It seemed rare anymore when Mikey would feel like his usual self. It had now been over 8 weeks since the rescue and Mikey was feeling ornery today.

He goofed at his son, making him laugh. Then he went to try to get some laughs out of his family. Or at the least, make himself feel better.

He messed up some chemicals in Don's lab that he knew he was working on. When it exploded in Don's face, it ticked the mild mannered purple wearing turtle off.

"Mikey! You know you're supposed to stay out of my lab!" Don yelled at him.

"Hey, I hadn't done that in a while." Mikey laughed. "It was nothing dangerous, I swear."

"It could have been, Mikey. We just lost a lair. We don't need to lose this one too! Stay out of my lab." Don growled and went to go clean up the mess that had been caused.

The rest of the family had heard Don blow up at the youngest.

"Mikey, he's right. We can't have that happening again." Leo said.

"Why can't ya grow up already?!" Raph stated.

"Hey, I haven't done anything like this for weeks. I thought we all just needed some fun." Mikey said.

"This is not our idea of fun. That was just too dangerous." Leo said. "One other time could end up being too far."

"I made sure it wasn't, I promise." Mike raised his hand in scout's honor.

"Just don't let it happen again." Leo said then he went back to his room.

Mikey hated when he got lectured. He felt better, but there was one more.

Raph had walked away and went to the bathroom for a shower after he had finished his workout when the incident had happened. Then, not long after, there was a squishy explosion, and then a "MIKEY!"

Mikey immediately laughed. He was now sitting on the couch.

Don, Leo, and Splinter all came out this time.

When Raph appeared, he was covered in blue paint.

"Blue becomes you, Raph." Mikey giggled.

"You are so dead, laughing boy!" Raph snarled and began chasing his brother.

Mikey got up and ran around the lair with the hothead on his heels. He did try to make a mad dash for his room. He made it to the top of the stairs, but then, his stomach churned. It was making itself known that it didn't like what was going on.

Mikey was breathing hard and had to stop at the top, but Raph caught up to him, and tripped him up.

"Raph, don't!" Mikey cried out.

Raph was too enraged to care. It didn't take much for the two of them to roll down the stairs in the end.

When Raph rolled away from Mikey, Mikey immediately got on all fours and he couldn't help himself as he let go of his lunch.

When Raph got up, he was ready to pound his little brother some more, but then, he saw the mess.

"Ah, gross!"

"I… tried to… tell you." Mikey said.

"I'm gonna get you for this, Mikey. You can have fun cleaning that up." Raph growled and walked away to go get himself cleaned up.

Mikey thought himself lucky this time that he got sick. It saved him from his hotheaded bro giving him a pounding.

The rest of the family now approached, worried, especially after they had rolled down the stairs.

"Are you alright, Michelangelo?" Splinter asked. They all had noticed the mess.

"I'll be okay." Mikey replied, wiping his hand over his mouth.

"Mikey, that's enough pranks. He could have really hurt you for pulling that one. It was bad enough when you did it to Don." Leo said firmly.

"Michelangelo, we know that you have been silent around here for a while now, but there are other ways to get our attention than doing this. And you have a son to think about. You need to think about what is best for him." Splinter said.

"It was evident you were waiting to pull stuff like this, weren't you? When you were so quiet for so long." Don said.

"More like when I felt like it. Just wanted to lighten things up around here." Mikey said.

"Like Master Splinter said. Just come and ask us, and we'd see what we could do to help lighten the mood, but not like this, Mikey. We have young kids to think about now." Leo said. Then there was a sound from upstairs. "And speaking of which."

Don and Splinter left to go back to what they were doing. "And Mikey, clean up the mess you made." Don said in an irritated way.

Mikey knew the others were irritated at him now. He had just wanted to have some fun after being sick for so long, and now, it had made an appearance again.

He went to get the mop and cleaned up the vomit mess he had made. Then he went to his room.

…

Don cleaned up his lab and Raph tried to get the paint off of himself in the shower. He had to ask Don to finish doing that for him after he had been done in the lab. Leo was busy attending to the twins. Leo wasn't going to allow Mikey in there right now.

The babies had been startled by the loud noises outside their room. Now they had their 'mom' in here trying to comfort them.

In his room, after all the harsh words, Mikey couldn't help but let the tears flow. He had thought his family wanted him back to normal. So he pulled a normal and they just blew up in his face.

He wished his family had more of a sense of humor, and when they did, it seemed more like they were laughing at him and not with him. They all had different senses of humor. And they didn't even care that much when he had gotten sick this time. They must have been that irritated with him if they didn't care about that.

Mikey stayed in his room until it was time to start cooking dinner. He went down to the kitchen and stayed mellow. He kept an eye out for Raph. He knew he was going to be expecting something from him sooner or later for the paint prank.

After Don had finished cleaning him up, Raph had gone to the dojo to beat his punching bag to let that bad steam get out.

Soon, the lair began to smell really good with the scents of food. The family knew that dinner was getting close to being done.

Soon, Mikey called, "Dinner's ready!"

The others all came to the kitchen pretty slowly it seemed. Don and Leo carried the twins and put them into their high chairs.

Mikey avoided eye contact with everyone. He saw Raph scowling at him.

Master Splinter just sat down at the head of the table calmly. He let his youngest son serve him his food.

Don and Leo each sat beside one baby and fed them their dinner.

Mikey set some mashed potatoes, meatloaf, mixed fruit, and bread on the table. Raph and Splinter took some first.

Mikey sat down at the table and took some small amounts of the food, but the smells were getting to him. He began to eat his meal fast just so he could leave as well as avoid Raph.

He had just finished up when Don and Leo were finally starting to grab themselves some dinner. Mikey went to try to get up when his father stopped him.

"Michelangelo, you need to stay here and eat some more than what you ate."

"Uh, I've had enough, Sensei. Thanks."

"Now we know that's a lie. You always have a big appetite." Raph said.

"I just haven't had one lately, Raph. Just lay off me!" Mikey growled.

"Master Splinter is right, Mikey. You need to eat some more." Leo said.

"I've noticed you've been losing weight. I agree with them, you do need to eat more." Don said.

"I just don't feel like eating too much. I need to go to my room."

"Not until you have a bit more than what you just ate, Michelangelo." Splinter said.

"I just don't want anymore. I'm full." Mike argued.

"Mikey." Leo glared.

"Fine!" Mikey snapped and grabbed some more and ate it real fast because he knew what was coming up soon.

"You need to slow down your eating." Leo said.

Mikey tried to slow down, but before long, some growls erupted and Mikey grabbed his mouth and he ran for the bathroom.

"Maybe that fall down the stairs stirred something up." Leo said.

"Possible, but I just think he ate too fast this time." Don said.

"He'll be fine." Raph said. "He always bounces back so easily from just about everything."

Mikey lost all of his dinner. Why wouldn't this sickness just go away? He was lucky if he kept any food at all in his system. He had to find out what was going on.

Beta read by Applepye.

Been busy with some other stories the past several days and some writer's block on this one.