A/N: this is set after the episode 'Of rats and men.'


Donatello sat in his lab thinking after the fight with the RatKing, he knew that they had all been lucky, he made sure that Splinter was ok before heading to his lab. He cleaned up the mess from earlier from where Mikey had spilt icecream all over his work bench. He stopped, Mikey, he knew he was going to have to have a talk with him but wasn't sure when would be a good time. His little brother had after all saved him from those fan blades, but he had also been messing with his stuff too.

Donnie put his cleaning supplies in the closet and went out to the living room, he saw his father sitting down watching TV with his brothers, he walked over and crouched down to Mikey.

"hey, we need to talk, go to my lab and don't touch anything."

Mikey looked up at his older brother, he didn't say a word as he stood up to leave, Splinter saw his sons actions and asked Donnie

"is something wrong Donatello?"

"Hai Sensei, but nothing I cant handle."

"Mind telling me what it is?"

Donnie gulped and watched his younger brother go into his lab then he turned back to his father who was now standing infront of him, Donnie who was the tallest turtle felt so small when standing before his father.

"Sensei, um, Mikey uh, he messed with my stuff again... you see I let him sit in my lab to watch me earlier and he uh spilt icecream every where and it got into the mutagen. April broght a cat over and it uh... ate some of the contaminated icecream... it became a mutant."

Splinter raised a dark brown eye brow at his son and asked "and when did you find this out?"

Donatello looked down at his feet for a moment, he felt as though he was the one in trouble here, but then again he felt as though he was ratting out his own brother at the same time.

"I found out when... when we were um... fighting... the uh..."

"the ratking?" Splinter finished for him.

Donatello gulped and looked up at his father and nodded, he didn't want Mikey to get into trouble but Splinter asked.

"I had told Mikey we would talk about this later."

Splinter nodded his understanding and said "very well my son, since you seem to want to take responsibility for this, I will let you decide a fitting punishment for Michelangelo's mistake."

"Hai Sensei."

Donnie turned to leave and Splinter told him "but remember my son, accidents do happen, don't be too hard on him."

Donnie nodded and went to his lab to see Mikey sitting at one of the tables fiddling with a beaker, he jumped off the chair making the beaker fall to the table top making a loud clanging sound.

Mikey's eyes grew wide and he said hurriedly "Sorry D!"

Donnie chuckled at his little brother and took a seat across from him, taking the beaker and setting it upright next to him.

Donnie studied his fidgeting little brother and said softly "Mike, why didn't you tell me you messed up earlier?"

Mikey looked away and found the frozen form of mutagen man interesting, "I don't know... I was afraid I guess."

Donnie tried to meet his brother's gaze and asked "what scared you Mikey?"

After several moments of silence Mikey spoke, "I was scared you would be mad at me and yell... that you would tell me I am just a good for nothing goof off."

Donnie leaned forward and put his hands on his brother's shoulders "Mikey, I would never think that either, yea you do goof off a lot but that is part of who you are. That is your role on this team."

Looking at his older brother now Mikey asked "how do you mean? How is being a goof off a good thing?"

Looking at his little brother straight in the eyes he said seriously "Michelangelo, think about it, Raph's the muscle, Leo's the leader, I am the brain. You remind us that we are not perfect by any means. But the next time you mess with my mutagen I may have to kick your shell. What you did was dangerous."

"is ice cream kitty going to be ok?"

Donnie smiled at his little brother and said "one day he will be, one day I will be able to create a retro mutagen that will change him and Splinter back."

Donnie looked down and then took a deep breath then continued "Mike, earlier I was furious with you, it wasn't just that you mutated April's cat, it was the mess you made, then lying to me to cover it up. Don't lie to me when you make a mistake like that, I don't mind if your in my lab when I am working, just stay out of my stuff and out of my way. I should have made you clean up the ice cream mess but I didn't, in the future please be more careful."

Donnie let Mikey loose and Mikey asked him "are you going to tell Splinter?"

Donnie gave him a slight smile and said "he already knows, he stopped me before I came in here and asked what was going on... I told him."

Mikey looked away and said softly "bet I have to go to the dojo now don't I?"

Donnie gave him a reassuring smile and said "no, Splinter said since I was taking responsibility for what happened I could dish out the punishment how I wanted."

Mikey lowered his head "so I bet I am banned from ever coming back in here huh?"

Donnie put one hand under his brother's chin and made him look up, "nope, you are going to clean the lab, with my supervision. I may have cleaned up the mutagen/ice-cream mess, but the floor and sides of the counter, along with my computer, and two chairs and a part of the wall have splattered ice cream all down it. That is what your cleaning up, I will supervise."

Mikey looked around where he had been when he had his ice cream and saw the mess that was left, his older brother got up and came back to him moments later with cleaning supplies.

"I am going to go see if Leo or Raph will go get supper while we are in here seeing as you cant cook tonight because your on cleaning the lab duty, start on the counter I will be back. And don't touch my computer till I get back do you understand me?"

"yes."

"good."

Heading out of the lab Donnie nearly ran into Splinter who put his hands on his son's shoulders to stop the collision, "I heard the conversation my son, that was a fair punishment you handed out. I just want you to know I am proud of you."

Donnie looked up at his father and smiled "thanks Sensei, I was trying to be fair."

"it is how I would have handled the situation, I will keep an eye on your brother if you would be the one to go get dinner tonight. Raphael and Leonardo are both grounded for fighting again. They had a fight right after you went to talk to Michelangelo."

"Hai Sensei."

Donnie came back a while later to find Mikey sitting on the couch with his head down and Splinter standing over him, a bad feeling hit the pit of his stomach "what happened?"

Mikey looked up with tears in his eyes and said "I tried to... clean your computer... it sparked... Splinter made me sit here till you came back. and I am grounded from my comics for a week since I didn't listen and touched the computer with out your knowledge."

Donnie shook his head and said in a frustrated voice "what am I going to do with you Mikey! Sheesh I can't turn my back for a minute!"

Splinter put a hand on his son's shoulder and said to him "I have dealt with it this time my son, go tell your brothers dinner is here, and try to fix your computer if you can."

"Hai Sensei."

After telling his older brother's about dinner Donnie went about fixing his computer, when he went to his lab he noticed that the only thing left that needed to be cleaned WAS the computer.

Shaking his head he went about its repair, he mumbled to him self "some things will never change..."


Please Review, hope you enjoyed the story, I am working on a Halloween story so be ready for it!