Two days later Mikey is stepping into his home for the first time in three months.
Tension bleeds off of him and his father, brothers, Casey and April all notice it. Tension bleeds off of them too, having their youngest in their home again.
Mikey's forward movement is slow as he takes in the home he hadn't seen for three months and the rest of his family are content to wait for Mikey to finish looking his fill and absorbing the scents of safe-warm-happy-family-home.
Mikey eventually gets to his room (still as clean as the day he had left) and drops off his duffle. He blinks at the sight of the orange shoebox that hadn't been there when he left and when he opens it his entire body language softens at the sight of his letters to his family. He closes the lid carefully before he moves out of his room and towards the kitchen. "Anyone hungry?" He asks ignoring the fact that his entire family is basically stalking his movements through the house.
Everyone nods their agreement and if they're utterly thrilled to be getting Mikey's cooking again, no one says anything. It's all in the body language anyway.
Mikey spends the time over dinner going into detail about his time in boot camp and sharing some stories, answering the questions his family has, and listening as they tell him about the three months he was gone. If the conversation continues long after the food is gone no one really minds.
When the time comes for all of them to sleep, April and Casey only leave after threatening bodily harm if he pulled any disappearing acts, while his brothers stare at him.
Mikey does what he has always done.
He looks at his brothers and his father, takes in the silent cues they are giving him, the way they hold themselves, and the twitches in their faces and he grins up at them. "Turtle Pile in the living room?" He knows none of his brothers are ready to let him out of their sight just yet, not after a three month disappearing act, but he also knows they won't be the ones to mention it, so Mikey helps them by being the one to put the idea in the open, and they take him up on it.
Mikey knows Splinter will most likely leave his door open and check in on the Turtle Pile often throughout the night since he's not quite as young as he used to be and sleeping on the floor wouldn't be good for him.
When they all arrive back in the living room toting blankets and pillows with them, Mikey is quick to take the large blankets and the couch cushions to build a soft large nest for all of them leaving out four smaller quilts to be their covers. He crawls straight into the center of the nest bringing his pillow and quilt with him and it only takes his brothers a few seconds to pile in after him and curl around him as if to make sure he couldn't escape. Mikey burrows his head into his own pillow and doesn't say a word.