smallfandomflsh | Fringe, Charlie/Astrid, #23 promise, helsinkibaby

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Title: Surprising a Promise
Author: helsinkibaby
Fandom: Fringe
Pairing: Charlie/Astrid
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Word Count: 606
Notes: For the smallfandomflsh challenge #23 “promise”
Summary: Astrid gets a surprise.
Notes: Apparently, this would be where I take the word and turn it into a phrase that likely no-one has ever heard of outside where I am in the world. Oh well.

Astrid looks up in surprise when she hears the key turning in the lock. Uncurling her legs from underneath her, she straightens up and pauses the DVD in one rather ungainly motion that she’s glad he can’t see, and stares at Charlie as he closes her apartment door behind him, hangs up his coat on his hook. “It’s me,” he calls out unnecessarily as his scarf joins his coat and she finds herself fighting back a smile.

“What are you doing here?” she asks, eyes darting to the clock, checking that she hasn’t lost an hour or two somewhere. Sure enough, it’s far earlier than she expected him, and she hadn’t been sure that he’d turn up at all. He looks completely sober, the only signs that he hasn’t come striahgt from the office being his loosened tie and open top button, but in her experience, bachelor parties don’t end this early in the night. “The strippers should hardly be there yet.”

One side of Charlie’s mouth quirks up, and he looks vaguely embarrassed as he shrugs. “Guess I missed out there,” is all he says. Picking up the Alien DVD case from the coffee table, he blinks, holds it up to her. “Don’t you get enough of this stuff during the day?” he asks. “I thought you’d be all chick flicks and rom-coms.”

Astrid scoots up on the couch, making room for him. “I thought I might pick up some pointers,” she quips as he sits down beside her, putting one arm around her shoulders, pulling off his tie with the other hand. He chuckles at that, kisses her quickly, but she’s not going to be distracted from her earlier question. “Seriously, why so early? Beer and naked women aren’t your thing anymore?”

She didn’t mean it how it sounded, only realises how it did sound when Charlie’s lips curl in what can only be described as a smirk. “You’ve got beer here, right?” he asks, fingers tracing idly down her arm, his other hand moving to the buttons of her shirt. “And the other…” Leaning into her, his lips trail over her neck, her weak spot as he well knows, and she realises in that moment that the rest of the film is just going to have to wait until much, much later.

Not that she has any intention of letting him know that; a girl has to play somewhat hard to get after all. “And what did your buddies say to that?”

Charlie pulls back, rolling his eyes. “Nothing I’m going to repeat in front of you,” he tells her, and considering Charlie knows she’s no shrinking violet, she guesses that it must have been lewd in the extreme.

Of course, it wouldn’t do to let him away with things too easily either. “Oh come on,” she teases. “I’m sure it’s nothing I haven’t heard before.”

“Not from me,” he says, and she knows that’s the truth; whatever he might be like with female agents in the field, when it comes to language around her, Charlie’s as old-fashioned as they come. “Let’s just say they assumed I was on a promise.”

The phrasing, which she hasn’t heard for years, makes her laugh out loud. “So what did you tell them?” she wonders, because they’re a well kept secret around the office. She’s got friends from college who don’t know she’s seeing someone, and she knows that there was no-one at that party tonight who knows Charlie has a girlfriend.

She’s genuinely curious, but Charlie just smiles slowly, in that way he has that makes her stomach flip. “I told them they were right.”