Mission Failed ~ Leonardo x Reader

Chapter Nine

[Your POV]

I looked down at the mutagen, stunned. I wanted to cry out to Blake again, but it would be useless. Plus, I couldn't quite get the words out. He had been submerged in the mutagen for about a minute already and there was no sight of him resurfacing. I gritted my teeth, trying to hold in my tears.

But then, I saw the mutagen move. Something was going on and my eyes widened, my tears spilling down into the mutagen below me. Something was thrown out of the stuff. The box! The Box Of Beasts, to be specific! Blake managed to get it and toss it out of the huge pool of mutagen!

My eyes widened and I practically flew down the stairs. The box landed behind the pool and I jumped off the side railings, landing on one of the many piles of boxes. "AH!" I cried as my foot broke through one of the wooden boxes, the splintered wood clawing at my ankle. I gritted my teeth and pulled my leg out of the box, not caring about the huge scratches left my the broken wood. Not to mention the splinters and blood. I hobbled off the boxes and raced for the box. Using the coat Blake had given me before we got caught, I picked up the box, too afraid of the possibility of getting mutated. "Leo, I have it!"

"Not for long!" I heard Baxter Stockman cry from above me. I simply jumped out of the way, almost falling due to the injury on my ankle. Stockman crashed into the boxes I had jumped on. I quickly ran - as fast as you could with a torn ankle - towards Leonardo. "Let's go!" He yelled, kicking Fishface. "Donnie's gotten word from the others!" He ran towards me and picked me up, running out of the lab and through Shredder's Lair. I held the box close to my chest with one arm, using my other one to keep hold of Leo's plastron. "How'd you do that to your ankle!?" I looked down at my ankle, which was limp and covered in blood.

"Fell through a box." I said simply, like it was nothing. He chuckled and shook his head. I blushed. Wait, why did that make me blush? Because it was adorkable? Maybe...? But it's not the time for blushing! I looked behind us. None of the villains had decided to pursue us and there was no sign of Blake either. We came to Shredder's Throne Room and we exited through the window we had entered through. Leonardo didn't bother closing it and instead continued to the building Donnie was standing on. The purple masked turtle was looking quite impatient.

"What took you two so long!?" Donnie cried. Leo set me down and I stood on one leg, leaning against the turtle for support.

"We got in a fight." Leo said. "What's wrong?"

"The Kraang are attacking April and the others!" Donnie said, speaking very fast. "They couldn't find Veronica, but according to the Kraang, they were hot on her tail. We have to go and help them-" He finally noticed the injury on my ankle. "Um...I have to go and help them. You should bandage that up..."

"But I'm the leader!" Leo said. "I need to be there with everyone else!"

"You're the one who wanted (Y/N) to 'constantly stay by your side'." Donnie said, rolling his eyes. "And (Y/N) is in no condition to even MOVE, let alone hop from rooftop to rooftop!"

"I can carry them!" Leo said.

"To the other side of town with no breaks?" Donnie asked. Leo looked down, looking ready to say something. "I know exactly what you're gonna say, Leo. Just stay here and patch (Y/N) up." He reached into his bag and pulled out a first aid kit, handing the red box to his brother. "We'll meet back at the lair in three hours, at most."

"...Fine..." Leo sighed, furrowing his brow. Donnie pat my shoulder, giving me a sad smile and he was gone - disappearing into the night. Leo stared down at the first aid kit and it finally hit me. I'm not an asset to this team. If anything...I'm a burden. As much as it hurt to admit, it was true. I was only slowing everyone down with my mistakes and stopping Leo from committing to his duties as a leader.

"I think everyone will be okay, Leo." I said, trying to reassure him. "I'm...sorry."

"Wait what?" He asked. "Why are you sorry? You got the box." He pointed to the coat-covered box. "Can you sit down?" To be honest, I felt like I could hardly stand. But I didn't want to ask him for help and burden him even more. I nodded and I hopped over to the shed, slowly sliding down into a sitting position. I lost my balance and almost fell over, but Leo caught my shoulders and set me down gently. He opened the first aid kit and got to work, cleaning off the blood and disinfecting the injury.

What happened to me? I felt like I wasn't doing enough. Maybe my physical ability wasn't actually that great. Maybe it was just pathetic compared to the turtles and everyone else in this world. Maybe? Maybe it was the whole bliss of finally meeting the turtles and being thrown into an adventure that got my guard down. Was I that happy? But after seeing what happened to Blake...I realized that all this was real. The risk of mutation and death was actually real. Everything that was happening was real and I needed to treat it seriously, not like some...kids cartoon. I need to save Veronica, Zion, and Blake if possible. I need to protect the turtles and everyone else in this world. I need to step my game up and get on the turtles' level if I'm going to become an asset instead of a burden. "I'm sorry..." I apologized again, without thinking.

"You don't need to be sorry." Leo said, wrapping a bandage around my ankle. "You've done nothing wrong. Like I said, you got the box, so this mission was a success!" We went silent and I stared at his hand as he continued to put the bandage on me. It was kind of mesmerizing to watch. "I should be sorry."

"Huh?"

"About your friend..." He said. "I probably could've done something, but I didn't. I could've saved him."

"What?" I said. "That's bullcrap, Leo." His eyes widened. He probably wasn't used to that sort of language or anything similar. "You were busy fighting off mutants! I wasn't fast enough! I wasn't strong enough! I wasn't experienced enough!"

"But you did great for your first mission." Leo said, trying to reassure me. "Better than us."

"Still...I could've done better." I said. "I'm nowhere near as good as you."

"I'm...uh...not that good..." He said, looking away, avoiding eye contact. His cheeks had gone red, again.

"You are though! You are great!" I said. "Leo...I...um..." I wanted to ask him something, but I couldn't bring myself to say it. Besides, I was already getting training from Splinter, it would be useless to ask Leo for help as well. I'd only be adding to his work. "Nevermind..."

"No, what's wrong?" He asked.

"I just..." I said. To be honest, there were a lot of things I could ask him or talk to him about. "I look up to you so much. Ever since I was a little kid...I wanted to wield katanas, just like you do... I'm sorry, that was stupid to say." It was stupid. Probably really stupid. But I just wanted to tell him that. I don't know why...I just felt like it was important.

"...Really?" He asked with a smile. "So...I'm like...your hero...?" I nodded. He finished bandaging my ankle and looked me in the eyes. "Then I'll continue to be your hero, (Y/N). I promise." He held out his three fingered hand in a fist. I fist bumped him and smiled. "Now, do you wanna try catching up with Donnie?" I smirked and nodded. "Good. Now, show me that you can be a hero too."

I blushed...again.