Disclaimer: I don't own Rugrats or All Grown Up. I do somewhat own a couple of these characters and the plot of this little fanfiction though.

Author's Note: So I absolutely love Angelica and after reading several Chuckie/Angelica stories, I absolutely love the pairing too. In particular, I would like to give a nod to Lord Malachite, for his story that initially got me hooked on this pairing.

As for this story, this initial chapter doesn't do much other than set the scene. Chapters here on out will take place largely, if not solely, in the era when Chuckie and Angelica are in school and what happens. It will be a relatively long story, and I picture it as a trilogy, maybe 4 stories, with each story dealing with one year of school each, broadly speaking. And whilst you know the overall outcome from this prologue, I do promise many twists and turns and the presence of the other characters from the show too.

Anyway, I do hope you enjoy the start of the story and any comments or criticisms are very welcome. I would like to improve my writing and I would love it if you could help me do so.

Please enjoy.

Tales From Grandpa Chuckie

Or How Chuckie Finally Married The Love Of His Life

Prologue

Sometimes Charlize really hated her little sister, Cheryl. It irked her that their names started with the same sound, thanks to some crazy quirk in her parents. It pissed her off like mad when Cheryl would sneak into her room and 'borrow' clothes or use her make-up. Most of all, it drove her up the wall when there was nobody home apart from the two of them, and Cheryl would get so bored that she wouldn't stop bugging Charlize, like today.

'For the last time, Cheryl,' she snarled (again), 'go away.'

'So you can talk to your boyfriend?' The annoying little sister sniggered back at her. As a matter of fact, Charlize prided herself on being a modern, independent young woman, with no need of unnecessary accessories, like a boyfriend, but that didn't mean that these unintentional taunts didn't make her want to punch her sister in the face!

She stood up tall in all of her five foot two inch glory and with a face frightening enough to make her sister take a step back, she gritted her teeth. 'Get OUT!'

There was a blessed hour of peace that Charlize enjoyed to its full extent, doing nothing in particular but at least doing it without her sister. She was walking down the stairs, toying with the idea of ordering some Chinese food for dinner when she overheard her sister on the phone.

'Oh it's no big deal. I was just kinda bored but if you're busy...' Cheryl did her best to hide her dejection. 'Yeah, okay, I'll talk to you later.'

Charlize wasn't a great sister and she never prided herself on that, but once in a while, she did decide to be nice to her. Biting back a sigh, she knocked on Cheryl's door. 'I'm thinking of heading over to Grandpa Chuckie's place. Do you want to come?'

'Yeah, of course.' There was a radiant smile on Cheryl's face, as she quickly tied her strawberry blonde hair into a messy ponytail and quickly put on some trainers. It took less than five minutes for the two girls to get into Charlize's second-hand Toyota and speed the eight miles to their grandpa's house.

It wasn't Charlize's first choice for her evening plans but it wasn't the worst outcome either. Grandpa Chuckie was ridiculously nice, there was always good food available (especially when they ordered takeaway) and her nana normally had some sort of little present lying around. The ring she was wearing right now had been one of those funky presents and the best thing was that they were fully modern, so she could surf the TV or the net whilst her sister could hang out with the grandparents.

It was sort of sad, Charlize thought, that her little sister had basically only one good friend in school. Sure, she didn't have to be popular or have a posse but just the one friend seemed like a lonely way of life. The big smile on Cheryl's face seemed to indicate otherwise, though, as they walked up the small steps of their grandparents' porch.

'Grandpa!' Cheryl had wrapped her arms around Chuckie before he could even say hello when he opened the door, but he returned the hug warmly, throwing an amused, quizzical glance at Charlize.

'Guess you girls must've been bored.' One his hands swept through his hair in a familiar, nervous gesture. 'Come inside. Have you two had dinner? I'll order in some food – I don't think you're grandmother will be here for a while.'

The words tripped past one another in a nervous tangle. 'Chinese will be great,' Charlize replied for both of them, her sister having already moved into the kitchen. 'Where's nana? Isn't she normally home by now?'

She was observant enough to notice the slightly queer expression that came over her grandfather's face but she wasn't astute enough to really comprehend it.

'She's just a little busy today,' her grandfather replied.

It didn't really answer the question, she thought, but she didn't pursue the matter further, losing interest as swiftly as it had come and moving onto more pressing matters, like what was on TV. She had just flicked past VH1 (boring) and found the latest hip-hop-slash-dance song on MTV when a plate of cookies found their way in her line of vision.

'Thought you might be a little hungry while we waited for dinner to arrive.'

As if on cue, her stomach rumbled at her grandfather in response, earning a grin from him.

'Grandpa Chuckie, when did you meet nana?' It was hard to decipher Cheryl's question until she had swallowed her mouthful and repeated it.

'When did I meet her? When I was a baby,' Grandpa Chuckie settled himself next to Charlize on the sofa, as Cheryl's eyes grew big and round.

'Wow,' she breathed. 'So you guys were, like, childhood sweethearts!'

Charlize would have snorted in derision if her grandfather's reaction hadn't taken her aback so much. After exclaiming a 'what' and a 'no way', with a head shaking manically from side to side, he started laughing. Honest to god, Charlize would swear that she saw tears of laughter in his eyes, and, she admitted to herself and nobody else, she was dying of curiosity to find out just what was so funny about that question. If they'd known each other since they were a baby and got married and were, like, soul mates or whatever, didn't that essentially define childhood sweethearts?

Apparently it didn't, she thought drily. For once, it seemed like her sister was on the same wavelength as her, as she asked about the very same thing a few seconds later. 'Wait, if you guys knew each other as babies and then got married, how are you not childhood sweethearts?'

For the first time in her life, Charlize noticed possibly the most patronising look she has ever seen and that on the face of her favourite grandfather. She didn't know it was possible for him to have a face other than cheerfully happy or trying-and-failing-at-looking-annoyed-with-his-dar ling-granddaughters. This evening was turning out to be a lot more interesting than she had thought possible.

'Sweetie, childhood sweethearts tend to love each other in their childhood, so no, we are definitely not childhood sweethearts.'

Charlize finally gave up on feigning any interest in the TV and turned around to directly stare at Grandpa Chuckie. She was sure her eyes were as wide as her sister's right now – they were certainly starting to ache a little bit. She blinked away some of the discomfort as her sister got into full interrogation mode. It seemed almost out of place to not see a notepad and paper in her heads. Even having a lamp on full blast in his face would have been in keeping with the current atmosphere.

'So you knew nana when you were babies but you didn't love her when you were babies?' Cheryl demanded an answer but it seemed her grandfather just couldn't take her quite seriously today. Another grin was spreading across his face and he was clearly putting in a lot of effort to not laugh.

With only a slightly trembling voice, he finally confirmed in. 'Oh sweetie, your grandmother was an absolute bitch in our youthful days.' A stunned silence met his statement, which he ignored in favour of taking a particularly delicious looking cookie. Taking his time to savour the taste, he finally turned his attention back to his poor gobsmacked granddaughters. 'Don't be so shocked – you haven't come across her in a bad mood yet. And that's just a normal bad mood. Satan would be scared of her when she's in a really bad mood.'

'But why would you be with her if she's so mean and you don't love her?'

Cheryl's voice sounded so small that Chuckie stopped licking his fingers and turned to her. 'Hey, I didn't say I didn't love her. I do – lots.' A slightly rueful grin stole across his face. 'I guess I have a thing with danger.' They still didn't look convinced, so he continued. 'Sweetie, I love your grandmother as much because of her flaws as despite them. And that's true love – not thinking someone's perfect but thinking they're perfect because of their imperfections. And your grandmother, well...she was a bitch. And, trust me, I've called her a lot worse to her face. I love her now for it; it's just that I pretty much hated her for most of my childhood.'

'I just don't understand how you guys could end up falling in love and marrying.'

Chuckie felt really bad for chuckling at the statement when Cheryl looked so crestfallen and Charlize looked in shock but he couldn't help himself. It'd been a long time since he had thought about the twists and turns that had led him to the here and now and it was actually sort of nice thinking about it all. 'I hate that I'm breaking your heart and your innocence but I have to admit...we were sort of married and annulled it before we fell in love.'

'Wait, what?' Charlize had finally decided to become an active participant in the conversation.

There really had been a surprising number of twists and turns, now that he thought about it. 'Yeah, I guess it was sort of complicated.' He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, uncertain about whether he should have opened this ridiculous can of worms. He thought he'd grown out of this bad habit. It must have just been dormant all this time. 'It happened over years. Loads of years.'

'We've got time,' Charlize said, grabbing a cookie with a slow smirk crossing her face that had a strong resemblance to his wife's. He was wondering just how much trouble he'd be in for letting all this slip through. No matter the years, some memories were still painful and some things would rather remain as forgotten as possible but he had never been able to say no to his granddaughters before.

Besides, she had been cranky with him this morning. It could all be considered payback. Everything was fair in love and war, especially when the two were combined.

'Well...I guess it started when we were teenagers,' he began.

'You guess? You're not sure when it started?' Cheryl didn't bother asking what 'it' was – she just hoped her assumption was right that it was referencing their relationship.

'Well, it's difficult to say.' Chuckie tried to explain. 'For Angelica, it probably started when she was 14. I didn't really know the significance of it then until later – like a year and a half later. And for me, it started when I was 14 too.'

'So isn't that the same time?' It was Charlize that asked this time, crumbs falling inelegantly out of her mouth but appearances be damned. Her grandparent's love story seemed anything but straightforward now.

'Oh no.' A very gleeful expression came across Chuckie's face. 'It's a little known fact that my wife is a year older than me.' He was so sleeping on the couch tonight but it was most definitely worth it. 'So anyway, like I was saying, for Angelica, it started when she was 14, in the summer before she started high school. It was boiling during the day but it used actually become surprisingly chilly at nights, and on one of those nights, in the middle of the night in fact, I was in bed and asleep when I heard noises on my window that finally woke me up. Angelica was standing outside, throwing pebbles at my window and when I finally opened it, she threw one that hit me in my face.' His lips were twitching upwards at the memory.

'And that's how it started?' Charlize asked sceptically.

'Yup, that's how it all started.'

'And then what happened?' Cheryl asked him, staring expectantly with her sister and just this once, Chuckie decided to share the memories he liked to indulge in time and again.

To be continued...