this is drowning

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

Panting softly above him, Flora smoothes her thumb over his cheek, settling it (perhaps coincidentally (yeah right)) over the two stars beneath his eye. A thought bloomed, then, in the back of her mind. The one bound with gold and red strings and kept carefully tethered far down, beneath layers and layers of misdirection where she might not accidentally happen upon it. While sitting in his lap with his hands on her wasn't the sort of thing to normally draw that word up from the shadows of her mind, that she was in his shirt, in his bed, having nearly died at his side had the corded knots beginning to loosen as she gazed down at him.

The moonlight had darkened his eyes, revealing small crescents of blue that stole her breath nearly as much as the touch of his hands did. Tensing suddenly as she realized where it was her thoughts were headed, the queen rolled her hips against his, ignoring the pain and instead focusing on the surge of heat between her thighs. Hot waves of garnet and ruby covered the gold and red knots, and as Flora turned her attention to the feel of her pulse between her thighs, it became easier and easier to pretend she hadn't seen where her mind had wanted to take her. Hadn't felt the word beneath all the knots.

JACK

Moaning softly against her throat as she moves against him in kind, Jack's brows furrow to feel what they both know lurks deep in the pit of Flora's thoughts, only for her to promptly cover them with that garnet haze of lust. It's not a conversation that can be put off forever - perhaps not a conversation that can even be put off tonight - but for right this second, between them perhaps they can stifle that traitorous feeling for long enough that others can take precedence.

The captain's rough hands corset against Flora's waist, touch still gentle as they slip up and up to unfasten the first few buttons of his shirt, baring her breasts to the touch of his fingers, his mouth. With his tongue curling around the dusky pink of one of her nipples, one of his hands slips further south, plunging between them to stroke against her as if he might be able to further stifle whatever she might be thinking that goes beyond right here and right now.

"I want you," he mumbles against her skin, and should she glance at the ring on her finger it will prove he's no liar. He does, even if he can't say in what capacity or how deeply. Again, that's a conversation for another time.

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

That no one touches her the way Jack does has long since ceased being up for debate, but Flora is unabashedly delighted every time his fingers or teeth scratch an itch she hadn't even known she had until he happened upon it.

Pressing herself against him, no doubt Flora's thoughts will have the captain's teeth accompanying his tongue as she fills his mouth. For all the places she's too bruised for any amount of pressure, conveniently her breasts aren't one and gods but she needs more of him. Hissing in a breath as his hand glides between her thighs, static briefly interrupts the maroon fog of Flora's thoughts and without thinking her fingers tighten in his hair as her hips grind down against his hand.

Jack's words have something loosening inside of the Doubletaken, a knot slipping here and there. I've always wanted you or I'm yours if you want me, said in the right tone might have successfully osbcurred their real meaning while stroking the captain's ego, but Flora was far too caught up in the feel of his mouth against her breast and the hard length of him between her thighs to be appropriately clever with her mouth.

"Have me, then." She hisses, shifting her weight to one side in order to better tug his sweatpants down.

JACK

Flora barely has to think it for Jack to comply, his teeth grazing against her soft skin, his fingers between her thighs working in tandem with his tongue. One day he wonders whether they'll be in a position for her not to feel so uncertain about every step of this dance - and a dark voice has the audacity to remind him that he's the reason for it, he is and always has been, but it might not be the case that he always will be. That's entirely dependent on Jack.

Promptly ignoring Jiminy fucking Cricket on his shoulder, instead the captain hums his approval at Flora's response, shifting as well - as best he can - to free himself from the clothes he really ought not to have bothered putting on. Hissing a soft breath of relief, he finally turns his attention from her breasts back up towards her lips, even as the head of his cock teases against her entrance. 

Too fast and it's likely that they'll both end up calling it quits just because of the pain, so it's with surprisingly careful hands that he guides himself into her, huffing out a shuddering breath into her mouth and feeling his fingers flinch against her thighs, as if it's too much already.

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

With soft moans of frustration as they're forced to part long enough to rid Jack of his sweatpants, Flora takes advantage of the moment to tug his shirt over her head, revealing her own constellation of bruises.

Pressing her mouth against his, Flora gasps sharply against his lips as she feels the head of his cock press against her. It has her mouth watering with want, her lips momentarily stiffening into a silent snarl as the entirety of her consciousness is focused on the press of him between her thighs. Having curled one hand into his hair and braced the other against the wall, Jack will no doubt feel the tremble in her fingers as a carnal blush coats her thoughts, desperately wanting him inside of her. Having expected a flare of pain as he sank her hips down against him, the whimper that escapes Flora's lips is saturated in pleasure and weighty with don't say it don't say it don't say it affection. Her pleasure is his pleasure, but even so, he hadn't needed to be so gentle if he didn't want to.

"—fuck." She cries, the word already made ragged by desire. Not trusting herself, Flora pressed her lips hungrily against Jack's as her hips began to roll against his. Unlike where Koa others were concerned, so long as her lips were busy she was in the clear, but with Jack Flora had to safeguard her thoughts as well. So it was that the captain would feel the queen's mind pinballing from sensation to sensation, fixating on the feel of his cock inside of her, the press of his fingertips, the velvet of his tongue with an unrelenting zeal that spoke of a very particular kind of madness.

JACK

He fills her completely, and though the positioning leaves it up to Flora to choose their pace, to decide what flavour this tryst will end up being, Jack is by no means an inactive participant. He gasps into her mouth to feel her begin to move against him, the hand against her hips growing more gentle as if keen not to add any further additions to the bruises that already litter her skin. "You always feel so good," he whispers against her lips, and it's nothing to do with telepathy and everything to do with the arch of her back into his waiting hands, the smell of the sun and sea in her hair.

Parting from her lips so he can leave a trail of kisses down the length of her throat, he's left panting against her shoulder as she continues to take him, as her thoughts grow razor sharp and reduce to the sort of tunnel vision that speaks of one purpose, one goal--

Only he knows Flora well enough by now to see through the distraction, and it's with a frown and a huff of breath that he tries to get his next words out. "Don't," he almost whispers into her neck. "Just feel what you feel. I want to know."

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

The touch of his hands roars loudly in her thoughts even as his grasp grows gentle before she shifts, thinking instead of the angle of him inside of her as she sits down against him and grinds her hips forward and back. At some point Flora's eyes have closed to better aid her in strapping on her mental blinders and it's only as his lips trickle down her neck that they open, her fingertips pressing against the back of his head.

no you don't Flora thinks, the words shimmering above the mirage her arousal has created to hide what was beneath. you don't. Months ago, when they'd sat together at the top of the Last Step with acres of white beneath them and stars above, he'd told her as much. Ain't sure I could ever bring myself to love anyone, he'd said, the sentiment repeated again and again in everything he'd ever said to her on the subject, and all of his actions since. For all that Jack wasn't, in this, he'd been completely honest. It was Flora's fault for naively pushing ahead, thinking she could do what he said couldn't be done—didn't want to be done. Only what had started out as a girlish game had turned into something real along the way, and—

—reaching for his chin, now it was Flora's turn to direct his lips against hers. The pace she was setting was wonderfully slow, but already she could feel the pressure of orgasm beginning to build. It ballooned inside of her, an easy distraction from the rapidly unravelling strings of red and gold.

JACK

"You don't know that," Jack whispers against her throat, before she's directing his lips back against her own and he's caught in a riptide of her thought and emotion, sailing across a sea of shimmering pleasure where each wave threatens to be the crest of an even greater ecstasy. Where deep, deep beneath the waters of that arousal, something coils and pulses with the sort of heat that could put Apopo to shame, the sort of light that makes the sun look dim.

He'd said he wasn't sure he could bring himself to love anyone, but never had he considered that anyone might bring themselves to love him, either. Jack's role in the world is one of cruelty and power, of business and corruption and the ruthless sort of decisions that make the world keep turning despite the body count, and who the fuck could feel any warmth for that? Who, he wants to ask her, could see that and walk towards it anyway?

His lips part in a quiet groan as the angle of her hips and the roll of her body inevitably drags him towards his own climax, and Jack forces himself back from Flora if for no other reason to provide a helping hand, his blue eyes hazy with a reflection of the Doubletake's own thoughts as he races her towards that edge.

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

Oh, but she did. Five years she'd known Jack now, and while she'd changed plenty during that time, Jack hadn't. Flora had gone from a reckless sweet 16, trotting after him in the hopes that he'd give her the time of day, sucking in her stomach and wearing too much makeup thinking it would catch his eye (and it had, after a time), to Torchline's queen (with his help, of course). Though she didn't posture and pose for him quite the way she once had, the Doubletake had never stopped trying to impress the captain, had never stopped wanting him; her affections had merely grown and matured as she had.

"I'll do it—" She whispers softly; the angle was better for her, after all. With her thoughts, she directed his hands against her hips and the swell of her ass, wanting him to touch her the way he normally did but knowing she was too bruised for it. Slipping her hand from his hair between her legs, the press of her finger against her clit has her inhaling sharply as she focuses on the bright white pulse of pleasure. It fills her mind, and with every slow and deep roll of her hips, she can feel the pressure inside of herself expanding, pushing against the outer edges of her consciousness and threatening to break through. With every thrust the knots come undone, the curve of the o and the loop of the l written in girlish cursive.

"—jack—" Flora moans? pleads? begs? as the feeling wells up, expanding brighter than the sun, stretching farther than the four winds, pulling her deeper than the strongest of ocean tides. She did love him, even though it was going to ruin her, even though it was going to tear her apart at the seams until there was nothing left to recognize her by, she did. Lost in a sudden whirlwind of red and gold, Flora's orgasm roars in tandem, blotting out the final two letters even as the knots are stripped away. Shaking as her thoughts are utterly eclipsed by the bright relief of her orgasm, the queen trembles astride the captain, her body pitching forward as she crumples against his chest.

JACK

Perhaps to Flora, the captain hasn't changed, but for Jack, the man who walked Torchline's shores five years ago is almost nowhere to be seen these days, not unless a very specific situation calls for it. Time and war and friendships and loss have closed the captain up like a clam at the bottom of the Arclight, and only the Doubletake's maturity, insistence and warmth have started to pry it open again. And where once there had been nothing but grit and sharp edges within, now there's something shining and pearlescent that he wants to crush at the same time as he wants to covet.

More than willing to let Flora do what she does best, Jack's fingers glide along her thighs to grip her hips, her ass, even as the undercurrent of her pleasure begins to rise to something unsustainable for either one of them. "Fuck," Jack grates out, and despite his attempts to be gentle, as Flora reaches that precipice of ecstasy and throws herself over it, crying out those balled up and cleverly hidden emotions with each rise and buck of her orgasm, his hands clutch her tight enough to leave imprints in their wake.

He cums mere seconds after she does, his mind spelling out the jagged edges of the v and the quick curl of an e, and as she lurches forward against him his arms are already around her, clutching her close and fighting for any breath he might be able to catch. "Fuck," he hisses a second time, wanting to take more of her, to take her again and again to chase that feeling, but gods, he's suddenly so damned tired, even his clever mind can't keep up with it.

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

If there's pain at all, Flora isn't aware of it, wouldn't have minded if there was, though in the pearlescent freefall she finds herself in, there could have been an explosion outside of the Ark for all Flora would have been aware.

Her body is still flinching and shivering as the last latent waves of her orgasm continue to press against her, her hips shifting against Jack's in an effort both to avoid and encourage them. Finally having the sense to breathe, Flora inhales shakily, her hand slipping out from between her thighs to wrap around Jack's lower back. Sinking bonelessly against him aware that she should probably roll back to her side the other side of the bed, she hums something apologetic against his chest as she remains precisely where she is, still clutching him as she had seconds before she came.

With trembling mental fingers the queen sorts through her thoughts, stumbling through the disarray left behind by the proceeding few minutes (listen, they were both tired, bruised, and nearly died, but the sex was still good)and tying hasty knots. Pressing feather-light kisses up the captain's chest and neck, Flora leans her forehead against his shoulder. "Okay, now I feel like I could sleep for another whole day." She hums, her lips brushing against his skin with every whispered word.

JACK

There have been enough literal explosions for one day in Jack's opinion, so he'd be grateful if the rest of Torchline could keep it to a fuckin' minimum in the middle of the night out here. Luckily for the two of them, all remains silent and dark and tranquil - all but the sound of their combined pleasure, of course.

Biting back a moan of pain mingled with enjoyment as the Doubletake continues to move against him, Jack's oversensitivity is luckily second to whatever sparks of ecstasy continue to flicker through Flora's thoughts like embers from a dying fire. And whilst usually he'd already be extracting himself, unable to bear the closeness of another person beyond those few seconds post-orgasm, with Flora he welcomes the press of her forehead against his shoulder, the warm brush of her fingers against his body.

At least for tonight, anyway.

However she wants to sort her thoughts, the captain gives her time enough to think, to organise, to speak, and he blinks his eyes open to glance down at her when finally her mental voice gives out to her physical one. "I'll second that," he says roughly, scoffing and running a hand through her hair, careful of any snags his fingers might catch upon. "After you, then," he mumbles, obviously intending for her to lay down with him.

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

Leaning up, Flora presses her lips softly against Jack's. It's the sort of kiss that isn't without passion or heat, and while her aim is to keep it firmly in the realm of affectionate, there is something mildly desperate in the way some small part of her wants to cling to him—to this moment, rather—and never let it go. She doesn't, linger that is, instead pulling away with a small smile that's nowhere near indicative of the fumbling fingers inside of her mind that are tying their hasty knots and adjusting the furniture of her thoughts to hide what was briefly revealed. A well-placed palm tree here, a couch there, one of those globes that opens up to be a bar, and voila, all thoughts of love safely pushed out of sight.

With a small scrunch of her nose, Flora lifts herself off of Jack, not bothering to reach for her his shirt, but instead trying to tuck herself back under the sheets the way she had been when they'd first woken up. "Will the crew worry about you...?" She whispers, glancing vaguely toward his locked door and the crew who have been left to their own devices for more than a day now.

JACK

Melting into the kiss Flora presses to his lips, Jack's fingers tighten briefly in her hair before relaxing, the captain far too worn down to do anything other than take the Doubletake's lead. And so, his nose brushing against hers, he allows her to extract herself to lay down; it's unclear whether he doesn't notice the effort she's putting into tying off her feelings in such a neat bow, or if he's just choosing not to. Either way, he's quick to follow, slouching back beneath the sheets and pausing only to stretch out his sore muscles before he's relaxing once more.

"If it goes on past tomorrow afternoon they'll start to worry I'm dead," he mutters, shifting onto his side. "But I plan to be back out there by then. News about the panther will have spread by now, so I've got a little more time before things go tits up." And he's planning to make the most of it. Tucking an arm beneath his pillow, the captain considers Flora's silhouette in the darkness for a long few seconds before he moves, sidling up against her and slipping an arm around her so he can pull her back against his chest, tucking her in tight.

"Whatever you're thinking, I don't want to hear it. Let's just go to sleep," he mutters against the shell of her ear, his eyes shutting before he can change his mind about any of it.

you wanted perfect, you got your perfect
but now I'm too perfect for someone like you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!