Mikey limped over to the sofa, using Don’s Bo staff to help support his injured leg as he returned from the medical room. It was only a minor sprain, but he guessed it would put him out of commission for a week or so.
Mikey sat down on the opposite side of his only uninjured brother, quickly tightening the pressure bandages around his ankle. He wasn’t used to patching himself up; usually Donnie would have done it, or on rare occasions even Raph or Leo would have helped him. But Donnie hadn’t come to the medical room, and Mikey had the least serious injuries, it made sense for him to patch himself up and get out of their way.
Donnie sat huddled up in the corner of the sofa cushions, his head down, resting against his arms, which curled around his knees. He hadn’t gone to the medical room with his brothers; even though he was usually the doctor of the family, he couldn’t face being in there right now.
He felt guilty for his absence, but he knew his mind wouldn’t be on their injuries, and he would be more likely to make a mistake. He didn’t want to take that risk with Raph’s eye.
His guilt was lessened by the fact that Splinter was helping them. Donnie had convinced himself that the wise Sensei was more than capable of patching them up… Although he doubted that even their father could heal the damage he had seen happen to their family.
“Donnie?” Mikey’s voice was soft; with his head in his arms he wasn’t even sure if his brother was awake. And how he’d acted in the dojo still scared him slightly.
Mikey had never seen Donnie like that. Donnie was always the shy, calm geek of the family. If there was a fight he’d calmly break it up and make them deal with it, and make sure he was there to clean up afterwards.
“Hmm?” Don jumped slightly at Mikey’s voice, having been so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t heard him come back from the medical room. “I thought you were in the medical room.”
Donnie lifted his head to turn confused eyes towards his little brother, a small emotionless smile tugging at his lips.
Mikey studied his brother’s appearance carefully; lately Donnie had been keeping to himself more, locking himself in his room or immersing himself in difficult projects. His smile was forced and empty.
His eyes were dark and hollow, almost empty of the inquisitive spark of life that his family had always loved about him. The lifeless orbs were rimmed with dark bags, betraying how little sleep he’d been getting these last few days.
Mikey knew that he had been suffering from nightmares; their rooms were right next to each other and he often heard his brother crying in his sleep, or screaming himself awake.
When the younger turtle had asked about them, Donnie had managed to shrug it off or change the subject, and Mikey didn’t push the matter. It wasn’t any of his business; all he could do was make sure that his brother knew that he was always there when he needed someone to talk to.
He wished Donnie would talk to him now. Something was tearing apart the young genius from inside his own mind and none of them had even noticed - too wrapped up in their own problems to realise that one of their own needed their help.
“Did you do that yourself?”
Mikey quickly shook his head, pulling himself out of his deep thinking to concentrate on his brother’s words. He hadn’t even realised that he’s been staring blankly at him since he’d last spoke.
“Huh?” Mikey quickly followed his brother’s line of sight to land on his bandaged ankle. “Uh. Yeah. It’s only a small sprain; I figured I’d do it quick and get out of there.”
Don nodded taking a deep breath, his voice slightly shaky. “It’s coming undone. I’ll tighten it up for you.”
“Thanks.” Mikey smiled, carefully swinging his injured leg onto the cushion between them. Donnie made quick work of removing the bandages, carefully inspecting the swollen ankle before trembling hands started to wrap the fabric tightly around the injury.
“How are they?”
Mike hesitated before shaking his head. “I didn’t stick around long enough to find out…”
“Right.”
The two fell into an awkward silence as Donnie finished dressing the injury, neither one knowing what to say in light of the circumstances.
“Donnie?” Mikey’s eyes fixed on his bandaged ankle as he broke the silence, using it as an excuse not to look at his brother. “Do…Do you still have those sleeping tablets.”
Donnie frowned, turning to face his brother with a mixture of concern and confusion. “I thought you stopped having nightmares?”
Mike flinched, he wasn’t surprised that the genius had managed to put two and two together, but he’d hoped that the answer had been five. He bit his lip nervously before shaking his head, there wasn’t really any use in denying it.
Donnie opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated before asking: “Do you need to talk about it?”
Mikey sighed, wrapping his arms around his good leg drawing himself into an awkward ball.
“It doesn’t matter.” He shook his head, still refusing to look up from his bandage. “It’s stupid anyway.”
“Mikey. If it’s making you upset then of course it matters.” Donnie gently touched Mikey’s leg, making him look up to see the concern in his brother’s eyes.
“You don’t talk about yours.” Mikey objected quietly. “Yours are worse than mine...Sewer walls aren’t that thick.” He added with a sad smile by way of explanation when Donnie looked like he was going to object.
It was Donnie’s turn to refuse to meet his brother’s eye and the two fell back into awkward silence.
Mikey shifted in his seat, playing with the ends of his bandanna tails, a nervous habit that everyone but him seemed to be aware of.
