10. Confused

Karai watched Leo walk across the main room to sit down in front of the television set. Her eyes scanned his green skin, his three fingers and toes, the lack of external ears and nose, his hard shell and front. She could understand April's problems with being attracted to someone that wasn't human, someone that was technically an animal, but Karai had reptilian blood in her now.

She didn't think that was why she was attracted to Leo, she had found him cute before, when she was fully human, Karai was never one to scare easily, where others ran away screaming from a giant mutant turtle, Karai was drawn to him, intrigued and attracted and he clearly felt the same way.

The problem was Karai was taught from a young age that emotions were a weakness, which was laughable coming from the Shredder, the man who let anger and jealousy rule his life. Karai had never felt as vulnerable as she did when she was with Leo, she'd never given into her emotions so much.

The love she felt for Leo was different to the love she had felt before, her only experience with love was what she had shared with her adoptive father, which was more manipulative than anything else. She'd had crushes on people before, but she never acted on any of them, apart from one, but he'd been far too scared to think about the possibility of dating Karai given who her father was.

The fact that Leo was now her adoptive brother had no effect on either of them, it probably should, but the fact barely came up between the two. It didn't seem to bother the rest of their family either.

No one had ever cared for her as much as Leo did, he was always there when she needed him, even when she was manipulating him, after all the times she had betrayed him, he was still there, he helped her understand the truth about her parents and brought her to her rightful family.

There were times when she did like to string Leo on, back when she was working with the Shredder, as well as after, she loved that he was so willing to do anything for her but it had taken her a long time to realise that Leo was in love with her. She'd never thought Leo's crush was anything serious and now she knew that it was...she didn't know how she felt about that.

She loved Leo, she knew that, but giving into those feelings quickly? Not going to happen. She liked to flirt and tease, she wasn't someone that took love seriously...but maybe she should.

Karai enjoyed brushing up against him occasionally, hugging him, holding his hand, kissing him on the cheek, spending time with him...they were very much an almost couple. But Karai never took the step to make them official and whenever Leo did, Karai pushed him back and they suffered a few days of awkwardness and confusion about how to act around one another before they went back to how they were before.

She knew she was messing with Leo's head as well as his heart, but she couldn't imagine herself in a loving relationship, not even with someone as great and wonderful as Leonardo. And he deserved someone much better than her.

For now, Karai would just enjoy what the two of them have and hoped someday she would be able to give Leo what he deserved or leave him alone.