Chapter Text
“Your mystic control has improved dramatically, Michelangelo.”
“Aww, thanks Draxxy,” Mikey smiled. “Your compliments have gotten better as well.”
Baron Draxum rolled his eyes at his youngest creation’s comment, focusing on the bright orange ball floating between them. Following the kraang invasion and finding out that the young turtle had created a portal to another dimension through sheer willpower, Draxum was quick to demand to give the youngest turtle lessons. Splinter had fought it at first, not totally trusting the goat yokai still but after Casey Jr. had told them how Master Michelangelo had died opening the time portal (and boy, that was a stressful day for the family when they realized they almost traded one brother for another), Splinter had finally relented.
Mikey now had lessons every week for two hours where he learned to control his powers better and learned new spells. His scars that spider-webbed up his arms would glow softly as his powers were conjured. They served as an alarm when Mikey was pushing himself too hard as they would glow bright when too much power was spent and would burn the turtle.
So far, that has only happened once before Draxum shut the spell down immediately. Mikey had begged him to not tell his family but the yokai was more scared of his three older creations’ protectiveness over their baby brother than said turtle. Though…Mikey was quickly rising in his list of people to be scared of.
“That is enough control practice,” Draxum tells Mikey. With a bright smile, Mikey lowers his hands and the ball of energy fades away, the room darkening as the addition light source disappearing. “I have a couple experiments that need my attention for a few moments. Go choose a spell you want to try and we will attempt it.”
“Got it, dad #2!” Mikey salutes as he flies over to the large bookcase, perusing through it. His orange cloak that Draxum had gifted him for the holidays floated around his shoulders. Flight was one of the first things Mikey had decided to learn after CJ had mentioned that Master Michelangelo almost never walked, choosing to fly around everywhere.
Draxum rolled his eyes again as he huffed, leaving the room. He went two room over to a table full of glass vials and apparatuses. He was trying to create a sort-of energy supplement that could be ingested to recover lost mystic energy. It was hard to create a standard that could work with anyone since most mystic energies would only work within itself and reject outside help.
Draxum lost himself in his work for a few minutes as he set up a distillation station when a small boom from the other room had him jolting. Placing down what was in his hands not very gently, he rushed out the room back to where he left Mikey, fearing what could have happened.
“Michelangelo! What happened?!” Draxum yelled in panic as he looked in the room, a cloud of gray smoke obscuring his view.
High-pitched cries sounded from the center, making the blood drain from his face.
“Michelangelo?” Draxum asked again as he stepped in the dissipating cloud.
He got to the center where he found Mikey’s cloak on the ground with no Mikey in view. A small lump moved around in the middle, the source of the cries he was hearing. With a raised eyebrow, Draxum gently but deftly lifted the fabric off of the lump.
Bright eyes stared back at him.
“Aww, nuts,” Draxum groaned.
“Nuts!” a little voice giggled at him.
Leo was laying his bed, reading some comics, while he waited for Mikey to come back. He knew where Mikey was and that he was safe, but ever since the invasion a half a year ago, he was always on edge when one of his brothers wasn’t around. He had gotten a lot better compared to how he was months ago but there was always an itch in the back of his mind to have his brothers in the same vicinity.
Raph was worse than him though, being a mother-hen since birth.
The low hum of one of Draxum’s portals opening had Leo perking up curiously. It was too early for Mikey to be coming back but he figured that maybe they had finished up for the day already. Grinning and throwing down his comic, he skipped out of his room to the main room to greet his baby brother.
“Oh, Mikester! Tell me everything—,” Leo’s happy welcome is cut off by what he saw in a nervous Draxum’s arms.
Because there, wrapped in his orange cloak, was Mikey.
A baby Michelangelo.
“…I can explain,” Draxum sighed.
“You better,” Leo growled as he stomped over and ripped his brother from the yokai. “What the fuck were you doing that this happened?!” A whimper from his arms had him looking down at a cowering Mikey who had sucked himself into his shell. “Oh no, it’s okay. You did nothing wrong,” Leo soothes as he rocked the small shell of his brother.
He knew that Mikey was smaller than the rest of the them, but now that he was back to being a baby, he was TINY.
Apparently his soothing did the job because Mikey let out a little chirp before popping his head out and nuzzling against Leo’s chin.
“Aww,” Leo cooed as his heart melted.
“What’s going on out here?” Raph asked as he entered the room with Donnie, drawn in by Leo’s yelling. The blue themed turtle turned towards them, bringing baby Mikey into their view. “…is that a baby Mikey?” Raph asked in a small voice.
“Yup,” Leo answered, popping the ‘p’.
“…I have so many questions,” Donnie said as he lowered his goggles to look at Mikey.
“I told Michelangelo to go pick out a spell while I went to set up an experiment,” Draxum explained as he rubbed his forehead in exasperation. “It seems that he did not wait and the spell backfired on him.”
“What type of spell would do this?” Leo turned his head to ask their creator as Raph carefully approached, not wanting his large stature to scare Mikey. Said baby turtle was watching him with wide eyes, taking in everything.
“I have to go find that out,” Draxum tells them as he lowers his hand to his hip. “There are a few spells that could do this and I have to figure out which one it was. Or else when I try to do the counter spell, it could have consequences.”
“What do we do in the meantime with Mikey?”
“Take care of him, duh,” Raph interrupts Draxum as he wags a finger at Mikey who is giggling and trying to grab said finger.
“But none of us know how to take care of a baby,” Leo groans.
“Excuse me, but how do you think you survived your infanthood?” Splinter’s voice cuts in as he enters the room. “I had to take care of four infants at the same time by myself. Taking care of one will be a walk in the park,” Splinter smiles as he waves at Mikey who now had his attention on him. Splinter held his arms out and Leo took that as a clue to pass Mikey to him. “Hello there, little Orange. It has been much time since I last had any of my sons fit in my arms like this,” Splinter smiled as he wagged his own finger at his son. Mikey giggled as he grabbed the finger and pulled it to his mouth to chew on.
“Since that is taken care of, I will take my leave now and report back any findings,” Draxum nodded his head before quickly leaving through a purple portal.
“He was quick to leave,” Leo mutters as he watches the portal blink close.
“How old do you think he is?” Raph wonders as he bends down to be more on Splinter’s and Mikey’s level.
“My scans are showing that he is developmentally at about 3 years old,” Donnie says as he lifts his goggles. “He is past the age for needing milk and should have all his baby teeth in.” With a quick lift of Mikey’s top lip, Donnie is proven correct when small, white baby teeth shine back at them. Mikey whines as he pulls away, not liking that touch.
“Does that mean he already knows how to walk?” Raph asks, his own memories from that time period of their life a bit fuzzy.
“Oh yes,” Splinter chuckled. “Little Orange was up and walking when he was quite young.”
“That is most likely from wanting to keep up with the rest of us who were older and developmentally ahead of him,” Donnie tells the group.
“By this age, little Orange was hard to keep up with his running,” Splinter laughs to himself again as Mikey chirped when his father took his finger back. “He would often leave the rest of you behind with only baby Blue keeping pace with him.”
“I think I remember that,” Leo says as he rubs his chin and looks up. “I guess that makes sense since we are the fastest of us four.”
“Does he remember us?” Raph asks as he pokes his fingers together. “We look different to how we did when we were babies.”
“Let’s ask him then,” Splinter shrugs. “He was a bit late to talking compared to the rest of you but he did know all our names.” Splinter wags his finger in Mikey’s face to gain his attention before pointing to himself. “Little Orange, do you know who I am?” Splinter asked in a voice that he reserved for small children.
“Daddy!” Mikey cheered.
“Aww,” Leo and Raph chorused at baby Mikey’s voice.
Splinter turned Mikey to face his brothers before pointing at them. “Who are they, my little sunshine?”
Mikey squinted his face and stuck his tongue out before wiggling out of his father’s hold. Splinter placed him down before Mikey left the cloak wrapped around him. The baby turtle ran with little legs before running into Donnie’s legs. He wrapped his little arms around them before looking up and smiled at the purple brother. “Dee Dee!”
Donnie’s heart melted as his childhood nickname was announced from his baby brother’s baby voice. He kneeled down to rub Mikey’s head. “You are correct, Michael,” Donnie smiled at Mikey.
Mikey chirped happily before pulling away and jumping at Leo. The blue turtle was caught off guard and fell backwards as the little turtle cannonballed into his legs. He groaned as he sat up but was stopped as baby Mikey crawled on the chest part of his plastron. Sitting right in the middle, Mikey leaned over and grabbed both sides of Leo’s face, slapping him with baby hands in the process. “Lee Lee!”
“You got that right, you little booger,” Leo smiled as he stuck his tongue out at Mikey. The turtle laughed in delight as he stuck his own tongue out.
Mikey was lifted in the air as Raph picked him up and cradled him in his arms, not able to hold back the urge any more. “What about me, little guy?”
“Raphie!” Mikey cheered as he threw his hands in the air. He chirped in delight as he pulled himself up to hug the alligator snapping turtle around the neck. Raph whimpered happily as his eyes grew wide with unshed happy tears.
“You are right,” Raph sniffed, trying and failing to control his tears.
“Raphie sad?” baby Mikey asked as he tilted his head, reaching up to pat his cheeks.
“No, I’m not sad, little guy,” Raph tells him as he smiles. “Raphie is very happy right now.”
“Happy!” Mikey giggled as he threw his hands in the air again.
“Orange was always very happy when he was little,” Splinter tells the group. “When I first mutated, he was the one to reach out and comfort me even though he was such a small infant.” Splinter’s eyes get a far away look for a moment as he remembers something the brothers cannot.
A loud yawn from baby Mikey catches all their attention. He blearily blinks his eyes before tucking himself in his shell.
“I believe a nap is in order for little Orange,” Splinter smiles.
“I forgot that he used to always sleep in his shell,” Leo exclaims.
“We all did,” Donnie rolls his eyes. “Mikey is the only one that consistently did it longer as his species being a box turtle.”
“If no one minds, I’m gonna go take him in my room for a nap,” Raph tells the others as he looks down at a sleeping Mikey.
“Go ahead big guy,” Leo waves a hand. “We run the risk of him waking up if we try to move him to another person.”
“My son, let me know if you need help,” Splinter nods to his oldest son with his hands behind his back. “I believe this would be good practice for you three to learn how to care for a child; though I will be around to help at all times.”
“What do you mean for us to learn?” Donnie raises an eyebrow.
“I do expect grandchildren one day,” Splinter replies with a smirk. “Now if you excuse me, I’ll be in the tv room if you need me.” With that, Splinter turns and leaves the room.
“Ugh, he is still on that,” Leo groans as he slouched. Turning to Raph, he says, “let me know when you need a break. I would love to hang out with a little Mikester. I also want to give him an examine to make sure that he is alright after whatever that spell did to him.”
“I will contact April to bring some food fit for someone his age as well as some other necessities,” Donnie tells them as he pulls out his phone. “She is going to be so excited.”
“Sounds good,” Raph nods. “We’ll see you guys later.”
Raph leaves the room with a baby Mikey safely secured in his arms. He could technically hold him in one hand, Mikey and his shell so small that Raph could swear that his fingers could touch each other if he curled them over Mikey’s shell. Gently laying in his bed, he rests Mikey on his plastron before propping a few pillows under his head and shoulders.
Gently raising a hand to rest on baby Mikey’s shell, he uses his thumb to stroke the top of the shell. He is rewarded with unconscious, sleepy purrs echoing out of the shell. Raph smiles as he watches his baby brother.
Who is now a baby.
Funny how things work in their family.