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He was pacing, in circles like a stupid headless chicken. All because he couldn’t sit down with his family and enjoy a night that was meant to be fun.
In all honesty he didn’t know what triggered it. It wasn’t like they just came back from a failed mission or Leo and Raph had started arguing again. It was a movie night, meant for them to hang out as a family and relax for once.
But his body just felt like it was electrically charged. Like if he were to touch someone he would shock himself and them. And if he had hair, it’d feel like it would be sticking up with the power of static electricity.
And then on top of that! Everything was too noisy and bright, it’s like someone took the contrast filter and cranked it up to one hundred. The lair even with all of its dim lighting still hurt his eyes.
He needed to be somewhere dark and quite. Somewhere that wasn’t his room, where his paints taunted him and the bright colors only threatened to make the crawling under his skin worse.
So he started to go down a mental checklist of all the places in their home that would suit his needs. The living room was a no go for sure, considering that he just escaped from the Jupiter Jim marathon that was taking place. He would rather not have to explain his way out of that again. All of his brothers bedrooms were off limits, just as a respect of privacy. Mikey was desperate but he wasn’t a jerk either.
He started grumbling to himself. Because there were only three possible rooms left, the bathroom. (Which was… less than ideal.) The kitchen, where any of his brothers and or father could walk in and see his potential breakdown. And….
Donnie’s lab.
Mikey stopped his circular pacing in the main atrium.
Why hadn’t he thought of that first? He had access to Donnie’s lab! And with Donnie being occupied in the living room it was the perfect place to calm his screaming nerves.
His other two older bros didn’t have the same kind of access he had. (And technically they didn’t know he had the access they didn’t.) But it was a him and Donnie thing, something for the both of them to bond with. The need for peace and quite, and the comfortable silence of one another.
He knew Donnie wouldn’t mind him using it. In the same way he knew there was a chair specifically brought in for him sitting in the genius’s lab. Situated right next to his main workstation.
So with little preamble he scurried his way toward the darkened lab. Once he stood in front of the metal sliding doors, he placed his hand on the glass panel located to the left of the door. A quick flicker of purple light and the lab doors opened up to him quickly. Revealing the controlled chaos of his immediate older brothers laboratory. And what was slowly starting to become his secondary bedroom.
The orange loveseat wasn’t hard to spot in the jungle of monochrome and purple. He made quick work of dancing around the fragile equipment and dubious machines littering the ground. And with a quick ‘oomf’ he fell into the soft cushions of the seat. He reached up and snatched the soft fluffy purple blanket hanging on the back of the seat. Wrapping it tightly around his body and snuggling into with a soft sigh. Did he finally begin to wind down.
The humming of machinery didn’t scratch at his skin like he distantly worried it would. It was comforting almost, it reminded him of calm nights. Nights when he and Donnie only needed each others presence to safe. He could almost picture Donnie sitting right in front of him and in the (in his opinion) uncomfortable metal swivel chair. Tinkering away at a new passion project, or fixing another toaster that Leo probably broke.
He snuggled further into the fluffy blanket, and let his eyes drift shut. He could almost imagine hearing the clink clank of Donnie working. And with the mixture of dull light, rhythmic humming, and the comfort that the lab offered. Mikey slipped into the halfway point between awake and asleep.
He floated at that point for a long time, he didn’t exactly bring his phone with him to keep the time. All he knew is that it felt like a long time.
So the sound of the lab doors opening sometime later was surprising and at the same time not. Because only one other person had measured steps such as those entering the lab. And only one other person actually had access to the lab.
A soft huff.
“There you are.”
Mikey offered a hum in acknowledgment, before peeling his eyes open to glance at his purple clad brother. Donnie looked down at him with fond amusement, and a bit of exasperation.
“The others got worried y’know?”
Mikey hummed back again, retreating further into the tangle of blankets. At that Donnie’s amused look faltered for a moment, as a flash of concern shown on his face. Before a look of understanding crossed his face and he knelt down in front of the loveseat.
“Overstimulated?”
And just like how he didn’t know how it started. He didn’t know why his eyes began to sting with the admission of that one word. Like his fragile bubble of comfort crashed down on him, all because his big brother decided to bring to life the one word that he didn’t want to face.
And like a dam, it all cracked and the water started to spill through. He shut his eyes tightly and shook his head quickly. Willing the traitorous tears to disappear.
While he didn’t see, he felt Donnie tense in front of him. And it made him feel all that much worse. Because while his body was betraying him so, and his dumb emotions were going out of wack. He was also so obviously making his older brother uncomfortable. Why did he come here? He really shouldn’t have came here, of course Donnie would come here it’s his lab-!
“Hey, come on now. Don’t get lost in that head of yours.”
Donnie’s amused voice rang in his ears and it stopped his spiral, if only for a moment. He chanced a look upwards at his brother to see his face. And while the air of uncomfortable tenseness was still there, there was also a gleam of determination in Donnie’s eyes. When they made brief eye contact, before Mikey’s eyes darted away, he saw a small comforting smile appear on Donnie’s face.
“Angelo?”
Mikey couldn’t look Donnie in the eyes, the very idea made the electricity in his skin crackle. So he focused on a point behind Donnie and kept his brothers face in his peripheral.
He gave a smaller crackling hum to signal to his brother that he was listening.
“Can I touch you?”
His first response was to scream ‘No!’ To scramble away at the very idea, but then he thought of the comforting hum. Of the clink clank of tools and of the creak of the uncomfortable metal chair. And when he thought of who made those noises and the calm that it brought. The electricity under his skin seemed to calm its screaming.
So with as much strength as he could muster at the moment. He unwrapped a hand from the purple mess of covers, and reached it out into the cold air.
And when Donnie took his hand in his, and the scratching, screaming of his skin didn’t react. He started to sob again in relief.
Donnie rubbed a soothing thumb over his shaking knuckles and it was like the comforting hum of machinery all over again. The crackling and itching under his skin seemed to calm, but the tears didn’t.
“There you go, now I want you to follow me really quick ok? Can you do that?”
He gave a quick jerky nod. Tears cascading down his face and everything turning into a blurry mess of color.
“Ok good I want you to follow me ok? Breath in for four seconds and out for eight.”
He gave another quick nod before following the steps, his sniffles and hitching breath the only sound being heard above the mechanical humming.
They repeated the breathing pattern for a couple of rounds. And only stopped whenMikey could begin to breath again without a stuttering breath to follow. And Donnie could look at his baby brother without worrying about him getting enough breath in between all of his gasping sobs.
As they finally settled, Donnie (with his hands in clear view just in case Mikey wanted to abort) raised a hand to wipe away the tear tracks on his younger brothers face. And Mikey tilted his head lightly into the touch.
Donnie gave a light chuckle before looking back down at his brother.
“Do you want a hug?”
Mikey responded in kind with barreling himself into Donnie’s plastron. Knocking the wind out of the older turtle, and throwing them both to the cold ground below.
“A simple, ‘yes’ would have sufficed.”
Mikey gave a muffled watery laugh at his brothers words and only snuggled further into the older turtle. Donnie gave a mock scoff of annoyance before wrapping his arms around the turtle curled into his plastron.
Despite the crappy start to his night, Mikey thought that it turned out to be pretty great in the end.