Shooting Falling Stars
火花のメドレー。 誰かはDonnyおよびYoshiを救わなければならない!
Yoshi's Tale, Part 1
~*~*~
Salut, my friends! *Huggles.* I certainly hope you are all doing well. Forgive me for taking so long to update....have been busy attempting to juggle. Heh. By the anyhoo, I hope you all have a very happy Easter.
Hmm.....I have not yet written a turtle tot misadventure in Easter.....*Starts to giggle maniacally.* Ah, what can I say? I just can never get enough of these adorable little guys.
Right now, Don is in a bit of a tight spot, but don't worry. This actually happened to me and my sister once....(In an elevator at the library.) Of course, we got out a...slightly different way then these two amigos did, but I doubt we would have been able to reach the ventilation systems. (I was four, Ariel was seven.) ^^
To all my reviewers-thank you. *Huggles.* And I hope you are all doing well.
Please, take care, everyone.
~*~
Quote:
"Now I have finished my business And the Heavens have exploded ~*~ If Donny ever got out of this one, the turtle was fairly certain that he would soon be in need of intense group therapy.
And am free to love:
And the Morning Star's Song
Has come to me with a Joy
That had always been concealed
Within my chest,
Into Singing
And the weeping
Of the morning dew."
Yoshi swallowed, and stumbled back, glasses falling onto the ground with a slight thud, a small, lightning like crack splitting itself over one of the lenses. But the boy was too panicked to notice as he uncertainly dragged Donny into a corner as the thunks and growls continued somewhere in the distance:
"Yoshi? Yoshi! YOSHI! You alright, little buddy? Everything okay?"
The young boy swallowed, mouth extremely dry as the lights continuously flickered on and off, occasionally making an angry, electrical buzz, like that of a disturbed wasp's nest would emmanate.
Alex cussed, and then-the thuds on the elevator door discontinued suddenly. But now, the two bewildered boys could hear the nurse muttering to himself.
"I KNEW this cable was still unsteady after that last bout..." he muttered, drawing a hand to his brow and commeced burying his face within it before removing the appendage with a groan, and anxiously began tapping at the elevator doors once again.
"Yosh, you can still hear me, right?"
In the darkness, Yoshi cast Don an uncertain glance before uneasily sidling over to the door, and began to faintly tap in response.
"Y-yeah. What's happened? Is this place busted or somethin'?"
A soft sigh answered in response.
"You could say that. Looks like the cable's jammed again...so it might get a bit wonky with your lighting, too. I TOLD those morons at maintenance this place was still a bit unstable, but nooooooo, THEY happened to have some stupid degree to flash in my face after-"
"Um," interrupted Yoshi nervously, as Don began to blindly feel about himself in the darkness, tri-fingered hand brushing against the wall ever so slightly.
"A-Alex? H-How long d'you suppose we'll be in here....?"
There was a surprised pause.
"'We?'"
After Don shot Yoshi a worried glance, the Japanese boy backtracked almost immediately.
"I meant me. I guess that seeing as I'm the only one in here, that makes me a me, and not a we."
The boy chuckled nervously as Alex sighed in response. The little professor raised an eyebrow at that as he continued to thoughtfully finger the panaling.
Wow.
He was worse then Donny when it came to deception. But the turtle could hardly focus on that right now.
Don uncertainly glanced up at the lighting panal as Yoshi continued his frantic attempt to restart the elevator by pressing the buttons repeatably as Alex began to speak again, this time, attempting to sound soothing.
"....hookay, kiddo, just remember. There's no "I" in team."
He paused for a second.
"Weeellll, technically, there IS a 'Me' in team....but that's beside the point, little guy." He leaned back with a sigh, shaking his head ever so slightly.
"If wishes were candy, then we'd all be buried under a good 600 hundred metric tons of Charleston Chews by now. I'm sorry, little guy-but I gotta call maintenance and the electric company to see if they can't restore the power circulation in the wireless. Otherwise, for now...."
Yoshi abruptly turned pale, and began to hammer his fists on the door again.
"No! Alex, y-you're not going to leave me in here, are you?"
Yoshi sounded truly frightened by this point, and Donatello blindly sideled over to Yoshi to give him a light hug as Alex exhaled once again.
"S' okay, little guy, s'okay. I'm pretty sure you won't be in here for more then a few minutes. Just sit tight for a moment while I get the staff-and a few Emergency numbers. I'll call your Hotel as well-maybe your Mother got delayed by the snowstorm. She might still be there-or perhaps they can catch her before she leaves."
In the silence that followed, Don curiously turned to face Yoshi once again, his expression mutinous as Alex began to tap on the door again.
"If I had to guess, you guys are stuck between floors as of right now. Just hang on-the power might start again by itself. But in the meantime, I'll run and get Jasmine-see if she can do anything."
Another tap to the door.
"Just be patient, kiddo. Everything's going to be alright."
And with yet another tap, the man began to walk away, squeaky shoes making an odd, wet, rubbery sound against the shined-slippery floors, leaving the two boys alone in the dark.
~*~*~*~
Yoshi anxiously twitched in the dark, found Don's hand, and squeezed it tightly as the surprised turtle began to pat the boy's shoulder for a minute or two.
"Yoshi...are you gonna be okay?"
The boy nodded, remembered that Don could not see it, and sighed, with a brief affirmative of "yes." The puple-clad turtle smiled lightly, but said nothing for a moment or so, squinting about at his surroundings before sinking down to his knees, and patted the ground beside him.
"Well...we don't have much else to do while they call maintenance, so...." He shrugged helplessly.
"What do you feel like doing?"
Yoshi cast him a surprised glance inbetween the still blinking, fluorescent bulbs overhead, but said nothing as Don sheepishly put a hand behind his head.
"Uh...sorry," he muttered, awkwardly rocking back and forth against the wall. "It's just that my brothers and me got stuck behind this landslide once in the se-our home," he quickly ammended, when Yoshi cast him a curious glance again. "Splinter just told us to sing songs while we tried to dig our way out." He shrugged once again. "It passed the time."
Yoshi managed a small smile.
"Splinter....he's the...guy who's a ra..your dad, right?" He ammended quickly. He certainly didn't want to offend his new friend.
Don and his big, fat mouth. The turtle paused, then nodded quickly as Yoshi sank down beside him.
"Y-yeah. It took us all afternoon to get out of that mess. There weren't any tunnels around we could use for a shortcut, so we had to push our way out. My brother Mikey didn't mind though-digging through debris as long as no one actually tells him it's WORK is as good as gold to him."
Don laughed, sounding wistful.
"Mikey sometimes can't tell the differene-goofbrain that he is. He and Raph kinda ended up getting into a mudfight after awhile, but we managed to dig an opening through the top we could all squeeze through, anyhoo." He made a face.
"Splinter made us all take a bath after that one, so it wasn't as much fun as I'd thought it would be, though."
Yoshi listened patiently, resting his chin on his crossed arms. After a minute or two of contemplation, he picked up his glasses-sighed at the new crack in them-and began to fussily adjust the oversized lens once again.
"Four brothers. Wow. I bet THAT never gets boring."
Don just shrugged, eyes on the carpeted ground.
"....it doesn't. Not really. But I sometimes wonder what it'd be like to be an only turtle-and not have to share everything I own."
He shook his head lightly.
"But then again, I'd only have my Dad to talk or play with, and while he's not bad, I think I'd get lonely pretty easily. And sharing ideas-or what I want to do, or scheme, or a new model car I've made..."
His fingers twitched convulsively.
"There is anything in the world I wouldn't want to share with my bros, once I think about it," he concluded thoughtfully, peering up at the buzzing light bulbs once again.
He sighed.
"Well...I guess I wouldn't want them stuck in an elevator with me...but it beats being alone." He cast a small smile at Yoshi, who reciprocated in turn. Don turned his gaze back to the elevator doors before shrugging.
"I guess some days are just differen' then others, you know? Splinter says you jus' can't miss what you never had, but I'm not too sure that's true. I need my brothers. I couldn't lose just one and decide that I'm okay. It just doesn't work like that."
Don fidgeted, now becoming a bit shy. But Yoshi was quite the easy child to talk to...
"My Dad says the grass always looks greener on the other side. But I guess it depends for everybody else. If you decide your own grass is nice enough, then you're REALLY someone lucky."
He sighed, and lightly began to twitch as Yoshi leaned back on thin arms, staring at the ceiling.
For a moment or two, the boys enjoyed a soft, companiable silence before Donatello broke it once again.
"Say, what about you, Yoshi?" he wondered aloud, turning his head in the shadows to face the boy still sitting in the darkness beside him.
"There are a lot of other kids here-do you like hanging out with them? Like...with Leah? Or Monica?"
Yoshi's expression hardened. Don startled back, anxious brown eyes wide.
"I-I...."
The turtle uncertainly faltered for an uncertain moment.
"I'm...ah...sorry," he commented quickly, tri-fingered hands interconnected with each other.
"Didn't mean to...er....pry or anything..."
Yoshi quickly shot his head at the young scientist's uncertain interjection.
"No, no," he commented quietly, ink black eyes flickering slightly.
"Leah's okay. Not my age-and all she ever wants to do is have tea parties with my action figures, but nice enough."
Donatello blinked.
"Then what about that one girl, Monica? She's pretty."
Yoshi went scarlet, but only began to wring his own hands as Donatello continued to stare at him curiously.
"Actually-I am a bit curious about her. She didn't seem like much of a talker to me."
Yoshi almost managed a halfhearted smile at that.
"That's cuz' she isn't. Not really. But then again, I guess it's safe to say that Moni is a different type of sick...if you get my drift."
He swallowed.
"She won't be here for too much longer. Her parents dropped her off here on her eleventh birthday. And, uh...."
Don only managed a small nod. The two were trapped in silence once again before the small turtle decided to meekly speak once again.
"Well....do you have any brothers?"
The boy paused for a moment.
"...no. I have one sister. Momo." Yoshi smiled absentmindedly at the word.
"She's nice, and kinda follows Mama around like a little duck. She doesn't talk too much, though-so she's not as annoying as some little sisters can get, I guess."
He pondered for a moment.
"Well...I spose' that applies to any sibling, I guess. Momo is four. I don't see her too often-pardoning visiting hours when Mama is done with her work shift. And, even then, she's mostly asleep by then. Mama just carries her in, because her work schedule doesn't let out until seven on the weekdays-six on weekends. It kinda varies with the holidays-but Mama only gets Christmas and Easter officially off for the whole day. Our hotel kinda uses it's reputation for "Excellent service, twenty four/seven. So she doesn't get off too often."
Yoshi paused for a moment-as if he'd said more then he would have liked to. With a slight shrug, the boy went on:
"Mama, Momo, and I live in a hotel a few miles South of the hospital. After I was...diagnosed with leukemia four Summers ago, Mama kinda moved us to the city so that she could be closer to visit now and again. We used to rent out a friend's basement, but the only hospital that would accept children without health insurance was in the heart of the Big Apple, so Mama got a job at a nearby hotel as a maid. It doesn't pay too much, but we get a discount out of a room we all share, so it's not bad."
Yoshi shifted uncomfortably in the darkness, noting that Don was still watching him.
"Sorry," the abashed boy muttered, now staring at his feet in the sudden quiet. "I....it's a bit boring, so there's really nothing more to tell...."
"No, no," interrupted Don quickly, who had been listening raptly to the boy just minutes before.
"I..like to hear you talk. Really," he said hurriedly, when Yoshi cast him an incredulous glance.
"There's really nothing much to say about my life-nothing too interesting, anyways. Your story is something else."
Yoshi scoffed lightly.
"You live underneath the sewers-as a giant, talking turtle-with a giant, talking rat and three turtles just like you. You call that DULL?"
Don frowned.
"Hey...nothin' on the "just like you" part. No turtle profiling, please. I don't want to be counted as a part of a group-just as an individual."
To be quite honest, Don had heard that from one of Master Splinter's evening soap operas, but it sounded like something good.
Yoshi managed an awkward grin.
"Sorry. My bad. Look, if you tell me more about you, I'll...tell you more about me. Capiche?"
Don just smiled.
"You first, then. You said you were diagnosed with leukemia...four summers ago? I don't understand. When I get sick-it usually only lasts for a few days or so. How come you're back here-if you were diagnosed four years ago? You haven't...been here for all this time, have you...?"
Yoshi's smile faded slightly as he lay down on the floor, sighing slightly.
"Look...uh...."
He swallowed again.
"I..don't want to stop...and, if I do, I don't want to start again. Just...make yourself comfortable, okay?"
Don murmured an affirmative, and lay down on the floor, chin in hands. Yoshi managed another small attempt at a smile.
"....kay. Here goes.
My grandmother came to America from Japan twenty-six years ago. She left her husband-Ikao Tsujji-behind, mainly because he was a...."
He faltered for a moment.
"...well, my grandmother decided she wouldn't stay with him anymore after the...second time it happened. So, she up and left for the US while she was still pregnant with my Mom, paid the first six months worth of rent for a small apartment downtown, and, got a job as a translator, because Grandmama could speak reasonable Japanese, Korean, and English pretty nicely. She was actually working to get a loan once she could find someone to take care of my mother when she was born so that she could start school, and get her degree in teaching Foreign Language. "
Yoshi's eyes flickered.
"But that never happened. Grandmama had Mom, but things...hadn't gone so well during her pregnancy, and Mama was born premature. Grandmama was also...not doing very well, and she made the doctors save Mama instead of her, which they don't normally do."
Yoshi's eyes flickered behind the lenses.
"She had a few blood transfusions, but she'd already been bleeding internally, and, well...."
Yoshi shrugged helplessly.
"Grandmama died the next morning, and the hospital faculty decided to put Mama in a Foster Care system. She looked a bit funny-her father technically left a few....defects behind, and, uh...people are g-generally more interested in-"
Yoshi cleared his throat after turning a bright red.
"Time passed. But no one applied to adopt Sayuri-my Mother. And, for the next twelve years, Mama was shifted around, to family to family to family. The agency shifted her around to a bunch of towns, and I guess the one she'd been 'assigned' to when she was thirteen didn't work with her. Her Foster Dad was an alcoholic, and, uh...
......"
Don squeezed his shoulder as Yoshi continued.
"She just decided to run off. Just like that. Her Foster Dad called the police to scope out the surrounding area for her, but Mama says she just ducked behind a fence and hid in some stranger's garden till they went away. Then, a lady from the house came out to pick a few tomatoes...and she found Mama."
The boy started violently.
"I-I'm sorry, Donny," he said shakily, managing a sheepish grin as Donny cast a confused glance at him.
"Technically, this is Mama's story, so, if you just want me to talk about my diagnosis, or if you just want me to shut up, I promise I won't get ma-"
"No, no! Please, go on."
Don gestured helplessly at the lights.
"It's not like we're going anywhere anytime soon."
Yoshi shrugged, and grinned.
"Fair point. Anyhoo, Mama tried to make a run for it-and thought it'd be easy enough. A thirteen year old verses someone in their late fifties? Well, Mrs. Hechtmann-that was the lady's name, gave Mama a run for her mone-"
"What? What is this?"
Yoshi froze as an angry woman's voice echoed somewhere overhead. Don had to resist a groan.
Whatever higher forces of the universe there were were certainly out to kill him tonight....
Previous discussion all but forgotten, Yoshi crawled over to the middle of the elevator, looking (Although Donatello could hardly see it) thunderstruck.
"M-Mama?"
Don cast his new friend a startled glance as Alex's voice reverberated from the same level.
"Yes, yes. I'm sorry, but we're afraid he's still stuck between floors, at the moment."
A faint, swishing sound.
"Then what in the world are you waiting for? GET HIM OUT OF THERE!"
The sound of a disgruntled groan being released.
"I can't help it! Neither can the maintenance staff, ma'am, for heaven's sake, it's Christmas Eve-"
A stamping sound.
"Do you think the doctors here are taking the night off?" The woman demanded, now more then definitely sounding put-out by this point.
"Or the policemen? Or a Firefighter?"
She grumbled under her breath in Yiddish for a second or two before anxiously approaching the door.
"Yoshi-Yoshi, sweetheart-can you hear me?"
The boy reached for Donatello's hand in the darkness, still squinting at the door.
"M-Mom? Yeah. I-I'm here."
~*~
A sigh of relief. Then, a little girl's voice broke into the scene as Don uncertainly settled back onto the wheelchair, not at all certain of what was to happen next:
"Mama? Mama, are they going to axe down the door?"
Alex huffed.
"Well, I certainly hope not, for that would certainly prove-"
Something flashed out of his range of vision. The man continued to speak, only pausing after a minute or two of an odd, prickling sensation beginning to develop from the back of his neck.
The man turned around. The Japanese woman in front of him still peering anxiously at the elevator doors took no notice however, as the curious crowd behind them began to murmur.
A young boy with dark skin and a missing left arm tugged at the woman-still clutching a sleepy little girl in her arms-'s sleeve.
"Evenin, Mrs. K. Izzit true that Yoshi and that weird looking toy are still stuck in the elevator?"
A teenage girl behind them merely rolled her eyes.
"Why is it that all of the fun stuff happens to Yoshi?"
The little boy scowled.
"Oh, yeah-stuck in an elevator with you. Like you're a joy to be around, Els-"
Beep.
Everyone froze at the odd sound making its piercing shriek from behind the elevator metal.
Beep.
Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep!