[SE] we're all indoor cats now

i want to taste you again

Able to smile if only because Flora's interest is absolutely on Safrin's tits (and they should be, honestly), Jack rolls his shoulders in a shrug. "Right now the Ark can only fly at night, but the sun's a star. I want to see if she might be able to fly whenever I need her to, but for that I need Safrin's help." Because honestly, Flora, you ought to be jealous of the ship, not the goddess.

"Mmhm," he agrees of her not-quite-verbal assessment of the figurehead. "As true to form as they can be," he says. "Once that image is burned into your mind, it don't go away easy." Especially not when one has occasional 'dreams' about the bare-chested goddess frying his synapses into blissful nothingness. "Now you have something to compliment her about, at least."

like a secret or a sin

JACK

walk me home in the dead of night

Perhaps one day Flora will be savvy enough to notice the way Jack touches the Ark or how he looks at her and realizes just where her jealousy ought to be placed, but today is not that day.

"WH-" Spinning in place to face him and sounding just like I did, Flora's lashes flutter as her blush deepens. In her mind's eye she sees Jack suckling on Safrin's perfect breasts and gods if it isn't as much of a turn-on as it is frustrating. "So you've...you and she..." Now Jack's perfectly crisp bed linens are filled by Safrin instead of her.

But if she has kissed Jack, and Jack has kissed Safrin, and Safrin has kissed Ronin...

"I uhm...I dunno that I'll mention it." Flora concludes uneasily.

i want to taste you again

Unable to help himself given the connecting dots in Flora's mind, Jack shrugs his shoulders. "In my dreams, maybe," he drawls - though that doesn't mean it isn't Safrin visiting him in his subconscious, and he's absolutely wise enough know to know that it's more likely than not. "An' trust me, it won't matter if you choose not to mention it. Safrin can peep inside your head easy as breathin'."

Anyway, immaculate tits aside, there's more to the Ark than her figurehead, and Jack leads them back down off the quarterdeck. "So I assume you'll be duckin' and coverin' in that safe haven, when the shit hits the fan?" Jack glances over his shoulder at her as he heads down the steps to the main deck. Since they're talking war and all.

like a secret or a sin

JACK

walk me home in the dead of night

Did that make it better? That Jack hadn't had sex with Safrin? Or...well, he wanted to, right? Glancing at the masthead, Flora could certainly see the appeal, but...gods, was she jealous, or disgusted?

"Well I don't have anything to hide." She said boldly, especially given her current company. "But I mean, what's the fun in reading someone's thoughts?" Yeah Jack, what?

Following Jack away from Safrin's perfect wooden nipples, the captain's words fan the cooling embers in Flora's belly. "Dunno yet..." Was he worried about her? Would he ask her to stay on the Ark? Confess his love that he couldn't possibly stand to know he wasn't around to protect her? "..My parents hate Sunjata but I don't think he's so bad." She comments, slinking along in Jack's wake and running her fingers across things the captain would probably prefer remain untouched. "But then again, maybe not. Maybe I'll stay and fight too."

i want to taste you again

She can be both for all Jack gives a flying fuck. He's wrapped himself around Safrin's headspace and he's got the singed nerve endings to show for it, and he'd do it again too (right now, can it be now, why not right now though). "Everyone's got somethin' to hide," Jack counters, "even if it's only from yourself. An' I dunno, I figure it'd be pretty useful. 'Specially in a business like mine," he drawls, his sunny disposition at the mere mention of telepathy probably more insulting than anything in relation to Flora. Her father might be a huge threat, but her not so much, evidently.

Resisting the urge to slap her hands away from the things she absolutely, definitely shouldn't be touching, instead Jack drops back to wind an arm about her waist, guiding her firmly against him (and away from everything else). "Sunjata has his moments," he agrees. "Used to be Governor here." As for fighting, Jack's expression certainly does grow sly. "Yeah? What can you do?" he wants to know.

like a secret or a sin

JACK

walk me home in the dead of night

"No, yeah of course for someone like you it would be helpful, but for a goddess? Like...I don't know, Safrin doesn't really strike me as the type to care about motivations. Who cares if you throw her a festival just to impress someone else as long as it's the biggest and the best." Still...pursing her lips, Flora shrugs agreeably. "But it would be nice to know when someone is trying to bullshit you, even if you don't let them know that you know. Maybe I'll ask Frey about that when I see them next."

Purring a note of surprise and delight as Jack tugs her against him, Flora reciprocates an arm around his waist as her head lolls easily into the crook of his arm. "Yeah, so did my dad." Flora argues. Oooh, how very impressive that a pair of big strong men were able to rule a place like Torchline. Pfft.

Slyly Flora trickles her fingers up Jack's side as she turns slightly narrowed aqua eyes up at him. "Lots of things." Things in the bedroom was what she was implying, which was about as much of a lie as was suggesting she could fight. "I could show you sometime...if you're up for it?" What of Jack's she wanted up one didn't need telepathy to understand.

i want to taste you again

This is the point where any other person might have engaged in a spritely conversation about Safrin and her motivations, and whatever Flora might mean by getting something telepathic from - gasp - Frey themselves. Alas, Flora talks a lot and it's all kind of melted into white noise, Jack more interested in the heat from where her body presses against his and what he needs to do with his ledger when he gets back to his cabin.

But in a sudden shift of events, maybe there's more interesting things to be done in said cabin, and the captain's neutrally interested lie expression slides into something a little more attentive, Jack arching an eyebrow down at her. "Love, I am always up for it," he assures her, which isn't strictly true, but it's close enough to it most of the time.

"Ain't sure you could handle me, though." In a fight or in the bedroom, obviously.

like a secret or a sin

JACK

walk me home in the dead of night

"Mmmm?" The sound trails up at the end making it sound like a question instead of just a hum. "Is that right?" Looking appropriately defiant, Flora tilts her chin up slightly. She really ought to be daunted. If she was smart she'd be no where near someone like Jack, and yet here she strolled, trickling her fingers up his side and goading him into...well, she wasn't exactly sure, but! She was Flora and by gods if the world hadn't gone easy on her so far. Whether that would continue to be the case had absolutely no impact on her youthful devil may care attitude.

"I've got a few tricks up my sleeve that I bet even you won't see coming." And, given that currently this was still a bluff, his telepathy wouldn't help him out. Still unsure if she was angling more to fight him or fuck him (both, of course, but in what order), though Flora's lips remained kissably-upturned, she remained where she was letting him judge the antagonizing sparkle in her eyes for himself.

i want to taste you again

"Try me and find out," Jack invites, his smile flashing into something catlike, all self-satisfaction and aloof superiority. She absolutely shouldn't be anywhere near him, and gods, if only she had better parents, huh? But here they are, and the mention of tricks up her sleeve that he can't part the smokescreen to see (the smokescreen in this case is a small child shouting this sign can't stop me because I can't read), Jack is only more invested.

"I bet I'll see something coming," he retorts nonetheless, his lips lingering dangerously close to hers before he's suddenly drawing away again. "Unfortunately, there ain't no rest for the wicked today, love. But hey, maybe if you stay home tonight, someone might swing by your window." Best get Enzo out of the apartment, no?

like a secret or a sin

JACK

walk me home in the dead of night

"Oh...yeah...?" Utterly undone by the blue waters of his attentive gaze, Flora finds her words and all their associated innuendos dissolving instantly. Remembering the firework-bright heat his lips had imparted on her last time had her holding her breath in preparation, only..

..exhaling into the space suddenly between them, Flora swallows down a mouthful of what was meant to be Jack, but was in fact disappointment. "I..uhm.." Gulping far too much like a fish, Flora gave herself a shake and rolled her shoulders as if that might loosen her tongue. "And maybe if someone does swing by my window, I'll be there to let them in." She counters with a bouncy shrug while pulling herself away from Jack.

"You remember which one it is, right?" This is called loudly enough that the crew might hear; Flora was a trophy, not a secret after all. Flouncing away down the corridor towards the gangplank, Flora didn't bother to look over her shoulder for fear that Jack was already gone, and gods wouldn't that be mortifying. To make sure he wasn't though, she made sure the sashay of her hips was rhythmic and easy.

See you soon, cap'n.

~FIN