Chapter Text
Leo and Usagi sat together in the slider's favorite booth at Run of the Mill, waiting for their order to arrive. He had checked his phone four times since getting here to make sure the GPS was turned off so Donnie couldn't track his movements, but he was still left with an uneasy dread that they were going to show up to drag him home. That was why he kept anxiously looking up at the portal entrance every time it opened when customers came and went.
Another thing putting him on edge was the way Hueso had looked at him from across the room once or twice but hadn't come over. To top it off, he could not relax because a nagging feeling in the back of his mind kept telling him that if he let his guard down something terrible was going to happen to him. (Again)
"I didn't know it was your birthday," Usagi commented. He was referring to how Leo just finished telling him that five weeks prior on the night he tried to end it all it had been his and Donnie's birthday; but he had been left high and dry, so he had to 'celebrate' alone. He did not, however, share the details of what happened to him at the bar. He wasn't ready to talk about that yet and hadn't told anyone - getting around answering his family's questions about the bite mark on his neck with deflection and ridiculous lies like 'it's a temporary tattoo' and 'I heard turtle tastes so good I thought I'd try a bite' to run them around in circles and get them so frustrated they dropped the subject.
"You should have called me, you didn't have to celebrate all alone!" Usagi offered with a little grin for his turtle friend that Leo didn't see because of the way his eyes had been glued to his soda ever since it arrived - never letting it out of his sight for a second. He also never released his grip on it the entire time since it was put on the table by the waitress, even though he hadn't had as much of a sip. ('What if the server or someone in the kitchen drugged it?')
With a dismissive shrug, Leo blandly commented: "Honestly, you didn't cross my mind." But then a set of wide, almost fearful eyes snapped up to look at Usagi and Leo stuttered out: "I mean... because... it's not..." "It's okay," Usagi reassured, never losing that kindness radiating from his face that got Leo relaxing again. He slouched back in the booth, and put his eyes back on the drink he never let go of first or last, wondering why he had bothered to order it in the first place.
"Our birthday's always been a 'me and Donnie' thing, not a 'me, Donnie, and other people' thing," Leo went on to explain (which likewise explained why Leo had never before bothered to share the date of his birthday with his closest friend). "Pops never did anything for our birthdays when we were little. I dunno why. Maybe he was too depressed or something. So Donnie and I came up with our own traditions."
His shoulders bounced once when he let out a scornful laugh - thinking of the year Mikey wanted to bake them a cake but Donnie announced it was a 'travesty' for anyone else to get involved in their special day and they would buy each other a cupcake and put a single candle in each one like they did every year - adding: "Guess that's kinda stupid," because of how he felt an inordinate amount of shame for making such a big deal around his ruined birthday five weeks ago, as well as guilt because a part of him irrationally blamed himself for not trying harder to help Donnie realize it was their special day before he took off.
If he hadn't let himself get so hurt, he wouldn't have gone out to that bar alone.
If he hadn't gone out to the bar alone...
"I don't think it's stupid," Usagi told him in all sincerity. "I think it's kinda nice."
Leo let out another bitter laugh and raised his eyes to look at Usagi when he said: "Thanks."
A moment of silence followed. A comfortable silence that was familiar between two friends, before Usagi spoke up again.
"Sooo, you tried to..." Sagi made a cutting motion over his own wrist as his way of letting Leo know he was open to discussing that sensitive topic. Leo never took offense, in fact, he and Usagi regularly engaged in open, honest communication like this and the bluntness to his friend's somewhat comical tone of voice got him letting out a quiet laugh.
"Yeah," Leo casually responded, with his eyes back down on his drink. But his body was relaxed a little more, knowing that he had someone he could talk to about this without any uncomfortable tension - like what had been hanging in the air at home over the past five weeks.
He wondered how it escaped his mind to call Usagi for help on the day he came dangerously close to ending it all, figuring the aftereffects of the potion was still messing with his memory at the time.
Noticing how Leo instantly relaxed, Usagi leaned ahead on the table with a mischievous grin, and dug right into the dark humor he and Leo often got caught up in by commenting: "Slitting your wrist? Really? That sounds so boring. I thought you'd go out with a bit of a bang!"
Leo couldn't help but laugh at Usagi's twisted sense of humor, feeling better in this moment than he had since the Incident. When he responded, he kept this subject going by asking with a grin: "Yeah? Like what?"
"I dunno." Usagi sat back in his seat, picked up a fork to fiddle around with it, and replied with an exaggerated comical tone to his voice: "Something like 'oh no! I seem to have jumped out of a plane and have forgotten my parachute! Whatever will I do!?'"
This time Leo snorted a little from the laughter that came out. Then, without moving his head and still with a smile, he raised his eyes to put them on Usagi's face and gauge his reaction, telling him: "I jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, after I..." he copied Usagi's previous motion by making a cutting motion over his permanently scarred wrist (keeping the cuff of his hoodie sleeve over it so he didn't have to look at it, and immediately going back to holding his glass of soda).
"Whoa!" Usagi's eyes widened from that revelation, but ever the jokester, he kept the conversation surrounding this morbid subject light by commenting: "So forget going out with a bang, you were going out with a splash!"
The two friends laughed, but then Leo's face fell as he kept staring at his glass, thinking about how he felt on that day, and still feeling afraid to drink his soda even though he knew it was absurd to think someone at Run of the Mill would spike his drink. Usagi's face fell too, and he put his eyes down, darting them back and forth as he thought about something Leo previously told him, wondering if he should speak up or not. But eventually his curiosity got the best of him, so that he looked back up at Leo to ask in a more serious tone than before: "How did Mikey find you if you, you know..." he raised his hand up only to drop it down, making a whistling sound as he did so in reference to Leo's telling him he jumped off a bridge.
Usagi worried he pushed it too far with the way Leo's shoulders scrunched up an almost imperceptible amount. But he seemed mostly fine sharing the details with the way he made eye contact, his voice didn't carry any tension to it, and he answered without hesitation: "He was meditating or . . . something. He has this mystic, I dunno, sense? When he meditates. But, anyway..." Feeling too ashamed of himself over what happened next, the look on Mikey's face and how much he had hurt his little brother with his suicide attempt, Leo put his eyes back down on his glass of soda. "...he opened a portal. I didn't go more than five feet before I fell flat on my face in our . . . dojo."
Before finishing his sentence, Leo's ninja senses alerted him to a watchful gaze. So he turned his head, only to lock eyes with Hueso's worried face.
Hueso looked away and resumed whatever work he had been doing behind the counter where the cash register was located.
Leo's heart dropped. He suddenly realized why Hueso had been looking at him without coming over and his cheeks burned red from the embarrassment he felt over not putting the pieces together before now (like how he hadn't put the pieces together that something was off with that badger until it was too late and he had walked right into his trap).
"I'm such a dummy!" he blurted out, rising from the booth and double-checking he had his phone on him because ever since the night he tried calling Raph for help but didn't get an answer, his need to have his phone on him at all times became borderline obsession.
Watching him in confusion but not getting up from his seat, Usagi questioned: "What's wrong?"
"Hueso knows. My brothers must've told him," came the rushed, annoyed answer. By 'knows', Leo was referring to his attempted suicide, of course. "We gotta get outta here before they show up," he instructed with urgency.
Usagi got up to join Leo in leaving the restaurant, asking: "Who's Hueso?"
"The restaurant owner. He's a friend of ours," Leo responded. He suspected Mikey called Hueso to let their skeleton friend know when Leo left the lair, asking him to keep an eye out for him. Leo figured Hueso had, in turn, let his brothers know the second he walked into his restaurant, and likely had been instructed not to do anything that could chase him off. Hence the occasional worried glance thrown his way without actually coming over to converse or as much as say 'hi'.
Leo had to make it out the front entrance before he could use his portals for a quick getaway because most yokai establishments - like Run of the Mill - came equipped with mystic security to prevent anyone from portalling in and out so thieves couldn't pop in and steal everything when they were closed. (In addition to this, it was widely considered rude to portal in and out of a business rather than using the front door, but that was besides the point.)
As soon as Leo stepped outside with Usagi behind him, his markings and the blades of his swords strapped to his back lit up. But he stopped short of opening a portal because there they were, about to go into the restaurant but stopping when they saw his face. Three disgruntled mutant turtles.
Leo didn't bother trying to bolt. Instead he flopped his arms down in defeat and stood there, waiting for the hammer to drop.