Your POV
"Come on..." I mumble, flipping through more stupid pages of this stupid history textbook. "Give me a date. Either I'm dumb or this book's broken." I readjust in the chair, so tired of sitting at this desk. Because it has to be just my luck that the internet won't give me consistent dates and the chapter of this book doesn't tell me anything about when such an interesting event in history happened. Especially when there's just two more questions left and I could be done with this so fast.
The light from outside shifts, making me turn over my shoulder to see Leo leaning in my doorway.
"Hey, I'm almost finished."
"Mikey's almost ready to drag you out of here."
I smile a little, then open up my Google searches again. "I have just a couple more questions."
His voice is closer this time. "Can I help?"
"Oh no, you don't have to. It shouldn't be much longer."
"You said you were almost finished ten minutes ago."
"I can't find the right dates for one of the last questions. All the websites on the stupid internet say something different." I mutter, scrolling through my phone to at least find the most reported year.
I hear the bed sink from right behind me, then smile at feeling Leo's chin resting on my shoulder. And just like that he's got me from irritated to fluttery in a matter of seconds.
"Are you still mad I made you go to bed early last night?" He guesses.
I laugh, partially scoffing. I had meant to close my eyes for a few minutes but ended up practically falling asleep on the laptop while working. It wasn't much longer before Leo found me like that.
"I let you put me to sleep."
"You were too tired and delirious to fight me."
"Yes, and I knew that, which is why I let you drag me away from weeks worth of late work to go to bed at the ridiculously early hour of 10 PM."
His arms settle around my stomach from behind, giving me way too many butterflies to be having this casual conversation. "See, ya sound mad, yet despite the early bedtime you still wouldn't wake up this morning."
"If you're so worried about my sleep then why are you forcing me to go to a party," I playfully challenge him. His arms leave me to turn the chair so I'm facing him.
"Because all you do is go to school, do homework and get not enough sleep. You've kept it up for weeks, you need to do something fun. We all say so." He gives me a pointed look and all-knowing smile. "Don't act like you're not looking forward to this."
I smile a little. "I am. I just... I still think you guys should go trick-or-treating. If you do it every year I don't want you to not go because I have schoolwork."
"We don't do it every year." He reasons, to which I give him a knowing look. But, I guess it wasn't really a lie since last year was their first time deciding to go out for Halloween. But I know they would've done it every year before if they weren't so worried about the risk.
"I know you guys did it last year."
"We're doing this instead because I know you're tired, and something nice and easy down here won't wear you down. That, and it's safer down here."
"That's what I'm saying. You don't have to change your plans for me."
"It's safer for all of us. And you've been working non stop for weeks."
"I know, I know." I sigh, running fingers through my hair in frustration. "But it's important to my supervisor I get my grades up and I've got like half of everything done. I just want to stay on track so I don't have to keep doing this until Christmas."
"No, I know." Leo places his hand on my arms, dragging them down to hold my hands in his. "Of course I get it. But... you have two months before the semester's up. You know you gotta take breaks. And we want you to celebrate with us, too. We got a lot planned, it's gonna be fun."
"... As long as you're really okay about staying down here."
"Y/n, I want to spend today with you. So, if it makes you feel any better, I'm making you do this for completely selfish reasons," he says, getting me to smile.
"Okay." I smile wider, and drop my pencil on the desk.
Leo grins so widely, and immediately scoops me out of the desk chair and into his arms. But he lets us fall back on top of the bedsheets, unexpectedly rapid-fire kissing all over my face.
"Leooo," I laugh uncontrollably, getting way too flustered at the sudden onslaught of attention. I couldn't help my squirming as he wouldn't let me pull away, his hand around my cheek keeping me in his reach. "Leo, stoooop."
"What? Is this too much affection for you? You don't like my affection?"
"Yes! It's too much. You know you can't just sneak attack me like that!"
He just laughs, eyes crinkling. I can't stop smiling myself. For a stretch of silence, we just gazed at each other side by side, something exchanging between us. Something a little different, that hasn't been there in a long time. A moment that actually felt normal.
Leo leans over and connects us in a single movement. When his lips press onto mine, I'm instantly reaching up to hold his neck and pull him closer. One of his arms slip around me, and I feel his other hand tangle in my hair, cradling the back of my head. His kiss held such a softness I thought I was actually melting from inside out. Our gentle breaths mingled, lips moving at a slow, firm pace in the comfortable silence. Time slowed down with us, allowing me to savor his hands and lips on me for a little while.
I didn't mean to pull away so abruptly. I'm sure he didn't either, but Mikey's superpower of yelling made us both jolt apart.
"Leo, drag her out here before I do! Halloween waits for no one!"
I glance through my open door, towards the way of the living room. "Geez."
"Yeah, he gets pretty serious about Halloween. Come on." He pauses for a second, staring at me before a smile comes out. When he moves away, climbing from above me, I feel his hand slip around mine before I'm pulled up.
"There you are, Y/n." April smiles when I get into the living. She's wearing fake fangs and somehow looks even paler in the face. "Where's your costume?"
"Nonexistent, since I didn't know about this until today."
"Come on, ya gotta have a costume."
"Oh, really? I have to have a costume?" I chuckle, which Casey takes offense to.
"Uh, yeah. It's tradition. Or– it's gonna be... Guys!" He turns to the others sitting around the couch. "Yes or no to forcing Y/n into a costume?!"
The others don't even look up from their activities as a sea of yeses is yelled from the couch area.
I sigh and look to Leo in defeat, to which he just gives me a huge smile. "Nothing like forced fun with your family."
A flutter erupts in my stomach at that last word. How he said it so normally... to me. "Okay, fine. I'll wear the one costume I have: sewer resident. Oh look! I'm already wearing it."
"We can pull something together better than that." Casey says. Which is ironic, because he's pretty much wearing his normal clothes with fake blood all over them, and a different mask that looks like it's supposed to belong to a serial killer.
"Way ahead of you guys." April's rooting around a pile sitting on a table they set up. "Mikey has an insane pile of Halloween themed clothes. How about... ooh! This!" She pulls out a black t-shirt with a bunch of pink fleshy inner organs all over it.
"YES. That would perfectly make up for the wackness of not having a costume."
I chuckle a little, but don't know what to say. It's not the pink graphics that bother me. Suddenly I'm more attached to my jacket than ever, staring at the daunting short sleeves. "Uh..."
"How about something a little less... icky?" Leo suggests, saving me the trouble.
"Fair enough." April sets it aside.
Casey shakes his head. "Wimps."
"And while they're looking..." I nearly miss Leo slip something from the table, but catch a couple of little witches on a broom stemming from the purple and orange headband he places on my head.
"Perfect. Thank you so much." I deadpan.
Leo smirks back, tapping my nose. "You are most welcome."
"Ah, here we go!" I focus back over to April and Casey, each holding up the long sleeves of a glow-in-the-dark skeleton onesie.
"You're not afraid of bones are you?"
"Watch yourself, Jones." Leo warns, in a joking way I'm pretty sure.
"Yeah, yeah. Looks comfy. I'll take it."
April hands me the onesie. As I head back to my room to change, I see Leo looking through the pile himself. I get switched into the last minute costume, then turn off the lights to see the bones glow in the dark, which, I gotta say, was actually pretty cool.
A buzz from my bed catches my attention. When I grab my phone I see it's a message from Camila.
Heeeey. I know you're a major
introvert but you should come
trick or treating with my brother
and sister and me later
I chuckle lightly at the screen. As nice as Camila is she's also incapable of ever being too serious.
Sorryyy I really do have to spend
this weekend doing as much as
I can with all my late work 😢
Her message bubble pops up and I quickly type up another text before she can chew me out about studying too much.
Don't worry I'm already being
forced to do something fun
instead of working on it tonight
Yeah you better 🤨 But
I get it. Don't study too
hard. Eat some candy
Ask me if you want to cheat
on your Spanish hw
Lol ok. Thanks for the offer
I hit send and slip my phone into my side pocket– oh hey this thing has pockets? Cool!
"Alright, Halloween junkies. I have returned."
They all turn to get a look at the outfit, making me stand here in a wonderfully awkward silence. April's the first to speak. "I think it needs something else."
"You people are never satisfied."
"Hm..." Leo rubs his chin and I don't hide the over-exaggerated roll of my eyes. He just smirks. "Casey, you bring any face paint?"
"You know it."
"Oh, we're getting deep into this huh?" I raise my eyebrows as Casey reaches into his pockets.
"Do you know any of us to ever do less?"
Casey tosses Leo a couple small containers of black and white. "You're gonna look dope, kid."
Casey and April leave us, going over to what I hadn't noticed before as a setup up with candy apple fixings on another table: apples on a stick, melted caramel and chocolate, nuts, and chocolate chips. Mikey really does go all out...
"Alright. Let's get you looking scary. Please, step into my office."
"Oh, boy." I smile and shake my head, sitting in one of the stools pulled from the kitchen. "I hope you all appreciate me letting you do this."
Instead of a response, he kisses my forehead and opens up the face paints. And darn it if I couldn't not smile in watching him to start silently working, dipping his fingers into the white first. He comes incredibly close, looking down and focusing on my face. Between the proximity and his fingers gently holding and coloring my face, I got a little thrown off again. Feeling the constant pressure of his fingers gripping my chin and rubbing over my face was hard to ignore.
The painting went on for a little while and I kept myself from fidgeting during too much. But I should've known we'd never make it without him bringing it up. "Your face is getting a little hot there." He smiles calmly, like it was a conversational remark.
"Uh, your face is hot!" I immediately shout back in defense.
Crap no that was compliment NOT WHAT I MEANT.
"Oh is it?" He grins even more, copying my patented attitude.
"It will be from embarrassment when I dump this bowl of caramel on you." I manage to get back on track, but geez if he isn't good at one-upping me sometimes.
"So it's embarrassment making you so flustered right now?" That grin finally morphs into its final stage, an insufferable smirk, because he knows he's got me. His forefinger nudges my chin more upwards towards him. "Now why would you be embarrassed around me?"
Crap, I hate it when he makes me feel things. Stupid butterflies.
Outwardly I sulk as my face heats beneath his touch, turning away. "Leave me alone, Leonardo."
He laughs, shaking his head at me, like it's funny. "Never. But I'm done, by the way."
Keeping my annoyed stone face at him, I open my phone's camera to see. The stretch of uncovered skeleton teeth extending from my mouth was coolest part. That and the rest of the face paint hiding the scar on my jaw for once. "Hey, not bad. It looks cool. Where'd you see how to do this?"
"Casey wears his face like this on missions enough times that it's permanently burned into my memory."
"Very true." I smile a little. Then I step back to give him an obvious once over, and cross my arms. "Now where's your costume."
"Oh I've got a costume."
"Well what is it?"
"I guess you'll find out it in a couple minutes." He playfully sasses back, then slips past me out of my view. I turn to find him again, seeing something hidden behind his back now.
"Hm." I narrow my eyes as he disappears into the kitchen. I guess to have a more dramatic reveal.
I hop off of the stool and down to the couch, where some really old Halloween program was playing. No one was watching though, still tampering with their own costumes.
"Look who finally showed up to the party. Nice get up."
"Why thank you." I relax in the empty space beside Raph, looking at the hollowed pumpkin he continuously stabs a knife into.
"Happy Halloween, dawg! Buzz buzz!" Mikey suddenly jumps from where he was hunched over on the floor. Now I could see his disguise in full, and... I'm a bit confused. But he still looked adorable.
"Whoa... That is awesome. What are you, Butterfly... Guy?"
"Close, buzz buzz. Meet my alter eggo, Turflytle!" He poses in a hero position, wearing the hugest grin. "Pretty cool name right? I came up with it when I had to find Mr. O'Neil."
"Uh. Okay?"
"It's alter ego by the way." Donnie cuts in while adjusting his hat.
"Whatever, buzz buzz."
"That is adorable."
Raph rolls his eyes in disagreement with me. "If by adorable you mean incredibly annoying."
"Silence, Maggot Boy!"
"Do not call me that!" He yells, jabbing said knife at his little brother.
I chuckle, then lean over to see Donnie in a costume I actually recognize from the picture of them LARPing from when Leo made good on his promise to send them all to me. "Okay let me guess. Either one of Alex Russo's brothers, or Dumbledore."
"Not exactly. Just your regular mutant turtle wizard." He smiles, then pauses in thought. "Although I guess I could be Dumbledore... Wait, should I?"
"Uh, does Dumbledore have a snow globe attached to a bo staff?" I ask, looking at the trinket taped to his weapon.
"Heh, heh. Nice touch, right?"
"Ya look awesome, Don Don."
Making the rounds, I move right on to Raph.
"Aaand what's up with you?"
"Whatta ya mean?"
I raise an eyebrow, which makes him sigh and lean over for something. The next second; he slapping a post it note that has the word 'BOOK' scribbled onto his forehead. "There. I'm Facebook. Ta da." There was also a doodle of a little angry Raph head in one 'o' and a tiny book illustration in the other. I guess this is the most effort he would dare to give.
"Wow. No dwarf barbarian costume?"
"Never. Again." He looks me in the eyes with the utmost seriousness. I still can't help my laughter. "I was pretty certain you were gonna dress up as a princess though."
"I was gonna but I couldn't find your fairy princess costume." I fire back.
"Oh my g– that was ONE time! I swear the next person who brings it up is gonna end up as the next pumpkin I carve."
Donnie and Mikey laugh along with me, making Raph go back to stabbing the pumpkin in a simmering pout.
Mikey suddenly gasps. "Whooooa, Leoooo. Goin' with the classics?"
I quickly turn my head, finding Leo standing above the couch with a grappling hook in hand. A brown trench coat and matching hat sat atop his head and shoulders. It was actually a pretty awesome look overall.
"Whatta you think?" He jumps down to the floor, standing back to let me take him in.
"Okay, the coat and hat are awesome," I grin up at him, "but what are you?"
"A sixteenth century monster hunter." He jumps into a stance, pointing his grappling hook "gun" at something invisible. "Dedicated to cleansing the earth of evil spirits!"
"Ahhh, pretty cool."
"Thanks." He winks.
"... But you dressed me up as a monster."
"Huh. What a coincidence." He shrugs coolly, walking past me to take a seat on the couch. I shake my head and plop back down where I was before, between the two brothers.
"Heads up." Raph tosses Leo another pumpkin over my head like it's nothing.
"Wanna help me make a Jack-o-lantern?"
"Sure. Let's do it." I sit up excitedly.
He scoots a little closer and takes out something sharp to carve the features with. Before doing anything else, Leo looks me in straight in the eyes. "Okay, Y/n. I will let you use this, just this once."
"Okay, you have got to get over the knife thing." I groan.
"Never gonna happen." He smirks. "Just be careful. I'm watching you, Missy."
"Uh huh." I take the carver from him, and start on the eyes and nose, Leo holding it still and angling it for me. He takes over to carve its angry mouth so I can raid the bowl of candy. Once I glance over at our handiwork, I nod in satisfaction.
"Heeey, Jacky O. Lantern looks cool."
Leo lowers an electric candle into it. "I think we can come up with a better name than that."
"Like what? Raph Jr?" At that I feel a harsh flick at the back of my head. "Ow."
"Can it, Bride of Dorkenstein."
"Ooh! Ooh! I know!" Mikey rolls over on the floor to land in front of us. "I have the perfect idea! You have to promise to let me name it this!"
Leo grimaced unsurely. "What is it?"
"Okay, you guys ready for this? You should name it... Wait for it... Leo-Y/n!"
"... Excuse me?" Leo says after a while.
"Ugh. It's your names combined duh! You have to name your pumpkin that! Or uh, Y/n-Nardo! Hm... I gotta come up with more ship names for you guys."
I glance at Leo, the familiar feeling of heat blooming over my face again. When he looks at me, I grin and lift our pumpkin up so its face is towards Leo, raising my voice by a lot. "Father? Am I alive?"
I hear his laugh, and Mikey's too.
"Okay, Mikey. If it means that much to you."
"Yes! My ship will sail!" He cheers and kicks his feet on the floor from such excitement.
I can't help grinning as we both watch him, catching Leo's face of slight confusion as he shakes his head. "Such a goofball..."
Happily, I sit back and toss some more of my favorite candy into my mouth. Over the next couple hours we played some games, bumped Mikey's customized Halloween playlist, I made my own candy apple that was pretty damn tasty if I do say so myself, and the boys even got caught up in some weird version of a LARP even though all of their characters are completely unrelated. Splinter joined us just in time to see that, lucky for him.
"Alright, guys. For the archives!" Donnie yells, propping his phone up on the TV as we all gather together for a picture, smiling. On a timer, the T-phone snaps a picture and immediately resets for another. "Okay, okay, now get in character."
Everyone immediately jumps into a pose. Mikey was pretending to fly, Leo was pointing with the grappling hook like he was in a movie, Casey held his baseball bat to look like he was about to crack Splinter's head open, April pretends she's about to bite into Raph's arm, and I'm pretty sure Raph's just rolling his eyes at having to take a second picture.
Unsure of what to do for a second, I try to get in a stance that'll look cool in case just the glowing bones show up. I stand on the seat of the couch above Mikey, wiggling my skeleton fingers and pretending to sneak up on him, like I'm about to pounce.
The camera snaps, then we all gather around to see the results. Except for stone-faced Raph who gets brushed past in refusing to move. I lean on Mikey's shoulder to see. With all of us doing such different, goofy things it looks hilarious. And I love it. Especially in the second pic where Splinter is standing over all of us in the back, just watching us be silly with a smile on his face.
"We look dope yo!"
"Hurry and send it to the group chat! Hurry, hurry, hurry!"
"Calm yourself, Michael." Donnie advises as Mikey bounces up and down.
"Perhaps that is enough sugar for Michelangelo toni–"
"You guys said I could have as much candy as I want on Halloween! No take backs!!!" Mikey grabs one of the candy bowls and hugs it to his chest, backing away from everyone. "Try to take it from me! I dare you!"
Donnie facepalms and sighs heavily. "Just leave him. At this point it's more dangerous to deprive him."
"Okay! Get ready to settle down for the movie or I'm starting without you, nerds!" Raph calls out to everyone.
We start dispersing to prepare. I head for the candy bowl again, but my stomach grumbles at being filled without only sugar for this entire afternoon. "Aw crap I forgot to eat."
"What?" Leo's voice questions. "Y/n." I look over to see his scolding face and hands on his hips.
"I mean... I almost forgot to eat, but I didn't 'cause I'm gonna go do that right now?"
"Yes you are." He nods and moves for the kitchen. "I'll go see what's in the fridge."
"No, no." I grab his hand and pull him back before he can get in parent mode. "Don't worry. I'll do it myself." I start to walk towards the kitchen, then stop. After a second of thought, I turn and grab his hand again anyway to bring him with me. "You can come too, though."
His serious no-funny-business face morphs back into his soft smile as I pull him along.
With a stroke of luck, the first pizza box I grab and open from the refrigerator was one without any of Mikey's anchovies or jellybeans I'll have to pick off. And when I tell you not having to do the extra work gets me elated... "Yeeees, normal pizza!"
I shove a good few slices onto a plate and shove that bad boy into the microwave. Next I start back for the refrigerator, almost having forgotten my drink, but Leo's already setting a can of my favorite soda on the counter and sliding it to me with a knowing smile.
"Well you just think you know everything don't you?"
He comes around the table towards me and rests his hands on the countertop, surrounding either side of me. "I know you're glad I dragged you away from that desk and forced you to have fun with us."
I roll my eyes again, almost laughing at his unashamed smuggery. "I am. Thanks, dude."
One of his hands gently skim down my arm, as if to say 'you're welcome.'
"I uh, I really like this look." I compliment sheepishly, tugging at his hat lightly.
"Thanks, dude," he parrots, making me laugh.
"Two minutes, slow pokes!"
My head shakes at Raph's final call. "He is such a grump."
"Two minutes huh?" I hear Leo mumble. I'm about to ask what he means, but don't upon seeing his mischievous face come close. His hat shadows both of us once he closes the space between, and I know it's what we started in my room he wants to finish.
My body buzzed as he allowed less and less space between our fronts. His nose brushed mine before his lips landed on me. I become breathless, in a refreshing way. His arms trapped me against the countertop, but left enough room for me to reach up and grip his shoulders to keep him close. I lost all sense of how long two minutes is. I could only ever measure by the rhythm of Leo's soft breaths or how many times he broke us apart to re-emphasize the kiss with more force.
I didn't even hear the food timer go off. What got my attention was the sound of the movie starting after. But I know Leo only pulled back because of the sound of my stomach grouching at me again.
"As much as I'm okay with skipping the movie for this," he mumbles and sneaks in another quick peck, "I can't let you go hungry any longer."
"Buzzkill," I tease quietly, not bothering to hide my flustered smile. I move when he gives me room to grab my pizza from the microwave.
"You've wounded me, Y/n." Leo heavily leans onto the counter, holding a hand over his heart as if in actual pain. "I think you owe me another kiss to make up for that."
"You're a monster hunter, aren't you?" I cock an unimpressed eyebrow at him. In seeing his confused expression, I allow myself to grin cheekily before bolting away. "You're gonna have to catch me for it!"
I grip my pizza plate tighter and run as fast as I can, laughing as I hear his footsteps following. "Oh don't think I won't!"