[SE] we were jet-set, bonnie and clyde

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

Snorting at Jack's words only to find her breath catching in the back of her throat as he tugged her fingers toward his lips, Flora's eyes softened. Wanting both to admonish him for being so casually charming and also to pepper his face with kisses, the queen opted for neither and simply nodded. "If I wasn't worried about wrinkles, I'd march right over to Frey and just age up ten years to shut them up." She wouldn't, they both knew it, and not just because of the wrinkles; Flora wasn't the sort to yield to external pressure, but instead dug her heels in all the more when it was applied.

"It will." She agrees, her voice full of laughter. "This time instead of shopping I'll come sit in the back with you and fill your mind with all sorts of things so you don't get bored." Grinning slyly if only because they both knew exactly what sorts of things Flora would want to fill Jack's mind with while someone was trying to take his exact measurements, the queen also sets her glass down in order to comb her fingers through the sides of the captain's dark hair.

"What? I like you." Flora pouts as she traces her thumb against the rough stubble along his jaw. Even in a quiet moment like this Jack was all contrasts—sharp and soft, dangerous yet caring in his own way. How much of it was to get the sort of reaction out of her that his magic could draw from and how much was real was a line which was becoming harder for the queen to differentiate, but only because she risked hurting her own feelings by analyzing things too closely.

JACK

"Perhaps Frey could kindly miss out the wrinkles when they age you up," Jack reasons with an easy roll of his shoulders. "It might be worth it for the look on your father's face." Because ten years would make Flora exactly Remi's age, and if the Bastion had complaints before, Jack senses that this might be the final straw. Still, of all the things that Flora is and isn't, the captain can absolutely appreciate the steel in her spine and the stubbornness that comes along with it.

"Well aren't you kind. I wonder how those things will affect the measurements, and how much your mother will enjoy that at her wedding." With a scoff at the mere thought, Jack still won't complain at having company for however long he's meant to suffer by standing still while the tailor does his thing.

Turning his head a fraction as if to lean into the fingers threading through his hair, Flora's thoughts bloom to life down the roots of his magic, growing buds of their own in his mind. "I like you too," he says, as if she might not have realised that much all this time. Letting his fingers spread in a starburst against her lower back, he leans in close enough that his words all but brush across her lips.

"What would I have to gain by hurtin' your feelings at this point?" he says quietly. "Or lettin' you hurt them, for that matter."

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

"Ooooh maybe." Flora flashes Jack a wolfish smile that she's picked up from seeing it on his lips so often. "Maybe I'll really commit and just ask to be a Safrin demigod, or Frey even." Either were enough to put her dad's at risk of a heart attack, and given the way the Bastion's magic worked, might even be enough to kill him if his immortality clause was interpreted loosely enough.

Speaking of Frey demigod's, Flora is quick to remind Jack that given what both Sunjata and Hotaru are designed to do, she very much doubts if they'd mind. "Besides, if it's a problem I can always sit on your lap." She suggests, leaning into the press of his fingers against her back. Where once Flora had plucked every inch of hair from her body before Jack had come over, years down the road the Doubletake's idea of prepping for the captain's arrival surrounded more around making herself feel good. The scent of jasmine clinging to her skin and the way it made her feel good to play into the idea of her being the Caido equivalent of Katy Perry's teenage dream was evidence enough of that as much as the way the food and drink she had on offer were things she actually enjoyed, rather than ones she only pretended to in order to impress Jack.

Smiling shakily as what feels like a thousand pop-rocks thrown into the ocean begin to bubble and fizz in her belly—words of affirmation and all that—Flora rises onto her toes, helping the captain to tease the line between kissing her and merely tickling his lips against hers. The words that hum on hers, however, have Flora dropping back down slightly even as her fingers curl into the hair laying against Jack's neck. "None," she admits, swallowing hard, her gaze never leaving his. "But I mean...I am pretty good at it." A humourless but golden laugh leaves Flora's lips as she gives her head a small shake. That Jack wasn't in love with her was fine; she'd rather be with him as things were now, than push the issue and risk losing him entirely. For the time being anyway. If months passed and he still didn't feel that way about her? Those were the thoughts that didn't bear thinking about. At what point would she have to decide if it was better to spend her life with a man she loved but who found her unlovable—that was assuming of he even wanted to—or walking away?

Even letting her thoughts drift toward that sort of ending had Flora's stomach tensing, against which she swiftly rose back onto her toes, her lips hungrily seeking out his in an attempt to dampen her insecurities. build me a couch, the Doubletake thinks, the words punctuated by little flicks of her tongue against his. i've been thinking all day about exactly how I want to break it in.

JACK

"Someone's got lofty aspirations." Jack grins; much as he thinks Flora could charm a god or a goddess, and he has no doubt Safrin would at least consider raising her to the height of one of her personal chosen out of spite if nothing else, Frey, perhaps, might already have enough on their skilled hands with Hotaru and Sunjata.

Speaking of which, the good captain does incline his head in acceptance of her very good point, the mischief in his blue eyes flaring brighter at the prospect of her sitting on his lap for, presumably, the entire wedding. "Hopefully the ceremony doesn't take too long, else I might get fidgety," he warns. Who knows, though - perhaps they are already planning for an orgy as part of the reception.

Flora's delight detonates across his magic with an intensity that would have had Jack shielding his eyes had it been a physical thing; the mental equivalent is more nuanced, alas, but before he can do anything about it - or the quagmire of other emotions that stir in her subconscious like a waking monster - her lips crash into his own. At this point Flora is just as good at silencing him against conversations she doesn't want as he is, though as her thoughts thrum into his mind, his grip on her grows a touch tighter.

"No," he says softly, the word mumbled into her mouth, and rather than parting from her to build said couch, he seizes her close enough that he might turn and lift her onto the counter.

"You really think I feel nothin' for you? Still?" He raises his eyebrows, something quiet and dark flickering in his expression. Flora, who knows him better, arguably, than any other person in Caido, whose presence at his side and in his bed is welcomed and missed, not merely tolerated. "Or is it just not enough, unless I crucify myself on those three words? You know why that's difficult for me. I'd kill for you, Flora. I'd set these islands on fire for you. Sorry if that's not the kind of fairytale you expected."

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

In response Flora merely waggles her eyebrows. "Obviously," she purrs; the Doubletake's aspirations might have nothing to do with becoming a demigod, but certainly she wasn't lacking in plans to make her own future effervescent and exciting.

Wanting to reach out and drape herself in the playful blue of Jack's gaze, the queen instead leans up to press a too-quick kiss against his lips. "I'll find something for your hands to do if that's the case." She promises, her teeth nipping wickedly at his lower lip before she settles back and the conversation takes an abrupt hairpin turn.

No? Confusion darkens Flora's thoughts, like a shade being pulled in an otherwise sunlit room. Finding herself suddenly on the counter, the queen's hands and legs are quick to pull the captain close, feeling unmoored and cold without the press of his body against hers. "No..I...I know you do." Pressing her eyes closed, she hears the inhale of her own shaky breath like a wave crashing down upon her, making her muscles feel stiff and only adding to the sensation that she was treading water alone.. "Jack," the word leaves her lips in a soft whimper, her sunny expression replaced with one which implored him to understand where she was coming from as much as she understood where he was.

That Jack had access to her thoughts at any given moment was as much a boon to their relationship as a problem. Where others could shove their thoughts aside and simply be judged on what they did and said, Flora was condemned by every thought and emotion blossoming in her mind, no matter what action she ultimately decided to take. That she'd never pressed Jack about his feelings didn't matter; if Jack thought not saying I love you amount to being crucified, what must it be like for Flora to have to be made accountable for every single passing thought? Every girlish flutter of emotion and need?

"Killing and destruction aren't hard for you." The Doubletake murmurs, her shoulders slumping in resignation and recognition that apparently they were going to have this conversation now. For Jack to say he'd kill and burn for her was like Flora saying she'd wear cute outfits and always be up for drama, for him. "But..I do know why it's hard. Why it might take time, but Jack...I don't think it's a fairytale to want the person you're in love with, to feel the same." Softly said, Flora's gaze falls, settling somewhere between them as the queen tries to blink away the first pinpricks of tears she can feel needling at the back of her eyes.

For the foreseeable future, it was enough. Flora loved Jack enough for the both of them, and moments like this aside, she was content with reading into the little things he did for her and extrapolating them to mean something more. But if he wanted her to be able to overthink something as otherwise easy to overlook as him not grumbling about her being in his bed without explicitly saying so, he'd also have to accept what that sort of overthinking would do elsewhere.

JACK

Gone is the playful banter, of whatever shenanigans they might get up to as wedding guests, of becoming demigodly to do little more than cause drama and stir up trouble. Drawn back against Flora with his hands pressed to the warmth of her curves, her hips, her thighs, whatever the Doubletake says is vastly at odds with how she looks and how she sounds, and that's without even taking the murky depths of her thoughts into consideration.

"Just shut me out if it's that bad," he snaps whether he means to or not, gesturing to the shiny new ring on her finger. "Gods know you've been tryin' to ever since you found out about me." Peeling himself back from her and dragging a hand back through his hair, he doesn't expect to have literal murder at her behest to be compared to a cute outfit, the captain raising his eyebrows in blatant shock.

"I killed Harper," he says. "You gonna get a nice new dress for when I see you next?" Since, you know, that's the equivalent.

Shaking off the frost that tries to coat his fingers as if resenting the way it has become a clear show of emotion for him, Jack bites at the inside of his cheek. "I am trying," he says softly. "I never asked you to love me. And havin' an hourglass over my head to figure myself out in time to keep you before you leave ain't exactly my idea of romance either, for what's it's worth."

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

Flinching at the sound of Jack's voice, Flora straightens slightly, the muscles in her stomach and arms growing taut. "That isn't true?" Too shocked by the accusation to do anything more than wrap her arms around herself as the captain pulls away, the Doubletake gapes at him before her teeth snap together. Pulling off the ring in question, Flora slams it down onto the counter, her eyebrows raised in an expression of exasperation. "I only got this for you." Well, she'd asked for it when she thought they'd broken up, but she'd finished the quest for Jack, all in an attempt to keep his son from learning too much about him from Flora's mind.

"What?" Stunned, the Doubletake's brow furrows, and though she isn't entirely sure what to do with the information about Harper, it doesn't stop the immediate argument that readies itself on her tongue. "You know that isn't what I meant." She huffs, lifting her chin. Jack had done a fair share of killing before he'd met Flora; had done a fair share of destroying as well. Shows of genuine affection weren't meant to be commonplace, but unique. Special.

Right?

"That's a really shitty thing to say." I NeVeR AsKeD u tO LOvE Me.
Stifling the urge to drag her knees up toward her chest if only to keep her feet off of the counter, Flora bites at the inside of her cheek as she glances toward her kitchen window, eyes stinging. "You only seem to want the best of me." Blinking slowly, the diamond dust coating that previously coated her thoughts now shimmered across her aqua gaze as tears appeared that she refused to let fall. "You say my mind is your favourite place to go, but only when it sparkles. Only when the fireworks are far away for you to look at but never touch. Only when the drama is us against the world, and even then..." Because when her thoughts turned complicated or dark, Jack shied away with a roll of his eyes or with some comment like the one he'd just made, meant to make the Doubletake feel ashamed for thoughts she couldn't help. "But I want all of you, Jack. I've never been afraid of what you are, of what you think and do, and though yeah, some of it has caught me off guard-" Like suddenly being told he was a telepath and that for the past 4 years he'd been reading her mind, or his immortality, or his stupid kids with Safrin. "-I still do."

Swallowing, she forces herself to look at him, not wanting to see the too-tight line of his jaw or the hardness in his eyes, but finding it impossible to look away from him any longer. "But if all this isn't what you want, then.." Because at the end of the day, just as much as it was a man with blood on his hands and a bounty on his head for Flora, it was drama and emotional turbulence for Jack. And if those waters were too complex for him to want to navigate, then...

JACK

"It isn't untrue," Jack counters, and perhaps it's unfair (it is), because gods know even the captain wishes he could step out of range of everyone else for a second without being instantly paranoid. As for getting the ring only for him, he does little more than raise his eyebrows at that, given the thoughts they both know bubble in the wake of her comment.

Shoving up the sleeves of his sweater as if to give his hands something to do, Jack scoffs and shakes his head darkly. "I don't kill for other people," he points out. For himself, yes. For his business, his personal gain, his own vendettas, absolutely. Being the bullet for someone else to pull the trigger, though? That's far too selfless a thing for the captain.

Unless it's Flora, apparently.

"I'm a real shitty guy," he reminds her, not for the first time, before her words and thoughts are spiralling away from the point he feels he's been desperately trying to make, Jack pinching the bridge of his nose and forcing himself to relax only when he tastes blood in his mouth from biting the inside of his cheek. "How do you always do this?" he asks through reddened lips, the words nearly a whisper as he lets his hand drop.

"I tell you I'm tryin', I tell you I'm worried that there seems to be a timer on how long I have to figure out my shit before you get tired and walk away, and you turn it into If all this isn't what you want." He shakes his head. "Fuck, Flora. For all your big feelings, you really struggle to realise I've got 'em as well." That all of him also extends to the man that lurks under the reputation, buried for the most part until a queen stuck around and started digging.

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

'No? You're telling me that if Mel came to you and said some asshole had been harassing her, you wouldn't take care of it? If Raza had?' Raising her own brows in return, the queen bit back a comment that Jack would no doubt hear just as clearly as if she'd said it: it wasn't her fault that everyone in his life had some bearing on his business, but it didn't make it any less true. No doubt given how intertwined the pair's personal and professional lives had become, there'd be no one on Flora's hitlist that wouldn't end up serving Jack in some way as well.

Bitterness flickers in the back of Flora's mind, the taste of which has her immediately scowling and shaking her head. "Not to me you aren't." She points out; acting like her love was some inconvenience that Jack now had to bear hurt more than she wanted him to know, not that she could do much about it given their current proximity. Still, she tightens her arms around herself, resisting the urge to reach for the bottle of rum at her side.

"You always do this." Flora corrects, her blue eyes hard and sharp until noting the smear of red across Jack's lips. For a brief moment, it makes her think of Asta, of the sudden chaos and violence such a small amount of blood had provoked, but she quickly blinks the memories away even as her nails bite into the skin of her arms. 'I didn't say anything. You go digging around my mind and then start a fight because of what you find there."

Releasing her hold of herself and deciding she didn't care about cleanliness at the moment, Flora tucks her thighs against her chest, her feet flat on the counter, before raking her fingers through her curls. "Yeah I do, Jack." The queen agrees exasperatedly. "Because I tell you how I feel all the time. I show you, and you've got access to the rest of it basically all the time." And when wasn't Flora thinking about just how much she enjoyed being in Jack's company? Thinking of things she could do for him? Whereas from Jack she got vague promises of murder and destruction if she ever needed it, and was meant to read between the lines of his smiles as if they held poetry.

JACK

"Mel is a demigod and Raza is gone," Jack mutters as if that makes it all a moot point; Flora owns the bar now, after all, so it isn't as though she'd come back even if she were still alive. Feeling her bitterness ripple over him like a shower of papercuts against his skin, he bites back the urge to tell her that it's her problem if she doesn't consider him as much of an asshole as he is, and also looks to the bottle of rum. Flora's closest to it, though, so of course Jack can't go reaching for it.

Outrage flashes across his face as she turns the situation back on him, the captain more than happy to verbally spar that particular point when Flora speaks again: You go digging around my mind and then start a fight because of what you find there.

Yeah, that shuts him up.

With his jaw clenched hard enough to make his teeth creak and ice creeping between his fingers, it's a long, long moment of silence that stretches between them before Jack steps toward Flora, his gaze somewhere on the counter to her left. "You're right," he mutters, the words rough and quick as if he has to get them out before his subconscious notices. "I'm sorry."

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 tears that burn the back of Flora's eyes grow even sharper and more insistent as she closes her eyes. Resting her forehead against her knees, the queen's whole body tenses against the tears that still threaten to rain down her cheeks. "I don't want to be right. Or for you to be sorry." She mumbles against her legs, knowing that however muted the words were, Jack would be able to pick them up easily enough from her mind. Whatever monumental victory it might have been to someone else to hear the captain say those words, for Flora they only felt dull and flat; paper torn into shreds after hours spent staring at a blank page.

"I don't know what you want from me." Lifting her head, her voice as small and worn as she currently felt, Flora wraps her arms around her shins to tug her legs even closer. If she shut Jack out, she risked withholding the only aspect of herself that he'd ever said he liked; the part that presumably made him want to be with her in the first place. But if she continued as she was with her apparently unrealistic notions of being loved in return, then she doomed them both to constant repetitions of this exact conversation. "I don't want it to feel like there's an hourglass that's running out." An errant tear does trickle down her cheek, though if anything it eases the tension somewhat in her mind to not have to constantly flutter her lashes to hold it back. "But I'm not sure I can stop it from feeling that way."

JACK

Feeling suddenly exhausted by the combination of Flora's feelings and his own, Jack reaches out to rest a hand against one of her forearms, as if he might be able to tease her away from being so tightly curled up into herself. "I don't know either," he mutters, the admission in itself enough to send him into a tailspin if he's not careful. "So I s'pose it's unfair to throw expectations at you if I ain't even sure what they are."

Rubbing at his eyes with his free hand and letting out a sigh that drags his shoulders down away from his ears, the captain is close enough now to grab the rum, at least, and he reaches out to take a pull directly from the bottle. "It ain't unrealistic. I'm just a mess," he says, grimacing around the bite of the liquor. "I did say you were too good for me." So had Remi, but fuck the Bastion if he thinks he's getting that credit right now. (Or ever).

"I'll try'n be better at tellin' you shit. And if there's anythin' you want to know, you can always ask." Mentally or otherwise.

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 feel of Jack's palm against her arm has Flora flinching ever so slightly, if only because the tension she'd seen in his shoulders and jaw moments before, not to mention the blood and ice, made the softness of his touch feel almost impossible. "Well that's very mature of you." She murmurs, a tear catching in the shallow wrinkles of amusement at the corner of her mouth.

Unfurling, Flora releases one of her legs, letting it fall back down against the cupboards that she might not seem so closed off, as she places Jack's hand on her knee. Tracing a fingertip along the various scars that silvered his knuckles, she glances up at him, hesitating. "Well...how do you feel about me?" For so long Jack had reduced her down to convenient attributes, no doubt because it was easier to think of her that way in his mind: a way to warm his bed, a fuck buddy, someone to offload the burdens of being a telepath onto. If he wasn't capable of loving her (or just simply didn't), what did being liked by a man like Jack Barclay amount to?

Slipping her rings off of her fingers, Flora lets them clatter to the countertop. Her emotions were more than fragile enough just now that she'd almost welcome pretty lies, if it was what Jack wanted to offer her. Maybe it was just as unfair to expect him to always be truthful to her in the same way it was unfair for him to expect her thoughts to remain uncomplicated.

JACK

"Well I am very old, as everyone keeps remindin' me," Jack says dryly, managing a brief smirk before it disappears around another pull from the bottle of liquor. A bottle he offers out to Flora as she opens herself up a little more, the captain's hand resting, as requested, upon her knee. He almost expects her question, such that the expression that flickers across his face is more thoughtful than anything else. He doesn't expect the clatter of her rings on the counter, though.

Raising an eyebrow at her, for once Jack doesn't question the decision, though he'll willingly repeat his answer later if she does want to check it for truth. "I care about you," he says, almost resenting the words for the weakness they represent to him, but meaning them nonetheless. "And you fascinate me. Your passion, your fire - you don't see that in people all too often."

Trying to hide his smile, he takes a beat before continuing. "I also didn't realise how long it had been since I laughed until I started spendin' more time with you." He isn't sure she'd appreciate him saying I like you because you're really fucking silly sometimes, so hopefully that's a more eloquent way of putting 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!