She hadn’t liked the needling of Jax, it had but her back up, made her unsettled and nervous but under the scrutiny of the Captain’s eyes she found she preferred the needling to this. This man, in a word could see her off his ship, out of her position and back to square one. She would not be in dire straits, no, she had too many carefully laid plans for that, but that didn’t mean she wanted to rely on them. She suppressed a shiver, a recall of the last time a captain’s eyes were on her with such searching weight behind them. It had not ended well for her. She felt her throat tightening in a strange surge of fear as memories of what had been rushed out of the darkness at the edges of her mind where she held them in tight control. She gripped her cards, perhaps a little hard as she fought her own darkness, not wanting to lose control in front of people. 

For one brief second after Monsieur Jax’s job offer to Antonia, she did lose control. For that one brief second there was shock on Nicki’s face as her tightly held mask of calm politeness melted to give way to open mouthed amazement at his brashness. Shock drove the fear back into darkness. Hard on its heels and just as brief though a thousand times more inexplicable, there was amusement. Her eyes sparkled with it and her mouth curved into a rare smile before she forced her features into something more neutral. It wasn’t much of a smile, but for Nicki, she might as well have brayed out a laugh as have flashed that face transforming smile. 

She looked away and if the line of her shoulders was tight it was certainly not because she was holding in laughter, certainly not that. Not Nicki and not because of some grinning helmsman’s brashness. As she held herself stiff and fought for control she heard Antonia’s little speech. Though she missed the appearance of the wicked little knife she turned her gaze back to the scene and understood what the demonstration was telling him, Even if she did not hear the unspoken question to the captain, she understood that there was a warning there. 

The captain’s response, that was interesting. A declaration of intent though it was subtle was a relief to her. Her eyes flicked to Jax and she hoped that he would catch that, that he would speak of it to the others and perhaps lay to rest some of the rumors about why she was on the ship. It did not occur to her that the crew might not assume that the captain was man enough for both of them. She only wanted it to be known that she was on the ship through her own merit, through skill and not because of bed-sports. Skill, the thought of it brought her back to the moment. 

“Oh enough!” she said quietly, her features so perfectly neutral that it was clear she was trying. She was first mate, given authority and trust, she reminded herself. It was time she recalled that, even at leisure, forced leisure at that.

“We are here to play cards are we not? I have been told the rules of Gleet, no, I said it wrong again, didn’t I? I have been instructed in Gleek so I say we should play before those rules slip from my head like water from a poorly crafted barrel. Idlehands do the devil’s work and I think we have done enough of that for the evening, no?”