"You know, sometimes he's worse than even Don."
"Rude, Raph, I'm not that bad."
"I can't even count on my fingers and toes how many times I've found you passed out over your computer in the lab in the last month."
"He's right, Don. That on top of Mikey bring you food because you sometimes forget-"
"Okay, okay! I get it, but we're not here to talk about my bad sleeping habits."
"Well, we were just talking about the bad sleeping habits of this family in general so you're included."
"You can't say much since you go out and stay out late with Casey most nights."
"At least I sleep in my bed! You-"
"Oh just be quiet you two! We didn't come here to argue, and besides, we all have bad sleeping habits."
There were grumbles of agreement before the three turtles turned their attention back to the fourth turtle in front of them.
"How did he even fall asleep like that?"
"You know how Mikey is, falling asleep in weird positions and waking up in even weirder ones."
"True, but how did he get into it?"
Mikey sat in front of them, legs twisted into an impossible looking pretzel shape as his top half slumped over the coffee table that sat in front of him. Cups full of paint lay scattered in a rainbow above him on the table. The corner of a piece of paper peeked out from under his arms and head. A paintbrush rest in his hand, nearly falling out and covered in now dried paint, a light shade of orange. His soft breath fluttered the corners of the pieces of paper stacked next to him.
"He's really out of it, isn't he?" Donnie mutters, leaning over the sleeping figure.
"I'm pretty sure he hasn't slept in the past three days," Leo comments walking around the the other side of the table and crouching down to start covering the drying paint cups.
"And you let him?" Raph asks.
"Did you want to be the one dealing with a complaining Mikey because he didn't get to finish whatever this time's project was?" Leo retorts.
"Touché," Raph replies.
"Besides, why do you think I haven't made us do patrol these past three days? I saw this coming and going on patrol with one of us being sleep deprived isn't safe no matter how many times Don will argue."
"Hey, I've become adjusted to where it doesn't affect me as much anymore if I miss one night's sleep," Donnie says.
"Even if that's not as reassuring as it should be, you at least know to sleep the second night," Leo says.
There's a lull in conversation as Leo continues covering Mikey's precious paints to keep them from drying out.
"Are we waking him up to move him?" Raph asks. "I don't want to have to carry him like last time."
"I think we have to as much as I'd rather not. He's covered in paint and needs it washed off before he can get into bed."
"We could just leave him here to deal with his own problem of having tired himself out so much he passed out draped over a table," Raph says.
"Again, do you want to deal with a whining Mikey, only this time actually fully awake and complaining about how sore he is?" Leo asks.
"Okay, fine, I get it, but I'm not cleaning him because I already know he'll be too tired to do it himself."
Leo hums in acknowledgment before he shifts around the coffee table to kneel besides Mikey. He reaches out and lightly grabs Mikey's shoulder and shakes him a little. "Mikey, wake up."
There's a muffled huff of air before Mikey shifts slightly in his position and opens his eyes a sliver. "Mmpf," he grunts and tilts his head to bury his face in his arms further.
"No, come on Mikey. You need to get up," Leo says. He grabs Mikey's arm and pulls it away from his face.
Mikey emits a high-pitched whine. "Why?" he drags out. "I'm tired. Let me sleep."
"You're covered in paint goofball," Raph says. "You can go back to sleep after you get the rainbow off your shell."
"Paint," Mikey echoes sleepily, staring out of half-lidded eyes. A second later his eyes snap fully open and he yells, "Paint!"
He shoots into a sitting position, paintbrush dropping from his hand and nearly knocking into Donnie's legs with his shell. His hands frantically grope his plastron and his eyes scan it before flicking to the painting he was making in front of him. He lightly touches the picture before sighing in relief and letting his body slip back into a boneless state.
Donnie dives with a yelp to grab Mikey as he tilts back to prevent his head from having a painful collision with the ground.
"What the shell Mikey!" Raph yells, wide-eyed. Leo had also leaned forward with a hand outstretched in a momentary panic at Mikey's reaction.
"Thought I ruined the painting," Mikey mumbles. "Was waiting for it to dry."
The three turtles turned their attention to the table again, looking at the painting.
It was an image of a hill out at April's farmhouse with a solitary tree on it. The four turtles and two humans had found it when Leo was still recovering from his injuries from Shredder, building his strength back up. They had been out running a training exercise when they found it. Later that night, they came back with food for a picnic on top of the hill and stayed late into the night, just watching the clouds and time pass until the stars and moon came out.
All four of the turtles knew it was a moment they remembered because it was one of the few times they were able to forget about their enemies and all their problems. The picture accentuated that as it depicted Leo, head back and laughing, lightly shoving Raph's shoulder who had a grin on his face as well. Donnie sat next to April and Casey grinning up at the sky, mouth frozen open in an explanation as the two humans shared a knowing look. Mikey sat a bit farther off, a frozen pizza in hand with a thoughtful grin on his face. The sunset cast a warm glow over everyone and everything in the painting.
"Mikey," Leo breathes, touching the painting with a feather light touch. "This was like a year ago. How do you still remember this in so much detail?"
Mikey lets out a quiet hum, acknowledging the question, but too tired to answer. He leans into Donnie's arms as he tries to slip back to sleep.
Donnie notices and shifts to keep Mikey awake. "We can talk about this later when you wake up. For now let's just get you cleaned up."
Raph quickly steps forward to scoop Mikey out of Donnie's arm and into his own. Mikey makes a noise of protest at all the movement. Raph ignores him in favor of carrying him down the hall to the bathroom.
Donnie and Leo rise to follow him but linger to look at the painting again.
"You know," Donnie says, "there are times where I'm glad I'm not like Mikey with his photographic memory, but then times like these…" He gestures to the painting.
"Yeah, I feel the same way." Leo smiles at Donnie. "We can still come pretty close with Mikey's picture though."
"Yeah, we do have that," Donnie chuckles. "Come on, let's go help Raph with cleaning Mikey up before his mood changes and he remembers what he said earlier about refusing to clean him."
The two leave the room and walk down the hall to help their brothers, a second before their names are yelled in an exasperated tone.
"You two better get in here before I strangle Mikey with his own belt!"