I just wanted to take a quick second to thank you guys for all your sweet reviews3 You're amazing, and I love getting feedback to know how I'm doing. So... thank you. You amazing person, you. :D
"Vrrrrrrooooommm! Haha, you'll never catch me!" Mikey spread his arms, soaring around the kitchen excitedly.
"Oh yeah?" Came a heavier voice, coming at him from the other side. With a mightly leap, Raphael tackled Mikey and pinned him to the kitchen floor. Instead of doing anything harmful, he began to brush his fingers under his little brother's armpits.
"Hey! Stop ah- that tickles!" Mikey cried out, kicking his legs and laughing aloud.
"Raphael, Michelangelo!"
Raph drew his hands back in alarm, and Mikey scrambled to his feet, still giggling. Their father cast a very stern glance at the two of them, and then blinked once. Mikey silenced himself. "Sit down, my sons. Dinner is not a time for you to be running around." He told them calmly, standing with his hands holding their plates.
"Hai, sensei." They replied, defeated as they sulked to their chairs.
"Miwa! Donatello! Leonardo! It is time for dinner." He called from the kitchen, placing their plates of algea and worms for each chair. Miwa was first, creeping through the kitchen curtain with ease. During the first few days, he had researched what turtles ate on a regular diet. And… algea and worms was the best he could scavenge. Miwa on the other hand… was a cat. And cats were carnivores. However, knowing that he could not go to the surface and hunt for fresh food, or even give her rat in the sewers, he finally attempted to feed her algea and worms as well. And… surpsingly she fed off of it easily. He supposed the mutagen must have changed her eating habits, or mixed with something else she touched at an earlier time.
But he was thankful that he could provide her food that did her well.
As Miwa crawled into her chair next to Mikey, the curtain burst open as Donnie fell into it. With a short yelp, he felt the curtain twist around him. Thankfully, the pole above was strong, and held tightly as he wrestled with the blue fabric. Finally, he slipped out and climbed around it. "Sorry… I'm fine."
He crawled into his chair across the table from Miwa, and all was silent. Master Splinter waited patiently for several moments, before calling once more, "Leonardo!"
"Two more minutes, sensei!" The blue-masked tot finally called back.
Master Splinter paused. "No, we will not wait two minutes! We are ready to eat, come to the kitchen now!" He called, his eyebrows furrowing with impatience.
"Fine- just hold on! I'll be there in a second!" There was a pause. "Go ahead, start without me!"
"We will not begin dinner without you." His father responded, rising from his chair.
"Somebody's gonna get busted…" Mikey whispered to Miwa, and the two of them turned around in their chairs to watch as their father disappeared around the kitchen curtain.
When Hamato Yoshi found his blue-masked tot, the three-year-old was kneeled in front of the newly-fixed television. On the screen, bright orange blared through as a cartoon man held up a lazer gun. "The drop-off location is just around the corner!" The man called out, and as the group on screen turned, a large, grotesque beast clung to the rock of an unknown structure and spit upon them.
"Retreat or die!" It spat, reaching out a claw.
That was when Leo realized Master Splinter was approaching. With a quick flick of his hand, he lunged for the remote and shut the program off. Standing with the device in his hands, he gave a weak smile at his father. "Dinner. Now." Was his only response.
Leo sighed, throwing the remote onto the couch. "Dad, I was looking through the shows today and found a really cool one called Space Heroes!" He followed his father into the kitchen, crawling into his chair next to Donnie and reaching for his chopsticks. "They look weird, but they're so awesome! In fact, they kind of look like Tang Shen does. What do you call them… human? But anyway, Captain Ryan is so cool! He's brave, adventurous, heroic, and-"
"Be silent, my son. It is only a Television show."
"But it's so cool!"
"More like stupid." Came Raph's humble reply.
"Space Heroes is not stupid! You're just mad because you're not as cool as they are!" Leo slammed his hands on the table, glaring over Donatello at his red-masked brother on the other side.
"Enough." Master Splinter said roughly.
"I found a really cool show earlier, too!" Mikey suddenly cried out, excitement written all over his face. "Mia and I watched it earlier! I don't remember what it's called- but it was so cool and-"
Master Splinter gave a small sigh, almost regretting fixing that television. Massaging his head, he watched as his sons continued to debate over television shows.
"Ooh I found a really cool one too! They call the type SciFi… I'm pretty sure it stands for Science Fiction… right daddy?" Donnie grinned up at his dad.
"There was something on earlier they called a "movie" too! But it was sooo long, so I only watched a part of it." Miwa said, nodding to herself as she ate another mouthful of algea and worms.
"Tell me when you find something cool on there." Raph said absent-mindedly, leaning his head against his hand.
"I already told you, Space Heroes is cool. Probably the coolest show on a television."
"Then remind me not to watch a television."
"We should all try to watch this one show I found earlier…"
"And oh the cartoon I found was so funny too! It kept making me laugh!"
"The things they had on that show… so futuristic!"
"SILENCE."
All five fell silent, their debates on television shows dying out as they stared up at their father. "Let us eat, in peace." He finally said slowly, eating another mouthful of his algea and worms.
A heavy silence filled the room. All ate, except for Miwa, who was staring intensely at the table with her feet kicking under her chair. "Sensei?" She finally said aloud. "I have a quick question… All the shows on there have… have humans. Will we ever get to meet a human? You know…" She lowered her voice to a soft whisper, then pointed to the roof of the kitchen. "Up there?"
Master Splinter heaved a heavy sigh, looking at his food quietly. "This will be discussed when you're older."
His children, who had been anticipating his reply, all bent their heads and went back to silently eating their meals, leaving unanswered questions and curious ideas in the air. That was all the response they could get out of their father for the past year. And always… Nothing.