Starting Young

Note: I felt like I needed a 'Charlie' oriented chapter; so here it is! I hope that this will tide you over until I can think up another chapter. It's short and my apologizes, but I'm working on another weird fic of mine, so read that one too!

Disclaimers: I own Rowan, Charlie, the plot and the blasted rubix cube, although mine is now in a zillion piecesAnd I recently bought my own copy of 'On The Art Of War', so I own that copy! That's it, no ownage of the turtles happening here!

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Setting down his knapsack, Mike looked over to Charlie who was at the moment indisposed with searching through the cache of goodies in the backpack. Locating a rubix's cube, Charlie hunkered down and began to twist the square, the tip of his tongue visible out of the corner of his mouth with frustration.

"Hey, ah, Charliehow's your mum doin'?"

Looking up from almost breaking the cube in order to get it to fit the right way, Charlie smiled, remembering something from earlier.

"She's great! Mom said that if you take me, then I can go an' visit Leo! Will ya take me? Please?"

Michelangelo suddenly saw himself in those begging features. Although while the reasons for his pleads were never for training, it usually won out over the hardest of hearts. Smiling, he nodded.

"Okay, we can go. But we'll have to leave now so I can get you home in time."

Grinning happily, Charlie bounced up and over to Mikey, tackling the mutant turtle in a hug.

"Thank-you Mikey!"

~~~~~~

Leonardo looked up from his book to watch his red banded brother flip through the television channels at an unreadable speed. Raphael had been overly restless for the longest time, and he knew that he felt bad about the fight in front of Rowan. Raphael has come to consider Rowan almost like a sister, like they all had, even more so when the relationship between Don and her had become apparent.

"How can you tell what's on? You know, you could always try reading a book, expand your mind a bit."

A grunt was his only response as the T.V finally settled on a single station. Leo glanced at the station then continued back with his book, Sun Tzu's " On the Art of War". An interesting read in his opinion, describing war tactics and militia strategies. He was absorbed in the one particular chapter that he did not hear right away the sound of people approaching until they were almost above the opening of the entrance.

Bookmarking his page, he stood up and watched the cardboard being removed and first green feet lowering themselves onto the rungs of the ladder, followed by the rest of Mike's body, with Charlie closely following.

Raphael perked up a bit with the sight of the young brown haired boy.

"Hey kiddo, what're you doin' here? Won't yer mom be a bit angry?"

Mike grinned at them, "Nope, she said that Charlie here was adamant that he didn't miss any practice."

"Wow, that's amazing." Raphael said.

"Not really bro, he's really positive about it."

Raph walked over and slapped his younger sibling on the shell, "No I mean what's amazing is that you used the word adamant, and you used it in the right context!"

"Hardy har har. Funny bro, really funny." Mikey retorted, swatting at Raphael's head and missing.

Leonardo walked over to where Charlie was laughing, watching the antics of Mike and Raphs' banter.

"So, what would you like to learn today?"

Looking up at the blue leader, Charlie bowed, although still wobbly, Leo was very proud of the respect it represented.

"Sensei, I wanna learn about all those cool flips you can do."

Hiding a grin, Leo crouched down to eye level with the child, "I'm not sure that you're ready for flips yet. "How about we learn about Kata's today?"

There was a collective groan from behind the two, and Charlie glanced over Leo's shoulder to witness Raph making a slash gesture across his throat while Mike was making enthusiastic no gestures with his hands and shaking his head.

Charlie, still too young to understand what the gestures meant, asked innocently, "Uh, what's a kata?"

Deciding that I would be easier to show than to explain, Leo led Charlie into the dojo.

"Kata are moves that prepare the body, it teaches you how to move with grace, speed and agility. When doing them, you are to picture an enemy, and the kata prepares you to fight them."

Sitting down on the floor, Charlie watched as Leo performed what he called a Heian Shoden kata, one of the simplest moves. After he had done it from start to finish, Charlie stood and followed along side, mimicking his moves. Leo slowed down his pace for the boy so that he didn't fall too far behind. The stances were not one for a fight, but more for relaxation, with fluid movements that placed the feet first to the right, with one lowered and the other pointing out, the movements work around in a type of circle that brought the participant back to where they began.

Charlie tried very hard to impress Leonardo, but felt disappointed at being unable to do it perfectly the first time. Leo, sensing his mood, eased them out of the stance. Turning to look down at his young student, he smiled.

"That was very good for a first time." When Charlie looked up from his pout, Leo could tell that something else was bothering the boy. "Charlie? What's wrong?"

Looking away, Charlie mumbled, "Mom don' want me comin' here no more."

Not again, how many times will Rowan and I have this argument? With a frustrated sigh Leonardo bowed down to Charlie, who in turn replied the action. The movement signaling the training session was over for the time being.

"Charlie, if your mom didn't want you here with me, do you think you'd be here right now?" He laid a hand on the five-year-olds shoulder.

He shrugged, "I guess not. But, I wanna show mom how cool it is. Can you teach me something that can do that?"

"I'm afraid that will take some time. But if you're up for it, I'll see what I can do." Standing back up, he gave Charlie a small push toward the exit. "Now, why don't you go an' play with Mikey until it's time to take you home?"

Grinning, Charlie shot off out of the dojo, and nearly collided with Raphael who was on his way inside.

"Watch it kiddo, you're gonna get yourself hurt!"

"Not me! I'm a ninja!" Was the belated reply after he recovered his speed.

Motioning with his thumb behind him, "Cute kid, huh?" Raphael told his brother good-naturedly.

"Yeah." Deciding that Raphael undoubtedly wanted something; he drew his sword. "Well, have you decided to make up for some missed training sessions?"

Giving a sarcastic grin, the red banded turtle replied, " Yea, actually. How about this, I'll start training again when Rowan agrees to talk to me again."

"She can't stay mad at you forever." Leo told him, his demeanor becoming softer.

"Yea well, whatever. I was on my way in here ta rescue the kid from your overzealous training. But, I guess you're getting soft in your old age."

"Old age? You're only a year younger than I am!" Leo retorted.

"Whatever old timer, check ya later. I'm goin' out to a movie."

Turning, Raphael walked out, ignoring the amusingly scathing comment directed at him from Leonardo.

TBC