This is quite literally the quickest story I have ever written! I'm actually rather proud of myself :) It was written for the Battle Nexus June's Writing Competition on DA, because they needed more entries and heck I thought, yeah, I can do this (little knowing that I had only a day to write it!) Anyway this is what I managed to accomplish and the prompt was "Things not to say in the dark?!" So dear readers this was my interpretation in that small space of time that I had! :D
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Mikey had been idly sitting on Donnie's work bench swinging his legs, poking at the keys on his smart brother's computer keyboard when the lights suddenly went out.
"Ah!" There was resounding crash as Donnie fumbled and dropped the items he'd been carrying.
"Whoa! Dude it wasn't me I swear!" Mikey bleated honestly thinking that it was as he snatched his fingers up to his chest.
"It's okay Mikey, I think it's just a black out."
"Can you fix it?"
"Depends if it's a fuse or if the power grid is out."
"What's the difference?" Mikey uttered, hands now curling into tight nervous fists.
Mikey heard Donnie exhale in exasperation in the blackness. "It means if the lights have gone out just down here or across the city itself Mikey."
"Oh, okay," either way Mikey was not really fond of the dark. It was a phobia he hadn't really been able to shake since childhood. "So, can you fix it?" he asked in a small voice.
"If it's a fuse yes, if it's the power grid no. We'll just have to wait until the lights turn back on."
The thought of potentially being stuck in the dark for hours sent poor Mikey's heart racing. He uttered a uncertain whimper.
"Don't worry Mikey, I'm sure I've a flashlight in here somewhere, incase of emergencies."
"Emergencies like this one?"
Another sigh. "Yes Mikey, emergencies like this one."
Michelangelo kept glancing about in the shadows, waiting to see if his eyes would adjust but it had been so sudden, the flash to blackness that he felt totally blind. "Hurry up bro, I can't even see my hand in front of my face!" he squeaked plaintively, hating the fact that his childhood fear was starting to get the better of him.
"I'm trying Mikey okay?" came Donatello's somewhat flustered voice.
Mikey suddenly heard his brother stumble on whatever items he dropped previously. "OW!"
"Bro! You alright?!" Mikey squealed as he pushed himself off the desk.
"Oh no, no, no, no! It's leaking everywhere!"
Mikey's heart fluttered in his chest. "What? What's leaking everywhere dude?"
"I-I must have punctured it with the screwdriver. Cloth! Mikey I need a cloth right now!"
"How can I find a cloth in the dark D?!" Mikey exclaimed as he fumbled about the contents of his brother's desk.
"Drawer! Top drawer on the left! Oh man this cannot be happening!"
Mikey found himself pulling out random drawers as he tried not think about what Donnie had just done.
"AH! Mikey please, this is a life or death situation!"
Mikey slammed another drawer shut and yanked out another one as he blindly searched for the elusive cloth that his older brother needed so desperately.
"Don't slam my drawers Mikey!"
Seriously?!
"Look I'll find it myself Mikey, don't move I'm coming over."
How could be coming over? Didn't he just say something about being stabbed with a screwdriver? "No! No dude! I-I got it. You don't move okay?"
Despite his protest Donnie sounded like he was approaching anyway when there was a sudden, "Oop-!" a thud and the sound of someone collapsing on the floor like a sack of potatoes followed by a sickening 'crack!'
Mikey's heart was in his mouth as he spun around, cloth now in hand and fell to his hands and knees on the floor scrabbling about frantically searching for Donnie. "D! Bro you okay?" He called out and suddenly froze as his fingers slipped across something slick and warm. "Donnie? Tell me you're okay? Donnie?" His voice got small as he found what he believed his brother's head and more of that slippery warmth slid across his digits.
Mikey was by now on the verge of a full blown panic attack. Oh, oh god! Donatello had just bled out over the floor after accidentally sticking himself with one of his many screwdrivers! No, no, no, no, NO! This wasn't really happening! It couldn't be!
"D? Donnie? Talk to me bro," he whimpered, tentatively shaking his brother's shoulders from his prone position on the floor. "Donnie? Donnie wake up!" he cried shaking him harder.
Several long seconds passed and Donatello didn't stirr. "Don't, don't be dead D," he murmured plaintively. "Who, who will tell me to stay out of your lab, huh?" still there was nothing but stone dead silence.
The fear gripped Michelangelo's chest like an iron vice and he was at a total loss of what to do. In desperation he gripped what he knew to be the ridge of Donnie's shell and shook his still body for all he was worth. "DONNIE WAKE UP!" he all but screamed.
As if by some divine intervention the lights suddenly blinked back on, proving that it had indeed been a blackout on the grid. Not that it matter anymore. Mikey's relief was so short lived that it was practically nonexistent as his distraught features looked back down at his immediate older brother's body. He barely took the sight in and instantly threw hands over his face.
It was then that an unexpected sound met his ears. A low moan and abruptly the body before him moved. Mikey gasped, hands falling away as Donnie seemed to miraculously haul himself up to his knees one of his own hands cradling the blooming bump on the side of his head.
"Oh, what happened? Ah!" He winced. "Mikey, what on earth has gotten into you?"
Mikey had instantly sprang forward and enveloped Donnie in the tightest hug he could. "Donnie!" he yelped, hot tears beginning to prick at the corners of his baby blue eyes. "You're not dead!"
"Of course I'm not dead," Donnie grimaced as he rubbed the darkening bruise. "Why in name of Darwin's Beard would I be dead?"
"B-because yo-you fell on your screwdriver!"
"Wha-? No! I-I fell on my last can of motor oil for the Party Wagon and pierced the side of it. The blasted stuff was going everywhere."
Mikey pulled back, and saw for himself that Donnie was not covered in blood but a glistening amber oil which he must have slipped in. The crack he heard must have been Donnie's head striking the floor when he fell.
"Y-you said it was a life or death situation," Mikey whimpered.
"Alright, I might have exaggerated about that part."
Mikey squeezed his eyes shut. He had been expecting the worst sight of his life and it actually turned out to be so trivial that it was almost laughable but poor Mikey's overactive imagination had pushed him to the absolute brink making him believe that his brother had stabbed himself and died in the pitch black right in front of him. The image that had been painted in his mind had been horrific. The nervous energy that had built up inside him was still throbbing and pulsating in spasms. It wasn't something he could just turn off and he knew his brothers had to know that.
Michelangelo balled his hands into fists and beat them against an unsuspecting Donnie's chest. "Don't you ever do that to me again D!" Mikey wailed, the tears overflowing as all that collected energy spilled out, transforming itself into amalgamated waves of relief, anguish and anger. "I-I thought you'd stabbed yourself! You know what I'm like! Why didn't you just say that you put a hole in your stupid oil can bro?!"
Mikey never saw Donnie's stunned expression that crossed his face at his outburst, he just collapsed onto his brother's shoulder, the sobs rolling through him. "I-I thought I'd killed y-you looking fo-for th-that stupid flashlight!"
He suddenly felt Donnie's arms fall about him, a gentle hand resting atop his head, stroking it softly as he tried to control the upset that continued to heave through him. "I'm sorry Mikey, I'm really sorry. I should've known better," his brother's soothing voice apologised. "I never meant to frighten you like that. I'm sorry little bro."
Mikey slumped forward into the comforting embrace, letting Donatello's gentle words flow over him and feeling it slowly stripping away the negative energy that had formed within him. He always knew the right things to say when it mattered.
"It's okay Mikey. It's okay."