Leo had quickly come to regret letting Mikey keep the crown. It wasn't like his little brother had completely turned the lair upside down, but with seemingly limitless power in his hands Mikey's usual brand of chaos had been turned up to a level that none of them had ever imagined. Or ever wanted to imagine outside of their weirdest nightmares.
It started with Mikey doing random 'effects' in the air during the walk back home after they had dropped off the thieves. It was the sort of thing you'd see in a cartoon. He made stars and bubbles shoot out of his fingertips, danced around with brightly colored afterimages following after him, 'drawing' pictures in the air that would move around as if they were alive, etc. Weird, very surreal to see, but ultimately just Mikey harmlessly playing around.
As soon as they made it to the lair though, Mikey proceeded to do what someone with a penchant for mischief like him would do; go on a pranking spree. This included summoning heat-seeking water balloons that made each of them turn completely pink, making objects transparent just as they were about to grab them, or making pieces of furniture come to life and walk away from them...Way too many pranks for one day, let alone in the last couple hours of the day before they were supposed to eat dinner and go to bed, so it made him, Donnie, and Raph very irritable very quickly.
They had tried asking Mikey to take a break from the crown for a second. Leo personally had just wanted some relative peace and quiet, on top of not being able to shake the feeling that it was dangerous. Donnie had restated his interest in studying the crown to figure out just what it was and how it worked, and Raph had insisted on Mikey sharing it with them since it felt unfair for their baby brother to keep hogging it. Despite their efforts though, Mikey just danced around the topic and insisted he was just excited and wanted to get it out of his system first before letting anyone else mess with the crown, he'd also literally danced around Raph's efforts to snatch the powerful object off of Mikey's head.
Leo was fairly certain that things would've continued to be too crazy throughout the night if it wasn't for him finally snapping at Mikey after both of his katanas had been turned into toy lightsabers.
Looking back, he wondered if maybe he could've been a little less harsh. The sad look Mikey gave him stung a lot now that he'd had time to calm down. The fact his little brother had immediately shifted gears after being yelled at, undoing all the mess his pranking had caused and even leaving the lair the cleanest it had ever been, made him feel even worse. Mikey had gone as far as using his power to summon up what was basically a small feast of their favorite foods for dinner and he hadn't so much as thanked him!
It was the morning after now, and Leo decided he needed to apologize. While he was still very wary of the crown, and he felt Mikey should've known that straight-up changing the weapons that were one of the keepsakes from their father was crossing the line, he knew he needed to get better control on his temper. He was truly the adult of the family now after all...
As Leo stepped out of the room, he tried to think of how best to approach Mikey. Apologies weren't really his strong suit, largely because he was a little fearful that it would feel like he was just jabbing at a wound in order to make himself feel better, or having the admittance to his mistakes getting turned on him the next time his brothers didn't agree with his decisions. But, again, he's the adult now. He needs to get over the fears that get in the way of both his personal growth and communicating better with his brothers as a family.
Maybe explaining why he reacted the way he did would help? If he was lucky, Mikey may not have put the crown back on yet, so he could also try to better explain the bad feeling it gave him. That way he could kill two birds with one stone.
He didn't see any sign of Raph or Donnie when he entered the living room. It wasn't really that surprising, they both seemed exhausted when they went to bed last night, likely from having to deal with Mikey's antics the night before. Honestly, if it wasn't for Leo already being well-versed in the art of forcing himself to get up in the morning, he'd probably be sleeping in too after a night like that.
Given all the sounds from the kitchen, it was obvious that the resident chef of the family was already at work.
"Hey Mike-" Leo started as he made his way into the kitchen, trying to keep his tone light despite his underlying anxiety. The sight that greeted him in the kitchen though made him stop in his tracks and do a double take as he took in the contents of the room.
His little brother, still wearing that crown, turned his attention away from the three floating bowls full of various things getting mixed with whisks and spoons that moved all on their own. "Hey dude! You likin' what you're seein'?" He greeted Leo warmly, gesturing to the filled plates that had stacks of food that were taller than any of turtles themselves were. Leo could also smell, and just barely see past everything else, that bacon was getting cooked, the frying pan also moved of its own accord, shaking and flipping the pieces.
"Uh, Mikey, don't you think this is all a bit...much?" Leo said carefully, eyeing the stack of pancakes sitting basically right next to the entrance. "I know you like food, but there's no way the four of us are going to be able to eat all of this." He honestly questioned if they'd be able to eat all of this even if they invited all their friends. He didn't even know their kitchen had the space to hold all this food, or the ingredients needed to make this much.
"Eh, whatever's left I could just poof out of existence." Mikey shrugged, before promptly snapping his fingers and making a plate of French toast appear in his hand. Leo wasn't really sure if it had already been made and Mikey just summoned it from wherever it originally was in the chaos, or if he'd literally just decided to not bother with actually cooking and just willed the sweet breakfast food in existence. "Or maybe I'll just send them to our friends or something." He continued, putting the French toast in Leo's hands before wrapping a arm around his shoulder as he guided Leo to his usual spot at the table. Then he perked up as if a idea suddenly came to him, drawing Leo closer for a second as if he wanted to regale him with whatever had just popped into his mind. "Oh! Maybe I could even make a little delivery guy to send it to them!" He gestured vaguely in the air, seeming to get even more excited. "Or-or, maybe I could make the delivery guy a cute little cat. Just a cute little cat with a scooter!"
"I really don't think that's a good idea, Mikey." Leo said, slow and deliberate as he tried to snap his little brother out of whatever fantasy he was letting himself get caught up in. He knew how crazy Mikey's imagination could get and how impulsively he behaved, not really stopping to think about how his actions might be seen by others even when he meant well. Now that he had that crown, letting him indulge in those thoughts could quickly turn dangerous. "I mean, the others don't really know about the whole crown situation, so sending a bunch of food to them would probably make them wonder where it came from."
Mikey seemed unbothered, gesturing with one hand to clear off the table, making all the food that had been placed on it fly into the air. Not float into the air like the bowls, but the plates literally grew bird wings and flew away. "I don't think it'll be a big deal. I mean, I wouldn't really question it if someone randomly sent me food. But I guess I could probably add notes to let them know it's from me."
Leo raised a finger to try and argue, but quickly realized that Mikey really would eat food that just mysteriously appeared. It was also likely that Mikey wasn't going to listen to logic and that would just end up frustrating Leo, and he really didn't want to turn this into a argument when he'd been wanting to apologize when he first came in here. "Okay, I guess we were going to have to explain this situation to them eventually anyway, just please don't be too 'wild' with how you send the leftovers to them, alright?" Leo relented, settling into his seat.
Mikey just gave him a exaggerated offended face. "Me? Wild? Who do you take me for?" He asked in a melodramatic tone, placed one hand on his chest while leaning his other arm against his forehead, closing his eyes as if he felt insulted before promptly snapping back to being cheerful. He rushed over to the entrance of the kitchen, peeking through the curtain that they used as a door for the room before turning his head to look at Leo. "I'm guessing our other bros still aren't up yet?"
"Didn't seem like it." Leo replied quickly. "I could probably go and wake them up since it seems like breakfast is ready." Then he glanced back at the floating bowls, one of which moved to a empty frying pan on the stove and poured its contents, which seemed to be pancake batter, into it. The other one was still making more and more bacon. "Well...enough of breakfast is ready." He corrected himself, not really sure when Mikey himself would consider the breakfast to be done.
Mikey teleported himself right next to him again. "Don't worry dude, I'll handle it." He said, looking like he was about to snap his fingers.
But then Leo remembered what he'd been thinking about when he first went into the kitchen. "Wait! I actually wanted to talk to you about something!" He quickly said, gesturing for Mikey to stop.
His little brother blinked at that, before his expression looked oddly wary. "About what?" He asked nervously, though he was still smiling.
"I just...I wanted to say sorry for snapping at you the way I did yesterday." Leo started, a little hesitant as he tried to think of what the right way to go about this was. "I know you were just excited about seeing what that..." He gestured towards the crown, trying to keep his discomfort with it hidden. "...crown can do. It's just...you know those katanas were our father's first, so they mean a lot to me and when you changed them like that..." He paused for a long moment, he doesn't like admitting vulnerability to his brothers, but he also didn't want Mikey to think his reaction was out of pure anger with him personally. "I got scared of the chance that they might be stuck like that forever."
Mikey looked surprised at the apology, and then wilted a little when Leo admitted he'd been afraid. "Yeah, I was being kinda dumb when I did that." He admitted.
Leo felt like he'd already messed up. Apologies aren't supposed to make the other person feel worse, right? He'd just been trying to explain why he reacted the way he did, but instead it seemed he'd ended up making it a back-handed one. Hoping to still salvage things, he continued. "But, I shouldn't have yelled at you. I could've remained calm and asked for you to turn them back, or explained why what you did was a big deal to me. So I'm sorry for that, you didn't deserve it."
"Hey, it's no big deal." Mikey said, his smile brightening as he seemed to wave it off. "I'm used to it, and I'd probably be pretty mad too if it was me."
Leo let out a small sigh of relief. He clearly still needed a lot of practice when it came to apologizing to his brothers, but it'll get easier, and hopefully he'll be better able to recognize when apologies are needed in the future. Then he glanced at the stove again, seeing the animated frying pan throw more bacon on top of what had already become a mountain that completely concealed whatever plate may have been there. He hesitantly spoke again. "That being said...Do you think maybe you could cool it a little with the whole..." He gestured vaguely around the kitchen.
His little brother glanced around the room as if he was seeing it for the first time. He looked almost embarrassed when he took in the whole thing. "Okay, maybe I went a liiiiittle overboard on breakfast."
With that, Mikey stopped all the animated cooking supplies. With a clap they were all clean of whatever food they'd previously been covered in, and he used hand gestures to guide them all back to their proper places.
Happy that breakfast wouldn't escalate into being enough to feed a small country, Leo was about to start eating, but then Mikey spoke up again.
"Okay, now I gotta go wake up the local sleeping beauties!" His little brothers said eagerly, summoning a megaphone. "I'll be right back!"
With that, he rushed out of the room.
"RAPH! DONNIE! BREAKFAST IS READY!" He heard Mikey shout in the living room, loud enough to make Leo flinch from the loudness the megaphone added to his voice. Clearly their other brothers weren't responding as fast as Mikey wanted given it was followed by another, more irritated shout. "GUYS! GET YOUR LAZY BUTTS UP AND COME EAT!"
Leo stared at the kitchen doorway with a sense of dread at Mikey possibly continuing to yell for their brothers. Instead, there was a loud and sudden snap before his brother came back, looking irritable as he roughly pushed the drapes aside. "They'll be here in a sec." He told Leo, and went to stand next to the table, arms crossed over his chest as he tapped his foot impatiently.
Then the sound of two doors being slammed open somewhere filled the lair, and was quickly drowned out by ear-piercing alarms and shouting.
"What the heck!?" Leo heard Raph yell before his brother ran into the kitchen, seemingly being chased by a living alarm clock that proceeded to start jumping all over the irritated turtle who desperately tried to get it off.
He was soon joined by Donnie. "I'm up! I'm up!" The tallest turtle said as he ran into a room while being chased by another living alarm clock, unwittingly running right into Raph's shell and causing the two of them to fall and knock over some of the plates that were stacked to the ceiling with food. This resulted in the two of them laying in a heap, covered in a mess of pancakes and sticky syrup, all while the two alarm clocks jumped all over them. Raph looked like he was on the verge of screaming with rage, while Donnie just looked extremely confused by the situation.
Leo snorted at the sight, just barely managing to prevent it from becoming a full laugh. He let out a very fake sounding cough, covering his mouth with a fist as he did so in a effort to hide his amusement at his two brothers' embarrassing predicament.
Mikey didn't bother to hide his laughter, letting it ring out loudly in the room.
This made Raph turn his anger towards the one who was most obviously finding humor in his strange situation, and quickly realized Mikey was the one responsible for the whole thing when he saw the crown resting on the other turtle's head. He shot back up to his feet, causing Donnie to be flung off of him with a cry of surprise. He pointed a accusing finger at Mikey, one of the living alarm clocks jumping around on one of his shoulders. "You're still wearing that thing!?"
Mikey's laughter calmed down to a couple chuckles, before making the two living alarm clocks disappear. "Well, yeah, being able to do whatever you want is a pretty hard thing to pass up!"
Donnie slowly got up, taking one of the pancakes off his head and looking down at his syrup-covered self in disgust before giving Mikey a slightly concerned look. "I'm not sure wearing the crown so much is a good idea Mikey. We don't really know anything about it, like what its true nature is or what's powering its ability to make reality bend to the will of who is wearing it. Who knows what constant use can do to a person!"
The youngest rolled his eyes, hand going up to the crown on his head as if he was trying to protect it. "I'm fine, Dee. I had it on all night and it hasn't done anything bad to me."
Leo looked at Mikey in shock upon hearing that. He didn't even take off the crown to sleep? That thought was then followed by another that raised his briefly forgotten worries back to the front of his mind. "What do you mean you had it on all night? Did you sleep with it on?" It wasn't exactly what he wanted to ask, but he figured his brother's reaction would tell him what he needed to know more than just asking his real question immediately would.
Mikey's eyes darted between all of them nervously for a second, hand still held up protectively against the crown. "Um...yeah?" He answered with a quiet and very uncertain tone, before brightening up to a mask of his usual cheer, but his anxiety was still clear to see in the choppy way he spoke and how he seemed to need to take a moment to think about what he was saying. "Yeah! I totally slept last night...with the crown...wasn't up all-night messing around with it! Nope!" There was a smile on his face, but it looked weak, the kind he'd wear when he was really worried about getting in trouble and was trying to cover up whatever he did.
"You didn't sleep last night." Leo realized, saying it as a fact and making it clear he disapproved.
Irritation seemed to quickly overwhelm Mikey's anxiety upon hearing that. "It's not a big deal! I don't even feel tired right now!" He briefly gestured to the floor in front of him to emphasize his exasperation, then gestured to the table that Leo was still sitting at, giving his older brother a slightly pleading look before returning his attention to Raph and Donnie. "Can we all just sit down and eat already!?"
Donnie sighed, his expression giving away that he was both worried and frustrated. "Well, thanks to this." He waved a hand over his sticky and dirty body. "I need to take a bath first. And when I come back, I want you to take the crown off so I can try and study it after we eat." His voice was firm, trying to make it clear it was a command rather than a request. While Leo couldn't help that instinctive rise of irritation that came in when his brothers tried to take charge without asking his opinion first, but he knew that it was irrational to argue when he ultimately agreed with what Donnie was saying.
"Why wait?" Raph questioned, still glaring at Mikey and clearly still annoyed with the situation. "Just take the thing off already!" He said before attempting to snatch the crown off Mikey's head.
Rather than trying to dodge Raph or even use his new powers to perform some showy escape, Mikey elbowed Raph hard in the chest, practically growling out the words "BACK OFF!" as he did so.
The hit caused Raph to fall onto his butt. Donnie quickly knelt down in order to check on him, and Leo stood up from his seat. While Raph seemed to be more stunned at the sudden aggression and force behind the attack than actually hurt, the leader still wanted to be ready to step in if things further escalated into a proper fight.
For a few seconds their baby brother's stance remained tense, like he was ready to attack again if anyone got too close. Then something seemed to snap back into place, Mikey's pose looking more relaxed and casual, at least superficially. Leo could still see some slight tension in the way Mikey moved as the youngest spoke. "Raph, you got some syrup on me!" His tone sounded playfully annoyed as he brought his elbow close to his face. The pad covering it was now had a glob of maple syrup, but with a flick of his hand over the spot, Mikey made it disappear. "There, now how about we get you guys cleaned up too?"
While Leo couldn't get a clear look at Mikey's face, the slightly aggressive way his brother said that made it easy to imagine he was smirking.
Then Mikey gestured at the pair, sending torrents of water that came out of thin air at them.
"Mikey-!" Leo started, but the whole thing ended as quickly as it began.
Luckily, Raph and Donnie weren't hurt, mostly just shocked at how sudden that was. Both of them were coughing up some water though, and they were shivering.
"You...you think y-you could've d-done that a little less v-violent-ly?" Donnie asked, his voice quiet and nervous. It was clear that after seeing how suddenly aggressive their brother got with Raph, he wasn't quite as confident as he normally would be as he spoke.
"Sorry dudes, not done yet. I still need to get you dried off!" Mikey said, but just as he was beginning to lift his hands in some other gesture to prelude whatever he was going to do next, Leo's voice interrupted.
"Just give them towels!" He insisted, worried that Mikey might summon a giant hairdryer or think using giant toaster is a good idea. "Don't do anything big, please, just give them some towels to dry off with."
Mikey pouted at Leo as he glanced over his shoulder at him. "Ugh, fine!" He groaned in disappointment. Soon after a pair of towels fell on top of Donnie and Raph's heads, which they quickly used to dry themselves.
Once the two were completely dry, the towels disappeared, leaving Donnie and Raph staring at their hands.
"So, you guys good now?" Mikey asked, showing two thumbs up while quirking one of his eyebrows, glancing between the two. Hesitantly, Raph and Donnie nodded. "Good! So how about we just stop all this crown talk and eat?"
The two other turtles turned their eyes towards Leo, silently asking him what they should do. Clearly something was wrong with Mikey, either because he was going crazy with power, or the crown itself was doing something to him.
Leo quickly though about the situation they were in. Mikey, who they currently didn't know what he was capable of, was likely still irritated and ready to lash out again if they tried to either physically take the crown again or argue with him. As much as his little brother's behavior was already concerning him and he would like to stop things right here and now, he also knew that there was no way for them to take Mikey in a fight and expect to win and he wasn't going to be in the mood to listen right now. They'd have a better chance at actually convincing him if they gave him time to calm down and not feel like a cornered animal.
Having come to a decision, Leo nodded at the two before sitting back down in his seat.
Donnie caught on quickly, sputtering out "Y-yeah, I'm starving!" He nudged Raph's arm. "I'm sure Raph is too, right?"
Their hot-headed brother's gaze was conflicted, taking a few moments before slowly nodding and forcing out his words. "Yeah...let's eat."
"Great!" Mikey cheered, clapping his hands together in both excitement and summoning up the pair's plates of food and all their drinks, which appeared at the places the two normally liked to sit at. "I've got so many ideas on what to do today and...oh." The energetic tone of his voice died down as he glanced at some of the food that had been caught in the torrents of water. Unlike Raph and Donnie's bodies, the food was smashed against the wall, making a mess and ruining the food by making it soggy. "You guys go ahead and start eating, I just need a sec to clean this up!"
The two took their seats at the table. Donnie kept eyeing Mikey with concern, while Raph's attention was on Leo.
"So, we all know that whole thing was weird, right?" Raph whispered as he glanced between all of them.
Leo nodded. "I don't think it's a good idea to try anything so soon after that outburst, let's wait a couple hours for him to calm down and then we'll talk to him again." He explained, keeping his voice low and quiet to try and keep Mikey from hearing, before hardening his gaze as he looked into Raph's eyes. "And it's going to be a calm talk. We're going to try and get him to see why we're so worried without making him feel like he's being attacked or forced. We're not going to force the crown off of him unless Mikey absolutely refuses to listen or his behavior escalates, okay?"
Raph huffed at that, leaning back into his chair as he muttered "Fine." under his breath.
With that, the three of them tried to eat. Despite the food looking and tasting good, it was clear none of them were enjoying it due to the situation with Mikey. Leo turned his attention to Mikey, who was pointing at clumps of the ruined food and moving them into a tiny trash icon like what you'd see on a computer, which made the clumps disappear like they had never been there, humming some tune all the while.
As Mikey finished and turned around, smiling brightly as he walked over to join them, Leo forced a weak smile onto his face to mask his growing anxiety. He hoped he was making the right choice this time...