[Leo]
Her footsteps through the water break the silence of me watching Raph disappear in the darkness again. I don't go after him. I don't have anything left to say or feel. Bridges are hard to build; the chasm has swallowed me, and the space between is a welcoming sense of nothingness.
She stops a few feet behind me and I can feel her stare on the back of my neck. I sigh heavily.
"How much of that did you hear?"
She ignores my question. "Turn around, Leo."
I close my eyes for a moment. Slowly, I face her, keeping my gaze down. I'm scared to look at her, to see those eyes, that face—the last time I saw it was when I fell off the roof. It's been a long time. And if she stuck around, she must've heard everything I said to Raph.
That I loved her. That I did this…for her.
There's a long stretch of silence, and it does nothing for my nerves, so I clench my fists and break it.
"I'm sorry…about Raph." Her neck is bruised where his hands were, and the welt on her chin is swelling. "Are you alright?" My fingers twitch. The ache returns, and I want nothing more than to wipe the blood from her face, to help her, to hold her, to give her any semblance of comfort—something I'm sure she's been deprived of her entire life. And looking at her now, everything is the same. Those amber orbs are as analytical as I remember. Tracing my every feature, trying to find the old me beneath this new skin. I've wondered night after night how I would feel seeing her again, after the ambush. I wondered if I would be afraid of her, if I would see her as my brothers do, if my sense of trust would waver. But…strangely enough…nothing has changed.
"Not here," she whispers suddenly, stepping back from me. "The old place…and don't follow too close behind."
She turns around and runs off down the tunnel. My gut flutters and the ache in my chest deepens. I count under my breath, slowly. I wait until she's just barely out of sight. And then, with a skip in my heart, I follow her.