Title: Found
Author: Anna (bite_or_avoid)
Pairing: Sawyer/Kate
Rating: PG
Word Count: 361
Disclaimer: I wish
Spoilers: Everything through 5x08 LaFleur

There are three years permeating the air between them.

After so long, is it possible to still love someone you're not really sure you loved in the first place?

She told herself, could tell herself from the safety of a shiny new existence, that it was a pull she no longer felt. That the reason she continued to keep her promise, no matter what the cost, was because he would do the same for her. That waking up in the dark of night to the salty tang of that final kiss only meant she worried if he was still alright.

She told herself that whatever feelings she harbored for Sawyer stayed on that island with him. And she loved Jack, really loved him, would have married him. A part of her loves him still; a part of her will always love him.

It was a good life, what she had in L.A. But it wasn't a real life. Not her real life, anyway.

She can never tell Jack that. Can never tell him why the truth of it consumed her that night, when she used him to feel alive after giving up the one thing she treasured most in the world. The thing that was never hers to give up in the first place. She can never tell Jack, could barely admit to herself until now, the true reason she came back here.

She sees him across the expanse-- the permanent stubble that had brought goosebumps to her flesh, the mouth that she still remembers against her own, the blue eyes that never hid their affection. He's strong and familiar and alive, and maybe not exactly a good man, but certainly a better man than he was, a man who has always seen through her and accepted her regardless.

He looks at her with awe and wonder, and the energy between them crackles under her skin. It doesn't feel like three years have passed.

They are back on the precipice-- mirror reflections, forever bound by destiny.

And she knows the truth: in this lost place, with the only other person who was born to run as long as she, she's home.

Fin.