don't sell your heart

JACK

"Mmhm," Jack says, the word loaded with the dozen objections he leaves locked behind his lips for now, though his amusement is written plain on his face. Oh, he knows that if he'd chosen to wait until early afternoon to show up at the bay, leaving Flora's thermoses of coffee to go cold even within their insulated containers, there would have been hell to pay. These days it always seems to be a choice between deciding whether her fury outweighs his entertainment.

Those thoughts still in Jack's mind soon enough, though, replaced by the warmth of Flora's mind like Torchline on a Longheat afternoon, his arm slipping around her (blankets and all) as she leans up for her kiss - one he gives willingly, to the surprise of them both. "I asked for that from Safrin," he objects softly, raising his eyebrows. "And fetched and killed and worked for it, and she gave me what I'd earned." That's the difference right there. "You just gave this to me, no strings attached."

Well, some strings, but if all Flora asks is not to be without him, that's a price Jack is finding easier and easier to pay. Kissing her again before nodding towards the blanket she'd spread out on the sand, he gestures for her to lead the way. "Since you went to all the effort."

it's not your fault that you're always wrong
the weak ones are there to justify the strong

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!