((A.N. I actually forgot to update this sooner *nervous laugh* Anyway, more notes at the end, constructive criticisms is always welcome, and credits are found in the first chapter!))

Cruel morning arrived far too early.

He felt as though only a minute passed since his head hit the pillow the night before. Reluctantly, Donatello lazily blinked open his eyes, hearing the all-too-familiar, bothersome alarm of his homemade wind-up clock. With a groan, he reached out from under the safety of the covers, exposing his skin to the cold, static air of his room, and switched the timer off. Squinting through blurry vision, he tried to identify the numbers the hands were resting on.

Six O'Clock.

Donatello let out a sigh, suddenly feeling all the more drained than before as he read the ungodly time of day he and his brothers woke up every morning to train in the dojo. On any other day, he would have been up at the crack of dawn to work in his lab. But with his sanctuary off-limits for the week, he really didn't have much to do. A list of the projects that he had yet to start or continue ran mockingly through his barely functioning, groggy mind, teasing him with all the things he couldn't do until next Tuesday. I can't upgrade the T-Phone with a GPS tracking signal because all of the electrical circuits are in my lab... the Shellraiser could use new brakes, but that's in the garage... which is in the lab... I can't even work on the retro mutagen-

Then he remembered The Drip; The little water mutant he had created.

A gasp was caught in his throat as his eyes widened in surprise. Immediately, forgetting all about his previous fatigue, Donnie threw the covers off of himself and raced toward the desk. The moment he caught sight of the jar with the pink goo encased inside of its glassy walls, he let out a breath of relief; It was still there. He allowed his adrenaline to subside before picking up the jar, bringing it up to his eye height to examine it. But, as if to add to his shock, the Drip appeared to be melting. There was more goo on the bottom of the jar that on the mutant itself. In a slow and pained gesture, it wearily placed a hand up to the clear wall of the jar, its eyes full of misery.

"Oh no..." Donnie set the jar back down, looking around for the water bottle he had discarded once the mutation successfully occurred. But it was nowhere in his field of view. He would need to find water from another source. Will tap work? Only one way to find out, I guess.

"Um... I'll be right back, Drip. Hang on."

Quickly, Donnie threw on all of his gear and exited his room, still tying the mask around his face as he shut the door behind him with his foot. With that taken care off, he wasted no time racing off toward the kitchen- He couldn't afford to have his brothers or Splinter realise exactly what he was up to. He just needed to get some water for the Drip, then disappear back into his room until he called back out for training. But as he passed through the lair, he noticed that no one was in the pit or even the dojo just yet.

A slightly nauseating feeling weighed him down.

That means...

Slowing his pace, he crept softly toward the kitchen and poked his head curiously through the empty door frame, praying that his brothers were still in their rooms. Instead, he was met with the tired gazes of three overly-familiar faces. Donnie swallowed a jolt of fear and forced a smile, thankful that his mask obscured the dark bags under his eyes.

"Hey," He nervously greeted, hoping his brothers wouldn't question his suspiciously 'off' behaviour. Against all odds, they exchanged similar words as he passed them without pausing, headed straight for a cabinet to grab a glass. Thankfully, the others paid no mind to his tense posture. However, Leonardo, who was patiently waiting for the tea to brew, kept shooting Donnie odd glances. As Donatello switched on the faucet to the kitchen sink and waited for the glass to fill, he could hear Raph and Mikey rather argumentative debate about... science?

"That's not science, Mikey." Raph insisted with a scowl, the bowl of untouched cereal in front of him long forgotten.

"That's what they said to Thomas Edison." Mikey replied sophisticatedly. In one of his hands was a slice of pizza, while the other was a sealed jar of liquid nitrogen. Donnie was forced to do a double-take, immediately recognising that it was the same tank that he had stored in his lab. He bit back a sharp comment and instead tried to focus his attention on the water streaming down from the faucet. Oh okay... so I'm not allowed in my lab, but the others are? Scratch that... Mikey's allowed in my lab?! He thought bitterly as he turned off the spout, prepared to race back off to his room.

"Hey, Donnie," Raph's sudden demand for his younger brother caught him quite off-guard, and Donnie let out a slight yelp, as though he had been caught red-handed. His overactive mind immediately flew to the worst possible conclusion.

He swallowed his fear. "Yeah?"

"Can you tell this knucklehead that using liquid nitrogen to freeze pizza doesn't qualify as science?" Raph sharply requested, completely throwing the scientist for a loop. Donnie, who had mentally prepared himself for the dreadful question of why he looked so tired, was completely stumped at Raph's inquire. That was not what he had been expecting at all. He tried to recall when exactly he had lost sight of where the conversation was headed when he suddenly felt three pairs of eyes burning into his skin. With a jolt, he realised he was just... awkwardly standing by the sink, dazed, without saying a word. He had completely forgotten Raph's question... wait... was it a question?

"Um... sure Raph..." Donnie stuttered, vaguely recalling his request from the pressure. "Mikey, that's not science."

Although Raph seemed satisfied with the answer, Mikey immediately spoke up, sounding offended.

"Hey, somebody's gotta fill in for you during your vacay." Mikey explained quickly. "Don't be jealous cause of my mad skillz." Then he leaned closer to Raph. "I totally spelled that with a 'z'. Let's see your Thomas Edison do that."

Raph rolled his eyes. "You're the one that brought up Edison." He pointed out.

Upon hearing their conversation steer off topic, Donatello decide to take the opportunity to quickly slip out of the kitchen, taking a hesitant step toward the vacant doorway. But he was a little too late, as Leonardo, who seemed to already been giving him suspicious glances, moved to stand in front of his jumpy younger brother. He could see Donatello's painfully tense posture, and just barely make out the sight of heavy bags under his usually bright, brown eyes. He looked tired, as though he hadn't slept all night.

"You okay, Donnie?" He asked carefully, watching the other turtle's body language speak for itself. He stiffened in his tracks and a layer of sweat formed on his forehead. He shifted his weight from one foot to another. If this wasn't a look of guilt, Leonardo didn't know what was.

"Are you okay?" Leo asked again, emphasising each word by leaning closer to Donnie when his question received a long silence. It wasn't as though the genius brother hadn't heard him the first time, but a million replies were running through his mind at once. His stomach flopped and he tried to fake a convincing smile. The palms of his hands began to grow sweaty as he noticed that Leo's eyes had hardened into a stern glare.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm great... y'know, just... taking it easy." He lied as sweetly as he could, hating that he took a quote, "Mikey route", to evade the question.

Leo raised a brow, unimpressed. He seemed to be waiting for more of an elaboration.

"Just getting w-water. Need some water to take it easy." Donnie grinned all the more nervously, holding up the glass and not exactly sure if his reply would be taken seriously; Leo easily saw most of their rouses, anyway. He was started to feel claustrophobic. Being in such close proximity to someone else (unless they were April, of course!) was making him sick to his stomach. It wasn't even an instant later that he noticed a small gap between the doorway and Leo's figure as he moved to observe him closer. So, without giving Leo any time to even realise what he was about to do, Donnie quickly slipped past him.

"I'm fine, Leo, just chillaxin," Donnie anxiously justified his sudden departure, and as soon as he knew that had disappeared out of Leo's sight, made a break for his room. He ran inside and slammed the door shut before locking it.

Back in the kitchen, Leo stared out after him, a puzzled expression on his face as he tried to process what exactly had happened.

"What's the matter, Fearless?" Raph asked flatly, finally eating a spoonful of the cereal in front of him, slightly cringing afterwards at how soggy it had become. Mikey took a bite of the pizza and placed the can of liquid nitrogen aside, watching his older brother with interest as he turned back to them.

But Leo bit his bottom lip, clearly distressed. "Donnie just said... 'chillaxin'".

From inside his room, Donnie placed the cup of water down onto his desk before immediately turning his attention to the mutant. He carefully examined the jar that contained the Drip, bringing it up to eye height. As he caught sight of the water mutant, his chest tightened in fear: it was nothing more than a pile of pink goo. He unscrewed the lid to the jar and poured the Drip out onto his hand.

"Hey, little guy," Donnie sympathetically patted the smaller mutant on its melted head. "Let's fix you up, okay?"

Careful as to not squish the liquefied creature that was resting in the palm of his hand, Donnie reached down toward the glass of water situated on the desk. He poured out a few drops onto the melted mutants' body. At first, nothing seemed to happen, and Donnie felt his fear turn to panic. But, only seconds late, the tiny creature suddenly took on the form of the familiar droplet Donnie recognised. It's eyes lit up, rejuvenated, and it hugged it's creator's thumb. Donnie couldn't help but smile, letting out a deep sigh of relief.

"Ha, well, you're welcome!" He laughed, setting it back onto the desk and watching with amusement as it raced around the microscopes and beakers, shrieking and hopping in delight. He had hidden away all the scalpels and syringes the night before to avoid injuring the Drip. He then glanced over his shoulder at the locked door to his room, the only thing keeping the Drip within the safety of this domain. With a content sigh, Donnie sat down. Well, at least no one had found this little guy, yet. He thought as he observed the creature. But that was when he noticed that there was something... different about the Drip. Something that hadn't been there before. An odd gleam in its eyes...

It was off putting, but Donnie ignored it. He knew he had barely slept, and concluded his eyes were playing tricks on him. Simple as that. Easy explanation. But he decided to humour the observation anyway, causing him to almost laugh. How much damage could such a tiny mutant do, anyway?

((A.N. Hello! Thanks for reading! The next few chapters will be a bit more 'intense' for lack of better words. I hope you stick around! Thanks for reading and see you later!))