Hanami – Chapter 27
'My children. All of them awake and healthy.' Splinter watched three of his daughters all trying to talk to and touch and comfort the one wrapped in blankets in their midst.
Shima was back from the dead. They doted on her, forcing water and plain buttered noodles down her throat. They regaled her with stories of everything that had happened to them since they'd been sedated. They kept interrupting each other and hugging one another. They refused to eat anything themselves; they were too excited. They called her 'FourSee,' 'Shima,' and 'Oneechan big sister' interchangeably.
Splinter had been surprised to hear Shima speaking to her sisters in Japanese, and more surprised to hear them respond. Cabbage kept checking her sister's pulse and asking, "Ikaga desu ka? How do you feel?" so many times that Shima stopped answering. Instead, Pipes and Sterling chorused for her, +"GENKI DESU!!I'm fine!! "+
His sons were alternately eating and staring. They knew to give the girls time to be together, but anyone would have been hard pressed to leave the living room in that first hour. The tension that sat at the backs of the sisters' eyes had dissolved. Their laughter seemed to bubble up freely, and the edges were disappearing from their manners.
After a bit, Cabbage fell asleep stretched along the floor beside her sister with her head on Shima's mattress. Shima quietly tracing the stripes on her sister's head, watched her dream. Sterling dozed in the crook of Shima's other arm. Pipes had her back braced against the sofa so she could act as a living pillow for her beloved Oneechan. Leonardo came out of the kitchen with some cups of hot tea. He first offered one to his sensei, but the second he brought to Shima. Pipes smiled drowsily as he knelt down and handed the cup to her sister. She mumbled +"Leonardo, Shinshi desu ne? Leonardo, You're a gentleman, aren't you?"+
Shima chuckled quietly, speaking almost under her breath, "Leonardo, ShinTAI desu ne? Leonardo, You're the image of a god, aren't you?" She nearly spilled her tea when Splinter burst out laughing. Cabbage, Sterling and Pipes jolted awake. His other three sons came running.
Mikey was grinning madly. His sensei was still laughing, his brother was blushing, and Shima was so dark green with embarrassment, she could have been used for camouflage. "Well…? What's the joke?"
Leonardo looked a bit panicked, "I don't know enough Japanese!"
Splinter shook his head, "She made a funny!"
After the outburst, Donnie, Raph, and Mike convinced the three sleepy sisters to come into the kitchen and eat something. They protested of course, but Mike wouldn't hear it. "Nope. No way. Dudettes, I am not listening. Your sister ain't goin' anywhere. You guys have spent enough time not eatin.' Now you don't need to stuff yourselves right before bed, but I'm not gonna let you skip a meal."
Sterling yawned and saluted, "Dah. Mien Fuhrer."
"Aw, quite bein' a smart-ass." Raph gave her shell a gentle but firm push towards the kitchen.
"Heil – whoops! Watch where you're shovin'!"
Raphael jerked his hand back from the top of her shell just in time to dodge a swat from Donnie. Pipes glared at her sister, +"That wasn't nice or fair, Sterling."+
Shima sat studying her hands. "Nihongoga wakarimas, ne? You understand Japanese, huh?"
Splinter chuckled, "Hai."
Leonardo mumbled, "Sukoshi. A little."
Splinter took pity on his son. "Let us speak in English. I would not want any misunderstandings. Shima, how is it that you and your sisters speak Japanese?"
She was plainly expecting to have to explain her joke from earlier, and sighed with relief before she answered Splinter's question. "We had no privacy. There were cameras mounted in our room, audio devices constantly recording, and one-way mirrors on most of our walls. When the humans insisted that I learn as many foreign languages as possible, I chose one that I'd never heard spoken around the lab and taught my sisters." Shima smiled, "It was better than our own secret code."
Pipes, Sterling and Cabbage piled back into the living room. Cabbage and Sterling pulled another mattress up next to Shima's. "One, Two, Three! – Ha! Rock breaks scissors. I get to sleep closer to Oneechan." Cabbage was all dimples as she laid down nearest her sister.
"Fine, but I get the pillow."
"Hey! Wait a minute!"
+"Oh hush! How old are you two? Here Cabbage, take this pillow."+ Pipes laid down on Shima's other side. By the time the brothers had finished cleaning up the dinner dishes, all four of them were asleep.
"All four of them on just two mattresses?"
"Well Mikey, none of them have your fat ass."
Raphael woke in the middle of the night to the sound of quiet tears again. He heard someone else stir. +"Hush Oneechan. It'll be ok. We're all here and together."+
"No. Not all; they're gone."
Raphael tried desperately not to listen, but his brothers' light snores did nothing to mask what should have been a private conversation. He resolved not to eavesdrop, but even that fell away as Pipes' lullaby caught him and Shima and carried them both to peaceful sleep.
+"Baby mine don't you cry
Baby mine dry your eyes
Rest your head close to my heart
Never to part
Baby of mine
Little one when you play
Don't you mind what they say
Let those eyes sparkle and shine
Never a tear
Baby of mine
If they knew
Sweet little you
They'd end up
Loving you too
All those same people who scold you
What they'd give just for the right to hold you
From your head down to your toes
You're not much, goodness knows
But you are so precious to me
Sweet as can be.
Angel of mine
Baby of mine
Sister of mine"+
The above song is an honest to goodness lullaby…."Baby Mine." So god-only-knows who wrote it and who I'm supposed to credit. But it ain't mine. If you've never heard it, I recommend you pick up the rendition that Alison Krauss does, failing that, there's always the sappy Disney version from DUMBO – neither ms. Krauss nor DUMBO are mine either.