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Braving it in the New World	By : EvaBrick Category: Comics > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Views: 10116 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own the Ninja Turtles, nor am I making any money from them. I'm just borrowing the boys for a while. I do own my original characters.

Chapter List
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“Tell me more about yourself, Leo,” Lisa said as they walked through the sewer. He’d invited her for supper at the lair and she’d accepted, although she’d been nervous. Would he expect her to hug him again? Why had she done that anyway? She hadn’t reached out to embrace anyone since Bubba had... had...

“Uh, well what do you want to know?” the big turtle asked as they strolled down a long sewer tunnel. He kept his eyes forward, looking for rats. Lisa was afraid of them and she jumped every time one darted in front of them. He wanted to offer her his arm for comfort in the dark tunnel, but he didn’t want her to feel pressured to touch him. That hug hadn’t been a normal thing for her to do. He sighed inwardly... it had felt so good to hold her for those couple of seconds.

“I dunno,” she shrugged. “We talk about me all the time... too much maybe. I want to know about you.”

“I like talking about you,” Leonardo smiled, still watching for rats.

Lisa glanced quickly up to his face. Was he flirting with her? She shook the thought from her head. Of course he wasn’t. She it her lip and wondered why that disappointed her.

“You looked kinda stressed this afternoon,” she said. “Want to tell me about that?”

Leonardo groaned slightly. He hadn’t picked up the parts for the stereo. He was too tired. “Yeah, I guess I was,” he said. “Sometimes I guess I feel like I have to fix everything for everyone. Everybody wants me to do something for them all the time. I’m always the cop. Heck, I’m always the bad guy, too. When things go right, it’s a victory for the team, but when they go wrong, it’s my fault, cause I’m the leader.” He felt a little surprised at the words that just gushed out of his mouth. He’d only ever talked to April about that stuff before.

“Why are you the leader?” Lisa asked.

“Master Splinter picked me when we were teenagers,” Leo explained. “I don’t think any of us really knows what his reasons were, but he must have had them... I wonder everyday why he picked me... I wouldn’t have picked me.”

“Really?” Lisa asked. “Who would you have picked?” She jumped and grabbed his arm hard as a big, wet rat darted passed them.

“It’s okay,” Leo assured her. “They’re blind down here; he can’t see you.” He didn’t ad that the ugly thing could smell her... heck, even Leo could smell her. She smelled like an ocean of wonderful.

Lisa hung onto his arm as they walked. She hated the sewer, but she was shyly proud of herself for having made it this far.

“Sorry I’m such a big scardy-cat,” she said, feeling slightly embarrassed.

“That’s okay,” Leonardo smiled. “I’ll protect you, I promise.” Her fingers were hurting his arm a bit, but he didn’t mind. It was nice to be touched. “I would have picked Don,” Leonardo said after they’d walked on for a minute. “He’s smart, he’s good-natured, and he’s got his life together. He’s fair and patient too. He would have been a better choice.”

They walked on in silence for a minute more.

“Heck,” Leonardo added sadly. “Don even got the girl.”

“And the rest of you?” Lisa asked, genuinely curious. The blue turtle had told her once that Don and Charlie’s relationship was a new thing for all of them. She frowned a little as she looked nervously around for more rats. She could see how Leonardo must feel lonely sometimes. The most important part of a relationship was having someone so share your dreams and fears with.

“I dunno,” Leo admitted. “It’s a miracle that Don and Charlie ever got together... it’d be impossible to hope that something that amazing could happen three more times, don’t you think?”

“What are you the most afraid of?” Lisa asked suddenly. She’d wrapped both hands around Leonardo’s huge bicep and was sticking as close as possible without brushing against his razor-sharp katanas.

Leo thought about it for a moment. “I don’t know if I’m afraid of anything anymore,” he said. “I was afraid when my father was dying... afraid of being lonely without him and afraid of the responsibility I would have to take on. Sometimes I worry about my brothers when they’re out late somewhere, but we can all take care of ourselves. My ninja training is a huge part of my life and it’s given me the skills I need to cope with all kinds of situations without being afraid.”

“You’ve seen a lot of bad stuff,” Lisa said, quietly. “You weren’t afraid of Bubba, were you?”

“No,” Leonardo confirmed. “But I was very afraid for your safety. I was afraid he’d hurt you more than he did before I could get you out of there.” Lisa moved a little closer to him and he looked down at her sympathetically. “You’re doing really well, coping with the dark and the rats,” he said. “Do you want me to carry you to give you a break for a while, so you don’t have to keep watching your feet?”

Lisa bit her lip. It would be great to be carried...

“No thanks,” she said, shaking her head. “Charlotte can do it, so I can, too. And besides, I’m too heavy.”

“Hold my flashlight,” Leonardo said, passing it to her. A second later, he scooped her up high in his arms as easily as if she was a child. She looked at him in surprise. “No offense,” he said, “But Charlie’s nerves are a lot better than yours. You’ve done really well and I’m proud of you, but there’s no shame in taking a break, okay? And you don’t weigh a thing, by the way.”

Lisa blushed and squirmed a little, trying to figure out where to put her arm. She finally let it drape over his shoulders.

“Thanks,” she said, quietly.

“No sweat,” Leo answered. “I’ll put you down before we go in; they’ll never know, okay?” He knew how important it was for her to keep up the appearance that she was doing fine. That little sense of dignity was all she had left to keep her going.

“Okay,” Lisa agreed, gratefully.

“What do you dream about?” Lisa asked as they turned down another tunnel. “Do you dream at all? I guess some people don’t.” She rubbed her fingers absently over the rip of his shell, feeling the texture. It was so hard and warm from his body heat. So was his chest shell thingy that was pressed against her body.

“Yeah, I dream,” Leo said, “but I dream more in moods than in scenes, if that makes any sense. I dream of being free a lot. I dream about contentment and about love.”

“Those sound like nice dreams,” Lisa sighed, wistfully. She was still having nightmares.

“I didn’t say that I had those things in my dreams,” Leo chuckled. “Sometimes I do, mostly I don’t. It’s like looking through a window at a world of possibilities, but I can’t find the door to get out.”

“So break the window,” Lisa said with a shrug. She suddenly yelped as Leonardo stumbled slightly. Her fingers had brushed his soft flesh under the edge of his shell. Since he hadn’t been able to feel her touching the rim of his shell, the sudden sensation had taken him completely by surprise.

“Sorry!” he apologized, adjusting his grip on her.

“No, I’m sorry!” Lisa said, nearly dying of embarrassment. “I can’t believe I was touching you like that. I didn’t realize my fingers were moving. Did I hurt you much?”

“Hurt me?” Leo said, confused. “What? No, of course not!” He laughed and shook his head. “I’m not that fragile. It just surprised me, the sudden sensation. I can’t feel anything through my shell.”

“Nothing?” Lisa asked, surprised. “I didn’t know that.”

“Nothing at all,” Leo confirmed. “It’s a suit of armour. Go ahead, give it a whack.”

Lisa gently knocked her knuckles against his shell with the arm that was around his shoulders. Then she set the flashlight in her lap and knocked against his chest.

“Nothing?” she said. “Even in front?”

“Nothing,” Leo smiled, amused that she knew so little about turtles, even after she’d spent months with four of them. She could be spectacularly shy sometimes. Still, he and his brothers had been watching humans all their lives, so it was only reasonable, he figured, that she didn’t know much about their bodies. “The front part is called the plastron,” he said. “The back is technically called a carapace, but that sounds too artsy-fartsy, so we just stick with shell. There’s some sensation along the groves in our plastrons, but not as much as regular skin.”

Lisa ran a finger down the central groove on his chest and he hissed in response. How had this happened, that he had a beautiful woman in his arms who was touching him so innocently? Something twitched inside his shell and he suddenly felt like a jerk.

“What’s under your shell?” Lisa asked as they turned another corner.

“Excuse me?” Leo blinked.

“Is it like what I have?” she asked, earnestly curious. Leo blinked at her for a moment. He knew that she probably wasn’t asking about his penis, but still...

“Uh, well I guess it is... more or less,” he coughed uncomfortably. “We have basically the same guts and organs that you do, although our lungs have a much bigger air capacity. We can hold our breath for a long time.” Leonardo hesitated for a second then added, “And we have tails, too.”

“Really?” Lisa smiled.

“Yeah,” Leo nodded. “Didn’t you and Charlie talk about any of this when you talk about... well... Charlie and Don? That’s the kind of thing girls discuss, isn’t it?”

“You mean sex stuff? Sometimes we do,” Lisa laughed, swinging her legs a bit. “We don’t talk about... y’know... everything, though. I think that’s a guy thing to go into body details like that. Girls talk about the emotional aspect of it more, I think. Nice girls, that is.”

Leo smiled at her a little shyly. This was more of a Raphael kind of conversation, yet here he was, entering into a conversation about sex with the woman he’d had a crush on for months. He should probably change the subject... he didn’t want her to think of him like she thought of Bubba. His mouth started moving on it’s own, continuing the conversation.

“Don never says anything personal about Charlie, by the way,” he said. “He never comes home and brags and he never talks about her like she’s a thing instead of a person.”

“Have you ever kissed a girl?” Lisa asked suddenly.

“As opposed to a guy?” Leo joked. “Mike and Raph have kissed girls on the last two Hallowe’ens, but I’ve never done that. I just... I dunno, I guess it’s stupid, but I didn’t want my first kiss to be with some drunk skank at a street party who thinks my costume is the shizzle or whatever. I guess I sound like a fourteen year old girl, huh?”

“No,” Lisa said, as he set her down on the ground outside the door of the lair. She suddenly found that she didn’t want to go inside; she wanted to keep walking and talking with him. Leonardo made her feel safe and protected. She was still standing close to him, still clinging to his arm... she looked up into his face. “No, you don’t sound like a fourteen year old girl,” she said. “You sound like a man who has his act together. You sound patient, kind, and smart. You have a good head on your shoulders and a strong soul that can take whatever life dishes out. That’s why Splinter picked you to be the leader. You’re a good leader, Leonardo,” Lisa whispered. “Believe that.”

Leonardo watched as her eyes roamed over his face in the dim light. Was she looking at his lips? She was so close... it would be so easy to lean down a little and press a sweet kiss to her wet, pink lips... No! What was he thinking? She was severely traumatized and they were in a dark sewer with no where for her to escape if she felt afraid of him. He stepped away and pulled the big door open, flooding the tunnel with light. No... she trusted him and he wouldn’t risk destroying that fragile bond for anything.
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Braving it in the New World