Fic; Better Place to Stay [Lost, PG]
Title: Better Place to Stay
Author: sweetbelle07
Fandom: Lost
Character(s): Jack/Kate
Rating: High PGish.
Summery: It's Kate birthday and Jack wants to celebrate.
A/N: For losty_ville's birthday which was yesterday and a million apologies for it being late. My wrist is a whore and yeah that excuse is getting old. I'll come up with a new one soon, promise. So Happy Birthday, doll. Again. :D
A/N 2: Also a semi sequel to I Promise, though it can and is supposed to stand alone, despite the references to the other fic. It's all just a part of my Jate-verse.
There are bad ways to start a morning and then there are bad ways to start a morning. Starting the morning with screams and the smell of smoke, is one of those bad ways. She has time to pull on her cleanest pair of jeans (which have this funny smell to them) and the least sweat drenched shirt before scrambling out of her tent to help put out the fire, an accident this time (she hopes).
It's mid afternoon before they get all the flames out and despite their best efforts, Claire and Aaron and Rose and Bernard have nowhere to live now. Charlie offered to take in the blonde and her baby, no problem (which everyone had no qualms in believing, he'd been trying to convince Claire to share a tent for weeks now) and as for the older couple, Kate offered her own tent because it's almost summer now and it's not like she's going to freeze to death sleeping under the stars and besides, she likes sleeping outdoors every once in a while.
"Why didn't you tell anybody what today is?"
She pauses for a moment, fingers resting delicately on her makeshift mattress before lifting a shoulder in a shrug and looking up at him with a half smile. "I seem to recall asking you that same question."
"And it's still a valid question."
She laughs softly under her breath. "There was a fire, this morning, in case you forgot. Slipped my mind."
"That sounds a lot like the same half-assed excuse I gave you six months ago."
"Jack, what are you doing over here?" she asks. There's too much shit between them for them to be playing games around each other's heads. It's in and out with them, leave the most amount of damage you can in the least amount of words and pretend you don't see the flinches and tears.
"I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday," he tells her, his eyes carefully guarded against her questioning eyebrow. "And to give you this," he reaches into his backpack, passing over the tiny holes and tears in the polyester and hands her a white envelope. "and to say that I'm sorry I couldn't give you Dharma Initiative Macaroni and Cheese like you gave me."
"Thank you, Jack," she whispers, turning the letter over in her hands. A part of her can't help but to wonder what his motive for this is. It's been months since he said a kind word to her and even longer since he smiled in her general direction. To be getting both in the span of five minutes brings back that fugitive instinct she knows so very well that's telling her he's up to something and that's not necessarily a good thing.
Jack nods. "If you hear anything, anything at all, you--"
"Jack," she reprimands, "I'm a big girl. I can spend the night outside and not get kidnapped."
He nods again, looking like he regretted coming over to her and she supposes that some part of him does. "I'll see you in the morning, Kate."
She waits until she can't hear his steps in the sand before opening the envelope slowly, waiting for it to explode because stranger things have happened to them on this island then an envelope exploding. When nothing but waves crashing against the shoreline happens, she pulls the paper stuffed inside out, unfolding it carefully.
Kate stares at the paper for a moment, unsure if this is Jack's idea of a joke or if he's scorning her in some way. She moves her eyes over her own mug shot slowly, licking her lips, before she notices what he's written underneath the picture. Her eyes narrow, just a tiny bit, at what's written there.
We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it.
She scans the page a couple more times, taking in her mugshot and the quote. If this is an apology for what's happened between them for the past six months, even after Sawyer was out of the picture, and Juliet too, then it has to be the weirdest apology she's ever received, and if it's not, then what she's about to do is going to turn out very awkward.
Kate hesitates outside his tent for a second, pulling her courage to herself in one deep breath, and then she ducks inside the tent, not at all surprised to find Jack lying down but wide awake. "Is this a truce then?" she asks, kneeling beside him, waving the paper at him.
Jack sits up slowly, torn between giving her his usual glare and the smile that so desperately wants to come out, and settling on a serious expression instead. "I was thinking a new beginning. I've missed you, Kate."
She can't help but to smile and she's pretty sure that she's starting to blush too. "I've missed you too," she admits softly, resisting the urge to look away from him. "Jack, I'm sorry about--"
He shushes her with his finger. They've both said and done hurtful things they regret now and bringing them up is only going to sour this fresh start they so desperately need. "We don't need to talk about that now."
"We need to talk about it sometime," she points out.
"And we can in the morning," he answers, calmly. "Right now, we have your birthday to celebrate."
She smiles at him slowly, feeling like a teenager in love for the first time and maybe she is, at least the latter part. He leans over to kiss her and she meets him halfway and this must be what heaven feels like, she decides as he eases her onto her back and moves over her, all gentle kisses and caresses and none of the hateful Jack she's gotten used to over the past few months.
It doesn't matter that Rose and Bernard are occupying her tent, it turns out, because she's found a better place to stay.
Author: sweetbelle07
Fandom: Lost
Character(s): Jack/Kate
Rating: High PGish.
Summery: It's Kate birthday and Jack wants to celebrate.
A/N: For losty_ville's birthday which was yesterday and a million apologies for it being late. My wrist is a whore and yeah that excuse is getting old. I'll come up with a new one soon, promise. So Happy Birthday, doll. Again. :D
A/N 2: Also a semi sequel to I Promise, though it can and is supposed to stand alone, despite the references to the other fic. It's all just a part of my Jate-verse.
There are bad ways to start a morning and then there are bad ways to start a morning. Starting the morning with screams and the smell of smoke, is one of those bad ways. She has time to pull on her cleanest pair of jeans (which have this funny smell to them) and the least sweat drenched shirt before scrambling out of her tent to help put out the fire, an accident this time (she hopes).
It's mid afternoon before they get all the flames out and despite their best efforts, Claire and Aaron and Rose and Bernard have nowhere to live now. Charlie offered to take in the blonde and her baby, no problem (which everyone had no qualms in believing, he'd been trying to convince Claire to share a tent for weeks now) and as for the older couple, Kate offered her own tent because it's almost summer now and it's not like she's going to freeze to death sleeping under the stars and besides, she likes sleeping outdoors every once in a while.
"Why didn't you tell anybody what today is?"
She pauses for a moment, fingers resting delicately on her makeshift mattress before lifting a shoulder in a shrug and looking up at him with a half smile. "I seem to recall asking you that same question."
"And it's still a valid question."
She laughs softly under her breath. "There was a fire, this morning, in case you forgot. Slipped my mind."
"That sounds a lot like the same half-assed excuse I gave you six months ago."
"Jack, what are you doing over here?" she asks. There's too much shit between them for them to be playing games around each other's heads. It's in and out with them, leave the most amount of damage you can in the least amount of words and pretend you don't see the flinches and tears.
"I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday," he tells her, his eyes carefully guarded against her questioning eyebrow. "And to give you this," he reaches into his backpack, passing over the tiny holes and tears in the polyester and hands her a white envelope. "and to say that I'm sorry I couldn't give you Dharma Initiative Macaroni and Cheese like you gave me."
"Thank you, Jack," she whispers, turning the letter over in her hands. A part of her can't help but to wonder what his motive for this is. It's been months since he said a kind word to her and even longer since he smiled in her general direction. To be getting both in the span of five minutes brings back that fugitive instinct she knows so very well that's telling her he's up to something and that's not necessarily a good thing.
Jack nods. "If you hear anything, anything at all, you--"
"Jack," she reprimands, "I'm a big girl. I can spend the night outside and not get kidnapped."
He nods again, looking like he regretted coming over to her and she supposes that some part of him does. "I'll see you in the morning, Kate."
She waits until she can't hear his steps in the sand before opening the envelope slowly, waiting for it to explode because stranger things have happened to them on this island then an envelope exploding. When nothing but waves crashing against the shoreline happens, she pulls the paper stuffed inside out, unfolding it carefully.
Kate stares at the paper for a moment, unsure if this is Jack's idea of a joke or if he's scorning her in some way. She moves her eyes over her own mug shot slowly, licking her lips, before she notices what he's written underneath the picture. Her eyes narrow, just a tiny bit, at what's written there.
We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it.
She scans the page a couple more times, taking in her mugshot and the quote. If this is an apology for what's happened between them for the past six months, even after Sawyer was out of the picture, and Juliet too, then it has to be the weirdest apology she's ever received, and if it's not, then what she's about to do is going to turn out very awkward.
Kate hesitates outside his tent for a second, pulling her courage to herself in one deep breath, and then she ducks inside the tent, not at all surprised to find Jack lying down but wide awake. "Is this a truce then?" she asks, kneeling beside him, waving the paper at him.
Jack sits up slowly, torn between giving her his usual glare and the smile that so desperately wants to come out, and settling on a serious expression instead. "I was thinking a new beginning. I've missed you, Kate."
She can't help but to smile and she's pretty sure that she's starting to blush too. "I've missed you too," she admits softly, resisting the urge to look away from him. "Jack, I'm sorry about--"
He shushes her with his finger. They've both said and done hurtful things they regret now and bringing them up is only going to sour this fresh start they so desperately need. "We don't need to talk about that now."
"We need to talk about it sometime," she points out.
"And we can in the morning," he answers, calmly. "Right now, we have your birthday to celebrate."
She smiles at him slowly, feeling like a teenager in love for the first time and maybe she is, at least the latter part. He leans over to kiss her and she meets him halfway and this must be what heaven feels like, she decides as he eases her onto her back and moves over her, all gentle kisses and caresses and none of the hateful Jack she's gotten used to over the past few months.
It doesn't matter that Rose and Bernard are occupying her tent, it turns out, because she's found a better place to stay.