Title: In Admiration - Part 29

Fandom: Lost

Characters: Jack Shephard, Boone Carlyle

Prompt: #51 Humor

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

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Boone had returned to the caves a little earlier than usual, once again pretending he didn't see the looks he got from some of the others, and that he couldn't hear their whispers, amplified by the rocky walls. The ones pointing out that he was Jack's boyfriend didn't bother him so much as the ones that were pointing out that he'd returned without any fresh meat - again. He'd heard from a few people that Jack had headed out to the beach several hours ago and hadn't gotten back yet. Boone wasn't feeling up to idly sitting around and waiting for something to happen. He did that enough in the day when he went to the hatch with Locke.

Boone decided to head out to the beach. The caves made him feel closed in, and it had been a few days since he saw the ocean, and he missed it. Looking at the Pacific Ocean was the closest thing on the island that felt like home to Boone; being from Malibu had made it a permanent fixture in his everyday life.

He spotted Shannon at her usual spot on the beach, glancing through the same magazine that she's been reading everyday since the crash. Looking at its bent edges and cover faded from the sun, Boone made a mental note to go through the unclaimed suitcases back at the caves to see if he could find something that might interest Shannon.

"Hurley went off looking for the French chick, so he's with Sayid and Charlie trying to find Hurley. You might want to avoid Kate for a little while; I think she's confused and seeing you might make things worse."

It took Boone a second to work out what Shannon had said. He didn't realize she knew he was there and hadn't expected her to say anything. "What about Kate?"

Shannon lowered her sunglasses, gazing over the tops of the dark lenses and patting the sand beside her for Boone to sit down. Once he did, Shannon gave a rather gleeful smile. "It's quite a funny story." Shannon rotated so instead of sitting next to Boone, she was facing him. "She apparently didn't know about you and Jack. And, well...now she does." She proceeded to explain how Kate had gone to Shannon asking if she knew where Jack was, and instead of saying where he actually went, she told Kate in her own Shannon-way about Jack and Boone.

At first Boone was slightly appalled by Shannon's complete lack of tact - only slightly so because, from Shannon, it wasn't surprising. His dismay faded as the retelling of the event continued, seeing Shannon's impersonation of Kate's reaction. Boone was having a hard time deciding what ended up being more amusing - Kate's attempts to convince herself otherwise or the way Shannon dealt with the situation.

"I almost feel bad for her," Shannon was saying as she wrapped up the story. Boone might have believed her if she weren't wearing such a smug grin. "I mean, she tries so hard to stay involved with everything that's going on, but she didn't know about this. Kate's probably embarrassed more than anything. She thinks she's friends with everyone here, but no one wanted to tell her about Jack and you."

Boone's eyebrows furrowed together. "You feel bad for her?"

"I said almost, dummy. Learn to listen."

"It kind of sounds like you do, though. Are you feeling all right? You might have a fever if you're feeling bad for people."

"If I feel bad it's because of how she reacted, and I can't believe someone could be so pathetic. You're the sympathetic one, not me."

"I don't know how I could've forgotten that. I'll write it down so I don't forget - you're the mean one, and I'm the nice one."

Shannon pushed her sunglasses back up her nose, stretching out to lie on her stomach and face the ocean. "Are you going to move to the caves now?"

"Why?"

Shannon offered a shrug in response. "Everyone knows you guys are together now. You've slept with him a few times already - if that includes sex or not, please spare me the details. If you wanted to, though, now you could."

"Jack's told me I could if I wanted to, but I like the beach. The caves feel...closed in. And there are mosquitoes."

"At least you can see the mosquitoes and kill them. The sand fleas are the worst sometimes..."

Boone ran a hand through his hair, keeping the lengthening strands away from his face. He was trying to get a read on Shannon's motives, and it was difficult when the breeze kept his hair in front of his eyes. "Do you think I should move?"

"I think you should do whatever you want, and even though I know I could easily convince you either way, I'm not going to say anything."

"You're so much help."

"I love you, too."

It wasn't that Boone didn't want to live in the caves with Jack. He had very much enjoyed the couple of nights he did stay there. His bigger problem was the he did not want to look like he was latching on. He had asked to go hunting with John to try and be helpful, earn some respect from people on the island, but John had turned him down back in those first days after the crash. Boone had been allowed to accompany them when they went looking for Charlie and Claire, but even then he hadn't felt like he actually accomplished anything. They found the hatch, sure, but no one else knew about it, so it didn't matter to anyone besides John.

Boone hoped the hatch turned out to be as helpful as all the trouble that had been put into it. He wanted to be in an equal relationship with Jack, and that was difficult when everyone looked to Jack for help and guidance while ignoring Boone.