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In hindsight, Leo should have known better than to try and win a bet against Mikey.
It wasn’t some small secret that their baby brother never played fair and had a somewhat sixth sense for just how to get around even the most well thought out of rules and yet… Leo had still fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker.
Which is the only reason he found himself scowling in the kitchen, glaring down at the deflated lump of dough he’d been trying to roll for the past twenty minutes.
And although he could admit to his faults and that this was his own mess and that he was willing to own up to the fact that he had been bested, he refused- with every part of his soul- to acknowledge the girlest, frilliest apron that was firmly wrapped around his waist and looped around his neck. He would admit that it was a very pleasing- he’d almost say pretty so long as Raph wasn’t around to hear it- shade of pale blue. Any of his admiration of it however was easily doused with gasoline and lit up in flames due to that fact that he had to be the one to wear it.
‘I even got it in your colour dude!’
Thanks for that Mikey. He was so touched.
Pushing the thought to the side, Leo let out a long sigh, glaring at the dough and the rolling pin as if it was responsible for the shredded mess that he was forced to deal with.
He had no idea why Mikey wanted pizza.
…
He had no idea why Mikey wanted Leo to make pizza.
It was a well known fact in their home that Leo was pretty much banned from making anything other than tea in the kitchen, but even Donnie had relented to the ‘set in stone’ rule when Mikey aimed his professional puppy eyes at him.
Yet another example on how rules didn’t seem to apply to their baby brother.
No point in crying over spilt milk though… or shredded dough in this case. His brothers were expecting a home cooked pizza, one that was at least edible.
And no pineapple.
Raph had made sure to raid the fridge for Leo’s secret stash before they’d left him alone. He even got the one hidden in the cupboard.
Which, touché.
Shoulders dropping Leo poked at the rolling pin, watching as it slowly turned and turned until it finally smacked into the pale pile of mush.
And stuck.
This was going to take forever.
“Guess who’s in da house!”
Leo tensed at the shout that boomed throughout the lair, his heartrate skyrocketing at the thought of being found in the kitchen in his current get up, by Casey in particular. As if their interactions lately hadn’t been… embarrassing and confusing enough lately.
“Casey! April!”
Oh great. April was here too. Because why not? If he was going to be humiliated might as well get it all over with now. At least his brothers couldn’t blackmail him with photos later. Unless they threatened to show it to Karai and Shini. He was pretty sure he would rather go up against the Shredder for another round than see what Karai would think of this. She would never let him hear the end of it.
“Where’s Leo?”
Casey’s question was met with a chorus of borderline evil laughter, and Leo silently planned out the most brutal training regimen he could think of that they would be following for the next two weeks. He hoped that they all had fun laughing now because by the time he was finished with them they would be too tired and sore to so much as blink.
“Oh, he’s in the kitchen.”
Leo could hear the smirk in Don’s voice. He’d be doing double patrols for the next three days. After training.
“Whoa dude! You let him back in the kitchen?”
“Doesn’t he have a lifetime ban?” April asked, sounding genuinely confused as Leo dropped his head back, knowing what was coming up next. “You know, after the whole toaster incident?”
That had been- one, time.
“He’s not touching the toaster.” Donnie cut in quickly.
“Yeah!” Mikey jumped into the conversation, and Leo could just imagine him leading them towards the kitchen as his voice grew louder. “He’s just making a pizza but I’ll be in charge of the oven and the timers. Can’t have the whole place going up in flames ya know.”
As they drew closer, Leo refused to take off the outfit he’d been forced into. He wasn’t going to bulk in his bet because other people were here to see it. Besides, what did it matter? He was cooking, and a lot of people wore aprons when they cooked.
He fiercely ignored the heat burning in his face and the sudden and overwhelming urge to sprint away as fast as ninjaly possible when he heard their footsteps approaching.
But he didn’t. He firmly kept himself stationed where he was.
Forcing a neutral look over his features he snatched up the rolling pin just as they rounded the corner.
“Tada! Kitchen Princess Leo! Limited addition!”
He didn’t look up at the gasp from April, or her muffled burst of laughter that followed shortly after. If he had to be the mature one here, well, that was nothing new.
“Oh, wow.” April snickered, Leo finally looking up as he crossed his arms, rolling pin still in hand, to level a mild glare at her. The smile behind her hand only grew, but she at least had the decency to try and control her amusement. “You look nice Leo.”
“Thanks.” The flat tone in his voice only broke them further, Mikey and April doubling over and grasping onto each other as they burst out laughing.
With a sigh Leo rolled his eyes, his arms dropping back to his sides in defeat. As they continued to find amusement in his misery, he found his attention finally drawn to the third member of their party who had remained oddly silent throughout everything. When he met Casey’s gaze, he lifted a brow ridge at the slack jawed look over his face.
“You alright there Jones?”
Saying his name seemed to zap him out of whatever trance he was in, his mouth snapping shut with an audible click as he shook himself out. While April and Mikey snickered with one another and made their way out, Casey stepped in further, propping his arm on the island Leo was working on.
“All good here!” Leo flinched at his too loud voice, something Casey must have noticed as he stood up to lean back a little and spoke much quieter when he continued. “What are ya makin’ anyways?”
“Pizza.” Turning back to the mess he’d been struggling with Leo frowned at the sticky lump. “Supposedly anyways.”
“With a rolling pin?”
At the genuine confusion in his voice Leo turned his attention back up to meet with Casey’s dark eyes, feeling oddly unsure as he stared at him. “Yeees?”
Before he could say anything else, Casey stuck his hand out, Leo tensing when it looked like he was about to touch the dough with his gloved, unwashed, hands. Thankfully he stopped about an inch away from it, Leo’s heart still racing at the close call when the jock’s eyes darted up to him.
“Uh, oops. Guess I should wash my hands first, eh?”
Without a word Leo jabbed a finger towards the sink, Casey giving out a meek chuckle before moving around the island to get to it.
As he watched his friend peel off his fingerless gloves to wash his hands, Leo wasn’t really sure what to do, his arms crossing over his chest again as he… waited.
“I’m pretty sure if you help me,” he muttered, rocking from his toes to his heels and back again, “it will be against the rules.”
“So that’s what this is hm?” Casey chuckled, snatching up a cloth and quickly drying his hands, turning around to lean against the counter as he smirked at Leo. “You lost a bet to Mikey?”
Deciding that Casey had been with them long enough it wasn’t surprising that he managed to figure it out that fast, Leo met his smirk with a flat stare.
“No. I just thought I’d try out a new wardrobe.”
Casey snickered at his sass, putting the hand towel back before joining his side at the island. “You should stick with it. It’s a good look for ya Blue.”
Thrown off by the out of nowhere complement, Leo floundered long enough to allow Casey to move onto the actual task.
With his hands now clean and missing his signature gloves, he didn’t hesitate to pick up the dough, patting it together as he tossed it from hand to hand. Leo watched, feeling a little flustered and unsure of how to interject himself into his own job as a wince pulled at Casey’s lips.
“Too sticky.” He muttered, Leo freezing where he stood when those dark eyes turned back to him. “Ya got any more flour?”
“Uh…” Snapping his mouth shut Leo shook his head and let his eyes slip closed for a quick second to help regather his thoughts.
This was Casey. Casey Jones. They guy who had suddenly appeared in their lives years ago and stuck by them like glue ever since. (And, yeah, okay, maybe there was that one time a few years ago where Leo thought he was pretty cute- and perhaps even more recently too, not that he would ever admit that out loud- but that was so long ago and the guy was such an immature, crazy, unpredictable, space case that there was really no way that he could-).
“Leo?” Snapping back to attention Leo tensed at the hand that was slowly waving in front of his eyes. “You okay man?”
Brushing the hand aside, Leo forced himself to roll his eyes again, if only to hide the fact that he was having a hard time meeting the concern written across his friend’s face.
“I’m fine Case.” He muttered, “I just… got lost in thought for a moment.”
“Oh yeah? Thinkin’ ‘bout yours truly?”
Leo scoffed at the wiggling eyebrows shot at him, lightly shoving Casey away from how close he’d leaned in. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
“I could flatter you if you prefer.” The line was delivered so smoothly that Leo once again found himself tripping, unable to come up with a response quick enough before Casey moved on once more, leaving him in the dust. “So, flour?”
Confused, but not sure what else to say, Leo turned back to the cupboard where he’d tossed the flour bag, pulling it out once more and planting it on the island. Casey seemed happy with this, dropping the dough ball with a solid splat as he reached out for the bag.
“Wait!” Without thinking about it, Leo grabbed the bag, tugging it back to his chest and away from Casey’s sticky, dough covered fingers.
In his haste he completely forgot that he’d left the bag open, a thick cloud of the white powder wafting up and smacking him in the face. Choking on the fine particles floating in the air, Leo jerked back, attempting to wave the evil cloud away from his face with little success. His face burned at the burst of laughter that followed, glaring at the vigilante who was leaning against the counter for support.
“Oh, shut up.”
“Sorry.” Even as he said it, he still continued to chuckle to himself, straightening out and pushing himself away from the counter. “But you should have seen your face. You were like, this-.”
Suddenly, Casey’s eyes blew wide, his lips forming a small, puckered ‘o’ as his shoulders jumped up to his ears.
Leo had to admit. It did look pretty ridiculous.
With a defeat groan he placed the bag back, Casey taking it as a win as he went back to chuckling before going to the sink once more to wash the excess dough from his hands.
Before Casey could grab it, Leo snatched up the hand towel, wiping it over his face quickly, growing irritated with his mask being in the way. Slipping it off his face he shook it out a few times, huffing at the stubborn cling of the white to the blue. Running the towel over his face one last time he handed it over to Casey, taking the time to tie his mask in place and only then turning to face his friend.
“Did I get it all?”
Looking up from his hands Casey wore a soft smile as he aimed his full attention at Leo. He took his time, his eyes trailing over every inch and curve of his face with such a delicate observation that Leo could feel an odd sort of heat crawling up his neck and splashing over his cheeks. He really hoped that the red that was no doubt taking over his whole face didn’t end up becoming even more obvious as Casey took a step closer. When he leaned in, peering at every inch of him, Leo felt himself growing tense, not feeling threatened, but nearly being overtaken by a strong urge to spin around and sprint away as fast as possible if only to outrun the jittering energy in his limbs.
He went stiff, but didn’t lash out when Casey lifted a hand, booping him on the snout with a laugh before adding some distance between them.
“Yuuup. Perfect as always Lee.”
There really shouldn’t have been a reason Leo found his knees feeling as weak as they did. This was Casey. He had nicknames for pretty much everyone and was a very touchy-feely guy in general.
He was probably just being… friendly…er.
Getting himself together Leo took a second to wiggle the nerves out of his fingers, giving a good shake of his head before he worked himself up enough to join Casey’s side once more.
Completely lost in the art of any type of cuisine, dominating more in the dojo than the kitchen, he, for once, simply stood back and watched, allowing Casey to take the lead as he sprinkled flour over the sticky ball. Once he seemed satisfied that nearly every part was covered, he then dumped a fair amount on the island counter.
“Okay, now you’re just making a mess.”
Casey snickered at his call out, picking up the ball and tossing it from hand to hand, “Ya gotta trust the process babe.”
“What?”
“Hm?”
Although it was obvious that Casey was trying to playoff that little nickname, the soft pink that Leo could see on his cheeks as well as the way he refused to make eye contact spoke loads more than his words ever could.
They both awkwardly avoided each other’s gazes, Leo crossing his arms again and instead turning his full attention to watch as Casey finally started with ‘the process’. He found any of his embarrassment quickly falling away in interest as he watched Casey toss the ball of dough upwards. With a flick of his wrist, he caught it and tossed it again.
Slowly, the dough stretched out, creating a small circle before growing and thinning out, now a wide spinning disk above them.
“Whoa.” Leo found his eyes glued to it, stunned to see the graceful way Casey added a few more fancy flourishes to his tosses, pulling out tricks and spins now as he carried on. “Where did you learn how to do that?”
“I was the main cook at my place.” Casey explained. “Cassandra was too young to cook, and Dad was workin’ all the time, so I took up the ladle so to speak.” Using both hands now, Casey worked it around his body as if he was pulling off one of Mikey’s nunchucks tricks. “PB and J gets a little old after a while ya know?”
Leo hummed, finding the explanation making a lot of sense as he watched it go up and down, and up and down, never once stopping in its spinning. It was almost hypnotic.
“I’ll let you do the next one.”
Leo’s head snapped up to stare at Casey, the side eyed smirk he was getting from the jock making his stomach swoop low. “Uh, I don’t think…”
“Don’t worry Leo.” Casey snickered, jostling him lightly with his shoulder. “I’ll show you how.”
Although the touch was brief, he could feel the brush of the fabric and the heat warming his scales long after Casey turned back to his task.
He really needed to get himself together.
Deciding to give into his fate, because at least Casey was helping him rather than leaving him to struggle on his own, Leo reached out for the second ball he had made.
“Flour first.”
Fingers hesitating barely a feathers width away from the goop, Leo took a look over to the abandon bag. Copying what Casey had done earlier, he pulled out a handful and dumped it on the blob. Although Casey snickered at him, he didn’t say anything to scold Leo, so he continued with getting it ready.
So… the flour had to be spread all round it. No problem. Picking it up he frowned as most of the flour slid off and fell to the countertop. His nose twitched at the tacky feeling of the dough sucking to his fingers, leaving behind a mass of it sticking to him when he dropped it back to the island.
Nasty. God, he hated cooking.
“Watch out.”
Pulling his hands back, Leo watched as Casey carefully dropped the now flat dough on the part of the table he’d sprinkled flour on earlier.
It looked perfect, and Leo couldn’t help feeling a little envious over how easy it he made it look. Then again however apparently Casey had years of practice with skills like this. It made sense that he was good at it.
Sucking his lips in Leo swallowed his pride and turned to his friend. “What did I do wrong here?”
The smug grin wasn’t a shocking thing to witness as it stretched over Casey’s face. Leo barely ever asked for help, so of course anyone was going to be a bit of a smug prick about it, but he wasn’t ready for the arm that wrapped around his shoulders, or how easy it was for Casey to pull him in close.
If he thought the heat from the simple shoulder nudge earlier was overwhelming it had nothing on how his brain shorted out from this full contact.
“Well, well,” the deep chuckle he let out shot through Leo like a stray zap from one of Donnie’s machines. “Allow me ta be the Sensei today and teach ya how to make the perfect pizza crust.”
Eased by his good-natured attitude, Leo smiled at his new dubbed ‘Kitchen Sensei’.
Waving his hand out to the island, Leo smirked back at his friend.
“Lead the class than, Sensei.”
For a few quick, owlish blinks, Casey just… stared, at him. “Uh, wow,” eventually he dropped his arm from around Leo’s shoulder, letting out an awkward laugh as his hand moved up to rub at the back of his neck. “Ya know, if ya wanna call me Sensei outside of the kitchen…,”
“Don’t push it.”
“-And it’s dropped.” Casey squeaked, putting his hands up and leaning away while Leo took his turn to chuckle softly at his reaction.
Feeling a little more relaxed, Leo gently nudged his elbow against Casey’s arm, nodding to the halfway sticky blob that was left sitting deflated on the island before wiggling his hands to draw Casey’s attention to the left over dough stuck to his fingers.
“What did I do wrong to get this?”
“You didn’t cover it.”
Tilting his head to the side Leo looked back at his failure of a dough ball. He supposed that made sense. He had dumped a lot of flour on it, but he hadn’t really… spread it around. Reaching out he poked at the flour covered side, feeling satisfied it wouldn’t stick to him when it gave a little rock.
Scooping up the excess flour off the table he smacked it into the bare spot, glad to see that not only was it making the glob less sticky, but it was also helping to get rid of the leftovers covering his fingers. Once he was happy enough with the coverage he got, he carefully picked it up, grinning at how easy it was to hold now before he looked to Casey for the next part.
“Now what?”
“Toss and spin.”
He said it as if it should have been the easiest thing in the world, and Leo supposed, maybe it was. Pretty much since the moment he could walk he’d been spinning blades that were far more lethal and tricky than a ball of harmless dough. How hard could it be?
Shrugging his shoulders he gave it a small toss into the air, not to high, he just wanted to test it out after all. It didn’t fall apart, or automatically turn into a hotdog bun or anything so he threw it a little higher, giving a flick of his wrist to add a little spin.
“Not bad Blue.” Casey praised, a small twitch pulling Leo’s lips upwards at the compliment. “Don’t be afraid to really toss it though. If ya drop it, it’s not gonna break.”
“What if it gets stuck to the ceiling?”
“That only happens in movies.”
Brow furrowing in mild disbelief Leo tossed it a little bit higher. His concentration zeroed in on his task the wider and thinner the dough became. As his confidence grew he found himself moving a little faster, tossing it higher, allowing his hands to naturally figure out where to go while it worked around his fists and fingers.
He found himself grinning up at the slowly widening disk, letting out a small laugh as he finally got the hang of it.
This was actually kind of fun. He could understand now why Mikey liked to spend so much time in the kitchen trying out all sorts of different concoctions, whether or not they sounded good. It was almost meditative in a sense. A rhythmic sort of-,
“‘Scuse me for a sec.”
Any of his earlier calming thoughts were burned away instantly in the inferno of a desire so striking but no less potent by the words breathed next to his ear and the hand that came to rest heavily against his hip.
Even through the thin fabric of the godforsaken apron, he could feel the strength and heat of Casey’s hand, finding it hard to swallow with how painfully parched his throat became as his heart jumped up along with the spinning dough disk he tossed in the air.
If that wasn’t bad enough Casey was standing close behind him. Suuuper close behind. Leo could feel goosebumps exploding across the back of his neck and down his shoulders from their proximity, a part of his mind sharply in tune with how little distance there was between them. While his body froze, his mind raced, speeding at a million miles a minute, and yet getting nowhere as Casey reached around him and scooped up the flour bag.
From the other side of him Casey offered him a small smile, his hand squeezing at Leo’s side- (andholyshitdidheforgethowtobreath?howwashesupposedtobreathagain?)- before dropping away as he stepped back to his original spot on Leo’s right, flour bag now in hand.
Although he didn’t seem any worse for wear, taking up the task of spreading more flour over the table for the second pizza, Leo felt as if he’d just been zapped by Captain Ryan’s stun gun on its highest setting.
Because what was that!?
Was he just over thinking it? Did Casey even realize what he did? Did he care? Was he used to doing things like that to people? Leo knew he was touchy but that felt far too intimate to be anything other than a flirty type of gesture. Or was it? Maybe it didn’t mean anything and he was just-!
“Huh, that’s a first.”
Nearly jumping out of his skin at Casey’s voice Leo snapped his head around to face him, his eyes blown wide in a chaotic sort of panic while he took in the others profile. Casey on the other hand wasn’t looking at him at all, instead his attention was drawn upwards, a curve to his brow as his hands rested on his hips.
Curious as to what he was looking at, Leo tossed a glance at the distraction as well, doing a double take once he saw what it was.
He stared for a long while, his eyes slowly dropping back to his empty hands before returning to the doughy disk clinging to the ceiling.
“Oops.”
“I’ll say,” Casey agreed with a whistle, crossing his arms as he turned around to lean against the island, smirking down at Leo as he propped one leg up against the counter doors. “Somethin’ distract ya Baby Blue?”
Okay. That was it. Leo couldn’t take it anymore.
Never one to beat around the bush, he quickly slid to be standing in front of Casey, keeping him in place by placing a hand against his chest and holding him there.
“Are you hitting on me?”
Even though his face absolutely burned, he forced himself to hold the others gaze, earning Raph’s ever so annoying ‘Fearless’ title as he stood firm rather than do what he really wanted, which was to curl up in his shell and stay there.
As red as his face was however, Casey’s was lit up to match, his mouth falling open for a moment before snapping shut just as fast. They stood there, staring at one another, icy blue unflinching as it took on the vastness of the universe swimming in front of him.
His façade crumbled slightly when a very human hand laid over his own, a slight tremble in it that drew Leo’s attention before his eyes snapped back up when Casey took in a small, shaky breath.
“Just today? Or in general?”
Not expecting to be questioned himself Leo could feel his mask cracking further, confusion weaking his resolve as his brows furrowed. “In general?”
“Yeah, well,” finally Casey looked away from him, his face burning so hotly Leo could feel it even with the distance between them, “I mean, I’ve kind of been hitting on you for months soooo…”
“You have?” Leo didn’t mean to sound so bewildered, but the fact that Casey had been flirting with him- for months, might he add- and that it had all completely gone straight over his head... “Seriously?”
“Do you not like it? Because I can stop if you don’t like it. I mean like, if I’m botherin’ ya or somethin’ than I can just- or like, I’ll try? Might be hard to stop cold turkey ‘cause I’ve had a massive crush on ya for awhile now but I can-,”
Leo stopped his rambling, clasping his free hand over Casey’s mouth while his heart lurched when their eyes met once more. Quickly looking away he froze, unsure of what to do now that it was all out in the open.
Casey liked him. He liked- liked him. Casey Jones, had a crush, on Leo. A massive crush.
Face beat red Leo could feel his tail swaying excitedly back and forth, but he still tried to showcase a sense of control as he slowly released his hold on Casey, staring him down while looking up at him as he took a step back, gesturing to the getup he’d been forced into.
“Months hm? So, it’s not just this?”
Casey laughed at that, as if the very idea was ridiculous. No longer being pinned however he took a swaggering step forward, looping a finger around one of the straps that sat snuggly around Leo’s neck and gave it a little tug.
Leo could feel his stomach burst with a flutter of jittery nerves as it dropped low.
“Not gonna lie. it’s a super hot look for ya Blue,” He admitted, just when Leo thought his face couldn’t possibly get any hotter. “But no. It’s not just because of this.” Letting Leo go he gave a light tap to the side of his head, dragging it across to the other side, “I like whatcha got between here,” his hand dropped, pressing against the top of Leo’s plastron firmly, “and in here.”
The sincerity in his words and honesty burning deeply in his eyes brought Leo up short, his heart pounding hard enough behind his ribs he wondered if it was trying to jump into Casey’s hand.
“Oh.”
… That was the best he could come up with? ‘Oh’?
Leo was tempted to smack himself in the face.
Casey didn’t seem to mind his lack of a smooth response though, politely taking a step back to give Leo a little room to breathe as he slid his hands into his pockets.
“Yeah, ‘oh’.” His chuckle made Leo flush, but before he could figure out what he should say in this situation, he continued on. “Again though, if yer not interested, I can stop. I mean, ya seemed into it, but maybe that was just me seein’ what I wanted. I respect you to much as a friend to ruin that if it’s not-,”
“It’s fine!” He blurted it out before he could think, covering his mouth with his hand a second later as if that would help muffle the screeched he’d already let out.
Groaning out in mortification he dropped his head forward, rubbing his hands over his eyes before dragging them down his face.
Good lord he suuucked at this. Flirting and feelings had never been his strong suit, that was more Mikey’s thing… and strangely enough, Raph’s.
Peeking back up at Casey through his fingers he could feel his chest growing warm at the soft look Casey was watching him with.
When Leo still couldn’t figure out how to get his tongue to work, Casey took the initiative, shifting his weight to one side before leaning just the slightest bit forward.
“I might be going out on a limb here but,” Leo watched him as his smile turned to a slightly smug smirk. “Ya cool with me wooing ya Baby Blue?”
Face flushing, Leo dropped his hands. “Not if you keep calling me that.”
Casey shrugged, taking another step forward, drawing in closer. “It’ll grow on ya.”
“I doubt it.”
“Have a little faith in me babe.”
“Okay, I changed my mind. Forget it.” With a roll of his eyes, Leo made to walk away.
He didn’t get far however before a hand snatched his wrist, spinning him back, coming face to face with a bright, warm grin that lit up the stars in Casey’s eyes.
“Aw, come on Leo, don’t pout.” Scoffing at the ridiculous notion of him of all mutants pouting, Leo gave a half-hearted huff before the hand let go of his wrist. He found himself startled when it easily sneaked around his waist, Casey’s other hand scooping up his chin and tilting his face upwards. “Or are ya just puckerin’ up for a kiss?”
Stunned by his boldness, Leo’s brain cut out, all his training tossed straight out the window as he found himself drawing closer and closer and-.
“Ghak! What the hell?”
Leo also let out a startled yelp, his vision nearly completely cut off as the dough he’d been tossing earlier finally fell from the ceiling and plopped down on both of their heads.
It broke apart as they stepped away from each other, Leo having a much easier time in peeling it off his skin than Casey did attempting to remove the gooey clumps from his hair. As he continued to grumble and whine, Leo snickered at his misfortune, deciding to have mercy on him, he moved closer and carefully helped remove the mess.
“Thanks Leo.”
“No problem.” Giving a light pat to his shoulder, Leo offered him a somewhat meek smile. “That was kind of my fault anyways.”
Casey gave out a huff of laughter, rolling a small piece of dough in his hand and flicking it at Leo’s chest.
“Meh, yer cute enough that I’ll let ya get away with it.”
Shaking his head, Leo smiled fondly at the dork standing before him. Stepping in close he hooked his fingers under Casey’s chin, turning his head to the side slightly before brushing his lips softly over his cheek. As he drew back, he gave a light tap to the stunned human’s nose with a small chuckle. “I have a feeling you’ll be letting me get away with a lot.”
The absolute tomato red colour that overtook Casey’s face did nothing to dampen the grin that stretched across his lips, his arms being thrown out wide as he hopped in place, his hands waving with barley contained excitement.
“Is that a yes?”
Leo didn’t even have time to finish nodding his head before he found himself being scooped up and spun around, Casey laughing all to gleefully in his ear. His joy was contagious however, and as hard as Leo fought to keep a straight face in the situation, he also found himself laughing along.
Eventually, he was placed back on his feet, both of them still snickering like small school children as they just stood there, staring at one another and enjoying the look of utter delight on the other’s face.
“We’re gonna make the most badass power couple ever.” Casey declared, his hands clasping on Leo’s shoulder with a little shake. “It’s gonna be so metal!”
Giving a small snort at the ridiculousness of that statement Leo simply nodded along.
“Yup. So, metal.”
He didn’t fight against it when Casey pulled him in for a tight hug, finding it easy to wrap his arms around Casey in turn. As he snuggled into the warm hold, he let out a small sigh of content. As awful as this day started off, he couldn’t say he was complaining about how it was coming to an end, and all thanks to some stupid bet he’d lost too.
Maybe he didn’t have to kill his brothers in training tomorrow.
Sinking into the hug, pizza long since forgotten, Leo figured he could cut his brothers a break, just this once.
(***)
April quickly spun around and marched away from the kitchen.
Leo and Casey looked… busy.
“Yo, April!” Mikey called from his spot on the floor, missing the way Ice Cream Kitty was stealing his cards with his back turned. “How much longer do you think they’re going to take?”
“Uh,” Not sure what to say and not wanting to out either of the two and whatever it was they had going on, April froze for a long moment before whipping out her phone. “Why don’t I order us something? It’ll probably be here quicker anyways.”
Raph gave a small scoff at that, scratching just beneath Chompy’s chin before he sunk back into his seat. “Probably taste better too.”
“While I would normally agree,” Donnie pipped up from the desk he’d set up just to the side of their TV pit. “He does have Casey helping him, and he’s a surprisingly good cook.”
April wasn’t really sure how much Casey was helping right now, but she had a feeling food was the furthest thing from either of their minds at the current moment.
Hopping over the back of the couch she took a seat next to Raph, smiling down at Mikey as he was in the middle of tugging his cards back from Kitty’s paws.
“So, the usual then?”
“You know it girl!” Mikey grinned, tossing her a wink before snapping back around. “No Ice Cream Kitty! Those are mine!”
“Donnie?”
The genius barely looked up from what he was working on before waving a hand in the air. “You know what I like.”
“Sure do.” Turning to Raph, April found her shoulders curling in slightly to see that he was watching her through sharply narrowed eyes. “What?”
He didn’t answer her right away, those bright green gems of his darting over to make sure that each of his brothers were distracted before he leaned in close.
“They’re making out aren’t they?”
Shoulders slumping April gave a heavy roll of her eyes, digging in her jumpsuit for her wallet before handing him over twenty bucks. For his part, he didn’t brag as he snatched the money from her, but the smug look on his face was enough to irk her anyways.
“Just for that, I’m making sure they put double anchovies on yours.”
“Aw, don’t be such a sore loser Red.” Raph smirked. “No one knows Leo better than I do.”
Letting out a long sigh, she slouched against the couch before turning to her phone and searching up their main pizza delivery service. “I know, I just thought he’d hold out a little longer.”
“Against that idiot? Fat chance. Leo’s a sucker for a flirt that can fight, and Casey’s got game when he wants to show it.”
Snickering at the truth behind his words, April smiled softly, recalling how happy they looked when she’d walked into the doorway and spotted Casey swinging Leo around before they embraced one another tightly.
They did look happy, and she really hoped for the best for them.
“Alright, fine. I’ll tell them to lay off the anchovies.”
“Thanks, and make sure to order extra pineapple for Leo, and an extra spicey meat lovers for Casey.”
Nodding along to the request April scrolled through her past orders, wondering how long it would take for Casey and Leo to notice that they were off kitchen duty.
She had a feeling they might be there all night anyways.