"So many things, but I can't imagine you'd want to do any of them right now," Jack replied, looking up from the bills. The bills that he probably didn't know what he was doing with. Well, no, that was unfair, Boone was fairly sure Jack would have done his own bills before, it's just Boone would have done them quicker. But Jack thought he was helping out so Boone was happy to let him.
"We haven't had a campfire," Boone said.
"Well, no, because we have a house now and a stove where we can cook our food," Jack stated. Which was quite valid but he was totally missing the point.
"We should have one," Boone suggested. "Tonight."
"You wanna have a campfire?" Jack asked.
"Yeah. We got all that firewood for the open fire that we never use cos we live in California and how often did we really think that was gonna come in handy?" Boone said.
"Your idea," Jack pointed out.
"And we have that patio at the end of the yard," Boone continued. "Fire safe. So, what you think?"
Jack nodded a little. "Yeah, could be cool," he replied. "We could call up Shannon and Sayid, see if they want to come round, bring Zara."
"No," Boone said. "Much as I love them, just me and you. We might not have a whole lot of me and you time left so I want you to myself." He stopped. "That came out wrong, didn't it?"
Jack smiled and shook his head. "I know what you mean. Baby's due in three weeks so pretty much anytime now we could be parents and things are going to change. I know you don't mean it's gonna be worse, just different."
"Yeah, different," Boone echoed. Slight understatement. But he was definitely sticking with the not worse. But having Jack to himself was kind of important to him right now, he wanted to make the most of their time together pre-baby. He wasn't sure if that was selfish or not.
"So, you wanna have a campfire and remember simpler times," Jack mused.
"Simpler times?" Boone laughed a little. "I don't think I've ever heard our stint on the island referred to like that before."
"A lot of stuff was simpler," Jack stated.
"I find Walmart simpler than hunting boar personally, but that's just me," Boone smiled. But he knew what Jack meant, he meant relationships. And not just romantic relationships, any relations between people on the island. People were stuck together and they bonded and they got on with it. And everybody knew everybody and there were no temptations and no distractions.
So Boone built them a campfire, something he was pretty experienced at by now. Sure, it'd been a while, but when Boone learnt a skill it didn't fade quickly. He was just throwing another log on when Jack came out from the house, standing next to him.
"Looks good," he said.
Boone nodded. "Yeah." He turned to face Jack and noticed that he had his hands behind his back. "Are you hiding something?"
Jack smiled at him. "Nothing gets passed you, does it?" he joked. "Good job you're not as dumb as you look cos being that good-looking makes you look like an airhead."
Boone wasn't sure if he should be insulted by that. He hoped he didn't come across as an airhead, that would be embarrassing. But Jack also said he was good-looking so he was willing to let it go. He looked back towards Jack's hands. "So what do you have?" he asked.
Jack produced a bag of marshmallows. "Thought we could toast them," he suggested.
Boone smiled. "Now that is one thing that was always missing on the island."
"Yeah, I remembered you telling me that one night. It was when you were injured and you couldn't leave the camp and after sundown all you could do was stare at the campfire all night. Said you might be able to bear it if you had some marshmallows. When you mentioned having a campfire it struck me that we never did get round to toasting marshmallows together."
"You're the sweetest guy in the world, you know that?" Boone asked, knowing he sounded like a total dweeb but not really being able to care right now.
Jack smiled. "You bring that out in me."
"Well then we're lucky we found each other, huh?" Boone responded.
"Yeah," Jack said. "We really are."
They looked at each other and Boone had an urge to cut the evening short and take Jack upstairs now but he'd gone to all the trouble of building the fire and there were marshmallows that needed toasting.
"We need sticks," Boone said. Jack looked at him blankly. "To toast the marshmallows," he clarified.
"Right, okay, let me find some," Jack replied, handing the bag to Boone and going in search.
Boone sat cross-legged by the edge of the fire as Jack returned with a couple of twigs, taking a seat next to him. They put their marshmallows into the flames and sat in silence for a minute.
"Do you remember the first time we had sex?" Jack asked.
Boone laughed a little but didn't look away from the fire. "Why do you ask like that? Like I'd forget?"
Jack shrugged but didn't continue. Boone turned the marshmallow in the flame, trying to get an even finish. He pulled it out of the fire and prodded at it a second before popping it in his mouth. Melty and delicious and just how he remembered from when he was a kid.
"I put it off for a long time," Jack said. Boone looked at him, wondering what the hell he was talking about. "Sex," Jack explained simply. Boone nodded and set up another marshmallow. "And it wasn't anything to do with you, I wanted you, believe me. I just didn't want to be a virgin again. You get to a certain age and you think you've pretty much done everything."
He stopped again, taking the marshmallow out of the flame. He looked at it but didn't make a move to eat it, just stared, twirling it around. Boone looked at him and Jack made eye contact, giving him that smile that made Boone feel at home.
"I don't know how you put up with it," Jack continued finally. "If I'd been going out with someone that long and they didn't want to have sex with me I think I'd be getting pretty annoyed."
Boone looked down and smiled. "I was just happy you were still letting me kiss you," he said. "I wasn't expecting a whole lot else to be honest. All that stuff was a bonus."
"Well I'm sorry I ever held back with you," Jack said. "All because I was too proud to ask for a little help adjusting my technique."
"I think your technique's just fine," Boone assured him, raising his eyebrows.
"Boys are different from girls," Jack stated simply.
For a second Boone panicked. But only for a second, which was a vast improvement. He knew Jack didn't really mean anything by that. He was revealing his own shortcomings, not commenting on Boone's. And different didn't always mean bad, that was the whole point.
"Campfire's are romantic," Boone smiled. "That's what you said to me. And I thought, God, that's such a lame line. But then I thought, right, like Jack would be using a line, Jack really has better things to do with his time than me."
Jack looked at him. "I'm sorry I made you think that."
"You didn't make me think that," Boone assured him. "I made me think that. The whole time we were on the island I figured the only reasons we were together were circumstantial, it was convenient. I never thought you'd really pick me, not seriously. I was around. But then Kate was around too so I could never quite work out why me and not her. But I figured you probably liked her too much and you were waiting to have a real relationship with her after we got rescued or something."
"I never liked Kate," Jack said. "Okay, so she's hot and she's smart and confident and she was a great help on the island but I just never thought of her like that. Which is kind of weird cos I guess I thought I would. And I tried at the beginning but it just wasn't there. Not with Kate."
"Yeah, we're idiots, aren't we?" Boone pointed out.
"What?" Jack asked.
"You didn't want to consummate our relationship, not because you actually didn't want to, but because you didn't want to be bad at something, and I didn't believe that you really gave a crap about me," Boone explained.
"Yeah, we are idiots," Jack agreed.
"Hey, Jack?"
"Yeah?"
"If we were still on the island, do you think we would ever have sorted any of this out? If we never got rescued do you think we would have made it? I mean, we only really sorted out all the major kinks we'd been ignoring since we got back. Mostly my kinks admittedly..." Boone trailed off.
"I happen to be a fan of your kinks," Jack smiled.
"But seriously, do you think we would ever have sat down and addressed all the stuff that needed work?" Boone asked.
"I don't know," Jack admitted. "Probably not."
Boone nodded. It might not have been the answer he wanted to hear but he knew it was the truth. "Shannon said that for her it was the perfect time to get rescued," he told Jack. "Her relationship with Sayid was about as solid as it was going to get and she'd come to terms with the pregnancy, something that would never have occurred back in civilisation, let alone been allowed to carry on for six months."
"Yeah, the timing was pretty spot on for the two of them," Jack conceded.
"So maybe it was right for us too," Boone suggested. "Maybe it was right for all of us, all the survivors. Maybe we were done."
Jack turned to look at him. "Done?"
"Maybe we were all where we needed to be in our lives. Maybe we were just there long enough for us to find our paths in life. I mean, you gotta admit, us islanders, I think we'd all been knocked off course somewhere along the way, maybe we just needed to find our footing before we got on with the rest of our lives."
Jack stared at him, his brow furrowed, thinking hard. His expression then turned into a small smile. "You spent far too much time in the jungle with Locke, you know that?"
Boone smiled back at him. "Maybe you're right."
He shifted closer to Jack and rested a hand on his thigh. Jack placed an arm round his waist and pulled him to lean against him. Boone was more than happy to oblige and rested his head on Jack's shoulder. He didn't care how he got here, he'd go to hell and back to spend another second here with Jack.
"I love you," he heard Jack mumble into his hair as he place a kiss on top of his head.
Boone smiled. "Love you too."
Jack rested his head on top of Boone's as he held onto him tightly. Boone would go further than hell and back.