(Untitled)

[1000_cranes]

Charlie wasn't in a good mood. She wasn't in a good mood at all. After her own fiance got all mean and wouldn't screw her, she'd poured herself into a really hot dress. She'd even managed to scare up a cigarette. She was sitting on the steps of her house in the Hamlet, smoking and staring at the sky, sighing dramatically from time to time.

Comments

[willbewonderful]

Duck pauses on his way out to the wastewater fields, eyes catching a flash of red that definitely isn't Charlie's hair.

"Charlie?" he asks, coming closer. It's funny, the closer he gets to that dress, the less of it there seems to be. That just seems backwards.

"Are you doing one of those radio plays?"

Christ jesus, please say yes.

[1000_cranes]

"Why the shit would I do something that boring?" asked Charlie, raising one eyebrow and blowing a plume of smoke out from between painted red lips.

"I'm just sunning myself, sugar."

[willbewonderful]

Duck looks at her, color high in his tanned cheeks like they don't know whether to pale or to burn.

"What did you just say?"

[1000_cranes]

Charlie leaned forward across her knees. She'd picked out this dress because it showed her tits off to their very best advantage.

"About the radio play being a boring piece of shit or about trying to catch a little bit of sun, sugar?"

[saikamai]

Bert had just come back from the Compound, outfitted in somethin' a lot more hep than whatever threads he had back at the hut. Tight blue jeans and a white tee shirt to match, with his sleeves rolled up and a cigarette pack tucked at one shoulder. Lloyd was a pretty hep cat, he'd found some grease so Bert could slick his hair, and yeah, it had taken awhile, but he'd slicked the sides and gotten up a real boss pompadour in the front. Choice.

And speaking of choice, was that little Charlie Andrews on the steps? The cigarette dangling from his lips tipped up as he smiled as her, the look he was giving her as greasy as the curl dangling over his forehead. He'd always noticed she was stacked, sure, but with the merch hanging out like this, who gave a fuck if she had a fuckin' ball and chain? She was lookin' like she was on the make.

"What's buzzin', cuzzin'?" he muttered around his smoke, his dark eyes sliding over her sulkily as he approached, sun winking off the silver zippers on his leather coat.

[1000_cranes]

Charlie's pout broadened into a smile and she shifted on the set to lean forwards across her knees, the sequined dress showing her tits off to the best possible advantage.

"Hey, baby. How's it cookin'?"

[saikamai]

Bert's eyes widened, just slightly, as she leaned forward and gave him the nickel show. Not too bad, not at all.

He took a quick, hard sip of his cigarette, raised his eyebrows lazily and walked over. He had a seat next to her, leaning back against the railing so he could keep an eye on all those curves. "Things are copacetic, you know what I mean," he said, his eyes finally sliding up to meet hers.

[1000_cranes]

Charlie leaned next to him, adjusted her dress over her tit and tilts her head on one side.

"I've got no fuckin' idea what you're talkin' about."

[kingshit_lloyd]

Lloyd was on his way to the cowboys' treehouse when he stopped dead in his tracks, forced to do a double take.

You didn't have to be a Spot the Difference champion to see that something wasn't quite right with this picture.

Of course, in some ways, it was very right. About as right as it got. Just... not on Charlie.

"Uh..." he began, absently scratching the back of his head as he tried to figure out what to say and where to look. "Mornin'," he concluded lamely.

[1000_cranes]

Just like that, Charlie's pout blossomed into a grin. She leaned forward over her knees, showing off her tits to their best advantage. She adjusted the split of her skirt.

She was pissed off with Ianto, after all.

[kingshit_lloyd]

"So..." Lloyd said, if only to fill the silence that threatened to become damn near electric, like in the movies. And with Charlie dressed like that, it wasn't much of a stretch. Lloyd was expecting to wake up any moment now. "You're all dressed up," he informed her; he was trying for casual, but his voice ended up sounding kind of squeezed, closer to nervous.

He, for one, was not trying to piss any Welshmen off.

[1000_cranes]

Charlie licked at her lip before she took a drag on her cigarette, pursing her lips to blow smoke up towards the sky.

"What is it with you guys, huh? A girl can't look pretty once in a while?"

Hell, she spent most of her life covered in paint. It was all so drab.

[steel_singer]

It wasn't all that unusual for Bobby and Charlie to visit each other now and again, and what with the island seemin' to be up to its usual nonsense again he thought he'd stop by and see how she was.

Now that he was there, though, he wasn't sure he should have. "Charlie?" he said warily, stoppin' at the bottom of the steps.

[1000_cranes]

Charlie's pout brightened into a broad grin and she leaned across her knees, the dress showing her tits off to their best possible advantage.

"Well hey there, old man. How's it hangin'?"

[steel_singer]

Bobby mighta been a geezer long out of the datin' game, but he could still recognize when a woman was showin' him her cleavage. This particular woman just also happened to be practically like a goddamn daughter to him. His eyebrows shot up beneath his trucker's cap. "You feelin' all right?"

[1000_cranes]

"Feelin' fine, sugar," said Charlie, with a grin and a lift of one eyebrow. "Feelin' better than I have in a long time. Now, if only I could get someone to show a girl a good time."

[polly_okeefe]

The day didn't get better after leaving the disturbingly friendly stranger who was now occupying Captain Mal's body in the kitchen. I went to the preschool and found young Sam waiting for me, his mother... and no one else. Where was Charlie? She _never_ missed preschool.

I couldn't leave my post, so I took in Young Sam for his two hours, chasing after him the whole time. After I sent him off with his mother, I set out on the path (a little winded) towards Charlie's hut in the Hamlet, just to be sure she was all right.

I found her... smoking. Smoking! And -- what the heck was she wearing?

I paused in my astonishment, then decided to get to the bottom of this. I stepped forward. "Hey, Charlie. Um... What are you doing?"

[1000_cranes]

"What does it look like I'm doing, sugar?" said Charlie, leaning back on one elbow against the step and blowing a long, deliberate plume of grey smoke up towards the sky.

"I'm sitting here and smoking my fuckin' cigarette."

[polly_okeefe]

I opened my mouth to say something sarcastic. Charlie's tone of voice just grated against my spine. But then she swore, and the words stuck in my throat. I'd _never_ seen Charlie swear. She seemed like a person who was incapable of it.

Something was wrong.

I looked at Charlie warily. The dress, the cigarette, the attitude? What was going on?!

"You missed preschool," I said. "I wanted to make sure you were all right. Um... _are_ you all right?"

[1000_cranes]

"Oh, shit, yeah," said Charlie, stifling a yawn against her wrist and flexing her fingers. "I'm feelin' fine. I just didn't feel like chasin' brats around all morning."