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Mikey pursed his lips together and rubbed the back of his hand over his chin. He knew that his brother had lots of work and generally had a to do list a mile long, but that didn’t mean Mikey was happy about it. Donnie worked himself into a frenzy regularly and often didn’t take care of himself in process.
Added to that the olive green turtle seemed to suffer from insomnia which added significantly to his stress levels. This week alone Mikey knew his intelligent brother had barely gotten more than a couple of hours of sleep a night despite looking like he was beyond being desperate for sleep.
He had seen both Raphael and Leonardo try to help Donnie; intense workout sessions to tire him out followed by gentle massages and meditations; but that had not helped. That only left the one and only Michelangelo to solve the problem and he had a pretty awesome idea of how to do it.
“Hey Donnie!” Mikey cheered as he slinked into the lab.
“Not now Mikey. As much as I would love to help entertain you, I don’t have time to play with you little brother,” Donnie explained with a sigh.
Sidling up behind his brother Mikey wrapped his arms around Donatello’s tense shoulders and peered over to see what Donnie was working on. On the desk before the genius were several pieces of paper covered in what looked like schematics.
Mikey tilted his head to the side as he looked over the plans, taking in Donatello’s close knit handwriting in several places. Though Mikey didn’t have any real idea what Donnie was working on, he knew it was important to the genius.
“Donnie when was the last time you slept bro?” Mikey quizzed tightening his grip around Donnie’s body.
With a sigh the olive green turtle leant back against his brother’s strong body, enjoying being held up. He didn’t actually answer Mikey’s question but he knew he didn’t have to; Mikey’s ability to be so attuned to their feelings was uncanny.
“Yeah, that is what I thought. So anyway I know Leo and Raph have both tried to help you and now it is my turn dude. I have an awesome idea which I guarantee will send you to the land of sweet blissful dreaminess,” Mikey explained.
“Land of sweet blissful dreaminess?” Donnie quizzed tilting his head to look at his brother.
Mikey nodded his head eagerly and despite the work he needed to do, Donnie knew he needed to sleep.
“Alright Mikey lead me to the land of sweet blissful dreaminess,” Donnie smiled.
Unravelling his arms from around Donnie, Mikey fist pumped the air and grabbed Donnie’s hand. Chuckling Donnie allowed his baby brother to lead him out of the lab and out into the sewers.
“I’m taking Donnie to April’s, be back later,” Mikey shouted into the lair.
Leonardo and Raphael looked out from the dojo in time to see the door of the lair slam shut.
“April’s but it is still light out, I need to . . .” Leo stated.
“Cool it Leo, they’ll take the sewers and April’s place isn’t overlooked. Don’t worry about it, Mikey is just going to help Donnie to chill, you know how desperate he is for sleep,” Raph explained.
Leo looked at his hot headed brother and saw the grin on Raph’s face. He let out a sigh and turned back to the dojo. As much as he wanted to chase after his two brothers he also knew that he needed to trust them.
Back in the sewers Mikey happily skipped along pulling Donatello quickly behind him. The purple banded turtle didn’t know what Mikey had in mind but it couldn’t be too extreme if they were heading to April’s in daylight. They arrived at the human’s home and made their way up the apartment above the store. They could hear April talking to someone in her store below but Mikey didn’t seem too concerned about it.
Instead he pushed Donatello towards April’s bedroom giggling at the way the olive green turtle blushed. Opening the door he continued to poke and prod his brother until the turtle was stood in the window where the golden rays of sun filtered through.
“Mikey?” Donnie asked with a low but bliss filled voice.
“Whenever things get on top of me and I don’t know how to deal with it, I come up to April’s apartment and spend a few hours basking. It calms me down and lets me deal with everything so I can figure out what to do. You need to do that, you need to lie down and let the lovely sunshine do its job,” Mikey explained.
Donnie raised an eye ridge at that but could see the logic of his brothers reasoning’s. While unlike their unmutated relatives the four turtles didn’t need to bask it was however still within their nature and had potential health benefits.
“So you lie down here, just like this,” Mikey explained as he manipulated his brother. “And use this pillow to support your head and just let the wonderful, glorious sunshine ease you into the land of sweet wonderful dreaminess.”
Donnie couldn’t help the smile which twitched at the corner of his mouth, but Mikey certainly did make it sound lovely.
“You are sure April is okay with this?” the genius questioned.
“Totally dude I’ve done this hundreds of times. When I first wanted to do this I explained to April why I wanted to do it and she said as long as I made absolutely one hundred percent sure she wasn’t in her room first, that I could come and bask whenever I wanted. Since we heard April downstairs, we are alright,” Mikey reiterated.
Putting his hand against Donnie’s plastron Mikey kept up the pressure pushing Donnie to lie down. The genius made to argue until he felt the waves of sunshine caressing his body. With a groan Donnie sank down resting his head on the pillow.
“Just enjoy Donnie, let the glorious heat and rays do their job,” Mikey whispered.
Humming to himself Donnie barely acknowledged when Mikey crept out of the room. He could already feel the heat soothing across his tensed muscles; he could feel it spreading through his whole body. He couldn’t help but let out a low churr at how pleasurable it felt.
It was almost like the light was rejuvenating him; gently washing over his tired skin and rehydrating his whole system. It was for Donnie a feeling of utter contentment and he didn’t even realise when he began to drift off to sleep.
Instinctively the olive green turtle followed the sun’s beams as it moved across the floor and had fallen into a deep sleep as soon as the giant star had dipped beyond the horizon. He hadn’t heard Mikey’s giggle when the sea green turtle had returned to find his brother slumbering peacefully.
With April’s permission Mikey had simply scooped his brother up and tenderly transferred him to the sofa, where he covered the olive green turtle with a blanket. Giving his genius brother’s head a gentle caress Mikey left the sleeping turtle in April’s care for the night.
As he walked back to the lair he couldn’t help but smile to himself. He knew his idea would be the one to work, because he knew exactly what they needed in order to relax. At the end of the day they were turtles and while it may not have been a need, as turtles they were nothing if not lovers of sunshine.
All Donatello had needed was a place away from the lair where he could feel safe and secure without distraction plus some good rays from the sun and off he had drifted into the land of sweet blissful dreaminess.
END