A/N: I mean, are we even gonna pretend we're not here for stupid fluff?

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck

"Oh, God," he heard the blond next to him mutter. Chuck was at the bar, waiting on his order and couldn't help but hear it in her voice. Something was wrong. He didn't know what, but he knew he had to do something.

"What's wrong?" he asked the woman next to him softly. She turned to him, confusion on her face. "Listen, I know you have no idea who I am, but that…tone of your voice, I know that tone, and it's, 'nothing good is about to come of this,' tone."

She looked at him and then glanced back over her shoulder. "There's a guy I used to date that I don't want to see," she said. "Please don't look." Chuck just nodded. "He's…not over me, a little…"

"Possessive?" Chuck offered.

"He's just boring," the woman replied. "And clueless about us."

"So, and forgive me, but my curiosity is running wild here, was it serious?"

"No, not at all," she told him, shaking her head, and smiling at him. "He was just…boring, and when I kissed him I was really afraid I'd get a splinter on my tongue he's just a boring 2 x 4." Chuck laughed, and a smile grew on his face as he turned a little red. "What?"

"Well, something just occurred to me, but I barely know you, and I feel it would be inappropriate for me to say what I'm thinking, but it's a bit of a cut down on him."

"Oh, well know you have to say it," amusement covering her features. "Come on."

"I hope you didn't get too intimate with him because you might have gotten a splinter someplace else."

"Oh my God!" she sputtered, trying to control her laughter. She smiled at him, and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Sarah Walker," she said, offering him her hand.

"Chuck Bartowski," he replied, taking her hand. They both glanced down at their hands, feeling…something. He cleared his throat. "Let me walk you back to your friends, maybe that will keep th away from you."

"I'm here by myself," she explained. "I just wanted a night out, in peace."

"I did as well, but…well," he glanced back over his shoulder at a table. "They kinda forced me to come with them."

"Well, I'm glad you did," Sarah told him. "Best laugh I've had in days."

"Want to join us?" he offered.

"Listen, I will, but what do you think about the two of us just getting our own table?" Chuck stared at her, a little surprised.

"To mak think we're together so he'll leave you alone?" Sarah tilted her head a bit, an amused look on her face.

"I mean that's a bonus," she told him.

"Can I be honest with you?"

"In the few minutes I've known you, I really don't think you can be anything but honest," she admitted.

"Fair," Chuck told her. "I've just gotten out of a bad relationship and I'm kinda bad at missing signs…like my ex-girlfriend boinking someone else."

"Well, last I checked, unless she was doing it in front of you, most people, when doing said boinking are trying to be sneaky about it, and if you trust someone, don't you usually try and see the good in them and not the bad?"

"See, I said that to my friends," Chuck replied.

"They said you were an idiot, didn't they?" Sarah asked.

"How'd you know?"

"My friends told me the same thing about me, and then they set me up with 2 x 4," Sarah answered, the two of them heading to a table, on auto-pilot, more caught up with the conversation with each other.

"Okay, so I think I've found a character flaw in you," Chuck said, grinning. "Your friends are questionable."

"I agree," Sarah said, a mock sigh, and then laughed as she slid into the booth, facing him. "By the way, three guys from your table are giving you a thumbs up, so I think they're okay with you leaving them."

"They pretty much told me that I was encouraged to leave them and find someone when I got here," Chuck replied, shrugging.

"Am I someone?"

"Everyone is someone, Sarah," Chuck told her. He hesitated a second, and then decided what the hell. "But I think you could be a special someone…and-and that's not a line. It's just…I don't know, there's something about you."

"My terrible taste in friends?" she offered, grinning. Chuck gave her a look and she giggled. "I think maybe I trust too much." She shrugged. "Bryce took advantage of that trust."

"Bryce?" Chuck asked. "Bryce Larkin?"

"You know him?"

"Remember the boinking I was talking about?" Sarah's eyes went wide. Chuck shook his head. He looked into her eyes and started to speak when he was interrupted.

"Sarah, how are you?" Chuck turned to see a tall, well-built man standing there. Some might say he was superheroesque.

"Daniel," Sarah replied in a voice that sounded like she was bored just looking at him. "I'm fine, in fact, I'm having the best night I've had in weeks."

"Weeks?" Daniel asked, blinking. Chuck swore Daniel's brain was overheating trying to do the math.

"Weeks?" Chuck asked her. She turned to him and grinned.

"Weeks." Chuck nodded. "I was about to ask you about your family-"

"I have a mom and dad," Daniel offered. Chuck turned to Daniel, slowly, not believing what he had heard.

"Most everyone does, Daniel," Sarah said gently. "Uh, Chuck and I are on a date-"

"You don't have to make me jealous, Sarah," Daniel told her. "I already like you."

"Well, I don't like you," Sarah told him as pointedly as she could.

"I don't understand this game," Daniel replied. "I mean, why would you want to be with him when you could be with me?"

"Tell me something, Daniel," Chuck began.

"I'm not going to fight you, Chuck, it wouldn't be fair," Daniel told him.

"That's good, because I'm not fighting you," Chuck told Daniel. "Who Sarah wants to or doesn't want to date shouldn't be decided by two idiots beating on each other, it should be decided by her." Daniel just looked at Chuck like he was stupid. "What was the name of Sarah's boyfriend who cheated on her?"

"No idea," Daniel told him. "It's not me, so that doesn't matter."

"Did you ask her how she felt about it, how she dealt with it?" Chuck continued.

"No," Daniel answered. "Again, wasn't about me, or us."

"But it was about her, Daniel," Chuck told him.

Daniel shook his head and turned to Sarah. "Listen, let's go out to dinner-"

"I am on a date with Chuck," Sarah explained to Daniel. "The best date I've been on in years, might I add."

"Years?" Chuck said. Sarah looked over at him. "Years," Chuck said, nodding, stunned that men had been this stupid around her.

"What's so great about him?" Daniel asked.

"In the little bit I have known him, he was genuinely concerned about me, about my well-being, about getting me away from someone I didn't want to see," Sarah began.

"Who is he, I'll get rid of him," Daniel said, cutting in.

"Promise?" Chuck asked.

"I will take him out," Daniel told them.

"It's you," Sarah told Daniel. "Please, leave me alone."

Daniel shook his head, and wandered off, confused. They watched him and a moment later he was talking to some other woman. "Poor guy is taking it hard," Chuck said, laughing. He turned back to her. "That was really nice what you said about me, I know it was to run it off, but-"

"I meant it," she told him, placing her hands over his. A slow grin crossed Chuck's face. "So, am I gonna have to ask you out for the next date, or…." Chuck didn't say anything for a moment, and she could see him trying to hold in laughter. "What?"

"I mean, you do have questionable taste in men," he told her. She picked up a napkin, wadded it up, and threw it at him. "I deserved that."

"You did," she said, laughing. "Give me your phone, I'm putting my number in it."

"Under questionable friends and men?" She gave him a look. "That was too far, I see that now." He handed her his phone. "In all seriousness, are you okay?" She looked up at him. "Daniel was pretty….stupid right now."

"Yeah, he was, but I was with a pretty nice guy, that's a lot better looking than Daniel." Chuck looked around and she snorted in laughter. "Chuuucckkk," she whined.

"Oh, damn," he said softly. "That's kinda adorable." He clamped his jaw shut.

"See, honesty," she told him. He had a bashful grin on his face. "I like that."

"You might grow to not like it," he pointed out.

"Well, I think I'm ready to take that risk if you are," she told him. He was.

A/N: Gotta love an OTP