here's the countdown

JACK

Smiling darkly against her throat - it's always nice to know one has done the right thing, even for a telepath - Jack leaves one hand pressed against the small of Flora's back as if to keep her arched deliciously against the roll of his hips, the other bracing against the pillows over her head. With her legs pinned around him and her arms still curled about his shoulders, there's nowhere for either of them to go, and the captain can feel her declaration of love as a vibrating hum against his lips.

Letting those feelings - both physical and emotional - crash through him like a wave strong enough to wipe the world out from beneath his feet, Jack's breath catches in his throat, a crackle of unexpected pleasure erupting up through the base of his spine. "Fuck, Flora," he groans, dragging his kisses from her neck up towards the shell of her ear, before being forced to abandon his affections to focus on keeping air in his lungs.

It's a rarity for his own pleasure to hijack everything he takes from Flora (and that should really tell you everything, buddy), and he shifts enough to allow her to slip a hand between them, the thrust of his hips growing more rough and possessive by the second.

when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends

Code stolen from Queen Sky

never be so kind you forget to be clever

Wishing they each had several more arms, such was Flora's need to touch and be touched in return, with every thrust of Jack's hips the Doubletake's mind simultaneously brimmed with pleasure before dark tendrils stretched out as his body receded, her greed nearly swamping the fires of arousal already threatening to burn out of control. He couldn't fuck her without relinquishing at least some space between them, but gods if didn't have her thoughts growing frenzied to feel any amount of distance between his body and hers.

"nnnnn—Jack." Threading her arm down her stomach, at the first blush of pressure against her clit it was as if every nerve ending in her body had been dazzled by Jack's magic leaving her humming like a livewire beneath him. Her thoughts radiated with love and lust, and though even as a Safrin follower she'd never had the opportunity to witness the explosion of a star, she suddenly felt some kinship with one as her body began to tremble and tense as the onset of her climax pulled every bit of sensation into her core.

"Jack—" Hardly able to breathe despite the way her jaw continued to work and her lips parted in a silent scream, Flora's fingers circled between her legs as her other hand slipped to the flowers curling up the captain's right arm. Look at me— The words shivered in her mind between strikes of electricity and the florescent unspooling of her orgasm. Though she was only able to keep her eyes open for a moment before the force of her climax swept her away, this time as she fell, it was into waters of deepest sea blue.

JACK

A lot of people have called out the captain's name in moments like this, it's true - some in performative disbelief until his magic proves its worth, others in irreverent praise, heedless of who hears them - but it never sounds as good as it does from Flora's lips, he realises. Drawing back as if to kiss the word from her mouth, Jack is stalled by the sudden flare of ecstasy from the wicked touch of her fingers against her clit, his hips stuttering for just a second before bucking forward again in earnest.

Look at me - and he does, the arm braced above her head shifting just enough that he might twist his fingers tightly in her hair, forcing her head back even at the crest of her orgasm. His other hand will leave a very obvious shaped bruise against her outer thigh, but as Flora cums and drags him heedless along with her, Jack doesn't have the sense to care. He doesn't have the sense for much, in truth, his magic singing with the intensity of her pleasure, burning through nerve endings and rendering him speechless.

He fills her with a final, hard thrust before his fingers grow slack and gentle against her body, his head pressed to her shoulder as if the darkness and the smell of jasmine and mandarin might afford him a moment to come back to himself. Silence, blessed and unbroken but for the soft panting of their breath and the distant crash of waves, drapes itself across him as warm as any blanket; and gods, if he could have this forever, he'd write love letters against Flora's tongue every minute of every day.

when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends

Code stolen from Queen Sky

never be so kind you forget to be clever

Though Flora had tugged Jack away from her window earlier, for anyone passing below there'd be no mistaking who was in the queen's bedroom such was the way his name echoed over and over from his lips before all of the air had been stolen from her lungs.

As she fights to catch her breath, every unintentional movement between them sends ripples of static-y pleasure shivering over Flora's oversensitive nerves, against which her mind mewls soft I love yous over and over as if it might act as some sort of barricade between herself and the slow return of sensation. Wanting to linger in the resplendent nothingness that has her feeling utterly boneless beneath Jack, the queen moans under her breath, nosing into the captain's dark hair and wrapping her arms around him. Her mattress is such that his weight has sunk her down into it, and if Flora thought there was any way of ensuring she'd be able to breathe all through the night, she'd have begged Jack to stay just where he was until morning.

Despite her silent protests, sensation does return to her body, such that the queen is distantly aware of the ache in the muscles of her belly, the constellations of fingerprints blooming against her thigh, and the warmth of his breath against her chest. "Gods you're good." She chuckles into his hair, her words lazy and her thoughts entirely without form.

JACK

At least it's unlikely now, more than ever, that someone will come and knock at Flora's door for an audience with either one of them; not only because Jack is liable to cut someone's throat about it, but because fuck you if you think he's getting up to answer. Letting out a long, shuddering sigh and relaxing further into the bed and against Flora, as her arms wind around him and the world begins to swim behind his eyes, he finds he doesn't mind the shapeless nothing of her thoughts.

"I know," he purrs into the crook of her neck, his voice rough and his smile wicked against her throat. "Takes two to tango, though." Shifting to the side, slowly and with clear reluctance, Jack works an arm beneath Flora's pillow and draws her back against his chest, giving them both a little more room to breathe without creating much distance, if any.

when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends

Code stolen from Queen Sky

never be so kind you forget to be clever

"You're a menace," Flora hisses into Jack's hair, though the gold-bright wind that gusts through her thoughts very much suggests she's not at all unhappy with his predictable arrogance; quite the opposite, in fact.

Groaning as he slides to the side, Flora is quick to reclaim the space put between them even though eventually she knows they'll have to move one more time to slip beneath the blankets. For now, though, the queen is more than content to simply remain tucked against the captain's side despite the way her feet mischievously reach out to tangle around his ankles like a disobedient second set of hands.

Tilting her chin up and to the side in order to sweep her lips affectionately across Jack's jawline, the scarlet flush that had coloured her cheeks before has faded to a pretty pink, the shade of which has coincidentally saturated her thoughts. "Hey, so—" Jack will be able to read the thoughts before she even has a chance to articulate them—Sunjata has built a new town in King's End, want to go check it out?, and, Will you be my date for their wedding?—so rather than reiterating them, Flora merely twists ever so slightly in the captain's arms to peer up at him.

JACK

"I know," Jack repeats through a grin, the words hissed against her soft curls. Too exhausted, not just physically but by the evening and everything that had led up to this point, to fight the way Flora's toes curl around him, the captain's eyes are closed and he seems perfectly happy to doze in the shadows that dance around the room. So of course Flora has things to ask him, Jack shifting enough to gaze down at her with a raised eyebrow and sleepy blue eyes.

"Why not?" he says - to both of her questions - a smile curling across his lips. "Either you're confident about your other parents' reaction to us, or you really want to cause drama at your mother's wedding," he drawls. "Especially given that Remi and Ronin will be there, presumably." Which, you know, can't wait.

when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends

Code stolen from Queen Sky

never be so kind you forget to be clever

"One, I am confident." Flora purrs, and as she rolls onto her side to assume the position of little spoon, the fact that the wiggle in her hips has her ass brushing teasingly against Jack's half-mast is likely pure coincidence. (it isn't, not even a little). "And two, not that my mother wouldn't love a bit of drama at her wedding, but if it came at her daughter's expense I can promise you she'd have both of their heads on a platter without getting so much as a drop of blood on her dress." Whether that meant Hotaru would have someone else do it for her or that the Valkyrie would be able to convince them to place their necks into the guillotine themselves was something Jack could wonder about as they fell asleep.

Feeling far too comfortable to bother with covering them up, instead, Flora just reaches for Jack's arm, draping it around herself the way one might a blanket and then shifting against him to once again eliminate the space between them. Whatever his feelings about spooning, the Doubletake was so thoroughly delighted at the feeling of it as to swamp whatever grumpiness he might have tried to harbour.

"Love you," Flora whispers dreamily only seconds before sleep finally claimed her.


~FIN