Compliment

AN: Yay, my first – and probably last, to be honest – Sonny with a Chance fic. I couldn't help it, though – Sonny and Chad are so cute! (Although I do wonder who on earth would name their child Sterling...) Beware of OOCness and stuff.

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonny with a Chance. Whoever created it does.

Chad Dylan Cooper was in the middle of yet another Mackenzie Falls shoot when an irate Sonny Munroe stormed into the set and took up a position by his shoulder, her foot tapping impatiently. This wasn't all that unusual – Sonny often interrupted shoots to talk to him, but he had never seen her so annoyed before. Chad sighed and raised one hand to the camera man in apology. The man himself was wearing a very familiar, exasperated expression – one that clearly read 'why has this girl who smiles too much showed up and ruined my shoot again?'

Sonny did tend to smile too much, but Chad missed her usual grin as he looked down into her – there was no other word – very pissed-off face.

"What?" he asked, oh-so-intelligently. Sonny narrowed her eyes at him, pressed her lips together even more firmly and raised the latest issue of some entertainment magazine.

Chad frowned at her – had she honestly interrupted his shot for this? Portlyn looked extremely put out as she sauntered closer, wondering what all the fuss was about. Sonny shot her a pointed look and the dark-haired girl stepped backwards.

Sonny never shot people pointed looks. What was going on?

"Open to page forty-four," she directed him, her voice oddly flat. Chad shrugged and flipped through the pages, making a mental note to really let her have it for this. No matter how much Sonny meant to him – and he'd never admit that to anyone, much less her – when he was on set, he was a professional. She couldn't just barge in at any given moment.

"I don't see... oh." Chad blinked as he gazed down at the single picture mounted on the top of the page. Sonny, with her brown hair mussed and her eyes half-lidded with sleep. Frankly put, she looked terrible – like she'd just gotten out of bed after a week.

Underneath was the bold title – "Sonny Munroe's true face!"

"What does this have to do with me?" Chad finally ventured to ask, his tone falsely innocent. He knew perfectly well what this had to do with him.

Sonny jabbed one finger at the text written in the column. "Why don't you just read and find out?"

Chad closed the magazine. He knew what the column would say – something along the liens of 'Chad Dylan Cooper revealed Sonny Munroe's true face to the world when he featured the above picture on a recent episode of Mackenzie Falls and advised his co-star, Portlyn, to "take care of herself, or she might end up looking like this".'

"Sonny..."

"Just shut up!" Sonny looked torn between rage and tears. "Don't you dare try to make excuses for yourself, Chad! This was totally uncalled for! I haven't done anything to deserve this, all right? I've always been polite, I've never called you names like you seem to delight in calling me, and I've never showed any of you or your stupid Mackenzie Falls co-stars in a bad light! So why did you have to go and do this?"

She folded her arms and glared at him, obviously waiting for a response. Chad was taken aback.

All right, yes, it hadn't been the best idea to add in such an impromptu insult of Sonny on the show. But the point was, worse had happened. Sonny had been subjected to all sorts of different pranks – he even remembered a time he'd posted a video of her being pied on the Internet, and she hadn't reacted so violently. So what had changed?

"Look, it wasn't the smartest idea... but it was just a joke."

"A joke?" Oops. Wrong thing to say, apparently. "You think this is a joke, Chad Dylan Cooper? Do you see me laughing?"

"No," a puzzled Chad replied cautiously. "But it's not that bad, Sonny. It'll all blow over in a couple of days. No one will even remember this."

"It doesn't matter if no one remembers this!" Her voice shook. "I will remember this, Chad, and that's what matters. Are you happy now? Was this what you wanted?"

Chad glanced around, remembering that they were still on the sets of Mackenzie Falls. He signaled to the director that he was taking a break, and the man nodded grudgingly. Chad grasped Sonny's elbow firmly and steered her off the sets and out of the door.

"Get your hands off me!" she yelled at him, but Chad ignored her. When they were outside and out of earshot of the rest of the cast, he turned her around to face him. Sonny yanked her elbow away and folded her arms again, anger written all over her features.

"Don't touch me," she warned him. Chad sighed.

"Okay. Tell me what's going on."

"How thick is your skull? Haven't you processed everything yet? I didn't know you were this slow."

"That's not what I'm talking about." Chad took a deep breath and waved the magazine in her face. "Tell me why this bothers you so much."

"Why? Did you think it wouldn't?"

"Well, you've never been this angry before..."

Sonny shot him an annoyed look. "Just because I don't react to such things doesn't mean it's okay to keep doing it, Chad. There's only so much I can take, all right? This is kind of the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back."

At least she was calmer now. Chad rolled up the magazine and pocketed it, but Sonny wasn't done yet.

"I'm just tired of people thinking that since I take everything in its stride, it's okay to embarrass me like this. I'm a person, too, with feelings and everything, and I do get embarrassed when these kind of things are written about me." She gestured vaguely to Chad's back pocket.

Chad opened his mouth to reply, but Sonny continued. "I didn't think you would do something like this, though. That hurt."

Her frank confession and her steady eyes on his face made something squirm in his stomach. Chad cleared his throat, and then cleared it again.

"I..."

"No." Sonny shook her head. "I said it before, and I'll say it again – I don't want an excuse from you."

Her tone wasn't accusatory like before, but the sadness in her voice pained him.

"Sonny, just listen." Chad took out the magazine again and opened to the page about Sonny, scanning through the article. "Did you read this part?"

Looking utterly bemused, Sonny bent over the page and read the words Chad was pointing out.

When shooting, Chad(it irked him how the writers referred to him so casually) opened his wallet to take something out, and a picture dropped out of it. Bending to retrieve it, he had a sudden stroke of inspiration and showed the picture to Portlyn. It was the above picture of Sonny Munroe, and Chad told Portlyn to take extra care while dressing for their date, else she would end up looking like the pictured Sonny.

"What?" Sonny asked irritably, lifting her eyes from the words. "That doesn't make me feel any better, you know."

Chad hid the smile that was threatening to cover his face. "Gee, Sonny, for a smart girl, you sure can miss the obvious sometimes."

"What is that supposed to mean?" The brown-haired girl looked like she wasn't sure whether to be surprised or annoyed.

Chad closed the magazine. "Think about it, Sonny. Where did your picture come from?"

"You dropped it."

"Yes, I dropped it... but where was it before I dropped it?"

"In your wallet, apparently." Sonny spoke in a slow voice, as if trying to explain something to a small child. "But you already knew that."

Chad rolled his eyes. "Why would I keep your picture in my wallet, Sonny?"

"How should I – oh." Sonny's cheeks turned red, and he was pretty sure it wasn't from the heat. "Oh."

Chad smiled triumphantly.

Sonny wasn't done yet, though. "So?" she added, trying to look defiant. "Stop changing the subject. You have to apologize, and promise never to do something like this ever again."

He winked at her, and she flushed further. "Sorry, can't promise that."

"Why not?" she protested, stepping closer to him and shoving her face in his. "Too below you to apologize to someone?" she sneered.

Ouch. His words had really hurt her. Chad stepped back and shook his head.

"I know it was stupid to bring you into the show like that, and say something like that. I just didn't know you'd react like this. I mean, you're Sonny. You're always smiling. I didn't think you'd let something as little as bad publicity shake you."

"Oh, please." Sonny rolled her eyes. "Spare me the lecture, Chad. Excuse me for actually having feelings."

She just wasn't listening. Chad decided to take a different tactic – one he knew he would regret later.

"You know something, Sonny?" The words slipped out before he could think of something better to say. "The crazy thing about you is that you're so perfect."

"... what?" Chad didn't blame her for looking so blank. He was pretty sure he had a similar expression on. He thought of backtracking, of hastily assuring her that he hadn't meant it like that, but his mouth opened of its own accord and said something else.

"Yeah. Perfect in a way that none of us at Mackenzie Falls could ever hope to be." He looked at her seriously and hoped his cheeks weren't on fire. "That's why I keep that photo of you. To remind myself that even you have your imperfect moments."

Sonny was silent for a moment. A few strands of her dark brown hair escaped from the messy ponytail she'd tied them in and stuck to the side of her neck. Then –

"You know, if that was supposed to be a compliment... it didn't work very well."

Chad couldn't help it. He laughed. Sonny looked at him in puzzlement, and he raised one hand to forestall her question.

"Sorry," he gasped, forcing his chuckles down his throat. "You're right. It didn't work very well." One corner of his mouth turned up in a half-smile. "Maybe I should practice more."

"Yeah," Sonny agreed. "Honestly, if I was anyone else, I would've socked you."

He grinned roguishly at her. "Oh, no – see, if you were someone else, you'd be fawning over me. I am the magnificent Chad Dylan Cooper, after all."

Sonny remained unimpressed. "Not if I was Tawni, I wouldn't."

"Fair point," Chad conceded, taking a small step forward. "Okay. How about if I said... your hair is pretty?"

Sonny's mouth twitched madly. "You sound like a girl."

Chad paused, running the words over in his head, and then cringed. "Oh my God, you're right. Just forget you ever heard that."

The corners of Sonny's mouth turned up ever so slightly.

"All right..." Chad pretended to think. "How about – your eyes are shine beautifully?"

"Better," Sonny replied, her folded arms loosening and dropping down to hang by her sides. "A little better."

Chad brushed blond hair out of his eyes and took another tiny step forward. "Or that I like your smile?"

As if on cue, Sonny smiled. "Better."

"Or maybe," Chad declared, "that I love your laugh." He posed exaggeratedly, his hands on his heart and a dreamy look in his eyes. Sonny giggled.

"Cut out the posturing and it might work," she joked. Chad dropped his hands and took the last step, so that he was right in front of her. He looked down at her seriously.

"Or maybe... if I said I wanted to kiss you right now," he spoke softly.

Sonny was still chuckling. "Well, that's..." Her voice trailed off as she processed his words, and noticed how close they were. He saw her throat bob as she swallowed nervously, and half-expected her to take a couple of steps backwards. But she didn't.

"Really?" She sounded so childish and innocent that Chad grinned widely.

"Really." As he lowered his head, he heard Sonny's voice again.

"Um, Chad? How exactly did you get that picture in the first place?"

AN: Whoop de doo. I told you there'd be OOCness. But seriously, Sonny can't be all smiles all the time, and it's pretty obvious that Chad cares for her a lot – so maybe he'd be a little mushy with her. Maybe. Whatever, I liked writing this. I thought it was cute. Do you? (I won't feel bad if you don't, worry not!)

2,010 words.