Leorai A-Z Challenege

Snake

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Little did she know....

"Karai! Karai?" Leo called out. He looked down at the ground to see white and purple scales scattered near a dumpster. It had to be her. She had be some where close by. She just had to be.
He had been looking for his dear friend for quite a while now and his brothers called him twice to check up on him. He knew they would call him again any moment now. They tried to get him to return home, but Leo refused. He was not going to return home without Karai.
It would never be home if Karai wasn't there. He couldn't even imagine a life without her, nor a world.
Where Karai was hiding was a mystery, but why she was in the first place was less of a mystery for him. It had been days since she was mutated and since then she had been isolating herself from everyone, hiding away and refusing to say anything nor looking at anyone.
He knew it was a horrendous thing that happened to her. She was forced to be mutated, held against her will by her own so-called-father of a monster. Still, though, he wanted to reach out to her. He wanted to help her. But how could be able to if he couldn't find her anywhere in this damn city?
He followed the trail of scales and began to climb up a fire escape when he noticed that there were a few sprinkled on the ladder. Leo suspected that she still had the rooftops as her personal hiding place, even if she lacked less limbs than she did originally.
As he climbed up, Leo looked back on the times he and Karai spent their nights together on the rooftops. He missed those days. He missed Karai.
She wasn't gone, not at all, but it felt like it. But only because she was always hiding from him. Other than that, she was still there. She was still herself, she was still existing, just in a different physical form. Did he care? No. He loved Karai, only Karai, and she was still Karai. That's all that mattered to him in the end.
When he first met her, Leo immediately found her irresistible. Her short, black hair, her lovely, pale face, her strong and shapely figure, and more attributes that would have easily seduced any boy. But his heart really started to beat when she held her tanto at his throat  with mischief and allusiveness apparent in her eyes. Strong, feisty, serious yet quite mischievous, and full of hidden depths that hardly anyone had passed....she was Leo's type of woman.
He knew she was still like that, except she was now more broken than she ever was. Broken and lost. And Leo wanted nothing more than to find her and put her back together.

At the top of the building, Leo scanned the place for any signs of Karai. Before him was nothing but an air duct, the view of more building tops and buildings, the night sky, a billboard, a white tail under the billboard, some trash--....wait.
Leo smiled at the sight of the tail. He held back a chuckle at the sight of Karai's poor hiding skills. It's difficult to hide when you're a giant, humanoid snake. Leo carefully approached her tail. He crouched down and sure enough, there she was. "Karai." he breathed. She whirled around to face him with wide eyes. He smiled and tried to approach her, but she quickly climbed up the billboard and perched herself on top of the billboard.
"Karai! Wait!" he hollered to her. "Lleeoo." she hissed. Leo's limbs itched to climb up the billboard to be with her, but he stayed on the ground and figured it'd be best to give her the space. He called, "Karai, please. Stop running away from me. I want to help you."
Karai shook her head. "Pleasssse, Leoo. Leave me alloonnne." she said.
His hands fisted and he replied with, "I can't do that, Karai. I can't leave you like this."
He was trying to fight back the tears that were stinging his eyes. Little did he know that Karai was fighting back the same painful sensation he was enduring in her own eyes.
There was temporarily silence between the two reptiles. Leo was focused on Karai and Karai only, taking in her new, reptilian appearance. He felt a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. He wanted to tell Karai how she was still beautiful. He admired how graceful and feminine her curves were, how smooth and white/purple her scales were, how dazzling her eyes were.
He wanted to tell her these things, if he could. But she wasn't letting him. She didn't believe these things.
"Lleeoo, go homme. You have a famillyy." she pleaded to him. "So do you! The same family as you! They miss you. We all miss you, Karai." he pleaded back to her. Karai turned her back to Leo and sat down at the billboard's top. Leo finally had it and climbed up the billboard's ladder.
Karai hissed at him. "Lleeoo!" she exclaimed. "Karai," he began, "please, just hear me out."
Reluctantly, she gave in. Leo swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat and finally spoke out.
"Karai, why are you hiding from me?"
"Because, Lleeoo, I no longer belloonngg with yoouu."
Leo couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What? Karai, that's not true! You'll always belong with us. You still do. You matter to us just as much as Splinter, or April, or Casey, or any of us. You're family and a friend." he said.

Karai's heart twitched from Leo's heartwarming words, yet she still felt down-hearted. "But....." she tried to speak, but couldn't. Leo paid all of his attention to Karai, eager to hear what she had to say. "But what?" he asked gently and confused.
Karai finally said, "I-I.......I'm a freak."
Leo smirked. "First of all, you're talking to a mutant ninja turtle. And second of all, who said being a freak was a bad thing?" he pointed out.
Karai stopped herself from smiling at Leo's comment and corrected him with, "No, Lleoo. You don't get ittt. I am a monsssterrr."
Now at that certain quote, Leo's heart stopped. Monster? Karai was not a monster. Scales and fangs meant nothing, they didn't mean she was a monster. A monster was something that had no heart, no soul. Shredder was a monster from he had done to him, his family, his friends, and now Karai, who was supposed to be his 'daughter'. There was no doubt that Shredder was the definition of a monster. Karai was the opposite. She did have a heart, she did have a soul, even if they were hidden underneath her fangs and scales.
"No you're not!" he announced. He wanted her to know that she wasn't a monster no matter what.
Leo jumped up to grab onto the billboard's ledge and climbed up, finding himself the closest he had been towards Karai in days. She slithered back a few inches away from him, looking like a child who had been caught red-handed by their parent.
"Karai," he said softly, "You're not a monster. The only monster here is Shredder. He did this to you. But you're not a freak. You're still yourself, you just....look different, that's all, and that doesn't matter. Not to me, and I bet not to any of the others. We still care about you. Please.....come home. Please, Karai. We miss you."
Karai looked down in shame and sadness. She hated this whole mess she was in. Then, she heard Leo's voice whisper, "....I miss you."
Karai looked up at him. He was staring at her with misery. She felt her heart tear open and all her emotions began to pour out all over the place. In the snap of finger, she was coiled around the turtle with her arms draped around his broad shoulders and her head nuzzled against his, tears drizzling from her closed eyes.
Leo felt great warmth rush over him. He missed having her arms around him and he was glad to have that moment back.....even though her new extra strength was crushing him like an anaconda squeezes its prey. However, he bore through it and hardly cared since it meant he now had Karai back. "Ll-lleooo....." she hoarsely hissed. He looked into her bright green eyes. She blinked and said, "Wwhhyy are you sssoo gooodd too meee?"
"Because I love you. Why else?" he answered, smiling. And for the first time in days, Karai smiled.