Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in any shape, way, or form.

Crap, was the only word going through Mikey's head as he walked through the murky water of the sewer floors not caring about his genius brother's warnings to avoid it as much as possible due to infections. It was that time of year where winter had come and the drastic storms caused a lot of flooding to happen under the streets of New York City. Donnie does his best to do damage control but its more so that the lair didn't flood rather than the surrounding tunnels.

That wasn't what the youngest turtle was currently worried about though. Oh no, he would much rather have dealt with literal shitty water than what he was about to go through at home with his overprotective older brothers. Donnie would be kind, patient, understanding, Mikey hoped to the turtle heavens but Leo and Raph were about to take their shells off their backs and throw them at him like he did to other characters on Mario Cart through his Nintendo 64.

Craaaaap, Mikey internally groaned again as he felt more blood trickle down the side of his cheek from his forehead. His face was bare as he tried to use his orange, now stained red, mask to stop the bleeding ten minutes ago. It was currently still bunched up tightly in his hand as he continued to hold the fabric to his cut.

It just looks bad because head injuries bleed more! The turtle thought of telling his brothers but shook his head a millisecond later after images of an icy narrowed glare from Leo and a growling Raph appeared in his head. Just kidding, that would piss them off even more and then D will have a fit about how much blood has been lost…Mikey grimaced, which is a lot.

Not that it would stop his brainy brother from asking anyways on how long he'd been bleeding but Mikey was kinda of planning on ditching his older brothers attention at least until he cleaned himself up a bit in the bathroom so that his cut looked better than it did. As for now it looked like Mikey was a three year old who tried to learn how to use a ketchup bottle for first time with the red substance hitting his face instead of the fries. It hadn't helped his appearance that he had smudged blood around here and there to keep it from dripping into his eyes.

As Mikey neared the lair he let out probably his one-hundredth sigh since he begrudgingly made his way back from the fight he had with Purple Dragon members in one of New York's many dark alley ways. They were threatening a couple to give up their money and Mikey took that as his cue to jump down and save the day. He thought it'd have been easy enough since there were only three of them, but what he didn't count on was one of the new toys they had brought.

It was some kind of metal hook attached to a chain, like the kind one would see in a meat factory. One of the Purple Dragons, Mikey guessed, thought it was just a freaking grand slam of an idea to bring to a fight and, Mikey suppose, that it was, since it worked. On him. On his face. Which pissed Mikey off because, I mean who does that?!

The guy had managed to catch the youngest turtle off guard while he took down the second Purple Dragon and as soon as Mikey turned around, the metal hook had snagged the skin of his forehead. As Mikey let out a small cry of pain, he didn't make anything better by slightly freaking out which caused the hook to continue to rip skin off to the side of his face and partially down his cheek before he managed to unhook himself. It was better than a gun probably if the turtle had a chance to avoid it but he didn't and now he was expecting a one way ticket to Japan for some kind of "hook avoidance" training or something from the Ancient One.

By then though, the damage was done and Mikey was probably going to need a couple dozen stitches. Once he threw the hook to the ground, he whipped his head back up to take care of the last culprit before realizing he was just a kid, being only about sixteen years old, and how was Mikey supposed to kill someone who was around the same age as him and was probably just lost in life? By the time Mikey had tried to figure out what to do, the kid took off and Mikey thought it was just better to leave the situation as it was. He would have called his brothers had he thought he was in any danger, but as turtle luck would have it, the last Purple Dragon member happened to be the kid who wanted to try his hand at being a more developed Captain Hook. Mikey thought if Leatherhead had been there the alligator would have won and the turtle laughed at the irony before coming face to face with not only reality but the lair's entrance as well.

The young turtle wiped some more blood away from his eyes and held his breath as he entered the access code to open the lair's doors. A swift "whoosh" sound followed a moment later and with wide baby blue bright eyes and a fast heartbeat, Mikey scanned the living room to find no one to greet him home. Rude, but on the other hand a good thing, he thought cheerfully.

If he listened closely as he tip toed across the floor he could hear Donnie typing away at his computer in his lab. Mikey was confident that his immediate older brother hadn't heard the door open as he was too focused on a thousand projects too many but if Leo or Raph had been paying attention then surely they would have. He didn't have to worry about Master Splinter as their sensei was out of town for a few days although Mikey knew that his father probably had some kind of magic gut wrenching feeling as he usually did when something bad happened to his boys and that he'd probably be back within the next day or two.

The orange banded turtle wasn't sure what time it was but they already had dinner so it was probably close to Leo's standard bedtime. That meant that Leo was possibly in his room getting ready to settle in and Raph hopefully was doing either the same or out and about with the rambunctious Casey Jones. Rather than wasting time to figure it out, Mikey hurriedly yet quietly continued his way to the bathroom while the coast was clear. Luckily they installed it on the first floor so it was easy enough to get to without running into anybody. It was a pain in the ass at night though when his room was on the second level and traveling to the bathroom required either stairs or an early morning back-flip to the ground.

Mikey had made it to the hallway in which Don's lab was located where luckily the door remained shut, and the bathroom just past it. A small triumph smile made its way across his lips to celebrate the small victory even as beads of sweat started to form either from fear of his brothers tempers or the blood loss. After he cleaned up in the bathroom he would go straight to Don and have him work his medical magic on him and that way Leo and Raph-

"Yo Mikey!"

Noooooooo, Mikey dragged on mentally as his heart broke into pieces and fell through his body into the bottom of his feet. Should he make a break for it? Probably. Raph would be confused but at least the younger turtle could splash some water on his face before the bigger one knocked the door down.

As soon as Mikey took a step to speed off to his desired destination he froze in sheer shock as he heard a low yet dangerous growl erupt from the hothead. Mikey looked frantically around the empty hallway, bewildered. How could Raph have seen him? From upstairs in the distance? No, because his greeting was friendly enough. Why else would Raph use that protective growl on him if Mikey had been facing the opposite direction and was sure to tilt his head to an angle where his brother couldn't see the injury.

"W-What's up bro? Could it wait a minute? Kinda have to use the bath-"

"Cut the shit Mikey, mah' nose almost burns of how much ya' reek of blood and I know the majority of it is yours! Now turn around and show me what happened!" Raph all but roared and the youngest turtle was pretty sure even New Jersey heard him.

Contemplating on whether or not he should still make a break from the bathroom, Mikey had to put a hand on the hallway wall to steady himself from passing out. Raph took notice and dropped his glare in sympathy for his struggling brother. In the midst of the confrontation with Raph, Mikey heard Donnie's lab go quiet which meant one thing. With a turn of a knob, Don stepped out slightly into the hallway, taking a quick turn to look at a fuming Raph on his left before directing all of his attention to his little brother to his right who remained leaning on a wall a few paces in front of him, still facing forward.

"Mikey?" Don called out gently. He too could smell his brother's blood now that he wasn't surrounded by chemicals and lost in the technology world. He took a couple of steps forward that caused Mikey to mirror his own action by pushing off the wall he was leaning on to do so. It made Don deeply frown as a million thoughts raced across his mind of how badly his little brother could be hurt.

"Michelangelo," the bo wielder said sternly, distressed at how Mikey was behaving. He needed his brother to turn around, as did Raph, to make sure he was okay. For all he knew, Mikey had six bullet holes in his body somewhere and was trying to cover it up. The thought upset Donnie even more and as he and Raph started to get agitated waiting around for a response Mikey held up a hand to them.

"Okay, okay, you win. Before I turn around though, Donnie, what have you always told us about head injuries?" Mikey asked, a hint of playfulness laced his words.

Don furrowed his brow in confusion before stating, "That a lot of them could lead to permanent brain damage or death."

Raph gave an unnoticed hard look to the back of Donatello's head before huffing out a breath of air, crossing his arms in annoyance, and shifting the weight of his body to his other foot, trying to hold onto the last string of patience he had before looking back to Mikey.

"Uh, okay D, not exactly where I was going with that," Mikey started, amused at his brother's blatant answer. "You always told us that they tend to bleed more. So before I turn around, I want you guys to remember that it just looks worse than it is. Okay?"

He waited for a response as seconds felt like minutes passing by.

"Okay Mikey we get it! Now turn yer' ass around before I make ya'!" Raph yelled out, taking a threatening step.

Mikey sighed in defeat and bit his lip as he closed his eyes to prepare himself of what was to come next. He slowly straightened up a bit and turned around to face the wrath of his brothers. With his bandana still tightly clutched to the top of his forehead, he took a quick look at Raph and Donnie before dread filled his veins.

To say they were angry was just a tad bit of an understatement. They were looking at him like he had just been killed by the Shredder himself. He only saw that look on Donnie twice before, and it was absolutely terrifying. As Raph's eyes turned to solid white slits, he bared his teeth and let out another animalistic growl. Don's reaction was almost opposite although Mikey was sure he was feeling the way Raph looked right now. His normally tamed, patient brother's eyes also turned to white slits but his face remained neutral. Mikey absolutely feared both looks to the bottom of his core but with Donnie, he couldn't tell what was going through the older turtle's mind right now as he guessed Raph was probably on the verge of seeing red and lashing out. This is exactly why Mikey had wanted to clean himself up before hand. He was sure he could have stopped his brothers from almost having a heart attack.

"Donnie…Raphie…I told you, it looks worse than it is," Mikey said, carefully as to not tip his brothers off even more so. He's not sure it worked since Raph's hands clenched around his sais until his knuckles turned white and Don started to curl his lip upward.

No no no no no, the youngest turtle thought frantically, trying to search his mind of ways to calm his brothers down and bring them out of their minds and back to the situation in front of them instead of the future or past.

Obviously trying to play down his injury only made things worse, so he opted to try to do the opposite instead. Taking a few calculated steps forward Mikey tried to get through to his brothers once more.

"Don. Raph," he said with more bravery. "I am hurt, I won't lie. But, we've all had worse and you know that. I can't have you guys going out on a rampage, when I need you right now." Mikey watched Raph's hand's loosen his grip on his sais a bit and watched Don's shoulders drop from too much tension then decided to continue on. "Donnie," he turned to said brother to look into his still white eyes. "I'm going to need you to help stitch me up. I'd do it myself but you've seen how awful I've been at it. Raph," Mikey looked to his second oldest brother just over Don's shoulder, "I'm sorry bro, but if I can borrow some blood that would be pretty awesome. I know I still owe you from last time but I swear I'll pay you back if you ever need it. You know I'm good on my promises," Mikey ended with a wink and a small smile. He wouldn't be sure if he got through to his brothers until their natural eye colors returned.

And they did. Slowly but surely, Don's golden brown eyes returned to normal and a second later, Raph's turned to a florescent green. Mikey let out a sigh of relief. It definitely got ugly when his brothers lost control.

Donnie immediately went up to the youngest and put both of his hands on each side of Mikey's face. He was close enough that the injured turtle could make out the small scar at the corner of his right eye due to a lucky hit from a ninja star thrown by a member of the Foot. Donnie took his time in examining his brother's almost foot long gash, stretching skin up and down, side to side, ignoring Mikey's small winces.

In the meantime, Raph had the idea to do something else.

"LEO!" He yelled out looking upstairs towards Leo's room.

Mikey assumed Leo was in deep mediation as he usually is before he goes to bed. The turtles are careful not to disturb him when he gets in the zone, as Mikey likes to call it, due to Master Splinters warnings of how dangerous a spiritual plane could be when being forced back to a body so rushed. It's okay to do so in such emergencies but they don't make it a habit and Mikey barely would call this an emergency as it was. So a bit annoyed he addressed Raph as Don shone a bright pen light he whipped out of nowhere into his baby blue eyes.

"Raph! Don't go bothering Leo, we can just tell him tomorrow-"

"Tell me what?" Leo asked skeptically as he appeared out of thin air next to Raph.

Mikey knew Leo could smell his blood as seconds ticked by but he still begged Donatello through his eyes not to move just yet. Don at least gave him a tight smile that never came close to reaching his eyes as he shook his head and moved out of the way for their leader.

As Mikey locked eyes with the eldest, he could see his brother's eyes turn from an ocean blue sea to an icy lake as he took in the sight before him. His muscles tensed as his eyes trailed from the start of Mikey's cut to where it finished right below his cheekbone. Leo seemed calm enough, mad beyond belief like the others were but still cool and collected. Mikey had half the mind to tell yell, See?! Leo didn't lose his shit like you guys did, but decided against it for everyone's sake.

"Who did this?" Leo demanded however, his eyes narrowing.

Mikey looked helplessly at his brother in command before he felt a hand grip his own. He looked over at Donnie as the said brother tugged him along towards the lab. Mikey could see small annoyance flash in Leo's eyes before deciding that Mikey did in fact need medical attention first. Don led the youngest to the only cot in the room and Mikey sat on it as instructed.

"Raph, I need you over here."

The red banded turtle walked over to the other side of Donnie and sat in a chair as the medic prepared him and Mikey for a blood transfusion. Leo stood on the other side of Don glaring through Mikey more so than at him like there was no tomorrow.

"Who did this?" Leo asked again.

Mikey bit his lip again, something he often did when he was nervous, and slightly shrugged his shoulders. In the meantime, Don took Mikey's bandana to be washed and then inserted a blood transfusion needle. He took some disinfection wipes and carefully started to wipe around the cut.

"Sorry Mikey," Don apologized when Mikey hissed in pain before looking back up to Leo.

"Just some punk from the Purple Dragons, Leo. I'm okay though, really," Mikey insisted, willing Leo to believe him but no dice as something dangerous flashed across his older brother's eyes.

"Did ya' get a name? What the hell happened out there Mikey?" Raph asked, leaning forward so that his elbow rested on his knees. He seemed to have calmed down a bit from earlier which was a good sign.

"No, I didn't get a name," Mikey said softly, looking back down to his hands that still remained covered in his dried up blood. Don moved over to the side where he could start to stitch up the wound as Leo took Don's spot in front of Mikey. The eldest bent over so that he was face to face with his little brother and gently cupped his chin to make Mikey look back at him.

"Mikey, tell us what happened," Leo said, and if Mikey wasn't starting to feel a bit dizzy at this point he would have noticed that it was more of an order than a request. Mikey stared into Leo's cloudy eyes of a few seconds before tears started to form at the corners of his own. There was something about Leo that just brought a wave of emotions that made Mikey feel safe, protected, cared for, all at once and it sometimes, like now, was overbearing.

Mikey cleared his throat before saying, "It was just a few of the Purple Dragons, three I think, that were threatening a couple so I jumped down and kicked some shell…one of them was just a kid Leo, no older than me."

Understanding bled through Leo's eyes for just a millisecond before something darker washed over once more.

"Did he do this to you?" The eldest asked with such venom and hatred that he had to drop his hand from Mikey's chin to keep himself from crushing bones.

Mikey looked away. He thought Leo might have been calmer about the situation but apparently not.

"Michelangelo."

At this point Mikey couldn't resist answering to that tone.

"Yeah but he was just a kid I swear-"

"What happened?"

Mikey paused before answering back. "He had some kind of metal hook attached to a chain and he caught me right after I took down one of his buddies…but the kid looked like he regretted it afterwards and took off running! I swear Leo."

Leo searched his brother's eyes for any trace of a lie but found it all to be sincere. Then, as he straightened back up he reached out to rub the top of Mikey's head fondly.

"Okay, I believe you," he said softly. Then he looked over to Raph and an unspoken agreement was made. Mikey wasn't loopy enough just yet to not catch it. While Leo's hand still rested on top of Mikey's head (much to Don's dismay as he was trying to work here!), the youngest grab at his wrist with both hands causing Leo to turn his attention quickly back to Mikey.

Mikey looked at Raph to make sure he was paying attention too before desperately saying, "You guys, no. He was just a kid, how many times do I have to tell you? He didn't know any better!"

"I know Mikey-"

"Then don't leave the lair tonight."

Leo and Raph exchanged glances once before the eldest sighed. He took his wrist out of Mikey's death grip and moved it to cup the uninjured side of the younger turtle's cheek. "Okay Mikey."

"You promise?" Mikey slurred, fighting a losing battle to sleep and exhaustion. He could barely keep his eyes opened but needed to make sure Leo and Raph would stay put.

"We promise, lil' brotha'," Raph said and once more if Mikey had been more aware of his surroundings he would have realized that it was Raph making the promise and not Leo. And Raph had a tendency to lie.

A minute later as the youngest started to sway a bit, Leo grabbed Mikey's legs that were hanging off the cot and gently moved them on top so that he'd be lying down. The eldest then pulled up a white sheet to cover his brother to make him more comfortable before leaning down to kiss an injured spot of Mikey's forehead. Donnie had finally finished stitching Mikey up, twenty-four stitches later, miraculously throughout the whole ordeal and moved to clean off some of his medical supplies.

As Mikey fell into a deep slumber, he couldn't be confident on whether or not he heard, "we leave in an hour," from Leo.

As Mikey came to in the early hours of the morning, he turned his head to find Don sleeping hunched over at his desk. Poor guy, Mikey thought feeling guilty that Don felt the need to stay and look after him even if a tiny voice in the back of Mikey's head told him he would have slept in the lab with or without him being injured anyways.

He looked around the dimly lit room for a minute before hearing some kind of ruckus from the living room. He could hear it was Leo and Raph as they were quietly talking to one another and Mikey for the life of him couldn't figure out what they were doing out so late and coming back so early for.

Then dread hit him like fifty tons of bricks as he froze in place looking out into the hallway.

They didn't…He thought disbelievingly as he remembered his previous fuzzy conversation with his brothers. And as Raph walked by the lab, stopping a minute to peer in, he caught Mikey's eye, his body language already radiating guilt and how sorry he was for going back on his word but left again without a word to head to the bathroom.

Mikey might not have had a clear conscious still but it was clear enough to see the amount of blood that painted Raph's plastron and smell the scent of the boy who he fought with earlier.

End.

I haven't seen too many Mikey centered stories floating around lately so I decided to throw one in! I hope you all liked it! Tell me what you thought and have a great rest of your week! :)

-A Damsel in Distress