A/N: Wow, this chapter came out pretty quick. 00;
Chapter Seven
Slightly concerned about what his 'older' sons were up to, Master Splinter followed after them into the playroom. He was going to watch from the doorway until he deemed it safe enough to leave them alone. Meanwhile Marcus put the breakfast dishes into the washer before get dressed himself.
At first things were going well in the playroom. Each little one had a toy of their own that they were playing with. However Leonardo and Raphael kept a watchful eye on Cherise to see what movements she was going to make towards their brothers. They wanted to be ready to foil any efforts to 'buy' their love.
The mistaken attempt that was when Cherise wandered over to play with Michelangelo. He was playing with one of the alphabetical electronic toys and shewanted to know ifhe would like to learn a game that she had made up with her father for the machine. But before the little orange clad turtle could say anything, Raphael pushed his way in between them. He claimed that he hadfirst dibs playing with his brother. This move surprised both Cherise and Michelangelo, but neither one said anything against it.
Watching the little girl go away from his youngest brother made Raphael feel both relieve that he was able to intervene in time and satisfied that she wasn't going to put up much of a fuss. Her reluctances to fight showed she really didn't care aboutMichelangelo like he did. As he sat down next to his brother, Raphael noticed that he had the machine upside down.
"That's not how you play with it." The little red clad turtle scolded. "Here let me show you how it's done." He reached for the toy.
"No." Michelangelo held the toy out of reach of his brother. "I want to play with it this way." He said sternly.
"But that's not how it works." Raphael stated heatedly. "Ya can't read the words upside down." He made another attempt to take the toy away.
"I know that." Michelangelo snapped. "I'm trying to learn to read upside down." He fell on his side trying to keep the toy away from his brother.
"Give it to me so I can show you how it's done." Raphael ordered while leaning across his brother to get at the device.
"No." Michelangelo cried as he moved about to knock his brother off.
This only made Raphael madder and he jumped to his feet with a raised fist. "Why I oughta…" He looked down to see Michelangelo cowering while waiting for the expected angry blow. "Uh…" Raphael looked around at everyone in the room. Leonardo and Donatello looked at him anxiously while Cherise clasped her hands to her mouth. He knew that she would never throw a blow to get what she wanted, so neither should he if he wanted to show what a good brother he was. "Ok…" The little turtle finally said as he lowered his fist. "Then can I learn with you?" He asked while sitting back down.
Michelangelo slowly sat back up with the toy in his lap and looked at his brother carefully. "I…guess so." He wanted to make sure that he wasn't being trick into letting his guard down enough for the toy to be snatched from him. But Raphael made no attempt to steal the toy away and soon the two turtles were having fun.
Master Splinter managed to stifle a sigh of relief, he didn't want the children know he was watching them. Though he was glad that a fight was avoid, he couldn't help wonder what made Raphael change his mind about hitting Michelangelo. This was not the usual way his hothead son was. In the past it would have taken the father rat to pulling the angry young turtle off his brother in order to stop the fight and time-outs were required for both.
The father rat's wondering was interrupted by Marcus, who came over to secretly watch the children play with him. "I have to admit that I'mglad you decided to stay." He whispered. "Thanks to the neighborhood bully we had around, she hasn't been able to make many friends. This is the happiest I've ever seen her." Splinter felt a slight twinge of guilt, because eventually they would have to leave.
Back in the room Cherise was talking to Donatello while he played with a bucket of army men. The two of them were making plans of having a small battle between the two of them and they were setting the little green men up in to positions for their attack. Unfortunately a ball that Leonardo was playing with 'accidentally' landed in the middle of there area and scatter the army men all over the place. When he came over to collect the ball, he asked if he could play too. Donatello agreed and the blue clad turtle sided with his brother against the young girl. In no time they had their army up while Cherise was still collecting her half of the men. As she put her men up, Leonardo started play attacking his brother's men. Donatello immediately started to play fight back, ignoring his human friend when she was done.
Now Cherise was starting to feel a little put out, but she did her best not to show it. She understood that the four turtles were brothers and that obviously they would want to play with each other. Especially after they had that scare of losing them. So instead of feeling sorry for herself, the little girl started to play with her half the army men on her own. To make it more interesting she added a ball and jacks to her little battlefield.
After a while the turtles older and younger switched with each other. Michelangelo and Leonardo started to play a memory card game while Donatello played board game with Raphael. Once again Cherise was alone to play with herself, so she curled up on a beanbag chair with a book. But seeing the turtles having so much fun with each otherwhile she was leftuninvited to play made her feel too sad to concentrate on what she read. Soon Cherise gave up on the book and decided to glumly wander out into the living room to watch television. Marcus followed after to give comfort to his daughter while Splinter stayed to watch his turtle sons play. He wondered how long it would take forthem to discover that they had hurt their young host's feelings.
Meanwhile in the room, Leonardo and Raphael had seen the little girl leave in defeat. Feeling triumphant they slyly exchange thumbs up. They had managed to keep their brothers from her clutches, ensuring that their siblings would want to come home now that they saw how nice their older brothers were and how much better they would be than Cherise.
However it wasn't long before Donatello and Michelangelo started to feel smothered by their brothers showering them with so much affection. Yes they missed them yesterday and yes they were loving the attention, but there is a point when they started to show too much. Plus they wanted to play with Cherise, because she wasnew and different. They could play with their brothers anytime they wanted back at home whereas they not do the same with Cherise. So when they noticed that the little girl was no longer in the room, they wanted to go look for her.
"Where are you going?" Raphael asked when his purple clad brother got up from their game.
"I'm going to find Cherise." Donatello replied while going over to Michelangelo and tapped him on the shoulder. "Come on."
"But Mikey's winning." Leonardo protested. "He can't go until we're finish."
"Aw, you'll beat me in no time." Michelangelo replied while waving a hand at him.
"But…but…" Leonardo didn't now how to reply. "Wait!" He scrambled onto his knees and grabbed his brother's arm. "You can't go yet."
"Can too." Michelangelo retorted. "You can't tell me what to do."
"But why would you want to go play with her when ya got us here now?" Raphael questioned.
"Because we want to." Donatello replied. "She's been really nice to us and stuff."
"We're nice to you. Look, we're playing and sharing and everything." Leonardo pointed out. "Forget her and play with us." He tried to pull Michelangelo back down into a sitting position while Raphael grasped onto Donatello.
"Let go!" Both the purple clad and orange clad turtles replied angrily. "We don't want to play with you anymore." They took hold of the hands that held them and peeled them off.
Leonardo and Raphael watched in shock as their brothers ran out of the room call the little girl. They fell back on to their rears, their mouths trembling as they fought back tears. They felt hurt that their brothers had abandoned them like they did, but they would not cry. Big turtle boys did not cry.
Master Splinter to enter the room and kneeled down next to them, placing a hand on their shells. This caused the two little turtles to lose their fight with their emotions. They buried their face into the rat father's kimono. "Come on, what is the matter?"
In one sobbing breath they let it all out and Splinter almost didn't understand what they said. "We played with them so they would forget all about that girl. But they don't want to play with us, they want to play with her. And now they won't want to come home." After saying all that, they gasped for air.
"Nonsense." Master Splinter replied. "Of course they will want to come home."
Leonardo and Raphael pulled their faces free from their father's robe, looking at him. "Why would they?" They asked between sniffles. "They have everything there. There's toys and whip cream and…"
"Yes there are nice thing here, but there is one thing missing." Master Splinter said kindly. "You two."
"But why would we matter?" Leonardo inquired. "They don't want us anymore."
"Yeah." Raphael piped. "They want that girl more than us."
"You are their brothers and they will always want you just like you will always want them." Master Splinter told them. "Sure you four may fight and you may get angry with each other, but that is the way of brothers."
"So you mean they don't hate us?" The two turtles questioned.
"Who said we did?" Donatello and Michelangelo questioned from the playroom door."We missed you guys yesterday." Michelangelo told his older brothers. "It was fun and all for a little while, but we still missed you.
"So…you'll be coming back home?" Leonardo asked and his younger brothers nodded.
The look of relief came onto Raphael and Leonardo's faces. Their brothers weren't going to leave them and they knew, no matter what, that they weren't going to leave them either.
Suddenly Cherise appeared by the door. Her eyes were a little red, but she had a big smile on her face. "So are you ready to watch a video now?"
"You bet." Donatello and Michelangelo answered. They ran out into the living room.
Cherise looked at the other two turtles before dashing over to them and grab their hands. "Come on." This time the two turtles didn't take their hands from hers. Instead they let her pull them from Splinter's lap and out to where the television was.
Out in the living room, in front of the couch were two large beanbag chairs pushed together. Michelangelo was snuggled down one while Donatello sat on the other. After letting go of the hands she held, Cherise ran over to the bag chairs and plopped down in the middle, where the seats met. Without hesitation Leonardo and Raphael jumped on the sides of the strange bag chairs. Their landing bounced those already sitting up into the air. Giggles came from all five children before the chanting of 'Movie! Movie!'
Two movies and a couple television shows later made it time for lunch. Sandwiches were made to the exact way each child wanted. No mayonnaise for Michelangelo. He would squish it out of the sandwich, because it was fun. Raphael's had to be cut sideways, because diagonal was for girls and babies. Leonardo wouldn't eat a sandwich with crust while Donatello wouldn't eat one with lettuce. And Cherise wouldn't eat hers unless it was on a certain kind of bread.
After lunch the children went back to the beanbag chairs to watch another movie, but their full bellies made them very sleep. Before the opening credits finished passing on the screen they were asleep. Marcus helped Splinter removed bandannas and belts off the turtles before a blanket taken off the couch was placed on the slumbering children. Afterwards Marcus turned on classical music to keep an atmosphere soothing enough to allow maximum napping time. That way the two fathers could enjoy some quiet time drinking tea and talk about the joys, along with the troubles, of being the parents. They talked about how there are times they wished they could keep their little ones young and what they looked forward to when their children grow up.
By around three o'clock the children slowly started to wake up. Mouths were wiped free from drool, hair was brushed,bandannas and beltswere put back on. Then the children ran back into the room full of toys to play. This time nobody was left out or shunned, everyone had fun playing with everyone else. In fact they were having so much funthat they didn't realized that the weather outside had cleared up. However Splinter didn't fail to see it.
Once the sun had set the father rat clapped his hands to get their attention. "Alright my sons, it time for us to go while the conditions are right." Five pairs of eyes looked at him pitifully, in the hopes that maybe he would change his mind and say they could stay longer. But Splinter was not moved. "Come along now, let us get this mess cleaned up."
"Yes father." All four turtles said as they sluggishly went about picking up the toys. They figured that if they went slowly, they could squeeze out a least a couple more minutes.
When the room was clean, Master Splinter ushered his sons out into the living room. "Now thank our hosts for everything and we'll be on our way."
"Thank you." Turtles said as they went to give Marcus and his daughter a hug.
Marcus kneeled down to receive his hug from each turtle. "You are very welcome." Leonardo and Raphael gave him a quick hug, but Michelangelo and Donatello hugged him the longest.
Cherise hesitated to hug anyone. "You…you guys will be back, right?" She asked father rat. "I'll see you maybe tomorrow or maybe the day after that?"
Master Splinter bent down to her level and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I don't think so little one." He said gently. "I'm afraid we can not chance coming here again. If we went to and from our home it will be found. Then we will have no safe place to stay."
"But…but…" Cherise began to stammer while fighting back the tears. "They are my friends. How will I play with them if they don't come over?" The little girl wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "Maybe I can come over and play at your guy's place? I'll bring over a whole bunch of stuff…and…" She knew the answer was going to be 'no' by just looking at the rat's unchanging face, but she thought maybe she could convince him to change his mind.
Marcus picked up his upset daughter and held her tight. "Come on now. No tears." He whispered into her ear. "Let's not end such a nice visit with sadness." But Cherise couldn't stop herself from crying. This was going to be goodbye forever and it just hurt so much to say it.
Master Splinter got back up onto his feet and gave the young girl's hair a stroke. "I'm sorry it has to be this way."
"I know." Marcus said while handing the rat father a backpack that held the tapes Cherise gave the turtles. "She'll get over it." He walked the rat and turtles over to the balcony. "It was nice meeting you all."
"Same here." Master Splinter replied. "Come on now my sons." One by one the turtles jumped from balcony to balcony until they reached the drain pipe and slid down it to street level. Then they head out of the alley for theabandon building where the manhole back home was.
Splinter was the last to round the corner out of the alley. Before he did he took one last look back up at the balcony. He saw Marcus standing there watching them and holding his daughter while she kept her head buried in his shoulder. His sharp ears could hear her crying still and he knew that she didn't want to see them go. This sight made him feel guilty. Causing Cherise to cry was no way to repay what she and her father had done for his family.
Little did he know that years later he and the turtles would be able to return the kind deed.
A/N2: Welp, everyone forgave everyone else and all the turtles are going home (yay). But how will they be able to replay the father and his daughter? Guess you'll have to wait until the next chapter.
