Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I, I feel like fuckin' somethin'
But we could be corny, fuck it
Sugar, I ain't no dummy, dummy
I likе to say, "What if?" But if
We could kiss and just cut the rubbish
Then I might bе onto somethin'
- Kiss Me More, Doja Cat ft. SZA

Eugh, wearing clothes right now is the last thing Leo wants to be doing.

He's sweating and uncomfortable, even in his own shell.

But the 'don't be naked in public' rule is the same in 16-mumble-something Japan as it is in post-alien-invasion New York - plus, pizza supreme, with global warming on the rise, Leo is acclimated to at least five degrees higher than what northern Honshu is giving in spite of the latitude difference. So. Leo slides into the black joggers that are decidedly not time-period appropriate but can probably pass if no one looks too hard, and pulls on Splinter's most recent Christmas gift: a matching haori for each of his sons, padded for extra warmth, with the Hamato clan crest adorning the back. Leo's is an almost electric blue with white hems and pink sakura blooms branching ornately up the sleeves.

Leo crouches in the woods and struggles to zip his duffel bag up again, even after removing the clothes from it. He packed too much. He should have popped in and actually asked Usagi if he was up for some fun springtime romping first and gone back home to grab his stuff after getting the green light. This was a last-minute choice, though, and making the slightly-to-the-left portal that gets him here has sapped a lot of stamina that Leo just does not have in the tank right now, so whatever! It's too late!

Mating season is here and Leo is super mega horny, and dealing with it solo because he's worried no one will match him freak4freak is over-fucking-rated.

Worst case scenario, Usagi tells him no because he isn't into it and Leo walk-of-shame's home to hide in his room for ten to twelve business days to ride out the worst of it and then pretends this Never Happened the next time he can show his face again without dying of embarrassment.

Best case scenario, Usagi fucks him silly and vice versa.

Leo's ready to shoot his shot about it.

He's tired of the one man show every year. It's stupid, it's stressful, and he deserves waaaayy better than trying to wring it out on his own, face down in his bed sheets with music playing loud enough from the Bluetooth speaker to make sure any noises he makes don't breach containment. Usagi's the #1 most-browsed mental file in his spank-bank, anyway – not that he'll admit that out loud – second only to Don Suave. Leo doesn't intend to catch feelings about it. He's just mustering up the guts to ask his tentative FWB if he's seriously down to clown for the Weirdest Week Ever, Sex Marathon Edition.

He's still trying to justify it in his head.

It's not weird to want someone he's familiar with.

It's not weird to want someone who will take care of him but who also won't tolerate his bullshit Behaviors when he's so horny he can't think straight.

Eugh, and here he is, pulling a classic Donnie Overthink.

Leo finishes tying the belt his twin ninjato hang from around his waist instead of across his shell. He swings his duffel bag up onto his opposite shoulder, takes a sword, cuts another portal - ignores the wobbliness that shoots through his legs and into his stomach - and steps through it.

The quiet, secluded clutch of pines gives way to a narrow alley near the main thoroughfare of a bustling city center. W ell, as bustling as it can be with wooden houses and people pushing carts and small wagons over the half-mud road. It's no Big Apple. It's not even comparable to the Hidden City, with it's weird, mystical elevations. But there is the familiar murmur of foot traffic and voices, and the smell of cooking food and perfumes and too many people to count . The castle towers over all of it on the hill to the east , it's ornate turrets and slopped tile roofs backed by the mountains and the grey-blue sky.

Leo makes his way toward it, slipping in and out of crowds and shadows. He scales the moat and the castle walls, and breaches the inner sanctum without raising a single alarm. Then he looks for Usagi. Leo usually has a pretty good sense of where his friend is. Today is no exception - his senses are heightened because of the Hormones, and that's a blessing in the fresh, open air.

He's a LOT less cranky than he was just twenty minutes ago with his brothers crowding uninvited into his room to complain about their own ailments.

"Leo."

Leo cracks a smile and pauses, crouched on the roof.

"Get down from there," Usagi hisses from the covered porch below, "Before someone else spots you and puts an arrow through your neck."

Leo grabs the edge of the roof and pokes his head into view, smiling broadly, "Is that any way to greet your favorite inter-dimensional time-traveling ninja buddy?"

"Mikey is my favorite," Usagi says, folding his arms.

"You're not special; he's everyone's fav."

"Get down, Leo," Usagi says again. He's still frowning, no nonsense. "You can't be skulking around the castle grounds without the permission of the Lord."

"M'kay, but I need a favor," Leo says.

He swings down onto the porch and drops his bag at his feet with a thud. There's no one else around. The small square yard is empty and none of the rooms along the porch are open. It's apart from the castle proper and doesn't look like it gets much traffic. Usagi keeps his voice down so it doesn't carry to anyone who might be nearby, so Leo does the same.

"What sort of favor?" Usagi asks, his wariness valid. Leo has come to him with some weird problems before and this is, unfortunately, right on brand.

"Uhh well, nothing life threatening this time! It's is actually kinda more of a uhh…. personal thing?" Leo says, praying the flash of heat in his face isn't too obvious. He catches himself doing some instinctive jazz hands, reaching for Usagi's face because it's suddenly in his proximity. He whips his hands back into his armpits. He clears his throat. Smooth. Play it off. Smile. "Listen, is there any chance you get, oh I dunno - paid time off? Or have any vacation days you can cash in or something?"

"No," Usagi says slowly, "Why?"

"Babe, you need a union, bad!"

"A what?"

"Don't worry about it, listen, I need to borrow you for like… a week? Probably a little longer. I mean - if you're available. If you wanna…"

"If I want to what?"

"Well y'know, it's springtime, right?"

" Yes ."

"And, uh… and some people have…. Urges. Y'know?"

"You're not usually this cryptic…"

"What, you don't have urges, Usagi?"

"What sort of urges, Leo?" Usagi asks impatiently.

"The procreating kind?" Leo mumbles. Face ablaze. Eyes averted. Heart beating hard. Hands tucked firmly into his armpits, head nearly tucked into his shell, pizza supreme he was trying to play it cool , what even is this? "I mean, minus the procreating part, obv i …."

Usagi is staring at him like he's insane.

His voice cracks,

"What?"

Leo dips his knees in exasperation and rolls his eyes so hard and throws out his hands, "UUGH OKAY FINE! So the fun thing about being a turtle - and by fun I mean the literal worst - is that once a year baby-makin time aka Spring Time rolls around and thanks to Barry and his stupid mutagen and Dad and his stupid human genes, my bros and me have this horrible grab-bag of mammal and reptilian shenanigans goin' on with our biology, so we get all froggy when the weather goes from cold to WARM and Raph hates it when I call it 'the sex flu' but, I ask you, what else am I supposed to call it, Usagi? I'm a million degrees hotter than normal, I'm sweating or whatever in places I don't even wanna talk about, I'm having too many moods to clock, I feel like I've been hit by a truck directly in my guts, and if someone doesn't fuck me soon I'm gonna literally explode or die and it's just a lot to deal with all at once because it hits you out of nowhere and - okay, sorry - just c'mere a sec…..!"

Leo's brain barely catches up with what his hands are doing. Reaching out to cup Usagi's face, clutching and tugging. Usagi makes an uncertain sound, but allows himself to be staggered forward into a firm, hasty, messy kiss, and Leo devolves. The press of a warm body against his is such an instant relief. It releases that awful tension that Leo had thrown on the back burner and tried to ignore. It unspools any grip he had on his inhibitions. He breaks away for air and instead of letting go, he tucks his face firmly against Usagi's neck and hugs Usagi too tight.

An enticing, rumbling churr starts in his throat. The vibration settles low in his gut and Leo shudders, his breath warming his own face, caught in Usagi's thick, soft fur and heavy with Usagi's scent. Usagi's short sword is wedged between them, digging into Leo's plastron, and it's super distracting. Leo dives his hand down impatiently to palm the hilt, tilting it out of the way, hips squirming forward.

Usagi's hand closes firmly around his wrist.

"Leo."

"Huhh?"

"Are you possessed?" Usagi asks harshly.

Usagi is rigid against him - not in a fun way – trying to hold Leo off while Leo shoves into his space.

That clicks. Leo hesitates. Rewinds. Processes.

"Wh-what?"

"Are you possessed?" Usagi repeats.

"Uhhh. N o...?"

"Are you cursed?"

"Dude! No! Are you joking?"

"You're the one who's -"

Leo steps back.

Well, he tries to - he forgets his bag is there and hits it with his heel. Top-heavy so he goes down flailing; still has ahold of Usagi, who still has ahold of his wrist, so the two of them stumble and crash sideways through the paper frame of one of the sliding doors and into a MERCIFULLY empty room. Leo lands on his shell and Usagi's full weight lands on top of him. It knocks something that sounds suspiciously like a moan out of Leo - he can't say that this wasn't exactly what he wanted.

Well maybe not like right now but in general.

Who wants a cranky samurai huffing in their face?

"Leo."

"Right yeah, okay," Leo snaps, trying to get his bearings, wondering when he wrapped his legs around Usagi's waist, "Totally tripped on purpose! All part of my genius plan to woo your pants off!"

"You're doing a poor job of it!" Usagi snaps back. He takes his weight off - lame! tragic! Leo wars between wanting to shove him off and yank him closer. He settles for following him into an upright position. No blood flow in his head at all, so it pounds to protest the shift in altitude. Usagi goes on, "This salacious behavior isn't appropriate and you have utterly failed to explain the situation !"

"I literally explained the situation!"

"You said, 'It's baby-making time!' and a bunch of other nonsense and then came at me!"

"Okay, I think you heard 'It's baby-making time!' - why would - why would I say it like that - "

"I cannot fathom why you say anything," Usagi complains, "But you did say it!"

"Okay, well, I can see how that might be kinda misleading -"

"VERY misleading!"

"But I definitely -"

"Leo nardo ."

"Usagi!!" Leo throws up his hands. "Dude I don't know I'm suffering right now , alright? Not 100% my fault but I'll own it okay, that one's on me! Sorry for being distracted by how hot and distracting you are," Leo huffs, pleased at least to see that Usagi doesn't know how to react to this.

He looks pink beneath his fur, scowling as he works to straighten out the front of his kimono. Leo watches the movement hide his collarbones and rumpled fur. He squeezes his knees together. He takes a deep breath, and that's not helpful, actually. Opposite of helpful . It filled his lungs, yeah, but Usagi's scent is sitting thick on his tongue and making everything hazy A F.

"Explain," Usagi says.

For most people, the harsh, authoritative tone might be a turn-off. Leo is built different, and there's a hot gooey rush in the pit of his stomach.

"Uuuugghh, okay lemme think," he says, dragging both hands down his face, blinking through the brain fog, "It's mating season, alright? It's a turtle thing! And I'm a turtle first and a people second, I know we've covered this mutation thing before! So no actual baby-making on the agenda, obviously, I'm just mad horny - every spring, like some horrible seasonal flu - and this year I kinda thought I'd work off all this extra horniness by having lots of sex, with you specifically."

Usagi exhales sharply through his nose.

"Right now?"

"No not right now, Usagi, not right here on the porch -" He'd never talk Usagi into it and - yeah no, Leo likes attention but he's not an exhibitionist. Is he? Maybe? Shit anyway - "Just! Soon! A t your earliest convenience or whatever, that would be great, I'm literally free immediately, whenever, and okay, also, I know I came at you full-speed just now, I'm feelin' a little outta whack because of like - this whole situation - but this is totally a no-pressure request! I don't need - I just wanted - you don't – if you don't want to or your think it's weird, y'know, you don't have to come up with some lame excuse or anything, you can just straight up say N o and I can just go home and it'll be whatever and -"

Usagi grabs the back of Leo's neck and hauls him forward into another firm kiss, and Oh. Nice! Rude because it's a not-very-subtle shut the fuck up but Leo is happy to stop making words for once. He opens his mouth eagerly when Usagi's tongue presses in. He moans, fisting both hands into Usagi's kimono, fully intending to crawl into his lap, only to be thwarted again.

Usagi firmly pushes him back.

"I didn't say I don't want to," he says softly, "Stupid, noisy ninja. Give me a second to think!"

Barely a beat of silence:

"You've still got your own room right?" Leo asks, surprised the words don't slur out of him with the way his whole body feels like warm jello. Jeez it's really ticking up. He thought he had a little more time to sort the deets out. "I'll be soo quiet."

Usagi laughs. "No you won't."

"Ugh! Why are you making good points right now?"

"What is it that you say about your brothers? 'One of us has to have the brain cell'? And you clearly aren't in possession of it right now."

"Oh, use my own words against me, that's such a turn on."

"I think you're turned on enough."

Usagi says it in a joking tone, with a perplexed but tender look on his face - but it hits Leo the wrong way. He tries to laugh it off, "Haa! Don't remind me!" And he sits back all the way out of Usagi's space. Because he needs some, ASAP. He hugs his knees with both arms, hiding his face against them. Shiiit. Shit. He takes a steadying breath but he can still smell Usagi, and the sharp tanginess of his own growing arousal, and its Not Helping . It's hard to play off his disappointment (or his discomfort; he's getting no relief at all for the pressure between his legs and the humming under his skin, and it's worse now, pizza supreme). He didn't think this through. Blame that on the hormones.

He forgot things are different with Mifune. He misses the good old days when Katsuichi pretended not to notice the two of them running off into the woods to do dumb shit.

After an excruciatingly long moment, Usagi says, "Season implies…"

"Yeah, uh, it's a whole thing, usually lasts about a -"

"A week," Usagi says automatically, probably remembering Leo's initial poor summation because he says it again, with more feeling, "A week?"

"Yep-o….. Or two, sometimes. Mostly one and some change. Kinda depends."

"Depends on what?"

"Circumstances…?"

Usagi makes a not-encouraging noise. Then asks, "What does this entail, exactly?"

"Uh, it's not self-explanatory?"

"No, Leo, it is not self-explanatory. Have you done this with someone before?"

"Dude, I've done it with you before! Multiple times. We've literally done it like, for fun!"

"I mean this, Leo," Usagi says. He sounds exasperated, but not like he's freaking out anymore. His voice takes on that soft, careful cadence that always makes Leo's stomach do flips, and his face burns hearing it now. "You don't seem…. Are you alright?"

Leo musters himself enough to lift his head and smile then. He rests his chin on his palm. Usagi is looking at him, rubbing his neck. His fingertips rest exactly where Leo's mouth was just a minute ago.

Cool. Neat. Interesting.

Leo totally isn't going to run that through his mind a million times.

He grins and drawls out an, "Aaaaww, babe~" and any concern Usagi had blanks out with an exaggerated eye-roll. His hand drops away from his neck and he looks away, and Leo keeps on digging, rooting out that stupid feeling that's got no business being in his chest. "It's cute that you're worried, but I've been goin' through this once a year since I was like thirteen so I'm used to it."

"You didn't answer either of my questions," Usagi says flatly.

Oh fuck you, Usagi.

"Nope." Leo pops the P and keeps smiling. "Sure didn't, did I? I'm great. Thanks for asking. And anyway, who exactly would I proposition, huh? Our social circle's gotten wider over the years but there's nobody I really wanna spend a whole goddamn week getting dicked-down with, and this can get a little weird and a little intense, so it's not exactly something you hook up with someone on grindr about, it's gotta be somebody that I'd at least feel comfortable or – or whatever with -"

Ah heck.

Usagi's face is softening out of that ready to knife-emoji something expression.

Then one of his ears twitches, his head tilting.

Usagi gets up and ducks back through the torn frame of the door, grabbing Leo's bag and tossing it to him. Leo catches it deftly as he rolls to his feet. He backs up into the furthest corner, blending seamlessly into the shadows of the empty room. Not a second later, he hears footsteps coming around the far corner of the porch and a voice calls out, "Usagi! There you are."

Ugh, the warthog.

Leo measures his breathing and doesn't move.

"Gunichi," Usagi says mildly.

"I thought I'd come see what was holding you up. What happened to the door?"

"A tokage broke into one of the storage rooms. I'm sorry, I got distracted trying to find it."

"Ah! But why are you smiling like that?"

"I'm not smiling." Usagi has already crossed the length of the porch, directing Gunichi away from Leo's hiding place. "I'll leave it for the guards, I haven't had any luck. And someone will have to come and fix the door. By the way, Gunichi, where is Shigure-kun? I need him to run an errand for me."

"The page? Hmm let me think…."

Their voices and footsteps fade as they round the corner again.

Leo waits, crouched in the shadows hugging his bag. When he's sure the coast is clear, he slips out, back onto the roof, and retraces his earlier path across the grounds. He drops down the castle wall and scales the moat with slightly less finesse than he came in with, but still relative ease. At any rate, he doesn't get caught. He weaves back into the pedestrians and makes his way toward the main gate and the guards posted in front of it. Leo knows better than to try and go inside, so he loiters within sight of the gate and does his best to not look suspicious (or play on his phone, or think about how he feels like he's starving but not for food).

Before long, a stoat little fox kit in a blue kimono bearing the Mifune crest comes jogging out with a determined look on his face. He glances right, then left. He spots Leo, and his ears perk up.

He jogs over.

"Are you Hamato-san?"

"Hamato-san is my old man," Leo says with an easy smile, adjusting the way the strap of his bag sits across his shell and shoulder. The kid looks him up and down, gaze lingering on his swords. Leo probably should have brought his shinai case to keep them in. "Leo is fine. You got somethin' for me?"

"Hai." Shigure gives Leo a deep bow. As he straightens, he produces a thick, carefully folded letter from the front of his kimono. "Usagi-san told me to give you this."

His duty upheld, the kid scampers off.

Leo breaks the seal and unfolds the letter. Inside is a small, rectangular talisman with Mifune's crest embossed into the wood. Usagi's message is written in broad, attractive strokes that look like chicken scratch to Leo. He has to find a place out of sight to use his phone. Crouching in an alley, he thumbs into the app Donnie made so he can get a translation without the internet and aims his camera at the kanji.

'Show this crest to the innkeeper of the Mizu Inn and ask for a private room.'

Cool, so this is some spy movie shit.

Leo is into it.

-

Usagi brushes aside the fabric partition hanging above the entryway and scans the dining room. It's the hour of the Horse and the popular Inn is crowded with its usual lunch rush. People are grouped in twos and fours at every table while the innkeeper's daughters, one as young as ten, weave between them carrying trays laden with food and sake. The air is heavy with laughter, with conversations rising and falling like a tide, with the smell of rice and cooked fish and booze. The early season chill hasn't quite left the air, and the Inn is comfortably warm even just inside the door.

The innkeeper, a stooped old badger, spots Usagi and makes his way over, bowing low in greeting.

"Welcome, honored vassal of our Lord! Can I show you to a table?"

"I'm meeting a friend for lunch," Usagi blurts out, smiling nervously. He was fine until he was approached and now he feels too-warm in the stifling air and foolish for his lack of composure. It's not a lie outright. He expects they'll eat at some point. "He should be here. A kame, Hamato -"

Usagi lifts his hand to Leo's height, just a hair above his own head.

The badger is already nodding, beckoning Usagi forward, "Yes of course! Right this way, sir!" He calls over one of his daughters while Usagi takes off his sandals and steps up onto the raised floor. He bids Usagi to have a pleasant stay, and the girl leads Usagi up the stairs at the back of the room . The din from below fades into something more tolerable as they climb, replaced with more of the same only softer, conversations slightly muffle behind the partitioning of each room.

The girl stops at the end of the hall, then kneels beside the door, speaking through the screen, "Hamato-san, your guest is here."

There's some movement inside - a scuff again the tatami, rustling fabric, the thump of bare feet - Usagi wonders for a moment if Leo is going to whip open the door himself, but then Leo clears his throat and says, "Oh yeah cool, you can come on in or whatever."

The girl slides open the door and bows her head again as Usagi steps past her.

"Shall I bring your meals?"

Usagi panics and says, "Just tea for now!"

The girl bows lower in acquiescence without looking up - or, thankfully, into the room - and shuts the door. Usagi listens to her soft footsteps retreating and keeps his gaze on Leo.

Leo, who is standing by the brazier meant to warm the room, and also near enough to the corner that he wouldn't be spotted right away when the door opened. His bag and both his swords and belt have been discarded in the middle of the room, his haori thrown across them. Usagi is surprised he's still wearing the pants, to be honest. Leo wasn't wearing clothes when Usagi found him unconscious in the mountain stream when they were both fourteen, and he has never made a habit of it.

The black, baggy pants were clearly yanked back up in a hurry.

The pockets and tie s are in the back instead of the front, and one clinging ankle is still half over Leo's foot. They rest low on his narrow hips. Leo sticks his thumb into the waistband and swipes it around, adjusting them, and flashes Usagi a grin that manages to convey both guilt and an utter lack of embarrassment. A faint sheen of sweat glistens over Leo's skin, accenting the sinuous shape of his arms and shoulders. His chest rises and falls slightly with his breath and his cheeks are flushed.

"Did I interrupt something?" Usagi asks, smirking.

Leo laughs, husky and deep; "How about you not play with me right now, huh? Cuz the way I'm trying so hard not to jump on you is unreal."

"That's disappointing," Usagi says. He isn't worried about someone overhearing them in this crowded, noisy inn. He closes one hand around the sheath of his katana. He slides his socked foot across the tatami, shifting his weight when Leo's knees dip slightly and his eyes crinkle with a growing grin. Usagi's body flushes with anticipation. "What did I come here for if you aren't going to jump on me?"

Usagi gets no warning that Leo is going to move - no tell to give him even a moment's advantage as Leo darts forward - it's by luck and pure reflex that Usagi manages to dodge him.

Usagi pivots so they face each other, moving backward. He matches Leo's grin step for step around the room in a stupid, tumbling little dance of cat and mouse. Usagi slips Willow Branch from his belt, lowering it to the floor without missing a step. He drops Young Willow next. Leo steps around them both with equal care. Usagi skirts around the brazier. Evades another desperate grab for his kimono sleeve and laughs when Leo manages to hook his long fingers into his belt instead, with a triumphant, "Aha!"

Leo pulls Usagi into him, hastily, and isn't prepared to catch his weight. They over-balance and tumble to the floor trying to break the other's fall.

Usagi's head bounces hard against the tatami as he lands on his back. Leo scoops his hand around, cradling the back of Usagi's head, close enough to tickle Usagi's whiskers when he breathes out, "Whoops!" Usagi can't complain. Why would he want to when Leo seems intent on kissing it better? His tongue swoops into Usagi's mouth the moment his lips are parted. Voice hums in his throat. Fingers thread between his, squeezing hard. Body rocks down against his, the beginnings of a breath-snatching, heart-thumping rhythm. The hard lines of his plastron sear Usagi like a brand, on just the right side of too-hard.

Leo 's skin is usually cooler to the touch than Usagi 's , but now Usagi can feel the heat of him radiating through his clothes, as strong as a summer sun. Leo's other hand is already wiggling between them, grasping the front of Usagi's kimono, tugging it up like he can free it from the hakama if he tries hard enough. Usagi doesn't want to but for the sake of the integrity of his clothes, he dives his free hand down to stop Leo from pulling at them. He tilts his head to break the kiss because unfortunately, he needs air. Leo tucks his face into Usagi's neck without pause and mouths at his quickening heartbeat.

"Are you sure you're not possessed?" Usagi pants, grinning.

Leo hums long and low. He worries Usagi's neck between his teeth, palms Usagi's chest through his clothes, pushes his thigh firmly between Usagi's. Usagi's back arches; he thumps his head on the floor again, throwing it back. He forgets there was even a question until Leo answers it, giggling, "If you're worried about it you can, uh, exorcise me, yeah? And then we'll both feel tons better."

Usagi barks out a laugh, "That's terrible. Even for you!"

Leo, unrepentant, sticks his tongue out. He moves up onto his elbows, allowing enough space between them for Usagi to untie the belt of his hakama. He busies his hands with petting Usagi's face, pressing his whiskers to his cheeks and smoothing them out, which is - very distracting.

"Hey, maybe you're not far off with whole 'cursed' thing, by the way - only it's like a biology thing instead of a witchcraft, spells, or demons thing."

"This sounds like something you made up just to get my attention. You realize that, don't you?"

"I mean, I didn't, but it's working, so! I dunno. What's that say about you, Usagi?"

"Something we can unpack later, certainly."

Leo's grin is wolfish, all perfect white teeth and sharp canines, shaping his warm brown eyes into crescent moons. Usagi grins back, but his face heats under Leo's fingertips and his heart pounds when Leo drops down to kiss him again. Usagi has to remind himself - firmly, suddenly - that Leo is a friend. A friend with a problem, however uncanny, and that he came to Usagi for help. It's a very different set of circumstances than the casual encounters they've had in the past, but he shouldn't give it any weight.

Leo said there was no one else he wanted.

That doesn't mean something changed between them when Usagi wasn't looking.

Usagi's hands fumble with the last treacherous knot. He loosens it and hooks his thumbs into the hakama, and lifts his hip to shove them down - only to freeze, breaking away from Leo's searching mouth. His ear tilts instinctively to catch the soft sound of feet approaching from down the hallway. Leo turns his head in the same direction that Usagi's ear tilts. He's sensitive to vibrations, perhaps more so at the moment. Even though he certainly can't hear it, he probably feels it. His smile falters.

"The tea," Usagi realizes.

He shoves Leo's shoulder, but Leo is already moving off of him.

Usagi rolls upright, quickly retying his belt on his way to the door. He sweeps his ears back over his shoulder and smooths out the front of his kimono, tries to smooth out his breathing to little avail, and just wills himself to look presentable and not like he's been tousled about on the floor. He opens the door when the innkeeper's daughter announces herself. He's grateful that she doesn't linger or ask if they want to eat again. She simply shuts the door after handing over the tray to him and departs.

Leo manages to wait until she's out of earshot before he crumples with laughter.

Usagi gusts out a laugh of his own.

" Be quiet ." He gestures with the tray. "Do you even want this?"

"Uh yeah, later maybe," Leo chuckles, wiping the corner of his eyes, "Put it down and c'mere."

"It will get cold."

Usagi points this out, even as he goes to set the tray down near Leo's belongings, where they won't turn it over on accident. It will steep too long, and he got caned for cold or over-steeped tea enough during training, so the thought of leaving it for later rallies against all of Usagi's instincts.

"Dude no offense but tea is bottom of my priority list right now, I will make a portal home and pop it in the microwave for you if you want, just come on." Leo's voice still carries his casual joking tone, but there's a hint of desperation underneath it now - something in the lingering heat in his face, something tight behind his smile, something restless in his movements as he sits on the floor on his heels. Especially when Leo adds, not even bothering to try and play it off, "Please?"

Usagi hesitates. "Are you alright?"

"Great but I'd definitely be better if you were over here and missing at least two layers of clothes," Leo answers honestly, still smiling; Usagi lets that ease his worry.

"Oh well," he says, "If that's all you want."

He slowly stands from setting down the tray and undoes the loose knot he managed in his belt. He lets the hakama slide down his legs and steps out of them. Leo is suddenly very attentive. He watches Usagi with a renewed flush to his cheeks, his pupils blown wide, tracking the deliberate movement of Usagi's hands as they work open his sash and outer kimono next, letting the fabric fall. Leo's own hands rest on his knees and palm the fabric there. He's chewing on his bottom lip, surprisingly quiet.

When his gaze flickers up and meets Usagi's, Usagi can't help smirking. Leo's expression doesn't change - he's notorious for only letting people see what he wants them to see, even in moments of duress - but he apparently can't control the way the blush dusting his cheeks spreads to his neck and darkens into a deep, vivid red that his markings are completely lost in, half-hidden beneath his blue mask

"Dude, seriously?" he bursts out through a reedy round of laughter, "If you're gonna strip for me, at least try to be sexy about it. 3/10."

"Excuse me," Usagi laughs, stepping carefully around the pile of fabric and crossing over to where Leo is sitting, "Katsuichi-sensei didn't teach me the alluring ways of the courtesan."

Leo rises onto his knees to grab his hips.

"Uh yeah, he taught you dumb -" Leo pulls and Usagi staggers down on top of him. "- useless stuff like -" Leo rolls onto his shell and lets Usagi pin him there. "- archery and horses and - " Usagi plants one hand against the floor to bracket Leo underneath him - "- and whatever - " - the other loosening his inner cotton kimono while Leo pulls him down to kiss him again with tongue and teeth and throaty moans. He does not seem intent on following the thread of conversation any further.

Usagi is happy to drop it while it's still in good humor.

Leo's opinion on Usagi's profession is a point of contention, and vice versa.

Usagi shivers as Leo's hands slide straight into the open seam of his kimono the moment it's loose enough. Leo smooths his hands across Usagi's chest, the broad plains of Usagi's back. He hugs Usagi's ribs, pulling him firmly down and arching as much as he can to meet him. Usagi rocks their hips together obligingly, his own stomach shaking at the ripple of pleasure that sweeps up his spine. Leo's knees squeeze his hips. Leo's hands pinch his fur. Leo pants against his open mouth, whimpering and cursing.

"Alright?" Usagi asks.

"Yeah, m'good, c'n you just - "

Leo's hand is shaking when he grabs Usagi's wrist. His thighs are shaking too when he shoves Usagi's hand down, past the waistband of his pants and into the searing heat between his legs.

Usagi's fingers search deftly beneath the edge of Leo's plastron without hesitation, and Leo whines high in his throat. His cock is already poking out of his slit and slick with precum. It slides fully into Usagi's hand the moment Usagi rubs across it, and Leo's whole body shudders, tense and trembling, hips bucking up against the few languid strokes Usagi gives him. Leo pants and mumbles a stream of incoherent half-words that even Usagi's keen hearing can't parse. Then he lets out a small, aborted cry, a sound that's almost like a sob, and his hand locks around Usagi's elbow in an iron-hard grip. Usagi hesitates, glancing up from the attention he's giving Leo's neck. Leo's face is red, his forehead beaded with sweat. The tears pricking the corners of his eyes make Usagi's stomach give an unpleasant lurch.

"Leo?" Usagi murmurs, "Do you want me to stop?"

Leo's head tosses back and forth, his eyes scrunched closed.

"Nnno, Sagi, c'mon…!"

"What's wrong?"

"I d-don't - can you just - please - I need -"

He tugs on Usagi's kimono and his hips bounce impatiently. His eyes are lusty and dark and… not especially focused when he gets them open and meets Usagi's. Oh. He said it might be 'weird and intense' didn't he? He wasn't just being dramatic. Usagi starts pumping his hand again. Leo's head snaps back, voice rising into a desperate moan.

"You have to be a little quiet," Usagi laughs nervously, lowering his own voice.

Leo babbles, "Make me dude I dunno hah -! Fuck! Ah!" His hips stutter up into Usagi's fist. His legs shift restlessly, feet pressing the floor, knees squeezing and then swooping open wider, like he can't actually decide whether it feels good or not. He clutches Usagi to him like he's trying to pull Usagi into his shell with him. Usagi closes his mouth over Leo's pulse point and sucks hard to leave a mark there. And, really, if he had wanted Leo to be quiet, he should have tried something else - in Usagi's defense, he didn't know that this would be the push-over that makes Leo come so hard he shouts.

Leo goes rigid and yanks on Usagi's kimono.

Usagi is grateful it isn't his ear when he hears the seam pop.

He works Leo through that wiggling, squirming high, murmuring praise while he nuzzles the dip of Leo's collarbone beneath the hard ridge of his shell, while Leo hugs him close and tight and rocks against him. Each of Leo's noisy exhales goes straight to Usagi's groin and his own neglected arousal. Leo's grip on him trembles loose, only to tighten again when Usagi dips two slick fingers into his slit, chasing his spent cock.

Leo's sharp whine gets stuck in his throat.

His hips jerk again.

"Do-on't! Jeez….!" Leo gasps. He shoves at Usagi's arm and Usagi pulls back. "Warn a guy before you stick your fingers in 'im! M'sensitive, dude…..!"

"I noticed," Usagi murmurs, laughing softly, "Sorry."

"S'fine….. shit."

At least he knows Leo will say something if he pushes too far. It's not as if Leo is going to tell him what his boundaries are right now. Usagi kisses Leo's thudding heartbeat while Leo's limbs curl and squeeze and shift around him. He rubs Leo's trembling thighs and palms his hip to soothe him. Leo slowly relaxes. He lets out a deep, shuddering breath.

"Mama Mia," he laughs and sounds so much more like himself again that Usagi laughs as well, "As soon as I get over my jelly legs, I'm jumping on you so hard."

"You've been all talk this whole time," Usagi says, "As usual."

Leo puffs out an indignant laugh.

He extricates his arm from its awkward place in Usagi's sleeve and cups Usagi's face between his hands, scrunching his fingers through Usagi's fur in a way that Usagi doesn't hate but that Leo knows he doesn't like. Ungrateful. And yet Usagi struggles not to smile. Leo pulls him down for another string of heady kisses, lacking in urgency now and over abundant in playfulness. Leo bites his lip, pushes his kimono off his shoulders; gropes his arms, his back, his chest; pays him compliments like dude, your pectorals are insane and ugh your so SOFT. He rubs Usagi's ears and pushes his knee up between Usagi's thighs and happily swallows his moans and his breathless, eager laughter.

Chapter Text

On a positive note: it's crazy what a couple of orgasms and an hour snuggling with his mate has done for Leo's temperament. Actually, he has no idea why he worded it that way. There's no Negative Note. This is the most normal he's ever felt during the start of mating season ever, and WOW. Who would have guessed, huh? That the literal solution to the problem would be helpful? Sure there's some (pleasant) tingling in his extremities and his head-space is a lil weird and fuzzy (maybe an endorphin high? unconfirmed), but it sure beats sweating and aching and feeling so restless that he can't think.

"How much are you going to eat?" Usagi asks incredulously.

"I am a growing turtle! And I dunno about you, but I just burned a lot of calories!"

The meals at the inn are nothing fancy. White rice with some kinda grilled fish and pickled veggies, side of dumplings, and probably the yummiest, brothiest udon soup ever (no offense, Miguel). Leo's stomach growled when he removed the lid and the smell steamed up into his face. He wolfed everything down in two seconds flat. Now he's halfway through finishing Usagi's meal, too. Usagi seems content to sip his tea after asking the waitress to bring some more, so Leo doesn't feel too bad.

In fact, he's working pretty hard to keep the happy churr out of his throat. Talk about Embarrassing. His instincts are so over-reacting.

"Are you going to be like this the entire time?" Usagi asks, arching a brow.

"What, insatiable?" Leo asks, winking, "Probably."

Usagi smiles and shakes his head.

After a moment he says, "You said you needed me for a week or longer." Heat floods Leo's face from that particular phrasing. Jeez, did he say that? His short term memory slots have been wiped. "And you didn't really elaborate. What were your plans, exactly?"

Leo pauses with food halfway to his open mouth. How does he explain that his checklist consisted of 1. Get Dicked Down. 2. Rinse & Repeat.? He gestures with the chopsticks - Usagi frowns and Leo remembers that's #rude and stops.

"Uuuhh this?"

"This is lunch, Leo."

"Mkay." Noted. "Sooo…"

"Soooo," Usagi mimics. The corner of Leo's mouth twitches up. Way too much warmth in his chest as he watches Usagi turn his tea cup in a way-too-casual manner, like the striations in the clay are the most fascinating thing in the room. "If you would be more comfortable at an Inn, I don't care to pay for it. But I thought you'd rather stay with me."

"I mean yeah, preferably with you," Leo says. He flashes Usagi an easy smirk, defiant of the way his heart starts working double time. "You gonna hide me in your closet the whole time?"

"I was going to let you out for some exercise now and then."

"I'm into that!"

Usagi clarifies with a laugh, "I was going to let you have free roam of the house."

"Of your frat house? I dunno…."

"No, not the 'frat house'. I don't know why you want to call it that. I'm not sleeping in the barracks anymore. I was promoted, remember? I thought that's what you'd -"

"OOoooOOOOOoo riiiight! Right! You've got a house now huh, big guy?"

"Leo, you were at my house three months ago."

"Yeah I know, I've connected the dots on that one!" Oh boy that is not like him, the brain fog is real. That makes everything so much easier, though. Leo doesn't usually start beef over his space like his brothers do, but having a bunch of strangers around would have been. Uh. Mortifying probably. "I'd totally be down to stay at your place, that would be super. However. I seem to recall you have a lady friend who's Not A Wife living with you? Or something? Right?"

"Aoi-san?"

Leo snaps his fingers. That was it.

Misses Blue Daba-dee Daba-di. She broke a wooden lantern over Leo's head when he overshot his portal by a foot and a half and landed himself at her bedside instead of Usagi's.

"If Aoi-san and the servants are going to disturb you, I can dismiss them during your stay," Usagi says, "They have families they would no doubt enjoy visiting." He's quiet for a minute, then prudently asks, "Do you want me to clarify again what a consort is?"

Leo has absolutely not been spiraling about that, actually. It didn't bother him last time he visited, because why would it? Now though…. he's not sure if he could handle walking into a house that smells like someone to compete with for his mate's attention. Not that he's territorial or anything. He shrugs, plucking out the last few bites of rice from his tray, "If you wanna."

"Aoi-san takes care of my house and my finances."

"And stress relief?" Leo adds, grinning.

Usagi's expression is passive but his face is red.

"That's also one of her duties, but not one I ask of her."

"No wonder you're always so tense, babe."

"Any tension you think I have coincides exclusively with your visits, Leo."

"Wow, it's a good thing that I usually come for some stress relief then, huh?"

Usagi snorts out a laugh and then looks away, trying to pretend that he didn't let that slip. Leo chuckles, reaching over for the kettle to pour some more tea for Usagi first (cuz that's polite) and then himself. Once Usagi has his composure back, he goes on, "If you're fine with that arrangement, we should get going soon. I need to speak with Aoi-san, and she won't be pleased about the short notice. I don't think we'll have any trouble, though - as long as you do not advertise why you're here."

Leo whips on his best placating smile.

"Soooo PDA's off the table?"

"It is if you can't be subtle."

"What's she gonna do, tell on you? Sagi, this is just reinforcing the idea that the Boss Man doesn't let you have any fun."

Aaand he shouldn't have swung at a tender spot. It tasted bitter coming out anyway, and Usagi frowns harder, actually looks sort of hurt; says warningly, "Leo."

Eugh. It's juuuuust like trying to shit-talk the Baron in front of Mikey. Excuse-y mwa? Leo's in the right corner here. It is definitely suss to actively groom and/or create and then employ child soldiers. At least Usagi wasn't a literal baby. At least Mifune pays him. Barry probably wouldn't have paid Leo and his brothers with anything other than the glory of obliterating the human race, etc.

Anyway whatever.

Leo's letting it go.

"Relax, it was a joke."

See?

And Usagi still sulks into his tea cup.

"Anyway, I'm the greatest ninja the world has ever seen," Leo goes on smoothly, his unease settling like churned tea dredges when Usagi rolls his eyes and pretends he's not smiling, "I can do subtle."

-

Usagi's neighborhood is on the castle grounds not far from the keep itself.

Leo's never walked there before. And he's never seen it in the daylight. The one time he'd been there, three months ago, he'd portaled in late in the evening to bug Usagi into playing Go with him - he had Not been trying not to have a panic attack over something stupid (and if he had been, hypothetically, getting whapped with a torch by a small angry tiger-lady in a dark, unfamiliar room would not have helped, just fyi), and anyway he'd felt fine by the time he'd left. Usagi has that effect on people. He either instills a bewildering rage or an equally bewildering calm in literally everyone he meets, and there's little middle ground.

Dr Feelings could make a case study out of the guy.

Anyway, it's a long, long spiraling walk from the main gate at the foot of the hill, up multiple stone staircases and through multiple gates, some of them more fortified than others. Functionally, it's like a town all on its own - there are all sorts of people thronging up and down the wall-hemmed streets, mostly samurai or servants, all of them on some business or another. They pass through an orchard with trees that will probably have fat, fuzzy peaches weighing them down in a couple of weeks.

"This is inviting," Leo observes, only half sarcastic. The castle looms over their heads with perfect, ornate tiles and tiers and balconies, and every building Leo has seen so far is miles nicer than the ones in the town proper. For all that it's lavish, the place is literally a fortress, and it's impossible to forget. "Nothing says I love visitors quite like a maze leading up to your front door."

"It's to confuse invaders," Usagi says, almost absently, "The gates can be barred in the event of a siege, and anyone unfamiliar with the grounds will get lost along the false paths and dead ends, which will give us precious time to rally or to get our Lord to safety."

"Fun," Leo says.

Maybe a little heavy on the sarcasm.

Usagi glances over his shoulder, but Leo is busy grinning at the line of boys that slows down to ogle at him, mouths gaping like a school of fish rather than assorted puppies and kits. Easy to forget he's more of a novelty here than he is in the Hidden City, where turtle yokai are abound. More than one of the kids whispers cryptically, Kappa! The man behind them, a dog with floofy golden fur and pointy ears, barks, "It's impolite to stare!" The boys gulp and hastily bow and mumble apologies, and the whole group as one starts jogging again, a bit quicker than before, their breath forming puffs in the cold air.

Their sensei trots along in their wake.

"Are you working them hard, Shiba-san?" Usagi calls amicably.

"Every day, Usagi," Shiba-san rumbles, grinning.

And it's a super small, casual exchange, because the man doesn't pause except to harry the kids in front of him and Usagi doesn't look at him except to acknowledge him, but Leo is feeling froggy again. The heat that had abated somewhat rises up his neck and makes him a little giddy and stupid and he really has to catch himself from side-stepping into Usagi's personal space or doing something crazy like putting an arm around him. The aborted movement he makes is obvious, and Usagi glances at him again.

Leo's got no distraction this time, so he goes with pretending it didn't happen.

"We have to get you some decent clothes while you're here," Usagi says.

Leo has the good sense to lower his voice, "Uh, I'm hoping to not be wearing clothes too often, babe."

Usagi's face flushes but he goes on anyway, "You look like a mercenary. And you can't carry your swords like that. If I hadn't vouched for you at the gate, they would have never let you in. If you want to leave the house at all, you'll have to blend in better, Leo."

"And where am I gonna leave the house for?"

"I'd rather be prepared than not, wouldn't you?"

"Fair point."

Usagi turns toward one of the openings in the looming white-plastered stone wall to either side of them, shunting open the wooden gate. A little bell overhead chimes. Compared to some of the others on the block - which Leo can only see the roofs of over the walls in the daylight, and couldn't see at all in the dark - Usagi's house isn't big by any means, but it's definitely nice. A tall sakura tree getting its bloom on in the corner provides the small gravel yard with some shade, and tidy hedges line the wall. There's a path around the house that leads into the back yard, into a garden that's arguably got more square footage than the house itself. Swathes of dark green moss cover most of the roof.

Usagi leads the way across the yard and slides open the front door to untie his sandals. He steps up onto the dark, polished floor and Leo follows him, whistling in appreciation.

Being a samurai must be nice, apart from the whole dying for your lord thing.

The small room at the front of the house is more of a hallway, probably just for greeting guests. The main room is to their left, spacious and open with dark wooden floors and no furniture apart from the short chest of drawers and a low table with some cushions thrown around it. There's a scroll painting and a small vase with blue hydrangea plumes decorating the alcove, and a wooden plate where an incense was recently burned. The screens to the porch on both sides of the room are open in places, letting the air and light (and, consequentially, the cold) stream through uninhibited. There's a wind chime somewhere, jangling in the easy breeze.

Leo swings his duffel bag down beside the table, out of the way, and tries to parse all the different smells.

Being in another new place makes his throat itch.

Usagi pokes his head into another room and, evidently finding it empty, returns and announces, "It looks like everyone is out at the moment. That's not really surprisingly, I'm not here that often and since I never have guests, Aoi-san never has much to do." He moves across the room, sliding open one of the wall panels and revealing a room with sweet-smelling tatami mats down. Leo remembers that room. "The bedroom is here. The kitchen is in the back, along with the privy. You can make yourself at home."

Leo nods absently, rubbing his neck, trying to focus around that nagging, Distinctly-Female, Person Who's Not Usagi smell. Even with the house aired out, he can smell her. Why is her scent so much stronger? Just because she's here more often and Usagi is out all day? Leo doesn't think they're fucking. Usagi wouldn't lie about it and it doesn't smell like sex in here. Usagi said they weren't. Leo doesn't care. Usagi can do whatever he wants with his Not Technically a Wife, they're not - it isn't like – they're not – something boiling hot hits the lower part of Leo's stomach. It locks his jaw.

Dimly, he hears Usagi saying something else.

Leo's in a barrel right now.

The room is foggy and Usagi's voice is far away and Leo's chest tightens. His breath kicks up. Seriously? Is he doing this right now? He works to slow his breathing, tries to focus, squeezing the back of his neck, rubbing his scent glands to ease away some of the throbbing while his stomach churns. Ugh, he's freaking out. Why is he freaking out? It's fine. It's fine. It doesn't matter. It's -

"Leo?"

Leo startles.

Usagi's hands come up, cupping around his face. Leo drops his hands and hooks both into Usagi's kimono to tug him another step closer. Usagi holds him a little more firmly, and Leo breathes out, shakily, then breathes in. Usagi's face is close to his own. His thumbs brush Leo's facial markings, lightly rubbing from his cheekbones to the sharp edge of each crescent, to the bolt of his jaw. Leo rocks down, until Usagi's whiskers tickle his cheek and Usagi's breath gusts across his mouth. Leo wants to kiss him because kissing him feels good and Leo feels bad and anxious for no reason right now but that's not - they're not -

"Leo?" Usagi asks, words warm and soft and clearer than before, "Still with me?"

Leo unsticks his tongue from the roof of his mouth and realizes he's panting through his nose, trying to get as much of Usagi's scent in his body as he can. The house doesn't really smell like him. It's disappointing. But it's whatever.

"Y-yeah. My bad. Can you…?" Leo's hands come up to tentatively touch the back of Usagi's wrists, to tug them down a bit. "Can you rub…?"

"Here?"

"Mhmm."

Usagi sways back a bit, glancing at Leo's neck. He presses gently with the heel of his hands on both sides of Leo's throat, just beneath his chin. He rubs in slow, firm circles. Leo's eyes flutter closed and he sighs - aaaannd he starts churring. Well that's embarrassing. Whatever. The rumble is comforting. It fills up all his insides so there isn't room for the weird feelings to get stuck. Usagi breathes out a noise that lets Leo know without having to look that there's a fond smile on his face.

"Scent glands," Leo murmurs.

"Ah," Usagi murmurs, "I'd wondered why you were so sensitive here."

Usagi presses his thumbs into the tender places beneath Leo's jaw, silently asking Leo to tip his head back so he can get a better look. Leo bares his throat and does not manage to suppress the full body shiver that ripples through him, or the soft moan that escapes when he exhales.

Usagi chuckles, "Are you going to be like this the entire time?"

He starts petting Leo's throat again.

That makes words trifficult.

"What, uuuuhh. Hmm. Weird, spaced out, and horny?" Leo asks. He can't be expected to conjure up a wink when he's literal putty in Usagi's hands. He manages a small, depreciating chuckle instead, massaging Usagi's hipbone through his hakama. "Probably…."

"At least your self-aware," Usagi murmurs. He hesitates. Stills his hands but doesn't pull away. "I have to return to Lord Mifune. I'll be gone for a few hours. Are you sure you're going to be alright without me?"

Leo is stupidly glad that Usagi brought this up over lunch, because if it had been sprung on him right now, he probably would have reacted Bad. Since he was adequately warned that his mate would be abandoning him as soon as they got here, Leo doesn't even whine when he steps back, or when he tugs Usagi's hands away, even though he's cold and unsteady and longing for the contact. He knew before he packed his bag that even if Usagi did say yes, he probably wouldn't be able to shack up the whole time.

He's got a job or whatever.

It's fine.

"What, I can't tag along?" he asks, grinning.

"No," Usagi says firmly, but it's not in his face or his eyes and he asks, again, "Are you going to be alright?"

Well Leo's the face man, so he face-mans.

"I'm good, Sagi. You sound like Raph! Worry worry worry. You're gonna end up with a chasm right here." He pokes Usagi with his outter finger, right between his brows. "I told you I'm used to this, right? Got it down to a science. I'm gonna take a nap and maybe hop home to snag a pizza or something because I'm still totally starved. Is your wife lady gonna sneak in on me?"

"Don't call her that." He rubs the spot that Leo poked, frowning now more out of irritation than of not being convinced. "I'll intercept everyone before they return, so no one will disturb you."

Okay that's Worse actually, somehow, mysteriously – that means he's going to leave here and go straight to her and when he comes back he'll smell like her and –

"Cool," is what comes out of Leo's mouth, "'Preciate it!"

-

Usagi leaves him alone in the house.

That's fine.

That's exactly what Leo wanted, actually, since it gives him the unspoken permission he didn't need to go snooping. He's got to distract himself from the unhappy humming in his chest that keeps trying to form heat in his eyes, and the jitteriness pervading his nerves. He hasn't been abandoned. Talk about a Drama Queen. The house does smell like his mate. Like Usagi. Oh hell. Crap. Has he been doing that this whole time? He hasn't popped off with that out loud, has he? Jeez Whatever. It's fine, everything's under control. He's breathing about it. He's not having a panic attack. He's been panic-attack-less for almost two months now and his stupid hormones are not gonna break that streak, no sir.

Leo walks the length of the house to familiarize himself with the layout; entrance, main room, sunken-floored kitchen and bathroom area, big garden out back with a fishpond. Some nice shade trees and sunnin' rocks and a great big privacy wall all the way around. Nice. Simple. Cozy. Easy to navigate. Now that he knows where to get water and where to piss, Leo beelines for the room he's actually interested in.

Usagi spends more time in his bedroom than in any other room in the house. It smells like him. That downy, warm-blooded, mammal smell (that does not remind Leo of Splinter. Not unpacking that right now.). It smells like sandalwood and pine and earthy bamboo. It immediately, pathetically, puts Leo at ease as soon as he starts rooting around. There's a couple of square paper lanterns here, a jug of oil to refill them with; a cabinet that, upon shameless investigation, holds different kimonos and other clothes. There's a much smaller table here, cluttered with a bunch of scrolls, a calligraphy set, and some blank parchment. An alcove by the closet has another painting behind an empty stand, meant to hold Willow Branch and Young Willow.

The closet door is ajar.

Leo slides it open all the way, jolts, and snaps it closed.

Okay. Not his proudest moment. Glad no one was around to see it.

Slowly, Leo opens the door again.

A kabuto helmet is perched on top of the wooden frame designed to hold it, its accompanying armor arrayed beneath it, probably exactly as it might be displayed in the Natural History Museum a few hundred odd years down the line, only its brand spanking new. The shape of it is different, but at a glance, in the poor lighting, the helmet with its snarling face plate gave Leo Shredder vibes. His heart patters stupidly. He lifts the helmet from its perch, surprised by how heavy it is - Usagi's supposed to fight with this thing on? Leo is definitely bringing him a book on workers rights next time. …..He supposes something that weighs fifteen pounds is preferable to taking a pole arm upside the head, though.

The armor itself isn't Kraang-like at all.

No long, hooking claws or sharply jutting shoulders. What it is is an indecipherable cascade of metal plates, inner lining, straps, and ties that Leo quickly loses interest in. It looks heavy and annoying, and like it's a pain in the ass to put on, let alone move around in. It doesn't look like there's so much as a scratch on the plating or a single threadbare seam.

Maybe Usagi hasn't had to wear it yet.

Leo slides this door closed and opens the one next to it, and grins.

Jackpot.

-

Since his escapades ran longer than Usagi anticipated, he's surprised when he catches up with Lord Mifune's retinue as they're leaving the private dining hall. He must have lingered over his meal, and Usagi sees why at once: his wife, Lady Kazumi, is with him. A lady-in-waiting is two steps behind the Lady herself, bouncing Tsuruichi, who lets out a delighted shout and starts kicking to be put down the moment he spots Usagi rounding the corner over his nurse's shoulder.

Everyone turns to look back at him.

"Usagi," Mifune booms in his stern but friendly manner, "You decided to join us again after all."

Usagi bows.

"Forgive my lateness, tono."

Mifune waves a hand, dismissing the apology, and returns to basking in his wife's attention. Usagi falls in step with Gunichi, making a face at Tsuruichi to acknowledge the boy's hollering and getting a tongue stuck out at him in response, and a sharp laugh. Satisfied with the attention, the young prince turns back around to pester his matron with queries. Usagi feels his face warming suddenly when he notices Gunichi's sidelong glance. He has not made a habit of slipping out of the castle during his down time to pursue women - or men - like most of the other young retainers, and worries for a moment that his deeds are written on his face. He forgot to brush his fur when he retied his ears. Every ounce of Usagi's willpower pours into not lifting a hand to smooth down the back of his neck, which is undeniably roughed up from Leo's groping and petting.

"Enjoy your lunch, Usagi?" Gunichi asks, too casual.

"Did you?" Usagi counters defensively.

He gave Gunichi the same excuse he gave the innkeeper; I'm meeting a friend for lunch. Gunichi starts to chuckle then, and Usagi feels his face grow hotter.

"Not nearly as much as that friend of yours did."

-

Usagi has been in Lord Mifune's service for a little over two years now. In that time, he has been at his post unless he was too sick or wounded to stand… or unless his was absconded with against his will by a certain ninja turtle and his brothers, or coerced into mischief by an older vassal who honestly should have known better, or temporarily presumed dead on one mission or another because trouble plagues him inexplicably. There is truly never a dull moment. The point is: Since leaving his childhood village, (since that bridge was burned for him), Usagi has no ties or responsibilities to anyone other than his Lord. He has no purpose apart from serving Mifune to the best of his abilities, unto death.

That's how it should be.

It feels strange then to to be planning on shirking that duty. It feels selfish. But he promised to help Leo. And in spite of how vexing Leo's haphazard explanations have been, Usagi wants to help. Especially since Leo does not seem to be in the best state of mind....

He'd been clingy at the inn, and even before that. He'd seemed out of it at the house. It isn't like Leo to allow himself to be vulnerable. And so every slightly uncharacteristic behavior has Usagi thinking senseless thoughts like…. he didn't light the brazier or start a fire in the hearth before he left. Their last meager snowfall was weeks ago, but the chill hasn't left the air and the nights are especially cold… Surely Leo has enough sense left to keep himself warm.

Maybe Usagi should not have been so hasty in dismissing Aoi-san… He had interrupted her weekly visit with her sister, so she was already in a poor mood. And then of course, he had offended her by denying her her one god-given right to host a guest in her house, though she took it in good grace when she found out it was a friend of Usagi's from his training days, and not someone important.

Usagi personally thinks her dire assertion that he not 'burn the house down' in her absence was unnecessary.

At any rate, he spends a good amount of time mulling over things he normally wouldn't not have bothered to consider more than once – like whether or not he should have shown Leo how to shut the storm doors, or where the well was, or how to light the brazier or the lamps – and so his leisurely stroll through the garden for Lord Mifune's afternoon walk is somewhat more weighted than usual.

Lord Mifune and his wife are speaking with one another a few paces ahead while Tsuruichi bounces back and forth between his parents and their retainers, audaciously demanding (and receiving) attention from everyone. Such behavior won't be indulged for much longer. The boy will soon trade his blocks and toys for long hours with a tutor, and he'll spend less time in his mother's halls being pampered and catered to and more time among the men, training to take up his father's fiefdom.

No one seems eager to break his care-free spirit prematurely.

Usagi is, through no fault of his own, not paying attention, and does not have to pretend when Tsuruichi decides to stop tormenting Gunichi for the moment and headbutts Usagi directly in the hip, bowling him straight over. Part of Usagi, the part specifically aware of the painful throbbing in his hip bone, is angry and embarrassed to suddenly find himself sitting on the cold dirt path between hydrangea bushes and viewing ponds. His good sense - he cannot be angry at his prince - overcomes that immediately.

He flops backwards with a groan, clutching his wound, and goes limp.

A small shadow falls across him and waits for movement.

A tiny finger pokes his ribs.

Usagi lies still and doesn't open his eyes.

"Oh," Tsuruichi says solemnly, then calls out, "Father, I've killed Usagi-san."

"Then you've done the impossible," Lord Mifune answers, among the half-stifled giggles of Lady Kazumi and her entourage.

Usagi throws his arm across his face to hide the fact that he's smiling. When Tsuruichi stomps his foot and demands that Usagi get up!, Usagi lowers his hand to his chest, keeps his eyes closed, and says, "Young Lord, you are just too powerful."

"I know," the four-year-old asserts. This time, Usagi hears Gunichi barely managing to hide a laugh inside of a cough. "Get up!"

Usagi has no choice; he gets up.

His hip throbs. It's definitely going to become a nice bruise. But Tsuruichi thrusts both his tiny fists in the air and does a victory lap around him, and Usagi finds it hard to linger over it. He does try to be more on-guard as they continue through the garden, but his mind wanders back to Leo again almost as soon as Tsuruichi loses interest in him and Gunichi and runs back to the girls to ask to be carried.

They part ways with Lady Kazumi, her entourage, and the Prince after their walk. Lord Mifune has duties to attend to, and the Lady has her own rituals. Usagi and Gunichi follow Mifune back along the porch. Usagi is listening to the temple bell in the distance ring seven times and wondering again how Leo is faring in his absence. He trusts Leo's assertion that he's fine about as much as he trusts his young Lord-to-be not to put rocks in his mouth when he thinks no one is watching.

"Usagi."

Usagi jolts and looks away from the skyline, the heavy clouds promising late season snow or an abysmally cold rainfall, already tinged a florid pink as the sun behind them begins its descent.

Lord Mifune crooks a finger at him.

Usagi leaps forward, walking half a step behind Mifune rather than a few paces while Gunichi falls back. He wonders if he's going to be reprimanded for being so absentminded, or for behaving childishly in the garden, and keeps his head down.

Instead, Lord Mifune asks:

"What's troubling you, Usagi?"

"Nothing of consequence, tono," Usagi says automatically.

Mifune hums and gives him that stern look that has made more than one novice page who couldn't remember a message in full or from whom it was being delivered burst into tears. Usagi hesitates, then says, his gut churning over the half truth that he's about to say to his lord's face, "A friend I haven't seen in a while is staying with me for a few weeks. He's on pilgrimage from Saikaido."

"Saikaido," Mifune rumbles in surprise, "Your friend is far from home!"

"Very far," Usagi agrees.

Saikaido is remote and far to the south. So any discrepancies in Leo's etiquette, should he socialize outside of Usagi, can be blamed on localization conflicts. It's much more digestible than that he's from the future, or another dimension, or whatever it is. Even Leo doesn't seem sure of where he's from, or when, or what - only that it is definitely not here. Usagi doesn't want to get into the messy details, and he definitely doesn't want to cause political upheaval by admitting that Leo is a foreigner.

"He's lucky to have such a generous friend to depend on in the area," Lord Mifune says after a moment, "The roads are not easily traveled these days."

"I'm the one who's lucky," Usagi admits, relieved enough by the honesty that he nearly laughs, "Ryo -" It's not so different from the way he says Leo's name anyway. "- has gotten me out of trouble plenty of times."

At that, Mifune laughs, a bright booming sound that wedges in deep and makes Usagi fight to keep his face composed. He drops a big, heavy hand on Usagi's shoulder.

"You need friends who will keep you out of trouble, Usagi," Mifune chuckles.

Usagi has no argument for that, and doesn't want to spoil the moment by pointing out that Leo brings nearly as much trouble as he prevents.

"Go and see about delegating your duties for the remainder of your friend's stay. It's unwelcoming to leave him to his own devices while he is a guest in your home. Inoue-san should be returning from Hachimantai soon to appraise us of the situation there," Mifune adds more somberly, stroking hi chin, "I'll send someone for you when he arrives. I want you to sit in on his debriefing. You need more experience in the field, and I believe it will be a good opportunity."

Usagi bows, a little overwhelmed by his luck - and by the faith Mifune has in him.

"Thank you, tono."

-

Even with the early dismissal, by the time Usagi returns home, dusk is falling rapidly. The gate to the house is closed but unlocked, exactly how he left it. That isn't really a surprise. He doubts even on a good day that Leo would think to secure the house for the night. Usagi shuts the gate and fastens the bolt, and jogs across the yard. The lamp in the front room is lit at least, and there are other clear signs that Leo has been in the house even though Usagi doesn't see Leo himself as he unties his sandals and steps up onto the floor. There's an empty pizza box on the table and an….. electric kettle, if memory serves. Though what it might have been plugged into to function is beyond Usagi.

Leo's bag is discarded beside the table, some of the bewildering contents spilling free.

"Leo?" Usagi calls, ears perking.

There's no answer. Usagi opens up his bedroom and peers inside. It's surprisingly warm, even with the storm doors to the porch fully closed (Leo seems to have managed those just fine). The heat in question is clearly coming from the small furnace breathing and glowing faintly red in the center of the room, illuminating Usagi's writing desk as well as a…. Crate? Something box-shaped sitting in the middle of the floor that Usagi doesn't recognize.

But still no sign of Leo.

Usagi pushes the door further open and moves to step inside out of the path of the light, so his eyes can adjust to the semidarkness. His ear twitches up. He freezes. A hissing sound, a long harsh exhale that's at such a low decibel it's barely audible at all over the breathing of the furnace, makes his skin prickle and his fur stand up. The sound is unfamiliar, but Usagi recognizes a threat when he hears one.

He palms Willow Branch's hilt.

"Leo?" he calls softly.

The hiss cuts off abruptly, with a sharp click.

There's a rustle and a bump.

A faint groan.

Usagi goes back to the front room to grab the lamp and carries it to the bedroom, careful not to spill the oil. He waits in the doorway, only long enough to see if Leo will protest his entry again. The box belongs to Donatello - or at least, it was made by him. It's solid and very, unmistakably, Purple, and Donnie's personal mon adorns the side. Leo has a couple of things plugged into it, the furnace included. His phone, which Usagi recognizes; a larger phone-like device that he doesn't; and a length of cord that shines in the lamplight, winding pell-mell across the mats and disappearing into the closet, where the door is ajar.

Leo's leg is sticking out of the closet, the rest of him buried in Usagi's bedding.

Usagi nearly laughs, "What are you doing?"

He sets the lamp down near the door and advertises his movements as he crosses to the closet, sliding the door fully open. Leo replies with a soft sigh. He's wedged his way in between the duvet and the pillows, most of which must belong to him, absconded with from his home, because Usagi does not recognize them. His limp body is draped across the futon, across a large, fuzzy-looking pink blanket attached to the cord. His shell is touching the bottom of the shelf above. Usagi isn't sure if he stopped moving because he's too cramped to get out on his own or if he simply doesn't want to.

"Leo? Are you awake?"

"M'yeah," Leo mumbles. He makes one attempt to pull his leg in, but gives up with a defeated sigh.

"Did you hiss at me just now?"

"Mmmmhhm. Jus' heard summin movin' and didn't know who was in here… S'my bad…"

"I didn't mean to startle you. How are you feeling?"

Leo makes a muffled noise that's probably meant to be dismissive. Usagi can't help but notice the plaintive hitch at the end of it that almost sounds like a chirp or a whine. It twists at something in Usagi's chest. Leo was not really acting like himself earlier, and the strange behavior persists. It would almost be enough to make Usagi worry he was a shapeshifter in disguise - but no fox would keep up a ruse this strange for this long, just for the pleasure of his company. It definitely wouldn't be able to fathom, let alone conjure up, Leo's futuristic oddities (or his terrible sense of humor).

Usagi kneels beside the closet.

"Why didn't you just pull the bedding out if you were tired?"

"M'ionno. Smells like you in'ere."

It's slurred and mumbled and not at all something that Leo would say if he were more coherent. Usagi's face warms and his fur fluffs around his neck. He smooths it down self consciously, makes a mental note of that, and asks, "Are you ready to come out of the closet?"

That earns him a puff of laughter for some reason.

"Oh babe, I came out ages ago."

"I don't know what you mean by that," Usagi says, relieved to hear the amusement curling through Leo's tone, regardless, "Are you coming out or not?"

Leo hums an affirmative, but makes no move to do so. He lets out another long, less threatening, exhale and starts up a rumbling churr, instead. Usagi has heard that noise before. He doesn't bother hiding his smile since Leo can't see it.

"Do I have to pull you out of there myself?"

The churr is broken up by a hum, and then a drowsy chuckle.

Idiot, Usagi thinks affectionately.

He grabs the bottom of the futon and drags it out into the open, fully-grown ninja turtle and all. Leo eeps like a surprised tokage and giggles, tensing around the futon so he doesn't topple backwards. Usagi shoves him over to the floor, anyway. He pulls up the blankets one layer at a time and Leo slowly unravels from them, putting in no effort whatsoever to be of assistance, huffing and laughing even as he thuds bonelessly on the floor. The moment he's free, Leo's hand snakes out. He grabs hold of Usagi's sleeve and yanks him down. Usagi doesn't even have the chance to brace himself. His full, sudden weight would have crushed someone else.

It doesn't even wind Leo, and it feels like landing on a rock.

"You're a nuisance," Usagi grunts, laughing in spite of himself.

"Guilty~!" Leo chirps.

The word is distorted slightly by his churring.

Leo closes both arms tight around Usagi's rib cage, trapping him against his plastron. He tries to roll and pin Usagi on his back, but the confusing pile of blankets pillows, and Leo attempting to wrap his legs around Usagi's hips at the same time, makes this comically futile. Leo is much warmer than he was earlier - Usagi hopes that it's because of the apparently-heated blanket Leo has been sleeping on. His hands scald Usagi through his clothes. There's a lot of squirming and struggling and groping and puffs of laughter. Usagi barely manages to get his swords out of his belt and tossed carefully aside before Leo grabs the back of his neck and yanks him down to kiss him hungrily, halting any remaining efforts to get coordinated.

Usagi's stomach jumps, that warmth stirring low as Leo's fingers scratch through his fur at the nape of his neck, dragging past his collar. Leo's other hand is already fisted into the back of his kimono, trying to tug it up again.

Usagi didn't learn a thing from lunch; he should have undressed first.

He sneaks his hands up between them, cupping around Leo's throat. He rubs Leo's scent glands, wondering if it will calm him down enough for them to part for a moment, and wholly unprepared for the way Leo shivers and moans into his mouth, pressing closer, gripping him tighter. Usagi pries himself away, laughing softly. He pushes at Leo's shoulder and tries to squirm out of his embrace – Leo simply rolls until he's sitting upright, holding Usagi firmly in his lap, and tucks his face right back into place against Usagi's neck.

Usagi tries to lean back, grasping his elbows.

"Let me up, you idiot."

Leo laughs, harsh but warm all the same as he strokes his face down the length of Usagi's neck, from his chin to his shoulder. He churrs. It's barely even a sound, thrumming in Usagi's chest and ears and throat. Leo pulls more insistently at Usagi's kimono, searching for the seam. He seems irritated when he meets the soft cotton of the inner kimono.

He also doesn't answer.

"Leo," Usagi says again, a little more firmly, "Let me up."

Leo said exhales sharply, "No."

He sounds almost… disoriented, his face wedge beneath Usagi's chin. The hand he has resting at the back of Usagi's neck tightens, hard enough to pinch Usagi's fur, and his other arm snakes firmly around Usagi's middle, pinning him in place. His breath had quickened, and Usagi attributed that to excitement before but now he's not so certain. That danger-sense that Katsuichi-sensei beat into Usagi as a child studying bushido prickles up Usagi's spine, unwelcome and inexplicable.

That kernel of worry he's been carrying all day finally pops.

"Leo," he says, not quite a warning.

Leos breath is impossibly hot, his snout pressed hard enough against Usagi's throat that Usagi can feet his teeth. He's pressed so tight against Leo's chest that he can feel it heave against his, and he can feel the way Leo's whole body is tense, and shaking now.

"Nonono."

"Leo -"

"Y-you can't leave. I -"

Oh!

"I don't want to leave," Usagi says, soft but urgent, "I want to get undressed. And you need to breathe and wake up a bit, I think. Let me - "

"Y'smell like other people."

"I've been around other people. But I haven't - "

Leo exhales again. He squeezes Usagi so hard that it nearly crushes Usagi's breath out. His ribs ache in protest. His heart thuds unpleasantly as Leo's arms tighten. He grabs Leo's elbows and shoves to break his grip. He pushes his knees against the floor and twists. Usagi is no weakling, but he's known since they were children that Leo has him outmatched in sheer brute strength. Usagi can't budge him.

It's like trying to budge a castle wall bare-handed.

Meanwhile, Leo flips them both easily.

In a blur of motion, Usagi is thrown onto his back and Leo is on top of him, pinning his arms at his sides. Usagi's head bounces on the tatami and his vision flickers.

Leo hovers over him on his hands and knees, panting hard.

His face is twisted, as if in pain. Without the playful blue of his customary mask to obscure them, the way Leo's cheeks are flushed enough to match his markings is apparent even in the flickering light from the oil lamp. His forehead beads sweat. His eyes are glazed, unfocused, pupils so wide they're nearly all black before Leo squeezes them closed. His whole body trembles around his next noisy exhale as he pants for breath. His painful grip around Usagi's arms loosens in very slow increments. Usagi resists the urge to wrench free and shove the heel of his palm into Leo's chin to knock him over. Instead, he takes the tenuous moment to catch his own breath, to tame his own racing heart and unexpectedly frazzled nerves.

Leo is insufferable in his best moments, and charming even at his worst. For all that he is often careless, though a little less so after that incident two years ago, his attitude and how he allows others to perceive him is a careful facade that Usagi has rarely seen waver.

This lack of control is not an act.

And it is not something that Usagi feels Leo would show him if he could help it.

'Weird and intense' seems to be an understatement.

"Fuck," Leo breathes out, his voice wavering, "Shit." He lets go of Usagi's arms one at a time, placing his palms on the floor or blanket beside them. He keeps his eyes closed tight, his head bowed. A harsh tremor wracks through him and he groans. "S-sorry, Sagi…."

"I'm not hurt," Usagi says, tentatively holding up his hands between them, "Are you alright?"

Leo's laugh is sharp and humorless.

It hits the inside of Usagi's chest like a stone.

"Yeah m'great. Sorry. S'was a mistake."

"What?"

"I gotta go just…. just gimme a sec…." Leo mumbles, shaking his head as if to clear it.

"Leo. You don't have to leave."

Leo shakes his head again. Usagi isn't sure if he even heard him. Usagi can't let him go anywhere in this state. Leo might not even be capable of leaving. He starts to move, to shift his weight, but tenses up again instead. All his breath rushes out, and with it a faint, plaintive noise that makes Usagi's ears twitch and his heart jerk. Leo's body curls, but he doesn't touch Usagi again. His hands squeeze into tight fists. Usagi reaches up to cup Leo's neck, holding Leo's hammering pulse carefully between his hands.

Leo groans.

Starts to flinch back but stops again.

Each breath that Leo sucks in is shorter than the last, and each one trembles right back out of him. Usagi silently rubs his neck, unsure of whether it's helping or not. He closes his eyes. He tries to clear his mind. He pulls in the same slow, steadying breaths he takes to center himself during meditation, until he feels empty all the way down to his toes, and he slowly lets the breath out. He was never especially good at meditation – but pretending he is comes with hand in hand with having been so bad at it and being caned for showing it. So, he doesn't even tense when Leo ducks to press his forehead against Usagi's shoulder, when his warm breath trembles out and heats Usagi's skin.

Leo breathes, and after a few long minutes manages to match him. He's still pulled as taut as a bow string, but he stops shaking so hard. His next laugh is a small puff of air, a wry,

"Completely blew the mood, huh?"

"I'm not worried about the mood," Usagi says honestly, "Are you alright?"

"M'yeah. Got a little lost in the sauce there, I think…"

"Should I take it as a compliment?" Usagi asks, wishing Leo's laugh was a bit more genuine.

Leo leans back, away from the gentle pressure of Usagi's hands, and moves carefully so he isn't straddling Usagi's legs anymore. He sits on his heels nearby, lifting one hand to cover his face while the other is curled into a tight fist against his knee. Usagi, just as cautiously, sits up, and doesn't move away from him.

"Leo? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, super," Leo mumbles. Another wobbly exhale that sounds like it wants to have some humor in it eeks out of him. "Just uhhh… S'hormones bein' stupid. Don't worry about it."

"You're asking a fish not to swim," Usagi says, "...Did I do something -?"

"Nope, you're good babe. S'all me."

That's not the reassurance that Leo thinks it is.

"It's always all you," Usagi says, opting for a teasing tone.

Leo scoffs.

The absence of a joke or some conceited comment is worrisome. Usagi berates himself for leaving him alone for so long. This is not what he expected to come home to, and not a comforting turn of events. He says, again, because it is worth saying in case any stupid ideas are pooling in Leo's befuddled brain:

"You don't have to leave."

"'Mmn."

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No!….. No. I -" An exhale, frustrated. A groan. "I don't wanna -"

"If you're about to say you don't want to hurt me, I'm going to be insulted. Honestly if you do want to hurt me, you will have to try much harder than that."

At least Leo looks at him then, even if it is to drop his hand and scowl.

"Dude! I don't want to hurt you! That's not what this is!"

"Where do you think my understanding of you has failed?" Usagi asks bluntly. Leo doesn't answer. His brown eyes dart back and forth, searching Usagi's, and Usagi meets his gaze steadily. "Why would I agree to help you with something like this if you did not have my trust, Leo? Do I not have yours?"

"Why are you asking me stupid questions all of a sudden?"

"Because you're being fairly stupid right now."

That perhaps did not come out the way Usagi intended.

It's not as if he has much experience with this sort of thing. Zero with whatever is happening right now, specifically, because of Leo's scathing inability to part with information - but also in a general sense. Leo has probably had more attentive lovers. He has more amicable friends. Usagi is certain of that. Meanwhile, Usagi has only been with someone other than Leo once - with Mariko - and he still gets flustered when he thinks about it, and something inside of him still feels big and raw and horrible when he remembers her sudden marriage to Kenichi, the only other friend that was his equal that Usagi has ever had in his entire life – and so Usagi has been trying to avoid any other similar endeavors, in spite of how his efforts always go astray.

He feels clumsy and awkward and too…. passionate.

It's simpler to set such feelings aside.

…That does not make it easy.

Leo makes nothing easy.

In fact, it is his life's mission, seemingly, to make everything as difficult as possible for everyone, including himself, for reasons that are beyond mortal comprehension. Leo flops wordlessly onto his side and curls into the fetal position, covering his head with his arm. The longer Usagi sits there, stewing, locked in his own thoughts, the more Usagi wants to throttle him. After a while, Leo groans softly and shifts, his thighs squeezing together. He curls up a little tighter. He rocks back onto his shell and looks at Usagi petulantly.

"Can you just c'mere?"

"I'm not the one being difficult and insane," Usagi snaps, "What do you usually do when you're like this?"

"UGH dude are you serious right now? I hide in my room for two weeks and jerk myself off until I feel less insane. Thanks for that, by the way. Loved it."

"I don't know what you want from me."

Leo doesn't say anything.

Usagi loves that.

He stands up, staggering over the sprawled bedding, and snaps the bedroom door closed when he leaves, accidentally blowing out the lamp.

Chapter Text

As soon as the door snaps closed and Leo is alone in the room, he turns over, grabs a fistful of thick blanket, and pulls it down over his head. He chokes back a scream. UGH!!! Stupid! Useless! Idiot! Asshole!! Rabbit!!!! Leaves him alone for hours and then climbs into Leo's nest smelling like other people and then doesn't even want him! Leo rocks back and forth in frustration, groaning and gritting his teeth. He curls up tight and gasps around the painful, unsteady throbbing between his legs and in his gut. Jeez he's hot. He's burning up. He aches all over and he can't breathe and he still wants his mate.

He wants Usagi.

Leo tucks his knees underneath him. Exhales roughly, whining. He squirms a hand between his stomach and the blankets, pressing firmly on his plastron, rubbing down along the smooth flat plain, and rides out that wave of burning pressure that's shooting sparks up his insides, from his groin to his chest.

He gulps down deep breaths.

Usagi's scent permeates the blankets, and it makes Leo's throat tight.

Leo turns his face into the cooler air of the room. That doesn't really help. Usagi was just here. Leo can still feel his warm hands on his arms, stroking his neck. He can still taste Usagi on his tongue. He can still smell Usagi's sweat and skin and fur and the way Leo's own scent has lingered on him for hours, and a bunch of other scents that Leo can't figure out because they belong to people he doesn't know – and because they belong to Usagi, but Leo doesn't know him as well as he knows his brothers, and so the nuances are a confusing muddle. The scent of Usagi's arousal is pronounced even through all the others, and it makes Leo's head swimmy. He closes his eyes and tries to think of something else. He rubs the heels of his shaking hands up and down his thighs in firm, broad strokes, trying to time his breaths with the motion.

Anything to get it to subside for just a fucking second.

He's not gonna get himself off with Usagi and his superb hearing pissed off and sulking in the other room. He's got a little dignity left.

Fuck.

No he doesn't.

Leo's hand slips between his legs with no conscience decision on his part, and he makes one little sound, a tiny, shuddering moan of relief, before he shoves his hot face back into the sheets and catches his breath. He's used to trying to be quiet in a house full of people and no sound-proofing for their individual rooms. They have filed complaints about this with the guy in charge of building stuff, obviously, but Donnie's project list is as long as all of his mechanical arms extended end to end, and he is a notorious procrastinator on things that he does not find immediately rewarding or interesting. Mood, but come on man.

Anyway, Leo doubts trying to be quiet makes a difference, with Usagi's stupid ears.

The rush of pleasure he gets just from stroking himself as he falls slick and heavy into his own hand is enough to make him not care even a little bit. He muffles his moans in the blanket, twisting it in his other fist, and it pathetically takes him half a minute to get an orgasm. A crude one, tense enough that it's almost uncomfortable, but still a release from all that aching pressure. For all that he's panting like he just sprinted the length of Manhattan and back, it's suddenly easier to breathe. Leo's tight muscles tremble and cramp. He slowly uncurls, breathes out a swear – fuck it – and palms his sticky hand off on the messy sheets underneath him. His legs quake, barely holding him up.

Usagi fucked up his nest.

He had a system.

Leo wouldn't be mad about it if Usagi were in here with him.

Instead, he's stomping along the far end of the porch, sending passive-aggressive vibrations through the whole house. Asshole behavior.

Leo ignores him. His heart's beating like it's gonna pop out of him. He feels like he might throw up if he doesn't move, so even though he feels like he doesn't have any energy to spend, he cleans up a little and fixes the futon, shoving it half into the closet and spreading it out properly, piling the extra blankets and pillows he brought from home. He cuts the temp on the heated blanket down. He shoves his stuff back into easy-to-reach places. Lube, bottled water, packet of wipes, vibrator, granola bars. He collapses into the nest and drags Usagi's duvet back over his face, his limbs heavy with exhaustion, too warm to be covered up but wanting to burrow, anyway. He lays there until his breathing has evened out and his heart rate is normal and his head has cleared, a little more awake and alert with plenty of room to be mortified about the last blurry ten minutes.

First of all, what the fuckeroni was he thinking. He's lucky Usagi didn't punch him in the throat. Of course he wasn't gonna leave. Stupid….. Fun thing to freak out about for literally no reason just because he's too horny to think straight. That can't happen again.

Second of all, usually, Leo loves pissing people off. That's his toxic trait, alright? He's one of two middle children, any attention is good attention. Leo's favorite pastime is getting someone all riled up and acting like he's Totally Unbothered about it. He's had that skill on lock since he was four. He was on his A-game about it until just a couple years ago, when it nearly cost his family everything, and Usagi has always been fun to aggravate because he's always had a short fuse and a swift punch-first reflex.

This? Doesn't feel good.

This was a mistake.

This is something Leo usually takes care of by himself, for good reason.

This is a great big carnal (maybe slightly emotional) favor he's asking his friend for all of a sudden, and Leo knew that coming in, and he knew to put a padlock on all that stupid stuff trying to wriggle out, and he's still got his feelings all hurt about it even though he was the one acting squirrely.

As the Mikester would say when Raph isn't around to coin the swear-jar:

This is unac-fucking-ceptable.

Leo drags himself out of the pile of blankets and pillows again, moving sluggishly, rubbing the gummy tears out of his eyes. His muscles ache and his head hurts. His scent glands throb, and Leo can still feel the press of Usagi's hands there, even when he tries to rub it away. He cuts the space heater down, as well, and it quiets slightly. Usagi has stopped stomping around. Or maybe he's just gone out into the yard or something. Leo unplugs his phone from the portable generator. He spots Usagi's swords discarded on the floor. He sits there staring at them for a couple of seconds, then picks them up and carefully places them in their stand in the alcove across the room.

He crawls back into his nest, hiding under the blankets and one heavy pillow, and lays on his side, thumbing into the messenger app and toggling on the special setting Donnie installed on his phone last week.

Time to see if it works.

< Mic check

Donnie's response is surprisingly quick:

> So many applause and accolades are in order.

< Yeah yeah Donnie is so smart for inventing inter dimension texting
< anyway got a ? for ya

> Applause first, queries second.

< 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 ANYWAY
< i'm texting YOU bc i know u won't tell me to have a convo abt it. how do i explain This Whole Situation to Usa without it being weird

> Interesting.

'kay that's NOT promising.

Leo watches that little bubble in the bottom corner go nuts for a few agonizing seconds.

> I suppose in the spirit of fraternal bonding I will forego the "making fun of you" and the "gloating because you asked me, specifically, for help with this, specifically," and skip straight to: How lucky for you, dear brother, that I just so happened to have roughed out a Contract of Informed Consent for no reason whatsoever, detailing behavioral and physiological changes as well as the biorhythmic intimacies of the dreaded Sex Flu. Give me a moment to make a RES version.

Leo types frantically,

< haha guess u missed that last part nbd
< WITHOUT
< IT
< BEING

> SENT: Doc.InformedConsent.RESver2.4

< WEIRD
< FR THO DONBON
< LOVE AND APPRECIATE U
< the way I am NOT giving Usagi a CONTRACT after what just happened

> What happened

Ah, hell. No punctuation.

< nothing dw abt it
< translate that bad boy for me

> Indignant scoff.

That bubble bobs and disappears a lot.

> As if I would send you a document Exclusively in English, knowing full well the nationality of your man. Coding in the file automatically translates anything you type. Please actually read that BEFORE you send me any more dum-dum queries, I am just as "busy" as you during these trying times. F or your own sake, there is a conveniently-added section where you may input your specific preferences for caretaking, etc; I do not pretend to know which abysmal nesting and/or sexual habits you wish to indulge.
> Additionally, if I receive one (1) more suss text from you, I will tell Michael and Raph.

Snitch.

< got it 👍

Another long pause. Leo wonders if that counts as a suspicious text, but no halo of crackling orange mystic energy obliterates the dimness of the room in a misguided (but appreciated) effort to drag him home to safety. His phone buzzes in his hand, the screen lighting up.

> Confirm that you're alright in actual words.

< I'm good, D. Prommie.
< Same?

> Same.

Cool.

Leo opens up the document. It's…. exactly what he expected. An embarrassingly accurate, unbiased List of Symptoms and Solutions that Donnie whipped up "for no reason". Leo is Not puzzling about that. Anyway, Usagi will get a lot of info that he probably doesn't want about mutant-turtle Biology and Whatever the Hell is Wrong with Leon Specifically Right Now, but at least it won't have to come out of Leon's mouth. And pizza supreme, the is a questionnaire at the bottom. Of course there is. Squinting at the screen, Leo taps out his answers while he has the fragile brain cells to knock together, ignoring the growing heat in his face, continuously distracted by the stream of kanji below every paragraph that shifts and grows as he types.

He jumps when the bedroom door slides open, automatically thumbing his phone screen off.

Usagi wasn't stomping, so Leo didn't realize he was coming back. He doesn't smell as angry; there is a slight spice to his scent that seeps back into the room, but it doesn't punch Leo in the nostrils and burn his throat the way it did when Usagi walked out. Usagi doesn't say anything; Leo can tell he's standing just inside the door. Unfortunately, this makes Leo very aware of the fact that he just made himself at home again, which is Presumptuous, considering…. Well. Everything.

Stupid hormones.

His throat itches….

Leo rubs the spot and closes his eyes, listening to Usagi's feet scuff softly across the tatami and the sound of fabric rustling. Usagi doesn't say anything, so neither does Leo. He wonders if he can get away with pretending to be asleep. He wonders how much this room smells like him, or like sex, and if Usagi can tell…. Leo buries his face in the pillow and focuses on breathing evenly, listening to Usagi's minute movements just beyond the edge of the futon. And he is so pathetically at ease with Usagi's proximity, he's so exhausted and addled from all the stupid stress, that he dozes off without realizing it.

He rouses up when one of his pillows moves.

He grunts in surprise when it hits him in the side.

Usagi is already moving the assault weapon and pulling up the duvet. And sliding in beside Leo. And very, very naked. And it's dark but Leo's eyes have adjusted so the frown marring Usagi's white face is ghostly but also super obvious.

"Do you still want me?" Usagi asks, before he even touches Leo, so so serious that Leo almost laughs.

"Kinda stupid question is that?" Leo mumbles, already reaching for him and yes Usagi sinks against him, hooking an arm around Leo's waist to yank their bodies flush together.

Leo throws his leg over Usagi's hip to tuck him closer.

He is so not the praying sort but thank god.

Usagi kisses him, some of that anger lingering in the press of his mouth, the pinch of his teeth. Leo doesn't mind. He gives as good as he gets, tracing around Usagi's molars with his tongue and not really caring about whether it gets him bit or not. Usagi cups one of his hands around Leo's throat, pressing hard, and Leo is really, really glad he got himself off already because if he were even half as desperate as he was a few minutes ago, he would legit cry about it right now. The way that gets him horny again on the spot is actually insane. He moans loudly. He clutches Usagi to him, pawing his fur, groping any part of him that he can reach. Everything is electrifying and sharp; Usagi's scent in his mouth; Usagi's warm, soft body between his legs, Usagi's blunt nails scrapping the ridge of his plastron; Usagi's warm palm scalding over the curve of his shell, mindful of the fractured scarring there, the cracked places that are still sensitive after all this time.

Usagi's hips press against his, cock brushing hotly against his inner thigh, and Leo moans again, pathetically, around a full body shudder. That unbearable pressure settles between his legs, following the rapid fire of his heartbeat. He reaches up, above Usagi's head, and fumbles around beneath the pillow. This is why an organized nest is important. Leo grabs the lube and shoves it into Usagi's hand.

He pants against Usagi's cheek, "C'n you just get in me? Please?" The whine is a little embarrassing when Usagi's slick hand presses between them, when he hooks in two fingers easily. Leo gasps and cants his hips forward, stutters out a moan as his sensitive dick rubs against the soft fur of Usagi's belly.

Usagi hums.

Leo babbles, "Ah, I fuh-fucked myself twice while you were gone, y'know." Deep, shuddering breath. Try not to be disappointed when Usagi's fingers pull out. Jeez it's hot in here.

"Did you now?" Usagi rumbles.

Oh three fingers. Nice.

Leo cups Usagi's face between his hands and scrunches his fur and kisses him hard, loves the way Usagi bites his lip and then his cheek; breaks away to grin and laugh, ragged and breathless, "Thinkin' about you, babe." Whoops too honest. Fuck. "So yeah you can just – anytiaaaahh yeah! Nice!"

Usagi puffs out a laugh against Leo's throat.

Usagi's hand circles Leo's thigh. He hikes Leo higher so he can get deeper. Leo's pretty heavy and Usagi moves him like he's not and it makes Leo's head spin. Usagi thrusts into him hard and quick, setting a pace that Leo immediately gets lost in. He has to fight for a coherent thought around the supernova sparks tearing up his fragile brain pathways. He doesn't wanna rush right to a climax after the one he just had, he wants it to just feel good for a minute – and it does, it's such a relief to have his mate touching him and paying attention to him and smelling like him and fucking him – but no way can he form words right now. It so doesn't matter. Every atom in Leo's body is just trying to get closer to Usagi.

He rocks down into the rhythm, impatiently grinding their hips together tight. Usagi's hand squeezes the back of his thigh, changing the angle of his thrusts, and Leo's whole body nearly goes weak with pleasure. He lets out a short, aborted cry when Usagi's mouth finds his neck. His hot tongue presses down hard Leo's swollen markings, his voice humming in approval.

A sudden hot punch of affection floods Leo's gut.

He's going to say something stupid and Not Cool, another mood killer.

Luckily, his orgasm sneaks up on him.

It hits him all at once, a stellar burst of pleasure that ebbs out in loose ripples and settles warm and syrupy in the pit of his stomach. Finally a good one. It feels like it takes ages to work through him. Leo buries his face in Usagi's damp fur and moans, the sound broken up by each of Usagi's persistent thrusts. Leo makes a lot of pathetic, whiny noises that he can't really control. He tightens his trembling leg around Usagi's hip. Usagi grunts, loses his pace, and gives Leo one last thrust that punches a giddy laugh out of him. He squirms his hips down sharply, greedy for that gushing flow of heat and how it fills him up head-to-toe with riotous butterflies. Leo is sticky and hot and sore, but Usagi is warm and pliant against him, and his scent is stuck in the back of Leo's throat, and Leo could not be happier.

Usagi pants, his breath scalding Leo's cheek, heartbeat quick quick in his rabbit ears where Leo rubs small circles on the velvety inside. Leo doesn't unhook his leg from around Usagi's hip, or his arms from around Usagi's shoulders, so Usagi can't pull out or roll away. It would take the jaws of life to get him off of this rabbit right now. Usagi rubs Leo's quivering thighs while they both come down from it.

After what seems like a year and a half, Usagi shoves pointedly at Leo's hip. Leo shakes his head, hums a somewhat frantic negative and squirms their hips back together, nuzzling and kissing Usagi's face, churring.

Usagi shifts against him, mumbles, "Stupid..."

"M'yeah," Leo mumbles back, grinning, "You pissed or what?"

"Why haven't you asked me to help with this before?"

Leo's glad the room is dark; that he's still catching his breath, and that might account for the hesitation in his voice when he says,

"Uh, cuz having a biological urge to get fucked stupid is weird?"

Usagi snorts. Leo recognizes the laugh for what it is and relaxes. Dodged the bullet.

Usagi shifts against him, his growing discomfort obvious, and Leo relents, allowing a modicum of space between their hot, sticky bodies so they can both clean up a little and settle more comfortably. He does not wanna move to wash properly and he absolutely whines and clings about it. He wants to snuggle NOW, damnit, and reassert his claim on his mate. Usagi makes a face about it, but doesn't argue or even complain. He's gonna insist that laundry and showers are on the morning agenda. But that's future!Leo's problem. Present!Leo rests his head on Usagi's bicep, burrowing deep into his warm embrace and breathing in his mate's comforting post-sex scent while Usagi lifts a hand to rub the back of his neck.

After a while, Usagi mutters, "Time Lords, mystic weapons, vengeful ancestor spirits, and the fallout of alien warfare. And you think this is the strangest thing you've roped me into?"

"Guess not?" Leo mumbles, half asleep.

"Guess not," Usagi agrees.

-

The rest of the night goes smoothly after that, all things considered.

Usagi finds it in his heart not complain (too much) when Leo wakes him up every couple of hours. Sure he's kind of cranky the fifth time – just shoves his hand between Leo's legs while Leo hugs onto him and whines and pants against his throat, and then rolls back over onto his own side of the futon when they're done and pulls the duvet up over his head – but Leo's feeling a little cranky himself by that point so he doesn't take it personally. Usagi is more receptive after a few hours of sleep, after a much-needed breakfast of leftover pizza and rice, and after his morning tea (because he is literally an old man); and he's so chill that he doesn't make Leo get up off of him after another frantic tussle in the sheets (which improves Leo's mood by miles).

Leo rubs his face in Usagi's fur, indulging in his very sweaty but still very appealing scent and also silently marveling at how firm his chest is. Fluffy lil rabbit guy, right? You'd never suspect the dude is built like a brick house. Leo palms his biceps and wonders what he's benching these days.

"If you make yourself excited again by doing that, I'm going to sit in the other room," Usagi warns, eyes still firmly closed, "I asked for an hour of peace, Leo."

"I don't control the urges," Leo says.

"Try."

Woof, okay, maybe he's still a little cranky about not sleeping much. Leo spends a good five minutes nuzzling and talking himself out of biting Usagi's pec just because it would be hilarious to see how pissed off he would be about it. Leo doesn't want to lose his snuggling privileges with his mate though. He relaxes into the encompassing sound of Usagi's breathing, the steady th-thump of his heartbeat, and his heady scent, and all three work in tandem lulling him to sleep.

-

Leo wakes up in the throes of a body-wracking orgasm.

He nearly blacks out right back into the blissful depths of his wet dreams.

It takes him a while of gulping down air around his frazzled heartbeat and rubbing his face and staring up at the slanted wooden beams of the ceiling to even realize he's awake. His thighs tremble, slowly unclenching. He jolts at the press of a warm tongue lapping over his tender bits and shoves his shaking hand down between his legs, pushing Usagi's face away. Usagi turns to nuzzle and nip at the inside of his thigh, instead, his arms curling around Leo's legs to keep them around his shoulders.

"You talk in your sleep," he says helpfully, while Leo palms the short fur between his ears. Usagi's hands smooth up and down the outside of his still-trembling legs, fingers tracing the angular pattern of his stripes while he nuzzles up beneath Leo's plastron again, at the juncture of his hip.

"Well what the heck did I say?" Leo pants, and laughs, "Mama mia."

He's gotta weaponize that later, whatever it was.

-

"I told you to stretch before you tried that position."

"That stupid – smut book of yours –" Leo gasps, "Lied!"

Leo writhes into a bunch of brand new positions on the floor, trying and failing miserably to stretch the painful cramp out of his thigh. He stomps his foot. Arches his back. Mama MIA come on! Usagi watches him from the futon, clutching his stomach, doubled over with laughter.

"I don't think it did. I think you can't read."

"I can read pictures!"

"This is karma," Usagi laughs, "For snooping through my drawers."

"That's not a thing….!"

"Besides, that book isn't mine by choice. Many of my colleagues are meddlesome old men with too much time on their hands, who like to get involved in the lives of others."

"Wow," Leo cackles, "Even old dudes think you're a stick in the mud who needs to get out more."

Usagi throws a pillow at him.

Worth it.

-

Leo is glad that he went home early on and brought over a bunch of his own pillows and blankets, because it's definitely helping him feel not insane. (No he's not still mad about that. It's whatever.)

The doors to the porch and the back garden are open, letting in the sound of rainfall and a constant chilly breeze, because Usagi complained about the heat, and Leo wants to make him happy. Usagi is sitting beside Leo now on the futon not even an arm's length away, wearing a loose, powder-blue kimono. In the light of the paper lantern, he's reading the book of Japanese poetry that Leo got off eBay for six bucks like a while back and finally remembered to bring along. It's second-hand, a little battered, the pages dog-eared, but Usagi doesn't seem to mind. He hid the smut book back in the bottom of his cabinet in the corner. (Leo has free access to the internet, and he's still never seen anything so graphic.)

It was good for a laugh, but not much else.

Leo still hasn't recovered his dignity. He's trying to nap about it. He lays stretched out beside Usagi, warm enough with the space heater angled toward him; wishing he could hear Usagi's quiet breathing over the drumming, plinking rain; basking in the calming scent of his mate.

There's a slick, heavy heat between his legs again, a slight throbbing that's distracting.

Leo sighs. He just got comfortable…

He squirms his hips on the mattress and shifts his knees beneath the tangled blanket, searching out a position that might ease the ache off just a little bit. He keeps his eyes closed, his head tucked into the pillow trapped in the cradle of his arms.

It smells like home and it smells like Usagi.

Mentally, Leo does a quick assessment. It's not been bad, for a first day.

He's tired and sore~, but for once he's not aching so bad for someone who isn't here that he hurts all over, that he feels overwhelmed and nauseous. His head isn't killing him. He isn't having to eat anti-inflammatories and cough drops like tictacs in a pale effort to soothe his aching throat; his glands are tender from all the petting and hickies Usagi has given him (on his neck as well as his thighs) and he can still taste colors, but for once – mercifully – he isn't resting in a constant, thrumming state of frustrated arousal. Like, he is still 100% Ready To Go Again, even though it's only been max twenty minutes since the last time. But like.

He can ignore it and not feel like he's about to cry.

That's a definite Win.

Leo perks up out of his doze at the sound of Usagi's weary voice, "Again?"

"Mmh?"

"You've sighed twice, and you're squirming around like an eel. I thought you were taking a nap."

Leo puffs out a drowsy laugh. "M'tryin' to. You c'mere and snuggle me?"

"If I come over there are you going to start something?"

"Mno'm'tired."

"Forgive me if I'm skeptical."

The rain has eased up briefly to a faint drizzle, so Leo catches the half laugh that joins the sound of the book getting set aside, the shift of fabric as Usagi hikes his kimono past his knees and crawls over. Leo lifts his arm and rolls onto his side, tucking Usagi in against him as he settles into the warm space between the futon and Leo's body. He immediately tangles their legs, tucks his face into Usagi's neck. Usagi's short nails hook into the narrow lip of Leo's bridge and follow his shivering up and down.

-

"Sorry, Sagi. Shit…."

"It's alright," Usagi hisses, "I didn't expect you to break the skin…"

"Uh, trust me, this was not premeditated," Leo mutters with a harsh little laugh, pressing the cloth to Usagi's shoulder to mop up the blood and then peeling it away to look at the wound.

It's hard to see in the flickering light of the lamp Usagi lit. Leo doesn't know where his phone is. It's probably close to midnight and the room outside their warm, glowing bubble of tussled bedsheets and pillows is drenched in dark shadows. The puncture marks from Leo's slightly-sharper-than-normal canines are bright red spots in Usagi's pink-white fur, at the slope of Usagi's left shoulder. They're not that deep. Leo let up as soon as he realized what he was doing. He runs his tongue over his teeth without meaning to, can still taste Usagi's tangy blood in his mouth, and the panic that hit his stomach like a lit match on lighter fluid. Nothing curdles a mood quite as quickly as having to administer first-aid.

And this is exactly the kind of thing that Leo was worried about doing.

His heart is still throbbing behind his ribs.

"It doesn't look bad, but – yeah, it's deff gonna bruise…. Lemme… Lemme find my phone." He fumbles around the blankets one-handed, the other pressing the cloth to Usagi's wound; but gives up, sighs. "Hang on, let me get a bandage and some something to clean it with. Keep pressure on this!"

"It's not even bleeding anymore," Usagi says, "It doesn't need a bandage."

"Yeah, babe, no offense, I am not taking medical advice from someone who doesn't even have a tetanus shot in his system. I know more than you."

"A what?"

"My point!"

Leo gets up to grab his first-aid kit from his bag in the other room, swears and tosses a bunch of other stuff in the pitch-dark, and hurries back. Usagi can't really see the damage for himself, it's too close to his collar bone, but he's certainly craning his neck to try. And his fingers are there, poking at his shoulder – at his open wounds – and his face is pinched in a small grimace. Leo smacks his hand down, "Dude! C'mon!" He tears open an alcohol wipe. It takes a few of them to get Usagi's fur looking white again. Usagi's expression tightens at the sting and the sharp smell, but he sets his jaw, staring steadily at the lamp.

Outside, the awning drips. The night has turned out almost frigid after the sheet of rain moved on along the mountains. Usagi shut all of the storm doors, but said the room was stifling, so Leo turned the heater down a little more to make him comfortable. He knows Usagi runs much hotter than he does. He doesn't want to sweat him out when he's already smothering him. Leo's hands are cold. He hesitates, fluttering an unopened Band-Aid between them, wondering how well the adhesive is going to work in this situation. It doesn't need a full shoulder dressing. That's excessive. But the bandage won't stick to Usagi's fur.

Before he can make a choice, Usagi quietly shrugs back into his kimono, rending Leo's waffling pointless.

"You want something for the pain?"

"It doesn't hurt, Leo."

"Right," Leo laughs. He doesn't look at Usagi, packing away his medical supplies back into the tin. "I bit you hard enough to draw blood just now, but NBD, right?"

"If you'd like to try again without drawing blood, I have another shoulder."

"Nope," Leo says breezily, getting up, "Got it outta my system. Thanks."

Leo walks the tin back to his bag, into the bone-bitingly cold room that he doesn't want to be in, and takes longer than he needs to, dragging his feet on the way back to the bedroom, where Usagi hasn't moved an inch. Leo wants to flop down beside him on the bed and get nice and warm again and pretend this didn't happen, but it's churning up in his stomach and he can't bring himself to move from out of the doorway, or look at Usagi, or stop pinching his hands together. The tension in the room makes it's way into Usagi's voice when he says, "You already apologized for biting me and I already said that I'm fine. If you are upset about something else, you'll have to tell me what it is."

"Right," Leo says with sudden spite, "And you're not upset about anything right now, huh?"

"I'm a little annoyed that we're having this conversation now," Usagi admits, matching Leo's temper with his own, "What are you feeling so insecure about?"

"Okay whatever! First of all, you're pissing me off with this. I just nearly took a chunk outta you -"

"You literally did not -"

"No one said that you had to just go along with everything, Usagi, okay, I don't want you to – to just – to let me just do whatever with no – without -"

"I haven't let you just do whatever," Usagi says immediately, his face turning red, hackles raising, "I feel like I've been a pretty enthusiastic participant, considering how little you have deigned to tell me about this absolutely absurd situation. If anyone else had asked me for a favor like this, I would have said no, Leo. If I had any real discomforts or concerns, I would have voiced them. If I did not want to be bitten, I would have knocked the fuck out of you for it! Are you having second thoughts?"

"No!" Leo huffs, "Ugh! No…."

"Then what is the problem?"

"UGH, I don't KNOW, dude!! I'm freaking out!"

"Well, stop!"

It's so absolutely stupid – well, jee, why didn't Leo think of that – that Leo laughs, and when he laughs, Usagi's scowl breaks and wiggles like he wants to laugh too, but feels like he has to appear serious.

"Fuck, this is stupid," Leo says, relieved somehow.

"No one is disputing that," Usagi says.

Leo moves then to lay on the futon, and all that weird tension floods out of him like the rain spooling into that barrel at the corner of the roof when Usagi shifts aside to make room for him. The space heater buzzes nearby. Leo settles in the path of it, curling up against Usagi's side, tentatively hooking an arm around Usagi's waist and snuggling close. Usagi tucks one of the heavier blankets across him, feeling Leo's cold hands with both of his own. He only lets go to reach back and turn the heater up a bit.

They sit like that for a while. Leo half across Usagi's lap, with his nose buried in the fur at Usagi's hip, and Usagi rubbing the warmth back into Leo's shell and the arm Leo has around him.

"You are making it very hard to be patient with you," Usagi says. Leo hums nad keeps his eyes closed. Yeah, he does that. Shit. Usagi's voice still has a prickle of irritation, but it's quieter. "I'm… trying. I would appreciate it if you could be at least a little more forthcoming with me in return, Leo..."

Leo opens his mouth.

Usagi snaps, "Do not make a 'yeah i've been coming' joke."

Leo's mouth closes, and chews over his next words carefully while his heart thumps around, stupidly.

"Yeah," he says, "Okay."

-

The next day is better.

Leo doesn't feel as hot and desperate as he was at the start of things (a regular dose of getting dicked down, etc, will do that, hallelujah or whatever) and so they get a little more sleep that night. He's still clingy, content to mostly cuddle and make out, but unwilling to separate more than an arm's length until Usagi firmly says that he needs a little room to breathe – and that they should eat an actual meal. He's right on that front. Leo feels ravenous. He's been munching granola bars and the occasional rice ball and other snacks he packed or Usagi has on hand until the small stock has been depleted.

So Usagi makes more rice and a hearty fish stock (and, of course, tea), because that's the feudal japan equivalent of pizza rolls. Quick and easy.

Belatedly, Leo remembers his text convo with Donnie from the other night.

And well, he did kinda sorta promise, didn't he?

"Usagi.......... Read this, will ya?"

He stuffs another bite of rice into his mouth before he stretches out away from the low table, sprawling on his side, reaching for his phone. He chucked it into the middle of the floor an hour ago when he accidentally almost smashed it with his elbow in the bed and now, scooping it back up, he chucks it at Usagi. Usagi isn't expecting him to launch what is essentially a very smart brick at his head, though. He ducks, automatically moving his bowl of rice aside as he does to protect the food, and watches over his shoulder, ears perked straight up, as the phone clatters across the tatami and bumps into the frame of the wall panels.

He whips a frown at Leo.

"I will be cross with you if I have to replace another screen."

Right, Leo put his whole leg through one earlier when they were changing positions. He's two for two. He stands, sputtering out a laugh, and goes to retrieve the phone.

"Wouldn't want that~"

"I thought your phone didn't work here," Usagi adds, sipping the last of his broth.

Leo sets the phone down - carefully! - by Usagi's elbow and returns to his seat on the other side of the low table. Distance is good right now. After the squabble last night, things feel kinda tenuous. And even a tiny taste of Usagi's body heat and scent is enough to get Leo all squirmy, and he really really wants to eat something other than a granola bar. Having a libido this needy is tough work on a turtle, and he's a pretty voracious eater even on a normal (non migraine) day.

Leo shrugs; "Yeah well, Donnie did some techy, mystic mumbo-jumbo and now it does!"

"Allowing you to menace your brothers from the ether?"

"First of all, they do a lot more menacing than you give them credit for," Leo says. Usagi smirks and just looks at him with those bright, scarlet eyes like – wow okay anyway – Leo flashes him a grin. "Second, you want my number now? I can get you a phone."

"I do not want to be menaced."

"How's that workin' out for ya, Usagi?"

"Poorly, in spite of my best efforts. What is it you want me to do with this?" he asks, indicating the phone.

"Right. Uuhh. Hm."

Leo scoops up the phone and types in the 4 digit code, does the thumbprint scan, and the eye scan – Donnie's new security protocols are no joke. He forgot though, he was only halfway through filling out that stupid questionnaire….. He hasn't picked up his phone since, now that he thinks about it. Been too busy. ...Fuck it. He scrolls back to the top. His face heats.

Beneath the grandiose two entire lines of Title is a brief and clinical summary of Leo's current ailment, red-eared slider specific, and then, of course, front and center:

SYMPTOMS (including but not limited to):

• Increased libido

• Mood swings (Restlessness; Irritability; Weepiness; Clinginess; etc)

• Territorial Behavior

• Sensitivity to smells and touching

• Enhanced colorization of markings

• Swelling of exocrine 'scent' glands; throat, under arms, thighs

• Cloaca may produce –

Aaand Leo plops the phone screen-down onto the table, frowning at what's left in his bowl of rice. Yeah he's not sharing that with Usagi. He's pretty much managed to suss all of that out for himself anyway through trial and error, honestly, what is the big deal. This is so dumb. Leo must have been more addled than he realized the other night, pizza supreme. Worst idea he's ever had asking Donnie, specifically, for help with this, specifically. Usagi doesn't need to know everything his bits are doing all of the time – Leo doesn't even like knowing what his bits are doing.

"What's wrong?" Usagi asks.

Leo glances up. Usagi has set his chopsticks down and is looking at him. The heat in Leo's face doubles. He smiles, shrugs, whatever.

"Nothing! Y'know what, don't worry about it, it's dumb."

Usagi hums.

That by itself wouldn't be suspicious, but it's coupled with the way he makes a huge point of Not Looking At The Phone before he moves to grab the phone. If Leo hadn't spent his entire life with three bothers and Splinter, that might have got him. He probably wouldn't have been able to best Ninja Supreme, but he manages to close his hand around the phone half a second before Usagi does just fine.

Usagi grabs his wrist instead so Leo can't whisk the device away.

Stalemate.

And great, now Leo's made a huge deal about it, which is the opposite of what he wanted.

Leo opens his hand and lets the phone drop to the table again. Usagi's eyes narrow a fraction as he stares at Leo's face – Leo, obviously, gives nothing away – and slowly lets go of Leo's wrist. He picks up the phone and sits back with it, glancing at the screen. Which is locked. Take that, nosy ass! Usagi tilts the phone to look at the screen and then taps it experimentally the way he's seen Leo do and oh he was looking for thumb prints like some goddamn junior detective and Leo has sticky rice fingers because he's a heathen and chopsticks are hard sometimes. The pass code is accepted.

Leo lunges across the table.

An empty broth bowl goes rolling, strewing dregs.

Usagi grabs Leo's wrist, yanks him forward so he sprawls flat on the table, twists to curl Leo's arm around his side, and pins it there beneath his elbow in one sickeningly caliente motion that fucks up all of Leo's blood flow in every conceivable way, good and bad. Usagi presses Leo's thumb to the phone screen and it blips over to the eye scan. Usagi has the phone shoved over his shoulder into Leo's face before Leo can think to do something smart like blink or squeeze his eyes closed, and…!

The phone is unlocked.

The document is still open.

Leo just got played and he's so hard about it.

He fumbles for purchase on the tabletop. Palms the smooth wood surface. Bumps his thigh against the edge and stops even though he was going to try to take some of the pressure off his pelvis. Boy he's glad he put his pants back on. His face is practically shoved into Usagi's shoulder and that's not helping his Situation. Usagi's fur tickles Leo's snout and his musky scent torments Leo with every inhale, but he can't stop breathing it greedily in. He starts talking, fumbling, "You don't – that's not – It's - "

"I understand what it is," Usagi says, face and voice carefully neutral. He doesn't look at Leo, but he does avert his gaze from the phone screen, lowering it slightly. "Are you going to be upset if I read it?"

Leo makes a noise to the effect of No but it comes out uncertain and confused.

"You know, this might have been helpful information to distribute at the start of this endeavor," Usagi points out deliberately, just as much of a grudge-holding hypocrite as Leo is. "Since you're not keen on actually telling me -" He breaks off as he turns his head to look at Leo. Leo is breathing very carefully, but doesn't know what his face is doing. "Leo?"

"M'yeah, babe?"

Good, voice works.

Well, bad maybe.

Usagi's frown sharpens.

He slowly relaxes his hold on Leo's arm, but Leo doesn't pull it back. He tries not to whimper when Usagi turns to face him and his body heat leaves.

"You're going to get 'lost in the sauce' fairly often like this, aren't you…." Usagi says, more softly than before, his brow drawn with concern that Leo wants to immediately kiss away PIZZA SUPREME that's so sappy and corny the sex flu is raising his internal body temp just enough to burn every half-sensible thought out of Leo's brain and leaving mushy, intrusive garbage behind.

Thus, the only thing he's able to get out is:

"Pshhhno."

Not exactly a compelling argument. Leo is really scrambling to collect his waylaid braincells, slowly leveraging himself back off the table with whatever dignity he can muster. The remaining rice in their bowls got turned over. The table is sturdy though – Leo's surprised he didn't break it when he fell across it – and then the inspiration of the century strikes and he aborts everything else full stop. Leo is all legs. The table is decently sized but small enough that he can pretty much step right over it with a little hop. So he does, almost the exact moment he manages to stand, and rattles the remaining dishes as his calf bumps the edge and he tumbles down on top of Usagi, who knows he's up to something, but hasn't had time in the 0.2 seconds that have transpired to decide what it is.

Leo doesn't give him any.

Usagi is frowning, pointedly angling the phone away to the furthest side of his body, and Leo, ignoring it because it isn't what he wants, grabs Usagi's waist and spins, and flops him straight on his back onto the table, to hell with the rest of the food. The dishes scatter. Usagi's elbow hits the ceramic teapot and sends it rolling, lashing steam and water across the floor. Leo pins him there with his body, knees supporting his weight on the plush floor cushion he just pulled Usagi off of.

Wow, Leo is a genius.

This table's the perfect height.

Usagi huffs, "Leo!" But doesn't sound terribly protesting as Leo buries his face in Usagi's neck and tugs his kimono loose. Leo likes this one; a misty gray with bright blue and purple irises decorating the hem, held closed by a thin sash. Leo palms the pattern down one leg, tracing the texture of the embroidery with firm fingers and finding the seam suddenly when Usagi twitchily lifts his foot to rest his heel on the edge of the table. There's nothing underneath it but the downy white fur of Usagi's thighs.

Usagi squirms, pressing into Leo's front, and since the movement seems more Trying to Get Comfortable than Trying to Escape, Leo eases some of his weight off and allows it. He nuzzles Usagi's neck, mouthing at his fur. He stops and hesitates when he smells blood, the small, open wounds he left in Usagi's shoulder last night. He nearly pulls back. Oh right. Oh shit. He – but Usagi's arm wraps around Leo's neck and tugs him in closer, and Leo relaxes again. He moves to the other side, worrying each place gently between his teeth before closing his mouth over it and sucking hard. Usagi arches beneath him again, letting out a noisy sigh.

His other leg nudges between Leo's, a firm pressure, a rapid unfurling of heat in Leo's gut that his whole body quakes against. Leo shifts his knees on the mat. Tilts his hips so the edge of his plastron isn't in the way, so he gets that pressure right where he wants. It knocks his breath out. Leo groans and ruts down against Usagi's thigh, chasing those sharp spikes of pleasure, before he catches himself.

"Y-you tryina distract me?"

"A tactic you employed first."

Leo leans back enough to see that devilish smirk, and the way Usagi waves the phone that's still in his hand, hanging above his head.

Oh, Leo forgot about that actually.

He laughs again, short and breathless. He reaches up to grab the phone and Usagi lets him take it. The phone screen is locked again, anyway. Usagi can't read that stupid document, and Leo won't get out-maneuvered about it a second time, and they both know it. Whatever. They can talk about it later. Leo tosses the phone away and doesn't pay attention to where it clatters off to or if it tears through another paper screen. He grabs Usagi's meddlesome knee, moves it forcefully out from between his legs where it's just causing trouble, and pins it against the outside of his hip, and tries to focus.

He's not been able to last too long most of the time – when it hits, it hits, and it's so stressful and annoying – but he's made up for it with recovery time.

Not as fun as taking it slow.

But his head is getting all swimmy and warm again.

He nuzzles Usagi's neck and his fluffy cheeks, roughing up his fur, breathing in his scent. He gropes his way up Usagi's thigh, thumps poking and pressing. This earns him a few deep chuckles, another squirm, a puff of laughter when he hits a ticklish spot. Leo should win a medal for not immediately abusing that info and just cataloging it for later. He slides his other hand up to the base of Usagi's ear and thumbs over the velvet inside. He runs the length of it through his hand, careful to press firmly but not pull too hard. Usagi shudders underneath him, exhaling softly.

The palpable spike in his arousal floods Leo's senses.

He groans, squeezing maybe a little too hard, pressing aimlessly into Usagi's warm body.

"I wanna fuck you so bad."

Usagi lets out a shorter breath, like he finds this tedious. Leo did interrupt lunch. Leo has been pretty clingy and annoying and over-emotional about the dumbest stuff. Usagi settles his shoulder blades more comfortably on the hard surface, and says,

"Fine."

Leo starts snickering. Usagi flicks the side of Leo's head where his ear should be, but his frame, smushed firmly under Leo's, gives him away by shaking with silent mirth.

"Fine," Leo parrots, "Jeez! Show a little enthusiasm!"

"No." A contrarian in spite of his laughter. He doesn't push Leo away, but he does grab the lip of his plastron, right above Leo's collar bones, and wiggles it a little back and forth. Feels weird but doesn't hurt. "Stop and let me up, then." Oh, his voice is a little rough. Leo likes that a lot even if he doesn't like the words. "Before you become too agitated."

"Ppppphhh. Agitated? Mwa? You must be thinking of another turtle. You're not, are you?"

"I truthfully could not handle another. ...Well?"

"M'no. I wanna fuck you right here."

Usagi's voice adopts an indignant tone rife with disbelief but also masking a laugh, "On the TABLE, Leo?"

"Yes! You said it was fine."

"I did not. I'm surprised you haven't broken it already - "

"I won't break it, I promise."

"I do not think you are in a state of mind to make promises and even if you were, you are a liar and a swindler."

"My good name! Slandered!"

Leo keeps his hands busy the whole time. He eases off his weight and palms across Usagi's stomach deliberately so he bumps Usagi's dick with his wrist. Usagi's whole body jumps and his breath snags. He bites back a groan. Leo hides his grin in Usagi's neck, can feel his thudding pulse.

"Y-you're a menace!"

Leo hums an affirmative – there's no point denying it – and pushes his palm up to Usagi's heaving ribs, beneath the tight press of his sash, going against the grain of his fur and relishing in his full-body shudder. He smooths it back down and promptly wraps his hand around Usagi's cock, spreading precum from the head with a swipe of his thumb. The little noise Usagi makes goes straight to Leo's dick. He just barely resists the urge to shove his own hand into his pants and coax it out to full length then and there.

Ugh, he is gonna have to stop. He's gonna have to get up and move away, because the lube and everything else is in the bedroom.

That's the whole reason they came to the other room to eat at the table.

Leo leans back a little more so he's out of Usagi's scent. This is less than helpful, since it's taking up two or three entire senses and is just about the only thing Leo is aware of at the moment. Still, he tries to breathe, to clear his head, bracing himself against the unwelcome well of anxiety that spikes up his stomach and muddles all those good gooey feelings, at just the idea of letting go of his mate – of USAGI. DAMN. He's gotta get on top of that real fast. OH! Pun intended!

"What are you laughing for now?" Usagi huffs.

He's smiling, his cheeks flushed and rumpled, whiskers twitching. His chest heaves slightly with his breath and his kimono has parted enough to show a fluff of chest fur. Leo kisses him, tongue diving between his teeth. Usagi moans into his mouth while Leo pumps him leisurely, feeling the veins and ridges of his dick, slicking the head, squeezing the base. Usagi's hips buck up. He pants Leo's name and he pets Leo's face and he rubs Leo's scent glands with his thumbs and UGH that's not making getting up easier.

Leo whines.

He lets go of Usagi and puts his hands flat on the table to either side.

"Don't say 'I told you so'," Leo pants, "It's mean."

Usagi laughs, thumbing his jaw. He drops his hands then and looks at Leo expectantly, working the sash at his waist the rest of the way open. Oh man. Leo averts his gaze. His legs shake and feel like lead, dragging behind him when he forces himself to get up and leap into the other room, tossing pillows and yanking up blankets. His heart thuds around in his stomach the whole time. The bottle of water-based lubricant rolls across the tatami and Leo snatches it up. Belatedly, he thinks to shove his own pants down and trips trying to get his ankles out of them, beefs it on his way across the floor and rolls upright to the delightful din of Usagi's laughter.

He's sitting up on the table, tossing his kimono clear of the mess on the floor.

He didn't move.

Leo thought he might, but he's right where Leo left him.

Stupid hormones. If Usagi were sick of him, he'd still be cranky, right? He has been pretty enthusiastic about this whole thing. Leo's chest does something stupid and sharp and wobbly. He sinks to his knees on the cushion and hugs Usagi's waist with both arms, tucking in to kiss him again.

-

So they definitely break the table.

Usagi has already put his robe back on without bothering to tie the sash. He simply holds the kimono closed, frowning disapprovingly at the state of his living room. It looks like a cannon ball – and Leo knows Usagi knows what that is, because he remembers Usagi talking about a demonstration he saw once, on one of Mifune's visits to the coast, of the European weapon plundered from a foreigner's ship – was launched into it. The kettle is still on it's side in a puddle of water and rice and dishes are scattered on the floor.

The table is cracked in half, the legs beneath it snapped cleanly.

Leo, shame-faced but grinning, hikes his pants back up.

Usagi sighs, "I am irritated about this."

"Yeah, s'my bad, babe. Man they just don't make tables as sturdy as they used to huh?"

"This was cedar, Leo…."

Leo doesn't know enough about furniture to argue. He's used to wonky 2x4s, cement blocks, milk crates, beanbags, and threadbare couches and recliners pillaged from the dumpster; used to second- or third-hand things that were of impoverish quality long before they even reached him. He's know the value of having something nice. Now he feels kinda bad.

But also, he was right: the table was the perfect height, while it lasted.

Usagi holds out his hand, frowning, imperious.

"Unlock the phone," he says, "And give it to me. Now."

Leo tries soooo hard to ignore the way that tone makes his stomach bubble pleasantly. Wow he really needs to go outside and sit in the grass and cool off or something.

"…...Fine, but I gotta add some stuff to it first."

Chapter Text

"Leo, this behavior is inappropriate."

"Usagi, your bathtub is a joke."

"It's for sitting and soaking in, you are not a child."

"Yeah but there's no room for a guy to stretch out! What you've got in there, it's an actual crime to call that wooden bucket a bathtub. And you've gotta start and maintain an entire fire to get hot water. It's a hate crime – a hate crime against me, specifically."

"Get out of there," Usagi says.

"You gonna make me, big guy?"

"You think I won't?"

Leo dips his face beneath the surface and emerges only long enough to spout a stream of water at Usagi. It barely reaches the edge of the pond, but it's answer enough.

Ten minutes. The amount of time that it took Usagi to put on some rice, and Leo is in the koi pond in the back yard – naked, in broad daylight – to 'cool off', after he has spent the past two hours sunning on the porch in front of the heater. The afternoon has turned out unexpectedly nice compared to the previous few days of cold, sullen rain. It isn't necessarily warm, but the sun is shining unobstructed by clouds for the first time in weeks and only an occasional breeze disturbs the maple tree in the back yard, or the golden hakone grass. The chime at the northern-most corner of the porch strikes a handful of bright cords and then sways silently.

Usagi only pulled on a short inner kimono to lounge around the house in. Leo has taken it off of him three times today, and though that's about five times fewer than yesterday, he is evidently feeling froggy again. His eyes, milky white behind his second eyelids, narrow mischievously as he peers at Usagi from where he's laying at the bottom of the pond among the rocks and sediment. The only movements in the water are Leo's tail sweeping back and forth, a flash of yellow in the murk; the thin line of bubbles trailing from his nostrils; and the koi fish crowding into the far corner to avoid him.

Usagi kicks off his sandals on the rocks.

Leo can't contain himself. He's sputtering out water and laughter before he even manages to get his feet under him, and by then Usagi is on him. They wrestle in the waist-deep pond, splashing and slipping on the algae covered rocks, tearing up the lilies, and trying not to crush the woebegone fish. Usagi gets water in his nose and scuffs his knee on a rock. Leo's hands sneak up beneath the hem of Usagi's soaked kimono, teasing and pinching his thighs. The sensation causes Usagi to promptly lose his footing.

He lands on his tail, and the water sloshes up to his shoulders and licks at his chin as Leo tumbles down on top of him. This seems to be a running theme.

"Leo," he struggles not to laugh, "Are you seriously trying to start something right now?"

Leo's pink tongue darts out at him beguilingly. He tucks his chin against Usagi's sternum. Usagi is not holding his wrists very tight and his hands continue to inch upwards. He wiggles to settle his plastron more firmly between Usagi's legs to keep them from closing. The pressure on his groin makes Usagi jolt and catch his breath, and Leo looks far too pleased with himself.

"Dude, what did you think I was in the pond for?"

"You said you were cooling off."

"Well, that wasn't a lie, but it was also a set-up. Obviously. Can I blow you??"

"Did you learn nothing from the table?"

"Uh, yeah, brace your knees."

"No," Usagi sputters, laughing outright.

Leo maintains eye contact as he sinks a little lower, as his hands grip a little more firmly, slipping easily up to grab Usagi's hipbones. The water pools into the dip of his shell behind the nape of his neck in a noisy little vortex. Leo pushes his face into the open front of Usagi's kimono and starts mouthing at his chest. Usagi pushes back into the rocks lining the pond, suddenly needing the stability.

Leo wheedles, "No for real, or…?"

"You can't be serious –"

"Dude, I can hold my breath for like thirty minutes. And I really don't think it's gonna take that long~"

Usagi doesn't doubt him – and his interest is certainly piqued – but he can't muster up the nerve to agree to something like that. His silence speaks for him, anyway. Leo grins and dips below the surface then – Usagi didn't even notice when he took a breath. He nudges Usagi's kimono open further and mouths at his stomach, tugging as his sash to loosen it. His big hands knead Usagi's thighs, the apex of his hips, urging them further apart as he settles lower on his knees and hooking them over his own shoulders. He pinches Usagi's thighs with his teeth.

He grasps Usagi with one hand and strokes him slowly.

Usagi has lost track of the number of times, just today, that his dick has been handled, and he is understandably sensitive. His thighs tense and tremble right away. He isn't sure if the orgasm is going to feel good or feel annoying. Nothing could have prepared him for just how wearisome this endeavor has been – he has never had so much sex in his life – and yet he still has to stifle a sharp moan behind his hand, appalled by how warm his face is and the way his heart begins to race.

Leo pinches the underside of his thigh, harder than he normally would.

Usagi panics, thinking he needs to breathe, and tries to move his legs off of Leo's shoulders.

Leo doesn't let him.

He stops Usagi's struggling with a strong, steady grip. When Usagi glances down, Leo has removed one hand from Usagi's thigh to shove the billowing end of his kimono flat against his stomach and leaned back slightly so he can see his face, blinking open his second eyelids. He's frowning. The sight of him down there with Usagi's cock in his face, looking like he disapproves of the situation he caused in the first place, is so funny that Usagi lets out a helpless laugh. Leo lets go of the kimono to tap the side of his own head, where his ear should be, and strokes Usagi's length again, twisting a little near the head, so that Usagi's hips jerk involuntarily.

Usagi's face reddens, a pleasant fire buzzing in his lower stomach.

Oh. Leo can't hear him as well under the water.

"I'm not going to -aah!"

Petulant, and not one to be robbed of his hard-won spoils, Leo sinks down between Usagi's thigh and takes nearly all of him into his mouth at once. He's had a lot of practice lately. The contrast between the cold water and the searing heat of Leo's mouth is intense enough that Usagi's breath catches, releasing around a shuddering whine as Leo licks his way back up. Leo hums encouragingly, and Usagi gives in and lets another breathy moan tumble freely out of him.

It sounds obscene echoing back at him from across the water, in the open air of the garden, and Usagi feels his face redder. He smooths his hand back over his ears and tugs on one roughly as he pants for breathe, his hips squirming and jumping as Leo pins them in place.

The rocks dig into his back.

The water sloshes up his chest.

It's strange, feeling so weightless, tethered only to Leo and that hot, broiling pleasure. Leo's palm presses against his heaving stomach, rubbing up and down. He hugs Usagi's thighs against his neck and strokes them greedily while he bobs his head between them. He rewards every little noise Usagi makes with some devious action that without fail earns him something louder. He licks Usagi from root to tip, taking his sweet time, while Usagi watches the sun blink and shimmer through the maple leafs overhead and worries distractedly if he's going to drown.

Usagi's other hand slips down to grasp the back of Leo's neck. His foot kicks out and his knees curl and his back arches. Leo churrs, a sound that is unmistakably, ridiculously happy, and sinks further down, throat contracting around a swallow, and that, coupled with the continuous subtle vibration, is what sends Usagi right over the edge. He comes with a small cry. He bucks his hips without meaning to, squeezing the back of Leo's head to pull him firmly forward, and tugs too hard on his own ear.

He feels more than hears Leo's moan as that wave thrums through his whole body.

Leo squeezes his hips. Pets his legs through the aftershocks. He pulls off, a rush of coolness wafting between them. He nuzzles and mouths at Usagi's hip. Leo tries to straighten up with Usagi's legs still locked numbly around his shoulders, and feeling like he's getting tipped back into the water is what rouses Usagi out of his daze. He latches onto the upper ridge of Leo's carapace to keep his balance and Leo lets his legs fall to either side so he can wind both arms around Usagi's chest, instead. He isn't even winded, grinning smugly. Leo rubs his face up Usagi's neck in long, smooth strokes, churring the whole time Usagi is catching his breath and his heartbeat is slowing.

After a moment, Usagi laughs.

His ear is sore.

He lifts his hand back up to feel it – Leo beats him to it. He shifts, sitting back on his heels in the water and pulling Usagi snugly into his lap. He rests one arm around Usagi's lower back to support him and reaches up with the other to rub the base of Usagi's sore ear. Usagi tilts his head into the sensation and closes his eyes, leaning bonelessly against Leo's shoulder and letting his legs float around Leo's waist. Being in the water is nice, or would be if it were warmer. He thinks he feels a slight tremor between them, and isn't sure if it's him or if it's Leo.

Leo elects to ruin the mood by whining, apparently scenting it on the air,

"You're not making rice again, are you?"

Usagi snipes, "Get out of the pond if you're going to jerk off."

"Babe, you're lucky I didn't come on the spot. You're so squirmy~"

Leo grins down at him and keeps massaging Usagi's sore ear. Usagi sighs softly, shaking his head. He tries to gather his scattered, lazy thoughts back into order. He is also tired of rice…. He's not used to eating such lean meals anymore and misses Aoi-san's cooking. It's out of the question, asking her back to the house just yet. The alternative is that Leo is going to be insufferable about it, probably, but Usagi asks anyway: "If I take you out to eat and to the onsen, will you behave yourself?"

Leo's breath is hot against his ear, delighted, "Ohoho, wow! Wow!!! Is this a treat?"

"No."

"It definitely is a treat for giving such great head. Babe, I was just returning the favor~"

"Are you going to behave or not?"

Leo wiggles his shoulders, a salacious smile sliding over his face. "Probably."

"I want a yes on your meager honor as a ninja or we aren't going."

"Fine okay, yes, please, anything for some good food that's not rice and an actual for real hot bath, pizza supreme. No offense, but you're meal situation needs work!"

"You're gratitude needs work."

"Usagi, I'm super grateful."

Leo kisses the side of his face, nuzzling him again. Both of his hands wander up and down the planes of Usagi's back now, kneading every muscle with firm, broad fingertips.

"We're not fucking in this pond, Leo."

"Fine, " Leo sighs, "No-fun-having, grouchy ass samurai. I'm an aquatic turtle, y'know."

Any retort Usagi might make gets stuck in his throat when he hears someone else call his name from the front of the house: "Usagi-saaan!" Leo's head turns toward the voice, as well. Usagi snaps upright, his ears rigid. He shoves Leo down into the pond and climbs over the top of him with a tremendous, racketing series of splashes that make more noise than progress. The voice calls again, inquiringly – footsteps beat casually along the porch, in no hurry at all but approaching more swiftly than Usagi can regain his footing – and Usagi has barely turned to face the house over the short bank of rocks when his unexpected visitor rounds the corner.

It's Nakaoka, one of Usagi's subordinates.

He glances curiously into the open room at the back of the house – thankfully not the bedroom, doubly so that the broken table has been moved to the storage house – and then his head swings around toward the sound of water settling and sloshing. He flashes a smile automatically. He has always been the amicable sort, if a bit simple. But then his head tilts, the cloud of confusion evident.

Because Usagi is standing, sopping wet, in the koi pond with his clothes falling off of him.

"Usagi-san?" Nakaoka asks, "What are you doing?"

"Nothing, I – slipped." Usagi gropes at the seam of his wet kimono, not bothering to be subtle about trying to close it. He is painfully aware of Leo, curled under his feet with both hands clamped over his nose and mouth, convulsing with suppressed laughter. Usagi's ear keeps twitching back, giving away his nervousness. He bursts out a laugh, "There was a turtle after my fish."

A burst of bubbles, a muffled voice, proceeds Leo's hand grabbing Usagi's his ankle. Leo squeezes hard, shaking him so that Usagi nearly looses his balance.

Usagi kicks back at him and hits him in the plastron.

"Okay," Nakaoka says, bewildered but smiling, "Sorry if I'm intruding. I heard you had a guest! And a few of us were going to Mizu-san's this evening, and I wondered if you two might like to join us."

He looks around pointedly, as if hoping to see the guest in question.

The rumor mill has been churning. Usagi never should have told Gunichi that he was meeting a friend for lunch the other day; Shigure is a reliable page (and discreet, usually), but Leo stands out so much that the boy's impression of him must have been compelling enough to spread when prompted; and too many other people had seen them walking together. Usagi should not be shocked. He is, mostly because it took this long for someone to get up the nerve to come and be nosy. Nakaoka would not have thought to do it on his own, but the others probably had no trouble goading him into it.

Usagi isn't angry, in particular.

Embarrassment is more than winning the race at the moment.

He doesn't know whether it's better to stay in the pond or climb out of it, or which might draw more attention to Leo. He can't seem to move his legs so he just stays in the pond.

He says, "Thank you for the offer, Nakaoka, but. We have. Plans. Later."

"Oh," Nakaoka says, turning back to Usagi. He overcomes his disappointment easily enough, showing that cracked tooth in his grin. "That's too bad. Maybe next time then! Um. Do you need some help or…?"

"No! No, I'm – fine." Usagi staggers over Leo's unseen, silently writhing body and climbs out of the pond, trailing what feels like pounds of water on the moss and rocks. "Thank you, Nakaoka."

"Alright, well. If you're sure. Watch out for those turtles! You know, one of them nearly bit my toe clean off when I was a kid."

"Yes, I'll keep that in mind."

Nakaoka casts another furtive glance around the yard and the house, slowly turning away when he finds nothing (or no one) of interest. Usagi is grateful for the large stones at the back of the pond that block it from view from that particular corner of the porch. It's meant to be viewed in full from the bench beneath the maple tree. Usagi strides quickly across the yard, keeping his distance from Nakaoka until he is sure the other man is through the front gate and then rushing to close it. It's a wonder he didn't hear the bell. It chimes merrily as the gate closes. Usagi fastens the lock for good measure.

He's left it open throughout the day in case a page came from Lord Mifune.

Lesson learned.

Usagi and his thick fur and saturated kimono shed ever more water back across the gravel yard, leaving dark seeping footprints on the stone path between the hedges. Leo has already heaved himself out of the pond. His wheezing, shrieking, coughing laughter accosts Usagi well before he rounds the corner into the garden. Usagi stands there with his hands on his hips, scowling at the display as Leo rolls on the rocks with his arms around his stomach, kicking his feet. The tears gathering in his eyes and spilling down his flushed face are indistinguishable from the pond water.

"This is not how someone who wants to go to the onsen behaves," Usagi says.

"Dude, I'm DYING," Leo wheezes, "I CAN'T right now….!"

Since clearly neither he nor Leo is going to regain their dignity anytime soon, Usagi goes to find a towel and some fresh clothes for both of them.

-

Leo loses so much body heat in the pond that Usagi has to bundle him up in the heated blanket, against the press of his own much-warmer body, and lay with him in front of the broiling heater for nearly an hour before Leo stops shivering.

"You're an idiot."

"Turtle. Pond. It makes sense."

"You have spent this entire time complaining about the cold, Leo."

Leo hums in agreement, distractedly. He's rubbing his face against Usagi's neck again, burying his snout in Usagi's damp fur and taking those big, deep breaths. Scenting him, Usagi thinks; there was an extensive section in that document about sensitivity to smells, how they might help determine territories and bond with a mate, and that Leo might not necessarily be aware that he's doing it. It doesn't seem so, most of the time. Being constantly sniffed and nuzzled makes Usagi self-conscious – he is not the cleanest at the moment, he is sweaty and his fur is matted in places, and he doesn't understand how the way he smells could possibly be appealing – but it's something Leo clearly enjoys doing.

Something that's clearly bringing him comfort.

It's not the strangest habit he's developed during this endeavor, so Usagi doesn't really mind it.

What he does mind (and he isn't entirely sure why he minds, it's just very irksome behavior typical of Leo, and yet somehow not) is Leo avoiding his left shoulder. He hasn't put his face there since he bit Usagi the other night, and if he has by accident he's pulled back immediately. Usagi isn't sure why he's still feeling so guilty about it. It doesn't hurt more than he can tolerate. That document had said possessive (and playful) biting was a possibility, which had lined up with what Usagi had already observed of Leo being too rough and excitable, and any pain he had felt in the moment had blurred at the edges of everything else, to be honest, all of it overwhelmingly good. It wasn't until Leo had started panicking that Usagi actually took notice of the sharp throbbing in his shoulder.

The panicking – Leo's fervent, nearly-weeping swears and apologies – had startled Usagi more than the bite had, more than fumbling to light the lamp and discovering a mess of his own blood darkening his shoulder and Leo's mouth.

Usagi had said, "It's okay, I'm fine," until the words had made him dizzy.

Leo had regained his composure as quickly as it had disintegrated. Immediately made a joke. Pretended that his hands weren't shaking. Business as usual.

He put in a good effort, anyway. It isn't like Leo to mope, and Usagi wasn't having it. He probably shouldn't have lost his temper about that, of all things. But he fully understands why Leo's brothers are often sick of his performances. It's hard to take Leo at his word when his default response is to act as if everything is always fine, even when the feint is obvious.

Now that Leo's hands aren't frozen and wedged unceremoniously wherever Usagi will tolerate them, they're starting to wander again. Usagi lays still with his eyes closed and his arms loose around Leo's shoulders, trying not to encourage him, but curious as to what he'll do. Leo roughs up Usagi's fur along his back with his fingertips and smooths it down from ribs to hipbone with his palms; in slow, even strokes that follow Usagi's breathing. Occasionally, his fingers scritch around, kneading invisible, aimless patterns into Usagi's muscles.

They trace down the slight dip of his spine.

Leo pinches his butt cheek, and Usagi locks his arm around Leo's neck in a near-choke-hold, crushing Leo's snout against his collarbone. Leo laughs and squirms in surprise, grabbing his elbow.

He tries to twist free but Usagi holds him tightly.

"Oh good," Leo grunts, "I thought you'd dozed off on me!"

"I shouldn't have let you thaw out," Usagi says.

"You'd let a guy freeze to death just for pinching your ass?"

"For less, probably."

"Babe, that's cold."

Usagi snorts, stifling a laugh, and releases him. Leo rolls away from him and Usagi puts his foot against Leo's shell and shoves him a little further for good measure, sick of that handsome, insufferable grin being in his face. Yesterday, Leo would have clung onto him like a mollusk. Today he laughs, unrepentant, and helps Usagi untangle the cocoon of blankets so they can both get up.

"Bullying me," Leo complains, "And for why?"

"For misbehaving."

"Pphhh wow! Anyway, where we goin' to eat, for real for real? I'm withering away as we speak."

"Whose fault is it that it's gotten so late?"

"Uh, it isn't Leon's."

"Of course not, Leo. You don't want to be around a lot of people, do you?"

"M'not a big fan of socializing at the moment, no."

"Me either. But I have an idea."

"I love it when you have ideas, Usagi, I never know what I'm getting."

"Don't patronize me."

-

There's snow on the ground in the mountains; just a dusting, really, a few scant inches from the previous days of unremarkable gloomy weather.

The inn is perched near a steep bank where the river tumbles past, frothy with blue-white melt water from the higher elevations. Leo spares them a day's hike by opening a portal between Usagi's bedroom and the broad dirt path just around the bend from the inn, late in the evening when the sun has already disappeared behind the ridge and thrown the narrow pass into twilight. Usagi has been to this inn frequently over the past few years. It's a favorite stopping point for many of Mifune's retainers at the end of long trips across the Province, and the innkeeper is delighted to see Usagi. The weather being what it is, he only has three other guests at the moment. He settles Usagi and Leo into a small private room at the back of the small garden and does not balk from Leo's lengthy list of food-related demands, his natural hospitality incentivized by the roll of coins Usagi passes him.

The sheer abundance of the meal is refreshing.

Usagi has not had smoked eel recently, and it makes him nostalgic for his village and his childhood in a way that doesn't feel too bitter for once. Leo eats nearly his weight in udon and dumplings.

He is still, hours later, choking with laughter over the fish pond incident.

(Usagi thinks that perhaps it will be funnier in fifty years, when he isn't mortified by it.)

Once the meal has been cleared away, and the futons laid out for the night, Usagi checks in, "Are you sure you're going to be alright spending the night here?"

"This isn't my first sleep-over."

"Obviously. I just meant that we can go back to my place any time, if you're uncomfortable."

"Wow babe, you are way over thinkin' this," Leo says, dismissive in a way that is immediately irksome. He is all smiles, as usual, but Usagi has noticed him grimacing when Leo thinks no one is watching, and rubbing either side of his neck. "I'm fine! Totally A-OK with whatever!"

Hypocrite.

"Alright," Usagi ventures, flippant for flippant, stooping to collect the yukata and towels their hosts set out for them and the bag of toiletries Leo brought with him, along with his duffel, "But your brother's missive said not to cause you unnecessary stress, and that you might be distraught if you found a suitable nesting site and then had to leave it before you were ready – "

"M'kay but I'm saying I'm gucci so maybe we should listen to Leon about his needs and not Donnie's well-intentioned but very biased behavioral essay," Leo snaps.

Usagi straightens and looks at him sharply. He is not used to being spoken to with such insolence and letting it go uncontested, and he swallows back harsher words as they surge up his throat. He promised to be patient with Leo. Difficult as that is.

Leo, for his part, looks abashed; his head ducked and turned aside, eyes wide, as he cradles the back of his own neck and scuffs a bare foot on the tatami. Then he laughs, too loudly. That fragile mask slips back into place. He wore his blue sakura haori over one of Usagi's kimonos, and his pants underneath that for an extra layer of warmth. He looks ridiculous, and adds to the effect by throwing a hand in the air and turning on his heel, but balking at the wall of screens because they all must look the same to him and he can't decide which one goes out, away, right now.

"Wow," Leo is saying, "That popped right out, didn't it? My bad. I'm good. Anywizzle –"

"Leo we do not have to stay the night here if you do not want to," Usagi says firmly, "We can take a bath and leave."

"Yep. Heard." Leo picks a panel seemingly at random and shunts it open, escaping the conversation by bolting out into the hallway, His game is really is not up to par still. It would be funny if it wasn't infuriating. "C'mon, Sagi, the hot water is calling my name!"

Usagi braces himself with a deep breath, mentally preparing to be hyper-vigilant.

He doesn't want to fight with Leo.

Perhaps if he lets Leo pretend to be in a good mood, one will manifest. And that more or less holds to be true. They trek down to the natural hot spring in the dark, following the line of steps that have been swept of snow and a few sputtering lanterns. The sulfur smell wafts up to meet them on a cold breeze, along with the roaring of the river farther below. There's a sour quality to it that's pungent enough for Leo to breathe out harshly and swat a hand in front of his face as if to dispel it, muttering, "Man this makes Raph's undershell stink smell like roses!"

Usagi allows himself a laugh at that, muffled beneath the lush, snow-heavy canopy of maple and camphor.

-

"Tell me how you know how to play this game again, Sagi?"

"That's not important."

"Oh it SUPER is. Why'd you call it a brothel game?? I'm so curious."

"It doesn't matter," Usagi laughs, "It's -"

"You never let me teach you how to play strip poker," Leo says, absolutely rife with indignation, "because it was 'indecent' to gamble and made me seem 'promiscuous', and now you're telling me -"

"Leo, shut up."

"No no no, you're telling me that the innocent rock-paper-scissors - "

"It was a very tasteful woodblock of chonkina, and it was not my - "

"Is a drinking game for prostitutes!"

"I would not call it that."

"Who taught you how to play it like this?"

"Donbori Matsuo," Usagi says, "But he -"

"You have to point him out to me so I can shake his hand."

"I will go out of my way to make certain that you two will never meet face to face. I would not survive it."

"First the smut book and now this," Leo giggles.

Usagi tries to stifle it, "Do you want to do it or not? You're the one who brought it up."

"I wanna put my clothes back on and play it the right way."

"I am not getting dressed again just so you can satisfy your curiosity. I thought you wanted to get in the onsen? We can't do that until we're clean, and at this rate we'll both be old men."

"Eugh, don't talk about getting old! We gotta play it later. We have to."

"Fine," Usagi says, grinning when Leo laughs, "Anything to move this conversation along swiftly."

"Oho nice!"

"Now show me one more time how to play your version."

Leo enthusiastically shows him the gestures again, and what beats what (Usagi thinks the kitsune version is much more intuitive, but withholds this judgment so as not to start another debate). It's difficult to see in the near-dark of the bath house. A single torch is lit near the door, wavering in the heavy steam that hasn't escaped out the slatted window.

Leo holds his fist out in his palm.

"Ready?"

"Yes."

"Rock – Paper – Scissors – Shoot!"

Usagi sighs.

Leo hoots, slapping the top of Usagi's closed fist. Usagi pops him in the snout with it, only hard enough to shut him up, and turns to take his seat on the bamboo stool.

The bath house borrows all of it's warmth from the hot spring itself, a small, well-insulated stone building surrounded by a bamboo fence to deter people not coming down from the inn. Steam whorls up from the deep tub nearby, the vapors tangible as it settles in Usagi's damp fur, chasing off any lingering chill from outside. Leo plops down onto the warm, wet stones between Usagi's knees and passes him the soap he brought from home, along with a soft bristled brush that fits in Usagi's hand.

Usagi lathers it up, breathing in the artificially sweet scent.

"Keep your hands where I can see them," he says preemptively.

"What're you, a cop?"

"You know what I mean, Leo. This is not a private bath, even if we are alone at the moment that doesn't mean someone else might not come in."

"At this hour?"

"Assume that they might."

"Right. And this doesn't count as PDA?"

"No, it does not."

"M'kay," Leo says, sounding amused, "But I'm still thinkin' about you playing brothel games."

"Think of something else," Usagi says, taking the brush to the upper ridge of Leo's shell with no further preamble while Leo diligently soaps up the pink, frilly ball that came with his soap and starts to wash his front, starting with his feet.

Usagi makes sure to get into that ticklish dip between shell and shoulders and grins when Leo flinches and twists, swinging the pink puff back at him by it's length of cord and flinging soap.

"Dude, behave!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Usagi laughs.

He makes an effort to, at least. He moves the brush in tight, even circles across the scutes, dipping into the ridges at Leo's sides, swiping playfully back and forth from shoulder to shoulder in long, sweeping strokes and smiling at Leo's theatrical groans of appreciation. As always, he marvels at the flexibility Leo has. The hard keratin surface is strong enough to turn a well-honed blade aside, but bends easily enough to Leo's whims as he leans and rocks, angling Usagi's scrubbing to the itchiest places first, keeping up his running commentary of, "A little to the left – no no, down. Oooh yeah, that's the spot!"

This is the first honest-to-god, soap-and-hot-water bath either of them have had in the past few days, and it was desperately needed.

Usagi has made a point of washing up every morning, but Leo seemed to think at first that whining, "Smells are weird right now, Sagi," would get him out of tedious, unimportant habits such as bathing and maintaining personal hygiene. Usagi made it clear that he did not care what Leo practiced at home when he was alone, but if they were going to be doing all of that, together, then they were going to be clean.

He won that battle, but he has had to fight it every day.

(Unfortunately, he lost the battle with the bedding.)

Now, he scrubs and lathers into every nook and cranny that he can reach with business-like precision, holding the lip of Leo's shell to keep him in place when he tries to squirm away.

"Okay okay, you're done," Leo insists, trilling with laughter. He reaches behind himself, trying to grab the brush out of Usagi's hand. "Gimme that thing! It's your turn! Man, you get a guy all lathered up and you're not even trying to be sexy about it – you're just harshin' the vibe."

"You're the one harshing the vibe. Be still."

"Oh-ho, alright! Tell me what that means and I'll sit without complaint, Todd Scout's Honor."

"No," Usagi laughs, "Be still or I'm going to drown you."

Leo naturally opens his mouth to combat this, and Usagi waits until the sentence is halfway out of his mouth to empty the bucket of hot water over his head.

Leo sputters, shaking his head, "Sagi!"

"I did warn you."

Usagi stands and fills the bucket, perching on the stool behind Leo again; smiling, unrepentant, as he leans to one side to meet Leo's gaze. His eyes have adjusted well enough to the dimness by now and Leo's pouting face, framed by ruby red crescents, is truly a sight to behold.

"Can't jerk myself off while you touch me," he complains, "Can't talk, or I get waterboarded. What, you want to just sit here and be quiet?"

"If you can," Usagi says, "Because the sooner you stop fussing, the sooner we can be done with the bath and get in the hot spring, Leo. You still have to wash my back."

"Oh, I'm super looking forward to that," Leo promises.

Usagi laughs at that and empties the bucket of hot water over Leo's shell this time. He does this slowly, with purpose, instead of being petty. He pauses once or twice to swipe his hand across the surface and make sure that all the soap is gone. He refills the bucket so Leo can rinse his front. Once he's satisfied, he rests his hand there on Leo's shell for a moment and Leo, stilling suddenly beneath his touch, lets him. Usagi carefully traces the circular patterns that decorate Leo's shell; feels with his fingertips the smattering of chips and cracks that mar the scutes, breaking up the beautiful orientation of striking blue lines that glow in the near-darkness.

The one scar, in particular, is a sobering sight – the slightest hint of a concave at the apex, where Leo's shell was once crushed with brutal force.

Usagi lets his fingertips linger at the edge of that scar.

Leo leans back, coming to rest with his shell pressed against Usagi's sternum, and tips his head back enough to look up at him, "What are you thinkin' about back there, bunny boy?"

"Nothing," Usagi says.

He slides his hands over the lip of Leo's shell, carefully feeling along the edge. He cups Leo's face between his hands then, and slowly drags them down until they're circling his throat. Usagi feels him swallow, feels his heartbeat quicken. He rubs his thumbs along the line of Leo's jaw and watches Leo's cheeks fill with heat, watches in real time the way his brown eyes get wetter and darker and slightly unfocused as he gazes up at Usagi's face.

It takes him a moment longer than it should to get out, "Head empty, no thoughts?"

"As you say."

Usagi knows that the neck in general is an erogenous zone. Leo's are currently – what's the phrase? – cranked up to an eleven. Leo pushes his palms against the floor, shifting slightly.

"This count as PDA?"

"I suppose it only really counts if there are witnesses, hm? It is pretty late."

"Oh, 'it's late' now, huh?"

"I won't waterboard you this time, if you want to touch yourself."

"Fuck," Leo breathes out around a laugh.

His hands dart up, clapping the back of Usagi's neck and hauling him down onto a lop-sided kiss that's more awkward than satisfying because of the angle.

Usagi's heart beats quicker and quicker, but he feels surprisingly calm as Leo pulls his head down into the crook of his neck, where Usagi diligently plants open-mouthed kisses. There are two thin yellow stripes trailing down both sides of Leo's neck, right over the slight swell beside the pulse point in his throat. Before the other day, Usagi had never noticed these markings.

Now, he traces the familiar line of them with his tongue, ears perking up to catch Leo's hitched breath. He keeps one hand against the other side of Leo's neck, pressing Leo's heartbeat into his palm, rubbing the sensitive glands there that have Leo shuddering, his hand diving between his legs. He palms down Leo's chest with the other, tracing the grooves and the few small, pitted scars, elated with the way Leo squirms under his touch, the way his hips jerk up into his own fist, the way his fingers tighten at the back of Usagi's neck, the way he pants Usagi's name.

-

The moon is waning, very nearly new.

Usagi catches a glimpse of that sharp crescent rising just above the ridge before another thin, silvery cloud moves to hide it from view and dampens the meager light. Usagi lifts his head from where it was resting on the rocky edge of the spring and looks around. Through the steamy air and darkness, the line of flickering torches leading up the path through the trees is barely visible, and the inn's facade is cast in shadow behind one solitary lantern at the front gate. It's quiet apart from the rustling trees and the muffled sound of the river.

Usagi stretches his limbs, sluggish in the heat and yawning widely. It's revived him some, easing all those sore muscles and joints that have been abused the past few days.

"Are you alive?" Usagi calls across the water.

He can just make out Leo's shape floating in the water nearby, the roundest part of his shell the only part of him poking up past the surface. If Usagi hadn't seen him move just a minute ago, he'd be worried.

Slowly, Leo lifts his head out of the water, asks drowsily, "M'whatcha need, babe?"

"I was just checking on you," Usagi says. He wades closer, keeping his shoulders just above the surface so the hot, mineral-rich water doesn't irritate the scabbed-over bite marks there. He bound his ears up into a loose bun, also, so they wouldn't trail. "It's getting late. I think it's time to get out."

Before he gets too close, Leo disappears. He doesn't even ripple the surface when he goes under, and Usagi stills, holding his hands out, wondering for a moment if it was a trick the shadows were playing on his eyes and then waiting to see which direction Leo will try to grab him from. There is the slightest breath of motion against his back before a finger pokes his ribs.

Usagi jolts and turns, laughing.

He reaches out and meets open water, and then Leo's shoulder. Usagi dips down and seizes his arm in a firm grip and drags him upward, getting both hands on him so he can't slip away.

"Don't start something, Leo."

Leo wipes the water from his face, grinning, as he comes up.

"No one else is down here."

"No. Come on, it's time to get out."

"Eugh you want me to get out in the cold? And walk all the way back to the inn??"

"You can make a portal if you want," Usagi points out, "I'm also not looking forward to the hike back."

Leo hums like that's a good idea actually, and then slides forward until he's in Usagi's arms. What is Usagi supposed to do? Push him away? He smiles, keeping ahold of Leo's wrists in a cautious attempt to control where his hands wander off to. They land on Usagi's hips and stay there for a moment, and then slither around his waist so Leo can hug him loosely. That's acceptable, so Usagi settles his arms around Leo's shoulders instead, and Leo's face, dipping below the surface again, nuzzles Usagi's chest and shoulders. He turns them in the water, trying to tug Usagi along with him like kelp in an ocean undercurrent.

Usagi indulges this for a while, but Leo has definitely been in for too long. The hot water has Usagi feeling giddy and drowsy. He digs his feet into the bottom of the spring, holding onto Leo so he doesn't float off.

"It's time to get out," he says again, "You're not asleep are you?"

A disinterested stream of bubbles are his only answer.

Usagi tugs Leo up by his armpits so his head breaks the surface again. He has to physically angle Leo's body in order to get Leo to look at him, only to discover that his eyes are closed.

"Leo," Usagi says softly, smiling.

He's like warm dough in Usagi's hands, moving whichever way Usagi pulls him.

"Leo, I cannot lift you out of here."

Leo mumbles something Usagi doesn't catch.

Usagi cups a hand around Leo's cheek. He feels feverishly warm, flushed from head to toe by the hot water. That's not unexpected. Usagi is, too. He's just glad that Leo isn't cold any more. He knows Leo (and his brothers) can't regulate their temperatures as well as he does; a large chunk of that document served to remind him of that. Usagi hefts Leo higher into his arms so his head stays out of the water, and hauls him over to the edge of the hot spring, propping him upright on the sitting rocks.

He cups Leo's face in both of his hands and tilts his chin up slightly.

"Leo. You can't sleep here."

Leo's head lolls between his hands.

Usagi slaps his cheek, hard.

Leo jerks, and his eyes flutter open.

"What! What?"

"You can't sleep here," Usagi says again, "Come on. It's time to get out."

He pulls back from Leo's hands, reaching for him numbly, and climbs out, sloughing steam and water over the rocks. He shakes himself off, flinging water droplets out of his fur, and grabs a towel to cover himself with. Then he stands by the side of the hot spring, hands on his hips, and verbally bullies and pesters Leo like a nightingale until the poor turtle finally drags himself out of the water. Leo crawls out on hands and knees, looking all too much like his real life counterpart, with a lot of unnecessary groaning. And then he collapses onto his front of the warm rocks.

"You would not be laughing if you were a turtle," Leo mumbles.

"Yes I would," Usagi asserts, "Get up."

Leo groans into the rocks.

Usagi goes to the bathhouse to dry off properly and get dressed. Leo hasn't moved by the time he returns, carrying Leo's borrowed yukata over his arm, as well as his bag and ninjato. Leo only brought one of the twin blades along with them to the inn. The other he left in Usagi's bedroom – an anchor point, Usagi knows, in case they need to make a quick exit. Looking at Leo now, prone on the rocks, Usagi wonders if they are fated to make the long walk back to the inn on foot, in the cold, after all.

"You're going to freeze if you keep laying there."

"I know, I know," Leo mumbles, "Gimme a break, babe, the struggle is so real right now..."

The impending threat of no longer being warm and toasty does finally put a bit of pep in Leo's step. He gets an elbow and then his knees underneath him and slowly leverages himself into a sitting position. Usagi sets his clothes and sword aside and grabs the other towel, kneeling in front of Leo and tossing it over his head. Leo puffs out a sleepy laugh. Usagi towels him dry, rubbing away whatever moisture didn't puddle off of him, and then helps him to his feet.

Leo shrugs into his own yukata, swaying on his feet, with his eyes closed; moving on autopilot. He ties the sash with a clumsy half-bow that attempts to slide free as soon as Leo lets it go of it. Usagi dips his fingers into the sash and tugs Leo toward him. He undoes the bad knot. Closes the yukata all the way and makes sure it settles comfortably across Leo's shell and shoulders. Wraps the sash around his waist and ties the knot properly, all while Leo sinks his weight forward, resting his forehead against Usagi's shoulder. It's his left shoulder. Leo makes a tiny noise – almost a chirp, that makes Usagi's hands pause and his ears twitch – and he bumps Usagi's chin with his head when he moves to the other side, mumbling an apology.

"It's alright," Usagi says, tugging at the finished knot.

He rests his hands on Leo's waist, ducking to press his own face against the side of Leo's neck. He lets Leo be the one to lean away, and then picks up and passes him the ninjato hilt-first.

"Are you sure you can make a portal?"

"M'yeah, I got this," Leo says, a slurry version of his usual chipperness.

Leo gives his head a little shake to clear it. He widens his stance slightly. He flips the blade in his hand the way a butcher might show off with a new filleting knife, and then he slices open the air with a back-handed motion and steps confidently through before the lightening-blue portal is even fully formed, dragging Usagi with him by the wrist.

The two of them step from the damp rocks onto the soft tatami floor of their room at the inn. The brazier has been lit, the glowing coals the only source of light and heat in the pitch dark room, and two futons are laid neatly out on the floor.

Leo flops down across them both at once, still holding onto his sword.

It's a miracle that he hasn't cut himself to ribbons yet, with the way he wields it so recklessly.

Usagi reaches down to take the sword out of Leo's hand and sets it by the rack holding his own swords nearby. By the time he turns around, Leo has dragged the futons clumsily together and burrowed beneath the heavy duvets. He extends at arm toward Usagi, makes a grabbing motion. Lets out a plaintive chirp that he is probably too tired to even notice he makes, let alone be embarrassed about. He doesn't even try to start anything. He just folds an arm around his waist when Usagi climbs in beside him, tucks their bodies close together, and rubs his face in Usagi's fur.

"Are you actually going to sleep without groping me, even once?" Usagi asks, his own tiredness nearly forgotten in his surprise, "I should have brought you to the onsen sooner."

Leo hums, "Mhm," already limp in Usagi's arms and breathing evenly, "S'nice."

"What? The hot water? I can tell –"

"No," Leo puffs out a laugh, "Bein' with you."

His arm is heavy across Usagi's waist, and his breath is warm against Usagi's throat.

Usagi knows better than to read too much into that.

Still, he moves his hands up carefully to cup Leo's face and tilt his chin up; waits a beat, watching Leo's face in the close, near-dark of the room under the blankets, thumbing the very edge of his crescent-shaped markings, until his eyes flutter open for a moment; then leans forward to press his face against Leo's cheek. It's not a kiss. Usagi rubs their cheeks together, his whiskers poking and tickling Leo's face, and Leo chuckles sleepily.

The arm around Usagi tightens a little bit.

-

Usagi has only heard about "The Invasion" in passing. He did not even hear the word kraang until almost a full year later, and he has pieced together what he knows of the event from cryptic comments made by Leo's brothers that were quickly shushed, or off-handed remarks from Leo himself. It was never discussed outright, as if it wasn't an event of any particular import; as if Usagi could not sense the weight the words carried in every line of their bodies whenever the subject arose. Something more prominent that a mere footnote in their bizarre and exciting lives, so far removed from his own.

Because after it was the only time that Leo has ever stayed in Usagi's world for any real duration, and that had been with his whole family in tow.

Usagi was seventeen, and had just spent his first winter in Lord Mifune's halls. He was still sleeping in the barracks then, among the other low-ranking samurai and takenoko. When the last snows had thawed and the warm weather came in earnest, the Hamato clan had arrived out of the ether. Splinter-san had procured several of the nicer rooms at an inn (far enough into the Province so as not to draw unwanted attention from the Lord with their raucous activity, but near enough for Usagi to visit them every day or two, whenever he wasn't running drills or on patrol or at the watch post), and he remained there with his sons for most of the summer, occasionally harboring other inexplicable visitors from their world.

They had all been in their usual high spirits. And they were all only half recovered from grievous wounds, still battling the phantoms of them. Some scars were more visible than others – or perhaps it would be better to say that others were more well-hidden. Raph's right eye was pale and pink; he couldn't see well out of it anymore and was nervous if anyone came up on that side. Mikey sometimes dropped anything heavier than a bowl of rice and then rubbed his bandaged hands afterward. Donatello twitched and shuddered if he was still for too long, and would look up from time to time and stare into the distance as if he'd heard someone speaking to him, even if the room had been silent.

Leo had, of course, with infinite casualness, pronounced that they were just taking a well-deserved vacation.

He had been using a crutch to get around.

Usagi's fury when he had seen Leo leaning on it, grinning as if nothing were amiss – as if his leg wasn't mangled from heel to thigh, as if his shell wasn't dented in – had settled in Usagi's stomach like a red hot coal. It had burned straight through him, incinerating everything in it's path.

He hadn't even known that Leo was in trouble.

And how would he have gotten to him to help him, even if he had known?

It was a difficult thing to reconcile. It was hard not to let his anger well up and spill over. Usagi had to grip it tightly with both hands and he had to let it go, all within the span of a single moment.

Ever since they were fourteen, Usagi had witnessed Leo do the impossible. Open portals between dimensions, fissuring space itself. Shrug off blows that would kill someone normal. Talk his was out of (or into) the most stupid and dire situations (common ground that most certainly helped them bond, initially). Seeing his young, strong body so clearly broken was almost more than Usagi could bear. He hadn't even been able to grit his teeth and ask, "Who did this? What did this?" None of Leo's brothers left them alone long enough for him to choke the words out. A member of his family was always in the room with Leo, even if Usagi was there.

It hadn't mattered.

Leo wouldn't have told him then, anyway.

He was too busy brushing off everyone's concern with his usual quips, redirecting it effortlessly to wherever he thought it was better placed. He smiled and bantered with a sweetness that Usagi had rarely been privy to. And it was such a stark difference from the last time Usagi had seen him mere months before – showboating, scoffing and indifferent, venting loudly about all Raph's mother-henning and his father's 'stupid decisions' and 'why did they think he was leader material, anyway?'. (He had gotten angry when Usagi had agreed with the sentiment that there was not much about his character at the moment that screamed 'put me in charge of everything', hideously proving Usagi's point.)

At the inn though, with his knee in a brace and his whole leg scarred to heaven and back and his shell pitted in, pumped up with "mystic painkillers", he let them baby him. He coaxed smiles out of them when they kept frowning and fussing. It was like he was trying to make up for some terrible thing that he had done but still didn't want to be perceived, even by his dearest loved ones.

It's uncanny how he still, even now, puts Usagi in mind of a performer, always aware of a watchful audience, slipping on a Noh mask to become someone different.

(If his brothers haven't managed to break him of that, Usagi has no hope of it.)

Leo had kept himself entertained, and everyone else distracted, by coming up with new ways to try and convince Usagi to learn how to play strip poker. Usagi knew through second-hand gossip that this was a variation of a game one typically played in brothels after too much sake, surrounded by giggling courtesans, and he righteously refused to be persuaded.

He had enjoyed watching Leo pout and plot about it, though.

They had gone out on the balcony one night, after everyone else had fallen asleep, to look at the low-hanging moon and watch the few people crawling the streets under the lantern light. Leo had stretched and yawned and slumped down until he was half across Usagi's lap. Even through the thin cotton kimono he had worn, patterned in white cranes, Usagi could see the place where his shell had been punched in, it's once round, solid shape dipping with stomach-lurching sharpness.

It always drew his eye, even when he didn't want it to.

"Are you going to stay here?"

"What like forever? Nah, dude," Leo had laughed, and Usagi had felt foolish for asking, "This place is nice, but it's not home. Just tryin'a get away from the…. Mess. Right now. Y'know?"

Usagi had hummed.

"I should get back."

"Booooo."

To this day, Leo remains a master of persuasion.

Usagi had been in trouble with the quartermaster for being late the next morning, but it had been hard to be repentant when Usagi had woken up with the sun on his face. With Leo's arm thrown across his middle and Leo's warm breath against his throat. With Leo's heart beating under his fingertips as he slipped his hand around Leo's wrist to move it.

Alive, in spite of… whatever it was.

Alive. Alive. Alive.

Chapter Text

"If you fall asleep during foreplay again, I'm going to be furious."

"Dude, if I fall asleep you can keep going, I need the orgasm," Leo whines, arching his back and shifting his feet on the futon, "You literally got me in my sleep the other day, what's the problem?"

"Leo, you woke me up for this. I don't think expecting some participation from you is out of the question."

Oh right. Leo did start it, didn't he?

That long soak in the hot spring really wiped him out. Total factory reset. Leo slept great for five or six entire hours – the best sleep he's had in a while, if he's being real – but then in the early hours of predawn... He's not sure. Usagi rolled over, probably, away from him. Leo got chilly on his own, and subconsciously became aware of all the unfamiliar smells in the room, and he didn't remember where he was, and he couldn't find his mate, and he didn't quite realize that he was dreaming, walking down an endless hallway in the cold, penetrating dark with the paper screens to one side of him back-lit by the bleak half-light of false stars and the shifting silhouettes of dead kraang and debris, looking and looking and looking – alone – until he stumbled over nothing and jerked awake.

Those stupid nightmares are the worst.

Leo woke up with his heart beating out of him, confused in the dark by the way the bedding didn't smell like him or like his mate, and instinctively reached across the futon for Usagi.

It sucks.

He felt normal yesterday.

That bubbling pressure behind his naval wasn't as bad.

He didn't feel like he had to constantly wedge himself into Usagi's rib cage.

The inn had been a bad idea. The hot spring was genius, pure and simple, but the inn? 0/10. Leo hadn't wanted to make a big deal about it. He hadn't meant to snap. He's kinda surprised Usagi didn't start a fist-fight about it. It's stupid, and it shouldn't matter.

But it does.

Pizza supreme, it matters so fucking much.

He woke up with that weird, nervous buzzing in his chest and that desperate, burning need in the pit of his stomach; and both of them eased a little once Usagi started touching him. Once Leo could kiss him and smell him and put his arms around him and feel him. He's genuinely so over the 'having sex' part of the sex flu. He's exhausted and sore and it's been good compared to the years before that he spent feverish and irritable and crying into his pillow when he couldn't get himself off because he was fifteen and awkward with his own body and couldn't figure out what actually felt good – but he's capital O-I Over It. He didn't actually want to start anything. He just wanted Usagi.

So it's not like he's dozing off on purpose! He feels safe and warm and good underneath Usagi's weight and his pathetic, dopamine-filled lizard brain keeps hitting the snooze button. It doesn't help at all that Usagi is currently rubbing Leo's scent glands; one hand strokes up and down the length of Leo's neck, teasing his heavy pulse, while the other palms his thighs open further.

Leo hums, arching into Usagi's touch, trying to stretch some of the lingering sleepiness out of his limbs and getting a pleasant full-body shudder out of it.

Thing is, he super appreciates Usagi taking the time to warm him up, but he doesn't need the foreplay. He feels like a live wire, sparking and raw. The palm raking up his inner thigh, Usagi nudging tender hickies with his tongue, the smell of his sweat and thickening arousal, all of it makes Leo squirm and whine and pant. He's so sensitive right now that just this – Usagi's warm mouth closing over his throat and sucking a mark into his skin while the heel of his hand presses against Leo's slit, fingers pressing into his slick heat and rubbing the length of his cock while it's still tight inside him – is enough to push Leo roughly up to the edge, but not quite over it.

Leo's hips buck. His hands tighten into fists, pulling at Usagi's kimono. Usagi rubs him through that sharp ripple of pleasure, his fingers hooking in deep; he strokes Leo's wet dick when it slides out and that's it. That crackling heat finally unspools in his gut, trembling down his legs and up into his chest and washing warmth from his head to his toes.

"FuckaaH~!"

He is so not responsible for what his voice does around that word, how it bounces around the room. Shit, he should be quiet, right? There's other people here. Usagi chuckles, peppering open-mouthed kisses across his collarbone and up the other side of his throat.

"That was a noise."

Leo's laugh shakes out of him, "NnnahIdunno what you're talkin' about, babe."

His hands move restlessly, shoving the kimono the rest of the way off Usagi's shoulders so he can trace the broad plane of Usagi's back and marvels at the way his muscles shift with his movement. Jeez, Leo loves his back. He loves the soft give of Usagi's sides and stomach beneath the muscle. He scratches his fingers deeply through Usagi's fur and shivers when Usagi moans; his whole body rocking, following Usagi's hand as it strokes his cock and then presses three fingers back into him, sticky with his own fluids, stretching him open. Leo jerks and moans, "Oh fuck -"

He whines, a small reedy noise that makes Usagi huff against his throat, and arches his back, burning all the way down to the soles of his feet.

Usagi leans up to kiss him.

"Oh fuck," he laughs, right into Leo's mouth.

The mockery is obvious but Leo laughs back at him anyway, too elated to do anything else, his whole face hot enough to scorch the sun, "Oh my god, what, what do you want, you want a medal or somethin'? You want me to holler so everybody in a ten mile radius knows how good you are at fingerin' someone? You'll have a line a folks knockin' down the door."

"That's unlikely. I had to be proficient in at least one instrument to finish my training," Usagi reminds him, with that stupid, beaming smile, "And you're a lot easier to play than the koto."

"WOW!"

Leo can't even deny it. He has been pitifully easy to play. (And yeah, he remembers listening to Usagi practice that not-a-guitar and thinking what a dork, only to turn around and pester Honey Badge for bass lessons just so he could go 'anyway here's wonderwall'.)

Leo tugs on his ear, yanking Usagi's head playfully to the side – and Usagi pulls his fingers out. Fuck. Leo needed the break anyway, his legs are still trembling hard. He can't catch his breath. He peeks down between them and watches Usagi stroke himself, shivers at the little moan that catches in Usagi's throat as he presses his nose against Leo's neck and rocks forward into his own hand, jolts when a shot of precum hits his slick inner thigh. Fuck, he wants Usagi in him right now.

His heart's beating like crazy when Usagi lines himself up. He tries not to bounce his hips and hinder the process, but fuuucck – Welcome to Overstimulation Station. Usagi thrusts in smoothly, inching deeper, panting against his neck. There's a heat in Leo's eyes, a blurriness to the room, that he doesn't even notice until Usagi's mouth is on his cheek, kissing the moisture away.

Leo's hot.

He can't breathe.

He whines, then laughs, "Man oh MANHnnyyouu rreally – really want me to lea-leave you alone the restathemo-oh­rnin', huh?"

"I doubt you will," Usagi pants, half laughing, "But it seems prudent to try."

"GoddddyeahitfuckindoesSHIT-AH!"

Usagi squeezes the back of Leo's knee, folding it closer to Leo's chest, changing the angle of his thrusts, and those sparks flutter, sharp, stirring up and up and up and Leo throws his head back and moans. It's a lot. It's a lot. Usagi's breathy moan is in his ear, murmuring Leo's name, telling him how good he feels, knocking Leo's heart all out of rhythm. His soft warm body is pressed tight against Leo's, the scent of him heavy in the back of Leo's throat, and that's so great. Leo wants Usagi close, just like this, all the time. It's so dumb. It's a lot.

It's a lot, and it feels good –

Until it doesn't.

Leo palms Usagi's chest, and can't even enjoy the noise Usagi makes, because all he can focus on all of a sudden is the way Usagi's hips stutter against his, hitting him deep and hard, and how much that doesn't feel good. It hits that building pressure in his gut and makes it worse instead of relieving it. It starts a cold prickle going up the back of Leo's neck and makes his chest get tight, his breath quickening under the contraction. Why doesn't it feel good? It's Usagi.

A wave of lightheadedness sweeps over Leo.

His heart thuds painfully.

His whole body trembles, hard.

His stomach clenches around what almost feels like it wants to be another orgasm, but it's so tense and pure sensation with none of the giddy feels that Leo's leg kicks involuntarily in Usagi's grip, trying to push Usagi back, or himself away, he doesn't know, he can't think.

He swallows a sharp whimper, fingers tight around Usagi's shoulder.

"Mmmmkay - s-stop – stop, stop hang on -"

"Wh-what?" Usagi asks, breathless but panicked.

"Nothin'. Sorry. You're good, babe, just," Leo pants. He doesn't even recognize his own voice, it's so damn shaky. He shudders again, and he can feel every inch of Usagi still buried inside him and it's – Usagi carefully lets his leg down. He cups his hands around Leo's face, and Leo doesn't mean to whimper but he does, squirming to try and get comfortable. His breath catches again, his heart vibrating his ribs around that cold, weird shivering. "Just g-gimme a sec. Sorry."

"What's wrong?"

"UhhIdunno."

"Did I hurt you?"

"N-no! I dunno. M'okay."

"Leo, that is not what okay means - "

"Dude just shhh, just stop," Leo mumbles, covering Usagi's face with his hand (shit, even his hands are shaking) and turning it aside because he really can't handle Usagi looking at him like that, "I can't – I can't think –"

Usagi props himself up on his elbow. He pulls back – pulls out –

The unpleasant sensation leaves Leo sore and empty. His heart lodges in his throat. He tries to tighten his legs around Usagi's hips, tries to keep Usagi pinned against his chest, but Usagi sits back on his heels between Leo's splayed legs, in spite of Leo's hands dragging at the kimono draped off his shoulders. Leo follows him up instead, latching both arms around Usagi's shoulders when Usagi doesn't let him pull him back down, mumbling, "No! Nonononono, it's fine, m'fine –"

"Leo -"

"Don't –"

Usagi's hand tightens around his elbow, as if to pry it from around his neck, at the same time that he tries to pull back out of Leo's grip. The logic part of Leo's brain says 'let him go, you're being so stupid right now', but the part that's hyper aware of his arrhythmia – the part that associates that flipping, thudding, out-of-rhythm heartbeat with the dark and the cold and being hunted and alone – the part that doesn't know what's wrong or why it doesn't feel good when it's Usagi – smothers logic with a pillow and locks the fuck in. So Leo chokes out,

"Don't – don't leave, Sagi, please, m'sorry – please – just gimme a sec –"

Usagi stills.

Leo can feel the tension in his body, the way his chest is heaving. Even around his own trembling and gasping, he feels Usagi takes a deliberate deep breath and slowly releases it, forcing himself to relax. He places a hand on the lower curve of Leo's shell.

"Leo. I'm not going to leave," Usagi says softly. He turns his face slightly to touch his nose to the side of Leo's neck, and Leo jumps a little. "I just want to make sure you're alright. I won't leave if if you don't want me to."

"Oh. M'kay. Cool."

"Are you sure you're awake?"

"Y-yeah yeah, m'awake. Sorry. I don't want you t'leave."

"I'm not going to leave."

"M'kay…. W-we can still – you can finish –"

"No, Leo."

It's a hot, angry rush against his shoulder, where Usagi has his head bowed. Everything Leo had been desperately trying to keep a lid on spills out all at once. A wobbly sob breaks past his lips before he can catch it. Tears burn his eyes and flood down his face when he pinches them closed. His arms and legs are trembling too hard to keep holding on the way he wants to, and he's scared Usagi will leave anyway. Shoulda kept his mouth shut.

It didn't hurt, it just didn't feel good.

Usagi sighs, another puff of air that scalds Leo's throat.

"Shit. I'm sorry, Leo. I didn't mean – I don't – I'm sorry."

"S'fine," Leo sobs.

"I don't believe you." There's a traitorous waver in that quiet-calm, "I'm so sorry, Leo. Did I hurt you?"

"No," Leo mumbles, "I dunno." He rests his chin on Usagi's shoulder and risks swiping the heel of his hand across his eyes, horribly aware of how bad he's shaking. The tears won't stop and he feels like he's gonna puke. Fuck. "I dunno what's wrong. You didn't – you didn't do anything, Sagi. M'freakin' out. I dunno why." He tries to laugh it off, his face heating up when it barely comes out, weak and pathetic and not how he wants it to sound at all. "Guess you're gettin' your way though, I'm officially fucked out, I think."

"Leo this is not funny."

"No I know it's super not."

Shit, Leo hasn't cried this hard in a while.

Another sob wells in his chest and pushes past his teeth. Leo digs his heel into his eye, ducking his face against Usagi's shoulder. He can't do anything other than feel his feelings, whatever they are, so he tries to at least be as quiet as possible.

Usagi carefully reaches in between them, tucking his kimono closed over his chest and his lap. He shifts, keeping one arm around Leo's waist, so he's sitting criss-cross-applesauce; and Leo settles more comfortably into his lap, tucking closer and stretching his legs out past Usagi's hips to try and alleviate some of the tense shaking stuck in his muscles, the throbbing in his knee. Leo shoves his face into the collar of Usagi's kimono, breathing in Usagi's scent through his open mouth. That helps a little, after a while.It takes him way too long to stop blubbering.

Usagi has his head resting against Leo's. He rubs the curve of Leo's shell and breathes at a measured, even pace the entire time. What a champ. He's so good at his new job of having to get stupid, hormone-addled idiots to calm down.

When Leo can actually string a coherent thought together around all the buzzing in his head, he's mortified. His eyes are gummy and his face is wet and snotty and gross. His heart is still racing; he keeps pulling in too-shallow, shuddering breaths every now and then. The blind panic has subsided, but now he's dazed and his chest aches, and he doesn't know why his knee is throbbing like it's swollen all of a sudden. It wasn't bothering him earlier. He didn't think Usagi grabbed him that hard.

He feels nauseous, and he's still goddamn shaking and he blames that stupid nightmare.

Shit.

Don't think about the nightmare.

Think about something else, stupid.

Anything.

"Shit," Leo mutters, pushing, "I gotta get up."

Usagi lifts his head, his hand stilling.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Leo."

"It's – m'fine. I just gotta get up. Lemme up."

Getting up doesn't help.

His legs wobble and he's sore and feels weird and it's not Usagi's fault, he didn't do anything wrong, but Leo doesn't wanna be touched right now and he can't unstick his tongue to say that, so he bats Usagi's hands away all aggressive-like when his foot snags the tail end of his open yukata and they come up to catch him. He turns away quickly so he doesn't have to see the look on Usagi's face and whether that hurt his feelings or not. It probably did. Shit. Leo still can't believe he was just gonna try and keep having sex with him in the middle of a panic attack. That would have been great, that totally wouldn't have made Usagi feel like the worst person on earth.

What the fuck is wrong with him.

Leo paces around the room – it's unfamiliar, it smells wrong – the faintest hint of light illuminates the screens facing the porch, and Leo's stomach lurches so painfully he's convinced he's gonna throw up for about three seconds before he tears his gaze away from them and stumbles over to his bag. Crouching makes him dizzy and makes everything between his legs throb uncomfortably so he stands, clutching his bag to his chest while he digs out his phone and fumbles to unlock the screen. His battery is low. He hasn't remembered to charge it. Also, it's in SOS mode – a genuine bolt of fear gnaws on Leo's heart – but then he spots the purple Genius Tech logo beside it and gets ahold of himself.

He doesn't even know if a call will go through. Maybe it's just texts. Should he text?

He thumbs into the app.

His hands are shaking. He can barely read the screen.

…. He doesn't wanna scare his brothers with a phone call this early in the morning over nothing. A text would be better. What the hell does he say? That he's freaking out? He's not. And what are his brothers going to do about it, even if he was? Sure-fire way to get everyone all worked up over nothing, Leon. Another of the night's brilliant ideas, add it to the board. He should call Splinter, instead.

He really wants his Dad.

He's too old for this.

He's eighteen.

It's so stupid.

He's not there anymore. He knows he's not. Eight entire minutes in the prison dimension, absolutely certain that he was gonna die there because that bubblegum motherfucker was gonna torture him until he begged for it, and he can't just get over it already.

He lived.

He's fine.

Leo stands there, paralyzed – he doesn't even know how long. He presses the back of his hand, clutching his phone, to his forehead. The world narrows around him, the black at the edge of his vision sweeping inward until he can't even see. His ears are ringing. He gets lost in too many sensations. The cloying smells in the room that are not-him, not-Usagi, not-home. The way his whole body aches and his thighs tremble, that throbbing warmth and stickiness between his legs following his unsteady heartbeat and making him feel gross and wrong-footed. His arm is locked around his bag, its contents digging painfully into his plastron. His knee twinges, the joint swollen and tender. Prime had grabbed him by the leg and smacked him on the rocks like a wet towel, and that phantom pain reverberates up to his hip, settling with a sharp pang in the center of his shell.

His lungs snag on every short pull of air that wavers in.

He doesn't notice anything else until there's movement beside him, and then he flinches.

Usagi doesn't say anything.

He doesn't touch him.

"Shit," Leo laughs weakly, "Sorry, Usa…." He pushes his phone into Usagi's hands before Usagi can say anything. "Sorry. Can you – can you call Splinter for me? Please."

"How?"

"Just tap his picture."

Leo doesn't think to warn Usagi that when Splinter's voice bursts out of the phone, it might be annoyed at being woken up (then again, the old man keeps weird hours just like his kids do, so he's just as likely to be up watching telenovelas). Usagi's ears are already laid back, flat against his skull and trailing to his shoulders, when the ringing starts. His face is set in a hard frown, but he looks more scared than angry. If Leo had any room for guilt, it would be wedged, cold and hard, into the center of his stomach, and it would be bleeding out into every other part of him.

"Alright," Splinter says, a bit tinny through the speaker. And it's crazy what that does at once to all the terrible things Leo is feeling. It's stupid how one word just soothes most of it away. Leo's definitely not going to cry about it. He scrunches up his face and rubs his eyes – at least it busts him out of his torpor and he can move again. "Now that infernal ringing has stopped. Now what?"

"It's just like a regular call, Dad," Mikey says, with the patience of a saint and a voice that also sweeps like a balm over all Leo's anxiety, "I know Donnie showed you how to do it when he put this on your phone, I saw the PowerPoint. You just talk into it like normal! Say,'Hi, Leo!'!!"

"Yes okay, good, thank you, my son! Very helpful! Now shoo! Leonardo? You are grounded for sneaking off to a boy's to stay without telling anyone first!"

Leo's laughter bursts out of him, wobbling; "I literally told Raph."

Mikey shouts in the background, indistinguishable.

"But you did not tell anyone else!" Splinter says, "And he also did not bother to tell anyone else! I go to count my sons at bedtime and one of them is missing!! Do you know what that does to a father?? I am an old man! You are going to make me lose what grey hair I have left and then I will be bald! A bald, fat old rat with sons who do not love him!"

"My bad," Leo says, wiping his eyes, "You still count us? We're not babies."

"You are my babies. It does not matter how big and stupid you get. I will stop counting you when I am in the ground," Splinter announces blithely, "Now, what is wrong?"

"Nothin'."

"You are lying. You always say, 'Nothin' -" Splinter's B-list Actor genes kick and he manages Leo's exact inflection. "When something is wrong and you do not want to talk about it, and it is the middle of the night. What is wrong? Do you want to come home?"

Wow, Leo is transparent as fuck, apparently. Splinter asks like Leo is just staying over at a friend's house in another borough or something. Like Splinter can come and get him if Leo does want to come home. Leo glances at Usagi, who carefully avoids eye-contact as he holds the phone between them.

"Nah," Leo says, "Just checkin' in with you guys."

Usagi glances at him then, but Leo is looking at the phone.

"Mhh. Fine. Orange is making some kind of treacle tart," Splinter says wearily after a moment, and something else in Leo relaxes, "I have not dared to ask. He has cooked five three course meals every single day, and more desserts than I can count."

"Oho wow, five? That's two more than last year, you guys are getting spoiled!"

" I could do with less spoiling. I know I should be grateful that I have one decent child that is not spending all of this energy chasing tail like his brothers , but eating my weight in food for a week straight is a miserable affair. I cannot wait until you are all married and out of my house for good, when you will be your spouses problem! Are you eating well? Is the rabbit feeding you?"

"I haven't starved yet," Leo says with a little smile that makes Usagi roll his eyes. He almost smiles in the light from the phone screen. His ears aren't pinned back anymore. "What about uh, Raphie?"

"Raphael is hiding in his room, asleep, or pretending to be so that Orange does not insist that he eat again. I caught him sneaking out a few days ago and he did not tell me where he was going, but he is back now and in a much better mood. He has not even snapped at anyone! Oh oh! And before I forget! Purple is not here! You will never guess where he is!"

"At April's?"

"….It is no fun to share gossip with you when you already know everything, shittakaburi." Usagi snorts and covers his mouth, turning his entire face away when Leo glances at him questioningly. "How did you find out? You are not even here! Who told you???"

"Educated guess," Leo says.

Who else would tolerate getting sent a Contract of Informed Consent, Spiny Soft-shell version 3.8.4?

"Hmph! Yes, he is at April's. He snuck out yesterday evening. I do not know why any of you bother sneaking in the first place! As if I do not know what you are going out to do! I was a young man myself once, you know, and quite -"

"MKAY!" Leo says loudly, laughing, reaching out to take the phone back from Usagi. That's about all that he can stand of that. "Goodnight, old man! I love you!"

Splinter croons, "Goodnight, baby blue~" and yep, Leo's quota for being embarrassed is super full. He's peaked. Good until his 40^th birthday, probably. Had a panic attack and made things weird and called his daddy for comfort so he looks insane and like a huge baby. He can't possibly take a harder L. He ends the call and tucks his phone back into his bag, dropping it at his feet.

….Man, he feels like he got wrung out and thrown on the laundry line.

Leo rubs his chest absently.

That did calm him down, at least.

Leo shuffles back over to the futon, easing himself down to sit at the edge of it. That puts a lot of uncomfortable pressure on everything. Leo groans softly, folding the open yukata around himself and flopping onto his side. Eugh, he doesn't actually want to wear this thing. It's half the problem. It smells weird. He wonders if Usagi will let him sleep in one of his kimonos…. He's still too twisted up with nerves to ask. ….He needs an ice pack for his knee, too. Leo slowly bends it, dragging his leg across the cool bedding to determine just how swollen the joint is, wondering why it started acting up.

Too long in the hot water maybe…

Didn't stretch properly before starting something.

Leo lays still and focuses on breathing. Opening and closing his hands into fists, tucking into his armpits. He peeks his eyes open and glances up when Usagi moves, overly cautious, to sit beside him on the futon a handspan away, where Leo can see him.

After a moment, he says, "You truly could not be more like your father if you were also a rat."

Leo laughs, "Don't start with me."

"If I ask if you're alright, are you going to lie again?"

Wow that's a hard pill to swallow. Leo wrestles it down anyway; closes his eyes, tries to breathe and calm his racing heart. He musters his voice into something cheerful, trying to put Usagi at ease because he's stressed him out enough for one day, and it's still early,

"Nah. I'm good, Sagi. Promise."

"Fine," Usagi says quietly, not looking at him.

It kinda sours the joke.

-

The blue-grey light in the room takes hours to turn golden and warm, seeping through the eastern porch screens and saturating the air with lilting dust motes. Usagi sits on the futon with his eyes closed, hands clasped in his lap, counting his breaths in an attempt to keep his mind clear, and his heart rate level, and the nausea at bay. His ear keeps twitching back toward the distant sounds of the rest of the inn's occupants going about their morning; the hurried thump of socked feet on the hardwood floor, doors sliding open, muffled voices. And nearer ones; the soft sound of Leo's breathing, finally at ease after restlessly fighting sleep.

Usagi sighs, rubbing his forehead and hoping the stress headache forming there won't stick. There is already such a heavy, uneasy feeling sitting in his gut that he couldn't get back to sleep himself, even after Leo had.

He's never seen Leo like that….

Leo has always shown up to annoy him out of the blue.

But these past two years in particular, there have been plenty of times where Leo has woken him in the middle of the night to whisk him away on some foolhardy errand, just the two of them; or to talk his ears off about nothing of consequence for an hour or two, or aggravated him into a game of go, or just to lay beside him and play on his phone while Usagi dozed. Sometimes unusually moody or lost in his own thoughts, but never saying why. The jokes and the smile and the easy-going air were always in place. Leo's never cried. Never clung like that, never couldn't string a sentence together, never so obviously not alright – and hot bile rises up in Usagi's throat just recalling the way Leo's voice had wavered and the way he shook against him, because Usagi was the cause of all that.

Leo had been in a similar disoriented state after Usagi left him alone those first few hours at the beginning of the week. He should have noticed that something was wrong. He should have insisted that they go back to his house rather than spend the night here, especially after Leo was so cagey about it. He should have stopped, just stopped, when Leo was first falling asleep on him. He clearly wasn't interested, even though he'd woken Usagi up so urgently. Usagi should have asked. He should have checked to be sure that was what Leo actually wanted. He was annoyed at being woken up, turned on, and then ignored, and just trying to get it over with so they could both go back to sleep. He'd noticed Leo was crying, but he was still joking around, and Usagi hadn't given it a second thought….

How could he pay so little attention to something so important?

Usagi puts his face in his hands.

Eventually, Leo stirs.

The moment he's even semiconscious, he starts groaning and stretching, hands and toes reaching in opposite directions, poking out from beneath the twisted pile of heavy blankets. He puts a hand out toward Usagi to make sure he's still there and then pulls it back to shove the blankets off his face and yawn behind it. That hand slinks out again, bumps into Usagi's hip, and curls into the loose fabric there. Leo dozes a little while longer, his arm tethering them together.

When he finally lifts his head to look at Usagi, he also squints around the room, noting the bright, late-morning glow through the screens. He lets go of the kimono and rolls back onto his shell to rub his face, his knees popping up beneath the blanket, digging his knuckles into his eyes.

"Sagi," he croaks, "How long you let me sleep…?"

"A few hours."

"Bro. And you been up this whole time?"

"I couldn't sleep," Usagi says.

His throat feels tight.

Leo wrestled himself out of his borrowed yukata at some point during his restless hours of dawn. When he asked for the kimono Usagi had worn yesterday, Usagi got it for him. He doesn't understand how Leo can find his scent comforting after what happened. He doesn't know why Leo let Usagi hold him and comfort him in the first place, either. The kimono hangs open from Leo's shoulders as he rolls into a sitting position. He reaches both arms upward in another full-body stretch, groaning luxuriously, his back arching, knees curl up. The sleeves pool around his biceps. Leo finishes his stretch and yawns again, noisily. He shakes the sleeves out, not quite accustomed to them, as he lowers his arms and leans back to rest his weight on the heels of his hands.

One of his bare knees rocks toward Usagi, bumping his arm.

Usagi turns his face away.

"I'm surprised you didn't sneak out to have your morning tea, old man. D'you know what they're doing for breakfast around here? Unless it's lunch time already. Y'know what, it doesn't matter, I dunno about you but I'm starving and I actually need a caffeinated beverage and something American – you wanna try a breakfast burrito? My treat. It's nothing like the actual burrito you had last time with the beans and the hot sauce, I promise! This'll be mild and palatable. I've seen you crack an egg or two over your rice, I know you'll..… Usagi."

Leo leans forward, craning his head into Usagi's line of site.

"S'matter?"

Usagi's heart smacks his ribs.

He stands to move off the futon to the tatami, and then turns to face Leo. He sits on his heels and places his hands flat, bowing over them until his forehead touches the floor.

He says, "I'm sorry, Leo," and his voice tumbles past the knot in his throat a quiet rush, the formal apology he's been reciting in his mind for hours forgotten in the wake of his tremoring heart. "I shouldn't – I shouldn't have forced myself on you last night -"

"Dude, WHAT -"

"Whatever I did to cause you so much distress – I'm so, so sorry, Leo, I – even if my intention wasn't to hurt you or – or betray your trust in me – it was –"

"WHOA-HO! Whoa!! Whoa there, cowboy!!"

Leo grabs Usagi by the shoulders and forces him up.

He laughs, a sharp-edged sound that slips between Usagi's ribs. He yanks Usagi to his chest and folds his arms around Usagi's shoulders in a tight hug. Usagi struggles for a moment, but then Leo's hand clamps down on the back of his neck to keep his head there, pressed against Leo's shoulder, and the arm around him tightens minutely. Usagi stills, his heart hammering. The breath Usagi hadn't realized he was holding rushes out of him. Heat sears his eyes and prickles his sinuses.

This is not the same as the desperate grabbing from the past couple of days, where Leo clings onto him like he can't let go even if he wanted to.

This is deliberate, practiced and purposeful.

That heavy, desolate feeling that's been twisting Usagi's stomach begins to shake apart.

Leo gives him a furious little jostle in the cage of his arms.

"Jeez, Usagi," he mutters, "Dude, you're so dramatic. I had a panic attack. It wasn't you. I – shit – I didn't wanna stay here. Last night. I really did not wanna sleep here, I knew as soon as we got here that I'd lowkey freak out about it. I shoulda just said that. I didn't think – I – shit." Leo laughs again, softer this time, like it almost stuck in his throat. He rubs his hand firmly up and down Usagi's back. "Y'got me all nervous, I'm normally great at apologies! You didn't do anything wrong. Okay? I had a weird dream and I woke up all weird, and just made things. Weird. This sex-flu stuff is stupid. Sorry. For real. You didn't hurt me, and you definitely didn't force yourself on me, pizza supreme.

"If anything I've been doin' that and you've been a huge champ about it. No! No arguing!" Leo's arm tightens around his shoulders again, playfully, when Usagi starts to pull back. Leo presses his face against the back of Usagi's neck and doesn't let him go. "You've been so great, Usagi. Seriously. Even when I broke your stupid table."

That surprises Usagi into a laugh.

He does not want to admit that it comes out half-choked, but Leo can probably hear it, anyway. He keeps his own hands to himself, resting on his knees, even though what he wants to do it hug Leo back.

Leo adds, "Even when I've pissed you off by being difficult and insane."

Usagi swallows hard, murmurs, "I shouldn't have said that…"

"Yeah it was kinda mean." Leo is smiling against Usagi's neck. His arms are more relaxed around Usagi's shoulders now, not squeezing the life out of him anymore but still holding him firmly in place. "I freaked out pretty good on you, huh?" he asks quietly, "And then didn't even explain what was goin' on. Sorry that's my whole M.O.. It wasn't you, Usagi. I swear it wasn't you...."

"I don't think I'm entirely blameless, Leo."

"Yeah. I get that."

Usagi had been so certain that Leo would double-down on absolving him of any wrong-doing that this surprises him into silence.

"But you already apologized," Leo goes on, "And I already said I'm fine. So if you're upset about something else then you'll haaaavtonnononoo no! C'mon, come back!" Leo laughs and clings as Usagi sits back, trying to yank himself free of Leo's arms. Leo must sense how close Usagi is to punching him in his stupid, grinning face, because he latches onto Usagi's wrist, his elbow, and keeps them down between them. "I'm so for real, Usagi, you've done everything I've asked you to this past week. I'm not hyping you up for my health. This isn't like when I bit the shit outta you without asking - "

"And what did I do without asking?" Usagi asks, furious all over again.

At himself mostly.

At Leo, for never bothering to take anything seriously.

Leo at least stops smiling then.

His face reddens. Fuck, Usagi is stupid.

He tries to pull away again, to get up, but Leo's grip tightens. Usagi turns his face way, instead, so he doesn't have to look at Leo's. They're sitting across from one another in the sunlit room with their knees touching. Usagi is aware of how harsh his own breathing is in his ears, and how still Leonardo is, and the unbearable feeling twisting itself back into knots in his stomach.

"This isn't like when you bit me," Usagi says, so tense that he's starting to tremble, his nails biting into his own palms, "You at least noticed. I didn't have to beg you to stop –"

"Oooohh dude, you're pissing me off," Leo snaps. His hands tighten painfully enough that Usagi looks at him again. He looks pissed – apart from last night, it's one of the rawest emotions Leo has let him see. "If you had hurt me, there wouldn't be any pieces of you big enough to feed the birds after my brothers and Dad and April got done with you. If I didn't feel safe with you, I wouldn't have stayed! I wouldn't have asked you to fuck me stupid for a week in the first place! I can make a portal and go home any time I want, I could'a gone home last night if that's what I'd wanted to do, and I was freaking out because I was having a panic attack, because this stupid room doesn't smell like you and I didn't want to be a dork and say that. I had a stupid nightmare and woke up feeling outta wack, and all I wanted was you. I didn't want you to stop, Usagi, I wanted a fucking break from feeling like this….!"

Usagi realizes with alarm, when Leo shakes him roughly, when his voice breaks, that the panic from last night hasn't actually passed.

Leo was faking.

That's what he always does.

Usagi was so worked up about his own feelings that he didn't notice. Again.

"I'm sorry, Leo," Usagi says. His head hurts with how quickly his blood pressure rises, taking his temper with it and pounding all the way through him, "Take a deep breath - "

"Don't tell me to breathe now, jerk," Leo gasps. He squeezes his eyes closed, pinching Usagi's wrist and arm in his grip. Tears track down his flushed face. "Fuck."

Usagi can't move because Leo is holding him in place.

He casts blindly for something to say, even in anger.

"If you had told me all this last night - "

"Dude, I was freaking out last night! I'm tellin' you now. Please be cool. Please."

That shuts Usagi up.

He doesn't know what he's supposed to say to make this easier on either of them. He's no good at this. He looks futilely around the room. He squeezes his hands into fists and relaxes them. Belatedly, he remembers that when he breathes calmly, it helps Leo to breathe calmly. So he starts doing that. Leo's gasping and shaking lessens, after a while.

Usagi's rising ire also calms, in spite of him.

He doesn't know what to offer other than: "Do you want me to call your father for you again?"

Leo answers with a humorless laugh, "You think my portals are crazy, wait til you see Mike's, cause if I call again they're gonna know somethin's up and bust one open to take me home, no questions asked." Leo's grip loosens a little, his fingers rubbing nervously in the fabric of Usagi's kimono. He keeps his gaze averted. There are dark lines beneath his eyes that Usagi hadn't taken the time to notice earlier. "But I mean. If you're sick of all this drama, I'll save 'em the trouble."

"I'm not –" Usagi hesitates, voice catching in his throat. When he moves his arm this time, Leo lets go of him – starts to rock backward and get up, until Usagi takes hold of Leo's hands. Usagi expects him to pull away, but Leo squeezes them back instead, exhaling harshly with his head bowed between them. Usagi focuses on Leo's hands, tracing his thumb around Leo's broad knuckles. "I don't…. think I'm actually helping much with this, Leo…."

"Why would I stay if it wasn't helpin', Sagi?"

"I don't know," Usagi admits, his face heating inexplicably, "You do things that are a detriment to your own well-being all the time."

"Not this," Leo says, then huffs, "And you don't have any room to talk! Only one of us has walked out into traffic and got hit by a car, and it's not the guy who lives in New York."

"You're never going to let me live that down," Usagi mutters.

"Nah," Leo laughs, a small huff that Usagi mimics, "Scared the crap outta me."

There's a pause, where they both glance at each other.

And then dissolve into barely-stifled giggles.

Leo's hands move to Usagi's biceps, clutching at him for support as he begins to shake with suppressed laughter. Usagi covers his face with his hand, trying to do the same. One of them laughs first. Usagi isn't sure who it is. A loud laugh bubbles out into the room, and a dozen more follow suit. Leo curls his arms around his middle, sobbing and laughing until he's breathless. Usagi's chest aches, and tears burn down his cheeks; he can't remember when he last laughed so hard.

They lay crumpled side by side on the warm tatami, completely immersed in the absolute absurdity of it all, and anytime they look at each other, another fit takes over.

It's several minutes before either of them can get composed.

"Jeez," Leo mumbles, flopping closer so he can rest his head on Usagi's shoulder, "Can we both say 'Sorry we're stupid jerks' and move on with our day? Over it, dude."

"I'm not," Usagi says, a chuckle still in his throat as he stares up at the wood-beamed ceiling.

This helped. But he still feels terrible.

Leo rolls upright and smacks him dead-center in the stomach and Usagi grunts, another laugh bursting out as he curls and rolls away. Leo grabs fist-fulls of his kimono and rolls him back. He gives Usagi another shake, rocking him back and forth, frowning but not seriously.

"You are SUCH an only child, dude. Listen, your perception is skewed because you live in a messed up society, so I think you forget you're just a dumb, not-quite-adult-yet like the rest of us, but this is a lot a bullshit that I don't wanna deal with. Back-burner it."

Usagi opens his mouth to argue – first of all, he is very firmly an adult. Just because Leo is immature for his age, in spite of all his responsibilities, doesn't mean that he should hold Usagi to the same poor standards – but Leo's hand darts up to clamp over his mouth.

Usagi thinks that Leo is going to say something serious for all of two seconds.

Then Leo removes his hand, and sighs, and whines, and splays across his chest, limp and crushing the literal breath out of Usagi's body, "Dude, c'mon. I'm starving for real. Do you want breakfast burritos or not? Also we need to be in the hot spring again. Like right now. And then we need to go home – I mean, back to you place. Like. Immediately after. Eugh. Please."

Usagi considers this, his heart still pounding, his face still flushed.

Fine.

Back-burner.

"We have to get dressed and tidy up the room first."

"Ffffffiiiiiine, but THEN breakfast burritos? And then hot spring."

"Alright. But no hot sauce –"

"Yeah no, no hot sauce, I got you. Okay also, full disclosure, I'm wearin' somethin' comfy today."

"That's fine, Leo."

"M'kay nice. Hang on, where's my phone. Oh my god, Sagi, help me, the brain fog is real."

"You're phone is in your -"

"Bag! Yup! Got it!"

It's fine.

It is.

It's really fine.

-

Leo ends up having to text Mikey to get their breakfast, because apparently Donnie's stupid app thing works on a closed circuit (because of course it does) and Leo can't make any kind of call that Actually Matters:

< Call in my order at that place on E 5th ill pick it up

> I can make u guys somethin! 😃

< Mike do not I want E 5th
< name ur price

> fine
> hater

< 💅

> 1 🍓smoothie plz 🙏 (NOT SPILLED!!!!!) and whatever dad wants 🧡
…
> He said he's not hungry 🙁

< F that old man

> 😲

< Nothing for Raphie??

> Raphie's out again. Dad said 'chasin tail' I nearly DIED

< Be me @ 14 hearing 'love at first tire rotation'
< 🤢

> CRINGE
> Order placed! 🧡🧡 20m
> How's 🐇??? btw 👀
> U ok??

< All good
< bribing him w toasted egg n cheese burrito, he loves me

> Leon u suss as hell

< Ur cookin 5 meals a day for a 🐀 when u could be chasin tail like The Big Boys

> 😲😲😲😠😠😠😠😠😠💢💢

> When u get a fbuddy then we can talk abt whats suss lil man

> After I called in ur order for u???? wth leo
> Your SITUATIONSHIP is TOXIC
> JSYK

< Yeah but the 🍆 is good so

> 😒
> Usagi can do better

> Yeah lol