Forewarning: this is complete and utter self-serving cuteness of Mikey/OC, and my own personal dumping ground for emotions over animals. Mikey also presents as feminine, which you can read more about in my oneshot (without any OCs) Orange Lipstick and Nail Polish. If you're curious about how else that universe plays out about his gender/s go prompt stuff. This fic isn't really about Mikey's gender/s but him and the OC. For now he's sticking to he/him but that may change.

TL;DR: this has animal nerdiness and OC shipping with a splash of Fuck the Gender Binary

Mikey stared past glass at a pair of beady eyes.

"So tinyyy!" He cooed, poking the glass gently. "Best. Birthday present. Ever."

Donnie was still reading every scrap of info that the zoo had, so Leo and Raph had split up to keep an eye on their wayward brothers. Mikey was adoring just looking at the animals. Sneaking into the New York Zoo for their mutation day was totally worth having to dodge security cameras and night guards.

"You've been staring at that bug for fifteen minutes, Mikey." Raph shuddered. The spider was… creepy. And there were at least two different types of cockroaches in enclosures in the walls that he was really trying to pretend weren't there. "I didn't even know you could do one thing for fifteen minutes without moving."

"Aw Raph, but he's so tiny!" Mikey's finger didn't tap the glass, instead moving around. He didn't want to scare the lil guy. "Or maybe he's a she? Oh, does he have a nametag?" Nope, no nametag. Just some signs with complicated stuff about venom and prey that Don would probably understand better. Mikey could hardly see the tiny words. "You can go look at the scaly guys next door if you want, you don't have to follow me around." Mikey reluctantly pulled himself away from the spider and to the next glass. Ohhhh, this one was a scorpion! It was so pretty! Creepy, but pretty!

Raph sighed loudly, trying to sound exasperated but glad to be given an out. "Ugh, fine. But don't leave this exhibit! I'll be at the reptile house. Don't leave." Raph pointed a finger at him and Mikey waved him off.

"Dude, it's cool." He said, not paying any attention. Mikey leaned in a bit too close and had to use his palm wraps to wipe away the bit of orange lipstick that smudged onto the glass. "Whoops! Wouldn't want that to give me away. And I bet you wouldn't want lipstick on your glass, would you Mr…." He looked at the sign next to it. "Deathstalker? Eugh. I'll just call you… Mr. Toothpicks!" Mikey grinned, rubbing the glass over the tiny pincers he could see.

Mikey continued talking to the enclosures and spending a lot of time just at one creature, watching them move and enjoying how active they seemed to be for the middle of the night. He didn't even keep an eye out around him. If a night guard had walked in, he would have been totally screwed.

It wasn't until Mikey ran out of enclosures that he realized something was off. Standing up and cracking his back, the turtle looked around.

"Raph? Raaaph? Huh, figured he would've been back by now." Mikey said and shrugged. "Guess I'll just go say hi to him and the guys in the scaly house!" He grinned and snuck out, careful to avoid the security cameras Don hadn't already blanked out.

Raph wasn't in the reptile house.

Mikey started to get worried when a general look around didn't show anyone around. Not even any night guards. The zoo was a big place, and he hadn't looked very far, but he should've seen someone. Mikey went back to the room with all the bugs in the walls.

"Maybe Raph will come looking for me here?" Mikey slide down the wall, sitting down morosely. "He's gotta come looking for me when he gets bored. And Raph gets bored pretty fast when there's nothing to punch, Mr. Toothpicks." He said to the deathstalker scorpion next to him. "And he really isn't allowed to punch things here."

Mikey continued to chat to the scorpion and other little creepy crawlies around him, getting more nervous the longer it was without Raph showing up. He began to fidget and find new places to sit. He was starting to get restless and needed to move! But the no breaking thing was just as much for him as it was for Raph. Plus, he really didn't want to mess up any of these guys' homes.

In the middle of Mikey babbling to them a soft, slightly rough voice made him jump up and whip out his nunchaku.

"I haven't named that little guy, but Mr. Toothpicks is as good as any." There was a gasp. "Oh, you-!"

A really, really tall guy was standing in the doorway nearest Mikey, giving the turtle a rather shocked look. He was wearing something that looked like one of the zoo uniform badges on his jacket too!

"Oh crud." Mikey's eyes bugged out and he put his nunchucks away, running for the other side of the exhibit-

"No wait!" Tall kid said with a little bit of worry, reaching out. "It's okay!"

Mikey ninja dashed his way outside and hid on the other side of the wall, pausing. The guy didn't really sound afraid… or even disgusted. He gulped and pulled out his nunchucks again, poking his head carefully to look through the door.

"You're… a lot less screamy than a lot of people who see me." Mikey said slowly, giving the guy a narrow eyed look.

"I've seen weirder," The tall blond said honestly, crouching down so he wasn't towering over the short turtle even on opposite sides of the room. "I think you're not anywhere near the weirdest person I've seen."

Something about the guy just made Mikey want to put his nunchaku away and go hug him. But he thought of Master Splinter and Rad Brad and stiffened up. The feeling didn't go away, but the zoo guy frowned worriedly and it didn't seem to be as compelling as before.

"Are you alright? I didn't scare you, did I?" The blond said. "I know sometimes it's weird around this zoo." He smiled lightly, as if there was something funny about that. "Are you lost?"

"...a little." Mikey admitted, readjusting his grip on his weapons.

"I heard you talking a bit before I came in," Blond guy ran a hand through his hair, blushing a little. "You mentioned someone was supposed to come for you. He probably won't be able to find you. We're not exactly… in the zoo, here." The guy looked up and Michelangelo realized with a jolt that his eyes were pitch black with rings of pink. How had he missed that?! They were even GLOWING!

"What do you mean, not in the zoo?" Mikey gulped, lowering his weapons with wide eyes.

"Oh no no, nothing really bad. It's just…" The guy sighed and moved from his crouch to sit down on the floor. "It's complicated." He was still really tall, even sitting down. He looked like he might be taller than Master Splinter! "Okay so, there's the real zoo, and then there's like… another zoo, in the same place, but it's hard to get to." He chuckled. "Some people call this the phantom zoo. Sometimes people wander in without meaning to, and I'm usually here to help them wander back out." Blond guy smiled at Mikey. Mikey couldn't help but relax a little bit. Tall and blond was just… so nice. If Donnie had been there, he'd say that the zoo employee was genuine; something Chris Bradford hadn't been.

"Soo… you're here to help me get out?" Mikey didn't want to put his nunchuks away, he still remembered the last time he trusted a human he'd just met, but he really did need to find Raph before the hothead got worried. And that was probably easier done when he wasn't pointing deadly weapons at this guy.

"Yes." Tall blond guy smiled again. He smiled a lot. "My name's Brad Jenkins, I… well I technically work here." Mikey groaned and facepalmed with both hands. "...was it something I said?" Brad frowned worriedly.

"Yes? No?" Mikey flinched. "I mean, uh, well I don't really have the best track record with humans named Brad?"

Said human laughed. "Oh that's fine, you can call me whatever you want."

'What about gorgeous?' Mikey almost said and then smacked himself. Gorgeous, yes. Brad was really pretty and he sounded like a really nice guy. But Michelangelo was a ninja mutant turtle, and this guy was a human with weird pretty pink glowing eyes in a zoo that wasn't actually real. And they knew nothing about each other.

"So uh, where's the exit?" Mikey tried to pretend the last minute hadn't happened. Brad seemed willing to let him and stood up, tipping over a bit.

Brad had all the gangliness of a teenager too long for his own brain to catch up with, a lot like Donnie had when his growth spurts really hit. Master Splinter had him do extra training to get over his change in balance. Mikey guessed Brad hadn't ever done any training in his life, with how skinny and wobbly the guy was. Point one for NOT being an evil ninja trying to destroy Mikey's family.

"Hard to say." Brad said and shrugged once he was up. "How'd you get in?"

"I don't know. I was just talking to the little guys and then realized my bro- uh, um… I realized my bro hadn't come back to look for me yet." Mikey refrained from biting his lip and messing up his lipstick. Brad nodded.

"That's usually how people get in." He said cheerfully, walking over to Mr. Toothpicks' terrarium. "This place is… it's for people who truly appreciate animals." Brad's smile was breathtaking; small and sweet as he traced the glass with a fingertip. "Or anything that crawls the earth, really." He chuckled. "You have to get lost in them to wander in. So you have to get lost in them again to wander out."

Mikey nodded. "That kinda makes sense. But uh… how're you supposed to help with that?"

Brad turned to him and beamed. "Because I can go in and out at will at this point, I love animals so much. Just follow me while I give you a private tour. If you really do enjoy them you'll find your way out in no time!" Any subtle innuendos were lost on both parties, as Mikey cautiously followed Brad through the exhibit. "Now, Mr. Toothpicks is a deathstalker scorpion- the second most venomous scorpion in the world. These little guys have toothpick pincers because they don't need to hold their food still. If they need to catch a bug, they just stick it with their big, muscled tail; then bam! There's lunch. Scorpions you see in movies have big pincers because they have no venom at all, it makes them safe to use for filming…"

Despite the last experience with a lone human he'd had, Mikey couldn't stop himself from being utterly fascinated by Brad's tour. Brad loved each and every creature in the zoo. He knew when and why they'd arrived at the zoo, how old they were, what their name was if they had one, and he always had something to say about other zookeepers not caring for them right. Mikey ended up right up next to Brad, eagerly looking through enclosures instead of several feet behind him like he'd planned. Brad just had so much to say! Sometimes if the animal liked being touched and held, he'd even take it out and let Mikey pet it a bit!

The fact that he was Donnie but with animals helped Mikey feel more comfortable too. Except Brad knew how to talk like a normal person; or if he used big words, he'd stop and say them in actual english. Brad could talk about all kinds of weird things! Horny toad lizards could spit blood out of their eyes to scare off things that tried to eat them. Electric eels weren't even eels at all! Catfish were the scariest fish ever and piranhas were really cool, but not actually that scary. Sharks were total puppies! Stingrays had babies with little jelly things over their spikes so they didn't hurt their mom. With every animal they passed, Brad had something really cool to say. And if Mikey had trouble reading the signs Brad was willing to read them and make them sound more interesting.

Mikey didn't even realize when over an hour had passed and they walked through a gate somewhere near the giant bird cage. He looked up from the pretty flowers along the side of the path and saw Don walking out of the building.

"Don! Hey, Brad, this-" Mikey turned to see nobody there. He was briefly shocked but then pulled himself together when he remembered that this was pretty much how Brad had said it'd happen. He sighed, he'd been having a ton of fun, and jogged over to his tallest brother. "Donnie! Hey! Where's Leo? I need help finding Raph-"

"Mikey!" Don whirled around and grabbed his shoulders. "Do you know how worried we've been looking for you?! Leo's over by the aquatics trying to see if you got in any of the tanks! Raph's been fuming mad!" Donnie took a deep breath and frowned. "Where did you go? Raph told you to stay put. And how'd you avoid running into us? It's been several hours! You weren't seen by anyone, were you?"

Mikey paused and thought. Brad had mentioned… well, they'd just come from the big tanks with the big fish. Mikey had gotten to stand in the shallows and pet a shark! Brad had been extra careful that he would be safe.

And… they hadn't run into any night guards the whole time. None of the cameras even moved. There wasn't anyone but him, Brad, and the animals.

"Someone came into the bug room and I had to hide." Mikey said truthfully. He didn't know why, but he felt like Brad would appreciate it if he didn't say too much. Mikey already knew his brothers would never believe him anyways. Time and time again, they never believed Michelangelo about weird stuff until they had it proven to them. "Then I got distracted by some stuff and I got lost. Real lost." Mikey made a face. "But I got to see a lot of animals! Catfish are scary."

He had to stop himself from shuddering. Really scary. He was glad Fishlegs hadn't been mutated with one. Some catfish could breathe on land for a while! And there were a lot of types of catfish. So many… Mikey was never going to set foot in the Amazon. Ever.

"You got lost." Don deadpanned. He sighed and rubbed his head. "Well, at least no one saw you. Leo's still going to kill you for running off."

Leo was definitely mad. Mikey ended up with a lecture from Master Splinter when he got home, but he got the feeling it wasn't as harsh as it could've been since it was their mutation day. He tried his best to not tell them about Brad. The last time he'd made a friend without his brothers there it went REALLY bad. And they were nagging him about it forEVER.

But he did at least tell Master Splinter the truth in private, trying to explain the coolness of the phantom zoo and how nice Brad was. He couldn't lie to his dad if he tried. And he really wanted to go see Brad again. But this time he was going to be careful.

Splinter rubbed his beard thoughtfully. "And why did you not tell your brothers the whole story, Michelangelo?" Mikey sighed and shrank in on himself, straightening his skirt absent mindedly.

"They don't trust my judgement, sensei. Which is kinda smart, I guess, since the thing with Bradford…" Mikey looked at his nails and resisted the urge to pick at them.

"Even the brightest instincts can fall to skilled deception." Splinter said. "And of all the things you are skilled in, detecting deception is not one of your strengths." The rat frowned. "This may also be in part my fault, for not teaching you and your brothers how to recognize deceit. I didn't wish to expose you four to that aspect of ninjutsu… but I will remedy that in the future." Splinter leaned forwards and put a paw on his youngest child's shoulder. "For now, I sense you still feel a lack of your own friendships, and wish to make friends with this Brad?"

Mikey looked up, startled. "Shell yeah! I just- he's super nice! And the zoo is so cool and there's nobody but him around to see me, and he was kind of surprised but not scared of me being a mutant turtle and all? So I don't think there's the usual kind of problems with us showing ourselves to people. And I… I'm not sure he can leave the zoo." Mikey said, frowning worriedly. "He seemed really lonely. He just wanted to talk and help me get out." That and...

Splinter nodded. "He sounds like a kind soul. If you really wish to make friends with him without your brothers, I will allow it." Mikey's jaw dropped. "On one condition." He said, holding up a claw. "You must bring me to him so that I can meet him, and teach you a few signs of someone hiding malicious intent."

"You got it Dad!" Mikey jumped up, fistpumping excitedly. "Thank you thank you thank you! I'll pay extra attention to this lesson I promise!"

Splinter chuckled. "See that you do."

So Brad Jenkins is a year old collab character between me and my qpp, who doesn't really know much about TMNT but still ALSO ships the fuck out of Brad/Mikey AKA ZooPals. Brad is... a sweetie pie? Mikey is... also a sweetie pie? Alternate ship name is Sweetie Pies

Lemme know what you think! Go on and check out my tumblr to find pics of nb Mikey and Brad drawings