Adventures In Leo-Sitting *On Hiatus*

Finding Fearless

Leo hadn't realized he'd drifted off in the silent and dark room until a sudden click of metal jolted him into reality. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he pulled himself upright and realized that Karai had unlocked and opened his cage door. He tried to scramble back but there wasn't much area to dodge and she managed to grab him around the plastron and pull him from the cage.

He tried to straighten and shove her hands off but his only reward was his forehead hitting the top of the cage entryway. With a sharp whine of pain, he grabbed his forehead and Karai successfully pulled him out, giving the young turtle a slightly amused grin. "That could have been avoided if you weren't being such a baby."

"Let me go!" Leo responded furiously, resuming his struggle to get her to release him.

She let out an exasperated sigh and completely released her grip, letting him fall onto the back of his carapace. After a shocked yelp of surprise, he scrambled to his feet and tried to dash forward, but Karai stooped down to grab his mask tails and yanked him back to the ground.

"Where do you think you're going?" She teased as she shifted in front of him, blocking his escape route as Leo sat up nervously.

Scrambling back and holding out a hand defensively, he begged, "Leave me alone!"

"Rule one of sidekicking." Karai stated as she grabbed his wrist and tugged him to his feet. "Don't tell me what to do."

"I'm not your sidekick!" Leo snapped in return, pulling his arm back and stomping his foot.

"You mean not yet." She replied patiently.

"No, I mean never!" Leo shouted, a flash of red suddenly catching his eye. With a terrified gasp, he scrambled away from it and behind Karai, desperately trying to find where the imagined beast had gone.

Karai studied the fearful terrapin curiously and then turned to the corner that he was watching, proceeding to glance upward and spotting one of her footbots had shifted to hiding on one of the roof posts near the ceiling. Aware that he hadn't seemed all frightened of the footbots when he practically barreled around them a few hours ago, she glanced back down at him and mused, "What's up with you?"

"There's monsters." He warned in a low tone, giving their surroundings a nervous scan.

"Monsters?" She mumbled wryly, trying to keep her amusement from her tone. "Geez, you really are a kid, aren't you?"

Ever the opportunist, she crouched down and put on her most serious expression as she placed a hand on Leo's shoulder. She felt him flinch nervously as he turned to face her and she calmly replied, "If it helps, the monsters only eat bad kids, so if you listen, then you don't have to worry about them devouring you."

Sapphire eyes widened in horror and Karai got back to her feet, hiding her smirk as she turned to make her way towards the door. Glancing back upon realizing the apprehensive turtle was standing where she'd left him, she commanded, "Follow me."

Fearing for his life, Leo didn't hesitate to dash after her and into the hall. Moving to her side, he wrung his hands as he followed her down the corridor before anxiously asking, "Wh-where are we goin'?"

"The dojo." Karai said coolly. "I promised you some training, didn't I?"

Leo shot an uneasy glance to the sword on her belt as his heart seemed to sink into his chest, wondering if he was better off with the turtle-eating monsters...

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A tense silence followed the ninja brothers as they headed across the rooftops, Raph taking great care not to meet the gazes of any of his younger brothers. He was still trying to figure out why Splinter could possibly believe that he was the best person to lead this team when they all knew it was his fault that Leo had gone missing in the first place.