Predestined
May. 20th, 2016 05:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katleeptTitle: Predestined
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Character/Pairing: Splinter, Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo
Rating: PG/K+
Challenge/Prompt:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
prompt_in_a_box: Radioactive
Warning(s): None
Word Count: 2,687
Date Written: 20 May, 2016
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
Sometimes, he thinks back on the past and wonders how much of it was really a curse or a blessing. Tonight, rather than his past in China that first led him to seek refuge in the States, it is the radioactive mutagen that changed the lives of himself and his four, adopted children so greatly that weighs heavily upon his mind. His thoughts are not helped by the day's events or by the frenzied whispers of his sons discussing them in their bed chamber when they should be sleeping.
He could have lived out his life as a man quite peacefully down here in the sewers, but he would have been alone with only the rats for company. They were a great solace during the time he was alone here, but they never won over his heart like the four turtles have. He swore to care for them and to train them to be able to protect themselves from a world he knows will hurt them severely if they ever learn of their existence for the humans fear things they do not understand and which are different from them and fear always causes them to lash out in violence. He's trained them well. All four have become very skilled ninjas and they have saved lives and the city on countless occasions. All this Splinter expected from the very beginning, but what he didn't expect was to come to love the four brothers as his own children.
He didn't expect it, but that is exactly what has happened. They are far more than mere companions as the rats were. They are his children, and he could not possibly love them more if they were truly his own flesh and blood. There isn't a day that they don't make him smile or that Michelangelo does not cause him to burst open with laughter. Leonardo leans on his every word, always desperate to catch any gem of knowledge from him that he may otherwise miss; he is by far the most studious and obedient of his children. Donatello's genius intellect amazes him everything, and although Raphael tries his patience on almost a daily basis, he loves him with all his heart, too.
Splinter's tail swishes. He is unable to meditate tonight. His mind continues to play over the day's events. He still fills the fear that caught him, heart and soul, when he thought his children's lives were to be snuffed out, but he reached them just in time. They were the ones to cause the new strand of mutagen to be completely destroyed before it could be unleashed on the city. Splinter remembers how angry they were, furious that the mutagen had changed them so greatly and that it had trapped him forever in the form of a rat. Yet, Splinter can not seem to find it within himself to be angry at the mutagen or its creator.
He knows why, and with a slight nod of his furry head, he finally admits the truth to himself. Without the mutagen, his life would be completely different. He would still be a man, but he would also still be alone here in the sewers with only the scurrying rats for companionship. Most importantly of all, without the mutagen, he would not have his sons.
His ears swivel back and forth as he listens to those very teenagers debating the mutagen and the scientist who created it now. Donatello respects the man's genius, but they are all saddened by the fact that he is trapped as a rat. It would be nice, he muses, to be able to regain his original form of a man, but if the mutagen had not entered his life when it had, the four baby turtles who have each grown into wonderful young turtlemen would also have never entered his life. Raising the four boys was his destiny, greater than anything else he's ever done or attempted to do, but so, too, was the mutagen. One could not be accomplished without the other.
Raphael's anger makes him snarl and curse. Leonardo's voice breaks smoothly through his brother's fury, but Mikey's laugh which breaks off unexpectedly makes it clear that Raphael is not listening to his leader. Splinter chose his eldest long ago as leader, and despite what the other turtle think, it wasn't simply his age that caused him to make the decision. Indeed, he debated for years between Leonardo and Donatello before choosing the elder. He is the voice of reason and never afraid to speak the truth, no matter how much it may anguish his brothers. Donatello would rather sugar coat the truth, to adopt a phrase from his youngest, or avoid conflict altogether and focus instead on his machines.
Sadly, the very fact that Leonardo is their leader and unafraid to always speak the truth are also the very attributes that sometimes cause Raphael to blatantly refuse to listen to his advice. Such appears to be happening now. Splinter leaps to his feet, grabbing his staff as he moves, and hurries to his children's room.
"You're next," Raphael growls at Mikey, who's looking very sheepish. He cuts eyes toward the doorway and sees Splinter standing there.
"Master Splinter!" Michelangelo squeaks in surprise.
"Raphael, release your brother this instant." Splinter's command is quiet but stern and emphasized by the crack of his long, wiry tail in the still air behind him.
Raphael shoves Leonardo's shell one last time into the cement wall of the sewer, then lets his brother drop to the cold, hard floor. "He deserved it," he mutters darkly. "He was taking up for that damn freak who made that freaking mutagen."
"Raphael," Splinter's voice is still stern yet calm and soft, "seventy flips when we wake with the sun, ten for your language, ten for your attitude, and fifty for attacking your brother." If there's a triumphant light in Leonardo's eyes as he glowers back at Raphael from across the room, Splinter actually misses it as he continues, "You all need to practice tomorrow. You need to meditate, as I was attempting to do."
"Sorry, Master Splinter," Leo says quickly, bowing his head respectfully.
"Sorry, Master Splinter," Raphael mimics, shaking his head. He flips himself onto his shell on his bunk.
Splinter taps his staff on the floor, a wordless warning to Raphael to contain his attitude. Then, aloud, he admits, "My own conscience was not allowing me to concentrate."
"Your conscience, Sensei?" Donatello queries in surprise. Michelangelo looks up with big eyes full of concern. Raphael rolls his eyes, but Splinter still catches the concern therein when he ends the roll by sneaking a direct look at him.
"What bothers you, Master Splinter?" Leonardo questions quietly.
"I . . . " Splinter takes a breath and reconsiders his choice of words. He must tread carefully here for it is integral his sons fully understand what he is about to tell them. His taps his staff again on the cement floor, soundlessly this time. His ears swivel back and forth as his tail comes to rest with its tip curled around his furry ankle.
"I have heard comments this day," he finally begins again, "that have concerned me. You all seem anguished over the mutagen."
"Ya think?" Raphael snaps.
"Raphael," Splinter addresses him calmly, "allow me to finish, please."
"I would, Sensei," he retorts, sitting up and swinging his green legs over the side of his bunk, "but what good is it? Why shouldn't we be pissed off about the goo that totally screwed us?"
"Did it screw you, Raphael?" Splinter returns calmly, one single brow arching in thoughtful question. "Did it really? You are all much more now than you would have ever become had you not encountered the mutagen."
"We are more," Donatello speaks up humbly, "but that is also part of what troubles us, Sensei. We do not belong in this world."
"How can you say that, my son, when you have saved numerous lives and it is the very differences the mutagen made in you that allow you to save those who can not save themselves? How many lives would have been lost if you had not been there? You all belong in this world, just as you are, and I love you all just as you are."
"Psh," Raphael mutters under his breath, missing the way his Sensei's ears swivel directly at him.
"Somebody would have saved them," Donatello murmurs.
"Yeah." Michelangelo throws a ball at the wall and catches it. "Somebody who doesn't make the people they save scream and run from them with one look."
"They do not all behave that way."
"Master Splinter, Sensei," Leonardo bows before their father, "we love you, too, and it is true that we would not be the same we are today if not for the mutagen. Perhaps we are better off," he glances out of the corner of his eyes at Raphael. "Perhaps we are not." He glances at Donatello and Michelangelo. "But surely you would be far better off as a man. It is the changes that were forced upon you that anger me so."
"You are wrong," Splinter speaks with strong and firm belief but also calmly. "You are all wrong." All four young turtles -- for they are all still young, he has just been reminded by their conversation -- look at him swiftly in surprise. Michelangelo stops throwing his ball and drops his hands down to his plastron.
Donatello sits up and looks directly at him. "Sensei?" he asks softly in puzzlement, his head cocking to one side as he studies him intently.
"You are all wrong," Splinter repeats gently, his tail swishing in one single, fluid motion. His ears swivel again. "Allow me to explain." He takes a step closer to his boys. "If I had gone untouched by the mutagen, I would not have found you four that day. I am thankful to destiny and to the mutagen and its creator for delivering to me you four. I will gladly spend the rest of my days as a rat as long as it means I have you to love and care for, . . . " His fatherly gaze encompasses all four turtles. Donatello leaps to Leonardo's side and bows before Splinter, as well. " . . . to care for me, . . . " Splinter looks to Leonardo, then to Donatello, "to amaze me, . . . " His gaze moves to Michelangelo, " . . . to give me cause to smile and laugh, no matter how dark and perilous the world above becomes, . . . " Finally, his gaze turns to Raphael, who's still glowering darkly though not quite as much now. " . . . and yes," he concludes, "even to challenge me, Raphael."
"I love you all four of you greatly. I never knew how empty my life was until you arrived to fill it, and our lives never would have joined together as they have if not for the mutagen. So, yes, I am thankful for the mutagen and all it has done, rat though I may be."
Donatello's and Michelangelo's eyes are brimming with tears. Leonardo's beak trembles as he barely keeps his own tears at bay. The fury drains completely from Raphael's face. "You're right," Donatello acknowledges in a gentle, awed whisper.
"Of course he's right," Leonardo interjects quickly. "Master Splinter is always right."
"Dude," Michelangelo speaks, "I never would've thought about it like that." He nods and looks at his brothers, even Raphael who is slowly standing. "We never would've had each other if the accident hadn't happened."
Splinter's long tail swishes again. "It was no accident, my sons. It was destiny. We were meant for each other, but destiny needed a tool to bring us together. That tool was the mutagen."
"I guess maybe I shouldn't've kicked his ass, huh?" Raphael comments, coming slowly closer to his family. He grins suddenly. "Or maybe just not as hard."
Splinter beams and nods his approval, despite his son's language.
"You always open our eyes, Sensei," Leo remarks, still in awe of the lesson he has learned this night.
Splinter again nods. "That," he replies humbly, "is one of my many places as your Sensei and father."
Donatello can stand it no longer. He hurries forward to Splinter and throws his arms tightly around him. "Thank you," he breathes, almost sobbing, into his pointed ear.
Donnie doesn't have a chance to move before Michelangelo is throwing his arms around both his father and brother and hugging them both tightly. Then, with only a little more hesitation, comes Leonardo, also joining in the hug. "I will never again rue the day the mutagen stole your natural form from you, Sensei," he vows softly, "but I will also never cease our search for a way for you to become human again."
"Very well, my son," Splinter speaks, hugging all three together, "but know that I will never be willing to sacrifice what I have as your father and Sensei in order to reclaim my human form."
His three gentler boys step back, each bowing their head in honor to him. Splinter turns to look at his son who always holds the most anger in his heart. Raphael is clearly caught between his desire to remain standoffish and his longing to hug his father, so Splinter makes the decision for him by stepping forward and hugging him. "I love you all," he tells them again, and his ear swivels and tail swishes with joy as Raphael whispers to him, low enough that only he can hear him, "I love you, too, Sensei."
Splinter beams at his sons as he steps back out of the embrace once he senses Raphael beginning to pull away from him. "Now off to bed with you four," he directs. "We have a lot of training for tomorrow."
"Yes, Sensei," Leonardo obediently replies as Michelangelo and Raphael both groan in unison.
"Yes, Sensei," Raph mimics, the last to lay back down onto his bunk.
Splinter hears him, but it doesn't faze his smile. Things are returning to normal again, normal for them at least, but he'd never have their ways be the normalcy of the above world. They were all born to be different, but the mutagen blessed them. It didn't curse them. It blessed them all with the abilities to be far more than they would have become otherwise: his sons to become Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rather than mere pets and himself to be their proud, loving father and the Sensei who will guide them through every step of their journeys for as long as he is able.
Splinter climbs the ladder on the side of their bunk beds, which Donatello crafted long ago when he was merely a boy, and kisses each green head in turn. Even Raphael smiles, though he waits to do so until he thinks he can no longer see him. "I love you, my sons," Splinter says again after he's tucked them in in a manner he hasn't done in years.
"I love you, too, Sensei."
"I love you, Father."
"Love yoo, Fa-- " Michelangelo's words end in a loud snore.
Raphael groans and throws his pillow over his head. He also is the only one not to answer Splinter, but the old rat keeps smiling nonetheless. He knows his children love him just as he knows that their finding each other was predestined. Their very lives here together in the sewer were predestined. The mutagen made it happen, but it was always meant to be. They have always been meant to be the family, complete with love and squabbles, which they have become.
Still smiling, Splinter mentally wishes his boys sweet dreams and fulfilling rest, turns off their light, and slips from their room. He returns once again to his study. This time, he's finally able to meditate, but even as he does, his tail keeps swishing gently and his broad, joyous smile remains undeterred. He knows he's blessed and loved, and his life is beautiful just as it is because his children love him so.
The End
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Character/Pairing: Splinter, Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo
Rating: PG/K+
Challenge/Prompt:
prompt_in_a_box: RadioactiveWarning(s): None
Word Count: 2,687
Date Written: 20 May, 2016
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
Sometimes, he thinks back on the past and wonders how much of it was really a curse or a blessing. Tonight, rather than his past in China that first led him to seek refuge in the States, it is the radioactive mutagen that changed the lives of himself and his four, adopted children so greatly that weighs heavily upon his mind. His thoughts are not helped by the day's events or by the frenzied whispers of his sons discussing them in their bed chamber when they should be sleeping.
He could have lived out his life as a man quite peacefully down here in the sewers, but he would have been alone with only the rats for company. They were a great solace during the time he was alone here, but they never won over his heart like the four turtles have. He swore to care for them and to train them to be able to protect themselves from a world he knows will hurt them severely if they ever learn of their existence for the humans fear things they do not understand and which are different from them and fear always causes them to lash out in violence. He's trained them well. All four have become very skilled ninjas and they have saved lives and the city on countless occasions. All this Splinter expected from the very beginning, but what he didn't expect was to come to love the four brothers as his own children.
He didn't expect it, but that is exactly what has happened. They are far more than mere companions as the rats were. They are his children, and he could not possibly love them more if they were truly his own flesh and blood. There isn't a day that they don't make him smile or that Michelangelo does not cause him to burst open with laughter. Leonardo leans on his every word, always desperate to catch any gem of knowledge from him that he may otherwise miss; he is by far the most studious and obedient of his children. Donatello's genius intellect amazes him everything, and although Raphael tries his patience on almost a daily basis, he loves him with all his heart, too.
Splinter's tail swishes. He is unable to meditate tonight. His mind continues to play over the day's events. He still fills the fear that caught him, heart and soul, when he thought his children's lives were to be snuffed out, but he reached them just in time. They were the ones to cause the new strand of mutagen to be completely destroyed before it could be unleashed on the city. Splinter remembers how angry they were, furious that the mutagen had changed them so greatly and that it had trapped him forever in the form of a rat. Yet, Splinter can not seem to find it within himself to be angry at the mutagen or its creator.
He knows why, and with a slight nod of his furry head, he finally admits the truth to himself. Without the mutagen, his life would be completely different. He would still be a man, but he would also still be alone here in the sewers with only the scurrying rats for companionship. Most importantly of all, without the mutagen, he would not have his sons.
His ears swivel back and forth as he listens to those very teenagers debating the mutagen and the scientist who created it now. Donatello respects the man's genius, but they are all saddened by the fact that he is trapped as a rat. It would be nice, he muses, to be able to regain his original form of a man, but if the mutagen had not entered his life when it had, the four baby turtles who have each grown into wonderful young turtlemen would also have never entered his life. Raising the four boys was his destiny, greater than anything else he's ever done or attempted to do, but so, too, was the mutagen. One could not be accomplished without the other.
Raphael's anger makes him snarl and curse. Leonardo's voice breaks smoothly through his brother's fury, but Mikey's laugh which breaks off unexpectedly makes it clear that Raphael is not listening to his leader. Splinter chose his eldest long ago as leader, and despite what the other turtle think, it wasn't simply his age that caused him to make the decision. Indeed, he debated for years between Leonardo and Donatello before choosing the elder. He is the voice of reason and never afraid to speak the truth, no matter how much it may anguish his brothers. Donatello would rather sugar coat the truth, to adopt a phrase from his youngest, or avoid conflict altogether and focus instead on his machines.
Sadly, the very fact that Leonardo is their leader and unafraid to always speak the truth are also the very attributes that sometimes cause Raphael to blatantly refuse to listen to his advice. Such appears to be happening now. Splinter leaps to his feet, grabbing his staff as he moves, and hurries to his children's room.
"You're next," Raphael growls at Mikey, who's looking very sheepish. He cuts eyes toward the doorway and sees Splinter standing there.
"Master Splinter!" Michelangelo squeaks in surprise.
"Raphael, release your brother this instant." Splinter's command is quiet but stern and emphasized by the crack of his long, wiry tail in the still air behind him.
Raphael shoves Leonardo's shell one last time into the cement wall of the sewer, then lets his brother drop to the cold, hard floor. "He deserved it," he mutters darkly. "He was taking up for that damn freak who made that freaking mutagen."
"Raphael," Splinter's voice is still stern yet calm and soft, "seventy flips when we wake with the sun, ten for your language, ten for your attitude, and fifty for attacking your brother." If there's a triumphant light in Leonardo's eyes as he glowers back at Raphael from across the room, Splinter actually misses it as he continues, "You all need to practice tomorrow. You need to meditate, as I was attempting to do."
"Sorry, Master Splinter," Leo says quickly, bowing his head respectfully.
"Sorry, Master Splinter," Raphael mimics, shaking his head. He flips himself onto his shell on his bunk.
Splinter taps his staff on the floor, a wordless warning to Raphael to contain his attitude. Then, aloud, he admits, "My own conscience was not allowing me to concentrate."
"Your conscience, Sensei?" Donatello queries in surprise. Michelangelo looks up with big eyes full of concern. Raphael rolls his eyes, but Splinter still catches the concern therein when he ends the roll by sneaking a direct look at him.
"What bothers you, Master Splinter?" Leonardo questions quietly.
"I . . . " Splinter takes a breath and reconsiders his choice of words. He must tread carefully here for it is integral his sons fully understand what he is about to tell them. His taps his staff again on the cement floor, soundlessly this time. His ears swivel back and forth as his tail comes to rest with its tip curled around his furry ankle.
"I have heard comments this day," he finally begins again, "that have concerned me. You all seem anguished over the mutagen."
"Ya think?" Raphael snaps.
"Raphael," Splinter addresses him calmly, "allow me to finish, please."
"I would, Sensei," he retorts, sitting up and swinging his green legs over the side of his bunk, "but what good is it? Why shouldn't we be pissed off about the goo that totally screwed us?"
"Did it screw you, Raphael?" Splinter returns calmly, one single brow arching in thoughtful question. "Did it really? You are all much more now than you would have ever become had you not encountered the mutagen."
"We are more," Donatello speaks up humbly, "but that is also part of what troubles us, Sensei. We do not belong in this world."
"How can you say that, my son, when you have saved numerous lives and it is the very differences the mutagen made in you that allow you to save those who can not save themselves? How many lives would have been lost if you had not been there? You all belong in this world, just as you are, and I love you all just as you are."
"Psh," Raphael mutters under his breath, missing the way his Sensei's ears swivel directly at him.
"Somebody would have saved them," Donatello murmurs.
"Yeah." Michelangelo throws a ball at the wall and catches it. "Somebody who doesn't make the people they save scream and run from them with one look."
"They do not all behave that way."
"Master Splinter, Sensei," Leonardo bows before their father, "we love you, too, and it is true that we would not be the same we are today if not for the mutagen. Perhaps we are better off," he glances out of the corner of his eyes at Raphael. "Perhaps we are not." He glances at Donatello and Michelangelo. "But surely you would be far better off as a man. It is the changes that were forced upon you that anger me so."
"You are wrong," Splinter speaks with strong and firm belief but also calmly. "You are all wrong." All four young turtles -- for they are all still young, he has just been reminded by their conversation -- look at him swiftly in surprise. Michelangelo stops throwing his ball and drops his hands down to his plastron.
Donatello sits up and looks directly at him. "Sensei?" he asks softly in puzzlement, his head cocking to one side as he studies him intently.
"You are all wrong," Splinter repeats gently, his tail swishing in one single, fluid motion. His ears swivel again. "Allow me to explain." He takes a step closer to his boys. "If I had gone untouched by the mutagen, I would not have found you four that day. I am thankful to destiny and to the mutagen and its creator for delivering to me you four. I will gladly spend the rest of my days as a rat as long as it means I have you to love and care for, . . . " His fatherly gaze encompasses all four turtles. Donatello leaps to Leonardo's side and bows before Splinter, as well. " . . . to care for me, . . . " Splinter looks to Leonardo, then to Donatello, "to amaze me, . . . " His gaze moves to Michelangelo, " . . . to give me cause to smile and laugh, no matter how dark and perilous the world above becomes, . . . " Finally, his gaze turns to Raphael, who's still glowering darkly though not quite as much now. " . . . and yes," he concludes, "even to challenge me, Raphael."
"I love you all four of you greatly. I never knew how empty my life was until you arrived to fill it, and our lives never would have joined together as they have if not for the mutagen. So, yes, I am thankful for the mutagen and all it has done, rat though I may be."
Donatello's and Michelangelo's eyes are brimming with tears. Leonardo's beak trembles as he barely keeps his own tears at bay. The fury drains completely from Raphael's face. "You're right," Donatello acknowledges in a gentle, awed whisper.
"Of course he's right," Leonardo interjects quickly. "Master Splinter is always right."
"Dude," Michelangelo speaks, "I never would've thought about it like that." He nods and looks at his brothers, even Raphael who is slowly standing. "We never would've had each other if the accident hadn't happened."
Splinter's long tail swishes again. "It was no accident, my sons. It was destiny. We were meant for each other, but destiny needed a tool to bring us together. That tool was the mutagen."
"I guess maybe I shouldn't've kicked his ass, huh?" Raphael comments, coming slowly closer to his family. He grins suddenly. "Or maybe just not as hard."
Splinter beams and nods his approval, despite his son's language.
"You always open our eyes, Sensei," Leo remarks, still in awe of the lesson he has learned this night.
Splinter again nods. "That," he replies humbly, "is one of my many places as your Sensei and father."
Donatello can stand it no longer. He hurries forward to Splinter and throws his arms tightly around him. "Thank you," he breathes, almost sobbing, into his pointed ear.
Donnie doesn't have a chance to move before Michelangelo is throwing his arms around both his father and brother and hugging them both tightly. Then, with only a little more hesitation, comes Leonardo, also joining in the hug. "I will never again rue the day the mutagen stole your natural form from you, Sensei," he vows softly, "but I will also never cease our search for a way for you to become human again."
"Very well, my son," Splinter speaks, hugging all three together, "but know that I will never be willing to sacrifice what I have as your father and Sensei in order to reclaim my human form."
His three gentler boys step back, each bowing their head in honor to him. Splinter turns to look at his son who always holds the most anger in his heart. Raphael is clearly caught between his desire to remain standoffish and his longing to hug his father, so Splinter makes the decision for him by stepping forward and hugging him. "I love you all," he tells them again, and his ear swivels and tail swishes with joy as Raphael whispers to him, low enough that only he can hear him, "I love you, too, Sensei."
Splinter beams at his sons as he steps back out of the embrace once he senses Raphael beginning to pull away from him. "Now off to bed with you four," he directs. "We have a lot of training for tomorrow."
"Yes, Sensei," Leonardo obediently replies as Michelangelo and Raphael both groan in unison.
"Yes, Sensei," Raph mimics, the last to lay back down onto his bunk.
Splinter hears him, but it doesn't faze his smile. Things are returning to normal again, normal for them at least, but he'd never have their ways be the normalcy of the above world. They were all born to be different, but the mutagen blessed them. It didn't curse them. It blessed them all with the abilities to be far more than they would have become otherwise: his sons to become Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rather than mere pets and himself to be their proud, loving father and the Sensei who will guide them through every step of their journeys for as long as he is able.
Splinter climbs the ladder on the side of their bunk beds, which Donatello crafted long ago when he was merely a boy, and kisses each green head in turn. Even Raphael smiles, though he waits to do so until he thinks he can no longer see him. "I love you, my sons," Splinter says again after he's tucked them in in a manner he hasn't done in years.
"I love you, too, Sensei."
"I love you, Father."
"Love yoo, Fa-- " Michelangelo's words end in a loud snore.
Raphael groans and throws his pillow over his head. He also is the only one not to answer Splinter, but the old rat keeps smiling nonetheless. He knows his children love him just as he knows that their finding each other was predestined. Their very lives here together in the sewer were predestined. The mutagen made it happen, but it was always meant to be. They have always been meant to be the family, complete with love and squabbles, which they have become.
Still smiling, Splinter mentally wishes his boys sweet dreams and fulfilling rest, turns off their light, and slips from their room. He returns once again to his study. This time, he's finally able to meditate, but even as he does, his tail keeps swishing gently and his broad, joyous smile remains undeterred. He knows he's blessed and loved, and his life is beautiful just as it is because his children love him so.
The End
