don't wanna love me 'cause it feels too risky

flora

Flora snorts, head tipping as she shoots him a dry, withering look. "Such a boy answer.”" She plucks a gummy worm from the pile and flicks it toward his chest. "Next time you're with Caly and can’t think of fuck all to do beyond the basics, don’t come crawling to me about it." Her grin is feline, sharp and satisfied. "Besides, that deck came from the Hualanani, and let me tell you, they've put things on there you'd never even dream up much less be able to tease out in the heat of the moment."

She watches with interest as the blush creeps up his neck, brows lifting with teasing delight. "Nice, huh?" The word tastes funny in her mouth. Not wrong, exactly, but not the first word she’d have chosen if asked to describe Caly through the eyes of a man like Kaisel. Still, she keeps her tone even, her smirk softening as he stammers through his internal collapse. "You’re overthinking it, as per usual dummy," she says, voice warm with fondness now. "Just tell her you’ve been thinking about her and ask if she wants to go on another date. She doesn’t live under a rock—she knows shit’s been sideways for the dragoons." Pausing, because this is a really fucking weird position to be in, Flora clears her throat and cautiously adds, "I don't think Jack would do anything if you and Caly became a thing. He...isn't the type to interfere, like that."

The game reclaims her attention for a moment and she hums thoughtfully at his answer. "Doesn’t pick any traditional condiments," she echoes, eyes narrowing as she flips down a row of chipper, ketchup, mayo, relish, and mustard coded faces.

She glances at her own card—a man with an unsettling smile and the kind of hairline that suggested he kept secrets Creed from the Office. Her brow crinkles. "Kinda? Maybe they smell like corn. Or like...like it’s almost corn but not quite. You ever smell something and know you know it but you can’t place it?" She taps her card’s laminated forehead. "Major mystery corn vibes from this one."

She leans in across the table, chin resting on her hand, eyes dancing with challenge. "Alright, does your person look like they’d be offended if someone said ‘live laugh love’ unironically?"

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// Start a tiny riot //

He juggles the tossed gummy worm for a second before fully grabbing it and devouring it with a flourish. "What other sort of answer did you expect?" he snorts. "What, am I supposed to say hold on babe and fan the cards out like the start of a magic trick?" He's still mulling that over when she shortens up his letter for him, but he shakes his head, gaze flicking across the table to her pointedly. "No, you're underthinking it." He stabs the table with a finger to punctuate each word. "Caly needs more than my thoughts." Deserves, perhaps, is the better word. "She needs a gesture, or something, especially after this radio silence and the glance across the beach." At this rate it's feeling like he'd always be doing something to make it up to her.

Though he's grateful to know it, he's not happy to hear it as Flora reveals the hands-off father figure Jack is. The reaction is instant. "How do we end up talking about this fucker every time?" It’s a foul mutter, like something too bitter and sharp he can't wait to get out of his mouth. The distant snores creeping back from Bassian don't help, chiming like a cursed ringtone: Jack. Jack. Jack.

He bites down extra hard on another worm, flicking Captain Shitstain from his thoughts. "You seem to know Caly—what does she actually like?" They hadn't exactly gotten to know each other the way Kaisel had originally planned.

He stares at the cartoon faces, fingers carrying a pattern of thought against her leg as he confidently flips down any faces that don't suggest an almost corn fragrance. Her question breaks his concentration, pulling an easy laugh from his chest as he leans deeply into his hand on the table. He smirks at her for a moment, then subtly shakes his head. "Def not. They embrace the Triple L lifestyle entirely." He squints down at his almost corn suspect, grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Does your person 'lose' their glasses on the top of their head and run all around the house in an angry panic looking for them, then get mad when you try to help?"

Kaisel

// Stop being so goddamn quiet //

flora

Flora chuckles low under her breath, a smug little sound that slides into an exaggerated sigh as she rolls her eyes. "No, dummy," she says, swiping another gummy worm just to point it at him. “"If you played Go Fish with the cards now, you could be studying them while we play. So when you’re with Caly, you can just casually be like, oh hey, what about we try the old sky-anchor swivel kiss, and she’ll think you’re a goddamn savant between the sheets." Or on the picnic table.

She pops the worm in her mouth, chewing as she gestures broadly like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. "Or—and I know this is a wild suggestion—you could bring the cards. Make it a sex version of choose-your-own-adventure." Her brows lift with mock astonishment. "And no I am not under thinking the letter. You’re never going to impress her with words. You’re no Shakespeare babe."

The teasing edge softens slightly as she catches the flicker of hesitation again. Flora tilts her head, the humour draining just enough to make room for something else. "We haven't been doing anything," she says slowly, about mentioning Jack. "You're the one whose brought him up both times." Her gaze holds his for a second, not accusing—just observing. And maybe a little protective over both of them.

"Caly doesn’t seem like the subtle type. Or the sweet-gestures-at-your-window kind. She was born in the stars, Kaisel. The bar is literally cosmic. If you want to impress her, take her on a date that gets her heart pounding. Something where she can show off, see one of her shifts, maybe. Show her you're not a basic mayo bitch."

She taps a finger against the table to punctuate it, then turns back to her board, frowning at the paper faces still staring blankly up at her. A few more get flicked down as she ponders his last answer and then offers her own. "They definitely lose their glasses constantly, but they’ve got a weird drawer full of, like, twelve mismatched pairs that definitely don’t belong to them."

A gummy worm dangles from her lips like a lazy snake tongue as she leans in again, voice lazy and sly. "Okay. Does your person look like they’d believe in conspiracy theories...but only the dumb ones? Like birds not being real?"

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// Start a tiny riot //

Confusion slides into something firm and knowing as she explains, but he's onto her. He wags a finger, shaking his head at her attempt of an innocent explanation. "Nah nah nah. You're trying to get me to play sexy Go Fish with you because you'd win easy. You'd know all my cards based on the faces I make. Nice try Flo-Ro, but we're playing a fair and square game." A pause. "Also what the fuck is a sky-anchor swivel kiss? That sounds made up, or like part of a boat." Sounds a bit too complicated and absurd, like naming all your fighting moves and magic and screaming them out at your enemy right before you attack. Watch out Caly—here comes the spinning hammock collapse!

He hums, leaning back as he deliberates. "So you're saying no letter at all?" He's no idea where she lives, but he supposes he could swing by the bar, although isn't that a bit lame to bother her at work? He glances from the ceiling back to her quiet seagreen eyes. "Guess I did," he admits with a frown. "Saw you talking to him again, at the party, so I assumed..." Somehow he's still talking about him, so Kaisel doesn't finish it all, and hopes she won't either. He's not about to argue the point that he didn't bring up Jack when they'd been talking about Caly just now, but he supposes she'd only been trying to help. It's good information to have, at the very least, though he could have gotten it straight from Caly's mouth instead of letting it dampen some of the edges here.

All of Flora's continued suggestions are good ones, and he nods along with rapt attention, mental notes scribbling up a flame until smoke is liable to start pouring from his ears. Gods, it's all starting to sound a bit complicated though, and he's still a bit short on time. After tonight (today? Shit, what time is it even?), Koa and he likely need to head back to King's End and resume sorting out shit there. They'd only come back to Torchline to check on things, not to flirt. Kaisel will have to make time though, if he plans on her keeping her claws sheathed.

The game is something easy at least, so he sinks back into it happily, his troubles like the sea surrounding them, lapping on the edges of his mind but not pouring in over the sides, yet. "Hmm, so some mild klepto qualities. Noted." He flicks a few more of the faces down, and picks up another gummy worm, mostly spinning it in his hands instead of eating it, chuckling at her newest question. "They look like they should be smarter than that, but yeah don't get left alone at a party with them or else you'll hear all about the ice wall at the end of the world."

"Does yours look like they've ever been kissed?"

Kaisel

// Stop being so goddamn quiet //

flora

Flora grins, teeth and trouble, like a cat who’s absolutely knocked a full glass of wine off the edge of the table just to watch it fall. "Well, duh, I would win," she says sweetly, resting her chin in her hand as she flashes him a look that lands somewhere between flirtation and smug delight. "You go pink just thinking about the word boobies, Kai. I’d know exactly which cards you were holding based on what shade your ears turned." She smirks and then, with exaggerated innocence, adds, "But if you played, you’d know what a sky-anchor swivel kiss is."

Her brows bounce. "Spoiler: doesn’t use the mouth at all."

She lets that land with a salacious little hum, plucking another worm from the pile and making it do a wiggly dance across the table.

At the shift in his tone, Flora leans back slightly, her body language going looser but not entirely casual. "No, you should send her a letter," she corrects with a shrug, nudging him gently with her foot. "Just don’t freak out about the wording. Caly doesn’t seem like the type to analyze every sentence and keep it in a box under her bed for twenty years. You don’t need to be poetic. Just say you’ve been thinking about her and wanna see her again. That’s it. That’s the whole letter."

Then he says ASSumed, and her eyebrows lift. "What was it you assumed, exactly?" she wonders, her voice quieter now as eyes the faces staring up at her. Her expression sharpens a touch as she watches him fumble the rest, and though she doesn’t press, there’s a flicker of something bruised around the edges. "Jack knew about my plan," she says flatly, reaching for a gummy worm for something to do. "And anyway, he was the only person who said hello to me at that party." She looks up then, something sulky tugging at her mouth. "Sooo, forgive a girl for not wanting to stand around alone."

But then she flicks her hair off her shoulder and inhales through her nose, letting it roll off like she’s too full of gummy worms and late-night tension to hold onto it. Returning to the game, she narrows her eyes at her board and flips a few more tiles down with exaggerated suspicion. "Your person gives off basement vibes," she mutters, then smirks. "Mine looks like they might have led a cult once. Had a whole thing going—candles, matching robes, probably kissed everyone in sight. So yeah, probably been kissed."

Her eyes flick to him again, brighter now, playful and sharp. "Alright. Does your person look like they talk about themselves in the third person when they’re mad?"

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// Start a tiny riot //

He grins broadly when she says boobies. "What, it's a funny word," he says with a shrug. He does very badly want to know what a sky-anchor swivel kiss is now though, especially now that the one part he thought he had down—the kissing—apparently doesn’t involve the lips. He opens his mouth to ask, but he ends up just gaping like a fish and clamps it shut again. He can already tell she won't give this one up, not when she can look all pleased like that.

"Ok, so letter's back on." He's still skeptical, and slumps his head back against his hand, the gummy worms forgone for now as his 'brow furrows. "I dunno -ro, that doesn't feel like enough. You can't tell me that'd work on you?" She's the most extra, so if she says yes, he just might have to believe her, even if his heart is suggesting Caly needs it to be BIG. Not a crazy letter, that was never his intention, but something more to go with the letter. A gift, or at least a plan. He has neither.

Annoyance flicks across his gaze as his eyes swing back to her from where they'd dropped to a corner, distant with thought. He should have known she wouldn't drop it. They're both too competitive to ever let each other 'win', and since they each like to have the last word, they could beat this conversation into the ground. Doesn’t help that he’s running low on both sleep and sense, and she’s probably not much better off. "Earlier," His hand drops under his chin with a thump on the table. "When I first heard the snoring, I assumed it was him then, because you'd been talking. That's all, that's the only reason I mentioned him. You're the one who brought him up again."

Then it’s his turn to feel bruised. Because what the fuck—Jack knew, and he didn’t? It makes sense, sure, Kaisel isn't really able to help her, he already knows that. Still, it'd be nice to know—and she could have told Koa, he's capable. Is this what Jack felt like the last time she pulled a stunt? Difference is, Kaisel still trusts her, he's just a bit hurt it doesn't seem like she trusts him. Later, he might realize that not telling him isn't a slight, doesn't mean he matters any less, much like his lack of a letter to Caly hasn't meant he doesn't want to write one. For now though, he's just wounded and feeling sorely outmatched in a way he didn't expect.

"You could have come over and said hello to anyone." There's a sharpness to it he doesn't mean, but it's there all the same, and while she moves on, he finds himself finally starting to take on all that troubled water. He slumps further against the bench, literally sinking to the side and out of view of the table.

He can’t do this right now. Can’t be homeless and scared and tired and arguing about her ex over a deck of cult-leader card game faces. So he just stops. He lays there, letting the warmth and laughter bleed out into the quiet. "You win."

Kaisel

// Stop being so goddamn quiet //

flora

"No," Flora laughs, shaking her head, curls bouncing messily around her shoulders. "Obviously it wouldn’t work on me. But if it were me, I’d have figured out where you were so I could ‘accidentally’ run into you, obviously look my best to make you feel horrible about having ever left my side." She grins, teeth flashing. "But, don’t pull a Koa, Kai. Don’t overthink your way into making her think you don’t care at all." Gods knew how shit Koa had made Soh feel just because he was spinning his wheels instead of just showing up.

She blinks, caught somewhere between the lingering heat of the gin and the fraying edge of the conversation. The thing about snoring gets lost in the haze, and she doesn’t bother trying to parse who said what first. Instead, she lifts a hand vaguely and lets it fall back down to snipe a gummy worm with a shrug.

What she does notice clearly, is the shift in him. She sees it like a weather change on the horizon, feels it ripple out in the silence that follows his quiet, stung retreat. The gummy worms are abandoned. The tiles sit forgotten between them. And Kaisel just...sinks. And gods it's probably absolutely inappropriate, but it makes her smile. Because there is something so perfectly Kai about the dramatics of it. Not the pain—she knows that too well. But the flair. The collapse. The full-body, sideways swan dive into feeling too much at once. Exhaling, Flora, like a reflection in a cracked mirror, lets herself slide down onto her side, stretching out so she can see him without craning her neck.

Propping her chin on her hand, she studies him, eyes soft and a little sad. "What’s wrong?"

She lets the question linger, low and sincere, before adding quietly, "You’re right. I could have come over, but...everything feels so weird." Her fingers play idly with the gummy worm nearest her, coiling and uncoiling it like a nervous habit. "Anytime Koa and Soh are around it’s like...I’m not allowed to be. Like I’m a storm cloud about to ruin their perfect day just by existing."

Her voice is quiet now, not a whisper, just worn. "Soh told me about what happened at the Hanged Man with them after, and...I dunno, I just don't want to ruin it for either of them." She glances over at Kai again, still sprawled and silent. "There’s nothing I can do to fix it without making it more awkward. So yeah...sometimes it’s easier to talk to someone like Jack, where at least I can't make things worse."

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// Start a tiny riot //

One arm folds under his head like a makeshift pillow, the other limp against his side, and he blinks out at the other bench where she slowly settles too. He can't keep the frail smile from forming, because out of anyone, she's the only one who'd meet him where he's at like this. No lecture, no eye roll, no tug to get him back upright, just a chin on a hand and seaglass eyes.

She asks, but he doesn't exactly have an answer. Nothing, everything, all the things. So he just listens as she talks, the assorted explanations actually helping sift through some of his own murk. It's all a reminder of how complicated everything's become, that it's not the simple days when they were growing up where all these lines hadn't been laid down yet just to get tangled between them.

"Everything is weird," he agrees gently, exhaling heavily against the bench. "It's not gonna be less weird because you stay away though." He doesn't think he's ever thought of her like a storm cloud, but then he's neither Koa or Soh, but it's sounding an awful lot like she's assuming things too. "Have you even tried?" he asks quietly, tilting more onto his back, his head tipped towards his shoulder, so he can reach an arm across to her in quiet ask for her hand in return. "Being around them?" If it's too hard for her, that's one thing, but so far all she's said is it's too hard on them. He wonders what's happened that's made her so sure that her best friend wouldn't want her so close. As for Koa...well he made a choice that he'll have to stick with, knowing Flora would be part of the decision.

"I've never lived anywhere else before. Not even in the city." He finally says after a pause. He didn't think he'd be sentimental over a home, but he's feeling very much like a little boy on a long sleepover that's starting to turn sour. His voice grows quieter still. "Nowhere is home now."

Kaisel

// Stop being so goddamn quiet //

flora

Flora gaze traces Kai in quiet detail—the slow blink of his coppery eyes, the way his hair spikes and flattens in all the wrong places from his dramatic flop, the subtle rise and fall of his chest as he breathes through it all. He doesn’t say much at first, and the queen doesn’t press, not even when he reaches for her hand. She slides hers across without fanfare, tangling their fingers easily, like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

"I did try," she murmurs after a moment, eyes half-lidded. "Koa didn’t even say hi to me at my party. He hasn't really been able to look at me in...I dunno, forever." She shrugs, the motion small. "I sent him a note after. Told him I hoped he had a good time and asked to meet to talk."

Her thumb brushes absently over the back of Kai’s hand, slow and steady, as if grounding herself in the motion. "He didn’t answer for a long time, and when he did show up, it wasn’t..." Her voice trails off as the memory curls like smoke through her chest—Koa standing in the Greatwood, arms locked behind his back like he was reporting to someone he didn’t respect, not even looking at her. "He talked to me like I was some captain he hated and had to humour." She sighs, soft and breathless. "It felt like...like he didn't even see me as a person anymore."

The bench creaks a little as she shifts, wriggling forward until she can press her head against Kai's. The curve of the U makes it easy, their limbs tangling lazily now as she tugs his arm across her chest and hugs it. She doesn’t try to tell him it’ll be okay. Doesn’t promise that King’s End will grow on him or that he’ll be home before he knows it. All she says, with a quiet exhale, is: "That sucks." She'll help him fight to get it back, and she knows that he knows that, but for the moment? It just sucks.

Then, without moving her head from his, she reaches blindly up over the table, fingers fumbling for a gummy worm. When she finds one, she dangles it in front of his face, swaying it like a lure, hoping that he'll not only bite, but maybe smile a little too.

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// Start a tiny riot //

Her hand in his takes some of the weight away again, helps him breathe a bit easier. It's a steady acknowledgement of her support—something that means more than any beachside plot ever could. His features crease as she explains everything with Koa, and he finds it hard to imagine. Well, some of it. The Commander Koa is a face he knows well, and has seen recently, which he suspects is part of it. His fuck up now affecting her, awesome.

"He was trying to avoid looking at either of you at your party," Kaisel clarifies. "He was there though. For you." As for the other times he can’t seem to look at her, Kaisel doesn’t have a great explanation. His cousin’s never been great at saying what he means. "All I know is, nobody who's fully over someone acts like he does." Whether he wants to be over Flora or not is the part that's still a mystery to Kaisel.

"I don't think it's you he hates," Kaisel adds gently, his eyes closing as her thumb brushes slow, soothing circles across the back of his hand. "Stormbreak was leaderless." Dahlia doesn't count, and Soh, much as she's still queen to him, has not given command. "So he's shouldered some extra responsibilities. And you know how he is about family. Noe being infected. My little lightning adventure." Jack. It's Jack he hates, and all the purple aliens, but no fucking way is Kaisel lending more air to that man's name.

Kaisel huffs a tired breath. "Cut him some slack, yeah? He’s holding so tight to everything right now, just to keep it from falling apart. He doesn’t have room left for anything else." He's been steadily watching the burnout creep up in his cousin, has seen the way his stress remains at its threshold, spilling over faster and easier because there's no where else to put it except out and onto others. Koa's drowning, and everyone just keeps slapping high-fives onto his flailing hands, because normally that's what he'd want.

He glances up, head tilting back as she slides against him with a squish of hair. He forfeits his arm to her without thought, tilting his head to the side and feeling the splay of her golden curls lightly tickle his forehead. Her comfort wraps around him stronger than any words could. In a life full of things breaking loose, she’s one thing that still holds. "Guess I shouldn't be complaining to you," he murmurs. "You don’t have your home either." He pauses, half-serious. "Maybe I should get a boat too. That way I can't lose my home again." Maybe he'll just move in here, because being with her feels like the closest thing. "But yeah. It all sucks." That about sums up everything since the Family arrived. "You're the closest I feel to okay anymore." The words hang heavier than he meant them to, but he doesn't take them back, because they're true.

Something brushes against his face. An eye peeks open. His nose wrinkles, and he goes cross-eyed trying to look at it. A smile creeps back into place just before he snaps at the gummy worm.

Kaisel

// Stop being so goddamn quiet //

flora

Flora scoffs, rolling her eyes without heat. "I think he was there for a good time," she counters, at least given how quick he was to start drinking and then strip off his shirt. Her words are dry, but not cruel—closer to resignation than bitterness. She shifts slightly beside Kaisel, adjusting the hand cradled to her chest. "And I’m—" She’s half a breath away from continuing, from launching into the case for why Koa doesn’t get to be the only one hurting—but Kai’s quiet ask slides in first. A sigh whispers out, quieter this time, the sting of being dismissed by Koa giving way to tired surrender, leaving the queen just quietly nodding. She's too tired to compete in the pain olympics, and just now she thinks she'd probably do just about anything Kai asked of her.

At his gentle self-deprecation, she snorts faintly and angles her head toward his. " It's only fair, considering how much I complain. You’re just keeping the scales balanced." Her voice warms, her thumb drifting again in easy, steady circles over the back of his hand. "I’ll always listen. You know that." Then, smugly, "Nah, you'd for sure forget where you moored it, like, immediately." Her smirk softens as she adds, somehow mirroring his own line of thought right then, "You should just move in with me instead. Save yourself the hassle."

The silence that follows his next words isn’t heavy—but it is full. Her lashes flutter shut as they rest together, the press of his head against hers anchoring something unspoken and important that she has no interest in dissecting or teasing apart. The truth of Kai's words doesn’t startle her. If anything, it slots in too easily, too familiarly beside the hollow ache she’s been carrying. Her fingers tighten gently around his as she just nods, the motion small and quiet, before turning her head just enough to try and catch a flicker of him through her peripheral vision. "Same," she whispers.

The gummy worm snaps between them with a playful tug-of-war, and she giggles at the way he chomps for it, delighted and affectionate, before letting it break off between his teeth so she could claim the other half. It fades, slow and warm, like sunlight under water—leaving something quieter behind in its wake.

She stays there a moment longer, holding his hand against her chest like it might keep something inside her from shifting too far out of place. Even with Bassian snoring softly in her room, the thought of letting Kaisel go, of slipping back into the too-big quiet of the houseboat alone, twists something deep in her gut.

So she doesn’t let go. Instead, she shifts just enough to nudge her nose lightly against his temple. "You should stay," she says, light, but not too light. No teasing to hide behind this time, and all of her flirtation carefully caged. "It's super late, or...early, or whatever. And we've already had boardgames and candy so...might as well stay on theme with a sleepover too, right?" She doesn’t push further than that—just lets it sit there, quiet and honest, her fingers still curled into his, though perhaps holding on just a little tighter.

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// Start a tiny riot //

Koa and Jack both fade, each just something heavy that sinks back into the mud of thoughts that won't ever get fully washed clean again. Maybe there's some beauty in that though, that your heart is so bound with memories it can never hope to be fully pristine and sparkly white, always at least a little eggshell or greek villa, if not completely mauve or Flora-gold. Being hurt just means you had something worth staining you, however long that might have been.

He laughs low at her, biting back a quip that he'd need to complain all night to even out those scales. Not necessarily because she's always doing so, but because lately she's been going through hell and deserved to bitch about it. "Complaining does make it better." It's healthy.

A sigh, because she's right, again. "Maybe not if I get glow-in-the-dark sails or something just as loud as yours," he jokes, actually kind of grateful Flora made hers so impossible to miss. No fucking way is he going to bother reading all the sea puns and ex-wives just in the hopes Sugar Tide is the one being spelled out.

Reading his mind she says what he doesn't, which shuts him up for a minute as he tilts his head to try and look at her, attempting to gauge how serious or not she is. He's not entirely sure himself. He visits often enough, wants to be here, but could he leave his parents, Koa, and the Dragoons to do so? He'd been contemplating moving out anyway, recently, but that was like, a house a few blocks away, not a moving boat across Caido. If he drug his feet at all, it's because the idea of coming home to an empty room is the least appealing thought he's ever had, and he wonders faintly if it's much the same for her. "Oh yeah? And where would I put my stuff, in all the empty cabinets?" he teases, pulling the feather boa off from around his neck and flicking it towards her to make a point. "Plus I'd end up using all your favorite dishes all the time and drive you mad. And I'd forget to take out the trash, and probably borrow your shampoo too often." It's a nice idea though, and he can imagine the better parts of it, like cooking together and arguing over seasoning even though it doesn't matter, or hiding around corners to jump out and scare her (likely just to get decked into the floor), or complain in a pile of limbs just like this every night because life is hard each and every day.

Same

He eases a bit with the returned sentiment—not on edge, but not comfortable either, like throwing that out there was the equivalent to getting on an air mattress without making noise or rolling something off.

He schlorps his half of the gummy worm in with enough force it hits the back of his throat and threatens to choke him. He swallows it whole and coughs once, before laughing, because death by gummy worm somehow seems apt.

The moment stills, and the quiet creeps back in, leaving just the dim awareness of her heat and the rise of her breaths beneath the arm she's still clutching. He flexes his fingers around hers, glancing around the edge of his vision as he feels her shift against his temple, light but intentional. "Mmm" he hums in thought, eyes half-shut as he considers. He's certain Koa would not approve, for a number of reasons, chief among them is he'd then be waiting on Kaisel to return to Soh's apartment before they can make plans for the next day. He might even be waiting up now, although Kaisel dearly hopes Soh can convince him to rest, because if her touch can't do it, Kaisel isn't so sure his presence can.

Maybe though, he's feeling just a little bit selfish, and a lot tired. The thought of leaving her and this nest of safety and easy and good, it makes him feel leaden and immobile. He can't really fathom the walk back through Haulani, and recoils from the mere idea. "Okay." It's soft, but it's solid and certain, even if he's not entirely sure where she means to put him given that she's out of beds.

Kaisel

// Stop being so goddamn quiet //

flora

"There’s probably room in the sink," Flora muses, turning her head slightly against the crook of his arm, the curl of a grin in her voice. "You know. For your socks. A pair of underwear or two." But her gaze slips sideways to catch his profile and the smile she gives next is smaller, a touch more sincere. "Or I could just get you a bag. Enchanted, bottomless. You could keep all your shit in it—shampoo, trash, whatever you want." It’s offhand enough not to hang too heavy in the air, but given the source, it’s anything but a throwaway. When Flora says she’ll get you something, odds are she already knows the merchant by name.

As Kaisel outlines the mess they’d make—her dishes, his habits—Flora just laughs, bright and fond and unbothered. She nods in agreement because yes, he would absolutely steal her shampoo and forget to rinse the plates, and she'd probably go through his snacks out of spite and eat the edges of his brownies as payback. But then her nose crinkles and she gives him a look so full of affection it borders on ache. "Still better than not having you around," she says, like it’s obvious, like it isn’t a little bit of her heart laid down between them for him to tuck away into one of his pockets if he's so inclined.

The quiet that follows should feel peaceful—everything around them is soft and silver in that liminal way only sea-moonlight can manage—but Flora’s breath hitches in her throat and just stays there. Her fingers tighten gently around his, like if she holds too still he’ll drift, or worse, decide to go. But then he says it—okay—and her whole body releases like it’s exhaled with her, that single syllable soaking through her like sun after too long underwater. "Okay," she echoes, barely above a whisper, and twists just far enough to press a kiss to his temple, light and grateful and full of a thousand things she’ll never say out loud.

She wriggles free then, slipping out from under his arm, her curls catching and trailing behind her like light. She pads toward her room, bare feet whispering against the floor, only for a startled snort to echo ahead. "Bassian," she mutters under her breath, and sure enough, the 6’5 sailor emerges wrapped in a blanket like an ashamed burrito, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "Sorry, I—uh—fell asleep," he mumbles, eyes flicking between them before offering Kai a sheepish half-wave. Without waiting for acknowledgment, he disappears up the stairs, presumably to do the actual watch duty he'd promised to handle.

Flora rolls her eyes, fond and a little exasperated, before glancing over her shoulder and extending both hands toward Kaisel. "Come on, you," she says, tone playful, fingers flexing in invitation.

Her bedroom is everything the rest of the Sugar Tide is, only more so. Maximalist, lush, and layered in unapologetic softness. Lilac, sea salt, and magnolia perfume the air; a sheer curtain drapes lazily over the single round window, the sea just beyond it a blurred mural of moving blue. Spice perches above them, wings tucked and humming faintly with cold as she keeps the air deliciously cool. Shelves curve into the walls, cluttered with seashells, hairpins, and books with half-folded pages and pressed flowers left to dry. The bed swallows the room—half ship, half daydream—with pillows spilling over the edge and throws that look like they were stitched out of clouds. Flora doesn’t hesitate. She flops into the centre, starfishing across the sheets like she owns the tide itself, sighing as if the weight of the day sinks into the mattress and leaves her clean.

Then she pegs Kai in the chest with a pillow, because it's a sleepover and, y'know, not anything else. "Sleep in whatever," she says, the smirk in her voice curling like seafoam. As if to make good on the invitation, she shimmies out of her shorts, letting them fall to the floor before she stretches long and lazy. Her shirt—oversized and worn soft—drapes down her thighs, hiding everything and nothing at once, not that there's really much of her that Kaisel hasn't seen.

There’s no flirtation in her voice now, not really. Just warmth and safety and maybe a little bit of loneliness. A little piece of her, quiet and uninvited, still wonders what sharing a bed with Kai might feel like when the world isn’t coming undone; gods knew the thought had crossed her mind, but for tonight, having him here is enough.

My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I'm covered in you

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// Start a tiny riot //

She probably can't see it real well, but he gives her a look when she suggests the sink and a total of three articles of clothing. He might be more minimalist than her (let's be honest, everyone is when compared to her), but he definitely needs at least five pairs of underwear. "A bag," he chuckles faintly, momentarily entertaining the idea, perfectly visualizing himself rifling through it just like his mother does her purse each and every time she's paying for something. It holds up the whole line and often she just starts to dismantle her entire bag onto the counter. Slap a wig on him and he'll likely be the same, just fishing out matching socks instead of change. Not exactly the look he wants, but he doesn't have it in him to outright decline the idea. Not when she's laughing and telling him any number of annoyances are worth putting up with if it just means he'd be here, and damn if that doesn't steal all his air. It's not often you have someone willing to gloss over all the ugly bits of you just for the hope of catching the way you shine in the right light.

Of course, it's easier to imagine in the dead of the night, when the world is extra quiet and calm and the lights are so low you can't really see something fully. With tomorrow so close, it's easy to pretend you can do anything for the rest of today. So he just lets it go unanswered. He isn't sure what he wants, doesn't think she does either. They could tarnish what they have, which is a lot more likely if they're squished into these tight quarters and keep bumping into all the sharper sides to them, adding scratches that build in layers to the parts that had once been smooth.

He can agree to the night though.

He squints against her kiss, one hand rising to hold the echo of it there for a little bit longer as she slips around the corner like a splash of champagne in a fresh glass. He rises steadily back upright, half-way scooted down the bench when Bassian lumbers out. Kaisel lifts his hand in a returned wave, gaze trailing after the sleep-weary man as he descends the stairs. That solves that question. At Flora's beckoning, Kaisel slides out the rest of the way and to his feet, hand slipping into hers like that's the only way it makes sense, and it is when her's is waiting.

Her room doesn't surprise him in the slightest by now—she might only manage that if he walks in and it's near empty. It is perfectly her, a touch chaotic and full of so many things they're impossible to name without missing a few, but there's comfort built into every space, and he has to smile at the way she has claimed this home away from home and turned it into the best thing she can manage. He leans against the doorframe, head tilting with a smile as he admires it for a moment. "So, if I move in I get half the wall right? So I can put up my posters of half-nude women over there?" He teases as he points towards the opposite wall.

He grabs for the pillow a bit late as it buffets his chest, but he hugs his arms around it, 'brows lifting faintly as her shorts slip away like a ghost—nothing visibly changed and yet, the knowledge of the lack of them is there like something waiting to haunt him. "Whatever huh?" he repeats, tossing the pillow back to her and leaving his hands lifted up as evidence he's got nothing on him. How does this keep happening to him? "Swim trunks it is," he scoffs, "because it's either these, nothing, or one pair of your shorts per leg." Frey's fashion selection could be another option again, but he doesn't even want to risk reminding her by warning her that's off the table this time. Thankfully his trunks are dry, if perhaps not his first choice for comfortable sleepwear, but the day's hangover of drama is enough to make it not matter.

He dives into the unoccupied space she leaves, grabbing for a pillow to swing across at her.

Kaisel

// Stop being so goddamn quiet //