My eyes don't want to open, but I know they need to. I've promised Benj that I'll teach him some things about fighting and defense since the Headquarters is still getting fixed up and transported from the attack. It's been three days since Christmas Day. We're still at the Farmhouse, getting ready for New Years.

I hear a voice perk up while I'm brushing my teeth.

"Remind me again why we aren't spending New Years in Time Square," Rose says.

I spit in the sink and look back up at myself. My hair is a frizzy disaster. I throw it up in a ponytail and pretend it's not there.

"Because," I begin, looking around in my bag. "We spend it there every year. IT's time for change. You just want to spend it with Derrick."

Derrick Edwards is her boyfriend of one month, who she claims she loves dearly. I've reminded her many times that I think it's impossible to be in love with each and every one of the boyfriends she's had. And she's had like ten. I've had one, and I'm almost eighteen. She's barely fifteen.

She smiles and shrugs. "If you had a boyfriend, wouldn't you want to spend it with him on New Years Eve?"

"I don't know," I say. "I wouldn't know. I don't have one."

I pick out a pair of black leggings and a plain white long sleeve. I wear my white vans.

"Are you kidding me, Lex? You can't wear that out in the cold!" Rose exclaims, crossing her arms.

"We're only going to be out there for an hour or so," I say yawning. "It's not that cold, Rosalie."

She sighs. "Alright..."

When I come to my brother's room, Leo opens the door.

"Where's Benj?"

"He just went to take a shower..." Leo says, looking at me curiously. "Where are you going?"

I walk in and take a seat on a bed. "I'm going to train with Benj."

Leo's eyes widen. "Outside? In the cold? Wearing that?"

"I'm fine, Leo. Seriously," I insist, but he's already shaking his head.

"No, you are not going out there until you put on a jacket and a hat."

I shake my head. "I don't want to."

He crosses his arms. "You have to. I don't want you to get sick."

"I'll be fine."

"You aren't going out there without a jacket," he states. I get a good look at his expression. He isn't joking; he's not going to let me outside without a coat.

I roll my eyes and head back to my room, irritated.

"You'll thank me later!" he calls after me.

Rose raises her eyebrows as me as I aggressively dig through my suitcase.

"What are you looking for?"

"Apparently a jacket," I mutter. "Leo won't stop bugging me about it."

"Are you annoyed?"

"Very much." I slide into my brown jacket. I can't put on a hat because it will fall off with my ponytail. I walk out of my room and knock on the door again, this time, to find Benj opens it. He's dressed in a long sleeve black shirt and some jeans.

"See? Was that so hard?" Leo teases.

"Why doesn't Benj have to wear one?" I ask, pointing at my brother.

Benj snickers as we head down to begin training.

"Okay," I begin, standing across from Benj. "The first thing we are going to do is a listening exercise. I know that you hate these with a burning passion, but they are very, very helpful."

Benj groans and rolls his eyes.

"Close your eyes and focus. Don't listen for anything in particular. Just anything that may danger you."

My brother groans again. "How can I listen if I'm not listening for anything in particular?"

I don't respond.

He closes his eyes and stands still for a while. I make my way a good distance from him and slowly creep up from behind. I'm a few feet behind him when he turns around and opens his eyes.

"Benj, you don't just turn around like that. Did you hear me come up?" He nods. "If you think that you're in danger, strike. Don't turn around to make sure."

"Alright." After a few minutes of listening exercises, I begin to get sick of my jacket. I take it off, placing it by a tree. It's weighing me down on my training.

"Leo's gonna be mad..." Benj sings. I roll my eyes and take out my katanas, and he follows suit.

"Well then Leo can yell at me later. Alright, we're gonna start with blocking..."

We end up training for longer than I had expected. I slide my katanas back into my belt, and Benj and I head inside. I can feel myself shivering as we walk back through the front door. Everyone is already awake, eating breakfast. Leo glances over at me and his face falls.

"Lexi, where's your jacket?"

I rub the back of my back. "I took it off an hour and a half ago. It's hard to train with a coat on."

"Lexi, you're going to get sick now!"

"I'm not going to get sick," I say, rolling my eyes and grabbing a plate.

Mikey laughs. "Lexi, you look freezing. You're probably gonna get sick."

"I'm not, Mikey. I don't get sick." Why does everyone care so much? Taking a seat on the couch, I flip through the channels. I find Animal Planet and begin to watch it.

"So is everyone ready for tomorrow?" April asks.

"What's tomorrow?" I ask, with a mouthful of pancakes.

Leo grabs my chin. "Chew..."

"There's that awesome hill we've been dying to sled down. It'll be awesome!" April exclaims.

"Sounds fun," I say, turning to Mom. "We haven't been sledding since that trip to Utah five years ago."

Benj snorts and rolls his eyes. "That was lame. We forgot our sleds, so we had to borrow the crappy ones from the little shack down the street. And we paid like ten bucks to rent them. I slid into a tree and had to be hospitalized."

"Oh yeah, I remember that," I say, laughing.

I'm already beginning to feel sore from training. I'm going to sleep well tonight.

I am in so much pain. My head throbs and feels even worse than the night I met the turtles. The room feels too hot and I desperately want to jump out into the snow and lie there. I take off the blankets and lie there, but it doesn't get any colder. My head feel terrible and I feel so sore.

I groan again and try to open my eyes. The light blinds me I shriek and pound my head against the pillow, hoping this will miraculously cure it. My throat feels like it's on fire and I keep trying to swallow the pain down.

"Lexi, are you okay?" Leo's voice asks from the doorway.

I don't answer properly. I just groan and stuff my head into my pillow again. The pain is unbearable. I feel tears well in my eyes.

Leo walks over and takes a seat on my bed, putting his hand to my forehead. "Lexi, your head is burning up. What hurts? Do you want me to go get Don? Do you need anything?" I want to laugh at how sweet he is. I was waiting for the "I told you so", but it doesn't come.

"Leo..." I croak, as tears well up in my eyes. His eyes fill with kindness and concern.

"I'll go get Donnie." After that, I lie my head back down and try to relax. Leo comes back with Don.

"What hurts, Lex?"

"My head and my throat. But mostly my head." My voice sounds terrible. I haven't been this sick in years.

Donnie gives me some medicine to take and tells me he's sorry I won't be able to come sledding with them. I'm too miserable to care.

It's about two in the afternoon when I wake up again. My head still hurts a little bit and my throat is still extremely sore. But I feel overall far better than I had earlier.

I sit on the bottom step of the stairs and wait for a few minutes. After I get bored, I walk over to the kitchen table. I'm surprised when I see Leo sitting there, reading.

"Leo?" I ask.

He looks up at me. "Are you okay? Do you need anything? Are you still in pain?"

"Headache isn't as bad. Quit worrying, Leonardo. Why didn't you go with everyone else?" I take a seat on the couch. Leo hops up and takes out some pizza that's been in the oven.

"I wanted to stay and look after you. Plus, it wouldn't have been the same without you."

"Thanks, Leo..."

He serves us both slices of pizza, hands me a water bottle and sits me down on the couch.

"Well it's good you're feeling a little better. Donnie wanted me to tell you to take one of these cough drops every hour," Leo says, holding out one. I nod and take it. As it dissolves in my mouth, I raise my eyebrows at him.

"I'm sick. Are you sure you don't want to stand like ten feet away?" I'm only half-joking.

"I stayed back so that I could take care of you," he says, putting his arm around me. "I can't do my job very well standing ten feet away."

I smile and ignore my stomach turning at his touch.

"So what do we learn from all this?" Leo asks.

I sigh and look down at my hands. "Always listen to Leo when he tells you to put on a jacket..." I mumble. I yawn.

He smiles and squeezes me tighter. "Go to sleep."

"No," I say. "You didn't stay back for me to be asleep the entire time."

"I stayed back to make sure you are safe. Get the rest you need," he says.

I don't argue.

LEO'S POV:

I smile down at her as she drifts off to sleep. Even though she's ill, she still looks so peaceful. As strong of a fighter as she is, she looks so vulnerable - and I have a sudden urge to protect her and keep her safe.

We've become close. But I know that she can't trust me that much yet. What reason can I give to prove that she can? For all she knows, I could be working for the Dark Angels. I'm not, but she doesn't know that. All it takes is trust: and that's exactly what she has placed in my hands. She has given me her trust. I'm just afraid to use it. I'm afraid I'll do something wrong.

She hasn't shown any sign of weariness or distrust so far in this friendship. But it still gets me wondering. Does she honestly trust me? Am I even worthy of her trust? I can't even tell her how I truly feel about her.

Why would she even like me? Why do I even like her? What's so great about her? Everything. I hate this; I really do. I don't even want to like her. It's making my life so much more complicated. I suddenly remember April's advice.

"Take it step by step. Don't ask her out yet. Let your feelings develop."

I have let my feelings develop, but they don't seem to make my life any easier. They aren't stopping.

"And don't try to make them stop." But how do I help develop them without it being hard on me?

"Be her best friend; protect her and make her feel loved."

I sigh and think about it. That's exactly what I've been trying to do. But when am I supposed to tell her? When she wakes up? Tomorrow? I can't work with these unpredictable deadlines.

"Don't tell her just yet...make her feel good about herself as much as you can, even if you think it might blow your cover."

"Wow..." I mutter. "I should ask April for advice more often." A few more hours of my thoughts pass by before I hear the front door open and the smell burgers.

"We're got In-N-Out," Mikey sings through the house. Lexi still lies asleep in my arms.

"Ayyy," Casey teases, looking at me. "Leo's getting some love."

Her feet are propped up onto the coffee table in front of the couch, and she is leaning into my chest, as I have my arm around her.

"That was the best sledding day ever!" Benj exclaims, peeling off his gloves.

Rose laughs and shrugs off her jacket. "That's okay because you weren't hospitalized this time."

Lexi shifts a little bit, then without opening her eyes, weakly says, "Burgers?"

Benj hovers a hamburger over her head. "Yes, Lexi, I am burger." He hands her the burger, some fries and a shake. She smiles and thanks them, digging in immediately.

"So, how was sledding?" I ask.

Mikey jumps up. "It was awesome! Seriously, it's like skateboarding, but not!"

After a while, Lexi looks tired again and excuses herself to go to sleep,

"Wait, maybe Fearless should walk you back up to your room, Lexa," Raph says.

We both turn and give him a look. Is he suspecting my feelings for her too? Am I that obvious? I need a new cover.

"Why?" I snort, raising my eye ridges. "To make sure she doesn't tumble back down the stairs?"

"If you feel that we could use the extra twenty seconds to talk, then come along," Lexi says, but she says it in a way that almost gives me no other option.

"Do you feel bad at all that you weren't able to go sledding today?" I ask.

She shrugs. "Kind of, but not really. I'm glad you chose to stay back. It was really nice of you, Leo. You didn't have to do that." We reached the top of the stairs.

"It was fun. I'm not sure if I would've liked it anyway."

"Trust me, you would've loved it. But we could always go for New Years or something." She laughs. "You know, I'm sure that it would be just as fun as it was today. Maybe if I'm well enough...you and I could hit the snow. It's really fun. If you would want to..."

"Uh...if you would want to..." I say.

She shrugs. "It's up to you. I personally would love to go sledding with you. Let you experience it for the first time."

I smile at her, while looking down at my hands. "I'd like to go. If you'd want to, then sure. Would anyone else be coming?" I ask, but then it hits me that this is a dumb question.

"Um, I was planning on it just being the two of us, but if you don't feel comfortable..." Of course it was a dumb question! Now she doesn't think that I feel comfortable around her! Why can't I just keep my mouth shut?

"No!" I exclaim. "I love spending time with you when it's just the two of us!" And that sounds even dumber. "Oh man, that sounded weird. I'm sorry...uh...yes, I'd like to go sledding with you tomorrow if you are feeling well. Yes." Now it sounds like I need to break it down to process the invitation (which is probably accurate). Luckily, she just smiles and nods.

"Cool. Any specific time?"

"No, whenever you're ready. So is it...a...um..." Is it a date? Should I even ask? Why did I even start the conversation? I need more experience talking to girls because April never had this effect on me.

"A date?" she finishes. She looks more amused than anything. "Sure. If you're okay with me calling it that."

"Oh! Yeah, it's fine. Totally fine. Well, cool. I'll uh...see you tomorrow." I give her a thumbs up.

After saying goodnight, I awkwardly shuffle back down the stairs.

"So how'd your little walk go? Did you get some smoochy smoochy?" Mikey teases, and I roll my eyes. By the day after it happened, Mikey had spread the news about the mistletoe kiss Lexi and I had shared.

Of course, despite the fact (stated by my brothers) that it's obvious that I like her (which I still manage to deny), they give me a break (all except for Mikey), saying it was just a mistletoe kiss, which is a tradition and it doesn't count as a first kiss.

I let out a breath and rub my head in confusion.

"I think I have a date tomorrow with Lexi."