Tmnt An Agonizing Secret

Chapter 6. The Kitchen Fiasco

Prepared to sleep until dinner, Mikey trudged up to his room. He was worn out and extremely sore, but as he sat on his messy bed, he resisted to lie all the way down. Augh...that hurts so much. I can't even get the rest I need with this tightness. Mikey held his side in silence for a moment, just concentrating on blocking out the pain. Man, and I thought having broken legs was fun. But this surely takes the cake. Mmm, cake...

Distracted with the thought of his favourite sugary dessert, Mikey sank into his bed and closed his eyes, too tired to give any more thought to the throbbing in his side. And just like that, he was out.

It was a couple of hours later when Mikey slowly became aware of an echo of voices. He opened his eyes drowsily, yawned, then turned over in his bed.

"Yeowch!" Mikey cried as he sat bolt upright with a start. Now fully awake, Mikey put a hand on his bandage, recalling everything that had happened. Ow, ow, ow! I totally forgot about my side again! Dude, this hurts like shell all over again...

Mikey averted his attention as he turned to his door, recognizing his brothers' voices that resonated from what sounded like downstairs. What's going on down there? It sounds like a party, it's so loud! And what's that weird clanking sound? Mikey sighed and looked around his room absent-mindedly, trying to relax a bit more. I would totally see what was happening if I wasn't so tired from this morning. Well, it's not like we're under attack or—

Suddenly, the entire lair shook from a loud 'BOOM' that cut Mikey off from his thoughts. Mikey's eyes widened with worry. Uh oh, maybe we are being attacked! Never fear, bros, Turtle Titan is on his way!

Mikey rushed out of his room and ran downstairs as fast as he could to find his brothers covered in...well he wasn't really sure at this point.

"It looks like a freakin' hurricane came through the lair!" Mikey yelled, looking around franticly. He started to cough from all the dust and smoke that hung in the air. Instantly, an excruciating burn in his side acted up, and Mikey fought to catch his breath.

"Hey, hey, take it easy bro," Raph said, coming forward to lay a mostly clean hand on the youngest's shell.

Mikey cringed from the pain, but covered it up by placing a hand over his mouth. I'm glad that I've gotten used to this pain. Although I guess it's not something to be happy about. Mikey straightened up a bit. "It smells like something's burning..."

And that's when Leo, Don, and Raph all started to talk at the same time.

"What happened was...well it's not like it was my idea, I was forced by Don and Raph, although I still explained that it was dangerous, but they didn't listen like always and I assumed they knew how..."

"Leo was the one who messed up, not me! I swear, you should'a seen what he tried ta put in and I thought that we could jus' make it way easier by pumpin' up the heat, I mean doesn't that make everythin' go faster? And Don wasn' helpin' either..."

"Well I thought I was doing everything correctly because I've watched you do it so simply, and it really shouldn't have reacted like that, but Raph said that a hotter temperature would make it cook faster, and logically it makes sense, and Leo was only adding a couple more ingredients for nutrition and..."

"OKAY!" Mikey shouted, stopping his brothers from overloading his head. "What exactly happened?" he drawled out, putting on a face as serious as he could make.

The three older brothers glanced at each other for a moment then turned to Mikey. In unison, they said: "We tried to make eggs."

For a moment, Mikey stood there dumbfounded. And then he laughed. It only took a second longer for his brothers to join him, and soon they all were on the floor, holding their sides to keep from splitting with laughter.

Well, for Mikey of course, that was quite literal; but he didn't care. Now this is why I have the best brothers. Sure my side hurts like another hurricane swept through the lair, but who cares? My bros don't need to worry about stuff like this, not when they'd be so lost without me!

Finally calming down, Mikey decided to take a look around. Sure enough, the kitchen was a disaster: the questionable goo that Don swore was the eggs mixture had splattered in every possible place in the kitchen, and it even made it a little further into the next room; the stove was a mess; the microwave somehow had burn marks all over it; even the oven door was left completely unhinged.

Mikey sighed. My beautiful kitchen...

"We're really sorry, Mikey," Leo said.

Mikey shook his head. "Dude. It's totally fine." He stopped for a moment, allowing a smile to creep onto his face. "And I'm not the one who has to clean this all up." Mikey could hear Raph's annoyed groan in the background. Ha! For once, it's not me who's in trouble. I should oversleep more often...but I don't think the kitchen could take much more abuse.

Don grinned back at Mikey. "Yeah, yeah, we'll clean up everything." He looked to the kitchen. "I guess we should've asked you to make lunch for us. But since you hadn't come down from your room to make lunch like you usually do...I thought we could pull it off."

Raph chuckled. "Guess we were wrong."

"I still don't get how you can cook so easily," Leo said, almost sounding a little jealous.

Mikey shrugged. "Tell you what. You clean, and I cook." Mikey flashed a cocky smile. "How does scrambled eggs sound?"

"Perfect," came the answer from the three older turtles.

After the kitchen was more or less clean and lunch had been eaten, Mikey and his brothers went their separate ways for the day. Don disappeared into his lab to tinker with the now broken microwave, Leo went to the dojo to work on his swordsmanship, Raph went to the garage to tune up his shell cycle, and Mikey decided to play some video games.

Sliding into the soft couch cushions, Mikey couldn't help but give a frustrated sigh. All this excitement has really tired me out, even though I almost slept through lunch. It's getting harder to ignore the tightness in my side, too. I hate to admit it, but playing video games can only distract me from some of the pain. Mikey picked up the controller and went through the levels half-heartedly, not even bothering to pick up bonus points along the way.

A couple of hours later, Mikey was ready to call it quits. Ever since the kitchen fiasco, he could feel something irritating in his side, but now it was becoming more pronounced, and his attention wasn't on the TV any longer. I don't even know how to describe this...it's like a weird prickling sensation, but not on the surface...more like under the skin. I feel it there every time I move, every time I breathe—and it's getting worse. But I'll get better if I sleep it off, so I not gonna worry about it....Nope. Not even a single thought. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

Mikey lifted himself off of the couch, but something stopped him from walking to his room. Strange, it...it's like that tickling feeling moved up to my throat. He put a hand to his throat, puzzled.

For a moment, he stood in silence—then all hell broke loose. As soon as Mikey opened his mouth to clear his throat, he started to cough. Mikey hung onto the couch for dear life as he clutched his chest, the pain too much for him to handle. The coughing spasms racked his body, sending agonizing waves of pain. Mikey struggled to get air into his lungs. I'm scared. I can't stop. It hurts. I'm so scared. It hurts so bad...

Suddenly, Mikey felt himself being lifted up from his hunched position. Through the pain and the coughing, he could faintly hear his name called by someone.

"Mikey! Mikey!"

"Michelangelo!"

Mikey looked up to see the worried faces of Don and Leo and tried to calm himself down. He could feel Leo roughly patting his shell as Don talked into his ear. "Try to take smaller breaths, don't breathe so deeply. Mikey. Mikey. Relax your body."

Finally, the coughing attack subsided and Mikey let his two brothers lead him back to the couch to sit. Mikey put his head back, unable to summon much strength at the moment. Man, my throat feels raw, and my side is still killing me. I feel like I ran a marathon—then got run over by a truck at the finish line. This has not been a good day for me.

"Mikey, what on earth happened?"

And it's only gonna get worse.