Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

Apologies for any grammar mistakes. Please enjoy.

Mikey woke up feeling more horrible than he thought was possible.

He was freezing, but at the same time, boiling hot. Breathing out through his nose was suddenly impossible. His throat was so dry, just the idea of talking hurt. His entire body felt immobile. The heavy pounding of his head made Mikey wonder if there were a tiny man living in his brain hammering away at his skull. Obviously, he was too old to really believe that, but it was fun to imagine.

In an effort to force himself to roll out of bed, Mikey came tumbling down onto the floor in a jumble of sheets and limbs.

He went rummage through his drawers for a clean change of clothes, and groggily dressed himself.

He knew it was going to be a long day, but he would just have to push through. Optimism was the key. Sure, he felt absolutely terrible, but at least it wasn't a terminal disease.

It wasn't. . .right?

Mikey ambled into the kitchen of their small apartment to start cooking breakfast.

What to make? He didn't have the energy to experiment today, which would come as a relief to his brothers.

Mikey decided to throw something simple and easy together. Like eggs. Those were easy enough.

As usual, he wouldn't have to cook Dad breakfast. He would have already left for work by now. Since his dad always had to wake up super early in the morning for his job, Mikey made him a breakfast the night before that he could heat up in the microwave.

Mikey thought over his brothers' preferences.

Ralph likes his over easy. Extra pepper.

Leo likes his scrambled.

And Donnie sunny side up with a sprinkle of salt.

Mikey almost wanted to give up on breakfast and dive back into bed, but he enjoyed cooking for his family too much to do that.

He opened the cabinet and fumbled for the skillet inside. Several pans started tipping over and they would have fallen on his head had a hand not shot out to stop them.

"Whoa, Mikey. Be careful," Leo said. "What's the matter? You have faster reflexes than that."

It was true. They all had fast reflexes from the marshal arts Dad taught them.

Mikey laughed it off. "Yeah, sorry. I'm just more tired than usual this morning."

Leo thought about asking if there was something wrong, but everyone had rough mornings. Even the ever-optimistic, fun-loving Mikey. "Okay."

Mikey grabbed the skillet and placed it on the stove top as his brother took a seat at the table.

He considered mentioning how sick he felt but figured there wasn't a point to it. Leo would probably make him stay home from school, and today Mikey was supposed to have a tutor help him in math. He was barely passing. If his grade dropped, the coach would boot him from the baseball team.

Mikey pressed on cooking.

"SNEAK ATTACK!"

Suddenly, Raph was tackling Mikey to the floor and pinning his arms behind his back. "Dude, you could have at least tried to dodge!" he laughed.

"Ow!Ow!" Mikey was feeling awful enough without his arms being twisted and stretched.

Leo rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Raph, let Mikey up so he can finish making breakfast. And I've already told you it's not a sneak attack if you're shouting."

"So what? I still got him." Raph was laughing even as he helped Mikey up.

"Dude, I think you twisted my elbow into my shoulder," Mikey whined.

"That is not anatomically possible. Not just by twisting it anyway," Donnie corrected as he walked into the kitchen.

Mikey ignored Mr. Know-It-All and started for the fridge. He grabbed the egg carton on the top shelf, but then a wave of nausea swirled from his stomach up into his throat.

Mikey dropped the eggs to put his hand over his mouth, trying to keep his insides at bay, and they smashed onto the kitchen floor.

"Mikey! Come on, you klutz!"

Raph was yelling about the mess, but an even bigger mess was on the verge of spilling from Mikey's mouth if he didn't get to the bathroom in time.

Mikey ran. And he ran fast.

Within three seconds he was over the toilet bowl, the remnants of yesterday's pizza pouring out of his stomach. The clear toilet water was soon a gross orange color and the rancid smell wafting from it only made Mikey that much more nauseous.

A hand pushed his long orange bangs back as he continued retching. He was too preoccupied to turn and see whose hand it was, but he was grateful for their comfort all the same.

"Is he okay?" he heard Donnie ask.

"Yeah, Don. He's great." Raph replied. "Can't you tell by the way he's puking?"

Mikey might have laughed at that if he could.

"Is there really a need for the sarcasm?"

"If I can't be sarcastic, then I get violent," Raph said, menacingly.

The pitch in Donnie's voice went high. "Sarcasm is good. I love sarcasm."

"Guys!" That was Leo's voice. He sounded closest, so he must have been the one holding Mikey's bangs away from his face. "Stop arguing and one of you go get Mikey a glass of water."

"I offer my services," Donnie said.

"I offer my services," Mikey heard Raph mimick Donnie in a dorky voice. "You couldn't just say, 'Oh, sure. I'll do it' like a normal person?"

"Raph, get a thermometer," Leo ordered.

"At your service, great leader."

And the sarcasm continues, Mikey thought with amusement.

Mikey finally stopped throwing up. He was glad to have it over. His throat felt even worse than before, but at least his nausea was gone.

"You feeling better, Mikey?" Leo asked him.

He nodded as Raph put the thermometer in his mouth.

After waiting for a little while, they heard a beep. Leo checked the temperature. "102," he announced, grimly.

"Geez," Mikey muttered to himself. He didn't think his temperature was that high.

Leo gave the thermometer to Raph to save up. "How long have you been sick?"

Mikey shrugged. "Since this morning, I guess."

Raph lightly smacked the back of his head. "Ow!"

"Raph!" Leo admonished. "Could you tone it down? He's sick."

Raph ignored him and looked Mikey in the eyes. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't think it would be a big deal. Did you really have to hit me?"

"When you're stupid like this, yes. Honestly, Mikey. If you're sick, say something. Why bother trying to hide it?"

"I wasn't trying to hide it," he mumbled. "Not necessarily."

Donnie returned to the bathroom holding a glass of water. "Here you go Mikey."

"Thanks, Don." Mikey took the water and gulped it down. He was grateful for the nice cold, wet relief on his sore throat.

"Mikey, go put your pajamas on," Leo told him, as if he were a parent. "There's no way you can go to school today."

"What? Oh, come on." Mikey remembered one of the Hamato family rules: Never go down without a fight. If he wasn't smart enough to smoothly talk his way out if this, maybe they would give in to his puppy dog face. "I feel a lot better now. I can go to school," he said, making his eyes big and watery.

Leo furrowed his brows in confusion. "Mikey, don't you want to stay home from school? You should be taking advantage of this."

Mikey decided there was no harm in telling the truth. "My teacher said that she would get somebody to tutor me today at school. If I don't pick my grades up, Coach said I'm off the team."

Donnie had an answer for that. "I can tutor you, Mikey."

"Really?" Mikey gasped.

"Sure. If you needed help, you should have asked me in the first place."

"I didn't think of it. Sorry, dude."

Donnie sighed. "Whatever. I'll tutor you after school today, okay?"

"Alright," Mikey agreed, standing up from the floor. "Let me finish breakfast."

Mikey started walking out of the bathroom only to plow into Raph, who had been quick to block his little brother's path. "Are you dense? You can't make breakfast when you're sick."

"What? Yes, I can. Just watch." Mikey had to cook breakfast. It was his way of being helpful, and he was good at it. Each of his brothers were superior to him in school and marshal arts. Cooking was his one area of expertise. He didn't want that taken from him. If Mikey couldn't at least cook a couple of eggs or toast a few slices of bread for his brothers, he'd feel useless for the rest of the day.

"Raph's right, Mikey. And that's something I rarely say," Donnie whispered that last part, but Raph still heard.

"You rarely say it, huh? You know something I rarely say?" Raph pounded his fist into his palm. "Hey, Don, I'm not gonna beat you up today."

"Guys," Leo interrupted. "If you could hold off on the sparring match, please. Raph, go help Mikey into bed. Donnie, help me get started on breakfast."

"You are going to cook?" That was sure to be an inevitable disaster. Mikey could easily imagine what the state of the kitchen would soon be in. Juice on the floor. . .ketchup on the ceiling. . .fire everywhere. "But you barely know how to use the microwave. Wouldn't it be safer for everyone if I just made breakfast?"

"No, Mikey." Leo sternly shook his head. It was so alike to Dad, it was as if Leo were doing an impression. "We'll make the breakfast and bring some to you when we're done. Go change. Raph, come help us make breakfast when you've got him into bed."

Great. Raph was going to cook, too. That meant things were going to be about six times more dangerous.

Mikey pouted and grumbled. He hoped they ended up bringing him a burnt, black, undistinguishable blob of failure. One, so that they would regret not letting Mikey cook. And two, so that he wouldn't have to feel like he wasn't needed.

Raph escorted Mikey to his room where he traded his jeans and hoody out for a cozy, orange T-shirt and a pair of pajama pants. Once he had crawled into bed, Raph tucked his sheets over him. Even though Mikey thought he was too old for that, he didn't say so. He not-so-secretly liked the attention.

"Ya need anything?" Raph asked him.

Mikey shook his head. "No, I'm okay."

"Alright. We'll be back with breakfast. Rest as much as you can in the mean time.

Raph flipped the lights off and left.

Mikey closed his eyes, realizing exactly how tired he was. As he drifted off, he wondered if his brothers would somehow manage to cook breakfast.

"You guys haven't started, yet?" Raph asked, just having walked into the kitchen.

Leo replied, "Well, we don't know what to make. All of the eggs are smashed, so their out of the question."

"Wait!" Raph bent down to pick up an unscathed egg from the massacre of raw yolk. "At least one survived." Raph held the egg up proudly only to slip on the mess at his feet, falling onto his butt and dropping their one good egg. It was as if everything had gone into slow motion, with Raph and Leo shouting "Nooooooo!" as Donnie slid across the floor and caught the egg, a centimeter away from hitting the ground with a disheartening SPLAT!

Everyone breathed out a sigh of relief.

Donnie stood up, holding the egg away from Raph. "And that's why you failed the egg baby project in school."

"Whatever," Raph grumbled to himself.

"Let's focus on making breakfast for Mikey," Leo decided. "We don't have a lot of time, anyway."

Raph held back a scream of terror. "You mean, we have to go without breakfast! No! Why!" he started shouting to the ceiling.

"Raph! Be quiet. Mikey's trying to sleep."

Raph shut up, but he still looked devastated.

"Mikey cooks breakfast for us all the time. We should do the same for him while he's sick. I think you'll survive, Raph."

Mikey, you are so lucky I love you, Raph thought. "Fine. So what should we make with the egg?"

"Let's make an egg sandwich," Donnie suggested. "Mikey loves that."

"Okay," Leo nodded. " But how do we make it?"

Donnie held his free hand up to his chin, pondering.

Raph scoffed. "It's easy," he said, taking the egg from Donnie's hand. He went to the cabinets to grab two slices of bread and a plate. After placing one slice onto the plate, Raph proceeded to crack the egg. He was happy Mikey wasn't there to watch him fail at something that his little brother made look so easy. He tried to hit the egg against the kitchen counter to crack it, but it completely smashed.

"Raph!" his brothers yelled.

Ignoring them, he quickly scooped up what he could and plopped it onto one bread. He had to pick out

some shells he had accidentally grabbed with the egg, but in the end, he salvaged it. Then, he smushed the second bread slice onto the first and presented it to his brothers as if it were the greatest concoction in the history of breakfast. "Ta-da!"

Leo and Donnie were unamused.

"Raph," Leo said, massaging his fingertips into his temples. "You do realize that the egg is raw."

"Of course, which is why we put it into the toaster," Raph explained, walking over to their toaster and shoving the sandwich into one of the slots.

"Can we do that?" Leo asked.

"Isn't that how you make an egg sandwich?"

"I've always seen Mikey use the pan."

Raph waved it off. "The toaster's faster. Trust me."

Leo and Donnie should have known better than to trust Raph. Within three minutes, the toaster had caught on fire and they were rushing to put it out.

"Where's the fire extinguisher!?"

"I don't know!"

"Someone do something!"

Raph started running the water in the sink and grabbed the toaster.

"Wait! Raph!" he heard Donnie yelling.

But Raph was already shoving the toaster under the faucet, quenching the fire at last. "Why were you telling me to wait?"

Raph turned to see Donnie holding the toaster plug away from the outlet. "You forgot to unplug the toaster."

"Oh," Raph said, realizing how close he was to a painful, possibly fatal electric shock. "That could have been bad."

Leo yelled, "It was already bad!"

"I'm surprised the fire alarms didn't go off," Donnie said to himself.

"It's not my fault that's this is a cheap toaster!" Raph defended.

Before Leo could counter, they all heard Mikey calling them from his room. "Guys!"

Donnie offered to check on him.

Meanwhile, the other two had to figure out what to do about breakfast.

"Mikey, you okay?" Donnie asked Mikey.

"What's going on? I heard a lot of screaming."

Donnie scrambled for an excuse. "You must have dreamt it."

"Oh."

"Is there anything you need?"

"My head hurts. Can I have some medicine?"

Donnie nodded. "Sure."

He rushed to grab a couple pills from the medicine cabinet and a glass of water from the kitchen where his brothers were discussing their next idea for breakfast, then headed back to Mikey's room.

Mikey sat up to take the medicine and lied back down. Donnie adjusted the covers so that they were over Mikey's shoulders, then returned to the kitchen.

"Okay, so the egg sandwich is off," Raph said, stating the obvious. "Lets just make some scrambled eggs."

"That was our last egg," corrected Donnie.

Raph clenched his fist. "Then, lets make some toast. Toast is easy."

"You drowned our toaster," Leo pointed out.

Raph glared at his only older brother. "We can use the pan. You can make toast in a pan, right?"

"That's what Mikey does a lot."

"See? It's under control."

Raph retrieved the pan from the cabinets and tossed it on the stove top. To Donnie's surprise, he successfully turned on the stove. Leo dropped some butter into the pan. He didn't know how much butter was needed, so he decided on four spoonfuls. Donnie laid a slice of bread on the pan, and they waited.

When the bread started to smell burnt, the three figured now was a good time to flip it to the other side.

"I'll do it," Raph said.

It was at that point, Leo should have stopped him. But he didn't.

Raph grabbed the pan and tossed the bread up so high that it bounced off the ceiling. Raph stepped out to catch it with the pan, but Leo was in the way, and the both of them toppled down onto the floor.

The bread landed on top of the stove, which was unfortunately gas lit, so the fire from the stove quickly spread to the bread. Soon enough, there was yet another fire.

Leo grabbed the bread but dropped it when it burned his fingers. Luckily he was able to prevent it from falling on the floor by bouncing it up with his knee. He continued bouncing the fiery bread between his two knees like it was a soccer ball until he was close enough to the sink, which was still filled with water as well as their now broken toaster, to kick the bread into it.

"Well," Donnie said, when their second moment of panic for the day was over. "Do you think we can make cereal without potentially burning the house down?"

Raph lifted his head off the floor and in defeat said, "I don't know. We might need Mikey's help."

Mikey looked at the bowl of cereal in his hands. "You were making cereal this whole time?"

His brothers nodded.

"What was all that noise I heard?"

"I told you, Mikey," Donnie said. "You dreamt it."

"But-"

"Dang it, Mikey!" Raph interrupted. "We couldn't figure out how to make you breakfast, so this was the best we could do!"

"We're sorry, Mikey," Donnie apologized on behalf of them, "We really tried."

"You're always making breakfast for us," Leo added on. "We just wanted to do that for you but we couldn't. We'll make it up to you, though."

Mikey was smiling. "Really? You couldn't do it?"

"What are you so happy about?" Raph asked.

"Oh, nothing," Mikey chuckled, happily digging into his cold cereal. It wasn't a burnt, black, undistinguishable blob of failure, but it was no gourmet breakfast either.

His brothers were staring at him in confusion, but Mikey didn't explain.

When he had finished, it was nearly time for his brothers to leave for school.

"Are you going to be okay by yourself, Mikey?" Leo asked as he pulled the covers over his baby brother.

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

Raph felt Mikey's forehead. "You're really hot. Hold on, I'll be right back." He hurriedly went rinse a wash rag in cold water and returned to place it under his brother's bangs. "Are you cold? Should we get you more blankets?"

Mikey shook his head. It was weird having Raph of all people take care of him, but also nice. "No, dude, I'm okay."

"Maybe one of us should stay," Leo suggested.

Mikey immediately protested. It would have been great if someone could stay with him, but he didn't want to be a total burden on his brothers. "No, it's okay. I'll be fine."

Leo gave him a thoughtful look before saying, "Alright, but be sure to call Dad if something happens. We can't use our phones in class, so we can't check up on you."

"Yeah, okay," Mikey said.

"We love you, Mikey," Leo told him, leaning down to briefly kiss his head.

Mikey's heart warmed. Leo rarely showed affection.

Raph and Donnie followed suit with their own kisses to Mikey's feverish head before they all hesitantly left.

Mikey was still sick, but he didn't feel so horrible anymore.