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Michelangelo laid in bed, his body firmly planted in his pillows, yet his mind floated high into the sky, far away from its corporeal cranium. The teensy Terrapin was thoroughly lost in his reverie as he dug his fidgety fingers into his fluffy blankets.
He was having a little scenario of he and his brothers play around in his head- it’s something he usually did. Making up stories that would never happen, it gave Michelangelo a strange catharsis to let out his teen angst in these dramatic daydreams.
His current whirlwind of thought was simple…
It was so obvious that he harmed himself! He had little dots of scars from burning himself with incense until he heard his wet flesh start to crackle and pop. He had a tone of cuts all over, that was the obvious reason he started wearing more bandages and clothes than usual, not just cause he liked to dress up, but to hod his shameful display of self destruction.
His brothers had to know about it- they just obviously didn’t care that he did it. Because it didn’t profoundly affect anyone- so why waste their attention on their self harming brother when there were more Important things? Much more important stuff…
He began to think what if they had paid attention to his harmful habit. If it got in their way- what would they say?
If it slowed them down or got them into trouble, how would they confront him? He imagined Raphael would be the most straightforward and blunt about it.
‘I don’t care what the shell you do to yourself, but it becomes my concern once yer stupidity puts everyone else around ya at risk!’
He would say, jabbing an accusatory finger into Michelangelo’s plastron. Leo would act a bit differently, more disappointed in his scolding than angry.
‘I swear, if something like this ever happens again, I’ll clear out your room of everything sharp until you learn some responsibility.’
That’s a line Leo would chide him with…
Donnie? What would Donnie do?
‘You really shouldn’t go out of your way to be such a liability to everyone else- especially when we’ve done nothing but help you! It’s honestly selfish-‘
Yeah, Donnie might say something like that. Go on and on about it too, he loved to ramble on about certain things…
Michelangelo yawned, his daydreams seeping deeper into his subconscious and trailing off into a true dream as Michelangelo fell asleep, drooling all over his pillows as thick clots of blood gushed from his thighs and soaked into his sheets.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
“Woah- ahhh!”
Michelangelo yelped as they were jumping across a rooftop. An especially nasty slice that had started to scab over decided to immediately rip open at the action! What the heck scab? Gosh, what a spoil sport he was, tearing right back open to the dermis.
Obviously- that really hurt. And Mikey’s leg involuntarily twitched in pain, causing him to miss the jump and fall into a garbage can, lid slamming into his skull as he rested his head on the bed of trash bags.
“Ughh- what a trash landing… haha.”
“Mikey!”
Raphael was the first to jump down and pull their sibling out of the trash, similar to grabbing a wet kitten out of a tub.
“The hell was that? You pull a muscle?”
Raphael raised a brow, crossing his arms as Mikey held onto their inner thigh with a whine of discomfort.
“No dude, the huge cut on my leg burst open at that jump!”
Michelangelo lifted his hands from the achy area, frowning as he saw speckles of ichor bleed into his thigh-high leg warmers April had given him. That made him wanna cry.
“Huh- what cut?”
Raphael grimaced as he watched the blood seep into the fabric, he couldn’t remember any recent battle where Mikey’s leg had gotten gashed open.
By this point, Leonardo and Donatello also landed in the alleyway, looking a bit lost. It wasn’t often the ever agile Michelangelo missed a jump.
“Oh- sorry dudes!”
Michelangelo’s voice rose to a girlish degree as shame smacked him in the face. His mind drifted back to his daydream a few days ago, he shoulda known! He did know! Darn- why did everything he think have to come true?? Maybe that was just another sign from the universe telling him not to think with his incomprehensibly tiny brain.
“I didn’t mean to mess up the night- ugh now you guys are gonna be so mad at me! Don’t yell at me, I’m sorry!”
Michelangelo petulantly begged, falling to their knees and gripping at the dangly ends of Raphael’s belt. It was in his nature to be a drama queen, after all.
“Jesus Mike- get up, I’m not mad. Yet… Keep it up, and we’ll see.”
Raphael pulled Mikey to his feet by their mask tails, cutting off any oxygen that was running to whatever was left of his frontal lobe. Maybe Mikey should sue Raph for his brain damage. Great idea! Anyways. Leo looked pretty concerned.
“You didn’t ruin anything by being injured, Mikey. How’d you get hurt?“
Donatello anxiously gripped his staff.
“Was it from the fall? Cutting yourself on a dumpster could lead to a pretty nasty infection.”
“Nah.”
Mikey replied, pulling down the bloody fabric, and earning a gag from Donatello. Raphael grimaced and took a step back, Leo mostly kept his composure, eyes simply widening as his fingers flexed at his side.
Michelangelo had revealed his leg covered in blood-soaked bandages and obviously infected cuts that hadn’t fully healed from the festering germs.
“What in the fuck happened to your leg? Did you fall in a damn meat grinder!?”
Michelangelo giggled at Raphael’s question and waved a dismissive hand.
“Nah dude- no fresh turtle toppings on some punk’s pizza! This is all from my trusty higonokami!”
Mikey misread the looks of horror on their brother’s faces- obviously. Because he began to apologize once more.
“Sorry! Sorry guys- I didn’t mean to let a little cut get in the way… It really doesn’t hurt anymore! We can keep hopping round town! I didn’t mean to slow you guys down.”
“No we can’t- Michelangelo, this is serious! You’ve been cutting yourself, but you’re worried about us getting mad over losing five minutes of free time!?”
Donatello began, hands shaking as he began to babble from the stress. Michelangelo clenched his teeth as he squinted at his seemingly panicked brothers. They weren’t annoyed- he realized. They were horrified, concerned, and a little grossed out.
“Oh- I thought you guys knew.”
The orange clad ninja spit out, the surprise in his voice was nothing compared to the shock that made Raph slack-jawed. Leonardo slammed his palms onto Michelangelo’s shoulders, squeezing them tightly. It was like Michelangelo was filled with helium, and Leonardo was trying to keep him grounded so he didn’t float into the sun and pop into a million mikey-pieces.
“Michelangelo. You thought we knew? You seriously thought we would let you keep harming yourself if we knew it was going on!? Don’t you know we care about you too much to- to ever have that happen?”
Mikey began to frown as he heard Leonardo’s voice crack from the oozing grief that shattered his soul. This was worse than their brothers getting angry- accidentally breaking their hearts was way worse than breaking their patience.
“I- yeah? I mean…”
Michelangelo struggled to find the proper words as Leo’s eyes shone with a hint of building tears.
“I just thought that you guys knew- but thought it was no big deal!”
“But it is a big deal! Especially since those are obviously infected, you need antibiotics immediately!”
Donatello yelped looking at the cuts and scabbed burns. They were crusted over greenish, and had a red ring of inflammation surrounding each festering sore. Some wounds had broken open and gotten caught on the bloody bandages, and were now oozing a thick brown concoction of pus and blood.
“We’re going home and getting you treated, now.”
Michelangelo yelped as Raphael yanked him from Leo’s hold, and threw Mikey over his shoulder.
“Woah dude- warn a turtle before giving them a ride, won’t ya!? You coulda bruised me…”
“You’re acting like yer not already worse off than bruised! Quit whining..”
Raphael rolled his eyes as Michelangelo idly kicked their feet while Raphael took them into the sewers, the other two brothers following after.
“Man, I am soooo not looking forward to the lecture I’ma get later…”