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The Pain Game	By : hummerhouse Category: +S through Z > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Views: 4704 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: The TMNT are not mine. No money being made.

Chapter List
- 1-The Pain Game
- 2-Part 2
- 3-Part 3
- 4-Part 4
- 5-Part 5
- 6-Part 6
- 7-Part 7
- 8-Part 8
- 9-Part 9
- 10-Part 10
- 11-Part 11
- 12-Part 12
- 13-Part 13
- 14-Part 14
- 15-Part 15
- 16-Part 16
- 17-Part 17
- 18-Part 18
- 19-Part 19
- 20-Part 20
- 21-Part 21
- 22-Part 22
- 23-Part 23
- 24-Part 24
- 25-Part 25
- 26-Part 26
- 27-Part 27
- 28-Part 28
- 29-Part 29
- 30-Part 30
- 31-Part 31
- 32-Part 32
- 33-Part 33
- 34-Part 34
- 35-Part 35
- 36-Part 36
- 37-Part 37
- 38-Part 38
- 39-Part 39 Final
- 17
- 18
- 19
            For several moments the only sounds coming from the two brothers was that of their heavy breathing. Raph slumped heavily against Mikey, his forehead braced against his younger brother’s shoulder.
            Mikey’s eyes were shut, the aftermath of his orgasm still snaking its way through his system. He did not move though; did not take his hands from the wall, did not attempt to remove the forceps. His tongue was numb and Mikey knew that when the feeling finally started to return, it might be as painful as when Raph had first applied the clamp.
            Very slowly Raph pushed away from him. When their eyes met, the look in Raph’s was unfathomable. Without a word, Raph reached up and gently removed the forceps.
            Stepping back a few paces, Raph tucked himself away, glancing down his brother’s body and then back up into Mikey’s eyes. It was a nonverbal command and Mikey obeyed, his hands shaking as he took them from the wall and followed Raph’s example of recovering his modesty.
            “Aafff.” Mikey tried to say his brother’s name, but his tongue wasn’t working quite yet. He wanted to reassure Raph that he wasn’t hurt and that he’d enjoyed their encounter. From the lack of expression on Raph’s face, Mikey simply couldn’t tell how Raph was handling it.
            In response to Mikey’s utterance, Raph turned to the side and aimed a thumb at the small bathroom. “Go first,” he said, his voice low.
            Since Mikey didn’t as yet have the ability to talk, there was no point in trying to break through Raph’s shield, so the younger turtle did as he was told. Standing beneath a warm spray of water in a shower stall that barely accommodated his size, Mikey felt a tingling in his tongue that told him that the numbness was wearing off.
            Several clean towels were draped over a rack along one wall and Mikey took one, drying himself off before exiting the bathroom. Raph was waiting for him, holding a pail of water with a sponge floating on top of it. A glance at the wall where they’d had their encounter showed Mikey that all traces of their mutually satisfactory finish had already been scrubbed away.
            Without a word, Raph passed Mikey and entered the bathroom. Mikey stood looking at the closed door, wondering what, if anything, Raph would say to him once they had both resumed their roles as ninja brothers.
            Because it was useless to try to predict what Raph’s actions might be, Mikey walked over to the bar and retrieved his gear. He was tying his mask on when Raph came out of the bathroom.
            Though the sensation was starting to return to his tongue, it still felt like a heavy lump in Mikey’s mouth, so he simply stood and watched his brother. Raph had left the bucket in the bathroom and now he retrieved the forceps from the end of the bar where he’d placed them earlier. Walking around behind it, he leaned down and Mikey heard the sound of a cabinet opening.
            Curious, Mikey set his forearms on the bar and looked over to see what Raph was doing. His brother stood up with a bottle of vodka, catching Mikey’s eye and tipping the bottle towards him before uncapping it.
            Holding the forceps over the small sink behind the bar, Raph poured a generous amount of vodka onto the implement, effectively disinfecting it. When he was satisfied with the job, Raph took a swig from the bottle and then held it out to Mikey.
            The only time Mikey had ever tasted alcohol was once when he’d snuck a sip of beer from Casey’s bottle while his friend wasn’t looking. He hadn’t liked it much but was willing to try the vodka, especially if Raph wanted him to.
            Mikey could see Raph’s glittering eyes focused on him as he closed his lips around the mouth of the bottle and tipped his head back. He could just feel the cool liquid hit his tongue and reflexively swallowed, not exactly sure if he’d drunk a thimbleful or a jigger’s worth due to the lingering numbness.
            As Mikey took the bottle from his mouth, the vodka hit a section of taste buds that had come back to life. The strength of the alcohol took him by surprise and he started to cough, flapping his tongue as he tried to dislodge the liquid.
            Raph grabbed the bottle from him and began to laugh, the first sound he’d made since they’d stepped away from each other. It was a little mocking, a little big brother-ish, and so absurdly normal that Mikey felt a wave of relief. He grinned at Raph and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
            “I knew you hadth booze back therrr thumwhere,” Mikey said, his words not forming perfectly yet.
            Patting the bar, Raph said, “This bars too nice not to have a little something on hand. Thought the vodka might help ya’ get some feeling back into that tongue of yours.”
            “You’vff been thaving that clamp for me, haven’th you?” Mikey asked with amusement.
            Raph looked down, recapping the bottle as he murmured, “Most all of the stuff in those chests I picked up with you in mind.”
            For a moment Mikey wished he hadn’t said anything, worried that Raph wasn’t yet comfortable enough with their arrangement to discuss what they were choosing to do. But then Raph glanced up again, a sly smile warming his features.
            “Though I gotta say the idea of sticking clamps on your tongue has come to me on more than one occasion over the years,” Raph said.
            Mikey chuckled and then realized his tongue seemed to be back to normal. “Unless I let you, there’s no way you’d ever catch me to do that.”
            Raph put the bottle back where he’d gotten it from and straightened up, placing his hands on the edge of the sink and looking Mikey fully in the eyes.
            “I suppose that’s the key thing we have to remember here, ain’t it?” Raph asked. “The fact that you’re gonna let me do stuff to ya’.”
            Mikey retained a lightly amused countenance as he said, “Seems to me that I’m getting as much out of it as you are. That’d make this consensual and mutually beneficial.”
            “Is it?” Raph asked, appearing quite serious.
            “Yes,” Mikey answered quickly. “Listen bro’, your desires might have developed before mine, but that doesn’t mean that my sexual preferences didn’t happen naturally. You should know me well enough by now to understand that I can’t be influenced by any means into doing something I don’t want to do.”
            “You’re right, I should,” Raph said. “Ya’ gotta admit though, this is a little abnormal even for us.”
            “Stop believing you’re a freak,” Mikey stated bluntly. “Just ‘cause I wasn’t there to hear exactly what Leo said to you, that doesn’t mean that I believe he’d really think there was something wrong with you. The problem with you two is that you don’t talk properly. He makes pronouncements and you get defensive.”
            “Dammit Mikey,” Raph growled, “things ain’t always as simple as ya’ want them to be.”
            “And they aren’t always as difficult as you make them out to be,” Mikey shot back. “I’m just saying that you shouldn’t feel any guilt about what we do together. It’s no one’s business but ours anyway.”
            Raph snorted and pushed back from the bar. “Yeah, business we have to hide from everyone. Speaking of which, you’d better get back to the lair. I hope you’ve got a story ready in case tight-ass Leo discovered that ya’ snuck out.”
            There was a lot more that Mikey wanted to discuss with Raph, but his brother was effectively shutting down their conversation. Mikey took the hint and decided he’d said enough for one night.
            “I’ll tell him I couldn’t sleep and needed some air,” Mikey replied with a shrug. “Short lies are the best, makes them easy to remember and hard for him to disprove.”
            A corner of Raph’s mouth lifted. “Ya’ never let things faze ya’ for long, do ya’ Mikey?”
            “I have a very optimistic attitude towards life,” Mikey said flippantly. “The rest of you could take lessons.”
            “Save it for some other time,” Raph said, coming out from behind the bar and crossing to the chest at the end of the bed to place the forceps into it.
            Mikey stood near the door, waiting for his brother. After they both stepped out of the room, Raph pulled the door shut and locked it.
            “Let me lead the way out so I can make sure I remember the route,” Mikey requested. It was a subtle way for him to give Raph an opportunity to express doubts about their continuing to meet, if the older turtle had any.
            For a second their eyes met and Mikey could tell that Raph knew there was a subtext to his brother’s words.
            Clearing his throat, Raph said, “Yeah, that’d be best. Next time one of us might have to wait here for the other to get free.”
            Mikey favored him with a toothy grin before heading into the tunnel. His memory was flawless as always; Mikey spent a lot of time exploring tunnels in search of places to skateboard and had developed a sixth sense for finding his way around.
            From the inside it wasn’t necessary to use the trick pattern in order to open the fake brick wall. Raph showed Mikey that there was a single brick in the center that needed to be pushed to open the wall and once they’d stepped through, it closed on its own behind them.
            Mikey worked the latch on the wooden barricade as Raph had instructed and then made sure it clicked solidly back into place after they’d exited. Together they walked back towards the section of sewer where Mikey had first entered the tunnels, but they were only half-way there when Raph stopped.
            “I’m cutting off in this direction,” Raph said, pointing towards an adjacent tunnel. “It’ll get me to Casey’s faster.”
            “Okay,” Mikey said, though he’d hoped to share Raph’s company for a little longer. “Um, I . . . I had . . . .”
            Holding up a hand, Raph stopped him. “Spare me the cliché ‘I had a good time’ speech. We both got off and that was the whole point of this, right? I’ll catch ya’ back at the lair in the morning.”
            He didn’t give Mikey an opportunity to say more, turning on his heels and jogging away at a fast clip.
            Mikey watched Raph until the shadows swallowed him up and then continued on by himself. The night had been exhilarating, their encounter exciting and sexually gratifying. Only now Mikey felt as if something was lacking. Maybe he was romanticizing too much, looking for a connection that went beyond physical release.
Raph had been all business once they entered that room and it certainly hadn’t taken more than that to get Mikey off. Sharing this secret life with Raph had a thrilling element to it that couldn’t be denied and Mikey felt like he should be satisfied with that. He just really didn’t know why he wasn’t.
The drizzle had been replaced by a fog by the time Mikey exited the tunnels into the alley behind the deli. It was chilly and Mikey wasted no time getting back to the section of tunnels that would take him home.
As he neared the lair, Mikey grew extra cautious. Standing just outside the door, Mikey realized his heart was beating like a drum and took a minute to do some deep breathing to calm himself. Sneaking around wasn’t unusual for a ninja and normally he wouldn’t be so nervous about it. Only this time he was attempting to employ stealth to avoid detection by another ninja, and one who was admittedly better at it.
Mikey was glad that Don had built a smaller entry door from the tunnels into the lair so that he wouldn’t need to open the main entrance. Sliding quietly through the door, Mikey made sure it closed properly behind him but didn’t immediately move away from it.
Something clattered inside the lair and Mikey nearly jumped out of his skin. Darting forward, he pressed himself against a support post, his once steady heart now racing again.
It had to be Leo. His brother had sensed Mikey’s absence and checked on him. Leo knew everything; knew that Mikey had gone to meet Raph. Leo was waiting for one of them to get back. Leo was going to jump him and berate him loudly enough to awaken sensei. Master Splinter was going to take Leo’s side and . . . .
The sound of a low mumble reached Mikey’s ears and he realized it was Don’s voice. Daring to peek out from his hiding place, Mikey noticed that a light was on in Don’s lab. Another bit of garbled speech was followed by the noise of something being pushed across a table.
Such low conversation was normal for the genius, who often talked to himself. Don must have awoken to an idea and been unable to go back to sleep.
Feeling a little shaky with relief, Mikey started towards the stairs before a sudden idea made him change direction. Instead of going directly back to his room, Mikey made a detour to the lab.
Standing in the open doorway, Mikey watched as Don scavenged amongst the storage shelves full of junk that lined one wall. With a double handful of stuff, Don went over to one of his work tables and dumped everything on one side, muttering to himself as he sorted the pieces.
“Dude, does your mind ever shut off?” Mikey asked, his voice carrying a touch of amusement.
Startled, Don’s head whipped around. “Sorry Mikey, did I wake you?”
“A little,” Mikey said, chuckling. Indicating his gear, he said, “I was half asleep and thought we were being invaded. How often do you get up again in the middle of the night?”
Looking sheepish, Don said, “Pretty often, actually. Only Master Splinter and Leo have ever noticed before.”
Hiding his concern, Mikey asked, “They aren’t awake too are they?”
Don shook his head. “No. They’ve gotten used to the sounds I make and don’t bother to check on me anymore. Well, sort of. Every once in a while Leo will get up and remind me I need more than a couple of hours sleep.”
“I’ll play Leo tonight then and tell you the same thing,” Mikey said. “Why don’t you just jot down whatever your idea was and save it for tomorrow?”
With a sigh, Don said, “I wish my brain worked like that. It won’t turn off no matter how many notes I make. Sometimes if I can just start the project, or make a diagram of the idea, I can relax again enough to sleep. That’s why I keep a cot in here. Once I’m sleepy I have to lie down immediately. Walking upstairs wakes me up too much.”
“You’re weird,” Mikey pronounced good-naturedly. “I don’t have that problem. I’m going back to bed. Try not to drop anything else, okay?”
“I won’t. Sorry again,” Don said.
Mikey waved it off and left him, taking the stairs two at a time. His eyes flicked over to Leo’s door and he saw that it was firmly shut, so apparently Don’s nocturnal wanderings hadn’t bothered him tonight.
Back in his own room, Mikey swiftly stripped and hopped into bed. He didn’t bother to unroll the body shaped blankets he’d left there, instead wrapping his arms around them so he could pretend it was Raph sleeping next to him.
Morning came without Mikey having any memory of falling asleep. When his alarm sounded Mikey rolled out of bed rather than touching the snooze button as he usually did. Mikey wasn’t sure what time Raph had meant to be home, but he had a strong desire to see his older brother as soon as possible.
When Mikey made it to the kitchen the first thing he saw was Raph seated at the table, his feet up on the chair Mikey usually took, and a newspaper open in front of him. Raph wasn’t reading it at that moment though, he was looking with amusement at the half-asleep genius who was on the chair next to him, nursing a cup of coffee.
Raph caught Mikey’s eye as the younger turtle entered and then he nodded towards Don. “Found him slumped over his work table, his face planted square in the middle of some gizmo he was working on.”
There was a small question hidden in the words and Mikey picked up on it. “Yeah, he got up really early this morning with some crazy idea and woke me up. I went down to check on him and warned him to get some sleep.”
“I’m sitting right here,” Don said, somewhat irritably.
“First cup of coffee dude?” Mikey asked.
Don grunted and took a sip from his cup. Grinning, Mikey dropped some bread into the toaster before glancing back at his brothers. Raph had returned to reading his paper and Don was rubbing his forehead, his eyes closed.
Mikey was rather pleased with himself. Raph had Casey to alibi his whereabouts and Mikey had now established, through Donatello, that he’d been present in the lair throughout the night. If he could maneuver things so that Don mentioned that to Leo in an offhand way, then maybe their suspicious leader would let up on him and Raph a little.
To Mikey’s mind, that was one of two primary tasks he needed to accomplish. Work it so that things looked as though they were back to normal in order to stop Leo from hounding their every move and to continue to cultivate Master Splinter into becoming an ally.
By the time Mikey took his breakfast to the table, using Leo’s chair rather than trying to displace Raph’s feet from his, their older brother made an appearance. Leo entered with a tray of tea things, having taken a light repast with their father.
“Don, the heater is out in Master Splinter’s room,” Leo said as he set the tray on the kitchen counter. “It’s been out for a couple of days and he didn’t want to bother you about it, but I think he’s caught a chill.”
That opened Don’s eyes quickly. Draining the last of the coffee from his cup, Don pushed back his chair and got up. “Is he running a fever?”
Leo shook his head as he began washing the tea things. “No, but he’s got a blanket pulled around his shoulders like he can’t get warm.”
“It’s the humidity,” Don said. “His heater has a built in dehumidifier to keep the moisture levels down because the dampness gets into his fur. I’ll fix it right away and remind him not to worry about telling me when things break.”
“Think he needs anything?” Raph asked, folding his paper and looking over at Leo with concern. “Maybe we should move him to the couch and set the other space heaters around that area.”
“I think that would be a good idea,” Leo agreed. “Even if Don can fix his heater quickly, it might take a while for it to warm up his room.”
“The spare heaters are up in the garage,” Don said.
“I’ll help Raph get them,” Mikey said. “You and Leo can convince Master Splinter to camp out in front of the TV.”
“We’ll postpone practice until later,” Leo said, following Don out of the kitchen.
            Mikey and Raph were out of their chairs almost simultaneously. Neither said a word as they entered the elevator, but once the doors were shut, Raph glanced over at Mikey.
            “Straight up, find the heaters, straight back down,” Raph said. “We don’t give Leo even a second to wonder what took us so long.”
            “Everything just like normal, right Raphie?” Mikey asked. He was unable to keep the slightest touch of sarcasm from his voice.
            “What do ya’ want from me?” Raph snapped. “This ain’t normal, we ain’t normal.”
            Mikey immediately regretted letting Raph hear the sound of dissatisfaction in his voice. He was walking a tightrope between the rest of his family and Raphael and couldn’t afford to forget that.
            “Chill,” Mikey said in his most ingratiating manner. “I’m on top of it. I fixed things so Don thinks I was home all night. At this rate, soon Leo won’t have any reason to be watching us like a turtle hawk.”
            “Can’t be soon enough,” Raph muttered as they entered the garage.
            Since that had a promising ring to it, Mikey didn’t push the issue further. There was a storage room off to one side where items they didn’t use every day were kept and they went directly to it. Raph held out his arms and Mikey piled four of the largest heaters into them, then retrieved another two along with a couple of extension cords.
            Back in the lair proper they set out the heaters under Don’s directions. With Master Splinter safely ensconced in blankets and the warmth from the heaters already cutting the damp chill from the air, the brothers went about taking care of some of their regular chores.
            As it drew near noon, Mikey took to the kitchen, having decided to prepare some homemade chicken soup for the family. It didn’t take him long to have a large pot bubbling atop the stove and he used the tea tray to transport a large bowl of soup and some crackers into the entertainment area.
            His father was still tucked into his blankets, sitting back comfortably against some pillows. He glanced up from the TV when Mikey approached and smiled at his son. Mikey set the tray down on the coffee table and retrieved a small folding table from its spot against the wall.
            Mikey could see that Master Splinter’s eyes had a slightly glassy look to them and knew his father had started to run a fever. As he set the soup in front of Master Splinter, Mikey asked, “Has Don given you any meds yet?”
            “Thank you, Michelangelo,” Master Splinter said. “No, he has not. He has been working to restore the heat in my room and I have not seen him.”
            “You need to take something before your temperature goes any higher,” Mikey said. “I’ll ask him what I should give you. Do you want some tea?”
            “That would be wonderful, yes,” Master Splinter replied, dipping a spoon into the soup and blowing on it to cool it enough to eat.
            Mikey checked his father’s room first, but didn’t see Don or the big portable heater that normally occupied one corner. On his way to Don’s lab, he ducked into the kitchen and put a kettle on to boil.
            He heard voices in the lab and when Mikey entered, he saw that Raph was helping Donny with his repair efforts.
            “Master Splinter’s running a fever,” Mikey said without preliminaries. “What should I give him? By the way, I made a big pot of soup for all of us and he’s eating some now.”
            Don waved a hand toward his desk and Mikey saw a pill bottle sitting there. “Give him two of those,” Don said. “We’re almost out and I figured we’d need them, so I sent Leo over to April’s to get more, along with a few other things we’ll need if Master Splinter ends up with a full blown cold. She’s having the pharmacy deliver the meds to her place.”
            Mikey grabbed the bottle and said, “I hate it when Master Splinter gets sick.”
            “I don’t like it when any of us gets sick or injured,” Don said, returning to his repair work. “With as much rain as we’ve been getting, I should have checked that his heater was working properly.”
            “Ya’ can’t think of everything Donny, so stop worrying about it,” Raph said as he used a screwdriver to pry apart a section of the heater.
            “Yeah bro’,” Mikey chimed in. “He could just as easily have chosen not to turn the heater on.”
            Making his departure, Mikey got back to the kitchen just as the kettle began to whistle. With an expertise born of years of practice, Mikey prepared a pot of tea and took it along with a clean cup back to where his father waited.
            He noticed that Master Splinter had only managed to eat about half of his soup and hadn’t touched the crackers. Without remarking on that fact, Mikey moved the bowl off of the tray and put the cup in its place, pouring out the steaming, fragrant tea for his father.
            Setting the pot aside, Mikey shook out two pills from the bottle and set them next to the tea cup. “Don said to take those,” he explained. “Leo’s gone to get some supplies from April in case you wind up having caught a cold.”
            Master Splinter nodded, appearing weary. After a moment he lifted the cup and blew on it before taking a tentative sip. A small smile graced his lips and he gave a contented sigh as the hot brew slid down his throat.
            Worried that his father would doze off before the tea was cool enough for him to swallow his medicine, Mikey said, “I’m gonna get myself some soup. I’ll be right back.”
            His father lifted a hand in acknowledgment and Mikey wasted little time getting to the kitchen, filling a bowl, and returning to Master Splinter’s side. He took a seat on the floor, putting his bowl on the coffee table. From there he had a good view of his father.
            After a moment his father lifted the remote and changed channels to one of the shows he favored. The tea had cooled down and he took the pills, much to Mikey’s relief.
            Mikey agreed with Don that he didn’t like it when anyone in the family was sick or hurt, but for some reason Mikey’s concern was more acute when that family member was his father. Maybe it was because he’d always seen Master Splinter as invincible and didn’t want to believe that anything could ever happen to him. When they’d lost Master Splinter during one of their battles with the Shredder, Mikey had refused to accept the idea that he might not ever return.
            That time had been the worst for Raphael. Though Raph might be loath to admit it, he had a deep seated attachment to Master Splinter. As much as the hot head spouted independence, he needed his father, probably more than any of them. Mikey had wondered about that from time to time without figuring it out. Now with the change in Mikey’s relationship with Raph he thought he might have a better understanding of his brother.
            Raph needed to be validated. He needed someone to convince him that he had worth. Only his father could do that for him. Master Splinter was the only one in his life who had consistently had an unselfish interest in Raph’s well-being.
            That certainly explained Raph’s intense fear of falling in his father’s estimation of him. Leo had said he knew Raph really well, that he understood all of Raph’s inner demons. Was an acute need for Master Splinter’s acceptance one of those demons? If so, then Leo’s threat to expose Raph’s sadistic tendencies to their father was beyond cruel even though it had proven to be effective.
            Right then Mikey knew that there was going to be a time when a confrontation with Leo was going to be necessary. Raph might have succumbed to the idea that their trysts would have to be hidden from the family forever, but Mikey wasn’t willing to live that way. He refused to see their attachment as shameful.
            Mikey had been so lost in reverie that he didn’t notice that Master Splinter was watching him. Therefore when his father spoke, it startled him.
            “Could you pass me the soup, Michelangelo?” Master Splinter asked.
            “Uh, sure Master Splinter,” Mikey answered, jumping to his feet. When he picked up the bowl he said, “It’s pretty cold. I can warm it up real quick.”
            Shaking his head, Master Splinter said, “That will be unnecessary. Your soup is quite tasty whether warm or cold.”
            “Thanks sensei,” Mikey said, beaming as he placed the bowl on his father’s tray. While he was standing he also refilled Master Splinter’s tea cup.
            Taking his seat on the floor once again, Mikey started to turn his attention to the program his father had been watching. Before he could get into it, Master Splinter cleared his throat and Mikey looked over at him.
            “Can I get you something else, father?” Mikey asked.
            “You are a very good son, Michelangelo,” Master Splinter said. “What I would like is an answer to a question.”
            Puzzled, Mikey said, “Sure. What’s the question?”
            “Are you happy?” Master Splinter asked.
            Slightly taken aback, Mikey answered, “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”
            “I am a father. Questions of that sort plague my waking hours more often than I would like to admit,” Master Splinter said.
            “We’re supposed to be worrying about you today,” Mikey told him, a twinkle of humor in his eyes.
            “Mine is a simple head cold. It will pass,” Master Splinter said. “My concerns for your future do not have so easy a path.”
            Mikey wasn’t sure what his father was alluding to, but he felt like a discussion along those lines might possibly prove useful. “I don’t know, we seem to be doing okay,” Mikey offered tentatively.
            “So I am not to take your sudden predilection for my company as anything more than that? There is nothing weighing on your mind that you hope I might help to resolve?” Master Splinter asked astutely.
            A straight out question of that sort wasn’t something Mikey was as yet ready to deal with. He didn’t want to just say ‘no’ because that would have shut down the subject and he wasn’t ready for that either.
            With a shrug, Mikey said, “I like spending time with you. Besides, maybe there’s stuff I wonder about too.”
            “Perhaps the ‘stuff’ pertaining to our previous conversation? My stories tend to revolve around the same basic theme,” Master Splinter noted sagely.
            “I don’t wanna say I don’t get curious,” Mikey said. “Why would that make you ask if I was happy?”
            “Perhaps I worry that in your life you will not be able to experience complete fulfillment because you do not have the same chance for it that is afforded to other living beings,” Master Splinter said. “None of you has ever expressed any thoughts on that topic to me and I had decided not to broach it myself.”
            The subject was very much the one that Mikey wanted to explore with his father and he picked up on one word more than the others. “’Had’ sensei? Like maybe it’s something you think we should talk about now?”
            “I am sensing a change in you, Michelangelo,” Master Splinter said bluntly. “It is in more than my perception, though what I see and hear are the largest factors in what I believe to be the truth. Have you become aware of your sexuality?”
            Mikey glanced at the television as he tried to formulate an answer. Two characters were engaged in a heavy make-out session and Mikey felt the heat rising on his neck.
            “Yeah, I guess so,” Mikey admitted, flushing with embarrassment.
            “An awareness of desires for someone perhaps of your own sex?” Master Splinter asked. “Our previous conversation seemed to fall in that direction.”
            “You agreed that you liked the idea of people being happy with whoever they chose,” Mikey said quickly.
            “My son, I am not condemning you,” Master Splinter said. “It is my opinion that there is nothing wrong with your preference for males. Has someone in particular drawn your fancy or has this revelation come about from prolonged exposure to mass media?”
            It took Mikey a second to comprehend his father’s allusion. “I guess I first noticed it when I was reading comics or looking through magazines,” he said. “The guys were always more interesting to me than the girls.”
            He purposely avoided answering the first part of Master Splinter’s question because he certainly wasn’t ready to broach that subject. Mikey was also pretty sure he hadn’t softened his father up enough for him to be accepting of who his son actually desired.
            “Often with that type of realization there also follows an awareness of ones limitations,” Master Splinter said. “For the four of you that can prove to be a nearly insurmountable difficulty.”
            “’Cause we’re turtles,” Mikey responded, knowing exactly what his father meant. “Mutated ones.”
            “That does not mean you could not find someone to accept you,” Master Splinter said softly.
            “Yeah, I know that,” Mikey said. “I think that alien warrior Jhanna liked Don that way, so I know it’s not impossible. It’s just that . . . I don’t know, I don’t find myself much interested in the usual options.”
            “The human ones,” Master Splinter clarified.
            Mikey nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on his father. “Guess that doesn’t leave me with lots of choices, but I do still have some.”
            “Yes you do,” Master Splinter agreed, his focus just as intent on his youngest son. “Please remember as you search, if you choose to search, for a special someone that you should both be of one accord. Whatever happens between two beings there should always be a basic understanding in place. The question will arise at some point, preferably early on, as to what partner A wants and what partner B wants from the relationship. If those are not the same things, the connection is doomed to failure.”
            Maybe it was the fact that Raph was at the forefront of his mind, but it almost seemed to Mikey as though his father knew that two of his sons were engaged in a connection that was less than brotherly. He had to remind himself that Master Splinter was merely speaking in generalities and couldn’t actually know anything.
            Mikey was saved from any further discussion by Leo’s return. His older brother was carrying two bags filled with what looked like half a drug store. As Leo approached their father, a look of concern on his face, Mikey stood up and took the bags from him.
            On his way to Don’s lab with the newly purchased items, Mikey glanced back over his shoulder. Though Leo was leaning over to check on Master Splinter, he was not the son who held their father’s attention.
            Master Splinter’s gaze was still aimed towards Michelangelo, his expression contemplative.
TBC……………
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The Pain Game