Author's Note: Thank you BloodWren and Zalein for reminding me to update! I had pretty much an entire chapter done and ready to post and didn't realise it. Uh, don't worry; next chapter will be more in good humor, and it'll have the other turtles in it. (Yay, Michelangelo!) Anyway, here we go:)
Thanks for looking!
Tails slept well, and into the better part of the morning, too. He was roused some time around ten thirty in the morning due to the sounds of the turtles doing some means of loud training. Lots of shouting. He opened his eyes and groggily permitted himself to stare at the ceiling for a few minutes, listening to the martial arts practice going on not too far away. Vague commands, followed by shouting. He turned onto his side, ignoring it and yet listening to it at the same time. He was trying to recall fragments of his dream. Something to do with Sonic, and then something else to do with those ridiculous squid aliens. He smirked drowsily at the thought.
Minutes passed, and finally the shouting in the background ceased. Tails would have fallen asleep again, except that Michelangelo came in to find the TV's remote. "Must watch TV!" he declared. Tails gave a muffled sigh as his groggy thoughts scattered. "Where did Donny put it?" Mike whimpered, rooting around under the coffee table in search of the device. He gave up in short order and went wailing back into the other room. "Doooonny! Where's the remote?"
In a moment's time, Donatello pushed past Mike. "It's on top of the TV, Mikey," he sighed. "Look harder next time, okay? Besides, I think you woke up Tails."
"I think he needed to get up."
"Michelangelo."
"I'm just sayin'..! It's like quarter to eleven!"
"I'm up..." Tails yawned and pushed himself up on his unwounded arm. "I'm sorry for sleeping in. That was kind of rude of me..." He rubbed drowsily at his eyes. "I didn't realise I was that tired..!"
"Heh, and neither did we." Don smiled good-naturedly. "It's alright, though. You've been through a lot, I'd say. How about I fix those bandages for you, and then we go talk to Master Splinter?"
"Alright." The two-tailed fox hopped off the couch and slid into his sneakers before following Donny back to his lab. Mikey grinned and immediately went for the TV remote. At least the channels were all his to enjoy. Hopefully Raph didn't want to watch something stupid.
Don had Tails' bandages replaced in a few minutes. "There," he said finally. "All tidied up. I'm still curious as to how you got hurt in the first place, though."
"I honestly don't remember. I still don't even vaguely know the circumstances for my being here... Thank you for helping me, though." He smiled.
Don smiled too, but his eyes looked slightly regretful. "It's nothing. We'll get you to the Battle Nexus, and the Daimyo will send you back to where you belong. Come on. Let's go see Master Splinter."
The two headed for the wise rat's room. He seemed to be practicing some form of poise. As soon as Donatello and Tails entered, however, he allowed himself to relax. "Hello, my son. And good morning to you, little one." Leaning on his walking stick, he moved past them and closed the door. "Let us talk."
"Yes, master." Don bowed and sunk cross-legged to the floor. Tails scooted over next to him. He was still nervous about the rat. His lack of understanding for this wise being made him slightly prudent. "About the Battle Nexus..." the turtle started.
"Yes... In regards to this, and our current situation. Late last night, I attempted to contact the Daimyo in hopes of establishing the next part of a plan. However, it seems that the Daimyo himself is away as of now, and he has left the Gyoji to take care of important matters."
"Oh."
"Indeed. I suppose there is no more we can do at the present. All there can be done is more waiting." He looked directly at Tails, who shrunk slightly, despite his efforts not to. "And so, Little One, what do you think of this? There appears to be nothing else we can do until the Daimyo returns to the Battle Nexus."
"I-if there's nothing more that can be done, I-I guess we just have to... uhm... wait it out?" He felt his ears fold back slightly and he wrung his hands for a moment, trying to avert the gaze. Why did he have to be so nervous around this guy?
The rat nodded, apparently overlooking Tails' extreme nervousness. "This is the case. I apologize that nothing could be done sooner. Please be assured that you are welcome in our home, and we wish for you to feel comfortable here."
"T-thank you... I appreciate it with all my heart."
After managing to observe the other two turtles he wasn't as familiar with, Tails decided that his favorite was still Donatello, followed by Michelangelo, and then Leonardo and Raphael. As much as Raph did remind him of Knuckles, he didn't seem too terribly appealing when not in contrast to someone like Sonic. Well, unless Mikey was his "Sonic". That didn't work either, though, because Raph's agitation towards his playful brother was too single-sided. Sonic and Knuckles went the rounds with each other as friends (...but maybe 'rivals' was a better word for it). Mikey got whacked by Raph. That's all there was to it. Leo was serious, and thus acted older than the rest of them. Tails enjoyed Mikey's good sense of humor and his enthusiasm, but more than anything, he admired Donatello. His brains, his passiveness; he never hit anybody, and he never got mad. He didn't insult his brothers, and he didn't want to kill them. He didn't spend most of his time training or meditating. He didn't play mass amounts of video games. He was polite. He was intelligent. He was just about everything he ever wished he could have in a friend.
Tails spent a lot of time with Don in his lab. It had a lot of space, and a lot of neat things to fiddle around with. Things that were repaired, things that still needed repair, things that were being upgraded or improved... It was nice to be around someone who enjoyed the same kind of work, and understood the terminology to go with it.
It was like home; everything in its own strange way held some value of familiarity. Mike and Raph fighting reminded him of Sonic and Knuckles. Leonardo's collected demeanor reminded him of quiet and mysterious Shadow. Donatello reminded him of himself. Master Splinter remained an entity all his own, however. No matter how many times Tails had seen him out and about, or how many times the rat had given him a nod in greeting, he never knew what to do with himself. There was something about him that the little fox found incomprehensible.
It was on the fourth day of waiting that he started to get homesick. And he started to think.
As much as he honestly appreciated the turtles' company, something began to bite at the back of his mind, especially now that his stay was prolonged. What on earth were his friends at home doing now? Whatever had gotten his arm was bound to have gotten Sonic and Knuckles, wasn't it? Were they alright? Did they wonder where he was? Was anything wrong? There wouldn't be much more of a wait before the familiarity of home returned to him, in any case, so perhaps if he could keep himself from worrying until then, things would work out alright. Late in the afternoon, Donatello eventually ceased work on Raph's motorcycle. His brother had requested that some of that good old utrom technology was used to 'juice it up a little', and as he wasn't the type to argue, Don had agreed. However, the upgrade was being a little faulty, and after toying with it for much too long, Don had simply given up for the time being. With a frustrated sigh, he dropped his tools down on the work bench. Tails sunk himself down on a nearby wooden chair and after dusting his gloved hands off on his lap, began fiddling with the bandaging on his upper arm, which by now, was in far better shape and starting to heal properly.
Don watched him with a mix of curiousness and concern; concern for the matter of Raph's bike upgrade and its lack of co-operation, as well as the thought of returning to the silent Battle Nexus after all they'd been through there, and curiousness towards the void of mystery surrounding his friend's appearance in New York. "What are you doing?" he queried.
Tails jumped slightly. "Oh... me? N- nothing." He gave up on his toying and relaxed his shoulders with a sigh.
The purple bandana wearing turtle loosely folded his arms over his chest thoughtfully. "You know, you were a chatterbox all afternoon until I started talking about the Shredder. Then it was like your mind drifted off to another planet."
"It probably did," the fox answered dimly. "I still don't know why I'm here or how I got here in the first place, and I'm leaving soon..." He didn't add anything else. Don frowned slightly and went to kneel beside the chair. The first-aid kit was always within easy access, and within a few minutes, he had the cut cleanly redressed. With relative ease, he undid his own handiwork and let the old bandages come loose. The gash was improved since he had first treated it. It had actually scabbed over by this point, and could probably start healing properly. This bandaging would do until Tails could get home and possibly do something about it himself. Lack of knowledge as to where it had come from in the first place wasn't any help. The turtle rose to his feet, looking around his slightly untidy workplace. Tails had become awkwardly quiet.
"I... uhm... Donnie?" he spoke up softly after a moment.
Donatello raised his non-existent brows and looked at him. "Yeah?"
A thoughtful sad expression had crossed Tails' face. He fiddled thoughtfully with the buckle around his wrist. "About going home..." His concerned blue eyes met with Don's dark ones. "I'm nervous. How do I explain away all of what's gone on?"
What concerned Don was the fact that his friend had started acting so strangely all within such a short period of time. It had been less than half an hour ago that he'd been talking animatedly, almost like Michelangelo, and now he seemed consumed by worries Don feared he was unable to straighten. "I'm not sure," he said earnestly. "Weird things happen here all the time. Even if strange happenings aren't really the case where you come from, I'm sure explaining everything the best way you know how would be good enough for your friends if they ask about it."
Tails hopped down off the chair. Grabbing one of Don's peculiar hands, he gently tugged at him, and Don sunk back down onto one knee so they were nearly face-level with each other. "Donnie?" Tails asked softly, his face still filled with its mix of uncertainty and worry. "...Can I please stay a little longer?" As much as he wanted to return home to his own workshop and his own world filled with greenery and strange landscapes unlike the towering buildings of cement and glass of New York, he still wanted time to straighten himself out here. He decided his lack of answers overcame his homesickness by a mile. "Talking about the Shredder made me think of... well, whatever's going on at home."
With this, Donatello now somehow properly understood. Despite his miraculous genius with technology, despite his peculiar abilities, and despite his optimistic and carefree heart, Tails was still everything he appeared to be on the outside. He was just a little kid. A little kid in a mixture of amazement and fear of this city of pavement and vehicles and bright lights. Don smiled at him affectionately and pulled him into a hug, feeling the small form in his arms tremble just slightly.
"...Of course you can."