A/N: (Title and summary because I'm a sucker for Shakespeare and Plato and basically anything 'ancient'.)

IT'S LEORAI WEEK, hold onto your FRIGGIN' SHELLS weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I feel like I'm too excited, but, oh, well, the hell with it, they deserve it! ;D I absolutely loved writing this and it felt a lot easier than multi-chapter fics, so yay! XD

Plus, I'm just realizing that with hour difference, I'll be updating, like, a day earlier, but who cares? :D

P.S. I'm just going with T RATED here, but I'm not entirely sure :/


"Speak low, if you speak love."

Their passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. Love. Madness that is the greatest of heaven's blessings. Love. Hearts that are always young. ( A collection of one-shots with prompts, written for Leorai Week 2018 )


'Cause even the stars they burn
Some even fall to the earth
We've got a lot to learn
God knows we're worth it

Well, I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love


Getting Married


The first time he tries, they're still seventeen. Young and filled with the enthusiastic feelings that come with the irreversible situations they have been put in.

It feels like something is missing, and that makes them - all of them, eager and avid, perhaps because of the sense of freedom and rebellion their lack of – their lack provides.

But still.

Still

The absence is fresh, too fresh; hiding in each reeking corner, echoing in the silence, crashing against the walls and Leo thinks how he should feel. He has realized an immense amount of things in a measurable amount of time and it makes his head spin.

They are scattered all over the kitchen, limbs wrecked and bruised – signs of late night businesses, trying to swallow the water jug Donnie passes around with a tired smile on the edges of his lips – trying to swallow the sudden emptiness that has taken over them.

Leo watches them from away, observing and taking in all the little shots in time his little family does – the easy way Donnie's and April's hands fall on a cup of coffee at the same time and they chuckle, Raph's manic gleam in his eyes that Leo remembers from their childhood as he arm wrestles with a toothy Casey, Mikey's ample smile covering his face as his hands move around funnily and the fact that Karai's eyes look brighter than they have ever been and Leo is wondering how it had taken him that much time to figure out just how deep his love runs.

Love for his brothers.

Love for his friends.

And love for her.

Just for her.

She has been the worst of all, he thinks, and can't exactly blame her. It's too hard, even for her, the strongest warrior he has ever meet, the most breathtaking person he has come to encounter in his life, the most beautiful soul he was allowed to know inside and out, he muses in his head, as Karai brushes a bit of her hair behind her ear with careful fingers and Leo-

He's so achingly in love, so much it swells inside his chest and pounds against his plastron, daring to come out on its own and break him apart.

He's ready.

He's always been ready.

The tiny box in his hand feels a dozen times heavier. The ring inside is raw and glistening, made from his calloused hands and sweat, way back, before everything had come apart, in the breaths of silence of his room.

Cautiously carved and bright, engraved with curving letters, あなたは私の世界です. You are my world.

He wishes he had the chance to ask his father first, not so much for permission as much as for blessing. He doesn't look for approval, his decision is final – even if he hopes in the corners of his mind that his sensei is somewhere around here, bowing and nodding to him.

Karai, all of a sudden, flashes him a smile, beckoning him with gracious fingers and a hint of longing and lingering pain that makes Leo's heart hurt piercingly and sharply as he returns the juvenile grin with all that he's left.

He clutches the box in his hand sorely and sighs a breath of profound anticipation.

It's not time, yet.


The second time he tries (or considers it, technically), it's just weeks after.

They are all sitting in the common room of the lair, crouched in front the small TV (April has insisted again and again that buying another one, a bigger one, would be the least of a problem for her) during a Saturday night.

April's father is out of town and she has decided to snuggle all them in under over-sized blankets, announcing they will be living here for the next eight hours. A bunch of old DVDs, popcorn, and chips as they watch crappy musicals.

Even Karai is here, although she seems tired and looks like she could welcome easily her very anatomically confortable bed (he may have spent a few nights there as well) of her apartment.

Despite that, she tries to appear as excited as they are, clutching a good amount of popcorn in her hand as she leans her head to Leo, her lips barely brushing his ear slit. "What has happened so far?"

Leo blinks at her and offers her a tentative smile. "Veronica. She felt she had nothing to lose and broke into J.D.'s bedroom through the window and seduced him, "he remarks and Karai nods impressively, "losing her virginity in the process," he adds, dragging each word and she can't help but snort soundly through her nose, stamping her feet that are tangled with his beneath the blanket.

"Shh!" Donnie hushes, "Veronica is trying to apologize!" he exclaims silently, his eyes laced with what Leo can describe only as blasphemy as he points to the screen.

Karai rolls her tongue and shakes her head. "Sorry for not respecting the moment."

The next moment they turn their heads to the TV, there's a dead body of that very bitchy attractive blonde (Karai's words entirely) from the beginning of the musical.

"Damn, even murders can't make this crap better," she muffles with a full mouth and then, sends him a smirk. "Bet even 'Space Heroes' is a gem in front of this."

"Um," Leo says in a 'duh' tone, darting his eyes to her face, "of course! Don't you remember the episode we saw last Friday? Captain Ryan and his crew, in the Nebulian galaxy? Found an interdimensional portal that led to an alternate, negative universe and made Captain Ryan face off against his evil carbon copy? How's that not awesome?"

He knows for a fact that he may seem a bit, just a bit of a dork, in front of her, right now, but he can't help it, and he doesn't care either, as long as Karai continues to chuckle under her hand and look at him with a feeling of not so much as mockery but as tender affection.

"Can't deny it," she jokes with a warm smile and lets an even warmer hand on the inside of his thigh, giving him a sideways grin.

Leo glances at her snarky expression and clears his throat, his voice breaking. "Uh-huh." She is cozy and snug against him and he thinks it would be so easy to hug her with all of his heart and press his molten lips to her neck, whispering those four words he craves hesitantly. He moves his eyes back at the screen and sees from the corner of them April watching him with furrowed brows.

He narrows his eyes at her as Casey half-chokes on his beer, half- shouts in the TV, squeezed between Raph and Donnie, "Dude! They sing about blue balls? Hi – larious!"

The next morning April corners him in the kitchen, slaps him lightly on the back of his head, says he's too obvious, smiles widely till her cheeks seem to ache, says she wants to have the whole proposal thing caught in camera to show it at their children.

But later. Not now.

Karai's not ready for it, not yet.

April says he's the biggest nerd of this universe and that he'll know once she is ready, she'll know once she is ready. Leo is aware the first part is true. So, he guesses the second one is true, too.


The third time he tries, they're eighteen. With each passing month, his confidence has grown, as the head of the Clan, as a brother, an unstated hero, as a lover.

Things come and go more easily, more naturally – and their life has become as common as it was before, as the way the Earth spins around the Sun in maddening perfection.

Nothing has been forgotten, and it'll never be, but they've come far, and Leo thinks it's silly how they hadn't discovered the third option between swallowing the pain or throwing it in whatever direction – the option of letting go what keeps you back (all while holding on to what keeps you alive) and truly moving forward.

The light in his room is dim and faint, scented candles and stolen touches, his pale 'Space Heroes' sheets crumpled on the bottom of the bed and Leo's inner cleanness freak urges him to fold them tight and nicely.

But, he can't move as Karai's legs are splayed along his, skin brushing skin everywhere, and maybe a part of Leo's heart doesn't want to tidy up the place just yet.

He's lost track of time – his clock on his nightstand says it's late morning already, but Leo barely remembers the sky being pitch black and his clock ticking midnight when Karai was shushing and pushing him on the bed, with gentle hands caressing places that were before untouched.

Voices, shouts, and screams, sounds like eruptions and the smell of smoke lingering in the air, Leo assures himself his clock is more than correct.

"DID YOU JUST EAT A SAUSAGE UNCOOKED? DUDE!"

"I like my sausages raw and stiff."

Leo hums and shakes his head, and isn't sure if it's in disappointment or amusement, but before he can even consider his family's morning breakfast rituals, a sigh and a snort heats up the crook of his neck.

"Your brothers surely know how to wake a person up."

Her statement is muffled, hidden with her hair and his skin, but Leo can feel Karai smile next to his body – recognizes the way Karai genuinely smiles without having to see her, the upturn of her lips brushing against his skin and her shoulders sinking in her figure.

Leo grins, a little bit dopily and tugs her roughly down to his sci-fi decorated bed, chosen only for the sexiest of times; clambering over her and raining kisses everywhere his lips can travel.

"Let me wake you up," he purrs in her ear and she laughs, a bit too loudly and thick and harsh, her real laugh, while Leo wonders where's the sudden confidence and ego come from.

He lifts his head and watches her; the only time he can really look her face (he's still shorter than her, no matter how much he has grown up) and smiles for each tiring angle on her cheeks.

He looks at her amber eyes and thinks how much they look like his father's.

He has finally found the courage to open the dojo's secret doors and meet with his eyes his sensei's room. It smelled stale and musty but Leo stayed there for hours, taking in the entire essence of the place, meditating and trying to reach his father, wanting to help him, because he might not need his permission, but he'd be thankful for some help and experienced advice.

"Shen, Miwa looks so much like her, in every single way, that it frightens me." His father would say with kind gazes, a tone laced with amusement and sincere shock.

He'd know and tell him what to do.

His brothers, (of course they know, who ever said that Leo was good at keeping secrets from the people he had basically learn to walk with?)they claimed whatever would be done, should be done in Leo's way. In the way he knew and not others.

Karai works the hem of her sleep "Never Kissed, Often Licked" T-shirt over her head and smiles dreamily as Leo rolls his eyes. She's running her fingers on his cheeks and he leans in her touch, eyes still open, staring her red lips, and able to hear the things she speaks in silence.

He loves her, too. A lot.

He drags his hand at the nightstand's drawer, searching for the fluffy box, that feels all of a sudden lighter in his grasp than the last time, but before he can grab it properly, appear it in front of Karai's face and begin the speech he has been planning for ages, rehearsing it nervously in front of a picture frame of her, she catches his wrist in a rush.

Their eyes meet and his are full and wide and scared, because if she has glanced around and seen or has guessed – well, he'd cover himself under his duckie-blankie and come out in about ten years lat-

But, she just fondles tenderly his lips, a small smile tugging her mouth as she motions him to stay quiet.

"You're so beautiful," she breathes in him, the easiest press of lips on his own as she turns them and straddles him with mellow thrusts and he responds in kind.

Leo thinks it's a matter of time – whether that means finding the courage to ask, her finding out the purposes he has planned or the flat out rejection that is waiting for him. Still. It's a matter of time.

Or maybe it's not really.


The fourth time he tries, it's too late.

She has snatched the chance before he could and surprised him.

They're nineteen, still young as the night above them, as starry as the New York City sky can be. City never sleeps. The wind is blowing hard as Leo peers over the roof. "Don?"

"There isn't any suspicious activity to report, Leo," Donnie sighs desperately, Casey's arms wrapped around his shoulders as he rests his forehead on April. "It's late. We should just call it a night."

Leo knows it's probably hopeless, but the small gangs they fought when they were kids and laughed, these gangs have grown and he is scared. He doesn't know if he can protect the people he loves. "Just another time," he promises and turns his head to his team. "Casey and Raph, west, Donnie and April, east, Mikey and Karai south and I'll go to the north."

He steps aside and is ready to give a gesture to move, but stops when Karai lets a hand on his shoulder and rubs him. "I'll come with you," she gushes and adds with a titling head and a promising smile towards his youngest brother, "Besides, Mike can handle himself. He's a strong kid, knows how to carry responsibilities. Right, Mikey?"

Mikey nods too excitedly at him, with the kind of big, blue, bright eyes he knows his brother can't resist. Leo's mouth frowns as his gaze moves to Karai. He's ready to say something, but decides against it.

He's just glad she is getting along well with his brothers.

He makes a sound, that's torn between acceptance and bewilderment and Mikey is already pumping his fists in the air, having activated his victory dance moves, "Hamato Michelangelo is in charge, heck yeah! I won't let you down, sir!"

A moment later, and they're jumping across rooftops, Karai way ahead of him, turning her head to him deliberately, shrugging shoulders and winking, till Leo finally catches her and presses her on a roof.

"Karai, c'mon! Behave! We're patrolling here," he hisses as she writhes beneath him, and shudders once the coldness of the air reaches him.

"Okay, okay," she stands up and lifts her hands up, still snickering and Leo can't believe how wonderful she looks under the light of the moon, tall and proud and – wow.

Karai sinks next to him, and nudges his arm. "I wanted to ask you," she drools on, dragging the words on her tongue tantalizingly, with a look that reminds Leo of a hundred things, and he breaks in a huge grin, already shaking his head.

"If this is about what we were discussing yesterday," he starts with a smirk and rolled eyes, "I still believe barging into a Calvin Klein factory to get fabrics for Foot Clan is slightly, I dunno, illegal?" he says dryly.

She waves a dismissive hand to him with a smile, "Puh-lease, I have this operation started already," she declares smugly. And before Leo's scout's honors senses can kick in, Karai presses a finger to his lips. "Can you shut up and let me talk?"

Leo furrows his eye ridges, moving his head around and it's probably because Karai rarely is like this – often playful, yes, but serious undertones aren't usually floating in her air.

And when his eyes meet hers again, he gasps.

His mouth stays open as Karai is twirling a very familiar, fluffy box in her hand, leaning forward. "Idiot," she deadpans affectionately while Leo plays with his thumbs, stammering and stuttering all while trying to hold his breath.

"Think you can fool me?" she continues and he wonders why things have grown hotter around them. The temperature certainly has risen, he thinks, trying to swallow a lump in his throat.

Years have passed and rumpled them, they have come closer than they ever could and yet, Leo still feels like it's the first time, feels as anxious as-

Karai grabs his fidgeting fingers with one hand, skimming over his knuckles and eases her fingers through his hand – now, their hands, and squeezes tightly.

She looks at him expectedly, waiting and murmurs softly, "Can I hear it from your lips?"

And Leo blushes, and wants to cover his face and sink in his hands but Karai is squeezing both of them firmly until his voice goes barely above a whisper as he replies to her answered question with an unanswered one, "Will you marry me?"

The sun dives in the deep sky easily through the clouds, the shrieks of buzz, passion, thrill and enthusiasm, that Leo can only guess belong to his dearest, eavesdropping siblings as Karai screams "Yes" in his ears, his face and mouth and he drags her on the ground, falling along.

They're getting married.


He should have expected it. Their family's reactions.

He can't help but have his doubts.

Because deep down, he's scared, not because he's not sure, but because he's worried if this is what she wants; this whole crazy thing that is happening in their home.

"There's no way we're not having a freaking party!" Mikey yells across the table with large eyes, and before Leo can interrupt him and explain it's just a simple ceremony he's planned and – Mikey stamps his feet on the ground, "We have so many things to do, decorate the dojo, get flowers, have a bachelor party, pick the wedding dress, make a cake – oh, my God, the cake! I totally need to-"

And Raph and Casey have doubled themselves in laughter as Donnie reaches a book from the cupboard and hands it to Mikey. "Recipes for Mecha Tower Wedding Cakes"

He jumps in his seat, flipping through the book with a cheeky smile, as Raph leans in with a grin-slanted Casey on his shoulder, "I dunno how I can help, Leo. Could give you advice for the wedding night, but I'm pretty sure you have this covered already again and again."

Leo feels his cheeks redden as his brothers (and that includes Casey no matter what) give him playful nudges and snide smirks. Karai and April are outside, piles of magazines around them, Shinigami playing with Karai's hair, trying out fancy pixie cut hair do's, as they laugh and chuckle, and Leo thinks she looks so happy.

And she deserves it more than anyone. If she is that happy, he's certain.

He's even more certain when he sees her kneeled in front of the dojo tree, which looks magically alive under the sewers and the sunlight. She glances at him with fond eyes, white and bright, in a Shiro-muku.

Karai motions with her head to a seat next to her, beside the cups of sake, the branches and the photo of his – of their father, who looks proud and Leo can swear he can see his eyes wander around the Japanese traditional setting he has organized (since Mikey took charge of the after-the-wedding more American-type of celebration); he'd appreciate that, he thinks.

He mimics his father's, mostly self-imaginary from the stress, action and tosses a look around, too.

Mikey seems ready to burst from happiness, clutching at April's hand, who is staring at him with a huge smile, a proud, 'mum-like' smile. She mouths him a short but promising 'I love you' as Casey winks at him and beams.

Raph cracks a smile from the other side, his arms hanging around lamely and tensely, appear as if they want to wrap themselves around him and hold him tight like a shield. Donnie, standing close to Karai, turns and gives a broad and toothless grin to the both of them. She titles her head wryly, before Leo offers her a hand to get up, a hand she keeps in her palms, brings it to her lips and she kisses it.

And Leo rolls his eyes, head tilting back while he flushes slightly – taking a firm and confident step forward as Splinter's faint voice reaches his ears.

Gokekkon kokoroyori gosyukufuku moushiagemasu.

Karai twitches lightly with delighted surprise and Leo squeezes her.

They're getting married.