slybrunette

Title: The Last To Know
Fandom: Lost
Pairing: Kate Austen/Sun Kwon
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 811
Prompt: #35 - Mask
Progress: 16/100

When Claire ambled over to Sawyer’s tent, he sat up straighter and flashed her the dimpled smile that had come to be famous on crap-hole island. She caught his eye and grinned back, Aaron gurgling in her arms. Her teeth tugged in her bottom lip as she sat down cross-legged next to him, momentarily glaring at the sun’s blaze before turning her sparkling eyes on him.

“Hey Sawyer” her tone was relaxed, comfortable.

“Hey yourself. So what gossip has the Virgin Mary brought for me today?” he questioned as she blushed, getting into their daily routine.

Every day around noon when the sun was at its hottest and everyone was too sweaty or exhausted to do any work, she came around to the shade of his tent, and shared the most interesting tidbits of the camp. While he laughed inwardly at himself and made cracks under his breath about braiding hair and reading Cosmo next, he did enjoy their talks, because he needed a spy and a filter to weed out any unnecessary information and she needed someone to take Aaron out of her aching arms for a moment, ever since the hobbit turned out to be untrustworthy. A symbiotic relationship as his 9^th grade biology teacher would have said.

“You mean you haven’t heard?” she squeaked wide-eyed, leaning forward as she strained her fingers to lift her higher from their propped position in the sand behind her.

“Most likely not, I’ve been in the jungle since sunup.” He paused and looked at her skeptically, “Why? Did the doc and John finally have an epic shoot-out, old corral style?”

Claire giggled and Sawyer allowed himself to smile.

“Not that.” She got back down to it, “It’s…” she stopped, for the first time sounding uneasy in telling him whatever this huge thing was.

“Well go on, spit it out.” He half laughed at her, trying to coax her into saying it. Even if he really was going to hate this news, he’d rather get the impression out there of not caring right now.

“It’s about Kate.” She warned timidly and his face dropped for a second before he plastered on a grin. He didn’t think she noticed.

“I’m not going to break. Promise.” He placed his hand over his heart, Boy Scout like, to reinforce his statement.

She looked him over, as if checking for any visible wounds, but must have decided he was being truthful because she continued.

“Well, Kate…” she stopped again, as if choking on her words and was claustrophobic in the wide-open spaces.

Sawyer cocked his head to one side and sucked on the back of his teeth.

“Let be guess. Freckles finally swooned and fell in to Jackass’s arms and their going to live happily ever after.” He raised his eyebrows expectantly, waiting for Claire to nod or give him the pitiful eyes. Instead she slowly shook her head.

“No…” she drew out the ‘o’ in a long breath. The extremely confused look on Sawyer’s face forced the words out. Or rather word.

“Sun”

“What?” his eyebrows pulled up to his hairline, as if when someone was sewing him together they bunched the stitches too far apart and yanked them too tight. He began to shake his head, “But what does she have to do with-“

“Kate. And Sun. Together.” She elucidated slowly and made some very helpful hand gestures, twirling her index finger and middle finger around each other.

At that moment Sawyer glanced up and caught Kate in his sight line, her eyes meeting his. He could feel confusion, anger, and hurt flash over his features and she responded adequately with explanation, defensiveness and pity.

Then he realized that it wasn’t about him. It had never been about him. Kate was the kind of woman that appeared as you needed to see her. She only wanted him when he needed her to want him. Maybe now he didn’t need her, had finally released her from her obligations. He half-hearted wondered what she made Sun see.

Or maybe she had never really been that person to begin with, never owed him anything, and she was just now figuring it out. But one day she would have to return to that way, the ever-shifting mask. One day she would have to run again. He could see it in her eyes; the fear on loosing yourself in it, that one day you wouldn’t be able to tell where the real you ended and the façade began. No one else here would ever understand that internal battle for your own soul like he could, not Sun, not Jack. The cynical side of him smirked, knew that would be his time, his chance. Then she really would be his. All he had to do was wait.

Maybe Kate knew that. Maybe that was why he was the last to know.