Mere days after their mutation, turtle tots Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo, all very happy with their new names, followed their new rat dad around the 'den', as he liked to call it. He looked at them warily, as if trying to decide what to do with them.

He had no idea what to do with them, honestly. He had himself to think about; he couldn't possibly take care of 4 other, growing children. That meant 5 times as much food, more living space than he'd need himself, and keep them away from the outside world…

He'd have to protect them.

He'd have to care for them, as a father.

He stopped, turned around to look at their smiling faces. "Leonardo," he said, and the tot looked up at him happily, "why don't you lead your brothers and explore a little?"

Leo smiled brighter than the sun at the thought of being able to lead his brothers; he nodded eagerly. "Yep!" he chirped, still low on vocabulary.

Splinter nodded and walked away. Leo watched him for a few seconds as he left, then smiled and turned to his brothers. "Let's look!" he smiled brightly.

Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello smiled brightly and followed their brother as they explored the new place. There were multiple rooms, lots of dust ("Dusty!" Mikey had exclaimed, then sneezed multiple times).

Leo soon got bored as he looked around the same room again with his brothers. "I saw TV!" he then exclaimed, running out. His brothers followed him to a support with a small TV further up than any of them would've liked. Leo looked around and saw an old remote, smiling and running to it. He'd seen a human in a grate above ground do it. It seemed easy.

He looked down at the remote and frowned.

If only he knew how to read.

He pressed the weird red circle button at the top, pointing it at the TV. A man appeared on the TV, and their eyes went as wide as saucers as they looked up at it in wonder. Leo changed the channel, and a less real-looking thing came on. A grey-ish cat and… a rat? Like Splinter!

He had to show him!

As his brothers sat down and watched the screen in awe, he ran off to where Splinter had gone.

He paused in the doorway, hiding a bit.

Splinter was moving in weird ways… His leg would go up, and then he'd throw his hand… fist… out… He was so fast…

He slowly, quietly crept behind the rat, who didn't seem to notice him. He started to try and mimic the moves, not noticing Splinter's smile as he stood behind him.

Leonardo blinked, and Splinter was suddenly gone.

"Daddy?" he asked worriedly, scared something had happened.

He felt two hands grab his side and start tickling him, and he giggled hysterically. "D-Daddy!" he cried, tears forming in his eyes as he continued to laugh.

Splinter chuckled as he let his son go. "What are you doing here, Leonardo? You should be watching your brothers."

"My bros are watchin' the box!" Leo exclaimed, proud to have given them some sort of entertainment.

Splinter smiled, remembering the TV he'd seen high up toward the ceiling of the old subway station. "That was nice of you, Leonardo. But why are you here?"

"There was rat, like you, but i' was brown. I wan'ed ta show ya!" Leo exclaimed excitedly.

Splinter smiled and bowed his head in acknowledgement. "Then show me, my son."

Leo jumped up and down excitedly and grabbed the rat's hand, pulling him over.

Splinter smiled as he was pulled toward the television, seeing the grey cat chasing the brown mouse. He turned his attention to the bright smiles on their chubby faces.

Maybe he could learn to love these… turtles. They were certainly cute enough.

"Daddy! Can you watch with us?" Leo asked, looking up at the rat with bright, innocent eyes.

Splinter smiled. "Of course, my son."

Yes. He could definitely learn to love them.

He smiled warmly as Leo wrapped his arms around his hand and brought him to sit with them.

Maybe he was already getting there.

For the TMNT 2003 fan-book on dA and Tumblr! Check it out! :D Please review!

Shadow