Chapter Ten - Falling to pieces
Leo slid the box into the middle of the circle, and at first no one touched it.
"Okay, seriously you guys" Leo huffed in annoyance as he reached in and opened the box himself and carefully dumped the contents onto the floor. In it there were a lot of pictures that looked like they had been printed from a polaroid camera, two CDs, a letter, and a necklace. The CDs were labeled 'Ambush at the apartment' and 'Shots With Leo'. Splinter picked up a picture, on the bottom was written 'Star Trek Marathon, April 10th 2014'. The picture showed Kira resting her head on Leo's shoulder, her arm can be seen reaching up to take the picture. Leo's head was resting on hers and they were both smiling widely. Splinter grabbed another picture, this one was labeled 'Halloween'. Kira was dressed as Electra and Leo was standing beside her.
Splinter looked up as the TV popped to life, it was a shaky video camera, there was a click, and suddenly the camera was steadied, they could see Leo standing in a kitchen and out from the corner of the camera Kira walked towards Leo. On the island there were two shot glasses and two slices of lime.
"Tell me why we're doing this again?" Leo in the video asked.
"Because Leo, you're 18 now, and when your friends turn 18 you usually go out and drink at bar, but but obviously we can't, so we are doing vodka shots here and now" Kira said as she poured the clear liquid into the glasses. "Okay... so, down the shot, then eat the lime. Three... Two... One!" Kira shouted and they both did the shots. They both immediately recoiled and ran to the sink to rinse their mouths.
"Oh! It burns!" Kira shouted as she stumbled into Leo who caught her. She leaned in slightly, and it looked like she was maybe about to kiss him, but her phone rang.
"Call from 212-343-6565" The robotic caller ID said.
"That's my father" Kira said as she stepped away from him to answer the phone, before she picked up she put her finger to her lips to motion that Leo needed to be silent.
"Yes?" Kira answered, it was on speaker phone.
"Akirihai, I have a job for you, 5 O'clock sharp" The Shredder said as he hung up. Kira stood there frozen for a moment before dropping the phone, Leo caught it and put a hand on her shoulder while placing the phone in the counter.
"You don't have to do it Kira" Leo said.
"If I don't do it he'll kill me..." Kira paused, "Maybe I should let him".
"Don't say that, you know that if you don't kill whoever it is, he'll just send someone else to do it" Leo told her.
Kira just sighed and nodded, "I'm going to sleep, you're welcome to join me" Kira said.
"No, I should probably get back home" Leo said as he walked in front of her, he kissed her forehead.
"Goodnight Leo" Kira said.
"Goodnight Kira" Leo responded. Kira walked towards the camera and turned it off. The video ended.
Leo took out that CD, and put in the one labeled 'Ambush in the apartment'.
It was a black and white security camera footage of Kira's bedroom. She was sleeping under the covers, until she suddenly shot up and reached under her pillow and grabbed something, it was a gun.
"Leo?" She called out while opening the door out into the hallway, a shadow moved behind her, but she didn't see it in time, she turned around just in time to have her shoulder cut by the blade. She quickly raised the gun and perfectly hit her target. There was a rustling sound from the hallway, Kira fought off the pain and raised the gun up high as she went out into the hall and tried to make her way towards the living room where she kept her katana. She fired off two more shots on her way to the living room, but when she got there she found the Shredder sitting at the kitchen table. Kira lowered her gun, but never dropped her finger from the trigger. Kira also noticed that Karai was sitting at the island.
"Not that I don't enjoy the impromptu family visit slash assassination attempt, but what the hell are you doing in my house?" Kira asked them warily, her shoulder was bleeding quite a bit, and she could feel her energy begin to drain.
"We know about your... extracurricular activities Akirihai" Karai spat out.
Kira's eyes widened in horror, thinking that they meant Leo, "I-I can explain, just don't hurt him" Kira said desperately.
"Too late, they are all dead. You thought you could hide the fact that you went against my orders to kill them?" The Shredder said with satisfaction, tears welled up in Kira's eyes. The Shredder studied her for a moment, "I didn't know that you were so attached to that Japanese business man" he commented.
"No one deserves to be ruthlessly hunted and murdered" Kira said, obviously trying to keep in her relieved expression hidden.
"What did you say earlier?" Karai asked.
"What do you mean?" Kira said, she had hoped they hadn't heard her.
"You said someone's name, who was it, it sounded kind of like L-"
"Hello" Kira interrupted, Karai raised an eyebrow at her defensiveness. "I said hello" Kira wobbled a little on her feet and clutched her shoulder. The Shredder stood up and walked over to her.
"If you do anything like this again, I will not be so kind... now bow to me" The Shredder commanded.
"I will not bow to a monster" Kira said in Japanese. The Shredder slapped her, which sent Kira stumbling back, she fell against a wall. The Shredder glanced one more time at her, and then the foot ninjas, Karai and the Shredder left through the window. The camera footage skips forwards 5 hours.
Leo comes in through the window, but he pauses when he sees mud and blood staining the carpet in the living room, he turned around the corner cautiously, and he saw Kira sitting at the island. Her shirt is covered in blood, and he noticed the gun beside her.
"Kira..." Leo said softly as he approached her, not wanting to startle her, "What happened?". Leo noticed an empty two litre jug of apple juice next to her.
"He tried to kill me" Kira said, she still didn't turn to face him. "He sent ninjas to kill me in my sleep".
"I'll kill him" Leo said, full of rage.
"Leo, wait... Please stay here" Kira said. Leo stopped and walked around the kitchen so that he could face her, and he was shocked by the state she was in. There was dried blood splattered on her face, her clothes were drenched with it, but her didn't notice that any of it was hers. He walked around and placed a hand on the top of her shoulder, meaning to comfort her, but she cried out in pain.
"What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Leo asked, and she quickly nodded.
"My shoulder..." Kira said as she pulled down her shirt so he could see. It was quite a deep cut, and it still seemed to be bleeding.
"Kira, I think you should go to a hospital" Leo said looking at it.
"No. They'll ask me what happened, and I can't answer that question" Kira said. "Ca you stitch it?" She asked.
"I don't know Kira... This one is a lot worse than the cuts I usually stitch up for you" Leo said.
"Do it or I will" Kira said.
Leo sighed, "Fine". The video fast forwarded Leo stitching up her shoulder and carrying her to her room.
"Goodnight Leo" Kira said sleepily.
"Goodnight Kira..." Leo said, he looked like he was about to say something else, but he just left.
The video ended.
"This woman seems to have amazing pain tolerance" Splinter commented, but he was still confused. "When can we meet this woman?" he asked, but immediately he realized what had happened based on his sons reactions.
Raph clenched his fists, Mikey looked down sadly, Donnie watched Leo, and Leo looked down and closed his eyes. Splinter's eyes widened in shock.
"What happened?" Splinter said softly. At this point Leo had had enough and left the lair, no one made any move to stop him.
"What happened to her my sons?" Splinter asked the rest of them.
"The day we lost New York... The Shredder ambushed them" Donnie started.
"Yeah, and then he made Leo watch as he murdered her, then Leo tried to attack him, but the Shredder was too strong. I'm just glad he didn't kill him too" Raph said.
"The only reason Leo isn't dead right now is because of Kira" Mikey said, the others turned to look at him, wanting an explanation to the statement. "I mean, think about it... Why wouldn't he have killed Leo? He wanted Leo to live with the pain of knowing she was dead. He gave Leo cuts deep enough to make scars that would never go away to make sure that he would never forget that night. That's why he didn't wake up from the coma he was in for two months, because he didn't want to live... That's why he always does the risky things, he stays behind to slow them down while we get away, because he just wants to die. He told me so himself" Mikey said sadly. A silence fell over the room as every one of them realized that Mikey was right.
"We should go after him" Donnie said. Everyone nodded in agreement, "I think I know where he'll go".
They quickly made their way out of the lair, and headed towards Kira's apartment. They went in through the open window and saw Leo sitting at the kitchen table with the unopened letter from the box in front of him. They all sat around him and stared at the letter like he was. On the front was Leo written in perfect handwriting.
"Are you going to open it?" Mikey asked from beside Leo. Leo didn't respond, but he grabbed the letter and carefully opened the sealed envelope. He began to read it, and a bittersweet smile appeared on his face, when he was done he left the letter on the table, an open invitation to read it.
"I'm going home" Leo said as he jumped out the window onto the fire escape.
They all looked at the letter, unsure if they wanted to read it, but Donnie grabbed it and began to read it out loud.
"Dear Leo,
What shoes do ninjas wear? Sneakers. Get it? Because we're sneaky. I hope you appreciate that pun, because if you're reading this it means you either snuck into my room while I was writing it, or that I died. I really hope that you didn't have to see it happen, and I am really sorry if you did. I'm sorry for a lot of things, I know that we both thought that we would be together for a long time, so I'm sorry I took that away from you. I'm also sorry that now you have nowhere to go to when you're tired of being around your family, but you can come to the apartment as much as you want. I have a debit card with $50,000 dollars on it in the top drawer of my dresser, please use it for you and your family. Most of all, I regret never really expressing how much I love you in words. I know we've had several nights of passion and romance, but I've never said the words out loud. You haven't either, so don't be angry or remorseful, because I know. You told me once that being in love is more than just saying the words, and you were right.
Lastly, I want to give you a final piece of advise. When you feel alone, when you feel that no one else understands, you're wrong. There is always someone, you showed me that.
I want you to know that you are not fearless, and you are not perfect, and you are not alone. But I love you, and your family loves you. My family hates me, you are everything I have, and that was enough, so you should definitely be covered.
No words can describe how much you mean to me Leo,
-Kira"
Donnie finished.
"What do you think she meant by 'several nights of passion and romance'? Mikey asked innocently.