Belated Christmas
A/N: So here's the first of two Christmas stories that I wanted to get posted. After all, it is the season for them. This little tale will take place after the episode "Within the Woods." I hope that all of you will enjoy this little tale.
Disclaimer: TMNT and all related characters are property of Nickelodeon. I only own the plot and nothing more than that.
Summary: Mikey made a vow not to celebrate Christmas until Leo woke up. Now that Leo has awoken, the Turtles decide to give Leo the Christmas he missed. Takes place after "Within the Woods."
Leo woke up after a nice nap. He'd been taking a lot of naps lately, but that was because he was tired due to his injuries and everything he did left him exhausted. Raph was also awake and seemed to be much better after his ordeal with The Creep.
"Nice to see you awake, bro," Raph said.
"I could say the same to you," Leo answered. "Are you okay?"
"Never better," Raph replied. "How's the knee?"
"It still hurts, but that's to be expected."
"We'd better get downstairs. No need to be in bed all day." Raph helped Leo to his feet and gave his brother the cane Donnie had made for him. Then the two Turtles made their way downstairs where all of the others were watching TV. Mikey's eyes lit up as he spotted his two brothers.
"Glad to see you're awake, bros," he said. "We've been waiting for you."
"Oh?" asked Raph. "And why have you been waiting for us?"
"Because it's time to celebrate Christmas," said Mikey.
"But it's spring, Mikey," protested Leo. "We can't celebrate Christmas now."
"Sure we can, Leo. And you can thank me that we didn't have the big celebration while you were out."
"Mikey wanted to wait until you woke up to celebrate Christmas properly," Don told his brother.
"Yep, and now that you're awake, it's time to get our Christmas on! Of course, we had to eat the ham because we couldn't let that go to waste, but I can make a ham pizza. And I can still make cookies for dessert. Oh, and I can't forget the presents!"
"You guys got me presents?" Leo asked him, his blue eyes wide with shock.
"Well, sure, Leo. You can't have Christmas without presents. We didn't even open ours because I wanted to wait until you woke up. I just felt it would be mean if we did it without you."
Leo was touched by his brother's sincerity and honesty. Normally, Mikey was the type to be so impatient to open up his presents in earlier years, and Splinter often had to reprimand him about how patience was a virtue all ninjas possessed. And now Mikey had been the one to postpone it all because he wanted to wait for Leo to be with them.
"Let's do the presents now," Leo suggested. "I know you've waited for three months, Mikey, and I don't want you to wait another minute."
"Sweet!" Mikey said.
"I'll go get them," April said as she disappeared upstairs. They didn't have to wait long for her to come down with a huge load of packages.
"Man, those look so awesome!" Mikey said as he wriggled with excitement.
"You'll have to wait, Mikey," Donnie warned him. "Leo gets to open his first."
"Hey, I'm all for that, bro, so don't worry," Mikey replied.
"This one's from me," Donnie said as he handed Leo a wrapped package.
Leo opened it and found a book by his favorite swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi. "Wow, Donnie! I can't believe you found this!"
"Well, April found it," Donnie said. "I just figured you'd like it."
"I do, Donnie. Thank you."
"Here's one from Red and me," Casey said, giving Leo a bag.
Leo opened the bag and found a set of Space Heroes comic books. "I don't have any of these," he said. "How did you know I wanted them?"
Casey smirked. "Let's just say a certain Turtle told us." His gaze flickered to Raph as he said it.
"Ah, I see. Well, thanks, guys."
"Here's mine," Mikey said handing Leo a gift.
Leo unwrapped it to find a drawing pad. "Um, this is cool, Mikey, but I don't draw," he said.
"Look inside," Mikey prompted him.
Leo opened it to find a drawing Mikey had made of Leo doing a kata. He flipped through the pad and found other drawings by his little brother of Leo and the rest of the Turtles and their friends. "This is awesome, Mikey," he said. "Thanks." He then turned to Raph and waited expectantly.
"Well, you already have one of my gifts," Raph told him.
"What are you talking about?"
"The swords are from me," Raph answered. "I forged them myself after we got here. I just figured you'd need another pair since your other pair was lost in the attack. But I do have another gift for you." He reached over and handed Leo a package wrapped in Space Heroes wrapping paper.
Leo smiled and unwrapped it to find a Space Heroes journal inside. "This is awesome, Raph," he said. "Thanks, bro." He turned to all of them. "Thanks for all of this. I don't know what to say. I'm just so glad I'm here to share this with you." There were tears falling down his face before he could stop them.
Raph put his arm around his brother and embraced him. "We're glad you're here, too, bro," he said. "It's not the same without you here."
The others came over and embraced Leo, too. He basked in the hug and was happy he was alive to share this moment. He only wished Splinter could be here, but he knew his father was there in spirit and would always be with them.
They parted, and Mikey went to the kitchen and returned with Ice Cream Kitty who gave Leo some Christmas kisses. Leo rubbed her head and scratched her behind the ears, eliciting a happy purr from the cat.
"Merry Christmas to you, too, Ice Cream Kitty," Leo cooed. "You're such a good girl."
She leaned down and even licked Leo's injured knee. "Meow!" she said.
"Aww, that's a good Kitty Kitty Kitty," Mikey cooed as he gave her a hug. "Time to go back in the freezer so you don't melt."
Ice Cream Kitty wasn't too happy about that, but she let Mikey lead her back to her home. Then he got to work making the dinner for all of them.
"Are you okay now, Leo?" Raph asked.
"Yeah I just got emotional thinking about how I almost didn't make it. I can't imagine what would have happened if I didn't come back."
"But you did come back, Leo, and that's all that matters," Raph declared. "Don't dwell on something that didn't happen. Let's just make this a happy time. That's what this holiday is all about after all."
"And here I thought you were going to act like Scrooge," Leo teased his brother.
Raph glared at him. "Hey, I'm not that bad!" he protested.
"Yes you are!" Mikey called from the kitchen. "You always get grumpy at Christmas time. Actually, you're grumpy all of the time."
"Mikey, you better watch out, or I'm gonna come in there and stuff that pizza where the sun don't shine!" Raph threatened.
"Can we please have one Christmas where the two of you aren't at each other's throats?" Don groaned.
Mikey called everyone in for dinner. The pizza was nice and hot and just had ham on it. Mikey figured it would be best not to overdo it since Leo was still recovering and probably still didn't have a big appetite.
The pizza was good, but Leo ate only two pieces of it before declaring himself full. He couldn't even eat any of the cookies Mikey baked, so Mikey made sure to save him some for later.
"Are you feeling okay, Leo?" April asked.
"I'm fine," Leo reassured her. "Just tired, and my stomach's not up for a lot right now."
"Do you feel nauseous?" Don asked.
"A little bit," Leo answered. "I think I need to lie down."
Raph helped Leo upstairs and tucked him into bed. "I hope Donnie didn't give you any more of that medicine of his," he said.
"No, I didn't take any," Leo told him. "I don't know what this is from, but I'll be okay once I rest."
"Okay, take it easy, bro. I'll be downstairs if you need anything."
Leo closed his eyes and hoped that the nausea would go away, but it didn't, and he soon found himself hunched over the wastebasket in their room. Raph heard him and hurried upstairs to check on him.
"Are you okay, Leo?"
"No, I threw up," Leo said. "I guess the pizza was too much for me."
"Just stay there. I'll clean this up."
Leo sighed and lay back down. He was upset that now he was sick from Mikey's dinner. Some Christmas this had turned out to be! He was supposed to be downstairs watching cheesy Christmas movies (Mikey said it wasn't Christmas without cheesy Christmas movies), and here he was getting sick on pizza! Why did this have to happen to him?
"Do you want me to stay with you?" Raph asked him.
"No, I don't want to spoil your fun," said Leo. "Go downstairs and have a good time. I'll just be miserable up here by myself."
"Leo, I'm not gonna let you stay here by yourself while you're sick," protested Raph.
"Just go away, Raph!" snapped Leo. "You don't need to be here with me!" Another wave of nausea hit him, and he threw up again. Raph rubbed his shell soothingly until it was all over. Then he took the wastebasket and emptied it again before washing it out and returning it by Leo's side.
"I don't need to be down there watching movies," Raph said. "I need to be here with you."
The door opened and everyone else came in.
"What are you guys doing here?" Leo demanded.
"We figured it wouldn't be the same without you with us," Mikey answered.
"Well, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not in the mood to go down there and watch TV with you!" Leo grumbled.
"We know, so that's why we came up here," Casey informed him.
"We didn't want you to be alone," April said. "After all, we're celebrating this holiday for you, Leo."
"You guys don't have to be here," said Leo.
"But we want to be here," insisted Don. "You're our brother, Leo. We came here to cheer you up."
"Hey, we haven't even sung any Christmas carols yet," Mikey said.
"Do we have to?" Raph groaned. "That's the one thing I hate about Christmas."
"Of course we do," Mikey said. "I'll start. There was this one carol Sensei used to sing us in Japanese."
"Do you remember it?" April asked him.
Mikey nodded. "Yep. So here it goes." He sang the song in a soft voice, and everyone was enraptured by it. When he came to the chorus, all of the Turtles sang it with him, blending their voices together. When the song was over, Casey and April applauded.
"That was cool, guys," Casey said. "Here's mine." He sang the cruder version of "Joy to the World" about the teacher being dead and how they flushed her down the toilet.
Raph rolled his eyes. "Good one, Jones," he said.
April sang "'Oh Holy Night" in a gentle voice, and Don's eyes became glazed as he listened to her.
"You have the voice of an angel, April," he said dreamily.
"Thanks, Donnie," she said. "Do you have one?"
"As a matter of fact, I do," Don replied. He cleared his throat and sang "The Twelve Days of Christmas" replacing "my true love gave to me" with "my April gave to me" which didn't make Casey Jones very happy as he kept glaring at Donnie.
"Okay, Raph, your turn," Mikey said.
"Nah, I'll pass. You know I don't like that stuff."
"Okay, Leo, it's your turn now."
No answer.
"Leo, are you with us?" Mikey asked.
Still no answer.
Mikey's blue eyes widened. "Oh snap! He died on us!"
Raph smacked Mikey in the head. "He didn't die, you doofus!" he snapped. "He just fell asleep. The poor guy's had a rough day. We'd better let him rest." He got up to leave, but Leo grabbed his hand and wouldn't let go. "Um, I guess I'm gonna stay right here then."
Mikey laughed. "Yeah, I guess you are. Do you think Leo enjoyed what we did for him?"
"I think he did, Mikey. He's just worn out right now. He'll wake up and then we can get back to what we were doing before. Let's all just get some sleep."
Everyone nodded and headed to their respective rooms. Raph lay down beside his brother and began rubbing his forehead the way Splinter used to do whenever any of them were sick or injured. He wasn't sure if Leo would appreciate the gesture, but then a smile graced Leo's face, and Raph was sure Leo was happy. Raph fell asleep and was grateful that his brother was here beside them instead of lying in a bathtub inches from death. Christmas was the time of year when everyone gathered together and spent time with their families. Even though Splinter wasn't there, at least Leo was there, and he would help them get through this like he always did.
"Merry Christmas, Leo," Raph whispered.
"Merry Christmas, Raph," Leo whispered back.
A/N: And that's the end of this little tale. I probably could have made it longer, but it seemed better to end it here. I hope that you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Feel free to leave a review and have a shelltastic day.