The marker

It was a few weeks after Christmas and the Hamato family was at peace….mysteriously. Leo was with his father training, Raph was at the park with some friends, Donnie was reading a book on physics and Mikey was…being quiet?! Donnie took notice of this after about 20 minutes wondering why his little brother wasn't coming in to bug him on his life. He put down his book and went around the house looking for him, "Mikey! Where are you?" he called, as if on cue there was a loud banging noise coming from Michelangelo's room. Donnie walked towards his room and just as he was about to open the door Mikey shouted from the other side "Wait don't come in!" knowing that he was obviously doing something he wasn't supposed to, Donnie opened it anyways and walked in. the room was pitch black, Mikey had closed the shades, and turned off the lights, but that wasn't what surprised Donnie. On the walls were neon glow in the dark stripes and designs, Donnie thought how Mikey had managed to do this and then it hit him. The marker. For Christmas he had made Mikey a special glow in the dark marker that wouldn't work unless it was really dark, and the only logical reason that Mikey would ever be this quiet was because he was entertained or sleeping. After Donnie figured it out he rounded on his brother. He decided on going for the 'sweet, I'm not gonna hurt you' act. Donnie smiled sweetly at Mikey, who was grinning sheepishly

"Whatcha doing?"

"Umm, drawing?"

"Ahh, that's nice, I really like the design on the wall,"

"You do?"

"No! well, yea I do actually, but that's not the point!" Donnie then pounced on Mikey trying to retrieve the marker. The two brothers wrestled for a while and then Mikey had an idea

"Wait!" he cried, stopping

"What?"

"Why do you want this, you gave to me remember?"

"I don't want it, but I do want to know why you're drawing on the wall, dad's gonna kill you if he finds out."

"I know," said Mikey smoothly, his face then gave a mischievous grin "So that's why you wont tell him that,"

"Uhh, no way." Stated Donnie, "Mikey, we both know that I wont be able to do this unless I get something in return,"

"Ok, how about…" he thought for a minute "I help you play a prank on Raph?"

"Oh, please remember last time I did that? I was so tired that dad had to keep me from school the next day!"

"Oh yeah, that was tough, but this time he wont know. Where is he right now?"

"Went to the park with Casey and the others, why?"

"Ok, so what if we were to go in his room right now and draw on the walls with this?" Mikey held up the marker, and Donnie thought about it. It would be so funny to prank Raph, but what if he finds out? He would surely kill him for sure. And how would they get the ink off afterwards? Wait, I made them so I must have the blueprint somewhere, I think I recall making them washable… Donnie thought. His thoughts were interrupted by Mikey who was impatient for answers, "Well? Can we?" he asked, Donnie sighed in defeat and grinned at him "Fine, but we need some more of these markers, give me about 10 minutes and then meet me in Raph's room."

15 minutes later Donnie and Mikey were in their older brother's room drawing crazy faces on the walls and ceiling, Donnie had never really noticed the way Mikey drew but now that he had a chance to see, Mikey really had an eye for art. He added plenty of detail and texture in his master pieces, for example, when they were drawing Raph holding his twin sais Mikey added light and shadow and made him look like an actual hothead. They continued drawing on the wall until they heard the front door open and Raphael's voice "I'm back!" Mikey and Donnie looked at each other, scared and immediately grabbed the markers and bolted for the door and into Donnie's room. Once in there they burst into laughter,

"So-so n-now what?" asked Donnie, between breaths, they were laughing so hard that it took immense work just to simply breathe.

"Ga-guh I dunno," heaved Mikey, it was so funny to Donnie that he said something that made them burst in laughter again, but harder. "Y-you sound l-like a dying walrus!"

it was dinner and Raph had no suspicions about the prank his little brothers had played, everything was going according to plan. As Donnie and Mikey ate their noodles they couldn't help but think of the look on Raph's face when he fell asleep that night, all it took was a word about it and they would fall into their dying walrus routine. That's why Donnie and Mikey were very quiet that night, for the rest of the family it was usual that Donnie occasionally be silent but when Mikey was silent it either meant 2 things: he had lost his voice or was really sad. Either way Leo and Raph took advantage and started talking about more training with their dad. Splinter tried to pay attention but he couldn't stay focused because of Michelangelo's quietness.

"Michelangelo?" he asked "Is everything alright?"

"Huh?" Mikey said, looking up from his noodles "Oh, yeah everything's fine dad, I'm just uh, thinking, about something." Raph stopped talking with Leo as soon as the words "Just uh, thinking," he stared at Mikey with both humor and concern

"You? Thinking? Umm are you feeling ok Mike? Cause the last time you were thinking was like, uh never."

"Well maybe I turned a new leaf or something, yeah a new leaf, I like that." Raph just looked at Leo and then figured out why his youngest brother was so well behaved. "Hold on a sec," he started, "Maybe you're just thinking about what you're gonna draw with that knew marker Donnie gave ya huh?" the second Raph said that Donnie immediately looked up from his noodles and looked over to Mikey, who looked as he was going to explode from laughter. Donnie allowed himself a small smile but that set Mikey off in giggles and then Donnie joined in, Raph, Leo and Splinter both looked at the two youngest with concerned faces. Mikey stopped for a minute to explain the sudden laughing fit

"Sorry dad, but Donnie told me this joke that some dude told him and it had to do with a marker, and yeah, so umm, could we be excused?" he looked up at his father who gave him a nod and Donnie and Mikey ran up to his room where they could snicker in peace. After about 10 minutes the 2 finally calmed down enough to start talking, "That was a close one, thanks for covering bro," said Donnie

"No prob, so when will we hear the screaming from Raphie boy's room?"

"Uh, no idea, depends on when he goes to sleep,"

"Oh, ok so about 10:30 or somethin'"

"Wait how do you know that?" Mikey gave him a serious look

"You don't wanna know."

"Well, judging by your face I don't." the brothers talked a little longer and soon enough it was about their bedtime. Donnie was about to leave Mikey's room when his little brother had an idea

"What?"

"Ok," smirked Mikey mischievously, "so when Raph goes to sleep we go in his room, and draw on his face."

"Dude! What if he hears us?! Not only will we be dead but think of the trouble we'll be in!"

"So what? Remember Donnie, we're ninjas, we live in the shadows, so a dark room will be perfect." Mikey did have a point, and it would be funny to go up and ask "Whoa Raph, what happened to your face?" but then it might take a while to wash off. Donnie debated this and concluded with this: they draw on Raphael's face but with the glow in the dark marker, then they take a picture of it. This idea delighted Mikey,

"Wow, Donnie," he said, impressed "I never knew you had it in you to play a good prank."

"Well, after living with you for 13 years I picked up a few things."

(Oops, I forgot to mention that in these stories the guys are 13, sorry)

It was 11 p.m. and Mikey and Donnie finally went into Raph's room. Donnie had wanted to make sure that he was really asleep, to make sure, as they quietly slipped in their older brother's room they saw all the graffiti they did on the walls. It looked great, and funny, it took all of their willpower to keep from having another laugh attack. They slowly approached Raph's bed, where he was snoring loudly "Gee," whispered Mikey "This guy has a motor,"

"Shh! You'll wake him up." Replied Donnie. He handed Mikey a marker and they begun the drawing on Raph's face, luckily for them, he was a heavy sleeper. When they finished they admired their work, they had given Raph a moustache, vein vessels, an eyeglass, and Mikey wrote loser on his forhead. Donnie and Mikey both took out their phones and snapped pics of Raph, they then exited his room, they shook hands and went to their rooms.

The next morning both Donatello and Michelangelo were exhausted from the previous night, but none the less, happy as can be. They ate their breakfeast and then went to the built in dojo to do their training.

"Today we will review being in complete darkness while in combat." Instructed Splinter, Donnie and Mikey looked at each other with fear, this was not good.

"I will turn off the lights and you will spar two on two, Leonardo and Donatello and Michelangelo and Raphael, understood?" he looked at his sons "Hai sensei." They replied in unison, but before Splinter turned off the lights Mikey cried out "Wait!" he turned around and looked at his youngest son with question

"Yes Michelangelo?"

"I was uh, umm, thinking, that maybe we could do this without Raph." He grinned sheepishly

"Why?"

"Because, well, umm, never mind." Splinter looked at Mikey one more time before turning off the lights, this is it, Raph's gonna kill me and Donnie once he finds out what we did to his face. Mikey thought. He took his place in front of Raph and just stared at him, his face wasn't glowing or anything, it looked, normal. Mikey relaxed and just focused on the fight,

"Hajime!" Splinter ordered, Mikey leapt into action, swinging his nunchakus wildly. Raph charged at him with his sais and was about to take him down when Mikey jumped onto his back and did a flip in mid-air, landing smoothly a few feet away from Raph. The battle ended with Raph winning, as usual, but Mikey didn't care, Donnie ended up losing to Leo too, but looked distracted.

After training Donnie and Mikey confronted Raph,

"Hey Raph?" asked Donnie

"Yeah?"

"Did you do something to your face? It looks um, different." Raph gave Donnie a strange look before answering

"Uh, I washed, it?"

"Why? I thought you showered last night,"

"I did. But this morning my face felt all sticky or something," he eyed them, "What? You gonna make something out of it?" he sassed, "No, no, I just wanted to know that's all, so um bye!" and Donnie and Mikey took off, leaving Raph standing there. They retreated towards Donnie's room where he examined the marker.

"Strange, how did it get sticky? Its not supposed to do that," Donnie said to himself, but Mikey thought it was directed towards him "Who cares? As long as it did our job it ain't our problem, besides if you want to wash it off we can, Leo told me that Raph's going to a hockey game with Casey."

"Fine," Donatello replied "We'll wash it off when Raph's gone and then I'll adapt the markers so they wont be sticky anymore." He looked at his little brother who put on a pouty face,

"but can we draw on his face again?"

"Of course we're going to! What's the point of adapting a marker if its just gonna sit there?!"

"Hold on!" Mikey immediately changed his pouty face to a mischievous one "Can we also do Leo?" this idea took Donnie aback, Leo?! They could do Raph who never suspected anything, but doing it on Leo was entirely different, he would immediately find out that they did this, it would be impossible. But then again, Donnie thought, so was pranking Raph without getting hurt and you did it, compare that to Leo I can do anything, Donnie looked over to Mikey who was staring at him hopefully, he grinned at him

"Alright, we can do Leo." Mikey was about to grab the markers and run to Leo's room but Donnie grabbed the back of his shirt to hold him back "But, we need to do it when he's in the dojo with dad, or else we're dead."

"Fine."

2 hours later Donnie and Mikey were drawing on their oldest brother's walls, having the time of their lives. Leo was in the dojo with their father and Raph was with Casey, Mikey thought that it would be funny if they made fun of space heroes by drawing the planets in superhero tights, which made them burst into laughter again. When they finished Leo's room they headed towards Raph's. this one took longer because they had to wipe off the previous graffiti that the old marker did, but once they finished it was excellent. This time they drew Raph's pet turtle Spike as a diary and then drew a bunch of pointless drawings.

Leo had finished his training with Splinter and was headed towards his room to meditate, he walked into the room, grabbed some candles, lit them and turned off the lights. He then sat down peacefully and sighed, for some reason he felt the room too bright, surely the candles couldn't be this bright. Leo opened his eyes and saw that his walls were covered in graffiti, "WHAT THE HECK?!"

Donnie heard the noise come from Leo's room and looked at Mikey, who was reading a comic on his bed. They looked at each other and both said "Uh-oh." They ran to Leo's room and saw the graffiti. Their oldest brother looked at the wall and then at his brothers, who were now grinning sheepishly "Care to explain?" he asked them sternly "Only if you don't tell Raph," replied Donnie

"Deal," they told Leo everything and when they finished he just looked at them. "So, you thought that doing it on Raph's walls wasn't enough and then you came into my room and did the same?" he looked at Donnie who was staring at the floor then at Mikey who answered "Yeah pretty much, but I don't see what you're getting so mad about, we were gonna sneak in your room and draw on your face."

"You what?!"

"Mikey!" Donnie scolded, slapping the back of his head. Then he turned to Leo and apologized "Leo, it was never really our intention to draw on your walls, that was Mikey's idea. And the reason we did it was because of me. I wanted to show Raph that I could pull a prank as good as you guys, I know it's not an excuse but it's why I did it." Donnie looked hopefully at his brother and was surprised to see a smile on his face, "It's ok Donnie, I mean I am impressed that you pulled this off, and I wont tell Raph, just clean this off and we'll not only draw on his face tonight, but we wake him up and show him a mirror."

"But wont he find out?"

"Not if he sees his face first." Leo had an evil look on his face and Donnie had no idea what was in store.

It was 11:30ish at night and Leo, Mikey and Donnie were once again drawing on Raph's face. Leo had suggested that when they draw they make it look extra scary, then wake up Raph and show him a mirror. When he screamed they quietly go back to their rooms and pretend nothing happened. Donnie added the final touch on Raph's face and then Mikey begun to shake him awake, Leo held the mirror at his face. Raph begun to wake up mumbling "What Mikey? Its like the middle of the-OH MY GOD WHAT THE FRIKIN HELL?!" The 3 brothers saw that mission was accomplished and ran to their bedrooms just as their dad was headed towards Raphael's room.

In the morning the 4 brothers were in the kneeling in front of their father and for some reason looked more stern than usual.

"Last night Raphael told me that someone drew on his walls, with a glow in the dark marker. Someone also drew on his face, and he suspects that it was you, Michelangelo." He looked at his son who was putting on a dramatic act, he sounded like a farmgirl.

"Me? Why who could blame such an innocent little, adorable boy like me? Maybe Donnie did it." Mikey pointed to Donnie who scowled at him "Traitor!" but as soon as he said these words he wished he hadn't, Splinter looked from Mikey to Donatello and frowned "Did you draw on Raphael's walls and face Donatello?"

"Well, I-I," Donnie started "I did draw on his walls, but Mikey did it too!" Splinter looked at Mikey and Leo muttered busted! Donnie heard this and turned him in "Hey look who's talkin', you did it too!" this took Splinter aback, Leonardo? He was too good to have done something this mischievous, he looked at his oldest son who was smiling sheepishly "Is this true Leonardo?"

"Hai sensei, Donnie and Mikey were drew on my walls and when I found out they told me that they would take it off as long as I didn't tell Raph,"

"Tell Raphael that they drew on his walls 2 nights ago and his face." That was it for Raph,

"You drew on my walls, my face and didn't tell me?! Oh Donnie you are so dead!" Raph got up and was about to pounce on Donnie when Splinter grabbed him by the collar,

"Not so fast my son, though Donatello and Michelangelo did something wrong it does not mean that it is ok to use violence. However they will be punished, and you may choose it." Those last words scared Mikey and Donnie, whenever Raph chose the punishment it was either painful, or well, painful. After training Raph came up with their punishment: Leo was banned from space heroes for a month, Donnie couldn't invent anything for 2 weeks, and Mikey had to be Raph's servant for 2 months. As the 3 brothers accepted the punishment Donnie told Mikey something

"Mikey?"

"Yeah?"

"Remind me to never listen to your ideas ever again."