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He can do little more than stand in the middle of the bathroom staring at his reflection. His cheek swollen. His chest and shell aching with a deep pain beneath the surface. He’s sure his ribs are broken and his breathing is labored. He had held it together for his family as long as possible before declaring the need to go home and rest with a smile pasted on that didn’t reach his eyes. The fight with the Kraang had injured more than his body, his very soul was fractured.
He peeled his wraps off slowly and stepped underneath the heated spray of the shower. The cascading water was scalding to his skin and seared his wounds with a deep agony. He braced his hands against the wall and took it. He took all of it. He replayed those moments in his mind where he thought he had lost everything…lost his family…lost his life….lost you. And something in him broke. His sobs echoed off the walls. He couldn’t hold them back. He tried stifling their sound, but it just made him choke and gasp for a breath.
His legs became weak and he could feel his body draining of energy until a force from behind surrounds and supports him. Your scent curls around him and your body holds him up. He takes several moment to get his breathing under control and turns in your arms. Your face turned up to meet his. Your eyes strong where his can barely stand to stay open. A raw strength so forceful he can feel it. It feels safe. It feels like home.
He folds into you and buries his face in your throat. Your hands loop under his arms and massage his neck, caress his shoulder with touches that bring life back to his battered body. There are no words. There is only you and the power you have over him. You hold his heart and it has never been more visible than in this moment.
He pulls back and takes in every piece of you. Your hair sodden with rivulets of water cascading down to the drain. Your clothes plastered to your body exposing every curve.
“How did you know?” He stutters out caressing your cheek.
“Oh Leo,” you sigh, leaning into his hand. “I know every scale that makes up your body. Did you think I wouldn’t see how much you were hurting? Did you think I wouldn’t see underneath the mask? Let me be strong for you for once.”
And he’s done for. With a groan he collapses into your arms and your hands move over his arms, his shell, his cheeks, his arms. He lets you manipulate his body however you would like, it’s yours now. He’s never given himself over to anyone before and the release is freeing.
Your touch is gentle as you drag a soapy rag over his bruised and battered body. Blood and dirt spiral down the drain. He says nothing and yet everything at the same time as he simply watches you care for him in a way so intimate it breaks him and reforms the pieces into a new shape.
You turn off the water and dry his body gently, taking care as you dab at the cracks in his carapace and plastron. You place ointment on his cuts and bandages over the open places that no one else had realized. Your body is shuddering from the cold so he takes a fresh towel and begins to dry your hair. You had brought in a change of clothes for both of you and he can’t help the possessive flair that ignites inside him when you step out from behind the curtain wearing his hoodie and sweats, knowing that you were bare beneath them. That his scent was soaking into your skin as much as your own had coated his.
He hadn’t taken the step to claim you as his, kept you bound by the title of best friend, but that changed from this moment on. He would make sure you knew that he was yours and you were his. Forever on.
Carefully you took his hand and led him down the darkened hallway towards his room. Closing the door behind you, you led him to his bed and settled him into the softness of his mattress before curling gently into his chest. You held him tenderly, caressing the lines of his body and he fell more and more into the softness of yours. He felt his heart mold closer and closer to your own. He would never recover from this. The scars from his physical fight tonight would pucker, smooth, and fade, but the one you had carved into his heart was lasting. Forever healing the fracture of his soul.