Title: A Matter of Homes
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie!verse
Character/Pairing: Splinter, Turtles
Rating: PG/K+
Challenge/Prompt: fan_flashworks #144: Memory
Warning(s): None
Word Count: 1,319
Date Written: 27 January, 2016
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.



The brothers snap awake to the sound of a throttling yell. Each instantly reaches for their weapons, gripping them hard in their three-fingered hands. They know already who yelled; only one voice they know sounds like that. "Raphael!" Leonardo is the first to speak and the first on his feet. "What's wrong?" His katana's drawn, but he sees no enemy.

"He's gone again!" Raphael wails, big eyes beginning to brim with tears that none of them dare call him on.

"Who's gone?" Donatello ponders, blinking sleepily as he looks around them.

"Sensei!"

"What? No!"

Michelangelo's chin starts to wobble. Donatello places a reassuring hand on his younger brother's shoulder and steps closer to him even as he questions Raphael, "Are you certain?"

"Duh! I wouldn't just wake you guys up in the middle of the night for no fucking reason!"

"Raphael -- "

"Leo, he's gone!"

"Then we find him."

"Again."

"There's no sign of a struggle, and the Foot would not have allowed the opportunity of a sneak attack on us while we slept to slide by them."

"You think he left on his own?"

"You know they couldn't have taken him without a fight, Raphael. We spread out, look for him. Donatello, stay with Mikey."

"I wanna look, too!"

"You will," Leonardo assures. "Just not alone." His eyes meet Donnie's, a silent message passing between them. Raphael will not accept protection, but Leonardo will allow no harm to come to his family while he can help it. He'd rather die himself a hundred times than ever lose some one he loves again.

=^.^=

"He's here!" The brothers had originally split into three different directions before coming together again. They had found no sign to tell them where their Sensei had gone, but Leonardo had began to have a gnawing in his gut. He silently slides his katana into its shift now and approaches the closest being they've ever known to a father.

"Sensei?" he calls quietly, cautiously moving forward. Their Sensei's head is lowered, his ears and tail drooping.

It's when the old rat finally lifts his head that the brothers witness the tears glistening in his fur. "Sensei!" Mikey cries and almost runs forward. Donatello hears the boards crunching underneath his feet and gently places a hand on his brother's plastron. Together, they move carefully over the rubble of their old home.

"The . . . The Foot destroyed everything, Sensei," Leo speaks softly.

It's Donatello who recognizes the piece of wood their Master is holding as the four brothers move closer. It's a piece of the walls he'd built once in this area of the sewer to give them actual rooms and privacy from each other. It's the piece where their cherished Master Splinter had measured each of their heights over the years. Coming closer, he can see their names written on the wood.

A flash of moving red catches Donnie's attention. His eyes shift to Raphael, who is approaching from another direction and clenching his sais tightly. He recognizes the grim expression on his angry brother's face immediately. Raphael is trying hard not to cry while Mikey's already beginning to weep. Donatello glances to Leo, and his own tears well as he sees his eldest brother also beginning to cry.

"We can't live here any more, Sensei," Leo speaks softly.

Raphael glances around them, eager to focus his tearful gaze on the destruction of their home rather than on any of his brothers or their Sensei. He doesn't want any one to see his tears, but he can't seem to stop them from coming. Every piece he recognizes out of the rubble brings another memory and another reminder of everything they've lost.

Splinter's tail curls around his left foot. His fur bristles with barely controlled anger, but he can not make the Foot pay again. Most of Shredder's army this time were teenagers who have already suffered too much, partially because of their own naivety and poorly made choices, partially because of parents who did not care for them better, and largely because of the Shredder, who is now, at long last, dead. He can not wreck further avenge against a ghost, no matter how dearly he would love to do so.

"He took it all," Mikey whispers hoarsely, and Donnie catches his brother just as he starts to sob.

Raphael's hands clench and unclench around the handles of his sais. "Bastard," he seethes.

"He's dead," Donatello reminds him quietly over Mikey's head. "There's nothing more we can do to him."

"If his body wasn't already destroyed, I'd rip it to shreds myself with my bare hands," Raphael seethes.

"Raphael!" Leonardo scolds even as he reaches Splinter. He lays a gentle hand on his thin shoulder and bows his head respectively. "Sensei?"

"Donatello is right, my children. The Shredder is dead. There is little more we can do except to make certain that the Foot never rises again." His tail whips through the air. "Our new home also offers many more advantages, but we will all miss our home here."

He looks around them at all the destruction. There are very few things left that even resemble what they were originally. If they were to rebuild, they would have to start by clearing away all the rubble; nothing here can be used. Their new home offers far more space, electricity, and other advantages. They are lucky to have it, but the destruction of their old home still makes his heart ache. Everything, he thinks solemnly, has changed, but then he looks back up at his pupils, four boys who he loves with all his heart, four boys who have grown into four excellent, courageous, young gentlemen, or gentleTurtles, as it is.

They have proven themselves time and again, Splinter remembers, and he finds himself smiling. "They have not taken everything, Michelangelo," Splinter calls to his youngest.

Mikey's head lifts off of his brother's shoulder, his eyes opening slightly. "Huh?" he asks.

"They did not take it all," Splinter repeats in a firm yet reassuring voice. "Everything may seem different, but in truth, it is not. We still have the most important thing, and the Foot will not take it from us," he vows.

"What?" Mikey asks, his tears beginning to slow with the growth of his curiosity.

"Each other," Splinter says with a smile. "We still have each other, and no matter what else they have taken, they have not taken our family. Our bonds are stronger now than ever before. I love you, my sons, and our love will never change."

Leonardo's beak trembles. "Sensei," he murmurs, having so rarely heard his father speak in such an affectionate way.

Splinter smiles. His tail strikes the air again, but then his eldest son's arms are going around him. Michelangelo is next, followed quickly by Donatello. Even Raphael finally steps up and grabs his whole family in his big arms. Splinter chuckles tenderly in the midst of them all and relishes the moment, his eyes drifting closed with a happy smile on his furry face.

It is Leonardo who parts them with a gentle reminder, "We'd better go home. We have training early in the morning."

"You and that training," Raphael grumbles, but even he is still smiling.

It's good to be back home, and Splinter knows, wherever they go, they'll be there. As long as their family is whole and together, they'll be home. The Foot can not take that from them, and Shredder is dead. The danger has passed now. Now he can watch his sons grow in peace, love, and safety, even if it is in a new home. He knows they're going to be happy, because their family is whole. Nonetheless, as they head home with Leonardo in the lead, Splinter tucks away the piece of wood with their heights and a few other mementos along the way, each with their own memory and a story to tell for each of his boys.

The End