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"Even if some scientist down the line tells me it's not the best idea, I'm not likely to change my ways," Lily said honestly, letting Sawyer walk a little ahead of her. It didn't strike her as strange, exactly, but she noticed it, even if she kept quiet about it for the time being. There were plenty of things that Lily noticed and never spoke about, not until it was necessary. (If it ever was.)

"I've never been very good at following rules," she admitted, casting him a glance, her lips curved up into a faint smile. "I'm sure that's not much of a surprise." Most people who'd known her for even a short period of time realized this about her, though it wasn't something she tried particularly hard to hide. It was an easier way to live, anyway.

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"World's better off without us anyway," Sawyer pointed out with a slow nod, meaning the statement more than he cared to admit. While he didn't dislike men on the whole, while he certainly didn't think it possible to seriously make any statement about them as a cohesive group, he knew full well how much trouble men could cause, and society seemed intent on giving them more than their share at that, only worsening things in the long run. "All we do's come in and throw everyone off with how irresponsible we all are. I'd offer to help you out with the lifts, but I'd probably end up missin' half the practices before I realized it. Plus, I ain't exactly the most graceful guy around."

He paused, nose wrinkling.

"And I ain't ever gonna wear a pair of tights. Leaves way too little to the imagination, if you ask me."

Lily laughed again, shaking her head at that. "You wouldn't have to wear tights," she teased, although she was hardly the person to force anyone to be involved with something like ballet. Even when she'd first started, she knew it wasn't the sort of thing that everyone would be interested in and knew she couldn't expect everyone to want to be involved, let alone listen to her talk about it.

"I like men, though. I think I'll keep them around in my life," she said, hooking her hair behind her ears. She liked men, she liked women, she liked being around people, having them involved in her life in one way or another. If men could cause trouble, women could cause just as much. Lily was testament to that, she knew, even though she didn't say it. It was possible she wouldn't even have to say it, that Sawyer would know that about her without the words being said.

"Well, some people just like makin' trouble for themselves, I guess," Sawyer replied with a soft chuckle, watching her fingers as she tucked her hair behind her ears, an action subtle, yet one that always drew his gaze in without delay. It didn't take knowing Lily all that long to see that she was the type who could get along with just about anyone, were they given a decent opportunity to get to know her. "Just remember that the next time you're mad at me— you asked for it first."

Never mind that she'd never been mad at him, Sawyer thought silently, though he found himself curious as to what would drive her to that point in the first place. She wasn't all too fond of that Thomas guy, but Sawyer had never had the time to meet him and figure out what he was all about.

Curiosities he'd satisfy later, he supposed.

"Next time?" she asked, her eyebrows lifting as she smiled. "Doesn't there have to be a first time in order for there to be a next time?" She was sure he'd be able to piss her off -- most people could, when they got close enough -- but she hadn't found any reason to be angry with him so far.

"But I'll keep that in mind," she continued, though it was clear it didn't bother her all that much. All friendships, all relationships came with their own set of conflicts, whether they came out right away or years down the line. "Whenever you find a way to drive me crazy, I'll just remind myself that I asked for it. If you manage," she teased.

"Next time you oughta be mad at me, then," Sawyer concluded, similarly arching a brow. Whether or not she was capable of even being angered in the first place was a question that Sawyer very honestly wanted to ask. Practically everyone who'd stopped by his house those couple of days after Kate's departure had been aggravated at best, infuriated at worst. Except Lily, it seemed.

"Maybe I'm just covering his ass. But I like that," he grinned at himself, nodding slowly as his gaze grew momentarily distant.

"Almost like I've got carte blanche."

"Well, you still have to be nice," Lily said slowly, but she was still smiling. No one was nice all the time, no one was even capable of being nice all the time and she didn't expect it of anyone. Eventually, everyone had a breaking point.

"It's hard to really piss me off, though," she admitted, thinking about it. "It's easy to get me to be a bitch, but it's hard to make me really, genuinely angry." She could think of a few times in the past few years when she'd been angry at someone, but it usually passed quickly. There were certainly people she didn't like much, but she figured there were people out there who didn't like her either. "I'm not one for holding grudges."

Sawyer snorted, though it was with a playful grin. He was pretty sure that he hadn't been the nicest of men, not to Lily, not to anyone else he knew. The difficulty came in the way that Sawyer tended to roll with whatever he felt a person deserved. If a person was better than Sawyer was— as a person, a friend, an acquaintance— by a great deal, then he had the tendency to allow that to be. Acted the jerk to spare them in the long run.

"Well, if you think I've been nice already, I guess I ain't got too high of a bar to jump," he pointed out, before tilting his head in thought. "Does it make me sexist if I say that I ain't one for holding grudges against women?"

"Nah. We're prettier, usually, it's harder to hold a grudge," Lily answered, then laughed. "I don't know, as long as you're not treating me like a second class citizen because I have a vagina, I probably won't go around calling you sexist." She didn't mind being treated differently just because she was a woman, provided it wasn't that she was being treated poorly. That was probably a double standard that some people might find unacceptable, but she was used to that, too.

There were plenty of other dancers who hadn't liked her simply because of how she chose to present herself. She was used to certain judgments.

"Ahhh. So you ain't one of those feminists that'd get all over me for treating y'all differently in ways," Sawyer concluded with a grin, nodding to himself as he mentally filed away the information. "Never did understand the whole 'everything's gotta be absolutely equal' mentality. Men and women are different. There ain't two ways about it. So long's you give everyone the same rights, I don't see what's wrong with pointing out that women are more likely to do some things and men are more likely to do others. But maybe I'm just behind the times."

He thought briefly about what Kate might've said. She probably would have glared, he thought, or otherwise been exasperated with him. It was almost novel to find a woman who wasn't half as worked up about it all.

"Hell, I like being treated like a lady," Lily said honestly. That didn't mean she couldn't take care of herself or wasn't fiercely independent, because she was, for the most part. She hadn't lived at home since she was seventeen, hadn't relied on anyone for even longer than that and it was impossible not to become accustomed to being the only person she ever counted on in some ways. But that didn't mean she didn't like a man who held a door open for her, even if she didn't need him to look after her.

"I've never met a man who was good to me because he thought I was incapable," she said. "Or a woman, for that matter. I think there's a difference between wanting to be nice and thinking someone is less than human based on physical attributes."

"I judge based on appearances, sure, but the way I figure, it's just a first impression. We all get 'em. Probably at least a few dozen people on the island who probably thought less of me the minute I started talkin' 'cause of my accent," Sawyer added, pursing his lips in his own manner of resignation. "And yeah, I sure as hell assume a few things when I see the way other people look. Girl as gorgeous as you probably wouldn't have had to work half as hard in certain jobs, and of course it's gonna make a guy like me wonder. The only thing's that you gotta keep an open mind.

"Gotta remember that you might be completely wrong."

He wasn't wrong about the fact that she hadn't had to work particularly hard for most of her life. Ballet was different; even when things were handed to her, there had been hard work involved, but with almost everything else, Lily had been lucky. There wasn't a lot she had to do in order to get along.

"So what was your first impression of me, then?" she asked with a grin. "Besides thinking I wouldn't have to work very hard in certain jobs." She could remember her first impression of him, easily, sitting across from him at that table with only five minutes to get to know him.

His brows raised and he looked to the side, an exaggerated motion meant to mimic a person too hesitant to bring out an opinion that he or she was sure to get flak for. Truth was, though, Sawyer was pretty sure that no matter what opinion he wanted to list as being his first of Lily, that she wouldn't be upset with him in the slightest.

First impressions, after all.

"Honestly?" he asked, tilting his head. "That you weren't desperate. Not that speed datin' really works the same way on the island, 'cause we all kinda know each other, but you know some of those chicks were lookin' to find a connection. You were just there to have fun. So I came out thinkin' that you were confident in yourself. Don't think I was wrong, either."

"No," Lily agreed with a small smile, pleased that his first impression of her had been generally favourable. She'd had a similar first impression of him, that he'd been at the speed dating to have fun and that he was the type of man whose company she'd enjoy. More than that, though, she'd liked him. And it was still that reason that she hadn't put his name down at the end of it.

But trying to explain that rarely made any sense, so she settled for saying, "And now here we are. Still talking. So I guess that speed dating was good for something." Because of the men she'd met that night, of the ones she hadn't already known, Sawyer was the only one she saw regularly.

He didn't bother to ask how she felt about him the first time. Sawyer hadn't been trying very hard, after all, to make any sort of impression that day. If anything, he'd signed up to keep an eye on three women in his life, worried about the type of men that such speed dating usually attracted— hilariously enough, himself no exception— and wanting to know if there was anyone he had to shake up a bit to keep any of them safe.

It was remarkable that Lily still wanted something to do with him at all, Sawyer thought, when he'd hardly given their conversation more than a moment's thought.

But life had its surprises.

"Guess it was," he grinned with a soft nod.

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