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burnedbyshoto · 5 years

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Welcome Home - Part Three

todoroki shouto x first time parents fem!reader

warnings: fluff :D

word count: 4,564

A/N: im so sorry if y’all are sick and tired of pregnancy crap from me, because im not and neither are these anons. you can definitely read this independently from the other two parts theres nothing that connects them except Kaito but hes just your child so its no biggie honestly, i hope you two anons enjoy this so much! and im sorry that these aren’t h/c and i went with a super self-indulgent scenario instead.... anon if you want that hc still i will gladly write up a hc of this entire thing for you!! >:) anyways like subscribe at my youtube channel for more ;) enjoy

Part One Part Two Part Four

Todoroki Kaito was a force to be reckoned with. At only four years old he was able to evade most babysitters his parents had for him on the days neither or both of them could not be home with him, or when Kaito wasn't in school. His bright red hair was something that everyone figured would make him easy to spot, but he was just so slippery and quick.

In fact at ten at night on a Tuesday night, when you and your loving husband Shouto were on route home after being in the office since four in the morning, he escaped. You smiled up at your husband who had his arm wrapped around your shoulder, his head resting upon your own as the two of you walked leisurely.

“Do you need me to carry you?” You teased Shouto as you seemed to be doing the heavy lifting during this walk, not that you minded carrying him.

“I do like being carried by strong women.” Shouto agreed as he suddenly put the mass majority of his body weight on you, catching you off guard as you shrieked stumbling many steps forward before catching your balance. “There we go.” Shouto murmured into your ear as you giggled now walking--dragging--Shouto with you as he refused to wrap his legs around you.

“MAMA!” The all too familiar and recognizable voice of Kaito sounded through the empty streets, and your eyes immediately spotted the tiny figure of your son running at what could only be his breakneck speed toward you.

“Kaito-chan?!” You shouted back, suddenly leaving Shouto to fall forward as you went racing for your child who flung himself into your arms.

“Mama, I missed you so much! It was nine p.m. and you and papa weren’t home so I had to go find you!” Kaito explained himself without you even having to ask. You sigh softly pushing your baby’s shaggy hair out of his eyes and you looked into Kaito’s eyes that were identical to your own.

“You know you can’t just come looking for us,” You reason with you toddler who was squirming in your arms to be given to Shouto, and you easily passed him over, and Shouto took the small child giving him an affectionate kiss on his forehead. “Besides where is Midoriya-san? Did you tell him where you were going?”

“Well, Midoriya-san said that I couldn’t, but then I decided that my mama was in trouble so I left anyways,” Kaito said as he decided to go back to your arms. “Kaito-chan, you can’t be doing that, at least tell Midoriya-san that you are leaving.” Shouto reasons and you kick your husband softly on his leg, giving a pointed look.

“Kaito-chan, mama, and papa are Pro-Heroes and sometimes we will get home late, but we will always be back to kiss you goodnight.” You whisper to your son who has his head nestled into your neck.

“I know,” Kaito understands, you know that, “But I’m stronger than papa, so I needed to make sure.”

You laugh as you ruffle his hair and look at Shouto who has rolled his eyes, but the smile never left his face. It was kinda cute how much Shouto loved his son, even when he made backhanded comments like that. “And I’m stronger than the both of you, so if we don’t make it home in two minutes I’m going to ground the both of you.” You threaten as you begin walking again knowing your house was just around the corner of this block.

The next thing you knew, Shouto was carrying the both of you and started running with the two of you in his arms, “Go, papa! GO!” Kaito cheered on as in under a minute the three of you were outside the door.

“Now, I’m sure Midoriya-san hasn’t noticed you’re gone, because you’re supposed to be asleep like a good boy,” You tell Kaito as he holds your hand as you all search for wherever Izuku is in the house, “So you are going to apologize to him.”

“You’re going to make Midoriya flip,” Shouto states as he wraps his arms around your waist, his face pressed into your neck as he places a chaste kiss there.

“It’ll be hilarious,” You respond back, gently leaning into your husband as your son apologizes to Midoriya who had not noticed his disappearance.

You grinned looking at your husband as you watched Midoriya sprinting into the hallway of your house, Kaito tossed onto his shoulders like a sack of potatoes.

“Y-Y/n-chan! Shouto!” Midoriya laughs awkwardly as he places a hand to his neck, shifting his body as if to hid Kaito who’s feet were dangling very obviously in the front.

“Kiss mama, Midoriya-san! That’s what papa does to get away with things!” Kaito screams from his position as if unaware of how far away they were from him

“Kaito-chan, I-I can’t do that!” Midoriya stutters as he shakes a hand in denial to the married couple in front of him.

“Yeah, Midoriya, kiss y/n, so you can get away from it,” Shouto repeats Kaito’s command and Midoriya splutters completely flustered.

You let out a few laughs as you can’t believe the situation you were in currently, “Kaito-chan, only mama and papa can kiss each other; if anyone else tries to do it that's wrong.”

Kaito struggled to rise up from his hanging position from Midoriya’s shoulder, and there are fat toddler tears in his eyes, “So I can’t kiss you any-anymore, mama?” He bawls as you realize your mistake scooping your son from Midoriya who was still beet red.

“No no, baby.” You coo softly at Kaito as you give Shouto a pointed look as he was giving you a teasingly stare for making Kaito cry. “You can kiss your mama as much as you want, but adults can’t go kissing me or your papa.”

Eventually, you manage to say goodnight to Midoriya, and Kaito slams his forehead to his cheek as a way of saying goodnight. Shouto and you take Kaito back into his room as the sleepy redhead boy was falling asleep on your shoulder, murmuring about how he wanted chocolate milk but Shouto wouldn’t buy him chocolate milk.

“Goodnight, my baby Tenshi.” You whisper lovingly to Kaito as you press a kiss to his cheek.

“G’night, Mama…” Kaito sighs as he wraps his arms around you tightly, “I missed you today…”

You smile wider as you muzzle your nose into his cheek, “And I missed you, but I love you, and go to sleep before you make mama miss her beauty sleep.”

Kaito giggles as you stand up, letting Shouto give his own bedtime routine with Kaito. And you watch on as you always do as your husband playful tickles your son, who goes and starts screeching in mercy only to fling himself into Shouto’s arms and you smile as they exchange: I love you’s.

By the time the two of you exit Kaito’s room, your baby is long since knocked out.

You showered first the night, as apart of your guys designed schedule.

As Pro-Heroes, being in a happy marriage and a loving family with a toddler son required some work. Ever since you were off maternity leave from heroics, the two of you had a schedule that had yet to fail.

Monday’s were your day off, that day you were taking care of Kaito by yourself and doing whatever necessary around the house. Wednesday’s, or tomorrow, was Shouto’s days off, and he took care of Kaito and ran necessary errands outside of the house. Friday’s were the best days though, the two of you didn’t work, so you would spend half the day with Kaito and then go out together that night. It worked flawlessly, and even after four years, Friday nights were always something you looked forward too.

You sat on your bed, already under the covers as you heard the shower turn off. You were currently texting Mina about if she was sure she wanted to take care of Kaito on Thursday. Most of your friends were always eager and ready to take care of your guy’s son, most likely because he was still a baby and with his quirk still unmanifested, it made taking care of him easier.

Your eyes snapped up to see Shouto walking out of the bathroom still wet from the shower, a towel wrapped around his waist, and even after how many years of seeing a sight like this you froze and blushed.

“Look away, pervert.” Shouto teased you and you playfully scoffed, turning on your side and turning off your light, you needed to sleep.

In only a few seconds, Shouto was climbing into bed, dressed for sleep. His arm pulling you closer to him, and you smiled softly before turning around to be properly held by him.

“So what are you doing with our son tomorrow?” You ask Shouto as your fingers trailed in soft stroking motions on his shoulders.

“Well, we don’t need any errands to be done, so I was thinking that park after lunch, and then maybe I’ll convince him to make dinner with me for his gorgeous mother.” Shouto sighs softly as your fingers gently massage a knot you found in his neck.

“Oh, his mother? I’ve always heard good things.” You say nonchalantly as Shouto’s hands move from your back to your hips.

“She’s the best, honestly, well… if I’m being honest she does have this fatal flaw.” Shouto grins up at the ceiling as your eyes sharply squint.

“Yeah?”

“Oh yeah…” Shouto agrees, starting to laugh at what he’s going to say next, “She is a little bitch.”

He catches your hands that went to smack him, and immediately rolls his weight over so that you’re trapped between him and the mattress, “Oh, did I mention to add she’s predictable?” Shouto continues as he smirks down at you.

“You’re annoying.” You retort weakly as you watch your husband come down to kiss you softly.

“That sucks for you,” He mutters against your lips and you kiss him back ready to prove to him just how unpredictable you really were.

⋆✭⋆✭⋆⋆✭⋆✭⋆

Shouto woke up the next morning to you leaving for the day and smiled when you gave him a sweet kiss goodbye. “Don’t you dare hurt my child.” You threatened playfully as he grabbed you pulling you back into the bed.

“I’m sure there will be a nearby Pro-Hero to save him just in case,” Shouto whispers as he tries to steal a few more minutes in bed with you.

“Bakugo and Mina will yell at me if I’m late again!” You squeal as you squirm hopelessly against him.

“Alright, mama, go kick some ass today.” Shouto relents as he lets you go.

“I’ll kick your ass,” You mock as you press a final kiss to his lips.

“I’m sure you will.”

After watching as you kiss your still sleeping son goodbye, he walks you out the door and upon returning to his bed Shouto then falls back asleep.

“PAPA, WAKE UP!” A voice roared and Shouto’s eyes shot open as Kaito was sitting on his chest his y/e/c eyes centimeters from his. “Oh papa, I thought you were dead…” Kaito groaned as he collapsed onto Shouto's face.

“I was sleeping, Kaito-chan.” Shouto laughs as he sits up, catching his son in his arms.

“Well, I didn’t know that and was going to perform C-P-P,” Kaito exasperates with a pointed look, a smile never leaving his face.

“C-P-R.” Shouto corrects Kaito as he throws him gently onto the bed.

“C-P-R…” Kaito mutters, his face scrunching as he shakes his head, “No, papa, it’s C-P-P!” He screams in defiance.

“Hm, you may be right,” Shouto says, pretending to think about the spelling as he gets out of bed, “I think we’ll ask your beautiful and smart mama tonight, huh.”

“If I win, I get to sleep in the bed with mama, and you take my bed!” Kaito grins with his teeth on full display as he shimmies off the bed.

“I’ll take that bet,” Shouto agrees, grabbing the edge of the sheet and sees Kaito mimicking his actions and together they make the bed.

“Alright, piggy let's go brush some teeth!” Shouto says throwing his son up onto his shoulders, and can’t help the warm feeling in his stomach at the roar of giggles coming from Kaito.

Shouto spends the rest of the morning attempting to make his son some pancakes while Kaito attempts to paint his toenails, although Shouto is nearly positive he’s only managed to paint the flesh and not the nail. “Wow, I really like the neon yellow you chose.” Shouto points out as Kaito nods his head against his calf.

“Mama does it so much better, but I think mine is still pretty,” Kaito said as he looks at the disaster of the nail polish over his foot. Shouto looks down and has to physical bite his tongue to keep himself from laughing.

“We have to show mama this, huh Kaito-chan,” Shouto says as he puts the pancakes on a plate. “Hold on.”

Kaito latches tighter onto Shouto’s leg as he easily walks to the table despite the extra weight on his leg. Kaito screams of laughter made everything better and Shouto even went around the kitchen table one time after Kaito begged for more.

Shouto watched as Kaito poured syrup onto his pancakes with a concentrated look on his face, his chubby hands barely able to hold the bottle. “You got enough syrup there, Kaito-chan?” Shouto asked as he waited for Kaito to be done so he could also pour on some syrup.

“Nope! I want it to fill the house with syrup.” Kaito explains cheerfully as Shouto chuckles.

“I don’t think your mama would appreciate sleeping with syrup in her hair, remember the time she found a feather in her hair?”

“Mama is pretty silly.” Kaito agreed as he handed the syrup over to Shouto.

“And we can go to the park afterward?” Shouto offered when pancakes were stuffed into Kaito’s face, and his eyes sparkled in excitement.

“YESH, PWEASE?!” Kaito shouted food spraying everywhere.

The two males stared at the food on the table and echoes of laughter sounded through the house.

Shouto tried dressing his son who was in the middle of playing the part of a superhero, “I want to be just like mama!” Kaito shouted as his hand thrust out pretending to do who knows what. Your quirk definitely did not depend on you shooting anything.

“I do, too.” Shouto agrees as he manages to pull a blue t-shirt with your Pro-Hero costume printed on it.

“But papa, you’re a Pro-Hero already! Why would you wanna be like mama?”

“She’s amazing.” Shouto simply states and Kaito looks at his dad with curious eyes.

“Papa, are you in love with mama?” Kaito asks as he sticks out his legs for Shouto to put on his shorts and socks.

“Very much so,” Shouto tells his son as he ruffles his hair, “Just like I love you.”

Kaito laughs as he stands up and jumps into Shouto’s arms, “I love you too, papa.”

“Ready for the park?”

“YES!”

⋆✭⋆✭⋆⋆✭⋆✭⋆

Shouto was sitting on a park bench watching as Kaito ran around the playground following a group of slightly older kids. “I’m sorry, but you’re the Pro-Hero: Shouto, correct?” A lady’s voice asked from behind Shouto, and without looking, Shouto nodded his head.

“I am, is there anything you need? Sorry, I’m just looking after my son today.”

“Oh, I know, I was just wanting to see if you would be willing to sign this for my child? He’s a huge fan!”

Shouto looks away from Kaito who was climbing up the jungle gym, standing up to face the mother who was clutching a piece of his merchandise. Smiling gently, Shouto places his signature on the item and returns to sit down.

“You don’t mind if I sit here? It seems that my daughter is playing with your son?”

Shouto’s eyebrows scrunch slightly, “You have a daughter and a son?” He asks looking back to the group of kids Kaito was playing with none of which looked remotely related.

“Uh, yeah, I, um, I do!” She stutters rubbing the back of her head as the two of them sit down on the bench, Shouto watching Kaito look over at him, and he waved.

Shouto allows the lady to sit next to him and he watches as Kaito is coming down the slide, and his face scrunches up as it normally does before he needs to sneeze, except it’s not just a sneeze. Shouto watches as Kaito sneezes, fire emitting from his body and burning the asphalt of the playground, Kaito shrieked and moved his hands around and the emitted fire followed the movement of his hands.

“PAPA!!! HELP ME!!” Kaito bellowed as parents immediately raced to their children as the flames seemed to grow in Kaito’s anxiety and fear. Shouto is already by Kaito’s side, ice emitting from his footsteps to counteract the flames that were set as Kaito sobs.

“Are you okay, Kaito-kun?” Shouto asks as he quickly examines his son for any potential injury.

“I JUST SNEEZED OUT FIRE!” Kaito wailed as his hands went to cover his eyes. “AND NOW I CAN NEVER EVER SNEEZE AGAIN!”

Shouto had to bite his tongue to keep himself from laughing at Kaito, “I don’t think that’s true…”

“I’m gonna be mama’s sidekick with a quirk called sneezing fires!” Kaito complained as tears continued to flow down his face, and Shouto paused feeling his old self reflected in the troubles of Kaito.

“You know what my quirk is, right?” Shouto asks as he sinks to the floor of the playground, Kaito looking up at Shouto as he sniffled loudly. Kaito nodded his head as his hand touched the scar on Shouto’s face.

“Half cold-half hot.”

Shouto nodded as he opened his left palm and demonstrated to Kaito a small wisp of fire that danced gently across his palm. “I have a fire, just like you. You wanna know a secret?”

Kaito’s eyes brightened, he did love secrets, and Shouto grinned back at his smiling toddler, “Okay, my secret is that I used to hate my fireside.”

This causes confusion to hit Kaito’s face, his fingers going to touch the flame that gently swirled in a hypnotic dance. “But you’re so strong, papa, how could you hate your fire?”

Shouto paused, noticing the audience nearby watching a rare moment of a Pro-Hero discussing the hardships of his childhood in public, “I thought I would hurt someone with it, become someone I wasn’t, but with the help of your mama and Midoriya-san, I’ve come to love my fire. I think you’ll love yours as well.”

Kaito stares at his father with a newfound love, one that was forged when two people endured the same hardships with their thoughts of their quirks. “I’ll love my quirk if you love yours.” Kaito compromises, sticking his pinky out for him to seal this secret between the two of them.

“Deal.”

Later that day, “Pro-Hero: Shouto, saves son from himself!” was the biggest news of the day.

⋆✭⋆✭⋆⋆✭⋆✭⋆

Shouto stood in the kitchen preparing for dinner as Kaito sat coloring in front of him, casual singing some theme song Shouto knew by heart. Shouto heard his phone ring, but since he was in the middle of cooking the salmon, he asked Kaito to retrieve the phone.

Kaito skipped over to Shouto’s phone, picked up, and put it to his ear. “Hello? What do you want, this is Kaito!”

Shouto smiled softly as his son who was using two hands to hold the phone to his ear, although he wasn’t sure if it was upside down or not. Kaito’s face lightened only by 100% and hearts only seemed to manifest in his eyes, and Shouto knew exactly who was on the other end of the call.

“MAMA, I GOT MY QUIRK TODAY! MY QUIRKY! JUST LIKE PAPA! PAPA EVEN LET ME IN ON A SECRET!” Kaito shrieked excitedly, always one to be excited to have you on the phone. “Yes mama, I didn’t get hurt! Hello, I’m a big boy with a quirk.”

Shouto flipped the salmon as he watched Kaito walking over towards him, the phone still clutched to his ear, “Well now I can be a Pro-Hero, like you and papa, and I can save you and take care of you! But yeah, here’s papa, bye! I love you.”

Kaito handed Shouto the phone, who took it with ease watching as Kaito went back to his spot to color. “Hello?” Shouto finally said after Kaito managed to climb up the chair safely.

“Why hello there my beautiful husband,” your voice immediately responds and Shouto smirks slightly.

“You jealous?”

“YOU KNOW I AM!”

“Mm. I don’t blame you, it was just as good as his first steps.”

“Don’t sound so smug!” You complained through the phone, your voice seeming defeated.

“I’m not,” Shouto laughs at your fretting as he reaches out a hand to assist Kaito with his juice box.

“I guess I’ll believe your deceptions, anyways I’m glad it happened during his school break and not during class! Could you imagine the chaos that would’ve happened if he lit the school on fire?!”

“I can only imagine, we’ll have to take him to the doctors on Friday for the actual diagnosis,” Shouto says regarding the naming of Kaito’s quirk.

“Yeah, agreed! I already made an appointment.” You inform Shouto.

“Oh?”

“Yeah! Sorry!! I was going to go anyways, and I called again to add Kaito! Also, your ass looks great today babe, I saw all the photos of the park incident.”

“Wait why do you need to go to the doctors—?”

“MAMA!” Kaito yells overly excited as Shouto watches the four-year-old scrambling off the chair and running full speed at you as you entered the house.

“Hi, my baby!” Your joyful voice rings through the house, and Shouto ends the call as he watches you, still dressed up in your costume, clutch the red-headed son close to your body as you twirled around with him in your arms.

“I got my quirk today, and it’s like papa’s, uh, his, right side? I think I can’t remember!” Kaito laughs as he throws his head back.

“Left side, baby, left side.” You day grabbing Kaito’s left arm and shaking it so that he can learn once again the difference.

Shouto watches as you walk over Kaito sitting on your waist, and you smile at your husband who presses a gentle kiss on your lips. “Welcome home,” Shouto whispers.

Much to his surprise, you rise back up to capture Shouto’s lips into another kiss, and the two of you stand there taking a long and high-emotional kiss. Shouto pulls away after hearing the sixth long sigh from Kaito who immediately wrapped his arms around your neck.

“See,” Shouto whispered to your blushing face. “We Todoroki’s are mama’s boys.”

When the three of you are finished eating dinner, which was delicious by the way, and you had changed into much more casual clothing, you all went to the backyard to play some soccer as Kaito insisted he had learned a new trick he wanted to show you. The three of you played soccer together for what felt like hours, the teams, rules, and scores always changing.

Nearing the end of the final match, Shouto had you thrown over his shoulder as he was chasing down Kaito who had abandoned all rules of soccer and was carrying the ball to the goal. “Come here Kaito-chan!” Shouto bellows softly, running at a pace quick enough to be a threat to the toddler's pace and step size, but not quick enough to catch him.

“Save me, Kaito-chan!” You cried out between laughter as you held on tightly to Shouto’s back.

Shouto smacks your butt softly as a sign that your laughter is a bit too obvious, and you pathetically kick your legs in rebuttal. “Mama, is he seducing you?!” Kaito asks shocked, he had thrown the ball far away and was circling behind to look directly into your flushed face.

“SEDUCING?!” The two parents spluttered as they had no idea how their four-year-old had that sort of vocabulary in his set. A grin broke out on Kaito’s face and then he went and grabbed your hands.

“Alright, papa, let's beat mama!” Kaito roared and Shouto shouted back in agreement as suddenly your sides were being tickled and your shrieks of laughter echoed through the quiet night.

“Goodnight, my beautiful boy.” You whisper to Kaito as you pressed a kiss to his forehead, his arms wrapping around your neck softly as he didn’t want to let go just yet. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too, mama,” Kaito whispered, yawning heavily as you stood up. Shouto replaced you at the side and went to hug and kiss Kaito, who at that very moment remembered something.

Kaito, momentarily renewed with energy grabbed the piece of paper he had been secretively drawing on and thrust it forward towards Shouto, “This is us, papa! We are gonna save the world together with our fire.”

Shouto looked down at the two circle people with red fire everywhere, and he smiled softly at the written Kaito and Papa under the people as well as the drawn hearts. “Goodnight, Kaito-chan, I, uh, well, I love you so much. Thank you for this drawing, I’ll cherish it forever.” Shouto says as he pulls his son's forehead in for a kiss.

“I love you, too, papa. So much….”

You watched on with tears in your eyes for the amount of love that you could feel between the father of your child and said, child. Shouto eventually stood up, and with an arm wrapped around your waist, the two of you left while turning off the lights.

Shouto showed you the drawing as the two of you retreated to your bedroom, the overall feeling in the house right now was overwhelming love and joy. “Wow, you two are in fact the reason why I live every day.” You say as you hopped onto the bed, Shouto climbing on seconds afterward, his head on your chest as he held you close.

“I’m glad,” Shouto confesses feeling the same way as you did as he sighs softly.

“Um, Shoucchan?” You say softly, and Shouto hums in acknowledgment, too comfortable right now to even dare look at you even if he wanted to. “Well, uh, you see I have- I have something to confess…”

“You’re pregnant again, right?” Shouto says taking your overall hesitation to say what he had gathered from your doctor's appointment, refusal of a glass of alcohol, your early release home, and of course the unprotected sex that happened a few couples of times weeks ago.

“I am…”

Shouto sits up, watching your face swim with millions of emotions as in parallel to the first time you confessed. A smile covers his face and yours breaks out in one as well as far tears roll down both your cheeks, and another kiss is placed between the two of you, “Oh, I’m so glad.” He whispers against your lip as he places his warm hand against your stomach.

sorry, ive fallen in love with kaito and i cant get up D: requests are open still!!!

#todoroki shouto #todoroki shoto x reader #todoroki x reader #bnha writing blog #bnha #bnha x reader #bnha todoroki #bnha scenarios #mha #mha x reader #mha todoroki #mha scenarios #todoroki fluff #welcome home part 3

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drgnrder82 · 5 years

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The edge of Chinatown was distinct. The lights on the archway radiated red, white and gold before your eyes took in the sight of the cluster of signs in the narrow streets. The street always seemed to be bustling, like most of New York, even after dark. This city is packed tightly together, but in this burrough it is more apparent. Each building felt connected to the next, the cross streets almost disappear and the gaps seem as small as alleyways. Traveling through this part of the city was easy. Ignoring the fact that it was close to home, this was a burrough they grew up in, trained in, but over the years they frequented Chinatown less and less. He may not have come through this way at all if his brothers didn't start reminiscing about it with father. Chinatown was not out of his way from the junk yard, but he often kept to the sewers. Particularly in the day. Best not to get caught by people, especially on camera. At this time of night Chinatown was still as active with tourists and natives as the daytime. Kitchen vents delivered new scents at every rooftop. Fried noodles from a restaurant. A street cart with fried dumplings. The next roof he could smell a whole assortment of fried meats from another of the array of restaurants. Great. Stopping for this detour delayed dinner already and the aromas were conspiring to make him hungrier. Sentimentality clearly came with a price. What was wrong with him, making this detour anyways? By the time he got back all of dinner would be eaten. Mikey and his bottomless stomach would see to that. The others would just laugh and he would be scrounging for food. Wait. Did he need to get groceries again? Probably. Another item to add to the list. He continued to jump from rooftop to rooftop until a large gap at the far southern edge of Chinatown appeared. He wasn't sure the building was still there until he saw it. Every building in the area was at least three stories, usually more. An old, single story home sat at the edge of the district. When they were kids it was abandoned. From what he had gathered the it was a home and had been converted to a shrine. It was hard to say if it was supposed to be a Japanese shinto shrine, a Buddhist temple, or a shrine to a man from Chinatown. Not that it mattered now. Someone still owned the building but no one used it for anything anymore. From his perch on the rooftop, even in the dark of night, the building should be condemned. Holes littered the roof. A strange building to say the least. It was circular and he only remembered there being a few rooms inside when he was a child. The unique reason they stopped here at all was the garden. The building encompassed a small grassy garden with a single sakura tree. Sensei brought them there to see the sakura tree bloom in spring time for a couple years. Too early in spring for blossoms yet. He jumped down the outer edge of nearby fire escapes until he could reach the closest section of roof. He judged where the best location to jump would be. Shingles were loose everywhere and he doubted the integrity of the wood supports. All the windows were dark in the building. Didn't seem like anyone was around. He dared to leap onto the peak of the roof and vault immediately into the thin grass. The cherry tree seemed both bigger and smaller than he remembered. He could easily reach up and touch the lowest branches. Buds were starting to appear, it might blossom in the next couple weeks. He would have to remember to come back. Maybe he would bring father. Father rarely came to the surface but this shrine was generally a safer place to visit. Something scraped the wood inside the shrine. Could have been anything, but he knew he shouldn't risk getting caught if some person was holed up in the abandoned building. At least the sewer entrance was still in the far edge of the grass, near the back gate to the alley. Swiftly, he ran to the cover, lifted it, jumped in and covered the entrance again. Next time he would do more recon. Or, if he was more intelligent and did not listen to Michelangelo and his stories, not bother being sentimental and just run his errands and get home.

“Did you see someone in the garden?” a girl turned to a boy at the door of the former temple. Tools, new wood, a few pieces of furniture littered the room. The electricity was on, and being paid for for that matter, but not really working in this room yet. Extension cords ran all around the room, mostly connected to work lights. A girl, average height, small build, had tripped over the hammer while trying to avoid a ladder. At the front door, the boy she was talking to, clicked another work light on from the floor, “Nope.” “I'm serious.” “You must be seeing things again. Think this place is haunted?” “You're an idiot.”

Donatello threw his messenger bag on his bed. The lair was dark and still save for the graphics on the video game consoles dancing around. His brothers had retired early after their hard day training. And as he predicted, no one left any dinner for him. Michelangelo ate every last piece of pizza and finished off the cereal, which meant little for breakfast in the morning. He would definitely need to ask April or Casey to get some more groceries for them in the morning. Donatello switched on his work light in his computer lab before he booted up his work PC. Another late shift working as a IT phone technician. Waiting for the PC to boot he rummaged in the cabinets, not surprised to find them mostly bare. He felt fortunate to find a box of ramen hidden in a cabinet and enough oatmeal to lead to a loud, complaint filled morning. Waiting for water to boil he checked the security system cameras, ran back to the kitchen for his ramen and a soda, grabbed his headset from his bed and sat heavily in his computer chair. Before he logged in to the VOIP account for work, he thought about his detour. He really shouldn't have stopped. He kept kicking himself that Mikey got in his head. Now that Leo was back, their family whole again, Mikey was becoming rather reminiscent about childhood. Every time April or Casey came over Mikey would convince Master Splinter to tell different stories about their childhoods. The most recent being some of their rare outings to the surface. “Ever since the day we were mutated we have had few safe havens above ground. Day or night.” Splinter curled his tail around his feet on the couch, settling in next to April. “When they were small children I kept them bundled on me with a blanket, but as they grew they would not heed me, or be still. It was impossible to keep them safe above ground. It was my duty to keep them safe, even if Michelangelo insisted on climbing the pipes all the way to the ceiling.” When the giggles died out, April asked, “Where could you take them that was safe.” “Of all places,” Leo needed to stifle another round of rare laughter, “the junk yard.” Appearing to meditate on the story, Splinter continued, “It was the only place with a fence Michelangelo would not climb over. I also was able to run them around finding what we needed for our home. To an extent.” “Let me guess, Don would try to bring everything he could home.” Casey tipped back his beer, eager to get a shot in. His brother’s enjoyed that barb too, “Yes, laugh. I built that warming lamp we still use in the winter.” Claiming the room again, Splinter continued, “When they were older, and I could venture out further and leave them in the lair, I started to explore different neighborhoods. I enjoyed the atmosphere of my old home in Chinatown, and knew the streets well enough and that I may go unnoticed. The boys were young, five, perhaps six years old when I stumbled on a community garden on a roof near the edge of Chinatown. Fresh vegetables were the hardest foods to come by. We only took sparingly and I taught them to help care for the garden as our way of repayment for the food.” Pausing, Splinter sipped at his tea. “One evening as I searched for food behind the restaurants I was almost found by some cooks coming out on a break. I dove behind the dumpster, cornered.” “Like a rat?” Mikey yelped as Splinter’s tail whipped the side of his head. “Police were investigating a murder at a small house on the edge of the district. I had seen this place. It did not look like a house, many people visited, like a shrine. It was a peculiar building. Short and round. From the rooftops I could see a small garden. Weeks passed and I studied the building. It was most certainly abandoned and no police visited any longer. During the depths of the night, I woke my sons early and took them to this small house.” “Wait wait wait…why would you wake them to take them there? I mean…” “Grass.” They intoned quietly. “Grass?” “Hey, it’s not like we can just waltz around Central Park!” Raphael’s face fell but lifted again seconds later, “And that tree.” “What tree?” “In the middle of the garden, a sakura tree.” Their father stretched out his hand, he’d concealed a paper flower in the folds of his robe. “And it was mid spring. The blossoms were just opening.” April tried to conceal tears welling in the corners of her eyes as she watched each of the turtles relive the moment. They could still feel the breeze swirl around them, allowing the light scent of the cherry blossoms to wash over each of them. Donatello opened his eyes. Back to reality. While living in the sewers offered relatively low amounts of bills, he still had to pay for gas and groceries for the family. Reminiscing was nice but he needed to get back to life. IT, as painful a job as when Leo was gone but at least he got the occasional technology repair job in his drop box. Money was money. A wall full of monitors sat in front of him, lighting the entire room. Gadgets in various stages of build were scattered among his floor, desk space all the way around the room with remnants of wires and bolts making a trail practically to his bed in the next room. Maybe he would consider stopping at that building again on his next scavenging trip. Or even the community garden.

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I literally don’t know how long it will take me to edit this thing. I am near the end of the first arc and starting to edit the beginning. I may get to posting it on AO3 in chapters if I am happy with it. Either way...I liked how the beginning started to turn out. (Post 2007 movie)

#tmnt #tmnt fanfiction #tmnt 2007 #fanfiction #writing #fanfic #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt donatello

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