Hey everyone, I have once again found an old writing piece on my external hard drive so I thought I would post it and delete a bunch of these other old stories that are lame.
Well, I don't TMNT. But I DO have ICE CREAM!
Swift currents of sharp objects swerving through the air brought a sense of peace to Leonardo as he switched from one position to another. When the familiar blend of movements was completed the blue clad turtle came to a rest at the position that had been the beginning of the kata.
"Excellent as always Leonardo," Splinter said, looking at his eldest son with a strange emotion that Leo interpreted as annoyance.
"Did I, do something wrong Master Splinter?" Leo asked, letting a frown cover his fallen face.
Splinter was shocked for a moment before an amused smile came over his face and he waved his hand dismissively, "No, not at all my son. It is simply that if you keep surprising me with these advanced movements and exceeding coverage of the astral plane then I am going to run out of adjectives to congratulate you with."
"Oh," Leo breathed with a sigh of relief, "I thought I had done the wrong kata or something."
"You are exceeding rapidly my son."
The blue masked turtle bowed to his father. The elderly rat return the bow and then turned to the doorway, "Now I must be on my way."
"But sensei, I normally train two hours, not one," Leo protested.
"I would advise you to take this time to relax, but I know you too well," Splinter said with an amused smile, "No overexerting yourself this weekend while I am off visiting the Daimyo."
"Yes Master Splinter," Leo said with another bow before following his father out of the room.
Once outside, the elderly rat picked up a small brown bag and a piece of chalk. Leonardo momentarily glanced over at where his brothers had previously been playing a video game. They had paused it to stare up at the elderly rat as he headed for the door.
"Have a nice trip sensei!" Don said.
Splinter turned slightly back to his sons and bowed his head, "Enjoy your weekend my sons. You are in charge Leonardo."
The three younger turtles all rolled their eyes as the door closed behind their father.
Raph scoffed silently while thinking, "He doesn't need to say it every time, he always leaves Fearless in charge."
"Like that's anything new," Donatello thought glancing over at his blue banded older brother.
Mikey simply shrugged and turned back to his video game but unable to pause it since Don had chosen to pause.
Leonardo himself had redrawn his katanas and continued on with the next set of katas he had wanted to present to his master. Don rolled his eyes and turned back to the video game, un-pausing it so he and Mikey could get back to their race. Raph let his eyes linger on Leo for a few extra seconds before he scoffed again and turned back to the multiple TV screens in their living room with a huff.
While turned away, the hothead muttered under his breath, "Teacher's pet, gotta be Mr. Perfect."
Leo, being an excellent ninja, heard the muttered words clearly and stopped his movements before he sheathed his swords, turned to stare up at the doorway to his room on the second floor and then leapt to it. In seconds, he disappeared inside his sanctuary.
"Way to go Raph," Mikey said with a glare,
"What? I didn't do anything?" Raph protested.
Don joined Mikey in glaring at their older, red masked brother, "You can be such a jerk sometimes Raphael."
"What! I didn't do anything!" Raph protested again in a higher voice.
Donny sighed and Mikey rolled his eyes as they tried to reroute their focus to their racing game.
"Impudent jerk," Donatello muttered.
"You got something to say to me Don?"
"Yeah Raph," Mikey piped up, "You're a jerk."
"I didn't do anything!" the red clad turtle protested for a third time, his voice higher than before.
The younger turtles shook their heads in unison before deciding to ignore their hothead brother.
Upstairs, many people would be incorrect to think that the blue clad leader was sitting in a deep pool of depression or cursing his own name to the high heavens. No, he was simply curious.
"Perfect," Leo mumbled, glancing around his room and noticing that a lone book on one of his bookshelves was leaning slightly to the right. He walked over and straitened it again before turning his mind to the problem he found that he suddenly had.
"Perfect. Perfection," he thought, "That makes me a perfectionist right?"
Ok, he had heard that word from Raphael many times in his life but something in his mind was making him begin to truly analyze it.
"So what's perfection to a perfectionist? If I truly am one doesn't that mean I don't need to be perfect at all? And why am I to begin with?"
Leo sighed and pulled out his meditation mat, before getting and lighting two candles to place in front of the mat. He studied his room once more and sat down to begin meditation. He had to go over this.
Because of the flying debates in his head, he found that it took an abnormal half an hour to even out his breathing, sense life forces surrounding him and come to a peaceful state in his mind. He wasn't exactly sure why he was doing this, but he didn't like unanswered questions.
Did he truly strive for perfection?
The blue clad turtle thought through the katas he had learned, the one he had recently preformed for his sensei coming to his mind at first. He couldn't say he was perfecting the move he was just trying to get it right. That was truly it when he practiced a kata.
Get it right.
No, perfection wasn't on his mind at such highlights of his training.
"Truthfully, how could I be perfect? I've never called myself that," Leo thought.
Yes, he was self conscious enough to know he was the best at ninjitsu, the best strategist and the best leader on the team. He knew this. So…did such a thing symbolize perfection?
Leo thought back to old television shows he had seen. Those shows about the one girl, who is usually a brunette haired freshman in high school, who thinks she isn't anything to anyone and then at the end, rising to the top and getting some popular guy from the blonde haired, blue eyed, snobby senior cheerleader.
Yeah, those shows were always the same.
"And very annoying," Leo mentally added.
If their lives were some weird, alternate reality, would he be that blonde haired, blue eyed popular teen that appeared to be perfect?
The less popular girls in those always claimed that the popular girl was perfect. So here, Leo found a connection. Perfectionist. Truthfully, the subject was giving him a slight headache as he thought on it more. But now a thought stuck in his head. Ok, people were only perfect when other people called them that and they did that because they couldn't reach the same level.
So truthfully, a perfectionist doesn't strive for perfection, the ones who are envious are the ones striving for perfection.
They're the ones that are perfectionists.
"Dude, I really think you struck a nerve," Mikey said motioning to the quiet room on the second floor.
"For the last time, I didn't do anything!" Raph yelled.
"True, but you know how Leo gets sometimes. He has his doubts," Don said.
"Fearless doesn't have doubts," Raph protested, trying to focus on the racing game he finally got a turn on when Don lost to Mikey.
The purple clad turtle, "You know, for all your disagreements, I still don't understand why you label him as such an invincible superman figure."
"What the shell is that supposed to mean!" Raph yelled.
Don rolled his eyes and got to his feet to make his way to the kitchen, "If you stopped making him look like a superhero then you wouldn't be the powerless villain."
"What is the brainiac talking about?" Raph asked.
Mikey glared at him after he paused the game, "Would you just go apologize to Leo?"
"Fine!" Raphael yelled, letting his controller drop to the floor although he wanted to throw against the wall, but duct tape was barely holding it together as it was.
Leo opened his eyes to the sound of shuffling feet from someone in his doorway. He slowly opened his eyes and recognized the red mask by the light of the candles' flames.
"Yes Raphael?"
"Uh, Leo. Well, you've been up here for two hours and I-um well…what I said earlier I-"
"Huh?" Leo asked, tilting his head to the side curiously, "What are you talking about?"
Raph was surprised that his brother didn't sound angry or upset at all.
"Eh, never mind," the red clad turtle said, turning around and walking back outside the room.
Leo hummed a silent tune as blew out the candles, put them away and rolled up his meditation mat to place back into his closet. He then followed his immediate younger brother outside. Raph was still standing by the doorway, staring down at their younger brothers as they began another game. The blue clad turtle walked up beside Raph and leaned against the wall. It must have been one of those 'perfect' things, perfectionists did because Raph tried to copy the stance. The eldest pretended like he didn't notice.
Then suddenly, a loose piece if the yellow stones that made up their home crumbled to the first floor, making Don and Mikey glance up at the two older turtles. They met Raph's scowl and glared.
Sensing the tension in the air, Leo decided that maybe they had been cooped up for too long, "Hey, who's up for a trip topside? We can go grab some pizza for dinner."
Blinking, shocked stares looked back at him.
An old one. A REALLY old one...
~Moonsetta