Same Soul, Different Worlds

Seven

12!Mikey
Michelangelo was getting tired after a long day, he wondered if they had a guest room for him. He wondered around until he found everyone in the lab. It was still rather impressive. They were talking in hushed voices.

Raph had turned around and spotted Michelangelo standing there, "Oh hey buddy. Did you need something?" he asked him

"It's not important, I'll come back when you three are done." Michelangelo told him turning to leave

"No, it's okay we were putting together a tier list for pizza." Raph told him

"Oh, um... I'll just go." With that he left

Michelangelo headed back to the main room and sat down on the couch. He was mentally kicking himself in the shell. He couldn't bring himself to ask about sleeping arrangements. He laid down on the couch resting his head on the arm rest.

After about an hour or so the others came out of the lab and started to look for Michelangelo. They found him fast asleep on the couch, his head was still on the armrest.

"Now I know what he was going to ask." Leo said sighing

"And what was that?" Donnie asked

"He was going to ask if there was somewhere he could sleep. But I don't understand why he was scared to ask." Leo watched as Raph gently picked him up and carried him to Angelo's room and laid him down on the bed

"I think it's because of his family in general." Donnie told him, "You heard the audio they give him a lot of crap just for existing."

"You two can think about this in the morning. It's late." Raph said making sure that Michelangelo was tucked in

"Orrr we can finish the discussion now of course." Donnie said walking back in the direction of the lab

Raph quickly grabbed the softshell, "I will swaddle you, don't tempt me."

Donnie nervously chuckled as he looked up at Raph.

"Now off to bed." Raph picked Leo up as well

The two allowed Raph to carry them to their rooms and tucked them in as well. Then headed to his own room and fell asleep in his ever growing pile of plushies and teddies.

It was around maybe four in the morning when Michelangelo woke up due to a nightmare. He tried to calm his breathing as he thought about his day to ground himself. He clutched the blankets and mentally counted the things he could see and named the colors he could see as well.

"You're not in that place anymore. T-they can't hurt you... They can't hurt you." He whispered rubbing his arms

He got up from bed and realized that the others must've placed him into their Mikey's bed. He grabbed the blanket and headed to the living room not bothering to take the crutches. He's delt with worse.

He sat down on the couch and pulled his phone out of his belt and looked at the pictures of the adventures he had with his brothers. He even had a few videos as well.

As he was scrolling he saw a few videos that he had thought he deleted. It was from his time in Dimension X. He recorded his time there and what was going on, almost like a video diary.

In the video he was talking about how things don't work like they do on Earth. How up is down and how left is right. Michelangelo started to dissociate as he stared at the blue fire in the video. Soon he felt sick and closed the video.

He sat there on the couch in silence as he picked at his fingers. A nervous habit he has yet to break.

"Can't sleep?" He looked to see Leo who was wearing pajamas and had a mug in his hand

"Nightmares." He muttered

Leo sighed as he walked over to Michelangelo and sat the mug down on the coffee table and grabbed his hands. Leo examined the broken and damages skin and how his fingers were starting to bleed.

"Nervous habit. When I don't know what to do to calm myself I pick at my fingers. I've been trying to stop." Michelangelo confessed, "I try to take deep breaths, feel the area around me like the material I'm sittin on, counting the number of items I see, or even name the colors that I see around me... Lately it hasn't been working."

"Maybe because it's not you. Everyone has their own ways of calming down. I use to make self-depricating jokes, but now I pat one of my brothers on the arm, shoulder, or leg twice and they help me calm down." Leo told him still holding his hands

"What about your Mikey?" He asked

"Miguel would draw and listen to music for hours on end. When things got really bad he would just draw lines and circles over and over again. Those drawing never make sense. Or he would do vent art to calm himself down." Leo smiled at him, "Like I said everyone has their own way of dealing with things. You however need to do something other then pick at your fingers until they bleed."

Michelangelo looked at his hands and he couldn't stop the tears that fell from his eyes. Leo started to mentally panic until the orange banned turtle hugged him.

"You're nicer then my Leo. Thank you." He said sniffing

"You're welcome buddy. Now let's go get you all fixed and you can talk about your problems while I do so." Leo said grabbing his mug

Michelangelo grabbed his phone and pocketed it as he followed the other Leo into the medbay. These turtles were so much nicer then his brothers. It makes him wonder if the other Mikey was doing okay. He knows that Leo can be up his own ass at times, and Raph can be a little rough, and well Donnie doesn't mean it when he tells Michelangelo that always ruins his experiments.

They have a lot going on and well... Michelangelo doesn't have a role. He's not leader material, he isn't super strong, and he isn't super smart either. He's just Michelangelo.

"Start when you're ready to." Leo told him as Michelangelo took a seat on one of the beds as Leo got the gauze, medical tape, antibacterial ointment, and bandaids.

"Well one day we meet this crocodile named Letherhead, he's like my best friend. And well he got trapped in this place called Dimension X... I screwed up and accidentally opened up a portal there and jumped in. What I saw in there... I never wish that on my worst enemies, besides Shredder."

Leo listened he never stopped him to ask questions or to backtrack. He needs this, he needs to vent. He needs a big brother that will listen to him.