Ch. 5

"So your dog glows and... teleports."

Jade bit her lip and nodded as the Q & A section of her conversation with Dave began. "And can make his body all ghost-like to avoid bullets and whatnot," she reminded meekly.

"Right. That too." He guessed putting the thing down wasn't an option, not that Jade would ever consider that. He was trying not to act so freaked out, and to be honest it wasn't really in his normal emotional repertoire. Still, it's a lot of science fiction crazy to handle in a day.

"I know it's really weird," Jade tried to rationalize for the hundredth time, "But I can't really... do anything about it. That's just the way things are."

He nodded silently.

"Does it talk? Like, is it gonna pull something out of Digimon?"

Jade's mouth did the lopsided thing it did when she was perplexed. He noticed it happened quite often after he made pop culture references, and had to admit to himself in the privacy of his mind that it was kind of cute half of the time.

"I only know Pokemon, but he doesn't do that either."

"Can't do Thunderbolt? Not even a Tackle? Really? How lame."

Jade rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry my magic dog doesn't live up to your anime standards, Dave!" She roughly pet her dog from his head down to his mid-back; the fur rose and fell back into place. "You're such a good boy though Bec! Aren't you? You could kick any old Pokemon's behind, couldn't you?"

The wild beast simply wagged at her enthusiastically, sitting on its hind legs otherwise calm. Jade finally stopped and sighed to herself. "You think I'm crazy?"

Dave took a second to mull over how to answer the question before saying, "No. I think the situation itself might be over the top insane, like pirouette and swan dive then turn around kick flip of the handle insane, but not you personally."

She laughed a bit. "It's been a long day for both of us. Time for bed, you think?"

"Jade Harley, how on earth, if we're even on earth still," she giggled, "Do you think I can sleep knowing there's a rabid glowing wild beast only a few feet away?"

She grinned, her hand absentmindedly stroking Bec's fur. "Oh don't worry Dave. I'll keep an eye on him. He sleeps in my room anyways."

She suddenly perked up. "Oh! That reminds me, I have to show you your room!"

Dave raised an eyebrow. Jade didn't really seem like she often had guests, so the thought of having a guest room was a bit odd. As she led him to a pad with an outstretched hand though, he could do nothing more than shrug, deciding it best to go with it just like back at the temple.

"You're such a charming prince," he said taking her hand and stepping on the flat pad.

Jade smiled, "Why do you always make me a guy?"

After a second his body felt... fuzzy, like static, then vapor, and back in reverse. He shook off the remaining humming through his being and took a look down. His feet were firmly planted on the same pad, and yet they were in a different room.

"Transportalizer," Jade explained in simple bluntness. "We're on the second floor now."

On either side of them was a door.

"The one on the left is a bedroom, and the one on the right is the bathroom."

"Convenient much for someone who claims they don't have many visitors."

"I didn't say I never had visitors Dave."

"Right..." He turned the knob of the left door and opened it. Inside was a bland but neat room, obviously meant for a guest.

"Anyways, there's not much to this place. I'll leave you to it, okay? Have a good night Dave."

He turned to the dark haired woman and lifted a hand in a gesture to say, "'Night Jade."

She made a face. "Jade? That's a first. No more 'Harley' for me?"

Oh right. Dave shrugged. "Gotta change things up every now and then. You know, mix this shit up and leave you guessing. I'm all mysterious."

She smiles her charming smile and nods. "Whatever Dave. I like it anyways. Night." She lifts her hand to wave at you as her body goes holographic before completely vanishing.

Dave then turned to what was his room for the night. He wasn't really planning on his pilot getting what he prayed wasn't a concussion, and having to spend a night in some random place. He was supposed to be in California right now, not some unknown coordinates in the Pacific.

He sighed mentally. At least there was a pretty damn good view of the ocean here. Suck it Vegas poolside rooms and California coastlines. Large bodies of water were a lot more to take in when they weren't so full of people.

He sat on the edge of the bed and rechecked his sylladex for anything useful for the day. He didn't feel the need to change since he usually slept in a T-shirt and boxers. His phone had enough battery for about one more day, his sword and skateboard were safely tucked into their captchalouge cards.

A digital clock near the bed read 11:43 PM. The lit up numbers reminded him of the amphibian temple he had been in earlier. With a blank expression on his face he recalled everything and let it sink in to his mind, the frog tower, the ride over, Jade treating him like some dame from a superhero comic, her fucked up dog glowing, the crazy countdown lily, the hieroglyphics on the walls, the sunset, Jade taking his hand and laughing at his antics.

Ugh, he really ran around like Indiana Jones today. To be brutally honest he felt more like the Jane to Jade's Tarzan. Still, there were shenanigans. Suddenly feeling all the dirt that had accumulated on himself from the day's activities, Dave decided to change into his spare clothes. In jeans and a T-shirt he felt infinitely cleaner and more comfortable, though admittedly the swap always felt like a downgrade.

Feeling substantially less grimy, Dave walked over the the bathroom to wash off his face.

The bathroom was small, simple. It had all the basics: shower, toilet, sink. In an eased, practiced movement Dave used one hand to remove his shades from his face and folded them to the side. He blinked hard once, adjusting to the florescent lighting. After turning on the faucet, he rinsed his hands quickly before splashing his face with water. He wiped it off with his right hand and leaned into the mirror right in front of him. The slight bags under his eyes were a result of the past few years, but today they seemed... better. He wondered quickly if it had anything to do with the environment.

He wiped his hands and pat his face on a towel (Oh man, super fluffy towel. Shit must be made out of cloud fiber and unicorn fur) nearby and then swept a few wet strands of his blonde hair away from his forehead until it looked proper. Using his right hand, he placed his shades easily back on before turning around and heading back to his room. He gave the transportilizer pad a quick glance on the way. The clock read 12:09 PM. He guessed that this was a time for normal people to be asleep. Not him though. This was nothing. He supposed his lack of tiredness could have something to do with jet lag, copter lag, or whatever it was called.

He would've recorded himself through the day but didn't think his phone's battery power would like it. Besides, he wasn't in the mood to hear himself talk.

Dave sighed. Maybe some warm water or something would help get his tired on. His stomach made a noise.

Oh right. He hadn't eaten since before the copter. At least aside from the coffee. Shit.

Well, it'd be rude to ask a host to whip up a meal so late at night. He hoped some warm water could hold him over until morning. Or at least until he fell asleep. Whichever came first. The director paused at his door as a thought occurred to him. Oh fucking hell, what if her dog was downstairs still? Thing creeped him out.

His stomach made a really loud and uncool sound. Scooby-dooby fuck it, he was hungry and if he found some crumbs he'd be happy.

He stepped out and on to the pad. Seemed pretty simple and intuitive from what he saw. He hoped he wouldn't vaporize himself or get his atoms scrambled into some sort of mess out of a sci-fi flick. With a green buzzing he was gone.

And on the first floor he appeared. Oh joy.

A light had been left on incase his pilot woke up in the middle of the night. A haphazardly written note lay on his stomach explaining... sort of, what had happened so he wouldn't freak out.

Dave wondered if the paper was edible for a second before turning away. He'd also seen the doctor operate her coffee machine. God he did not want to stay up all night with this stomach pain gnawing at him. Thankfully there was a very easy to read picture of hot water on the device. He placed a cup under it and steaming hot water instantly cascaded down. He sighed mentally. Of course he wasn't about to rummage through a stranger's kitchen for food. It was already a stretch for him to be crashing for the night, and it was even more rude to be sneaking about smack dab in the middle of the night.

The water stopped pouring and he picked up his cup carefully, immediately able to see and feel just how close to boiling it was. He had a decent tolerance for heat on his calloused hands, but he set it down nonetheless. Waiting for it just made him all the hungrier. Seeing just how unfulfilling his prize would be caused him even more inward despair.

Feeling a sort of hazy frustration, he sat on a stool and put his head down on crossed arms. Maybe he could fall asleep from the sheer mental exhaustion he was going through now.

Then he heard light footsteps and a squeak. Cute squeak. A very befitting squeak for the mousy Doctor Jade Harley.

"Dave! Oh, I didn't know you were down here!"

"Ah shit, was I too loud?"

She looked disheveled, her hair even wilder and her face tired. He noticed that she changed into baggy pajamas and a loose robe.

"Fuck, were you sleeping?"

"Oh no!" she exclaimed. "Well actually," she backtracked, "I did fall asleep for like, ten minutes at some point but no. You didn't wake me up. I was going to sleep but I got caught up doing some work in my lab..."

"Dedicated worker, huh?"

She smiled. "I don't think I'd say I'm dedicated to my work so much as I am to the plants."

"Hey, some women are cat ladies. Whatever floats your coconut boat, Jade Harley."

"Yes. What about you Dave Strider? What are you doing here at this hour?"

His stomach answered for him.

Jade's hands immediately flew to her mouth. "Oh my god, I didn't feed you dinner!"

"I'm okay, don't worry. Took care of it." He couldn't help the sudden dread that overcame him as his thoughts returned to the water in front of him.

"Coffee?" Jade asked, walking to the island where he sat.

"Uh..."

From across him, she saw the clear steamy liquid that filled his cup.

"Oh, Dave. That is not taking care of it! I'm really sorry for not giving you anything to eat. I stay up really late and sometimes eat at 2 in the morning. I'm super sorry for being thoughtless!"

"To be fair I wasn't thinking about it much while you explained your freak show dog to me."

Jade smiled in a way that he characterized as both amused and apologetic. Unwittingly the next word that came to mind was charming. He was too hungry and exhausted to dwell on it though. Oh fuck she was talking and he wasn't paying attention.

"That okay?"

"Uh... sorry, what?"

Jade had her head in her refrigerator, leaning in and peering into its content. "I asked if you'd be okay with salad to start off with."

"Oh yeah, sure anything," he replied.

"Okay."

Jade emerged then carrying lettuce, a carrot, a tomato, and a... cucumber. The only reason he could identify the last thing was thanks to the epic adventures of the Veggie Tales. Oh Bob, Larry, Carrot babies, your story would never go forgotten.

After she set them down on the couch she proceeded to take out a cutting board and a knife. Uh oh. Sorry guys, don't stand a chance against a blade. Poor vegetables. At least they didn't have faces or jump around or anything.

"I don't need to wash them since I grew them myself. Already cleaned them a while back," she said with a smile as she began chopping up the components.

He'd never looked forward to a pile of vegetables more in his life, never mind that a Veggie Tale childhood massacre was going on before his eyes. Usually he was a steak man, typical of his Texas upbringing. Hate the stereotypes all you wanted, the food was fucking good. Salad was basically compost drenched in whatever dressing best covered up the taste of the garbage. Jade whisked together some oil, some brown stuff with salt and pepper before dumping most of it into a bowl over the loose mass of chopped up veggie carcass.

Jade handed him his bowl and he held himself back from going all Hungry Hungry Hippo on his food, waiting while Jade put the remainder of the stuff back into the refrigerator.

"I also have some leftovers... I can heat that up too." She didn't wait for him to answer before putting a plate into her microwave. Then she sat down and handed him a fork with another smile. Without thinking about it he returned the gesture.

"Thanks." With that he dug in. Dead childhood greens never tasted so good. Oh man, seriously though, this shit was the shit. He was suddenly even more grateful that she really piled a big amount into his bowl.

"Sorry it's not much..." Jade apologized.

"Are you fucking serious? This is the best pile of murder I've ever had."

Jade raised her eyebrow in confusion. "Um..."

Oh right, he was making all those references in his head. He'd forgotten to ramble aloud with all that lack of energy.

"It's a kid's show about dancing vegetables. They have faces and go on adventures and stuff."

"Oh, I've never been able to do that with my vegetables!" she exclaimed with surprise. "Just fruits and stuff! Do you know how they did it?"

"Uh..."

"It's a cartoon isn't it...?" Jade asked, quite embarrassed suddenly. He could see the pink begin to tint her cheeks as she cast her gaze down and ate stiffly.

"Yeah, Jade. It's a cartoon." He paused. "Explanation time. Again."

"Well you know I'm a botanist and all... I have my own garden and lab and all that... I may have managed to engineer some very... animated fruits."

"Don't tell me they're in the refrigerator."

She returned to bowing her head and picking at her salad.

"Well that'll be a conundrum for those 'I don't eat anything with a face' type people." He could see a faint smile on her mouth as she continued to prod with her fork.

"Okay, out with 'em."

"They're sleeping. I never know what to do with them so they just stay in my fridge and jump around when you open it up. I can't eat them as much as I think they want me to."

"Must be pretty unhappy if they're so ready to dive into your teeth."

"They actually smile all the time! I don't know what to do with them..." she sighed.

"Hey, might as well make a profit. Film them dancing around and post it up online. It'll be a hit."

At that point Jade laughed and the microwave went off.

She set a steaming plate of... something that must have been chicken down in front of him. "You can have most of it. I'm not extremely hungry."

Dave thanked her again and restrained himself from stuffing it down his throat. He must have not done a good job covering up how hungry he remained because Jade started giggling soon after.

"Do I have something on my face, Harley?"

She shook her head. "No, your face looks fine. I-"

"Thanks," he cut off with a smug grin.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm really enjoying your company. I just thought that it's been a really weird day and now we're eating together. It's probably the most normal thing we've done today. I mean, our conversation over coffee was a lot of interrogation."

"To be fair, that conversation didn't involve fruits with faces."

Her laugh was... dorky, to be frank. As they sat down and talked over dinner he found that it was naturally very easy for him to induce her laughter from small giggles to louder outbursts that she let out without restraint. Dave found himself very fond of the sound. He was extremely happy that he got to hear the sound over a hundred times that night as they stayed up to talk. During the course of the night he learned more things about her than he knew about people that he had worked with for years. Moreover, he was genuinely interested in everything as much as he'd make snide remarks or sarcastic comments.

His half of the conversation was equally informative, which was rare for him. While his usual style of communication involved many spun around words with little content, the things he revealed to Jade Harley were things that he had only expressed to a very select few, even some that he hadn't found the time to fully express outside of his own mind. She would nod, respond, extract more with her encouragement. At some point they moved to a balcony on one of the highest levels of her tower. There she pointed out the stars that he could easily make out even behind the dark lenses that covered his eyes. He listened to her ramble and did a bit of his own ranting. She fell asleep for six minutes, out of nowhere. After waking up groggily she explained that she had mild narcolepsy, a mess of words spilling from her mouth as she apologized for falling asleep on him. Literally. Knocked out right there on his shoulder.

When the sky started to get a tad lighter, neither of them noticed. They had adjusted themselves to laying down and looking up at the sky, laying opposite of one another with their heads half a foot apart. Jade eventually rolled over to her stomach as their conversation drew even longer. If he angled his head slightly, he could see her eyes luminescent in the light. They had talked about vague things that got more and more specific: where they grew up, how Jade got on this island, how SBAHJ was birthed in his mind to grace the world. Biographies funneled down until they began to learn about each other in detail.

He told her about his music, the second love of his life, his inspiration, the sounds that he wanted to capture, the notions he wanted to convey. He even delved into the great mystery behind his shades and spent an embarrassingly long length of time going into great detail about how to work the intricate art of irony. Jade pressed on whenever he caught himself talking too much, and he'd talk and talk until he forgot to be embarrassed again. When he was finished she looked... absorbed, engrossed, like he hadn't talked to a wall, like she wasn't confused but very enlightened. Ironically, it confused him a whole hell of a lot. Still, it was a good feeling. Clumsy, relaxed, casual, maybe even right.

By dawn they were quiet, huddled next to each other under their own blankets watching the sun go up. His mind went back to the sunset that he had witnessed under similar circumstances, a moment in time that felt years behind him. He hadn't known Jade back then.

Jade Harley was a botanist. She grew her own garden and was badass enough to play them music on her bass guitar. She was forgetful, so much so that she used to wear a handful of multicolored bands on both hands to remind her what to do everyday. As a girl she ran away from home, never seeing her brother again. Her green eyes shone brilliantly as the moon lit up the water caught in them. The doctor suffered from the occasional migraine, she loved her loyal dog, wished she could learn new languages and wanted to hear songs play on the radio.

Dave looked down and saw that Jade had fallen asleep again. He wondered if it was the narcolepsy or if she had just worn out from a whole night of conversation. He didn't know what floor her bedroom resided in, nor felt like he should enter it. That would be his excuse, he told himself before closing his eyes as they slept side by side for the next two hours.

-x.x.x.x.x.x-

Sorry that it's been so long since I've updated this one. Between a very busy summer that abruptly turned into a pretty packed school semester, I haven't had a lot of time to write as well and as much as I'd like to! Here's a longer chapter to push our little ship along. Also I hope that no one minds that the dates here are a bit different and don't match the canon, it is an AU after all. Thanks for reading! Feel free to review if you'd like to also! It makes me happy to be honest. Mwahs!