Understand 9

Everything was ready.

All he had to do was get Raph in there, and keep Leo and Don out. Getting Raph in there was going to be a lot easier then keeping his other two brothers out.

They were so nosey sometimes.

Leo always questioned his motives when he was being quiet, or if Mikey was asking them for certain things, like 'don't go there, don't touch that, stay out of the lair for the next hour.' Really Leo should trust him more, especially when it comes to Mikey and his pranks. He always had a reason when it came to his demands.

Shifting from one foot to another infront of Don's lab door, Mikey knocked.

No answer.

He knocked again, and again, then a forth time when finally.

"Mikey if thats you go away, I'm very busy and I don't need you distracting me with your whining just because your bored." Don's tone was anything but friendly, he had been under a lot of stress lately.

Part of his stress wasn't just because of his experiments not working or that fact that he hadn't gone to the garage in over a week now, no, it was because he was waiting for Raph to tell him to get the hell out of the lab and sleep.

Raph was the only one capable of getting the genius to stop his work, come out of the lab and sleep, or eat for that matter. So with Raph missing from their lives now Don could freely stay in his lab for days.

"Oh ouch Donny that hurts... but I really need to, ya know, talk to you though, so like open up dude." Mikey said to the closed door in front of him.

He grinned when he heard the 'click' of the lock, telling him he was allowed to come in now.

Swing the door open Mikey was greeted with the sight of Don at his desk, with enough papers and experiments piled on it that anyone else who wold have seen it would have thought Don mad.

" uhhhh, Don what ya doing?" Mikey raised an eye brow, he hadn't seen Don working this much since Leo had left for training a few years back.

Ya and Raph swooped to the rescue and got them back to normal.

" Just some research on positronic particles, I'm going to be using highly delicate ex-"

"oookay, ya I don't care, anyways ummm I'm going to like need you to stay away from the dojo for the rest of the day." Mikey said, leaning up against the side of the table.

Glaring at his brother for interupting him, Don questioned. " uh huh, amd why would that be?"

" Easy" Mikey said with confidence. " I'm getting our Raphie back, like I told you."

"Mikey your not going to do anything mean are you? I mean his been so-so not Raph like, we dont' want to-"

"ya-ya I know we dont want to push him farther away then he's already making himself, but really Don! trust me, this is gonna work."

Don trusted Mikey's instinct more then he trusted his own. Whenever Mikey was determined enough he was smarter then all of them.

" Mikey"

He waited till his brother looked at him.

"Mikey, just-just be careful" Don said, then gasped when he was attacked by a large bear hug.

" Thanks for like believing in me, Don" Mikey said once he pulled away.

" of course Mikey, now get out of my lab...I'm busy you know." Don smiled as Mikey ran from the lab. Maybe Mikey could figure all this out.

Mikey ran into the living room. No Leo. He tried the kitchen, No Leo. Maybe he had gone to his room?

Mikey jumped up the stairs, two at a time. He had to get Leo to agree to this.

" yo Leo, you in there dude?" Mikey asked.

"yes" came Leo's calm voice.

"well can I come in?"

"Mikey I just want to be alo-"

" I'll be quick, I promise!"

"fine, Mikey come in"

Swiftly entering and closing the door behind him, Mikey stood in front of Leo.

Leo was looking worse then he was a week ago. With Raph not around to knock him down a few pegs, Leo had been training basically no stop.

" wow, dude you don't look that great."

"Mikey what did you want?" Leo asked not to thrilled to be reminded at just how bad he was coping with the absence of Raph from their normal life.

" okay, umm, ya I need you to stay out of the dojo for the rest of the day." Mikey stated bluntly, since Leo didn't seem to be up for chit-chat.

"why?"

" Because I'm bringing our dear ol'Raphie back and if you go into the dojo, it will ruin everything."

"Mikey" Leo said in a warning tone." this better not cause anything to make him-"

"why does everyone keep asking me that! I wont ok? This will work, I swear on it...but I need you and Don just stay away from the dojo for the day." Mikey answered in a determined voice.

Leo stared at him for a good two minutes, before Mikey started fidgeting.

"alright"

Leo couldn't help but smile at the happiness that shinned in Mikey's eyes, as he gave Leo a quick hug and thank you before darting out of the room.

I hope this works.

Mikey scouted out the lair. No Raph, crud.

If Raph was out in the sewers it could be hours until he returned, and by that point Mikey would probably fall asleep.

turning around , and jumping about three feet in the air, Mikey bumped strait into none other but Raphael.

Score!

" sorry Mike, didn't mean ta scare ya" Raph said quietly, with his eyes lowered.

" Noooo probs dude! I wasn't looking where I was going anyhow, so ya what are you doing? I thought you went out." Mikey asked, he was positive Raph had left, he hadn't seen him anywhere else in the lair.

" uh, no I jus' went to the garage for a sec' " Raph said lamely, he hadn't really thought up a reason since he hadn't planned on being caught.

" oh...okay" said Mikey, with a smile. " talk later then dude."

"ya sure Mike"

With that Mikey disappeared, and Raph made his way over to the tv for some down time.

When Raph finally settled on a tv show, he began to relax. The lair was peaceful, no fights were happening, he knew everyone was safe and Raph knew everything was finally the way it was supossed to be.

For a while, then the real fun began.

"Mmmmaarcooo!"

Sighing, Raph slumped farther into the couch, trying to concentrate on the tv.

"MARCO!"

Raph was getting irritated, this had been going on for the past 3 hours. Not stopping for even a few minutes.

" Maaaarrrooo!"

Raph hated this. The little brat was even changing his voice around to make it even worse.

First it was a girly call, then it turned into a child's voice, next it was some demented thing that he couldn't name.

Why was he doing this!

" Marco, marco, Maaaarrcooo!"

That's it Raph had, had enough, if Mikey thought he could get away from this then he was mistaken, because no matter how hard Raph had tried there is always a limit on how much he can take. He would still keep control though, he would just tell Mikey to keep it down, that's all.

Getting up from the couch, Raph bee lined it for the dojo since that was where the yelling was coming from.

" Mikey, what are you yell- ahh!"

He was lifted by his foot hanging up side down, on some strange contraption, then sent hurtling in the other direction, he was bombarded with dozens of what he guessed to be water balloons and then thrown to the other side of the dojo where he landed in...packing peanuts?

Mikey had watched the whole thing happen from a safe distance away, watching in amazment at how well it all went.

"this is it" Mikey whispered to himself.

Standing up from where Raph had landed on the floor, Raph tried to brush off the static clinging peanuts.

Mikey waited.

Raph's hands clenched at his sides, his visibly brisled, body became stiff, and his eyes flamed.

" Mikey! What tha hell is your problem you little-

XD just so ya know 'Marco' refers to the game 'Marco, Polo'
R&R's are loved! Thanx guys, luv ya! Ruth.