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“So, what are we looking at here, exactly?”
They both stand on the overgrown back trails, their pace halted by what blocks their path. They’ve walked the same trails year after year to get to their secret sparring location. Now that they had grown up, faced real monsters, and lived to tell the tales, they did so less. Today, however, they were set on reliving a few childhood memories.
That was, until they ran into a giant translucent orb-shaped reflection in the middle of their journey.
Jade fiddles with the hilt of the sword at her side, “Uh, looks like a reflection, but if we weren’t…in it?” She looks deeper into the mirror-like entity, expecting to see herself standing on the path it reflects, yet it stands desolate of both of them.
Kit outstretches a hand, taking a tentative step forward, “Maybe if we touch it-”
“Kit, wait,” Jade's hand clasps around her reaching arm and yanks her back sharply.
They both scatter back from Jade's force, colliding with each other, a mess of tripping feet and protective arms before steadying out again. Jade tamps down her initial panic at Kit's widened eyes and rubs over the spot she grabbed at, feeling guilty about her overreaction. There's an amused tilt to Kit's head that eases her, and she finally releases her from her arms.
Now with her back to the portal, she swipes at her tunic, straightening it out, and says, in a much calmer manner this time, “Didn’t Elora say something about conjuring a portal at breakfast?”
“Elora says a lot of stuff,” Kit deadpans.
“Yeah okay, well this is probably it. Don’t you think we shouldn’t intervene?” Jade pleads to the sensible side of her girlfriend, though it seems to be lying dormant.
Kit's gaze slowly drifts from her face, finding interest in something over her shoulder, “Jade?”
She sighs, “Yes?”
“Don’t those two kind of look like us?”
She turns her attention to match Kit’s, looking back at the mirror-portal and gasping. Where their figures were missing in the reflection before, they now appeared, though younger, with different clothes, different swords, different movements…
“Uh,” Jade stammers, realizing that this was not just a reflection as she’d first guessed, Elora’s ramblings at breakfast finally coming back to her.
“So I’ll be going back to around, I don’t know, fifteen years or so in the past?” Elora stated before crunching into more of her toast.
Boorman lunged across the table for the butter, Kit scrunching her nose at the long reach, “So, theoretically,” he said, “If I found this portal and set my past self free-”
“Doesn’t work like that,” Elora said, “Only I can go in freely. Anyone else goes into the past and their past self will shoot out into the present so that they don’t interact. There are a couple of other rules and safe holds in place along those lines, but yeah. Just safer that way.”
“Aw, they’re so cute!” Kit steps past Jade so she can grab at the portal, “I wonder if they can hear us-”
Before Jade can stop her for the second time, Kit’s hand is dragged into the portal, sucking her into it, and spitting her out on the other side. The previously clear portal distorts and is left blurry from Kit's intrusion, making it difficult for Jade to assess what's happened.
Mere seconds after Kit goes in, someone else gets shot out, and Jade reacts just quickly enough to catch them in her arms.
“Ugh,” a small voice complains from within her arms.
When they pull apart, Jade finds a grumpy-looking kid with bright blue eyes and choppy brown hair looking up at her while rubbing her head.
Holy shit.
The kid looks her up and down suspiciously and asks, “Who are you?”
In a colossal mistake, Jade reveals herself to miniature Kit from the start.
“Jade Claymore,” she says.
“Jade?” Kit’s eyebrows furrow and she steps back, “How did you get so big? That’s not fair , you’re already older than me, now this?”
Kit pouts and crosses her arms with a slump.
Jade's lips pull in and her forehead tightens as she contemplates whether lying to the kid or chucking her back through a magical portal is a better idea.
Kit was on the other side, her Kit, an adult who was completely capable of walking back through herself. Something that had not happened yet, she reminds herself as little Kit mutters angrily to herself. If Kit wasn't back, there must be a valid reason why. There must be something Kit deemed important enough to stick around for.
Though sometimes her and Kit's views of what was considered important differed largely.
Her head swivels from the portal to little Kit, who stands in an eternal state of moping. Her lips curl up slightly at the sight, and she decides that maybe their situation is not such a bad one.
She also decides that a distraction is the best course of action for the sulky kid in front of her.
“Kit,” she says while squatting down to her level, “Since it seems like I’ve grown a bit since I’ve last seen you, do you want to show me around your room? Just in case I’ve forgotten.”
Kit’s head swings sharply to the side and she pretends not to listen.
“Please?” Jade asks sweetly while tapping on her shoulder.
Kit’s full body turns away at that, still sore at the betrayal of her friend growing up without her.
“If you don’t say yes, then I’m just going to pick you up and take you there myself,” Jade says. She’s teasing, but she’s not exactly lying either.
“No, you wouldn’t,” Kit peeks an eye over at her, “I’m the princess. You can’t just take me places, they'll think you're stealing me.” She sighs out deeply like she’s tired of the title, even at the young age of single digits, like she’s testing Jade to push against it.
“I don’t care,” she answers, tilting her head.
She catches Kit’s sly smile starting to form, and in a matter of seconds, she’s darting off the path and into the woods, “You’ll have to catch me first!”
“Hey!” She calls after her, following the kid wherever she goes.
.....
Dirt blocks her vision and infests her mouth as Kit face plants into the path after being spit from the portal.
She rolls over with a dramatic sigh, staring to brush muck from her face when she groans, “Fuck, Jade. That was such a bad idea - oh!”
Her body freezes when a small but sharply honed sword comes into view, pointed directly at her face. It sits only a few inches from her nose, her vision trailing up to find it yielded by a short, red-headed kid.
Elora’s rambling at breakfast finally comes back to her. Her brain, late as always (but better late than never, she likes to tell herself), suddenly realizes why the unknown girl’s pattern of freckles is familiar. Her brows soften at the revelation, and she puts her hands up in defense, unable to contain her smile.
“That’s a bad word,” is all the girl says, and Kit’s heart aches deeply at the resemblance to this kid Jade still carries.
“Apologies,” Kit says, sitting up, “Hello, I’m Kit- uh-”
She fumbles halfway through, unsure of whether Elora said identifying herself was an acceptable thing to do or not.
“Kit who ?” Jade presses and steps forward with her sword still drawn, forcing Kit to lean back.
“Kit. Just Kit.” She decides with an internal cringe.
“Really?” Jade asks, sheathing her sword hesitantly, “Because you look a whole lot like the princess if she were bigger.” The girl squints at her, calculating.
“Well, I’m no princess,” Kit lies through her teeth as she stands, shaking the remaining dirt from her pants. Jade doesn’t seem to buy it, but it doesn’t matter, because if she never reveals herself, then it is as good as the truth.
“Alright, Kit, no last name ,” Jade sighs, and Kit’s jaw drops in offense at that, “Where did my Kit, the princess, go?”
“You know, that's a good question,” Kit says, watching the portal and some distorted figures on the other side of it.
“Mhm.”
“You know you’d make a good interrogator,” Kit says while glancing around, “Were you always this smart this young?” she mutters under her breath while facing the woods, her back to the kid.
“Pardon?”
“Nothing, nothing.”
Kit looks back to the portal and decides that her Jade probably wouldn't mind waiting patiently on the other side if she were to adventure around for a bit. Right?
“Jade-” she startles herself by making the mistake of knowing the girl’s name before asking for it, her poor excuse for a facade falling further apart with every word she says. "Jade? Is it?" She says, in a poor attempt to save herself.
The young girl’s eyes squint further, but the corner of her mouth tips up, “Yes…”
“Do you happen to have a free day? I want to do something fun.”
“You’re an adult,” Jade says, her voice laced with judgment and a hint of curiosity.
“Adults can have fun too.”
Jade gives her a disbelieving look.
"They can!"
Kit's smile threatens to break through as she pretends to argue and defend herself against an eight...or nine-year-old? She thinks?
“How about tag in the woods?”
“You’re a stranger.”
“I’m Kit.”
“Kit, who ?” Jade presses.
“Ugh, Jade, you’re killing me.” Kit rolls up her sleeves, revealing a scar she had long forgotten about.
Jade's hard stare falters to glance at the white streak that curves along Kit's elbow as her arms cross. Her brown eyes sparkle a little as the sun darts out from the cloud it was hiding behind. She hums behind a small smirk.
“The princess has a scar under her elbow too,” Jade says, a cocky look replacing one that was unsure before.
“Crazy coincidence,” Kit says, avoiding brown eyes.
“Yeah.”
“Listen, how about…”
Kit's eyes scan around, looking for any incentive to whisk Jade away for a couple of hours. She had a golden opportunity to give Jade some fun memories rather than ones of work and chores, sparring with herself included, even if Jade claims not to have seen it that way.
Jade deserved someone looking after her for once.
Then it hits her, “I'll give you a ride into the forest?”
She crosses her arms, “I ride my horse all the time.”
“No,” Kit says, turning around, “I mean I can carry you on my back.”
She can feel Jade debating, her reserve barely cracking. Kit starts to feel almost as if she’s kidnapping the girl. She knows Jade would never accept the offer from someone unknown, but she recognized enough in Kit without her having to reveal herself, and maybe that’s what eventually leads her to ask-
“How do I grab on?”
“Here,” Kit squats, “Arms around my neck and I’ll hold your legs.”
.....
Jade finally manages to catch the slippery little kid when she tries to scale a tree and a dead branch snaps off from under her.
“Ah!” Kit yelps, dangling from the two branches she was able to get a firm grip on.
Jade finally catches up, skirting to a stop at the trunk of the tree and easily reaching Kit, “I got you, grab onto me,” she coos to loosen the kid’s hold on the branches enough to pluck her from the tree and rest her on her hip.
Jade breathes a sigh of relief and checks Kit’s palms while her other arm keeps Kit held close to her, “You okay?”
Her hands looked fine, no cuts or scratches from the branches when her footing was lost, but she waits for Kit’s quiet head nod to be sure. Out of a lifelong habit since they were children, she kisses both of Kit’s palms, earning a pleased little hum from the girl for sticking to tradition.
She starts the trek back to the path that would lead to the castle and Kit sighs dramatically at the realization of being caught. Jade chuckles and ruffles through her hair with her free hand, soft and wild brown locs flowing in every direction. Kit's neck tilts to nuzzle into her hand before abruptly pulling away to pretend she hadn't. Jade lets her.
She’s trying to do the responsible thing by taking her to the castle. Kit is younger than Jade would’ve been for the time, meaning she was smaller and more energetic. Not to mention, this was Kit they were talking about. Being at the palace meant more familiarity, more security, more eyes .
It’s that exact thought that makes her falter just as the castle walls begin to form in the distance.
If they pass Sorsha, Airk, god, anybody , little Kit will be recognized and alarms will go off. Kit was, very obviously, not supposed to be six years old here.
“Oh shoot.”
“What?” Kit asks as her hands play with the collar of Jade’s shirt.
“I don’t know if I can get you in there, baby.” She adjusts her hold on Kit, switching her to the other hip while formulating another plan. There’s nothing but deafening silence from the girl in her arms, which is not a good sign from any version of Kit, kid or adult.
“What is it?” She asks, and Kit seems even more confused about how Jade pinpointed her troubled mind.
“Why did you call me a baby? I’m not that little.”
Jade’s eyebrows knit together.
She never had a mom, not one she could remember, or even a placeholder, much like Ballantine acted as a father to her.
She didn't have a firsthand experience of these things, but Jade was observant if nothing else. From her time in the village, walking past between jobs or doing grocery runs for Ballantine, she watched mothers and their children.
She recalled mothers, calling younglings and adult children alike, their "babies". They would say, “Oh baby, don’t touch that.” or “Baby, time for dinner.” There was once when an elderly shopkeeper had called her the same after buying some fruits late at night as a child.
"Get home safe baby," she had called out.
Jade's skin tingled with warm fuzzies the entire walk home.
So although Jade might not have had much firsthand experience, she did have her research. Her research told her that mothers had a slew of warm-tingle-inducing names to call their children.
Surely the Tanthalos household was no different?
“It’s what people who are taking care of kids call them. It’s not necessarily just for babies. Mothers will call their kids, “love” or, “baby” or-” Kit cuts her off before she can continue.
“But my name is Kit?”
“Yes, of course,” she smiles, “But does your mom ever call you anything else as like a,” she can’t come up with something that would make more sense to a kid so she settles with, “Term of endearment?”
“She uses my full name when I mess up,” Kit supplies.
Jade’s mouth frowns, but she doesn’t press any further.
She knew about Kit’s childhood, the imperfections, the stress. She never assumed perfection just because Kit was a princess. In fact, most times, being a princess was what brought Kit the most trouble.
Yet this still shocked her.
Maybe it hit her worse because little Kit was in her arms, already being cheated out of receiving the love Jade thought she deserved.
Maybe it was because she knew about the loss of her father this kid had to endure, according to her age, not even a full year ago.
Or maybe it was because of the thought that adult Kit, her Kit, wasn't even aware of the kind of love she had missed out on.
She hikes Kit up further on her hip as if that will bring her out of the dark hole her mind had just plummeted into, “We’ll just go do something fun somewhere else while we wait.”
.....
Kit plops Jade from her back to the ground with a sigh.
They stand in the middle of the forest. Dense green moss climbs up trees with sky-breaking branches. It’s cooler under the shade the canopy of leaves provides. She relaxes her shoulders overdramatically and smirks as she watches Jade secretly do the same.
Other than playful birds chirping and the occasional wind that shakes tree limbs, there’s silence between the two.
“So, tag,” Kit says.
Jade’s face crinkles, freckles rearranging with the movement, “Yeah?”
Kit taps Jade's shoulder, takes off into the forest, and yells over her shoulder, “You’re it!”
Jade’s mouth drops in surprise, but she regains herself quickly to follow close behind, “Cheater!”
Kit is chased all around the forest.
Her lungs start to burn with all the exertion. She forgot how fast Jade was when they were younger, but regardless of her speed, Kit has the benefit of a height advantage for once in her life.
She can tell Jade starts to tire out when her footsteps grow heavy and her breathing becomes as labored as Kit’s. She recalls every time Jade let her win growing up. Even as a child, Jade protected Kit’s feelings, always forced to grow up faster. Kit was excited to reverse the responsibility for once.
A large root protrudes from the ground ahead. Her feet carry her swiftly until she “trips”, her body tumbling to the ground. The grass stains her shirt as she rolls off an uncomfortable root and she yelps when a small Jade pounces on her stomach.
Large puffs of air escape through her wide and toothy grin, “Got you,” she weakly triumphs.
“Damn it,” Kit shakes Jade’s shoulders with faux disappointment.
Jade laughs as she gets shook around, “You said another bad word.”
“Whoops.”
.....
Since the castle was a dead end, Jade realizes she is single-handedly responsible for keeping this little kid out of harm's way and out of sight in a world that wasn’t her own. She could manage easily with any other child, but Kit was…a wanderer.
Luckily, Jade was well-versed in entertaining her with games and distractions.
Kit had a particular weakness that Jade planned on taking advantage of.
Since they were old enough to spar away from the castle, Kit would find excuses to stay for as long as possible. Many times, after a long day of sparring (and letting Kit win), the girl would flop down onto Jade's stomach and plead for a story.
Jade couldn't refuse a request from her princess.
Each time it happened, the stories would get longer and more intricate until guards would have to drag them to their respective homes in the dark.
A smile crept onto her face at the memories.
“How about a story, Kit?”
Kit’s face lights up, but she tries to hide it with furrowed eyebrows, “What kind of story?”
“Hm,” Jade pretends to think, “It’s a story about a knight and a princess.”
Kit’s interest piques, but she scoffs to hide it, “Let me guess, he saves the princess from a dragon.”
“Not quite.” She sets Kit down so she can settle against a tree, “The princess and the knight go on a quest together. One where the knight jumps off the edge of the world to follow her princess into battle.”
“ Her princess?” Kit asks, with a smile blown wide, to which Jade simply nods.
“Are you a knight?” She asks, crawling closer, putting her hands on Jade’s shin.
Jade thinks on it, “Not technically, no.”
Kit pouts a little at that and Jade realizes where that lead was headed and smiles fondly at the signs of Kit’s crush on her younger self that she never allowed herself to notice.
“Am I still a princess when I am as old as you?”
“Uh,” This is also a tough question because the answer could go either way depending on how people interpreted the Elora Danan situation. She shakes her head warmly to dismiss her questioning, “Do you want the story or not?”
Kit nods enthusiastically and Jade chuckles as little Kit settles her head in Jade’s lap looking up at her.
Jade’s hands find Kit’s hair to comb through and she starts, “Okay, well once upon a time, in a kingdom much like this one…”
.....
After many more rounds of tag, Kit decides she has probably worried her other Jade enough by staying in the past so long.
“We should make our way back to the path,” she says through a heavy exhale. Her cheeks are blotchy red with all the exertion playing tag with a spry Jade entailed.
Jade nods, so Kit bends down for her to hop on her back again. She does so without complaint or question, though Kit clocks the tinge of sadness that runs past her face.
So when they pass a small apple grove on their way back, Kit lets Jade shimmy off her back so they can pick some as a snack. What’s one more stop?
“See any you like?” Kit asks
“The really red ones up there,” Jade points.
Kit can reach it herself, but she sees an opportunity for silliness, and she'd rather Jade have fun, “Ambitious. Think you can jump high enough for it?”
“Jump?” Jade looks at her like she lost her brain, “No.”
Kit’s chest aches again with the maturity Jade presents. It’s just another addition to the realization that no adult had ever treated Jade like a kid before. They had simply expected her to rise to their level instead of accommodating to a child-like playfulness.
“Really? Why not just try?”
Jade rolls her eyes, and gives a half-hearted bounce, “See? I’m not tall enough.”
“Hm,” Kit rounds behind her and bends down to grab under her arms, “Try again”
Jade jumps, once, twice, and on the third time, Kit hoists her into the air to grab the apples she wanted.
“Whew,” Kit says, “Didn’t I tell you?”
Jade just smiles and saddles closer to Kit as she cuts off slices with her belt knife and hands them to Jade as they walk.
They reach the portal site soon enough, Jade back on Kit’s back after they had finished their apples. Kit sighs in relief when she realizes she hasn’t lost the portal completely, but that relief is stolen from her when she watches Elora stroll down the path toward them.
She turns in the opposite direction, her back to Elora, but still in the middle of the path. As if that will help camouflage them.
“Shit.”
She’s caught.
“Bad word,” Jade whispers into her ear quietly so the new stranger won’t hear her.
Kit places her hand over Jade’s face that peeks over her shoulder, “Oh hush,” she says, eliciting a small chuckle from the girl behind her.
She takes her hand away when Jade bats at it, and finally turns to face Elora.
“Tanthalos! Are you serious?”
“You are the princess!” Jade points at her accusingly and proud of herself for getting it right.
Kit gives her a wink that Elora doesn’t see.
“Alright well, I'm done with everything over here so you have to walk through the portal before me so it doesn’t close on you,” Elora says, trying to stay disappointed, but even her eyes gleam as she watches a little Jade clinging onto Kit's back.
“But I’m looking after Jade,” Kit says, hiking Jade up on her back to further prove her point, which just makes the girl giggle.
“The Kit that belongs here will come back the second you leave,” Elora explains, though she feels as if she’s talking to a wall when Kit shimmies Jade around to fly her through the air like a bird before dropping her to the ground.
“Fine,” she sighs overdramatically to Elora for the benefit of making the little girl in front of her smile, “You ready for your friend to come back?”
Jade nods, but her eyes dim when she realizes their time is up. Kit knows her well enough to know she'll conceal the hurt and try to act strong enough to beat it, even at this young age.
So instead of making Jade ask, she says, “You’ll see me again,” before pulling her into a hug, “I promise.” She seals it off with a small kiss to the top of her head before letting Elora push her through.
“Bye Jade,” Elora says and watches as the young girl waves tentatively back.
.....
Kit falls asleep before Jade can even get to the Wildwood portion of the tale, which she’s perfectly fine with. Kit can experience that story for the first time on her own.
Kit has turned her head into Jade now, arms wrapped around her torso, her face turned into Jade’s belly. She snuffles unhappily whenever Jade stops playing with her hair, which plants a smile on Jade's face as she brings her hand back to the girl's head, taking note of how similar Kit still is to this needy kid.
She worries about why this Kit hadn’t switched back with hers yet. Though they're both perfect in their own ways, she’s still concerned that her girlfriend has gotten herself into some mess in the past.
She figures returning to the portal would be best, even if she can't go in because leaving two child versions of themselves in the present is probably the worst idea of all time. Still, there might be signs of Kit she could see at the portal site.
She hauls Kit’s sleeping body into her arms so her legs wrap around her middle and her head rests on one of her shoulders, both of Jade’s arms supporting her from underneath.
She sings lightly while she walks, and sometimes Kit will hum back at her drowsily.
When she reaches the portal she sees the faintest figure of two adults and a smaller-looking her? She sees herself get swung off one of their backs in a fast circle before being set down. Something warms in her, her mind getting fuzzy, and then it clicks. So that’s what was taking Kit so long.
The Kit in her arms wakes momentarily and blinks blearily up at Jade
“Hi sweetheart,” she says, adjusting her hold so a free hand can temporarily swipe away the hair in her face, “You can go back to sleep if you want.”
Jade bobs her body up and down with Kit in her arms. She has no experience with kids and is entirely unsure if Kit was past the acceptable age to be napping in her arms or to enjoy getting bobbed around. However, she did know Kit, and Kit needed touch more than she cared about arbitrary social rules like that.
Kit sighs and lays her head back on her shoulder, “Don’t want you to go,” she says as her arms curl tighter around her neck.
“Ah love,” she says, “I’ll always be with you. Don’t you worry yourself about that, okay?”
Little Kit nods into her shoulder, and before she knows it, the weight in her arms switches, and she's left holding her girlfriend instead.
“Jade!”
Kit falls into Jade’s ready arms, both laughing slightly at the unexpected position. Kit’s attention is drawn to the little crinkles Jade’s face makes when she smiles. Jade’s eyes rack over Kit. She hums fondly and it makes Kit’s head cock to the side, but she doesn’t question it.
“They won't remember you guys when they wake up tomorrow, for the safety of the present future, obviously.” Elora says, “But you guys will be able to.”
Kit feels a little relieved at that, but it's small. The one person that needed to remember today wasn’t her. It was a little girl with too many jobs and too little care.
Elora dismantles the portal and its undefined edges start to creep in on itself.
“Try not to get into any more trouble,” she says humorously as she starts heading back to the castle.
“Don’t worry I got my eye on her,” Jade says.
“Hey!”
Kit's arms reach out for a shove, but it's intercepted by Jade who traps her wrists, wraps Kit's arms around her and engulfs her in a hug. Kit lets it happen, smiling into Jade's neck.
“I forgot how little you was such a handful.” Jade says, pulling away from their embrace but still holding Kit's arms, “Always needing attention.” She kids lightly.
Kit’s face squirms at the reminder of her behavior after her dad went missing. The behavior that she admittedly, never shook.
“But,” Jade said, a hand moving to Kit’s side to thumb at the skin under her untucked, grass-stained shirt, “You were perfect for me.”
“Now or then?”
“Then, now, and forever, Kit.”
Kit’s smile grows and she jokes back, “Well, I forgot how much you needed to let go a little.”
Jade’s face turns slightly, as if her childhood had raced through her. She tries to smile, but it breaks and she ends up exhaling a little brokenly, “Yeah, I did, didn’t I?”
“Don’t worry,” Kit holds Jade’s face in her hands, “I had you.”
“I had you too.”
Kit tilts Jade’s head down to kiss the crown of her head.
At Jade’s loving but inquisitive look, all she says is, “Fulfilling a promise.”
.....
Young Kit comes tumbling through the portal, onto the rough and rocky terrain. She grimaces and rubs her head where it skirted the ground during her summersault-like roll, but when her eyes meet Jade’s, she forgets to complain about the injury.
“Jade! You’ll never guess who I just met.”
Jade quickly strides over to brush the dust from Kit's shoulders, exclaiming excitedly, “Kit, I was with you, old you!”
“I was with you! Older you, too!”
Excited breaths escape smiling faces as the sun starts to dip beneath the tree line for the day, casting shadows across them.
Jade watches the portal begin to close and catches two figures on the other side, one placing a kiss on the other's forehead. She sighs and lets hope fill her lungs as Kit rambles on about how cool and ripped she will be in the future.
In the morning, they will have forgotten the event. All that will remain are the paths they will walk toward their futures and to each other.