Moonlight Mutation (A TMNT Fanfic)

Chapter 32: Touch

Destiny doesn't want to wake up.

Even when she feels herself resurfacing from the depths of sleep, she forces herself back down into the abyss like a diver desperate to find what lays at the bottom of the ocean. She doesn't want to open her eyes and find herself hanging from the walls of that cell again, doesn't want to see the cruel faces that stared and listened as she screamed for help.

The screams...the cries...she knows that the sounds echoing in her head are hers yet she doesn't want to believe that she could make a noise that's so tortured. Maybe she can run. Maybe she'll have gotten enough strength back from her blessed sleep to transform into a wolf and bust out of that hellhole. One can only hope, right?

Soft music trickles into her ears, lulling her with the gentle sounds of tenor male voices. Her eyes snap open and she doesn't see a bleak, brick wall, but the ceiling of her guest bedroom. She stares, unblinking, unbelieving. She moves her hand slightly, touching the smooth material of a bed sheet.

She shuts her eyes again, pain starting to wiggle its way back into her conscious thought and make her aware of her body and what's happened to it. This is a dream. When she wakes up next, she'll be back in that cell and she'll have to fight or die if she wants to get out.

"Destiny?"

Karai, her thoughts instantly say. It's Karai. She's come to force Destiny to wake up again. She's probably got the bucket of water ready, or perhaps she's found some new method of making the mutant's life a living hell.

"Des...can you hear me?"

Something changes. That voice isn't female, it's male, and it doesn't belong to any of the males in the Foot Clan either. Still, Destiny doesn't risk it and remains silent with her eyes closed. There's a soft sigh from beside her and her spectator's footsteps fade away from her.

She opens her eyes again, waiting for the blurriness to disappear. She's still in the bedroom, laying on a very warm surface with a blanket draped over her body. She swallows thickly, letting out a dry cough that makes her hiss out in pain.

Once it subsides to a low, throbbing presence, she lifts her arm, blinking slowly as she brings her hand up to hover above her face. She clenches and unclenches her fingers, massaging the stiff joints and taking in the bandages covering most of her arm.

She looks down at herself, hesitantly lifting the blanket and nearly cringing at the sight of her half-naked body. She drops the blanket back over herself, the tightness of emotion rising into her throat like bile.

The door opens and she rolls her head to the side to see who it is. Leonardo has his head down, a droopiness to his entire disposition, and he doesn't yet look up at her as he gently closes the door behind him.

She finds her voice. "Leo?" she croaks.

He spins around, his sapphire eyes wide and his face slack with shock. Upon seeing her, a wide smile reveals his impeccably white teeth. "Des!"

A moment or two later, he's engulfing her in a tight hug that makes her body surge with warmth. She coughs again at the sudden force, her hands gripping the blanket to her chest, and he instantly jumps back.

"Oh, right, sorry," he apologizes, lifting a hand to the back of his head. "I'm sorry, I just...Des, you're awake," he whispers, dragging his hand down his face to his neck.