Lost belongs to JJ Abrams and crew, I'm just borrowing for fun. Spoilers through Homecoming. Kate lets on to Walt that she knows at least one of his secrets.
Lost – Unsaid
By Mystic
April 7th 2005
He had to admit, the boat looked nice. Walt walked around it in the silence of the night with his father sleeping only a few feet away. His hand touched the cold metal, wiping away precipitation and sand. Flapping his hand, he shook the sand clumps from his fingers and glanced at his father. The older man was flat on his back, his hands folded on his stomach and his mouth open. Walt pursed his lips.
The idea was sound, he understood that. His father just wanted to keep him safe. Problem was, Walt knew, the island kept him safe and his father would never understand that. Locke would understand it. Walt jumped up on the boat and stomped lightly on the wood bamboo rods that made the deck. It was sturdy. He suddenly wished he'd paid more attention when his father had been telling him how to tie the knots. It might be useful one day.
His eyes scanned the deck and found the cubby holes for the food supply. Walt glanced out at the ocean and wondered just how far land was and how long food would last.
"What are you up to?" Kate asked him, suspicion on her voice. She came out of the jungle and Walt could see sweat beaded on her forehead. She was probably collecting fruit. She liked to do that. Walt figured she did it more to get away from everyone else than it was actually necessary. Only person she seemed to talk to these days was Jack.
"Nothin'," he answered, sitting at the edge of the boat. He let his legs dangle off the side and played with his hands in his lap as she took several steps closer to him. Walt was starting to feel guilty and he didn't know why. Only, he did.
"You should be sleeping." Kate leaned against the boat next to him, her eyes on the beach beyond the camp site.
"Couldn't sleep."
She smiled up at him. It reminded him of the smile his mom used to give him when he'd ask for one more hour, for one last television show, one last story, one last glass of water. When he didn't want to just lay in the bed and shut his eyes and pretend to sleep for her. He found himself grinning slightly, his hands placed at his sides on the bamboo lain out under him. "You should rest, it's not good to lose sleep."
"You don't sleep much either," he pointed out, raising his chin slightly at her accusingly.
Kate nodded. "You're absolutely right, but I don't need it like you do. You're still growing."
He frowned. "I'm not a little kid."
"You're not a man either," she cocked her head at him, her shoulder nudging his arm.
Walt didn't want to take offense, he knew it was true. He looked at his long fingers, curling them into a ball on his lap. Kate leaned back, grabbed hold of the deck and brought herself up quickly. She lay down on the deck next to him and looked up at the stars. Walt turned to watch her. She had a calm smile on her face and a hand on her bag, which was tucked at her side. She didn't like to let go of her bag. Walt found himself wondering where she'd gotten it from; it had to have belonged to someone in the crash, someone who didn't survive. It made him shiver.
"You alright?" She asked suddenly, softly, curiously.
He threw his glance away from her, towards the jungle and then smiled sheepishly feeling as though he'd been caught reading a dirty magazine. "Just wonderin' what you're doing here?"
"Resting in good, trusted, company." She winked at him and it made him blush. Trusted. He frowned, feeling the boat's wood under him harder than before. It was the second boat, the second time his father had worked himself into exhaustion trying to get them back to a safe place. It was the second time Walt sat on the boat with a box of stolen matches in his pocket. They'd come from Sawyer's stash, he'd taken it a while ago, not really sure why. Maybe he wanted to make his own fire and not watch adults shoo him from the wood pile they were igniting.
"Kate, you leaving on the boat with us?" He asked, not looking down at her.
"That depends on a lot of things," she answered. "I don't have much to go back to, I guess, but this isn't home to me." Kate sat up next to Walt and looked over at him. "Mostly it depends on whether you want us to get off the island."
His head jerked up, his hand instinctively touched his right pocket and he was afraid she'd snatch at it. But she didn't, she just gave him a grin, another one he knew well. Walt's mother gave it to him when he was up to something and was keeping it secret. He watched Kate, read it on her face.
I know what you're up to, so be careful.
Turning away, he listened as she sucked her teeth softly and jumped off the deck. "I'm going to the caves, you should get some shut eye before the sun comes up." She smiled, pulling her backpack over her shoulders. "It's safer."
Walt watched her go, she threw a glance over her shoulders before disappearing in the jungle and he hopped off the raft, settling down into the sand beside his father. His eyes scanned the older man and then closed, drifting off to a place where fire was the last thing on his mind.
Finis