Title: A Hollywood Teen Movie
Pairing: Jack/Kate. Sawyer/Kate. Jin/Sun. Michael/Sun. Sayid/Shannon. Boone/Shannon. Charlie/Claire. Implied UC and past 'ships.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,258
Notes: Written for
lost_hohoho for
averita, who requested: "Claire, Shannon, Kate, and Sun have a girls night out. The boys (make the pairings whatever you want) decide to surprise them." I hope this is what you had in mind; happy holidays!
Timeline: Season One. Post-kidnapping-and-return and post-Sun's-secret-comes-out; pre-Boone's-death-and-Aaron's-birth. Could be considered AU.
Summary: Shannon pouted. "I don't have a very narrow view of what girls act like," she said. "I just want one stereotypical made-for-Hollywood teen-movie-esque girls' night, is that so much to ask for?"
It was Shannon's idea to begin with.
"We need to do something normal for once," she complained to Claire as the Australian pulled clothes out of a suitcase, trying to find a shirt that would fit her. "Like girly normal. Civilization normal. Mainland normal. Not running-for-our-lives-from-a-fucking-polar-bear."
"Right." Claire nodded, held up a top to size it against her swollen belly. "Any ideas?"
"I don't know." Shannon sighed, trying to sound annoyed, but then gave it serious thought. "A girls' night. You, me, Sun. Kate if she's not busy heroically going into the jungle to risk life and limb to prove that she's one of the boys or whatever."
"Shannon, we're on an island in the middle of nowhere. What exactly are we meant to do on this girls' night?"
"I don't know! Gossip. Giggle. Paint our nails. Talk about boys. Act like girls, for God's sake."
"You have a very narrow view of what girls act like," Claire said mildly. "Do you think I'd fit into this?"
"Oh my God, Claire, that thing is huge. What is that, an extra-extra-extra-large?"
"Something like that."
"You'd fit into it. Why would you want to, is the question."
"Because I'm sick of having nothing to wear."
Shannon pouted. "I don't have a very narrow view of what girls act like," she said, returning to the original topic. "I just want one stereotypical made-for-Hollywood teen-movie-esque girls' night, is that so much to ask for?"
Claire shrugged and set the shirt aside. "Did you just use the word 'esque'?"
"...Shut up. So what do you think?"
"I wouldn't mind a distraction. If Sun and Kate agree, I'm in."
Shannon beamed.
Sun was an easy sell on the idea. She was tired and stressed and sad, and thrilled to be included in some good old-fashioned friendship bonding. Which left Kate.
Kate was not an easy sell.
"A girls' night out," the brunette said skeptically.
"Right." Shannon resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "You know, do all the girly things we haven't been able to do since the crash. Bond. That kind of thing."
"Bond."
"Yeah, bond."
"Shannon, we've been stranded here for a month together. Why the sudden urge to bond now?"
"Well..." She started ticking reasons off on her fingers. "Sun's stressed and upset about the whole fight-with-Jin thing. Claire's stressed about the fact that she'll probably have to give birth on a deserted island. Boone is pissing me off and trying to decode a bunch of maps with French lyrics scrawled on them is stressful. And it seems like every other day you're off to risk your life for very little gain. So we need to de-stress, and not think about our personal issues, and a girls' night out is pretty much the perfect way to do it."
Kate still looked doubtful.
"Come on," Shannon wheedled in her best you know you want to do this for me tone. "Claire and Sun already said yes. You don't want to disappoint everybody, do you? It'll be fun! Pleeeaase?"
"All right! Fine! I'll be there!" Kate huffed an annoyed breath, then flashed a smile to show there were no hard feelings, grabbed her backpack, and left.
Shannon wanted to cheer, but there was no way she was going to do that where anyone could hear her, so she just grinned at Kate's back and walked in the other direction, back to her own shelter.
They met that night and argued about where to spend the time, so that they wouldn't have to worry about being intruded on while they were being, as Shannon put it, "girly".
At last, Kate settled it by announcing that she and Sawyer had found a waterfall in the jungle, and almost nobody knew about it, and it was probably one of the most gorgeous places on the island. And so, armed with food, drinking water, magazines, and the remnants of Shannon's nail polish, the four girls set off into the jungle, totally unaware of the fact that seven pairs of eyes were watching them go.
Maybe they should've been more aware.
"Okay, so," Kate declared in her best parody of a teen movie, "Like, who do you think is, like, hotter? Ben Affleck or Matt Damon?"
Shannon giggled and Claire looked spooked. "That's scary, Kate."
"Thank you, I do my best."
"Sun, can I paint your toenails?" Shannon asked abruptly, and Sun looked bemused but nodded assent. "I'm sick of painting my own nails," the tall blonde explained. "There's only so many different colors you can go through..." Sun wiggled out of her shoes and Shannon got to work with an almost professional flare.
They spent a comfortable two minutes or so like that, Shannon painting Sun's nails, Claire reclining to take the weight off her back, Kate with her legs dangling in the water. Then Claire said suddenly, "So, seriously. Who do you think is hotter, Sawyer or Sayid?"
Now Sun giggled first, and Shannon followed close behind; Kate looked horrified for a moment, and then started to crack up just as much. Claire flashed a delighted smile.
When Shannon managed to suck in a breath between laughs, she declared, "Sayid. Sawyer's whole look-at-me-I'm-an-asshole thing detracts majorly from the Southern hotness factor."
"Sawyer," Kate disagreed. "Sayid's all...noble, and it's kind of hot but kind of intimidating, you know what I mean?"
"No."
Before Kate could push the answer, Sun said shyly, "I think Sawyer's very attractive."
Shannon cheered.
"What?"
"Nothing, I just think it's very telling that you think the asshole's attractive."
Sun flushed. "Jin's not-it's very complicated."
"Besides," Claire interrupted, "Sawyer's not an asshole. He's a jerk, but it's all deliberate, and...he's not an asshole. Asshole is reserved for my ex-boyfriend."
They quieted. "Sorry, Claire," Kate said. "So, um...you wanna talk about it?"
"It is a bonding activity," Shannon interjected.
Claire couldn't help it; she smiled. "I don't mind talking about what happened, you know!"
"Well, you never do!"
"Because you've never asked!"
Shannon paused, considered that, then shrugged. "Well, we're asking now."
Claire shook her head, amused. "His name was Thomas and he was an asshole and I don't know why I didn't figure that out before he abandoned me when I was three months pregnant."
"That's not gossip," Kate pointed out. "That's leaving out all the juicy bits."
"Right. How are we supposed to bond if you leave out all the juicy bits?" Shannon chimed in.
Sun nodded. "Details, Claire."
Claire laughed, readjusted her position for comfort, and started with the day Thomas had walked into her life.
"What do you think they're doing?" Charlie asked.
"It's none of our business, Charlie," Jack insisted, but couldn't disguise the fact that he kept glancing in the direction the girls had left, too.
"I was just asking."
Sayid cleared his throat. "I suppose they're doing whatever it is women do when they're alone?"
"That's very helpful, mate, thank you for that."
"We should leave them to their privacy," Michael said. Unconvincingly.
Boone nodded. "Right." He didn't sound any more convincing than Michael had.
"Whatever they're doing," Jack repeated himself, "It's none of our business."
"Right."
There was a pause.
Then Sawyer said, "'Course, could be they found themselves in some trouble out there."
"Right," Charlie agreed. "I mean, there's polar bears and wild boar and...and things in the jungle!"
"We wouldn't want to leave those poor girls to fend for themselves against wild animals, would we?"
The men exchanged looks.
An interjection of Korean interrupted the not-quite-an-argument, and Jin grabbed a bag and started in the direction the women had gone. That settled it.
The other men followed him.
"Jin was very poor, but very sweet. He was..." Sun searched for the right words, frowning slightly as she sorted through her English lessons. "He was different than anyone I had met before. I fell in love with him. We wanted to get married, but my father disapproved of him...Jin agreed to work for him, in order to allow the wedding to happen."
"That's sweet, in a made-for-TV movie way," Claire offered.
Kate grinned.
Sun smiled, too, and continued, "After we married, things changed. Jin changed. He got..." Another frown, another pause. "More distant."
"Men suck," Shannon said, concentrating on Sun's right little toe.
"Something happened to change him," Sun insisted. "I just wish I knew what it was. I wish I could fix things between us."
"You will," Kate said. "You're in love, right?"
The women exchanged small smiles with each other.
"There," Shannon declared and sat up. "Done. What do you think?"
Sun peeked at her toes, then concealed a smile. "Very nice, Shannon."
"I do my best."
"I heard Freckles say they were goin' to the waterfall," Sawyer insisted.
"What waterfall?" Boone demanded. "You have no idea where we're headed, do you?"
"Of course I know where we're going, Metro," Sawyer snapped back. "It's, uh...this way."
"So what's the deal with you and your brother?" Kate asked.
"What do you mean?" Shannon countered.
"I mean there's a seriously off vibe with the two of you."
"Vibe? Vibe? Who are you?"
Sun laughed.
"She's right, though," Claire said. "There's something weird with you and Boone."
Shannon waved it off. "He's my stepbrother. We don't get along. I hate his mother, he thinks he has to save me."
"And that's all?"
"Kate, you haven't spilled anything yet!"
"What is there to spill?" Kate demanded in return. "Are you just trying to get out of talking about Boone?"
"Yes! I don't want to talk about my brother!" Shannon cried. "And spill something about a bad relationship, as that seems to be the trend."
"No, wait!" Claire interjected. "Kate: Jack or Sawyer?"
"What?"
"Who are you more interested in?" Sun clarified. "Jack or Sawyer?"
"I...can't believe you're asking me that."
"They're both chasing after you like mad, you flirt with both of them, and they've practically beat each other up over you, so which one?" Shannon sounded almost gleeful to be pressing the issue.
Kate opened her mouth, closed it, and shook her head. "You three are insane."
"Well, obviously." Claire giggled.
"If we weren't stranded on a desert island..."
Shannon flicked nail polish at her.
And then Sun flinched suddenly and poked Kate lightly in the side. When Kate looked at her, she nodded towards the jungle. "I saw something move," she whispered.
Kate took her seriously and looked in the same direction.
Something moved.
Kate squinted at it, and then suddenly recognized what it was.
"Get your elbow out of my side!"
"Okay, guys? I think we've officially crossed the line from 'concerned about their safety' into 'creepy stalkers'," Jack said.
Everyone ignored him.
"Well," Kate's voice came, loud enough to reach them, "Jack's cute and a great guy and everything, but that need to be the hero all the time? A definite minus."
Then Sun: "So Sawyer?"
"About the only thing Sawyer has going for him is the fact that he's hot. Other than that...nothing."
"Bitch," Sawyer muttered. Sayid elbowed him a little more deliberately.
"But what about poor Claire?" Shannon chimed in. "She's got that loser Charlie practically stalking her..."
Charlie flushed bright red.
"He's not a loser!" Claire protested. "He's just...a little awkward."
"Charlie's a nice guy," Kate chimed in with the defense. "It's not his fault that he's so infatuated with Claire that he can't think straight."
"Oh, merciful God, kill me now," Charlie mumbled. Michael patted his shoulder awkwardly.
"He can't think straight regardless!"
"Shannon's got Sayid, though," Claire persisted. "And it doesn't seem like he's got any plans to become less infatuated anytime soon."
"He's not infatuated," Shannon said haughtily.
"No, just obsessed," Kate smirked.
As one, the rest of the guys looked at Sayid, who was trying very hard to look disinterested. It wasn't working.
"Not obsessed, either. Just...a nice guy. A hot, nice guy. Anyway," Shannon said determinedly, changing the subject by sheer force of will, "Sun-"
"What about me?" Sun protested. "My husband will hardly speak to me, I don't think that-"
"Uh, Michael?" the blonde American pointed out, and now it was Michael's turn to start looking for a hole to climb into.
"What about Michael?"
"The whole mutual-crush thing you two have going on," Claire said helpfully.
"I think it's adorable," Shannon added. "In a junior-high oh-my-God-he's-looking-at-me-what-do-I-do sort of way."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Suuure you don't."
"I don't!"
"The denial is very appealing," Claire said.
"Kill me," Michael begged Sawyer.
"We'll be glad to," Kate said, and all the men looked up to find themselves suddenly staring at a very annoyed brunette.
Jack coughed. "Uh. Hi, Kate?"
"Hi, Jack. Were you spying on us?"
"We're dead, aren't we?" Charlie whispered.
"Yeah," Sawyer hissed back. "We're dead."
Jack kicked Sawyer as best as he could. "Uh, we weren't spying, per se..."
"We thought that you might have been in danger..."
"So we were checking to make sure you were all, y'know, safe, and..."
Jin chimed in something helpful in Korean.
Kate stared at them, and then looked back at Shannon, Claire, and Sun, who were unsuccessfully stifling giggles. "Boys!"
"Well," Shannon managed, "Boys will be boys, after all..."
"What's a stereotypical girls' night out without the boys crashing it?" Claire chimed in.
Sun just laughed harder, burying her face in her knees.
And Kate gave in, and laughed too, and the guys just looked at each other in bewilderment but seized the opportunity to escape.
"Well," Shannon giggled once they were gone, "We wanted a Hollywood movie moment..."