So, I've posted this already on my ao3 account under the name Queen_B, but I thought I'd post it here too for those who only read on ff, like I used to :)
Basically it's just a random oneshot that came up to me back when it was so stupid hot and muggy in summer and I just couldn't sleep at all for a while. Note that I have no idea about medical stuff, I'm only talking by experiences I made^^
Enjoy!
"Donniiiiieee~" Mikey's voice rang out, disturbing the turtle in question's concentration. Usually Donatello would've gotten mad at his younger brother for that, but well, he was in a good mood, so he just rolled his eyes good-naturedly without stopping his typing.
Not even two seconds passed before bright blue eyes appeared at the entrance to the lab.
"Donnie? It's late... Are you coming to bed?"
"I can't, baby, I'm working on something." Mikey's face fell as he approached his older brother.
"You always work on something. Come on..."
"This is important, Mikey." Don narrowed his eyes in an annoyed fashion when Mikey said exactly the same thing at the same time.
"Dude, it's always important. But you know what? Sleep is important too. Cuddling is also very important." Donatello let out a sigh at the pouting soft tone and gestured for Mikey to sit on his lap, figuring he wouldn't leave until they talked.
The orange-banded turtle immediately got comfortable on the offered seat, wrapping his arms around olive green shoulders, while the arms connected to them came around his middle.
"Not for me." He simply said, deadpanning when the frown deepened. "Not the cuddling, obviously, but sleep. You know, some people don't need that much sleep."
"But you're always cranky in the morning when you don't sleep." Mikey nuzzled his beak to Donnie's, hoping the closeness would lure him to bed. Usually he'd try a sexual approach which mostly worked, but tonight he figured it wouldn't cut it. Not when the genius has been on it for so long already.
"That's a sacrifice I have to make if I want to achieve my goals." Don said formally, earning a mock-glare.
"But it's us who have to make that sacrifice! We can't even talk to you cause you're even more aggressive than Raph when you don't get your coffee." That was a gigantic exaggeration, so Donnie just shook his head with another suffering sigh.
Mikey looked over his shoulder towards the computer, unhappily eyeing the numerous dirty coffee mugs, pouting at the numbers on the screen. "What's so great about that stuff?"
"Baby, I know you may don't understand it, but to me staying awake to finish this is... it's just awesome. I wouldn't be able to sleep anyways. Can you imagine how much work we'd get done if we didn't sleep anymore? We waste so much time sleeping, it's ridiculous."
"Are you suggesting we all shouldn't sleep anymore?" Brown eyes widened a little.
"What? No. Or well, yes. Kinda. I mean, we could do longer patrols, or use the time for more free time, do our chores then so we don't have to do them over day time..." As Donnie talked, Mikey's face turned thoughtful. Almost seeing the gears turning in his youngest mate's head, the olive turtle hurried on. "But unlike me, you guys need your sleep. So you're all well-rested for training and stuff."
Judging by the stubborn glint in the baby blue eyes, Donatello didn't succeed with his plan.
"Yeah, totally. Leo and Raph need their beauty sleep after all. But hey, I think I wanna give this whole thing a go. Maybe you're right and I'm wasting too much time sleeping when I could also try to beat this new game..."
"Mikey, baby, I don't think-" But Mikey was already leaving the warmth of his brother's embrace and made his way out the lab.
"If you can do it, I can too!" He shouted back enthusiastically before vanishing around the corner.
Donatello groaned and hit his head on the table. Leo was not going to like this. But well... Mikey didn't have enough stamina to really pull this through for long. Why not let him make that experience? Yeah. Totally cool.
Gulping down the rest of his cold coffee, the purple banded turtle continued with his typing.
~Meanwhile with Mikey~
Leonardo and Raphael were lounging on the couch, talking quietly as not to wake their father as they waited for their youngest brother's return. When Michelangelo returned without Donnie, Raph grinned and Leo sighed.
"See, we told ya ya wouldn't get him ta come to bed." Raph tilted his head with a small smirk. "At least not without using sex as a bait."
Leo rubbed a hand over his face and sighed. "Whatever. He will fall asleep sooner or later sitting at his computer. I will check on him and get him to bed when I get up for meditation."
The elder brothers moved to get off the couch and onto the bed, stopping in their tracks when Mikey just plopped down and turned on the tv, low volume. Electric green and dark blue eyes met, both showing confusion.
The smallest of them paid them no attention as he zapped through the channels.
"Um, Mikey? We're going to bed."
"Oh, yeah, you go ahead. I'm- OH AWESOME! There's a zombie movie marathon on! They never show this stuff during our tv time!"
"Michelangelo, you're not staying up all night to watch this stuff." Leonardo used his leader-voice, not happy about the plans of his youngest brother.
"Hey, Donnie gets to stay up and work all night too." Mikey gave his oldest brother a pout, and Leo was about to argue, when Raph opened his mouth.
"C'mon Fearless. It's not like he hasn't tried staying up before. He's gonna be asleep within ten minutes anyways. His own fault if he chooses to watch this shit instead of a little fun time with us. Just like Donnie." Mikey glared at Raph, but stayed rooted on the spot.
"I won't fall asleep so soon. I can stay awake."
Leo rubbed the crease between his eyes before sighing.
"Whatever, I'm tired. We're going to bed. Don't get too loud or you'll wake dad up." With that Leo and Raph turned in for the night, leaving Mikey to himself.
It didn't take long for the youngest to grow unbearable tired. So tired, he was in danger of falling asleep, just as Raph had predicted. And Mikey couldn't have that. So he got up, jumping soundlessly to wake himself. Still jumping, he moved to the kitchen where Donnie's pot of coffee stood.
Don drank this on daily base, that had to be the reason he was able to stay awake the whole night. So all Mikey had to do was drink some too and everything would be fine.
~Three Days Later~
Donnie had a wide grin on his face as he saved his project, finally finished. It took him a while, but now that it was done he felt great. Sure if he had skipped the few hours of sleep the past nights it would've been done faster, but without any sleep at all his concentration would've suffered too greatly.
Grabbing his dirty mugs, Don made his way to the kitchen, humming happily. It was an hour till morning practice, so he had enough time to take a shower and have some breakfast.
The happy tune stopped when he heard his older brothers' voices in the kitchen.
"What's up?" Donnie asked, placing the mugs in the sink.
"Argh, it's tha knucklehead." Raph waved him off before turning his attention to Leo again. "I'm tellin' you, it's nothing to worry about."
Their leader had a quite unhappy expression on his face, glaring at Raph out of pure habit.
"How is this nothing to worry about? You've seen him!" Donnie frowned deeply.
"What about Mikey?"
Leo sighed. "He's not sleeping. Ever since he tried to get you to bed those three days ago he just refuses to sleep. He's playing his stupid video games all night or paints comics his walls. Did you say anything to him?"
Donnie blinked at hearing that. How did Mikey stay awake that long? And more importantly, how did Donny not notice anything?
"Uh... not really. Well, I just explained to him why I don't sleep... but... I didn't think he would try to imitate me." Leo's eyes narrowed a little, along with Raph's, making Donnie rub the back of his head sheepishly.
"Yeah. We need to talk about that too." There was a little steel in Leo's voice, making Donatello gulp. "We let you slide the past days because Mikey said you had a very big important project, but if your happy tune before is anything to go by you're done now, and that means no more late nights for at least two weeks."
"Leo, come on, it's not like I wasn't sleeping at all." Don said, starting to laugh it off.
"Three hours a night is not healthy at all, babe. And we miss ya. For cuddles and sex." For Raph to actually admit such a thing he must be really worried. And since his project was done anyways, Donnie decided a little bonding wouldn't hurt. Besides, he's missed his brothers/mates too.
"Fine, no more late nights for at least two weeks." The purple banded turtle agreed with a small smile, happy to see their poses and faces relax a little.
"So... what about Mikey not sleeping?"
Raph shook his head and Leo sighed again. "You've been occupied, I get it. And Raph doesn't see it either, but he's totally exhausted."
"He's been jumpin around as always."
"I think that's just a coffee high. Sooner or later his system will shut down and-"
"Shell, he's young, he'll manage a few days without sleep. Let em have that experience and when it's over he'll be back ta normal." Leo was about to argue, ever the mother-hen, when Donnie spoke again.
"Actually I think that's a good idea. He'll see for himself how it wears him out and then he won't do it again. I give him three more days at most."
Raph crossed his arms, a victory smirk on his face that Don sided with him.
"See? Even Doctor Don says it's okay. Stop worrying so much Fearless, or you'll get wrinkly and then nobody wants ta fuck ya anymore."
"Raph! Language!" Leo hissed when he felt Master Splinter approaching.
~Four Days Later~
"Enough is enough! Can you imagine how much more could've gone wrong?!" Leonardo snapped as he helped Mikey walk.
"Duuuude, I said I was sorry." Michelangelo whined, though his usual bubbly voice was laced with exhaustion, barely feeling the pain in his ankle.
They've been on their usual patrol when they ran into a commotion with some Purple Dragons. Everything had been going fine, though more often than not the elder brothers had to step in to defend Mikey, who lacked his characteristic taunts. Raphael couldn't even be angry at him for not being able to focus, as he had been allowing him to go on with his sleepless experiment.
Fortunately they were easy to defeat anyways, at least so they thought until one of the Dragons on the ground stabbed a pocket knife into Mikey's ankle. It wasn't deep and easily bandaged by Donnie, but it hurt like shell.
"I'm not just mad at you. I'm mad at Raphael and Donatello too for persuading me to let this go on, and I'm mad at myself for letting it happen. I should've dragged your shell to bed and force you to sleep days sooner."
"Hey, I'm the one who didn't want to sleep, don't let it out on yourself or Raph or Don..." Mikey said before Raph could start an argument. He was beyond exhausted and already had a headache, he certainly didn't need his brothers to argue now too, not because of him for that matter.
"No, I shouldn't have told you that stuff last time. Look, not even I can go without any sleep at all. I should've-"
"Dude, please shut up. Your voice hurts my ears." Frowning at that, Leo stopped and looked at Mikey.
"What?" Donnie asked and walked closer, tilting Mikey's chin up, but the baby blue eyes were only halfway open.
"Sorry, jus got a gigantic headache... Jus wanna sleep..." Donnie gently lifted Mikey's eyelids, noting the dilated pupils and bloodshot eyes. He also felt slightly warmer than he should, drawing concern on Don's face.
"Anything else? Dizziness? Nausea?" He asked, listing other symptoms. Mikey's lack of reaction was enough to get the two elder brothers to worry too. "Baby?"
"...Hm? Yeah. I don't know. Maybe."
Guilt gnawed on Donnie's insides. He should've taken Leo's side and force Mikey to sleep. Heck, he should've just come to bed a week ago when Mikey asked him to.
"What's wrong with him?" Leo asked, shifting the sea green arm over his shoulders when his baby brother sagged a littler more.
"Well... I guess the lack of sleep is really catching up to him now. I think he's gonna be all good after a lot of rest... I really shouldn't have let it come so far. I knew this could've happened and still I didn't do anything."
An emerald three-fingered hand on his shoulder made him look up.
"Don't beat yaself up over it. We're all kinda guilty here. Let's just see it as a lesson for all of us and go on." Leo and Don blinked at Raph's words, who was embarrassed immediately and busied himself with grabbing Mikey from Leo's side bridal style.
The small turtle cuddled into the scarred chest at once, sighing contently before finally giving in to sleep.
"Raph, since when are you so-"
"Fearless, I warn ya, shut the fuck up." Raph snapped with a blush and started walking towards their lair to hide it.
Leo and Donnie shared a knowing grin and followed their big softie mate.