A Little Secret

It'd been a silent realization for Leonardo as he found his brother sucking on a pacifier. He knew he had a collection of human underwear, and kept around the old bottles they used as kids. Not this. Not..something foreign like this. He had to reign back his immediate questions while his younger brother collected himself, pulling the pacifier from his mouth quickly and sputtering some sort of excuse.

"Leo!" Mikey yelped, eyes wide. "Mikey.." Leo trailed off. Now that he had the chance to speak he didn't know what to say. "Do..is this a thing you do now?" Mikey was afraid; he was the weird one, the quirky zaney one. Not the little one. Baby brother, sure, but not this way. It was supposed to be a super secret.

"..Yeah," he muttered. Leo had lowered himself to the floor next to his brother with a frown. "...Is it. Like. Acting like a baby?" It was a genuine question despite the slight off put tone. Mikey just nodded; that's not exactly what it was but it was close enough. "Why?"

Why? Shit, why not? With the stress of their lives they all had their own ways to cope. Raph's was to punch something until it turned to dust. Donnie's was to experiment in the lab. Leo's was to meditate or watch Space Heros. And Mikey's was this.

Not to say it was always like this; it was a new discovery for the youngest brother, when one day he has slipped into this world. He didn't know what to think at first, and kept it hidden on purpose. Leo had realized this suddenly, and shut the ajar door behind him. "I dunno.." Mikey hummed, shrugging. He was nervous. Very nervous.

His elder brother grabbed one of the toys he was playing with earlier and held it gingerly. Mikey reached out for it instinctively, whining a bit. Leo paused, putting it back down. "Use your words," he said jokingly with a half grin.

Mikey couldn't help it. He was small. "I am!" He huffed, exasperated. Leo frowned; was he genuinely upset? He took out his t-phone and scooted next to Mikey. "I don't really understand..can you help me?" He suggested.

Mikey looked at him with a sudden new smile, grabbing the phone and typing in messily some words like "agere" and "littlespace." He scrolled through a couple articles before finding a simple one explaining it step by step. Leo took it back, taking a couple minutes to skim it over.

In those couple minutes he started to connect dots in his heads. Meanwhile Mikey had begun to mind his own business and was slapping his toys together happily, waiting for him to finish. He had hid his new hobby on purpose, sure, but maybe he was just scared. His timid behavior returned when Leo had seemed to finish reading and put his phone back in his belt, seemingly thinking.

Mikey gnawed at his bottom lip, frowning. "Bubba?" Leo paused his train of thought and smiled, looking at his younger brother. "Sorry...how old do you feel right now?" The young brother looked at his hands, unsure. "You don't have to tell me, I'm just curious." He paused, his eyes squinting.

"Do...do you want someone to take care of you when you're um, small?" He asked. Mikey stared for a moment, unsure. So far he was fine on his own, he wasn't small enough to need changing or milk bottles. Maybe a sippy cup once in awhile, sure, or a playmate. "...Keep it a secwet?" He said, puppy dog eyes and all.

Leo rolled his eyes, sighing with a grin. "Okay, your secrets safe with me."

🚼

Training had begun the next day as per usual, with Leo leading sparring. Raph and Mikey were on the ground, trying to get on top of the other in a desperate attempt to reign superior. So far Raph had the upper hand and had him pinned. He trapped him by the legs, putting pressure on his knees so he couldn't get up.

Mikey whined, trying to break free. He was slipping a little and he was getting annoyed. "Get off!" He yelped, wriggling underneath his grasp. "You givin' up crybaby?" Raph teased, pressing down harder on his knees.

"OW! Raphie let go!" Mikey yelled louder, his lip starting to shake. "Are you gonna cry??" Raph grunted, getting off of his brother with a concerned look on his face.

This got Leo distracted, and Donnie whacked him in the face with his bo staff. Donnie covered his mouth. "Leo! I'm sorry!" He fret, helping him up. "It's okay Don, nice swing.." he rubbed his cheek, walking up to the now fussy Mikey.

"Bud what's wrong?" He helped him up, ignoring Raph's oogling. "My kneeeeeeeeeee!" Mikey sputtered, tearing up. "What happened to your knee??" Leo quickly escorted him out of the dojo before Raph or Donnie could say anything.

Once on the couch, Mikey finally got the chance to be small in peace, sniffling and rubbing his knee. "I got a boo boo," he cried. "Aww, Raph didn't mean to hurt you," Leo sat down with him and a newly acquired medical box. He took off Mikey's knee padding and took a colorful bandaid from the box. "Where does it hurt?"

"Here," Mikey pointed to the ball of his knee, tapping it sadly. Leo put the bandaid on it, rubbing it gently with his hand. "Pain pain go away, come again another day," he sang quietly, making a "woosh" sound and blowing the figurative pain away. He remembered Splinter using this tactic on him and his brother when they skinned their knees or got hurt in general.

Mikey smiled happily. He didn't think Leo would go out of his way just to make him feel better about a little pain in his knee, but he did. He would've started crying if he wasn't so happy that tears couldn't possibly form. He embraced him tightly, muttering a "I wuv you" to his brother. Leo smiled, hugging him back. "Love you too, little bro."