tell that devil

JACK

Flora’s thoughts flay outwards, a thrashing storm of sharp words and bloody frustration that poisons the air between them, but Jack doesn’t bother to raise any mental defence against it. He flinches - subtle, but there - and chews at the inside of his cheek, flexing his fingers as if he might be able to shake the ice out of them. Rolling his shoulders and huffing out a soft laugh under his breath, he swallows down the bitter and malformed crux of her argument with a nearly imperceptible shake of his head.

”How fuckin’ dare you,” he says, flicking away the water now dripping from his fingertips. ”Actin’ like all this happened off the back of some unresolved argument, like you snuck out and did this to spite me as a last resort. We were at the Greatwood not days before you pulled this off, agreein’ to be better, to keep goin’, to make it work.”

Raising both hands to rake them back through his hair, Jack inhales a deep breath and lets it out again, at last seeming to realise that what he’s waiting for is never going to come - not like this, not from Flora. ”Here, then,” he mutters, taking the parchment from his pocket and handing it back to her. ”That’s everythin’. Step aside, now, an’ I’ll sail you back into your patch of sun an’ be on my way.”

sometimes we put our hearts in the wrong places
(what the fuck is it doing between your teeth?)

Code stolen from Queen Sky