So @remedyturtles wrote a crossover ficlet for cmh and death wish and. well. i accidentally wrote like 900 words of followup. thinking about them so so much
-
After the longest and best (and, okay, only) hug of Leon's afterlife, they end up sitting against the tree. Leon's in the middle, the other two leaning up against him, Sensei's arm around him. He didn't even have to ask. He might cry, if it wouldn't mean he could never show his face here again.
They talk about nothing in particular, joke around in the way only Leos can. Leon makes exactly six jokes about being a ghost, and no one gets mad at him for it. It's the best.
At some point, the other two realize that they've been here a while, and after some discussion, Sensei ends up leaving to go take the front. Which leaves the younger two sitting there in silence, staring up at the stars peeking through the branches of the tree.
"Soooo," Leo says eventually, fidgeting, and Leon tenses up automatically at the tone. "How'd it happen?"
Ah. The elephant in the room. It's not like he hadn't known it was gonna come up eventually. And Leo would've known that he'd known, of course. And he knew that, and Leo knew that he knew that, and – whatever, okay, they both knew everything 'cause they were the same damn person.
Because of that, he knows Leo will drop it if he brushes it off. But it'll still sit there between them until it's finally addressed, or he figures it out through context clues, so. Might as well get it out of the way now.
"Got up close and personal with a kaiju-size wad of overchewed bubblegum," he says with as casual a tone as he can manage. He's not looking Leo in the eyes, but he doesn't have to be to feel the full-body flinch, and.
Yeah.
Considering Sensei is here, Leon had kind of figured the whole almost-apocalypse thing had already happened, but it's… good? It's something. To know for sure. And… judging by Leo's reaction, he'd had a pretty similar experience to Leon. Or. At least partially. From his limited multiverse experience, he's pretty sure most Leos get pulled out after just a few minutes.
… Lucky.
"Sorry," Leo says quietly, thickly, like there's something caught in his throat. "That that happened."
Leon shrugs, because like, what else can you do? Literally nobody would buy it if he tried to say it was okay, so he doesn't say anything and they sit in silence for a while.
"I didn't think –" Leo says finally, choked. Leon can feel how tense he is, how he's practically trembling, and presses up against his side a bit more. It barely seems to help, but Leon's not gonna take offense. Especially considering the conversation topic. He's probably just as tense.
"I didn't think he'd ever actually –" is how Leo eventually finishes the sentence. Kill us is left unsaid, and if Leon wasn't tense before he sure is now.
The phrasing is – what does Leo mean ever? If he was only in there for a few minutes – his head snaps up to stare at Leo, who's unfocused, looking off into the distance like he's somewhere else entirely.
Leon knows from experience that he probably is. He can't get any closer than he has already, but he at least hopes the physical contact can help ground the other him.
"... How long?" he asks, almost afraid to hear the answer. There's a half-hearted shrug from Leo and silence in response, and Leon is starting to think he's not going to answer when –
"I don't know." Leo's voice is haunted. And while Leon could make a joke about how duh, of course it is, he's here… yeah, really not the time. "It was only five minutes for them. I…"
And suddenly Sensei's there, probably having felt the distress from Leo and abandoned the front. Leon thinks. He's still not 100% sure how all this works.
"You want me to tell him?" the older turtle asks gently, and Leo gives a jerky nod.
"You don't have to," Leon says, because like, he gets it. He's an asshole sometimes, but not enough of one to force someone to talk about (or hear about, if Sensei says it) their trauma. Especially when it's so similar to his.
"S'okay," Leo says, nudging his shoulder with his own. He means it, and Leon relaxes, just barely.
"Time was weird there," Sensei says. Carefully, evenly. Like he's reciting something. Like he's had to do this before.
He probably has.
"Leo described it as 'clinging to him'. He… estimated anywhere from two to four weeks, when he first talked about it, but…"
Sensei glances at Leo again. Gets another nod in return.
"It could've been months," he finishes softly.
Oh.
Leon sits there in that knowledge, quietly horrified. He'd known, objectively, that while most Leos had gotten out right away... some hadn't. Just like him. And he'd also known, just by virtue of the multiverse existing, that there'd be other Leos who were in there for months too. Maybe even years.
But it's different to actually hear it.
"Four months," he blurts out suddenly, then winces. "I mean. For me. So. I get it, kind of. And I – I'm sorry you went through that too."
He hesitates, then decides – fuck it, they're already here. It's just the three of them, no one else can see them. So what if he gets a little soft? He knocks his head gently against Leo's, voice quiet.
"... You're not alone."
And if there’s a barely-audible sniffle from beside him, if the other Leo presses just a bit closer like he’s attempting to absorb Leon’s nonexistent warmth – Leon won’t tell anyone.
36 notes
·
View notes