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Chapter Text

【The Mulberry Candle】

~ October 1st, 2010 ~

Karai stood awkwardly at the store front. It wasn’t really much of a store front, it was a door, with a battered blue and white striped canopy over it. The rim read; “Mr. Hamato’s Candle Emporium”, just as her landlord described. What her landlord failed to mention, maybe because he was a mutant himself, was that the candle store was in the heart of The Underground. She was quickly becoming the subject of many sour looks, humans and mutants didn’t exactly mix. The Underground was technically a gated neighbor (and confusingly on the surface despite it's name), notorious for housing violent mutants who didn’t fit well with humans.

It was no place for a lady, luckily for Karai she barely met the qualifications to be called one.

She opened the door, there was no bell or chime, she stepped inside and closed the door with a small struggle. The wooden door frame was warped and the door sat both too snug in some spots and not at all in others. Her eyes adjusted to the light, there was an old wooden staircase in front of her it seemed to blend in with the dark chocolate rich wall paper around it. For a store supposedly selling light, the entrance way was dim. A sign hung over the end of the railing told her that upstairs was where she could find the candle shop.

As she walked, each step groaned and creaked. The wood cracked and the empty stairwell seemed to amplify it, though the staircase was old it was well taken care of. Her gloved hand slid over the railing, the wood was polished and soft, the floors were swept up and despite all the dry leaves outside, none were tracked in.

At the top of the steps there was a wooden door with a large frosted glass window. In peeling letters again the name of the business was written. There was a bell around the handle that jingled as she opened the door answering the question about some sort of chime to alert the employees about customers. The Underground was a dangerous neighborhood, Karai would think that whoever took so much time to keep and old staircase polished and the floors swept might care enough to not have strangers walk in without them knowing.

The scent inside was overwhelming. A wall of every pleasant smell slammed into her face. The stored smelled like a candle shop, something could die in here and no one would notice its rotting corpse. No, multiple somethings could die in here and no one would be the wiser.

It meant she had come to the perfect place to get rid of the wet dog smell in her apartment. She knew the last tenant had been a poodle mutant, she hadn’t know he enjoyed taking so many baths.

Once the smell started to just passively burn her nose hair off she took in the ambience of this strange establishment. She first noticed the tidiness of the lobby. It was a small room, no larger than a bedroom with a service window. A sign above the window read; “Pick Up Orders Here” and there was a bell. Next to the window there was a door that was ajar. A sign on the knob read; “Open”, she assumed that was where she could go to browse candles.

Or dead bodies.

Really who knew what was hidden back there.

There was one lit candle on a small shelf, a plaque in front of the candle read; “Candle Of The Day." A framed piece of chalk board not more than a foot in width and length listed off some of the candles attributes. The candle was marbled, giving it a stunning pattern of blue, white, and black. The inspiration for its design came from the black billed magpie, a bird mutant with those colors. It had a diameter of six inches and was self contained.

Supposedly it was non-scented Karai tried to smell it to be sure.

"It does not have a scent,” a voice from behind her said.

Karai turned around, for whatever reason she had expected to see an alligator mutant, not a well dressed turtle mutant. She hid her surprise, her face fell into a professional demeanor. Being a courtroom stenographer in New York City’s Lower Courts, Karai had scene her fair share of mutants and even her fair share of turtle ones.

“Hard to tell, this place smells like a bakery, a flower shop, and a rainy day,” she said walking to the window.

He was a large mutant, wearing a turtleneck over his shell gave him a very ripped appearance. Or maybe his ripped appearance was in some way more responsible. Were those two hams he was smuggling in his sleeves, because dear god. Maybe candles are really heavy.

The turtle lifted his head to ponder the air. "I suppose it does,” he said. “Though, over the years I have become nose blind.”

“You should get out more,” Karai said with a faint smile.

The turtle’s eyes widened for just a moment before drifting back to the candle Karai had been admiring. “Is there anything I can help you with, do you have an order you wish to pick up?” he said turning to the shelf behind him, there were a few brown paper bags secured with twine.

“No, I am looking for something to rid my apartment of a bad smell,” she said. “My landlord said this was the place to go, and that the owner would be more than happy to recommend the proper candle.”

The turtle pulled at the neck of his shirt and cleared his throat, his muscular forearms stretching the fabric to its near limit. Despite that, the shirt looked tailored for his mutant body.

"Well, what smell do you wish to get rid of?”

“The last tenant was a poodle mutant,” she said. “The whole place smells like wet dog, I need something strong that I can burn the whole day, and I don’t want any wax to spill or get on my table.”

The turtle nodded. “If you want to abolish the scent a strong mulberry container candle would solve your issue quickly, but…” he paused pensively.

“But what?” Karai asked. “My apartment reeks, I want the smell gone and I can’t open the windows it’s too cold.”

“Well, it’s just mulberry candles are bold,” he affirmed. “And bold might be good now, but then your apartment would smell oppressively of mulberries. It would be akin to stubbing out a lit cigarette by dousing yourself in water.”

She shook her head. “Then I’ll only light if for an hour or so.”

"If you say so, one moment please while I retrieve your candle,” he said turning to go deep into the store, Karai failed to get a good look at the back of him despite ramming the edge of the counter right under her ribs.

She discreetly massaged her stomach and wondered if he was a worker or if he was Mr. Hamato, judging by the orders on the shelf, the store seemed to have a lot of business. Maybe it was a family business. Though, her landlord's husband was out of town on a business venture that Karai couldn't imagine had anything to do with candles. Or maybe this turtle mutant had other family members.

When he returned Karai failed to get a look at his lower half again, it was a shame because he probably had big meaty thighs. She assumed he was dressed, as most mutants in the service industry did wear clothes to appear more human to potential human customers. She wanted to see if his pants were as form fitting as his shirt.

“This is one of three mulberry candles I have,” he said. The candle he placed on his side of the open window was in a jar, he took the glass top off and handed it too her.

At first Karai was offended. “This candle is used,” she said lowering her voice. It almost made sense that a business like this would try to pull a fast one on her.

“Yes,” he said. “Made in 1988 by Honey’s Candles and purchased by a skunk midwife. She had the candle until 1998 when she died and it was placed in storage. Her children found it two years ago and brought it in. The wicks were replaced at my expense, the candle wax had to be reformed into a new jar, also at my expense.”

Karai looked at him shocked, he was seriously reading off a piece of paper.

“In 2008 it saw five owners for reasons of scent abolishing, all returned the candle relatively quickly reporting its effectiveness. In 2009 it saw thirteen owners and one school in Ohio after a sewer line broke,” he paused and tapped the paper. “For legal reasons I am no longer allowed to send candles out of the state.”

Her mouth dropped open as he turned back to the paper. It had looked a little too good to be true. A very physically appealing turtle mutant with a calm professional demeanor was just too convenient. He just had to also have a few screws loose. Karai never fell for the sane ones.

“Yes that candle has quite the history,” he hummed, oblivious to how strange it was to have a running history of a candle. “And notice how little of the wax has been used.”

She looked at the candle in her hand, the jar seemed full and the wicks were singed but looked good. “I don’t understand,” she said. “I don’t want some old candle.”

“Why not?” he asked, simply not getting it. “That candle has a story to tell, and when you take it home, you will become forever a part of that candle’s journey through life.”

“Uh...”

“And when you return it in a few days after not heeding my warning about only burning it for an hour or so, I will add you to the records sheet,” he said, turning it towards her as if she needed proof this wasn't some long running gag. No, his crazy was genuine and now as glaring as his muscular arms. Seriously, he had no excuse to wear a shirt two sizes too small.

Karai looked down at the candle and put her nose into it, the wax was a deep almost black violet and it smelled strongly of sweet mulberries. She liked it and she didn't think she would mind her apartment smelling the same way. “Whatever, I don’t have time to find a less insane candle shop. How much for this?”

“Twenty dollars,” he said.

“That’s a rip off,” she said setting the candle down.

He tilted his head. “For now, but when you become sick of it in a few days I buy back my candles at 75% of their retail cost.”

“This...” Karai pinched the bridge of her nose. “This is a candle rental shop?”

“No,” he said frowning as if his business was normal. “You can keep the candle forever, but it will cost you twenty dollars.”

“What if I want a new candle?” she asked.

He pulled a piece of paper out from a shelf under the window. “Then fill out this form and I will call you within five to ten business days when your order is ready.”

"You don't understand," she said pushing the paper back over to his side. "I don't have five to ten business days, I'm losing my mind with that smell."

He nodded. "I see," he said sadly. "Well I am sorry that these are the cards you have been dealt, if only there was a perfectly good candle you could take home today." His eyes then looked straight at the mulberry candle. "If only."

This was the strangest business ever, but she needed that wet dog smell gone. She pulled out her wallet and handed him a crisp twenty dollar bill.

“There’s tax,” he said taking her money and keeping his hand held out until she firmly pressed a one dollar bill into his palm. “Thank you,” he said with a warm smile.

He then placed the lid back on the mulberry candle and wrapped it in brown paper. He used twine to secure the paper around the jar.

"Are you going to give me my change?" she asked because tax wasn't exactly a dollar.

"No," he said while discreetly tucking his business card under the twine. He was really giving her his number? Karai couldn't even form words. He must be very full of himself to think she had any interest in him.

Karai took the candle and headed towards the door only to stop and turn around, the blue eyed turtle was still looking at her. “May I ask you something?”

“Of course, I am always happy to help,” he said, hands folded together in front of him at the window.

“Is the owner as crazy as you are?” she asked.

He tapped his chin for a moment. “You could say that.”

Karai nodded then left before she said anything else. The good news was she would never need to go back to that candle shop again, the bad news was that employee was really handsome if she looked past all the quirks. Just to be safe, before stepping outside she tucked his business card in her purse. She didn't want it to blow away. . . just in case she ended up needing another candle one day.

Yeah, she thought as she closed the stiff door behind her, that was the reason she wanted to keep the card safe.

Chapter Text

【The Butterscotch Pudding Candles】

~October 2nd, 2010~

Despite everything that had transpired earlier, Karai did heed the turtle's warning about not burning the candle for a long time. She first put the candle in her bathroom and lit it for an hour, blowing it out and sealing the lid before placing it on her kitchen counter with plans to cleanse the main area of her house after work.

Her job as a stenographer wasn't glorious or full of danger, it was usually just depressing. Not because her job involved recording everything said in a courtroom full of lawyers when she found the stress of becoming a lawyer herself to be all to much. (And no, dropping out of university and giving up on her dreams had nothing, nothing at all, to do with her ex-girlfriend or those pictures she posted on Facebook… mostly because she didn’t drop out… she was expelled.)

What Karai was good at, (traffic violations, alcohol, and poor life choices made in a post break up haze seven months ago all aside) was typing. She had a very impressive and lofty typing speed of one hundred and ten words per minute. Yes Karai’s nails were short, but her fingers were fast. Typing was her fallback.

It was also everyone else’s. It seemed every young woman who didn’t have it in them to become a lawyer ended up as a stenographer. Karai didn’t know that, she just assumed.

She didn’t talk to very many people.

In New York City, carving a name for herself would take more than an impressive typing speed. Her job as a lowly courtroom stenographer paid well enough to afford her a nice apartment in a co-species neighborhood, human only neighborhoods were far too expensive. While her apartment was bare it was a step up from her dorms, even if it smelled of a poodle mutant that washed mulberries off of himself and didn’t quite manage the job.

There had been that morning a strange pull to light that mulberry candle and leave it running until she broke for lunch. She decided against it but the wet dog smell still had her nearly sick to her stomach. It was a good thing she didn't light it because she ended up buying lunch and getting stuck in a very long line and having no time to run home.

Her hours were reasonable, as a stenographer she didn’t just type. She had to find work first of all and make sure to give copies of what she transcribed to every party she needed to. Some of her job was done in the courtroom, a lot of it was done at home.

However her house smelled like wet dog, which made everything she owned smell like wet dog and before anyone dare called her a mutanist, she would proudly remind everyone that she was part of some questionable equality protests during her university days. She would also point out that even though the mutants protesting for equality in the streets held her up on getting her lunch, she was glad they were protesting and she really did hope the Supreme Court agreed to view the matter of segregation between humans and mutants.

Really, truly, she was glad.

Especially when mutants couldn’t serve on juries and Karai had seen time after time cases where mutants were judged by juries of humans, in front of human judges, and had humans representing them. It made her skin crawl, what human lawyer appointed by the courts could truly explain how a hospital unlawfully pruned a plant mutant without proper consent. Did those doctors not need to be held responsible for the negative impact that would have on pollination season?

It had made the hearing she heard today particularly depressing.

She just wanted to go home, order something for delivery, finish cleaning up the transcript while her crazy potent candle burned and then settle in for bed.

So it was really bad when she walked out of the elevator (because fuck walking up two flights of stairs in the heels she was wearing), to smell the faint traces of mulberries in the hallway.

The faint scent of mulberries is the ideal scent. If the scent of mulberries is anymore powerful than faint, it’s too much.

Karai knew it was a trick of the mind, rampant paranoia, perhaps that very greasy New York styled chili dog she had inhaled for lunch was coming back to haunt her. There was no way she accidentally left the candle burning.

No, she heeded the strange candle mutant's warning. Not because she truly believed the candle could clear a building, and not because she held any respect for the guy, but because when strange beings give you vague warnings you listen. Karai listened, she swore she listened.

Someone else maneuvered her legs towards her door, the scent became more and more powerful. She opened the door and was hit with a wave of mulberries. Her eyes stung.

This would get her evicted for sure.

Quickly she closed the door, dropping her bag and ripping her heels off. Through eyes she could barely keep open she spotted the candle, still barely burning, she quickly blew it out. Hot wax sprayed up over the lip and a fresh wave of the most intense sickly sweet odor was birthed out.

Karai stumbled back, gagging.

This was the end.

The school children in Ohio died, that deranged candle renting turtle mutant sent a chemical weapon over state lines. She tried to steady herself on the counter, much like she imagined the children in their own dying moments had clung to their desks, begging for the sewer scent instead of this.

She started hallucinating. A gaggle of old women have broken into her apartment, they all have decided to assault her with their mulberry perfume. Spritzing it all over her face and in her nose, she can taste the mulberries as she crawls blindly forward. The window is her only chance, it takes seven years to open the window and when she does the pigeons on the power lines outside take off like animals before an earth quake.

Karai gulps in the polluted New York City air. The smell of car exhaust is a drink of fresh water in comparison to the mulberry orgy in her apartment. She stayed hanging halfway out of her window for a long time, at least long enough process.

This was an act of sabotage.

Karai did not light that candle, but she could think of who would-

“Mother!” she hissed retching her head up and charging back into the mulberry fumes.

There she spotted it on the fridge, a note from her mother saying that she brought over some lasagna and left it in the fridge, she also went ahead and lit the candle Karai had conveniently left out on the counter. The note also said she came back to make sure everything was okay at lunchtime.

Karai had to find a solution, the wet dog scent was gone but at what cost? She lunged for her purse and dug inside for that card and laughed when she found it. Or she cried. She couldn’t be sure if her tears were from the mulberry scent burning layers away from her eyeballs or because there was no fucking number on the card.

It just had the business hours!

She thought he was slipping her his number, but no, she was out of luck. Narrowing her eyes she let the card slip from her finger. This is what that candle man wanted, but she wasn’t just going to stand there and take it. His little shop didn’t close until eight at night and she was going to give him a piece of her mind.

~🕯️_^-o-🕯️_^-o-🕯️~

For the next decade Karai was going to breakdown every time she smelled a mulberry.

After changing her clothes while boiling some eggs and burning a small piece of lasagna in her oven all in attempts to rid her apartment of the mulberries she understood the lesson she was supposed to retain from the childhood story of the old woman who swallowed a fly.

Nothing would rid her apartment of those mulberries, nothing. Not Lysol, not Frebreeze plug-ins. Taping dryer sheets to the blades of her ceiling fan had not been the stroke of genius needed either.

In the end she quarantined the mulberry bomb by duck taping the glass lid onto it once the wax cooled, and then by triple bagging it in three odor locking trash bags.

The looks of disgust that she received on the bus into The Underground suggested there was no odor locking. It actually suggested that the maker of those trash bags thought they would be containing the scent of dirty diapers, not mulberries. Karai wouldn’t know, her nose hair was gone or forever damaged. This was why that turtle mutant was nose blind, it was all the mulberry candles he probably had.

She wasted no time once she got off the bus, she didn’t care that it was getting dark and she was in a mutant heavy area. It was advised for vulnerable groups to stay away from mutants when possible. That was why mutants were candle shop owners not teachers.

Mr. Hamato’s Candle Emporium was still opened, just not for browsing. The door to the rest of the shop was closed trapping irate customers like herself in the lobby. A little cutesy sign on the door said the shop closed at five, but the window was open until eight.

There was no handsome turtle in the window, Karai spammed the bell until he arrived. Her head ached from the scent which only added to her sour mood.

Somehow the well dressed mutant barely flinched at her appearance or the trash bag that was duct taped closed around the mulberry candle. Her eyes betrayed her as she glanced down, yes, the mutant had meaty thighs. Dammit, this is what she got for returning this candle before eating.

“Ah, are you here for a pick-up?” the turtle mutant asked, this time his clothes seemed to fit properly. He wearing a buttoned shirt, it was white with light blue pinstripes. It fit nicely with his blue slacks and black belt. Everything was perfectly ironed.

Dragging he eyes away from how well that shirt fit she blew her hair out of her face. “Does it look like I am here for a pick up?” she asked, gesturing to herself. She may have changed her clothes but her makeup was old. It made her self conscious, seeing how well put together he was.

Not that she would ever get dressed up for him.

“Oh, just dropping off then?” he asked, his deep blue eyes fixating on the bundle of plastic and tape on the counter. Not with any hint of surprise, just quiet resignation, like he knew the mulberry candle was in there.

“No, you have to fix this!” Karai spat. “My apartment smells like someone slathered themselves in mulberries, committed suicide by huffing their fumes, and then cremated themselves in my oven.”

The turtle mutant nodded understandingly, just as the therapist Karai had to see when she was sixteen and started that fire in the girl’s bathroom had. “Well I am very sorry but I did warn you that this mulberry candle would be like-”

“-stubbing out a lit cigarette by dousing yourself in water!?” she cut in, raising her voice. “Well it's not, that abomination-” she pointed aggressively at the candle prompting the turtle mutant to pick it up like the mother of a spoiled child who was rightfully being chewed out by another, better, more competent parent, “- is like waterboarding the smokers extended family! I'll never have to pluck my nose hairs again!”

He gave her a confused look as if there was more to explain. He was cradling the candle through the many trash bags, obviously more concerned about it than her.

“Because they're gone now!” she screamed pointing to her nose.

His eyes lit up. “Oh! Human humor. I get it,” he said with a fond smile.

Not for her joke, no, he was fond that he identified whatever the fuck "human humor" was. Karai didn’t know what "human humor" was and she hung out with some pretty progressive crowds.

“Just tell me how to get the mulberries out!” she yelled once it became clear that he was happy to stand there quietly with a faint smile because he understood her joke finally.

He snapped out of it, his face returning to something more cold and lifeless, he turned to place Karai’s package on the shelf behind him. “Well first I'll need to record this,” he told her gravely.

Karai groaned. It was quarter past seven and she was starving. She didn’t have time to make this into a whole thing. Unlike this turtle mutant she had a life to live. “Really, you're going to stand here and make me tell you the whole story? My mother invited herself in and lit the damn-”

“Ah ah ah!” he said, cutting her off before bending down and disappearing behind the window. He came back up with a typewriter. An actual mechanical typewriter. “Let me set up first,” he said. He walked away from the typewriter and out of sight. Karai heard the metal screech of a file cabinet opened and the Turtle Mutant muttering “mulberry, mulberry, mulberry,” under his breath. When he returned he began threading the paper into the machine.

She finally broke away from her daze. “Is that a fucking typewriter?” she asked.

He looked up and frowned, then he tilted the typewrite so she could see the manufacture’s name embossed on the top. “No it's an IBM typewriter.”

She stared at him. This was hell, she had found it. The entirety of hell was located within this candle shop in New York City.

He chuckled fondly. “Sorry, that was a turtle joke,” he explained setting the dinosaur of a machine back down. “See you called it a-”

“That's-” she started to say before just groaning into her hands. There was no way to reason with him, either he knew what he was doing or he didn’t and Karai really didn’t know what was worse. How was this a business, how did he have customers.

“-and I purposefully acted obtuse believing you were unaware of the makers name-”

“Yes I get it,” she said pulled her face from her hands. “And also that's not a turtle joke!”

The Turtle Mutant pondered this while Karai nearly pulled her own eyelids off. “Oh, well any day you learn something you didn’t know is a day you grow.”

Hell. The definition of Hell.

“Alright, let me just get the date,” he said once he lined up the paper. Karai watched as he used one finger to painfully type out the date.

She really hoped he was just maybe struggling with the numbers and that he would be faster with the actual letters. It was a far reaching hope because the numbers were all in one row and in order. Even people who couldn’t type had a handle on the number row.

“Client’s, Cli-ent’s, Cli… ent’s,” he said slowly over and over again, every time he repeated the word he managed to peck another letter on to the first word. “Oh dear where is the- there! And the... Hmm...”

“Can you not type?” she asked, she was slumped over on the counter with her cheek resting on her hand as she watched the turtle mutant type. His words per minute might actually be in the negatives.

He seemed reluctant to take his eyes away from the keyboard. “Oh I am awful at it,” he said as though it wasn’t painfully obvious. “Sorry this might take a while... there's the "t" always hiding.”

Karai didn’t have this much patience. She started pacing the small lobby when her nose caught a new scent. A pleasant one, one that was hard to ignore. It was the “Candle Of The Day”, it was a new day so she shouldn't have been surprised to see a new candle. The featured candled was snickerdoodle scented, it was a creamy tan color with richer colored swirls. Someone had gone through a lot of effort to make those spirals along the inside of the glass.

She was about to ask who made it, and if she could get a candle like that when the Turtle Mutant interrupted her. “Did you say it was your mother or your mother in law?”

Her shoulders deflated. “Did you seriously only just now finish the word client?” she asked.

The Turtle Mutant broke eye contact, looking away from her.

“It was my mother” she said, and thank goodness because who knew how long they would be there it he had to type mother in law out.

Still, something was sparked in her as she watched him mutter under his breath while searching for his next key. She tried the knob on the door but it was locked.

So like the grown twenty-six year old woman she was, she climbed through the window. The Turtle Mutant did nothing to stop her and nothing to help her, he only stepped to the side while she lowered herself to the ground on the other side of the window and ignored him. She then, in three seconds typed out; “Client’s mother invited themselves into client’s home and lit the candle for eight hours. Candle was returned the next day wrapped in three trash bags.”

The Turtle Mutant read over her shoulder, keeping just enough distance to not touch her. “You are very fast at typing,” he commented.

“Yes I am.”

“Add that the client climbed over the counter,” he said, pointing to the paper.

He could not be serious, she turned her head slowly giving him every opportunity to take what he said back. “Or I can do it-”

Before he could even reach for the keys her fingers danced over the typewriter. “I would like to get home before sunrise,” she said shortly.

“Thank you,” he said.

Karai was taken aback by how genuine that sounded. “I really didn't do it for you,” she said immediately. God forbid she get too close to anyone.

He nodded and she turned around to leave out the door leading back into the lobby, she caught a glimpse of the shop. There were shelves and shelves of candles. There had to be thousands back there.

When she got back to the window, now on the correct side she saw the typewriter was gone and he was placing a new package in the window. It looked like three cylinders wrapped in paper and twine. “Your solution.”

“You wrapped that fast,” she said.

He shook his head. “I wrapped it up after you left yesterday.”

“You knew I would be back?”

“I planned on it,” he said ignoring her shocked expression and turning his attention to the package. “This is twelve tiny, self contained butterscotch pudding candles,” he said running one of his thick green fingers along the twine. Karai couldn't help but notice his perfectly manicured nails. “Place them throughout your apartment and light them. Butterscotch is the natural enemy of mulberry.”

Karai nodded, a little dazed by the idea that scents had enemies. “Please tell me it's not twenty dollars per candle.”

She was a struggling stenographer, emphasis on struggling.

The turtle mutant shook his head. “Per package,” he clarified. “You owe me five dollars.”

Karai was confused, cocking her head.

“I purchased the mulberry candle back for fifteen dollars so you have a credit here,” he said gesturing to the shop. “These will only cost you five dollars.”

Knowing that price did not include tax she pulled out six wrinkly bills and handed them over. “Keep the change,” she added.

“I was going to,” he said, opening the till off to the side and depositing her bills.

She took the package and started to turn away. “Well thanks for-”

The sound of a piece of paper being whipped about held her back, she turned to see the turtle mutant had a piece of paper in front on him. “It was the year 2003-”

Her stomach sank, no, no, no, when would the insanity stop. Not another history sheet. Who the fuck keeps history about candles and also decides to read that history every time a purchase happens? “I don't want to hear you read this-”

He abruptly stopped. “Oh, of course, you want a copy for yourself” he said, nodding a few times before disappearing. If Karai had been smart she would have slipped out right then, that had been her chance. Instead the turtle mutant returned carrying a terrifying device. “My brother built this when he was twelve,” he said as if that in anyway explained anything.

The thing had a saw blade on it. “Uh…”

“It copies things,” he said sounding unsure. “I believe.” He frowned. “Good thing I brought the manual with me,” he said holding up a huge book. “This might take a moment-”

Karai stepped forward and put her hand on top of the book, forcing him to lower it until it was on the counter. “Just… read me the fucking piece of paper.”

He nodded. “It was the year 2003 when a large standing candle cylindrical candle was manufacturer in Delaware…”

Karai didn’t get back to her apartment until nine o’clock. It turned out that had been page one of twenty one total pages detailing the complex history of how he made twelve identical butterscotch pudding candles from other repurposed candles.

Chapter Text

【The Crushed Ants on a Cold Morning Candle】

~October 23rd, 2010~

Mr. Hamato’s Candle Emporium was open seven days a week from eight in the morning to five in the evening. They closed for an hour and a half between eleven thirty and one for lunch. The service window stayed open until eight at night, but the floor closed at five. She had memorized the schedule still to the current day.

Karai had walked by the shop seven times. Every time she almost went inside her anxiety spiked. She considered bringing the butterscotch pudding candles back and returning them. The only issue was that she had rather liked them.

The other issue was it had been three weeks since she got the candles so it was far too late to say the candles had done their job. Really, Karai still burned a candle every evening. It made her apartment feel nicer, it made it smell better than just the absence of wet dog smell. It made it her home. She also knew that once she returned the candles she would have no real reason to come back to the shop.

So of course she had to have a cover story, if she didn’t have an iron tight backstory the ripped turtle mutant would interrogate her and discover her intentions were actually not candle related. Hell, he might strip her of her clothes right there and ravish her with his tongue.

Who knew what horrible thing he might do to her, he probably knew his way around hot wax and would tie her down, naked and exposed below some dripping candles until she came clean and admitted her true intentions for coming in that day.

Or that was maybe a certain reoccurring erotic dream she kept having.

Either way she couldn’t risk it.

So her excuse was she wanted to delve into aromatherapy. She wanted a candle to light while taking a bath. At first she had been mad at the poodle mutant (who had a name, it was Glenn, but if was hard to say Glenn with the level of distaste saying poodle mutant could) for taking so many baths…

Even so.

Karai had to admit the tub was pretty amazing. It was one of those things humans ran into when renting apartments that used to house mutants. Their appliances met their needs so when the tenant before the poodle mutant was a snake mutant that needed to soak for shedding, Leatherhead had installed the large tub and claimed the expenses as tax delectable (while also conveniently increasing the market value of the apartment.)

Karai thought the word tub was insulting. It was more like a small pool, easily three or four people could fit in there. Besides being deep, it had jets in the walls of it and underwater lights. It was dark gray with silver flecks so it looks very pretty filled with water. Of course using it made her water bill go up but it was worth it. She felt like a goddess in that tub.

There were little area’s on the tub that were like cup holders, circular indentations that were too shallow to be soap dishes but not really large enough to hold a glass. After asking Leatherhead he gave her the instruction manual for the tub (something that would have been helpful a month ago when she moved it but whatever), and what did Karai see on the cover of the user manual? That’s right, candles. Go figure her bathtub was made to have several candle places around it to create that full therapeutic effect.

Her fingers touched the spine of the user manual as she passed the candle shop for the ninth time. It was important she had packed that, she used her laptop case deciding to leave her laptop at home. The evidence of her reasoning was needed when the unnamed handsome turtle mutant demanded proof from her, he might press her against the wall.

Okay so she was hopelessly attracted to the guy.

Who wouldn’t be?

It made Karai wonder if there was anyway he was single.

There was only one way to find out, she came to a halt in front of the shop. She adjusted the strap of her bag and went inside, leaning against the stiff door.

Karai didn’t know if she was unlucky or lucky to find that upstairs at the window the handsome turtle mutant was happily chatting with a tiny dog mutant. She was elderly, pug mutant somewhere in her blood. Her face was white and her paws were a creamy mocha color. Her dress looked like the pattern Karai would more likely see on a couch, flowery and bright. Her hands quaking as she clasped her brown paper and twine package.

Good thing too, Karai would be heart broken to find out if she wasn’t the only one to find this turtle mutant tucked away in his little shop. He must be a magnet for chicks whenever he goes outside.

She slipped by and into the store.

For the first time Karai realized she has no idea how old the turtle mutant was. For humans the signs of aging were easier. Wrinkles, loss of hair, loss of color in their hair if it stuck around. Crows feet around the eyes. For mutants of the mammal variety it was also hair loss, whitening of the fur and whiskers.

The aging signs of reptile mutants was something Karai wasn’t versed in.

New York had a lot of rat mutants, mouse mutants, pigeon mutants, and humans. Those were the top four demographics in New York City. It was the tourism the city saw that made it appear more diverse. In reality humans made up forty percent of all residence in the city, rat mutants made up twenty percent, pigeon mutants made up eleven percent, and mouse mutants made up nine percent. The remaining ten percent was filled by the grand diversity of all the other mutants that only made up decimal amounts. If Karai could remember some of the more far reaching facts about New York City she did remember that the next largest group was squirrel mutants. They made up zero point three percent and they were the biggest group after Mouse Mutants.

This data doesn’t mean much of anything, but it means if a human wants to be a lawyer in New York City, their counselors will push them to take classes in Rodent Lifestyle. Representing mouse mutant families and rat mutant families means understanding their dynamics so they can be represented fully in the court of law. Lawyers who take those classes can advertise themselves to that demographic, it’s the one way mutants can get some representation in courts. If they find a lawyer that knows their demographic that lawyer will be able to give the jury and the judge a better picture.

A better picture means a fairer sentence.

Now, in New York City if you aren’t a mutant in the rodent family good luck getting a lawyer who will understand, and good luck convincing a jury of anything.

Ask the jury who decided it was completely okay to prune leaves off a plant mutant. If a doctor got away with cutting the fingers off a human there would be protests outside the courtroom.

Or at least one really angry Facebook Group.

Karai pushed those thoughts away choosing instead to actually appreciate the magical feeling of the Emporium. Even if she had no idea how old that turtle mutant was, he did know how to display candles. It wasn’t a good marker for his age, but Karai was okay with believing he was close enough to her age that it wouldn’t be weird. She was twenty six. He didn’t look that much older.

But he was a turtle mutant and turtle mutants can live for up to one hundred and eighty years. Most of Karai’s history professor’s had been old turtle mutants. Nothing like hearing about certain political events from someone who was there… a hundred and thirty years ago.

Those turtle mutants had very rounded shells and wrinkly necks. Their heads wobbled and they talked slow. The turtle mutant who was still chatting with the elderly pug mutant (who was telling him all about how she would be seeing her grandpuppies two weeks from now) was tight skinned and had vibrant emerald green scales. He talked quickly and moved swiftly.

He was also ripped.

Had Karai mentioned how muscular he was?

He had to be around her age.

The first thing Karai noted about the store was the fact that there were about a million candles. Okay, so she was exaggerating. Seriously though, the foundation for the second floor must have been amazing to hold the weight of all the wax. There were three bay windows that looked out over the street and Karai was drawn to them. Mr. Hamato’s Candle Emporium had no windows at street view so these displays were lost on anyone walking by. The windows were too high up.

Yet someone went through the effort to put out little scenes.

There was a goddamn Candle Thanksgiving happening in the center window. There were display props. A tiny wooden table and tiny wooden chairs. The candles were all about three to four inches tall and had wire legs and arms to make them into Candle People. Along the sides, but not to obstruct the window, as if the person crafting the display recognized that no one would see it from outside but had wanted to keep the illusion that it was a window display, some seasonal candles were stacked. With Thanksgiving on the way there were some scents the turtle mutant was trying to sell. Apple pie, pumpkin, hickory, cranberry, for some reason burning leaves was selling very quickly with only one candle left among many vacant spots.

Burning leaves.

Karai suddenly stood up straight in realization of something.

When Karai was a freshman in college her roommate was an anteater mutant. Her name was Violet and she had the most awful smelling candle that she brought to their dorm one day. It was a cultural clash and for years since that day Karai had always wondered where the fuck someone even gets an ant-scented candle.

This had to be the place.

Of course Violet didn’t just walk into a Bed Bath and Body and meander down the aisle to find an ant-scented candle. That was a very niche scent that a very small number of beings actually wanted.

Karai knew that ant-scented candle was here. She was close to it. She didn’t remember it’s name but she remember it was in a glass container with little black ants painted on it.

The search was on.

The shop was large and overwhelming, Karai could only assume that this building wasn’t actually made for commercial use. It felt more like a duplex where the upstairs was a shop and the downstairs might have been an apartment. The upstairs didn’t have any rooms. There was one room labeled “Employees Only”, but other than that the shop was a huge room with high floor-to-ceiling shelves along the walls. There were some shorter shelves, relative to the turtle mutant’s height but for Karai she struggled to see over them. She wished she had worn her heels.

After speed walking through the shop she didn’t find any insect scented categories.

“Shit,” she cursed under her breath, she would have to ask the turtle mutant for help.

“Our fecal scents are kept in the cabinet over this way,” the turtle mutant spoke with no hint of joking about such a thing.

Karai turned around hiding the fact that he nearly scared something fecal scented out of her. She would think a mutant so large would make more noise but he seemed to have just appeared out of thin air.

“Right, I suppose they would clash with the other scents,” she said trying to hide her nerves.

It was so weird she was this nervous, she was never nervous. She had almost been a lawyer, she could talk to a room full of a hundred peers and this turtle mutant was making her legs wobbly. He made her feel like she was seven and begging her mom to take her home from the Junior Beauty Pageant. The ones her older sister always won but Karai never did because she never smiled or held herself like a lady should.

She just felt anxious. Why did he have to be so hot? Why did she want him to be impressed by her?

He beckoned her to follow him and she did. Turtle mutants didn’t have butts really, and from the back he was mostly shell, he still had a pleasing form. She wondered what color his shell was. His scales were green but she couldn’t tell what species of turtle he was.

He was likely mixed.

Most mutants were.

Together they approached the cabinet and the turtle mutant reached into his pocket retrieving a bundle of keys. Quickly Karai put her hand on his to stop him from opening the cabinet. This startled the turtle mutant, he looked at their hands and Karai quickly retracted hers.

His hands had a nice smooth texture. Those were well cared for scales.

“I was actually looking for an ant scented candle,” she said awkwardly combing her fingers through her hair.

The turtle mutant studied her for a second before walking away abruptly. Karai followed not sure why he looked so concerned.

He lead her to a shelf with a curtain over it and pulled it back.

Karai immediately understood.

These were controversial candle scents.

Names like freshly mowed grass and fish market could be seen. The turtle mutant picked up a candle next to the one labeled steaming clam chowder and handed it to her. She felt cold and horrible for asking about the ant scented candle, she had obviously offended him. Coming into his shop as a human asking for a candle that was scented like another mutant?

He probably thought she was disgusting now.

Karai immediately knew this was the candle Violet had all those years ago. Crushed ants on a cold morning was a name not easily forgotten once her memory was jogged. Not knowing how to leave the situation gracefully Karai nodded. “This is the one.”

The Turtle Mutant took the candle and walked up to the front of the store and Karai let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding in.

She had just fucked up.

What the fuck was she doing.

“Wait, Mr. Hamato,” she called catching up with him. “It’s not what you think-”

“It is okay,” he said warmly. “Many mutants and humans suffer from formicidaephilia.”

Karai blinked.

“The first step is to stop buying ant remains and huffing the fumes. Here at Mr. Hamato’s Candle Emporium we have a large selection of cruelty free candles,” he said resting his hand on her shoulder making her chest tickle. He turned the candle to show a yellow sticker on the back, it read; no ants were crushed in the making of this candle.

“Oh, that’s oddly specific wording,” she said frowning and also wondering why the fuck she said that.

Mr. Hamato (she assumed that was his name, he had responded to it) read the label and removed his hand from her shoulder. Karai sort of hoped he’d put that hand down her shirt but instead he tapped the label, and that was fine, she guessed.

“Because technically there’s a difference between saying no ants were harmed and no ants were harmed in this one specific way,” she said while he muttered the disclaimer to himself.

He nodded then very slowly looked over her head back at the other candles. “Do you think perhaps there is a chance all of the warning labels are worded in such a way?” he asked.

Karai didn’t really like the chill that was suddenly forming in the air and prickling her skin, she turned around feeling like there was an ax murderer behind her. Hopefully Mr. Hamato’s bulging biceps would be enough to save them both.

Together they quietly edged forward to read the labels.

~🕯️_^-o-🕯️_^-o-🕯️~

Eight hours later it was raining extremely hard. The wind was blowing and whipping her raincoat around violently, threatening to yank her umbrealla away. The umbrella wasn't doing her any good anyways it was almost raining sideways. She watch Mr. Hamato stripped of everything but his black slacks (held up with suspenders) and shoes. From the knee down his pants were caked in mud. He stomped on the ground breathing hard.

Karai held the lantern watching with a distant expression, mostly questioning her life.

Sixty seven candles had been buried here tonight, in this field somewhere in the state of New York. Karai wasn’t sure why she joined him, why she indulged his need to bury all the candles with the labels that clearly took advantage of some loophole in order to call themselves cruelty free. There was no logical reason to help him, someone she barely knew, load up his trunk with all the bad candles so he could bury them.

Not once had her instincts told her it was a bad idea. Even when they had drove for two hours, even when he spent four hours digging the mass grave they were currently standing above.

There was something about this mutant.

There was something about Mr. Hamato that she couldn’t place. She just knew he was a rare thing, an anomaly. A very passionate shop owner who kept history sheets about candles. Even when he was forced to dispose of candles in a mass grave he said goodbye to each and everyone. He even forgave the candles for their transgressions in life.

Karai guessed their transgressions were existing with unethically sourced scents.

After the deed was done they walked back to Mr. Hamato’s car trying to shield their faces from the worst of the weather. He blew out the lantern and put his shovel back in the trunk. Rain pattered violently on the roof of the blue car and Karai sat with her thoughts until Mr. Hamato returned.

They sat for a second just idling on the side of the dirt road next to the field. He turned the heat on full blast. They were soaked to the bone, tracking mud everywhere inside of his car and getting the seats wet.

This was the best day she had had in a long time.

“You’re a very strange mutant, Mr. Hamato,” she spoke finally, her fingers in the heat vents, still numb from the cold.

When she looked over he was smiling just a little, his face illuminated for a second from the light of a passing car. “Leo,” he said.

“Karai,” she said back.

It was one hell of a way to learn each other’s names.

“You want to go to Denny’s?” she asked.

Leo gave her a confused glance. “It’s midnight.”

“Yeah,” Karai agreed. “That’s why I said Denny’s, where else am I going to get crappy breakfast food at midnight in the middle of nowhere?”

~🕯️_^-o-🕯️_^-o-🕯️~

They ate pancakes at one in the morning at the first Denny’s they saw which only confirmed that the crappy restaurant was like the Room of Requirements in Harry Potter. Whether you were a hungry drunk person, or someone who just committed candlecide, if you needed a Denny’s, there would be one nearby.

Also, Karai worked at a Denny’s for two years. She knew how dirty the food was, how much the health inspectors didn’t care, and she also knew there was a good chance none of the tables had been wiped down in a week.

Mr. Hamato, who preferred to be called Leo had a change of clothes in his car so after they ordered he got dressed in the restroom and offered her his dry jacket.

Karai did take the jacket, she was freezing cold. Leo’s jacket was very expensive looking and feeling. Karai had spent a long time in court rooms. She knew what a Klunk™ design was and those clothes were not cheap. The jacket was a deep coffee brown and the interior was slippery soft. It was horribly large on her and very heavy. The tight wool fabric blend was top of the line but meant to trap in body heat while looking thin.

This was a two thousand dollar jacket.

Looking closely at everything Leo was wearing Karai took note that all his clothes were designer. All likely Klunk™, the top designer of clothes for mutants. This confused Karai as Leo didn’t seem rich, not rich enough to be causally wearing what had to be over eight thousand dollars worth of clothing. More if his shoes were also by Klunk™.

“Are you a lawyer?” Leo asked, dabbing a piece of his pancake into some blueberry syrup.

“No,” Karai said. “Why do you ask?”

“You mentioned that legal loophole, and you dress the type?” he said uncertainly.

She took mild offense to that, she had never came in wearing a pantsuit or toting a suitcase.

“My brother-in-law said you work in the courthouse, sorry,” he added. “I don’t mean to pry.”

Karai loosened up, tried to pull the stick out of her ass. It still stung, she had been pretty close to being a lawyer. So close to being someone instead of no one. “No, I’m a stenographer,” she said. He kept looking at her probably unfamiliar with the term. “When someone goes to court they need to have someone record in real time what’s being said. Being a stenographer is a fancy way to say I sit in the corner of the room with my laptop and type everything that’s said. I even note body language but when humans and mutants are on the stand I also have to make sure they answer things verbally.”

Leo nodded. “I wondered how you were so fast at typing,” he said.

“I was wondering how you are so slow at it,” Karai said back and really she knew it was too soon to be snarky with Leo. He barely knew her and the last time thought she was making human humor.

“Well, I am a turtle,” he said with a mirrored snark.

She knew better than to ask what kind of turtle. That was like asking a human what their race was. It really didn’t matter, but there were still prejudices. Especially towards snapping turtles. Seeing his shell hadn't helped narrow it down either. His front-plate, she didn't know what he called it, had a beautiful pattern.

Karai hummed around a mouthful of food. “I’ve seen sloth mutants type faster than you.”

He smiled a little at that. “Perhaps you could teach me how to type?” he suggested.

Oh, the way he asked that. She allowed herself to fantasize about Leo fucking her right here on that sticky table in the middle of a Denny’s before clearing her throat awkwardly. She had to get a handle of herself. “Let me see your hand,” she said reaching across the table.

Leo raised an eye but gave her his hand. They were huge and beautiful in their own way. His nails were neatly trimmed. Karai examined his hand, flipping it over a few times before sucking on her teeth. “I see the problem,” she said giving Leo a sympathetic look. “You see here,” she said holding on to his first finger. “Very thick, keys are tiny. You are a lost cause.”

“What a shame,” Leo sighed. “And to think I spent my entire childhood believing I would grow up to be the world’s fastest typer.”

“That’s a stupid dream,” she said.

“Oh, and you have a better one?” he asked disbelieving.

Well, that was a sensitive subject. When Karai was a little girl she wanted to write stories about far away places. Her mother told her she needed to be more realistic. It was a lot to swallow as an eight year old. She took a sip of her now warm coffee. “You caught me, I was projecting because that was also my childhood dream.”

Leo’s smile faltered for a second, Karai might have imagined it. “Well you helped me with my problem allow me to help you with yours,” he said.

She pulled his insanely expensive and unexplained jacket around herself more. “My problem?” she asked, genuinely at a loss.

It was also one in the morning and they still had an hour drive back into the city. She also had to be in court at eight in the morning, she was so looking forward to that.

“Your formicidaephilia,” he said.

Karai groaned. “I don’t have whatever that is-”

“As your friend,” Leo said. “I want you to know that I am here for you-”

Instead of indulging this further she reached for her laptop bag next to her and pulled out the user manual for her bathtub. “I don’t have that, I wanted to find some candles that could be used like this,” she said pointing to the picture on the front.

Leo slid the manual closer. “Ah what a marvelous tub. Yes a few rose water candles would be perfect.”

She nodded like she was following along with his train of thought but really she knew nothing of what scents would be best.

“However they would need to be custom made, candles made for bathing around tend to capture all sorts of bacteria. I am not comfortable buying those back. I can have my brother-in-law put an order form in your mailbox.”

“Thanks,” Karai said, taking the manual back and putting it is her bag.

“And if you ever decide you need help for that other thing-”

“I’m not attracted to ants,” she said sternly.

Leo sipped his ice water, because he didn’t like coffee and they didn't have tea. “Denial only hurts you,” he said shaking his head.

Karai slumped down in her seat, her foot brushing against his under the table. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said.

They sat in a sticky Denny’s until the rain let up and neither of them ever addressed the fact that their feet were touching under the table. Tapping each other lightly back and forth.

Chapter Text

【The Rose Water Candles】

~October 30th, 2010~

The nice thing about her apartment building was her mail was placed in a tiny locker in the lobby that she could access through a combination lock. No worrying about package thieves. And as Leo had promised there was an order form in her mailbox within a day. It just so happened Leo’s order form wasn’t the only thing in her mailbox. There was also a card from her older sister, Miwa.

Karai ripped the envelope open with her teeth as she walked upstairs to her floor of the building. Germs couldn’t touch her as she already had the sniffles from her endeavor with Leo in the freezing rain. The end of October was wet and cold and Karai had been stupid to think that she would escape without getting ill. She wasn’t a doctor but she was moderately sure illnesses didn’t stack, or at least in her opinion that was how it was suppose to work.

The card from her sister was one of those professionally made ones with the family photos tiled together on the front. Miwa was older than Karai by seven years and had her life way more put together than Karai did. Even though Miwa was thirty-four and Karai was twenty-six their mother talked like they were twins.

Their mother specifically talked like Karai was the problem twin.

Entering her apartment she realized with dread that since the last time her mother had visited she hadn’t even purchased any actual furniture. Her apartment was not fit for guests, and her mother who was used to a lavish lifestyle would be quick to point out Karai’s apartment and find a way to somehow bring up the furniture Miwa had in her house. She would also emphasize that Miwa lived in a house that she owned with her husband, a man. The only thing Karai had really added to her apartment were those twelve Butterscotch Pudding Candles, ten of which were stored away, the remaining two were on her desk (she found it nice to write with a lit candle nearby.)

Other than that she had her bed, two lawn chairs as living room furniture, a stool next to the kitchen counter where she ate. (Or where she pretended to eat, really it was usually in the living room watching those strange addiction shows if not to just feel a little better about her own life. Sure she was a colossal fuck up but she wasn’t a drywall eating fuck up.)

She had things in storage, dorm furniture. She had no excuse to not have furniture in her apartment. It was just everything in her storage locker had memories of… a person who was no longer in her life.

Karai stopped procrastinating on opening the card, she found what she had excepted. An invitation to Thanksgiving dinner.

As a family who was very Japanese in its roots (with maybe a little Chinese on her mom’s side) but born in America, they did celebrate the strange holiday. In the end it was less about what Thanksgiving stood for and more of a hunting ground for feeling out how tense Christmas would be. The Oroku’s were a large family. Karai had many uncles and aunts from both her father and her mother, she had a lot of cousins she had never met, and even more step siblings. Their reunions were so large they had to rent restaurants out… which for Karai’s father was no issue.

So Miwa had some balls to invite Karai to her own private dinner with just her and her husband's family.

It made Karai wonder what she had missed by ignoring her mother’s phone calls. Miwa was her favorite daughter and she was refusing to go to the celebration their father put together. She bit her lower lip in a childish way resorting back to some old and tired anxiety, even Karai, the outcast of the family knew that was a war you just didn’t win with their mom. What was Miwa thinking?

She placed the card off to the side, she really didn’t want to have to choose between her mother’s wrath and her older sister. Sure Miwa was mommy’s star child, Miwa could never do wrong in her eyes, but Miwa also stood up for Karai to their mom all the time.

It wouldn’t be an easy decision.

Miwa lives in Maine, mother wasn’t a drop-in away for her.

~🕯️_^-o-🕯️_^-o-🕯️~

Sure there was a return address on the form, and sure she could have mailed the form to Leo but it had been a week since she last saw him and her sniffles were over with.

The Underground was also on her way home… if she took the long way home by going the complete opposite direction of her apartment building.

She also had to be clear that she was only there to drop off the form, not to hang around and make small talk. Nope. And she didn’t touch up her hair and make-up in the bathroom at work before leaving because she was seeing Leo.

And she didn’t wear her tightest pencil skirt for him either.

Nope, it was all coincidental.

As soon as she entered the shop she smelled wood. Cedar, something very strong and Karai scrunched her nose up as she entered the lobby upstairs. Sure enough the Candle of the Day was a termite mutant favorite: freshly cut cedar.

Yuck.

She rang the bell at the window to summon her hunkalicious turtle flavored eye candy, she put her briefcase on the window and pulled out her form while she waited. During their dinner at Denny’s Leo had called her his friend which meant the gloves were off.

It was high time she got back out there in the world.

Instead she was startled to see a different Turtle Mutant at the window. He wasn’t like Leo, he was darker. A forest green color. He had green eyes and a really angry face. He scowled at her and her briefcase.

“Who you?” he asked.

“Not your English teacher obviously.”

He tilted his head and a membrane covered his eyes, making them appear milky grey in color. “Want tuh repeat that?”

Karai suddenly remembered wear she was. She was in The Underground, the one place in New York City famous for its mutant population being vehemently anti-human.

“Raphael,” Leo said kindly, coming up beside the seething turtle mutant and patting him on the back. “Weren’t you just leaving?” he asked forcefully.

Raphael turned to look down at Leo in confusion his inner eyelids disappearing, “I jus’ got here why would I-”

Leo cleared his throat and nodded his head at Karai. “I have a customer.”

The other turtle looked back at Karai, she still felt uneasy. She thought Leo was a large turtle mutant but this guy was bigger and his shell was sharper. Those were spikes under that slate blue jumpsuit. This guy was part snapping turtle mutant. “Oh!” he said eyes widening like he was recognizing Karai suddenly. He smacked Leo in the chest. “Oh,” he repeated while nodding, a wicked smile spreading over his face. “Gotcha.”

Leo pushed Raphael to leave, he did.

Karai got a full look at him as he came out the door. Whoever this was, he was a mechanic, and he was a scary looking. He had a long tail that trailed out of the back of his jumpsuit, down the spine there were two rows of tiny spikes. He was now smiling at her which was somehow worse.

He left and Karai’s heart would forever be a little out of rhythm.

Then to make matters worse he came back in holding his hand up in surrender because Leo was glaring at him like he wasn’t a dinosaur. “Her?” he asked in disbelief while pointing at Karai.

Talk about feeling like she was on the spot.

“Raph!”

“Okay! Okay! Yeesh!” he said raising his hands and backing out of the lobby. “I see why ya got your tail in a knot,” he mumbled as he walked down the creaking staircase.

Leo was very flustered when she looked back at him, hopefully she would no longer have to compete for his undivided attention.

“Who was that?” she asked trying to find her groove again, knees a little wobbly.

“No one,” Leo said quickly.

Karai raised an eyebrow and Leo broke.

“He’s my brother,” he admitted.

She held her tongue, Leo didn’t look like he had any snapping turtle mutant in him. Their scale colors weren’t close, and Leo obviously had a much smaller tail if he was able to wear pants. The phone rang saving the awkward silence.

Leo picked the phone up of the receiver and then slammed it down, all while staring at Karai. She again gave him a confused look.

“Family,” he said, as the phone rang again and he repeated the answering and immediate hanging up. “Calling during business hours. Very unprofessional.” Karai nodded, but every time he hung up the phone it just rang again. “I’m going to unplug the phone.”

He disappeared behind the window and Karai pushed herself up to lean over the dividing wall. She watched him crawl under the table, the phone ringing loudly as he searched for the plug. “You could be unprofessional with me,” she said teasingly.

Leo pulled his head up so fast it impacted the underside of the table with a sharp cracking noise. Karai smirked as he came up to look at her a little lost, the end of the phone line rolling between his fingers while his other hand carefully touched the back of his head.

He stood up and she felt her soul leave her body as he gripped her shoulders and gently guided her back to her side of the window. “You don't have to climb through the window again, the door is open,” he said while Karai dreamily thought of Leo pulling her through the window and sticking his tongue straight down her throat.

She would let him, she bet he tasted great.

“Is that an invitation to come back there?” she asked.

Turtle mutants can blush apparently. “Oh, I see you brought the form back,” Leo said looking down at the counter instead of at her.

“Nice cop out,” she said handing him the paper.

Leo chose to ignore these remarks instead turning his focus on the paper. “This looks correct.”

“I'm good at filling things out,” Karai said while subtly pressing her chest forward. Her shirt was tight and maybe she was wearing a bra that did her a few favors.

Leo looked at her boobs and then suddenly at her face like he just discovered the answer to life’s greatest mystery. “Because you're a courtroom stenographer!” he exclaimed while pointing to the form. “Oh this all makes so much sense!”

Her face fell. “What?”

“It's just you have been acting very strange,” Leo said earnestly. “Trying to get me to act unprofessional, leaning over the window to see what I am doing, asking about my brother,” he took her hand and cradled it in his two large ones. Fuck she was failing her prime objective and getting a tickle in her chest from just his hands. “Your job must be very stressful, hard to separate work life from personal life. I understand. Often I go home and immediately I have to meditate. Find my center. Or else it's just candles, and wax, and those wicks that need to be cut for the new orders.”

Karai blinked a few times, in her lust for Leo she forgot the first rule.

He wasn’t normal.

“You’re right,” she said because flirting was like telling a joke, if she had to explain it then she didn’t do a very good job with it.

Leo tragically let go of her hand and Karai wondered how weird it would be if she tried to smell it once he looked away. “Well these Rose Water Candles will promote relaxation.”

That was good. Maybe Leo had a candle that would promote not being a horny mess. “Right, thank you,” she said deciding to close her briefcase and maybe button up her shirt now that her flirting had failed so hard. “When can I expect them to be ready?”

Leo pondered this. “Well usually it’s five to ten business days…” he said slowly. “You should read the things you fill out-” he said pointing to where it said how long orders took.

No, she wouldn’t leave. Dammit, Karai was going to flirt her ass off. She pulled the form down seductively. “I did,” she said while fluttering her eyelashes. “It's just, I've been so dirty lately and a bath with those candles would-”

“Nonsense, you look beautiful,” Leo said with a warm smile. “I'm sure you're bathing regularly.”

Karai sighed and let her head hang down, nope, she was done.

“As I was saying,” Leo continued tapping the form. “It usually take ten to five business day but for a friend...”

There was hope Karai realized, the second time Leo had called her his “friend.” (She would prefer the word “girl” before it though.)

“…five to eight business days,” he finished.

“Five to eight?” she asked.

Leo nodded. “It’s the least I can do.”

“Well, thanks,” Karai muttered. She stood up straighter and pulled her brief case off the counter. “What do I owe you?”

“I will know when the order is done, is there a number I can reach you by?” he asked… while pulling out his fucking typewriter.

That hardly mattered though because Leo the handsome candle maker, re-homer, and sometimes disposer thereof, was asking for her number. And when he called her with her order confirmation she would have his number.

Her flirting had been successful.

~🕯️_^-o-🕯️_^-o-🕯️~

Leo was a turtle mutant, Karai realized this at three in the morning.

She had of course already known that but she also knew there were cultural differences not only between humans and mutants but mutants and mutants.

Turtle mutants could have their own ways of garnering the attention of their mates. What if it wasn’t her flirting that was wrong? What if she was just approaching Leo the wrong way?

She got up to get her laptop. There was no hope in going to bed, something was wrong. Leo had flirted back with her at Denny’s and now he was suddenly obtuse? It didn’t add up. Or maybe he hadn’t been flirting with her at all, maybe turtle mutants played footsie with their casual friends?

She hoped it was something like that, there were bird mutants that would only accept dates from suitors who offered them a collection of blue colored things. Karai wold collect anything to win Leo’s heart but Google didn’t bring back anything useful except sex tips for humans dating reptile mutants. At this rate she would never need those.

The obvious solution was to just ask Leo on a date to somewhere other than Denny’s.

Karai groaned, like that was going to happen.

~🕯️_^-o-🕯️_^-o-🕯️~

Miwa went no-contact with their parents.

Miss Perfect was tired of being micromanaged and blocked their mom’s number, banned her from visiting, and warned that there would be consequences for breaking these rules.

“Why?” Karai asked.

“It’s still early so keep it to yourself” Miwa warned her voice crackling through the receiver. “I missed my period last week, I guess once I saw those two lines on the stick I decided I don’t want my child to have a toxic grandmother. I thought if things go well and I make it past the first trimester I would finally cut her off. I don’t want my son or daughter around her, she’s a narcissist.”

Karai rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “That’s a little extreme.”

“Narcissistic Personality Disorder describes our mother, I’m not a psychologist but I have colleagues who are. She’s an overgrown child and she only cares about herself.”

“Okay, maybe you have a point but you aren’t through your first trimester even and you cut her off?” Karai pressed.

Miwa sighed, it made Karai miss her big sister, she missed the times when she was ten and she could go to Miwa's room and Miwa would listen to all her ten year old concerns. She wished she could come visit her in person but a trip to Maine wasn’t in the budget.

“Well I realized my logic was flawed. I don’t like my mother, I moved to Maine to get away from her. So Hun and I wouldn’t have to deal with the surprise visits or orders to come to her house. I don’t need a baby to finally cut her off, so I decided I’ll do it now. Even if the pregnancy doesn’t take. I want this. Separate from everything else I want to be free from her.”

There was no argument, Karai would love to just cut off her mother but it wouldn’t be easy. “I can’t make it to your Thanksgiving,” she said. “Money is tight and I don’t cash the checks dad sends me to alleviate his guilt from the divorce.”

“It’s okay Karai, I’m not our mother, I’m not going to take it personally.”

She played with the net cup holder on her living room lawn chair. “She made a copy of the key to my apartment,” she admitted. “I can’t get it back.”

“Landlords can have the locks changed for a small fee usually,” Miwa suggested. “You don’t have to cut her off too, the last thing I want is to make you choose between her and me.”

“Yeah, but the great thing is now I have to,” Karai groaned. “I was sitting in on a divorce hearing today, do you remember their divorce?”

Miwa had been eighteen, Karai had been eleven. They waited until Miwa was an adult so they wouldn’t ruin her, Karai was already a fuck up at age eleven so it didn’t matter.

“I remember Karai, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, me too.”

~🕯️_^-o-🕯️_^-o-🕯️~

An automated message.

There went the idea that she would get some sort of personal phone number of Leo’s. The shop used some third party alert system to send out messages to customers that their candles were ready. The world was very cruel.

Leo did her order inside two days though, Karai had been surprised by that. He had acted like completing the order inside of eight days would be difficult. This was a sign that he was deeply in love with her, Karai was certain.

She also had a knew tactic on how to make Leo understand that she was interested romantically.

Instead of wearing something so form fitting she just went for a nice pair of blue jeans and a long black coat. It was more comfortable and Leo, a turtle mutant, was probably less boob hungry than a potential human partner. Karai wasn’t sure if there was a good way to make herself more appealing to Leo. He had called her beautiful, but he probably called all his customers beautiful or something.

Ringing the bell at the window did not reward her with a handsome turtle mutant prize. She seriously needed help, she heard a bike bell ring outside of her apartment once and looked out her window on the third story expecting Leo to be there, on the ledge like a ninja.

Which in turn prompted Karai to fantasize about a ninja version of Leo who only wore the bare minimum amount of clothing… and all of it was leather.

Seeing as the bell wasn’t bringing her snack to her, she would have to enter the shop at look around for him. Not that she minded, she had the afternoon off to get her order and maybe if she could clear her head she would write something. (Or more likely she would just watch TV and fret over the whole Thanksgiving drama that had yet to fully hit the fan.)

Leo was towards the back of the shop sweeping, completely lost in his own world. Karai cleared her throat and he spun around. He was dressed as he always was, perfectly formal but still casual. Fuck, he could even pull off a sweater vest.

“Oh!” he exclaimed clutching his broom before bowing just slightly. “Apologies, I was sweeping. My parents are coming to America for the holidays and my father will want to see the shop. I can't have a single thing out of place!”

The candle shop looked really clean, the floors were shiny and even the glass jarred candles were sparkling. “The place looks immaculate,” Karai said running her finger over the freshly polished shelves and Leo beamed on happy to hear he was good at… stress cleaning. “I got your completely impersonal robotic voicemail about my order being ready.”

“My little brother helped me set that up,” Leo said completely missing the point of her mentioning that it was impersonal. “I tend to get caught into conversation traps with some of my elderly customers.”

He propped his broom up against one of the shelves and beckoned her to follow him to the front of the shop. “I would love to be trapped in anything with you,” she muttered under her breath.

“They have so many granddaughters and then the granddaughters come in here and I try to sell them candles and then they don't want candles,” Leo explained and she did not go back into the lobby she followed him into his little room behind the window. “And then they leave without candles and then I have to tell the candles it's not them, it's me.”

Carefully Karai looked from Leo to the candles behind her, he was staring off at them with some distant sadness. “Are you having a mental breakdown?” she asked, because if he was, she was cool with it. She was honestly on the verge of having one herself.

“No, but I might need to pencil one in.”

“You can't plan ahead for a mental breakdown.”

Leo ignored this instead he went about reading the labels on the packages until he found hers.

“So your dad is coming to town, huh?” she asked desperate to keep the conversation rolling.

“Yes, he's the owner,” Leo said placing her order in the window.

That came as a surprise to Karai she had assumed he owned the shop his name was on the sign. “I thought you were,” she said without realizing how that might sound.

“No, I run the shop since he moved back to Japan but I am not the owner,” Leo explained smoothing the paper on her package with intense focus. “It was only six candles. So just thirty dollars.”

She pulled her purse around in front of her and opened it up. “What about tax?”

“Right, thirty-one dollars,” Leo said, not knowing how taxes worked.

They exchanged money and Leo thumbed through the bills before tucking all but one dollar into the drawer. He put the one single dollar in a shoe box next to the cash register. On the lid the words “Tax Money” were scrawled. Confirming Leo didn’t really know how to apply tax.

Sadly a strange silence spread between them that Karai filled with their daddy-trauma like a weirdo. “I get it, dads are tough.”

“Would you like to see him?” Leo asked almost like he would love to show her his father and Karai couldn’t deny him that now. Really after seeing his brother she was curious to see their parents. One of them had to be a snapping turtle mutant.

“Sure-” she said expecting Leo to go somewhere but instead he didn’t move at all, he just reached up above the window and pulled a framed newspaper article off the wall and handed it to her.

Immediately Karai focused on the picture and for a confusing second had to let her brain catch up to the fact that there weren’t any snapping turtle mutants. Instead the photo had a rat mutant and a mouse mutant with a young looking Leo standing in front of them. They were standing outside the shop next the awning.

“We were featured once as a must visit shop for tourists here in New York City,” Leo explained while she read the small description of the photo. “Unfortunately not many tourists come to The Underground. That's my mother,” he said coming closer to point at the mouse mutant. “And that's my father,” he said pointing to the rat mutant. The photo was in black and white so it was hard to make out their fur colors.

“And you?” Karai asked making sure she really appreciated the huge smile on young Leo’s face.

He took the framed article away and cleared his throat.

Karai rolled her eyes. “What, you look cute Suraidā Leonardo.”

She watched for his reaction, he had responded to Mr. Hamato in the past but the only Hamato in that photo was Hamato Yoshi the rat mutant.

“Hmm, I was fourteen,” Leo said hanging up the article again. “Just became a full time employee here. And it was before they adopted me.”

That was a lot to gulp down. Adopted as a teenager, full time employee at fourteen, and he refers to Hamato Yoshi and Tang Shen as his mother and father outright. No stipulation about them being his adoptive parents. That was minefield Karai could not afford to flop around in.

“Excuse me, telling you that was unprofessional,” he said. “Thank you for ordering I hope they are to your satisfaction.”

“My family is fucked up too,” Karai blurted out.

Leo blinked. “I also would like to apologize for my brother the other day.”

She wondered if Raphael was Leo’s brother by blood or by adoption. He looked very different from Leo. “No worries,” she said feeling like she was messing up this conversation the more she talked. “I know this area isn’t exactly where you expect to find humans.”

“You are the first human customer this year.”

Karai laughed at his joke. “First human? It’s going to be December in like ten days though.”

Leo nodded.

“Wow,” Karai said frowning. That was something she would have to let sink in... right along with the other things.

“I left out certain details when I was talking to him about you,” Leo said and Karai went cold, she hoped it had been good things. Oh well, she would have all night to stay up and panic about it. “Friendships between mutants and humans can be… tricky to navigate,” he said.

“Yes it can be,” Karai agreed squinting.

Leo stepped a little closer. “I’ve never had a friendship such as this with a human.”

“I have also never had a friendship of this variety with a mutant,” Karai said throwing the emphasis back.

It would be a little awkward to point out the obvious problem. The one where there were literally protests about human-mutant relations on the news. A “friendship” would be hard on more than one level.

“Ah, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that neither of us know what we are doing?” he said.

“I think it’ll be fun to figure it out.”

It would be less fun to explain this to her mother, and now suddenly that anxiety she had dropped at the door was back in full force.

Chapter Text

【The Pecan Butter Candle】

~November 25th, 2010~

“So this is your apartment?” Chris asked.

Karai had unsuccessfully shaken her blind date. She really needed to get her own car, she had a Vespa but that wasn’t a vehicle that could be taken on highways, and even then it was in storage until it got warmer. So she had taken a cab to the restaurant and been told as she walked into the door that her date was waiting for her.

Her mother had set her up with a blind date at a family Thanksgiving. Later, as the world’s longest dinner played out Karai would learn against her will (and by the power of Chris Bradford’s endless ability to talk about himself) that he was her mother’s Tai Chi instructor.

For any normal young woman she could have said that she already had a romantic interest, but then her mother would ask who it was and not so subtly hint that she hoped it was a man.

Leo may be at the opposite sex, but he was also a mutant.

That was worse.

Karai cleared her throat and stopped at her door. The gold metal letter and number were never more interesting than in that very awkward moment. “Yes, thank you for placating my mother Chris, but she has the wrong idea. I’m not looking right now.”

“Oh, but she said-”

Karai put up her hand. “She usually says one thing to one person and another thing to another person,” she explained in her most professional and polite voice, the one reserved for the courtroom when victims mumble answer and she needs them to repeat something clearly. Not that Chris needed the coddling, he had more self esteem than her mother. “Sorry you wasted your time.”

Chris smiled, he had unnaturally full lips for a man but he would probably deny any accusations of botox. “I wouldn’t say I wasted my time,” he said lowly.

Honestly she had heard dog mutants growl with more appeal. “Well,” she said with a tight smile. “Goodnight Chris.”

That, in Karai’s mind made it pretty damn clear she wanted him to leave. It was clear now that she should have insisted harder that she just take a cab home instead of letting Chirs drive her. It was Karai’s bad luck that her mother had been hoovering nearby to insist she let “the gentleman” take her home instead of riding in a dirty cab.

“Your mother…” Chris said crossing his arms and leaning against the door frame like standing in the hallway was tiresome. “Made it sound like you would be more open to after dinner activities.”

“Did my mother tell you I was going to have sex with you?” she asked. Then she shook her head annoyed she had even asked when it was clear her mother had done exactly that. “Seriously? You’re a fucking creep then, I don’t owe you sex.”

“Sweetheart you’d be lucky to bed a man like me, if anything I am the one looking past my own standards,” he said.

Her face went red, suddenly feeling very sickened by what she was hearing. “Fuck off,” she sneered but it came out higher and slightly flustered. She could hear it now, her mother telling Chris Bradford the Tai Chi instructor all about her homely looking daughter who would put out that night. His ego was through the roof perhaps narcissists congregate together.

“Come on, let me in, at least give me something for my time,” he said, stepping closer. She felt very small compared to him.

“How about I kick you in the nuts,” she said, moving her purse to be more behind her. A nightmarish thought occurred to her that her mother might have given Chris a key to her apartment. If not though, she needed to keep them in the hallway.

He laughed, “I’d like to see you try.”

While Karai hadn’t cared about his life story, she still listened. It was her job to listen and record and she remembered something about Karate practice and teaching self defense. “I’m not unlocking my door now, you think I’m fucking stupid?” she asked.

There was a big difference between using words to coerce someone into letting them into their apartment and forcing them physically. She was unsure what line he would cross when the elevator chimed.

Chris shifted uneasily. “Don’t make a scene,” he warned in the same tone a mother warns a child not to throw a tantrum in a grocery store. As if there would be any consequences for her if she caused issues for him.

She smiled cruelly. “Oh Chris, didn’t my mommy tell you I love making scenes. You think I won’t wake up this whole entire hallway before you manage to barge into my apartment,” she said loudly as footsteps slowly got closer. Someone, another tenant probably, was coming down the hallway.

“What would your mother say if I told her about this?” he asked before his eyes looked up for a split second at the tenant approaching.

“You think I care what you tell my fucking mother about this?” she asked, keeping her voice louder than need be. If anything the more tenants she could get into the hallway the better. “Apparently my mother thinks I’ll whore myself out-” she stopped short when she saw Chris was just staring at a spot above her head and slightly behind her looking annoyed.

She also realized the footsteps had stopped. Turning around slightly she saw something she really hadn’t expected. Not here of all places.

“Apologies for interrupting,” Leo said holding some elaborate conversation piece. It took Karai a second to see it was a candle in a center piece of fake leaves and gourds.

“Leo? What are you…?” he wasn’t looking at her, he was staring at Chris with an expression that was far from his usual polite one.

He looked dangerous. Not only was he not wearing his usual designer clothing which made him look rougher, he was wearing street clothes. Dark blue jeans, sneakers, and a black jacket which sat on his shell awkwardly making him look broader than he really was. His shirt didn’t cover all of his chest plate revealing the mustard yellow shell with just the hint of the black and gray patterns on each separate section.

Chris straightened up to his full height. “You know this guy?”

Karai nodded and opened her mouth but no words came out. While it didn’t matter if Chris told her mother that she had been rude, she didn’t want her mother to know about Leo just yet.

“I brought you a complimentary candle,” Leo said turning to address her only. “I would have had my brother-in-law place it in your mailbox but then the center piece would have become wrinkled.”

He handed it to her and she carefully took it, unsure of where in her bare apartment she would place it. “Uh… wow. Thank you.”

“You should put that inside,” Chris suggested. “Thanks for stopping by… what’s your name? Leo? Well I’ll take it from here-”

Leo looked at Chris like he hadn’t realized he was there. “Oh, I’m sorry Karai, I hadn’t realized you were in the middle of taking the garbage out.”

She felt like the air just got kicked out of her.

“Excuse me?” Chris asked rolling up his sleeves. Karai wondered for a second where the hell on a turtle mutant was he going to hit Leo without breaking his damn hand.

Leo put his hand on Chris’ shoulder and gathered the slack of his expensive blazer in his fist, Chris tried to pull his shoulder out of Leo’s grasp but stopped when he heard the pop of seams ripping. “I could help you carry it to the dumpster if you like,” Leo suggested, still not even looking at Chris.

Karai gathered her voice. “No Leo, it’s fine, the garbage was just leaving,” she said giving Chris a glare.

“Fuck you, bitch,” Chris spat, pushing Leo’s hand off his shoulder and walking past him towards the elevator.

They both waited until he was in the elevator to move from there positions. Karai was frozen outside her door still shocked by Leo’s hidden savagery.

“Goodnight Karai, enjoy the candle,” he said before she could explain herself. His demeanor turning back to the kind shop owner as he bowed slightly before turning to leave.

“Wait Leo it’s not what it looks like,” she said quickly. “My mom literally told me when I walked in the door this evening that she set me up with a date.”

He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t look mad.

“My mother is very invasive,” she added. They would be there all night if she explained the full situation. She didn’t even know why it mattered that much, Leo was her friend by definition. They weren’t in a relationship but she still felt gross about the whole night.

“I wasn’t going to assume anything,” Leo said.

Karai nodded. “Right, and thanks for scaring him off.”

“No problem. Goodnight Karai.”

“Did you have a good Thanksgiving?” she called as he walked away.

He turned and walked backwards for a second. “The best.”

Once in her apartment she locked her door and put the chain lock up too. Her legs felt rubbery as she slid to the floor. Her apartment was dark and unwelcoming. It was dumb luck that Leo had chosen that moment to come to her apartment to deliver a candle.

Tomorrow she would talk to her landlord about changing the locks.

~🕯️_^-o-🕯️_^-o-🕯️~

It wasn’t until the following Monday that she was able to see Leatherhead. She called his office and made an appointment. His legal name was Luca Heather, he preferred to be called “Leatherhead” given the fact that “Heather” was a very common surname among reptile mutants.

“I have an appointment with Mr. Heather,” Karai said once she found her way to the appropriate office building. The Heather Family owned several apartment complexes and hotels. It was the alligator empire in New York City and the Heather Family was large and generations deep. Alligator mutants made up seventy percent of all Reptile Mutants, another useless fact Karai had picked up while going through law school.

The assistant was also an alligator, a dwarf species with a shorter snout and large glassy eyes. She had seventeen tacky jade beaded necklaces, two large gemstone rings on each finger, and a floral blouse. “Please be seated,” she said gesturing to the small waiting area with her handheld rock collection.

Karai sat down on the creaky brown leather couch and turned her attention to the coffee table. A flier for Mr. Hamato’s Candle Emporium stood out. She smirked when she saw one of the selling point to go to the store was to get the smell of past tenants out. Had it really been months since she came to the shop looking for a way to get rid of the wet poodle mutant smell?

“Ms. Oroku?” Leatherhead asked from the door of his office.

She put the flier down and stood up. “Yes.”

“Do come in,” he said kindly.

The strange thing about newer building were the size of doorways, mutants built buildings and houses to their standards.

She took the large chair in front of his desk, “I was wondering if it would be possible to get my locks changed?”

“Is there a problem with your current locks?” Leatherhead asked.

Karai’s mouth went dry. “When I moved in I had a friend help me, I gave them the extra key and they lost it,” she lied. “I would feel better with new locks. Who knows where it could be now?”

Even though Leatherhead had no reason to not believe her she still felt weird about lying. It was embarrassing that she needed to change her locks to prevent her mother from coming into her apartment without her permission.

The Chris Bradford incident was the final straw.

Leatherhead began to type, faster than Leo thankfully but keyboard were still human designed and hard to use for most mutants.

“I met your husband,” Karai said in an attempt to make small talk.

“You did?” Leatherhead asked. “He didn’t mention you.”

She hadn’t exactly had a great first meeting with Raphael. “Well we got off on the wrong foot,” she said remembering how mean she had been right off the bat. In her defense Raphael was not Leo, and having him appear instead of her handsome turtle mutant was like the waiter accidentally bringing out a salad when she ordered soup.

“Really?” he sounded surprised. “He usually gets along with everyone.”

“Oh,” Karai said. That mean looking snapping turtle mutant gets along with everyone?

“I can have a locksmith change the lock in a week,” Leatherhead said before she could think about it too long. “Is there a specific time of day that would be best?”

Karai thought on her feet. “I don’t work on the weekends,” she said. If her mother did stop by she could just take her to lunch or something. She did not want her mom popping in while the locksmith was there.

“Alright,” Leatherhead said, typing again.

“Sorry about the hassle, how much do you think it will cost?” she asked.

He hummed in thought. “If there was a malfunction with the lock I would pay for it but since this isn’t that, you may be looking at forty dollars at least. Though most locksmiths charge more on the weekends."

She had the money, it was just annoying that she had to drop so much of it just because her mother didn’t understand boundaries. “Great, thank you,” she said. Maybe once she had her locks changed she would get some actual furniture.

Then her mother wouldn’t be able to insult her choice in decoration.

~🕯️_^-o-🕯️_^-o-🕯️~

“I stopped by today and your lock is very stiff, I couldn’t get in,” her mother complained the following Sunday, six days after she had talked to Leatherhead and one day after the locksmith came and charged her sixty-five dollars to change the locks. “You need to talk to the landlord.”

“Well my key works fine,” Karai said. “You know mom when you use those machines at the hardware store to copy keys they don’t use the best metal, maybe your key is just broken down.”

What her mother didn’t know was Karai had been home in her bath tub when she tried using her old key on the new lock. There was nothing better than being in a hot tub surrounded by rose water candles and the knowledge that her mother was fighting an uphill battle with a lock.

Her mother made a disgruntled noise and mumbled something about wasting her money. Karai stepped off the bus in The Underground, December was already colder than it had any right to be. The wind hit he receiver of her cellphone. “Where are you?”

“Shopping,” Karai half-lied. She was mixing business with pleasure. Leo had gifted her a candle (a wonderful smelling pecan butter candle that now replaced the butterscotch pudding candles on her desk) and saved her from Chris Bradford. She had struggled to find a way to properly thank him that would also put her in his shop. The pecan butter candle wasn’t her favorite scent but it and the centerpiece sort of made her apartment look nice. Though now that Christmas was nearing she would need to store it away.

“Oh, where? We need to go shopping and we need to do something about your hair, extensions or something please tell me you haven’t gotten a hair cut again.”

Karai made a mental note to get her hair done sometime soon, and to choose an even shorter style. “Talk later mom, no phones inside,” she said while opening the door to the candle shop.

She hung up her phone not bothering to hear what her mom said to that, now that she was locked out of the apartment Karai felt there were no consequences to hanging up. With a satisfied little hum she also realized she wouldn’t need to hide her personal items in fear her mother would snoop and find a vibrator or a little baggie of pot.

Of course Karai had to stop and see the Candle Of The Day on its little shelf. Today’s candle was Eggnog and it was in a ceramic container of a cartoon egg. Little ceramic hands were holding its cut off shell top with tears rolling from it’s eyes. Karai stepped away from the candle not even bothering to read the little sign next to it.

What a traumatizing container.

She made her way into the store’s heart, Leo was not behind the window. Some holiday music played in the background, the same Christmas music that played in every single shop around this time of year. Nothing had changed, she noted the Halloween decorations were now gone, and the Thanksgiving ones were slowly being taken over. It seemed Leo didn’t tear down decorations, he slowly replaced them.

The holidays melted away she guessed.

He was found with his shell to her next to his display window on a stool.

“New display?” she asked, coming to see what he was doing.

Leo look up. “Oh hello Karai, what can I do for you today?” he asked, polite, hospitable. Again, so far from the Leo that had offered to toss Chris Bradford into a dumpster last time they interacted.

“Nothing, I have something for you,” she said, pulling her laptop case around her jacket and unzipping it while Leo waited very patiently.

She carefully pulled out a folder and handed it to him. Leo put down his pliers and wire and took the folder hesitantly, flipping it over to look at each side before opening it. Nervously Karai waited for his reaction. “You did this?” he asked after reading each piece of paper.

“Well you don’t have a website or anything,” she said, feeling very weird. Did he like it?

“You wrote a description of every candle you’ve purchased and or rented here?” he asked sounding distant.

She zipped her laptop case up and adjusted it he obviously didn’t like it. “Yep, mulberry, butterscotch pudding, rose water, and pecan butter,” she said stupidly like she hadn’t titled each page as such.

Leo kept looking at the sheets, reading them, rereading them. Karai was unsure what to do, this was awkward. Then he looked back up at her, his face was still that blank but welcoming shop expression. “This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for my candles,” he said quietly and Karai could never have formed a response to that. He sounded genuinely touched and she had only guess maybe he would like the descriptions or find them amusing. It was better than a tacky card or something. “But why?” he asked placing them safely back into the folder.

“Your history sheets were sort of lacking,” she said.

Leo frowned slightly, the skin in his forehead wrinkling. “What do you mean?”

Karai looked around awkwardly, she should have just said it was for saving her but to be truthful there was something about Leo’s business model that annoyed her. “Well, sure where they’ve been or where they came from is interesting but it might be more helpful to know what they’re like today.”

“Ah,” Leo said face brightening. “Of course, the past does not define us.”

“Right…” Karai said slowly. “I was more referencing that it also doesn’t determine how we smell.” No she shouldn’t have worded it that way. “I mean how the candles smell. You know what never mind I’m talking myself into a hole. What’s this, a sledding scene?” she asked gesturing to the display.

“Yes,” Leo nodded and picked up his wire sculpture and pliers again. He was back at it again making candle people.

“You did all this?” she asked. “With the wires?”

“I am very good with my hands,” he said while working some wires around the barrel of a candle.

“I’m sure of it,” Karai mumbled, dragging her eyes away from those thick but surprising nimble green fingers.

Some of the most impressive wire work was the trees… with yep… snow made of wax on the branches.

“I’ve been working on these all week,” Leo said, it interrupted Karai’s train of thought if whether or not Leo knew that there was a horrifying implication in these displays. The candle people were made of wax and that meant the trees were coated in candle people entrails.

Or maybe only Karai thought like that.

“It shows,” Karai said walking to the other two displays to see snow ball fights and even a little Christmas morning present opening scene. “You really run this whole place by yourself?”

Leo let out and amused hum and turned to look at her. “Admittedly the shop barely turns a profit and I rarely have more then three customers a day” he said with a sad smile. “Most of my income is people ordering new candles, not renting these old ones. I am never over worked, but I also never have an issue finding work.”

Looking around that was apparent, what was the saying? Well loved. The shop was extremely well loved by Leo. “Was it busier when you were a kid or something then?” she asked remembering the article he had shown her. He had been an employee.

He again gave her a smile, but it was sheepish. “I will confess I wasn’t a bright child,” he said, turning back to his display. “I started working here part time when I was ten, spent my first month of employment with an egg strapped to my chest,” he paused to search through the wooden box on the table that Karai was only now noticing had the label “abdomens” on it. “I was always walking around funny because of it. Mr. Hamato always had work for me to do, it wasn’t until eight years later when he put me in charge of the whole shop that I realized he had made work for me all those years ago. I mean I had my suspicions when he had me do things like polishing glass jars with a rag, something a child could easily do while sitting down in the backroom out of sight. I thought it was a job. Then he would pay me.”

“He sounds like a nice guy,” Karai said when she really wanted to ask why the hell a ten year old needed a job and why that ten year old had the equivalency of a pregnancy to take care of.

“Very nice, he knew I was too proud to just accept his charity so he tricked me,” he said fondly.

“You must be doing okay now,” she said, or maybe she said it because she had to be sure.

Leo paused and gave her a confused look.

She touched his designer jacket. “Your clothes.”

“Oh, yes, well,” he hesitated. “I know the owner of the company.”

The idea that Leo knew Michelangelo Heather almost threatened to knock her off her feet. Then suddenly she realized her fucking landlord was Luca Heather and married to Leo’s brother Raph. “Wait, no,” she rubbed her eyes, there was no way. “Luca Heather, my landlord and your brother in-law is related to that Michelangelo Heather. The owner of Klunk Design?”

Leo shook his head. “They’re not related, but they are married,” he corrected.

“You’re brother is married to Michelangelo Heather?”

“Close, my brother is married to Luca Heather. He took Luca’s last name when they got married,” Leo said raising a finger in the air.

“Holy shit,” Karai breathed out. No wonder Leatherhead had acted so strange, there was no way Karai could have just casually ran into his husband then because his husband wasn’t Raph, his husband was the Michelangelo Heather.

Leo chuckled. “It’s always funny when someone figures that out,” he said, no, the brother of Michelangelo Heather said.

“It’s a lot to take in,” she said. “I remember hearing about him on the news. I used to eat up all the drama in the fashion word.” Leo gave her an inquisitive look. “My girlfriend at the time was really into it,” she said, which was true but she was really into it as well. Not that Leo needed to know that.

Michelangelo Heather, at first he went by the stage name Malcolm Klunk likely because he was a minor. He still went by that name, Karai guessed the average person wouldn’t know who Michelangelo Heather was but would be familiar with the name Malcolm Klunk. He was a child prodigy. Not only was he the first mutant to get their designs into New York Fashion Week, but he was also the youngest human or mutant to do so. He made history, he was in history books.

“How are you not being bombarded by reporters and shit? Your brother is crazy famous, like body guard to keep the psychos away famous,” she said.

“By blood I am only his step sibling, he had the Hamato name until he got married, and by the time he revealed his actual name he had been married for a year to Leatherhead. It was just very convenient on the timing. That and some money to the right people made sure to keep his personal life very secretive,” Leo explained.

Karai nodded. “Yeah very secretive until someone notices you dress so well.”

“My baby brother makes sure I am never hurting for clothing,” Leo said fondly touching his jacket. “I am of course very fortunate in that regard.”

At least she didn’t have worry about him ending up on the street… or the strange way he collects sales tax. Karai thought she came from money but Leo had a millionaire in his immediate family tree.

“Of course my pride would never allow me to take clothes from my little brother for free,” he said offhandedly. “That’s why I sometimes do modeling.”

For a second she went cross-eyed, there were pictures of Leo modeling out there somewhere.

And she was going to find them.

~🕯️_^-o-🕯️_^-o-🕯️~

Karai should have waited until she actually got home. Normal people perform their sins behind locked doors and the crime Karai was about to commit would have all her ancestors shaking their heads.

She searched up Klunk Design on her phone.

In her distraction to get home she had forgotten to get a new candle to describe, but could she be blamed? Was it really her fault that her mind was now clouded with delicious and tantalizing images of Leo in all sorts of poses?

After all she was only human and she would be on the bus a whole twenty-five minutes.

The first thing that popped up made her heart skip a beat and not in a good way. “Fashion Icon Malcolm Klunk Opens Up About His Hard Upbringing In Exclusive Interview: My Mother Refused To Touch Me After I Hatched” the first headline read.

Cursing she realized she had accidentally searched “news” not “all” in her horny haste. Instead of getting a glimpse of Leo’s body, she got dropped head first into reality. She clicked her phone off with a sour taste in her mouth.

There were lines to snooping, and that was one of them.

Chapter Text

【The Eggnog Spilled on a Shag Carpet Candle】

~December 6th, 2010~

“What the fuck, she told this guy you'd have sex with him?”

Miwa’s shocked tone was strangely validating. Not that Karai had necessarily battled with just how messed up the situation was, but she did wonder if maybe she had blown it out of proportion.

“Yep,” Karai said, laying on her couch. She finally paid for someone to move her couch from her storage locker to her apartment. “Miwa I have only ever had sex with one person. I don't know why she would say that to him.”

“It wouldn't matter if you've had sex with a million people Karai,” Miwa scolded. “She can't just offer up your vagina for anyone she chooses. What the fuck.”

“Don't you have a kid in your stomach right now?” Karai asked hooking her finger in her heel and flinging them off. “Should you be swearing?”

“There are multiple things wrong with what you just said and I'm not going to address because you're trying to distract me from the fact that she put you in a really dangerous situation.”

It wasn’t that bad, of course Miwa hadn’t been there so she was probably imagining that it was way worse. Maybe Karai shouldn’t have gone into such detail about Chris and how big he was. “I wasn't helpless. I was handling it.”

“And how did it get handled?” Miwa asked, Karai could hear her pursed lips and crossed arms.

She bit her bottom lip for a second. “Uh... another guy showed up and scared him off.”

Technically the truth.

“Karai, please tell me-”

“I got the locks changed,” she cut in. “She doesn't know. She just thinks her key no longer works because the metal is cheap. Can we not talk about this?”

“Fine.”

It didn’t feel nice cutting down the conversation but their mother being a bad mother was a horse they could beat to death for hours and the only thing Karai would gain is heartburn. “How is Hun taking the whole being a dad thing?”

“He isn't,” Miwa said. “I haven't told him.”

A full second ticked over before Karai could sum up her thoughts. “What?”

Miwa made a humming noise like she was battling something. “If it's still... good,” she said slowly. “I'll put a positive stick in a box and hide it among the Christmas presents.”

“Wow.”

“How's your love life going?” Miwa asked, hitting Karai below the belt.

“Fucking bad. I fucking suck at this romance shit,” she cursed. Something she had every right to do because she wasn’t pregnant.

Dating was hard. It was hard because Karai had only had one relationship ever and if she went back to how she met her first girlfriend the scenario could not be replicated and used on Leo. Not unless Leo and her could go back in time to their childhoods and become friends on a playground. That was how she became friends with Shini at age six.

She started dating Shini ten years later at age sixteen.

Ten years after that, on their anniversary Shini broke up with her.

It still burned.

“Have you tried texting him?” Miwa suggested. “Asking for a date over text could be easier.”

“I don't have his phone number,” Karai said. While it would have been an easy thing to ask for the task seemed impossible and awkward. Was that really how dating worked. She was just supposed to approach Leo and ask for his number without it sounding weird?

“Then get his phone number," Miwa pressed.

Karai was wrinkling her pants suit by laying on her couch. “What if it's too late, and now asking for his number is stupid?”

“You know my husband asked for my number months after we met,” Miwa said.

Karai huffed. “Your situation was different.”

“How?” Miwa asked. “How is the situation different?”

“You worked at a coffee shop,” Karai said, putting emphasis on the last part. “People don't just wander into shops and fall in love. What? I just keep coming back to his candle shop until I walk into perfect scenarios that coincidentally furthers our friendship slowly crafting the foundation for romantic infatuation?”

“Yes?” Miwa said.

“Well this is the real world Miwa, that shit only happens in stories.”

And Karai wasn’t in that kind of story. It would be easy if she was. Instead she was in the story where she was socially stunted because her one and only relationship started with her best friend of ten years.

She barely knew Leo compared to that.

And if she could know Shini so well and still get her heart stomped on was there any hope in pursuing Leo?

“That's literally how Hun and I got together,” Miwa said, in a very annoyed tone.

“Well that was a coffee shop.”

“Karai.”

“What?”

“Just go to the shop and ask for his number,” Miwa said in the same tone of voice she would use when telling Karai her third place trophies were still something to be proud of. “Then text him a date idea. Go to dinner or something.”

Karai groaned. “No, no, no, I need an excuse.”

“You literally just need to ask for his number-”

“I know,” she said sitting up. “I'll get another candle to review!”

“Are you even listening to what I am saying-”

A devious grin spread over her lips. “I could even ask for suggestions, have him talk about some candles,” she murmured. “Yeah. He has a nice voice too.”

“Alright. You do that. And get his number while you're at it.”

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

The wooden staircase and railing was polished but ever since the snow started falling a runner had appeared over the steps. It was gray, light gray closer to the door where all the salt had melted off of shoes, feet, and paws. There was a space heater pointed at the door, it blocked the darker ominous hallway that led to another wooden door.

Again, Karai was pretty sure this was a duplex.

The staircase still moaned as she walked up, no matter where she placed her feet every step creaked loudly. When she opened the door Leo turned around from in his window. His face went from mild surprise to a nice full smile. “Hello Karai, how may I help you today?”

It was the perfect set up, she was shocked by her luck. “Well your number for starters-”

“You can’t ignore me forever there is a blizzard coming-” a new voice roared shrilly, covering up most of her words.

Leo turned his head. “Donatello I am with a customer!” he called in a sing song voice.

As if Leo would have been lying this so called Donatello pushed his way into view so he could give Karai the stink eye.

Another turtle mutant.

This mutant was about as tall as Leo, slimmer build. He had a pair of prescription goggles on that blew up his eyes into just brown irises and black pupils. He had a plain shirt of with what looked to be a math joke, the sides were hidden by the purple jacket he was wearing.

With a sneer he turned away from Karai. “Fine,” he said lowly. “But when your customer leaves you and I are having a long talk.” He then stormed off in a dramatic manner, slamming the door to the shop behind him like a preteen banished to his room. Something on the other side of the door drops and rolls on the floor.

Leo cocked his head then tapped his chin. “That’s my hints of hickory wood, I can tell, it keeps falling off the high shelf. It must be depression, I’ll need to pencil it in for The Candle Of The Day,” he said mournfully. He took a clipboard from his side of the window and licking the tip of the pencil tied to the clipboard before writing while shaking his head sadly.

Karai stared, not because what Leo was doing was confusing but because her perfect set up to getting Leo’s number was gone.

“To boost its morale,” Leo explained, misreading her slightly parted lips and expression of disbelief as not understanding the complexities of a candle’s mental well being.

She had long since accepted Leo strangely endearing worldview, roughly around the time she help him commit candlecide. “Of course…” she said. “Uh what blizzard?”

Leo chuckled under his breath. “Oh, my brother Donnie, he watches weather forecasts for fun sometimes and gets worked up,” he explained, over explained. Karai felt that, she had been there. “There is a mild snow storm coming and he is acting like I need to evacuate The Underground.”

“Every winter you get sick and I won’t have us snowed in with no electricity, and you dying of some respiratory infection!” Donnie yelled bursting back into the service room. Purple Jacket zipped up and his collar popped. Karai can almost bet her life savings that the purple jacket he is wearing will be released next fall by Klunk Design.

“He is cranky because I do not have a coffee machine,” Leo said, not even looking at his brother.

“Is he staying with you?” Karai asked, somewhat relieved Leo didn’t just live inside the candle shop.

Leo nodded.

“What kind of monster doesn’t have a coffee machine!?” Donnie yelled grasping his skull and pacing the room. “Answer me that Leo!”

“He believes I am a monster for not owning a coffee machine,” Leo explained like this was not extremely obvious or like there wasn’t a caged animal pacing behind him.

Karai nodded. “Yeah I am getting that impression,” she said, and while Donnie was a little… different in his self expression, he was saying some things that concerned Karai greatly. “Do you really get sick every winter?” she asked wincing.

It might have been too personal.

“No,” Leo said immediately, his face strangely blank, stone almost.

“Yes!” Donnie exclaimed looking at Karai with a simple request to not believe Leo in this moment.

“Lies,” Leo said, blank as ever.

Donnie laughed, he laughed so hard he bent over and laughed at the floor. “Name one winter where you haven’t gotten super sick!” he demanded when he finally controlled his hysterical laughter.

Leo stood perfectly still, now not only was his face still and expressionless his whole body was rigid.

“Do it.” Donnie demanded, grabbing Leo’s steely bicep and fuck she wished that was her hands grabbing him. “Name one winter.”

“I need to go pick up that candle that fell-” Leo said suddenly, leaving the service room and entering the shop.

Donnie put his hands on his hips, it was at this point Karai saw he wasn’t wearing pants. Just a pair of black boxer briefs and his purple jacket. Karai had so many questions. “That’s what I thought,” he mumbled before whipping his head towards Karai.

Did Leo really just leave her alone with his unstable brother? Rude.

“I know who you are,” he said while prowling closer to the window.

“Okay,” Karai said. This was fine, she had typed up a few cases where a defendant wasn’t all there.

Donnie smiled wickedly. “Don’t worry, we have a lot of time,” he said unzipping his jacket and pulling out a brown and red marbled candle. It wasn’t in a glass container, it was a free standing cylindrical candle, often sold with a base. “Go ahead, take a sniff.”

It wasn’t a request. Karai took the candle and hesitantly brought her nose to it. To her horror she recognized the hints… of hickory wood.

“That’s right,” Donnie said watching her place the candle back on the counter. “He’ll search under every shelf back there. I know my brother like the inside of this purple satin jacket you haven’t complimented me once on.”

“Is everyone in your family unhinged?” Karai asked.

“Ha, you’ve met Raph right?” he asked. “Big guy, lots of spikes,” he explained gesturing to his other brother’s girth with his arms.

Karai waited a second before answering, trying to buy Leo more time to realize his depressed candle is nowhere to be found. “Yes.”

“He’s not the scary one. I am. I’m the one you need to be worried about. Raph looks hard and tough but he is soft like a pliable lovable marshmallow, I chew people up and spit them out for a living,” Donnie warned. “I work in the basement of the goddamn Pentagon. I spend my days listening to garbled transmissions from Russian subs that Russia doesn’t think we know about.”

Slowly it was dawning on Karai that she was getting the shovel talk, which was a rite of passage. Then that momentous moment was broken because the turtle mutant giving her the shovel talk was literally not wearing pants.

“You hurt him, and in a few weeks some men will show up at your door and there will be evidence in your computer that you’re a spy,” he said leaning into the window so their faces were too close. “I’ll put the Communist Manifesto in your floorboards-”

“Well, I can’t find it,” Leo announced on his way back into the service room, a moment sooner and he would have caught Donnie quickly hiding the candle in his jacket again.

“Shame,” Donnie said slinking behind Leo into the shop. “I’ll go look.”

Karai looked back to Leo, happy he was there and ready to ask for his number and not be weird about it.

“He works for the IRS,” Leo explained. “But he tells everyone that expresses interest in me that he works for the Pentagon and that he can have them arrested for being a Russian spy.”

“Oh, that’s a relief-”

“But he can ruin your credit score,” he said. “Anyways do you have siblings?”

“Just the one older sister,” Karai said, holding back on tacking on anything else about how she was grateful. “How many brothers do you have exactly?”

“Just three, all younger brothers,” he said. Then he leaned back and called into the shop. “Sometimes they are very annoying though!” he hollered.

“I no longer care if you die alone in your apartment with snot frozen to your face!” Donnie called from the bowels of the candle aisles.

Leo shook his head. “I have a fireplace, he is overreacting.”

“You are a cold-blooded reptile!” Donnie yelled.

“Like I said overreacting,” he explained, lacing his fingers together and resting his hands on the counter as Donnie released a primal and very frustrated scream. “What can I do for you?”

“Oh uh, I was just going to browse,” she said, imagining her older sister tearing her hair out because once again Karai just didn’t know how to do this. “I have some time off,” she said. “I think I might rent another candle.”

“Well, do come in,” Leo said gesturing to the door and Karai eagerly came taking off her gloves and putting them in her pockets.

The shop was very warm, mid eighties, probably because the shop owner was a turtle mutant. “Is there a place I can put my coat and bag?” she asked.

Leo offered to take her winter coat. “Yes, in here on the shelf I promise I won’t wrap it in paper and twine.”

“Thanks,” Karai said, at least Leo made a joke to her.

Then they awkwardly disconnected, she went into the shop and searched for a candle to bang her head on. She was being stupid. She was bold, a self proclaimed go-getter and Leo made her brain melt into a puddle and leak out her ears. She was pathetic, she was a hot girl who should have the confidence to ask a guy for his number.

“Why are you really here?” Donnie asked.

Karai paused, she had been aimlessly wandering around. Her nose was already confused by all the smells but now she was in a corner at the far end of the shop. “To get a candle,” she said.

Donnie picked up a candle, they were in the coffee section in the flavors of breakfast area. He unscrewed the lid and scratched at the wax with his finger nail before taking a hardy sniff of the black roast coffee candle. It was at this moment she looked down to see he was wearing white socks and sandals.

“Donnie you better not be interrogating my customers,” Leo called from a few aisles over.

“Customers this, customers that, la dee da,” Donnie mimicked in a high pitch voice.

Karai sighed. “Look, what makes you think I’m some bad person?”

“You aren’t here for a candle,” Donnie said and Karai closed her mouth. He may have had her figured out but wanting a cellphone number wasn’t a crime. “I’m an auditor,” he said dabbing some of the brown slightly translucent wax with his finger tips and scrubbing it into his teeth. “I shut down a little boy’s lemonade stand this summer because he didn’t have a license and I only cried for ten minutes when I got home.”

Was that safe, could he ingest wax? “Wow you’re made of nails,” she deadpanned. “I thought you worked in the Pentagon.”

He cleared his throat. “The basement of the Pentagon, and I do.” He ran his tongue over his teeth and shivered in full body delight. “That was a test for your listening comprehension skills. You passed. Now, why are you here?”

“I am searching for a way to ask for his number,” Karai said, maybe Donnie would be so willing to get her away that he would give her Leo’s number.

Donnie grimaced. “His cellphone number? He doesn’t have a cellphone.”

“He doesn’t have a cellphone?” she asked dumbly.

How could he not have a cellphone? Who in this day doesn’t have a cellphone?

“He doesn’t have a cellphone,” Donnie repeated again and yeah Karai was pretty sure Leo’s brother was in the middle of some mental break. “He doesn’t… have… a cellphone,” he held up his finger for Karai to give him a moment to huff his coffee scented candle like an addict licking a hand mirror after he’s snorted all the coke. “We can help each other.”

“We can?”

He had a little shaving of wax of his nose. “Leo doesn’t have a cellphone, he also doesn’t have a coffee maker and that slut at Starfishbucks refuses to crush up my caffeine pills into the grounds because 'sir, then I would have to clean out the whole entire machine' and I had to swallow my four caffeine pills like some sort of pill swallower.”

Definitely a mental break. No one wears socks and sandals unless they are going through something.

The candle huffing was also a red flag.

“We can convince Leo to drive to Best Buy,” he said, setting his addiction down and rummaging around in his jacket. He pulled out a folded map. The cumbersome ones only seen in times before GPS and he held it up. It was a blueprint of Best Buy. “You’ll help him pick out a cellphone,” Donnie explained pointing to the cellphone section. “I’ll get the goods,” he said pointing to the home appliances section. “We’ll meet up here and have a cup of coffee.”

“I don’t think-”

Suddenly Donnie crumbled the map of Best Buy and threw it over the shelf into the next aisle. “Oh hey Leo, what’s up, you look good, handsome,” he said while focusing on his nails.

“Are you two back here scheming?” Leo asked, staring into Donnie’s soul.

Strange how he seemed to have a piercing glare that only mothers seem to pick up.

“What?” Donnie asked, blowing air out of his mouth. “No, I was just getting Karai this candle she wanted,” he said, grabbing the candle nearest to his hand and passing it to Karai.

Leo’s intense mom-stare was on her and she nervously smiled. “Yeah, I wanted-” she fumbled to turn the glass cylinder around and read the label, “-eggnog spilled… on a shag carpet,” she said, feeling less confident the longer the name got.

“Ah, that might be the only eggnog candle still in stock,” Leo the doting shop owner said. “Very popular this time of year, good choice. I’ll bag this up for you,” he took the candle from Karai’s numb fingers.

She tried to say thank you but her mind was still caught up in the shag carpet part of the candle.

Donnie pointed his phone screen towards her. “Here’s my number. Text me.”

As much as she hated to go along with his plan, it was more effort to get out of it. She put his number in her phone as Purple Jacket and sent him the first random letter she could tap on her keyboard.

“Good,” he said once receiving her text, he of course sniffed his candle before putting her in his contacts. “I will text you in one hour.”

Karai did a double take. “In one hour? Why can’t I just stay?”

“Do you want him to get suspicious? Are you insane?” Donnie questioned pupils going wide behind his goggles.

What Donnie didn’t understand was bus schedules. “I think I am the most sane person here. Look, my sister was right,” she said walking past him to the front of the store.

Her timing was perfect, Leo was just finished with wrapping up her order. “That will be sixteen dollars,” he said as she grabbed her coat off the shelf.

She pulled out her wallet just as Donnie came in behind her. “Here you are,” she told Leo.

Leo took her money, fishing out one dollar to put in the taxes box and ignoring the strangled noise coming from Donnie’s throat.

“Leo, can I have your number?” she asked while he was still turned towards the register.

He turned around slowly and pointed to himself. “To my personal phone?” he asked.

Karai nodded, putting on her jacket casually. “Yes. You’re my friend, maybe it’s time we have each other’s numbers?”

Leo looked down. “Oh, I have a landline.”

“No cellphone?” she asked, just to confirm what Donnie had told her.

“No,” he said shrinking down a little.

This was Donnie’s apparent cue to take the stage. “Well you know Leo maybe it’s time you get a cellphone again?” he said coming to join Leo on his side of the service room. “To keep in contact with your friend?” he said friend in a very drawn out way.

Leo hesitated looking down. “Uh, well…”

Out of Leo’s eyesight Donnie moved his hand in a circle telling Karai it was her turn to talk.

“They make real simple cellphones,” she said but Donnie kept waving. “And I could come with you guys,” he help up his hand for her to stop.

“Yeah, Leo,” Donnie said, putting a comforting arm around Leo, rubbing his arms through his seasonal appropriate but not holiday specific sweater. “And you’re always saying how you wish Karai would spend more time-”

Leo whipped his head up and laughed awkwardly while twisting around to cover Donnie’s mouth. “I guess I’ll get my coat and keys and lock up for the day then,” he gritted out before leaving and walking downstairs.

Once the stairs stopped creaking Donnie rubbed the flat of his hands together and started maniacally laughing.

This was the hardest way she had ever heard of getting someone’s number and she didn’t even care. Leo apparently talked about wanting to spend more time with her and that had her over the moon.

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

There was no parking on the street where Leo’s shop was. (Even if the shop technically wasn’t his, Karai still called it his shop.) He kept his car, a modest silver blue four door car in the large parking garage two blocks away. He had a parking spot on the roof that was reserved for long time storage.

It was a little inconvenient in the winter to walk two blocks and then up five levels of concrete stairs to the roof. She saw now why Leo had insisted on bringing his car to the shop when they went candle burying. However Donnie argued that it would be faster if they all walked to Leo’s car and peeled left out of the garage towards Best Buy instead of Leo doubling back to pick them up.

Along the way she learned that cold-blooded mutants had fancy coats with built in heaters. Leo had shown her the little battery pack and charging port explaining that it was like the inside of his winter jacket was a wearable electric blanket.

Donnie changed his outfit completely, reappearing from the bottom level of the duplex wearing a violet ski suit and something hard over his shell. He too had a heat pack, only it was throughout the entire suit. Karai wanted to ask about the hard shell thing on his back but felt it would be a little too rude.

Of course Donnie doesn’t give a shit about being too invasive, he sprawled out in the back seat and asked Karai some of the worst things. All of them Karai managed to dodge and weave around until one very raw one.

“How did your last relationship end?” he asked.

They were on the highway, Donnie failed to mention that there was only one Best Buy in New York state and it was forty five minutes away. Leo was a good driver and the roads weren’t icy, the thing that might kill her is purple and in the backseat. Even Leo’s grip on the steering wheel shifted in some sort of second hand unease.

“She broke up with me,” Karai said, not that it was a horribly big deal to be bisexual, but she still stole a glance at Leo wondering what he would make of that.

Donnie nodded. “Why?” he asked.

“Donnie stop. Karai you don’t have to answer that,” Leo said, staring at his brother through the rear view mirror.

“What?” Donnie asked sitting up, he wasn’t wearing his seat belt.

“This is why I wait so long before I tell you about this type of thing,” Leo gritted out. “You do this every time.”

Donnie sat back, the fake leather seat squeaked against that shell thing he was wearing. “I just asked her a simple question, relax. And I don’t do it every time.”

Leo gripped the steering wheel harder. “You did it with Sal.”

“I was twelve, and he was a Salamander Mutant, I had questions.”

“Your questions are invasive. Remember Hobb?”

Donnie huffed. “To be fair he took the litter box joke way too hard-”

“He blocked my number that night and when I went to his house his mother threw litter in my face!” Leo exclaimed.

“He wasn’t the one anyways, and if she threw litter in your face that implies they have a litter box,” Donnie said. “He’s in a gang now, I saved you from that.”

Karai kept looking out the passenger side window, part of her wanted to know more. She enjoyed gossip and drama especially when she wasn’t a part of it. She used to relish in fights between her sister and her mother when she was a fly on the wall.

“And after everything,” Leo stressed. “When I brought Bludgeon home you interrogated him too!”

“Of course I did!” Donnie yelled. “You do realize the one boyfriend of yours that I didn’t vet ended up-”

Leo put his blinker on and looked over his shoulder before merging to the right lane. “Do not dare say that had you questioned him it would have played out differently you know it wouldn’t have changed anything,” he said once he turned back to the road, slowing on the exit ramp.

At this the car went silent and stiff. Karai felt a mixture of frustration and sympathy but her worst fear now was that Leo’s hesitation over starting something with her might be because he still wasn’t over a previous relationship.

She smoothed her gloves in her lap. “She broke up with me way before telling me,” she said. “If that makes any sense.”

“You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to,” Leo said gently.

That was real nice of him but she felt a little like she wanted to. Obviously Leo was no stranger to break-ups. “No, it’s fine,” she reassured him. “I think eventually everyone should talk about their past relationships with their next relationship. We had been dating for eight years, we were twenty four and she told me about this thing called an open relationship.”

“Yikes,” Donnie murmured under his breath.

“Donnie.”

“No,” Karai defended. “He’s right, it was yikes. I was scared to object so I said yes. She wanted sex with other girls, she kept it safe but there was this one girl, Jennika, and…” it was painful to talk about. She had been so foolish to believe that Jennika was just sex and nothing more. “Shini really liked Jennika. You can probably figure the rest out for yourself.”

Leo nodded, shooting her a sympathetic glance as he eased up to a stoplight. “I’m sorry Karai that sounds cruel.”

“Well, it’s over now,” she reassured him, or maybe reassured herself. “Better to have moved on than to stay with someone who didn’t love me like I loved them.”

“A very healthy take away indeed,” he commented.

The car was hot but she didn’t dare ask for Leo to turn down the heat, he was a turtle mutant and it was below freezing out. This was why most reptile mutants lived in warmer climates. “How did your last relationship end?” she asked, unzipping her coat and wrestling out of it without unbuckling her seat belt.

There was a pause. “He didn’t show for our wedding” Leo said.

Karai froze. “Cold feet?” she guessed.

“Something like that,” he said, his voice oddly disconnected.

“Well, I’m sorry you went through that,” she said, folding her jacket and setting it on her lap. “How long ago was that?”

“A year and a half ago,” Leo said, turning the temperature down on the dash. “It is not the raw and searing wound it once was. Bludgeon wasn’t the one and I haven’t heard from him since that day.”

“Ah, yes, you two are bonding over your painful pasts,” Donnie said, pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolding it.

Leo sat up a little and looked into the rear view mirror. “Oh, may I see your checklist Donnie?” he asked suddenly very bubbly.

“Sure Leo,” Donnie said passing the piece of paper up.

Karai didn’t even get to look at it before Leo’s face went from sweet to cold as he crumbled the list up in one hand, rolled the window down, and tossed it outside.

“That’s on me” Donnie sighed sitting back. “I fell for that.”

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

They must have looked like an odd trio walking into Best Buy. Leo got a cart and Donnie climbed in the basket. At that point it wasn’t the reason they were being stared at.

One trip down through home appliances to get a very expensive looking coffeemaker, they were on there way to cellphones and landlines. Leo and Donnie kept their coats on, Karai draped hers over the side of the cart. The sale’s rep was more than happy to show Leo all the smart phones, assuring him they were simple to use.

“I need a cellphone that can not have Mobistealth downloaded on it,” Leo said finally after having the differences between an iPhone and Android explained.

Donnie had been pro-Android.

The sales rep paled but Donnie cut in. “I can lock your phone up Leo-”

“The phone being locked or unlocked wasn’t the problem,” Leo said before turning back to the rep. Timothy, as his name tag declared, was a human but more than happy to keep talking to Leo about phones.

“Well sir,” Timothy said. “The only phones that are impervious to spying apps like Mobistealth are phones that don’t support apps.”

It was another half hour before they left Best Buy with a simple phone for Leo that had a bare bones operating system that supported texting and calls but had no access to the internet. While checking out Karai used her own cellphone to search up that app Leo had mentioned and felt sick at some of its features.

Then she felt a little strange that Leo was so mistrustful of her that he wouldn’t even allow himself a smartphone.

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

Leo’s phone was active and Karai had his number. She put him down as a three candle emojis just because she didn’t want to risk someone asking who he was if a text from him popped up on her lock screen. Her mother could be horribly nosy.

They had to make a quick stop to gas up the car so Karai had a lot of time to write out several drafts of texts to send to Leo asking for a date.

“Can we get McDonald’s?” Donnie asked as soon as Leo got back in the car. Now sitting behind Leo and buckled up. His coffee maker was behind Karai also buckled in. He had one hand on top of it protectively.

Leo started the car. “We have food at home.”

“Please?” Donnie begged.

“It’s unhealthy,” Leo countered while pulling onto the road.

“I’ll get a salad!” Donnie reasoned leaning up as Leo sighed. “Please please please please-”

He turned to look at her. “I can drop you off at home-”

Fuck that, it was seven o’clock and she was hungry. “I could go for some McDonald’,s” she said watching Leo’s face fall at her betrayal.

“Yes!” Donnie cheered. “Two to one! Democracy!”

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

“We always end up in strange situations,” Karai commented now that Donnie had left to go to the bathroom.

They were one of the few people to actually dine inside the fast food establishment since Leo did not like food in his car. Donnie had argued that Mikey was going to be buying him a blue Prius for Christmas anyways so any stains won’t matter.

It had been a very long time since she had heard money talked about so frivolously. Of course the owner of Klunk Design could easily buy brand new cars as gifts.

Leo shrugged. “No, this isn’t strange, it’s just a regular Monday.”

She wanted to ask about the app, she wanted to pry. Shit, she wanted to know every little detail but talk about invasive. Who looks at someone like Leo and downloads spyware to their phone?

“Thanks for helping me pick out a phone,” Leo said, he always spoke with a napkin over his mouth. He did it at Denny’s too.

“I think the sale’s rep did the most work,” she said before biting into her burger. The greasy lab grown meat really hit the spot, she had been trying to cook for herself more often. Even packing lunches on some work days. Not all workdays, sometimes it was a miracle if she got out of her apartment with both eyebrows done and her toothbrush not still sticking out of her mouth.

He didn’t argue, possibly because it was true. She had only suggested the slightly darker gray phone over the lighter gray one. “Again sorry about Donnie, he goes through phases, he’s one medical leave from work right now.”

“Oh,” Karai said. “Is he okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just a mental health thing?” he half asked. “He needs a break from work, and I’m just keeping an eye on him.”

“I understand, that’s nice of you,” she said just as Donnie came back to them. They had chosen a table in the middle of the dining hall.

He sat down and picked at his Caesar Salad, hidden behind a wall of four large black coffees. “Okay first of all, I was unethically dismissed.”

Leo put his face in his hand while Karai leaned in. Of course she wanted to know how and if Donnie was willing to tell…

“I was tired of idiots not reading the very clear instruction for how to replace the ink cartridges” he explained, popping the lids off his coffees.

“What did you do?” Karai asked.

Donnie reached toward the middle of the table for the sugar packets. “Oh, if you put the ink cartridges in the wrong way you’d get shocked,” he said mildly.

Leo mumbled something about getting more napkins and left.

Donnie huffed. “How was I supposed to know Gloria from HR had a pacemaker?” he called after Leo through the mostly empty store. “Ridiculous.”

“Wow,” Karai said, eyes wide. As much as he was unhinged at least he was interesting.

“So now I have to talk to a professional,” he lamented sourly, portioning out seven sugar packets per coffee cup. “So stupid, complete waste of time. Enough about me, Karai, court stenographer huh?”

She did other things too but she guessed court stenographer sounded better. “I don’t remember telling you that,” she said, feeling a little weird about this.

“You didn’t. Leo did.”

“Donnie,” Leo warned as he sat down.

The other turtle shrank down like a child being scolded. “Anyhow, let’s get to know each other yes? Where did you go to school?”

Without hesitation she responded, straightening her shoulders and appearing professional. “Private boarding school,” she said. It was rehearsed, for job interview mostly. There was no need to mention that said boarding school was for troubled teenagers belonging to parents with deep pockets. Not that Karai had done anything wrong. But divorces were rough with kids in the house, and teenagers don’t fall for antihistamines crushed up in milk.

Those days were behind her anyways, there was little to earned by being mad at her mother for that now. She would never get an apology, only the excuse that she was a rowdy child and forced her mother to those extremes.

“So you’re rich then?” Donnie said not holding back.

“My family is,” she responded coldly. She had been self made, maybe her parents paid for university but for over half a year she had been supporting herself alone. She never cashed any of the checks her father sent and she was saving up towards a car.

The resentment was clear, Donnie thought her to be some spoiled brat or possibly even a gold digger. It explained why he was throwing money around so much in front of her. Mentioning lake houses and cabins they owned, talking to Leo about new cars. He was testing her, looking for greed in her eyes. He wasn’t out of bounds but Karai barely spoke with her father and despised her mother for being a gold digger herself.

“Donnie, a little personal, yes?” Leo asked.

Donnie scowled. “What, you are romantically inclined towards her right?”

Leo went still and Karai felt her cheeks flush with heat, a quick dart of her eyes excused and covered by fixing her hair revealed he was also flushed.

“We’re just-” they both started to say at the same time before stopping, looking at each other, and wondering what the fuck the other was going to say.

“Right, right, okay, have you two been on a date?” he asked fishing out his cellphone. “Do I have to do all the work for you? First they’re out of seat liners in the bathroom and I have to make my own seat cover out of toilet paper. And yes, I will be mentioning it in the monthly survey-” he stopped short and tapped on his phone screen a few times. “Here’s a nice place, co-habitable, so called safe space, progressive but not hipster progressive-”

Karai scrunched her face up.

Donnie looked over his phone at her, annoyed. “There’s a difference,” he stipulated.

Leo sucked on his drink until he was sucking ice, his eyes dart to her but when he saw she was looking at him he became infatuated with some other area of the restaurant. She kicked him under the table for being a dork and he tapped her back. “I know you’re free,” Donnie said pointing at Leo. “But how about next Sunday, seven o’clock. Dinner?” he asked pointing to Karai.

It had been a long time since she had ever been busy on a Sunday night, she opened her mouth to say yes but Leo cut her off. “Donnie you can’t just pressure her into dating me,” he stressed.

Fuck, she wished he had never came to her apartment that night. Now he was hyper aware of not wanting to pressure her into anything when Karai would pass out if he asked her to help test his bed.

Donnie rolled his eyes because he was the one suffering, obviously. “Oh come on, “help me get his number Donnie-san, Senpai won’t notice me whatever will I do he’s so handsome” and then sprinkle some kissy faces in there for the full effect-”

“I’m pretty sure that’s racist,” Karai said appalled that Donnie had just mimicked her voice and spread lies. She looked to Leo ready to defend herself, but he too was red and flustered.

“Not if he’s Japanese too,” Donnie scoffed, setting his phone down and ripping open the sugar packets.

“I think that makes it double racist,” Leo said, running his hand over his face.

“I’m also Japanese,” Donnie exclaimed, some sugar missing his cup and hitting the table. “You two are already annoying, but you,” he said pointing to Leo. “You should be ashamed of yourself, “help me Papa Yoshi she’s so pretty how do I ask her on a date?” and then dad told you to bring her a complimentary candle and you did but you wussed out on asking her out!”

Leo then shrunk down like a whipped child opening his mouth to retort but a sad indecisive sound was all that escaped.

“Wait, you specifically came up with that candle to ask me out on a date?” she asked.

Leo nodded hesitantly. “Yes, but, I guess given the situation it didn’t seem the best time to ask.”

Right, that would have been awkward. Still, she smiled, there was something that really boosted her up about this. They were both looking for ways to ask each other out.

“See, you two want this date,” Donnie said. “I now pronounce you dating.”

It was awkward, possibly arranged by a mentally unstable turtle mutant but they both nodded. They were dating, Karai felt her stomach fluttering. Dating.

Donnie slurped his coffee. “Hey, can we stop by Casey’s tonight?” he asked, pawing as Leo’s burger wrapper.

Leo stared confused.

“He has to drink a whole bottle of hot sauce now. I won the bet,” Donnie remarked ominously.

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

Leo parked by a meter and walked her to her door and insisted on carrying her candle up. She didn’t know where they were going for dinner in a week. Donnie had refused to tell them, he just made the reservation and told them to dress formally. That meant a suit for Leo and a cocktail dress for Karai.

She was already nervous, every demeaning comment her mother had ever said to her came floating back into her head on top of everything else.

“Don’t worry,” he said stopping outside her door and handing her the candle. “I won’t insist on coming in.”

She laughed under her breath. “Thanks,” she said. And maybe this was where they were supposed to kiss, Karai couldn’t be sure. Part of her, a really foolish part of her wanted it to be easy. But a more rational and level headed side came through to remind her of the one nagging issue she had. “Hey can I be upfront about something?”

Leo nodded. “Of course.”

“Bludgeon,” she started, and even saying his name made Leo straighten up. That was why she was worried. There was nothing here for her if he still wasn’t through with his last partner. “If he came back into the picture wanting a second chance while we’re dating-”

“Even if I wasn’t dating anyone I would have to turn him away,” Leo interrupted, his tone sounded genuine but his features softened before continuing. “Another ex of mine, the one before Bludgeon and I got together… he told Bludgeon lies about me. When I came home from what was supposed to be our wedding day his things were gone and a letter was left explaining that I wasn’t the turtle he thought I was, despite us being together for a year he believed everything my ex had told him. I can not allow someone like that back into my life even if they apologized,” he said gravely. “He broke my heart.”

She had been fooled before by people she loved saying they didn’t feel a certain way for others. Karai wasn’t an expert of deciphering lies or testimony, she was only a feature in the room. And now, in the hallway of her apartment building she felt just about the same. There was no way to know if he was saying the truth. The same way Karai couldn’t really know what she would do if Shini showed up at her doorstep, even after everything.

Love is complicated, while being left at the alter might be unforgivable she barely knew Leo. And she really didn’t know Bludgeon.

She supposed she had asked Leo to predict the impossible. “Okay, I just… I had to ask.”

“I understand,” Leo said, but the question had unsettled him. “I suppose it is only fair that I ask if a similar scenario befell you with your ex-”

“I wouldn’t have her back. She did things to me after the break-up that were…” she trailed off. She didn’t want to say it out loud, there was a chance Leo didn’t even know about the concept of revenge porn. “Unforgivable.” she settled on, her stomach sinking.

“I understand if that is all you want to say” Leo said.

She nodded, “same with your situation.”

There might be a day when she did explain that to him. From the start her very dysfunctional and only relationship, and maybe in turn Leo would tell her what lies his ex was spreading.

For now those things were raw and they had barely even had a real date.

Leo bowed slightly, polite and warm. “Goodnight Karai,” he said before walking away.

“Goodnight Leo,” she called after him.

Her whole Monday evening had been completely upended and she found herself wishing it could be that way more often.

Chapter Text

【The Hints of Hickory Wood Candle】

~December 18th, 2010~

The very next morning she received a text from Leo simply saying, “Good morning, Karai.”

She of course responded back with her own “Good morning.” She decided against adding a smiley face. Her reasons were unclear to her, whether it was a matter of wanting to avoid coming off too strongly or the technical problem of Leo’s phone not supporting emojis.

Leo didn’t say anything else in text and Karai continued her work day. She recorded the court proceedings for a few traffic tickets and because the officers didn’t show, the cases were tossed out. She checked her phone in the bathroom between hearings and never received another text.

That was until that night at two minutes past eleven.

“Goodnight, Karai.”

After a second of debating, reading his text in every tone, half convinced maybe she had pissed him off by responding to his good morning text wrong she just sent back a simple goodnight text of her own.

“Goodnight, Leo.”

And then she googled texting etiquette and found nothing helpful. Her sleep was fretful and she was left with something roughly the size of an avocado pit rolling around in her stomach. It was something she had sculpted as a young girl, when her mother wouldn’t say anything but the bare minimum. It left Karai wondering what she did wrong and trying too hard to fix it.

Back then she had been completely unaware that there was no way to right a wrong that only existed in the minds of other people.

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

For the four following days Leo texted her, “Good morning, Karai.” He did it at exactly two minutes past eight in the morning. Then at two minutes after eleven he would text, “Goodnight, Karai.”

It was driving her insane, she was losing sleep over it.

Why was it always two minutes past the hour? Why did he text it no matter how long it took her to respond? Since having his number their text conversation consisted of sixteen messages. All of them were goodnight or good morning texts.

Was it a test? Some sort of loyalty game? Was he checking in on her?

“Well?” Irma asked, a piece of lettuce stuck to her bottom lip.

Karai had completely zoned out, not that Irma was even a friend but the two ladies knew each other from Buffalo Seminary. Going through that hell of a private school was at least grounds for a loose friendship years later.

“Florida is a long way from here,” Karai said scraping together what she could still hold on to from their previous talks. Her pathetic egg salad sandwich left untouched on her plate.

It smelled funny anyways.

Irma shrugged, “You would make more money. Court reporters can branch out further than stenographers-”

“The internship they’re offering would pay less than what I am making now,” Karai cut in.

Irma, and a few other stenographers had received emails from a firm down in Florida. Karai had seen it as a too good to be true type situation and had already drafted out a list of all the reasons she wouldn’t even consider the interview. It was only through cross talk with other potential recruits that she found out the firm was offering her the interview on their dime, unlike others.

That included the flight there and back, and a stay at a four star hotel for two days.

Irma didn’t know that, and Karai wasn’t going to tell her. Tampa Florida was a long ways away and even though her neighbor plays the harmonica sometimes… she grew up in New York and always dreamed of living in the city. Not in Florida, which was alligator country with a sprinkle of tropical storms.

Irma wasn’t of that mindset though, “It would be tight for a few year but then you would be making double what you are now.”

“I take it you’re going to try and get the job?” Karai asked. She wondered how Irma’s Gothic aesthetic would hold up in Florida. Irma was one of the few who entered the goth stage and never left. She was like that bat mutant, Abby, from NCIS. Only she wasn’t fluttering around a lab and had a job that was so lenient as to let her dress that way.

The rest of lunch was filled with Irma rationalizing her decision and Karai picking at her sandwich with no intent to eat it. Her mind was full of Leo and thoughts of whether or not he would age with the same grace that German shepard mutant Mark Harmon did, and then the drain was pulled when she realized she wouldn’t see Leo old.

He was a turtle mutant.

His lifespan was double her own.

She didn’t know exactly how to feel about that.

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

On Saturday morning her neighbor, the one she shared a very thin wall with decided to invite his pals over so they could work on their harmonica solos. That was at five in the morning.

Karai had gone over there, in her fuzzy pink slippers and her fluffy bathrobe to tell them to be quiet. The four mouse mutants who greeted her had been startled by the lime green cream she had on her face, squeaking and clutching their tails. They said they would post-pone until seven and Karai guessed she could live with that.

Now practice had been going for almost an hour and her neighbors were actually very bad at the harmonica. It sounded like they had taped those poor instruments to the end of vacuum attachments.

She was eating a piece of toast and nursing a headache when Leo, timely as ever, sent his routine good morning text at exact eight-o-two.

“Hmph,” she snorted. “Not a very good morning,” she said as she typed with one thumb, “my neighbor and his friends are playing the harmonica. No work is getting done today.”

She set her phone down, ate her toast, and reloaded the coffee machine for another ill-advised pot when her phone vibrated on the table.

“The shop is quiet.”

She read the text several times, was that an invitation to hang out in his store? There were chairs in the shop, planetarium ones that were collapsed up and against a wall. Karai had wondered why since it was a candle shop and not a coffee shop.

Were there customers demanding to sit down and burn their candles before purchasing?

“You shouldn’t let customers loiter in your shop,” Karai said as she typed. Self consciously she touched her hair. If she was seeing Leo she should hop in the shower and fix her hair up. She would need to wear something nice but comfortable… already her anxiety was doubling.

Their date was tomorrow, she had assumed that as busy working adults that would be the next time they saw each other…

“I could make an exception for you,” he texted. Which was funny, because his hand seemed to reach through the screen and wrap around her heart like it was a depressed candle taking a leap of faith from a high shelf.

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

The colder weather meant putting together an outfit that justified both her comfort and her desire to wear something that Leo would stare at.

Her figure was petite, a childhood of gymnastics and pageants gave her an adulthood of hyper awareness around her waist size and guilt when she ate until she was actually full.

The only good thing that came about it was Karai looked good in a simple gray sweater. Just tight enough to highlight her slim size. She had a pair of black jeans, a comfortable fit with some elastic blend in the mix instead of uncomfortable 100% cotton jean that were hard to sit in for long periods of time.

There was enough snow on the ground to force her into wearing some clunky black snow boots. They went up to her mid calf and she sighed at them while standing in the entrance way of Leo’s shop. The heater aimed at the door filled the stairwell with a loud hum as it turned all the snow she tracked in to water.

She walked into the shop about ten, she had sent Leo a text on the bus saying she would be there soon, she didn’t expect him to greet her in the lobby or anything. Her black felt gloves (too thin for the cold outside) numbly felt for the zipper of her coat as she looked towards the little shelf holding the Candle of the Day.

A smile crept over her lips seeing Hints of Hickory Wood proudly on display, Leo had kept his promise and raised hardened wax spirits as he said he would.

A small gasp from the doorway jerked her out of her thoughts. Whoever gasped was gone, the pitter-patter of feet racing back into the store, shelves rattling in their wake. She thought it was odd because the shop was very quiet.

She was adjusting her laptop bag, loosening it to fit over her head when Leo came in with a very alarmed facial expression.

As soon as he saw he relaxed and turned around. “This is my friend, Karai.” Leo said this while his back was partially turned, as though he was signing with his hands to somewhere deeper into the store. “She’s the one I told you about before.”

There was a stretch of silence before Leo turned back around, finally giving Karai a good view of him.

He was wearing dark navy jeans, brown leather dress shoes and a white shirt folded up to above his elbow. The front of his white shirt had several stains, the first few buttons were open revealing the smooth mustard colored plastron on his chest.

“Is there another customer here?” She asked, trying to bring moisture back to her dry throat.

Leo adjusted his shirt, pulling at the fabric uneasily. “My nephew Picasso is staying with me for today,” he said, “and I must apologize for my shirt I had a slip up with some dye earlier and haven’t had the time to change.”

Karai wanted to agree with him and demand he take the shirt off immediately but she bit her tongue fearing he actually would.

Also there was a child in the store somewhere that didn’t need to witness such corruption.

Because of his shell, his jeans were held up with black elastic suspenders. The kind that weren’t meant to be seen judging by the pilling but it seemed unavoidable it he was in the back working with dye.

“That’s a beautiful locket you’re wearing,” Leo commented as Karai took off her coat.

She felt herself blush, and then hated herself for it. Completely unfair for Leo to look so disheveled and for her to be the one unable to form a sentence. “Thank you,” was all she got out.

The golden oval shaped locket with an engraving of a lotus on it was given to her by her older sister. In it was a photo of her and Miwa when they were younger. Before the divorce but in that period of time where Miwa was more like Karai’s young teenage mother than older sibling. The original chain was long since broken, now the locket was on a black cord.

It seemed like a long back story to explain and an awkward one at that so she pushed it back down her throat not even sure why she had the urge to tell Leo any of it. Not that she had horrifically cheesy thoughts about the turtle mutant or anything. There was a coldness hanging around her throat that made it hard to open up the way he did.

She did not look forward to him realizing that she was less of an open book.

“I can show you that-”

“I’ll just put my coat-”

They spoke at the same time and paused, Leo broke the awkward silence by taking her coat and Karai pivoted to an actual question.

“Where is your nephew?” She hadn’t seen him at all, even as they walked back to where several planetarium chairs were.

Leo looked around for a second.

“I believe he is still playing Ninja,” Leo said, as if that game was as common as The Floor Is Lava or Hide and Seek.

“I’ve never heard of that game,” Karai said while sitting down in the deep and very cushioned chair. It seemed to try and swallow her. “Do I need to be worried about paper shurikens coming my way?”

Leo chuckled, “No. There is no danger. It’s about designating a target and then going as long as possible without being seen by the target. I had a customer in here early but now that he has left it seems you are the new target.”

“That’s an interesting game,” Karai said while struggling to position herself in the chair that dwarfed her. “I can’t say I’ve ever played it.”

He shook his head, “Well, I am the inventor of it. Needed a creative way to convince my siblings to stay out of… my mother’s path.”

His face dropped for a second, the way Karai’s would whenever someone brought up something painful from her childhood. Even if it was a loose thread or barely related, it still hurt.

“The modern day version of the game has changed,” Leo commented. His face morphing back to that of a polite mutant working customer service. “I guess I will leave you to your work now,” he said as though there was nothing amiss.

Karai nodded, she felt slightly guilty as her “work” was actually just writing for fun. It felt strange to do something leisure while Leo worked.

Through it all she tried to imagine what hell it would be to get someone like Donnie to play a game like Ninja as a child.

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

While writing, her laptop perched on her lap while the planetarium chair slowly became so comfortable she nearly fell asleep, she heard rattling throughout the shop.

No customers came in. Likely because the blizzard that rolled through had covered the sidewalks in four inches of fluffy snow. The Underground didn’t have the kind of resources other communities had. There were no city workers making sure the sidewalks were cleared for foot traffic. While the sidewalk in front of Leo’s shop had been shoveled clear and sprinkled with salt the sidewalks leading to him on either side of his block weren’t.

Sometimes she would catch a glimpse of something purple, a vibrant purple closer to a fuchsia tone than anything else. She was discreet with her glances, keeping in mind that there was a small ninja traipsing about.

When a tail caught her eye she frowned.

Turtles have tails of course, but Picasso had a long one, longer than Raph’s even. It dragged over the clean wooden floors with a slithering friction which gave away his position.

Despite the shop being quiet she was distracted. Between the sounds of Leo in the back room mixing wax and a small ninja making her the object of his games that murder mystery novel she was trying to work on wasn’t even a page long by lunch time.

Leo approached her at about half after noon.

“I would normally close the shop for a half hour so I could go downstairs to feed Picasso,” Leo said. There were a few more stains on his shirt. “You could stay here if you like, but if you leave while I am gone please knock on the door downstairs so I can lock up behind you. Or of course, you are welcome to join us.”

Karai felt a little strange about going into Leo’s apartment. “I am fine here, I had a big breakfast. If it is okay with you?”

Leo nodded, “I trust it should be fine. I will blow out the Candle of the Day on my way out.”

She looked around at the wooden shelves and floor. “Yes…” she mused, “good idea.”

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

At four in the afternoon Karai learned that turtle mutants, despite the many damaging stereotypes, were fast.

A crashing noise erupted from and unseen area of the shop nearly causing her to launch her laptop. She barely saw the blur of a turtle mutant rush out of the back room and down the aisles towards the noise.

She listened but there was no noise for a concerning amount of time. She saved her documents and closed her laptop, leaving it on the chair behind her.

What she found in the weather section of the store was an old fashioned sled on the floor along with twenty or more candles stacked in front of the shelf. It appeared to Karai that Picasso had the good sense to move the candles off the sled and surrounding shelf space before pulling it down. But the shelf was at his eye level and an old sled like the one now toppled on the floor was made of metal and wood. Heavier than anything plastic the little turtle mutant would have come across.

Leo was bending Picasso elbows and looking at his face in an obvious search for injuries. Only stopping every so often to sign something to the boy and get a sheepish signing back.

“Everything okay?” Karai asked, she didn’t know sign language and while some of it seemed more like pantomime than unique signs she couldn’t get the exact conversation.

Leo looked up from his tunnel vision, still holding Picasso’s shoulders. “Yes, well, Picasso wanted to see this sled I was using as a display piece. When he took it down it was heavier than he expected but now he wants to go sledding-”

Picasso tapped at Leo’s wrists and signed with more vigor, obviously wanting to take the sled outside.

Leo breathed out his his nose before turning back to Karai, “I am being told that I should take him sledding but I have a business to run,” He then turned back to Picasso and signed while speaking, “and you have homework you said you would get done before your father picks you up.”

Picasso pouted and interlaced his fingers together and pleaded with his whole soul for Leo to take him sledding.

It was adorable, Karai finally was also able to get a look at him with out being creepy. He was wearing a light blue denim jumper, thick white socks. He had a long sleeves shirt that didn’t match, it was black with little cross bones and skulls on it. He appeared to be at that age were he was dressing himself but had no sense of what to actually put on. For some reason he was wearing a mask, it was a band of red fabric with eye holes cut out. The ends were caught in the back of his shirt like it was the first thing he put on when getting dressed.

Not that she was judging, she was just confused on whether he was a ninja or a pirate, while also trying to think of what species of turtle mutant is fucking purple. Reptile mutants come in many vibrant colors, males especially, but a purple snapping turtle?

“I can’t kick out my customers to take you sledding,” Leo said while signing. Doing it mostly so Karai wasn’t standing there like a fool.

Still, her big dumb mouth spoke before she could really think her words through. “What customers?”

Leo looked at her like she has stepped on a candle or snipped his wicks. “They could come in at any moment!” His voice was higher, and he swallowed a few times after saying it.

“Right…” Karai said slowly, smirking at his indignation while he gave her slanted eyes.

Picasso tugged at Leo’s shirt so he could argue his case more.

Karai really wished she could help the kid more, someone needed to get Leo out of that back room before his shirt got anymore stained.

“I am stronger than your watery eyes, I know your ways Picasso,” Leo whispered under his breath. He shook his head and made “no” hand gestures but his heart obviously wasn’t in it.

Karai tapped her heel on the ground pensively. “Well, I guess if your only customer were to leave…” she said.

“You wouldn’t do this to me I thought we were friends,” Leo said quickly, searching her eyes. “I trusted you.”

“To not scheme with a what seven year old to let him go sledding?” she asked while raising an eyebrow. “I’ll be outside waiting for you two, don’t forget to snuff your depressed candle on the way out.”

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

The park they went to had a hill, it wasn’t steep, but it was enough to sled down and for Picasso that was all he had wanted. As soon as Leo parked the juvenile turtle was already opening the trunk and getting out the sled buzzing to join the other children both mutant and human. Leo had held him back for a moment and signed something with a stern glare but once Picasso nodded earnestly he let go with a sigh.

“He used to… bite other children,” Leo explained when she gave him a strange look. “It’s a snapping turtle thing, I have a scar on my ankle from where Raph got me when he was four.”

“Human kids bite too,” Karai said. “Dolly Anderson tried to bite Kelsey Frank’s nose off when she won the Puppy Princess Pageant.”

Leo frowned slowly. “Were they both puppies?”

Of course Leo didn’t know the weird world of child beauty pageants.

“No, Dolly was a human. Inclusivity laws say there can’t be mutant only events so while the Puppy Princess Pageant was hosted in Washington D.C. and while most of the contestants were puppies, some of us unfortunate humans like Dolly and myself were put in dog outfits by our parents. I guess the difference is when I came dead last I didn’t bite the competition.”

“Hmmm,” Leo said closing his trunk and brushing away some of the lingering ice on his tail lights.

Karai crossed her arms. “What? You think I was a biter as a kid?”

“I didn’t say that,” Leo said while focusing on breaking ice off the back of his car, avoiding her eyes.

“Well you’re not not saying it either.”

“And yet,” Leo said cocking his head to one side. That was his full sentence too. No follow up.

With a huff she turned to walk away from him, he caught up to her and lingered slightly behind her until she turned around to give him a tight lipped playful frown that he smiled at. Just like that they were walking around the paved park path, salt crunching under their feet.

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

“You didn’t have to do this,” Leo said.

They were on their fourth lap. After talking about the parks they went to as children Karai realized they were opposites. While Leo had gone from rags to riches, Karai had gone from a pampered but dysfunctional childhood to penny pinching. He explained using garbage lids as sleds while she learned to ski at age five. Now she missed skiing and Leo explained he felt extremely out of place when every his family went up north to expensive ski lodges.

She didn’t say anything cheesy like that she could teach him how to ski. She feared his reaction, that he would laugh the way Shini would whenever Karai maybe had knowledge on something she didn’t. Always telling Karai that whatever she did know wasn’t useful or practical.

“I didn’t do it because I had to,” Karai said. Even though Picasso wasn’t her kid she still kept him in the corner of her eyes the same way Leo was. “I did it because his face was going to crack in half. The corners of his mouth were on the floor if half the defendants I see in court could frown that hard every judge would be partial.”

Well, the human ones would get off with lighter sentences.

“Oh you are familiar with such war tactics?” Leo asked.

“You’re looking at the brat who got her older sister to get her Dairy Queen every Friday after school,” Karai said while touching her locket through her coat. “We would eat it in the parking lot so mom couldn’t scream about the calories.”

Leo purposefully or accidentally brushed their sleeves together as they walked. “You do not seem like a brat,” he said.

She turned her head to him, “I climbed through your window.”

“It’s okay, I forgive you.”

“I wasn’t apologizing.”

They had slowed down a little, both smiling but Leo was doing it in a sheepish way. She wanted to lean in and raise herself to her tip toes to kiss him, it would be easy and they were obviously there. A simple little peck on the lips, or whatever he called the area around his mouth. Her breath clouded up the space between them in a foggy cloud, his did less so, he was cooler but still warmer than the outside air around them.

A stranger jogged by and scoffed turning to their friend, “right in public too!”

The two humans keep jogging but the hateful look they threw over their shoulders was enough to make Leo step away from her and continue walking the path in the opposite direction. Karai following after sneering back at the joggers.

“You know,” he began after a few seconds of chilling silence, “even if the Supreme Court rules in favor of-”

His hand was in his coat pocket but Karai didn’t care, she fished it out and Leo went rigid. Once his three fingered glove was wrapped around her own thinner glove he relaxed giving their hands one small glance before they found a rhythm. A way to swing their hands slightly between them as they walked.

“My brother and his partner, Casey, live in The Underground,” Leo said shifting his hand to better hold Karai’s as they walked. “Casey tells me he is rarely harassed by humans, it is mostly mutants. They are considering moving and their landlord has threatened to evict them if they get married. Saying he can not stand to have a traitor living with his loyal tenants. Raph wishes to stay until Picasso in eighteen so he can grow up and play with his friends.”

“That has to be illegal,” Karai said with barely contained indignation.

Leo shrugged helplessly. “Find a judge who will care.”

Morbid as it was Karai couldn’t disagree. “That sucks for Raph and Casey,” she said as they both turned to watch Picasso squeal while going down the hill for the eighteenth time. Only now he had three more children on his sled with him for maximum speed. All looked to be reptile mutants. “You don’t risk losing the shop if we’re seen together do you?”

“No, my father owns the building outright and has no issues with my life choices,” Leo said.

“He was cool about you being bisexual?” she asked.

“Yes, but at the time I only knew gay or straight,” he explained. “I kissed a boy and kept it a secret for a few months, didn’t know how he would take it. I was seventeen and he had only adopted me the year prior. I was nervous he would kick me out.”

“Did he?” she asked, almost not wanting to know. Even if Leo and his adoptive father were on good terms now there was no telling if they had gone through a rough spot. Some parents come around to the idea of their child being gay, her mother never did, but at least she stopped fighting Karai on it after being with Shini for a few years.

Leo shook his head, “no.”

“Good.”

“How did your parents take your bisexuality?”

She wanted to say like a barbed dick, hard and with complaints. “My mother convinced herself we were just really close girlfriends and I was acting up,” she said.

This time the offended joggers from before pass by and say nothing.

“Didn’t help that my girlfriend at the time found it hilarious,” she said while almost daring the two ladies to say something as they pass. She squeezed Leo’s hand harder when she felt him pull away slightly.

He didn’t talk again until the joggers were completely past them. “That doesn’t sound like the proper response from your mother or your girlfriend.”

Karai laughed it off, “my mother rarely has the proper response to anything really, so it’s no surprise. Did your parents invite your boyfriend in and congratulate you for coming out?”

Either he didn’t realize she was deflecting the conversation back to him or he was being polite and taking the hint, she couldn’t be sure.

“Yes,” Leo said. “Of course… the second time he came around Donnie found it necessary to interrogate him. Thankfully my father stopped the interrogation when the more personal questions came out.”

“Hey, looks like Picasso made a friend.” Karai pointed to where the boys was, not being pulled on the sled my another mutant. It was stereotypical but the pink hat the other child was wearing made Karai think it was a girl. Though she wondered how the kids were communicating since Picasso appeared deaf.

Leo put the side of his hand over his forehead to squint where Karai was pointing, he was closer now, she could feel his breath on the top of her head. Slightly cool air piercing between the loose knit of her hat.

“That appears to be Y’twithumba,” he said after a moment.

“Oh… that’s an interesting name.”

“Salamanders generally have complicated names,” he said standing up straighter and no longer breathing on her. “Picasso is part salamander, part snapping turtle.”

She nodded but felt stupid. When mutants of different species manage to have a child it is no longer classed as a mutant. Chimeras aren’t rare but fertility issue keep them from reproducing. In a very backwards time chimeras were used as reasoning to say species shouldn’t cross breed and their lack of fertility was nature’s way of saying love between two different species of mutants went against nature.

For some chimeras it was obvious they were mixed species. Picasso at least appeared to take most of his physical form from his father, and his bright coloration from his mother.

“Is Raph separated from Picasso’s mom now?” Karai asked. She did not want to bring up the stickiness of divorce but she fully understood if that was what happened.

Leo shook his head. “He is widowed. She died in the line of duty. Her name was Y'gythba, but she went by Mona Lisa.”

“I’m noticing an art trend here,” Karai said because that was the correct thing to point out when Leo just told her a family member died. She could beat herself up over it later.

“Her older brother G'Throkka was my first boyfriend,” Leo said completely unaware of the swear words being blasted in Karai’s head. “He went by Sal though. He is still heavily involved in his nephew’s life between deployments.”

“That’s nice of him,” Karai said. She had absolutely no relationship with any of her aunts or uncles. “Is it awkward?” she asked.

“Why would it be awkward?” Leo asked.

“Because you’ve screwed Picasso’s uncle?” she asked feeling it was obvious. She didn’t know how she would feel if Shini ended up being her next partners cousin or something. That would make things so…. cringey. No one wanted to just come across the person they lost their virginity too.

Leo’s face showed nothing, he just shook his head. “No,” he said easily. “I was always on the bottom.”

There was a ringing noise in her ear which she could only assume was her brain collapsing in on itself. “That’s not...”

Suddenly Leo whipped his head around looking towards the street his car was parked on, his eyes were wide and he was squeezing her hand to the point that it almost hurt.

“You okay?” she asked looking around too, it was hard since Leo was sort of forcing her behind him.

His shoulders slumped and so did his grip. “Yes,” he breathed out unevenly putting one hand over his chest. “My apologies, it was just a white cat… from the corner of my eye I thought… it is not important. It is getting late anyways, I should gather Picasso and take him home.”

Karai felt perplexed, Leo dropped her hand and was now walking into the park straight for Picasso. Before following she looked around again. She hadn’t even seen the cat mutant.

With a frown and a new sense of paranoia she followed Leo’s path to Picasso. The two were vehemently signing to each other.

“We have food at home,” Leo signed and said, again probably for Karai’s benefit so she knew what was going on.

Picasso was of course not swayed by this reasoning as he pouted and signed back.

Leo shook his head, “I have to take Karai back to the shop so she can gather her things.”

He had said it in a way that made Karai believe he thought she would help him. Which was adorable since it was more fun to help Picasso.

“She does not want to go to Burger Worm with us,” Leo said and signed, unknowingly giving Karai the perfect opening.

“Maybe I do want to go to Burger Worm with you two.” Her voice was thick with teasing.

Leo turned his head to look at her, to study her. Maybe even question his life choices as he realized he was fighting a two front war. “Why are you fraternizing with the enemy?” he asked. He then turned to the begging child, an act Picasso was a master in. “What about Uncle Donnie? What will he eat?” Leo asked.

Though she didn’t know sign language, she could see the gesture “take” and “out” very clearly.

Leo pinched the space between his eyes.

“What did he say?” Karai asked.

“I’m not telling you, you will agree with him,” Leo mumbled into his hand.

She too squatted down on the balls of her feet. “He’s saying take out, isn’t he?”

Leo groaned and pulled his face out of his hand. “Do you think there’s a chance that Donnie will not want me to get him something from Burger Worm?” he asked.

She placed a hand on his shell. “No.”

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

They tracked a lot of snow in. Picasso was coated in it though he didn’t look cold. That built in heater was doing its job. Karai tried to be courteous and kick off her shoes outside but it still tracked in.

Leo and Picasso walked down the hall adjacent to the grand wooden staircase leading to the shop. He turned around while unlocking the door. “You can come in, I just need a moment to change and get Picasso cleaned up,” he explained.

She didn’t want to just stand out in the vestibule twiddling her thumbs. “Yeah, sounds good,” she said following Leo into his apartment.

What she first stepped into was like a mud room. There was a wooden rack full of work shoes and some pegs on the wall holding coats. Picasso was already quickly kicking his boots off and tearing out of his snow pants, Leo picking up after him with resignation.

Karai took off her boots to so she could step into the rest of the house.

Much like the shop upstairs it was very open. The kitchen, living room, and dining room were all in the main room. There was a corner couch, the ones that make an L-shape, in front of a large wall mounted TV. Karai saw a lump on this couch under a thick white comforter. The coffee table had a glass of water. She assumed this was Donnie.

It would have been rude to go to far in but she did look at the walls and note the two rooms off to the side, matching the location of the back room in the shop above. She assumed those were bedrooms.

Aside from Donnie’s area in the living room the place looked very neat and organized. A few paintings of cities were on the walls. She felt brave enough to at least look at the ones closest to the door while she waited. The name Shen was in the corner and Karai remembered the newspaper clipping Leo had shown her and wondered if his adoptive mother had painted these.

In the kitchen Donnie’s new coffee machine was on the counter. So at least he got his fix without antagonizing more employees at Starfish Bucks.

Her phone rang, she fished it out of her pocket and saw it was her mother. Without thinking she decline the call sending it to voicemail and then set her phone to silent. That had been a mistake now her mother would call repeatedly.

Leo came out of his bedroom looking a little more put together. A clean sweater vest and a pair of nice looking jeans. Crisp and a better cut than the ones he was wearing before. “Oh, if you have to go to the bathroom, go here. Public restrooms are atrocious.” He shuddered before walking over to the couch.

“I’m good, thanks.” She slid her phone back in her pocket as it rang silently again with her mother’s second call.

Leo gently nudged the lump on the couch. “Donnie, wake up.”

A green arm snaked out of the blankets to bat Leo away. “Go away.”

“What do want from Burger Worm?” Leo asked, pushing the lump’s legs over so he could sit down.

“Death.”

“Not available,” Leo said just out of reach from the hand that was still trying to swat him away. Now only swiping at air.

Karai now understood why Picasso was upstairs with Leo and not downstairs with his Uncle Donnie. It seemed Donnie was having a bad day.

“Coffee,” Donnie said, dropping his hand with a muted thump onto the couch cushion.

Leo gave the lump a stern stare. “Donatello.”

“Fine,” Donnie groaned poking his head out of the blankets. “I want those triple gut-loaded crickets with sweet and sour sauce.”

“Okay. Do want me to get you more water?” Leo offered, standing up and grabbing his brother’s water glass.

“No,” Donnie said, retreating into his blankets. “I hate water.”

Leo nodded while opening the freezer and filling the glass with ice before taking a pitcher from the fridge and filling the glass. “You need water to live,” Leo said, placing the water on the glass coffee table.

Donnie scoffed, “you need water to live.”

“This is true,” Leo agreed, heading towards the door. Picasso was already hoovering at Leo’s feet, very impatient as to why they weren’t at Burger Worm already this very instant.

“Would you also get me some ice cream? Mint chip fudge swirl?” Donnie asked as they were walking out the door.

Picasso was already ahead out into the mudroom putting his shoes on.

“Yes. Anything else?” Leo asked over his shoulder.

If a place like Burger Worn had mint chip flavored ice cream it gave Karai some home that the establishment had some human food. However, she guessed it would be fitting pay back if she had to eat worms.

“No,” Donnie said as Leo bent down to put his own shoes back on, he was very particular about his laces. Karai had just slipped her boots off and back on and she couldn’t remember the last time she bothered to untie them.

“Okay, we will be back in an hour,” Leo said.

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

Karai hadn’t expected a diner styled restaurant with the red leather cushioned booths, she hoped it was fake and it probably was. Most leather was lab grown but their were antique pieces with actual cow mutant leather. It was considered bad taste to have them but Karai herself remembered her father’s leather office chair was made of the real stuff and that he was proud of it.

The waiter had brought them their menus and hadn’t said a word about Karai being a human. The place did look familiar, like she had seen it online in the background of a photo. It was a common practice for humans to try mutant specific restaurants to show that they were progressive, so if anything the establishment was happy to take her money.

Or Leo’s money.

Or if they split the bill, her money.

They had a view of the street. It was snowing a little and it was getting darker now. Leo and Picasso were on one side of the booth while Karai sat across from them. Picasso of course had the window seat.

“Ah, found the human section,” Karai said after scanning the menu for a few moment. She had been caught up on the fact that the diner specified their insects were served alive to insure their freshness.

Leo grimaced. “Sorry about the poor selection.”

“It’s fine…” she said while debating her two options; mac and cheese or a cut up hot dog.

When the waiter came back she ordered the mac and cheese, Leo ordered himself the hornworm salad, and for Picasso he ordered the earthworms and meatballs. He also after a takeout container of triple gut-loaded crickets with sweet and sour sauce.

The waiter was young, a meerkat mutant. She scribbled down everything Leo said.

“Anything else?” she asked while topping off their barely touched water glasses.

“I think we are good,” Leo said. “Thank you.”

Karai was very hungry, she had lied about having a big breakfast. All she had was toast and honestly mac and cheese sounded wonderful, it sounded like gold as she filled her stomach with cold ice water in the meantime. “So, do you come here often?” she asked.

“As a child I did,” Leo said. He seemed distracted by his coat behind him not staying up and bunching behind his shell. “Do you want children?” he asked suddenly while reaching behind his back to fix his coat.

Karai knew there was a point in the dating process where they would have to iron out some of the tougher topics. “I’ve never really thought about it,” she said like her mother hadn’t been throwing out hints to her and Miwa for years about wanting grandchildren. “Also I don’t think we’re compatible that way.”

“Right,” Leo said looking down at the left behind menus.

“You?” she asked. “You think about kids?”

“I don’t know, feel like I’ve raised kids, I don’t think I want to do it again.” He kept tracing the edge of the menu, perhaps with nerves.

The diner was too cramped for her to feel comfortable about taking his hand. That seemed more appropriate for their private dinner later even if Picasso was too busy coloring the back of his paper menu to notice. “I haven’t raised kids and I already don’t want to do it once,” she said giving him a half smile.

He smiled back and stopped pushing the edge of his menu under his nails.

“If we’re going to talk about deal breakers… how old are you?” she asked.

“Thirty-seven.”

“Wow.” She said it without thinking but she had thought he was older.

It was a huge leap to make but she had assumed the egg Leo talked about carrying when he was ten was either Raph or Donnie. She had leaned towards it being Donnie since they seemed so close but now… it was probably Mikey.

“Is that a problem?” he asked.

“No, it’s just you’re younger than I thought,” she said. “I am twenty-six.”

Leo took that in for a second. He had really blue eyes. “Oh, right. I guess that does raise questions. To think all the things I was fretting over and that hadn’t once crossed my mind.”

She shrugged. Lifespans weren’t exactly the best topics for first dates. If it wasn’t a deal breaker for him than she wasn’t going to make a huge deal out of it either. What was the point.

“Did you know the oldest shark in the world is five hundred and twelve?” he said, phrasing it like a cool fact.

“Holy shit.”

“As you know I almost married a hammerhead shark,” Leo said with a small wince as if he was ashamed of it. “The question inevitably came up. When sharks can live for half a millennium, triple the lifespan of a turtle what happens when two beings find each other but time does not treat them as equals?”

“What happens?” she asked.

Leo looked out the window, “I could get hit by a bus tomorrow.”

“Why would you say that?” Karai nearly scolded.

“Because I could get hit by a bus tomorrow,” he said calmly. “Don’t focus on the end. Don’t focus on outliving your partner or leaving them too soon. Enjoy what you get, enjoy what you have.”

“That’s… sweet.” It still burned to think about, their different lifespans. It pained her even more to realize that Leo was being brutally realistic. He could get hit by a bus. Nothing was for certain.

The waiter brought their food finally and Karai found her hunger for mac and cheese had diminished since ordering.

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

True to the menu’s claim the insect were served live. The hornworms on Leo’s salad were indeed moving around.

She ended up eating her mac and cheese, it was pretty good with it’s thicker cheese sauce and large pasta shells. Still she couldn’t help but stare at Leo’s salad. Not staring at Picasso spaghetti worms was easier. As a child he ate with little manners. If squirming earth worms were off putting, Picasso eating them with his mouth open was worse.

“Your salad is… eating itself,” she said.

Leo looked down into his bowl. “It happens,” he said while stabbing the light green worm with his fork. The insect continued to eat at the dressing coated leaf while squirming on the end of Leo’s utensil.

Karai knew many cultures ate food alive, she couldn’t say she could do it.

“I still can’t get Donnie to tell me what restaurant our date is at,” Leo halfheartedly complained but he was fidgeting again. “He’s insistent that it be kept a secret.”

“That’s not ominous…” Karai said.

She hoped the place wasn’t too fancy or anything. Or at least not the kind of place that would ask her what wine she wanted and she would have to come up with a non-weird reason as to why she doesn’t drink. She didn’t have high hopes that Donnie wouldn’t throw her in the deep end like that.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve dated anyone.” She said, wanting to lower all expectations about their date.

She would need to get a dress from her storage locker since it was too late to go buy something and maybe look up what types of forks are used on what dishes.

“I have told my whole entire family about our date,” Leo blurted out.

Karai swallowed her food slowly. “Oh.”

“I didn’t mean to say that out loud,” Leo said quickly. “Or maybe that was the one I was supposed to say out loud and the thing about talking to all my candles about our date was the thing Raph said I should try my best not to mention.”

They stared at each other and Karai bit the inside of her cheek. She had to call on all of her strength to not move her face. She was a stenographer. Of course sometimes she heard things that made her want to crumple over into a heap of laughter in the court room.

Leo talking to his candles all week about their date was not something she was prepare for. Already her bottom lip was shaking and her face ached.

He was staring right at her and she needed a distraction.

“Your salad is escaping,” she barely got out without bursting a blood vessel.

A chubby hornworm was inching it’s way to her plate leaving a trail of whatever dressing it was slathered in on the table.

Leo scrambled for a napkin as the hornworm crawled onto her plate to rub its face on her cheesy pasta.

“Here I can-” Leo said reaching over but Karai huffed and stopped him.

She picked up the hornworm between her thumb and index finger being careful not to squeeze. “Well if I was him I’d be sick of leaves too,” she said.

Leo’s hand seemed frozen mid reach like he expected her to change her mind at any moment. “Again I am so sorry we didn’t go somewhere more human friendly like that Danny’s place-” he said quickly.

“It was Denny’s actually,” she said pulling the hornworm closer to herself, away from Leo who was getting closer with his napkin net.

His eagerness to get the worn away from her should have been her first hint that she shouldn’t eat it.

“But I bet hornworms are like french toast sticks,” she said while popping the worm in her mouth.

~🕯️^-o-🕯️^-o-🕯️~

Three quick knocks echoed around the dirty bathroom as Karai ripped a few pieces of toilet paper off to wipe her mouth.

“Karai, are you okay?” Leo asked through the door.

To his credit he did give her several minutes to gag in peace.

“I’m fine,” she croaked. “I just didn’t expect it to move around so much.” Her stomach made a dangerous noise, she could still feel the little worm crawling in her mouth… each half of it. Like a twisted phantom memory.

“Well… it was alive.”

“Yes, I have confirmed that.” She took more toilet paper and blotted away the sweat sticking to her neck and her heart dropped.

There was no black cord around her neck.

She had lost her locket.

Chapter Text

【The Glass Hornworm Candle】

~December 18th, 2010~

They left Burger Worm as soon as Donnie's order was ready. Picasso sweet signed his way into also getting icecream. It kept him preoccupied in the car on the way back. Which according to Leo was the true reason why he got the kid icecream.

Karai had her doubts.

Leo had paid for everything while she was in the restroom. He hadn't said a word about her getting sick which had the unfortunate side effect of making the car ride back stiff as a board meeting or every family dinner she had ever attended with her father present.

Karai kept her eyes mostly on the take out containers on her lap the whole way back. Her stomach was still angry about the worm it never even saw, and her heart was heavy over the loss of her locket. Both these things kept her very distracted until Leo pulled up to the curb outside of his shop.

She looked at him confused. He could not park on the street and any cop would love to give a mutant a ticket for just having their vehicle idle in one spot too long.

Leo tapped the steering wheel several times in quick succession before digging his hand into his pant’s pocket.

"Here, take my keys,” he said, looking at the shop through the passenger side window. “The one with ‘front door’ painted on it will get you inside and then there is a house key that Picasso can identify."

He then handed her twenty keys on various rings all interconnected before twisting his body to sign something for Picasso. He didn’t say it out loud for her though, whatever it was.

She pocketed the keys in the meantime. When he was done with Picasso he held onto the takeout boxes while she got out and then passed them back to her. He still wasn’t exactly looking at her. She wondered if she had embarrassed him in the restaurant.

"Thank you, I'll be back soon," he promised before rolling up the window and pulling away from the curb.

Exactly as he pulled away the car parked on the other side of the street pulled out and did U-turn. It headed in the same direction Leo was going.

Picasso seemed to think the fraction of a second Karai had taken to watch Leo’s car pull away was too long. He tugged her sleeve impatiently and pointed at the door.

She hid her annoyance. Her fuse was short from her lost locket not Picasso’s eagerness to get inside, but it was still hard to keep her “court face.” Thankfully the key to the front door was labeled in blue paint and neat cursive lettering. Once the door was open Picasso snatched the keys from her and scampered over to Leo’s apartment door to unlock it.

He left the door swinging wide open as he shed his coat and boots into a pile at his feet before heading deeper into the house.

Karai closed the door while balancing the takeout containers. She stomped the snow out of her boots and walked down into the hallway into Leo’s apartment. The keys were still in the door; she plucked them out of the lock before closing it behind her. With some difficulty she got her coat off with one hand and hung it on one of the pegs along the wall without letting go of Donnie’s food.

Leo’s apartment obviously hadn’t changed since she had been there before. Donnie was still on the couch. It looked like he hadn't moved. She wondered what was wrong with him, but knew better than to ask such personal questions despite the fact that he had no trouble digging into her life.

She dropped Leo's keys on the table before putting Donnie's order on the coffee table next to his untouched water glass.

The squeaking Styrofoam woke him. An arm came out of the blankets the same way those exotic lamias would rise out of baskets to the melody of a snake charm to wave her away. "Go away Leo," the mountain of depression demanded. "I'm not hungry."

"I'm not Leo," Karai said. She slumped down on the other part of the L-couch not occupied by Donnie. Her stomach bounced around unhappily. "I'm the fucking disaster who just made an absolute embarrassment out of herself."

Sensing a juicy story Donnie sat up and plucked the Styrofoam cup off the coffee table. "Go on," he said as he stirred his half melted mint chip icecream.

The smell of it made Karai grimace. "Shouldn’t you eat your dinner first?" she asked.

"If you tell me what happened I will," Donnie said.

Karai squinted, "What? Why would I do that? In what way do I benefit from you eating your dinner and telling you my embarrassing story?"

Donnie put his spoon down. "Leo! Your girlfriend is being mean to me!" he yelled.

Of course no one answered. It was satisfying to watch his face contort as he twisted around like Leo was behind the couch. Of course Donnie was only wearing boxers so she got a good flash of his soft back. She stopped staring at his shell once he turned around.

"He isn't here," she supplied before he could ask.

"Well obviously," he said in a condescending tone. "I called you his girlfriend and nothing broke and he's not out here stammering about me making you uncomfortable and I was really looking forward to that here look-"

He leaned down and pulled a notepad from under the couch.

"See?" He said tapping his finger on the page.

There were a lot of things crossed off or scribbled out but Karai focused in on where he was tapping.

"Refer to Karai as Leo's girlfriend so that he will become flustered for my own entertainment."

"Well..." Karai said, eyes traveling around the page to the other scratched out notes. "I guess you'll have to try again when he gets back."

She was a fast reader. It wasn't hard to scan the page before realizing she shouldn't. Some of the things Donnie had put down made her uneasy. She remembered times when she’d fill a diary page calling herself fat in attempts to guilt the last stubborn pounds off before a school dance.

The book was snatched from her hands. She was handing it back anyways but she was extremely apt at speed reading. Donnie wouldn’t know that though. If he somehow did he was being very nonchalant about Karai reading his personal thoughts.

Donnie shoved the notebook under the couch again with the same eagerness a Squirrel Mutant bags acorns on sale at the grocery store. “How’d you get in?” he asked.

Karai was goddamn grateful for the change of subject. “Leo dropped Picasso and I off at the curb, I let us in with his keys.” She slumped back against the couch. Her stomach tense for a whole different reason now as she looked at the muted commercial playing on TV.

“He gave you his keys?” Donnie asked like this was the weirdest thing Leo had ever done. And Leo talks to fucking candles about their depression.

She hoped he talked to Donnie about his depression too.

“Yeah?” she said trying to hide the combative tone in her voice. Was she not allowed to use his keys? He gave them to her and told her to unlock the door.

Immediately Donnie leaned back his face softening. “Oh, well that’s good.”

“He’s paranoid about letting people touch his keys because he was in an abusive relationship.” Karai stated and watched with some solace as Donnie’s face drained of color. “I work in the lower courts. That’s all the crappy shit like restraining orders and domestic affairs. It’s kind of fucking obvious.”

Donnie hummed while focusing in on the larger container now that he had consumed his icecream.

“I’m smarter than I look,” she muttered bitterly.

She crossed her arms over her stomach and sighed. One hand went up to touch her bare neck. She hated how stupid she had been tonight. She probably lost her locket in the park of all places. It was somewhere in the snow and in this neighborhood if someone did find it, then it was theirs.

The gut loaded crickets popped in Donnie’s mouth so loud she could hear it from where she was sitting. And she was eight feet away. His mouth was closed too. Did they force feed the crickets? It made Karai’s skin crawl but at least his meal was dead. Her tongue replayed the sensation of the hornworm’s last moment alive before she bit it cleanly in half. Its little feet forever raking against the roof of her mouth until the end of time.

Leo had made it look so easy.

"If you can surmise all of that about Leo from a few meager interactions but also come to the conclusion that you fucked up tonight then excuse me for doubting your intelligence," Donnie said. He seemed to notice her disdain for the crickets bursting in his mouth and purposefully popped one with his lips parted.

She shuddered seeing a little liquid spray out his mouth. Like peeling an orange only a thousand times grosser. "They aren't meager interactions," she pressed while adverting her glance from the cricket carnage. "I get a good morning and goodnight text every single day."

"And who do you have to thank for this? Hmmmmm? Who played a pivotal role in putting that very cellphone from which you receive your beloved texts in his hands? That's right! Me! Now, reward my labors with this embarrassing story of yours." He leaned back and threw his comforter over himself like a shawl. "I'm waiting."

She shrugged her shoulders. "You'll be waiting a long time then. I choose to carry this to my grave."

"I am eating my dinner," Donnie argued. He pointed accusingly at the dead crickets. "We had a deal."

"We literally did not have a deal at all about anything," Karai said in disbelief.

He put his hand up. "You want to tell me," he said. "And besides, it can't be more embarrassing than what I did all day."

Defeated by the power persistence Karai grumbled. "Fine." She chewed on her lip for a second. "I ate a hornworm and then had to run to the bathroom to puke."

"Wow," Donnie said. "That was stupid."

She dropped her hands into her lap in disbelief. "I thought you would say something to reassure me, asshole."

"Hey," he said curling his lip. "I didn't expect it to be catastrophic. Or pure idiocy. Human toddlers eat bugs off the sidewalk. You should have known better-"

"Leo ate one-"

"Leo is a red-eared slider, eh, mostly, he’s missing the red ears and a few other stripes but anyways he's a turtle of course he ate it. What did you think Burger Worm was?" He asked nearly laughing. "That probably tasted like shit."

Karai nodded. It had tasted like shit.

"Well those hornworms are like mozzarella cheese sticks for our kind. Fatty tender little green morsels of everything a turtle could want."

"I get it. Hornworms are fucking delicious as long as you're a Turtle Mutant. I never should have delved outside my mac and cheese laden comfort zone. I get it," she sneered.

Donnie was still looking at her skeptically.

"Whatever, the long and short of it is I puked in the bathroom and embarrassed the shit out of myself and Leo."

Thank fuck for Picasso or else she would have been there alone with Leo and the idea of that scenario made her want to hide between the couch cushions.

Now that she thought about it she didn't actually know where Picasso had run off too. Or he could just be a playing Ninja once again.

Donnie's shaking head drew her attention away from the missing kid. "You didn't embarrass Leo. He's not the kind of jerk to get upset about someone else being sick. He let you touch his keys. That's like first base. Congrats. You are moving faster than I thought you would."

When the hell is Leo getting back?

"That was first base? I thought first base was kissing?" she asked. 

If we get to kissing he’ll be lucky if I don’t suck his face clean off his skull.

"No no no, you have a whole game to win before you're even thinking about that stuff,” Donnie said while waving his hand dismissively in her general direction. “That's just how it works now. It didn't always work that way but I guess you can use your court experience to figure out the meaning behind that." He straightened up his takeout containers putting all his napkins and utensils in the largest to-go box and sliding it to the center of the coffee table.

She almost said something about the whiplash in the park and the car that drove off behind Leo when she heard the door opening.

Moments later Leo walked in.

"I put your keys on the table," she said. Mostly so she could announce where she was without being obvious.

He seemed a little surprised to see her on the couch. While approaching he took in the scene before him with skeptical eyes. Most of his skepticism was pointed towards Donnie though. "How's your stomach?" He asked her. "Would you like some tea? Peppermint tea helps soothe upset stomachs."

She had to get home. Something about needing to get up early floated through her mind as a possible excuse but her mouth (and heart) spoke first. "That sounds great."

"And what about me, dear brother?" Donnie asked. His words were filled with jealousy. "Where is my sympathy?"

Leo cupped Donnie's face in his hands like a doting grandmother does to the slowest and easiest to capture grandchild. "Would you also like some tea as well?" he asked.

"Nu dank you," Donnie struggled to say through his squished face.

Satisfied with his orders, Leo gathered Donnie's trash before heading into the kitchen. His spot was quickly replaced by a tiny magenta snapping turtle thrusting a puzzle at Donnie.

Instead of signing Donnie just nodded and gestured to the table. Picasso eagerly opened the box and poured the puzzle onto the table. Karai raised an eyebrow. She had never seen a kid Picasso age enjoy 500 piece puzzles.

Donnie caught the face she was making. "He's smart enough to know I won't turn down a puzzle," he explained while flipping to pieces face up. "And it involves very little communication."

Karai nodded. "Right."

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

Leo had brought out the works. A nice intricate ceramic teapot with matching cups on a tray. He included cream, sugar cubes, and lemon slices.

They both took their tea plain and they both grimaced when Picasso also wanted a cup. He proceeded to drop about half of all the sugar cubes into his tea cup.

Donnie and Leo bickered over what they should watch on TV. It had to be something age appropriate for Picasso but Donnie refused to watch any cartoons. Karai maintained she didn’t care as long as she got to nurse her cup of peppermint tea.

The tea calmed her stomach but she still felt a swirl of general unease from the whole day. Leo sitting next to her didn’t help. If anything he was getting closer to her. Doing tiny little shifts by crossing and uncrossing his legs until they were nearly arm and arm on the couch.

She acted like she didn’t notice. She sipped her tea and pretended to be entranced by the episode of My Cat Roommate From Hell playing. Would Greg the Tabby Cat Mutant stop chewing on the corner’s of Human Sarah’s reusable grocery bags? Or would they have to break their lease?

She could care less about this domestic and televised conflict. Her mind was twisted into a knot, fuck grocery bags, and maybe fuck Human Sarah.

When her tea was finished she leaned forward to place it on the coffee table with some struggle. The couch was huge. Not as huge as some of the mutant specific furniture she had encountered, but large enough that she was swimming in it.

Upon leaning back her shoulder blades pushed into something more solid than a couch cushion. It felt like muscle molded from years of hauling wax around. Now that was an oddly specific example if Karai didn’t happen to be seated next to a chiseled candle maker.

Leo’s couch had a high back. Great for cushioning his beautiful shell, but bad for the “yawn and stretch, arm around the girl’s shoulder” technique. No, Leo was forced to go one level higher; putting his arm around her back and down her side. His hand resting at an awkward angle on the couch cushion on the other side of her.

With her heart soaring she gladly pushed back against his arm and rested the side of her face against his plastron. A little uncomfortable if she rested her head completely on him. It was like resting her cheekbone against a slightly padded table edge.

Something was wrong though with their positions. She took his awkward hand and placed it on her knee where it seemed to fit better. Now this felt good. This was a comfy couch now. She had planned to put her tea cup down and make up some reason why she needed to get back home but now that was impossible. Leo’s arm was around her. Did anything in the world matter outside this moment?

She didn’t even mind that Leo seemed more like a statue than a living creature. His deep blue eyes were glued to the TV. Karai wondered why he was acting so stiff. Had she gone too far by leaning into his side? Had she invaded his personal space?

Donnie grabbed her attention by flicking a puzzle piece at her. She stared him down with a burning glare. He would not take her moment away.

He mouthed something and then looked at the hand on Karai’s knee. It took a few repeats of this action for her to work out he was mouthing, “Take his hand.”

Trusting Donnie was a coin flip but he seemed to be on her side. She took the small risk that she was being tricked and put her hand hand over Leo’s. He relaxed next to her. It was a good call.

She mouthed back, “Thanks.”

Donnie ignored her and focused back on his puzzle.

As Karai settled against a now calmer Leo she realized as a bisexual Turtle Mutant having only had male partners that he too was in a new situation. Only as a male he was expected to take on the more dominant role. Karai was female and expected to take the passive role. They were both trying to mold themselves into the roles they thought they needed to take. Leo made the move to put his arm around her, but she would bet he was usually the one receiving such a gesture from his past partners.

As Leo had said in the park he was the more submissive partner with Picasso’s Uncle. It might have been that way for all of his relationships. Not just in the bedroom but socially as well.

If being with Shini had one nice aspect it was that Karai felt neither submissive or dominant. They just played off each other naturally.

She gripped Leo’s hand a little tighter. She needed to do the same with Leo. They didn’t need to play by any rules. If Leo was throwing down all the signs that he wasn’t the dominant one she was more than willing to take that role.

Now that she knew he wanted her to, she could stop fearing that she was pushing herself on him.

~🕯️ -o- 🕯️ -o- 🕯️~

Donnie and Picasso finished their puzzle, except the last piece was missing. Both crashed around ten during the third episode of My Cat Roommate From Hell. Picasso was carried off to one of the bedrooms and Donnie retreated back under his mountain of blankets.

Karai managed to keep her position snug against Leo’s side. This was her idea of a good evening. Reality television and a nice arm around her. Even Leo leaned a little into her.

When Raph came to pick up Picasso she found herself mentally cursing as it meant she too would have to leave soon.

“Hey! Sorry about being late!” the Snapping Turtle Mutant called as he let himself in. Being Leo’s brother he had his own key.

“That’s alright,” Leo said. “I got your text.”

Raph came around the corner into view. “I missed you having a cellphone-,” he stopped short noticing Karai. “Hello, Karai? Right?” he asked, dropping his coat on the back of the couch.

“Yes,” Karai said, adjusting her grip on Leo’s hand. Neither of them moved to get up and Karai took that as a good sign.

Leo was obviously comfortable with her around his family if he wasn’t taking his hand away or putting some more space between them.

“Where’s my kid?” Raph asked, looking around.

“I put him to bed because I am responsible,” a muffled voice said from the pile of blankets.

“That is a debatable sentence,” Raph said under his breath before walking away.

Knowing she eventually had to leave Karai sat up. “My things are still in your shop,” she said as she stood.

“Allow me to escort you,” Leo said, offering his hand.

Karai took it and let him lead her upstairs to the shop.

“I was thinking if your Hints of Hickory Wood is doing okay I would try out that candle,” she said as Leo unlocked the door at the top of the staircase.

He smiled, he had a perfectly handsome smile too, “That would be very nice of you. No one wants Hints of Hickory Wood.” He paused before opening the door, “Do not tell it I said that.”

She shook her head. “I won’t,” she reassured him as they passed The Candle of The Day shelf. “But I might tell it about our date.”

Leo blushed and looked away.

Karai laughed and went into the store back to the area she had been writing in. She picked up her laptop and packed up her charger. Hopefully she could come back and write in his shop again. It had been very peaceful.

When she went back to the front of the store Leo wasn’t there.

“Leo?” she called while walking around the quiet store. “Mr. Hamato? Hunkalicious shop own- ah!”

“Sorry, I was back here,” Leo said, gesturing to the back room. “You can join me. Even though it says employees only I will make an exception just for you.” He led the way through the shop. “It’s a mess back here, my apologies.”

Leo’s version of a mess was not Karai’s version. The room was filled with a lot of supplies. And some of the surfaces had stains from working with dyes, but all of Leo’s things were organized on shelves. There were a few stoves and a sink along the inside wall with hoods to suck away fumes. It looked both homely and professional.

“Well the veil has been lifted,” Karai joked as she entered.

He looked around unsure what she was referencing.

Then again Leo was unaware of her fantasies about him picking her up and taking her to the back room and bending her over a table.

“I spent a large amount of my youth in this room,” he said setting fire to Karai’s dreams of erotic shop sex. “Being cold blooded, and Mr. Hamato being warm blooded and covered in fur, we were both more than happy to let me stand on a step stool in front of the stove stirring wax.”

“You use a stove to make candles?” Karai asked.

Leo nodded but proceeded to walk away from the stoves as though searching for something. “You just need heat to melt wax,” he said easily. “Some showier places have better equipment. My father would buy broken stoves and use them for wax melting and creating mixes. Not all the burners used to work until Donnie fixed them.”

“This place isn’t a mess, by the way.” She walked over to the stoves out of curiosity and saw some wax drippings around the burners. Evidence that Leo really was back here… stirring wax. Possibly with his shirt off.

She shuddered at the idea. Fantasy resuscitated, new life breathed deep into its wet throbbing lungs.

“It is to me,” Leo said. “And I can’t find what I am looking for. I think you will find it amusing after today.”

Not as amusing as Leo and hot wax but she inquired about it anyways. “Amusing after today huh?” she said, turning her attention to the order sheets on the wall.

“Here,” Leo said, walking over to her while dusting something off with a rag.

As soon as the rag was removed Karai shook her head in disbelief. “Oh no,” she breathed.

“Yes,” Leo said urging her to take it.

“Is this a… hornworm scented candle?” she asked, almost scared.

“Yes.”

“I don’t know what to think,” she said shocked.

It was a very pretty candle even if the scent wasn’t something she really wanted. The glass cylinder was a light lime green color with streaks of dark greens suspended in the layers representing grass. The most stunning part were the hornworms. They were jade in color and about the size of Karai’s first finger. They were inching their way up the glass. All of them were unique but similar, obviously hand crafted by someone who knew what they were doing.

“Where did you even find this? Are these hornworms on the side?” she asked.

Leo looked away and brushed some non-existent dirt off of his work table. “I did not find it. I made it,” he said sheepishly.

“You made this? It’s beautiful-,” she took a whiff of it forgetting for a moment what it was. “Oh no the smell!” she exclaimed, wrinkling her nose. “Yeah, that’s a hornworm.”

“I stopped blowing glass and sculpting but that was one of the last things I did...” he said hesitantly.

Karai nodded but she was unable to stop looking at the glass work. Leo was quite the artist with his glass sculpting. Just as he was with his wire work. The intricate details on the feet of the worms blew her away. She could totally relive the sensation of those little feet scraping around in her mouth whenever she looked at this candle.

“Other than the smell, it’s really well done,” she said. “Why would you stop blowing glass? You obviously know what you’re doing.”

He was silent for a second. “Long story,” he said quietly. “It was more of a silly hobby anyways.”

Karai squinted up at him and almost demanded the name of whoever told him his art was a silly hobby but stopped herself. She already had an idea of who did.

“The funny thing is,” Leo started, not noticing her face because he was focusing on picking at something on the table. “I’ve been looking for a good home for it and-”

“Since I ate a hornworm today, you thought I might want to have a candle to remember the traumatic experience by?” she asked.

“Yes,” Leo said before looking at her and pointing to the candle. “And you don’t even have to put it in your mouth.”

She started to laugh but had to stop when Leo’s face didn’t change because he wasn’t joking or he was the master of uncomfortable deadpan.

“Thank you,” she said, clearing her throat to try to cover her laugh. “I love it.”

~🕯️ -o- 🕯️ -o- 🕯️~

With her candles wrapped up and her stuff retrieved they went downstairs to find Raph waiting next to the door. Picasso was asleep and draped over his shoulder.

“I thought you would have left by now?” Leo asked.

Raph shrugged gently as to not wake the kid he was carrying like a sack of rice. “Nah, I thought I could give Karai a ride home,” he said surprising both of them.

“There’s no need I was going to take her home,” Leo said, coming to Karai’s rescue as she slid by the two Turtle Mutants to get her coat from the mudroom.

She ignored the thought to check her phone to see how many times her mom had called. Instead she looked at the closed door leading from the mudroom to the rest of Leo’s house and thought about Donnie and his notebook of negative thoughts under the couch.

“I think it’s a good idea if I take her home,” Raph pushed from the doorway.

Karai put her gloves on but left her coat open not wanting Raph to leave before she could take his offer. It was probably better that someone stay with Donnie.

“It’s fine, I’ll see you tomorrow for our date, right?” she asked Leo.

Leo nodded. “Right,” he said before frowning at her chest. “Where’s your locket?”

She touched her chest and shook her head dismissively. “I lost it, it’s nothing-”

“Where did you lose it?” Leo asked. “Maybe it’s still-”

“It’s somewhere in the park under a bunch of snow,” she said cutting him off. “It’s just a stupid locket on an old chain. It was bound to happen.”

Leo closed his mouth but didn’t look convinced.

“Bye Leo,” Karai said as she walked out the door Raph was holding open for her.

“Bye Karai,” he said quietly back.

He definitely wasn’t convinced that it was nothing.

~🕯️ -o- 🕯️ -o- 🕯️~

It was no surprise that Raph had a really nice vehicle with custom seat backing to accommodate his shell. The roof of the SUV was also higher than normal. Luckily there was already a human booster seat installed on the passenger side since Raph’s partner was human and this was their leisure vehicle.

Raph explained most of this while buckling Picasso up in the back seat. He was still asleep having crashed after a full day of playing video games, sledding, and guilty his uncle into take out and icecream.

“You ate a hornworm?” Raph asked once they were pulling out of the garage onto the street.

“Leo told you?” she asked.

“No, Donnie did.”

Of course, Karai thought. She was at least glad Leo didn’t tell her embarrassing story to anyone. She guessed Donnie didn’t have that honorable quality.

“Look, I’m right there with you,” Raph said while adjusting the speed of his wipers. “Fuck that shit being alive when I eat it. If it twitches I am leaving the restaurant. Leo has to pre-kill all the hornworms in my salad with a toothpick. Or I ain’t touching it!”

Karai shifted her feet, they didn’t even touch the floor where her laptop bag and candles were. “That’s-”

“What big brothers are for,” Raph said, incorrectly finishing her sentence.

“I’ll just assume that’s the same gesture as when my older sister would pick the peas out of my serving of casserole for me,” Karai said.

Though the mental imagery of Leo meticulously spearing the live insects on Raph’s plate for him was amusing. Especially when Raph had such a tough looking exterior.

Since her apartment was in the building owned by Raph’s brother-in-law, he didn’t need to ask for directions. He just drove and talked about Leo, his job, his future husband who’s a cop. He also talked about what Picasso was doing over winter break.

All and all it was a very bad shovel talk. Donnie’s had been better.

“You didn’t fuck up by puking in the bathroom,” Raph added after a lull in the one sided conversation.

She didn’t say anything, she just silently cursed Donnie.

“Leo told me once that he’s never had a conversation that he hasn’t had to work for.” Raph said as they turned down her street.

“What does that mean?” she asked. Maybe Raph was a night owl but she woke up at the crack of dawn and was starting to understand Picasso’s crash.

Raph shrugged. “Means what it means, I guess. You’re smart enough to know.”

She was smart. Not smart enough to not get expelled from school, but she was smart . Just as she had pieced together the fact that one of Leo’s past relationships was abusive... and whoever that abuser was had white fur... and used to have access to his phone. She also suspected Leo was neurodivergent.

It didn’t change anything. He was nice, and endearing, oh and he wasn’t too bad to look at.

Raph pulled up to the curb outside her building. She didn’t jump out because she had the feeling he wasn’t done.

“Don’t treat him differently because of it,” he warned. “I mean if I just told you something you didn’t know. But I think you did know. He’s still Leo though. You know what I mean?”

Karai unbuckled her seatbelt and then looked Raph directly in the eye. “I know,” she said seriously.

“Good. He doesn’t have a lot of people who know and then treat him with respect,” Raph said. “He’s stressed out about having a date with you.”

“I know, he told his candles about it.”

Raph laughed, “I told him not to tell you that he talks to his candles. What the hell, Leo.”

She shook her head, “No, it’s sweet.”

“Fuck,” Raph muttered under his breath.

“What?”

“You’re going to break his heart,” he said, giving her a pained look. He had seen Leo’s heart get broken a lot she bet. “You know that?”

“I don’t plan to,” Karai said honestly. At least she hoped she wouldn’t, but it was also too soon to say if they weren’t just passing ships or some other sappy shit people say when it doesn’t work out.

Karai thought she was more like a stranded garbage barge than a vessel worthy of passing by something as nice as Leo.

Raph shook his head. “Well the funny thing about that is none of them do.”

Chapter Text

【The Burgundy Taper Candles】

~December 19th, 2010~

Karai used her skype call with Miwa to check her wine red sequined dress. “Are we sure this dress is the one?” Karai asked.

This dress was one of seven she brought home from her storage locker. It had two layers to keep the sequins from rubbing against her bare skin. It was also very long, dragging on the floor just a little. When she put her heels on the dress would just barely be off the ground. She wore a thick pair of black tights and a pair of tight tummy smoothing shorts that went up to under her ribs.

“Yes, but ease up on the spandex?” Miwa suggested.

Karai continued to smooth the flipped up sequins down. “It looks better with the spandex,” she muttered.

“A tight dress is supposed to be form fitting. I see wrinkles in the fabric, it makes the dress look like it doesn't fit you.”

She let out a sigh before walking out of sight from the screen to strip the dress off and remove the strangling spandex. Karai had learned her lesson about getting nude in front of any cameras.

“Have you found anything for me yet?” she asked, because that’s what Miwa was supposed to be doing for her. Like a hung over college student cramming for an exam in an hour Karai had only just recently realized this date could lead to sex.

And with Leo’s more submissive role Karai’s fantasies quickly evolved into foggy ideas about being the one to lead them into the next stage. While the idea of the hot candle maker ravishing her was a thigh quaker, straddling Leo was a to-be pillaged fantasy.

“I mean unless you want to quickly watch a video on pornhub than the basic gist of sex with…, your date is a hand job or oral,” Miwa said, her voice became a little autotuned as the internet connection dipped.

It was an awful night for a date, it was sleeting outside.

“And Karai, since you've only been with girls let me tell you that you are not up for a proper blow job tonight,” Miwa said with a knowing tone.

Karai frowned as she stepped out on the spandex pooled at her feet. “Sucking dick can't be that hard,” she said.

“Don't say I didn't warn you,” Miwa said, not bestowing confidence into Karai dick sucking abilities.

“What the hell do I do then?” she asked before stepping into her dress again. Without the choking shapewear she was breathing easier, but she still had to panic about how to not be a total penis-virgin tonight.

Leo had been with multiple partners. He was going to have way more experience than her.

Miwa laughed, she found Karai’s situation humorous which made exactly one of them. “No guy would complain about a handjob from a pretty woman,” she reasoned.

Karai could only hope that Leo would find her pretty enough to excuse the world’s worst handjob.

“Okay here's a post…,” Miwa murmured, absorbed in another tab. Her reading glasses reflected some of the screen she was reading but the video was too blurry to read off the reflection.

“I think I’m screwed,” Karai said, moving the padded cups in the dress over her boobs just right.

“Okay on this sex forum a user name xXyour_slutty_shellXx says; ‘My husband loves when I take my thumbs and massage in downward strokes from the end of his plastron to his cloaca. We like to play a little game where I see how many strokes it takes to get his dick out.’ Dear god there are pictures... And a video attachment… Oh no maybe you do want to watch this- I'll send it to you. Your box of hornworms.”

Miwa clicked back to their video call and her face lit up. “See you look more than fine without that awful shapewear,” she said. “This is a mean thing to do to your pregnant sister by the way, soon I will be as bloated as a water buffalo mutant.”

“Does Hun know?” Karai asked.

“Yes!” Miwa said. “Oh dear god does he know, I am very bad at keeping things from him but see he wanted to expand his walk in closet into this spare bedroom I have been clearing out so I had to explain why we will need the extra space and…,” she shook her head.

“What’s wrong?”

“He has already bought an outfit for the birth!” Miwa said, clearly exasperated. “For himself and the baby. And a back up outfit in case the baby isn’t a boy. Yes, he’s hoping for a boy. But I guess the back-up matching outfit is a sign he’ll accept a girl too? So… should I be complaining?”

While Karai was not an expert in her sister’s marriage, she did know Hun’s love for clothes bordered on problematic. He had more shoes than Miwa and he had a freaking seasonal wardrobe.

Before Karai can even think of a consoling thing to say (not that she is good at that) her phone dinged. She picked it up fearing Leo had arrived early. Thankfully it was only a text from Miwa with a video attachment.

“Okay I got the video,” she said, tapping on it with her thumb.

What loaded up was a top down view of a male turtle with his thighs spread, a tight shot mostly focused on his pelvic area. He had light brown scales and a white cream colored plastron. The scales on the underside of his tail were lighter brown, a well creamed coffee. From the bottom of the screen two black scaled hands come into the shot, another turtle presumably based on the hand shapes. This black scaled turtle took a firm hold of the brown scaled turtle’s tale about an inch or two under the cloaca. Her other hand gripped the tail at the base, fingers hooked around the back of the tail thumb pressing on the inside as she stroked down towards his cloaca.

“Oh my god-,” Karai said, eyes glued to the screen.

“Right?” Miwa said.

Chocolate brown scaled thighs quivered and some sort of noise was made. It was not a moan, it was more like a deep purr.

She was hypnotized by what she was seeing, the tail massage went on for several more seconds with the brown scaled turtle clenching his thighs. The end of his brown tail was curling fruitlessly against the fist holding his tail straight until it suddenly stretched out. The cloaca split open and a wet penis unfurled and flared. It was a complicated looking piece of equipment.

The next thing nearly made the phone fall out of her hands. The black scale hand that had been stroking left the screen for a moment. When it came back it wiggled a big floppy clear blue dildo in front of the camera. The black scaled turtle began to line it up on top of the brown scaled turtle’s penis only pointing towards the cloaca. Just as the head of the dildo started to breach into the cloaca the video cut to a black screen with white text reading; Subscribe to our OnlyScales account for the full 25 minute video!

Karai closed the video, bracing her hands on her desk. Did she discover her fetish? Or was her mind filling with thoughts of what Leo’s tail would look like in that scenario just so she would soak her tights.

“You know I dated a lamai once,” Miwa said, off-handedly.

“Wait what?” Karai asked. Her perfect big sister bonked another species?

“For like a week!” Miwa squealed, waving her hands in front of the screen.

“And you didn't tell me!” Karai yelled.

“Of course not!” Miwa said. “You were young and you might have told mom and dad. And I wanted to have sex with a mutant because fuck mom and dad, but I didn't want them to stop paying tuition.”

Well that was a feeling Karai knew all too well, too bad all her ass kissing was ruined by one night of bad decisions. Karai would rather focus on her sister’s sex adventures than her own short-comings.

“Any advice, Dick Master?”

Miwa ignored the teasing, pausing before she spoke as if she was about to drop another bombshell. “Well he had two penises, so I sucked one and jerked the other one off.”

“Oh my god,” Karai said, disgusted and impressed. Did that count as a three way? She didn’t ask that, but she thought about it. “Any advice?”

“Lube?” Miwa suggested. “But he'll have that.”

“Not if we come back to my place,” Karai said, plotting out her next moves as she fixed her earrings just right. The dress was the eye-catcher, her earrings were red and small, only shining in the perfect light. “Should I go buy lube real quick?”

It would be brash for some but if Karai can watch turtle mutant porn in front of her sister, and carry over three-thousand dollars worth of dresses and bad memories on a public bus, then she can waltz into a pharmacy in heels and a dress just to buy lube.

“Maybe buy lube next time you get groceries,” Miwas said, throwing all sense of fun out the window.

Where was the excitement? The societal backlash of a woman in public buying lubricant and holding no shame. Karai was the kind of woman who could buy lube for sex with her turtle boyfriend and wear on her sleeve that she will gladly stroke his tail and temp his dick out.

Her phone dinged with a text from Leo.

“I am in the lobby a little early. My apologies," the text from Leo read.

“Fuck!” Karai said, like her phone had burned her.

“What!?”

“He's here! He's in the lobby!” Karai said.

Leo had arrived a half an hour earlier than she was expecting him. They had texted around noon and agreed he should be here at a quarter past six which gave them ample time to drive to the restaurant, get parked, and be in the door by seven.

It was quarter to six now.

“Tell him to come up,” Miwa said. “Having some time to just be alone before the date might help you both from freaking out?”

That was not the problem. Leo could come up and chat and see her shitty apartment and stupidly huge bathtub. The issue was her face and uncontrollable arousal.

“I am red as a cherry!” she said, pulling at her cheeks.

“Yes you are, why?”

Karai started smacking her cheeks lightly hoping to scare the blood out of them. “I watched the video!”

“That turned you on?” Miwa laughed.

Karai hated her older sister right now, this was a disaster. With the kind of shit Karai has heard in court nothing in the world can make her blush except… except thought of Leo’s tail curling around her hand…

Fuck! She was not helping herself.

“Imagining Leo and me doing that might have contributed to my situation here,” she said pointing to her face then her crotch.

It made Miwa laugh harder.

"Come on up! :)" Karai sent back in a text, smiley face and all because holy shit why did she add the smiley face? This was not in the swoon turtle mutants protocol at all.

“Oh no I just texted him to come up!” Karai said dropping her phone on her desk before she sends Leo a text saying she was horny or something.

“Why would you do that?” Miwa asked, clearly enjoying Karai’s embarrassment.

Karai shook her head. “I think I blacked out!”

Maybe her fingers were angry they had no turtle tail to stroke and had schemed to get Leo up here faster.

“Just let him in and rush to the bathroom saying your makeup isn't done. I can keep him distracted.”

Karai loved her big sister for saving her ass. “Okay, okay.”

“Maybe splash some ice water between your legs?”

“Miwa!” Karai hissed, pointing the screen towards the door so perhaps her horrible big sister could lure Leo over to the desk and chat with him.

Leo knocked at the door and Karai froze. This was the moment, make or break.

“Remember the plan!” Miwa whispered as Karai headed to the door.

Before opening her door Karai gave her apartment one final look. Thankfully most of her mess was located in the bedroom and the bathroom. The dishes were done except for a few plates, her desk was neat, she had a couch that was likely a bit too small for Leo to sit on with his shell.

It could be worse.

She opened the door wide and while she had every intention of hiding her face and bolting to the bathroom, the little glimpse of his suit was just too tempting. She had to get a full look at him.

Of course he looked like someone straight out of a magazine. He had semi-formal clenched in his handsome hands. He had a perfectly pressed white dress shirt with pearl white buttons. She could only assume under the hand knitted multicolored scarf he was wearing that the top button of his shirt was undone. Under his fancy heater pack winter coat she could see a midnight blue blazer to match his slacks. Brown belt and brown shoes.

Hell she could probably do her makeup in the shine of Leo’s shoes.

“Come in,” she said, hopefully Leo would think nothing of her beet red face. “You’re here early, I wasn’t expecting you for another thirty minutes.”

“I am sorry, I thought dropping Donnie off at Mikey’s would take much longer but only Leatherhead was there,” Leo explained just as Karai realized he was holding something out for her. “This is for you.”

It was a single rose in a plastic sleeve with some white baby’s breath cushioned around it, raindrops had built on the side of the plastic.

“Thank you,” Karai said first, because the rose was being handed to her and she now needed to put the rose in water and show Leo into her apartment. “Make yourself at home I am still on a call with my sister Miwa.”

Karai gestured to the laptop and caught view of her sister’s poker face. It wasn’t like Karai had a photo to show Miwa beforehand. Leo was taking off his coat and scarf and placing them on the hooks near her door that were never used by her.

She fumbled to find a vase but had none so she was forced to use a water glass. She filled that with tap water and took care of the rose, so much for hiding her red face from Leo.

“Hello, I am Miwa,” Miwa said, trying her best to save Karai.

“Oh a video call,” Leo said going over to her desk and sticking his face into her laptop.

Karai meant that literally. She could no longer see the screen or Miwa’s reaction to Leo shoving his green forehead into her webcam. Of course Karai could go fix it and explain to Leo that he could sit at the desk and talk normally… but perhaps Miwa deserved this for laughing earlier.

She decided to be evil and let her sister cope with that situation while she slipped into the bathroom.

Outside the door she could hear Leo talking because Leo had years and years of being able to small talk and somehow the topic was already on Miwa’s pregnancy and Leo describing in detail Picasso’s egg laying.

Karai was not aware egg laying was an event reptile mutants invited their family members to, it was never something her boarding school addressed.

Her boarding school probably didn’t want her to even think about cloacas even in the innocent act of laying eggs.

After using the toilet and calming herself down, she fixed her makeup and hair. She had it pinned up and away from her face. Her blush had left and she felt calmer. The video would be burned in her mind but she could store it away for a later moment.

“Well, thankfully humans don’t lay eggs or slugs but I am sorry your sister-in-law laid seven of them for one child,” Miwas said.

“That sounds painful,” Karai said, coming out of the bathroom.

Leo lifted his head out of the laptop looking confused, he had sat down in her chair but still leaned into her desk like the laptop was a phone that would only hear him if his mouth was three inches above the keyboard.

“Humans don’t lay eggs?” he asked.

“Well I think Hun just got home, it was nice meeting you Leo,” Miwa said quickly, looking at Karai more than Leo as if to say good luck explaining human childbirth to your boyfriend before your date. “Goodbye, have fun you two.”

The call ended and the video of Miwa disappeared, leaving Leo to look at Karai completely horrified.

“Then how does the baby get out?” he asked.

“Humans give live birth,” Karai said, so thankful she knew that term from one of her classes on medical malpractice.

Leo’s face lit up. “Ah like garter snake lamias?” he asked. “Interesting.”

“Can I get you anything?” she asked, painfully aware that all she had in her house for drinking was soda, water, and orange juice. None of the adult beverages that Leo might like.

Leo shook his head. “No thank you, with news like this how can anyone thirst for anything?” he asked.

“About humans not laying eggs?” Karai asked, sitting on her couch. “I take it your school had all the reptile mutants go into one room and all the mammals into another room during sex ed?”

“I wouldn’t know, the academy in The Underground didn’t teach those classes until sophomore year and I had been expelled during my last semester of the seventh grade.”

He turned in her chair and Karai realized he was sitting on the very edge of it. The seat wasn’t deep enough to accommodate that nice shell of his. 

Her couch was a little deeper, she patted the seat. “You can sit over here.”

“Ah, well it may be good practice for the restaurant to talk while I am over here. I imagine there will be a table we will have to account for and waiters,” he gestured broadly in front of himself to where the table would be on their date.

Karai was grateful that Raph had that little chat with her because she knew this wasn’t a quirk. This was Leo literally training himself on how to get through their date.

This whole time she thought she was nervous, meanwhile Leo had a detailed plan on how to navigate dinner.

“Well, we’re in my crummy apartment so we can just sit on the couch,” she said. “I don’t have waiters to walk around while we talk so this training wouldn’t be accurate anyways.”

Leo nodded. “I suppose you are correct,” he said, standing up and pushing her chair in before joining her on the couch.

It wasn’t the best, but he had more room.

“How did you get expelled?” she asked, taking hold of his hand.

“Too many cases of truancy,” Leo said, looking at their hands clasped together on his thigh.

“Skipped class a lot?” she asked.

“Yes,” Leo said, his first finger touching her polished nails. “I was twelve in the seventh grade, I had been working at Mr. Hamato’s Candle Emporium for two years but my father wouldn’t give me more than two twelve hour shifts on the weekends and five one hour ones after school let out on the weekdays. I was pulling a twenty nine hour work week there but needed more money. It started with a paper route that I picked up at age eleven which made me miss all my morning classes but if I got to class before the bell rang I would only be marked as tardy and therefore not really absent.”

“Smart,” Karai commented, splaying her fingers so Leo would have something to explore and focus on while he talked.

“The paper route didn’t pay very much and when the weather got colder I was unable to do that job. I took on a job that had me working on Wednesdays and Thursdays from four in the morning until eight. I would sleep in the employee break room until noon and go to school for the afternoon.”

“What kind of job was that?” she asked.

“Working at a bakery,” he said before stopping short. “And no I was not cooking anything. I was tasked with keeping the floors clean and making sure the display cases were polished. Between my job at the candle shop which was not a job, my father had me doing some very low labor tasks that were more like busy work, and my real job at the bakery I managed to keep my grades up despite this. My school was more lenient about missing class if you can keep your grades high. One day I got into trouble at school and had to serve a week long in-school suspension. And when I couldn’t show up for the suspensions because I had work I just stopped going and picked up a third job instead at the docks. A letter was sent home explaining I was expelled for continued failure to show up for in-school-suspension.”

Karai put her other hand on Leo’s. “That’s horrible, Leo. And you had Mikey that whole time?”

“No no, once Mikey hatched, and after my biological mother refused to care for him, and after carrying him to school made me the target of a lot of teacher’s good intentions so my mother Shen offered to babysit while I was at school. She would also babysit Raph for me and pick him up from class. She’s a painter so she was working at home anyways. Mikey had taken to her very well so it wasn’t so hard for him to be with her while I was away. It worked out very nicely. My parents thought I was in school this way too. My biological mom didn’t care.”

What a dysfunctional but well thought out means of survival. While she had questions, such as where was Donnie in all this, she didn’t want to be rude.

“A lot of mutants don’t graduate from high school, Leo,” she said. “The system is tilted against kids who have to provide for their whole families by themselves.”

“Normally when I tell people I never got past the seventh grade they tell me I’m smarter than they think I would be,” Leo said.

Karai tightened her grip on Leo’s hand. “Life experience can be a valuable thing too. Some people grow up in bubbles that they can’t handle seeing popped.”

Her own bubble had been violently popped months ago and sometimes she was still free falling. It was an experience she could learn from though.

“To answer your question however, I never had a sex ed class,” Leo said, neither sad or happy. “My parents had the talk with me when I was fifteen, as rodents they had to utilize a lot of books to teach me about myself and female reptiles. They didn’t teach me about human females though so we may need to address that at some point.”

Leo’s feeling about sex were comparable to someone guessing when they would do their taxes. He wasn’t going to be worried about it until the day it was due to happen.

“Well, in my boarding school I never learned about cloacas so we can both be naked and confused about each other down the line,” she said dryly.

“I am sure there are websites we can look at,” Leo said. “That is what Raph did when he became interested in Casey. Human penises are all over the internet. I mean a lot of them.”

Karai swallowed. “Yeah the internet is great for that kind of thing,” she said, praying she wouldn’t start thinking about the OnlyScales preview video.

“They’re everywhere out there,” Leo said, gesturing in front of himself to the gallery of digitized human penises only he could see but Karai had no trouble imagining.

“I know, Leo,” she said. If Karai had a dime for every dick pick she had been sent well then she could probably have like three dollars. That’s why she stopped turning men down by saying she had a girlfriend and started saying she had a husband. The amount of men that believe a picture of their penis will turn a girl straight is scarily high. “But yeah maybe there are some videos or something we can watch.”

Now wasn’t that a thought and a half. Watching porn with Leo. Perhaps instead of sharing a Netflix account they’ll share an OnlyScales subscription to xXyour_slutty_shellXx.

“I do enjoy a good visual tutorial-,” Leo started to say only to have his phone chime. “Ah, our limo is going to be here in five minutes.”

It took a second for her brain to process this shit. “Limo?” Karai asked, because maybe Leo had some wealth in his family but were they really able to rent a limo on date number one. “As in a limousine?”

Leo stood and straightened his midnight blue blazer. It had to be by Klunk Design, it fit his shell too perfectly. “Donnie insisted,” he explained. “A first date must be rememberable. He saw it on TV. Are you ready?”

Karai stood too and darted to her bathroom. “Let me use the bathroom before we go.”

“Yes good idea,” Leo mused. “I should do that too, public restrooms are always suspicious.”

“I meant more because I am wearing tights and I don’t want them on the floor of a public stall,” she called through the door as she pushed her tights down her freshly shaven legs.

Better to be shaved and nowhere to go than to be in the moment with three-day pubic and leg stubble.

“Oh, I am not wearing tights,” Leo assured her, which damn she did not need to think about him in anything involving the word tight. “But I could see how that is an issue.”

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

“There is still time to practice on the way,” Leo said, bouncing his knee in his seat. “At the next stoplight one of us could sit on the opposite side of the cabin.”

The back of the limo had some very deep and comfortable grey suede seating. The windows were tinted black for privacy and there were several dim lights in the ceiling that caught the sequins on Karai’s dress nicely.

She reached over and took his hand from the top of his thigh. “I think we will be just fine,” she reassured.

Leo being nervous made her feel calmer. She thought she would be the one constantly looking to him for what to do, he had more dating experience.

Karai hadn’t considered that casual dates meant coffee shops and walks in the park, which was something Leo was more likely to do. She didn’t see a future where they went out of fancy dinner dates. It honestly wasn’t Karai’s preferred romantic experience either. Her father took her mother on fancy dinner dates all the time and they fought daily and eventually divorced.

It was mostly for show.

“I did not know we would be going to Le St. Benardin’s, have you ever ordered at such a restaurant you can borrow what I am saying I don’t think they will notice but you will have to change what food items you get so we remain inconspicuous,” he explained, holding her hand firmly.

Karai hummed. “I think I can do that. I have attended a few dinners that my father’s company would throw. They would often rent out an entire restaurant for the evening.”

“Have you been to this place?” Leo asked.

“No,” Karai admitted, and because Donnie only texted the name after they got in the limo she thought it would be rude to pull out her phone and research it. “Have you?”

“No. Between my mother, Mikey, Raph, and Casey, the best food is made at home. I am fortunate that they invite me over for dinner often, or when they stay with me they cook me food that I can freeze and thaw out at my convenience.”

“I also can not cook,” Karai said.

Crap, she still ate like a college student.

Leo nodded but the conversation came to a halt as the driver announced they were at the restaurant.

Karai put her coat back on and in that time Leo walked around to the other side of the vehicle and opened the door for her. Le St. Benardin’s was in the heart of Manhattan. An overhang stretched from the entrance of the restaurant over the sidewalk for those being dropped off.

They walked into a warm and inviting lobby. The walls behind the front desk were decorated with wood panels at different angles like a modern art piece. To the left through a set of french doors was a large dining room with cushioned fake leather chairs and long thick tablecloths. To the right through another set of french doors was a more casual bar area with stools.

Leo’s script worked well, he navigated getting their coats checked before the server led them into the main dining area to their table. He was a deathly thin man who introduced himself as Señor Hueso.

It clearly was their table because Leo and Karai’s chairs looked different. Leo’s had a deeper, more shell accommodating back, while Karai had one that came in further and was actually pretty comfortable. As she looked around the restaurant at the other occupants she saw the chairs matched the mutants or humans. A mouse mutant nearby had a chair with a gap between the seat and back where their tale could hang through. Under the seat was a meshy hammock where the rest of their tail rested.

Karai now saw the draw of this place. There was no awkwardness of asking for a better seat when you arrived with your date. She was willing to bet that part of making a reservation entailed notifying the restaurant ahead of time as to what species were attending.

A black buffalo came to take Hueso’s spot.

“My name is Andy Bullhop and I will be your waiter today-,” he said, pulling out his order pad from the front of his apron and flinging it over the table onto the floor. “I’m so sorry-,” he gasped, quickly walking behind Leo’s chair and bumping him quite a bit in the process.

Leo dragged his chair closer to the table but Karai had a feeling it wouldn’t have helped.

The waiter got down on his hands and knees in search of the pad. When he found it and started to get up one of his horns hit the underside of the table; stabbing the table cloth and jerking it a few inches before realizing he was caught.

Leo reached forward and caught the candles from toppling, but his glass of ice water fell over and rolled into his lap. Karai managed to save the flowers and her own drink but just barely.

“I am so sorry!” Andy squeaked, clutching his order pad to his chest and quickly scooting around Karai’s chair. He accidentally hip checked her chair forward several inches and the water glass she was still holding upright shot across the table barely missing Leo.

Both her and Leo shared a look of fear.

“Okay, well, here are the menus,” Andy said as they steadied their now empty water glasses on the soaked table cloth. “What would you two be drinking tonight?”

“Water will be fine for me,” she said while handing her cloth napkin to Leo who was trying to dry the front of his shirt and lap from the catastrophe.

Leo took the napkin gratefully. “What wines do you have?” he said, folding his napkin into fours and drying himself.

“Actually our chef will pair a wine with your meal if you want to do that,” Andy said, gesturing to the closed menu Leo was ignoring.

“That sounds fine,” Leo said, not looking up.

The waiter turned to her. “Would you also like to do the wine pairing?”

“No thank you,” Karai said. “Water is fine.”

“Are you sure?” the waiter insisted for some odd reason. “I can get you our wine selection if you would rather choose your wine.”

“I don’t drink,” she said, a bit sharper.

Leo was still trying to dry himself and she hoped he hadn’t heard her. That wasn’t something she wanted to talk about on a first date.

“My apologies,” Andy said. “I’ll be back with your water and to see if we are ready for an appetizer.”

She waited a few seconds after he left before daring to speak. The waiter even managed to bump a few tables on the way towards the kitchen. “Well that could have gone better,” Karai mumbled.

“That is one clumsy waiter,” Leo said, dropping both napkins in a wet clump on the table.

“Yeah, it was a good thing you caught the candles,” she said, hoping the date wasn’t completely ruined. She couldn’t imagine he liked getting doused in ice water.

Leo nodded, touching the glass holder and straightening the long burgundy candles. “Taper candles are very elegant but unfortunately easily toppled and these wicks are too long which is why you can see smoke coming off of them-,” he made eye contact with her as if realizing he was doing something wrong and immediately let go of the candles. “Sorry.”

“For what?” she asked, slipping her heels off under the table. An act hidden by the table cloth. “I feel bad I can’t really talk about what I specialize in. My job isn’t something I can talk about in public. I have to keep everything I hear in court to myself.”

Leo nodded, keeping intense eye contact.

Which just was not going to fly, she couldn’t stand it. He was so obviously uncomfortable it was making her uncomfortable.

“When Raph drove me home the other night,” she started, reaching to take a drink from her glass only to realize it was empty. “He told me that you have to work for these conversations.”

Leo grimaced, reaching to fidget with the candles until both were straight. “Yes, well. That’s the way it is if you want customers to come back, or if you don’t want to sell a bulk order of candles, or land commissions for displays you have to do certain things. My father taught me how to do it.”

She slowly moved her feet closer to his until she found one of his legs under the table. She pinned it between her ankles.

Leo wiggled his foot back. “I’ve made the mistake of getting comfortable with people, and that’s when they bite. My mother constantly told me I was retarded. That’s how she would introduce me to people. ‘That’s my oldest son Leo, don’t pay attention to him he’s touched in the head.’ That kind of thing.”

Karai curled her lip up. “Your mom is a dickhole,” she said, not caring if the language was uncomfortable for other guests.

Leo shook his head.

“What? She is. There’s nothing wrong with you Leo. You don’t have to keep forcing yourself to look at me, or not talk about candle wick length. I would actually like to hear about candles, or anything you have to say,” she said, waving her hand at the candle and the smoke trailing off it. “My job is awful. It pays well but it makes me feel like crap. Like a little kid sitting in the corner of the room while my parents scream at each other.”

“If you hate your job then why do you have it?” he asked.

Karai considered lying for a moment, but that was against the spirit of a first date wasn’t it? Maybe they were supposed to be ugly confessions and gritty stories about shitty parents.

“Money mostly,” Karai said, hearing the kitchen doors open.

Leo had seen her apartment, so he likely knew she was tight on cash. Her crappy dorm couch and desk set were second hand buys.

“I mean there is another reason too but I can see our waiter coming back and I have no idea what to order,” she said.

“It’s okay I have prepared,” Leo reassured her. “You can steal my line.”

Karai smiled. “Thank you, my hero.”

The waiter came up with a pitcher of ice water balanced on a tray. “And your water-,” he said, bringing the tray forward too fast causing the pitcher to fly off the back end rather predictably.

The water splashed out, but Leo saved the pitcher two inches above the floor by the handle.

“Wow! Nice catch!” Andy Bullhop said, taking the empty pitcher from Leo while clutching his own chest.

“My candles often pull the same stunts,” Leo explained, in some form of reassurance.

The bull mutant laughed nervously, turning the pitcher uneasily in his hands. “I have no idea what that means,” he said, before setting the pitcher down on the still wet table from the incident before. “Anyways, how is the couple tonight? Have we decided what we will order as our appetizer?”

Leo tapped her foot under the table until she looked at him. “I will have the oysters,” he said, speaking very clearly.

“Fine choice,” the waiter said. “And you m’lady?”

“I will have… the scallops,” Karai said, winking at Leo.

“Alright, I will bring those out with more- er- water,” the waiter said, leaving quickly.

Once he was a few tables away Leo relaxed and rubbed his head. “That was good, I don’t think he is suspicious.”

“He isn’t a lot of things,” Karai deadpanned.

Leo rotated the empty pitcher. “He forgot to take this with him.”

“That’s yours now I think,” Karai said sympathetically.

He frowned. “What?” he asked, pulling his new responsibility closer to himself. “No. What will I do with this pitcher?”

Karai cocked her head to one side. “That’s your problem.”

“What if I give it to you?” Leo asked, picking up the pitcher and placing it next to her plate. “Now what?”

“Shit, this hadn’t crossed my mind,” Karai said, barely keeping her face straight.

Leo sat back in his chair, his feet came a little closer to her side. “What will he bring us water with now?”

“He’ll cup it in his hands from the kitchen,” she said, face cracking.

“I hope he washes them.”

“You’d be hell in any court room. I’m supposed to be very good at keeping my composure,” she explained, her face hurt just trying to keep her smile hidden.

“Because of your job?” Leo asked.

“Yes. I was going to be a lawyer but I got expelled. Not for skipping class for a job but my girlfriend broke up with me and that was okay-,”

Well, it had been messy and at the time very not okay back then.

“But then one day,” Karai said, looking down at her hands. “I was on my computer and I had Facebook open in another tab and my notifications just started going wild. My now ex-girlfriend had posted all these naked photos of me online and that was like the worst night of my life. My whole family saw them, all three thousand of her friends could have possibly seen them. I reported them and everything but they were up for hours before she deleted them or before Facebook removed them.”

“That’s awful,” Leo said, sounding genuinely disgusted on her behalf. “Why would she do that?”

“I don’t know, she was never that mean to me,” Karai said. There were sometimes jokes or insults that went too far, but until the photos it was never pure venom. “We ended on okay terms. It wasn’t an ugly break up until that. I got really drunk for several days in a row, I think I spent a week just completely drunk until I woke up in the emergency room. I had crashed my car. No one got hurt but myself.”

That had been more devastating than the revenge porn. Her reaction hadn’t been well adjusted. Leo listened quietly, and it sucked that she couldn’t know if he was hiding his judgement of her in this moment or not. She wouldn’t blame him if he did look down on her. She looked down on herself.

“I could have killed someone,” she said, and it hurt to say it outloud. “The law firm I was working at as part of my training in my final years dropped me for the behavior. I really think it was the photos, but the DUI was easier to point a finger at. The school expelled me. I lost all the work I had put in for that semester and then I had to do some community service and they rigged my Vespa with this breathalyzer I would need to blow into before it would start.”

Leo nodded, his feet were still tangled with hers.

“And I decided that I could never drink after that,” she said, wrapping up her sad story.

“That’s not an easy choice to make,” Leo said, the smooth surface of the tops of his shoes were rubbing the backs of her ankles.

She liked that, just some passive touch.

“That’s the reason I don’t drink even now,” she said, unsure if Leo realized she was even firm on her resolve for dates. There were no special occasions where drinking would suddenly be okay.

“I don’t drink unless I’m out, but I could stop too now that we’re together,” he said.

She was knocked off balance by the offer. He would give up drinking for her even though he doesn’t have a problem with alcohol himself.

“Well I think our chances of you even getting your wine tonight are slim,” she said, because this was digging up feelings in her chest that were not to be explored in public. There were some things about that whole situation with Shini that she couldn’t bear to think about in depth.

“I don’t mind if you drink, I just personally can’t,” she said, before looking at the candle with concern. The flame was big for such a tiny candle and there was visible smoke. “Is that normal?”

Leo shook his head. “The wicks need to be trimmed.”

A visible ember floated off the candle. They both watched as it landed on the moist table cloth.

“Uh, this seems dangerous,” Karai said, moving the decorative flower arrangement away.

“It is.” Leo moved the two candles to the other side of the table. “Luckily that fake plant looks fire resistant.”

Smoke started to billow off the fake plant.

“What about the decorative dried moss around the base of the plant?” Karai asked, jamming her feet back into her shoes and standing up.

Leo stood up too. “Oh that?” he asked. “I would say that is very flammable.”

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

“I didn’t know Subway even made pizza,” Karai said in an effort to make small talk after the disaster at the restaurant.

They still had the limousine on retainer long enough to get something for takeout on the way back to her apartment. It was unclear what they would do from there with their individual pizzas.

Leo regarded the plastic bag on the seat between them without any sign of disturbance from what had happened just earlier this night. “Not as fancy as luxury lab grown seafood.”

“No,” Karai agreed. “But I am starving. Didn’t eat very much today.”

That dinner might have been served by a bull with two left hooves on his hands but lab grown seafood was decadent and expensive for good reason. Karai wasn’t an obligated carnivore, she was a human. Though she had heard of humans marrying carnivorous mutants just to leech off their meat stipends. She was not that desperate for some fancy scallops. And the only meat she was interested in Leo could already provide.

“Why not?” Leo asked.

“Had to fit in this dress somehow,” Karai said, flattening the sequins on her dress.

Leo pinched his brows together. “You should still eat three meals a day,” he asserted like a Kellogg’s commercial. “I am always telling my little brothers this. Well not Raph because he eats five a day.”

“I think my mom was crushing up diet pills into my formula Leo, I’m never going to be a three meals a day kind of person.” It wasn't even about body image, though her mother was always quick to ask if she was still wearing her jeans from highschool like it was some standard for the rest of her life. “I mostly sit all day anyways. That doesn’t burn a lot of calories.”

“We’ll see,” he said, his concern not shaking. “I guess then tonight we should eat together once we get back to your place.”

Well she was going to eat this pizza, he didn’t have to worry about that.

“We can do a raincheck,” she said because while it had been an hour since the table had caught fire his clothes were still damp. “Your pants are wet. I understand if you want to go home and change.”

“No need, I can take them off at your apartment,” he said, confused as to why he would go home and take them off there.

Karai nodded very fast. “Or, yeah, you can definitely take your pants off in my apartment,” she amended.

“I will of course need to go to my car first and get my spare pants out of the trunk,” he pointed out as the limo turned onto her street.

The surrounding buildings were growing familiar and the time for Karai to secure pantless Leo in her apartment was draining away. “I mean we don’t have to be so quick to put on new pants,” she said, just to throw the possibility out there in case Leo didn’t want to wear his pants at all.

Leo had been looking out the window when she said that and turned to her confused. “I’m sorry I was planning my route to my pants and I didn’t hear you. What did you say?”

Karai cleared her throat. “I asked why do you have a spare pair of pants?”

“For occasions like this,” Leo said, plucking the front of his shirt. “It never hurts to be prepared for a spill or splash. Every month I go through and make sure all my contingencies are still in place.”

He folded his hands neatly in his lap because clearly his case was made. The limo pulled up to the curb and they unbuckled.

“Ah, well uhm I guess I will wait for you upstairs?” she asked, picking up the bag as she opened the door. “These are cold now I could heat them up in the oven.”

Even if they weren’t completely cold yet, the cold air they were stepping into would do it. The winter wind was enough to make her yearn for the heat of the table fire.

“Sounds like a good plan,” Leo said over the top of the car.

While Leo went to talk to the driver before presumably walking to his car for his spare clothes, Karai quickly entered the heated lobby of her building. If she was cold she wondered how Leo was doing in his wet clothing. She grimaced and hoped her oven would make her apartment warm enough for him.

Because Leo was going to eat pizza with her in her crappy apartment.

On the elevator ride up to her floor she called Miwa frantically.

“Come on come on,” she muttered before the first ring. Miwa needed to answer now. Code red emergency Leo was coming into her apartment.

“That was a fast date-” Miwa began.

“The table caught fire and now we are going to eat Subway pizzas in my apartment,” Karai said quickly, the subway bag cutting into her elbow bounced on her hip with every other mortified syllable.

Miwa was quiet for a second while she came up with some very much needed older sister advice. “Subway makes pizza?”

“Miwa!” Karai snapped. “Leo is coming over to eat pizza in my apartment! Focus!”

“Right, right,” Miwa laughed. “That’s a good thing!”

Karai got out of the elevator and speed walked to her door. “My apartment looks like shit,” she complained trying to get her key in the door while holding a purse and a bag of pizza and her phone between her ear and her shoulder. “I still have the lawn chairs that were my furniture propped in the corner of the room.”

“Wait what about this fire?” Miwa asked.

“We had this clutz of a waiter,” Karai said, barging into her dark messy apartment in full panic mode. She was so absolutely fucked and not ready for an overnight. Not here. Not today. “He first knocked over our water glasses and got Leo soaking wet. Then he came back with fresh water in a pitcher and that spilled. Then these long taper candles-,”

“Taper candles?” Miwa said slowly.

“They’re the long thin candles that sit in the middle of the table?” Karai said, it felt like that was common knowledge.

“You really are hanging out with a candle maker.”

Karai set the pizza on the counter with her purse.

“Shut up,” she huffed as she opened her oven and removed all the pans and pots she was storing there. “Anyways the candle flame was really big and smoking and I saw an ember fly off it so Leo moved the candles to the opposite side of the table but it was too late the little table piece with fake flowers caught fire. We didn’t have any water to douse it with so the waiter runs out and rips his apron off and starts whipping the table.”

She got her largest cookie sheet out and set it on the counter before remembering to wash her hands. She put the phone on speaker and set it on top of her purse.

“Oh good-,” Miwa said, but her relief was sorely misplaced.

“No no no,” Karai dried her hands with a mournful chuckle. “Turns out an hour or so before this catastrophe the waiter had used that same apron to soak up a bunch of vodka he had spilled in the back.”

“Oh no!”

“Yeah, and the candles were still lit so I’m not even sure what set the apron on fire first.”

And now that she really thought about it she hadn’t seen the candles on the table after the fire was put out.

“Was anyone hurt?” Miwa asked.

Karai took the pizzas out of the boxes and staggered them up against the cookie sheet. They barely fit. “No. More competent staff was able to put the fire out but the building had to be cleared. We could wait two hours for dinner or we could go somewhere else to eat so now we have pizzas,” she explained before carefully sliding the cookie sheet into the oven. “What am I going to do?”

“Watch TV?” Miwa said dryly. “Or maybe something worse! You’ll have to talk to each other.”

“You are not helping,” Karai said, letting the oven door fall shut.

“Maybe you can show him that video-”

“You are literally the worst,” Karai said over her sister’s giggling. “He’s going to be here any moment he went to his car to get a change of clothes.”

“Oh Karai…,” Miwa sighed. “You sweet innocent young thing you are.”

Karai curled her lip up. “I am twenty six.”

Sure Miwa was older than her but she wasn’t a naive little girl. Hopefully Leo didn’t see her that way.

“When a guy has a spare pair of clothes in his car that means he’s ready to…, you know, stay over,” Miwa implied.

“No,” Karai breathed.

This was the turtle mutant who scared Chris The Creep away from her door and hadn’t insisted he come in for coffee, he just went on his way. Karai wasn’t even positive he was lusting after her the same way she was him.

“Yes,” Miwa said, rather evilly or Karai was projecting. “Hope you did your research.”

Karai blushed remembering the porno video from earlier. “No his pants are wet from the waiter spilling water, he isn’t hinting for sex.”

“Alright, if you say so…”

“My bed is a mess if he’s hinting at sex it’ll have to be on the floor,” Karai groaned.

She really hadn’t thought this through. How was she supposed to know that the table would go up in flames.

A modest three knocks hit her door and her heart dropped into her ass.

“Gotta go!” she hissed, lunging across the kitchen to end the call before hurrying to the door.

Leo was there, at the door with a small gym bag which might explain all those muscles.

“Hey,” she greeted, holding the door open for him. “Pizzas are still in the oven.”

“May I use your bathroom?” Leo asked.

“Yes, no need to ask. Make yourself at home,” she said as she closed and locked the door. “I’m going to slip out of this dress.”

He was already in the bathroom by the time she was turning around. It was for the better because her bathroom was the only space that looked slightly normal.

Her bedroom was a real mess. Several dresses that did not make Miwa’s list of date-wear laid on her bed in their plastic sleeves. The bed underneath was of course unmaid as her whole day had been spent going to her storage locker to get clothes and then trying them on between breaks where she got work done.

Karai awkwardly got out of her dress and smooshed it into its clear plastic covering. She liked the dress but every time she wore it she would lose a couple sequins.

She stripped out of her tights and put on new underwear with a pair of more comfortable blue jeans. She put on a dark grey undershirt and a black blouse. Just nice enough for dinner. She removed her red earrings and fixed her smudging makeup with a tissue in the mirror. She traded her horrible heels for casual flats and left her room feeling a thousand times better.

The pizzas felt hot. When she sets the cookie tray on two pot holders on the counter here is steam rising from both. There was not a lot of customization allowed in the pizzas. They were either cheese or pepperoni for they got one of each deciding to share slices between each other. To further show how unorganized she was her only two plates were in the sink and dirty. Of course they were.

Leo came out of the bathroom while she was washing the plates. He was wearing a pair of black jeans that didn’t match his blue blazer but at least they were dry, and frankly Leo could look good in any combination of clothing.

He set his bag down next to the couch before joining her in the corner of the apartment a generous person might call a kitchen.

“Where are your dish towels? I can help dry,” he said.

“Top drawer on the last cabinet,” she pointed. “I’m a little bit of a mess.”

Leo opened the drawer and took out a terry cloth hand towel. “Nonsense,” he took the wet plate she handed to him and began drying. “Nothing has caught fire yet.”

“We’ll see,” Karai said. The night had already taken so many unexpected turns.

Leo passed her the towel. “It is at least a first date neither of us will soon forget,” he pointed out.

“Exactly,” Karai agreed. They really did follow Donnie’s advice.

Using two spatulas they were able to take the pizzas of the cookie tray and plop them on their plates. They went to eat in the living room on their laps.

“Did you press charges on your ex?” Leo asked.

Karai swallowed a very large mouthful of pizza. “For leaking my nudes on Facebook?” she asked. “No. There was no point. It would have meant interacting with her longer.”

And she was still disillusioned about Shini coming back to her. This was not exactly a time in her life where she had made the smartest choices. Now she really did wish that she had pressed charges. Those images were still on the internet, reuploaded from the Facebook post onto sites that didn’t care that she wanted them removed.

“Let us change the subject to something lighter,” Karai said, losing her appetite after one slice of pizza. “Any show preference?”

“Perhaps a movie. Those are date appropriate,” Leo said.

Karai turned the TV on and started scrolling through the channel guide. “Okay, great uh let’s just see what we can find.”

They found a movie that has only been playing for twenty minutes. While thankfully no one on board the Titanic died because there were so many lifeboats and the ship wasn’t over crowded, when the ship sank it landed on an undersea town killing fifty sea dwelling mutants. Which is why today ships can only sail on certain routes. This was a highly fictionalized version of events about two fish mutants getting trapped in a pocket of air in the sunken ship. The female fish mutant Rose survives but the male fish mutant Jack she had fallen in love with along the way suffocate in the air when the puddle of water became only big enough for one of them.

Karai thought the puddle looked big enough for both of them to get their gills in but she didn’t want to be that person.

By the end of the movie Leo and Karai were holding hands. She was leaned up against him. It was nice. She had eaten more than half of her pizza because Leo kept giving her looks that said she should eat even though she lost her appetite. That would take some getting used to.

“It is getting late, I should be going home,” Leo said once the credits started to roll. “Thank you for inviting me to your apartment for pizza. I am sorry our table caught flame.”

Karai sat up. “It was a hot date.”

Leo smiled. “Ah more of that human humor,” he said.

She rolled her eyes and pushed forward to kiss him, bracing one hand on his thigh and the other on the back of his neck.

He was quick to put his hands on her and tilt into the kiss. It was a good quality kiss, not open mouth but good lip contact that made her hum before pulling away.

“You’re a really good kisser,” Karai breathed.

“I am good at many things,” Leo asserted.

Karai swallowed. “Oh I am sure of it,” she said, voice cracking.

Leo leaned in and they kissed again. This time a little more exploration with hands. Karai even undid the first button on his dress shirt but he pulled back.

“I don’t want to stop,” she said.

He nodded. “I did drop Donnie off at Mikey’s place. My apartment is empty.”

Karai bit the inside of her cheek. “You’re even good at dirty talk,” she whispered. “Let me pack an overnight bag.”

“I’ll bring the car around.”

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

It felt exhilarating to straddle Leo’s lap and kiss him. He had his hands on her butt, she was gripping the top of his shell. That blazer was draped over the other side of the couch. As soon as they got into the apartment he had stripped the blazer off.

Soon her hands would oh so stealthily slide over those biceps, practically calling to her through the thin white fabric.

“It is getting late,” Leo said, breaking away from the kiss.

“Yes.” Karai got off his lap, but tried to maintain the high sexual tension from their kiss. “Perhaps we should move this in the bedroom.”

Leo nodded and stood up. “My thoughts exactly. Here I will show you my bedroom.”

“I would like that very much,” Karai said, quick to follow him.

“This is it,” Leo said, opening the cracked open door that Karai couldn’t even see into before because it was so dark.

It looked like what she had expected. On the wall opposite the door was a big king sized bed with two night stands. That made sense seeing as Leo had been engaged at one point in his life. The room was void of any evidence of all past relationships such as photos of past lovers, but it did remind Karai of how much more established Leo was.

A full time job.

A fully furnished apartment and a bedroom ready for two people.

None of that insecurity showed on her face. “Wow,” she breathed. “Is it uh safe to have all these candles lit in here?”

There were groupings of tall self contained piller candles. On the night stands, on the dresser, on the bookshelf in a cubby. The centers were melted so each flame was surrounded by a wall of wax. It gave the room a very romantic effect.

“I have a horrible confession,” Leo said, as he took his blue blazer over to the closet.

“I think I’ll survive whatever it is,” Karai said.

“They’re LEDs.” He picked a candle up and it was glued to the others. He tilted it for her to see the tiny bright bulbs inside. “Much safer, much brighter. Holds up the style. But I will turn them off when we go to sleep.”

Karai looked around the room realizing something. Leo never spoke in a coded way, and it was late.

“To be clear…,” she began. “Are we only sleeping?”

Leo finished putting the candle light fixture back on his dresser. “Yes, it is late,” he looked at her seriously. “And it’s a Sunday night.”

“Right,” Karai said. Work, responsibilities, a bustling Monday morning ahead of both of them and it was twenty minutes until eleven. “And when I suggested we take the kissing to your apartment you were thinking what exactly…?”

“That soon we would get tired and need to go to bed,” Leo explained.

She was just making sure she understood their plans for the rest of the night. She nodded, and took a few backwards steps towards the door. “Ah, okay. Then I will go brush my teeth and get ready for bed which will only involve sleep.”

“Yes,” Leo said, just as she dipped out of sight.

Karai hid her mixed feelings. She was good at that, just pushing down disappointment. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting but for a fleeting moment she had it. The courage to just have sex and wing it the entire time. Leo obviously like her, and when he suddenly stopped kissing her she thought for sure he just couldn’t take it anymore and they were going to have sex.

That’s how it worked didn’t it?

Maybe she wasn’t as attractive as she thought if he was choosing sleep over sex?

This was not a good path to walk down. Not now. Emotions on a girl never look flattering. If her mother taught her one thing it was the vulnerability was weakness. She shook off all negative thoughts, picked up her overnight bag from where she dropped it next to the couch earlier and headed to the bathroom.

Even Leo’s bathroom was immaculate.

She noticed a few prescription bottles next to the tub but made a point to not read them. Just because they weren’t tucked away in the medicine cabinet didn’t mean she had any right to investigate that jar of cream or that prescription bath powder. For all she knew that could actually be for Donnie.

While she brushed her teeth and washed off her makeup the couch make-out played over and over in her head. Was she too handsy? Was she not handsy enough?

Processing her mistakes would have to wait because in her haste to get an overnight bag packed she fucking forgot her pajama bottoms. Here she was in her nice soft cotton red night shirt. A buttoned down nightshirt. It was part of a matching set with red pants.

All she had brought with her was a pair of now very inappropriate panties. They were red with a black lepoard print and had fucking frills on them. These were show panties, not sleep eight hours panties. And now she had no pants to cover them.

She examined her sad state in the mirror, thank god Leo had a mirror on the back of the bathroom door. Her shirt barely went past her crotch. The damn frill stuck out like a sore thumb.

Swallowing her self hatred she put her jeans and black blouse back in her bag and headed back to Leo’s room. He was already in his pajamas, likely matching of course. Soft silver blue in color. Of course by Klunk Design. His legs were obstructed by the bed he was making just right for both of them.

“Do you have a preference?” he asked, pointing to the bed. “I take turns on each side of the bed so I wear down each side evenly. Tonight was supposed to be a left side but if you prefer it that can work too.”

“I can take the right side,” she said, moving to that side quickly.

It was easy since Leo was on the left side anyways. She could see now that he was wearing boxers instead on the matching bottoms that came with the pajama set his shirt was from. Her eyes were immediately pulled to his legs. Bare thighs with nice quadriceps streaked with thick red and yellow stripes. Karai was awed by the stunning neon red just so nicely outlined in a bright yellow. There were two over the top of each of his thighs, the top stripe half hidden by his silver blue silky boxers, the others were out in the open above the knees.

Thinner stripes were on his calves, some so thin the red band was a line or completely gone making just a yellow stripe.

Leo was literally half red-eared slider turtle mutant.

“I will be back shortly,” he said, pausing in all his handsome glory at the door. “Would you like a glass of water? I always have one for myself and I’d feel rude if you were thirsting.”

Karai’s throat was dry, and one might say she is very thirsty for a glass of those red and yellow stripes.

“Yes, thank you,” she said, sitting on the bed before she collapsed.

He left and Karai fanned herself. She pulled out her phone from her bag along with her charger and plugged it in. She sent Miwa a message explaining she was at Leo’s place and would have the details tomorrow.

She also had fifty eight unread texts from her mother that she cleared from her notifications without reading. Why ruin her night with that crap, there was a reason she had muted her conversation with her mom.

The sheets were heaven on her bare legs. The thread count was insane, everything felt so soft and nice as she pulled the covers over herself.

Leo came back after about ten minutes with water glasses for both of them, he set hers on her nightstand for her before going to his side of the bed with his water glass.

Karai was very unsure about how they would proceed. The bed was large. Were they to meet in the middle or stay on the sides?

“Are you comfortable?” Leo asked once he was in bed.

“Yes, your sheets are so soft.”

“I know,” Leo said before clapping once. All the fake candles turned off plunging them into darkness. “Goodnight Karai.”

“Goodnight Leo,” Karai said, she wasn’t sure how to feel about this weirdly formal bedtime routine.

A white glow lit up Leo’s side of the bed. He was turned facing away from her so she was very confused. After several long minutes he put the phone down and the room was once again pitch black. Because the building had no alleyways, and Leo’s room was between the bathroom and the guest room there were no windows.

Then her phone buzzed.

It was a goodnight text from Leo. Exactly two minutes after eleven. Just like every goodnight text he had ever sent her.

She stared for a second, at each letter, at herself, at the situation.

Then she sent him a goodnight text back and set her phone back on the nightstand.

It wasn’t that something was wrong with her she decided. Leo was a creature of routine and cut off their kissing so they could be in bed for no other reason than that was just how he was.

And he had included her in it.

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

Karai woke up to dim light and a kiss on her temple.

“I’ll make us breakfast,” Leo whispered, getting out of bed.

Reluctantly Karai rolled onto her back and blinked the crud out of her eyes. She slept so hard once she got over the fact that she was in Leo’s bed. She picked up her phone and saw more unread texts from her mother, but that wasn’t as scary as the time. It was six in the morning.

That was just way too early.

She had court at ten thirty. That gave her enough time to go back home to shower and get ready for her day.

Noise by the closet drew her attention to Leo. He was picking out his outfit for the day.

“You don’t have to make me breakfast,” Karai said, feeling content to lay in bed another two or three hours.

Leo shook his head while unbuttoning his nightshirt. “Breakfast is the foundation of a good day,” he said, pulling the shirt down his ripped arms. “It is pivotal you eat a good breakfast.”

“Right,” Karai mumbled, completely mesmerized by the show she was getting.

It somehow got better when he stripped off his boxers and she could see the barest hint of tail. Then he turned around to sit on the bed and Karai saw that tail completely for just a second before it was tucked up between his legs before sitting on the edge of the bed. It had a pair of red horizontal stripes on it.

She would have been lost in thoughts about the tail if the lower part of his shell didn’t distract her in a bad way. Right below where his pants sit there was the start of this deformed part of his shell. While the other scutes were a washed out black color with hints of yellow, these scars were lighter in color and slightly indented. Some sort of old wound maybe? Something that burned away a spot the size of a large dinner plate on his lower back. One part of the scar bled over to the lower left edge of his shell making it look like something took a bite out of him.

By the time he was done with his socks and pulling up his slacks she was looking away. No one wants their old injuries gawked at.

“You look formal,” Karai said.

He was in chocolate brown slacks, a white dress shirt, and a lighter brown jacket. He even had a tie on.

“Yes, I have to meet with a plumber today. The sink in my backroom in the shop is clogged far beyond my capabilities,” he explained.

“Well, I’m glad you are having it looked at by a professional,” she said.

Leo left the room with a nod, breakfast on the mind.

Karai sat up and combed her fingers through her hair. There was an issue with this set up and that was that Karai needed coffee before she could even think about getting dressed.

She knew there was an awesome coffee maker that Donnie recently purchased out in the kitchen. She got out of Leo’s amazing bed to go see about that coffee machine.

Looking out the door of Leo’s room into the kitchen Karai saw the coffee maker, and it had coffee in it. Leo really did think of everything. She quietly closed the door behind her. Maybe she could sneak by Leo, grab a cup of coffee, then run back to the bedroom to get dressed. He looked focused on what he was doing at the stove.

“Don’t even think about taking any of my coffee,” Donnie warned.

Karai nearly jumped out of her skin, turning to see Donnie leaned up against the wall between the guest room door and the door to Leo’s room. The one place she didn’t look because it would be really creepy if someone was just standing there. Of course he was only wearing underwear.

Donnie slurped from his mug. “I drew a mark on the pot with a sharpie,” he warned. “Right where the coffee line is. I’ll know if some is missing. Even a drop. You may have gotten Leo’s cream last night but you won’t be getting my coffee.”

First of all, ew. Second of all, how many pairs of ridiculously short-shorts did Donnie own?

“I never got Leo’s cream,” Karai said, pulling her night shirt down further over her crotch. She really wished she had pants but she thought Donnie was at Mikey’s place. “It was a creamless night.”

“Oof,” Donnie said sympathetically over his mug. “Sorry sister. I lied about the line on the coffee pot, that was only meant to deter you from stealing my liquid gold but I see you need my pity now so you may imbibe.”

He promptly sashayed away, the back of his ridiculously tight pink underwear booty shorts had words on the back in white and silver glitter. Top line read: Softshell. Bottom line read: Hard Cheeks.

“Thanks,” Karai deadpanned.

Somehow he looked more ridiculous than her and she was the one embarrassed? Yeah, she needed pity coffee now.

When she went into the kitchen she was relieved to see Leo was making them waffles that were heated in the toaster. It hadn’t occurred to her then that Leo’s idea of breakfast might involve insects.

“Sleep okay?” he asked.

She nodded, eyes locking on the mugs hanging on pegs under one of the cabinets near the coffee machine.

“Yes. I thought Donnie was at Mikey’s,” she said, picking out a plain white mug and pouring some very dark coffee into it.

“If the psych ward can’t contain me the security system I helped Mikey install stood no chance!” Donnie hollered from the guest room. “No chance!”

Leo smiled. “He’s only wearing underwear because it’s a rule when there are guests in the house.”

“Well,” Karai said. “This will be interesting.”

She blew on her coffee while Leo plucked the first two waffles from the toaster.

“Breakfast is always interesting with Donnie around,” he said.

“You’re damn right, Leo!” Donnie called from the far back room.

Chapter Text

【The Recycled Candles】

~December 20th, 2010~

Leo had to meet with the plumber right after breakfast. He made sure Karai was comfortable with Donnie while he was gone. She explained to Leo that she had to get to work and wouldn’t be around for much longer anyways. They shared an oddly formal goodbye where Leo shook her hand.

Then at two minutes past eight, from just one floor above, Leo sent his traditional “Good morning, Karai” text. Just like he did every single morning since getting his cellphone. Karai had squinted at the message but still sent her own text back.

Keeping their tradition she supposed.

Donnie had disappeared into his room before Leo left, and Karai hoped to disappear from Leo’s apartment before he came out of said room.

It was almost like because she had hoped for it that of course it wouldn’t happen that way.

“So, you managed to stay the night?” Donnie asked, leaning on the wall just inside Leo’s bedroom.

At least now he was wearing grey sweatpants, socks, and a white sweater with purple snowflakes. Instead of just those tiny shorts.

“Are you really going to stand there and watch me pack?” Karai asked, folding her pajamas up and shoving them in her bag. “It's a little creepy.”

“I have to make sure you aren't going to steal anything,” Donnie explained, casting his hand around the room like they were in a vault of gold coins.

Karai nodded slowly. “Right because I have been eyeing these LED candles,” she deadpanned.

“I think not!” Donnie said, faking a shocked tone. “I made those for Leo myself!”

“They look professional,” Karai said, not that she doubted him.

“Well of course they are,” he said. “I pride myself in my work.”

That sounded believable to Karai for many reasons.

The entire family seemed to be creatives. Mrs. Hamato was a painter. Mr. Hamato was a candle maker. Mikey was a clothing designer. Leo was a candle maker and a glass blower. Raph was a mechanic, but Karai was willing to bet he did more than just repairs. It made sense that Donnie would have a knack for it as well.

“Can I ask you something?” she said, zipping her bag shut.

Donnie looked at her over the coffee stained edges of his mug. “Depends on what you ask.”

Karai nodded, then debated asking but figured there would be no harm. “Leo told me he never graduated high school,” she began.

Donnie was quick to straighten up his posture and place his mug down.

“He's very smart,” Donnie said quickly. “Our mother home schooled him, even while he was bedridden for that year. She got him through seventh, eighth, and ninth grade all inside six months. Your average fifteen year old can't do that.”

“Wait bedridden?” Karai asked, frowning. “For a year? Does that have something to do with that dented area in his shell?”

Donnie looked horrified, which in turn horrified Karai because how could she be sure Donnie even knew about Leo’s shell?

“I've said too much, sorry,” Donnie whined, smacking his wrists on his temples. “Stupid stupid stupid-”

“Hey it's okay!” Karai got up and put her hand up. “Stop doing that.”

“No it's not!” Donnie hissed, at least he stopped hitting himself. “I just wish I could close my mouth. Don't say anything to him okay? Just, pretend you don't know.”

“I will. I figure he'll tell me in his own time or if I ask him,” Karai said, keeping her voice calm. Donnie's whole demeanor had changed very quickly, she was still recovering from the shock.

Admittedly now she was scared to ask. Whatever had happened to Leo to make him bedridden for a year… she almost didn’t want to know. She also didn’t want to ask and make Leo feel like he had to tell her.

It was all very tricky. Bringing it up would take some skill and the right moment.

“He's... It's not a nice thing to talk about,” Donnie said, slumping against the wall. “And I owe him for the expulsion. It was my fault.”

“What happened?” Karai asked. “Unless you think it’s too personal.”

Donnie pushed himself off the wall.

“Oh sister it is a long and complicated story,” Donnie sighed, coming to sit on the edge of Leo’s bed. “Here sit.”

“I already regret this,” Karai muttered, sitting down next to Donnie.

“My biological dad's wife, Abigail, had her own kids. And they bullied me a lot. Mostly at home but sometimes at school. They were a lot older than me. Both seventeen when this happened. They were doing something very unpleasant to me in the teacher’s parking lot. Leo saved me from them and what they were, uh, doing. He didn't know who I was. Leo just saw what Abigail’s sons were d-doing to me and beat them up. And he took me to the school nurse.”

“But you're brothers,” Karai said. “How would he not know you?”

Donnie heaved a shaky sigh.

“Well first you need to understand that being a turtle is weird,” he explained. “If you're a female you can keep some sperm from past partners alive inside your reproductive system for a long time. There are pills that help female turtles clean out their sperm ducts but they’re expensive. My biological mom married a red eared slider named Avery and moved from Japan to America with him. They had one egg together and that was Leo. When Leo turned four Avery and some of his friends robbed a bank. It turned violent and chaotic and several people died. Avery went to prison and is still there today. It left my biological mom with no financial support so she got a job at a factory. One thing leads to another, she has sex with her supervisor, my biological dad, a spiny softshell turtle.”

“And she got pregnant with you? And was even more strapped for cash?” Karai guessed.

“You would think, but no. Her body just kept some of his sperm.”

“And she couldn’t afford the clean out pills,” Karai said.

Which is why those pills need to be free and widely available. Sadly humans, who are most of the senators and representatives, would never vote for a bill like that to pass.

“Bingo,” Donnie said. “So then she hooked up with what we think was Mikey's biological dad. We only have Leo's memory of our biological mom's various partners,” he explained when Karai gave him a funny look. “The second egg she laid was Raph's egg, from where I do not know we never found Raph’s biological dad. We think she hooked up with Raph’s biological father before she hooked up with Avery. We know from Avery that our biological mom was often seen hanging around the soldiers stationed in Japan. And we know that Avery remembers being stationed with an alligator snapping turtle. It’s all hypothetical of course.”

“I’m really glad my human body doesn’t store sperm,” Karai said. To have a child five years after the hook up out of nowhere... no thanks.

“Yeah, I’m glad I’m a male turtle,” Donnie said. “And single. Well then, ten months after she laid Raph, she laid me. Raph had been only a month old hatchling and Leo would have been five. When I hatched she was still in contact with my biological father because she still had the factory job. She was a single mom with two kids. She couldn’t get money from Avery for Leo, she couldn’t find Raph’s biological father. I’ll never know if she asked for child support from my biological father or just insisted that he take full custody of me… but whatever happened, my biological father took me in completely.”

“And what?” Karai asked. “Never told you about your family?”

Donnie nodded. “By then he was with Abigail and her sons were in middle school. Abigail just told me not to talk to Leonardo Suraidā or Raphael Suraidā when I started school. She told me they were bad turtles. So I actually ended up ignoring Raph and running away whenever I saw Leo. Abigail said they were bad and I was too young to question why. After Leo saved me and beat the hell out of Abigail’s kids I befriended Raph and learned Leo had been expelled. I felt really bad but Raph became my best friend and he was only one grade above me so we had the same recess and lunch times at school. And he was huge so no one messed with me. It was nice.”

Karai was glad to hear Donnie had a bodyguard in Raph, he had probably really needed it.

“How did you find out you were actually related?” she asked.

“My biological father knocked up Abigail and she laid a large clutch of pure bred softshells,” he said with a forced lightness. “Six kids. They were married. They were happy. They wanted to move to a bigger place and her older kids, while recently beaten up by a seventh grader, were college bound and would soon be out of the way. I was only seven. She didn't want me to corrupt her new babies. So my biological father took me back to my biological mom that summer. I was terrified, I remember begging my biological dad to keep me. I was used to a clean home. My biological mom lived in the slums. Sure Abigail was mean and her sons…,”

Donnie cleared his throat.

“Hurt, hurt me, but, -but I was fed and had the basics,” he said. “Imagine my shock when my biological mom shoved me in a cruddy kids room and I saw Raph and Leo and a baby turtle.”

“That's so fucked Donnie,” Karai said, and she meant it. That was a lot of abandonment and deception for a young child to go through. “And was that baby, Mikey?”

She wanted to give him the chance to talk about something different. This topic seemed difficult for him.

“Yes, little toddler Mikey,” Donnie said with a fond smile. “I am almost glad Abigail did throw me out. And the few short years I lived with my biological mom I had Leo and Raph who were way nicer than Abigail’s kids.”

“Well fuck Abigail’s kids,” Karai said. “Seriously.”

Donnie laughed humorlessly under his breath.

“Just don't think Leo is dumb,” he said, lifting his head up. “He just got put in a tough spot.”

“The only thing I will take from that story is evidence of Leo playing the hero,” Karai said as she stood up. “He scared a creep away from my door not too long ago.”

If Leo was kicking the asses of kids in high school when he was in middle school, Chris Bradford probably would have been in trouble during a fight. Leo certainly looked like he could hold himself in a fight. Too good to be true. Handsome, muscular, and nice.

A mean voice in the back of her head whispered about how she didn’t deserve that.

“That's Leo,” Donnie said.

The door to the apartment jiggled as a key was slipped in by someone humming a happy tune.

Donnie’s pupils dilated in fear.

A voice filled the apartment before Karai could ask if she needed to be worried.

“Donnie! Oh Donatello!” an unfamiliar voice sang.

Donnie hit the floor and deflated. He became wider in the shell before shooting forward under Leo’s bed, showing Karai a spiny softshell’s ability to flatten themselves.

She picked up her bag with an amused grin.

“Donnie I know you cut the wires on the motion sensors,” the voice called, edging closer. “I'm not mad, I just want to hug you.”

That was enough to tell her this was very likely Mikey, the youngest Hamato.

“He's in here,” Karai called. “Under the bed.”

“TRAITOR!” a muffled voice spat from behind the bed skirt.

Mikey jumped a little as he entered the room, finding a woman he had never seen before. Karai pointed to the space under the bed and Mikey’s shocked smile turned into an “oh, gotcha,” look as he got down on all fours.

“There he is!” Mikey exclaimed, peering under the bed. “Come here you temperamental pancake it's time for a hug!”

Donnie hissed.

“Who wants counterclockwise shell rubs?” Mikey asked, sticking his head under the bed until his shell stopped him. “Hmmmmm? Counterclockwise,” he said.

The hissing stopped.

“Okay,” Donnie said.

Mikey backed up and Donnie slid out from under the bed and got to his feet.

“Oh good,” Mikey said, dusting off Donnie’s sweater. “Leo said you were naked.”

“I got cold,” Donnie muttered. He then pointed to Karai by barely lifting his arm in her direction. “This is Karai.”

Mikey turned to her and smiled. “Pleased to meet you I'm Mikey,” he said, offering her his hand to shake.

Karai did not hesitate at all to shake the hand of Malcom Klunk. “Yeah it's a fucking honor to meet you,” Karai said, feeling her heart race.

Shini would be so pissed to know Karai was here, meeting Malcolm Klunk.

“Well I have heard lots about you from Leo,” Mikey said, stepping back next to Donnie’s side. “Sorry if Donnie crashed your night, I’m not the best at watching him apparently.”

Donnie may have been taller than the ornate box turtle mutant, who seemed to be exactly four and a half feet tall, but he was looking down and away like he was considering sliding back under the bed.

Mikey wasn’t dressed the way Karai had seen him in glossy magazine photos. The shiny copper eyeliner wasn’t on him. His scales weren’t as bright green. Malcolm Klunk looked exotic and dressed very extravagantly. He had no freckles or blemishes, his makeup was done in a way to thin out his face and give him a sharper snout and chin. That was Malcolm Klunk.

This was Mikey. Outside of the makeup his face was softer and rounder, looking like a younger version of Leo. He had a collection of orange freckled markings over his cheeks. Instead of wearing clothes that would draw eyes he had on well fitted jeans, and a black turtleneck just visible under the winter coat he still had on.

Anyone seeing Mikey walking around on the street would have no idea he was also Malcolm Klunk.

“No she didn't get any cream,” Donnie reported. “And I was sneaky about my break in.”

Mikey wagged his finger at Donnie. “Leave a note next time,” he warned. “I worry. I ate so many antacid tablets this morning because of you.”

“I'm not a baby,” Donnie said, pushing Mikey’s finger out of his face.

“I know. I just, I still worry about you man. How about you get actually dressed and we'll go back to my place? Hmm?” Mikey goaded, far from the mysterious tone Malcolm Klunk used in his interviews. “Come on Donnie I have a pool. Oh a pool party!”

Mikey turned to her.

“Karai, you wanna come?” he asked. “It's an indoor pool,” he added hastily.

It was times like this that Karai hated being gainfully employed. A pool party at Malcolm Klunk's house? The teenager in her wet their pants.

However, while the court stenographer she is currently is still shocked and filled with a strange feeling that only comes with meeting a celebrity, she was also filled with responsibilities.

“I would but I have to go to work,” Karai said, keeping her tone friendly but formal. “It was nice meeting you.”

Mikey nodded, looking around awkwardly. “Heh, sorry this is probably the weirdest way you've met someone huh?” he asked.

Karai blinked a few times before looking directly at Donnie. “You would think so, but no.”

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

Her day at work had flown by. She had no time to pack lunch so she skipped it. Dinner was a loose concept in her head at the moment. Hunger washed around in her stomach but she had splurged last night with Leo and had a large breakfast of waffles.

Karai sank into her couch and raked her fingers through her hair. Massaging her scalp from the way her hair had been pulled taut against her skull all day.

She sat up, she couldn’t waste her evening despite really wanting to. She turned on the news for background noise and got her apartment into a less frazzled state. The chores kept her hunger away until she broke down and decided she was being stupid.

Of course she needed food.

Even if her mother’s voice was always in the back of her head every time she ate something carb filled.

“Screw it,” she muttered to herself. “I’m getting Chinese Food.”

The Chinese Food was heavenly, and she got enough for lunch and dinner tomorrow. It was salty and savory and hit every spot. She had the sweet and sour lab grown chicken and seaweed rangoons.

A disturbing breaking news report came on as she was packing away her left overs. Forty mutant children were rescued from a meat farm in rural Wisconsin.

Karai stood still in front of her open fridge to listen. The leftovers she was putting away could wait.

Turtle farming.

Society had come so far in giving mutants more rights, but sometimes truly heartbreaking stories like that would remind Karai that there were still pockets in the world where truly heinous things occurred. Meat farming wasn’t a human versus mutant issue. It was generally an issue of location and carnivore populations.

Lab grown meat can only be made in special circumstances. If there aren’t local artificial meat factories the meat has to be transported to stores in refrigerated trucks. This costs local grocery stores money. Then the stores lose money if they can’t sell the lab grown meat before it expires.

Rural areas rarely stock lab grown meat in stores because of this risk. They can’t take the loss if the meat goes bad so they don't offer it on their shelves. It forces carnivores in these rural areas to either travel to buy their food, or sign up for delivery services that are often very expensive.

Karai shivered.

Humans have done truly awful things to mutants. Of course she never learned about it in her private school, but she had learned about it in college. The facts that there are still mutants alive today that can tell stories of being freed from meat farms is enough for Karai to hate her own species.

She closed the fridge door and went to mute the television.

She pitied the poor court stenographer in Wisconsin who would have to be in those courtrooms. At least Karai had yet to be in a courtroom with something so awful. Even without the details she knew that the case had enough public eye to keep any judge from doing something questionable with the charges. The humans who were against the right for mutants to marry humans weren’t as brazen as to say child mutants should be held on farms until adulthood and slaughtered.

There were socially acceptable levels of discrimination.

Karai went to brush the spinach out of her teeth and found her toothbrush missing. It didn’t take her more than a second to realize she had left it in Leo’s bathroom. She had been frazzled by Mikey’s appearance and Donnie’s story and had left in a hurry.

It looked like she would have to go see Leo. It was going on seven but he should still be in his shop. Sure she had a tiny travel toothbrush that worked for now, but she really needed her good full sized toothbrush.

The one she left at Leo’s.

Which meant she would need to see Leo, for her toothbrush. No other reason. It had nothing to do with the disturbing news report either.

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

Karai entered the lobby area of the shop and looked over to the honorary shelf expecting to see the candle of the day.

Oddly it was empty, but Karai shrugged it off. The shop was closing soon so Leo probably put it away. She walked to the window and rang the little service bell.

Bang!

A loud metallic thunk came from the back of the shop, followed by a cry of pain.

“Leo?!” Karai called, going over to the shop door. It was of course locked. “Oh come on!” she seethed, dashing over to the window and climbing through.

“Leo are you okay?” she asked again as she quickly weaved through the shelves to the back room.

“It’s fine!” Leo called back hastily. “I’m fine, just had a little spill!”

Karai opened the forbidden employees only door and the sight was heart stopping. Leo was at the sink with his back to her and the floor was covered in a huge puddle of deep red liquid. His pant legs were splashed with it. A huge pot was on it’s side on the floor.

“Holy shit is that-”

“No no no no it’s just blood red wax!” Leo said quickly, turning just enough to see her and her reaction.

Karai stepped around the outskirts of the puddle. Already the edges were drying and becoming a less terrifying color of red.

“Fuck it’s everywhere,” she said. “What happened?”

“It’s a batch of candles I was recycling,” Leo explained, keeping his hands in the stream of running water. “I was working with the front left burner but I must have accidentally also turned on the right front burner, or had it on from earlier," he rambled. "The handle of the pot on the left was over the right burner. I didn’t realize the handle was getting heated by it. I grabbed it to move the pot off the heat and burned myself.”

Karai came closer to the sink. “How bad did you burn yourself?” she asked.

Leo turned off the faucet. He had one of those deep work sinks that could accommodate large deep pots. He was keeping his hand deep down in the sink out of her view as he blindly felt around for the towel on the worktop by the sink.

“Oh it’s nothing,” Leo said, wrapping the dirtiest, most wax crusted rag Karai had ever seen around his hand.

She growled under her breath. “No,” she said, grabbing his forearm. “You are not wrapping your hand in a dirty towel,” she scolded. “Let me see it.”

Like a human child with his ear being pulled Leo took the germ covered towel off his hand. The inside of the towel was red with his blood.

“You need to go to the hospital,” she said, holding his hand spread open to examine the wound. She looked at him dead serious. She would take his keys and drive him there herself.

“It’s not as bad as it looks-,” Leo began.

Karai stared up at him. “It’s. Bleeding.”

Leo shook his head. “You’re a human, you don’t understand. The hospitals are for skin not scales and no doctor for my kind is coming around this late at night. I can treat it here.”

She was thrown for a loop. Mutants weren’t just mistreated in hospitals, they avoided going for that very reason.

“Fine,” Karai said, letting go of his hand and reaching to turn the cold tap on. “Then we’ll do that. Put it under the water again.”

Leo obeyed, if not for the fact that cold water helped the pain.

The puddle of blood red liquid wax had dried on the hardwood floor as a solid sheet. A light tulip red now that it was dry. It cracked like a sheet of thin ice when Karai stepped on it to get a roll of paper towels.

“Where is your first aid kit?” Karai asked, placing a pad of paper towels over the burn.

“I have things in my bathroom downstairs. Aloe vera and antibiotic ointment and gauze,” Leo said, taking over with the paper towels. “Your worry for me is nice, and I appreciate it but this is not the first time I’ve burned myself.”

Karai drew her lips into a firm line. Whether Leo had been burned in the past did not matter, she was still going to help.

Now that the emergency was under control she was focused on making sure nothing up here was still a safety risk. She turned off the stove burners, red hot. It was an electric stove. How did Leo not see the red coils under the handle?

Looking back at him he didn’t look as good as he said he felt. He looked off color and his blue eyes were glassy.

She took his elbow and led him out of the room.

“Thank you for running in here,” Leo said as she pulled him down the aisles of candles.

“Your welcome,” Karai said. “I climbed through the window.”

They entered the little pick up orders at the window room and Karai unlocked the door to let them out into the lobby.

“I really should block that with something shouldn’t I?” Leo mused as they walked through the lobby, holding his left hand up with his right.

“You’re lucky you didn’t Leo,” Karai said, closing the door to the shop behind them. “What if you were seriously injured?

Leo sucked air through his teeth and looked down.

In the dim light at the top of the stairwell Karai could see the tulip red wax hardened on his pants legs and shoes. Spiderwebs of cracks formed from walking.

“Did you also burn your feet?” she asked, scared he was way more injured than he was letting on.

It felt like the kind of thing Leo would do. He seemed like an injury hider.

“Some of the wax may have breached my socks,” Leo said, avoiding eye contact by looking all around the stairwell.

“And you tell me this now?!” she asked.

Leo winced at her voice. “Well I can’t take my shoes off up here, that's a health code violation,” he said, lowering his voice like there was a health inspector in the neighboring duplex holding a glass to the wall.

“I can’t believe you,” Karai hissed. “Downstairs now, right now!”

“I don’t know what has gotten into me today,” Leo said, going down the stairs before her. “I felt fine until lunch then I started feeling a little sick but I blamed it on those chocolate covered grasshoppers I splurged on. They expired a month ago. I believe I have tempted fate and paid dearly.”

As they passed the front door Karai locked it and turned the “Open” sign to “Closed”.

“Let’s focus on getting your shoes off and this burn treated before we start making me weary of all the chocolate in your apartment,” Karai said, herding Leo towards his apartment door.

Leo got his keys out with his non-burnt right hand. “I think if anyone should be weary of the chocolate in my apartment it is me,” he said, just before opening the door.

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

Thankfully Leo’s bathroom was very organized and she was able to quickly locate everything she needed to play nurse. The burns on the top of Leo’s ankles were not as bad as the burn on his left palm. She treated his hand first and got him an ice pack from his freezer to rest on it while she dealt with his feet.

“Have you had dinner yet?” she asked, placing Leo’s foot back on the floor.

His wax caked pant legs were rolled up over his muscular calves. It wasn’t ideal for the nice designer clothing to be man handled but it kept the area clean of wax flakes until Karai was done applying ointment.

Leo struggled to answer. He was sitting on the lid of the toilet staring at his ice pack.

“No, I guess time got away from me,” he said finally.

“Do you want me to order you something?” Karai asked, knowing she could not cook even in an emergency.

It was scary how much worse Leo looked now. If there was something concerning going on before, then it was rapidly becoming worse. Leo sat blinking slowly at the ice pack.

“Leo?-”

“Pizza sounds good,” he said, finally. “Veggie pizza.”

He looked at her and nodded, agreeing with the words he just spoke.

“Okay...,” Karai said, squeezing his knees before standing. “I can do that. How about you put on your pajamas or something less covered in wax?” she suggested.

Leo shook his head. “I have to clean up the back room before the wax dries to the floor,” he said.

“The wax was dried to the floor before we left the room,” Karai told him, only growing more worried.

Was his sense of time that warped?

“That’s going to be so much scraping,” Leo whispered darkly.

“Come on stand up-,” Karai coaxed, trying to remember everything she was told about caring for sick and injured people.

Leo stood and wobbled in a way that terrified Karai. There was no way her skinny ass was pulling Leo off the floor.

“Don’t you dare fall over,” Karai warned, hovering her hands near him like she could catch a two hundred and fifty pound turtle mutant.

He braced his right hand on the wall and squeezed his eyes shut.

“Just got dizzy,” he explained. “Maybe it wasn’t the chocolate covered grasshoppers,” he said, opening his eyes and blinking a few more times really hard. “Maybe I am getting sick.”

“Even more of a reason why you should put your pajamas on while I order pizza,” Karai said, touching his back and applying a little pressure to get him moving forward.

Leo walked forward out of the room, keeping his hand on the wall the whole way out.

“Okay, thank you,” he mumbled.

“Will Donnie be coming back tonight?” Karai asked.

Leo struggled to flip his bedroom lights on.

“I don’t know, he’s at Mikey’s,” he said, heading to his dresser. “Why?”

“I don’t think you should be alone tonight,” Karai said, resting a hand on his back.

“It’s just a burn,” Leo said, pulling out his pajamas.

“Should I stay here with you?” Karai asked, unsure if he needed her help getting out of his clothes.

Leo shook his head. “No, I’ll feel better with a bit of food in me.”

Karai stepped away, not entirely comfortable with leaving him alone but she didn’t want to take advantage of his loopiness and watch him undress.

“Okay, I will stay until you have eaten,” she said stepping back into the hall.

“Right, thank you,” Leo said from inside the room.

Karai pulled out her phone to look up the number of the nearest pizza place with turtle mutant friendly options.

“Stop thanking me,” she told him under her breath.

He obviously needed some help.

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

Getting the pizza on the coffee table, and Leo on the couch had been an ordeal. He had only agreed to stop trying to go upstairs when Karai offered to close out the shop. All this involved was turning off the lights upstairs and locking three doors.

Leo ate some pizza while she was gone so she took that as a win.

But for every good development there seemed to be a new bad one to undo it.

“How do you feel?” Karai asked, grabbing another throw blanket from the couch and putting it over Leo.

“Admittedly the troubling symptoms are still here,” he said, as if he had ever told her those symptoms in the first place.

His eyes were closed like it was too much trouble to open them.

“Donnie said he’s going to be here soon,” Karai said quietly. 

She had checked her phone a lot since Donnie texted her that he was coming back to Leo’s apartment, but he hadn’t sent an update since. She debated sending him a text asking how much longer.

“When did you text him?” Leo asked.

“When you started shivering,” Karai said.

Leo’s breathing was a little labored in Karai’s opinion. He had been sitting still for the last hour but his chest was rising and falling faster than her own.

“Ah,” he said, his response delayed.

She leaned against his right side and Leo took his arm out of the blankets and put it around her.

“You’re warm,” he mumbled, tilting to his right and pressing her to his side.

Karai laid her head against his chest and fixed the blankets so they were both covered. Her phone was now out of reach on the coffee table. She really hoped Donnie was close to being here.

“I never get sick in half measures,” Leo mumbled. “I always seem to get sick like it’s a competition.”

“It’ll be okay,” Karai soothed.

“Mm hmm,” Leo hummed, words becoming too much trouble.

She didn’t know how long they sat there with the TV on low before the lock jiggled. Karai was silently so relieved to hear someone coming back. She listened as two people quietly entered the mud room and then the rest of the apartment. When Karai turned her head a little (careful to not disturb Leo), she saw Mikey and Donnie.

Both turtle mutants walked around the couch. Mikey sat on Leo's left side while Donnie immediately stood over Leo to feel his forehead.

Leo didn’t open his eyes for any of this.

“Hey dude, how are you feeling?” Mikey asked quietly.

“When did you start getting sick?” Donnie asked, firmer.

“After lunch,” Leo said, turning his head out of Donnie’s hand. “Your hand is cold.”

“You feel warm,” Donnie said, taking his hand away.

“But I’m so cold,” Leo complained, snuggling closer to Karai.

“Oh-,” Karai stammered, not ready for such a bold display of cuddling.

Donnie rolled his eyes. “That’s how a fever works Leo,” he scolded. “Because you're sick, again, just like every winter.”

Leo shook his face into the top of Karai’s head. “No no no I’ll be fine,” he mumbled. “Hush, don’t worry yourselves.”

“Leo, you need to get in bed,” Donnie said with his hand on his hips. He was giving Leo a stern look, but Leo probably still had his eyes closed.

Mikey leaned in and touched Leo’s shoulder, trying to grab his attention. “Yeah Leo, you ain’t looking so great,” Mikey said softly.

Leo didn’t say anything or even acknowledge his brother’s words.

“Was he sick this morning?” Mikey asked Donnie, looking anxious.

“No, he was fine,” Donnie said. “He seemed fine. But he always goes down fast.”

Karai frowned to herself and thought back on her morning with Leo before he left to meet the plumber. He seemed to be his normal self. It was startling how bad things had gotten in just twelve hours.

“Come on Leo,” Donnie said, peeling the blankets back.

Leo woke up at the loss of blankets. “Okay, I’m getting up,” he said, struggling to lean forward and stand.

Again he tilted too far forward for a second before correcting himself.

“Dude, do not fall over,” Mikey said, grasping Leo’s upper arm tightly. “What happened to your hand- nevermind,” he decided, looking to Donnie instead. “Should we call Raph, or should I call Leatherhead?”

Leo waved his non-burnt hand back and forth. “I’m okay I can walk, I’m just tired you guys,” he grumbled.

Karai, Mikey, and Donnie unanimously decided to help Leo walk to the bathroom. There was no way any of what was going on was okay.

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

It really seemed like it took all three of them to get Leo in his bed. He looked more and more fatigued by the hour.

Karai had never seen someone get so horribly sick so fast.

Mikey had to leave to go back home and pack a bag to stay overnight. He didn’t want Donnie alone and asked Karai to stay until he returned. What Mikey failed to realize was Karai was seriously considering trying to stay the night as well, even though it would get her in trouble at work to be late for an early hearing.

On the bed next to Leo, roughly where Karai had been last night, Donnie sat crisscross on the phone with Raph. He alternated between taking Leo’s temperature and asking about any new symptoms.

Karai sat on a kitchen chair she dragged into the room on the other side of the bed resting her hand on top of Leo’s.

“Yes, he’s in bed,” Donnie reiterated to Raph. “We’re going to the doctor in the morning.”

“I don’t need a doctor, Donnie,” Leo mumbled.

Donnie rolled his eyes and picked up the pad of paper where he was recording Leo’s symptoms.

“Add delusional to the list of symptoms,” Donnie said, handing the list to Karai.

Karai neatly penned the new symptom in while Leo shook his head.

When she was done she snaked her hand under the covers to hold Leo's forearm. It felt clammy and she could feel him still shivering a little despite all the blankets they had piled on to him.

“What will the doctor do?” Karai asked Donnie.

Donnie held his finger over the receiver of his cellphone. “Probably call ahead to the Reptile Hospital over up in Albany,” he turned back to his phone to talk to Raph. “I think he’ll be okay tonight but we’ll need you tomorrow for sure,” Donnie told Raph. “Okay. No, Mikey is coming back once he packs an overnight bag. Okay. I’ll call you if things change. Okay. Bye Raph.”

Donnie tossed his phone to the side on the bed before rubbing his hand down his face.

“What does he have?” Karai asked, rubbing Leo’s arm under the blankets.

He seemed to have fallen asleep again.

“The beginnings of a respiratory infection,” Donnie said quietly.

Karai had felt sick not too long ago, she hadn’t really thought much about it. She didn't even need to go to the doctor. She just blamed it on cold weather.

“Could I have given him something?” she asked.

Donnie frowned like her question was stupid. “No,” he said slowly. “Most viruses can only travel inside your mating species. Other turtles can catch colds from each other, but I think even if Mikey got a cold he wouldn’t pass it to Leatherhead.”

Karai was immediately relieved by this. She would hate herself if she gave Leo something that put him in the hospital. She wasn’t even aware there was such an affliction that could be so deadly to turtle mutants.

“So why aren’t you nervous about being here without a mask or something?” Karai asked. “Won’t you all end up in the hospital too?”

Donnie’s face fell and he opened his mouth to say something but the front door was opening.

“Hold that thought,” he told Karai as they listened to Mikey relock the door and come into the bedroom.

“Hey, how is he?” Mikey asked, coming up to the end of the bed. There was a bag on his shoulder.

“Not better,” Donnie reported, getting the thermometer and placing it against Leo’s temple.

It beeped, Donnie grimaced and wrote down what it was.

Neither Karai or Mikey asked for the exact reading.

“Okay. How do we want to do this? Shifts?” Mikey asked, rocking on his heels.

Donnie nodded. “Probably for the best,” he agreed. “I have been tracking his temperature. Tylenol is keeping the fever under control, but if it stops keeping it under control we… we just should be here, one of us. At all times.”

“Okay, how are you doing Donnie?” Mikey asked.

“I’m okay,” Donnie said, way too fluidly and upbeat for it to be true.

Despite no one lowering their voice, Leo slept through the conversation.

“I’m going to get changed and then I’ll be back,” Mikey said. “I can take the first shift. I brought my kindle I can just read in here.”

Donnie nodded and Mikey left the room, leaving the door cracked behind him.

Karai looked at Donnie. “I have to work tomorrow, and I don’t have a car,” she explained. “Will you keep me updated?”

“Of course,” Donnie said, looking at her like he meant it.

“Is this deadly?” she asked.

“No, he’ll go to the doctor. The doctor will send him to the hospital. The hospital will keep him for several days. Then he can come back home and fight the remaining sickness off with medication and rest,” Donnie explained, voice quivering a little in some spots.

He was reassuring her and himself about what would happen tomorrow.

“This has happened before?” Karai asked.

“Yes, it happens almost every year at least once. We don’t always need to go to the hospital. Sometimes just with a prescription for an antiviral he can fight it off in his own home. But sometimes that’s not possible,” Donnie explained. “If anything we are overdue for it.”

Karai was getting the impression that Leo’s whole family was intimately aware of how often he got sick. It filled her with a strange warmth to see how his family had seemingly dropped everything to help him. That was seen more in families where children still lived under one roof. All of Leo’s brothers were adults and they were still there for him.

If Karai got this sick she would have no one to call. Even her own mother would say that a sickness is just a quick way to lose several pounds. And Miwa was too far away.

Karai pushed the troubling thought to the side where it couldn’t hurt her.

“But you’re not worried about catching this?” she asked, still confused as to why this happened to Leo so often but not his brothers.

“If I catch this my perfectly healthy immune system will handle it inside a few days with no doctor or hospital,” Donnie said brightly. He slumped down resting his elbows on his knees. “When Leo was fourteen he got shell rot. You know what that is?” he asked.

“Does that have something to do with the dented and scarred up parts of his shell?” Karai asked.

“Yes. It’s an infection of the shell,” Donnie explained. “A really nasty one that eats your shell away. Leo had that when he was fourteen and it nearly killed him. Those dents and scars on Leo’s shell, that’s where his shell was eaten away all the way through. His insides were exposed to open air in places it was so bad.”

“Shit,” Karai said, stomach turning at the image that brought to mind.

“He was in a medically induced coma for four months because of it,” Donnie went on. “The fungal infection ate into his spine. His immune system was horribly compromised by this. Leo is what they call ‘immunosuppressed,’ when he gets sick his immune system doesn’t react the way a healthy reptile’s should.”

“Is that why he deteriorated so quickly today?” Karai asked.

“Yes,” Donnie said, tucking blankets around Leo more as he shivered in his sleep.

Karai watched the scene before her sadly. She wanted to stay, she really did. But she knew she had to leave now if she wanted to catch the last possible bus back to her apartment.

As much as it pained her, she couldn’t afford to be fired.

“I have to go,” Karai said, standing from her chair and fixing the blankets around Leo on her side. “I can’t afford to not show up to work tomorrow. Please keep me updated.”

Donnie nodded. “I will.”

“Thank you.”

“And, uh, thank you for looking out for him and calling me,” Donnie said, giving her a half smile. “Good thing he had someone around who cared.”

Karai nodded. It seemed second nature to tell Donnie about this. She didn't know how bad it was going to get, but Karai knew when to trust her gut.

Before leaving she cupped the side of Leo’s face and silently promised to visit him again as soon as possible.

Even if she had no idea how she was supposed to get to that hospital Albany or find the spare income to do so.

Chapter Text

【The Bloodied Candle】

~ December 23rd, 2010 ~

Karai waited just inside the lobby of her building on the lookout for Raph’s car. He had offered her a ride to the hospital to visit Leo and she was going to take it. Today had been her last day of work until after the New Year. She was tired and got home thirty minutes ago. She was eager to see Leo and spend Christmas Eve decompressing before dinner with her own toxic family on Christmas Day.

At quarter to four Raph pulled up and Karai hiked her purse over her shoulder before walking out into the cold gusting wind.

“Sorry I’m late,” Raph said, cupping his hand away from the cellphone he was holding to his ear. “Yeah I’m still here,” he said to the person on the other line.

Karai got in and buckled herself up. Thankfully the passenger’s seat already had a booster on it so it was safe for smaller mutants and humans. Raph waited until she was settled in before pulling his car out onto the street. It was snowing hard with the forecast warning of eight to twelve inches of snow between this evening and tomorrow morning.

“I know, but I’m not comfortable with Picasso staying the weekend,” Raph said firmly to the phone. “You guys barely know sign language.”

While she couldn’t hear what the other person was saying, the quiet voice coming through the receiver was female, older, and upset.

“Sal does, but Sal ain’t gonna be there the whole time,” Raph pressed.

The voice on the other end argued. Hard to hear over the roar of the car’s heater blasting warm dry air into the cabin. Karai wriggled out of her coat.

“He’s my son,” Raph said, the line going quiet for a moment before the person on the other end had something to say. “Oh you wanna ask him?” Raph repeated, laughing under his breath. “If you ask him he’s going to choose my family like he did last year.”

The voice whined some more.

“Because we’re nice to him and you don’t watch him with his cousins and they bully him and not all you know ASL so when he tells you he’s being bullied you ignore him,” Raph snapped.

Again the voice complained.

“I know because he tells me!” Raph yelled, braking as they came to a red light. “Final offer; Casey and I pop in for a few hours on Christmas then we’re leaving to go to dinner with my side of the family.”

This reasonable offer as far as Karai could tell sent the person on the other line into a frenzy.

“I’m not listening to this,” Raph cut her off. “I am on my way to the hospital to see my brother. I’m doing you a favor by even taking your call and trying to find a middle ground here.”

The other side of this conversation yelled something that sounded like an insult and Raph hung up.

“Sorry,” Raph said to Karai. “Shell, why does everything hit the fan in December?”

“Who was that?” Karai asked, folding her coat and setting it on her lap.

Raph sighed. “Mona’s mother, also known as Picasso’s grandmother. She wants Picasso to spend Christmas through the New Year with her. Which if I did that to Picasso… just it ain’t a good situation. She tried to get full custody from me when Mona died.”

Karai twisted up her face. “That’s fucked up. You’d need one hell of a lawyer to convince the jury that a child should be with their grandmother over their dad. Especially if you and Mona were married when she passed,” she said.

Though, if she was being honest a good lawyer could convince a jury of humans about anything in relation to mutants. She had seen it firsthand.

“That’s what we thought,” Raph said. “It was Mikey’s money that helped me get the best lawyer. S’rhgtha is still mad about how the judge ruled but at the end of the day no one was taking my boy. She didn’t realize this family was raised in an ugly custody battle. She wanted split custody as a compromise.”

Karai pinched her brows at the last part but kept it to herself. “Picasso seems happy with you,” she said.

“I ain’t even his favorite!” Raph huffed. “Nightmare? Runs to Casey. Owie? Casey time. Too tired to keep walking? Tug on Casey’s sleeve. Like what the shell Picasso? I am your dad ,” Raph balked with a disapproving shake of his head.

“How does Casey take this?” Karai asked, unable to hide the amused smirk on her face.

“Fucker eats it up!” Raph sneered. “Thinks he’s special. He ain’t special. Picasso just wants that body heat.”

“You can’t fault his reasons,” Karai said, though the idea of Picasso running past Raph’s open arms into Casey was still making her face hurt.

“Hmmph.”

She let the conversation quiet for a moment before pivoting to something less lighthearted than children.

“How is everyone coping?” she asked.

Donnie gave her updates, but they were weird and formal and sent out in a group text with Leo’s mom and dad, all his brothers, her landlord, and Casey. She kept her responses formal and sparse so as to not clog up the chat.

“It’s not going well. The doctor’s say Leo can come home on Christmas Eve if he continues to improve,” Raph said, but he sounded uncertain. “But that still means he needs to take it easy. And if he goes back to his house-”

“He’s going to scrape that spilled wax off the floor in the back room?” Karai asked.

Raph nodded. “Yes. Which is very bad.”

Frankly Karai was surprised Leo hadn’t broken out of the hospital to clean his floors yet.

“A lot of things are bad,” Raph said. “Maybe Christmas being a little laid back will be good. Donnie… he lost his job. They fired him. Leo’s sick. I’m fighting my in-laws. Mom and Dad are getting older. Picasso has this weird spot of his shell that-” Raph growled, like the spot was here in the car with him. “I do not like that spot. I don’t know what it is but it’s another reason he can’t stay with his grandparents this weekend. And if I told them I think he has shell rot they would freak out. Blame me like I’m not the one who spotted it when it was the size of a pea!”

Karai nodded. “I read about shell rot, when Donnie told me Leo had it as a kid. Is it always that bad?”

Raph did a teeter totter motion with his hand. “No, not if you catch it and get treatment. It still freaks me out because I saw what it did to Leo. I see what it’s doing to him now. Picasso ain't a full turtle. I worry his shell might be weaker.”

“Then more of a reason to keep him home with you and Casey,” Karai added.

“Yeah,” Raph said. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“Leo will be okay,” he added quickly, an afterthought. “Don’t let this scare you away.”

Karai frowned. “What kind of asshole would blame someone for getting sick?”

Raph kept his eyes on the road and his grip on the steering wheel got tighter. “It’s happened before.”

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

The hospital was as professional and clean looking as the images Karai had looked up online. To her shame Karai spent a long time looking into this hospital to make sure they didn’t have an abhorrent amount of malpractice suits against them. Nothing scandalous came up despite all her late nights.

The outside of the building was a work of art. Brick and pillars. A metal statue of several reptile mutants in lab coats. Inside the main entrance was a beautiful and quiet waiting area. This was a room separated from the waiting room patients use before seeing a doctor. That way visitors wouldn’t have to get themselves sick waiting in the same area with sick patients. Most importantly though it kept visitors from caring anything contagious to the weakened patient they were about to see.

Security was interesting. Karai had to show her State ID and sign in with her signature. They took her temperature with temple thermometer, told her to sanitize her hands, and then gave her a human face mask. Raph got the same treatment only he was given a mask that tied together at the back of his head since he had no ears or other protrusions for the mask to be held in place by.

Raph had already visited Leo so he led them past the reception desk and to the elevators. She would be lying if she said she didn’t feel nervous about visiting Leo. Their momentum felt stalled and Karai was trapped between knowing Leo closely yet not knowing him at all. He hadn’t been texting as much. It was hard for him to do without the confusion his respiratory infection was causing, but Karai brought him a book from her own collection he might enjoy. She pulled it out of her purse while in the elevator and held it tightly.

On the way to Leo’s room a few nurses and doctors passed by a few doing a small double take.

It was rare for humans to have a legitimate reason for visiting a hospital like this.

Leo reacted pleasantly to Raph entering his room but then immediately apologized to Karai.

“You didn’t need to visit me,” he said quickly. “It is not like I am on my deathbed.”

He was actually in a chair next to his bed. There was an IV bag hooked up to his left arm and he had a heart monitor attached to his bare chest. His left hand was still bandaged from where he burned it. His gown was open but there was a purple throw blanket over his legs. In front of him was a table covered in a mess of papers. He had been busy writing when Karai and Raph arrived. 

Raph shook his head. “She wanted to see you,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed so Karai could take the human sized chair that remained. “I see you still coming up with more ideas,” Raph said, gesturing to the table.

Leo gathered them up and stacked them neatly. “A few very prominent things are coming up, Raph,” Leo chastised. “I need fresh Spring Collections. I need to get my Valentine’s Day display-”

“You need to rest,” Raph said, giving Leo a stern look.

“I’m tired of resting,” Leo said. “I’m already so behind on orders. Tomorrow we will need to go straight to the store so I can get the overdue ones at least.”

“Nope. Not happening,” Raph growled. “When you get discharged you’re staying with Mikey.”

Leo didn’t look pleased with this information. He and Raph had an intense staring contest before Leo broke and went back to shuffling through his papers. “How is Donnie? He didn’t call after lunch.”

Raph grimaced and rubbed the back of his head.

“They fired him?” Leo asked.

“Yeah, I mean, he didn’t show up for work Leo,” Raph said. “Hard to argue it’s wrongful termination.”

Leo shook his head. “How is he taking it?”

“Bad. But he’s staying at my place,” Raph said. “These things flare up but we got him, and you, and whatever else needs to be got.”

“Right,” Leo said with a solemn face. It was made worse by how tired he looked. “At least he is somewhere safe.”

Raph nodded in agreement but Karai was totally lost.

“I thought he shocked someone with the printer?” she asked.

Raph shook his head. “That’s just what he tells us at first, then later comes around and tells us the truth.”

“It is hard to tell when he is lying,” Leo added sympathetically.

“For some of us it is hard to tell when Donnie is lying,” Raph clarified, giving Leo the side-eye.

That made more sense than Donnie physically assaulting someone at his workplace. Karai hadn’t said anything before, not sure if maybe what Donnie had done was an exaggeration. If he fixed the printer incorrectly without malice he probably would only get fired or fine.

“Mom and dad were here before lunch,” Leo said, fiddling with his papers but obviously talking to Karai. “They wanted to meet you. I told them perhaps it is too soon seeing as we haven’t been going out very long.”

Karai shook her head. “I would be happy to meet them,” she said, gripping her book tightly at the thought. “Let’s just not rush into meeting my parents.”

“I would say Christmas, but from the past we know the meds they send home with you keep you knocked out,” Raph told Leo.

“New Years then?” Leo asked, looking up from his pages at her. “Dinner with my parents?”

“I…,” her chest was oddly fluttery. “Yes, sure.”

The way she heard herself speak she’d never believe she could talk in a courtroom full of people and sound confident. Leo’s hopeful blue eyes took it out of her.

He smiled before ducking his head back towards his papers.

“They feeding you well?” Raph asked.

“Yes,” Leo said, reviewing his pages. “I had an algae and worm cup for my snack today.”

“Was it good?” Raph asked.

“It was okay. I’m not very hungry,” he said, touching the IV line. “If you come tomorrow around two in the afternoon I’ll give you mine and you can try,” he paused and looked at Karai. “But not you. Not after last time.”

“I’ve had my fill of worms for the next century,” Karai assured him.

“Good,” Leo said, eyeing her suspiciously.

“Leo, I’m talking to the nurse today just to make sure everything will be lined up, but the plan is for you to go home tomorrow,” Raph said.

Leo nodded, going back to his pages. “Good, the wax on the floor is going to be a pain to get up, it's definitely set into the cracks now,” he sighed, clicking his pen and writing something.

“Leo no! Bad Leo!” Raph hissed. “You are not touching that floor until next year.”

Leo set his pen down like an annoyed teacher. “That’s the original hardwood flooring back there Raph. I’ve brought shame to the shop.”

Raph facepalmed so hard his feet lifted off the floor. “Oh my god, this is why you’re staying at Mikey’s.”

Leo huffed and covered his mouth to yawn.

“You getting sleepy?” Raph asked.

“No, no,” Leo said, talking through his yawn. “I’m fine, just you know mom and dad-”

“They had a lot of questions?” Raph finished, standing up and pulling Leo’s tray table away from his chair.

Leo nodded and started to get up. His throw blanket fell to the floor before he could catch it so Karai got up to grab it while Raph walked him to the bed.

“It’s okay to sleep Leo,” Raph said, pulling the hospital sheets over him.

“But I have guests,” Leo argued weakly.

He did look awfully tired. Karai could see it in his eyes and his breathing. Just moving from the chair to the bed had been exhausting. Karai put the throw blanket on top of Leo’s legs.

“Rest, Leo,” Karai said. “You clearly need it.”

“Karai and I will watch TV,” Raph said in a comforting way.

Leo shook his head slightly but was too tired to argue. While Raph turned on the television Karai tidied Leo’s table and set her book on top of it. There was a sticky note on top explaining what it was. A boredom killer really, but hopefully something interesting.

It was a little cowardly to leave the book where he would find it but she didn’t know how to give gifts to other people.

Raph moved her chair next to Leo’s bed on his left side, while he used the chair Leo had been sitting in. Karai sat down and took Leo’s hand. He squeezed her hand immediately, eager to have it.

“Thank you for coming,” Leo whispered, while Raph channel surfed. “It is nice to see you.”

Karai smirked. “I’ve missed you too, Leo,” she said. “But of course I am assuming this will secure my position as Customer of The Year.”

Leo’s eyes fell closed. “I’ll get to work on your placard immediately,” he mumbled.

He fell asleep moments later. Raph and Karai watched the TV on low, neither daring to speak and wake him up. They watched the news coverage of the snow storm and silently dreaded the drive back.

“After he has dinner, I’m going to help him take a shower. One less thing Mikey will have to do tomorrow,” he explained very quietly. It was a surprise someone as large as Raph could make his voice so soft. “We’re gonna be here kind of late.”

“That’s fine with me,” Karai whispered back, keeping her hand as still as she could in Leo’s.

There was no place she’d rather be tonight.

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

Karai was grateful Raph was the one driving. It was snowing hard on the highway with low visibility. The radio reported a pile up on the other side of the highway. When they passed by the crash site there was a blur of blue and red lights from emergency vehicles.

Neither of them spoke or looked. The trip was silent and it was late at night. Karai and Raph ordered food from the cafeteria at the hospital but at the end of the day it was hospital food… it was subpar. They were both tired and ready to go home.

By the time they got to Karai’s place she already missed Leo.

“Thank you again, for taking me to see him,” Karai said, unbuckling herself from the booster seat and putting her faux leather gloves on.

“No problem. You have a goodnight Karai,” Raph said, stifling a yawn.

“You too.”

Inside the lobby Karai decided to pick up her mail. She had been in such a rush to get ready after work for her visit with Leo that she had failed to get it earlier. There were a few pieces of junk mail, and a padded envelope from Hermit Herman’s Jewelers. Karai frowned at the envelope. Squeezing it told her there was something inside, and after double checking the address she was still at a loss. She hadn’t ordered any jewelry.

Either way she put her mail and mystery package in her purse and headed to the elevator.

Only to find another surprise outside her door.

At first it looked like a black cylinder with a baby blue bow. It wasn’t huge but it was as thick as a can of soda. The bow was centered on top obscuring the wick from view. Karai knelt down to pick it up after opening her door. Her suspicions were correct. Under the bow was a limp wick and the material was obviously wax.

But for a candle that was only as big around as the standard aluminum can and ten inches tall, it had to weigh eight pounds or more. It slipped in her hand a little. Perhaps some residual mold release? Leo had talked about that once.

There was no note. The candle also had no scent. She set it on her counter with her purse and immediately forgot about it in favor of peeling out of her clothes and getting into something more comfortable.

An hour later after showering and putting on her pajamas she was back at the counter clad in just a pair of cotton underpants and loose t-shirt. First order of business was opening that piece of mystery mail. She grabbed the candle to move it to the coffee table in her living room with her other centerpiece from Leo and found too late that it was extremely slippery.

As she tightened her grip to try to save the candle a sharp flashing pain bit the inside of her hand. She dropped the candle and it shattered to the floor, metal clattering across the tiles. Karai cried out and cradled her profusely bleeding hand to her stomach.

“Shit!” Karai cursed, squeezing her right wrist with her left hand in an attempt to cut off blood flow. “Shit! What the fuck!”

There was blood on the floor, on her feet, her shirt was getting soaked and her heart was beating frantically. She held her injured right hand in the air above her heart and dashed to the bathroom for the first aid kit.

Several terrifying minutes later she had stopped the bleeding and to the best of her ability cleaned the deep cuts on her palm and fingers. She knew they needed stitches, but she also knew the buses were no longer in service due to the extreme weather.

At least it wasn’t 9-1-1 worthy. She was okay. It fucking hurt, but she was okay. She had cursed more today than she had for the entirety of the last year but she was okay.

Now it was time to figure out what the fuck happened.

When she got back to her living room and kitchen area she had to be careful where she stepped. There were literal razor blades on the floor. The candle was not a candle. It was a wax cylinder now broken into chunks. In the center of the wax there was a thick piece of metal with razor blades soldered to it vertically. Some had snapped off upon impact with the floor.

Karai pulled the wick out. It was just a piece of white yarn.

As far as she could guess the only reason she didn’t get sliced immediately was because of her gloves. Sure enough when she examined her gloves they had small slices in them, just not deep enough to where they would break through to her skin.

While keeping her right hand cradled to her chest she collected all the candle pieces and razor blades and set them on the counter. Something stopped her from angrily throwing it away. Someone had sent her that candle with the intent to hurt her.

The issue was she couldn’t think of a single person she had ever pissed off that badly.

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

Karai stayed up until early morning just to make sure she wasn’t going to bleed to death in her sleep. She had decided when the buses were up and running again she would go to an Urgent Care Clinic to get her hand looked at by a real doctor.

When she woke up she felt really awful. Her whole right arm was killing her with her hand feeling it the most. She only had over the counter painkillers and she would be lying if she hadn’t considered knocking on her neighbors door asking if she could buy any alcohol off them.

She hadn’t, but it was tempting.

Just as she was getting out of bed her phone rang. It was her mom. She had to answer it. If she didn’t answer the phone her mom would come over to her apartment and Karai really needed to get her hand looked at.

“Hey, mom,” Karai sighed.

“We need to go over what you’re wearing for Christmas dinner tomorrow,” her mother said.

It was a tone Karai was familiar with. Dress rehearsal for pageants were the same way. A day of trying things on and being berated for her body shape ruining all the pretty dresses. Karai had half the mind to show up wearing body armor or a Halloween costume.

“I’m not going,” Karai said, holding her cellphone between her right shoulder and cheek.

Karai could hear the wires in her mom’s head short circuiting. “Why? What reason do you have?” she demanded.

Because I’m just there to be your punching bag.

“Because I hurt my hand,” Karai snapped. “And I’m an adult tired of suffering through Christmas with this family.”

“Suffering? I gave you everything!”

“You gave me an eating disorder,” Karai corrected. “And now you are annoying the hell out of me because Miwa had the guts to tell you to get lost and I’m so close to doing the same. You never cared about me this much while she was still talking to you.”

“How dare you talk to me that way!” she screamed, stomping her feet.

Karai smiled. She couldn’t help herself, she had struck a nerve and it felt good knowing she was ruining her mom’s day. 

“Oh and your key to my place didn’t break,” she added spitefully. “I had my landlord change the locks.”

She had been waiting so long to tell her mom that. Maybe it would shut her up about asking Karai for another key to her place.

“Very mature Karai,” her mom huffed. “Very mature. Glad to see I raised such a fine young lady who goes behind her mother’s back.”

“I’m the one going behind your back?” Karai nearly started laughing. “You stole a key from me and made copies.”

“For safety!” she emphasized. “What if someone needed to get something for you while you were in a coma?”

Karai stopped dead in the doorway of her bathroom. “What?” she asked softly.

Why would her mom mention comas all the sudden- She couldn’t know about Leo yet could she?

“It happens,” her mom said.

Karai shook her head. She was being paranoid. This was just her mom trying to scare her and it was not working because, well, Karai was an adult now. No longer an easy to manipulate little kid.

“I’m hanging up,” Karai said.

“Not until you promise me you’re going to this dinner,” her mom said firmly, like she held any power over when Karai ended this phone call.

Expect this time she did. Karai couldn't afford the possibility of her mom coming over and delaying her on her way to the hospital. Or worse, accompanying her there.

“Fine, I’ll go, if you let me off the phone now. I have a conference call,” Karai lied, getting out more gauze and tylenol from under the bathroom sink.

Her mom made a satisfied noise. “Good, and maybe work on your attitude towards me?”

Karai rolled her eyes so hard she saw her own brain. “Fuck off,” she breathed.

This set her mom off. Several things were slammed around on the other end of the phone and Karai knew if they were having this conversation in person she would have been slapped by now.

“DON’T SPEAK TO ME THAT WAY I AM YOUR MOTHER!” she roared, stomping her feet.

Karai laughed the way she would be unable to if she was facing this monster in person. “Wow, you’re like a little crying baby,” she commented idly.

Her mom took several deep breaths and screamed in her throat a few times. “I suggest you refrain from saying anything else,” she warned. “The next time you fuck your life up maybe I won’t be there. And at the rate you're going Karai, can you guarantee you won’t need me ever again?”

As always in these fights, Karai loses.

“Do you have a single friend?” her mom sneered.

Karai’s face went red with frustration. “You say stuff like that to me and still wonder why I never want to be around you. You’re such a fucking bitch. You’re deranged.”

“Don’t use words you don’t understand Karai, remember, I actually graduated university,” she huffed. “Send me a picture of the outfit today. Do not push me on this Karai or there will be consequences.”

Her mom hung up and it took all of Karai’s self control to not scream. The worst part was her mom was right. She didn’t have friends. If she had friends she would have called one last night to take her to the emergency room.

Miwa was out of the state now. Maine was far away.

Shini was gone and with her all of Karai’s old friends from those days. Turned out they were more Shini’s friends than her friends.

And it just stung.

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

It was official.

Her right hand was fucked for the next six weeks. Not only did she almost get herself flagged for self harm by the doctor who only reluctantly bought her story of a booby trapped candle, she had finacially fucked herself.

As she got home with the feeling of dread and depression coiling around her like a snake Mikey sent her a text. Leo was on his way from the hospital to Mikey’s house. Leo wanted to make sure that Mikey told Karai he found her book and was enjoying it.

That small update was enough to pull her from the pit of despair. A glimmer of a nice family and a friend she was happy to see going home. It also meant Leo would be exhausted from the move and his family would be very busy today.

She sent Mikey back a text expressing her gratitude for being kept in the loop. Leo’s family didn’t have to do all this for her, but they did. She hoped she wasn’t being a burden.

As a one handed person Karai cleaned up her floor of blood and dragged herself to the laundry room downstairs to put her clothes in the wash. The blood stains were set but she was grasping to the hope that the washer was magical.

It was her softest nightshirt after all, it would be a shame to lose it to a little blood when she could lose it to Leo ripping it off of her.

She chastised herself for having such a horny thought. Leo was fresh out of the hospital and their next date was to meet his parents. There was no way that date would end with them sharing a bed or anything else. She needed to cool her jets.

Oh shit, Karai cursed, looking down at her heavily bandaged arm secured to her chest in a sling. I’m right handed.

Not only was typing going to be an issue, relieving herself of these sexy intrusive thoughts about Leo would too. Perhaps it was time to invest in a better vibrator and forget what her harmonica playing neighbors might hear through the walls.

When she got back in her apartment she called her sister. Tomorrow was Christmas Day, Miwa would be spending it with Hun’s family and spreading the good news about being pregnant. Part of Karai wished she could be there, but she didn’t want to intrude.

Karai could hardly wrap her head around being an aunt. 

“Will you be okay by yourself?” Miwa asked, after Karai had brought her up to date on yesterday’s events.

Karai rolled her eyes. “I can live with one hand,” she said, easily.

Her job was the most problematic part of this. She had a lot of time to think while in the Urgent Care Clinic getting her hand stitched up. If she was going to be without pay for a few weeks she might need her dad’s money. The time to get that money would be when she saw him tomorrow.

“Are you going to this dinner?” Miwa asked, full of motherly concern she shouldn’t be showing for another six months. “Even with your hand like this?”

“Of course I am,” Karai said, pinching the phone against her shoulder and cheek so she could use her left hand to sort through her mail. “I would never miss an opportunity to cut back at mom in a place where she can’t lose her temper.”

It was a lie, the truth would have Miwa sending her money and Karai didn’t want to go to her sister with her hand out.

“I don’t know why you borrow the stress,” Miwa sighed.

Karai smirked, opening the bubble wrap padded envelope from Hermit Herman’s Jewelers. As she spilled the contents gentle out onto her countertop she did a double take.

“That… fucker,” Karai hissed, holding up the plastic baggie that contained her locket.

The one she had lost somewhere in the snow.

“What is it?” Miwa asked, concerned.

She couldn’t believe he would be so stupid. It was the sweetest thing someone had ever done for her, yet it also made her boiling mad. She set the little plastic baggie down in a daze.

“I’m going to throw him through a window,” she breathed, pulling out a stool from under her counter and sitting down.

“Who are you going to throw out the window?” Miwa asked.

“Leo,” she groaned, picking the locket up again to squint at it. She was sure it was the same one. Oval shaped with a lotus embedded on it. “I lost that locket you gave me in the snow. He knew I was upset about it. He went out there in the snow searching for my damn locket when he has a compromised immune system- I’m going to kill him.”

Miwa laughed. “Calm down, Karai. You might scare the sweet guy away.”

“It might be for the best,” Karai groaned. “I’m going to get him killed. I’m the reason he’s in the damned hospital.”

“You’re not the reason he’s in the hospital,” Miwa chuckled. “God, you’re dramatic. He sees customers everyday, he more likely picked up a bug from one of the people who came to his shop. Or he got it from a family member. Or he got it from his nephew who’s in a school full of children with no concept of hygiene.”

Damn, Karai hated when her sister used logic and reason to calm her down.

“Well, he fixes my locket and I give him a used book,” Karai said, flipping the locket over with dejection.

“You gave him a gift that he needed at the time,” Miwa said. “And he did the same for you. Wear it when you meet his parents.”

That wasn’t a bad idea. Now that the chain was fixed she wouldn’t lose it either.

“I feel like an ass now,” Karai admitted. “I… I didn’t want it to be true but part of me wondered if Leo was the one to send me that razor blade candle.”

Miwa was quiet. “When you say he’s odd, do you mean…?”

“I don’t know. If it is him then the motive is a mystery. On one hand it’s a candle and I can’t think of anyone else in my life who makes and routinely gifts me candles. On the other Leo is literally in the hospital. This locket came from a Jeweler. This candle was outside my door.”

“I agree that’s not a common object to booby trap,” Miwa murmured. “It’s almost too coincidental that it would be a candle. Maybe someone wanted to make you think it was him?”

Karai pinched her brows together. That would make the most sense aside from someone putting the candle at the wrong door.

“Yeah, but who would want to hurt me and frame Leo?” she asked.

“Does your building have security cameras?” Miwa asked. “Maybe you can ask your landlord for the footage from last night. See who stopped outside your door.”

“Good idea,” Karai agreed.

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

Despite her sister giving her permission to put her own self worth above family obligations, Karai attended Christmas dinner.

Her father, Oroku Saki, had a flair for being an asshole so of course he rented out the most expensive restaurant that served both mutants and humans. This way one of the fancier places for mutants to go on Christmas Day would be sold out and filled with humans. The restaurant was on the top floor of a huge hotel owned by a celebrity most famously known for groping women.

Karai paid her cab fare and stepped out onto the sidewalk with a shiver. The cold weather was hell on her hand and the wind whipping down the sidewalk was unsettling. Of course she had to wear a thin dress and the worst shoes for icy sidewalks. She hurried to the doors of the lobby but stopped when she saw who was standing just outside the doors smoking.

“You!” Karai hissed, walking right up to Chris Bradford.

Chris backed up against the building. “Karai, look, about that night-”

“Can it, Chris,” Karai seethed, it all made sense now. “I knew you were a creep but that little stunt of yours was down right dangerous!”

“I- Karai, I’m not sure what you mean?” Chris said, playing dumb.

“God, no wonder my mother adores you,” Karai said. “You and her are just the same. You can both be horrible to me and then act like nothing ever happened. What did you think, Chris? That I was going to jump to the conclusion that Leo did it and run to your open arms?”

Karai was sure she had him now. He was likely invited here by her mom and now hoping that when Karai showed up she would be happy to see him. Little did Chris know Leo was in the hospital so there was no way he could have left her that candle.

“What are you talking about?” Chris asked, getting frustrated.

“You know how creepy that is?” Karai asked. “I mean, trying to force your way into my apartment was creepy and rapey but stalking Leo?”

Chris Bradford’s face went red. “Listen here you animal fucker, I have no idea what you’re talking about!” he yelled, getting back in her face.

People walking by turned their heads to look but nobody stopped to ask what was happening.

“The candle! The candle with the razor blades!” Karai yelled. “You’re lucky I’m not calling the police, Chris!”

Well, he was lucky her landlord was busy trying to get his sick brother-in-law from the hospital. Looking at the footage and possibly filing a police report would have to wait until after the New Year.

“Call the police and I’ll make sure that turtle goes down harder than I will,” Chris snarled, veins bulging on his forehead. “You don’t want to mess with me Karai. I was kind enough to let your disrespect towards me slide last time, but now you attack me without provocation?”

“Without provocation?” Karai asked in outrage. “Are you really going to stand here and deny it-”

He towered over her now, his finger in her face. Some people were gathered around but no one was ready to intervene. “Watch it, unless you want me to tell your mother about that mutant you’re so desperate to fuck.”

Karai felt the blood leave her face. The last thing she needed was for her mother to barge into Leo’s candle shop.

“Is there a problem here?” a soft and gentle voice asked.

Now standing next to Karai was a fuzzy white rabbit. His ears were tied together with a blue band at the back of his head. He stood a little shorter than Karai, yet stared up at Chris with no fear.

“I’m sorry, do you often approach humans and butt in their business?” Chris asked.

“Chris Bradford!” Karai scolded.

The implication was obvious. Mutants were below humans and should know to keep out of their business. Chris held old mentalities about humans being the superior species and had no qualms about announcing it.

“No need to apologize my friend,” the rabbit said easily. “I was just passing by and noticed a young lady in distress. Miss, is there someone I could call for you?”

The rabbit looked up at her with warmth and understanding. His deep brown eyes were shallow though. Words got trapped in her throat where two thoughts conflicted. One was immediate distrust, and the other was she wouldn’t mind a life line out of here.

“Are you fucking this rabbit too?” Chris asked.

Karai rolled her eyes. “Fuck off Chris. Get your life together you fucking monster. I’m going home.”

“Allow me to escort you to the bus stop,” the rabbit said, hovering his hand behind her back like he thought better of touching her.

Chris kicked the sidewalk before slamming into the lobby. Karai let the rabbit lead her to the bus stop even though she came by cab and would probably take one home.

“Did he do that to you?” the rabbit asked, pointing to her arm.

Okay, while Karai was grateful for the save she was now in this awkward situation. She had fully expected Chris to fess up and apologize. Hell, if he was caught on camera she would have enough to get a restraining order and maybe even some money to cover the lost work.

Instead he had doubled down and looked close to striking her. If it hadn’t been for this rabbit she might have a black eye or a busted lip to match her cut up hand.

“Yes, I believe so,” Karai said, not seeing any reason to not be polite. “He- it’s a long story.”

One I don’t want to tell a stranger.

“I have time,” the rabbit said earnestly, coming on a little strong. “And perhaps it would be a good idea for us to wait together for your bus?”

Karai laughed politely in the back of her throat. The same laugh she uses when attorneys think they can flirt with her during recess. She held no interest in this rabbit. She held no interest in those who pursued her aggressively.

“You’re very kind to offer but I don’t want to ruin your Christmas as well as mine,” Karai said.

She’d dip into a bar or restaurant and use her phone to call a cab service. She would be okay, she wasn’t a lost child.

The rabbit wasn’t getting the hint.

“Helping someone is the best way to spend Christmas,” the rabbit said. “There is a coffee shop near the bus stop one block from here, we should go.”

“What coffee shop is open on Christmas?” Karai asked, another alarm bell going off.

She forced herself to push it down, but potent memories swarmed her. Memories of a male student at her university pushing open the bathroom door behind her flooded back. Everything from the smell of the women’s bathroom to the way she could see their profiles staring each other down in the mirror above the sink. He followed her into the bathroom outside the Computer Lab near midnight. She had spun around at the sinks on her way to a stall and he froze mid stride. Silently they had measured each other up. Her face had been stone as every scenario went through her head before he backed down and ran out of the bathroom.

She carried mace after that, and she never doubted her gut when it told her there was something vile nearby.

“I didn’t say it was a great coffee shop,” the rabbit joked, flashing her a handsome grin.

Something was off.

They arrived at the coffee shop and it looked moderately active inside. Karai was at ease with a room full of witnesses. People and mutants who would see if things were going wrong. No one batted an eye towards them as they took the booth on the window side of the shop overlooking the snowy roads outside.

“I understand if it is difficult to speak about,” the rabbit said, after the waiter had asked what they wanted.

Karai got water. It was free and she didn’t want to owe the rabbit for anything else if he insisted on paying. He and the waiter tried to upsell her. It had only made her more firm in her resolve.

“About what?” Karai asked, too distracted with this gnawing feeling she couldn’t get rid of.

It could be residual from Chris, she reminded herself. Aftershock.

“Your hand,” he said, gesturing to her sling.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Karai said, picking up her glass and taking a sip. “Just a few stitches.”

The rabbit’s face darkened. “Domestic violence is no joke,” he said quietly.

“I know, but it’s not like that. I’m not even with Chris,” Karai reassured him. He seemed genuine when the topic got to that. It could be a sensitive topic for him.

It was hard to tell. He was cryptic like Leo. Extremely hard to get a read on. But Leo was cryptic in a fun way. In a way that made her question herself at every turn and round the corner more and more surprised with everything he did. Leo also wasn’t prying about her business.

“What happened?” the rabbit asked.

“I’d rather not say, no offense, but I just met you,” Karai said carefully.

The rabbit pulled back, sitting up a bit straighter. “None taken,” he said, sipping his tea. “It’s- it’s difficult for us males to talk about it. But my ex was very abusive. He broke my hand once. My penmanship is not the same.”

Karai nodded sympathetically. “I am glad he is an ex then.”

The rabbit hummed, his willingness to talk gone. After a minute of awkward silence Karai started to feel like shit. Maybe she did judge him wrong. Maybe he really was just a bystander who saw a situation similar to one he had been in and had to step in.

Not every friendly person is up to something.

“Fine, I met this guy,” Karai admitted. “He’s a turtle and he owns a candle shop.”

“Mr. Hamato’s Candle Emporium?” the rabbit said, looking up with a new interest

“You’ve been there?” Karai asked.

“No, but I have seen it,” the rabbit said.

“Well, I have started dating the turtle who runs it,” Karai said. “I think Chris found out and he decided to make a candle with razor blades embedded in the sides of it. I cut my hand open pretty badly picking it up.”

The rabbit cupped his hand over his mouth. “Oh dear.”

“Yes, and my job requires a lot of typing,” she added. “Something Chris is well aware of.”

“How awful,” the rabbit breathed.

“I am hoping to get the landlord to review the hallway footage for me. Maybe I can see who left it,” Karai said.

The rabbit pulled his hand away from his mouth but his face was pitying, like she was missing something and he wasn’t sure how to point it out. “How can you be sure it’s not this turtle you are seeing?” he asked, pinching his brows together.

“Well, for one he is quite sick and in the hospital,” Karai said. “For another, I just got a package today with my lost locket. He must have found it and sent it for repairs as a surprise. Why surprise me with my fixed locket and hurt me?”

“What hospital is he in?” the rabbit asked abruptly.

Karai blinked. “Why would it matter?” she asked.

The rabbit looked caught off guard, his ears twitching behind his head. “Just curious,” he said.

“What did you say your name was?” Karai asked after a few seconds.

“I didn’t,” the rabbit said, less friendly now. “Sorry if I went too far, I just, I’m a curious guy.”

“I’d say it’s curious how you knew it was my hand that was hurt when my whole arm is in a sling,” Karai challenged. 

The rabbit smirked. “Well you told me you cut your hand,” he said condescendingly.

“Only after you specifically asked how I hurt my hand,” Karai said.

She was a courtroom stenographer. Her ability to recall a conversation was ingrained in her job. She would not budge on this.

“Did I?” the rabbit asked. “Look, you’ve been through an awful lot and I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” he said sympathetically, yet still blaming her bad memory on their misunderstanding. “I’m going to leave, but please get on the next bus to your apartment. I wouldn’t want anything more to happen to you.”

This time when the rabbit stood he was taller. Karai’s height exactly. He had been slightly crouched before. Now his face was cold and stiff before he bowed his head and left.

Karai didn’t move until she couldn’t see him out the window.

Then, just as she had done all those years ago after facing a predator late at night and walking away unscathed she went to the bathroom.

She locked herself in a stall.

And didn’t come out until she could take a deep breath again.

Chapter Text

【The Mistletoe Candle】

~ December 25th, 2010 ~

Karai took a cab home. She didn’t want another creepy interaction with another stranger. She wanted to go home and lock her door and curl up on the couch. She didn’t even know how to handle what had just happened to her. She paced around her kitchen area mindless for a few moments until it struck her.

She needed to document everything while it was fresh.

If her gut feeling was right and that rabbit mutant wasn’t just some random passerby then she needed to start documenting everything. So she spent the next two hours in her fancy dress and uncomfortable shoes at her desk typing up as much of the conversation as she could remember. It was extremely painstaking to do with only her left hand.

Then she worked on the rabbit’s appearance. He had been pure white, shorter than her, dark brown eyes.

Never gave her a name.

He had talked about his ex boyfriend breaking his hand. Whether that was true or not, Karai put it down. She also wrote down everything she told this rabbit. She felt so stupid for it now but knowing what he knew was important.

The whole document was over two thousand words once refined. She copied it into her email and emailed herself so she would have proof she wrote it on this day. It wasn’t exactly hard evidence but it did help keep her story straight if she ever did need to take legal action.

This kind of thing can happen to court stenographers. It can happen to anyone in a courtroom. Sometimes someone on the stand fixates on a member of the jury, or the security guard.

One polite smile and they think they’re being sent a signal with deeper meaning. This rabbit might have been in the courtroom with her. He could have been a juror, or a witness on the stand. He could have been a client that she accidentally brushed up against and he read it all wrong.

Hopefully today she nipped it in the bud. Tore this weed out before it could spread. Maybe tonight was enough of a rejection that he wouldn’t try again, but that didn’t mean Karai felt good about sleeping alone in her apartment tonight. She locked her door but checked it about fifteen times before settling on the couch in her pajamas.

Maybe she would spend the next few days inside.

At close to ten thirty that night Karai got a picture from Leo of Picasso in a pile of torn up wrapping paper sleeping. He was surrounded by several new Lego sets, apparently he had the best Christmas ever.

“Hard work unwrapping all those gifts?” she sent back in a text.

It took a full five minutes for Leo to respond. “The way he does it, yes,” he texted back.

She didn’t know if his long response time was because he sucked at texting fast, or because he was exhausted. It was very late for someone who got home from the hospital yesterday.

“How are you feeling?” she texted.

“Okay. In bed,” he replied.

Karai nodded. Damn right he should be in bed, but if he was in bed he was probably tired.

“You don’t have to text me if you’re tired Leo. We can catch up another time,” she texted.

She probably wouldn’t get to bed until three in the morning. She was nervous and every time someone walked by her door her chest started to hurt.

“Call would be easier than text,” Leo sent back.

Hell, she’d kill to hear Leo’s voice right now. Or be in Leo’s bed. Fuck today. Fuck that creepy rabbit and fuck Chris Bradford and his weird Saw Movie candle with razor blades.

Then her phone rang.

“Hey,” Karai answered, quickly muting her TV.

“Hey, it was getting hard to find all those letters,” Leo said, sheepishly. “My eyes were getting blurry.”

“Maybe it’s a sign you should go to bed,” Karai said.

“I have done nothing but go to bed recently,” Leo sighed.

“Is that what life is like freshly out of the hospital?” Karai asked, amused by his annoyance.

She could imagine his family was absolutely doting on him and he hated every second of it.

“I am in a prison of pillows, blankets, and forced relaxation,” he said. “Come break me out?”

Karai laughed. “And have three angry turtles after me?” she asked. “I think not.”

“You don’t understand the torture I am going through,” Leo lamented. “They didn’t even let me do the dishes.”

“The horror,” Karai sympathized. “Let me guess, you were forced to sit back in a recliner with hot tea and a toasty blanket.”

“It was hell on earth,” Leo confirmed. “Mikey wouldn’t let me go into the garage to see the car he bought me. He said it was too cold for me. He did take a lot of pictures.”

Karai leaned back. “Nice, what kind of car did he get you?” she asked.

“A Prius. It’s nice, way nicer than it needs to be since I only really need a car for certain things outside of the city,” he said. “There’s a sun roof.”

“Well a car is more convenient in those instances,” Karai noted. She knew he went somewhere to blow glass and he went to various craft shows with sampler packs of candles. “What color?”

“Teal,” he said. “I can send you a picture.”

“Please do,” Karai said.

But not right now I want to stay on the phone.

Leo had no clue how much of a lifesaver he was being right now. This phone call was exactly what she needed to keep her mind away from today.

“I could take you on a joy ride too, when I’m better,” Leo said, casually.

“You know how to excite a girl,” Karai teased, fiddling with the blankets over her legs. “A joy ride in a prius.”

“There are heated seats,” Leo said.

This was flirting, weird dorky sweet flirting and she was eating it up.

“Who taught you this dirty car talk?” Karai asked.

“The inside of the car is actually very clean,” Leo said, seriously.

Karai laughed.

“How was your Christmas?” Leo asked.

Karai shrugged, fiddled with her bandages a little. “I was supposed to go to dinner with my family, but something came up,” she said, deciding not to elaborate.

“Oh, is everything okay?” Leo asked.

“Yeah, Chris was there,” she said, realizing she could tell him that part. “That guy you told off for me around Thanksgiving. I confronted him, we had an argument on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. After that I didn’t feel like going in.”

For some reason she just felt like the thing with the rabbit was too weird to mention. She didn’t want to be told how she should have handled it or that what she did tell that total stranger was dumb of her. It was the reason she didn’t call Miwa immediately afterwards.

“So what did you do for dinner?” Leo asked, fully concerned.

“I didn’t eat dinner,” Karai said. “Been feeling queasy.”

The queasiness was from not eating all day. She knew no matter what she did her mom would make a comment about her weight at dinner and how much was on her plate. With that on her mind she just kept putting her meals off.

“You should eat something,” Leo said.

“It’s fine, I’m going to bed soon anyways,” Karai said.

“Karai,” Leo said in a stern no nonsense voice.

“I’ll eat some toast,” Karai relented.

Leo made a noise like he didn’t trust her to do that. He was right, she probably wouldn’t. It was just hard after today. She wanted to watch TV and go to bed. She didn’t want to go to her kitchen and make toast with one hand.

“Speaking of food,” she said, wanting to change the topic. “Am I still able to come over on New Years to meet your parents?”

“Yes, it should just be us,” Leo said. “Mikey and Leatherhead are going out for a more personal dinner so they’ll be out of the house.”

“So I was thinking I could bring dessert,” Karai said.

“You don’t need to bring anything,” Leo assured her.

“Let me bring something to make a good impression,” Karai said. “Meeting the parents is stressful enough. I’ve only done it once, and I was a teenager so the pressure was off.”

“You can’t do any worse than Casey did,” Leo offered as reassurance. “He brought mouse cookies for dessert.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Karai asked, pinching her eyebrows together.

“They’re for cats,” Leo said. “They had bits of dried lab grown mouse meat in them.”

Karai snorted and cringed. “How’d he fuck that up?”

“They were shaped like mice!” Leo exclaimed. “Apparently humans eat their body shape in cookie form all the time, so he thought they were like that.”

It took a second for Karai to realize what Leo was referring to. “Well when you talk about Gingerbread Men like that…,” she said.

“And Leatherhead met our parents; he tripped, fell, and broke the table with all the food on it. They had to order take out,” Leo said.

“So what you’re saying is I’m doomed to make a fool of myself?” Karai asked.

Maybe she would accidentally throw the dessert on his mom.

“No, but maybe,” Leo said.

Karai sighed.

“I guess you could bring cheesecake?” Leo suggested. “My parents love cheesecake.”

Karai perked up. She knew an amazing bakery where she could get a cheesecake. “Okay, I’ll get cheesecake, for rodent mutants. I’ll make sure it’s not for cats.”

“Okay. Maybe we can make you some gingerbread humans?” Leo asked.

“No, that’s okay,” Karai said quickly.

“Might make you feel at home,” Leo said.

Karai blew air out her mouth. “If I was at home my mom wouldn’t let me eat them,” she said darkly.

“Well your mom won’t be here so you can have as many as you like,” Leo said.

Karai laughed, the mental image of her getting to eat gingerbread cookies while her mom was trapped in some glass box screaming about it made her smile. “Thanks for calling me,” she said, feeling so much lighter. “I was having a crappy night.”

“Because of the confrontation with Chris?” Leo guessed.

“Yes, mostly,” Karai said.

Leo paused. “You’ll eat some toast right?” he asked quietly.

“Yes, as soon as I get off the phone with you, which might need to be soon. It’s getting late,” she said.

Nearly eleven. They should both head to bed.

“Yes, it is,” Leo agreed. “I’ll call you tomorrow if that's alright?” he asked.

Please do.

“I would love that,” Karai breathed.

“Okay,” Leo said, sounding happy. “Merry Christmas, Karai. And Goodnight.”

“Merry Christmas and goodnight to you too, Leo,” Karai said, ending the call shortly after him.

Then she slumped back on her couch. She craned her neck to look at the toaster but felt that heavy dread pooling over her again.

There would be no toast.

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

About forty five minutes after her call with Leo there was an alarmingly loud knock on her door that made her heart jump out of her mouth. She grabbed her phone off the coffee table and clutched it to her chest.

She quickly muted her TV without considering this would alert the person outside her door that she was active in her apartment. What a stupid, sleep deprived, low blood sugar move.

The knock happened again and she bit her lip. There was no doubt in her mind that this was Chris at her door, mad that he never got his final word in before that rabbit helped her escape. She was going to invest in pepper spray after this.

Then her phone vibrated. She ignored it, her heart was pounding and she only got a small amount of relief once footsteps sounded like they were leaving her door. She quickly got up and tip toed over to her door, grabbing a butcher’s knife as she went through her kitchen. Looking out the peephole on her door she saw a barren hallway.

Well, now she felt foolish. She put the knife back and went to look at her phone to see who had texted her during that debacle.

It was Leo.

“I ordered you some Chicken Noodle Dumpling Soup from the Noodle Shop, I know the owner Mr. Ping, he said sick humans do well with that soup,” Leo had texted.

Karai blinked.

“It says it is delivered,” he sent another text as she was still processing his first one.

Now confused, she walked back to her door still holding her phone and opened it. On the ground right outside in the hall was a brown takeout bag with an outline of a goose in a chef’s hat. It was stapled shut with the receipt on the outside.

I’m such a paranoid freak, Karai thought while pocketing her phone and picking up the bag.

Leo must have ordered her a half gallon of soup.

Her phone vibrated.

“I hope you are still awake or this will be awkward,” Leo texted her.

Karai smiled and decided to call him. It was going to be a pain to text him back when she was so hungry and just opening the bag filled her apartment with the savory scent of soup.

Leo picked up immediately. “Did you get the soup?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, a little breathless as she got a bowl down from her cupboards. “You didn’t have to do that Leo. How much did this cost? Who delivers food on Christmas Day?”

“I’m not telling you how much it costs, I know the owner his son is a panda I went to school with-”

“It costs a hundred and ten dollars?!” Karai hissed, examining the receipt.

It looked like Leo had tipped the store and delivery driver twenty dollars each. A bride to get them to even deliver on a holiday.

“Well soup would go well with toast,” Leo reasoned.

“I didn’t have my toast yet,” Karai admitted.

“I had a feeling,” Leo said. “You aren’t a snake Karai, you must eat more than every few days.”

Karai huffed. “I think that’s a stereotype,” she said, awkwardly unpacking her soup.

This one hand thing was getting super annoying.

“Are you alright, you sound a bit shaky,” Leo said.

“I’m okay,” Karai said, popping the lid off the Styrofoam cup. “Oh wow this smells so good. You didn’t have to do this for me.”

“I would do more if I wasn’t under house arrest,” Leo said.

“I have to put the phone down to dish this out into a bowl,” Karai said. “One second.”

When she was done serving herself and had the remainder of the soup sealed up again, Leo was still on the line waiting.

“Thank you for doing this,” Karai said, putting the phone on speaker so she could eat.

No one had ever surprised her with a food delivery when she was feeling shitty. Not even her mom would do something like that.

“You thought it was Chris knocking on your door didn’t you?” Leo asked.

Karai winced. “Yes, but that’s on me for being paranoid.”

“I will make sure to warn you of any surprise romantic gestures,” Leo said quickly. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“Do not apologize for sending me food,” Karai said, blowing on her first spoonful. “It’s really good by the way.”

“Do you worry about Chris showing up to your apartment again?” Leo asked.

Karai didn’t know how to explain herself. She didn’t want to burden Leo with the thing about the candle, or the rabbit, or the way Chris reacted to her confrontation.

“One of my exes harassed me a lot after we broke up,” Leo said. “I know that fear of answering the door.”

“Yes, I don’t know if Chris would but…” Karai trailed off. “I guess it’s stupid.”

“It’s not stupid. And I am sorry to scare you,” Leo said again.

Karai shook her head. “It’s okay, really it’s okay. And thank you again, Leo.”

Leo was quiet for a moment. She regretted admitting the sudden knock on her door scared her, but some of Leo’s reaction was rooted in his own past. And she couldn’t help that.

“Would it help if I stayed on the phone with you?” Leo asked.

“Couldn’t hurt,” Karai said. “It’s going to be hard to eat and talk unless you want to listen to me chew with my mouth open.”

“Oh, I could tell you about the Christmas drama this year,” Leo suggested.

“Christmas drama?” Karai asked.

“It happens every year,” Leo said. “And this year Picasso really wanted a pet tarantula,” he went on. “This is a problem because while Raph loves Picasso and believes a pet is important he is terrified of spiders.”

Karai nodded along, eating her soup and listening to all the times Raph had been cornered in places by spiders.

It was a good Christmas night.

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

When Karai got the address to Mikey’s house, she did a double take.

It was in Soho, an actual unsuspecting brownstone apartment building that Karai managed to get to with a bus route and a short walk. What she wasn’t expecting was for Leo’s dad to be waiting at the bus stop for her when she stepped off the bus.

Despite Karai having never met Mr. Hamato before, she had seen a photo or three in Leo’s apartment. And obviously the rat mutant that looked very much like Leo’s dad was looking at her with the same sparkle of recognition.

They stepped out of the way so others could get on and off the bus. Karai awkwardly extended her left hand. The cheesecake on a bag hanging from her wrist like a wrecking ball.

“Mr. Hamato?” Karai asked.

The rat mutant quickly shifted his cane to his other hand so he could shake hers, avoiding the swinging cheesecake bag.

“You can call me Yoshi,” Yoshi said with a smile. “It is nice to meet you Karai. Do you need help with that?” he asked, gesturing to the bag.

“Yes, actually,” Karai admitted.

She was sort of a one handed mess. Her scarf was falling off, her hair got wind swept the second she stepped out of her own apartment building. In an ideal world she would have been alone at the bus stop to put herself together before walking to Mikey’s place.

Not that she minded the gesture of Yoshi walking her from the bus stop.

Yoshi took the bag and allowed her the moment to fix her outfit before walking. Mikey’s brownstone apartment was literally just up the block.

“Was Leo afraid I’d get lost?” Karai asked.

“We were afraid if one of us didn’t offer to meet you at the bus stop Leonardo would shimmy down the side of the building,” Yoshi chuckled in a fond way.

“He should be resting,” Karai said.

“Making Leonardo rest is like giving a cat a bath,” Yoshi said.

Karai nodded. “He calls me daily to tell me about the injustices of resting,” she said. “Not that I mind in the slightest.”

“Ah, commiseration then? For your arm must have you resting too?” Yoshi asked.

They paused at the entrance to the brownstone. It was about three stories with some sort of greenhouse on the roof. Yoshi typed in the pass code and the door buzzed open.

“Leo actually doesn’t know I hurt my hand,” Karai admitted, taking off her scarf as she entered the warm lobby.

If it could be called a lobby.

It looked more like an arcade. In fact Karai was doing a double take. There were twenty of those vintage restored arcade games lining the back wall. There was an air hockey table, a ping pong table-

A trampoline sunk into the ground?!

Of course Yoshi didn’t bat an eye at this, he just led her to the elevator. He did read her perplexed expression.

“My youngest, Michelangelo, has an interesting taste in decor,” he mused. “This building was once home to three apartments but Michelangelo bought the whole building and has essentially made his dream home. I am sure Leonardo will jump at the opportunity to give you a tour if you are up to it.”

The last words were wrapped around her bandaged arm.

“It’s just a bad cut,” Karai said, downplaying it. “I just was clumsy.”

Yoshi didn’t have time to ask for more details, but he did seem concerned. The elevator stopped on the second floor and opened into a small room that at one point would have had another locked door leading to the first floor apartment. Instead that door was completely removed, opening up into a surprisingly traditional looking home.

The coat rack and shoe shelf was just outside the elevator. Karai took another awkward moment to take off her boots with one hand.

“Here,” Leo said, coming up behind her. “Let me help with your coat.”

Karai turned around to see a much better looking Leo. His eyes were brighter. He seemed a more healthy green. His voice sounded better and his face had a pleasant smile for half a second before he noticed her sling.

“Please do not ask me how I managed to get my coat on without help in the first place,” she joked.

Okay, so she really didn’t know what to do with her injury. She needed a sling on, but she also needed a coat on. Her hand wasn’t at risk of exploding open and gushing blood everywhere so she had opted to carefully thread her arm through her coat sleeve then put her sling on over her felt black peacoat.

Also Leo didn’t know what to do with her injury he just looked startled.

“What happened?” he asked, taking the sling she was handing him.

Karai shrugged and gently pulled her coat off. “Oh, just something stupid,” she said.

“When did it happen?” Leo asked, taking her coat and hanging it up while she put her sling back on.

“It happened after I visited you in the hospital, I was tired and not thinking critically,” she said. “It’s fine, I’m fine.”

Leo looked unsure.

“I got you a gift,” Karai said, hoping to change the subject. “It’s in the bag with the cheesecake.”

“Uh, I think my father put it in the fridge immediately…,” Leo said.

“No, I saved the present, don’t worry!” a feminine voice called.

Leo put his arm around Karai’s shoulder. “Come inside and sit down,” he said, worrying himself over her arm.

“It’s a cut, Leo,” Karai assured him. “I am not going to fall over.”

Leo gave her a weary look, helping her into the apartment anyways.

As she walked in there was a kitchen to her right and a dining area to her left. Past that on the left was a living room and in the right back corner were two walled off rooms, likely bedrooms.

Leo was not so subtly hovering around, but Karai had the good graces to just let it slide. In a few minutes he would get it through his head that she was fine. Instead she turned her attention to the mouse mutant in the kitchen who had just finished putting a dish in the oven.

“Karai,” she said, wiping her hands on her apron before shaking her hand. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Oh?” Karai asked, looking back at a bashful Leo who seemed fascinated with the ceiling. “Hope it’s all good things.”

Mrs. Hamato scrunched her nose up. “I won’t say either way.”

“He told you about the window, didn't he?” Karai asked dryly.

“He did,” Mrs. Hamato chuckled, letting go of Karai’s hand. “Now dinner is a little late. I trusted Yoshi to make sure we had fresh milk to the casserole and it was only afterwards that I read the expiration date-,”

“It tasted fine to me,” Yoshi said, looking as put on the spot as Leo.

Apparently some things don’t need to be passed down through blood.

“I was not going to have a repeat of three years ago!” Mrs. Hamato scolded.

“Oh! I had a lapse in judgment three years ago and you’ll be bringing it up on my deathbed,” Yoshi said. “But fine, remake the casserole, you didn’t have to throw the other one out.”

“You would have eaten it anyways, Yoshi,” Mrs. Hamato said, her hands on her hips. Her tail twitching behind her.

Yoshi opened and closed his mouth. “And that would have been my decision,” he said.

Leo was giving Karai an apologetic look as she edged near him.

“Not when we share the same bed!” Mrs. Hamato said.

“Karai, would you like a tour?” Leo asked, begging her to say yes.

Karai nodded. “Lead the way,” she said. Leaving his parents to their argument.

~🕯️-o-🕯️-o-🕯️~

“What happened three years ago?” Karai asked, now back on the ground floor with Leo.

“Food poisoning,” Leo said. “I was spared as turtles have very strong stomach acid. My parents and my boyfriend at the time were not.”

“Yikes,” Karai said, sympathetically. “But you didn’t have to herd me out of there. If you think that fight stands up to anything my own parents did…,” she shook her head.

“It is not the fight I worry about,” Leo said. “It is how they make up.”

Karai was more curious than she was willing to admit.

“So this is the game room,” Leo said, as if every house had a game room.

“I can see that,” Karai said. “Uh, Mikey likes games doesn’t he?”

“This is more of a result of getting to move out when you’re just eighteen and already being worth over a million dollars,” Leo said. “Did you go to arcades as a kid?”

Karai shook her head. “I wasn’t into that type of thing. What about you?”

Leo shook his head. “I never had the time,” he said, rubbing the back of his head.

“Oh, do I sense hesitation?” Karai asked.

“You’ll tease me for it,” Leo said.

Well that just made her want to know more. “I promise I won’t,” she said, stepping closer. Her sock clad toes nudged his.

Leo shrugged and pointed over to an outer space themed pinball machine. “I am very… experienced with pinball,” he said with a wince.

“Wait really?” Karai asked.

That was the embarrassing game Leo was worried about? Meanwhile Karai remembered herself being so enraptured by the mobile game Butterfly Breeder in college that she’d stay up until three in the morning feeding her virtual caterpillars.

“Yes, I have the high score on all three of these pinball machines down here,” he said, walking her over to the pinball machines.

The name “LEO” was number one on all three.

“Impressive, I’m not surprised,” Karai said.

“Oh?” Leo asked, tilting his head.

“Don’t ask me to explain, but pinball sounds like something you would excel at,” she said.

There was a lot of motor control and concentration involved. Seemed like Leo’s strongest points.

This embarrassed Leo immediately. “Uh, let’s go to the basement then we’ll do the roof,” he said quickly, heading back to the elevator.

“What’s in the basement?” Karai asked, the elevator doors closing once more.

“The pool,” Leo said. “And the laundry room. Which isn’t as exciting as the pool but gets an honorable mention for being more useful.”

She didn’t want to point it out, but the house Malcolm Klunk posted on Instagram was not this house. It made sense that the celebrity would fabricate how he lives on social media. He wasn’t living in a fancy mansion. There were no extravagant walk-in closets and flowing backyard gardens. Yes this house was still big and worth millions, but it wasn’t flaunting wealth.

It was weirdly homey.

“Wow,” Karai said, “That is a huge pool.”

The kind of pool she’d expect to see at a gym. The pool was covered, and there was a metal waist high railing along the outside in a ten foot perimeter. Some lounging chairs were inside.

“You know how to swim?” Leo asked, opening the gate.

There was a combination lock on it, obviously a form of child proofing.

“Yes, I had to take a class in school,” she said, stepping inside the gate with him. “I won’t be winning any contests though.”

“I didn’t learn to swim until I was in my thirties. I enjoy it now,” he clarified. “Good exercise especially in the winter time.”

“You can swim with your shell deformity?” Karai asked.

“Yes, but it was part of the reason I avoided swimming for so long,” Leo said, sitting on one of the lounge chairs and gesturing for her to sit next to him. “Go through a year of medicated baths and it sours the idea of swimming.”

Those didn’t sound pleasant. “Understandable. When are you going back home?”

“Hopefully tomorrow,” he sighed. “When will you be able to go back to work?” his eyes drifting to her sling.

“I don’t know,” she said, feeling weirdly guilty about not telling him about the candle. She didn’t want him to feel bad about something Chris did. “I have to see what happens.”

I’ll have to see if I can get some time off.

Oh and that would be hard. Judges take time away during the holidays and push a lot of trials into January. It makes the first few months of the year very busy.

“Do you have anyone to help you out?” Leo asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Karai said, adjusting her sling. “The floors might not get vacuumed for a while and the tub might be scummy for a month but do you see this eyeliner Leo?” she asked, leaning closer to him.

The lighting down here was dim and atmospheric.

Leo gently tilted her face. “What about it?” he asked.

“Perfect, right?” she asked.

“It’s always perfect,” Leo said smoothly.

Karai smiled. “It’s always perfect because I am not taken down by a simple cut, if I can do that with my left hand then I am unstoppable,” she said, pulling away before poking him in the chest. “You on the other hand need to understand something.”

“What’s that?” Leo asked.

“Never put your health after me,” she warned. “You were out in the cold looking for this weren’t you?” she asked, touching her locket.

“No,” Leo insisted. “I was sweeping and found it in my shop!”

Karai paused. “You… found it in your shop?” she asked.

“Yes, near the sitting area,” Leo said with a smile. “Where you were sitting.”

“Oh…” Karai said.

“It is actually a myth that being in the cold causes you to catch a cold,” Leo supplied. “It actually just lowers your immune system a little bit.”

“I get it,” Karai said, shoving him gently. “So you’re perfect? And you didn’t do something stupid by going out in the cold to look for my necklace, because you’re perfect.”

Leo shook his head. “If I was perfect all my wicks would be centered exactly the first time and all of my wax pours would set up right without testing them.”

“And how often are those things not perfect?” Karai asked.

“Never,” Leo said in an all business tone. “I always triple check my work. Come,” he said, standing up.

Karai somewhat suspected they had sat down so he could rest for a moment.

“Let's continue the tour-,” he began, leading her back to the gate by her hand.

Something dangling from the ceiling caught Karai’s attention. “What’s that?” she interrupted, looking up. “Is that a candle?”

It looked like a white candle with bits of green leaves and red in it.

Leo followed her eyes and chuckled. “Uh, yes,” he said awkwardly. “Family tradition. Instead of hanging mistletoe we hang Mistletoe Candles…”

“I’m speechless,” Karai deadpanned. “This is why we came in here isn’t it?”

“No, I honestly forgot about it!” Leo said quickly. “It’s silly, we don’t have to do it. These were supposed to be all taken down anyway. I missed this one.”

He started to reach up for it but Karai grabbed his arm.

“You better be reaching to kiss me, not take that down,” she warned.

Leo let go of the candle and smiled. He held her face and kissed her deeply on the lips, enough to make her rise up on her tippy toes.

“Well now I am hoping there’s more Mistletoe Candles you’ve missed,” she said as they broke apart.

“We could… check to see if there's any in the greenhouse?” Leo suggested.