(no subject)
Title: Through The Looking Glass
Fandom: Lost
Pairing: Kate Austen/Sun Kwon
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,024
Prompt: #69 - Jealousy for
slash_100
Progress: 21/100
Kate sighed. The bright mid-summer sun reflected off the storefronts, a gentle breeze rustled the trees and everything was how it should be. It surprised Kate, how natural this felt, just walking down a city block with shopping bags in her hand, not worrying about police or surveillance or juries. She never thought she would get to this point, this moment, this time in her life where things were dangerously close to being perfect. Kate felt an odd sensation in her stomach, almost like butterflies, and her free hand came to rest on her growing belly. She had waited as long as possible to buy maternity clothes, but once she had stretched all of her regular garments to within an inch of their life she finally gave in to the change, something she had always feared. Yet she had survived. She didn’t run. She didn’t squirm. She didn’t buy a bus ticket to Austin, Texas and never look back. She faced it head on, keeping a firm grip on the body beside her, and took the leap.
Kate was deep in thought as she meandered along the sidewalk, but when she passed an outdoor seating area for a café, two faces jumped out at her. For a moment she ignored the feeling of familiarity, but it was so strong Kate took a step back and was surprised by what she saw. Two men she hadn’t seen in a very long time.
“Jack? Sawyer?”
They glanced up and both smiled, although Sawyer’s was more of a smirk. Kate peered over the rot-iron fence that came chest high on her and grinned as well.
“Long time no see, Freckles. What’s it been, six years?” He cocked his head to the side and rested his chin on his hand.
“Seven, but whose’s counting.” Kate glanced between the two and then down at their meals. She had been feeling a little hungry… “Hey, do you mind if I join you?”
“Of course.” Jack placed the napkin that had been in his lap on the table and stood, turning to pull another chair over from an empty table.
Kate fiddled with the latch until it clicked undone, swinging the gate open and shutting it behind her. Settling herself into the seat opposite them, she scooted the chair forward and reached for the menu wedged between the salt and pepper shakers. That’s when she noticed their eyes, wide and trained on her. Or more specifically her stomach.
“Is there something wrong?” Kate raised her eyebrows expectantly as her eyes darted from one man to the other.
“No” Jack seemed to be the first to shake himself loose from the awed stare and then offered a reassuring smile, “It’s just that it’s been so long since we’ve seen you, that’s all. Right Sawyer?” Jack jerked his leg and by the pained expression that quickly flashed over Sawyer’s face she guessed his foot connected with the other’s leg.
“Right.” Sawyer coughed. He inconspicuously leaned forward and studied her hand and her abdomen, confirming his suspicions. Sawyer thought he had noticed something gold shine in the sunlight on her finger and now it was official; Kate was wearing a wedding band.
A nervous look passed between Jack and Sawyer, both thinking that if they ever ran across Kate wearing a wedding ring and knocked up the other would be to blame. But both were clueless.
“So did hell freeze over without me noticing?” Kate asked, a small smile playing on her lips, without looking up from the menu.
“ ‘Scuse me?” Sawyer returned, his eyebrows knitting together.
Kate glanced up and gestured between the two of them.
“Aren’t you two supposed to be sworn enemies? What are you guys doing sharing a meal like civilized people do?”
“Ain’t we the ones supposed to be shocked at this turn of events?” Kate wrinkled her nose, clearly confused. Sawyer pointed towards her stomach as means of clarification. “No offense, but you never seemed like the maternal type.” Jack glared at him, but if Sawyer noticed it, he didn’t give any indication.
Kate followed his gesture and interlocked her fingers over her midsection, a satisfied smile settling on her lips. “People change, Sawyer.”
Sawyer scowled, clearly expecting more of an explanation, but Jack piped up for him.
“It’s just that-“ he paused wrestling between being polite and satisfying his own curiosity. “-the last time we heard about you, the jury had found you innocent and you were a free woman. And then you just disappeared. Even the press couldn’t find you. No one knew where to look.” Jack looked at her earnestly, his expression a mix between concern and annoyance.
“Well obviously I’ve been just fine.”
“Clearly.”
Kate ignored Sawyer and instead chose to divert her eyes to the street, watching the cars pass by in the space between two parked vans just outside the patio. “I just needed to get away from it all.” Kate still kept her gaze averted, “The media, all the attention, it was too much.” Kate readjusted in her seat and turned to look at the men studying her, “And it’s not like no one knew where I was. It just wasn’t you two.”
Both Jack and Sawyer glanced down in their lap and shuffled uncomfortably, clearing their throats and looking hurt. Kate found it humorous how similar they were, their mannerisms, their reactions.
“I didn’t mean it as an insult.” Jack gazed at Kate but found that she wasn’t apologetic; she was amused.
“Well ‘nuff of all this squabblin’ over who was where when. What you been up to these past years? Besides procreatin’ and all.” Sawyer leaned back lazily and hooked his thumbs together.
“I’ve been in the city for about a year and a half. I had been staying out west, but we decided to move someplace where no one knew us.” Until I ran into you two hung unspoken at the end of her sentence, but neither man said a word.
Jack was about to ask ‘who’s we’, but then the waiter came up to the table, noticing the extra person, and asked her what she would like to order. After ordering enough food to feed a small army, she turned back to the conversation only to find Jack and Sawyer staring at her like she was an alien.
“What?” she asked defensively, knitting her eyebrows in discontent.
“You read off half the menu and wonder what’s wrong?”
“I am eating for two.” Kate noticed the cliché but at this point, she really didn’t care.
“Well isn’t that just lovely.” Kate repressed the urge to scowl and Sawyer grinned, apparently impressed with her self-control.
Jack spoke up, evidently sensing the conversation wasn’t going anywhere good. “So how many months are you?” He sat up straighter, as if her reply would make this whole thing real and he was preparing himself for a blow. For the reality that he missed his chance. That they both had.
“Seven. Seven months.”
“Girl or boy.” Both Kate and Jack looked up in surprise, neither thinking Sawyer would be taking any part in this particular conversation. Any talk of babies or baby related things had always made him uncomfortable, for reasons unknown to them both.
“Girl.” Kate replied, still studying him. It just occurred to her that their entire interaction, or as Hurley used to call it their “romantic triangle’, had been boiled down after all these years to simple phrases and one-word replies.
“Any names picked out?” It was Jack’s voice this time and Kate inwardly sighed. Somehow discussing this with Jack was more natural than with Sawyer.
“Something short, simple, but not plain or common. We were discussing Ali or Olivia. Maybe Maria, although for her middle name we’re definitely using something Korean.”
And there was that we again. Before Sawyer could bring that up, or why the hell whoever this we was would be using a Korean name, Kate inhaled sharply and her hands immediately went to her stomach. Jack and Sawyer were both poised to leap up, but Kate raised her hand and smiled reassuringly.
“She’s just kicking, nothing to be concerned about.” Jack and Sawyer both smiled in spite of themselves, for the first time realizing that it wasn’t just a thriller novel plot point or a conversation piece; this was a person. A tiny unborn person at that, but still a person. “Do you want to feel?”
Kate’s question somehow threw them both off, even though that’s what the expectant mother usually asks in this situation, so both looked hesitant. Kate rolled her eyes at them and grabbed both Jack and Sawyer’s hands, lightly pressing their fingers to the small spot on her abdomen. At first they furrowed their brows, seeming to be from concentration but really because of the sudden contact, but then they felt the small thump-thump and their faces relaxed.
“If this were any other situation I might be jealous.”
The unfamiliar voice came from the street and all three looked up, the two men pulling away, as if this fourth person had interrupted something intimate, something closed. They were surprised when it was another recognizable face.
“Sun!” Kate rose quickly (or as quickly as possible in her current situation) and called out excitedly.
Jack and Sawyer were dumbfounded when the two women’s lips met, not even as a quick friendly peck, and lingered there for a moment. When they pulled away if they noticed the men’s flabbergasted looks they didn’t show it.
“So how’s our girl doing?” Sun asked easily, after nodding a quick recognition towards Jack and Sawyer.
Kate rubbed her belly. “She’s good. She seems hyper today. Jack and Sawyer were just feeling her lashing out at my organs.” She didn’t sound bothered, just slightly weary.
“Well if she’s got Freckle’s kick you’re both in trouble.” Sawyer’s comment came out more as a reflex, a defense mechanism he supposed. To his surprise they didn’t turn their glares on him or sigh exasperatedly; they simply smiled. Sawyer never thought smiling could be a group gesture but if it was possible that’s how he would describe it. Like Ms. and, well, Ms. Smith, sunshiny and complete.
As Sun scooted past Kate and towards the other empty chair, everything about them screamed couple; when one went to reach for something the other grabbed it for them, one needed reading glasses and the other pulled it out of her purse without a word. Suddenly Jack and Sawyer felt like outsiders looking in, like they were peering into a snow globe or stumbled onto their own perfect, self-functioning universe.
“So how long have you two been… you two?” Jack coughed out.
“Oh about…” Kate looked to Sun for conformation and Sun nodded, “Four years. We had a ceremony about a year ago.” Sawyer had been meaning to ask about the ring, “We would have invited you but-“
“You never quite got around to it.” Sawyer finished for her. Kate strained a smile, not understanding that he had expected her to correct his lame-o excuse, say that the invitation was lost in the mail or that they had eloped. But truthfully, he didn’t really think he would have gone. It would have been weird… to say the least.
So Jack and Sawyer continued to look on as they caught a fleeting glimpse of what they missed. They couldn’t say they had lost her, because you can’t lose something you never had to begin with.
They tried to remind themselves that this wouldn’t have been either of them in any situation, that it never could have worked out. Yet it still felt cold somehow, like a piece of each of them had been holding onto a hope, a distant dream that had gone numb at the sight of Kate with someone. A someone that wasn’t either of them. So they listened to Kate and Sun chat about how nervous they had been finally choosing the sperm donor, listened to them banter about traditional pink or versatile green for paint choices, listened to the life they would never have. Because no one likes missing an opportunity.
Fandom: Lost
Pairing: Kate Austen/Sun Kwon
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,024
Prompt: #69 - Jealousy for
slash_100
Progress: 21/100
Kate sighed. The bright mid-summer sun reflected off the storefronts, a gentle breeze rustled the trees and everything was how it should be. It surprised Kate, how natural this felt, just walking down a city block with shopping bags in her hand, not worrying about police or surveillance or juries. She never thought she would get to this point, this moment, this time in her life where things were dangerously close to being perfect. Kate felt an odd sensation in her stomach, almost like butterflies, and her free hand came to rest on her growing belly. She had waited as long as possible to buy maternity clothes, but once she had stretched all of her regular garments to within an inch of their life she finally gave in to the change, something she had always feared. Yet she had survived. She didn’t run. She didn’t squirm. She didn’t buy a bus ticket to Austin, Texas and never look back. She faced it head on, keeping a firm grip on the body beside her, and took the leap.
Kate was deep in thought as she meandered along the sidewalk, but when she passed an outdoor seating area for a café, two faces jumped out at her. For a moment she ignored the feeling of familiarity, but it was so strong Kate took a step back and was surprised by what she saw. Two men she hadn’t seen in a very long time.
“Jack? Sawyer?”
They glanced up and both smiled, although Sawyer’s was more of a smirk. Kate peered over the rot-iron fence that came chest high on her and grinned as well.
“Long time no see, Freckles. What’s it been, six years?” He cocked his head to the side and rested his chin on his hand.
“Seven, but whose’s counting.” Kate glanced between the two and then down at their meals. She had been feeling a little hungry… “Hey, do you mind if I join you?”
“Of course.” Jack placed the napkin that had been in his lap on the table and stood, turning to pull another chair over from an empty table.
Kate fiddled with the latch until it clicked undone, swinging the gate open and shutting it behind her. Settling herself into the seat opposite them, she scooted the chair forward and reached for the menu wedged between the salt and pepper shakers. That’s when she noticed their eyes, wide and trained on her. Or more specifically her stomach.
“Is there something wrong?” Kate raised her eyebrows expectantly as her eyes darted from one man to the other.
“No” Jack seemed to be the first to shake himself loose from the awed stare and then offered a reassuring smile, “It’s just that it’s been so long since we’ve seen you, that’s all. Right Sawyer?” Jack jerked his leg and by the pained expression that quickly flashed over Sawyer’s face she guessed his foot connected with the other’s leg.
“Right.” Sawyer coughed. He inconspicuously leaned forward and studied her hand and her abdomen, confirming his suspicions. Sawyer thought he had noticed something gold shine in the sunlight on her finger and now it was official; Kate was wearing a wedding band.
A nervous look passed between Jack and Sawyer, both thinking that if they ever ran across Kate wearing a wedding ring and knocked up the other would be to blame. But both were clueless.
“So did hell freeze over without me noticing?” Kate asked, a small smile playing on her lips, without looking up from the menu.
“ ‘Scuse me?” Sawyer returned, his eyebrows knitting together.
Kate glanced up and gestured between the two of them.
“Aren’t you two supposed to be sworn enemies? What are you guys doing sharing a meal like civilized people do?”
“Ain’t we the ones supposed to be shocked at this turn of events?” Kate wrinkled her nose, clearly confused. Sawyer pointed towards her stomach as means of clarification. “No offense, but you never seemed like the maternal type.” Jack glared at him, but if Sawyer noticed it, he didn’t give any indication.
Kate followed his gesture and interlocked her fingers over her midsection, a satisfied smile settling on her lips. “People change, Sawyer.”
Sawyer scowled, clearly expecting more of an explanation, but Jack piped up for him.
“It’s just that-“ he paused wrestling between being polite and satisfying his own curiosity. “-the last time we heard about you, the jury had found you innocent and you were a free woman. And then you just disappeared. Even the press couldn’t find you. No one knew where to look.” Jack looked at her earnestly, his expression a mix between concern and annoyance.
“Well obviously I’ve been just fine.”
“Clearly.”
Kate ignored Sawyer and instead chose to divert her eyes to the street, watching the cars pass by in the space between two parked vans just outside the patio. “I just needed to get away from it all.” Kate still kept her gaze averted, “The media, all the attention, it was too much.” Kate readjusted in her seat and turned to look at the men studying her, “And it’s not like no one knew where I was. It just wasn’t you two.”
Both Jack and Sawyer glanced down in their lap and shuffled uncomfortably, clearing their throats and looking hurt. Kate found it humorous how similar they were, their mannerisms, their reactions.
“I didn’t mean it as an insult.” Jack gazed at Kate but found that she wasn’t apologetic; she was amused.
“Well ‘nuff of all this squabblin’ over who was where when. What you been up to these past years? Besides procreatin’ and all.” Sawyer leaned back lazily and hooked his thumbs together.
“I’ve been in the city for about a year and a half. I had been staying out west, but we decided to move someplace where no one knew us.” Until I ran into you two hung unspoken at the end of her sentence, but neither man said a word.
Jack was about to ask ‘who’s we’, but then the waiter came up to the table, noticing the extra person, and asked her what she would like to order. After ordering enough food to feed a small army, she turned back to the conversation only to find Jack and Sawyer staring at her like she was an alien.
“What?” she asked defensively, knitting her eyebrows in discontent.
“You read off half the menu and wonder what’s wrong?”
“I am eating for two.” Kate noticed the cliché but at this point, she really didn’t care.
“Well isn’t that just lovely.” Kate repressed the urge to scowl and Sawyer grinned, apparently impressed with her self-control.
Jack spoke up, evidently sensing the conversation wasn’t going anywhere good. “So how many months are you?” He sat up straighter, as if her reply would make this whole thing real and he was preparing himself for a blow. For the reality that he missed his chance. That they both had.
“Seven. Seven months.”
“Girl or boy.” Both Kate and Jack looked up in surprise, neither thinking Sawyer would be taking any part in this particular conversation. Any talk of babies or baby related things had always made him uncomfortable, for reasons unknown to them both.
“Girl.” Kate replied, still studying him. It just occurred to her that their entire interaction, or as Hurley used to call it their “romantic triangle’, had been boiled down after all these years to simple phrases and one-word replies.
“Any names picked out?” It was Jack’s voice this time and Kate inwardly sighed. Somehow discussing this with Jack was more natural than with Sawyer.
“Something short, simple, but not plain or common. We were discussing Ali or Olivia. Maybe Maria, although for her middle name we’re definitely using something Korean.”
And there was that we again. Before Sawyer could bring that up, or why the hell whoever this we was would be using a Korean name, Kate inhaled sharply and her hands immediately went to her stomach. Jack and Sawyer were both poised to leap up, but Kate raised her hand and smiled reassuringly.
“She’s just kicking, nothing to be concerned about.” Jack and Sawyer both smiled in spite of themselves, for the first time realizing that it wasn’t just a thriller novel plot point or a conversation piece; this was a person. A tiny unborn person at that, but still a person. “Do you want to feel?”
Kate’s question somehow threw them both off, even though that’s what the expectant mother usually asks in this situation, so both looked hesitant. Kate rolled her eyes at them and grabbed both Jack and Sawyer’s hands, lightly pressing their fingers to the small spot on her abdomen. At first they furrowed their brows, seeming to be from concentration but really because of the sudden contact, but then they felt the small thump-thump and their faces relaxed.
“If this were any other situation I might be jealous.”
The unfamiliar voice came from the street and all three looked up, the two men pulling away, as if this fourth person had interrupted something intimate, something closed. They were surprised when it was another recognizable face.
“Sun!” Kate rose quickly (or as quickly as possible in her current situation) and called out excitedly.
Jack and Sawyer were dumbfounded when the two women’s lips met, not even as a quick friendly peck, and lingered there for a moment. When they pulled away if they noticed the men’s flabbergasted looks they didn’t show it.
“So how’s our girl doing?” Sun asked easily, after nodding a quick recognition towards Jack and Sawyer.
Kate rubbed her belly. “She’s good. She seems hyper today. Jack and Sawyer were just feeling her lashing out at my organs.” She didn’t sound bothered, just slightly weary.
“Well if she’s got Freckle’s kick you’re both in trouble.” Sawyer’s comment came out more as a reflex, a defense mechanism he supposed. To his surprise they didn’t turn their glares on him or sigh exasperatedly; they simply smiled. Sawyer never thought smiling could be a group gesture but if it was possible that’s how he would describe it. Like Ms. and, well, Ms. Smith, sunshiny and complete.
As Sun scooted past Kate and towards the other empty chair, everything about them screamed couple; when one went to reach for something the other grabbed it for them, one needed reading glasses and the other pulled it out of her purse without a word. Suddenly Jack and Sawyer felt like outsiders looking in, like they were peering into a snow globe or stumbled onto their own perfect, self-functioning universe.
“So how long have you two been… you two?” Jack coughed out.
“Oh about…” Kate looked to Sun for conformation and Sun nodded, “Four years. We had a ceremony about a year ago.” Sawyer had been meaning to ask about the ring, “We would have invited you but-“
“You never quite got around to it.” Sawyer finished for her. Kate strained a smile, not understanding that he had expected her to correct his lame-o excuse, say that the invitation was lost in the mail or that they had eloped. But truthfully, he didn’t really think he would have gone. It would have been weird… to say the least.
So Jack and Sawyer continued to look on as they caught a fleeting glimpse of what they missed. They couldn’t say they had lost her, because you can’t lose something you never had to begin with.
They tried to remind themselves that this wouldn’t have been either of them in any situation, that it never could have worked out. Yet it still felt cold somehow, like a piece of each of them had been holding onto a hope, a distant dream that had gone numb at the sight of Kate with someone. A someone that wasn’t either of them. So they listened to Kate and Sun chat about how nervous they had been finally choosing the sperm donor, listened to them banter about traditional pink or versatile green for paint choices, listened to the life they would never have. Because no one likes missing an opportunity.