Work Text:
Some of her favorite moments, out of all the time she spends with the mutant turtles, are when she's watching Donatello work.
She'll be in his lab, tucked into her own corner that he never changes, just for her. She usually goes there when she wants to sit and read, because it's (usually) the quietest place in the lair. Between Raph and Leo sparring, and Mikey playing videogames or yaking her ear off, Donnie's controlled chaos was the easiest place to just be and get lost in a good story. But sometimes, she'd look up from the pages and just watch him.
He mumbles to himself constantly while he tinkers on things, and she'll strain her ears to hear little snippets of his one-sided conversations, though she hardly ever understands even when she does hear him. When he isn't moving his mouth, it's because he's biting his lips, or holding his tongue between his teeth as he leans in to his project, goggles drawn down over his golden eyes.
She's always amazed when she watches his hands. He is surprisingly dexterous, despite having just three unusually large fingers. When he is working with tiny parts and pieces that even she would fumble with, she holds her breath, watching intently to see if he'll struggle not to drop them. But he never does. In the same respect, he almost never has typos while inputting information on the computer, his hands flying over the keyboard effortlessly. She is especially envious of this gift, as she constantly has to go back and correct herself while typing.
He hardly ever notices her staring, too absorbed in whatever he's creating or taking apart to even realize she'd in the room half the time. When he does notice, it almost startles him. For a ninja, he can be quite easy to sneak up on. He'll catch her staring and his focus will be shattered. "What are you looking at?" he'll ask, checking over himself for anything embarrassing.
She'll giggle and shake her head. "Nothing," she'll say, going back to her book. "You're just cute." She'll hide her coy smile from him.
He's never sure how to respond to that, so he usually just goes back to whatever it was he was doing, trying to hide the color appearing on his face.