A.N.: Ziptango, Daydream, Raphiella, TygeroftheWynd, Mily and Lenni are all twelve. Danceingfae, Machias, Splinter, HexAdecimal, TMNTPunker, Arista are all thirteen. The guys are eighteen.
Disclaimer: I only own Ziptango & Daydream because I can. Oh, & I own myself too! Almost forgot. Lol. But, everyone else owns themselves, and Daydream actually owns this story. I'm just posting it for her, as it goes with Stinking Babies and The Understanding Brother – both, of which I know need to be updated.
My Contribution: Editing, & Posting.
Note: This story comes after "Understanding Brother". Though neither of the stories before this are finished, I decided to finally post this. So y'all know, this was written by Daydream. She told me to do what I want with it, so I have.
Enjoy!
Hex gazed up at the ceiling of her room from the comfy mattress on her bed. She was quite satisfied with herself. Having finished with the trials her Sensei placed on his pupils, she was now allowed to go out with her other family members to do battle against Oroku Saki and his Foot ninjas.
Nobody knew about her success yet, but they'd obviously find out at dinner when all the important announcements were made. Hexadecimal sighed with pleasure; this was great. No more nights of sitting on the couch and wondering when her brothers and sisters would return, no more being told to go away while the others were planning a battle. She would be included in all nightly escapades whether her brothers liked it or not. She would be the third of her sisters to be permitted to join the group of teenage ninjas. And why not? She had just as much or more skill as a warrior than Danceingfae or Punker and definitely as much reason to fight. Why, if she'd had it her way she would have been fighting at least a year before now... A knock on the door kicked her out of her now simmering thoughts.
"Wha do ya want?" Hex grumbled, pulling herself in a sitting position.
The door burst open and she was immediately set upon by two of her sisters. They pulled her off the bed and onto the floor. A white and blue bandanna, and a crimson red one gave them away as Raphiella and Tyger, the two younger siblings that she always had to battle with for Raphael's attention. They were all grins as they bounded into the room. Tyger set herself down on Hex's bed while Ella sat down right next to Hex. She gave her famous smirk to let Hex know she already knew everything. Tyger was the first one that burst out though.
"You passed the trials! You're finally a full-fledged ninja!" She bounced on the bed with excitement even though she was a disciplined twelve-year-old.
Hex shrugged, not even giving a thought to how her sisters knew. They had probably been hiding up in the beams during the trial.
"No, not really. More like a ninja trainee," she said thoughtfully.
You couldn't go out farther than five blocks up top without an older brother until you were fifteen and passed the real Trials. Still, anything was better than the one block everyone else got.
Ella smiled at her sister. "Hex really deserves this," she thought to herself.
"I wish I was old enough to take the trials! Heck, I bet I could beat you at them!" Tyger exclaimed and winked at Hex.
The older girl rolled her eyes at her younger sister.
"Yeah right, Ty. You couldn't beat yourself out of a soggy paper bag," Raphiella teased with the right amount of bite to make Tyger bristle.
Hex gave both of them 'The Look'. "Chill," she demanded, "or get out."
Tyger flung up her hands in defense and surrendered while Ella raised her eye ridges at Hex's commands.
"Oh, so now we get to take orders from the ninja 'trainee'," Raphiella joked and gently pushed Hex's knee. Hex nodded with a certain teasing aloofness.
"You better believe it." Hexadecimal pushed herself up from the floor in one quick, effortless motion. Making herself look as much like her brother in blue as possible, she ordered her sisters out of her room.
They giggled but agreed seeing as they didn't have much choice. As they left, Hex gave them a passing request. "Don't tell anybody, got it?" They nodded and quickly left Hex to herself.
The teenager grinned at the privacy she so rarely got. She took out her pair of sai from the belt she wore around her waist and laid them gently, almost lovingly on her pillow. The silver weapons gleamed welcomingly in the light of her beside lamp. Then she noticed the smudging on one of the three blades. Hex quickly snatched it up for a closer look. Sure enough, there was a fingerprint smudge.
"Now that won't do," she muttered to no one but herself.
Grumbling as loud as she pleased, she pulled open the side table drawer and removed a rag. Setting herself to task, she wondered how everyone would react to the news of her promotion. Leo would probably try to contest it as he always did when one of the girls passed Master Splinter's trials; he seriously had problems when it came to being protective. Donny and Mikey would probably decide that she was going to be Raphael's charge and congratulate her on her new position on the team. Raphael would most likely be happy that she passed until he found out that he was going to be her up top mentor. Leo and Mikey already had Danceingfae and Punker meaning she got Raph since Donnie would be getting Machias before long. Hex didn't mind though. She enjoyed Raph's company where some of her other siblings did not. She knew his reactions as well as Master Splinter and he was her favorite brother if she had to choose one. Her sisters' reactions would be a wild mix of emotions ranging from envy to joy to indifference. With eleven of them there would be plenty of the in-between stuff. Master Splinter had seemed happy that she'd passed.
Hex grinned as she realized that she was rubbing the blade through the cloth. She put it down and went out into the main lair.
As maddening as living in a household of seventeen usually was, dinnertime had to be the craziest time of day. There was always a mad dash for the table even though everyone was always served before they were allowed to eat. Now was wash-up time. Lenni made a show of coming in from the sewers with Raph on her tail, both of them covered in some indescribable material. The bathroom vacated quickly to let the two of them in. A rush of people into the kitchen sent Mikey, Danceingfae, and Daydream fussing like old hens.
The two younger turtles had been recruited by Mikey as his personal kitchen helpers; Dance as general kitchen duties and Day as a dessert and appetizer specialist. The two groups had been dispersed into smaller sections and now only handled breakfast and lunch, leaving all dinner preparation to the three who were excused from the earlier food endeavors. It had taken many long years to train the two girls but they were now allowed to make dinner without supervision as long as Daydream didn't touch the entrée. She'd been banned from entrées after a cooking disaster had almost left them kitchen-less and had given her a large burn mark on her left hand. She was most adept at making the sugary and artful parts of the meal though so they left her at that. Dance was quickly becoming as skilled in all manners of cooking as Mikey and rarely had any mishaps in 'her' kitchen.
Danceingfae had been putting the finishing touches on the entree when the crowd of turtles came rushing into the kitchen to escape Lenni and Raphael's filthiness.
"Hey! What're you doin'?!" Mikey yelped as he was forcefully removed from the sink.
TMNTPunker gave him a rueful smile as she quickly soaped up her hands. "Calm down Mikey, we'll be out of your way in a second," she reassured him.
Leo rolled his eyes as Danceingfae and Daydream quickly covered up any trace of dinner. They jealously guarded their meals until it was time for them to be eaten. He barely had time to wonder what Day was hurriedly stashing in the fridge before Dance had brandished a spatula and began to demand that they leave.
"Out! Get out of my kitchen! There's a bathroom down the hall if you didn't know," she exclaimed, whacking Machias in the shoulder.
The girl fended off her sister with a free hand. "Lenni and Raph threw us all outta there. They're covered in mud crap," she informed and brushed past the angry girl to get to the sink.
Dance tugged her auburn-blonde hair in frustration. The kitchen was the only thing she was actually defensive about.
"Mikey, make them leave! We've got more than one bathroom," Dance appealed to her orange wearing brother.
He smiled at the girl. "It's all right, Dance, they'll leave in a few minutes," Michelangelo assured her. He bent down and quickly whispered in her ear, "They'll just have to wait longer for dinner."
Danceingfae grinned in realization of her absolute power over them.
Meanwhile, Daydream was trying to fight her way to the oven but a very stubborn Splinter was in her way.
"Aw, c'mon Splinna, just move for a second!" she begged, her eyes darting to the swiftly burning Italian breadsticks. The air was already beginning to get that burnt tinge. Day looked at Mikey for help but he was busy trying to get to his salad through the sea of bodies. She definitely couldn't ask Leo for help, he was still unhappy about the other disaster. It wouldn't do if something of hers burnt again; they'd probably kick her out of the kitchen for good. She clenched her fists in desperation. "Please move, Splinter."
Splinter rolled her eyes. "Man, Day, all you had to do was say the magic word," she laughed. As she walked past she gave her little sister's tye-dyed bandanna tails a teasing tug.
Daydream's head jerked back, pulling her away from the oven. The younger girl whipped her bandanna out of Splinter's hand and then swiftly returned to her precious breadsticks.
Dance, after seeing Splinter's smug look, went to help Day out.
After a while the kitchen vacated and the three workers went into a frenzy to finish in time.
Soon enough, everyone was seated and ready for dinner to start. Lenni who usually started all mischief n the house gave Ziptango an impish look and began to softly tap on the table with her fork and spoon. Zip returned the smile; she joined in on the insistent tapping. On the other side on the table, Mily also caught the rhythm with her silverware. Next came a giggling Raphiella followed by Tyger who grinned as she tapped louder than the others. TMNTPunker caught it next; beside her Splinter hesitated a second before adding her taps to the now accelerating tempo. After that Machias gave her other sisters a smile and also joined the roar. Donatello gave in next, his taps quickly assimilating with the others. Raphael rolled his eyes but the beat was catchy. Tap-tap-bang, tap-tap-bang, tap-tap-BANG. He couldn't help but add his own noise to that could he? Nope. Arista slowly slid her eyes toward Leo. He certainly wouldn't join in on this...She laughed aloud when he grabbed his fork and spoon and joyfully enhanced the cacophony. Pretty soon the entire table except for Master Splinter had caught the dinner tap fever. Hexadecimal was the last to join in, her taps becoming the loudest. Machias was the one who actually started the song but everyone jumped in until the entire turtle part of the family was sending up a terrible racket of untrained voices trying to sing and scream at the same time.
"Here we sit like birds in the wilderness, birds in the wilderness, BIRDS IN THE WILDERNESS, here we sit like birds in the wilderness, waiting to be fed! HummmMMM, HuummMMM!"
Lenni began the second verse with her usual childish enthusiasm. "Here we sit like flies on a trashcan, flies on a trashcan, FLIES ON A TRASHCAN, here we sit like flies on a trash can, waiting to be fed!! HummMMM, HhhuuuMMMM!"
Arista took the third verse by storm. "Here we sit like ants on a picnic table, ants on a picnic table, ANTS ON A PICNIC TABLE, here we sit like ants on a picnic table, waiting to be fed!! HhhuuummMMM!!! HHHuuuMMMMM!!!!"
In the pause after the third verse three counter voices coming from the kitchen began to sing at the same volume. Everyone quieted to hear what they were saying.
"And there you'll sit like birds in the wilderness, flies on a trash can, ALL THA THINGS THAT YOU SAID, and there you'll sit like turtles at the dinner table, waiting to be fed!" On the last part Mikey, Dance, and Daydream appeared at the entrance to the kitchen, Mikey holding the big salad bowl and the other two managing the toppings. They leaned against each other in a dramatic ending. "Waaaiiitttiiiinnngggg tooo beeee-eeeeee FFFEEEEEEEDDDDD!!!!" Mikey went up on a high note while Dance and Day tried to hit the lowest octaves they're feminine voices could manage.
The table erupted into laughter and cheering as the salad was served. The trio seated themselves and quickly delved into their salads.
Meanwhile Donnie cocked an eyebrow across the table at Raph.
"Uh-oh, salad? Since when do we get salad?"
"I don't like salad," Mily piped from beside Donny. She had grabbed her plate off the table as the salad was being passed around. The pink wearing turtle girl was trying desperately to hide it in her lap.
Donatello grinned and gently took it from her. He piled a mountain of the greens up on the plate to Mily's dismay. He chuckled when the twelve-year-old glared at him menacingly.
"It's good for you so I know you'll eat all of it," Donnie said, a certain grin on his face.
Mily returned it with a half-hearted smile and immediately asked Ziptango to pass the croutons and bacon bits.
Donnie then returned to his conversation with Raph. "Probably someone passed the trials," he offered while lavishly pouring oil on the Caesar salad.
"Yeah, but which one?" Raph asked gruffly. He quickly scanned the table.
Machias was a likely candidate but Hex and Arista were just as good. Splinter didn't really give a care to when she finished with the trials, as she was more interested in the history of the ninja than being one. The others were still a year away from even trying so it was definitely a toss-up between Hex, Machias, and Arista.
Don's smile was candid. "I don't really know, but my bet is on Hex." His eyes darted to the turtle girl who was stuffing herself with her favorite salad. "She's been looking wiped out this entire week and you know how the trials are. And the salad is a dead giveaway." He grinned and pushed an olive around on his plate.
Raph grunted and returned to his meal.
Pretty soon everyone was finished and demanding 'real food'.
"Please no more veggies!" Mily exclaimed with hopeful vigor as she crossed her fingers and closed her eyes as the main course was placed on the table. She let out a private cheer when the smell of lasagna tickled her senses. Snapping her eyes open, Mily was met by a strange looking lasagna dish. She flicked her eyes at Hex. "Hey, this isn't lasagna..." she began to complain but Mikey's interjection silenced her.
"Of course it is. It's just not regular lasagna," He smiled at Hex. "It's veggie lasagna."
Hex beamed back at brother in orange. He must have known or he wouldn't have gone through such pains to fix all her favorite dishes.
"Sensei, may I ask why we're having an all vegetarian meal?" Leonardo questioned. Secretly he already knew, but now was as good a time as any to tell the girls.
Lenni forcefully banged her fist on the table. "Yeah!" she exclaimed with energy coming from despising all these vegetables. When everyone's eyes flipped towards her she sunk a little in her seat. "I mean, um, well...not everyone likes veggies as much as Hex!" The youngest turtle gave an accusing glance towards her sister.
Hex grinned in defiance.
Master Splinter smiled at his daughter. He slowly rose from his chair, gaining silence from the green youngsters. "Do you wish for me to inform them or do you want the honor, Hexadecimal?" He asked his daughter. When she shook her head, he continued with the rapt attention of eighteen young turtles. "Your sister, Hexadecimal, has completed the final stage of the trials. She will now be granted access to Above whenever it is appropriate and can do so without an older ninja to accompany her. When she goes farther than the respected limit, Raphael shall be her advisor."
At this Raphael about choked on his soft drink. Punker and Mikey had to whack him hard on the shell a couple of times.
Master Splinter allowed a ghost of a smile to cross his face but nothing more. "She has received a high honor today, a honor that I have no doubt each of you will obtain in due time. I am very proud of her." He looked at each of his pupils in turn. "And that is why we are entertaining a dinner of her favorite foods, Leonardo, Lenore." Master Splinter sat back down.
All heads quickly jerked towards Hex who had begun to stuff her face with a large quantity of lasagna.
"What?" she mumbled through a mouth full of cheese. Laughter broke their silence and congratulations were sent Hex's way. She ignored them in favor of inhaling as much lasagna as she could.
Donnie looked across the table at Raph who was staring at Hex. "Told you," he said smugly.
Raph caught him square in the mouth with a handful of lasagna.
Tyger saw it and immediately screamed as loud as she could, "FOOD FIGHT!!"
The instant she said it, food exploded off plates to find new homes splattered against the wall. A huge glob of it hit Splinter in the mouth; she returned it with a rapid fire of bread sticks. Hex rescued what she could with her plate. Leo tried to restore order but after being pelted with more than his fair shared, he grabbed a pair of extra long breadsticks and began whapping his siblings upside the head with them. Ziptango grabbed the now empty pan and used it as a shield, ducking behind it whenever lasagna flew her way. During the middle of the battle, Daydream scampered off to the kitchen. Mily and Lenni joined with Ella and Tyger to make a group of terror. They whirled around the dinning room with expert skill; anyone in their line of fire was in absolute danger. Mikey finally broke them up by barging into the middle of them and grabbing Lenni and Ella. Mily and Tyger attacked him in revenge. Donnie was using a very reluctant Machias as a mutant shield between him and Raphael who had recruited Punker and Dance to help him. Arista was following Hex's example and eating anything clean that was thrown at her. The two girls grinned at each other across the table.
Master Splinter just sighed at his children's antics. There would be a time for solitude later, he supposed, and they would have to clean it up anyway. He sat there quietly, letting the food fight wind itself down.
Daydream came out of the kitchen to find the dinning room in complete disarray. She cleared her throat for attention.
"Ahem." She beamed as brightly as she could and held out her dessert.
When the noise didn't stop Day screamed as loudly as she could, "HEY!" The racket stopped instantly and so did the motion.
After seeing the veiled dish in her hands the family quickly took their seats.
The little preteen walked straight over to Hex. She set the bowl directly in front of her sister, obviously proud of the dish.
"Alright then." She glanced at the lasagna-assaulted room then looked at her family. The Italian dish had not been wasted on simple eating, definitely not. "This is something new I found on the Internet and it really looked good. Hope ya like it Hex!" Daydream snatched the veil off the bowl.
Hex's eyes about popped out of her head at the look of it.
"I think that's an unhealthy amount of chocolate, Day," Donnie stated with purpose. A grin slowly spread across his face. "And I want an extra large part of it."
Daydream put her hands on her hips. "Of course it's unhealthy, it's called 'Death by Chocolate' for a good reason!" The girl lovingly caressed the glass bowl that held her newest creation.
Leo leaned in for a better look. "What's in it?" he inquired. With good reason too. The clear bowl looked made up of layers and layers of brown all with different textures.
The turtle girl smiled brightly and tapped her chin in thought. "Let's see. Hmm, the bottom layer's crumbled brownie, the next layer's chocolate whipped cream. It was supposed to be regular whipped cream but it's supposed to be Death by Chocolate. How can it be death by chocolate if it isn't entirely chocolate?" Her logic caused a ripple of giggles. "Next layer is crumbled Heath Bar, then another layer of brownie, then chocolate whipped cream, a light sprinkling of Heath Bar for effect and then a chocolate covered strawberry on top!" She beamed at her creation. Strawberry instead of cherry because, of course, I don't like cherries."
"Hex gets first dibs!" Tyger announced.
"Of course," Leo said. He was the official disher-outer of desserts.
Daydream handed him her favorite wooden spoon to use.
Hex gave the strawberry to Mikey since he had been eyeing it from when Daydream had unveiled the chocolaty delight.
By the end of dessert everyone had agreed that this was one of their favorite desserts.
Day looked towards Master Splinter as he finished his portion.
"This was quite well-made, Daydream. I prefer it much over that chocolate pizza you keep insisting on making."
Day blushed. She couldn't help it that t was one of the easiest things to make.
After dinner was finished Master Splinter made everyone clean up the dinning room. When that was done, the turtle family sped off to any means of entertainment they could find.
Tyger bounced off towards the TV to watch whatever she could; the older turtles had the ability to liberate you from the TV at any time by using their powers of blackmail. Mily dragged Mikey off to play the Playstation2 with her. It wasn't long before they were both giving running commentaries of EVERYTHING their character did. Raphiella had basically thrown herself at the novel she was reading; having to eat dinner had taken her away from the savory morsel of fiction for way to long. Daydream went over to the shelf to grab the sewing kit; she had ripped her bandanna during practice and now seemed like a good time to fix it. Feeling a need for some alone time, Danceingfae trotted off towards the dojo to practice. There never seemed to be time for privacy in their household. Lenni and Raphael disappeared into Master Splinter's study to explain themselves for the grim they had tracked in. They stayed in there for some time.
Machias, Splinter, and Ziptango ran off to Donnie's lab to finish the experiment they had been working on before dinner. It had something to do with potatoes and electricity. The last time they had tried it the potato had exploded. Donny darted off after them to make sure they didn't destroy anything. It was getting harder and harder to work in there and he was about to ask Master Splinter for a new lab of his own. Leo, Arista, and Punker set about doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen. Hex confiscated the remote from Tyger but they soon settled on a show they both enjoyed.
A couple hours later certain turtles began to go off to bed. Pretty soon the living room was vacant except for four turtles, three of the girls and Raphael. Splinter had come out of the lab in time to begin her favorite movie; now she was reluctant to leave it only halfway finished. Raph and Arista seemed to be battling each other at who could stay up the longest. Every once in while Raph would yawn and Arista would do all she could not to yawn also. She'd glare at Raphael, blinking her eyes in an effort not to let them droop. Raph's smile was quite smug when the thirteen-year-old leaned against him in drowsiness. Arista snapped to, refusing to fall asleep. Lenni seemed to be up just because it was her contrary nature to defy sleep.
During one of the commercials, Splinter looked down at Lenni from her spot on the couch. Lenni's head was resting against Raphael's knee, her blue and yellow bandanna tails draped across him; it was quite obvious that the turtle in red was trying to keep his position so as not to disturb her or Arista who had now fallen asleep on his shoulder. Splinter almost didn't want to ask but the question had been nagging her for the entire evening.
"Hey Lenni?" she mumbled at her littlest sister.
Lenni rolled her head towards Splinter. Her eyelids were drooping, sure sign that the girl was about to fall asleep. Her sugar high had worn off hours ago but she was still clinging to the last remains of it.
"What?" Her voice was full of complaint at being disturbed.
Splinter grinned. "Where'd you an' Raph go to get so dirty this afternoon?" she inquired.
Lenni shrugged sleepily. "Just for a walk. He tripped me and I fell so I pulled him down with me," she mumbled.
Raph swayed his leg, moving Lenni's headrest. Lenni moved with him. "I didn't trip ya, Runt, you fell," he corrected gruffly before returning his knee and Lenni's head back to there original position.
Lenni thudded her fist down on his foot. "Ya did to trip me. I know ya did," she accused softly before curling up on the floor in front of the couch.
Raph gently placed a foot on her shell to see if she was awake. When Lenni didn't move he smiled.
"Little know-it-all sleeps like a rock," he mumbled.
Arista moved against him. "Rocks don't sleep, half-wit." She said into his shoulder.
Raph snorted then carefully pushed her until she was lying against the armrest of the couch.
Raphael rose and picked up Lenni. Yawning quietly, he pulled Arista to her feet and gently prodded her in the direction of her room. She shuffled off that way her head resting against her plastron. After laying Lenni down in the room she still shared with Mily, the turtle in red silently went back for Splinter. The turtle girl was now asleep, her ragged rustic brown bandanna tails falling across her face along with her hair. He pushed the bandanna and light brown locks away from the girl's face.
Raph smiled, knowing that no one could see how much he loved his little sister. He carefully picked her up and carried her to her room.
A.N.: Well...whatcha think? Plz R&R! I'll be sure to tell Daydream what y'all said! Promise.