Untitled

It was no secret to everyone in the small lair that Donnie and Mikey were inseparable and had been so ever since their fateful mutation; or at the very least, Mikey obviously made no attempt to hide the fact that he absolutely enjoyed tailing and spending every waking moment with Donnie like a faithful shadow attached to its host, even when the latter was, most of the time, elbow deep in his various research and projects.

Leo, being the serious and stern elder brother, could not stand any behavior which he deemed childish and idiotic; and Raph, being the most temperamental and impatient among the turtles, could not stand Mikey's crazy, unpredictable and downright aggravating antics for a prolonged period of time. To their credit, they had tried many times to accomplish that feat, but the youngest ninja always managed to correctly identify and push the right buttons in rapid succession to set them off – quite literally in Raph's case. They had absolutely no idea how Mikey could do that without so much as trying, especially Leo, who especially prided himself on his self control and level head.

In the end, the two oldest chalked it up to the fact that it was, in all probability, a secret skill that was only shared among the baby brothers in the history of creation. As a result, they generally left Mikey alone to do whatever he wished and tried their best to stay away from his pranks. Of course, Mikey, being the social type, always found someone to hang out with (or in Raph's term, "bugger"), and that someone was the brother to whom he was closest – Donnie.

The entire family, even the purple-banded ninja himself, never quite figured out the reasons why the perpetually cheerful and active Mikey would enjoy being around a quiet, workaholic turtle rather than mess around with Leo or try to get a reaction out of Raph. Donnie and Mikey were vastly different – like the sun and the moon. While Mikey always bounced around the lair and radiated with so much joy and delight in virtually everything he had ever laid eyes on, Donnie was more on the intellectual side, always silently observing everything with analytical eyes that seemed to see through everything with perfect clarity.

The two brothers could not be more different, but perhaps it was because they were different that they were naturally drawn toward each other, trying to figure out what the other was thinking and understanding what made the other tick. After all, opposites attract, and it also applied to brothers so it would seem.

...

It was just another peaceful day in the lives of the infant turtles. Practice with master Splinter had concluded half an hour ago, and the kids had the entire day to themselves. Leo, being the diligent student even at the young age, had stayed behind in the dojo with his sensei to quietly meditate to achieve peace of mind. Raph, on the other, was trying to find peace in a more physical manner; particularly in trying to figure out exactly how many strikes it would take for him to knock the head of the training dummy in the main hall off.

The red-clad ninja was so focused on the target that he failed to notice the approaching form of another terrapin in the lair. As a result, he also didn't notice the impish grin that threatened to split the face of the approaching menace.

Raph, with a mighty roar, delivered a powerful kick to the dummy's chin and effectively knocked its head right off. Once he was done, the young ninja looked at the object on the ground and smirked in satisfaction.

"125 strikes, fewer than last time. Yes!" he exclaimed as his tiny but calloused fists were thrown in the air in great excitement. It was understandable, however, for it was not every day that one could best his or her own best record.

Unfortunately, the good mood was dashed right out of the sewers the very moment he heard a high-pitched voice shout from behind him.

"Heads up, Raphie!"

Raph immediately spun his body around. Before he could actually manage to do anything, a water brightly-colored balloon flew straight into his face and knocked him over in surprise.

Taking off his wet bandana, Raph gritted his teeth and slowly directed his narrowed gaze toward the source of the mischief.

"MIKEY!" he shouted, taking in the form of the youngest terrapin doubling over in laughter.

"Dude, you should have seen your face before you got hit" came the voice of the culprit, "Also, "Heads up", get it? 'Cause you just made the dummy's head fly up…"

Not waiting for Mikey to finish his rant, Raph shot up from the floor and angrily stomped into the kitchen nearby. Less than a minute later, he reemerged with two frying pans in his hand and a face like thunder.

"Dude, chill" Mikey said with a sheepish grin as he slowly backed away from the pan-wielding terror, "Let's not do anything painful, shall we? Cool, bro?"

For a moment, Raph stopped and lowered his weapons of choice and seemed to consider for a moment. Then, he turned to regard Mikey again, and an evil grin appeared on his face, one that would put the infamous grin the Grinch to shame.

"Oh, I promise this won't be panful for you, Mikey. Not. One. Bit!" Raph said, closing in on the terrified victim.

A moment later, a rather girlish shout was heard echoing throughout the entire lair, followed by a series of feral roars, growls, indistinct noises of various things getting knocked over and more shouting from Mikey.

In the dojo, Leo shook his head and hit his face with his palm, "Guess Mikey never learns his lessons."

"You know what they say, Leonardo," Splinter said with the most serious tone he could muster, attracting the attention of his student.

"Yes, sensei?" Leo asked, curious.

"…No pan, no gain" said master Splinter with a chuckle, causing Leo to hit his face again and groan audibly in exasperation.

"Please, sensei…just…please stop with the pan thing. It's not even a pun. Just… just get back to our meditation, please!"

"Alright, my son."

Tranquility soon returned to the dojo as master and student closed their eyes and cleared their minds. Leo relaxed again and welcomed the blissful silence that embraced him.

"Would you like some kare-pans (Japanese curry breads), Leonardo?" said Splinter all of the sudden, humor dripping from his tone.

"SENSEI!"

"You still have a long way to go before you can fully clear your mind and achieve inner peace so it seems" the wise rat tried to be serious, but he knew he was fooling no one. Leo only groaned and hit his face again.

...

Donatello was sitting on the floor inside his private workshop trying to fix an old camera that master Splinter had found while he was out scavenging a few days ago. Ever since he had been given the old and seemingly broken object, Donnie had been trying his best to return it to its former glory with the limited resources he could get his tiny hands on.

In fact, Donnie had been at it for days on end now, and at the moment, he only needed to put on the finishing touches.

The genius child was about to attach the lens into the camera when suddenly, the door to his lab was flung open with a slam, which almost caused him to drop the precious and fragile thing. Needless to turn his head around to see who it was, Donnie gently put the camera down and said.

"Mikey," the turtle in purple said, trying to sound as angry as possible, but that was obviously not much, "How many times have I told you to knock before entering?"

"Sorry, dude. Raph is trying to kill me out there" replied the overdramatic Michelangelo as he pressed his face against the door to listen to any clue as to what Raph could be doing outside, "So I needed forgo formality this time."

"You always have the most convenient of excuses at your disposal, Michelangelo" Donnie said with a shake of his head and an inaudible sigh.

After making sure that Raph would not burst into the lab any time soon, Mikey finally unglued his cheek from the door and sat down next to Donnie, leaning back and pressing his shell against his brother's. It was another mystery that nobody quite understood. It was the fact that Mikey seemed to find Don's hard shell to be more comfortable than any sofa or armchair they had in the lair, and would always sit like this while the two of them were together. It somehow gave the youngest child peace and calmness. Also, Donnie never seemed to mind the intrusion into his personal bubble.

"Prank?" asked the genius gently, his eyes never leaving the objects he was holding.

"Yup" answered the cheeky turtle with a wide grin on his face, popping the final sound.

"It's Wednesday…Water balloon or fake cockroach?"

"Water balloon" Mikey replied, not missing a beat and with a proud grin.

"Right in the face?"

"Right between the eyes, dude" Mikey answered with a giggle.

"Spatula or kettle?"

"Neither. Frying pans. With 's'."

"I see. The chase must have been...pantastic for you and Raph."

"Argh, dude, stop it. That is just plain dumb and lame."

"I guess" Don replied with a giggle of his own, "You're lucky he's not tall enough to reach the kitchen knives."

"We have kitchen knives?"

"Seriously, Mikey?"

"What'cha making there, D.?" asked Mikey off-handedly as he randomly picked up a book lying nearby and started reading. However, he stopped after he reached the fifth line of the first paragraph and put the thing down.

"Just fixing up the old camera that master Splinter found the other day. It should be finished soon. All I need to do is…attaching the lens…and…Done!"

With that, Donnie held up the finished product and looked at it with pride clearly shown in his gentle eyes. After days spent solely on it, the genius was eager to put it to the test.

"Cool, dude," Mikey said as he turned around to look at the fixed camera, his eyes shining with curiosity, "Does it work?"

"Well, only one way to find out."

Donnie then stood up from the floor and turned around. Before the orange-banded ninja could react, Donnie's finger found the button it was looking for and pressed it.

"Hey, no fair, man. That's a cheap shot. I wasn't ready," Mikey pouted, crossing his hands and feet around himself and turning his head away from the smirking genius in front of him, who took the photo that had just come out from the old camera and waited for it to develop completely.

"Enough with the bad puns already, Mike" Donnie rolled his eyes and said with a fond smile on his face, "Come and take a look at this," he then held out the picture and let his brother take it.

Mikey held the newly developed photo in his hand and looked at the turtle frozen in time. After regarding it for a few minutes, Mikey's eyes narrowed and a frown appeared on his face.

"This is horrible, my eyes were close!" he whined, much to Donnie's amusement.

"Well, looks okay to me."

"No, it ruins my Mikester image, dude. It's the eyes, D. The eyes are the way to the soul. Take another one, please."

"Okay, okay, Mikester, settle down and get ready to pose for the camera" said the purple-clad terrapin with mock exasperation.

"Question, how can I settle down, as in sit down, and pose, as in something that requires me to stand up to do?"

"Don't get cute," replied Donnie monotonously.

"Sorry, brother D., but cute is me."

"Yeah, and woe is me…" Donnie deadpanned, "Besides, posing does not require one to stand up. Many people can strike a pose while sitting down or lying down just fine."

"Okay, then…draw me like one of your French girls."

"Where in the world did you hear that?" Donnie asked, slightly alarmed that his brother had quoted something from a rather…mature scene from a rather mature movie.

"I heard it from the bathroom a while ago. Must have been master Splinter and his soaps, 'cause that line is just corny."

Donnie let out a breath he didn't even realize he was holding and was glad that Mikey hadn't seen the context in which the line was spoken. As for him, Don was positively sure he was scarred for life by what he had seen that day. To Splinter's credit though, the old rat had thought the children had gone to sleep already before watching it.

"I don't draw, and this is a camera, Mikey," Donnie said again, his tone neutral and patient. Normally, if it had been wither Leo or Raph, Mikey would have been running for his safety about now. However, it was a different story with Donnie. The brainy turtle always took extra time to correct and put up with whatever Mikey had to offer and still managed to play it cool.

"Okay, then shoot me" said the younger turtle again.

But then again, there were times when Don's seemingly endless patience was cut short. This time, however, for Mikey's sake, he successfully endured.

"Never mind, just…just make a pose, Mikey."

Quickly getting to his feet, Mikey held out his hand and made a victory sign. His lips twitched upward, revealing all of his pearly baby teeth, and his eyes were as wide as possible.

"Okay, I'm ready," the youngest turtle said through clenched teeth, trying to keep his best facial expression up for the photo shoot, yet another of his crazy antics that always seemed to make his brothers shake their heads – either in fondness or in annoyance.

Donnie chuckled briefly at his only younger sibling and held the camera up, ready to take the shot. Suddenly, a light bulb inside his head lit up and an inward evil grin appeared. Seeing Mikey trying so hard for a photo made Donnie want to tease him.

After all, what are brothers for?

All of the sudden, Donnie put down the camera and looked at it with his usual analytical gaze.

"Oops, the lens is dirty, so it will affect the quality of the photo. Don't move, Mikey, I wouldn't want to mess up your Mikester image."

"Hurry up, dude, my cheeks are getting numb" Mikey said without moving his lips again, trying his best not to move an inch.

Amused by how suddenly serious Mikey was, the older turtle turned around and cleaned the lens – very, very carefully. The process would have lasted much longer if Mikey hadn't let out an angry sound, signifying that he was on to Don.

"Yeah, yeah, keep your shell up, Mike. I'm ready" Donnie said with a light-hearted smirk on his face. Without further ado, he pressed the button and took the shot. The moment the session was done, Mikey dropped his pose and gave his favorite brother a glare.

"That was mean, D." he tried to sound stern, but the way his lower lip stuck out in a pouting manner only made Don chuckle and wish he had teased his baby brother a little longer.

"Well, someone has to upstage you in the pranking business sometimes" replied Donnie as he handed his younger brother the picture, "Here you go, buddy."

"Looking good there," Mikey exclaimed as he looked at the photo of himself. "Hey, why don't we use this baby to take some blackmail materials from Leo and Raph?" he added with an exaggeratedly innocent smile – one that even Donnie thought was not possible.

"I don't know, Mikey. Unlike you, I very much value my life…"

"Aw, come on dude, it'll be fun" the youngest turtle leaned closer to Don's face and looked directly into Don's eyes with his mischievous sky blue orbs.

"…Okay, okay. But if we get busted, I'm dumping everything on your head" replied Don, making Mikey squeal in delight.

A few seconds later, the two youngest turtles in the lair silently trudged around their home and embarked on a dangerous journey, which ultimately ended up with both of them being chased around the lair by a furious, if not murderous Raphael with a towel wrapped and held in place around his waist and a huge plunger tightly held in his other hand.

Throughout the entire chase and the resulting chaos, master Splinter and Leonardo only stood still at the dojo's doorstep and watched everything with confusion decorating their expressions.

"Should we intervene, sensei?" asked the young and clueless Leonardo.

"No, my son. I believe Michelangelo and Donatello got themselves into a jam, so they have to be the one to…unclog the jam."

"…Sensei, with all due respect, your puns really suck… no pun intended."

Master Splinter ignored the oldest son's jab and chuckled merrily to himself. He was in a good mood and would overlook the child's language.

…

Time passed quickly, and the turtles eventually grew up to be fierce warriors and became the unsung heroes of the surface world, doing everything they could to ensure the safety of the people who knew nothing of their existences, except for a few.

Throughout their journeys, the turtles made new friends, and they were of course overjoyed that some people would accept them for who they were, not how they looked.

However, times and times again, Mikey and Donnie still maintained their private sitting sessions inside the lab, with the younger leaning and pressing his shell against the older turtle's. They would sit like that, enjoying the fleeting moments of peace in their wild and crazy crime-fighting lives.

Mikey would talk a mile a minute, discussing various unrelated subjects and Donnie would fiddle with whatever projects he had on hand and answered his younger brother without missing a beat. It was their special moment, just as Leo enjoyed meditating with Splinter and Raph loved busting the training dummy or hanging out with Casey.

In the lab, sitting back-to-back, the two close brothers found peace in each other's presence.

"Hey Donnie" said the fifteen-year-old Michelangelo as he leaned against Donatello's shell as usual.

"Hmm?" replied the turtle in purple, his eyes still glued to the device in his hands.

"Since you're smart, can you count how many stars there are in the universe?"

"Okay, where did this come from out of the blue?" asked Donnie, surprised and amused that Mikey, the goofball of the family, had just asked him a scientific question.

"Dunno, man. The topic just sort of popped into my head. No reason in particular. It's just that I got curious when I looked at the sky the other day. You know, the little tiny dots shining in the dark sky…make you wonder, don't they?"

"Well, I suppose…"

"Seriously though, can you?" Mikey asked again.

"Well, astronomers estimate there are about 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way alone, and there are, hypothetically speaking, approximately that many universes in existence. So, I would say the exact number of stars out there is pretty much unknown."

"But Donnie, you are like crazy smart, dude, and you can do amazing things that other humans can't."

"Well, Mikey, what I know I learned from books, and books are the products whose contents are created by the insatiable curiosity and thirst for knowledge of humans. Therefore, I know about as much as they do. I may have a few theories of my own every now and then, but I never got round to proving them, due to the obvious lack of equipment and resources."

"But to us, you will always be the smartest, bro, more so than anyone in the world. I mean, you single-handedly fixed up this dump of a place and everything in it and turn it into our lair. Man, we would be lost without you, D." Mikey said with a proud grin on his face, "But seriously, tone down on the techno babbling thingy. It hurts my brain."

"Let me think for a while…nah," replied the older turtle with a warm smile. He was truly flattered that his youngest brother had just blatantly admitted that he was grateful for all of his contributions. And that thought alone could have brought tears to his eyes, but Donnie managed to hold them back.

"You're pretty amazing yourself, Mikey. You always know how to pick everything up after they have fallen apart. You always know how to cheer someone up and make people see the brighter side of things – like Leatherhead for example."

"Without you, we wouldn't have made such a great friend. We are pretty much like a house you see, and you are like the various bolts that hold everything in place in this family. The bolts are tiny, but they are numerous, and they always hold things in place without fail. Kind of like you really, especially the way you would continuously get on our nerves to cheer us up."

"Yeah right," Mikey snorted at the metaphor, "So Raph is like what, the framework to support the house and protect it against the weather? And Leo is the interior, 'cause without him, everything inside the house will either be empty or a complete mess? And sensei is the builder?"

"I don't think I quite understand the metaphors you just made, Mikey, but, yeah…maybe…I think" Donnie replied with a confused expression, not quite sure what to make of Mikey's strange opinions. As smart as he was, it was rather difficult for him to figure out his baby brother sometimes. The orange-banded ninja was like a variable, always changing.

But Donnie would never ask for anything else.

"Tell you what, Mike. One day when all of our hardships are over and done with, I may be able to figure out exactly how many stars there are in the universe and you'll be the first person I disclose. How does that sound?"

Mikey looked at Donnie with a fond grin and slammed head first into his brother's plastron, nearly knocking him over.

"That sounds perfect!" said Mikey with a cheerful grin.

…

Time continued to fly.

Another hard day had passed, and Mikey was once again sitting inside the lair in the usual position.

"What a day, huh D.," he began wearily, leaning back a little and directing his gaze toward the ceiling of the lab, "Raph lost it again today and went on a rampage, and Leo was, well, busy being Leo per usual…They had a falling out, and they kind of stormed off."

Silence.

After a few seconds had passed, Michelangelo took a breath and let out an audible sigh.

"Remember what you told me…that I was like the numerous bolts that held the house together, and I told you that Raph was like the framework, Leo was the interior and sensei was the builder?"

"Well," he continued, "When the builder is gone…the house is left unsupervised, bare, unmaintained and vulnerable against the incoming storm…The battered and worn framework can't support the house and protect the interior from the violent winds any longer, and the bolts – as many and numerous as they are – ultimately fail to hold the framework together."

Silence.

"In the end, the entire house collapses…" Michelangelo continued as he leaned back a bit further, his eyes never leaving the ceiling.

"…But you know the real reason the house collapses? After the builder is gone, it is possible for the house to stay…I mean, there are houses out there that are what, hundreds of years old?"

"No, the real reason for the inevitable collapse is because the foundation is damaged, and then lost during an earthquake…And like that, without the builder and the solid foundation to keep everything standing, the entire thing comes crashing down…it's a given, actually. The two most important things are gone, and it's only fit that everything else crumbles afterwards."

Silence. Deafening silence. And the orange-banded turtle closed his eyes for a moment.

All of the sudden, a ringing noise cut through the veil of silence inside the lab and reached Michelangelo's ears.

Pulling out his phone, the turtle checked the caller's ID before answering.

"It's me, April. What's wrong?" he said sternly.

"It's the Foot," came the voice from the other line belonging to their oldest human friend, "They are attacking someone in the city central. From what we gathered, the victim resembled a mutant turtle."

Michelangelo let out another sigh before answering, "I bet twenty bucks that's Raph again. That numbskull never learns how to stay the hell out of trouble per usual."

"Mikey…" April said, unsure how to continue, "I know you are not on the best of terms right now, but he is still your brother…"

"Fine, I'll drag his sorry shell back" replied the turtle briefly before ending the call.

With that, he stood up and headed toward the lab's door. The moment he was at the threshold, Michelangelo turned around and took another look at the eerily quiet sight of the demolished lab, inside which everything was broken and in disarray – a great contrast to the sight he had learned to get used to most of his mortal life.

Donnie's lab, their haven, their sanctuary, their playground, their silent safe-house…gone, ruined, destroyed.

The one-armed turtle spent another minute standing still and looking at everything once again, trying to search his memories for the images of the beloved room he had once loved, as well as the sole resident of the room to whom he had once been closest.

A minute felt like an eternity at that point in time, and when it was up, Michelangelo closed the door and walked out of the dump that he had once regarded as his home, his lair, his personal heaven.

"Guess I will never get to find out how many stars there are in the universe now…Because they have all fallen to the ground…" he muttered quietly to himself as he approached the front gate. Everything in the lair was the same as how he and his brothers had left it for decades after the fateful day so many years ago.

Indeed, everything was the same…

Same as it never was…