Oh.
Oh, how he missed it.
Mikey didn't realize just how much until he had let out an excited and shockingly loud howl four minutes into their run. The looks his brother's had given him were less than appreciated, but could they really blame him? They'd been locked up indoors for nearly three weeks straight because of the rain storm that would just not freaking leave the skies of New York. With winter practically on their doorsteps and with the flu going around, Sensei had put the lock down on any and all things Ninja until the weather got better.
After about four days into the constant rain fall and being on basic house arrest, other than going to school and the occasional pizza run, Mikey thought he was never going to make it.
He'd try to keep himself occupied, he really, truly, with all his heart, tried to. But there was only so much a fourteen year old Mikey could do to keep himself on the sane side of sanity. He'd beaten every video game they owned at least twice, achievements and everything. Watched as many episodes of Space Heroes and other various animes with Leo as he could stand. He even tried to help Donnie with his gadgets and whatever else the brainiac was tinkering on, but after the fifth explosion, Mikey decided for the both of them that he'd better quit while he was ahead before Donnie exploded on him.
For awhile, he found himself pretty occupied sparring with Raph in the dojo, but even that became a bit too much after about the first week and a half. Because sparring with your older brother is one thing. But sparring with your older brother after the two of you have been cooped up indoors for almost two weeks is on a whole new level to dangerous and just down right crazy. Crazy even more Mikey.
Cause he was a proudly annoying little brother who liked to egg Raph on when they were duking it out on the dojo mats. Except a stir crazy Raph being pushed to the mental limit by an equally stir crazy Mikey is not a physics equation that needs to be solved. Seriously. It doesn't take a Donnie to know that a Raph plus a Mikey, multiplied by a heckofalota indoor time and brotherly bonding will lead to nothing but a whole lot of screaming, broken bones or sprains that may or may not be self inflicted, possible fire if the mood is right, and all the duct tape in the house to go mysteriously missing which has absolute no correlation to anything Don you must have replaced I am innocent until proven guilty and YOU CAN'T PROVE ANYTHING.
Needless to say, they were all a little antsy and on edge from the confinement. And just when Mikey was afraid that they were all going to snap if anyone so much as made one tiny little obnoxious sound, which let's face it, Mikey isn't capable of if his life depended on it, the rain had stopped.
At first, his brothers didn't even notice until later on in the night, when Sensei, who had barricaded himself in his room as his own line of defense against his cabin fever stricken sons, had eagerly pointed it out to them. The boys didn't even waste a second putting on their matching green sweaters and buckling on their gear before hightailing it to the nearest skyscraper rooftop.
And it just goes to show how truly suffocating it must have been in their home if Sensei didn't even try to stop them from going out so late at night. In all honesty, Mikey didn't even know how his father didn't snap within the three weeks they had been stuck together. Because if his brothers didn't tear each other apart, he was almost positive Sensei would have.
The moment the night wind hit Mikey's face, he was hooked. He breathed in the refreshingly raw air, still moist from the downpour, so hungrily his lungs started to hurt. But Mikey could care less. He welcomed the cold wind as he booked it across the rooftops of the neighboring buildings around him, his brothers right along beside him.
He ran as fast as he could and even then he tried to run faster. He jumped and cartwheeled and flipped and basically tried to stretch every single muscle he could. He wasn't going to lie, he had gotten a little rusty, and from doing nothing but cooking and lazying about the house for three weeks put a little flab around his stomach. His muscles and legs and lungs began to grow sore within the first couple of minutes, but even then he didn't stop.
He didn't want to stop the feeling of the wind blowing through his now hoodless and unkempt hair. He didn't want to stop the feeling of the night air creating goosebumps on his skin and a cold sweat to run down his back. He didn't want to stop the feeling of fire burning in his chest.
He'd missed it. Missed feeling alive like this. Missed being free like this. And judging from the way the smiles grew on his brother's faces told him that they had missed it just as much.
They went on like that for nearly an hour. Just running and laughing and joking and soaking up every last bit of their first night out in what felt like too freaking long too Mikey. It wasn't until Leo had stopped at the edge of one of the taller buildings that they had ended their little freedom run and took in the night life of the city. It was only around 10 at night, but the city was as busy as it always was, and maybe even a little more so now that the weather was better and more people were out enjoying it.
Leo had suggested that they should probably head back home since it was too risky to be patrolling with so many people walking around, and probably looking up towards the sky to see if the forces of nature was actually playing some sick joke on them all and about to open up another can of week long suffering and rain. Mikey had promptly, and too his credit, accordingly boo'd that suggestion.
He didn't want to go yet. He was enjoying being outside too much. Sure, his legs were practically screaming at him and he was breathing so heavy that the air around him was white with his breath clouds, but Mikey wasn't exhausted in the slightest. He could and would go another 10k if it meant staying out for as long as Leo would let him.
"Come on Fearless, we've been cooped up for weeks. Lets enjoy this a little longer and actually do something," Raph had thankfully added, punching his fist into his hand. "I'm itching for a little more action. And honestly, if you try to stick me under the same roof as Mikey before I get my fix, my teenage bullshit is about to have a body count."
He shifted his gaze towards Mikey and gave an apologetic nod in his direction. "No offence bro."
"Ehh, it's fair," Mikey shrugged in agreement, deciding the stow away his plan of stealing Raph's phone and hiding it somewhere in his room for it to go off every ten minutes with an extremely irritating ringtone for a later date when Raph wasn't so fidgety to use his fists on something other than a punching bag.
"I hate to agree with Raph, always, but he's got a point. I love my lab, but if I have to look at one more beaker I think I'm going to go insane," Donnie sighed, folding his arms. "And no Mikey, not the weird, kooky, mad scientist kind of insane that you keep insisting I'll become one day."
"All I'm saying is that if the crazy comes a knocking, bro, don't fight it. Plus, you've pretty much all ready got the Eisenstein wacky, bed head hair going for ya. All you need is the dirty lab coat and the hecka short and ugly henchman to complete the look. I volunteer Raph."
"I'll volunteer my fist into your face in a second, you little-,"
"Alright, alright, I get it. We need a little more fresh air to fight off the cabin fever. Preferably away from each other," Leo rubbed the bridge of his nose, but he didn't seem all too upset about making the decision to stay out longer. "We'll split up. We'll still head back in the direction of home, but be on the lookout for anything criminal. If you see anything, and I mean anything, make sure to call for backup first and then engage. I'm looking at you Raph."
Leo took out his phone to check the time before sliding it back into his zipper pocket. "It's 10:12 right now. Let's try to be home by around 11:30, at most midnight. It's a school night so I don't want us to be out all night in the cold. Everyone have their cells to stay in contact?"
Mikey and Raph both pulled out their phones to show, but Donnie just kept his arms folded. "Pfft, does an electron have 2000 times less mass than a proton?"
"I'm going to assume that it does," Mikey answered, rocking back and forth on his heels.
"You'd assume correctly then."
"Ha, nice. 10 awesome ninja points to this dude," Mikey laughed, pointing a thumb at himself before Raph rolled his eyes and side checked him with his hip, sending the blond off balance and into a skilled handstand.
"Enough chit chat, can we go now? I know there's a Purple Dragon out their with my foot written all over their butt," Raph stated aggressively.
"Thanks for that mental image Raph. And yes, we can," Leo turned towards the city below and pointed down a street. "Raph, you and Donnie'll take Flatbush all the way to Myrtle. Mikey and I will head down Flatlands and Fountain. We'll meet back at Forest Park and then head home. Sound good?"
Raph cracked his knuckles excitedly, a grin growing on his face. "Music to my ears. Think you can keep up D?"
"Does a plant cell have a cyto-,"
"Answer the question like a normal person D, or I'm gonna smack the sanity right out of ya."
"Says the short and ugly Henchman."
"Oh, you're dead," Raph growled as he chased Donnie off the building and towards Flatbush Avenue. Leo rolled his eyes before lifting a brow towards Mikey, who was still strutting a hand stand.
"Can't very well let them have all the fun, can we?" Leo laughed. Mikey rolled backwards and sprang to his feet next to his older brother. A cheeky smile growing on his face as he rested an arm on Leo's shoulders.
"Well, not if all we're doing is running around hoping a mugging happens down the street we're on," Mikey said, and Leo raised his eyebrow higher.
"Well it sounds bad when you put it like that."
"What I mean is," Mikey began, patting Leo's shoulder. "Why don't we make it a little more interesting."
"I'm listening, but I don't know if I'm liking," Leo said but Mikey quickly hushed him and pointed towards the direction of the park.
"A race. First one to Forest park wins. Loser has to do winners chores and give up pizza privileges for a week," Mikey said, and Leo whistled.
"Woah, pizza privileges is some big bid to bet. You sure you're up to it?"
Mikey grinned in response. "I wouldn't be betting my one true love if I wasn't, dude."
All jokes aside, betting pizza privileges was basic sacrilege and a taboo amoungst other things, but Mikey was feeling it tonight. He was feeling good. Like really good. Like, free popcorn at the movies and golden retriever puppies kind of good. He wanted to run again. Even faster than he did earlier. He wanted to feel the wind in his hair and the air against his skin and his lungs to burn with the feeling of being alive.
And plus, beating one of his older brothers at something just added to the adrenaline high.
"You got your inhaler?" Mikey asked, and Leo patted one of the pockets on his pants.
"I'd be more worried about yourself baby bro. And how you're about to do all the dishes for a whole week," Leo grinned back and walked to the edge of the building, Mikey close in tow.
"Oh ho ho, we'll see about that, I have some pretty gross gym socks that I haven't washed in weeks just screaming your name and some math homework due Friday," Mikey laughed, stretching his arms over his chest.
"Homework isn't a chore, Mikey."
"Maybe not to you."
Leo rolled his eyes and stared down Flatlands Avenue. "No cheap tricks or weapons allowed. Just racing. That big pine tree at the entrance of the park is the finish line. First one to touch it wins. You ready?"
"Ready for you to eat my shorts."
"If they're anything like your gym socks, I think I'll pass," Leo leaned on the rooftop's edge and Mikey did the same, planting one foot solidly on the side, ready to kick off as soon as Leo gave the signal.
"Redi. Setto. Ikimasu!"
And they were off, faster than what was probably normal for any other teenager. But Mikey and his brothers were anything but normal teenagers.
They were also ninjas.
And this ninja was about to kick some serious older brother butt.
Mikey hollered excitedly again as he pulled ahead, naturally. He was the smallest of the bunch, but darn it if it didn't also mean that he was the fastest. He had it in the bag. Ace in hand. Hole in one. The whole shebang.
Or, he'd like to admit, but for a guy with asthma, Leo was keeping up pretty freaking well. Mikey did not have the luxury to take it easy and pull a few cool stunts to show off, no matter how badly he wanted to. He had to keep focused on his goal. Beat Leo. Beat Leo and make him do that math assignment that you really don't want to do.
But it was hard when the feeling of the wind started playing with Mikey's hair, distracting him in all the best ways. Every jump and leap made him feel like he could fly, putting butterflies in his stomach and what seemed like infinite space under his feet. And so he'd try to jump and leap even higher with every new building they ran across.
Math homework Mikey. Stick with the goal here, man.
"By the way," Leo called out, pulling up beside Mikey. "Why haven't you washed your socks yet?"
Mikey shrugged the best he could as he hurtled over an air conditioning system. "Been saving them for a prank I was planning for Raph."
"Nasty."
"I know, my dude. It was gonna be awesome."
Leo laughed and before Mikey could register it, pulled up in front of him and blazed ahead. He reached the end where Flatlands meets Fountain Avenue and made the cross over the bustling city street like a pro. He flashed Mikey a pointed salute before charging forward, and even though Mikey knew Leo wouldn't see him, he still stuck his tongue out towards his older brother.
"You wanna go dude? That's how we'll go," Mikey muttered and pushed himself as hard as he could go. He was starting to feel his legs tremble from exhaustion, but he promptly ignored them. His only thoughts were consumed with the goal of beating Leo. He made the cross just as easily as Leo had, with even a little bit of extra flair cause he could, and finally caught up to Leo.
Leo was breathing heavy, but when their eyes met, Mikey smiled at the look of determination that blazed within them. Neither were going down without a fight, which honestly, made it more fun.
A rather large alley way was coming ahead, a huge gap that separated the two buildings loomed before them and Mikey knew that he was going to have to really press himself to the limit if he wanted to make it before Leo. He slowly pulled ahead, and as the gap grew closer, Mikey thought of how much more the sweet victory of winning would taste he if he made the jump look completely effortless and did a bit of showing off.
He cracked a split second grin to Leo as he prepared to jump. "Watch how a Ninja does, brah."
And he jumped.
The plan was to do a sick double front flip, with him solo air guitaring it the entire time until he landed perfectly, with fireworks and thousands of people cheering him on as he accepted the key to the city and a cash reward for his awesome stunt.
Sadly, that fantastic day dream never got to see the light of reality, cause Mikey didn't even make it half way across the gap before he started falling. He frantically tried to twist his body, reaching for the fire escape attached to the side of one of the buildings. His momentum was too strong for him to be able to grab the railing the first time, but his slip up greatly decreased his fall as he managed his grab the next one with one of his hands. However, with gravity working against him and the fact that the railing was still wet from the rain, Mikey could do little to stop himself from slipping off the metal fire escape as he came crashing down to the bottom of the alley. Luckily, there was an open dumpster to soften his landing, unluckily, it was an open dumpster.
"Beans," Mikey groaned as he pulled himself off his back and into a sitting position in the trash.
"Mikey!" The blond looked up at his older brother who was standing on the very fire escape that had managed to elude his grasp, looking down on him with a look of concern. "Are you ok? Are you hurt?"
"Besides my pride, no," Mikey said, shaking off an old banana peel from his sleeve. "I'm fine. I guess the jump was a lot bigger than I thought it was. Good thing these coffee grounds were here to make for a soft, if not extremely gross and smelly, landing."
Leo sighed loudly in relief, and then gave Mikey a cheeky grin as he looked back up towards the rooftops. "Well then, I guess you'll have a lot more laundry to wash beside just your dirty socks then. You know, when you lose the race."
And with the speed of a tornado, Leo climbed back up the fire escape and onto the opposing building. He flashed Mikey another salute and charged back towards the park entrance.
"What? Wait Leo! That's not- ACK!" Mikey tried to call out while pulling himself out of the garbage can, only to trip on some of the trash in it and fall out clumsily, landing on his butt on the cold and wet pavement of the alley way.
"Bunch of baloney," Mikey cursed under his breath, bringing himself to his feet and dusting off the remaining garbage on his clothes that had tried to escape with him. "Lucky Raph, cause my gym socks now have Leo's name written all over them."
He was about to pull himself back up the fire escape and barrel after his older brother, but a commotion across the street caught his attention.
And Mikey was reminded of the entire reason why his brothers were still out in the first place.
Three very big and very mean looking dudes were blocking the entrance of the alley way just across from him, and from what little Mikey could tell, he was pretty sure there was two woman they were blocking. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but the sheer volume and tension in their voices told Mikey that these guys weren't just giving these girls directions.
He reached into his pocket to call Leo but a horrifying feeling struck him when he realized his phone wasn't in there. He searched frantically for it, checking all the pockets he had on them, only to realize a horrifying truth as he looked towards the garbage can beside him.
"Ok, now that's just not fair," Mikey whined. Before he could even think to make the decision of whether or not he should go dumpster diving for his cell or not, one of the girls let out a muffled scream, and he noticed that there was haphazard movement coming from the suspicious group.
Mikey tightened the orange mask around his face and pulled his sweatshirt hood over his head.
There wasn't any time to waste.
"Let her go, you're hurting her!" One of the girls yelled, trying to pry one of the guy's hands of her friend, but the other two grabbed her instead and held her in place. She kicked and struggled, but the two meaty guys were just too bulky and too drunk for her to have any success in escaping. The men just laughed at the girls expense, and the one holding on to the crying girl's wrist leaned in creepily close to her, pressing her up against the wall.
"Shhhh, baby girl, it's all going to be fine. My friends and I are just a little drunk and would like some company before we all go home," he cooed into the girls ear, slithering a hand up her waist. The girl tried hard to hold back a sob. "If you stay quiet, then we can all go home very soon and very happy. Got it?"
Before the man could make any more moves, Mikey was already on top of him, literally. As in, Mikey kinda sorta definitely tripped up again and fell on top of the dude while trying to sneak up on them from the roof, landing on him with a skilled ooff.
The man groaned, but was clearly knocked unconscious by the force driven into him from Mikey's fall. Mikey didn't complain however, as he jumped to his feet and unbuckled his nunchucks from his belt.
If the other two men were shocked, they quickly got over it as they both let go of the girl and tossed her behind them, staring at Mikey with a sort of toxic glare.
"What the fuck is with this kid?" The man on the left slurred. He had a grossly large mole on the side of his nose. For simplicities sake, Mikey called him GuacaMOLE. "What's with the superhero mask brat?"
"Better than the ugly mugs you're wearing, that's what," Mikey stood protectively in front of the crying girl who was holding her wrist up securely against her chest, like she was in pain. The two girls couldn't have been very old, they looked about the same age as April, and that alone made something sick and dark twist at the bottom of Mikey's stomach. He span his nunchucks at his side, giving his own venomous stare back at them. "And for the record, it's a ninja mask, you jerks."
The two men charged, albeit drunkenly, but it was easy to side step them. One of them had pulled out a knife, but Mikey quickly smacked that away from them and sent it skidding under a nearby dumpster. Better just get rid of any nasty stuff while we're ahead of the game. He brought one of the nunchucks down on GuacaMOLE's head and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying towards the wall and out cold onto the floor. Mikey quickly walked to the girl who had been thrown onto the ground and pulled her onto her feet, pushing her towards her crying friend.
"Call a taxi and get you two home safe. Call the police once you're in the car. Have a nice night and please don't tell the police about me, thanks, bye!" Mikey said turning back around towards the one guy standing left. The girls didn't waste anytime in leaving. They gave Mikey a shaky thank you before booking it around the corner and out of immediate harms way. Mikey let out a sigh of relief and focused on the guy in front of him.
The other guy got his bearings from having his weapon knocked out of his hands and charged again, throwing his fists wildly. For the most part, Mikey avoided them all, but one just brushed off his left shoulder and put him awkwardly off balance. The man thought he could use Mikey's mild inconvenience to his advantage and tackle him, but what Mikey lacked in balance on his feet, he could make up for with his hands.
He rolled backwards into a handstand, bringing his feet swinging upward and kicking the dude straight in the chin, buying Mikey enough time to get back on his feet and smack the dude in his dumb head with his nunchuck. Not hard enough to cause any real damage, but definitely hard enough to put him out of commission for awhile.
Mikey breathed out slowly, buckled his nunchucks back on his belt and swatted his hands together as if clearing any dirt from them. We walked over to GuacaMOLE and looked to see if he had any weapons on him. Sure enough, the dude had a knife similar to the one Mikey knocked out of the other guy's hand. He tossed it into the garbage.
"If I lose my phone in the trash then you lose your knife," Mikey said, and was about to to head back up the side of the building and catch up with Leo, before he heard a soft click from behind him.
Mikey never realized that the guy he had fallen on had woken back up and was now pointing a gun straight at Mikey's head. Mikey just dared enough to turn his head slightly to look at the man behind him, his eyes wide with fear as he stared down the barrel of the gun.
Avoiding a knife was easy enough. But a gun, this close in range? Mikey felt a chill run down his spine, as if he finally felt how cold the November night was.
And right before the gun went off, somewhere in the back of Mikey's mind, a voice he hand't heard in almost ten years whispered a soft memory to him.
I'm sorry, Michelangelo.
BANG.
I'm so. So. SO SORRY EVERYONE. I had absolutely NO plan to wait this long to update, but for some reason, every time I tried to write and upload something, my computer would either glitch out or shut down and I'd lose everything. This must have happened about 4 times, and I soon began to grow increasingly irritated by it and frustrated that I couldn't write it. Finally though, at about 4 am, I decided to fuck everything and simple write out this entire chapter from scratch. I took a completely different route then what I was going for but I actually liked how this turned out a whole lot better than I originally planned. SO yeah to that!
Thank you all so much who have stuck with me throughout these couple of months. Your messages and commitment mean all the world to me, and you are the people I'm writing for! Thank you so much darlings! Just to put all uneasiness aside, I have no intention of dropping this story. I still really want to write it out and tell it, so if it may seem that I haven't uploaded in awhile, do not fear. Things might have just gotten a little hectic for me but do not worry. This is a story that will continue to grow and I can't wait for you all to read it!
Woah, what a sketchy way to end off this chapter. Does Mikey survive the battle against the gun? Who is the voice he hears in the back of his head? Will he ever get to pull that sock prank on Leo? Find out next time sweeties! Love you!
PS. It's about 1 in the afternoon now that I finish this, so I'm gonna take a nap. Sorry if there are any mis-spellings or grammar mistakes. I literally can not see the screen at this point, I'm so tired, so forgive my laziness, I'll go back over it and fix it later. Thank you!