Work Text:
The door rings twice with the cheery sound of small bells, which have been wired to the handle on the inside, once when it opens, again as it is carefully tugged shut. There's a soft but definite sound, someone putting down a heavy bag on the linoleum flooring, and the traditional shuffling, excitable noises of the puppies in the puppy pen by the door, who are yipping at whoever's come into the shop in hopes of being pet: Jade hangs her clipboard back up on the wall beside her and goes to check on the customer. With the weather the way it's been the past week, there's been a lot of aimless inventory going on, as it would seem few people are particularly driven to come pick out a puppy when it hasn't popped above freezing and there's six feet of snow piled up on the sides of the road, which, frankly, seems silly to her: nothing compares to snuggly dog bodies as far as space heaters go, in Jade's experience. As it is, though, with so few customers coming in, everyone who has a shift during the snow armageddon has been ordered to take special care of the handful they do get, which basically translates in standard English to “sell something to everyone and don't care how annoying your salesmanship gets”.
In the front room, the customer, a small asian girl in a huge coat, is kneeling actually inside of the puppy pen, covered in a mass of wriggling puppies; a golden retriever who can barely hold upright on his pudgy legs is chewing her hair, a springer spaniel has his paws on her shoulders, and any number of the excitable litter of border collies is clambering for her attention. The girl has a pair of tiny spaniels in each hand, and is inspecting them side by side with wide, adoring eyes, smiling and cooing at the puppies, seeming unaware, or uncaring, of the damage being wrecked on her by the others.
Jade can't help but grin slightly as she pipes up, pointing out, “You're technically not supposed to go inside the puppy pen without employee permission and supervision.”
The girl looks up, meeting Jade's eyes with an apologetic and somewhat sad look. “Oh,” she says, setting the spaniels down and starting to stand up, dusting wood chips off her knees and coat. “Sorry.”
“Don't worry about it! It's cool, I'm here now,” Jade tells her, watching the girl attempt somewhat hopelessly to de-woodchip herself around a sea of leaping puppies and smiling, adding, “you can stay in there as long as you like while I'm in the room.”
The girl's face lights up, like a little kid on christmas, as she sinks back to her knees into the sea of puppies, conversing with them in high voices and replica dog language; she looks like she walked out of a anime, Jade decides, and not really like a real person at all. Her eyes are wide, blinking, and flecked with a slight touch of forest green in their chocolatey brown; her hair flips up in ways that probably happen naturally for her, but would be nearly impossible to replicate in a salon; her clothes are all somewhat comically oversized; her smile, really her whole face in general, actually, has an catlike quality to it; she seems to be speaking fluent puppy language to the litters she's surrounded herself with. She can't be older than sixteen, Jade thinks, wondering absentmindedly what she has in the overladen messenger bag she'd left sitting on the ground outside the puppy pen. Jade taps out a rhythm on the edge of the counter with a pair of ball-point pens, and watches the girl play with the puppies. After a few minutes, she casually slides the salesman's staple into their infrequent conversation: “So, can I help you with anything you're looking for today?” she asks, causing the girl to look up from the puppies.
“Oh! I forgot I was here for a reason other than to pet all the cute puppies and kitties and animals like I usually am,” she replies, laughing to herself slightly and climbing out of the puppy pen finally and going to rummage about in her bag. “I actually was hoping that someone could take my CV?” her tone was hopeful, if somewhat nervously wavering.
Technically, they were, and this was a direct quote from her manager, 'absolutely not taking any more damn applications', but the girl looked too hopeful for Jade to reject like that, so she just nods, saying, “I could take it and see it gets looked at.”
The girl bounces slightly on the balls of her feet as she stood up, skipping across the linoleum to the counter carefully, a piece of paper in her hand, her feet only touching dark blue squares, just like every kid played in elementary school. She certainly has the energy to work with the animals, Jade thinks to herself. “Okay!” the girl exclaims, handing her CV over the counter top and into Jade's hands. “Thanks,” she adds, and then, “I'm going to go say hello to the birds!”, before indeed heading off towards the bird and reptile room, to the left of the counter.
Jade peaks at the papers in her hands: the girl's name is Nepeta Leijon, according to the CV, and despite Jade's earlier preconception that she was dealing with a young teenager, she lists her highest level of education as being in attendance at AHU, the local university, at which she's a sophomore, which means she's probably just about twenty, though she certainly doesn't look it. Her job experience is pretty lacking, but she does have a somewhat absurd amount of humane society volunteer hours listed. From the CV, and the puppy pen incident, and the sound of bird squawks coming from the other room, the kind made by petite asian girls, not actual birds, Jade figures Nepeta is one of those people who gets on better with animals than people generally, which she can certainly understand.
A click of nails over linoleum, followed by a fuzzy head being pressed up under Jade's empty hand calls her attention from the CV, and Nepeta, for a moment. The girl grins down at her dog, a cheerful, yet somehow regal, fluffy white creature, who's been with her nearly as long as she can remember. “Hey there, old boy.” Jade scratches behind his ears affectionately.
Nepeta has three parrots and a cockatoo out of their cages, balanced, one on each shoulder, one on her wrist, the third perched on her head, when Jade goes to check on her a moment later. “I guess it would be pretty pointless for me to tell you you're not supposed to have the birds out without employee permission and supervision either,” Jade remarks, and Nepeta grins sheepishly.
“Oops,” she says, giggling and scratching the cockatoo's crest, picking at a loose feather he's been struggling to moult away.
“You seem to know what you're doing, so I'm not too worried, it's just store policy,” Jade tells her, adding, “which you should probably get a handle on if you really want to work here.”
Her shoulder length black hair flips almost comedically as Nepeta turns her head to look at Jade with a smile that reminds her of kittens who've just figured out that toys exist for the first time, and that you can play with them, and it is so much fun. “You're going to hire me?” she practically squeaks.
Jade laughs. “I'm not the manager, silly, I can't hire people. But you've got my recommendation if he asks for it.”
“Thanks!” the smaller girl smiles again, and then her eyes widen and she carefully and quickly moves all four birds back into their cages, or perch, in the case of the lone cockatoo. A moment later, Nepeta is kneeling at Jade's feet, brushing her small, round nose up against the dog's moist, black one, her fingers twisting into the thick fur of his neck ruff, talking more or less nonstop at him. “Oh you are such a pretty dog! Yes, and you know it, don't you? Good dog. What's your name, good dog?”
“His name's Bec,” Jade says, her grin matching the dog's own, “and he really is a good dog. Actually, he's kind of my best friend.”
“You're lucky in your friends then!” Nepeta has her face pressed up against Bec's face, rubbing her cheek on his fur. Dog hair, coarse, white, dog hair, begins to blanket her clothes, in addition to the puppy fur, a few little under-feathers from the molting cockatoo, and some wet patches where snow had collected, and then melted in the relative warmth of the shop interior.
Jade nods, smiling. “Yeah,” she says, “I am. So,” she continues, changing the subject, “you go to AHU?”
“Mmhmm.” Bec rolls over onto his back, kicking his paws in the air, tongue lulling out of his mouth.
“Oh come on,” Jade mutters under her breath at the dog, who looks up at her innocently. “So, uh, what's your major?” she asks Nepeta.
Nepeta holds up a hand, which is covered in black pen lines, a perfect portrait of the molting cockatoo. “Illustration,” she goes back to scratching Bec's stomach, and the dog begins twitching his hind leg. Jade rolls her eyes at him. “And maybe getting certified as a vet tech. I love drawing, but it's hard to pay the rent on pretty pictures alone, and I can't just let Equius pay for my life forever, even if he's totally willing to. I wanna be independent and stuff, and he's in school too, so he needs to keep his money and not spend it on me all the time!” Nepeta frowns down at Bec's belly muttering, “Besides, I like animals.”
“Well animals seem to like you too, so you're in luck!” Jade is about to say something else, talk more about college, about majors, higher education, independent life, any host of things she doesn't really know anything about first hand, but feels like an expert on due to her brother and friends's stories, but Nepeta's cellphone rings.
“It's Equius,” she tells Jade. “I gotta answer it, I haven't talked to him all day!” She hits the call button and holds the phone to her ear, greeted by a confused expression from Bec which seems to say, 'Why did you stop scratching my belly for that silly talking box?'. “Hi!” she singsongs cheerily into the phone. “Yes, I'm wearing my boots. And my coat! I'm not a silly little kid, Equius, I know how to dress for coldy weather! Yes. Uh... no? Yes! I met a nice girl named, uh...” she pauses, looks up apologetically, “what's your name?”
“Oh, it's Jade. I'm Jade. Jade Harley.”
“That's a pretty name!” Nepeta turns her attention back into the receiver. “Yep, her name's Jade, isn't that so pretty? She's really cool and she thinks I can get the job, and she has the loveliest dog ever! Um... yeah. Yes! His name's Bec. I think you'd like him! Yes, I'll be fine. Oh! Okay, I'll go stand outside. Yes. Okay. I'll see you in a few minutes. Thanks!” She stands up slowly, giving Bec a last pat and going to retrieve her bag from the floor.
Nepeta slips her phone back into her coat pocket, smiles apologetically, first at the dog, then at Jade, messes with the strap of her messenger bag. “He's picking me up,” she says by way of explanation, then adds, “So maybe I'll see you again? Anyway, have a nice day!” before skipping out the door, bells marking her exit just as they had her entrance. Jade watches the door for a good minute after it has already closed.
Bec is looking up at her expectantly. “I don't want to hear it,” Jade tells him matter-of-factly, and goes to file the CV in the priority section.
+++
“...and what's your opinion, Jade?” Kanaya asks, and Jade blinks back at her, glancing around to try and figure what her opinion is being requested on in the first place.
“Uh,” Jade replies, and Kanaya rolls her eyes.
Vriska laughs at her, and even Rose looks amused, a slight grin turning her mouth up at the corners coyly.
“I was asking your opinion on whether to buy this blouse in red or blue,” Kanaya explains, “but perhaps I should have known better.”
“Yeah!” Vriska cuts in. “You have 'distracted by cute girl' face!”
Jade frowns into a rack of discounted shirts. “I do not!”
“You might actually be the worst liar I've ever met, Jade,” says Rose, “barring John, obviously,” and Vriska nods emphatically in agreement.
“So who is she?” Kanaya asks casually, holding up another blouse to Vriska's chest, who swats at it and scowls back at her.
Jade crosses her arms melodramatically. “I'm not telling you!” she declares. “At least, I am not telling you in a Forever 21 in the mall, that is stupid. I may only be persuaded to talk if plied with pumpkin lattes.”
“That can be arranged,” Kanaya replies with a smile. “Stop that, you're being a child,” she adds, catching Vriska's wrist and holding it before she can swat at the shirt again.
Vriska grins and twists forward, pressing her lips to Kanaya's for a moment before pulling away, snatching the shirt from the taller girl's hands as she does. “I guess that makes you a pedophile then,” she fires back, and Rose exchanges a quick look with Jade which Jade has long-since learned to mean something along the lines of 'I share a bed with both of those beautiful idiots, how are you not jealous?'.
Jade sips her coffee through a pair of green and blue straws, and listens to her friends banter at each other. The conversation seems to disrupt some of the other patrons, mostly self-involved hipster types, but to Jade it's calming in its familiarity. Vriska, Rose, and Kanaya have been some kind of together for a few years now, and had been paired off in every possible combination thereof for a few years before that, so their quips come with a practiced ease, the hidden meanings clear to all involved. For a few minutes, Jade thinks they may have actually forgotten why it was they'd bought her the latte in the first place, and may make it through the day without being grilled for information on her, as Vriska put it, 'distracted by cute girl face'. She's wrong, of course.
“I'm going to steal all of your awful t-shirts while you're sleeping,” Kanaya informs Vriska, “and then you will have no choice but to wear something decent once in a while.”
“I'll go naked!” is Vriska's response, which receives nothing more than a suggestive eyebrow raise from Kanaya, as if to say, 'And you see me complaining?'
Rose is holding Kanaya's hand on the table, just next to the small white plate which had previously held Jade's lemon scone, since eaten, running a finger delicately over Kanaya's thumb, their different skin tones like delicate summer peach over warm chai tea.
“So are you going to tell us who's making you blush into your drink, or do we have to stalk you until we figure it out?” Kanaya drawls after a moment, licking a spot of whipped cream off the edge of her mug.
Jade shrugs. “Just this girl who came into the store today. Bec liked her.”
“Ah yes, the dog liked her. It's always the dog,” Rose teases, "So, tell us more about this clandestine encounter of yours. I can see it now: your eyes meet over a bin of squeak toys, and you know you've found the one when she whispers, her voice low and seductive, 'Where do you keep the feeder mice?'”
Jade kicks her lightly under the table, and Rose makes a noise of mock surprise and shock, covering her mouth like a Victorian lady. “No, she gave me her CV and played with the puppies and the birds and rubbed Bec's belly and then she had to leave. She's an illustration major at AHU,” she adds.
“Well, I must admit it's a step up from the last one already,” says Rose, sipping her tea thoughtfully. “I presume you at least know her name, being as she handed it to you on paper.”
“Bus girl and me had something special, okay,” Jade says defensively, but even she knows that her habit of forming serious crushes at the most meagre of interactions gets a little ridiculous at times. The fact of the matter is, Jade has a tendency to fall in love a little bit with almost everyone. She's just that kind of person. “And yes, Miss Nosy, I do know her name! It's Nepeta. And not only do I know that, but she knows my name, and she asked for it first, so there.” Jade smiles somewhat challengingly back at her friends.
They needle the rest of the information out of her bit by bit, and at one point Vriska punches her in the shoulder and says, “I bet you put her resume in priority!” and laughs, no, cackles, and Jade pours out the last of her glass of water on Vriska's head. Vriska retaliates by squawking and messing up Jade's hair with both hands, and the four of them are standing outside the cafe a few minutes later, having been herded out by a mousy-looking barrista who had informed them that, 'You ladies need to leave now,' right around the time Jade started biting Vriska's hand.
Rose and Kanaya stand by, watching them in amusement, and when a stoned high school guy starts ogling the mock-sincere scuffle (Jade is actually growling by this point), both scowl at him with such deadly possessiveness that he scarpers instantly.
They get kicked out by mall security ten minutes later, and things by the time Jade and Vriska are settled into the back seat of Kanaya's jade-green Saab, things have descended into the kind of insults and weak slapfighting that are most commonly exhibited on elementary school playgrounds. Kanaya looks like any other mother driving her kids away from the mall at the end of the day, one long-fingered hand gripping the steering wheel, the other around Rose's wrist, pressing her thumb in little circles over the skin. Rose leans over and shifts gears when needed, and Vriska gives up on Jade to lean forward between the front seats, her face lingering in the air between the two people she loves most, at least until Kanaya scolds her for not wearing her seatbelt.
+++
Somewhere around three in the afternoon, midway through her shift at the pet store about two weeks later, Jade is doodling on a pad of post-it notes absentmindedly when she notices Bec sit up beside her abruptly, his ears perking and twitching. “What is it boy?” she asks, setting down the pad and pen and easing out of her chair.
The bells on the shop door ring, and Jade finds herself grinning alarmingly big to discover the culprit is Nepeta, and that she is dressed in a pair of khaki pants and a light green shirt, embossed with 'Nepeta Leijon, Happy Pet Mart' over the pocket. “You got the job!” Jade exclaims, watching as Bec stands up and trots over to the short girl, who drops down to her knees and scratches behind his ears. “No one told me.”
Nepeta looks up. “I wanted it to be a surprise,” she says simply, and Jade internally tells her heart that it is incredibly stupid for missing a beat as it does. “This is my first shift,” she adds after a moment. “I requested that you could train me and stuff, because you helped me get the job and you seemed really nice, and I thought maybe we could be friends!”
“Of course!” Jade replies, smiling. She can hear Vriska in her head, smirking and saying, Of course she'll think about touching your 8OO8 the whole time!!!!!!! and Rose remarking quixotically that No one out of the third grade ever just out and says they want to be your friend. Jade shakes her head and shoos her friends out of her subconscious before taking Nepeta around the store, giving her her official apron and showing her around things, helping her ring up her first customer.
At the end of Nepeta's first shift, Jade teaches her to close up, and then waits with her in the frosty twilight air until her ride arrives: a burly, stoic guy with shiny black hair pulled back in a short ponytail, driving a comically small Japanese import. She can see Nepeta waving at her until the car disappears. “Still don't want to hear it,” she informs Bec before he can comment.
+++
A week and a half passes, during which time Jade shares every one of Nepeta's shifts (but not the other way around, as the younger girl is occupied with classes, and only works half-time still). Jade helps brainstorm ideas for a big illustration final she has coming up, and Nepeta shares some of her writing, the two bonding over their mutual enjoyment of animals at first, discovering a few shifts in that they also share an interest in many other things, namely animes and roleplaying and the kinds of stuff Jade's other friends tend to deign infantile (although Jade knows Rose at least has dabbled in fanfiction herself, though she will never admit it).
Nepeta surprises her one day by inviting her to come out for dim sum with her, Equius, and one of Nepeta's other friends from AHU, who's name Jade forgets to ask. Jade sends a text to Kanaya that just says '!!!!' and by the time she's back at her apartment that night, all three of her friends are already sitting on her couch, accompanied by four brimming shopping bags, and Dave and John, because apparently this is a family affair now.
“This is dumb and excessive,” Jade tells them, moving around her full living room, putting away her key, hanging up her jacket, and trying not to smile.
“No,” Dave deadpans, “this is an intervention,” and John kicks his leg.
Jade frowns back at him. “It's not even a date! Maybe. Probably. I don't know!” she admits finally, sinking into a loveseat next to John, who pats her comfortingly on her arm in his special John way. “We're just friends?” Jade says, and yes, it is a statement, but the way her voice trails off higher sticks a question mark at the end.
“Let's examine the facts for a moment, shall we?” Rose suggests, nestled on the sofa between Kanaya and Vriska, who all have their arms wrapped around each other in a mobius of contact. “You've known her for a few weeks now, get along incredibly well, and share many interests. As far as you are aware, she is single, and her while sexuality is up for debate, but it is clear from her tastes in fanfiction, which you have discussed at length, that she has no issue with homosexuality. In addition to this, you know she has a very large and very protective best friend, about which your knowledge is limited to 'he has a ponytail, he watches anime sometimes, he likes horses, and he fixes cars for fun' because you have yet to do the sensible thing and casually interrogate this girl during your work hours for psychological tidbits which might aid in your conquest. Also, you know she has invited you for a traditional Chinese sit-down meal with this friend, herself, and a mystery guest, and that that is happening in three hours. Correct?”
Jade nods. “Probably not a date, though, right? I mean if she's bringing Equius and this other guy?”
“Most certainly not a date,” Kanaya agrees, and Jade frowns in spite of herself. “However, it seems plausible that she is, so to speak, showing you off to her closest friends and advisors, in the hope they will approve of the object of her affections, i.e., you.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Jade says hopefully. “So why are all of you here if you're all sure it's a good thing and I'll be fine?”
Vriska rolls her eyes. “To make sure you don't fuck everything up!”
“Your vote of confidence is inspiring for our Jade, I'm sure,” Kanaya says dryly, “but the real reason that we're here is based on coincidence and your lacking wardrobe, mostly, as well as the fact that, as your friends, we are all spectacularly nosy when it comes to your personal affairs.”
Dave leans over, grinning as he remarks, “Like, shit, Harley, when it comes to cliquey gossip bullshit, just ship us off to a Miley Cyrus concert and call us teenage girls.”
“It's true,” Rose shrugs. “I think perhaps the fact that there is very little in the way of fresh r
romantic gossip bred from our affairs has given us a heightened fascination with yours, for which I am in no way apologetic whatsoever.”
Jade smiles, giggling slightly, “It must be so awful for all of you guys to be in happy, established relationships all the time, huh?” she quips, and John's hand on her arm turns to a grave grip as he eyes her sombrely.
“It is hard, Jade,” he says seriously, “it's hard and nobody understands. Now I vote you do that thing where Kanaya takes you into the bathroom and makes you try on a billion outfits and we all make a runway out of blankets and pretend our hands are cameras!” which is exactly what they do.
+++
Jade winds up at the restaurant a few hours and several outfits later, standing alone in the lobby, her long, wavy hair pinned up in a style Kanaya paradoxically referred to as 'runway casual'. The dress that was finally settled on, unanimously, which Jade is wearing, is a blue affair, with tiers in different shades, that clings to her shape in all the right places without looking too fitted, like she was trying too hard. The skirt ends mid-calf, and she's wearing leggings underneath. There's a slight sparkle to some of the fabric. It is the kind of dress you wear when you want to impress someone without them knowing you put it on with them in mind for sure. She thinks she looks too fancy for 'not a date', but Kanaya assured her that that was only because her idea of dressing up still tended towards involving tennis shoes and denim.
She's staring out the front window of the lobby, waiting for the lime green exterior of Equius's mini to pull up outside, when a hand reaches from behind her, tapping her shoulder. Jade turns around quickly, expecting to see Nepeta. In fact, Nepeta arrives, with Equius just ahead of her, just as Jade looks away from the window.
“Nice dress,” remarks the short, messy-haired guy, who is definitely not Nepeta.
Jade's eyes go wide for a split second, and then she scowls down at him. “Shut up.”
“I always thought 'you're welcome' was the polite response,” he quips back, “but I guess shut up works too.”
“Since when are you an expert on polite, Mister Shortface McShoutypants!”
Jade is actually sticking her tongue out at him when Nepeta comes through the door, glances at both of them, and announces, “Oh good, you're both here already! Equius, can you get us a table upstairs?” He towers over her by nearly a foot, possibly more, and the way he slouches slightly lends him the look of always being too short for the ceiling, even now, when looking up shows you straight up to the ventilation pipes. They exchange a silent conversation which Jade watches intently, and Equius turns to the maitre d', or whatever the China Town equivalent of such a thing is. It takes a moment for her to register that, oh, wait, that means Karkat is Nepeta's friend from AHU.
“Oh my god, I'm going to punch Kanaya right in the boob!” Jade exclaims, glancing at Nepeta's look of confusion, and the startled elderly couple which are standing just behind her, and blushes. “Haha, small world, right?” she back tracks, and Karkat rolls his eyes and sticks his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.
The four of them are seated in a table at a large, bay window, which Jade muses has the appearance of being pawned off an old Victorian and stuck onto the blocky, warehouse-like building which houses the restaurant, along with a few old pagoda-style roofs. Jade finds herself fitting awkwardly into the chairs, which are cushioned and round, and a little too low to the ground for her comfort, which suits Nepeta and Karkat fine, but is especially troublesome for Equius, who continues to stick out like he's Gulliver in Liliput or something.
Nepeta orders for them, a long list of deftly handled Chinese names that seem familiar to her, probably because they are, and the waiter who takes their order, who Jade figures probably knows about six words in English, thanks her by name. “That's so weird that you guys already know each other!” Nepeta says after a minute, pouring tea into a little ceramic cup and blowing on it before taking a sip. Beside her, Equius is cautiously stirring three sugar cubes into his own cup.
“Our best friends are fucking,” Karkat deadpans, and Equius colours.
“Please, Karkat,” he says, sternly, “make an attempt to keep conversation civil.”
Nepeta laughs, and leans her head against Equius's shoulder; his scowl melts faster than a snowflake on a child's tongue. “I guess I need to meet Kanaya then,” she says cheerily. “If you both think she's so great, she must be!”
Their food arrives, and Nepeta hops up from her chair to help the server, a wrinkled Chinese woman with silvery hair, arrange the dishes on their table. Nepeta looks at home in the restaurant, more than just a regular, so when Nepeta settles down with a bowl of rice, chopsticks in hand, Jade remarks, “You know everyone here, don't you?” and has to wonder why she is at all surprised by Nepeta's answer.
The smaller girl nods. “My mom owns this whole building,” she says. “That was my grandma.” She has a practiced way with the chopsticks, her small fingers glowing almost golden-tinted in the mixed light, a way that makes Jade's shoulders tense up and Karkat raise an eyebrow at her. For all his gruff behaviour, he knows her well enough at least to see the effort in her smiles when she sends them across the table, and when he kicks her ankle lightly, she jams her foot back into his hard enough to make him squeak indignantly. Nepeta remains oblivious to all this, so it seems, her attention flitting like a hummingbird, thoroughly devoted to a million different things at any moment.
Jade leaves the restaurant after they finish their meal even more confused than when she'd arrived: Nepeta's smiles were equal for all of them. She takes the bus home, a little too cold in the thin jacket Kanaya insisted matched her outfit, pulling the pins out of her hair haphazardly. Bec greets her at the door, stretching and nudging her legs with his nose. He barks an inquiry as she pours a bowl of food for him, before he eats.
“I'm overthinking this, aren't I?” Jade asks him. Bec wags his tail in concern, and she scratches an ear affectionately, her mind wandering. They watch a movie together after that, curled up on the couch, Jade's hand on Bec's back, fingers in his long, white fur, like figures in the snow. She falls asleep before the movie is over, a blanket half covering her body, one shoe still on. Her dreams are littered with chopsticks and green aprons and questions she should have asked Karkat. Rose was right: she needed to learn how to read people better. Nepeta was like an open book in a language Jade couldn't read.
+++
Jade is in another coffee shop a few days later, a warm mug of tea between both of her hands, not making eye contact with Kanaya, or with Rose. Vriska is at work, selling video games to lonely teenagers downtown, so it's just the three of them. Occasionally, one of them will stop to read a text from her before returning their attention to Jade, or each other ('Sold 8nother copy of Skyrim. I started m8rking up the price by ten bucks and I've 8lready made sixty bucks!!!!!!!!', and 'Just thought you should know how HOT you looked tod8y ::::)'). Jade watches their easy smiles and feels a knot twist in her stomach which is strange, and stupid, and not the first time she's felt it in the last few weeks; she is not on close terms with jealousy, and she finds it distinctly unpleasant.
So far, the most progress she's made is determining conclusively that Karkat and Nepeta are not together. In his words, 'What? Fuck no, I would kill myself. We're just friends, and barely that.' He always was tremendously sentimental. Aside from that fact, the only developments in Jade's love life continue to be a steady increase in how often she bursts into tears during a Love, Actually rewatch with Bec at two in the morning on a Sunday, burying her face in the concerned dog's fur and mumbling things like, 'Why doesn't anyone love me, Bec?', to which the dog responds with affectionate face lick, as if to say, 'It's okay. I will always love you.'
She is explaining this, a somewhat melodramatic account, punctuated with romantic comedy quotes and assertions that she is 'so stupid', when Rose's phone goes off, and she gets up to answer it, leaving Jade alone with Kanaya. “I just don't know what I'm supposed to do, you know? I feel like Bill Murray!”
“Which Bill Murray?” Kanaya asks patiently, having already talked her through her incarnations as John Cusack, Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore, Meg Ryan, Jeanine Garafolo, and even a brief stint as Jack Nicholson.
Jade blows into her mug, the liquid swirling around in ripples, but does not drink. “Groundhog Day,” she replies, and Kanaya nods her understanding. “It's like every shift we have is the same day over and over and over again but I always mess it up and we can never get to the day where we kiss! When do we get to the day where we kiss?”
“I'm not sure,” Kanaya tells her honestly. “But probably not for a while if you keep acting like a big vague baby instead of battening down your hatches and going in for the kill, so to speak. I don't think she's as flighty or as fragile as you seem to think. You don't really look like the content of your character either,” she remarks calmly, sipping the foam off her cappuccino and then licking it off her lips. “No one does.”
Jade purses her lips and frowns at her tea pensively. “I guess I am being a big vague baby,” she admits glumly.
“Yes. So, are you going to mope about it for all eternity,” Kanaya asks her, a slight edge of challenge to her voice, “or are you going to get to the day where you kiss?”
“Personally,” Rose says, sliding her phone back into her pocket and kissing Kanaya lightly just below her left eye, over one articulated cheekbone, “I would recommend the kissing. It's quite a bit more fun.”
Kanaya leans up and presses her mouth to Rose's for a moment, hands like smooth milk
chocolate, maybe 30% cocoa content, flickering fluidly to Rose's hip and wrist for just a moment before releasing her. “You're leaving?”
Rose nods, giving them each an apologetic look. “I have to.”
“Eridan having girl problems again?” Jade half-teases, smiling in spite of her determined gloom.
A tendril of soft blond hair drifts into her face as Rose laughs. “No,” she says, “it's a boy this time. Naturally, he is 'sickeninly beautiful', and will of course never return my poor idiot's affections. You know, I love him, I really do, but sometimes I worry that he will die before anyone else learns to.” She looks at Jade too piercingly when she adds, “Sometimes, when you have a big heart, you forget not everyone needs so desperately to be loved as you do, and it's not as easy for the rest of us to give bits of ourself away, at least without being properly asked if we want to.”
Jade breaks her gaze, unable to meet Rose's eyes, or Kanaya's after she leaves, for several minutes. She talks about movies again, but her heart isn't in it. This is John's area of expertise anyway, not hers. She has to talk to Nepeta. Jade wonders when she stopped being the silly one in the group, and started being serious romance girl; she thinks maybe she's always been serious romance girl, and that the majority of her life has been occupied with forgetting that fact.
+++
Her hands are anxious, wound into the collar of Bec's fur tight enough to alarm him slightly, gripping her phone firm enough for sweat to build under her fingers. It's been eight days so far, since Jade decided she was going to make a move, or at least figure out whether a move would be even the slightest edge of an appropriate thing to do. She is so nervous she forgets who she's even calling, and almost hangs up when Equius's low, steady voice comes through the receiver, a stable, “Hello?”
“Uh, hi!” Jade says, glad for Bec's weight against her side as the dog leans into her comfortingly. “Is Nepeta there?”
“This is Jade,” Equius replies stoically, and although the text is a question, he says it like a statement, and Jade isn't sure what she's supposed to say for sure.
She casts a worried glance at Bec, who cocks his head slightly, showing he understands human relationships probably even less than Jade does. “Yes! Jade! That's who I am! It's my name!” Jade says back, a little too cheery, and she mentally hits herself, right in the face, for sounding so completely insane. Good job! You are really on a roll, Jade! Just keep on acting like a crazy person to her huge giant best friend and see how well that works out for your love life! a voice in her head rambles, and Jade fails to shut it up, merely dulling it as she laughs awkwardly into the phone.
“She is upstairs. I think she was expecting you to call earlier,” he adds, which only serves to confound Jade more. She kind of gives up at that point; Nepeta is a mysterious pig in a confusing blanket, and the packaging is printed in another language, and Jade is more hopeless when it comes to humans sometimes than if she'd been raised by wolves.
“Hi!” Nepeta's voice is too high, too childish still to be called pretty, but Jade sinks into it like nostalgia for shows she watched as a little kid. She forgets to say anything. “Jade?”
Jade shakes her head slightly, laughs again. “Oops, I forgot, um,” stupid stupid stupid. “Hi.”
The line is silent for a moment, Jade considers her options, and assumes, no, hopes, Nepeta is doing something similar. “Hi, I'm stupid, and I was hoping we could talk about stuff and maybe see a movie?” she suggests, her voice almost cracking at the end of the sentence, and god, she feels like she's in high school.
“You're not stupid.” Nepeta's smile is almost audible, her small teeth, ever-so-slightly crooked, her canines lightly pointed, animal, bared, eyes squinting slightly. Jade imagines it perfectly. “But yeah, of course! I really wanted to see that new romantic comedy, but all Equius wants to see is War Horse over and over again and Karkat says he hears too much about movies these days to watch any with me, and all my other friends are busy with finals and work and stuff and,” she pauses, and maybe Jade is hoping too hard, but she swears her voice changes tone when she finishes, “and I was hoping we could do something together other than clean cages and sell people hamster food.”
Jade smiles back, and hopes Nepeta can hear it. “Me too,” she says. She has never meant a thing so hard.
+++
Dave takes her out on what he jokingly calls a 'pre-date', buys her a pair of ironic sunglasses, so they match, and an early lunch at Chipotle. He teases her mercilessly and he performs a little bit of a new rap he's been working on about anti-evolutionists or something, and then he talks about his own romantic developments, half to distract her from hers, half because he is incredibly possessive, and passionate, and sometimes that comes through in the form of near-endless bragging. While Jade has been tiptoeing around Nepeta, and having too many hot beverages purchased for her, Dave has finally solved the problem which had been plauging his love life for the greater part of all year. He is rightfully, but obnoxiously, pleased with this.
“I'm tellin' you,” he says, the slightest edge of Texan clinging to his voice, gesturing at her with his burrito, “you gotta get some, Harley. You are asking a question here which I am distinctly qualified to answer. Do you know what question that is?”
Jade obliges him. “What question is that?”
“'What would happen if this could work?',” he tells her, taking a bite for emphasis, sucking at the straw in his cup of Dr. Pepper for a moment before continuing. “My point is, you never know what you might get if you just try and fuckin ask for it. Worked for me, didn't it?”
“Yes, but we don't all have the deadly swagger and irresistible charm of you Striders,” she says back, but he's made her smile and he's made her think, and that's all he could hope for.
He looks at her seriously, eyes stern under his shades. “I mean it, though, Jade. What I got is a lot less plausible than what you're angling for, and it all worked out for me. All it took was a little askin' and a little truth tellin'. And before you blame it on Strider magic again: John was the one who did all that talkin'. I figure you've got at least twice the amount of balls he has, and it's his fault I'm fixin' to make out with three of the hottest people you've ever seen whenever I want, forever, now.”
“You're right!” Jade eats a chip, the set of her jaw determined. “I'm going to truth the crap out of her, and she's going to like it!”
Dave grins. “Damn straight she is.”
Kanaya helps her dress again, just a shirt and jeans, but, wow, Jade can't help but admire what the right shirt and jeans can do to help her figure when she sees her reflection in them. She resolves to find more of this kind of shirt and jeans for the future, movie date or no movie date. Jade pulls her hair into a pony tail and clips it up with a large barrette, checks her purse three times to make sure she has everything, and gives Bec one last full-body snuggle, laying on the carpet and pulling his paws over her shoulders in a warm, furry hug. The dog licks her face. 'You can do this.'
“Good dog,” she tells him, smiling. “Best friend.” He wishes her luck with a wag of his tail.
+++
Jade doesn't watch the movie. She watches Nepeta's hand, on the rest beside her, slightly open, but inclined away from where Jade is sitting, only inches from her, but touching nowhere; she watches her dark hair illuminated in single strands by the screenlight, watches her mouth quirk into a smile or a laugh in reaction to all the scenes Jade isn't paying attention to. She studies her, photographs documenting two hours of beautiful cluelessness. It takes her the whole film to muster the courage to take her hand, and then the credits roll, and the chance is gone. Nepeta reaches out, brings the chance back, pulls Jade out of her seat and down to the front of the theatre before she has a chance to ask what they're doing. Jade is used to Vriska leaving every movie early, before the happy ending (she claims she hates them because they're all stupid and unrealistic, Jade knows she hates when people see her happy-crying), and Jade is used to Dave's sarcastic quips in serious moments, and Jade is used to John insisting they stay through the entire credits, because he actually cares who the second best boy was, or whatever, but she is not used to and she is not expecting to find herself dancing to the credits tune, all ten fingers caught up in in Nepeta's small hands. Jade doesn't have to wonder if this is just for her, or if it's a tradition; something tells her it's a little of both. Or maybe it's wishful thinking again that she sees a mirrored sparkle in Nepeta's eyes from her own.
They're sitting in the mall outside the theatre, and Jade feels as frozen as the ice cream they buy to share. Her friends advice all pours over her and rinses her off and she feels clear and muddled all at once, and she doesn't know what to do, and she gets the courage and she backs down, and then she's not thinking anything, because there are lips pressed against hers, warm and small and perfect, like puzzle pieces clicking together at last to complete the picture. Jade's heart skips and her mind stutters and her hands linger, and she lets her eyes close. When she opens them again, she feels a little dazed, one part surprise, one part euphoria, shaken not stirred. Nepeta is looking at her with an expression she can't read, it's too complex, biting her lip, which is moist from the kiss. Jade wants to kiss it again, so she does.
This time, she knows what to do with her hands, and their teeth click together awkwardly as Nepeta's lips move apart and the brush of their tongues against each other, exploring, their body language full of relief and tension, sends a shiver up Jade's entire body, from her toes to the top of her head. She presses her fingers into Nepeta's side, rabbit heart beating in her chest, and after they break apart, she touches her forehead to the other girl's, and closes her eyes.
“You're really silly,” Nepeta informs her, smiling, her lips and cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkling.
“Oh?”
The smaller girl nods. “I think we're both pretty silly, though. I should have kissed you weeks ago.”
Jade smiles, placing a hand on Nepeta's thigh, gentle, innocuous. “Oh,” she says.
They decide to go back to Nepeta's apartment, and Jade still can't tell what she means by telling her Equius is away all night, but she's starting to. Jade follows Nepeta into her bedroom with an uncharacteristic timidness, the wolf tamed by the wildcat, no more than a puppy now. Her internal quiz show stops when Nepeta scoops up a majestic white cat from her bed, and introduces Jade to her as 'my girlfriend', without even a glance to check if that was the right words to say. She spends the night, and they sleep together, just sleeping, Pounce de Leon, Nepeta's cat, curling up on one side of Jade, Nepeta against her other side. She wears in a shirt Nepeta steals from Equius's clean laundry, a t-shirt which would fit Nepeta as a dress, and she smiles in complete contentment.
The sound of Bill Murray falling in love drifts from the TV they forgot to turn off before falling asleep into her subconscious mind, and she dreams about spending a thousand more days with the girl beside her, her small hands tangled up in Jade's hair, her smile tangled up in Jade's heart. Jade dreams that everything is perfect, that this is the day that lasts forever: the day that they kiss, and in that moment, it is.
She smiles in her sleep.