Splinter Week Day 2: Medicine / Resist
There was something to be said for desperate times fostering creativity. Splinter could catch his sons with ease when they were playing chase or hide-and-seek but as soon as it came to evading more serious, responsible matters like bedtime, chores or in today’s instance medicine, suddenly they had a dozen new escape routes and twice the speed.
“It is for your own good, Michelangelo!” he half pleaded, half scolded, mindful of how he held the syringe as he stretched to reach the boy crouched on top of the refrigerator. Most impolite of him to kneel on the kitchen counters but he would do what was necessary to ensure this tetanus shot went where it was intended. He already went above and beyond breaking into the pharmacy!
“No, no, no!” Michelangelo screeched, vaulting toward the opposite counter and scattering their collection of already bruised, scavenged fruit onto the floor. Splinter winced. He’d hoped to posit one of those juicy oranges as a reward if he settled down.
“You have spent more time and energy panicking over this than it will even take to give it to you,” he protested, narrowly avoiding a slip over a fallen apple. “Raphael has pinched you worse than this will, I’m sure!”
“It’s still gonna hurt, I don’t wanna hurt!” he lamented, diving to army crawl under the dining chairs. Setting the syringe down on a placemat, Splinter caught ahold of his ankle and hoisted him into the air, then against his chest to muffle his world-ending wail.
“It is a small hurt, my son, to keep you safe from much bigger hurts later,” he explained, wishing he could sound more reassuring than tired.
In time Michelangelo tired himself out too, wails dwindling to whimpers. Splinter rubbed his shell all the while.
“I just want to take good care of you.”
“…You do, Papa,” he admitted eventually in a shuddery sigh of defeat, however reluctantly, rubbing his cheek against his shoulder for a long, silent minute before peeking uncertainly up at him. “You’ll…You’ll kiss it better as soon as it’s done?”
