Title: Tea
Spoilers: none of note
Original post date: 15th November 2005
Genre: fluff, one shot
Summary: Charlie and Claire talk about tea and the lack thereof on the island.
Disclaimer: Not mine. None of it.

'I would murder for some tea,' Charlie moaned. 'Just one cup, that's all I'm asking for. One cup of proper tea. Is that too much to ask? Just one. No milk, no sugar even. I'd go for black tea right now if I had to...'

'I wouldn't mind a cuppa myself,' Claire murmured, trying not to disturb Aaron who was nestled in the Bjorn contentedly. He had settled into a doze in Sun's arms earlier as the three of them had walked up to the caves but once they had arrived Sun had tactfully handed the infant back to her mother and, giving Charlie and Claire a tentative smile, had slipped away to her garden. 'But didn't you say all the tea bags had been used?'

'Yep,' Charlie said grimly as he unpacked their water bottles. 'I've been trying to find tea for the past day and a half and no one has any.'

'Is that why we're up here?' Claire's eyebrows quirked with amusement. 'To find tea?'

'Yep,' Charlie said grimly as he began to fill the water bottles. 'Well… we also needed water and you wanted to go for a walk and I've got a killer sunburn at the moment which does not need any more exposure to the sun.'

Claire giggled before continuing. 'Have you tried…?'

'I went through everything I could get my hands on from everyone,' Charlie interrupted with a heavy sigh. 'I couldn't find any sodding tea. Anywhere.' He added unnecessarily.

'I was actually going to ask if you had tried using sunscreen,' Claire rolled her eyes. 'You know, so you wouldn't get burnt in the first place? Sun probably has some aloe you could use to ease the…'

'Reckon Sun knows anyone who's got any tea bags left?' Charlie asked gloomily as he picked at a stray thread from the hem of his jeans. 'Probably not. It's official, there is no tea on the island. I'm going to die.'

Claire sighed at his gloominess. She had grown to enjoy having tea with Charlie and could understand why he was being so anxious about it running out. If she was honest with herself however, it had never really occurred to her that they would run out eventually. They had long since run out of sugar, it seemed inevitable that the tea would also run out but now that it had…

'Maybe Sun's got some herbs or something we can brew for tea instead?' Claire suggested. Charlie scowled.

'But I wanted proper tea,' he muttered and he looked so sulky that Claire couldn't help but laugh. 'What?' he asked, perplexed. 'What's so funny?'

'You are,' Claire giggled and imitated his scowl. 'You get rather sulky when you don't have your tea don't you?'

Charlie grinned wryly at her. 'Well, I guess we could ask Sun. Herbal tea is better than no tea at all.'

'Okay,' Claire shifted Aaron's weight and hauled herself to her feet. 'Well I'll go see her now, she said she was going to be working in her garden for a little while today.'

'Oh you're in charge of the tea now are you?' Charlie said, his eyes twinkling with barely suppressed mirth.

'You think I can't make a better cup of tea than you?' Claire challenged. Charlie carefully avoided her eyes, grinning to antagonise her and Claire let out a 'Hmph' of indignation before marching off in the direction of Sun's garden. 'We'll see who can't make a cup of tea.'

'Hey,' Charlie's voice stilled her. She turned back, still indignant, her arms folded around Aaron.

'What, Charlie?' she asked impatiently.

'What happened to your leg?' Charlie's eyes were soft as he gazed at her right ankle which was sporting a painful looking scrape.

'I picked a fight with a rock on the way up here,' Claire grimaced at the memory. 'And the rock won.'

'You should have said something,' Charlie grimaced back. 'Looks like it hurts a fair bit.'

'It's not too bad,' Claire glanced at it carelessly.

'Yeah,' Charlie gestured at his own bare feet. 'I actually nearly lost my whole left toe in an accident with a shovel when I was twelve. Liam and I were…' He grinned suddenly and pointed a finger at her accusingly. 'Weren't you going to get us some tea love?'

'Well I was until you started chatting,' Claire scoffed and hitched Aaron a little higher in her arms and made to leave.

'Claire?'

'What Charlie?' Claire said exasperatedly turning back to him.

'I just…even if we don't have any, you know, proper tea left I'll still share any sort of tea with you.'

Claire felt a blush creep over her cheeks as Charlie offered her a grin. Aaron awoke with a snuffle and on a whim, she took his hand and the two of them blew Charlie a kiss. His face split into an even bigger grin as he reached out to catch it and place it upon his own lips. The two of them smiled at each other for a moment and then Claire waggled her fingers at him. 'I'm going to go see about that tea.'

'Brilliant.'