Diaval can't stop staring at Leonardo. He's so used to him looking like a turtle that seeing this stranger, this Japanese boy with black hair and Leonardo's eyes. He should be focusing on his tea—too bland, the café didn't have chilli flakes and he forgot to bring along his own from the lair—but he keeps trying to wrap his head around how it's all possible.

They're sitting on a patio at a café, surrounded by regular old people who have no idea that there are mutants enjoying the ambience as much as them. Diaval keeps expecting stares or for someone to notice, but no one does.

Melanie laughs at a joke Destiny makes, snorting a little as she covers her mouth. Diaval's eyes drift from Leonardo to Destiny. At least she looks...somewhat like herself, although it's still weird not to see the points in her teeth or hear the thump of her tail wagging when she laughs. Her eyes are too muted.

She said it's a patch Donatello and Sarina made. He can't remember most of the explanation they offered about the science of it all, but the gist is that it...hides their mutant features? It's dramatic on the turtles, less so on Destiny and Sarina.

He looks into his teacup, brow furrowed. He wonders whether anything would change if he put one on, but he backtracks on that thought immediately. He can only think of his magic disappearing, leaving him cold and bare, lost without the feeling of its warmth buzzing in his veins. Does his magic count as a mutant characteristic? Is the patch smart enough to tell?

"Hello? Earth to Diaval?"

He blinks. Leonardo is frowning at him. It's funny how much softer the gesture is now. Diaval remembers how icy it used to be.

"Huh?" he asks.

Leonardo raises an eyebrow (he has eyebrows...weird) and tilts his head, gesturing at the table. Diaval realizes for the first time that Melanie and Destiny have disappeared, their teacups abandoned in front of their empty chairs, and the two of them are very...very alone.

Diaval blinks. "They're gone."

"Yeah, they went to the bathroom," he says. He leans closer, crossing his arms together on the tabletop. "So, before they come back...what's the deal with you and Melanie?"

Diaval feels his entire face get hot at the thought of her—her smile, her laugh, her pretty auburn hair, her freckles. "Melanie?" he asks. "Bout what?"

"I'm just wondering," Leonardo says. His voice is slow and leading, like he's trying to drag him to the point. "Still visiting, so unless she's your therapist now too..."

He frowns. Why would Melanie be his therapist? If she was, he's pretty sure he wouldn't be allowed to be this close to her. Melanie's talked about how Destiny is a bit of an outlier case for her, as usually she doesn't know her patients outside of their sessions.

Leonardo sighs. "Are you guys dating, Diaval?"

Oh. Oh. That. Oh, that. That, that, that...thing...that thing that adults do when they care about someone, when someone makes their stomach all twisty and their heart all pound-y. Diaval is an adult. Diaval can handle adult things.

It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing to talk about that stuff. Maybe he'd tell Destiny or Karai, but Leonardo? Shinigami who he still barely knows? Why would they want to know?

"She's..." he starts, but his mouth is all dry and his tongue is sticky. He takes a gulp of boring, bland tea that everyone else seems to think is delicious. The cinnamon only improves it slightly. "We...er..."

Think, Diaval! Think! She's pretty and she's kind and somehow when she touches him it doesn't hurt as much and doesn't make his skin crawl. She's understanding and sweet and she knows what he's trying to say even when words fail him. She never pressures him into anything he doesn't want to do. How can he explain that she's something otherworldly to him, someone he wants to hold on to for forever and a day, always to be together no matter where they go?

Maybe she could come back and explain his own feelings better than he could. Maybe—

"Don't know..." he admits, his heart all crazy and his head spinning. "Can't..."

"Can't...confess?" Leonardo presses. Diaval shrugs. "You like her, right?"

So much, he thinks. So very very much. But it's not the confessing thing that throws him off. He's told her how much he cares about her, but it never feels like enough.

All he can manage is a nod while he tries not to shrink in on himself.

"But you haven't told her?"

He shrugs, lips pursing briefly. It's not like that at all. He's pretty sure she knows that, at the very least, he loves her.

"I'm not trying to grill you," Leonardo says. "I'm trying to help. We can all tell that Melanie makes you really happy and...I've been in the position where I've struggled to move things to the next step, so I want to help."

That's new. Leonardo? Helping him? With girls? "Dunno," he says. "Sorry."

Leonardo stares at him for a long second, then lets out a short, huffing laugh through his nose. "You know, now I'm wishing I could read your desires," he says. He glances at the door, then leans closer. "What does Melanie like? Maybe you could get her flowers?"

She told Diaval once that, for her sixteenth birthday, her family planned a big surprise party and it was the greatest day ever. She felt like a princess. "Mhm...yeah, lots of flowers. Lights." He tilts his head. "Maybe...make a path to walk down. She likes surprises."

"I'll call Karai and we'll ask to borrow one of the dojo rooms. We'll plan something for you, alright? Des will probably help."

Diaval's heart speeds up again, excitement coursing through his veins. On the outside, he nods, his lip twitching at the side. "'Kay. Thanks, Leo."

The door opens and the girls return, giggling over something said while out of earshot as they take their seats. Leonardo welcomes them back with a bright smile, cool and unconcerned, and Diaval tries to relax even as his entire being goes haywire with nerves.

----------

"This is gonna be fantastic!"

Diaval isn't so sure. His stomach's tied in knots and he might throw up the little bit of tea and biscuits he ate at lunch. What if Melanie hates it? What if she rejects him? What if it's all too much? Diaval knows that, if he were on the other side of this, he'd turn around and walk out the second he saw a single rose.

But Melanie...won't, right?

Leonardo works quickly, he'll give him that. He not only got most of his family together, pronto, but they already gathered decorations fit for romance that certainly don't seem like anything they would have just lying around—rose petals, tiny tea candles, colourful paper hearts. Destiny and Sarina work together to hang said hearts from the ceiling. Michelangelo and Raphael roll out a long red carpet that Karai had tucked away in a back storage room. Leonardo tosses petals onto the carpet while Donatello meticulously places and lights tea candles along its sides, creating a candlelit path to where Diaval will stand and wait for his love.

Diaval squints as he moves closer, pushing his glasses up his nose. He realizes that the hearts on the ceiling are cut from pizza boxes and spray-painted pink and red, then hung up with string. They're far nicer from a distance.

He's glad Melanie has an actual reason to be absent and, in turn, they all had a reason to leave the lair. She needed her alone time with Annalise to talk, which conveniently gave the rest of them time to set up what should turn out to be the most bizarre love confession they've ever seen.

Diaval's job is simple. All he has to do is be the bravest he's ever been and bare his heart to the woman who's started to put all his broken parts back together again.

"Leo, just got a text from April. They're on their way," Destiny calls. She frowns. "Annalise and Taylor aren't coming."

At the sound of her name, Raphael whips out his t-phone and starts texting, brow furrowed. Michelangelo nods, lips pursed with empathy.

Diaval jumps as he feels Destiny tug on his cloak, gently leading him to the front of the makeshift rose petal red carpet aisle. Her tail keeps wagging and he tries not to trip over his own feet.

"Just stand here," Destiny says. "We'll hide. Mikey, you've got the cannons?"

"Ready to go, my dude!" Michelangelo says, thumb up and tongue poking out.

"Everybody, grab one and prepare," Sarina urges.

The turtles each grab a confetti cannon and disappear into the rafters. Destiny shuts off the lights before she and Sarina duck behind poles closer to where Diaval now stands, suddenly alone in a dark room, illuminated only by the gentle flickering of candles, bathed in red and pink.

His palms feel damp. His heart won't rest.

Don't panic.

Don't think about what she might say.

Picture the best case scenario?

The room is very dark. The candlelight is too dim.

He hears voices in the hallway, doors opening. Karai, smoothly telling the group that everyone's in that door just down the hall. Melanie...sweet, sweet Melanie, thanking her for showing them the way.

He can do this.

The door slides open and Melanie steps inside, Casey, April, and Karai directly behind her. She stops dead, a gasp flying from her lips.

"Diaval?" she asks.

He bows his head for a second, then waves at her. He hears someone above him stifle a laugh and his cheeks burn. Melanie takes a few more steps towards him, gazing in awe at the candles and the ceiling, the atmosphere they've created.

"What..." She lets out a laugh, pressing one hand to her heart. "Oh my gosh..."

She hurries up the aisle to Diaval and he sucks in a breath, lets it out. She's so beautiful in this light and suddenly, he isn't nervous anymore. He reaches out and takes her hand, heart in his throat. Her touch doesn't sting, doesn't make him want to turn away and wait for it to be over.

"Marry me," he says.

Silence. Silence so still he could hear a fly scurry up the far wall. Melanie's eyes go wide, hand still pressed over her heart as she starts to smile.

A confetti canon goes off above them and they both jump, Melanie stumbling into Diaval's chest, and he hugs her close immediately. Streamers and glitter rain down on them, sticking in his hair, in hers.

"Mazel tov!" Michelangelo cries.

"What?!" Leonardo's voice, stunned, choked.

"Holy shit!" Casey howls.

A grunt, a hushed warning to stay quiet. April.

Diaval blinks. Oh, right, he forgot the most important part.

He steps away from Melanie, hastily drops to one knee, and starts digging for the ring he's carried in his pocket for months now. "Hold on," he mumbles.

"Leo, you said this was a love confession!" Raphael exclaims from somewhere above them.

"I thought it was!"

"Shut up and let her answer!" Destiny shouts.

Melanie bursts out laughing and Diaval finally grasps the box, gripping it tight as he pulls it from its hiding spot. He fumbles trying to open it—where's the hinge? He can't see, not when the box is black velvet and the room is dark and he can hear the others arguing above and around him—

Melanie reaches out, turning the box over in his hands, guiding him to the right spot, and he finally pops it open. A simple ring lays inside, a plain gold band with a trio of tiny star-shaped diamonds. Oscar helped him pick it out.

"Yes," Melanie whispers. She drops to her knees in front of him, reaching her hand out, and he presses his cheek to her palm. "Yes, I'll marry you! Oh, Diaval—"

He kisses her before he can think about it too much. For a second, his spine crawls, but he closes his eyes and lets himself focus on her warmth, on the smell of cloves lingering in her hair.

She said yes. She actually wants to marry him.

He pulls away and she's got tears rolling down her face despite her laughter. "You didn't have to do that," she breathes, lightly touching her mouth.

He shakes his head. "Wanted to," he promises her. She never forces him to do anything he doesn't want to and, this time, he really wanted to.

There's commotion around them, abandoned confetti cannons hitting the floor, confused yet happy voices trying to piece together what's happened. Melanie is smiling, smiling so brightly, and there are glittery silver pieces stuck in her hair and resting on her shoulders and she loves him. He loves her.

He never thought he would have that.

And now she'll be his forever.