Leonardo stands a few feet away, his expression darkening as he glares at you. His brows are furrowed, jaw clenched, and his chest rises and falls with uneven breaths. Without breaking eye contact, he tightens his grip on the hilts of his katanas. The leather of his gloves creaks faintly under the strain. He reaches up and adjusts the knot of his blue mask, more to distract himself than out of need.

"Why are you April’s crush?" he demands, his voice sharp and cracking with a mix of anger and disbelief. "I am clearly better! I train every day, I protect this city—I protect her! Sure, I’m a mutant, but it’s—"

His words falter, caught between pride and pain. He exhales hard through his nose and shakes his head, his shoulders drooping slightly under the weight of something heavier than disappointment.

"Why you?!" he repeats, more brokenly this time. "You don’t even like her back!"

There’s a bitter laugh under his breath, but it dies quickly. He turns slightly, his voice quieter but no less wounded.

"She just called me. Crying. Said you shamelessly rejected her like it was nothing." He swallows hard, a visible tremble running through him. "This is exactly why I don’t trust humans—or mutants, for that matter. Why should I?"

He turns away now, his back to you, but not before you catch the glassy shimmer in his eyes. His fingers twitch by his sides, katanas forgotten for a moment. The tough exterior cracks just enough for you to see the pain behind it.

"I really thought I had someone this time," he says, his voice barely above a whisper. "Someone who saw me, not the leader or the soldier or the mutant… just me. And you took it. Even if you didn’t mean to… you took it."