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Kanaya Maryam was the one who understood that space was an organism: a vast collection of astral filaments, breathing, atoms and atoms woven up in the tight wet cambric of some enormous ripple that surrounded them all. Jade Harley liked to think of it as a big rainbow magnapinna squid, but mainly because she liked the idea of a big rainbow magnapinna squid. People did not appreciate magnapinna squids or sunfish, which amazed her as she had an image folder labelled THE OCEAN IS AWESOME!!!!!!! and looked at it all the time. People never appreciated stuff like that. People did not appreciate rafflesia flowers or pitcher plants.
Karkat Vantas had said: space? Yeah, otherwise known as what your fucking thinkpan is full of, Harley! but what he didn't understand was that he was part of them: blood, he was a river, a feeding artery. Space was the medium, Life the flowering product, Karkat the means to their end. When she explained this to the Sylph, sitting on a hill and fiddling with her fingers, Kanaya did not say what the fuck or even I see which was how Jade understood polite people said what the fuck (and she preferred what the fuck because it was loud and honest! What the fuck was fun) but said simply, "Correct. Let space be the soil supporting the roots."
"Roots to stalk, stalk to stipe, petiole to leaf," said Jade, infinitely pleased.
"I have always looked upon what we are being the ultimate support," said Kanaya. "I guess you could call that a little duty-focused, but frankly the amount of focus on duty you get around the others could fit into the concave food utensil commonly called the teaspoon."
They were catching frogs, the wet ghosts of their breath showing up white and warm against the chill. Both of them had had to make wrapped-up burritos of themselves, two scarves and two jackets each plus fluffy earmuffs, but despite it Kanaya still moved like a fashion model: smoke grey against the snow, black hair crisp and glossy, and Jade loved looking at her. She was beginning to realise she liked looking at a hell of a lot of things. There was something infinitely worthwhile at looking at Kanaya, who was franker than she was kind and kinder than she was nice, elegant and green-lipsticked and Perhaps If You Frame That In A Way That Isnt Entirely Ridiculous, Jade Harley, but there they were catching frogs and sharing space. Yes. Amazing pun. John would have approved.
Jade also wore her blue ruffled skirt even if her legs were turning skim milk colour and chapping from the cold, which was stupid, but sometimes it was fun being dumb and thirteen. She had never gotten the chance to be dumb and thirteen in person. Her entire life had been pumpkins, Bec, physics, phyllodia, rifle shot and freaking mummies, so if she wanted to coyly show Kanaya her knees she damn well would! Unfortunately they were not being noticed, so there went that.
"Oh, look at this one," she said, and she cupped between her hands a strawberry-red frog no bigger than a buttercup. "It's just a baby."
They clustered together, heads bent, with the admiration of both two frog scientists and two people who were interested in baby things. As baby things went, it was impressively cute. Too bad the Cute Overload people were all probably exploded and dead due to meteors. The froglet sat patiently in her palms, breath a bubbly throat puff, and this close up Kanaya smelled like scarves and talcum powder. It was amazing. Carefully, the troll girl eased her fingers forward and slid the baby frog into her Captchalogue, where it became baby frog bits and bytes.
"Excellent," said Kanaya. "We are well on our way to success, so long as success is measured in frogs."
"Lol," said Jade, who had lived alone a lot and unfortunately never learned that lol was not acceptable daily parlance. "This is fun, actually. A lot of this game has been the direct opposite of fun and outright boring, but this is fun. Catchers of frogs, stokers of forges!"
"Wearers of scarves," said Kanaya, and she reached out to adjust Jade's: tucked it in a little fussily into her jacket, mittened fingers brushing her neck and making all the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Carefully, she smoothed down the fabric and tucked the second scarf over the first, adjusting it until she was pleased with the end result. When she was concentrating her heavy-lidded eyes half-closed, just Prospit-yellow slits with thick dark delicious eyelashes. Jade was beginning to realise she totally had a problem. "Although as far as stoking forges goes, we have not addressed any forge-stoking to date. Jade, your legs must be cold."
"My legs are, ummm, definitely not getting any kind of hypothermia!"
"Okay, that statement was a number of things, but mainly it seems to be a lie and sort of ridiculous. Your knees are going blue, which I am assuming isn't the usual colour for your knees to be."
Jade said, "I thought you hadn't noticed my knees."
"I had noticed your knees from the start."
They both paused a little at this, and a delicate green flush appeared at Kanaya's cheeks. It looked just like someone had dropped an eyedropper of emerald food colouring into her skin, all diffusing foam-green-grey, and with the healthy recklessness granted to everyone in the Harley-Egbert ectobiology Jade thought oh, well, what the hell!! and hastily reached forward to kiss her. Her mouth was warm and covered in a thin glossy glaze that, when Kanaya unexpectedly kissed her back, smeared all over her own mouth in a way that was pretty great, actually, upper lip to bottom lip the whole mouth over and oh wow a little parted, the faint flicker of tongue. As far as kisses had gone she had been a complete newbie, and now she was beating all the other three kids by just about alien frenching. Almost better than the kissing were her mittened fingers sliding underneath Jade's gloves, drawing a soft line down from her ring finger to palm to wrist, but as kissers went the Sylph of Space was A++++. Would kiss again.
Their mouths were close and Kanaya's eyes nearly shut, just golden glimmers. All around them the snow fell and the frogs croaked, and Jade's stomach was tied up in a thousand colours of rubber-band knots reminding her that this was the most awesome amazing fucking thing. She swore to devote the rest of her whole life to french-kissing, frogs and the bass guitar. "Do you want to see my picture collection of magnapinna squids?"
"Is this a truly bizarre come-on," said Kanaya.
"Yes," said Jade.