It's Just A Game…

Title: It's Just A Game...
Rating: I'd say PG
Summary: A plan, a game, and a new beginning. Basically, just read it! ;-)
Characters: Oh boy, let's see there's Jack, Kate, Charlie, Claire, Hurley, Desmond, Sawyer, and Juliet. I think that covers it. Heh.
Ships: Jate overall, but fairly ship friendly to others, tiny mentions of Jacket and Skate.
A/N: FYI, I am not one of those people that follow the theory that Jack and Claire are siblings. You'll see why I say that when you read it! I shamelessly indulge my UC here ;-). Mock me all you want, but I still like them!

"So, what do you guys say?" Charlie inquired to Juliet and a very unamused Jack.

"Charlie, we are not going to play spin-the-bottle, what is this 7th grade?"

Juliet interjected, "Oh, come on, Jack. What's the harm in a fun little game to pass the time? I think it'll be good for everyone to bond."

Jack scoffed, "Bonding, huh?"

"No, she's right," Charlie maintained, "especially since everyone's so suspicious of Juliet, this will help us get used to her a bit."

Both Jack and Juliet gave Charlie a look.

"Uh, sorry, I mean…"

"He means that it will be good for everyone to get to know Juliet a little better." Claire piped in.

"And that will be accomplished by spinning a bottle around and kissing random people?" Jack responded sarcastically.

"Well, it's either that or Truth or Dare, or Sawyer's 'I Never…' game…" Claire listed off the other options with a knowing smirk.

"Fine." Jack conceded, "We'll play your little kissing game."

"Good, now go join the circle." Claire instructed.

She and Charlie turned back to walk over to Hurley as Jack and Juliet walked hand in hand toward the small circle that started to form in the sand.

"Jack and Juliet are in." Charlie announced.

"Yeah, Kate and Sawyer too." Hurley responded hesitantly.

Charlie nodded, "Excellent."

"Uhh…Dude, I'm not so sure this is a good idea after all. Those four in the game…what if they kill each other?"

"Hurley, they're not going to kill each other!" Claire laughed at the curly haired man.

"We should check them for weapons just in case. Have you seen the death glares Kate and Juliet shoot at each other? And Jack and Sawyer have always had bad blood between them. I'm telling you, dudes, one wrong spin of that bottle and all hell will break loose."

"Oh, come on, it'll be fine. Besides, we all agreed this is the only way to go about it. We're doing Sawyer and Juliet a favor. Jack and Kate have been dancing around their feelings for each other for too long, it's so obvious. I mean, everyone was thrown for a loop when Jack came back with Juliet and the couples formed. It's just not right, this is the only way." Claire nodded resolutely.

"Okay, but you two are taking the fall if something goes wrong." Hurley stated as he walked over to the circle.

Claire and Charlie were the last to join the circle, Claire bringing one of the tiny liquor bottles left over from the plane.

"Okay, so this is how the game works…"

"We know how to play Spin-the-Bottle, Chuck." Sawyer interrupted before Charlie could continue.

Everyone rolled their eyes at his outburst.

"Well, still I think we should lay down a few ground rules: One, no tampering with the bottle or where it lands…"

Claire joined in the speech, "Two, no refusing to follow through. Whoever the bottle lands on, you must kiss them."

Claire and Charlie both looked specifically at Jack when stating that particular rule. They continued with the last rule together, "And three: No pecking allowed. We're all adults here."

Claire finished it off, "Alright, who wants to start?"

There was silence for about five seconds before Sawyer raised his hand, "I'll give it a go."

"That was quick," Kate mumbled.

"Well, someone needs to get the game started, Freckles."

Sawyer stood up to take the bottle Claire handed him and walked to the middle of the circle where a box was placed. He put the bottle on its side on the box and gave it a spin. It spun around three and a half times before coming to a stop on…Juliet.

"Dude…" Hurley put a hand on his forehead which was wrinkled in worry.

"Well, well, She-Doc…"

Everyone cautiously watched Jack who appeared to be clenching every muscle in his body and had veins popping out of his forehead and neck. Juliet turned to Jack and gave his hand an apologetic squeeze before standing up. Kate just looked on with one of her famous, aforementioned by Hurley, death glares. Hurley noticed this one as well and elbowed Charlie to take notice, Charlie just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

Juliet approached Sawyer quickly with a look of determination. Neither touched each other besides being lip to lip. For his part, Sawyer at least made an effort by puckering his lips but Juliet kept hers in a firm line. It was arguably the most awkward kiss ever.

Juliet remained standing in the middle of the circle and spun the bottle gently. It turned only twice before landing on Jack. Juliet smiled and walked back over to her place, taking Jack's face in her hands and giving him a sweet kiss. Kate's death glare, amazingly, seemed to become even more threatening.

Juliet pulled away from Jack and rubbed his face with her thumb, "See, it's not turning out that bad after all. Your turn."

Kate rolled her eyes and held her breath as Jack got up slowly to make his trek to the bottle. He gave the bottle a hard spin that reflected just how annoyed he was at playing the game. Everyone waited anxiously for the bottle to finish its sixth spin to come to a stop on Claire.

"Ha, got a thing for blondes there, doc?" Sawyer teased.

Jack ignored Sawyer, giving Claire a tight and awkward smile as she got up to approach him in the middle of the circle. Claire had to step on her tip-toes to meet Jack so that he didn't have to hunch over completely. She placed her hands on his shoulders to help balance herself and not knowing what else to do with his hands, Jack placed them lightly on the small of her back. The kiss was chaste and brief but Claire pulled away with a giddy smile on her face as Jack walked back to his place.

"Claire!" Charlie called out her name after she stood in the same spot for a few seconds too long.

"Hmm?"

"The bottle!"

"Oh, right."

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all," Charlie mumbled as the others laughed at Claire's reaction to her kiss with Jack that could really only be described as swooning.

Kate could relate as she was brought to the memory of her own kiss with Jack that was not so long ago. Fortunately she was brought out of her reverie by Sawyer's inability to be quiet for more than a minute.

"Hey, you're the one who was all for it. Don't dish it out if you can't take it." Sawyer shot back to Charlie, earning an elbow in the ribs from Kate.

Claire's wobbly spin that almost fell off the box landed on Desmond, in which the resulting kiss caused Charlie to get up and take Claire back to her seat by the hand, proclaiming, "Alright, that's enough of the tall, dark, and handsome for you."

Desmond returned the bottle to its rightful position in the middle and gave it a modest spin, this time the bottle landed on Kate. Charlie immediately gave a smug look to Sawyer who smirked in return, attempting to hide his slight jealousy. In the middle of the circle, the curly haired pair who had barely spoken many words to each other shared a fairly quick and awkward kiss and Desmond returned to his seat.

"Hey, how come no one is using tongue?" Charlie teased as Kate gave the bottle a spin after a few seconds hesitation.

"Yeah, you say that now that your girls turn is over," Sawyer retorted.

Jack flinched slightly at Sawyer's insinuation that Kate was his "girl" and glanced back up to see all eyes turned his way. The bottle was pointed in his general direction, but was technically between him and Juliet.

"Well, that was a dud. Do over!" Charlie shouted.

"No!" Claire slapped Charlie on his arm, "Come on, we said no do-overs and well, it's obviously Jack, Juliet's out because…"

"Now wait a minute, there were no rules about same sex kisses…" Sawyer couldn't hold back on this one.

Both Kate and Juliet's heads snapped over to Sawyer and they stared at him incredulously.

"I am NOT kissing HER." Kate spat out.

Juliet returned Kate's dirty look with one of her own and was about to open her mouth to say something back when someone else beat her to it.

"Guys, maybe she should just spin…" Hurley started.

"Fine," Claire started again, "if Sawyer thinks that same sex kisses should apply then perhaps he'll be lucky and spin one of his own…"

"Alright, goldilocks, chill out. I get your point, the doc it is." he said through clenched teeth and a cold stare to Jack.

Everyone resumed their staring at Jack until he held his hands up in surrender and stood up, walking over to meet Kate in the middle of the circle. Both took a deep breath and remained standing inches apart, staring at each other.

"We ain't getting any younger, kids."

Spurred on by Sawyer's continuous irritating comments, Jack took hold of Kate's face and brought her mouth to his, catching her offguard. Where their previous kiss was tender and lingering, this one was almost rough, and quick. Kate barely began to get used to the feel of his lips again when suddenly she only felt air. Though he still managed to make her go weak in the knees and she tried to have a better recovery than Claire did so as not to cause more trouble. Her efforts may have been rendered useless when Jack suddenly grabbed the bottle from the box and heaved it toward the trees, where it shattered into pieces.

"This game is over." He said to no one in particular and stalked off.

"Jack!" Juliet followed close behind him.

"Hey now, Jabba and Brit boy haven't had their turn to kiss anyone yet…"

"SHUT UP, Sawyer!" Kate shouted without thinking.

Not knowing what else to do, Kate took off towards the beach, in the opposite direction that Jack went. Sawyer, much like Juliet, got up to go after her.

"I told you dudes, I told you." Hurley said shaking his head.

"Are you kidding? This is great!" Claire said with a little too much enthusiasm, forgetting that Desmond was still there, giving the trio a strange look before walking off himself.

An hour later, the same three were sitting in a different circle around a fire, this time joined by Aaron who Claire retrieved from Sun and Jin.

"So, what's the status?" Claire asked eagerly.

"There's still shouting coming from the woods…" Hurley offered.

"…And from the beach." Charlie concluded.

"It's only a matter of time…" Claire proclaimed almost gleefully, causing Charlie and Hurley to look at each other warily

Jack sat on the beach by himself, staring off into the never ending ocean.

"So, I guess our mother's had good reason when they cautioned us not to play that game…"

Kate's voice interrupted the sound of the waves crashing as the only noise Jack could hear. The next being the soft thud of her taking a seat next to him, much like she had months ago when she tried to tell him what she had done back home. Somehow, things were much simpler then.

He had to smile a bit at her statement, "Well, I suppose junior high kids don't throw the bottle, Charlie and Claire probably should've made that a rule."

Kate laughed, "Well, you sure know how to make an exit. Upstaged mine."

Realizing what she was referring to, Jack turned to look at her, "Sorry. I wasn't trying to pay you back or anything…"

"No, I know. So, how's Juliet?" She summoned as much sympathy as she could for that question.

He arched an eyebrow, "Nice try at sounding like you really care. But, I don't really know. We said, or rather yelled, some things and she moved her stuff out of my tent. Haven't seen her since."

"Oh," Kate was more shocked at the part about Juliet's stuff having been in Jack's tent than she was about the break up, as she had made it a point not to notice what was going on with Jack and Juliet, "well I can relate."

Jack's head shot back up, "Really?"

"Yeah, Sawyer's actually more perceptive than he seems."

"How's that?"

"He called me out on, umm…my feelings." Kate said quietly, looking to the sand.

"About?" Jack prodded, an almost undetectable hopeful tone in his voice.

"About you." She said looking up this time.

"Oh. Yeah that's pretty much what me and Juliet were yelling about, except about you." He paused for a moment before adding, "I saw you guys, you know."

"What?" Kate asked, confused.

"Back at the Others' camp, someone let me out of my cell and I found this room with a bunch of monitors, saw you cuddled up to Sawyer on one of them."

Kate was stunned, a dozen different sentences began to form in her head, she couldn't decide on any words that would suffice to describe the guilt and pain she felt at that moment.

She gave it a try anyway, "Jack, I…"

"No, it's okay. You don't have to say anything, not now anyway. Just, sit with me."

She nodded though he wasn't looking at her. She thought for a moment he was contradicting himself and that he really just wanted her to leave, before he reached over and took her hand, lacing their fingers together. Kate felt a smile form on her face and she gave his hand a squeeze, scooting closer to him and laying her head on his shoulder. Things were starting to look up. Who knew a game could accomplish so much, she guessed it wasn't "just a game", as they said, after all.