Title: In Admiration - Part 13
Fandom: Lost
Characters: Jack Shephard, Boone Carlyle
Prompt: #78 Discovery
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 am so not moving to the rape caves," Shannon gave Boone a pointed look before dropping her bag in the sand.
He ignored her, turning to Hurley. "You know your life would be much easier if you just had the manifest. We crossed out all the names of the dead after we burned the fuselage, so it should be a full roster of the rest of us."
"What? Really? Who has it?" Hurley looked happy to hear that, and Boone was surprised Hurley hadn't thought of it himself since he had been at the memorial service next to Claire. Boone wouldn't have wanted the task of walking between the caves and the beach, interviewing the forty-something survivors.
"Who do you think?" Hurley followed Boone's line of sight over in the direction of Sawyer's tent, and Hurley suddenly looked apprehensive.
"Right..." He sighed. "Thanks, man."
"Yeah, sure." Boone watched as Hurley went in the direction of Sawyer's tent. Maybe he did have a chance at getting the manifest. Sawyer seemed to be making somewhat of an effort for people to like him.
"I didn't really want to move to the caves anyway." Boone turned to look at Shannon who seemed to be setting herself up for a new pedicure. "Watching you and Jack float around each other would just drive me insane." She pulled out a bottle of nail polish and started to shake it, facing Boone. "I'm sure this is Sabrina's fault in some way or another."
"Yes, Shannon, it's all my mother's fault that I don't want to freak out Jack who, if you haven't noticed, spends a lot of time with Kate."
Boone distinctly saw Shannon roll her eyes at him. "You keep using the same excuse, bonehead, it's getting old. And it's more like Kate spends a lot of time with him. Every time he shows up at the beach to bring water, give Sawyer the antibiotics, get fish, whatever, she's over there the second she knows he's here. Even Sawyer can see that Jack isn't interested in Kate, which is why he teases her every chance he gets."
"Why are you talking to Sawyer?"
Shannon shrugged. "He has things I need. Sometimes, if you ask nicely instead of just going through his stuff, he'll give it to you. Back to you and Jack, though, I'm sick of you waffling."
He wanted to yell at her. Wanted to tell Shannon about how maybe something would have happened one way or the other by now if they hadn't slept together in Sydney. That things would have been playing out differently if Boone didn't have the added bonus of trying to figure out how he really felt for Shannon on top of what he wanted with Jack. But he didn't. The last thing he needed was to give her ammo to use against him to use later on. Shannon might have known on some level that Boone was still confused over what had happened, but he wasn't going to openly admit it to her.
Shannon sighed as she began applying the polish to her big toe. "How come these things are so obvious to everyone except the people involved?"
"Maybe you're just trying to get me to make an ass of myself. It seems to be your favorite pastime."
"I think the problem is he's being subtle and you need to be hit in the face with something to understand it."
Boone kneeled down in the sat opposite Shannon, trying to get a read on her facial expression to see if she was bullshitting him or not, but she was paying to much attention to her pedicure for him to tell. "All right, then, if you're the expert, prove it."
She looked at him for a moment, lips pursed, before going back to her nails. "He actually smiles when you're around. At the golf thing? Was definitely looking at you, not Kate, and she was right next to you. He looked a little disappointed when you left. It seems like he's trying to figure you out just as much as you're trying to figure him out. I'm starting to wonder how men get together on their own."
Boone shifted his position from kneeling to sitting, wishing he had sandals since the constant feeling of sand in his shoes was starting to drive him insane. "Here there's no context. Clubs, bars, coffeehouses...it's easier to tell at home. Without context it's harder to tell. Not every gay guy dances around in hot pants singing Barbra Streisand with a lisp."
Shannon stopped painting her nails suddenly, giving a disgusted look up at Boone. "Okay, ew, I didn't need that mental image of you or Jack."
Boone sighed. "The point being, you didn't prove anything."
"He told me."
She'd said it so casually that Boone figured he didn't hear right. "What?"
Shannon stopped, putting the brush back in the bottle and twisting it shut. "Do I need to spell it out for you? He. Told. Me." Boone sat dumbfounded, mentally in a place between total disbelief and pure excitement. Jack actually liked him! Shannon opened the nail polish back up, starting on the other foot. "See, like I said, you need to be hit in the face."