Summary; Leo/Karai S4. She hates him, yet he's the only one she'd trust with this.
AN; For timeline purposes after their huge fight, but before the Gamaredon incident. A little AU. Also thanks to NightMuse for beta'ing this at short notice and helping me round out the ending. A true star!
Old Time's Sake
Leonardo's POV.
'I need to see you. Come alone. We need to talk.'
I stayed true to my word when the head of the statue struck the floor ... it was over as far as I was concerned. There was truly nothing left for the two of us discuss, she had her army and I my family. Looking at her in that moment I felt pity and saw anger. She'd never be free of her demons, not with a shrine like that. I don't think of it any longer. Until that message found its way to April's store I hadn't thought of her in the six months since I last laid eyes on that vacant face.
As requested I'd come alone, if you count 'alone' as my brothers being less than half a block away. Karai never struck me as one for the theatrical but looking at the Porta Kabin located at the side of the latest construction consortium that Saki Industries had planned I felt the smirk that graced my features. Shrouded in darkness with barely any lights on, it's the perfect place for an ambush.
"You don't have to go."
Don's wrong, I do. Karai and I had been through too much for me to ignore her now. Buried within the vacancy of that defeated face was the anger. I'm not igniting it over a crass ambush and visible trap. With a gentle shake of my head I dropped off the side of the building, my comms link was open, and that would be enough. I'd taken her once y'know.
The door was open; it led into a room that was completely shrouded in shade. It was empty with little space for Foot to hide or spring from. I took my time before entering fully; on the lip of a roof I could feel three pairs of eyes watching me as I slid inside. I don't think they realised how much I've grown. I've been caught out too many times to simply walk blinding into something this obvious. The door closed behind me with a satisfying click, pressing my full weight against it I scanned the area looking for her.
"I'm here Leonardo."
Tech ninja equipment? I suppose I should feel honoured. She shimmered into view at the far end of the make shift building, and my jaw dropped ever so slightly. This wasn't the Amazon I'd met in battle, or sparred with on intellectual and physical levels. This ... this 'Karai' was almost human. I could feel my head shake slowly from side to side in disbelief. My eyes had narrowed to study her better, the weight that had filled out her cheeks and left them with a rosy pink tint. Her hair was not as straight as I remembered it either, the ends appeared split and there was a definitive frizziness to it.
Until she stepped out of the long shadows the profile of her face was all I could make out. Having made her appearance she moved forward slowly, at first I believed she moved with feigned hesitance to garner my reaction. It took me a few seconds to register that she in fact moved as a woman who hobbled as if she carried fresh injury. It made my brow furrow for the merest of seconds before I straightened it and dredged up a stoic mask.
I believed it would be necessary.
Especially now.
At that precise moment it was as if Karai stood before me naked, when all she wore was a pale blue wool sweater and dress pants. Sneakers. Nike sneakers. She stood before me in the apparel of a civilian. No weapons. No anger. No attack. This was not the woman I knew.
We both knew that.
It was visible in her brown eyes. I didn't need to open my mouth to ask her what it was she wanted; she did all of that without prompt. But not before business was dealt with.
"Where are your brothers?"
It was such a tart remark, laced with the merest hint of malice and dark humour. With one hand draped over her middle, she parted the blinds that covered the window. She must have realised she wouldn't see them.
"Together."
She laughed, a sharp bark of laughter that reminded me of the venom that would always reside deep within.
"Out there?"
"In New York."
Another peal of laughter, though this time it was her turn to shake her head on a subconscious level. We hadn't spoken in this manner since before she stabbed me. On one level it was endearing, perhaps she was not beyond reason and hope. Perhaps in time we could coexist in this city without the threat of Karai's fury. The laughter ended as abruptly as it started and her face hardened in a way that told me this wouldn't be the case. This wasn't to be a conversation of truce then. Shame. My arms folded over my middle and my head moved to one side, I was watching her, waiting.
I watched her turn the rest of her body so that she faced me fully once again, and saw her fold herself down carefully upon the window ledge. One hand still remained over her stomach in an almost protective manner. I considered the possibility she had been challenged for her place, I didn't consider for what she would give me. The small remote for the Tech equipment came from the pouch on the front of her sweater and sailed through the air to be snatched by my hand. I held that small piece of steel in my palm for long seconds before she spoke once again, this time it was as if we were the bitterest of enemies.
"Point it at the table and click." When I did not she added matter of factly, "I'm not about to blow myself up."
Why anyone would hide an open box was initially beyond my line of comprehension. But then this entire meeting was full of surprises, the manner in which Karai treated me at that moment was as if I had regained some sort of value in her eyes. Which was ridiculous for there was nothing I was prepared to give, and I knew there was nothing in the world that Karai would give up. Moving from the door to study the contents was like walking out from solid ground into a minefield. With the door at my rear I knew I could get out whenever I chose, and by the time Karai moved I could be clear. Now I edged carefully over two square metres to the desk of her foreman to see what it was that she had to show me. Reaching the desk I placed the controller down onto the cheap wood before peering in. At that moment I was beginning to question if I ever really knew the woman that now was perched like a preying cat over my shoulder.
The contents of that box told me I really didn't.
Karai's POV
He didn't win that day because I was weaker than him. Because I was emotionally scarred or battered. He won because of that thing that was growing inside of me. It was an off day. Three months pregnant and still fighting, the child should have died in the womb with the amount of anger I unleashed upon it. And yet it survived, just like its mother. We do a lot of foolish and stupid things when angry or stricken by grief. Ben was one of mine. To feel anything other than rage, to feel wanted, if only for a second was more than enough to crack my shell. It was a single, glorious night that meant nothing in the morning for either of us.
And it was the result.
To be female and leading a Yakuza is one thing, to be female and with child is a weakness that I cannot expose. It has no name. And it has no place in my world, even if planned for it would be nothing more than a target for my enemies. It doesn't deserve that. My arms are rested in mild comfort over my middle whilst I stare at Leonardo's back. He obviously expected some form of deception within that box, not a two week old child wrapped in a white blanket placed upon a cushion. It was asleep, it must be, other wise it would be screaming and demanding attention.
Leonardo's head turned back to face me, both of his hands resting upon the side of the box. He wore an expression as if to say he didn't know me. Wide eyes woven with the merest spark of curiosity and warmth. I could see it in the way in which tension came and left his jaw he wanted to ask things of me. Then it altered again and a soft, regret filled smile crossed over his face. I couldn't imagine why, all I had done was quirk my eyebrow ever so slightly in unspoken jest. With the way my hair fell forwards to frame my face I had no idea that the sight right then had been reminiscent of happier days when we had stood face to face with the tip of my blade resting less than a hair's width from his skull.
The past held bittersweet moments for both of us then, since he must have thought the same. In that perfect moment in time he had trusted me completely. As completely as I was about to trust him.
"She's beautiful."
I think I had expected awe, instead there was controlled shock. The words were not chosen with care, I sensed the sincerity behind them but I could not agree with it. My child was 5lbs9oz. And a bastardisation of a Japanese girl and Puerto Rican male. Her skin was too dark for either race, verging on a tan shade that sickened me to my stomach, her nose was large and bulbous and the mat of dark fuzz a top her skull was anything but beautiful. Ugly, repulsive, but not beautiful.
Having looked back at me as if to ensure the reality of the matter Leonardo returned to studying my baby.
"She's a child."
Childbirth alone is not something I would recommend to any. It was long, painful and arduous. The result had not been worth the effort exerted. Those brutal facts, along with the simple reality that I could not keep this child should I want to kept my tone even and cold. He flinched at the harshness of my statement, I couldn't see his face but I knew him. He would have flinched, he had a family that actually loved its members.
"What's her name?"
I moved with a grunt from my place to join him at the box. He moved instinctively to the far side as I came to join him, perhaps he believed I would do him harm. Harm? When I needed his simplistic view of the world? That inbred sense of familial honour? "I gave her none." My hand clasped down over the top of the Tech remote, and we now stood face to face, with my child separating us.
Leonardo's POV
When I saw the fat gathered around in her face and the mat of hair I was stunned. Karai spoke as if it was nothing to her. No acknowledgement of the beauty that lay within her child and thus by proxy was still festering within herself. Perhaps to be the monster was how she justified her actions and her distance. No name? The baby was certainly not new born, so she must have cared for her on some level. My eyes rolled up from the box to meet her brown hues. It was the second time we had shared that look in the same night, it crept through the back of my mind that someone somewhere was trying to steer my hand.
"What would you choose?"
This was her child, but more than that it was a chink in Karai's armour. She was human enough to ask aid of me, if she walked from the Foot the baby could have perhaps saved her. A small, feral smile spread on her face we understood each other on one plane. It was a shame she couldn't understand the repercussions of keeping it. The flash of warmth dissipated and the narrowing of her eyes hinted that she wanted a reply.
"Lori."
It was the first name that came into my head. Karai smile told me all I needed to know. It was approved, and it wasn't Oriental. With a long sigh I leant back slightly and took stock of her, at this distance the stockiness of her middle in comparison to her shoulder width was all the more obvious. The critical gaze that traversed her body did not meet with approval, her brow furrowed and she retreated marginally into the darkness.
"You asked me here for a name?"
The sarcasm was scarcely necessary but it was a habit that harked back to darker days. I blinked, she blinked, I waited once again.
"You know I did not."
"You've had a child Karai." I pointed out calmly, "I'm beginning to think that I scarcely knew you at all."
She conceded with a nod of her head. My eyes rolled downwards once again to study it. The child was to leave with me: that was the unspoken accord, the reason why she had brought me here. The very fact that she would hand her own flesh to one whom she so dearly hated spoke volumes to me. Her Father had raised her well, loyal even now. To consider that she may have acted out of some perverse deeply buried fear for her child was not something I would willingly entertain. Reaching in with one arm I attempted to clumsily pluck the child, complete with pillow out.
"And the nex-..."
"I don't make the same mistake twice!"
Indignant. Hurt, perhaps. My attempts at clawing out the child whilst allowing her to sleep was a miserable failure. Dark lashes curled back revealing eyes of sparkling hazel. Despite the difference in shade they were undoubtedly her mother's. Karai intercepted, leaning over the side and scooping out child and pillow as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world. Arranging it in the crook of her arm she passed it across to me with out a word, the only thing out of sync on her person was the manner in which her lips pursed.
"Jones."
"What?"
Lori lay along the breast of my forearm, and to her credit the Karai had done a good job of looking after her. Not that I knew any more about children than she did. My eyes slid upwards to look at her probably. There's irony for you. As for Jones, what was she thinking?
"It's common."
Oh.
"Jackson. Lori Jackson."
It got a brusque nod and she moved from the table back into the darkness, her natural element these days. Lori settled quickly into the crook of my arm but it wasn't enough, small lips parted with a wobble and threat of tears. With my spare hand I reached out to give her my finger it seemed the most appropriate thing to do before I took her home. It was at that point Karai surprised me, one final time.
Karai's POV
Men! I knew he would fail in doing this efficiently. The girl stirred and shifted under his awkward attempts at protecting her from the big, wide world. With some irritating level of predictability he disturbed her to the point of making her draw air to cry. This was why I had arrived so early, turning in the shade I pulled out the grey bag I'd used to keep in all of her items. The baby bottles complete with milk, a spare blanket, the remainder of the diapers that I had bought to stop her from getting soiled in her early days. All of that in a bag that I now dropped unceremoniously onto the table by that make shift crib. Lori didn't start her snivelling with skill the yellow nib ended up in her mouth and I let Leonardo take the tip of the bottle in his hand.
How dare he think he could put that grubby, sewer dusted digit in my daughter's mouth?!
With a smirk I sealed the bag and hung it off his neck, before affixing it over one shoulder. With a distant sigh I brushed out the creases of my sweater, at least that disaster had been averted. The wailing would have brought the rest of his family, and that would never do. Never. We were done here, pausing for a moment a ghostly smile spread over my face. "Your brothers will never know of this."
He was … focussed on Lori, or at least he was, then it happened again that small passage over his face of regret and sadness. Hair hung over my face and my eyebrow quirked in anger.
"You have my word Karai; no one will ever know."
"That doesn't mean you can drown the brat."
Now we were done.
Leonardo's POV
"I know."
Talking to my brothers over the phone whilst cradling a baby was no easy task. They saw Karai leave and waited, when I did not appear they were on the verge of going after her when I made contact. It took time explaining that I wouldn't be home that, or the next, but most of all I think it would have been my response to their incessant questioning of why that confused them the most. Why would I help someone who had single handedly tried to destroy everything I stood for?
Cradling a phone and holding a baby the words felt natural, "For old times."
Lori appeared on the steps of a shelter in New Jersey a day later.
-Complete-