Insanity

Raph rocked back and forth in the corner of his bedroom. No one had seen him for four days. They were all beginning to think he was never coming out.

"The roaches. They're everywhere." He hissed "They're after me" He looked around his room in search of the tiny insects. "They are gonna eat me alive"

Leo stood outside Raph's room, ear pressed against the door. He sighed and walked back to the couch where his brothers were sitting. "I really think you overdid it this time Mikey."

"I was just having a little fun. I didn't mean for him to end up like this" Mikey sighed, flopping off the couch and onto the floor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~7 Days Before~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mikey crept up behind Raph with a bucket of cockroaches. He laughed silently before picking up one of the crawling creatures and placing it on Raph's shell. Quickly and quietly, he hid the bucket and nonchalantly walked around the couch to join Raph.

"Hey, mind if I join you?" Mikey sat down stifling his laughter.

"Whatever." He shrugged making room for Mikey to sit. Mikey watched as the roach crawled around Raph's shoulder and up the carapace. His eyes lit up as the roach crawled down into his shell and across his shoulder.

Raph felt something crawling on his shoulder. He looked over to take a quick glance before flicking it away. His eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and he jumped off the couch. "Roach! A Roach! It's on me! Get it off! Get it off!" He jumped up and down trying to get the bug off his shoulder.

Mikey couldn't contain his laughter any longer. He clutched his stomach in deep belly laughter. Tears fell from his eyes for laughing so hard. He wiped them away to check Raph's progress. But that only brought the tears back. Raph was rolling around on the floor trying to squish the poor creature. "Aww man. I wish I had a camera." Mikey laughed kicking his legs in the air.

Donnie heard the screaming and rushed into the living room, "What's the matter guys?" He saw Raph rolling around and Mikey laughing his shell off.

"Raph's got a roach in his shell." Mikey stopped laughing long enough to explain.

Donnie smirked a little and watched a roach crawl back under the couch. "You can get up now Raph. The roach is gone." Donnie shook his head and returned to his lab.

"Are you sure it's gone?" he looked up and gave himself a pat down.

"Yeah, dude. I saw it run under the couch." Mikey stood up and sat back on the couch.

"It's still alive!" Raph jumped on top of the couch like a scared woman.

"Yeah, but at least it's not on you anymore." Mikey joked.

Raph tried to calm down and sat back on the couch, "Yeah, yeah. You're right." He then turned to punch Mikey in the arm, "Don't tell anyone about this!" You got that." He scowled.

"Yeah, yeah whatever." Mikey got off the couch, picked up the bucket and went back to his room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 6 Days Ago~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Pizza's here!" Leo announced walking into the kitchen carrying a box filled with steaming hot pizza in his hands.

"Finally, I'm starving over here." Raph licked his lips and rubbed his hands together. After Leo set the box on the table, Raph flipped the lid open and grabbed a slice.

Mikey strolled into the kitchen with his hands behind his back, whistling the understood tune of "innocence". He took the seat next to Raph and grabbed himself a slice of pizza. While Raph was turned away, Mikey threw another roach onto Raph's pizza. He chuckled to himself as he took a bite of his own delicious pepperoni goodness.

Raph picked up his slice mid conversation and went to take a bite. The closer he got to inserting the slice to his mouth, the closer he got to biting into the roach. The antennae of the roach tickled Raph's upper lip before he could bite into it. Confused, he took a look at the slice and screamed at a female frequency, "Roach!" He threw the pizza onto Donnie's face and ran out of the room.

Mikey laughed as he downed the rest of his pizza.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~5 Days Ago~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Raph had fallen asleep on the couch after a laborious workout. Mikey took the opportunity to play yet another prank on him. He snuck behind the couch with a handful of roaches. Seeing Raph resting peacefully on the couch was almost too much for Mikey to disturb… Almost… Mikey smiled deviously as he strategically placed each roach on a different area of Raph's body. One on his upper thigh. One on his upper plastron. One on his shoulder. One on his neck. One on his nose. And one on his arm. He watched as the roaches crawled around exploring their new homes.

The tickling sensation of tiny roach legs on his body caused Raph to twitch in his sleep. Mikey quickly evacuated the living room and hid in the next hallway to watch his practical joke unfold. Raph twitched more and more until he was no longer asleep. The now conscious Raphael continued to feel the tiny tickles all over his body and looked to see the source. When he realized it was, what Raph believed was, an army of cockroaches, he hopped off the couch and jumped around like a maniac. "More roaches! They're out to get me! Make it stop!" The roaches eventually all lost their grip on Raph's skin and fell to the floor.

Mikey was laughing hysterically from the hallway. Pranking Raph just never got old. He watched as Raph ran away screaming like a little girl. He heard a bedroom door slam and laughed even harder. Leo heard the laughter and emerged from his room.

"What's going on out here?" Leo asked, looking down at Mikey.

"I've been playing pranks on Raph for the past couple days. He thinks the roaches are out to get him or something." Mikey laughed.

Leo's eye's widened in disbelief, "You mean all the roaches Raph's been complaining about are all your fault!" He raised his voice slightly, "You know Raph doesn't like cockroaches."

"It's just a couple practical jokes, what's the worst that could happen?" Mikey shrugged, still finding his pranks hysterical.

"Well, who's having fun now Mikey. Raph's gone crazy and it's all your fault." Donnie scolded him.

Mikey sighed, rethinking his previous idea that pranking Raph would be funny. "I guess you guys are right. I'll go explain to Raph that I was behind everything." He forced himself off the floor and walked over to Raph's room.

"Hey, Raph. It's Michelangelo." He knocked lightly on the door.

Mikey got no direct answer from Raph, but he could hear Raph chanting from inside the room, "It's a conspiracy. The roaches are out to get me."

"Hey, buddy. I'm coming in, okay?" He gripped the doorknob and turned it. The door squeaked as it opened. Mikey poked his head inside and saw Raph huddled in the corner. He had his knees pressed to his chest and his arms pulling them in even closer. He swayed side to side as his eyes darted every which way to scope for roaches.

Mikey walked in front of Raph and crouched down to make eye contact with his brother, "Look, Raph. All the cockroaches you've been seeing…yeah, those were my fault entirely. I thought it'd be funny to play a few jokes on you, so I collected a few roaches and had a little fun. I didn't think you would go insane over it. Just a few girly screams. But I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

Raph suddenly stopped swaying and focused his attention on Mikey, "You mean…the roaches aren't out to get me?" Mikey shook his head. "And all the roaches were yours?" Mikey nodded his head. Raph stood up and grabbed his sai off the night table.

"So, we cool now?" Mikey half smiled as he backed out of Raph's room.

"Not just yet." Raph clutched both sai in his hands and started after Mikey, "I am going to crush your stupid head!" He shouted as he chased Mikey throughout the lair.

"Nice to know you're back to normal!" Mikey smiled, running for his life.