Aggravating, frustrating man! She wanted to box his ears or slap him yet again. He kept up his teasing, tossing his little crumbs of truth over his shoulder like chum into the water and she followed in his wake and felt each bit tossed her way like a blow. Was she having fun as he so accused? Surely not, she was annoyed. She was riled up and ready to beat him senseless. She was engaged, she was curious and 

Damn him.

She was having fun. 

Damn him to the deepest, most fiery pits of hell. 

She ground her teeth and didn’t engage him, keeping all the honey-laced vinegar of her words behind the cage of her grinding teeth as he teased her about the captain and his shirt. She wanted to snap back at him, to shout that she didn’t care what the captain did with his shirt. That the captain’s chest wasn’t a painful distraction from everything and if he wanted he could walk around bare for all he moved her in that regard. But she said nothing, just felt all the bile she held back settle like a weight in her stomach.

They approached the captain and she noted the tight expression on his face, mirrored in the face of the Quartermaster. That gave her pause, what had riled the quartermaster up? That expression told a story that was more than just the inflated cost of some product, it spoke of something larger. She felt tension building, or rather more tension. She felt like she was so wound up she was ready to snap. She and Jax settled into place as Dujo walked gravely away. She saw the smile the captain bore, saw that it didn’t go very deep. Though she was feeling strangely shy and soft before this man who had seen her weakness she didn’t understand the darkness in his eyes behind the smile and she wanted to. Before she could ask about it, Jax was speaking.

The aggravating man, the frustrating man stood before the captain and in plain words told the captain all that he’d told her. But this time it made sense. This time it was clear. Her eye twitched as she stared an absolute hole in the wall of the ship just over the captain’s left shoulder as she waited to see what he would make of it. Why hadn’t Jax just told her what he’d said to the captain in the manner he’d said it to the captain? Why had he made it so hard? Why had he goaded her? Why had he given her the gift of the Nightblooms and then taken them away?