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vshushmshu · 7 months

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two slow dancers

forward with left, backward with right. right to the side, left to the side. close left to right, close right to left. step back with right, step forward with left. to the side with left, to the side with right. close right with left, close left with right.

it was easy, or at least it was supposed to be, but you and leo had fumbled over each other far more times than you could count on both hands. you didn’t know why he was so determined to go to your stupid school dance with you, since you originally weren’t even going to go. he had caught you in the middle of a conversation with april about it, lamenting how her “human bestie” wasn’t gonna be going with her to the dance, and the red eared slider naturally butted himself into the mix, exclaiming smugly, “nahh, he’d definitely wanna go with me instead, since we’re also the bestest of friends!! isn’t that right, bestest friend?”

the absolute deadpan look you had given him was seemingly was too vague for a no, so you groaned, “blue, i was never gonna go, and you hauling your turtle ass over to?? my?? school?? ..it won’t change my mind. besides, how would you even get in without people calling 911 on you saying they spotted a freakazoid crawling around the gym?”

“ugh, whatever.. my bestie-westie is so mean to me…” he pouted at you for a moment, before you could almost see the imaginary lightbulb above his head fizzle on, and the slider gave you a cheeky smile, “oh! i could cash in a favor with sunita! she has that cloaking brooch, right? i’ll blend right in!”

april side eyed him, cocking a brow, “cash in a favor? with ‘nita? what the fuck kind of pickle did you guys get into for her to ask you for a favor?”

leo crossed his arms, huffing snootily while raising his snout to the air like he smelled sour booty, “well, nothing for yoouuu to worry about, i’m just trustworthy like that! anyways-!”

he scooted over to stand next to you, wrapping an arm around your torso with a dismissive wave of his hand at april, to which the girl snorted at your pained expression, “-we! have some practicing to do, don’t we~?”

“did you just vocalize a squiggly liNEEEAHHHH-“

the red eared slider had tried to portal you two away from a less than impressed april for dramatic effect, but now you two were desperately clinging to each other, as well as the tip of the burj khalifa, and scatting your britches. it took a while for him to figure out how to portal you guys back to somewhere that wasn’t another dimension and was closer to either of your homes, slashing ōdachis through the air around the pair of you. you think he teared up a little every time he looked down, though you definitely weren’t any better. at least you got a nice view of dubai?

you might’ve laughed out loud, because he looked back at your face instead of the two pairs of feet below, shoulders stiff while he chuckled back, “what, am i that bad?”

blinking back to the present, the corners of your lips quirked up a little as you narrowly avoided tripping him, guiding the both of you to turn just the slightest with his hand in yours, “i think we both are, don’t worry.. are you sure you wanna do this, though? because i really don’t.”

leo rolled his eyes, letting you rotate the both of your forms across of the roof with the arm you had around his midsection, grinning while still mentally keeping up with the steps he was supposed to take, “aw, come on! you never wanna do anything fun, and we never hang out! i’m pretty sure.”

looking down at your feet for a split second in satisfaction at the move being pulled off, you raised a brow at him and huffed, “mhm, sure, we totally don’t hang out like every other day.”

he squinted at you for a moment while feet continued, and you felt him tapping a green finger on your shoulder while he held onto it, “okay, whatever, but you get the point!”

he almost stepped forwards a little too far, and you scooted your foot back to avoid it getting stepped on, mumbling a “watch out” while he whispered “my bad.” you both watched your feet to make sure you continued without slip-ups for a moment, and then you raised your head to tilt it at him, “for the record, i really don’t.”

he grumbled, eyes darting up to look at your face for a split second before going back down to watch below, “man.. what i mean is that, we never do anything cool or special y’know-?”

you laughed a bit, squeezing the hand that relied on yours to guide, “huh? is fighting crime once a week minimum not cool enough for you? is neon leon too jaded now?”

the both of you twisted to spin a bit across the rooftop again, and leo laughed along with you when you picked him up a bit through the twirl, kicking his feet when they lifted off the ground, “pfft- wh- no! i’m not an expensive stone, what?? no but-”

a brow raised, but you only interjected again for a short moment with a snort, “we need to get you a dictionary.”

he tried to scowl at you, but it didn’t really last, “shut up! what i’m trying to say, is that i wanna make special memories! ones where we can look back while we’re out doing your dumb patrols and be like “hey remember when i totally dramatically swept you off your feet that one time at your highschool dance for people that come home,” y’know? bestest friend stuff!”

you blinked owlishly at him, and he went quiet, keeping his eyes on your guys’ now mostly fluid movement. you could finally keep track of where your feet were going to go next, after weeks of practicing and sore legs, to where there was starting to be little thought put into leading the turtle along in the simple box step dance. a little smile on your face, “that’s… i don’t think that’s how it’d go exactly, but yeah. when you put it like that, me too, i guess.”

he finally looked back up at you, and was still quiet for a little longer, before the arm around your neck brought you two closer while he beamed, “good.. we’re gonna have so many cool ass memories to look back on, i swear! we’ll be old and wrinkled, laughing about another stupid thing ‘till our dentures fall out!”

you snickered, the red eared slider following suit, and you tugged him along as the two of you slowed the dance, “really? we’re still gonna be “the bestest friends” until decrepit and senile?”

leo gave you a devious smirk, wiggling his eyebrows while you fought the urge to punch him in the middle of your simplified practice waltz, “of course.”

“…that’s pretty gay.”

“WHATEVER! SPIN ME AGAIN!”

“FINE.”

the actual dance seemed to have disappointed leo, not really knowing what to expect other than something out of highschool musical and having his dreams crushed upon entry. he was standing beside you and slurping at some punch like a wet cat, decked out in formal wear he no doubt stole from donnie, speaking of whom, probably also previously stole it from a random name-brand store (the purple one was fashion forward, moderately surprising). the cloaking brooch was pinned to the inside of his coat pocket, giving him the look of an average teenager that for some reason, bothered to come to the lackluster “party” held in the school gym. and yes, he went through with the effort to wear a whole suit and everything, because “it’s just how it works, okay?!”

you, meanwhile, had just bought a t-shirt with a tux design on it, and threw on some jeans with sneakers in the most gloriously low-effort homecoming outfit. the dance was coming to an end, really only being a bunch of kids either standing around awkwardly on the dance floor or twerking on each other, and you cringed a little while kicking at a balloon that bobbled over. they had either not left room for any actual dancing the entire three hours, or it had just not been socially acceptable at the time to actually do the dance you both practiced, since every couple had immediately started making out the moment the slow dance section came up. both you and leo had covered each others eyes when you noticed, and laughed at each other.

now though, he looked dejected while swishing around the last of his punch in his cup, and then tilting his head back to down it. you glanced nervously at april, who had been chatting it up with cass for most of the time since you had “abandoned her” when she asked you before leo forced you to go, and they seemed to be hitting it off. you smiled a little, glad, and then looked back at the disguised turtle still boredly observing everything at your side, plastic red solo cup tossed to the side along with the other trash littering the scuffed floor, “hey leo?”

his attention immediately locked on you when you finally said something, and he sighed, scratching at his human-looking cheek, “yeah? i can see why you didn’t wanna go now, by the way.. this kinda sucks nuts.”

“don’t wanna say i told you so, but,” you ended the statement with a shrug, laughing a little. he grumbled, and you patted his back, or well, shell in disguise, “hey! on the bright side, we can always reminisce on how we cha-cha-slided with a bunch of horny teenagers!”

the turtle’s pained expression made you choke on any other words you were going to say for a moment, and you leaned against him for support while wheezing, the subject rolling his eyes, “uhuh, har dee har, laugh it up… we better tell april we’re leaving, i’m done with this.”

you placed a hand on his chest to stop him, and he did, waiting for your breath to catch up with you. you were grateful, breathing out any lasting chuckles while he raised a human brow at you in question, “w-wait! pfft- nono! we can still dance if you wanna live out your teenage dreams, just maybe when everyone is gone, yeah?”

leo blinked at you for a moment, “when everyone is gone?”

nodding, you gestured to the general mass of sweaty hormonal minors having tiktok dance-offs, which was really just them tweaking out with their hands with an occasional stomp of their feet, “yeah, we can wait for a bit until the gym is cleared out, and then we’ll have the floor to ourselves. how’s that sound, blue?”

he raised a hand to his chin, pretending to stroke an imaginary beard, and he laughed when you deadpanned at him, “sounds good to me… let’s go bother april and goth chick until then. they’re having too much fun!”

leo took your hand, making you follow along with him while you almost stumbled to catch up, waving at the two on the opposite side of the room laughing at something the other said.

the both of you had hid in the folded up bleachers as the custodian cursed the amount of trash the kids left in the gym, limbs pretzeled together and trying your best to scooch back in fear they find you both giggling like dumbasses. they eventually left, closing the door behind them with a sigh, and you two clawed your way out the tight space. you high-fived the disguised turtle with cracking limbs, while he rubbed his sore shell wrapped in magic human backside with a whine, and you both helped each other hop down to what was once “the dance floor,” now just the land of dreaded pacer tests once more. your sneakers squeaked against the gym’s floor as you walked to the middle, the pair of you cringing at the way the sound reverberated through the empty space, and you smoothed down your precious now-wrinkled shirt while turning to face leo, “well, we did it.”

he looked around in surprise, seemingly at how barren the gymnasium seemed now, and nodded along, “that we did.. we don’t even have music though, how are we gonna dance?”

you shrugged, taking his hand to tug him over gently, and he let you, but the disguised turtle having five fingers instead of the three you had to adjust to weirded you out, “we don’t need tchaikovsky or something, half the time we’ve been practicing without any music at all. take off the brooch.”

the boy’s eyes widened. it was so strange to see a nose on his face, and it was stranger when you booped it and he flinched just the slightest, a hand already reaching into his coat pocket to take it off. he paused in his movement for just a second, head swiveling to the doorway nervously, “uh.. are you sure? it’d be taking a risk. what if someone comes in looking for their like, i dunno, wallet or something??”

your lips pursed, and you tapped your fingers against his side that you were loosely holding, raising a brow but letting him take his time, “leo, everyone buys the tickets before they come. if someone brought their wallet here to pay for the overpriced snacks they sell, don’t you think they deserve to get traumatized by a short mutant turtle shittily dancing with some random kid?”

fighting a smile, he grumbled a “whatever, i’ll be tall as hell one day, and you’ll be sniveling and seething,” and then unpinned the brooch to let it simply sit in his pocket, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with your question. one magical girl detransformation later found you the red eared slider you had been forced to practice with for a near month, eyes crinkled as you assumed your positions. you stepped forward with your left foot, the turtle stepping back with his right, and feet met their respective pair as you both stepped to the side, leading him to spin along. the two of you continued like this across the empty gymnasium, leo laughing every time you picked him up off the ground to twirl him, leaving you beaming while humming something waltz-like to satisfy.

it was fun, and the both of you kept going till you slowed as you neared the middle of the scuffed wooden floor once more, breathing uneven while the dimming sunlight shone from the too-high windows. you resolved for one more spin to end off the dance with another bout of giggles from the slider, and he hugged you close to find purchase when you heaved him up to whirl him to the middle, tuckered out smiles from the both of you while he let out a high pitched school girl-like titter. you let out a snort that broke your murmurs of a tune, finally stopping to rest your head against his shoulder, trying to catch your breath, “was it.. hh.. was that a good memory?”

leo wasn’t as worn out as you, considering the fucker had been spun into the air more times than you could count with your sore arms, expression something of unbridled joy while he let you lean against him because he did the same against you, “pff- are you kidding? it was one of the best! i hope i never get dementia.”

you sniggered, shoulders shaking while he let out an amused laugh, like he didn’t expect that to get you, “can mutant turtles even get dementia?”

the slider rolled his eyes, something you couldn’t see, but instead heard in his tone with lingering chuckles, “well, i sure hope not, because i wanna remember this forever! i’ll just make donnie reverse engineer my brain if i ever do.”

your breathing had settled into its usual patterns again, and you pulled away slightly to give him a pointed look, “yeah, now i hope not too, ‘cause purple is gonna one hundred percent lobotomize your goofy self.”

he let out an indignant scoff at the idea, before he seemed to mull over it again, and then nodded solemnly in agreement. you shook your head with a grin, pointing to the exit, “anyways, wanna skedaddle? i’m down for some dinner after i pick that lock.”

the slider pinned on the brooch once more, and you frowned just a bit at the fact that he had a nose again, the skin-walker offering you a nasty smirk back with a raise of his eyebrows, “pick the lock? well, the more you know. lead the way, bestest buddy, i’m just about starved!”

you rolled your eyes as he dramatically pointed towards the exit, striking some extravagant pose while you unsheathed a couple paper clips, urging your friend to follow you. he did with nothing but a short laugh at how you fiddled with the little metallic school supplies, cheering you on until you both were home free.

the turtle had caught you out in the commons again, making some tea in the wee hours of the morning. you don’t know how long he had stood there watching you, until he let out a sigh that alerted you of his presence, tense shoulders immediately slumping when you recognized his footsteps, “don’t scare me like that, commander.”

his prosthetic was off tonight, only one arm wrapping around your stomach, careful not to lean on your back while you stirred the barest of sugar into your tea, “commander? ha, what happened to leo? or even blue?”

you let yourself laugh, raising a brow and pausing to take a testing sip of the tea, not caring it was still bitter because you didn’t want to waste sweetener, “psh- okay, bestest friend, why are you still up? don’t we need to gather some recruits to go for a supply run at noon?”

a laugh in your ear, surprised, and then he nuzzled into your cheek, “wow, been a while since that, and usually i start it! did you finally decide we’re best friends after all?”

you huffed, setting the tea down with little to no trembling to turn and face him, the slider immediately backing away to give you room, “oh shut up, leon, it’s been like… fifteen years, at the least? and you’re avoiding my question.”

he pouted, flicking the middle of your forehead lightly, snickering when you rubbed it with a grumble, “that’s true, and i’m not! you just get a.. delayed answer, yeah.”

you raised a brow, “when’s that answer gonna come around, then?”

“…”

the turtle instead pulled you away from your precious tea, and you whisper screamed at him while he whisper laughed at your misery, knowing you weren’t in any actual pain at the fact that your limbs were still uselessly flailing. you gave up pretty quick, simply slumping in his arms as he walked you both over to the middle of a cleared out area in the commons, and you groaned, “leo, what are you doing?”

he set you down onto the ground again, smiling cheekily, finally having something that wasn’t exhaustion in his eyes for now, “dancing.”

you sputtered, “wh- what?? why??? i don’t even know if i remember the steps anymore!”

the red eared slider let out a gasp that wasn’t as played up as it could be, lightly covering his mouth with his only remaining hand, “ohmigosh, does that mean that you got dementia before me?! i’m so sorry!”

the was a pathetic smack to his plastron, and he sniggered, “you know what i mean! i can’t even twirl you around like some damn princess anymore, look at you!”

leo was now a head and a half taller than you, something you bitterly griped about whenever he even so much as mentioned it, and his smile much too smug for your liking when he had first noticed he grew even just a tad more than you. apparently mutant turtles were just bound to keep growing despite the point where humans stopped, and the now flipped height difference always found a way to get under your nerves despite the literal apocalypse you were trying to survive. the turtle looked down at himself, then back at you with a “tsk,” trying not to appear as embarrassed as he was at what you could still recall, “well, you don’t have to lift me up, okay! jeez, can a guy just shittily dance with his buddy as the sun rises?”

you laughed, shaking your head in a silent surrender the slider was eager to accept, a hand making its way to your hip while you rested yours the best you could on his shoulders, “you might be the cheesiest fucking turtle i know, y’know that?”

he frowned at you in distaste, sticking his tongue out while you rolled your eyes, and then stepped forward with his left, “well, you never say no to anything i wanna do, so who’s the real weirdo, huh?”

you stepped your right foot back, about to take his other hand when you remembered he didn’t have one, and he snorted as you rested your hand at his shoulder once more, huffing, “spoiler alert, it’s still you.”

you both sniggered under your breaths, the slider leading you to rotate the both of you along the empty ground, “oh, shut up.”

the two of you continued like that for a while, slowly orbiting around nothing as you hummed, faces tired but content. that is, until leo’s arm around you tightened a little more, careful not to agitate any corroded nerves, and your feet left the ground. your panic turned to embarrassed giggling as he whirled you around, face hot and a hand punching him lightly while the other arm held on for dear life, and his face lit up, “hehehAHAH- HEY!! what happened to no twirling??!”

he spun a couple times until setting you down once more, sluggishly picking up the dance steps with joy twinkling in crinkled eyes looking down at you, meanwhile you beamed back up at him with raised brows, “psh, i said you didn’t have to lift me up, nothing about the opposite. plus, i can see why you did it for me so many times!”

you spent most of the sleepy dance with a burning face rested on his chest after that, to which he laughed teasingly at you, but said nothing else as he smoothed down your hair, continuing your humming for you. the slider still twirled you around a couple more times to get reactions, at which you couldn’t help but burst into giddy snickers every time you felt weightless, catching sight of leo’s face with something cherishing you had to rip your eyes away from. you could feel his arm bracing for yet another lift, and your cheeks hurt from your grin, the red eared slider rubbing his cheek against yours, “here we go, one more time! up, up and away-!”

he had barely suspended you up once more before someone cleared their throat a ways away, and you jolted, scrambling across the shoulders of the turtle holding you as his grip had gone slack. you hid behind his shell with a sweat, and you could hear donnie’s voice carry out to his brother, “what.. are you guys doing? it’s early.”

leo might’ve smiled, you couldn’t see either of their faces, but you would assume donnie yet again looked as if he had risen from the dead for more coffee, “good morning, dear brother! your face makes it seem like it’s still late at night! when’s the last time you got some sleep?”

you heard shuffling moving towards the kitchen area, and leo moved to face the soft-shell responsible for it in time, graciously avoiding you being seen sweaty and embarrassed, “i hate you both. homophobic now.”

that got a genuine chortle out of the slider, and your muscles slackened as you slumped down to the floor with a groan, blue turning a bit to catch a glimpse at you. it only made him start laughing even more, and you spotted donnie side-eyeing the both of you with an apathetic annoyance. leo helped you up, to which you gave him a grateful expression, and donnie piped up again after a sip of his freshly brewed coffee, “if you’re done being idiots now, you need to get ready for that supply run. i’ll be giving your “student” something new that’ll make his life a little easier, and run a couple diagnostics on the base’s defenses.”

blue cocked his head at purple, and you rubbed at your eyes, making your way around the island in search of the tea ripped away from you, “yeah, yeah, i know all that, but what are you giving casey? there’s only so many lethal weapons you can give the kid before it becomes overkill, donnie.”

the soft-shell had let you squeeze past him, looking over at your frown at a cup of tea gone cold with a quirk of his brow, before dragging his gaze back up to leo, “oh come on, the boy needs it if he wants to stay alive, plus it’s fun. i’ll just be giving him a grappling hook though, nothing special.”

leo squinted at him when he said “nothing special,” looking to you as you poured out your tea. you met his eyes blankly for a moment, thinking it over before shrugging, washing the mug and putting it away, “i mean, you can’t commit that many more accidental fatalities with a grappling hook compared to chainsaw hockey stick, so it’s fine in my book. maybe don’t let him loose with it in the base while he’s still learning how to use it, though.”

donnie and leo both nodded in agreement at that, and the matter of casey junior having yet another purple-patented device was settled, the inventor smiling to himself smugly, “i will also be relaying all of what i saw to mikey and april. this is payback.”

and with that, he sauntered out, picking up the pace after you registered what he said with wide eyes, chasing after him. leo watched the both of you run off, donnie fighting to keep the precious bean juice in his hands from spilling with evil cackles while you screamed at him in annoyance, the red slider simply shrugging and resolving to go tell casey the good news. he had fun, and you had fun. that’s all that mattered.

even if it was pretty gay.

#was i listening to that one mitski song? yes #am i okay? debatable #rottmnt leo x reader #rottmnt #save rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #i’m so ill about this #also this is in my fic universe!!#check out ryana on ao3!!!#the link is in the pinned post #i will write it i swear #rottmnt x reader #rottmnt x you #rottmnt x y/n

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