A/N Huge thanks to those who reviewed/faved/followed! I'll try to make this one longer, because I go back to school tomorrow (ugh) and I don't know if I'll be able to write longer chapters.

Disclaimer: I'm planning on kidnapping the turtles… but I haven't yet so they're not mine yet.

"Goodnight my sons,"

"Goodnight father," two voices chirped back from their beds. Splinter waited until his children had snuggled down, then left the room to go and check on his older sons. The four had all shared one room until recently, but Splinter had cleared out a spare room and split them up because with all four in such a small space, chaos and fighting were things Splinter had to deal with every bedtime. Hopefully his sons would get on better like this, with Donatello and Michelangelo in one room, and Leonardo and Raphael sharing the other.

There was a silence in the air for a few moments before a "I don't want to sleep," came from one bed.

"Nightmares again?" eight year old Donnie sighed from the other bed. Raph was always teasing Mikey with tales about horrendous sewer monsters that ate turtles, very slowly, starting with their toes, then gobbling up the head. And Donnie was the one having to pay the price for it. Almost every night for a week now, Mikey had woken up screaming or crying (sometimes both) about how the monsters were going to get him or the rest of the family. Don would spend about ten minutes trying to get him to stop crying, then about twenty minutes of sitting with Mikey until he went to sleep.

He was starting to get more than a little concerned for his younger brother. Donnie wanted him to tell Master Splinter, but Mikey begged him not to, saying that Splinter would just think he was a baby. Donnie knew that their father would never say anything like that (especially if Mikey was this upset about the nightmares) but he promised he wouldn't- he didn't want Mikey to worry about anything else right now.

"Yeah. Nightmares. There's always a new monster and they're all worse than the one the night before and they all eat me or you guys in a different way and-"

"Mikey it's OK. You don't need to be scared OK?" Donnie smiled encouragingly across the room at him. "If you do have any more nightmares, I'll be here. So just go to sleep, Okay?"

Mikey took a deep breath. Donnie was right. If he did have any nightmares, Don would be there for him no matter what.

"Okay… I'll go to sleep."

"Great!"

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"Hello?" Mikey looked around the abandoned subway train. "Is anyone in here?"

His voice echoed back at him, but sounding mocking. Mikey whimpered and looked down to see if he had his nunchucks. No luck.

"I-if you're in here, you'd better come out now! You don't know what could be in here!"

Instead of an echo this time, a strong, frightening voice called back at him "Oh don't I? I think that I am MUCH worse than anything else in the sewers Michelangelo."

Mikey gasped. "H-how do you know m-my name?"

"I know many things about you Michelangelo," the voice hissed. Mikey felt a tentacle slide down his shell and he jumped away, a shiver running down his spine. "But it's not just YOU I know about. I know all about the family you have."

Suddenly a fearful face popped out of the shadows in the subway carriage. It was about as big as an opening to a tunnel on a train track and it had long sharp teeth. The skin was blue and scaly, and it had five eyes. But worst of all, was the red stains on his face. Mikey felt his blood run cold at the next words out of the monsters mouth.

"Or should I say the family you HAD"

Four tentacles shot out from behind the face. In each of them was a member of his family. But they weren't moving. Their bodies were motionless and they all had expressions of pure terror etched onto their faces. And they all had blood stains on various places of their bodies.

His family was dead. The monster had killed them.

"You're next Michelangelo."

Mikey screamed and ran. He ran as fast as he could, but he felt a tentacle wrap around his shell all too soon, and drag him back.

"You didn't think you were getting away that easily, did you Michelangelo?"

The monster moved him towards his mouth, which was like a black hole. Mikey braced himself, and then he was inside the monsters mouth and he was falling…

"Mikey!"

Mikey gasped and threw his blanket off, panting like he had run a marathon and covered in a cold sweat. Donnie sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled Mikey towards him. Mikey immediately turned his head so it faced the front of Donnie's shell, before bursting into tears.

"Shh…. it's OK Mikey. Just a nightmare. Everything's OK," Donnie whispered soothingly, rubbing circles on the back of Mikey's shell.

Donnie didn't know how long they spent in that position, and he found he didn't care. He just wanted Mikey to feel better. Soon, Mikey's sobs turned into hiccups and Donnie pushed him away at arms length, keeping both hands clamped on his baby brother's shoulders.

"Now Mikey-"

"I'm sorry dude…"

"Huh?" Donnie was genuinely confused. "Sorry? For what?"

"For always waking you up and making you do this stuff… You shouldn't have to, it's me just being a baby…"

Donnie pursed his lips. "Listen to me Michelangelo," he said, full naming Mikey so the younger turtle knew he meant business. "You think I care that I'm losing sleep? You honestly believe that sleeping is more important to me than the welfare of my little brother? Because if you do, then let me sort that out for you right now. You're my only little brother, and you mean more to me than anyone else OK? And I will make sure you know that, even if I have to beat it into with my bo staff,"

Mikey giggled, and Donnie smiled gently.

"But you wouldn't hit someone as cute and innocent as me, would you Don?" Mikey grinned, the tear tracks on his face beginning to fade.

Don's eyes sparkled mischievously. "No, but you know what I would do?"

Before Mikey could answer that, Donnie jumped at him and began tickling his sides.

"Hahahaha! Dohohonnie get ohahahaff!" Mikey squealed. "Come ohohohon dude hahahahaha quihihihihit it!"

Donnie tickled him for a few more seconds before letting go. Mikey was still giggling slightly and was looking much happier- not just because he laughing. His eyes were beginning to get their usual spark back too.

"That was so not fair bro," Mikey complained, though he was still smiling.

Donnie grinned at him. "All's fair in love and war Mikey," he commented.

The two sat in silence for a moment before Donnie said "So what happened in the nightmare?"

Mikey stiffened. "I don't really wanna talk about it."

"Please Mikey," said the purple clad turtle softly. "I want to help you, but I can't do that if you don't let me."

Mikey pondered that for a second. He didn't really want to have to go through the nightmare again, but it would be worth it if he didn't have them again right?

"Well okay," he sighed and Donnie smiled warmly.

"So it began when I was in an abandoned subway carriage…"

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By the time Mikey had been through the whole nightmare, Donnie was horrified. How could Mikey, sweet innocent Mikey, have these kind of thoughts and dreams? But he pushed that thought down. That wasn't important right now, what was important was that he helped Mikey beat the nightmare. And Don knew just the way how.

"Is that everything you can remember Mikey?"

Mikey thought hard, then nodded.

"Okay. Now we can start making sure it never comes back ever again. So, this monster, what does he look like?"

"Well he-"

"No no Mikey. Don't TELL me about him. Draw him for me."

"Draw him? Why?"

"Just do it OK?"

Mikey shrugged and jumped up to get his paper and crayons. Bringing it near his bed, he dumped it all on the floor, then sprawled himself over the floor and began to draw.

Donnie patiently waited for Mikey to finish, occasionally knocking a specific colour towards Mikey when he asked for it.

When Mikey was at last done, he jumped to his feet and handed the drawing to Donnie. The creature on the paper filled up the whole page. It was basically a huge blob with blue skin, sharp teeth and an odd number of eyes. Just every childs stereotypical monster really. Donnie nodded.

"So how big is it in comparison to you?"

"Huh?"

"How big is it compared to you?" Donnie reworded himself.

Mikey took back the paper and drew a tiny green animal beside the monster, with an orange strip on its head. The animal was barely bigger than the monster's eye.

"OK. Now Mikey, you need to pay close attention now okay?" He waited for Mikey's nod, before continuing. "Now, dreams and nightmares are just thoughts in our head. When we go to sleep, our mind doesn't completely shut off. Some of it stays awake, and the thoughts it has are basically just our dreams. You with me so far?*"

Mikey frowned, before grinning up at his older brother. "Yup!"

Donnie nodded. "So the monster is just something in your head. And if it lives in your head, then it can't really be that big compared to you. So really, the monster is actually really small."

Donnie waited for that to sink in. He didn't have to wait long. Slowly, a grin spread on Mikey's face from ear to ear. Donnie mirrored the grin. "And there's really no reason to be scared of something that small, is there?"

Mikey shook his head. "Nope! Unless you're like Raphie and scared of bugs. But I'M not scared of bugs, so it should be okay."

Donnie nodded. "Exactly. The monster can't eat us anymore now. We totally kicked its butt."

Mikey giggled. "Yeah we did." He yawned and Don smiled. "C'mon Mike. Let's get to sleep now."

Mikey nodded and scrambled back into his bed. Donnie made to leave, but Mikey grabbed onto his hand.

"Stay with me? Just for tonight." Donnie smiled gently.

"Sure thing Mikey."

He lay down and pulled the blanket over them both. Mikey snuggled closer to Donnie, and Don pulled him into a hug. That was exactly how Splinter found them the next morning when he came to wake them up for training. Splinter smiled at the utter adorableness of it, before reluctantly deciding he should wake them.

And Mikey didn't have anymore nightmares for a LONG time after that.

A/N So that one was a little longer than the others. I hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review to tell me what you thought!

TMNT Fanatic xxx