Author's note:Yes! It's back! can you believe it? Neither can I! Finally got this story back on the road and I'm hoping you're gonna like what I've decided to do with it. I'm thinking I'll probably have another 2 or 3 chapters before I put this baby to sleep (figure of speech!) but that's just an estimate, it could turn into 1 or 16 for all I know.
Man, I haven't posted for a while. So sorry for kinda dissapearing there for a while...sadly I must return to 'Nonexistant Land' until finals ar over (next week), but I'll be back again someday! (why does that sound familiar? Whadda you think, Frosty? (me talking to a snowman) You don't know? ok...) (yes, lack of posting has caused me to go completely insane)(Don't let it happen to you!)
But yes! Overflow's back! I'm so happy! Excuse me while I celebrate! (Runs off to dance around and celebrate)
Dedication: (Mwahahaha! I've found a shout-out loophole!)(I hope...) Thanks to Canadian Pirate Queen for helping me get back into this story! Thanks! (Hopefully I haven't annoyed you too much with my obsessive compulsive need to thank) ;-D
Disclaimer: I own the turtles just about as much as I own the Swiss Alps. You do the math.
---------------
Time had slowed. They'd stood there, wrapped up in a moment.
He'd held his breathe.
He was certain she'd felt the same things she had, and she had turned away.
Leo released a sigh of disappointment, his shoulders sagging a little.
What should he have expected? Her to admit an undying passion for him and let her take her up in his arms and kiss her?
Leo rolled his eyes at himself and decided that Mike had made him watch one too many chick flicks.
Across the kitchen, Aaron pulled down a mug from one of the cupboards with her good hand and then reached up again for another. She could feel Leo's eyes in the back of her head.
She slid the fingers of her right hand through the handles of the two mugs and turned around to face the sink. Avoiding Leo's eyes by staring at the floor and watching her feet carefully wade through the glass.
Leo sucked in and released another long breath, slowly heaved himself to his feet and made his way across the kitchen and into the hall in search of a broom. He walked into the hall and opened the door to the closet, returning to the kitchen with a broom in one hand and a dust pan in the other.
After all, she has a whole world full of guys to choose from.
He dropped the dust pan on the ground. It landed on the tile with a loud clap as if to express the building feeling of anger inside him with its sound.
Normal un-mutated human boys.
He used his foot to hold the pan still on the floor and began sweeping up the glass.
Guys who were fun or funny.
Glass shards tinkled as the broom pushed it across the floor and into the dust pan.
Guys who could take her on dates in broad daylight and escort her to school dances. He couldn't compete with that.
He gripped the broom handle in frustration.
He wasn't good enough. He'd never be good enough. That thought made his blood boil.
---------
Aaron flipped the faucet on and dipped each cup under the flow of water in turn. She watched Leo as he stalked back into the room, broom and dust pan in hand. Once again the mood had changed...
She punched the button to open the microwave and, careful not to spill, placed the two cups inside. She shut the door a little harder than she meant to and tried to make up for it by pressing the buttons as silently as possible. Which didn't account for much as the buttons beep at the exact same volume every time they're pushed.
The two cups began to rotate to the hum the appliance made. Aaron leaned back against the counter, unsure of what to do with herself for a minute and a half.
She studied Leo's face as he stared down at his work, or was he glaring? she couldn't tell...
Still leaning against the counter she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. What had just happened there? Why did everything feel so awkward all of a sudden? What would have happened if she'd stayed put and continued that strange excuse for a staring contest? She had a feeling she had disappointed Leo somehow and he didn't even know what she had been up to before his arrival.
-------------
Thoughts relayed themselves over and over in his head. Continually ending with: You aren't good enough and you never will be. It wasn't true. It couldn't be. It was a lie. But the harder he pushed the thought away, the more it came back, and the more it came back, the angrier it made him.
"All we have is green tea," Aaron said peering into another cupboard interrupting his thoughts.
He grunted a bit of an o.k. At least that's what Aaron hoped it was, cuz someone had to drink the second cup of tea. And at the rate she was going tonight, she was going to be up all night from the caffeine.
The microwave beeped shrilly to announce the termination of the heating process.
She gratefully punched the 'open' button again and tossed teabags into the cups. Taking one over to the table, setting it down then going back for the other.
Leo stooped down to pick up the dust pan and unloaded its contents into the trash can. A funny smell reached his nose, but other than wrinkle his beak for a momentary second he didn't think much of it.
Aaron was sitting patiently at the table waiting for him to come join her. But he couldn't, he wouldn't just yet. Not till he got his thought and emotions in order. He had to be under control. He was a ninja. Ninjas kept themselves together. Didn't they?
He continued sweeping under the cupboards where it was possible a stray piece of glass might be hiding. It gave him something to do while he collected himself, but the kitchen was small and he couldn't keep sweeping and re-sweeping a perfectly clean floor, the last thing he needed to add to his list of things to worry about was looking obsessive compulsive.
All that was left was to sweep around the refrigerator. He was grateful to hear the scraping of some small fragments, too tiny to really see from five feet up, but still were there nonetheless.
He took a calming deep breath as thoughts continued to buzz around his head. He stuck the broom on its side as far as it would go into the small space between the fridge and cupboards. A large piece of glass and a bottle cap rolled out. He looked down at the upside-down cap. Doubtlessly from the exploded drink that was beginning to dry up on the tile. He'd have to remember to get it mopped up before he left.
Using his foot to steady the dust pan again, he swept the last of the broken bottle into it, the strange smell he couldn't name fired up again as he bent towards the floor. But his concentration and thoughts were needed elsewhere in his mind. He tossed the last of the fragments into the garbage. In it's short flight from pan to can the bottle cap flopped over to the topside and as he began to closed the trash his eyes skimmed the label.
Corona.
Leo blinked for a second and opened the trash again. No...
Corona.
No, it couldn't be...
He reached his hand down into the trash and picked it up, turning it over in his hand. The top of the rim of the bottleneck was still attached to the inside. This had been the top to the bottle that Aaron had dropped. He glanced up and stared at her.
--------------
Aaron watched the tea diffuse from the bag into the water. It wasn't exciting but it was something to do. She peeked down at her hand again. It was throbbing with a heartbeat all its own.
Suddenly she felt aware of Leo's eyes on her and cautiously turned around in her seat to face him. He was looking straight at her with an expression on his face she couldn't identify at the moment. But the evening had been strange enough so far.
"Aaron," he said softly looking down at something in his hand, "What is this?"
Aaron caught her breathe and stared wild eyed like a cornered animal as he held up the bottle cap between his thumb and forefinger.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Obi-wan-reader. Review! You're my only hope!
(note to self: sugar + late night hours equals really lame pleas for reviews)