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Michelangelo is the funny one, Dr Prankenstein, the youngest, and the dumb, lazy child.
That's what everyone calls him and he knows it.
So he just put on his smiling mask.
Act
Pretend that it doesn't hurt.
Ignore when you slip up and yell.
They ignore him when he’s upset so why can't he ignore himself?
The glorious magic veil of space quickly wore off after one too many close calls with death. Honestly Death and him are bros at this point- friends that neither of them wanted to be friends to begin with.
Mikey groans and rolls his shoulders in the training room of the spaceship. Everyone else was relaxing or sleeping. Healing after a close call on a planet for spaceship fuel that of course ended up with them getting into a scrap.
It wasn't even his fault! Still they found a way to blame it on the “space case, dumb one”. He growls and hits the sandbag. Yeah, Raph was usually the one who used it. They didn't think Mikey actually trained but he did, just not when anyone was looking.
So here he was, getting his frustration out on an inanimate object when the sound of buzzing started to prickle his senses.
He groans and places his hands over ears, tapping his fingers over his skull to get the sound to stop. It usually did the trick but this time it only made it worse.
The feelings of bugs crawling over his scales mixed with the ever growing loud buzzing grew to be too much and he yelled. The orange turtle fell to his knees, his claws scraping up and down his arms until things suddenly went silent and black.
Raph was the first to reach Mikey who was surprisingly in the training room, his knuckles wrapped and the sand bag warm.
Mikey was on the floor twitching and he wasn't responding to Raph’s voice. His heart got caught in his throat as he yelled for his brothers to get there. A frantic looking Leo and a worried Donnie came in alongside their metal adult supervisor Fugitoid.
Long story short they got transported into Mikey’s mind and well, it was a hippy’s paradise. Lots of flowing colors swirling around in a living, breathing ocean wave. The sun was bright and radiant yet the air was still bitterly cold against their scales. As they made their way through the hallway they passed by variants of Mikey’s.
There was one who spoke only backwards, its body constantly moving in ways that would surely have the bones broken and snapped with the way they rolled around.
Besides that one was a Mikey that was eating piles of food that never ran out, fat teras spilled from his eyes, choking wet sobs through each mouthful, its eyes looked over at them, pleading for help but Raph just closed his eyes and kept walking away even if it twisted his heart to see his baby bro crying.
At the end of the hall, standing in front of a blocked off chasm was a humongous figure of their youngest brother, its eyes were white and focused, a sharp scowl carved into its face. Its arms were crossed and sitting in the nook of its arms was the smallest version of their brother they'd seen yet.
Barely ten years old, with his large pale watery blue eyes looking up at his larger figure with the look a child only gives to a parent protecting them from a child.
“Go away- you do not belong here.” The large figure demanded form them, deepening the scowl in his face.
Little Mikey looked between the group and the Big Mikey with fear, peeking out from the crook of his elbow, the handmade paper crown he wore was slightly crooked on his head and Raph was holding himself back from fixing the crown. He whispered to Big Mikey who grunted at his words and set the child down who didn't leave his side, grabbing onto his leg wrappings.
Slowly Little Mikey looked between them, his tiny fist brought to his mouth and with one quick glance up at his larger form did he take a tiny step out towards them.
Raph kneels down with a small smile on his face and he reaches his hand out to his little brother.
“Hey Mikester, we’re so glad to find you,” his smile grows slightly with his two other brothers placing a hand on either side of his shoulders. “We have to fight some baddies who are here and they're hurting you, do you know where they are?”
Mikey's’ baby blue eyes watered as he anxiously looked back up to the bigger form of him and ran back to him, tears spilling from his eyes.
The anger lessened on his face as he scooped his smaller form off the ground, his face almost turning kind, the most it could muster as he held the child to his chest using just the palm of his hand before turning the scowl back on them.
“You are not needed here. I am the protector of the Creator's Mind,” a moment's pause as if he was listening to someone before he continues. “He doesn't want you here.”
“That's my brother! He’s hurt! We’re going to help him and you can't stop us!” Raph growls at the larger Mikey whose scroll deepens at the red brother's words. “MIKEY! IT'S YOUR BROS!” he shouts to the enclosed area as if that would do anything but give everyone a migraine at the echoing words of worried induce anger. “WE’RE HERE TO HELP YOU!”
Large Mikey glared down at them as he gets close to Raph’s face and sneers at him. “You are not wanted- the more you argue the more I grow as does my influence on the min d.” He looks at the other brothers before continuing.
“Donatello- you do nothing but treat Michelangelo as if he's an idiot who doesn't know anything, tell me Mr so called ‘genius’ would you still be considered a genius if you didn't learn from your books? Are your other brothers also imbeciles? Why do you hold your brain over everyone else instead of bringing everyone else to the same level. Are you so insecure in yourself and your abilities that you end up blind to your brother’s own way of genius?” Donatello shrinks further into his shell with each sentence the giant says, guilt and confusion carving itself into his features.
He leaves Donatello to mull his thoughts over as he turns to address the rest of the brothers. “He has saved you all many times but he always ends up getting cheated and you boys never remember what has transcended but that doesn't diminish the fact that without your brother you'd be dead long before this.”
“And you Leonardo-” Leo flinches just slightly at the gaze but quickly squares his shoulders. “You are the eldest and he understands that you have a lot on your plate and the way you handle yourself in regards to everyone else, he is not dumb he notices everything about each and everyone one of you.” His face softens just a smidgen towards the blue leaders. “He admires you, you're his hero and it hurts him when you don't want him on missions, when you push him away or only use him as bait.” A low wailing cry comes from the closed off tunnel that Raph had momentarily forgotten about until that sound followed by wet sobs tug at his guts. “He doesn't’ think that he’s important- he thinks that he’s disposable in your eyes.”
Raph pulls away from the group despite knowing that he’ll be the next to get a lecture from the giant but still his feet pull him to the pit. A strong cold wind pulls him closer, his body swaying, his white knuckle grip on the fence being the only thing stopping him from tumbling into the pit closer to the familiar sound.
Wet sobbing, different from the Mikey earlier, this one sounded like a child with a scraped knee but no one was paying him any attention- no one was there to tend to their wounds in a long time…
“RAPHAEL!” Raph whips his head around to the giant Mikey who picks him up with his hand yanking him to his face, eyes still white in seriousness and his breath is hot with heavy breathing. “STAY AWAY FROM THAT PIT! YOU ARE NOT TO GO THERE!”
Raph glares back at him and pulls himself close to the giants face- mindful of the small Mikey still on his shoulder. “THAT SOUNDS LIKE MIKEY! MIKEY IS HURTING DOWN THERE AND YOU DON'T WANT ME TO GO THERE? THATS BULLSHIT! THAT'S MY BABY BROTHER! IF HE’S HURTING I’M GOING TO HELP HIM!” He squirms out of the hold but the giant’s grip doesn't lessen. The child whispers in his ears after a moment, his crown even more on the verge of falling off his head.
“Tell us Raph- why should we believe you?”
“What?”
“ Why should we let you go and save Mikey?”
“He’s my baby brother, that's why!”
BZZZT “ Wrong- try again.”
Raph groans, his eyes flashing white before he takes a deep breath. This wasn't about him, it's about Mikey. “That's my brother and I love my brothers.” The giant stares at him waiting patiently for him to continue. Raph feels his face warm up as he avoids looking in his brother's direction. “I love them and I’m terrified of them being hurt and I’m not around to be there to help them okay? That's why I freak out, that's why I’m hard on them all the time. I want them to be prepared for anything so I hurt them- but I don't want to hurt them.. Not on purpose…they're my brothers,” his voice cracks on the last words as he blinks away the tears that are forming in his eyes. “I push them away because I’m scared I won't be able to control my anger and I’ll end up hurting them- splitting our family in half like the Shredder and Sensei..”
Little Mikey crawls over to Raph and hesitantly pats his cheek with a small smile. That's enough for the tears to spill from Raph's eyes as he pulls the child form of his baby brother in his arms.
“I’m so sorry I hurt you Mikey- you’re my baby bro and I love you…”
The giant places them on the ground and little Mikey runs to give Leo a hug who spins him in the air like the way they used to before Donnie comes in and straightens the crown on his head with a small smile.
The giant looks over at them- his face a soft scowl as he nods. “ You may proceed and save Mikey- you have our blessing and we will aid you to where they are in the mindscape, but do not go down that hole… it is not a kind one or meant for your sights until he is ready to share it. ” The area grows silent all but the quiet sobbing and wails in the pit that fills Raph's stomach with icy dread.
True to their words they do help the brothers and in the end they’re able to save Mikey from the Neutrinos and with a press of a button Fugitoid is able to pull them from his mindscape to the real world again.
Mikey wakes up with a pounding headache, white spots swimming in his double vision as he lands on his brothers next to him on the ground. Their faces range from relief and relaxation and Fugitoid gives him a thumbs up.
The orange turtle groans and turns over to the other side. “Go away, I have a headache,” he grumbles, his social battery too damn low to wear a mask around his family. Right now he just wants peace and quiet with his thoughts, is that too much to ask?
A rough hand finds its place on his upper shell and tugs him to look back at his brothers. Raph is smiling at him with a strange fondness that pricks at Mikey's usual anxiety.
“It’s okay Mikey, we’re here for you.” Raph says calmly and Mikey yanks himself away from his brother.
“What?”
“Well it's no surprise that you have a headache after us running through your mind trying to find and defeat the neutrinos-'' Donnie's speech was interrupted by Leo hitting him on the arm. “Dude!”
Leo makes a motion of his hand cutting across his throat, telling Donnie to cut it out which sparks Mikey's anger.
“YOU WERE IN MY MIND?!” He grabs onto Raph's shoulders, his eyes flashing white, his claws digging into his brother's scales. He knew it must hurt but Raph doesn't even flinch, he just sits there smiling that damn sad smile on his face. “WHAT DID YOU SEE!” He turns to the midnight duo brothers. “WHY IS RAPH LOOKING AT ME LIKE THIS?”
“Mikey it's okay- we understand.” Leo says calmly and reaches his hand out but Mikey flinches back as if he was burned.
“What. Did. you. See?” The orange brother spat out his words.
“I’m sorry,” Donnie says, his voice soft as he looks at his brother and Mikey scrunches his face in confusion.
“W-what for?”
“For never realizing how helpful and smart you are Mikey. When we’re back on Earth, if you want I can teach you some stuff so we can be official lab partners if you want?”
Donnie smiles and offers his hand to his brother and Mikey's eyes burn with growing tears as he looks between them.
“W-what?
“I’m sorry too Mikey,” Leo chimes in, wrapping his arm around Donnie’s shoulder. “You’re our brother but we haven't been treating you very well. You're not a sidekick, you're our equal and we love you even if we don't show it in the best way or the way that you understand.”
The orange turtle's eyes grow wide and he blinks away the tears that are coming and he pushes them away. “What are you talking about?! I’m fine! Stop acting so weird!”
Raph pulls him into a fiercely tight hug and whispers, “It’s okay Mikey, you don't have to talk about it right now but we love you, don't forget that please.”
Mikey's heart twists and he can feel the anger and confusion sweeping away with each tear rolling down his face.
He calls into his brother's arms who continues to hold him and his two other older brothers come to them on the ground and hold each other until the too familiar sound of Mikey’s crying slows down.
He’ll talk about it one day, his giant anger won't go away overnight but, day by day, talking to his brothers, opening up about his feelings, well… it’ll get better.
Communication really is the key, don't let your feelings bury you alive.