Title: Sunshiny Tears
Author: bookworm835
Rating: K/T (to be safe) for mention of death and an itty bit of language and a very brief moment of perverted thoughts from Charlie... although some stuff I saw on TV that was rated G was rather violent!
Categories: Angst/Humor
Summary: Shannon hasn't spoken with anyone since she last saw Boone. All she does is lay on the beach in silence all day. Charlie then conveniently decides that he could use a tan. Fluffy Charlie/Shannon friendship.
Disclaimer: Don't own Lost, Charlie, Shannon, any other characters, places, ect... unfortunately. :(
A/N: It's rather odd to categorize a story under angst AND humor but it IS both, even though it's not really all that funny (but it's more funny than angsty). I don't really like Charlie/Shannon ships so this is just a sweet little FRIENDLY moment. And yes, I STILL have not updated Found or Lost in her Mind. :slaps self: Bad me, bad, bad :recieves odd glances from audience: Oh, and, just so you know, the B. of Claire's baby's middle name stands for Boone, for those of you who didn't catch it. And I expect that not many of you caught it because I didn't make it obvious whatsoever. Sorry:) Please review after you've read, even if it's a flame.

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Last night, one had died and one had been born. While Charlie celebrated with Claire the birth of her baby son Jonah B. Littleton, Shannon grieved over the death of her stepbrother Boone. She had taken it terribly when Jack had given her the news but now she remained solemn and stubborn, refusing to speak with anyone. Many thought that Sayid might've been able to convince her to talk but he told them that he was feeling too guilty. After all, he had been occupying Shannon's time while Boone had lay dying.

Charlie beamed fondly as Claire snored softly, her back against a palm tree. Little Jonah cooed and stretched out his chubby arms, flexing stubby fingers, cuddled up against his mother as she slept. Jonah whined and Charlie knelt down, letting Jonah wrap his tiny hand around his finger. Jonah let out a gurgling laugh. Charlie's smile stretched from ear to ear.

"Shh, you don't want to wake up your mum, Joe," Charlie whispered in his slightly raspy voice. Jonah slid his hand off of Charlie's finger and curled up against Claire's now-flat belly, closing sapphire-blue eyes that were his mother's. Even though the baby wasn't his own, Charlie couldn't help but feel a bit proud. Jonah snored exactly like Claire. He rose quietly and strolled off along the beach, a silly grin on his face.

He abruptly stopped dead in his tracks, his grin falling off his face and landing flat into the dirt. Charlie considered backing away but it was too late; Shannon glanced up from her towel on the sand and stared at him with cold blue eyes. She looked him up and down, uttered a small "tch!" and rolled over on her stomach.

Charlie sighed and looked himself up and down as well. Maybe he could use a tan. It couldn't hurt, could it?

Well actually, I could get a rather painful sunburn, mused Charlie. I could get bloody skin cancer! Or I could get tricked into fishing for hours on end again. Humiliating, really. Or maybe --

Sighing deeply, Charlie took a few cautious steps towards Shannon and settled down in the warm sand before he had the chance to change his mind. The sun was shining brightly on his scruffy blond-tipped hair. Shannon opened her eye to a slit and peered out. Charlie put on the goofiest, widest smile he had ever faked. Shannon scrunched her eyes shut again.

"What do you want, loser?" she muttered angrily.

He grinned so wide that it began to get painful. He had gotten her to open her mouth! Which was an odd thing to say about Shannon; usually you couldn't shut her up. He sucked in a breath, gathering up his courage, inhaling the scent of salt water and--what was that? Perfume? He supposed that, even mourning, Shannon had to be pretty with her smelly scents and skimpy pink bikini. It seemed harder to talk to Shannon that it would've been chuck mud into the faces of a dozen pissed off giraffes, sneer, laugh, point, then lay down under their feet. Charlie would rather be smushed into jelly than try to cheer up Shannon.

"Uh, listen..." he began. "I... um..."

Without looking, Shannon huffily said, "Are you gonna just sit there this entire time? Because I've got better stuff to do than listen to you babble like the gullible idiot wannabe-rock star that you are."

Charlie ground his teeth.

"You in my sun," she added.

Harrumphing sourly, Charlie shifted to the left. "Sun, right... May I join you?"

"What?" Shannon's tone was somewhat softened. "I just called you stupid. You're supposed to storm off now."

"Yeah, well... I'm thinking about it," Charlie mumbled. He took a deep breath. "But I won't. So can I...?"

Her voice again aloof, Shannon said, "Whatever. Just stay out of my sun."

Charlie yanked off his shirt and lay back, the warm sand and sun feeling heavenly. Maybe he could accidentally-on-purpose fall asleep... It was all so perfect; the lapping of waves on the shore, the gulls crying in the distance, the memory of Claire and her child still on his mind... and then you add Shannon and the loveliness of it all just flew out the window into the dirt with his smile.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Shannon opened her eyes again and peeked over at Charlie. She "tch!"ed again. "God, you're fat," she commented airily, stretching out and resting her head in the crook of her arm.

Charlie's eyes shot open. He propped himself up on his elbows, pouted, and poked at his belly.

But she wasn't finished, oh no. "I can see why you wanted to tan with me. You're, like, a ghost. A fat, stupid ghost."

Was God just testing his patience! Because he had already run out of it!

Charlie angrily got to his feet, snatched up his striped shirt and began to stalk off.

"Wait!"

Blinking, Charlie slowly pivoted on the spot. Shannon had pulled herself in a sitting position, her eyes shimmering in the gold sunlight with tears, clutching her towel around her shoulders.

"I'm sorry!" she blurted out. "I'm just... lonely. Please... don't go."

Charlie scratched the top of his head and licked his lips thoughtfully, hoping this wasn't a trick. Then he walked back over to her, sitting on his knees beside her. His face burned as a few tears fell from her eyes. He had never been very good at calming down disquieted girls. Especially nasty girls named Shannon, Charlie found himself thinking.

Pearly tears rolled down Shannon's cheeks and she let out a tiny sniffle. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean it."

He smiled nervously, his face red. "It's okay, you were just a tad upset, which is definitely understandable... Shannon, it's alright." She looked up at him, her lower lip sticking far out, her eyes and nose bright pink. "Really," Charlie hastily added.

"I don't think Sayid likes me anymore," Shannon admitted tearfully.

Charlie furrowed his brow. "Ah, don't think that," he said. "Sayid obviously likes you a... um... lot. A whole lot."

"No, no," Shannon sobbed, her somehow-still-perfectly-manicured nails digging into her towel. "No... I think after I told him that he loved me, Sayid got angry. Now he doesn't want to talk to me. He's been avoiding me."

"Um, who's he?"

Shannon bit her lip hard then wailed screechily, "Boone! Boone was totally in love with me!"

Charlie's eyes widened and he frowned. "Oh... wasn't expecting that. Totally."

Sobbing harder, Shannon was the one who began to babble senselessly. She rocked violently back and forth, kicking up sand, her speech slurred.

Alarmed, Charlie placed his hands on her narrow shoulders, trying to calm her down, which seemed to frighten her more. She let out a loud scream (many other people on the beach were beginning to stare) and then started crying all over again.

"Whoa, wait, hold on--"

"Youmeanieyoustoptouchingmeyou'renothelping--"

"Hey, relax, hey--"

"Sayiddoesn'tlikemeandnowBoonedoesn'tlikemebecausehe's--"

Shaking his head, Charlie wildly waved his arms, almost appearing as if he was trying to fly off, while Shannon put on quite a show, blending all of her sentences together into one big word and sobbing the entire time, every once in a while stopping to scream again, especially whenever Charlie tried to touch her. The people on the beach steadily began to inch further away from the whole scene, no one daring to break them up.

Finally, Charlie shouted at the top of his lungs, "SSHHHUUUUUUUTT UUUUUUUUUPP!"

Shannon suddenly stopped, her mouth slightly open, the shocked expression of someone who had just been slapped darkening her features.

Charlie looked around. Everyone else was wide-eyed, having the same expression of Shannon. "Uh, sorry... sorry," Charlie called sheepishly, his face and ears turning crimson. Then he turned back to Shannon and apologized to her too. "Sorry, but you have to let me get a word in edgewise, okay?... Okay?"

She sniffed again. "Okay."

"Okay."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Well?" Shannon asked impatiently, rubbing her red, swollen eyes with her towel.

Charlie shrugged. "Um... what was it you were trying to say before?"

Shannon wailed, "Sayid doesn't like me and now Boone doesn't like me because he's... heeee's..." She screeched out the final word shrilly. "HE'S DEAD! BOONE IS DEAD!"

Charlie rubbed the back of his neck and glanced over to Claire who was still resting against the tree, feeding Jonah. Damn, I'm missing it! Charlie thought sadly. Sighing, he put his hand soothingly on Shannon's back as she continued to howl. "I'm really sorry about your brother--"

"Stepbrother," she quickly corrected.

"Right, right, stepbrother... but Sayid likes you, I'm sure."

She shook her head. "And you expect me to believe this... why? How should you know whether he 'likes me' or not?"

He shrugged again. "We have, uh, man-to-man talks."

She laughed mirthlessly. "Suuure you do," she mocked sarcastically.

"No, really!" Charlie said earnestly. "We talk about, hm... well, girls, of course... food, music, who can steal enough of Sawyer's alcohol to get drunk, you know, manly stuff like that. You women wouldn't understand."

Shannon rolled her eyes. "Guess not," she said, brushing away more tears. "So, if you really have this 'man-to-man' talks, what did Sayid say, huh?"

"Uh... he said he had made some surprise for you on a beach far off. He said he was gonna court you, you know, woo you off your dainty little size-six feet and get a kiss. He said you were beautiful."

"Is that all?" Shannon insisted, her mood brightening slightly.

"Uh, yeah, he said he thought all blond-haired people were sexy, so I ran off."

She punched him in the arm.

"Ow! I'm just kidding!" He gingerly rubbed his arm. "No, he just said you were beautiful and I even got him to admit that he loved you."

Fixing up her hair, Shannon smiled, sniffing back the last of her tears. "How'd you get another man to express his feelings!" she asked incredulously.

He scowled, his ears flushing cherry-red. "Don't ask," he grumbled.

Shannon sat back in the sand, hugging the towel lazily. "Mm, whatever. Well... I'm glad Sayid doesn't hate me."

He smiled.

After a while, Shannon said, "Thanks... for listening."

"You were yelling pretty loud, Shan, I think the whole camp was listening."

She punched him again.

"Ow! I'm just kidding!" he repeated.

"Yeah, well... you might wanna accept my appreciation. I don't usually say 'thank you'."

"Oh. Well then... I'm honored. And listening."

"Thanks," she repeated.

He smiled gently. "No problem."

Charlie's spirits began to be lifted as well. He glanced over at Claire and she caught sight of him. Jonah was sleeping again. Claire waved, staring at his shirtless torso, giggling uncontrollably. Charlie blushed and suddenly felt very self-conscious.

Shannon noticed the anxious look on his red face. "What's wrong?"

He chewed his lower lip.

"Am I really fat?"

-

Muahaha. So corny. But fun to write. I didn't look over it all that much so sorry for any typos and stuff that doesn't make sense. This story didn't take much thought so it's not my best work. Still hope you enjoyed! Please please please review! I will honestly try to continue my WIPs... but I'm very stuck indeed. Any ideas, please email me! But first please review! The reviews are preciouss to us, they are... (LOL, Lord of the Rings moment there)