A/N: I do not own TMNT, I simply borrow for entertainment purposes.

To my wonderful reviewers and readers! Your support keeps me writing.

As always, please enjoy.

Michelangelo jumped in surprise at the sudden angry outburst from one of his siblings, and then he himself cried out in dismay when a red skull encircled by a gear of matching color flashed across the TV screen, signaling the death of his character.

"Look at what you made me do, Raph!" Mikey glared at the offending brother over his shoulder. "Thanks to you I died."

"Yeah, like you need any sort of help gettin' distracted," Raphael replied with a lazy roll of his eyes and a heavy punch to his punching bag. "You're like that cat of yours, see somethin' shiny and you totally forget yourself."

"Hey!" Mikey declared in protest. "That only happened once!"

Raph paused long enough to shoot his brother a smirk. "Still happened now didn't it? Not that it matters anyhow, wasn't me who yelled."

"It wasn't?" Mikey said, befuddled. "Well then who—?"

Raph glanced toward Don's lab.

Mikey's jaw almost dropped. "That was Donny? I thought only you could make sounds that ugly."

"Then you obviously don't hear yourself when y'talk," Raph countered.

Mikey chose to ignore the comment. "Someone should probably go see if everything is okay."

"Probably," Raph agreed with a grunt as he returned to his workout.

"Well?" Mikey prompted when nothing happened.

"If nobody's bleedin' then it ain't none of my business. 'Sides, I checked on him last time. It's somebody else's turn," he added.

"Some brother you are," Mikey scoffed as he reluctantly left the couch, and his controller, to check on his apparently distraught and upset sibling.

"Do what I can!" Raph called after him.

Rolling his eyes, Mikey cautiously rapt his knuckles on the door. "Doooon?" He called, dragging out the syllable with an unsure quality to his tone of voice. "Everything okay in there, bro?"

"No," came the muffled response, "everything is not okay."

"Right…so um…is it safe to come in or should I go get Leo?"

There was shuffling from within, a thud, a curse, and then Donatello opened the door. "Hey Mikey, did you need something?"

"Nothing in particular." Michelangelo stood on tiptoe to peer over Don's shoulder into the lab. "Whatcha got going on in there? Whatever it is, seems to be gettin' the better of you."

Donatello dragged a tired hand across his face with a weary sigh.

Mikey whistled. "That bad huh?"

"Well, not exactly," Donny replied, his hand now at the back of his neck and massaging the muscles there. "It's just the upgrade program for the Battle Shell I've been working on isn't working the way I want it to."

"Not the way you want it to?" Mikey repeated back to him. "Does that mean it does actually work?"

"Well...yes, b—,"

"Take a break dude." Mikey cut him off.

Don shot his brother an impatient look. "I can't. There's still work to be done."

Mikey scoffed. "Yeah, like it'll get easier to work being all frustrated like that. You need a break bro. Refresh the mind, free the senses, loosen the body!"

"Mikey," Don said, trying and failing to sound more annoyed rather than amused.

"Don, if you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything."

Donatello blinked, caught off guard by his brother's logic, it was so vastly different from his own. Mikey always saw things simply, but then not everything required a complicated answer. Or so Donatello had come to understand.

"Wanna play co-op with me?" Mikey jerked his head toward the living room. "I'm starting a new game anyhow."

Donny glanced at his desk out of the corner of his eye, then to Mikey who was dramatically batting his eyes at him.

"You know you waaaaaaaants toooooo," he sing-songed.

"Video games aren't exactly what I was picturing when you mentioned loosening the body."

"Loosens the fingers!" Mikey playfully wriggled the appendages in front of Don's face. "It's important to have nimble fingers when handling weapons you know."

Donny hummed thoughtfully, making a show of pretending to seriously consider. "Well…when you put it that way…"

"All right!" Mikey whooped, punching the air for emphasis. "Dibs on Fenix!" He declared, racing to the couch.

Behind him Donatello shook his head with a fond smile. It was amazing really, how Michelangelo could sound so smart one minute…and a total goofball the next.