Out of Commission by Luvscharlie
The breeze off the water blew her hair across her face as Lavender put a consoling hand upon Charlie's shoulder. "You're getting better. It takes time." He was quite a sight sitting on the patio that connected to their room and looking out upon the beach.
"I really don't know how much more of this I can stand. I've never been someone who sits idly by." Charlie held out his hand obligingly for her to check the bandages. "A one-handed dragon keeper's not much use to anyone."
Lavender cocked her head and grinned. It was a rare occasion that he indulged in self-pity, and she found the pouting set of his lower lip rather adorable. "I don't know. I found you rather useful last night. I would even say there are certain things a dragon keeper does rather exceptionally one-handed."
Charlie's chuckle spurred her on.
"In fact, I think I might owe that Norwegian Ridgetail—"
"Ridgeback."
"Whatever. Shush." She placed a finger to his lips and leaned forward. "That's really not the point I was trying to make." Lavender sat upon his knee and draped her arm across his shoulder. "As I was saying, I think I might owe that dragon a lot for trying to charbroil you. Just think, if he—"
"She. It was a nesting mother."
Lavender gave him an irritated look and began again. "Just think, if she had not injured you, we might never have met." The wind picked up and she inhaled the ocean's briny scent.
Charlie's hand slid up the back of her shirt, unfastening her bra with a deft flick of his fingers. "That really would have been a shame, eh?"
"Perhaps you should stop whinging and enjoy this mandatory vacation that the Reserve forced you to take to recuperate. They did make sure you were well taken care of, with a private Medi-witch and all to see to your every need."
Charlie's good hand moved around to knead her breast, as Lavender repositioned herself to straddle his lap. "It was very kind of them to hire you as my personal caretaker."
"So tell me, patient, am I doing a good job seeing to your needs?" She ground her hips down and made him groan in response.
"Mmm, you are that." His fingers curled around the back of her neck and pulled her down to him, kissing her long and deep.
He yelped when she wriggled off his lap. "Oh, Charlie! Look at that. Oh, aren't you the cutest little thing? Are you hurt or lost?" she cooed to the puppy that had wandered up. "Let me see what we have to feed you."
Lavender stuck her head back around the doorway with some of last night's leftovers in her hand, but promptly stepped back out of sight when she saw that the puppy had sidled up next to Charlie and plopped its floppy-eared head onto his lap. The two were deep in conversation—or rather Charlie was doing quite a bit of talking.
"Now see here, mate. The cute, blonde Medi-witch is mine. So don't even think about giving her those big, sad, brown eyes of yours, hear?" Charlie gave the pup's ears a scratch. "I perfected the art of puppy dog eyes long before you, so if it's a competition you're looking for, you're outclassed here. I've been doing this far longer than you, my friend."
Lavender stepped out onto the patio and knelt down to place the food. The puppy wobbled over on too-large feet and licked her face.
"Oi!" Charlie said. "I thought we had an understanding!"
Fin.
A/N: Originally written for Round 1, Challenge 5 of the CW_LDWS (Charlie Weasley Last Drabble Writer Standing) Competition on Live Journal. Our prompt was a picture of a redheaded man holding a puppy on the beach and there was a requirement of an unexpected friendship and the drabble had to be 600 words or less. This entry made it through to the next round.
