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gisfloatsirl · 15 days ago

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TMNT Headcanons: Helping Out in the Lab

Donnie of your choice /x Reader

How does Donnie react when you want to offer a helping hand in his lab?

Rated G for General Audience, some Fluff: I didn't write these with the intention to depic romantic interest in the lab, though I have a couple mentions here and there, hence those are mostly platonic. No Beta, could containt typos (: Reader has also been kept gender-neutral, though my writing could still lean towards a more feminine Reader as it is my bias.

I was wondering how different iterations' Donatello's would act in this specific situation, so there we are, with some rough, unedited HCs. Includes '03, '12, Bayverse and Rise. So far.

[I’m not familiar with ’87, Mirage & IDW so I’m skipping those don’t mind meee; might come back for ’09 & 2019 later after I’ve rewatched those movies and if people ask for them.]

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Request Guide | MasterList

[2003]

So very patient. An absolute Saint, quite honestly.

He has his days where nothing is going right and he will either need you to leave him alone to deal with the height of his frustrations and allow him the room to calm down because he’s terrified of scaring you (he is still incredibly strong and he doesn’t like himself when he snaps at those he loves) or he’ll need you to pull him out of his head and away from the lab altogether to work out his feelings and thoughts. But those days are not especially frequent until there’s a menace that his family is struggling to deal with and he starts overworking himself. When that happens, just make sure he gets proper nutrients and rest, yeah?

Since he like to tinkle with a variety of subjects and adores to infodump to a listening ear, you’ll end up learning about so many things, be it tech, chemistry, astronomy or even some out of this world alien stuff. He’s very good at explaining too and it will feel like you’re talking with a great sage of Sci-Fi.

Of course, if you can bring more knowledge to the conversation, he’ll be elated and he’ll love to pick your brain when he hits a wall in one of his projects that you could be knowledgeable in helping him with.

If, more like Mikey, your brain works more in the creative mode and you can’t even remember the names of the million tools he keeps in his labs, he’ll find a way to make good use of your diverging points of views on the world to see his projects with a brand new eye, which will often help him see where he was stuck in the first place.

Won’t get angry at you if you bring him the wrong tool he had asked you for when you offered your help. He might start sighing quietly if you keep making the same mistake over and over again, but he’ll do his best not to show the creeping annoyance, because he likes you too much.

Your safety first, but he’s a good example to follow and he’ll make sure that both of you wear the proper gear and stay at a safe distance of any of his experiments/project.

Like any of the other Donnies, it’s hard to convince him to go to sleep at a reasonable hour, but he can be relatively easy to sway if you go soft with him; a light hand squeezing his shoulder gently if you’re simply friends, leaning gently on his shell to press your forehead on the back of his head if you’re a little more than friends, and he’ll sigh quietly in defeat.

He refuses to leave his lab too messy, so he might ask you to help him put things away, and will remind you that the sooner it’s done, the sooner he can give you his undivided attention (a very effective move, and he knows it).

[2012]

While he loves your company in the lab, he’s been burned more than once by allowing Mikey to stick around and often causing chaos, that he’s a little more skittish about allowing anyone in his lab, much less to help him if you can’t provide topic-specific knowledge that could help him with his current experiments/projects.

But, he has also seen Mikey do what he could only call miracles in his lab simply because his little bro was having fun and was thinking outside the box, so Donnie will never truly ban you from his lab.

Nothing you can do will completely ease his anxiousness, but he’ll have those moments where he’ll let go just a little more and you’ll end up laughing and joking together. Those will be his favourite moments, quite honestly, doesn’t matter if it means his work isn’t getting done.

He will be so so proud of you if you manage to help him in any way and he will annoy his brothers and April and Casey about it for a very long time. He’s even worse if he’s crushing on you, though he’ll keep most of his gushing for when you’re not around in hopes of keeping a low profile (he doesn’t know that only Leo really bothers to not tattle on him).

He’s overall very similar to ’03 Donnie, but this Donnie is not scared of mean girl-level quips and snarky remarks when he gets exasperated. He’ll apologize sooner or later, depending if he sees that he was the one who lost his temper, but he will hold a grudge if you mess something up bad, even if he says that he’s forgiven you. He’ll use that later on if you get into a fight, trust me.

If he’s having a bad day, and you’re not especially skilled to help him out with whatever he is doing, he’ll sigh in exasperation quite obviously after a while, which might very well make you feel unwelcome in his space. Better let him be, but he’ll be very confused and grow frustrated if you leave his lab angry because of his own attitude.

Biggest yapper of the Donnies on this list, but he’s not always good at explaining things like ’03 is, but he loves questions nonetheless, since it means you’re interested in what he’s doing.

King of sweet nicknames (if you’re open to those) when he finds a way for you to help. Will be extra sweet on good days when he sees that you’re doing your best, no matter your skill level, but especially if you’re together. You hand him the wrong tool twice? It’s okay, sweetheart, it’s the one that look like this and I should have put it around there. Yes, darling, that one, thank you.

Your safety first; if he doesn’t have enough protective gear to go around, you go first and if you make him realize that he’s the one who truly needs it after a short argument, you’ll just have to compromise and leave the lab when Donnie deems it too risky for you to be around and you refuse to let him protect you with his body (which he would do in a heartbeat, mind you).

[Bayverse/2014-16]

Much like ’03, this Donnie doesn’t expect you to actively help him with whatever he’s doing. He’ll find it amazing if you can, be he’ll almost enjoy it more if you can’t: he really enjoys it when you feels comfortable enough to sit next to him and just watch him work his magic. Mikey used to do it when they were younger but rarely does so as they grew older in favour of video games and playing the drums or working out with big bro Raph.

He might feel like you’re trying to steal his thunder if you try to insert yourself into his projects and butt in without being asked. But if he finds out that you’re knowledgeable in one of the topic he’s a little less confident in, he’ll likely approach you with interrogations and scenarios of his own and that’s your jumping point to take part into his projects. Otherwise, always ask him if you could be of any service to him.

It’s not that he wants you to sit there and be pretty, but rather that he’s specific about others touching the stuff that’s in his lab. He’s not nearly as strict as soon as his things aren’t in his lab; he’s a very much “organized chaos” type of person and he hates having to look for something just because someone went and moved it from the overflowing shelf to his equally overflowing desk.

Honestly, unless you’re really good at those hidden objects game, good luck even simply offering him to hand him the tools he needs as he works. And he’s not always good at remembering where he put the tools himself, but he’ll find whatever he needs immediately if he gets up to fetch it himself.

He so very rarely gets angry at you when you’re in the lab with him. It might be because it’s his safe space or how you respect him and his space. He will not hesitate to kick you out if you show disrespect though, he doesn’t need that negativity in his space, there’s already too much on the Web and in the street gangs he fights off on the weekly, no way will he endure your bad attitude as well while he’s trying to work on his passion projects.

He’ll gladly answer any questions you may have, and he’s pretty good with his explanations, though he might get sidetracked and go on long tangents more than ’03 and ’12 would, possibly on par with Rise on that point.

It’s near impossible to tear him away from his screens if he’s in a coding or research frenzy. Just hold his coffee, his energy drinks and Pop Tarts hostage and he’ll quickly resign himself to at least take a 4 hours nap break. If you’re more than friends or playing with that line, he’ll find a way to drag you to rest with him and use you as his body pillow as he snores away, saying he won’t rest as well if you’re not there to keep an eye on him. As if he wouldn’t be able to sneak past you to get what he wants if he put in the minimum effort.

[Rise]

He’s a little between Bay and 2012 Donnies when it comes to having someone else in his lab while he works: absolutely not a fan of others touching his stuff, even though he’s a lot more organized than Bay Donnie (he’s honestly the most organized of the bunch here, with functioning systems to keep his workspace clean and tidy for safety and sanity reasons), and he’s also really concerned about you getting hurt while he has his back turned. If you hurt yourself after disregarding his warnings, he’ll make a face and will grumble and lecture you as he helps you get patched up. If there’s too much blood, he'll ask someone else to help, he refuses to let you see him get queasy about your blood. It would hurt his pride somehow.

Safety first for everyone. He’ll hand you all the gear you need to stay safe in his lab, and he might even overdo it a bit with you and be more strict than he would be with his brothers, but if you point it out, he’ll tell you it’s because he knows his bros can take it and will be fine, but he’d rather not find out about you for (both) your sake. You can sometimes find him forget to suit up properly when he’s sleep deprived, though his eyes and ears are always minimally protected by his sturdy headset. Do hand him whatever he is missing rather than just telling him that he should be wearing this or using that, because if you hand him you take away his excuse that he can’t stop now to go get it (or whatever other sleep-deprived excuse he’ll come up with).

The ways he’ll let you help in the lab will depend on the projects and how he’s feeling that day: there will be days where he’d rather you sit next to him to observe and just keep him company, letting him ramble or just vibing with the music, and there will be other days where he’ll put you to work, fetching his tools, holding parts, welding tiny details, small easy tasks that he’ll show you how to do if you’ve never done it before. Just let him know and he’ll teach you the quick basics for what he needs you to do.

Of all the Donnies, he’s the one that doesn’t show just how much he appreciates your company in the lab. While the other Donnies will smile and laugh a lot more, it takes a long time for Rise Donnie to truly relax and drop the bad boy persona he likes so much to have fun with you as he works.

He may have a few lapses in his persona if you manage to impress or surprise him by offering a breakthrough, whether it was intentional or not on your part. When that happens, you’ll see his eyes widen with a renewed shimmer and he might also start talking really fast and geek out about ‘his’ (he’ll learn to say ‘our’ if you become more than friends, don’t worry) breakthrough.

Be aware though that, if you make the same mistake 3 times, he’ll get exponentially exasperated with you. He’d much rather you be honest and tell him that you don’t know what he’s talking about or asking of you, or just ask him what the heck the tool or doohickey he wants looks like. He’ll likely have sent you to the right place to where the object is, but some (a lot) of the stuff that’s in his lab is custom made or maybe even from the mystic variety, so it’s not exactly conventional-looking. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. He may be intimidating on his bad days, but Donnie tends to be eager to help in any way he can since this is how he finds a lot of his self-fulfilment.

He’s not a fan of food in his lab. If you got a mug, a glass or a water bottle, you better use one of his Genius Built branded coasters or else. He’ll also refuse to eat in there (while he keeps the place as clean as he can, the food could contaminate one of the many experiments he has festering in his lab at once and ruin the whole project, he should know, it has happened more than once before-) so you’ll have to lure him out if he needs more nutritious sustenance than coffee.

Overall pretty chill with your presence, so long as you don’t push yourself onto him, invade his space all the time or go rogue in his lab.

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