Quality time
Deep breaths. Gentle. Slow. Rhythmic. Everything slowed, melted into the shadows in an audible wash of white sound. A humming bird tacking flight, Mike waiting for the microwave to finish with his popcorn. A river running, Don carefully sliding on chemical into another. A heart beat pounding, Raph's fists on worn punching bag leather.
Only breathing. Only focus.
He felt Splinter's aura before the sound of a tail gently sliding across hard stone.
"Leonardo."
Gentle breath. Eyes opened, like cocoons parting.
"Master."
The rat stood up respectfully straight in the dojo doorway, paws crossed over the well worn top of his walking stick. Old appreciative eyes took in the gently waving flames of the twin candles, a proud smile across an old maw.
"I did not mean to disturb your meditation."
Leonardo smiled, stretching one shoulder, then the other before standing up.
"S'okay sensei."
His eyes travelled swiftly to the bundle at his master's belt.
"There is…a matter of great importance that we must discuss my son."
"Yes?"
He was already running through battle options. Something street level might mean sending out Raph for back alley recon, admittedly the equivalent of giving an arsonist access to every gas station in the greater metropolitan area but it would get something done, Don could go through the police bands and anything available on whatever they were going up against would be child's play for him to find on the internet, and Mike could…Mike could…stay with him and make a light snack before they had to get to work. Street gangs wouldn't be a problem provided they struck fast enough to find what they were looking for before some of the smarter ones caught on to the fact someone was after them, and the Foot still kept their part of their ice brittle truce…
Splinter entered the room, sliding the dojo door shut behind him silent as a phantom stepping through a rock concert, the other moving the stick with those steady but skilled movements.
A paw motioned and Leo sat again, legs crossed but hands ready. The rat removed the bundle from his belt, legs folding slowly under him, walking stick coming to rest at his side like a waiting dog.
"Leonardo, my son…throughout your training, throughout your life, I would like to think that I have taught you a great deal."
The student held back a smirk. If only the old man knew…
"But there is a part of life that I have left you very much on your own to discover. It…is not a subject that would be discussed in normal conversation. Hardly something that would be brought up at the dinner table you understand."
Leo nodded, curious. Didn't sound like bruises and cuts would be involved, but he wasn't ruling a fight out. For God's sake, it was this family he was talking about.
"In today's modern world, so many ways to become aware of what is going on across the globe that some will be missed…I would not be surprised if you had already come across it. The internet alone…"
Okay, this was not looking like anything he would be expecting.
"As with all things in your life, I would like you to think of this as a lesson. One shared on the level of not only pupil and student, but father and son."
Splinter smiled again. Leo smiled back, nodding again. His eyes felt watery as Don's apple pie at the amount of trust in his sensei's face. The bundle was placed before his masters legs and gently unrolled towards him from it's silk wrapping. He looked down intently at the two items. One was a tube, light in his hand but obviously full from the weight. The other was what he at first mistook, dedicated ninja that he was, to be a throwing knife. He picked it up, cold metal familiar to his well trained hands. Splinter shifted position, his back to him now, fiddling with something unseen.
Leonardo blinked. He read what was printed in blue lettering on the tube. He read it again. He looked at the metal thing in his hands his. A surprised gaze shot between what had been in the bundle. It was…a tube of shaving foam and a razor?
"Master…um…I am honoured…but I'm balder than Michael Rosenbaum…all over…what would I need these for?"
Splinter paused in what he was doing to look back at his son.
"They are not for you my son. They are for me."
He finished what he was doing…which turned out to be undoing his komodo. It fell like discarded snake skin and Leonardo was face to back with his master's…altered position.
A satisfied inhale, such as might be made when a camping instructor is about to make tired cub scouts march through five miles of mosquito infested up hill forest hell, washed over the chamber as his master rolled his head from one shaggy shoulder to the other.
"Ah…so refreshing."
Leonardo almost dropped the razor. Almost. It was comet burning cold in his hands and might as well have frozen there because something had knocked out his common sense and wouldn't let him drop it.
His master's smiling face met his.
"Well my son, shall we begin?"
Leo followed his gaze. A fresh layer of shaving foam was already atop the blade, without Leo knowing how it got there. His eyes snapped back to his Master's still pleasant smile.
"Excellent. I believe we shall start at the top…"
He gestured. Unfortunately.
"…and work down to the bottom."
There was nothing left for Leo to do…so he screamed.
And went on screaming in the lotus position for some time.
Mike dropped the popcorn bowl on his foot. Don started, and was nearly blown through the wall. Raph missed the punching bag, hit the weight lifting set and didn't stop moving until he hit the weapons wrack. Rooftop bound superhero's paused in their patrol at some half heard sound.
Silence exploded across the layer for a full ten minutes. The gentle squeak of the dojo door sliding open was like a tumble weed across a desert floor.
"Guy?" The tone wasn't timid, but it wasn't calm after an hours meditation either. "Where did we get these candles again?"