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Jade awakens in a cold sweat, snapping violently into consciousness so fast she almost chokes, shooting upright and desperately gasping air into her lungs. She drags her fingers down her face and tries not to think too hard about what she had just dreamt of.
Black eyes green fire Dave no Rose NO Jane what are we doing someone get me out let me OUT-
Deep breath. She wished she could say this was the first time this had happened.
She wished it was at least the first time it had happened tonight .
Jade falls backwards onto the bed, air rushing out of her lungs as she tries very, very hard not to cry, but she can’t help it because suddenly this is all too much. She can’t sleep like this, not in this empty room. She’s spent too many years alone already, she can’t keep doing this she needs someone she needs to know they’re ok that she didn’t hurt them-
Another deep breath, shakier this time. She can do this. They made it. They’re safe now.
Jade wipes the tears from her cheeks and slowly gets up off the bed, grabbing a t-shirt as she heads towards the door.
She doesn’t want to be alone anymore. Too often she forgets that there are other people with her now. She doesn’t know how to talk to them, she doesn’t even know how to just be with them, and sometimes that scares her more than anything.
Dave’s room is next door, and Karkat is in there more often than not. Jade stops and listens carefully for a moment to make sure she isn’t interrupting and hears nothing but deep breathing and steady heartbeats. For a brief, disconcerting moment she feels a twinge of jealousy; it’s been a long time since she’s slept through the night.
She eases the door open and peeks in. Karkat has his head on Dave’s chest, and their arms are wrapped around each other. Jade has a brief flash of guilt for disturbing them—they’ve probably had their fair share of nightmares as well—but before she can turn back, Karkat opens his eyes blearily and looks up at her, nudging Dave as he does.
Jade doesn’t miss the way Dave equips his sword before his eyes are fully open, but it’s gone the moment he sees her.
The two boys sit up. Karkat rubs the sleep from his eyes, Dave runs a hand through his hair, and suddenly Jade is frozen. She’s beginning to realize she didn’t think this through, but before she can whisper an apology and abscond, Dave speaks up.
“Jesus, Jade, you look like you haven’t slept since perms were in style.” His voice is rough with sleep, but he seems aware in the way only someone who’s used to waking up at a hair trigger can be. Jade plays with the hem of her shirt and feels another flash of guilt.
“Well, are you gonna just stand there all night or are you gonna get over here and hit the hay like it shot your grandpa?”
Jade’s head snaps up, staring at Dave like he’s gonna turn around any second and say “PSYCHE!!!” because she can’t believe he’s ok with this. She definitely can’t believe Karkat is ok with this, but they’re both looking at her expectantly and she can’t argue because she needs this. She can’t be alone anymore, not while demons who wear her face are screaming in her head.
Karkat huffs when she still doesn’t move.
“C’mon, Harley, it’s ass o’clock in the morning. Will you just get over here?”
It’s this invitation that finally rouses Jade to move.
She pads over to the bed and climbs on, and the second she’s within reach Dave grabs her arm and pulls her over to them. There’s some awkward maneuvering required with three people instead of two, but the bed’s pretty big and they’re all too exhausted to be picky. Jade ends up between the two boys, with her head on Karkat’s chest and Dave wrapped around her back. She thinks they’re holding hands over her, but it’s hard to focus when she’s warm and snug between her friends, clutching Dave’s arm with one hand and Karkat’s shirt with the other.
It’s not long before she hears nothing but their heartbeats and their breath, the sounds washing over her like the tide, reminding her that they’re alive, they’re safe, they’re here with her. She pulls Karkat a little closer and snuggles further back into Dave. Her eyes finally close as she hopes desperately for a dreamless sleep.
Jade wakes up cozy and relaxed, sliding gradually into awareness as soft sunlight streams into the room from the large window. There’s a moment of panic when she doesn’t recognize the room, but she realizes quickly. The blankets are soft against her skin, the sun is warm on her ears. Dave’s arm is a comforting weight on top of her, and Karkat’s chest rises and falls beneath her cheek. All three of their legs are tangled beneath the sheets; Jade isn’t sure where she ends and the others begin. But she’s sure that she knows the heartbeats under her ears, and with each ba-bump they tell her that she can just be here, that it’s safe to do so.
The boys are whispering softly over her head, and she could eavesdrop if she wanted to, but she feels far too warm and fuzzy to bother concentrating on what they’re saying. Besides, it probably wouldn’t be too hard to guess. She lets out a content sigh, which morphs quickly into a large, obnoxious yawn. Dave looks down at her.
“Looks like sleeping beauty’s finally rejoined the land of the living. Any longer and we were gonna have to bring true love’s kiss into this shit.”
Jade rolls her eyes, but she can’t wipe the smile off her face as she looks back at him.
“Oh, please.” She says, “You’re no Prince Charming.”
Dave looks affronted as he lifts a dramatic hand to his chest.
“Miss Harley, I will have you know that I am better than Prince Charming. I am the knight in shiny red armor and I am here to sweep you off your feet,” he declares. “I even come with my own cape, but batteries are not included with your purchase.”
Jade hides a giggle in Karkat’s chest, feeling a thousand times better than she had the night before. She doesn’t know why she didn’t start doing this earlier.
“Well, Sir Strider, maybe I like my other knight better!” She curls further into Karkat as she says this.
“Lady Harley, I am obligated to inform you that this knight here doesn’t even have shiny armor. No proper lady can have a knight who ain’t shining.”
“Please, I am the shiniest knight to ever grace your miserable green planet, and Strider here is just jealous that I’m getting the girl.”
Jade laughs even harder at Karkat’s remark, but manages to speak up before they can start sniping at each other.
“Joke’s on both of you dumb knights! I’m no damsel, I’m the goddamn witch!”
Dave faux gasps at her.
“Holy shit, Karkat. Don’t look now, but I think there’s a witch in our bed.”
“It gets worse, Dave. She’s a fucking furry too.”
“Hey!” Jade kicks Karkat in the shin (“Ow, shitmunching fuck!”) and they all dissolve into laughter.
When they quiet down, Jade asks what time it is. The others might come looking soon. Dave usually gets up early and so does Jade, on account of her rarely being able to fall back asleep after her nightmares.
Karkat snorts.
“We have time,” he says. “Lalonde 2.0 already came in and took a million goddamn pictures like this is the most interesting thing she’s seen since sliced fucking grubloaf.”
“Well damn, Karkat, maybe it is. Who knows what weird future batterwitch water Earth was like. Probably a total clusterfuck of boring bullshit.”
“Huh.” Jade muses, “It probably was pretty weird for her and Dirk; we should ask them about it sometime!”
“Alright, sure, but first I’m about to wet the bed like a 4 year old who drank like six juice boxes before bedtime even though his mom said he could only have one and now his bladder’s about to explode but he can’t tell her because then he’d be in trouble so he just didn’t go to the bathroom and now he’s waking up with some rank-ass urine sheets so I’m gonna go pee.”
“As always, Dave, you paint the most beautiful pictures in the morning. Truly, you have a way with words, flowing like a great guzzling waterfall of oh-my-god-what-the-fuck from your poetically disturbed mind.”
Jade can’t remember the last morning she laughed this hard before even getting out of bed. She sits up as Dave rolls to the floor, landing neatly on his feet and heading to the bathroom. Karkat sits up too, and leans back against the headboard with his eyes shut.
“When he gets back we’re getting food. I’m fucking starving.”
Jade grins and hops off the bed onto the floor, turning back and holding her hand out to Karkat.
“Why wait?”
Karkat smiled bemusedly, and took the proffered limb.
She has a feeling it’s going to be a good day.