Thirty-Ninth Theory [Action]
[The house is too quiet today. With April sent home, Derek hiding out who-knows-where, and Leo gone to battle, it's down to just Don and Raph again - and not in their little apartment now, but in a house that feels suddenly too big
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He glances up, looking mildly curious - and when he sees Don's face that curiosity changes to something between surprise and concern.
The scientist hurries (well, as much as he can hurry) himself over to the window and opens it, looking out at Donatello.]
A-Ah. Salutations, Donatello. [This is a very strange way to meet, but Robert can't deny he's glad to see the turtle again.]
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... On Terra you would be treated with great respect. It... I don't understand, Donatello. [And when Robert says that - genuinely says that with the weakness evident on his face, in his body, in his voice - then one knows he's really run into a mental impasse.]
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I needed to tell you this before - before things went any further. I understand if you want to change your mind.
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... Well, Donatello...
I... you are one of the most... [He struggles for a word that doesn't sound stupid. This is so much harder to do when Donatello is right there and Robert isn't running off of love-event emotions anymore.] ... awe-inspiring intellectuals that I have met in a long time, and... [He inhales, slowly, then hesitates.]
... You don't mind that I'm a human? I... I thought you... I thought you wouldn't be... interested.
... B-But... Regardless. [His cheeks are burning a little again.] I... I can't say I understand a world like that, Donatello. Not yet. I... cannot fathom why you would need to fight, why someone intelligent and kind and personable like yourself would be threatened with bodily harm. It... It makes no rational sense.
But if it is your world... well, I am glad that you are not in it right now. You and your family hardly deserve a world like that.
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[It's both an explanation of why people would want to hurt them, and an attempt at very indirectly hinting why he might be interested in a human.]
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That explains everything, very suddenly. Like the final twist of a Rubik's cube, everything falls into place.]
... Ah...
[Robert looks up at Donatello with an expression of surprise and - now - curiosity, mixed with what might be traces of anger. At humans. At the disgusting pre-Terran humans who would be willing to be such abominations toward a perfectly wonderful being.]
... Proto-Terran humans. Disgusting. Barely worthy of the species name, "sapiens".
Bloody hell, Donatello. I had no idea... I thought, I thought perhaps you were a member of a whole species. [Genuine anger flickers across Robert's face, directed clearly at humans from Donatello's time.] Barbarians, treating you and your family that way. I... I apologize for my pathetic excuses for ancestors. They prove time and time again that they cannot be trusted with anything important.
[Robert sighs a little, more to vent excess rage than anything.]
... But... how exactly did your family come into being? Were you perhaps a product of black market genetics? [Robert ( ... )
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We started out as ordinary pet shop turtles. But there was - an accident, and we were exposed to a chemical with mutagenic properties. We -- [He hesitates, then decides to leave his father out of the story for now.] Many years later we found out the source of the mutagen. It was a byproduct of an alien teleportation device. The aliens had been in hiding on Earth for a thousand years, since their spaceship had crashed, leaving them stranded in a technologically-primitive world.
[He pauses again, looks at Robert.] Our world still doesn't have contact with extraterrestrials. These aliens are in hiding too. No one knows about them. They help us when they can, but... they can't change human nature.
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And so you are essentially the sole representatives of your subspecies - so to speak. [It... it was something that should have made them prized, something like a spontaneous crystal generation - something rare and wonderful. Instead, it made them reviled.]
I... [Robert forces down his anxiety and reaches over to the turtle's weathered green hand. He kind of gently catches the two fingers with his own slender hand - it's a weak, timid handhold, but it's an attempt to be genuinely reassuring. The touch makes fear flare up inside him. You're getting close, Robert. Probably too close.]
... I am sorry, Donatello.
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We're - still friends?
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[Robert steels himself for the next part, because it's been gnawing at him and he can't be subtle. He can only be painfully, horribly blunt about his feelings.]
A-And, and I wouldn't be opposed to... to eventually going b-beyond that, if... if you were willing.
[He blushes fiercely then and looks away, but doesn't let go of the turtle's hand.]
I-I... it's... it's just been a long t-time, for me. A long time being with... anybody. [He stammers, far too much - he sounds ridiculous, he knows he sounds ridiculous -] N-not that I was ever with a non-human before, b-but, just, at all.
I-I... I don't know if I would... be acceptable for you, anyway. [He wasn't good enough for Benjamin. He wasn't good enough for anybody else.]
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[And after a long pause:] I've never been with anyone.
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You... you deserve to be with somebody. Somebody wonderful.
I-I... I'm hardly that. [Robert's gray eyes are misty.] B-But... you would still... consider it? [Hesitantly, because Donatello shouldn't be saddled with Robert when he could probably do so much better.]
... you... You will need to explain so much to me. About your world. About... about being a ninja. I won't understand it well... But... I can... try.
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[Another little smile.] I'd like that.
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It's been way too long since he's felt these kinds of feelings - real ones, not ones given to him by the Malnosso - and Robert's afraid, afraid of what they mean. Afraid of what they might lead to.]
... Ah, Donatello... ... Don. [The name sounds foreign but Robert says it anyway, because he remembers quite well that Donatello liked it better.]
... I... I just hope that, that if we do... if we do become partners, that I don't... ruin things again. [And he stares at his feet because the memories there are painful.]
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