Disclaimer: The Peanuts characters belong to Charles Monroe Schulz, even in the wake of his passing.

No Wait, Maybe He Is.

It was a position most unfamiliar with Charlie Brown.

It was the same field. Lucy was there, so was her football. Only…she wasn't holding it in place for him to kick. And neither was he stood some distance away, bracing himself for his run-up. Instead, the two of them were seated back-to-back in the middle of the field, instead of on either side of the tree at the edge of the field.

Strange, really.

Two weeks had passed since that visit to her house. What had happened after she asked him to pull up a chair and keep her company, it was still playing in his head. They just sat in silence, though she no longer seemed offended by his presence nor did he feel intimidated by hers. Their company was sufficient for each other.

The two weeks at school were also marked by some subtle changes. Charlie Brown's foibles didn't seem to annoy Lucy as much while he found it that bit easier to tolerate her abrasive nature. The name of the game was cordiality and between the two of them, that particular trait was more pronounced. It continued to the bemusement of their peers, some of whom questioned their own mental wellbeing while others saw a portent of an upcoming apocalypse.

Nevertheless, here they were, where Lucy had invited him for a session of tossing the football back and forth and where they were now taking a breather.

"Charlie Brown, I have a question. How come you've never felt antipathy towards me, no matter how cruel I was towards you?"

She was expecting a hesitant reply but instead was surprised by its immediacy.

"Maybe because I was a bit saddened by what you had become."

And its frankness. "I see," she replied, surprised that his answer hadn't angered her quite at much as she expected. Still…

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" She asked with mild testiness, not sure if she'd like his answer.

"Call me nostalgic, Lucy, but I keep remembering you as the sweet girl I used to hang out with before Linus was born. Then suddenly you became this mean-spirited person and I refused to believe that was the real you."

She felt her anger spike at that revelation, and she snapped. "Well like it or not, you blockhead, I am what I am regardless of the circumstances!" Oh God, no! Her regret was instant: she had just lashed out at the one person to show her any empathy! Even if it was Charlie Brown.

Surprisingly, he remained where he was and continued. "Lucy, I want you to consider this for a moment. I don't see you hanging around with anyone in or out of school. Do you even have any friends? I mean friends, not the girls you occasionally congregate with just to badmouth me."

"I…well, I…I mean there's…"

"Point is, you never socialize with anyone unless it is unavoidable."

"Oh, and I suppose the fact that I let you get close to me somehow makes you special, is that it?" Her pride, her fighting spirit were back on display after Charlie Brown had put her on the backfoot.

When he didn't answer, she took it as a cue to continue ranting. "One moment I'm happily playing with you, regularly! You're treating me like I'm the most special person in your world. Then my brother gets born and you become more interested in him! He grows up stealing the attention I used to get from my parents, and then you become best friends with him instead of me! Why do you think I turned to Schroeder! You weren't there anymore! You abandoned me! You abandoned me and I hated you! I couldn't stand you!"

Charlie Brown was now the surprised one. "Wow," he finally managed, "I…I never realized it ran that deep."

"Damn right it did! And you want to know the kicker? None of it worked! No matter how mean I was to you, you never took the hint, you kept coming back. Trying to kick the football, asking for my bogus psychiatric advice. You kept coming back! Even when I deliberately sabotaged your baseball games!"

They were still back-to-back, so even though Charlie Brown could hear the anger and the pang of regret in her voice, he couldn't see the tears welling up in her eyes. Nor did he have to, as he pivoted 180 from his position to embrace her from behind her for a most heartfelt hug.

"Lucy, for what it's worth, I am so, so sorry for being the cause of your distress. I don't even know where to start making amends."

Meanwhile, Lucy was internally screaming for Charlie Brown to let go of her. To get his dirty, disgusting mitts off of her. Only, she couldn't. There was genuine warmth and sincerity to his action, and she felt those qualities overcome her animosity. She allowed herself to believe that Charlie Brown was not the total failure she always wanted to believe that he was.

Finally, after having settled her turbulent emotions, she propositioned: "OK, Charlie Brown. How about a placekick? I hold, you kick, no shenanigans."

"No shenanigans?" His warmth and sincerity were still present, even if his question reflected no small amount of suspicion.

"Think of it as our way of making amends to each other."

When she put it that way, he had no choice but to agree with her. Soon there they were. She held the ball, with him about to start his run-up. He started his run-up.

No way, Charlie Brown, no way! She was planning on pulling the ball, as payback for his audacity mere minutes ago. She watched his run-up, carefully. He always kicked with his right foot, so she was waiting for him to plant the left.

Plant the left foot, she willed him as he fast approached.

Plant the left foot.

Plant the left foot.

There!

He was now fully committed as she pulled the ball, her head swinging along as she tracked it while waiting for a flying Charlie Brown to sail by. So what if he lands hard, she silently chuckled. He said he's learned how to land safely.

Only, he didn't go sailing by. Where is he, she mused to herself as she swung her head back to see Charlie Brown lying comfortably on his side beside her, sporting a gotcha grin. That blockhead! Instead of committing to the kick, he'd gone into a slide which he had timed to perfection to stop inches from her face.

"Charlie Brown, what are you…"

Her question was interrupted when he placed a mischievous kiss right on her nose. She recoiled from this action. "I guess we've both become easy to read," he offered as an explanation.

"Charlie Brown, that was a dirty trick! I'm going to knock your block off for that!"

She stood up to do just that, which cause him to shoot to his feet and hightail it away from her.

"Come back here and take your medicine!" she shouted as she took off after him. "When I get my hands on you, you'll be wishing for Armageddon!"

As he ran from her, Charlie Brown detected a hint of playfulness in Lucy's voice. Though he wasn't about to risk stopping to find out whether or not the playfulness was real, he couldn't help but smile as Lucy bore down on him in hot pursuit.

Authors Note: I was inspired to write this little tale after binge-reading the entire Peanuts comic run on Go Comics. That's like 50 years of content in a few months. Anyway, in doing so, I noticed how much closer Charlie Brown and Lucy were in the beginning in contrast to how strained their relationship became as the series progressed. It's as if Schulz was resentful of Charlie Brown and was using Lucy as his conduit to kerb stomp on him. That's the central premise I'm running with for this anthology.