Every since they had gotten Mikey back, Don had begun to make an effort to spend more time with not only his youngest mates, but all of them. He made an effort to not work so much, to tear himself away from his experiments and his upgrades. Nearly loosing Mikey like that (between the scare of almost not getting to Mikey in time when he was caught in Krang's embrace, and his youngest running away) had a profound effect on Donatello. It hammered home the point that his family was everything and he shouldn't take them for granted, that there may come a day when they all weren't together.

While he found that he enjoyed doing activities outside of the lab with his youngest mate, such as helping him in the kitchen either baking or cooking for their family, he most enjoyed having Mikey in his lab helping him. Having never really given the youngest a chance to help him, always yelling at him to get out, he found that the orange clad turtle was actually really adept at helping him.

The first time Don had invited Mikey into his lab after he felt the younger had recovered enough nearly broke the purple clad turtles heart. He was use to his only younger brother being a boundless ball of confident energy. The being that stood beside him was anything but. Shy, hesitant and trying to make himself as small as possible, Donnie had to gently coax him into doing anything in the lab. Mikey had been so scared to touch anything, certain he would mess it up and Don would yell at him and tell him to leave the family, that they were better off without him, that he was useless.

His brother had dissolved into a panic attack the first time he messed up something in his lab, one that took Don well over half an hour to calm his crying baby brother down and to convince him it was okay. The taller turtle didn't care if he had to spend the rest of his life reassuring his brother, but he vowed that he would never cause his brother the same pain he had previously.

It had forced Don to take a hard look at his past behaviour. He had forever been kicking Mikey out of the lab, afraid his younger brother with all his boundless energy would screw up his experiments. As his harsh words had never seem to have any outward effect on his younger brother, he had never changed how he acted. It pained Don to know how wrong he had been. Not all wounds are visible and some can be very deep.

He hated himself that he was partly at fault for the trauma his brother went through. The only slight positive was that his communication skills had improved with not only the youngest, but both of his older mates as well, which improved his relationship with them as well. As a whole their family was fighting less, and less harsh words were spoken in frustration and anger. Donatello couldn't help but wonder if Master Splinter would be proud of them for how far they had come.

"You almost done?" he asked, coming to stand right behind his mate who was writing something in an experiment log book. He wrapped his arms around, pulling Mikey to rest against his plastron. Pressing a kiss on his mates sensitive neck, he couldn't help but smile at the small churr that rumbled through his mate.

"Just finished," Mikey chirped, turning in his brothers arms, reaching up to play with the tails of Don's mask.

"Good, I have another experiment that I need your help with," he grinned, looking down at his smiling mate who had quickly caught on to his meaning. "Are you up for helping?"

"Always." Picking Mikey up, who quickly wrapped his legs around the taller turtle, Don quickly made his way to his bedroom. Slowly, his confident mate was returning to him. There was still a lot of work left ahead of them, but it didn't matter for Don knew they would get there and be stronger for it.

Worth. Love. Devotion.