Chapter Text
Halloween 8 Years Ago
“Mikey! If you want me to do your make-up you have to stay still.” Raph yelled between multiple paintbrushes stuck in his mouth for lack of a better place
“Yeah unless you want it to look like Leo did it.” Donnie remarked
“Hey!” Leo responded tears welling up and spilling over his crayon make-up
“Donnie be nice!” Raph yelled at Donnie, seeing the guilt wash over his face as he realised he taken it too far “Leo, I will help you as soon as I’m done with Mikey”
Mikey shifted again “I’m gonna be the scariest lake monster alien ever!”
“Yeah you are” Raph said as he stood up and went over to Leo “You’ve done a great job Leo, I’m just going to straightened these outlines”
“Do you think people will know my costume?” Leo asked
“They're gonna think you’re the real David Bowie!” he responded “Donnie! Do you need any help?”
“Nope, once I complete this last planet my costume will be amazing.”
“Okay” Raph said, turning back to Leo “You’re all done, so let’s get going!”
“YAY!” Mikey and Leo ran to the door of the sewer chatting enthusiastically as Raph pulled a sheet with two eye holes cut out of it over his head feeling it snag on his shell. Leo dashed across the room to where Donnie sat hunched over his costume and grabbed his shoulders shaking him back and forth
“Huuuuurrrryyy Doooonnniieeee”
“I’M NOT FINISHED!” Donnie spun around to Leo showing tears welling up in his eyes before he turned back around shaking as he continued to toy with his costume. Raph ran over to him
“Donnie, it’s alright. What do you need to do?”
“Jupiter is orbiting too slow and whenever I try to fix it, it goes too fast and I-”
“Donnie” Raph lifted the sheet from off his face "Listen, I know this is important to you but if we don’t leave soon there won’t be any good candy left.”
“But it’s supposed to be exactly to scale.” Donnie looked up tears now dripping down his face
“No one’s costume is perfect, Donnie, I'm wearing my bedsheets. You want to know a secret?” He leaned in to whisper “Leo’s lighting bolt is too small because we didn’t have enough red paint and… there’s no such thing as a lake monster alien.
Donnie giggled
“Your costume is amazing Donnie.”
Donnie got up off his feet and pulled his costume over his head, as 8 tiny planets and 181 even tinier moons gently rotated around him, Raph leant over and picked up a glowing yellow-orange hat and placed it on Donnie’s head. Together they ran over to the door where Leo and Mikey waited,
“Daaaaddd! We’re leaving now!” Mikey called out, sending it echoing down the sewer. No response.
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After a short walk the turtles stood at the entrance of a 30-story apartment complex, Mikey pressing random buttons on the call box.
“Which one is April’s?”
“16… or 17 or maybe 23” Leo responded wobbling under Mikey’s weight as he perched atop his shell. Donnie knew it was 8 but it didn’t feel important enough, nor did Donnie have the energy, to say it. But he didn’t have to anymore, as April stood at the door with a large witches hat and black dress.
“OH MY GOD HIIII” She skipped over and grabbed Mikey by the face “Are you a swamp monster!?”
“I’m a lake monster alien!!”
“That’s SO COOL” She let go and spun around to Leo “... what are you?”
“I’m David Bowie. He is the BEST music person in the world and he dresses cool and he’s way cooler than a swamp monster”
“I’m a lake monster alien!” Mikey said, whacking Leo across the arm. Leo hit back but before they could be lost in a flurry of blows Raph hopped in and separated them.
“Be nice or I eat all your candy”
“A ghost!” April said pointing at Raph
“A witch!” He returned “You look so cool!”
“Thanks! Are you… the planets?” April said turning to Donnie who was standing slightly further back as his snapping turtle shield has left him
“yeah, i um, i’m also 181 moons. I’m the whole solar system, except the stars. But I am the sun as well. Yeah that’s Halimade and that’s S/2003 J 12” Donnie responded now pointing at random tiny moons orbiting him. “And that’s my favorite Oberon its roughly half ice and half rock and it's-”
“Sorry Donnie but your dumb planet facts are sooo boring and I want to get candy.” Leo interrupted, already shoving his way past Raph and April into the apartment complex swiftly followed by Mikey and April.
“Donnie, I think your space facts are awesome, they're just really excited to get some candy.” Raph said, taking Donnie’s hand in his own and leading him up the leaf covered stairs. Donnie looked up at his older brother and gave him a weak smile.
Every year April’s apartment complex would organise trick or treating for the kids that lived there so April invited the turtles to come along for their first ever trick or treating. They had made their way a quarter of the way up;
“Trick or Treat!” Leo, Mikey, Raph and April chorused at the old woman hunched over in her doorway.
“Ooh, here you are. David Bowie wow! Oh aren’t you a big boy!” Each kid took a candy from the bowl until only Donnie was left.
“Now what are you little man?” She asked as he reached his hand to grab a small bar of chocolate “Hold on.” She pulled the bowl playfully away. “You didn’t say trick or treat” panic swallowed the young turtle as the words stuck themselves in his throat.
“Come on… or else you're getting a trick.” she said with a giggle, gently tapping him on the nose. He could feel the words bubbling up in his throat, he knew what to say, he could hear them playing over and over in head, layering until it was too much and they spilled over in tears down his cheeks. The old woman took a step back, looking to the other turtles for reassurance that this “wasn’t her fault” (which she didn’t get.) Leo marched forward and grabbed a handful of candy from the bowl, stuffing them in Donnie’s bag and pulling the door closed in front of her. Donnie ran into Raph’s arms and shakingly wiped tears from his eyes.
“Is he okay?” April asked Mikey
“He will be.” Mikey returned with no more detail. Once Donnie’s breathing had slowed Raph knelt down to him,
“Do you want to keep going or go home?”
“Stay.” whispered Donnie
“Okay” They both got to their feet, hand in hand signaling to the others to continue on.
The night carried on smoothly until they got to apartment 305. Leo knocked firmly on the door as to be heard over the music that could be heard leaking out of the apartment. After a short wait a man in his early 20s with devil horns on and a beer stained shirt
“Oh hold on” he stumbled back searching drunkenly for the bowl of candy. When he opened the door came a tidal wave of house music with bass that shook your bones and snare drums that stabbed your ears. Donnie scurried back until his back hit against the staircase, his hands pressed firmly against his tiny turtle ears. The man comes back with a bowl of sweets that have a 50/50 chance of being out of date but following closely behind him a french bulldog that dashed out the front door in an attempt for freedom and leapt onto Donnie. Donnie let out a shriek as he sank to the floor and his head folded further into his shell as the dog sniffed at him with drool hanging from his mouth and dripping onto Donnie’s plastron.
“Don’t worry, he doesn’t bite.” The man slurred, making no move to retrieve his canine. Raph jumped in picking the dog up and returning him to the hands of his owner. Only once he’d heard the music fade out and the barking cease did Donnie slowly come out of his shell, his breathing was fast and his eye’s weren’t focusing on anything. Raph ran over to him as Donnie rocked back and forth at an increasing speed.
“Donnie?” Raph said trying to get within the young turtle’s eye-line
“Home please” Donnie signed back with shaking hands.
“Okay.” Raph replied scooping Donnie up and cardeling him in one arm. “I am going to take Donnie home and then I will come back to pick you guys up later okay?” Leo and Mikey nodded and with that Raph made his way down the stairs with an upset Donnie silently crying in his arms.
Once they’d returned to their sewer home, Raph gently lay Donnie down in his bed and sat on the floor next to him. After what could have been an hour Donnie spoke up.
“Raph.”
“Yeah?”
“When do I get to be a normal kid?”
“Oh Donnie, I don't think that will ever happen.
“But that’s not fair. That’s not…”
“It’s okay though, because you’re not normal. You’re awesome.”
“But I don’t want to be awesome! I want to be normal! It’s not fair! I want to do normal halloween and be a normal kid but i can’t and I HATE HALLOWEEN AND I HATE YOU AND I HATE ME!”
“Donnie, Donnie. No one’s normal, I'm huge, Mickey draws on the walls, Leo thinks he’s amazing at everything. And you are so smart and one day you’re going to be an amazing scientist and people are gonna love you because you’re not normal. Because you’re amazing.”
“When i’m an amazing scientist I’m gonna invent something to make everything quiet all the time.”
“Yeah you are!”
Later that night, Raph and Leo and Mikey crept back to the sewer. Leo and Mikey had 2 bags each and once they were home Mikey gave Raph his back.
“We asked all the people to put a bit in your bag too!”
“And Donnie’s as well!” Leo added holding up a stuffed purple pillow case.
“Quietly drop it off to him, he’s asleep.” Raph said as Leo ran in the direction of Donnie’s room.
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It was 2 years before Donnie made his noise canceling goggles. It was after their first battle outside of training when he had a shutdown in the middle of the fight and after that spent 3 sleepless nights creating them. And he never took them off since.