A/N: Thank you for the reviews RevolutionFan, ShortySC22 and the random guest of the day! I do greatly appreciate them.

Not much in this author's note – the only things I want to say are that (a.) Willoughby, Texas is a fictitious town – so I have no idea how far or how long it would take to get there from Dallas – so I'm 100% making all of it up. I do know it takes 39 hours to walk from San Antonio to Austin, center to center so I'm sort of trying to use that as a comparison. And (b.) I'm changing their ages a little bit because frankly – they don't all look that old. Miles has a bit of gray hair but I know people who have gray hair in their 20's or went bald in H.S. It is an A/U after all. ;)

I also apparently forgot to label chapter two, haha. My bad, guys.

This chapter has…quite honestly squat to do with the plot, I just wanted to put a little fluffiness in it. Enjoy!

Chapter 4

The agreed upon three hours came and went, and Sebastian was left waiting at the agreed post. Charlie wasn't at any of the immediate vender stands, and a quick leap to conclusion was that she wasn't at any of the shops either.

She really wasn't all that late but Sebastian couldn't help but think she'd taken off. Truth be told, it kind of hurt his feelings. They didn't really talk on their daily walks but he kind of thought he was making a bit of an impression on her. She had grown on him with her occasionally silly antics and tantrums.

He sighed. He really wished he didn't have to start tracking her again. If he did, he'd handcuff them together.

He felt a tap on his shoulder and whirled around expecting to be attacked. It was Charlie with a sugar stick in between her lips.

She sucked back some spit, "I got distracted."

He cocked an eyebrow, "By candy?"

They started walking at a slow pace towards their hotel destination. It was only a few blocks walk from where they were. He was hungry, tired and sweaty.

Charlie sucked back more spit, continuing to talk around the stick of sugar in her mouth, "The lady was talking my ear off about how hard it was to make all the stuff she was selling. It's not as if we have to organize our time for anything else."

Sebastian chuckled as they turned a corner. This was the longest conversation they'd ever had that didn't involve guns and murder. "Maybe she thought you'd appreciate all the hard work she put into it?"

She snorted while digging her pocket, "Bitch acted like nobody wanted to buy any of it. Here."

He glanced down to see her open palm extended to him. There was a second sugar stick wrapped in a bit of parchment paper. She had bought some for him?

"Take it. Or, do you not have a sweet tooth?" She asked cautiously. She really didn't know why she bought him the candy, but she figured he might enjoy it.

His hand numbly settled on top of hers to grasp the candy while she kept speaking, "I wasn't sure what flavor you'd like so, I just kind of guessed."

Silently, he unwrapped the candy and stuffed the bit of wax paper into his pocket. It was a slight pinkish red color. He was almost hesitant to try it but Charlie interrupted his thought process. She was obnoxiously talkative.

"It's cherry. I just grabbed a couple and didn't ask what they were. I didn't like the flavor."

He glanced at her. "How do you know it was cherry then?"

She sucked back some spit and her eyes looked skyward, somewhat innocently. "I licked it to see what it tasted like."

Sebastian started laughing at her. She'd licked the very piece of candy she gave him. He winked at her before placing half of the candy in his mouth and pulling it back out suggestively. She rolled her eyes.

"Thank you for the candy, Charlotte."

For some reason the way he'd said her name that time made her stomach tighten in excitement. That weird, tingly way she remembered feeling kissing Jason. And Monroe wasn't even touching her.

She caught site of the hotel, "Oh! Look! There it is!"

She couldn't sprint off fast enough. Sebastian stared after her with a twinkle in his eye and his piece of candy stuck firmly between his teeth.

Horror. That was the look Charlie gave the woman at the hotel desk when she'd said there was only one room left. There was no comfort in the fact that it had two beds.

Charlie sputtered, "What did you say?"

The woman at the counter sort of just…stared at her, "It's the only room left."

"Out of this entire building?"

The woman just kept staring at her, "We're trying to maintain the status quo so some of the rooms are unavailable for use while we maintain them. It's one of our nicer rooms and I can give it to you for a little less for the inconvenience."

Charlie wanted hot water, alone, in her own room. Not all of that and Sebastian Monroe in the bed next to her. That was the way he wanted it originally but she downright refused. She just wanted a little bit of damn privacy for once.

Sebastian rolled his eyes and handed some diamonds over to the woman. She was so confused. She watched him take the key and usher Charlie forward by her pack. The hotel was originally built in the early 1900's and because of the fixtures and way it was built, it was a true survivor of the blackout.

The room was large but surprisingly quaint. The afternoon was on the edge of evening and the service girls had already brought up dinner.

Neither of them spoke as they dug into the food with reckless abandon. Something other than game meat was a luxury.

Sebastian couldn't think of any other comparison than a starving football team.

He finished eating a bit before she did and got up to grab his pack. The woman at the desk had told him the other employees would arrange for two bathes to be drawn and heated. A few of the rooms had been outfitted with a second tub for convince. The richer clientele didn't like sharing bathwater with each other.

He dumped his bag over onto one of the beds and started rummaging through it. Charlie could sense his frustration as he continued to turn things over and go through this or that.

"Are you out of soap?"

Sebastian huffed, "Among other things. Don't suppose you have any you'd let me use? Maybe even something that wouldn't make me smell like a girl?"

Charlie laughed and wiped her mouth before getting up and going to her own bag. She turned it over and emptied its contents over the remaining bed. The contents between the bags were night and day.

"It so happens," She grabbed a small metal tin, opened the lid and stuck out her hand. "I was buying supplies for our trip like I said. These are all yours."

She'd bought him more stuff? He wasn't exactly sure if it was kindness or necessity. He was pretty sure he smelled like a sty. There were a couple of things in there other than the soap which made him wonder if she really had put thought into getting him something.

He smiled at her, his eyes speaking volumes.

Charlie felt like fidgeting under his gaze but couldn't help but smile back a little shyly, her cheeks tinging a little red.

Sebastian winked at her blushing face before starting toward the bathroom.

"Monroe…" she called softly as he had a hand on the doorknob. He glanced at her and she continued. "There were a few different scents, so I tried to pick something you might…like."

He opened the door and walked through to the bathroom. Before he shut it, he stuck his head out and startled her, "Well, you guessed well enough that I like cherry, let's see how good you are in other areas."

The door clicked shut.

Charlie sighed so big, her lungs stung a bit, "Shit."

The both of them were in and out of their respective baths relatively quickly. Charlie had taken some extra time since it had been such a long time since she'd gotten steamy hot water and luxurious soap and other frilly things to use.

After drying off she fresh braided her hair and got into the clothes she preferred to sleep in when not trekking and camping outside; a cute pair of black cotton shorts and an oversized flannel. She rolled she sleeves up to her elbow and buttoned the middle three buttons. She gathered her thinks as if nothing were amiss and left the bathroom.

Sebastian wasn't in the room,Charlie noticed. She packed her things back into her bag neatly and set the pack on the floor and turned to the second bed, still littered with junk.

Men, she mused while rolling her eyes. She doubted he had anything in the pile that was some sort of government secret, so she started packing things up for him. Folding clothes, sheathing knives and boxing up bullets.

She stopped when her fingers enclosed around a cute wooden box. Curiosity was getting to the better of her. She knew she shouldn't snoop through Sebastian Monroe's belongings but she couldn't help herself. Everything else in her bag was plainly obvious; this was the only secret one.

Glancing around the room quickly, she turned back to the box and separated the lid from the bottom. Inside were photos. A few were somewhat damaged but most were in pretty good condition overall.

She delicately took the photos into her hand and set the empty box back onto the bed. One by one she went through them and somehow Sebastian Monroe's life; his past and what was left of his sanity; came into view.

Sebastian had walked out onto the hotel's balcony to get some air as the sun was setting. To breathe and to take in how normal things felt. Even if he was travelling with someone he was sure who hated him, despite the nice things they'd been doing for each other as of late.

The soap and other items she'd gotten him had turned out to spell pretty nice. He figured her 'guessing' was more of just picking out things she liked and hoping he wouldn't notice. He smiled. He smelled like sage, sweetgrass and cedar.

He saw her moving around the room out of the corner of his eye and decided he'd go back in. It was obvious she hadn't heard him open or shut the delicate balcony door; her back was facing him and she was his bed. Being an easy six inches taller than her, he could see that she had been snooping and was looking through his pictures.

Charlie didn't hear anyone come in, or come up behind her. No. She smelled who staring holes into the back of her head. She had stopped on an old picture. Fifteen years old to be exact. It was taken a few days before the blackout. She lost herself in it with utter disbelief that he'd kept it.

The moment she smelled him behind her, she gasped and spun around. The look on his face was a bit blank.

She sputtered, "I…Uh…I was cleaning and…"

Sebastian gently pulled the photos from her hand and shook his head, "Remember when we took this one?" Referring to the one she had stared at.

She noticed he didn't have a shirt and his flannel pants were riding dangerously low on his hips. She gulped and muttered, "I was climbing in a tree while Miles was flirting with that girl from down the street and I slipped and fell. You saved me."

He smiled and stepped in closer to her, tossing the photos onto the bed behind her. Good God she smells amazing, He suddenly thought. The damn girl smelled like apples and vanilla. His body twitched. He didn't think he could ever eat an apple again.

She was still talking. What did she say? "What was the last part?"

Charlie stuttered and looked up from her visual travel downward, "Oh, I'm sorry. I…the cut had scarred."

He remembered. When the ten year old version of the woman in front of him had fallen from the tree, she'd hit a stray branch and it gouged a cut into her thigh a few inches long. Glancing down, he saw what she meant. Fifteen years had lightened it but it was still visible enough. He saw the tattoo on her thigh he'd seen not too long ago next to it. It was a pocket watch next to an open locket, the chains intertwining together and running up her thigh, disappearing under the hem of her oversized shirt. He couldn't quite tell if she had anything else on underneath. He thanked God his pants were loose…

"I sure don't remember that being next to the scar though."

Charlie was biting her lip when she met his eyes. "It means to lock up time…before it's all gone. A friend at the Georgia docks did tattoos with something he'd modified to work since you know…no power…"

He nodded, accepting the answer. He figured she'd tell him why it was there in the first place, like all the others she had, when she was ready. Especially the insignia on her shoulder.

She felt compelled to move in a smidge closer to him. It was some unsung agreement between the two. Their truce, feelings both good and bad and their waning physical resistance to each other.

Sebastian wasn't sure if he should be letting any of this happen. Charlie was Miles' niece. But with her in front of him dressed in almost nothing, he just couldn't shake the feeling of wanting to taste her lips.

"Charlotte…"

"Yes, Sebastian?"

Oh hell. She'd said his name. It was soft and oh so inviting. Did she know she was killing him?

Well, if he was going to die, he was going to die happy. Sebastian hovered his lips over hers, barely touching them together. It was so chaste it kind of disgusted him. He was never shy when it came to women.

Charlie was reeling. She wanted to push him back, slap him, anything. She thought she was supposed to hate him. Hate him for the things that happened to Danny or her dad. Hell, even her mom. She didn't deepen or participate in the kiss but she didn't stop it either.

When he pulled back from her, Sebastian sensed turmoil in Charlie's head. He was quite positive he knew why. He sighed and put a bit more distance between their bodies, "No matter how good someone's intentions might be, someone invariably dies because of them."

Charlie smiled at him. Really smiled. She closed the gap between them a second time, but only for a simple hug and a soft kiss on the cheek. She whispered into his ear, "Goodnight, Sebastian."

Sebastian smiled back as she moved around him to snuggle into her bed for the night. He went around the room and blew out all the oil lamps and candles. On the final one he whispered in the darkness, "Thank you, Charlotte."