[Training] feelin' fantastic, i'm fuckin' fantastic

JACK

"I'll hold you to that," Jack drawls, shooting her a playful glare for her trouble - trust Flora to find him at his weakest to be heart-flutteringly attractive. Anyway. Weighing the blade in his hand and stepping up to join her, whilst all of the captain's injuries are in a place that will hurt regardless of the range of motion, at least his arm and shoulder is blissfully unaffected. And so while he has to grit his teeth to let the blade fly, he does manage to hit it where he aims, sending it thunking into the wood.

Before he can make a quip about it, his breath is stolen by the twist of pain that racks through him from Flora, the captain clenching his fist instinctively and suppressing a soft curse. "You might have to try with your other hand," he says in a tight voice, stepping across to her so he might be able to inspect her arm and shoulder for any damage beyond the stiffness of healing muscles.

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

"Sorry-" Snapping her teeth together against the pain as if it might stop the way it warbles through her thoughts, Flora offers Jack an apologetic smile as he draws near. "Might be better if you shut me out while we do this." She suggests. Using her other arm or not, it wouldn't do them any good for Jack to be bombarded with her injuries as well as his own. Then again, if that kind of silence was just going to remind him of what it had been like in the Greatwood, perhaps he could just turn her down. "I'm okay."

Swallowing, Flora pulls out another blade, this time putting it into her left hand. Her fingers fumbled awkwardly as they tried to find the position across the handle that her right hand managed so naturally. "I'd..uh...stand behind me." Glancing at Jack with a frown, as Flora looked back toward the wall she'd hit so easily (if not painfully) only moments ago, now repeating the task seemed nearly impossible.

Drawing back her left arm and tensing her muscles, this time as Flora released she did so far too late, such that instead of going straight, her blade veered sharply to the right, bouncing off of the ground and then springing into the air before losing almost all of its momentum.

All while flinging poison from the blade.

'Cause I'm a real tough kid, I can handle my shit
They said, "Babe, you gotta fake it 'til you make it" and I did

Code stolen from Queen Sky

JACK

Wrinkling his nose but nodding in reluctant agreement, Jack does indeed turn the Doubletake down, a skill honed by decades of practice. Still able to hear the more emotionally charged thoughts, the rest of her mind is like trying to listen with a glass against a brick wall, muffled and incomprehensible.

"If you need to stop, stop," he advises - long gone are the days, he hopes, where she'd hurt or make a fool of herself for the sake of impressing him. And yes, he does wisely step back out of her way as she uses her left hand to throw.

Which turns out to be a very good idea, since Jack is forced to rush forward again if only to get an arm around Flora and turn them both away from the random spray of poison. "No more magic knives for you today," he trills, sounding remarkably calm about it to say that they might have been stabbed or gotten poison in their eyes.

Once he's sure her dagger has landed properly, Jack departs to collect them all from the wall, and when he returns, he offers out his unimpressive boot-knife for her to use. "Kiss it and say you're sorry," he drawls, before turning to take a shot with one of her feather blades. It leaves his fingers like butter, embedding so smoothly into the wall that it has him examining his fingers as if worried he'd nicked himself on the throw. "...Alright, that's impressive," he admits.

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

"I will," Flora grumbles, not entirely truthfully. It isn't him she's looking to impress, but herself. To prove that she can fight through the pain, because one day she might very well have to.

Turning her head into Jack's arm and hissing in a breath as her shoulder jerks in response to their quick turn, the Doubletake snorts a huff of laughter into Jack's shirt before peering up at him. "Well you're no fun." She pouts playfully, relinquishing the last dagger to him before he goes and gets the others.

Twisting his knife in her hands, the queen lightly tosses it between her palms to get the weight of it, before letting her clumsy left hand take over. "I'm sorry," she purrs, before lifting it to her mouth. Given the amount of blood she knows it has been soaked in, she keeps her kiss chaste rather than suggestively licking it the way she might otherwise have.

Whether or not Jack will be able to feel the plume of smugness that billows out behind the wall he's erected, he'll no doubt notice the sudden sheen to Flora's eyes as he tosses one of her daggers. "Now lift your hand again and recall it." She invites, before taking a few steps forward and throwing his knife at the wall. This time the motion isn't quite so uncoordinated, but the blade still smacks against the wall rather than flying true, sending it scittering across the floor.

I don't like that falling feels like flying
'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

JACK

"You're only just realisin' this about me now?" Jack raises his eyebrows at her, smirking and standing aside now that she doesn't have terrifying murder blades to badly wield with her left hand. Honestly, had Flora been given the opportunity to meet a 22 year old Jack, she likely would have found him a riot to be around up until his bad decisions left her high and dry and him a blip on the horizon. It's taken a lot of mistakes to end up the way he is, after all.

Still, it doesn't stop him from watching with clear amusement as she treats his knife with the respect it's deserved - though it's slightly ruined by the wall of smug that comes peeking over his own. "Oh?" he drawls, raising his hand to do just that, and finding the slender blade right between his fingertips as if it had been there all along.

Jack swallows, a muscle feathering in his jaw. "Well then," he says, throwing it again with a little more flair this time, stepping to the side as well to catch his skittering knife with the toe of his boot. Carefully kneeling to retrieve it, he offers it back up to Flora. "Maybe try one last time?"

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

"Well, it's been nice knowing you." Flora groans playfully, as if this sudden realization is a dealbreaker and they ought to call the whole thing off. Whether or not Jack realizes it—this past week or so not withstanding—he’s become a good deal more fun. And not just in a surely reluctant way, either.

Beaming at him as her dagger effortlessly returns to his fingers, the Doubletake bounces her eyebrows once before turning to watch him send the blade across the room again with ease. Lucky for them both these are her blades, lest she feel a pang of jealousy at how quickly he attunes himself to them given the absolute struggle she’s been experiencing.

Maybe that’s why mischief begins to creep through Flora’s thoughts again as she accepts the knife back. "Maybe just one more time." She agrees, lifting her left hand. But instead of throwing it, she reaches across and twists her invisibility ring."Shhhhwooooooooooooshhhhhhhhhhhh," she mimes the sound of a blade slicing through the air. As the dagger wobbles back into view, stabbed into the wood with a satisfying thud, Flora rushes back to Jack's side. Twisting the ring once more, she reappears, her smile sly and crooked. "Wow. I was so fast that time, I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t even see the blade leave my hand."

I don't like that falling feels like flying
'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

JACK

"You take that back," Jack snaps playfully of becoming more fun, the captain gritting his teeth as his abdomen protests while he gets himself back to his feet, though at least he's been gentlemanly enough to retrieve his knife for Flora to throw again (or so he thinks). "Our blades?" he ventures in response to her thoughts with a wicked smirk, though of course as well as Jack can throw a knife, he's still nowhere near as comfortable with the feathered daggers as the Doubletake is, injury or no injury.

"A'right. Queens first," he says, gesturing for her to go ahead. Which Flora does, in her defence, though Jack is left blinking flatly into the empty space as she disappears and shwooshes her way across the space, only to thock the blade into the wall. "You know, I didn't even think you'd thrown it, you were so quick," he drawls, amusement dancing in his tired blue eyes.

Making sure she's next to him - and visible - before he throws another dagger, the captain aims it next to Flora's 'throw', before recalling both of them to his waiting, calloused fingertips. "On a scale of one to furious, how fucked off would you be if I got myself some of these?" he wants to know.

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

"First its our invisibility ring, and now it's our blades." Flora points out in a dry tone. Reaching up with a slight grimace, she tightens her ponytail before rolling her eyes in Jack's direction. "You keep talking like that and I'm going to make you marry me." She threatens; much as Flora was wont to fantasize (and had) about her future with Jack, for now, talk of proposals really was just meant to give him the verbal equivalent of a nudge in the side.

"I know right? I'm very good." The queen trills in response, and the fact that Jack has played along with her nonsense has the vibrancy of her thoughts increasing tenfold until everything seems to shimmer and shine in her mind. Waiting until both blades were back in Jack's hand, the queen arches her brows, her eyes flitting from her daggers back to the tired blue of his eyes. "As long as getting them doesn't cost you any more kids." She decides, rising up onto her toes to press her lips against the captain's cheek. "But it also might be worth waiting to see if you get anything good for your birthday. I know I've seen Bassian counting his pennies lately."

I don't like that falling feels like flying
'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

JACK

"If I was gonna marry you, love, you wouldn't be makin' me do anythin'," Jack informs her with something of a sly smile over his shoulder, the captain dutifully handing the blades back (all three of them) now that they've stopped flinging them around, crossing the room to yank his own knife back out of the wood.

"Good? The best, some would argue," he drawls, more than happy to continue to pander to her charade if it keeps her thoughts as gleaming and bright as they are. (So sue Jack, but there has been enough darkness in both of their minds for a long, long while).

Returning to her side to accept the kiss to his cheek as if it's something owed, the captain barks out a laugh and shrugs his shoulders. "I'm just sayin', it depends on how good the knives are," he says. "An' the only thing I'll get for my birthday is a lot of booze, a few death threats from rivals, an' a party I never asked for that the crew use as an excuse to get wasted." Such has been the case every year since he'd acquired The Ark, anyway.

"Though I get the impression that someone is gonna be out to change traditions this year," he adds, raising his eyebrows at her.

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

"Careful, Jack." Flora warns in a sing-song voice. It had only taken her, what? Four years of knowing the captain and perhaps a year or more of actively pursuing him to get him to fall in love with her? No doubt marriage was a far easier pill to swallow than the admission of love had been.

"Well, those people would be full of shit, but I'll take it." The queen laughs, the sound of which has her thoughts flickering in bright golds and shades of peach reminiscent of long drawn-out Longheat afternoons.

"Keep it up and I'll toss one of your bottled ships into the Eurybia." Flora counters wickedly, and though she narrows her eyes up at him. her thoughts have remained sunlit and warm. Scoffing under her breath, the Doubletake teases her fingertips across the aching muscles of her shoulder. "Something tells me that death threats aren't going to hit the same this year." Not that he needed it, but having actually died was the sort of thing which had already grown Jack's infamy to a level which seemed impossible for anyone else to ever match.

Raising her eyebrows, Flora glances dramatically over one shoulder as if to identify whoever it was Jack was thinking of, before snapping her head back around, eyes bright. "Oh, you mean me." Cue the laugh track. "I mean, now that you're immortal, should you even really get a birthday?" Both her thoughts and smile turn sly as she wrinkles her nose up at him. "If you don't want to age, maybe you shouldn't even get any presents at all." A scene flickers through her mind of Jack's cabin illuminated only by candle and moonlight, with three gifts on his bunk. One, a shard of mageclass, the second a trio of daggers, and the third, the queen of Torchline wrapped up in nothing more than a red ribbon.

I don't like that falling feels like flying
'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

JACK

"You would never," Jack hisses, and were it anyone other than Flora, the threat to any of his personal possessions within his cabin would have merited more than a little knife throwing in retaliation. Still, he relaxes in gentle tide of her emotions, golden and warm as they are, the captain leaning casually against one wall so he might replace the knife in his boot before straightening up once again.

"In fairness, they never hit that hard before," he says of the birthday death threats, Jack smirking and shrugging his shoulders. "Once you've had one, you've had a hundred. It's only when people start actin' on 'em that I get antsy." She does have a very good point, though, and he wonders if the count will go down thanks to his actual demise out in the Greatwood. Time would tell.

Flora dramatically glances over her shoulder and Jack takes the opportunity to snag an arm around her waist, drawing her possessively if not gently against him; regardless of the presents on offer, he evidently has one in particular he's keen to open, especially since they've been quite hands off with one another since the encounter with Pierce. "Careful, Flora," he fires back in a low voice. "Also, if I might be so bold, I reckon you'd be more upset at not bein' able to give me gifts than I would be at not receivin' any."

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

"Neither would you." The queen purrs in response, though whether or not that was true Flora really didn't know, nor did she particularly care in the moment so long as she got to get the last word in. If nothing else, if Jack was going to be saddled with more kids, she was pretty sure he'd come out of the deal with more than just a few daggers.

Not bothering to muffle her laughter, the thought of Jack being antsy had her smile running away with her. Sure, she'd seen him annoyed before to the point of pacing back and forth in his cabin or across the deck of the Ark, but trying to imagine him with lightning bolts of nervous adrenaline flooding through him was about as farfetched as him falling in love with her, was; not impossible, but not the sort of thing you'd ever expect to see.

Still laughing as he tugs her against him, Flora takes advantage of Jack's yet-to-be-buttoned shirt, sliding her fingers gently across his bandages before splaying them across his lower back. Raising her eyebrows in a gesture of feigned innocence in response to his warning, the queen's eyes widen as she tucks the fingers of her sore arm into his front pocket. "Oh I see. So really you being spoiled is purely for my benefit?"

I don't like that falling feels like flying
'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

JACK

"A'right, maybe antsy was the wrong word," Jack says with a roll of his eyes, the captain having only just let down his mental block around Flora only for her to make him thoroughly regret it. "Stabby, maybe? Is that a feelin'?" Certainly there might be sparks of electricity if he found himself waiting for a would-be murderer to stalk into his cabin, but they certainly wouldn't be due to nervousness. Anticipation, perhaps.

Still, if visions of him skittish and highly strung keep the melody of Flora's laughter ringing around the old boxing ring, then for today and today alone, Jack will allow it. "Listen, I didn't say that," he informs her readily on the subject of his being spoiled and whose benefit it might be for, "you did." Letting his own hand tease through the curls at the end of her ponytail while the other considers doing some wandering of its own, he casually turns them for the doorway, evidently done with their training.

"It likely won't surprise you, but any gifts I normally receive are ones I get for myself," he adds. A self-made man, of course Jack isn't used to receiving gifts from others - and nor does he expect them.

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

"Only you would think that stabby is a feeling." Flora sasses, even if it is a much more apt description. Sighing into the shiver Jack's fingers have racing up her spine, there's little else the queen would like more than to find herself sandwiched between Jack's body and the nearest wall, his touch perfectly balanced between caressing and demanding. This is almost worse than having died. Flora thinks, only able to joke about it thanks to the sunlight spilling in through the windows and the way she could still feel laughter lingering on her lips.

"Mhmm." The Doubletake agrees with a nonchalant shrug before her lips twist into a smirk. "But if I remember right, the last present I gave you had you immediately needing to fuck me in the freezing cold against a block of ice, so..." Keeping herself pressed against Jack even as he walks them toward the door, the queen partially closes one eye, her nose still wrinkling up at him. "..pretty sure you like it."

I don't like that falling feels like flying
'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky