Whoo! A new chapter posted within a week? It's a miracle! Now that I am seriously committed to finish this story, I really hope you all like the direction I'm going in. (Which I actually knew from the start, but hey.) Please review because it makes me happy to know that you're happy! Thank you!
By the end of morning training, Mikey was beat, but he knew he was going to be forced through another hour of rigorous exercise. He watched Raph and Don jealously as they packed up their gear and headed out of the dojo, then and looked to Leo, expecting his brother give him the next set of instructions. But to his surprise, Leo started packing up himself.
"You're not staying?" Mikey asked.
"No," Leo answered tersely, still focused on cleaning his katanas before setting them aside.
The youngest waited for Leo to say more, but was met with a grating silence. Not knowing what to say, Mikey fidgeted for a few minutes, scuffing his toe on one of the blue floor mats. Finally he blurted "Can I go—"
"—Raph, Don and I planned to take a sewer run today, so I won't be able to supervise you for the next hour," Leo spoke over Mikey. At last he spared a stern glance at his brother. "So instead of training, you're going to do a little cleaning."
Mikey knew better than to talk back when Leo was obviously angry at him, but he couldn't help but try and defend himself. "Look Leo, I'm not a baby. I can train by myself."
Leo let out a long suffering sigh. "I know you can Mikey, but the lesson you have to learn isn't just about punishment, and it doesn't have to be in the form of training." He stood up and jerked his head toward the dojo entrance. "Let's go."
Wordlessly, Mikey followed Leo through the lair, pausing briefly by the kitchen to pick up some cleaning supplies. When they passed Don's Lab, he felt a spike of panic shoot through him. He knew what Leo was doing. "You can't be serious!" he exclaimed, stopping in front of the doors to Splinter's room. The last thing he wanted to do was go back in that storage space. He had a very clear memory of what happened last time he was there.
Leo spun around. "Mikey, I'm concerned."
"What?"
"It started with the whole Nightwatcher thing, and I'm sorry that you were hurt, I really am, but now I think you're drifting away from us."
"That's…" Mikey trailed off, failing to word his feelings quickly. "I'm not…"
"Distant?" Leo finished. "Distracted? Daydreaming all the time? Elusive?"
Mikey pouted. "Okay, maybe I am a few of those things. Except for the last one, since I don't know whatever that means. Unless it has to do with my unparalleled ninja skills, because—"
"—It means that when it comes to certain topics," Leo interrupted with a cold stare, "you try to change the subject. Like now."
"Oh."
Leo's authoritative expression changed into the look of a concerned brother. "It's like you don't trust us with the serious stuff. You don't tell us how you really feel. Do you think that we wouldn't notice how you've changed? That we wouldn't care?" Leo took a step closer, trapping Mikey with his fervency. "We love you because you're our brother, because of your optimism, your passion—everything that makes you who you are. Even your flaws. But lately, it feels like we only know you on the surface. For some reason we aren't being shown anything deeper than that. This needs to stop, Mikey. Whatever you're dealing with, good or bad—we just want to be a part of your life."
Mikey was speechless. Had he become so captivated with the Nightwatcher that he was disregarding the relationship with his brothers? He had he ever tried to understand what his actions looked like from his brothers' perspective? Knowing the answers to those questions, Mikey understood he'd taken his brothers' trust and unconditional love for granted. It was time to set things right; he couldn't keep this secret up forever. But first things first, he was going to see whatever his brothers were trying to tell him all those months ago.
Mikey snapped his head up when he felt Leo's hand pat his shoulder in comfort. "Ready to start cleaning?"
Mikey nodded, knowing the implication of what he'd meant. "Yeah Leo. And I'm sorry."
"I know."
"Also…thanks. I really…um…" Mikey didn't know how to get all his thoughts out. I really am glad you're my brother. I wish I had seen it sooner. How you get me, and how you know I'm not just a happy-go-lucky guy all the time. I want you to meet the Nightwatcher soon because he's my best friend, and then everything will be okay, and there'll be no more secrets and—
"It's okay, Mikey. I know."
Leo opened the sliding doors and let the youngest walk into Splinter's room. He gave a small smile, then a nod that seemed to say 'get going'. He closed the door behind him, leaving Mikey to enter the storage space on his own. The youngest took a deep breath. He wondered what he'd find inside.
The shelves that lined the walls of the tiny room were dusty and warped. A couple of them looked like they were about to splinter into pieces, they were so old. Mikey decided he was going to have to take everything off each shelf, dust each item, then clean the wood. One by one, the relics and remains of Splinter's past life and keepsakes from his sons' lives were carefully taken down and put back on the shelves. Absorbed in his task, Mikey cleaned for close to an hour before he stopped cold. There, in the corner of one of the bottom shelves, almost hidden from view, was a helmet. It was metal, shaped like it was made to cover one of his brothers' heads. Mikey collapsed to his knees.
It was the Nightwatcher's helmet.
Mikey's mind went into overdrive, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. He tried to think back to over a year ago when the Nightwatcher first appeared and what his brothers were doing at the time, because clearly, the helmet was made for one of them. One of them wore it. One of them was the real—
Raph.
Mikey gasped at the realization. When Leo left to complete his training out in the jungle, Raph was always leaving at night, showing up in the early morning, sometimes looking like he had been in a bad fight. Mikey thought that was just his way of letting off steam. But the way he was quicker to anger, to violence, constantly defending himself to Don and then to Leo when he had finally returned, the mysterious disappearance of his hero, and his brothers' reactions to his unexplained re-emergence—it all pointed to the same thing. Raph was the Nightwatcher. So who was the man he'd been meeting with all this time?
Letting out a sob, Mikey pounded his fist on the floor. His brothers had been right. Why hadn't he trusted them? Why had it taken so long to see the truth in their words? He reached out for the helmet and cradled it in his arms. For a while, Mikey stayed in that position, lost in his memories and regret.
Suddenly, the image of his friend's brilliant smile from the other night came shining through the darkness. Mikey had sworn to himself that he'd never forget it. And he hadn't failed yet.
A new surge of resolve filled him. His friend may have lied about being the Nightwatcher, but Mikey would bet on his soul that everything they had been through together and talked about was real. When Mikey first met him, the man may not have been the hero he had claimed to be, but now Mikey could see that he had certainly earned his name as the Nightwatcher, doing his best to protect the streets from injustice and crime. Undoubtedly, the youngest's brothers were right in their distrust, but Mikey was still glad to have met the fake Nightwatcher and become best friends within the 8 months that he had known him.
The turtle swiftly put down the helmet and stood up. He was going to tell his brothers everything. They would be angry at first, he knew, but they'd come around to see his side of the story. And hopefully, when it was all settled, they'd understand each other. But before that he had to confront the Nightwatcher about this. There was one thing left to uncover, and that was reason behind his dishonesty.
Though practically bouncing with anticipation, Mikey continued to clean the rest of the storage room. A few hours later, he greeted his brothers with a large smile when they came back from their run, and shared a meaningful glance with Leo.
The day passed effortlessly, Mikey finding himself more comfortable with his brothers than he had been in a while. At night, over dinner, he even joked about finding the old teddy bear that Raph used to take everywhere, even in the bath. Raph was not amused.
While Raph and Don tended to the dirty dishes as assigned by the turtles' cleaning duty that week, Leo took this as his cue to lead Mikey aside.
For a moment the oldest looked a little lost on what to say, but eventually started, "About what you saw in Splinter's storage room—"
"—I saw the helmet." Mikey cut off, hoping to calm Leo. "And I understand…what it must have felt like to be in your shoes."
Leo let out a breath. "Good."
"But I'd rather talk about it tomorrow. Is that okay?"
"That's fine," Leo said. "I'm just glad we're on the same page."
Mikey didn't answer to that, feeling guilty. But at least tonight would be the last night he'd meet the Nightwatcher alone. Smiling to himself, he went about the rest of his night like usual, knowing a big change was about to come to his meetings with his vigilante friend.
Next time, he'd be bringing his brothers.
