Work Text:
Leo was on his bed, scrolling through his phone, looking at the latest memes, when he decided that it was time to get a snack from the kitchen. After getting up, Leo made his way out of his room, that was when he stumbled upon Mikey.
The young box turtle was sitting on the floor of the main atrium with his arms and legs crossed. He had a contemplative frown on his face: eyes scrunched close together and lips pursed. Scattered in front of him were numerous paints and brushes. However, Mikey’s gaze was focused on the canvas paper that was laying out in front of him.
Leo put his phone away. “Whatcha workin’ on there, bud?”
Mikey unfolded his arms- one was dotted with shades of colors due to it being used as a paint pallet- and leaned back on them; he tilted his head slightly to the side. “Just that piece I told you about earlier. I finished it actually.”
Leo took a better look at the painted canvas paper. The piece depicted a blue road that separated into three others; one of the pathways that branched off the main road was painted a bright green, the other a bright orange. The blue path that continued straight transitioned to a purple, eventually growing darker to a black. Leo noticed that a girl with long black hair that was in a plain dress was going down that dark road. The roads also led to certain outcomes as well. The bright green road led to two girls hugging and smiling; Leo assumed that represented friendship, love and support. The bright orange road led to a place that looked like paradise, lush green trees and plants surrounding a roaring waterfall. However, the trail that the girl was on led to nowhere, she just kept walking into an endless abyss.
Snack forgotten, the blue clad turtle sat next to Mikey, legs criss crossed. “I’m guessing this one is about taking different routes in life and each one ends in something different.”
“Yeah, that's the gist of it,” Mikey said, shrugging.
“Deep. A little different from your usual stuff.”
“I wanted to try something different.”
Leo hummed, glancing back at the painting, nodding his head. “Looks pretty good, bro. Real nice.”
“You think so?” Mikey turned his glance to his immediate older brother.
“Yeah.”
“Really? ‘Cause I hate it.”
That caught Leo by surprise. His dumbfounded gaze snapped back to Mikey, who had this almost disgusted scowl on his face. Leo couldn't understand what was wrong with the painting; from what he can tell, it had the same quality as Mikey’s other work.
Leo let out a confused laugh. “What, why?”
“Just look at it! How can you not hate it?! ” Mikey exclaimed, gesturing wildly at the painting with his hands. “The colors are awful -don't know what I was thinkin’. It looks sloppy -you can’t even tell those are two girls hugging. And don't even get me started on this whole outline!” Mikey ranted, listing all his reasons by counting off his fingers. He flopped back dramatically, lying onto the floor, covering his face with his hands. “Argh! I'm a disgrace to the Michelangelo name!”
Honestly, Leo had to disagreed with his little brother, but he knew better than to voice his opinion when Mikey was like this. Mikey is the artist of the family, which was obvious through the dozens of graffiti decorating the lair’s walls and the multiple sketch pads filled with drawings. And Mikey is good at what he does; his art could only be described as lively: the pictures always seemed to have this movement to them. However, there were times when Mikey would create this artwork and he would absolutely loathe it, much to the confusion of his brothers. The box turtle would always tell them it was just an artist thing.
“Well, as someone who doesn't have an artistic bone in his whole body, I’d say it's pretty good,” Leo said, finally recovering from being caught off guard from Mikey’s statement - he probably would never get used to when Mikey has a artwork of his that he doesn't like, because all of his brother’s stuff is so good.
Mikey groaned, dragging his hands down his face. “But you can see the brushstrokes,” he mumbled, “it looks messy.”
“I actually like that you can see the brushstrokes,” the red-eared slider admitted, “it looks like it goes along the paths.”
Mikey shook his head. “Nope, can't convince me. I still don't like it. Two days of my life wasted.”
“I like it if it makes you feel any better.”
“Well, your artistic level is not there yet, but that's okay, I'll fix that,” Mikey remarked, making Leo laugh, which lead to both turtles falling into companionable silence- Mikey still lying on his carapace with his immediate older brother sitting next to him. Leo decided to slip out his phone and resume scrolling through his feed, occasionally showing Mikey if he saw something that could get a laugh out of his younger brother.
They continued this routine for a few minutes, until Mikey suddenly bolted upright and yelled, “OH BABY, I GOT IT!”
Leo yelped, flailing wildly, hands reaching to catch his phone, startled by Mikey’s sudden outburst. “Gah! Oh my pizza supreme in the sky, Michael!” Leo exclaimed, hand pressed against his chest, trying to calm his racing heart, “You almost scared the stripes off of me!”
The box turtle scrambled to gather his paints and brushes, leaving the painting where it was. “Yeah yeah, you're fine. Now if you'll excuse me, I have unfinished business to attend to!”
“Hey, where ya going?” Leo asked, but was left unanswered as Mikey ran out of the main atrium to his bedroom. Leo heard a commotion coming from his brother’s room, and after a few seconds, Mikey reappeared from his room, sketch pad and pens and pencil in hand. The orange clad turtle plopped down right next to his brother and immediately began to draw in pencil.
Within a few minutes, Leo realized that Mikey was redrawing the painting. Mikey was immersed in his drawing, creating lines to form an image; Leo decided it was best to stay quiet since Mikey didn't let his brothers watch him if they were going to disrupt him, and Leo didn't want to be shooed away because he actually liked watching Mikey do art -it was calming.
“Quick,” Mikey said suddenly, not even looking up from the sketch pad, “what is the first thing that makes you think of freedom?”
Leo blinked. “Umm, birds.”
Mikey’s hand that was holding the pencil stopped moving, as if thinking about the idea; then with a nod of satisfaction and an approving hum, Mikey resumed his sketching. When Michelangelo was done sketching with the pencil, he began to reach for the black pens that had different thicknesses (Leo always had to have his younger sibling explain to him what these type of pens were, but he could never remember). Once he found the right one, Mikey began to shade in the area.
“How do you know where to shade in?” Leo asked. He could never understand how Mikey just knew.
“Practice, I guess,” Mikey suggested, shrugging, “Just doing what feels right.”
Mikey continued to shade in the bottom, making the pathways appear like bridges going over a dark, endless chasm. The paradise on the painting were replaced with birds flying- they looked like doves. He grabbed one of the thinner pens and began to outline the sketch.
“Oh baby, now this is more worthy of the name Michelangelo! And done in about 30 minutes- that's a record!” The orange-masked turtle exclaimed, arms stretched outward in front of him with his hands holding the newly-finished piece in order to admire it.
Leo leaned in to get a better look and gave a lopsided smile. “Yeah okay, I see how this one’s better, but the other one is still good”
“Nope, it's still an abomination.”
“So what are you going to do with it since it’s ‘an abomination’, as you so nicely put it?” Leo asked, raising an eye ridge.
When the two other brothers soon entered the room, asking exactly why their youngest sibling was slowly tearing apart a painting he did with a manic smile on his face, Leo just shrugged, a knowing smile on his face, and said, “Eh, it's just an artist thing.”