Chapter Text
Mikey felt…off?
No, that wasn’t the right word.
What would be the best to describe how he was feeling?
If he had to choose…it would probably be confused.
The last clear thing that he remembered before he was turned into a child was looking at that spell book in Draxum’s library. His second father had told him to pick out a spell while he went to go check on something. Mikey had been so excited to learn a new spell that his energy was buzzing with him. He had flown up to grab a book that’s shine called for him.
Full disclosure…he had told his brothers the truth – he really did read the wrong spell and he realized too late.
But it wasn’t to recall childhood memories.
Mikey had noticed how the lingering scars and pain that was hurting all his brothers. The youngest turtle wanted to do something for his brothers that were suffering. They had done so much for him and he wanted to be able to help them.
On a page of quick indexes, not explaining the intricacies of the spell, was one that would revert an injury of a person back to before it happened. What Mikey made a mistake of was not going to the details page and he didn’t read what each spell on that page did. With a confused face, he had mumbled the spell out loud to himself to find the correct syllables…only to pale when the words on the page started to glow. It was at that moment that he realized that he was looking at the wrong spell that entire time. He wasn’t able to do anything as the words glowed brighter and brighter, before a large cloud of dark smoke exploded in his face.
…it was after that things became fuzzy.
Mikey was sitting on the roof of a nearby building topside as he worked through his mind. He was perched on the brick edge of the building as he watched the sunset paint the sky is an array of his signature color. Raph’s color was accompanying his as the sun dipped lower and lower while the twin’s colors tangled together to paint the whole sky.
He loved his family…he really did.
But they could be so over-bearing at time.
The youngest member of the family really needed to work through his mind and what he remembered, and it didn’t help to always have someone there to baby him because of his arms. He had gone through this hassle of crack-like scars – he could do it again.
Mikey looked down at his bandage wrapped arms that were shaking slightly. Ironic that looking for a spell that would revert his brothers’ damages would make him live through his again.
Mikey sighed as he rested his arms on his bent knee resting on the edge, the other one hanging over the edge. He had really thought that he was over with his healing…and right when it was over, he had to go through it again!
‘I don’t mind though,’ Mikey thought to himself. ‘I now know what spell to use to help my brothers.’
Speaking of his brothers…he had quite a few new memories with them.
The change in height of his point of view was throwing him off, especially when he looks at his brothers now but it was amusing. Raph looked so much taller than he already was. It was also strange to be shorter than his father for the first time in a very long time.
The first thing he would say he very clearly remembers is when his father asked if he knew who he was. He remembered the loving looks his brothers got when he called them by their childhood names and Mikey was going to make it a mission to call them by those names for a while longer. He was playing dumb for a bit and letting them believe that it was a carry-over from when he was a baby.
The cursing thing is absolutely a left-over side effect from the change…for the first day at least.
Mikey grins to himself as he thinks about all the times he’s gotten away with cursing right in front of his oldest brother and not getting in trouble for it. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to do it forever – well, he could if he really stuck to the act – but he was going to enjoy it while he could. It was also a great bad mood breaker so that was a plus.
The rest of the first day is a hazy blur, which was probably because of the spell had burnt through all his energy from within himself to change him back into a toddler. He more-or-less remembered everything from the next few days, from April meeting baby him for the first time to ‘helping’ Donnie with welding.
He had seen the picture and oh mi gosh, it was so cute. He demanded to have a framed version of that picture was found waiting on his hammock for him later.
He didn’t really remember the dream that plagued his little self but he definitely remembers Leo’s reaction to seeing his drawing of the kraang. It made his heart pang at the thought that he did something to cause his beloved older brother anguish. He never wanted to do anything that would hurt them. Mikey is glad that his child self was able to provide him comfort in his panic.
He remembered the spell that Draxum used to block Mikey gaining more of his teenage memories,
Things were a bit fuzzier for the rest of the day after that.
The next memory made Mikey laugh.
It was of Leo carrying him into the kitchen and placing him on the table while he turned his back to get some food. Sometime during the less than a minute of time while Leo was turned away, he had felt some power budding to life inside of him. His younger self had poked the power and the next thing he knows, he is sitting on the ceiling. He had looked around while he was somehow stuck on said roof and giggle in glee when he realized that he wasn’t going to fall.
The looks on all of his older brothers’ faces when they saw where their baby brother was will always live rent free in his mind for as long as he lives.
It was just so funny to see them frantic at the sudden shenanigans the little turtle was up to.
The next memory of him just being with his father made Mikey’s heart warm. There was a time where Splinter was…distant. But, seeing him so full of love for his children…well, it was a good feeling.
Watching his child self just screaming for the heck of it was amusing, even if it wasn’t to his brothers. That memory led into the one where he was dropped off at the Caseys’ residence for some babysitting and he loved that memory.
Cassandra was an excellent caretaker, even if she let him play the vampire hunting game. She included him in everything he wanted to do, took his teleporting to the ceiling in stride and made sure he was fed. Casey was a great help as he apparently had experience working with children from his timeline.
The back-and-forth conversation between Leo and Cassandra was one of the funniest things he has seen in his life. He will admit…little Mikey was definitely being a little shit and he actively was working with Cassandra in that situation. It was hysterical to the toddler to see his older brother so exasperated, so he kept the momentum going.
The library trip with Donnie and April was a joy and his little self really liked the little reading nook that he found. It made the older version of himself really consider if he should make one in the lair. The other thing that stood out to Mikey there was the human version of himself under the disguise of the cloaking brooch. He really wondered what his current self would look like as a human.
The shopping trip with April was also fun…though he was equally embarrassed and amused by his younger self demanding a box of tampons. The video was hysterical but his face would break out in a blush when he would remember that it is technically himself asking for those tampons. He could see the lady in the background of the video trying and failing to contain her laughter at Mikey’s outburst.
By the way, baby him still definitely remembered Leo’s kitchen.
Mikey got a huge laugh out of his baby self purposely sneezing on Leo’s face when they had that movie time. He didn’t know why he had done it but it was worth it for the look on Leo’s face. Though…he had a feeling that it was because Leo thought he could get away with using his kitchen while he was turned into a toddler.
Also, Leo was right about Mikey being a little shit. The way how he remembers quietly holding onto Raph’s back where he couldn’t see and just letting him freak out was hysterical. He felt kind of bad for making his brother panic…until he saw the video Donnie got of it. That was one of the funniest things he had ever seen and he feels no shame in his past actions after seeing that video.
After that, Donnie had taken him into his lab for brotherly bonding time. Mikey was looking through a magazine to look at all the shapes and colors; and the picture of a smoothie had caught his eye. Showing it to Donnie, his purple brother decided to make one so that they could have smoothies whenever they wanted. Sometime during the creation of the machine, baby Mikey had found a purple bucket in the corner and without prompting, had placed it on his head.
When Donnie had turned around with his successfully made smoothie, he had laughed at the content demeanor of his baby brother with a bucket on his head. Seeing no reason to take it off and upset the calm child, he had picked up baby Mikey and carried him to the kitchen for dinner. Of course, his child self had ran into a wall to not get the bucket off which in turn made him want it off. Baby Mikey had felt a sneeze coming on when he was placed in his chair…and Leo had perfectly timed leaning forward to check on Mikey.
He will neither confirm or deny if that sneeze was aimed at Leo’s face on purpose.
He remembers Raph’s nightmare that he helped calm down. If only he was there as his older self so that he could have Raph talk out the thing that had bothered him so much.
Mikey remembers how he wanted ‘coo’fee’ just like his big brother. Now that he is older, he can tell that Donnie had given him chocolate milk but his baby self liked it all the same.
He remembers going to the park…and the memory of almost getting taken scares him quite a bit.
Mikey rolls his eyes as he huffs to himself at the dumb way he had run away from his brothers to go play with the dogs. He knows that children don’t think things through all the way but he could have been taken and no one would have known where he would be and be gone forever.
…okay, he knows that isn’t necessary true because of the trackers that Donnie still denied having on them; but still.
Though, the second half of the park trip was pretty fun. Leo had pushed him on the swing and his little self was laughing up a storm with how happy he was.
Donnie’s toy car that he had made for baby Mikey had been really cool until it went crazy. The worst part of that memory was how his general icky feeling that had been building up for a few days, had changed into being outright sick at that moment. It was especially bad with how the car had spun rapidly around, making him feel like he had wanted to puke.
After that…his memory got hazy again.
He kind of remembers someone singing him a lullaby and something tells him that it was Draxum.
He remembers taking some orange medicine that made things clearer for a bit. It had led into watching a show with the Caseys and Cassandra had put on ‘The Amazing World of Gumball’. The best part of that memory was the episode with the evil turtle came on and his little self had immediately connected the species of that turtle to his purple brother. What else he liked is everyone coming in the room and having a fun moment together…
…until he had sneezed and summoned his mystic golden chains all over the room. Donnie had showed him a video of that incident and all the poses that everyone had to stick so that they wouldn’t get skewered.
Things after that was a complete blur until he was looking up at the concerned faces of his big brothers staring down at him. Well…he did remember a lot of pain and just feeling terrible. The transformation’s memories were weird because he did remember a lot of energy being expended from him but he doesn’t remember the exact events.
Mikey blinks out of his trip down memory lane when he hears a shuffle from behind him. Turning his head, he sees Leo grinning at him as he climbs over the edge of the roof.
“Hey there, Mikester,” Leo greets as he walks the short distance to his younger brother and takes a seat next to him. “You’ve been gone for a while and we were starting to get worried so I volunteered to come check on you. You okay?”
“Yeah,” Mikey murmurs as he rests his head on Leo’s shoulder. “Just going through my memories. I needed some alone time for that.”
“It must be confusing and weird to go through all those baby memories,” Leo comments as he swings his feet and looks to see the full moon rising in the sky.
“Tell me about it,” Mikey huffs as he closes his eyes for a few moments. “This was not something I expected to go through.”
“I don’t think any of us were ready to go through having a baby you again,” Leo laughs softly, raising an arm to wrap around Mikey’s shoulders. “Though, it wasn’t a bad experience at all.”
“Even the explosion of energy from when I turned back?” Mikey asked with a teasing smile.
“Except that,” Leo shudders. “That was traumatic and you were in pain, I never I want to have to go through that again.”
“Sorry about making you go through it a first time,” Mikey apologized.
“Not your fault,” Leo waved away the apology.
“It literally was,” Mikey chuckled. “I was the reason I turned back into a child.”
“You know what I mean, you little booger,” Leo rolled his eyes. “You did the wrong spell. Speaking of boogers, why did you always sneeze on my face?” Leo asked as he turned to Mikey with a curious look. “Like, it was like there was a homing beacon on my face for them or something.”
“I don’t know,” Mikey shrugs with a sly smile.
“Oh, you little shit,” Leo laughed as he started tickling Mikey’s sides, making him shriek with laughter.
…until, for some reason, a sneeze came out and landed right on Leo’s face.
Both of them froze as they registered what just happened. Mikey was trying to hold his laughter in with all his might but little peals of laughter was pushing their way past his lips.
“…that’s it,” Leo growled playfully. “It’s time for some revenge.”
Mikey shrieked before jumping off the ledge, making Leo squawk in fright behind him. The little turtle just laughed at his brother’s reaction before summoning a golden chain and swing on it like Tarzan on his vines.
“Don’t scare me like that, Mikey!” Leo yelled after him as Mikey swung away. Mikey could hear the sound of Leo’s portals opening and closing behind him as his brother tried to catch up with the box turtle. “Just wait until I get my hands on you! I have so much revenge built up from all those sneezes to the face that I had to endure!”
“You’ll never take me alive!” Mikey cackled as he summoned another chain and swung on to it.
He could hear his phone going off and the ringtone told him that it was Raph calling. Their oldest brother was probably wondering why it was taking them so long to get home. Too bad that the youngest and fastest two of the turtle quartet had just entered into a game of tag (or at least, that’s what Mikey was calling it and Leo was it).
Mikey swung up high and floated in the air for a second upside as he looked down at his city, enjoying the view. Feeling gravity take hold of him again, he summoned another chain to grab on and swing through the air like Spider-man. As much as it was fun to be a toddler again, he enjoyed being the teenager he was now.
Though…he wondered how it would be if he had to take care of a baby version of all his big brothers.