Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.
Warnings: Unbetaed. Beware, long drive ahead.
Summary: For four months now, Mikey's been stuck in the wrong universe, separated from all he loves. He's never been away from home at Christmas before but there's a first time for everything. Just like how there's a first time for the 2k3 family without their own lost brother and son. 2k12/2k3 crossover.
Comments, thoughts and concrit is always welcome.
A/N: I had hoped to get this story finished and loaded long before now, however that was obviously not meant to be. Sorry about that. Thank you to everyone who has commented, faved or followed.
Kechi – spoilsport/cheapskate.
AOtGO – Far From Home
Ch 2 – December 24th pt 1
"Get outta bed, brat!" A rough voice yelled, accompanying the loud, insistent pounding on his bedroom door.
Michelangelo groaned and stretched, feeling far more tired than usual for morning. He rolled over, careful not to squash the orange and white cat curled warmly into his side and looked over at the clock; eight fifteen. Mikey frowned in confusion; he couldn't recall going to bed. In fact, the last thing he did actually remember was fighting sleep, while listening to Leo and Usagi chat.
The door suddenly flung open, banging hard against the wall and causing Mikey to jump. His bleary gaze shifted to take in the menacing form of Raphael framed in the doorway.
"Get up! Case and Ape'll be here soon."
For a moment, Mikey had to think about why their human friends were coming by so early, when this version of his family were almost never even awake before ten. Then he realised and his face lit up in excitement. He immediately jumped out of bed, ignoring the loudly protesting Klunk who was unhappy over being disturbed, and raced across his borrowed room, practically screeching to a halt in the glowering Raph's face.
"Today really came? We're actually, really leaving the city today?" Mikey bounced eagerly. He couldn't believe the promised day had finally come.
Raph grunted an affirmative and turned away, satisfied that the younger ninja was finally out of bed.
Mikey snickered at the eloquent sound, "Dude, how'd you even manage to wake up so early anyway?"
"Beat you up, didn't I?" Raph muttered crankily.
"I bet only just though, Raphie."
"So gonna skin Don alive for teachin' you to call me that!" the not-so-morning turtle grumbled, already walking away from Mikey's bedroom door. "You were practically dead on your feet last night so how the shell are you so damned bright and bubbly this early in the mornin'!"
It was more statement than question but with a laugh, Mikey chose to treat it as the latter. "I know I've been here a while now, but eight o'clock's still a sleep in for me! Besides, when I was younger, I was always first up anyway!"
"What? You actually beat that perfectionist Leo outta bed in your world?"
Mikey pulled a face, "Used to, not any more though, heh! The spoilsport got sick of me being his alarm clock so he started waking up before me."
Raph made a small sound of amusement, while wishing he could have learnt to do that himself; it would have saved him so many headaches over the years. "Meet ya downstairs for breakfast." Then he stalked off, leaving Mikey to go about his early morning business.
-:-
Mikey danced cheerfully into the kitchen, grabbing and quickly plunking down a bowl of cat biscuits for Klunk. "What do you guys want for breakfast?" he asked, turning towards the fridge.
Leo and Usagi exchanged amused looks.
"Most of us have already eaten but I thank you for your kind offer, Michelangelo-san."
"Oh," Mikey blinked. "So who still needs and what do you want?"
Raph half placed, half dropped two bowls on the table along with two boxes of cereal. "Take your pick."
"Cereal?" Mikey screwed up his face, eyeing the tasteless, boring varieties offered.
"We don't really have time for anything elaborate this morning, Mikey," Leo, ever the voice of reason, explained calmly.
Mikey turned on his heel, heading for the cupboard, "Oh, okay. Then I'll just get..."
"Stop right there, brat!" Raph suddenly growled, making the younger turtle freeze in his tracks. "We got a long drive ahead of us and since I'll be doin' half the drivin', there's no way in shell I'm havin' you in the same vehicle as me while you're hopped up on Chocolate Sugar Bombs."
Donnie lumbered through the door and headed for the table, sighing in relief, "Thank shell at least someone has some sense."
"You on the other hand need both the sugar and the coffee."
Donnie glanced Leo's way before directing a look at Raph and sitting down. "I think not, Raphael. I didn't have more than two hours sleep last night and I fully intend to have more once we hit the road."
"Then who's gonna entertain the brat?"
"That's not my problem," Donnie smiled sweetly, before smothering a yawn.
Highly entertained, Mikey watched the two bickering brothers while he ate his flavourless breakfast. "I've got my T-phone but when I get bored of that, I can just bug Raph instead."
"Just don't bug him while he's driving," Leo interjected, amused.
"Don't encourage him!" Raph growled before an idea came to him in a rush. "Actually, I got a better idea!"
"And what's that?" Leo asked, raising his brow ridges questioningly.
"Mikey can travel in the other van. Case'll love the company!"
"I think you got a screw loose, shell-for-brains!" Casey snorted as he walked into the kitchen with April immediately behind him. Suddenly Casey pulled up short, staring in semi-horror as he noticed Usagi seated by Leo. "Oh god! I hope your buddy ain't comin' too!"
Usagi smiled at Casey reassuringly, "Fear not. Gen did not accompany me on this visit. He was far too busy carousing at the local tavern last night."
Casey breathed, practically wilting at the news, "That's a relief!"
Shaking her head in amusement, April sat down beside Donatello and asked, "Is everyone just about ready?"
"Everything's loaded and ready to go, April," Donnie replied, with a tired smile.
"Just give us a few minutes to finish breakfast and clean up, then we'll be ready to leave," Leo added.
The sound of a spoon suddenly dropping and clattering into a bowl drew everyone's attention to Mikey.
"Uh... guys?" he asked worried, a horrible thought having just occurred to him. "What about Klunk? If we leave the city, who's going to feed him?" Mikey lifted his gaze from where it rested on the cat to look plaintively to each person around the room.
"Don't worry, Mikey. We brought a cat carry cage for him," April smiled warmly. "He's coming too. Klunk loves the farm."
For a moment Mikey relaxed, at least until April's words sunk in. "A cage? We can't put Klunk in a cage! He'll hate it!"
"That menace ain't comin' with us unless he's in the damn cage," Raph growled firmly, remembering with a shudder previous trips where Klunk was foolishly allowed free to roam.
"But he's..."
"I'm afraid Raph's right, Mikey," Leo quickly interrupted, cutting Mikey off before he could make his complaints. "He wanders around the van otherwise and we cannot risk him going under the driver's feet. It's far too dangerous."
For a moment Mikey wanted to continue arguing, at least until he saw the determined looks leaving no room for argument on Leo's and Raph's faces and he deflated. "Alright..." he acquiesced unhappily.
"You'll see, Mikey, Klunk will be just fine," April added kindly, prompting an appreciative smile from the other-dimensional mutant.
Suddenly a wicked grin spread over Raph's features as he eyed Mikey, "You guys think it's too late to get a big enough cage for the other menace too?"
Mikey simply stuck out his tongue in response before going back to his plain breakfast with gusto.
-:-
Not long later, the extended family said goodbye to Usagi and then split into the two waiting vans; April, Casey and Splinter in one and the four turtles and Klunk into the other. Leo started out driving and Mikey quickly claimed the passenger seat next to him. Donnie immediately settled into the back to nap, with Raph beside him, leaning back with earphones on and eyes closed.
Mikey gazed eagerly out the window, face pressed against the glass as he stared out at the daylight filled city streets in wonder. At least he did until Leo commanded he either sit back or move to the back seat of the van. Mikey pouted at first until Leo explained that while the windows were heavily tinted and difficult to see into, pressing up against them far increased the chances of someone making out just who was inside. Once they left the busy city behind though, Mikey immediately pressed right back into the window and Leo just shook his head in amusement.
As new as all this was to him, it didn't take long for the scenery to become monotonous and Mikey to begin fidgeting, all while talking Leo's ear off. Raph in the back merely turned up his music and Donnie muttered something inaudible beneath his breath as he tried to sleep.
Suddenly, Mikey perked up with interest, "Hey! There's a new button on the dash! What's it do?" he asked, already reaching for it.
"Don't touch that, Michelangelo," Donnie warned tiredly from the back as Leo's hand shot down, pushing Mikey's away from the dashboard.
Leo glanced down also curious, "I meant to ask you about that, Don. I'm sure it wasn't there when we last used the van a few days ago."
Donnie sighed, straightening up in his seat; he knew he wouldn't be sleeping any time soon if he didn't answer. "It's what I was working on finishing up last night. As you know, this time of year there's usually a heavy layer of snow at the farm, so I installed a retractable snowplough shovel just in case."
"That's why the van feels heavier to drive?" Leo asked in surprise.
Donnie nodded tiredly, "Yes."
"Can I test it?" Mikey asked enthusiastically, immediately reaching for the button again. Once more, Leo was quick to swipe his hand away.
"No!" Leo and Donnie chorused.
"In fact," Leo warned, "if you try touching it again, Mikey, you can move to the back with Raph and Don."
"Don't punish me for making something most likely invaluable!" Donnie protested at a louder volume than he usually spoke in. "If you'd rather get out and shovel manually, then by all means, be my guest. Next time I won't try to make life easier for everyone!"
"I'm sorry, Don," Leo was quick to apologise. He glanced to the turtle seated beside him, "Mikey, if we need to use it, I'll let you press it. However, if you so much as touch that button before I say so, then you will not only spend the rest of the drive in the back but you won't get to press the shiny new button when we need it either."
"Kechi!" Mikey pouted sulkily and fell silent. Less then two minutes later, he found his voice again. "So how long until we get there, dude?"
"Here we go," Raph muttered gruffly from the back. However, despite the words, Mikey heard no malice in the tone and couldn't help grinning at the reaction.
"We haven't even been driving an hour," Leo sighed, eyes fixed on the road ahead. "We'll switch drivers about halfway there but we won't arrive for at least another four hours, perhaps a little longer depending on the road conditions."
"That's forever!" Mikey whined, seeing the day stretching ahead dauntingly.
"Not quite forever but long enough. Now you know why we didn't want you eating sugar this morning," Leo said dryly, glad his brother had put his foot down about the Chocolate Bombs.
"Leo, dude! Sugar doesn't even affect me anyway," Mikey protested with a whine.
"Of course it doesn't." Leo's tone belied his disbelief.
"It's true, Leo! I remember my bros talking about it in front of me when they thought I wasn't paying attention. D clearly said my biggest hyper day was back well before we started eating human foods; back when we still only ate algae and worms all the time," Mikey rushed to enlighten him. "So yeah dude, I don't need sugar to get going."
"God help us all if that's true..." came Raph's voice from the back.
Mikey ignored it. "Hey, Leo?"
"Yes, Mikey?"
"If we're switching drivers later..."
"We are," Leo answered after a brief silence. "Raph will be taking over."
"Does he have to?"
"Well, I'm sure I could manage the five hour drive but there's really no need. Besides, we already worked this out days ago."
"Nooo... I mean, can I drive instead?" Mikey asked innocently.
"No!" Three horrified voices cried out..
"Why no~t?" Mikey whined. "You're letting Raphie drive!"
"Raph's a good driver and you don't even know how to drive," Leo replied, exasperated at Mikey's unreasonable persistence.
"Well yeah, I know that."
"Then why even ask?"
"You can teach me," Mikey insisted enthusiastically, "or Raphie can."
Leo shook his head. "Sorry Mikey but we really don't need to be attracting that kind of attention."
Disappointed, Mikey immediately clambered out of his seat, heading to the back. Within moments he stood, half crouched in front of Raph and pulled off the older turtle's headphones, smiling innocently into the glaring hothead's face. "You'll teach me, won't you Raphie?"
"Stop callin' me that, brat!"
Mikey's grin broadened cheekily, "Sorry but gotta live up to the name you call me."
Donnie sat up again, chuckling lightly, "He has a point, Raphie."
Raph shot a brief glare Donnie's way and grunted in annoyance. He snatched his headphones back from the younger turtle.
"I'll tell you what Michelangelo," Donnie began as Mikey's attention shifted to him, "if, and I do mean if, there's no snow at the farm, I'll teach you myself."
Mikey shot around and dropped onto the seat beside the genius, longing to throw his arm around him. Instead, he settled for grinning up at him excitedly, "You're the best, Donnie!"
"Notice you didn't say how low the chances of that are," Raph murmured, smirking in Donnie's direction.
Donnie simply answered with a knowing smile.
-:-
For nearly an hour, Mikey babbled incessantly to Donnie and Raph, talking about almost anything that came to mind, with the obvious exception of the previous night. As he chattered, he mindlessly stuck his large fingers into the gaps of Klunk's carrier, playing with the small cat as best he could, even going as far as lifting the cage onto his lap. Eventually he quietened as he turned all his attention to Klunk and Donnie took the opportunity to finally fall asleep, while Raph just pretended to.
Noticing Raph and Donnie with their eyes closed and their breathing slow and deep, Mikey smiled mischievously. He opened the cage door and pulled the purring kitty into his arms, cooing nonsense at him the entire time. It didn't take long for a now very contented Klunk to fall asleep in the turtle's arms and so with everyone around Mikey asleep and not paying attention to him, he quickly became bored.
For a moment, Mikey entertained the idea of waking Raph back up, until he remembered that the older ninja needed to be rested enough to take over from Leo in what felt like another ten hours time; that thought then made him remember Leonardo. Mikey figured Leo was probably just as bored as himself by now, having had no one to talk to, so he stood and made his way back to the front of the van, sitting down in the seat beside the older version of his brother.
Leo glanced at Mikey as he sat, then did a double-take. "Michelangelo, I don't know why you have Klunk out of his carrier but you need to put him back in. Now," he stressed.
"Aww, Leo~ Klunk's no trouble," Mikey whined. "He's sleeping and comfortable. Surely you're not cruel enough to make me disturb him by putting him back in that tiny, little, cramped cage, are you?"
If Leo wasn't concentrating on driving right now, he would have pinched the corners of his eyes in exasperation. He chanced another fleeting look at Mikey, dismayed to see the pleading expression the freckled turtle was aiming his way and sighed, already regretting what he was about to say. "Fine... but you better keep a good hold on that cat and when he wakes up, you put him back immediately."
Mikey beamed brightly. "Thanks, Leo! If Klunk was awake, he'd tell you you're the best!"
Leo fought down another sigh and glanced at the clock; it wasn't even quite two hours into their journey.
There was still a very long road ahead.
-:-
"KLUNK!"
Mikey awoke with a jerk as the gravitational force of the wildly swerving van caused him to lurch drunkenly in his seat and his head to slam painfully against the passenger window. "Ow..." he moaned pitifully, bringing his hand up to press lightly against his head as he pushed himself up again.
"What the shell is goin' on?" "What happened, Leo? Is everyone alright?"
"Michelangelo!" Leo's sharp voice broke through the pain.
Mikey looked up, blinking away the winged pizza slices floating around his head and into the stern, angry glare of the blue banded leader.
"I told you to either keep a hold of that cat or put it back into the carrier!"
Mikey coloured and gave a half laugh of pained embarrassment. "S... sorry, Leo..." he apologised, chagrined. "I must have fallen asleep..."
Leo's face softened a little, remembering the previous night and how the astral experience had drained the younger ninja. Then he hardened again, reaching under his feet for the terrified cat. Holding Klunk by the scruff of his neck, he passed the ginger and white fur-ball to Mikey, who reached out to gently take him. "Put him back in his carrier, now. Under no circumstances are you to let him out again while we are travelling. Do you understand?"
Mikey nodded. "Y... yeah. I'm really sorry, Leo," Mikey repeated, climbing from his seat and walking slightly unsteadily to the back. He shrunk under Raph's glare as he quickly put Klunk back into the cage.
Just then, Leo's Shell-cell warbled and the katana master answered it.
"Leo? Is everything all right?" April's concerned voice came over the line clearly. "We saw the van swerve before suddenly stopping."
"Yes, April, we're fine," Leo answered grimly. "We just had a small... animal control problem, that's all."
"Alright, if you're sure."
As Leo reassured their friend, Mikey went to make his way back to the seat beside Leo, only for Raph to grab him by the shell and haul him back. "You can stay put right back here!" he snapped angrily. "Of all the dumb, stupid things! We told you that cat was a menace!"
"He was lonely!" Mikey protested as Raph roughly sat him on the seat between himself and Donnie.
"He's used to bein' in the damn carrier every time we go to the farm. He's fine!"
"But..."
"But nothin'!" Raph scowled. "Damn cat coulda gotten us killed!"
Mikey slumped back petulantly, wincing at the sudden movement.
"Hey Leo," Raph called, getting up and moving to the front of the vehicle. "Since we stopped anyway, we may as well trade places now."
Leo chuckled mirthlessly, "You just don't want to put up with Mikey sitting next to you for the rest of the trip."
Raph's grin was wicked, "You know me too well, Fearless."
Leo made his way to the back, sitting just as Raph took off with a loud squealing of tyres. He looked at Mikey as Donnie began fussing over him. "Are you okay, Mikey? You took quite a blow to the head."
"I'm fine..." Mikey muttered.
"I'll be the judge of that," Donnie interrupted primly.
Mikey looked away from Donnie to Leo, only for Donnie to turn his head back firmly. "What happened with Klunk anyway? He was so peaceful."
"He woke up and decided to explore," Leo answered grimly, "directly between myself and the steering wheel."
"Oh..."
A couple of minutes later, Donnie moved away and came back again, handing Mikey a couple of pills and water. He looked over to Leo, to reassure his brother. "He's fine. He'll just have a headache for a while and quite probably a nice bruise."
"That's good to know," Leo breathed out in relief.
-:-
Over the next hour and a half, Leo kept a firm hold on Mikey, stopping him from returning to the front passenger seat and therefore having to put up with his repeated questioning of 'how long 'til we're there?' and 'are we there yet?'. Finally, Leo fell asleep and Mikey picked his way back to the front.
"How much longer?" Mikey immediately asked as he sat down.
Raph glanced at him. "Too damn long. You're supposed to be sittin'..."
"I am."
"... in the back."
"They're asleep. It's boring."
Raph smirked and continued driving as Mikey pulled out his T-phone. After a while, Raph noticed Mikey didn't seem to be into the game like normal, so he spoke up. "How's the head?"
Mikey reached a hand up, touching where he'd bumped it gingerly. "It's fine. Donnie gave me something for the headache."
Raph grunted and kept driving.
"Raph?" Mikey ventured a few minutes later as he peered around at the snow covered open land.
"Yeah?"
"What's it like out there?"
"At the farm?"
Mikey nodded cautiously.
"Lots of open space. Forest nearby. Ya know, nature."
"No buildings?"
"Just the farmhouse and the barn," Raph answered. "We can be outside durin' the day and no one'll see us."
Mikey bit his bottom lip. "Isn't that weird?"
Still managing to keep one eye on the road, Raph turned his head to look at Mikey, who was staring worriedly out the window. To his surprise, he suddenly realised Mikey was nervous because the city and sewers were all he knew. Knowing how the younger turtle was outgoing and normally open to new things, Raph had never once considered that Mikey might be worried about something so drastically different to what he knew.
Raph reached out a hand and carefully rubbed the top of Mikey's head, smirking slightly at the surprise on the kid's face as he turned to look back at Raph. "Don't worry, brat. You'll love it so much you'll probably never wanna return to the city."
Mikey smiled back, relaxing at the reassurance.
-:-
to be continued.
A/N: The remainder of this story will come much quicker as it only needs editing.
