RIDDLE
"A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer."
- Karl Kraus
Warning! There MAY be spoilers ahead. I'll put at the beginning of each short, the last episode that it adheres to. (i.e. "Golden Bell"; spoilers up until "Daddy Issues") But consider this your formal, generic warning.
Disclaimer: I don't own LOST, ABC, or Disney. I also don't own the lyrics/quotes/poems referenced unless otherwise stated. I don't own much…please don't sue me.
A/N: Okay, this is going to be a bit different than what I usually post. The series of short fics that I will be posting here are the LOST section of a little writing exercise I do for myself. I give myself a song lyric, movie quote, poem, etc. to work with and I have to come up with a fic that incorporates it somehow. How, is as follows:
Song lyric: The fic has to encompass the lyric. I don't usually insert the lyric into the fic, but the fic has to reflect the mood of the lyric.
Movie Quotes: Is usually incorporated into the fic. It doesn't have to exactly fit the context it was originally used in, so long as it makes sense inside my story.
Poem: Pretty much the same as the song lyric, I try not to rhyme in my stories, but if the poem is prose, I might slip it into the fic itself.
Sound interesting? Not really? Meh. I'm posting these up as separate one-shots unless it's stated that it will be part of a short series, but nothing I post in here will be very lengthy. Less than 5000 for each entry, I should think.
OOooOooOooOo
Tracing
Spoilers: "Homecoming"
Character Pairing(s): Kate/Sawyer; hinted Kate/Jack
Feed: "Tracing" by John Mayer
Do you ever get the feeling
That we started in the middle?
Or have you ever had the sense
That we've been lying just a little?
I mean come on
It's not like we've known ourselves that long
And I can't say I really blame you for being bored with the beginning
Always staring at the score to figure out who's barely winning
But don't you know
There is a reason strong, move slow
And I'm okay
If you're okay with wasting time
But when you trace
You always see the bottom line
We are tracing
I hope you know
We are tracing
And if you want to know the moment
I knew that I was still alone
I found I never learned your number
I only stored it in my phone
You'd think by now
I'd know the shape of calling home
And I'm okay
If you're okay with wasting time
But when you trace
You always see the bottom line
We are tracing
I hope you know
We are tracing
We're both alone
He never figured he had much to live for. Not when you laid all the cards out on the table. His parents were dead. He had no family that he knew of, and he knew of several places that, if he returned there, he'd be dead by morning. The life of a conman never was much of a life. You could kid yourself into thinking it was…into thinking you were some slick deal that had all the moves and knew all the answers, and if you didn't know them, you know how to manipulate the situation so it appeared you knew the answers.
But there was one thing about being a conman that he failed at. He failed no matter how hard he tried. He failed at suppressing his conscience. Yes, Sawyer happened to be the not-so-proud owner of the Jiminy Cricket that just wouldn't die.
She made it worse.
She knew just how to push his well-hidden buttons and make his skin crawl. And, in spite of it all, it made her his favourite person on this god-forsaken tourist attraction gone wrong.
They started in the middle, really. Skipped that whole…beginning, whatever it would have consisted of. He let her do it. He wanted it that way, and he let it happen.
But he knew it was all just a waste of time…in the end. Who were they kidding, right?
A plane crash, a couple outcasts. Didn't all the signs point to it. They had enough secrets between them both that it would make the Pentagon's head spin.
Sawyer had her attention for awhile. She knew it, and she willingly gave it. She liked him and the enigma he presented. He reminded her of herself. Kate wasn't as tactless and cruel, at least, not on this island. But she liked him for it. She like the rawness he brought to their struggling little existence. He was a dynamic that she would have missed had he not been there.
So, he had her attention, and she had his. So much so that, sometimes, they'd think it was actually something that was going to go somewhere. They lied to themselves though, after all, it was a new place and they could be new people, couldn't they?
But he knew he was alone. He knew he was alone, even when she'd come and they'd exchange banter. He knew she helped Sun in the garden, and sometimes he'd come and lean against a tree and talk with her while she worked. But he never bothered to see which fruits she cultivated. He still didn't know, and he never would. That was how he knew it. A silly reason, really. But the epiphany had hit him on the way to talk to her at the garden, and on his way back, he realized that he never bothered even then to see if she was planting mangoes or papayas. It wasn't really important, not for any real thing. But it's insignificance and his ignorance tipped him off. Had their entire…relationship been something less than just a way to waste the time, he would have known.
They were tracing through their little scenario, always ignoring the bottom line. But, of course, when it's over, you always see it coming.
She had come to his tent. You'd think by now she'd know her way around the area…but. of course, she never bothered to learn.
"Hey there, Freckles," Sawyer was wringing out a shirt he'd just washed, he looked over his shoulder at her, and the look in her eyes said everything she would take ages to say. He drew in a breath and turned back to face the tree he was standing at and hung his shirt up on it. "That face means we gotta talk, don't it?" he asked warily.
"Sawyer-" Kate began, and he turned around to face her.
"You don't even need to say it, Sweetness," he said and offered a snarky grin. "Shake the Doc's hand for me, will ya?" He moved to sit down just inside his tent, and shut his eyes.
"It's not like that, Sawyer," Kate immediately spoke up, and he heard her footfalls on the sand as she came closer.
"Ain't it?" he asked, and her pretty head appeared through the flaps of the tent. "You think what's been going on was something more than just a waste of time?" his question sent a wounded look across her face and he rolled his eyes. "Come on, Freckles, don't lie to yourself, thinking we had something special." he leaned forward and leveled a blue-eyed gaze at her. "That's the funny thing with these sorts of things…you can always see it comin'."
Kate stared at him, a slightly melancholy look on her face, and she didn't speak for awhile. "I'm okay with it," she said after a moment.
"Excuse me, Freckles?" Sawyer asked, making a show of turning his ear towards her.
"I said I'm okay with wasting time if you are," she said in a firmer tone, one that held an underlying irritation with him.
Sawyer smiled and laid back, arms going over his head. "Ain't that a sad song?" he asked rhetorically, and her expression of confusion was just what he had expected. "What did you think, Freckles? I've already told you I ain't never been in love. Did you think you were going to be the one to change that?" her expression at that statement gave him the answer in the affirmative. He tsked.
"Skip on back to the Doc, now, Sweetness. You're wasting my time," he said airily, and shut his eyes, silently voicing his wish that she truly was still wasting his time.
OOooOooOooOo
Mehh. It didn't pull together the way I wanted it to. (shrugs) It was just supposed to vaguely explain why Sawyer and Kate were so drawn to one another. I think vague is the most operative word there, however. -
Read and Review please! Oh, and check out my other stories "Threading" and "Broken Memory". (dances)