This chapter is teasing Leorai all around!
Have fun... *eyebrow wiggle*
Remember! Reviews are writer chow! :D We always try to reply whenever possible.
And as always, a huge thank you to Queequegg and Theherocomplex for their amazing beta reading!
Leo watched Donnie's and April's exchange from the foot of the dojo steps near the kitchen, trying to draw some sort of conclusion.
After what he'd seen and heard earlier in the dojo between his brother and Karai -and then later in the kitchen- Leonardo couldn't help being paranoid. Watching Karai's behavior for the last fifteen minutes hadn't helped, as expected, so now he was trying to look for any kind of confirmation that at least Donatello was still head over heels for April.
Not Karai.
"Hey, Leo. You up for a quickie?"
Speak of the devil. Leonardo swivelled around at the sound of Karai's voice to find her looking down on him from the top of the steps, a smug grin on her face, like being higher than him made her better than him.
"Uh… a-a quickie?"
"I'd like to put this armor through the mighty test of your sword."
Leo frowned at the choice of words, her shameless tone of voice. He stood there, frozen in place, until Karai took her hand from her back and he saw her holding his niten ryu.
"Yeah, you know. I realized we didn't get to go one on one today. And that just won't do," she said, a wicked grin splitting her face. "Think of it as extra credit."
Leonardo finally managed to jump-start his mind:
"Oh, you're talking about a fight- a spar, sparring match," he said, flustered, stumbling over his words.
"What else would I be talking about?" she said, shrugging one shoulder, and she tossed him his swords. Then, slowly and deliberately, she turned her back to him, throwing a cheeky glance behind her.
Leo sighed in resignation, cursing the heat on his neck and cheeks and the wriggly sensation in his center. He took a deep breath, trying to collect himself before following her back inside the dojo. He knew he would never be able to reject the invitation, no matter how much he dreaded it. Not when she was looking at him like that, and those metal rivets in her new armor glinted so alluringly in the backlight.
I am going to regret this… Leo thought, and sighed.
"Alright, Karai. But you should know, I can see all your little tricks coming a mile away," Leo said, playing it cool, but feeling the exact opposite. His hands were slick with sweat, and he tightened the grip on his swords.
"Forgive me for doubting that, Mochi-chan."
Leonardo blinked in bewilderment. He couldn't have heard that right...
"Mochi-"
"That's right. I found you a nickname," Karai said blithely while adjusting the straps on her new cuffs. "You like it?"
"Mochi? Really? How am I like a mochi?" Leo protested, already prey to the effects of her teasing. It hadn't even been a whole minute.
Good thing you could see her tricks coming, Leo… Please, just get a grip before it's too late.
"Because you're like those green tea mochis; sweet and squishy. The perfect post-workout snack." She smirked.
"Damnit, Karai..." And that was it. He had nothing. They had just gotten started and already he literally had nothing but the slight tremor in his lower lip that he desperately tried to hide by biting down on it. All he could do now was to wield his swords at her in a threatening manner.
"Aww, how sweet, you still blush and everything. You sweet, sweet mochi," she cooed, circling him in a casual saunter, hand ready at her hilt.
The turtle swallowed, forcing himself not to fixate on the graceful shimmy of her hips, wrapped in that tight sash that left little to the imagination.
Okay, too late. Now I'm gone.
"Oh, I could really go for a mochi right now," she kept going, relentless. He knew she was only trying to distract him. Problem was, it was working...
"A nice, green tea mochi, mmm. I would eat it up in little nibbles so it would last me for hours."
Karai lunged forward and Leonardo barely reacted in time. Her wakizashi drew a wide arc in the air, the turtle avoiding the blade by the width of a hair, hearing the whistle of the metal by his ear. He swung his sword, knocking away her weapon.
"Good reflexes, Mochi-chan, I thought I had you!"
The sound of his new nickname grated at his eardrums like the scratching of a blade on stone. Maybe if he ignored it, it would go away. It was his only chance.
He steadied himself, and curled his mouth into a haughty snarl.
"My ninjutsu training has reached levels you can't imagine, Karai," he said, almost recovered from the embarrassment, his feigned smugness an attempt at playing along.
"Hmmm, I like the sound of that! I'd love to see exactly how far your skills reach, Mochi-chan," Karai said before performing a graceful feint. She dodged his return strike with ease, and one bump of her hip on his plastron knocked him off balance. "I'm sure you excel in many areas."
"Can we just fight and cut the crap, please?" Leonardo cawed heatedly, hacking the air with his blades in a burst of impatience.
"Bo-ring!" Karai sang. "Being a ninja is more than knowing your katas by heart, Leo-chan. You have to learn to repel any attack from the enemy, of any kind." She winked.
"In that case, thanks for the lessons, Karai. But then why do you only teach them to me, huh?" His heart skipped a beat at his own insinuation, but in all honesty he couldn't wait to see all cards on the table once and for all.
"How do you know I only use it on you, Leo?"
Leonardo scoffed, but paused in thought.
"So... you do all these... " He grasped for the right word, discarding every single one that came to mind, until he found one that was innocuous enough. He gestured with the tip of his sword towards Karai. "These techniques. You use them with the others?" He realized this wasn't the time nor the place, but somehow was unable to repress the urge to ask.
And now he hated himself for sounding jealous. Crap! That was it. From now on he was going to focus on combat, and only on combat. No more being a victim to her games.
"Nah, I save this technique just for you, Mochi-chan. Because you're worth it." She swung her sword low at Leo's knees, making him jump in order to avoid the blade. He countered with a swipe at the girl's head, but she dodged it with grace as though it were but a pesky draft before striking a dramatic thinking pose.
"Although now that I think about it, I am being a little unfair."
"What do you mean?" he said in an irked monotone.
"Well, maybe I shouldn't save this kind of training only for you. The others could surely benefit from a kunoichi's techniques, as you so elegantly put it."
Leonardo only narrowed his eyes in concentration.
"Oh yes, Donnie would be the perfect candidate," Karai said, tilting her head as though deep in thought, and Leonardo couldn't help imagining her and Donatello enjoying a solo sparring session. Her smile of delight completely knocked Leonardo off balance. He gaped, images from the last couple of weeks of the two of them together coming back to him in a whirl. Was it possible after all?
It came as no real surprise when she suddenly wheeled, disarming him of one of his niten ryu and keeping it for herself before retreating all in one fluid move.
Now there she was, gloating from afar. And there he was, one sword short and that dumb look on his face.
"That's funny, look what just fell into my hand! Aw, but its colors don't even match mine! Oh well…" Karai discarded the newly acquired sword, tossing it aside like a used plastic plate. Leo winced, but he'd been expecting it - she had much better weapons at her disposal after all.
But Leo couldn't help the question that gushed out of him - he couldn't have contained it anymore than he could contain water in a broken strainer.
"What did you mean about you and Donnie…?"
Karai laughed, an open, clamorous guffaw.
"Oh, Leo, don't be silly! I said that to get to your sword," Karai crooned playfully. "It worked, too. You know, sometimes I come up with new ways to screw with you and initially I think 'naw, he won't fall for that'. But then you always surprise me."
Leonardo took a step back, the burning sting of indignation rising in his throat. He had faced the taunts and insults of his brothers and his enemies alike, time and again, but only Karai could make him feel like a complete imbecile.
"You know, Karai, eventually you will succeed, and one day I will turn down sparring with you forever," he said sharply. "That's what you want, isn't it?"
"Oh, come on, don't be such a drama queen."
"Maybe to you these are nothing more than kunoichi games to kill the time…"
"Whoa, Leo…" she chuckled, her laughter not quite as cheerful as before - maybe in response to the tightness in his own voice.
"...but the joke's getting a little old for the rest of us."
"Don't you think you're blowing this out of-"
"All I ask is that you stop playing and be honest, for once in your life." Leonardo started moving, ready to take off. "But I guess you don't even know the meaning of the word-"
"Alright!" Karai said loudly, cutting him off. Leonardo was immediately quiet, and the silence thickened between them as he waited for her to speak.
For a few moments, Karai only stared, a look of deep confusion on her face as Leonardo firmly held her gaze, his jaw clenched.
She blinked and let her eyes fall to the floor before exhaling a hefty sigh, her entire body sinking until suddenly she looked much smaller.
When she lifted her head again, her eyes were looking at him through her eyelashes. Her wakizashi was now held low, tip pointed at the rug, and still she stared, her stance relaxed but determined. The seconds stretched until Leonardo began to feel just a tad uncomfortable. But he would not yield. Not this time.
Karai's head tilted to the side as though deep in thought, and Leo let out a huff of annoyance. There she goes again, thought Leo. Why did I think she could ever do what I ask of her?
Hardly in the mood for more nonsense, Leonardo braced himself in a ready stance and taunted her, sword wobbling its tip at her, inviting her to make a move, eager to get it all over with.
But she in no way acknowledged his call to arms.
"Leo."
He froze at the suddenness of it.
The way she had said his name. Her voice was leaden with purpose, her eyes fixed deliberately on his. Piercing. She looked dead serious.
"What?" he said slowly, half the word evaporating in front of his mouth like wisps of breath in the cold at the sight of her expression. Her lips were parted, like she wanted to say something but didn't quite find the right words.
She closed her mouth and lifted her head, and Leo was met with a determined gaze that could stop a train. Not taking her eyes off him, she carefully guided her weapon to its sheath at the back of her sash. The blade slid out of sight and her hand fell to her side, dangling over her hip. And then she started moving towards him.
Leonardo was knocked off his senses. Because this… this was new.
She took short step after short step, a stalking panther. She was taking her sweet time, looking at him. Staring him down. His grip faltered, and he watched as the tip of his own sword lowered almost of its own accord.
So this was it? It was happening? How would they tell the others? What would Master Splinter say?!
Leonardo's heart pounded against his plastron, breath hitching in his throat, as he watched Karai worm her way up to him. His eyes took the liberty of briefly touring along the sinuous curves of her hips and he swallowed. That armor really did look spectacular on her, and boy did she know it.
It's a trick! a tiny, minuscule voice told him, from the deepest recesses of his rational mind.
But how was he supposed to listen to sense when Karai was so close that he could even smell her; new leather and a natural musk permeated his sinuses, alluringly spicy. It was amazing. He appreciated a woman who didn't mind getting all nasty from a good workout.
"You really wanna know why I only use these techniques on you, Leonardo?" Karai said, just as she was slithering past his languid sword, her voice down an entire octave.
Leonardo did not move a hair's width, fixed like a marble statue as the woman inched her way closer.
He was in such state of shock that he barely perceived how Karai had just whipped out her sword, disarmed him of his remaining niten ryu with a firm swing and sent the weapon flying and jabbing itself on the floor a couple of yards behind him.
He reeled, looking at his sword planted on the other side of the room, then back at Karai. It took him a moment to understand.
"Ta-dah! Cause it always works! I win again!" she exclaimed with triumphant laughter. "I'm so sorry, I couldn't resist!"
Leonardo's entire body tensed. She was so pleased with herself, so perfectly oblivious to the battle waging inside Leo's head, the angry churning of his stomach.
"Now pick up your weapons like a good boy. Lesson's over and I need a shower."
He knew it, he knew it and was still stupid enough to fall into her trap again. The clamor of fierce thoughts reverberated inside his head. What really angered him was that for a few moments he had believed her. He got his hopes up. He let his guard down.
"Leo?"
Karai had been on her way out, but stopped when she didn't see Leo moving. He was just standing there, and she couldn't be sure if his eyes were closed or just fixed on the rug beneath his feet. His hands, deprived of their weapons, were curled into tight fists and the green knuckles were turning pale. She turned towards him, and flashed a provocative smile.
"You're not mad at me cause I beat you, are you?"
But the incensed look on his eyes when he looked at her gave her pause. His voice was steady and cold when he replied.
"Of course not. I'm very happy your little trick worked out for you."
"Aw, come on. You know I'm just teasing," she joked, but the situation wasn't nearly as funny anymore. Perhaps she had gone a bit too far this time...
"I don't know, Karai. I'm sick of being your toy," Leo said, turning his back on Karai.
"Oh, Leo, don't be like that!" Karai said, getting close to him, reaching to touch him on the shoulder, but he shrugged her hand away.
"You don't get it, do you?"
Karai was startled by that question. How serious he sounded, and how stern. So tense she could see the muscles in his neck twitching.
"You think you can just play this out forever and it's always going to work for you. But guess what: I'm done. I'm not taking another minute of it."
"Leo!"
He didn't respond. He didn't even flinch this time as he set out to pick up his swords from the floor to put them away on the rack, his movements as measured and concise as they'd ever been. The weapons settled on their stand with a couple of soft clinks and he headed for the exit without another look. Karai panicked.
She had to fix this, and fast. It couldn't just end like this.
"Will you listen to me?" she cried, striding after him and yanking on his arm to make him face her. "I didn't mean to upset you. I'm a kunoichi. This is what I do. I didn't know this was so hard on you!"
"Oh, you didn't know?"
"That's right, I didn't!
"I doubt that very much, Karai. I know your kunoichi training makes you very perceptive," he said bitterly.
"I think you are confusing being perceptive with being a telepath."
"I'm not confusing anything. I'm obviously crystal clear to you. You said it yourself, that's why you'll always use those tricks on me for as long as they work. And meanwhile I feel like I barely really know you. Everything's always uncertain with you, Karai!" He closed his eyes, like it hurt. "Sometimes I get the feeling that nothing about you is true. That it's all an illusion, just like everything you do in here." He motioned at the carpeted floor of the dojo beneath their feet.
"Leo…!" she exclaimed, incredulous. "That's not true! How can you say that?"
She didn't want to believe that's what he thought about her. Did they all think that?
"Why should I believe you? This is what you've always been." Leonardo turned and paced, his back to her. "A game of cat and mouse. Lies and traps."
She took a step forward, in case he thought of getting away again before she could make it right.
"I told you! This is what I am, this is what I've been taught! That doesn't mean…!"
Her words trailed off into silence, and everything became still. Leonardo stood quietly, probably waiting for her to finish. But after a few quiet moments, he shook his head, and then he took off.
"It doesn't make it a lie!" she called after him, wincing. Terrified.
But at least Leo had stopped moving, the tails of his blue bandana coming to a full stop against the groves of his shell. He was listening.
Karai stepped closer.
"I admit I often play, and tease. And maybe I enjoy it a little too much, but… I didn't think it was like this. I thought we were having fun," Karai explained, trying to keep her voice level. She didn't want to give too much away. She couldn't handle that right now. But Leo wanted sincerity, or it was game over. She braced herself, and drew in a shaky breath. "See… it's not all illusion."
The silence that followed was only broken by the occasional burble of sewer pipes and the distant noises of the busy world above, and Karai wondered how in the world silence could feel so loud, her ears buzzing with the sound of her own blood flow and her pulse thumping on her temples.
When Leo finally turned, slowly, she was met with a pair of blue eyes glinting with impish delight and a malicious grin creeping onto his lips.
Karai gawked, unable to keep a straight face.
"Well, well," he said. "A little peek at your true self." His voice was still austere, but laced with a smugness that caught her completely off guard.
He took two steps and before she could react, he had grabbed hold of her arm, pulling her closer until their faces were mere inches apart. She could've twisted his arm and put him in a lock at any time. But she didn't. And his grin spread wider. It had been almost two years since they first met and she had been taller than him back then. But not anymore. Leo's eyes were level with hers, his penetrating gaze catching hers head on.
He leaned in, his tone of voice lowering until it was almost a lion's growl.
"I'd say that deserves a reward," he said with the slightest wiggle of his brow, and Karai felt her entire body stiffen.
What the hell was going on, and why weren't her limbs responding? Karai thought as Leonardo's face kept getting closer and closer to hers. Meanwhile she was fighting her own body, trying to keep her arms limp at her sides, to maintain a straight face as if nothing could ever rattle her. It was a struggle like none she'd ever known.
Leo tightened his grip on her arm then, his eyes so intent on hers that she felt she would be adrift forever in their ocean blue.
And there they stood, motionless, suspended in time, breathing each other's breaths. Karai made a tiny strangled sound in her throat, and she had enough sense left in her that she feared Leo might have been close enough to hear it.
But Leonardo did not waver. He did not back away. And if she hadn't been so transfixed and so boggled she might have been able to see it coming. Because just when she thought she would have to give in—when their bellies were practically touching, and they were but a little tip of the chin away—she felt it.
His hand had moved slowly, sneaking up around her and then with a single, blunt, yank of the handle, Karai's wakizashi went flying through the air.
Karai watched in confusion as her weapon landed with a clang and rolled loudly on the floor until it came to a full stop against the painted paper screens at the far end of the dojo.
"And that," Leonardo said, "was kyojitsu tenkan-ho." Then he released her to cross his arms over his chest, and took a step back to admire his work, sneering ruthlessly at her face of shock and confusion.
Karai was still looking back and forth from him to her wakizashi lying at the other side of the room, and back to him.
"Wait wh- How…?" The sounds rolling out of her mouth were hardly words at all, as she visibly struggled to compose herself, and Leo relished every stutter and every jerk of her head. "You tricked me!"
He lifted his chin, malicious pride coursing through his veins, because that mask of strength and temperance she was trying to put on wouldn't work this time, he had felt her arm tense under his grip. And that's how he knew it was all for show. He got to her. There was something very fulfilling about that.
"I can't believe you'd do that!" She looked and sounded bothered for a moment, but then she recovered and her expression changed. Whether it was spontaneous or she was simply putting on her kunoichi face again, Leo couldn't tell. But she looked at him with what seemed to be a smile of content.
"My congratulations, Leo-chan!" she said. "You had me there for a second!" She sniggered that last sentence with an ambiguous laugh that he couldn't interpret.
Although he didn't exactly regret his little trick, deep inside he was also disappointed. And not just in her.
He couldn't say what would have happened if he had taken it one step further; maybe she would have shoved him away, or perhaps she would have sunk into the kiss. This could have been the start of something, or the end of everything. But it didn't matter now, because the moment was gone, thrown across the room along with her sword. If only he would have put aside his plan for revenge, then whatever would have happened he could have at least known.
But now he was as clueless as in the beginning.
Or was he?
It's not all illusion…
"It seems you're learning at last!"
Leonardo rose from the tangle of his thoughts and came back to present reality, seeing her smile and borrowing the gesture to use it himself.
"Well, I've had a terrific role model."
She laughed.
"I'm proud of you, my little grasshopper."
"Arigato," he said, bowing, and she returned the gesture with an air of ceremony, then came up to rest her hand on his shoulder.
"I think you've earned the honor of wearing the kunoichi eyeliner," she said like it was nothing but the highest honor she could bestow. He released a throaty chortle.
"I hate to reject your gift, Karai. But I doubt I have the features for it," Leo said, motioning at his green face.
"I wouldn't be so sure," she said, now ogling him with studious eyes, a shit-stirring smile on her face. Leo suppressed the urge to gulp, a renewed feeling of dread wiggling in the pit of his stomach for whatever she had in store for him.
She only gave a merry chuckle, like a jingle.
"Anyways, loser cleans the dojo, so take a broom and put those guns of yours to work."
He reeled, Karai's order arose the proud leader that lived within him, making him forget his composure once more.
"Excuse me?" he said, indignant. "First of all, we never agreed on that, and second of all, I won."
"No, no, Leo. You may have disarmed me last, but I disarmed you twice."
Leonardo smirked with a new found confidence.
"So did I."
Karai's own specialty had been wielded against her, and as soon as the line sunk in, her sardonic grin froze on her face for a split-second. But of course, because this was Karai and she always had the last word, she recovered in record time.
"It seems we're in a bit of a stalemate," she said, arms crossed. Leo mimicked her pose, and pressed his lips for full effect. An unbreachable wall of sheer determination.
"How about a tie breaker?"
Leonardo squinted, but agreed. They faced each other once again and held their right fists up between them.
"Evens," Leonardo said, and Karai nodded her head solemnly. The intensity in their glares could've set the air on fire as their fists shook three times, and then a total of five fingers sprung forth. Karai whooped, victorious once more.
"How do I always lose to this?" Leonardo complained. "It's… it's supposed to be a game of chance! I'm pretty sure you're cheating. Somehow."
"It's all in the wrist," she sniggered, and ambled her way to where her wakizashi lay by the paper screens.
"That doesn't make any sense."
"Stop trying to pass the buck and get to it."
"I'm not-!" Leonardo stopped himself from whining. He sighed, collecting himself. "Fine, I'll do it. You know why? Because unlike you, Karai, I am honorable in my defeat."
A taunting snort was her response.
"Great," she said, tossing him her wakizashi before heading for the exit with an air of conquest. "Then sweep those rugs with honor, Mochi-chan."
An irked groan forced its way from deep within his chest.
I guess the nickname's sticking, he thought cynically as he stepped over to the weapons wall to hang Karai's wakizashi, then to the corner to grab the broom.
"Oh, I almost forgot…"
Leonardo turned at the voice, broomstick in hand, and spotted the kunoichi peeking her head back around the archway with what appeared to be an afterthought. She was holding up a finger as if to say something important, but Leonardo knew better. He waited, one brow raised, for her to make up her mind.
As he had expected, her grin stretched slowly into a sneer.
"Mahp-mahp," she said finally and Leo slumped.
"Wha-! ...you are never going to let me live that down, are you?" he said, cursing the day she had to hear about that from his brothers.
"Never…"
Karai wiggled her fingers much like a vaudevillian vampire as she very slowly backed out of sight, and he couldn't help but grin to himself as he got to work sweeping the dojo.
