Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

SET IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE AT THE START OF THE CROAKING

Poor Michelangelo was having a rough day. He was just trying to have fun with his pet, but now he found himself standing in the middle of a messy living room. His angry brothers were glaring at him, clearly at their wits' end with their youngest sibling. 

"This is the third time you've messed up the place in a week!!!" Leo shouted at Mikey as he and their two other brothers glared fiercely, like they wanted to murder him.

It wasn't long before Raphael shoved a mop at Mikey and bellowed: "CLEAN UP! NOW!!!"

Mikey flinched down before Raphael glared at the hissing Ice Cream Kitty below him:

"And as for you!"

Ice Cream Kitty just angrily yowls and throws ice cream flakes at his face, to which Raph furiously grabs her roughly and throws the mutated kitten into her freezer like she was nothing but a piece of useless material to him

"And stay there!" Raphael snapped as he slammed the freezer door closed.

Mikey was shocked by how Raphael handled his pet before the red-masked turtle snapped, "It better be spotless by the time we get back!"

Mikey looked down in shame and sadness as he noticed the furious looks from his brothers walking past him. 

But what broke his heart the most was Raphael's next comment: "Some ninja! You're just a big screw-up!"

Michelangelo missed April's look of pity before she left with the others. Alone and upset, Mikey angrily sniffed, "Am I such a problem for them? Fine! I was just having fun, but I'm not going to stay where I'm not wanted." 

However, just as he was about to leave, he glanced at the mess he had made and sighed, "Still... the least I can do is clean this up for them."

As the young turtle sadly cleaned the living room, he recalled how he had often been treated like a joke by his family, and today was no exception. In some families, there are people referred to as the "black sheep," a phrase used to describe a relative who doesn't quite fit in or is seen as a disgrace.

Lately, in the Hamato Clan, Michelangelo felt like the black sheep. The poor turtle had been feeling useless and depressed at home. His brothers constantly teased him, ignored him, pushed him aside for better things, or got mad at him for his antics. 

While Mikey might not be perfect and did enjoy pulling pranks, he tried his hardest to be a great ninja and a good student for his father and brothers. Yet, he could never seem to please them or make them happy and proud as his other brothers did for Splinter. 

None of the other brothers was perfect; they made mistakes too. Yet, when it came to Mikey, they always seemed to push him down for his errors or treated him like a useless tool within the team. 

Despite all the accomplishments he had achieved for his family—rescuing his brothers from dangerous situations, including battles with mutated wasps, Squirrelanoids, and Pizza-Face, as well as helping them escape from Dimension X—he felt undervalued. 

He had always acted out of love and bravery for his family, but in return, he received little acknowledgment. Sure, they might praise him occasionally, but it didn't reflect his worth of him being in the team. Even when the turtles tried to cheer him up or offered positive feedback, which was a rarity for Mikey, they eventually resumed being the distant brothers who didn't want to be around him. 

It felt as if he were poison to them, a worthless parasite—an undesirable virus in their hard drive that they would prefer to flush out of the system altogether.

Eventually, Mikey finished cleaning the place up until it was as tidy as it was before he had made the mess, yet he still felt miserable and heartbroken. It pained him that his family saw him as useless. He went up to the bedroom and began writing a note, apologizing for ruining everything, but then he paused to rethink his decision.

"If I do run away, where would I go? What would I do?" Mikey sighed sadly. He crumpled the finished letter and tossed it onto the ground before lying down in an attempt to relax, trying his hardest not to cry or show any sign of weakness. 

Deep down, he feared that he would remain nothing more than a useless screw-up for the rest of his lonely life.

--------

Deep in the darkest part of the woods, a tall, mysterious figure loomed over a pile of dead, mutated frog corpses that were melting into green goo from a strange gun the figure held. 

The figure looked at an unusual device that displayed a 3-D map, showing a signal on what appeared to be a tracking device for mutagen. 

"A few cases down and a few more to go... soon, I will have my revenge," the figure hissed. "But first, I need a test subject... and I'd better find one soon."

Chapter Text

Later that night, the gang returns to a surprisingly clean house. Leonardo examines the living room in awe.

"Wow, he actually did it," Leo smiles happily.

"Huh! Serves him right," Raphael chuckles, finally glad that Mikey managed to do something right for once, in his opinion.

"Everything's spick and span," Donnie points out.

"Don't get used to it; he'll just mess it up again, as usual," Raphael replies.

April stares at the turtles sternly, still upset about how they treated their little brother earlier. Although Mikey isn't innocent and shouldn't have trashed the living room while playing around, that doesn't excuse the cruel way they treated him—especially Raphael's behavior.

"Hey, where's the little dude anyway?" Casey asks, looking around to see that Mikey isn't there.

"Mikey?" Donnie calls out.

"In the kitchen," comes the simple response. However, something about it makes April feel worried for the young turtle. The gang enters the kitchen to find Mikey quietly making dinner. He appears casual, as if nothing happened.

The lack of expression makes Leo concerned for him, but Donnie quickly asks, "What's on the menu tonight, Mikey?"

Mikey knows that what happened earlier will likely be brushed aside as usual, but he has given up fighting it. He softly says, "I'm making chicken soup."

"Cool," Leo nods.

"You okay, Mikey?" April asks.

"I just want to say that... I'm really sorry," Mikey apologizes sincerely. "For trashing the living room."

"Damn right you should be," Raph scoffs. "You're lucky we didn't give you a kick up the ass."

"Raph, please," Leo interrupts Raph.

"Look, let's just let bygones be bygones and move on," Donnie shrugs, causing April to glare at him in frustration, though he didn't catch her glance.

"Okay," Mikey quietly agrees.

"Just don't make a big mess in the kitchen now, ya hear?" Raphael sternly warns.

Mikey stands there, slowly nodding as if his entire body is numb to the pain. He can't let the hurt get to him, but the cracks are beginning to show.

"We'll be in the living room when you're done," Donnie says before the boys leave the kitchen. April stays behind.

She anxiously approaches Mikey and asks, "Are you alright, Mikey?"

Mikey grins. "I'm fine, why?"

"Are you sure? I can tell you're not happy," April presses gently.

"Why would I not be happy?" the young turtle shrugs.

"Because your brothers were jerks to you back there, and I can tell it's hurting you," April replies.

"It was my fault, April; I trashed the place, and they had every right to be mad at me," Mikey brushes off the incident as best as he can.

"Still, they shouldn't have been so harsh on you," April points out.

"It doesn't matter, April... what's done is done. I learned my lesson," Mikey sighs.

"Mikey," April tries again.

"Just please!" Mikey pleads, letting a bit of his misery seep into his voice before he quickly regains his composure and forces a grin. "Let's not worry about simple mistakes; dinner's done."

Mikey sets the soup bowls on a tray and is about to head to the living room, bringing his usual smile to mask his sadness and pain, until he hears his brothers arguing about something.

"Seriously?! Why the shell do we have to apologise to Mikey?!" Raphael demanded as if it were the worst idea ever.

"Maybe we were a bit too harsh on Mikey earlier," Leo said firmly to Raph. "He looked very depressed when we returned." 

"So he should! He deserved it for wrecking the place like the idiot he is," Raph retorted. 

"He has a point, Leo; ever since we arrived at the farmhouse, we've been putting up with Mikey's antics, and I'm getting tired of it," Donnie added. 

"Exactly! When has he done anything right lately? All he does lately is being a pain in the ass!" Raph agreed with Donatello. 

"You didn't have to call him a big screw-up," Leo growled at Raph. 

"Because that's what he is!" Raph snapped back, losing patience. "I don't care if it sounds harsh — it's the truth! Mikey never does anything right or helpful, and he'll always be a big, useless screw-up."

"He can't even focus or even bother to learn things as we can," Donnie nodded. "And he wonders why no one wants to be with him."

"Thank you for agreeing with me, Donnie," Raphael replied as Leo looked at his brothers rather lividly.

"I mean, one time when I was in the lab, I asked Mikey if he knew what 'foible' means, and he said it's 'that little dangly thing in the back of my throat,'"  Donnie firmly mocked Mikey's answer before groaning out, 

"It's hard to grasp that someone like Mikey has an IQ the size of a pebble. Sometimes I wonder why we're stuck being related to him."

"That's enough! Do you two even hear yourselves right now?!" Leo vehemently snapped at the duo and then chastised them: 

"How could you talk like that about him?! Mikey may not be perfect, but he's still our little brother, and I will not allow you two to speak so vilely of him like that."

"This, coming from the guy who beat him up because you thought he used your precious comic book as toilet paper," Raphael snapped back.

Leo looked down, embarrassed by that memory, before he cleared his throat. "Well, at least I apologized to him for that."

"No, you didn't," both Raph and Donnie shook their heads.

"Wait, I didn't?" Leo gawked as his brothers shook their heads.

"W-Well, that doesn't matter! What matters now is that even though Mikey's not always perfect, we shouldn't be too harsh on him," Leo started before he exhaled and frowned a bit.

"I admit his antics frustrate me as well, but maybe once we resolve this mess in New York City and find Splinter, we can keep Mikey in the dojo with him until he learns to properly train himself as a ninja with a sensei. Perhaps, once he matures enough, we'll allow him back into the team," he added.

"That will take forever," Raphael scoffed. 

"Not forever, maybe a year or two, but all we can do is try to help him," Leo suggested. 

"We've tried so many times, but nothing seems to get through to him," Donnie groaned. 

"Face it, fearless; he'll never be a good ninja like us the way he is, ever!" Raphael shook his head. 

"You don't mean that, Raphael. None of you do," Leo said angrily. 

"Of course we do!" Raphael snapped back. "Our lives would be much better without him anyway!"

"No offence, but I sometimes wish Mikey was never our baby brother, at all!" Donnie lashed out as well: "None of this mess would've ever happened if he didn't mess up in that Kraang ship."

"He's right, Leo! He's the one who caused the mutagen to spill over the city, and now we're stuck in this mess because of him!" Raphael angrily agreed.

"Now you both listen here—!" Leonardo began to hotly confront the duo up close to their faces.

"Uh... guys," Casey gulped, pointing toward the entrance of the living room.

The boys turned to see Mikey staring blankly at them; no words or expressions could describe the look on Michelangelo's face, but a cold chill ran down Raphael's spine as he realized Mikey was heartbroken and deeply upset. 

Without saying a word, the young turtle slowly placed the dinner tray on the table before turning back and heading straight upstairs. 

"Mikey, wait! Mikey!" April cried out, trying to stop him from leaving, but all she heard was the bedroom door slamming shut.

"I think he heard you guys," Casey whispered to the trio.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Donnie said sarcastically, rolling his eyes at Casey. 

April suddenly glanced at the trio, her anger radiating as she marched straight to the living room and screamed, "Haven't you three had enough?!"

"April—!" Leo started.

"No! Just shut up, Leo!" April yelled at the leader, making the boys flinch uncomfortably. They hadn't seen April this furious since the incident when they unintentionally spilled mutagen canisters from the Kraang ship, resulting in one of them landing on April's father and mutating him.

"Do you think you three can just go on treating Mikey like this forever?!" April demanded.

"Calm down, Red." Casey tried to diffuse the situation.

"Casey... back off..." April warned dangerously. 

The boy quickly nodded and sheepishly stepped aside from the turtles, leaving them in awkward silence until April continued her rant.

"Don't you think Mikey feels horrible enough as it is without you speaking poorly about him behind his back? How could you?! No, how DARE you?!"

"April, let us explain—!" Leo began, but April immediately shut him up and confronted the turtles:

"No! You three are just horrible to Mikey. No matter what he does, it's never enough for you! First, you selfishly interrogate him like a bad guy for trying to protect me from that thing that looked like my mother, and now this?! And yeah, I'm no better; I snapped at Mikey for what happened that night, but at least I apologized deeply for my shameful actions!" 

April pointed an accusing finger at each of the boys as she raged on. 

"You guys never appreciate him, or listen to him, or even stop to realize that Michelangelo has feelings just like you do. You may think he can't understand or feel the same things you do, but he feels a lot more than you ever could."

She took a breather, and while her voice softens, the disdain in her voice remains, 

"You all see Mikey as nothing but a piece of trash, a moving target, or a punching bag. But I see a kind and noble mutant who's trying so hard to make you guys proud and happy. Granted, yes, he can be annoying and gross with his antics, but so can you! Even so, that's no reason to act like ungrateful and selfish jerks toward him."

"April, we're sorry," Donnie said sadly.

"No, you're not!" April scoffed harshly. "You're only sorry because I'm mad at you. If you were truly sorry for how you acted around Mikey, you would go up there and fix this mess you started!"

April then went upstairs but paused at the middle of the steps when Raphael grumbled:

"Well, if you live with Mikey 24/7 as we do, you'd feel the same way too."

"Shut the shell up, Raph!" Leo shouted at the hothead, exasperated by Raph's toxic attitude. 

April glared back at the turtles and said angrily:

"Oh, really? All I know now is that if anyone is the big screw up at the moment, it's you three..."

April soon went upstairs to check on Mikey while Raphael looked down angrily, arms crossed. Donnie felt awkward about the situation and wasn't sure what to do. 

Leo was the only one who glanced up at the stairs where April had just gone, feeling deeply ashamed of his actions and wanting to check on Mikey too, but he feared that he would only make things worse.

Meanwhile, April approached the bedroom where Mikey slept. She knocked on the door and gently called out, "Mikey, are you alright?" 

When there was no reply, she tried again, "Mikey, I'm really sorry about what you just heard, but I promise you, what happened back there is not your fault and what they said is not true, alright?."

Still, there was no answer, and her worry grew. She gently turned the doorknob, discovering that the room was unlocked, and she cautiously opened the door. 

"Mikey?" she called out.

As soon as she entered the room, she saw an empty bedroom except for an orange mask on the bed. Her heart sank when she noticed that the window was wide open.

"Mikey?!" April gasped, fearing the worst.

She picked up the mask from the bed and went to the window, spotting dust footprints leading from the window onto the roof tiles, then down to the ground and into the woods. 

April's fears intensified as she realized that Mikey had run away from the farmhouse for good. 

"MIKEY!" she cried out into the night.