As the Darkness Approaches the Light

Chapter 9 (Trigger Warning)

Trigger Warning: Mentions of a bad car accident and the brutal aftermath, so if you've ever been in an accident and/or have post-traumatic stress from an accident, this chapter could be triggering.

Chris awakes, facing Caroline.

The memories from the night before all come rushing back, and he can't help but smile.

However, as Caroline was still sleeping and had her back turned to Chris, he could get a much closer look at the burn marks covering the right side of her back.

What the hell happened in that accident?

Now obviously wasn't the right time to ask, but these had to have been third degree burns once upon a time. How bad did an accident have to be to give someone burns like this and cause them to go blind? Was Noah in the accident too? Were their parents?

Was this how their parents died?

Chris's gut dips, then he decides to try and put his mind to other things so that it wouldn't wander too far. He did have a naked woman in his bed, after all. There were certainly other things to think about. Chris knew that Caroline didn't get to sleep in very often, so he didn't wake her, but he does bring himself closer to her and wraps an arm around her. Caroline turns around so that she's facing him, then she snuggles into his chest before going still again. Chris kisses the top of her head, hoping that there would be more nights like the one before to come.

A little while later, Caroline opens her eyes. She yawns and stretches, then gives a content sigh. Chris smiles and puts a hand on her hip.

"Morning, gorgeous."

Caroline smiles, "Hi."

"How'd you sleep?"

"Great. You wore me out last night."

"Oh, please, that was nothing," Chris says, playfully, "There's so much more where that came from." He lightly starts to kiss up and down her neck. Caroline smiles, already eager for more.

"Is that so?" She says, "What else is there?"

"Well..." Chris starts, playfully biting her ear lobe, "I don't know, what are you into?"

Caroline giggles and blushes, "I don't know..."

"C'mon, use your imagination. Like, if I tied you up, would you be into that?" Chris asks, "Or if I pulled out handcuffs, or a blindfold, or - "

Caroline furrows her eyebrows in confusion, "A blindfold?"

"Yeah. Are you not into that?"

Caroline blinks, "Chris?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm already blind."

Chris pauses a minute, then lays his head on her shoulder and sighs, "I haven't had coffee yet, okay?"

Caroline bursts into laughter, bringing her hands up to cover her face and snorting.

"Wow, not even 8:30 in the morning and I've already gotten you to snort."

Caroline nods, still laughing uncontrollably. Chris then begins to tickle her, which made her laugh even more, then he starts kissing her neck again - this time harder. Caroline's laughter slows and eventually stops as she sinks into the feeling. Chris rolls them over so that Caroline was on top of him again, and they resume where they left off the night before.

x

The following weeks consisted of Chris and Ricky continuing their writing process for their new album in New York. Caroline and Noah went back to their everyday lives, again burying themselves into their work. More and more whispers among Caroline's students arose about the possibility of her dating Chris Motionless. No one really brought it up to her personally, but it did sort of make Caroline worry that her students only liked her because of their suspicions about her dating life.