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It was the small inconsistencies that you loved the most about Jade.
The small inconsistencies of her demeanor. Her posture. Her attitude and snark. The way she treated you and the way she treated everyone else. It was a given that you see a side of your partner that not a lot of other people do. The vulnerable, the raw, the human that hid behind their public façade.
It started with the smallest things of course. Quips and barbs were buffed down to mostly harmless pokes. Sarcasm had a light bounce, an air of humor. The butterfly kisses on your shoulder after a dig at your antics. A balm of sweetness in her laugh when she curved her voice into her Sweet Sally Peaches accent.
The light behind her eyes danced for you and no-one else. It made perfect sense of the way your heart grew to hold hers.
You’d chide yourself on occasion in your younger years, “ This is a honeymoon phase, the doomed teenage romance.” , thinking you’d just fooled yourself, or fooled her, or that one way or another, you were both the fools. Stupid, young, and in love.
But the mesmerizing grin that lay dormant behind every remark of hers proved you wrong for the rest of highschool.
College came and so did her offer of moving into a small apartment off campus. It was such an easy decision, that you were both packed two weeks out from the move in date.
Living together was an adjustment, but then came the bigger things, of course. The bigger inconsistencies came in the way that she woke up with you, in the way that she relaxed with you, in the way that she carried herself through the apartment - your apartment.
The immediate rush to get up before someone barged in, or before the alarm came to life had almost all but vanished. With it, bringing the dawn of lazy morning kisses, the discovery of her greatest weakness - being the little spoon, and the discovery of your greatest weakness - her, bathed in the pale glow of the world waking up.
Evenings became your solace away from the world. Pointless, luke-warm quarrels over what to watch, dozing off, melting into her side after she inevitably caved to a cheesy rom-com courtesy of your pout, slow, gentle kisses tucked in between drowsy smiles and less-than-average on-screen dialogue.
Your favorite discoveries were of her completely un-Jade-like mannerisms, all of which found your heart melting. The way she let you see all her perfect little moments of silly. Humming light cartoon tunes and making small skittering ‘bops’ as she looked for things, eyebrows slanted and a scowl carving a serious, focused, and completely mismatching expression onto her face. Swaying from foot to foot when she waited for the popcorn to pop, and stopping the microwave just as it hit the third second from finishing. Arms tucked close to her chest subconsciously, hands occasionally fiddling with each other; this was by far your favorite, though you know she would still deny it to the moon and back. You called these her raptor arms, and it never failed to bring a smile to your face.
Her smile when she woke to you each morning shone for you and no-one else. It made perfect sense of the way your heart built a home for hers.
Four anniversaries would pass before you thought you couldn’t fall in love with her more than you already were. Older, not much wiser, but in love
But the way she kissed you goodnight, every single night, stole your breath away and proved you wrong for the rest of college.
As your careers blossomed, your sights moved to bigger and brighter things. To your future, as she turned to you in the wee hours of dawn; bathed in the pale glow of the world waking up, wrapped in your arms, bare, vulnerable, and asked you to marry her. It was such an easy decision that you couldn’t do more than pull her impossibly closer and ask in what world would you not want to marry her.
Planning a wedding was something that you never would have thought you’d be doing on the brink of twenty-three, but it was the second thing you thought of when you woke up and the second to last thing you thought of before curling into her embrace for the night. The first and last thing always being of how it was the biggest inconsistency about her.
The way she loved you.
Her biggest inconsistency that didn’t add up until her vows were being recited as her hands held yours, her eyes danced with glee and unshed tears, and her smile was threatening your already taut heartstrings.
“I am nothing without you and everything with you.”
Months on years, apartments on houses, sleepless nights on early rises, baby cries and driving classes. Old, young in spirit, stupid with years of life under your belt, but in love.
The way she told you that she loved you, you, and no-one else. It made perfect sense of the way your heart tilled and watered the soil for hers to grow roots.
The rest of your life would pass, and you thought you would never be able to express your love for her.
But the way she showed you she loved you, the way she showed you all her little inconsistencies and let you love them, proved you wrong.