there are a lot of earth c good ends for jade but jaderadia is one of my favorites.
Jade wakes up one chilly spring morning, makes herself a pot of tea to bring outside, tests the pH of the soil as she stakes out her garden and starts to dig, and suddenly, there is a godtiered troll in a time hoodie asking, isabella from phineas and ferb style, 'whatcha doin'?'
she explains as she goes, the way she used to explain to no one in particular, imagining that someone, somewhere, was watching her. she made up songs for some parts of it, and she sings them, and Aradia hovers overhead for nearly half an hour, watching, before she offers to help
no one is as punctual as aradia. no one. eight AM, she's waiting in the garden, maybe on her hands and knees staring at the little green weeds sprouting amongst the cucumber plants, maybe plucking pebbles from the soil and rolling them clean between her fingertips
she enjoys the work, though she finds it curious and counterintuitive and frequently asks why jade does certain things in certain ways. when friends and family come over to help out - Jake to build a fence with her, June to put up bird netting - aradia asks them questions too.
she clearly loves to listen, to hear anything that's on jade's mind, and to weigh in when she has ideas or to share in little triumphs or defeats. jade still isn't sure what she's getting out of this. just that she's there every morning. she's clockwork-precise.
over time, Aradia gets better at helping out, needs less guidance, asks fewer questions. about the plants, at least. she seems to want to know everything about jade. and she doesn't dodge jade's questions, either. neither of them has had someone to talk to like this before.
jade and aradia hold the power of life and death in their respective hands. aradia is positively gleeful over the compost, life from death as the new sprouts rear their little heads above the surface. they grow a garden, and when it's ready, Jade bakes a pumpkin pie to share.
for once, they chat without working, the sun rising as they make small talk. aradia's adventures in paradox space, the quiet mundanities of jade's life on earth c, skating over the loneliness and instrumentalization by skaia that brought both of them to where they are.
it's bittersweet for jade, sharing her life, so much of her life, because aradia has a way of becoming part of her daily rhythm despite passing the majority of her time somewhere in the unfathomable, timeless distance
she wants to say something. it's an acute sense of asymmetry, and she wonders if she could ask for more, for some reciprocity, if that's even what it would be. hasn't she been getting something out of this? so much comfort, really, from the warmth of aradia's sincere attention.
aradia looks away from her finished pie plate, gazing up at jade with an expression of pure, liquid delight. the biggest, truest smile she's ever seen.

"do you want to see what a star looks like while it collapses? come on ill have you back before dinner! :D"
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