#thecloakingbroochdilemmafic

[hijinxensues]

The Cloaking Brooch Dilemma - Part 2

RotTMNT Donatello x OC!AFAB

Synopsis: Donatello considered himself, nay, deemed himself the greatest mind of his generation. He was known for his skills as a scientist, inventor, engineer and was a technological genius. Dare he throw in that he was a damn good brother and held the title of being 1/4th ‘Protector of New York City’.

He could barely fathom that he didn’t piece together that the pretty barista he was falling for was simultaneously his gaming buddy (might I add, for the last eight years) and was working for Big Mama.

At this very moment, Donatello was sure of two things in his life. One of them being his life was a joke and the second being that he was fraternizing with the enemy.

All because he decided to run errands whilst donning his cloaking brooch.

Warnings: Aged-Up turtles, fluff, Half-Yokai OC, AFAB OC (does use she/her/they pronouns in writing), swearing, light angst 

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Ch 2 - Royal Purple 

Donatello seldom wore his cloaking brooch topside (or at all, really), especially after the Krang invasion where the New York citizens found out they were sharing the streets with Yokai and mutant-kind. Confidence was his and his brothers friend in terms of navigating the streets, humans barely batted an eye at them pre-invasion and it was the same post-invasion. He didn’t question how his “skin condition” and snout weren’t enough for people to ask questions, but he was thankful for the lack of attention. However, there were times where he did not feel like receiving and ignoring bigoted stares from the random New Yorker off the side of the road and in these moments, he dons a cloaking broach to run errands.

Donatello clipped his cloaking broach to his tank top and slipped a zip-up over his shoulders then zipped, fumbling with the zipper since he had five fingers instead of being tridactyl. He pulled a purple puffer jacket over the zip-up, tied the strings of his black sweatpants together to look presentable (Galileo-forbid, he look so disheveled to leave the string of his sweatpants untied), pulled his boots on and glanced in the mirror.

The first time Donatello looked in the mirror with the brooch on, he was baffled. He shouldn’t have been as surprised as he was considering he was made of Lou Jitsu DNA. He frankly looked a bit like Lou Jitsu, being Asian with fair skin and fluffy jet-black hair, not coiffed like his father had his fair in his prime. He still maintained his body structure regardless if he was his terrapin self or his “human” self, he had always been lithe and toned, not that you could tell underneath his winter clothes. He welcomed the sensation of hair on his head and ultimately opted to leave without a tuque. He pulled his hood up once he made it top-side to the cold breeze.

Donnie knew the streets of New York like the back of his hand. He was, of course, one of the Protectors of New York City. He found it amusing that people had snapped the blurriest photos of him and his brothers jumping on rooftops in their teens when they weren’t as stealthy and posting them on the ‘NYC heroes?’ subreddit on Reddit- people from all over trying to debunk or prove his existence, even with Yokai’s being known to the public.

Donnie was on the hunt for a new GPU for his computer, he liked to buy the commercially sold pieces and use them as controls when he ultimately decided he could build one better. Rounding the corner, he finds himself in front of the computer store he frequents. Pushing past the door, he does a nod to the clerk at the front desk which is returned in kind before heading over the peruse the selection of GPU’s. He makes quick work of his decision, pulls one of the peg and heads to the counter. Perhaps he should head over to get a latte to warm up before heading back down to the lair? Donnie did not thrive in the cold being part terrapin and did not want a repeat of when he went into brumation last winter, he was playfully teased relentlessly once he came out of it and was called ‘Sleepy-Tello’ for a good portion of the Holiday season.

Exiting with his bag, he headed down to his favorite coffee shop. They had mediocre service, but a fabulous lavender latte which paired wonderfully with their signature cinnamon buns. The coffee shop had very odd hours and closed much later in the evening which worked perfectly for his irregular sleep schedule. Donatello pretty much never ventured this way during the day and only opted coming here in the late evening when he needed a pick me up from tuning and building his tech. It was much busier in ‘Rendezvous’ mid day than in the late hours he normally visited.

“Hi, how’re you? What can I get started for you today?”

Donatello looked up from his phone to see a familiar face, Violet. Violet had been a barista at Rendezvous for years, often the one to prepare his lavender lattes and package his cinnamon buns (she was the only competent worker to use a plastic container for his bun instead of a paper bag as to not ruin the icing on the top) during the closing shift. He would admit he favored her over the other baristas based on her name alone, being a shade of purple. Donnie wasn’t the type to track a total strangers work schedule but statistically, but every time he stepped into the shop in the evening, Violet was there which meant she had almost always had the closing shift instead of a morning shift.

“Fine. One medium lavender latte please,” he looked over at the pastry display, “and a cinnamon bun.”

Violet hums thoughtfully as she punches in the order and he offers a quirked brow as he fishes out his wallet.

“Oh, I’m not usually on during a morning shift and I have a regular that stops by in the dead of night to make this exact order,” she holds out the payment machine and Donnie taps his card, “but, uh, you aren’t him!” she laughs nervously and tucks a strand of hair behind her ears. She turns so her back is to him but then rapidly turns back around, “Not that there’s anything wrong with his-your order! It’s just not a very common one.”

She’s nervous. Donatello might not be great at reading verbal cues or tone, but body language was much easier for him to pick up. Violet didn’t strike him as the nervous type when he’d seen her in the evenings, but granted he didn’t know much about her at all besides the brief exchange they have together where she practically has his latte and bun waiting on the counter for him minutes before his arrival in the evenings. The thing that puzzled him was why she would be nervous of him or even this basic interaction?

“Uh, that isn’t to say the latte and the bun aren’t good items on the menu, it’s just-“ she flounders and takes the machine back from him. “Anyways!”, she claps and turns around once again to fuss with the coffee machine, “give me one moment, I’ll have your order ready for you at the side.”

Donatello had already written off the interaction as he waits off to the side of his order and pulls out his phone. His thumb hovers over the Discord app before giving in and tapping it looking over at his friends muted username, Cavaletty. A clever play on words and her online name. ‘Cavaletti’ being the small hurdles, originally made of wood, originally used for basic horse training but was more familiarised in canine fitness and rehabilitation and ‘Letty’ being her name.

Bootyyyshaker9000: How are you faring at work? It is a beautifully freezing day in New York. Rain check on games tonight, my brothers want to have ‘family night’ tonight and those always run unnecessarily long.

Donatello closes the app as Violet sets his drink and bun down in a paper bag, “I usually pack these in a paper bag, but I didn’t want the icing-“

“To stick to the inside of the bag. It’s an obvious answer to pack a pastry such as the cinnamon bun in a box and not a bag to preserve its longevity and so the consumer has the maximum amount of enjoyment when eating.”

Ah. If the coffee shop was any colder, he’d be able to see the steam radiating off her face. If he was not mistaken, Violet thought he was attractive. Now, Donatello was not a humble person, his ego was actually quite large, reasonably so, he felt. He was one of four of the protectors of this city and on top of that, he was known for his skills as a scientist, inventor, engineer, and technological genius. One of the brightest minds of his generation, he would reckon. His IQ was in the 160-190 range, and he liked to tell people that for reference, Albert Einstein had an IQ of 160. Donatello was never the ‘face’ of the team, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t just as or equally as attractive as Leo. Donatello tries not to feel a certain disappointment he couldn’t place that he's never gotten this type of reaction out of Violet, however, he is a man of science and rational after all, Violet has never really seen him in his regular “mutant form” and thus could not give him a reaction like this since she didn’t know what he looked like.  

“Right! You get it,” she tries to look casual, “You stopped by the computer store next door? I actually picked up a ‘Radeon RX 6950 XT’ the other day to replace my garbage graphics card.” Donatello catches her checking how long of a line she had before continuing on quickly, “I mean, I know it’s not the best but GPUs are extremely expensive and hard to come by these days.” She smiles wipes down the counter in front of her.

“Excellent choice, the RX 6950 is half the price of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, which is what I picked up. It’s hard to find something to compete with the best GPU that’s currently commercially sold. The RTX has exceptional gen-on-gen performance, the DLSS frame generation is magic and has super high clock speeds.” Donatello states as he grips the warm paper cup with his signature drink.

Violet opens her mouth to respond but is cut off by someone at the front of the line clearing their throats to get her attention back, “Sorry, I’ve got to go. Nice talking to you! I’ll… see you around?” she gives a sheepish smile and begins to turn her attention back to the line of people waiting for her. Donatello offers a head nod in response, “Sure thing,” he makes a precursor glance at her name tag as if he didn’t know her name already, “Violet,” her name rolls of his tongue easily, “Have a good day.”

Donatello takes a tentative sip of his latte as he exits, not wanting to burn his tongue on the hot liquid. ‘Perfect’, he thinks as the smooth liquid hits his throat, the lavender notes not overwhelmingly floral and as the perfect amount of sweetness to counteract the bitterness of the coffee. He hums thoughtfully and reflects on the interaction with his barista (as if she was really ‘his’ personal barista), aside from the phrases, “The usual?” and “Have a lovely night, get home safe!” he’s never really made small talk with Violet. It’s not like he needed to make small talk (with anyone), Donatello found small talk with anyone painful, unnecessary, and frankly a waste of his time. However, the interaction with her whilst wearing his cloaking broach was… interesting at best and piqued his curiosity. He would put more thought into creating small talk in the evenings with her later- a pros and cons list would do him well.

He made his way safely back to the lair through his secret entrance that led straight into his lab and pulled out his phone after feeling the telltale vibrate of a Discord notification (he had customized and set up a different vibrate pattern for Letty).

Cavaletty: omf tired as fuck, we cant stay up that late i swear ill never make it LOL i almost never do mornings either

Cavaletty: aweeee, family time is nice! your brothers always sound so lovely lol /gen

Donatello smiled to himself; he appreciated the tone indicators- something Letty never had a problem doing for him since he often times struggled with reading texts. He did like to think he knew Letty well enough to decipher the tone of her messages, but he appreciated how thoughtful she was of him, despite never meeting in person or even over cams (he refused every time she asked).

Cavaletty: all good 4 the rain check, i have gigi coming over anyways for pizza. hawaiian- your fav! HAHA let me know tho, my sched is still open at our regular time but all good if you gotta pass

Donatello grimaced and flopped into his seat as he typed back furiously.

Bootyyyshaker9000: You are a literal heathen, a ham and pineapple pizza is a culinary mistake. The flavors do not work, it is a stain on all of humanity. I reconsider our friendship every time you bring up your awful taste in pizza.

Cavaletty: someones cranky today LOL, gotta get to my shift, but will msg throughout the day. get back 2 me whenever. hope youre dressed warm if youre going out, its FREEZING. talk later otto!

He contemplates yet again, probably for the hundredth time, if he should reveal his name to Letty. Back when he was more wary of his online presence, he still used ‘Othello Von Ryan’ and he convinced himself there wasn’t ever an opportune moment to reintroduce himself as ‘Donnie’. It was like when you’ve known someone for too long and you don’t know their name but the window of opportunity to ask their name has completely closed, so you suffer and hope that it’ll come up where they offer their name to you to avoid having to ask them for it.

Bootyyyshaker9000: Of course, enjoy the rest of the day. Already been out and bundled up, I concur it is very chilly. Talk later, Letty.

Donatello was fond of the nickname Letty had given him, ‘Otto’, as they got comfortable over the years and he talked himself out of sharing his name. He had considered that ‘Letty’ wasn’t her real name either, but for whatever reason never did a thorough background check on her once they moved their chats to Discord, deeming her a safe enough entity in his life since all he did was tutor them at the time and play video games. He could confirm that she also lived in New York as they shared the same time zone and they talked about frequenting the same food spots, but he didn’t know where she worked or what she did for work. She never asked him and so he never asked her, their friendship being completely online, and he was content with that. Despite that, Donatello still considered her quite a close friend as a baseline as they filled each other in on other aspect of their lives, such as friends and family amongst other obscure and random topics that they both brought up over late night gaming.

Donatello pulls off his jacket and unclips his broach then tosses it on his table. He breathes a sigh of relief looking at his tridactyl hands then takes a seat in his ergonomic chair. Pulling his purchase out of the bag and setting his cinnamon bun on his table, he takes a sip of his latte, and his chest constricts at the thought of Violet tucking her hair behind her ear and sliding him his drink with a shy smile.

Donatello reminds himself as a man of logic and rational, in his adulthood, that it is, in fact, normal to reminisce about a pretty girl who thought (he hypothesized, based on her shy smile and flushed cheeks) a version of him was handsome, even if it wasn’t truly who he was.

---

TBC

Human!Donnie design by @/smallest_of_smol on TIKTOK! https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFcctffa/ << check it out !!

Also, I very slightly changed Violet/Letty’s appearance in terms of her legs, I gave her bunny feet when she’s not wearing the brooch. But that was it, everything else is the same (: