Chapter Text
Mikey glared at the wall with an intensity like no other. It wasn’t perfect. Hell, he didn’t even think it was good. But he let his brother’s words echo in his brain.
“I think you should draw somethin’! Art’s always been yer thing, plus the lair could use some brightenin’ up!”
Mikey was always doing art, but did his brothers really think that was his thing? I guess he was better than they were at least. Whenever they all ended up with a pen and paper in their hands, Mikey’s usually ended up being the most legible. Still.
He stared at the wall a little longer, the colors beginning to mesh together and the lines blurring. He blinked the random dizziness away and backed up, taking in a deep breath and spinning on his heel. Well. He had finally finished. He picked up his paint-splattered phone off the floor and checked the time. Woah. It had been three hours since he started.
Time flies by a little too fast nowadays, Mikey thought with a smirk. He opened up his phone and went to the family group chat aptly named “bitches”. Simple, yet always funny.
Guys I finished my painting :P come tell me what u think
YOOOOOOOOOOOO
Cool!
Mikey laughed at the difference in responses between Raph and Leo. Their personalities could be told apart just by the way they text. Of course Donnie responded with a simple thumbs up cat gif. Classic. Mikey smiled once more before setting his phone back down on the ground- face down this time to avoid anymore paint mishaps- and picking up supplies to clean.
Mikey reached down to pick up the empty spray can bottles, markers, stencils, paint brushes, and water cup he had been using to rinse out the paint. He began to hum along to a tune in his head, feeling a sense of stress relief from the cleaning of his room. After cleaning the floor, he looked back at his work. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as he thought. Obviously his brothers would always be supportive, but they were always astounded by Mikey’s art. Leo always told him that he gave anything he touched a sort of “pizzazz” or whatever he meant by that.
As he picked up the cup of dirty paint water once more in order to dump it out outside of his subway car slash room, he felt a single instantaneous sting of pain run up his arms.
“Ow!” He yelped, dropping the cup on the floor, mud-colored water splattering across his (clean enough) floor. He backed up into the wall, watching his hands spasm uncontrollably, a light yellow glow emanating underneath the bandages wrapped tenderly around his arms by Donnie after the attack. Mikey gritted his teeth and tried his hardest to steady his hands.
Deep breaths, he thought, just calm down and it’ll be over soon.
Mikey knew it would be okay. This happened a lot now. After the Krang attack. After he opened a freakin portal to another dimension. He had suffered some pretty major injuries from it all. But to him, none of it mattered. They got Leo back, they got their brother back, so it was all worth it. These little minor tremors did get pretty annoying, though. Mikey took in a long, drawn out breath before moving off of the wall he was leaning on. The glow beneath his bandages had begun to fade, but his trembling hands still felt uncontrollable.
“Damn it,” he said exasperatedly.
Almost as if on cue, the door to his subway car was thrown open.
“Ok big man, lets see your next great masterp-“
Before Raph could finish his encouraging sentence, his right foot glided across the wet floor, bringing his large body down to the ground with a pained “OOF!”
Mikey looked at Raph and winced, making his way over to his oldest brother, his arms trembling to his side. Raph sat up, rubbing the part of his head that hit the ground first.
“What the…” he said quietly, realizing the space around him was wet with….suspicious looking water.
“Raph! Are you okay?” Mikey asked, kneeling beside him.
“I’m fine, Mike, but why’s yer floor covered in…what I desperately hope is just dirty water.”
Mikey giggled, holding out his less-shaky hand to help Raph up.
“Yea, it is. Spilled the water I was using to clean my brushes. Nothing toxic or anything.”
After Raph was able to stand up, he looked Mikey up and down. Mikey could feel his eyes slowly shifting down to his arms, which he immediately hid behind his back once he was done helping Raph up off of the ground.
“Your arms are shakin’ a bit still huh?” Raph asked, his mother hen tone picking through his rough voice. “Think you should get checked by Donnie again?”
Mikey huffed, annoyed. He hated when Raph babied him like this. It was just a little tremor, nothing he couldn’t handle himself. He wished his brothers would stop worrying about him so much. He could worry about his own well-being for God’s sakes!
“I’m fine Raph, honestly. It’s definitely better than it was a week ago,” Mikey said, trying to lighten the air with a smile while saying the last sentence. That seemed to have worked, as Raph mirrored the same soft smile and rubbed his head.
“Good to hear, but please let me or one of the others know if somethin’ starts hurtin’.”
Before Mikey could respond, he heard another voice enter the subway car.
“Ok now that everyone’s favorite brother has arrived, let’s see the Mikester’s next great masterp-“
At nearly the exact same time that Raph got cutoff, Leo’s sentence was cut short by his immediate fall face-first on the floor. Luckily, Raph had faster reflexes than gravity, grabbing his brother by the shell before making impact with the floor. Leo squeaked out a “thanks” before Raph pulled him upright. Mikey watched as Raph and Leo made their way over to him. He noticed Leo’s limp, one that had gotten significantly better over the past month, but was still quite noticeable, especially when he was required to do anything that wasn’t lying down or standing completely still. Obviously Leo had gotten the most physically hurt during the Krang invasion. He had a major concussion, broken ribs, a cracked shell, a broken arm, a fractured ankle, internal bleeding, and well other stuff Mikey blocked out when Donnie was listing them all.
Leo had only gotten clearance to leave his room just two days ago, but seemed to be adjusting as normal as anyone could after something like an alien invasion. Raph on the other hand still wore the temporary eyepatch that Donnie gave him, the scar on his eye still not completely healed from his whole brainwashing thing. He said it was fine, but they could all tell it bothered him once in a while, whether that be a slight twitch in his face or a trembling hand under the table. Mikey, Leo, and Donnie assumed he wouldn’t get rid of the eyepatch because Raph didn’t want them to worry about him, but that didn't stop them from letting him choose the movies on movie nights and letting him get the first plate at dinner. He was the oldest after all.
Mikey zoned back into reality as he watched Leo and Raph scramble off of the wet floor.
“That’s just water on the ground, right?” Leo asked concerned.
“Yea,” Raph and Mikey responded in unison.
“Good. Now, lets see it, Mike,” Leo said lightheartedly.
Mikey led them over to the wall he had been working on for the past three hours, standing to the side of it so they could see the art in all of its glory.
“Tadaaaaa,” Mikey said, a smile beaming on his face. He was a little nervous, not sure if his brothers would like it as much as his works before the invasion. Before the Krang, his hands weren’t nearly as shaky, and his art definitely had more color to them. But nevertheless, he had to welcome these changes to his art style with open arms, regardless of how much it pissed him off.
“Woah,” Raph breathed, his face caught in astonishment. Leo’s face was nearly the same, but he had a large grin on his face.
“Mikey,” Leo said excitedly, “this is like, so amazing. Like bro, how do you even do this?”
Mikey laughed.
“I don’t know, I just kinda….do it?”
Leo chuckled loudly.
“I mean come on, you literally have Raph speechless. Give yourself some credit. At least one of us has a cool talent, huh Raph?” Leo stated, wrapping one of his arms around Raph’s neck.
Mikey smiled wide at his brother’s compliments, turning around to gaze at his own art.
He saw swirls of colors, darker in shade, but highlighted in the light of the subway car, with figures taking center stage. Orange, blue, purple, and red being the primary colors of the piece, with a striking neon green to combat the darkness of the background.
Huh. Maybe he did just need to take a step back. This was pretty good. Mikey smiled to himself and turned to look at his brothers. Raph had finally snapped himself out of the trance he was in to compliment Mikey.
“Yea big guy, this is pretty stinkin’ cool, best one i’ve seen in a while.”
“Thanks guys, wish I could’ve done it sooner but…” Mikey looked down at his arms, which had finally stopped trembling.
“Aye hermano, no need to worry about that. We’ve all been recovering so we know how it is to feel…off of your game. Point is this shit is amazing and I’m sending it to April as we speak.”
Leo whipped out his phone from wherever he had it and snapped a photo. Mikey and Raph’s phone almost immediately buzzed with a message. It was from a group chat with the turtle brothers and April, named “bitches and another one”. They thought they were funny.
APRIL LOOK AT THIS SHIT&*$^$!)%#
Sent an Image
Woah, our resident prodigy back at it again!!! Lookin good as hell Mikey! >:)
They laughed simoultaneously at April’s response.
“Say, where’s Donnie?” Raph asked, putting his phone away and looking around the cart.
“Probs still in his lab. He said he was busy ‘sciencing’ but I think he’s just bad at making up an excuse for me to leave him alone,” Leo replied with an over-exaggerated eye roll.
“I’m sure he saw Mikey’s art of the group chat, though. He better anyway.”
Just as Leo finished his sentence, they got a notification that Donnie liked Leo’s message containing the image on the group chat.
“Hah, see, told you so.” Leo said sarcastically.
Mikey began to feel tired, his feet wobbling against the floor and a yawn escaping his lips. Raph and Leo took that as a sign for them to leave. They smiled at their youngest brother, and nodded at each other in agreement.
“Well Mikey, thanks for showing us your rad new painting, but I think Raph and I are probably gonna head to bed. You good for the rest of the night?” Leo asked, finally releasing hold of Raph’s neck and tilting his head.
“Yea, I’m good. Probably gonna just….get some rest too….” Mikey said, his body nearly dragging itself to the hammock in the corner of his room.
“Alright see you bozos in the morning,” Leo spouted before walking out of the subway car with a limp, carefully eyeing the outline of the now growing puddle on the floor. Raph and Mikey watched him leave before turning back to each other. Raph sighed only the way an older brother could.
“I’m glad he’s back on his feet. Things are starting to feel kinda normal again huh…” Raph asked with a tired smile.
Mikey smirked. “Yea…”
With that, Raph shook his head and tried to brighten his face.
“Well, g’night Mikesters. See ya’ in the morning. Oh, and might wanna clean up that water before someone else gets humbled.” Raph said lightheartedly on his way out of the subway car, taking the same route as Leo to avoid another fall.
“Night Ralph!” Mikey shouted as Ralph disappeared behind the door, the silence now falling on the subway car faster than Mikey was ready for. He sighed, listening to the quiet ambience of the sewers before shaking his arms. The horrible feeling had finally gone away, but something still felt uncomfortable. Whatever, Mikey was too tired to give a shit tonight. He walked over to the old wooden desk in the corner of the car, the top covered in junk he had put off cleaning for actual years. He rummaged around and found an old rag, lifting it up to see a gaping, stringy hole in the middle of it. Mikey shrugged with little energy.
Good enough, he thought tiredly.
Mikey got on his knees and began soaking up the dirty water off of his floor. He giggled when he saw the slide marks both Ralph and Leo had made coming in. They were both going in the same direction, starting in the exact same place.
As Mikey was cleaning up, he felt his body grow heavy. The exhaustion of creativity was finally catching up to him. He quickly finished up soaking up as much water as he could before throwing the now soaking wet rag in the corner and stumbling over to his hammock.
Mikey climbed in, which proved to be a struggle considering his arms still felt unnaturally weak.
Damn these stupid arms, he thought angrily.
After finally succeeding, he got in a position he knew would be comfortable enough to sleep in. Before trying to sleep, he held his hands out in front of him. He couldn’t help the frown that formed on his face.
Why couldn’t he just be normal again? I mean, his brothers had gone through so much worse, and here he was fighting his own arms. He couldn’t help his brothers because of his own health, and that killed him. That was his job after all.
He knew they were in pain, that they were struggling, but they always tried to act okay around Mikey. He just wished they would open up to him. He wasn’t weak or fragile! Was he? Well, Mikey didn’t think so.
Mikey sighed, closing the rabbit hole he could feel his brain spiraling down. He closed his eyes and let the relief of sleep wash over him.
……………….
Shit.
It was dark.
Like really, really dark.
Wait.
No.
Light.
Really bright.
Explosions.
Everything is falling.
It all falls down.
Gone.
He’s gone.
He’s gone.
He’s gone.
No.
He is not.
Open.
Open.
Open.
There he is!
He is right there!
Hands are in front of me.
HE is right in front of me!
So is the beast.
Grab him.
Someone grab him!
Grab him!
Hurry!
Wait.
Hands are down.
Lights are gone.
He is gone.
I lost him.
I lost him.
It was me.
My hands.
He is gone and it was me and my hands and everyone is gone and it was me and I am now gone and.
And it is dark.
It’s dark.
It’s dark!
IT’S DARK!
IT’S D-
Mikey shot up, his scream muffled by his hand clasped around his mouth. As his senses adjusted, the silence of his room grew loud, his gasping breath like a hum in the night.
Nightmare, was all his brain could come up with. As he looked around his room, desperately trying to anchor his consciousness in reality, he could feel his brain attempting to form coherent thoughts.
Leo! Where’s Leo? He’s gone! No! Everyone is gone! No, stupid! You just saw him earlier! And Raph! And you texted Donnie! And you texted April! They are here! Hands!
Mikey whipped his hand off of his mouth, the scream he harbored successfully subdued. His hand had a fading yellow glow, similar to earlier. It didn't shake or feel painful like the first time, which was a nice welcome. Mikey’s eyebrows furrowed.
This is why we don’t think sad thoughts before bed Mikesters, Mikey said in his head with Leo’s voice. Hearing advice in his mind with his brothers’ voices made everything feel okay. It was like they were always there with him.
Mikey nodded to mind Leo and took a deep, cleansing breath. He looked out into his subway car. It looked so big now. So empty. His eyes fell on his mural. Four colors, four brothers. It wasn’t his favorite, but his family liked it, and that’s all that mattered.
Damn it. I definitely can’t fall back asleep now. He thought, exasperated. Mikey was beginning to grow more annoyed than anything at these late night interruptions of his beauty sleep. He placed his wobbly feet on the ground and stood up slowly, still trying to find his footing in reality. He felt his way around the darker part of his room and found his kusari fundo laying on the ground.
Oops, he thought, vaguely remembering his dad telling him and his brothers as kids that ninja weapons were to never be placed on the ground. A ninja’s weapon was a huge part of their life, so they had to treat it with respect. Mikey shook the random memory away and slid his subway car door open slowly to avoid any noise, and slipped out.
“Justtttt need some fresh air, won’t be gone too long,” he whispered into the darkness, justifying his impulsive decision to himself. He didn’t really need to tell his brothers. He really didn’t want them to worry. They had done that for too long. He just wanted to clear his head was all, not a big deal.
He found the nearest manhole cover after walking down the brick tunnels of the NYC sewers and climbed up hastily, too excited to take in that iconic NYC ambience to remember his phone still sitting face down on the floor of his subway car.