I do not own rights to TMNT.


Mikey hadn't talked to anyone in a while and it was starting to wear on him. He liked being around his brothers, but recently it had been hard to face them. What they had said to him constantly gnawed at his nerves and repeated in the back of his mind. He had stayed cooped up in his room as much as possible with only the company of Ice Cream Kitty, afraid that if he showed his face anywhere else, he would face more criticism from his brothers.

He was well aware that he wasn't the brightest bulb, but he still had ideas. He still had things to contribute to the team. He messed up a lot, sure, but his brothers didn't always need to point that out. He always felt a bit of regret at screwing something up, even without being reprimanded. To remind him that he was faulty was unnecessary; to tell him that he would be better off just to keep all of his ideas to himself was harsh.

Michelangelo had always looked up to Donatello. It was incredible how Donnie could take an idea for an invention out of his head and figure out how to make it work. Donatello was smart enough to figure out how to bring an idea to life. He didn't just dream about things, he made them happen, and Mikey found that astounding. It was inspiring. Even when Donnie ranted about machines and physics and scientific nonsense, Michelangelo listened. He didn't listen to understand, for he knew that most of the time he couldn't, but to see how amazing his brother really was. He might not have understood the formulas and theories that spewed out of his genius brother's mouth, but he understood what he was saying.

He understood the light that flashed through Donnie's eyes when he explored the possibilities of what a new idea could bring. He understood the fast pace at which Donatello spoke, his mouth struggling to keep up with the million miles an hour his brain was working at, racing in so many different directions at once, enchanted by the complexity of a dream. He understood how Donnie had to take more breaks than he would like to for short breaths between sentences, heart beating hard, working to keep up with the level of oxygen he needed. He understood how Donnie's hands shook ever so slightly when he shared his ideas, fighting to keep in the immense wave of energy that came with exploring something interesting and new. He understood how Donatello paced around the room as if mapping the branches of the new thought, suddenly pausing then turning and racing in another direction as one train of thought died out and another began. He understood all of these things because he had experienced them himself so many times.

Which is why it hurt him all the more when Raph and Leo told him to leave all of the ideas to Donnie; that he should just keep to himself because Donatello didn't mess up as much when he got a new thought. He wanted to be able to do as much as Donnie. He just wasn't smart enough. But did that mean that he should never pursue an idea when he had one? Did that mean that he should just keep quiet and let people who weren't screw-ups explore the world around them? Was he just meant to spend his life silent while everyone told him what to do and how to do it?

He sighed. This train of thought was getting out of hand. He needed to talk to someone. While having Ice Cream Kitty beside greatly helped to relieve his loneliness, she could not talk. He needed to have a conversation with someone.

Leo and Raph were not options at the moment. He thought that seeing them, given his current situation, would make things worse. He scooped up Ice Cream Kitty and returned her to the freezer before stepping into Donnie's lab, where the genius turtle was working with the mutagen samples under the microscope. Deciding that he needed some inspiration, Michelangelo chose to start a conversation with Donnie about what he was working on. Hopefully, Donatello would show the extent of his interest in the work he was doing.

"Whatcha up to, D?" He asked, stopping at his brother's desk and flashing him a big grin for show.

"I had a bad feeling about the mutagen shipment we tried to stop yesterday," Donnie replied, not looking up from his microscope. "I picked up a canister of mutagen and decided to test it, and, well, there's definitely something different about it. Something has been introduced into the mutagen, but I can't figure out what. It… doesn't match any element I've ever seen. I tested them. This is something new. A new substance. I would probably be able to tell you what the Kraang wanted it to do in the mutagen had it been an element on the periodic table, but as I said, it isn't. I'm… stuck." Donatello looked up at Mikey for a split second, then his eyes darted away and he rubbed the back of his neck.

Michelangelo raised what would have been his eyebrows had he been human. Something stumped Donatello so much that he could only explain what he was doing for that short amount of time? This certainly was new.

Deciding that he still wanted this conversation to continue a little while longer, Mikey asked, "So, how did you test for these elements in the ooze?"

Donnie met his gaze. "Well, for some elements, you simply have to test how basic or acidic the substance is. Thanks to test strips designed especially for such tests, that's relatively easy. You have to dip the test strips in the substance and then compare them on a color chart to see where on the scale…"

Michelangelo listened as Donatello continued on his rant. Not for understanding his words, but for understanding his body language. The elements on the periodic table had long since been review material for Donnie, so it didn't excite him as much as Mikey would have pleased, but he was still focused on the topic he was speaking about, and right now, for Mikey, that was enough.