Leo dresses in the near-dark, with only a soft flicker of moonlight to glint off the mirror. Not that he couldn't get dressed blindfolded by now, so intimately does he know its ever stitch and plate. He tends to it with care and wears it with pride, as a good chunin should.
The armor settles around the upper half of his body like a cloak, rippling with his muscles as he cycles through a few morning stretches. Leo pauses to scrap a spare bit of crusted blood off one pauldron and flick it away, before pausing to tuck in some knives and lock picks here and there.
Then he shakes out the scarf, looping it around his neck. Impractical, Karai had sneered when she'd first seen it. But impractical is the point. It's meant to tempt enemies into snatching for it, so that they stumble into his reach. It's meant to show off the fact that no one's ever been able to snatch it from him, no matter how fast they think they are.
Pulling on the mask feels a lot like it did when it was blue, before the rat betrayed them, before the fire, before... Leo glances into the mirror, reminding himself who and where he is. His color is black now, the shade of relentless hearts and endless nights. It suits him.
Next, he reluctantly turns to the leg wrappings. He's suspected that there's going to be a problem since he started getting dressed, and he doesn't really want to deal with it, but there's no use in trying to put it off forever.
The foot wrappings go on easily enough, strong and secure on his feet. Leo takes his time with the leg wrappings, tugging and pulling, trying to figure it out... But no joy.
He steps back and takes a better look at himself, arms crossed over his chest. The bite mark on his thigh, small and distinct, glares back. It's at least an inch above the top of his wrappings. Scrapes and bruises fade quickly on him, but bites like these take a bit more time.
"Damn," he mutters.
Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he was wearing something like his old gear. But all these wrappings technically cover more of his legs, they also draw more attention to the space from just above his knees to his waist, which is now the most exposed part of his body.
"Easy access," Master Shredder had muttered last night with a devilish grin, as he'd grabbed Leo by the mask tails and flipped him onto the bed.
(And he'd wanted what happened next, didn't he? It was an honor. A real honor. And it felt good, and Master Shredder had been smiling, so it was okay, wasn't it?)
Not an issue in the thick of battle, but when he actually has to talk to people, the chances of it being noticed go up. Leo tugs harder on the wrappings, but it doesn't make much of a difference. In fact, it only draws his attention to another, smaller bite on his other thigh.
And he...he doesn't want people to see. He doesn't know why, but it feels important. The thought of... someone seeing like this makes his blood go cold. Karai, maybe? And yet somehow it doesn't feel quite right.
"Is my little chunin feeling vain this morning?" a voice teases, cutting his thoughts off. Master Shredder appears over his shoulder, smirking. Shit. Leo hadn't even heard him get up.
"M-master!" He spins, bowing awkwardly. "I, um..." His hands instinctively fly to cover the marks, which of course draws Master Shredder's eye to them immediately.
"Hmm." He crosses to Leo's side and takes hold of his hands, pulling them away. "Are you ashamed?"
Leo swallows hard, looking away. "I..."
His master roughly spins him, turning Leo to face the mirror again. "Do you want to hide who you belong to?" he whispers. "Do you think you could, if you wanted?" His eyes are bright over Leo's shoulder.
"No, Master," Leo whispers. He watches Master's Shredder brush against his leg wrappings and travel up, gently rubbing one bite and then another.
"I want them to see," Master Shredder whispers. "I want him," and Leo knows who he's talking about, although he doesn't know why the idea makes his breath catch, "to see what you are. What I've made you into." Leo can't tear his eyes away from their entangled reflections. "Don't you?"
"Y-yes, Master." He does. He wants whatever his Master wants.
"Very good." His master leans down and tugs the scarf away, planting a kiss. "Now, let's see if I can't mark you a bit more before we go." He wraps an arm around Leo's chest, pulling him close.
No. For some reason it appears on the tip of Leo's tongue, but he narrows his eyes and shoves it back down. He wants this, of course, he does. He stares into the glass and wills himself to believe it.
Master Shredder kisses him again, harder, with more than a hint of teeth. Leo lets out a soft sigh, but he can't tear his eyes away from the bite left on his neck, gleaming red like a cut.