“Us... together. That’s not a good idea,” Carmen whispered, stroking his neck with her fingertips.
“Terrible...” Chris answered and his eyes fell on her lips, his grip around her waist tightening.
“Horrible.” She countered and closed her eyes as she felt his breath against her lips.
“The worst.” Carmen questioned if she’d ever get tired of feeling his soft, but daring kisses, but she knew the answer already. Not as long as she lived... and even death had a habit of letting her slip.
❝ i don’t have nightmares when you’re there. ❞ Carmen and Chris!
Staying The Night Prompts
pairing: chris redfield x carmen lopez
fandom: resident evil
word count: 2.5k
As much as Carmen wished for the night to continue and turn into the morning without them noticing, the constant gaze to her digital watch over the door to her kitchen was impossible to resist. The movie playing in front of her was already forgotten.
It was September 30th and as every year during that time, her mind would no longer rest, running the memories in her mind like a movie in the theater, tormenting her with the ghost of her sister… of her colleagues. Innocent civilians paying for the hubris of a corporation that had seen the city as their big test field. And the nightmare repeated until it would end with herself joining the dead and awakening to be one thing: A monster.
Thunder and lightning took no break, ripping the sky apart and growling so loud, she thought it might shred her apartment into pieces next.
“You alright?”
She almost didn’t hear his voice over the loud thunder, as even the late night movie was hard to understand and she had turned the volume so loud, she feared her neighbors might follow the plot better than she did.
Avoiding locking her eyes with his, she stared at the tv, legs pressed against her chest and arms wrapped around them. Breathing hurt, but the lack of air in her lungs helped her not to think about it. To concentrate on whatever movie was running in front of her. A comedy, from the looks of it.
“Carmen?” Chris’ voice breached through her, laying over her skin like a warm blanket, but with the next lightning and the following thunder, it was ripped away from her again, leaving only the cold grip of fear behind.
Only as Chris stepped into her view did she dare to look at him. He had already put on his black jacket which was still damp from the rain as he had arrived at her apartment for their little drink. It was a tradition for them. If one of them were in town on the 30th, they would meet in their apartment and drink. They barely talked about that fateful night and she knew that Chris was the last one to ask, as Jill and Claire had told him exactly what had happened — and how much luck he had had back then.
But she knew Chris. He saw this turn of events anything but lucky, and always regretted it that he hadn’t stayed in Raccoon a little longer. That perhaps he might have helped a few more people. Chris Redfield and his savior complex, as she liked to say it.
Yet, tonight was different. It was already very cold, as if fall was catching up earlier this year and no one except them were in D.C..
Jill and Carlos were on a mission in Southern Chile, Leon was somewhere in Spain, Claire had begun working for TerraSave and tried finding more victims of Umbrella’s crimes and did her best to help them. So, it was just the two of them, but somehow the old feeling of loneliness and dread crept up in her body like the cold turning her blood into ice with every second that passed until it would succeed as soon as Chris would leave her apartment.
“I’m alright,” she answered a bit too fast, having already seen another question about her wellbeing leaving his lips. Chris raised his eyebrow and the car keys in his hands slipped right back into his jacket.
“See you tomorrow?” He asked and Carmen wished she could answer with yes.
“I took the day off,” she whispered back, voice barely audible, but she knew Chris understood her. He didn’t take his eyes off of her for a second and this time she met his gaze head on. It was as if he expected her to break into tears any moment… like a fragile little vase of glass that has to be handled carefully or she’d shatter.
But whatever her gesture had given him for signals, it was far from what she wanted, as she only saw in the corner of her eyes a soft nod, before he walked around the sofa and his hand fell onto her shoulder.
It was surreal how warm his touch was, reaching through her jumper and spreading all over her skin.
“See you on Monday then.”
It was painful not to stand up and give him a hug, as she always did when they said goodbye. Sometimes it was the only thing bringing her through some long nights, sometimes even weeks, before she’d see him again one morning with two cups of coffee waiting in her lab.
Carmen cursed herself for longing after his warmth as soon as he stepped towards her door. She was old enough to survive a damn night with thunder and lightning. It wasn’t different from any other night with a storm and yet, the pouring rain outside threatened to drown her as soon as he’d step over the threshold… and let her demons consume her. Ask him. It wouldn’t be the first time.
“Chris?”
She didn’t turn her head, only listening to his stalling heavy footsteps. She felt his eyes against the back of her head.
“Do you… do you need to be up early?”
Coward. She let her legs slip through her grip and the cold of her wooden floor ran right into her feet.
“I have a briefing around eight,” he answered and his voice got clearer and louder together with his steps.
“You don’t have to say yes, but—” Carmen sighed with a mute grunt. “Can you stay with me… for the night?”
Silence spread through her apartment with only the rhythm of the rain and the chaotic crashing of the storm rioting outside, but even a clear no from his side would have been better than whatever this silence was.
“I get if you want to go home and sleep in your own bed, but mine is pretty big and—” The hard contrast of the heat running into her head to the coldness in the rest of her body made her dizzy and Carmen expected for her brain to explode. “I just… I don’t have nightmares when you’re there.”
Even though she couldn’t see his face, her back still turned towards him and too much of a coward (too much of a broken little girl) to watch him shake his head, decline with a polite excuse and leave, Carmen quietly took a deep breath, but the following shallow breaths were impossible to quieten. They came quicker in a row and she already feared for Chris to witness another one of her attacks. It was just one of those nights. The ones which showed her clearly that no matter how much time would pass, they’d come for her and torture her, enjoying every little drop of her cold sweat when she’d wake up screaming.
Minutes passed (at least it felt as such) and Carmen feared he had left without a word, that she might have scared him away with her burdening request, but as she was about to turn her head to the door, Chris sat down beside her, free of his jacket and only sitting there in a dark blue shirt, as if he’d never intend to leave in the first place.
“You might regret that.” Carmen would have probably overthought his warning a hundred times before he could have explained it further, but the smile hiding in the corner of his lips was enough to keep any thought of hers at bay. “I was told I’m a blanket hogger.”
The laughter broke out of her without warning, echoing through her apartment, as if not one nightmarish memory had already burned into her mind and as she joined with a chuckle, every little fear inside her perished from existence. Untouchable for the moment, invincible.
“You can have your own,” Carmen answered between giggles and wiping off a tear from her cheek before going off to find another blanket somewhere in her wardrobe.
Chris turned off the tv, casting the rest of the apartment in darkness, before light led him into her bedroom. A room he had only seen twice and somehow felt forbidden to enter. It wasn’t big, as the bed took up much of the space, but the warm, orange colors reminded him of her former dorm room, as the same wall of picture decorated the left side. Most of the pictures were new. Many portrayed Claire and Carmen on their little vacation they had taken a few months ago through Europe. The right kind of adventure, as his sister had told him. Others showed Jill and Carmen in summer dresses from this year at Barry’s house or Carlos and her, doing silly faces and holding up carrots. The writing on the polaroid frame made him chuckle again: ‘Te quiero, hermanita. Stop annoying me into eating my vegetables.’
But one picture, right in the middle of her wall, caught his attention. It wasn’t a polaroid, but one of the bigger pictures pinned and Chris questioned if it might not actually be him on it, but someone who happened to look like him. It wasn’t a good picture, as it was a bit blurry and the bright sun at the horizon didn’t help with the quality, as the people were almost silhouettes, but he would recognise that wide smile anywhere. They didn’t look into the camera, both of their eyes hidden by sunglasses, but even behind the tinted glasses she was almost out beaming the sun itself, as he seemed to smile wide about something she had said.
Yet, he didn’t remember ever having taken this picture.
“It’s the only one I have of us.”
His eyes jumped to her, not having noticed that he had taken it from the wall, staring at it as if it was a riddle to solve. He looked at the backside. Vancouver, April 1999. The spring he has been visiting her in Canada… The same year they had survived another outbreak in another damn lab of Umbrella.
“I can’t remember someone taking a picture of us.”
“Moira took it. She was so eager to try out her new camera, but had no idea how to use it,” Carmen smiled. She still remembered little Moira grabbing after her new birthday present and shooting a picture of anything that got under the lenses. It had been only a question of time until she’d find a chance to take one of them, and even though Moira had been disappointed with how some pictures looked, she’d never forget the big smile on the little girl’s face, when she had told Moira how much she loved that picture of herself and Chris — only for Barry’s oldest to give it to her as a present.
Chris placed the picture back into its place on the wall, before looking at the thick blanket in Carmen’s arms, but she kept her eyes on the picture with nostalgia written in her eyes, but ultimately locking her eyes with him as he relieved her off the blanket.
“You had interesting hair back then.”
Chris’ head turned back to the picture and let out an exhausted scoff, as he understood what she meant. Back then his hair had been a bit longer and stood wild from his head in what his sister had called the ‘bad boy charm’. Nothing he had thought much about back then, but something inside him stirred awake as Carmen chuckled about his reaction. It drowned out any other sound from outside. Chris thought the rain had stopped for a second and the storm had passed as well, but when he turned to her bed and the window close to it, it seemed to have gotten worse, but he didn’t care.
The little sound of delight was just so innocent and addictive at the same time, he mentally called himself out to keep in check. “Another word and the other blanket will be mine, too.”
She kept her mouth shut, but the wide smile spoke enough unsaid words, which caused him to roll his eyes. This wouldn’t be the end of her teasing about his old hair style. But as soon as they had taken their turns in the bathroom, the storm had lightened with only a heavy rain remaining, but another storm was approaching Carmen’s stomach. In all her luck not to end up alone this night and imprisoned by her own mind in nightmares, she had forgotten that Chris had no change of clothes — which meant him without a shirt and in dark boxers only.
Nothing she hadn’t seen before after a nice day at the beach, but somehow in the soft orange light of her nightstand lamp in her bedroom, it reached her heart with illicit thoughts.
Chris didn’t look at her, when he joined her in bed, his eyes closed as soon as he lay down with one hand on his chest and arm behind his head, as if he was only about to take a little nap. Her bed was slowly encapsulated by his scent, a fresh citrus tone with something wooden in there and Carmen caught herself wishing for her pillow to hold on to it forever. It made her forget about the next day, about what had happened all those years ago, even if it was just for the moment.
Carmen turned off her light and the shadows of moving branches of the trees outside casted by the cold streetlamp light danced on her wall. She closed her eyes, not waiting for the shadows to play a trick on her, slowly turning into walking corpses in the dark corner of her apartment or waiting for a moan of the dead, as one sneaked into her home.
“You think loud,” Chris ripped her out of her horror, making her flinch, but the final smile was inevitable on her lips.
“Sorry, I just— it was raining that day. When I was at the RPD. I somehow expect one of those zombies crashing through the windows any second.”
“They’d have to jump real high to reach your window.”
Carmen’s giggle broke through without warning, imagining the zombies jumping in front of her window like an overexcited puppy and as she opened her eyes to look at Chris, they met his.
He had this laid-back smile, so free of worry that it was strange to remember his usually serious expression at work, where everyone only knew him as ‘Agent Redfield’.
“Thank you, Chris. For staying.” Her words were merely a whisper, but he heard them, nodding at her while his smile didn’t falter a bit.
Her heart had already decided before her head could have a say in it, as he spread out his arm and offered her his side. She didn’t even dare to look him in the eye as she snuggled close to him and thus ruined any other pillow for her.
Chris was tall and bulky, but her head lying on his chest and listening to his heartbeat was like a personal-written lullaby to her, as his perfume was filling her other senses and turning off any kind of dark memory.
She had already drifted off to sleep as Chris put a gentle kiss on the top of her hair and slipped into Morpheus’ arms, as well.
it’s the last tag games fault... like Adria is my live-action faceclaim for Carmen BUT OH MY SWOOP OVER REDFIELD! we’re gonna see who marries Carmen Lopez first <3
(btw artbreeder is genuinely not a perfect tool but... she is so mesmerizing, I totally get why Chris goes through the “OH NO SHE IS HOT” moment, when he meets her in the Mansion... and of all people SHE has to work for Umbrella.
Vanilla sunday meme EVERYTHING FOR CARMEN !!!!! HEHEHE
Vanilla Sunday Meme
(okay, shai, i think this post would be too long if I do EVERYTHING for carmen, so I will do the top three things for carmen/chris which just make my heart grow ten times)
5. Is your muse comfortable with public displays of affection?
before chris, carmen wasn’t in for that. because public often means at work for her, carmen did not do PDA with a certain ex-boyfriend bc she feared it would undermine her authority, as she wasn’t really taken seriously. with chris it came more naturally and they often do not even notice it. chris often has one hand on her back or carmen leans onto him at times, like two stars being pulled into each other’s gravity. when she got together with chris, carmen also gained more confidence in herself and no longer cared much what others might think of her dating a coworker.
6. Does your muse steal clothing from their partner?
chris is actually asking himself why his shirts get less and less after time, only to open carmen’s wardrobe in her apartment and finding them there. no^^, he does think that his shirts look better on her AND DO NOT LET ME START ON HIS OLD RPD JACKET! that is like the cutest thing. chris still had an old rpd leather jacket which one cold evening ended around carmen (and she used it as a blanket, she isn’t that tall^^) and since then it kinda became their jacket (before they got together), so no one dared to say something when carmen actually took chris’ rpd jacket with her at a bbq in case it gets too cold once the sun is down. (of course, chris would never admit that a part of him felt kinda turned on by her wearing his clothes)
7. Is your muse the big spoon or the little spoon?
carmen is the big spoon, i do not make the rules here. i know that it might me a funny picture, but even though chris often initiates being the big spoon, it quickly comes to them turning and carmen ending up being the big spoon for the rest of the night (and morning). she loves to be able to put little, feather-light kiss down his neck and stroke his hair until he falls asleep, as she knows that he has trouble with sleeping, just as she does, but seeing chris so calm and relaxed, immediately relaxes herself.
