Donnie was pretty sure that he has memorised every crack, scratch and peeling piece of paint on his bedroom ceiling. He had been staring at it for hours each night as sleep seem to elude him, still, even though he had made things right between himself and Mikey.

He'd closed the door on anything happening in the future between the two of them, thinking that was what he wanted and what was best for them. But now he was having second thoughts, now all the times he thought about Mikey instead of being filled with dread and guilt over what they had done...he now found it arousing and wanted him again.

After all that he had put Mikey through after they had slept together and finally talking to him and deciding it would be better if they just forgot about what happened between them and went back to how they were before...he couldn't just go back to him and tell him he'd changed his mind!

Now he was stuck wanting and longing for his orange banded brother, having let him slip through his fingers.

"Rough night?" Leo asked as he walked into the kitchen and caught sight of Donnie almost falling asleep in his coffee.

"I'm so tired...but I can't sleep." Donnie answered honestly.

"I don't think coffee is going to help you sleep Donnie." Leo said, looking at his brother with a frown. "Are you getting sick?"

"No." Donnie replied.

"Are you sure?"

" Yes." Donnie answered, growing irritable.

"Okay…" Leo said and decided it would be best if he were to leave his brother alone, so he left the kitchen, deciding he could wait until later for something to eat.

Donnie closed his eyes and tried to soothe the pounding in his head, he really hoped that this sleep deprivation didn't make him sick, he really didn't need that right now.

"Donnie?"

" What!?" Donnie shouted, turning around and expected to see Leo standing there, but instead found himself staring into the wide baby blue eyes of Mikey. "Oh...sorry Mikey, I...I thought you were Leo."

"You and Leo have a fight?" Mikey asked and Donnie sighed, closing his eyes.

"No, he was just asking me too many questions and I can't handle that with this headache." Donnie said, rubbing circles on his forehead with two fingers.

"Are you okay?" Mikey asked, concerned about the pained look on his brother's face.

"I will be, I just need to take some painkillers...and try and get some sleep."

"You skipping practice?" Mikey asked.

"I think if I don't turn up Leo won't come after me, he'll probably just lecture me later." Donnie sighed and pushed himself off the stool he was sitting on. "I'll be in my lab if anyone needs me."

"Okay bro'" Mikey replied cheerily and Donnie dragged himself out of the room and to his sanctuary, taking out a bottle out of his medical cabinet and taking some painkillers to get rid of his headache. Throwing himself onto the bed afterwards Donnie tried to sleep, and after a while, he did drift off but it was not a long and restful sleep as he needed.

Days passed without Donnie being able to get a long and good night's sleep and this was not going unnoticed, Leo was pulling him aside after every practice due to his lack of sleep affecting his concentration and his ability to attack and defend himself against Leo and his other two brothers, this had also led to him being banned from going topside until he improved.

Donnie wasn't so bothered about being grounded, what he was bothered by was how Leo and Raph were always watching him, wondering why it was that he wasn't sleeping and what was bothering him, he was very tempted to go up to them and ask them what they wanted but one of them came to him first, one morning when he was in the kitchen eating his breakfast after another awful morning practice session.

But the question was not what he had been expecting.

"What's going on with you and Mikey?" Raph asked and Donnie very nearly spilled his coffee over himself.

"W-What? What are you talking about?"

"Dunno, you've just been actin' weird around each other."

"How so?"

"Like, one minute you two couldn't be closer and the next ya' don't want anything to do with each other." Raph explained.

"We're brothers Raph, you and Leo are exactly the same, heck you and I and Mikey and Leo are the same, it's what happens when you have siblings." Donnie rambled an explanation and avoided looking at his brother in the eyes.

"Right…" Raph responded, obviously not happy with the explanation given.

"I don't know what else to say to you Raph." Donnie said, honestly.

"Okay." Raph said and watched his brother avoid looking at him for a few more minutes before leaving the kitchen and bumping into Leo.

"Did he tell you anything?" Leo asked, knowing Raph had gone into the kitchen to question their brother.

"No, but something is definitely going on between the two of them that they don't wanna tell us." Raph shrugged. "Maybe we'll have better luck with Mikey?"

"I'll talk to Mikey."

"Let me know how it goes." Raph said and walked away from his brother, taking a seat on the couch to watch some television as Leo made his way up to Michelangelo's room.

The door to Mikey's room was almost all the way shut, so Leo lightly rapped on the door before pushing it open further.

"Mikey?"

"Hey bro! What's up?" Mikey greeted him cheerfully.

"Can we talk?" Leo asked, closing the door all the way so that they wouldn't be interrupted.

"Sure!" Mikey said and invited Leo to sit on his bed in front of him, which Leo did.

"I'm sure you've noticed how Donnie is at the moment." Leo started, watching his brother very closely.

"Um, sure? He seems super tired." Mikey said, shrugging, not sure what else his brother wanted to say.

"He says he can't sleep...would you know why that might be?"

"Shouldn't you ask Donnie why he isn't sleeping?"

"He's not been very...forthcoming about what's wrong and I thought...with you and Donnie becoming closer that he might have told you if something was wrong."

"We haven't been getting closer." Mikey frowned.

"Well..you had been until recently, did the two of you have a fight? Is that why you are avoiding each other?" Leo asked and Mikey shook his head, frowning more.

"We're not avoiding each other, there was a...misunderstanding between us but we worked it out dude, we're fine, honestly." Mikey answered, hoping that would be enough for his brother.

"If anything was wrong with Donnie...or yourself...you'd tell us, right Mikey?"

"Of course bro!" Mikey smiled cheerfully and Leo smiled back before leaving his brother's room. The smile fell off Mikey's face as soon as the door was closed and he tried to calm his racing heart.

Why did Raph and Leo had to stick their noses in his and Donnie's business just as they had worked things out between them and were in a good place. If Raph and Leo kept on at them, how long would it be until one of them cracked and told the others what had happened between them?

Mikey needed to talk to Donnie about their brothers...but again, he didn't want to bring up the awkwardness or cause them to start acting weird towards each other again. And he'd have to work something out under the very watchful eye of his two oldest brothers.

Mikey stood outside his brother's lab with his newly broken game controller in hand and looked around the lair, making sure that Leo and Raph were nowhere in sight. Just as Mikey was walking into the lab, he caught sight of Leo coming out the dojo but continued on into the lab, leaning against the doorway and taking a deep breath before speaking.

"Donnie, are you busy?"

"No, come in...what's up?" Donnie asked as his only younger brother walked into the room.

"One of my game controller's broke and I tried to fix it myself…" Mikey explained, trailing off and Donnie smiled at his little brother.

"That's okay Mikey, leave it on the side and I'll have a look at it later, I've just got to finish this up." Donnie said, holding up something that Mikey had no idea what it was.

"Thanks bro'"

"No problem." Donnie said as he turned back around.

Mikey remained in the room for a few more minutes, knowing that Donnie could sense him and was probably waiting for Mikey to say what he wanted to say or just decide to leave. Mikey turned and left the lab without another word, to which Donnie was disappointed, he longed for Mikey to come back to him and ask if there was any way Donnie would change his mind about the time of them since he was too much of a coward to go to Mikey.

He might just have to build up the courage to do so before it was too long to take back what he had said.

"Donnie?" Someone else said from the doorway.

"Yes Leo?" Donnie asked, turning to look at his eldest brother.

"What did Mikey come in here for?" Leo asked and that, along with the look on his face made Donnie very defensive.

"Not that it's any of your business Leo but Mikey only came here to ask me to fix his game controller...is that okay with you, am I allowed to help my own brother?" Donnie snapped at his brother.

The look Leo gave Donnie made him angrier, like he didn't believe him, but he left without another word, probably to avoid an argument, since the purple banded turtle was more than ready to give his brother a tongue lashing to get some of his frustration out but worried what he would say if he spoke before thinking.

He was going to have to calm his temper and find a way to speak if he didn't want some secrets to come out.