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Only Human

I.

It all started when she wanted a new picture of him.

The one she currently had on her T-phone was great—it was even personalized with flowers and a little bow. But it was time to archive it and get another one for his caller ID.

Turning on the camera, she held up the phone. He was busy working on one of his experiments and wasn't paying any attention to her. She zoomed in just a little bit. Like almost any other time he was in the zone, his tongue poked out the left side of his mouth and it took her a lot of willpower to hold back a laugh. His auburn eyes were narrowed in concentration but bright with enthusiasm.

She snapped the picture.

The click caught his attention, his eyes blinking up to the girl sitting at his lab table.

"Did you just take a picture of me?"

"Sure did!" April answered brightly, lowering the phone so she could begin customizing this new photo, "I needed a picture of Donny Boy in his natural habitat."

A red tint lit up Donnie's cheeks, "You can take another one if you want. A better one! I'll get prepared for it so—."

"No, I'm good," April cut him off, "I prefer this one." She turned the phone around to briefly flash his picture to him. He was able to see it for a quick second before she took it back like she was afraid he would grab it and delete it.

Donnie momentarily wondered if he should simply snatch the phone from her. Not because he wanted to delete the picture, nor to prove that he could. Mostly just to flirt with her. He imagined himself holding the phone above his head as April jumped in front of him, trying her hardest to get the phone back.

His fingers twitched on the dial of his microscope. He was gonna do it…

I'm gonna do it…!

"So how's the new batch of retromutagen coming?" April asked suddenly which instantly made all his indecisiveness disappear. He wouldn't take her phone.

"Spectacular!" Donnie answered, looking into the microscopes eye piece, "I think I almost got it again. I just wish it didn't take so long…"

"I'm sure Master Splinter understands," April said absently as she photo-shopped Einstein's hair and Darwin's beard onto Donnie.

Donnie wrote a few notes down as he spoke, "That's the weird thing…sensei keeps telling me to take my time, don't work too hard. It's almost like he's skeptical about becoming human again."

April added little equations to float around Donnie, "Well…it has been—what—seventeen years since he mutated. He probably forgets how it feels to live amongst other humans and out of the sewers."

He didn't respond. April hit on something that had him on edge during the last couple months he'd been slaving away. Would Splinter choose to live above ground once he was human again? But that was the whole point in creating the retromutagen, wasn't it? To allow him to be human. And humans don't live in sewers.

April lowered her phone when she sensed a hesitation in Donnie. She studied him for a moment, seeing how he was lost in his own thoughts, and knew it had to have something to do with Splinter turning human while he and his brothers had to remain mutant turtles.

She sat up straight and put on a huge smile, "Hey, you wanna hear a joke I heard the other day?"

Blinking away his concerns, his eyes caught hers, "Umm….yeah, sure."

Clearing her throat, she leaned forward, "Okay, here goes. A neutron walks into a bar and asks 'how much for a drink?' The barman replies 'for you, no charge'."

April felt ten times lighter when she saw the instant grin and sparkle in Donnie's eyes as he said, "Good one! I have one: Two scientists—." But before he could finish there was a loud bang on his lab door like someone threw something heavy.

"Casey Jones is in the hooouuussse!"

April realized that Casey probably shot a puck at the door to hype his grand entrance. She could practically see Donnie deflate upon Casey's arrival. She considered going out there and greeting him, but over the past few weeks, she'd become more cautious about the way she acts around Casey. Especially when Donnie was around. But even when he wasn't, April still found herself wondering how Donnie would react if he was there. She kept forgetting why she started to care so much…

"And his sidekick—Irma Langin—," Casey tried to continue but got caught off from a feminine voice.

"Please, you wish you had a sidekick as awesome as me," Irma filled her tone with sass.

"You could've at least lemmie finish your weird-o name."

Oh yeah…that's why…

A few weeks ago, April made the mistake of being followed by none other than her female best friend down to the lair. Irma, being fed up with April ditching her and keeping so much of her life a secret, decided to trail April to finally get to the bottom of the long term secrecy.

It took many hours to calm her down when she realized who April's four secret friends were.

Or rather…what they were.

But once she accepted them, there was no keeping her away. She loved that Leo loved Space Heroes, she enjoyed listening to Raph's insulting attitude, she marveled over Ice Cream Kitty with Mikey, and (worst of all?) she bonded with Donnie over science.

April had to wonder if Irma was the perfect friend for the turtles or if it was just her desirousness that was seeing it that way. Her initial jealousy was strange, because she was sure it was only due to the fact that she would no longer be the only girl in the group. Being aware that this was a dumb and immature reason to be jealous, April tried to ignore it and invite Irma every time she planned on heading down to the sewers.

"April here?" Casey asked from outside the lab, snapping April from her thoughts.

"She's been locked away with Donnie for hours," Leo said dismissively. His show must be on.

April slapped her forehead with her open palm. Did he have to put it like that?

Not a moment later, the door burst open as Casey presented himself, "Lady and…turtle…I present—."

"Enough!" Irma interrupted him again, rolling her eyes as she walked into the lab as well, "April, I seriously have no idea how you put up with him."

"How come Donnie gets all the humans?" they all heard Mikey say from the couch.

"Hey, Irma. I have something for you," Donnie said as he backed away from the microscope and went over to one of his shelves.

"You do?" April asked before she could stop herself.

Everyone seemed to ignore the question.

"Awesome sauce. I knew you would," Irma grinned as she placed a hand on her hip with the other hand held out waiting to receive her present.

Donnie placed a T-phone in her hand, "As promised."

April stood up chuckling mirthlessly, "Uh, just out of curiosity, why does Irma need a T-phone?"

"It's not really about needing," Irma said, fiddling with her new toy, "It's more about wanting. Plus…free cell phone with unlimited minutes. Can't beat that. Thanks, Donatello."

April narrowed her eyes. Something about the way she used the turtles' full names…

Casey suddenly put his arm around her shoulders, "Hey, why didn't ya let me know you were comin' down here? You know I woulda joined."

"I, uh…" April glanced over at Donnie and happened to catch him glancing away from her, "I thought you had practice after school today. Sorry."

"I did, but that's besides the point," Casey said, even though it didn't really make sense to April.

"You should test your retromutagen on this dumbass over here," Irma nodded towards Casey, "I want to see what his original form looks like."

"I wouldn't waste something I've been working on this hard on Casey," Donnie said matter of factly, and jumped when Irma laughed.

"Nice! I wouldn't waste anything on him either."

Casey clenched his fists, "You little—."

"Okay, that's enough," April stepped in, putting her hands out. She had no idea why her two human best friends always bickered so much, "Donnie's been working really hard and probably doesn't want to hear all this in his lab."

"True," Irma replied before going over to Donnie's microscope and looking into the eye piece, "Strange how some cells are reforming and others aren't."

Donnie slapped his hands on his notes, "Exactly what I was thinking! When I made the first batch, all the cells seemed to reform almost immediately after I added Ap—the appropriate DNA to the mutagen formula."

April noticed how Donnie almost slipped. Irma still had no idea that April was part…not human…and she wanted to keep it that way.

"Hm…maybe not the right combination of DNA and mutagen? How much mutagen did you use the first time around?" Irma asked.

"I know I used the same," Donnie replied confidently, "That's not the problem. Something is different from the first time I did this…"

April watched the two scientists try to come to a solution. She studied Donnie with the utmost intensity. Was he enjoying this? Did he love talking to someone else who knew what he was actually talking about? And if so, how deep did that love go? After all, Irma was the only other female he knew and she showed more interest in him in two weeks than April showed him in the two years she knew him.

But Donnie was always one to wear his heart on his sleeve, so to speak. And from what she could tell, Donnie was showing no romantic interest in Irma. Which only made her wonder why.

And more importantly, it made her wonder why she felt relieved by this. It made her wonder why she started craving more alone time with Donnie. It made her wonder why she never saw how rounded Donnie was with his talents and skills. He may not be as physically strong as Leo or Raph, but he had the ability to beat them if he really put his mind to it (she's seen him do it!). And at the end of the day, it seemed like Donnie was always the one that saved everyone by using his machinery skills to create or unwire something.

It made her wonder why the heck she chose to ignore all this before.

"I'm gonna go wrastle Raph out of his shell," Casey abruptly announced after hearing enough of all the science chit-chat.

April watched him leave the lab. And most importantly, it made her wonder why she ever considered dating Casey. Which is not meant to be an insult to him! Well…not really, anyway. It's not like Casey was without his charms. He was unnaturally strong for being just a high school kid who played hockey. And he did accept the turtles fairly quickly, which made April realize that he was a really good person.

But she wasn't sure if they would be intellectually compatible. Sure, he knew how to make homemade bombs; he made a lot of his vigilante weapons out of the mix. And he was passionate about hockey and doing what was right, but…

She turned her attention back to Irma and Donnie. And she realized that…even though Irma was also a science nerd…no one would ever be able to reach Donnie's genius. Well…maybe. But it would be hard to match. Everything just came so naturally to him that it was more shocking when he didn't know something versus when he did.

"You okay, April?" Irma asked. The question made April blink rapidly and Donnie look up from his notes.

Upon having the focus on her, April tried to look relaxed. It was only then that she realized she had been gripping the edge of the table and gritting her teeth.

But before she could respond, Leo's voice came lingering in from the living area, "New episode of Space Heroes is about to start!"

Irma clenched her fists and looked like she was both excited and upset, "Oh, why do I have to love that show so much! We'll talk about the mutagen later, Donatello. I have to go fangirl with Leonardo."

And just like that, April and Donnie were the only two in his lab again. April sat down. All those confusing, bitter, and strange feelings left her just as quickly as Irma left the room.

"So, uh…everything okay?" Donnie asked, swirling his pencil around his fingers skillfully.

April couldn't help but watch him do it. Were his hands always that impressive? Her eyes averted to his hand that was simply resting at his side. Three fingers. Green fingers. Flippers? Fins? She remembered how rough they were from the last time she grabbed his hand. He had calluses from years of training. It didn't exactly feel human, but…

"April," hearing him say her name snapped her out of her thoughts. He looked a bit uncomfortable, but more concerned, "Anything you wanna talk about?"

Donnie had been trying to ignore the fact that she'd been studying him. When he first started to notice the difference in her, he was exhilarated. She was finally taking more of an interest in him and it was only a matter of time before…before…

But then his mind started working against him. What if she had considered taking an interest, but then started to examine him…truly examine him…and after seeing how completely weird and different he was from her and other humans, decided to throw the idea into a pile of useless junk?

"No…no, I'm good. I just…" April wished she would have left out those last two words. Couldn't she just drop it? She wiped a bang out of her eyes, "I'm…I'm getting hungry."

Donnie stopped spinning the pencil, "Oh…yeah, I guess we did work through dinner."

"Pizza gyoza?" she asked before she could think.

He immediately felt his mouth water, "Mmm, sounds delicious. Should we go after Space Heroes ends?"

She shrugged nonchalantly, suddenly finding her nails fascinating, "I don't plan on watching. We could go now."

"I don't think Leo and—."

"You and me. We can go now."

Donnie blinked, "And bring it back here to…?"

"We could bring some back after we eat our own…" April looked around the lab before focusing her eyes on his. He looked completely dumbstruck which only made her smile, "Yes?"

"Yes, absolutely!" Donnie yelled a bit too enthusiastically. He quickly realized his error clearing his throat as he calmed himself, "I mean…yeah, sounds great."

"Great! Let me just go grab my bag," Donnie watched her leave, his heart pounding in his ears. Did she just ask me out to dinner? Like a date?

Date might have been getting carried away, but a turtle could dream. He looked over at all his work he would be putting on hold for a few hours. He shot a quick glance to one of his cabinets at the far end of the lab. The cabinet that held Splinter's completed retromutagen.

Because, unbeknownst to everyone, Donnie had finished it a few months ago. However, he came across another chemical reaction when he was working on it. Something that looked like it not only unmutated, but antimutated. With the appropriate amount of April's DNA, it seemed to inactivate the mutagen as well as cause the mutated cells to regenerate into normal human cells.

In other words, he was on the brink of discovering nomarugen, as he so named it. Normal Genetics. A gene that would multiply the human cells in him and make him human.

He didn't want to get the others involved quite yet for his own reasons. Mostly because he didn't want to get his own hopes up. If he hyped up something that could possibly be, but then it falls short, it would be double the disappointment.

And he wasn't sure if he would get lectured about accepting what he is…what he always will be.

But in the meantime, they all suspected he was working on a retromutagen and they all seemed just fine with that.

It was time to go have dinner with April.

o

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This is my first TMNT story; just wanted to say real quick that I'm by far a TMNT expert, though I'm doing tons of research to help with this unfortunate problem. Anyway, despite what this story may look like so far, this is not a story about how Donnie creates something that allows him to become human. Far from it actually. It's just the idea that leads into everything else.

Also, the reason I added Irma in was because I'm aware that she was closest to Donatello in the original 1987 version. It made me wonder what they have planned for her when she finally meets the turtles in the 2012 version (assuming that they go this route).

I also can't wait to get into the theory I have with April's mother. This is the ultimate reason I started this story. BUT I couldn't dismiss my love for Apritello along the way, so I'll have plenty of that available.

Please let me know what you think so far! This is my 40th story (under this pen name anyway) and I feel like celebrating!

-Enula