Mikey's cooking for everyone's soul

Late Night Stitches

Summary: Raph and Leo sneak out late at night to beat some muties, Mikey makes sure they realize their mistakes. 

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   Raph and Leo tip-toe into the layer trying to be as quiet as possible. It was almost 3 in the morning, if they were to wake (splinter) anyone up they would be in so much trouble. The two oldest brothers have been sneaking out recently after everyone turns in for the night to go on a second patrol. Usually this means intentionally seeking out trouble, fighting some stray mutants, and basically be the reckless idiots they are. 

   Tonight they got in a bit more trouble then they bargained for. The scissor mutant they were fighting got a lucky hit in and caused Leo's arm to rip open. It wasn't too bad but would need stitches. The only problem is they would have to go get Donnie to do them, which would end up in him discovering "Patrol #2" and lecture them for at least an hour about how stupid and reckless they were being. 

   "So should I go get don?" Raph whispered as soon as he had Leo seated in the kitchen. He was currently holding a few hand towels over his left forearm to keep from making a mess. 

   "What?! No way!" Leo shook his head. "He is gonna kill us!"

   "Well what do you suggest we do then?" Raph raised a non-existent eye-brow.

    "you can do stitches right?" Leo asked. "Donnie's been teaching you that kind of stuff." 

   "That doesn't mean I was actually paying attention!" Raph hissed in a low whisper. he immediately calmed down though and rubbed a hand over his face thinking it over. Leo was right. He could probably pull off stitches, I mean how hard can it be? "Okay, okay... Fine." 

   Raph got out the first aid kit above the fridge and set out everything he would need, some disinfectant, stitches, needle, and gauze. 

   Just then the hall light flickered on and Raph scrambled to jump in front of Leo to hide all of the medical equipment and the fact Leo was covered in blood from whoever was coming. 

   Mikey stepped into the kitchen, un-surprised to see his brother posing in front of the kitchen island to hide whatever was behind him. He already knew about his older brother's "outings." 

   Mikey just sighed and went to the fridge to grab an ice pack, turning away from the looks of confusion his brothers were giving him.

   "You guys are idiots, You know that?" Mikey put the ice-pack on Raph's head (by jumping up on a chair first) and moving Raph's arm to hold it and keep it in place. Then he turned around with a few wet towels to start cleaning Leo's forearm. 

   "Hand me those stitches, You always do a sloppy job." Mikey took the roll of medical thread from Raph and started preparing the needle. 

   It was silent as Mikey started to stitch up Leo's arm. Both of the older turtles watching with confused-shock. 

   "So.. you uh.. know how to stick?" Raph asked trying to break the awkward silence.

   "Donnie's been teaching me." Mikey said flatly continuing to stitch up the wound.

    "You're not mad at us....are are you?" Leo asked before yelping in a bit of pain as Mikey tugged on a stitch a little aggressively. "Okay okay! you're mad I get it!"

    Anything was preferred over a mad Mikey. Even an upset Mikey could be dealt with, but when Mikey got pissed off... there was hell to pay. Very rarely could a scowl be seen on the youngest face... it always looked wrong, like it didn't belong there. Even after all the years they've known each other, April has only seen Mikey ticked off once. 

   An uncomfortable silence took over again as Mikey finished off the stitches and started wrapping it in gauze. 

   "Look Mikey.. we're sorry okay?" Raph finally thought of something to say. "We will be more careful I promise. Next time I will make sure to fix Leo up myself that way you don't have to come down here and-"

   "You don't honestly think I'm upset because I had to stitch Leo up do you?" The box turtle stopped what he was doing and looked up at his oldest brother with a scowl. 

   A moment of awkward silence later and Mikey just shook his head. He deflated a bit. He looked so defeated like all the anger just melted away and was left with pure sadness. This made Raph and Leo incredibly guilty.

   "I'm upset because you sneak out practically every night and you don't even think to tell one of us." Mikey finally looked back up, a spark of anger still in his voice. "You didn't think one of us would notice you gone eventually? You're not even stealthy about it!" 

   "Oh come on Mikey!" Leo gave an exaggerated sigh."We are the oldest so what if we sneak out sometimes? We can take care of ourselves just fine." Leo looked towards his bandaged up arm to Mikey's unconvinced face a few times. "Okay bad example. BUT-"

   "It's not about you hanging out. It's about you not even caring to tell us where you are or where you're going." Mikey interrupted. "We're a team! Do you have any idea how that make's Don and I feel?" 

   When nobody answered Mikey continued. "It makes us feel like you don't trust us."

   Mikey sniffed and all of a sudden Leo and Raph were very worried. Not only had they mad Mikey mad, they made him cry. If Donnie wasn't going to kill them already he definitely was now.

   "You know how scared I was when I found out you were gone!" Mikey barked out at them through angry tears. "And you didn't come back for hours I thought you were hurt!" 

   "We're sorry Mike..." Leo felt guilty. They hadn't meant to make him worry so much. "We were being stupid." How hard was it to just leave a note or text or something? God they were such idiots...

    "Never mind. It's late.. Just go to bed." Mikey got up from the chair next to Leo rubbing at his eyes. 

   "No." Raph grabbed onto Mikey's arm, stopping him from leaving. "Seriously. We're sorry. We shouldn't have done that. We thought it was fine because we were stopping more mutants.. but we didn't think about what would have happened if one of us got seriously hurt or worse. We didn't stop to think about how it would effect you or Don." 

   Tears started building up in Mikey's eyes again and for a moment Raph was internally panicking, thinking he said something wrong. His fears were put to rest though. Mikey practically lunged into a hug, soon Leo joining in. 

   "I forgive you guys..." Mikey's voice was muffled as he was currently buried in Raphael's plastron. "Just let us know where you are next time... Kay?" 

   "Will do lil bro." Leo nodded as the hug lasted for a few more minutes. 

   Leo and Raph had learned their lesson from that day on. If they ever went out late at night by themselves, they always left a note on the fridge. Mikey ended up promising not to tell Donnie, if the genius hasn't already figured it out himself. All it took for Raph and Leo to realize their mistakes, was late night stitches and a talk with their little brother.