Philophobia|Leo-Raph

6. Walking In

"Konner! Are you a dancer or what?" Amber shouts, examining every inch of me as I dance. I joined at the height of competition season in New York, and Amber has her heart set on my dancing in Nationals. So, I've been pushed beyond my limits and even that isn't good enough.

Snapping my body backwards into the air, I land on my hands before rolling over to my side; the end of the solo. She mutters under her breath, and I know whatever is about to come is not what I was hoping to hear. Pushing myself up, she's already talking to Nick about the duet.

"Just go home, you need the rest," Amber finally says, acknowledging my existence.

"But why? We need to do the duet?"

"Come in tomorrow; it's only a Saturday." As I go in to protest, she raises an eyebrow, and I shut my mouth. This is a whole new level than what I had back home. Nick shoots me an apologetic glance, but I grab my back and don't look back.

Getting into a taxi, I give him the directions to my house, then sit back into the seat and unlock my phone. Immediately, a spam of messages appear from the group chat I have with the turtles. Maybe ten photos from Donnie are sent, the boys all chattering excitedly about it. All the pictures are me, from this very evening of my rehearsing. What did that boy do now? Not bothering to scroll through for an explanation, I simply text out help.

Donnie managed to hook up a camera in your studio so we can see you dance! xMikey

Of course he did. Why does it even surprise me at this point? While I can't deny it to be cool, I will inevitably be even harder on myself with eight new pairs of eyes watching my every move.

You were great tonight, by the way. xRaph

Good job Donnie on your new invention (; and it was actually a bad night, but thanks for the vote of confidence.

"Ma'am, we're here," The taxi driver says.

"Oh, thank you," I reply, throwing some cash at him and jumping out of the car. Running inside the house, the stupid key code takes forever for me to type in. Mom has a habit of changing it near every day in fear of someone breaking in.

"Honey, there's food in the freezer. I have to go back to work on the new case we have," She says as we pass one another while dropping off or picking up bags.

"What's it about?"

"The Foot Clan. Their break-ins have an overwhelming amount of lawsuits on them. Crime really is a whole different ball game in The Big Apple," She sighs, before kissing my cheek and running out the door.

Crawling up the stairs, I drag a towel out of the closet and head to the bathroom. My phone's volume is turned all the way up, ready to blare country music. Turning the water on, I hold my hand over it to make sure the water is freezing cold; for some reason that's the only way I can shower in peace. Stripping down, I step in. The majority of the shower consists of working out tense muscles that I can reach and singing along to Garth Brooks as loud as possible.

Becoming hungry, I step out, hoping that mom left something good instead of her attempts at healthy food. Those never end well. Wrapping the blue towel around me, I realize I chose maybe one of the shortest towels from the closet. It was one of my first bath towels; one with batman on it and that even had a hood, but that's long since disappeared. Combing the short mess of curls out, I prance over to my room, humming the tune of some Jack Daniels' song.

"You've got some voice."

"Holy shit!" I shriek, turning around from the closest. My back hits the wall and I cling to the towel as much as possible. "Leo, what the hell? I'm naked!"

"Well, that wasn't too well planned on my part," he says, scratching his head and blushing at what little is covering my currently damp body.

"What... are you doing here?" I ask as I fumble for a t-shirt.

"Not sure actually, I just felt like seeing you."

His awkward explanation causes me to smile in reassurance. Once the shirt is on, I allow the towel to drop, since I'm now covered to mid-thigh.

"You chose a good time then, I'm all alone tonight. What do you want to do?" Leo seems surprised that I actually want him to stay after the breaking into my room at the worst possible moment. But he attempts to think of something whilst I sift through the underwear drawer, not bothering for a bra. That's a whole other case of stripping I'm not exactly ready for.

"We could watch a movie?" He finally suggests.

"Sounds like a plan," I reply. "We've got cookie dough that's about to go bad, so I can make that too. Do you want pizza?"

His eyes light up at the proposition, eagerly nodding. Handing him the phone, Leo goes to order the dinner while I get onto the banister and slide down the stairs. When I was about eight, I tried to slide down... that's how I wound up with a broken arm. I refused to do it for about six years following. Flipping the kitchen lights on, the oven is preheating while I pull out a pan and the cookies.

"I got half pepperoni, half cheese," Leo says, coming up behind me. His hands come out in front around my hips, and I assume he's about to hug me, but instead he helps lay all the cookies out on the pan.

"You chose well," I reply, turning around and attempting a wink. It doesn't turn out too well, instead I feel like it's a derpy blink, but he laughs nonetheless. We work in silence, and once the first two rows are filled, he has to step closer to reach the third. His, as I was corrected, plastron, hits my back which makes me jump slightly.

Now that the pan is filled, Leo takes it from me, though I state being able to doing it myself. But he argues about being the man of the house so I let him be. Unwrapping his arms around me, he sticks them in the oven and carries me over to the couch.

"Okay so what do you want to watch? We have everything."

"What do you want to watch?"

"Leo," I laugh. "You're the guest, you get to choose." A smirk grows on his face, and he looks over at me mischievously.

"Batman."

"Leonardo! That's not fair, he's my favorite."

"Really? I couldn't tell from the posters in your room at all," He teasingly states, grabbing the remote from me and turning the Christian Bale version on. "Let's see; if I remember correctly there was both Marvel and DC, Transformers, and then some boyband."

"Shut up and watch the movie," I blushingly command.

---

Almost three movies, two pizzas, and half a batch of burnt cookies later, Leo and I are still on the couch, avidly watching Gone with the Wind. He wanted the fan on, and then proceeded to stuff me under several blankets because I was getting cold. So now, Leo is on one end of the couch, with a cookie halfway in his mouth; and me on the other end, where one can only see my head.

"You know I don't bite, right?" I finally say, breaking him out of his intense trance.

"I just assumed you wanted to stay in your mountain," He replies, finally putting the cookie in his mouth.

"Well unless you came over here to just get free food, I'm expecting companionship," I giggle as he blushes in embarrassment. So Leo hops over, taking off two blankets and leaving me with just the one. He then picks me up as if I'm a feather and places me under his arms so I'm even more swaddled.

"Better?" He asks, resuming the movie.

"Much better. You want to know something?"

"Sure."

"I never feel as safe as when I am with you."

Leo looks down at me, shifting slightly so I can move my head to face him. He seems confused by my statement, though I'm not exactly sure why. It seemed fairly straightforward to me? It takes a moment for him to respond, the only function is a dorky smile appearing on his lips.

"I make you feel safe?"

"Since the moment I met you," I confirm.

He never says anything after that, but words aren't necessary I suppose. Instead, his grip around me tightens slightly, his muscles flexing and remaining firm.