The Strength in his Soul - A TMNT Leo X Reader Story Part 2

Chapter 23 - Cuties

Leo's POV
I wanted to make it up to Y/N. All of this was my fault, and I beat myself up about it for the rest of that night. I fed her and made sure she was okay after the torture Shredder and Karai put her through, internally yelling at myself. Y/N didn't deserve this all because of my mistakes.

I should have been better.

Once she was starting to come around, her eyelids grew heavy. I picked her up and carried her to bed, smiling when she rested her head against my chest out of exhaustion. "Tired?"

"Mm hmm," she mumbled.

When we got to my room, I gently lowered her onto the bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. After I leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead, she opened her eyes a little. "I love you."

"How?" I whispered, stroking her hair. "Why?"

She shrugged. "I don't need a reason. You're you. That's all I could ever want."

"But I hurt you. And the baby." I rested a hand on the covers where her stomach was.

"You don't understand." She brought a hand out from under the blanket to lay on my arm.

Warmth spread on my skin. "Leo, you're brave and strong and you love helping people. All you wanted was to save the world. And I know I'm part of it for you."

I held back a sob and leaned down, pulling her close. "You are. You're everything to me, and I can't-"

"Shh, it's okay." She wrapped her arm around my back and pressed a kiss to my cheek. "It's okay. I know you regret everything. I know. But you had good intentions, and that's what I love about you."

I closed my eyes. I really did try. I just needed to shift my priorities. "Everything is about you now. I can't sacrifice you ever again. We're a family now."

"We are. But it's everything about you, the bravery in your eyes, the strength in your soul, that I admire. Please don't stop being you." She pulled away and met my eyes. "Please."

I nodded and captured her lips on mine, trying to show her how much I loved her, how much she mattered to me.

When I pulled away, she rested her head on the pillow and sighed. She needed to get to sleep.
"I love you," I whispered as I left the room.

When I made it back to the living room, Mikey was sitting on the couch, surrounded by a bunch of blue ties. All of them were different styles and shades of blue. He picked one of them up, studied it for a moment, and placed it back down on the couch cushion.

I stood in front of him, eyes wide. "What are you doing?"

"You never picked a tie, remember?" He picked up another tie and held it in front of me, peering at me. "I'm just trying to pick a good color to complement you."

Honestly, I had forgotten all about that. I sheepishly reached down to choose a tie. "This one's good. It matches my mask."

Mikey tilted his head to the side as he looked at the tie he was holding and the one in my hand. "But it doesn't look right for some reason. I don't know, I have to think about it." 

Something dinged in the kitchen, and Mikey brightened. "Ooh! My double chocolate cake!" He sprang up from his seat on the couch and rushed into the kitchen. 

I shook my head and chuckled. Mikey was actually starting to grow up by doing all of this wedding planning, but I hadn't noticed before. He was maturing right in front of my eyes. It made me a little sad because that meant he was going to truly be an adult, but I was so proud of him. He'd come so far.

Raph walked in from the dojo. "Hey, man. What's up?"

"Picking a tie for the wedding, apparently. Mikey's got everything under control."

He playfully hit my shoulder. "I honestly can't believe it. Who knew Mikey could be a wedding planner?"

I hit him back with a smile. "He's more mature than we knew."

"Oh, so Fearless admits he was wrong?"

I sighed. "I know, I know. I was wrong about all of you guys. You're all maturing really well. Splinter is bound to see it. I'll tell him about it tomorrow when we meditate together, I promise."

Raph grinned, fist bumping my hand. "Good to have you back, brother. Good night, I'm exhausted."

"Night." As he went off to his room, I thought about everything. I had it made here. I had an amazing family that was finally getting to my level, a family who loved me for who I was and was so supportive of me. 

I was so lucky.

Your POV

A clicking noise woke me up in the middle of the night. I stretched out and opened my eyes, hoping that it wasn't someone from Shredder's team or the Kraang or any other enemy. I wanted to be done with fighting. I was exhausted. 

But Leo was sitting at his desk, writing in his journal. His navy blue desk lamp was on, so I imagined that when he turned it on it made the noise.

I lay there on the bed, just watching him as he wrote. His hand raced across the page with a thick ballpoint pen as all of his thoughts materialized into the notebook. I'd never seen him journal before, but I had talked to him about it. He mentioned that journaling helped him work through his thoughts, especially the big ones about leadership. He looked peaceful even as he wrote quickly.

Once he filled a page, he capped his pen and closed the notebook, taking a deep breath. Then, he reached over to pick up some blank paper and tape and got to work on something new. I'd never seen him make anything craft wise before, so this was intriguing.

I must have let out a louder breath than normal because he turned around and pushed everything onto the corner of the desk, smiling sheepishly. "How long have you been up?"

"Long enough to see you journal."

He sighed and came over to the bed. "You're a stalker. I'm working on something important. You can't look."

"But babe-"

"Not yet. I promise you can see tomorrow, okay?" He kissed me on the forehead. "Go back to sleep."

"I promise you right now, I will not be sleeping for the rest of the night now that I know I'm seeing it tomorrow. Come to bed."

"Y/N, please."

"Leo, please."

"Angel?"

"Captain?"

He sighed again. "Okay, fine, I'm not going to work on it now. I'll come to bed."

"Yes." I stretched my arms out, and he slipped into bed and into my arms. His warmth and love was enough to put me to sleep.

But that didn't mean that I wasn't still thinking about that little project.