Title: The Liar and the Cheat
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Shannon, Sayid
Summary: Has Sayid been lying to her? Has Shannon been cheating?
Warnings: None really, just a general one for slightly more adult themes.
Status of fic: Completed
Author's Notes: I know I should have been penning the next chapter of Begin Again but rabid plot bunnies won't go away unless you see them to conclusion. And believe me this fic isn't what you think!
Disclaimer: Don't own Lost! Though I am the proud owner of a black Labrador who like watching Vincent on TV.
The Liar and the Cheat.
She glared at him and he knew in that single second that he was done for. Her golden brown eyes studied his face, waiting for even a tiny twitch of weakness. For an emotion to flash through his own dark eyes and betray everything he had ever done wrong in his life, his entire soul to her.
He had to force himself not to swallow hard, had to fight to keep his breathing even and steady when it finally dawned upon him.
She knew. She knew that he had been lying to her. She knew that not a single word of even half-truth had passed his lips all night and uncertainty clawed it's way up his throat, attempting to make itself heard in a panicked uttering of his previous, deceit-filled words. As if repeating them would make them more true.
Instead he only coughed, a callused thumb and finger rubbing lightly and only once to smooth down his beard.
That, it seemed, was all she needed for confirmation of his guilt. That single, simple, everyday gesticulation suddenly became his downfall, evidence stacked against his case. He had been found out.
No. He couldn't afford for her to disbelieve him. That would be the end for them, for everything he had worked so hard for…and all because of another woman.
"Shannon…" he began trying to placate her, but her flashing bronze glare silenced him, strangling whatever he had been about to say in his throat.
"Don't lie to me, Sayid!" she growled, eyes narrowing dangerously. "Every time you open your damn mouth, you lie to me. Give me a little credit at least. I'm not stupid!"
His mouth snapped closed immediately, eyes casting themselves down to his hands as he bit the inside of his cheek nervously. He sighed in defeat. He had no other option. He was cornered. He could lie to her no longer.
"What do you want to do, Shannon?" he queried with defeat in his weary voice, not even daring to look up into her face. "I will do whatever you ask of me."
Her brow smoothed, suddenly cleared of her intimidating scowl and instead of darkness filling her gaze, there was only light.
"Show me your hand!" she demanded triumphantly, pointing at the cards he clasped in a white-knuckled fist. "Go on." she prompted, nudging his leg with her bare foot beneath their makeshift table when he remained motionless. "Show me! I'll see you."
Cursing his inability to lie to her, he slapped his hand of cards down irately causing the table to creak in protest and rock, in danger of upending.
"Ha! I knew it!" Shannon crowed, tossing her shimmering hair of gold in victory. "I knew you were bluffing!"
Her fingers danced lightly over his cards, pulling them towards her so that she could make sure that she was seeing them correctly in the candlelight.
"Two two's, two seven's and a lady in red!" she turned her slow, taunting smile up to him, wafting herself with her own cards, splayed out into a perfect fan-shape. "There's that lucky little queen I knew you had a hold of!"
Sayid grit his teeth and folded his arms across his chest, raising his chin suddenly and pinning her with a frown.
"Two pair and a queen is not a bad hand." he defended indignantly. "Many a game of poker has been won with such."
Shannon painted a look of seriousness upon her features, nodding in devout accordance.
"Oh, yes. Of course." she replied, sarcasm blossoming in her words and her eyes danced at him as mockingly as her speech did. "But not this game I'm afraid, Mr. Jarrah." she grinned like a cat who had just got the milk and the cream, perfect white teeth flashing in the flickering amber light as she placed her hand down before his eyes with a deliberate clacking of cards hitting the wood, one after the other. "I would like to introduce you to a Royal Flush!" she gave him a false salute but he did not see it, too intent on studying the perfect run of face cards, in diamonds no less, that all stared up at him as sardonically as Shannon was. She hummed to herself the melody of 'Diamonds are a Girl's Best friend', obviously pleased with her actions and rather impressed with her witty choice of song.
"You are a cheater!" he announced prodding the table before her cards, desperate to find some way out of the nightmarish situation he found himself in. "You bartered for those cards with Sawyer. They must be a stacked deck!"
Shannon giggled at Sayid's hopeless argument and her own success, placing her elbows onto the tabletop and cupping her chin in both hands. If it hadn't been for the wicked curl of her lips, Sayid would have thought that she looked most innocent.
"You checked the deck when we played last time, remember? And the time before that…and the time before that, and-"
"I am very aware of that, thank you." he interrupted coolly. "And yet you always win. You must be cheating somehow."
Shannon laughed again as Sayid's eyebrows drew together and he tried to find away around her good luck.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Soldier, but I'm not. You just have a really bad poker face. Now stop stalling and pay up!" her last syllables were emphasised with a harsh tone and a slap of her palm onto the wood of the table each time, again causing it to creak and shudder.
Sayid thought about refusing her, point blank. Considered announcing that poker was a ridiculous game and that he no longer wished to play, but the consequences if he disobeyed her would no doubt go on to haunt him for a longer time than he was willing to suffer.
He sighed once more in defeat, standing and brushing the sand from his last remaining item of clothing. Boxer shorts.
Shannon's smile became broader and more fiendish, if it was at all possible, as she firmly placed a finger and thumb from one hand into her mouth, letting forth a wolf-whistle so loud that it echoed around the area surrounding their shelter drawing more than one irritated, unintelligible shout of complaint in response from the other nearby crash survivors.
Sayid grit his teeth, pride now in tatters about his ankles just as his underwear was soon to be and he hooked his thumbs into the elasticised waist band, shooting a final glare at his antagonist as she shifted so that she could recline against one of her suitcases. She wanted to be comfortable for the show apparently.
He was about to go ahead with it, to swallow his pride until a flutter of white, red and black caught his eyes as she moved.
Cards spilled forth from where she had hidden them in her lap covered by her cardigan.
"You!" he growled, both relief and astonishment racing through him as he waved an accusing finger at her. "You are a cheater!"
Shannon scrabbled to retrieve them offending items but Sayid was swifter, kneeling and snatching them out of her reach, glaring incredulously at the multitude of diamonds, hearts, spades and clubs.
"I'm bored playing poker now." she announced with a nervous giggle, scooting backwards from him and faking a yawn. "I'm tired. Goodnight!"
Sayid's free hand encompassed her ankle before she could escape, drawing a panicky yelp from her throat at the speed of his action. He glanced up at her, dark eyes glittering with conspiracy.
"Oh no. We are going to play one last game." he announced, sifting through the cards methodically so that they had one bog-standard pack of 52 playing cards. "And there will be no more cheating from you."
She narrowed her eyes at him, feigning anger.
"Jerk!"
"Every time you attempt to cheat," he continued as if she had not hurled an insult at him, finger raised to point at her as if she were a naughty child. "Every. Time. You must make a payment to compensate for all the times that I would have won."
Shannon's glare at him hardened and she sat up straight, folding her arms across her chest and turning her head, held high, away.
"Like that's going to be any fun!" she complained. "I may as well just get naked now and get it over with!" she glance at him from the corner of her eye to gauge his reaction to her comment and though she sounded flippant and moody, the quirk at the corner of her mouth let Sayid know that perhaps she wouldn't particularly mind suffering her fate.
He shrugged his shoulders, taking his seat back across the table from her once more, feigning disinterest.
"I do not much feel like playing poker again either." he teased. "Perhaps you should get it over with now."
"Perhaps I will." she countered, smile growing.
-oOo-