Raph and R:
``R, you are with me today?'' Raph asked him, ``yes if you don't mind'' R said slowly, R really had to think before he spoke and talk slowly, so that he wouldn't talk slang.
They went into the dojo and got ready for practice. Leo and Raph got the children in their seats, so they could watch everything that were going to happen.
After practice R noticed that he really liked practice today, then he thought about it and found out the reason was, that both Mikey and M had not been bothering him, which made him wish all practice sessions would be like that.
It was Raph that broke him out off his thoughts by saying ``alright, come with me, we got the children right now'' R didn't say anything he just smiled.
They took the children into their private infirmary for their annual check-up. The children were behaving, that was all but one little Kuro, he was way too interested in R to behave or even sit still. Kuro kept on trying to clime R's back, while R was holding three others.
``Kuro get down and come sit'' Raph said with a firm voice, ``but oda, I want to sit up here'' Kuro said while trying to get up on R's shoulders, ``hold on Raph'' R said calmly. R gently sat the three children he was holding down on the floor, then he reached back and got a hold on Kuro, then he pulled Kuro up to his head, Kuro was now sitting on R's shoulders with a big smile.
``There. Now hold on or you are gonna fall down'' R said slowly and calmly, ``alright'' Kuro said smiling.
``So, who is his dad and mom?'' R asked while pointing up at Kuro, Raph just smiled and said ``guess'' ``hmm...you and Mikey?'' R said after thinking about it, ``half way right, he is mine'' Raph said while working on one of the children, ``hmm...Leo then'' R said with a puzzled look, ``correct, so why the look?'' Raph asked curiously, ``just trying to find out who the mom is, because I don't think Leo is the type to surrender in any situation, and I know that I wouldn't surrender to him'' R said, ``well in this case, Leo is the mom and I'm the dad'' Raph said smiling.
``Alright Kuro, your turn'' Raph said while walking over and taking Kuro down from R, ``alright oda'' Kuro said sadly, ``oh cheer up, if you do well, then I'll let you sit up there again'' R said smiling to Kuro, Kuro responded by giving him a big smile.
While Raph was working on Kuro, R was sitting calmly with the rest of the children, he found out that one of them wanted to be in his arms, ``hey you, what's your name?'' R asked smiling, ``oh, she doesn't talk and her name is Eliza'' Raph told him.
``Well hello Eliza'' R said smiling while taking her up into his arms, then Donny and D came into the room. While the others were talking, R decided to try and teach Eliza to talk.
``Eliza'' R tried slowly while having her attention, she did not seem to react to it. ``Hey Donny, do you know if Eliza can hear?'' R asked with concern, ``well we did check her once she was born, but we didn't find anything wrong with her, so to answer your question, yes she can'' Donny said looking a little confused mixed with concern.
``Has she always been quiet?'' R asked, ``no she hasn't, she use to talk, but she suddenly stopped and we don't know why'' Donny said with concern, ``hmm'' R said thinking long and hard about the reason.
It wasn't until Raph came over and touched him, that he broke out of his thoughts, it was also then that he noticed that Donny and D were gone.
``Eliza's turn now?'' R asked confused, ``yes, her turn now'' Raph said smiling, ``can I get you to hold her still for me?'' Raph asked calmly, ``sure'' R said calmly.
R watched Eliza closely, he wanted to see how she would react to it all. Eliza went into her shell the second she saw the needle, ``wait Raph'' R said calmly, ``Eliza look at me'' R said before he went ``ahh'' with his open mouth towards Raph, Raph smiled big and checked R's mouth, ``see, easy, your turn'' R said calmly, Eliza came out of her shell and did the same as R had and went ``ahh'' they went through the entire check-up like that, even R got a shot.
While R waited with Eliza for the rest of the children to be check, R talked to her calmly, trying to get her to say anything, but Eliza never said a word and that made R sad.
When Eliza didn't say a word and didn't even seem to try, that was when R decided to try and find out *the why*, and he had time to do that, almost 2 months.
``Alright time to hand them over to Leo and L, so we can go outside to the farming fields and get some hard work done'' Raph said while they were walking with the children into the living room, where Leo and L were waiting for them, ``we'll take them from here'' Leo said calmly, ``R just put her down on the floor, we got this'' Leo said to him, ``no, she is coming with me for today'' R said firmly and turned and walked outside with Eliza in his arms.
Once outside in the house, they waited for Raph, ``and why is she coming with you today?'' Raph demanded to know, ``because I want to know why she won't talk at all. I can't find out if she is not with me, now can I'' R snaped back at him, ``hmp, alright. Then let's go'' Raph said half laughing.
While they were working, Eliza was sitting on R's back in a quick made baby hammock. For most of the time Eliza was calm, until she saw something move, then she started to panic and started to tap R's shell until she got his attention.
``What is it Eliza?'' R asked calmly, then he turned the hammock around to the front, it was then he saw that she had gone into her shell, ``Eliza?'' R asked worried, ``move slowly around'' Raph almost whispered, R did as he was told and when he had, he saw *the why*, it was and animal he hadn't seen before, ``what is that?'' R whispered, ``that is a mutated animal from a lab and they eat smaller animals, so stay here with her, I got this'' Raph whispered calmly.
R watched as Raph went over to the animal and killed it in one strike, then just to be safe he cut the head off it, Raph took the dead animal over to a pile in a pit, there he made a gesture for R to come over. R came over with Eliza, ``give her to me please'' Raph said calmly, after R had given her to Raph, ``look Eliza, it is dead now, it is not coming after you ever again'' Raph said to her gently.
Eliza came out of her shell and saw the dead animal, while holding on to Raph, she looked at the dead animal, but was still a bit scared of it, ``really dead, oda?'' Eliza said nervously, ``yes, really dead, sweetie'' Raph answered with a smile, ``good'' Eliza said firmly.
Raph handed Eliza back to R and told him to get her to Leo inside the house. R started to walk back to the house, when he heard a fire start behind him, he didn't need to look to know, that Raph had started a fire to get rid of the dead animal.
``Thank you for keeping me with you today'' Eliza said smiling, ``no problem sweetie'' R said smiling back at her.
Inside the house R found Leo, L and April with the rest of the children, ``hey, got room for one more?'' R asked calmly with a smile, ``sure'' Leo said while walking over to take Eliza. ``Put me down, please'' Eliza asked R calmly, ``sure thing, sweetie'' R said while putting her down on the floor, once on the floor she turned and said to him with a big smile ``thank you.''
``You got her to talk again, how?'' Leo asked confused, ``she can tell you or Raph, if you want to'' R said calmly, ``I have to go, we got work to do outside'' R told him calmly.
R came back outside and found Raph working, where they were before the animal interrupted them. ``I'm back'' R said smiling, ``good, then let's get back to it'' Raph said.
While they were working, ``so, who is the dad and mom of Eliza?'' R asked curiously, ``well, I'm her mom and Donny are her dad'' Raph said proudly, ``and out of the 14 children how many of them are yours?'' R asked still curious, ``11 children, 1 hatchling, 3 eggs and I'm a dad to 11 of them and mom to 4 of them, so I've got 4 with Leo as mom and 2 with Leo as dad, 3 with Mikey as mom and 2 with Donny as dad and 4 with Donny as mom'' Raph explained calmly.
``And Leo has?'' R asked, ``Leo has 8 children, 2 with Mikey as mom and 6 with me, where he is mom to 4 of them'' Raph said smiling, ``so, that means that Mikey has how many?'' R asked a little confused, ``well, Mikey is mom to 6, 2 with Leo as dad, 1 with Donny as dad and 3 with me as dad, so he is not a dad, yet'' Raph explained smiling.
``Wow, so that is why all the children call you oda, to avoid confusion among them'' R said while pulling up some carrots, ``yes, that and we decided to raise all of them together as one family instead of two couples'' Raph said while pulling up weeds, ``makes sense'' R said while putting the carrots in the basket.
When they were done gathering the vegetables for tonight's dinner, they took it all into the prep kitchen, where they would clean and prep the food, before taking it to the cooking kitchen where the cooking happened. In the prep kitchen they, washed and cut all the vegetables, before putting them into storage boxes and closed them.
``Now that that is done, let's go get the meat'' Raph said while walking towards the door, ``what meat are we getting?'' R asked curiously, ``we are going to get some clams'' Raph said smiling.
They took a basket each and walked out the house and off the property, until they came to the ocean, then before they went in, ``we only need 30 of them, so you gather 15 and I'll gather 15, alright?'' Raph said calmly, ``alright, let's do this'' R said smiling.
In the water, R saw where Raph was swimming towards, he followed Raph and found the clams easily, R only took 15 clams as told and once he had them all in his basket, he swam back up. ``Wow these clams are big'' R said surprised, ``that's because these have had time to grow'' Raph said smiling.
Once back in the prep kitchen, they opened the clams and rinsed them for sand, all of them had pearls in them, some more than others, they took the pearls and saved them in a box, the pearls were big and had different colors.
When they were done, they went and took a shower, before going to dinner. After dinner was done, they cleared the table and did the dished, before going into the prep kitchen and get the pearls and clam shells.
They took the pearls and clam shells with them into a workroom, with a lot of storage all around the room. ``What is this room?'' R asked curiously, ``this is our jewelry making room'' Raph said while sitting down in his chair, he put the pearls down on the table, then he took the pearls out and sorted them by color, when he was done he pulled a chair out for R to sit on.
``Come and I'll show you how me make jewelry and what kind of jewelry we have'' Raph said while finding a drawer, he put the drawer on the table, in it was a beautiful collection of jewelry without pearls, ``wauw'' was all R could say.
R sat down and sat the clam shells down on the table. ``So, what are we going to do with the shells?'' R asked curiously, ``we are going to clean them and turn them into bowls and burning essence holders'' Raph told him calmly.
Paying attention to what Raph was doing and saying, made R forget about time. While they were working R felt a calm, he had never felt before, it was amazing to him how calm he was. Ever since they arrived, he hadn't had one out burst of anger, sure he snapped once, but that didn't count.
It wasn't until Raph said something to him, that he broke out of his concentration and said ``sorry, what?'' Raph just smiled and said ``time for bed'' ``oh, right'' R said a little confused over where the time went.
R went deep in thought again, he was trying to find that calm place again, but failed when he heard his brothers talking, it wasn't that he was calm, he just wasn't in the zone like before.
TBC...
