Book Two: The Red Desire

Chapter 2: Leo's Trauma

Sorry about the late update on the story. Onwards!

A pencil tip scribbled across the blank sheets of paper. Its dark color traced along the surface, shading and forming pictures. Then the words were added to the page.

"I'll never forget the night we left New York City. The Kraang defeated us. Leo got badly hurt. Master Splinter is.... gone. We lost..... We had nowhere left to go. So we came to the old farmhouse I grew up in, miles away from the city a place we could all be safe in. The first thing we did was take care of poor Leonardo."

April recalls when they first arrived at the house....without you. The brothers picked up the limp body of the leader and took him upstairs, filling the tub with water then submerging most of him in it.

"This will keep him hydrated, help him heal faster," Donnie says before leaving to compose his thoughts.

After replaying the whole thing, April continued writing details over the days they stayed at the farmhouse.

"Raphael keeps a constant vigil over Leo, waiting for him to wake up. Michelangelo goofs around a lot, but he does a ton of chores around the house. But mostly, he goofs around a lot. Donatello built a lab in the barn, trying to create a mutagenic medicine to heal Leo much to (y/n)'s dismay. She says to let him heal naturally and not with a hazardous medication."

April looks up from her journal to see you nearby working on carving a bow from tree wood. Unbeknownst to her, you were carving something else out of wood.

The girl then noticed something else, your sword. It was strapped to your waist but not with the ribbons Leo was meant to give you, only a piece of rope.

April searched for your close friend but Kaneko wasn't with you, rather sleeping somewhere in the house or seeking adventure in any crevices.

".......My best friend (Y/n) has been distant ever since she decided to stay in the barn. She trains alone now or only with Kaneko. It's as if she's afraid something will happen.....At times when I go to check on her at night, she's not there." You were also wearing the mask Splinter gifted you and you hardly took it off. She recalls the day she handed it to you.

--"Thank you for getting me this." you hugged her and put the mask on. She helped adjust the ties and the moment she was done you pulled away getting distance. Your condition wasn't improving as your teeth would sharpen if you'd even catch smell of her or the others. Frankly, it was annoying to contain the demon but you did your best.---

Since then, things have been different without you around all the time, as you do many things to distract yourself. "(Y/n) hardly visits Leonardo, I think it's because she feels ashamed of herself. I worry for her. I wish I could do more.....but with (M/n) gone, she's closed herself off from talking about what happened in NY...I'm always here for her. I hope she knows that too."

April sighs before moving on to the next page and drawing out a scene. "And then there's me, April O'Neil. I spend most of my time training with the turtles and writing in my ever-expanding journal. I miss New York, my Sensei, my dad. Hopefully, Leo will recover, and we can all go home soon if there's even a home to go back to. But life, as Master Splinter would say, we must continue on."

By the time April was done writing and closing her journal, you trudged over to her with a semi-completed bow. You'd been working on it the past week to hunt with. "Hey (Y/n) want to train together?"

"Are you done with your little diary?"

"I told you it's not a diary." she crossed her arms.

You grinned under your mask. "Just like the time you told me a sci-fi book was the truth to laws and physics of the world?"