Title: Firebug
Author: vashsunglasses
Rating: K+
Fandom: TMNT
Disclaimer: TMNT belong to Mirage.
Summary: One Shot. Pyromaniacs are known to have feelings of sadness and loneliness, followed by rage, which leads to the setting of fires as an outlet. Euphoria results.


firebug

"Damn it Michelangelo!" Raph snarls as he runs past me with the fire hose, "Why can't you just tell us when you're pissed off?" I watch him aim the hose at the smoking furnace that used to be my room. "Now!" he yells, and Donny turns the wheel releasing the water. Master Splinter is frowning at me and Leo is cursing as he grabs the hose to help Raph aim toward potential hot spots.

I smile, fingering the orange fabric of my bandana as the flowering brilliance of flames dances with the cold flowing sky of water. "I'm not pissed off, Raphy," I reply with a gentle smile, Zen in every bone of my body.

Master Splinter frowns harder and Raph whips his head around, glaring but doesn't say anything. "Of course you're feeling good after the fact Mikey," Don murmurs in my ear as he moves past my position on the couch towards where my other brothers fight outlined against black smoke and warm, delicious heat. I can feel the heat in my blood, a pulse that flushes my cheeks and settles into my pelvis. Not sex so much as satisfaction.

Like coming down from a high I watch my brothers smother the last of the blaze into darkness and sullen water. Don moves back to turn off the hose and Raph coils it up, neither one of them looking my way. Master Splinter hasn't stopped glaring at me, like a statue and I wonder for moment if maybe someone should check if maybe he hasn't died on us. But then he turns and gives a look to Leo, walking back to his sanctuary with a droop to his fur, Raph running after him and putting an arm around his shoulders. Watching their reactions is almost as much of a rush as the chaos of earlier, the wonder of destruction and the breakdown of wood and glass and fabric into energy and carbon.

Leo comes to sit next to me on the couch now, and I give him my most beatific smile to show him how wonderful I really feel. He opens his mouth but I already know what he's going to say, "Michelangelo this needs to stop!" So urgent.

"It was my room, Leo. My stuff. I didn't damage anything of yours did I?" I place a hand on his arm soothingly but he looks at it as if he doesn't recognize it. Then he glares at me, a mirror of the glares on all my family's faces. Kind of funny, only I'm beginning to feel guilty for making him frown like that so I bow my head contritely, "I just needed to do it one last time Leo. I won't do it again." I've achieved enlightenment, so why would I need it again? But he turns his cold face away and gets up, following Master Splinter and Raph into Splinter's room.

Don just smiles sadly at me and speaks, "That's what you always say."

finis