seeing the world in ADHD

Can't touch me, like Gojo—Look good in all my photos

The strainer has inevitably tilted and slid around his head, tentacles bobbing closer forward than before, reaching out to grab at her whenever he gets close. He smirks in response to her assertion, knowing it full well to be true, and readjusts his hat as the ring of her flick is still humming out across it. The response of her face to each suggestion only underlines his own, a crisp laugh cutting free at ewwww. "Just brainstorming, that way when we get all the bad ones out of the way, we'll know." The same way you always find what you're looking for in the last place you check, it feels like hunting for their last name might require pulling open every drawer of possibility.

"Hmmm," he considers, the sound deep in the back of his throat. "We'd probably not do it proper justice too," he admits, and shrugs away that possible location of their name. "Okay, we'll think on it more, but we should come up with something every day or before you know it we'll have been married and nameless for a year." He brightens for a moment, as if catching a word, body poised to say it, but it dies just as fast and he swallows it back down with a shake of his head.

There's a fond scoff in response to her claim, because no it's not the same as what he meant. He also hates that they're hiding something again that he'd love to just be crowing about to anyone and everyone, but gods he hopes this is the last time he ever has to sit on his feelings for her. Motivation to finally gather the courage to ask her dads soon, if nothing else. Shifting slightly as she settles fully upon him, his hands slip onto both of her sides, thumbs brushing down in unspoken adoration. "I could do it better," he counters with a smile that's so small it's almost shy, and the gaze that gradually tips up her way is equally so. The idea of being married to her still feels like confetti in his pulse every time he brushes past the idea, or sees the sparkling hairtie on either of their wrists again. Holding onto it for much longer is starting to feel nearly impossible.

The small mumbles of affection that began to bubble up when she joined him sharpen suddenly into a contained burst of celebration. It lights up his face in a new way, knowing they are engaged instead of just thinking it. "That's amazing news!" he laughs, grip tightening on her faintly, a soft shake of excitement given through the contact. "We'll have to give them a celebratory gift. Maybe a couple's spa trip on us, they do owe us for helping with the memory mud. Or make them a nice dinner while they're here." The reality of what that means sinks in then too, because now the timer has started. "So, a week or two then. Let their engagement breathe, then we announce ours."

As for their room-locked personal celebration, he doesn't blame them, but it ignites another branch of the what works best for us. He stills a bit, sinking deeper into the couch, doing his best to look at her as fully as he can. One thumb starts up again, trailing from higher up on her side to further down to her hip in a slow, tracing drag. "I also wanted to talk to you about what you like...in bed." He focuses on the pull of his hand, fighting back the blush of uncertainty that threatens to creep in. He still recalls the smattering of bruises left on her from Jack, the way she'd enjoyed earning them, and now Danta's memory is all about pegging. If it is just him, just them, is he doing it right? "There's a lot I haven't done, yet. I mean, some things I never really thought I would want to, but I don't want you to give up what you like either. Has it been...exciting enough for your tastes?" Now his gaze rises back to her's, searching for the plain truth.

Kaisel

Sexy jutsu, I feel like Naruto—Fightin' demons in my head like I'm Itadori

flora

Flora laughs and rolls her eyes, the sound warm and helplessly fond, head tipping back just enough to make the fish wobble again as she gives Kaseil a look steeped in dramatic skepticism. “"Oh right, of course," she says, humour curling around the words like a ribbon. "Honestly, I bet we could pull off just being Flora and Kaisel. So obnoxiously in love that nobody needs a last name to figure out what’s going on." The thought lingers for only a heartbeat before she leans in, brushing her nose against his, voice dropping into something softer, almost shy. "But I do want one," she admits, shoulders lifting again, smaller this time. "I want people to see our names written down somewhere and know. I want it to be obvious that I’m yours."

His hands settling at her hips feels like a punctuation mark, grounding and familiar, and she perches more securely in his lap without thinking about it, arms looping comfortably around his neck while her fingers trace along his hairline in slow, absent arcs. The confession that slips out next comes quieter, like she’s testing it in the air between them first. "I’m not sure you could," she says, meaning his claim of doing it better, cheeks rounding as the smile she’s trying to contain finally breaks free. "I’ve never been loved the way you love me." She leans in to kiss the faint crease beside his mouth, that soft place where his shyness always seems to gather, as if sealing the thought there before it can make her too overwhelmed.

She straightens again with a grin that’s all bright enthusiasm, nodding decisively at the idea of a spa day. "That would be perfect for them," she says. "They both love being pampered." When he suggests waiting a week or two, she nods so fast he can probably feel it, her body vibrating faintly in his hold as she bites at her lower lip to keep from bursting. "Two weeks," she agrees, breathless and giddy. "We can wait. I can wait." Even if it feels like her insides are fizzing, like she might lift clean off the couch if she lets herself think about telling everyone too hard.

The shift in him doesn’t escape her, though, the way his gaze steadies, the way he sinks deeper into the cushions, his hand at her side pacing her skin rather than roaming. Her brows knit together, a question already forming when he asks it, and the seriousness of it lands heavy enough that the laughter she might have answered it with never gets the chance. She stills, really looks at him, and answers without hesitation. "Yes," she says. "Absolutely." No qualifiers, no softening. Then, because honesty matters, she adds, slower, "There are things we could try. Things I’ve liked before, but right now? You've definitely never left me wanting."

Her gaze drops to her lap, a quiet chuckle slipping out that sounds more bashful than amused. "This is going to sound really stupid," she says, shaking her head as if bracing herself. "But I think you loving me just...makes everything better." A breathy laugh follows, nerves and truth tangled together. "I feel like we could have the most boring, vanilla sex imaginable and it would still feel incredible to me."

She reaches for one of his hands, drawing it away from her hip and up to her mouth, pressing a kiss into the pad of his fingertips. "I’ve definitely done some things," she says, voice quieter now, reflective rather than coy. "But a lot of it was about trying to please whoever I was with." Her smile curves faintly, something sad threading through it. "It always felt like I had to, in order to get them to stay, or want me, or..." When her eyes lift back to his, the difference is stark. "I don’t feel that way with you."

The smile that follows is sly, heat flickering back into it as she shifts her hips against him just enough to make the point before sobering again. "I do like pleasing you," she adds. "A lot." Then, more firmly, more earnestly, "But I don’t feel like I have to in order for you to want me." She presses her forehead into his palm, grounding herself there, voice muffled but sincere. "Does that make sense?"

you don't know that you're living til' you're carrying scars
you're either falling in love or falling apart

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Can't touch me, like Gojo—Look good in all my photos

The idea of just Flora and Kaisel is a delightful one, as if love alone could elevate their names into something so known, or always spoken together, that there could be no mistaking who is meant. He would not have believed such a thing possible before her, the idea that love could erase everything but that which matters most, stripping them down to the most base form because that's all that's needed. "Ooooh, maybe Flora and Kaisel Nameless." A laugh parts his smile soon thereafter, which swiftly stuffs itself back inside his mouth with a quiet hush of breath the moment she leans in to brush noses. "And I'm yours," he concludes, leaning into the fish until they make scampi.

The curl of her fingers against his hair feels like his soul is being kneaded, and he melts into the touch. Enough so that his response is just a dreamy "mmph," to her, breathing in the truth of what she says as easily as the smell of sun and wind that comes off the waves of her hair when she lingers close, as she does now. "Because there's only one me, and one you, and our love is the only kind like it for that," he murmurs into the side of her cheek as she presses her kiss in, smile curling around the touch like it could trap it there and keep the gentle, tickling brush forever. He'd love her better each and every day, building up off everything they'd done yesterday, and the day before, until memory became a stairway to the endless stretch of their future. He'd not settle for just loving her the best she'd ever known, that might have been true for yesterday, but today? More. There's always room to improve, after all. He doesn't argue the point further, content to keep the knowledge in his chest and dissolve beneath her lips.

He livens up a touch more from the puddle he was becoming as she also adjusts back to a more full height, the carbonation singing in her veins at a deadline being marked down bubbling up through him with as much eagerness. "Perfect," he declares, and there's no hiding the double meaning of it when he's holding her so fully in his gaze, copper shine brighter for the light of her in his sight.

It's this feeling that makes it easy to bare himself to her in ways he ordinarily might hide beneath layers of sugar and laughter alone. It's trust, in its most complete form, and a devotion so deep that it does not remove anything from him to give more for the sake of her. She makes it so easy too when she handles every sharp or difficult situation with all the grace of her middle name. He has never doubted that she gives just as equally, and he breathes out the anxiousness as she hands over her unhesitating response. Gods, it's impossible not to love her. "Good," he says with a twitch of relief in the edges of his gaze, the very same ones where the memory of her and Danta play out more often than he'd like.

He stills, a no already loading itself on his tongue when she says it'll be stupid, and he should have fired it off because he's yet to hear her say something dumb, least of all this. Unwilling to interrupt though, he lets the pulse of his grip offer the reassurance, the same way his smile softens at the edges, trying to absorb all the nerves she spills. Much as hearing the words boring and sex that together don't usually serve him well, the sentiment she means lands with its full weight. "I don't think I've ever heard my own feelings so perfectly explained," he chuckles softly, because gods, everything she does feels incredible. He feels like he's back in his preteen years sometimes just with the right brush of her hand, such is the swell of his desire for her.

Even this, his hand carefully captured in hers, delicate attention given to each finger, the touch like lightning jolting down his nerves and hammering in his heart with a fresh dose of affection so overwhelming he feels he might burst into static. It's those small touches, the contact woven in-between the hardship, that delivers the most meaningful reassurance. Although, the slide of her hips is very meaningful too. It sparks a wider eye, heat flaring in all the spaces the prickling touch of her kisses did not reach, searing away the dislike of what she'd had to do before now. "Completely," he breathes, fingers curling into her hair while his other palm presses against the roll of her hips.

"It's a...relief is maybe too strong a word, but, I'm happy to know that's how you feel, in the end. Especially that you know you never have to please me for me to love you." His voice drops at that, the thought chilling in a way he'd never known, threatening to fight back against the flame she'd placed so easily. He does his best not to linger on it, instead guiding her back down to him so he can fully kiss her, needing her to feel that promise of love in all the ways he can, whether she needs it ot not. Smaller, off to the side of her lips, but still close enough for eyelashes to skim skin, he murmurs, "I hope you know though, that I am not opposed to ensuring we never get bored."

Kaisel

Sexy jutsu, I feel like Naruto—Fightin' demons in my head like I'm Itadori

flora

Flora laughs and shoves at Kaisel's shoulder with playful force, enough to make the strainer wobble again, her head shaking as if the idea itself might try to stick. "Nameless," she says, amused and incredulous all at once, the word rolling out like she’s tasting it and immediately rejecting it. The grin she turns on him after that is bright and unguarded, all warmth and mischief, and when he says perfect she beams down at him, eyes narrowing a heartbeat later into something that could almost pass for a glare if it weren’t paired with an unmistakable spark of affection. The kind of look that says careful, the kind that promises consequences if he keeps talking like that, the kind that would end with clothing on the floor if there weren’t still things to say.

It doesn’t surprise her when he reaches for relief, not really. Even if he’d said he didn’t want to know, even if he’d tried to keep that door closed, she’s always known curiosity has a way of pressing at the seams, especially now, with Danta’s careless honesty and the quiet weight of knowing what Jack could once hear without permission. She nods, not to dismiss it but to acknowledge it, understanding humming between them like a shared frequency, and when he tugs her down she ducks instinctively beneath the lip of the pasta strainer before letting herself sink into the kiss. It blooms fast and warm with more heat than she means to let loose, thanks to the way her hips had playfully rolled into him, a rush that has her pulse roaring in her ears and the world narrowing to the press of his mouth and the familiar gravity of him beneath her. Gods, if there weren’t more to talk about she’d only pull back when the need for air demanded it, but she makes herself stop, stealing a hasty breath, steadying herself against the way her body is already choosing him without restraint.

His words curl into her like a spark down the spine, toes curling as she swallows hard and pulls back just enough to meet his gaze, eyes dark and intent. "Next time," she says, voice low and deliberate, "I’ll show you a few of the things I like and you can see what you think." The promise hangs there, not rushed, not coy, just honest and alive. Then she tilts her head, a soft challenge threaded through her smile. "And that goes both ways," she adds. "If there’s anything you like, or anything you’ve ever even wondered about, you just need to say the word."

She leans in again, close enough that her mouth brushes his cheek, her words breathed against the corner of his lips the way his had been, intimate and deliberately teasing. "Even if I don’t have to," she murmurs, the truth of it steady and unashamed, "making you feel good really does turn me on."

you don't know that you're living til' you're carrying scars
you're either falling in love or falling apart

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Can't touch me, like Gojo—Look good in all my photos

It is a shame there's more to talk about, because he'd very much like to tug more than just the hat off her and blur the edges of boring into the limits of discomfort for the rest of the night. Explore at least some border of what she likes and what he wonders, if only because now the curiosity is scratching at the door and she's just offered to prop it open. "I'm looking forward to discovering everything with you," he murmurs, and since they've all the time ahead of them to do it, there's no need to rush past what already is working well, although an adventure here and there, be it on skyships or bedsheets, is always a good balance to only lazing away in old comforts.

Despite the words burning a hole through the mental list he's been trying to keep of everything they have to discuss, she's doing an excellent job of setting everything on fire, making it impossible to focus on the one. The devious lilt of her words and the tilt of her body into him draws a shuddering breath, as much for what she says as the way she says it. His smirk cuts higher on one side, the movement spreading across her lips pressed there. "Ditto," he breathes, and his hands resettle on either side of her waist, giving a single, forceful tug towards him as his hips rear up enough to strike friction there for a blessed moment.

"Uuuuugh," he groans, head sinking back into the cushion again in mild defeat. "I should have brought this up last, then I could spirit you away into bed," he gripes. Then, sighing like the entire weight of the world is measured by his restraint in this moment, his gaze slinks back to her from where it'd fallen away in the despair of resisting. "Say something else so I don't still do just that, especially since this is a fight and all, and makeup sex is always better." Admittedly, their making up happens well before the clothes come off, but he's still going to count it. "Oooor, are we done?" Mischief streaks into place, pointedly flattening all his other topics, which he doesn't even dare try to recall right now since one most of all will ruin this current mood and he'd rather it not, again.

Kaisel

Sexy jutsu, I feel like Naruto—Fightin' demons in my head like I'm Itadori

flora

Heat hits her like a flare the moment his hands resettle on her hips, the adjustment small but devastating, his body answering hers just long enough for sensation to bloom and then vanish, leaving colour rushing to her cheeks and across the bridge of her nose. The sound that slips out of her is unplanned and uncontained, a low, betrayed noise that curls back into her mouth a heartbeat too late, pleasure fluttering outward and then collapsing in on itself with the cruelty of the interruption. Gods. She glares down at him as he sinks back, the look sharp-edged and playful and threaded through with want that’s already starting to ache, lips parting as if she might scold him before the words derail completely.

"I hate you," she whispers, which immediately dissolves into a breathy, frustrated sound as she rolls her hips once despite herself, as if her body hasn’t received the memo that this is supposed to be restraint. "We haven’t even had good makeup sex yet," she adds, the idea spiralling fast and dangerous now that it’s been given air. "This is our biggest fight so far, which means it would probably be, like, unfairly good." The thought lands and sticks, and she groans, tipping her head back for a second while her mind scrambles for the list of things they were meant to still talk about, immediately skidding to a halt at Jack’s name because absolutely not, not with warmth still pooled low in her belly and Kaisel's hands still tight around her.

That leaves one other thing, the next thing, the thing she’s been quietly bracing around for days now, and it’s almost worse because it tangles with everything else whether she wants it to or not. With a reluctant huff, she sits up properly, breaking the spell by force, cheeks still flushed and a faint wince creasing her mouth as she does it. The shift feels like stepping out of warm water into open air, necessary and miserable all at once. She meets his eyes again, steadying herself with the familiarity of him, and exhales. "There is something," she says, the words chosen carefully, not heavy but not casual either. "About Koa that you should probably know."

you don't know that you're living til' you're carrying scars
you're either falling in love or falling apart

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Can't touch me, like Gojo—Look good in all my photos

"That's the spirit," he grins back at her whisper and her glare, the combo losing any real sting given the liquid roll of her body that follows suit. Leaning into the idea of them fighting still (hence why the silly hats are still on), he grinds out a returning, "I hate you." It carries low and sensual, fed by the heat cradling him between her thighs. The meaning is further hollowed out with the way his gaze melts across her, the intention clear. He'd make up to her the rest of the day.

She leans back as if the thoughts of what they could do to one another have become too heavy for her to hold, the motion highlighting the slope of her neck and the line it cuts to the swell of her chest. The very idea sharpens his breath, a groan of a different sort joining hers as one hand reaches up, intending to help her carry this burden, or release her from it. His touch slides soft and slow from her collarbone up to her ear, thumb cupping her chin briefly. Again his hips reach up to the seat of her, the hand still on her hips guiding the point of the pressure. "I'm so mad," he mutters, a poor attempt at dramatized anger. Too lost in appraising the feel of her, he's quickly losing hold of the thread of being upset in any measure, pretend or otherwise.

She shifts, the heat eddying around and away in small degrees as the swell of something else rises. "Oh?" he wonders, touch reluctantly trailing down and away, gaze slipping from her skin back to the steady angle of her eyes. Koa's name is the last one he expects, and he stills very suddenly at the sound of it. He'd just seen his cousin, so his well being isn't called into question this time. She's just reassured it's them and no one else, so her desire for Koa is not something he worries at. That leaves... "look, if he has a bigger dick, I don't think that's something I can just do. Unless...maybe Frey?"

Kaisel

Sexy jutsu, I feel like Naruto—Fightin' demons in my head like I'm Itadori

flora

Flora’s mouth curves, low and dangerous, and the words slip out like a promise sharpened to a point as she leans closer to him, breath warm against his skin. "I hate you more," she purrs, the sound threaded with threat and tease in equal measure, the kind meant to linger and coil rather than land cleanly. Her body still wants him, still hums with the echo of where they were only seconds ago, and the silly hats do absolutely nothing to blunt the pull of it, only add to the sense that they are always one hasty decision away from tumbling headlong into something deliciously reckless.

But even as heat keeps tugging at her, the mental list refuses to dissolve, marching stubbornly forward through the haze, and when he opens his mouth to suggest that Koa's dick is what this is about, she blinks down at him in disbelief before swatting a hand across his chest. "What is the matter with you," she says, feigned annoyance flattening her tone as she rolls her eyes, the joke landing wrong enough that she doesn’t even bother dressing it up. "No." The word is firm, immediate, and it costs her something to say what comes next, to drag this particular truth into the open when it would be so much easier to let him carry her to bed and forget there’s anything else in the world.

She exhales, then says it anyway. "I told Koa about Jack, too." The moment the words are out she lunges forward, pinching Kai’s lips shut between her fingers before he can react, brows lifting in warning even as she rushes to get ahead of the explosion she knows is coming. "And then I made him forget," she adds quickly. "Immediately. Right after."

Only once she’s sure he’s going to let her finish does she pull her hand away, sitting a little straighter as the memory of it all prickles uncomfortably under her skin. "It was around this time last year, actually," she continues, gaze drifting just off to the side as if she can still see it laid out there. "I went to Ludo and quested for a potion that would make someone forget the last 5 minutes.." Her cheeks warm, the recollection sitting badly no matter how many times she’s turned it over since. "I only told him because of everything with him and Soh, because he’d spent so long thinking he’d done something wrong with he and I, that he was the reason we never worked out, and that just...I dunno, it felt like baggage weighing him down."

Her eyes come back to Kai then, expression pinched with something like regret and resolve tangled together. "But he'd been competing with a telepath," she says, plainly. "And so even if he couldn’t remember when I told him, I hoped it would...I don’t know, like, soothe something. Loosen the knot a little. Let him stop digging around in the past for answers that were never actually about him." She drags a hand through her hair and lets it fall again, shoulders lifting and dropping with a quiet sigh. "It didn’t work though," she admits. "Or it did the opposite, because he basically vanished on Soh right after that."

you don't know that you're living til' you're carrying scars
you're either falling in love or falling apart

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Can't touch me, like Gojo—Look good in all my photos

Feigning great injury at the land of her hand, one of his own cupping the spot as if he might bleed out otherwise, he squints back at her. "Do you want like a list, or like, how long do you wanna be here and listen to it all?" Because what's wrong with him surely has to be more than one page if his cousin's penis is inserting itself between them right now, but given they'd just been discussing what she liked and all the heat buzzing between them, well, it made enough sense to think she missed some aspect of what she once had.

His playful injuries immediately fade, all the heat from his gaze darkening as if ash has gathered the moment she reveals what she means. His features sharpen, but she claims them swiftly, the outrage detonating inside instead with a flash of betrayal. It's not aimed at her, but at Koa, who KNEW!? Koa knew and didn't say shit to him? What the fuck, man. Worse, Koa knew, and didn't do more to shield Flora from it?

The swift streak of thought and war of feelings nearly threatens to make whatever she says next irrelevant, but her tongue is cutting enough to cleave throughhis own self-destruction and make him hear her, quick and precise. Oh, comes the understanding, fire and swords deflating back into the soft slope of his shoulders, hackles lowered. Confusion bubbles up in the wake, like rapid cooling forcing out something still. She continues, and he eases further, attention rapt even as her muzzle drops away.

He can see the guilt she drags up with the admission, the way she tries to hold the pieces of this failure carefully in her hands like she could attempt to fit them back together once last time but all her tape and glue keeps letting her down, so now what? "That was a really nice thing for you to do," he offers softly, reaching out to take her hand, tugging it to his chest and holding it there. "But whatever's going on with him and Soh is between him and Soh. The same way that what went on between you and Jack wasn't about him either, ultimately. You said he was competing with a telepath, but so was I, right? So it's not even about that, in the end." She and Koa hadn't worked out, simple as that. "Besides," here he can't help the gentle smile that creeps in, because generous as she'd tried to be, he doesn't think her plan had really worked like she wanted in a few ways. "You really expected something that he magically forgot to change him? Flora, even if he remembered, we're fucking dense as hell." Whether he means his cousin and he, or just, men, yes.

Kaisel

Sexy jutsu, I feel like Naruto—Fightin' demons in my head like I'm Itadori

flora

Flora watches it all ripple through Kaisel in real time, the way the set of his shoulders hardens and then threatens to splinter, the flash of copper going sharp and bright like a struck blade, and it’s a small mercy that her fingers are still pinching his lips because she can practically feel the storm trying to force its way out anyway. Even when she pulls her hand back she braces, half-expecting some leftover thunder to crack the air between them, but instead it collapses inward, heat folding down into something quieter and more dangerous, and she exhales without meaning to when it doesn’t break loose.

When he says it was a nice thing to do, the sound that slips out of her is a surprised little laugh, brittle around the edges because that is not at all where she expected him to land. She slouches forward as he tugs her hand to his chest, forehead dipping as if the weight of it all has suddenly decided to settle there instead, and the sigh she gives is miserable and tired and real. "I saw him at the House of Midnight," she admits, shaking her head as if the memory refuses to line up neatly no matter how many times she’s tried to stack it. "We had this...weird conversation—" Weird likely because of everything they hadn't said, rather than what they had. " And I just...I didn’t want to be in the way. Not of him, not of Soh, not of anything they were trying to build."

Her gaze drops as Kai talks about competition, fingers brushing against his chest where he’s holding her hand like she might float away otherwise. "Maybe that’s only because I chose you," she says quietly. "If I’d walked away and gone back to Jack instead.." Her thumb traces a small, unconscious arc over his heart. "You’d probably be wondering what you did wrong too, why you weren’t enough."

Then he says they’re dense as hell, and she chooses to interpret that as a sweeping indictment of his entire family line, laughter breaking free despite herself, bright and champagne-light as it bubbles up and spills over. She rolls her eyes fondly. "Yeahhhh," she says, conceding the point with a shrug. "It was probably a long shot." She pauses, then softer, almost amused by her own stubbornness. "But for the five minutes he knew? I think he felt better." Flora had, too. The weight of being able to tell Jack's secret is one she hadn't realized had been so heavy until it had been lightened, even just for a few moments.

The memory keeps unfolding now that she’s let it loose, and she glances back down at Kai with a crooked smile. "You’ll be happy to know," she adds, warmth threading through it, "the very first thing out of his mouth was being furious about what Jack did to you on the beach." It was no surprise, of course, that Koa's immediate reaction had been to further indict Jack for what he'd done to Kaisel.

you don't know that you're living til' you're carrying scars
you're either falling in love or falling apart

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Can't touch me, like Gojo—Look good in all my photos

It would definitely be weirder to hear that Flora and Koa ran into each other at a brothel if it wasn't owned by her family, but one brow sketches up regardless in response. Maybe Flora had reason to be there, but Koa? Not that Kaisel is gonna judge what his cousin does in his free time, and certainly Kaisel's not opposed to the shows a brothel can put on, but hadn't this all been all during the flower-waiting-for-you time? "Whatd'ya mean by weird?" he wonders, head tilting faintly, pasta arms bobbing. "Aaaaaand I'm sure I didn't help, I guess," he says a touch sheepishly. "Since I basically told him to go after you again. Living vicariously, and all that, I guess." A genius move on his part for several reasons.

The tether of her hand is a good one. It's pulled him out and into enough things by now that he'd trust it more than anything to steady them. It's working now, heartbeat kicking under the splay of her fingertips like proof that yeah, she had chosen him. "That's what I mean," his voice edges in, sitting beside the wander of her eyes like it could be a companion. "You didn't walk away. We chose each other, and here we are." His fingers curl around their grip still on her hand, brushing the bottom of her wrist and the pulse there. "Jack, and Koa, and Soh, and Caly, none of them ultimately stopped this. So...if Koa and Soh are supposed to have their own love story, then they'll have it. It's up to them to make it so." She could have left him on that beach, and he would have wondered, but she didn't. Jack had still been a telepath, and Kaisel had still been foolish enough not to act with enough certainty before she ran back to Jack in between, repeating a pattern much like his cousin. He's not though, his cousin, or Jack, and that's been the difference in why she stayed, in the end.

"Maybe it doesn't make sense," he shrugs, soft smile folding his cheeks in. "But I think when it's real, maybe it's not supposed to. It's more than sense. It's just, a feeling, wild and strong and impossible to really contain, and that's why the only other one that can ever get it is the one with you. I love every moment of nonsense I have with you." Because surely, ask his parents and Koa, and they'd still be scratching their heads over the whole thing.

The soft smile stretches out like a cat being admired when her laughter fizzes free. "Five minutes is better than none," he agrees, and surely there's a quickie joke to be made there if not for lightning strikes contained in crooked smiles. Something in him dims a touch as that memory gets dragged up, and Koa's ire. He glances away, the haze of her fishtail in his view. "What if he didn't forget, Flora?"

Kaisel

Sexy jutsu, I feel like Naruto—Fightin' demons in my head like I'm Itadori

flora

Flora’s mouth pulls into a small frown as the memory resurfaces, the House of Midnight dim and heavy with things neither of them had said, the way she and Koa had simply stood there letting history hover between them like fog neither could quite step through. The thought barely has time to settle before Kai admits he told Koa to go after her again, and the sound that leaves her is an exaggerated groan, head tipping back as she reaches up to flick the metal rim of the strainer perched on his head. "You are the worst," she declares, half fuming and half laughing, the word sharp but fond, before the humour drains just enough for her to look back at him more seriously. "You would have ruined both of our lives if he’d actually listened to you," she adds, softer now, the truth of it threading through the tease.

Her fingers stay splayed against his chest as he keeps talking, feeling the steady proof of him there beneath her palm, and something deep and quiet settles into place the longer he speaks, a sense of inevitability that has nothing to do with rings or ceremonies or even the fact that they’re married now. It reaches further back than that, all the way to the centre of her, to a place that feels ancient and sure, as if there was never really another ending available to her no matter how many wrong turns she took along the way. When she answers him this time there’s no smile tugging at it, no joke to soften the edges, only the weight of it spoken cleanly. "I love every moment of everything with you," she says, and it isn’t something she’s saying for reassurance or romance, but because it feels as true as bone.

She snickers at his agreement, her mind immediately sprinting somewhere filthy, amusement lighting her features, only for it to falter, then slide into uncertainty, then confusion, and finally something close to horror as his last question lands. Her eyes widen, mouth parting as she shakes her head slowly, disbelief rippling through her. "No...no, but I quested for it," she says, the words tumbling out almost defensively, as if saying them again might make them solid. "Ludo wouldn’t..it.." The protest dies halfway through as the realization hits, sharp and sickening, because of course Ludo could have, because of course a trickster herald might promise one thing and deliver another. A shiver runs through her, not from cold but from the sudden vertigo of it, her fingers turning cool where they rest in Kai’s hand as she looks back at him, searching his face. Slowly, carefully, she asks, "Why do you think Koa might still remember?"

you don't know that you're living til' you're carrying scars
you're either falling in love or falling apart

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Can't touch me, like Gojo—Look good in all my photos

Hate and worst fall off her lips like they’re only a whisper to the structure of the word, the affection that’s rooted so deep and blooming into it otherwise granting it all the shape. He laughs at the pelt of it, squirming away mildly as his hat slides half down his head in response to the plink of her snapping touch. ”As if he would ever,” Kaisel says with a dramatic roll of his eyes, ending with a certain dip of focus back upon her. ”I’m so grateful he didn’t.” And for all her other mastermind work to ensure that whatever remained in her for him she squished for the sake of her friend. Perhaps the one case of her giving too much to others that he might compliment.

With all the variables and possibilities in the world, it’s easy to see why the idea of soul mates exists. It sometimes doesn’t feel possible that they managed to find each other, especially after so long spent knowing one another, drifting apart, ignoring or looking past what was waiting right there for them to discover. Kaisel doesn’t believe in destiny though, much as it feels impossible to imagine anyone other than her now, and perhaps the truth of it is that, like most forces in the world, destiny does not need belief to exist. Still, it feels like they reached out, fingertips fighting through timing and history and feeling to finally hook around one another, and together they pulled each other close and made this happen by their own hands.

The assuredness of her embrace for all aspects of what they have and what awaits them earns a wide smile and a return tilt of his head, hat still askew. The moment fades into storms and old fights, to memories lost and those still kept. He doesn’t hear the cliffhanger manner in which he’s said his last comment, the lines clearcut in his mind, but he sees the way she practically recoils at the idea. For a moment, the strong opposition sits like a fresh stone fed into his throat, because if he’d expected resistance it wasn’t to this extreme.

”Or, I mean—” Kaisel fumbles for a way to reel it back, certain that this would not be a hill he’d hike up to die on. Her own retreat steps across his though, and they clash too at odds with his direction that all that bubbles up is a strictly confused, ”huh?” Understanding dawns not long after, fed by more of her assertions, and then one of his hands is on his face, covering the inappropriate smile that threatens to break out as he shakes his head, the hat finally tumbling free like a man diving overboard. It tumbles onto the couch, but he pays it no mind. ”No,” he clarifies, lacing her fingers with his. ”I meant, what if we told Koa, for real this time?” His gaze searches hers, testing the waters. ”We’ve had time to think about it since you told me, but I keep coming back to feeling like we’re helping him by holding this in. I wanna tell everyone, warn everyone.”

Kaisel

Sexy jutsu, I feel like Naruto—Fightin' demons in my head like I'm Itadori

flora

Flora watches the strainer tumble free and land forgotten, the moment oddly loud in the quiet that follows, and she straightens just a fraction, squinting down at Kaisel as if trying to trace the strange path his thoughts must have taken to arrive at the smile now twisting his lips behind his hand. The relief comes first, fast and loosening, the tight coil in her chest easing as she realises she hasn’t accidentally cracked something open and left Koa exposed to a truth that could have burned him alive. It leaves behind hesitation almost immediately, heavier and slower, her mouth pulling to one side as the idea of telling him on purpose settles in her bones and refuses to sit comfortably. Being the only one still wearing a fighting hat suddenly feels earned, a small, stubborn justification to hold her ground as she tightens her fingers where they lace through Kaisel’s, gathering herself before she speaks because this is one of those things that needs care, not volume.

"It isn’t just Jack’s telepathy," she says finally, choosing each word like it might bruise if mishandled, her grip firming as if to keep him with her while she walks this line, not wanting to seem like she was protecting Jack. "That day on the beach...I think it would have gone the same way even if he hadn’t known you were trying to bait him into throwing the first punch." The memory flickers sharp and unpleasant, and she sighs, shoulders dipping as the weight of it presses down again. "If anything, telling people makes it worse. Right now, keeping his secret might be the only thing stopping him from going full scorched earth on me or on Torchline." She leans in, peering into his copper eyes to be sure he’s really hearing her, not just waiting for his turn. "I don’t think we’re helping him by staying quiet. I think we’re keeping people safe. If it gets out, what’s to stop him from coming after Torchline? Ronin and Remi could hit back, sure, but that doesn’t undo the damage he can cause before anyone even knows what’s happening, especially if he feels like he has nothing left to lose.." Her voice trails, the implication heavy and ugly, because they both know exactly who would be at risk, and Flora had heard from Jack's own lips that if his secret was revealed, that's precisely how he'd feel.

The guilt crests then, rolling through her in a slow, suffocating wave, her face falling as the rest tumbles out. "All the mageglass he has, has come from me," she says, the words tasting bitter now. "And I gave him a revivify feather." It feels like a confession even though it isn’t new, her thumb rubbing anxiously over Kaisel's knuckles as if she could scrub the past clean with enough pressure. A breath shudders out of her, frustration and fear tangled tight. "Saying nothing, staying quiet, maybe getting all of our friends rings like mine...that feels like the only defence we actually have. Not because it’s right, or fair, but because it’s the option that keeps people safe. And—" Brightening, Flora sits up a touch straighter. "We could quest for it together. I'll do one for Soh, you can start with Koa. My savings are a little low because of our wedding rings, but I'll be able to afford more later, for Noe and Mel, and everyone else."

you don't know that you're living til' you're carrying scars
you're either falling in love or falling apart

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!