Title: Listen to My Heart
Disclaimer: Don't own TMNT in any way, shape or form.
Just a little one-shot I thought up. It's set sometime after Donny is cured from his mutation. Enjoy!
Donny stared at his trembling hands, green mixed with bright red. That sticky, bright red liqiud...why was it there? Was he hurt?
'D-Don...Donny...'
A tiny voice barely called from below. A voice he knew so well, a voice he could never live without...
Why was there so much blood? Where- oh, god no...NO!
He noticed a piece of flesh near his hand. He didn't have to look to know what it was.
He'd...no. He can't...Did he...?
A painful harsh cough sounded again, and Donny fought to keep the bile from escaping his shaking body.
He was a monster...he'd attacked him...and now...his brother was about to die...
"Mikey? Mikey, what-"
The orange-clad ninja looked at him. Eyes nearly clouded over, he focused all the energy he had in him on his older brother.
He smiled, and Donny couldn't turn away from the red that stained his baby brother's teeth. It wasn't right...this whole ordeal...
'Donny...' A weak hand reaching up, a weak hand gently wiping his tears away. When had he started crying?
'Shhh...D-Don...why...are you crying?'
Why was he telling him that? Where were the others? He needed help!
"Mikey, I'll fix this...I have to...I gotta, I...oh, I'm sorry...Mikey, don't die!"
He started calling for anyone who can hear him."Someone! Anyone! Oh god, I didn't...no, Mikey...I need help..oh god, no...I need help!"
Pleading for help...help that he knew wouldn't make it in time...all because of him...he was going to die there...he was going to lose him, and he couldn't save him...but why?
He's the intelligent one, the one who can save his brothers on any other given occasion, but why now? Why would he do such a thing to his brother? His own brother!
'Don...I-I don't...have much time...listen...' He was barely cohearent now...he's dying...he's dying...
"Mikey, no! No, No, Mikey! Please...someone, anyone...help me! Help me!"
Hysterics...he was losing it...he can't help his own family, his own kin...he's lost his mind...he's lost it...he killed him.
Cold arms encirle him, pulling him to an equally cold body. Donny shuddered at the impact; it was so cold...he was losing him...
'D-D-Donny...you...you hear...that? Can you hear that?' a faint question flutters into his ears. Donny struggles to understand what he was supposed to hear.
"Oh god..."
A weak cough, his eyes closing, he sighs before he tell his brother something.
'You're...not...a monster...'
Donny wanted to hold him. He had to hold him. He needed his body close to his, something to tell that this is a nightmare. It has to be, right? It's the only logical explaination!
He can't die here...he can't die here...he can't be dying!
A last, quiet, sweet plea assaults him, tearing him apart: 'Not a...monster...Nii...Chan...'
Arms fall...body stops moving...heart stops beating.
Donny looked at the peaceful face, covered just slightly with drops of his own life-force, his missing limb still gently oozing the thick, red liquid.
Why did he look like...he was almost like he was asleep...but he's so still and quiet...so cold and...and gone.
He's actually gone...Michelangelo is dead...he's...he's...
Something begins to rise from the inside of his stomach, climbing up until it reaches his throat. He knows what it is...he wants to let it out...but he can't bring him back...it won't bring him back...
He lets his emotions take him over and he hugged the lifeless form to him, shaking and crying, knowing, but not accepting that horrible fact.
He can't bring him back.
He can't bring back that laughter, that smile.
He never wanted to see the day come...and now it was his fault that it came so soon.
He's a monster...he killed him...he killed him!
'I-I'm sorry...Mikey!'
Mikey was standing in the doorway leading to his immediate older brother's room, listening as he called out to him.
Not like he was surprised. Donny had been having dreams like this for the past few days after his little...incident.
No one had meant to tell him what had happened, but it came out, and ever since then...Mikey knew his brother could not sleep. But he was stubborn and was in severe denial.
Tonight, Mikey was determined to get to the bottom of this.
"M-Mikey...n-no, Mikey..."
And Mikey walked in and gently shook him, trying to wake his purple-clad brother.
It worked. Donny shot up and looked around his well-lit lab, frantically searching for something familar before light blue hues caught his attention.
"Donny? You alright? You were screaming like shell!" he said.
Donny looked at his hands. They were definitely trembling, but...there's no blood. Not one drop.
And Mikey...Mikey's alive and talking...so was that...?
"Don?"
Dark chocolate slowly looked into light blue. Mikey was worried now. He'd never seen his brother look so lost and afraid a day in his life.
"Don, what happened? Were you hurt?" he asked, childish eyes growing wider than usual.
Mikey mentally rolled his eyes as his older brother slowly shook his head no. He knew he would do that.
Meanwhile, Donny had his own thoughts...or rather, his own denial.
No. Plain and Simple. This can't be...Donatello never has nightmares...so what was...what was that?
He grimaced. He didn't want to think about it. He wanted his computer...yeah, that's it. That's all.
He just needs to work...or finish that experiment he'd been working on...he just needs to get his brain thinking. Maybe some coffee would work...yeah.
Shooting out of his bed so fast he nearly knocked Mikey off the bed, Donny started for the kitchen to make some coffee when that innocent, understanding voice drifted behind him, asking him something he hated to think about.
"Donny, what happened? Did I die, Donny?"
At that, Donny stopped completely. Why? Why him? Why now?
Why does his brother have to be so damn knowledgeable at times like these?
He heard footsteps, and barely registered two green arms wrap around his waist, a face resting on his shell.
Keeping him in place. Making him face the truth.
But he doesn't want to. He knows what he is.
He was a monster. He attacked him...he could've killed him...he...he...
"Donny, I died, didn't I? And I died by your hand." Mikey whispered in his shell, not tightening the hold around his waist, but not loosening, either. He knew...Mikey just knew.
Donny suddenly found himself unable to respond. A tiny sniffle answered for him, giving Mikey the answer he was looking for. He sighed, still refusing to let him go just yet.
He knew why. Ever since the outbreak, besides the information that he was told, Donny began to remember more.
And for some reason, two things assaulted him the most. Leo firing at him, having to put him down like some rabid animal...and him nearly eating Mikey's leg. Killing him...killing them all...
"Donny...remember when we were younger, and I ran to you this one night? I think I had a nightmare just like this..."
Donny nodded, too choked up to speak. Mikey smiled a little as the thought came back. Not because of them comforting him, but because of something they told him.
"Remember what you said?"
A choked sob escaped Donny, and he placed his hand over his mouth to try and calm himself down. "Y-Yeah..."
Mikey released his hug around his intelligent brother, and Donny nearly starting screaming. He needed those arms there, those warm arms to tell him he was still alive...still with him...
He was caught rather off guard when Mikey stood face to face with him, his head tilted slightly to the left. A knowing smile adorned his face.
"Donny."
And he hugged him, cuddled in him, nestling himself right there...right near his heart.
"You'd always be here, no matter what, Donny." he whispered. Donny lightly exhaled when he felt that warm hand resting on his cheek, caressing his face, wiping away his tears.
He was warm...he wasn't cold and clammy and...dead. It was one of many images that would not leave him right away.
"And that never changed." Mikey finished, removing his hand. "We're all together, and it wasn't your fault."
Donny blinked. How did he know that? Other than the fact he turned into a horrible monster, tried to eat his leg, Leo had to shoot traq darts at him...they had to deal with Bishop, and nearly die trying to get the antidote...how wasn't it his fault?
Mikey's arms encircled him once more. Returning the hug more fiercely, Donny felt his legs beginning to buckle under him. Mikey led his shaking and distraught brother to his bed.
Almost collapsing on the bed with him, Mikey tucked Donny's head under his chin, gently rubbing his shell and whispering the same comforting words they told him as a child.
"It wasn't your fault, Don. We did whatever it took to get you home...and that's one thing I don't ever regret. You are our brother, not some crazy monster." he whispered, that sugar sweet voice causing Donny to flinch.
He told him that...right before he...
'You're...not...a monster...'
And Donny lost it.
Donny clung tight to his little brother. He knew that night...he could've lost more than himself...he could've lost them all...and he couldn't take that. He knew he couldn't.
"I-I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, Mikey!" he cried out.
Mikey felt tears staining his own face, soaking his own mask, but held his older brother close, caressing his feverish head as Donny simply cried himself to exhaustion.
Donny hated not telling his family. He hated worrying them to death, hated this mutation, hated this whole mess he was in. He hated the weakness he felt every night, the pain that shot up his leg...the uncertainty of whether or not he'd mutate again.
Mikey knew that Donny was scared. It was understandable; he'd turned into something that almost killed them all!
And while Mikey wasn't sure what he could do, he wanted to at least be there when Donny needed him the most.
"It's okay, Don. We're gonna be okay."
By the time Donny slowed his tears at last, he could barely keep himself upright. Mikey kept his head tucked under his chin, and Donny closed his eyes, trying to think about his warm little brother, and not about him dying in his arms, the sticky blood that coated them both.
After a long while, Mikey murmured, "Donny, you hear that?"
Donny knew what he meant. "Yeah." he sniffed quietly.
Mikey chuckled. "Good."
Donny allowed himself to be comforted by his baby brother, feeling Mikey's arms tighten just a little more, holding him so close he felt like he was one with him.
He knew Mikey was right. It was true. They were brothers, and that's how it would always be.
Listening to the rhythmic beating near his ear as he felt the nightmare leaving his mind, putting it in a faraway place where he would never have to relive it, he began to understand Mikey's words.
Maybe this was a tough time, but this little becon of light, the little, overactive, warm little brother he was lucky to have...he helped him. He was able to help him stand once more, pull him out of the darkness.
Now, after tonight, he would. stand once more. He was going to be okay; they would be okay.
His little brother's final words gently carried him to a peaceful rest, the first he had in days.
"Listen to my heartbeat, Donny. Just listen."
Well, I hope you liked it. I was bored and I had this sitting in my computer for a couple of days. But...yeah. This is what I came up with.
Thanks for reading, and please review!
:)