Title: Venus
Rating: pg-13
Lost
For Vlada
A/N at the end.

Sawyer lay by the ocean side and drank. A lot. Brunswick, Georgia was a hot and dusty place during June. The sand searing beneath his back. The sweet wind from the Atlantic Ocean caressed his face and the salty ocean spray misted his face like tears. He'd swing the bottle to his lips the force the bitter concoction down. Half a bottle down half more to go.

He shut his eyes and looked at the blistering sun through his eyelids, seeing the hazy red and orange. The heat felt nice, cocooning. Sawyer didn't want to think. But he remembered her, dancing on the tabletops, hips rolling under that thin lacy skirt. The dimmed lights and the smell of cheap beer. He felt tears prickling his eyes as he took another swing and briefly wondered if they arrest people for public drunkenness.

The local DJ announced her name, "Star," and she came on stage. She radiated. She was his morning star. Pale creamy skin and clear green eyes like the sea. Her hair, a torrent of coppery curls that fell to her hips. Somehow, despite the ludicrous outfit and the depravity of the joint, she kept her innocence. Her face, barely out of her teens, the narrow hips that never delivered a child.

White foam lapped at his feet as he tried to drown out his consciousness in cheep tequila.

Sawyer remembered as she stepped off the stage and one to the tables, her five-inch spikes weaving between the half empty beer mugs. The music was cloying and syrupy as it ran against his skin like sticky honey. But he didn't care. He didn't care because she was above him, looking into his eyes and smiling.

He wanted to touch her, caress her, but that wasn't allowed, so he pulled out a crumbled 20 from his jean pocket and reached out to her, slipping the 20 into her lacy black thong. For a brief second his thumb brushed over her center and he fell back into his chair with an electrified sigh. She was his aphrodisiac and when he touched her, he felt pure love. She moved on to another patron, throwing her hair back, peaking over her shoulder.

All too soon her dance was over. She left and the thrall was broken. Sawyer threw a 10 on the table for the beer and stumbled out of the strip club. The night air like a balm over his overheated skin. He waited by the back door, smoking his last few Lucky's, waiting for her to show. He couldn't leave. Not without seeing her again. Couldn't breathe without her. Couldn't go on.

So he waited.

And waited.

Long after the other patrons left, but she was still not there. Maybe he missed her as she left from another door? So he went back inside, just as the bartender was locking up.

"Pal, what do you want?"

"I want to speak with her." Sawyer felt possessed.

"With who?" The bartender looked back, confused, as he clicked the lock over the doors.

"Star." His hands pressing into fists and than relaxing again.

"Sorry, pal. Now one working her with that name."

"Her stage name. She was just on an hour ago." Rage began to color the edges of his vision.

"Don't know how much you drank there, cowboy, but we didn't have no Star dancing around no hour ago. The last girl was on around midnight." It was well after three. "Get out before I call in my friends."

Sawyer left, spitting onto the asphalt as he walked away. He felt lost and empty and suddenly, very very alone.

Sawyer wasn't sure if it was the alcohol or not, but as he lay on the hot sand, staring into the expansive water, he could've sworn he saw her. There in the water, amidst the waves. Her hair billowing in the hot wind.

But no. No. As he looked closer she was gone. A sunbeam dancing on the glossy water.


A/N: I just thought it was such a Sawyer thing to do like fall in love with Aphrodite. Is till can't believe I wrote Het.