Disclaimer: Don't own anything except for nine baby petshop turtles.
Epilogue: Much Ado About Nothing.
"It's impossible to get the rank 'grand master'!" Leonardo growled in frustration as Raphael watched, sitting on the couch beside him. Leo's fingers tightly gripped the grey controller as he maneuvered the character, Rikimaru, around the final Tenchu level. Ever since he had found out that a mystery person had scored one hundred percent perfect in the game, Leo had wanted to do the same; yet, naturally he wouldn't tell Raph that he used the level skip cheat to reach the final level.
"Give it up Leo," Raph groaned.
"I've never given up on anything Raph, and I'm sure as hell not going to give up on this!" Leo answered briskly.
"Just use the cheats," Raphael suggested, becoming weary of the turtle's obsession.
"No! I must fight fairly with honour!" Leo yelled at the television screen. A few moments later, a fire-breathing ninja set Rikimaru alight, slowly burning the Playstation character to his death. "Damn it!" Leo cried out as he took his anger out on the controller. Defeated, the blue-wearing turtle turned off the Playstation, but Raphael had a better idea.
"What's that?" Leo asked when he saw his brother switch games.
"Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins," Raphael said, announcing the new Playstation game's title. Leonardo inspected the plastic cover and read the words 'live by honour, kill by stealth', immediately creating a sense of interest. "Apparently you can create your own ninja levels in this one. So you can choose where to build walls and place enemies… Sorta like that Sims Unleashed game Donatello uploaded to his computer a few months ago," Raphael informed casually. Leonardo gave him a dark look.
"I've said this to you before, and I'll say this again. Don't you ever mention that damn Sims game in my presence!" Leonardo threatened.
"Yeesh! I didn't know that you were still touchy about it!" Raphael replied while waiting for the sequel of the Tenchu game to upload. At that moment in time, Michelangelo came out of his room, being followed by nine crawling baby turtles. Raph and Leo watched him warily as the orange loving mutated reptile walked over to Don's portable blackboard. Mike turned around and began to lecture the nine blank faced babies that were amazingly lined up neatly into rows of three; obviously being trained to do that after hours and hours of practice. Raphael gave Leo a weird look. "What the heck is he doing!?" Raph questioned, still looking in the direction of Michelangelo and the nine petshop turtles.
"He wants to return them to the wild. So, in order to do that, he believes that he has to train them to swim and take care of themselves," Leonardo informed Raph with an amused tone. Raphael simply rolled his eyes.
"I knew that we shouldn't have let him watch 'Fly Away Home' on TV last Friday night," Raphael groaned, murmuring to himself. The two turtles remained silent for a minute as Raph started the Playstation ninja training level.
"Hey Raph?" Leo asked.
"What?" Raph grumped in response.
"I have a scenario for you," Leo said, causing Raph to roll his eyes.
"Is it one of those crappy personality tests that you get in chain letter emails?" Raphael asked harshly.
"It is actually…" Leo answered.
"What is it then?" Raphael sighed, trying his best not to seem curious.
"If you were captured, lets say in our case, by one of our enemies, what would you prefer to go to? A circus or a zoo?" Leonardo asked, wondering what Raph's answer would be.
He thought about it for a little while he completed some sections of the training level. "A zoo," Raph finally answered, eyes still glued on the ninja character he was playing.
"Why did you pick that?" Leonardo asked out of curiosity.
"Well… I think it's the whole leaping through rings of fire, and the traveling freak show thing that turns me off about staying in a circus. With a zoo, you can sort of do what you want. Besides, they might place me with a female to… you know…" Raph grinned, giving Leo a wink.
"What if the female doesn't like you?" Leonardo asked dryly.
"Well then I'm in the same position that I am in now, just I haven't been caught by Bonehead or Quease, or whoever the hell would put me in a zoo in the first place," Raphael said, concentrating hard on the screen in front of him as Rikimaru dispatched a guard. "So, according to that answer, what does that say about my personality?" Raph asked catatonically.
"Well… I read that it means that you prefer peace, regularity and structure, and that you dislike excitement and new places," Leonardo answered uncertainly.
"See. I told you that those online email personality tests were crap. You should stop wasting Don's time with them," Raphael commented. "Speaking about Don…" Raph started.
"Do you think he's still gay?" Leo asked.
"I dunno anymore. But I think Venus made him change. I reckon he's bi," Raphael falsely assumed.
"Maybe he's straight?" Leo wondered, saying it more to himself than to Raph.
"Oh please! 'Pride and Prejudice'? It's self explanatory!" Raphael pointed out. Leonardo remained quiet for a while, still trying to understand his younger brainy, purple-wearing brother.
As if on cue, Donatello angrily strolled into the lair. Raphael and Leonardo all too easily recognised the massive bruise that had formed on his forehead. "What did she do this time?" Leo asked the stressed out turtle.
"She thought the cigarette lighter was the eject button for the CD player! Then she had the nerve to ask me why the Hummer was on fire!! I tried to stay calm, and I told her to pull over, but she thought she needed to change gears to do that, hence she pulled on that damn hand brake again!!!" Donatello explained furiously, rubbing ice onto his bruised domed head. Leonardo, Raphael and even Michelangelo couldn't help but laugh.
Feeling humiliated at their constant laughter, Don left the main room and entered his train carriage to grab a few bits of equipment to fix the burnt upholstery in the Hummer. Satisfied with the objects he had managed to gather in his hands, he left his room only to find Venus standing outside his doorway. He studied her deeply sorrowful face. Sighing, Donatello lowered the automotive objects onto the floor, crossing his arms grumpily over his plastron when he stood back up straight.
"Don… I'm really, really sorry," Venus apologised sincerely.
"Yeah, I know…" Don answered moodily. "I just… I don't exactly want to fix that car again!" Don whined in frustration. Feeling extremely guilty for what she had done, Venus gently held one of his talented hands.
"Well… try to look on the bright side. If you allow me to help, then we have a couple of nights to share ahead of us," Venus enticed. Even though Don didn't really need any help in fixing the car, he still couldn't help but smile at her invitation and train of thought. He looked at her sad and watery eyes, knowing in an instant that there was no way he could stay mad at her. Ignoring the stares from the rest of his intrusive family, he gently wrapped his arms around Venus' waist and pulled the female in to kiss her sweetly on the lips. Suddenly gaining a boost of happiness, Venus delicately hugged his neck, forming the kiss into a more passionate one.
"He's bi," Leo agreed with Raph, talking quietly so that Don couldn't eavesdrop.
"Yeah… No straight guy can kiss that good," Raphael commented, earning himself a suspicious and disturbed look from Leo. The two turtles on the couch sighed at the sight of the contented couple, and slowly returned to the game they were playing on the Playstation. They were both silent for the next few minutes, their eyes seemingly cemented to the screen.
"I bet you ten bucks that the relationship will be over in less than three days," Raphael offered. Leonardo thought about his proposal. At least if he lost, then he could hand back Raphael's coins. Leo doubted that Raph had another one thousand one-cent pieces hidden in his room if he happened to win the bet.
"You're on," Leo agreed and shook his brother's hand.
A/N: Well that's the end of the fic! Hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed typing it. The fanfic FAQ should be up for this story shortly.
The next fic I'm going to work on is most likely the sequel to 'The Glass Prison'… unless I decide to put up a short story for a change. Yes, I know that I said I had no plans for a sequel, but I heard your pleas and felt sympathetic… See I'm not THAT heartless after all! Of course, I have now started my final year of schooling, which is voted by Australians to be the most stressful year of my life. So I'm going to be extremely busy (trust me. I just got my first assessment advice notice today, and it is BIG!). What I plan to do is type the whole fic up first whenever I get free time, then post it up on the web when it is completed so you guys won't have to wait months on end if things get bad with school. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read my fic!