to fight it, he quickly stood up and went to his toolbox to find his tiny tools so that he can salvage what he can of S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.’s broken body. As he was unscrewing a rotor blade, he tried to breath evenly to keep himself from crying, but as soon as he started working on the second rotor blade, he felt hot tears run down his masked face.

           The soft-shelled turtle could barely see, but he refused to stop working. He was grimacing hard as the tears kept coming out of him, resigned to the state that he’s in but still angry about it.

           Donnie didn’t know how long he was working on salvaging S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.’s body. What he managed to set aside was his good rotor blades, the lenses were still good and intact despite the head being smashed in, and he was slowly discerning which of the hardware for flight function was the least water damaged when he heard her voice.

           “Donnie,” Iris’s voice was soft and hesitant.

           The purple coded turtle was already a mix of emotions, and with her here, it felt like a whole bottle of potassium was thrown into his personal cup of water. He froze in his actions, debating on whether he should try and hid his tears to save face for his bad boy persona he’s been trying hard to cultivate around her, or if that’ll just make him look even more of a loser than he already felt like.

           “Your brothers told me what happened to S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. I’m so sorry he got hurt,” Iris said, her voice getting closer.

           Donnie went back to work on the little drone as he continued not to say anything as he was thinking very hard of the situation that he was in. Simultaneously trying to pretend that he doesn’t care if Iris thinks less of him for crying over a drone and praying to any gods or magical creatures or whatever that she really won’t think less of him. All while trying to think of a what he can say back.

           There was a little gasp as Iris walked around the other side of the table to see the damage. Donnie looked up from his work to see her in all her beauty. She was wearing her usual purple and yellow dress, and her long orange-red hair was tied back with a purple bow. She gave him the most heartbroken look, even her pointed elf-like ears were drooping.

           Her genuine sadness over S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.’s broken visage made something break in Donnie and he dropped his tiny screwdriver, then covered his eyes with his hands as he sobbed.

He couldn’t think. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t do anything but cry. He didn’t even realize that Iris was hugging him until he was gasping for breath.

           “There, there,” she said, as he felt her petting his head, “I know. It’s hard when people you care about get hurt. Cry for as long as you need to.”

           Donnie was still sitting in his chair, while Iris was standing in front of him between his legs, while his face was pressed against her diaphragm area. She felt soft and warm and smelled like sweet mixed berry pie. His hands shook with nerves as he attentively wrapped his arms around her waist to hold her a bit more snugly against himself as he was starting to calm down.

           It’s not like he hasn’t gotten hugs from her before. It’s just they recently got into the hugging faze of their friendship and this is their first kind of emotionally fraught hug, and it felt more intimate than the usual quick squeezes they give each other. It was nice though.

           Coughing, Donnie said, “Um. Could you go grab my water bottle that’s on my nightstand.”

           She smiled at him and nodded. Then she grabbed his water bottle that was by his incubator bed and handed it to him.

           Donnie chugged the water bottle empty, then taking a few moments to wipe away his tears and runny nose, without looking at her he gave her a bashful, “Thanks.” Then the threw the water bottle over his head and into his lab to be picked up later.

           “Of course. Any time,” she said enthusiastically. Then she asked, “So, what else can I do to help?”

           “Can you use magic to fix him back to normal?”

           She laughed at his joke, then said, “No. As far as I know, magic doesn’t work like that, but I can help you get supplies or devices or anything else you might need.”

           “I have to finish seeing what I can salvage from him first,” Donnie said as he turned away from her.

           “How about we get one of your brothers to do the slowly taking apart bit while you and I head to the surface to see what the electronics store has,” she said as she walked around the table to stand in front of him.

           Donnie gave her a disbelieving look as he twiddled a screw between his fingers.

           “Okay. Okay. Not your brothers, but you can salvage the rest of S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. later, the stores will close, up top soon,” she said.

           “And they’ll be open tomorrow. Right now, seeing what S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. does have still working for him is more important.”

           She puffed out her cheeks in a pout. Then Donnie watched her drag her chair, that she sits at for art projects, over to the table he was working on, and she sat down in front of him.

           “Okay, then I’ll help you get through this faster,” she said as she reached for a piece of the purple drone, but then she hesitated and asked him, “But only if you want my help.”

           “Thank you… I’d like that,” he said as he looked down at the busted drone.

           Nodding, Iris picked up a piece of S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. and Donnie handed her a flat head screwdriver.

           They sat silently as they both worked together to take apart the little drone, but after Iris asked him if a computer chip was worth saving, he asked her a question of his own.

           “Why is it so important to you that I get this done as soon as possible?”

           “The sooner we get him fixed, the sooner you’ll feel better, and the sooner you start feeling better, the sooner I’ll get to see your beautiful smile again.”

           Donnie felt all fluttery inside from his smile being called beautiful, and he saw Iris’s face turn a dark shade of pink as she seemed to realize what she just said. They both looked away from each other.

           “A-anyways, the chip! Is it good or not?” she asked him again.

           “Junk it.”

           Donnie and Iris managed to take apart S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.’s old body and they managed to salvage a number of things that were primarily plastic or metal like his rotors and camera lenses, but they also managed to salvage his flight pattern abilities, and his original voice box.

           They both stretched in their chairs from being hunched over for so long, and Iris pulled out her phone.

           “Oh! Yes! We have two hours until all the good tech stores close for the night. Do you know what we should get for S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.?”

           Donnie stood up as he rolled his shoulders, saying, “Yah. I can make the body, but I’ll need to buy some special wiring and chips that are mass-produced that I can’t make myself,” then he got out his own phone as he got on the map app, “There’s a Mousey’s Click Tech shop that’s a ten-minute train ride from here. They should have what I need.”

           Iris hopped out of her seat and cheered, “Alright. Then get your hoodie on and let’s a go! Go! Go!”

           He sighed and smiled at her as he meandered over to his lose laundry pile and picked out a purple hoodie from a dozen identical hoodies. Iris skipped ahead of him as he was putting on his hoodie and they walked out of his room/lab. As they were leaving Splinter was still fast asleep in his recliner, but Mikey was sitting on the floor beside him as he was watching the Korean drama too.

           Donnie saw Mikey turn at the noise they were making as they were leaving, and the soft-shelled turtle avoided his gaze as he turned his hoodie up. Iris was helping his mood, but he was still angry at them for not immediately telling him about S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.

           The two of them boarded the earliest train that arrived at the station and made it to the tech store in fifteen minutes. Now usually when they travel together Iris would tell him about her day, how her mother’s shop is doing, and/or tell him something she found interesting. Instead, she was focused more on her phone as she was texting someone, which is fine, since he was focused more on trying to remember what that one really durable plastic is called so that he can make S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.’s body out of it.

           The two of them walked into the store and it smelled of plastic, fresh ozone, and freshly sprayed febreze. A thin, shaggy white guy with dreads was sitting at the counter with his feet propped up on the counter as he was playing on his phone. Donnie asked him if he had any of the items he needed on stock, before the two of them went looking around the store.

           “I don’t know man. You’ll just have to look.”

           Annoyed, Donnie sighed and said, “Fine.”

           He and Iris walked around the little store to try and find internal computer components but the more they looked, the more they saw that they barely had anything, and what they did have wasn’t compatible for drones or complex computers.

           The two of them went back to the front counter where the guy hasn’t moved and hasn’t looked up from his phone as Iris said, “Um, could you look in the back storage for what we need. We couldn’t find it on the shelves.”

           “Sorry, Ma’am, if it’s not on the shelves, then we don’t have it,” he said as his phone suddenly got musically energetic like he opened a special box in the game on his phone.

           “Okay. Then when are you expecting the computer parts to show?” Donnie asked as he leaned angrily against the counter.

           “I don’t know. We’ve been waiting for a month now. If you want to add a new keyboard to your computer, we have those,” he said, still not looking at them.

           Donnie was glaring heavily at the disinterested man, and Iris pulled him back by his shoulder and started gently pushing him towards the front door, as she said, “Okay. Well, we hope you can get all your stuff as soon as you can. Have a good rest of your night.”

           “You too, Ma’am.”

           The two of them stood on the street as Donnie groaned out his frustrations.

           “Welp, that was a bust,” Iris said, “but it’s no big deal. We can go to other stores.”

           He sighed, then said, “Yah. We can.”

           Then he got out his phone and looked at the map to see where else they can go shopping for the parts he needs.

           They went searching at every store they could reach quickly. They tried another Mousey’s Click Tech store. Then they tried a store called Pineapple. Then a store called Junk Tech. Then Future Tech. Ghost In the Shell. Galaxy Tech. Drone Heaven. Turbo Tech. Each store that they visited, the more frustrated Donnie felt and even Iris was getting annoyed, as the stores were either as bare as the first store they went to, or it was even more bare.

           “What the heck is going on. Why is every tech store like this!” Donnie yelled at the sharply dressed woman at the counter.

           The brown skinned woman with long black hair and half her head shaved stared at Donnie with a professional glare.

           Iris sighed as she lightly turned the purple coded turtle away from the working woman and she said in an annoyed tone but much calmer voice, “Sorry. We’re having a rough night. He just lost someone special to him and we just can’t seem to find the parts we need.”

           The woman’s face softened then she said, “I’m sorry to hear that. But yah, every tech store is having shortages.”

           “Do you know why,” Iris asked as she gently rubbed Donnie’s back who’s resigned himself to smooshing his face onto the counter.

           “Have you two heard of Bit Coin?”

           They both said yes.

           “I absolutely hate the concept of it, and I’m surprised it’s still going,” Donnie said at the same time as Iris said, “I love it. I think it’s going to be our new future.”

           The two of them looked at each other in surprise, but their attention was put back on the woman as she spoke.

           “Well, whatever your stance on the new fake money is, these people who create Bit Coin have been buying up all the computer components to keep their giant c.p.u.’s running. So if you decide to buy online, don’t get a used part. It’ll just die on you after two boot ups, okay.”

           “Okay,” Iris said

           “I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier,” Donnie mumbled to her as they were walking out, and the lady was following to lock the door behind them.

           “Thank you. I understand losing someone too,” she said.

           “Have a good night,” Iris told her as they were outside.

           “You too and stay safe out their kids.”

           Then she locked the door and turned out the main lights. Iris was texting someone on her phone while Donnie was trying to think of where else they could possibly go, since ordering anything online is not available to him.

           “Hey.”

           Donnie turned to Iris with a questioning hum.

           “You know who I bet has a finger to the pulse on this whole shortage situation and would be exploiting it for any money he can get? Repo Mantis,” she said as she put away her phone, “If he has anything, it’d be him.”

           “If he does, it’s more likely that he’s doing it on accident, you know, unless someone’s told him already. But even if he does have what we need it’s not like he’ll sell it to us at a reasonable price.”

           “Who said anything about buying,” Iris said as she gave Donnie a sweet and mischievous smile.

           Donnie’s brain kind of fizzled at the sight of her smile. He loves her smiles, but her lets-start-trouble-on-purpose smile is his favorite.

           Already walking towards the scrapyard to hide the, what he considered, obvious lovestruck look on his face, Donnie said, “Welp. The night’s not getting any younger.”

           Iris jogged to catch up to him and once she was walking side by side with him, she hip-bumped him and said, “Yah! We’re going to get those parts and you’ll be able to rebuild S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. and you’ll talk with your brothers again.”

           Donnie huffed at that last comment.

           “Have you heard what happened from their point of view?” Iris asked, hesitantly.

           “No. And I don’t want to. You saw how bad S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. looked and it was just his body. I didn’t show you, but his mind got corrupted by the damage too. He’ll never be the same again.”

           Donnie felt his eyes sting with budding tears, and he rubbed his eyes, then looked back at Iris. She was looking at him with sad puppy eyes, like she wanted to say more, but didn’t know what to say.

           He looked away from her because he was starting to feel weak against her puppy eyes. They were essentially telling him to just; pretty, pretty, please talk to your brothers. After a few seconds he looked back at her and she was still looking at him with sad, pleading eyes that seemed to have gotten bigger somehow.

           He groaned to the sky as they waited for the street sign to give them the okay to cross as he said, “Okay! Okay… I’ll hear their side of the story. But I’m still going to be mad that they didn’t send S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. to me as soon as they could have.”

           She patted his back with a small smile and said, “That’s fine.”

           The Repo Mantis Salvage yard was dark, with only a few key lights lighting up certain areas, like the front entrance. The small building that Repo Mantis lives in and his shop, and the heavy-duty equipment that’s used to break up cars.

           Donnie and Iris were a few yards away scoping out the scene and making sure that Repo’s giant mutated cat wasn’t prowling around. Using his goggles, Donnie scanned Repo’s small shop and saw that the mutant mantis man had a lot of busted computers in it.

           “I think he got rid of his pet cat,” he stated.

           “No. I can smell her. She’s still here, but probably locked up somewhere.”

           “…You can smell the cat on the wind?” Donnie raised his goggles and looked at her.

           “Yah, you know that smell. That pungent cat smell that people have in their homes. You probably don’t recognize it because you guys don’t have a pet cat,” Iris said.

           “Okay. Well, the small shop has a bunch of electronics in it, your theory may be right,” he said as he looked back at the scrap yard, “We’ll have to be careful. If he shows up, you run as fast as you can okay. I’ll make sure he can’t hurt you.”

           “Uh, no?” She chuckled, “I’m not leaving you behind. If we get caught, we stick together. You hear me, Mister?”

           Donnie groaned, then he said, “Okay. How about this. We just play by ear. Does that sound good to you?”

           She hummed a high-pitched “okay” at him.

           The two of them snuck onto Repo’s scrap yard and Donnie expertly unlocked the four different locks the mutant man has on the door to his workshop, then deactivated the silent alarm.

           Donnie activated two extra robot arms to come out of his battle shell while holding two flashlights. It was small and the inside was a mess of broken electronics of mostly computers, but what wasn’t broken was expertly taken apart and labeled.

           “Ohhh,” Iris squealed quietly, “This looks promising.”

           Donnie nodded in agreement with her.

           The two of them looked through the labeled computer parts and other scrap. Donnie found everything he needed and more for his little drone. However, Donnie took only what he needed. He then turned to Iris to tell her that they should go, but she had her arms full of different computer chips and wires and miniature cameras.

           “What are you doing!?” he harshly whispered at her.

           “I’m trying to get as much good stuff for S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.,” she whispered back just as harshly.

           “He doesn’t need all that hardware! Put it back! Back! Back! Back!” he said in a panic under his breath as he tried to get her to silently put everything away.

           “Oh, come on,” she breathed, “Don’t you think these will make S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.’s eye’s pop with these types of cameras?”

           They were shiny and brand new looking, and Donnie could see that they were the latest model of robotics cosmetics. His mouth drooled a little at the sight, but he shook his head and was determined to be resolute.

           “No! S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.’s current eyes are still good,” he murmured.

           Amidst their arguing, Donnie accidentally elbowed a pile of neatly stacked laptops that crashed loudly to the floor. Less than a minute later, the lights in the shop were turned on and a giant purple mantis with an Elvis style hairdo appeared in the entrance. Repo’s buggy face was furrowed with such a deep rage that it was almost like a canyon of anger was etched across it. He stood in an attacking stance like normal praying mantis do when they get ready to hunt their pray.

           “Trespassers! I’m gonna decapitate ya!”

           Repo lunged at them, swinging his claws like scythes.

           Donnie pushed Iris out of his path as he dodged the other way. He got out his bō staff and got ready to fight, but Repo instead was going after Iris. Repo swiped at her, but she dodged with amazing agility and grace. Doing backflips, sliding under a table covered in tech to block, and side stepping like she was dancing with the giant mutant mantis.

           “Hold still,” Repo yelled at her.

           She kept on dodging, but this time, while giving him the finger.

           Donnie ran up to Repo, hopped on his back, and put the mantis man into a choke hold using his staff.

           “Go!” He yelled at her, “I’ll be right behind you!”            Nodding, she ran around them and slid out the workshop door.

           While Repo flailed around trying to get Donnie off his back, the teenage turtle planted his feet firmly on his back, then at the same time as he released the chokehold, Donnie pushed off Repo and did a backflip. Landing on his feet. Repo, however, was pushed roughly forward into a pile of old junk computers. The force of his landing made a shelf above him fall and a pile of paint cans crashed on top of him.

           Donnie flinched at the sight, but when he heard the mutant mantis groan, he ran out the workshop door while pocketing his staff.

           As he ran out, he saw that Iris was anxiously jogging in place while waiting for him.

           “Come on!” he said as he grabbed her hand.

           The two of them raced out of the scrap yard and ran through the streets. Neither of them stopping until they were both out of breath and were deep inside the city.

The two of them were catching their breath crammed in between a dark alleyway. Iris moved to the entrance of the alleyway to double check and see if they were followed, and Donnie noticed that they were still holding hands.

           There’s not a lot of situations in which he can contrive a reason for them to hold hands. She has very pretty hands with a lot of work done on her long nails to make them look cute. He’s sure they’re not fake long nails but regardless, she takes good care of them. Her soft hands are strong, like she could snap his neck with one hand if she wanted to and he’s not sure why he likes that idea so much. She loosened her grip on his hand and he reluctantly let go as she used it to tuck a piece of loose hair behind her ear.

           “I think we’re safe,” she said.

           Donnie fiddled with his controller wristwatch and retracted his two robo-arms back into his battle shell, and Iris untied Donnie’s hoodie from around her waist and gave it back to him so he could put it back on.

           “Thanks,” he said as he started putting his hoodie back on, “What you did back there was really cool, I didn’t think all your dancing prowess could make you an excellent dodger.”

           “Hehe,” he laughed as she rubbed the back of her neck, “I think that was mostly adrenaline but look what I managed to get.”

           From out of her dress pockets, she pulled out the two advanced robot eyes that they were arguing over before.

           “Now, before you say anything,” she said, reading the look on his face, “I know you said you don’t need them, but these are just for incase. You know? I want our favorite little drone to not have to worry about his eyes in the future.”

           She handed them to Donnie and waited for him to take them.

           Donnie sighed, then smiled at her and took the robo eyes, placing them with the other hardware for S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.’s rebuilding.

           “Thank you for caring so much about him with me. It means a lot.”

           “Of course, Donnie. You both mean a lot to me. Now let’s go home. The boys have some explaining to do and you have some listening to do.”

           As they made their way to the nearest train station, Donnie groaned but didn’t argue with her and Iris got out her phone and started texting with someone.

           The two of them entered the lair and they walked into the living/skateboarding room and saw that Splinter was still asleep in his recliner, but the projector was off and most of the noise was coming from the kitchen.

           The two of them entered the kitchen and saw that dinner was made for Iris and Donnie.

           Raph was doing the dishes. Leo was reading a comic at the kitchen table and sitting next to him was Mikey who was drawing something.

           “Oh, this looks so good. Thanks for making this for us, Mikey,” Iris said.

           All three turtle boys snapped their head up at her voice and they all looked at Donnie.

           “You guys knew we were coming,” Donnie asked.

           “Yah, Iris has been texting us all night since you two had left,” Raph said as he dried off his hands on a rag.

           The two of them sat down and started to eat.

           “Thank you, Mikey,” Donnie mumbled over his food.

           Mikey smiled at him.

           As they ate, Donnie could tell that his brothers were trying very hard not to say anything too soon, and it was slowly grating on his nerves.

           When he finished eating, he said, “Okay. I’m listening. What happened when S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. was with you guys.”

           Iris was still eating, but she was silently watching everyone interact with each other.

Leo and Mikey turned to Raph who was leaning against the kitchen counter.

           “Okay. So, a giant alligator/crocodile mutant guy was prowling around outside our lair when we were all goofing around. The guy then attacked us, unprovoked, and tried to bite us to death. S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. was trying to help us by being a distraction to him so that we could get out our weapons, but the alligator/crocodile guy managed to get him with his massive tail and just batted him into the concrete wall, and he then bounced into some sewer muck,” Raph said.

           Donnie gave his brothers concerned looks.

           “Don’t worry. The crocodile guy hasn’t comeback yet,” Leo said.

           “I’m still wondering why he attacked us in the first place, thou,” Mikey said as he continued drawing.

           “Why didn’t you guys just bring him immediately to me,” Donnie asked, pleadingly.

           Donnie saw Mikey put down his coloring pencil, but he didn’t look at him and Leo went back to looking at his comic, but he wasn’t reading it. Donnie turned his attention back to Raph.

           “We were all kind of scare of how you’d react. Even S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. was scared. He asked us to try and fix him before he shut down,” Raph explained.

           Donnie was reeling at this information.

           “I’m not that scary when I’m angry… Am I,” he turned and asked Iris.

           She winced at him a little as she brought her hand up and made her thumb and pointer finger almost touch each other.

           Donnie turned away from her as he brought his hand up to his head and rubbed it, sighing into the table. Then he sat up and looked at his brothers.

           “I’m sorry I made you guys feel that way. I want you all to know, no matter how angry I get, I still want to know these things. I need to know these things. Or S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.’s memory wouldn’t have gotten as bad as it is.”

           Mikey looked up at Donnie and Leo looked over his comic at him while Raph stood up straighter.

           Mikey asked, “What do you mean? What’s wrong?”

           Looking away from them, Donnie told them what he found out about the little drone’s damaged memories and how it’ll affect him in the future. When he looked back at his brothers, all three of them were teary eyed and they immediately moved to embrace him. Donnie was almost tipped out of his chair by the force of his brother’s hugs. Mikey and Raph were crying the loudest while Leo was crying silent, guilty tears.

           “We’re so sorry,” Mikey spoke for them all, “We should have just bit the bullet and showed you the damage immediately.”

           Donnie let them cry since he hashed out all his crying earlier, but he hugged them back as best he could as he said, “I’m sorry too.”

           Donnie then saw Iris come over with a soft smile on her face as she joined in on the hug. She patted him on the head like she was saying, good boy, to him. He puffed out his cheeks at her in a pout. Her smile widened in response and that made him look away from her in shy embarrassment.

           Eventually his brothers let him out of the hug, and he was able to stand up.

           “Hey, don’t feel too guilty guys. You three did do a good job on cleaning away the sewer muck from him and it minimized the damaged to his memories,” Donnie said to reassure his brothers.

           “And we got all the parts we need to rebuild S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. good as new,” Iris chimed in.

           Leo was wiping off his face as he said, “That’s good at least.”

           Having finished drying off his face, Raph said, “Okay guys. It’s pretty late. We should head to bed and let Iris go home,” then quietly to a still weeping Mikey, Raph said, “Come on, little man. You can sleep with me tonight if you want.”            Mikey nodded his head as he let Raph lead him to his room while Leo followed them out.

           Donnie and Iris were now alone in the kitchen. Iris started picking up the dirty dishes from the kitchen table and Donnie followed her lead.

           “Hey. Thanks again for tonight,” Donnie said, “and uh, I have another favor to ask of you, if it’s okay?”

           “Of course it is,” she said as she put the dirty dishes into the sink.

           “Can you… help me think of a code word we could use to signal to me that I’m getting too angry? I don’t think I understand just how much anger I have in me, and maybe I can avoid something like this happening again.”

           He was avoiding making eye contact with her as he asked this, and he only looked at her when she placed her hand on his shoulder.

           “Heck yah, I will. And we can get your brothers in on this too and we can all brainstorm together. It’ll be fun.”

           She gave him the biggest and sweetest smile he’s seen from her yet.

           Smiling softly at the sight; he took her hand off his shoulder, gripped it lightly in both of his hands, and gently raised her fingers to his forehead where they lightly brushed against him.

           “Thank you,” he said looking down, then looking back up at her face he said, “Truly. You’re too good for me.”

           Donnie saw her wide smile had shrunk down into a tight-lipped smile, and her face seemed to be turning a bright shade of pink. She took her hand back with an awkward laugh that confused him.

           “Okay. Well. I’ll see yah around,” she said as she speed-walked away from him and she said, “Text ya later!”

           Then she was out of his sight.

           Donnie stood alone in the kitchen for a minute, confused by the situation, until realization hit him in the face.

           “Oh no,” he said to himself as he staggered against the kitchen counter and covered his mouth with his hand, “Was I being too forward?”

To those that may be interested in the story: @thelaundrybitch @rheawritesforfun @turtle-babe83 @leosgirl82 @mysticboombox @drowninghell @raphielover @raphslovemuffin80 @doctorelleth @post-apocalyptic-daydream @tmntspidergirl @s-s-ironnie

#fanfiction #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #digitl-art-monstr #oc #Iris #rise donnie #Iris belongs to digitl-art-monster #writing trade #Iris and Donnie fic