#i imagine if you shine a flashlight on their eyes they glow red like rodents or something lol

[peridouu]

hey bro am i interrupting something bro…

[2k18leo]

“Could you be happy, here, with me?”

((You guys are super sweet with the nice comments I received from uploading my last piece of writing! This one is a lot longer than the previous.  Hope you enjoy! :) ))

“And you’re sure?” Leo asked, raising an eyebrow. He led you to the manhole cover in the alleyway on 6th.

“Hell yes, Leo!” You said excitedly. “I’m tired of only seeing you on rooftops and Central Park. You’ve been to my apartment. I think it’s only fair that I see where you live and thrive.”

He smiled at you, making his mask wrinkle a little near his eyes.

“Okay, but,” he began, “it’s not nearly as nice as your apartment, okay?” He put his hand out and grabbed yours, running his thumb back and forth along your fingers. “It’s… full of guys, for one thing. So—”

“Leo,” you began, cupping his cheek with your other hand, “you’re stalling. C’mon, I’ve already met your family -- I mean, except for your dad, but--”

“Yeah, well, he’s hardly off his lazy ass.”

“Leo!” you laughed, scolding him for that disrespectful comment.

You leaned up and kissed his cheek, “C’mon, I can’t pull up this sewer cover myself.”

“Alright, y/n, but just know … you asked for it.” Leo crouched down and pulled up the cover to reveal a dark opening.  You caught yourself staring at his flexing biceps for a moment. A soft warmth grew across your cheeks.  A smile formed on your face as you checked out the turtle you had a crush on.

Once the manhole cover was completely off, the smell of the sewers hit you pretty instantaneously.  He put out a hand for you to help you down into the almost-pitch blackness that was the sewer. Hesitantly, you made your way down, gripping the rusted ladder bars that would soon take you into an underground world in which you’d be practically blind to. After you were far enough for Leo to climb in and pull the manhole cover back into place, you wished you had brought a flashlight. With no solid ground seemingly coming any closer under you, you tried your best to see through the jet black space, but nothing. The only reassurance that you weren’t alone was hearing Leo’s own steps on the bars right above you.

“I’m surprised you haven’t made a comment about the stench, yet,” said Leo, giving a laugh.

“I wasn’t gonna say anything.” You smiled up at him even though you doubted he could see it.

You finally hit a flat surface under your foot. It was nice to be off the ladder, but you still had no idea about your surroundings, so you tried to stay as close as possible. When Leo dropped down next to you, you could feel his fingers lace with yours.

“Okay,” he whispered, “Since you thought it was a good idea to wear that cute-ass outfit today—”

Your mouth dropped in a half-smile, “I wanted to look presentable when I met your father!” It was so dark, you could hardly tell if your eyes were open or shut. But, you could hear his soft laughter next to you.

“Whatever,” he scoffed. It was almost as if you could hear him smiling. Without any warning, his arm hooked under the back of your knees, making you let out a small gasp, and he picked you up bridal style. Your arms wrapped around his broad shoulders as he began to walk. While you were astonished that he was so calmly walking through this pitch black maze, you also figured that he had made this trip thousands of times. It took you far too long to realize that you had a flashlight on your phone. Pulling it out of your back pocket, you instantly illuminated the scene.

“Hm, so that’s what it looks like down here,” said Leo, thanking you for the light that he still had no need for.

He walked on and on for about ten minutes or so, having made multiple turns both right and left. The darkness beyond the shine of your flashlight was eerie and gave you goosebumps.

By the time you had lost count on how many turns he had made, you started to see a faint light in the distance.  Now, there were old subway tracks beneath his feet instead of the murky water that Leo stood in when he began the walk.  You let him put you down and the two of you walked the rest of the way side by side, each step making the light glow brighter.  It was an abandoned subway station, hardly recognizable, where they lived.  The only part that made you believe it used to be a station was the line of turnstiles at the entrance.  He led you up to the turnstiles and you saw his home for the first time.  It was actually beautiful, considering it was underground in a literal abandoned subway.  Walking in, you saw multi-colored lights strung up and around walls, bean bags scattered about what appeared to be the living room, and the entirety of the lair was even bigger than you had imagined.  

“Okay,” said Leo, “It’s not usually this nice.  The boys must’ve cleaned for once while I was out.”  He called out his brothers names to let him know he was back.

Donnie was the first in sight, walking by while fiddling with his gadgets on his arm.  His expression proved he was lost in thought, but the sight of you made his eyebrows fly up in surprise.  “Ah, y/n, yes, good to see you.  Always a pleasure--”

“Y/n’s here?” You heard a voice call from the other room.  Almost immediately, Mikey leapt in with a wide grin across his face.  “Hey, girl! How you been?” He greeted you with a hug around your middle.  You laughed and answered, saying that you had just recently landed a job at a local smoothie joint near your apartment.  

“I mean, it’s not pizza, but oooh, girl, I could get down with some smoothies!”

While Mikey started going off about a story recalling this one time Leo had made him laugh so hard some smoothie squirted out of his nose, you heard Donnie say that if anyone needed him, he would be in his lab.

Suddenly, a booming sound started, making you look around to find Raph running towards you.

“Y/n!” he shouted, slamming into you and wrapping you up in his huge arms.  You could feel the ground depart from your feet.  Picking you up was like lifting a feather for him.  

“It’s great to see you too, Raph!” You said through a strain.  

“Whoa, whoa,” you could hear Leo say somewhere beneath you, “That’s my girlfriend, don’t break her, Red.” His voice wasn’t full of concern, but more of laughter.  

Raph plopped you back down on your feet, “It’s been too long, Shorty.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s been about two weeks since I’ve seen you guys,” you replied, smiling up at him.

“Well, you here now!” Mikey leaned his elbow on your shoulder, “An’ we got a full day of crazy-fun things to show you!”

“We do?” Leo cocked an eyebrow.

“Hell yeah!” Raph fist-bumped Mikey, “C’mon, y/n, we got a video game set up so get ready to lose.”

You began following Raph and Mikey, laughing, “Nah, I’mma kick you right in the shell!”

Leo watched you walking off with his brothers.  A smile grew across his face; he was pleased to see how well you got along with his family.  

After about an hour of playing video games, the only one who you couldn’t beat was Mikey.  Donnie joined in when you all started playing foosball.  The boys were surprised how good you were at that game.

“Dude,” Mikey addressed Leo, “She’s kicking our asses!”

Leo laughed, “Yeah, why else do you think I’m on her team?” He sent a smirk in your direction as he nudged you with his elbow.

“Well, statistically speaking, someone else should have won by now.” Donnie said, frustrated that it had been over eight turns since he had made a shot.  

It wasn’t long before the turtles gave up trying to beat you at foosball, and moved to the living room for a movie. On the walk there, you saw a figure moving by.  It was short, grey, and had a long tail that trailed behind it.  You could only assume that this was--

“Oh, Pop!” Leo called to the figure, “This is y/n.” He put a hand around your waist and used the other to gesture to you.  “Y/n, this is my dad.”

The short creature looked up at you. It was a rat.  You don’t know why, but you had always pictured an old turtle when Leo spoke of his father.  But a rat?  I mean, you weren’t judging.  Everything about this family was different already.  That’s what you loved about it.  You put out a hand to greet the rodent.  It’s whiskers twitched momentarily, just as its snout did, sniffing you out.  His hands were full with a steaming cup of tea, yet he balanced the cup in one hand as he let go with the other to extend it to you.  The handshake was gentle, and he gave you a small smile, which you returned.  Though no words were said between the two of you, you felt that he accepted you at least as an acquaintance.  

After the rat hobbled away into what you figured was his room, you turned to Leo.

“Don’t worry,” he said, wrapping his arm around your shoulders, “He just doesn’t know you, yet.  Give it time.  C’mon, Mikey’s making popcorn.”

He led you over to the living room where a projector portrayed a screen on a wall.  Donnie was setting up the movie while Raph was lugging in a pile of blankets.  

“Okay, boys,” said Donnie, tinkering on the projector, “what genre are we thinking tonight?”

“Rom-com!” Raph shouted, dropping down into a bean bag chair.

Leo put a hand to his forehead as he said, “Raph, we did a rom-com last week and you were the only one that wanted to watch it then, and you’re the only one that wants to watch it now.” Leo smiled at you as you stifled a laugh. The two of you sat down on a single, large bean bag, his arm wrapping around you.

“Ooh, horror!” Mikey cried, walking in, balancing a few bowls of popcorn.

“What did you call me?” you shot him a look.  Mikey stopped in his tracks, his eyes staring wide and his face flushing of color.  

“I—wait—no, I didn’t mean—” Mikey stammered.  

You cracked up in laughter.  Leonardo grinned at you, letting out a small laugh of his own.  Your laugh was one of the many things that made Leo fall so damn hard for you.  When Mikey realized that you were making a joke, he heaved a sigh of relief.

“Yeah, D,” you said after your fit of laughter, “Horror sounds great.”

Mikey walked by, handing you a bowl of popcorn to share with Leo, “You two are perfect for each other.”

You looked up at Leo, smiling, and he did the same down to you, giving you a squeeze on your waist.  As Donnie began the movie, you nuzzled up next to the blue-clad, pulling a blanket over the two of you.  About half-way through the movie, you looked around at the others.  Donnie was asleep, his head leaning on a propped up arm.  Raph and Mikey were snuggled so close together with wide eyes, staring at the screen.  They both had blankets nearly covering their eyes for a jump scare that could spring out at any moment.  You figured Leo was asleep due to how still he had been for the past twenty minutes.  His chest rising and falling at a slow, steady rate, which moved you ever so slightly as you were leaning on him.  So, it definitely caught you off-guard when he whispered into your ear,

“Thank you.”

“For what?” You asked, drawing your eyes away from the screen to look up at his deep blue eyes.  You adored the faint glow of his red stripes due to the random flashes from the movie.

“For coming down here… for wanting to.”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I want to?” you whispered, furrowing your eyebrows.

“It’s just… here with us.  Do you think you could actually -- could you be happy, here, with me?  Like, really?”  His eyes were staring so deep into you, begging for a positive answer.  You don’t believe he has ever felt like this towards anyone else before you.  It probably wasn’t that often he brought a girl home.

A small smile flashed across your face as you answered sweetly, “Absolutely.”

A smile of his own, larger than yours, grew so wide it wrinkled his mask.  He closed his eyes, leaning down to touch his forehead to yours.  He let out a small laugh of relief before kissing you sweetly.  You could feel the arm he had already-wrapped around you flex as he wrapped the other arm around you in a hug.  He then began to cover you in kisses around the corner of your mouth, your cheek, and your jawline.  You giggled quietly until Raph and Mikey shushed the two of you.

“Ay!” Raph whispered loudly, “If you two are done bein’ all cute and--” he was cut off by a scream on the movie, making him gasp so loud he nearly screamed.

You and Leo chuckled at Raph, then silently decided it was best to continue respectfully watching the movie.  You nuzzled again into Leo, resting your head on his plastron.  You could feel him rest his cheek on the top of your head.  His thumb grazed back and forth across your arm.  Once again, your eyes looked between the sleeping Donnie, the terrified expressions of Raph and Mikey, and the turtle you rested on.  This was a life you could see yourself living.  It really was.  Right at Leo’s side.  Could life get any better than this?