Seafood

Claire gave a strangled, grarbled curse. Try as she might, there was no way that she was going to be able to eat this fish. She tried hacking off its head with one of Mr. Locke's knives, tried tearing off its little fins and her hands were bedazzled by hundreds of little fish scales up to her elbow.

The little fiend in her womb wasn't helping, either, as her protruding stomach impeded any and all of her work, hunched over the stump like a tinker trying late at night to fix the duke's wounded shoe. Her back howled, her hips whined, her fingers were bruised and battered. She wiped the sweat from her eyes with the back of her wrist and left a trail of fish scales across her knotted brow.

She wouldn't weep. No matter how hard this damned little submarine creature tried, she would not cry. Again, the little creature in her stomach was trying his best to defeat her even in this. Her lip trembled and she stifled it harshly between her teeth.

"Well, now that's odd," came an unexpected voice from somewhere in front of her. She looked up, terrified that she'd been caught somewhere far up the beach trying to sustain life all on her own. She was not a burden. She would not have other people suffer for her inability to skin one tiny, insignificant, delicious fish.

Charlie sauntered up, hands in his pockets, smiling from ear to enormous ear. His hair was hanging into his eyes. He desperately needed it cut, she thought. She blew her own bangs from her eyes with a truncated puff.

"What is?" She whined back, indignant.

He crouched down beside her, staring her through with harried brow. "How did a mermaid crawl all the way up here?"

She didn't get it. Then, looking down, her scale-encrusted arms and brow, all smelling of fish and sea salt and slime, she helplessly laughed.

"Oh, I'm a mess," she admitted at last.

But Charlie didn't take the knife from her hand. He didn't gently slide the fish away and whisper I'll finish what you've made a mess of. He grinned encouragingly, folding his hands before him in an expectant sort of way.

"Get on, then," he said, nodding down at the fish. "Looks like you've almost beat the bloody beast. He's down for the count, now."

She shook her head, helpless, hopeless, laughing pitifully, in relief. "Oh, Charlie," she sighed.

Under his watchful eyes, the occasional interjection of suggested direction, she slew the fish at last, powerful Aussie conquerer of all marine life.

"Squids and urchins, beware!" Charlie proclaimed in her victory.

She half expected him to dance and sing all the way back to camp, they roasted her spoils over a fire and ate the dinner of the victorious.

AN: Hello folks! I haven't been in this section for a while! This Valentine's Day, I have literally nothing to do, so I've decided to pick my 14 favorite pairings and write some sappy vignettes for them! Not all of them will be from one fandom, so if you're interested, check out my profile! I haven't written Charlie/Claire in ages! It feels good to see these kids again, even though it makes me sad to think of where they've gone from here :( Anyway, enjoy, leave me some love and STAY AWESOME!!