Title: Chuck vs. The Happily Ever After
Words: 1,536
Summary: Chuck and Sarah talk. Among other things.
Spoliers: Through 2x21.
Disclaimer: Not mine!!
Rating: Light R? Nothing explicit.
Character/Pairings: Chuck/Sarah, Ellie
Warnings: Mild sexuality.
Author’s Notes: BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THEY GOT HOME FROM THE REHEARSAL DINNER. Well, okay, fine. I admit that this is speculation. EXCEPT IT TOTALLY ISN'T.



Chuck vs. The Happily Ever After

Sarah rose to awareness slowly, blinking and taking a deep breath before fully opening her eyes. The room was warm and full of sun, streaming in through the window and onto Chuck’s bed. Slowly, she rolled over, pushing the covers off of her and stretching a little. In just a tank top and boy short underwear, her skin felt sun-soaked and warm. It felt even better when her skin brushed his.

With a smile, Sarah looked at Chuck as he slept, on his side and facing her. She took advantage of the moment and looked him over, admiring his bare chest and wildly curly hair. Feeling her smile stretch into a grin, she scooted across the sheets until she was right next to him, her nose an inch from his. She let him sleep, and let herself have a moment to remember the previous night.

After the rehearsal dinner, she had gone home with Chuck without a word. They stayed silent the whole drive home, because there was no question of what was going to happen once they got there.

The rest, Sarah remembered like what she imagined an Intersect flash might be like – flashes of his brilliant smile, the feel of slick skin on skin, the noises he made that resonated deep in his chest, the way he touched her with such reverence that it made her want to cry. Jumbled thoughts and feelings and the realization that she wanted him so much it hurt. Gently, she reached out and brushed a dark curl back from his forehead.

This was bad. Really, really bad. Bad in that, now that he had the Intersect out of his head, she was about to he reassigned and removed from his life faster than he (or she) could protest. It made her chest ache – the thought of being anywhere away from Chuck made her want to curl up in a ball and have him hold her for as long as he would let her stay there.

As she lay there in the warm morning sun, gazing at his face, Sarah found herself wanting nothing more than to stay here for the rest of her life. It was a feeling she’d grown more accustomed to having lately, but it still surprised her a little. Since when did she, Sarah Walker: Super Spy, want a normal life with a boyfriend, a job that didn’t involve shooting people, kids? Since when was she vulnerable like this?

Since Chuck Bartowski.

Sarah breathed out a small sigh that blew over his face and stirred his hair. She instantly felt guilty – did she have morning breath? – as he started to wake up. A smile curled her lips upward as she watching him adorably try to fight against awareness. There were perks to vulnerability.

Frowning a little, he blinked sleepily. When his eyes adjusted and he saw her not an inch from him, the frown stretched into a smile. “Hey.”

“Hi,” she replied softly, instantly remembering how those lips had felt on her last night. Her cheeks warm with pleasure, she moved a tiny bit towards him. “Good morning.”

“Good morning.” His voice was deep and a little rough from sleep, and Sarah wanted to wake up like this every morning. “How’d you sleep?”

She smiled and hummed happily. “Very well. You?”

“The same.” Their eyes met and he reached up to brush her hair back. Lifting herself up ever so slightly on one shoulder, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. It was liberating to be able to do this not as a cover but just because she wanted to. And oh did she want to.

He made that noise in the back of his throat that made her skin ripple with goosebumps and slid his fingers through her hair to cup the back of her head. She slid on top of him, relishing the feel of his skin, the hair on his chest, the surprisingly strong muscles of his arms as they slid around her.

Suddenly he pulled back. “Oh God, I should go brush my teeth first.” Sarah nearly burst out laughing as his thoughts mirrored her earlier ones.

“Uh uh,” she said, tugging at his bottom lip. “You’re not going anywhere right now.”

He didn’t protest too much, and instead went back to kissing her thoroughly and stroking the small of her back where her tank top had ridden up. “What happened to ‘one mission at a time’? Not that I’m complaining, of course.”

She grinned against his mouth. “I’m good at multitasking.” His deep chuckle resonated through her and she shivered.

“I’ll say.” His hands ran up her back until he was eventually tugging her shirt up and over her head before tossing it somewhere across the room. Sarah couldn’t help but grin. Being with someone had never made her feel this happy. She had felt other things of course – passion, lust, anger, sorrow – but never the pure happiness that was flooding her body right now.

After a long moment of drinking in each other in the warm cocoon of his bed, Chuck rolled so that he was on top of her, her legs gripping his hips tightly. They struggled momentarily to get rid of their last articles of clothing before Chuck tugged on her earlobe gently with his teeth. She shuddered. “The cameras are off since you’re here, right? Casey’s not creepily watching this?” he whispered hotly in her ear.

She laughed. “A little late to be worrying about that, isn’t it?” Her laughter was lost, however, as he pinned her to the bed and sucked on a spot on her neck that left her speechless. Involuntarily, her hips jerked up into his. He released a breath in a sharp hiss.

Her lips found his again and she kissed him with all she was worth, gripping his curly hair in her hands. “Chuck,” she said with embarrassing neediness in her voice. He said her name breathlessly and the morning dissolved into a haze of warm, sleepy passion.

--

“So, what happens now?” Chuck asked some time later, lying on his back and attempting to catch his breath.

“We go back to sleep,” Sarah said happily, turning to curl into his side. He wrapped his arm around her and held her to him.

“I mean about…us.” Sarah looked up into his serious brown eyes. “Now that the Intersect is gone, aren’t you…aren’t you going to be reassigned or something?” He said the words like he didn’t want to say them at all, and Sarah had to look away, choosing instead to gaze at a freckle on his left shoulder. “That’s what happens, right?”

Slowly, and still avoiding his gaze, Sarah nodded. “Technically, yes.”

He went still beneath her. “Technically?” She made no move to answer him, so he took her chin in his hand and made her look at him. “What does that mean?”

She took his hand in hers, freeing her chin, and tangled her fingers through his, resting their joined hands on his chest. For what felt like a long time, she just looked at him. Her heart throbbed in her chest. “I’m…not sure I can walk away from you.”

The look in Chuck’s eyes knocked the breath out of her lungs. He was looking at her like she was the most confusing, amazing, beautiful thing he had ever seen. Nobody else looked at her like that.

He pushed himself up until their lips were crushed together, and Sarah didn’t even have time to be embarrassed by the noises of want that she was making, because Chuck was making similar ones and then she was underneath him and the world was right again.

--

When they finally dragged themselves out of bed – because they could hear Ellie in the other part of the house, frantically trying to organize everything for her wedding later that day – Sarah ducked into the bathroom for a shower. A short time later, she stepped out of the bathroom, her hair dripping onto her shoulders, only to find Chuck being chastised thoroughly by his sister.

“And you!” she was yelling. “Stop messing with my emotions today! Today of all days, just do what you’re told and don’t, I don’t know…Chuck, today is going to be perfect, isn’t it?” Her stern tone dissolved into one of worried nervousness, and as Sarah watched, Chuck enfolded his sister into his arms and hugged her tightly.

“Everything is going to be perfect, El.” Ellie melted into her brother, ducking her head into his shoulder, and Sarah couldn’t help but feel a bubble of utter happiness grow inside her chest. How had she ever come to deserve these people?

Ellie opened her eyes and saw Sarah walking out of the bathroom. “Oh! Sarah! I didn’t know you stayed over last night.” Weirdly, Sarah felt her cheeks grow warm.

“Oh, yeah, she stayed.” Chuck beamed at her. She couldn’t help but return his look. Ellie’s eyes flickered from Chuck to Sarah and back again, catching whatever was drifting in the air between them, and was suddenly sporting a beam to match her brother’s.

“Yes. Everything is going to be perfect today.”