It was early in the morning. Kate had woke up awhile ago and, as usual, started her morning jog up and down the beach. She usually ran until she came to a big tree, which she would climb and get a fruit to snack on before running back down to camp. Even though doing this kept her in shape, she felt like her real reasoning for doing it was instead to think and ponder things. Exercise was a hobby of hers. Unlike most people who just sit around all day, she always had to be active, and had picked up this routine of running in the very early days of the crash. Usually, not much of the scenery changes. Some days the waves may be a little bit higher than the day before, and on rare occasions she would see a Pelican or some sort of bird walking on the beach. All in all, it was the same thing every day. Upon returning to camp today, though, she noticed something she didn't see every morning. About halfway between the camp and the water itself was a huge sandcastle, with four smaller homes surrounding it and a southern wall facing the incoming waves.
'Who in the world could have built this...?' She thought to herself, slowly approaching the sculpture made of sand.
She looked around toward the upper part of the beach. It was early, so naturally most of everyone were either asleep or still in their makeshift homes. She slowly walked to the castle and knelt down beside it, observing the perfectly sculpted and deeply detailed windows that had been crafted onto the wall of the structure. Whoever made this castle sure knew what they were doing. She'd never seen anything like this in all of her experience with sandcastles. Upon looking across every inch of the artwork, she realized something. It wasn't finished. A whole side of one of the mounds of sand looked sloppy and noticeably incomplete. A part of her wanted to at least try and fix it up a little, it was bugging her. After a small debate with herself, she began to walk back to her shelter, deciding not to tamper with someone's obvious attempt at passing time. That changed when she heard a familiar southern voice. She froze in her tracks.
"Well howdy Freckles, what brings you to my kingdom?" He asked in a taunting tone.
She turned back around, meeting eyes with Sawyer. "What?" She asked him before the question even registered in her head.
"My sand kingdom. I saw you eye-ballin' it from down the beach." He pointed with one hand toward the water, she noticed the other hand was occupied with a bucket of sand.
He lugged the bucket up the incline and dropped it beside his feet before sitting down in the sand himself.
It was getting windy now. She carefully tied her hair in a pony tail and slowly approached the conman. "What were you doing down there?" She questioned, nodding at the water.
He looked back with a surprised expression on his face, for he had not expected her to respond to him any further, let alone join him. He hesitated for a split second, "Well, if it isn't obvious enough, I needed sand. Wet sand." He explained before throwing a big glob onto a new structure he was building. He then dug up a very small, previously unseen shovel and began patting on the sand.
She laughed a little, just now realizing what all she'd seen. "Sand castles? I'll admit, of all the things I could guess you would have for a hobby...this is what I would expect the least." She teased, still laughing.
Sawyer smirked, "Well, pardon me for being a poor man's architect." He joked, "'sides, way I see it? There ain't nothin' better to do on this god forsaken island. I mean, it's not like everyone can follow around handsome spinal surgeons." He smiled. He was sort of right—ping pong had gotten old days ago and a lot of people were having problems finding something interesting to do. Almost everyone had resorted to sleeping or watching the ocean.
He saw the annoyed reaction he managed to create from her and continued, "Which reminds me, what's the ol' doc been up to lately, anyway?" He continued to work on the sandcastle, ignoring her frustration.
"You ask me that as if it's my job to know." She answered back. Typical Sawyer, bringing up Jack any chance he got.
Sawyer was both good and bad at many things. He just assumed it was one of the traits that came with being a conman, and he was probably right. However, if there was one thing Sawyer was the best at, it was definitely getting under someone's skin. And boy, was he good at it.
A sarcastic and surprised expression fell on his face, "Oh, and it isn't? Musta' been off hunting polar bear that morning, 'cause I don't believe I got the memo. Here I am this whole time, thinkin' you and the doc were an item." He paused and grinned, looking at her "But...if that's not the case, I sure could use a princess for my sand castle...if your interested" He rotated his head to the right and winked, still looking at her.
Kate gave him a bad look, one of those i-want-to-punch-you-in-the-face looks, before jumping up from the sand and heading off to her shelter. Or to get water. Or to find Jack. Heck, she didn't know where she was going.
"Well, you don't have to rush off like that! Come on back, Freckles!" He pleaded in a childish tone before looking back to the sand structure he was building and making some final details. Just as he finished, he noticed Sun had stopped walking a couple feet from the castle, and was staring at his creation curiously.
Sawyer looked up to her with a smile, "Beautiful, ain't it?"
After a short, awkward pause, she quickly looked away and continued walking back to the Kwon shelter.