Work Text:
When Kit walks onto the stage people cheer and she waves.
Her hands these days are adorned in more rings than fans can count, changing them out every time she's in the public. She's wearing a lot more jewellery overall is something a lot of people have noticed. A necklace with a small, silver pendant. A charm bracelet with the letters K A J G E, which fans have, somehow, mistaken for the name of a potential lover. (In a short video for Vogue at the start of the year - Kit Tanthalos' Guide to Boyish Beauty - she revealed the letters to be the initials of all of her friends and whom she considers to be her family.)
These days, the tabloids have long since forgotten about the drama of Kit's dating life. People moved on. Well, some of her fans pry her for more information or confirmations, but that's all out of love. Kit was able to take a small step back, then come back singing her praises for her life and job and family and feeling so lucky to be where she is. People were just glad to have her face back on their screens.
Taking her to where she is now: at the SXSW film festival at a Q&A panel for the short film she starred in, sitting beside the director and her co-star, knowing the film could be up for awards when the season comes.
The film is a twenty minute long music video for a nine and a half minute song about an ex love. For some reason, the artist (and thus director) reached out to Kit thinking she was perfect for the role of young girl experiencing first love. When the casting was announced, her fans (not the entirety of the internet, strangely enough) where convinced it was a joke since her co-star and love interest would be a man. Kit, personally, thought this was all quite funny. Her best performance yet being opposite a man and being interested in said man? Laughable. Maybe she's a better actor than she ever thought.
Members of the audience are chosen to ask questions. One for the director - How does it feel bringing a real story, a memory even, to life in a new light now? Many for her co-star, about the role and the job being so different to his usual satirical, side character roles. Then comes a question for Kit.
"What was it like for you to play a serious role opposite a man?"
Of course, what little of her acting career there is is made up of roles opposite non-men in short music videos, or wordless roles in the background of TV shows, or the handful of times the only babies and toddlers that would cooperate with her parents when they were in costume were her and her brother. Many fans were wondering the same thing. Rarely is Kit seen to be serious.
Still, Kit laughs into the mic and glances at her giggling co-star. "Yeah. Yeah, it was strange. I mean- I mean, like, it was funny, mostly. But I built up such a character in my head for Her-" The characters in the film are nameless, credited as Her and Him artistically. "-that it wasn't challenging as such to be in character and kiss His character. But yeah. It was funny. As soon as we finished filming I'd lose it!"
"It was honestly offensive," her co-star laughs, unoffended. "We'd hear cut and we were, like, making out in the middle of this beautiful dock looking onto a lake and she'd start cackling the minute the cameras were down!"
"I'm sorry-"
"You're not."
The banter is well received. The so called chemistry sparks an interest across social media in the short film.
"I'm not, no." Kit laughs. "It was so funny though! I've never kissed a man before! And I'd go home at the end of the shoot and me and my wife would just lose it! It was a great experience."
"For you, maybe!"
Perhaps it's coincidence, but there are no more questions solely for Kit after that.
No one quite realises the bomb she's dropped until she's trending across every platform.
*
"First and foremost," the interviewer starts the video, "I have to compliment your jewellery."
"Thank you!" Kit grins "I love your earrings!"
The interviewer, Sofia Sami, blushes and shows off her earrings by brushing her hijab behind her ears. Lately, Kit had taken on a more flirtatious manner in her interviews. People joke it's the fame, someone starts a rumour that she's newly single.
"I feel like your jewellery is a hot topic of conversation right now," Sofia entertains the conversation, ignoring the point of the interview all together. "This is meant to be an interview for your film and instead we're just talking jewellery!"
"I feel like a real girl!" Kit easily jokes.
"Tell us about them, then!"
"I'm obsessed with rings at the minute. The more the merrier. I swear." Kit shows off her hands to the camera, then to Sofia. "I just found this Etsy store and kept buying and buying from them. I think I have their full stock, honestly."
There's a pause. The girls admire the rings for a second more, she gives up the name of the store when Sofia asks, then Kit drew back into her chair.
People loved this interview. They said this was the real Kit coming through. Her relaxed posture, the boyishness of it. She was styled in brown-tinted blue jeans and a t-shirt with a cyanotype print of a woman's bare chest, though the media-offensive areas are covered by her big brown leather jacket. It's her own, people discover later after trying to find a link to buy their own.
Edits of the interview to a Doja Cat song made their way across platforms. All of Kit sitting back into her chair, looking at the interviewer as they spoke. Her crossing her legs, showing off her rings and thus her hands. Even the heightened rasp in her voice that day.
"So, you know what I'm going to ask." The same question was on every single person on the internet's mind. "The picture of the rings."
Like the drama queen she has become, Kit groans and throws her head back (a fan favourite scene when it came to the edits). "I think I should learn to think before I speak."
"You don't have to say anything, I'm just being nosy."
"No it's okay. I know everyone wants to know."
So Kit pointed it out, her wedding ring, the silver band and green stone. She doesn't show the engravings on the inside of the band, doesn't even mention them. Most importantly, she confirms that she is now married to the then girlfriend that caused all the drama to begin with. Like old times, she remains nameless.
People lose their damn minds.
*
Extract from Variety's ' The Importance of Privacy ':
For 23 year old Kit Tanthalos, her private life quickly became a topic of discussion for the world. A model one day suddenly had the world questioning her authenticity the next. Tanthalos told us, "I have always kept a private life away from all the cameras, or I've tried to at least. Like, I went to public school and kept to myself, I kept my dating life to myself. I didn't tell the world about getting married because that isn't something I owe the world. No body owes the world anything, no matter how many fans a person has or how their career began."
Tanthalos goes on to say, "The fans can be the issue, most of the time. It's hard to really discuss it because it's quite paradoxical, I think. But fans can be a**holes. I'm just one person. I was given the honour of wearing nice clothes for a big brand and suddenly everyone was following me and I was still a baby. Now, some of them act like I should reward them for clicking a like button every time I post with every little detail of my life so they can feel like they know me. And it's not all of them, of course. But a lot of fans for a lot of people are ignorant to the fact that because celebrities have public lives it does not equate to a lack of any privacy."
*
The film doesn't win any awards and that's okay. Some fans are appalled but it's overall quickly forgotten by the majority.
Only because Kit pops up again in another side of the world of fame.
Wand and Flute took a short break from music and social media. They come back with a stripped video of the pair singing their song 'SPF 15', captioning it 'who wants the full stripped version?'. On the track, it's all deep guitars and organs and a triangle for contrast. Someone compared it to the Swan Theme from Swan Lake, someone else said it reminded them of Preacher's Daughter.
The song is suffocating. It's from their second EP, WYRM, exploring darker themes of their childhoods covered up with the story of a summer vacation gone very wrong. There's people speaking, there's the sounds of flies buzzing, the vocals are layered to be almost harmonised.
The video sees Elora with her acoustic guitar and Graydon with two wooden spoons setting the beat for them. They're in the front of the shot. Behind them, past the poor lighting, are two other figures. None other than Kit is singing the deep, chesty background vocals, and pitching in with the higher harmonies along the bridge.
Until this video was posted, it was not a well known fact that Kit could sing.
Coming back to the music scene and rereleasing the song just in time for Coachella, Wand and Flute attract a crowd in the desert. Their set list isn't long. SPF 15 is one of the last songs and they bring out Kit for it where she's wearing a tank top and shorts like she's the one attending the festival, not performing.
Videos of the performance circulate through the masses, bringing in new fans for the band. The chemistry between the girls on stage, the way they hug at the end, how Kit and Graydon attempt to drag Elora to floor while she plays the last chords of a song. They jump and dance and it all looks like so much fun the fans can barely take it.
(Later, someone will post a video of the Boygenius set, of two people watching it. One suspiciously dressed like Kit under the arms of someone with red bantu knots. Both are swaying and singing along, screaming the lyrics and holding each other's faces - this shot is what people screenshot, because they're certain it's Jade Claymore. Kit's wife. Probably.)
*
Videos surface of evidence of Kit being able to sing.
Someone, a fan account of Kit's, dug as far back as 2016 on Elora's Instagram and found a video of her and Kit, still babies, singing Locked Out of Heaven, the video ending with a laugh.
It sparks an interest among her fans. Her mother dappled in music in the early 2000s, why couldn't she?
In a livestream she's asked for sing something. Immediately, she visibly tenses up.
"I don't sing, guys. You know that." Evidently, though, she did. "SPF was a one off. That's all you'll hear of me singing. I don't do that."
No one understood.
*
Interview with Airk Tanthalos for the Backstage Casting podcast:
This is your first film directorial debut outside the world of YouTube and music videos. How does it feel?
Terrifying! There's always this pressure in my family to strive for perfection and I don't want to let any of them down. But it's exciting, too. This movie - The Great Expectation - means so much to me, I made it with friends, and it is what I'm good at.
So is it not all fun and games with a family tree so well known?
My sister [Kit Tanthalos] is better at talking family than I am. We've always had different views on family.
I know she struggled with our mom [Sorsha Tanthalos] because of, like, conflicts and tensions I guess only a mother and daughter can understand, on top of Kit's fear of failure for our mom. She was fighting this mould of, like, being her own person and who she wanted be versus fitting into the role mom created for her specifically and wanting to live up to all of her expectations. Mom had such high expectations for Kit, but no one expects anything of me.
I know that sounds dramatic and I'm sure Twitter will have a lot to say about the white man complaining about not being as good as his mom and sister. But hear me out first.
I love my sister and my mom, first and foremost. I would do anything for them.
The focus, mostly from mom because dad [Madmartigan Doone] wasn't around to focus on us, was always on what Kit could be doing next. Kit wants to cut her hair? Well they'd have to meet with a stylist and a fashion expert to predict next season's trends to see if Kit's haircut would fit with that. Kit cut her hair anyway? Well now we have to make sure she isn't going to lose her next job because of the drastic change to her look. But if I wanted to change my hair it was "Do whatever you think best." I know it's not that deep, but do you see where I'm coming from?
Once, my whole house blew up with this argument between [Sorsha and Kit] and I had just booked this insane job- I mean, it wasn't huge and the show's been cancelled now. But I kept trying to tell them I was going to be on The Wilds. Mind you, arguments like that can go on for weeks between them. I remember Kit was in an argument or something with her partner, too, so she'd very briefly moved back in with mom and I was there for work or something, too. So I spent days trying to tell them, got nothing through to them. Mom was too busy failing to convince Kit to take singing lessons so she could record a song to even notice when I flew out to New Zealand to film. I spent a month with dad after and that was refreshing. But mom and Kit only realised I had landed this role when they happened to watch the show in their own time.
I don't blame them or particularly resent them, I should say. That's just how our family is. Kit spoke on carrying resentment really well in an interview a few months back (Kit Tanthalos on Being Enough, Mothers and Queerness) and I agree with a lot of her points. Hindsight, for me, makes everything clearer and I can understand so much more now I'm older. That being said, it wasn't fair.
I never felt particularly supported when I expressed a desire to explore new hobbies and crafts. When I stepped away from modelling, Kit was just getting big. When I came out as bi, Kit was in the middle of all the drama surrounding her dating life.
So to answer the original question, it is so rewarding to have this film that I have made by myself and I am so beyond proud of it. I love The Great Expectation like a child, I really do. I can't wait for the world to see it!
*
Kit goes live from a sunny balcony in her brother's place in Malibu and the first half of the streak is her fans trying to convince her to finally get TikTok, or at least start posting. She says she'll consider it, though points out she's in enough of Airk's TikToks to count as a creator.
A follower sends a message: airk loved ur backstage interview!! sending love <3. Kit reads it out loud.
In response, Airk makes an attempt to make a heart shape with his hands but fails. This becomes the first of many failed attempts and soon compilations would be made of all the so called hearts Airk makes.
It opens a floodgate of sorts. People start sending in all sorts of questions about the interview, a lot of which directly or indirectly attack Kit.
Airk speaks first. "Like I said in the interview, I love Kit. I love our mom. Everything that happens in our family- none of that changes that fact. We're all very flawed people, it's a miracle we can function at all!"
Kit nods along to his words. "Agreed. Same goes for me. I love my family. My family have caused some of the biggest insecurities I'm still dealing with to this day. Those things are not mutually exclusive."
"Exactly."
There's a short pause as both twins read the influx of comments. Then Kit reads one aloud:
"Give an example?"
The twins look at each other with what fans of the two have trademarked as the Tanthalos Twin Connection. It looks like they're talking with just their eyes, and they probably are.
"Sure," Kit relents to the screen. "The singing. I don't sing because my mom really pushed me for it even though it was never my strong point and I grew to hate it and felt it was tedious. You're all so kind with the messages and compliments about SPF 15 and Coachella but I was only able to do that because of my friends and for my friends. Any other time I even joke about music being my next career move I feel like shrivelling up into seventeen year old Kit being forced to sing karaoke at my own birthday dinner and then being criticised on how pitchy I sounded, you know?"
*
Letterboxd Top 4 with the cast and crew at the premier of The Great Expectation
AIRK TANTHALOS: I love Letterboxd, okay Let's go!
KIT TANTHALOS: Is this- Is this my four favourite movies? Yeah okay sure-
ELORA DANAN: Top four movies ever? Christ, okay, um-
MADMARTIGAN DOONE: Letter who?
AT: Okay, number one. What We Do In The Shadows.
KT: But I'm A Cheerleader, obviously.
ED: Number one, uh- Probably Emma. The 2020 one, with Anya Taylor Joy
MD: I liked Cars. Thought that was a good movie. Um-
AT: Number two. Nope. Jordan Peele. Love Nope.
KT: Bound, probably, uh-
ED: Tangled has to go on there.
MD: Indiana Jones. The first one.
AT: Of course, Grease.
KT: It'd be out of character for me not to mention mommy issues, so I, Tonya
ED: Oh! Greta Gerwig's Little Women
MD: [winking] Little Women, starring me
AT: And finally, the best movie of all time: the 2005 Pride and Prejudice.
KT: Oh, and Bend It Like Beckham. Duh.
ED: And my favourite of all time is Pride and Prejudice with Kiera Knightley.
MD: Lastly, probably... Um- Oh, Scary Movie cracked me up. Put that on there
*
Kit is photographed smoking a cigarette outside of a bodega.
Tabloids say she's fallen off the wagon. Fans try to say she's just on set for a shoot - it's makeup making her look so sleep deprived, it's grunge and cool and in style. Twitter claims she's been lying this whole time about good health. Dedicated fans defend her to the grave, saying one cigarette isn't going to kill her or her shape and that without context no one should be saying anything about her looks, positive or not.
How anyone could have mistaken the photos for a photoshoot look is beyond insane. She's being swallowed by a movie company sweater, a cap covering her hair, basketball shorts not matching anything else she's wearing. Crocs and mismatching socks.
When she is in the eye of the shit storm of the photos, Kit's posts a selfie to her Instagram story. She looks rough, has red eyes and smudged leftover eyeliner around them. She's offering the camera a thumbs up.
"i'm ok guys i just miss my wife <3"
A following story post will reveal that her wife is on a work trip out of the country for two months and it's the longest time they've spent apart in years, and for the first time it isn't Kit doing the travelling. She's homesick still, though. So she went on a depressing walk to the bodega and smoked so she'd have something to do with her hands.
A third story thanked her fans who demanded everyone hold their opinions in until they received context because "unwarranted comments on people's looks and bodies are always likely to be hurtful".
Lastly, a final story shows a screenshot of a Spotify playlist named "her". Kit's account name is crossed out and when people try to find this playlist it appears to not exist. She captions the story with "this is normally how i deal with missing my wife today was just a bad day and i'll do better <3".
*
her
25 songs // 1h 40min
The Only Exception - Paramore
Lover - Taylor Swift
Kissing Lessons - Lucy Dacus
Stone - Wand and Flute
Crimson and Clover - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
Style - Taylor Swift
Ribs - Lorde
She's Electric -Oasis
Thoroughfare - Ethel Cain
Mine - Taylor Swift
Invisible String - Taylor Swift
Lay All Your Love On Me - Cast of 'Mamma Mia!' Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Sidelines - Phoebe Bridgers
Still Into You - Paramore
Yours Truly - Wand and Flute
Friday I'm In Love - Phoebe Bridgers
Scott Street - Phoebe Bridgers
Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
Tell Me It's Okay - Demo - Paramore
Jackie and Wilson - Hozier
Here Comes Your Man - Pixies
London Boy - Taylor Swift
Dakota - Stereophonics
Valerie - Amy Winehouse
Call It What You Want - Taylor Swift
*
Kit starts showing up in England.
Not in a work way, per se. Not in a way that really makes sense. No paparazzi from London or something equal to that.
It starts with a TikTok. Someone at the Paramore tour in Birmingham at the end of April. The video starts on themselves, then the camera flips and zooms in on who could only be Kit.
Then she's in a Lidl bakery aisle in a hat almost covering her identity. Had the supermarket not been in the middle of nowhere a crowd may have been drawn.
Several selfies are taken with her in pubs and Popworlds across the country and posted as evidence. Many photos of her just out and about are taken and sent to twitter accounts following celebrities' whereabouts.
She's spotted in Nottingham train station one day, then at her agency in London the next, then in some pub named after a royal beheading or another, then she's at a movie premier in London again.
She's at a local farmer's market with bags of fresh bread and crates of bright red strawberries. She's skating through parks and trails. She's walking down a town high street wearing designer sunglasses and sweats with a bunch of brightly coloured flowers in hand. She's on the bus. She's seen at the bank.
One evening, Kit is photographed multiple times with ex travel vlogger Thraxus "Relaxus" Boorman and current DJ and a civil rights campaigner going by the name of Scorpia. The two are arm in arm. Kit is spotted behind them arm in arm with someone with their hood up. Inside clubs, the four are all photographed together, revealing the hood-wearer to be none other than Jade Claymore.
Though there's really no sign of work being done, it seems Kit is busier than ever.
*
Excerpt from ' Kit and Airk Tanthalos talk Family Lines and Revisiting Roles ' with Attitude
The twins are well known for their parents, quadruple threat figure-skater, singer, model, and actress Sorsha Tanthalos and actor Madmartigan Doone. Recently, the TV show that started Doone's career, Australian drama Heartbreak High, was rebooted by Netflix and had Doone revisiting his role as Chris "Crisso" Ramos. By the last season of the original show, Crisso and his girlfriend, Sandy, are young parents. Though only having three scenes, the twins both play the child of their on and off screen father at the ripe age of two.
"We were asked," Airk tells us. "Well, Crisso and Sandy had a girl so Kit was asked, but they were gonna try spin it another way or something if I was really interested."
"I didn't want it," Kit says plainly. "Acting has never been something I've dreamed of like that, you know? I know the role wasn't as big as some of them since Rosalie would be twenty in the show and it's about high schoolers. She's an older sister, right? Crisso has another kid or something?" Airk confirms this. "This is embarrassing but I've actually not watched it yet. My wife and I are going to watch it together but we've been busy! Yeah, anyway. To have that role would be been way beyond what I'm capable of and also massively unfair to give me the role just because I was the only baby who didn't think my dad was so ugly I wouldn't stop crying when he held me, you know? I'm glad it went to whoever it went to - again, very sorry I've not seen it yet."
The whole room cracks up as Kit talks to us and she resembles her father when she's in the middle of telling her story.
"I would have done it," Airk tells us again. "But yeah. Not a girl."
When we ask the twins about revisiting any of their other past roles from their infancies, they glance at each other and laugh.
Kit speaks for the both of them. "No, I think we're okay with that remaining in our pasts."
*
The identity of the account @KITSWIFE has been under speculation among some of Kit's fans for some time now. The diehard ones at least. The ones who have been following her since the beginning and have a community of group chats and shared accounts. It's a sweet community, in fairness. Like a small army defending everything Kit does.
@KITSWIFE has been a part of this community for as long as it has existed pretty much but has always kept their identity anonymous, which is fair enough. To an extent.
The account will comment on all of Kit's posts, will repost things to their story commenting "That's my wife!" and has been doing so since 2016.
When the ring photo was posted, the account remained fairly muted. One repost with a heart emoji, commenting "love u always" on the post, a very brief message of "happy for them <3" into the Kit Tanthalos' Biggest Fans group chat. Similarly, though tone isn't present through text, many people claimed she was unsurprised at the photo leak of Kit and supposedly Jade Claymore kissing.
One person Tweeted: "haha wouldn't it be so funny if @KITSWIFE has actually been kit's wife this whole time".
@KITSWIFE replies: "I would be so lucky."
*
Article from Allure: How Does Kit Tanthalos Always Miss When It Comes To Her Job?
Model and daughter of famous model Sorsha Tanthalos, Kit Tanthalos is more often than not named worst dressed at her events. How does the girl who works in fashion never win?
Many fans are unsurprised at her lack of style since, outside of the runway and away from the camera, she is always seen to be wearing sweats. Unflattering on her, her clothes swallow her and make her look like anything but someone who has been an ambassador for Vivienne Westwood for seven years. Some of her clothes even look filthy, something anyone else would be embarrassed to wear out in public. Surely a model is up to date with fashion trends - just look at the Hadid sisters! Think again when it comes to Kit: she'd rather dress like the worst boy you knew in middle school or like a homeless person than dress for her job. Who's going to tell her preteen chic is out?
Here is our official ranking of 50 of Kit Tanthalos' most well known looks from best to worst:
1. Vivienne Westwood Fall 2020
2. Miu Miu Pre-Fall 2020 Collection
3. Vivienne Westwood Fall 2021
4. Coach Fall 2023
5. Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2016
...
46. Coachella 2023 with Wand and Flute
47. "The Great Expectation" premier wearing Thom Browne
48. "Oceans 8" premier 2018 (starring Sorsha Tanthalos) wearing H&M
49. 2015 for Abercrombie & Fitch
50. 2022 MET Gala wearing Thom Browne
*
Response to the E! article made by Kit Tanthalos on Twitter:
@patronsaintkit: E! u have managed to do everything that pisses me off: 1, refer to me as an extension of my mom, 2, compare my day to day style to being dirty and less than, and 3, belittle me down to just my work. congrats :)
*
On a random Thursday, Kit posts her first public TikTok on the account @kittanthalos1. It's to Phoebe Bridger's Kyoto and follows the events of the song. Kit wears her sunglasses for the whole thing and remains expressionless until the very last clip where she loses it at the end.
Because of the sunglasses, and the suspicious name, people suspect it isn't her. Thus, she posts another video of her in her hotel bed exclaiming someone else had her name so she had to put the one at the end. She lacks almost all social media etiquette for the app and fans all comment on how endearing it is.
An influx of videos from her offer fans just a little more insight into her life. A video of her cat lying in the sun in her New York apartment. A tattoo tour. Several get ready with me's. Content with Wand and Flute, her parents and her brother. More videos of her cat.
On a livestream from Elora Danan's house, Kit is asked if she really is muscular or if it's makeup for the camera, and thus she gets down and asks Elora to sit on her back and starts doing press ups with ease.
"When we can't go to the gym for whatever reasons me and my wife lift each other like this," Kit explains, barely breaking a sweat.
This live circulates around the app until Kit posts a video of herself doing pressups, hip thrusts, planks, and pull ups all with Elora sitting on her or hanging off of her before she inevitably falls off from laughing so hard. The caption reads, "elora's lighter than my wife".
Lesbians across the app lose their minds a little bit.
*
The twins' birthdays land at the beginning of August making them both a Leo. For the last two years, since being able to drink, they have held a huge birthday party inviting all their friends across all their different parts of life. Old school friends, new co-stars, long time collaborators. It isn't a huge spectacle in the media, but gen-z-ers are well aware of the party and patiently await photos of the night and outfits to drop.
The usual happens. Airk goes live. Elora and Graydon are in the background getting ready, his co-stars join the live and wish him and his sister a happy birthday. A Twitter account dedicated to live posting the outfit reveals shows off Airk's sheer blouse and seventies bellbottoms, Kit's open shirt and matching leather waistcoat and pants, Elora's mesh dress, Graydon's cardigan and corduroy. Singers show up with bows in their hair, actresses in tall platforms. It's a fashionable day for sure.
A hotel is rented for the night as the venue and the usual amount of people try to crash. A few are even let in.
Kit is in the background of everyone's photos and stories, tagged and mentioned and wished a happy twenty-third. She takes over Airk's phone at one point, spamming a few selfies onto his story with Elora on her arm. This is all usual party behaviour for the group.
What no fan expected was for Kit's only post on all social media on the day of her birthday to be an Instragram post of a single photo of her and her wife kissing. In front of ivy covered buildings, wearing matching outfits that make them look like a bit like seventies prom dates, smiling while kissing. Nothing accidental about the post. The caption reads "been told this is a hard launch". @jade.claymore is tagged.
*
They'd been talking about it for months now, Kit and Jade. Ever since Kit got back from Japan and saw the influx of compliments and well wishes on her post of the wedding rings. By that point she'd been Jade's wife for three months.
With the overall positive reaction, the concept of showing off her wife wasn't so scary anymore. Especially when everyone and their mothers stopped asking who her girlfriend was. Of course she messed that up for herself, but it didn't matter. Again, there was a generally positive response that made her question what she'd ever been worried about, and the same went for Jade.
The decision was ultimately hers, of course. However Kit did it - announcing it on Twitter, confirming it in the next interview her dating life is brought up in, posting a purposeful photo of them kissing - nothing had to change. Jade didn't have to have a spotlight. Her account would remain private, she didn't have to be in any photos she didn't want to be, didn't have to go to any sort of events, make any sort of a statement.
Jade requested time to think. Kit was content on waiting her whole life.
On the morning of Kit's birthday she is awoken with a weight pressing down on her and a mouth against hers. She hums groggily and cracks her eyes, seeing Jade's bright smile above her.
"Well happy birthday to me," she says, going in for another kiss.
"Today," Jade says against her lips.
"What's today?"
"We can do it today," she says. Even doused in ambiguity, it makes Kit's heart skip a beat the way it did when Jade asked her out officially all those years ago. "If you want. Tell the world."
After a late start to the day, they sat down with Airk who was sleeping in their guest room, inviting Jade's sister Scorpia and her husband Boorman over as well as Elora and Graydon, to discuss how to go about it and whether it was a good time or not. They planned all morning until their lunchtime reservations for bottomless brunch, then returned to their houses for a quick power nap and to get ready for the party.
Airk offered to get ready at Elora and Graydon's to give Kit and Jade time to talk alone. They didn't need to, not really. They'd already talked about this for months. They're coming up on a year, soon. This wasn't the biggest life decision they've ever made, barely a dent in comparison to some. So instead they spent their time taking a long nap and cracking open a fancy bottle of red wine to drink while they got ready together, helping with hair and makeup and the last details of their outfits.
Kit was very happy with the outfits she'd predominantly picked. They're matching, a tradition started at this party and continuing still. If Jade had any sort of sense of style beyond what people are wearing to the gym lately, she'd have a bigger input. Her rules are simple: as long as she's comfortable and not confined, she'll wear whatever.
So this year Kit opted for herself a large white shirt mostly undone, just the middle two buttons fastened over a bare chest. Her pants are high waisted and black leather, flaring at the ankles, and match the little leather waistcoat. They're not a matching piece, she just so happened to find them in a vintage store together. She dons rosaries and pearls and black beads around her neck, lots of rings and bangles to make a noise as she dances. For Jade, she has two-thirds of a dark grey pinstripe three piece suit Kit did find on one hanger in a vintage store. She had them altered to fit Jade, so the pants are wide and rolled up fifties-style but are a low to mid rise fit. The matching waistcoat was tailored to fit her almost like a corset top, showing off her abs and arms like she's a god, but lacking any and all uncomfortably tight boning and lacing Kit knows all too well. The leather jacket she has over her shoulders makes them look like a pair. She has her hair in a ponytail, has it styled in butterfly locs from a couple weeks ago, done in time for Kit's birthday present vacation to Cape Town for ten days. Kit's hair is fluffy and messy and surely only going to get worse as the night progresses. They're both wearing Doc Martens, Kit's having a higher platform naturally.
Kit makes sure to take lots of photos but keeps them to herself, for now at least; except the one she sends to her dad. He replies with a series of emojis expressing his love and excitement, his own language she's had to become fluent in.
There's a limo waiting to take them to the venue, a present to Airk from himself. All their closest friends are inside and Elora squeals at them. "How are the hard launch plans coming?"
"That's what it is? A hard launch?" Kit laughs.
Elora shrugs. "Sure. Why not?" She's clearly still drunk from brunch.
While Kit and Elora are busy giggling over hard launches, they organise who will take the photo and where and when to post it.
They stage it outside the venue. The building is covered in mossy greens and ivy, a signpost all lined up artistically and Airk demands to take the photo since he's the one with the most photography experience. Kit falls into her model mode, chest out and hip slightly cocked, adjusting just slightly between each picture. Jade hasn't got the experience.
Kit turns to face Jade and grabs her face. "I love you," she says. "You're so cute right now and I love you, but for the love of God please look less constipated."
It makes Jade laugh, so Kit's face automatically splits into a grin in a Pavlovian response. Jade just shakes her head, swings an arm around her waist and leans in to kiss her, dipping her in turn.
Airk got the kiss. Hell, he silently captured each moment of bliss between them.
It isn't hard to choose a photo from all of them.
The kiss. The slight dip, the smiles still on their faces.
Kit posts the picture inside the party, waiting for their drinks at the bar while Airk adds last minute edits to the exposure and brightness and all that. Kit hits send and turns her phone off for the night.
The following afternoon, because they sleep through the morning after getting in at six a-m thoroughly wasted, Kit wakes up to a bark of laughter beside her.
"What?" She snorts awake, worried there's an intruder.
"Nothing, go back to sleep," Jade says, giggling into her hand. Kit sits up anyway and looks over her shoulder at her phone. "Someone is really shocked that you're not dating Elora."
"That was so..." Kit hums then. "I'm too tired to know how many months ago the world thought we were dating."
Jade lifts her arm and Kit sinks under it, laying her head against Jade's chest with her arm over her shoulders. Jade scrolls through her Twitter feed, all are photos of Kit or the photo of Kit and Jade, old photos of the two of them in public, the rings.
"Look at this." Jade swaps over to TikTok and finds a video in her saved collection, a lot of which are edits of Kit or workout routines. It's of someone explaining the picture of Kit and Jade's kiss. The creator says, "But does anyone remember how this started? Oh, yeah, that's right. Kit Tanthalos said in a livestream that the necklace she wears is jade. She's been telling us this whole time!"
Kit laughs. "They stole your idea." Then, "Are you happy we did it?"
Jade looks down at Kit, hard in their position, but manages to place a kiss on her head anyway. "Very happy. Are you?"
Kit nods. "Thank you," she says, "for letting me."
"You expressed your thanks enough last night, baby," Jade muses, has the bite marks to prove it. "But you're welcome."
Kit turns her phone on for the first time since last night, unsurprised after this many shenanigans and tricks that her phone immediately explodes with notifications. She scrolls through the comments on her post for a long time, finding messages of love and happy wishes and compliments beyond compare. Her closest friends have all written something beautiful that might make her cry had she been any less hungover and thus emotionless save for the overriding feeling of a headache. She finds the comment Jade had mentioned - "wait she's not with elora danan? i'm so confused?". She supposes she should reply to some of these, maybe say something on some other app. There'll no doubt be an interview soon for her to disclose everything. For now, though, she has an idea.
"Hey," She says, nodding her head against Jade's shoulder. "Can I take a picture."
"I look gross."
"You don't," Kit says. "But you don't have to he in it. Can I, like, include your arm and- Oh my God I have an idea."
Kit snaps the selfie perfectly the first time, always a good sign. Still with her head against Jade's chest, the girl's arm around her shoulder, hand dancing on her collarbone and thus her ring on show, the edge of her ear donned in its many gold rings and the edge of her wrapped head just visible. Most importantly, though, is the necklace. Kit's been wearing it since Christmas, a present from Jade, but it's backwards. Her initial on a silver pendant. Simple, cute, easy to cover up by flipping it over and wearing it as a circular charm. She just puts it on her story with a caption of: "thank you all for kind messages!! very happy rn!!!!!"
She hits send and sighs, tossing her phone onto the bed.
"What now?" Kit asks.
"Now I have to decline all these follow requests, but for us?" Jade says with a chuckle. "We can do whatever we want now, remember?"