Title: In Admiration - Part 12

Fandom: Lost

Characters: Jack Shephard, Boone Carlyle

Prompt: #16 Family

Author's Notes: Written for the LiveJournal community slash100 (underscore between "slash" and "100" – for some reason FFN deletes it)

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"I got two tubes of sunscreen and a flashlight says he chokes." Boone looked over at the source of the voice, seeing Kate rising to her feet out of the corner of his eye. It was Sawyer. Boone couldn't help but glare at the other man. Sawyer had a tendency to cause trouble, and the people at the makeshift golf course were enjoying themselves.

Sawyer was smiling, albeit somewhat uncomfortably, and Boone noticed that Jack seemed happy to see Sawyer there. He looked away upon catching Boone's gaze.

"I'll take that action," Kate said quietly from beside Boone.

He saw that Sawyer was still looking uncomfortable, his usual facade not in place. Boone also noticed Jack looking at him. Sawyer seemed to be making an effort, and for some reason Boone felt like it was up to him. Like everyone knew why Sawyer was injured. "Yeah... Yeah, me too."

Boone heard Shannon scoff at his right. "You just bet on Jack, dumbass."

"We need the sunscreen, princess." He felt embarrassed afterwards and hoped it didn't show. Boone didn't like the idea of starting their bickering in front of all these people, especially Jack.

Boone looked over at Shannon, getting a smirk in response. He could tell what she was thinking about - that night in Sydney, when she told him he was in love with her and had always been. The smirk still seemed to be saying "how can you even show an interest in Jack when you're still hung up on me?" Or at least that was how Boone read it. And it was true. If something were to happen, it wouldn't be fair to Jack if Boone had feelings for Shannon. Everyone one the island thought they were family, and that the arguing, bickering, and name-calling was just that of siblings. That Boone looked after Shannon because she was his sister.

But he knew they weren't really related and so did she. Boone had been ten years old when their parents got married, so Shannon never really felt like his sister, even though they were raised together as such. They'd always just felt like friends who fought a lot for no good reason, and Boone had never been quite sure as to the nature of their fighting until Sydney. Shannon's saying he was in love with her...it made so much sense at the time, even knowing she had just been playing Boone for his money.

After, though, nothing felt instantly resolved. If anything, things felt worse.

Boone looked away from Shannon and over to Jack, watching him prepare to take the shot. Boone's problem, he realized, was he had a hard time differentiating from being in love with someone and just plain loving someone. If he loved Shannon or was in love with her, he couldn't quite tell.

The sound of enthusiastic applause brought Boone's thoughts back to the present, and he looked up just in time to see Jack smiling in his direction; Boone couldn't help but smile back. Jack just looked so sexy when he smiled. He watched as Hurley and Charlie congratulated Jack, Hurley giving a hearty slap on the back while Charlie's expression was one of stunned disbelief. Boone looked away when Kate went over to join them.