sinking

JACK

hellraiser
risk taker

Jack raises his eyebrows at her first remarks, as if waiting for Flora to back up and remember the person she's dealing with. They're close enough now, he thinks, for the Doubletake to have noticed if not entirely realised that on a scale of one to emotional maturity, Jack falls way behind the bell curve to the point where even being in someone's presence half-voluntarily might as well be some perverse declaration of friendship or love. She's right, though - he has proven he's capable of more than the bare minimum, at least with Flora.

Even so - it's just words, he'd said, and that goes for more than anything he'd told Safrin in her presence. "If I'd not wanted to be with you at The Climb," he points out quietly, "I'd have not been with you at The Climb." For all the leverage Flora has on him, there are plenty of legitimate reasons for Jack to have stayed in Torchline, around his ship and his business and his connections, rather than taking a personal trip with Torchline's queen to another region entirely.

All of that is irrelevant, though, because for all of her sass and her not playing games and it not mattering, Jack senses no objection in the Doubletake's thoughts in response to his final comment, and so unless she decides to shove him over at the last possible moment, he leans in to silence her with his lips. It's a kiss that might as well be an apology, for all of the things Jack isn't and doesn't know how to be when it comes to Flora's expectations. The press of his lips isn't fiery or passionate, but that's not to say there isn't something in it that begs for an understanding that goes beyond whatever arrangement they'd made so long ago.

full speed ahead
'til i'm dead