Imaginary Friend

Purpose

Guys, I just wanted to say, thank you so much for the love this story has received. Thank you for joining me in this path, and thank you for bearing with me and my once-in-a-blue-moon updates XD. Last chapter, and I'm a bit sad it's over, but, hey! I actually finished something! I'll see you guys later (in other fanfics, perhaps), and thanks again.

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"D-Dad?"

The turtle's watery eyes focused fully on the rat in front of him, wide as the full moon above them.

Splinter could not speak for a few seconds, too shocked by whatever apparition stood in front of him to process the situation.

"Splinter? C-Can you hear me? Can you...see me?" the turtle asked tentatively, not willing to raise his hopes completely just yet. He took a cautious step forward, and Splinter's responding step back answered his question.

Leo's eyes glistened with tears, his cheeks hot from crying. Was this really happening? Was his biggest dream coming true? Could the moon have listened to him, truly? It seemed to perfect to be true.

"Are you...Leonardo?" the rat asked, his voice not betraying the stiffness his whiskers carried. He appeared to be calm and collected, though. But Leo could tell. He knew his Sensei. And now...now he was looking at him! He was talking to him!

Leo nodded, to choked up to form words. He felt like a lost kid all over again, when he found out he was just the spectator. The ghost. Only now, he was being acknowledged by one of his most important people, not ignored.

"Michelangelo's Leonardo?" he asked once again, as if making sure he was understanding correctly. 

Leo nodded again.

Splinter eyed him up and down, and Leo instinctively stood up a bit straighter, as if they were in a normal training session and not in a reunion he wouldn't have thought he would ever have some days ago. The turtle felt, for all in the world, like a normal teenager. Well, as normal as he and his family could–

Wait.

His family.

His brothers.

Mikey.

"How–"

"Wait, Sensei!" Under normal circumstances, Leo would be mortified to have interrupted his father in such a way. But it seemed his intervention, or rather, his voice, startled him enough to keep him silent.

"Your sons! M-Mikey, and Raph, and Donnie, too! They're in danger, and we have to go, now!" he said, the previous desperation he had felt coming back and tainting his words with an ugly tremble. What was he doing?! Crying like an idiot and distracting Sensei when his brothers could be hurt, or–!

Or.

He refused to finish that sentence.

"What has happened?" At the mention of danger to the boys, Splinter's eyes snapped back into focus, as Leo knew they would. He was always so protective of them, and he was so good at protecting them from threats.

Unlike Leo.

"There's no time. Follow me!" 

Splinter hesitated for a split-second, before muttering something about yokais and following him on quick feet.

The city was no less beautiful than when Leo first went out, but he found that all of the features he had found to be eye-catching and bright seemed to dim under the pale light of the moon above. Maybe it was just his fear speaking, but it felt like the night itself was holding its breath for what happened next. Waiting for the end, and the beginning of morning.