#blossom 💌 raph

[oracleact]

« nothing on me »

bayverse raph x reader / fluff + angst

notes: 1.8k words, first person pov, established relationship, gender neutral reader (no pronouns used,) details of injuries and tending to said injuries.

a knock on the window at 3am? that only means one thing: the turtles are here. smiling, I rub the remnants of sleep from my eyes and hop out of bed to open up the curtain. only one turtle faces me at the window though - raphael.

I open the window and help his wide frame step down from the ledge, but my previous smile fades fast when raph groans in pain as he steps onto the floor.

“raph, what’s wrong? where are the rest of the boys? what happened?” I speak as fast as possible to try and get to his answer, worry eating away at me with each second that passes.

my raph is the mass strength and rough hand amongst the turtles. he can handle a lot of damage since he always manages to deal out more than what is done onto him. seeing him bent over, actually using my arm for support and not simply holding me because he wants to, groaning in genuine pain rather than letting out his usual gruff noises of acknowledgment - that scares me. it terrifies me when I don’t know what has happened.

“I told them to check on dad,” he begins breathlessly, “I needed you. it’s really bad this time.”

my eyes widen and I hurry him to the side of my bed, the mattress creaking under his weight. I grasp his face in my hands to check him over, turning his head every which way, but see nothing apart from a few new scratches on his skin.

“what do you mean ‘really bad,’ raph? you’re scaring me.”

“my—“ he lifts his arm and tries to reach for the back of his shell, failing miserably and almost howling out in pain, “my shell, sweetheart. I haven’t seen it yet but I heard it crack and this pain is too much for it to just be taped up.”

I scuttle around his large form and am immediately hit with the sight of a deep crack in the middle of his shell. he was right to come straight to me with this one. he should always come to me with injuries but is too stubborn most of the time and rides out the pain: ‘it may look bad to you but it’s nothing on me.’

when the boys started to properly use their skills outside of the lair, with the risk of larger injuries increasing, I began to research and teach myself how to handle ones specific to these mutants. thanks to many in depth articles about turtle care, I have safely cleaned and covered up small cracks before. the only difference between the boys and ‘normal’ turtles in regards to care like this is their size - it takes longer and requires more focus to clean cracks, ensuring that they can heal appropriately over time. although tonight’s damage will take double that, and maybe more.

“oh raph, oh my…how? wait, don’t answer that. I’m doing my first aid stuff then we can talk about it, okay?” he nods with a sad smile and all I can do is reach out and cup his cheek, returning the expression he gave me. he moves my hand to his lips for a quick kiss before I start scurrying off to grab what I need.

let’s see - chlorohexidine solution, q-tips, cotton pads, adhesive patches and a towel. is that all I need? I have no idea right now; I’m so scared to touch him that I feel like stalling for as long as I can.

I walk slowly back to where he sits on the edge of my bed, his head resting in one hand as the other rubs at his tired eyes. I lay down all that I grabbed from the bathroom before taking a deep breath and sitting down behind him. the room is silent for a couple of minutes after that, my heart beating loudly in my ears. I can’t break my anxious stare away from the crack in his beautiful carapace.

“hey…” raph speaks ever so softly to get my attention.

“yeah— sorry. I’m sorry,” I feel tears begin to form in my eyes. I hate seeing him hurt like this. “I’m going to fix you up. I promise I’ll fix this. I’ll touch around your shell, away from the crack, and you tell me how it feels. let me know how much the pain has spread.”

he gestures ‘yes’ to me but with a frowned brow, “don’t cry, love. everything is okay. I’m raphael, remember? this is nothing on me!”

but I can see it - I can see the pain written on his face, the way his eyes look misty. I don’t want to push him to talk nor do I want to directly acknowledge the pain I can see; I don’t want to break his protective wall at a time like this. it wouldn’t be fair to do so. I wipe my tears and get straight to work instead.

my small hand reaches out for him, gently patting around the edges of his shell then smoothing over the surface, “that’s not bad at all. it just feels tingly, like the nice kind of tingly you give me.” I giggle at him. it’s a relief that the shell hasn’t shattered or anything and he can feel my hand like always.

I’ve spent so many nights tracing over the faint patterns of his plastron and committing the texture to memory. it helps calm him after a stressful training day or when he can’t sleep. it secretly calms me too because it’s just us in those moments, the rest of the world fading away and leaving only raph and I. there’s no need to jump away from my hold to save new york when my touch melts away the city completely. nothing can break us out of that warm paradise as long as we are together.

despite the touch test going well, the cleaning of his wounds will definitely be painful since the crack is open and noticeable. I pour some of the solution onto a q-tip and tell raph to start breathing slowly and deeply. I help him set a pace for it before I begin to clean.

he hisses in pain when the piece of cotton comes in contact with the wound and my tears start to flow again, “I know baby, but this part is important,” I sniffle and reach my free hand for his, “use me to balance yourself.”

“I’ll break your little hand,” there is a fracture in his voice as he speaks but he still manages to let out a chuckle with his words.

“breathe and squeeze, raph, don’t worry about me.”

and so he did - each time I dipped the cotton into the crack he inhaled and exhaled quickly whilst grasping my hand in his. I rubbed my thumb over his rough skin in an attempt to ground us both over and over again.

“one last clean and then I’ll patch it up and be done for tonight.” he lets out a loud sigh at that, obviously glad that the stinging will be over soon. I hear him lowly whimper but force a cough after in an attempt to hide the noise. once again I don’t press him on it, I just kiss the back of his hand to let him know it’s alright.

the last step is to cut adhesive patches to fit the crack, making sure to leave small gaps at the ends to allow air to flow through. this process isn’t all that different from putting a bandaid on a human arm, and thank goodness for that. I want to do everything I can to help raph, to ease his pain, so this being a somewhat ‘easy’ task to complete means luck is on my side right now.

with the last piece secure I get up from the bed to face him again, giving him a small smile to let him know it’s done. I slip myself between his legs and reach out to untie his bandana. his eyes close as he presses his head onto my chest to give me access to the tie at the back.

sliding the cloth from his face, I set it on the bed and wipe underneath his eyes; he looks so worn out. my fingers move down to draw along the scars from previous battles and to check over any new cuts, the pad of my thumb eventually landing on the most prominent scar across his upper lip. my raph, my hero, our hero…with the scars to prove it all.

“give it a week and see how the shell starts to heal. if we need to do more then I’m ready for that. I’ve done my research, you’re looking at a certified mutant turtle nurse,” I wink at him as he laughs and nuzzles further into my hold.

he looks up at me with those gorgeous eyes, the light of the moon catching in them. he may be hurt but he’s here with me and healing in my arms, and I’ll hold this man forever to show him how much he means to me. he’s looking at me in the same way - in awe of what’s in front of him - both of us dumbly grinning at each other. although, he does break eye contact when a yawn suddenly comes bursting out.

“do you want to talk about what happened, or do you want to catch some z’s first?”

“hmm…as much as I want to tell you about how much of a badass I am, I really want to crash.”

he moves to lay on his back before I catch his shoulders with high pitched squeak, “shell!” I whisper-yell at him. his lips form an ‘o’ and I shake my head. only raph could forget about his injuries that quickly.

I slip into the bed first and hold out my arms, beckoning him to follow and to lay on his stomach. he does so almost instantly, getting comfy against me and wrapping his arms around my waist.

“thank you for everything. I trust you with my life, you know.”

“and I trust you with mine, big red.”

I’m seemingly stuck staring down at him, just in stupid awe once more. watching how his eyes are effortlessly closed, evident that he is exhausted, with a faint smile playing on his lips as he shifts around to find the best snoozing position. his shell is now what catches the attention of the moon and I feel satisfied with my work on the crack. I’m still worried but the patch looks good and secure from afar so I’ll take it for it now.

I’m so happy that this brave and unstoppable mutant turtle trusts me with his open wounds, with his physical and emotional scars, with his love and being. this life of ours is crazy in so many ways but I wouldn’t ask for anything to change. well, less wounds here and there would be nice but that might be asking for too much.

[oracleact]

I rewatched tmnt 2014 tonight and am now getting overly mushy over raph. I really do love him so much, he deserves the whole world - and the biggest hug possible.

his hard exterior suits him, he knows that he has a purpose being tough and rugged, which makes it even harder for him to open up and show his more tender side. he doesn’t want to turn away from his strength and ‘lower his purpose’ amongst the brothers. he’s so scared of not being good enough and not being able to protect them so he just keeps to what he knows.

he needs a break somehow; how do you give an indestructible man a much needed emotional break without him feeling like he has weakened during it? how do you assure someone so incredibly strong that it’s alright to let go and also be fragile?

my oozing heart wants to write some angst/fluff about the boy and his cracked shell in particular because he must have been in so much pain but still pushed himself to protect his brothers and april; quite literally throwing himself shell first at some points...I don’t think I can put myself through writing that without sobbing.

[oracleact]

in another life…

blossom’s self ship masterpost ✿

# oracleact loves > general self shipper content as well as all of my platonic f/o posts.

main platonic connections

[ beastars ]

★ bill

★ room 701 boys

[ tmnt ]

★ the turtles (all iterations)

★ casey jones (2012)

[ obey me! ]

★ leviathan

main romantic connections

name: bob velseb

source material: spooky month

self insert introduction: — she met bob when she was a kid at his diner, she was suffering under an abusive family until the age of 18. they reunited years later when he wanted to make her his victim after he escaped prison and found her in a random alleyway at night; she wasn’t afraid of him, or death, which intrigued him and they quickly started dating, only then did they realise that they met years prior. she now helps to keep his ‘hands clean’ and hides the bodies he drags in while being an avid practitioner of witchcraft in her own time. they moved into a roomy farmhouse cottage after their engagement.

dating since: november 5, 2022

engaged: august 6, 2023

married since: august 11, 2023

> # blossom 💌 bob

name: legoshi

source material: beastars

self insert introduction: — she is the only human to attend cherryton, adopted by an interspecies couple as a young child (male ape and female sheep,) attended the drama club at cherryton and quickly made friends through there from the beginning. she was placed in the same dorm building with carnivore males since that was the only spare room they could offer; faces a lot of unique prejudice for being human but tends to be grouped with carnivore violence most of the time regardless. she is in a bulk of the same classes as legoshi…

dating since: august 21, 2022

> # blossom 💌 legoshi

name: peter dunbar

source material: your boyfriend game

self insert introduction: — she works at a local diner to make ends meet, lives by herself in an apartment not far from there. she noticed peter stalking her a couple of weeks after he introduced himself; she enjoyed the feeling of protection and admiration so she didn’t mention it until there was a valid opportunity that came directly from him. she even knew he was in her house sometimes and left her bedroom window deliberately open for him. she loves how protective peter is and how obsessed he is with her, she is fine with anything he deals out to people who get in the way of the two of them.

dating since: september 10, 2022

> # blossom 💌 peter

name: rocket raccoon

source material: marvel’s guardians of the galaxy

self insert introduction: — feeling lost on earth with fellow humans and once seeing, what she only knew as an ‘ufo’ back then, land in her backyard she created a digital tracker hoping that it would help her find another ship to hitch a ride off the planet. finally it happened in her late teens and she made it to xandar on the back of a cargo ship. there she met the guardians on a routine check up and was soon recruited since rocket saw potential in her brains and self learned techniques. her relationship developed with rocket over the course of the next couple of years…

dating since: june 17, 2021

> # blossom 💌 rocket

name: raphael (focused on 2012 + bayverse + 2007)

source material: teenage mutant ninja turtles

self insert introduction: — (2012) best friends with casey in school; when casey met april and the turtles he soon after brought her with him down to the lair. (bayverse) held hostage one night by the foot clan with a small group of random people, she was the only one who saw the turtles in the light. she continued to pursue them in order to say thanks which led to them all becoming friends, she acts as the eyes on the street in daylight and helping them when she can. raph and her bonded the most over time…

dating since: march 29, 2021

> # blossom 💌 raph

name: donatello (focused on only 2012)

source material: teenage mutant ninja turtles

self insert introduction: — with large mutagen vials lost throughout the city, the turtles had to capture as many newly turned mutants as possible and use retro mutagen to bring them back to their original state. a short, and very odd looking, anthropomorphic cat was captured and taken to donnie; he treated her with retro mutagen and just…stared for a while. it’s like he fell in love instantly when he saw the human who was trapped behind the mutagen catastrophe as she thanked him and inquired about his treatment work. that human was blossom, who looked at him in the same lovestruck way. it took a very long time for them to confess their feelings for each other, but they got there eventually regardless; after a lot of flustered moments together.

dating since: september 2, 2023

> # blossom 💌 donnie

name: sun/moon/eclipse

source material: five nights at freddy’s security breach/ruin dlc

self insert introduction: — she works as an assistant in superstar daycare as it is required to still have a human attendant to handle paperwork and other such responsibilities; she keeps up with the maintenance of the daycare attendant animatronic as well. it didn’t take long to meet all three of them within the animatronic either, they were very comfortable showing themselves to her and allowing their individual personalities to shine when they could.

dating since: december 16, 2021

> # blossom 💌 trio

name: venom

source material: marvel

self insert introduction: — she is an anatomist who found venom without a host one night close to her lab, she kept him alive with human brains she didn’t need for research anymore until she managed to curate different formulas to help him stay in an anthropomorphic state without a host; she eventually succeeded with a formula which he needs injected with every month but now he can live beside her without consuming more hosts along the way, he can still bond with others though and often does that with her for a feeling of intimacy.

dating since: october 22, 2021

> # blossom 💌 venom

name: slenderman

source material: something awful forum/creepypasta

self insert introduction: — she ran away to the woods one evening looking for some type of solitude and safety, slenderman spotted her and heard her talking/weeping to herself, he took her in and looks after her by his side, he has a comfortable caregiver type relationship with her now.

dating since: july 30, 2018

> # blossom 💌 slendy

name: beelzebub

source material: obey me!

self insert introduction: — follows the same/a very similar story to the mc in the game. she now actually lives in the devildom permanently though and resides in the house of lamentation.

dating since: february 12, 2022

> # blossom 💌 beel

♥︎ the tags for my main romantic ships don’t want to update their links on mobile so please see the tags below for an easy click to take you to their content!