Sing With Me The Songs We Knew
Title: Sing With Me The Songs We Knew
Characters: Sayid, Shannon.
Pairing: Sayid/Shannon
Warnings: AU. Spoilers for Enter 77.
Rating: PG
Summary: Written for aurilly and j_corrosion who requested Sayid, or Sayid/Shannon, at lostsquee Summer Luau. Sayid meets Shannon while working in the restaurant in France.
The young woman had come into the Portail d’Arabie one lunchtime not long after Sayid had started work there. Sayid first noticed her when one of his waiter friends came up to him, took him by the arm and whispered “There is a woman outside who is demanding to see the chef. She says her meal is cold.”
Sayid had followed his gaze to where the woman sat, a young blonde woman who appeared to be in her early twenties. “My name is Najeev,” he said, the name still feeling unfamiliar on his tongue as he had adopted it only a few days earlier when he had begun work at the restaurant. “I understand you have a problem with your meal.”
“I’ll say there’s a problem,” the woman snapped. “This meal is cold. I can’t eat this.”
Now that Sayid looked more closely at her, he realised that she was younger than he had originally thought; more like late teens than early twenties.
“I am sorry,” he said. “I am still finding my feet here. You will, of course, receive a replacement meal free of charge.”
“Whatever,” she glared at him. “And you needn’t think you’re getting a tip.”
“I am sorry about this,” the waiter said when Sayid returned to the kitchen with the offending meal. “We sometimes get customers like that. Do not worry about it.”
“It is okay,” Sayid replied. He’d looked at the woman, and thought he’d detected a sadness behind her defiant glare, suspected there was more to it than just the meal. He doubted he would ever see her return to the restaurant, and for some reason he could not explain, he was sorry.
Sayid was surprised to see her again the day she returned to the restaurant, studying what appeared to be a French phrasebook and frowning. As he watched her, she sighed and flung the phrasebook down in disgust.
“Is something wrong?” he asked as he tentatively approached her.
“I’m never going to get the hang of this,” she sighed. “I’ve been here eight weeks now, and I’m still not getting anywhere with the language.”
“I understand,” Sayid replied. “I have been here a similar amount of time, and have learned very little myself. It is fortunate for me that so many of our customers speak English.”
“And they probably won’t laugh if you make mistakes. I’m an au pair, and the daughter’s usually nice about it if I get something wrong. The son’s a real little snot, and every time I make a mistake, he laughs at me and makes a big point of correcting me in front of everybody. I’ve taken to sticking him in front of this annoying fish video he loves just to distract him. Course, that kinda backfired on me, since he’s now watched it so often that I have this song from it permanently stuck in my head.” She began singing under her breath. “La mer, qu’on voit danser le long des golfes clairs…” then realised what she was doing and blushed. “See what I mean?”
Sayid laughed. “I can understand why you wish to come here for some peace.”
She held out her hand. “I’m Shannon.”
For a moment, Sayid wished he could tell her his real name, instead of the pseudonym he was using here. Then he realised it wasn’t a good idea, and reintroduced himself as Najeev anyway. Shannon nodded and said she remembered, but Sayid wasn’t sure she did.
“Well, I am sure it will not be long before you begin to learn the language,” Sayid said at last.
“You too. In fact, we should try and learn together,” Shannon suggested, gesturing towards her abandoned phrase book.
“And make fools of ourselves together.” Sayid smiled. “But don’t worry. I won’t tell Laurent if you won’t.”
As Shannon laughed, Sayid reflected on how much happier she looked than the last time he’d seen her.
She’d come in often after that, sometimes with her phrasebook, but more often not. They had kept to their plan to learn the language together, and in spite of Shannon’s protests that she wasn’t picking it up at all and that she was completely useless at it, Sayid found that she was actually picking it up faster than he was (so the times she brought the kids in to meet him, Laurent had no reason to laugh).
Shannon had told him about her previous life as well, about her time as a ballet instructor which had led to her meeting the family she had become au pair for, about her father’s death and her difficult relationship with her stepmother, about the internship she had been meant to go on before ending up here. Sayid couldn’t say how long it had been before he had grown to look forward to her visits, nor how long it had been before he grew to depend on them.
One day, she stopped coming. Sayid heard eventually that there had been some incident involving the father of the family she was an au pair for, he didn’t know all the details but it sounded like he had made a pass at her and been rejected, and had then been summarily dismissed from the family’s employ. Sayid had asked around, but Shannon appeared to have departed France abruptly without leaving a forwarding address.
Sayid had initially taken this job in France as a means to tracking down his former love, Nadia. Now he found that he could barely remember her face. He had never intended to stay at Le Portail d’Arabie for long, always meaning to move on in order to track down Nadia. Now he was preparing to leave, but in order to find Shannon.
Characters: Sayid, Shannon.
Pairing: Sayid/Shannon
Warnings: AU. Spoilers for Enter 77.
Rating: PG
Summary: Written for aurilly and j_corrosion who requested Sayid, or Sayid/Shannon, at lostsquee Summer Luau. Sayid meets Shannon while working in the restaurant in France.
The young woman had come into the Portail d’Arabie one lunchtime not long after Sayid had started work there. Sayid first noticed her when one of his waiter friends came up to him, took him by the arm and whispered “There is a woman outside who is demanding to see the chef. She says her meal is cold.”
Sayid had followed his gaze to where the woman sat, a young blonde woman who appeared to be in her early twenties. “My name is Najeev,” he said, the name still feeling unfamiliar on his tongue as he had adopted it only a few days earlier when he had begun work at the restaurant. “I understand you have a problem with your meal.”
“I’ll say there’s a problem,” the woman snapped. “This meal is cold. I can’t eat this.”
Now that Sayid looked more closely at her, he realised that she was younger than he had originally thought; more like late teens than early twenties.
“I am sorry,” he said. “I am still finding my feet here. You will, of course, receive a replacement meal free of charge.”
“Whatever,” she glared at him. “And you needn’t think you’re getting a tip.”
“I am sorry about this,” the waiter said when Sayid returned to the kitchen with the offending meal. “We sometimes get customers like that. Do not worry about it.”
“It is okay,” Sayid replied. He’d looked at the woman, and thought he’d detected a sadness behind her defiant glare, suspected there was more to it than just the meal. He doubted he would ever see her return to the restaurant, and for some reason he could not explain, he was sorry.
Sayid was surprised to see her again the day she returned to the restaurant, studying what appeared to be a French phrasebook and frowning. As he watched her, she sighed and flung the phrasebook down in disgust.
“Is something wrong?” he asked as he tentatively approached her.
“I’m never going to get the hang of this,” she sighed. “I’ve been here eight weeks now, and I’m still not getting anywhere with the language.”
“I understand,” Sayid replied. “I have been here a similar amount of time, and have learned very little myself. It is fortunate for me that so many of our customers speak English.”
“And they probably won’t laugh if you make mistakes. I’m an au pair, and the daughter’s usually nice about it if I get something wrong. The son’s a real little snot, and every time I make a mistake, he laughs at me and makes a big point of correcting me in front of everybody. I’ve taken to sticking him in front of this annoying fish video he loves just to distract him. Course, that kinda backfired on me, since he’s now watched it so often that I have this song from it permanently stuck in my head.” She began singing under her breath. “La mer, qu’on voit danser le long des golfes clairs…” then realised what she was doing and blushed. “See what I mean?”
Sayid laughed. “I can understand why you wish to come here for some peace.”
She held out her hand. “I’m Shannon.”
For a moment, Sayid wished he could tell her his real name, instead of the pseudonym he was using here. Then he realised it wasn’t a good idea, and reintroduced himself as Najeev anyway. Shannon nodded and said she remembered, but Sayid wasn’t sure she did.
“Well, I am sure it will not be long before you begin to learn the language,” Sayid said at last.
“You too. In fact, we should try and learn together,” Shannon suggested, gesturing towards her abandoned phrase book.
“And make fools of ourselves together.” Sayid smiled. “But don’t worry. I won’t tell Laurent if you won’t.”
As Shannon laughed, Sayid reflected on how much happier she looked than the last time he’d seen her.
She’d come in often after that, sometimes with her phrasebook, but more often not. They had kept to their plan to learn the language together, and in spite of Shannon’s protests that she wasn’t picking it up at all and that she was completely useless at it, Sayid found that she was actually picking it up faster than he was (so the times she brought the kids in to meet him, Laurent had no reason to laugh).
Shannon had told him about her previous life as well, about her time as a ballet instructor which had led to her meeting the family she had become au pair for, about her father’s death and her difficult relationship with her stepmother, about the internship she had been meant to go on before ending up here. Sayid couldn’t say how long it had been before he had grown to look forward to her visits, nor how long it had been before he grew to depend on them.
One day, she stopped coming. Sayid heard eventually that there had been some incident involving the father of the family she was an au pair for, he didn’t know all the details but it sounded like he had made a pass at her and been rejected, and had then been summarily dismissed from the family’s employ. Sayid had asked around, but Shannon appeared to have departed France abruptly without leaving a forwarding address.
Sayid had initially taken this job in France as a means to tracking down his former love, Nadia. Now he found that he could barely remember her face. He had never intended to stay at Le Portail d’Arabie for long, always meaning to move on in order to track down Nadia. Now he was preparing to leave, but in order to find Shannon.