CH:18 Acceptance

After getting our asses handed to us... I mean training with Master Splinter, we all went to relax and nurse our wounds.

Mikey went straight to the fridge for the last piece of leftover pizza, then went to the couch and grabbed a comic book. Raph joined Mikey on the couch for some TV. Donny went directly to his lab, unable to get the alien robots out of his mind. And Leo went to his room, saying he wants to sharpen his swords.

Just as I'm about to leave aswell, Master Splinner called me back. Getting one last glance from the turtles before I turn around and go back into the dojo.

Splinter is kneeling on the floor in the centre of the dojo with a small box in front of him and gestures for me to join. I take my place in front of the box, facing sensei while the tip of my tail is twitching with anxiety.

"Today you have proven that you can follow the Way of the Ninja. So it is my honour to present you with this", as he finishes saying this he slowly bends down and opens the box. Pulling out a vivid green ninja eye mask and a roll of extra fabric. The colour reminds me of the fresh meadows of Earth in the hologram back in my pod room. Master gently hands them to me.

My eyes go wide and start to water a bit as I have never felt so accepted for who I am before. I bow low as I accept this honor mumbling, "Thank you Master."

He smiles warmly and says, "With this you are now a part of our family, my daughter."

With those words a tear of happiness falls down my cheek. I quickly wipe it away and look at him with sparkling violet eyes. I say with determination, "I will make you proud."

With a smile he left me to play with my new material, meditating off in the corner.

I decide separate the top part of my hair into three chunks. One from under the left side of my horns, down the middle, and then the right side of my horns, and braided it before tying it off with a green piece of fabric leaving the rest to flow free. I measure out the length of the mask and tear off another piece of the green material that should be about two feet longer.

I put the mask on my face and the extra piece on the back of my head. Pinching them together and tying them off on either side of my braid underneath each horn. Pulling my braid out so it sits on top of the band. The longest draping hunks of the green fabric hanging just passed my hair on either side of the braid, with the original two of the mask about a foot above those. 'Perfect', I couldn't help but grin at the thought as I adjust the mask on my face to the right spot. Since I don't use any weapons I decided to tear off two more pieces of fabric and wrap them around my wrists. 'After all, my claws are my weapons.' I think to myself, trying to hide a sadistic grin as I remember what they looked like covered in blood.

I tuck the rest of my fabric in my pocket of my black pants as I ran out of the dojo saying, "Think you, Splinter! I want to go show the boys!" I hear him chuckle as I close the door to the dojo.

I run directly to the couch, jump over the back and land my ass right between Raph and Mikey, giggling like a maniac. Any anger that they had from my actions immediately disappeared the moment they saw my mask.

Mikey grabs me in a bear hug and yells in my ear, "Welcome to the family!!" Then after he let me go he actually offered me his half eaten pizza.

To their surprise I actually took it and scarfed it down. After all, with all that energy expenditure earlier I'm starving. Unfortunately when one eats pizza that fast, it creates gas. With wide eyes I tried my hardest to suppress my belch but I'm barley able to muffle it. As my face goes red from embarrassment the two boys sitting on either side of me burst out laughing.

"I'll go get us some more pizza to celebrate!" Mikey yelled as he is flying out the door.

Raph wipes a tear from his eye from laughing so hard. He chuckles out, "Yeah, you're definitely one of the fam." And with his other hand he smacks my back in a friendly gesture but ends up leaving his hand on my far shoulder. He looks down at me with those big pools of gold for eyes before grimly saying, "I'm so glad that someone else isn't afraid to not pull punches around here." Then he flashes me a wild smile as those very eyes sparkle.

I sit up straight with shock on my face as I ask, "We were supposed to pull our punches? But they were bad guys! I could sense their evil!" By the end of my little rant I'm fuming with rage.

Seeing the fire that was lite in my eyes, Raph pulls me closer until I'm right beside him with his hand that was on my shoulder, then sliding it down to my hip. As he cups my face with the other hand, he rubs my cheek with his thumb. He whispers in a husky voice, "Easy there Tiger, we will cleanse this world of its filth together. Side by side. But there is a time and place for everything." Calming me right down in one way but lighting a new fire much, much more south.

I giggle as my face goes red thinking, 'Wow, he is so passionate! No matter what he does.' "Huh..." then another thought hits me. "No more squishy?" I ask jokingly and a smile sprawls across my face, although that's the only part of me that can move. Even my tail is frozen stiff.

He gives a sexy low chuckle before saying, "After the fight we just had? How could I call you anything else but Tiger with the ferocity you showed. Plus those eyes? Mmmm..." when he mentions my eyes, his fill with desire and he pulls me closer to kiss my forehead. Making my heart melt in the process and my body becoming as stiff as a rod. 'Okay, maybe I didn't know what I was getting into... This is a lot more intense then I was expecting', I couldn't help but think as my stomach does flips and shit from the butterfly storm I'm experiencing.

Raph removes his hand from my face while he leans back a bit and give me a weird look, "Is something wrong, Tiger?" He asks with a hint of worry.

"No... Well yes! But, kinda? It's confusing..." I manage to stammer out.

Raph looks at me even more confused, "I-I'm going to need more then that."

I sit up straight trying to focus like I do when I'm training "Well You see...", I begin nervous as ever. "My people were logical thinkers, we werent suppose to act on emotions. But I wasn't one for rules and so I was shunned by my people for being a radical and an emotionally run unique individual." I look at him with a slight smirk.

Raph tilts his head a bit asking, "Is that suppose to be a bad thing?" in confusion.

"Apperently, to my people. Heh, but I always took it as a compliment. Though being alone my whole life before the pod because of who I am was hard." I look down as I'm saying this.

"I bet but I'm glad you never changed who you are, regardless." Raph says as he looks down at me with warm eyes, "But what about you parents?"

"They passed before my birth was complete. You see my people used technology to create life, and physical contact became greatly frowned upon." I look at his hand on my hip as I continue, "I kinda feel bad that my people never knew the feeling of being held like this." As my cheeks get a little rosey.

"No physical contact what so ever? How did they choose mates?" Raph asked in disbelief.

"Nope, that was all selected from a computer by calculating the most compatible DNA." I state with a serious face.

Before Raph could even react to what I just told him, Mikey came back to the lair carrying 10 pizza boxes. He goes straight to the couch and drops the pizza on the coffee table before grabbing a piece and falling back on the couch.

Raph takes his hand back the moment I lean forward to grab a slice and the three of us murder two boxes of pizza together. Laughing about all sorts of things while we indulge.

I look at the extra pizza boxes and think out loud, "The others are probably hungry aswell."

"Yeah but you know how those two are." Raph says with a sigh.

"Right! Once they focus on something, it's impossible to snap them out of it." Mikey agrees with a chuckle.

"Well if they aren't coming to the pizza then I guess I'll just bring the pizza to them." I say as I grab a box and walk away, not even giving the boys a chance to reply.

I head to Donny's lab, curious if he has made any progress on the alien tech. When I walk in the room I see Donny sitting at his computer scratching his head while looking really frustrated.

I walk over to him and put the pizza box down on his desk before looking at his three screens. "Food break? Gotta keep your brain charged." I say in a slightly joking manner, earning me a smile from Donny.

He reaches over and grabs a slice as he is saying, "I just can't make heads or tails of this language." Not even taking his eyes off the screens.

"Maybe it's not a language", I point out.

Donny looks at the screens in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Well what if it's supposed to be numbers? Like a code." I point out as I grab a slice of pizza.

"I can't believe I never thought of that!" Donny perks up as he starts typing away on his computer. Next thing I know, the alien gibberish starts turning into code.

Donny jumps out of his chair and gives me a bear hug yelling in my ear, "You are a genius!" When he sets me down, he holds me at arms length with his eyes growing wide. "And you are wearing a ninja mask!" He yells with even more excitement. "Green looks good on you" He points out as he begins to calm down. "We should be celebrating!" Donny says as he is starting to get excited again.

All I can do is laugh at his rollercoaster of emotions. "That's what the pizza is for." I point out. "I think Raph and Mikey are picking out some movies to watch if your down?"

And with that suggestion we both go over to join them. "Leo still isn't out of his room yet?" I ask noticing a lack of blue.

"Well, he was grumbling pretty hard about having to use his swords on that valve." pointed out Donny.

"Must have put a few nicks in his precious katanas." Says Raph with a chuckle.

"I'll go grab him for pizza and movies." With that I turned on my heels and went straight to Leo's room.

When I knocked on Leo's door I hear a grumbling "What?!" on the other side.

"Hey Leo, it's me." I say, trying to add some cheer into my words hoping it helps.

I hear a bit of shuffling around before he opens the door. When I first lay eyes on him, he looked perplexed but the moment he sees my mask he lights right up. "Ying, y-you... Y-you're..."

"A full on ninja now", I finish his sentence with a huge pride filled smile.

"Congrats Ying," He finally says as a warm smile sprawls across his face.

"Come on, Leo. We are celebrating with pizza and movies." I grab his wrist and start dragging him away Mikey-style, making him chuckle.

All five of us stayed up late celebrating. Devouring all the pizza and watching every monster movie they own. 'Finally. I have a family of my own.'