Title: Kinks
Author: Brylee16
Disclaimer: Chase isn't mine... *sigh*
Claimer: Ashley is mine, though... I guess...
Summary: Remember how Chase metions his girlfriend with the burning fetish in "Love hurts"?
This is a OS about how she came out to him. And what he made of it.
Author's note: Personally, I was just inspired by Chase mentioning an ex-girlfriend with such extraordinary interest, so I felt like writing about it and invented Ashley haha... Please R&R! :)
Robert Chase looked down at the photograph in his hands. It was the picture of a girl with long, brown hair, framing a heart-shaped, pale and pretty face. Ashley.
A smile crossed Chase's face. He hadn't talked to her in years, but simply looking at the picture brought back a wave of nice memories, including the fruity smell of her shampoo and the sweet taste of her sticky lipgloss... In the last couple of years, Chase had almost forgotten all about her, even though she had been his girlfriend for almost 8 months back in the day. But today their patient Harvey, apparently into BDSM, had reminded him on that one incident with Ashley, back when Chase himself had been only a college student in Australia...
"Ash?", Chase yelled, while entering his girlfriend's apartment. Oh, how he enjoyed having his own key now, so he could just stop by and pay her a surprise visit, like today... At the same time, it felt a little strange to him that he no longer had to call and ask if he could drop by. It was like this key-thing had somehow transformed their playful relationship into something a lot more serious...
But oh well... he liked her. Why not enjoy their time as long as it would last?
"Ashley!", he called again, frowning at the fact that there was no response. He knew for a fact that she was always home on Saturday mornings. So why in the world would she ignore him now?
"Hey, are you playing Hide n' Seek with me, Ash?", he asked suspiciously, then entered the kitchen. But nobody was there. "Okay, very funny. How about just coming out of your hiding spot now? I brought you something!" Chase stepped inside the living room with a sigh, the bouquet of flowers still in his hands. He started feeling a little stupid. If she didn't want to see him, then maybe he should just throw out those flowers and go back to studying. After all, med school was pretty tough and he had decided to spend this Saturday with her instead of reading the literature he had been assigned to read before Monday.
The living room was empty, too. So Chase took a deep breath, help up the flowers, put on a smile and began knocking on the bedroom door. At first, there was no response. Then, all the sudden, Ashley's voice called out: "Leave me alone!" Chase stood there, staring at the closed door in confusion. His girlfriend's voice didn't sound as cheerful and bright as it usually did. In fact, it didn't sound cheerful it all. Sad and freaked out was more like it.
"Ashley, what's the matter?" He really wanted to open the door, but Ashley yelled: "I can't tell you. Just leave for now, will you?"
Unsure of what to do, Chase started biting his lower lip. Somehow he was scared of what he would find behind that door. He had thought that he knew Ashley, but apparently he didn't know her all that well, after all. For a moment, he considered doing her the favor and simply leaving her alone for the weekend, then discussing this in a couple of days. However, Chase didn't approve of being pushed around. He'd come here for her! After all, she had insisted on giving him the key to bring their relationship to the next level! Now she would have to deal with the consequences of that. It was too late to push him away. With just one more moment of hesitation, Chase finally opened the door and entered the room... only to be yelled at in the next moment: "No! Please just leave!"
Ashley was sitting on the opposite side of the room, wearing a cute, pink summer dress that Chase loved on her. Did she put it on for me? No wait, she didn't know I was coming...
She had her face hidden behind her hands and her coffee-colored hair that had fallen down like a curtain, seperating her from him. Still, Chase could see that she was sobbing.
He felt pretty uncomfortable just standing there, so after a while of awkward silence, he finally stepped closer and squatted down beside her. "Hey... it's okay", Chase said, even though he had no idea what she was even crying about.
"No, it's not", she whimpered. "You'll hate me! I know it...!"
"Don't be silly!", he exclaimed. "How could I ever hate you, girl?" It was true, he couldn't think of anything that would cause him to really hate Ashley. She was funny and sweet and he had been dating her for a while now without getting into a serious fight, ever. Still, Chase felt kind of alarmed by her words. What was she hiding?
He started looking around for circumstantial evidence and was rewarded: Right next to her on the ground was a box of matches and a couple of burned-down ones. There was also a lighter and it was one of the really expensive kind, too. So? Don't get it. Why is she crying?
"You'll hate me", she kept repeating, rocking back and forth and still hiding her face from him. Chase sighed, then reached out for her, pulling her into a tight embrace. At first, she tried fighting him off, crying even more desperately. Then, at some point, she began to relax and give in to him.
Chase pressed his lips to the top of her head, breathing in the fruity scent of her shampoo that he liked so much. "I still don't know what you're talking about, babe, but whatever it is, just tell me, okay? I won't judge!"
She was silent for a moment, then said "Yeah, you might!", with a childish voice that made Chase chuckle. "You could at least give it a try!", he suggested warmly.
For the first time, she looked up at him and he was slightly shocked at how swollen and red her face was. Still pretty, though.
"I'm so sorry, Rob", she said and sniffed miserably. "I must look like crap."
He shook his head and cupped her face with one hand. "Not at all, sweetie!"
She smiled a little, then streched to press her lips against his for a moment. "I'm really sorry", she repeated then. "I never meant for you to find out like this. Actually, I never meant for you to find out at all...!"
Suddenly, Chase felt curiosity grow in him. What was this thing that she was trying to hide so desperately? "Why?", he inquired, hoping that he wasn't being too pushy.
Tears were still running down Ashley's cheeks. "Because it's so weird and sick! You'll probably be totally disturbed and grossed out and then you'll never want to see me again!"
"Aw, don't worry", Chase said reassuringly, although he felt a little nervous himself. "That won't happen. I promise, I won't judge."
She started wiping the tears away and looking down on the matches next to her on the ground. "Promise, Robert?"
"Promise!", he said, with a strange sensation in his stomach area.
She took a deep breath and grabbed hold of one of his hands. In return, he put the flowers down on the ground and started moving his hands in small circles over her back, knowing how much she appreciated small, comforting gestures.
Ashley looked up at him with her shining hazel eyes. "I have a fetish."
Chase said nothing and held his breath. Somehow this wasn't quite what he had expected, but he wanted her to keep telling him more and had a feeling that one word out of his mouth could destroy the moment and bust all of her new courage and confidence. She blinked, apparently irrated by his missing response. Then she took another deep breath and picked up the matches, rolling them in her fingers absently. Right when he was about to ask, she said: "I like burning myself."
Chase only swallowed. Interesting. He didn't really know what to say. Burning wasn't something that he was particularly fond of, let alone sexually aroused by. Again, a weird moment of silence followed, then Ashley looked up from the match expectantly. "So?"
„Uhm...Er..."
"Robert!" Much to his dismay, he saw a new flood of tears dwelling up in her eyes. "I knew it! You think I'm crazy! You're gonna leave me over this!"
"Ashley, please!", he said and tried to pull her into his lap again, but she pushed him away.
"I'm sorry. I was just so surprised! I never knew!"
"Of course you didn't!" She just wouldn't stop crying. "I did everything to hide it from you! And everyone! You're the first person I've ever told about this!"
"That's good", he said and felt like an idiot at the same time. "I mean, you can trust me! I won't leave you because of this, okay? I'm proud of you for telling me!"
She was still breathing irregularly, but the sobbing had stopped and it seemed like she was about to calm down. Feeling relieved and confused at the same time, Chase went down to gently kiss her cheek. "I'll go make us some tea, okay?", he suggested. "So you have time to calm down. And when I get back, we talk. Sound okay?"
She nodded and he kissed her again and then got up. About two minutes later he returned with two steaming cups in his hands. Chase handed Ashley one of them and she accepted it thankfully.
They sat down on her bed and started sipping their tea. Chase watched his girlfriend calm down slowly, taking deep breaths and wiping her tears away. All he did was sit next to her silently, rubbing her back with one hand and resting the other on her thigh. It seemed to help, because after a while she started talking again.
"Somehow it feels good to have said it. Now you know. And you really don't judge, do you?"
"'course not!", Chase reassured her, then said with a shrug: "Everyone has their kinks. It's normal."
She smiled a little. "Really? Thank you. It feels good to know that you're okay with it."
He nodded and when he bend down to kiss her temple, she leaned in to his touch. When he felt safe, Chase opened his mouth again to ask the question that had formed in his head: "So...", he started, unsure about whether he would make her cry again. "Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah. I guess."
"What exactly do you like about it? Is it... the pain?"
She looked at him wide-eyed and shrugged. "Yeah. No. Maybe. It's hard to explain."
Chase wasn't quite satisfied. He liked Ashley and he wanted to understand this. "Try."
She sighed and leaned against him at the same time. "I like everything about it. The burning sensation. The thrill. The smell. The way the flames look."
When he said nothing, she added: "I know it sounds strange. But it's just always been that way with me. Other pain I don't like. But burning is a major turn-on somehow."
"It's okay", Chase said quickly, for what felt like the 100th time that night. "Like I said, everyone has weird turn-ons like that. You don't have to be embarrassed."
"Thank you so much", she said and they started kissing. The innocent touching of their lips turned into something wilder and all the sudden, just as Chase pushed his tongue against the top of hers, he felt her flinch and pull back.
"What is it?", he asked, frowning at her. It was hard to read her facial expression. Ashley looked embarrassed with something like guilt additionally clouding her face. "I burned my tongue."
"What?" Chase jumped up without thinking about it. "What else did you burn? How bad is it?"
She looked down at her fingers, resembling a five-year-old that had been caught doing something naughty. "My wrist. And the tip of my tongue. That's all, I swear. Then you arrived."
Chase started rubbing his temples, feeling helpless. He wanted to be accepting towards this fetish of hers, but how was he supposed to deal with the fact that she was causing herself pain?
"Can I get you something, Ash?"
"Hm... There's ice cubes in the freezer. They usually do the trick."
Chase only nodded. At least she apparently knew how to take of herself afterwards...
As he went to get her what she needed, things started falling into place. All the sudden, Chase remembered the one time when he took her out for a candle-light dinner and she kept staring into the flame with some kind of fascination. Back then he hadn't really been sure what she was looking it, but now it all made sense. Also the fact that there were always ice-cubes in her fridge... And the way she sometimes wore long-sleeve shirts on hot days. Trying to hide her burn marks...
A while later they were sitting on the couch in the living room with Ashley sucking on an ice cube and the TV on, but none of them paying attention to it.
"So", started Chase, who had finally recovered from the shock and was now rather amused by what he had just learned about his girlfriend. "Any other kinks I should know about?"
She turned to him, doe-eyed. "Like what?"
"Like... are you only sleeping with me because you are into med school students?"
She gave him an irritated look of disbelief and they both burst out into laughter. Then she said:
"It's awesome that we can joke about it already! I never thought I would tell anyone and now you know and it's alright!"
"Well", Chase said, feeling quite happy about the way things had developed. "Maybe we could even have some fun with it... if you know what I mean..." She gave him one of her special looks through her eye-lashes and then jumped on his lap. "Thank you for not judging", she whispered into his ear and her breath felt hot against his skin. Chase only pulled her closer, whispering: "Baby, I could never leave you for something like this!"
With a sigh, Chase put down the photo. Of course he had left her, eventually. But it had been because of different reasons. The burning thing had exactly turned out to be one of the most exiting things about their relationship. He had never told anyone about it, though. Except for Cameron and Foreman today. Hm... Cameron.
I wonder if she has a kink like that...?
THE END
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