Lost Fic: Seasick (Charlie Hume/Aaron)

[ozmissage]

Title: Seasick
Pairing: Charlie H./Aaron
Rating: PG
Words: 951
Setting: Post-series, future fic
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: Charlie’s getting a bad feeling about this trip.
A/N: Written forcrickets impromptu multi fandom imPromptathon for the prompt Charlie H./Aaron, nausea.

It’s a gray and miserable morning to be seasick, but Charlie has little choice in the matter. He tries to ignore the cold drizzle that’s rapidly leaving his shirt sopping wet as he heaves into the ocean. He may have spent the first three years of his life on a boat, but if he’s learned anything from this little trip it’s that his sea legs are long gone.

He wipes his mouth with the back of his shaking hand and leans his forehead against the cool metal of the railing. Two weeks he’s been on this stupid freighter and he’s still not sure how the hell he ended up on this goose chase. One day he’s going about his life, working in the pub, the next he’s following an attractive but strange young man to the end of the earth. His mother always warned him about peer pressure when he was a kid and he’s finally beginning to understand what she was so worried about.

The feeling of a warm hand pressing against his cold back startles Charlie and he turns too quickly and causes his stomach to lurch. He swallows hard, forcing the bile back down his aching throat as he takes in the sight of Aaron standing behind him with an amused smile plastered across his face. Well, if it isn’t the white rabbit himself, Charlie thinks.

The boy was a mystery to Charlie, a tantalizing mystery he couldn’t resist crossing the earth to figure out. He was twenty-seven, just over a year older than Charlie, but it felt like there were decades between them. He had walked into the pub two weeks ago and offered Charlie an answer to the question he had spent his whole life wondering about---what happened to his father? Here one day, gone the next never to be heard from again, and here was some handsome, American chap promising an answer if only Charlie would join him.

And like those bloody rats in Hamlin, Charlie was beginning to have the sneaking suspicion that he was heading for a cliff. But Aaron was not the sort of fellow you said no to.

“Sick again?” Aaron asks as he joins Charlie at the railing.

Charlie nods and hopes he doesn’t look as green as he feels. Aaron’s not looking at him at all though, as always his eyes are searching the endless gray ocean in front of them.

“I’m considering moving my mattress out here to save time. Why bother with the messy clean up, when I can puke directly into the water? Might as well cut out the middle man,” Charlie jokes.

Aaron laughs softly and turns his attention to his companion. Charlie smiles despite himself. He can’t help but feel like he just won a battle he didn’t know he had been fighting.

“So what brings you above decks on this lovely morning, brother? Were you checking up on me?”

Charlie kicks himself for allowing the hopefulness in his question to show so blatantly, but if he notices Aaron doesn’t say anything.

“I was feeling a little restless. I needed some fresh air,” Aaron says vaguely.

It seems to Charlie that Aaron had been restless since this trip began, always pacing the deck, his eyes trained on the horizon. In the beginning his body had been in perpetual motion, but Charlie had noticed a change in him over the past few days. A calm had settled over him, he was still now, patient. Charlie could only guess that meant they were getting closer.

“How much longer do you think it will be?” Charlie asks.

“Not much. A day, maybe two,” Aaron answers.

“How can you be sure?”

Aaron looks at Charlie incredulously and Charlie is overwhelmed by the feeling that he’s disappointing his new friend. He’s not sure why this bothers him so much, but it does. There’s something manic in Aaron’s voice when he speaks.

“Can’t you feel it Charlie?”

Charlie shakes his head in confusion. “All I can feel are my scrambled eggs trying to come up again.”

Aaron sighs and leans his tall, thin body heavily against the rail. Charlie can feel the man’s slight frame pressed against him and he can’t help but move closer. Aaron has that effect on people, like he’s a flame and the rest of the world is nothing but a bunch of moths.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment my entire life. I know it sounds strange to say, but I can hear it calling, Charlie. I always have. It wants me---us---to be there. You’ll see; nothing’s ever going to be the same again. Aren’t you excited?” Aaron asks.

Charlie shrugs, feeling his apprehension growing by the second. A voice that sounds suspiciously like his mother’s is whispering in his ear, “This is a mistake, Charlie.”

“I just want some answers, Brother.”

Aaron ignores him and draws a sharp breath. The sound makes the hairs on the back of Charlie’s arm stand on end. Aaron squeezes Charlie’s shoulder and points towards the horizon. Charlie squints through the haze and drizzle, and can just barely make out a spot of land in the distance.

“Is that…” Charlie begins.

“The island,” Aaron finishes triumphantly.

“Are you sure?” Charlie asks.

Aaron is laughing now, his eyes shining with happiness. Charlie can feel the excitement coming off his friend in waves.

“We’re home, Charlie.”

Charlie could no longer fight back the bile rising in his throat. He leans over the railing again and wretches. He can feel Aaron rubbing his back absently, but he can tell the man’s eyes are still fixed on the island.

Charlie shivers slightly, this doesn’t feel like much of a homecoming to him.

Comments

[valhalla37.livejournal.com]

I love this, but what's most impressive is that you've taken two characters with next-to-no development (well, as much as you can when they're toddlers) and crafted some very distinctive, real personas. I also really enjoyed the sense of foreboding you lace through this whole thing -- I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, wondering what kind of doom they were chugging towards. Great job!

[ozmissage.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I had never thought about writing next-gen fic until I saw this prompt and it just grabbed me, but it was actually a lot of fun.

It's strange starting from scratch with characterizations though. I felt like Charlie would have a lot of his dad in him hence the use of "brother", but then I had to go and make him snarky because apparently that's my default setting. ;)

[crickets.livejournal.com]

I agree with valhalla37 you did a great job with characters we know next to nothing about. Really great. And finished it with a kind of eerie, lonely, intriguing ending. Well done.

[ozmissage.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much, I'm glad you liked it! :)

[joyyjpg.livejournal.com]

I love this! I really like what you've done with these two. Their lives past age three are pretty much blank slates, so it's open to individual interpretation, and you made them seem very real and distinctive.

I also love how much Charlie sounds like Desmond! He even says "brother"! ♥

I love the idea of the second generation finding their way to the island. Great job with this!!

[ozmissage.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I was a little bit in love with the idea of Charlie referring to people as "brother". I had never thought much about writing next gen fic, but I have to say it was a lot of fun. :)

[elliotsmelliot.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the late reply. I am just catching up on September fic. I really loved this glimpse of the next generation. You made the boys, sorry - the men, into real individuals, not just pale imitations of their parents. It made me want to know what happens next!

[ozmissage.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Honestly it was a bit weird writing next gen fic. I had never had the impulse before, but then I read the prompt and I just had to give it a try. I imagine nothing good happens next. Charlie should have listened to his mother...;)

[greedyslayer.livejournal.com]

OMG, YOU WROTE CHARLIE HUME/AARON LITTLETON FIC.

Have to confess, in my plotbunny with Juliet/Richard's OC child Isaac (and with adoptive!Dad!James), I've thought of him older with the other canon next gen Losties, and in that ensemble-esque fic Charlie Hume and Aaron are pretty much an item. And I'm pretty much leaning toward Isaac/Ji Yeon.

Even your Aaron here sorta reminds me of the one in my head, though it's really not quite the same (which is good, since I wouldn't want to copy you per se).