"Hey...Donnie."
"Yes Mikey?"
"...What's blood made of?"
The three older turtles immediately looked at their youngest with wide eyes. All of them were surprised and shocked by the question. They all looked at each other concerningly, then back at him. Mikey blinked, waiting for Donnie to answer him. Donnie gulped nervously.
"U-Uh...well it's made up of...w-why do you want to know?"
Mikey moved his tongue a bit in his mouth. He hummed a bit in thought before answering."Taste like metal."He looked at his brothers and gave them a small smile."A little salty too..."
They didn't return the smile. In fact, they didn't even look at him anymore. Instead, the floor looked more interesting than anything at the moment for them. Mikey's smile disappeared. He was confused, though he could tell his brothers were sad. The reason why, however, he was absolutely clueless.
"Hey...bros...whats wrong? It was just a question...I was curious."
"Curiosity killed the cat you know."Leo said sadly, still looking at the floor. It was just above a whisper, but Mikey could tell there was a hint of anger in it.
"Yeah, so why don't you just shut your mouth."Raph said rather harshly. There was definitely anger in his voice.
"Mikey..."The young turtle looked at Donnie, who didn't look back at him."Never ask that question again."His voice was soft, but with an almost threatening tone to it.
"But-"
"Never again!"
Mikey stared at his brothers in shock. The three clenched their fists and stood up quickly, breathing a bit heavily from their shouting. He's never seen his brothers so angry...or scared. Tears were slowly starting to form in their eyes. He tried to get up, but was too weak to. His brothers really needed some cheering up.
'I don't understand...why are they like this? It's not like it's their...'
Realization finally hit the young turtle. He finally understood why his brothers were acting like this.
"...It's not your fault."
"Yes it is."Leo said, silently crying.
"You guys didn't know..."
"We should have!"Raph said loudly at him, tears streaming down on his cheeks."We should have know something like this would've happened!"
"How would you dudes-"
"We're your big brothers Mikey!"Donnie yelled, frantically trying to wipe his tears away."We're supposed to protect you! We're supposed to protect you with our lives and we failed! It can't be the other way around!"
"Why did you have to be the hero? Why?!"
"Leo..."
"Taste like metal...do you really think we wanna hear that? Do ya?!"
"Raph..."
Donnie went up to his baby brother and hugged him gently, but firmly. Leo and Raph saw this and did the same. Mikey slowly lifted his arms up and hugged them back. He started to shed tears of his own. They were like this for a few minutes, quietly crying in each others arms.
"What you said Mikey...is something we never want to hear...ok?"Donnie asked softly.
Mikey nodded.
"And we're sorry we yelled at you. We were just really worried and scared."Leo said.
"Yeah...sorry bro."
Mikey wiped the tears off his freckled face and gave them a small smile again."It's ok...and seriously...it wasn't your fault. None of you."He coughed a bit and raised his arm to cover it. He coughed some blood out and grabbed the tissues next to his bed to clean his arm. His brothers gave him a worried look.
"A little bit of blood never hurt anyone."He reassured them."Besides, it's gonna take a whole lot more than a dozen of foot ninjas to take me down."He smiled at them and they managed to smile back. They hugged once more, knowing everything was going to be alright.
"Hey...Mikey."
"Yeah Donnie?"
"Next time you want to be a hero...be more careful next time."
"And thats an order baby brother, if not..."
"We'll kill ya."