Absolutely Smitten

handsome stranger [you have made their insides turn to jelly]

Mikey

Ever since Mikey had mostly healed from the attempted alien invasion, he'd felt a little smothered in all honesty.

Their dad and April hadn't let any of the boys leave the lair, keeping a constant watch on all of them. April leaves for her parents' place on occasion but tends not to stay long since they weren't all that close to the main invasion. Draxum and Casey would stop by with food and med stuff but that was about it for outside interactions.

He'd understood at the beginning, he and Leo had both gone comatose for a bit. With Leo waking up two days after going down and Mikey taking nearly a week to fully wake up. And Junior had gotten horribly sick the moment his adrenaline crashed.

Don't even get him started on the growths and tumors lingering in Raph's eye and Donnie's shell that had to be surgically removed. She hadn't even been awake for the procedure but Mikey swears that they heard their eldest brother's screams from lack of proper anesthetic.

But now all they could think about was just how boring it was to stay cooped up in the lair. She didn't know how little Mikey did it before.

So Mikey started sneaking out at night, picking up their less developed hobby of graffiti. His hands haven't been steady since making that portal, but nobody expected perfection and straight lines from graffiti. And the work tended to be so big that small mistakes drifted to the background. A win is a win, as some would say.

-

Mikey shuffled silently through the subway system, before finding a station exit. Their bag of paints barely makes a sound as they move.

Pausing they checked their outfit, making sure there were no holes for anyone to see their very green skin. Black leggings, baggy cargo pants, and black combat boots splattered in paint. Orange turtleneck undershirt and black hoodie with the sleeve cut off also speckled with paint. Mainly because it was Raph's at one point and he tends to just get rid of the sleeves to avoid the fabric getting caught on his spikes.

Thin black gloves, the kind that combine your fingers just to make it harder for people to notice him only having three. And of course a very colorful grey spray paint mask that Mikey decorated herself.

Tightening his orange ninja mask under the gas mask Mikey was ready to go. Nodding to themselves Mikey flipped up their hood and silently slipped into bright New York City night.

-

Mikey found himself back at a piece he'd been working on the past few days. Tucked away in the Bronx down an alley and starting at about the third floor of an abandoned apartment building.

An interpretive landscape, depicting a greying cityscape of NYC with bright roots. And the Krang technodrome halfway out the portal, tentacles reaching out and leaching the color from New York City. Everything Krang was in mauve pinks and purples with dashes of yellow, all ugly shades of the colors to Mikey nowadays.

Making art of things like this helped them process the event some. There was a mourning mural for Gram-Gram Karai near the old lair, and a piece for their fight against the Shredder a good distance away from the lair, to give their gram-gram peace mainly.

Pulling out a paint can Mikey lowered themselves down to the fourth level, using her kusari-fundo chain as a seat and pulley system. Chain wrapped securely around his body as they got to work.

Mikey could feel her awareness slip away as they worked on the piece. Paying close attention to the shading where they had finished blocking out colors a day or so ago.

Their family didn't like it when they lost focus like this, it wasn't hyperfocus, it was more a dissociation. The drone of the city as white noise, maybe music. Her sense of being shrinking down to what was in their hands, which tended to be a cooking utensil, or pencil. In this case a paint can. Everything just fell to the background, even their own body.