"About time," Benj mutters as I walk into the front room. "It's noon-thirty."
I rummage through the cupboards and get out the things I need to make a sandwich.
"So," Noah begins. "Wanna come to the park with me? Maybe we can get some food later." My first thoughts are of Leo. He's hurt. Because of me.
I shake my head. "Sorry," I begin. "I was planning on going down to the lair today. I wanna hang out with the guys, especially after what happened to Leo."
"What happened to Leo?" Noah asks. It hits me that he doesn't know. I bite my lip and look to Rose.
"The guys were fighting off the Foot. Leo jumped in front of Lexi, saving her from a knife. Don had to extract it from his chest. He's in a lot of pain. Don says it'll take him a few weeks to recover. At the least," Rose explains.
"Oh man..." Noah's eyebrows are drawn together, and he actually looks upset. "I hope he's okay. Well, yeah, definitely I won't stop you from going there. I'll probably go there later today to work on the experiment with Donnie."
"That experiment that neither of you will tell anyone about?" I tease. "Are you sure it isn't illegal?"
"It's not," he says, his eyes dancing with amusement. "I promise. It's just really cool. Not to mention, we may not even have success. So we don't want to get anyone's hopes up."
I laugh. "If it works out, it'd better be good."
When Rose and I get to the lair, we find a very concentrated Donatello, working on one of his inventions.
"Oh...hey, Lexi...hey, Rose..."
"What's everyone up to?" I ask, taking a seat on the couch.
"Just hanging out," Don responds. "Where's Mallory?"
"She went with her family to a trip to DC. They wanted to see the White House," I explain.
"Hey Don," Mikey begins, stuffing a slice of pizza into his mouth. "Why don't we ever go on life-changing trips to the White House?"
Don sighs. "What kind of answer do you want me to give?" he begins, raising an eye ridge. "A mocking answer or a realistic one?"
"I'm in the mood for being mocked right now."
"Okay," Don says, glancing over at Raph. "That's your department, Raph."
"We were banned from the White House when we were kids because you prank called the President telling him you were a ninja who had his eyes on the White house at all times. You flew a ship towards the White House, but Splinter used his telepathic powers to hypnotize you and turn the ship the other way. You ended up crashing into an open field and started going on about how you came to the conclusion that you were an alien. None of us disagreed because you were green. This drove you into madness," Raph says monotonously. "That is why we can't have fun, life-changing trips to the White House."
By this time, Rose and I are laughing. Meanwhile, Mikey is glaring at his older brother.
"Hey," Raph says, putting up his hands. "You asked for it."
"When does your school get out again?" Don asks.
"Friday," Rose replies.
"Technically six days if you want to be exact," I add.
"No, being exact would be saying June 13th," Rose corrects, grinning.
"Stop questioning my exactness!"
"Is that even a word?" Raph asks.
"Yes," Don says. "It's a word."
As soon as I feel it's appropriate to, I excuse myself to go visit Leo. My sister comes with me. We find him in his room, propped up by the head of his bed frame to support his back. He's drawing.
"Hey," I say, knocking, even though the door is already open.
Leo looks up, and then smiles a bit. "Hey." His voice isn't as quiet and strained as it was before, but it's obvious that he's still in pain. He sets down the drawing pad and then tries to sit up even more.
"We wanted to come down here and see how you're doing," Rose explains. He smiles and nods at her. Then our eyes lock and he smiles a bit more.
"That's really nice of you," he says. "I probably won't be that interesting though, since I'm not allowed to walk around yet."
"That's okay," Rose says. "I just came in here to say hello and see how you're holding up. Lexi's probably gonna stay longer. I hope you recover soon."
"Thanks, Rose," he responds, smiling. "It's nice to see you." After my sister leaves, I pull up a chair and set it next to his bed. He smiles and raises his eye ridges, like he's surprised.
"Don't you want to spend time with my brothers?" he asks.
"We did."
"For how long?" Leo teases. "Thirty seconds?"
I laugh. "I'm serious. We had actual conversations."
"Like?"
"Well," I begin. "Raph told a fantasy tale about why your family isn't allowed in the White House, then we talked about how our last day of school is Friday. And Don defended me about how exactness is in fact a real word."
"Well it looks like I didn't miss any purposeful conversations," he says, grinning.
I laugh. "Whatever. I'm here for you. What's up?"
"You really think my life is that interesting when I'm stuck in bed with no one to talk to?" he asks.
"You've got me," I point out.
He smiles. "I'm glad."
I glance over at his drawing pad. The front page still has the letter I wrote. I blush.
"That was so embarrassing..." I mutter.
"What?" He follows my gaze towards the drawing pad and then chuckles. He reaches over and takes it into his hands, peering at it some more. "The letter you wrote? It was awesome."
I rub the back of my hands. "But I had literally just met you." I peer at the notepad. "So what have you drawn in here?"
He hands it to me. "You can look through my hideous sketches if you please to do so."
"I certainly please to do so," I respond, taking the book. I flip through the pages and find drawings of all kinds of things. The drawings are amazing-especially considering the fact that he's never had art lessons. "These are amazing, Leo..."
"Eh, not as good as yours."
"Are you kidding?" I exclaim. "If I hadn't taken art lessons when I was fifteen, I would still be drawing stick figures." I pause. "In fact, I still do draw stick figures."
I find a few full-drawings of scenery. The majority of the drawings are just of everyday things like books or his katanas. The scenic ones are truly amazing. He has gotten every shade and every shadow almost perfect. I flip to one of the last pages, and he tries to take it out of my hand.
"Oh...um...you weren't supposed to see that..." he mutters. I tilt my head curiously, then look down at the paper. It's a drawing of me. "Now I'm the creepy one..."
"No, no, Leo..." I whisper, shaking my head. "This...this is amazing. How did you draw this?"
"Um...I don't know. We've known each other a while. It wasn't very hard to memorize certain things like the way your hair is, your smile...that kind of stuff." In the drawing, my hair is down and curly.
We sit there in a peaceful silence, his sketch pad between my fingers. From the corner of my eye, I can see a small, green light. I turn and catch sight of our video camera. I smile. I'd seen a drawing of the video camera in his sketch book.
I get up and unplug it, turning it on.
Leo tilts his head. "Wait...what are you doing?" I don't answer him.
"This is the Lexi and Leo show, Saturday, June 7th. Recently, Leo got into a nasty fight with the Foot Clan. He jumped in front of me and saved me from a flying knife. Isn't he sweet?"
He tries to push the camera away.
I laugh. "He's a bit shy right now...but he'll warm up."
"You're a pain," he mumbles, rubbing his temples.
"He's lying. I'm not the pain-I'm the medicine," I explain.
"No, you're the cause."
After a short show of the Lexi and Leo show, I close the camera. We are both silent for a few moments. I take his hand and just hold onto it for a few minutes. Neither of us says anything-we are just quiet. It's a perfect silence. Not awkward or strained in any way, shape or form: it's a nice, accepting silence. We know that neither of us has to say anything.
"Hey, I'm gonna crash in here, okay?" Mikey voice says, walking into Leo's room. As he does so, his eyes shift from my hand to Leo's. "So...have you confessed your love for each other yet?"
"What love?" Leo and I both say in unison.
Mikey groans.
I laugh. "I thought you were playing Survival City."
He sighs. "I was. But Raph kicked me off and threatened to make me allergic to pizza so I had to leave." We are both silent. Leo and I glance at each other.
"Mikey," Leo begins. "Raph doesn't have the capability of making you allergic to pizza."
"He said he would shred Leo's Space Hero books and tell everyone that I did it if I ever told him that," Mikey complains. Leo's eyes widen.
"You didn't tell him that, did you?"
I laugh. "You can stay. Where's everyone else?"
"Well Noah showed up so he and Donnie went into the lab. I tried to peek in on them, but they set up a trap and this gooey stuff came from the ceiling and how I smell like burnt pineapples!" He shoves his foot in my face. I reluctantly sniff it.
"It does smell like burnt pineapples," I agree.
"Stay here as long as you'd like," Leo offers. "Just don't shove your feet into our faces again."
"It's a deal. So...what were we talking about?"
A/N: HEY Y'ALL. Okay it feels like FOREVER since I've updated, but here I am. have been really stressful lately so I haven't really had time to write much but I promise I'll try to make more time! It wasn't the most exciting chapter, but bear with me, the story will get better. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you are enjoying the story!