Chapter # 10: Mikey's Punishment

Mikey sat still of the counter in April's bathroom while Don iced his ugly bruises. They hurt and were turning different colors. Mikey ached all over. He groaned as Don packed him in more ice.

As punishment, Mikey endured an extra hour of training after their usual early morning practice. He had sparred with Leo the entire time using wooden practice weapons. Mikey had to admit that he wasn't very familiar with the weapon. That was probably why Leo was able to do him in so easily.

Weather he had meant to or not, Leo had defiantly reminded Mikey that he was the superior fighter.

"Have you learned your lesson, Michelangelo?" Master Splinter asked his youngest son?

"Yes, Master," Mikey replied.

"Good. What is it my son?"

"Never get on Leo's bad side!"

That wise remark earned Mikey a strong whack from his sensei's walking stick.

Leo tried hard to suppress a chuckle. Even when he was in more trouble than a turtle could handle Mikey could still lighten the mood.

Mikey had apologized to April. He had tried to make it up to her by baking another pizza for her to replace the one that he ate.

Master Splinter had sentenced Michelangelo to a whole month of dish washing duty. Raph was only too happy to get out of that chore.

Later on in the week Mikey was able to catch Leo alone. Why it had to be at 5 am in the morning was beyond Mikey. He would never understand why Leo trained like he did, but at least he knew when he could catch him.

"Dude, I- I- I totally thought you were gona help me out a little with Sensei and all," Mikey commented grasping for breath. He thought Leo must be the fittest turtle that ever lived.

"But I did help you," Leo grinned. "I convinced Master Splinter that you hated doing the dishes more than anything, and that you would be so worn out from that extra hour of sparing practice with me that you wouldn't even want to think about eating pizza."

"How is that doing me any favors?" Mikey asked curiously.

"Because," Leo said with a smirk, "Sensei was going to have you clean the bathroom every Saturday morning until like next year or something. I told him it wasn't necessary because of the whole dish thing."

"But I don't hate doing the dishes," Mikey protested.

Leo just laughed. "I know that, but Master Splinter doesn't."

A giant grin formed across Mikey's face.

"Thanks bro," he said hugging his older brother tightly.

"Don't mention it," Leo said as they turned to head back to April's apartment. "Ever! Or I'll be in it deep."

"So now what?" Mikey wanted to know.

"Now instead of you cleaning the bathroom on Saturdays, Raph gets to do it for using bad language after Master Splinter reprimanded him two times."

They both laughed. "Race you back," called Leo. They took off.

AN: Hope you enjoyed the story. Feel free to leave a review and check out some of my other stories.