A Million Miles Apart
A/N: Oh, I am so late! I guess I'm so caught up in my 'real' life that I'm getting distracted. And, on a more positive side, thank you guys so much for the 102 reviews! You guys are so awesome, and I love all of you for reading this story and leaving your kind words in your reviews!
I hope you'll enjoy this chapter and please review, favorite and follow!
Chapter 30: Breakfast Conversations
As I woke up the next morning I already knew that I had slept in late- something I usually didn't do. I was normally one the first ones in my family to wake up and the last one to go to bed. Yeah, I was a bit of a night owl and didn't usually sleep past nine, but I guess that happens when you stay up late and eat sugar in the middle of the night.
I got out of bed; feeling much better than I had yesterday and the welcomed feelings of optimism and excitement were running through my body. People around me, mostly consisting of my brothers, my father, and April, told me that I was a very optimistic person whenever I would fail at, say, creating retro-mutagen, and I would bounce back almost immediately and keep trying, so that was nothing new. But I was excited, because today we were going through that wormhole that would take us to Filione. And who knew what kind of adventures we could face there? But I was also a little scared. This was an entirely different planet with so many different things and creatures. And what kind of dangers might lurk in those woods on that planet?
"Oh, man," I mumbled to myself as I tied my mask over my face. "What I have gotten myself into?" I sighed to myself. I just hoped the Salamandarians were as friendly as Mona Lisa had said they were yesterday.
I walked over to the drawer where my spacesuit was folded and my gear was placed in a neat stack. I reached out to grab one of my kneepads, but I glanced over at the suit that I'd only worn once, maybe twice, since I got it. I thought over whether I should put it on, but then decided not to. This seemed more like a suit you wore outside of the ship, not inside. Besides, Jhanna had picked out clothes for herself inside this ship, too, so she wouldn't have to wear this suit all the time, so why should I wear mine when I didn't even wear clothes at all?
The dining room was empty when I stepped in through the doors, which surprised me, since it felt like it was past nine in the morning. Starlee or Traximus seemed to be early risers, just like me, since they had woken up just a little later than me every other day. Even the Professor at the very least should be up by now, since he didn't even need sleep. But, whatever- it was always a little nice to get some alone time.
When we were kids, my brothers- mostly Mikey, but all of them seemed to think so, too- seemed to have a mindset that if you like to be alone, there must be something wrong with you, since they always liked to play together. So when I said I wanted to read a book, play around with broken toys and try to fix them or just be by myself, they would give me weird looks as if I had a screw loose. And, as we grew older, and they wanted to spend some time on their own as well, they still seemed to cling onto this belief. I remember an incident about five or six months ago- I had found an old, thin and tattered book in the sewers. I had decided to give it a read, and I had been glued to it ever since I found it.
(Flashback)
I was sitting on one of the corners of the couch with the book in my lap and my eyes glued to the words, unable to look away. It was just so intriguing; even though it was the sixth time I had read it. And when I was reading a good book, it was like entering another world- nothing could break that bubble of tranquility around me.
Except, of course I have three brothers, one of them having the talent of being excruciatingly loud and obnoxious when I really, really didn't want him to.
"Hey, Donnie!" I yelped and dropped the book in shock as Mikey screamed inches away from my ear. I looked up and saw Mikey sitting on his knees beside me, only a few inches away, with a big grin on his face. "Finally you respond, bro! I called your name, like, ten times, and it was like you didn't hear me." I fought the urge to roll my eyes, picked up the book and glared at Mikey in annoyance.
"What do you want, Mikey? I told you, I didn't steal your disgusting excuse of a pizza." Mikey shook his head and pushed the book down before I could get a chance to pick up where I left off in the story.
"I'll have you know that jelly beans, pepperonis and maple syrup are the best pizza toppings EVER! But no, dude, it's not about that! I found out that I ate it in my sleep last night. Heh, weird right?" I wrinkled my nose at him, marked the page I was on and closed the book.
"Ugh... Mikey, I love you, bro. You have many great attributes. But seriously, you need to understand that it's disgusting to keep pizza around in your room and eat it whenever you feel like it." Mikey just shrugged, still smiling at me, and didn't seem to care that I called his habits disgusting.
"Whatever, dude. I wanna play video games!" I looked at him, confused, and raised an eyebrow. Okay, then why wasn't he doing that?
"Uh... Then go play video games. Nobody's stopping you, and no one's watching TV." I opened the book again and tried to resume reading, but once again, Mikey pushed the book down, making me look up at him once more.
"No! It's no fun to play alone! Come on, bro, play with me! I'll even let you win once if you." I tried not lose my temper, since I knew Mikey just wanted to spend time with me, but it was hard since he was really getting on my nerves.
"Uh, thanks, but no thanks. I'm reading. Go ask Raph or Leo to play with you instead." I looked away from him and looked down at the book again, hoping that he would take the hint and leave to go and bother somebody else. But, of course, that was too much to ask for.
"Aw, come on, Donnie! Please! Raph keeps cheating and making me lose, and Leo's no fun to play with. He never gets as into it as I do. Please, bro. You've been working in your lab nonstop for weeks! And now you've finally taken a break, you decide to read a book- something that you could do anytime else? Read when you go to bed! The day is for fun, not reading science-y stuff! Come on, live a little, dude! Have some fun for a change." I looked up from the book, for umpteenth time, and over at Mikey.
"I have fun, Mikey. I enjoy reading and I enjoy working on my projects. I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it. Besides, if I'm not mistaken, I played Flipper with you yesterday for two and a half hours. And I'll have you know that this is not a science book. Not everything I do has to do with science-y stuff, you know." Mikey frowned at me, but before he could say anything, another voice joined the conversation.
"Oh, yeah? Let me see that book." Suddenly a green hand from the right entered my view and snatched the book away from me, so quickly yet so sneakily that I almost didn't catch it.
"Hey!" I flew up from the couch and looked behind me and saw Raph there with my book in his hand and that big, smug, stupid smirk on his face, waving the book teasingly at me.
"Raph! Come on, give me back my book!" Raph just smirked at me, opened the book and flipped through the pages. Carelessly, almost as if he expected himself to destroy it somehow and didn't care.
"I've seen you glued to this book since you found it in the sewers. If you like so much, and it's not about science, then what is it about?" He closed it again and started to read on back of the book, aloud and in an exaggerated and high-pitched voice.
"Carrie White is clumsy in gym class, she dresses strangely and never gets the joke. She's odd and has been bullied for all of her school period." I jumped over the couch and tried to snatch it back from my older brother, but he just took a big step away from me just as I was about to grab it from him.
"Give it back, Raph!" Raph just ignored me and it seemed like he had eyes on the back of his head, 'cause it seemed like he always seemed to know where I was, even though he was reading the back of the book.
"But Carrie has hidden powers that nobody knows of: by concentrating she can make mirrors crack and doors lock themselves." I growled at him and tried to pounce him and snatch it away, but he just kept on dodging and avoided my attempts to get the book back.
"Raph, come on, stop it! Give it back!" He placed his hand on my chest and pushed me away from him, keeping me an arm's length away from him and the book as he read the backside.
"This strange gift has to be suppressed, as so much else in her life. Carrie's highly religious mother tells her that this ability is a sin and that her power comes from the Devil." He looked up at me, face twisted both in surprise and a mocking smirk.
"Aw, you like to read girly high school drama books, Donnie? Are ya gonna check out Twilight or The Notebook next, or what? Seriously, how can you read this junk?" I finally managed to snatch the book back, pressed it to my chest and folded my arms over it.
"It is NOT a girly high school drama! And it's NOT junk! It's an engaging and interesting read about bullying, revenge, guilt and sin, just to name a few of this book's themes! But what would you know of good literature, Raph? What do you like to read? Comic books and your old Modern Ninja Magazine? I wouldn't exactly call that great literature, you know." Raph rolled his eyes at me, grabbed me around the neck and gave me a rough noogie to the temple.
"Heh, sure I do, but those are magazines and comics that anyone can enjoy. The books you read can only be read and enjoyed by nerds like you, Donnie. That or really lonely people." I jerked away from his grip around my neck and glared at him with a raised brow.
"Are you saying that I have bad taste in books? Or that I'm a lonely, desperate person?" He snorted at me and sat down on the couch beside Mikey, rested his arms on the back of the couch and looked up at me teasingly.
"Heh, no, I'm saying that I don't understand why Mikey wants to play games with you, since you, for whatever reason, enjoy being alone with your books and experiments. I mean, how can anyone enjoy being alone for hours without having something wrong with you?" I growled at him, rolled my eyes and turned my back on him.
"Urgh, you are such a jerk." I muttered to myself and started walking towards my room so I could read in there, alone and in peace and with no brothers to disturb me. But before I could close the door behind me, I could hear Raph yell after me.
"You better be careful, Brainiac! You might get stuck with your nose in one of your books!" I growled again and slammed the door shut, blocking out any source of sound from the living room, or my brother's sneering laugh.
(End Flashback)
I rolled my eyes at the memory with a small smile. There were times when I could look back upon a memory and decide whether I thought it was my brothers being rude, dismissive or uncaring, and other where I could see it was just playful banter or us just being brothers. 'Cause, let's face it, when you have brothers, you get into petty arguments, disagreements or small, meaningless fights. If you couldn't deal with that, chances are you would have a hard time handling conflict in the real world, or just surviving in your family. And this particular fight, if you could even call it that, was just one of many disagreements I had with Raph. Yes, we had very different opinion about things. Doesn't mean I hold every single harsh word he says to me against him.
I walked over to the food replicator and sat down. The plug appeared the minute I sat down and placed itself onto my forehead. I started thinking up a good breakfast, and I decided that today, I would really try to do better in training and be in better mood than I had yesterday. And to do that, I needed a big breakfast. And besides, no one was here to try and steal or grab any of the good stuff before I could get what I wanted. I made up my mind and focused on the meal I had in mind.
Seconds later the hatch opened and revealed a plate with two pieces of toast with ham and cheese and another plate with some fried eggs and bacon on the side, a small bowl of strawberries, a mug with steaming coffee with cream and a glass of orange juice. It was a bit of a challenge to balance it all across the room without dropping anything, but I managed and sat down at one of the tables. Then I looked back out to the ship's control room and decided to eat in there instead. I would feel better if I could keep an eye on where we were and if any threats came close to us.
Once I managed to balance everything out into the control room and sit down at the main computers, I started to look over the distance between us and the wormhole, as well as other factors, like fuel and the cloak we had activated, and took a bite out of my toast.
"Mm, okay, so the cloak is still up? That's good, that's good. Should keep Moriah off our tail for a while. And how long is it until we reach that wormhole?" I pressed around on the computers and sipped down some coffee and ate some more of my toast.
"Okay, we're less than three hours away from there. Good, we're still on course. That's good." I looked around on the computer screens and swallowed some eggs and bacon. "... and from the looks of it there's no obstacles in our way." I doubled-checked the coordinates, checked the speed and decreased it from sixteen to fourteen, and uncloaked the ship so we could spare fuel. I smiled to myself in content, leaned back in my seat and allowed myself to relax. This was really nice. No Triceratons and no Federation trying to get in the way of what my friends and I had to do. I sipped some more coffee and finished on the ham and cheese toast, moving on to the second piece.
I took a good, long look out the ship's big window and just relaxed. Jhanna had said last night that she found looking at the stars relaxing, and I had to admit, there was something very calming and soothing to just watch the stars and planets we passed. And to just watch it all and eat my breakfast alone and in silence was really nice.
Suddenly I heard one of the doors open and I turned around to see who had entered the room. Starlee came walking in with her nose stuck in a book and she had a plate in one of her hands with some sort of sandwich on it, a glass of a light green milk-like substance, and something that looked like a muffin. Maybe on D'hoonib cupcakes were more healthy than on Earth, or maybe it was a common breakfast where she came from. She was dressed in her Federation uniform, her hair was down and she had her goggles over her eyes.
I turned around to look at her and smiled. "Good morning, Starlee." She looked up from her book and smiled at me, pushing up her goggles onto her forehead and smiling widely at me- so widely that I could see the dimples in her freckled cheeks. "Hi! Good morning." I smiled back at her and drank some of my juice. I really found myself taking a liking to Starlee. She was really sweet, kind and incredibly smart for her age. But on top of that; she reminded me of Mikey, with her happy and optimistic nature and that she almost always seemed to smile and also was very compassionate. And while it was a little painful at times it still helped too. It helped me feel like part of Mikey was here, in spirit.
She came up and sat down beside me, removing her goggles and closing her book, putting it aside and placing her plate in her lap.
"Is anybody else awake?" I shook my head and swallowed some more egg and juice.
"I don't think so. I haven't seen or heard anyone else get up." She nodded at me and took a bite out of her own sandwich and drank some of her milk, or whatever it was, looking out the window. I looked over at the book she had placed beside her on the seat, and saw that the title was in a different language, so I figured it was a book she had gotten from home or maybe this ship might have a room with books just like it had clothes in some of them. She brushed some of her hair out of her face and smiled at me.
"Are you feeling better today?" I was pulled out of my thoughts and looked up at Starlee. Her eyes and face were smiling, but I could also see that she was concerned, and her voice was a tad softer than it had been when she talked to me a second ago. I nodded at her and tried to look reassuring.
"Oh, yes, much better. Thank you." She smiled wider, showing her white teeth, and her dimples appeared again. She was really cute. I mean, Jhanna was also good-looking, but she was leaning more towards pretty than cute. Starlee just looked adorable. I could imagine her as a blonde, blue-eyed girl if she lived on Earth, looking kinda like Mikey. The only difference was that he was a turtle and she was an... uh, some humanoid alien, I guess.
"How far from the wormhole are we?" I looked over the computers and then back at her again after checking our location.
"About 29.85 light-hours away from the wormhole. We'll be there in less than three hours." She took a bite out of the muffin and nodded. She had a big smile on her face and her eyes sparkled with excitement.
"Oh, this is so exciting! I can't wait to see what Filione is like! And to go through that wormhole! It feels like we're gonna, you know, z-z-zoom-" she made gestures with her arms, as if her hands were the ship, and she tried to make it look like it was going through the wormhole, "right off into the unknown, and we have no idea where we're gonna end up then." I couldn't help but smile at her exaggerated gestures, her excited eyes and her big smile, but at the same time I felt nervous. She was right; we had no idea what we were going to find on the other side of that wormhole, and that was a pretty daunting thought.
"I think it's a bit more like diving into a lake from a bridge without checking for sharp rocks at the bottom. Or if the water's deep enough." Starlee looked at me with a raised brow, then smirked cockily at me and nudged me in the side with her elbow.
"What, are you scared? Didn't think you were that kind of alien." I rolled my eyes at her and sipped my coffee, looking out the window again. In the corner of my eye I saw that Starlee was eyeing me curiously, and also appearing to be a little confused. Then she shrugged it off and started to eat her own breakfast. I looked out the window, eyeing every star with interest. So many different stars that no one on Earth had ever seen. I turned to Starlee, who was chewing on some of her food, looking out the window, and her thoughts seemed to someplace else.
"Have you ever been to Filione before?" She turned to look at me, her smile fading from her face, and she looked down at the floor for moment before looking up again, trying to smile.
"Well, no. I've... I've never been off D'hoonib before. In fact, to tell you the truth, I've never really left my house before." I choked on my coffee and looked at her, wide-eyed. For me, a turtle born on Earth- where space travel was still relatively new- it made sense why I had never been off my own planet. But Starlee? She seemed like a smart, responsible girl, so why hadn't she been let out of her own home?
"What? Really? But your planet's inhabitants have been traveling to other planets for a long time, right? So why wouldn't you be free to do as you wish? I mean, would it be so bad to just run down to the market?" She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, showing that she didn't know.
"I don't know. I've never known why. Dad would never tell me. He just told me it was for my own good and safety. I've just always kinda assumed that he didn't want me to get hurt in the war we're trying to fight off. That he was just an overprotective father. But I have always dreamed of seeing other worlds and affecting them for the better! To leave a mark on other planets, showing how good the Federation is!" Her words made me halt and look at her curiously. The Federation, good? Since when had that been a thing? I started to get the idea that her father, General Blanque- who had slashed his own daughter across the face with a sword- might not have told his other daughter the entire story of what the Federation actually was. But I decided not to say anything, tried to shrug it off and took a bite out of my toast.
"Well, I can relate to having an overprotective parent. My father wouldn't let me and my brothers go out and see the world until we turned fifteen." She started to look at me with a strange look in her eyes, as if she was trying to call my bluff or was curious about something and was attempting to figure it out. I tried not to be bothered by her looking at me like that, but it was hard not to eye her back a little. My eyes slid over to her every other second, but I always tried to catch myself before she caught me- although I'm sure she did anyway. She licked her lips and played a little with a strand of her hair.
"Uh, Donnie?" I looked over at her and she stopped fiddling with her hair. Her eyes narrowed in confusion and she looked both cautious and curious at the same time, as if she wanted to ask me something, but was scared that she might offend me by doing so. I put my mug down and turned to face her, smiling reassuringly.
"Yeah? What is it?" She bit her lower lip for a second and then looked me straight in the eyes, taking a deep breath.
"I hope you don't mind me asking, but… what are you?" I was taken aback a little, and I have to admit, I hadn't expected her to ask me that. Now, I'm not saying that I was offended or anything, but still. I had expected more of a question about why I was so depressed yesterday, or about my family or something like that.
"Well, I'm..." I couldn't help but laugh a little at the question. "Heh, I'm a turtle. A mutated turtle. Don't you have reptiles on D'hoonib? Or, you know, aliens like me?" She shook her head at this and frowned slightly.
"No. I mean, yes, we do, but not exactly like yours. We have different kinds of lizards and other reptilians on D'hoonib, but not with shells on their backs or with the kind of weapons and gear you have. So, what kind of reptile are you?" I sucked on my lips and bit down on them. Should I tell her? It would be easier, but at the same time, could I give away such a personal family story to someone who was only a little more than a stranger? I hadn't even told Jhanna that story, and I had known her for almost two months. I sighed and turned to Starlee again.
"Okay, you might as well hear the whole story. It'll make much more sense that way." She nodded, moved a little closer to me and smiled widely, resting her chin in one hand and her elbow on the control panel. I took a deep breath and leaned back in my seat. Here goes nothing.
"Well, about fifteen or sixteen years ago, a man named Hamato Yoshi lived in the land of Japan. He was born and raised in family of ninjas, and was trained to become a ninja as well. A warrior of the night and a master of stealth and honor. Anyway, he grew up with an adopted brother from the enemy clan, and they were the best of friends. That is, until a young woman named Tang Shen entered their lives and they both fell in love with her. And eventually, she choose to marry Yoshi and they both had a lovely baby daughter together." Starlee smiled gently and her eyes sparkled slightly.
"Aw, that's so romantic. So sweet." I smiled and nodded a little. What Tang Shen and Yoshi had when they were together must've been special. The kind of true love that I read about in my books back home, and the stories we were told as kids. Then Starlee frowned a little and lowered her arm, removing her hand from her chin. "But what does that have to do what you are?" I raised my hand slightly and tried to smile.
"I'll get to that. Anyway, his brother, Oroku Saki, got insanely jealous of Tang Shen falling for Yoshi instead of him. And that jealousy eventually turned into hatred. And one night, he struck. Eh, I'll spare you the details of what happened that night; it's not exactly a happy story, but to sum it all up, Yoshi survived the night but lost his wife and daughter." Starlee gasped quietly and covered her mouth with her hand.
"That's terrible! What a horrible man Oroku Saki must have been. But what happened next?" I took a strawberry out of the small bowl on my plate and nibbled on it.
"Well, Yoshi didn't have much to live for in Japan after what happened, so he moved away to America, to the city of New York. He intended to start a new life for himself and try to escape Saki's wrath- since he knew Saki would try to kill him if he knew he was still alive. And, one day, he walked into a pet store and bought four baby turtles to care for." Her eyes widened in realization, but I could see she didn't have the answers to all of her questions, so I kept going.
"On the way home, he bumped into a very strange man on the street. And, sensing that something was off about him, Yoshi decided to follow him. I should mention that it was a Kraang, hiding in a human-looking robot body, but Yoshi didn't know this at the time. No one on Earth knew anything of the Kraang at the time. Anyway, they were dealing with a canister full of strange glowing ooze that caught his interest. But then he stepped on a rat and the Kraang noticed that he was spying on them. And while Yoshi tried to defend himself and the turtles, the canister flew out of the Kraang's hands and hit Yoshi and the turtles. He mutated into a giant humanoid rat and the turtles mutated into humanoid turtles." Starlee finally managed to catch on and pointed at me with a smile, but mostly a both surprised and eager expression.
"So, you are a byproduct of a Kraang experiment? You were small, a normal little turtle, but then got genetically modified into a half-reptile, half-humanoid hybrid, due to the ooze fusing the DNA of Yoshi and your own." I couldn't help but laugh at how impressed and eager she sounded and nodded.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that. We were all in a freak accident that changed our lives completely. Yoshi renamed himself Splinter and took us all under his wing, taught us everything we know about fighting and being a warrior and has been our father for the last fifteen, almost sixteen, years. He gave us names; he fed us, changed us and raised us, giving himself and us a new life. If he hadn't been there, we probably would have ended up in a lab as experiments. He gave us a home and loved us as his own flesh and blood. We're probably the strangest family on earth." Starlee smiled and looked me over; as if I was a sample or an experiment she was studying.
"Wow, that's so fascinating! I mean, I've heard about the Kraang and their mutagen, but to see someone who's been affected by the genetic alterations it causes? It's just amazing! And your father sounds amazing, too." I smiled, and nodded at her with a small laugh.
"Yeah, he is. He's the best father any of us could ever ask for. He's always been there for us when we needed him." My smile faded a little and I looked away from Starlee for a second. "Or at least he used to be." I muttered to myself and then looked back at Starlee again. But the smile on her face had disappeared from her face and the look in her eyes changed.
"But wait... If you're here, and Yoshi- I-I mean Splinter, and those other turtles are on your home planet, doesn't that mean that... You know, that they don't know you're here? That you're light-years away from home, and your family?" I looked away and felt myself feeling saddened again. I sighed and shrugged.
"Yeah, I guess that's right. I mean, my family probably thinks I'm dead right now. I fell through a Kraang portal and ended up on your planet by sheer accident. In fact, if it weren't for the Professor, I probably wouldn't have survived. So, yeah, they probably think I'm dead." I felt small tears start to form in my eyes and was quick to blink them away before they could fall or Starlee could see them. Then I felt her small, soft hand on my cheek and she made me look at her again. Her eyes were filled with sympathy, and I almost believed she would start crying for my sake.
"I'm so sorry for you. It must be horrible to so far away from your family and not be able to contact them at all. You must miss them so much." The tone in her voice and the fact that she looked ready to cry just from hearing my story left me flabbergasted. She showed more sympathy for me after talking to me for about ten minutes than my own brothers had the last year. I smiled lightly at her.
"Yeah, I do. But how did you know I can't contact them?" She removed her hand from my face and placed both hands in her lap.
"Well, I just assumed since you haven't used the ship's intergalactic contact system to get in contact with them; your planet doesn't have the technology to receive that kind of signal. I don't mean to insult your planet, I just sort of assumed that-" I shook my head and smiled reassuringly at her.
"No, no, it's okay. Earth doesn't have nearly as advanced technology as this ship alone has. And I did know about the contact system, just so you know." Starlee nodded awkwardly and looked away. She moved away a little bit and took her glass of milk, sipping it. I looked curiously at her food, and after a while, I couldn't help but ask, partly to get rid of the awkward air around us and partly because I was curious.
"What are you eating? I mean, what exactly is it?" Starlee looked up from her glass of milk, picked up the plate in front of her with her muffin and showed it a little better, and held up her half-full glass.
"Oh, this is a Vanerian muffin. They're a delicacy throughout the galaxy." She held up the glass a little. "And this is milk from D'hoonibian land whales. It's pretty common, everyone on my planet drinks it." I wrinkled my nose at that. Milk from a whale? Even if it was on land (which in itself was really strange)… I mean, I knew people drank milk from cows (duh!), goats, sheep, and even horses, but a whale? Urgh, I guess every planet has its own taste. Starlee handed me the plate and the glass with a smile.
"Here, wanna taste some?" I jerked away a little as the strange food got closer to my face, but then thought it over a little. Maybe I needed to expand my horizons a little bit. I wouldn't exactly say that I'm closed-minded or anything- I try to be as open-minded as I can, given my position in life. I had always figured that I had no room to criticize or shun others for how they looked or what they were, and tried to give everyone the benefit of the doubt or at least give them a chance. But I had heard Master Splinter, Leo and sometimes Mikey say that I had a tendency to jump to conclusions sometimes. Like when I saw Casey with April for the first time and assumed they were on a date. It's nothing I'm proud of, but I can't help it. So I shrugged and took the plate and glass.
"Sure, why not?" I took the muffin and sniffed it. It smelled close to an ordinary muffin, and the small, pink/purple berries and pink frosting smelled okay, too. So I shrugged, swallowed any doubt or fear of the stuff tasting bad, and took a bite. And that second I felt my taste buds almost explode and immediately had to hold myself back from spitting it out again. Not because the taste was bad or anything, but the berries were so sour and the frosting was almost just as sour that it was a chore to force myself to swallow it. Since I had the glass of milk in the other hand, I quickly gulped down some of it and almost started to cough. Man, that milk was thick! Thicker than cream. A whole lot thicker- and also a pretty sweet. That made it a little hard to swallow.
"Are you okay?" Starlee took the plate and glass from me and put them aside, placing her hand on my shell, gently patting it as I coughed, trying to spit out the taste. I nodded the best I could and grabbed some of my juice and gulped half of the glass to both clear my throat and wash the sour berries and thick and sweet cream-like milk out of my mouth. Once I felt like my taste buds weren't dying, I looked up at the girl in front of me and tried to smile.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. It's just, man, those berries were sour! And that milk- it was like drinking sweet yogurt, only thicker and so sweet it was nasty!" She looked at me as if I were crazy and raised any eyebrow at me, too.
"Sour? Well, yeah, what else did you expect? Berries are sour; that's the way it is." I shook my head and showed her my bowl of bright red strawberries.
"Not on Earth. If they're grown well, with plenty of sun, water and no toxic growth serums and other gardening stuff, they can taste really, really good." She looked over the red berries and, unlike Jhanna- who seemed disgusted with every new Earth dish I ate- she seemed pretty curious and more open-minded as to what my planet had to offer.
"Really?" I nodded and she looked up at me. "May I?" She pointed to one of the biggest ones and I understood what she meant, holding the bowl out for her to take.
"Sure! Take one, they're delicious." She hesitated for a moment, then took one of the strawberries, sniffed it and took a small nibble out the berry. Her eyes widened and she pulled her mouth away from it, almost is if it had burned her or something. Then she eyed the berry again and tried to take another bite. And this time, she seemed to welcome the taste a bit more.
"Mm, this is really good! I've never tasted a berry that was sweet before! Are there any more berries on your planet?" I nodded and put the bowl aside, taking a berry of my own and taking a bite.
"Sure, there're plenty! Blueberries, raspberries, black berries, cherries, grapes and gooseberries! And there's also a lot of really good fruit, like melons, pineapples, papaya, mango, kiwis and so much more! I could show you sometime." She smiled and swallowed the rest of the berry. She then swallowed the rest of her milk and grabbed the rest of her muffin.
"Well, I'm gonna go and take a shower. And you should probably get ready for your training session with Traximus, right?" I smiled at her as she left and looked over at my own breakfast. Only a little bit of my juice, some coffee and two strawberries left. I would have to finish this quickly or I would be late for my training session. I sighed and looked out the window at the stars we passed. This was, in a way, so very exciting! I couldn't wait to see what was on the other side of that wormhole, but dreaded what could be there as well.
A/N: Well, that's a wrap! It was fun to write a bit of Starlee and Donnie interacting with each other and not just him and Jhanna, Traximus or the Professor. I also hope I gave her a good, convincing personality. And I am so looking forward to writing future chapters! Now we'll finally get to Filione soon!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everybody!