A/N: I know, I know, I want to get to the steamy and the fluff asap, too! I'm working on it!

Donewithpretending, I have no problem with you linking this on Tumblr. I really appreciate the advertisement! Lol

Oh, Kristine.D, thanks for the review! I would totally get a beta, only it would take too long, and I'm afraid you'd all kill me if my update pace slows down. ^^; I'm usually too tired and strained in the eyes to re-read what I've written and fix the typos. Shame on me.

And LatanaBerry, you're very welcome. I love those videos!

Check out NumberSixteen's Lucas/Skye fic Cut Off Without Ammends. It's great – and it's getting to the fluff much faster than mine, I'm afraid. So if you're looking for it, you'll definitely find it there! (She's loving her reviews, guys! Your reviews truly inspire her!)

By the time Lucas had the fire blazing inside the damp cave, the sun had already slipped behind the horizon. As the darkness descended around them, the cold reached them, sliced through them with icy fingers. Their soaked clothing clung to their bodies as they huddled by the fire, trying to keep warm.

Lucas was the first to strip off his shirt. Skye watched him warily as he slapped the cloth down by the fire to dry, his bare chest glistening in the firelight. He shimmied out of his pants, spread it out beside the shirt. Skye frowned, hugged her knees closer to her chest.

"You'll have to do the same," Lucas said, too weary to let a mischievous twinkle creep into his eyes. Skye shook her head. "Bucket," he sighed, passing a hand over his face, "if you don't, you could get pneumonia."

"I'll take my chances." Skye's arms tightened around her legs as a gust of wind channeled through the cave and cut through her. Goosebumps prickled across her flesh.

"I can't save you," Lucas growled, "if you get pneumonia. We aren't at Terra Nova. We don't have the medicine to save you."

Skye bit her lip, knowing he was right. She shook her head, inched closer to the fire. Lucas rolled his eyes, held his hands out towards the flames. It felt as though none of the heat he was getting reached Skye. She shivered, her lips slowly turning purple-blue with cold. It wasn't until her teeth started clacking together that she cursed to herself and began peeling away her tank tops.

She didn't dare look in Lucas's direction. She didn't want to see the satisfaction on his face. She could feel his eyes on her as she slapped her clothes down beside his, as she shimmied out of her pants, as she kicked off her shoes and stripped away her socks. She kept one of them, tied it around her ankle to keep down the swelling and to hide the maggots from view.

Sitting back down by the fire, Skye hugged her feet to her chest again, feeling practically naked despite her underwear and her bra. She still felt Lucas's eyes roaming her body, felt them lingering on places nobody but her parents had seen. Skye shifted uncomfortably, tried to scoot closer to the warmth emanating off the crackling flames.

The falls duly thundered, now part of the background noise. A dinosaur roared not far off. Skye tensed, eyes darting towards the mouth of the cave. She couldn't see anything through the sheet of water cascading into the still waters below, but the fear that gripped her was real – as tangible as the rock that pressed against her ass and made it numb. The fear drained her lips of color, sent more chills coursing through her than the cold night air. The flames flickered, darted before her eyes, drew her attention away as something sizzled on the deteriorating kindling.

"We still have some meat left," Lucas stated quietly, his voice almost husky. Whether it was the fact his throat was still hoarse, or the fact that he was trying not to scare her, Skye wasn't sure. Her gaze flicked over to meet his.

There it was again – that look, coupled with a softness that Skye had the impression Lucas only reserved for her. She swallowed thickly, felt her heart thud in her chest. Forcing her eyes away, she watched the remains of the creature they had caught earlier sizzle and burn in the depths of the fire. The tantalizing smell wafted beneath her nose, made her stomach growl.

"Bucket." His voice was soft again, low. "Are you ever going to talk to me without hating me?"

Skye's eyebrows arched in surprise. "Oh, I don't know," she said, sarcasm making her words double-edged, "you only threatened to push my mother to her death."

"I did what I had to," Lucas said, his voice hardening. "You're stubborn. How else was I supposed to get you to do what I wanted?"

Skye didn't have a response. She growled inwardly, pressed her forehead into her knees. Her hair fell around her shoulders, brushed against her legs, covered her face. The crackling of the fire, punctuated by the distant thunder of the falls, became the center of her attention, to the point she heard nothing else but her heartbeat.

It suddenly stuttered, skipped against her chest as she felt Lucas's fingers brushing aside her hair to look at her. She tensed, but she didn't flinch away. His roughened fingertips traced the hair, hooked it around her ear. She focused hard into the flames, tried to keep her peripherals from seeing him.

"Bucket," he whispered, his fingers lingering on her ear, "why won't you look at me?"

Skye shook her head, felt her hair fall back into place. Lucas brushed it away again, caressed her cheek with his thumb. A shiver ran down her spine, made her stomach fill with – with butterflies! Skye swallowed thickly, tried to ease away.

"You're not…decent," she blurted out, thinking about the way Mark Reynolds treated Maddy Shannon.

A chuckle rumbled in Lucas's chest. "I can be decent," he said. "You just have to get to know me better."

Skye jerked her head up, stared hard into his face. "That's not what I meant."

A triumphant smirk graced Lucas's lips. "Ah, there they are." His fingers hooked around the back of her neck, kept her from looking away as she realized what he had done. "See, it's not so bad. Am I that hideous to look at?"

No, Skye thought. She opened her mouth to speak, found that she didn't have any words to say. She reached up, wrapped her fingers around Lucas's wrist, tried to pull his hand away from her cheek. His grip tightened, though nothing changed in his face.

"Are you ashamed?"

Skye blinked, the question catching her off guard. "Ashamed?" Her brow furrowed. "Ashamed of what?"

"Your body." His eyes slowly looked her up and down. "Aren't teenage girls supposed to hate the way they look?"

Again with the butterflies in her stomach. Skye shook her head, managed to dislodge Lucas's hand. He gripped her fingers instead, his eyes still lingering on her face. Exhaustion kept her from putting up a real fight. Instead, she looked away, tried to ignore the things flickering in his pupils. She felt like she was in Boylan's bar again, though Josh wasn't there to save her this time – and she wasn't entirely disgusted.

The thought made her cringe.

Lucas's voice had grown husky again, his breath rolling over Skye's ear. "You are so beautiful."

She looked at him then, forced herself to meet his gaze that time. Her hand trembled slightly in his, the warmth of his touch sending a wave of apprehension through her. The butterflies continued to flutter in her stomach, reminding her that she was still just a teenage girl prone to do stupid things.

Lucas leaned in closer, his eyes searching hers. Skye swallowed thickly, found she couldn't tear her gaze away. She felt riveted, as though someone had glued her into that pose forever.

POP!

Skye jumped, flinched away from Lucas as reality came crashing back down. Heart galloping wildly in her chest, she tore her eyes away from his, let them dart away to the fire.

"Th – the meat's burning," she stuttered, heat flushing her cheeks deep red.

Lucas's eyes followed hers. It took him a moment to register the charred remains of the creature. With the look on his face hardening into his old self again, he reached into the flames, plucked the slabs of meat out. With his knife, he scraped away much of the burned meat, handed off the best slice to Skye. She took it without a thank you, too engrossed with yelling at herself inwardly. What was she doing?

They ate in silence, the moment shattered. Skye munched on the meat but tasted none of it. She couldn't help but sneak glances at Lucas out of the corner of her eye. He stared into the fire as he ate, his mind whirring and working at full speed like always. Skye didn't dare ask what he was thinking about – she was too afraid of the answer.

"Bucket," Lucas murmured, his voice oddly distant, "do you have any idea what it feels like to know you're cut off from the rest of the world?"

Skye swallowed the last of her meat with difficulty, trying to understand his question. She nodded after a moment, heard herself say, "How do you think I felt when I was spying for the Sixers?"

Lucas bobbed his head in understanding, passed a hand over his face. For once, Skye saw the weariness in his face, saw the burden of brilliance weighing him down like it had before they had plunged into the rapids. It creased deep lines into his features, aged him by ten years. It was no wonder his moods fluctuated so erratically. In that brief moment, he looked like he could barely handle what his mind was telling him.

Skye reminded herself she needed to narrow down the amount of moves Lucas was ahead of her in the game they were playing. She made a mental note about this second reference to the struggles of a genius. If only she had some way to learn more about him without coming across as an interrogator.

She cleared her throat. "I don't have a boyfriend," she heard herself say quietly, her brow furrowing at her own words, "because there hasn't been a guy who's had the balls to approach me." She frowned. "Well, aside from Josh, but that's complicated…and Hunter."

Lucas's eyes flicked over to hers. "Hunter?"

"He's one of my friends," Skye explained. "He told me that he wanted to be more than friends…but I've never seen him as anything more than a friend, so he doesn't count."

"Sounds to me like you're scared."

Skye's head snapped over to look at Lucas. "What?" she spluttered. "I'm not scared!"

"And I'm not a genius," Lucas muttered. "You're so strong and stubborn – but you're so naïve, Bucket." He sighed, finished the last of his dinner. Massaging an eyebrow, he continued, "Denial doesn't become you."

"So you've said." An edge crept into Skye's voice. "I don't like being…analyzed like I'm some kind of math equation!"

One eyebrow arched in amusement. "I wouldn't say you're a math equation," Lucas said, his eyes roaming over her for a moment. "You're more like a physics problem." His eyes met hers. "It's all hypothetical until I can prove it – and that takes a lot of trial and error."

Skye couldn't help but smirk to herself. So he was analyzing her, which meant she had just shortened the amount of moves Lucas was ahead of her. One move at a time.

"You seem to know so much about me," Skye pointed out, eyes darkening, "but I hardly know anything about you."

"I'm just a sick bastard, right?" There wasn't any mirth in his face. "Isn't that all you'll believe?"

Skye knew it was. Sighing, she tugged on a lock of hair, stared back down into the flames. The silence descended around them, wrapped them tightly in its eerie embrace. Skye traced patterns on the ground, feeling the heat of the fire slowly drying her. Lucas sat silent and still beside her, his eyes focusing off into the distance.

The silence, as the night stretched on, unnerved Skye. She thought she heard a Nicoraptor hiss, only relaxed when she realized that the sound of the waterfall was too loud for her to actually hear one. The quiet clawed at her soul, made her shift uneasily. She stood up, stretched in an attempt to relieve the numbness of her ass. For once, she didn't feel Lucas's eyes on her.

It only unsettled her more.

"I don't like the silence," she suddenly said, her voice a little too loud even for her ears. She toned it down a notch, crossed her arms over her chest as some means of modesty. "When my parents were sick with the fever, I would get so scared when the house would get quiet. It made me wonder whether they had died yet…" She inhaled sharply, trying to distract herself from the memories. "I hate it."

Silence.

Lucas began to talk in quiet tones then, eyes still focused on the fire. Skye sat down beside him again, slowly losing herself in his words as he talked about what life had been like before his mother had died, as he talked about his likes and dislikes, as he talked about the things he had aspired to. The cave filled with the sound of his voice, the monologue progressing from one topic to the next as though it were the most natural thing in the world. He talked about all the things in his head, about how he had imagined coming to a world like this, about how he had known that, one day, it would all happen just like he had dreamt it. The occasional chuckle slipped past his lips, illuminating his face, his eyes, filling the cave with mirth.

And Skye listened to keep the shadows of the past away.