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“BOYS!” Splinter lowered his hood and placed his findings on the ground, “I’m back! I hope you guys did not get in any trouble while I was gone!”
He heard cheers of excitement as four tiny turtles ran toward him, “Dad! I missed you!” Orange said, jumping up and hugging him.
Splinter fell to the ground as he hugged his smallest son back, his three older ones joining in the pile. Wow, they were heavy. He swore that they were getting bigger every day.
Speaking of which… “I got something you boys might like from this scavenging session today.”
“Something we might like?” Blue’s face lit up in excitement.
“Is it a computer? A phone? A laptop? That mini engineering kit we saw on the TV a couple days ago?” Purple asked, pushing Blue down.
“More crayons?” Orange picked up Purple’s chain of reactions. Splinter opened his mouth to answer–
“More teddy bears?” Red continued.
“JUPITER JIM COMICS?” Blue squealed, smacking his twin brother’s hand away.
“IT IS NONE OF THOSE THINGS!” Splinter sighed, “Though, those are some good ideas for future birthday presents…”
He laughed at the grins his four sons gave him and turned towards his bag. He dug through the contents until he found a small, squat disc. He turned back to his children and showcased the object, “This is a tape measure! You can measure the length of things, I played around with it a lot as a kid.”
Splinter pulled out the tab and pointed at the markings, “These are inches, these are centimeters,” he pulled more of the ruler out and placed it along the length of his arm, “for example, my arm is around 28 centimeters or about 11 inches long.”
He then rolled the tape measure back into its case by winding it back by hand, since it wasn’t one of those snappy ones, “And when you are done, you just put it back!”
His sons have been watching Splinter explaining intently, serious expressions on their young faces, “Alright, who wants to try using it?”
All his sons jumped for it, “I’m measuring first because I’m the best at science!” Purple declared.
“No! I get to do it ‘cuz I’m the youngest!”
“No, I do, ‘cuz I’m the oldest ! I’m gonna measure how tall Cheech is!”
“Guys, guys, guys, guys ! We should measure our heights! That way we can all use it!” Blue exclaimed.
“Ooh, and Dad can measure us for the most fairness. And also for the control variable,” Purple suggested.
Splinter chuckled at their antics and stood up, “Alright, let me put the other things away first.”
His boys waited patiently (mostly). Splinter organized his gatherings, quickly finishing and grabbing a spare marker, he returned to his sons, vibrating from excitement.
“Okay… Uh… Red, you can go first,” Splinter said, to prevent any more bickering, “Just come stand next to this doorframe.”
His three other sons grumbled lightheartedly, and Red excitedly leaned against the wall.
“Okay, back straight, heels touching… Hmm… Wow, Red, you are pretty tall. Four foot two!” Splinter wasn’t sure how tall the average human seven-year-old was, but to his short rat body, most things seemed tall to him, he marked Red’s height, and labeled it with his age, “Alright, who wants to go next?”
Orange practically sprinted over to the wall, and puffed out his chest, trying to be as tall as he could. Making Splinter’s heart melt.
Before he could measure his youngest son’s height, Red stared at the newly inscribed marker lines, “Dad, why’d you mark it?”
“So that you can compare your heights when you grow up! My… grandfather used to measure my height every year. And he would mark it with my name and age too.”
“That’s super duper awesome! Can we do it every year too?” Orange looked up to his father, the only one who had to, now. They really do grow up so fast.
“Of course, Michelangelo,” Splinter watched his son grin at the use of his full name. Splinter stretch out the tape measure once more and lined it up against Orange.
“Three feet… and five inches!” Splinter announced, and marked his youngest’s height and age as well.
Orange’s eyes filled with determination as he heard Splinter, “Someday, I’m gonna be as tall as Raph!”
“You will be!” Red patted his youngest brother’s head.
Splinter turned to his two remaining sons. As he saw the glares that they were sending each other, he made a wise decision and suggested Purple to come up next.
Blue groaned at that but Splinter was glad he could prevent a potential hour-long argument between the twins. Purple, who apparently had been writing down the heights in a notebook, put his heels together and to the wall and straightened his spine.
“Wait! It needs to be accurate,” He said as he adjusted his position ever so slightly, “Okay, I’m ready. We should honestly be doing metric measurements because they’re used more widely! I read it in a book!”
Splinter laughed and measured his second oldest, “Three feet and ten inches,” He paused, “and a half.”
Purple nodded and sat back down. Splinter scribbled down the results as Blue shot up the moment his twin brother rejoined them, “ FINALLY! ” He dramatically yelled.
He ran over and stood proudly, “I bet I’m gonna be the tallest ‘cuz I never lose!”
“Leo, Raph is clearly taller than you, without even measuring we can see that,” Purple sighed.
“I… meant that I was gonna be taller than you and Mikey,” Blue crossed his arms. Splinter looked at all his sons fondly and measured Blue’s height.
Oh… Leonardo was not going to be happy.
“...Three foot… nine inches.”
Blue’s face fell, “ WHAT? ”
— — —
“He’s… He’s a whole inch and a half taller than me, Mikey,” Leo fake-sobbed into his pillow as his younger brother comforted him. Leo had demanded a comforting session in his room, so all of his brothers (Donnie as well, begrudgingly) were piled onto his bed, watching their brother’s theatrics.
“It’s not a big deal, it’s just height,” Donnie told Leo.
“Just height?” Leo had never heard anything more outrageous in the six long years that he had walked the Earth, “ Just height? ”
“That’s what I said. And besides, I’m the older twin so it makes sense–”
“ Uuugghh, ” Leo groaned as loudly as his small lungs could muster, “I need to get taller.”
“How? With milk?” Raph asked.
“Yeah! And… um… Donnie, what are some ways to get taller?” Leo asked, poking his twin brother with his foot.
Donnie rolled his eyes and pushed the limb away, “Waiting? You’ll grow naturally. Be patient, you baby.”
Leo gasped, “I’m not a baby , you’re a baby!”
“No, I’m not, I’m way more mature than you.”
“IF LEO’S A BABY, WHAT AM I?” Mikey cut in between them.
“Guys, come on, no fighting! Or I’m gonna tell Dad to put you guys in… time-out ,” Raph threatened.
Leo grumbled and jumped off his bed, “I’m gonna go drink milk.”
“It’s not going to make you super tall right away, Leo–” Donnie groaned and chased after him.
— — —
That was the day they discovered that Leo was lactose intolerant.
Leo had no idea how he never realized the fact that he would always get stomach aches after eating cereal, or when he ate lots of cheese, or when Splinter would bring home ice cream as a kid, but it became pretty clear when he threw up after drinking three cups of milk.
It never stopped him from eating pizza of course. Or anything dairy. But he unfortunately had to cut back on drinking milk to become taller.
So Operation Become-Taller-Than-Donnie-Really-Quickly was unfortunately halted. And so every year, Leo would face disappointment as he realized that Donnie was, once again, taller than him in the annual height measuring of the brothers.
But this year… He could feel it. He was going to be taller than Donnie. Leo sized up their heights by eye while waiting for their turn, it was a shame that the tape measure was locked away except for the annual height measuring or emergencies after… Leo… almost broke it a few years back. But he didn’t mind too much. It kept the mystery alive– the suspense brewing!
Their father finished measuring Mikey and he stretched his back from top of a stool, “Wow! You boys are getting really tall.”
“I know,” Leo grinned, they turned 14 a few months back. Eight years… All built up to this moment. The universe was done making Leo the shorter twin, he knew it.
Donnie walked up to the doorframe, now littered with different etchings from the past, with a couple marks representing April was added in as well.
“Five… five!”
Leo was going to be taller than Donnie.
He walked over to the wall, stood as tall as he could, and held his breath.
“Five foot…”
Oh my, holy Lou Jitsu, please let Leo be taller than Donnie, he would do anything, maybe even be the same height? As long as he wasn’t shorter, please, please, please.
“Five foot, five inches!”
“YES! YES! FINALLY!” Leo cheered and thrusted his fists into the air, “I’ll take it!”
Leo walked upto his twin brother, finally the same height, “How does it feel to not be taller than me anymore?” He let out a whoop of victory and laughed loudly.
Donnie tapped his wrist-computer-thing-a-ma-jig, “Normal, because like I said, height doesn’t matter , though I am very. Sad. That I will have to deal with you being extra annoying… And height graph has been updated.”
Leo scoffed, “That sounds like someone who isn’t taller than me anymore would say.”
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
— — —
Splinter watched his sons fondly, it felt like yesterday when Raph was the same height as he was. Now Mikey was more than a foot taller than him!
They were growing up so fast.
— — —
After Shredder destroyed their original lair, they tried to salvage everything they could. One of the things were the doorframe where all their past heights were written on. Donnie had been keeping track of the data, but the sentimental value of the wall caused the family to look for it.
They had made their way through the rubble to the room it was in, where the wall was relatively unscathed. And they had carefully removed just the doorframe to take it to their new lair, where they awkwardly attached the piece of wood covered with ink to a subway car door.
— — —
Another year has passed since the annual measuring, the twins now 15 years old.
Donnie had been pretty annoyed that the environment for the height measuring changed, but stood next to the marked doorframe with minimal complaints.
“Five foot six,” Splinter declared, “Finally, you boys are slowing down with your growing.”
“Or maybe Donnie’s posture is getting worse…” Leo pointed out teasingly, Raph shaking his head in disapproval.
“My posture is fine, thank you very much,” Donnie returned to his position next to Raph and Leo.
Leo walked confidently to Splinter, “If your posture’s fine, mine is splendid,” It really wasn’t, “I’m gonna be taller this year.”
“That’s what you say every year,” Mikey said, almost nostalgically.
“And this year, it’s gonna be true,” Leo grinned.
Splinter measured his height, and his eyes went wide.
“Congradulations, Leonardo,” Splinter said, “Five feet and seven inches.”
The room went silent.
“ HOLY SHIT, ” Mikey gasped.
“Wow,” Raph said.
“I… I feel defeated,” Donnie put his hands on his hips.
“EVERYBODY, SHUT UP!” Leo screamed, “I have waited my entire life to say this.”
He walked over to his twin brother, and put his hands on Donnie’s shoulders.
“Hey, Dee,” Leo said, “How’s the weather down there.”
“I fucking hate you.”
“Come on, Don Tron, it’s just height.”
“I’m going to blend you in a blender.”
“Like you said, so many times before, height doesn’t matter!”
Donnie groaned.
— — —
Leo stirred from his position on the bed, causing Donnie to look up from his tablet. The sight of his brother made his heart clench, no matter how many times he looked at him. Bruises, broken bones, a cracked plastron, a concussion–
No, stop, stop thinking about it, Donnie told himself.
He tried to remind himself that the Kraang responsible for it was stuck in the prison dimension for all of eternity.
Not enough.
Leo coughed, forcing Donnie’s train of thought to thankfully stop.
“Can I have some water?” Leo asked with a hoarse voice.
Donnie handed him a glass that he set nearby, and Leo gulped down its contents.
He sighed and then closed his eyes. Thinking he was going back to sleep, Donnie turned back to his tablet.
“Oh, hey, actually, I was thinking… in the– the thingy. Y’know how I spent like two weeks in there–”
“Don’t remind me,” Donnie glared half-heartedly.
“Sorry, sorry– anyway, so there was like… no gravity in there right, and you know about that thing with astronauts and they get taller cuz they spent time in the zero-gravity space.”
“Oh my god.”
“Yeah, so my point is that I’m probably like six feet tall now.”
“That’s really what you’ve gathered from being beaten literally half to death?” Donnie put his head in his hands.
“Mhm!” Leo smiled proudly.
“You are so dumb.”
“Love you, Dee.”
“I love you too, ‘Nardo.”