the only enemy you can't live without

Mateo

champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"I am saying that even the toughest of us can occasionally use some TLC," Mateo informs her haughtily, smirking around a sip of his new drink. "And I doubt you have need for my tips or tricks now that you are so happy and in love. But just in case, I find it always helps to make sure they know how big and strong they are." Chuckling - it might be a joke, but Mateo isn't to know that this brand of flattery isn't nearly close to what Jack is into - the botanist sets down his glass so he can better focus on the Hotaru aspect of the conversation.

Humming his agreement and nodding as Flora explains, it's with an expression that's as concerned as it is sad that he leans in to hug his sister. "I did not know she was even infected. That is terrible. You were not hurt or anything?" he asks, just to make sure. She's already said she's alright now, but sue him for wanting to double check.

Groaning under his breath as Flora finally comes out and asks what it was he'd been discussing with Remi, Mateo scrunches his nose and props an elbow on the bar. "Yes and no," he mutters. "I was upset that nobody told me that you were alive before the Festival of Lights. Remi was affronted that I would even need to be informed, because of course our almighty parents would never have let anything happen to you permanently." Tell that to Enzo and Aoife, amirite?

"He said I could have written, which is true, but I... cazzo, Flora, I thought you were dead. I was not thinking about letters. Anyway, it turned even uglier from there. He said I was making it about myself, and asked me what I had done for you lately, since he had... you know, brought you back from the dead." He rolls his eyes. "So if I can do anything... I am here, you know. I am not perfect, but I am here."

I roam the city in a shopping cart
a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm

she's the kinda song you could play over and over

Snickering quietly to herself—Jack did like to have his ego fluffed up, but only with the truth—Flora nevertheless lifts her glass in a toast of appreciation, happy to recognize the wisdom her brother has curated in these matters over the years.

Not wanting to unsettle Mateo's cape any more than it already was, Flora merely slumps against her brother's chest as his arms come to wrap around her. "Me neither. Sunjata was too, which...I dunno, adds a whole other level of weirdness. I mean, they were infected at the engagement party I threw for them. Like...that's so fucking weird." Wanting to rub at her eyes but not wanting to mess up the immaculate cat-eye she'd agonized over just for Mateo, instead the queen merely groaned theatrically. "She has this power that lets her make people do things. When I wouldn't leave Torchline, she just put me to sleep and then hauled my body onto a boat." Flora explains with a boneless shrug.

"Wait, what?" Blinking her surprise, Flora twists toward her brother, frowning. "You're my brother. Of course you should have been told." Thanks to the martini and having nearly downed half of her rum concoction, the queen was more than happy to shit-talk their dad right under the table. "No of course you weren't. And I mean...he was the one who knew I was okay, not you. If anyone should have been in a state of mind to pull out the parchment, it was him."

Reaching for her drink, the glass makes it halfway toward Flora's lips before her fingers tighten around it, halting it abruptly. "What?!" Slamming it back down hard enough to have some of the amber liquid sloshing over the rim and earning more than a few glances in their direction, Flora leans down and forward to try and force Mateo's eyeline to meet hers. "Mateo that's bullshit. You don't have to do anything for me. You never do. You're my brother. That isn't a title you ever need to earn."

Mateo

champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"Yeesh," Mateo says, which in his opinion, is a perfectly adequate response for Sunjata being infected and Hotaru's weird suggestion magic. The boat, though, has his nose scrunching. "Like a dinky, bobbing along in the sea boat? Ew, Flora," he says (yes, in that exact tone). It's one thing to have a whizzy little sky schooner like he does, or a hulking actual ship like the Doubletake's beau, but in his mind, Flora's mother had basically yeeted her into a rowboat for safekeeping, and he gives her a conciliatory squeeze for her trouble before letting her sit back.

Letting out a long sigh that seems to release some cord of tension wound tight inside him to hear his opinion validated - and no less by the person the argument had been for - Mateo offers Flora a smile that's entirely more genuine for her trouble, and all the more exhausted for it. "That is what I would have thought too," he agrees, only for her glass to come slamming onto the counter, making the botanist jump. 

"I..." Lost for words for more reasons than he can care to think about (and not just because of all the booze he's had, too), Mateo swallows thickly and nods to his sister. "It was not something I ever felt unsure about before until then," he admits. "Thank you."

I roam the city in a shopping cart
a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm

she's the kinda song you could play over and over

"Right?" Gods, talking to Mateo makes Flora wonder why she'd even tried to talk things through with anyone else first. While Jack's dick might have ultimately saved the day (and okay sure, it was a little bit more complicated than that), the botanist just had a way of saying all the right sorts of things that made Flora feel a good deal less stupid about being so worked up. "Like, at least I could have been whisked away to some Beauty and the Beast type castle??? But no, I basically woke up with Remi lunging over me and grabbing Hotaru."

Pulling a face as if Remi was there to see it, Flora swallows thickly, the taste in her mouth suddenly sour. "What an asshole. I'm going to hit him for you next time I see him." She vows, reaching angrily for her glass and downing the remainder of it in what was far too large of a swallow to manage gracefully. "His role as Dad might be on the line, but yours never will be. Okay?" Slouching against Mateo and irresponsibly tapping the bar for another round, as the alcohol warms Flora's entire body, the queen forgets her concerns about messing up her brother's outfit as she tosses an arm affectionately around his shoulders.

"Can I do anything for you?" She wonders suddenly, aqua eyes growing comically wide. "I mean...I know I don't come up here as often as I should, but that's just because I hate it here, not because I don't love you."

Mateo

champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"A perfectly reasonable way to wake up, they would have you believe," Mateo says dryly, sarcasm laid thick over his tone as he nods down at his drink. "If I ever kidnap you, I will make sure you are kept in only the most beautiful tower, and that all of your needs are catered for. They can keep their silly little boats." Wrinkling his nose, he nods decisively, and even manages a scoff of laughter for Flora's next comment.

"That is sweet, bella, but he will not know why you are hitting him. He has likely already forgotten I exist again. Case in point - you are here, and you did not even know what really happened at the festival. I asked him why he even bothered to have me." Mateo's shrug is sad but accepting, though he raises his eyebrows and has to turn to half catch Flora as she swarms closer, the botanist relaxing into her embrace and giving her an affectionate squeeze in return. "Okay," he mumbles, nodding.

Scooting his barstool closer so they can more or less prop each other up, Mateo is kind enough to get a couple of napkins to clean any liquor Flora spills, offering her an easier smile at her question. "You are doing plenty," he promises her. "And I love you too. I know people must think I am stupid, refusing to leave Stormbreak. But you cannot leave a kid in a place to practically be raised by it, and then be surprised he does not want to leave, no?"

I roam the city in a shopping cart
a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm

she's the kinda song you could play over and over

"Oh I'm sure. I haven't talked to him since, but no doubt whatever he did will be justified because He WAs SaViNg Me." What's a little additional trauma, eh? Things like that didn't matter, not when you were the BAsTiOn. "I would expect nothing less from you. Maybe something with a dragon? And a well-stocked liquor cabinet." Flora adds, fluttering her eyelashes adoringly.

"Well, maybe I'll show up with a world's worst father mug and smash it over his thick skull. Think he'll get the message then?" Raising her brows but not looking entirely convinced, a laugh dies on Flora's tongue as Mateo mentions the circumstances of his birth. "Because he wanted a baby. Not because he wanted an actual human being." Flora, who'd been conceived simply because Remi couldn't keep his dick in his pants, Frey's presence or no, wasn't about to hold her tongue on this particular topic. "Notice how it seems like he loves Aoife more than us?" Aoife who had hardly learned to speak, who was trauma-bonded to Remi? Who wasn't even his biologically, and yet she held his heart and attention more than any of his current children, alive or dead, seemed to?

Tucking her feet against the lower rung of Mateo's barstool and slumping against him, Flora sighs heavily before offering her brother a lopsided smile. "I meeeeeeeeeean. Maybe when said place gets taken over by an evil witch who quite literally gave the order to have your sister murdered?" Not that Flora drew any connection between anyone living in
Stormbreak with some sort of tacit acceptance of what had been done to her, but still. It was a pretty good argument for moving to Torchline.

At least it seemed so to her.

Mateo

champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"Obviously a dragon and a well-stocked liquor cabinet. I am a kidnapper, not a monster," Mateo tells her, sounding offended at her hypothetical opinion of his imagined theft of her. "...But for all of what you did wake up to, I am glad that he saved you." That goes without question, as he hopes Flora is well aware. "Perhaps we can just commit to having a very quiet Deepfrost, mm?" Huge doubts about it, but if they both say it maybe it will manifest into being or something.

Scoffing, the image Flora beaning anyone over the head with a mug a thoroughly enjoyable, Mateo nonetheless finds his amusement dying in a throat that is suddenly very tight to hear her continue. He doesn't expect her words to hit home the way they do, to reach into every part of him made raw and sad by his feelings of never being enough despite being a literal dream come true, and he blinks quickly, but not fast enough to catch the tear that streaks down his cheek. "Yeah," he says thickly, raising a shoulder to wipe it away on his starry robe. "Sorry."

Clearing his throat and shuddering out a sorry excuse for a laugh, he can't deny Flora's very good point when it comes to her literal murder. "Alright, well. Prior to that, no. But I suppose that is a very good argument for re-evaluating things."

I roam the city in a shopping cart
a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm

she's the kinda song you could play over and over

Unable to keep in the laughter that spills from her lips (though that might have something to do with the liquor, too), Flora flashes her brother a cheesy grin before what he says next has it sliding from her lips. "I mean...technically Ronin did. Remi just grabbed Hotaru and flew to Halo to cure her." #Priorities, or whatever. "Gods, yes please. I was going to ask Jack if we could just...sail The Ark somewhere far away and hope nobody finds us."

Tightening her grip around Mateo's shoulder (for balance as much as affection), Flora leans in, pressing a kiss against her brother's bronzed cheek even after he'd tried to wipe his tear away. "Don't be. It's super shitty that him being selfish and needy has fucked us up like this." Whatever Remi's intentions had been (and gods, imagine the earful he'd receive if either Flora or Mateo found out that he and Ronin wanted to have more kids), it hardly mattered when his actions spoke far louder than his feeble offerings at parenting ever had.

Pressing a much more obnoxious mwaaaaaaah! against Mateo's cheek before straightening, Flora reaches for her newly arrived drink with a triumphant bounce of her eyebrows. "And seeing as I'm spending most of my nights on The Ark anyway, my house is free. Good news for you, since lots of your clothes are already in my closet."

Mateo

champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"Ah, yes. Our white knightly father, who will help ducklings across the road but cannot spare a second for his children. Not to even mention how he treated you and Enzo as kids." Deep in the throes of bitterness now, clearly, Mateo of course isn't to know about the relationship Flora has with Ronin these days - not that his opinion would likely change despite it. His shoulders slumping, and his next drink disappearing in one smooth movement, he leans into the kiss she presses to his cheek.

"What is fucked up is that they could have made me anything at all but they decided to go with short," he grumbles, more than happy to have Flora draped around him, pushing his empty glass away. "Not that I do not make it work, of course, but come on." Huffing a curl out of his face, Flora's buoyant victory does at least raise his spirits some, and he begrudgingly gives her a dimpled smile.

"I did wonder where they were disappearing to," he mutters. "Alright. I will take perhaps an extended vacation in Torchline, and if the witch here is not deposed, I will consider moving there for good. How is that?"

I roam the city in a shopping cart
a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm

she's the kinda song you could play over and over

"Right?" Snorting, Flora rolls her eyes in agreement. "Everyone loves him. Like he can do no wrong, and yet??? Pretty sure I can list a lot of wrongs." Trying to make anyone hear them, though? It was like being gaslit by an entire continent of people.

Staring blankly at Mateo as if trying to process what he'd just said, Flora is forced to muffle her bray of laughter against her brother's shoulder. "Okay, okay—" Trying to inhale around her giggles, the queen bites at the inside of her cheek as she tries to fix the botanist with a level stare. "Do you even think he thought that far ahead?" Survey says? Absolutely not. "If anything. I bet you have Ludo to thank for the fact that you didn't just grow up into a giant needy man-baby with Ronin's eyes." Ronin's eyes, Isla's size, and Aoife's neediness and affection. Remi's perfect child.

At least he'd been planned, even if it had been poorly.

"Besides, think of all my things you can wear without having to pretend that you didn't steal them." Notably, the earrings currently shining amidst Mateo's curls. "Sounds perfect. And you can come and sail around on The Ark, too. There's plenty of space." Or, there would be, if Flora demanded it. "She can fly so there's no need for us to sail all the way around Caido just to find some warm weather. It can be just you, me, matching bathing suits and vitamin D."

Mateo

champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"You should print the list on a t-shirt and give it to him. Same time as you smash that mug over Remi's head," Mateo suggests with a smirk. "I know a good tailor if you are unsure where to start." Though from a single glance at his sister, he knows she likely has her own tried and trusted team of fashionistas.

He's so focused on his new t-shirt idea that he almost misses why Flora is giggling into his shoulder, belatedly grinning as he realises it's him, he's very funny, you know. "Gods, do not say that. I have made it a point not to tangle with the gods much at all. Now you are telling me I escaped that sort of life because of Ludo." Huffing, he absently teases his fingers through Flora's curls as if to put them back in place after fanning her with the menu earlier.

"Sorellina, I already agreed to come." He grins, as she continues to tout the glories of her wardrobe, The Ark, and sunbathing in the sky. "You do not have to sell it to me. Give me a few days to make arrangements for things up here, and I will take a skyship down to you."

I roam the city in a shopping cart
a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm

she's the kinda song you could play over and over

"You're a genius! I'll also make it a few sizes too small so that he thinks he's getting fat." Flora adds with a bounce of her eyebrows. It was the sort of lunacy that no one but a Taliesin child could ever possibly understand, and gods if the Doubletake wasn't utterly thrilled to get so much bitterness off her chest.

"Babe you're an accepted. Tangling with them or not hardly matters." She points out, flashing the botanist a knowing look over one shoulder before downing her third drink with ease. Leaning into the feel of fingers in her curls like an overly affectionate cat, Flora is left merely beaming at her brother as he commits (again) to her plan. "Perfect! I promise you're going to LOVE it."

Making eyes with the bartender and ordering them each another round before her brother can even think to decline, Flora slouches against the bar in an effort to aid her balance while she fished around in her purse for her parchment. "Hey so, speaking of people being infected..." They weren't, and hadn't been for some time, but okay Flora.

"..why has no one dragged Ever into Halo yet?"

Mateo

champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"Now there is an idea." Grinning and opening his mouth to decline his next drink only to find Flora ordering it with the sort of quick gestures he's seen in himself more than enough times, Mateo lets out a warm laugh and commits to enjoying one last round with his sister. "Ugh, you say that, but I really would prefer not to tangle with them. For all of their sciocchezze, our parents probably would not have been quite so shit if it were not for the gods."

Assured that he is going to LOVE Torchline - and tomorrow he will likely wake up and wonder if he actually agreed to this or if he dreamed it - Mateo stretches an arm out to help steady Flora as she digs around in her bag. "What is that?" he asks of the parchment, only for the conversation to suddenly and seamlessly whirl around to Everest. "...Because he does not want to go?" he says, as if that much was not obvious. "I... you have seen Ever since he was infected compared to how he used to be. Is it so surprising that he does not want to go back to that?"

I roam the city in a shopping cart
a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm

she's the kinda song you could play over and over

Raising her eyebrows at the word, Flora wrinkles her nose and gives her head a stiff shake. "That might have mattered back then, but now what's their excuse? Both Ludo and Safrin are out of their lives, so..." So you know, why was Ronin still avoiding situations so he never had to bet he bad guy, and why was Remi always the bad guy even when the situation never even called for it?

Regardless, now feeling as if she and her brother have set the world to rights (or at least their parents), as Flora tugs out her half of the two-way parchment, she grins fiendishly. Sadly there's nothing salacious written on it (Jack's I'm coming to find you had all but faded with time once she'd read it). "Whatever I write on it, Jack sees on his half." To demonstrate, Flora wrote baaaaaaaaaaaaaabeee in obnoxious looping cursive across the parchment. Not that anything happened of course. (Cut to Jack with his blade 5" deep into someone's belly somewhere in the Grotto).

As for Everest? Raising her eyebrows, Flora turns toward her brother. "Okay but my mother kidnapped me because she was infected." Wanting to reach for her drink and also to emphatically grasp Mateo's shoulders, instead Flora merely shoves her parchment further away on the counter so that there was space for one of her elbows. "He could do that to Isla or you at, like, anytime." Fuck what that kid wanted. He was a goddam danger.