[SE] i'll make you wanna think twice

hope keeps us breathing, just to kill us in the end

"I'd say that Flora's childishness has rubbed off on you." There was still that age gap, Jack, and no amount of dancing around it was going to change that. Especially not when the captain seemed to be digging in his heels in precisely the same way Remi had seen Flora do so many times.

"That's the thing about being a parent, though. She can come gunning for me any day and time and I'll welcome it with open arms. I'd rather have her angry at me now than broken up over you, knowing that I'd told her so." Jack was right, though, in that Remi couldn't control the things his daughter did. It was the real motivation behind wanting to break the captain's nose almost as much as the knowledge that as soon as he left the closet Flora would likely be furious with him once she put two and two together.

Taking a step back, Remi's lips trembled into a snarl that he had to physically wipe from his face with the back of his hand. "You aren't the one for her, you know that right?" The Bastion's voice had lost its edge as his sea glass stare skirted over the captain's wirey-frame, the tattoo peeking out beneath his shirt, the stars by his eyes. "Whatever this is, whatever you're using her to get, she's going to wake up one day and realize that for however fun it is to hookup in closets with some scruffy pirate, that you aren't the man she's been dreaming of since she was a little girl. That you can't give her the life she's always wanted." And on that day, Remi and his I told you sos would find Jack, and the result for the captain would be the same, immortality or no.

it's not your fault that you're always wrong

"I'll be sure to let her know you've found somethin' we have in common," Jack retorts, reaching up to wipe the blood from his lips with the back of his hand. "You're actually hearin' yourself right now, aren't you? You swing an awful lot of dick for someone who forgets she exists until she's gotta call you in to save her life. I didn't see you out there on that beach until she used magic to bring you to her." Which, yes, unfair because that would have fucked the KQ levelling up, but shh.

Still, intimidation notwithstanding, the Bastion has definitely remembered how to push buttons, and Jack feels the condescension and malice radiate out of the other man as if it's a physical thing. He feels Remi reduce him down to something small and meaningless, and it's enough to finally have a sneer curling across the captain's face as well. "Until then, are you finished?" he wants to know, jerking his chin over Remi's shoulder where he's still blocking the door. "Fun as this has been, I've got other shit to do today."

hope keeps us breathing, just to kill us in the end

"Oh yeah? And how often over these years have you remembered that she existed when you didn't want something?" Remi snaps in response because for all the captain's posturing about how this had been going on for So loNg, the Bastion was willing to bet that nearly all of it had been when Jack wanted to get his dick wet or when one of Flora's other assets were required. At least Remi had always come when he was needed, rather than his needs being the reason he came.

"Yeah, she did use her magic to bring me there. Funny how having you around wasn't enough." Remi scoffs; it was a cheap shot to be sure, but one the Bastion was more than happy to take.

Feeling as though he'd lost—not this little exchange with Jack, that he cared little about—but the chance to protect Flora, Remi presses his teeth together and reluctantly stands aside. He can see it all playing out now, either with his daughter stubbornly living out a life that she didn't want, or otherwise having her heart shattered by a man who didn't care. There was no real reason to be surprised that Jack hadn't been moved by logic or intimidation, and whatever bribe Remi could have offered he was sure that being cozied up to Flora could outbid him if only because of her channelling. Still, he'd at least hoped that Jack could see the writing on the wall and opt to steer clear of it.

"It's never going to be you, for her." Remi says softly before reaching for the door handle and swinging it open for the captain to exit.

it's not your fault that you're always wrong

Jack can go and lick his wounds later, he decides, even as the blows from the Bastion continue to fall at close proximity; granted, they are more emotional than physical. It's a peculiar feeling nonetheless, to be needled by someone on another person's behalf, and he finds his mental shields curiously lacking on that particular front. Clearing his throat and straightening up, the bruise on his neck already starting to form courtesy of Remi's forearm, Jack certainly doesn't feel like the victor in this no matter what exterior he decides to present.

"Yeah, and I bet it kills you that it doesn't make a difference right now, doesn't it?" he hisses as he sidles past the Bastion, sparks crackling at his heels and frost coating his fingertips before he's free of the supply closet, his business within it long forgotten.

~FIN