A/N: Gya, my babies. Bare with me.

DuckiePray - You of all people know love can be found in dark places. *hugs*

Sciencegal - Those two need a lot of things...lol.

CHAPTER 24: FOREVER

Leonardo's shoulder hit the ground with a force that sprayed mud in his face and whitened his vision. "Dammit," he muttered, spitting out an iron taste.

"Enough," Tlaloc said. "Return to village, Ayotl."

"No." Leo sat up to regard the warrior who rounded him. "The others are staying."

"Others improve."

"I disarmed you this time, didn't I?"

Tlaloc's dirty face soured as he reclaimed the spear that his opponent had knocked away. "You soft," he said. "No strength."

"How can you decide that? Coyo—"

"Call you Tonalquizca. Tonalquizca earn title. Earn hard when you Ayotl on back, yes?"

The mutant sighed yet said nothing. His body had weakened over the last year, long before Hupaxque bit him, and he hadn't given thought to any exercise since he had mutilated that boar and buried his katanas…

"Return," continued Tlaloc. "Yaoqui no Tonalquizca."

"You've been saying that for weeks," Leo countered. "What do you have against me? I mean, Coyo trusts me. Has for a long time."

The warrior brushed aside his damp hair with a sigh. "I know."

"So what is it?" Fresh and dried mud caked the mutant's body, which squished and flaked as he staggered to his feet. "You call me Yaoqui, but I'm not like them."

"Oh?"

"No!"

"You no foreign? You stranger to violence?"

"Look, I know who your enemies are, their true name, their top leader. All because my clan has been in your position. Just for less time."

"This make us kin? Hm?" Tlaloc shook his head, glancing towards the trodden arena where senior warriors sparred with younger recruits. "Why Ayotl join?" he asked. "Coyo bring you in village, save from death's door. K'ekchi call you Teoayotl. You indulge, cause distress at Xochicuicatl, no give back when people suffer. You take, Leonardo, and Coyo…" Tlaloc trailed off with another shake of his head.

The longer he remained silent, the crustier Leo's skin felt. His joints crackled as he shifted, and when he realized Tlaloc would not speak any further, he said, "You're right. Th—this might be more than I deserve. Actually, no; it is. And I understand your feelings." Tlaloc looked near laughter, but before he retaliated, the mutant continued, "Where I'm from, I was Jonin, Chieftain."

"And you left?"

Leo met Tlaloc's discriminating look, stone-faced. "Last year my clan had a, uh, a guest, who frustrated me in so many ways. Now?"

Now, Leo was in Nia's Converse. How funny.

"You think K'ekchi and Ayotl people same?" Tlaloc questioned.

"More than you realize," Leo answered. "And I consider that guest a sister now."

"Ayotl hope for brotherhood too?

"Nia earned her place. So can I."

"Why? You no stay forever."

The mutant caught the warrior's gaze with a half-smile, wordless. He couldn't refute the point; the village was little more than a rehabilitation center that Coyo had drafted him into. His true life laid in New York City, and one day he'd leave the rainforest and its natives behind…

"Tlaloc!" a croaky voice cried.

Leonardo stepped back as Tonalquizca superior Nopaltzin stomped across the muddy plain. While the Amazonian only reached Leo's shoulder in height, he, like Splinter, held a power that had winded the mutant on several occasions. He spoke in Nahuatl, and Tlaloc ducked his head, mumbling in return. Had the younger warrior been reprimanded again?

"Nopaltzin upset son argue."

"Coyo?" Leo asked. He looked down at the short woman, who watched the tribesmen with a frown. "When'd you get here?"

"Talk with Quizzinteyo short."

"Is everything alright?"

Coyolxauqui's frown deepened. "Leo walk?"

"Yeah," Leo glanced at Tlaloc then Coyo, "just let me get cleaned up first."

"Coyo sorry," Coyolxauhqui said, huffing. "Tlaloc—"

"Makes sense."

"He do?" The young woman eyed Leonardo and almost tripped over a fallen branch along the dirt pathway that surrounded K'ekchi Village.

The turtle-man caught her by the forearm, steadying her before adding, "I can't blame him. He's protective."

"Coyo too."

"You're more"—Leo released Coyo with an uneven grin—"trusting. Had our roles been reversed, had I found you in New York, I admit, I would've acted like Tlaloc."

Would he not have helped? Why?

"Do—don't give me that look," Leo continued. He climbed a rotten trunk that blocked the path then pulled the young woman up by the hand. "It's the truth. You have a bigger heart than both I and Tlaloc put together. Like my brother Mikey."

"Mikey." Coyo hummed as she recalled stories about the Hamato brothers. "Mikey fun."

"He'd like you." The lopsided smile across the turtle-man's face grew strained then fell. Maybe he remembered how far away from home he was. "Anyway," Leo tightened his grip on Coyo before guiding her across the tree and jumping off its top, "You wanted to talk?"

Coyo nodded, focused more on the thick sensation of mud between her toes rather than her friend's concern. "Quizzinteyo worry."

"For Xelihuiyan?"

"Quema. Yaoqui make traps at border, inside."

"Think they' were set by the same agent who attacked earlier this month? The psychic?"

Psychic: a being that defied multiple natural laws. Leonardo had described the Yaoqui as a 'Telekinetic,' a man capable of moving objects with his mind. It sounded supernatural, although the woman had no right to claim it impossible, just problematic and unsettling.

"Psychic reason Quizzinteyo fear," Coyo muttered. "Xelihuiyan weak. And Zaddir…"

"Something wrong with Zaddir?

"She…distracted."

"By me."

Coyo barely heard Leo's voice, and she couldn't bring herself to meet his gaze. "Languu one whole," she said. "Division, even in head, cause fracture. Wh—when Zaddir help Coyo, Elders and Quizzinteyo agree, help hold burden."

"But I'm a secret."

"Two Mozallo hard. Secrecy hard. Harm Zaddir."

"So, what? Should she stop—"

Coyo caught Leo by the hand to stare up at him. "Too late. Leo feel her, yes? Her struggle? Her want? Her shame?"

The turtle-man gave a slow nod, saying, "More so since, well, since she helped me talk with…"

"Zaddir help, she bond, Leonardo. Mozallo no be stopped, no be hidden. She linked. But Leo and Coyo—"

"What about us?"

Coyo swallowed, stricken more by Leo's red-brown eyes than the heated palm that her fingers barely spanned across. They had an annoying power to quiet her nowadays, especially in the daylight, when they resembled eclipsed suns.

"Coyo?" Leo asked. "What about us?"

"Zaddir want two Mozallo as one," the woman whispered.

"One? Wh—what does that mean?"

"Mean"—Coyo's tight throat choked her—"we bond together, share memory."

"All three of us?"

"Zaddir say full bond better."

"For her."

"Zaddir do much, Leonardo. Bond hurt Coyo, too."

Leo's gaze widened a fraction as his clammy fingers squeezed her own. "I'd see your past like you would see mine."

"Quema."

"Are you okay with that?"

Coyo shook her head yet smiled. "It pain," she whispered. "But Coyo owe Zaddir; she—" The Chieftain stopped herself with a weak laugh.

"Sorry," Leo whispered in return. Coyo sent the turtle-man a questioning look. "This would probably be easier with someone from your tribe," he continued. "Not some frazzled outsider who hardly knows ten words of Nahuatl."

"Amo. Coyo glad it Leo. He understand." Coyo kept smiling, despite a want of tears or the way the turtle-man's hand trembled against hers. She maintained composure even when Leo touched her check.

"Sometimes, it's hard to believe I'm here," he said. "Like all this acceptance is a dream, that you're…" Leo's fingertips trailed down the side of Coyo's neck in slow motion as his expression softened. "You've been a great friend, Coyo. There's so much about you that I admire, and it's hard to imagine…"

"Imagine?"

"I—" The turtle-man clamped his mouth shut then stepped back, reclaiming both his hands. "Nothing lasts forever, does it?" he muttered. Had the question been rhetorical? Leo left no time for an answer, adding, "I'll do it. Whenever you and Zaddir are ready, let me know."

"Yes," Coyo replied. She mirrored her friend's grin, and neither mentioned the pain behind both acts.

A fire was never necessary for warmth among the K'ekchi. It did, however, gather Huitzilopochtli's loved ones around for a meal.

"Coyo, you are late!" Izel yelled in Nahuatl. The skinhead puckered her face and wagged a wooden spoon at the Chieftain who crossed Tlahcoyan's center.

"We set no time," Coyolxauhqui answered. She stopped at a stew pot before Huitzi, Izel, and Cihuapatli Nenetl, with Leonardo beside her.

"Or were you too busy with our ayotl to remember? Went on another walk, hum?"

Huitzi chuckled as his sister reddened. She gave Leonardo a sideglance then stole the spoon from her best friend to test their supper.

"I'm feeling cheated on," Izel went on to say.

"Do not," Coyo countered.

"You never take me out anymore," Izel added.

"Do too."

"Do not!"

Leonardo took a seat between Huitzi and Nenetl, in part because the elder pulled him down by the edge of his back shell. The turtle-man grunted when his butt hit the blanket they shared, and Huitzi scooted aside as Izel aided Coyo in spicing the stew.

"Tiotaqui, Leonardo," Nenetle said.

"Uh," Leonardo straightened, "t—ti-oh-tah-kee, Nenetl."

"Quen timohuica?"

"Huh? Oh. Cualli. Huan tah?"

Nenetle's smile deepened her many wrinkles. "Cualli. Leonardo"—the elder switched from Nahuatl to English—"punctuation need help."

"Figured." The turtle-man rubbed his neck, sighing.

"But words better, Cuamahui," Huitzi told him.

"Not enough to hold a conversation with locals."

"You can ask about their day."

Leonardo sent the man a dry look.

"Come now," Nenetle interjected. Shriveled lips quirked, she tapped the back of her hand against the tecolotl Eiehuia that hung from the turtle-man's neck. "Why young man need words when art speak for him?"

Sniggers erupted across the group, sans from two friends, who grew flush.

"Th—that incident was Izel's fault," Leonardo said.

The skinhead—mid-slurp—shrugged, swallowed, and then spoke, "I no lie. Owl mean strong friendship."

"A marriage proposal is more than friendship, Izel."

"Coyo like, though, no?" Izel grinned so widely her misshapen teeth took up half her face.

"Coyo heart panic," Coyo added with slanted eyes. She stole the wooden spoon from her best friend and stirred the stew, although she likely did so absentmindedly.

"Heart hurt from shock or disappointment?" Izel chortled when Coyo wagged the spoon and Huitzi could tell why. The Chieftain was hardly intimating when she blushed like a girl being courted.

"Now Leonardo wears it," said Nenetl. "In wait, perhaps?"

"Wh—what?" Leonardo shook his head. "No, no, no. It's, uh, nothing like that. It's just my anchor, a reminder."

"Reminder of what, I wonder." The old woman shared a mischevious look with her granddaughter, and Huitzilopochtli's amusement dwindled as the younger women scooped stew into wooden bowels.

By tribe standards, Coyolxauhqui should be married with at least one child. Huitzi would feel more content in his passing if that were the case. However, his sister lacked both, even though he had begged on multiple accounts for her to consider Tlaloc's advances.

'I will leave her,' the man thought, a hand against his bony ribcage. 'In the same way Mantli left us. And if she cannot become a proper leader, she will be the last of our bloodline.'

Why did she not give that reality proper consideration? Although Tlaloc was abrasive, he and Coyo had grown up together, and the warrior did care. Still, Coyo kept him at a distance, founded Huelicha to avoid any other would-be suitors and responsibilities. That is until she brought Leonardo there.

'She has always been difficult. Of all the people to let close, why…?'

Huitzi glanced aside. Leonardo accepted his bowl and thanked Coyo in Nahuatl. The two stared a little longer than normal, looking down with smiles when Izel offered Huitzi his stew.

'The Ayotl is an ally.' The man cradled his bowl and watched chunks of vegetables float across its surface. 'A strong character, who has striven to overcome his ghosts. Unlike Tatli. But he has a life in New York City. Once healed, when Zaddir finishes her work…he will return.'

The truth was: Leonardo's company would not last forever. And yet Huitzi feared Coyo would hold onto the hope of him staying regardless.

"Oi, Huitzi!"

The man met Izel's gaze. "Yes?"

"How is it?" she asked.

Huitzi stared.

"The stew, Idiot. How is the stew?"

"Ah. Good."

"…You have not tasted it."

"No, no, I did." Huitzi slurped from his bowl, sucking down pieces of vegetable and salty broth. For all the things his sister and Izel did wrong, meals were the one thing they excelled at, and he was satisfied with the flavor lingering on his taste buds. "See?" he added. "Delicious."

The young women returned to their bowels with snorts.

"Hey, can I, uh, can I ask you guys something?" Leonardo questioned.

"Feel free, young man," Nenetl answered.

The turtle-man shifted on the blanket to face her. "Usually, dinner is just smaller groups eating around their own fires. What do you think of me inviting Tlaloc tonight?"

"Tlaloc?"

"I—I don't want to be his enemy. I want him to trust me, know me better. It would make working with him in the Tonalquizca easier."

"Easy and Tlaloc no go together," Nenetl said, white brows creased. But she nodded. "I no object. If Nopaltzin invite as well."

"Agreed," Izel interjected, "Nopaltzin keep Tlaloc tame. Not that we cannot tame him."

"If you must," Coyo added in a grumble.

Leonardo waited for Huitzi to nod before standing. The man sensed he would need to make room for his sister between him and the turtle-man as soon as he returned, should the warriors accept the invitation.