Pairing: Charlie/Sawyer, future fic
The waves lapped over the shore, keeping Jin's nets stocked heavily with fish, while the sun beat down and kept the jungle alive and stuffy. Wooden huts, erected months ago, kept the islanders protected from the midday heat, while an elaborate and impressive design of bamboo pipes provided drinking water.
Flight 815 had landed on this drop of land years ago; the survivors had had no choice but to grasp together a meagre existence, in the beginning. As they adapted and grew on the island, their community did too. Now, this place could give them anything and everything they could need or desire.
Staring out of the window, a hole in the wall with shutters to close at night, Charlie neutrally observed the island's simple events; the wind whipping over the sand, Sun and Jin struggling with the twins by their hut, Desmond and Claire walking off happily to their far-off picnic.
In the distance, if he strained to see it, he'd be able to make out the small wooden gate that surrounded their cemetery. Fewer graves had had to be added to it in this past year: by now, they'd learned to live here. Survival of the fittest, and all that jazz.
He looked away from the window as the door to their hut opened, Sawyer entering. With his hair tied back, thick stubble against his face, Sawyer looked exhausted. He'd been out chopping wood for the fire, Charlie would guess from the sight of the sweat on his bare chest.
His gaze was drawn back to the window, back to the scene outside and the sight of Jack and Kate there, still flirting after all these years, even with Kate's belly swollen and pregnant.
A small smile appeared on his face when Sawyer's arms slipped around his waist from behind. "It's pretty perfect here, isn't it?" he said, as if he'd just noticed it.
Sawyer murmured something – no doubt something bitchy and snarky, so Charlie was glad that he hadn't heard it – before pressing his lips against the back of Charlie's neck. "If you say so," he eventually said.
At least that wasn't out-and-out disagreement, Charlie mused as they both fell silent again, just watching the lives passing by outside the window.