First TMNT fanfic! No flames! Mercy! Please Review!

Chapter 1

Mikey's morning was the usual.

He woke up to the loud groaning of his brothers ordering him to make them breakfast. After making the perilous journey out of his room, which was covered in layer upon layer of comic books, he descended into the kitchen, still rubbing sleep from his eyes.

Leo was already sitting at the table, patiently waiting for some sort of nourishment before morning practice. Just by looking at him, Mikey could tell he was exhausted. There were huge, black circles under his eyes, and he was leaning heavily on his right arm in an attempt to stay up right.

Mikey decided that he would spare him his pranks for today. Leo really did push himself for the team. It made Mikey want to try harder at his own job- putting smiles on all their faces.

Yup, that was what he considered his role in the family. He needed to keep everyone together. Keep everyone happy. Keep everyone smiling.

Keep the family as one.

Skillfully cracking two eggs with one of his green hands, he heated up the stove after whisking away the yokes. He loved making omelets. He always got a messy feeling when he made them. It was the complete opposite of his brother, Donnie, who had a precise chemistry to everything he did.

Speaking of his purple-clad brother, where was Donnie anyway? Mikey started humming to himself as he quickly glanced across the kitchen and towards the half-opened door of his lab. If the light that gently streamed out of the crack was any indication, he had probably fell asleep in there after working up until some ungodly hour. Mikey continued humming, a sparkle in his eye.

That was number two on his list of "get-out-of-being-tired-for-the-rest-of-the-day". Leo, of course, being the first. As he absentmindedly flipped his omelet, he contemplated how he could cheer his brothers up.

Upon devising several schemes, his thoughts fell on the one brother he didn't not know the location of.

Raph.

Of all his brothers, he probably tried his hardest when it came to Raph. They were the closest out of all the turtles. When Mikey was younger, he always went to Raph when he had nightmares, knowing that the older, strong turtle would take care of his problems. He would banish the monsters that hid in the dark corners of his room, and he would growl at the shadows that threatened to steal his little brother from him.

The groaning sound of the punching bag being jarred away from the chains that held it to the ceiling came from the room over. The steadily faster beat of fist-on-fabric alerted Mikey to the fact that Raph was both awake…and unfortunately, in a bad mood.

He felt like he should be sighing, but he wasn't. What was wrong with having to deal with three brothers that each had their own problems? Nothing! He could do it. He had confidence in himself. After all, he had been doing this all his life.

The limiting factor of having Raph being in the equation quickly obliterated several plots he had begun thinking of. Serving the first omelet to Leo, who only stared at it for a few seconds before beginning to eat it, Mikey realized it was going to be one of those days where he was going to "prank himself" as he liked to call it.

If he couldn't make everyone laugh at someone else without that someone feeling like a piece of crap, than he'd just make himself that person.

Sure, it was always more fun to be laughing at someone rather than someone laughing at you. But Mikey had done this many times before. He was experienced in the art of self-embarrassment. It went so far as to the point where he would purposefully ask dumb questions, just so that he could get his brothers to vent out a bit of their frustration at him. Not like he was the sharpest tool in the shed, but there was a limit to how ridiculous a question could be.

He had crossed that boundary many times, whether on purpose, or completely honestly.

He changed the tune he was humming to a song that he knew Leo liked. His tired brother perked up a bit, eating his omelet with renewed vigor. Mikey smiled to himself.

Just as he was about to flip his second omelet, Donnie slammed the door open from his lab. It made Mikey jump, almost spilling egg everywhere, but thanks to his ninja skills and an enthusiastic- albeit surprised- "Booyakasha!" he managed to save Donnie's breakfast from certain doom.

Donnie dragged his feet over to the table and sat down, a blank look in his half lidded eyes. He looked like a ghost that had scared itself when it looked in the mirror.

"Heya Donnie!" Mikey hollered, cutting off his humming to greet his half dead brother. Gosh, his brothers were not morning people.

"Hemph…" was the reply from his genius brother. Smiling a toothy grin, Mikey expertly slid his specially made omelet with green peppers (cause Donnie LOVED green peppers and Mikey happened to talk April into buying him one for such an occasion). Donnie, however, didn't seem to notice the green peppers until he was half way through his omelet. Mikey concluded that he must really be exhausted.

"Thannkkkksss for the pepperrrrrs." Donnie yawned, slurring his speech in a decidedly unlike-Donnie way.

"Why, your welcome, Mr. Zombie-Don!" Mikey exclaimed in an enthusiastic voice which made his brothers brighten up a bit more. His energy, although forced to some degree, was wearing off on them. He really was exhausted himself as well. He had woken up at random intervals throughout the night as nightmares chased him away from much needed sleep. He was alright though. Nothing he couldn't handle on his own; nothing he hadn't done before.

Leo was almost finished with his meal when a pissed off looking Raph marched into the kitchen.

Sitting down on his seat hard, Raph sent a menacing, holy-shit-I'm-gonna-pee-my-pants glare straight at his exuberant brother. Mikey smiled back.

"Well isn't Raphie Boy in a good mood this morning!" He teased lightly, presenting his third and final omelet to his brother. He had run out of eggs, so he would have to settle for cereal this morning.

Raph merely harrumphed and started shoveling the food into his mouth before his eyes widened.

He almost set his fork down as Mikey had begun cleaning up the mess he had made upon making breakfast.

"Mikey…did ya put salami in dis?"

Mikey smiled to himself before turning around and sticking his tongue out at his big bro.

"So what if I did?"

Raph looked at him for a moment, as if debating with himself about what he was going to say. Mikey knew that Raph absolutely would kill for salami, or any sausage, for that matter. But being as they lived in a sewer, it was unfortunately extremely hard to come by. Mikey had been saving up this little piece he had smuggled in via April O'Neil. He really needed to give her a hug later. She was making so many of his ideas possible at the moment.

Raph opted out of saying anything, and simply went back to eating his omelet. Mikey, however, noticed that he was eating more slowly, as if chewing thoughtfully in an attempt to savor the flavor. Clenching his fist in the air in triumph, Mikey quickly breathed down some cereal before finishing the rest of the dishes and joining the rest of his brothers for training with Master Splinter.

They meditated for the first little while, much to Mikey's dismay. It wasn't so much that he hated meditation- he just hated not moving around. He tried to focus. He really did! But it was no use. The lack of sleep and the lack of movement had him nodding off in a drooling, unflattering sleep.

To his joy, he found his brothers smirking at him after the session. He smirked back. Pranking himself was not always fun, but at times like this, it was.

Next came a sequence of katas that Master Splinter had them preform. After they had warmed up, they moved onto more difficult moves. All four turtles had at this point broken out into a sweat. Despite all of their tiredness, they seemed to being doing pretty well.

Master Splinter, observant as always, decided that a reward was necessary.

"That is enough, my sons. Next we will move on to sparring."

Almost immediately, everyone's faces light up. Who didn't love sparring? The competition between the brothers was fierce, after all, and the need to prove oneself was always present in every one of their hearts.

Mikey, however, was giving Master Splinter the look. The look was the look Mikey gave him when he wanted his Sensei to do him a favor. Mikey had often gone to talk with him on these matters.

Master Splinter nodded at him. Mikey, like his brother Leo, was constantly worried about the team. But at the same time that he was worried about the team, he was worried about the family. After discussing his concerns with Master Splinter, the knowledgeable rat had agreed with him concerning the tactics he intended to employ. However, he could not help but feel a deep sadness and worry for his youngest son. He was extremely proud that he had enough strength to take the burdens of all his brothers onto himself without them even knowing, but at the same time, Splinter wished that his son could simply live in peace, if just for a while. One so young should not have to bear such a weight.

By the way his other sons all seemed to be in foul and exhausted moods, Master Splinter understood what his son wanted him to do.

"For sparring today, I wish that you all should gang up on one of your brothers…let us say, for today…" Master Splinter pretended to contemplate his decision for a moment. "…it shall be Michelangelo."

Everyone cheered as they were free from the humiliation of defeat. Never had one of their brothers won in a one on three fight with the rest of them. Not to mention that Mikey was an easy target.

Mikey fake pouted, as if the entire ordeal was unfair and he didn't deserve it. However, he managed to send a silent thank you to his Sensei before the fight began.

It was a simple strategy that Mikey would employ. He would hold his own, and then let his brothers defeat him in a way that would make them proud. Shell knows how much they needed da moral boost at the moment.

"It's on guys! You're going down! No one loses to me, the Champion of Awesomeness! The Turtle of the Year returns! Say your prayers now, bros…it was nice knowing ya!"

Raph sniggered, "Please! We could take ya down in five seconds, shell for brains!"

Donnie nodded his agreement.

"I'm sorry Mikey, but you're going to be the one going down this time."

Leo had yet to say anything, but the smile cutting across his face said it all.

"You're so in for it Mikey."

Mikey grinned back.

He was totally going to have bruises after this.