constellations / rise of the TMNT / OC x Leo

The Sewers

TW: MENTIONS OF DEATH, BLOOD,  SERIOUS INJURIES

Cayden didn't think dying was supposed to be this painful.

She didn't think it was supposed to be pure agony. Soul ripping. Clawing for an end to the infinite pain with your bare hands. Pleading, begging, praying for it to stop.

For it all to stop.

And then, acceptance.

She welcomed the pain. Embraced it. It was grounding yet freeing simultaneously. The agony was bliss. She would've laughed if there was any air in her lungs.

Cayden must've been crying, for a pool of liquid soaked into her clothes. Although, maybe that was just the blood. She tried to choke out a coherent thought, but her throat was caught by a hangman's loop. Maybe it was better. She couldn't breathe anyway.

Sleep slowly started to lull her away. An unending unconsciousness was too promising for her to deny. She smiled as the world went dark, a bittersweet end that she had accepted.

~~~~~

Cayden woke up to jazz music.

Wait. Cayden woke up.

That wasn't supposed to happen.

She had accepted death. It had consumed her. Engraved its marks into her flesh. Devoured her soul. She shouldn't be hearing the saxophone right now.

Cayden slowly peered through her eyelids, trying to take in her surroundings but her foggy mind restricted her. An underlying ache was rooted deep in her head, causing her comprehension to plummet. She tried sitting up, a groan escaping her lips when pain seared through her rib cage. She attached a hand to her side and winced in pain, attempting to slow her rapid breathing.

When she was as stable as she could get, Cayden evaluated where she was. She was in some sort of medical room, apparent by the different intimidating equipment neatly laid out. Looking to her left, curled up in a chair was a... person? Wait, since when were people green?

The strange figure had light green skin with red stripes under his eyes hidden behind a blue bandana. Instead of a shirt, he had... a shell? And a blue-handled sword strapped around his waist with blue cloth.

Cayden twisted to face him when her side spiked with pain again, causing her to inhale sharply. This woke the once-sleeping boy, his eyes shooting open with him jolting awake. Cayden let out a startled sound but immediately regretted it, for her lungs felt like they were on fire. She took a few haggard breaths to get the flow of air back to normal. All the while, the boy in the chair watched her with concerned eyes, ready to jump in if things got worse.

"You're awake!" He said after a while. "Oh, I'm just wearing my awesome turtle cosplay. Pretty sick, right? Made it all myself."

"Uhh... what?"

"I'm a red-eared slider," he continued, "only the best species of turtle to ever exist."

"Where am I? What am I doing here? Who are you? What happened to me?" Cayden's mind was running a million miles per second. So many questions were swirling in her head like a school of fish. It didn't help that her brain was still aching and foggy.

"Oh, we found you bleeding out by the Surface. Raph wanted to leave you with April but Mickey insisted that we take you in. Donnie wanted to scrap you for parts, he's not very familiar with... people."

Cayden lifted her shirt to examine her injury and saw thick white bandages wrapped around her torso, a small amount of red apparent. "Wha..."

"I stitched you up. You had fractured ribs that were beginning to pierce your lungs and a slice through your side. You were also bruised in many places. Your knuckles were red and scraped."

The world was spinning. What was going on? Who was this strange guy?

"Who are you?" Was the first question she asked.

"My name's Leonardo, but you can call me Leo." He nervously shifted in his seat, anxiety hidden behind a cocky smile. Cayden knew that look.

"My name's Cayden. Although, why didn't you take me to a hospital?" Leo was about to retort with a sassy comeback but stopped to think. Why didn't he?

"I wanted to refine my awesome medical skills," he lied. He honestly had no idea why. It sounded fake even to his ears. Cayden's face scrunched with doubt, then sighed, giving it up.

"Where am I?" She asked, changing the subject. Leo was about to answer but cut himself off. "It's a... secret?"

"So you're kidnapping me."

"What?! No!" He exclaimed, visibly panicking. "I uh, well, you uh, you're, it's..." He mumbled something under his breath. "I obviously couldn't hear that," Cayden stated plainly. He muttered it again, this time slightly louder but faster. His head seemed to retract into his raised shoulders.

"Leonardo."

"You're in the sewers! Happy?!" Leo burst, his face very flushed and an embarrassed frown plastered on his face. Cayden laughed to herself, followed by a new wave of coughing and pain.

"You alright?" Leo asked, rushing over to her, concern lacing his face. "Yep," she breathed out, "just a little coughing. Don't worry about me." Cayden pulled the sheets off her medical bed, stumbling up, then immediately swaying to the side. She crashed against the wall with a thump but quickly recovered.

"I really don't think you should be doing that-"

"I'm fine." Black spots clouded her vision. Dizziness threatened to bring her down like a wave to a ship. Her legs refused to cooperate, causing her to stumble across the tunnel walls. The world around her blurred as her body gave out. She would've crashed to the floor if she hadn't been caught by Leo.

"Hey, hey, you're okay. Take some deep breaths. Your body is still recovering." Cayden pushed him away and kept going. She needed to get away. Away from the ringing, away from the muffled voice, away from the shaking in her breath. She turned a sharp corner, stepping into a central opening. Three green blobs crowded around a table of some sort.

"Heh, it's like a big turtle cosplay convention..." She lost her balance and crashed into the floor. Unconsciousness welcomed Cayden back with open arms. She snuggled against its warm embrace as her heart throbbed in her ears, the world fading to black.