#armouriam

Bad Days - an Armouriam one-shot by rochke11

A short little one shot set between the last two chapters of Armouriam on a Bad Day.

I hope you like it ❤️ it’s supposed to be the part where Kit goes back to the gym and Jade sees her again for the first time in a while, and remembers their happy moments

ARMOURIAM - a tanthamore fic (now complete)

The Final Chapter

Armouriam’s One Year Anniversary

Two months had passed since the worst day of Jade’s life. Today was supposed to be the best. Kit had promised as much a year ago. She’d gifted her girlfriend the jade stone necklace that now lay like a cold memory on her own chest, and Kit had promised that 365 days later, she’d get down on one knee.

A foolish, naive, hopeful Jade still wishes for it to happen. She wishes that she’ll walk out of the bedroom to find Kit covered in flour, attempting Elora’s buttered muffin recipe or frying bacon. She wishes that when she walks downstairs to the gym, Kit will be in an archery lane, shooting arrows instead of turning on the lights and opening the gym. She hopes that when she closes, Kit will take her hand, and lead her up stairs, that they’ll start to get changed into something nice for dinner, only to forgo the plans altogether in favor of skin sliding against skin. She wishes for Kit’s question to spill over kiss-swollen lips as she kneels beside their bed.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kit sees Scorpia rushing towards them, but she returns her focus to the girl shaking in front of her.

Jade’s eyes dark back and forth, unfocused. Almost unseeing.

“Jade, it’s okay,” Kit says, too loudly, she thinks.

Jade sinks to the ground in a heap, as if she doesn’t have the capacity to keep standing, her body more focused on shaking and breathing quick breaths. Hyperventilating.

Kit immediately drops to the floor beside Jade, wincing as her knees hit hard on the ground. The sound seems to widen the fear in Jade’s eyes.

She must be having a panic attack, Kit realizes. Kit lines their right thighs together so that she’s facing Jade and gently grabs her shoulders.

“Jade, it’s okay. I’m okay. Nothing happened. You’re having a panic attack.”

Briefly, Jade’s eyes meet Kit’s, still unfocused. She’s vibrating, shaking her head.

Kit’s cheeks are wet, she realizes.

“It’s okay,” Kit croaks, feeling completely out of her depth. She braces one hand against Jade’s neck, the other at her jaw, trying to stop her head.

Her words don’t seem to be helping, reassuring Jade that she escaped unharmed. Impulsively, Kit leans forward, presses her lips to Jade’s. They’re soft, Kit thinks. And wet. From my tears.

Oh.

Jade’s shaking stops a moment later, exchanged for lips pressing back against Kit’s.

A dark basement.

Strobing lights.

Sweat-soaked skin.

A remix of a Taylor Swift song.

Her fingers, tangling in curls.

Kit gasps against Jade’s lips, but Jade doesn’t seem to notice. She continues to kiss with a fervent energy, as if she’s afraid it isn’t real and if she were to stop, Kit would disappear. Arms tug Kit closer. As if Jade needs to feel all of Kit.

Kit tries to lean back, but Jade has a vice grip on the front of her shirt.

Will that ever be addressed again? Like will she realise that was Jade?

No plans on including it again in chapter 13, but here, take this bonus scene. I’d say it takes place a couple weeks after chapter 12

Kit wasn’t generally great at household tasks, but Jade was always exhausted when she came home from her therapy sessions, and Kit knew how excited she would be at their clothes clean and folded and fresh sheets on the bed.

So, she decides to go all out. Instead of just grabbing the hamper and sheets, she washes bath towels and kitchen towels, all the stray clothes that had fallen to the bottom of the closet, and even their duvet cover.

Once everything is clean and dry, she wrestles the duvet onto the bed and folds the rest of the laundry. Kit had stripped her own shirt off while washing the clothes and picks a sweater off the top of the folded pile. It’s one she can’t remember the last time she’s worn. She remembers it too, from before. It’s a light blue sweater she’d bought at the mall with Elora their freshman fall. It is pilling and worn in, but still soft when she pulls it over her head.

The door to the apartment opens just as Kit finishes putting away the folded towels. She walks out of the bathroom and greets Jade with a long, tight hug.

“How’d it go today?” Kit asks.

“Fine,” Jade shrugs. “Exhausting, but as expected. Glad to be home with you.” Jade pulls away and kisses Kit softly. “I’m gonna shower, then maybe we order Chinese or something and watch a movie?”

“Sounds perfect, I’ll put the order in while you shower.”

Jade starts to walk off and pauses, staring at the sweat so stretched out that it’s falling off Kit’s shoulder. “Where did you find that?” She asks.

“This?” Kit pulls at the sleeves, “Just in the closet. Didn’t think I’d still have it all these years later.”

“It’s not yours anymore,” Jade says quickly, then slower, clarifying, “I mean, I kinda claimed it. One of the first nights I stayed over yours freshman year. And it’s just…I haven’t worn it since you left the hospital.”

And suddenly, Kit is remembering that last day. Remembering Airk rolling her out. Remembering eyes on her back. Remembering turning and seeing a figure in this very sweater.

“You were there.”

Kit snuggles deeper into Jade’s embrace as the couch nests around them. Kit takes Jade’s right hand and begins to trace her palm with a delicate touch that is so gentle it causes Jade to close her eyes.

“Elora and I went to a palm reader freshman year,” Kit says. “Did I ever tell you about that?”

Jade tries to think back, and she doesn’t remember Kit ever mentioning it. “I don’t think so.”

“It was during finals that fall. It was all total BS. I’m pretty sure the palm reader was just a senior in need of some beer money, but she showed us what each of the lines on your hand represent.” She traces over the lines on Jade’s palm one at a time, starting from the top line down. “Marriage, love, head, life…” she then drags a finger vertically down the center, “fate.”

“What do all those lines say about me?” Jade asks. She doesn’t care either way if Kit reads her palm or not. All she cares about is the weight of the girl against her and listening to the words (any words, really) fall out of her mouth. The pad of Kit’s finger spreads a warmth through Jade as she traces the love line with reverence. Jade presses a content kiss behind Kit’s ear.

“It says that you’re loyal, strong, and intelligent…and gay.” Kit laughs. As she does, she sinks deeper into Jade until it feels like the line between where one of them ends and the other begins has been totally erased.

Jade doesn’t think she’s felt true, contented happiness like this in over a year. It’s what she wants for their future. She doesn’t feel the weight of their past on her, not in that moment. Instead, she feels the promise of their future.

Jade slips her hand out of Kit’s and fingers the leather cord at her neck. Kit twists her head, confused as to why Jade let go of her hand. Then, in one motion, Jade removes the cord from her neck and slips it over the messy mop of hair in front of her. She finds Kit’s hand at her side and places it on top of the jade stone now resting back home on Kit’s breast bone. She intertwines their fingers so that, together, they’re holding the stone.

“Jade, I…” Kit starts, but Jade interrupts her. She needs Kit to know. She needs to say the words that are bubbling up inside of her and pushing their way free. The truth.

Sure, why not. I had no plans to include the scene of Jade seeing Kit's haircut in college, but here it is:

Jade checks her phone for the third time. Kit was nearly twenty minutes late. She’d randomly been assigned Kit as a partner for a half-semester long project, and they’d hit it off immediately, finding a quick manner that they could lobby back and forth in person and over text. Jade had started to come to the conclusion that Kit was quickly becoming her best friend after only weeks of knowing her.

And her best friend had a tendency for being late.

Finally, twenty-five minutes are their planned meeting time, the door to the stairs swings up on the seventh floor of Nockmaar library. Kit hurries in, all bundled in a heavy coat, scarf and hat covered in snow.

“Is it snowing?” Jade asks. It hadn’t been snowing when she’d last been out, but she’d also been in the library all day.

“What gave it away?” Kit grins a wide, toothy grin that warms Jade’s belly.

Along with realizing that Kit was becoming her best friend, Jade had also realized quickly (or, pretty much immediately), that she absolutely had a crush on the other girl.

Kit swings her bag onto the chair across from Jade and starts stripping off her snow clothes.

“So, I was thinking we should start by…” Jade’s words trail off as Kit pulls her beanie off her head and shakes out her hair. Hair that just yesterday had been well past Kit’s shoulders, yet now was cut short and shaggy. Her heart did a full on somersault down into her stomach. That crush? Yeah, she was a goner. She was already attracted to Kit’s insane facial structure, the dimple in her one cheek, and the easy way she carried her body. But with her haircut? She looked like a goddamn Disney prince.

“Your…your hair,” Jade finally sputters.

“What about it?” Kit asks, feigning ignorance for only a moment, unable to hide her own grin. She flashes a devilish grin that barely hides a blush. “What do you think?”