CH:36 The Real Side of Leo

I jump a foot in the air, twist, and land in a battle stance completely out of reflex. Cursing in my mind, 'Silent fucking ninjas..' When I see Leonardo. Making him chuckle a bit before he gets serious again. I take a deep breath to steady my nerves and stand up straight. "What's up, Leo?"

He squints his eyes a bit as he asks, "What's up with you and Raph?"

I tilt my head in confusion, "I don't know, is there something I should be concerned about?"

Clearly not the answer he was expecting, he starts stammering, "I... W-well... It's j-just... NEVER MIND!" With a deep shaded face, he turns on his heels to head out the door.

I grabbed his arm to stop him, "Wait, there is something I wanted to ask."

He stops dead in his tracks and I let go when he turns to face me with surprise filled eyes, "A-and that would be?"

"I-I want to see the stars..." I ask quite shyly.

Quite taken back by my request, he takes a few seconds before he says, "Wouldn't you prefer to do something like that with Raphael?"

I tilt my head and scratch the base of my horn in confusion, 'Why is he always bringing Raph up...' I heave a sigh and respond, "I asked you, didn't I? Besides I don't think that stopping to enjoy the sites is Raph's thing."

He chuckles as he finally cracks a smile, "Yeah, I guess you're right on that one."

I take a big step towards him, getting nice and close. Holding my hands behind my back to stick my chest out, I rock back n forth on my heals as my tail wags around with excitement. In a very sweet voice and with an adorable smile I ask, "Sooo, stars?" I make my eyes big and round and bat them a few times just for good measure.

With his eyes turning worm like the sky on a summer day, he chuckles saying, "And how could I say no to that? Come on, I know just the place."

I was expecting to go running across the rooftops like last time but instead he leads me to the Battle Shell after he grabbed a few things. Shoving his armload in a duffel bag once we got into the truck.

"Are we going out for a rip?" I couldn't help but giggle as I ask full of excitement from not knowing what exactly we are doing or where we are going.

With that sexy know-it-all grin Leo only says is, "You'll see", and we take off.

After driving roughly 30 miles north for a while we finally got to our destination, the Appalachian Trail.

With big starry eyes I'm looking out the window like a giddy child, "Just look at all this nature!! I was starting to think that the humans built over all the green this planet has to offer..."

Leo chuckles with a smerk on his lips, "Most humans aren't that heartless. Besides they also enjoy nature to some extent. Come on, it's a bit of a walk to the top."

I jump out of the Battle Shell full of eagerness, causing my tail to twitch uncontrollably. Looking around, I notice we are completely alone and it's silent out here. All I can hear is the odd animal noises and some bugs in the bush before us. I close my eyes basking in the quite when I hear Leo's footsteps approach me. Without looking at him I say, "This kind of reminds me of before the pod. I used to sneak out of our base and come to the surface. Just to enjoy the greenery and to feel the life force of the plants surrounding me. Kind of like a tranquil getaway... I almost forgot what this feels like..." As I say this, I extend my consciousness to feel the soft low beat of life emanating from the forest itself.

Leo just smiles at me and after a moment he finally says, "I thought being around nature like this might do you some good. Come on, I wanna show you the view from the top." With that, he takes my hand in his and leads me into the bush following a trail.

Not to long after we've been walking for a while, we come across a huge beautiful lake. As a big smile grows on my face, I run up to the edge of the shore. With eagerness to show off my skills in the water I turn to face Leo and ask, "Are you hungry? I could go grab us some fish."

With his sexy know-it-all grin he just says, "I prefer to not eat fish out of a body of water called Nuclear Lake."

My eyes go round with shock, "Nuclear? I thought you said humans like nature? Now they are poisoning it?!"

He scratches the back of his head and answers, "Well, humans are complicated. You see, the lake used to be contaminated by a Nuclear Plant, but then they turned this whole area into a nature reserve and shut down the building. Since then the lake and it's surrounding arrea has been slowly recovering."

As understanding hits me all I can say is, "Well at least they can clean up after themselves, I guess." So we continue on with our hike as I tell Leo the differences I feel between the plants around us compared to the vegetation before the pod.

Eventually we come across a huge suspension bridge. Leo speaks up, "We only have a quarter way left to go now, after we get across the Bear Mountain Bridge."

With admiration I couldn't help but say, "Humans sure are resilient to build such an immense bridge in the middle of a forest like this."

Leo chuckles, "Heh, Yeah. They sure get around."

I give him a sly look over my shoulder, "Race you across." And with a smerk we both take off running as silent blurrs over the long ass bridge. About half way across Leo starts to slow down. With how competitive I am I couldn't help think, 'Yes! This race is mine!'

But shortly after that thought crossed my mind I heard Leo call out to me, "Hey, Ying! Check this out!"

I stop on a dime and spin around to see him waving back at me. So with a little jog I am at his side in a few seconds. "Whats up? Afraid you will loose?" I tease with a little flash of one of my fangs as I crack a smile.

He just chuckles as that sexy know-it-all grin grows once more and says, "I know you were going easy on me." Making me blush from being busted so easily before he continues, "Besides we're here to enjoy the views and you've got to see this."

At these words he grabs me by the arms and spins me around. Leo holds me there with his hands resting on my shoulders so I'm looking out to the water with my back pressed against his chest.

A gasp escapes my lips as my eyes go wide and sparkle almost as much as the water before me. The half crescent moon is Illuminating the sky above with a fair amount of stars, but what's really impressive is the reflection in the river. As the water moves it looks like there's ten times as many stars dancing in the water than there is in the sky.

As I'm so taken back by the beauty before me, my legs start to go a little week and I lean on Leo for support. He wraps his arms around me holding me as close as he can and whispers in my left ear, "Hudson River sure is beautiful at night... but it pales in comparison to you."

I whip my head towards him just to get a kiss on my cheek, making me blush even harder. All I can stammer out is, "I-I... Y-you... R-really?"

Making him burst out laughing, "What? Never got a compliment before?"

I look down shyly before I admit, "No. Only ridicule and teasing."

I feel Leo's hands tighten on my arms before he says through gritted teeth, "Well those days are in the past... I know for a fact that me and my brothers can agree, you are the most stunning creature we've seen."

As I blush even harder with a little giggle I say, "Really? I'm pretty sure Donny has his eyes set on April and Mikey doesn't pay much attention to anything that doesn't involve food, comic books or TV."

With a heavy sigh Leo says, "Yeah. Well, that still leaves two of us. Anyways we should keep moving so we can get the top at a decent time." Without another word he lets me go and starts walking.

As I follow behind him, I couldn't help but think, 'Did I say something wrong? He seems agitated... Stars above! I wish people would just explain how they feel... Sometimes dealing with Leo really reminds me of dealing with the Talvians." I grumble in my mind as we walk in silence.

Pretty soon the trail we are on starts to Incline to a pretty steep slope, filled with huge rocks that we need to climb over.

My mood picks up greatly once I notice the rigid terrain before us, "Finally! Some fun stuff!" I pounce like a mighty feline over Leo's head, landing with all fours on the side of a rock face. Digging my claws in to help me with traction, as the very tip of my tail twitchs from excitement. I look over my shoulder to see shock filled saucers for eyes on Leo's gaping face, making me giggle so hard I almost fell off the rock that I'm attached to. "Come on slow poke, I want to see this view at the top you keep talking about." I turn back and continue to pounce up the rest of the mountain with ease, as Leo is doing jumps and flips and shit to try to keep up with me.

It takes me no time at all to get to the top but before I take in the view I turn around and sit on a ledge to wait for Leonardo. 'After all, it would be kinda rude to do that without Leo since he was the one who brought me here.' I think to myself I got to watch him jump up the cliff face. 'There it really is quite the elegance to how he moves...' With one final jump he soars over me with a twisting flip, winking at me midair when our faces were at the closest before landing right behind me. I couldn't help but chuckle, "Smooth moves."

With his trademark sexy know-it-all grin he says, "Yeah? Well, I saw you watching. Figured I'd give you a good show." As he extends his hand for me and continues, "Come on, you are going to love this." Flashing me a big smile as I take his hand.