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Music and voices could be heard in the distance as Mikey and Raphael prepare for movie night. The recent success of preventing the Foot Clan from importing more weapons into the city has left an air of optimism and positivity throughout the lair. It was decided they’d have a little celebration with snacks and movies, effectively taking several hours away from patrolling the city which Leo didn’t like the idea of. Intercepting the weapons may have riled up the clan into being more active that night. Still, Leo recognized the importance of rewarding the team to keep morale high instead of crushing the good feelings bouncing between everyone.
Euphie sits reading a book near Leo while he maintains his weapons. They were out of the way from the others, feeling in need of some quiet time. The occasional word or two passed between them as they took the time for themselves to recharge before a night with the wild and energetic brothers. Euphie sat reading “12 Rules for Life” by Jordan Peterson. She couldn’t remember the last time she read a non-fiction book.
“Are you religious?” Euphie asks following the section of her book talking about religion. Leo stops working on his sword, seeming to take a moment to think about it.
“I don’t know. I don’t know much about religion. Why? Are you?” he inquires.
“No, but on the other hand this section makes some good points on how no one is an atheist. You should read this after I’m done. There’s a lot of wisdom and thought-provoking questions I think would benefit you.” She points a corner of the book at him playfully.
The existence of the brothers blew her mind when she first met them. It shocked and confused her so badly she nearly passed out. The surprises kept coming as she learned more about them. They were complex and intelligent – human, even. Her and the brothers became friends quickly. Leo bonded with her on a deeper level due to their shared personal values and interests. They spent a lot of time together the following year. That time spent was comfortable and diverse – conversations ranged from silly to serious, informative to argumentative.
He smiles at her then looks down at his sword, deeming it to be in perfect condition, and puts it back in its sheath. He stands up and looks down at Euphie, tipping the hilt in her direction. “I’m sure I’ll love it. You haven’t disappointed me yet.” He walks past her and jumps up onto a ledge beside her with his katana in hand. She glances at his back, turning more into a stare as she observes his shell – the blue writing, the rough patches and discoloration, some scarring, and the shallow dents made by bullets. The brothers have shells that are dense enough to deflect bullets. It must be made of something incredibly strong.
Leo notices her staring even after he jumps down from the ledge. He looks over his shoulder at the inside of his shell to see if there is something there. He waves his hand in front of her face. “Do I have something on me?” he asks.
She shakes her head out of her thoughts and looks up at him. “No. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Why are you staring?”
“It’s a bit shocking seeing all the dents and damage to your shell. I found myself wondering what it’s made of.” Imagine what kind of injuries a human would have sustained if they were in Leo’s position.
“It’s made of a special protein and bone. Donnie could give you more details than I can.”
“Will those cracks and scratches repair themselves?”
“Over a long period of time.”
She stands up. “Could I feel it?”
“If you want.” He turns to his right and points backwards with his thumb.
“You don’t mind? I know it’s an odd thing to ask. It’s so unique and has special characteristics. I just want to touch it.” She puts her book down and steps closer to him, slowly extending her right arm.
“I don’t mind. Knock yourself out,” he assures. It delights him that she’s curious.
Her expression if that of anticipation. She reaches up as far as she comfortably can, near Leo’s shoulder, and runs her palm down the edge of his carapace. Her nails lightly scratch his shell, catching every slight ridge along the way. The shell feels dry, solid, and very heavy. It’s texture is that of rough pavement. She glances up at his face. “Is this okay?” she asks.
He’s observing her with a fond expression. “Things are good.”
She moves around his back, dragging her fingers lightly across his shell. She reaches up with both hands and drags her palms downwards. She pokes the bullet sized dents with her fingers. Her nail catches something small, thin, and mostly transparent. It breaks off and glides to the floor. “Oh.”
Leo barely reacts. He hums in question.
“I accidentally tore something off your shell,” she admits.
Leo turns slightly, looks at the ground, then back up at her. “It’s fine. It’s natural for us to shed.”
“I see,” she says tracing the blue character on his back. “How often does this need to be redone?”
“Not often. Shedding happens a little bit at a time.”
Her hands explore his solid, rough shell another minute, somewhat to the rhythm of the song that could be heard rooms away. The shell is so big she’d have to stand on her tip toes to reach the top edge near his head. She adds a couple light knocks to the beat of the music. It barely creates a sound and hurts her knuckles more than anything. “Did you feel that?”
He shrugs. “Barely. If I couldn’t hear it, I probably wouldn’t have noticed.”
She moves around to his right side, moving her palm along his shell as she goes. Her hand moves over the edge and dips a little behind his arm. The inside of the shell feels the same, with a few more valleys. She doesn’t move her hands inward much more as she can see where the shell connects to his back. She touches her hands together. They tingle slightly as though they were massaged.
“Anything wrong?” he asks looking up from her hands to her blue eyes.
“Not at all. My hands got a nice massage. They’re tingling.” She opens her hands to expose her palms. They have a light pink color to them. He brings his right palm up close to hers. There are a couple scars poking out from the white cloth wrapped around his hand. The exposed parts of his hand look relatively smooth.
He watches her left hand move a little closer to his right hand. Small intimate moments like this got his heart racing. Leo was the first to realize he was developing feelings for her. He cherished those feelings, but once he started clueing in to how she feels about him, his thoughts started scaring him. The impossible seemed within reach the more time he spent with her. Ideas of sharing a future with someone he cares about manifested. At the same time, his mind bombarded him with guilt and thoughts of how unethical it would be to pursue something more with Euphie. The doubts clouded his mind and stopped him from starting that conversation and taking that first step with her even though there was nothing he wanted to do more. The only thing that eased those thoughts were times like this.
Euphie stares at his hand in thought. Silence passes between them when she absentmindedly runs her finger up his palm and fingers. He has well-defined fingerprints and there are smaller dark scales on the sides of his hand and fingers. Her breath hitches when his other hand covers hers. She was barely aware of what she was doing. She tries to pull back her hand out of embarrassment, but he clamps his hands together tighter to keep her there. Their blue eyes stare into each other, their minds buzzing with questions while searching for answers from the other.
She tries to speak but her words get caught in her throat. He mimics her finger movements across the top of her hand. She looks away when the sensation sends a shiver up her spine and gives her goosebumps. “This okay?” he asks, observing her shift from side to side.
She is taken aback by the situation. She never mentally prepared herself for if or when this would happen. Her heart is beating so quickly she can barely breathe. She was trying her best to control herself, but the more she tries the more out of control things get – the shiver, the goosebumps, her shifting, avoiding eye contact, heavy breathing, the dizziness. She closes her eyes to steady herself. She gets herself to a point where she can open them again. She covers her left arm with her right hand, attempting to make the goosebumps go away using friction.
He cups the underside of her hand and strokes the inside of her palm with his other hand. He enjoys how different her skin feels from his – smooth, soft, and elastic. If she hadn’t reacted the way she did he may not have been bold enough to assume he could continue. Flustered was not an emotion he’d seen her express before. It gave him a slight ego boost and he couldn’t help grinning at the sight.
It surprised him when her hand slid down her arm to the top of his hand, holding it there like he had hers. She clears her throat and looks him in the eye. “Yeah, like you said, things are good.” She takes a deep breath through her nose and steps into him, hands moving past his wrist, and settling on the patterned fabric wrapped around his arm. She kneads the fabric down to his elbow and settles her hand on his bare arm.
His fingers wrap lightly around her elbow. The thoughts feelings rushing through his head left him light-headed as his body floods with warmth. Things are evolving faster than he anticipated when he started massaging her hand. Her fingers trace the lines in his skin up to his shoulder. The texture wasn’t something she felt before. On the way down, her hand moves with the valleys of his muscles. She enjoys how he shifts in place the same way he made her moments ago.
He takes a much-needed deep breath, bringing his left hand up to her shoulder. His voice was soft as he spoke, “Does this go both ways?”
When it wasn’t apparent to her what he meant, his hand starts trailing downwards slowly, his fingers rubbing her arm along the way, then moving back up, in a similar way she was doing to him. “It does,” she says, being still and taking in the feeling of him touching her arm, rubbing her skin and sometimes applying enough pressure to feel out her bone structure. A mischievous look appears on his face as he gathers some skin by her underarm and gives it a couple tugs.
Euphemia gasps quietly, “Leo!” and gives him a playful whack on the chest like she is deeply offended, her smile indicating to the contrary. Leo laughs at her, deserving of another whack, this time on the shoulder because she realizes his plastron protects him.
After doling out her punishment, her fingers curl around the leather strap across his chest. He’s holding her between his arms, watching as her fingers uncurl and drag down his chest, over his collection of rough scrapes. She looks for an indication of disapproval or discomfort on his face, of which he has no intention to give her. His heart beats loudly in his head at the sensation of her palms sliding off his plastron and onto his waist. It’s almost more new emotions than he can bear. He closes his eyes when her hands start moving up and down his waist, exploring him the way she did his shoulder, touching and kneading everything and taking in the way his body moves as he breathes. It’s the most intimate moment of his life so far.
The radio on his right shoulder comes to life. Leo is quick to react, covering the radio with his hand to muffle the sound as soon as he hears Mikey. “Ey, Leo! We’re ready for the first movie!” Leo and Euphie stare at each other, their smiles fading, perhaps at the thought of this time coming to an end. “Leeeooooo,” is muffled over the radio. Neither of them jump at the idea of leaving, but they are left to consider if this is a good way to leave things. Euphie’s phone starts ringing. She shows him it’s Donnie calling. It takes a couple rings and a deep breath for her to send Donnie to voice mail. Leo feels some delight in her actions. He brings a hand up to her hair, twisting the strands around his fingers.
“Leo!!” Mikey calls from somewhere close by. “Euphie!!”
Leo’s free hand jumps to Euphie’s waist and he sidesteps them closer to a wall, in a bad effort to hide in case Mikey decides to peek into the room. It’s still better than being out in the open. Mikey doesn’t look in the room and continues walking around the lair calling for them. His thumb strokes the side of her ribs through her clothes, tickling her a little. A grin sneaks across both their faces. Donnie’s voice comes over the radio, “Come in, Leo. Are you there?” It seems the whole crew is looking for them.
Leo drops his head for a moment then looks back up. “Just a minute longer then we should probably go. They’ll start getting worried soon,” Leo whispers. She feels a bit of disappointment. He feels it too, but knows his honor wouldn’t permit them to escalate things more than they already have.
He lightly pokes her ribs, making another smile pop on her face. She pokes him back on both sides, eliciting a smile from him. “Does that tickle?” she asks in a whisper.
“A little.” he replies, using all his fingers to tickle her briefly. She laughs while bending away and giving his hand a light smack. In return she applies more pressure with all her fingers to tickle him on his bare ribs. All she gets is a wider grin, barely a squirm if any.
Before she can ask if he’s even ticklish, Donatello’s voice comes from the archway. “Leo?”
Euphie and Leo make eye contact, freezing in place. Leo’s back is to Donnie, blocking Donnie’s view of her. “Yeah Donnie?”
“We’ve been trying to contact you. We’re all set for movie night. Do you know where Euphie is?” It sounds as though Donnie already knows the answer.
Leo drops his arms and sighs. The fingers mesmerized by her hair are the last to leave. Pursing his lips, he steps to the side, her hands falling from his waist. “Yeah, she’s right here.” She stands in place, giving Donnie an awkward wave and a grin.
The three of them exchange glances with each other. The chemistry between Leo and Euphemia is quite palpable. Donnie purses his lips and taps the sides of his legs, feeling unsure of what to do or say in the uncomfortable silence.
Leo senses this. “We’ll be right behind you Donnie. Let the others know you found us.”
Donnie pops his lips. “Uh, yeah. Sure,” he says turning around and walking slowly away, gripping his radio. “I, uh, found both of them. We’re good to go.”
Leo looks to Euphemia who has covered half her face with one of her hands. “It’s okay. We are fortunate it was Donnie. He won’t gossip with the others,” he reassures her. He couldn’t resist taking the hand from her face and kissing the top of her fingers. She tries to appear calm and collected, but her face flushes when she spots Donnie watching them. He had paused walking when he heard his name. He looks away and walks off upon meeting her eyes. She gives herself light smacks on the face with both her hands, trying to stop the blushing. Public displays of affection were embarrassing for her. Leo chuckles, “Are you going to live?”
She looks up at him, ready to tell him it’s not fair that he can’t blush, but then she realizes she’s wrong; he’s looking away from her and the light-colored areas of his face are considerably more pink. “Are you?” she tosses back at him.
He chuckles more, eyes flickering to and away from her gaze. They take deep breaths, attempting to regain composure for their return to the others. “Try pursing your lips when you breathe. It requires more effort and helps with focus,” Leo suggests after noticing her taking deep breaths with her mouth wide open. She nods and adjusts her strategy accordingly. It takes him all of 15 seconds to return to an apparent neutral state. He smiles fondly while watching her during the time it takes for her to follow suit.
“Okay,” she says, ready to go. She meets his blue eyes. They share a quiet moment of reflection together. Her body is still warm and tingling from the sensations. His mind still races from the slew of emotions he experienced. There’s no doubt it’s time for them to address what they’ve been procrastinating on talking about.
“Listen,” Leo starts, “after movie night I have patrol with Raph until morning. Instead of taking you home, how about you stay over tonight and we can talk about things properly when you wake up? You could sleep in my room. No one will bother you there.”
Her heart pounds heavily at the idea. It made sense for her to stay. There was no need for Leo and Raphael to escort her home, only for her to return a few hours later. “I can agree to that.” There was already no way she’d be sleeping tonight after what transpired.
“I’m glad,” he says. Having confirmation that they were going to talk set off the part of his brain that harbors the thoughts that tell him having a relationship with humans is unethical for a list of reasons, instantly making him feel nervous beyond belief. He dreaded a night of dealing with those thoughts. “Let’s get going.”
Euphemia grabs her book and follows Leo back to the living area. It didn’t surprise either of them to hear Raphael make a comment to them upon arrival. “It’s interesting that you two were together and didn’t respond to our calls. One would think you were preoccupied at the same time.” Raph sat with a teasing grin on the couch between Donnie and Mikey. Casey and April sat beside each other on beanbag chairs. Master Splinter sat on a pillow on the floor. There’s an empty chair on either side of the couch for Leo and Euphie.
“You can think whatever you want,” Leo says passing behind Raph on his way to sit next to Donnie. Donnie and Leo make eye contact as he sits down. Donnie is fast to break his gaze first. Everyone notices that little interaction. Casey turns to April and wiggles his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.
Mikey is looking at Euphie who sat down beside him. He was distracted by the thought of his brother being in a romantic relationship. That was something Mikey craved ever since he was old enough to experience attraction. Unlike his brothers, who seemed to come to terms with the idea of never having a girlfriend, he tried to stay positive. Though, he’d be lying if he said his optimism hadn’t been beaten down several times. But now, the idea of Leo, of all his brothers, being able to find someone rejuvenated his hope of him finding someone in the future. A big, happy, heartfelt smile appeared on his face.
Euphie glances from Mikey to Leo who noticed Mikey smiling. Raph is smiling at Euphie in a whole different way. She squints at him and shakes her head. Leo gives him the same expression. Of everyone, Raph is clearly the one imagining things to be more than they are.
Mikey was the one to lighten things up and get movie night back on track. The wide variety of food and snacks displayed on the coffee table in front of them was mostly gone by the end of the first movie. By the end of the night, everyone except Leo and Euphie seemed to be tired. There were a couple scenes that made their eyes wander to each other. It was safe to assume they didn’t concentrate much on the movies.
“What a wonderful night you guys. Thanks for having us,” April says after helping clean up her share of the mess. Her and Casey were ready to drive home. Donnie volunteered to escort them to their car since Mikey was going to crash from a sugar high if he stopped eating and Raphael was getting ready for the patrol. They waved the couple goodbye.
Euphie feels a light touch to her elbow. “Let’s go,” Leo tells her. She follows him in the direction of his room.
Raphael doesn’t miss a beat. “Where are you going?”
“She’s going to stay the night,” Leo replies. He knew that wouldn’t be the end of the conversation once they went out on patrol. The entrance to Leo’s room is covered with a large blue blanket and on the wall is a metal “Keep Out” sign. It doesn’t surprise Euphemia when he pulls back the blanket to reveal a pristine bedroom. It has minimal furniture and a variety of mismatching rugs covering the entire concrete floor like abstract art. The walls are decorated with various objects ranging from the American flag to neon signs. At the entrance is a small patch of uncovered concrete with a couple large pair of sandals.
“I just need you to take your shoes off before going onto the carpet. Sorry I don’t have any slippers your size,” Leo says slipping his feet into the sandals and walking ahead. She removes her shoes and follows suit. His bed appears to be two or three king sized mattresses stacked on top of each other, surrounded by a homemade wooden bedframe and headboard. There is one thin pillow and a pillowcase stuffed with two pillows on the bed. Covering the bed is a large tan blanket. Above his bed are his old katana displayed on an oval wooden plaque.
Leo stands nervously in front of his bookshelf watching her judge him. The bookshelf holds an impressive collection. The books are sorted alphabetically in rows, except for one of the shelves. Euphie notices that shelf contains only books she has given him over the 12 months they’ve known each other. “Yeah. Your books have a special shelf.” Leo says acknowledging what she’s looking at. While her eyes investigate the room, he walks to a large industrial metal shelf he uses as a dresser and for holding various objects and containers of items. Everything in his room has a place. He removes a couple rolled up towels and a pair of pants.
“I’m just grabbing some things for morning so I don’t wake you. If you need to have a shower there are more towels on the shelf you can use. Just throw them in the hamper when your done.” He points to the hamper in his room. “I don’t have anything for you to sleep in. If you want I can stop by your place and grab you a change of clothes so you can go right to work from here in the afternoon.”
“That’s very thoughtful. Thank you.”
He closes some distance between them. “You can ask Donnie for anything you might need while I’m away. If Mikey gets too loud, feel free to shut him up. He’s usually respectful of people who are sleeping, but the amount of junk he’s eaten will make him more hyper and impulsive.”
She shrugs. “I don’t think I’ll sleep very much anyway.” She laughs softly. A quiet tension falls around them as the weight of her words sink in. She’s thinking about everything as much as he is. That makes him happy.
“I understand.” He resists the urge to reach out and stroke the side of her head in reassurance. It would only make it more difficult for her to sleep. “I’ll be in the meditation room around 5am. Find me there if you need me. Try your best to get some shut eye.” He pokes her side as he moves to leave the room. He steps back into his normal shoes.
“Have a good shift,” she says smiling, holding the side he poked her in.
“Goodnight.” he says looking back to her before stepping past the curtain to his room and leaving her alone. Her bra and socks are the first things to go as she circles the room. He isn’t one to decorate. As far as she could tell he only used his room for practical purposes. The only thing that might be considered out of the ordinary is a small sitting stool in the middle of the room. She could imagine him meditating there. She arrives at his bed. It comes up to her waist. She jumps onto the edge and falls back onto the thin pillow. There is a large indent in the mattress roughly the size of Leo. She blushes imagining him lying there next her.
Leo comes face to face with his brothers. They are huddled around the monitor in Donnie’s computer area watching the live feed of the hallway connected to Leo’s room. They share similar looks on their faces depicting surprise. This is the first time someone has ever stayed over in their lair, never mind that first someone being a woman staying in Leo’s room.
Leo stands with his hands on his hips. “I’m sorry I didn’t ask you guys if she could stay over. It wasn’t planned. The reason for it ties in with the favor I need to ask of you.” He sees he has their undivided attention. “I know it’s not fair of me to ask and I’ll make it up to you, but I need you guys to make yourselves scarce in the morning for a couple hours. Euphie and I need to have a private conversation and we’d appreciate it if we could be alone.”
“Are you guys dating?” Mikey asks. It’s the question on everyone’s mind.
“That’s what we need to talk about. It’s complicated.”
“It’s not complicated.” Raph huffs.
“Yes, it is," Leo says.
Raph crosses his arms and gets in Leo’s face. “You can make tying shoelaces complicated. You have an obsessive need to overthink everything. Stop using your head for once.”
“I’m a realist. A relationship between us and a human has different challenges than relationships between humans. There are disadvantages for her that need to be considered.” Leo pushes back Raph. “Have any of you realistically considered what a relationship with a human would look like in the long term, or do you only fantasize about it?” His brothers stand in silence, taking his words to heart. Leo continues, “I can’t in good conscience jump into a relationship with Euphemia without laying all our cards out on the table. Doing so is a one-way trip to failure in my eyes.” Leo gave his brothers a lot to think about, especially Mikey and Raphael who are more emotionally driven.
Donnie chimes in, “Leo, you have an opportunity the rest of us would give anything to have.”
“I know, Donnie.”
“Just promise you’ll try not to sabotage yourself. I know what you’re saying is true but focusing solely on the negative will fail the trip before it even starts.” None of the brothers could have said it better. Donnie understood Leo’s thought process better than anyone and knew how to translate what Raphael was trying to say.
“I promise I’ll try not to focus too much on the negative,” Leo agrees. “Can I count on you guys for tomorrow then?”
“Sure. It’s a good excuse to read a book I’ve been meaning to get to,” Donnie says
“And I can totally pretend to read a book with you,” Mikey winks at Donnie.
“I’m serious about our privacy Mikey,” Leo scolds, making sure his youngest brother understands.
“I know. I was just joking. I’m sure I can find a way to kill a couple hours,” Mikey grins.
Raph flings an arm around Leo’s shoulder and redirects them towards the exit to begin their patrol. “Just remember you owe us one.” He speaks as if it means a big favor.
“Within reason,” Leo specifies. Owing Raph a favor was bound to come back to bite him.
“Sure, sure. Within reason,” Raph says grinning at his newly found power.