Disclaimer: I don't own TMNT.
Hey, sorry this one was a bit later than usual. As it turns out, if you give CeCe antibiotics and three chapters to write in a week, nothing really goes right :') Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter regardless, even if it is mostly feels and fluff. This beginning bit is kind of a cop-out, but several people brought Mikey's 'creepiness' in the last few chapters to my attention, and a guest called Ariyah provided me with a nice idea for a scene to help explain it that worked with my actual headcanon, so thank you :) I couldn't write this out as well as I wanted to without it being weird, but I hope you get the idea.
Although she had been incredibly apprehensive about it at first, Karai discovered that telling her brothers the truth about her past was a fantastic decision on Splinter's part. It helped break down a wall she had been building between them, and she found it much easier to connect with her real family in light of the revelation.
Though one thing Karai found herself surprisingly grateful for was Raph and his blunt attitude, because if there was one thing he wouldn't allow their brothers to do, it was baby her. He would likely never understand how much she appreciated it.
Another interesting change for Karai came about when Donnie pulled her aside one night, asking, "Karai… You could've told us, you know. I mean, back at the algae pool; we would've stopped Mikey from being so… Mikey-ish. He was just curious… Other than April – who he's obviously never seen like that – he hasn't had a lot of interaction with human girls – or any girls – before, and-"
"It's okay," she assured him. "You guys are turtles living in the sewers; you're bound to be curious, and Mikey isn't exactly the best at hiding his feelings. I thought it was something like that."
"Okay, good. I just wanted you to understand… before I say what I'm about to."
"… What?"
"See… I already talked to Mikey about this – he says he's sorry if he made you uncomfortable – and after he explained, he asked me if I'd teach him a bit about girls, but the thing is, I don't actually know about it very well-"
"Oh, do you want me to teach him, then?"
He blinked at her, blindsided by how casually she had taken the idea. "Well… Yes, actually, if you wouldn't mind."
She smiled. "Of course I don't. That's part of the whole family thing, right?"
The turtle grinned at her. "I guess it is."
Which was how she ended up sat in the lab with an excited Mikey and an inquisitive Donnie, answering questions of varying awkwardness from the two turtles. A small part of her was glad to feel a hint of embarrassment at the topic. Maybe these guys really are getting to me… Karai thought to herself.
The dark streets of New York City were practically desolate. Crystalline shapes grew from any surface at every angle, reflecting the hopelessness of the city in their pinkish sheen. Buildings were becoming run-down memories of NYC's glory days. Before it happened. Before they arrived. Before the invasion succeeded.
Karai had forgotten a lot about New York, but she still knew that the Kraang had mutilated it.
Hissing lowly, the serpent slithered through the shadows in an alleyway, feeling a slight ache in her chest at the absence of a certain young girl at her side. You left Angel for a reason, her old, human voice reminded her. You left all of them for a reason. You're a danger to them all. Snakes couldn't really sigh, but the thought was there.
"Karai?"
She froze. It hadn't been that long since she spoke to them, but her mind was slipping away fast.
"Karai, please…" His footsteps were light and barely perceptible, but she definitely felt his hand touching her neck.
"Leo…" Her eyes narrowed, but it didn't put him off.
Ever faithful, the blue-clad turtle moved his hand to caress her head. "You can't just leave us like this. Not after everything you've been through with us… with me. You can't just give up and go."
"I… I have to…" she argued, but he shook his head.
"No, you don't."
"Yesss, I do, Leo… You don't underssstand…"
He stepped in front of her and knelt to meet her gaze, one hand tilting her chin up. "What don't I understand?"
She closed her eyes for a long moment, trying to steady her breathing. His low chuckle was accompanied by his muscular arms drawing her closer. Then, for a brief few seconds, her tentative grasp on reality slipped.
A metallic taste mixed with the acidic sting of the venom in her saliva, and it took her a moment to realise that she had something tough and fleshy in her teeth. Then, another moment passed before she registering Leo's choked gasping. The serpent recoiled in horror, tumbling back onto the alley floor when his embrace didn't catch her.
"Leo?"
The turtle had deep bite marks in his shoulder, and a small network of purple lines was beginning to spread from them. Droplets of red were dribbling down his plastron, but she hardly noticed them compared to the pained and heartbroken expression on his face.
"Leo!" She rushed towards him again, desperately wishing to help, but he staggered backwards. One hand was clamped over his wounds, but the other was waving in front of him, shooing her away.
"Stay… Stay away from me…" he choked out. The blood was oozing between his fingers now.
A little bit of her heart broke. "Leo… I didn't mean to…"
"Stay. Away. From. Me." When Leo's eyes met hers, they were dark and clouded. "I can't believe… you did this to me… I trusted you, Karai… I… I trusted you…"
He sank to his knees, and didn't have enough fight left in him to yell at her again when she hurried closer. "I… I'm sssorry…"
The turtle let out a strangled sound, then all of a sudden fell limp against her shoulder. "Leo…?" Karai whispered, but she already knew he wouldn't reply. His eyes had drooped shut, his hand fallen from his bleeding shoulder, and his mouth was slack-jawed.
This is all your fault, her own voice echoed. Look at what you've done! The one person that's always believed in you and you've killed him!
"N-No…." The serpent stared down at her beloved turtle, watched his blood dripping from the mark of her teeth.
"No!" Karai gasped in horror, jolting awake.
She was covered in a cold sweat and her heart was racing from her nightmare, but she was strangely relieved that this one was in fact just a product of her imagination, as opposed to a traumatic memory. Though she still felt rather alarmed as she tried to control her breathing. Thankfully, no knocks from Donnie came, so she presumed she hadn't been actually screaming this time, which was a welcome change. However, she was beginning to regret crudely turning down Leo's offer to be roommates again in favour of her pride, as the idea of going to sleep again was chilling her to the bone.
Leo…
"Maybe I'd be able to sleep if I just… checked on him, quickly…" she murmured to herself.
The girl slipped out of bed and exited the room, using her T-Phone for light. She padded silently down the hallway until she reached the door with the blue stripe across it, and creaked the door open just enough to squeeze past it.
Karai opted not to close the door properly, so she wouldn't risk waking Leo by opening it again, and shuffled quietly across his room. Leo liked to keep his bedroom tidy, she'd noticed, which made it much easier to sneak across in the dark. The turtle was lying on his shell, sleeping peacefully, with his shoulder wonderfully free of venomous bites. Wanting just a little bit of extra comfort, Karai stepped closer, and reached out to lay a hand on his arm.
She bit back a scream of surprise as Leo, with his eyes still closed, seized her by the arm and threw her over him, pinning her to the bed firmly. He wore an aggressive expression, until his eyes opened.
"Oh." He smiled down at her sheepishly. "It's you. Hey."
He climbed off her, and she folded her arms with a huff. "Some partner you are."
"Hey, I'm a ninja; what did you expect if you snuck up on me?" Leo blinked. "Actually, why were you sneaking up on me?"
"I wasn't," she snapped hurriedly.
The turtle was silent for a moment, before he nodded. "Okay. Sorry, my bad." He took her hand in his. "So, am I having company tonight?"
"Of course not," Karai answered. "I told you, Leo; I'm not dependant on you, and I don't want to be."
"I know," he assured her. "But you did wake me up. The least you could do is stay until I fall back asleep, right?"
The kunoichi faked a sigh of annoyance. "I'll never hear the end of it if I don't, will I?"
Leo grinned as he arranged the duvet over her. "Nope."
She fixed him with a pointed glare. "But I'm only staying until you fall asleep."
"Okay," he agreed. However, the turtle didn't even close his eyes, instead choosing to stare warmly at her, a stupid little smile on his lips.
"Leo."
"What?"
"Go to sleep already."
"I don't want to yet."
She sighed for real this time. "Why not?"
He licked his lips hesitantly. "… I think I had a nightmare."
Her throat dried up a bit, and she hoped he didn't notice her nervous swallow. "You think?"
"Yeah, but I'm not sure what it was about." Leo slid an arm around her waist. "Can you help me figure it out? I think that'll help me sleep. What do you think it was about?"
The following silence was so long he convinced himself his plan hadn't worked, until Karai's voice quietly muttered, "Maybe you hurt someone you care about…"
Leo struggled to hide his pleased smile. "Maybe I did. Although, that isn't like me, so I don't know why that would get to me so much."
"… Maybe you had no control."
"Maybe I-"
"Maybe it was a real possibility and you fucking hate yourself for it!" Her voice cracked during her outburst, and apparently that was all the indication Leo needed, because he was already drawing her into his plastron by the time she began sobbing.
"Shh, shh…" he whispered. "It's okay, Karai, it was just a bad dream. You can relax, you haven't hurt anyone."
"I killed you," she whimpered painfully. "I poisoned you and killed you."
He let her cry for a few moments, before asking, "Were you a mutant in this dream?" Leo took her sad whine as a 'yes'. "Oh, Rai…"
The girl wept into his plastron until she ran out of tears, then cuddled even closer. Scaled green fingers ran through her hair, stroking her scalp, but Leo knew she didn't want him to say anything yet. She didn't quite understand how her complete equal could come in the form of a mutant turtle, but she was incredibly grateful for him nonetheless.
Once she had finally calmed down, she lay her head in the crook of his neck and took a deep breath. "You okay now?" he inquired softly.
She nodded once. "Yes…"
"Good." He pecked her on the cheek, but the smile on his face faltered quite quickly.
"What?" she demanded.
"It's just…" Leo blushed. "I think I've got a nickname for you…"
Karai smirked. "Oh? What is it?"
Leo wrapped his arms around her and pressed her to his plastron fully. "… Kiba."
She froze. "Kiba."
"… Yeah."
"Leo, that's Japanese for-"
"Fang, I know." He twirled a lock of her hair around his finger. "Karai, I know your mutation really bothers you, but… I think you, kinda, need to learn to accept it… because it's part of your past, and that's okay." Leo tilted her head up. "And anyway, you were sort of cute as a snake."
She frowned at him, so he held her tighter. "Leo, I don't-"
The turtle silenced her with a kiss. "No, shh, let me explain," he ordered playfully. "I know it still scares you – I get that, honestly – but it helped make you the person you are now, and you can't sit there forever regretting it because nothing will ever change that." He took a long, slow breath, and Karai tensed in anticipation against him. "I love you, Karai. I love everything about you, including that."
Karai chewed her lip, trying to ignore the three words in his sentence that she had never heard before. "Even that time I was hell-bent on killing you and your family?"
"Our family," he corrected habitually, "and yes, I'll admit that isn't my favourite thing. But again, it's part of your past, and that's okay, because you've grown past that. You shouldn't dwell on the past you don't like, or you won't move forward." Leo kissed the crown of her head. "And I want us to move forward together, Kiba."
"… How did you manage to make 'fang' sound cute?"
"Because it was describing you."
"That was the cheesiest thing I've ever heard."
"Or the most adorable." He pecked her on the lips again.
She smirked. "Or the most stupid."
He sighed and rolled his eyes at her, letting go and turning on his side. She didn't move closer, because she knew what would happen. As she had predicted, Leo lasted less than a minute before he was rolling back over to face her and hugging her close again. "So, is Kiba acceptable or not?"
The kunoichi exhaled heavily. "Well, I fear saying 'no' is going to set off another of your sappy speeches, so… I suppose it is, as long as you don't abuse it."
"I'll let you get used to it before I start spamming you," he promised. "Although there's no promises that it won't be on your next birthday card."
"You guys do birthday cards down here?" she asked.
Leo blushed. Sometimes he forgot that even though his own upbringing was unconventional, hers might have been more so. "Yeah, but we call our 'birthday' mutation day. We started celebrating Splinter's birthday when we found out what it was; when we were younger, we thought his birthday was the same as ours because he never told us otherwise. We always used to celebrate yours, though."
Her eyes widened. "What?"
"Well, we always knew about you; it didn't take us long to ask who the woman and the baby were in Splinter's photographs." Leo discreetly pulled the duvet up around her. "He told us your birthday, so we used to bake cakes and make little cards – that was Mikey's idea. I think we still have a box of them somewhere, you know."
"Stop," she whispered.
"Okay," he conceded, cuddling her. "I'll shut up now and let you sleep."
"… I'm not staying, Leo."
"You are until I fall asleep." He stuck his tongue out at her, then dragged her down into a lying position. "Now, c'mere, you're really warm."
"I'm warm?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Uh-huh." Leo smiled at her. "See, my brothers and I aren't cold-blooded like normal turtles – which is why it's actually worth us having blankets, since they trap body heat – but Donnie says we're not really warm-blooded either like humans. We can generate some body heat, but not as much as you, which is why it's so much warmer with you under the covers."
"Oh, so that's why you're so desperate to keep me here," she teased.
"Oh, shut up." They both began laughing quietly, and subconsciously pressed closer to each-other.
Karai's eyelids began to droop, and she set her head back down in the crook of Leo's neck. Despite her determined protests about not staying the night, when she next opened her eyes, it was to a triumphant Leo and the sound of Mikey knocking on the door saying breakfast was ready. Although she couldn't quite bring herself to protest once she realised she hadn't had even a hint of another nightmare.
Leorai fluff and a little bit more CeCe-headcanon in regard to turtle biology xD I keep thinking I should tone down the Leorai fluff, but then I just get carried away with it. I think I had Karai a little more in-character this chapter, but hey, feedback much appreciated.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thank you for reading :)
