Heyyyy! i don't usually do second chapter for my poems but...I got a special request in a review from a super awesome person: Arachnide! thanks so much for your praise! I loved your review, and this little one-shot is for you! if you didn't see their review, it was an Idea that Mikey actually said/wrote this poem down and he and his brothers have a fluffy fluff fluff conversation about it! so...here goes!

Leonardo was walking from the dojo to the kitchen when he saw a crumpled paper, halfway hidden under a new bag chair and a game controller. It was probably nothing, just some discarded drawing Mikey had left there. Despite this, the leader in blue jumped down into the pit and fished it out, surprised to see penciled writing instead of crayon drawings. Leo was even more impressed with the handwriting, Mikey rarely wrote, but the cursive was graceful. Leo squinted at the wrinkled paper and friends, seeing that it was a poem of some kind, he didn't know Mikey wrote poetry.

As Leo read the words, his eyes widened further and further. Oh Mikey...where was the younger turtle right now anyway? Leo clutched the paper and walked briskly to the lab, where Raphael was sitting backwards on a chair, listening to Donatello talk about something or other; this had been a recurring habit of theirs lately, but Leo brushed it aside as he cleared his throat to get their attention. Both looked over.

"what's that, Leo?" Donnie asked, nodding to the paper in his hands. Leo looked down at it and, without explaining, read it. Both his brothers faces were masks of confusion which quickly melted into shock, horror, and sadness. As Leo completed it, he looked back up at them.

"do you know where Mikey is?" he asked, looking at his brothers. Raph got out of his chair and ran a hand over his head in aggravation.

"Shell, Mike, why didn't he just...nevermind that. He said he was going to hang with Mondo, dunno where." the red masked terrapin was visibly upset, and then they heard the distinct sound of skateboard wheels on cement. Mikey was back, just in time.

"hey guys! I'm back! Me and Mondo I found a totally awesome skate spot." he was saying as he skipped into the lab. "hey! Is this an intervention for Raph's anger? I've been saying we should do this for years!" he seemed oblivious to his brothers staring at him, and the paper in Leo's tight clenched hands.

"Mikey." Leo said, voice full of an emotion even he couldn't place. Michelangelo finally seemed to pick up on the mood, and his hands fell on the paper Leo held. His face was a flash of fear before it lit up again.

"Hey, you found my paper!" he declared, reaching for the wrinkled piece, Leo held it away.

"Michelangelo." he said, thinking of what to say, Mikey's eyes were showing more and mroe panic now.

"Hey! That's mine, Leo!" he said, trying to get it, "please give it back!"

"Why should he?" Raphael asked, looking at Mikey With a mixture of regret and guilt, "Mike, we need to talk about this." Michelangelo looked from Leo's face to Raph's to Donnie's, his lower lip quivered for a moment.

"You...read it?" he asked, somewhat accusingly. They all nodded, and to Leo's surprise and dismay, the orange masked turtle turned on his head and left the lab quickly.

"Mikey, wait!" Leo galled, darting after him, but it appeared that after Mikey had left their line of vision, he had sprinted, and now his door slammed shut. With a look back at his other brothers, who nodded, Leo ran to the door, Don and Raph on his heels. "Please, Mikey, we just want to talk." he said, knocking lightly on the door. Mikey didn't answer, so he tried the handle. To Leo's surprise, it swung open easily. Mikey was on his bed, lying on his stomach with the pillow under his chin, tapping the mattress to a beat of a song Leo didn't know, and maybe didn't yet exist.

"Michelangelo." he said softly, walking to the bed with the others right behind. "Please."

"You shouldn't have read my paper." Mikey mumbled, "where did you find it?"

"It was out in the lair," Leo replied, "under a beanbag, if you didn't want us to read it you should have taken care of it, Mikey, and why didn't you tell us how you feel before?" he looked down at the poem he held. "We didn't realise…"

"Of course you didn't!" Mikey snapped, looking up at him with electric blue eyes. "That's the point, Leo!"

"What do you mean that's the point?" Don asked, staring at Mikey with a new light. "Mikey, you could always just tell us we hurt your feelings, we don't want you to be in pain!" Mikey rolled his eyes.

"I thought you read it." he snorted, looking at his hands. "Did you read all of it?"

"Yeah." Leo said, confused. "But that's not the thing, Mikey, the thing is that you haven't been honest with us. You could have told us you felt underappreciated or-"

"I don't feel underappreciated." Mikey protested.

"That's a load of bull." Raph snorted, Leo and Don exchanged a wary glance before looking at the hotheaded turtle. "Don't you pull any of that crap on us, Mike, i heard the ending of your poem, yeah, i know what that means. But that doesn't heal the damage, Mike." his voice changed to a softer tone. "Knowing we yell at you because we worry doesn't heal everything, alright? We all know that." Mikey sat up and looked at Raph, Leo let out a soft silent breath of relief that it hadn't gone too far downhill after Raphael spoke.

"That's the thing, Raph." Mikey finally said, addressing the green eyed turtle with his eyes and voice. "It does, i know you all care about me and i know you're worried. I also know that you do care about what i do, even if it's not much. That's how i heal the other things, i swear. After all," a lazy smile appeared on his face. "I'm the only one who can really cook. None of you ever get mad at me for that. And other than that, we all have roles and jobs."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Leo protested, "Mikey, I do know who you are. I know you try your best, but i want to make it show that i understand."

"You aren't listening to me, big brother!" Mikey said, getting to his feet and taking the paper from Leo's trembling hands. "Look, i wrote this yesterday, i was feeling upset at the beginning." he shook his head. "I don't write to vent, to get ammo for arguments, i write to work through it. When i started writing this, i dunno, I felt like you really didn't know me." he sighed, a small frown on his face, and Leo stood to put a hand on his shoulder. "But then, it got me thinking, you do know. You do care. You all do, all three of you." he laughed, "and if you care enough to try and slap sense into me, then who am i to say you don't know me like a brother? We're brothers, that's what we'll always be. Leo's leader, Raph's the hothead or muscle or whatever, Donnie's the genius, and mikey's the laughter."

"You're more than that." Leo protested. Mikey looked up at him, beaming.

"I know! But Leo, that's the most important thing! I make you laugh, i make you smile! When i don't make you, you aren't going to. I understand that, alright? My most important job is keeping you guys from tearing each other apart! It always has been! And I love doing it!" he giggled, backflipping to sit on his bed. "This poem isn't to scold you guys, or myself, i was trying to work through a sad thing and it worked. I honestly know that you all love and care about me, so why worry?"

"Mikey, that's incredibly mature." Donnie stated with a small smile and a shake of the head, Mikey beamed.

"I know! And look! You're smiling! Don't you guys see? I don't resent you for teasing me, i tease you guys all the time! I don't hate the fact that I'm a jokester, I decided to be a jokester! I wouldn't stop if i could! And if i didn't, life would really suck." Leo stared at Mikey in disbelief, he was at fault, too. He hadn't seen what Mikey did for the team, the family. He hadn't realised that it was an important role.

"You don't have to control it, Mikey." he finally said, grinning. "Because if you're so busy controlling it, you might not see us coming!" he tackled Mikey onto the bed and Mikey shrieked in delight, laughing. "Come on! We're going to have a cartoon a thon!"

"Augh! Let me go!" Mikey shrieked, laughing with a grin on his face. Raph grabbed his legs and Leo hooked his hands under Michelangelo's arms.

"Never!" Leo said, "we can cheer you up too, Mikey!"

"I love you guys!" Mikey squealed, wiggling from their grasp and getting to his feet. "I get to choose what we start with!" and ran out of the room, they all followed with cries of mock dismay, also smiling. When the room was vacant, the wrinkled piece of paper lay on the messy floor, and there it would stay to became stained with pizza sauce and shoved under the bed, forgotten.

dawww, sniff sniff. thanks so much for your reviews on the poem guys! and i hope you liked this little shot! this was truly inspired by the review from Arachnide and I'm sincerely grateful for it! I hope you enjoyed this and please please review!