Burnout

Dream Don't Come True

The game was fairly simple and easy to get the hang of if one was observant enough, so it didn't take me too long to beat most of the game. I was getting through the final level when I heard a knock on my lab door, though, so I paused it. I peeked outside to see that Mikey was just staring through the crack of my door. Obviously, I screamed when I saw his eye so close to my own and jumped back, then caught my breath. "Mikey! Why on earth were you so close to the door?!"

"I wanted to see how you were doing with the game!" He knew I was playing games and wasn't mad at me for not being on task?

"How'd you know I was playing games?"

"I know what fun sounds like, Donnie, and I heard the bleeps and bloops of fun!" He giggled, it reminded me of when we were younger. 

"I was just taking a break, I'll get back to work as soon as I beat this, I swear." 

"Can I watch?" He smiled at me, he always had a way of being strangely endearing. He was still my little brother, and he was still adorable. He was bigger now, but he was still the same baby he was when we were first mutated. I sighed, and I couldn't say no. 

"Sure... just don't tell the others I'm taking time off to play games."

"Why not, dude? Everyone else plays games, even Raph!" He tilted his head, it was like a little curious puppy. 

"Well, I guess I'm just-... I'm known as a man of science, and I probably shouldn't be goofing off right now." He shrugged and walked over, sitting right behind me as I leaned back in my chair and resumed the device. Having him cheering me on was surprisingly nice, it made me happy even though it was harder to focus on the game. I won by the skin of my teeth.

"Let's GOOOOOOOOO!" He started victory dancing before dragging me into the dance. "You won! That was so cool, you won first try! You didn't die once! You're so cool, Donnie! How'd you do that? I can't pull that off!" He was hyper and he was shaking me a bit while jumping. It was a little overwhelming, but his joy was infectious. 

"Heh, it's not that impressive-"

"Not that impressive?! That was on hard mode! You've never even played that one before!"

"Well, I picked up patterns and just... went for it I guess?" I scratched the back of my neck, a nervous habit that wasn't too uncommon apparently. 

"Dude, screw being a serious 'man of science', we've gotta tell everyone!" It felt like my heart stopped.

"Nonono, Mikey, let's just celebrate, just the two of us!" He looked at me with a confused look. "I'm actually having fun celebrating with you, but I don't think I'd have fun celebrating with them."

"Awwww, dude, that's alright!" He hugged me. "I won't tell them then. We'll just have some victory pizza!" He was so understanding, I really loved my little brother. Why was I so scared to let him see me having fun before? What if I was just being irrational about the others too? "Unworry your face, Donnie, let's go!" I didn't realize he could see me worrying, but it was nice to know that someone knew how I felt. I followed him into the kitchen and we both grabbed slices. I listened to him talk enthusiastically about different games while eating and I was able to comment on the science behind how to make different games work. I got called a nerd by him, but that was all he did. It was funny when he said it, to be honest, and somehow I knew that he didn't mean anything by it. After a while, we were just laughing, talking about anything that came to mind, and eating pizza. I made sure we had water when we ran out, which Mikey thanked me for, and it was like we were kids again. No scientific research waiting for me, no bad guys waiting to catch us off guard, no training to prepare for, just the two of us spending time without Raph and Leo arguing. Somehow, we got onto the topic of the chicken and the egg.