As someone who has to sit a distance away from explosions to feel comfortable… I’m not projecting, at all.👀 I do enjoy fireworks! But, they can be a lot and I live in an area where the holiday is nearly three weeks of random explosions…💀
Summary: Reader foolishly thinks that moving to the ‘big city’ and starting a friendship with some rather loud individuals, had fixed a rather fundamental fear of theirs. Spoiler warning.
Tags: Second-Person POV, Reader-Insert, FEM Reader, Post-Movie: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2022), Aged-Up Character(s), Human/Turtle Relationships (TMNT), Established Relationship, Phonophobia, The boys are great partners, No Beta I Just Perish
You’d taken notice of the waning reactions you had been having towards sudden and rather explosive noises over the past few months.
Naturally with your move to New York you can easily attribute the change to the fact that not only do you currently live in one of the loudest cities in the world. One famous for never sleeping, but you had swiftly come to be friends with a rather rambunctious group of individuals.
Despite having been a part of their group for a short time, it hadn’t taken long for the eyes of the eldest Hamato brother to land on you. The snapping turtle is deceptively gentle given his size, with a spiked tail to match, his sweet demeanour evident in how he cared for the family.
Even before you found out about his teddy bear collection.
You returned his gaze, and affections when they’d boiled to the surface.
Summer rolled over the island like a crack of lightning and before long the dawn of July hung heavy in the sky.
The city plans on filling the sky with fireworks, your terrapin partner invites you to see them in his favourite spot.
Maybe you should’ve shared however.
But as you sit there, snuggled into the terrapin’s side the anticipation builds.
You’d never been up this high when fireworks had gone off.
So despite the distance from where the two of you sit to the actual epicenter of the explosion.
The force from the blast seems to ring in your chest, making your heart contract as the familiar claw of bile creeps up your neck.
Each explosion rattles your chest.
Tears well up into your eyes as you go still, panic seizing your body, leaving you unable to even articulate your need for silence.
Thankfully Raph is able to tell you’d clammed up, turning his attention to you only to find the visage of panic surely on your face.
The snapper scoops you up, descending down the building rapidly before wrenching a manhole cover open so the two of you can slip in. Placing it back once you’re both secure inside, further insulating you both from the eruptions of sound continuing above ground.
Shushing you and offering calm words as you cuddle into the hard planes of his chest.
You can feel the thumping of Raph’s heart through his plastron.
Its strong and steady beat lulls your own anxious fluttering, loosening your tongue.
You try to apologize for making him miss the show, but the snapper is quick to shut it down, offering a rather simple solution. Pulling out his phone it only takes a few moments for him to bring the live stream of the fireworks down so the two of you can still enjoy them together.
Keeping his phone on silent as the soft bursts of noise drift down to the perfect moment he’d made for you both.
You’d been thankful that your phonophobia had become more manageable since moving to New York.
Yeah sure, that case could rather easily be made that it was due to you throwing yourself into the deep end of exposure therapy; living in a city that never stops makes it unsurprisingly loud.
That being said, you had a sneaking suspicion that the team of mutant ninja turtles you’d met shortly after moving had a few things to do with it as well.
A team that had saved the city, hell, the planet.
Like it was a rather normal Tuesday to them.
Given Leo’s propensity towards pranks, some of which included some sounds on the relatively loud-end of what you’d stressed tested yourself to.
His confession had been swift.
Presented to you over a reading of his favorite comics, ones you hold dear to your own heart.
Shockingly enough he became quieter after the two of you began seeing each other, or maybe as the summer began and yawned across New York, zapping the energy out of many.
You’d completely forgotten about the holiday until Leo had invited you out to see them later that night from a spot proclaimed to be perfect by the terrapin.
He’d described it as ‘not the closest but still the best’.
Enthusiastically agreeing to the event, neglecting to even mention your fear.
It had been so long since your last attack that you hoped with your very being that your phobia was finally a thing of the past.
You aren’t okay, in fact you were finding yourself rather far from it.
White knuckling your shorts, each time the air filled with light and sound as one of the spasms rips the air from your body as you feel a tear roll down your face, the fear locking your vocal cords.
Thankfully, Leo takes notice.
Pulling your petrified expression from the colours exploding in the sky to his worried face, you try to focus but the onslaught of noise doesn’t stop as the panic grips you.
Something clicks in his expression, soon the slider slices a portal beside you both, scooping your stiff form into his arms as you both escape the oppressive noise of the fireworks.
You listen to his words of encouragement and the terrapin’s rapid apologies, offering to make it up to you however he could.
The other side of the portal opens to a field outside of the city entirely, allowing you both to look down on New York where the heart stopping explosions are now merely faint pops.
With the noise now more tolerable you cuddle into Leo’s hard chest as he massages your back, easing the tension away from your form as the brilliant hues continue to fill the air.
Maybe this is the perfect spot for the two of you for now.
You’d been grateful that your continued experiment towards curing the affliction that had been plaguing you for years had been going rather well.
Certainly the move to one of the most “hustle and bustle” areas on the planet had greatly assisted in the endeavour to shed your phonophobia like dead skin.
A process that has been exponentially hastened in your eyes thanks to the Hamato family. Meeting them so soon after moving here has given you a chance to really get to know the city.
The adjustment had been so swift that you unconsciously began to slack in your exposure therapy.
Finding peace in Donnie’s sanctuary of a lab.
Your concertized and noticeable adjustment in your behaviour easily displayed itself when Donnie would get into projects that caused a ruckus in the otherwise quiet space.
You’d typically stay regardless in order to assist the resident genius, it wasn’t a surprise to anyone that the two of you began dating. The late night engineering sessions often left the two of you greeting the dawn bleary eyed and thankful for an open bed thanks to his cot.
The soft-shell always locked his lab down tighter than ever when you would stay over; soon the terrapin included a second cot.
A surprising revelation had come about early in July.
You hadn’t thought of the upcoming display of patriotism that is the American need to blow things up. It wasn’t something you typically made time for, you were a little surprised Donnie liked them given how you’d picked up on his aversion towards loud noises he couldn’t control.
You don’t even entertain a no.
You’d already dubbed yourself cured after all.
You were confident in your ability to handle loud noises.
The soft-shell brings the two of you to a building not too far from the topside garage.
It isn’t overtly close but you don’t mind, thinking you can handle anything the display has to throw at you.
Unfortunately it isn’t enough.
You remind yourself that the noises have a set amount of time they can go off.
The explosions of the fireworks hit your chest with each flash of light and sound, making your hands shake as the panic grips you.
Donnie takes notice, the soft-shell’s hand reaches for a spot on his battle shell before he winces, making a face that echoes the sentiment of ‘why have I done this’?
Without a beat of hesitation the soft-shell manifests large purple headphones, slipping them over your ears blocking nearly all of the sounds around the two of you.
Keeping the hum of Donnie’s jetpack from reaching your auditory cortex while the fireworks become a faint thump in the background, fading fast as the terrapin flies you both away from where you’d been sitting.
You tap the soft-shell on his arm getting him to stop so you could sign that he’d taken you both far enough away.
The explosives no longer causing your soul to shake free from your flesh.
Holding your as the two of you watch the lights from the air.
A buzz reaching you from his jet pack as the terrapin cradles you close to him.
Like you’d want to be anywhere else.
You had never handled loud noises well
So it shocked your family when you moved to New York City.
It surprised them even more when you had told them that you were actually doing well in a loud city that never sleeps. The constant noise had seeped into your system allowing you to feel as though you’d really begun to conquer the fear that used to grip you so tightly.
It had been something you’d struggled with for years, nearly your entire life.
But recently, thanks to your change in environment, and a few recent additions to your friends group.
It had abated quite a bit.
The Hamato’s were fascinating.
A group formed around a kind of chaos you had yet to truly find in the world until now, a group that has come to bring peace into your life more than anything.
The terrapin had rushed into your life like a breath of fresh air into your life that, despite only knowing you for a relatively short amount of time, had grown to harbour feelings for you.
Soon summer stretched into July and before you knew it.
It hadn’t been something you’d sought out in the past for obvious reasons, but with Mikey asking you to attend the festivities with him from a bit of a distance.
You jumped at the opportunity.
When you arrive, it’s no surprise that the box turtle has put together a small sitting area for the two of you to enjoy the lights.
It’s a lovely and romantic gesture, one you’re eager to take.
Everything is perfect, your heart swells until, the first explosion stretches across
Your heart squeezes, painfully, each burst rocking your frame with panic as you attempt to push down the fear you had hoped had been buried in your soul.
Mikey’s speaking to you but it isn’t registering, the terrapin’s voice falling on deafen-ed ears as cortisol rushes through, flooding your system.
Thankfully, Mikey’s quickly able to recognize your lock-up, manifesting a portal before lifting you to his plastron, the hard planes of his chest bringing you back to firm reality.
Exiting the tear in space that the box turtle had opened up you soon notice that the two of you had ended up in the Lair’s kitchen.
In the peace, and quiet of a place that you had found to be an underground sanctuary since you;d first been brought here.
The terrapin takes to making the two of your drinks before you can even articulate the full breadth of how awful you feel.
You ruined his night under the city’s skyline watching the lights in the sky.
Or at least you thought so, Mikey gives you a kiss to the side of your head in order to put you at ease, leaving you to melt into his arms.
He pops back over leaving his communicator out on the table in order to have the live stream of the fireworks, now nigh silent, on display for them both to enjoy.
The terrapin pulls you close as you sit there, memorizing the feeling of his hands rubbing gentle circles into your back.
Everything is perfect at this moment.
Link for the dividers I used! I 💚 engagement so your likes and comments give me life and are all greatly appreciated.🥰 Sorry for any mistakes present, I don't have a beta.
