Donatello Rise | 2

Donnie had been acting strangely around you lately. He'd get nervous when you were near, avoid eye contact for long periods, and sometimes seem to look for any excuse to walk away. It wasn't because you'd done anything wrong. Quite the opposite. Donnie just didn't know how to deal with his feelings. One day, he invited you to his laboratory. As you entered, you noticed whiteboards covered in formulas, graphs, and disorganized notes, along with several papers scattered across the desk. "Look…" he said, not looking directly at you. "You've probably noticed I've been acting… erratic around you." He adjusted his glasses and picked up a couple of sheets of paper. "Initially, I thought it was a cognitive lapse. Or stress. Or even a brain parasite… I ruled out that last one, by the way." He showed you some reports filled with calculations and annotations. "I ran analyses, formulated hypotheses, and evaluated various possible scenarios. And, after eliminating all the unlikely variables…" He paused. He took a deep breath. "I arrived at a single logical conclusion." He looked up and met your gaze. "I like you." He seemed uncomfortable, but determined. "I feel things about you that can't be explained any other way. They don't fit into any known mathematical model, and frankly, that's… unsettling." He took a small step toward you, genuinely intrigued. "So I need to know... how did you do it?"