A Turtle's Heart

Nightmares

The rest of the day was pretty chill. The three hung out, mostly listening to Donnie rant about a project he was working on. Raph mostly listened just to let his brother feel heard, Y/N was genuinely interested in the science behind everything he said and asked plenty of questions Donnie was happy to answer.

They did this until about 3:00 when April ran into the lair with a big grin.

"Donnieeeeee! I got the pain meds you asked for, how is Y/N?!" April spoke quickly and loudly. Donnie had texted April the day before and explained what happened to Y/N and asked her to get some pain meds from the pharmacy as he couldn't do so himself. She happily obliged and did so as quickly as she could.

"Nice, not so loud though, thank you!" Donnie smiled, taking the bottle out of her hands and heading out of his lab to get a glass of water and the right amount of pills for Y/N.

"I am so sorry that happened to you, Y/N, I'm here to help, anything you need, ya girl April's got you! You can stay with me if you want, I know these boys can be a bit rambunctious," April hugged Y/N, happy they were okay. Y/N flinched at April's quick movements but sank into the hug, hugging her back.

"Im alright here, I feel safe here," Y/N assured, glancing over at Raph. Raph smiled sweetly.

"Although, I do need school work, do you think you can cover for me and bring me the work I miss until I'm healed?" Y/N added after a moment, breaking the hug. April agreed and turned to Raph.

"You better take care of them!" She pointed at the red clad terrapin and glared at him. Raph put his hands up defensively and chuckled, promising he was.

"Okay, well, my mom is expecting me home soon, I better be off," April said, her tone much calmer again as he waved goodbye to her friends and dashed out the door.

Donnie returned with a cup of water and some Advil.

"Here, this should help with the pain," Donnie handed Y/N the water and Advil. Y/N took the Advil with a swig of water and thanked the soft shell, handing him back the half full cup of water.

Donnie took the water and set it on his desk.

For the rest of the day, Y/N shuffled around the lair with the boys, watching them play dance dance in the arcade, eating lunch with Raph and Leo, beating Mikey's high score on the pinball machine in the arcade, and enjoying themself. Anything to take their mind off the events of the day before.

When dinner came and the five teenagers all ate pizza together, Y/N felt relaxed and genuinely happy.

After pizza, Y/N made an early retirement to bed to try and speed through the healing process and just generally being exhausted helped too.

This is when things took a turn for the worst...

——-

"What?! Hello?!" I shouted into the inky blackness around me. There was no one.

"Hello?!!" I shouted again. Still no reply. Surprisingly my sides didn't hurt when I moved.

I walked through the darkness, hoping to find someone or some sign of where I was. Where am I, how did I get here?"

"Y/N" hissed a voice eerily unfamiliar. I spun around to see Pudgy, but small, before his mutation.

"Pudgy!" I smiled and ran forward. I ran but I didn't get anywhere.

Suddenly, Pudgy grew and mutated. I stopped running and stumbled back in shock, falling over but of course not getting any farther away from him.

Pudgy stared at me before shrieking and taking off into the infinite darkness above me. He flew until i could no longer see him. Crap.

Just as I thought it couldn't get worse, something begins falling down towards me. As it speeds closer I can recognize my parents. Their mangled corpuses hit the ground in front of me, earning a startled yelp. I covered my mouth, tears threatening to fall if I blinked.

I stood up, staring down at the dead bodies before me.

"Mom... Dad..." I mumbled. That was all I needed and the tears began to pour from my eyes like waterfalls, the grief and registration of it all was too much to bear and hold in any longer.

I nearly broke down but held my tongue when I saw my parents move.

"What.." I murmured, hand still over my mouth, as my parents slowly began twitching. Then...

They stood up.

The blood gushing from their blown out chests was enough to make the strongest stomach twist as they began moving unnaturally, contorting their bodies, growing. Changing.

The creatures in front of me were no longer my parents. They were big. Much bigger than me.

I felt like I could finally move and took the opportunity to spin on my heel and begin running away from the monsters. The two let out blood-curdling screeches, the ground shaking as they did so. That threw me off and I tripped over myself as the floor once below me disappeared and I began plummeting into the darkness.

——-

Y/N yelped, jolting up in bed, drenched in sweat, gasping for air.

"Huh? Wha?" Raph grumbled from his makeshift bed on the floor as their yelp had startled him awake.

Y/N did not acknowledge his confusion. They scooted back against the wall, pulling the blanket up around them, tears streaming down their face.

"Y/N? What's wrong?!" Raph sat up, now fully awake and a bit taken aback at the sight. Y/N pulled the blanket closer, unable to utter a word through their terror.

Raphael stood up and walked over to the bed, sitting on the side and looking at Y/N worriedly.

"What happened?" He asked quietly. Unable to find the words, Y/N simply crawled forward out of the blanket and hugged the large turtle. Raph didn't say anything else. He hugged Y/N back, pulling them into his lap and close to his plastron as Y/N began to sob again.

"Let it out. You don't have to say anything. Im right here. You are safe," Raph began to whisper, rubbing Y/N's back and gently rocking them as they cried.

For the next half hour, Raph repeated the same things as Y/N slowly calmed down.

Finally, Y/N had stopped crying and looked up at Raph, who watched them with worried eyes.

"Thanks Raph.. I. I had a nightmare." Y/N stated in a hoarse voice. Raph nodded and continued to rub their back.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, resting his hands on the bed beside him as Y/N sat in his lap. Y/N shook their head and felt their sides, wincing as the Advil had begun to wear off by now as it was well after 2 am.

"Okay, I think you should get some rest, I'll be right here," Raph smiled, gesturing to the floor beside the bed.

"Could.. could you stay here? I don't want to sleep alone right now. What if I have another nightmare?" Y/N's voice was shaky and full of fear. Raph couldn't just leave them to sleep in fear.

"Okay, I can do that," he agreed, rubbing his neck as blush crept up his face.

Raph set Y/N down on the bed and lied down beside them. Y/N took a shaky breath and pulled the blanket back over themself. Raph watched as the teen tossed and turned for a minute before becoming comfortable facing Raph.

"Night Raph," Y/N mumbled. Raph replied with the same and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, Raphael's eyes shot open when he felt the bed move and Y/N rest their head against his plastron. He didn't move. He couldn't move.

There was a long moment of silence before Raph realized Y/N had already passed out when he heard a soft snore. Raph smiled, happy he made Y/N feel safe enough to be able to fall back to sleep and allowed himself so drift off as well.