The Donnie Christmas Caper

Mysterious Mystery

A/N: It's a TMNTTree! So cute!!!

December 19

Six days until Christmas...

Mikey stood on the roof of Marlo's Toy Store, shivering when a gust of cold air blew through, the orange-clad turtle making sure he was out of sight from any passerbys. He didn't like being this close to the humans, as him and his brothers usually preferred to avoid these more populated areas. The less chance of any of them being seen, the better.

He wasn't really certain what he was doing back at this toy store, he'd pretty much given up on the caper once Leo told him too. He had a feeling his brothers were right, perhaps he was just jumping to conclusions. He couldn't deny that he was known to do that on occasion, but he could have sworn he was right about this one.

He glanced down the side of the building as someone suddenly opened an exit door on the side. From the little light, he gained from the open doorway, he spotted a man walk out with a box of broken toys and dump them in the dumpster next to the building. He waited till the man disappeared back into the building before getting to his feet and taking on the last look at the street around him.

Deciding he'd given Raph enough time to cool off, Mikey began making his way across the rooftops and back towards the lair. The entire reason he'd originally left it was because he was avoiding Raph's wrath, his brother not being as open to Mikey decorating his room as Leo was.

How was he supposed to know Raph wouldn't like his new festive room?

He thought he'd be doing his grumpy brother a favor!

Mikey suddenly came to a halt when he spotted someone on the rooftop across from him, the young prankster ducking so he'd blend in more with the darkness around him. If this was some human up and about on their roof, he didn't want to freak them out by suddenly bounding by.

His eyes widened when the figure moved off the roof and moved easily across the rooftops, Mikey making out a familiar shell through the darkness.

Donnie?

He'd hardly ever seen his brother leave the lab other than to head to the junkyard and, as a turtle who spent all his time in the ShellRaiser staring at the map of the city, Mikey couldn't think of any junkyards located in the direction his immediate older brother was headed.

Curiosity grabbed, Mikey decided to follow after Donnie from a distance, noting that his purple-clad brother moving with the accuracy of someone who'd travel these exact rooftops many times before. He moved into the poorer edge of New York, Mikey was aware that this part of town was one that was known for its Purple Dragon activity.

Mikey had to come to a complete halt when Donnie suddenly stopped and turned to the edge of a building, the youngest ducking to a crouched position when Donnie glanced back.

After a couple of seconds of scanning around him, Donnie pulled his binoculars and notepad along with a pencil from his duffle bag, the genius sticking the pencil in his mouth before kneeling into a more comfortable position and setting the notebook on his knee.

Mikey watched as he lifted the goggles and seemed to use them to study the building in front of them, Mikey's eyes narrowing in confusion as to what his brother was doing. He stayed still as Donnie lowered the binoculars and took the pencil from his mouth, writing something on the notepad in front of him.

Mikey wasn't sure how long this went on, Donnie studying the building across from them with a knowing air, only pausing in order to take a few notes before raising the binoculars again.

Finally, just as Mikey was contemplating moving from his hiding spot to stretch his cold and cramping limps, Donnie pulled down his binoculars and placed them back in the duffle bag. He did the same with the notepad and got to his feet, stretching his muscles before he glanced at the building one last time.

Mikey had sunk further in his hiding place when he saw Donnie stand, something that turned out to be a good decision as Donnie began to head back in the direction he had come, Mikey was guessing he must have been heading back to the lair in order to get back to work on his secret projects.

Mikey got to his feet once Donnie was out of sight, the thoughtful youngest waking to the place on the roof where Donnie was standing and looking at the building thoughtfully. It didn't seem like anything special, the youngest wondering if this was some kind of Kraang hideout.

Some squinting and experimental adjusting of his head told Mikey that the rooms all seemed to be kid bedrooms, two bunks lining each of their walls.

There were five floors total in this building and Mikey could tell the top three all seemed to be child rooms. He could only guess it was the same on the other side of the building and wondered what kind of parents even had this many kids.

And why Donnie was staring into these kids' bedrooms...

Completely puzzled and unsure, Mikey made his way back to the lair with a new determination to solve this incredibly strange and mysterious mystery.

A/N: Sorry about the short chapter, but I hope you're all enjoying the story. Got any ideas about the answer to this puzzling mystery? The answers are in the next chapter so feel free to comment because I'd love to see your guesses!!