Braving it in the New World

“Leo, can we cut practice short today, bro? There’s an awesome band playing tonight that I wanna see!” Mike said.

Leo sighed inwardly. He really hated being the leader sometimes. Everyone always wanted something and he was the go-to guy. He figured that Don must understand how he felt more than anyone else because everyone went to Don to get broken stuff fixed. Leo figured that he fixed stuff too... mostly social problems, though.

“No!” Charlie’s voice carried out from her office. “You go when practice is over!”

“Aw, come on, babe!” Mike whined, heading to her office. “I’ll take you with me!”

Leo went back to filing books, glad that Charlie had saved him. She was always on his side when it came to ninja stuff and he always made sure that she knew how much it meant to him. She was a great friend.

“Leo, I’m goin’ out tonight after practice,” Raphael said as he breezed by. “I dunno when I’ll be back.”

“Text me,” Leonardo mumbled. He felt tired today.

“Yeah, I will,” Raph nodded. He grabbed a box of books and took it upstairs.

“Leo, I can’t fix your stereo without getting some new parts,” Don said, leaning on the shelf next to his brother. “You should just get a new one. Yours is ancient.”

Leo looked at his brother. April had gotten him that stereo for his fifteenth birthday. It was the first expensive thing that had ever been his and his alone. He loved it.

“Okay, okay,” Don groaned. He couldn’t stand the pained expression on his brother’s face. Leo never asked him for much, so he didn’t mind fixing the damn thing... again. Don pulled out a small note pad and wrote some stuff down. “Here’s everything I need. You’ll have to pick it up, cause I’m making dinner for Charlie tonight. She’s kind of tired lately.”

“Thanks, bro,” Leo sighed. Great, one more thing for him to do today. Leo went back to shelving books. A minute later his shell cell rang.

“Hello?” he said, not bothering to check the called i.d. He put it on speaker phone and went back to shelving books.

“Leo?” Casey said. “How’s it goin’ buddy?” Leo winced at the tone Casey had. He wanted something too.

“I’m fine Casey. Are you coming over for supper tonight?” Leo asked.

“Can’t tonight, man, I’ve gotta date.” Casey said. “Listen, I’ve got this couch that I need to get outta here. I’m tryin’ to impress this hot handful of woman and I found a better couch at the discount store, so this one’s gotta go, but I can’t get it out the door. I think we took it in through the fire escape last time... maybe that was the last couch. I don’t remember. No, it was this couch... remember I bled all over it? No wait, it was the other couch cause I remember it looked like my grandma’s old one. She had ugly couches. I think it’s an old lady thing to have ugly couches, although she didn’t cover hers in plastic. My old aunt did that, though.”

“I’ll be there after work,” Leo mumbled before hanging up. He wasn’t interested in hearing about every couch Casey had ever sat on.

“Leo?”

Leonardo turned around to face Lisa. What was she going to ask him to do? He blinked in surprise as she stepped close to him and reached her arms around his neck, pulling him in for a hug. He was so stunned that he didn’t move.

“You can hug me back if you like,” she teased. He put his arms around her waist and rested his head on hers as she stroked the back of his neck soothingly.

“What was that for?” he asked, bewilderedly, as she stepped away a moment later. She’d touched him before, but never anything like that.

“I just thought that you needed it,” Lisa smiled. “I know that everyone asks you to do stuff. I see them do it all the time.” She shelved his last book for him, then looked at her hands, suddenly shy. “I really appreciate everything you do for me, Leo,” she whispered. “And I understand if you need a break tonight. You don’t have to come and babysit me if you’d rather not. I’ll manage.”

“No!” Leo said, quickly. Visiting Lisa was the best part of his day. He liked relaxing with her in the evenings. She opened up and chatted easily and they had tea in cute little mugs that she’d picked up at a yard sale. She liked going to yard sales... and he liked seeing her in her pyjamas when she was all dewy from the shower. She’d been wearing cute little cotton boxers lately that drove him nuts... “I mean,” Leo stammered, focusing his thoughts like Splinter had taught him. “I mean, no, I don’t need a break from you. I like coming over.”

Lisa smiled, clearly relieved. Leo smiled back, and found that he didn’t care home many other odd-jobs he had to do today.