i picked the petals

JACK

"Yeah, maybe," he says, the words dull and spoken for little reason other than to say anything at all. No, I won't. And he thinks Flora knows that deep down as well. It would take all of this - five plus years of building something before daring to let someone into the secret he keeps at the very centre of himself, not to mention all that had come after, and in the end there just hadn't been enough time. Why go through that again even once more, let alone over and over, just to stand here each time?

Squaring his shoulders and tipping his head back to look up at the sky, Jack thinks very briefly about going back to the shrine, to see if he might invite the goddess back down to obliterate his mind so he doesn't have to deal with this. "It still is my favourite," he mutters, hardly realising the words have passed his lips, before his gaze flicks back down towards the Doubletake and he clears his throat. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Just do me a favour and send a note before you sik your demigod posse on me, when I can't read your mind anymore. A five minute headstart should be enough."

He gestures behind Flora, towards Haulani's twinkling lights in the distance. "Let me walk you home?"

believer, believe it or not you'll know
when it ends and how it goes