[SE] walk right in the sight of a gun

JACK

Half expecting Flora to continue to walk away regardless, Jack takes the sudden bloom of her thoughts at face value - surprise doesn't mean changing her mind, after all - and it's only as he hears the soft creak of her return to the booth that he glances up, regarding her quietly behind the shade of his sunglasses. "Thanks," he says quietly, searching for something further to say that will stop the moment from slipping through his fingers like sand.

But gods, then the calm swathe of water floods through Flora's mind, washing down the ragged lines of Jack's magic and filling him with the dappled shimmer of sunlight bouncing off the shallows, of the bottomless blue of the Arclight, of sea breezes and crashing waves. The captain doesn't realise when he's relaxed his fist or when he's settled back into his seat, and when Flora's voice breaks the silence between them, he's feeling yet again more grounded.

"I remember," he says with a quiet nod. "It was the first date I agreed to take you on." Transactional, granted, but he recalls that they'd surprised each other that night in more than one way.

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

Code stolen from Queen Sky