Ice cream and chicken (a TMNT fanfic)

Chapter 6 - Escape

For a long time, things were mostly back to normal, Mikey was back amongst his family and no one brought up the accident again, he even started going back to the Dojo to watch the others train, some rare times they were able to persuade him into actually training with them, Mikey was still a bit quiet and sometimes looked bummed out, so everyone was walking in eggshells every now and then if Mikey's mood was really down, there were days he was just so upset he'd refuse to get out of bed for a few hours, but then again, no one brought up anything, thinking this would make the youngest spiral back into being a shut-in, but despite Mikey's more calm and silence attitude, everything seems fine, except for April.

She doesn't know if what she's been having is some kind of gut feeling or something coming from her powers, but she feels something off about Michelangelo, it's almost like she can feel how disconnected he's been getting from everything and everyone, she meditated in the dojo with Splinter and the turtles but when she tried to sense their presence through aura and stuff, she saw that Mikey's usual radiant sunny aura had become like a black hole, an endless pit stood over where would be his heart as his silhouette was barely visible, she knew something was wrong with him, but no one allowed her to look into it with Mikey, that wasn't very thrilled about the idea of her going into his mind to find out what he's been truly up to.

Before Mikey knew it, he was 3 days away from the trip, since he cleared his room, no one really noticed that he had packed his things and was hiding his backpack under his bed, no one batted an eye when he took snacks to his room and didn't seem to really eat them, Michelangelo was practically all set for the big day, he would leave the house at 5:30 am, while his family was still asleep and catch the bus at 6:10 am, by that time the sun would already be up and even if his brothers knew about his plan, they wouldn't be able to go get him because it's too risky for them to go out in public during daytime, meanwhile Mikey would be safe and sound at a bus station with a disguise and probably boarding the bus, all he could hope for a miracle was that no one would wake up in the middle of the night or notice him gone so soon.

As time went by Mikey tried to hide his nervousness from everyone, which wasn't hard since everyone had just... accepted that he was a bit distant from them now, all of them just patiently waiting for him to come around, for him to feel better, for him to get over it, for him to do all the heavy lifting by himself, as everyone says "forgive and forget", but not today, not again, Mikey has decided, this all wasn't worth it anymore, all the stress of being a vigilante, all the pressure of being a ninja, all the expectations of being a son and brother, it wasn't worth it, maybe he was the one with high standards or he was making things up out of resentment, but he just couldn't deal with them anymore, at his last day with his family, he decided for a last family dinner along with their friends before he left, but something came up and suddenly Sensei left the table before even finishing his food, then Raph and Leo started fighting, then Donnie was making April uncomfortable with Casey joining in soon enough, it became a mess, just one more reason why they would just not change, that night sure made up Mikey's mind for the remainder of the next day.

Because of the argument, Leo and Raph went to bed early, because of the flirting war, April left as soon as she was done eating, Casey followed soon after, then Donatello went to sleep too, Sensei at some point arrived while Mikey was left to do the dishes and barely spoke a word before just leaving his dish by the sink and going back to his room in the dojo, no greetings or good nights, no asking how his son was, no asking about what happened, just simple, utter, silence, Mikey went to the bathroom, used the toilet, took a bath, brushed his teeth, then went to bed, waking up about 4 to 5 hours later by the vibrations of his T-phone, the alarm had worked, he got up, still a bit sleepy, and started preparing himself, he put on some old hoodie he had that somehow fit him, a pair of sweatpants, a cloth mask with one strap and he was good to go, he grabbed his backpack and sucessfully snuck out of the lair, once he was out he spared almost no time and went straight to the bus stop where he had to get the ticket.

👤 - "Good morning, sir. How can I help you?"

🟠 - "Um... hi, I came to get my ticket, my friend bought it for me."

👤 - "Ah, I see, can I get the friend's name and ID number?"

🟠 - "Sure, it's April O'Neil, **********."

👤 - "Ok, I found it right here, the passcode was sent to the linked Email, can you tell me the passcode?"

🟠 - "It was... if I remember... 15... 4...9."

👤 - "Hm.... well, it all checks out, here's your ticket and have a nice trip."

🟠 - "Thanks, ma'am."

Mikey headed to a bench and just sat there for a while, all he had to do was wait, but that was when a drunk homeless guy appeared and slumped over the bench, Mikey scooted away from him, but the smelly man wasn't satisfied with just sitting, he started trying to make conversation.

🍺 - "Ey, little guy.... where you're going?"

🟠 - "Away."

🍺 - "With only one ticket?"

🟠 - "Yeah..."

🍺 - "So you don't plan on coming back right?"

🟠 - "Right."

🍺 - "Aw... what a shame, the place won't be the same without you, Evan."

🟠 - "I'm not.... thank you anyway."

The two talked for a bit until the man fell asleep on the bench, Mikey's bus arrived not so long after and Mikey hopped in, along with a few more people, it was rather nice, Mikey put his bag by his feet to hopefully cover them up during the trip and eventually leaned the chair back and fell asleep.