One Hand Down

Part 6:A bonsai

Disclaimer: I said before – I don't own anything but the concept of this story. Thanks. I'm growing two bonsais at moment and well thought I'd throw one into the story. Sorry this story has sat on my computer nearly two months, I've been too busy to go edit it.

"I'm sorry Master Splinter," Mikey said, as he walked into his father's room. Mikey had become familiar with this room from the amount of lecturers he coped for daydreaming while he had meant to be practicing. He racked his brain for the last time he was in here, it was only the week before, Mike and Raph had been punished for playing golf in the lair. Casey coped it also, as he was the one with the bright idea of using the lair as an eighteen-hole golf course.

"I am not the one you need to apologise to my child. I understand that you have suffered your own amount of injuries from Raphael and that the two of you seem to find trouble together more than your older brothers. I simply want to know what happened this afternoon?" Splinter looked at his orange masked son.

"Me and Raph were having an argument and then we got into taunting each other. He called me names and I called him some back. I didn't mean to upset him by calling him a freak, I was only getting him back for calling me an ignoramus. I was only teasing him, I didn't think it would cause this much trouble," Mikey told his father.

Splinter's ears twitched when he heard his son use to the word freak, no mutant wants to be called this. He could see why Raphael had been upset enough to not be concentrating on his actions.

"Do you think you hurt your brother's feelings by calling him names?"

"Yeah, but Raph's not upset by names, Master Splinter, not like I am," Mikey said.

"Yes, but do you think that you might have gone overboard by calling him something that you knew would offend him?"

"But I've been called a freak too, Master Splinter – I'm the same as Raph, so it's not like a human calling him that," Mikey said. Splinter sighed.

"Sometimes when it comes from those who are in the same boat, this can be more offensive. It seems that sometimes you lack the ability to think before you speak my son. This often leads you into trouble. Do you not see the error of your ways?"

"Yes I know I'm not any good Master Splinter. I wish I had taken that punch so much Master Splinter, then Raph wouldn't have hurt his hand so much."

"My son, I never expect you to stand there and take a blow that is aimed at you. Not even when its coming from your brother. That is not what I have taught you. Have I not taught you skills that assist you when you are threatened? You have used the skills you have in this situation with your brother, only Raphael was the one to loose control of what he has learnt."

"You don't think I was a coward?"

"No my son, you are no coward, none of you are. You did what you felt you had to do, so by ducking the blow, you saved yourself from injury. It was simply a self-defence action."

"But aren't you angry at me because Raph's now busted his arm and he can't fight any more?" Mikey said quickly.

"My son, this is not why you are in here. I simply want you to think about your actions that lead to Raphael loosing control of his anger. You ducking from your brother's hand has nothing to do with this conversation, though I am glad you are willing to talk to me about your feelings. I understand you must feel some-what guilty, though you did not know that your brother was going to do after you ducked. I assume you thought he would try another plan of attack and be thinking of how to avoid that. You would never have thought your brother would harm himself."

"Yeah, I thought he was just goner kick me in the gonad," Mikey replied.

Splinter twitched his nose at this word, he had no idea where his sons had come up with this word, but he knew what they all meant when uttering it.

"I want you to do something for me," Master Splinter said. Mikey listened to his Master.

"I want you to take that bonsai there and I want you to trim it and present it to your brother. It will give him a sense of hope in his healing process. You may go."

Mikey took the overgrown bonsai Splinter had mentioned and carried it out of the room. That was one thing, Mikey had never understand, how come in the sewers Splinter's plants all grow so fast, where there was no natural sunlight? Though Mikey did not know about the system Donatello had built for his father's plants and that remains to be explained in another tale.