I own nothing!

The blade was brought out still in its scabbard and Usagi stared at it. It was long enough. The bear then proudly drew it out of its scabbard. He then tilted its blade to catch the light. It was already polished and beautiful. Usagi had a tone of awe in his voice as he asked, "Who did you make this for?"

The bear swordsmith looked to Lord Noriyuki. "For him."

Usagi's eyes widened as he looked up at the swordsmith. "You …"

The bear nodded, though he looked to the cub as he answered. "Your father, Lord Noriyuki, asked me to make a blade for when you were ready to wield a real one. While I have finished this one, I had not given it to you since you are still young and unable to wield one this long and heavy for now, but another will likely have to be made for you, when you are full grown."

Noriyuki looked to the blade in the swordsmith's hands his own eyes wide, and then back to Usagi. The ronin himself looked away. It would be wrong to ask this of the young daimyo. "It was your father's desire you have it someday, Lord Noriyuki."

Noriyuki frowned. Then he looked back to the swordsmith. "Can you make another out of the steel I brought you for me?"

Usagi spun around wide-eyed speaking before he thought, "Lord Noriyuki!"

The swordsmith answered his daimyo. "I began the sword shortly before your father's death, and he did not come to see me work while he lived as you have now. I continued after his death and your disappearance because I had not the heart to stop the project once I'd begun. Indeed, I imagined at the time it would be bought by another soon after I was through. When you returned, I thought I would continue. Then, after you became old enough to wield it, I was going to send word to the palace of its readiness for you. If a sword was requested for you before then, I could always come forward with it."

Usagi narrowed his eyes trying to keep suspicions at bay that the swords-master was also hedging his bets in case Noriyuki was assassinated before he could wield it. However, he felt less irked the craftsman was so certain if any sought a sword from the daimyo, they would do so from him. Most he'd spoken to had agreed he was the best swordsmith in the area.

Noriyuki spoke head bowed and words slow at first. "I wish to honor my father's wishes, but I also want Usagi to have a gift for his friend a sword worthy of as true and great a warrior as Usagi himself is."

The swordsmith raised his head and sat straight. "My work is indeed worthy of such."

Noriyuki gestured toward the blade. "Plus, the sword might not fit me forever, and I won't be able to wield it for some years yet!" Noriyuki turned his stare to Usagi. "It 'is' already the right length and weight for your friend 'now' is it not?"

Usagi stared unblinking at the young panda. True, he did not think Leonardo would grow much larger if he still was growing. He seemed younger than himself, but not as young as lord Noriyuki. The ronin thought Leonardo unlikely to grow out of this sword just as Noriyuki was quite likely to grow out of it. Pandas tended to grow to about the size of the bear swordsmith himself. Noriyuki was also correct that he had not yet grown "into" this sword either. He'd "love" to give this beautiful blade to his friend who'd invited him to his home in another world after they'd saved both their worlds together and more. Usagi looked away from the young daimyo and sighed. "You make good points, Lord Noriyuki, but I cannot ask you to do this."

He heard the smile in Noriyuki's voice even if he wasn't looking into his face. "You are not asking Usagi. I am simply giving it to you."

. . .

Leo lay in bed thinking of the six haiku he'd managed to get down on a page. He had 26 days and 94 haiku to go. So that came to between three to four to write a day "if" he kept it equal. He thought he should shoot for writing four a day, so he could cut out more bad ones and keep only good ones. Besides, margin was a good thing to keep for really bad days as well. There might be stretches of time it became impossible for him to write haiku. Thankfully, he was getting the hang of it now. He really had Donnie to thank for that. After considering for a moment, Leo decided to go tell him that; he should give him a "Great job, Don!"

Mikey had kinda overwhelmed him, when his brothers first got back from skateboarding. But he had passed Don on his way to the bathroom and then bed. While doing so, he'd turned his head and asked "How did things go?"

Donnie had already been typing something away on his computer staccato style and had just replied with a slight shrug and an, "Eh."

Leo had chuckled at that, faced forward again, and kept walking. He'd decided to leave Don alone with his computer right then. The brainiac got overwhelmed by too much energy from other people especially while doing things he wasn't that interested in with them. He needed time alone, afterward. That had been the gift and thank you Leo had thought best to give him at that point.

Still, everybody deserved a pat on the carapace now and then especially when they did what Don had done for him. Donnie might have gotten enough of a breather in the meantime to appreciate it by now. It might be a nice, brief gesture especially if he also got himself a drink of water as a cover.

Leo got out of bed and began striding out the door he left open every night. While Raph couldn't sleep with his open and letting in all the "moron noise" as he put it, Leo couldn't sleep without hearing at least some of Raph's snoring coming through that door, Mikey's whine coming through the crack left open in his and … well … Leo paused outside Donnie's room. Door open, bed made, room clean, because …

Leo kept walking down the dark hall, peered around the corner into the main lair, and … Light was coming from the lab … He smirked to himself. Uh-huh …

He did a tuck and roll to crouch behind the sofa and then peeked around it. Yep. Tapping, though not as enthusiastically as before, on his keyboard, while glancing up at his screen in between, was Donnie. Leo shook his head while continuing to smirk. Late night again … Later than Master Splinter would like. And again, I've caught you at it …

Donnie looked down from the screen to the keyboard, and, while typing, opened his mouth. "I'll go to bed after checking this algorithm over again, Leo. You got your projects for Christmas. I got mine."

Leo got out of his crouch and stared at his brother in the light not so much shocked Donnie had caught him catching him, that had happened before more than once too, but at his words. "Your writing algorithms right now for a Christmas gift, Don?"

The purple masked turtle nodded. "Extra security for April and Casey. They need it now that they help us so much. I need to complete four set ups, one for April's apartment, one for Casey's, one for 'Second Time Around,' and one for Casey's workplace. All the cameras, alarms, and listening devices that will be a part of those systems will need algorithms to run them all."

Leo stared at his little brother in awe. "Wow, Don. That's … … I mean … That's great! That could really help all of us look out for them both!"

Donnie grinned. "Yeah, I thought so."

Leo looked away. This was suddenly awkward. Donnie interrupted his thoughts. "How's your Christmas gift for Usagi going?"

Leo looked over at him with a slow, small smile still a little strained by awkwardness. "Better. I got six things written down in the journal that technically fit the sound-number pattern of a haiku while you, Raph, and Mikey were out of the lair. Thanks for that by the way ..."

Don got a huge grin across his face as he replied, "No problem. Now all you have to do is write 3.6923076923 per day, and by Christmas you'll have one hundred. Of course, you might want to keep it at 4 or more per day. That will give you 4 or more days for shipping if nothing goes wrong. Ultimately though, I'd advise you to increase your output to even more than that, which might happen naturally anyway since you've finally gotten into the swing of it ..."

Leo's smile was both more genuine and amused now. "Thanks Don, you really are a genius."

The turtle in purple grinned widely at his computer screen. "I know."

Leo hung his head and shook it a big grin on his face too.

What do you think?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes