Fic: If the Battle Don't Kill You (1/5) (Ben/Sun)
Title: If the Battle Don't Kill You
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Her anger builds upon itself, like a storm. First the clouds, then the thunder, then the lightening.
Disclaimer: I don't own Lost. At all. I wish, but alas...
Author's Note: This story is a prequel to The Black King and the White Queen. Used for au100, prompt #060: drink.
From the moment Sun meets Ben Linus, she knows he is not the kind of man that is to be trusted. She has learned to recognize this about people before they even speak. The company her father keeps is full of men like this, men with sour expressions on their faces, who seem to glare constantly, who act civilized in public, but issue beatings and intimidations behind closed doors. She knows these men.
Ben is not one of them. He is smaller, not built in a way that would seem physically intimidating, but Sun is smart enough to realize that makes him no less dangerous. While the men who work for her father are like as obviously threatening as a cheetah chasing after its prey, Ben is like the poisonous spider that creeps lightly upon its victim and injects its deadly venom before it is even noticed. She can tell this just by looking at him.
"Sun Kwon?" he asks her name. She doesn't fear him, so she nods.
"My name is Benjamin Linus." He smiles the most transparent and unnerving smile she has seen in quite some time. "Is there somewhere we can speak privately?"
Sun looks at him for a very long moment. She studies everything about his face, his stance, his body language looking for clues as to how to proceed. She is not a stupid woman. She may not fear this man, but that doesn't mean that she will follow him blindly. "What subject do you wish to speak of Mr. Linus?" Later, many months from then, Sun would laugh at ever having called him that; she never did again, but it was still darkly comical to her that she once had.
"Among other things, Mrs. Kwon, your husband."
These words freeze her blood in her veins. She does not speak or breathe or move. It is as if the world goes mute, because she hears nothing. Your husband. Those words begin to repeat in her mind, over and over again. "What do you know about my husband?" she asks, in a very tight voice. It is all she can do to manage the words. She doesn't know if she is more shocked or enraged.
"I'll tell you everything I know," he replies. "But I think it would be better if we were somewhere else."
What had made her follow him? It was something she went back to in her mind, from time to time. She laid in bed at night, sometimes looking over to see him sleeping there, and wondered why she had grabbed her jacket off of the back of her chair and followed him out the door of the offices of her father's company and down the street to a coffee shop. But that is what she had done. What had made her follow him?
"How did you find me? What do you know about me? What do you know about Jin?" Her voice gets more and more demanding with each passing question. Her anger builds upon itself, like a storm. First the clouds, then the thunder, then the lightening.
Ben sits there, pours three sugar packets into his coffee, takes a sip, and looks at her over the rim of the cup. "I know who murdered him," he answers.
Instead of slowing down as it had before, the whole world speeds up. Her stomach hits the floor with a deafening thud. She thinks she might vomit or scream or both. "Who?!" Sun demands, pounding her fists on the table, rattling it so loudly that several people look over at them. The intensity in her eyes doesn't diminish, nor does her determination to have her question answered. She fixes this man that she has known for all of ten minutes with a stare that could turn a man to stone. He seems calm, relaxed, and it enrages her further.
"A name wouldn't do you any good, Mrs. Kwon."
"Do not call me that." She doesn't want to hear it. Jin's name. She still uses it, she cannot let it go because it is all she has of him now, but to hear her husband's name pass through this man's lips feels wrong. So very wrong.
"Would you rather I call you Sun?" he asks, sipping his coffee. She hasn't even touched hers.
Sun grinds her teeth. She doesn't like that either, but it's better than the alternative. "If you must."
He nods and sets his coffee down on the table. He looks her in the eye and Sun thinks then that he looks very much like a snake. That was an opinion that Sun still held, and had reaffirmed in her mind as more and more time passed. He slithered about, malice in his eyes, and though he did appear small, if it was his intent to kill you, there was no doubt he would achieve that end. He was determined and deadly.
"I have a proposition for you, Sun," he tells her. "Would you like to hear it?"
What is she supposed to say to that? What can she say other than... "All right."
"I know you've been looking for him, the man who murdered your husband. I know that a year ago you used a large sum of money to buy a controlling interest in your father's company in the hope of getting close enough to find a name. I know that you failed." Sun grinds her teeth. She doesn't need to be reminded of any of this; she thinks about it all of the time. "You and I are working toward the same end. We have common interests. If you help me, Sun, I will get you to this man."
Sun narrows her eyes. Her mind is awash with questions, with thoughts, with apprehensions and fears. "How do I know that this isn't some sort of trick, or a trap?" she questions, or more thinks aloud. "I met you less than a half hour ago when you walked into my office, announced your name, and deliberately provoked me into speaking with you by mentioning my husband."
Ben smiles, and Sun would later come to realize that there had been a spark of pride in his eyes then too. "You're a very smart woman, Sun," he tells her. "I think you can tell that I'm very serious."
"I can also tell that you are very dangerous."
He nods. "I am." He picks up his coffee again, but he doesn't drink. He just looks at her. "But I can tell that you're plenty dangerous yourself." He takes a sip. "If properly motivated."
She doesn't know how to take this, so she lets it pass without comment. For the first time since they sat down together, she lifts her coffee to her lips, mostly so she will have something to do with her hands. When this man, this stranger, is proposing seems vague at best, and she has no reason to believe that she can trust his assertion that he can bring her the man that is responsible for the death of her husband. But, she considers, can she live with herself if she does not find out for herself? Will she wake up in the middle of the night - alone - haunted by the thought that this man may have been the only chance she would ever have to avenge the murder of the man she loved?
"What do you want me to do?" she asks him.
She was gone from this question, she knew later. She had sealed her own fate, and it was then bound to Ben's. She did not trust him then, nor now, but it didn't matter. What made her follow him? There was no one else.
"That is definitely something we'll have to discuss in some place less...public." Sun closes her eyes and shakes her head. She feels as though she has just sold her soul to the devil. "Right here, right now, I give you my word Sun. We want the same thing. I will get you to the man who killed your husband."
"I need a show of good faith," she tells him. Her trust, he will have to earn, but she will not follow him without some piece of information. She needs to feel as though she is not being lead around, used as a cheap pawn. She will not allow that.
"What did you have in mind?" he asks.
"You said a name wouldn't do me any good," she reminds him. "If you're right about that, if it in and of itself is not enough to allow me to achieve my goals on my own, you can give it to me." She looks him dead in the eye. "Give me the name and I will consider your proposition incredibly seriously."
He considers her, at length. If he truly believes that she is a smart woman, then he knows exactly how serious she is, that the entire future of whatever he means for them to do together hangs on this very moment, on how much ground he is willing to give her.
"Charles Widmore," he says. "His name is Charles Widmore."
And those words, those two words, had changed her whole life.
Part Two
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Her anger builds upon itself, like a storm. First the clouds, then the thunder, then the lightening.
Disclaimer: I don't own Lost. At all. I wish, but alas...
Author's Note: This story is a prequel to The Black King and the White Queen. Used for au100, prompt #060: drink.
From the moment Sun meets Ben Linus, she knows he is not the kind of man that is to be trusted. She has learned to recognize this about people before they even speak. The company her father keeps is full of men like this, men with sour expressions on their faces, who seem to glare constantly, who act civilized in public, but issue beatings and intimidations behind closed doors. She knows these men.
Ben is not one of them. He is smaller, not built in a way that would seem physically intimidating, but Sun is smart enough to realize that makes him no less dangerous. While the men who work for her father are like as obviously threatening as a cheetah chasing after its prey, Ben is like the poisonous spider that creeps lightly upon its victim and injects its deadly venom before it is even noticed. She can tell this just by looking at him.
"Sun Kwon?" he asks her name. She doesn't fear him, so she nods.
"My name is Benjamin Linus." He smiles the most transparent and unnerving smile she has seen in quite some time. "Is there somewhere we can speak privately?"
Sun looks at him for a very long moment. She studies everything about his face, his stance, his body language looking for clues as to how to proceed. She is not a stupid woman. She may not fear this man, but that doesn't mean that she will follow him blindly. "What subject do you wish to speak of Mr. Linus?" Later, many months from then, Sun would laugh at ever having called him that; she never did again, but it was still darkly comical to her that she once had.
"Among other things, Mrs. Kwon, your husband."
These words freeze her blood in her veins. She does not speak or breathe or move. It is as if the world goes mute, because she hears nothing. Your husband. Those words begin to repeat in her mind, over and over again. "What do you know about my husband?" she asks, in a very tight voice. It is all she can do to manage the words. She doesn't know if she is more shocked or enraged.
"I'll tell you everything I know," he replies. "But I think it would be better if we were somewhere else."
What had made her follow him? It was something she went back to in her mind, from time to time. She laid in bed at night, sometimes looking over to see him sleeping there, and wondered why she had grabbed her jacket off of the back of her chair and followed him out the door of the offices of her father's company and down the street to a coffee shop. But that is what she had done. What had made her follow him?
"How did you find me? What do you know about me? What do you know about Jin?" Her voice gets more and more demanding with each passing question. Her anger builds upon itself, like a storm. First the clouds, then the thunder, then the lightening.
Ben sits there, pours three sugar packets into his coffee, takes a sip, and looks at her over the rim of the cup. "I know who murdered him," he answers.
Instead of slowing down as it had before, the whole world speeds up. Her stomach hits the floor with a deafening thud. She thinks she might vomit or scream or both. "Who?!" Sun demands, pounding her fists on the table, rattling it so loudly that several people look over at them. The intensity in her eyes doesn't diminish, nor does her determination to have her question answered. She fixes this man that she has known for all of ten minutes with a stare that could turn a man to stone. He seems calm, relaxed, and it enrages her further.
"A name wouldn't do you any good, Mrs. Kwon."
"Do not call me that." She doesn't want to hear it. Jin's name. She still uses it, she cannot let it go because it is all she has of him now, but to hear her husband's name pass through this man's lips feels wrong. So very wrong.
"Would you rather I call you Sun?" he asks, sipping his coffee. She hasn't even touched hers.
Sun grinds her teeth. She doesn't like that either, but it's better than the alternative. "If you must."
He nods and sets his coffee down on the table. He looks her in the eye and Sun thinks then that he looks very much like a snake. That was an opinion that Sun still held, and had reaffirmed in her mind as more and more time passed. He slithered about, malice in his eyes, and though he did appear small, if it was his intent to kill you, there was no doubt he would achieve that end. He was determined and deadly.
"I have a proposition for you, Sun," he tells her. "Would you like to hear it?"
What is she supposed to say to that? What can she say other than... "All right."
"I know you've been looking for him, the man who murdered your husband. I know that a year ago you used a large sum of money to buy a controlling interest in your father's company in the hope of getting close enough to find a name. I know that you failed." Sun grinds her teeth. She doesn't need to be reminded of any of this; she thinks about it all of the time. "You and I are working toward the same end. We have common interests. If you help me, Sun, I will get you to this man."
Sun narrows her eyes. Her mind is awash with questions, with thoughts, with apprehensions and fears. "How do I know that this isn't some sort of trick, or a trap?" she questions, or more thinks aloud. "I met you less than a half hour ago when you walked into my office, announced your name, and deliberately provoked me into speaking with you by mentioning my husband."
Ben smiles, and Sun would later come to realize that there had been a spark of pride in his eyes then too. "You're a very smart woman, Sun," he tells her. "I think you can tell that I'm very serious."
"I can also tell that you are very dangerous."
He nods. "I am." He picks up his coffee again, but he doesn't drink. He just looks at her. "But I can tell that you're plenty dangerous yourself." He takes a sip. "If properly motivated."
She doesn't know how to take this, so she lets it pass without comment. For the first time since they sat down together, she lifts her coffee to her lips, mostly so she will have something to do with her hands. When this man, this stranger, is proposing seems vague at best, and she has no reason to believe that she can trust his assertion that he can bring her the man that is responsible for the death of her husband. But, she considers, can she live with herself if she does not find out for herself? Will she wake up in the middle of the night - alone - haunted by the thought that this man may have been the only chance she would ever have to avenge the murder of the man she loved?
"What do you want me to do?" she asks him.
She was gone from this question, she knew later. She had sealed her own fate, and it was then bound to Ben's. She did not trust him then, nor now, but it didn't matter. What made her follow him? There was no one else.
"That is definitely something we'll have to discuss in some place less...public." Sun closes her eyes and shakes her head. She feels as though she has just sold her soul to the devil. "Right here, right now, I give you my word Sun. We want the same thing. I will get you to the man who killed your husband."
"I need a show of good faith," she tells him. Her trust, he will have to earn, but she will not follow him without some piece of information. She needs to feel as though she is not being lead around, used as a cheap pawn. She will not allow that.
"What did you have in mind?" he asks.
"You said a name wouldn't do me any good," she reminds him. "If you're right about that, if it in and of itself is not enough to allow me to achieve my goals on my own, you can give it to me." She looks him dead in the eye. "Give me the name and I will consider your proposition incredibly seriously."
He considers her, at length. If he truly believes that she is a smart woman, then he knows exactly how serious she is, that the entire future of whatever he means for them to do together hangs on this very moment, on how much ground he is willing to give her.
"Charles Widmore," he says. "His name is Charles Widmore."
And those words, those two words, had changed her whole life.
Part Two