A/N: Hey y'all! I have another story! It takes place sometime after Splinter's death and the final defeat of the Shredder.
Warning: The beginning is SAD. But the rest is funny/fluffy, so I hope it balances out!
Some of you may see that I got the inspiration for some of this from one of my other stories... ;)
I don't own TMNT.
It was 1:07 am, and Mikey was sitting in his room, cleaning.
Yes, that's right: Mikey, the little prankster and goof-off, the wonderful cook, the best gamer, the guy who hated cleaning... was cleaning his room. That too in the middle of the night, instead of lying in his soft bed, dreaming sweet (savory?) dreams of pizza.
Problem was, he couldn't fall asleep.
He had tried. He counted sheep till he reached the gazillion. He ran around in circles, trying not to trip over his toys and comic books littered on the floor. He jumped up and down on his bed, his fingers grazing the ceiling every time he bounced up. But nothing worked.
He should have been able to fall asleep, right? The Shredder was gone, and no threats from the Foot remained. There was nothing for him to worry about, because everything was okay.
Everything was supposed to be okay.
But it wasn't. It was not okay.
Little tears began to form in his eyes, and he tried to stop them.
But he couldn't.
How could he? How could he sleep at night, knowing what the cost of defeating the Foot had been?
Papa...
And everything broke.
Tears fell from his eyes, crawling down his cheeks, dripping onto the floor beneath him.
I miss you, Father...
He had tried to go to Donnie, the brother he knew would mind the least, to find some comfort, to tell him that everything hurt. But Donnie had been immersed in his own grief, just sitting at his desk and staring at his computer, not even acknowledging Mikey.
And so he left. He didn't want to burden Donnie with the pain of two people instead of one.
He had tried to go to Leo, the next in line, but surprisingly, Leo was already in bed, tossing and turning. Whimpering "Sensei" and "Father." It had shattered Mikey's heart to see his Fearless Leader so sad and vulnerable and... broken.
And so he left. How could Leo help him if he couldn't help himself?
He had tried to go to the last brother in line, Raph. He had been lying on his hammock, his back to the door and Mikey as he punched the wall beside him, muttering curses against the Foot.
And so he left. An angry Raph was almost always left best alone.
With no one else to go to, Mikey had returned to his own room, feeling more lonely than he ever had in his entire life.
If he was Donnie, he would distract himself, turning to his inventions and tinker around with them.
If he was Leo, he would push the pain away, meditating or practicing some katas.
If he was Raph, he would use the pain to fuel his anger, going to the dojo and beating the life out of the punching dummy.
But he was Mikey, so he didn't do any of those things.
Normally, he would have found some way to cheer up his brothers.
But he had know idea how to fix the broken remains of his family.
He had nothing left for them now.
So, with no other ideas and nothing else to do, he turned to doing something productive: tidying up his messy room. He had already stacked the comic books littering the floor into neat piles, placed his many toys that had been lying everywhere into large storage boxes, and threw away all the rotten pizza stashed in hidden and not-so-hidden places around him room, including underneath the bed.
Now it was time to clean the bed itself. Mikey had plenty of toys and comic books and other junk stashed away under the mattress and pillows.
Carefully, he lifted up the mattress and dropped it on the floor...
...and stood shocked as his eyes traveled over the many things under his mattress that had accumulated over the years. There were crumpled up pieces of paper, perhaps old drawings and stories; random bits of thread and plastic; and plenty of comic books and toys, which were mostly orange. One plastic orange toy, slightly faded with age, caught his eye. He pulled it out and gasped. He'd forgotten about that.
He picked the toy up, and suddenly, fond memories of him playing with his brothers with the toy when they were younger replayed in Mikey's head. He smiled, reminiscing the good ol' times. They'd been so happy then. Why couldn't they be happy anymore?
As he gingerly held the old toy, an idea struck him, and he couldn't help but smile wide.
He now had a plan that he knew would cheer up his brothers.
First in line was Donnie, the calmest and least-suspecting of Mikey's brothers. Quietly, Mikey opened the door to the genius's room.
Donnie, who had been sitting at his desk and sobbing into his arms, lifted his head up and turned to Mikey. His face was visibly wet, but he wiped his tears away. "M-Mikey? Why are you up in the middle of the night?"
SPLAT.
Donnie's face was wet again, this time, not from tears. This time, from...
"Is that your water gun?" Donnie asked in astonishment as he wiped the water off his face, looking over Mikey who was pointing the orange object at him. "You still have that old thing?"
"Yeah, of course I do! C'mon, D, you need to stop moping around and get yours! Just like we used to when we were little!"
Donnie stood up."You're right," he said softly. "We need to stop sitting in our grief and move on." Because he's not coming back, he thought to himself sadly. But he pushed that thought away. Now was not the time to think about the sad events that had occurred.
SPLAT.
"Huh... what? Donnie?" Mikey wiped the water off from his face, clearly surprised. Then he saw the familiar purple water gun in the genius's hands, who had grabbed it from his belt while he was talking.
Mikey quickly recovered and pointed his water gun back at Donnie. "Bring it on!"
"Wait, let's get Leo and Raph first," Donnie said, smirking to himself. Sneaking on the two elder brothers would be fun.
Mikey agreed. The two brothers tip-toed to Leo's room first, saving Raph for last since he would probably get angry. (Scratch that - it was 101% likely that Raph would get angry.) Quietly, Mikey opened the door...
...and aimed right at Leo's face.
SPLAT.
Leo bolted upwards, water streaming down his face. He reached for his katana, but stopped when he saw two figures in the doorway. "Mikey? Donnie? What are you guys doing at-" He glanced at the clock. "-2 in the morning?"
"You mean water we doing?" Mikey laughed at his pun. "But Leo, dude, we need to lighten up the mood! So come join us with some water fun!"
"Yeah, we need to stop moping and get back on our feet," Donnie added.
Leo stood, wiping the water off his face. "You're right," he agreed, looking at both brothers.
SPLAT. SPLAT.
"What?!" Mikey exclaimed. Both he and Donnie were now soaking wet. "That was incredible! You were so fast, dude!"
"Looks like we got some real competition," Donnie mused.
"Are you guys just gonna stand there so I can shoot you more?" Leo mocked, pointing his blue water gun at the two of them.
"No!" Mikey squeaked. "But we need to get Raph first!"
Leo smiled at that. Adding Raph to this game would surely be exciting.
All three turtles tip-toed to Raph's room.
"On the count of three," Leo whispered. "Three... two... one..."
They immediately kicked the door open and aimed for Raph's face, his back no longer turned towards the door.
SPLAT. SPLAT. SPLAT.
"MIKEY!" A bright fire burned in Raph's eyes as he jumped out of his hammock and glared at the orange clad turtle, not noticing Leo and Donnie. "I will pound you, you little-"
"Calm down, Raph," Leo interrupted. "Mikey just wanted to cheer us up. We can't just be sitting and grieving all the time. We need to have fun, too, so he wanted us to play together with our old water guns."
"Hmm," Raph pretended to think, though his decision had already been made. "You wanna play a game, huh?"
Mikey nodded eagerly. "Yeah! Raphie, it will be-"
SPLAT.
Mikey stared at his red clad brother in shock, while Raph simply smirked back at him.
"Why does everyone keep shooting at me?" Mikey groaned as he wiped the water off his face once again.
"Maybe because you called him 'Raphie,' " Donnie supplied.
"Well, let's bring on THE WATER GUN WATER!" Mikey shouted as he shot at all three of his brothers simultaneously.
SPLAT. SPLAT. SPLAT.
Then he quickly dashed away from them.
Leo, Raph, and Donnie stood frozen to the ground in shock, but quickly recovered. "GET HIM!" Leo ordered, and they all ran after Mikey.
Mikey hid behind the pinball machine, hoping that he would be able to shoot his brothers without them seeing him. He managed to get a couple lucky shots on Raph, but he was found out by Leo when the leader shot at him not once but twice.
Mikey bolted out of his hideout, shot everyone in the room, then raced to the kitchen.
"HA! THERE HE IS!" shouted Raph. "IN THE KITCHEN!" He ran after Mikey, with Leo and Donnie at his heels.
And so the chase went on, lasting for a good hour or so. Eventually, everyone was soaking wet and exhausted from all the running, and they all recuperated together on the couch.
Mikey smiled, happy that he had been able to cheer up his family. "That was fun."
"It was," agreed Donnie. "We should do that more often."
"Yeah. But I went easy on you, Mikey. Next time, you better watch out!" Raph threatened. At that, Mikey squealed like a little girl, making Raph laugh.
Leo, who had been quiet all the while, spoke up. "We need more breaks like that, don't we? We punish ourselves too much for what happened that night."
"Says the person who blames himself for everything, huh?" Raph said. Nonetheless, he nodded, as well as Donnie and Mikey.
"So, how about we take a break tomorrow? No training or chores. Just playing games, watching movies, you know, just having fun."
All three turtles gasped at that. "Really?" Mikey exclaimed. "Oooh, that will be AWESOME!"
Leo smiled. "All thanks to you, Mikey."
Mikey looked at him in shock. "Me? Why?"
"Because you started this. You helped us realize that we were just drowning in our own pools of grief, not getting anywhere. You wanted to cheer us up, Mikey." Leo looked at him and said softly, "Thanks, little brother."
"I hate to admit it, but Leo's right," Raph said. Leo shot him a look that said, "Seriously, Raph?", but Raph ignored it. 'Without you, Mikey, we would be sitting in our rooms, being sad. We'd just be wasting time, ignoring the rest of us."
"And I'd just be sitting in my lab, working on my inventions all day and night, even though it's not very healthy," Donnie added. "Thanks."
Mikey beamed, his heart swelling with love and joy. His brothers were proud of him for fixing the mess they'd all fallen into.
Because he was Mikey, the little prankster and goof-off, the wonderful cook, the best gamer, the guy who hated cleaning.
He was Mikey, the brother who always wanted to cheer his bros up.
He was Mikey.
Always Mikey.
And nothing would change that.
A/N: And that is the end of my longest one-shot ever! (So far, at least!)
I'm really sorry if the beginning was too sad. But hey, the rest of it was pretty funny and fluffy, right?
Reviews/feedback are always welcome! ;)
~NS