Had this one sitting in my back pocket for a while, and I felt it was time for some more Leorai - like of purely Leo and Karai - no intruding little brothers this time.
Always with the disclaimers. I know I can't fool you guys; these aren't my characters. (Image from arishynya)
Anyhow...proceed, read, enjoy, and let me know what you think.
New York City.
It was home the way no other place ever could be, and he never imagined that he would think in such a way. After spending the entirety of his life cooped up in the musty sewers of the city, one would think his first reaction upon getting out would be to escape—to somewhere different, somewhere else. But, standing on the edge of Murakami's rooftop now, gazing out around Chinatown and the neighboring boroughs in the distance, at the silhouettes of skyscrapers reaching for the stars in the sky, and the placement of artificial light scattered around the cement structures of this urban setting, the smells he could imagine, the sounds his memory heard…he wouldn't give it up for the world.
He closed his eyes and inhaled long and slow.
A shift of movement whisked by.
His eyes opened as a pair of feet padded the vent shaft behind his back.
He turned his attention to Karai who stood elevated above him. She propped a hand on her hip as she leaned her weight to the side and passed a smirk down to him with her playful red lips. A wind he couldn't feel brushed the strands of her hair against her cheeks and she didn't bother to replace them.
"You're just trying to get yourself caught, aren't you?" she said, her lips curling deeper at the corners.
He didn't respond.
She bent her knees and flipped off the vent, landing on the balls of her feet just a few yards away from him. His eyes stared at her face, at the tops of her cheeks, the familiar mask of amusement in her visage, the spark of teasing in her golden irises. The corners of his own mouth wilted.
"What?" she said. "Didn't catch you at a bad time did I? Cuz if I did that's too bad for you and perfect for me."
He still did not respond, at least not with words. Instead, in their place, he crossed the rooftop, slowly placing one foot in front of the other and never taking his gaze away from hers, until they were practically nose-to-nose. She didn't move, but her brow creased over studious eyes that blinked when he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his plastron, holding her as though to let go meant to lose her forever.
For a moment, they stood on the rooftop in a pause of silence while Karai's arms remained half suspended, as though unsure whether to hug him back or push him away. He didn't much acknowledge it though, and he didn't much care whether she wanted the hug or not. His teeth came together to protect him from the knot forming in his throat and he rested his chin on her shoulder, allowing his cheek to lie against her neck. His chest tightened, bringing a grimace to his face that started a prickle in the corners of his eyes. He closed them and let out a long, deliberate breath.
Finally, Karai's arms curled around his shell and he responded by tightening his hold. She didn't say anything for a while, and he appreciated that. If she had, he might not have been able to keep it together as long as he did.
It wasn't until the knot finally receded a little that he parted his lips and whispered, "I missed you, Karai." But as careful as he had been to keep the emotion from his voice, there was no ignoring the way his words trembled.
Karai allowed another moment to pass before she pulled away from him, stared with narrowed eyes, and then snorted a laugh. "What a cheeseball. Geez, Leo, get it together. You're a mess."
He let his arms fall back to his sides but couldn't do much more than continue to stare. His eyes followed her as she sauntered over to the edge of the building and gracefully stepped up on its ledge, walking along the precipice with impressive balance.
"So what has the fun-sucking leader Leonardo been up to lately? Probably kissing up to your sensei no doubt. Do your brothers still look up to you for that? Or has Raphael had enough yet?"
She glanced over at him and frowned. "What's your problem? Stop looking at me like that."
He blinked. "I'm sorry. I just…it's…" He sighed, looking off to the side toward the dark horizon of the city. "It's just been a long time," he said quietly, turning his eyes down toward his feet.
"And?" she demanded, dropping down to his level again, this time with two hands on her hips. "Don't tell me you're gonna start crying about it. If you're going to get all emotional, we should probably break it off right now. Should I leave?"
"No," he said, his head snapping up. "No, I just…" He stared again. "I'm sorry."
She pursed her lips, then brought back a mischievous smile and unsheathed her weapon. "I got a new juji-ken," she said, raising a brow and flourishing her sword. It sliced through the air between them with a sharp whistle and stopped to point at him. "Should we give it a test run?"
It was the familiarity of her movements, the nostalgia of an accustomed pastime, the silver glint of her weapon next to the gilded shimmer in her eyes that finally got him to smile, got his muscles to relax a bit, to accept her presence and embrace her memory. He pulled out his katana and gripped the hilt with both hands, knees bent.
They sparred until the sky changed colors, when its dark, starry blue became a brilliant crimson on the horizon, filmed over by a soft pink that then spread along the rest of the earth's outer canvas with a robin's egg blue. A mist had collected along the cityscape and he imagined it cooling his skin where drops of sweat had accumulated. His limbs were burning, his breathing hard, but Karai was still nothing but smiles, nothing but pristine beauty, perfect form, and unexhausted energy.
She sliced the blade of her sword toward his head and he threw himself into a backbend to avoid it, stumbling back in the process. His shell hit the ventilation shaft and he held up a hand to surrender, leaning over with his other hand on his knee, attempting to catch his breath.
"Giving up already?"
He pulled in a few more breaths then straightened up and arched his back with his hands on his shell to lock his joints back into place. He released a long, noisy swell of air, and then met her twinkling gaze. He shook his head with a smile.
"You win."
"Well, yeah," she scoffed. "What did you think was going to happen? I can give you a five minute respite if you want to try again."
His stomach pulled with a sudden ache of sadness and he felt his mouth turn down again.
"I have to go, Karai."
She smiled and twirled her juji-ken, slipping it back into its sheath. "Next time come back when you can't stay so long."
She almost got a grin out of him with that, but it didn't last as long as he wanted it to. He exhaled through his nose and wiped the sweat from his brow, sheathing his katana and then staring longingly over at the rising sun and the way its rays glistened off of the windows of every building and lit the city with a golden fire—the same way Karai's eyes ignited something in him. He looked back at her.
She shrugged. "Are you waiting for me to say goodbye? Or do you want me to go first?"
"Can I kiss you?"
Her nose twitched. "I'm sorry?"
"Can I kiss you?"
She made no comment. Instead, she just stood there staring at him much the same way he'd been staring at her all night—but maybe a bit more indirectly. He didn't ask her again.
He walked over to her, the same way he had before pulling her into a hug, and again stopped when they were nearly nose-to-nose. His eyes searched hers, looking for resistance, for an objection, but she gave no indication of emotion whatsoever. In fact, she was practically stiff.
He reached up to her face with both hands, cushioning it delicately between his palms, and brushed a thumb over her cheek. Only then did she give any sign of life when she breathed in slowly, closed her eyes, and bowed her head. He pressed his lips to her forehead, letting them linger there for a moment, wishing he could feel the coolness of her skin, wishing he could breathe in her scent, wishing the way his stomach fluttered could be real.
She lifted her gaze to meet his eyes again and rested a hand on top of his. "You'll be okay, Leo…I know you can do it."
His lip trembled but he didn't get the chance to respond.
She began to decompose before his eyes, fading away with the backdrop of the city into bright pixilated squares that folded in on themselves until nothing was left but an empty holodeck with white walls and the same artificial air that had been sitting on his shoulders all night, forbidding him from fully believing the scene he had set up for himself.
He swallowed at an attempt to loosen the knot in his throat, but it didn't work. And he couldn't find it in himself to walk away, to leave the room and the essence of Karai he still held onto so tightly behind with it. So he sat instead, drawing his knees up to his chest, and buried his face in his kneepads.
"You'll be okay, Leo," he repeated to himself, squinting past the blur that saturated his eyes. "You'll be okay."