Even Older Siblings Need A Break

PT 2 Sunset duo

It was a cold November day, Donnie and Leo had gone above ground, Leo wanted to go visit senior hueso, but since the invasion we've been worried about letting Leo go out on his own, so Donnie went with him. I would have gone with them except my older brother senses have been telling me I need to stay home today. Pops is with April today, something about how "the environment is dying and New York is doing the killing" or... something like that, raph wasn't really listening, something else has been on raphs mind today. And that something's name rhymes with likey. That's right, the reason my older brother senses said I needed to stay home definitely had something to do with my orange little brother. I knew something was strange, when I woke up this morning, I found out April had brought breakfast from home, which is strange because usually Mikey loves making breakfast. Me and Leo have tried to help him out from time to time because we felt guilty for all of the work being on him, but he says he doesn't mind, he says he loves it actually, so when I heard Mikey didn't make breakfast, that's when I knew something was up. Mikey came down for breakfast, I had planned to ask him if he was ok, but he had finished his food so fast I didn't get the chance. After breakfast he ran to his room, the excuse being he was working on a drawing, it's been hours since then and he and I were the only ones in the lair, yet he was still in his room. Normally I might actually believe he was just drawing....but something told me otherwise. I slowly walked over to Mikey's curtain, stopping right at the edge. That's when I heard it, the sound that confirmed my older brother instincts.

Crying.

Sure Mikey is the one in the family to cry the most, that wasn't the part that worried me the most. Whenever Mikey was sad, or upset about something, he always came to someone, whether it be me, Leo, April, pops, or even Donnie, he never hides his emotions from us. So why was this different? Why would he hide it from us?
I slowly pulled back the curtain to my little brothers room, in the far end, at the foot of his bed on the floor, I saw a little orange and green ball, he was hugging his knees tightly to his chest, his head buried in his arms. I don't think he noticed I walked in because he didn't move, he just kept crying in his arms. It hurt to see him like that, I hate seeing any of my little brothers sad. Mikey's the youngest, he shouldn't be crying like this, he should be happy....he should be smiling and laughing along with the rest of the people his age.... My little brother deserves better.

"Hey angel...."

Angel was a nickname Leo had come up with when we were tots, he said because Mikey was so nice, and how much everyone always loved him, Leo said he was like an angel, donnie disagreed however, he said that Mikey should be called a little hell cat, but I feel like he only said that because he was mad that Mikey took the last slice of pizza. Ever since then it's a nickname that we all use from tim to time, it cheers him up sometimes , so I was kinda hoping it would have the same effect today, or at least maybe get him to tell raph what's going on. I was right about him not noticing me because the moment I spoke he chirped in surprise and jumped a bit, he looked over at me and it almost broke my heart. His face was a mess, tears running down his face, eyes red and puffy, snot dangling from his nose, just what made him so upset?

"R-raphie? What, what are you doing here *sniff* I, I thought everyone left ..."

"They did, but raphs older sibling senses were tingling."

By now I was sitting next to Angelo, arms folded around my own legs on the floor. He giggled a bit at what I said, good, at least he's laughing a bit.

"Heh, so your spidy senses?"

"Yeah, my spidy senses"