Title: Concealing an Injury
Day: 30 Days of Drabbles, Day 22
Prompt: Concealing an injury
Fandom: TMNT 2003
Word Count: 266
Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl
Rating: T
Characters: Splinter
Warning: NA
Summary: Splinter will protect is young sons' sense of security, even at his own expense.
Notes: 2k3 Splinter is best Rat Dad.
Concealing an Injury
Being the only provider to four small boys, and having no support meant Splinter had to take care of many things on his own. The first time his children saw him injured—a minor thing, but an injury nonetheless—they had become very frightened. They didn't understand.
Since then, Splinter had done his best to keep his injuries hidden from his sons, or at least to downplay them. It made them feel more secure. It made them feel safter.
This one, though, would be harder.
Splinter limped back toward the entrance to the lair, where he had left the boys when he went on the supply run. An unfortunate encounter with a very determined—and, Splinter suspected, unwell—homeless man had not ended too well for him. Splinter hadn't wanted to hurt the man, but the man hadn't had the same feelings, and Splinter's ribs had learned that lesson for him.
He had escaped, and stopped before he reached his home, taking the time to wrap his ribs with some bandages he had found, and to his best to get rid of any traces of the fight. Still, he allowed himself to limp home and feel the pain—up until this point.
Now he stood outside of his home, knowing his sons were inside. He took a breath or two, testing out his soreness, and then straightened up. It hurt, and he knew moving as if nothing was wrong was going to hurt as well. But if it meant protecting his sons' security, then he would conceal his injuries, until they were better able to understand.