Chapter Text
A rough shake of his shoulder has Raphael snorting himself awake faster than he could say "Kraang".
He tries to hastily blink the sleep out of his eyes, only vaguely recognizing the blurry shape of his younger brother crouched in front of his bed and insistently trying to rouse him. It's only years of training in the ways of ninjutsu under his belt, and simultaneously living with three aggravating brothers and being long since accustomed to their various levels of shenanigans, that miraculously prevent Raph from smacking Michelangelo into next Tuesday.
Not to say Raph isn't very tempted to do so anyway, despite the initial fright at the abrupt awakening quickly fading into groggy awareness; a glance at his alarm clock tells him it's definitely no time to be awake, and his resolve to withhold bodily harm recedes just slightly.
Raph groans, batting away his brother's hand from his shoulder. "You have three seconds to tell me why waking me at three A.M. was a good idea," he croaks.
Seeing as he finally managed to get his big brother's attention, Mikey blurts out, "Donnie fell asleep in the lab again."
Raph blinks sluggishly for a beat, then narrows his eyes. "And that's my problem, how?"
Mikey rolls his eyes with a sigh, like he thinks Raph is stupid for not understanding. "Bro, I dunno about you, but I really don't wanna sit down for another one of Leo's "big brother knows best" lectures about sleeping schedules 'n stuff," he says. "Plus, they always make D cranky, and you know how that goes."
Raph hides a wince at the reminder. Last time Donnie had spent the night sprawled over his lab desk and Leo had found out, an ensuing reprimand had accordingly taken place. Be it from lack of sleep, accumulated stress, or whatever else, Donnie had snapped so hard it was a miracle he hadn't chopped Leo's head straight off. Raph had never known his twin could be so fucking terrifying, and the past few days had been spent staying clear of the genius's way until he calmed down.
Still, Raph can't help but send a withering glance to his baby brother. "And you chose to get me instead of waking Donnie and just, I don't know, tell him to go to sleep in an actual bed?"
Mikey wilts a little at the glare, but manages to stand his ground. "I'm sorry," he whispers. "I didn't wanna wake either of you, but he's too heavy for me to carry, and I couldn't exactly go to anybody else."
Raph stares at him for a while longer, before letting out a heavy sigh and swinging his legs over his bed. "It's fine," he says, knuckling his eyes to get rid of the sleep still stubbornly clinging to him. "Leo still out?"
Mikey nods, brightening up at having not been dismissed and standing up to follow Raph. "Yep," he replies. "He said it could take a few more hours when I asked. Then he got mad I was still awake and stopped replying."
Raph snorts, only now noticing just how bushy-tailed his younger brother seemed to be despite the late hour. "You're lucky he doesn't get on your case about these things as often as he does Don, pipsqueak."
They finally reach the doors to Donnie's lab, and Mikey beams at his older brother. "Perks of being the baby of the family, dude."
Raph shakes his head with a grin, well aware the statement has more merit to it than it should. The amount of things their little brother manages to get away with is honestly mind-boggling.
After sliding the metal doors open as quietly as humanly possible, the two brothers make their way in.
To say the place was a mess would be the greatest understatement of the century. From scattered papers on the floor, to random half finished projects and experiments strewn about the various desks, the lab may as well have been a minefield and there wouldn't have been a difference.
Being a decently sized room means that, without the lights on, the lab doesn't get any brighter than a sewer tunnel in the middle of the night; Raph and Mikey carefully trudge in, mindful of where they're stepping, with the only big sources of light coming from Donatello's computer a little ways away, and the light spilling from behind them from the hallway.
As they approach the dimly illuminated form of their brother, Raph turns to the youngest with a brow raised, making sure to keep his voice down. "What were you even doing up, anyway?" he asks curiously. "I get Donnie, he's a workaholic through and through, but I thought you'd be snoring away by now."
Mikey blinks at him, then shrugs. "Dunno, I was playing a new game on my phone and then suddenly it was three in the morning," he says. "I wasn't sleepy so I figured I'd check on Donnie to see if he went to bed."
They stare down at the sleeping figure of Donatello, who's still blissfully unaware of the current circumstances, and grimace at the sight of an impressive pool of drool collected on the desk, making the papers underneath Donnie's head stick to his cheek. "Good thing you did," grumbles Raph.
Donnie mumbles incoherently in his sleep.
Raph sighs tiredly. "Right," he says, positioning himself to grab his twin from under his back and legs in a princess carry. "Let's get this done with."
Despite being taller than all of the Hamato brothers, Donnie is still one of the lighter ones to carry (second only to Mikey); and with Raph being the strongest, it's an easy feat for him to hoist any of his brothers up in his arms without breaking a sweat.
With the hardest part done, and after making sure to properly save any potentially important files on the computer before powering it off, the two still awake siblings start making their way out of the lab-
-only to immediately freeze at Donatello's voice.
"Raph," he mumbles. "Raph, you know what the blue oleander does to you. You gotta be careful."
Wide-eyed and feeling like a deer in headlights, the two brothers share a glance, before Raph clears his throat and looks down at his twin brother. "Uh, what?"
Donnie's brows furrow like he's trying to decipher an impossibly hard question, before letting out a soft snore and cuddling his face closer to Raph's neck. "'S the... Flower. Dragon flower," he mumbles. "Y'gotta stay away from the... the blue flower, princess dragon."
Mikey peers closer to his older brother's face, and the realization of what's happening makes him snort hard through his nose. "He's sleep talking," he says, a mischievous smile spreading over his face. "That's hilarious."
Raph glowers at his little brother, who just snickers in response. Grumbling under his breath at the situation he's found himself in, Raph starts again the short trek from the genius's lab to his bedroom, still being mindful of not jostling him too much in the process lest he wakes. He promises to himself to get back at Donnie later for having the gall to call him princess, dream or not.
"I understand the whole sleep talking thing," he says, "but what I don't understand is the princess dragon dream and why I'm in it."
Mikey hums. "I think he's dreaming about How to Train your Dragon," he says. "Remember? We had a marathon the other day and Leo compared you to Astrid. Maybe he's imagining us like the characters!"
Raph clicks his tongue in distaste. "The chick's not a princess nor is she a fucking dragon, Mikey."
Mikey shrugs with a smirk. "She's the chief's wife, and also rides a butt-kicking dragon" he says. "Tomato tomahto."
Raph elects to ignore him.
With his hands full of sleep talking teenager, Raph lets his little brother open the door to Donnie's bedroom. The room is surprisingly clean, with only a handful of empty coffee cups scattered haphazardly on various surfaces, and the odd tool laying on the floor. Raph makes sure to kick a screwdriver out of his way before almost unceremoniously dropping his twin brother on the bed, leaving the other two siblings to undo his already messy hair bun and remove the covers from under his lanky form to drape them over him instead, effectively tucking him in.
Throughout all the rough manhandling, Donnie continues to sleep unperturbed, a tiny smile gracing his lips from whence a stray line of drool drips down.
Satisfied with their handiwork, the two make their way out of the room and close the door. Before Mikey can go back to his own bedroom, however, Raph grabs him by the back of his oversized shirt and starts dragging him back to his room, promptly ignoring the younger's indignant squawks as he goes.
He drops Mikey on his bed, then starfishes himself on top of his little brother with little to no regard to his wellbeing. Luckily for him, Mikey simply huffs a laugh at the treatment, and snuggles closer to his brother, not bothering to use the covers despite the chilly air. The mattress was hardly made for two people, but they manage to make due.
"Sleep," Raph grumbles with his face squished on his pillow, already well on his way back to dreamland.
Mikey giggles. "'m not sleepy though."
Raph opens one sluggish eye to stare at his brother. "Don't care," he eventually grouses after a beat spent formulating the sentence in his head, and closes his eye again. "Leo's gonna have my hide if he comes back and finds you still up."
In response, Mikey blows a raspberry; unfortunately, with the close proximity, some of his spit ends up on Raph's face, but too tired to do much of anything else other than to scrunch his brows up in disgust, he says, "Gonna make you pay for that tomorrow, little brother."
Mikey grins. "I know," he chirps, but starts settling down enough to finally go to sleep. "Can't wait for that. Night, Raphie!"
Raph snorts, ruffling his baby brother's hair with what little energy he still has left and then curling an arm protectively around his back. "Night, pipsqueak."
They're both out like a light faster than they could say "Kraang".
