Chapter Text
Leo could not sleep. Not that that was new, it was actually a very overused statement. Having insomnia was not fun. Staring holes into the ceiling of his room, limbs splayed out on his bed, blasting a random playlist to fill the empty silence that came with his sleepless spacing-out session.
He felt restless. Despite his multiple endeavors to go into a happily unconscious state before twelve, it wasn’t as simple as shutting his eyes and letting himself drift. It was now one, and he did not feel tired in the slightest. He should have felt tired. After a long day of messing around with his brothers, training, and all the good and tiring things, he should have passed out the moment his head hit his pillow. But he didn’t. Hence his current dilemma.
He sighed, ripping his bored yet harsh gaze away from his ceiling, looking at the variety of things adorning his room. Nothing new, of course, but sheer boredom made it seem as if they were the most entertaining items in the world. His eyes studied his skateboard resting against the railing of the previously abandoned train car, they studied the multiple posters that decorated the walls, the cluster of cups he keeps accidentally forgetting to remove from his room, the art Mikey conjured up carefully pinned to random places, the seemingly unnecessary amount of lava lamps and fairy lights strung and placed around the cabin. When all of that was seen and reflected upon, all that was left was the door. He wondered for a moment. He didn’t want to wander through the lair. It seemed redundant, after having so many duplicate nights where he’d stumble around in the dark of his home just to find the journey unsatisfactory and head to the dull seclusion of his room.
He thought about leaving the lair before it stirred a horrendously loud argument with himself in his previously scarcely empty head. He could, but should he? He could. He wanted to. Just for a moment, to feel the cold air on his skin. To maybe run around, let his feet carry him from rooftop to rooftop. He wanted to, because he knew it would at least ease the restless feeling, even for a moment. But he shouldn’t, he knows this. He knew that if somehow anyone knew (that anyone having a solid chance to be Donnie), he wouldn’t hear the end of it from Raph. He knew Raph meant the best, he knew Raph would be on his shell because he wanted Leo to be safe. He knew, but he also knew that Raph doesn’t get it. Raph is Raph. He’s never been Leo. He’s never been the blue jokester of the group who hides nervousness and anxiety behind a quick pun or sassy diss. Raph wants what’s best for Leo, but Leo knows what’s best for Leo, and right now he needs fresh air.
Leo sighs, heaving himself off his bed, feeling alike to a corpse rising from a grave. He checks his phone and quickly sets an alarm for two, just an hour later. He sighs to himself at the sheer annoyance directed at his brain for forcing him to be awake at such an ungodly hour. He loosely snatches his sword, feeling the familiar hilt rest in his grip. After a quick whirl of the pointed end in the air and the mental imagery of a semi-familiar rooftop in New York, he could then feel the relieving breeze of the cold air waft through the neon blue ring. With a simple step through, he was no longer in his room.
The first thing he noted while attempting to make his grand escape from the lair, was the lack of foot placement and the harsh tug of gravity pulling him down. Shortly after without much pacing, the familiar pain of face-planting bloomed across his face, as his body slammed into a solid yet soft surface. Following his fall, he could hear the steel clattering of his sword landing next to him. He groaned into the surface in pain as he slowly lifted himself, he came to the obvious conclusion that this was not the rooftop in new york he was picturing. Instead, it looked to be a cozy living room with an ungodly amount of plants, hanging from the ceiling, nailed to the wall, and several others scattered across the floor. The flat overall looked very homey and comfortable, and if not for the lack of familiarity and foreign layout, he would have gladly taken place in the happily worn recliner and passed out.
The sound of shattering glass behind him met his ears, and he did his best not to let out a string of curses along with an intense cringe before turning around. Standing in what looked to be the entrance of a side kitchen, a person stood there, with a mix of confusion and exhaustion on their face. Not what Leo was really expecting, more like absolute shock and repulsion but he could work with this. The person’s wild hair was haphazardly tucked into a gray bun, the telltale sign of exhaustion, and the shattered cup of coffee on the floor furthered his observation.
After they both stared at each other like deer in headlights, the foreign human finally spoke.
“What the fuck are you doing in my living room??” The exasperated question was met with a bit more silence before Leo finally let out the cringe he’d been holding in.
“…Good question…?” Leo shrugged, earning a groan and the signature ‘pinch of the nose bridge’ that Leo has seen multiple times throughout his life from multiple people.
“Let me rephrase, how did you end up in my living room? My front door is still locked, as are all my windows, so there is no other way you could have gotten in.” The person stated as they shifted their weight from one leg to the other, obviously impatient for an answer.
Leo did not have the strength nor energy to lie, and considering he did break into this poor tired soul's apartment with no good reasoning, he just decided to show them. He carefully picked up his sword, which made the person visibly tense, before drawing a portal right in front of him, obstructing the person’s field of vision. He disappeared into their kitchen, because if they had coffee, then he was helping himself to it. Call him rude or a thief or whatever, he had priorities. And his priorities were telling him to get some caffeine. He normally wouldn’t have the caffeinated drink this late into the night, but with the given scenario at hand, he needed it. He normally had caffeinated tea, he didn’t like coffee, but he settled. He could hear the confused noises of the stranger from the living room, he let out a laugh. The noises stopped and shuffled into the kitchen.
“So now you’re just helping yourself to my coffee after teleporting in front of me?” The sheer confusion didn’t even need acknowledgment from Leo, keeping his back turned as he let out a dead chuckle. He was one for theatrics, sue him.
“Yep!” He popped the p at the end, before hearing a groan and more shuffling, knowing said person was sitting down at the small table that decorated the small kitchen.
“Make me some too, your rude entrance made me spill mine.” The person groaned into their hands, and Leo felt slightly guilty.
“In my defense, I didn’t mean to end up here. I just wanted to take a night stroll. Insomnia’s a bitch.” Leo thanked the supreme pizza in the sky that Raph was not here to scold him for everything that just left his mouth. He finished up the coffee, handing a cup to the person and sitting on the counter with his.
The person chuckled, “That makes the two of us…. do your portals always misdirect you?” curiosity dawned on their features, the glint in their glasses somehow reminded Leo of Donnie.
“Not always. It just takes a lot of concentration and I’m as tired as it is.” He sighed as he took sips from his coffee.
“From the sound of it, you do this pretty often huh? Just what is it anyway, some kind of Yokai mojo?” The person questioned further, folding their gray cardigan further into themself when a draft came in, making both of them shiver.
Leo was about to answer before they got up.
“One second.” And with that they exited the kitchen, leaving Leo by himself. He sat awkwardly, what was he even doing there? Why was he staying? He could easily teleport home and be done, but the comforting tone of the old person and the warm atmosphere was intoxicating, but in the most positive way possible. His brothers gave him nice comfort, of course, but something about someone who didn’t know anything about him, yet was listening and somewhat willing to give a shit enough about him to want to know stuff, that was amazing and dangerous.
So there was no way he was depriving himself of this.
When the human came back, they had a fuzzy blanket in hand, and wrapped it around Leo.
“Continue.” They said as they sat down, Leo raised a brow.
“It’s a family thing, me and my siblings all have powers, though theirs are waaay cooler.“ The stranger raised a brow but said nothing.
“My big brother can make copies of himself, like big copies. Honestly, if he wasn’t such a big softy he would be terrifying.” Leo chuckled, the thought of Raph being anything but the softy, doting big brother he was was ridiculous.
The person smiled, urging Leo to continue, which made Leo feel fuzzy, nuzzling into the crazy soft blanket wrapped around his shoulders.
“My twin rarely uses his powers, he normally opts for his own technology. But when he does use them? You can bet that it’s cool. He gets these cool holograms, a ton of different tech, I wouldn’t doubt he could take down any baddie in New York…. wait we’re still in New York right?” Leo cringed, realizing he had no idea where this apartment was in the world, till the old person let out a light chuckle.
“Don’t worry, BlueBerry, you’re still in New York.” The person calmed him, he made a confused face at the nickname. The person took note and explained, “I don’t know your name, so I settled on BlueBerry. If you think I’m going to change it you’re out of luck.” Their voice was stern, yet Leo didn’t feel like they were scolding him, quite the opposite.
“Well, I don’t know your name either.” Leo pouted, drinking the remainder of his coffee.
“It’s Rose,” Rose said plainly, finishing their coffee as well.
“Leonardo, or you can call me what my brothers call me, Leo, Leon, Neon Leon, Nardo, The better twin, and so on.” Leo listed.
“Nah, I think I’ll just keep calling you BlueBerry,” Rose smirked, and Leo rolled his eyes. Leo looked at his empty cup and the slight ghost of a smirk fell. “Why haven’t you kicked me out yet?” Leo asked bluntly, a question that probably would have come out more confident or had never come out at all if he wasn’t so tired.
Rose looked to be in thought for a moment, “You remind me of my grandkids, they moved to California and are rarely in touch because of some family drama.” Rose’s eyes looked far away as if lost in a memory. “Plus I’m very tired and quite frankly would like to talk to an odd turtle than go back to writing lengthy reports.” Rose glares at the computer on the table, as if it would attack them with words if it had the chance. Leo snorted, and Rose drifted their attention back to the ‘odd turtle’. “And that question goes both ways, why haven’t you left yet?” Rose didn’t sound mean, as normally that question would sound. Instead, the question was laced with pure curiosity and slight worry.
“Too tired to trust my abilities to portal back home.” Leo yawned, despite having coffee, he felt indifferent. “And I know when I get back everything will be the same.” Rose let out a hum of understanding.
They stayed quiet for a couple of moments, but not an awkward silence.
“Oh right, I still need to tell you about my other brother. My little brother, his powers, in my opinion, are the craziest. He’s got these weird chains, I think they’re super-powered?? He threw a whole building one!” Leo explained fanatically. Rose’s eyes lit up in realization, but they stayed quiet.
“So what makes you think yours are the least powerful?” Rose questioned, and Leo let out a dramatic gasp.
“I never said least powerful! Shame on you.” Leo let loose on the theatrics, and Rose only smiled and rolled her eyes.
“Considering you said, and I quote, ‘waay cooler’, I think you think yours are not as good as your brothers.” Rose shed light on those details and Leo looked away painfully.
“Well I mean, they got all these cool things and all I got are dinky portals that only work when I concentrate really hard.” Leo averted his eyes.
“They’re still useful, you’re the only person I know that can make portals.” Leo winced.
“….My brother can, but we don’t really encourage it.” Leo didn’t want to go into detail about why, Rose didn’t push him to.
“Powers aren’t everything. There are many ways to be ‘cool’ without flinging portals around.”
“Who said I wasn’t cool?” Leo scowled.
“Judging your reaction? You.” Leo let out a frustrated groan and Rose laughed at Leo’s misery.
“You’re terrible.” Leo flopped onto the counter.
“No, I’m right.” Rose continued to laugh at her own shitty joke.
As Leo looked at Rose’s chortling figure, he unfocused his eyes, looking at the clock behind them. Sudden panic filled him.
He jumped up from the counter, alarming Rose.
“Oh god is it really 5?!” He grabbed his phone wondering why his alarm didn’t go off, before realizing the battery was drained. “If my brothers find out I’m not in bed they’re gonna kill me. Or worse, subject me to a Raph lecture.” Leo grabbed his sword.
“Before you go.” Rose quickly grabbed a paper from the stack of files on the table next to their computer, before writing a couple of things down.
“Here, my address and my phone number.” They handed him the paper, and he gave them a look of confusion. “Text or call me when you get home, I don’t want to send you off knowing you could land somewhere else without any communication.” They put faith in him to get home himself instead of stopping him, and that meant a lot. He gave them a nod, creating a portal. Though the fact they gave him their address kind of confused him, he made a mental note to ask later.
“Adios!” And with them he bolted through, leaving Rose standing in the kitchen alone.
“…He took my fucking blanket.”
When Leo stepped through the portal, he sighed with relief when he saw the familiar room. He flopped onto his bed, not even having the coherent thought to do anything before passing out.