The atmosphere was relaxed as Leo swept his gaze across the room. The brothers were impatiently waiting for dusk to approach so they could go to the surface again. Donnie and April are situated by his laptop and discussing some new technological advancement with Donnie acting like the dork he is and April smiling at the hopeless mutant. Mikey was spread out on one couch, eyes glued to his T-Phone as he continued to smash its buttons, occasionally yelling at whatever game he was playing. Raph was on the other sofa, Spike situated in his lap and a magazine in hand. A small smile played on Leo's face as he caught Raph gently rubbing Spike's shell.
A surge of responsibility swells through the mutant as his gaze shifts from each one of them. At first, he thought Master Splinter chose him to be leader because he was the oldest, but now…he thinks he knows why.
Leo had this burning desire to protect his little brothers. During battle, he always found himself placing them before his own safety and did his best to help them. He remembers the rage he had felt when that Martial Arts Master guy (Leo didn't even remember his name) had manipulated poor Mikey into thinking they were friends. Who does that?! Mikey may be an idiot, but the youngest brother was probably one of the sweetest. It made Leo livid to think that he'd been hurt by someone he thought he could trust.
Even now, Leo finds himself clenching his fingers. He reminds himself that those events are in the past, and if Master Splinter had taught him anything, it was that the past was in the past. There was nothing they could do but be more careful from now on.
Sometimes, Leo questions his leadership. Why was he picked? Oftentimes he felt that he had let his family down despite Splinter's assurances that these feelings were ones that were normal of a leader. Failure was one of Leo's greatest fears, and although they'd made several mistakes already...Leo knew that it could only take one mistake, one split second for every everything that he'd so carefully strewn together to fall apart.
This is why Master Splinter picked Leo out of the four. If Raph were faced with decisions like Leo had to make, he'd make the team too aggressive and it'd surely rip the team apart in no time. Had Donnie become leader, then he would take too long to think through decisions and would overthink everything. They simply didn't have that kind of time during battle, even if Donnie's choices would prove effective. Mikey was just too immature and naive to accurately weigh options and thoughts.
But Leo? He was a decent mix of aggressiveness and passiveness, but could also judge the duration of a decision quickly. Those were the kinds of traits a leader needed. Not that the younger brothers were bad at battle - after all, Leo knew diversity in battle style was what made them so strong - but a leader needed to be even in terms of skill and decision making.
Yet the blue-masked turtle knew there was something other than battle technique Splinter had thought of. Maybe it was because he listened more than the other three? Or, maybe it was because Leo was actually willing to listen to the others and integrate different ideas into a single compromise that would get them through whatever they needed to do as a team.
Perhaps Splinter also knew Leo was the most protective of his little brothers and often took too much responsibility upon his shoulders. Maybe it was a combination of all of it.
Leading was frightening to Leonardo. He constantly faced the fear of failure. But deep down he knew that every leader like him went through it. The mutant wasn't alone in this fight.
And neither were his brothers, whom he loved so dearly.