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"Vega, you up?"
"Mm," Jade watches as Tori rolls over, nearly rolling into the fucking lasers, and sighs. "I am now," Tori opens her eyes, a sharp gasp escaping her when she seems to realize that she's dangerously close to setting off the alarms and having the police called on them. Tori scrambles back, propping herself up on her heels, her hands hanging in front of her legs. "What do you want, Jade?"
"I'm bored," Jade rolls her eyes, sitting with her legs crossed and her hands in her lap. "I'm on the other side of the beams, Vega. It's not like I have a lot of options on who to kick the ever loving fuck out of while they sleep," she sighs. "Or shove in a bucket. Or push into that recycling bin. You know," Jade heaves another sigh, leaning back. "I figured that being the only one to escape your little laser beam fun time would be..." she trails off, waving a hand. "Less awful. Now it just means I have to sit over here, watch Robbie snore, and not be able to stuff his tiny little body into a trashcan."
Tori snorts, and Jade can't help but smile a little at the fact that Tori liked her joke. "Why talk to me? You've literally got the entire store to go and explore. Or shoplift from," Jade raises an eyebrow at her, and Tori gives her a shrug. "I don't know what you're into. I don't see how you're still awake," Tori sighs. "It's way too early in the morning to be awake."
"It's literally only two in the morning," Jade scoffs. "I don't sleep, anyways. Hey," Jade flashes her a grin, leaning forward a little, but not close enough to be concerned about the lasers. "Do you think you could pick Robbie up and stuff him in-"
"I'm not stuffing Robbie's tiny little body into a trashcan, Jade," Jade rolls her eyes, opening her mouth to call Tori boring, but Tori grins back at her. "He'd wake up, and then he'd freak out, and he'd probably run right into the lasers trying to escape me. So...no. I'm not going to try and shove Robbie into a trashcan. Maybe next time we break into Wanko's, you'll actually stay on this side of the laser beams, and then you'll be able to torment him all you like."
Jade grins. "Next time? You already planning our next breaking and entering, Vega? Wow," Jade leans back, resting her hands behind her back. "I didn't think you had it in you. You're such a risk taker. Look at how dangerous and scary you are," she beams, watching as Tori rolls her eyes, but there's a smile on her face, so Jade's fairly certain she isn't all that annoyed at her words. "Listen, how about we...do something to pass the time. I don't sleep, and I don't think anyone is going to be able to fall asleep with Robbie going into fucking cardiac arrest over there, so," Jade sighs. "Pick a game, I'll play it."
"Wow," Tori sits down properly, tilting her head to the side. There are no amount of words for how badly Jade wants to punch herself in the face, considering how her first reaction to Tori doing that was to think about how cute she looks. "You're letting me choose? The world really is coming to an end, huh?"
"Your world is about to come to an end in about five seconds if you don't pick a fucking game, Vega."
"Okay, okay!" Tori raises her hands, but her grin doesn't disappear. If there weren't those stupid fucking lasers separating the two of them, Jade's fairly certain she'd be kissing Tori right now, wiping that stupid, smug look off of her face. "How about...truth or dare?"
Jade sighs. "That's a game for horny middle schoolers, Vega. Are you a horny middle schooler?"
"Do I look like a horny middle schooler?" Tori questions. At Jade's silence, she sighs, rolling her eyes so hard that Jade's shocked it doesn't hurt. "Come on, play it with me? You told me that you'd play the game I picked. You didn't specify if it had to be a good game or not," Tori blinks at her, her eyes going wide. "Please?"
She taps her foot against the ground for a few seconds, considering her options, though she knows that any fight she planned on putting up fizzled out of her at Tori's stupid puppy dog eyes. "Fine," Jade sighs. "Fine! I'll play your stupid truth or dare. But I'm going first." Tori nods, perching back up on her feet, her hands on her knees. Jade sighs, glancing away so she doesn't have to look at how ridiculously cute Tori looks when she does that.
"Truth or dare, Jade?"
"Hm," Jade raps her fingers against the cement, wondering what Tori could possibly come up with as a dare. The worst Tori could possibly do is make her say something stupid, but that's about it. Tori Vega is the least menacing person Jade knows, and she's not afraid of her at all. Well, she's mildly terrified of the feelings that Tori brings with her wherever the two of them go together, but that doesn't really count. "Dare."
Tori grins at her. "Okay. I dare you to lick the laser beam."
"What? No!" Jade scoffs. "You..." she trails off, frowning when she realizes exactly what Tori's done. "I could have just asked for truth, and we'd have come to this exact same conclusion. You're such a prick," Jade rolls her eyes, but she can't find it in her to be actually upset at Tori's stupid dare. "Come on then, Vega. Give me a question to answer."
"If you had the choice between being able to leave this place, or come back inside this aisle with the rest of us, which would you choose?"
Jade rolls her eyes. "I guess I'd..." she shrugs, glancing down at the ground.
"You have to be honest, Jade. Or else it's not a truth or dare game," Tori grins. "Then it'd just be lie or dare."
"Whatever," Jade snorts. "I'd go back into the stupid cube with you guys."
"Aww," Tori smiles at her. "You'd miss us if you left, huh?"
"Don't tempt me to kick your ass, Vega. I can fit into anything if I try," Jade points a finger at her, motioning to the laser beams. "Anything that's nine inches or above, so I'm kind of fucked on getting through the laser beams and to the rest of you, but whatever. My point still stands. Anyways," Jade clears her throat. "Truth or dare, Vega?"
"Truth," Tori crosses her arms. "I don't trust you to not dare me to do something that could permanently mutilate me."
Jade scoffs. "And when have I ever implied that I want to permanently mutilate you?" Tori opens her mouth, but Jade raises a hand and keeps talking. "Your truth is..." she pauses, wondering how much information she can squeeze out of Tori. Probably not enough to actually get anything useful out of her, but she can certainly try. "Have you ever dated a girl?"
"What?" Tori stares at her. "That's definitely not what I was expecting. Uh, no. I mean, I've liked girls before, but I'm surprisingly undateable."
"True," Jade agrees, internally rolling her eyes at herself for not being able to bite back her stupid quip. "Alright. My turn."
"Truth or-"
"Truth."
Tori sighs. "You could at least let me finish asking truth or dare, Jade. Whatever," Tori glances up at the ceiling, drumming her fingers against the floor. It's a tick, one that Jade finds significantly less annoying and far more endearing. "Have you ever dated a girl?"
"Twice," Jade confirms with a dip of her head. "Once in sixth, once in tenth."
"Weren't you and Beck dating in sophomore year?"
"Eh," Jade shrugs. "Not at the time. I mean..." she shrugs again, finding her gaze landing on the sleeping man. "We broke up like, an hour beforehand. So no, we weren't dating at the time."
Tori nods, humming softly. "Okay, that's...fair enough, I suppose. How did that go?"
"I'd tell you, but you used up your one truth," Jade smiles at her. "Truth or dare, Vega?"
"Truth," Tori answers again. Predictable, but still boring. "I still don't trust you enough to not make me saw off one of my own arms."
"As if I'd miss out on doing it myself," Jade grins at her, watching the way that Tori's eyes roll, watching the way they sparkle, watching the way her lips quirk up and how her eyes crinkle. "Okay, hm. Would you rather be in there with everyone else, or out here with me?"
"Out there," Tori answers, nearly immediately. "It'd make it so much easier to escape."
"Uh huh," Jade laughs, feeling her heart swell. "Because that's the only reason you want to be out here. With me. Alone."
"It is!" Tori protests. "I wonder if I could squeeze under here..."
"Do not try it, Vega," Jade sighs. "You'll set off the fucking alarm, and then we're going to have to run. I'm gonna be pissed if we've spent all this time waiting, trapped in this stupid store, only for you to fuck it up."
Tori grins at her. "But it'd be kind of funny, though."
"It would not be."
"Truth or dare, Jade?" Tori leans forward, that stupid grin still plastered on her face. Jade rolls her eyes, glancing away as she tries to pummel her heart back down into submission. It isn't her fault that Tori looks so incredibly kissable, that she laughs and it makes Jade melt.
"Truth."
"Hm," Tori tilts her head to the side, tapping her fingers against the ground as she thinks. "Do you believe in soulmates?"
"What kind of stupid fucking..." Jade trails off, closing her eyes. She's about to open her mouth and say no, because soulmates are fucking stupid, but she hesitates. She never believed in soulmates her entire life. The idea of someone being perfect for her, romantic or platonic or whatever, was just so ridiculous that she never gave it a second thought.
Until Tori Vega showed up.
From day one, they were enemies. Constantly fighting each other, shoving and pushing whenever they could. They were complete opposites, entirely different in every single possible way. Jade was the moon and Tori was the sun. Jade was fear - Tori was hope. They were polar opposites, and Jade thinks that they still are, but there's something different about Tori, something different than everyone else. She used to chalk it up to her just having a crush on the singer, but the more she thinks about it, the more that she thinks that it isn't just that.
She had a crush on Beck, and she never felt this way with him. Even at the peak of their relationship, when everything was going amazingly, she never felt like this. Tori reads her almost perfectly, and it's...terrifying. One twitch of her eyebrow, and Tori is dragging her off into the janitor's closet to ask what's wrong. One small quirk of her lips, and Tori is grinning at her and rambling on about how happy she is that Jade's finally in a good mood. A single tick of her jaw, and Tori is bringing her either tissues or something to punch. Tori understands her more than anyone else ever has, and that shouldn't be possible. Someone like Tori Vega shouldn't be able to understand her at all, and yet she just does, and there's no way to explain it other than some sort of divine fucking intervention.
"Yes," Jade finally murmurs. "Yeah, uh, I do."
"Oh," Tori blinks at her, and Jade blinks back, frowning a little. "I didn't pin you for the type of person to believe in that kind of stuff," Tori's look of surprise is wiped off her face in a second, replaced with a wide smile that makes Jade's heart fucking explode. "That's another tick for something we've got in common!" Tori grins at her, and Jade really can't help but snort, ducking her head. "That makes, uh..." she holds up her hand, lowering four of her five fingers before she holds up four, grinning wildly. "Four! We've got four things in common!"
"That's..." Jade laughs, returning the woman's excited grin, even though she really does try to resist. "That's definitely...something. Okay," Jade rolls her eyes, pushing down her stupid, uncontrollable feelings. She's suddenly incredibly thankful for the laser beam barrier between them, because she's almost certain that if it wasn't there, she'd be kissing Tori right now. "Truth or dare?"
Tori grins at her. "Dare." Jade's fairly certain that she shouldn't be getting fucking butterflies from a stupid grin, but it's Tori's stupid grin, so of course her heart is going to try and go into cardiac arrest. Per usual.
"Alright," Jade grins back, her eyes moving away from Tori's and landing on Robbie. "Tie his arms together," she leans back, crossing her arms against her chest as she returns her gaze to Tori, beaming even brighter at the look on her face. "When he sleeps with long sleeves, he always ends up stuffing his arms in there with his body. Tie his sleeves together, Vega."
"God," Tori sighs, pushing herself up. "You, Jade West, are cruel."
"Tell me something I don't know."
Tori pauses, turning her head over her shoulder. "I think you're pretty."
Jade falters, feeling her heart slam on the fucking breaks before it goes into overdrive. "Who doesn't?" She retorts after half a second, desperately hoping that Tori didn't catch onto her moment of hesitation. Judging by the way that Tori's grinning at her, Jade knows that she definitely did notice it. Fuck. "I guess you're not..." she turns her head to the side, clearing her throat. "You could look worse," she offers. "I mean, from some angles, I might even be able to call you pretty." Tori laughs, and it's so soft that it makes Jade want to curl up and die from how it makes her feel.
"Thanks, Jade. That means more than you'd think," Tori tells her, and then she's off crouching by Robbie, taking his sleeves and raising them up. She's silent as she works, and Jade can't help but watch her every movement, watching as Tori effortlessly ties the sleeves into a knot. She takes her place back in front of the lasers, folding her hands in her lap. "I guess my Girl Scout's training really paid off for this one, huh?" Tori grins at her, and Jade offers her a roll of her eyes. "Truth or dare?"
"Truth," Jade decides. "Make it a good one, Vega."
"Oh, I will," Tori leans back, pursing her lips. "Do you think you've met your soulmate yet?"
Fuck.
Out of all the things to ask, Tori just had to fucking choose that question. Jade breathes in, shifting uncomfortably as she wonders if she should lie or not. Saying yes opens her up to being asked who that soulmate is, and she can't just fucking tell Tori that it's her. No fucking way. There's a part of her that wants to run, to lie, to pretend that she didn't hear Tori's question and move on. But there's also a part of her that wants nothing more than to say yes, to tell the truth, to spill her heart out to Tori.
"Yeah," Jade murmurs. "I'm pretty sure I have."
Tori smiles at her, and it's...not happy. She looks unnaturally sad, and Jade can't help but frown.
"That's cool," Tori eventually says. "My turn. Truth."
"Do you think you've met yours? If you believe in them." Somehow, Tori's smile turns sadder.
"Definitely," Tori says with a nod of her head. "Definitely have. Truth or dare for you, Jade?"
Jade decides that she really doesn't like the way that sadness looks on Tori. "Truth."
"Who is it?"
She smiles, even though there's a black hole of nervousness in her stomach. It's the question she wanted. It's about fucking time she said something to Tori, about fucking time that she finally stopped being an idiot and just said something.
"Well, she's this idiot, right?" Jade breathes out, wishing she could have just said you. "And she's really annoying. Like, really annoying," Tori's sad smile turns into a frown of confusion, and Jade just breathes in, continuing to talk. "But she really changed my life, and I never used to believe in soulmates until she showed up. I always thought that they were stupid, you know? But she just sort of barged into my life, and I'm really glad she did. Even if I do hate her. We're not even friends," Jade smiles, and she's fairly certain that she's going to die on spot with the way that Tori's eyes suddenly light up, shimmering with hope. "She has this shit older sister, she's a really good singer and actor, even if I constantly make fun of her for it. I think that she's going to go far. I'm also really, really into her. But don't tell anyone."
Tori stares at her, eyes wide with...something. Jade can't put a finger down on the emotion that's shining in Tori's eyes. Tori is quiet for way too long, and it's making her more and more anxious.
"Please tell me you understood all that," Jade breathes out. "Please tell me you-"
Sirens blare in Jade's head as Tori lunges forwards, and she falls on her back as her mind puts together the pieces of what's happening. Tori is on top of her, kissing her. Tori is kissing her. Jade kisses her back, wrapping her arms around Tori's back, grinning when Tori pulls back a little.
For some reason, the sirens don't stop.
Jade's grin drops as she realizes why the sirens aren't stopping, which seems to make Tori's own grin grow wider. "You're my soulmate, too. I'm, um, I'm also, like, really into her. My soulmate, I mean."
"Yeah?" Jade lets out a breathy laugh, ignoring the screaming alarms. "I can't believe you just ruined our chance at getting anything from Wanko's by kissing me."
Tori moves off of her, offering her a hand. Jade takes it, grinning when Tori does. "It was so fucking worth it," Tori tells her, pressing another kiss to her lips. "We're going to have to have a long conversation about what this means moving for-" Jade groans, grabbing Tori by her stupid face and kissing her hard.
"It means that I like you, idiot. And you like me, too. What's there to talk about?" She questions, watching as Robbie and André start to move, the alarms finally having woken them up. "Girlfriends," Jade murmurs. "That's what I want us to be." Tori blinks at her.
"We're on the same page, then."
"And how often has that happened?" Jade grins.
"Three or four times," Tori laughs. "We're still going to have that conversation, though. Now," Tori takes a few steps back, grabbing Trina by the leg as she drags the woman just closely enough to touch the lasers. "Trina!" Tori shouts, faux anger and exhaustion in her voice. "Trina, look what you did!"
"Huh? Wha- no! No, I didn't do this!"
"Oh my god," Jade sighs, crossing her arms firmly against her chest. "You're fucking kidding me. You set off the fucking alarm? We were so close to getting...Robbie! Cat! André! Beck!" She shouts. "Wake the fuck up! We have to go! Trina set off the fucking alarm! Come on!"
"Wh- Trina!"
"It wasn't me!" Trina protests.
Tori flashes her a grin as she picks up a bucket, tossing it to her. Jade catches it with ease, grinning back at Tori as she holds it above her head. She hears the panicked cries of their friends, but she's already grabbing Tori's hand and running, disappearing out of the store and into the night.
Jade would normally blame adrenaline for the way that her heart is doing fucking somersaults, but she knows better than that - it's Tori's fault that her heart is probably going to fucking fail pretty soon. But she really, really doesn't care. If she dies holding Tori Vega's hand with a bucket on her head after just kissing the woman, than so be it. Jade thinks that she'd be more than happy to die with a fucking bucket over her head and Tori's hand in her own.
Jade's unbelievably happy as she races out of Wanko's with Tori by her side, laughing her ass off when they eventually crash into her car, grinning like a madman as she steals a kiss from Tori before the rest of their friends make it out.
Jade's fairly certain that breaking and entering into a stupid fucking Wanko's was the best choice she's ever made - and it's all because it got her Tori.