TRUTH OR DARE
"Truth," Libby said. Hurley turned and looked deeply into her eyes. His muscular shoulders rippled as he leaned forward, his green eyes drinking in her soul.
"All right," he said, with his husky voice and Southern accent. "Tell the truth, sugar. Are you in love with me?"
She reached out a hand and ran it through his long, blond hair. "Yes," she whispered. "Yes, Hurley, I'm in love with you, and only you. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!"
"Hurley?" A new voice and a gentle prod caused the man to open his eyes and sit up with a start. "Hurley, are you okay? You were crying out in your sleep."
Hurley took a deep breath and turned to look at a very concerned Kate. Sawyer was standing just behind her, and he certainly didn't look concerned. In fact, he was laughing, not even trying to disguise it.
"Sounded like you were having a three way," Sawyer chuckled. Kate elbowed him in the gut. Surprisingly, he shut up.
"What were you dreaming about?" Kate asked. She handed him a water bottle, which Hurley gratefully accepted and quickly swallowed most of.
"Nothing," he said. "Just. . .you know. . .stuff. . ."
Inwardly, he was wincing. He had dreamed about Libby, again. And, once again, he had dreamed about her declaring her love for him. And, once again, he looked exactly like Sawyer in the dream.
After finally managing to shoo Sawyer and Kate away by pretending to need to pee in the jungle, Hurley meandered his way over to Claire.
"Hi, Hurley!" she said brightly when his shadow fell over her. He promptly put a finger to his mouth and ordered her to be silent. Widening her eyes, she nodded. Hurley glanced around the compound. He didn't see anyone that he knew. Good. He sank beside her.
"Hurley, is everything okay?" Claire asked.
"Yeah. . .I just. . .I have a question," he said. Claire's face lit up.
"Well, I just might have the answer!" she said. Hurley bit his lip.
"Hope so."
And then he just sat there. Claire kept looking at him, but he couldn't imagine why. He began to wonder when she was every going to start advising him.
"Um. . .Hurley," she finally ventured. "If you don't tell me what's wrong, I won't know how to help you."
"Oh, dude, right!" Hurley laughed a little, stood up, and shook hands with her. "Thanks a lot, Claire!" he said, and walked off. The Australian woman sat there for a moment, looking at him in confusion, before shrugging and going to tend to her baby.
Hurley, meanwhile, tromped through the forest for a while before heading back to the beach. Maybe, he figured, if he just forgot about the weird dream, it would cease to mean anything. He just needed to find some kind of a distraction. Yeah, that was it, a distraction.
So, in search of a distraction, he headed to his favorite one on the island. Well, no, that wasn't true, Libby was his favorite, but she wasn't the kind of distraction he had in mind. He was looking for the chain-smoking, nickname-awarding, ass-kicking, frog-smashing, resident island badboy. Who appeared to be currently whittling a stick.
"What are you doing?" Hurley asked. Sawyer glanced up at him.
"Whittlin' a stick, lardass, what does it look like?" he snapped.
"But dude, isn't that kind of. . .you know. . .pointless?" Hurley asked. Sawyer broke the stick in two, stood up, and went toe to toe with the other man.
"Isn't our existence on this island kind of. . .you know. . .pointless?" he snarled.
"Dude, back off," Hurley said, raising his hands. "I was just thinking it was time for another island get-together."
"Don't think so," Sawyer said, sitting back down and grabbing another stick. "Had enough of the fun and games for a while."
"I'll get Kate to come," Hurley wheedled. Sawyer seemed to consider for a moment, and then shook his head.
"Nope, don't think so."
"Fine," Hurley stuck his nose in the air and tried to prance away. It was very hard for him to prance with all 300 pounds, but he thought he managed decently. It was, however, going to be a lot harder to get everybody together without Sawyer's help. How to do it, he considered carefully. Hmmm. . .
Claire ran screaming through the forest, waving her arms all around. "The Others have my baby! They took Aaron!"
"Ozzers?" Jin asked, peering out of the tent.
"Baby?" Charlie said, looking up from the church.
"Aaron?" Jack said, spinning around from his contemplation of Steve's contusion.
"The?" Locke mumbled, looking up from the counter.
Everybody ran down the beach, hearing the screams of both mother and child. When they arrived, they saw Hurley rocking the terrified baby back and forth, crooning gently to it.
"You have got to be kidding me," Jack said, shaking his head. "Seriously, guys, stop coming up with fake emergencies."
"Dudes," Hurley announced, handing the baby back to a delighted Claire. "Guess what time it is!"
"Rescue time!" Bernard exclaimed, punching his fist in the air. Everyone turned to stare at him. "Sorry, just a joke," he said.
"It's. . ." Hurley revved up his best game show voice. "Game time!"
"Yea," Charlie managed half-heartedly. Everyone else just stared at Hurley silently.
"Come on, guys, remember how much fun we had last time?" he asked.
"I remember losing," Kate said amiably.
Jin said something in Korean. Sun nodded her head and patted her husband's arm gently.
"Well, this game is so much better," Hurley said. "This time I got to pick the game. Look guys, no Sawyer!"
This seemed to perk up everybody, and they happily got into a circle.
"Today we're going to play. . .Truth or Dare!" Hurley announced. Several girls groaned and tried to leave. The men looked confused. "All that happens," he explained. "Is you have to pick whether you want to tell the truth, or do a dare."
"That does not make any sense," Sayid said.
"It's fun!" Hurley exclaimed. "Like, I'll go first." He looked at Libby, remembering his dream. Better not go that route, he decided. Otherwise he might wake up the next day only to find baby LibbySawyers running around the island. "Um. . .Rose," he finally decided, choosing someone safe. "Truth or dare."
"Truth," she said.
"Um. . .have you ever. . .been in love?"
Everyone stared at Hurley like he was crazy. Bernard had an arm around Rose, and the two were sitting with their fingers interlocked.
"Okay, dumb question," Hurley sighed. "Anyway, now it's your turn."
"All right, honey," Rose paused for a moment. "Sun, truth or dare."
"Truth," Sun said.
"What are you going to name your baby?"
"Awww, hell fingers!" a voice suddenly interrupted the game. "If this ain't the most boring version of a dirty game I ever seen!"
"What do you mean?" Hurley asked, affronted.
"Here, scootch over, sugarpie, we'll see how we really get this done," Sawyer said, practically picking Kate up and depositing her a little further down the sand. "Who's turn is it?"
"Mine," said Sun. "I do not know what we will name the baby. We do not even know if it will be a girl or a boy. Now then, my turn."
"Pick Sawyer," Hurley hissed. Sun smiled.
"All right. Sawyer, truth or dare?"
"Dare, baby," he said. The light of competition shone in his eyes.
"All right then. . .I dare you. . .to be nice to everyone for the rest of the night!"
"What the hell?" Sawyer complained. A few people applauded Sun and her idea. She blushed a little, and leaned closer into Jin's embrace. "Fine, I'll be sugar and spice and everything nice, just for y'all," Sawyer finally said. "Now then, Hurley, truth or dare?"
Hurley was no idiot. He wasn't going to pick truth with Sawyer staring him down that way. Then again, he sure couldn't pick a dare. He did the only option left to him.
"I forfeit!" he yelled, stood up, and began to walk away.
"Hey, Staypuff,' Sawyer hollered at his retreating back. "You know what the penalty for forfeiture is?"
"No," Hurley sighed, but stopped walking.
"Ya gotta lay one on somebody else in the circle."
"Huh?" Hurley thought that he needed to take a class in Sawyerese. He really had no idea what the other man was talking about.
"I mean a kiss," Sawyer grinned maliciously. "Right here, right now."
Kate giggled at that, and hit the conman lightly in the shoulder. He turned his grin to her.
"What, Freckles, you jealous?" he asked. "We could do a repeat ourselves, if you wanted."
Hurley stood there considering for a moment. Who would he kiss? The obvious answer was Libby. But what if—
He said back down. "Fine," he said, his tone miserable. "Dare."
Sawyer considered for a moment, one hand stroking his stubbly chin. "All right," he said. "I dare you. . ."
"Remember that you have to be nice," Sun said. Sawyer rolled his eyes.
"I dare you to give Chuckie"
"Nice," Sun reprimanded him. Sawyer groaned.
"Charlie, everybody happy now? Give Charlie a skin on skin massage."
That didn't sound so bad. Hurley headed over to his friend and began kneading his back.
"Nuh-uh, chico," Sawyer waved one finger in the air. "Skin on skin means just what it sounds like."
Hurley's face was set on fire, but Charlie didn't seem to mind, and quickly shed his shirt. This was a nightmare, Hurley thought, staring down at the hobbit's back. He was so hairy.
"My turn again," Hurley said in a strangled voice. He looked around the circle. "Kate," he said finally. "Truth or dare?"
"Dare," she said. Hurley was a little disappointed. He'd been hoping to find out her crime. Oh well, that would be saved for Game Night Three.
"All right," he said. "I dare you to. . .go pick Jack's nose."
"What?" all of the surivivors asked in unison (well, Jin said something unintelligible and Sawyer began to crack up). Kate shrugged, stood up, walked over, and picked Jack's nose. Jack felt a little uncomfortable (he was, after all, quite capable of picking his own nose) but figured that he got to have Kate near him, so it could have been much worse.
"All right," Kate considered for a moment, before turning to Sawyer. "Truth or dare, conboy?"
"Dare," he said.
Kate smiled. Hurley became a little nervous when he saw that smile. That was a dangerous smile. That was the smile of a woman with a horrible concoction up her sleeve. "I dare you to kiss Jack."
Utter silence in the camp. Hurley was stunned. Jack looked terrified, and Sawyer looked disgusted. He knew how this would end, though. Sawyer would go through with it, he was too proud not to. He stood up and dusted his jeans off.
"All right, Jackass, let's get this done."
"I'd rather perform surgery on my own testicles!" Jack screamed, jumped up, and ran off. Sawyer raised one eyebrow and looked at Kate. She shrugged as if to say "it's still your dare." Sawyer sighed and then took off into the jungle.
"That was somewhat unforeseen," Sayid said. The rest of the survivors began to chuckle, and finally broke out into riotous laughter. A few minutes later Sawyer returned, wiping blood off a cracked lip.
"Hm, Jack likes to play dirty, huh?" Kate asked.
"I don't want to talk about it," Sawyer said, plopping himself on the ground.
"I always thought he seemed like he would be so gentle," she refused to give up.
"Shut it."
"He didn't bite me when we"
"That does it, bitch!" Sawyer leapt to his feet and glared down at the woman. "All right, Kate. Truth. Or. Dare."
"This seems like kind of a one-sided game," Charlie mused. "Hurley, Sawyer, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, Kate."
Everybody ignored the Brit. As usual.
Kate stared up at Sawyer, and then slowly stood herself.
"Dare," she hissed rebelliously. Sawyer's mouth began to twitch up into a cruel smile.
"You sure you want to choose that?" he asked. "Remember who you're talking to, sugar."
"Dare," she said again, simply. Sawyer nodded his head.
"All right then," he said. "I dare you to choose."
"What?" Kate asked.
"Choose what?" Claire was somewhat oblivious.
"Me or the doc," Sawyer said. "Tonight. By midnight. You choose."
Kate looked like she was ready to burst into tears. Hurley decided that had been enough of Game Night for one day.
"Well, that was fun," he said, standing up. "We'll have another Game Night really soon, right guys?"
"Yeah, when I actually get to play," Charlie moped. Claire laughed and patted him on the arm.
"Don't worry, Charlie," she said. "You and I will play a game."
"Really?" his eyes lit up.
"Really. It's called. . ." she paused for dramatic emphasis. "Clean the baby."
"Bugger," Charlie complained, though Hurley noticed that he was still smiling. The two wandered off, and within minutes most of the survivors had departed, leaving just Hurley and Libby.
"That game was certainly. . .interesting," Libby said.
"Yeah, I guess," said Hurley.
"It didn't work out quite the way you meant it to, did it?" she asked. Hurley shook his head miserably. Libby smiled, and kissed him gently on the cheek.
"Well, at least you tried," she said. "I'm proud of you." Then she began to walk off toward her tent, with one backwards wave. Hurley grinned.
Maybe Game Night hadn't been so bad after all. . .
And maybe Sawyer was right. Maybe it just needed some more spice. . .
Hurley wondered how Ten Minutes in Heaven would work.
