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Three years. One thousand and ninety five days. Jade may not have been the anything of time, but she’d been keeping track. The three years was up. At any moment they’d be reunited with their friends in the next session. They’d finally get to meet face to face. They could finally be sure they were all real, all whole, all right. She could finally apologize to Dave for accidentally killing him… A lot of things could finally happen once they hurdled through that wall, growing closer every nanosecond. Jade could feel the distance shrinking, millimeter by millimeter, closer and closer to the other side. She took a deep breath, readying herself for impact, issuing a nod to her ectotwin standing a few feet behind her, talking quietly to Davesprite.
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1,576,872 minutes and 47 seconds. That’s how long they’d been hurdling through the furthest ring on an asteroid for. And honestly, it was about 1, 576, 871 minutes too long for Dave. Yeah, it was cool to hang out with Terezi and draw dumb cartoons with chalk, and Kanaya wasn’t bad company either, but it was six people, well, beings, on one tiny asteroid. But the three years were past. They’d bump into the ship soon, and be in the other session.
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Gently, Jade and John set about shooing all the creatures below deck, Jade setting the planets there too, suspended safely, each world smaller than her fists, yet containing so much. John put a hand on her shoulder and she turned to face him, smiling chastely.
“Are you ready?” she asked, her voice low.
“Well I’ve had three years, I should hope so!” his voice was lower than it used to be. They were so much older now. She nodded.
“Yeah. Yeah I hope so too.”
“I’m sure you’ll be the first one he says hi too. Seriously. I see you worrying. He doesn’t hate you.” John frowned and attempted to give his sister a comforting hug, but she shrugged away and headed back to the deck and she stood, poised at the bow, like the goddess on a ship’s hull, come to life. Waiting waiting waiting. But the wait was almost over. Impact was imminent.
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“S’almost time to meet the others. You ready?”
“H3HE Y0U B3T!” Terezi bumped his shoulder playfully, lingering against his side. Dave frowned. He wasn’t overly fond of touching, and Terezi had been more and more touchy lately. He shifted away slightly.
“Yeah, same here.”
“H3Y COOLK1D. B3FOR3 W3 GO CR4SH TH3 N3W S3SS1ON’S P4RTY, 1 GOT 4 QU3ST1ON.”
“Shoot, Pyrope.” He knew what she was going to ask. He was just pretending her didn’t.
“W3LL 1-“ she never finished her sentence, because the trolls and humans erupted into chaos, when suddenly the ship was in view, getting closer and closer and closer. Dave stood suddenly, heading towards the edge of the asteroid. Terezi grabbed his arm, attempting to hold him back to finish her sentence, but he pushed on ahead, and she fumbled behind. He was too distracted by the thought of their journey coming to fruition to shake her off. 4.78 seconds later, the ship was right next to the asteroid, and the asteroid was being hovered into the air of the deck, allowing everyone to leap off and come on board.
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Jade closed her eyes, focusing and just barely lifting the large space rock over the hull and hovering it so people could slip or jump off and be on deck. She didn’t need to close her eyes to focus, not really, but it was better than the alternative. It was better than watching Terezi cling to Dave’s arm. She should have known though. Even if he didn’t hate her for killing him, she still wasn’t cool enough for cool kid Strider.
She ignored the fleeting apologetic look John tossed her way as Dave made his way to John for a brofist and chest bump, instead concentrating on giving Rose, Karkat and Kanaya over enthusiastic hugs. Glancing over yet again, Terezi was tugging at Dave’s sleeve, clearly trying to talk to him. Screw it, Jade thought, shaking her head. If she wanted to give her best friend a hug, she was going to. Even if Terezi was there. So jade turned slightly and barreled into him, arms outstretched, the impact jogging Terezi away slightly.
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Dave shook Terezi off, heading for John to greet him before setting off to find Jade. But when he glanced her way she was babbling excitedly to Rose about something, so he hung back, where Terezi continued to pester him about asking him a question, tugging slightly on the sleeve of his god tier top, even going so far as to trying to slide his shades down. Jade looked sort of lost, just standing there in the distance.
He started to make his way over, but before he could she came running at him and launched her arms around him, grabbing him in a hug and immediately began sobbing, choking out the words ‘I’m sorry’ over and over into his chest. He panicked slightly, unsure of what to do until Davesprite, floating in the distance, caught his eye and nodded at him. For whatever reason, this made sense to Dave and he wrapped him arms around Jade and rested his head against hers.
“Chill out Harley. What, think I forgot all about you or something?” she shook her head, finally pulling away and looking at him.
“Don’t you hate me?”
“The fuck? Jade, I ran around in the frozen ass-tundra to catch gogdamn frogs for you, how the hell could you get hate outa that? I’m the one who spent three years with Mr. I-Hate-All-Your-Fuckers-Vantas, not you.”
“But…I killed you!”
“Nope. Some fuckin’ monster space fucked you into shooting alternate me. Real me is definitely standing right here with a sobbing dog-girl who could probably rip his ass to shreds if she wanted too. You’re like fucking super-god or something aren’t you?”
“Well, I can rend the fabric of space to my will.” She said with a giggle and a slight grin.
“Damn. That’s bad ass Harley. You might be too cool for even me.” He let out a low whistle.
“Pfft, yeah right, Mr. Knight of Time coolkid Strider.” She laughed, rolling her green eyes. She flung her arms around him again suddenly, muttering into his chest once more. “I missed you.”
“Who wouldn’t?” she pulled away and looked up at him, shoving him gently and giggling slightly.
“You are such a fuckass sometimes, Strider.”
“Yeah I know. But hey, for the record? I missed you too.” He smiled, just slightly, one corner of his mouth quirking up. “Ya know, Harley, to be honest? Kinda jealous of that dead Dave you shot.” She looked up at him, clearly confused and a little bit concerned.
“Dave, what the fuck?”
“Well, he did get to be kissed by the most bad ass chick any Dave’s ever met. S’kinda enviable, don’t you think?”
“Enviable? Wow, Rose is rubbing off on you, Strider.” Jade mumbled, flushing slightly, before leaning up on her tip toes, he’d shot up like a weed in those three years, and kissed him again. She pulled away after a moment, neither of them noticing Karkat gathering up Terezi, murmuring something in her ear, as she turned to wrap her arms around him, nodding slightly and leaning against him as he lead her off to a different part of the deck.
“Man. That Dave had quite the send off if that’s what he got for dying.” Dave smirked at her, raising an eyebrow and Jade shook her head at him, laughing again and sticking her tongue.
Just as Dave let out a chuckle and stuck his tongue out back at her, making a stupid face and lifting her off the ground and heaving her, laughing and fighting, over his shoulder, John walked up, raising an eyebrow.
“Man, and you have the nerve to call me a dork? Look at you, dude, with your silly hood, and my crazy ass sister trying to beat the shit out of you.” He chuckled shaking his head.
“You keep your mouth shut, Egderp. Or I’ll tell Lalonde that you check out her ass every time you look over at her.”
“I!!! What?”
“You’re about as subtle as sunflower in a weed patch, John.” Jade offered from behind Dave, where she was precariously still dangling from his shoulder.
“You both suck!” John blustered, but with a slight smile, before stalking off to go talk to Rose. Dave finally swung Jade back onto her feet. She grinned at him, and despite his best effort, he smiled back.
“So hey. I gotta die again to get another kiss, or what?” he smirked and Jade rolled her eyes at him yet again.
“Nah.” She murmured, shaking her head and reaching up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she kissed him again.
“Good. Cuz that would kinda suck.” He mumbled, pulling away from her.
“Stop talking, dumbass.” Jade giggled, pulling his face down to hers again, and not really giving him any choice in the matter.
Not that he minded very much.