Ice cream and chicken (a TMNT fanfic)

Chapter 4 - Dispose

Michelangelo thought that if he just went out there and acted like everything was normal it would make his brothers question his sudden change of mind, so he couldn't only leave when the day of the escapade came, he needed to let them in for a while just enough so they'll take him to missions again, usually when they patrol the city Leonardo makes them split up and go off on their own to look out for certain area, it could be a great advantage for him if he got to just leave on his own without being followed, and so, after over a week of rotting in his room, Michelangelo finally decided to do something, he had to look like he's recovering, it can't be anything too drastic but it can't really be something that can go unnoticed, so to start things off on the right foot, Mikey decided to clean his room, though.... he may have done it a bit TOO well.

At night, he grabbed some big trash bags and started clearing up his room, everything not necessary was thrown out, pizza boxes, "garbage", his... action figures.... even his comic books, all in the bags, maybe he did it just to stuff out the bag so they'll look like a bigger achievement, or maybe Mikey just wanted to get rid of all the things he wouldn't be able to bring along his upcoming journey, there could be many reasons for him to do that, but who knows, it could be something else entirely, or maybe all of the above, but anyway, Mikey cleaned his room, as much as he could for now at least, by the time he was done gathering and separating the trash it was already morning, his brothers were all awake and still struggling to make breakfast, at least Donnie has a coffee machine to make his coffee for him, Master Splinter though, he's still asleep, his sleep schedule had been thrown out the window ever since Mikey isolated himself, his son's words, his guilt, his questions, all of that and more were keeping him awake at night, and when they didn't, they'd come to haunt him in his own mind, the rat's nights have been filled with anxiety and nightmares about what happened, and it was starting to take a tool on him.

Mikey was able to step out of his room for a bit, he took a deep breath to calm down before he walked towards the door, he hoped his brothers would be busy at the kitchen, so he was shocked when he was caught by them as he walked towards the exit with three giant plastic bags, his brothers didn't know what to do or what was going on, but like deers in headlights, they all stood still, looking at eachother with wide, nearly unblinking, eyes like if the fate of the universe relied on their next move, but none of the four move an inch, that was until Mikey dropped one of the bags on the floor by accident and a pile of crumbled papers and what seemed to be thorn parts of pizza boxes scaped the bags opening, spreading a bit of it's contents on the ground, Mikey hurriedly kneeled down and put the other bags aside to pick up the mess before his brothers could pick on him over that.

But instead, Leo, Raph and Donnie came to help him out, Mikey was still a bit awkward and didn't want to talk just yet, he also refused to look Raphael in the eye, or acknowledge his presence at all, his brothers meanwhile, not wanting to push Mikey away any further, just accepted the silence and helped him pick up the papers on the floor, the moment was silent but very significant to them, it felt like a first step to reconciliation, but Donnie ended up noticing something... purple? in the bag, he took a tiny glance at it and noticed that one of Mikey's comic books was on the bag, it wasn't very transparent so no one could see it from outside, but Donnie surely did.

🟣 - "Uh.... Mikey, is that_"

🔵 - "SHH SHH SHH SHH SHH!!!"

Mikey looked at Donnie and Leo for a second before taking the paper trash they had collected so far and shoving it into the bag, same for Raph but Mikey was going out of his way to not face him.

🔵 - "So uh... Michelangelo... what's with all the cleaning? It isn't spring yet, you know? Haha..."

🟠 - "...."

🔵 - "..."

🟠 - "I was... getting sick of all this garbage laying around.... it stinks."

🔵 - "So... did it help you clear your mind? A-AS IN, you seemed troubled, d-did uh- did... cleaning help you?"

🟠 - "Y.... yeah... I guess, can you help me throw that all out?"

🔵 - "Sure!"

Finally, finally after all that stress, Mikey was BACK TO NORMAL, or so his brothers thought, they noticed he was slowly getting back to the way he was before, but they thought he was already doing great so far, they saw no red flags about the situation and just agreed to help Mikey take the trash out without much of a question, the three were just glad that Mikey was coming to his senses without so much hostility towards them or Raph, it was all going great until Donnie popped up the question.

🟣 - "I saw a comic book of yours in there, is something wrong with it?"

Suddenly, Raph and Leo stopped on their tracks as they felt like they were ready to rummage those bags to search for an answer, until Mikey came up with a great excuse that seemingly calmed them down once again.

🟠 - "it was old, besides, I spilled juice on a few pages and it ended up spoiling the panels, I was thinking of getting new ones anyway."

This response made Leo and Raph almost faint from relief, for all they knew, Michelangelo could have been trying to run away and use these bags as luggage, but... appearantly he just cleaned his room a lot to refresh his head, he should be setting his thoughts straight soon, or at least they hoped he would, Leo was so excited that things seem to be turning back to normal that he couldn't help himself.

🔵 - "So, now that you're out, should we go train together, Master should be up so_"

Before he could even finish his sentence Mikey shot an vicious glare at him that made the three of them shut up, Mikey just turned back to the trash and kept disposing of the bags as his brotherss just stood around patiently, they appear to have noticed that Mikey is still a tiny bit hostile towards them, not only Raph, perhaps he was just trying to avoid Splinter as well, whatever the case was, they were now aware that they should slow down a bit and let Mikey come around on his own, as the "garbage" is all thrown out, Mikey's brother's kind of circle him to show care and support, as much as Mikey wished he could enjoy being suddenly the center of attention in a positive way, his wary heart was telling him to run.