Hi everyone. It's-a me again, with so much fluff you could drown in it. That's right, a double chapter of fluffity goodness. As we all know it should be. Anyway, Hurley chats up Charlie regarding a weird fire he saw on the beach, and Shannon chats up Claire about the strange visitor at her shelter last night. And the baby moves. It's alive, don't worry. Right now, it's before "Abandoned", so I'm not AU just yet! Nyehhhhhh!

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Lost. Though it would be pretty hardcore. Mhm.

Word of Warning: Charlie and Claire don't even talk to each other in this chapter. They take "acting like it didn't happen" so far as to not talk to each other all day. If this frustrates you, then :P.

As Aaron sat in his mother's arms, he thought mostly simple thoughts. They came mostly in colours and shapes, with the occasional idea. His thoughts right now were very simple: yellow, green, mama. Sandy, blue, no dada. He frowned up at mama; after all, not knowing where your father is is a bad thing. When mama didn't notice, he reached out to try and grab. No grab. Frown.

"And what are YOU so unhappy about?" Claire asked Aaron. "I've changed your nappy at least twice already, I just fed you twenty minutes ago, and I'm getting nothing in return?"

Claire sighed. She was sitting on the beach, trying to find out what was wrong with Aaron. When Aaron quieted down, or more likely just wasn't crying, she stared at the waves. She thought it might not have been such a hot idea to tell Charlie to act like it hadn't happened. It seemed like all day he'd taken it to the extreme of not talking to her, or interacting with her for fear that he might smile wrong, or wave different. Though Claire found it a bit trying, she did find it adorable; catching him staring at her, waving at him, watching him blush and find something very interesting on the ground.

"Hey, mommy," said Shannon, cruising up beside Claire and planting herself in the ground. Shannon looked over and smiled lazily at Claire. "What's shakin'?"

"Well, I don't know why," Claire said, "but this baby is just so moody today, and I can't find out for the life of me what's bugging him. . ." Claire cradled the baby to her chest and looked at Shannon, tired. To her surprise, Shannon laughed, for what seemed like the first time since Boone's death. "What's so funny?" Claire said, with her brow furrowed in a fashion eerily similar to her baby's.

"The fact that you don't know why your baby's down," Shannon chuckled. Shannon looked down the beach at Hurley, walking up the beach towards them. She went into weird thought lane, thinking about last night and Claire's baby daddy. She supposed she had to bring it up sometime. When she tuned back in to the conversation all she caught was,

". . . would be?" Claire asked expectantly. She looked at Shannon, trying to get her attention. She had to admit, she was a bit curious as to why her baby kept frowning and grabbing her nose, and whoever had the answer, she'd listen.

"Hm?" Shannon mumbled. "Oh! He misses his daddy."

Claire was confused. "His dad's in Aus–"

"No he isn't," Shannon cut Claire off. "Anyway, that brings me to my next question, did I see a mysterious visitor at your hut yesterday? Middle of the night like?"

"Hm?" Claire panicked. What to do? Agh! She knew! She knew Charlie had been there! Uhhh. . . play it cool. . . yeah. . . . . . "Uhhh, you. . . . might. . . have?" Real cool, she scolded herself. Cooler than the blue of Charlie's–GYAH!

"I could have sworn he was just sitting there outside, watching a fire," Shannon teased. "I'm pretty sure you were both watching it together, but you might have gone inside by then." Shannon wondered what he and Claire could have been doing in such a romantic setting. She was pretty sure they were just friends.

"G-g-y-g-gy-I-I think I went inside to. . . check on the baby!" Claire held Aaron up as proof. "Check on Aaron, and such. . ." Claire faltered realizing that if Shannon had seen her go inside, then she'd seen her come back out. And tackle Charlie. And leave her underwear on his face. Oh, dear. . .

"I honestly thought," Shannon began, "that you two were just friends. Sue me for not seeing the obvious, I suppose. And I guess he is funny. . ."

"Just friends?" Claire blurted. "We are NOT just–! But–we are! Yes, just friends! Nothing happened! At all! Ever! Stop saying it did! Why are you saying we–did–that!"

"Whoa," Shannon said soothingly, "spaz off, little sister. So, you aren't just friends, I got that. . ."

At this point, Hurley walked by. Having heard Claire's rampant denial of her and Charlie's "just friends"ship and then her rampant denial of her rampant denial. . . the first thought that rolled through his mind was, Dude. Charlie got laaaaiiiid. He is so getting the Spanish Inquisition. He broke into a lazy, triumphant smile, happy that at least his best friend was getting some.

"Hey, Shannon," he said with the same goofy smile on his face. "Hi, Claire."

"Hey Hurley," said Shannon, looking at Hurley's expression and thinking, Man, someone got LAID. Well, we'd figured that out already, hadn't we? Shannon felt good about her sleuthing skills. And she'd honestly thought that Charlie and Claire were destined.

"Hi Hurley," said Claire, blowing him off. "Shannon, listen, it's not like we actually DID anything."

Hurley's smile grew even more. Even HE knew about girl-gossip. If you're trying to convince a girlfriend that nothing happened, then you KNOW shit went down. I guess being the best friend comes in handy once in a while, he thought. He would have to take this up with Charlie, cos if he was getting some, mayhap Hurley could just live through him.

"We just sort of–" Claire began.

Shannon was bewildered at least. "Wait, wait, hey, hey, whoa! You just totally blew Hurley off!"

"Yeah, so?" said Claire. She was starting to be worried about Shannon's mental health and stability.

"But that means you and Hurley didn't– But then who were you talking– But that means you and Charlie– OH MY GOD!" Shannon screamed in a sudden burst of realization. "Did you and–!"

"Shut up shut up shut up shut up SHUT UP!" Claire half whispered, half yelled plaintively. She was busy keeping one arm over Aaron's ears and the other over Shannon's apparently cavernous mouth. "First, you're going to–"

Aaron, confused by the silence, began to cry.

"And second, not everyone on the island needs to know! I thought by the way he was acting it was obvious enough!" Claire shouted quietly. "First he builds a giant fire he expects no one to notice, then he leaves my shelter shoeless at dawn, now he can't help but flush and look at the ground every time I catch him staring at me!"

"Oh, man. . . but you two actually. . . oh god, I'm going to say this, 'went all the way'?" Shannon said incredulously. "But you two have known each other how long? Not counting what you can't remember!"

"I remember peanut butter!" Claire paused. "Well, imaginary peanut butter. So he says." Seeing the I-Told-You-So look on Shannon's face, she blurted "But I trust him! And it felt perfectly natural."

"Ahh, so you were both completely naked," Shannon stated. "Well, I hope it was good."

"Why do you hope that?" Claire asked, trying to calm Aaron down.

"Well, some people here still aren't getting any," Shannon sighed. She stared out at the water and thought of him. Just his name alone made her weak in places that weren't exactly her knees. Sayid. . . . mmmm. . . .

"Shannon? Shannon?" Claire said. She waved a hand in front of her face. "Shannon? Earth to planet Mars. . . . nothing?"

"Nguh?" Shannon snapped to attention. "Oh, sorry." Shannon began, but had trouble getting any words out on her situation. Shannon shook her head and said the best she could come up with. "I hope it was really special, cos some people on the island still haven't had their. . . first times. . ."

Claire had been confused. She had been stunned. This was the first time since the crash that she had been utterly flabbergasted. "You mean, you're a. . ." She whispered the last word, like if she said it really quietly, the world would go back to normal, ". . . virgin?"

Shannon, in contrast, laughed so loud that survivors walking around turned to see what was so funny. "Oh, GOD no! No, no, no, no. . . not. . . no! No. No. I just meant Sayid and I haven't done anything further than hardcore cuddling."

"If cuddling can be hardcore, maybe Charlie should get some pointers," Claire joked.

"Why," Shannon asked, "he that bad at it?"

"Oh, no," Claire corrected. "He's good at just about everything to do with beds. I'm pretty sure in another life, he could've sold beds for a living. Or made them. Those are the only two things I'm unsure of though. The rest though. . . oh, God, it's like he was made to love me." Claire reminisced for a moment. "Ah. . . he's coming back tonight, you know."

"Really?" Shannon asked. "Cos from the way he's been avoiding you, it looks like he contracted herpes."

"Shannon!"

"Oh, right, that'd mean that you have herpes," Shannon said. "Though, anything is possible. You with the herpes, Sawyer with the gayness. . ."

"You honestly think Sawyer's gay?" Claire asked. At this point, the conversation turned into girl-talk, none of which Aaron understood. All Aaron could tell was that he saw was mama and someone who looked like mama. But no dada. He went on to be fussy all day.

'OH MY GOD!' he heard Shannon yell. Yep, laid, Hurley thought. As he walked, he got a bit thirsty. He decided to cut through the trees behind Shannon and Claire to get water from the caves so as not to disturb them. As he (surprisingly silently) made his way through the trees, he came upon a strange scene. What he thought he saw was sorta weird. Which was why he hesitated before attempting to climb the tree.

What he saw was Charlie sitting high up in a tree, watching Claire. Just sitting there, looking like a tweenager in love. It honestly would have been creepy, except for the fact that both of his hands were visible. As Hurley stared in confusion, Charlie sighed, looking completely lost.

Charlie was staring at Claire, watching her laugh and talk with Shannon. As hard as he tried to keep Claire clothed in his mind, he always slipped back to the last night. He supposed it was a stroke of luck that Aaron had slept the night. He also supposed it was a stroke of luck that he'd managed to find his shoes after Claire le–

"Hey."

Charlie jumped like an electric shock had run through him. He was too startled to scream. He grabbed frantically onto the branch he was sitting on. After he'd recovered, he lay down face first on the branch, and vaguely thought about checking to see if he'd shat his pants.

"Hurley," Charlie said to the branch in front of him, "if you do that again, I swear to god, you will not see another day."

"Sorry, dude," Hurley said. He was sitting casually on the branch as if he always sat high up in trees on deserted islands with rock stars.

"How in fucking hell did you manage that?" Charlie yelled at the branch.

"I'm spry," Hurley said. "So, I hear you got laid." Not one for tact was Hurley.

Feeling the urge to sit up, Charlie straightened himself up, keeping a firm grip on the branch. "If I reply, the shock might promote an unguarded response, which would subsequent–"

"Yep," Hurley said. "Laaaaaiiiiid. Way to go, dude."

Charlie waited a couple seconds. "That's. . . it? That's all?"

Hurley looked like Charlie was asking him if he was 100 sure that the sky was actually blue. "Yeah. . . you expected more?"

"Well," Charlie began, "Claire and I were preparing for more, that's why we agreed not to talk to each other."

"No you didn't."

"Huh?"

"You said you'd act like it never happened," Hurley said. "If it'd never happened, you'd be taking care of Aaron and staring at Claire as she walked off down the beach with Shannon. What are you doing?" Charlie stared at Hurley spitefully. "Right, sitting in a tree, waiting for her to leave." Hurley paused and looked down at the ground. "By the way dude, too late."

Charlie looked down and Claire was gone. "Son of a bitch!" Charlie swung out on to the trunk and started to climb down.

"Uh, dude?" Hurley said doubtfully.

"What?" Charlie shouted.

"Can I get a little help?" Hurley asked.

"You got up there okay!"

"It's the down part that's hard," Hurley said. "Can you get a bunch of people and a blanket?"

"Oh, bloody fucking Christ. . ."

And so, several minutes later, after much shouting and a couple times when chicken, lotto girls and a set of numbers flashed before Hurley's eyes, he was safely on the ground. Hurley sighed and wiped the dirt off of his shirt. Then realized he was only wiping dirt off of dirt, that was on top of dirt. He briefly pondered how much of his shirt was actually cotton-poly blend before–

"HURLEY!" Charlie yelled.

"NGAHHH!" Hurley started. Hurley snapped his head up and looked around. "Yeah, Charlie?"

"Did you see where she went?" Charlie asked, for what would have been the third time in the last thirty seconds. Charlie didn't know how Hurley managed to space out all the time. He was always so calm, and collected, and mellow. Really set a man on edge, that.

"Huh?" Hurley blinked a couple times, then realized what he'd just been asked. "Oh, I think she went that way," pointing vaguely to his right. Hurley wasn't really sure which way Claire had gone. He only pointed towards the caves cos he was really thirsty now.

"Oh. Thanks." Charlie shook off the weirdness of a straight answer and walked off where Hurley had pointed. Before he got too far, he picked up a large stick and started using it to help him walk.

"Uh, dude?" Hurley asked carefully.

"Hm?"

"That's my stick." Hurley pointed at the piece of wood Charlie held in his right hand.

"Why'd you leave it over here?" Charlie asked.

"Well, I couldn't exactly climb the tree with it," said Hurley walking by Charlie and swiping his stick in one smooth motion. "Come on. You wanna catch up with her, right?"

"Well," Charlie began, "sort of. . ." Charlie really wanted to keep his distance. After sleeping with someone, they kind of wanted their space for a while he'd noticed. Or at least, he'd noticed they didn't appreciate the usual clingy-ness he brought to the table.

"Then come on!" Hurley took two triumphant steps forward, and stopped abruptly. He turned back to Charlie with a look of puzzlement on his face. "Hey, Charlie?"

"Yeah?"

"Well," Hurley hesitated. Would Charlie actually know about this? Well, he might know something. Safer bet would be to ask Locke. But, Charlie and Locke are tight, right? Oh, hell. "There was this huge fire on the beach last night. Like, big huge. And there was a bench in front of it. Like, only big enough for two people, or me and a midget. But, it was really weird. There was like, nothing around it. Just a fire."

"Oh." Charlie was stunned. It sounded exactly like his fire, but. . . "Are you sure there wasn't a. . . shelter set up behind it? Did you see one?"

"Uh, no?" Hurley said uncertainly. Could there have been? He tried hard to bring back the night, and all he remembered was the last dying embers and their beauty against the stars. He thought back to the morning, when he was stretching on the bench and he had felt nothing. "No. Not that I noticed. And it's a pretty big thing, shelter made out of airplane wreckage."

"Oh, well," Charlie said, "that's odd."

"Why?" Hurley asked. "You happen to build a giant fire for Claire last night? 'Oh, Claire, I love you so much it huuuuurrrrts! Oh, yeah–'"

"Prat!" Charlie yelled, laughing. At times, Hurley's impressions of him pining for Claire got tiresome. But he always knew the one button to push. "Hey, at least you're making fun of me for having a woman. When are you shacking up, Hurley? All the kids are doing it," Charlie singsang.

"Well," Hurley said matter-of-factly, "at least I've had experience with actual relationships. How involved did YOU get with your one-night stands?"

Charlie laughed. "Oh, low, low blow. Tell me, do you even have a crush on anyone? Abandoned island, very little chance they'd say no. . ."

Hurley was in stitches. "Oh, and they'd say no just cos I'm a fat guy? They wouldn't have to wait that long for me to be skinnier than you, you know. And if chicks really are dating for sense of humour, we both know I got you beat senseless."

Charlie sat on a nearby log; Hurley quickly followed suit. "Oh, please. Talk that nutters, the only person who'd date you is a clinical psychologist! And on an Island this small, good luck!"

"Hey," Hurley said pointedly. "This Island is freakin' huge, dude. There is a clinical psychologist out there somewhere, lookin' for me. She probably doesn't even know it yet." Hurley sighed. "She coulda been on the plane. . ."

"You tell yourself that, Hurley. . ." Charlie smiled and stared out into space.

"In the tail-section. . ."

"Mm, necrophilia. Wakes you up in the morning. . ." Charlie had a bit of a chuckle to himself.

"Dude, afternoon," Hurley said. "And Rose doesn't think they're dead. And I gotta say, I believe her."

"Why?" Charlie asked. "They have no logical reason to be alive. They broke off in mid-air; landed in the water. Statistically speaking, they have no chance of survival."

"Dude," Hurley said. "Neither did we."

They both paused at the unintended gravity of this statement. They looked away at opposite ends of the forest. Hurley twiddled his thumbs. He took a deep breath.

"Well, getting back to the lighter side of life," Hurley said, getting up, "we live in caves and you're father to a cute blonde girl's island baby."

"And everyone's in love with you since that stunt with the food," Charlie said. "So what if we have to push a button every hundred and eight minutes. If we're both as rich as we claim to be, we're sitting on 300 trillion, 156 million dollars on this island. Then, Jack was a doctor in LA, I presume, so that adds another million or two."

"Yeah." Hurley smiled. "We're fucking rich."

"Positively loaded."

Hurley sighed and picked up his stick. "Well, let's get back to the caves. I dunno about you, but I am hellishly thirsty. One of the downsides of living on a tropical island." Hurley started to walk back to the caves.

"Hey!" Charlie yelled. "What about Claire? Aren't we supposed to be finding her or something?"

Hurley turned to face Charlie. "Trust me dude, after the way you've been acting all day and what I think happened last night. . ." Hurley looked at the sky, and the position of the sun. "And the fact that the sun's about to go down anyway, I think you can afford to build the suspense."

"Oh, and I suppose you'd know?" Charlie asked.

"Didn't we just get into an argument over this?" Hurley turned and kept walking to the caves. "Far as I can remember, it turned into a conversation about psychologists and necrophilia." Hurley stopped and chuckled. "And we think Locke has issues. Heh. . ."

Charlie hurried to catch up with Hurley. "Hey, don't get on Locke's case, man. He knows things."

"He knew enough to get us into that hatch," Hurley said. "And that had some crazy guy in it. But before you go on to say you never heard about that," he said over top of Charlie trying to say that he hadn't heard of some crazy guy in the hatch, "how did you get laid, anyhow? Cos, it seemed like all you two were doing was the Orthodox Jew shuffle."

"Ha ha ha, funny man," Charlie sneered. "How would you know about the Ortho. . ."

"Orthodox. . ."

"Orthodockie thingy shuffle anyhow?" Charlie asked. "I thought you were Spanish."

"Dude, I'm American first," Hurley said. "So spill."

"Well, you know how on the first date you usually watch something?" Charlie asked.

"Dude, you made a handbook?" Hurley laughed.

"No, but it's a habit I've noticed," Charlie said defensively. "Well, I actually do know about your fire, Hurley."

Hurley stopped and turned towards Charlie. "Huh?"

"I built it so Claire and I would have something to watch," Charlie admitted guiltily. "Hence the bench. What I don't know," Charlie continued, "is how you managed to miss her shelter when you woke up. I mean, it's huge. Not that tall, cos we aren't that tall, but still big."

"I don't remember telling you I slept there," Hurley said suspiciously. It was at this point that they both realized how unobservant Hurley was and how close he'd come to seeing Charlie and Claire au naturel. "Oh, GROSS dude! Ugh! Oh, god, EW! You mean I was within arms reach of you and Claire when you–OH, GOD! Ew! Ew! A million times EW!"

"Sorry?" Charlie said doubtfully. It was weird watching Hurley's psyche collapse in on itself.

"No amount of apologies will make up for the fact that I was an arm's length away from you and Claire when you were–UGH!" Hurley started to stamp off to the caves when he realized who he was leaving out in the equation. "And the baby! You had sex in front of the BABY? I don't even KNOW you anymore! Just–UGH!"

"Don't leave now!" Charlie yelled at Hurley's back. "I still need dating advice!"

Hurley stopped, turned around and walked back to where he'd left Charlie. "Okay, if that was not the weirdest 'don't go' plea I had ever heard, I wouldn't've come back." Before Charlie could open his mouth to interject, he continued. "Now, number one, let Sun take care of the baby. Or anyone. Just not me, and not Shannon. Two, follow your instincts. They did you fine last night." As Hurley started to walk away, he turned back and said, "Dude. Whatever you do, don't tell her you love her. The words 'too soon' are applicable like insane is to the odds of us ending up on an island together. Have a nice night, I gotta get some water."

As Charlie watched Hurley walk away, he started to feel very confident. He turned to look at the sun, watching it fall beyond the horizon. He smiled to himself and started to walk back towards the beach.

As Claire left Aaron with Sun for the night, along with the cradle and fresh nappies, she started to feel very confident. She turned to look at the setting sun, watching it fall beyond the sea. She smiled to herself, and then remembered that she still hadn't found Charlie's shoes for him. A troubled look passed over her face, and she jogged to her shelter to find them before he arrived.

And on that cliffy note, I shall leave you all. :P. Sorry, but writing this chapter was like giving birth to a toddler. Not that I'd know what childbirth feels like, with the being a guy and all. Anyway, I hope you all liked it. All four or five of you. I've lost count. I should probably check. . . Five! All five of you that I know by name, and the countless people who read and didn't review. Yes, I love you too. So, night y'all!