Running Sunshine

chapter one:

Mikeys pov:

'Today was definitely not my day'
I thought as a plopped down on the couch. To start, I didn't get much sleep. There are too many nightmares. Then, I woke up to see the kitchen a disaster. There was food everywhere, dishes broken and scattered on the floor.
I got the kitchen clean and it was Leo's chore to do the dishes, but when I called him in there to start doing them, he acted like he didn't know how to do the dishes! He doused the plate in dish soap, then but it was in the drying rack. He knew it got on my nerves, and soon, I gave in, taking over his chore... for the 18th time these past few days...

After the kitchen mess was done, I found out one of donnies machines were malfunctioning and the only way to stop it was a strong usage of mystic energy, that definitely took a whole lot out of me. Then donnie wanted me to be his lab rat! Asking me to try different tech he had made, some of them working, others not.

Once I finally helped Donnie out, I thought he could get a break. But that idea didn't last for more than a second. Raph came out of the dojo and insisted I should train with him. I tried to express to him I was too tired, but ever sense the kraang invasion, he had been more strict and a bit more rude and insistent.
"That wasn't an offer, actually," Raph said with a sweet but stern tone. I knew there wasn't really any way out of it, so I just agreed.

We trained for 5 hours straight.

Once I sat on the couch, I thought I could finally rest! But that didn't last long, either.

"Hey baby bro, you think you could start on dinner?" Leo didn't really ask. It came off more as a demand in disguise.
"Y-yeah! Yup! Just one second! What were you all hungry for? We have lots of food in the house so I could cook up almost everything!" I didn't like how happy I sounded, it was probably fueling their brain with the thought of me being a puppet, that if they asked me to jump off a bridge to save them, I would... and  probably would. But that wasn't I portent.

"Some Chinese sounds nice!" After he told me what he wanted me to cook, he just took off to the arcade room. A

I let out a heavy sigh and headed to the kitchen. Chinese food took a pretty long time. Considering his family had a pretty big appetite, he would have to make lots. Meaning more time, meaning more of his day wasted on his brothers needs. At least dad hadn't really asked much of him.

*time skip*

About two and a half hours later, I finally finished cooking. I set out 5 plates, cups, napkins, and silverware out onto the table. I then set down the bowls with food in them. Some tiner bowls for sauce and the other necessary items with food for his family.

"Dinner, everyone!!!" I called out, waiting for everyone to file in. But nobody did. I got curious and so I went to the living room. Raph, Leo, and Donnie were eating take-out.

"Guys- I made dinner..."
I was slightly disappointed that they got take-out instead.
"You took two whole hours!!! We were hungry!" Leo complained.

"Well... did you at least get anything for... me?" I asked. It felt guilty to ask, like it was a forbidden command by body had gone against.

"Sorry, we figured sense you were cooking. You would just eat that." Raph inserted for Leo. My heart sank to my toes. "Yeah... your right. I'll eat the food I made for you guys, that's fine." I walked away, on the verge of tears.

When I got back into the kitchen, I saw pops eating the food I had made. "Mmmmmh, this is very good orange... say, where are your brothers?"

I smiled a bit about how he liked my cooking. "Oh! Well, I was taking too long, so they got their own Chinese food from take-out, " I replied, filling him in on why they weren't eating with them. "Hm, well, there missing out." Pops shrugged and continued to eat.

The three others came in and just left their plates on the counter.
"Are you boys not going to rise off your plates? Plus, Blue, your chores are to do the dishes. Where are you going?"

Leo looked back for a second them smiled. "Oh, Mikey does the dishes. He insisted on doing them for me!" With that, Leo left, and so did splinter, after rinsing off his plate, of course.

I gave a heavy sigh as I got started to put the leftover food into containers.
I didn't bother to eat tonight. I could just eat tomorrow. What harm could it possibly do? Nothing, right? Exactly.

I put all the food in the fridge and went straight to my room. Once I got there, I fell into my hammock, I normally went there or to my beanbag for comfort. Today just felt like a hammock type of day. I turned on the radio next to me and stared at the ceiling.

Soon, I felt my eyelids started to droop further and further down until they fully closed, pulling me into either a dreamless black abyss or a nightmare pledged mind. He would just have to wait and see.