Title: to stand on mountains

Summary: Michelangelo... What's it like, having brothers?/ a drabble of Mikey's thoughts on his brothers...and maybe his sisters too.

Author: Scar of Hope

Fandom: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Rating: Fiction K

Pairings: Karai/Mikey Friendship/Family/Fluff

Disclaimer: I am not Peter Laird, Kevin Eastman, Nickolodeon, Viacom, or anybody else who might have any kind of legal claim to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I am but a humble worshipper at the altar of TMNT.

Note: This doesn't really fit anywhere in the current time-line, so... theoretical conversation after my speculation of "Vengeance is Mine" even though it probably won't go the way I want it to. First TMNT Fic, but don't be gentle.

EDIT: So after seeing the episode a couple times, I think that this could feasibly have taken place during "Vengeance is Mine", before Karai tries to get he revenge and after the guys bring her home (And yes, the lair is Karai's home. I don't care if they haven't even assigned her a bedroom yet, I will fight you on this.)

Muses: Josh Groban

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

- You Raise Me Up, Josh Groban

Michelangelo... What's it like, having brothers?

Karai seems kind of nervous, and Mikey can't blame her. He's usually not one for awkward silences, but she's been living with them for nearly two weeks and they've only spoken a dozen words to each other. With Leo and Raph having it out topside, and Donny studying with April, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get to know her.

He didn't expect it to get quite so...deep.

"Never mind," she mutters sullenly, her face lighting up crimson, and it occurs to Mikey that maybe she was just as embarrassed to ask as he was to answer.

"Wait!"

He stops her retreat with a hand on each wrist because this... something is happening here, and he's not quite sure what it is, but is feels important and he doesn't want to mess it up.

"Lemme think,"

But thinking isn't really Mikey's thing. Mikey feels things – feels them raw and bright, and sometimes a little too fiercely – and he does things – quickly, with naturally grace and speed that he sometimes takes for granted – but thinking is something he's always left to Donny and Leo, so he's not sure how to say everything he wants to say before this rapidly closing window of opportunity is shut and this strange girl who should be family but isn't is out of his reach.

Because how can he say with words the swell of strength that comes from knowing there are six hands to catch him when he falls? Can he explain how Donny's words can be the most incomprehensible babble he's ever heard and still be beautiful? How can he define the bubble of joy right next to his heart when Leo admonishes him for throwing water balloons, even though he can't completely squash the quirk in his mouth that betrays that he's trying not to laugh? How does he make her understand the lance of pain he feels in his soul when Raph seems so angry at everything and nothing and nobody can understand why – not even Raph.

And does he want to? All these bits and pieces that make up his whole world, does he want to show them to this sister/stranger who was an enemy, and then maybe a friend, and enemy again and now...what?

How can he say that it hurts but it's so wonderful you don't mind?

"Mikey?"

She's never called him that before, he thinks, and his stomach floods with embarrassment when he realizes he's gone and made himself cry and he still hasn't answered her question, so he blinks and turns away because he has most definitely messed this up and she's probably never going to talk to him again.

"Mikey..." she says it again and this time something in her voice makes him look at her. There's a light that's not quite understanding in her eyes, but it's enough that she looks like maybe she wants to cry too – which is stupid because he's the one who apparently goes chick-flick over legitimately simple questions – and she turns her hand over in his and squeezes and something new and strange and achingly familiar settles into place in his heart.

She fits the same way April fit, into a tiny niche no one remembered was there until she slipped into it and now he can't understand how he never noticed what they'd been missing. Her niche is different, and sharper, and a little cracked around the edges – and she almost doesn't fit, because the niche is Miwa, onee-sama, sister, and she's been gone so long her shape has changed (Karai, weapon, enemy) but he looks closer and sees that the colours may be covered up but the outline is still the same.

So Mikey, whose heart is already too big for his own good, smiles around his tears and decides to love her because he has plenty of love and she needs it maybe more than anyone.

"You'll never be alone," he manages around fat, hot tears that seem to come from a place in his heart he didn't know he had, and he's not sure if he's talking about him or her but when she hugs him abruptly and fiercely and it feels like the world's been spinning at the wrong speed for sixteen years and it's suddenly righted itself, he's pretty sure he means both.

"We're not alone," she says, a statement that's really a question. He holds her a little tighter, an answer that's really a promise.