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

flora

It’s late; properly, mercifully late. The kind of hour when even the moon seems to whisper and the ocean hums low lullabies to itself. From the docks, it might look like a trick of the lamplight, the way a drink suspended in the air above the Sugar Tide’s bow is rising and falling every so often in a slow, contemplative rhythm. It dips, tilts, vanishes, then lifts again, as though the stars themselves had decided to toast the sea.

Flora is intentionally invisible; wrapped in a gauzy blanket that shifts and rustles with the breeze, she lounges in the soft sprawl of cushions she’s laid out on the deck, knees drawn up, one arm draped over them while the other lifts her glass. The drink inside glows faintly—some pink thing with gin, citrus and too much sugar—and catches the moonlight with every lazy turn of her wrist.

Spice is curled nearby, the little dragon’s snowy tail looped around herself as she watches the waves below with idle interest, her soft huff sending curls of cool breath drifting up toward Flora’s bare shins.

Behind them, the lower deck is quiet, except for the occasional snore and sigh of Bassian passed out cold in her bed. Too many sweets, too much enthusiasm for board games, and entirely too little stamina for Flora’s chosen nightcap. But that’s fine, so long as one of them is awake, the queen feels safe 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 //

Life’s been stuck in overdrive, and Kaisel feels like he’s barely slept, much less managed to catch his breath. So despite the late hour, he's on the move again. He departs Sohalia's apartment where they'd all finally reassembled into something as close to calm as any of them could manage. There's still one person he wants to check on tonight (this morning?) before he can laughably attempt to rest. He walks beyond Haulani, hands stuffed in his swim trunk pockets, weary gaze skipping over hulls and sails in search of one in particular.

Bold as ever, the Sugar Tide stands out among the rest, no different from its Captain. Just the sight of the colorful stained glass sails is enough to grant the boy some relief, and his strained pace softens. He clambers aboard as quietly as he can, just in case she’s asleep. He notices Spice before the hovering glass, and his whisper cuts across the distance to her. "Pssst, Spice!" He steps slow and steady, wincing at every creak like it’s a foghorn bound to rouse the slumbering queen. "Spice, is she safe?" He doesn't need to know where she is exactly, as long as the answer to that is yes. She’d been in the thick of it when he left, but she’d also started it, so he figured she had a plan. Gods know, if anyone could prank the Family and walk away, it'd be Flora.

Kaisel

// Stop being so goddamn quiet //

flora

"Psst yourself." A pillow sails out of nowhere with casual precision, landing somewhere near Kai's knees with a soft thud that smells faintly of floral perfume and smug satisfaction. Spice lifts her head with queenly approval, her tail curling around her side as if to say he should’ve known better.

The wine glass floats downward, tips slightly, and rises again in that slow, ghostly arc that has no right to be as smug as it is. Flora’s voice follows soon after, warm and honeyed despite the exhaustion threading through it. "Yeah, I’m safe." A pause, just long enough to suggest the edge of something unspoken, then she carries on with an easy lilt. "Couldn’t sleep. Figured I’d come up for some air." The drink vanishes again for a moment as Flora takes another sip, before setting it back down.

"Stayed invisible just in case. If the Family decided they wanted to throw a surprise afterparty, I’d rather not be the confetti." And, given that Remi and Ronin had officially broken Dahlia's requirement that they stay out of things or else she'd come after their children, Flora assumed the likelihood was fairly high.

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 sees it then—the shimmering glass—just as her voice slides through the dark, the pillows onboard in such excess she can use them as ammunition. He braces faintly, half-catching it as it thuds against him with a soft poof, the air of it sending up all the aromas of her. His concern breaks into something that's been waiting, and every bit of tension melts away into a bleary, goofy smile. "Helpful as ever, Spice," he salutes to her sarcastically as he steps towards what looks like the sad aftermath of a failed pillow fort.

He tosses his pillow down with the rest, flopping against it with a loud sigh, limbs flopping out in an exaggerated sprawl. "Good," he says as he glances out the way she is, towards moonlit sea and the steady blaze of the night. "Knew you would be," he murmurs, affection edging into his voice. He had to believe it—anything else, he couldn’t dwell on. As for not being able to sleep, big mood. "Y'know," he drawls after a moment, "I've played lots of chicken, and I don't think I've ever seen that version of it before."

"That's almost a good idea, except for the part where you're at your literal house, with a visible dragon and drink." He might not be a detective, but he did find her after all. The teasing quiets into something more solemn though, that creeps into the set of his jaw. They could find her, seemed would find her. She escaped today, but what about tomorrow? What about all the other days? Fuck.

Kaisel

// Stop being so goddamn quiet //

flora

Spice flares her nostrils with regal derision, tail flicking once like she’d expected no less from the chaos they kept around. As Kaisel flops down into the mess of displaced pillows, the blanket draped across Flora shifts with a whisper, rustling faintly as she shifts to make room—or maybe just to lean toward the warmth. Her leg flings lazily over his, her toes tucking beneath his opposite thigh, if only so he'd have some idea of where she currently was in relation to him. "Oh, you did, did you?" she murmurs, voice rich with scepticism and dry amusement.

Her drink lifts again—seemingly of its own volition—and Flora snorts softly. "What, you’ve never played the disappear-mid-brawl, bait-an-alien-meathead, almost-get-iced version of chicken before?" she asks, mock surprise thick in her tone, as though he were the uncultured one in this situation.

When he points out the flaws in her current invisibility plan, she huffs. "Please. You didn’t even notice I was sitting here." The glass rises, tilts back, and empties. Flora coughs once under her breath, the taste stronger than she remembered pouring. "We could go below," she offers with a wheeze-soft chuckle, her toes wiggling against his leg. "If it makes you feel better."

Right on cue, there’s a colossal snore from below deck. Bassian, unmistakably, shifting like a felled tree in her bed. "..the bedroom's currently occupied, though," Flora adds, setting her glass down.

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 settles in turn over her leg, fingers curling over her knee. With all his worries stacking up like a late game of Jenga, he'll take whatever crumbs of comfort he can find, and the steady embrace of her fits the bill in a way that's better left unanalyzed. He can't see her, but feeling the heat of her skin against him, the weight of her, makes it real enough to loosen the tight hold around his chest.

He laughs lowly at her description of the beach party chaos, because worrying is about as helpful as chewing gum to stay fed, so while he carries it around in him, he doesn't let it overwhelm him. Not all the time, anyway. "Oooh, you know what, I have," he snaps his fingers. "I just always called it knife-toss, dodge-the-outerspace-fuzz, jump-the-bitches jamboree chicken. I think the rules are pretty similar though." He shakes his head, a grin twisting there. "You saw the looks on their faces though, right?" Somewhere amid all the shouting and the throat-tightening terror of it all, he'd caught some of their unshakable rage. They'd been surprised, and a bit rattled by the audacity of it all at the very least. Perhaps something not actually worth celebrating, not when the aftermath came, but right now the bitterness hasn't come, just the sweet sugar of it.

A snort, "I saw Spice, that's plenty." She might have crept away instead of targeting him with stuffed fabric if he'd been an actual threat, but that'd be a bit of a close call either way. She had plenty of tricks though, just based on the state of all her jewelry, so when she offers to go downstairs he's inclined to decline, if only because now he's comfortable and feeling leaden. The snore that breaks the relative peace is like a gong though, and Kaisel's back stiffens.

"Don't tell me that's JaCk" Kaisel says between his teeth, gaze flicking over to her...general face area. To the glass and all the space behind it where he assumes his scathing look lands. Although, if he’s honest, Jack being here wouldn’t be the worst thing. Someone strong—strong enough—to help her if she needed it. That’s the worst part of it, that it should be Jack here instead of him.

Kaisel

// Stop being so goddamn quiet //

flora

Flora laughs, the sound quiet but undeniable real, curling like sunlight through the dark, warm and adoring. "Knife-toss, dodge-the-outerspace-fuzz, jump-the-bitches jamboree," she repeats, grinning into the wind. "Gods, I love you." It slips out without ceremony, like the truth that it is, in the way her heart always seems to have a room reserved just for him. He never told her to be careful, just picked up the pillows and chaos she lobbed his way and played along.

She exhales slowly at his mention of their enemies’ expressions. "I didn’t see much. I was a little distracted trying not to die. But yeah...I felt it. Like, they didn’t see it coming, and maybe it won’t matter next time, but...I dunno. It was worth it. I have enough of Pierce's blood to protect the rest of Torchline, so fuck that guy."

Spice narrows her eyes at being referenced as a bare minimum. She gives Kaisel the full judgemental once-over, wings fluttering with disdain as if to say I am not a low bar, before resettling with dramatic flair.

The second Kaisel stiffens at the sound below, Flora instinctively sits up, her fingers brushing his arm in silent reassurance. "No," she says, amused and maybe the tiniest bit bitter. "Definitely not Jack. He’d never." And she knows that, not just because he’s Jack, but because he’d already had his chance. When she’d bumped into him at the docks earlier, invisible and afraid and jittery with adrenaline. He could’ve followed her back here. Could’ve asked her to stay on the Ark with all the extra guards he'd drafted. Gods, she probably would’ve said yes to either, but he hadn’t.

"That’s Bassian," she says with a shrug he can’t see but might feel in the faint shift of her weight. "One of Jack’s crew. Got super into board games and candy earlier and passed out like a toddler." There’s affection in her voice as she describes the big man asleep in her bed. "We got super close when I was living on the Ark, and with everything going on...I dunno, I thought it was probably best I wasn't alone."

She stretches out again, toes brushing against his shin. "We can still go below if you want," she offers, easy. "But, uh—bedroom’s taken."

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 //

The affection lands like a fresh breeze on a stifling day, and his answering laugh returns it in kind, "love you more." Like the wind, he doesn't doubt it, but hearing it once in a while is reassuring.

"Ah, so that's why you did it." He perhaps should have connected the dots, but truly just stabbing the Family for no good reason is something he could get behind. "You can still be here though, right? Since this blood wasn't part of a deal?" If the safety barrier is widening, he hopes that doesn't mean her world is shrinking, especially not with the bigger target she's wearing like a fashion piece.

Kaisel glances over at the ruffled dragon, offering her a wink of apology. He should probably get her some ice cream later, to make it up to her, maybe bribe her and get on her better side since Flora is always weaponizing her against him. Or at least find some frost-proof armor any time he comes over to visit.

His rigidity gradually fades beneath Flora's touch and explanations. "Jealous," he murmurs to the board games and candy, but it's not as light as before, wound tight at the idea of Jack and the reality that this is still a piece of him. "Good. It's definitely better if you aren't, right now." Glad as he is that she isn't, he can't help but wonder how useful the man is if he's impersonating a saw while she drinks alone.

His fingers press into her leg in response to her toes, and he leans against her more, guessing where she is by the warmth drifting off her and the sections of her he can feel against him. "Wherever you wanna go Flora, I'll follow," he says easily. Below deck they'd compete with Bassian's snores, and though she could relent her invisibility, they'd also be cornered if the Family did appear. Out here felt comfortable enough, and open, but there's no denying the way it feels like he's speaking to the ghost of a friend already claimed by the afterlife instead of one still taunting the edge of it.

Kaisel

// Stop being so goddamn quiet //

flora

Flora nods, again, not that Kai can see it. "I bribed Deimos to help me," she admits, dry but unapologetic. "He got some blood he can use to protect Halo, and I gave him my compass so that he could get away clean." Her fingers drum thoughtfully against one of the pillows. "Yeah, I can still be here. And once we’ve got the coastline locked down, I should be safe enough. It’s just..." Her voice trails off, mouth quirking. "You know. Casual hiding-from-an-alien-crime-family vibes." Though Flora laughs, the sound is far too airy to be entirely genuine. "Nothing I can’t handle."

Spice lets out a small huff that might almost be a sigh, curling tighter beneath her blanket.

At Kaisel’s crack about board games and candy, Flora snickers, her fingers tapping twice against his arm. "Still plenty of both left. Bassian’s a lightweight despite how big he is." But then Kai says he’ll follow her wherever, and gods. It's probably for the best that he can’t see the way her eyes soften at that, the flush to her cheeks, or the gentle tilt of her lips. Instead, her voice turns velvet, thick and warm. "Dangerous words, Assborn," she purrs, before slipping out from under the blanket and tugging his wrist to follow. "As nice as the evening air is, it’s no fun making faces at you when you can’t see them."

Down the steps she goes, bare feet silent on the wood, twisting her ring as she moves. When she emerges into view, she’s dressed in an oversized shirt and shorts that vanish beneath the hem. Her curls are loose and sleep-tangled, her face scrubbed clean of her usual makeup, freckles splashed across her cheeks like careless confetti.

The first thing she does is storm to her bedroom. "Bassian," she hisses, shoving at the mountainous lump. "You’re snoring like a dying moose." A sleepy grunt and a shuffle later, he rolls over and silence returns, if only temporarily.

Then she’s back, crossing the little galley to Kaisel and slipping into his space like she was always meant to be there. Her arms slide around his middle, her head fitting snug beneath his chin. "Thanks for coming to check on me," she murmurs, barely louder than the creak of the tide outside. No one else had, which Flora probably should take as a compliment or at least a comment on her ingenuity but...gods it felt lonely sometimes. "It means a lot."

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 smirks—she's not wrong. Knowing Flora, she might plunge into something horrendous just because. An ordinary Tuesday for the Doubletake. There's no takebacksies though, so he just shrugs, committed. When Casper tugs on him, he glances over and grunts as he pushes himself to his feet, the comfortable pillows like a tar trap around him. "I dunno, that's the one upside," he laughs, stumbling over one darkly colored cushion with a half-swallowed curse.

He follows her lazily, descending the stairs and catching the bounce of her blonde just before she rounds a corner with practiced authority. Kaisel ruffles his mess of a hair, completely disheveled from the day's events, as he stops to look around her galley. He's on the hunt for that candy she mentioned, but he pauses as the snoring abruptly stops. Poor bastard. Though, if Bassian’s close to her, he probably knew what he was signing up for.

She returns like an accomplished sunrise, bright and unrelenting. His surprise at the way she slips against him quickly softens as his arms curl around her in turn. One hand snug around her back, the other cupping the back of her head like something precious. He exhales slowly, brushing a kiss to the crown of her curls, indulging in the tender moment while he can. "You'd do the same," he says gently, not wanting to take credit just for caring.

For a moment, he’s happy to just hold her, their shared safety enough to quiet the noise of everything else. Soon enough, his grin creeps in against the gold halo she wears. "So tell me you have some actually good games."

Kaisel

// Stop being so goddamn quiet //

flora

She sinks into him like a tide finding the shore, warm limbs threading around his frame and tugging him closer still. When his kiss lands at the crown of her curls, something untwists in her chest—just a little—and she breathes it out slow, like steam curling off sun-warmed stone.

"Duh," Flora murmurs, the word barely skimming the air between them. Of course she would. For him, without hesitation. But as his arms tighten around her, so easy and natural, a bitter thought creeps in: how often she’s done just that lately. Given too much; burned herself bright to light the path for someone else. She doesn’t voice it, but later maybe, when the night isn't quite so tender, she'll turn it over again in her mind.

Instead, she tilts her head back, eyes catching his with a grin that’s all teeth and sunshine. "Obviously I’ve got good games," she says, like it’s a personal insult to suggest otherwise. Her fingers trail along his forearm as she peels away just far enough to lead him toward the little galley, every inch of the Sugar Tide crammed with soft lighting and maximalist chaos—plants curling down from mismatched sconces, glittery trinkets jostling for shelf space, a feather boa thrown over a wall hook for no reason at all.

She plucks a faded box from a cubby, blowing dust off with dramatic flair. "Snakes and Ladders is the usual go-to with Bassian," Flora explains, casting him a sideways look. "He hates snakes. And heights. It's kind of a perfect storm." Her smile sharpens like a hook dipped in honey. "Strip poker’s a classic, too. He’s got the worst tell—I so much as shrug out of a shirt and he folds like bad origami and ends up sitting in his boxers in no time."

A low laugh slips from her as she rummages deeper, producing a luridly illustrated Go Fish deck with a flourish. "Also have this gem from Haulani," she says, fanning the cards. "Super educational." She lifts her brows, lashes fluttering over eyes that catch the warm light. "I also have an old game of Guess Who, but house rules are that you can't actually ask about what they look like."

Then, almost as an afterthought—but not really—she reaches for a woven basket tucked beneath the table, fingers closing around a familiar crinkle. With a lazy flick of her wrist, she tosses a fresh bag of gummy worms at his chest. "Stocked up," she says, grinning like a pirate who’s planned the ambush all along.

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 //

His grin twists higher on one side as she throws him that look, the kinda that begs to taunt her further just to earn more of the same. "Welllllll, I wasn't sure since you had to leave half your hoard behind," he clarifies as she gradually withdraws from him. It must be how the sea feels when the sun finally sinks beneath the horizon, left with only the pale imitation of the sun's reflection on the moon, colder and darker for its absence.

He glances around the stuffed shelves and cupboards, some of which have given up trying to close and hang half-ajar as if always intended to be that angle. A finger trails one such packed ledge, gripping the feather boa and coiling it around his neck as he turns towards the box she's retrieved like it's a powerfully ancient artifact of Good Times. He sneezes at the dust, face scrunching up with threat of another. "he's scared of heights and he's crew on a skyship?" As for the strip poker, haha yeah, what a loser Bassian is, Kaisel definitely knows nothing about folding the instant Flora removes her clothing.

Skipping over the bait that is strip poker entirely, he echoes, "go fish?" He makes a face, insinuating they aren't children (despite gathering sugar and games late at night). Guess Who though, now that one he could get behind. "Ooooh, that one!" he says with a finger pointed in excitement towards her. He hasn't played it in years, but he'd always been decent enough at it. Better to pick that too than let her get more creative with something like Truth or Dare or Two Truths and a Lie. "Alright, no physical descriptions, got it," he says with a grin, appreciating her twist as he slides into one of the benches where they'd last been to paint her nails.

He catches the bag on instinct, and as he turns it over, a garbled cry escapes—simultaneously part gasp and shout. “WHAT!? Flo-ro, you’re the best!” He rips the corner open with his teeth, spitting the scrap off to the side without care, and spills the gummy worms across the table like treasure. He plucks up the green and yellow first, a happy hum rising as he chews.

Kaisel

// Stop being so goddamn quiet //

flora

Flora arches a brow as Kaisel drapes the feather boa around his neck, gaze tracking the slow, exaggerated twirl like she's trying to decide if he's dressing up for strip poker or against it. At the comment about Bassian and heights, her laughter bubbles out like a shaken soda can, her affection toward the sleeping moose in the other room abundantly clear. "The Ark only started flying in the last two years," she explains. "Before that it was all waves and whining. You should hear him climb the rigging—it’s like someone strangling a walrus."

His grimace at go fish earns another eye-roll, this one fond and full of michief. "It’s go fish with sex positions, genius," she clarifies. "And frankly, might be worth borrowing if you're gonna keep pace with someone like Caly." She flashes him a grin that’s sharp and delighted, before adding, "Speaking of—how’d your evening go after my party?" Is Flora go-fishing for info about whether or not the dragoon and her newest bartender are a thing? Shutup, but also maybe.

Sliding into the bench beside across from him, Flora tucks one bare leg across his thigh again like it’s the most natural thing in the world, her heel bumping the side of his hip. She’s all sprawled comfort and chaotic charm, scooping an orange-red gummy worm and theatrically slorp-ing it into her mouth before spitting half of it back out like a serpent tongue. Her eyes twinkle as she sets up her side of the game before, already focused on card-flipping and character judging.

Flora doesn't ask if she can go first, she just does. "Alright. Does your person seem like they'd pick mayo if they were a condiment?" Her voice drips with playful scorn.

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 //

The feather boa just called to him. He maybe understands a little bit better about why Flora has so much shit, sometimes you just need it.

His 'brows hit the ceiling at the idea of sex position Go Fish. When she said educational, he thought she meant actual fish species of their coastline, which, boring. It had sounded like a gift from Hadama honestly, but now it's a bit more interesting, and while he's grateful he didn't choose that one to play with her, he'd be lying if he said his curiosity isn't sparked. One should always be learning, after all. "I dunno, I think I'd rather learn with the real thing than diagrams," he says wolfishly, though it quickly vanishes into an, "oh shit!" He sucks in air around his teeth and pulls anxiously at the back of his neck for a minute.

"I should probably fucking write her. After the bar closed we got burgers and uh..." He stammers for a minute then clears his throat, blush creeping in. "It was nice. She's nice." He hasn't really had time to sit and think about her, especially not after learning who her father is. Flora knows all the chaos that ensued after, but fuck, Caly doesn't. Does she even know the hell his life has been lately? "What do you think—Dear Caly, sorry I took you out and then ghosted you. Met your dad, he tried to smite me. Was put on lockdown while recovering, oh, and then the Family destroyed my city and kicked us out. #refugeelife. Helped evacuate everyone, and when I saw you at the world’s worst pool party, I totally didn’t say hi." Yeah, sounds perfect. Groaning, he pulls down on his cheeks and sighs.

It takes gummy worms and Flora’s antics to pull his smile back out, the storm cloud of failure pushed off to hover another day. Just shoving it all aside only works so long, but it’ll do for now. One hand flops over her leg while the other rummages around for a new gummy worm, stretching it between his teeth before biting it off in tiny bites, laughing at Flora's worm-tongue. He squints down at his card as he chews, contemplating the figure depicted like they're an old friend and they've had as many asinine conversations as he and Flora have. To be honest, the guy looks like he say he'd be blood as a condiment. Major serial killer vibes. "No, I don't think this person would select any traditional condiments." He glances at the board of faces, finger tapping his chin in mock seriousness. "Does your person smell like corn?"

Kaisel

// Stop being so goddamn quiet //