Leo didn't leave his room the next day, not even to eat or patrol. His brothers didn't come get him either, Which leo had to admit, was disappointing. He figured at least mikey would be worried, perhaps they didn't realize the weight of what they said.
That was most likely.
His brothers often overlook important emotional aspects at times, Even mikey, self proclaimed Dr. Feelings. Perhaps mikey was just so upset with him and splinter that he overlooked his brother's emotions.
Leo honestly didn't know. He hoped his family still gave a crap about him but he wouldn't just ask them.
Cause he's a coward that simply doesn't want to know the answer. Or perhaps he knows the answer and is lying to himself.
The next day leo was forced to leave his room to eat. His insomnia was acting up again so he was up early at 6:00 am.
He made his way downstairs and made himself a bowl of dry cereal. He wanted milk but april had forgotten to go to the store again. He would have to remind her. considering she was the only person that didn't hate his guts right now, he didn't mind.
He returned to his room shortly after and ate it. It hardly filled him up since he hadn't eaten the day before, but he wasn't going back down. His brothers were up now and he wasn't looking forward to their next encounter.
Splinter showed up at his door with a few loud knocks that startled the slider out of his bed. He begrudgingly got out of bed muttering a few 'coming, coming.' Before opening his door.
"Blue. We need to talk." The short rat said as soon as he had opened the door. Very subtle. But then again when was his dad ever subtle.
"Sure dad, come in." Leo said nonchalantly.
The small rat stepped inside. "Your brothers told me you didn't come out of your room at all today or yesterday." The rat said.
Oh, so they did notice and just didn't care. "Yeah well, I don't exactly feel like getting yelled at again." Leo said sarcastically, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared down at the small rat.
"Leonardo, we talked about this. Your brothers just need time." Splinter said, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head.
Leo barely resisted the urge to start an argument over the leadership position again.
"So you want me to go out with a team who doesn't listen to me and could put us all in a bad position, or even get us hurt? Dad, you know as well as I do this will only lead to disaster." Leo said, narrowing his eyes at Splinter.
Leo didn't know if he would be good at leading, he had lead the team temporarily once or twice sure, but he prefers the sidelines, waiting to step in should the need arise. Being thrust into this new position has not only put alot of pressure on him but had now caused chaos among the team. It would all be fixed if Splinter would just admit he was wrong and put raph back in the leader position.
But he wouldn't, and now leo was paying for it.
"Then you need to get them to listen to you." The rat said as if it was the simplest thing ever.
"And how exactly would I do that?" Leo said condescendingly.
"The only way trust is built is by spending time with them, you can't stay locked up in your room and expect everything to change while you're absent." The rat said, turning to leave. "Go on more missions and prove you are worthy Leonardo. I know you are and you do too." And like that Splinter had left the slider alone in his room.
Splinter had chosen raph as their leader and protector at an early age. It was chosen merely based on age rather then who had the capability of it.
Leo had naturally always thought raph was the best choice. But his plans often needed work, if they even had a plan at all. Most of the time they'd just wing it. He could see why his father might not deem him fit to lead. But why him? And at such a horrible time as well.
Even if his sensei had his reasons, it didn't make it any easier.
Patrol that night was the exact same as the last. No one spoke, they all bore holes into leo's shell, and they got practically nothing done.
Now, Leonardo rarely listened to Splinter. He respected his dad okay? But his advice was often unreliable to put it lightly. Just this once however, leo decided he would try it his dad's way. He would work with them to the best of his abilities and try to build trust again. At least then he could say he really had tried.
Leo skidded to a halt suddenly, causing the others behind him to run into eachother. They all groaned in annoyance as they got up, leo ignored them, focusing on the reason he had stopped. A scream. Faint, but definitely a scream, a few blocks over and coming from a female.
His brothers were still complaining and demanding why he had stopped so suddenly but he held up a finger to silence them. "Hear that?" He prompted impatiently, wanting to get a move on.
Wait... what was he doing. He's the leader!
"A scream, few blocks that way. Follow." He told them, quickly changing direction, the others followed. Leo strained his hearing since he wasn't necessarily sure where exactly the woman was.
They ran, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Leo was looking around frantically. Then he found her.
A woman, maybe early twenties. Being attacked by four guys down in the alleyway. Each of them were rather large and wore the symbol of a black serpent. Either on their arms, wrists, neck or forehead. Gang then. They were rather muscular and they all had weapons. Two of them with big knives, one with a baseball bat and the last with machete.
This was a delicate situation, they needed to be careful or the girl could be hurt. "Okay, we need to be careful here. Wait for my-"
Leo was cut off as raph charged forwards. "Come on!" Raph shouted, jumping off the building, donnie and mikey following suit.
"Wait!-" Leo attempted to stop them but they had already left.
Seriously?! Leo thought furiously. He quickly Unsheathed his katana and portaled.
"Alright beautiful.. don't make any noise and no one has to get hurt." The man with the machete said. Approaching the woman who was slowly backing further and further into the alley. "L-look if you want money just take it please!" She stammered, yelping when she had bumped into the alley wall. It was a dead end.
"We don't want money." The man with the baseball bat said, the two knife wielding men chuckled evily..
The woman's eyes widened in horror.
Just as the man with the machete closed in on her raph had landed in the alleyway loudly. Causing the men to all whirl around in shock. Donnie and mikey landed behind the snapper and unsheathed their weapons.
"Let her go." Raph growled.
All the men stared in fear at what they were seeing. Even the woman was horrified at her rescuers.
Leo's portal brought him to a lower and closer roof. He had a sneaky suspicion he knew what was about to happen and would need to time this right.
"M-monsters!!!" One of the men said cowering behind the machete man, who was probably calling the shots.
Raph took a step closer. "Last warning, let the woman go and we won't hurt you." Donnie and mikey flanked on his sides.
They won't surrendered. Leo could tell, they were scared and they were going to do somthing rash. He should get down there and help.
Before he could do anything the man with the machete suddenly ran to the woman. He grabbed her roughly and spun her around, placing the massive knife at her neck. Raph, donnie and mikey all froze. "Alright!!! Come any closer and I'll f**king kill her!!!" The man shouted. The other men looked at him like he was crazy.
The three turtles froze, now realizing how badly they had come about this.
Leo knew if they tried to do anything now, the man would kill her, he might anyways. Scared people do unpredictable things.
Priority one was getting the woman to safety. Leo held out his katanas and focused. He wasn't use to his new portals quite yet. But he's been practicing. He focused, he needed to portal right behind the man and knock him out so his brothers could take down the other three.
"Now! I want you three, whatever you are, to leave! If you stay here for longer then ten seconds I swear I'll-!"
With a flash of blue, leo appeared right behind the man and quickly hit him in the back of his head with his katana hilt. "-slit her neck-!" He fell over with a thud, causing the machete to fall out of the man's hand and onto the ground. To woman yelped in surprise and whirled around the face leo.
The other men yelled in outrage and charged at the blue turtle, weapons raised.
Leo quickly pulled the woman by the arm, and put himself between her and the men. Raph, donnie and mikey were also charging to meet the men in combat before they could reach the slider.
Donnie and mikey managed to get one of the knife men and the baseball bat man to fight them but the third continued his course. The man took out some throwing knifes and threw them towards the slider. They were horribly aimed and only one was actually flying towards him. Leo blocked the one knife with his left katana and charged at the man.
This thug was clearly inexperienced so this shouldn't be to hard. He brought his left katana down on the man's left arm. Surprisingly he managed to dodge and was now looking wide eyed and scared. These type of scum always look like such cowards once they meet someone willing to fight back.
The man began to jab rapidly with his knife. Leo dodged them all gracefully, hooking the man's weapon with sword and disarming him. The man yelped looking at his now empty hand and began to backup slowly.
Leo popped his neck, left and right in a threatening, almost cocky gesture. He slammed the man against the wall, and held his katana (the unsharp side) to his neck. "Now, I don't want you to ever do anything like that to a woman again hear me? If you do, I will know. I'll hunt you down and end your miserable existence..." he whispered darkly into the man's ear. "Do I make myself clear?"
The man whimpered and nodded violently.
He let go of the man ubrubtly causing him to fall to the ground. For good measure and because he was pissed. He dropped his katana hilt on the man's neck to knock him out.
Casting a quick glance at his brothers he found that they had taken out the other two men and were tying them up to report to the police.
That went really well! Leo was proud of himself. It felt pretty good to lead a successful mission.
He turned back to the woman, she was shaking and watching the turtles warily. But she didn't seem scared.
"Ma'am, you alright?" Leo asked, taking a few steps closer, but keeping his distance as not to scare her. "F-fine I guess. They didn't hurt me. I'm glad you showed up when you did though." She shivered in horror. "W-what are you...?"
Leo smirked. "Oh, these are just costumes! We like to keep an eye on the neighborhood. These help intimate criminals." He lied easily.
The woman looked relieved. "Oh thank goodness." She sighed."Well I'll be leaving now, thank you so much for the help." She turned and left the alley quickly. Giving thankful nods to his brothers as she passed.
Leo smiled watching her leave. He looked over to raph expecting a "good job" or somthing but all he got was a glare.
...what? Why...
Leo's face fell. Overwhelming sadness over came him, what more did he have to prove.
"Where were you leo?" Raph asked suddenly.
What?
"What?" He echoed his thoughts, staring in confusion.
"You weren't down here for like three minutes, you didn't follow us. What? You think we were going to do it by ourselves?"
The sadness was instantly replaced with anger. "Excuse me?" He laughed bitterly. "Excuse me?! I was the on to save the damn woman! What were you doing?! Running in without considering the fact that the girl could be injured." He retorted, fists clenching. Leo was mad.
"Oh, that's rich coming from you mister "I'm going to run in alone and hope for the best". Raph mocked, crossing his arms over his plastron.
Leo stared at raph, forget being mad he was straight up pissed. He was certain his eldest brother was just looking for reasons to belittle him. To mock him just because of a slight role adjustment. It enraged him! He was getting sick and tired of this treatment.
The slider snarled and stomped over to raph, untill he was right infront of him and glaring up at the snapper. "That's different and you know it! That woman could have died today because of you, all because you couldn't suck up your pride and listen to me. For once I wish you would just trust me!"
"This isn't a matter of trust, Leon-"
"Isn't it!?" Leo interupted him. "You have never trusted me, no one has ever trusted me. And that's fine, I can't force you to do anything. But I'm responsible for you now, so for once-!"
Raph's expression morphed onto fury. "You're not responsible for us leo! You aren't our leader and you never will be! That position has been mine since our mutation, and if you think I'm just going to let you take it then you need to get your head checked!" The snapper's voice cracked with emotion as tears built in his eyes.
Leo continued to glare at his brother, even as a small tear slid down his face, even as he reached up to wipe it away.
Should he feel bad? His brother has done nothing but treat him poorly for weeks. Why should he feel bad that his brother is crying? That his brother feels like he has no place in the team now because he has no position to call his own. Was that not what leo has gone through since he was seven?
Leo sighed, his fists unclenched and he stared sympatheticly up at him. "Raph..."
"You know what? I don't want to hear it. Let's just go home."
No, I'm trying to apologize can't you see? Can't anyone see? Raph turns to walk away. "Fine." He mutters instead.
Leo looks down at his katana, tempted to portal home and leave his brothers to walk. He might as well.
As he lifts his sword to create a quick portal he sees somthing in the corner of his eyes. A slight movement that his brothers hadn't seen.
The man with the machete is getting up, and mikey doesn't see him! The man charges at mikey, hand raised to deliver a devastating slash. "Mikey!" Leo yells, running to try and stop it.
The box turtle half turns just as the weapon comes down on his shoulder.
Blood splattered across the alley floor.
A/N I'm glad people actually like this story, to be honest I wasn't sure if I liked it. I'll try to get parts out more frequently. This book likely won't be to long (famous last words) so hopefully we'll make some progress with the plot soon lol
Bonus meme that I made a while ago: