Just a warning that I have no idea what the time difference is for these losers, so I'm really sorry...
Jade grinned at the boy on her monitor as he went on about music, photography, and apple juice, somehow all at once.
He paused and smiled back quickly before reassuming his neutral expression, though Jade knew him well enough that she recognized his sheepish look.
"Do you even care about this, Harley?" The blond arched an eyebrow.
"Actually, yeah!" I like watching you talk about stuff you really like, even when I'm not interested in the topic." She confessed, mostly because she knew that his cheeks would flush – and they did, even the slightest shade of pink was evident on his pale cheeks, as opposed to her own, their dark color thankfully made a blush harder to discern, which was good because she blushed an awful lot.
Dave bit the inside of his cheek to keep his embarrassment hidden, but the girl he was skyping with could tell quite obviously, and her smile widened enough to show her buck teeth.
"But, um, Dave? It's getting really late over there, and there's school tomorrow, so you should go to sleep."
Wrinkling his nose, the boy fiddled with the ear pieces of his sunglasses, which he had since taken off. "I could always just say that I'm sick and spend the day talking with you," He offered hopefully, quickly adding, "Don't want you to be lonely all day, since your only company is that crazy dog of yours."
Jade rolled her eyes before giving him a stern look. "Come on, Dave, you need to learn." At his frown and downcast look, she smiled softly. "If you want, you can call me as soon as you get home and I'll help you with your homework and listen to your complaints about your teachers and the plastics." She laughed lightly at the name he constantly used on any stereotypical 'popular kids', not even bothering to fake that he only watched Mean Girls ten times a week ironically.
Sighing as if her was contemplating her counteroffer, Dave finally nodded. "It depends on whether I'm still hopping mad at you, like I am now."
"Seriously, Dave, calm down." Jade joked and he chuckled.
"Alright, then. I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah, see you, Harley."
"Love you," The words escaped her mouth habitually before she had time to stop them.
"Love you, t-" he stopped, red eyes widening considerably as the fond smile fell from his lips. A silence hung over the chat for a while, both open-mouthed and staring at the other.
Then the connection dropped.
gardenGnostic [GG] started pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 12:40 -
GG: dave?
GG: um...
GG: I think we should talk about it! and please dont avoid me
- gardenGnostic [GG] ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 12:53 -
XxX
Jade would have probably had trouble falling asleep that night, had it not been for her narcolepsy. She did stay up a bit later than usual, replaying the sound of Dave's voice saying "love you". To her!
It wasn't really a secret to any of her other friends that she was quite infatuated with one Mr. David Elizabeth Strider. Karkat often gave her grief about her crush, but Kanaya just whapped him upside the head, and Terezi had told her before that he actually had a genuine interest in their relationship, and was rooting for them to get together, as "life long moirails slowly form a matespritship after years of mutual red feelings for one another. There are twenty-nine moments that can be construed as funny, fourteen curse words, four dirty jokes, and a montage of the moirails growing up together" is his absolute favorite romcom. Jade is both a little frightened and sort of flattered.
Rose often drops not-really-subtle hints to her ectobrother that it would be an amazing idea for him to date someone like Jade. (This led to many group chats filled with, "GG: nooooooo!" and, "GG: roooooose!")
Jade passed the time until she fell asleep by scrolling through pictures on her phone, giggling when she came across her favorite: a selfie Dave had sent her of him wearing heart-shaped red and green earrings.
He had excitedly called her on skype a month before her birthday and showed her the little stubs, going on about how awesome they were because they had both his and her favorite colors and omg jade they are literally the coolest small sharp objects one can shove into little holes they paid to be put in their ears ever in their universe AND the trolls' and wait does she even have her ears pierced?
"Dave," she had said calmly, trying especially hard to keep from falling out of her chair in a fit of giggles. "I live on an island in the middle of the ocean. What do you think?"
He had looked a little upset after that, and Jade worried she had been rude until he scoffingly declared that he had obviously bought them for himself.
She knew he was disappointed, but she got a red box in the mail promptly on the second of December containing half of a pair of necklaces that were shaped like halves of broken hearts and fit together magnetically.
Jade had proudly presented it to her webcam when he called later, and he held up the other half – which was already secured around his neck – which was green and had 'Jade' engraved in the middle. It matched hers, which was red and read 'Dave'.
She still sometimes caught sight of the chain under his collar, and it always made his heart skip a beat, cheesy as it seems.
Jade drifted off to sleep with her phone clutched tightly in her hand.
XxX
The next day, Jade didn't really spend much time thinking about the previous night's incidents, knowing that obsessing over it was not only silly, but would distract her from her work. Anyways, it had probably been a slip of the tongue, an automatic response, probably didn't mean anything. He'd probably call her after school, laughing about how ridiculous they had acted, and how unironically lame he had been.
Okay, maybe she was obsessing a little.
At four o'clock Dave's time, Jade saw him come on Skype. She resisted the urge to call him as she lay on her stomach on a pile of stuffed toys and waited, eyes fixed on her computer.
When he did eventually call her, she hit the answer button so fast that she could have been a Time Hero, then flushed at his surprised reaction.
He smiled awkwardly and pushed his sunglasses into his hair.
"Hi," she finally said, and he nodded.
Dave took a deep breath and closed his eyes before asking, "When you said... that... did you mean it like when you playfully send people hearts in Pesterchum, or did you mean something... else?" He was unusually sincere, and Jade studied her keyboard before answering.
"It slipped out. I didn't mean to say anything weird. Did you mean anything by it?"
"No, I said it by accident, too." He sighed, and Jade looked back to him, quite disappointed. Of course he didn't mean anything significant. Neither had she, really, but that didn't mean it wasn't how she felt.
Then she heard her thoughts echoed back to her. She snapped to attention and sat up. She hadn't said that out loud, right?
But no, Dave was staring at her expectantly, waiting for her reply.
"What?"
"I said that just because I said it on accident doesn't mean I don't mean it." He paused as if to make sure that it made sense, then shrugged and continued. "I do like you, Jade, in a romantic sense." He fiddled with the strings of his hoodie and Jade could tell he was biting back the sarcastic façade he was so used to hiding behind.
"Seriously?" She sounded more accusing than she had meant to.
"Yeah. Seriously. I thought it over and figured that we're close enough to be mature about this and stay friends, even though you don't feel the same way about me. We're all grown-ups here."
"Who said that?" Jade cried. 'Even though'? When had she shown any sign of disinterest in him?
"Are we not grown-up?" He arched an eyebrow, smirking, but it faded to a frown quickly and he clenched his teeth. "Are we not friends anymore, Jade?"
"That's not... I don't mean that!" She wanted to be with him in person so she could grab his shoulders and shake him violently... or maybe pull him down and kiss him. "Dave, you can't be so... so down on yourself all the time! What do you mean I don't like you? Of course I do!"
"But it's not the sa-"
"It's exactly the same!" She wanted to stop yelling, to calm down so that she didn't have to see him flinch at her raised voice. The last time she had seen him look like that was when she had grimbarked. The thought and memory brought stinging tears to her eyes. "I like you, too! Romantically! I love you! And it's not okay for you to put down the person I'm in love with, so Dave Strider, you had better stop if before I come down there and kick your butt!"
Unable to sum up her emotions in anything else, she typed ':/' to him in the chat box and sat back, with crossed arms, not allowing the tears to spill.
The silence that followed was quiet enough that she could hear the small 'ding!' of her message coming through, and she stared at Dave as he glance at the corner of the screen for a moment before bursting out laughing. That wasn't quite the reaction she had expected, and it honestly angered her a little until she saw him try to discreetly wipe at his eyes with his hoodie's sleeve.
"Harley, you are the best." He stayed quiet for a moment before smiling an actual smile and nodding. "And I love you."
~END~