A/N: A one-shot as part of a Chuck Me Monday attempt. This is our first colab effort from way back. I had it originally posted on my site but I figured I should move it here. Please enjoy...again. Moo.
Disclaimer: We don't own Chuck. If we did, I'd have you in tears and his would probably be on pay-per-view.
Sarah:
"It's real, Chuck," she says softly and she's not entirely sure she's talking about the diploma either.
Clearly he doesn't believe her and she doesn't blame him.
His doubt has a way of feeding hers and it's a vicious cycle. She explains the obvious but since he misses on the words unspoken, she turns a blind eye and pretends none of it's real.
Liar.
She's already told him it is.
So you'll have to tell him otherwise.
A lie to cover up another lie?—one of these days she's bound to slip up.
Sarah takes a nervous drink from the bottle, her eyes not once leaving his.
"Thank you," he says. He looks a little shell-shocked, a little incredulous and she wants to slap some sense into him; doesn't he realize he can do anything?
His gratitude embarrasses her. She hasn't done anything worth mentioning but the fact he's thought of her makes it difficult not to smile. She has no choice; she has to do something to distract him before he catches the embarrassing flush growing on her cheeks.
"You see that star out on the horizon?"
She achieves her primary goal and he looks up at the sky.
"...make a wish. It's yours." She looks to him as she explains, but the words are just meaningless syllables tumbling out of her mouth. What really matters, what she really wants to say is: "I'm yours."
Chuck continues to stare at the starry night sky and she does the same. Sarah's not a superstitious person by nature, she doesn't believe in four-leaf clovers or broken mirrors but what she wouldn't give to believe for a second that it were all true.
Then she can close her eyes and silence the ever-rational-ever-critical part of her mind and believe, for a second, that she could have it all.
Chuck looks down and sets his beer back on top of his newly printed diploma. Sarah does the same.
"So?" she asks, giving him an encouraging smile. "What did you wish for?"
Chuck shakes his head. "Nope. It's a secret."
Her curiosity is seriously piqued and even though it's probably nothing substantial, she still wants to know. Even if he's wished for an advanced copy of that game or other he plays or to someday meet his idols at Comic Con, she still wants to know.
That's not why you really want to know.
Sarah silences that part of her mind, too embarrassed to let it go on for any longer.
Okay. So a little part of her would like to believe he's wished for something more.
Something more...real?
"Chuck," she admonishes lightly. "There are no secrets between us. You trust me, don't you?"
He smiles but shakes his head again. "I can't, Sarah."
"Of course you can," she coaxes. "I promise I won't laugh."
Chuck's reluctance coupled with the growing tell-tale blush across his cheeks only puts a damper on Sarah's spirits. So it's not what she's hoped for then if he's too embarrassed to spill.
"No, it's not that," he says. "It's just...you know it won't come true if you say it."
"What?" She makes a face. "That's a stupid rule," she says. "Who told you that?"
He looks at her strangely. "It's a well-accepted fact."
The statement makes her laugh. "I'd like to see the papers on that," she says. "There's no way that's true."
Chuck looks down at his feet and shrugs. "Well I believe it," he says, reaching for his drink.
Sarah reaches for hers at exactly the same time. Wary of a much desired and equal parts forbidden contact with the man she so often had a habit of blurring the lines for, she instinctively draws her hand back.
Chuck does the same and the sudden reflex knocks over the bottles, spilling beer all over the balcony.
"Oh!" Sarah rushes to rescue his diploma and Chuck dives for the bottles that are now clattering and rolling along the ground.
"Sorry!" he says, his hands dripping with spilled beer.
Sarah holds up his diploma, letting the excess amber liquid drip off the corner.
"Don't worry, we can always order another," she says, hoping to brighten the mood. She smiles, seeing her chance and taking it. "So...was that what you wished for?"
"Huh?" he asks, standing the now two empty glass bottles upright.
"Did you wish for a new diploma?" It seems silly but it's not altogether unlikely. She's heard crazier things when he's with Morgan.
Chuck shakes his head.
"Did you wish you wouldn't have to drink any more of that dreadful beer?"
He still shakes his head. "Getting cold," he says as a tease.
"Did you wish you could drive your charming girlfriend crazy by refusing to answer her questions?"
Chuck finally smiles and its wattage threatens to blind her. "Getting warmer."
Sarah thinks she feels her heart skip a beat. It takes everything not to let it show, she doesn't even allow the corner of her lips to twitch.
"Really? Did you wish your charming girlfriend could nag you all evening about refusing to answer her questions?"
Chuck just keeps on smiling. "Let's head in, Sarah," he says and there's something about the light in his eyes that says he means more than his words.
"It's warmer inside."
Chuck:
They are watching, ironically enough, the movie Stardust. Sarah is snuggled tight against him, and his arm is relaxing easily around her shoulders. Technically, the closeness isn't necessary as Ellie has fallen asleep, but Chuck has no desire to point out the obvious, nor lose the pleasant warmness of Sarah's body pressed close.
No knock against the movie, but Chuck finds his companion far more interesting than watching Robert De Niro play a gay pirate. He leans his face closer until it is almost in her hair and he just smiles, completely content.
"Is that what you wished for?" he hears her mumble half into his chest and half into the room.
Surprised at the question, it takes him a few seconds to understand what she means. When he realizes she's still fishing for information, he smiles even wider and tightens his hold on her.
"What do you mean?" he asks, delaying the inevitable. He swears that if she pouts at him one more time, he won't be able to hold the wish back any longer.
"When you saw the star and made your wish, did you…" Her blue eyes sparkle in the dim light and she looks away.
He waits for her to finish the thought but her voice trails off.
"Wish for a beautiful girl to fall out of the sky?" he asks, finishing the sentence for her.
Sarah's entire face is redder than he remembers, or is it simply the dim lighting?
He doesn't know what to say, doesn't know how to respond, so he stalls. "Something like that," he says.
He tries to make himself appear more mysterious than he really is. He's not sure why it's so important to Sarah that she knows his wish; she already knows so much about him and he knows so little about her. Just once, he'd like to be the mysterious one for a change.
She frowns slightly, and bites her bottom lip. Neither of them are watching the movie any longer. She sits up a little straighter and Chuck sees that she's staring at him, head on. "You can tell me anything, you know that right?"
Chuck nods his head. "I do."
"Then you would tell me if something was wrong, wouldn't you?"
Chuck blinks, taken aback by her question. Of course he would tell her if something was wrong, but he has no idea why she would jump to that conclusion. "Everything is fine, Sarah," he says.
Sarah looks unconvinced and she stares back at him with those piercing eyes.
He starts to grow a little uncomfortable under her gaze and darts his eyes back to the movie.
Everything is fine. His beautiful cover girlfriend is plastered to his side and he has a diploma from Stanford. Ellie is the happiest she's been since her engagement and he feels like he can do anything. His eyes briefly focus back on Sarah's face and he feels a sharp tug in his chest at how beautiful she is. Well, almost anything he amends.
He feels a pull on his shirt and he watches Sarah lean back into the couch. "Are you really sure, Chuck?"
He mutes the movie, seeing no point in keeping up the charade any longer. He faces Sarah completely now. He wants to get to the bottom of her sudden insistence. "What's going on, Sarah?"
"Nothing," she says.
Chuck doesn't believe her. He knows her well enough (or at least thinks he does) to sense when she's holding something back.
"You just seem…I don't know, distracted," he says.
"Just thinking." She adds, "Curious."
"About what?"
"You," she says. Her voice is a little lower than usual and there is a faint upturn of her lips, like she is fighting a smile.
"Me?" he nearly squeaks.
She just nods her head.
"You and your future," she says.
Her hand is resting on his forearm now and her fingers idly slide up and down his skin. It's very distracting and Chuck almost asks her to stop, so that he can concentrate, but he's not stupid.
"Oooooh," Chuck says with a shiver. Then he grins wide as it clicks for him in his head. "You're definitely warm now."
Sarah rolls her eyes but her gaze never wavers. Her finger nails press down harder into his skin and she stares at him with an intensity that makes him squirm. "I'll start asking annoying questions again," she warns.
"Do your worst, I won't talk," he says with as much bravado as he can muster.
She shoots him a blinding smile, and he imagines that for that second, she is a burning star. He closes his eyes and makes a wish.
When he opens them, she is still there and she is still smiling.
He doesn't know what the future holds, but today? Today, that is enough for him.