Going Dutch (1/1)
I've got something bigger in the works, but this scene doesn't fit into it anymore and I live to provide reading material, so here it is. (If this ends up actually making it into the final cut of my big story, pretend this was a preview. ;) )
I wish you all an exceedingly joyful November!
Title: Going Dutch
Author: ninamazing, or Nina
Word Count: 291.
Rating: PG.
Spoilers: Through 1x04, "Pigeon."
Characters: Ned/Chuck.
Ned took Chuck out for pizza once - she told him with delight that that, too, was a kind of pie. And just as Ned remembered from when she was six (and he was seven), Chuck separated the green and yellow peppers into neat color-coded piles as she pulled them off her slice. Afterward came the cheese; she set that on the edge of her plate, and took tomato sauce off of each finger with a slow individual lick that made Ned clench his teeth and push his knees together under the table. Chuck grinned at him, ever innocent, and stuffed a bit of crust between her lips.
"I want to pay this time," she told him, eyes shining.
He sighed, but couldn't help smiling a little (just to make her feel better, he told himself). "Chuck, we haven't even begun to figure out your finances yet. How do you get health insurance for a dead person? How do you get health insurance in America anyway?"
"I sold thirty-four jars of honey today," she said. "And I like getting dinner. Makes me feel like I'm your sugar daddy."
Ned raised an eyebrow.
Chuck raised an eyebrow back.
"Fine," he agreed. "But I'm getting dessert."
He didn't trust Chuck when she nodded and smiled in that knowing way of hers, so he put on an old woolen mitten and made her shake on it.
Chuck wasn't sure why it felt so divine just to hand a twenty-dollar bill to a teenager at a neighborhood pizza dive. If she'd confessed that thought to Ned, he would have told her that he, too, didn't know why his heart beat twice as fast when he handed her the double scoop of pecan fudge crumble she'd ordered.
I wish you all an exceedingly joyful November!
Title: Going Dutch
Author: ninamazing, or Nina
Word Count: 291.
Rating: PG.
Spoilers: Through 1x04, "Pigeon."
Characters: Ned/Chuck.
Ned took Chuck out for pizza once - she told him with delight that that, too, was a kind of pie. And just as Ned remembered from when she was six (and he was seven), Chuck separated the green and yellow peppers into neat color-coded piles as she pulled them off her slice. Afterward came the cheese; she set that on the edge of her plate, and took tomato sauce off of each finger with a slow individual lick that made Ned clench his teeth and push his knees together under the table. Chuck grinned at him, ever innocent, and stuffed a bit of crust between her lips.
"I want to pay this time," she told him, eyes shining.
He sighed, but couldn't help smiling a little (just to make her feel better, he told himself). "Chuck, we haven't even begun to figure out your finances yet. How do you get health insurance for a dead person? How do you get health insurance in America anyway?"
"I sold thirty-four jars of honey today," she said. "And I like getting dinner. Makes me feel like I'm your sugar daddy."
Ned raised an eyebrow.
Chuck raised an eyebrow back.
"Fine," he agreed. "But I'm getting dessert."
He didn't trust Chuck when she nodded and smiled in that knowing way of hers, so he put on an old woolen mitten and made her shake on it.
Chuck wasn't sure why it felt so divine just to hand a twenty-dollar bill to a teenager at a neighborhood pizza dive. If she'd confessed that thought to Ned, he would have told her that he, too, didn't know why his heart beat twice as fast when he handed her the double scoop of pecan fudge crumble she'd ordered.