Fortunate Cookies
Mikey always thought it a little ironic that the favourite food of the turtle who loved ninjutsu most was not Japanese, but rather Chinese.
In short, Leo was in a bad mood.
He'd been fighting with Raph.
Again.
Mikey didn't know what the fight was over exactly; sure he'd heard it (most of New York had too probably) but for the most part the precise words used had been muffled by his bedroom door. He'd sought refuge there after the profanities had started flying. It wasn't the profanities themselves that had prompted his course of action, he was no stranger to colourful language, but rather in fights between Raph and Leo the onset of profanities usually signalled the progression from minor fight to major. Meaning that it went from throwing words at each other to furniture.
Thankfully the whole affair hadn't come to physical blows; or at least to each other: Mikey feared for his comics he'd left on the couch and for the lamp (they'd only just got to replace the one that had been broken in the last fight). He feared for the t.v too, if that got broken again Don might be driven to a nervous break down; he'd only just finished fixing that. For a third time. In the past month.
If Mikey didn't know any better he would have sworn his two eldest brothers were simultaneously going through menopause.
But all that being said, ultimately the fight didn't matter.
Now, it was clean up time. Don had gone after Raph, who unsurprisingly had stormed off into the sewer and presumably topside; leaving Mikey to deal with a sulky Leo.
Altogether Mikey was rather happy with the whole deal. A sulky Leo he could handle quite well; angry Raph not so much.
He didn't have to go far to find his oldest brother; he'd holed himself up in his room and had even had the nerve to lock the door.
"O'brother dear," Mikey called chirpily, balancing a tray of food in his hands while kicking softly at the door with a foot.
No reply.
"Let me in or I'll break the door down,"
Still no reply.
"Just think how Don will feel. He'll have put all his effort into coaxing Raph home and then he'll have to fix a door as well everything else you guys broke. It'll be tragic, the poor, overworked genius," Mikey would have continued, but the door clicked open. He had to admit he was a little disappointed; that was only a small part of what he'd been rehearsing while he waited for April to drop off the Chinese takeaway and he told Leo as much.
"I'm not in the mood, Mikey," Leo sighed collapsing back onto his bed to stare at the ceiling.
Mikey pouted, "Well that's rather ungrateful," he remarked to Klunk, who had promptly followed him into the room. Klunk mewed in reply, trotted over to Leo and sat herself down on his chest. Leo ignored her.
"Pity Leo's kinda ignoring us both, Klunk," Mikey said as placed the tray on the low table and sat himself down, "I s'pose we're just gonna have to eat all this food on our own,"
Leo still refused to respond. Klunk lent forward to peer curiously into his face.
"Come on Klunk, do you want the spring rolls or the curry puffs?"
Now Klunk ignored him, continuing to leer into Leo's face.
"I'll have them all if you don't want them you know," Mikey said sternly and gaining no response from neither turtle nor feline proceed to carry out his threat.
"You know what I find kinda ironic, Leo?"Mikey asked suddenly through a mouthful of deep fried pastry. He didn't even bother to wait for a answer before continuing, "The fact that out of the four of us you love ninjutsu the most, but you love Chinese food way better than Japanese food,"
"I don't think that's irony Mikey," Leo said tiredly, knowing that if he didn't answer now his youngest brother would keep up the insistent chatter until he either fell asleep or got distracted.
"Avast!" Mikey yelled leaping to his feet, the container of spring rolls falling from where they had been cradled in his lap, "The dead speaketh!"
Leo rolled onto his side to face Mikey, being carefully not to dislodge Klunk too ungracefully, "Was the pirate accent really necessary?"
"I dunno," Mikey replied, shifting closer to the bed and dragging the food with him, "Was all that shouting really necessary?"
"I dunno," Leo sighed, "He just gets me so angry sometimes," he took the prawn cracker Mikey offered and bit into with a little more ferocity than necessary. Curiously Klunk licked at the crumbs that fell within her reach.
"And I think you get him pretty angry sometimes too," Mikey countered, unpacking and arranging the rest of the food in the table.
"Raph's always angry," Leo reminded his younger brother, reaching over his shoulder to claim the fried noodles.
Mikey twirled his chopsticks through his hand expertly, neatly claiming half the noodles before Leo could bring them to a safe distance.
"I know I'm not the clever one, but I think it's different to that," Mikey pondered, ignoring the annoyed look Leo was shooting at the back of his head, "I think he just gets frustrated sometimes, you know? I mean, you, me and Don, we've got our things that make us us. Don's got the sciency stuff down, you've got ninjutsu and me, well, I'm the lovable one," that earned a sharp rap on the head from Leo's chopsticks, "But Raph, doesn't seem to have anything like that,"
"He's the family bad ass," Leo said curtly.
Mikey turned suddenly to glare angrily at him, "That's the exact attitude he hates most, Leo!" he said harshly, "I thought even you'd be able to figure that out,"
Leo blinked, shocked by Mikey's sudden change in mood. Unsettled by her owner's anger Klunk leapt down to press against his side, trying to comfort him. The fire in the younger turtle's eyes faded quickly as he petted her absently.
"I hate it when you two fight," he muttered bitterly, turning back to the food so his shell was facing Leo once again.
Leo exhaled softly, reaching out a hand to rest it on Mikey's shoulder, "I'm sorry," he apologised.
"I'm not the one you should be apologising to,"
"I know," Leo didn't like to admit he was wrong, even more so when it was his baby brother who was right, but this time he couldn't escape the truth of the matter.
Mikey turned his head slightly, to face his brother once again and his expression had relaxed into a more characteristic smile, "By 'I know' you actually mean, 'Yes o'wise and incredible Mikey, I shall apologise straight away' don't you?"
Leo gave a lopsided smile, "I suppose," he allowed.
Mikey brandished his chopsticks warningly at Leo's face, but it wasn't a bad natured gesture, "You will apologise to Raph and talk things over. And I mean talk, not lecture and definitely not shout," the last part was said more sternly.
"I don't lecture," Leo huffed slightly.
"You do," Mikey replied readily, "Fortune cookie?"
"Don't change the subject Mikey, I don't lecture," Leo's voice took on a stern older brother quality and Mikey ignored it.
"You do," Mikey repeated, "Now do you want a fortune cookie?"
"No, I don't want a fortune cookie, Mikey!" Leo exclaimed in exasperation as Mikey placed one in front of Klunk.
"Oh but you really, really want this cookie, Leo," Mikey grinned, "C'mon, you know they're the real deal when the packet says 'fortunate cookie'," he waved the packet in Leo's face in testimony.
"I told you I don't-" Leo was broken off suddenly when a 'fortunate' cookie found its way into his mouth curtesy of Mikey.
The younger turtle grinned at him broadly as Leo crunched distastefully, before slowly drawing out the tiny piece of paper concealed inside the cookie, trying not to take too much saliva with it.
"What's it say?" Mikey asked with a musical lilt as if he knew his answer already.
"Man who run in front of car get tired," Leo read aloud. He raised a questioning eyeridge at Mikey.
"Oh," Mikey looked a little disappointed, "You got the wrong one,"
"What was it meant to say?" Leo asked.
"Go talk to Raph, 'cause this family is sick of your fighting," Mikey recited, and when Leo sighed he couldn't help but add with a cheeky smile, "Also, don't lecture him."
Told you you'd hear from me again =)
Reviews are much appreciated.