Yay for High as the Moon (I love that people love this fic ‘verse)! :D
28. “I don’t care that it’s 2:00 am, we need pie.”
“I don’t care that it’s 2:00am, we need pie.” April shuts her notebook hard enough to rustle the papers scattered on her half of the desk, but Donnie doesn’t even look up. “Ground control to Major Don, I said we need pie. Are you listening?”
“No,” Donnie murmurs, and turns another page. The tip of his tongue pokes out of the corner of his mouth, the truest sign that April’s lost him to the wonders of organic chemistry for the foreseeable future — but April is stubborn, April is tired of studying, and April is hungry. Organic chemistry doesn’t stand a chance.
She leans back in her chair as she weighs her options. A head-on distraction might buy her a few minutes of his attention, but Donnie knows how to evade those, thanks to a lifetime of living with Mikey and Raph. And she doesn’t just want a few minutes, she wants pie.
Pie, and a few decent hours of sleep. Neither of them have exams till tomorrow afternoon, which means they can make a run to the diner and sleep till eleven without a problem. April’s financial aid will be fine as long as she gets a B-minus on her anthropology final, but Donnie’s worked himself into his usual semester-end panic-spiral, and hasn’t moved from his desk in fourteen hours except to pee and make more coffee.
Despite being the only actual genius April has ever met, Donnie is an absolute idiot when it comes to self-care.
She’d asked Leo about it, back when she and Donnie were still learning each other, each discovery a quiet delight, and Leo had just sighed.
He’s always been like this, no matter what we tell him. I just shove protein bars and bananas in his direction and hope for the best till it passes. Guarantee you he’ll sleep for a couple days when this is over.
Leo hadn’t been wrong: Donnie slept for nearly seventy hours straight, and then appeared on her balcony, sleepy-eyed and apologetic and ready to make up for all the lost time. The routine had been the same every semester afterwards: panic, slowly sinking into exhausted despair, the inevitable ace-ing of all his exams, and then a spectacular collapse.
Don’t forget the I’m-sorry-I-ignored-you-for-a-week sex, April thinks, and wriggles a little in her chair, grinning. She does enjoy that, but she’d rather not have to deal with everything else that comes with it. A miserable Donnie is not worth a few incredible hours of —
Nope. A head-on distraction won’t work — but April’s learned a thing or two over the past couple years about stealth.
She stands up slowly, stretching until her shirt rides up and exposes her belly, but Donnie doesn’t look her way. That’s fine, she just wanted to gauge his level of absorption.
It’s at critical. April scoots behind Donnie’s chair, and drapes herself over his shell with her arms looped around his neck. “Hi,” she whispers in his ear. “How’s it going?”
One of his hands steals up and wraps around both her wrists. “It’s going,” he says, then lets out a jaw-cracking yawn. “I’m being a bad boyfriend, aren’t I?”
“No, you’re totally devoted — to your textbook.” She lays a smacking kiss on his temple, then stands up, sliding her hands back until they rest on his shoulders. “I’d be jealous if it wasn’t so sweet.”
Donnie huffs, then groans as she starts to massage his shoulders. “Oh — oh, wow, April. That feels amazing.”
“I know,” she says to the top of his head, smirking. “Is there anything I can help with?”
“No, I just need to get this through my head.” Donnie lets his head loll back until it rests against her belly, and smiles up at her. A heartbeat later, his eyes go dark and apologetic, and his mouth curves down at the corners. “I’m sorry, I know I always do this, but I just —”
“Donnie, it’s fine.” April digs her thumbs into the tightest knots, and Donnie gasps as the muscles loosen. “But you’ll be fine. You’ve got this. You’ve always got this.”
“Dr. Stone isn’t letting you go anywhere.” She feels a little guilty for interrupting him, but he needs to understand. He needs to sleep. “You keep that lab running single-handedly. Dr. Klein keeps trying to poach you, remember? And Dr. Martin.”
Donnie sighs. “It’s not just the lab, I have to keep the scholarships or — or —” He yawns again, eyes sliding shut as she keeps massaging his shoulders.
“You’re the beloved Chem 100 TA,” she says, stroking his neck with her fingertips. Donnie makes a soft, appreciative sound, and spins his chair around so he can lean his forehead against her chest. “And the idolized president of the Engineers Society. Your foes tremble when you pass.” Donnie’s laugh shivers through her. “You’ll nail your exams, Donnie. Now come get pie with me.”
“Okay,” Donnie says, voice muffled. She can feel his smile through her shirt. “If my princess insists.”
“Your princess does insist,” she says as he stands up. “On white chocolate mousse and —”
“And apple.” Donnie beams at her, the stress sheeting away like water off a duck’s feathers. “I remember. It’ll be my treat.”
April stands on tiptoes to kiss him. “Damn right it will be,” she says. “Let’s go, handsome.”
