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Sleep didn’t come easily for Juliet that night in the jungle. The pain in her shoulder, the handcuff on her right hand, and the impolite company were an awful combination. However, contrary to what she led Kate to believe, she wasn’t all that fearful about their surroundings, concerned about her fate, or troubled by her conscience. So, all things considered, she managed to steal a couple of hours of sleep among those trees. Still, she woke up with a throbbing ache on her shoulder a while before the woman beside her.

Juliet didn’t want to pay too much attention to Kate, but she didn’t have many other options. There was only so much time she could spend staring at the trees or trying to fall back asleep. She certainly couldn’t move anywhere without waking her up, which would prompt them to restart their grueling journey. Undoubtedly, her best bet for a little bit of peace was to stay still.

But staring at Kate while she slept? That was a choice that Juliet preferred not to think too hard about. She could defend her choice, even if she was the only one judging herself. She could say that even though she had memorized Kate’s file and watched her breaking rocks for countless hours, in person or through cameras, she could always learn more about her to use against her. Judging by the soft crease between her eyebrows and the occasional whimper that escaped her parted lips, which Juliet wouldn’t have been able to hear had she been anywhere other than pressed close to Kate’s side, she was having a nightmare. Kate Austen was someone with plenty of material to fuel lifelong nightmares, even before crashing on that godforsaken island. Juliet knew this, and knew how to make it useful for herself.

And yet, when Kate woke up with a start, Juliet’s calculating thoughts vanished. They left behind only her most honest reasoning for having stared at the brunette sitting beside her. Kate was a much more attractive sight than the trees around them.

“How’s your shoulder?” Kate said, her voice still hoarse with sleep.

“Awesome,” Juliet answered.

Her voice was far too soft to be addressing Kate, who dislocated her shoulder just the previous night. It was too early to put on her facade. Because of the way Kate was still leaning against her, and looking at her as if they spent the night together for a completely different, much more enjoyable reason, Juliet concluded that Kate wasn’t ready yet to resume their rivalry either. 

In fact, Juliet watched as Kate looked down at her shoulder, as if expecting to find a visible wound, a trace of blood, or perhaps a bone still peeking out. There was nothing of course, and Kate’s expression didn’t betray a thing to reveal if this made her relieved or disappointed. But Juliet quickly forgot about that, because then Kate looked up at her and their eyes met. The moment seemed to last an eternity. Enough for Juliet to remember the character she was supposed to play and arch a questioning eyebrow. Enough for her character to break and soften under Kate’s inquisitive stare.

It lasted right until the moment that Kate looked down. Only then she flinched away from Juliet, realizing just how close they were to each other.

Then, of course, it was up to Juliet to wonder what exactly Kate’s eyes focused on that spooked her so much. Did she glance at the handcuffs and remember both their history? Did she look at Juliet’s shoulder and remember the terror and guilt of the previous night? Or was Juliet crazy to think that Kate’s eyes had just looked down at her lips?

“Then let’s get going,” Kate blurted out, and instantly started moving to stand up.

Juliet had no option but to follow along, but she sighed pointedly at Kate’s words, not at the effort of pulling herself up without putting too much pressure on her injured shoulder.

“Have a problem with that, Juliet?” Kate asked her.

As they walked out of that cocoon made by the trees, Juliet made a pause to think of the way Kate said her name. Not just the way it sounded coming from her lips, in her tone, a little hostile, a little mocking. But the way she wielded Juliet’s name like a weapon, something with a sharp point. She knew very well that Juliet knew too much about her, and if there ever was a way for her to use the one thing she knew about Juliet, her name, against her, she wouldn’t hesitate. 

But that wasn’t Juliet’s most pressing concern.

“Yes, Kate, I do have a problem with your plan,” Juliet said.

She stood her ground, even when Kate tried to ignore her and pull her along by the handcuffs. Eventually, the brunette had to stop in place and turn around to face her. She gave an impressively annoyed sigh, but its effect was reduced by how silly they looked with their arms hanging between them because of how far apart they were standing from each other.

It seemed Kate refused to humor Juliet asking her what was her problem, but Juliet didn’t mind filling in the blanks herself.

“If we’re going to keep wandering the jungle handcuffed to each other, and after you made me run around in the rain, punched me in the face, and dislocated my shoulder, the least you could do is take the time to stop for breakfast.”

“Breakfast, really?” Kate scoffed. “Is that what you’re worried about?”

“And if this takes much longer we’ll stop at a creek for some water,” Juliet added.

Kate rolled her eyes with excessive dramatism, but she pulled Juliet with her to start walking, and Juliet knew they were in search of any nearby fruit.

“You Others are just spoiled,” Kate grumbled as they walked side by side.

“Maybe,” Juliet replied. “But you’re not going to survive dehydrated and starving like this. I know you didn’t even eat the sandwich I brought you.”

“Because you threw me on the floor!” Kate immediately protested.

“Because you attacked me.”

“You fucking kidnaped me!”

“Well,” Juliet exclaimed, wondering if Kate could tell how much she enjoyed provoking her like that, if perhaps she felt the same way. “Jack loved my sandwiches.”

“Shut up!” Kate snapped at her.

Maybe it was wishful thinking, maybe it was the fact that the yell didn’t come accompanied by a punch, but Juliet felt like Kate’s anger toward her was losing some of its edge. Plus, not even five minutes later, Kate failed to keep herself quiet.

“Also, I put your shoulder back,” Kate blurted out.

“What?”

“I dislocated it, but I helped you fix it,” Kate explained, emphatically avoiding Juliet’s eyes.

“They don’t cancel each other out, Kate,” Juliet said.

Juliet found Kate’s attempt at justice almost naive, so nearly endearing that she couldn’t even tease her more about it.

“Whatever,” Kate grumbled, and tugged on the handcuffs just a little harder. 

Kate would hate to admit it, and she was fully prepared for the other woman to make her do it, but she was glad Juliet made them stop to have something for breakfast before continuing their journey. 

It wasn’t the best or most comfortable meal, even by plane-crash-survivor's standards, but fresh mangoes on her empty stomach felt like heaven. Judging by the pleased hum that escaped from Juliet at the first taste of the sweet fruit, she agreed. Kate was painfully aware that she shouldn’t have found that sound from a sort of adversary so appealing. It didn’t help that all the available distractions were even worse.

They had only one knife, which Kate was unwilling to give up. This meant that it was up to her to cut the pieces of fruit for Juliet and pass them to her, inevitably making their fingers brush each time. And then there was the element of the handcuffs.

Firstly, they had to sit very close together just so Kate could use both hands to cut and peel the fruit. Then she couldn’t expect Juliet to just use one hand the entire time. So maybe she took her pieces of fruit with her handcuffed hand and it meant that she pulled Kate’s hand toward her when she brought the fruit to her mouth. Or maybe she had to use that same hand to wipe away the droplets of juice spilling from the corner of her lips.

Every bit of that situation was horrifyingly alluring to Kate, who had to let her hand dangle in the space between them and tighten her grip on her knife to resist the temptation of replacing Juliet’s hand with her own. 

Kate felt just about desperate to look away from Juliet just long enough to remember that she was the enemy, that she had kidnapped and hurt her and her friends. But they were quite literally attached to each other, and Kate’s impulsive attempt to distract herself was just to break the companionable silence between them.

“Happy now?” she asked, aiming for a sarcastic tone.

“Mm, delighted,” Juliet replied between bites. She sounded frustratingly calm and content to just sit there sharing that fruit with Kate. “It’s good, right?” she asked Kate.

Since it wasn’t the mango’s fault that she was handcuffed to someone she believed to be strange, evil, and dangerous, Kate just shrugged. But she did feel bothered by the fact that by then she had spent enough time around Juliet to expect a problem just by the hint of a smirk taking shape on her pink lips.

“See, maybe you weren’t so angry, Kate,” Juliet said, “Maybe you were just hungry.”

She said all that so damn casually, popping a piece of mango in her mouth at the end, smirking at Kate as if there was anything normal and controlled about their current circumstances, as if they were friends . 

For her part, Kate scoffed, “Fuck off.” And prompted by Juliet’s infuriating proud smile in response, she added, “Do you ever shut up?”

“Oh I think that would be so boring, don’t you think?” Juliet asked.

Kate only rolled her eyes at her, and worked on cutting one more piece of mango. She held it up for a second, and just when Juliet went to reach out for it, she moved it to her own lips. Kate ate the mango with a pleased smile, pleased most of all at Juliet’s unimpressed glare. 

After giving the blonde her own piece of fruit as well, Kate said in an almost conversational tone, “Maybe I should’ve killed you when I had the chance.”

She remembered the moment perfectly. Juliet’s peaceful and somewhat unsettling beauty as she slept. The weight of the knife in her hand. The internal debate between trying to free herself and digging the blade into Juliet’s slender neck. Then the feeling of Juliet’s hand on her wrist, holding her hard enough to leave her fingerprints on Kate’s skin.

“Maybe you should’ve tried ,” Juliet replied.

Her blue eyes were full of amusement but she wasn’t joking. In fact, she sounded as if she were actually daring Kate to try it, and at the same time promising that it would not have ended how Kate would’ve expected it.

“You didn’t though,” Juliet continued more thoughtfully now. “I’ve been wondering why.”

“Really? You’ve been having enough spare time to think about your mortality?” Kate joked, referencing their pretty busy and eventful day together.

It was easier than thinking about why she didn’t and still wasn’t trying any harder to get rid of Juliet.

However, Juliet laughed so naturally, so prettily at that moment, that maybe that was a good enough reason to let her live this long at least.

“Come on, admit it,” Juliet said, speaking so softly Kate started to think that was actually her default, instead of the heartless tone she was more familiar with. “You’re actually enjoying my company.”

And Kate couldn’t have answered what possessed her to shake her head, give her the smallest of smiles, and say, “It could’ve been worse, I guess.”

“Yeah?” Juliet replied. She perked up in a way that Kate found just fascinating. Then, of course, she ruined it by saying, “You wouldn't rather have Tom holding your hand while you peed in the jungle?”

The comment was so unexpected that Kate just had to huff a laugh and scrunch her face up in disgust. She shook her head, and looked away from Juliet as if that could somehow hide her smile. The reminder of one of the most ridiculous consequences of being handcuffed to each other was hilarious, embarrassing, and irritating. But Kate had to admit that picturing any of the Others in Juliet’s place was much worse.

“You’re a nightmare,” Kate finally replied, and probably more seriously than Juliet expected. Thrilled by the idea of taking the cunning blonde by surprise for once, and remembering they had some kind of unfinished business together, Kate took a leap and added, “I guess Danny could’ve been worse than you, huh?”

To Kate’s great surprise, at first, Juliet shrugged noncommittally, as if she couldn’t know for sure which one of them was worse. The mere suggestion gave Kate chills. But then Juliet frowned a little, looking genuinely bothered maybe for the first time since Kate had known her.

“That’s an understatement,” Juliet said quietly.

Kate didn’t need to inquire about how awful he was. She had seen it firsthand. What she didn’t know for sure was if she had seen the worst of Juliet yet or not.

“You killed him,” Kate said, going straight to the point she wanted to make, reveling in Juliet’s undivided attention. “You killed him for us.”

She had almost said ‘for me’ and stopped herself right in time. Juliet didn’t take too long to think of her answer, but she did look at least mildly troubled by the subject and whatever consequences it had brought her. Kate guessed it wasn’t too far-fetched to think those actions had something to do with Juliet being left behind like she was.

“I killed him for many reasons, Kate,” Juliet sighed. “For my own interests. For Ben. For Jack,” she listed them slowly, endlessly patient, and didn’t react when Kate flinched at the emphasis on Jack’s name. “It was in everyone’s best interests that the two of you escaped that day.”

“And yet, here I am,” Kate replied. Was there anything else she could’ve answered to Juliet’s words?

“Here we are,” Juliet said.

She spoke in that particular way of hers that felt dangerously soft. Juliet felt like she was perpetually the calm at the eye of the hurricane. Her tranquility was more terrible than brazen rage. Kate knew that it meant she was dangerous, capable of worse things. But she also wondered what kind of suffering forged a person like that. She admitted to herself that was more intrigued than she should be about Juliet, her history, her limits, her intentions, her undisguised being.

“What about you?” Kate asked her, turning the tables suddenly and leaning forward slightly. “Would you have rather been handcuffed to any of the boys?”

Juliet raised her eyebrows, visibly interested in Kate’s question, her reasons for asking it, and the hypothetical options.

Kate knew that Juliet probably wouldn’t have minded being handcuffed to Jack. They already appeared to be upsettingly close. She didn’t want to picture her close to Sawyer. She could hardly imagine her interacting with John. And she guessed that only one of them would’ve come out alive if Juliet had been handcuffed to Sayid. 

“You know what, Kate? I’m kind of tired of boys lately,” Juliet answered. She said those words in such a conversational tone. As if Kate hadn’t heard those words from her friends in high school right before crossing a line. As if Kate hadn’t said those words herself to other women before. As if Juliet couldn’t possibly imagine those words carrying a much deeper meaning beyond the playful question. But then she hit Kate with a precise, simple, but final blow, “Aren’t you?”

It was a good thing that she asked, because Kate didn’t have to think too long for an answer.

“Depends,” Kate said, and stood up abruptly. She made sure to pull on the handcuffs a little, enough to rattle Juliet a little, make her look up at her with those big blue eyes that had no right to look half as innocent as they did. Juliet barely blinked as she stared up at her waiting for the rest of the answer. Finally, Kate added, “Can I trust you now, Juliet, or are you going to keep being a problem?”

Those were some blissful seconds when Kate delighted in the illusion of having the upper hand over Juliet.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Juliet stood up too. She wrapped her hand around the thin metal chain of the handcuffs tying them together, and she pulled hard . She forced Kate to stumble toward her, her body softly crashing against Juliet, forcing her to be the one to look up at the blonde and those gorgeous blue eyes suddenly devoid of innocence.

“I can’t answer that, Kate,” Juliet said. Her voice was on the verge of heartless again, but something had undeniably changed. There was nothing cold about it now, not to Kate at least. As troubling as it was, she would say it was quite the opposite. “Maybe you can count on both things,” Juliet added.

After more seconds than Kate would care to admit, she found the strength to say through gritted teeth, “Then let’s get going.”

They took a step back from each other at the same time.

Both of them knew perfectly well it was only a matter of time before they found themselves drawn to each other again.