Title: The Stray
Day: 30 Days of Drabbles, Day 11
Prompt: The Stray
Fandom: TMNT 2003
Word Count: 221
Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl
Rating: K/G
Characters: Splinter, Casey Jones
Warning: NA
Summary: They had all been strays at one point. What's one more?
Notes: I need to write a story with Splinter and Casey.
The Stray
Splinter had once been a stray himself. Just a lowly rat trying to survive, hoping to stay hidden from the humans and find something to eat. Those days before the Ancient One's home had been blurry and indistinct, but he clearly remembered being taken in by Tang Shen, by the family, and feeling the love they gave him, even when he was initially scared, hissing at them until he understood that he was safe. He could have easily turned on them, bitten them, scratched, run away, caused problems. But Tang Shen had sympathy on a lost, stray creature such as himself, and had given him a home.
Splinter watched as his boys tussled with their new friend, this Casey Jones. The man was a man, but he was also young, Splinter could tell. Old enough to be established in the world at large, young enough to still need some guidance. He needed a place to call home, people to understand him, even if he did metaphorically scratch and bite at times. He was a stray, too, lost in this world that didn't understand him.
And just like Tang Shen had sympathy and had taken in a stray like him, Splinter would have sympathy and take in the stray that was Casey Jones as well.
What was one more son, after all?