Charlotte

[Charlotte Silver]

Prompt List

• Champagne
• Blood
• Invitation
• Coffee
• Laughter
• Tears
• Pain
• Spring
• Bet
• The Movies

[Charlotte Silver]

C O F F E E

Charlotte and her partner stood in line at the coffee shop, both quietly on their phones as they waited for their turn to order. She glanced up, green eyes narrowing as the woman in front of her ordered what sounded like a complex drink for every elf in Santa's workshop. She'd been going on for about five minutes now, and the guy at the counter was struggling to keep up.

"Jesus Christ lady, some of us have shit to do," Charlotte snapped.

The woman turned around, shocked, but Charlotte's partner stepped in. It didn't hurt that he was tall, and handsome, of course (to everyone but Charlotte, that was, who called him McDreamy mockingly instead of McLaren). "Sorry, ma'am, we've had a rough morning. Child abuse cases, they always just get us on edge." It was a total lie, of course, but he really didn't want to have to take Charlotte's service weapon away for attempting to pistol whip someone.

The woman smiled, and then looked horrified. "Oh, I understand. I respect what y'all do so much," she gushed. She looked at Charlotte, and reached out to squeeze her hand. "It's okay honey, I'm a bitch before my first coffee, too." McLaren burst out laughing. The woman smiled, then turned back around to pay for her order.

"Duuuuuuude," Charlotte said, as the woman finally left. She slugged Jake on the arm, hard, then shoved him out of the way before he could be next to the counter. "Yeah, I'll have the biggest iced coffee you have, with an extra shot of espresso and none of that bullshit whipped cream," she said, not even looking at the worker. "Shit always leaves a film on the inside of my mouth, ugh."

"Wow, Silver, I never thought I'd see the day," the worker said.

Charlotte snapped her gaze to him, and her eyes lit up. "Oh my god, Fin?! Hey! Wh- you work here?" she asked, surprised. "Oh my god, Jamie said that you were coming through but I didn't realize he meant now!"

Fin grinned his charming grin. Man, that hadn't changed at all, had it? "I don't work here," he said smoothly. "Some dude sent me two hundy on Venmo to take his shift for a few hours. Something about taking shrooms and them still making him think everything was 20 feet tall."

"So you just know all these orders, then?" she asked, not even a little surprised that he took some poor dude's money over a three hour shift at work.

"Not at all," he said glibly. "I'm just over here button mashing. I have no idea what I'm ringing people up for. And anyways, it's all on," he paused, glancing down at the nametag on his green apron, "Kevin, apparently," he said, looking back up.

As they spoke, Jake's phone rang, and he picked it up. He spoke quietly for a few minutes, and then came up beside Charlotte.

"Hey bud, she's not done with her order yet," Fin said, glaring at Jake.

"Okay bud," Jake said, unfazed. "Char, we got a call. Can you finish flirting later?" he asked pointedly.

"Ope," she said, snorting. "Yeah, uh, Fin, I'd love to stay, but duty calls. I'll drop by Jamie's tonight though, will you be around?"

The look on Finley's face as he realized that Jake had a badge clipped to his belt was something; his eyes darted to Char's hip and saw that she had not only a badge but also a sidearm. "Whoa, you went straight?" he asked. He handed her the iced coffee as it came up.

Charlotte held up a single that she swiped from the tip jar. "Not too straight," she said, grinning. She flicked the bill at him. "You'll be there, right?"

"Char, we gotta jet," Jake insisted, already at the door.

"Yeah, yeah I'll be there," Finley said.

"Okay, good. I'll see you tonight. Hopefully I don't have to pull a body out of a washing machine today. Yesterday was rough," she said, an exasperated expression on her face. She gave him a wink, and then turned and headed for the door. "Yeah yeah yeah, I'm moving, McDreamy," she called, waving for Jake to go ahead.

"Hi, I'd like a caramel macchiato no whip skinny with an extra pump of syrup, and it needs to be center of the sun hot," the next customer said.

"Nah," Finley said after a moment, shaking his head. The customer looked stunned as he took the apron off and balled it up, leaving it on the counter. "Sorry Kevin," he said, jumping over the counter. "Today's the day you quit for bigger and better things." And with that, he walked out of the store. Strangely, the tip jar was now empty.

[Charlotte Silver]

S P R I N G

Every spring, Charlotte put in for leave. It was clockwork since she'd been with the PD; for two months, she completely vanished. Everyone speculated she went up to some cabin in the Adirondacks and lived like a forest witch while the snow melted, but nobody really knew for sure. What they did know was that she never took leave any other time, for any reason - unless it was medical. There had been that time that she'd been thrown out a window and she got a week off, but recovery was quick for shapeshifters, and so she'd just enjoyed the free time off.

"Wait, you're going to be gone for two whole months?" Jake said, following after Charlotte. He'd just noticed the big line through her desk calendar. Apparently he was the last person to know that she was taking her annual sabbatical - but then again, they'd only been partners for about five months, so it wasn't that surprising.

"Yeah," she said, and the way she walked away from him, continuing to sort files at the tall cabinet, showed how little she cared about his surprise.

"When were you going to tell me?" he asked, setting his coffee down and folding his arms.

Charlotte glanced over her shoulder. "Are you serious?" she asked. "I do this every year. I have since I've been here. Why are you acting like you didn't know?"

"Because I didn't know! Excuse me for not being aware of your tradition, I've only been here a few months, Silver," he said hotly, careful not to raise his voice. This woman was fucking with his blood pressure. "We have two murder cases that are getting more sordid by the day, and you're just leaving?" he asked, holding his hands up.

"Yep," she said, not looking back. "You'll be fine. Just piggyback with Rivers and Wakefield," she said.

"It's Volos now, not Wakefield," he reminded her.

"Right, whatever, listen - I don't care what you do while I'm gone dude, just don't fuck my desk up, okay?" She shut the filing cabinet drawer and turned around, giving him a Look. "Don't act so heartbroken, McDreamy. I'm sure Theroux will let you spoon him now that I won't be here for you to suck all the warmth off of," she sad, slapping at his arm on her way out of the room.

Jake turned and went after her. "But, Charlotte - "

She turned so fast that he ran into her, and backed up a few steps. "Listen, Jake, I'm leaving. You'll be fine. You came from LA for Christ's sake, this should be small potatos for you! I get that you're still the FNG here, but they'll stop hazing you eventually. By the way, I heard about the Cheez-Whiz thing, that was a pretty good retaliation," she said. "But I digress. Look, Theroux will know how to get ahold of me if you absolutely need to call me, but otherwise...." she sucked her teeth and held her hands up as she shrugged. "You're on your own. It'll be fine, dude. Blue skies."

He opened his mouth, but she held a hand up. "No," she whispered, shaking her head. "You lost. Go. Shoo shoo shoo," she said, fluttering her hands at him until he turned, defeated, and walked back down to the bull pen. "Christ," she muttered to herself. "You'd think he had some serious attachment issues or something."

She woke up early the next day, bags already packed, and got on the road. She'd been on schedule for the last six or so years, now, thankfully. Getting through the academy had been easy enough; she'd just gotten in on a class that started right at the beginning of summer, and systematically saved her leave up so that she could do exactly what she'd been doing now. It had been rough before then, but now, as she drove, listening to static-laden country music and enjoying the fresh air of the mountains, she felt good.

Three weeks had passed without a peep. Simon texted her every few days to let her know whether or not the precinct was burning down to the ground, and unfortunately it wasn't, so she supposed she had work to look forward to when this was over. She had been squirreling things away in her cabin at every opportunity, and so she had enough supplies so that she wouldn't really need to leave for anything. She felt like a doomsday prepper, but then again - it pretty much was doomsday as far as she was concerned.

One evening, she'd settled down on the couch for some time with her audiobook - Birdbox (it felt fitting since she isolated herself) - when she heard the distinct sound of tires on gravel. She sat bolt upright on the couch, throwing her iPad into the chair opposite her, thankful on the backside that it hadn't bounced off and broken. But right then, she wasn't worried about it so much as who the fuck was coming down the driveway. Oh no. Oh no. She darted to the window, looking out at the car as it came up the driveway. Did she recognize it? YES.

She grabbed her phone, and dialed his number. "Jake, WHAT are you doing here?" she demanded, rushing up to the door and locking it.

"Char - hey, I was worried about you,  I got a weird feeling and I just - " he broke off suddenly, having finally gotten within a good enough range of her to really get that weird feeling. Except, it wasn't weird at all. It was -

She pressed her hand against the door, fingers curling against the wood. Christ but she could smell the aftershave he had on from where she was in the house. It sent a bolt up her spine and she grit her teeth. No, she told herself. Friend, not food, Charlotte. "Jake, bud, you gotta turn your car around and get the fuck out of here," she told him, her voice weak. She pressed her forehead to the door, thumping it softly. Why, why? Why could this motherfucker just not listen? "I need you to get back in your fucking car," she warned him.

"How'd you know I wasn't in my car?" he asked, his voice strange - for an empath, he was holding it in pretty well, but that didn't mean he wasn't feeling some type of way.

"Because I can fucking smell you, Jake. You need to go."

"Let me in," he said. "Charlotte, something isn't right." His voice wasn't at the phone, it was at the fucking door. Charlotte jumped back from it like it had burned her. Every muscle in her body ached; she wanted to tear right through the door and into him.

Friends, not food, friends, not food, she repeated to herself over and over again in her head. She was so frustrated she wanted to cry; WHY would he come here? If he'd only known how much this would have messed with her, surely he wouldn't have done it. She felt a brief flicker of paranoia as she wondered if he did know. The thought was quickly dismissed - there was no way. If he was that much of a piece of shit, Rivers would have sussed it out of him already, wouldn't he have? Or Britton - for fuck sake, Britton was a vampire, he could read minds. They'd tell her if her partner was a psycho, right? Right?!

She could hear him outside of the door, could hear his heart palpitations as he struggled to work against the fucking tractor beam she inadvertently had him in. Charlotte had no idea about his abilities, because they just hadn't shared their shit like that yet. He knew she was a shapeshifter, and maybe he knew she was a cougar, but clearly he didn't know anything about cougars, or else he'd never have come. She could smell him, too, god, could she smell him. He smelled of salt and musk; sweat from his nerves mixing with the aftershave that she'd caught in the air earlier. It made her grit her teeth so hard she thought she'd crack one.

"Is now a bad time to tell you that I have this - this thing, where I can feel what other people are feeling?" he asked, his voice apprehensive.

Charlotte closed her eyes, tipping her head back. "Of course," she said, holding her arms out. "Of course he does." She looked at the door. "Jake, bud - that's great and all and thanks for sharing your feelings or whatever but I NEED YOU TO GET BACK IN YOUR CAR AND GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" That last part she roared.

She heard a thump against the door. "I can't," he admitted. He'd put his forehead against the door in a moment of exasperation - funny.

"What do you MEAN you can't?" she screamed. She wanted to kick the door as hard as she could and blow the bitch off its hinges, sending Jake down the front steps. She didn't, though, pacing wildly. She hadn't even shifted and already she looked the part of her big cat alter-ego, eyes wild as she moved back and forth. The door was going to become her goal - no, the thing on the other side of the door was her goal. The door was just the obstacle in the way.

"I am caught in the gravity of you," he said, and it was so matter-of-fact that she could tell that he was trying to keep himself aware of what was happening so that he didn't just get rolled by the emotions. It would have been poetic if it hadn't been so terrifying to hear, because she didn't want him.

Instead of going to the door, she sank down behind her couch, covering her face. "I need you to go!" she yelled again. She didn't want him. Could he feel that? Could he feel her fear at what would happen if one of them opened the door? She was prisoner to her nature, it was why she went so far away for so long. As a girl, she had fallen victim to it, and she never wanted to feel so powerless again. "I don't want you," she said, though this time she didn't yell it so much as just say it aloud, so that she could establish how she felt before anything continued, so that she could have her "no".

That seemed to snap him out of it. Instead of feeling the need, he felt a sudden wash of fear, and of powerlessness. He broke away from the door immediately, skipping backwards a few feet. "Oh, god," he said to himself, scrubbing at his eyes. What the fuck was happening? He practically ran back to his car, and took off before he got stuck in that pull again.

A few moments later, Charlotte's phone rang. She was still behind the couch, crying, and, too lazy to stand, crawled on her hands and knees to where she'd dropped it earlier. "What!" she sobbed, seeing Jake's number on the screen.

"I'm so sorry, Charlotte, I am so sorry," he said, talking a million miles a minute. "When you were at work you were acting secretive and my ability lets me feel what others feel and I felt like you were maybe hiding something and I got the address from your desk because I thought you'd be in trouble and I fucking had no idea, I'm an idiot, I'm an idiot," he said, not giving her room to say anything.

"Yes, you're a fucking idiot!" she cried, slapping the floor next to the phone. "Why wouldn't you just listen to me?!"

"Because I'm STUPID!" he shouted back, still buzzing after having all of those emotions playing pinball with his entire being.

She was quiet for a moment, and then he heard a little laugh. "Yeah, you are," she said, sniffing.

"I'll see you in two months, Silver," he said. "I'm sorry."

"I'll see you," she said, and pressed the button to disconnect the call. Sighing, she laid down on the floor next to the phone. The wood felt cool against her body, which had been burning up from the frenzy she'd been worked into. She'd practically been drooling on herself. She closed her eyes. If there was a cure for this shapeshifter thing, she would be the first person in line.

"Here's to a quiet two months," she said aloud, still laying on the floor.

[Charlotte Silver]

T E A R S

If one would have asked Jake McLaren what he thought about his partner, he'd have tried to answer politely at first, saying that she was a little rough around the edges. He wouldn't be wrong, either. Ever since the incident that spring, though, Jake had developed a little bit of a deeper understanding about her. He had transferred to homicide because he'd previously worked SVU in Seattle, and for an empath, that was not an ideal environment. He knew that Charlotte had worked SVU with the city before she'd come to Ramsa; she'd told him one night that it had been because of a promotion offer, but he felt that she wasn't being totally honest.

He would have been right. Charlotte may have indeed been rough around the edges, and her claws were sharp. It was true sometimes she didn't know when not to use them, either, but luckily Jake had usually been there to temper down whatever fire she'd stoked up with her mouth - or sometimes, with a mean right hook, or well-placed kick. On more than one occasion he'd had to literally drag her from the interrogation room. She ran either hot or cold, and there was no in between for her.

The truth was, Charlotte had a rough life prior to being dumped unceremoniously out of the system when she turned 18. She'd stolen/saved enough money to get an absolutely tiny apartment and had gone to the academy as soon as she could. Her juvenile record almost prevented her admission entirely, but there were some extreme circumstances that had ended up working in her favor, however damaging they'd been to her psyche. She acted like nothing bothered her, and rarely spoke of hardships she'd experienced. In fact, Jake noticed she didn't really talk about herself at all.

It wasn't until he was approaching their office when Simon grabbed him by the arm, hooking him and turning him in the other direction. "Walk with me," was all the blonde had said, his face uncharacteristically grim.

"Is everything okay?" Jake asked. He couldn't read Simon at all; it was simply the nature of Anubi, though. He followed Simon into the office that he shared with Laurel, and dropped down in a chair. He accepted a cup of coffee Simon poured for him, and watched as the man sat across from him, a pensive look on his face. "Well? Spit it out," Jake said, making a motion with his hand.

"Listen," Simon said. "She's in there on the phone right now, and you don't want to go in there. You, specifically, don't want to go in there," he added.

Jake stared at him for a second, and then nodded. "Ah, I get it," he said. "Thanks for the save."

"Anytime," Simon replied.

"Can I ask who she's on the phone with? I'd like to steel myself for the next day or so, if I need. You know how she can be. All or nothing."

Simon chuckled, kicking his feet up on the desk. "Yeah, that's Char for sure," he agreed. "She's uh, on the phone with someone from her previous job. Court case is all over the place right now."

"Oh, no," Jake said, immediately understanding more of the situation. "Is her vic having a breakdown or something?"

"Yeah," Simon said, shaking his head. "The defense ripped her up today in court. It was bad. Charlotte didn't even get to testify; they called it for the day. I don't know who she's on the phone with, exactly, but it has something to do with the case." He paused. "You're a good guy, McLaren. I like you. I don't know about Charlotte, but you're good in our book," he said, gesturing to Laurel's empty seat. "We'll help you however we can. She can be... hard to deal with, sometimes. She had it pretty bad, growing up. I know she doesn't act like things get to her, but trust me, they get to her. Probably worse than some of us."

"She doesn't really talk about herself," Jake said, shrugging.

"It's not my story to tell, but maybe someday she'll trust you enough to tell you."

"I wish she'd trust me now, " Jake admitted, setting the cup down as he leaned forward in the chair. "It's hard working with someone that feels like cold steel all the time. It's not like how you are, just a blank, which is to be expected. That girl is..." he trailed off. "She holds a lot in."

Simon nodded. "She does. Just give it time, man. She'll come around." He looked away from Jake and up at the open door, where he saw her leave her office quickly. "Office is open," he said, nodding to Jake. "Want my advice?"

Jake stood. "Yeah, of course," he said. He appreciated anything Simon could give him.

"Tread lightly for right now. Not a warning, just advice. She's usually volatile after a call like that."

"I understand," Jake said, nodding. "Thanks for the tip. And the coffee." He gave a wave to Theroux, then walked out of the office and down the hall to his own. He saw Charlotte in the hall, and raised a hand. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," she replied gruffly. "I'm uh, I'm gonna go." She rubbed her face; fortunately for her, the hallway had a few lights out, and so she was confident that Jake couldn't see her eyes were red and watery.

"Sure," Jake said, trying not to be taken aback by the things he felt from her. It was heavy sadness, but she was trying to hold it all in, and it nearly gave him a stomach ache. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," she said. "Tomorrow." She left, squeezing his arm as she passed him, which was completely out of character for her. Enough so, that Jake stood in the hallway long enough for her to leave, and then turned around to follow her.

She'd gotten ahead of him quite a bit; she had to have been running, he assumed, and he would have been right. She'd practically sprinted to her car, but by the time she got there, she was crying so hard that she couldn't get her keys out of her bag. She dropped the purse on the trunk of her sedan, sobbing as she tried to comb through it, but she was so emotional that she wasn't getting anything done.

"Charlotte?" Jake said, coming up behind her. Without thinking, he put a hand on her shoulder, trying to guard himself as much as he could. He expected her to swipe at him like a big cat, but instead, she turned, wordlessly, and planted her face into her chest. She was wailing now, and it was more of an emotional outpouring than he'd seen in a while - bigger than her whatever a few months prior, even bigger than some family reactions they'd had lately when they'd gone to deliver bad news.

"It's okay, it's okay," he said, holding her tightly. He could feel her squeezing him as hard as she could, and god damn he'd forgotten shifters had such a grip. "Ribs," he grunted. She relaxed her hold by a little, and it was enough where he didn't think he would sustain permanent damage. Bruises, though, he'd definitely have a few of those. "What happened, Char? Can you tell me?"

She pulled away from him finally, wiping ungracefully at her face. She put a hand on her hip as she did so, her other hand going between her face and gesturing as she spoke. "One of my girls just fucking offed herself tonight," she said, shaking her head. She almost couldn't believe it as she said it, but no, the mother calling and crying to Charlotte about the trial and what the girl had gone home and done - it was too much for her and she broke down. "Two years she waited for this trial, and the guy's defense lawyer just... it was bad, Jake, you should have seen it." She took a shaky breath.

"She just... just went home, told her mom she was going to take a bath, and then - her mom called me when she found her, she didn't even call 911, called me. I had to call it in." She looked up at him. "She was just a kid, man. She was my age when - " she paused, and then looked away. "She was just a fucking kid."

Jake nodded. "I won't stand here and give you platitudes on the why of all this; we worked the same jobs before we met." He reached out and touched her shoulder, and she lowered her head, placing a hand on his in quiet gratitude for his lack of cliche-riddled speeches. He'd never been one for them, and she appreciated it.

"I know, I know, in time I won't feel this way," she said. "There will be another murder tomorrow, another notification, another case. I just - fuck man. Not tonight, okay? Not tonight."

Jake nodded. "Do you want me to call someone for you, to come get you?"

"No, I'll be okay. If I can find my keys," she said, laughing a little.

"Well, that's what you get for having a bag of holding," Jake joked, brushing some of her hair out of her face. "Come on, let's dig them out. I'll wait until you're good before I go."

She seemed to accept this, and went back to searching for them, now that she could see more clearly. "Bag of holding," she repeated as she secured her fingers around the key fob and pulled it out. She looked over at him. "Are you a secret D&D nerd?" she asked. When he shrugged, she smiled. "Jake McLaren, you are. Let me guess, Paladin?" she teased.

"Cleric, actually," he informed her. "It's not much, but it's honest work."

"Barbarian," she said, picking her purse up.

"I wouldn't have assumed anything else," he said smoothly. When she unlocked the car, he opened her door for her. "You sure you'll be okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah." She paused. "Thanks, though. Of all the people to follow me out here, I'm glad it was you. Just - don't tell anyone you saw me cry, okay? There's a pool. I want to wait until it hits a thousand before I cry in a mirror and record it."

The comment was so unexpected that he let out a loud laugh. "I won't. Cross my heart," he added with a smile. "Text me when you get home, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," she said, pulling the door shut.

[Charlotte Silver]

I N V I T A T I O N

Charlotte leaned against the counter of the coffee shop, watching as the guy made quick work of the orders. It wasn't busy, per se, but there were more people than she'd seen in there previously. Finally, the man handed her the drink she'd ordered, and she took it, turning as she dropped a few dollars into the tip jar. Fin had already taken a seat by the window, and she went to join him, sitting across from him and slouching down into her chair.

"Long day?" he asked, brow arched.

"Long week," she said honestly. "So, what's up with this place? Suddenly you guys have steady business, I thought you said you were just hanging out downtown all by yourself most days."

"Yeeeah, about that," Fin said, sitting back in his own chair to stretch. "Apparently Joey knows how to get customers of a certain kind, which, you know I don't care about any of that," he said, making it clear he was talking about supernatural types, "but still, it's a little new for me."

"Oh yeah?" she asked, now curious. She took a sip of her drink, nodding at the taste. "Man, that kid Kevin really knows what I mean when I say extra marshmallow flavor," she admitted.

"Yeah, he's kind of crushing it," Fin said with a lopsided grin. When she nudged his foot with her own, he knew she meant for him to answer her question, and so he sat forward, dropping his elbows on the table. "They're all - " and he mouthed a word at her, but she couldn't figure out what he'd said.

"They're all what? Berries? What are you trying to say?"

"They're fairies," he said, his voice a strained whisper.

"Oh! Oh, okay, that's - oddly specific," she replied, clearly confused. "How did he manage that?"

Fin looked down for a second, wondering how much he should explain, but settled for, "It's like the Lounge, except for - well, them." When she didn't respond, he rolled his eyes. "There's a second menu," he offered, as though that explained everything. And, it did, for the most part.

"Ahhhh, I see. So that's how this place went from a few college students and out-of-towners to having some really good-looking regulars," she said, nodding. "That's convenient."

"Yeah, and it boosted the presence of other things in the area, so now we're kind of known as a spot for them to come. I don't know as much about them as I would like to, but it's weird trying to ask. Do you know anything about them?"

Charlotte thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. "Not really. I bump elbows all day long with the usual types - vampires and shapeshifters, and I think a woman I work with is married to some big shot magic-user type, but I don't really know anything beyond that. Wouldn't even know where to look."

"Yeah, I figured," he said, sounding defeated. It wasn't often Fin came across something he didn't know much about, and he was itching to learn more. Joey was pretty open, but he also got the feeling that the guy was withholding things out of concern, specifically because he'd literally said, "It can be dangerous, and I don't want my new business partner, however silent you are - which is not very - getting too caught up in it." It was fair. Fin recognized trauma when he saw it, and he wasn't about to pry it out of someone. So, he just went with it.

He glanced up as a guy came in with a blonde, both of whom he recognized. "Hey Dahl, Tommy," he said, nodding to them as they walked by.

Charlotte followed the interaction with her eyes, but said nothing. Instead, she glanced down at her phone. "Hey, you given any thought to this holiday party?" she prompted him.

"What party?" Fin said, suddenly dialed back in. He liked parties.

"It's some thing that happens every year in that nice place downtown. I guess it's where a lot of hunters go, but a lot of other people, too. Shit, Jake got invited by Theroux." She spoke enough about work that Fin knew to whom she referred, so he nodded as she talked. "And, he asked if I was going, but I told him I didn't know yet."

"How did Jake get invited before you? He's - "

"Boring? Yeah, I know. But I guess there's some weird six degrees going on there and he knows people who will be there, so naturally, they extended the invite to him, who extended it to me."

"So are you his plus one? Or am I your plus one, to his plus one? What is that, like one to the second power?"

"Fin, that's still one," Charlotte said flatly.

"Math, okay, whatever." He glanced up again as someone else walked in, nodding to him. "Hey Vik, what's up?"

"Not much man, another day in fuckin' paradise," the man, apparently Vik, said.

  "I'll totally go to some fancy party," Fin said, looking back at Charlotte. She had a strange expression on her face.

"Did.. did that man not just walk in and out of here five minutes ago? With a blonde?" she asked.

"What? No, that's Vik. He works down the block," Fin said, acting oblivious to her confusion.

"Dude," Charlotte said, sitting up and setting her drink down. "You mean to tell me that's not the same man who you just said hello to?"

Fin cracked a grin finally. "No, they're not the same person." He dodged a slap coming from her, laughing. "I'm serious, haven't you ever heard of twins before?" He honestly thought they were twins, so he wasn't lying about that - boy, if he knew that complex ass problem.

"What, like fairy twins?" she challenged.

"No! Charlotte, just regular twins. Is this you misdirecting to the fact that you just invited me to be your date for a party?" he teased.

"I didn't ask - alright, you muppet," she snapped, but she smiled. "So will you go?"

"Does Jake know you're asking me?"

"Jake told me to ask you," she said, which surprised him a little.

Not one to be caught too off guard, Fin shrugged. "Sure, I'll go. Clearly he knows how boring he is so he needs me to liven things up a little," he said, dodging another swat from Charlotte. "I'm kidding, Charlotte, Jesus! Yeah, I'll go. If these invites are getting handed out like candy I'm sure I'm bound to run into other people I know, anyways."

"Probably," she agreed. She glanced down at her phone, where she received another text from Jake, this time about work. "Okay, playtime is over. I have to go and actually go be an adult now," she said, standing. "Text me later?"

"I don't know if I'll have time, running this empire takes so much out of me," Fin said, feigning exhaustion.

"Text me later," she repeated, this time slapping the table in front of him. She noticed that Kevin jumped when she did so, and as she got to the door, she glanced over her shoulder. "Don't let him intimidate you, Kevin. You're taller than he is."

"That was cheap!" Fin called, but she'd already gone. He glanced over his shoulder at Kevin, who was staring at him, confused. "Don't even think about it, Kevin. I would drop you."

"Wasn't thinking about it," Kevin replied, then turned, busying himself with wiping down the counter.