A/N: Yikes. Sorry for the long wait, guys. I should've mentioned last update that my finals were concluding and I would be leavin' on vacation. As of Saturday, I've been back in NYC (stranded with nothing to do most of the time 'cause of the blasted transit strike, but yeh) and with no Internet connection. Today, I chilled at the Spa my mother heads, so I got to tap into their wireless and here I am with this update. Next week we'll be moving into our Indianapolis apartment, so I should have Internet by sometime before the new year. And hopefully I'll have an update set by then :) For now, happy holidays and all that good stuff!
(Oh, and my attention span's been kind of limited, so please point out any typos I might've overlooked in this chapter.)
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She had been following Sawyer for about an hour before she'd trusted herself to speak again. He had instantly taken on a predictably hostile attitude towards the light conversation she kept starting up, yet due to her persistence, they had managed to continue talking through the midday mark. As they fell into their familiar spurts of causal chitchat (okay, they weren't all too familiar, but since Sawyer had come back, Kate had gotten use to them rather quickly), his attitude had slowly simmered down.
Now that they had gone back into a comfortable air of mutual existence, Kate had to admit the trip wasn't all that bad, given the circumstances under which it was being conducted. The jungle hadn't gotten any wilder, and the ground was getting easier to maneuver now that they had adapted to it. It was still hot and sticky, but the shade cast by the trees made it bearable. And it was soothingly quiet, apart from the rustling they caused as they traveled and the random chirping of birds or insects.
But good things were doomed to never last, so Kate had but a second's hesitation before concluding her past hour's worth of stalling.
"Why are we out here, Sawyer?" She tried her luck asking the question that had been prodding at her brain all day.
He quickened his pace right away, either with a false hope that he'd get far enough ahead to lose her, or as a sign of annoyance. (Knowing him, it was a steady mix of both.)
"I asked you a question." Kate stated calmly, watching him try and disappear into the trees. He exhaled, loudly, but uttered no other sound.
Kate sighed and sped her own walking up, not about to give him the satisfaction of some extra space. Right when she was giving up on getting an answer, Sawyer spoke.
"I'm out here on business." He glanced back and smiled at her. "You're out here 'cause you're annoying."
She almost laughed. "No, Sawyer. I'm out here so you don't get yourself killed this time around."
"Oh, so now you care?" He rounded on her, forcing her to stop to avoid ramming into his chest. He didn't sound angry anymore, but slightly amused. And curious, though it was a twisted kind of curiosity. It took her a moment to realize what the "now" was referring to, but she slowly recalled their previous jungle outing and how Sawyer had called her on "caring" back then as well. Of course, she'd denied it, both to him and to herself.
Noting that he was still waiting for some kind of answer, Kate sighed, not up to playing along. "Do you even have to ask?" She stared at him steadily and his smile grew into a satisfied grin. Then he chuckled. Of course he didn't have to ask, but it was fun milking this newfound side of Kate for all it was worth.
Turning around, Sawyer nodded at something ahead of them. "Looks like the jungle's breakin' up ahead." She was relieved for the swift change of topic.
Nodding, Kate took the lead. Sawyer let her get a few steps ahead before starting after her. She pondered these actions, having thought that he would disapprove of being the follower all of a sudden. Peeking back, she noticed his eyes firmly planted on her behind; a sly grin marring his features. He looked up at her, suddenly realizing he was caught red-handed, and he uttered a shocked "what?" Kate merely rolled her eyes and turned back around, pushing a patch of low branches aside and deliberately letting them fly back and smack Sawyer in the chest as he trailed behind her.
As she led the way into the clearing (a fairly large and seemingly circular patch of land covered in knee-high weeded grasses and surrounded on all sides by the jungle), Kate felt his eyes on her again. This time, she spoke out.
"Stop doing that." Her voice was edgy, and it surprised her. Why was she so bothered by being "checked out" all of a sudden? And by Sawyer, at that. She should have been more than use to it.
"Doin' what?" Sawyer replied innocently. She cast him a pointed look over her shoulder.
"Staring at me."
He smirked. "Can't help it. There's a lot to stare at."
Unsure if she should take that as a compliment or not, Kate sighed and turned back to watch where she was going (not that there was much in the way, but she didn't want to embarrass herself by tripping over a stick or falling into a boar wallow. Sawyer would've gotten too much of a kick out of either one happening... Especially if the latter involved mud.)
"You always so insecure 'round guys you've kissed?" Sawyer inquired a moment later, pulling her out of her thoughts. "Twice," he added, almost nostalgically.
Kate rolled her eyes but didn't look back. "I'm not insecure." Her defensiveness would have suggested otherwise. "And if my memory serves me well, you practically forced me into both those kisses."
He was grinning now. She could hear it in his voice. "But you didn't exactly object either time, now did ya?"
Damn it,he had her there. Before she could come up with a plausible reply, she heard his footsteps slow and then come to a stop. She turned around to see what was the matter.
"Why are we stopping?" Kate glanced around the meadow, looking for anything that might have brought about the pit stop. Sawyer dropped his backpack and tipped his head left and then right, stretching his neck.
"Thought you could use a break." He crouched down and produced his water bottle, unscrewing the cap and taking a deep drink.
Kate held back a smile, knowing Sawyer meant that he was tired and that he wanted to rest, though he would never admit it to her. Deciding to let it go without commenting (after all, he'd just saved her from pushing the previous discussion onto dangerous territory), she slid her own pack off her shoulder and settled down next to it. She waited for Sawyer to finish drinking before speaking.
"How's your shoulder?"
He turned to glare at her.
"Fine."
She cast her eyes upward, regarding the vast sky before bringing them back down on him. "Can I see it?"
That earned her a grin. "Depends what you mean by 'it' of course."
This time, she sighed. Why did he always have to play games? "You know what I mean, Sawyer."
His grin faded. "Well then..." He paused for apparent dramatic effect. "Nope."
"Sawyer..."
"Told ya I'm fine." His voice was rising. Kate bit her lip and Sawyer instantly regretted getting angry. Only that made him even more annoyed. (Damn that cute pout of hers.) "Anyway," he continued, this time retaining calmness. "You ain't a doctor, so it won't change nothin'."
She sighed, giving up the argument for the time being. "Suit yourself."
Sawyer nodded. "I will."
"Fine."
"Fine."
They stared each other down. The fact that they both had such competitive natures was both a blessing and a curse. Finally Kate looked away, allowing Sawyer to keep up his ego. It wasn't worth him bitching about for the next few hours.
He kept his eyes on her a moment longer, then turned back to his packed stuff. He pulled out what looked like a granola bar and unwrapped it very so slowly. Kate cringed at the steady rustling of the foil but refused to acknowledge her annoyance. He was testing her.
After what seemed like a never-ending minute, he got the bar out and took a loud bite, then commenced chewing it with even more emphasis. Kate felt something twist in her stomach. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the crumbled wrapper fly through the air and land a few feet off. That finally got her to react.
"Don't litter."
Sawyer lifted his eyes to her and raised a brow. He looked like he was considering laughing out loud, but the serious expression on Kate's face stopped him short of a smile. "Why the hell not?" He inquired between chews.
Kate flexed her jaw. "Because it's wrong?"
"You obviously forget who you're talkin' to, sweetheart."
She laughed sarcastically. "No, Sawyer, I don't. Not for a second."
He seemed hurt by the statement but he covered it quickly, biting into his snack again and shifting his gaze to something beyond the grasses. Kate exhaled a breath of air, taking her turn to feel bad for being cruel. She stood up and walked over to retrieve the trash. As she reached down for the paper, something shining through the dull green of the weeds caught her eye.
"Check this out." She unearthed the object, forgetting her original mission of retreating the bar wrapper, and returned to her seat beside her backpack. Sawyer had apparently finished brooding (and eating, thank God) because he looked over at her with mild interest.
"What is it?"
"I think it's a key." She held up the large, rusted key. The top was flat and shaped like a pentagon, and it appeared to have once held an inscription that was long worn away. A crack ran along the upper half and the bit was clipped. It looked ancient.
Sawyer shrugged his shoulders. "Probably dropped from the plane."
Kate lifted an eyebrow, twirling the key in her hands. "Out here?" She peered over the top of the grasses around them, futilely trying to spot any other possible plane wreckage. "I don't think so." She looked back at Sawyer.
He threw a hand up in defeat. "Does it matter?"
"No," Kate said slowly, looking down at the key again before sliding it into her pack's front pocket. "It's just kind of odd finding stuff like that here."
Sawyer's hearted laugh almost made her jump. "You're kiddin', right?" She smiled, realizing her statement was indeed silly. What hadn't they found on the island?
They slowly fell into silence again. Sawyer seemed to lose himself in his thoughs and Kate was out of things to talk about. As a cool breeze drifted across the clearing, she laid back on the grass, allowing her gaze to drift over the vast sky. As a cloud steadily hovered over to the sun and began to overcast it, Kate turned her head to look at Sawyer.
"You ever play that game with the clouds?" She asked before she could think about who she was talking to. (Maybe he was right... Maybe sometimes she did forget.)
He shifted his eyes over to her and cocked his head. "Think your head's in the clouds, Freckles."
She smiled but continued, her tone thoughtful. "You know, the one where you say what the clouds look like to you?" Sawyer still looked skeptical. "I used to play it with my dad." The word caught on her tongue for a moment, but she figured Sawyer wouldn't notice. He did but said nothing to it. Kate returned her eyes to the sky.
"Learn by example." She lifted a hand and pointed at the cumulus cloud that was still sitting on the sun. "Doesn't it look like a hippo?"
Sawyer's eyes followed her hand and he stared for a moment before resetting them on her. "A hippo?" he repeated slowly, apparently not seeing it.
"Okay, bad first try." Kate sighed and scanned the air for her next target. Again, she pointed at a large, fluffy cloud, this one floating over the jungle side they'd exited a few minutes ago. "That one resembles a smiley face." She put on a smile of her own, as if the cloud would be otherwise offended. "Those lighter patches are the eyes, and that part," she traced her finger over a choppy smaller cloud that was seemingly glued to the larger one, "is the mouth." She looked at Sawyer expectantly.
He slowly returned her look but said nothing (well, at least not verbally.)
Kate held back another sigh. Determined to make him play along, she nodded at a poofy cloud to their distant right.
"What's that one look like?"
"A cloud," Sawyer replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Kate rolled her eyes.
"You didn't even look."
He lifted his shoulders in a shrug, set a blade of grass between his teeth and absently began chewing on it. Kate held back a remark, not wanting to further push him.
"Have some imagination, Sawyer." She stated instead, her eyes challengingly befalling him. He narrowed his gaze, not about to back down to something so direct.
"Got plenty of it, thank you."
"Prove it." Kate held back a smile, knowing she was finally getting the upper hand. She knew him too well. (That "connection" of theirs could be useful at times.)
He let out an almost feral-sounding growl and lifted his eyes upward. "Fine." He scanned the clouds then pointed at a rather flat one. "See that one?"
Kate followed his hand and nodded.
"Looks like a bed." Sawyer grinned, and Kate lifted an eyebrow questioningly. "And if ya squint," Sawyer continued, "it almost looks like a woman layin' on it." Kate let out a slow sigh as she caught on to his train of thought. Satisfied with his finding, Sawyer then moved his hand to a pair of clouds. "And those two over there can be breasts, though if they drift a bit closer together, they'd make a nice ass." He pointed at another. "And that one..."
"All right, all right, I get it." Kate shut her eyes and bid the images out of her head. When she looked back at Sawyer, he was staring at her in bemusement. "You didn't lemme tell ya what that tall one over there reminds me of!"
Kate shook her head. "Not interested."
Sawyer scoffed. "Was just gonna say it can pass for a statue of our very own Saint Jack."
That got her attention. She drew her eyes to the cloud. "How the hell does that resemble Jack?"
Sawyer shrugged. "High and mighty and made up of nothin' but fluffy goodness." He allowed himself a grin. "How does it not?"
Kate brought her gaze to him and shared his grin. (Damn that sharp wit of his.) "Now you're just messing with me."
He produced a chuckle. "You wanted imagination."
She laughed, turning away from him. The longer she stared at the cloud, the more it did start looking like Jack. Suddenly disturbed by this, Kate dropped her head to the side and regarded the horizon, where the sky was darkening beyond the treetops. Confusion struck her, since it was barely past noon. Squinting, she realized a row of storm clouds were rolling in. And if they stayed here much longer, they'd get caught up right in the middle of it.
Allowing herself a further moment of peace and quiet, she shifted a peek at Sawyer. He was retreated in his head again, so that gave her a free window of opportunity to unknowingly observe him. Her eyes traveled to his shoulder, where she noticed a small patch of blood. (Damn it, Sawyer.) She couldn't tell if it was fresh or not, but it worried her nonetheless. If his wound got irritated out here and the infection returned, she wouldn't be able to get him back to camp.
Shaking her head to rid herself of the thoughts, she pushed herself off the ground and stretched. If Sawyer wanted to gamble with his life like this, it was his problem. Not hers.
Convincing herself for the time being, she reached for her backpack and swung it over her shoulder. Glancing at Sawyer, she felt her insides tingle. (Please be okay.)
"Ready to go?" She asked, putting on a knowing smile and concealing her tone with playfulness. His eyes met hers and he glared, noting that she was calling him on initiating the rest stop for his own personal need. Surprisingly, he didn't rebuke the comment. Instead, he nodded and rose as well.
"Thought you'd never ask." He stated, making Kate smile. (Some things never change.) He strode past her, reclaiming his lead, and she spared a glance back at the incoming rain clouds before starting after him.
As they walked away, the grasses swayed under a sudden gust. The storm was still far off, but a thick darkness was already starting to consume the land.
The forgotten granola wrapper crunched objectively under the weight of the foot that stepped upon it, but the wind swallowed the noise.
