(Untitled)

[halfafinger]

It had been a strange sort of month.

Arguably, any month - or week - or day - spent on an island such as this was bound to be strange, but Margot felt a little more unsettled than usual. Perhaps it was the fact she had been smoking only island-rolled cigarettes for some time now, or the business with Walter, Rorschach, or dealing with having a

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[inthedeadzone]

As the months dragged by, Capa found he had fewer and fewer things to keep him busy on the island. There was only so much work to be done, no matter how many different variations he found with the calculations, and he was finding himself closer and closer to accepting what he'd been told. There was no going home.

Still, it was with his gaze tilted up toward the sun that he was walking down the beach and he was so distracted he nearly wandered right onto the woman's towel. "I'm sorry," he said, glancing down at the last minute, swerving to avoid her and nearly falling into the sand.

[halfafinger]

That was the trouble with people - sometimes, they didn't even see you.

"It's fine," she said, even though the man's careless steps had kicked a small spray of sand across her towel. She concentrated on brushing it away, back onto the beach with the other grains where they belonged.

[inthedeadzone]

"No, it isn't," Capa insisted, cringing as he watched her brush the sand away. "I--"

Stopping short, he stared at her, his mouth still open slightly as if he was going to say something more. She looked just like Pepper, but for the differences that made it obvious she and Pepper were absolutely not the same person. For far from the first time on the island, he found himself unsure of what to say.

[halfafinger]

After a moment, Margot seemed to notice the man's silence, and she looked up at him to find him staring with his jaw on the proverbial floor.

It wasn't the first time Margot had garnered such a reaction from a man, especially while she was in a bikini, but somehow it seemed...more than that. She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Yes?" she prompted. "Is something wrong?"

[inthedeadzone]

"You look like someone else I know," Capa answered, forcing himself out of his stunned silence. "Sorry," he apologized again, knowing it couldn't be comfortable to have some stranger staring.

And this was why he had never had many friends.

"Robert Capa," he offered finally, because this wasn't Pepper and she didn't know him.

[halfafinger]

"The blonde or the redhead?" asked Margot, sounding unimpressed, because she was. It was one thing to be stared at because of how you looked and quite another to be stared at because you looked exactly like somebody else.

"I'm Margot."

[inthedeadzone]

"The redhead," Capa answered, feeling faintly guilty. It wasn't her fault she looked like Pepper. "I didn't realize there was a blonde as well. I... didn't realize there was anyone... that sounds awful."

Here he was, putting his foot in his mouth again. "I like your bathing suit," he offered, then laughed. "Fuck."

[halfafinger]

Margot watched him dig himself deeper and deeper into a hole of embarrassment, her expression neutral. At first.

"Thank you," she said, when he stopped talking. She almost twitched a smile. Almost. "Why don't you sit down?" He was attractive, in a strange sort of way. And he might have some cigarettes.

[inthedeadzone]

Cautiously, as if he was worried she might change her mind at any second, Capa slowly lowered himself to the sand beside her. "I think it's going to be one of those days," he warned, even as he was sitting down. "I might just continue to put my foot in my mouth."

He didn't talk to many people anymore. Eden was an exception, but she was different. She was so much like Cassie.

[halfafinger]

"It's all right," Margot said, only half-lying. "I was bored anyway." That was true. Margot was usually bored.

[inthedeadzone]

"I guess it's good that I came along and nearly trampled you, then," Capa said, rubbing his jaw awkwardly. For a moment, he struggled, wondering what to say next, then asked, "Have you been here for long?"

He thought he would have spotted her before, but now he'd been told there was another woman who looked like Pepper as well and he'd never seen her before.

[halfafinger]

"Not very long," Margot said. "A couple of months." Sometimes, it seemed like forever. Days like today, for instance.

"Do you smoke?"

[inthedeadzone]

"No," Capa answered, glancing down at her fingers briefly, looking for the telltale signs that she did smoke. "I came here from 2057 and not many people smoked then."

But on the island, he'd noticed that the attitude toward smoking wasn't the same. Even he had shared a cigarette with Eden.

[halfafinger]

"Really?" There was honest incredulity in Margot's voice, and she stared intently at Capa for a moment.

"What a shame," she decided, looking away. It was hard to tell whether she meant it was a shame he didn't smoke or a shame not many did in the future. In fact, it was hard even to tell if she believed him.

[inthedeadzone]

"That people don't smoke as often or that I don't?" he asked, tipping his head to the side and offering her a faint smile. Standing in front of Alice's hut, he'd smoked with Eden before lugging home the golf clubs that sat in the corner of his hut, but he didn't think that really counted. He'd only really done it for Eden's sake.

[halfafinger]

He was astute, she'd give him that.

"Both," Margot said. "I haven't had a decent cigarette in..." she sighed. "Weeks."