Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT…I bet you didn't know that! Hah!
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"But she messed up, cause only one of her was still holding the string! Haha! You get it?" Mikey looked away from the cabinets to see Leo sitting at the kitchen table, still staring blankly into his cup of tea. No reaction. It was hard to tell if Raph had been paying attention or not. The turtle had zombie-walked into the kitchen a few minutes ago, sat down, blinked sleepily once or twice, then face-planted the table. He hadn't moved since. Mikey himself was more embracing of the morning time, which was just as well, since Master Splinter never let them sleep in too late, not even on the most holy of days: Saturday. On cue, Mike heard a loud yawn echo throughout the lair. A moment later, Donnie half-walked-half-dragged himself through the kitchen door, heading straight for the coffee pot.
"Morning, Don." Leo didn't even look up from his tea.
"Mmmph." Was all the response he got before Don plunked a mug onto the counter and filled it with coffee. Without even taking a sip, he cradled the mug in one hand while using the other to hold his head up as he leaned against the countertop. He then proceeded to stare into nothingness.
"Coffee again? Bleh. What we really need is some ice-cold lemonade to get our Saturday started!" Mikey finally found the plastic pitcher he'd been looking for.
"Mmmph." Came the expected response. Carefully measuring out a lot more than the correct amount, Mike dumped the powdered drink mix into the pitcher and moved it over to the sink. Suddenly, his subconscious silence-meter hit critically high, prompting his oral instruments and vocal cords to activate again.
"So, I was doing some thinking the other day, and it hit me: Most superheroes have like, so-called 'cool' powers or whatever. But, come on! I mean, how many superheroes, besides maybe the Man of Steele, do you know that could survive something as basic as a nuclear explosion?" His short attention span preoccupied, he absentmindedly flipped on the sink water. "I mean, I guess there could be a lot more, but it would be kinda like, illogical or something, ya know?" Pitcher full, he turned off the sink water and looked around at his brothers. Encouraged by the fact that this topic of conversation was at least as popular as his last one, he kept going. "But, like I was saying, the other day, it hit me… Cockroach Man! I mean, dude! The guy would be like, invincible!" He set the lemonade pitcher down on the counter. "Surviving nuclear explosions, getting stepped on by giant robots and stuff…I mean, they already have Spider Man, so why hasn't anyone come up with Cockroach Man yet?"
"Uh, Mikey?" Don's vacant stare had finally found something to focus on.
"Yeah?"
"What is that?" Don's eye ridges rose in the direction of the lemonade pitcher.
"Uh…" Taking a good look at his lemonade, Mike could see wisps of steam rising from the yellow liquid. Realizing his mistake, he smiled sheepishly. "Hot lemonade, anyone?"
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"Donnieeeeee! I didn't bump that hard, what's taking so long?"
"If you would like to get down here and help me…" Don's disgruntled voice came from behind the TV.
"No, no. I have faith in you." Mike settled back under his blanket, resigning himself to a long and boring wait. Beside him on the couch, Leo sat engrossed in a heavy, hardcover history book. Normally, in a situation like this, Mike would've found a way to make Leo his prime source of entertainment. But, as it was, he already knew enough "history" to know that big books could make big bruises when thrown at little brothers. So he sat quietly…on the couch…with his blanket. Doing…nothing.
This did not last long.
Leo knew as soon as Mikey had called Donnie over to fix the TV that his quiet time was short, but he was determined to finish the chapter before the noisy box was revived. Reading so fast that the information became a whirlwind around him, he was oblivious to everything but his book. Finally slowing down, he read the last sentence with a satisfied smile. Then, as if stepping out of a tunnel, his senses opened up to his surroundings, where the first thing he noticed was Mikey. Wrapped up and wiggling under his blanket, Mike leaned over and said: "I'm a donkey…"
Leo raised his eye ridges. But before he could say anything, Master Splinter walked into the room.
"Hey, Sensei!" Mikey threw the blanket off of his head and smiled.
"Hello, Michelangelo. Are you still waiting for the television set to be repaired?"
Mike sighed. "Yep."
Splinter glanced worriedly over at the green rear sticking out behind the TV. "I trust you are being careful in all of those wires, Donatello?"
"Of course, Sensei." came Don's muffled reply.
"Dude, Don's been doing this stuff since before he could talk!" Mike laughed.
"Yes, believe me, I know." Splinter smiled fondly. "But I can still remember when you four where too curious for your own good. And I believe it was you, Donatello, who kept climbing on top of the table that held my meditation candles."
Mikey gasped, "Were the candles on?"
Splinter opened his mouth to answer when a snort of laughter came out from behind the TV. "Were the candles on? No, Mikey, he forgot to plug them in that day."
Leo laughed while Splinter just looked confused. It took Mike a moment before…"Hey! You know what I meant!"
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Mikey hummed to himself as he walked into the kitchen for one of the most important events of the day: lunch. Leo was already there, standing in front of the purring microwave with a thoughtful expression on his face. Making a beeline for the pantry, Mike flung the door open and gazed upon shelves of food labels, then sighed and hung his head. How it was possible, Mikey couldn't explain, but there it was, right before his eyes: A pantry full of nothing to eat! He grunted and headed for the fridge. Surely there would be some quick-and-easy junk food in there! The microwave beeped its finale and Leo came to life, taking the plate out and setting it on the counter. Then the door of the refrigerator slammed shut and Mikey huffed; it seemed his fridge wasn't going to give him a decent lunch, either. There was silence in the kitchen for a few moments until Mike forgot his sulky mood and noticed that Leo wasn't moving. He was just standing there, looking down at his plate. Curious, Mike leaned over for a better look. "Oh my gosh! Leo!"
"What?!" Leo jumped.
"Is that a--was that a hotdog?"
Leo mumbled something.
"How long did you put it in for?"
"Two minutes." Mikey's mouth fell open and Leo fidgeted. "Why? Do you think that was too long?"
"Two minutes? Leo! You don't put a hotdog in the microwave for two minutes!" They both looked back down at the hotdog. It was a gruesome sight, the skin was stretched back and its insides puffed out like pink popcorn pieces. Mike shook his head in disbelief, but one look at his brother's face told him that Leo was already distraught about this latest cooking failure. Taking a deep breath, Mikey forced up a smile and glanced at Leo. "Maybe you can sew it back together?"
Leo glared at him.
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"Everything's so wet, and I'm sooo hot, and-Ew! I've got grass stuck to my feet!"
"Mikey! Shut UP!" Raph hissed. "Do you want them to find us?"
"Too late." Leo hopped down from the tree branches above them and Donnie's chuckling figure appeared on one of the tree limbs. Raph smacked his forehead with his hand and groaned. Leo crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Mike, are you actually trying to do the exercise, or are you just goofing off?"
"Dude, how can anyone do anything in this humidity?" Mike waved his hand in front of his face and let his tongue hang out like a dog's. "I mean, no wonder there's no humans around! Who wants to go for a walk in the park with this heat?" He started walking back towards the park pathway and his brothers followed.
"Well, we did have a lot of rain today. That's probably what's keeping everybody away." Don observed.
"Ugh, don't get me started." Mike stared down at his feet; they were dripping wet and covered in loose blades of grass. "Itchy, itchy, itchy!" He hopped up and down until he spotted a big stone bench on the path side. Bobbing over to it, his brothers in tow, he sat down and started picking grass off his feet.
Leo grinned. "Traveling by treetops was a lot less…grassy."
"Yeah, but it was also more slippery." Donnie muttered, rubbing a bruise on his arm.
"Mikey…" Raph spoke up. "…Ya know ya just sat in a puddle?"
Mikey's eye ridges rose as he looked at the top of his seat and discovered that it was, indeed, covered in a layer of rainwater. He yelped and shot up, trying to brush the water off of his rear. His brothers burst out laughing. "Way to go, Boy Blunder!" Raph got out between chuckles.
Mike's face cringed up in discomfort. "Ewwwwwwww…"
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"Of all the nights for the AC to break down…" Leo sat on the couch, fanning himself with a book.
"I thought I felt something wet…" Mike murmured from a chair nearby.
"Are you still talking about that bench thing?" Raph looked up from his half-dead position on the couch, then rolled over. "Gah, it's hot in here!" His brothers nodded and the lair fell back into muggy silence. At last, footsteps on the stairs made them lift their heads expectantly. Donatello, looking as though he was about to melt into a sweaty green puddle, stared back at their hopeful gazes and shook his head.
"Were you not able to fix the air conditioning unit, my son?" Master Splinter seemed to appear out of nowhere.
"No…I'll have to make a trip to the junkyard…get a replacement part…uh, it's hot up there!" Don leaned against the wall wiped a hand over his face.
"Perhaps it would be best for you to wait until tomorrow when it is cooler. In the mean time, I would advise you all to get some rest, as we will still have practice in the morning." Splinter let that thought sink in for a moment, and even Leo groaned when he realized that they would be practicing without AC. A small smile crept up the corners of Splinter's face. "Goodnight, my sons." A half-hearted chorus of "goodnights" followed him out of the room.
As they started to pull themselves up from their reclining positions, Mikey was suddenly hit with a thought. "Wait! Where are we supposed to sleep? We can't sleep in our rooms upstairs, it's too hot!" Leo and Raph thought for a moment, then sank back down to the couch as they realized their brother was right.
"So…where are we all gonna sleep?" Mike repeated. Donnie suddenly snapped his fingers and headed for the couch, picking a side pillow up off of it and then walking away. His brothers exchanged curious glances before following him. In a remote corner of the lair that they hadn't gotten around to utilizing yet, a big warehouse fan sat gathering dust. After finding the plug and plugging it into a nearby outlet, Don watched a moment while the fan blades slowly came to life with a whirring sound. Then he walked to their sitting area, picked up a corner of the floor rug and dragged it over, letting it plop down in front of the fan. Throwing his pillow in the middle, he lay down on the rug with a sigh, letting the fan air breeze over him. His brothers watched with raised eye ridges.
"I forgot we even had that thing." Raph said, looking at the fan.
Leo nodded. "Good idea, Don." He disappeared upstairs before returning a moment later with a pillow under his arm. Letting it fall on the other side of Don, he lay down on the rug. Shrugging, Raph picked up the other couch pillow and made his brothers scoot over.
"Hey, wait a minute! Where am I supposed to sleep?" Mike quickly became distressed as he realized there was only room for three turtles on the rug. His brothers looked at him blankly. Mike's lower lip started to poke out. Sitting up a bit, Raph pointed towards the bottom of the rug, moving his hand in a horizontal motion. "There's some room at the bottom if you lay like that."
Mike's expression became one of shock and disgust. "Ew! With all of your feet on top of me?" Raph shrugged and lay back down with his hands behind his head. Mikey bounced up and down on his toes, thinking. It wasn't really being next to the fan that worried him, it was the fact that all his brothers were doing something without him. If there was one thing Mike hated, it was being left out. He bounced up and down some more before rolling his eyes and going upstairs to get his pillow.
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"Mikey, you gotta be the worst footrest ever."
"Hey, I'm not your footrest! And I can't help it- your feet tickle!" Mike giggled, causing the three pairs of feet on top of him to jiggle.
"Mikey, cut it out! That feels weird." Don was trying not to laugh. "This is ridiculous." He said, referring to their predicament. Mike giggled some more. Beside him, Leo sighed.
"I swear Mikey, if you don't stop it, I'm gonna kick you in the stomach!" Raph threatened, though it sounded like even he was trying not to smile.
"It's like a vibrating foot massage." Leo commented. And just like that, composure was lost as they all started to crack up, the feet on Mikey's stomach bouncing non-stop.
"My sons," A light appeared from their Sensei's room and instantly put an end to the giggle fest. "If you are going to sleep downstairs, then I must ask that you remain quiet."
There was an immediate chorus of "Sorry, Sensei", before the lair became dark once again.
Like a kid who'd gotten away with pulling a funny prank, Mikey started chuckling again. "Cut it out, Mike." Raph growled lowly.
"Sorry." Mike whispered. Stillness finally came over the scene as Michelangelo settled down, listening to the whir of the fan and his brothers' soft breathing. "Goodnight, guys."
"Night."
"G'night, Mikey."
"Goodnight, Michelangelo."
Mikey smiled, satisfied, before leaning back and closing his eyes.
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-END
AN- Yes! My third fic! This one was really fun to write, because the inspiration for most of the things that happen to Mikey came from living with my little brother. He's always doing wonderful things like sitting in puddles and making hot lemonade…y'know, slightly absentminded. But we love him! Anyways, hope you enjoyed it.
Please leave a review!