“Was not!” Leo perks his lips, “I was just fashionably not good.”

“That's bad Leo.” Mikey agrees with Donnie with a laugh.

Leo sighs, “Oh well.” They turn down another sewer, and he huffs as he gets the grocery's higher on his arms.

The TV is on when they get home, and Leo rolls his eyes as Raph sets the groceries down and goes over and turns it off. He frowns as he watches his older brother cover up their dad before walking back over and picking the groceries up. 

They go into the kitchen, and they all help each other put things away. Leo has to stop Mikey from eating the chips more than once. 

He walks back over to the island next to Raph, digging into the bag to pull out some bananas and bread, “Was he sleeping?” He mutters, side glancing at his older brother. 

Raph hums, “Passed out more like it.” He murmurs.

Leo snorts, rolling his eyes as a mean smile crawls on his lips, “Typical.”

Raph’s brows furrow, and Leo pretends not to see the mild anger in his eyes, “He's trying Leo. The Kraang stuff was hard on him too.”

The younger ninja shakes his head, “Well you don't see us drinking our woes away.”

“That's his way of coping. He'll be out of it soon.”

“Yeah, okay.” The sixteen year old snaps under his breath, glaring down at the empty bag that he keeps fumbling with, Donnie's and Mikey’s conversation sounding happy behind them.

Raph turns on him suddenly, and Leo goes wide eyed as he glares at him, “Leo. Leave it be. You're not the one that almost lost a kid.”

Leo stares at him, and Donnie and Mikey go silent, their conversation dying in seconds as they look between the two.

The blue turtle frowns, glaring right back, “So that gives him an excuse Raph? You guys had it rough too! It's not just him.”

Raph rolls his eyes, “All people cope differently Leo, you can't just judge-”

“I have every right to judge!” Leo snaps back, and Raph doesn't look very happy about being interrupted, “He's been like this since we were little Raph, and it got better but now he's worse than ever-!”

Raph clenches his jaw, “Well maybe if you hadn't thrown yourself into a different dimension with a homicidal alien, then he wouldn't be doing this!”

Donnie bites his lip, “Raph-”

“Oh! So now it's my fault!” Leo yells back, voice raising, “I did that for you guys! I did that because I wanted to help!”

Mikey grabs Leo’s arm where he has a pointed finger raises at their older brother, “Nardo-”

“It was selfish!” Raph yells back, “You would've left us all here!”

“I was trying to be a leader!”

“No, you were trying to be a show off!” Raph snaps.

“You would've done the same!” Leo practically screams, slamming a hand on the table, “Any of us would have!”

Raph glares at him, and Leo breathes hard, their gazes piercing eachother skull with so much anger that it could melt something.

Raph shakes his head, jerking his gaze away and digging into the groceries again, “You're stupid.” He grates under his breath. 

Leo stands there, and he feels his chest knot up at the words. He doesn't mind a good yelling match, he doesn't mind arguments too much either. Yeah they suck, and it sucks trying to apologize later.

But he can't stand being told he's dumb.

He stares at the older boy, and when Mikey tries to place a calming hand on his shoulder he shakes it off, growling as he stomps his foot down, “I'm not stupid!” He yells, slamming his fist on the table before turning and stomping out of the room. 

He breathes hard as he goes to his room, jerking his swords up from the floor. His face burns with embarrassment and anger. He knows what he did a few months ago was risky, and stupid. But he couldn't just… He couldn't just risk all of their lives. He couldn't just…

Is it his fault?

He shakes his head, yanking his hood over his head as he walks away, leaving the lair with a heavy stride. All he can see in his head as he leaves is the way Mikey’s face broke up, and the way Donnie’s shoulders shook where he stood turned away from their argument.

He shakes his head.

The city is silent below, and he frowns when a pigeon flies up in front of him, his sword squeaks as he scrapes it across the ground, low eyes watching as it leaves white streaks across the concrete. 

He's been out for quite a while now, the sun having set about a while ago when he was on the west side of the city. 

He thought about going to April’s place and just spending the night. But with Casey there, it would be crowded, and Leo would rather die than sleep on the floor again.

He kicks at some rocks that are on the roof, raising a brow as he wonders how the hell they even got up here. 

Leo groans, boredom taking over. He wants to just go back home and charge his phone- it's not dead but it's pretty close- and hole up in his room. But he knows for a fact that Raph will just come in there and try to apologize. 

And he'd rather not hear it… Again. 

He swings his arms back and forth, the weight of his swords in his hands making him feel more at ease. He steps to the side, throwing his weight back and forth before leaning forward and rolling up into a handstand. 

He lets his body fall to his feet, then he breathes in deep, and runs forward, swords whistling as the air hits them.

He flips across the gap between the buildings, a grin crawling onto his lips as he flips and springs across the buildings. He bounces on the walls, body flying through the air as he rolls and jumps across another gap. 

He's surprised he can still do it so smoothly. He hasn't jumped around like this in a while. Donnie only told him last week that he was okay enough to do this. He still kinda feels the ache in his leg, lungs kinda burning from the exercise, but it feels so nice to fly through the air.

He hits his foot on an AC system though, and he grunts as he face plants. His swords clang as they clatter across the roof.

“Ow.” He mutters with a grumble, lifting himself up onto his forearms. 

“Are you okay?”

He jerks his head up, looking up at the unfamiliar figure in front of him. He nods, taking the hand that's offered to him. 

“Uh, thanks.” He mutters, looking at the guy with a smirk as he finger shoots him, “Had a bit of a stumble.” He chuckles.

He locks eyes with the rabbit from earlier today. 

His smile turns into a bland frown. Damnit. 

The rabbit smiles in an amused way, “Oh, it's you.”

Leo grumbles, “Yeah and it's you.”

The rabbit laughs, “I saw you flinging your body around a few buildings over. Thought maybe you were being chased.”

Lmao scoffs, smirking as he places a hand on his chest, “Moi would never be chased.” He places his hands on his hips as he takes on an air of cockiness, “I’d beat them all up.”

The rabbit rolls his eyes, “Hmm.”

Leo perks his lips, “I would Mr. Bunny.” 

Said Bunny laughs at the name, “It's Usagi. And I hardly believe that.”

Leo raises a brow, “Usagi? You Japanese?”

The rab- Usagi raises his brows, “Surprised you know that, New Yorker.”

“I may be a New Yorker but my Dad is Japanese too.” Leo leans against a laundry line, smirking as he offers his hand, “Hamato Leonardo at your service.”

Usagi glances at his hand before rolling his eyes and shaking it, “A bow would've been more formal.”

Leo waves a hand out, bowing extravagantly as he grins up at the other guy, “Yes my liege.”

The rabbit bites his lip to keep from smiling, and that alone makes Leo chuckle at him, “You're an uptight guy?”

Usagi looks kind of offended by the implications, “Not at all, I just don't meddle with silly things.” 

Leo laughs in a fake evil way, “You're in for a news flash my friend.” Leo pats his shoulder as he walks by, snatching up his swords, “For I, master Leonardo, am the silliest person in New York.”

He swings his swords around without much thought, checking over his shoulder to see Usagi following him without much thought too.

“I didn't think I'd see a yōkai up here not disguised.” Leo comments after they've been walking for a few minutes. 

Usagi stops where he stands on the building on the other side of the gap between them, “I'm not yōkai.”

Leo stops too, raising a brow as he turns to the other guy, “You're not?”

“I thought you were.” Usagi says, waving a hand at him. 

Leo shakes his head, “No. I'm a mutant.”

“Me too.” 

The turtle turns towards him completely, eyes growing wide, “Wait for real?”

“...yeah?” The rabbit starts walking again, looking at the bricks beneath his feet as Leo stares at him, “I was… created accidently.” 

“I was made on purpose.” Leo grins, then he stops again, blinking as he turns abruptly on Usagi, “Wait- were you created by-”

“Baron Draxum.” Usagi finishes his thought, gray eyes focusing on the turtle, “You?”

“Same.” Leo moves forward, hopping over to stand in front of the white rabbit as he sheaths his swords, “How old are you?”

“I was one of his early creations… I'm 17.”

“You were made a year before us.” Leo grins, “Dude that's so cool.”

“Not for me. And try more like several years before you. My parents were human…” Usagi looks to the side, “They wanted to get rid of me before they even tried to figure out what to do. Apparently the ooze accidently got into the city somehow. I stepped in it.”

Leo hums, crossing his arms over his chest as he grins, “Well either way, I'm glad to have a fellow mutant who isn't trying to kill me to talk to.”

Usagi hums, eyes looking away, “Same… I suppose.” They start walking again, and Usagi glances at the green boy, “So… Your father kept you? Even after what happened?”

“...yeah. he was turned into a giant rat so…” Leo swallows, regretting bringing up his dad after the fight from earlier. He changes the subject, “And who raised you, since your parents didn't?”

“Well… I'm a New Yorker. I was born here and everything. But my parents were Japanese, they had just moved here right before…” Usagi gestures to his body, “This happened.” He huffs, sounding like he's told this story a million times, “They didn't want a mutant rabbit child so they gave me to the only other Japanese people in our building… Who just happened to be yōkai.” Those gray eyes glance at Leo, and the blue turtle perks his lips as he listens. Usagi looks embarrassed for a second before sighing, sitting down on the building wall and dropping his legs over the side, “And they took one look at me and knew I belonged to that maniac. But they took care of me, even if I was a 13 year old ass.”

“Wow…” Leo raises his brows, leaning back on his hands as he sits on the building next to him, dropping his own legs over the side as he sits across from him. He perks his lips again, looking at the rabbit, “Do you still have those gummies?”

Usagi laughs for real this time, and Leo feels a grin crawl on his face as he sees the bunny smile for real for the first time, “Do you seriously like them that much?”

“Yes!” He yells in exasperation.

Usagi sighs, and pulls the bag that he had on his hip into his lap. He tugs the gummies out, the top already ripped off.

He leans over the gap, handing the younger boy a couple. Leo eats all of them in one go. 

“So why are you out so late?” Leo inquires, looking at him as he reaches over and takes another without asking. Usagi raises a brow at him like he's a little shit and Leo only grins as he eats it.

“Bored.” He mutters. 

“Hang out with your folks…” Leo says with a shrug.

“They've been gone for a while now. I'm on my own.”

Leo blinks, “Oh…” He looks to the side.

“You?”

“Huh?”

“Why're you out so late? It's like 4 am.”

Leo goes wide eyed, “Wait what!?” He looks around, and spots a clock tower. It's 4:27 to be exact, “Shit!”

Usagi blinks as he starts to walk away, “What's wrong?”

“N-Nothing-” He yelps, feet hurrying across the buildings. He looks to his left to see Usagi jump the gap with him as they hurry along, “I had no idea that it was that late. I could've sworn the sun set only an hour ago.”

“Do you have to be somewhere?” Usagi says, sounding breathless as they jump down the fire escape of a building.

“N-No.” He stops near a sewer lid, then groans, shaking his head, “Yes. I guess. I dunno.” He leans down, yanking the lid up. They guys are probably worried sick. He's been gone for more than ten hours. When he left the lair earlier it was only 4-something-pm.

The rabbit hums, “Okay then. See you around.”

Leo looks back at him, and he feels his chest twist weirdly. He did enjoy the company tonight, “We could hang out again sometime.” He places his hands on hips, “You got a phone?”

Usagi snorts, “Who doesn't.” He states, reaching down into his bag and tugging out a cell. Leo has half a mind to joke ‘Casey’ but then he realizes that Usagi has no idea who the hell that is, “Here.”

“Thank you.” Leo quickly adds himself to the contacts, putting sparkles and emojis everywhere. He then poses perfectly for his profile pic, and adds that. Usagi rolls his eyes at him.

“Are you done acting like a child?” Leo hands him back his phone with a smirk.

“Yes sir.” He holds the lid up with his foot as he bows, “Text me the next time You're bored. If I'm not kicking butt, I'll show up.”

Usagi hums, looking skeptical of the promise, “See you around turtle.”

“Bye bunny.” The blue ninja says before dropping down into the sewers. The lid clangs above him as he starts running down the tunnels.

He feels like he could grin for miles.