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Mikey sighed and rested his chin in the palm of one of his hands. School work was the most boring part of the day and Sensei had assigned him an extra half hour of studying because he hadn’t finished the math problems that his father had assigned yesterday. It wasn’t his fault that there had been a cartoon marathon on last night that was way more interesting than these stupid math problems.
Heaving a heavy sigh Mikey glanced through the kitchen doorway to where Leo and Raph were playing with their toy cars in the middle of the living room. They had already finished their work and had been dismissed by their Sensei while he was still stuck here trying to do his missing math work.
“You know the longer you spend not doing your work the longer it will be before you can go and play,” Don’s voice came from the other side of the table.
Mikey twisted around to face his older brother sitting in his chair working out of his big book that Sensei had gotten especially for him. Scrunching his face up in a scowl Mikey stuck his tongue out at the olive green turtle. Even at only six years old Don had already learned how to be obnoxious as far as Mikey was concerned.
“Just because this stuff is easy for you,” Mikey pouted, “doesn’t mean that it’s easy for everyone else. You don’t have to rub it in and be a know it all.”
“I’m not rubbing anything in. I’m just stating a fact,” Don said without ever looking up from his book. “It’s your own fault that you’re stuck doing extra work. If you just did what you were supposed to when Sensei assigned it then you wouldn’t have to sit here for longer than everyone else.”
With that Don put his pencil down and closed his book with a decisive snap and jumped down from his seat.
Mikey’s scowl deepened as he watch his last brother left him sitting alone at the table. It wasn’t fair. This school work that their father was teaching them just didn’t come easily to him and then Don had to go and rub his nose in the fact that he was so much better then him at it. It was like the olive green turtle had forgotten that in the dojo he was the one that couldn’t get a simple kick right and Mikey could fight circles around him.
The more he thought about it the more unfair everything sounded to Mikey. It wasn’t his fault that Don just wanted to act like a know it all that was better than everyone else. Those feelings swirled around and built up inside of him like a surging tidal wave until Mikey couldn’t take it anymore.
Jumping down from his own chair Mikey rushed at his retreating brother and tackled him to the ground from behind. Don let out a squawk of surprise and hurt as he was slammed to the floor with no warning or ability to prepare and brace himself.
Letting out a yell of frustration Mikey balled his small fists and started bringing them down against Don’s shell with as much power as his six year old body could manage. Despite having been caught unaware Don struggled back as best as he could from his disadvantaged position. The rocking motion from the turtle underneath him nearly knocked Mikey off of his brother which only served to infuriate Mikey even more.
Before he could be knocked away completely Mikey decided to go for the one big weakness that he knew that he and his brothers all shared. Reaching down Mikey wrapped his sea green fingers around Don’s tail and pulled on it as hard as he could.
Don immediately froze, his body stiffening as though he had just been electrocuted, and let out a loud, agonizing scream of pain. Even though this was the reaction that he had been going for it still managed to surprise Mikey and he reflexively squeezed his hand again drawing another cry of pain from his brother though he did manage not to pull on the tail in his grip again.
Three sets of feet came running towards where Mikey and Don lay tangled together. When two clawed hands wrapped around Mikey’s arms the youngest turtle let go of his brother and let himself be pulled away. As Mikey was pulled back he watched his two oldest brothers pull a crying Don into their arms as they watched Mikey with wide, shocked eyes.
“What is going on here?” Master Splinter demanded looking down at the son in his hold.
The sea green turtle just held still in his father’s hold, frozen as what he had just done to his brother seemed to catch up with him. Even though no explanation seemed to be forthcoming from Mikey, the same was not true for Don despite his tears.
“Mi-Mikey jumped on m-m-me,” Don explained between his gasping sobs as he clung closer to his older brothers. “He, he hit me and he pu-pu-pulled my t-taaaiiil.”
Master Splinter’s ears flattened back against his head at this information. “Explain yourself Michelangelo.”
Mikey hung his head down and scuffed at the floor with his toes until Master Splinter whipped his tail against the floor in warning.
“Don was being a know it all about being done with his work and I still had to do mine so I got mad,” Mike explained softly without looking out.
“I was no-not!” Don protested, glaring at his younger brother.
“Enough,” Master Splinter said firmly snapping his tail against the floor again. “It makes no difference as to what your brother did or did not do Michelangelo. It does not excuse your behavior. You intentionally caused your brother pain and that is not something that is tolerated. You will apologize to your brother and then wait for me in my room while I help your brother and decide on your punishment.”
Mikey raised his gaze up for the first time since he had been pulled away by his father and looked at Don. The olive green turtle was curled up between Leo and Raph as his older brothers did their best to comfort him. It didn’t escape Mikey’s notice that Don was being careful not to rest any of his weight on his rump and that the base of his tail was beginning to swell from where he had pulled on it.
As quickly as the anger had built up inside of Mikey it was just as quickly replaced with remorse at hurting his brother. He didn’t like seeing his brothers hurt and it didn’t make him feel good that he was the one to have hurt one of them.
“I’m sorry Donnie,” Mikey whispered contritely.
He waited a moment to see if Don would acknowledge him but all his immediately older brother did was to hide his face further into Raph’s plastron and continue to cry quietly. Hanging his head in shame Mikey walked away from the group and towards Master Splinter’s room.
As much as he had wanted to hurt Don in the moment, that feeling was completely gone now and had been replaced with guilt and remorse. It didn’t feel good to have hurt his brother and Mikey instinctively knew that it was going to be a long time and take a lot of hard work before he had made it up to Don. He was going to do it though. He’d work hard at it and show his brother just how sorry he was.