Title: "A Father's Nourishment"
Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: G
Summary: It was a long waging war, but Splinter would win the battle this day.
Warnings: Drabble, Turtle Tots
Word Count: 500
Date Written: 4 February, 2012
Challenge: For a TMNT-Tuesdays LJ comm's weekly challenge
Disclaimer: Splinter, all other characters mentioned within, and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are ﾩ & TM their rightful owners, none of whom are the author. Everything else is ﾩ & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Splinter squared his furry shoulders and held his secret weapon high. His whiskers bristled; his long and wiry tail swished beneath his bedraggled robes. He had been fighting a war all week, but today he was finally going to win the upper paw.
Splinter smiled as his opponents swirled around his feet, screaming at the top of tiny, high-pitched voices and reaching for his prize. They followed him all the way to his destination, begging for permission to get the prize.
He laid the treasure down onto their beaten and scuffed table, and they screamed their delight as he opened the box. His tail swished. His own stomach rumbled with painful hunger. The object before them gleamed, and Splinter spoke with a triumphant smile, "Now, my sons, eat your vegetables."
The delicious aroma of melted cheese was almost more than the old rat could bare, but he moved away and let his clamoring and joyously yelling sons eat their fill instead. His ears laid back against his furry head as he watched them gulp down the pizza. It had taken saving all the money he could scavenge from the sewer for a week to be able to buy this one pizza that was barely big enough for his four sons and their growing appetites.
Splinter's tail swished as he sat down in a far chair. He beamed as he watched his sons gobbling down the pizza. The pie was worth every hard earned penny, and what was even better was that he was finally getting some true nourishment down them instead of bits of garbage and greasy hamburgers. It was hard enough making his baby boys eat garbage; he couldn't find it in his heart to force them to eat the wilted cabbage, smelly onions, and rotten tomatoes that they got down here. Splinter cringed as he thought of what his own dinner tonight would entail, but at least, thank the Spirits, his sons would eat well tonight.
"Maser Splinter?"
Splinter looked up into the large eyes of his smartest child. "Yes, Donatello?" His tail swished.
"Please eat with us."
His soft plea brought his brothers' heads jerking up guiltily. "Yes, Sensei," Leonardo agreed, holding up a second slice as Donatello was already offering him a first. "Please eat with us."
"Yeah, Maser," Mikey added as Raphael nodded enthusiastically. "You gotta eat your veggies, too."
"If you don't," Raph said, picking off a pepper, "we don't have to, too."
Splinter beamed. "Very well, my sons," he obliged, accepting Donatello's offer. "I shall eat with you." He limited himself to one piece but vowed that he and his sons would eat well on a regular basis soon. He just never dreamed exactly how much pizza that would entail!
Thus it is that, to this day, every time a slice of oozy, cheesy pizza lands on Splinter's head, he's still happy to have it. Pizza may not be the healthiest nourishment one can get, but for Turtles, it will always be the best!
The End