This is dedicated to the wonderful GrandeJustice13 who requested some Cade!
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The first question comes out of the blue.
"Jadey, why is June called June?"
She asks this as they sit, scissors in hand, cutting up pictures of popular cartoons to give to the first graders at the elementary school across the street. Beneath her thick eyebrows, the twelve year old Jade's brow crinkles and she turns to look at her almost-but-not-that-she'll-admit-it-just-yet friend.
"It just is." she says grumpily, pushing her hair off her sticky forehead. It's the middle of June and a grand total of 95°, but Jade isn't sweating - her hair's just greasy.
"But why?" Cat asks, her voice taking on that familiar tone that appeared every time Jade wouldn't answer her. The other girl sighed and snipped her scissors a few times to stop herself from shutting her friend up in a (not necessarily) illegal way.
"Don't ask me. Why would I know? Go and ask Mrs Morrison." she gestures to their greying and overweight teacher, currently puffing her way through a hula hoop competition with a group of cheering six year olds. The younger girl's lip wobbles. Cat's currently at an annoying stage in which she cries at every. fucking. thing. that Jade says. The latter sighs, before she moves over and gently takes the yellow-and-green scissors from Cat's tiny hand. Jade pats it awkwardly, without a great deal of enthusiasm, but the other girl immediately brightens up. Her hand clamps itself around Jade's before she has any time to move, and within a second Cat is screaming with obvious glee;
"We're holding hands! Yay! Jadey and me are holding hands!"
The darker girl does her best to ignore this, staring firmly over at a nearby wall, but she isn't quick enough to miss the knowing smirk from stupid Andre Harris and his friends. When Cat finally calms down, Jade snatches her hand back and glares at her now-not-quite friend.
"Don't ever touch me."
The next question makes her wonder whether Cat has been paying attention in science for the last four years or simply drawing cartoon versions of her animal namesake like Jade suspects.
"Jadey, why is the sky blue?"
They're fourteen now, and freshmen at Hollywood Arts. Jade had been surprised when she'd heard that Cat was auditioning for the school too - along with fucking Andre Harris, who was actually quite nice when you got to know him, though Jade wasn't going to tell him that - but excited as well, glad that she wasn't going to have to navigate the treacherous waters of high school alone. Cat wasn't the greatest friend she could've asked for, but she didn't seem to mind Jade's constant leaping between liking her and wanting to punch her.
"Jadey?" Cat whines as they lie sunbathing on the soft green grass of the playing field, their half-eaten sandwiches abandoned next to them. Despite lying on her back, she's currently holding a book in midair and is halfway through colouring a picture of a flower, tinting the petals with various colours that are "so unnatural!" Jade rolls her eyes at her friend and sits up, leaning back on her elbows.
"Ca-a-a-at?" she mimics monotonously, bored from a day's classes and not enough violence to keep her happy and satisfied. The other girl only grins in that irritating way that gives Jade a migraine - but is also kind of sweet and very Cat, because no other person she knew could annoy Jade that much and live to see tomorrow - and begins to chew her hair. Closing her eyes and groaning, Jade shoots the newly redheaded girl the middle finger.
"Jadey!" gasps Cat in mock surprise, poking Jade in the side and giggling. "You're a bad girl."
Jade lies back down on the grass and slides her sunglasses over her eyes.
"Yes, yes, I am."
The question after that comes three years later, in the middle of class in the months after Beck and Jade's closet party as Jade's stupid ex-boyfriend has started calling it when he's around Cat and the subject - awkwardly and infrequently - comes up.
"Jadey, what is love?"
Cat's big brown eyes search Jade's face as she waits for an answer. Jade, who has now - after five years of being Cat's friend - learnt to deal with the questions, simply ignores her and concentrates on the scene that Beck is acting out with Vega. It's something about an argument between a couple, not very interesting, but Jade furiously takes notes to keep busy. Despite this, it isn't enough to make her miss the redhead's pout.
"Jadey?" she breathed. Jade continues to take no notice of her. Cat repeats the name.
"Jadey? Jadey? Ja-a-a-de?" the smaller girl whispers, her hot breath tickling Jade's ear. The brunette ignores her again. "Jade? Jade? Ja-"
"Shut up!" Jade yells, and everyone in the room turns to look at her. Even Beck stops what he's doing, though he's smirking in an amused way that makes Jade want to stand up and punch him. Glaring around the classroom, the dark girl hisses at a nearby boy, who immediately turns away, with the rest of the class following his lead. Beck and Tori begin their scene again, and Cat stops bothering Jade for a few minutes. When the bell rings, Jade picks up her bag and leaves the room as quickly as she can, standing on a few toes and yelling at a ninth grader who gets in her way.
Cat catches up with her when she reaches her locker. Jade's trying to stuff a large textbook into her bag violently, cursing everything and everyone from Beck to God, but Cat only pouts.
"Jadey, that was mean."
Jade slams her scissor-covered locker closed with a bang, but the redhead doesn't even flinch. Instead, she just bounces on her toes, her expression slightly hopeful. Jade cracks after thirty seconds of Cat humming the theme tune to Drake and Josh.
"Why are you asking me?" she demands of the tiny girl. Cat frowns.
"Because you know about stuff like that. You and Beck were-"
Jade glares at her friend - filled with sudden, boiling rage that threatens to spill over before she has a chance to think - before turning around and stomping away to find someone - anyone - else to talk too, because Caterina Valentine will never know that it isn't Beck she thinks of late at night and that every time she ran her hands through his hair she was imagining it to be the colour of blood.
The next question wasn't something she was expecting when they started their friends-with-benefits relationship that's not quite healthy but that Jade can't stop without it hurting a lot more than it should.
"Jadey, what are those scars on your wrist?"
They're lying in bed together, legs tangled, with Cat's arms wrapped around Jade's bare waist.
"What?" Jade asks grumpily, though she heard it and she knows what's coming next.
"Those marks.." Cat gently traces the scarlet lines on the dark-haired girl's lower arm. Her fingers move slowly, cautiously, as they make their way up to Jade's pale hand. The other girl stays still, barely breathing, until Cat touches one of the deep gouges in Jade's flesh.
"Don't touch me!" Jade growls, yanking her arm out of Cat's grasp. The smaller girl, her red hair just visible in the light peaking through the gap in the curtains, flinches at Jade's tone but doesn't let go of her body. One, two, three, four minutes past silently, and Jade begins to think that Cat has fallen asleep. Then, after six in total, she feels a soft hand creeping its way up her arm again. Jade remains still, trying to breathe normally, in and out, in and out, because this is Cat and even though they've been fooling around for seven months now she's still mentally about five years old and incapable of spending more than a few moments in the company of anyone without telling them a - usually disturbing - story about her brother. But still, she persists, until her tiny fingers are tracing each and every one of the marks Jade has been inflicting on herself since she turned eighteen and her life stopped being worth it. Suddenly there's too much pressure on her lungs and she can't get any air into them and it hurts and she can feel the tears welling up even though she never cries and-
"Jadey." Cat whispers sadly, the pads of her fingers moving over every inch of Jade's skin and her long hair tickling Jade's back as she presses her head against the freckly skin. Something warm and strangely wet is touching the space underneath her shoulder blades and it takes her a moment to realise that Cat is crying. Cat fucking Valentine is crying because of something Jade has done.
"Please don't hurt yourself." are the last words that Jade hears before she drifts off into a world that's just her and Cat and no one else.
The final question surprises Jade.
"Jadey, will you marry me?"
It was the only time she said yes to Caterina Valentine.
Yay, Cade! I know this was very short, but I wrote it in a rush since I was quite eager to publish it. :)
Reviews are always lovely!