Title: Spider Webs
Pairings: Arzt/Nikki
Rating: PG
Word Count: 938
A/N: Written for the cultships it's not over challenge. Spoilers for 'Expose'.
Summary: Arzt was just determined to impress her.
The spider wriggled its legs and attempted to scale the straight walls of the glass jar it had been placed in. Too slippery, it failed to climb them at all. As Arzt watched it, he imagined he could see the frustration and panic growing in the eight-legged creature's body.
He could remember telling Nikki about it; the Medusa spider, with the power to paralyse even a human for roughly eight hours. A fearsome insect, so much power and grace packed into a tiny little form.
When he glanced across the beach to Nikki, he imagined that that part of the analogy applied to her as well. However, as he'd once told Walt, referring to a woman as being 'like a spider' wasn't the best way of wooing her.
He sighed, stroking the glass of the jar for a second. Pathetic. She was beautiful – in a way that the other girls on the island weren't, in a way that Kate with her two boyfriends wasn't, in a way that Shannon with her tall strut and sharp tongue couldn't hope to be – and yet…
And yet she noticed him. She spoke to him, she smiled, and he was relatively sure that she flirted with him too.
Smiling at his spider, he realised that he'd never seen so many good things in his life before the crash, before this island, before Nikki.
"Arzt…" she said, looking away awkwardly. She stared at the sand, an unhappy expression on her face. Her hair glinted a sharp gold in the sunlight, but all Arzt wanted to do was run away: he'd clearly read all the signs wrong.
She brushed her hand over her mouth, where he'd tried to kiss her just seconds beforehand. It had felt so right; she'd been smiling at him coyly, she'd told him how clever he was, she'd touched his arm with a smile like sunshine.
"I'm so sorry, Arzt. I didn't mean to lead you on or anything," she said, before she bit her bottom lip and shook her head. "I mean, me and Paolo, we're…"
"Oh." He glanced up the beach, to where he could see Paolo sitting uselessly, staring out to sea. Of course. A girl like Nikki, she deserved someone like that, someone as pretty as she was.
Shame the guy was an asshole.
Shame she deserved so much better.
Shame he wanted to be with her so much he could hardly think of anything else.
"Oh, that's fine. I didn't realise." He looked around, glad that no one had been there to see him make a fool of himself. "I should have. Girls like you and guys like me don't mix. I'm a high school teacher – we're not the 'coolest' people around, are we?"
Nikki rolled her eyes, and moved forward again to place her hand on his shoulder. "Don't talk yourself down, Arzt. You're gonna be one hell of a catch for someone one day."
As she walked off, back to Paolo, back to her boyfriend, back to perfection, Arzt snorted in disgust: 'one day' didn't look like it was ever going to become 'today'.
"I'm going with them," Arzt said confidently; he watched Nikki for a reaction, but only found her raising an eyebrow. "I'll be useful. They don't know the first thing about what to do out there."
"And you do?"
"I'm a science teacher," he said, as if that explained it all. He glanced around, just to make sure that Locke and the others hadn't left yet. They probably would: cliquish little brats. He wasn't looking forward to a whole trip with them, but this was needed. "I can help."
"I guess, yeah." She shrugged, hand on her tanned hip. The denim shorts she was wearing managed to show off every inch of her perfectly sculpted legs. It was hard not to stare. "Just be careful, alright?"
"I will be," he promised, and she started to turn away from him. He'd expected more than this, somehow. He'd wanted her to be impressed. "I'm doing this for you, Nikki," he blurted out.
She paused, frozen in place like one of his spiders had bitten her. "What?"
"I…" Damn, damn, damn. "For you. I'm doing this all for you."
She nodded, and he thought that he'd disturbed her again. He seemed to have a habit of doing that, even though all he'd ever tried to do was please her. "I'm going to try to do it right this time around. I'll do this, and I'll join in with the Elite Team of the island, and I'll help save us all, and maybe – maybe – if I'm lucky, you'll start seeing me as someone other than 'that goofy teacher guy who sometimes helps me out'."
She opened her mouth to start protesting, but he didn't bother to pause for her. He knew the truth, could tell in every smile she dared to throw his way. "I just wanted to tell you before you go: you blow me away, Nikki."
She smiled, a crooked little quirk of her mouth. "You're sweet."
Arzt felt like laughing: that was probably the first time anyone had ever defined him as 'sweet'. He nodded at her, taking a step backward. "Alright, if you say so. And Nikki?" he asked, pausing. She looked towards him with a small frown. "Take care of my bugs while I'm gone."
Her frown faded to a bright grin, and she nodded. "Sure thing, Darwin ."
Smiling to himself at the nickname, Arzt began to walk back to Locke and Jack, ready to start this insane voyage to the Black Rock.