Scaredy Shell

Age: Five Years

"Donatello, put that down! Raphael, stop chasing Leonardo! Michelangelo, that is not food!"

Splinter heaved a great sigh as he slumped down on a stool, exhausted.

In front of him all four of his children were rampaging across their home invested in nothing less than pure, unadulterated chaos. He glanced at the clock.

1:30am.

Splinter grooaaaned. What was he going to do? He had put them all to bed three times already and as much as he threatened, yelled, and occasionally begged they just would not go to sleep.

As he sat there amidst the chaos he thought back to when he was little and did the same thing. Of course he had only ever done so once. His father had made sure of that by threatening him with the—

Splinter's eyes shot open. A smile quickly spread across his face.

"Yame!"

The children all stopped what they were doing and looked at their sensei/father.

"Gather round, my sons. I have a story to tell you."

Four little turtle faces lit up. They quickly dropped whatever they were doing and ran to their daddy, taking up their standard story time positions.

"What's the story about?" asked Donnie.

"Is it the one about the dragon and the samurai?! Hyah! Hyah!" asked Raph making samurai sword motions in the air.

"No, my sons. This is a different kind of story. It is the tale of a monster called the Kuro Kabuto."

His children stared at him with wide eyes.

"M-monster?" asked Mikey, already edging slightly behind Leo's shell.

"Yes, a terrible, horrible monster. The Kuro Kabuto is a giant black beetle with razor claws and a mouth filled with teeth as sharp as kunai."

The children huddled closer together.

"He is vicious and mean, and he only eats one thing."

"W-what thing?" asked Mikey, trembling before the rat master.

Splinter smiled.

"Little children."

"Aaaaaaaaaah!"

Mikey JERKED his head and limbs back into his shell so fast that the limbless shell actually spun for a moment before settling down on the ground with the terrified turtle locked inside.

"I-Is he gonna eat us?" asked Donnie.

"Oh, no." said Splinter. "The Kuro Kabuto only eats children who disobey their fathers. But you would never do that, would you?"

Three little turtles shook their heads rapidly, much to their sensei's satisfaction.

"Good. Now go to bed. Lest the Kuro Kabuto stop by…for a snack."

As fast as lightening, the turtles shot from the living room, each vying for their respective rooms like green jackrabbits. Splinter chuckled. When his father had told him that story he had run to his room so fast that he plowed face first through the rice paper door. Sure, he had nightmares for weeks, but he behaved, just as his father had intended.

Splinter was just about to head for his own room when he noticed Mikey's shell lying unmoved upon the living room floor. He knelt down and knocked on the shell.

"Michelangelo." he called softly. "It's time for bed."

"I'm not coming out!" called the tinniest turtle from inside the safety of his shell.

Splinter's brow furrowed. "And why not?"

"Because if I do the Kuro Kabuto will eat me!"

Splinter sighed. "He will not eat you if you simply go to bed."

"No! I'm never coming out again!"

Splinter pinched the bridge of his nose. It was far too late for this.

"Very well."

With all the gingerness of a mother bird Splinter lifted the shell off the ground and gently carried it to Mikey's room. He sat Mikey down on the bed and pulled the covers over him.

"Good night, Michelangelo."

Silence.

"Michelangelo?"

"Night night, Daddy!"

Splinter stood in the doorway for a moment staring at the withdrawn form of his son, his shell the only thing still visible to the naked eye.

Splinter hesitated for a moment before shaking it off. This would pass. After all, this was Mikey! His hyperactive, overly-energetic, couldn't sit still for five seconds son. By morning he would be up and running about their home like his usual self.

He was wrong.

The next morning Splinter stood in the doorway of his son's room staring at the unmoved shell sitting on Mikey's bed in the exact same position as he had left it.

"Michelangelo?" called Splinter cautiously as he hesitantly stepped towards the shell.

"Morning, Daddy." called Mikey from inside.

Splinter sighed with relief. Despite what he knew of turtle biology there was still a small part of him that worried Mikey had managed to defy science and slipped out of his shell during the night. Splinter had enough trouble getting the fidgeting child into his winter coat. Getting him back into his own shell would have been a nightmare.

Just as quickly as he dismissed his slightly silly worry new, more pressing worries quickly cropped up. Splinter sat down beside Mikey on the bed.

"Have you been in there all night?" asked Splinter.

"Yep. It's really warm."

"Be that as it may, it is breakfast time. Now, come out and go wash your face."

"No! The Kuro Kabuto will eat me!"

"Michelangelo, come out this instant."

"No!"

Splinter growled. He lifted the tiny shell and twisted it around in his arms, searching for some way he could pry out the terrapin locked inside. He turned it around so he could see inside the head hole where two, baby blue eyes stared back at him.

"Hi, Daddy."

Splinter glared. He tucked the shell under his arm and walked out of the room, marching with complete determination to the kitchen.

When he arrive his three other children were already seated at the table, washed and clean as they should be.

Without a word Splinter plopped the Mikey shell down in Mikey's seat and angrily went over to the pot of porridge he had boiling over a small, enclosed fire.

The other children stared at the shell.

"Mikey?"

"Hi, Leo."

"What cha ya doin' in there?" asked Raph.

"Your brother refuses to come out of his shell." said Splinter as he angrily stirred the pot.

"I'm hiding from the Kuro Kabuto." explained Mikey.

"That's silly." said Donnie. "The Kuro Kabuto could find you in your shell."

"Could not!"

"He's just being a big scaredy shell." teased Raph. "Little baby Mikey afraid to come out of his shell!"

Raph's laughter rang through the kitchen. Normally, Splinter would have reprimanded his son for teasing his brother, but part of him hoped a little prompting from his siblings would finally get Mikey to put this ridiculous behavior behind him.

"Shut up!" shouted Mikey. "You'll be sorry when the Kuro Kabuto eats your heads off."

The kitchen went silent as the brothers pondered Mikey's words.

Leo turned to Splinter.

"Can I hide in my shell?"

"No!"

Splinter sat in a meditation pose as he watching his sons play in the living room. Leo and Raph were playing with some old toys cars that Splinter had found, and Donatello was drawing.

And where was Mikey?

"That should be blue." said Mikey.

"Like this?" asked Donnie.

"Yep. And then that should be purple!"

Splinter took a deep breath, calming himself. He had thought that play time would lure Mikey out of his shell, but, lo and behold, the child proved more stubborn than even Splinter could have imagined. Instead of coming out to play the little turtle now sat beside Donnie directing him on how to color a picture of…something. To be honest, he wasn't quite sure. Mikey's drawings always tended to be a bit more…abstract than his brothers even when they were being done by someone else.

At first Splinter had been angry at his son's defiant attitude, but now his anger was gradually shifting to worry. What if his son never came out? What if he stayed inside so long he got stuck? Could turtles get stuck in their own shell?

Leo ran over to Mikey.

"Hey, Mikey! Come play cars with us!"

"No thanks." came Mikey's reply.

"Come on! You can't stay in there forever!"

"Can too!"

"But what if you have to go to the bathroom?"

"…"

"…"

"…DADDY!"

Splinter stood outside the bathroom with his arms crossed, impatiently waiting for his son.

"Michelan—"

"Not done!"

Splinter groaned.

A deep sigh slide through Splinter's lips as he carried Mikey back into his room. This whole thing had gone completely out of control. It was time to end it before things got even worse…or before Mikey had to use the bathroom again. Really, they were pretty much the same thing.

Splinter sat down on Mikey's bed with the turtle shell set gently in his lap.

"Michelangelo. I have a confession."

"What's a confes-son?"

"It means I want to tell the truth."

"Ooooh."

Splinter took a deep breath.

"The truth is…there is no such thing as the Kuro Kabuto."

"Yes, there is! You said so!"

"The Kuro Kabuto is just a story. You have no need to be afraid."

"But what if that's just what he wants you to think!"

"Michelangelo-"

"No! I won't let it eat me!"

Splinter leaned back in shock as the shell bounced in his lap. Before he knew what was happening the shell leaped off his lap and rolled right out the door.

Splinter stared after him for a moment.

"I…did not know he could do that." He admitted to himself.

Splinter walked through the lair, his head down in deep thought. He just didn't know where he had gone wrong. The story never had this type of effect on him when he was little. Sure, he trembled in fear whenever his father threatened him with the monster. And yes, he would spend nights hidden beneath his blankets, afraid that the monster would eat him while he slept. Not that the blankets would have done any good against a…

Splinter stopped, a sudden realization donning upon him.

The blankets. When he was little he had used the blankets on his bed as a shield against the monster. He would pull them around himself and create a fortress so the monster couldn't get to him. And now Mikey was doing the same thing, only his fortress was solid and completely attached to him. And unlike Splinter's own father, Splinter himself couldn't just snatch Mikey's fortress away and force him to brave the day.

As Splinter dwelled upon this new revelation he wandered into the living room where three of his children were huddled together.

"What are you doing, my sons?"

The three kids looked up.

"We're trying to figure out a way to get Mikey out of his shell." explained Donnie.

"It's no fun when he doesn't play with us!" exclaimed Leo.

Splinter looked at Raph, who was averting his eyes.

"Do you miss your brother too, Raphael?"

"No!" shouted Raph. "I just want him to stop being stupid!"

Splinter chuckled.

"And what have you three come up with?"

"Not much." explained Donnie. "So far all we've done is draw a picture of Mikey in his shell."

Donnie lifted up the picture which was a surprisingly good drawing.

"Raph did most of the work on it."

"Shut up!"

Splinter stared at it for a long moment, admiring the five year olds' work.

Suddenly, an idea flashed into his mind.

He smiled.

"I think I have an idea how we can get Mikey to come outside." He said, kneeling down to his children. "Would you like to help me?"

The children all broke into broad grins.

Splinter carried Mikey's shell through the lair. He had found him hidden behind the bath tub. The fact that he managed to get into such a position without coming out of his shell was extremely impressive.

"Where are we going?" asked Mikey, baby blue eyes peering up at his father from the dark of his shell.

"You'll see." replied Splinter, a smile in his voice.

The two arrived in the living room.

"We're here."

Gently, Splinter turned the shell around so Mikey could see into the living room.

"Woooooaaaaaah."

His eyes sparkled with wonder.

In the middle of the living room was a fortress of blankets, pillows, and furniture all constructed and painted to look like—

"It's a shell!" said Mikey.

And indeed it was. The outside of the fortress was composed of blankets painted to look exactly like Mikey's shell. If his shell were drawn by five-year-olds that is.

"Shall we go inside?" asked Splinter, moving before waiting for an answer.

The blankets parted revealing the interior of the shell.

"Hi, Mikey!" said Leo.

Three cheerful faces looked up as Splinter and Mikey walked inside, the blanket swinging closed behind him.

"What is this?" asked Mikey, his eyes moving from side to side as he tried to take in as much of the fort as possible from the opening in his shell.

"We figured that if we couldn't get you to come outside your shell." said Leo.

"That we would come inside your shell with you." finished Donnie.

"But since we couldn't do that Daddy helped us build a bigger shell that we could all fit in." added Raph.

Mikey was silent for a moment.

Slowly, four yellow-green limbs stretched out from inside the shell, followed soon after by a small little head.

Splinter smiled.

"Theeeere's my son." he said, turning Mikey around so he could give the tiny turtle a proper hug. The other three turtles scooted over to join in hugging their youngest sibling.

Mikey looked at them all, surrounding him on all sides.

He looked up at Splinter.

"Daddy."

"Yes, Michelangelo?"

"I don't need this shell anymore."

"Nooooo?" asked Splinter with a smile.

Mikey shook his head.

"No. Cause you guys are my shell. Even if the Kuro Kabuto showed up I'd have you guys to keep me safe."

A warm fire lit up the inside of Splinter's chest. He looked down as three of his children cuddled protectively around their younger brother, and sure enough they formed a perfect shell.

"We can all be each other's shells." said Donnie.

"Yeah! That way we never have to be scared." added Leo.

Splinter laughed as he wrapped his long arms around all four of his children.

"And I shall be the biggest shell of all!"

The four turtles all giggled as they squirmed in Splinter's embrace.

"Hey!"

"You're squishing us!"

"The Kuro Kabuto's gonna get you!"

The lair echoed with the sounds of laughter as inside the fortress the five family members basked in the warmth and safety of their family shell.

Author's Note: Hi hi Everyone! HAPPY BELATED THANKSGIVING! I hope you all had a hyper fun time! I know I did!

Here's the latest chapter of Adventures in Parenting, which as you may have noticed, is a bit of a continuation of the theme from the last chapter. I have to say I absolutely LOVED this concept and had soooo much fun writing it! I would love to hear what you all thought of this latest chapter! Thank you so hyper much for reading, and, as always, have a hyper happy day! LOVE YOU GUYS~!