Rating: T
Warnings: Overall story - Brief mentions of torture. Bit of language.
Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.
Summary: For months now, Mikey's been through hell with no one to count on but himself. He's finally been rescued but there are still two major problems; he's still desperately missing his family and he has no way home. No OCs. 2k3/2k12 crossover.
KaylaMicael: Mikey's problem with food will begin to be addressed soon. Thanks. I hope you enjoy this chapter too :-)
Guest: Sorry but I won't be editing that chapter to a T rating for reasons but if you really wanted to try the story (it is harsh on poor Mikey...) then just skip chapter 9 altogether. That's the only M rated chapter. There aren't any details in it as I prefer to leave such things behind closed doors, so to speak, but it's because of strongly implied non-con content that I put the rating up. The reason I don't want to edit it is because what happens affects Mikey badly and goes a long way to explain much of his later behaviour.
T420000: Mikey is nothing if not observant *winks*
Minnie1015: Thanks :-) Yeah, Donnie might get annoyed by his brother a lot but you can see how close they are by all the little things. As for Mikey and April training together, it really does make a lot of sense. At least for a while until Mikey gets back up to speed XD
Catgirl Hamato: They will but each will be stuck in the wrong dimension for a number of months first. Gotta have time to play XD
AOtGO – Aftermath
Ch 16
Date: 23rd Sept
With a bounce back in his step, Michelangelo left the bathroom after another gloriously hot, long shower which soothed his aching muscles. Like every other day since waking in this new world, he only left it once the hot water ran out and a small guilty part of him hoped no one else wanted one anytime soon because he'd needed it. Badly. The only thing that would have felt better than the hot shower would be a long, hot bath but they didn't have one so he had to make do. If he ended up stuck here any length of time, he wondered if he could talk Donnie into fixing one up. Even if he had to promise to help, it would be totally worth it and maybe instead of a bath, they could fix up a spa big enough to fit more than one at once, he daydreamed wistfully.
Determined to keep his better mood, he started humming cheerfully as he stopped by his borrowed bedroom to drop off his padding. They were uncomfortably large and he hadn't given up on making his own but he hadn't yet had a chance to give the others a list of items to keep an eye out for at the junkyard.
Thinking of, Mikey gazed critically around the bedroom at the haphazard piles of empty pizza boxes and other assorted rubbish. He needed to do something about this now so with that in mind, he went to fetch a rubbish bag from the kitchen and cleaning supplies from the laundry, then went back and started cleaning. The pizza boxes went into a few fairly neatly stacked piles for easier disposal and the other rubbish, straight into the bag. To his utter disgust, he came across a couple pairs of used and stained human underwear and he fought not to gag at the sight. At that, he raced back to the laundry, scrambling for the specially doctored rubber gloves he'd seen and even though they were far too large for his hands, put them on before handling the disgusting-looking tighty whiteys. He had no idea why the shell the other Michelangelo had those but he really didn't care. There was only so much a dude could handle.
Finally, happy to leave the toys, comics and other collectables where they lay, Mikey had all the rubbish sorted and he left the room, looking for Leo who he knew was probably cleaning somewhere as part of his punishment for sneaking out after curfew. He quickly found him in the kitchen, trying to clean the toaster out.
"Back! Back away from the toaster, foul demon!" he cried dramatically in horror. To Mikey's amusement, Leo whirled around, startled by the sudden outcry. "What did that poor, innocent toaster ever do to you to deserve such horrendous treatment anyway?"
"I'm only cleaning it!" Leo protested indignantly.
"Sure~ you are," Mikey scoffed derisively. "Tell you what, dude, while I'm here, I'll let you keep cleaning the kitchen so you don't get into trouble with Sensei but you do not touch the toaster or any other kitchen appliance!"
Leo fixed him with a dark look.
"You can have the kettle though," Mikey quickly amended with a cheeky grin.
"Did you want something?" Leo asked flatly.
For a moment, Mikey was taken aback by the question, then remembering why he'd been looking for Leo in the first place, he quickly recovered. "Actually, yeah. Uh... what do you guys do about your garbage disposal?" At Leo's questioning expression, Mikey explained.
"Wait! You cleaned his room?" Leo exclaimed incredulously.
Mikey nodded, taken aback once more, this time by the inherent shock in the other turtle's voice.
"This I have got to see!" Leo tore out the kitchen and to his missing brother's room where he stopped dead in the doorway at the sight. There was still junk all over the place but the rubbish was collected in neat piles. He turned back to Mikey in shock.
"I promise I didn't get rid of anything but the actual trash."
"So I see," Leo echoed, still in shock over the difference in the room. He shook his head and looked up at Mikey, perplexed. "You really are different from our Mikey."
As Mikey began fidgeting again, Leo smiled. "It's not a bad thing," he reassured. "Anyway, to answer your question, now that we go topside, we usually just take it up with us and dump it in a nearby dumpster but for this amount, it might be easier putting it in the Shellraizer and taking it up with us that way." He looked at the piles of boxes and the bag of rubbish again and shaking his head in amazement, quietly added "He really had a lot of empty pizza boxes."
Mikey nodded wordlessly. Only the fact that not a single crumb remained explained why they hadn't had a cockroach plague, he was sure.
"Uh... can I ask... do you know what that smell is?" Leo asked cautiously as he took a step deeper into the bedroom. "It smells like rotten egg."
"That's because it is rotten egg," Mikey deadpanned. Not smelling much beyond the remnants of the Kraang 'food' had its benefits, it seemed. At least based on the expression on Leo's face and the choked tone of his voice, it did. "I uh... found a few eggs under the bed while I was cleaning and accidentally broke one."
"It's awful! How're you unaffected by it?" Leo gasped incredulously, his hand over his face to help him breathe through the fetid stench.
Mikey shrugged, unsure how to answer that.
"Although, maybe a better question is, why were there rotten eggs underneath the bed?"
"Maybe your bro was setting up for a prank?" Mikey suggested uneasily. He'd considered doing that once before realising it would be wasting food - the thought of what Raph would do to him if he actually tried hadn't even factored into it - so instead, he'd researched how to make a stink bomb without using eggs and snuck the chemicals from Donnie's lab. The prank had gone off spectacularly but sadly, he'd forgotten about the camera in the lab, enabling Donnie to rat him out. He'd barely survived the aftermath with his life but it had been totally worth it!
Leo's face screwed up in disgust. "I hope not. Anyway, we need the eggs for making smoke bombs and Mikey knows that so I doubt it. I hope... Ugh... it really stinks in here. Did you even clean it after it broke?"
"Of course, I did!" Mikey protested indignantly. "Dude, that stuff lingers! Not much you can do other than air out the room after you clean it."
Leo nodded reluctantly behind his hand. "Maybe give it another clean later then and spray the room with air freshener?" he suggested weakly. "Come on, let's get the trash to the Shellraizer. We'll dump it the next chance we get."
Mikey nodded and grateful for the help, picked up a stack of boxes and followed Leo to the garage. Suddenly, he smirked as a thought occurred to him. "Actually, you might wanna go dump it sooner than later or the Shellraizer'll stink up too and Donnie'll be pissed. For that matter, I don't think Raphie would be too happy either," he snickered, amused by the thought of the looks on their faces. "Although, it could be worth leaving it a bit to see their reactions, dude."
Leo shot him a horrified look. "I think I'll talk to Father about letting us go up as soon as it gets dark."
Frowning thoughtfully, Mikey followed Leo into the vehicle, placing the stack of empty boxes he carried to the side where Leo indicated. "In that case, if you do go, could I give you that list of things to look out for? I uh... didn't get a chance to write it up last time." Not to mention that issue after trying to eat the gyoza where he'd puked it up and then had hidden away afterwards claiming to be tired just to avoid the questions but there was no need to bring that up again.
Leo gazed at Mikey momentarily, studying him. "I'm surprised you aren't begging to come with us again," he said dryly.
"What would be the point?" Mikey mumbled tiredly. "You all already shot me down, dude. Unless... you've changed your mind?" he added, hope suddenly rising. The thought of feeling the fresh air on his scales pulled at him so much it ached.
Leo shook his head as he stepped out of the Shellraizer and began heading back to Mikey's room for the next pile. "Not a chance, Mike." Then he sighed. "You have to understand, it's not just a matter of trusting each other as part of a team or even your current lack of stamina, though that definitely doesn't help, it's that you're not ready mentally. If you can't even look at Kraang tech or think about them without freaking out, how would you react when we come across them topside?"
He had a good point but Mikey still felt the betrayal burn. "I know, Leo, you said all that last night," he muttered petulantly.
"If you can't handle even that much, then you have no place topside or in our team. I'm sorry, Mike, but that's the way it has to be when we run into them at least twice a week, if not more."
"Donnie... Don said he'd help me with that," Mikey whispered unhappily.
"Did he?" Leo stopped outside the bedroom door, looking at him curiously and Mikey nodded reluctantly. "And you're going to let him?"
Gaze fixed on the floor at the other turtle's feet, Mikey nodded, his previous good mood spent. "I guess I've got no choice, do I?" he asked miserably. "I'm going to have to do as he said if I ever want my life back."
-:-
Mikey took a deep breath, steeling himself before entering the lab. He knocked lightly at the door, then opened it, poking his head inside. To his surprise, he saw April inside, chatting with Donnie as he worked. Before he could back out again, however, they noticed him.
"Sorry guys, I uh... didn't mean to disturb you." Damn, but he hated how uncertain he sounded and felt lately. It wasn't normal. At all.
April gave him a friendly look. "It's okay, Mike. We weren't talking about anything important."
From the expression on Donnie's face, however, Mikey figured he felt differently.
"Did you want me to leave so you two can talk in private?" she asked, glancing back at Donnie with an apologetic smile.
"Nope!" Mikey replied, deliberately popping the p to try to appear nonchalant. "I'll be fast." Then he turned to Donnie, his expression turning serious, "I just wanted to let you know I'm going to take you up on your offer, dude."
"Wait, you are?" Donnie exclaimed in shock. "I-I mean, that's great but to be honest, I didn't really think you would or at least, I didn't think you would that easily, based on how you reacted to the suggestion."
"I'll admit I don't want to," Mikey said reluctantly as he glanced warily at the corner of the lab still containing the Kraang tech Donnie had moved earlier, "But... I need to so..." he took another deep breath. "If I get stuck making myself come, will you..." he faltered, unsure how to ask when it really wasn't on Donnie to make him do this.
"I'll come remind you," Donnie promised. "If you want to make it a set time each day, that'd probably make it easier but we can talk about that later tonight or maybe even tomorrow."
Stomach churning with anxiety over what he'd just committed to, Mikey nodded queasily. "Well, probably not tonight. Leo uh... wants to go on a garbage run and I need to give him a list of what to look out for whenever you guys go out without me." Donnie gave him a questioning look. "Speaking of, can I grab a piece of paper and a pen or something so I can write it up?"
Donnie nodded and pushed so his chair rolled along the floor to the other bench. Before he could reach the drawer where he kept writing equipment, April perked up.
"That reminds me! I wanted to see you after your shower but you took so long I forgot!" she exclaimed brightly. She rose from her chair and made her way out the lab, beckoning the now curious Michelangelo to follow her. She led the way to her bedroom and entered while Mikey waited outside and when she came out again seconds later, it was with a large paper bag in hand and a bright smile on her face as she handed it to him.
Mikey looked at her as if asking for permission, then peeked inside when the young redhead nodded. To his utter delight, he saw two spiral-topped sketchbooks, two one-eighty page exercise books and a couple of flat boxes, one larger than the other, among other items. He reached a hand inside and pulled out the boxes to see really good quality charcoal and coloured pencils. His eyes widened in shock as he looked back up at a preening April.
"This is too much, Ape!" he protested weakly. "I thought you were just buying cheap supplies! I mean, shell, dudette! You said yourself you couldn't afford anything too expensive!"
To his surprise, April chuckled lightly, "To be honest, Mike, I didn't buy them. My aunt gave them to me for my birthday two years ago."
Mikey gazed at her in confusion. "Then why would you give them to me?" he asked, looking down at the pencil box in his hand. It hadn't even been opened.
"Because I'd prefer they went to someone who will enjoy using them than let them go to waste," April explained. She shrugged and leant back against the wall beside her door. "My aunt is the artsy type and every so often she tries to get me into it too. Unfortunately, art doesn't interest me much, I'm more into science and maths which is probably why I get along with Donnie so well."
"Oh. Well, in that case, thanks, Ape," Mikey smiled warmly. "I'll definitely put them to good use then." He peered down into the bag again. "If you like, once I get some practice in and feel comfortable again, I'll do a portrait of you," he offered shyly.
"I'd like that," April beamed happily. Her expression turned curious. "Do you like to paint as well?"
"Shell yeah but I don't get to paint much," Mikey admitted, placing the boxes of pencils reverently back inside the bag. "When we moved into our new home a few months before I ended up here, I actually started a mural on my bedroom wall but I never got to finish it."
"Why not? April asked curiously.
Mikey shrugged and gave her a lopsided smile. "Partly lack of supplies and partly lack of time," he explained. "It was starting to look awesome though. I also used to paint a few hidden walls in the sewers too but that was mostly near our old, old home."
"So why'd you guys move?"
"We were found and attacked by the Foot. We barely made it out with our lives and we only made it by scattering," Mikey admitted with a shrug and a sad smile. "It was pretty bad. We lost almost everything when we ran, even each other and it took days to find each other again and then only because Leo came back from Japan and managed to find us. Then he found us a new place to call home and well, we were busy after that, between fixing it up and making it livable and dealing with the Foot and Bishop's craziness. Along with other terrifying stuff." He shuddered, remembering the terror of running from carnivorous dinosaurs while trapped millions of years in the past and Donnie's second mutation after being stung by one of Bishop's stupid outbreak mutants and all because Bishop had gone to insane extremes to prove his value to the US government.
"That must be awful, losing your home like that," April murmured sympathetically.
"Heh, yeah," Mikey agreed sadly, "but I guess that's life when you're a mutant outcast, right? And hey, at least we found each other again and we were all okay. That's the important thing." Until he was ripped away from his home dimension by evil aliens who tortured him, that was. He wondered if he'd ever manage to find his brothers and father again or they'd still be alive when he eventually did. If the worst happened and they weren't, he had no idea what he'd do or where he'd go because despite this family saying he was welcome here, he was sure they'd get sick of him sooner or later with the way he was going and even if they didn't get sick of him but found their brother, well, two Mikey's might be a bit too much for them to handle.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," April said quietly. She twitched slightly as if wanting to leave and Mikey smiled.
"It's okay, I'm fine. I'm just going to put this stuff in uh... my room, then I guess I should try to work out what to make for dinner. There's not a lot to work with," Mikey admitted with a shrug. At least after the shopping was delivered, things would be better, though he needed to find a way to increase the budget; it was so limited.
"Oh, that's right! Raph and Casey are picking up the groceries you ordered from Murakami's, if that helps," April exclaimed.
Mikey brightened. It did. "Great!" he exclaimed cheerfully, before looking down at the bag in his hand again and then up to smile at April. "Thanks again for these, Ape."
"It's no problem," she smiled warmly, "but before you put it away, I actually have something else for you too."
"The stockings?" Mikey asked hopefully. In some ways, they were the most important of the items he'd asked for.
"They should be in there," April assured. She leant forward to poke into the bag. A moment later, she spotted the packet between the books and pulled it out. "Are these okay?"
Mikey took a close look at them. "They should be perfect!" he said in relief.
April dropped the packet back in the bag. "Wait here a sec," she made him promise before darting back into her room. A moment later, she came back out, hauling her backpack and two canvasses, one large and one medium in size. "More past gifts from my well-meaning aunt," she laughed. "I need the bag back but it's full of paints, brushes and a paint pallet. Casey helped me bring all this down."
Mikey gawped at the teenage girl, then threw his arms around her happily, hugging her tightly enough that she squeaked. "Thanks, April! You're the best!"
April laughed, working to pry herself loose. "I'm just glad someone'll make use of them," she smiled.
The two carried the supplies to Mikey's room, placing the canvasses leaning against the wall by the bed. Taking the backpack from April, who was trying unsuccessfully not to screw up her nose in disgust at the lingering smell, Mikey upended the contents of both bags onto the bed and from there, began sorting through them, stacking the art supplies onto the bedside table. As he sorted, he marvelled at the little paint pots – like the pencils before, they were good quality ones and of an impressive array of colours.
Breathing shallowly, April picked up the stockings from the bed, "You never explained what the stockings are for," she pointed out in a not-so-subtle way of asking.
Mikey took them from her along with a half-made mask from the table and tossed her a grin," I'll have to show you then," he teased, leading the way from the room. He stopped momentarily at the junk room, popping inside just long enough to grab the sewing equipment before continuing to the pit where both Leo and Donnie sat, talking quietly but seriously between themselves.
He moved the small coffee table by the bench seating and arranged his supplies on it but before he could sit, Raph and Casey returned, arms laden with bags of shopping. Mikey gave his new mask a reluctant look, then bound over to the kitchen to put everything away, shooing an annoyed yet likewise relieved Raphael and Casey out the way and proclaiming protectively, "While I'm here, my kitchen!"
Once everything was finally put away, he headed back to the pit, sitting on the ground with his carapace to the bench. Then, he took the stockings from the packet and the scissors to them, cutting carefully down the seam as April gaped at him.
"What are you doing?"
Mikey flashed another teasing grin April's way as he finished cutting. "I'm going to wear them on my head," he said with a laugh at her shocked expression. He put the scissors aside and laid the material flat, placing a round template near the edge before cutting around it and repeating. April moved closer to watch and he even gained the attention of Donatello and Leonardo, who were still in the pit and talking through ideas for finding their brother.
"It's to cover the eyeholes of my mask," Mikey finally admitted, lifting a piece and putting it in place in demonstration. He held the mask up to his face to show what he meant.
"Why?"
"Eye protection," Mikey shrugged. "To stop dust and other crap getting into my eyes so easily."
April cast a questioning look Donnie's way.
"I don't have eyelashes like you do, Ape, so I gotta do something to protect my eyes," Mikey explained quietly. While it didn't always matter, there were times it did and after being kept prisoner in that dust-free environment for so long, coming out into the real world had hit hard and the more he rubbed at the irritation in his eyes, the worse it became. There was no quick fix and it would take a good couple of days to stop bothering him if he managed to avoid touching. "We didn't use stockings back home. Donnie came up with something stronger and more durable to use for our eyepieces but stocking material is a good substitute."
"Wait!" Donnie spluttered in disbelief. "Is that why your eyes are always red and you keep rubbing at them?"
Mikey nodded shamefully. "I try not to but it's hard ya know, bro? And when you start, it just gets worse and worse. It's a vicious circle, dude."
"I know exactly what you mean," April cringed, wrinkling her nose. "I have a similar problem in spring from seasonal allergies and have to take medication to prevent it."
Donnie blinked rapidly as he contemplated Michelangelo. "Don't your nictitating membranes help to keep out the dust and grit?"
Mikey gazed at Donnie blankly. "Nictitating what now?"
"Nictitating membranes," Donnie repeated bluntly. "A third eyelid that turtles and many other species of animals have."
"Why didn't you just say third eyelid?" Mikey groaned dramatically.
"Just be thankful he didn't use the scientific name," Leo muttered dryly with a slightly amused sideways look at his often verbose brother.
"Wait, that wasn't the scientific name?" Mikey asked blankly.
"Plica semilunaris or palpebera tertia," Donnie replied with a small know-it-all grin.
"Now you're just showing off," Mikey groaned again. "And no they don't because I don't have one of those plica whatevers. Do you?" he countered challengingly.
Donnie smiled grimly and blinked. Suddenly, white covered his eyes, making Mikey cringe in disgust.
"Ew! That's seriously creepy, dude!" he accused loudly. Then, suddenly thoughtful, he leant forward, studying Donnie's eyes more closely. "But also kinda cool! You could totally freak out the bad guys doing that! Just imagine the tactical advantages. There's the evil bad guy, minding their own business when suddenly, from out of the shadows appear nothing but glowing white eyes! They'd think you'd come to take their souls or something!" he cackled in delight, suddenly wishing he had similar. It could be so much fun!
Donnie blinked, revealing his normal red-tinted eyes and gave Mikey a dirty look. Leo, however, gave a small, almost evil smile as if hiding a dark secret.
"So besides making your eyes look totally funky, does it do anything useful?"
"Moistens and protects our eyes throughout the day," Donnie explained smugly. "We don't need eyelashes because the membrane does the job far more efficiently. They also help us see better when underwater, too." Donnie hesitated a moment. "I'm uh... actually surprised you don't have them yourself since it's a natural part of turtle biology. Then again, your mutation obviously differs greatly to ours," he continued, musing thoughtfully as his gaze roved Mikey from head to toe. "There are so many physical differences between us that don't simply come down to what species we began as. The lack of bridges between your plastron and carapace, for example, the shape of your feet and number of toes, even your hands in how small they are compared to ours and how similar in size to those of humans. It makes me wonder just what else is different between us. Biologically speaking, of course."
Mikey swallowed and edged back into the bench, beginning to feel very uncomfortable with the sudden scrutiny.
"I really should pull you into the lab and do a full physical workup on you," Donnie frowned, his eyes on the other turtle but seeming to see through him as if trying to observe his body on the inside and completely oblivious to Mikey's growing discomfort. "I do need to find out your blood type for a start, to work out if it is compatible with ours in case of an emergency."
"Donnie," Leo murmured quietly but Donnie didn't seem to hear him and continued thinking aloud.
"It also wouldn't hurt to check out your bone and organ structure..."
Mikey swallowed again, hands twitching and eyes flickering side to side as if looking for escape even though he knew Donnie said he'd never hurt him.
"Donnie," Leo pressed again, this time a little louder.
"Such knowledge could prove vital, especially if you plan on eventually joining us topside or on missions. It could be the difference between life and death."
"Donatello!" Leonardo commanded, reaching over and grabbing his arm to get his attention.
"What?" Donnie snapped, whirling on Leo in exasperation at being interrupted mid-musing.
Leo nodded surreptitiously towards Mike and Donnie turned to look. To really look, this time. That's when he saw Mike staring off to the side and trembling badly. Realisation flooded Donnie and his face heated up in shame.
"Darwin's beard! I-I'm so sorry, Mike! That was... it was uncalled for. I-I shouldn't have gone on like that without regard for your feelings and what you've been through," Donnie apologised profusely, all but begging for Mike to understand he hadn't meant to upset him and that he'd only intended to learn how he could help him if it ever came down to it. He only hoped his behaviour wouldn't push the other turtle away or stop him from coming to him in the coming days as they'd discussed. He shifted closer, blanching when Mike visibly flinched and in a small, desperate voice added, "You know I'd never hurt you, right, Mike?"
That was too much for Michelangelo though and in a flash, he was on his feet and vaulting desperately from the pit and for his room, shoving past Raphael and Casey who stood flabbergasted on the sidelines. A few moments later, the bedroom door slammed loudly and Donnie flinched.
-:-
Comments, thoughts and concrit are always welcome.
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