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Your name is Dirk Strider, and you have a … romantic entanglement, you guess? Or a girlfriend. Or something.
You’re still trying to work out the logistics of it.
She’s one of Dave’s friends that came up for his twentieth birthday, and inexplicably decided to stay at your apartment even after John and Rose headed home. At first you figured she couldn’t get a flight out to whatever remote pacific island she was from, but the permanence of the situation sort of set in when her dog showed up on your welcome mat.
She didn’t seem too surprised by that.
In fact, she doesn’t seem surprised by many things - and if the dog's sudden appearance was any indication, you really should have guessed how much she would be surprising you.
The first time Jade kissed you was out of nowhere. You’re pretty sure she just wanted to see what would happen - but it was a quick touching of lips and then she went back to whatever she had been doing, and you sure as hell weren’t handing out any reactions.
The second time was almost a week later, and you’d pretty much forgotten about it by that point. Jade was giving you a hand with a project you were working on and again, out of nowhere, leaned in, and there it was. That time, neither of you pulled away, but all you were doing was sitting there with your mouths attached.
She grinned after a few seconds and you caught yourself smiling a little because, what the fuck, that was pretty cute. When she turned away to keep rewiring the section she was working on, you did the same and decided to ignore it for the rest of the night.
It’s been two days since then - you may or may not be keeping track. Dave is at work, and Jade insisted on helping you cook dinner for the two of you, which mostly consists of reheating day-old fried rice and szechuan pork, but whatever. Things are sort of quiet, with the TV playing the news in the background, and Jade sitting on the counter while you keep an eye on the stove.
She breaks the silence between you with a question.
“Hey, do you want to kiss me?”
You raise an eyebrow, looking at her. “It’s not like you asked the first two times.”
She grins back at you, sliding down off the counter to meet you at eye level. “But those were practice! I mean like a real kiss, Bro."
You snort. “And what exactly does that entail?”
“Oh, you know,” she says, wiggling her eyebrows. “With tongue.”
"Oh my god,” you say, bursting out laughing. “That’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever said.”
She shrugs. “That may be true. But you didn’t answer my question!”
You smile a little and roll your eyes. Jade is literally bouncing on the heels of her feet, fucking Christ, you can’t deal with this.
It takes a second of intense deliberation hidden behind your shades before you decide to go for it.
You lean in and place one of your hands on her face, and she closes her eyes almost comically tight.
It’s about then that the smoke alarm goes off, and you realize your food is on fire. Becquerel appears in a flash just to start barking madly, nearly bowling you over in his frenzy.
Jade salvages the moment with a quick peck to your cheek before chasing after her dog. Which leaves you to deal with the mess you've gotten yourself into. And the fire, too, you guess.
You may be a little in over your head, but you're starting to think - for maybe the first time in your life - that might not be such a bad thing.