"Tally, over here," Leo whispered from the shadows. Tally turned around and looked into the ally, a little farther away from the street corner she and Leo had agreed to meet at the night prior. She checked the digital clock on the side of a building; 4:32. She smiled.
"You're late."
"I know. Sorry, I slept in." Leo apologized as Tally met him in the corner. Her smile faded.
"Dude, I was totally kidding." She said, patting his shell. Leo returned his smile and pulled out the blind fold Splinter had requested her to use when she came for and left training. She scoffed in good nature as she looked at it. It was yellow band, not unlike the ones the turtles wore around their eyes. Except this one had no eyeholes, and had a crude drawing of a smiley face with words that read 'TALLY'S EYES'. She laughed. "I love it."
Leo rolled his eyes as he fastened it over her head snugly. "It was Mikey's idea." He said, taking her hand.
"I'm not surprised." Tally responded, letting herself be lead back to the lair.
The two climbed down the ladder, and Tally was pleasantly surprised.
"It doesn't smell as bad as it did the last time."
Leo laughed as they walked. "That's cause you're getting used to it."
Tally hesitated. "Is it…okay that I'm getting used to it?" she asked. There was a pause.
"It's not like I don't like you Tal," Leo said finally. Tally perked up at the nickname. Nicknames were good right? "I do. It's just, we have to be careful. We've got enemies," he said. "And our priority is the safety of our family. But the guys like having you around too. It's a change. We don't have many human friends." He continued. "But Master Splinter-"
"-Wants to keep you guys safe." Tally finished. She nodded. "I get it, completely." She assured. "I just hope this works out."
"Well, you're already this far." He said, leaving it at that. Tally nodded.
Around fifteen minutes later, the two came to a stop, and she heard the secret door open up and close behind them as they walked in. Leo removed her blindfold and she grinned, cracking her knuckles.
"I'm so ready for this." She said.
"We'll see about that." A sleepy voice said, coming in. It was Mikey, shuffling in and rubbing his eyes. He perked up when he saw her. "Do you like your bandanna?"
Tally laughed, nodding. "Of course I do." She said. Mikey gave her a shaka-or what she interpreted as a shaka, what with three fingers and all-and grinned, popping his back.
"Guys, dojo." Leo said, pushing them along. "If we're late Splinter will have us do katas for an hour."
Tally wasn't exactly sure what a kata was, but by Leo's tone, she assumed she didn't want to do them for an hour. She had taken karate previously. But for only a year, and she only made it to an orange belt. She'd stopped after the fire. Of course she could fight, but there was no technique. It was a mix between sloppy 10 year old karate moves, street fighting, and dirty fighting. You had to do what you needed to. As Tally stretched out her muscles, she was beginning to have doubts. Could she actually keep up with these guys?
One way to find out.
"My sons." Splinter greeted, as the three met the other two in the dojo. "And Tally," he said, nodding in her direction. She bowed back before chucking her shoes in the corner by the door. "Good morning."
The five of them bowed. "Good morning Master Splinter." They said.
"Let us begin. Tally, try your best to keep up, but do not be afraid of failure." Splinter said. "Drop to position one." Tally remembered that from the day previously, and went into an unsteady hand stand with the others. She stared at the floor, willing herself to stay up. Within seconds her arm muscles were burning. She took a shaky breath, her arms shaking as well. There was no way in hell she was going to be able to do push-ups while in this position.
After thirty seconds, the turtles started doing push-ups. Tally almost forgot to breath, which would've sent her into a face plant on the bamboo flooring. But luckily, she took a deep breath, concentrating. She managed to go down and go back up before her legs did a sort of acrobat routine. She tried to get them under control, she really did. But in doing so, her arms gave out from under her and she fell over, 'oofing' onto the floor. She flushed as she heard snickering behind her that immediately stopped when Splinter rapped his cane on the floor.
"Second position." Splinter ordered. Tally rolled up and started doing push-ups. Her arms felt like Jell-O, so she settled for doing regular push-ups, not the fancy, alternating hands ones.
Splinter went through the other seven positions so quickly, Tally could barely keep up. She had barely gotten five in of whatever exercise they were doing before he moved onto the next one. She was sweating out of every pore in her body.
Finally, mercifully, Splinter called a halt. Tally lied on the floor, practically gasping for air she tried to stop the room from spinning. Donny came over and offered her his water bottle, which she took gratefully, and greedily, swallowing half of it. She grimaced, wiping her mouth.
"Sorry." She apologized. Don shrugged, waving his hand.
"No problem," He said, pulling her up. He paused. "You do know we do it twice, right?" he grimaced, like he didn't want to tell her that.
Tally's shoulders dropped. There was no way in hell she could do that shit again. She could barely keep her eyes focused. But she shook her head and smiled.
"I'll try my best." She said, rolling her neck. She wanted this. She wanted to be taught by Splinter. She wanted to show her strength, and get him to let her stay. She didn't want to fail.
The next round was more miserable than Tally could've imagined. She thought she was fit. She thought she was in relatively good shape.
She was not.
When Splinter finally called halt, Tally feel to her knees, breathing hard. She was sweating out of places she didn't even know she could sweat. It felt like there was a Charlie Horse in her entire body, like her muscles were being ripped away from her bones. Donatello offered her his water again, and she took it. She wanted to dump it on herself. But she managed to keep to just sip it.
"Tally." Splinter addressed. She looked wearily before getting to her feet with a sinking feeling. She blew it. She couldn't keep up. She didn't prove herself to this old master, and now she was done. She had failed.
"Yes?" she asked, trying to make her voice sound as normal as possible, though it was hard when your lungs were on fire.
"Well done." He said, a small smile gracing his snout as he bowed slightly to her. Tally could have fainted in relief and joy. But instead she returned the bow. "You have done well for your first day."
Raph grumbled something and Mikey laughed. Tally glanced over her shoulder and saw Raph pass Mikey a dollar bill.
"They had a bet." Leo filled in, rolling his eyes.
"Which I won." Mikey grinned with a laugh, waving the dollar in Raph's face, who swatted it away. "I bet that you'd make it to sparring."
Tally glanced at Raph, who shrugged. "I bet you wouldn't." he said, matter of fact. "Sorry."
It was Tally's turn to shrug. "No problem. I was a wild bet." She grinned.
"Now on the matter of sparring," Splinter chimed in, drawing Tally's attention back to him. "Would you prefer to sit out this time, or are you well enough to participate?"
Tally was about to answer, but hesitated. She wanted to spar, she did. But she could barely blink, let alone go up against one of them. Despite popular belief. she thought to herself, I sometimes know when to cut my losses. She grinned and bowed again, her hair falling in her face.
"Thank you Master Splinter, but I think it's best if I sit this one out." She said, pushing her hair back.
Splinter nodded, straightening up. "Very well. You are excused." He nodded. "You are welcome to use our shower, if you wish."
"You can use our washer too." Mikey grinned, holding his nose in a joking manor.
"Gee, thanks." Tally grinned sarcastically. Tally grinned, but she would defiantly take him up on that offer. It wasn't everyday she got to shower and wash her clothes, all in one go.
"Very well," Splinter said with a slight nod. "You may go."
Tally nodded and bowed to him, before grabbing her shoes and leaving the dojo. Shower time. Laundry time. She thought in a happy tone. Shower and laundry time for Tally. Hell yeah, hell yeah.
Tally found the bathroom fairly easily. It was on the second floor, and it wasn't really a bathroom. It was at the end of a hallway she presumed to be the turtles' rooms, no doubt modified from when they first found the lair. It didn't really look like a bathroom, but it was. And it turned out the bathroom was also the laundry room. In the corner, opposite the sink, was a laundry set. What four turtles and a rat needed a washer and dryer for was beyond her, the only thing she thought they had to wash was their masks, and maybe towels. She shrugged to herself. They were here, and she was going to use them.
It was a crude, spacious closet like room that had a toilet, rigged up to the wall with piping. No doubt Donny's doing. The shower, sink, and laundry set were much the same. Very innovative Donatello. Tally thought. She glanced over at the sink, and the open medicine cabinet above. There were various alcohols and bandages, cleaning tools and gauze, and also four tooth brushes and paste. Tally figured Master Splinter had his own bathroom on the first floor. Tally figured if she were him, he didn't want to share a bathroom with four teenage boys either.
The floor was concrete, but it was covered in floor rugs which squished under her feet. She dropped her shoes and curled her toes in them. They felt nice. There was a cheap curtain hung from the shower, one with fishes on it, in an underwater scene. Tally smiled. It was crude, and it was handmade, but it was nice.
Tally shook her head and got back to business. She locked the door behind her (just a precaution), and stripped out of her clothes. She piled them up, and gave them a sniff. She pulled back and made a sour face. "Mikey was right." She said in disgust, before putting them all in the washer. She poured in some detergent she got from under the sink and set the timer.
She pulled out her ponytail and shook her head out, her head signing in relief. It was the worst when your pony was too tight, and it pulls your hair out of your head. Tally massaged her head and looked toward the mirror, looking at the rat's nest of red.
She glanced down at her stomach and panicked. She had completely forgotten about her stitches.
She felt her finger along them and sighed in relief. They were all still there, still intact, and more importantly, still healing her wound. They were less apparent, Tally noticed, so they must have been dissolving. The stitches were defiantly sore though, and that work out defiantly didn't help. Tally rolled her eyes at herself.
"Tally you moron." She said to herself. She walked over to the shower and turned the handle. There was a creek, and then a spit, and then water came shooting out. She tested it out with her hands-relieved that it wasn't sewer water- and waited until it was warm enough, and stepped in, relishing the feeling. There's nothing quite like taking a hot shower after a hard work out. Tally could feel her muscles relaxing and cooling down with the warm water, and she sighed, washing her hair out. She looked around in the shower, and she didn't find any shampoo or conditioner.
"Duh Tal." She chided herself. "They're turtles. They don't have hair to shampoo." She picked up the soap bar and lathered it, before rubbing it everywhere, including her hair. It was something, she reasoned, more than she usually had. Tally washed all the grime she could off of her before finally shutting off the water. She grabbed a clean towel (thank whatever deity was out there) from the towel rack and wrapped it around her small frame before stepping out of the shower.
She glanced at the washer and noticed the timer was up, so she switched out her clothes and threw them in the dryer before drying herself out.
Tally combed her hair out with her fingers and judged it critically. She glanced in the medicine cabinet and took the scissors that were there. It had been centuries since she had last cut her hair, and the dead ends were killing her. She combed her hair out as straight as she could before she started snipping. Over the years, she had gotten pretty could at cutting her hair. She got it even all around, at least. She made sure to do it over the small trashcan next to the toilet and finally, after the dryer had rung, Tally was finished. She flipped her hair back and rubbed it with the towel, before throwing said towel in the hamper next to the washer.
She pulled her clothes out and dressed quickly, smiling at the clean smell.
"I'm as fresh as a daisy." She said, pulling her dry-ish hair into a braid. She cleaned up the bathroom as much as she could, before hitting the light and walking out. She had spent a good hour in the bathroom, she figured. Training had to have been done.
She was right. She walked downstairs to find the four turtles munching on some cold pizza around the table. Donny saw her and smiled, offering her a piece. She took it gratefully.
"How was your shower?" Mikey asked, taking a swig of milk.
"Wet." She said, biting her pizza. "How was training?"
"I beat Leo's ass hardcore." Raph grinned proudly, glancing at Leo. "Ain't that right, Fearless?"
Leo shrugged. "I was off today." He said with a grin. "But you did."
"Damn right."
Leo rolled his eyes, looking at Tally. "So, I guess we'd better get you home then?"
Tally sighed inwardly. What was she going to do for the rest of the day? It was barely 7:30am. She guessed she could look for a job, but that was lame. And she wanted to hang out with them some more.
"Awe, can't she hang here for a bit?" Mikey whined. Tally grinned, that's what she had been hoping to hear. "Tally!" he said, pointing at her. "I challenge you to a duel! Xbox style."
"Dude you're on." Tally grinned, before glancing at Leo. "If you don't mind?"
Leo shrugged. "I don't think Splinter would mind, as long as you're home before dark."
"It's settled then!" Mikey grinned, flipping over the kitchen table. "Brawl tournament! Raphie, you think you can beat me this time?" he called.
Raph grinned. "Mikey you're going down!"
"Not if I take you both out." Donny grinned, running after them.
Tally laughed and followed them. If she didn't check herself, this could be somewhere she didn't want to leave. These turtles were her friends. And she like them, a lot. And not just because they saved her, but that gave them major brownie points. No, this lair, these turtles, felt like something. It felt like something she hadn't had in a long time.
It felt like a home.