Scarred (Sharpe and Charlotte)

Charlotte was still panicking slightly about the fact that her time turner hadn't seemed to be able to start recharging yet, but she did use up a lot of energy when she first got here so she didn't know how long she needed to wait until it would charge up enough again to use it. She needed to get pretty far into the future after all.

Sighing softly she placed the flannel back into the water and she began to wash herself again, letting the cloth smooth over her white puckered whip marks on her back. Charlotte shuddered softly, and felt sick to her stomach as she washed them still.

Seeing as Sharpe was out at some meeting she thought that it would be best to do her washing and feminine care while he wasn't here. Charlotte didn't think that he would really want to see her brushing her hair, putting on her moisturiser and all of that.

Funnily enough she didn't think he would know what moisturiser was.

Richard was such a sweet guy, he had helped her feel better when she first came here and he had been a blessing. Biting her lip softly, she began to wash herself more thoroughly. Running her hands through her hair, Charlotte paused and thought...

She liked Richard, a lot, she wanted to...to just stay with him, to develop their connection. She hoped that he did as well. Sometimes it was all she could think about, sitting here daydreaming about the things that could be between her and Richard but...was it really good to think about that? She would eventually have to go home.

Sharpe was coming back from perhaps the most boring meeting he had ever been privy to. It had been about the stock of weapons that the camp currently had and how many more they were going to need and... and that was it! A truly odd meeting to be sure by soldiers' standards. But the fact was that he was the only one who didn't end up falling asleep during the meeting.

Even though that was mainly because he'd started thinking about Charlotte roughly half way through the meeting and simply ignored everything else about the meeting.

It was just so much better to think about Charlotte.

As he neared his tent he hummed a little bit and casually saluted to a pair of soldiers passing by his tent with a small smile on his face as he unclipped his sword before he reached his tent, to save time when he was inside his tent. It was clear that he wanted to relax and he really did. He wanted to be able to sit there in the tent with Charlotte and hold her as they talked to each other through the night again.

Pushing his way into the tent, he called out,

"Honey I'm home!" he teased her a little bit as he stepped into the tent and threw his sword in the corner, "That's how you say it right...?"

He trailed off when he saw that she was bathing at the other end of the tent, many white scars criss-crossing her back all over. Wincing a little bit, he swallowed thickly,

"Is this... is this a bad time then Charlotte?"

Charlotte jumped a little bit when Richard just burst into the tent without at least calling out to her first to make sure that she was decent enough for him to come inside. It made her both flush brightly because she was minus a top and also made her embarrassed because he had seen a part of her that she didn't show to anybody. Anybody. It made her want to rage as well though, how dare he look! Even though it had quite clearly been an accident.

Cursing she picked up the closest thing to hand, one of Richard's large under uniform shirts and pulled it on, it was more like a dress on her skirting the top of her thighs but she was just glad to be covered by something!

"No it's fine..." she murmured a little bit, placing the flannel back into the little bowl and coming to sit down on the bed next to Richard, too embarrassed about herself to even meet his eye properly, how could she when he knew how scarred she was? How could he want her now that he knew what she looked like underneath.

"I just wish you would have given me some notice that's all...I was just taking a wash." she stated, rubbing her hand up and down her arm "So, what was the meeting about? You were a long time?" Charlotte asked, trying to change the subject away from herself.

Sharpe had to admit that this was not what he had expected from the first time he was going to be seeing Charlotte topless (if indeed such an event occurred at all). And he winced as he looked at the scars... so very much like his own. And he knew from personal experience just how much those types of scars damaged your view of yourself as a person. They made you feel like you were less than what you were.

They made you ashamed on yourself a little and definitely made you want to hide away.

"I'm sorry about that..." he muttered quietly to himself as he saw that she was pulling on one of his shirts, "I should have announced my presence a bit better..."

Sitting down on the bed beside her he could see that she was trying to change the subject but the fact was that she was still embarrassed and still hurting from him having seen her in such a way. He wasn't going to let it die until she knew he didn't care a jot about her scars. They didn't make her any less of a wonderful person,

"Charlotte... Charlotte look at me." he urged her gently as he stroked her cheek gently, "You have nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about Charlotte... you know that right?"