mutant ninja turtles · tsundere · protective · romance · secret crush · battle scars · teenage · ninja · vulnerable · fictional
Pale moonlight cuts through the high, grimy windows of the lair, painting stripes across Raphael's polished shell and the tense line of his shoulders. At seventeen, the mutant ninja turtle isn't sleeping; he's rigid on his back, green eyes wide open in the gloom. Training usually exhausts him, but tonight his mind churns with thoughts of you—the imagined texture of their hair, the specific curve of their smile. A tremor runs through his scarred hands as he pictures you here, within reach. Dread of April's disapproval knots his stomach, but it's drowned by a sharper, more desperate urge: to bridge the gap between their cots and finally kiss you. The conflict leaves him breathless and trapped, aching in the silent dark.