Double mutant Mikey (2012 AU)

Chapter 6 - Working on a Cure

Donnie begins to work on the antidote for Mikey, it feels nostalgic, it brings him back to when he was developing retro-mutagen, and as stressful as it was for him back then, it's not like that anymore, yes he's still on a rush because of the seriousness of the sittuation, but this time around, his family is being more thoughtful, even if just a bit, probably because they're a bit more busy with handling Michelangelo and his shenanigans, but the weight feels less heavy to hold, and he gets the chance to get a break and relax every once in a while, specially when he takes care of Mikey.

The others have a bit of a rough time while dealing with their little brother on his big monster form, but Donnie felt a bit more infatuated with spending time with him, it's a bit strange and different but it still feels nice, Donnie knows Mikey is still there, he knows Mikey's still concious and aware of himself, so Donnie feels like the time they spend together is more like a bonding experience for the two of them, it's like a fresh breath of air, just a moment of chilling and enjoying eachother's company, and it makes Donnie feels more tranquil about the situation, like a self/mental care time for him given by Mikey.

Now that he can relax more, he's been very more focused, each experiment consists of trying to recode the pink mutagen into something similar to the retromutagen, once it substance reacts, he tests it's properties on the blood samplehe collected from Mikey, but he tries to be cautious about how many samples he uses per time, since if they run out, they'll have to get Mikey to go throught that hell again just to take more bits of his blood, which will most surely cause him to lash out again, so he has to be very thoughtful about when it's the right time to use them, so each and every failled test is a frustrating failure.

It took a lot out of him to see the attempts fail, over-time, the samples started to run out, there was just a few left, three to be more exact, it was scary, Donnie had over 20 of them, but no matter what he did, the antidote wouldn't work, at least not on Mikey's DNA, Donnie went as far as to mutate a small ant with the pink mutagen and test one of his cures on it, it worked perfectly, the ant returned to it's original state with no complications whatsoever, but Mikey's blood reacted to the same cure awfully, something happened when the chemicals mixed and caused a reaction similar to acid, it also caused a small explosion, it didn't even made any sense.

Maybe it was the regular mutagen already present in Mikey's DNA as a mutant that was causing the imbalance of the substances, but if this fact means that the cure won't be as effective, then what should he... wait... 

the retromutagen... maybe if Donnie fuse the two cures, it could match Mikey's needs to recover, the blend could be a bit difficult to work with, and his resources are running thin, he has to be very precise and careful to not mess that up, he would hate if he had to put Mikey through any more pain than he had to, specially because Donnie felt like it was his fault that his experiments weren't working, if he was just a bit more competent, if he just had thought that through before making so many antidotes that were doomed to fail, how could he do something so ignorant and not realize something so obvious?

He began self-loathing about his failings until he felt an odd touch on the back, he looks behind him to see Michelangelo, smiling at him brightly, Mikey places a plate of food on Donnie's desk and showers him with affection, hugging and head-patting all around, just Mikey being his usual clingy and caring self, Donnie was surprised, it was already time for dinner, time flied like the wind, Mikey was thoughtful as always and brought him his meal, maybe as a way to say "thank you" or "good job", it was touching for Donnie, even when Mikey is unable to speak, he's still able speak through actions and mannerism.

Mikey sits by his brother's side with a plate of his own, he crosses his legs and wraps his tail, beneath his knees, making a sort of nest like cushion around him, he snuggles on himself to get comfortable and eats his dinner with his big brother since he seemed to be feeling blue, so paying him a little company to make him feel better it's not a hard or expensive price for him to pay for Donatello's sake, and Donnie appreciated the help, it felt nice to know that Mikey cared so much, even though he's failing him, despite the fact he continues to prove himself to not be of grand use, he's still being valued as much as he would if he was sucessful.

The B-team ends their day with an enjoyable dinner before Mikey dragged him to his room and getting him to sleep and rest from all of that stress he seemed to be under.