Hey! Roxy Goth here. Been a while since I wrote for this fandom, but this idea would not leave me alone, so here I am.

I do not own TMNT or anything associated with it in any way shape or form.

Mikey had a system. To anyone who knew him this would be incomprehensible as Hamateo-Michaelangelo did not have 'systems' that was Leo and Donnie's departments. What Mikey had where wild plans that may or may not work depending on what that particular plan was.

That was true, except for two areas. One – the kitchen. You needed to have a plan in order to cook, even his wackiest pizza ideas where carefully thought out, even if they didn't look like it. The second area was more important – his brothers. This system had been built up of at least 12 years observing his brothers and making sure they were okay. [Leo wasn't he only one who frequently worried about the safety of the family, Mikey did to, he just didn't obsess over it for weeks].

Basically it was this. Each of his brothers had a way they usually acted. If they started breaking the way they usually acted it meant something was up. No might's, no maybe's, something was up. His job was then to find out what. Of course you had to take into account environmental factors, all of them where pretty stressed after another fight with the foot ninjas and/or purple dragons for instance, so slight personality shifts for a 1-3 days depending on what brother it was, was completely normal and thus no need for concern. The concern was if it lasted longer than it usually did.

Of course they each had their individual triggers as well. Leo, Mikey had noticed, had a pattern of stress, he'd be completely fine for a little while, then something would happen, it could be as major as a near-death incident or as minor as Raph staying out a little longer than necessary. The point was whatever it was would cause him to panic and worry and stress. And because Leo was Leo he didn't want to tell anyone about this worry, preferring instead to try and work it out himself. This had three possible outcomes. One, he would work it out himself. [Which didn't happen that often]. Two – he would go to Splinter about it. [Which happened about 25 percent of the time, especially if the problem was something relating to training]. Or the third one, which was the one Mikey personally hated the most, he'd go into a deep pit of despair and start panicking so much he had no idea how to stop. In Leo's case Mikey would first of all try annoying it out of him, which sometimes worked. If that didn't work he'd try and talk to him calmly and maturely when Leo was relaxed [so either just after meditation or an episode of Space Heroes]. If that didn't work Mikey would corner Leo and demand to know what was up. That one was rarely needed though, normally the first two worked fine.

That was Leo.

Raph's triggers were largely environmental and depending usually on what he'd seen while he was out with Casey and/or heard on the news. Say for instance some idiot robbed a hospital; Raph would first of all deal with the person who committed the crime in his own way. [Which Mikey didn't actually know and honestly preferred to keep it that way]. Then he'd start thinking about what could be done to stop these kind of things happening, which usually involved lasers around the premises and that kind of thing. [Raph might not have been as technological as Donnie but don't ever say he doesn't know his way around weapons] You could tell because the hot-head wold get even moodier than usual, increase the amount of times he went out, and cease speaking to family members for a while, particularly Leo. Now, unlike Leo Mikey didn't need to actually intervene as such, because Raph's methods for dealing with problems involved turning his aggression outwards onto the person who committed the crime instead of inwards onto himself. Which in Mikey's opinion was way better than Leo's strategy. What Mikey's part was, was to distract him from brooding over it too much. It hadn't happened yet, but his two oldest brothers did share a lot of similarities, even if they didn't think so, and Mikey was afraid that one of those might be internal agonising, following by internal destruction. So the youngest would tease and wind Raph up, Raph would then chase him over the lair and lo and behold like magic the tension was usually gone. Afterwards Raph would go punch his punching bag a little.

So that was Raph.

Donnie was the hardest. Donnie did not like admitting his feeling to anyone. Which wasn't that different to Raph and Leo, but at the same time it was majorly different. The stress his immediate older brother usually felt was nine times out of ten to do with his work. That formula wasn't working out how it should, this experiment didn't have the desired outcome and he had no idea why, the computer had lost all his work, another experiment had blown up in his face, ext. Science work, it might shock you to know, wasn't Mikey's forte. He understood more than Donnie probably gave him credit for, but he didn't understand the finer details. So he couldn't really give him advice. As a matter of fact none of the family really could, not even Sensei was technology minded. At least Donnie had April to go to for that sort of thing.

But for the remaining one out of ten, it was like Raph, environmental. Just like Raph, a news story, especially one's that involved wrong-doings against children, women and hospitals could really set Donnie of. But he wouldn't show it. Raph would at least lean forwardly intently, listen to the whole thing, wait until they described the perpetrator then grab his stuff and go on the hunt for them. The only clue Donnie was upset was the slight whitening of the knuckles, his mouth would go into a firm line of disapproval, like Leo's whenever Raph returned from a really late night out and Donnie would tap in annoyance throughout the whole news story, then once it had finished go 'Right' and remove himself to his lab. Like Raph with the criminal, Mikey didn't want to know what Donnie did while he was in there, but he was relatively certain it wasn't healthy.

Like Leo, Donnie bottled this up. Unlike Leo, going to Master Splinter wasn't an option. God knows why, but he wasn't Donnie so he couldn't answer that one. Unlike Raph, Donnie wasn't going to go stalking the roofs for the guy. What his purple-branded brother would do was bottle it up and not talk to anyone about the problem, and when that happened, no amount of getting Donnie annoyed would change that. Nor would asking him to talk and/or forcing him to talk. No with Donnie you had to wait for him to come to you, which was REALLY irritating, but sadly necessary.

Which was why Mikey was waiting in bed at 11:30, waiting to see whether tonight would be the night Donnie came to talk to him. It would happen. It had been 8 days of weird behaviour, there's gotta be a breaking point, right?

Unfortunately Mikey didn't have a clue what caused this sudden change in behaviour. He didn't even have a fight to fall back on. The Purple Dragons had been quiet and god knows what had happened to the Foot. Not that he was complaining, it was quite nice to go on patrol without nearly being killed occasionally.

11:45. Donnie would come in. He had to come in. Right?