A/N:: I really think people give Splinter a bit too much of a short shrift... Firstly, HE's A RAT. No matter how well socialized he is, he is dealing with 4 children who wish to have a bonding experience that Splinter himself never actually had. Rat daddies are likely to EAT the offspring if wishing to get extra nookie or have more space in their living quarters. I quite think he spent time realizing just the depth of NEED from the children and tried to supply what he could in way of parenting. Yoshi Hamato was not a father to any human children before his death. Perhaps Splinter would do better and be a little less awkward in the role if he had been exposed to proper examples of fatherhood prior to rescuing 4 mutating turtles.
Warnings: Reveals the origin of the Turtles' bandana colors. 2K3 Season 5
Social Roles: Father figure with Argumentative boys (and please tell me if I've nailed it or blown it any- I try to keep the characters true. Play comment fairy please- it's feeds my muse.)
Word Count:: 2,101 (Wow, It's only a drabble that mutated to 3x the size it was supposed to be, sigh. Has a follow up as well. Because the blankie would not shut up. Blankie of Contention[BoC] will even get it's own origin story and where it fits in the guys lives post- mouser attacks later. Tell me if you want those stories! The Quote book calendar will usually join the BoC.)
"This too shall pass"
-King Solomon
Splinter contemplated the saying from the small book of daily quotes he kept as a calendar. Perhaps this book had been tossed down the storm drain on purpose, as it seemed to be particularly prophetic. Sounds of the argument he was endeavoring to ignore warned him in time and his hand whipped out and rescued a fresh cup of tea before a rolling mass of not just two but three of his sons came past.
Perhaps he should not have let the Ancient One gift his sons' the ninja masks. They did not remember the gifting, of course, but they had truly earned the gifts so he could not bear to deny them the brightly colored masks. The unexpected result of the colors they represented had resulted in all property within the lair being segregated by color. He had endured the first two days of bickering and desperately mediated arguments until he realized that his sons were not interested in listening to reason at their young age. The next three days he assigned writing prompts and desperately searched dumpsters for easy to utilize dyes. An expired bottle of grape juice had been eagerly utilized by his darling Donatello. The red punch of mystery origin had resolved the fight over Raphael's soft car toy. Finding blue items was much easier than finding something that stained blue and Leonardo had a favorite blanket that was of a red fiber that had faded to orange from washings. This gave his brother Michelangelo a reason to claim the beloved item. Raphael alternated which brother he defended in the escalating battles. It was beyond time to intervene in a definitive manner.
"My sons!" Splinter was pleased to see his bickering children freeze in the midst of the heated tussle. He plucked the mostly intact object of contention from their hands. "Perhaps it would be best if you allow me to present a compromise. I will ask you one question each and your answers will dictate my decision." Three heads stared back in anxious anticipation. The eyes behind blue seemed fearful. The eyes behind orange seemed eager. The eyes behind red seemed resigned. Feeling another pair of eyes, Splinter turned and saw the eyes behind the purple mask held only hope and faith that he would make this too right. And so it would be. Stilling his mind, he gathered his children in front of him. The book of quotes came to the forefront of his thoughts.
"Michelangelo, can you explain to me beyond the color of the item why you desire this blanket?" Splinter lay the item out in front of his sons, noticing that he could easily spread it to be within reach of all four of the turtles. It was most likely one of the largest blankets they owned. "Uh, it's soft," large blue eyes looked up to him and a finger came up to scratch the side of the orange mask. Splinter nodded encouragingly and the boy touched the blanket before him. "It's strong and warm and really thick!" Michelangelo's hands tugged the fabric between his hands and squeezed it once or twice before patting the blanket gently back into place just beyond his knees. Splinter smiled and turned his attention to the next turtle.
"Raphael, do you think your brothers would stop arguing about this matter permanently if they both had a blanket of this quality?" The eyes of the boy being questioned widened and the white showed his startlement to be involved in the discussion at all. "M-Master Splinter, we all used ta sleep under it together. We just don't fit anymore." Raphael bowed his head and patted the well-loved item before him. The rat realized he had not recognized the deeper significance of the blanket. This would explain what fueled the ongoing battles over it. He had simply not recognized it as it had shrunk and become stained and pale from its abuse in the sewers.
"Donatello, you have observed your brothers sleeping with blankets. Have you not?" The child in question nodded solemnly. "Please describe their mannerisms and behavior under covering." The purple masked turtle squinted his eyes in effort then hesitantly began the descriptions his observant mind had brought forth. "Mikey sleeps with a blanket over his shell and has to tuck his legs under it or he moves until he's in a ball and is completely covered. He needs a blanket that is long enough to reach from his neck to legs." Splinter had noted this but held back a smile as the brother specified blushed and ducked his head. "Raphie never seems to care about covers. They get kicked off and beaten up but in the middle of it all, he still has to hold a corner with one hand. His hand goes searching for it if it gets tugged away," Donatello was unaware of the fierce glare directed at him from his passionate brother as he warmed to his topic. "And Leo doesn't really want to be cold as he's falling asleep but he doesn't try to stay under covers once he is asleep. But, he keeps his arms covered," Donatello seemed to be most effective in explaining this detail by the use of his hands dancing over his arms and across the back of the neck. "I've found him asleep with a scrap of a blanket just bunched up across his arms behind his head with the ends of the blanket tucked in his folded arms where his hands can pull at them. He always has a fist with the blanket covering it planted just under his chin," the boy folded a hand in under his chin in illustration with the back of his hand getting stroked by his head in clear mimicry of a self-comforting gesture Splinter had observed in Leonardo as he slept.
"And yourself? Are you aware of how you sleep most comfortably," Splinter's prompting brought the child out of his memories and back to contemplating the contested item with a look of deep consideration upon his face. "I think," here his most intelligent son swallowed before continuing," I think I don't care much about covers either. I need pillows! I just like to have a hand on my chest- right here." The boy's hand lands on the line between upper chest and his middle plates right dead center before continuing. "But, if I poked my fingers tinkering that day I like to have something between my sore fingers and the lines on my chest." The rat realized he needed to find out some more anatomically appropriate terms for the parts of his adoptive turtles and filed the mental note away for consideration later. Finally, he turned to the boy who had the most to lose in this discussion. Leonardo already had a hand under his chin, using it to rub the knuckles absently back and forth.
"Leonardo, would you be willing to share this blanket with your brothers? It is actually quite large and could be divided up between all of you easily." Splinter observed the boy calmly with no intent to influence his decision and trying to make his furry features express his support. Still, the child seemed to sink into himself and forced himself to release his grasp of the blanket where it lay closest to him. "There is a lot of the blanket that might not do so well. It has a few holes already. I don't really want the parts with holes," Leonardo's voice was wistful and had a note of grieving as if he could already envision the eventual disintegration of the blanket before him. Splinter carefully gathered up the blanket before him and spread it out fully across the floor of the lair.
"Perhaps it is best if I examine the situation fully before making my decision," He gestured the children forward and saw how they all pined for the blanket before them. "My sons, I am sorry but it is true that we always will be limited in resources. Many families find it thus," at this point the rat turned and fetched a pair of scissors from a drawer. He made a great show of examining the blanket before him. One edge was slightly moth-eaten and grey but had a sturdy line of stitching intact. The bottom corner of that edge did indeed contain a hole and was discolored with dark mold stains from when it was first rescued. The top edge seemed to have fared best and still retained much of the original red coloring.
"But, you also must remember that as brothers you must share in such a way that each of your different needs is met. Portions need not be identical to truly allow you to best share what we have." Placing the children around the blanket, he had them hold it up so he could easily begin his cuts with straight lines. He passed Donatello holding the discolored corner with a decent margin leftover but still not near the midline of the blanket. He continued his clipping as he approached Leonardo who held the blanket with outstretched arms so he held both corner and the middle of the moth eaten side. The feathering on the edge of the blanket was well contained beyond the thick stitching and would not threaten the integrity of the fabric further. He turned giving the top edge in Raphael's hands a wider portion than his cuts up the long side. He then turned to Michelangelo who suddenly had the largest share of the blanket in front of him. The section had a repair in it in yellow thread and as he could see that while the blanket's edge was clutched up to his son's neck, it still managed to drop upon his toes and gather a bit upon the floor. There was a distinct look of fear in the blue eyes that were darting between the disgruntled looks of his brothers.
"You will all be released to put away your treasures in a moment and at the same time. For now, stay where you are," Splinter said dryly before turning to the vaguely 'L'-shaped piece his remaining sons still held. He moved close to Donatello and estimated the size of the edge then cut an even square of fabric off the long edge that he still held. That darkened piece covered the little turtles chest and a bit of his upper arms down to his elbows. Splinter turned the scissors on the side of the blanket held by Raphael and left him holding a thick piece that was narrow and long and only covered the sensitive plates upon the front of his body. "Know that by fitting yourselves to the needs and strengths of your brothers you retain a sense of completeness and family my wisdom can never replace," he nodded in a manner he hoped seemed fatherly to each of his children. Leonardo's piece was already flipped up behind him and the boy gathered thick bunches in his hands as he pulled the section tight across his shoulders when the rat turned to him. "Leonardo, you may retrieve the blue blankets drying in the sun out that door. The rest of you may now see what you can do to ensure your claim on the remnants in your hold. Do NOT trouble me again over this fixation with color. I expect you to have this resolved by the end of this next weekend between yourselves without my further intervention." He felt pride at their acquiescence to his demands.
On Splinter's next trip to the surface, he found a pack of powder drink packets dripping with spaghetti sauce. He ended up with an additional bag of trash piled on top of him as he searched the dumpster for each packet of Super Berry Blue and Orntya Orange, he also snagged a few packets of Power Red after discovering his fur stained red when he passed a torn packet. He found a pair of sun-paled purple pillows that he had seen in the store's display shortly before he took his children to Japan in the bag that had been casually deposited upon him. He took several others in tan, black and grey for his own use as well. The very next morning, his tea moistened fingers left a red mark in the bedraggled quote book as he turned the page. The stains to his pelt actually remained long after his sons had amicably settled the distribution of items within the lair. Life in the sewers settled into a comfortable rhythm again.
The follow-up of this story is the drabble length:: Where Mikey Sleeps.
Okay, no one has even referred to how Splinter took a page from King Solomon's most famous story. That he offered to divide a baby in half in order to determine the real mother from two who gave birth in the same room. The lying woman said fine split it for her real child was dead and the selfless real mother would rather see her child live in the arms of another. The selfish one was imprisoned while the true mother got to keep what she most desired; the life of her child.
In this story, the tots only want to keep a little of their childhood comfort, and really in a true family, isn't there enough comfort for all? I welcome all who comment into my turtle family because unless you introduce yourselves I will never know what to call you!