A/N: One bad word. I'm sorry!
Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT
Leo found it easy to remain hidden in the shadows despite passing through a richer part of town. The buildings were taller and newer than the usual parts of the city they patrolled in. It was obvious this girl and her family were well off. He scoffed again, knowing the girl had nothing really vital to her well being to complain about.
Either that or she didn't write down everything… his reasoning came through. Maybe something else is happening that she was too scared to write about, or that she wants to forget. Don has mentioned something about how people can forget or suppress memories that are painful to them. He leapt across a brightly lit intersection and glanced at the street sign. Two blocks to go. Leo was amazed at how clean and well kept everything looked. There were no trashed alleyways, no brick wall obscured by crude graffiti, no signs of gang crime. He felt slightly out of place and disoriented, not having familiar crumbling, crude buildings surrounding him.
He was slightly out of breath as he took a final leap onto a particularly expensive-looking apartment building. Granite trim and sculpting decorated the sides of the building, but the roof appeared no different than that of a warehouse. He carefully removed the journal from his back and opened the front cover, checking for an apartment number. Apartment #14C. Leo growled in frustration. He had no clue what the letter or number meant, or where the apartment was. He considered calling April, knowing she would have a better chance at figuring it out than him since he had never lived in an apartment. But he decided against it, knowing she would be curious and bug him about it until he caved. Suddenly, having an idea, Leo sprang to the edge of the roof and counted the stories of the windows on the taller building next to the one he was standing on. He was eye level with the fifteenth story of windows, meaning there were fourteen floors on the building below him. He decided it was worth a shot and delicately lowered himself to the dark fire escape clinging to the side of the building and glanced inside the glowing window. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the sudden light, but he quickly determined he was looking into a hallway. He could see a metallic pair of doors, probably an elevator, and a plain white door five feet to the left, a plaque displayed above the eye hole. 14A. Leo smirked, proud that he had figured it out without the help of his brainy brother. He carefully scaled the building, clinging to the granite as he moved to the left, farther down the hallway. Every five feet or so was another patch of light. Twenty feet from the fire escape laid the door to 14B. Leo skittered to nearly the edge of the building before he could see the door to 14C. He clambered over the corner of the building, and was relieved to find a small balcony jutting out from the side of the building. He released his precarious hold on the vertical building and lightly perched on the railing of the balcony. The glass doors and windows nearest him were dark, but a dim light radiated from a window just beyond reach of the balcony. Leo moved towards it, holding onto the granite railing as he leaned towards the window, one foot barely gripping a small ledge on the side of the building beneath the window. Dark purple shades dimmed the light, but a single sliver of brightness touched his skin as he gazed inside.
The room was uninhabited at the moment, but it was obvious that someone had been there recently. The room was slightly bigger than Leo's own room, but looked more crowded with all of the random objects littering the floor. It reminded him slightly of Mikey's room, except for the obvious femininity. A small, padded bench sat under the window, variously patterned pillows rising high enough to lean against the window pane. A large bed, with a covering matching the curtains Leo was hiding behind, sat across the room, with a pale white rocking chair sitting next to it. A large black desk, and a smaller drawing desk beside it, sat against the wall, close to the door. On the wall opposite of the entrance to the room, a large television sat on a dark chest. A large off-white couch faced it, but it seemed too short. Leo realized that half of the room was a step lower than the rest of the room, separating it. Various posters, pictures, and shelves stuffed with books littered the pale walls and a large, circular zebra-print rug covered the middle of the floor.
This girl has nothing to complain about, Leo internally growled. This brat had a bed, a room, and obviously a good amount of money to have such a nice apartment. She obviously had no idea how much worse things could be. Leo had a feeling if Raph were here, he would make sure she learned a taste of it.
The old Raph would have anyways….
A flash of light to his right made Leo turn, his free hand reaching to withdraw his weapon. The two windows in the next room over were now glowing dimly, and Leo heard a door slam. Angry voices barely reached his ears before the door to the room he was watching swung open and a young girl stepped into the room, quickly slamming the door behind her and leaning against it.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid," she mumbled to herself. Leo realized the window was slightly cracked open. "Die in hell!" she screamed over her shoulder.
A harsh laugh bit through the air before a man screamed a list of profanities that even Casey would have balked at. Leo winced, but caught the name "Brenna" in between vicious insults to the girl. The man stopped, and Leo heard his heavy footsteps stumbling away. Drunk, Leo thought before turning his attention back to the girl. He saw her bottom lip quiver and her shoulders began to shake before she fiercely wrapped her arms around herself and darted to the bed. She fell onto her stomach, burying her face in her arms. Leo heard her soft sobs from the window, and fought the anger twisting in his gut.
Maybe things are worse than I thought. I ought to go give that son of a bitch a lesson. No one should be talking to anyone that way. Why, I oughta …. The thoughts trailed away in his head. He could do nothing. The man had not physically hurt the girl, so he could not step in, yet.
The girl's sobs soon quieted and Leo figured she was asleep. Before he could change his mind, he gently pried the windows open enough for him to get in and lightly stepped into the room. When the girl didn't move, he glided to the desk and found what he was looking for. Feeling anxious about being in a human home with a drunk man in the next room over, Leo hopped outside once more and wrote a hasty note on a scrap of paper he had found.
I hope you didn't throw this away on purpose. I only saw the first page, but just that one page was worth the trouble of returning this to you. You are very talented.
Leo considered signing it –your friendly neighborhood ninja, but decided it was something only Mikey would do and left it anonymous. He folded the paper and tucked it into the front cover of the beaten journal, letting a corner show so she would see it before gently lying it on the window seat and closing the windows. Satisfied and wanting to go home, Leo headed for the nearest manhole.
