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Mikey shakes the nerves from his hands and knocks on the doorframe to Donnie's lab. There’s no actual door, but Mike’s polite and waits for the clear to enter.
He’s walked in on Donnie dealing with dangerous chemicals and highly reactive substances more times than he’d care to admit. He’d rather not re-live those experiences, even if it means using the guise of being polite. It looked like Donatello was doing some kind of programming or coding, tablet wired up to his battle-shell.
Donnie spared him a glance and waved at him, nodding once. The soft-shell wasn’t wearing the battle-shell, the whole thing just sat on the table sad and empty. It was a weight sight. Mikey hadn’t realized how unfamiliar it was to see Donnie's true shell. It wasn’t a bad sight of course, just weird. Donnie was just as strong and resilient as the rest of them, Mikey just needs to remind himself whenever he sees Donnie’s true shell.
Mikey hummed a soft note, questioning. Because sometimes Donatello was super uber hyper-focused on something and just couldn’t be distracted. This time Don hummed back, an answering tone. Mikey walks over, trying to get a closer look at what Donnie's doing now that he knows Donnie won't mind the company.
“Whatcha workin’ on?” He asks, leaning over his brother's shoulder.
There’s a pause in Donnie’s movements, he slides up his goggles and nods off at his battle-shell and then at the tablet hooked up to it. The screen of the tablet looked like a bunch of programming gibberish to Mikey. The box turtle just nodded in semi-understanding. He got the gist at least. He can hear about it more in-depth at another time.
“addin’ new gadgets or somethin'?” Mikey loved seeing all the cool new things the soft-shell could do. Being the first to hear about any of it was also a plus, if not just for his own ego. Not that he’d ever confess that. Donnie’s ego was already the size of a blimp.
Donnie held his hand out flat and tilted it side to side and shrugged. He pursed his lips and opened a new app on his tablet. Mikey recognized it and waited patiently as he typed.
((improving old stuff, nothing new)) comes the text-to-speech response.
“Mind if I sit and draw? No paint this time, promise” Mikey asks. He shivered at the flashback of having to scrape and peel paint off all of Donnie's tech from that one time. Never again.
Thankfully his promise earns him a smile, Donnie shrugs and gestures with his hand at the seat next to him. The gesture has Mikey smiling wide, even though he knows Don never really says no to these hangouts, he knows his brother. Some days are worse than others sensory-wise. Mikey just wants to be mindful of it all even if he doesn’t fully understand the funky way his brain’s wired.
Mikey knows Donnie prefers being in the same room with someone but doing different things, so both of them sitting quietly but still spending time together would be one of his favorite activities. Mikey also got a break from Leo and Raph's bickering, enjoying the lab's peace and spending time with his brother. It’s a win-win for both of them, really.
Mikey cheers and speeds off to get his supplies. He doesn’t want to make a mess, so he only grabs a few things. He nearly skips his way back, accidentally tripping over a step or two. He knocks on the doorframe to the lab again but walks right in knowing Donnie’s already expecting him. Said turtle smiles and scoots over, patting Mikey’s shell when he finally settles in. He hones back in on his tablet soon after, and Mikey flips to a work-in-progress page and tries to get a hold of his lineart.
They work quietly, apart but together. With how hectic their lives are naturally, this kind of quiet only comes so often.
And if Donnie made a specific playlist just for Mikey when they’re hanging out, cause he knows Mikey has a hard time focusing on just one thing? Well, that's his business. Donnie watched Mikey bob his head to the upbeat music coming from the tablet for a moment, very satisfied with his company.