Archive of Our Own

Despite his bleary, tired face, Charlie Brown manages to crack a smile as he lets his pencil fall out of his swollen fingers. He looks down, once again, at his magnum opus, his crowning achievement, his-

“Ooh, what’s that, big brother?”

Charlie Brown squeaks in shock and nearly jumps out of his seat as he spins around, coming face-to-face with his nosey little sister. She grins sweetly and innocently, despite his reaction.

“Uh, nothing!” he asserts, shielding the item of interest by holding his hand over the work he’s just spent the last three hours working on.

But Sally just brushes his hand away. She only gets about two seconds to look before her brother slaps his other hand over it.

But two seconds is all she needs.

“Awwww!” she says. “It’s a love letter for The Little Red-Haired Girl!”

This time, Charlie Brown hunches over the table to cover up his work with his body but all his flustered efforts do is make Sally giggle at his futile struggle.

“Yes,” he admits, doing his best to coax her not to press on with a stern glare. “A Valentine’s Day love letter for her, not for you.”

“Oh please, big brother. I don’t need a letter from you to know that you love me.” A pleasant thought seems to cross her mind, for she looks up and sighs dreamily. “Now if my Sweet Baboo wrote a letter for me, that would be different.”

Charlie Brown just rolls his eyes and quickly shuffles his letter off the table and into the envelope next to it. 

“Are you going to give it to her now?” Sally asks.

As if he’s swallowed one of the many rocks from Halloween’s past, Charlie Brown makes a sickly face, squiggly frown and tongue sticking out of his mouth. “Of course not! I can’t approach her! Pretty faces-”

“Make you nervous,” Sally finishes, flashing a cheeky grin. “I know.”

“Well, it’s true! There’s nothing I can do about it!”

“Then how are you going to make sure she gets the letter?”

“I know where she lives. I’ll just drop the letter off in her mailbox.”

He takes the letter, but instead of heading out the door, he makes his way to his room, Sally in tow.

“But I can’t give it to her now,” Charlie Brown continues. “Even doing that’ll take everything I have. And so, I need a little boost to motivate me.”

Sally arches an eyebrow up and shrugs. “A boost? What kind of boost?”

“I don’t know what kind I’ll get, but regardless, I’ll need five cents.”

Almost thirty minutes goes by and Lucy van Pelt is still nowhere to be found.

To say it’s an odd phenomenon would be, in Charlie Brown’s estimation, an understatement. It’s not like her to miss out on taking advantage of holiday anxiety by setting up her psychiatric booth. Especially since he’s already seen Linus, who’s confirmed that, yes, Lucy is out and open for business. 

But she’s not in her usual spot, nor is she anywhere that Patty, Pig Pen, or Marcie have suggested she could be.

Charlie Brown swallows and almost crumbles up the envelope in a nervous fit. As if worrying about the Little Red-Haired Girl wasn’t bad enough, now he’s hoping that something bad hasn’t happened to Lucy.

But the latter of his fears don’t get a chance to fester much longer for who should he find, up ahead in the distance, but Lucy herself after a few more minutes spent combing through the neighborhood.

He can’t actually see her from this far away but the somewhat shoddy craftsmanship of the booth he spots gives her away. And sure enough, after closing the distance, it’s clear that the girl behind the booth can’t be anyone else.

It’s also clear to Charlie Brown that by her crabby frown, as she leans over her booth, that he’s not exactly welcome company.

Despite that, Charlie Brown still gives her a half-smile. “Hello, Lucy.”

She just glares back at him for a few seconds. Then, as if realization’s dawned on her, her harsh glare softens and she sighs sullenly. “If you’re here for my help, I’m afraid I’m not offering that today.”

She taps at the sign above her head before he can ask what he means. “See?”

Charlie Brown reads it and can almost feel his face boiling red from embarrassment. There, as plain as day, reads: “Valentine’s Kisses 50¢”.

“W-wait!” Charlie Brown stutters, waving his hands in front of him frantically as if signaling for a boat. “I-I’m not here for that! I-”

Lucy’s heavy sigh cuts him off. “I know.”

She doesn’t wait for him to press her about what she’s up to. “I’ve been standing right across the street from Schroeder’s house for hours and he hasn’t come out to visit my booth.”

Ah, so that explains why she’s here. It’s enough to satisfy Charlie Brown’s curiosity but not his desire to try and mend Lucy’s hurt feelings.

“Give him time,” he says. “I’m sure he’ll come around and want a kiss from you sooner or later.”

Lucy shakes her head. “You don’t get it. He’s supposed to kiss me.”

He can’t help but look confused, and all it does is evidently get Lucy to pout in indignation. “It’s a great offer, you know! And besides, I’ve already kissed him! He should be happy to know that I’m letting him do the same to me!”

“Yes, but didn’t you do that for free?”

“Cute pianists get a fifty cent discount.” She points down at the bottom half of the booth. “See?”

He looks down and…yep. It’s there, alright, advertised with little red hearts around the message. 

“And he knows I’m here”, she adds. “But still, he does nothing. Am I really not worth it?”

That last question stings him right in his heart. Above that, it almost feels like he’s walking on sacred ground—he can’t help but be blown away at being allowed to be this up close and intimate to Lucy’s vulnerability.

It makes him speak without thinking, but he still believes he has something of substance to offer.

“Well, maybe there’s something you can do.”

Lucy lifts her head up slightly. “Like what?”

“Whenever salesmen come over my house, my parents won’t buy their product unless they show off how it works and how they can benefit from it.” Charlie Brown gestures to her booth. “You should try to do the same with this.”

At once, Lucy’s whole face glows with a bright smile. “Hey, that’s not bad! Not bad, at all, Charlie Brown!”

“Why thank you-”

“Who knew you’d have a bright idea for once?”

Instantly, he deflates, but doesn’t let the not-so subtle insult get him down for too long. He watches Lucy pace around in a circle behind her booth.

“Now then,” she begins to ask out in the open, “how am I gonna get Schroeder to think that kissing me will benefit him?”

Charlie Brown can’t answer.

For one, he’s not Schroeder and on top of that is the fact that he’s not a salesmen. Maybe he can get someone else to help her, though. 

Maybe Linus or Franklin.

Whoever he’s going to get, he knows he’s better off finding them instead of sticking around and giving Lucy no further advice. 

But he doesn’t make it far before he feels a strong grip on his shoulder hold him in place.

“Wait.”

It’s less about her grip and more about how soft the plea comes out that makes him halt in place. He turns around and the tender look on Lucy’s face forces a quiet gasp to come out.

Neither of them say anything just yet. Charlie Brown just watches her, as if she’s a test subject under lab observation.

He notes her eyes flitting over to her shoes.

He watches her pale pink lips almost pucker nervously.

He sees her cheeks begin to flash in a shade of light red as she lets go of him and uses the same hand to twirl its finger in her short, black hair.

Finally, he sees her take in a heavy breath before her eyes roll back up to meet his gaze. “Kiss me.”

Instantly, his throat dries and his eyes nearly pop out of his skull. “W-what?”

“Just do it. I want Schroeder to see that it’s worth it.”

“But Lucy, I can’t-”

“Please? I won’t charge you.”

If he wasn’t a blushing, stuttering mess when he saw what Lucy was actually up to, he is now that the mother of all curveballs just socked him square in his chest.

Sending the Little Red-Haired Girl a letter is one thing but kissing another girl? It had taken everything he had and then some to kiss his actual crush back at homecoming but this?

For heaven’s sake, it’s Lucy! He just can’t!

At least the homecoming kiss was an obligation! This would just be weird and embarrassing and…and…

…

His anxious thoughts screech to a halt when he veers his focus away from himself and back on Lucy. He lets out a quiet breath as he looks over her again, a new sort of filter shining over her.

Suddenly, her sad eyes weigh heavy on his soul but not in way that makes him drown in guilt but float happily in the air. Her reddened face makes a mesmerizing contrast, the red flush on top of white skin reminding him of strawberries and whipped cream.

A delicacy that he has to taste…

It makes him inch forward without thinking, closer and closer, until at last his lips smack delicately against her cheek.

But he doesn’t pull away immediately. It almost feels as though threads stitch him to her face, at least for a few seconds. 

It’s not until he hears Lucy let out a happy sigh that breaks him out of his trance. He pulls back and takes everything in again.

He can’t believe how much of a daze she’s in, her flushed expression and little grin a telltale sign that she’s more than happy with his handiwork.

But neither of them say anything. That is, until Lucy speaks up.

“Charlie Brown?”

“Yes, Lucy?”

“I…I don’t think he was watching.” She turns her other cheek to him and points eagerly at it. “Do it again.”