Title: A Message Among Friends
Author: Kat Lee
Fandoms: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation/X-Men
Character/Pairing: Splinter, Andre, and Professor X with cameos by Donatello and the Beast
Rating: PG/K+
Challenge/Prompt: fan_flashworks #153: Amnesty: Silver Lining
Warning(s): None
Word Count: 1,566
Date Written: 26 April, 2016
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.




"You're too close to the problem," the younger man advises as he moves his Knight in to block his opponent.

The old Sensei's tail swishes unseen by his blind friend. "What do you mean?" he asks, making a counter attack.

"Simple." He makes his move. "All you're seeing is the pain and the trouble this world is throwing at your family and your doubt over rather or not you're doing what's right for your sons."

Splinter smiles. "Am I that obvious?" The tip of his tail twitches as he lines up his plan.

"Only to an old, blind man," his friend returns. Then he moves his Queen and deftly wins the game.

Splinter stares at the board for a moment. "For an old, blind man, my friend," he says, tail swishing again, "you certainly see a great deal."

"Thank you." He leans back. "I know you need to go see to your boys. Go with my blessing, but remember, Sam, that's the silver lining: the fact that you do have those boys to worry about and they have you."

"Thank you, Andre," Splinter says, and he means it. His friend is right: His family gets too lost in their constant battles sometimes to be able to see the silver lining, but Andre just laid it out perfectly. The silver lining is that they do have their family as opposed to having lost some one to the Shredder or, worse, having never had each other at all.

He scurries from the park, wondering, not for the first time, just how much his blind friend really does see. He knows he suspects that he's not human but doesn't know what he is, and he knows, too, that whatever their differences in species, they will always remain two kindred souls, advising each other through the harshness of their daily lives in the city.

In a way, Andre reminds Splinter of another friend. Meeting the second had been every bit as much of a delight surprise as finding Andre in the park with whom to play chess, talk, and sometimes read the newspaper to. Like Andre, the other man has never seen Splinter, but he values their discussions. The man runs a school, and it is his life that had Splinter worried when he came to the park earlier. Their own battles against the Shredder and the Foot are never far from the Sensei's cunning mind, but it was Xavier for whom he'd really needed the answers Andre had just supplied.

Still, he reflects with a smile, his answers helped them both. In trying to answer his friend's concerns, Splinter had lost sight of the big picture in his own life. He had focused too greatly upon the battles and their too oftenly narrow victories and had been unable to find the words he needed to assure his friend. Andre, however, had had the answers for them both while never knowing that he was helping more than his fellow senior citizen.

"Can you open the Internet?" Splinter asks, ears twitching, as he reaches the lair.

Donatello looks up with a sly smile that causes Splinter to reflect that perhaps there is something funny in what he's asked but he didn't understand the conotation. Nor, of course, does he understand that the Internet is almost always open, and that it's a matter of reaching out to it from the computer his son has made him, not actually opening the Internet itself. "Of course, Sensei," Donatello answers, never once mentioning the irony in his adopted father's request.

He leaves his own project to accompany Splinter to one of his private rooms. Donatello not only built the computer but added this private chamber, as well, telling his father that it would be best for him to have a seperate room from his bedroom and meditation chambers to access the Internet. "Do you want to message that Professor?"

"Yes, please." His tail swishes in the only sign of his eagerness as his son brings up the needed programs. He backs away from the computer as Splinter sits, leaving his father to write in private.

Splinter addresses the concerns of his friend, wondering again what battles it is they fight for it's surely not against the Shredder -- their paths would surely have crossed before now, if it was -- and what darkness within the man he knows to be kind and wise bothers him so greatly that he has recently endangered the lives of his very students. Still, Splinter knows they all have a certain darkness -- in his own family, it is Raphael's whose darkness concerns him the most -- and admits such in his letter.

He has learned to type skillfully, and it takes him only a handful of minutes to type out what he wishes to say. He reads his letter twice, changing a few things here and there until he's pleased with it, then presses Send. He waits for a moment at the desk, wondering how long it will take before the Professor receives his message, before reluctantly standing and leaving to take care of other tasks. He's got his own pupils to train, after all, but he hopes his message, and Andre's, will be the news his friend needs to read.

=^.^=

The message is received not too far away. It is true that the two families have different enemies, but it would still surprise them all to know how often their paths have come close to meeting. They're only a county over, after all, and share many of the same concerns.

Like Donatello and his Sensei, there is another Scientist watching carefully as his Professor's face alights with interest. "Something of concern, sir?" the Beast asks as the Professor clicks into his Inbox.

"Nothing to concern yourself with, Henry. Just a letter from a friend."

Hank nods and returns to his own work, but he still notes the smile that lights his Professor's face. He yearns to know what's in that message, but he leaves him to his privacy, even though it would be child's play for him to enter his account himselfand pull up the letter. Finally, when the Professor finishes typing his response and shuts down the computer with a beaming smile still on his face, Hank prods gently, "He must have had some news of interest."

"He did," Charles admits, steepling his fingers together and gazing, for a moment, at the monitor's black screen, "or, at least, an important reminder. We face a great many threats every day, Henry."

"We do, sir." The Beast inclines his furry, blue head in agreement.

"Sometimes, it's easy to lose track of what's truly important in this life, especially when we fear we may bring more harm than good."

Hank opens his mouth but shuts it again. He is uncharacteristically at a loss for words, because he knows exactly from whence Charles is coming. He's paid his time for his crimes as Onslaught -- he insisted on doing so even though they were all, Hank himself included, more than willing to fight the American government, the remaining Avengers, and any one else required to keep him safe and at home with them --, but there's still not a day when his dear Professor does not revisit the horrible past in his mind. He took many lives that day, but he's saved far more. Still, Hank knows from his own rivalry with the Dark Beast, that sometimes, it's hard to see the good for all the wickedness in the world, especially when you feel yourself to blame for that wickedness.

He could try to remind the Professor of all the lives he's saved and all the battles they've won because of him. All the people gathered at their school are here because of him. They've survived in at least part because of him. None of them would be where they are today, or the heroes they are, without the Professor's loving guidance. He could try to tell him again what a good man he is and how important he is to them and their cause, but some one else has already made the Professor smile and lifted his mood. He'll save the debates for a day when they are needed again, as he, sadly, knows they will be.

"We've lost a good many heroes," Charles is saying, "far too many lives. Sometimes, it's difficult to acknowledge there's still good in this world, still good in what we do, but there is."

"Yes, sir, it is."

"Most importantly of all, though, we have each other. We are blessed to have a team that's more than a team. We are each blessed to have this family." Charles beams as he wheels himself from the computer lab, but in the doorway, he pauses again and looks back to one of his oldest students. "Thank you, Hank."

"I've done nothing -- "

"You do something every day. You're here for us, in your own ways, every day. I've seen you save many lives."

"As I have you, sir."

Charles' smile widens. "As I said," he speaks again, "thank you."

Hank nods and watches as he wheels from the lab, then bends his head and returns to his work. Now, though, he's smiling truthfully, and soon he begins to whistle a merry, little tune as he continues, as always, the important work his family does to save their part of this world.

The End