slybrunette | (no subject)

Title: Nothing To Lose Sleep Over
Fandom: Lost
Characters/Pairings: Kate, Sun, mentions of others.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,598
Prompt: #17 - Parents for

slash_100
Warnings: Character Death
Awards: Winner of Best Future Fic at

lost_fic_awards(October 2007)
Author's Note: After a long break I'm back into Lost fic writing, and come bearing probably one of the weirder fics that I've written. Feedback on this one is much appreciated.
Summary: AU. Kate and Sun get a little payback.

When they pulled up outside of the gas station she didn’t even bother to wake the other woman. She just refilled the car and headed for the small convenience store for food and water, hat pulled down low on top of a head of red curls.

The man behind her in line leered at her and she gave him a coy smile, like she might be interested. The only thing she was interested about with him was his wallet, and even that wouldn’t be worth the trouble judging by his attire. That didn’t mean she couldn’t play with him a bit. So she caught his gaze just before she handed the clerk her money, and raised her eyebrows before she walked her suggestive little ass right out the door and back to the car, enjoying the look on his face when he followed her out only to find her whispering to another woman in the car with her in the kind of way that said they were just a couple of twenty year olds on a road trip.

“You should really be more careful.” Sun said, sitting up straighter, wiping the sleep from her eyes.

“Shouldn’t I be the one giving out advice? I’ve been doing this awhile longer than you.” Kate replied, glancing in the rearview mirror to make sure the man was gone. He was.

“Yes, but you were never into taking risks until recently.” The other woman reached out a hand to smooth over one of Kate’s curls that only sprung back in place. “You know the red only makes you stand out more.”

“I figured the dark glasses and neutral clothes had been done to death. Thought this was a nice change.” Kate glanced over at Sun, who had brought her leg up, her chin resting on her knee. “How come you never change anything? You look the same as you did on the island.”

“Because they are not looking for me.” Sun reminded her.

“Right.” They had mug shots galore of Kate but when it came to Sun they had nothing. They would if they got the chance, all they had to do was put the pieces together, which was precisely why Sun was perched in the passenger seat of a car that had seen its prime about a decade ago with a convicted murderer.

Not that she was much better.

---

one month ago…

“I need your help.”

There was something in her friend’s plea that had her heading for California even though she should’ve avoided that stake at all costs. The marshals knew she had friends there. Still she drove until she nearly passed out from exhaustion and ended up outside the door of a well-furbished apartment.

“Jin’s missing.” Sun had informed her after she’d pulled her in for an embrace and dead-bolted the door.

“What do you mean missing?” Kate had asked, noting the emphasis Sun had put on the last word to suggest this wasn’t a case of ‘gone to Vegas, be back in a week’ (not that Jin would do that but you get the drift).

“I think my father has something to do with it.” Sun told her, after explaining that Jin had gone to work and simply never come home.

“But why would he do that?” She didn’t know all that much about Sun’s family on her past. It just wasn’t something they’d really gotten deep into on the island.

“He’s always had something against Jin and now that we’ve tried to run from him he’ll probably blame Jin for taking me away.” She sounded hurried, nervous. Kate wanted to tell her it would be alright but she wasn’t so sure. “I don’t know what to do.”

---

“How many more miles?” Sun asked, fishing in the glove-box for a map, some indication of where they were as the street signs faded away and they got on the highway.

“Not sure.” Kate chanced a glance at her counterpart, found her sifting through a map that was scribbled over in red marker, small notes in handwriting that wasn’t their own. “It should only be a few more hours.”

Sun nodded before something caught her eye in the mirror. “Slow down.”

Kate did so accordingly before she let her eyes flit to her rearview mirror. There was a cop car trailing them.

“You think it’s following us?”

She shook her head, “No. Just bad luck.”

“We have had more than enough of that.” Sun replied as she sat back, relaxing ever so slightly, never taking her eyes off the mirror.

---

The day they found Jin’s body she spent the morning holding Sun as she sobbed, murmuring what she thought were sufficiently soothing words, and spent the evening figuring out what to do about it. The additional rumor that Mr. Paik was in Los Angeles only made things clearer, or as clear as they can be after a few drinks.

He would never leave her alone, they both knew it, and he’d killed Jin so there was only one thing to do about it.

He had to die.

---

Sometimes Kate regrets showing up on Sun’s doorstep at all. Sometimes Kate regrets answering the phone. Most times Kate regrets ever alluding to what she herself had done to her own father. If she hadn’t then they wouldn’t both be on the run. Though after years of not being able to keep a friend, or anyone, around her for that matter it was nice to have someone with her.

“He’s taking the exit,” Sun informed her, watching the state trooper veer off on to the exit ramp with a sigh of relief.

Kate was surprised to hear herself breathing easier as well. Years of this and it had began to freak her out less and less. She knew that not every cop knew who she was or cared and she knew eight times out of ten she would be fine. This time was different though, this time they could not get caught.

---

Her father wasn’t an easy man to find, not directly anyway, but Sun contacted her mother and said she was willing to come back home, had seen the err of her ways and somehow words had gotten to her father.

He came in person, showed up at Sun’s apartment, supposedly just as she had a friend over. Of course, Kate being there was no accident. Sun offered him something to eat and the man was dead within the hour.

Sun never cried, never said a word about it, although Kate knew it hadn’t set well with her, she just hadn’t found the time or the heart to bring it up.

---

“He killed your husband.” Kate reminded her as they passed a bright green sign informing them they were only thirty miles away from their destination.

“I know,” Sun replied, eyes straight ahead, voice steady and solid.

“He would’ve come after you and you would’ve been stripped of your freedom because you left. No one deserves to live like that.” Kate adds, carefully, and she’s not sure whether she’s listing reasons to make Sun or herself feel better. If she’s listing reasons for Sun’s father’s murder or her own.

All Sun does is repeat, “I know.”

“No one will know it was you, no one will find out.”

“Enough,” Sun bites out, turning to her with somewhat narrowed eyes, less angry and more annoyed. “I know why we did what we did. It had to be done. I don’t need you to convince me.”

Kate bit her lip, gripping the steering wheel, as she whispered, “Sorry.”

---

“We have to do something with the body.” Kate told her from the doorway of the bedroom. Sun was sitting on the edge of the bed, red shirt against the off-white room (and Kate notes the irony of this palette in relation to what they’ve done; blood spilled or not) and it’s the fact that the other woman hasn’t said a word since Kate told her the man’s pulse was gone that worries her. “Can I do anything for you?”

Sun snapped back, sat back a little straighter and her eyes now focused on Kate rather than the wall. “No, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” She checked, just to make sure. She didn’t want Sun to feel pressured into this, didn’t want backlash of ‘it’s your fault’ and ‘you made me do it’. She couldn’t imagine Sun saying it but she still couldn’t rule it out completely.

Sun nodded, slowly.

“We do have to do something soon. We can’t just leave him where he is or someone will find out.” Really, it was less about everyone else and more about the fact that staring at the man’s pale, lifeless face was more than a little unnerving. All of the death and carnage she’d seen on the island and she’d still never gotten used to it.

“I have never had to hide a body before; I wouldn’t know where to start.” Sun replied.

“I haven’t either,” Kate said, thinking for a moment before, “but I have an idea.”

---

“Are you sure this is a good plan?” Sun asked as they pulled outside the small house that stood on it’s own on a few acres of land.

Kate nodded, shutting off the engine and letting the door swing open before looking back at her friend. “It’ll be fine, trust me. They’ll never find out.”

“I hope you’re right.” Sun told her, hesitating ever so slightly and then getting out and following Kate around back to the trunk of the car.