Fem!Reader who doesn't know how to swim being taught by Leo?
So... this ended up a LOT longer than I meant for it to... welp no going back now! Hope you enjoy! (I LOVED this prompt! Thank you for such an inspirational first request!)
Word Count: 1729
Leo2012xF!reader
He learns that you don’t know how to swim in the middle of a mission
It’s a bit dramatic (welcome to being part of Leo’s life, babe)
You two are at the docks on a simple scouting mission gone wrong. Long story short, explosions, running to the water, the works.
You reach the end of the dock and suddenly stop, he nearly knocks you over as he runs into you
“Y/N! Why’d you stop? What’s wrong?”
“Funny story… I can't swim.”
There’s not much time to think with the approaching enemies, so without another word he looks between his options- fight or swim- and scoops you up into his arms, telling you to hold your breath.
He swims quickly into the nearest sewer pipe (less than 30 seconds to get there even while carrying you, not surprising considering he’s a turtle but still impressive)
He carefully places you on a ledge above the water, treading water just below you, a hand still on your back.
“You alright?”
“A little shaken up, but I’m fine. Thanks, Leo.“
“Let’s get back to the lair. I think we should have Donnie check up on you just to make sure. We should update the team on what we found anyway.”
/Later/
After you get the go ahead from Dr. Donnie, Leo comes up to you after a particularly tough training session the next day to make an offer
“Hey Y/N, about the docks-”
You perk up almost immediately at the sound of your name coming from his mouth
“Yeah, Leo?”
He blushes a little, but only takes a moment to regain himself.
”Well I was thinking that maybe you’d want some swimming lessons? Considering that I- er- we may not always be around to carry you. I’m free after my meditation today if that’s alright with you.”
It’s cute that he’s so decisive on missions but panics when talking to a certain femme fetale in more casual settings.
“That would be wonderful, Leo! Thank you so much. I’ll run and get my bathing suit from my apartment then!”
/1 hour later/
You follow Leo to a clean pool of the sewer (Donnie says it’s part of the water purification process? Kinda gross to think about but definitely clean according to all his tests.)
The water is a little warmer than you expected, which is nice.
Leo leads you through some stretches (he’s always a stickler for the rules, isn’t he?), and as you mirror his moves, you can’t help but admire his muscles. He pretends to not notice.
“Alright! Ready? We’re gonna start with floating. You just have to relax and not panic. Trust me, I’m right here. Besides the water’s pretty shallow, haha”
He rubs the back of his head, clearly nervous.
“Now I’m going to place my hands under your back just for balance, after a little while I’ll move them one by one and let you float on your own. Just remember to relax and you’ll float just fine!”
You hold a bar next to you as Leo slowly and carefully turns you on your back so that you can float on the water. As he gives you a minute to acclimate to the feeling, you try your best to keep your breath steady. Even though you’re being held by a very strong turtle that you feel very strongly about. Yup. Completely normal. Not nervous at all.
“Feeling alright? You seem a bit panicked.”
“Oh yeah I’m just, uh, a little nervous, you know? Haven’t tried swimming in a while haha.”
(which isn’t a complete lie, I suppose)
“You have nothing to worry about. We can go as slow as you need, just relax your body and I’ll only move one hand at a time so that you’re not completely on your own until you’re ready.”
A few minutes pass and you feel one of his hands slowly leave your upper back, leaving only one at the center of your spine. You tense a little, and feel his hand return. A bit more faintly than before, but still there.
“Y/N, I told you that you have nothing to worry about. Trust me and just relax, you got this.”
You take a deep, calming breath. You got this. Leo believes in you. He moves his hand so that you’re once again balancing on just one, but this time you feel lighter. He’s still holding you, but you feel almost weightless.
“You’re doing amazing! We’ll wait another minute and I’ll let you float on your own, okay?”
Leo’s obviously proud of you, but also a little proud of himself. It’s not easy to stay calm when he’s literally holding his beautiful crush in his hands for minutes on end.
“Yeah, okay. I can do that. This is easier than I thought!”
A minute later and you feel his hand carefully sink, and your body follows for a moment before relaxing and free-floating.
“You’re doing it! Wonderful job. Try to hold it on your own for a little bit, okay? You’re doing amazing!”
He moves his hand to your arm, just to keep you from floating away to deeper parts of the pool.
There are some moments where your focus falters and you start to sink, but Leo stays vigilant and offers kind words and gentle squeezes on your arm to keep you relaxed. After a minute or two has passed, you feel his hand move down your arm to your hand.
“Is this okay? I thought it might be nice to just float together for a minute.”
“Yeah sure! Morethanokaywithme!”
He misses that last part, partly because it was very mumbled, partly because he’s too busy trying to keep his own cool.
You feel a shift in the water as he moves to float, and you lose your focus for a moment too long. Another shift in the water, another tensed muscle, and you feel yourself start to sink. You’re about to call for Leo’s help, but he’s already gently reset your position with his hand under your back again.
“You still okay, Y/N?”
Deep breath.
“Yeah, thanks Leo.”
He takes your relaxing as a go-ahead to try floating together, carefully sliding his hand from your lower back to your hand and joining you in floating.
You float like this for a few minutes, his cool hand in your warm one as you float together, as the gentle undercurrent directs you both in laps around the pool. At some point, you’ve drifted into an almost meditative trance, your eyes closed just enjoying the sensations around you without having to think about floating.
You feel Leo’s weight shift again, and you’re pulled out of your trance and to the edge of the pool.
“I think you’ve gotten comfortable enough floating, let’s do some kicks and strokes.”
He places your hands on the pool’s edge and tells you to watch him as he demonstrates the basics of kicking.
“Just keep your hands on the wall and try to keep your kicks strong and consistent.”
You do what he says, and after a little bit of flailing, you start to get the hang of it. One strong kick after another, you start to develop a bit of a rhythm.
“You’re a quick learner, Y/N! A few more minutes and we’ll try some off of the wall.”
As he counts down 2 more minutes of kicks, he starts to notice how nice you look in your bathing suit. He can’t help but to admire the muscles you’ve acquired from training with the ninja these past few months.
And you can’t help but notice him noticing.
He notices you noticing him noticing, and decides to move on before either of you can acknowledge all of that.
“A-alright let’s move on to using those kicks. Just hold onto me and kick, I’ll steer, just worry about controlling the speed.”
He places your hands on his upper plastron and his hands lay gently on your shoulders. You two make brief eye contact before you both blush and turn away for a moment before getting back to the task at hand.
He gently pulls you so that you straighten out onto your stomach, and you start to slowly and deliberately kick to get some momentum going. You kick a little harder than he expected, so your head pushes against his chest at first. He’s taken aback for a moment, but soon regains his composure and starts swimming backwards to match your pace.
You continue in a sort of dance around the pool together, swimming as one. Occasionally you bump into one another, but Leo is as encouraging as always.
After a few minutes, Leo pulls the two of you to a gentle stop in the shallow end of the pool.
“You’re doing great, Y/N! Do you want to try some strokes?”
You get a bit lost in his eyes, having forgotten that this wasn’t some kind of dream.
“Oh, um, sure! You’re the leader after all, lead away!”
Leo lets you go and stands a few feet away to demonstrate the strokes, which you notice are essentially the stretches from earlier. Your eyes respectfully wander a little, but once again he quietly blushes and pretends not to notice.
You mirror his moves and soon, you’re practicing them in the water with his hands on your waist. Next thing you know, the pressure of his hands is gone and you’re swimming all on your own!
You touch the side of the deep end of the pool, turning to see Leo a few feet behind you, beaming at your success. He makes a quick dive towards you.
“Y/N! I knew you could do it!”
Followed by a quick hug before he remembers that you are, in fact, treading water, and he pulls away, but his hands linger on your hips. You both tread water for a moment, admiring each other’s victory gleams, before you’re interrupted by the beeping of an alarm.
“Ahem! Sounds like we finished just in time. Maybe we could do this again soon? Same time next week maybe.”
"Sounds perfect, Leo. Thanks for this, I really had fun! ^^”
He falters for a moment before helping you up and over the edge of the pool, reaching for the towels on a nearby pipe, and, ever the gentleman, offers one to you before drying himself off.