Challenge 16 - Forever
Title: Contrast
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers through ...In Translation
Pairing: Sun/Kate
Disclaimer: Not my characters. Also, this is the first time I’ve written anything even close to slash, so here we go.
Kate finds her alone, thin shoulders shivering in the dark. Pulling up her knees and resting in the sand beside her, she waits. It isn’t long until the words start to come. Carefully formed in Sun’s practiced English, the precision of their sounds contrasts sharply with the desperation of their birth.
“He would not let me live.” The confession breaks the silence of the night. “My life was his possession, not my own.” She swallows hard. The stilted words are difficult to form, but this, this, is the language of her heart. “It took me years to make the choice to leave.”
“So you learned English.” Kate is patient with her faltering speech.
“Yes. I was going to run away. I was going to leave him.” The fire crackles between them, its light staving off the cold emptiness of the night. “I couldn’t.” Her head lowers to hide the tears, to veil them in her eyes.
Kate smoothes back silky strands to reveal the truth.
“I thought if I could just get away from him, it would all change. But it was all the same. I am not as strong as you.”
“Sun...” Kate nearly smiles. “I’m not so strong.”
“Yes. Yes you are. When you speak, your words...” She fumbles, mouth unwilling to form the sounds. “You speak with your heart. I have hidden the truth with my lies.” A tear slips down her cheek, and Kate feels her own eyes well in response. “Do you think that is why we are here?” Her eyes beg an answer.
Kate shakes her head gently. “I don’t understand.”
“Do you think the reason we are here...is punishment?” She feels gentle eyes search her face. “So that I cannot leave him?” A sob rises in her throat and Kate catches her hand, warm contact on chilled skin.
“Sun...” Pale, tapered fingers stroke the dark smoothness of her arm. “No.”
“How do you know? Where do you find such certainty?” Desperate eyes search hazel green for an answer.
“Because in your heart, you’ve already left him. You’re already free.”
Trembling now, slender fingers twine and freckled arms envelop her in the firelight. Sun shakes as she cries, stifling the sobs that pass through her lips to rest in Kate’s curly hair. She thinks the entire camp can hear her heart’s desperate truth.
Kate murmurs her to rest. “It’s dark, so no one cares.”
When the dawn’s first rays appear, she leaves Kate behind and walks alone toward the waves, a blanket tucked tightly around her thin shoulders. Wind whips hair in her eyes as she breathes in the salt and inhales the freedom. Waves lap at her feet, and she imagines them rising to carry her away, washing her sins, leaving her bare.
Her hands lift with the breeze, and the blanket drifts away behind her. As it floats to the sand, her skin is released against the cool air circling her body. She is warm, for in her mind she is wrapped in freckled arms. She is free.
I will feel you...
Forever.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers through ...In Translation
Pairing: Sun/Kate
Disclaimer: Not my characters. Also, this is the first time I’ve written anything even close to slash, so here we go.
Kate finds her alone, thin shoulders shivering in the dark. Pulling up her knees and resting in the sand beside her, she waits. It isn’t long until the words start to come. Carefully formed in Sun’s practiced English, the precision of their sounds contrasts sharply with the desperation of their birth.
“He would not let me live.” The confession breaks the silence of the night. “My life was his possession, not my own.” She swallows hard. The stilted words are difficult to form, but this, this, is the language of her heart. “It took me years to make the choice to leave.”
“So you learned English.” Kate is patient with her faltering speech.
“Yes. I was going to run away. I was going to leave him.” The fire crackles between them, its light staving off the cold emptiness of the night. “I couldn’t.” Her head lowers to hide the tears, to veil them in her eyes.
Kate smoothes back silky strands to reveal the truth.
“I thought if I could just get away from him, it would all change. But it was all the same. I am not as strong as you.”
“Sun...” Kate nearly smiles. “I’m not so strong.”
“Yes. Yes you are. When you speak, your words...” She fumbles, mouth unwilling to form the sounds. “You speak with your heart. I have hidden the truth with my lies.” A tear slips down her cheek, and Kate feels her own eyes well in response. “Do you think that is why we are here?” Her eyes beg an answer.
Kate shakes her head gently. “I don’t understand.”
“Do you think the reason we are here...is punishment?” She feels gentle eyes search her face. “So that I cannot leave him?” A sob rises in her throat and Kate catches her hand, warm contact on chilled skin.
“Sun...” Pale, tapered fingers stroke the dark smoothness of her arm. “No.”
“How do you know? Where do you find such certainty?” Desperate eyes search hazel green for an answer.
“Because in your heart, you’ve already left him. You’re already free.”
Trembling now, slender fingers twine and freckled arms envelop her in the firelight. Sun shakes as she cries, stifling the sobs that pass through her lips to rest in Kate’s curly hair. She thinks the entire camp can hear her heart’s desperate truth.
Kate murmurs her to rest. “It’s dark, so no one cares.”
When the dawn’s first rays appear, she leaves Kate behind and walks alone toward the waves, a blanket tucked tightly around her thin shoulders. Wind whips hair in her eyes as she breathes in the salt and inhales the freedom. Waves lap at her feet, and she imagines them rising to carry her away, washing her sins, leaving her bare.
Her hands lift with the breeze, and the blanket drifts away behind her. As it floats to the sand, her skin is released against the cool air circling her body. She is warm, for in her mind she is wrapped in freckled arms. She is free.
I will feel you...
Forever.