There was loud hiss that lasted for a few moments before the noise cut off and a green and purple face appeared from behind a welder's mask. Donatello stuck his tiny tongue out as he viewed his work. He frowned slightly at how slightly uneven the line was, but seeing as this was just his third time using the blowtorch, he knew he shouldn't be too hard on himself. Besides, nobody else seemed to see the mistakes he found in his labor, so he tried not to dwell on it.
Donnie had lifted his hand up again to pull down the mask again and continue onto the next welding job when the sound of a near quiet sob reached his ears. He paused and looked around, trying to find the source of the sound but nothing showed up. He shrugged it off as a random noise and moved to go back to work when an even louder sob caught his attention, followed by a long sniff. Now that he was paying attention, he realized that it was coming from behind a pillar in the corner of the lair.
He put down the blowtorch and took off his mask. He placed them quietly beside him, and he got up and moved to the pillar. He didn't initially see the source of the noise, but as he moved around it, he found his younger brother curled up against the structure crying into his arms.
He blinked slightly at the sight and felt a flood of compassion and worry fill him. He bit his lip and looked over his shoulder, trying to see if Master Splinter was in the near vicinity. Leonardo was better at cheering up than he was, but the rest of the main area of the lair was empty, so he turned back to the distressed turtle. He gave himself a quick nod, realizing it was up to him to fix this and knelt down next to Michelangelo, who didn't seem to realize he was there.
"What's wrong, Mikey?" Donnie asked, hesitating slightly before he placed what he had hoped was a comforting hand on his brother's hitching shoulders. It was quickly shrugged off and the tiny ball of a turtle moved slightly away from him. Don got the message quickly and backed away slightly. He stayed low to the ground, though he didn't try to initiate physical contact again. Mikey continued to sob and refused to answer until Don pressed forward with his inquiry. "Mikey, what is it?"
A long sniff game out before a muffled voice called out, "You guys are being mean."
Donnie wanted to be indignant. Since when was he ever mean? But he saw how obviously upset his brother was and decided he needed to get to the bottom of this. He was a scientist after all.
"What do you mean?" Donnie asked, trying his professional voice he heard on the TV when doctors and scientist tried to explain things to other people, but it sounded weak to his own ears. But before he could dwell on it, Mikey decided to answer him.
"Raph and Leo are playing knights and dragons in the dojo but won't let me play," he said pitifully. "I said I would be the damsel in distress for them but Raph yelled at me and said I couldn't do it right."
Donnie nodded, seeing how that could have been hurtful. Mikey liked being included in things and Leo and Raphael had their own thing going on that often didn't include anyone else. It hurt Donnie too, when he wanted to participate in the games they played only to be brushed off constantly.
"Yes," Don stated, and scooted closer. "That was most certainly mean." He lowered his head, to see if he could view the wet eyes hiding behind the folds of his arms. He was able to catch a glimpse of those sparkling blue eyes for a moment before Mikey clamped down on his arms to deny access. Don barely was able to contain his sigh of frustration but he persevered and pushed his investigation.
"But how was I mean?" he asked. He certainly didn't recall telling Mikey he couldn't be a damsel in distress or that he was doing it wrong.
"You won't let me play with you either," Mikey grumbled, his voice wobbly like he was about to start crying harder. "You told me to stay away."
"Oh." He did say that, hadn't he? But he had very good reason for that.
Don straightened up a little, still kneeling next to his brother but he seemed to figure out what was going on. So he tried to rectify it.
"Well," he started. "First off, I wasn't playing, I was working." Just because he liked the work, didn't make it less work. He noticed that Mikey had opened his arms slightly to peak at him, but Don wisely didn't bring it to his brother's attention. "And secondly, I'm working on very hot, very dangerous stuff. I told you to stay away not because I didn't want to play with you. I just didn't want you to get hurt."
Mikey's head finally came up and stared openly at his immediately eldest brother. His orange mask was damp with his tears and he still sniffed occasionally, but no new tears formed. Don took that as an invitation to get closer and placed his face near Mikey's.
"You don't want to get hurt, do you?" Don asked kindly, giving his brother a gap-tooth smile. Mikey shook his head. Suddenly, he turned his head to the rising sounds coming from the dojo and his lower lip trembled at the thought of their older brothers playing what sounded like a very fun game without them. Don turned his head towards the noise also and felt a grumpy expression start to fall upon his face. It was really not nice for their brothers being mean to them.
If only there was something that he and Mikey could share that didn't involve their brothers…
An idea started to form in Don's mind, but he was hesitant. It had been a secret that he had kept to himself for the past year. He was unsure if he could trust anybody with it, especially Mikey, who liked to blab everything anyway. He looked at his brother, and saw the fresh tears starting to form in his brother's eyes, he knew that his brother needed this more than he needed to keep it secret and he came to a decision.
Donatello stood up and brushed off his knees. He then put his hand out for Mikey, who didn't grab it immediately. Don gave him an encouraging smile and Mikey found himself smiling back and grabbed ahold of the offered appendage and allowed Donnie to pull him up.
They were still roughly the same height, though Donnie had started to grow a little faster than Mikey and was nearly a whole inch taller. Donatello led Michelangelo, who followed obediently, to the turnstiles. Before they crossed them, however, Don stopped and turned to Mikey.
"Okay," Don started quietly, his eyes shifting around the open area of the lair to make sure no one was around. "Before we go any further, I need you to promise me that you won't say anything, anything to anyone about what you see, okay?"
"What are we going to see?" Mikey said, in that fake whisper thing he did that wasn't at all quiet. Donnie flinched a little, but another quick glance around told him they were still very much alone.
"It's a surprise," Donnie said gently, and smiled as he saw his brother's face light up with excitement. If there was one thing his little brother liked, it was surprises. "So, you promise?"
Mikey nodded his head enthusiastically, his tear tracks drying quickly at how fast his head moved and Don's grin got wider as they ducked under the turnstiles and took a left down the tracks. Strictly speaking, they weren't allowed to leave the lair unsupervised. They were just barely seven, after all, and while they had been training for years in ninjutsu, Splinter felt that they weren't well equip to defend themselves just yet. Neither turtle seemed to care at that particular moment, though. Mikey all but giggled as they snuck through the tunnels behind his brother, and Don also felt the euphoria of breaking their father's rules for the mini adventure he was setting themselves up for.
They traveled a few miles, sticking to the shadows as they were taught. Don knew Mikey was slowly, but surely, becoming bored with their little walk the further they went, but he knew that the prize at the end was going to be well worth it to his little brother. He just knew it.
"Are we there yet?" Mikey whined for the seventh time in the past two minutes and Don had to stop himself from sighing in frustration. He knew it wouldn't do anything productive and would probably only cause Mikey to start crying again, which would have defeated the purpose of bringing him here.
"Soon, Mikey, soon," he told him looking at the tunnel number on the right before quickly darting down the tunnel, trailing Mikey behind him as he picked up speed. Mikey giggled at the speed he was dragged at, which turned into a grunt when felt himself face plant into his older brother's shell as Donatello came to a quick stop.
"Hey!" He cried out, rubbing his face where it had met carapace and scowled at his brother. "What was that for?"
The glare didn't have the desired effect on his brother, who turned to Mikey and gave him a large smile. "Because," Don said simply, "we're here!"
Don watched his brother blink at him before turning to where he was pointing to. Before them, there was a sewer grate that barely had light shining down. The older turned watched the scowl momentarily disappear as Mikey looked at it before it returned in force.
"A sewer grate?" Mikey scoffed, sounding irritated. "I've seen millions of them."
Don rolled his eyes at the exaggeration, having to stop himself from telling his brother that he couldn't have seen 'millions' of sewer grates. Instead he chuckled and grabbed his brother's hand again, having been forced to let go when Mikey plowed into him, and lead him to it.
"This is not an ordinary sewer grate," Don said frankly and stopped right under it. Mikey gave Don a skeptical look.
"What? Does it take us to different worlds?" Mikey asked, looking quite excited about that. Don turned to him and gave him his brightest smile and Mikey's face mimicked it instinctively.
"No, but you can see different worlds," Don said, his voice dripping with wonder and exhilaration. He brought his hand up and pointed up. "Look!"
Mikey turned his face up and looked at the gate, seeing nothing special about it, but before Donatello could implore him to look further, his own eyes did that for him.
Stars. Hundreds and hundreds of stars. Tiny pricks of lights danced across his eyes and he viewed them in wonder. He had never seen stars before, at least not in person. He saw plenty of them, all looking cold and uniform on the television set, vastly unimpressive compared with the other things that were happening on the screen. Nothing this grandiose and breathtaking before.
Don leaned forward and whispered in his ear. "They tore down a building last year, it used to block the stars from this grate. They were supposed to build something else, but it never happened." Mikey didn't ask how he got the information, he just continued to stare in wonder at those tiny dots. "So until they make up their minds on what they want to build, we have an unobstructed view of the night sky. Pretty neat, huh?"
Mikey was in such a trance he didn't make a comment at how lame "pretty neat" sounded, which made Don realized that his surprise was really that awesome. It had been his favorite spot to sneak off to whenever his brothers or his father had frustrated him or misunderstood him. He liked the quiet and the view, but somehow watching those little stars shine through Mikey's eyes made the loss of his own sanctuary dim and another feeling replaced it. Camaraderie and love.
"We are sooooo not going to show Leo and Raph this," Mikey said, his voice still filled with awe, his tears and hurt feelings forgotten, and Don felt like his own face was going to burst with his smile. And they continued to sit there for the next hour, enjoying the view and the silent company.
-o-
The years had passed. They were older and Don was now miles taller than him now, but Mikey still remembered that night under the stars. They had only been able to go back a few times before the city finally decided to build something in place and covered up the stars. Surprisingly, neither turtle minded. By then they had established a close friendship, borne from Mikey's hurt feelings, Don's compassion, and their mutual distaste at being left out of their elder brothers' clique.
Currently, that clique was fractured, with Leo lying unconscious in a bathtub and Raph holding a silent vigilance over the injured turtle. Mikey had spent most of his free time trying to make Raphael eat and coax him to sleep, a job that April and Casey shared. Don, on the other hand, had been too busy doing other things than try to force their hot-headed brother to do anything. When he wasn't doctoring Leonardo, he was either repairing every broken appliance or fixing leaky roofs. During his down time, he was working in his make shift lab, the old rickety barn that he and Casey shared. Normally, he knew his brother liked working in his lab, and took enjoyment out of the things he could create. However, they were in the middle of nowhere, with even less resources than when they were in the sewer, and it was quiet obvious that Donnie was taking no enjoyment out of the tasks he was setting up for himself.
If he wasn't going over his notes on the retro-mutagen, he was trying to work on medicine for their still unconscious leader, all while worrying himself sick with guilt and shame. Donatello never said anything, and Mikey knew he wasn't the brightest crayon in the tool shed, or whatever, but he was still the one person out of all of them that hung out with the brainy turtle the most. He knew his brother was still upset with what happened in New York, perhaps much more so than any of the rest of them were, because he felt like he was responsible for what happened. Mikey knew, along with everyone else, that that was hogwash, that Don had done everything he could. There was no way for him to stop the Kraang invasion, or have Leo attacked by Shredder or… have their father fall down that drain.
Mikey's gut tightened at the thought of Master Splinter being lost to them, but shook it off. He had had plenty of time to dwell on it, and knew that he had even more time ahead to worry over it, but right now he was on a mission. Operation Cheer-Up Donnie was a-go.
Everyone else was asleep, as far as he knew. Casey had finally convinced Raph to sleep in his bed for once, and then both he and April followed to their own bedrooms, respectfully. Mikey had hid in his room, which was at the end of the hall and waited for everyone else to shut their doors before he came out. There was one door that remained open. A quick glance had proved to Mikey that it was also vacant, though he already knew that. He knew that Don wouldn't been trudging his way from his lab until it was almost dawn, so he had plenty of time execute his plan.
He left the farmhouse after a quick check in on Leo, just in case, and then proceeded to ninja his way to the entrance of the barn. Once there, he stood in the shadows, watching his brother work.
It looked tedious and not at all fun, like usual, but this time Donnie's tired face proved it. He was getting no joy in his work and Mikey knew that he had let things get too out of hand. He slapped his head as quietly as possible without notifying his target that he was there. He should have been a better brother and not let Donnie sink so deep into his sorrows that he no longer found his work fun.
Right now, he was just waiting for a sign, something to indicate it would be the perfect time to interrupt his brother and not a moment later, it was given to him in the form of a mini explosion. He heard Donnie yelp and Mikey quickly assessed the situation, but when he saw that his brother was just startled and not damaged, he let out a brief sigh of relief and stepped into the barn.
Mikey came up to him as he was waving smoke out of his face. Perhaps it was years of practice of having something blow up in his face, but Don wasn't coughing up the smoke. He was strangely silent as he gave the mutagen a glare, a very bad sign in Mikey's book and he decided now was the perfect time to make his presence known.
"Yo, D," Mikey said, making sure his voice was pitched lower as to not startle his older brother but the way Donatello's shoulders jumped and turned his wide eyes at the newcomer, he knew he hadn't succeeded. Don blinked at him for a moment before he relaxed his stance and that grumpy look on his face returned.
"Mikey," Don stated, his voice slightly distant as he turned back to look at the green glob in the beaker. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"
Mikey saw Don's eyes shift quickly to the clock on the table, which showed that it was thirty minutes past midnight before getting back to his work. Mikey knew he could have turned the question around, seeing as Donnie was supposed to be in bed also, but he decided to let his slide and gave his brother a winning smile.
"Maybe," he stated. "But then I wouldn't be up to give you your surprise."
Don quickly turned back to his brother, still giving him that blinking stare whenever he was trying to compute something.
"A surprise?" Don questioned and Mikey nodded his head enthusiastically. He looked startled a little, then narrowed his eyes in suspension. "What kind of surprise?"
Mikey didn't answer him, just held out his hand for Don to grab hold of, the same gesture that Donnie had extended to him all those years ago. Don was understandably more hesitant to grab hold of his brother's appendage than he had been, but after a moment of studying his younger brother's face, Don slowly extended his own and Mikey held fast to Don's rough hands. These hands had seen more labor and toil than his own, Mikey knew, and would only continue to get tougher. Because that was just the kind of turtle his immediate older brother as, laboring for the sake of others.
He gently pulled his brother up from his seat and out of the barn. Don shown more patience than he had at being led blindly through an unknown area, though the trees of the forest were less oppressive than the sewer tunnels, but much more unfamiliar for city dwellers. He kept silent as he allowed his smallest brother to drag him a good distance into the forest, though Mikey wasn't sure if it was because he was welcome to the surprise or was just too tired to put up a protest. Whichever one it was, Mikey was grateful because it made their trek that much more enjoyable.
Finally after a good hike, he found himself at a clearing, something he had found not too long ago while searching for wood for a fire. He had wanted to find something dead, having felt a little icky at having to chop down a live tree. He had only seen it during the daylight hours, but the view was still spectacular. There was a little pond, with frogs chirping and croaking in the moonlight and they had a fallen tree perfect for leaning up against. He turned around at his brother and smiled.
"Here you go!" Mikey said, spreading his hands out to the area. Don stared at the area, blanked faced.
"Um," Don said, and Mikey could tell he was struggling to be polite. Don, he knew, wasn't the most nature loving of his brothers. He preferred the cold lines of his machines and technology to the curve and softness that the country life had to offer, and Mikey tried not to let that get him down. Instead, he moved to sit next to the tree, his shell leaning back against it, and patted the earth next to him, indicating he wanted his brother to join him.
After a few more minutes of staring, Don let out the tiniest of sighs that Mikey couldn't place due to the low lighting, and did as his brother beckoned. He sat down, cross-legged, mimicking his brother's posture against the tree.
"Okay, now what?" Don inquired, playing along. But there was only thing left for Mikey to do and that was gently grab his brother's face and pulled it up. Don allowed his brother to manhandle his face and set his upward. And Mikey saw that his brother stop breathing as he took in the sight.
Stars. Thousands upon thousands of stars, shining brightly next to a half moon. They were so much brighter and clearer than they ever were in the city. That sewer grate had been wonderful, a special little slice of heaven to enjoy for such a short amount of time, but this. This here was something else, this little clearing gave them a better view of the night sky, away from the city lights and garbage smell. It was still framed, by oak trees instead of cement and metal, but it was still picturesque.
Mikey knew he could have just brought Donnie up to the hill to see the stars and had a larger view of the open sky, but they had spent almost three months at the farmhouse. He never saw his brother bother to look up at the sky once during their stay. He would tiredly trek back and forth from the barn to the house. Fixing a leak there, checking on a brother there, and sleep when his body couldn't stay awake anymore. He knew that the brother that had brought him the wonder of the stars to him hadn't allowed himself to take in their splendor, and knew that if there was anything that would get through his stubborn brother, it was this. This little slice of heaven, a quiet place to view other worlds away from the comatose Leo, the sour Raph, the sad-eyed April, and the brash Casey. Away from all the responsibilities he had lifted upon his own shoulders and his own pain and sorrow.
Mikey remembered well when this brother had lifted him out of his sad place and brought him wonder, and closeness. He felt it was time he showed him the same courtesy. So he leaned on Don's side, who quickly accommodated him and they watched those little balls of gas and magic, and took serenity from them and each other. They stayed like that for hours, not speaking and just looking at the night sky. At one point, though, Mikey stopped looking at the sky and watched his brother's mahogany eyes light up. Because the stars were pretty and wondrous, but there was nothing better they seeing the starlight through a brother's eyes.
Fin.
Part of the TMNT Secret Santa 2014 thing going on on Tumblr. For chibiluka, who wanted 2012 turtles, Mikey, Bro fluff. They enjoyed it and I hope you did, too.
It's sweet and simple, because I needed it while I'm stuck on the last stretch of my NaNoWriMo novel (which I will start posting tomorrow.)