Research
Charlotte, contrary to the crew's perception, swore like a sailor when the situation was right. When she tripped up a flight of stairs, closed her thumb in a door, lost a game of chess to Frank, of all people. She'd burst out with a string of profanity that stained the air around her, and, after no more than twenty seconds, she was back. Smiling, that little disapproving squint she had perfected, and she turned on heel to walk off as if it had never happened.
The first time, Dan was sure that he'd imagined the whole thing. That he had been hallucinating and the woman had not walked into a door and pulled out three curses he had never even heard before. Maybe in a different language.
She stared Dan in the face, only seven feet apart, her eyes as blue as her language. Then she tipped her head to one side and smiled, brushing her curls from her eyes. "Pardon," she said and sidestepped through the door she'd run into.
He began a study. A study of the english language, he justified, as he made up a table in his scribble-laiden notebook. Every time she used one of those combustible words in frustration, he'd make a tally. Or, perhaps make an entirely new column altogether. That, of course, he realized as he stood behind one of the corners of the residential quarters, that would mean that he would need to follow her. Relentlessly. A true scientist never rests.
Of course he wondered what she would think if she spied him following her around the hallways, listening for any slip of her tongue. If she would round on him, shout "AHA!!" and kick him soundly in the face and leave him to bleed. If she would sic Naomi on him, driven back to his room through fear of women united. If Miles should rat him out, the blue fire of Charlotte's eyes and the grim chuckling of Miles in the corner as he watched Dan burn.
But a scientist must pursue! He must see his hypothesis through, proved or disproved! And, he thought as he marked an entirely new column, he was learning quite a bit of new vocabulary. She didn't seem the girl for it, and it was only at the right moments, but on their watery trip out to the middle of nowhere, he learned more about Charlotte's vocabulary than anything else about her.
At dinner, poking into a tray of bland seafood with her plastic fork, Charlotte stared across the table at the physicist and, with a lopsided smirk, said simply: "You've forgotten a column, Dan."
The scientist blushed a hard beet red and hid his face in his notebook when she reminded him which swear he'd missed, and, as predicted, Miles laughed a snorting donkey laugh. Charlotte, however, didn't set Dan on fire with her eyes. They were softer than normal, and as she went for her second bite, she diverted her eyes and smiled the rarest smile of all.
The next morning, Dan tossed the swear table out the porthole window and into the gurgling sea. Her eyes were branded on his brain hotter than any word that English had yet invented.
AN: Hello, friends, it's me again! Another Lost pairing for my project! 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 loved Charaladay! YOU RUINED ANOTHER ONE OF MY SHIPS, LOST. WHY DO YOU DO THIS?? Well, here's some more shippy nostalgia from me. Hope you like! Leave me some love and stay awesome!!