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Even when he was young, Mikey had always been fighting an uphill battle against night terrors. While his brothers all grew out of waking up coated in a cold sweat and in tears, Mikey could never go too long without some horribly vivid dream waking him up. There was always something lurking in the dark, his mind had convinced him, waiting to hurt him and his family when the time was right. He sometimes wondered if they were a side effect of some deep rooted paranoia or anxiety, but Donnie had convinced him otherwise, so he stopped trying to find a logical explanation to them. Maybe they were just coded into his DNA.
This being said, he’d gotten into the habit of counting the days since his last nightmare. There was no pattern as of yet, but he knew when to get paranoid about having one. It wasn’t that he despised having them, that wasn’t the whole problem. A good portion of it was not wanting to wake his brothers and alert them there was something wrong.
The pattern was what led Mikey to lying wide awake on his back, staring at the ceiling. He hadn’t gotten very good sleep the past two nights from his persistence in avoiding the nightmare if at all possible, but he knew he couldn’t keep it up forever. He knew he’d have to sleep eventually.
He rolled onto his side and curled up, staring at the wall. Fortunately, with Raph’s snoring from across the room, it was considerably more difficult to fall asleep, regardless of his attempts.
That didn’t, however, mean it was impossible.
Mikey sat up abruptly later in the night, gasping for air and kicking the blanket off his sweat coated legs. That one wasn’t as bad as others, he told himself. It didn’t deserve a meltdown.
Needless to say, his body didn’t listen. His legs were moving before he told them to, and he suddenly found himself hurling what was left of dinner into the toilet across the hall. He sagged against the porcelain, tears rolling down his face. He couldn’t keep himself sitting up past the tremors that combed through his body. Thoughts flew through his mind at a pace that made his heart rate speed up. He couldn’t close his eyes for fear of seeing what had scared him so violently in the first place.
“Mikey?”
He jumped and whipped around to see Leo standing in the doorway. His hair was ruffled, and he looked like he’d just woken up- probably because of Mikey.
Mikey took a shuddering breath before falling into more sobs. Leo moved into the bathroom and crouched down next to him, taking Mikey’s arms in his hands so he could pull the smaller towards himself. Mikey rested his head against Leo’s chest, gasping for air, and the elder pressed his hand against his forehead.
“... bad dream?” He asked, voice soft and calming, and Mikey nodded, choking out another sob. Leo shushed him, wrapping his arms around Mikey and rocking back and forth slowly.
“Leo, what’s-“ Raph appeared in the doorway but stopped when he saw Mikey curled up in his lap, breathing irregularly in an attempt to calm himself down. Mikey shifted and looked up at Raph with wide eyes, tears still rolling down his cheeks.
“I-‘m s-sorry….” Mikey breathed, causing Leo to adjust his hold and reach up to comb his fingers lightly through his hair.
“You don’t have to be sorry for anything, Mike,” Leo murmured.
Mikey hiccuped and pressed against Leo, wrapping his arms around him shakily. As much as he despised waking his brothers for something as stupid as a nightmare, he still appreciated their company. It made it a bit easier to bear.
Leo slowly hefted Mikey to his feet and the youngest stumbled beside him, shaking. “I can take him back to bed,” Raph grunted, reaching over and gingerly taking Mikey’s arm at the elbow. Leo nodded and let go, and Mikey quickly latched against Raph’s side. Pressing his free hand against the small of Mikey’s back, Raph led the youngest back across the hall and to the bedroom the two shared.
Unlike Mikey expected, Raph led him over not to Mikey’s bed, but to his own, and sat down with Mikey beside him. Mikey took a slow breath, curling his fingers in around a fistful of Raph’s shirt. Raph rubbed his hand up and down Mikey’s back slowly.
“Don’t you…” Mikey started, but he was cut off by a grunt.
“It sleeping in your own bed gives you nightmares, then we’ll try this for a night.”
Mikey looked up at him, surprised, but Raph found the wall much more interesting, so he didn’t push it and instead curled up against Raph’s side.
“Okay,” he whispered softly in response, and felt as Raph turned his head to look at him.
Mikey was faintly aware of Raph carding his fingers through his hair, but he was already half asleep, and there was no point in waking up. Besides, stirring would risk scaring Raph off, and to say the soft combing wasn’t comforting would be a total lie.
—
Raph watched as Mikey sagged against his side, drifting off quite quickly once Raph started mimicking the notion he’d found Leo doing when he walked into the bathroom. He was almost surprised it’d worked so well, but he wasn’t about to question it. Maybe it’d help Mikey sleep soundly for the few hours left in the night.
Raph lay down and positioned Mikey against him carefully, focusing on keeping him asleep more than anything. Raph wasn’t oblivious to the effects nightmares could have on people, so he was more than happy to make sure Mikey was comfortable.
He resumed carding his fingers gently through Mikey’s hair once he had him positioned, and stared at the wall, letting his mind wander to wondering what exactly had scared Mikey so bad.