Getting to Know You Again - Lost - Sayid/Shannon
Title: Getting to Know You Again
Pairing: Sayid/Shannon, Boone, Hurley
Word Count: 1619
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Up to the finale.
A/N: Written for aurilly's request at the Fanfic Wish Meme.
Summary: With time to spare before they have to be at the church, Sayid and Shannon stop to talk over dinner.
They've got time before they have to be at the church, a lot of it - there is no now, here - so Shannon makes them stop at a diner, a little mom-and-pop place that looks as if it hasn't had new customers in a decade at least. She wouldn't usually eat here, not in this kind of place with this kind of food - but, hey, she figures that if they're dead then calories don't matter. She can eat what she likes.
She orders two side portions of fries with her hamburger. They taste delicious.
Sayid sits opposite her and watches her eat, stealing fries from under her nose. "I've missed you," she says - she's said it a hundred times, more, but she can't stop. The truth of it makes her chest ache.
It shouldn't hurt like this: she's dead, he's dead, but it feels like he's been gone forever.
"I missed you too," he says, and he steals a fry from between her fingers this time, the too-hot heat disappearing into his mouth.
Her eyes linger on his lips, and she's missed them too. It doesn't matter that they were kissing just moments ago, and the entire journey here in the car, or on the street when they first met (first remembered). Her body feels starved for him, so she gives into temptation and leans across the table, tasting his lips and the fresh salt upon them.
"You guys are insatiable, you know that?" Boone complains, sitting in the booth with them. "Seriously. Isn't your libido supposed to be dead too?"
She pulls back from Sayid and hits Boone in the arm, just because she can, just because he's there. He's there and he's alive and she thinks she's never been happier than this, never felt more complete.
"Dude, chill out. You, like, hate love or something." Hurley chuckles and smiles, and check his cell phone: he's waiting to hear from Libby, he's told them. She's meeting them at the church - and Shannon is looking forward to it. She wants to meet her and shake her hand and say, You've got a good guy there. She wants to tell her that she doesn't resent her, or any of them, for what happened.
"Perhaps Boone is right," Sayid suggests. The sound of his voice is still enough to send shivers down her spine, warm and delicate, and always amused. "We were displaying a lack of decorum, weren't we?"
"Screw decorum," Shannon says, and she kisses him again, just to piss Boone off.
It's exactly like being alive. It's like nothing has changed, even if everything has, even if they're happy now and they're all much saner. Better.
When she rests in her seat again, Boone is trying to look cross, but she can see the tilt of a smile on his lips.
"We'll go wait in the car," Hurley says, getting to his feet and tugging on Boone's upper arm. "We'll see you out there."
Boone looks like he might object, but Hurley is impossible to resist: he's become even more zen and convincing since Shannon knew him. Now, he's an unstoppable force.
Their set of third wheels disappear outside, Hurley leaving a ridiculously large tip on the table as he goes. Shannon's eyes linger on it for a moment or two, and she's surprised that her hands feel no prickling urge to pick up the wad of cash.
It's as if she understands, now.
She knows that - here - money doesn't mean a thing. They are beyond it. Happiness lies elsewhere.
At the moment? It's mostly lying across the table, watching her with chocolate-soft eyes.
"You look just like I remember," Shannon says. She feels like something ought to be different. They're in the damn afterlife: they should be sparkling or glowing or something, but it's all the same. It's all normal. Clearer, maybe. Simpler.
Sayid looks away from her for the first time since they've been reunited, looking down at their hands so that his gaze is shielded. "I don't feel it," he says. "Shannon, since you died, there is so much that I have done, so much that I am ashamed of. I-"
She hushes him with another kiss against his lips, silencing his words into a muffled grunt. She could so get used to this. She pulls back, but she leaves his face bracketed in her hands, holding him steady. "Sayid? You're a good man. You know how I know that? 'cause I'm a good woman. I'm a great woman."
It's taken her a life and an afterlife to understand that, to accept it. She isn't the pretty blonde princess that the mirror says she is; he isn't the dark torturer that his past wants him to be.
They're more than that. Both of them. All of them.
Sayid takes her hand from his cheek and holds onto it, his grip gentle, his skin soft. "I have a confession," he says, but she doesn't feel nervous. "There was another woman. After you..." He trails off and she can feel the pain, and she wants to say, I'm sorry, and she wants to say, I'm here now, but in the end she holds her tongue. "I loved her. Deeply. I loved her and she died."
Shannon wonders if she ought to feel jealous. She thinks that, yeah, maybe that is how it's supposed to go. Another woman, another love, another broken relationship left in her wake - but this world doesn't work like this. She sees clearly now. She understands everything.
"Everything dies. Everything ends." And everything begins, and that's why they're here. She tangles her fingers with his, and catches his gaze: she hopes that her eyes say everything that she can't.
Despite what Boone would say, she's never been good with words. Not where it matters. She can cut a person down with a few good insults and she knows how to make the most hardened person in the world cry - but when it comes to this, that isn't the most useful skill in the world. She doesn't know how to soothe him, how to promise him that the world is going to be better now, so much better.
In the end, it doesn't matter.
He knows.
Sayid raises her hand to her lips and kisses the back of her knuckles, ever the gentleman. She has to fight not to giggle, her head tilted to the side with affection as she watches him: her hero, her prince. "I believe Boone grows impatient," Sayid points out.
Without even having to glance out the window, she doesn't think that that is strictly speaking true. Boone's always been patient with her, if loudly so, but even that is extended here. Where there is no sense of time, there is no sense of urgency.
She doesn't think that it is consideration for Boone's feelings that make Sayid eager to get going.
"I feel it too," she says. He knows what she's talking about. She's sure of it.
He nods. "It's time to leave."
Time to Leave. Time to move on.
Her fingers tingle with happy anticipation, and Sayid gets to his feet first, leading her with him. Naturally, she tucks in at his side, his arm around her shoulders. Leaning against him as they walk out, she feels content: completely, fully, wholly.
They wave at the owners of the restaurant on the way out, and compliment their cooking skills. Shannon kinda wants to stick around to see their reaction to Hurley's tip, but she moves on with Sayid anyway: she can imagine the expressions on their faces. It's enough.
She and Sayid rest in the back of the car, their hands entwined, while Hurley calmly drives on towards their destination; Boone is shot-gun, listening to the radio. The news reporter speaks of a calm, peaceful day. No crime. No war.
Shannon wonders how they didn't realise where they were long before this.
"You ready to go to church?" Boone asks, glancing at her in the mirror.
"Are you sure lightning won't strike the second I walk in?" Shannon asks, although she's sure she's long-past her devil woman days.
Besides, with Sayid's arm around her shoulders, she doesn't think that even God would dare to smite her. Sayid is the thing that even all-powerful douches should be afraid of.
"Everyone should be on their way by now," Hurley says. "It's gonna be cool seeing them all together again."
Hurley has missed them, Shannon thinks, even more than he is letting on. She wants to corner him, sometime, and ask exactly where his life led to before he came here, but it can wait. With Sayid's warm weight and strength surrounding her, she thinks it could wait forever.
There are already lights on inside the church when they arriving, parking outside, and they allow Boone and Hurley to head inside first. She rests her head against Sayid's head for a moment longer, listening to his long-ago heartbeat.
"Are you ready?" Sayid asks, his words a warm trickle by her ear.
She doesn't want to move yet, but the excitement buzzing in her heart tells her that it's time. "I've been ready for a long, long time," she says, even if that isn't quite true.
Sayid crooks a finger under the bottom of her chin, and tilts her lips up to meet his mouth: another kiss. She doesn't think she'll ever get enough of this, now that they've got eternity to spare. Her fingers rise over muscle and strength until she is able to tangle herself in his hair, anchoring herself as they open up in the back of Hurley's vehicle.
Leaving can wait five more minutes, Shannon decides as she slides into Sayid's lap, his large hands resting on her hips. No time limits, no deadlines, no rushes: the afterlife is definitely her kind of place.
Pairing: Sayid/Shannon, Boone, Hurley
Word Count: 1619
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Up to the finale.
A/N: Written for aurilly's request at the Fanfic Wish Meme.
Summary: With time to spare before they have to be at the church, Sayid and Shannon stop to talk over dinner.
They've got time before they have to be at the church, a lot of it - there is no now, here - so Shannon makes them stop at a diner, a little mom-and-pop place that looks as if it hasn't had new customers in a decade at least. She wouldn't usually eat here, not in this kind of place with this kind of food - but, hey, she figures that if they're dead then calories don't matter. She can eat what she likes.
She orders two side portions of fries with her hamburger. They taste delicious.
Sayid sits opposite her and watches her eat, stealing fries from under her nose. "I've missed you," she says - she's said it a hundred times, more, but she can't stop. The truth of it makes her chest ache.
It shouldn't hurt like this: she's dead, he's dead, but it feels like he's been gone forever.
"I missed you too," he says, and he steals a fry from between her fingers this time, the too-hot heat disappearing into his mouth.
Her eyes linger on his lips, and she's missed them too. It doesn't matter that they were kissing just moments ago, and the entire journey here in the car, or on the street when they first met (first remembered). Her body feels starved for him, so she gives into temptation and leans across the table, tasting his lips and the fresh salt upon them.
"You guys are insatiable, you know that?" Boone complains, sitting in the booth with them. "Seriously. Isn't your libido supposed to be dead too?"
She pulls back from Sayid and hits Boone in the arm, just because she can, just because he's there. He's there and he's alive and she thinks she's never been happier than this, never felt more complete.
"Dude, chill out. You, like, hate love or something." Hurley chuckles and smiles, and check his cell phone: he's waiting to hear from Libby, he's told them. She's meeting them at the church - and Shannon is looking forward to it. She wants to meet her and shake her hand and say, You've got a good guy there. She wants to tell her that she doesn't resent her, or any of them, for what happened.
"Perhaps Boone is right," Sayid suggests. The sound of his voice is still enough to send shivers down her spine, warm and delicate, and always amused. "We were displaying a lack of decorum, weren't we?"
"Screw decorum," Shannon says, and she kisses him again, just to piss Boone off.
It's exactly like being alive. It's like nothing has changed, even if everything has, even if they're happy now and they're all much saner. Better.
When she rests in her seat again, Boone is trying to look cross, but she can see the tilt of a smile on his lips.
"We'll go wait in the car," Hurley says, getting to his feet and tugging on Boone's upper arm. "We'll see you out there."
Boone looks like he might object, but Hurley is impossible to resist: he's become even more zen and convincing since Shannon knew him. Now, he's an unstoppable force.
Their set of third wheels disappear outside, Hurley leaving a ridiculously large tip on the table as he goes. Shannon's eyes linger on it for a moment or two, and she's surprised that her hands feel no prickling urge to pick up the wad of cash.
It's as if she understands, now.
She knows that - here - money doesn't mean a thing. They are beyond it. Happiness lies elsewhere.
At the moment? It's mostly lying across the table, watching her with chocolate-soft eyes.
"You look just like I remember," Shannon says. She feels like something ought to be different. They're in the damn afterlife: they should be sparkling or glowing or something, but it's all the same. It's all normal. Clearer, maybe. Simpler.
Sayid looks away from her for the first time since they've been reunited, looking down at their hands so that his gaze is shielded. "I don't feel it," he says. "Shannon, since you died, there is so much that I have done, so much that I am ashamed of. I-"
She hushes him with another kiss against his lips, silencing his words into a muffled grunt. She could so get used to this. She pulls back, but she leaves his face bracketed in her hands, holding him steady. "Sayid? You're a good man. You know how I know that? 'cause I'm a good woman. I'm a great woman."
It's taken her a life and an afterlife to understand that, to accept it. She isn't the pretty blonde princess that the mirror says she is; he isn't the dark torturer that his past wants him to be.
They're more than that. Both of them. All of them.
Sayid takes her hand from his cheek and holds onto it, his grip gentle, his skin soft. "I have a confession," he says, but she doesn't feel nervous. "There was another woman. After you..." He trails off and she can feel the pain, and she wants to say, I'm sorry, and she wants to say, I'm here now, but in the end she holds her tongue. "I loved her. Deeply. I loved her and she died."
Shannon wonders if she ought to feel jealous. She thinks that, yeah, maybe that is how it's supposed to go. Another woman, another love, another broken relationship left in her wake - but this world doesn't work like this. She sees clearly now. She understands everything.
"Everything dies. Everything ends." And everything begins, and that's why they're here. She tangles her fingers with his, and catches his gaze: she hopes that her eyes say everything that she can't.
Despite what Boone would say, she's never been good with words. Not where it matters. She can cut a person down with a few good insults and she knows how to make the most hardened person in the world cry - but when it comes to this, that isn't the most useful skill in the world. She doesn't know how to soothe him, how to promise him that the world is going to be better now, so much better.
In the end, it doesn't matter.
He knows.
Sayid raises her hand to her lips and kisses the back of her knuckles, ever the gentleman. She has to fight not to giggle, her head tilted to the side with affection as she watches him: her hero, her prince. "I believe Boone grows impatient," Sayid points out.
Without even having to glance out the window, she doesn't think that that is strictly speaking true. Boone's always been patient with her, if loudly so, but even that is extended here. Where there is no sense of time, there is no sense of urgency.
She doesn't think that it is consideration for Boone's feelings that make Sayid eager to get going.
"I feel it too," she says. He knows what she's talking about. She's sure of it.
He nods. "It's time to leave."
Time to Leave. Time to move on.
Her fingers tingle with happy anticipation, and Sayid gets to his feet first, leading her with him. Naturally, she tucks in at his side, his arm around her shoulders. Leaning against him as they walk out, she feels content: completely, fully, wholly.
They wave at the owners of the restaurant on the way out, and compliment their cooking skills. Shannon kinda wants to stick around to see their reaction to Hurley's tip, but she moves on with Sayid anyway: she can imagine the expressions on their faces. It's enough.
She and Sayid rest in the back of the car, their hands entwined, while Hurley calmly drives on towards their destination; Boone is shot-gun, listening to the radio. The news reporter speaks of a calm, peaceful day. No crime. No war.
Shannon wonders how they didn't realise where they were long before this.
"You ready to go to church?" Boone asks, glancing at her in the mirror.
"Are you sure lightning won't strike the second I walk in?" Shannon asks, although she's sure she's long-past her devil woman days.
Besides, with Sayid's arm around her shoulders, she doesn't think that even God would dare to smite her. Sayid is the thing that even all-powerful douches should be afraid of.
"Everyone should be on their way by now," Hurley says. "It's gonna be cool seeing them all together again."
Hurley has missed them, Shannon thinks, even more than he is letting on. She wants to corner him, sometime, and ask exactly where his life led to before he came here, but it can wait. With Sayid's warm weight and strength surrounding her, she thinks it could wait forever.
There are already lights on inside the church when they arriving, parking outside, and they allow Boone and Hurley to head inside first. She rests her head against Sayid's head for a moment longer, listening to his long-ago heartbeat.
"Are you ready?" Sayid asks, his words a warm trickle by her ear.
She doesn't want to move yet, but the excitement buzzing in her heart tells her that it's time. "I've been ready for a long, long time," she says, even if that isn't quite true.
Sayid crooks a finger under the bottom of her chin, and tilts her lips up to meet his mouth: another kiss. She doesn't think she'll ever get enough of this, now that they've got eternity to spare. Her fingers rise over muscle and strength until she is able to tangle herself in his hair, anchoring herself as they open up in the back of Hurley's vehicle.
Leaving can wait five more minutes, Shannon decides as she slides into Sayid's lap, his large hands resting on her hips. No time limits, no deadlines, no rushes: the afterlife is definitely her kind of place.