A/N: Posted this on LJ a while ago, and had been meaning to post it over here since. I own nothing. The end.

Chad's good with reporters (no he's not), but he's never really sure how to respond when they ask him about Sonny. It's obvious from the blog and that whole thing with the puppies and lots of other things that they are acquaintances of some kind.

But when they say, "We hear you and Sonny Monroe are friends? Are you friends with the rest of cast of So Random?" He wants to say, "No, Sonny's the only one of the losers I'd ever want to talk to."

He knows he should (and consequently does) say, "Yeah, we work just down the hall from each other so I see them at lunch" or "Yeah, we hang out" or something else as equally not insulting or nonspecific to Sonny at all. But the thing is, people are starting to figure out that he was never seen anywhere near Chuckle City until Sonny Monroe showed up.

So, when they make statements like, "James Conroy said you and Sonny Monroe are pretty close and you mentioned kissing her on your blog" and follow it with "Anything special going on between you too?" there's a part of him that really wants to blurt out, "She has pretty hair!"

Instead he says, "Well, of course she'd be lucky to date a guy like me, but we're just friends. I like to keep my options open."

After the reporter leaves he imagines Sonny storming up to him in the cafeteria and saying, "Chad Dylan Cooper, you would be lucky to date me." It would probably be one of the more adorable things she's ever done, so he feels like the interview was a success.

----
She shows up on Stage 2 and nobody even says a thing about it because now it's normal.

He would have been glad that at least this time she wasn't interrupting a scene if it wasn't for the fact that he had his makeup bib on (he was trying to think of ways to make it seem cooler as soon as he saw her stomping around the corner).

"I want you to stop writing about me in your blog."

He pulls the bib off and hopes she doesn't notice as he hops up from his seat and gives her the sort of little smirk that always seems to work on her and says, "Hey, Sonny."

"That sparkly eyes, smirking thing isn't going to work on me today."

He smiles. "Aw, did you storm onto my set so you could compliment me," and then deadpans, "Because you could have just sent a text."

"I'm not kidding about this. If I any more reporters ask me about that kiss, that didn't even happen, I will - I'll do something bad to you."

"Scary."

Sonny groans and clenches her fists. "Just because being a stupid womanizer works for your image, doesn' t mean it works for mine."

"Oh, so you're worried about your image, diva."

She's flustered at that. "I'm not worried, I'm just - I just don't want people to think that - that we."

He softens a little, and he's not sure if it's because he's trying to charm her again or not. "That we what?"

"You know what."

He lies, with all the conviction he can muster (which is a lot, he's an actor.). "No, I don't."

She storms off the set, and Chad maybe feels a little bit bad, so he tries to mention her a little bit less.

(It's kind of difficult).

----

Sonny's sitting in the cafeteria munching on some french fries and looking over a script when she feels someone's fingers brush hers.

Unsurprised, she looks up to see Chad Dylan Cooper with a french fry in his fingers. He smirks and says, "Hey, Sonny," and throws the fry in his mouth.

"That was mine."

"Well, you don't want it back do you?"

She rolls her eyes at him. "That's disgusting."

Chad sets both elbows on the table and leans forward. "Then why did you suggest it?"

Her response is another eye roll and a change of subject. "Aren't you only supposed to sit with people from The Falls?"

"I'm in a coma for most of this episode, so right now everybody else is shooting all the scenes without me."

"Oh, sounds like a good episode. I might have to watch that one."

"Not funny, Sonny."

"I'm not joking, Chad."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Good."

"Good."

Neither of them do their normal storming off thing. She still has fries left and he keeps stealing them until she says, "Wanna know the real reason you came over here?"

"Oh, please, Munroe, enlighten me."

She ignores his sarcasm and this time she's the one leaning forward across the table. "You consider me a friend. You like hanging out with me."

His jaw drops a little, but before he can really protests she says. "You wore the beard, said you wanted to hang out, and fake dated me to help me get back at James. When I asked you to stop talking about me on your blog, you kind of did. We're friends. You probably just came over here to ask me how my day is going."

"I do not care about your day."

"Oh well, it's actually going pretty great. Except for the part were some jerk started stealing my fries. If we we're friends I'd let him have them but..."

Halfway through her sentence he's stealing another fry without even thinking about it and she's looking at him in this ah-ha I've got you sort of way.

He looks gotten and says, "We aren't friends" with a mouth full of french fries.

"Eating with your mouth open. That's very suave."

"Shut up."

---

Sonny has just finished vomiting and Chad Dylan Cooper is standing in the living room of her apartment, with the key she hid under her welcome mat in his hand. Her hair is greasy and his skin is pasty and he is just standing there looking at her like he doesn't know if he should run from the room or not. She absolutely does not want him to see her like this (not because she cares about looking nice in front of him, of course. She just doesn't want "Sonny Monroe Vomiting" to become one of youtubes most watched videos.)

Tawni had done enough to make sure Sonny made it home safe before she made sure she was as far away from the "germyness" as possible. While that was relatively sweet coming from Tawni, it makes Sonny wish for the first time in a long time that she was in Wisconsin in her own bed with a mother to take care of her. The last thing she wanted at the moment was Chad making fun of her vomit breath, while she was lying, exhausted on her couch unable to fully defend herself from his insults.

He looks down on her for a little bit longer before he surprises her and says, "Do you need soup or medicine or something?"

Before she can say, "Why do you care?" or "Why are you here?" he's calling his personal assistant of the month on the phone and ordering the poor soul to get everything a person with the flu could ever want.

When he sits next to her head on the end of the couch she wraps her blanket around herself tighter and says, "Aren't you worried about catching what I've got?"

He pats her on the shoulder. "Sonny, I'm Chad Dylan Cooper. I don't get sick."

She rolls her eyes at him, and doesn't say anything for a beat. He starts rubbing her shoulder.

"You know you don't have to stay here, Chad. I'm fine."

He smirks down at her, "You aren't a good enough actor for me to believe that."

Her eyes are closed, but there's still a little bit of a smile on her face. "I think you're caring, again."

"Am not. Once you fall asleep I'm going to take a bunch of incriminating pictures of you."

She doesn't believe him at all. In fact, if she weren't so weak, she might have sat up to kiss him just then (but that was probably just the fever talking).

A bunch of pictures of her drooling and looking less than perfect show up in her mail a few days later.

---

Chad realized it was really easy to deal with Sonny dating somebody else (easy, comparatively speaking) when that somebody else was the biggest tool ever and wrecked things all on his own so all Chad had to do was show up for one awesome fake date.

But when that guy dating Sonny does not seem like a totally terrible guy, it's pretty damn hard for Chad not to freak out a little bit. Or a lot.

And okay, he can admit to himself that following them out to dinner was probably of one the stupider things he's ever done, but aren't guys from Wisconsin supposed to be like, boring or serial killers or something. He was just there to save her. But then she sees him arguing with the maitre d' about where he's going to sit and she basically chases him out of the place with threats to tell TMZ he was verbally abusing the staff.

And later he tries to explain to Sonny that he was only trying to help her. He really does, but she just keeps yelling and sputtering about how she doesn't need his stupid face to protect her from perfectly nice boys when it's obvious the worst male in her life at the moment is him (Ouch).

He thought that she'd say that his intentions would count for something, but apparently they didn't. When she starts going on about jealousy, that's when Chad's really addled.

So he yells, "Sonny." so that she stops shouting at him and just stands there with one eyebrow up and her arms crossed.

"I'm not jealous."

She sighs and looks down. "Really, Chad?"

He snorts and mockingly says, "Really?" She glares up at him and his smile falls.

"Things with Matt are simple. He's honest." She pokes him in the chest and continues. "If he were jealous, he would admit it."

Chad's not sure how to respond to that. He just stands in front of her with his hands in his pockets. He feels like this should be some kind of moment for them, and that if life really were as much like Mackenzie Falls as he always tries to make it, he would be able to say the right thing.

Instead, she says, "Matt's only going to be here for a few more days" and walks off.

He's not even sure what that means, but a few days later Matt's gone and they're back to their same old Chad and Sonny routine in the cafeteria.

He wants to know if she and Matt are still something or if he's back to just being that guy who she kind of had a thing with when she was in Wisconsin. So he finds Sonny on the set of So Random and thanks the heavens that she's at craft service by herself.

"Chad."

"Hey, so are you and Matt like - "

She cuts him off. "We're just friends. He's jealous of someone."

All Chad can say is, "Oh."

----

They get into the elevator and he suddenly knows, for no reason he can explain, that this is when it's going to happen.

He knows he could steal a lot of lines from the Mackenzie Falls here (I've tried to hide it for so long, but whenever I see your face I'm sure the whole world can see how I feel about you or It's been a long time coming, but the timing's finally right.) but instead he just says it. Face forward, only the corner of his eyes looking to gauge her reaction. "I really like you, Sonny."

He can see her look down and he thinks that she's smiling. He lets out a breath.

She reaches over for his hand. "I was hoping you'd say that eventually."

He turns to her, finally, and she grabs his other hand. They just stand there with two stupid grins like two stupid idiots who would totally get made fun of if anyone else were to happen to enter the elevator they were standing in.

She moves closer to him and lifts her head and stands on her tiptoes so that she's brushing against him and her face is so close to his that he feels her breath on his chin. He wants to kiss her and knows she wants to kiss him, but just like everything else with them, it's a battle. She ups the game and moves her hands to his neck where she starts drawing little circles with her fingers.

Chad tries to think of some way to up his own game, but the only things he can think about are wonderful those little circles feel and how her bottom lip is looking impossible to stay away from. Instinctively he brings his hand from where it was hanging awkwardly at his sides to cup her face. He sees her eyes move to his mouth and he supposes he does have some game.

She starts smiling at him again. "Just kiss me."

He grins too. "Fin-"

Her lips touch his before he finishes.