Title: Cosmopolitan: Revelations

Author: vashsunglasses

Rating: T

Fandom: TMNT

Disclaimer: TMNT belongs to Mirage.

Summary: One Shot. Drabblish. Being the only scientist in the family, Donatello finds it easy to hide certain facts that are best kept secret. Genderfic.

Revelations

Part 3

Contrary to popular belief, and he knew what the popular belief was because he had done a survey, Michelangelo had many layers. On the surface layer, the physical layer, he was sitting on the couch watching a movie and stuffing popcorn into his mouth. If you had asked his brothers, they would have laughed and said that the surface layer was all there was, but they knew better.

On a slightly lower layer lay his most basic thoughts. This included gems like: 'Wow she's hot', 'Yes! Massive explosion!' and 'I wonder if you can get fat from eating too much popcorn...'. This was the layer that most of those polled had claimed as the inner most layer. The "true" Michelangelo, if you will. Michelangelo found this at turns funny and irritating, though his irritation was mostly limited to a lower level.

And it was on that lower level, that only a select few even suspected the existence of, that Michelangelo was plotting ways to contain the family meltdown he knew would occur when Donnie's news hit the fan.

Oh he knew it wouldn't be as epic as the whole Leo disappearing for years fiasco. He doubted there would be any duels between brothers. And he didn't agree with Donnie that everyone would treat her differently once they knew. Sure there would be some awkwardness at the beginning, but that would blow over. The thing that worried Michelangelo was the loss of confidence. If they could get something like this so fundamentally wrong, what else had they messed up on? What else had they overlooked?

The movie ended and Michelangelo stuffed the remaining popcorn into his mouth all at once. He heard a sound of disgust from behind his head.

"Could you be any more disgusting, Michelangelo?" Leo hissed.

"I don't know," Michelangelo grinned, tilting his head back to look at his older brother upside down, "Can I? Let's find out!"

He watched his as his older brother's face crumpled like old newspaper at the thought. It wasn't enough to amuse him on that deep down level, but he allowed a bit of surface interest to flicker across his own face in reply. Riling his brothers had gotten too easy. It was almost ridiculous how easily he had riled Don up earlier. Ok, yeah, there was the whole gender awkwardness helping the situation... but still. Maybe it was a sign.

"...you're not even paying attention to me, are you Mikey?" Leo's voice belatedly trailed into Michelangelo's consciousness.

"No, not really," he replied with a straight face, sitting back upright and getting up from the couch. "I'm going out for a while, don't wait up."

There were times when the eldest turtle looked into the youngest turtle's eyes and realized that he had absolutely no idea what when on behind them. It was so rare as to be a mirage, but an insidious voice whispered that maybe Michelangelo was a better ninja than all of them. Perhaps invisibility could exist within the mind itself. Could one become invisible by being as loud and obnoxious as possible? Leo jumped when Raphael walked up behind him and slapped him on the shoulder. "Damn it, Raph!" he yelled, twisting to face him.

"Some ninja," Raph rolled his eyes, "Now don't you start up too."

Leo could feel his eye ridges scrunching together, talk about inscrutable brothers! Though if Raphael had secrets he would eat his swords. Raphael wore his heart on his shell. Always had. "Start with what?"

"Don't tell me ya haven't noticed, Fearless. Donatello's been in a funk for months and now Mikey seems to have caught it, whatever the hell 'it' is." Raphael brushed past the eldest brother and walked into the kitchen area, opening the ancient fridge and grabbing a beer. "Michelangelo thinks he's so good at hiding things, ha!" He opened the can with a brisk crack and tilted his head back to chug down a few solid gulps.

Leo answered mildly in reply, crossing his arms, "It's not my place to pry."

Raphael stopped drinking abruptly, spilling a few drops down his chin as he turned to glare at his older brother, "...you know something, don't you?"

A shrug, "It's not my place to tell either."

"Not your place?!" Raph growled.

Smirk. "Exactly."

Raphael slammed the can down on the counter and stalked up to Leonardo, placing himself shell to shell with him and staring him down from his two inch advantage. The air grew thick with tension and neither moved, then-

"Ha! Liar. I don't believe you," Raph said derisively, turning away and walking toward the exit of the lair.

"Suit yourself, Raph."

"Yeah, whatever," Raphael muttered under his breath, putting on his trench coat and hat, "I'm going out, be back whenever fuck I feel like it," he called out as he walked through the door. He slammed it behind him and heard Leo's faint reply as he walked away."

"When you find Michelangelo, tell him that he forgot his coat."