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“Do I really gotta wear these things?”
Mikey holds out his arms as an added emphasis, the rubber water wings make a hollow squeaky sound where they’re fitted snug to both his upper arms.
Raph shoots him a pointed look before answering his question.
“Michael,” he says rather diplomatically. “This pool is gonna have a deep end. Deeper than any sewer we’ve surfed. It’s better to just be safer rather than sorry.”
His eldest brother fiddles anxiously with the sports bag he’s got slung across his bulking shoulder. Any moment now and April was going to arrive, ready to lead them onto their secret midnight bust in of the local pool she’d taken to working at over the summer.
Leo floats up to his side, bumping his shoulder with his, he’s wearing his usual smug grin.
“Besides,” he says, leaning away from him to favor the doorframe behind him, bumping it with his shell. “We’ll have like, all the pool floaties to mess around with. You can chill on one of those big inflatable flamingos.”
Mikey hums, watching as his brother turns away to go look at himself in a mirror, fixing the hems of his brand new broad shorts, the box turtle tries to silently quell the rising worry that bubbles up inside of him as he begins to imagine the dark, deep end of the pool that awaits them.
Before his mind can spiral too far, there’s a hand clasping right around his shoulder, engulfing it in an instant, Raph’s soft, rumbling voice brings him back, his smile a little crooked and his eyes gentle, he says to his brother,
“Hey. You’ll be fine. Raph’ll make sure of that.”
Mikey does his best to return him a smile of his own, he says, keeping his voice level.
“Yeah, thanks bro.”
And half an hour later, April has snuck them into the local pool, bathed under fluorescent overhead lights that kinda ruin the mood with how bright and garish they are, they still manage to have fun despite it.
Well. Most of them do, that is.
Mike watches from the edge of the pool, perched at the steps, he’s only so far allowed his feet to dip into the water, knees hiked up under his chin where he rests his head, he wistfully watches as his brothers and April splash around at the other end of the pool, their voices traveling with a chorus of echoes, laughter skimming across the water, Mikey fiddles with the inflatable armband still snug around his arm, huffing to himself.
It wasn’t like he was incapable of bobbing up and down in the water with the safety of his armbands on; all that worried him really was the invasive fretting that would immediately take hold the moment he unstuck himself from his little spot here on the side.
It would totally ruin his brothers fun, he was sure of it; Raph would be honing in on him like the world's friendliest shark and Donnie and Leo would resort to pseudo swim instructors like they always did the minute he attempted to try and kick his legs and stroke his arms through the water.
He looks at the water, just a foot in front of him. It’s not that deep. Waist height, if anything, and Mikey was a small turtle.
He looks at his brothers. Donnie is circling them beneath the surface, and April’s excited laughter is loud and shrill as their brother starts yanking on their legs, pulling them about in the water like bouys out to sea, all attention is fixed on them.
Mikey makes his move.
He slides the rubber bands off his arms, setting them down quietly beside the step. He won’t be needing them if he’s just going to wade in and out; that’s all he’s allowing himself right now.
He’s not a baby. He can swim. He does just fine without them when they cruise down the sewer tunnels for fun.
He slinks into the water, going from ankle high, to knee high to then thigh high, he relaxes as his body allows him to soak up the warmth that is emitted from the pool.
Glancing over towards his brothers, they still haven’t paid any kind of attention to his arrival into the water. Mikey crouches, letting the water line climb up past his plastron, lapping at his neck, he churrs softly. The sewer water was never anywhere near as welcoming and warm as this, and hot showers at home were very few and far to come by on most days.
Mikey slips his eyes shut. He feels fine. He feels safe.
And then he takes a little step forward, and suddenly, the slick tiled floor beneath him is no longer there.
The floor slides away from him; Mikey had never been in a public pool before. Or any kind of pool that wasn’t an old sewage tank of some kind. He hadn’t anticipated for the ground to suddenly dip where the shallow end suddenly met the deep end.
He lets out a small yelp before he flails and totally goes under, all he can manage as chlorinated water is suddenly invading his mouth, his nostrils, his eyes – his everything ; he’s well and truly sucked under the water within a split second.
It burns all the way down, his shell heavy and cumbersome, it weighs him like an anchor, his butt hitting the floor with a thud, he can hear the muffled sounds of his siblings up the other end of the pool as they splash about and laugh.
Mikey likes to think out of all his brothers he’s usually the one with the most level head when it comes to emergencies and big situations such as these (it was a given territory when you were the youngest because usually everyone else was worrying over you.)
But his resolve to not panic starts to slowly dwindle when he tries to kick up and finds that he can’t.
He feels like lead at the bottom of the pool — like a deadweight, his lungs start to ache and burn and panic is crowding the logic side of his brain without care.
He’s– He’s going to drown. Right here just a few feet away from his brothers. Mikey can’t reach the surface at all.
He kicks and he flails his arms but his body refuses to move, only slowly rotating in the water like a stone, it sends bubbles of water rushing down his nostrils, choking him out, what little vision he has underwater starts to grow darker and darker.
Black spots now dance around the edges of his sight. His limbs stop flailing. His lungs finally let go and give in to the rush of water.
He’s fairly certain he’s already halfway to being dead when something fast rushes towards him in the water.
He blacks out before he can make out what it is.
“—call dad! Both of ‘em! That's it. Keep pushing on his chest. You’re going great.”
That’s…That’s Leo’s voice. Trembling and loud and scared. Mikey tries to move but as soon as he does something wet rattles around in his chest and it forces him to sit up, fast.
He makes a gargled sound that drowns out the surprised yelps of his brother as he brings up mouthfuls of water down his front.
“Oh god.” That’s Raphael, sighing a breath of relief, sounding absolutely wrecked. It doesn’t take him long to swoop in and wrap Mikey up in his arms. “You idiot. You idiot . Why’d you take the wings off?”
The room is spinning and Mikey can faintly hear April talking in a hushed, calm voice. Donnie is standing next to her. He’s shaking.
“M’not a baby,” Mikey slurs. He wants to lay back down again, so he does, Raph supports his head like he might just shatter into a million little pieces the second his hits the floor again. “I can do it.”
Leo’s face is uncharacteristically stern; even in dire situations, he always managed to pull out the funny to ease the tension. Not now though, apparently. This time he’d warranted enough worry to erase such a privilege.
“You drowned, Miguel. KO'd. Lights out. If Don hadn’t spotted you then—“
Mikey feels his eyes grow wet and hot and prickly and whatever fight Leo was willing to put up against him, seems to die out in an instant, his face falling as tears spring from his little brothers eyes,
“Sorry,” he squeaks. “I’m sorry. I just. I wanted to have fun with you guys.”
Leo moves forward, a breath hitched in his chest, it's clear that as stern and straight face as he was acting, the whole ordeal had rattled him still, he smiles and brushes a thumb over his cheek to rid his face of a stray tear, he says with a gentle voice,
“We can have fun. Just not with you drowning. Hm?”
Mikey nods, then, seeking warmth, he allows himself to be pulled into each of their arms, both April and Donnie returning to wrap their arms around them.
And it’s better than any warmth offered by the pool water, that’s for sure.