Chapter Text
Leo looked at his hands, the pale green color of his palms seeming much lighter than the rest of his skin.
"Huh… must be the gloves," he mumbled softly, placing the gloves that once covered his hands and halfway up his arms onto his neatly-made bed.
The ōdachi, the damn thing that never seemed to work properly, was placed next to them along with its holsters and duffle-pouch. Next was his mask. He sighed heavily as he slipped the thin but semi-thick fabric off his face and sat it on the bed with the rest of the ninja gear. The only thing he kept on was his boots.
Hey, he was running away but that didn't mean he couldn't be comfortable!
He looked into the body-sized mirror hanging on the wall of his room, the unsettling feeling of being naked sinking in as he stared at himself. He rushed over to his closet, skimming over the articles of clothing he’d used for human disguises, before finding just what he needed; a blue hoodie that slightly resembled the mask that was sitting on the bed a few feet away.
In a fraction of just a few minutes, he was dressed and packed. His backpack was incredibly light, only holding a couple of items: his wallet and the journal that he wrote in every night. He knew that taking his phone would just be pointless so he left it sitting on his bedside table. Placing the handwritten note on top of the discarded ninja getup, he placed his bag on his shoulders and walked out of his room, the sound of the whooshing curtain catching the attention of one of his brothers walking by.
“Where are you going dressed like that ?” the purple-clad twin spoke, a cup of hot instant coffee in his hands and a raised eyebrow.
Leo fidgeted before plastering on a fake smirk, concealing any of the anxiousness that filtered his eyes and decided it would be best to just lie so he could leave. “As much as I love my normal get-up, it draws attention to my gorgeous face - I'm just trying something new. Anyway, I’m going topside skating, see you guys later.”
Moving quickly, he brushed past his twin and headed out the front entrance, leaving a confused Donatello behind him. Donnie scratched his chin in thought. “He… didn’t have his skateboard though,” he mumbled softly before shrugging it off and heading towards his lab.
The air was cold and damp, the last drops of rain finishing up for the day. Leo stood there, in front of the brick alley wall covered in graffiti.
He sighed. “Hey, um, may I enter? I know I don’t usually ask but I feel like it’s only appropriate to do that right now.”
He felt tired, mentally drained even, and all he wanted was to leave the city that didn’t need his help.
Nor want it for that matter.
Leo waited a few minutes before the portal on the wall opened up, letting him slip into the warm confines of the restaurant. The smell of hot cheese and pepperoni filled his nose as he waltzed his way through to the back door in order to get to the Hidden City, trying his best to not be seen by the owner.
Señor Hueso stood at a nearby table, right next to the exit that Leo needed to get through to leave, and was taking the order of one of his most frequent customers.
“Shit…” Leo mumbled under his breath as he scanned the area to make a quick getaway.
Hueso’s back is facing away from the door, maybe I can take that as a chance to book it? Leo rubbed his chin in thought, finally settling his first plan, and quickly but quietly made a dash for it. He ran behind Hueso and was out the door in less than sixty seconds.
The air was relatively warm in the Hidden City and smelled of freshly-bloomed Cosmos. “Man, does the smell of chocolate have to be so strong? Jesus Christ...” He scrunched his nose a tad, the smell a little too much for his liking. He looked around the place, fruit and vegetable stands stood everywhere as a large banner hung from one building to another: ‘ Farmer’s Market!’
“I guess Yōkai are more like humans than Draxum thought. Oh if I ever do end up seeing that sheep again, I’ll never let him live that down,” Leo laughed to himself as he walked around, getting a glimpse at the food being sold. They were… odd? Was that the right word?
While most of the items were quite normal to the mutant who lived above most of his life, there were some fruits that had horns or were in impossible colors. One booth even had what looked like carrots but with mouths and tiny wings. Yeah, odd was definitely the right word.
He moved swiftly, passing booth after booth until they disappeared altogether and were replaced with modern-style buildings. Huh..this actually looks similar to New York. He stopped at a newsstand, grabbed a newspaper and looked through it. Hm… One of these pages has to have something on housing. Ah! There it is! He thumbed the options, settling on something just within his price range. It was a good thing he had saved up so much over the last few years or else he’d be sleeping out in the streets.
“Hey! This isn’t a library, either you buy it or I get the City Police, and you get arrested for shoplifting!’
Leo looked up from his reading and stared at the man who was presumably yelling at him to pay for the newspaper in his hands. The newsstand guy was rather tall and heavily-set, a body type Leo hadn’t been quite sure existed until now. He had a long neck, was covered in fur, and his face seemed to resemble that of a lamb. Is he some type of llama? Whatever. Let’s just apologize, pay for the newspaper, and get-
“Wow, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. This costs, what, fifty cents? Don’t get your panties twisted, I’m gonna pay it.”
Unfortunately, his mouth moved faster than his brain.
Damn it Leo! Why can’t you just be civil for once?!
The llama-man’s nostrils flared. “Excuse me?! Do you speak to your mother with that mouth?!”
“Hey, I’m giving you the money. Just tell me how much this thing costs and I’ll be out of your, uh, fur(?) in no time.” He tried to reason with the now-angry salesman as he swallowed back the urge to make another snarky retort. ‘You can’t keep acting like that Leo. It’s not healthy...’
“A buck fifty.”
Leo’s right eye twitched. For a fucking newspaper?!
He didn’t say a word, grabbing a dollar and two quarters from his wallet and handing it to the llama in front of him.
“Pleasure doing business with ya.”
Leo rolled his eyes as he made his way to a nearby park bench, taking a look at a park clock to catch the time. He was getting tired and it might be a little difficult to find a place to stay for the night.
10:55pm.
Rather early to be this ready for bed. He hummed to himself, pondering whether he should continue tonight or in the morning. Better do it tonight, I don’t know this place as well as the residents who have lived here for years. That’s just plain dangerous.
So there he was getting up from the bench and heading towards the direction of the apartment advertised in the newspaper. “Hello?” he called after he knocked on the door.
The door opened ajar, a middle-aged woman peeking her head through. She had black eyes, her pupils rimmed with gold, and her skin was a bright orange. “May I help you?”
Leo cleared his throat. “I’m here about the apartment that was listed.”
She smiled, her pearly white teeth making Leo raise his eyebrows little. Wow. I’ve never seen anybody with such clean teeth!
She opened the door fully, revealing her whole body as she motioned for Leo to come in. As he stepped inside, he took a good look at her. She was short, but her legs seemed to be the longest thing about her. Her hair was black and pulled into a loose bun, the tail ends of the ribbons tying it up hanging down her back. Behind her were large Monarch butterfly wings attached to her shoulders. Oh! She’s a butterfly! No wonder she’s so pretty!
“Sorry for the mess, I wasn’t expecting anyone to actually rent the apartment upstairs.” That should have been a red flag but Leo didn’t even care at this point. He needed a place to stay and this was all he could afford. “Don’t worry about the interest fee, that can get paid at the end of the month with the rent.”
They walked up a flight of stairs and down a hallway as she spoke, stopping at a slightly rundown wooden door and she handed him a key. “Welcome to the building, kid!” And with that she left, leaving Leo alone in the dimly lit corridor.
He opened the door, walking inside and dropping his stuff onto the floor. He looked around before shutting the door behind him, taking in the wooden floors and milk white walls. It was rather small, the tiny bedroom down a narrow hallway and just beside that was the bathroom. To his right stood the kitchen and to his left was the room he was currently standing in: the living room.
I guess this is home now.
He swallowed hard before walking into his bedroom and laid down on the soft plush carpet.
“Welcome home.”
Raph yawned as he placed his tonfas into their holsters, a content smile plastered onto his face and his fists now resting on his hips. “Is everyone ready to go?”
It was currently eleven o’clock at night and time for their nightly patrol. Raph had begun to crack down on attendance since the whole fiasco with Draxum before he turned over a new leaf. Doing a headcount, his content smile sunk down into a frown as he noticed the missing testudine from their group. “Where’s Leo?” His voice filled with slight annoyance, tired of Leo’s frequent skips whenever they did patrol.
“Didn’t Donnie say he went out earlier?”
“Yeah, but that was eight hours ago.” Donnie looked at their wrist watch as they spoke, confusion laced into their eyes but dulling back into their usual deadpan look as they sighed. “He’s most likely in his room. Come on, let’s go get him,” they breathed out as the three made their way to Leo’s bedroom.
“Leo, buddy, time to go out on patrol. Come on, get up,'' Raph called to Leo through the curtain, making sure not to enter the actual room so as to not invade Leo’s privacy. They waited a couple minutes but were responded with silence. “Come on Leo, you're not bailing out on this again. Plus, you can practise your portals while we patrol too!” Raph said, trying the bargaining approach.
But still, nothing but silence.
With a small agitated growl, Raph swiftly opened the curtain, no longer caring about privacy, and the three walked inside. Raph’s frown deepened as he noticed the lack of a fourth body inside the well-kept room. “He’s not here, but… ” his words trailed off as the three siblings landed their eyes on Leo’s bed.
Their eyes scanned the items there: Leo’s ōdachi, still placed into its holster, sitting next to his mask; the blue fabric was folded neatly, not a single crease could be seen, and there it laid on top of his gloves. However, the item that caught most of their attention, was the bright yellow note with blue scribbled ink.
Mikey was the first to move, rushing towards the bed and picking up the note that laid on top of everything.
“What does it say, Mike?”
His heart sank to his stomach as he quickly read it, tears threatening to spill from his eyes as he handed the note to Raphael.
“ ‘Dear Everyone,’ ” he began, reading it out loud so it wouldn’t be passed around anymore.
“ ‘I’m sorry about this, but I can’t take the feeling of failure anymore. I don’t have any place here and with the way I keep messing up our missions…’ ” Raph trailed, his breath hitching in his throat. But nonetheless, he continued reading the note. “...I’m just slowing everyone down. So, I'm leaving. You’ll never have to worry about me getting in your way anymore. You won’t have to worry about me messing up so bad that one of you dies. You won’t have to worry about me being the burden because I’m no longer going to be there. If I never see you guys again, I want you all to know, I love you. All of you. Signed, Leo’ ”
Raph’s body shook slightly as tears threatened to fall from his eyes.
“He…”
He couldn’t even finish his thought as a million other ones rushed into his mind. Questions as to why, and possible scenarios as to what could be happening to Leo right at that moment. What if he was hurt? What if he…
“Typical…”
Mikey and Raph looked at Donnie with shock.
“What the Hell is that supposed to mean!?” Mikey shouted, his shocked expression gradually becoming angry.
“Mikey! Language!”
“Tell me Donnie!”
Donnie sighed, their eyes rolling up to the ceiling. “Calm down Michael, this is Leo we’re talking about. He’ll be back in the next few hours, we’ll all have a talk, and everything will be fine. Granted, his way of opening up was a little dramatic… ”
But even when Donnie made their dismissal of Leo’s absence, their mind mentally cursed at themselves from not stopping Leo earlier when he tried to leave.
Mikey’s expression softened a bit, silence settling into the room before he decided to break it with a soft tone. “And what if he doesn’t, Donnie?” His eyes pricked with hot tears as he stared at the floor and shifted his feet.
Feeling a palm rested on his shoulder, he looked up to see Raph’s comforting smile and subconsciously leaned into him for a hug. “Then we’ll go out and find him.” Raph spoke softly, his large hands rubbing Mikey’s shell to comfort him further.
“I hope you’re right about him coming home in a few hours Dee...”
“Trust me, he will.”
But he was wrong.
So very very wrong.