The Bravery in his Eyes - A TMNT Leo X Reader Story

Chapter 29 - College Celebration Part 1

"Shh! She's coming!" Mikey whispered, followed by an excited whisper-squeal. The sound of a thwack happened, and he sounded annoyed. "Hey!"

"Shut up!" Raph muttered.

Leo stopped me and slowly uncovered my eyes. ‌"Okay, you can look!"

When I opened my eyes, everyone shouted, "Congrats Y/N!" A big glittery banner reading "Good Luck At College!" hung over the door to Donnie's lab. Balloons and streamers of my favorite colors were everywhere, even right in front of my face. I swatted some of them away so I could see the boys.

Mikey was in full party mode, wearing two party hats on both sides of his head and plastic shades that looked like blinds on a window. He held a noisemaker in between his teeth and blew on it hard a million times. "Go Y/N! College party time!"

I ran over to Mikey and squeezed him hard.‌ "Aw, thanks Mikey!"

Next to him was Donnie, who had some confetti and glitter covering his shell, probably left over from decorating the banner. I smiled at the toothy grin he gave me. "What do you think?"

"It's perfect, Donnie. Thank you."

"Hey, don't forget me!" Raph stepped closer to me with his arms crossed, but the lopsided grin plastered on his face told me he was excited about this too.‌ "I had the liberty of blowing up exactly twenty five of these balloons. It was hard work."

"And I blew up seven!" Mikey exclaimed.

Leo slung his arm over my shoulder and kissed my temple again. "We all worked hard to put this together. After all, tomorrow's a big day."

"You guys!" Tears threatened to spill from my eyes. "This is so sweet of you!"

Raph shook his head in mock annoyance. "Here come the waterworks."

"Just like when Mona left for space, huh?" Donnie quipped. He was really getting good at those.

Raph scoffed and raised his hand, about to swat Donnie behind the head. ‌Then, surprisingly, he stopped. "I don't know, Don. What about when Bigfoot was in love with you?‌ Did you feel any tears?"

Oh, snap. Donnie's face went completely red and he turned away, muttering something to himself.

Mikey jumped between them and stroke a dance pose. "Let's stop this and get into the par-tay already, dawgs! I'll go turn on some dance music!" He sped off to a speaker system, where his T-Phone was plugged in, and he gave Leo a mischievous look. "Who's ready for the best song?"

"Oh, please don't tell me-" And Raph was interrupted by Billie Eilish pumping through the speakers. "Noooooo..."

Leo laughed at their bickering and went to high-three Mikey. "Okay, we can stay for this song, but then we have to go to the next part. Donnie, can you grab the-"

"Already on it!" Donnie turned right around and slipped into his lab.

Before I could question what was going on, Leo pulled me to the speakers, where Mikey was laying down some moves. "Dance with us, Angel!" I happily obliged and let Leo spin me around and dip me so I was seeing the lair upside down. He held one of my hands and let us dance anything we wanted.

Mikey started breakdancing at one point, spinning around on the back of his shell and striking another pose. "Aw, yeah son! This is how we do it!"

The song came to an end, and Leo pulled me in for a kiss. I smiled against his lips and held him tight. "Thank you, Captain, it means the world to me."

"We're not done yet!" he said, brushing my hair back. "Let me go grab something real quick. I'll be back." He left a kiss on my forehead before going into Donnie's lab and carefully closing the door behind him so the banner wouldn't move too much.

Mikey shut off the speakers and took off the glasses. "Come on, Y/N, I wanna show you something awesome!"

I laughed at his enthusiasm as he led me towards the subway tracks just outside of the lair. More colorful balloons and streamers lined the walls all around us. As we made our way down the tracks, my jaw dropped. There were five go-karts lined up next to Donnie's garage door, one that matched each color of the boys' masks and one that was a dark blue next to what I assumed was Leo's. Super cute.

"We're gonna ride go-karts together and have a huge race! Of course, in celebration of you becoming a college girl!" Mikey exclaimed, giving me a high-three.

"That's so cool!" I rushed over to the dark blue one and saw a bunch of small presents all over the seat. "Aw, you guys are the best!"

Just as I was about to pick up a present, the garage door opened. Leo and Donnie walked out with Raph trailing behind, and Donnie held out a bunch of helmets with cool lightning bolts across the fronts that matched the mask colors again.

Wait, when did Raph go into the lab?

"So, what do you think?" Donnie asked as he handed Mikey his orange helmet.

I bounced back and forth on the balls of my feet and practically squealed. "These go karts are so awesome! I love it!"

"Well, technically they're patrol buggies-"

"Chill out, man. It's Y/N's day," Leo said as he took the dark blue helmet from Donnie and walked over to me. He placed it on my head and secured it tightly. I was melting at the fact that he wanted me to be safe.

"Where'd you get this helmet? I love it!"

Leo chuckled. "Donnie made it, I painted it blue so we could kind of match, you know, blue and blue."

My heart soared. He did that for me?

"You ready for this?" he asked, bringing one of my hands up to his lips so he could kiss my knuckles.

I giggled. "Yes!"

"Aww, that's adorable!" Mikey teased, grabbing Raph's hand and attempting to kiss it. Raph swatted Mikey's hand away and flicked him on the side of his head. "Ow!"

Everyone else strapped their helmets on and started piling into their go-karts. Leo held my hand to help me get into mine, moving some of the presents to the side and opening a compartment. "Figured you might need a place for them."

I swear, this day is perfect.

He helped me put them inside and put my seatbelt on. I settled back in the seat and gripped the steering wheel, feeling the textured leather and my excitement jumping. "I'm so ready for this!"

Donnie pressed a button on his kart, bringing all of the engines to life and turning on the headlights for everyone. "Okay, hold on!"

"Wait, wha-"

Everyone's karts shot forward at crazy speeds. I felt my hair whip back and the skin on my cheeks expand. "Woah!"

I think Donnie must have pressed another or gearshift, because they slowed to a more manageable speed. "Okay, take control of the gas!"

Below me were two pedals for the gas and breaks. I‌ put the gas petal to the metal (literally) and went speeding away. Leo's car somehow caught up with mine, and we rode side by side down the tracks. He glanced over at me and beamed, making my heart beat even faster than it already was.

It was like riding a crazy high that was actually good for you. I felt all of the stress I had been feeling about college melt away into nothingness. I realized that going to college was actually a reason to celebrate life. This was a huge turning point in my life.

As we kept speeding down the tracks and the other guys caught up with us, I knew that I would get through anything life threw at me as long as I‌had my new family.

And of course, my handsome Leo.