A/N This story contains explicit sexual situations between adults. Please do not read further if you are offended by such material, or are under 18. All characters involved are over 21 and consenting.

As my Valentine's present to you here is one of the Raphril smut-esc fics I've been working on. I've never written anything like this before, so please be nice, and no flames!

Also, this fic is for Terri because they have supported me through "Love and Blood" since the very beginning (back when it was just the prequel "Struggle" in fact), and without them I don't know if I would have stayed motivated to keep writing. So Terri because you loved "Turtle Style" I revisited it just for you! ;)

I own nothing, but my love of TMNT!

Our Style

From the beginning it had been their thing. A lot had changed since then. Nervous glances. Awkward strokes. Pounding hearts. Always returning to that place that without words, had undeniably become theirs. Every spring they came to that little outcropping of lake that was sheltered by gentle reeds and guarded by stoic sand. Years had aged that memory bathed in golden twilight, and still time continued to be kind to the young couple.

She had filled out, and where she had once been gangly, now bore gracious curves. This particular spring evening doused her freckled alabaster skin in both roses and golds. Just like that night, so many years ago she wore her hair down. Her flaming locks tumbled over her shoulders to softly lick the skin of her breasts. Her cheeks had finally lost their baby fat. Instead her high cheek bones and dusting of freckles gave her a youthful, yet alluring look. Her large wide-set blue eyes remained the same, but the subtle hinting of lines trailing away from their corners gave promise to show the world how often she smiled when age settled in her bones.

He had changed as well. No longer was he the short stocky teenager he had once been. Although he did not tower over the red-head before him, he now bore several inches over her, and he too had filled out attractively. His biceps alone gave indication of the physical life he led, but truly no muscle on his body was lacking. Each one was toned and firm, and were by no means slender. Compared to his human lover, he was huge. Both his scales and his shell bore more markings with the passing of every season. Age had helped to temper his volatile nature. Yet he still was the first to take a blow for a loved one and besides, the plane of the physical had always been his preferred domain. His characteristic scowl often was his chosen mask, but those hard green eyes never hesitated to soften for her. Tonight they were liquid emeralds under her gaze.

When their eyes met, no longer did they blush from nerves. Their trust had grown with their love and slowly their teenage insecurities washed away. They still blushed, but now it was out of anticipation for what was to come. Raphael gazed down at the woman before him while April O'Neil gazed up at the mutant turtle before her. It was in moments like these that the two still awed at how lucky they had been to have found love in each other. Together they made two halves of the same whole. A fresh bloom to bold honeybee. Grounding ocean to endless sky. Her harmony to his melody.

She made the first move by wrapping her arms around his firm neck and murmured, "You know I should thank you."

He settled his hands around her waist. He loved the feel of her warm soft skin beneath his cool rough scales. Quirking an eye ridge he questioned, "Why's that?"

April pressed her torso against his plastron. She loved the tingling his hard plates produced when it brushed along her welcoming skin leaving her nipples erect, "If you had never made that bet we may have never discovered our style."

Raphael grinned cockily, "With my needs? I doubt it."

She laughed and the heat from her breath sent shocks of warmth through his core, "Well I want to thank you anyway."

The turtle gave her a skeptical look, "You're being surprisingly gracious."

Batting her eyelashes innocently she pouted, "What? A girl can't thank her boyfriend?"

"Don't bat those baby blues at me," he countered, "I know what you're up to."

She tried not to giggle, "And what pray tell is that?"

Raphael rolled his eyes, "Like you don't know. What are you going to give me in return?"

April did not hesitate. She shifted to her tip toes while grasping onto the edge of his carapace for balance. The red-head was determined to light a fire under that wonderful tail of his, but as their lips touched she forced herself to start slowly. She delicately nipped his beak teasing him into a low growl. With his growl's vibrations still echoing to her groin, she slid her hands from his carapace to run her nails lightly over the tender skin first where shell met back. Then fearlessly blazing a new trail, she seductively scratched the scales above the bridge where carapace united with plastron. Her efforts were rewarded when the turtle gasped from his building desire allowing her to blithely slide her tongue into his mouth.

It had long become her territory, but April always delighted in the familiar moist warmth Raphael's mouth offered her playful tongue. As she felt his throat pulsing in pleasure, so too did her own core eagerly join in that opening rhythm only they could create.

Raphael adored his angel's attention, but the turtle had never been one to sit on the sidelines. April was not the only one who knew how to compose. Gentle hands momentarily caressed her rump before shifting up to her lower back, where his massaging fingers allowed his own tongue to urge hers into a brief duet. Their routine ended with him fulfilling his promise by lifting her. At her involuntary giggle Raphael smirked, "You like that?"

He didn't even wait for her response for years of experience had guaranteed her answer. Instead Raphael began spinning on the spot causing her eyes to well in tears of glee. He finished by throwing her into the air, using the time to adjust his hands so that when she returned to his grasp he could smoothly ease her form into his arms bridal style.

They both grinned in foolish delight until their eyes caught allowing the yearning-fueled current to once more resume its circuit through their naked bodies. Both Raphael and April smouldered under their combined voltage, and after a silent exchange, the turtle carried his precious cargo to the lake. The thought of throwing her into the water did cross his mind – as he had already done on countless occasions – when his irises of jade spied the iridescent surface, but now was not the time. Wet sand cushioned his feet as he entered their aquatic sanctuary. Accompanying the feeling of the multitudes of miniscule grains grazing his toes was the anticipation of what was to come.

April shivered as the turtle carefully lowered her into the water. Both of them knew the cool liquid fingers fusing with her bare skin as he laid her down into the shallows was not the source of her tremors. The warmth spreading from her core insulated her from all but Raphael. As he knelt down between her extended knees, both prepared to become lost in each other.

Sometimes they went completely in the water. Sometimes they stayed on the grass. Today they were in between. April's head lay in damp sand while the tips of her toes barely escaped the lake's embrace. Her tummy was bare, her back was submerged, but her core was left in a realm of its own. Here their orchestra was composed of water, air, and earth, and they alone would be responsible for the procuration of fire.

She looked into his emerald depths one final time before her lids sunk as their lips merged once more. It was long, but not so long as to fully satisfy her. As his lips sang a sweet, but brief ode to each patch of skin connecting her from mouth to core, April knew Raphael would not fail her. The mix of cool water and his warmth left her mind reeling to hold on just a bit longer; to just make it to the crescendo's erratic completion. Then it came not as a predictable forte, but as a paralyzing fortissimo. With it crashed wave after wave of spastic cadences, arresting her heart, blanking her mind, and crinkling her vision with sparks of electric stars.

Raphael raised himself up to take full count of the impression he had left upon his angel. Of course not every time was the success he wanted – for no one is perfect – but at least the sake of what this place meant to them he wanted to grant his love true bliss. When her eyes – dyed midnight blue from the gradual release of nocturnal shadows – shot sparks of blinding light into his own sight, he knew from that and her cries he had obtained his wish for her.

Laying her hands onto his broad shoulders, Raphael did not hesitate to let her push him to his knees, and little more persuasion was necessary to direct him onto his carapace. One of the reasons he too had fallen in love with this spot was for that soft wet sand. The water left it malleable allowing the curve of his shell to sink deeper than dry unyielding earth would ever permit. It helped his back to relax – for once not forcing him to rely on his hands or feet to keep him from rocking on the spot – and the less tense his muscles were, the easier April could have access to his needy tail to begin their final movement.

As always the scent of her left him excited. Her taste. Her warmth. Her muscles constricting on his fingers. Those very thoughts made his member swell and crave release from its deceptive shelter. Raphael dropped down the moment her tender fingers found his entrance. Soon he too was in a mental frenzy, his brain careening to keep track of fingers, lips, and tongue. When she fell into a rhythm that mimicked that of his heart, it was time for the consummation of their fiery recapitulation.

Deftly switching positions with her for a final time, Raphael lay April down where she awaited him with shining eyes. It had taken them a long time to get to this level of comfort, and what had once been a topic of shame for him had turned from feeble embers into adrenalized lightning. With it, fell away the last of his insecurities.

Both lovers were now breathing heavily, and rapidly approaching the climax to their sonata. It took all of Raphael's strength to wait until she was ready. The moment her muscles contracted in burning ecstasy around him, all the elements of their love sang releasing him so that their very souls could kiss.

No matter what they may face,
this would always be their place.
For in that twilit amber preserved,
always as lovers they returned.