Chapter Text
Michelangelo’s day tends to start very routinely despite how unpredictable and sporadic he is, as the designated cook of the family, he wakes up, he washes up his face, goes to the kitchen to check on Ice Cream Kitty and cooks breakfast for everyone.
However, this morning Mikey woke up late and felt more tired than usual, with blurry vision thanks to the eye boogers he walked towards the mirror in his room, still unable to see that well, he tried to tie his iconic orange bandana. As his hands moved toward the back of his head, his sense of touch felt something he’s not used to feeling. A soft and fuzzy sensation that wasn’t just at the back of his head, he felt it all over his head as he shifted his hand.
Mikey put the mask aside and quickly tried to fix his vision by rubbing his fingers to remove the goober from his eyes. Once his eyesight was good enough to see clearly what was on his head, the turtle stared dumbfounded at his reflection. A few seconds passed until the information finally settled in his mind.
“DONNIE!!!” A yell that could be heard throughout the whole lair, or the whole sewer system even. Mikey sprinted from his room as fast he could, alarming his brothers in the process who were waiting on the conversation pit for Mikey’s breakfast. Leo & Raph barely had a moment to process what just happened by the time Mikey reached Donnie’s lab.
“Now what, Mikey?” The purple-masked turtle replied without even bothering to look up from his computer.
“Just look at me, bro!” Mikey grabbed and slightly shook Donnie’s shoulder to get his attention. Donnie rolled his eyes and turned around to see what was bothering his brother so much.
“I have hair!” said the now hairy turtle, Donnie blinked quickly as if to make sure what his brother said was really true. Mikey pointed towards his head, to make it even more obvious what he just said.
Donnie stood up from his desk and grabbed Mikey’s head and moved it from side to side to examine it. “Hair?! You did NOT pick anything from my lab, did you Mikey?” His fascination and curiosity of seeing a turtle with hair was slightly overshadowed by his brother’s potential mischief, just to make sure another Shell-acne case wasn’t going to happen.
“I haven’t I swear! I went to bed like I always do and woke up like this!” Mikey tried to let go of Donnie’s grip as he moved his head around.
“Ok, quit the yelling, what was with the screaming earlier, huh?” The red-masked turtle scratched his chin as he entered the lab “This better not be some lame excuse to avoid making breakfast, Mikey”.
The youngest turtles stopped to look back at their older brother. “Mikey grew hair overnight, it seems” Donnie said with a deadpan expression, the sudden interruption allowed Mikey to free himself from his brother’s grasp and run towards the other.
Raph took a look at this brother’s head and let out a small chuckle “Wow! You look uglier than usual!”
“Hey!” Mikey pouted; his reaction made Raph chuckle again. Both turtles had a short-lived banter while Donnie sighed tiredly, it all came to a halt once Leo entered the lab.
“Ok, Ok. Stop it you two, Donnie would you mind explaining wha—“ Leo’s usual serious facade broke once he looked at Mikey, a snort tried to leave his mouth but he covered it with the back of his hand, making his best effort to hold on his laughter.
“Come on, Leo! I don’t look ugly!” Mikey moved around to face his eldest brother, but Leo kept trying to face away and now it was audible how badly he was hiding his laughter.
Leo’s laughs were contagious, which made Raph chuckle as well, Mikey looked at both his brothers, did his new hair-do make him look funny? Their reactions made him slightly angry, but he couldn’t really hold it against them. They all laughed at each other for the dumbest of reasons. Still, he couldn’t help but worry about how his scalp was hairy from one day to another, so he just let them laugh it off. He would’ve laughed the same way if this were to happen to any of his brothers. A turtle with hair was not a usual sight, not to mention since his hair was short, the thin layer of green hair made him look like those chia pets once the plants start to grow.
Amongst all the giggles and laughter, Mikey felt a sudden pull at the back of his head. “Ow!! What was that?” Mikey turned around and rubbed the part of his head where it hurt.
“Taking your hair for DNA samples” Donnie was already on his way back to his desk with tweezers in his hand.
After Donnie spoke, Leo & Raph took this as a sign to quit with laughter, wheezing and wiping tears off while trying to calm down. Donnie sat down and placed the hair strand on his microscope and examined it for a few moments and typed a few things in his computer. The few minutes Donnie did all of that felt like an eternity for Mikey, did he have a weird hair disease? Did he mutate in his sleep? Although that didn’t really make sense, thinking of the wackiest possibilities wasn’t helping.
At last, Donnie moved his chair to look at his brothers to announce his findings. “So?” Mikey asked with his hands clasped together, impatiently waiting for his brother’s response.
“I guess… this is part of your mutation” Donnie’s response didn’t really respond to anything. The other three turtles stared at the purple-masked turtle with a blank expression, not sure how to react to such a short response.
“…and that means?” Leonardo was the first to break the silence, knowing Donatello isn’t the type to give out simple explanations, he expected his brother to continue explaining.
“With the way we mutated, we are molecularly made by both human and turtle DNA. Of course, the human part comes from Splinter” when he mentioned his name, Donnie couldn’t help but look at the framed pictures on the wall, one of them having a photo of their beloved father.
He continued to explain “So it seems that all the genes that determine hair thickness, color, texture and whatnot that are present in humans are within your organism but remained dormant until now”. The trio of turtles nodded in unison, the explanation wasn’t as complicated as they expected it to be so they understood just fine.
Raph’s chin itched while he was lost in thought, until he reached a realization. “Wait, so are we growing hair at one point?” the turtle scratched around his jaw after asking.
“Not necessarily” Donnie replied quickly “Since our anatomy and our DNA is in its majority of a turtle, it’s a very low probability that we all get to grow hair”.
Donnie’s response sufficed Raph’s doubt. “See Mikey?” Leo walked towards his little brother and patted him on the head “There’s nothing to be worried about” Mikey appreciated the gesture.
“Other than that haircut” said Raph between coughs and looked away. Mikey glared at his brother and stuck his tongue out, he knew Raph wouldn’t think he didn’t notice it was him who said that.
“I didn’t say anything” a smug smile was on Raph’s face until he felt a slight vibration on his belt, it was his T-phone. He pulled it out and checked the notification, a message from April.
“…Well, if there isn’t anything else to discuss, I guess we can wrap this up, right?” Leo looked at his brothers and everyone agreed “How about I help you with making breakfast, Mikey?” He looked at his brother and Mikey nodded again with a smile on his face. Leo sucked at the kitchen, but he’d never turn down the opportunity to hang out with his big bro.
And with that, everyone took up their queue to leave the lab and do their thing. Mikey & Leo left together towards the kitchen while Raph walked towards the conversation pit with phone in hand. “I guess I’m gonna need a hairnet from now on” could be heard as the duo got further and further away.
