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BANG!!!
She awoke with a start to the sound of thunder crashing, a scream escaping her throat. Reflexively her hands flew up to cover her ears, her body stiffening and curling in on itself for protection. She stayed like that for several seconds after the thunder had stopped rumbling above ground, breathing hard through her nose.
When she was finally able to relax her muscles, she opened her eyes, trying to remember where she was. She sat up slowly, and her head spun. There was almost no light in the room, but as her wits returned she remembered she was in the lair. She’d been drinking with Raph and Mikey, trying to keep up with them shot per shot. She had failed miserably, giving up long before them. She must have passed out, because she didn’t remember being on the couch where she was now covered in blankets. Everyone else must have gone to bed. Even the lights from Donnie’s computers were dimed.
She could hear the rain from above falling down into the storm drain, gushing loudly through the trench that runs through the lair. “Must really be coming down,” she mumbled to herself. She was still a little drunk, which was helping with the anxiety caused by the thunder. There weren’t very many things that she could honestly say she was afraid of, but thunder was on that short list. Luckily, down in the sewer she couldn’t see the lightning, but the wide metal piping and caverns that the turtles called home only seemed to amplify the booms of the storm raging above.
CRACK!!!
Screaming again, her body automatically went back to its curled up position. The sudden noise was followed by a drawn out rumble that kept her heart racing. She started grinding her teeth, jamming her palms harder over her ears to tune out the sound. This helped a bit, but she could feel the waves of sound all the way to her bones, making her sick with the fear.
“Woah! What’s wrong?” She heard him and felt his hand on her back at the same time. She was so focused on tuning out the storm that she hadn’t noticed Raph approach her. She started again, this time throwing herself off the couch accidentally. Raph’s reflexes kicked in and he caught her before her head hit the floor.
The thunder had subsided for the moment, and she stayed in Raphael’s arms, trying to catch her breath. Her nails dug into his forearm as she clung to him, and some part of her worried that she was hurting him, but she couldn’t let go quite yet.
The look on the red clad turtle’s face was a mixture of perplexity and worry. He didn’t understand what could have spooked her so thoroughly. He’d never seen her like this, and it scared him.
“Th-thunder,” she said, trying to explain. She was taking deep breaths, starting to calm down now. She let go of his arm, scrambling off his lap where she’d landed. She hoped it was dark enough so that he couldn’t see how badly she was blushing, both from the intimate contact and from embarrassment of being afraid of something as silly as thunder.
“You’re a’scared ‘uh thunder? For real?” He didn’t bother hiding his disbelief.
She didn’t get to answer as another sharp clap echoed through the common area they were in, and she screamed again. Raph was surprised at this point no one else was coming to see what all the racket was about.
He cleared his throat, uncomfortable with the situation. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, unsure what he could do to help. “Uhh, I mean, it’s just thunder…”
She wanted to be mad, but then again, she didn’t expect him to understand it. She didn’t have a reason to be so crippled by something so natural. She knew it couldn’t hurt her. But that didn’t stop the fear from existing, from contracting and flexing in her brain, convincing her that she was in danger and something was wrong. Another loud clap of thunder sounded, and she flinched hard, and choked back a small sob as tears of frustration slipped from her eyes. She hid her face from her friend, burying it deep into her pillow. She didn’t want him to see the fear, and more than that, she didn’t want him to see her shame.
Raph picked up on this and dropped his unease. He was sitting cross legged in front of the couch, and he picked her up off the couch easily, like she weighed nothing at all, and cradled her close to his chest. She didn’t protest, just buried her face against the softer flesh of his shoulder, still wanting to hide from him.
“You don’t gotta be scared no more,” he said to her softly. He hated seeing her like this, and worse, he hated not knowing really how to handle it. He didn’t know if he was helping or not, but she didn’t pull away from him. As the storm above ground raged on, every time the thunder roared she would jerk, her reflexes telling her to hide from it. Each time she jerked, he’d just hold her a little tighter, until she started to cough because he was squeezing her just a bit too tight. He laughed sheepishly and loosened his hold on her.
Being shielded by his huge arms and chest did help her to relax, and as the storm died away she started to doze off again. Raph noticed her grip on him go slack, her head starting to lull to the side. He considered putting her back on the couch and going back to bed, but what if the storm started up again? He didn’t want her to wake up alone again, just in case. So he turned his body so his back was leaning on the couch, her still cradled in his arms, and settled in for the night.
The movement roused her slightly, enough for her to whisper a ‘thanks’ to him. She didn’t have the energy to reach his cheek, so she settled for placing a soft kiss on his neck, causing a shiver to run up his spine. He felt his face heat up, and was glad she was already sleeping, or he’d never live it down.
By morning, she woke up on the couch with a slight hangover, alone. When she found Raphael in the kitchen, she knew better than to bring up the night before. She smiled shyly, thanking him with the look in her eyes. He coughed, shuffling his feet, obviously bashful about showing his softer side. He nodded in acknowledgement.
The next time there was a thunderstorm, the first thing she did was head for Raph’s room.