[SE] I wore the crown, I sold the lie

JACK

"Sounds rough," Jack says, and to undoubtedly everyone's surprise, it's far from just a platitude. It doesn't just sound rough, it is rough - the captain knows as much firsthand. Which is where things maybe cut a little too close to a wound that is only in the very first stages of healing, because as Vesper's next question comes, Jack's laughter is a sharp and bitter sound, a lonely ha! that echoes off the wooden walls.

"No," he says immediately, glancing sidelong at the boy and reaching to snag the bottle of rum again, taking a quick swig to drown whatever feeling has tried to creep up into his throat.

"No," he repeats, more softly this time. "Just makes things more complicated. You don't get to make the same mistakes other people do once you've outed yourself. You're always held to a higher standard, expected to know better, or even to just know." He scoffs under his breath. "An' if sometimes you wanna just... block it out to make it better for you both, that'll also be the wrong call."

Setting the bottle down again, Jack rakes his hand back through his hair. "An' that's if you even get that far, an' she ain't pissed that you kept it a secret this whole time."

we've gone way too fast for way too long
and we were never supposed to make it half this far

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!