FLORidA is one hell of a drug

this is why we can't have nice things, honey

"It doesn't." Flora agrees, though the way she's made herself comfortable in Ronin's lap suggests he is in fact doing something right.

"Promise?" Twisting to peep up at him through aqua eyes ringed by smudged mascara, Flora's expression is both young and knowing at the same time. She had too many responsibilities to be so broken up about a boy: wasn't that what everyone had said about Sohalia too?

"I dunno, a vacation in Deepfrost? There's literally nowhere to go." By which of course she means nowhere warm, and while her mother might have perfected the art of looking sexy in warm clothing, Flora had not.

"Oh yeah, didn't you hear? Mateo said that Everest took La Verbena on a sex trip or something like that." She mumbles, sitting up slightly and wiping at her eyes.

RONIN if there's one thing i'm good at, it's surviving Huffing an emphatic mmhm, because it absolutely doesn't, Ronin carefully tucks a lock of Flora's hair behind her ear. His fingers could braid it too, if she wanted, having learned on darker locks and a daughter much, much younger than she is now, and for a small and distant moment, he wonders whether she and Aoife would have gone off on adventures together, or if things would feel different if Enzo were still here. Blinking away his thoughts, at least of all the questions he's been asked today, Flora's next one is easy. "I promise," he tells her with a grin. "I ruled the Grounds once. And Stormbreak - and I helped rule this place for a while. You're doing great, take it from an expert." Winking and shifting a little as she sits herself up, now it's right back to out of his depth again apparently. "A what now?" he blurts, before shaking his head. "No, I don't want to know," he decides. "Either way, there's always somewhere to go. A change of scenery might do you good. Just have a think about it, yeah? And uh, if Koa goes missing again, it wasn't The Family, but we never had that conversation."

this is why we can't have nice things, honey

Smiling despite herself, and precisely because of how she tries to keep her joy and relief caged, it spreads all the more across her face, Flora shoots Ronin a lopsided smile that she's absolutely picked up from him. Rubbing at her eyes a touch more before glancing at the mascara on her fingertips and frowning at it, the queen looks at Ronin with an arched eyebrow and an expression of as if you've never been on a sex trip before.

Laughing, Flora lunges at Ronin despite the precarious balance a rowboat requires and wraps her arms tightly around his neck. (Well, you know, tightly for a normal person, anyway). "You're the best. I love you dad." She whispers before pressing lips which still had a good amount of lipstick on them, against his cheek.

~FIN