Charlie found her voice. "Getthefuckoffme," she muttered in one guttural word. "Get. The. Fuck. OFF!" Louder this time.

Slick lifted his head, surprised at the strength he heard in her voice. He pulled back slightly, and she was up in a flash, her stance wide, ready to fight. She shook her bloody shoulder and turned her neck from side to side like an athlete preparing for a big game. For a moment, Slick wondered if he was seeing things. He was sure the wound had been mortal; sure he'd heard the gurgling of a punctured lung; sure this had been the end. And yet he must have been mistaken. It looked grazed, if anything. 

"The hell," he whispered. "Are you some kind of fucking cyborg?"

Charlie didn't waste any time answering him. In the moment since she'd regained her footing, she grabbed Aloysius's gun, the tangle of limbs and blood barely registering to Euri's shocked face, and in a second, she was behind him, the muzzle pressed to his head.

"Jesus Christ, Slick, who is this guy, anyway?" She let out a frustrated sigh. "I don't hear from you for months and months, then suddenly you show up with a bunch of ... of ... foreigners!"

Slick stood, slack-jawed. She was safe -- bloodied, but safe. He took a step toward her, then another. He took the shotgun from Euri's slack hands -- man, that guy was no good under pressure, thought Slick. Five minutes of things not going his way and he turns into a ragdoll, Slick laughed, distracted for a fraction of a second. He turned to Charlie, his hand outstretched, moving toward her face; his fingertips stroked her cheekbone. He leaned in gently, his face mere inches from hers as he turned expectantly to finally -- finally! -- kiss her.

Smack! The crack of fingers against hot skin sent him reeling.

"Oh my God, asshole, you cannot possibly be serious."

Comments

[ms picket to you]

jonniker (who I adore from afar) just took the baker in my brain, saved her and made her and hells bells, turned this lurid story on it's mother fucking ass.

"you cannot possibly be serious?!"

i said it before, i'll say it now: this is goddamn love story*.

(*as in: also: i love it.)