Chapter Text
Mikey loved hanging out in Donnie’s lab. Annoying his brother was one of his favorite pass times, up there with skateboarding, and drumming, and his eternal quest to make the perfect pizza sauce. The lab was constantly buzzing with life and activity, and it scratched an itch in his brain he didn’t know he had every time he sauntered in and threw himself in Donnie’s second favorite rolly chair.
Some days Mikey would be greeted with soft classical music.
On these days the lab was impeccably organized, not a nut, bolt, or screw out of place. He wouldn’t receive a greeting from his brother, who was so immersed in a singular project nothing else existed in the world. And these projects were always amazing.
Once it was a small robot that cleaned the lair for them. Not just vacuumed (Donnie made it abundantly clear that this was NOT a roomba), but did the dishes, cleaned the toilet, disposed of any sewage that leaked from the pipes in the living room— it was brilliant. Mikey dubbed it Mr. CL3AN 2.0 which Donnie approved of, much to his brothers’ surprise. The orange turtle was fond of these quiet days, where he would play around on his Switch and listen to his brother tinker, occasionally distracting him with questions and comments throughout the day.
On other days, Mikey would be greeted by dubstep blaring in the lab.
On these days, he usually didn’t get there until Donnie was halfway through his second pot of coffee, and the lab was a disastrous mess. Donnie would only allow Mikey to stay if he made himself useful. Mikey loved feeling useful, so it was a beneficial exchange. These were the days where Donnie worked on several projects at once, spread throughout the lab like a minefield. These projects… well they were less perfect.
Once, Donnie had procured a family of electric eels and tried to use the electricity to power 6 different inventions he was working on simultaneously throughout the lab, one which was strapped to Mikey’s head (he didn’t think to ask why, Donnie knew what he was doing). After a sewer wide blackout, and Mikey receiving a moderate electrocution, Donnie agreed to lay off the caffeine for a bit, and allowed Mikey to mess with the stuff in his lab for the rest of the week (with supervision) as an apology. Despite the collateral damage, these days were some of Mikey’s favorite. And despite the chaos, Donnie discovered a quick clean way to charge their phones, so it wasn’t a total loss.
On most days, Mikey would enter to a soft thrumming of low-fi beats as Donnie quietly focused on his work.
He’d do research, adjust previous inventions, work on updates for their tech— Donnie always found ways to keep busy. And Mikey always found ways to distract him. Asking questions (either about Donnie’s current project or whatever show was on last night), messing with his machines (he was really bad at remembering Donnie’s strict “no touch” policy), or just rambling about his day. Yes, Mikey loved annoying his brother. It was one of his favorite pass times.
There were rare days where Mikey would try to sneak in and out without being noticed at all.
Donnie kept their med kit in his lab; he tended to have the most use for it, not to mention he was the one who kept it stocked.
When the heavy door to Donnie’s lab opened with a hiss, Mikey heard lo-fi, meaning he might get away with sneaking to the med kit, depending on how invested Donnie was with his current project. He was a ninja after all.
Light on his feet, Mikey snuck to the large metal box in the back corner of his brother's lab. He opened it silently and grabbed some antiseptic, cotton balls, and a few butterfly bandages. He made it all the way back to the door without Donnie looking up for even a second.
“Come back.” Donnie called after him, still not looking up from his current project. When did he get eyes in the back if his shell?
“I’m fine!” Mikey groaned, turning to face his distracted brother.
“I’m sure you are. I just want to look at it.”
Mikey rolled his eyes but turned on his heel. Donnie finally looked up and stood to face his brother, grabbing him by the shoulder and pushing him down into his chair.
Mikey couldn’t help but think about the chair, how rare it was to sit in Donnie’s favorite chair. How squishy the seat was and how easily and silently it swiveled. He swished a bit back and forth while Donnie got a clean wet rag. Donnie grabbed the arm of the chair jolting him to a stop and removed Mikey’s mask to reveal a gash.
It was about four inches long, just barely below his right eye. Not too deep, but had it been a quarter inch higher that eye would be toast. It was still bleeding, and the eye itself was beginning to bruise purple. Mikey hissed as his brother dabbed the cut with hydrogen peroxide, never quite making eye contact despite how close he was.
Donnie was never one for eye contact, and Mikey was fine with that. He never even thought it was odd, not until his dad and brothers started mentioning it. Even then, Mikey didn’t mind. He always knew that neither of them acted like the ninja they were raised to be. But Donnie was a comfort for Mikey, he would never want him to change. Not in his strengths, weaknesses, or quirks.
“Raph or Leo?” Donnie’s sudden question tore him from his thoughts. His voice and face never changed from his usual deadpan, but his hands were particularly gentle as he cleaned the wound.
“Who do you think?” Mikey aimed for a chuckle but it came off as more of a scoff. Donnie hummed in understanding. Raph had been particularly feisty recently, Mikey blamed it on raging hormones.
“Sparring? Or did you just piss him off?”
“Eh,” Mikey responded, with a wave of his hand, “Little column A, little column B.”
Donnie nodded and secured a few bandages across the cut. He wiped over it one last time to get the last of the blood off before giving Mikey one pat to the head and took a step back to scrutinize his work.
“You won’t need stitches. Let me know if it keeps bleeding or gets red and swollen,” he turned back to his project, “And try to stop pissing off Raph.”
“No guarantees on that one, bud,” Mikey laughed, as he headed for the door, “Thanks for the patch up though.”
“Mike, hang on,” Donnie called after him. Mikey turned around and cocked his head, “You got time to help me out with this?”
Mikey beamed and trotted back to his brother.
”Just give me a task, boss man!” He declared, absentmindedly scratching at his injured eye.
“First of all, don’t touch that,” Donnie snapped, smacking his hand away from his face, “Second, I need you to sort these wires for me by color.” He shoved a large cardboard box full of a cluster of red, yellow and blue coated wires into Mikey’s plastron. He raised an eyebrow and looked down at the box, then back up at his brother. Clearly this was busy work, but Mikey interpreted the gesture as an invitation to stay and hang out. He grinned and grabbed the box, giving his brother a little salute.
“Aye aye cap’n!” Mikey replied with a wink, and tossed the box down on the table behind him. He sat back in the second favorite chair (after a taste of the best chair it was a squeaky disappointment, but it would do for now), and began detangling the wires.
”Red, yellow, blue,” he said as he created a new pile for each color, “red, yellow, blue, red, blue, yellow, red, yell—”
“Mikey, quiet.” Donnie snapped.
“Yeah, right, sorry Donnie,” he replied sheepishly. He stayed quiet for a good minute or so before whispering again, “Red, yellow, blue, red, blue, yellow, red, blue, red, blue, blue, blue—” he was back up to full volume again.
“Mikey!!” Donnie raised his voice and threw a crumpled-up ball of paper hitting Mikey straight in the head.
“Augh I’ve been hit!” Mikey cried, dramatically falling from the chair, clutching his chest, “betrayed by my own brother! Oh, the humanity!”
“Technically we’re not even humans,” Donnie corrected, ignoring the spectacle, “Turtle-ity would be more accurate than humanity.”
“Turtle-y awesome!” Mikey said from the floor with a finger gun. Donnie groaned but Mikey was sure he caught him smiling as he turned away. Mikey grinned and went back to his sorting, attempting to be quiet as he did so. Annoying Donnie was one of Mikey’s favorite pass times, and as he watched his brother quietly tinkering away at his machine, he couldn’t help but think Donnie enjoyed it just as much.