If I owned the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I'd be doing "sooooo" much more than writing fanfiction with them, though, I might still do that too. :) It's just ... would it be "fan-" fiction then?

This chapter takes place between episodes 61 "H.A.T.E." and 64 "The Christmas Aliens."

The idea was broached Thanksgiving Day. They celebrated it at Casey's grandma's house. His ma, April, and Mikey were in the kitchen. Casey, Raph, and Donnie watched football on a TV Donnie managed to get working there making the three of them very grateful indeed. Leo and his sensei sparred outside.

Crisp air, still green grass, and trees with orange, red, and gold foliage (dark green on the evergreens) surrounded them. Acres of fields as well as woods rolled out in hills. Puffy clouds passed slowly overhead on a cool breeze. Leo took in a deep breath of it all.

His family had celebrated Thanksgiving since Leo could remember. After all, mutants living in sewers had reasons to be grateful too. Garbage, and therefore, pickings, tended to be especially good that time of year. People tended to throw out food already in the fridge to make way for Thanksgiving leftovers. Some even threw out turkeys too imperfect to serve someone they feared disappointing. So, the mutant family usually ate well both the day before, of, and even after Thanksgiving.

Soon after Donnie was able to make TVs work in the lair, he and Raph have discovered football. Nough said. Mikey loved to eat. Sensei loved seeing his family happy. Leo loved it when Sensei could come home early from scavenging and stayed long afterward. Even though training was often cut short if not canceled Thanksgiving Day, Leonardo had usually enjoyed the holiday.

Today, though, they fought in the open air, in nature. A real Thanksgiving meal that would not be in a garbage can or dumpster first was being prepared for them. How could he not be grateful?

Casey's mother hadn't freaked out when she'd somehow noticed them. (Parents must have special powers.) She'd just said someday she'd like an explanation. After getting one, she was "calmly" making a meal with April "and" Mikey. Both collaborations seemed like minor miracles after her first day spent here with April. Leo's family of a giant, talking rat and three giant, talking turtle brothers like himself had not one, but three human friends sharing the day with them welcoming them into the open. Life was good.

He gave his sparring partner a giant, confidant grin (despite being greatly outmatched). "Sensei, did you ever think we'd celebrate Thanksgiving like this?"

He flew over his father's head and landed in a low crouch facing his teacher. He continued to grin, tensed, and readied to move, but also listening for his answer. The rat turned and smiled back even as he swept his tail out at his son. Leo dodged the blow and then paused as his father, ever circling him, answered. "No, my son, I admit I did not." The rat's eyes were soft.

Leo rose to his own feet. They both circled each other for another moment before their gazes turned back toward the house, for April was calling out its open door. "The Thanksgiving feast is ready!"

Father and son had already begun to lean that direction, when Sensei winced and laid his ears back against his skull. Even Leo leaned back and grimaced at the new cacophony that came after April's cry: banging metal pans mixed with Mikey's excited yell. "Come and get it!"

A moment later, Casey's ma's dry voice followed that sound out the open window. "Really dear, you don't have to be so loud."

Splinter had his paws pushed against the opening of his ears. The rat growled slightly under his breath. "My sentiments exactly." Leo sent his father a bemused smile.

Less than an hour later, four teenage mutant ninja turtles, three humans, two in their early twenties and one maybe late forties or early fifties (no one dared ask her) and an older, mutant, ninja-master rat sat around a table with mostly empty plates before them. The creatures leaned back in their chairs then, some with satisfied sighs. Even Leo and his master did so. Leo mostly dared, because he saw his father so daring, so it must not be that far beneath their dignity. The calm before mild indigestion filled the air.

Mikey patted his stomach. Then he looked up with a big grin and a familiar light in his eyes. He words blasted throughout the dining room. "So, what are we doing for Christmas?"

Everyone's heads snapped up and eyes widened, except for Casey's mother's. She answered in a dry drawl. "I can't come. I gotta go spend it with my sister in Florida. Casey, you don't have ta come with me, though. The young should spend time together."

Casey looked to his mother with wide, blue eyes. April, however, smiled gently across the table at him. Mikey broke the moment again. "Cool! Can we spend it at our place?"

The others stared at the turtle in orange. Casey's mother spoke again. "Don't you all live in a sewer?"

April tilted her head. Her eyes stared off into space. "It's actually not bad, Mrs. Jones. And it 'is' a lot roomier than my apartment."

Splinter smiled in sympathy at her. Leo looked down with a slight smile himself remembering when the five of them had crowded into her apartment and stayed there several days. His smile fell away when he remembered how he'd gone flying through one of her windows into that same apartment, how it and the surrounding building had burned down. His unhappy thoughts were interrupted by his very happy, youngest brother's.

"So, Christmas at our place!" Mikey was standing now. Where did he find the energy or agility after all they ate together?

Splinter looked up at his student in orange with caution carved into his face. "I do not know, Michelangelo …"

April looked at their father with a gentle smile and eyes beginning to gleam like Mikey's. "I could bring over the food. We could make it there."

Raph grinned. "The new ceiling does allow for a pretty tall tree!"

Donnie suddenly grinned, nodded, and raised his index finger toward the ceiling. "And a lot of other decorations too!"

Leo noticed one of Casey's eyebrows raise. His gaze turned speculatively toward April. Leo hid a smile behind his hand, leaned back, and glanced at his father. Would their sensei go for this?

Splinter's own gaze looked far away. Then, his own voice rang out speculatively. "To hold such a celebration … sharing it with others would become almost a matter of honor."

Donnie burst out. "We could invite the professor and other friends from the streets!"

Casey broke in "Hey, can Angel come later on too? Her grandma goes to bed early and her brother works holidays to make extra cash."

Mikey threw his arms out. "I can invite the Silver Sentry!"

Leo's eyes widened. Whoa …

Donnie turned a cautious gaze on his youngest brother. "Uhhh … I'm not sure he'll be able to come, Mikey."

Mikey set his hands on the lower part of his shell. Then he turned his profile to Leo and tilted his head just slightly down to look at Donnie as he replied in a deeper voice. "Of course, he will Donnie. Not even a supervillain would dare threaten the world on Christmas Eve or Christmas day!" He looked over at their father. "Sensei are we going to invite everybody over Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?"

Sensei looked down and ran his fingers over his beard. "Hmmm …"

Donnie glanced over worriedly at their father. "I think the professor and others would appreciate staying a night with us."

"Perhaps …" Their father replied. Then he looked up and smiled. "You are right, my sons. On this day, we are reminded of all the things that have gone right for us these past few years." He raised his gaze and let it sweep over each of them in turn. At each compliment of their new home he smiled upon a younger son. "Finding a new, roomier, and safer home." He looked next at April. "Making new, loyal, and generous friends." He also looked and smiled at Casey and his ma after this statement. Then his gaze turned sad. "Surviving every battle that has come our way," he looked to Leo, "all of us."

Leo felt his mouth twist as he looked away, embarrassed about being the one almost all the others, not just his master, was looking at now. Only Casey's mother seemed to be eyeing the scattered remains of the meal speculatively instead. It actually relieved him she hadn't known he existed back then and wasn't amazed at the fact he continued to now.

He'd thought himself the strongest, the best trained of all his brothers, and not only had he gotten his shell handed to him by the Shredder on multiple occasions, he'd gotten poisoned during the Battle Nexus Tournament. He'd even been unconscious the first day or so they spent in this house, and for a few hours in the Battle Nexus. Why did he always have to be the one in a coma?

His father's voice gained his attention. "The Daimyo …"

Leo's head swiveled and eyes widened as he saw his father was stroking his beard again while staring down the table's surface. "He might also appreciate a day among friends filled with joy."

Leo's filled stomach dropped. Wow. Even his father had someone to invite. And … that person was depressed because "he" couldn't hold onto metal-gloved hands long enough to save the only son of his father's oldest friend. Way to go him. Leonardo's own simmering gaze turned to the table's surface. Of course, that son of his father's old friend had tried to kill him, twice. How did he make enemies every time he popped his head out of the sewers? Raph was the one with the temper.

Donnie and Mikey apparently had a list like Saint Nick's of who to invite. Even Casey, who Raph would drag out of his apartment into the snowy streets if he "didn't" come otherwise, was inviting someone to their home. April …

He looked to April. Some of his anger fell away. Her uncle had been missing since her childhood. He'd hate for that to happen to anyone he cared about. Still, she had other, older family members than them to celebrate with.

"Hey, April, you don't have to …" He felt Casey's and his brothers' scowls on him a second before her gentle smile was turned on him too.

"Leo … my parents and sister are in another state. I haven't spent a Christmas with them in years. You guys are family and right here, not only in the same state, but the same "city" with me. Of course, I'm spending Christmas with you guys!"

Leo smiled back at her. Well, there was always April. She was more Donnie's closest friend than him, but he'd always felt a certain kinship to her as well. Maybe it was because he sometimes felt like they were a team who big-siblinged the others together. They'd probably do so over Christmas too.

"Leonardo …" He looked over at the sound of his father's soft voice. He met the rat's equally soft gaze. "I think, if I can invite my friend, the Daimyo, to our home this Christmas, he might in turn be able to invite someone else for you if you ask it of him."

Leo's eyes widened in shock. "You mean ..?" Leonardo's mouth dropped open. It snapped shut before he added, "You think he'll come?"

Splinter grinned back at his son. "We can only ask."

What do you think?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes