milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

The front door opens and a stick is brandished out the door. There is mad stick flailing. Leo pokes his head in the bar, one hand on his sheathed sword.

"...not home. No killer mutated furniture. ...yet."

Leo makes his way over to the bar for a stiff drink but taking the time out to carefully lean Splinter's walking stick against the bar.

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Oats hasn't had the best past few days. It's hard being randomly kidnapped by evil fairies for no reason whatsoever!

So when he sees Leo at the Bar, it is only understandable that he faints clean away.

The cup of sake pauses at Leo's lips.

"..."

He looks left. He looks right. He looks behind the bar.

"...is there a doctor in the house?"

After a moment, Oats stirs. He groans, sitting up groggily.

Leo is still there.

"Oh!" He scrambles into a position that approximates kneeling, eyes on the floor.

"Y-you're here! They said you might come, but I honestly never-- that is, not to say I didn't believe--"

"............"

He stares up at the ceiling, mouthing a prayer for peace of mind. Or sanity. Same thing, right?

"...they've got good sake here." Really, what else is he supposed to say?

Oats hesitates.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Funny, I was about to ask you that question." He laughs nervously and rubs the back of his head.

Oats looks up at him slowly, then quickly glances to one side.

"I ... I only ... was expressing my, ah, amazement and joy at finally seeing you, o Lord."

".................................."

"I'm a what now?"

Back to looking at the floor now.

"I-I'm sorry! How silly ... if you've assumed your, um, earthly form, it's because you want to keep your divinity a secret, isn't it? After all, you, um, stayed with the Prophet Brutha for many days before you appeared to the people!"

He stares at the funny little guy. "I'm not drunk enough for this." He refills his cup and drinks. Twice.

Is Om ... drinking alcohol?

Something is wrong with this picture.

"Er ..."

"I'm not a god. I'm a ninja."

He politely offers a cup of sake at having may be destroyed someone's belief system.

"Sorry?"

Oats slumps.

"...

Leo pats him on the head. Carefully.

"This must, um, be a ... terrible inconvenience. Um. Yes."

Biff stares.

"Uh, excuse me, I know this is probably a bad question, but . . . are you what happens when a guy fucks a turtle?"

There is a katana sword tip half an inch from Biff's nose now. Leo is serenely sipping his sake with his free hand.

"He doesn't. And dies trying."

The sword is sheathed with an exaggerated flourish.

"Yes, bad question. Try it on a guy named Raph next time. It'll help build your character."

Biff continues to stare.

"Only, I knew a guy who did." pause. "He's probably dead now. Probably as in certainly, because I knew him 2000 years ago and he didn't seem like the type to get ressurected. Uh. Sorry. Nice sword."

Leo is practicing the fine art of japanese sake drinking. It is beautiful to the eye and takes decades to master. It also requires perfect silence.

Biff doesn't know to appreciate the fine art of Japanese sake drinking and mistakes it for an awkward silence.

"So, new topic. Um. Swords. They're . . . pointy. I like knives, myself."

"Swords are much better. Longer reach. Like throwing knives, though."

Leo begins to go through the colors of the sacred Fudo and their meanings. Out loud. Being sacred isn't being rude.

"I had this one made of volcanic glass . . . it was pretty awesome. Yeah, I took it everywhere before I died."

Biff blinks at the Sacred.

She'd missed him. This was evidenced by the half-flying hug April gave him, attaching herself to his neck.

Leo's sake doesn't spill. For he is ninja. He gives her a one armed manly hug.

"Hi, April. How are you? Furniture ate your birthday present. It was a gift card to that place you like. ...The one with the pillows. That place."

"That's the place you like," she whispered, and kissed him on the cheek before stepping back. It was funny how even though she broke the embrace, she always managed to hover amazingly close. It was the same with all of them.

She caught sight of Splinter's stick and looked back up to Leo. "He okay?" Suddenly, she felt exceedingly guilty. She'd not been to visit him in close to a month. Not since before she left for LA.

He smiles and winks.

"He's okay. Broke that one over one of Donnie's experiment's...um. Head, I want to say. Made him a new one, but. Wanted to see if I could fix this one." The statement 'because I am a softie' is left unsaid. "Fixed with some of Donnie's super glue. Almost got eaten by a chair in the process. Yeah, don't ask." He tries not to laugh into his sake.

"Doing good now? Been worried. I've just been working too hard for my own good."

"So Donnie's okay? I swear I never see that boy anymore. I'm starting to think he doesn't like me." Without quite knowing how, she was leaning into him. He felt safe, familiar.

"I feel better, yeah. Got a doctor to take a look. He said it would probably be okay, although he did recommend x-rays." X-rays, of course, were out of the question. You go to a hospital and the film shows that many broken bones, people start asking questions. Questions were bad.

He still has his arm around her shoulders. "Want some sake?" It fixes loads of things!

"I think Donnie found a new lab or something. Haven't seen him a week or so. He took to doing that once Raph and Mike moved out."

"Nah, thanks," April whispered. She turned her face away because his last remark couldn't have caused her more accute pain had it been physically inflicted.

What was happening to her family?

He gives her shoulders a squeeze.

"Quit it. Not all change is bad change."

"I don't like it," April admitted. "I feel like we're losing each other."

"We were always together as kids. Growing up is finding yourself. After all we've been through, I'm surprised we've managed to live together and stay so close for this long." He gives her a lopsided smile. "Part of life. Not losing each other. Finding ourselves."

"I don't like it," she repeated, belligerant. As if what she wanted made a difference. "Don't know what to do with myself anymore. Not needed." Not wanted.

"Hush. Gotta have somebody to go the craft shows with me. There's a reason to keep you around yet besides decorative. You're gonna have to ask Mikey for the list, though. I'm a bit to drunk to make one for you." He's got a big silly grin now.

April laughed, leaning to rest her temple against the top of his head. "Love you," she told him. "Don't go changing on me, okay?"

"Can do. I'd look bad in peach, any way." He gives her a squeeze. "Love you, too."

"You are a very large turtle," Mary says, with great round-eyed nine-year-old insight.

"And you are a very small blond girl." But he's smiling. "Yes, I am a very large turtle. My name's Leo." He offers his three fingered hand.

Mary hesitates, then reaches up her small, thin hand to shake.

"I am Mary Lennox," she says, artlessly, "and I have never seen anything like you."

Her fingers just barely wrap around his thumb.

"Never is a strong word, even for a guy like me. I think sunrises are by far the most amazing things I have ever seen."

"I have never seen a sunrise, either," Mary says solemnly. "I am never awake that early."

"Really? Best thing I ever say when I was young. If you sit and let the world quiet around you, you can hear the sun kissing the earth as it rises and the flowers and the grass and the trees awaken."

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