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"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."
- Carl Gustav Jung -
"So... I must be in a different dimension," Leo stated. He was sitting at the table, a hot tea in his hands. After he had become hysterical, Tequila had slapped him twice, hard, then he led him to the table and made him tea as an apology and to calm the kid's nerves down. "This dimension is horrible! I hope the guys will find me soon."
"It's good news that you live in a better place. Kids shouldn't experience such a life," Tequila said, then he sipped from his tea. He was sitting opposite him. "I hope your world won't turn into a nightmare as mine did."
"Yes. I wish we could defeat the Shredder soon. After that, we could live a peaceful life."
So he has a family, Tequila thought. He would like to learn more about the young boy. He didn't even know his name. But he knew he didn't have to know more about him. He didn't want to get too close to him. He had to send him back to his world before he gets used to the fact that he's not alone anymore. And before he doesn't want to let the boy go.
"Do you think it's hopeless to go against the Shredder? Do you think that this world can't be saved?" Leo asked.
"Yes. I lost hope a long time ago. We tried to overcome the Shredder, but we failed. We'd lost too much," the older replied woefully. Leo looked at him sadly, then his eyes drooped. The bigger turtle sighed, then continued. "But let's not talk about the past anymore. It can't be changed. Let's speak about our future. You have nowhere to go, am I right?"
"Yeah..." he whispered.
"You can stay here, on two conditions. You won't go hysterical again, and you will obey me. Understood?"
"Yes, thank you."
Leo drank the last sip from his tea and opened his mouth again. "Can I ask something?"
"Go ahead."
"Are there other turtles here too?"
"Yes."
"How many?"
Tequila thought for a moment. "I'm not sure..." Were they still alive? He didn't know. It was a long time ago when he last saw one of them.
"So, you don't know where they are, right?"
"Yes. I haven't seen any of them for a while."
"Were they your teammates?"
"Yes. And I had teammates from other species too."
"What happened to them?"
Tequila lifted the cup to his mouth. How could he tell it nicely and carefully to a child? He didn't want to scare him. He didn't know how old he was. He sounded young, and he was little, Tequila assumed that he was a young teenager. He put him between thirteen and sixteen.
"One injured, another died, and somebody disappeared. Lots of things happened to them. I wouldn't like to go into details."
"I-I understand."
"Since when are you a mutant?" the older asked suddenly.
"I mutated shortly after I hatched."
"So, you were a pet turtle."
"Yes. What about you?"
"The same can be said about me too."
"And since when..." Leo cut himself off. Should he ask? Wouldn't it be a bit nosy? He didn't want to be indiscreet.
"Since when what?" Tequila urged him.
"Since when are you... blind?" Leo asked quietly and sheepishly.
"It happened almost thirty years ago. I've lost my sight by the Shredder. We'd already lost our doctor, and during that wartime, we couldn't find anybody else who could have helped me."
"I don't know what I would do if that happened to me," Leo sighed.
"Once, Helen Keller said: 'Blindness is an unfortunate handicap, but true vision does not require eyes.' Do you know who she was?"
"An author?"
"Among other things, yes. But most importantly, she was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. At first, when I first read about her, I couldn't understand how she could live with such a misfortunate fate. And I still can't understand. I have no idea what I would do if I went deaf too. When I had my sight, I had no idea what I would do if I went blind. And now, I'm here, an old, blind, mutant, who is still alive. I had learned how to live with this hindrance. It wasn't easy, not at all, but I managed to adapt. There are things that cannot be understood by those people who didn't experience them. But no matter what you experience in your life, it is necessary to adapt."
Leonardo was listening to him intently. This turtle reminded him of Master Splinter now.
"You know... you remind me of a wise man I know," Leo said. "He's been telling us wise things since our hatch and sometimes he's speaking in riddles," Leo smiled as he thought about his father, but it soon turned into a frown as he realized that he can't get advice from him right now. And who knows when he will see him again. He blew the air out through his nose.
"As I see it, you have to break in a way to be wise. I guess his life wasn't the best either, was it?"
"You're right. He has lost his first family," Leo released a sigh sadly.
"But he could move on, and now he's happy again with you."
"Yes. He says that when he misses his loved ones from the past, he focuses on the friends he's surrounded in the present."
What a shame that I have nobody to focus on, Tequila thought bitterly.
"Do you live alone?" Leo asked.
"Yes."
"Don't you have family or friends?"
"I had. But I've lost them. They had died, and the rest of us drifted apart."
"Call them up! I'm sure they don't like this either. You can be friends again!" Leo explained confidently.
"You're young, and you're so naive," the older turtle shook his head. "When I was as young as you are now, I also believed that everything and everybody can be saved. You will grow out of it."
"I'm not naive," Leo defended himself, offended. "You are too pessimist."
Tequila hummed, and a smirk appeared on his face. "Perhaps we are both far away from realistic, but in a different way."
"Well, you could at least try."
Tequila folded his hands around the empty cup. Perhaps he really should try... No! They didn't give a damn about him, then why would he? But at least one of them... he was so lonely. He was alive, but he was just surviving this life without his family, not actually living it.
But the idea didn't vanish from his mind.
"I can make you spaghetti for dinner," Tequila offered as he walked out of the lab. Leo was sitting on the couch, watching some kind of cartoon on the TV.
"Can I help?" Leo asked.
"Not needed. I've been managing on my own for quite some time now."
"Alright. I should avoid the kitchen anyway."
"Why?" Tequila stepped to the hotplate and put the red pot filled with water on it.
"I can't cook or bake... or anything else what others do in the kitchen," Leo admitted slightly embarrassed. "I can only make tea without setting the kitchen on fire."
The older turtle chuckled. "I wasn't better either when I was young. But since I live alone, I had to learn these things."
"How old are you?" Leo asked. "If I might ask," he added sheepishly.
"I'm forty-seven. What about you, kid?"
"I'm fifteen, soon sixteen."
"You have your whole life ahead of you," he put the pasta into the boiling water. "Hopefully, you don't have to spend the rest of your time here."
"Yeah... but I don't know how I will go back. Perhaps the only thing I can do is waiting."
Tequila thought for a moment. Should he offer his help? He couldn't let this poor child be stuck here. But it wasn't his problem. He didn't even know this kid. He wasn't his father or something... But still... this child didn't do anything wrong against him. It wouldn't kill him to call someone up. Perhaps with this call, he could get a friend back too. But what if they couldn't help him? What will happen to the kid, then? Should he take care of him in the future?
He took a deep breath.
Let's worry about this later, he thought.
.- I don't own the turtles or the other characters from the cartoon -.
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