A/n: Inspired by my youngest brother's antics(and my own as well). The turtles' ages lie somewhere between 4 years and 8 years, you can choose since I'm too tired to decide.

P.S: I hate exams.

Disclaimer: I don't own them.

%%%%%

Bedtime Story

It was late.

The lights were out and every inhabitant of the lair was fast asleep, breathing evenly in the silence of after-midnight. Well... everyone except for one little turtle who was wide awake, unable to fall asleep.

He kept staring up at the shadowy ceiling, the sounds of his brothers' soft breathing echoing in the room's silence. Mikey closed his eyes and tried his hardest to go to sleep but he couldn't accomplish the task. He squeezed his eyes even harder and hoped that doing so would magically put him into slumber.

It didn't work as he had hoped so the freckled turtle shifted his position, turning to lie on his side. No such luck either.

After attempting various different things, some even childish and ridiculous, the young tot was still awake and he sighed in annoyance, a pout appearing on his cute, chubby face.

Restlessly tossing and turning on his bed as he looked around the room, Mikey's eyes fell on his brother who was sleeping on his own bed across the room and he perked up as a lightbulb formed in his head.

He removed his blanket and jumped out of bed, being extra careful to keep his steps silent as he approached the other turtle. He climbed onto the bed and wiggled himself under Leonardo's arm.

"Leo?" Mikey whispered.

The elder turtle didn't answer, unaware of his younger brother's presence so Mikey tried again, shaking him slightly this time.

"Leo, wake up."

"Huh? Mikey?" Leo mumbled as he blinked his eyes open and rubbed them with his fist, "What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't sleep."

"Nightmares?"

Mikey shook his head in denial.

"Feeling thirsty or hungry?"

Another shake of the head.

Leo's expression morphed into one of confusion, "Then why can't you sleep?"

"I don't know, Leo." Mikey said with just as much confusion and cuddled closer to his brother, "I tried everything and nothing worked so I thought that... Can you tell me a bedtime story?"

"Sure, Mikey." Leo said with a smile and lowered his arm over the smaller turtle, "Which one do you wanna hear?"

The youngest beamed at hearing this, "A new one!"

"Shhhh." Leonardo quickly shushed his baby brother and took a quick look at the other two to make sure they hadn't been disturbed by the loud exclamation.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that they were still asleep and looked down at Mikey who chuckled sheepishly.

"No loud noises. Okay?"

"No loud noises, captain." Mikey whispered with a salute, "Turtle's promise."

The eldest good-naturedly rolled his eyes and started telling Mikey a story, making it up as it went.

Michelangelo listened on with keen interest as his brother's not-loud voice narrated the tale of a strong and loyal horse. Leo noticed that Mikey wasn't getting sleepy at all so he kept extending the tale, adding more and more adventurous scenes to it.

After quite some time, the voice narrating the story gradually became softer and softer as Leo became more and more sleepy. Mikey didn't notice until it trailed off into silence which stretched on as the youngest waited for his brother to tell him what happened next.

When he heard nothing for a whole minute, Michelangelo finally gazed up to see why Leo had stopped speaking and saw that his brother's eyes were closed and his breathing was deep and even.

"Leo, you asleep?"

There was no answer.

"Pssss. Leo."

"Mmmm?" The turtles face scrunched up a little, his eyes still closed.

"What happened after that?"

"Huh?"

"What happened after that horse got stuck on the ledge?"

"He... ummm... neighed?" Then Leo let out a yawn and sank into his pillow while mumbling sleepily, "He ate chocolate cake after taking it out of a fridge."

"But he was stuck on a ledge."

There was a long pause before the response came.

"Who?"

"The horse." Mikey reminded him, "What did he do then?"

"He went back to sleep..."

Leo trailed off as he fell asleep again and Mikey giggled at the incoherent mumbling, sliding out from under his big brother's arm. He dropped on the floor and trudged towards where Donnie was sleeping and snuggled next to him, getting close to his head to whisper in his ear.

"Pssss. Donnie."

Donnie jerked and halfway opened his eyes, dazed and confused.

"Wha? Who?"

"Can you tell me that story about a horse who goes on a quest to find his missing rider?"

Donatello blinked, registered his brother's words and blinked again before he sighed and closed his eyes, extending his blanket to cover Mikey as he started narrating in a low voice.

"Once upon a time, there was a small village close to the forest. A man lived there with his family and they had a farm and some animals. They also had a brown horse who..."

%%%%%

About an hour later, Donnie was whistling through his tooth-gap as he slept soundly while the youngest was still wide awake; Donatello's version of a horse story having put Donnie to sleep instead of Mikey.

The tot slid out of the genius's bed and covered his immediately elder brother with the blanket before silently tip-toeing towards a snoring Raph.

He grabbed the shoulder of the second-eldest turtle and shook it.

"Pssss. Raph."