Not My Plan

"Are we there yet?" her giggle tangled with the slight wind passing by, and he only chuckled and gently pulled her along by the hand.

Looking back, he saw her tip her head back as she stumbled along, her nose scrunching up against the beanie she had pulled over her eyes.

"Take it off and we will have serious problems," his tone was teasing, but there was something about it that kept her from reaching up and pulling it off. Another laugh escaped her lips and she struggled to get a peek of where he was taking her from the little crack. Unfortunately though, she couldn't see anything.

She sighed in frustration and scrunched her nose up again as she kept staggering forward as he kept tugging her along by the hand. She hoped they would get wherever they were going soon because she hated being blind to her surroundings.

And man, was that beanie itchy.

"Ugh, how do you wear these things?" she reached out and looked for his head, where her fingers conveniently collided with the familiar feeling of knit fabric. With a low snicker, she ripped it off.

He stopped. "Hey!"

Totally clueless as to where she was, she twirled the beanie in her hand and stuck her tongue out; laughing to herself trying to imagine what he looked like. "You told me I couldn't take my beanie off; you never said anything about yours."

He stood there for a minute, watching her sway side to side as she did her little teasing victory dance, sticking her tongue out at him once more. She looked absolutely ridiculous, especially with his black beanie pulled completely over her eyes, blocking her from any sort of vision. His beloved grey hat dangled from her fingers, and he raised his eyebrows, smirking.

Taking a step forward, he grabbed her waist and pulled her roughly towards him, where she gasped when colliding with his chest, her arms coming up to grab his shoulders. With a chuckle, he slowly slipped the beanie further up on her head until he came into contact with those bright eyes, big and olive as always, bright and excited as soon as she was able to see.

"Oh!" she exclaimed upon seeing his face. "There you are!"

He rolled his eyes and leaned in, shaking out his mess of blonde hair, a smile playing on his lips when he heard her breathing speed up as he came closer to her lips.

And just like that, she turned and skipped away.

It took him a minute to process what had just happened. His eyes were still closed, his arms curled around the air where she used to take the space up. Appalled, his eyes flashed open and he looked up, dropping his arms and wondering to himself how he didn't see that coming. She was barely out of sight when he realized what was happening, her figure disappearing behind a large oak tree.

"This wasn't part of the plan!" he called, tripping over his own feet and almost falling forward before catching himself and sprinting after her. He could only hear her giggles and light step of her feet.

"Well, how was I supposed to know there was a plan!" she laughed.

He stopped and looked around, completely lost and surrounded by trees. He had marked everything before taking her into the Minnesota woods so they wouldn't get lost, but she had lead him off course, as she always did, and now he stood, clueless as to where to go, his only lead being her voice and laugh.

He was surprised to find her nowhere in sight. "Where are you?"

"That's for you to find out…" her voice came to him from the side, and he frantically turned, looking for the flash of white that her shirt would give off. All he saw was the green of the trees.

"Jade?" he called her name, his smile growing. He knew she was one who liked being chased, and he couldn't say that he didn't like chasing her.

Suddenly, he felt something soft fall on his head, and he looked down as it collided with the grass under his feet. Laughing, he bent down and picked up his precious hair accessory and brushed it off before pulling it back on his head. When it was securely in place, he looked up into the tall tree towering over him, where he saw her standing on a low branch, a white smile lighting up her face.

"How's the view?" he asked her, studying her with a grin. Another gust of wind flew by, playing with the leaves in the trees and bringing her light hair back, dancing along with the blonde strands. Her hand tightened around the branch she was holding to keep herself steady, and despite the adrenaline coursing through her veins accompanied with the fear of falling, she was able to keep her cool and look down at him with a smirk, her eyes bright and hyper.

"If by 'view' you mean a bunch of trees that all look the same, then it's great!" she giggled, slightly bouncing on her feet so that the branch under her would move up and down with her.

He laughed and raised his hand to shadow his eyes as the sun peeked out from behind the trees. "There's not much to see here… but if you would have cooperated, you could be staring out into one of the many lakes." He teased her. "But, like always, you cut the whole plan up into itty bitty little pieces."

She rolled her eyes and shrugged. "The state is called the 'Land of 10,000 Lakes', Kendall. I'm sure that we'll run into one of them sooner or later." Her eyebrow quirked and his grin grew. "And if you would tell me about your 'plans' then maybe I wouldn't ruin them."

"Haven't you ever heard of the element of surprise?"

"Has it not crossed your mind yet that I don't like surprises?"

He crossed his arms. "Alright then," he narrowed his eyes at her, and she laughed. "So, what's it gonna take me to get you down from there?"

A thoughtful look crossed her face as she cocked her head to the side, taunting him. "Hmm…. Who said I was getting down anytime soon?"

He sighed. She was so damn stubborn…reckless, refusing to listen to anyone.

And yet, it was one of the things he loved about her.

"What is so interesting about being up in a tree that would cause you to leave me down here, all alone?"

Her shoulders raised in a shrug. "The hope that you might come up and join me."

He stood under the tree, under her, his neck starting to hurt from craning it so much. His eyes stared up at her, his brain slowly processing her words. Why was he so slow today?

Soon enough, though, he felt his hands grabbing a hold of the thick trunk of the tree and his leg coming up to wedge in between two escaped roots, and with a grunt, he hoisted himself up and onto the lowest branch, smiling up at her through all the leaves before grabbing the next one and climbing up to her, and she soon found herself looking up at him instead of down.

"How's that for joining you?" he smirked, grabbing a hold of the same branch she held onto and curling his fingers over hers.

She gazed up at him with those hazel eyes, and he seemed to finally understand why her name seemed to fit her so perfectly. It was her eyes, large and it had the most natural shade of jade green speckles anyone could ever have. When looking into them he seemed to completely lose himself and everything around him. Left only to float in the hazel abyss.

"Um," she seemed to have lost her train of thought, taking her playful retort with it, and was left helpless and weak under his gaze. What exactly was she supposed to say? How was she to respond?

The thought was long gone by the time she realized that his face was slowly getting closer, their lips barely brushing against each others. And yet, when she closed her eyes and closed the space between them, she found her fingers tightening around the branch so she would keep from falling forward.

A laugh echoed through the forest around them, and she opened her eyes to be met by the empty space, in front of her. Looking down again, she saw Kendall dangling from the lowest branch of the tree, where he let go and landed in a crouch on the ground.

"I'm not exactly sure that's fair," she complained, carefully climbing down to a lower branch so she could see him better.

"Oh, so you're the only one who can run?" he chuckled, fixing the beanie on his head.

Her smile seemed to disappear and her eyes lost some of their brightness. "I guess I'm just so used to it."

His senses became more alert as he stared up at her, watching her intently as she took cautious steps among the branches, her arms held over her head as her hands held on to whatever was above her. His own smile dimmed as he realized what she was referring to, and he reached a hand out as she hopped down to the ground in front of him, catching her easily before she could stumble over.

"You know I didn't mean it like that…" he whispered, securing an arm around her waist and pulling her closer to him.

She nodded. "Yeah, I know." And no matter how confidant her voice sounded, she refused to meet his gaze, instead squinting towards the forest behind him, wondering where it could take her. The wind danced along with the leaves of the trees around them, playing the natural song of the woods, and she could almost see two figures dashing between the trees and jumping over logs covered in snow; she could almost hear their laughs as they felt the exhilaration of running in the cold, on the ultimate hunt for that frozen lake that they had only found once.

It seemed so long ago, holding onto her little sister's hand as they scurried through the snow, being chased by the four friends that they had not seen in the longest time.

It was almost impossible to believe that it was only a year ago that they had all gathered together in the woods, not caring how cold it was, exchanging their ridiculous gifts among one another. Helena's funny laugh echoing through everyone's ears as she opened the gift they had all gotten her and immediately turning to Carlos to help her put it on, already playing with the little charms on her charm bracelet, the charms extremely random to anyone who wouldn't understand what each of them meant.

That bracelet was the only thing that had been able to escape the car accident that she had become a victim of, flying off of her wrist and landing on the side of the curb, where the firefighter that had tried to get her out of the totaled car had found it and handed it to Jade, claiming that her baby sister's last words had been to give her bracelet to her.

That was six months ago, and now Jade stood here, back in Minnesota, where it had all started. A fun summer in their hometown, sneakily buying the boys tickets so that Gustavo couldn't say no to them when they asked for time off, meeting in the old marketplace where Kendall and Jade used to share the job of putting shopping carts away before running off into the woods, losing themselves until Logan started to complain about not knowing their way back.

Summer seemed to long ago now. It had honestly been the best summer of all of their lives, where they had reminisced about old times and realized the strong feelings they had for each other.

Jade knows she will never forget admitting her feelings for Kendall by that lake, and watching her little sister fall for the reckless Carlos and admitting her feelings to him the same day at the same place. As sisters, they were never a step behind from one another, always at the same pace.

So when Jade got the news that her little sister had left the world at her young age, it had hit her hard.

He watched her quietly as she stared off into the distance, knowing she was thinking about Helena again. It had hit all of them hard, her sudden death. And they always tried to avoid the subject—or anything—that had to do with her, but something always brought her back into the conversation. When they went out for ice cream and Logan ordered her favorite flavor, when Mrs. Knight made hot chocolate and the smell of cinnamon reached their noses. Whenever James claimed he recognized her dark hair from behind but when he went up to the girl it was someone else.

He was afraid of leaving Jade in Minnesota at the end of that dark summer when he had to go back to California, for he was constantly getting calls from her mother wondering if he knew where she had gone, causing him to drop everything and go out to look for her, having to constantly chase her throughout the small town until she finally just gave up and cried in his arms.

She had always been one with the want to escape everything.

So when he heard that she had moved with her father to Arizona he couldn't say he had been a little relieved. A change of scenery would do her good, and the five of them had then promised each other that every summer they would meet in their Minnesota hometown and honor their lost friend.

And that's where they found themselves now.

The other three members of Big Time Rush had stayed behind, leaving the two lovers for some time alone. Kendall's original plan was to take her to the lake he had found a couple of days earlier, but the purpose of it was to get her mind off of the painful memories.

That didn't work out so well.

"She wouldn't want us to mourn for so long, ya know…" he told her as she moved away from him and crossed her arms, still staring off into the sun. Her bracelet glinted in the sunlight, highlighting the small silver hockey stick hanging off of it, as well as the miniature helmet, tiny mirror, little number sign, and mini gold heart all hanging in different parts of the bracelet.

"She wouldn't want us to forget her, either." She muttered, her back to him.

He sighed and took a step towards her, resting his hands on her waist and drawing her closer to him. Looking down at her, he leaned down and pressed his lips against her neck softly, whispering in her ear. "Who said we're gonna forget her? She's practically impossible to forget."

A smile broke out her face and she laughed once, but it faded just as fast as it came. "It's just hard. Being back here in Minnesota, seeing you guys again, without her. I think I've snuck out every night this summer."

He chuckled. "You tend to do that, and always end up at my window."

She leaned back against him and sighed. "Only because you're the only one who can calm me down. I got mad at her, for leaving us, for breaking Carlos' heart, for leaving me alone."

"Well it wasn't really in her control. It was that drunken guy's fault for running that red light."

She shrugged softly. "But still, I had convinced myself that she could've tried to hold on, to be strong. But she just let go."

He didn't say anything, only pressed his lips to her neck once more. She sighed and reached her arms over her head and rested her hands on the back of his neck, her lips coming up slightly at the side.

"Maybe she knew you were gonna be okay." He murmured.

"Maybe…" she agreed, turning to face him. "Or maybe she just got tired of constantly having to follow your plans."

He grinned. There was that carefree teasing attitude he loved. "I think she ruined them just as much as you do."

She shook her head. "No, no. She always listened to them. It was only when I convinced her to ignore your wishes that she would do whatever the hell she wanted."

"Which was always."

"True." She laughed.

And just like that, they started talking about old times again, laughing and teasing each other about random and stupid things. Though, they did a lot more than "talking". Sure, their relationship was complicated as soon as they both boarded their planes. One for California and the other for Arizona. But as soon as they saw each other in the familiar setting of Minnesota, they seemed more in love than the last time they were together.

And now they sat together on the forest floor, Jade leaning into Kendall's chest, both of them staring off into the trees as the sun started to set and hide behind them.

"I'm assuming you don't wanna leave yet," Kendall smiled down at her, squeezing her waist playfully.

She shook her head and leaned forward, asking for a kiss, which he was happy to give. "I could stay here for a while longer."

He laughed. "Good, because I have no idea on how to get home."