Chapter Text
Footsteps crunched on gravel, making Jade look up. At the far end of the greenhouse was an unfamiliar figure--which ruled out almost all of the colonists on Skaia-4.
“Come on over,” she called, fishing the last rock out of the reservoir. The other person approached as Jade stood and dried her hands off on her skirt.
This close, Jade could take in the dainty horns and grey complexion. “You’re… Kanaya, right? The troll refugee.”
The troll nodded. She seemed to be aiming for compact--she stood with her feet together and her hands clasped in front of her skirt--but she was looking out at the plants with interest. She also had a spectacular jade-green bruise spreading across her cheek that somehow managed to avoid messing up her mascara at all.
Jade decided that she rather liked this Kanaya. “I’m Jade,” she said, holding out a hand for Kanaya to shake.
Kanaya did so, saying, “Nice to meet you.” It came out more as one word, smooth like Kanaya had practiced it quite a bit. She had a slight accent that Jade couldn’t place. “What is this place?”
“This is Greenhouse Three, where we’re growing potatoes and cabbages and a few stray carrots.”
“And that?” Kanaya nodded toward the reservoir.
“That’s the reservoir for this greenhouse’s hydroponics. Some kids kicked rocks into it and they were clogging up the intake pipe.”
“Hydroponics?”
“You know, when you have the plants suspended over water without any soil?”
Kanaya’s eyebrows rose. “That works?” She seemed genuinely interested, which Jade wouldn’t have guessed from trolls’ generally bloodthirsty and destructive reputation.
“Here, let me show you.”
Jade spent an amiable half-hour showing Kanaya the ins and outs of hydroponic gardening. In the process Kanaya relaxed quite a bit--even smiling a few times, showing Jade a delicate but sharp pair of fangs. She was unafraid of getting a little dirty and explained to Jade that she’d had a garden of her own back home.
(Jade decided that she was definitely cashing in some favors to get Kanaya assigned to the greenhouses. It would be criminal to waste this talent anywhere else.)
The two finished weeding and cleaning up Greenhouse Three in record time, leaving Jade with an hour before dinner.
“So where are you staying, Kanaya?” Jade asked, grabbing her jacket from the hook by the door.
“I don’t actually know yet,” she admitted.
“Beta wing has an opening, actually. John’s doing a fuel run to Riana Station so his room should be available. I can ask him if you like?”
“That would be very helpful,” Kanaya said, smiling.
That smile planted a tiny seed in Jade’s heart that would eventually blossom into a full-on crush in a few weeks, complete with awkward blushes and friendship drama and interventions from their friends--but, for now, it was just a bit of the greenhouse’s warmth that stayed with Jade for the rest of the day.