Chapter Text
Leo volunteers to pick up their pizzas from ROTM and all of his brothers groan and claim that they don't want cold pizza, and Leo practically has to beg at that point. He has to swear to pizza supreme in the sky, cross his heart and hope to die that he'll go in, grab their pizzas, pay their tab for the month, and come straight back home regardless of whether or not Yuichi is there being effortlessly adorkable. And Raph still tags along to keep him on task.
Leo would be annoyed if he wasn't literally leaping with excitement.
He bounds through the barrier and his gaze lands at once on the white rabbit, drawn like a magnet. Yuichi's back is to Leo as he places some glasses on a table and talks to his customers. The cadence of his voice is lost among the clamor. Leo beelines for him, ignoring Raph's exasperated exhale behind him, weaving silently between the tables. Yuichi usually hears him coming no matter how 'light as a feather' Leo tries to be. It's become an exciting game. Yuichi doesn't turn to give Leo a look that says to leave him alone because he's working, though; he just walks away from the table, toward the kitchen, and Leo makes sure to stay in his blind spot as he slinks up behind him.
Yuichi's not carrying anything other than the empty tray tucked under his arm.
Leo pounces on the opportunity.
His hands dart out, grabbing Yuichi's ribs; "Ah-hah!"
He's anticipating a couple of reactions. A yelp or swear that he can laugh at. An empty serving tray to the head that he can easily dodge. An elbow to his plastron that won't hurt at all. A scathing look that he can meet with a triumphant grin.
The grunt of pain and the way Yuichi's whole body goes rigid and then sinks catches Leo off guard.
"Woah, hey! Yuichi!"
Instead of letting go and backing off, Leo scoops his hands into Yuichi's armpits to stop him from hitting the floor. The tray drops and, in a feat that would be super impressive in literally any other moment, rolls all the way to the bar before it wobbles and tips over. The brief catch is all Yuichi needs to get his feet under him again. Leo hears his breath gust out, feels a tremble run through him. Leo's hands automatically go back to his ribs, his touch gentle this time, assessing.
Leo has checked April for broken ribs before, she's so damn scrappy, but between Yuichi's fur, shirt, and vest, Leo can't feel anything out of place. Yuichi flinches though at the light touch to his left side, middle rib - he swings his fist back and punches Leo solidly in the bridge.
Leo grunts and lets him go.
"Sorry, sorry -"
"Fuck, Leo."
"Yuichi -"
Yuichi staggers forward, grabs the back of an unoccupied chair for a second to brace himself, and marches straight to the back hallway where the bathrooms are. Leo is hot on his heels. He watches the tense way Yuichi carries himself, the way he holds his breath, the way he clenches his fists and lifts his arm to cradle his ribcage.
"Who hurt you?" Leo demands.
"No one…!"
"What happened, Yuichi?!"
"Nothing!"
Yuichi hits the swinging door to the men's room so hard it bangs against the wall. Leo has to catch it with his hand to stop it from knocking him down as he follows Yuichi in. Thankfully all the stalls are empty. Yuichi slams his way into one, and then slams the door in Leo's face. The bolt snaps closed.
"If you think I won't climb over this thing -"
"Leo, leave me alone."
"Yuichi, I'm sorry, okay, I wouldn't have grabbed you like that if I had known you were hurt."
"I'm fine."
"Cool, so we're lying! That's fun. I'm totally unconcerned, by the way. I just thought it might be exciting to loiter in the restroom and, I dunno, listen to you gasping for air around what probably totally isn't a broken rib. Cause that's what friends do, right? They just ignore each others' potentially-life-threatening injuries."
Yuichi makes a frustrated noise.
He punches the side of the stall and the whole production rattles.
There's a thin gap between the hinges of the door. Leo watches Yuichi's shaded form lean against the side of the stall and then slide to the floor, crouching and hugging his ribs. He groans softly. His breathing is shallow and labored; Leo can hear how much it hurts, and that's tearing him up all sorts of ways. Leo rubs his forehead. He takes a deep breath to steady his nerves and his racing heart and leans his shoulder against the door.
Fuck.
He overreacted, didn't he?
Leo doesn't get angry often, but the thought of someone hurting Yuichi has his blood boiling. He couldn't have gotten hurt here. Hueso doesn't even let the thugs manhandle his staff. And Leo's seen Yuichi fight - what he lacks in strength he more than makes up for with agility and skill. It's hard to imagine anyone getting such a hard hit in.
Leo senses a flickering presence that's not his own at the edge of his mind and tunes into it, belatedly realizing that it's Raph trying to Mind Meld with him. The thought that gets pushed at him is not as precise as are you guys good? but the impression of Raph's concern is clear enough. Leo tries to calm his mind enough to formulate a reassuring response, one that says yeah but go back without me without raising too many alarms. He gets the thought-equivalent of a thumbs up from Raph and knows that if he needs them, his brothers are a phone call away.
"I have to get back to work…" Yuichi's voice is thin, "Are you going to go away?"
"Not anytime soon, buckaroo," Leo says.
"Don't call me buckaroo."
"My bad. Is that like, offensive to rabbits or something?"
"No, it just sounds fucking stupid."
Okay so Yuichi gets super cranky when he's in pain. Noted. Leo doesn't say anything and folds his arms.
Yuichi sighs softly.
"I'm fine, Leo…"
"M'kay. My earlier statement still stands pretty firmly."
"I went to the clinic last night. It's just a minor fracture and some bruising."
"What happened?" Yuichi doesn't answer. Leo probably shouldn't, but he pushes - that Yuichi might've needed him and he wasn't there burns in a way that's difficult to articulate. "Why didn't you text me, dude? Not even an 'I lived bitch'? C'mon…"
"It was the middle of the day, I figured you'd be asleep. Besides, it's not a big deal. I was roughhousing with my cousins and things got out of hand."
"Dude, they broke your ribs, are you serious?? How big are these cousins of yours…"
"They're… wrestling fans."
Well, Leo can 100% confirm the power of a well-placed elbow-drop. He is suddenly very thankful that he does not have a fragile mammal skeleton (and that he's been genetically enhanced, but he'll die before he admits to being thankful something The Guy Who Threw Him Off A Roof Once did with EVIL intentions). Still, something doesn't….feel right. Leo can't pin down what it is about Yuichi's story that stinks, but the thing is: he isn't usually wrong.
"Does Hueso know about your ribs?" Leo asks, already knowing the answer.
Hueso wouldn't have let Yuichi work if he'd known.
Yuichi shouldn't even be up moving around, let alone bustling and carrying heavy trays. He should be resting and icing his tender ribs.
"I need the money, Leo…."
Money has always been a non-issue for Leo and this answer frustrates of him.
"Yuichi, I can't - "
Leo's words catch in his throat. He splays his hands in a useless gesture, unsure of what to say, or rather how to say it. He can't bully Yuichi into taking care of himself like he can his brothers. He can't just drag Yuichi home kicking and screaming and put him in bed with an icepack and some comfy pillows and turn on his favorite movie for him and lay on or near him to make sure he rests - even though he wants to….
They're getting closer. But they're not that close.
This is hard.
He can't just sit here and watch Yuichi work, knowing he's in pain, knowing the movement is making his injury worse. He can't ask Yuichi to fess up to Hueso and miss out on the work he needs, especially when he doesn't understand why its so important.
"How long are you here til?" Leo asks instead.
"A couple more hours. Why?"
"Lemme work the rest of your shift for you."
Yuichi scoffs.
"Dude, I'm dead serious. I'll go grab an outfit right now - Bone Man won't mind, he loves me! Besides, I'm great at waiting tables and you'll get tons of juicy tips! I can work your other shifts, too, until your fracture heals."
Yuichi is silent for a while.
"Why…?"
Leo's not used to having to be so candid.
"Uh, maybe because I care about you?" he tries to laugh while he says it, tries to ignore the heat rising in his face as he doubles over against his knees, thumping his own fist against his forehead. He's glad Yuichi can't see him. "Aren't we friends?"
"Yeah…" Yuichi says softly, "I guess if it's okay with Hueso… if you really don't care."
"I so do not care at all that you're gonna see how good I make this waiter outfit look," Leo says confidently, relieved that this earns him a small laugh.
--
Yuichi feels like a useless slacker sitting in an empty booth in the back corner and watching Leo and everyone else work. Hueso comes over to scold him for hiding an injury and (visibly very reluctant to do so) agrees to let Leo fill in for him for the next two weeks so Yuichi doesn't miss a paycheck. His coworker, Kitsune, brings him some ice water and tells him to take it easy; she also looks at Leo, then looks back at Yuichi with a knowing smile, and winks. Yuichi is too busy focusing on breathing normally around the overwhelming pain in his chest to dissect that.
He feels like he's going to throw up.
He was doing fine until Leo grabbed him.
Yuichi still wants to be pissed about that - but it's his own fault. He doesn't believe for a second that Leo would have done it if he'd known. Yuichi hadn't wanted him to know. He hates lying to Leo.
His new best friend is a vigilante hero and Yuichi is working for one of Big Mama's many low-rung gangs smuggling dangerous mystic items between the Hidden City and the Surface. One of his idiot gang members tripped an alarm last night and got the HCPD called on them. Yuichi can't bring himself to dishonor his ancestors further by drawing his sword, even in his own defense, and his hesitation landed a painfully solid police baton between his ribs.
At least he didn't get arrested.
Fuck…
Yuichi puts his face in his hands and blinks away the heat burning his sinuses. Getting emotional just makes it more difficult to breathe… He needs to focus on something that's not the pain…
"Hey." Leo's soft voice makes Yuichi jump. His laugh is deeper than usual - it makes Yuichi's ears twitch, and he's glad they're bound. "Wow, that's twice in one day. Sorry. You okay?"
"Ish," Yuichi says without looking up.
He can't look at Leo right now.
The seat across from him creaks as Leo perches on the edge of it. The din in the restaurant has quieted down. Run of the Mill Pizza is open 24/7, but it's hitting that lull in the late evening between supper for the diurnal and breakfast for the nocturnal.
"Did they give you any pain pills at the clinic?"
Yuichi wants to laugh at that. Or cry. Even if he had gone to the clinic and they had given him pain pills, he can't take them. He's bouncing between gang members' couches right now. It's bad enough being injured - he can't take medication that's going to lay him out cold for several hours when he doesn't have a safe place to sleep at night. There's no guarantee someone won't stab him in his sleep or rob him blind, or both, on a good day.
He can't tell Leo that.
"They said I didn't need any," he mumbles.
"Well, pardon my French, but they're fucking stupid." He sounds angry. "Did you go to a crappy Bandaid Station up here or do they have Actual Healthcare in the Hidden City?"
Yuichi does laugh at that, and regrets it.
His whole chest aches, the left side especially, but it feels like it's just spread everywhere. He knows he needs to be taking a full breath at least every once in a while, but the pressure is so intense even the shallow breaths he's managing are almost unbearable. It's making his head hurt. It's making him nauseous. It's making him nervous.
He's so fucking stupid….
Yuichi scrubs his eyes with the heels of his hands.
"Yui?"
Yuichi forces out the breath he was holding and shakes his head, keeping his face covered. He tries and fails to take a breath that doesn't tremble out of him. If he talks right now he's going to bawl. He doesn't want to dump that on Leo. He doesn't want to look like a crybaby in front of the guy he's really starting to warm up to - the guy he's lying to, the guy who deserves to have zinged with someone way better than Usagi Yuichi, utter disgrace to his family name.
He's only been in this stupid City for three months, and it's already turning him into something completely different than what he was… or even what he wants to be. He wonders how disappointed his auntie would be if she could see him now. Her opinion of him probably can't get any lower. But he's always exceeded her expectations in that regard….
Leo's hand on his wrist is light at first, a soft touch to let Yuichi know he's there before his long fingers carefully circle Yuichi's wrist. He tugs Yuichi's hand down to the table and pins it there. Yuichi lets him, glancing up with wet, blurry eyes. Leo isn't even looking at him. He's got his phone out, his elbow propped on his knee as he swipes his thumb over the screen, the picture of indifference were it not for the slight furrow of his brow that he hasn't managed to smooth away.
The hand around Yuichi's wrist moves to Yuichi's hand and squeezes it gently.
That breaks down any resolve Yuichi has left.
It's a couple of minutes before Yuichi can speak around the knot wedged in his throat, "Can I stay at your place for a couple of days…?"
"Absolutely," Leo says at once, with an easy grin in his voice, "If you're not sick of pizza, my brothers saved us one! You like hawaiian, right?"
"I love hawaiian."
"Oh, we are so definitely soulmates. I don't care if that was sarcasm or not, you just burned your receipt for me with that one, babe. No refunds."
Yuichi chuckles weakly, "I don't want one," and squeezes Leo's hand.
--
Yuichi likes being in Leo's room.
It's a train car, which is cool as hell, first of all. Second, it really reminds Yuichi of his own room back home - they have similar taste in decor, and they share hobbies, and they both really like the color blue - and it makes him kinda sad, but it's also comforting. Yuichi's never been the type to sleep easily in a strange room. Unfamiliar noises snag his attention. Unfamiliar smells make him uneasy. But the second he (gently) flops down onto the pile of pillows at the head of Leo's bed and is surrounded by his scent, Yuichi’s heavy eyes and exhaustion get the better of him.
Leo laughs, pulling at his arm, "Hey, hang on a sec, drink this for me, will ya?"
It's water with a slightly bitter taste to it.
Yuichi doesn't question it - he downs the entire glass and goes to sleep.
--
Yuichi's out like a light.
He didn't even need the pain meds to fall asleep. Hopefully they'll kick in soon, and he'll be able to actually rest. Leo feels kinda like a creep leaning over him while he's asleep, but he makes sure Yuichi is elevated by the pillows so he doesn't catch any unwanted fluid in his lungs, and he sticks a cooling pack under the blanket over Yuichi's left ribs, and he unties the ribbon binding Yuichi's ears while he's at it so he'll be more comfortable.
He thinks he's doing a great job of not freaking out.
Yuichi toted in his signature duffel bag full of clothes, but didn't have anything comfy for sleeping in, so he borrowed some of Leo's shorts and a t-shirt. They're baggy on Leo. They're extra-super baggy on Yuichi. Leo's never seen him wear anything that didn't cover him from wrists to ankles, either, so the shock of seeing his white, downy thighs and the flash of his stomach as he fastened the strings on the shorts and the too-big-t-shirt catching on his tail has got Leo's guts doing a lot of weird flips.
It makes him wonder what the rest of Yuichi looks like - what he feels like - and that makes his face get hot and boy oh boy he needs to think about something else. He is being respectful. He is leaving the room. He is power-walking to the kitchen because it's closest and putting his whole head under the tap and turning on the cold water and Mikey says, "Bro," in a disbelieving voice from his perch on top of the refrigerator where he's eating Raph's private stash of coconut cookies, but if he keeps his mouth shut about what he's seen then Leo will, too.
.