First Fic- First self-pub story
Author: Prophetella - but not owner!
Title: Tranqie Memories
Rating: Pg-13(? pls tell me if I'm wrong too tired to check ratings right now.)
Pairing: Leo/??? or Random Turtlecest including Leo. Pick your pair!
Summary:: Some turtle manages to have a real bad afternoon out with Leo between Episodes 19 and 21 in the 2K3 TMNT universe. (Tales of Leo and The Monster Hunter before Return to New York.)
Fic flavor:: Angsty, Hurt/ barely comfort, T-Cesty, teasing, tad bit of humor.
Word count:: 4,555 (Be grateful. I think I will stay within 1,000 words of this from now on when releasing fiction chunks. I tend to think in terms of Novelette size!)
If you spot anything of issue please explain the problem in terms that have nothing to do with grammatical properties. I KNOW I pretty much randomly threw in paragraph breaks. Cuz, I's never learned grammar parts in skool- we's read the Bible. yeppers. Wut's an adverb?/hillbilly voice
Actually I've been firmly reassured that I do not need a Beta (despite this being the first time I have tired Turtle anything stories) so if people would like to have an easy beta gig I would love to shower stories on someone willing to take the title.
Memory wants nothing to do with the current moment. So, it took a bit of pushing to extract what and why and happenings. What- a dart. There had been a dart... and Darkness. Smashing darkness that led to... to what? A mental argument ensued between the concepts of what and why do you even care. It was important though, he knew that much. Mental gears start moving and the idea of moving leads to... a van or truck. Something he had woken in before... before here. The idea of figuring out Here warred with what exactly happened Then.
A fight! Well, of course there was a fight, he felt bad enough that he rather thought he had lost the fight. Had he lost the fight? Yes. No? It was dark. Dark usually meant something, unless all it meant was that his eyes weren't open. So... Open the eyes. The eyes flutter and there is definitely light out. If he can just keep his eyes open. They really don't like the light or being open. But, this is now An Important Thing To Do so the eyes open, triggering a groan. The groan actually seems to cause more pain than the light does. So? Don't Groan! But, the eyes are open so he can examine the idea of where. On his side… wait, that was how he was laying. Eyes dart to left and right or the actual specifics of up and down. Down- cement, road specifically. Up- trees-wait, trees?
Memory stretches out to before the dart. Memories of leaving the city, being at Casey’s Grandmother’s house, Leo’s coma, Leo waking up. A lot of Leo actually. They looked like the same kind of trees near there. So, he hadn’t been moved in the truck, or van, very far before fighting to escape. Had he escaped? More importantly, why had he needed to escape? Uhm, he had been hit by a tranquilizer dart and was being driven somewhere. Okay, that is an obvious why he needed to escape. He’s not thinking hard enough. The tranquilizer must still be affecting him. Why doesn’t the tranquilizer wear off so he can think better? It always did with the Foot darts.
His body feels like it is wrapped in cotton and far away. Without the tranquilizer, he would have known he was on a road in the woods even before he had to open his eyes. He can hear the woods around him and feel the layer of paint under his fingers on one hand and the road scratching the pads of the other hand. Annnd his eyes are closed again. Great. Not much progress at all. Shouldn’t the tranquilizer wear off so he can think better? No, and you can blame a hat with an emblem for that.
What?!? Mentally dizzy at his own thoughts, some connection made that is soaked in mind-numbing dart juices. Dart juices, which would almost be funny if he had felt himself laugh right when he thought it. The laugh trickles out several seconds late in an anemic huff. Emblem. He had been darted by someone with an emblem… a state park emblem. Grit the teeth to keep from groaning. Groaning is not fun since it hurts but the connection flairs to life and snaps into crystal clarity. State Park personnel would be armed with animal tranquilizer-filled darts. Wild animals have to stay unconscious to prevent them from harm and causing harm. That means they have to have a reversal agent administered before the tranquilizer can cause permanent harm. He's seen it often enough when watching Animal Planet to be sure why he wasn't better already. It's because this tranquilizer doesn’t just wear off! Still, he’s awake. No, not really awake but aware. He is aware because the dosage of tranquilizer is meant for an animal not a mutant turtle. He grimaces at the knowledge and can feel his lips move over his teeth with an unusual sensitivity.
Lips. Now he can remember lips. Leo’s lips. Actually, Leo’s lips on his lips. Tongues lightly touching. Hmmm, good memories. Especially good as Leo’s lips hadn’t stayed on his lips or just on his lips. Did it matter how he phrased it in his own mind? Not really, as it wasn’t getting him off of the freaking road! Yet he can now feel how dry his tongue is so he wets his lips to help him swallow. He can control his mouth, too. Finally becomes aware of a small piece of wood or bark under the corner of his mouth on the road. Still can’t turn his head to actually avoid the irritant. But, maybe, it seems like an improvement? Yes, anything is an improvement. He remembers turning his head as Leo kissed down his face, down his neck, tongue tickling his collarbone in between teasing kisses. His breath sighs out as he grins at the memory. His head turns in an unconscious mimicry of the moment.
He’s off the irritating piece of discomfort. The memories seem to rise up and meet his flesh returning some measure of control as the phantom touch from the memory traces him. Useful that, and better yet what specific memories that seem to make it work best. Purposefully, he concentrates on a moment when they both were breathing harder. Getting sweaty while lying upon pine needles without snow since the huge evergreen was so thickly grown and yet had the odd empty area where they fit under the drooping lowest limbs. Leo had pushed back his mask and asked him to open his eyes. “I want to see what is in your eyes,” he’d said. But for now, his eyes stay traitorously closed.
A different moment in the tunnels back in New York comes to mind. Masks off again but he was sweating in the heat of the summer. Leo notices him blinking the sweat away and kisses his eyes gently closed. Then Leo uses his tongue to lick the sweat off his eyelids making him buck and gasp under him. A gentle kiss to the eye ridges follows it, driving him beyond wild and Leo’s grin is fierce and teasing above him when he blinked his eyes open. But, for now, all there is in front of him are the road and the trees with lumps of snow glistening. The disappointment tastes bitter on the back of his tongue and burns in his belly. Maybe that’s the tranquilizer settling in further into his body. He wobbles his head a bit in denial. How long? How long had it been since he got hit with the dart? Are the memories helping or is the tranquilizer just fading away? Could his mutant system somehow give him an edge normal animal’s lack?
Too many questions, and worse, useless questions. How long can he wonder about useless questions that get him no closer to help and an antidote before the tranquilizer starts to cause him harm? Oh, he doesn’t want to think about that one hard enough to answer it. His eyes flick around looking for something to concentrate on and his hand is actually in view. The fingers are curled so the callous on his first finger is close enough to see details.
Leo had kissed that finger one night. He had grabbed his hand right before they had reentered the Lair and kissed the callous, licking lightly, teasing, and grinning. Knowing he couldn’t make a noise or their brothers might have investigated and caught them right out. He had pulled his hand away slowly, curled his fingers tightly to get control of his features before entering the doorway and Leo had passed him with a small chuckle for his ears only. Here and now, his hand twitched once or twice but then the fingers moved smoother, controllable. It’s easier to let his motion be an unconscious effort but he can do conscious with his finger. Sometimes all you need is just one finger. The grin twitches up and brushes a bit of his lip across the scratchy cement below him. The macadam is laid unevenly or the winter had left a crack right under his head. Shellcell. Which side of his belt is the shellcell attached to right now? Left, up-the side his hand can reach.
However, his hand may move but the arm wants nothing to do with moving just yet. Does that mean he’s getting worse or he just hasn’t brought up the right sense memory to beat back the tranquilizer? No matter, it doesn’t matter; it doesn’t matter because this morning is a warm memory of gentle touches and lingering hands. Finding that evergreen without the snow under it had been a lucky thing. Too damn bad that things had gotten interrupted by the pair of Skinner State Park employees. They had been working up to a third time when they had heard the crackle of the walkie-talkies. The calm voices discussing the excitement of capturing poachers only a few months ago. The two turtles had frozen ninja quiet stifling groans of disappointment until the words “poacher’s hut” had been brought up. Then identical expressions of anticipation had locked onto each other from inches away as one human told the other not to sneak any naps on the water bed. Boom, both turtles were at the edge of the tree covertly peeking out but had still missed which of the two men were going to be checking the poachers’ line for new traps and which had the chance to check the state of the water bed-equipped hut. There are only two so they can split up and track the men. As the men made plans to meet up later, Leo kept his eyes locked on them but his lips began dancing small kisses from wrist to elbow and then a quick lick up to the shoulder. The delightful shudder from that moment came back as his arm tucked in tight to his chest all over again. God, Leo could be evil sometimes!
One’s boyfriend shouldn’t be quite so delightfully evil quite so very often. The thought brings a familiar tightness under his lower plastron. Oh, shell no! Not the time, place or even the skills to deal with it right now. The groan leaks out but doesn’t bring up fireworks along his skull. Relief washes through his body like a silken weight and deals with some of the unwanted tightness. He takes a moment to just breathe, ignoring the need to rush or fight his drugged body. Was the tranquilizer a narcotic or just a sedative? There had been so much discussion of what might help Leo heal in the coma or rather before they were sure it was a coma. His mind felt fuzzy trying to remember specific words and phrases of the discussions. The unpleasant memory of the cold chill gripping his heart those hours loosens the rest of the tightness in his loins. The chill actually seemed to wash out to settle in his toes and fingers. He snorts mirthlessly. The day wasn’t even warm enough to make the snow mushy and he’s inventing reasons why he would be cold on an open road unable to move to generate any heat? Stupid turtle, time to get help now!
His arm moves towards his belt even before he can actually remember why he is reaching for it. It’s an odd feeling as he discovers the outer edge is responsive despite the cold but the muscles on the inside of his arm and elbow feel wooden and weighted. Still his fingers brush against the Shellcell and he shifts his grip to press the alert button. Keeps pressing in the “turtle down” call signal. Knows he hasn’t gotten the spacing right on the last of the alert signal but it is a long one to ensure all of them know what is entered by the time anyone completes that many bips. Even Splinter could follow the new homing signal its entry activated back to him now.
Hopefully, someone would manage that soon. Even his breath is coming out so cold or so slowly that he no longer has puffs of condensation in front of his face. The fingers of his hand were shivering, the vibration moving up his arm. This is not a result of the cold, only the tranquilizer regretting allowing him as much motion as it had given him. Not a good sign, a very likely early sign of his body succumbing to the tranquilizer permanently. The shaking seemed to ease and give way to leaden stillness. That had happened before hadn’t it? His mind released the memory almost eagerly.
Waking in the boxed-in truck bed to the voice in the driver’s seat talking about him. An amazing specimen, something undiscovered so his mother will finally have a species named after her. The smug human has tried a couple ways to make his mother’s name sound Latin when the green arm busts through the cab rear window and grabs him by the throat. The ninja turtle is not very disturbed by the sudden stomp on the brakes. The human is more disturbed when his new specimen demands to know what he was shot with and where the antidote is. Bear? Why do you think a turtle looks like a bear? Moron. When the moron is sleeping against the wheel, and the truck is “parked” at the base of a tree that manages not to fall on them, he wonders if he over-reacted. Discovering that he has to break out the back door as the state-employed moron had locked it makes him decide not. Stepping out onto the road, his body began to shake and when he fell before even being able to turn toward the side-panel on the truck that contained the antidote, he wished he had made a point of breaking the guy’s nose. It would be worth it to be the last combat move he did while free. Then darkness had rushed up on him, stealing away his sense of time passing.
He should be grateful he hadn’t lost a fight. Still, he couldn’t escape with the tranquilizer in his bloodstream so he really didn’t find any joy in the realization. Fighting the drug was harder than battling the Shredder and all his Foot Clan. His breathing feels shallower than before. His chest feels weighted down by more than his own flesh. Maybe he should feel angry, sad, or humbled but all he feels is lonely. He thought he’d die next to his brothers. Would his family bury him here? Would they come visit? Splinter is so much older than his brothers. Their Sensei probably wouldn’t visit. The mutant rat had hated the ride here, as his body was better suited to floor cushions than the cramped seating anyways. A leaf falls into his view and reminds him that his eyes feel dry. He tries to blink but even that is denied him.
His mind feels like it is moving though molasses but that is still faster than what his body is capable of right now. Perhaps if he had been a little faster in his inspection of the poacher’s hut he would have seen the man he had been following double back to the hut for a forgotten pair of sunglasses. He resolves to hate sunglasses no matter how good he might look in them. Nope, he doesn’t need them; Leo prefers to be able see his eyes anyways. God, he just wanted to be able to see Leo’s eyes again. He thinks it was seeing Leo’s eyes in sunlight that finally got him. He couldn’t help staring into the eyes that seemed to have green floating across deep brown. Like staring into a forest from high above, silent peace surrounding acts of predator skill. Their first kiss in a shared beam of sunlight under a broken grate. Had Leo been darted as well? Was that why he was still alone? His heart pounds in his ears like footsteps, and then it is footsteps.
“I found him! I’ll be able to tell you guys more after I’ve looked him over fully. I’ll call back.” Leo’s ankles drop into view from a flip and all attempts to look up as Leo checks that they are truly alone prove fruitless. But, in the back of his head, relief explodes into fireworks and joy. He’s saved. Finally, in view, the arm still in a sling is clutching a shellcell and Leo’s face goes from worried and fierce to stricken. Startled, Leo falls back from the crouch to one knee in front of him. “No,” Leo says the one word with eyes full of pain as if he’s praying his denial. As if this is the final puff of air that would upset crystal and send it to shatter in a million pieces. It makes my heart spasm in my chest and skip a beat. Don’t give up; I’m still in here!
Leo crumples around my still form and presses our foreheads together, free hand tracing the chilled surface of the shell beneath him. Please, touch something that moves! The caress of breath is almost burning hot after so much cold and the small gasps of white cloud tickle my eyes before flowing down my face. The first few blinks are completely reflexive and uncontrollable. Then Leo presses a fierce kiss between my eyes right above the mask, breath in gasping blasts that stroke my cheeks, warming stone cold lips. My eye ridges twitch against leaf green lips before knitting together in the only thought in my aching head. Leo jerks back in shock and grins reading the expression there. Leo, what the shell are you thinking?
“No, you’re not dead.” Leo chuckles with relief and pulls my leaden body up closer to him. In the light falling around us, I can see how green his eyes are with joy and his touch is light on my face. I won’t break, Leo, I’m all lead. The way his eyes follow his fingers makes me think he’s memorizing how I look right now. No, this is what Leo does every time it’s just the two of us. When there is less light, he uses just his hands in the same way. Building a sense of awareness for my body that I can feel in even his most controlled touches while we are with the others. This is really quite distracting and I’ve got important things to say. Time to get his attention, “Luh-Leuhn-Liph.” Enunciation is all off with a leaden tongue and for some reason the last word wasn’t even his name. As if hearing me had burned through the last of his control Leo is suddenly feeding on my mouth, tongue attacking what his lips can’t reach. I’m trying to respond but my mouth is on delay, my tongue dancing over a place that his isn’t anymore. Must be the world’s most awkward kiss. Still he groans and runs his hand over my throat down to grip my shell and shoulders. The green is mostly gone to brown but his eyes are bright with tears in his serious face as he draws back.
“Let’s get you moving. Is the antidote on the truck?” Leo’s question brings me back from breathless dizziness. I can’t help but grin; people will tell you anything with a three-fingered hand wrapped around their throat. Keep it short, not enough air for sentences. Slight nod and I let my head drop back so I can look at the truck. Leo’s fingers spasm for a second then he realizes I’m looking at the handles on the side of the truck. I could have put a hand out and touched the bumper. So close but, so far. Leo is gentle in laying me down, pausing to straighten out my so still limbs. All his gentle touches weighted with knowledge. He steps up to the Skinner State Park truck then looks at me questioningly.
“Middle door. Pull out drawer. Has Bear sticker. Read the bottle. Needles top drawer.” Leo follows my gasped orders quickly. Only a little hesitation as he reads the instructions and double checks the words on the box and the level in the needle. But, he settles next to me with an anxious look at the needle. “Just go. For it,” I had to prod him along. He picks out a big one that he knows he can hit. It stings going in, lighting a gentle burn along my veins. It seems to bloom along my lungs and suddenly I could count my ribs. The look on Leo’s face is not reassuring but then mine probably isn’t so reassuring either.
“S’working. That’d wake a rhino,” I grit it out just as my arms tighten around my ribs, hands trying to rub out the burn. Leo winces in sympathy and grins at the small joke. Neither of us trusts my legs and I can help a little by grabbing him when he hefts me up. He sets me down against a tree across from the driver’s side of the truck. He starts trying to rub my legs warm and stops when I wince. His eyes seem to burn but show only brown.
“Relax and enjoy the view. Just let the kinks work out for a while.” Leo says it as if he’s already thinking of something else. His face looks the same as when someone gets injured sparing in the dojo. Someone’s getting a lecture. Despite the electric tingles along blood and bone and sinew, I’m grinning. We never get to see him unload on anybody new. By the time, I have my face controlled, Leo has dropped his brace and has his arm propped on the open window. Leo starts roughly shaking the guy behind the wheel, who goes from groggy to panicked when Leo snarls in his face.
“Do I look like a poacher to you?” Leo says it barely far enough from the driver’s face and the frantic head shake nearly ends up being an Eskimo kiss. Leo lets the guy swallow then starts in again, “Do we look like bears to you?” The guy’s eyes show white all around at the we and jerkily looks down Leo’s finger pointing at me. I decide to help things along by grinning and waving. Leo flashes me a grin then glares thunderstorms down at the guy who is trying to cower away from him. Of course, being in a seat belt in the front seat of a truck didn’t give him far to cower.
“We really aren’t from here. You never saw us. You had already driven into a tree when you started raving about a specimen you could name after your mom. We don’t want to have to come back and make certain no one had a clue we existed. It’s a loooong trip.” Leo pokes the guy in the chest and lets him get a good look at his balled up fist. I’m stuck between thinking just how great he looks right then and chanting, ‘go, big bro, go’, Leo must really be worked up and wanting to take it out on the trigger happy moron.
“While we are at it, don’t go darting anything furless until next summer and make certain your bear darts only get used on bears.” Leo was really on a roll now and his eyes took on a bit of a red cast to the brown. Hmm, Leo angry in sunlight looks different than back in the sewers. Maybe time to call him off.
“You can find your hiking buddy at the base that cliff lookout and you might want to bring this.” Leo brings the reversal agent vial for the bear dart up into view. The guy focuses on the bear sticker and manages to get paler. He looks ready to faint when Leo stuffs it in his front pocket. This means he never sees the punch Leo throws coming. There is definitely a small crunch and the guy sags against the wheel again. Leo takes a little time to angle the guys head in a position to let his newly bloody nose drip into his lap. Leo puts his brace back on and activates the shellcell.
“We’re heading back now. I think he’ll make a full recovery but he’s rather cold to the touch and a bit unsteady. We’ll go slowly but he’s not shivering so something hot to eat when we get there is probably all he needs.” Leo said then listened to the tinny voice intently. “No, April I gave him the antidote myself,” Leo’s eyebrows knit together at the next statement. “Yeah, I can bring samples of it all just in case.” The tinny cadence changes now, “No, Sensei. I left him with the impression that he’d mistakenly ambushed a little green man. I thought it’d be easier than uh, explaining mutant ninjas to someone who uses bear darts on a turtle.” Their master’s voice asks another tinny question. “An extraterrestrial. Uh, an alien, such as little green men from outer space” Leo looked surprised he has to explain the term considering all the movie nights.
At this point, I’m curled up in a little ball trying to stifle laughter so I miss the rest of the conversation. I don’t try to regain control of my body until Leo gently shakes my shoulder and suggests we go now. I manage to gasp out, “You didn’t really…?” He lets me get up on my own and I’m pleasantly surprised that I can stand without help. “Naw. Skinner Park sends them out with these convenient little plastic restraints. But, if you work at it a little you can get tucked back under covers with me,” Leo suggests, “I’m already getting sent back to bed for the rest of the day.” I can’t help but like the suggestion.
We move off into the forest and I push Leo roughly against the first tree we get close to. The kiss starts out rough, then slows into a small series of soft pecks and Leo’s eyes come alive with tiny dots of green. “What was that for?” Leo’s voice comes across softly, breathily as if the kiss had stolen the oxygen around us. I start moving again before I talk, “For breaking that moron’s nose and giving my body back to me. Now, let’s get back to that poacher’s hut and I’ll show jus--. “My foot decides right then to dislike having to handle roots and soft forest floor in the same step. I’m down on my tail with Leo looking worried above me an instant later.
“Your feet still unsteady? You seemed okay to walk,” he asks gently then continues in complete concern mode, “Need me to help?” I know Leo is asking an innocent question but he has no idea. I end up saying, “I do seem to be a little off still. Maybe save the hut for tomorrow and start on the feet now.” The grin tugs at my lips as his eyes get greener, “Kiss and make it better?”
Title: Tranqie Memories
Rating: Pg-13(? pls tell me if I'm wrong too tired to check ratings right now.)
Pairing: Leo/??? or Random Turtlecest including Leo. Pick your pair!
Summary:: Some turtle manages to have a real bad afternoon out with Leo between Episodes 19 and 21 in the 2K3 TMNT universe. (Tales of Leo and The Monster Hunter before Return to New York.)
Fic flavor:: Angsty, Hurt/ barely comfort, T-Cesty, teasing, tad bit of humor.
Word count:: 4,555 (Be grateful. I think I will stay within 1,000 words of this from now on when releasing fiction chunks. I tend to think in terms of Novelette size!)
If you spot anything of issue please explain the problem in terms that have nothing to do with grammatical properties. I KNOW I pretty much randomly threw in paragraph breaks. Cuz, I's never learned grammar parts in skool- we's read the Bible. yeppers. Wut's an adverb?/hillbilly voice
Actually I've been firmly reassured that I do not need a Beta (despite this being the first time I have tired Turtle anything stories) so if people would like to have an easy beta gig I would love to shower stories on someone willing to take the title.
Memory wants nothing to do with the current moment. So, it took a bit of pushing to extract what and why and happenings. What- a dart. There had been a dart... and Darkness. Smashing darkness that led to... to what? A mental argument ensued between the concepts of what and why do you even care. It was important though, he knew that much. Mental gears start moving and the idea of moving leads to... a van or truck. Something he had woken in before... before here. The idea of figuring out Here warred with what exactly happened Then.
A fight! Well, of course there was a fight, he felt bad enough that he rather thought he had lost the fight. Had he lost the fight? Yes. No? It was dark. Dark usually meant something, unless all it meant was that his eyes weren't open. So... Open the eyes. The eyes flutter and there is definitely light out. If he can just keep his eyes open. They really don't like the light or being open. But, this is now An Important Thing To Do so the eyes open, triggering a groan. The groan actually seems to cause more pain than the light does. So? Don't Groan! But, the eyes are open so he can examine the idea of where. On his side… wait, that was how he was laying. Eyes dart to left and right or the actual specifics of up and down. Down- cement, road specifically. Up- trees-wait, trees?
Memory stretches out to before the dart. Memories of leaving the city, being at Casey’s Grandmother’s house, Leo’s coma, Leo waking up. A lot of Leo actually. They looked like the same kind of trees near there. So, he hadn’t been moved in the truck, or van, very far before fighting to escape. Had he escaped? More importantly, why had he needed to escape? Uhm, he had been hit by a tranquilizer dart and was being driven somewhere. Okay, that is an obvious why he needed to escape. He’s not thinking hard enough. The tranquilizer must still be affecting him. Why doesn’t the tranquilizer wear off so he can think better? It always did with the Foot darts.
His body feels like it is wrapped in cotton and far away. Without the tranquilizer, he would have known he was on a road in the woods even before he had to open his eyes. He can hear the woods around him and feel the layer of paint under his fingers on one hand and the road scratching the pads of the other hand. Annnd his eyes are closed again. Great. Not much progress at all. Shouldn’t the tranquilizer wear off so he can think better? No, and you can blame a hat with an emblem for that.
What?!? Mentally dizzy at his own thoughts, some connection made that is soaked in mind-numbing dart juices. Dart juices, which would almost be funny if he had felt himself laugh right when he thought it. The laugh trickles out several seconds late in an anemic huff. Emblem. He had been darted by someone with an emblem… a state park emblem. Grit the teeth to keep from groaning. Groaning is not fun since it hurts but the connection flairs to life and snaps into crystal clarity. State Park personnel would be armed with animal tranquilizer-filled darts. Wild animals have to stay unconscious to prevent them from harm and causing harm. That means they have to have a reversal agent administered before the tranquilizer can cause permanent harm. He's seen it often enough when watching Animal Planet to be sure why he wasn't better already. It's because this tranquilizer doesn’t just wear off! Still, he’s awake. No, not really awake but aware. He is aware because the dosage of tranquilizer is meant for an animal not a mutant turtle. He grimaces at the knowledge and can feel his lips move over his teeth with an unusual sensitivity.
Lips. Now he can remember lips. Leo’s lips. Actually, Leo’s lips on his lips. Tongues lightly touching. Hmmm, good memories. Especially good as Leo’s lips hadn’t stayed on his lips or just on his lips. Did it matter how he phrased it in his own mind? Not really, as it wasn’t getting him off of the freaking road! Yet he can now feel how dry his tongue is so he wets his lips to help him swallow. He can control his mouth, too. Finally becomes aware of a small piece of wood or bark under the corner of his mouth on the road. Still can’t turn his head to actually avoid the irritant. But, maybe, it seems like an improvement? Yes, anything is an improvement. He remembers turning his head as Leo kissed down his face, down his neck, tongue tickling his collarbone in between teasing kisses. His breath sighs out as he grins at the memory. His head turns in an unconscious mimicry of the moment.
He’s off the irritating piece of discomfort. The memories seem to rise up and meet his flesh returning some measure of control as the phantom touch from the memory traces him. Useful that, and better yet what specific memories that seem to make it work best. Purposefully, he concentrates on a moment when they both were breathing harder. Getting sweaty while lying upon pine needles without snow since the huge evergreen was so thickly grown and yet had the odd empty area where they fit under the drooping lowest limbs. Leo had pushed back his mask and asked him to open his eyes. “I want to see what is in your eyes,” he’d said. But for now, his eyes stay traitorously closed.
A different moment in the tunnels back in New York comes to mind. Masks off again but he was sweating in the heat of the summer. Leo notices him blinking the sweat away and kisses his eyes gently closed. Then Leo uses his tongue to lick the sweat off his eyelids making him buck and gasp under him. A gentle kiss to the eye ridges follows it, driving him beyond wild and Leo’s grin is fierce and teasing above him when he blinked his eyes open. But, for now, all there is in front of him are the road and the trees with lumps of snow glistening. The disappointment tastes bitter on the back of his tongue and burns in his belly. Maybe that’s the tranquilizer settling in further into his body. He wobbles his head a bit in denial. How long? How long had it been since he got hit with the dart? Are the memories helping or is the tranquilizer just fading away? Could his mutant system somehow give him an edge normal animal’s lack?
Too many questions, and worse, useless questions. How long can he wonder about useless questions that get him no closer to help and an antidote before the tranquilizer starts to cause him harm? Oh, he doesn’t want to think about that one hard enough to answer it. His eyes flick around looking for something to concentrate on and his hand is actually in view. The fingers are curled so the callous on his first finger is close enough to see details.
Leo had kissed that finger one night. He had grabbed his hand right before they had reentered the Lair and kissed the callous, licking lightly, teasing, and grinning. Knowing he couldn’t make a noise or their brothers might have investigated and caught them right out. He had pulled his hand away slowly, curled his fingers tightly to get control of his features before entering the doorway and Leo had passed him with a small chuckle for his ears only. Here and now, his hand twitched once or twice but then the fingers moved smoother, controllable. It’s easier to let his motion be an unconscious effort but he can do conscious with his finger. Sometimes all you need is just one finger. The grin twitches up and brushes a bit of his lip across the scratchy cement below him. The macadam is laid unevenly or the winter had left a crack right under his head. Shellcell. Which side of his belt is the shellcell attached to right now? Left, up-the side his hand can reach.
However, his hand may move but the arm wants nothing to do with moving just yet. Does that mean he’s getting worse or he just hasn’t brought up the right sense memory to beat back the tranquilizer? No matter, it doesn’t matter; it doesn’t matter because this morning is a warm memory of gentle touches and lingering hands. Finding that evergreen without the snow under it had been a lucky thing. Too damn bad that things had gotten interrupted by the pair of Skinner State Park employees. They had been working up to a third time when they had heard the crackle of the walkie-talkies. The calm voices discussing the excitement of capturing poachers only a few months ago. The two turtles had frozen ninja quiet stifling groans of disappointment until the words “poacher’s hut” had been brought up. Then identical expressions of anticipation had locked onto each other from inches away as one human told the other not to sneak any naps on the water bed. Boom, both turtles were at the edge of the tree covertly peeking out but had still missed which of the two men were going to be checking the poachers’ line for new traps and which had the chance to check the state of the water bed-equipped hut. There are only two so they can split up and track the men. As the men made plans to meet up later, Leo kept his eyes locked on them but his lips began dancing small kisses from wrist to elbow and then a quick lick up to the shoulder. The delightful shudder from that moment came back as his arm tucked in tight to his chest all over again. God, Leo could be evil sometimes!
One’s boyfriend shouldn’t be quite so delightfully evil quite so very often. The thought brings a familiar tightness under his lower plastron. Oh, shell no! Not the time, place or even the skills to deal with it right now. The groan leaks out but doesn’t bring up fireworks along his skull. Relief washes through his body like a silken weight and deals with some of the unwanted tightness. He takes a moment to just breathe, ignoring the need to rush or fight his drugged body. Was the tranquilizer a narcotic or just a sedative? There had been so much discussion of what might help Leo heal in the coma or rather before they were sure it was a coma. His mind felt fuzzy trying to remember specific words and phrases of the discussions. The unpleasant memory of the cold chill gripping his heart those hours loosens the rest of the tightness in his loins. The chill actually seemed to wash out to settle in his toes and fingers. He snorts mirthlessly. The day wasn’t even warm enough to make the snow mushy and he’s inventing reasons why he would be cold on an open road unable to move to generate any heat? Stupid turtle, time to get help now!
His arm moves towards his belt even before he can actually remember why he is reaching for it. It’s an odd feeling as he discovers the outer edge is responsive despite the cold but the muscles on the inside of his arm and elbow feel wooden and weighted. Still his fingers brush against the Shellcell and he shifts his grip to press the alert button. Keeps pressing in the “turtle down” call signal. Knows he hasn’t gotten the spacing right on the last of the alert signal but it is a long one to ensure all of them know what is entered by the time anyone completes that many bips. Even Splinter could follow the new homing signal its entry activated back to him now.
Hopefully, someone would manage that soon. Even his breath is coming out so cold or so slowly that he no longer has puffs of condensation in front of his face. The fingers of his hand were shivering, the vibration moving up his arm. This is not a result of the cold, only the tranquilizer regretting allowing him as much motion as it had given him. Not a good sign, a very likely early sign of his body succumbing to the tranquilizer permanently. The shaking seemed to ease and give way to leaden stillness. That had happened before hadn’t it? His mind released the memory almost eagerly.
Waking in the boxed-in truck bed to the voice in the driver’s seat talking about him. An amazing specimen, something undiscovered so his mother will finally have a species named after her. The smug human has tried a couple ways to make his mother’s name sound Latin when the green arm busts through the cab rear window and grabs him by the throat. The ninja turtle is not very disturbed by the sudden stomp on the brakes. The human is more disturbed when his new specimen demands to know what he was shot with and where the antidote is. Bear? Why do you think a turtle looks like a bear? Moron. When the moron is sleeping against the wheel, and the truck is “parked” at the base of a tree that manages not to fall on them, he wonders if he over-reacted. Discovering that he has to break out the back door as the state-employed moron had locked it makes him decide not. Stepping out onto the road, his body began to shake and when he fell before even being able to turn toward the side-panel on the truck that contained the antidote, he wished he had made a point of breaking the guy’s nose. It would be worth it to be the last combat move he did while free. Then darkness had rushed up on him, stealing away his sense of time passing.
He should be grateful he hadn’t lost a fight. Still, he couldn’t escape with the tranquilizer in his bloodstream so he really didn’t find any joy in the realization. Fighting the drug was harder than battling the Shredder and all his Foot Clan. His breathing feels shallower than before. His chest feels weighted down by more than his own flesh. Maybe he should feel angry, sad, or humbled but all he feels is lonely. He thought he’d die next to his brothers. Would his family bury him here? Would they come visit? Splinter is so much older than his brothers. Their Sensei probably wouldn’t visit. The mutant rat had hated the ride here, as his body was better suited to floor cushions than the cramped seating anyways. A leaf falls into his view and reminds him that his eyes feel dry. He tries to blink but even that is denied him.
His mind feels like it is moving though molasses but that is still faster than what his body is capable of right now. Perhaps if he had been a little faster in his inspection of the poacher’s hut he would have seen the man he had been following double back to the hut for a forgotten pair of sunglasses. He resolves to hate sunglasses no matter how good he might look in them. Nope, he doesn’t need them; Leo prefers to be able see his eyes anyways. God, he just wanted to be able to see Leo’s eyes again. He thinks it was seeing Leo’s eyes in sunlight that finally got him. He couldn’t help staring into the eyes that seemed to have green floating across deep brown. Like staring into a forest from high above, silent peace surrounding acts of predator skill. Their first kiss in a shared beam of sunlight under a broken grate. Had Leo been darted as well? Was that why he was still alone? His heart pounds in his ears like footsteps, and then it is footsteps.
“I found him! I’ll be able to tell you guys more after I’ve looked him over fully. I’ll call back.” Leo’s ankles drop into view from a flip and all attempts to look up as Leo checks that they are truly alone prove fruitless. But, in the back of his head, relief explodes into fireworks and joy. He’s saved. Finally, in view, the arm still in a sling is clutching a shellcell and Leo’s face goes from worried and fierce to stricken. Startled, Leo falls back from the crouch to one knee in front of him. “No,” Leo says the one word with eyes full of pain as if he’s praying his denial. As if this is the final puff of air that would upset crystal and send it to shatter in a million pieces. It makes my heart spasm in my chest and skip a beat. Don’t give up; I’m still in here!
Leo crumples around my still form and presses our foreheads together, free hand tracing the chilled surface of the shell beneath him. Please, touch something that moves! The caress of breath is almost burning hot after so much cold and the small gasps of white cloud tickle my eyes before flowing down my face. The first few blinks are completely reflexive and uncontrollable. Then Leo presses a fierce kiss between my eyes right above the mask, breath in gasping blasts that stroke my cheeks, warming stone cold lips. My eye ridges twitch against leaf green lips before knitting together in the only thought in my aching head. Leo jerks back in shock and grins reading the expression there. Leo, what the shell are you thinking?
“No, you’re not dead.” Leo chuckles with relief and pulls my leaden body up closer to him. In the light falling around us, I can see how green his eyes are with joy and his touch is light on my face. I won’t break, Leo, I’m all lead. The way his eyes follow his fingers makes me think he’s memorizing how I look right now. No, this is what Leo does every time it’s just the two of us. When there is less light, he uses just his hands in the same way. Building a sense of awareness for my body that I can feel in even his most controlled touches while we are with the others. This is really quite distracting and I’ve got important things to say. Time to get his attention, “Luh-Leuhn-Liph.” Enunciation is all off with a leaden tongue and for some reason the last word wasn’t even his name. As if hearing me had burned through the last of his control Leo is suddenly feeding on my mouth, tongue attacking what his lips can’t reach. I’m trying to respond but my mouth is on delay, my tongue dancing over a place that his isn’t anymore. Must be the world’s most awkward kiss. Still he groans and runs his hand over my throat down to grip my shell and shoulders. The green is mostly gone to brown but his eyes are bright with tears in his serious face as he draws back.
“Let’s get you moving. Is the antidote on the truck?” Leo’s question brings me back from breathless dizziness. I can’t help but grin; people will tell you anything with a three-fingered hand wrapped around their throat. Keep it short, not enough air for sentences. Slight nod and I let my head drop back so I can look at the truck. Leo’s fingers spasm for a second then he realizes I’m looking at the handles on the side of the truck. I could have put a hand out and touched the bumper. So close but, so far. Leo is gentle in laying me down, pausing to straighten out my so still limbs. All his gentle touches weighted with knowledge. He steps up to the Skinner State Park truck then looks at me questioningly.
“Middle door. Pull out drawer. Has Bear sticker. Read the bottle. Needles top drawer.” Leo follows my gasped orders quickly. Only a little hesitation as he reads the instructions and double checks the words on the box and the level in the needle. But, he settles next to me with an anxious look at the needle. “Just go. For it,” I had to prod him along. He picks out a big one that he knows he can hit. It stings going in, lighting a gentle burn along my veins. It seems to bloom along my lungs and suddenly I could count my ribs. The look on Leo’s face is not reassuring but then mine probably isn’t so reassuring either.
“S’working. That’d wake a rhino,” I grit it out just as my arms tighten around my ribs, hands trying to rub out the burn. Leo winces in sympathy and grins at the small joke. Neither of us trusts my legs and I can help a little by grabbing him when he hefts me up. He sets me down against a tree across from the driver’s side of the truck. He starts trying to rub my legs warm and stops when I wince. His eyes seem to burn but show only brown.
“Relax and enjoy the view. Just let the kinks work out for a while.” Leo says it as if he’s already thinking of something else. His face looks the same as when someone gets injured sparing in the dojo. Someone’s getting a lecture. Despite the electric tingles along blood and bone and sinew, I’m grinning. We never get to see him unload on anybody new. By the time, I have my face controlled, Leo has dropped his brace and has his arm propped on the open window. Leo starts roughly shaking the guy behind the wheel, who goes from groggy to panicked when Leo snarls in his face.
“Do I look like a poacher to you?” Leo says it barely far enough from the driver’s face and the frantic head shake nearly ends up being an Eskimo kiss. Leo lets the guy swallow then starts in again, “Do we look like bears to you?” The guy’s eyes show white all around at the we and jerkily looks down Leo’s finger pointing at me. I decide to help things along by grinning and waving. Leo flashes me a grin then glares thunderstorms down at the guy who is trying to cower away from him. Of course, being in a seat belt in the front seat of a truck didn’t give him far to cower.
“We really aren’t from here. You never saw us. You had already driven into a tree when you started raving about a specimen you could name after your mom. We don’t want to have to come back and make certain no one had a clue we existed. It’s a loooong trip.” Leo pokes the guy in the chest and lets him get a good look at his balled up fist. I’m stuck between thinking just how great he looks right then and chanting, ‘go, big bro, go’, Leo must really be worked up and wanting to take it out on the trigger happy moron.
“While we are at it, don’t go darting anything furless until next summer and make certain your bear darts only get used on bears.” Leo was really on a roll now and his eyes took on a bit of a red cast to the brown. Hmm, Leo angry in sunlight looks different than back in the sewers. Maybe time to call him off.
“You can find your hiking buddy at the base that cliff lookout and you might want to bring this.” Leo brings the reversal agent vial for the bear dart up into view. The guy focuses on the bear sticker and manages to get paler. He looks ready to faint when Leo stuffs it in his front pocket. This means he never sees the punch Leo throws coming. There is definitely a small crunch and the guy sags against the wheel again. Leo takes a little time to angle the guys head in a position to let his newly bloody nose drip into his lap. Leo puts his brace back on and activates the shellcell.
“We’re heading back now. I think he’ll make a full recovery but he’s rather cold to the touch and a bit unsteady. We’ll go slowly but he’s not shivering so something hot to eat when we get there is probably all he needs.” Leo said then listened to the tinny voice intently. “No, April I gave him the antidote myself,” Leo’s eyebrows knit together at the next statement. “Yeah, I can bring samples of it all just in case.” The tinny cadence changes now, “No, Sensei. I left him with the impression that he’d mistakenly ambushed a little green man. I thought it’d be easier than uh, explaining mutant ninjas to someone who uses bear darts on a turtle.” Their master’s voice asks another tinny question. “An extraterrestrial. Uh, an alien, such as little green men from outer space” Leo looked surprised he has to explain the term considering all the movie nights.
At this point, I’m curled up in a little ball trying to stifle laughter so I miss the rest of the conversation. I don’t try to regain control of my body until Leo gently shakes my shoulder and suggests we go now. I manage to gasp out, “You didn’t really…?” He lets me get up on my own and I’m pleasantly surprised that I can stand without help. “Naw. Skinner Park sends them out with these convenient little plastic restraints. But, if you work at it a little you can get tucked back under covers with me,” Leo suggests, “I’m already getting sent back to bed for the rest of the day.” I can’t help but like the suggestion.
We move off into the forest and I push Leo roughly against the first tree we get close to. The kiss starts out rough, then slows into a small series of soft pecks and Leo’s eyes come alive with tiny dots of green. “What was that for?” Leo’s voice comes across softly, breathily as if the kiss had stolen the oxygen around us. I start moving again before I talk, “For breaking that moron’s nose and giving my body back to me. Now, let’s get back to that poacher’s hut and I’ll show jus--. “My foot decides right then to dislike having to handle roots and soft forest floor in the same step. I’m down on my tail with Leo looking worried above me an instant later.
“Your feet still unsteady? You seemed okay to walk,” he asks gently then continues in complete concern mode, “Need me to help?” I know Leo is asking an innocent question but he has no idea. I end up saying, “I do seem to be a little off still. Maybe save the hut for tomorrow and start on the feet now.” The grin tugs at my lips as his eyes get greener, “Kiss and make it better?”