blood ties

JACK

Knowing better than to give himself over entirely to the feelings that Flora's filthy thoughts are liable to provoke, Jack nonetheless finds himself - not for the first time - happily drowning in the rose gold shimmer of arousal and need that pours out of her. And with Mateo calling them out (he could get to quite enjoy the botanist's company as Flora's relative and a possible business partner, he decides) it almost seems like a done deal for them to make a swift exit.

Oh, but then dear old dad comes back.

Straightening up and inhaling a long breath that he sighs out again before taking a sip of rum, Jack raises his eyebrows over his sunglasses at the Bastion. Fuck it indeed. "Yeah, technically," he says. "I'm an only child, for my sins, and my father's still drinkin' himself to death out in the seedier bars somewhere." And aren't you lucky to even get that much out of the captain?

"But thanks to Safrin, I find myself suddenly with a few kids of my own. Three of 'em - they just touched down in Torchline from wherever they were before. You'll probably know 'em if you meet 'em." He gestures casually to the stars flecking the corner of his eye.

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky