Help Me, Help Me Won't You?

The orange, powdery dust was definitely the best part, if not the very reason, for one to eat a whole bag of cheese doodles. It wasn't the processed starches and sugars of the doodles themselves that made Mikey scarf down the whole bag. No, it was the thick layer of so called 'cheese' that stained his green finger tips that was worth every piece he had consumed. They were just waiting for the back of his bottom teeth and tongue to meet flesh, scraping across the surface for that delicious film. Furthermore, he entertained the idea that it was tastier due to the fact that it matched the small strip of fabric stretched across his eyes.

He let out a low, contented sigh as his body sank in against the couch cushion. There was nothing better than a late night movie with the lights all off. The little pleasures suited Mikey. He didn't necessarily always have the attention span to sit through the movie's entire length - hence his engrossment with the bag of junk food empty in his lap - but Mikey loved the stories themselves. He liked to watch movies where they had happy endings - even Romeo and Juliet died for love and that was a good enough ending for Mikey. It was his choice that night, as he and the others settled in with snacks to watch some action flick where, in the end, the action hero got the badass girl. "That's gonna be me one day, you watch." Mikey gestured to the television. His words were muffled and difficult to understand for his finger in his mouth, slurping mindlessly on the orange residue.

"Right, and after she realizes she's lip-locked with a massive turtle, I'm sure she'll be real happy to please ya. Gimme those." Raph reached over and grabbed the empty bag, crunching it in his hand; to his dismay, it was vacant of the insides that Mikey had devoured entirely with reckless abandon. "You gotta be kidding me! You ate them all? The movie hasn't even gotten to the good parts yet Mikey!" He growled at his brother, slumping some in his spot as he tossed the empty bag back at Mikey, after balling it and pitching it at his brother. Mikey, however, only grinned and popped his finger out of his mouth, offering up a three-fingered hand for Raph to see.

"No, I saved you some, bro. You want it!" He wiggled his fingers teasingly and in faux thoughtfulness. A second later, a hand came in quick contact with the back of his skull sharply. The smack was resounding, almost echoing, around the space. "Oww-ch!" Mikey said, more on habit than in actual pain as he was used to Raph's auto-reflex to hit him. It was just Raph's way of being affectionate. It never really hurt anyway.

"There's nothing in there to hurt in the first place. Maybe if we're lucky, I'll rattle your brain so hard it might start to work right." Raph grumbled, crossing his arms over his plastron and pointing his beady eyes to the television, with a mild smirk on his face. His attention was mostly on the movie that was still playing, though he momentarily let a brief glace flick over to the orange clad turtle. Mikey smiled briefly, unfazed by Raph's disgruntled behavior due to the lack of proper snack foods.

"Shh…would you be quiet? I can't hear what they're saying - Don, turn it up, please." Leo spoke swiftly. He was leaning forward some in his spot, perched on the ground with his knees tucked up underneath him. His eyes were watching with rapt attention - it was clear he was the most attentive and focused out of the four. He had only spoke to them from the corner of his mouth, no part of him giving his full attention to the others yapping somewhere behind him. He was focused on the content, but also on the strategy with the intent to predict the outcome. Of course, it never occurred to Leo - with his attention so devoted to the film - that it was just that, a movie, and was meant to have twists and turns that wouldn't happen in traditional combat.

Raph scoffed, kicking his feet up on the round, spindle coffee table, lazy and bored like. "We ain't missing major plot points, Leo. They got guns…my guess is they're gonna shoot each other. Oh, and look! Who knew?" Raph gestured to the TV once more as shots rang out and flashed across the screen. Leo, in turn, sighed and shook his head. He, however, didn't dare comment back lest he receive a mocking glare and a hissed 'shh! I'm trying to watch' from Raph in return.

Mikey liked these nights…he didn't see it as Raph and Leo bickering, he didn't even mind Raph when he got gruff since, really, he always was. No, for Mikey…this was a good day, a good night. The best nights were when they ended them together. He hated when Don would fall asleep in his lab or Leo would spend the night away, meditating. Mikey strove to be closer to people and his brothers were all he had - for him, this was the greatest night there possibly could be. It didn't matter that it had happened before or that it would again; for Mikey, it was the best right then.

He had fallen asleep there, at some point, content and happy with the night. He vaguely remembered Raph getting up to find 'something to eat since this nimrod brother ate everything else' while Don explained to Leo about how they could have created that explosion. "The technology…it's gotta be amazing to work with." Mikey had been already dozing by then, though heard Leo offer a soft, almost teasing, remark. "Sometimes, Don, the effect should stay special." To which Mikey, in his sleepy mumble, answered. "Yeah Don…you know, like a bomb should just go…boom. End of story."

Mikey awoke to the glare of the TV, flashing as commercials played across the screen. Don and Raph were still there, the former comfortably laying in a chair while Raph looked out of place for the angles his body had taken while he slept on the other end of the couch. Mikey wasn't sure where Leo had gone, though he didn't pay much mind to it as he shifted happily in his spot, stretched and moved to get comfortable again. He even smacked his mouth a few times and twisted to fall back to easy sleep. However, it was as he blinked his eyes, ready to close for bed again, that he spotted something he hardly expected to see on the television. It had to be late at night, late enough for nothing but paid programming and D-rated shows to play on repeat until the morning news came on.

That, however, wasn't what caught his attention.

On the screen was a little girl, no older than about six. Her skin was dark; not from pigment, but dirt caked onto the surface and her clothing matched in its filth. For living in the sewer, Mikey had never seen someone so unkempt - never mind that he had mindlessly flicked by the same infomercial dozens of time in his zombie-like middle of the night channel surfing. She looked sad - sickly with her gaunt face and her eyes full of big, wet tears. It broke Mikey's heart in a way he was not prepared for, his emotions were on high alert between the recently disturbed sleep and joy he'd had with his brothers the evening before. He felt sad for this girl, so small and young and yet so broken.

"When you sponsor a child like Jennifer, you tell them that they don't have to feel alone anymore." Mikey certainly didn't want Jennifer to feel alone - he knew what it felt like to the feel that way. To sit, by himself, without his brothers there. He had them for the night, but what about tomorrow? He didn't want anyone, let alone this little girl, to feel that sadness of being entirely alone. "You can help provide things like safe water…" Mikey felt his chest tighten…what did that mean? Was she not drinking water? Was that why she looked so sick? They had all sorts of food in their sewer, even left over cheese doodle on his fingers. He wondered for a moment what her home looked like. Did she even have a home? He felt isolated sometimes, by the sewer walls and the fact that he couldn't go top side to see the world and all the people in it…but he wondered if he had forgotten to appreciate what he did have.

Mikey definitely wanted little Jennifer to have safe water too. "…schools and health care clinics…" Mikey had started to sit up in his spot, his still-orange-stained hand resting on the couch cushion as he listened in rapt attention. The woman on the screen - he had no idea who she was - spoke to his soul. In fact, he wanted nothing more than for Jennifer to one day grow up to be as smart as Don, good with computers and gadgets. Or maybe like Raph, street wise and a survivalist. Or even Leo, a leader and a fighter. Maybe even she could be little like him and smile once in awhile. She deserved these things as much as they all did and it horrified him - in a way that he had never fully felt before - that she didn't even have that. "You can help Jennifer and her brothers get back to being children."

"How? How do I make her a kid again?" Mikey asked swiftly, eyes wide as he was glued to the set. He forgot Raph and Don were there, fully engrossed in the sad little girl. He wanted to make her happy…he could remember being little and how it was fun being a kid. Though, it wasn't like he wasn't much of a kid now.

She deserved a childhood too.

"Please call the number on your screen or visit our website to sponsor a child today…twenty cents, that's all you need to make a difference." Those words rang in Mikey's head, resounding like the highest pitched bell he had ever heard in his life before. How did he not know about these kids? These little girls and boys, so helpless and broken? For all the things bad in New York, he had never imagined bad things existed far outside of their city before. In fact he often forgot, in his small worldview, that there was a good deal beyond the small burrows of the city. He was of such a young, innocent mind that he didn't remember there was a world beyond New York. And, in that way, forgot that other people were suffering - people he didn't know about. People he wanted to help beyond the occasional rich woman who's purse had been lifted or the brute hoodlum, ruffing up some other gang member who might deserve it.

His heart hammered in his chest as he swept to look at his sleeping brothers. They were so lucky…he was so lucky. The television had flickered into another commercial, but Mikey was hardly paying attention as he climbed off the sofa and padded over to where Don was sleeping. With a gentle shake, he sank down to his knees next to the chair, waiting for Don to wake up.

"Hey Don, bro…wake up, dude." Mikey whispered, his eyes wide and glazed over with tears of his own. It was only when Don grumbled some, blindly as he sucked in a sleep ridden breath, that Mikey spoke. "I want to sponsor a girl - did you know Jennifer, she's living without like…food and water and all that stuff? We gotta help Jennifer, Donnie…Donnie, can we?" Mikey asked swiftly, all his words coming out in quick succession so that they ran together. Don, however, seemed to look at him with a blank stare for a moment. In truth, Donnie didn't fully comprehend a single word Mikey said as he tried to gather his senses.

"Yeah…sure, Mikey…" He mumbled before he shifted to try and fall back asleep again, deciding against trying to decipher his brother's words in the middle of the night. It was enough for Mikey though. He would help little Jennifer…he would make her life better.

He would get her the happy ending she deserved. Just like the movies.