AN: Thank you for reading, faving and reviewing, it really means a lot~!

Warnings: Established slash relationship (Leo/Usagi). Mention of injury. Brief mention of torture.

Summary: "Don't let him leave," he pants. "Whatever you do, don't let him leave before I'm home."

JUST DON'T LEAVE (BEFORE I SAY GOODBYE)

Chapter Two: Mended

Leo's shell-cell beeps on the morning of the second day when he is about to brush his teeth. He has already folded the blankets over the armrest of the sofa and packed up what little he brought with him; all is ready to go, even though he himself is not.

He flips the cell open and reads Raph's message once, then a second time, and then a third when his brain finally starts to process the words. The toothbrush clatters against the porcelain sink when he drops it in his haste; he rinses his mouth with jerky movements and is back in the living room in a matter of seconds. The city outside of the windows is still dark, still sleeping; dawn has only just begun. That's safe enough for him. He grabs his bag and then he all but flies up the fire escape and across the rooftops, his shaking fingers already punching the speed-dial for his brother's phone.

"Don't let him leave," he pants, not bothering to greet the gruff voice that answers. "Whatever you do, don't let him leave before I'm home." He doesn't wait for a reply, just flips the cell closed and speeds up.

A sudden, overwhelming fear causes him to cut corners and perform wild acrobatics at neck-breaking speed. It doesn't seem to do any good, he is still too slow, always too slow; twice he slips and almost falls, plunges into walls and chimneys and yet keeps running as fast as he possibly can. For the last two days he has been pondering on what to say when he gets back home, but now he realizes that it doesn't matter what he says as long as he says something, as long as Usagi does not simply leave without another word between them, with nothing but two empty days to remember him by.

The first beams of light wash over the rooftops by the time Leo reaches the manhole he's been looking for. He's panting now, but not from the exercise, and as soon as his feet hit muddy sewer stone he is reaching for his cell again.

It rings once, twice, then someone picks up. He urges out the words before his courage can abandon him - "I'm almost there, five minutes at most, please don't leave, please wait for me" - and the second of silence stretches out until it feels like an eternity.

His heart is beating too fast, it's painful, he is slipping and falling and can't see where the path is leading anymore. None of that matters, nothing does, until finally a deep voice says:

"I am not going anywhere."

Leo nearly breaks down then and there. It takes all his willpower to the call and keep running.

When he finally bursts through the doors to the lair he feels nauseous and lightheaded, and he stumbles over to the kitchen. (He knows that Usagi is in there, knows that everyone else is nearby and listening, the lair is too quiet.) He nearly trips over his own feet and only narrowly avoids plowing into a pillar in his haste, all gracefulness and stealth abandoned in the face of loss. There are a million things that he wants to say, but when at last sees his friend at the table (Usagi, gods, Usagi, small and great and beautiful and looking like a man about to meet his doom), it all boils down to a single sentence.

"I'm sorry," he pants, desperate, terrified.

The silence is too long, and there is something on Usagi's face that Leo has never seen there before (hasn't he? hasn't he?). It is a dark, and deadly, and all-consuming fury.

"You are sorry," he says. His voice is all wrong. (Too low. Too unlike him.) "What are you sorry for?"

What am I -

Leo stares at his partner, not knowing how to respond. I'm sorry. Doesn't that express all that needs to be said? Of what use are specifics? But if this is it, his last chance to explain, if these are his final words, then he will try, oh, he will try. He will try with all his might, and if Usagi still leaves by the time he is done, then he will never utter another word in his life, so the gods help him.

"I'm sorry that I messed up," he says, but that's not enough, he can see it on Usagi's face which is still so very wrong. "Sorry that I messed up the plan - I know we didn't - didn't plan for this and I'm sorry that I let them get the better of me like that, I never meant for it to happen, I don't know how it happened, and… And… I'm sorry for- for failing you."

When Usagi takes a breath, it's shuddering and wet and somehow more terrifying than the whole last week combined.

This is it, Leo thinks. This is where he leaves me and rips my heart out on the way, and I will stand here and watch him go.

But when Usagi finally speaks, it is not an accusation and it isn't a goodbye. What he says, with his horribly choked voice, is, "do you even remember what happened?"

Yes, Leo wants to say, but he realizes with a start that it would be a lie. What he remembers is that some children went missing from a small village in the mountains. (One child. The village. Usagi's nephew, Usagi's home town, disappeared, no, abducted.) He remembers searching for the boy, remembers the forest surrounding him, thick and dark, the air humming with tension.

He vaguely recalls waking up in a small room with no windows, shackled to a chair, being screamed at and hit until he blacked out again.

Do you remember what happened?

"No," he admits readily. It's not like it matters anyway; nothing does anymore, as long as it keeps Usagi with him for another minute, another moment in time. "I don't. But I must have messed up. I mean…" He reaches up to touch the back of his head, to the purpling bruise there that he can't remember getting. Usagi's eyes follow his arm, along the white line of the bandages that wind around it from elbow to wrist, his jaw clenched and his shoulders tense. Leo doesn't seem to notice.

"I think someone hit me," he says, his bewilderment evident in his voice.

"Yes," Usagi says, and his fists are clenched so hard that now that his knuckles crack. "One of them hit you when you were distracted by Jotaro."

He looks like he wants to say more, his mouth opens and closes a few times, but no words come out, and Leo licks his lips, not sure how to reply. One of them, he thinks. Whom? Bandits. He distinctly remembers dark faces, unwashed and gritty, with sunken eyes and fouling teeth. Demons. Wild men."What happened to…"

"He's safe," Usagi says. "Jotaro is safe with his family. Thanks to you." He sounds far too bitter to be telling such good news. "You really don't remember, do you? They were threatening the village into giving them horses and supplies. They knew Kenichi couldn't refuse, but they were afraid of him- afraid of me, too, so they kept Jotaro in the forest while they negotiated with us. They didn't know about you at that time," he ends bitterly, "but once you had freed the hostages, they turned on you. There were too many… Too many for the three of us."

The images come back to Leo with vivid intensity, and he winces in sympathy for his past self.

(Get the children, his own voice echoes in his head. Get them out of here before- )

His partner's voice drops down to a whisper. "After that, it didn't take them long to realize that you meant something to me as well."

(Usagi's face in the crowd, just a few paces away, shocked and angry, yelling at him, pushing through the crowd of bodies between them… the need to act fast, to wrap this up now, to keep them safe. Keep him safe. Five steps across the grass, familiar fingers reaching out for him, before grubby hands grab him from behind, and there, above it all, the outcry of a child - )

"Stupid," Leo says, almost to himself.

"Stupid," Usagi says, and he sounds like he's choking.

There is another stretch of silence in which Leo tries to bring the fury on his friend's face into line with the story as it presents itself. And he thinks that he finally gets it; in fact, he probably understands it better than most people could. There always have been too many people to look after, and never enough hands, never enough time… And so, when push came to shove, they did the best they could, and it wasn't enough. Infuriating, maybe. Stupid, certainly. But, all things considered, entirely understandable.

"I love you," Leo whispers helplessly, because it is the last truth he has to offer.

"Yes," Usagi says, but it sounds like a question. "I know."

"Thank you for coming for me," Leo says, and there is a whole different question in that sentence, one that he didn't even know he had.

Usagi smiles weakly.

"I love you, too," he says, and somehow, that is the answer to both.