A/N: Ok, early April fools guys. I've decided to split this last chapter into two parts, so yes, you still have one last chapter coming. I just figured you must be dying for something from me (ok so that's just what I kept telling myself over and over and over, but...) and I was going completely insane/psycho from lack of posting so here it is! Besides 13 chapters sounds kinda cool. (shrugs)
Small note: Don may seem a little OOC towards the end, but I had to get him out of the room, so if anyone has any better ideas, lemme know! I'm totally open to 'em!
Special thanks to Jessiy Landroz for pointing out the suddenness of Leo's almost admittance of extreme affection and helping me get him kinda on track with that thing. Hopefully what I did in this chapter smooths it out. And I got more in the next chapter!
Disclaimer: I'll own the TMNT the day pigs fly. Oink. Oink.
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Aaron didn't show up for practice that next morning.
Leo woke up that morning with a stiff hope settled in the bottom of his stomach, gnarling itself into a thousand knots as an irregularly early practice session wore on. Splinter had set his sons up for sparring. Leo against Mike and Raph with Don.
Last night, the three turtles remaining downstairs had hightailed it out of the room when they saw April coming down. As much as they loved a good spat between Ape and Case, they knew when to scoot. Somehow or other Casey had managed to escape the Lair last night with his life. No one yet had figured how.
In fact it was the topic of the conversation at the moment.
"How do ya suppose (grunt) he did it? (pant)" Mike asked, deflecting on of Leo's thrusts with his nunchuks.
"Think he (gasp) apologized?" Don suggested, ducking under one of Raph's kicks, and tried to take Raph's legs out from under him with a sweep of his bo.
Raph leapt up into the air.
"Are you daft, Don? We all know Case'id never do that in his life!"
"Wow, Raph," Mike chuckled, attacking Leo, "you can fight and think up weird words at the same time?"
Mike continued attacking his older brother; Leo parried and blocked easily. His body was set on auto pilot while his mind whirled off in a galaxy far, far away.
Had he really almost told April he loved Aaron last night? He liked her sure, but love? The unsuspected surfacing of the word worried him. He was barely 16, he couldn't be in love. He tried to shake it off, but it wouldn't leave him alone.
Why did he like her anyway? Why? Why hadn't she drawn Mike, who hadn't stopped hitting on her since they'd met. Definitely the ladies man of the four of them. Why not Raph? He and Aaron had both mastered the 'leave me alone or die' attitude. Or shell! Why not Don? He had the most experience with women, supposedly. He spent hours with April, talking tech and other incomprehensible gibberish.
But no, he'd gotten sucked in.
Why? Why Aaron? Why me?
Why? Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy?
It was driving him insane. So many questions and no way to answer them. Life should come with an answer book, he decided. Like one of those handbooks you can get to cheat on playing along with Jeopardy from your couch.
"Leo. Leo?" a voice tugged at the back of his mind, "LEO!"
Leonardo snapped his mind back to the present to find Mike holding his arms above his head in defense.
"Dude," Mike stared surprised and wide-eyed up at him, "At what point does STOP! mean anything to you?"
"What?" Leo cocked his head.
Mike lowered his arms.
"Sensei gave us the signal to stop about thrity seconds ago, Leo," Don explained simply.
"And you kept going," Raph nodded, finding the situation as wierd as the rest of the family. "But then again with Mikey, I probably would have kept trying to chop him into little pieces myself."
"I-" Leo dropped his arms, the tips of his swords making clanks as their tips hit the ground. He looked around to see his family gawking at him, "I guess I didn't hear."
"What? Raph's music deafening your eardrums?" Mike said trying not to sound bitter about nearly becoming the equivalent of cucumber slices.
Leo just shook his head, more to himself than to his family and the question.
"I believe that is enough for today," Splinter cut in, "You are all excused."
Raph and Mike whooped and sprinted off to raid the cupboards for cereal and virtually any food as any edible substance in the lair was game at any point of the day. Don walked behind them at a more contained pace.
Leo sheathed his swords and turned to follow but stopped when he felt Splinter's hand rest on his shoulder.
"Leonardo. In the words of Confucius, 'It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.'"
"Sensei?" Leo knit his brows together in confusion. Splinter merely bowed his head in silence and turned to retire to his chamber for meditation before breakfast.
Leo watched him leave and shook the added perplexity of his master's words from his already befuddled mind.
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Aaron rolled over in her bed and wished she hadn't. Pain from sore muscles streak up and down her legs and arms, even in her butt. Had she the energy she would have groaned, but silent suffering was much easier. Having not yet opened her eyes, she basked in the glorious drowsiness that clung to her while the soreness receded slowly to a dull ache. Why was she in so much pain?
Oh yeah. Practice with Leo yesterday morning.
She yawned deeply and flopped over onto her stomach and winced as the her muscles flamed up again. Each trying to cry and shout above the others for her attention. Agh! Even her eyes were bothering her. She opened them finally and stared blankly out across her room at the pretty multi-colored spines of the books on her bookshelf. Everything looked alot clearer than usual. Why? And her eyes felt thick and dry. Why?
Oh yeah. She would have smacked her self on the head if her arms didn't hurt so much, instead she sighed heavily in exasperation and sat up, painfully, in bed. She'd forgotten to take out her contacts. Why hadn't she remembered? she wondered sliding out from under the covers and walking stuffly into her bathroom.
Oh yeah. She'd been tired. Really tired. She set the small contact container on the counter and filled it with solution. She recalled wanting nothing more than wanting to collapse into bed because-
She stopped. In an instant the night before struck her.
Oh yeah.
She looked down at her hand noticing for the first time that morning the rag Leo had tied on it had slipped off during the night and the cut along her palm was beginning to scab over. She flexed it and wondered how she'd overlooked it. The pain in her legs fired up again.
Oh yeah. She'd had bigger pain to worry about.
Using her other 'good hand, she slid her dryed-out contacts from her eyes and blinked in her blurry vision. She groped around the counter for another minute to locate her glasses. Finally her hand bumped into them, wedged inside a basket of toiletries between her toothpaste and deodorant.
Last night felt unreal. Like a movie she'd seen long ago or a dream that hadn't really happened. And as hard as it was to deny the proof of the events of last night, her brain didn't seem to grasp the whole concept.
Sighing at her four-eyed face in the mirror she walked back into her room and out her bedroom door to make her way painfully down the stairs to the kitchen for breakfast.
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He reached the table and slumped into a seat reaching for the nearest open cereal box Raph and Mike had left in their mad rush to get to the television with food in tow. Don sat at the table calmly spooning Lucky Charms into his mouth.
"So, where were you last night Leo?" Don asked casually.
Leo quickly wondered whether to answer directly or try to evade the question.
"Well I, uh..." he mumbled, "I went-". He heard Donnie draw in a sharp breathe. He stopped and quickly glanced up following his brother's gaze to the bottom of the staircase; April was just stepping out, hair down, clothing ruffled from sleeping in them.
Leo heard his brother swallow nervously and smiled. Donnie's 'hidden crush on April was as well kept a secret in the family as his own on Aaron. Thankfully and strangely enough, April herself had never noticed.
"Morning fellas," she greeted walking up to the table while stretching her arms over her head.
"Morning, April," the spoke in unison, smiling.
"So, what's for breakfast?"
She leaned over to look into their bowls and scrunched her nose.
"You guys won't mind if I make some eggs or something will you?"
They shook their heads.
"If you can find them you can eat them," Don said chuckling a little nervously.
Leo nodded and added.
"Mike might have left some extra toast in the toaster."
April smiled and nodded.
"So when did you guys get up?"
"Five." Don and Leo both answered robotically.
"Oh."
She began rummaging through their fridge. Eventually coming up with nothing to show for her efforts.
"Remind me to get you guys some more groceries," she muttered, checking the toaster and pulling out a blackened slice. "And to get you a real toaster."
"Oh is it broken again?" Don snapped his head up, "I'll fix it, hold on."
He jumped up from the table.
"Oh no, Donnie, really it's ok. I'll just-"
But the turtle had already scampered off with the faulty appliance into his lab.
April shook her head in wonder.
"What's gotten into him?"
Leo stared after the traces of his techno-brother as well.
"I really don't know..."
"So," April said slyly, slipping into Don's old seat. "What are you doing about your friend?"
"Uh," Leo looked away, down at the table, "I uh..I was gonna go see her sometime today, maybe."
"Leo," April sighed, rolling her eyes, "I told you, the longer you wait the harder its gonna be."
Leo looked unsurely back at her.
"You'll be fine. Don't worry. I'll bet; being a girl and thinking like one; I'd want someone I trust to be with me right now. Someone like you."
Leo nodded in solemn understanding and stood up from the table.
"You know, cereal isn't all that bad," he said changing the subject.
April looked over at Don's abandoned bowl and grimaced.
"I can't eat that." she threw up her hands, "I'm sorry, but adding marsh mellows do not make something 'magically delicious' ."
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A/N: Ok remember this is not the last chapter. Don't stop here review, even if I've never heard from you! (hey, I had to rhyme for good old times) (Hey, I did it again! )