Disclaimer: I don't own TMNT, I'm sorry to say!
Hiccup!
Hiccup!
Damn it, Don cursed quietly, moving his eyes over the computer screen. He found his place in the large body of writing and read the next few lines before...
Hiccup! The force of the hiccup made his head move back and he lost his place yet again, he was quick to find it again, and began reading...
Hiccup! Giving up, Donny stood up and turned off the computer monitor, heading out to the kitchen to get a drink of water, hoping to cure his hiccups. He took out a glass and filled it at the sink, then gulped the whole lot down. He waited for a minute and no hiccups came. Thanking God, he set the glass by the sink and headed back to his workstation, turning on the monitor. He found his place and began to read...
Hiccup! Damn it! Donny held his breath and counted backwards from ten...
ten...nine...eight...se-hiccup...six...five...four...hiccup...two...one...hiccup!
Don took a deep breath and tried again, this time counting from twenty, but still the hiccups remained. He recited prime numbers, holding his breath the whole time, but it still didn't work. He scanned the other methods he'd heard of.
Laughter. Breathing into a paper bag...I think they got that from hyperventilating, he noted. Fright? Drinking from the back of a glass. He got up and returned to the kitchen, using the same glass as before, he re-filled it with water and leaned forward, drinking out of the back of the glass.
Three...two...one...hiccup! Nope. He sat the glass back down and wondered what else he could do, he wasn't going to force himself to laugh, and he couldn't force himself to be scared. What else was there. Mikey! The thought hit him like a car going sixty miles an hour, Mikey could make him laugh!
He found his younger brother playing a video game with Raph, and interrupted them. "Mikey, can I have your help?" Don tried not to hiccup while talking and only just succeeded.
"How can I be of service, dear brother?" Mikey asked, pausing the game, ignoring Raph's growling.
"Say something funny" Don ordered.
"Don't I always?" Mikey tried for a charming grin, "Umm..." he looked around, seeing Raph and Don both staring at him. "There's too much pressure!" he squealed, and folded his arms, thinking hard.
Meanwhile, Raph turned the volume down on the TV so it sounded as if the game was still paused, reached over to Mikey's controller and pressed play. The game started and Mikey's character stilled while Raph's character began beating him. Don tried not to laugh, but couldn't, which caused Mikey to finally notice. He turned around, saw the words flashing on the screen that announced Raph the victor and..."NOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
Don cracked up harder, and watched as Mikey accused Raph of being a cheater and something about the conditions for a rematch, he then left them as they started another game. Laughter, tick! Hiccup! Don mentally crossed laughter and the tick he'd mentally drawn out, fright was the only one left, and there was no way that would work. Donatello just returned to his workstation, feeling the hopelessness of the situation. He was doomed to suffer the hiccups for a while yet.
He located his place in the paragraph of writing and began reading, just finding his place again every time he hiccupped. Suddenly, someone grabbed his shoulders and gripped them tightly. Donny immediately spun around and spied Leo standing there. "Geez Leo!" he exclaimed, "Don't ever do that again, you scared the crap outta me!"
He stopped. Scared? Did that mean his hiccups were gone? "I'm sorry Donny, I just wanted to see what kind of pizza you wanted."
"Oh..." he sighed, "I don't really -hiccup- care"
He sighed, did nothing work against hiccups? Leo smiled and wrote something down on the pad he was holding to write down orders, "Fine" he said as he walked away.
Don turned back to his computer monitor and tried to focus on the words, ignoring the hiccups. A little while later he finished the writing and was surprised to find the hiccups gone. What had happened? He thought back to what he'd done for future reference and was surprised at the simplicity of the answer.
He'd ignored them. He realized that the reason the hiccups had been affecting him so bad was because he was trying to restrain them, but once he relaxed the hiccups disappeared. They should add relaxation to the list of tactics to cure hiccups, because it certainly worked for him! He happily went back to his work, happy to know that if he ever had the hiccups again he had a cure ready to use!
The End!
A/N: I wrote this short piece as the exact same thing was happening to me, and that's the only way I can cure my hiccups! Thanks for reading!