Work Text:
Tori's birthday fell on a Wednesday, which of course meant that she had rehearsal for Sikowitz's latest play. She had come to accept that fairly quickly, because at least she liked rehearsal. What she didn't like was the fact that she also had biology exam that morning and a history of pop pop quiz in the afternoon. Thankfully, Andre had stayed up late with her the night before to study for bio, but she hadn't been expecting the pop quiz so the only thing she could do was pray that she somehow remembered the exact sequence of Madonna's hits from the 80s (she was confident that she knew where Vogue fell, but she wasn't quite sure about Material Girl in relation to Like a Virgin).
Then it was time for rehearsal, and...well, it could have gone better. It was still early on, so she could get away with a few flubbed line deliveries, but she could practically feel the smirk that Jade threw her way when she had to look down at her script for a third time during the same scene. And it was stupid, she knew, because Sikowitz didn't seem to even notice, but Jade did.
Jade always did.
By the time Sikowitz called for the end of rehearsal, Tori was so eager to get home that she had to keep herself from sprinting out of the Black Box. She kept it together, though, and tried to seem as calm and collected as possible as she walked over to the seat she had placed her backpack on.
"Vega!"
Tori inhaled deeply and held the breath for a long moment before sighing and turning her head. "Yes, Jade?"
"Got any plans for the rest of the evening?"
Tori tried to keep her face level, but she couldn't stop her right eyebrow from arching up in surprise at the unexpected questions. "If you count going home and throwing myself onto my bed and not moving until morning, then yeah, I have plans."
Jade rolled her eyes. "Those aren't plans."
"Well, they're what I'm doing." Tori straightened and slung her bag over her shoulder. She noted with displeasure that, somehow, the rest of the cast had managed to get out of the theater before they had. "Is that all you wanted? Because I really want to go to bed."
"Yeah, well, I really want a pony, but that's not happening either."
It was Tori's turn to roll her eyes as she moved past Jade. "Sorry about your lack of a pony, but unless you're getting to a point, I'm leaving."
Cool fingers wrapped around her wrist, pulling her to a stop. "Vega, wait."
"Jade, I swear to god, I..."
"Would you shut up for like five seconds?" Jade's grip tightened, and Tori stopped talking even though there were about a dozen sharp remarks dancing on the tip of her tongue. Jade looked at her for a moment, obviously waiting for an argument. When she didn't get one, her grip loosened but not enough for Tori to pull away. "Look, I wanted to see if you wanted to go grab a coffee or something? My treat."
Tori stared at her, certain that she had misheard her. "What?"
"Is simple English too hard for you, Vega?" Jade held up a finger and shook her head as Tori began to open her mouth in protest. "Sorry. I just...look, do you want to go get coffee or not?"
"You do understand that it's like, already eight p.m., right?"
"So?"
"So I like being able to sleep."
Jade groaned, finally letting go of Tori's wrist. She turned, pinching the bridge of her nose between two fingers. "Jesus Vega, why are you so difficult?"
"I don't know, why are you suddenly so interested in getting coffee?"
"Because I know what day it is and I wanted to do something nice! Is that so hard to believe?"
When Tori didn't reply, Jade dropped her hand and turned back towards her only to find that the other girl was staring at her. "What?"
"How do you know what day it is?"
"I looked at a calendar?"
Tori glared at her, clearly unamused. "You know what I meant."
"We do, for some ungodly reason, follow each other on the Slap, Vega. It's kind of hard to ignore the dozens of "happy birthday" posts. Not to mention the fact that literally every single person in school came up to you to say "happy birthday" today."
"Oh." Tori looked down at the floor in an attempt to hide the blush that had involuntarily crept onto her face. "Well, it's not like you've ever cared about it before, so."
"New year, new me?" Jade shrugged at the incredulous look Tori shot her. "Look, I'm trying, okay? You don't have to take me up on my offer."
Tori considered her, biting her lower lip as she thought about how nice and warm her bed would be and how tired she was. "Your treat?"
"My treat."
Tori shrugged the strap of her backpack further over her shoulder, and cursed the part of her that knew that she had never stood a chance. "Fine. But you can't make fun of me when I order a hot chocolate instead."
"No deal."
"Seriously, Jade?"
"...Fine."
Tori looked at Jade for a long moment, searching her face for any indication that she had some kind of ulterior motive up her sleeve, but she saw none of the usual signs of Jade's scheming. No smirk, no raised eyebrows, and no malicious twinkling in her eyes. "Okay. Just let me text my parents to let them know I'll be late."
"Walk and text, Vega. We don't have all day, you know."
Tori watched Jade turn and begin to walk away and sighed as she began to follow. "Why are you such a gank?"
Jade paused and glanced back at her over her shoulder. "Why not?"
Tori just rolled her eyes.
"I honestly thought you were joking about the hot chocolate."
Tori looked at her over the rim of the mug she had just taken a sip from. "I would never joke about hot chocolate."
Jade watched as she took another sip, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "Dork."
Tori shrugged and set the mug back down. "You know, if you stopped hating everything that could possibly be good in the world, you might come to also enjoy things that aren't dark and bitter."
Jade's brow arched at Tori's words. "Dark and bitter?"
Tori gestured towards the steaming coffee sitting in front of Jade. "You know, like your coffee? Or your soul?"
The eyebrow didn't lower, but Jade didn't look bothered by Tori's quip either. "I take it with sugar, Vega. I don't think that counts as being dark and bitter."
"No?" Tori crossed her arms and leaned back, looking thoughtfully at the mugs on the table in front of her. "Tell you what. I'll let you try mine if I can try yours'."
Jade wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Ew, no! That's gross."
"You've literally drank out of a soda that I gave a tongue bath to at Prome, Jade. How is this any worse than that?"
Jade smirked. "Did you ever figure out how I got the shrimp in your bra?"
Tori frowned and shot her a look. "No, and I don't think I ever want to know. Now come on, switch drinks for a second."
"Are you this annoying with your other friends?" Jade muttered, but she reached out for the mug of hot chocolate anyway.
Tori grinned and reached out for Jade's coffee. "Count of three?"
"Just shut up and drink my coffee, Vega."
Tori didn't need to be told twice, but she waited for Jade to take a sip of her hot chocolate before she took a sip of the coffee.
Her eyes grew wide the second that the coffee hit her tongue. She realized, belatedly, that she hadn't actually seen Jade take a sip of her coffee yet, and from the way that its heat immediately burned her tastebuds, she quickly realized why. Her impulse was to spit it back into the mug just to get it out of her mouth to stop the pain but she managed to choke it down instead.
It burned her throat the entire way down.
"Problem, Vega?" Jade asked nonchalantly from over the rim of Tori's hot chocolate. Tori glared at her with watering eyes and coughed again before reaching for a napkin.
"It was hot!" She pressed the napkin against her tongue in a desperate attempt to calm the burning and tried to ignore the way that Jade's shoulders shook with thinly-veiled laughter.
"Of course it was hot! It's hot coffee! What were you expecting?"
Tori glared at her and pulled the napkin away. Pieces of it stuck to her tongue and she tried to scrape them off, which only caused Jade to laugh harder. "I'm literally drinking hot chocolate and it isn't anywhere near as hot! That coffee is basically molten lava!"
"Oh come on, it isn't that bad."
Tori shoved the mug of coffee back across the table. "Then you take a sip of it!"
Jade's brow arched, but she set the hot chocolate back down and picked up her coffee. Her gaze never wavered as she brought it to her lips and took a deep swallow, then another, before she smacked her lips and set the mug back down with a smirk.
Tori stared at her, waiting for her to start coughing, or wincing, or to literally show any reaction other than satisfaction. When none came, she shook her head and picked up her own drink. "You're inhuman."
"No, you're just overly sensitive."
"Am not!"
Jade shrugged. "Whatever you say, Vega." She took another sip of her drink and continued to smirk as Tori leaned back and sighed in frustration.
"Look, just because-"
Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz.
She paused and listened for a moment before realizing that the buzzing was her phone vibrating in her backpack. She leaned over and began to unzip different compartments, muttering words that Jade couldn't quite hear under her breath as she searched for the phone.
Bzzz. Bzzz.
"Got it!" Tori straightened and slid the icon to accept the call without looking to see who it was. "Hello?"
"Hey! Where are you?"
"Trina? Hey! I'm just grabbing a drink with a friend, why?" She saw Jade's eyebrow quirk up at that, but she tried to ignore it.
"A friend? You have friends?"
"Ha ha. You're hilarious."
"Seriously though, who are you out with?" There was a pause, and then Trina's voice dropped down to almost a whisper. "Wait, is it Beck? Oh god, where are you, I'll be there right after I-"
"Oh my god, Trin, it's not Beck!" Both of Jade's eyebrows rose with that one, but Tori just shook her head. "Why do you want to know where I'm at, anyway?"
"Because it's your birthday and I've been sitting here for the past hour waiting for you to get your butt home from rehearsal and you ignored all my texts so I figured I'd call and make sure you weren't dead or something!"
Tori pulled the phone away from her ear for a moment and checked her missed notifications. In addition to the five missed texts from Trina, she also had missed one from Andre and two from Cat. She winced and brought the phone back up to her ear. "Oops. Sorry, I had my phone in my bag. I'm not dead, don't worry." She thought for a moment, her brow furrowing. "Wait, I told Mom and Dad where I was, why didn't they tell you?
"Because they're over at Gary's house. Something about a barbecue? Any way, when are you getting home? I snitched a bottle of Mom's Pinot Grigio to celebrate the birth of my beautiful baby sister, and if you don't get home soon I'm going to just drink it by myself!"
"Pinot Grigio?" Tori asked, and Jade's expression shifted from one of mild interest to one of confusion.
"Did I stutter? Now come on, get your little tush home so we can drink this before they get back from Gary's!"
"I..." She leaned back in her chair and pressed a hand to her forehead. "Give me half an hour, okay?"
"Fiiiiine. See you soon!"
"See you soon." Tori clicked off of the call and quickly scanned through the other texts she had missed, noting that they were basically all variations of "Happy Birthday" that could wait another couple of hours for a response. The one from Cat, though, asked about their assignment for class in the morning, and so she started to type out a quick response. She had barely typed out more than "hey, sorry" when she heard a heavy sigh. She looked up to find Jade staring at her expectantly, her head propped up with one hand while the fingers of her other hand drummed against the table impatiently.
"Can I help you?" Tori asked, setting the phone down.
"What did the monster want?"
"To tell me that I'm the best sister on the planet and that she loves me very much," Tori replied dryly.
Jade shot her an unamused look. "I didn't know Trina was a liar."
"Oooo you're a feisty one today, aren't you?" Tori watched as Jade's eyebrows shot up, and continued speaking before the other girl could comment. "She's waiting for me at home with a bottle of wine, apparently."
"Wine?" Jade eyed her up over the rim of her mug, her gaze scrutinizing. "I didn't know you drank."
"I don't. Not really. I mean, I have drank, I just..."
"You're rambling."
"I...yeah." Tori leaned forward and cupped her hands around her hot chocolate. She looked down into the depths of her drink and took a breath before continuing. "I don't really drink. But my parents aren't home and Trina is being nice and it's my birthday so..."
Her words trailed off and she waited a moment before she glanced back up at Jade. There was a curious expression on the other girl's face, one that Tori was pretty sure she hadn't seen often before. It was almost gentle, she thought, and the very notion was enough to unsettle her. But it was gone almost as soon as it had appeared, replaced by the bored expression that she was so used to seeing on Jade's face, and she tried to ignore the disappointment that welled in her chest.
"How sweet of her." Jade started to push her chair back. "Guess we shouldn't keep her waiting then."
"Wait, what are you doing?" Tori reached out quickly, grabbing Jade's wrist. "We're not finished with our drinks."
Jade glanced down at the wrist held in Tori's grasp before looking back up at her. "You know, for someone who has known me for like, over two years, you would think you would have figured out that the "never touch me" rule isn't a suggestion."
"You've never seemed to have a problem with it before," Tori said, but she let go of her wrist all the same. Jade's eyebrows rose, but she didn't comment. Instead, she continued to push her chair back, but instead of rising from it like Tori expected, she leaned over and began to rummage through her bag. She came back up a moment later, a small box in her hand.
"I wasn't planning on leaving quite yet," she said as she set the box onto the table. "I just figured I'd give this to you before we did leave."
"Oh," Tori said. She felt her cheeks burn, though she wasn't sure if it was out of surprise or embarrassment towards misreading the situation. "Uh...what is it?"
Jade pushed the box towards her. "Open it and find out?"
Tori began to reach for it, then paused. "Wait. Is it a prank? Or something disgusting? Because, like, it's my birthday, and that would be kinda mean, and-"
"Vega, would you just shut up and open your gift?" Jade snapped, and Tori quickly grabbed it and pulled it closer to her.
"Yeah, okay," she said as she tried to appear as calm and collected and as "not secretly freaking out about this at all" as possible. She took a moment to actually look at the box before opening it. It wasn't wrapped, but it was held closed by a purple ribbon that had been expertly tied into a bow on top. She began to try and untie the ribbon, but discovered that it was very, very tight and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get it to unravel. She was about to admit defeat when the blade of a pair of scissors suddenly manifested in front of her. Before she could even blink in surprise, the ribbon was cut, and the scissors were being twirled expertly in Jade's hand.
"You're welcome," Jade said with a smirk, and Tori shot her a look.
"I was doing just fine, thank you very much."
"Uh huh. Sure you were. Excuse me if I didn't want to sit here for another hour while you tried to figure out how to untie a simple knot, though." The scissor blades snipped at the air twice before Jade shoved them back into the waistband of her jeans. "Now seriously, open the damn box so we can get out of here. I don't have all day."
"You're the one who...ugh,, never mind." Tori shook her head. "You're impossible."
"And impatient, don't forget that."
"Oh, I couldn't even if I tried." Tori turned her attention back to the box, curling her fingers underneath the edge so she could lift the lid off. She felt Jade's gaze on her as she lifted the lid, exposing the contents within.
She wasn't really sure what she had expected. A dead bat, maybe, or perhaps the fatty lump that Jade had taken from the hospital that time. She certainly didn't expect the intricately decorated cupcake that sat within. Delicate laces of sugar sat atop of the lilac-hued icing that so effectively hid the cake itself that Tori wasn't even sure what flavor it was. It was beautiful and obviously expertly-crafted and as she looked up at Jade to say thank you she discovered that she couldn't speak past the lump that had formed in her throat.
"So...do you like it or not?" Jade asked. Her tone was the same that it always was, demanding and expectant, but her cheeks had flushed pink and if Tori didn't know better, she would have thought that Jade looked nervous.
"I..." Tori swallowed hard. "I-"
"If you don't like it, you can just say so," Jade interrupted. Her voice was almost angry, but Tori could see the disappointment in her eyes and so she quickly shook her head.
"It's beautiful," she managed to say past the lump in her throat. She reached for her drink and took a quick sip in an effort to swallow the emotions that threatened to pour out of her before speaking again. "Where did you get it?"
Jade stared at her with narrowed eyes for a long moment, obviously distrustful of Tori's words. "Parker's Cupcake Emporium. It's a few blocks away."
"I can't imagine you going into a cupcake shop."
The pink in Jade's cheeks darkened and she looked away too quickly to notice the grin on Tori's face. "Yeah, well, the outside of the shop was so sickeningly sweet looking that I figured it had to have something inside that you'd like." She paused and thought for a moment before turning towards Tori. "You...do like it, right?"
The lump in Tori's throat threatened to return, so she nodded and swallowed again, hoping Jade wouldn't notice the hesitation. "I love it, Jade. Thank you."
Jade gave a small noise of acknowledgment as she reached for her coffee. She began to take a sip, but stopped when she saw Tori begin to rise from her chair. "Wait, where-"
"I'll be right back!" Tori said, already walking towards the ordering counter. Jade watched as she leaned over the counter and waved over the barista. She was too far away to hear what they were saying, but after a moment the barista disappeared under the counter, only to reemerge seconds later with two plates and utensils. He handed them to Tori, who appeared to thank him profusely before she walked back to the small table by the window that she and Jade had chosen. She set the plates down so that they each had one before she sat back down in her seat.
"Uh, Vega? Why-"
"This is a massive cupcake," Tori said, pulling the cupcake out of the box and setting it onto her plate. She picked up the knife the barista had provided, and began to slice the cake down the middle. "I can't eat it alone."
"Vega, it's a gift, you can't just share it!" Jade protested, reaching out for the knife, but Tori pulled the plate out of her reach and finished cutting it in half. She pulled the halves apart, exposing the vanilla interior, and batted away Jade's hand so that she could set one half on her plate.
"It's my cupcake, so I get to decide what I want to do with it." Tori picked up the forks she had also gotten from the barista, and set one next to Jade's plate. "And I want to share it with you."
"Maybe I don't want to eat it," Jade grumbled.
Tori's eyebrow arched as she gathered a bite onto her fork. "Uh huh. Sure." She popped the bite into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully for a moment. Her eyes grew wide. "Holy shit," she said, the words muffled by the cake in her mouth.
"Didn't you learn that you're not supposed to talk with your mouth full?" Jade muttered, only to be met with a sharp look from Tori, who finally swallowed.
"Shut up and take a bite, because that's the best cupcake I've ever tasted."
Jade rolled her eyes, but picked up her fork all the same. "You tend to have low standards, though, so pardon my disbelief."
"Jade, just take a damn bite."
"Ugh, fine."
Tori watched as Jade stabbed her fork into the cupcake and shoved a small bite into her mouth. Jade chewed slowly at first, then stopped to look down at the cupcake in disbelief.
"It's good, isn't it?" Tori asked, and Jade just nodded as she quickly swallowed and went back in for another bite. Tori grinned and did the same, being sure to take the time to try and parse out the flavors. "Is there lavender in the icing?" she asked after swallowing again, and Jade shrugged.
"How the hell would I know?"
"You're the one who bought it!"
"I bought you this one because I thought you liked purple! Why would I have bothered to check the flavor first?" Jade stabbed the cupcake again. "Now seriously, shut up so I can eat this in peace."
Jade shoved the bite in her mouth and tried to ignore the way Tori stared at her. That proved to be impossible after a few seconds, though, and so she glared up at her and swallowed. "Jesus, Vega, what?"
The small grin on Tori's lips widened. "You chose a cupcake for me just based on the color you thought I liked?"
"Yeah?" Jade frowned. "So what?"
"That's adorable!"
"What? No, it isn't."
Tori's grin never wavered, even as she took another bite. "Yes, it is."
Jade just rolled her eyes and finished her half of the cupcake.
The drive to the Vega house was relatively quiet. Jade had, to Tori's surprise, allowed her to choose the radio station. Tori chose a classic rock station, since it seemed the least likely to incite any sort of disagreement between them, and let the music wash over her as she stared out the open window as they weaved through Hollywood.
They were almost at her driveway when Tori decided to break the relative silence.
"Jade?"
"Yeah?"
"I uh..." She turned away from the window and looked at Jade. "I just wanted to say thank you. You know, for tonight. It was really nice of you."
For a moment, she thought she saw a blush creep onto Jade's face. But it was dark, and the light coming from the headlights of the passing cars wasn't bright enough to confirm her suspicions.
Jade put her turn signal on to pull into Tori's driveway. "It was nothing, Vega."
Tori waited for her to put the car into park before replying. "No. It wasn't."
And then Tori kissed her.
It wasn't meant to be a kiss. Not at all. She had been going in for a hug, and then Jade had turned at the last second and Tori honestly wasn't even sure how her lips had ended up pressed against Jade's but they were and the seatbelt was digging painfully into her shoulder and hip but she didn't care because she was kissing Jade West.
That realization had her pulling away just as quickly as she had leaned in because oh my god but before she could get more than a few inches away she felt a hand grip the back of her neck.
I'm going to die on my birthday, she thought. I'm going to be choked to death inside of Jade West's car...on my birthday.
But that didn't happen.
What did happen was that Jade looked at her for a long moment, her normally piercing eyes clouded by something Tori couldn't read but that she was almost certain wasn't anger.
"Jade, I-"
And then Jade pulled her back in for another kiss.
Tori let out a little squeak of surprise when their lips met, but then Jade's lips parted ever-so-slightly and she let her eyes slide shut as the hand on the back of her neck tangled in her hair.
Jade tasted like lavender and sugar and coffee and Tori was certain that she was dead because that was the only explanation for the way Jade's lips moved desperately against hers.
(She heard the clicking sound of a seatbelt unbuckling and if she wasn't already dead she was surely about to be because there was a second hand cupping the side of her face and Jade was kissing her harder and if this was what a heart attack felt like she was perfectly fine with it)
Fingernails scratched at the base of her skull and the sensation sent a shiver coursing through her spine and she moaned into Jade's mouth because fuck that felt nice. But then the fingers stopped moving and and it took Tori about three seconds to realize that there were no longer lips pressed against her own and she opened her eyes to see Jade staring at her like she was seeing her for the first time.
"I..." Jade started to say, but her words trailed off and Tori realized that she was witnessing something truly astounding; Jade West had been rendered speechless. So Tori did what she did best.
She started rambling.
"Do you know that otters have a favorite rock?"
Jade continued to stare at her, but the stunned look on her face began to give way to confusion, so Tori kept going because if she was going to be murdered (something she certainly hadn't ruled out yet) she was going to go out with a bang.
"Yeah, well, they do. They use it to break open clams and crabs and stuff and they even have pockets that they keep it in because it's their favorite rock and I..."
"Tori."
She stopped mid-sentence, almost thankful for the interruption. "Yeah?"
"Out of all the possible things that you could be saying right now, why in the fuck are you droning on about fucking otters ?"
Her voice wasn't angry. At least, Tori didn't think she sounded angry. Angry Jade usually involved more yelling and this definitely wasn't yelling; this was quiet and even-tempered and that scared Tori more than anything else because at least if Jade was yelling she would have some kind of comprehension of what was going on in the other girl's mind. But all she had to go on was the way that Jade still stared at her and bruising on her lips and fuck it.
"You kissed me."
Jade's eyebrows shot up and for the first time since they had pulled into her driveway Tori was able to recognize the expression on her face as being familiar. "Excuse me? You kissed me!"
Tori opened her mouth to object but then remembered that Jade was technically right. "Okay. Yeah, maybe I did, but I didn't mean to..."
A shadow passed over Jade's features and Tori realized very quickly that that was the exact wrong thing to say. "Wait, that's-"
Jade finally looked away, and as Tori watched, she re-buckled her seatbelt and placed her hands in the ten-two position on her steering wheel. "I need to get home," she said, and Tori felt her heart shatter when she heard the catch in Jade's voice.
"Jade, that's not-"
"Get out of my car, Vega," Jade snapped, but it lacked its usual punch and if Tori didn't know any better she would have sworn that the reason that the other girl wouldn't look at her was because her eyes were damp.
Tori slowly unbuckled her seatbelt and reached over to rest a hand on Jade's shoulder. She felt her flinch beneath her touch, and Tori wondered again just what she was doing. But she pushed past that thought and swallowed past the lump that had formed in her throat. "Jade. Look at me."
Jade didn't move, so Tori moved her hand up so that her fingers could curl around her jaw. "Jade. Please?"
They sat that way for a long moment, neither one of them moving. It wasn't until Tori started seriously praying that Jade wouldn't just decide to snap and actually kill her when she heard a slow exhale escape the other girl's lips and a hand left the steering wheel to come up and grip her wrist.
"Seriously, what is with you and not respecting the "don't touch me" rule?" Jade asked, and Tori felt some of the weight lift off of her chest and she laughed.
"I think that rule got thrown out the window about, oh, five minutes ago?" she joked. Jade's grip on her wrist tightened for a moment before releasing completely, and Tori withdrew her hand. "Will you look at me now?" she asked, and Jade took a deep breath before shaking her head.
"I didn't mean to...I mean, I thought that...ugh." Her hands clenched around the wheel and she rested her forehead against the plastic. "You kissed me first, Vega!"
"Yeah...that was actually unintentional," Tori said, and Jade groaned again. "But that doesn't mean that I didn't want to!"
Jade's head rose from the wheel, but she still didn't look at her. "What?"
"I mean, yeah, I didn't exactly expect to just start kissing you, but like, I'm definitely not regretting that I did because wow."
Tori watched as Jade's grip on the wheel relaxed. "You...don't regret it?" Jade asked quietly.
"Definitely not," Tori answered truthfully. "Do you?"
(Please don't say yes)
Another pause, then a shake of her head. "No."
(Oh thank God)
Tori let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding and laughed again. "If neither of us regretted it, then why the hell are we acting so weird?"
Jade's laughter soon joined hers and the other girl finally turned to look at her. "Because we're idiots?"
"Oh right," Tori agreed. "That's why."
A smirk spread across Jade's face. "Christ, Vega, I was going to at least ask you before I kissed you, you know!"
"Well, isn't that just chivalrous of..." Her words trailed off as the implication in Jade's words hit her. "Wait. You were planning on kissing me anyway?"
Jade rolled her eyes in that dramatic way that really only she could. "I gave you a cupcake didn't I?"
"Well yeah, but in what world does giving someone a cupcake suggest that you're planning on kissing them later?!"
"It was a very fancy cupcake."
"That doesn't mean anything!"
Jade shrugged. "It's not my fault that you don't pay attention to modern courtship rituals, Vega."
Tori stared at her, trying to scrutinize whether Jade was messing with her or not. "Why are you like this?"
Another shrug. "Drives you crazy, doesn't it?"
Tori was about to shoot back with another sarcastic question when she caught sight of her sister standing beneath the porch light, waving frantically at them. "Crap."
Jade followed Tori's gaze, groaning when she saw Trina. "Great."
Tori waved back at her sister who then held out her arm and tapped her wrist pointedly before she turned and went back into the house. "Guess I should probably get going before she actually comes down to check on me, huh?"
"Probably," Jade agreed, but her tone was tinged with disappointment and it made Tori pause.
"Were you really planning on kissing me anyway?"
Silence fell between them for a long moment, but then Jade's eyes met hers and Tori saw nothing but sincerity in them when she answered with a quiet "yes."
Tori glanced at her lips for just a moment before returning her gaze. "Oh," she breathed, and then they were kissing again.
It was soft and gentle and chaste and over all too quickly but Tori wouldn't have had it any other way because Jade West was kissing her.
"Happy birthday, Tori," Jade murmured against her lips before she pulled away. "Now seriously, you should probably get in there before your sister comes and drags you away."
"She wouldn't actually..." Tori paused and thought about it. "Actually, no, she totally would. Okay, yeah, I should go. But uh..."
"I'll text you," Jade said, and Tori sighed in relief.
"Great, thanks, that's-"
"Your sister is back," Jade warned.
"Right." Tori reached down for her bag and gripped the doorhandle. "Thanks for...well, everything."
"Get out of here, Vega," Jade said, but she said it with a smile and so Tori pushed the door open and slid out of the car.
"Talk to you later, West," she said before shutting the door. She caught the two-fingered salute that Jade threw her way and stuck out her tongue in response before she turned around and began walking towards her agitated sister with a grin on her face that only grew wider when Jade honked her car's horn in goodbye as she put the car in reverse.
"What was that about? Was that Jade?" Trina asked when Tori reached the porch, her voice having only a hint of the whine that Tori was expecting to hear.
Tori turned her head just enough so she could watch Jade's taillights disappear from view as she drove away. "Yeah. It was."
"What was Jade West doing-"
Tori turned back towards Trina and reached out to pull her sister into a tight hug. The unexpectedness of it caused Trina to stop talking, so Tori took advantage of the pause before it vanished. "Can we break open that bottle of wine now?" She let go of Trina and flashed her a beaming smile. "I have a lot that I want to celebrate."