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Chapter Text

“I will be married to a handsome prince, and we shall live in a magic sugar castle together,” Tori reads off, looking amused. “Six year old me had some pretty big goals.”

“That didn’t happen,” Andre says, very helpfully. “Both things.”

Tori glares at him, giving him a dirty look. Jade has to stop herself from laughing, ignoring the dirty look that Tori shoots her at that. “I know it didn’t happen.”

Trina looks significantly less amused, waving her hand, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just read what you said you’d do if that didn’t happen. Which it didn’t.”

“Okay, uh,” Tori squints at the note. “If this doesn’t happen, I have to be...Trina’s assistant...for a whole...month,” Tori looks horrified by the end of her sentence, and Jade can completely understand why. Having to do anything for Trina sounds like the worst punishment imaginable, let alone for a whole month? Jade is convinced that Tori is going to die before the month is up. “No!” Tori protests, shaking her head. “No, what the hell? Trina! I was six when I wrote this, that’s not fair!”

“Boo hoo! You were the one who said that you’d have to keep your word no matter what! So suck it up, Tori!” 

Jade watches, amused. Tori’s life sounds like it’s going to be absolute hell for a whole month. Though, while Jade loves to watch Tori suffer, she’s also a little annoyed about it. Because Tori is going to be suffering for a whole month from Trina’s doing, and not Jade’s. There’s not going to be any time for Jade to make Tori suffer, and that’s just not fair at all. 

So, in a moment of impulse, Jade leans forwards, making eye contact with Trina.

“What if the prince was a princess?” 

Tori is gaping at her, and Jade just looks back at her, arching an eyebrow. Trina also looks shocked, and so does Andre, and also Cat. Jade simply sits there, doing her best to not break character, focusing on making herself look entirely serious, which isn’t all that hard.

“What did you say?” Trina asks in a whisper, which isn’t actually a whisper, but by Trina standards, it is. “Tori, what the hell?”

“I said,” Jade starts, slowly inching a little closer to Tori, enjoying the way that she squirms a little. “What if the prince was a princess?” She repeats, tilting her head to the side. “Doesn’t that count for something? As much as I love seeing Tori suffer, I don’t think it’s fair to make her suffer for a whole month if she’s completed half of the requirements.” 

“Wait, wait, wait, back up a bit,” Andre puts up his hands, opening and closing his mouth. “You two...nah. No way. You’re messin’ with me. You have to be. Right? Tori? Right? Please tell me that she’s kidding and she’s just being Jade.”

Tori is staring her down, and Jade just shrugs, making a motion with her hand. “Well, Vega? Go ahead and tell the man. He clearly doesn’t believe me.”

“Right,” Tori breathes out, drawing out the word. She looks a little less shocked, which Jade is appreciative of. Tori’s expression changes in basically an instant, and Jade is honestly impressed. For all the shit that she gives Tori, the woman is a damn good actor when it comes down to it, especially if her life is on the line, which it is. From both Jade and Trina. “She’s not kidding. I mean, this isn’t, like, exactly how I imagined this conversation going, but...”

“Oh my god,” Andre heaves a sigh, dragging his hands down his face. “I owe Beck so much money.”

“What?”

“What?”

Jade and Tori speak at the same time, and Jade shoots Andre a furious glare, pushing herself up from the table. “You’re kidding me. You made bets on Tori and I? Dude. Not fucking cool.”

“I didn’t think it’d—” Andre groans, throwing his hands up into the air. “Man! Whatever, you know what, whatever. I’m not exactly happy, ‘cause I’m gonna have to pay Beck like, fifty bucks, but good for you two. I’m gonna go find another pint of ice cream to find another stupid ‘K’ in.” 

He disappears from Jade’s sight, and she’s only partially convinced that that was his only reason for leaving. Jade turns her sights back to Trina, crossing her arms against her chest. “So?” She demands, raising an eyebrow. “Does Vega get to skip half her punishment or what?”

“Um, I— I guess?” Trina looks like she’s going to pass out, and Jade really, really hopes that she does. “I think dating you is punishment enough.”

“As if living with you isn’t a punishment in of itself,” Jade shoots back, rolling her eyes. “Bye now.” 

Trina stands there for another second before she’s moving, and that just leaves her, Tori, and Cat. Cat is staring at her pretty heavily, and so Jade stares back, tilting her head to the side. “I also owe Beck a lot of money,” Cat murmurs, pouting. “Bye, I guess.” 

“Oh my god,” Jade rolls her eyes, running a hand through her hair. “Don’t pay him that fucking money!” She shouts after Cat, but the woman is definitely too far gone to hear her. Jade waits for a few seconds, making sure everyone that knows them is gone, before she sits back down, across from Tori. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

“What do you mean you’re welcome?” Tori demands, her calm façade completely gone by now. “Oh my god, they think we’re dating! Jade!”

“What?” Jade demands back, rolling her eyes. “I saved you from a month of punishment from Trina. You can suck it up and be thankful. And, really? Is dating me so bad in your eyes?”

Tori stares at her, frowning heavily. “Jade.”

“Oh, whatever,” Jade scoffs, adjusting her jacket. “It’s fine, Vega. It’ll only be for a bit,” she shrugs, reaching over the table to grab one of Tori’s fries. “We can break up in a few months. I’ll anonymously bet on our unfortunate breaking up, because I know those assholes are going to bet on that, too. Might as well get some money out of it.”

“How are you so calm about this?” Tori asks, her voice way louder than Jade would like to be. “Oh my god. The entire school is going to think we’re dating!”

“No, they’re not. Just a few of our f—”

Jade winces when she hears a notification from Tori’s phone. She winces even more when Tori unlocks her phone, handing it to Jade.

Andre Harris: I OWE BECK $50!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAA >:(

Under his post are about twenty comments already, all talking about the varying amount of money they owe each other, though mostly Beck. 

Jade sighs, handing Tori’s phone back to her. “Okay, well, it’s not like that even matters,” she says, shrugging. “Most of them are losers. What are they gonna do? Come up to us in the hallway and demand that we kiss each other? Maybe Sinjin, but he’s easily spooked, so it’ll be fine, Vega. Calm down.”

Tori breathes out, placing her face in her hands. “We’re gonna have to act like we’re dating. Did you think that one through?”

“That doesn’t have to entail anything much, Vega,” Jade rolls her eyes, exasperated. “We’ll hold hands in the hallway sometimes, so what? You know where the bathroom is to scrub your hands after. It is not that big of a deal, Vega, so just fucking chill out. It could be worse. Robbie could have said something.”

Tori groans, throwing her head back. “I guess?” She says, though she sounds entirely too miserable, and Jade is honestly about to start being offended. “I thought you hated me. You won’t even admit we’re friends!”

Jade grins at her, tilting her head to the side. “That’s because we’re not. We’re girlfriends, Vega.”

That only makes Tori groan again, much to Jade’s joy. She hears the bell from inside the school, watching as everyone else starts to get up to head inside. Jade stretches her arms above her head, standing up. Tori also stands, and Jade stands there expectantly, watching her. It takes Tori maybe five seconds to figure out why Jade isn’t leaving her completely behind like she normally does, and it makes Jade grin when she can clearly tell the moment that Tori realises it. 

“You are so mean to me,” Tori decides, grabbing Jade’s hand, definitely not in a very sweet girlfriend lovingly way. Jade laughs, allowing Tori to storm into the school, trailing behind her, truly without a care in the world. “I’m so...you’re gonna have to be nice to me. That’s how dating works.”

“No it’s not?” Jade disagrees, confused. “Being nice isn’t included. You’ll have to pay for that.”

“Fine!” Tori lets go of her hand, and Jade nearly trips over her own feet, not having expected the momentum to stop so suddenly. “You’re gonna have to pay for hand holding.”

“I don’t want to hold your hand.”

“Clearly you do!” Tori shoots back over her shoulder, sticking out her tongue. “You’re the one who decided we’re dating all of the sudden. You want to hold my hand more than I want to hold yours.”

Jade rolls her eyes. “That’s simply just untrue,” she says, jogging to catch up with Tori. She makes an attempt for Tori’s hand, which Tori easily dodges, snatching her hand away. Jade heaves a sigh, rolling her eyes again. She really originally did this to make Tori suffer, and she’s not very happy about Tori playing the game back, and possibly better. “Fine!” Jade sighs, elbowing Tori in the ribs. “I’ll be nice to you three times a day. That’s it. You’ll have to pay for more.”

Tori snorts, letting her hand drop. “You’re awful, you know that?”

“Such a flirt,” Jade teases, leaning against Tori’s shoulder. “How sweet of you to finally start complimenting your girlfriend.”

“Oh, whatever, Jade!” Tori squeezes her hard, just shy of being painful. “Maybe you should compliment me back, ever think of that?”

“That’ll take up one of your three nice Jade times,” Jade grins, squeezing Tori’s hand back. “Are you sure you want me to do that?”

Tori heaves a very dramatic and loud sigh, stopping them at her locker. “You are so insufferable. You’re the reason for worldwide misery. Are you aware that you’re evil?”

“Vega,” Jade chides, leaning in closer. “You can’t be doing this to me in the middle of the hallway.”

“Get off of me,” Tori laughs, shoving her back. “You’re enjoying this too much.”

Jade shrugs, leaning against the locker next to Tori’s. “I couldn’t let Trina be the only one making you suffer. That’s just not fair to me, and I wasn’t going to let it happen. I think this is very funny. I’ll enjoy breaking up with you, too.”

“Uh, no?” Tori looks at her for a second. “That’s not how it’s happening. I’m going to be the one breaking up with you. It’s only fair.”

“Yeah, okay, Vega. We’ll see about that.”

“We will,” Tori agrees, and Jade watches as she grabs her backpack, slinging it over her shoulders. “Okay, girlfriend. Let’s go.”

Jade flashes her a sharp grin, pushing herself off of the locker, grabbing Tori’s hand again. “I’m going to kill Beck when we get to Sikowitz’s,” she announces, already planning exactly how she’s going to do it. She wonders how much money he’s made, given how there’s already about twenty-two people who apparently owe him money. And a lot of money, at that. Jade better get a big fucking cut of those profits. “He’s such an asshole.”

“Yeah,” Tori agrees, sighing. “I can’t believe he bet on us getting together! What’s up with that? It’s not even like we’re really together.”

“No idea,” Jade shrugs, realising that Beck was betting on them actually getting together. She frowns at that, wondering just why the hell he would bet on something that stupid. And surely there had to be a timeframe for it, right? “He’s so dead.”

“Good,” Tori mutters, pausing right before they go into Sikowitz’s class. “Are we sitting together?”

“Are we sitting together?” Jade mocks, beaming at the way that Tori glares at her. “Yes, Vega, we’re sitting together. We’re dating. Come on, get with it.”

“I was only informed of that ten minutes ago!” Tori protests, but Jade is already pushing into the classroom, ignoring the looks she immediately gets. She hopes that Tori is doing the same. Jade sits down, and Tori sits down next to her, and Jade spares a look over at her. She’s completely fine, the irritation and potential nervousness entirely wiped from her face. If anything, she’s smiling a little, looking content. The only thing giving her away is her leg, which is bouncing up and down way too quickly. 

“Stop that,” Jade mutters, putting her hand on Tori’s knee, holding it down. “Calm him down.”

“Whatever,” Tori harshly whispers back, sticking out her tongue again. “He is calm.”

“He clearly is not,” Jade rolls her eyes. “Chill out, Vega.”

Tori sighs, but her leg does stop moving. However, now her foot is bouncing, and Jade just shakes her head. Whatever, it’s progress enough. She leans back in her chair, watching the stream of people come into the classroom, watching very carefully for Beck. He does eventually come in, and as soon as he makes eye contact with her, he spins around, walking out of the room.

Jade is faster, though, and she’s grabbing the back of his shirt collar in an instant, dragging him back into the classroom, ignoring his protesting as well as his screaming. “Jade! No! Andre, help me!”

“Sorry, man,” Andre shakes his head, walking past the soon-to-be murder scene. “I’m not gettin’ involved with that, no way. Not when she's like that. Good luck.”

“What the hell, Beck?” Jade demands, shoving him into a chair, standing in front of him with her arms crossed. She chooses to ignore Andre's comments, for now. “I want half of the money you’re getting.”

“A quarter.”

“Half.”

“Let’s compromise and do a quarter.”

Jade glares at him, already murderous. “Hm. Let’s compromise and do a half or else I stab you somewhere that will hurt very much.”

“And we’re doing a half!” Beck announces, clapping his hands together. “Now, can you please go sit down?”

“For now,” Jade flashes him a grin, but she does go to sit, letting her arms rest behind her head. She glances over at Tori, rolling her eyes when she sees that she's still totally bouncing her foot up and down. Jade steps on Tori's foot, holding it down. "You need to quit that."

"Oh, yeah, like you stepping on my foot isn't obvious," Tori hisses at her. "I can't help it! This is literally entirely your fault!"

Jade shakes her head, leaning back in her chair. "So ungrateful..." she trails off, grinning at the absolutely miserable and enraged look on Tori's face. Sikowitz barges in a second later, a coconut in his hand as usual. He looks at Jade, and Tori, and heaves a sigh. Jade frowns when she watches him pull out his wallet, and shoots Beck an infuriated glare when Sikowitz hands him fucking money.

"Sikowitz!" Jade shouts, throwing up her hands. "You cannot be betting with students!"

"Oh, yes, I can," Sikowitz protests, all too mockingly for Jade's liking. "Anyways, to get over my humiliation at owing a teenager a ludicrous amount of money, we will be doing a prompt on how not to get scammed!" He grins, clapping his hands. "Up up!'

Jade rolls her eyes, standing up, offering her hand to Tori. "Well?" She asks, grinning. "Come on, partner. Let's go."

Tori stares up at her, and Jade wonders if she's imagining things, because she swears that she sees Tori smile at her.

"Yeah, okay," Tori nods, grinning right back up at Jade. "Let's, partner."

Jade grins, pulling Tori up, excited that Tori is finally playing the game right back at her.

She cannot wait to give Tori's life a little more suffering.

Chapter Text

Jade West is evil, that much is for sure. 

Tori barely had any time to process Jade's claims that they had secretly been dating, and then she was forced to either agree to get out of Hell, or to disagree and get out of Hell again. Honestly, she doesn't know which one is worse, though she's more inclined to go with being Trina's assistant, because god, that woman might manage to somehow be more evil than Jade West herself, which is really saying something. But now Tori is totally in debt to Jade, over something she didn't even want! Tori absolutely did not want to have to fake date Jade West, and now she's doing it. How amazing. How great. How exciting.

Jade seems to be enjoying it quite a bit, which Tori finds entirely infuriating. Jade has completely brushed off all of her concerns, mostly surrounding the fact that they literally are not dating, and now all of their friends think that they are, and they're gonna have to explain that to them. 

Which is where they're at right now, and Tori thinks that she's going to have an aneurysm. 

It's only been a day since Jade decided they were dating, and now they're at lunch, with everyone else there. It's not going well. Not for Tori, at least — Jade is perfectly fine, because of course she is. 

"So when did you guys get together?" Beck asks. Tori is still mad at him for betting on her getting with Jade, and she's even more mad that he made actual money off of it. She's mad that she can't even be outwardly mad and tell him that he's wrong, because then their little lie would be exposed. Tori forces herself to stay calm and to not just start kneeing Jade, but it is so difficult. Instead, Tori looks very expectantly at Jade, waving her hand to signal the woman to answer. If Jade wants to play these stupid games, then Tori will happily turn them right back onto her. Jade can answer all of these questions for all Tori cares. 

"About a month ago," Jade answers, and Tori feels Jade's knee bump her own. She does her best to not scowl at her, forcing herself to smile as she picks at her salad. Maybe if she just ignores the fact that Jade exists, right next to her, she'll go away. "Isn't that right, Vega?"

Oh, Tori hates her. 

"Obviously," Tori says, rolling her eyes. "Don't act like I don't know when our anniversary is, Jade. It's the 12th," Tori says. Judging by the way that Jade is looking at her, she clearly didn't expect Tori to actually answer, but that's her own issue. If Jade wants to be the worst person alive, Tori is going to double down and manage to be just as awful, if not worse than that. "Do we have to do this interrogation now?" Tori asks, heaving a sigh. "I just want to eat my salad."

"Well, you kept it from us for a month," Andre tells her. "This is just the consequences of your own actions, Tori. Plus..." he trails off, clearly looking at Jade. "I mean, come on. You can't blame a guy for being curious on why you would get with Jade. Like, you gotta see the disconnect."

Tori absolutely sees the disconnect. She entirely does. She sees it better than Andre could ever possibly imagine. "Wow, Vega. Are you just gonna let him insult me like that?" Jade asks, her voice low, almost scathing. While Tori is pretty sure she's acting, there's a part of her that isn't certain, and that's worrying. Jade is a great actor — Tori would say that Jade is a better actor than she is. It makes sense, Jade has been acting all her life. And Jade being a great actor is terrifying given the situation at hand.

"You literally didn't even give me one second," Tori reminds her, giving her a look. "I mean, it's not like Jade is the worst—" Beck laughs, and Tori shoots him a glare, almost laughing when she realises that Jade is doing the same thing. "You know the saying? Opposites attract? That's just what happened."

"Tori, that girl has tried to kill you."

Tori sighs, because Jade has put in her such an awkward position where she has to pretend to either have completely forgotten about that, or she has to like it. She takes a second to mentally prepare, as well as imagine throwing Jade down stairs. "Y'know how when elementary school boys like you, they'll be really mean to you?" Tori asks, grinning at the way that she can feel Jade's rage. "That's basically just what happened with that."

Andre does not look convinced in the slightest.

"Are you sure? 'Cause a lot of those attempts looked pretty real."

"What can I say?" Jade interrupts, shrugging. "I really like her."

Tori feels briefly terrified for her life, but she thinks that she manages to hide it pretty well, all things considered. "See?" She beams, making a motion towards Jade, who smiles back at her, though it's clearly forced. "It's okay, I didn't realise that it was flirting at first, either," she assures Andre, who really does look worried for her life. Tori is so thankful to have him as a friend, though she desperately wishes she could tell him that this is all ridiculous and not even real. But Tori also knows that she cannot make exceptions for who knows or not, and Jade would kill her, and also Andre can barely keep a secret to save his own damn life, let alone someone else's. "I appreciate the concern, though."

"She's fine," Jade says, and Tori looks at her, watching the woman roll her eyes. "It's been a month. If I wanted her dead, she'd be dead. But, clearly, I don't. For what I would assume would be obvious reasons."

"See?" Tori says again, stabbing some lettuce onto her fork. "You guys have nothing to be worried about," she says, though it feels like a blatant lie. Probably because it is one. Tori is worried for her own life, and she'd honestly be pretty happy if there were more people worried for her. "I'm fine. Promise." 

Andre sighs, seemingly relenting. Which is technically a good thing, but it absolutely does not feel like it. "Okay, I guess. Why'd you guys hide it for so long?" He asks, tilting his head to the side. "I mean, it's not like dating inside the friend group isn't allowed. I might date Beck!"

"You might—" Beck looks at him, frowning. "You might date who?"

"Well, you clearly had some concerns," Tori interrupts, arching an eyebrow at him. "Which, I mean, we kind of figured."

"Plus, our relationship is our relationship," Jade adds, looking almost bored. "It's not like we even had to share it in the first place."

"But we were going to," Tori says, frowning a little. "Because you're our friends, and it wouldn't be fair to keep such a huge thing from you guys for too long," she continues. "It was just, you know. We had to figure stuff out first before, you know. Anything else." 

"Yeah, I guess that's fair," Andre nods, seemingly happy with that answer. "Well. I'm happy for both of you. Even if this is pretty unexpected," he says, grinning a little. "Just try and keep the PDA to a minimum, alright? It's bad enough having to watch Robbie flirt with every girl he sees. I can't handle two more people makin' me watch that stuff."

Tori laughs, shaking her head a little. "I'm sure that that won't be difficult for us," she tells him, ignoring the way that Jade snorts next to her. "Hey, do you know if Sikowitz is going to tell us anything more about how he ran over that little boy last night?" She asks, and is immediately met with a chorus of disagreement and winces. She almost jumps out of her skin when she feels Jade shift, getting a little closer to her. Close enough that their shoulders are touching. It's surprising, but Tori does her absolute best to not react. Because realistically, if they were dating, then they'd touch. Probably not a whole lot, but they would still be touching each other, probably exactly like this.

So Tori leans against Jade, barely, but she does. "Also," Jade's voice is loud in her ear. "Can we talk about how Andre is apparently going to date Beck?"

"Agreed," Beck groans, giving Andre a look. "Dude. You can't ask me out at lunch."

Tori rolls her eyes, grinning a little. Really, that's what Jade did to her, except it's not real. It's basically the same, though. Jade informed Tori that they were dating in the middle of lunch, and god, Tori didn't even get to finish her food because she was so shocked. Jade has been insistent that Tori should be thankful, and there's a part of her that is. She's thankful that Jade got her out of the situation with Trina. She is not thankful for the excuse that Jade used to actually do that. She does have to admit it was pretty clever, and she thinks that Jade's delivery on it was another factor for how willing Trina was to relent. It was just so sudden, so blunt, right to the point. 

And, clearly, unexpected.

The bell rings, and Tori is up immediately. For the first time in basically forever, she's excited to go to her world cultures class, because Jade's not there. Jade is holding her hand, though, so it isn't like Tori can completely escape from her right away, unfortunately enough. "Do you think that we could start betting on Andre and Beck getting together?" Tori questions. Jade snorts, elbowing her.

"No, because it'll never happen. But it would be funny."

"It would be funny," Tori agrees, starting to walk. "You're so mean to me, you know that?"

"I didn't even do anything," Jade muses. "But thanks for the compliment anyways, Vega."

Tori sighs. "You were trying to get me to slip up. What was with that?"

"Oh, that?" Jade asks, grinning at her. "Come on, Vega. Is a girl not allowed to have a little fun in her relationship? What's so wrong with that?"

"Everything!" Tori groans. "You can't just inform me that we're dating and then immediately put me on the spot!" She shakes her head, guiding them through the hallways. "That's not cool. Literally at all. That's the opposite of cool. Uncool. You're uncool."

"Oh no," Jade drawls, laughing. "How horrible! I'm...uncool. I might just die right here."

"Okay."

Jade scowls at her, and that just makes Tori laugh, grinning. She feels much better, suddenly. "Uh huh, whatever, Vega. You're the one who wants to be my friend so bad."

"We literally—" Tori sighs, shaking her head. "You're unbelievable," Tori announces, stopping at her locker. She tries to let go of Jade's hand, but Jade seems to be very intent on not letting that happen. "And you're the one who wants to hold my hand so bad."

"Simply false," Jade shrugs, smirking at her. "I could stop whenever I want to."

"You're addicted to being my girlfriend?" Tori asks, as innocently as she possibly can. "How cute, Jade."

"You're no fun at all," Jade mutters, dropping her hand. Tori grins, feeling very victorious as she starts to open her locker. "I'll be back for you, Vega," Jade threatens, starting to walk to her own locker. "And then it's over for you."

Tori beams, turning to look at the woman. Jade looks back at her, and as soon as she does, Tori blows her a kiss. 

The look of disgust, confusion, and downright fury is enough to make Tori burst out laughing, barely able to control herself. Jade just storms off, but Tori is left there giggling, wondering if Jade thought this through even a little bit.

Chapter Text

Jade is entirely miserable, and somehow it's all Tori Vega's fault. She isn't entirely sure how, but it is, and she's totally going to kick Tori's ass. She’s definitely going to kick Tori’s ass hard when she sees her next, that’s for fucking sure. 

"So. Talk to me."

"I am absolutely not talking to you."

Beck whines, heaving a sigh. "Come on! Jade, we're best friends. The bestest of friends. BFF's, if you will."

"I will not."

"Well, I will," Beck says. "I'm interested. And BFF’s talk about their girlfriends together! So talk to me about your girlfriend! I didn't think you'd get back into dating so soon. And Tori! I knew you were into her, but—"

Jade groans, turning to face him, glaring sharply at the man, who simply beams in return at her from his spot in her chair by her desk. "And why did you think that? Give me at least five reasons, because I know it wasn't obvious."

She knows it wasn't obvious because she's not fucking into Tori Vega. Obviously Beck doesn't technically know that, but there's just no way in hell that she was giving off any sort of signs. Because there are no signs. There were no signs. Jade watches him watch her, narrowing her eyes even more. She's so incredibly interested to hear whatever bullshit he has to say.

"Are you serious? Because this feels a little like a trap."

"Just tell me!"

"Okay!" Beck laughs, holding up his hands. "Well, for starters, she makes you laugh. You never laugh," Beck tells her, very pointedly. "You just look happier. It makes me happy."

"Gross, Beck."

Beck sighs, shaking his head. Jade is suddenly regretting asking the man if he wanted to hang out. She just wanted some time to be alone, and she's always enjoyed being alone with Beck, but that clearly was the wrong call to make. "I'm just happy to see my BFF happy," he grins, and Jade rolls her eyes. "She clearly makes you happy. When's the last time you skipped Sikowitz's class? Or dodged out on lunch? You show up to every group hangout if she's there. Or even if she's not."

Jade scoffs, leaning back in her bed, grabbing the stress ball she keeps on her nightstand. She tosses it at the ceiling, catching it when it bounces back to her. "That's stupid. Maybe I just got better with time management."

"Sure you did," Beck teases, as if he doesn't believe her, which is entirely unfair. "You look at her all the time. I was honestly pretty surprised that she never noticed," he continues, and Jade sighs as he starts to spin in her chair. "Because I noticed. I noticed a lot. You think Tori Vega is pretty. That's a reason."

"A lot of people think that Tori Vega is pretty," Jade mutters, resisting the urge to say that she's not one of them. "That doesn't mean anything."

"Uh, clearly it does, since you're literally dating her," Beck points out. Jade freezes for a second, because fuck, though she quickly recovers, tossing the ball directly at Beck's head. "Dude! Not cool. That was so not fair."

Jade grins, feeling awfully proud of herself. "I dunno, I thought it was pretty cool," she says, easily catching the ball when Beck tosses it back to her. "And so what if I...looked at her? Are people not allowed to look at each other anymore? That’s really what you were basing all of this off of?"

"Why are you being so stubborn about this?" Beck questions, and Jade can hear the chair stop spinning. "You're dating her. You're acting like you're trying to convince yourself that you don't have a crush. You've already gotten past the crush stage — you are dating that woman, Jade."

"I'm just stubborn because I hate you," Jade mutters, but she does force herself to remember that she does have to have things that she likes about Tori. They're dating in everyone else's eyes. She'd have to have at least one thing she liked about her. "She's...pretty," Jade admits, defeated. "But it isn't like that's surprising. Everyone thinks she's pretty. She has a nice style," Jade continues, tossing the ball against the ceiling again. "She's strong. Did you know that?"

"Yes," Beck laughs, sighing after, as if he's remembering something. "And fast, too. We went to the Gorilla Club that one time and she beat every game. Twice. I think Andre almost broke his entire body on the Bunny. She's also picked up Trina before and thrown her. I saw that one happen."

"Hot," Jade laughs, because it kind of is. Even if it's Tori, it's still impressive, and it means that Trina definitely got hurt, which Jade loves. She does ignore the weird voice in the back of her head that confirms that it's Tori who is hot, and not just the action. But whatever, so what? Tori can be hot. That doesn’t mean anything. A lot of people find her attractive, and she just is. That’s not a big fucking surprise. "She's, you know. Talented."

"Oh, shocker," Beck teases. "She's pretty impressive."

"Why are you trying to steal my girlfriend, Beck?" Jade asks, ignoring the way her face is suddenly hot. She's gotten used to calling Tori her girlfriend pretty quickly, though sometimes it makes her feel fucking weird. "That's pretty fucked up of you to do."

Beck snorts, clearly starting to spin again. "Trust me, I am not into Tori. I haven't ever been, and I'm especially not when you two are literally together. Also, that girl is exclusively into women, luckily enough for you, being a woman and all that. How's it feel? One month in? Did it go by fast?"

"Yeah," Jade shrugs, thinking back to a month ago. She's sure it probably would go fast in all reality. It's been forever since Tori showed up in her life, and it still feels like yesterday. "I asked her out, by the way."

"For some reason I just don't believe you."

"Whatever," Jade rolls her eyes. "I like her laugh," Jade suddenly blurts out, frowning a little, because where the hell did that come from? She shakes her head, ignoring that. She tries to think of general statements that are either just true or are casual and basic enough likes. "I like hanging out with her. She's not as boring as you."

"How good for Tori," Beck laughs. "I'm really glad that you don't blow us off as much," he says, his tone turning serious, which makes Jade shift a little. She didn't really realise she was doing that. "I really think she's good for you, Jade. And I think you're good for her. Which, honestly, I didn't think I'd ever say that. You guys go together really well."

Jade smiles a bit, still tossing and catching her ball. "Yeah, well, you know what they say. Opposites attract and all that."

"They do say that," Beck confirms, definitely grinning, Jade can hear it in his voice. "You're being nice to her, right?"

"She doesn't get a free pass just because we're dating."

"Jade."

“What?” Jade scoffs, rolling her eyes. “Tori can handle me. She knew what she was getting into.”

Beck snorts, definitely rolling his eyes again. “Yeah, but you’re not gonna keep Tori if you’re mean to her all the time. You could be nice to her every once and a while. She should have girlfriend privilege.”

“You didn’t have boyfriend privilege,” Jade counters, but she sighs when she can tell that Beck isn’t going to relent on this, which is dumb, but whatever. “I already told her I’ll be nice to her three times a day. There. Happy now?”

“Bump it up to five,” Beck instructs, and Jade groans, throwing the ball at him again, way harder this time. “Jade!” Beck laughs, and Jade grins when she hears the ball absolutely make contact with his dumb skull. “You really need to stop doing that. Come on. Tori’s super nice to you. Don’t be such a bitch to your girlfriend.”

“I’m not even being—” Jade sighs, screwing up her face. Leave it to Beck to call her out on things she’s not even doing. “Whatever. Fine. Five times a day, but that’s it. I’m not a bitch.”

“I said to your girlfriend, and you definitely are a bitch to your girlfriend.”

Jade rolls her eyes. “Aren’t you meant to be on my side?”

“I’m your best friend,” Beck helpfully informs her. “I’m here to help you be a better person and to also hold you accountable for all your bullshit and for whenever you’re being a dick. Which you are frequently. And I’m also on your side,” he says, though Jade does not believe him even a bit. “But not when it comes to you being mean to your girlfriend.”

“Whatever,” Jade sticks out her tongue, catching the ball when Beck throws it back to her. “She likes it when I’m mean,” Jade says, wondering if that’s true. Tori has certainly never had an issue with it whenever Jade is being mean to someone else. And Tori hasn’t really ever complained when Jade is being mean to her. She’ll react, but more recently, she’ll just be mean right back. Maybe not mean, but she won’t just take it lying down. Jade’s been...interested in that, admittedly. Tori teasing her back is something that Jade never really expected. “She’s mean to me, too.”

“Tori Vega?” Beck questions that, sounding amused. “I highly doubt that. That woman loves being helpful and being nice to people. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her be actually mean to someone who didn’t deserve it. Other than Trina, but I’d argue that Trina always deserves it.”

“I’d also argue that,” Jade agrees, sitting up, catching the ball in her hand. She squeezes it a few times, contemplating throwing it at Beck again. “Maybe she’s not mean, I guess,” Jade says, tapping her free hand against her bed. “She’s confident. She doesn’t let everyone walk all over her all the time. Just most of the time. But Tori’s confident.”

“She is,” Beck agrees with a nod, coming to a halt on her chair. “She’s got a really good stage presence.”

Jade hums her own agreement, thinking about Tori Vega on stage. Tori has always thrived on a stage. Jade was there the day that Tori unofficially auditioned to get into Hollywood Arts. Jade had been incredibly amused watching her fight tooth and nail to not do it, but as soon as she was on that stage, it was like something changed in her. Jade watched Tori go from deathly nervous to performing as if no one was there, and she performed well. She still does. Jade hates to admit it, but Tori really is impressive when it comes to singing and acting. 

“How long have you been making bets on us getting together?” Jade asks, deciding to change the topic. “You had to have a deadline. What was up with that?”

Beck shrugs, looking far too innocent. “I just thought it was obvious. Everyone disagreed with me, but clearly I was right,” he says with a grin. “You’re just less, you know,” he waves a hand, shrugging. “Pissed off and angry and bitter all the time. It’s a nice change of pace.”

“I’m still pissed off and angry and bitter,” Jade counters, rolling her eyes. “I just have a girlfriend now.”

“Yeah, a girlfriend who makes you happy,” Beck beams. Jade sticks out her tongue, and that just seems to make Beck beam even more. Jade wonders for a second if she actually is happier. She didn’t really think that she was miserable. She was tired a lot of the time and it was pretty easy to piss her off. But the more she thinks about it, the more she’s realising Beck is right. It’s not like she’s skipped out on the majority of her classes recently. And she hasn’t ghosted any of her friends when it comes to hanging out. She’s actually replying to them instead of just leaving them on read. What the fuck? When did that happen? “You wanna get ice cream?”

“You suddenly get a craving?” Jade asks, feeling weird. She’s been laughing more. What the fuck. That’s so...when did that happen? Jade pushes herself off of her bed, tossing the ball onto it. “Which ice cream place?”

Beck hops out of the chair, grabbing his jacket off of the back of it. “The one by Wendy’s?”

“But not Wendy’s,” Jade teases. “Makes sense.”

“You know I don’t like Wendy’s,” Beck rolls his eyes. “I’m picking the music!” He announces, all but scrambling out of Jade’s room. Jade heaves a sigh, rolling her eyes when she can hear his stupid footsteps racing up the stairs. Jade grabs one of her leather jackets that’s hung up by the door, pausing to check that she has her keys and wallet. She calmly follows after him, taking the stairs two at a time.

Jade thinks that it might have been a little too easy for her to come up with things that she likes about Tori Vega. She decides that it’s just because she’s a good actor, which seems reasonable enough to her. But really, it’s not like Tori makes it difficult. Jade, as much as she truly, really, hates to admit it, respects her. Tori is admittedly good at a lot. She’s talented. She wouldn’t have gotten into Hollywood Arts if she didn’t have some form of talent, and Tori has a few different talents. She’s an amazing singer, she’s a great actor. Her stage presence is unreal — Jade doesn’t think she’s ever seen anyone perform like Tori Vega.

She’s nice, too. Jade always used to think it was disingenuous, but it’s pretty clearly not. Tori is just nice. And she has a pretty smile and a nice laugh and her eyes are soft and also she’s really freakishly strong for some reason, which Jade is impressed by. Tori isn’t stupid, either. She’s a bit naive, yeah, but Jade is realising that there’s a lot more to Tori than meets the eye. Which, yeah, obviously, but she’s just now noticing, so whatever. 

It’s not that hard to say nice things about her. Not really. Jade doesn’t like it and she doesn’t want to, but she’s not blind or deaf or anything else. She knows Tori is pretty. Tori is talented, it isn't difficult to see. It's just common knowledge. Tori’s fucking hot when she gets up on that stage, plain and simple.

But everyone thinks that, so it’s not like it’s a big deal.

Jade sighs, shivering a little as they get outside. It’s been getting colder at night recently, something that she’s enjoyed. It probably won’t get much colder than this, unfortunately enough, but it’s still pretty chilly. “You’re paying for my ice cream.”

“I know,” Beck waves his hand, hopping into his car. Jade snorts, getting into the passenger's seat, glad that he's accepted his fate. “Jade.”

“Beck.”

Beck looks at her, looking far too smug for Jade’s liking. “I’m glad you’re happy. And also that I was right.”

“Whatever,” Jade laughs, rolling her eyes. “Shut up and drive, Beck.”

He does, and Jade can’t help but smile. She is happy. She’s not entirely sure why or for what reason, but she’s happy. She doesn't know when that started, but she's not particularly complaining.

And, honestly, Jade isn't really that bothered. She kind of actually likes it.

It's not that bad, really.

Chapter Text

"Alright, girlie," Andre is immediately up out of his seat as soon as their study hall teacher leaves the room to go and do whatever it is she does for an hour. Tori sighs, though it isn't like this is really a surprise. She definitely was aware that Andre was going to harass her as soon as he got the chance, but there was a small, small part of her that was holding out for the chance that maybe he wouldn't. "You gotta tell me everything, Tori."

"Why are you so nosy?" Tori groans, rolling her eyes as she puts away her homework, because that's obviously not happening. She sighs, figuring that she probably shouldn't have immediately given up so easily, but it's a little too late for that now. "You already harassed me at lunch! Andre, I have a project du—"

"Not anymore!" Andre beams, hopping up onto her desk. Tori sighs again, because really, what the hell can she do to that? Push him off? She's considering it, but she ultimately is aware that she's just going to have to deal with it. God, Jade is such an ass for this. "She's nice to you, right?" Andre asks, looking entirely serious, which isn't something that Tori actually expected. "She's not her usual, y'know," he waves a hand, clearly looking for the words. "Her usual evil fucked up Jade self?"

Tori laughs, shaking her head a little. "You can't talk about my girlfriend like that," she tells him, the word still feeling weird on her tongue. It's not like the girl part is the problem. It's the fact that Jade West is the girl that's the problem. "And she's nice enough to me," Tori assures him. "I think she's still figuring out how to be nice, but she's getting there," she says, and it's not exactly a lie. Tori has known Jade for what, a year now? Jade today is practically an entire saint when compared to the Jade of the past. Even a few months ago she was near-unbearable. That's something that Tori hasn't exactly thought about before, but now that she is, she's realising that Jade really is nicer to her. No one else can probably see it, but Tori can. Jade is way nicer to her. Huh. "Yeah, she's doing better."

"Good," Andre nods, looking satisfied with that. "You're nice to her too, right?"

"Do you really need to be asking me that, Andre?" Tori asks, raising an eyebrow at the man. She doesn't think that anyone has asked her if she's the mean one between her and Jade. Like, ever. Even before they were "dating". 

Andre just shrugs, looking at her as if her question was stupid, which is a pretty offensive look to give her. "She's still my friend, girlie," he tells her. "I know that girl is mean as hell, but you can also get up there when you wanna get up there," Andre says. "And I'm also aware that you and her don't have the best history together. Trust me, I was there basically every single time some stuff went down between you. I just want to make sure you guys aren't killing each other for real."

That's actually really sweet, and Tori feels bad for being snarky at him. "I'm being nice to her," Tori assures him. She's definitely been nice to Jade. Maybe she hasn't been the nicest these past few days, but to be fair, Jade did totally screw her over in several different ways, and Tori is still processing it all. But generally, she is nice to Jade. She's always been nice to Jade. Tori has never really felt the urge to be mean to the woman. Sure, she definitely has been, but that's because Jade has no concept of going too far. Not when it comes to Tori, at least. At this point, Tori isn't even really ever fazed by Jade's bullshit. She's learning that simply turning it around on Jade is normally enough to make her stop, and that's been fun to experiment with. Jade isn't like Trina, who'll try to make Tori suffer just because she's naturally a bitch. Jade does it for a specific reaction, which is something that Tori has learnt recently, and it makes it way easier to avoid getting frustrated. "I don't think you're going to have to worry about us killing each other."

"I'm still gonna worry anyways," he laughs, tilting his head to the side. "You two are my best friends. I'm doing my damn best to not micromanage your relationship because I'm stressed. I've written, like, twenty songs, man!" Andre laughs again, heaving a very dramatic sigh afterwards. "Dating each other isn't a problem, and I'm not saying that you two are gonna break up, but I'm still worried about it. And I'm also worried about who'd be next," Andre grins at her. "Beck, you, who next?"

Tori snorts, shoving him a little. Not hard enough to shove him onto the floor, but enough to tell him to playfully knock it off. "Well one, don't micromanage our relationship. Jade will hit you, and I know that she's hit you before. Two, it'll be fine if we do break it off," Tori says, because it will be. They're going to break up in like, four months, and it'll be fine, because it's not like anything has changed. It's not like they're in an actual relationship. "You've seen Jade's relationship with Beck. Those two are closer than ever."

"True," Andre agrees. "That doesn't worry you?"

"Jade's allowed to have friends, Andre."

"Beck's her ex," Andre presses, and Tori wonders why he's so hellbent on this. She's genuinely never seen the issue between people having friends in relationships. Tori thinks she'd be pretty angry if someone just expected her to drop all her lifelong friends just because they were jealous. "That doesn't bother you?"

Tori shrugs, shaking her head. "No?" She offers, because it really just doesn't. "I don't care. They're best friends. I'm not making Jade pick between me and him. I'd expect her to pick him," she says, entirely honestly. "They've been in each other's lives for literally forever. It'd be messed up if I tried to dictate who she could and couldn't be friends with."

"Good," Andre beams, as if she's passed some sort of test. "And that goes for you too, yeah?" He presses, raising an eyebrow. "You should be allowed to be friends with anyone you'd like."

"I can be," Tori says, making a motion to him. "See? I'm friends with you."

"Tori," Andre looks at her, raising his eyebrow even higher, clearly unimpressed. "You are not into men. You like girls. Girls. You know, girls? Women? People of the female variety?"

"Shut up!" Tori laughs, rolling her eyes as she shoves him again. "And I know, I know what you're getting at," she sighs. Andre was definitely just hellbent on that because he wanted to make a point, which, fair enough. "I'm only friends with Cat, and I know that Jade has absolutely no jealousy towards her. Most of my friends are guys, like you," she shrugs. "But yeah, I also know what you're getting at in regards to that. I'll make sure that she doesn't bully me, don't worry, Andre."

"Cool," he grins at her. "So. What do you like about her?"

Tori swears to god that he's kicking his feet. She wonders just how many sleepovers he's had with Robbie and Beck where they giggle and play with their hair, because he's all too good at it to be a first-timer. That imagery makes her grin, and Tori does her best to not laugh in his face because of it. "Do we have to do this in the middle of class?" Tori asks, and judging by the way that he's still grinning, really swinging his legs now, the answer is yes, they do. Tori sighs, admitting defeat early, because there really is no way she can get out of this. And she'd feel bad, because Andre is clearly excited to talk girls with her. "I like everything about her," Tori says, which is mostly true. "She's very straightforward. And blunt. Jade's good at speaking her mind no matter what someone thinks."

"Girl, don't I know it," Andre laughs. "I don't think I have ever met someone who's less inclined to give a shit about literally anything. It's impressive."

"Yeah, it is," Tori says, because it really is. Tori genuinely likes the fact that Jade has no qualms about being an ass. It does suck when Jade decides to be an ass to her, but for the most part, Tori respects it a lot. "I think we balance each other out pretty well when it comes to that. She's also pretty," Tori continues, because that's also just true. Jade is objectively pretty, and Tori has no issues admitting that. She's always thought that Jade was pretty. "I don't know how she manages to make everything look good."

"Girl's got a talent," he agrees. "What else? Come on, Tori, I know you're holdin' back on me. You need to get it out!" Andre grins. "It's simply not healthy to not indulge in girl-talk with your best friend forever, you know that, right? And I'm entitled to know."

Tori laughs, thinking about pushing him off of her desk. "You're ridiculous, and you are not entitled to know, but whatever. I mean, I think that she's a really good actor," she admits. "I think I've watched her more than anyone else. She's taught me a lot about acting without even knowing it," Tori tells him. She has watched Jade, she's watched her ever since she realised Jade was also an actor. Jade is talented, incredibly so. Tori has genuinely learnt more about acting just from watching Jade than she's learnt from anywhere else. "She's a really good singer, too. I don't know why she doesn't do that as often."

Andre hums his agreement, making a motion for her to continue. "More."

"You're literally unbelievable," Tori snorts, tapping her fingers against her desk. "I like her sense of humour. I like that she just joins in on bits, I like that she's funny. I like her laugh, her smile," Tori says, shifting a little in her chair. "I think she has really pretty eyes, and she always looks good. I don't think I've literally ever seen her having a bad hair day or whatever. She's very passionate," Tori laughs, shaking her head. "Like, very passionate, about everything. I also don't think that there's anything that she doesn't have an opinion on. She's good at basically everything. She learns really fast, it's terrifying."

Tori thinks about that for a second, smiling a bit. Jade does learn really fast. That's something that she's noticed over the months. It only takes Jade a few tries before she gets it right, and Tori has always been really impressed by that. It usually takes her like fifty tries and ten hours of practice before she can come even close to getting it right. But Jade is just naturally talented in basically everything that she does, and it's insane how subtle she is about it. Tori thinks that the only reason that Jade doesn't get lead roles is because people are deathly terrified of her — it's definitely not because she isn't talented. 

"You guys are cute," Andre tells her, grinning. "I can honestly kinda see why Beck had started placin' bets."

"Dude," Tori groans, flipping him off. "Don't even talk about that. I'm still mad at him for that. Jade made him split it fifty-fifty with her, and I'm not getting anything! Do you even know just how unfair that is? Because it's really super unfair!" Tori huffs, shaking her head. She's been wondering if she could possibly convince Jade to give her even a little bit of that money, but realistically, she knows that the answer would be absolutely not. Which is really super unfair also. "I might have to kill him for that."

"You sound too much like Jade," Andre teases. "She's rubbing off on you already. Givin' you that murderous intent she has in spades."

Tori scoffs, but she can't help herself from smiling. "Yeah, whatever. I already have plenty of murderous intent. I have to live with Trina, Andre. I don't know how I wouldn't be murderous after living with her for my entire life."

"Clearly not murderous enough," he grins. "Or else you'd be an only child."

"She drives me to school and back," Tori waves her hand, grinning back at him. "I can't kill my ride."

"Just make Jade do it," Andre suggests, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world, and honestly, it is. "Why aren't you doing that already?"

Tori blinks. Fuck. There really isn't a good reason why they're not doing that. If they were actually dating, they'd have started that.

"Honestly, I don't know," she admits. "I guess we just didn't think about it."

Andre beams at her. "Well, now you have thought of it. And now you can peacefully be an only child with no regrets." 

She laughs, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, I don't know if it's that easy, but I'll keep you updated on it," Tori assures the man, yawning, stretching her arms above her head. She jumps in surprise when the bell rings, and then immediately bursts out laughing when Andre falls off of her desk, hitting the floor, a loud groan escaping him. Tori swings her backpack over her shoulder, standing above him, offering her hand. "You dead down there?"

"Just leave me," Andre groans, his hands over his head. "I need to sit here and be embarrassed about that."

"Please," Tori laughs, nudging him with her foot. "Text me whenever you get up so I know that you didn't die. Bye, Andre!"

"Bye!" He calls after her, still sounding miserable. 

Tori starts to walk, ignoring Sinjin, walking a little faster when he immediately starts trying to bother her. She pauses for a second in the hallway, standing there stupidly when she realises that Jade is standing in front of her locker, leaning against it. Tori is thankful for the fact that it seems like she's noticed Jade first instead of the other way around, because it gives her at least a couple of seconds to process the sight in front of her. Tori wonders just how fast Jade got out of her last class, because it's upstairs. There's no way she made it to Tori's locker before Tori herself did.

After taking a few seconds to fully process what she's seeing, Tori walks up to her, standing right in front of Jade. "Can I open my locker?"

"I dunno, can you?" Jade asks, a sly grin stretching across her face.

This woman truly is insufferable. 

To be fair, it isn't like Tori actually minds. She wonders what that says about her, but she decides to ignore that and not worry about it. She's just adaptable, clearly. Obviously.

"I can, yeah," Tori agrees, looking past Jade. "If you don't move, I'll pick you up and move you," she says, entirely serious. She knows that she could pick up Jade easily. Tori has absolutely no doubts about it. Jade stares at her for another second before she moves, and Tori beams, very pleased with herself. "You're taking me home today, by the way."

"What?"

"You heard me," Tori laughs, looking over her shoulder. "We're dating. You're my girlfriend. You're obligated to."

Jade rolls her eyes. "I don't think that's true," she says, but she's not actively protesting, so Tori thinks that she's pretty much in the clear. "But whatever. Can Trina not do it?"

"No, but Andre asked why we weren't already doing it," Tori tells her, opening her locker. "And I couldn't think of an actual reason why we wouldn't be."

"Ah," Jade hums, leaning against the locker next to Tori's. "Yeah, whatever. We're getting coffee, though."

Tori smiles, feeling something akin to a weird sort of fondness in her chest. "Okay, Jade. How was your AP Lit class?"

"Boring," Jade groans, and Tori laughs when the woman thumps her head against the locker. "I hate that fucking teacher. She replaced Powenski. He let me do whatever I wanted. Now this stupid fucking asshole doesn't even let you..." 

Tori is very happy to listen to Jade ramble about how apparently "dogshit horrendous fucking awful" her new teacher is. And, if she's being honest with herself, she definitely takes five minutes too long to just pull one book out of her locker, but she can't help it. She's interested.

And plus, it's totally normal! It's not like it's weird of her to do that.

They are dating, after all.

Chapter Text

Jade listens to Sikowitz ramble on about something, her legs crossed, one of them halfway on Tori's lap. Tori is diligently ignoring her, though her hand is on Jade's calf, which was a little surprising. 

"So!" Sikowitz claps his hands together, suddenly stopping his pacing. He grins widely, and Jade raises an eyebrow at him, pretty worried about whatever the hell it is he's about to say. He only ever looks like that when he's planning on making them do something stupid or ridiculous or really just downright dangerous. "Since I have noticed a lot of borningness in this class..." he trails off, and Jade can't help but roll her eyes, smiling a little when she hears Tori scoff. Good to know that she also thinks that Sikowitz is just dead wrong. "I'm challenging you all to just say yes!" Sikowitz says, clapping again. "And to be honest. Now," he starts again, giving Robbie, and Rex, a look. "You don't have to say yes to anything dangerous or anything like kissing. But you kids need a little adventure in your life! You need to broaden your horizons!" 

Jade rolls her eyes at that, figuring that he's probably gone on that tangent due to literally none of them wanting to help him pay for the new go-kart he has to buy for that kid. "Yeah, okay," Jade shrugs, because really, how bad could it be? She's not worried about it. Jade planned on heading over to Tori's for a few hours, and Tori Vega is probably the most tame person in their group. Though Jade does remind herself to not entirely underestimate her, because Tori Vega can also be entirely evil and fucked up when she wants to be. "I'm in."

"So am I," Tori says, patting Jade's ankle. "For, like, how long?"

"Just for the rest of today," Sikowitz beams. "Beck, Robbie, Cat? Andre? Your friends seem to be a lot braver than you right now..." he trails off, and Jade snorts when she hears Beck's incredulous scoff, followed by Andre's incredulous scoff.

"Uh, yeah, I'm in," Andre says, as if it was obvious from the beginning. "I'm not scared of your little challenge, Sikowitz."

Sikowitz holds up his hands, grinning, and Jade wonders if Sikowitz knew he'd be able to get them all to agree due to being competitive. "I'm in, too," Beck announces, and Jade watches as he leans back in his chair. "I too am also not scared of your little challenge," Beck grins, right as the bell rings. "I'm also saying yes for Cat and Robbie!" He adds on, and Jade laughs at Robbie's incredibly unhappy noise, as well as Cat's complete non-reaction. Jade watches as they all scurry off, removing her leg from Tori's lap, stretching her arms above her head. 

"I'm coming over to your place," Jade very helpfully informs Tori, who simply shrugs, as if that was expected. "Is Trina going to be there?"

"Hopefully not, but probably," Tori sighs, already looking defeated. Jade can vaguely understand, because if she had to go home to Trina every day, she probably just would abandon the house, move state, and change her entire name and identity. "She shouldn't bother us too much," Tori continues, running a hand through her hair. Jade is a little surprised when Tori takes Jade's hand in her own, already marching them out of Sikowitz's class. "If she does, we can just leave."

"Hopefully she just doesn't come back," Jade mutters, raising an eyebrow at Tori when she stops them at her locker. "Are you going to make me walk to my locker all on my own? Vega. That's not good girlfriend behaviour."

Tori gives her a look, which has Jade grinning. "Hey, can you go walk to your locker on your own?"

It takes Jade a second to realise what Tori is doing, and as soon as she does, she can't help but laugh, stunned that Tori is proving herself to actually be the worst person to do this challenge with. Jade isn't really complaining at all — Tori putting up a fight when it comes to her antics is actually way more fun than her just ignoring Jade like she used to.

"Okay, you got me this time, Vega," Jade decides, rolling her eyes at the way that Tori is grinning, looking far too proud of herself. "Just this once. I'll be back for you."

"Sure you will," Tori says, beaming at her. "You'll just miss me so much, huh?"

"Absolutely not even a little," Jade responds, grinning right back at her. She makes her way to her locker, shaking her head a little. Jade immediately stops smiling when she realises Beck is there, grinning at her, a very knowing look on his face. "Oh, absolutely not. Do not even start with me, Beck Oliver," Jade points a finger at him, rolling her eyes. "Don't you dare. You're too invested."

Beck laughs, holding up his hands in mock surrender, which is totally a mistake for him, because Jade immediately swings at his chest, not even remotely hard enough to warrant the way he leaps back. "Hey!" Beck laughs, narrowing his eyes at her. Jade simply beams at him, starting to open her locker. "Am I not allowed to simply be—"

"The answer is no," Jade informs him, which has Beck rolling his eyes at her this time around. "Don't look at me like that. Open your stupid locker."

"My locker is open."

"Close it," Jade says, grinning when she sees the exact moment he realises that he agreed to Sikowitz's challenge of exclusively saying yes. Beck stares at her as he slams it shut, looking entirely unimpressed. "Cool," Jade laughs, feeling a little too proud of that one. "Now open it again."

"You're arguably the worst person in the world," Beck muses, but Jade can see his smile as he starts to open his locker again. "I'm just happy that my best friend is happy," Beck says. and Jade rolls her eyes, shoving some of her books into her locker. "Happy because she has a girlfriend. A whole entire girlfriend. Whose name is—"

"Tori Vega!" Jade interrupts, laughing a little at how ridiculous he is. "You need to knock it off, Beck," she tells him, slamming her locker shut. Jade thinks for a second, and then promptly slams Beck's locker closed. "Bye bye!" 

"Go to hell, Jade!"

"See you there!" Jade grins at him over her shoulder, happily making her way over to Tori's locker, leaning against the locker besides it. "Hey," Jade beams, feeling oddly happy. Nothing has even happened and yet she still is in a pretty good mood. "We should..." Jade trails off, Beck's words from a few days ago ringing in her ears. Jade hasn't skipped a class in forever, but her next class is her stupid fucking AP Lit class with that stupid fucking teacher. Jade decides that she's definitely skipping, and will also definitely be abusing the fact that Tori has to say yes to her. "We're skipping."

Tori just looks at her, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, are we, now?"

"Will you come and skip school with me?" Jade phrases it as a question this time, grinning at the immediate eye roll that gets her from Tori. "You know what Sikowitz said!" Jade grins widely, feeling a rush of energy suddenly hit her. She doesn't know if she's been in this good of a mood ever, and she's not going to let it be ruined by some stupid bitch of a teacher. "Come on, Vega. Don't be such a Negative Nancy for once in your life."

"I'm not—" Tori sighs, glancing around for a second. She sighs again, slamming her locker shut. "Will you buy me lunch?"

"Yes," Jade says, not even that bothered by it. "Even though lunch was an hour ago."

"Well, it's not dinner," Tori shrugs, taking Jade's hand into her own. Jade barely even notices, and only really realises when she figures out that they're moving. "You are such a bad influence, you know that? A horrible influence, actually. You're simply the worst." Jade grins at that, leading them through the halls and right out one of the back exit doors. They used to have security guards back here for maybe a month, but they very quickly got tired of having to deal with kids trying to sing their way out of the school, which Jade happily took advantage of. Just like she's doing right now.

"I'm simply doing what I think is best for my mental health," Jade says, only letting go of Tori's hand to pull out her keys, unlocking her car. "Where do you want to go out to eat?"

"You ca—"

"Nope. Pick a place, Vega."

Tori scowls at her, sticking out her tongue. "Whatever. How about Freddy's?" She asks, and Jade shrugs, figuring that that's as good as any place. She hops into her car, rolling all of the windows down as soon as Tori also gets in. "How's your plan to fire your AP Lit teacher going?" Tori asks, and Jade is immediately overcome with complete and utter rage at the mere mention of that awful fucking woman. 

"I think that I might just kill her," Jade decides. "I think that that's what has to happen. Pretty sure she has to die."

"Okay," Tori laughs, and Jade watches as she sticks her arm out the window, her other hand already working on connecting her phone to the aux, because of course she is. "I think that might be a little extreme, even for you," Tori tells her, giving her a look. Jade just rolls her eyes, giving her a look right back, because Tori does not understand the misery that Jade has been going through for days now. "Do you even like Freddy's?"

"I've been there once or twice," Jade shrugs, pulling out of the parking lot. "It's whatever. It's not the worst thing I've ever had," she says, wondering how everyone else is dealing with Sikowitz's challenge. She's sure they're probably doing way worse than she is, given how she's skipping and going out to eat. "Also, I don't think you understand the depths of my rage for this woman," Jade mutters, listening to the song that Tori has put on, not recognising it. "Your music taste is somehow entirely unsurprising." 

Tori laughs, clearly adjusting her seat settings. Jade almost laughs at how comfortable Tori suddenly feels when it comes to being in her car, and fondly remembers the days when Tori literally wouldn't even step foot into it. "I think that I do understands the depths of your rage," Tori says, clearly mockingly, and Jade briefly contemplates just crashing the car in response. "I live with Trina, I understand the pure hate you can have for another human being," Tori laughs. "Also, whatever, Jade. You clearly like it or else you'd have just turned the volume down."

"Uh huh," Jade shakes her head. "I don't like it."

"Ooh," Tori grins at her, and Jade just scowls. "Sikowitz also made us pledge to honesty. Are you being honest right now, Jade?"

Oh, Sikowitz is actually really the worst person ever now, wow, that was fast. Jade heaves a sigh, listening to the song for another few seconds. "You suck. Whatever, Vega," she says, though she's smiling even despite herself. "It isn't awful. It's fine."

"So glad you think so," Tori says, very clearly proud of herself. Jade just sighs, shaking her head again. Tori is easily the most unbelievable person Jade has ever met. "It's called Diamond by Grayscale, since I know you were dying for me to tell you."

"Oh, mhm," Jade snorts. "Absolutely dying. I don't know how I managed to hang on for so long, given how you were depriving me of the most important knowledge," Jade grins, feeling the wind on her face, feeling almost entirely at ease. "Thanks so much for finally easing up."

Tori beams, putting her hands behind her head, wrapping them around the headrest. 

Jade can't find it in her to be anything other than content.

"Why the 12th?" Jade asks, dipping one of her fries into the fry sauce that Tori was adamant she grab handfuls of. Jade hates to admit it, but Tori was definitely making the right call. 

Tori shrugs, setting down her burger that's significantly longer than it is taller. They're at the park that Jade normally goes to whenever she normally skips and doesn't want to go back to her house, under a ramada. Jade actually learnt that that was what those things were called, because Tori Vega is a fucking weirdo who apparently knew that. "No idea," Tori shrugs again. "I just thought of a day that seemed right."

"And the 12th called to you?" Jade asks, teasingly. Tori flashes her a grin that looks like a resounding yes, and Jade rolls her eyes, dipping another one of her fries. Jade very suddenly realises something, and pauses mind-motion, frowning a little. "You're into girls."

"Okay," Tori laughs, sounding surprised. "Where did that come from?"

"Because you literally didn't care at all when I claimed we were dating," Jade muses, raising an eyebrow at her, feeling a little guilty. "I didn't know. Didn't mean to out you."

"You didn't, but that's very sweet of you," Tori beams at her, and Jade just rolls her eyes again. "Andre has known basically forever, I told Beck a while ago. I think that I mentioned it to Robbie, and I'm pretty sure Cat just figured it out on her own."

Jade is also realising that Beck has directly told her that Tori Vega is exclusively into women, and Jade basically just brushed it off and overlooked it entirely. "Well," Jade clears her throat, realising that she really did just ignore Beck's statement without even meaning to. "Can't believe I was the last one to know," she teases. "I'm also clearly into girls."

"Clearly," Tori laughs again, still smiling at her. "And you never asked. I didn't really want to just parade around the school and announce that I'm a lesbian," Tori rolls her eyes, picking up her long burger again. Jade goes back to eating her fries, sprinkling on some of the fry seasoning that Tori was also insistent on her pocketing. Jade did, and she pocketed maybe thirty little seasoning packs. And also about ten or so fry sauces. Tori better be thankful, because apparently the fries are the staple of Freddy's, according to Tori, and Jade quite possibly just got that location shut down. "If it makes you feel any better, I didn't know you were into girls until then, either."

"No?" Jade asks, raising an eyebrow. "Beck never mentioned it?"

Tori shrugs, shaking her head. "No. Honestly, maybe Andre has mentioned it to me?" She questions, frowning a little. "I never really thought about it."

That makes Jade feel better, because it's good to know that she wasn't the only one between the two of them who accidentally just blatantly ignored one of their friends when it came to this. "Well, I am," Jade says again, smiling a little. She watches Tori take one of her fries, even though she literally has fries of her own, and dip it in the fry sauce. Jade decides to be nice about it this time, because the amount of times she's stolen Tori's fries. "I'm bi, by the way."

"I kind of figured."

"Whatever," Jade laughs, eating another fry. "When did you find out?"

"That I liked girls?" Tori asks, setting down her long burger in favour of the custard she got, which Jade is tempted to just steal from her. "God, I don't know, forever?" She offers, laughing a little after. "I never officially came out. It was just pretty widely accepted. I don't even think that I came out to Andre, actually. I think that most people can just tell. Not you, though."

Jade sticks out her tongue, because that was such a low blow. "Whatever, Vega. Give me your custard," she says, and Tori sighs, but she hands it over to Jade, pulling out a second spoon from the bag. Jade laughs a bit, wondering if Tori had predicted that or not. Either way, she happily takes the spoon. "I found out freshman year," Jade tells her, thinking back to all those years ago. "Beck and I were on and off for months, and I kissed a girl at a party. Figured that out pretty fast."

"Give me my custard back," Tori beams at her, and Jade scowls, quickly taking another bite of it before she hands it over. "Don't look at me like that," Tori laughs, shaking her head. "You're going to ask for it back, anyways," she says, but Jade continues to scowl, wanting to get her point across. "Whatever. Hey, what did you do for your audition?" Tori asks, and it takes Jade a second to figure out what she means. 

"Give me—" Jade is cut off by the custard suddenly being thrust right into her hands, and she rolls her eyes. "Thanks so much," she mutters, smiling nonetheless as she takes a bite. "I put on a play."

"By yourself?"

"Yeah, by myself," Jade confirms, and she watches Tori for a second, frowning deeply when she realises exactly what the woman is thinking of. "No. Absolutely fucking not, Vega, do not even think of Trina's abomination of a one-woman play," Jade glares at her, which only makes Tori laugh, holding her hands up in defense, which isn't actually that much of an apology, given how her stupid long burger is in one of her hands. "I'm going home right now. And you can sit here and think about your horrendous act of malice."

"No!" Tori laughs, leaning forwards, almost across the picnic table. "Stay! Will you stay with me at this park until I want to leave?" Tori quickly asks, right as Jade gets up, and Jade groans, furiously sitting down, because goddammit, Tori is fast. Jade unhappily scowls at her, thinking that Tori beaming at her is entirely uncalled for. "I'm sorry, okay?" Tori says with a laugh, not looking very sorry. "I cannot choose the correlations my brain chooses to make," Tori informs her, though Jade thinks that's simply a lie. "What was your play about?"

Jade sighs, taking another bite of Tori's custard. "It was about this girl who got kidnapped, got out of the trunk, and crashed the car. Which obviously killed her kidnapper," Jade says, smiling a little as she thinks back onto that play. "In the end I revealed that she had actually planted herself in some random person's trunk and was just lying to the police." 

"Oh," Tori says, her eyes going wide. "That's messed up."

"Yeah it was," Jade grins, sliding Tori's custard back over to her. "It was one of my favourites. Sikowitz was the only one who applauded at the end. I think everyone else was too scared to."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Tori laughs, taking her custard. "I wish I was there to have seen it," she says, which Jade is surprised by, and it clearly shows, given how Tori raises an eyebrow. "What? It sounds super cool," she shrugs, which is even more surprising to hear from her. "I'd love to see how you pulled off that twist on your own."

"The school records auditions," Jade says after a second, recovering from her shock that Tori wants to see her very fucked up play. "Sikowitz might still have it somewhere. You could ask him for it."

Tori grins at her. "I will."

Jade smiles, feeling oddly happy that Tori is interested in her play. "What did you do for your audition?" Jade asks, grinning at the way that Tori lights up. It isn't like Jade doesn't know what Tori did for her audition. It'd honestly be pretty sad if she didn't know, given how Jade literally was there, and also it isn't like Tori is shy about singing her song every chance she gets. During that horrible trip to the beach when they got stuck in Beck's RV she sang it, and Jade wasn't really that surprised that she knew all the words. She's heard that song at least fifty times minimum.

"Well, I was forced onto stage," Tori starts off, which makes Jade laugh, because that was arguably her favourite part of Tori's entire audition. Jade remembers it so well, the way that she was fighting everyone, swinging wildly. "And then I sang a really good song," Tori beams, proudly. "You know, Andre literally lied to everyone that I was willing to go out and perform," Tori tells her, and Jade raises an eyebrow. "I said no, and he cut me off and told everyone I'd do it."

"Good," Jade grins, wishing that she had been there to see that. "I really liked the part when you fought off everyone."

"I was very desperate to not do it," Tori sighs, sliding her custard back to Jade. "I went, and I quote, 'nuh uh'," Tori says, miserable. "And then Andre said, and I also quote, 'she said she'll do it!' and then I did it. I tried to make a break for it, but Andre caught me and then physically dragged me away. I think I broke one of his ribs by kicking him."

Jade laughs, throwing her head back at the mental imagery at all of that. "God, I wish I had been there to see that," she grins, doing her very best to imagine it. "I think that was the best part of your whole impromptu audition."

"Oh yeah?" Tori asks, rolling her eyes. "You liked the part where I didn't actually audition."

"Yes," Jade beams. "I liked that part very much."

"Whatever," Tori laughs, sighing afterwards. "I tried to make a break for it twice, actually. That's what made me decide to start going on runs every day."

"You're fucking kidding," Jade snorts, getting a spoonful of custard. "That's ridiculous, Vega. That's why you're so fast and freakishly strong?" She asks, remembering all of the times that Tori has managed to outrun her to something. She's also seen Tori lift ridiculously heavy things up before. 

"I was always freakishly strong," Tori beams, stretching her hands above her head, clearly flexing. Tori's arms are toned, and while they're not super outwardly muscular, Jade can definitely tell. She looks away for a second, idly grabbing a fry. "I just didn't have a lot of stamina," she continues, and Jade looks back at her, seeing that her arms are back onto the picnic table. "But yeah, I started to run and work out more when I realised I couldn't escape not once, but twice. If that happened again, I'm entirely sure I could get away."

"Sure you could," Jade muses, smiling a little. "How about you climb the top of this ramada?" 

Tori stares at her, raising an eyebrow. She grins a second later, pushing herself up. "Okay. Watch me," Tori says, and promptly scurries off. Jade snorts, taking another quick bite of her custard before she sets it onto the table, following after her. Jade gapes at the woman, because Tori is literally already halfway up a fucking tree that happens to be right next to the ramada, and in seconds she's on top of the ramada, grinning down at Jade, looking entirely unbothered. She looks as if she literally didn't even exert any energy doing that. "Okay, now you do it!"

"Uh, no," Jade immediately disgarees, taking a step back. "You're just a freak, Vega. I think any normal person would fall and die immediately."

"Sounds like you're a scaredy cat," Tori teases. "You afraid, West?"

"Don't call me that," Jade sticks out her tongue. "And no. I'm just smart and know my worth. And I'm okay with not dying."

Tori laughs, standing up at the top of the ramada, her hands on her hips, looking so incredibly at ease that Jade is stunned. "Take a picture of me!" Tori suddenly says, her eyes lighting up. "And then send it to the group chat so they can see what they're missing out on. And also hopefully be terrified."

"You're fucked up, Vega," Jade laughs, but she dutifully goes to get her phone, snagging another fry before she walks back to her spot by the tree. Jade takes about twenty pictures of Tori, all in various poses, though most of them are just of her flexing and grinning like a madman. "Ooh!" Jade grins when Tori partially takes off her jacket, revealing her shoulders. "How risque of you, Vega!" She laughs, which makes Tori laugh for a second before she clearly manages to get herself under control. "I can't believe you're making me do a photoshoot of you on top of the stupid ramada."

"I personally am having a great time," Tori snickers, running a hand through her hair. Jade takes a picture of that, too. Tori's hair slightly pushed back, almost all hanging to one side, her hand intertwined in it. "And you're sure you don't want to come up here with me? Maybe I should make you."

"Sikowitz said nothing dangerous, and I'm deeming that as life-threatening," Jade helpfully informs her, pocketing her phone after the fiftieth picture of Tori or so. "You gonna come down from there, Vega? Or should I just toss your food up to you?'

"Definitely don't do that," Tori flashes her a grin, and Jade gasps when Tori just fucking hops off of the top of the ramada, landing perfectly on her feet, her hair somehow still in place. "Hey."

"You are a monster," Jade laughs, entirely in awe. "You're terrifying. Why isn't Trina dead yet? Also," Jade pauses, giving her a look. "You were terrified to do stunt doubling. What the hell was up with that, Vega? You'd be a perfect stunt double."

Tori shrugs, her jacket still mostly off of her shoulders. "That was way higher, and also, I was anxious that entire week. Beck is such a good friend, did you know that?" She asks, grinning. And even though Jade hates to admit it because it gives Beck way too much of an ego boost, Beck really is an amazing fucking friend. He's stuck by her through the worst of the worst, and his willingness to do stupid shit just to help someone out is almost unparalleled. Jade honestly thinks that the only person who could give him a run for his money would be Tori. "He ran very well in those heels."

"It was a little scary," Jade agrees, walking next to Tori as they go back under the ramada. She hops up onto the picnic table, grabbing another fry. She pulls out her phone again, very quickly sending four or five pictures to the group chat they have with everyone in it. "There," Jade says, setting her phone down on the table. "Your pictures have been sent." 

"Thank you," Tori beams. "You wanna head back to my place soon?" She asks.

"Yeah, we can go back soon," Jade agrees. "You exhausted after scaling that ramada?"

"Nah," Tori waves a hand. "But this custard is melting and I want to put it in the freezer, so."

Jade snorts, but she's not complaining about it in the slightest. They spend maybe ten more minutes at the park before they leave, and Jade wonders if she could convince Tori to skip more often with her, because today was fun. 

She'll definitely have to try.

Chapter Text

Tori’s phone is going off.

She does her best to ignore it, and it stops. Thank god.

And then it starts again. 

She groans, unhappily flopping over in her bed, grabbing her glasses off of her nightstand. Tori picks up her phone, gaping at the fact that Jade is calling her. Because what the hell. Jade West is calling her? Tori can’t think of one reason why Jade should be calling her this early in the morning.

Well, actually, Tori thinks, she can think of one reason. She assumes that she's probably Jade's one phone call, and so she picks up, ignoring the small voice in her head that's actually worried. She blinks when she realises it's a video call, finding herself staring right at Jade, who clearly isn't in prison. Tori didn’t know her room looked like that.

"You have glasses, Vega? I didn't know that. I can’t believe I’ve been missing so many opportunities to call you four-eyes, what the hell?"

Tori sighs, because leave it to Jade to call her in the middle of the night and promptly make fun of her. "I've had them since second grade, I wear contacts," she says, yawning after, not entirely awake enough to insult Jade back or even give her a reaction. "Why'd you call me?" Tori asks, adjusting a little, grabbing a pillow to prop her phone up with. "It's..." she spares a look at her clock, scowling. "Five in the morning."

"Wow," Jade drawls, sounding impressed. "You can tell time?"

"Jade."

"Okay, okay," Jade relents, and Tori is incredibly thankful for that — she is so tired. "I couldn't sleep and I was bored. We're dating, so you have to cater to all of my wants and needs."

Tori groans, pinching the bridge of her nose, groaning even more when she accidentally bumps her glasses. "We're not dating," she mutters, rolling her eyes. "In case you forgot, that's not real. Why can't you go to sleep?"

"Dunno," Jade shrugs. "I just haven't gone to sleep."

"So you decided that I also had to be awake."

"Well," Jade grins at her. "I'm not going to suffer alone, now am I?" She asks, and Tori just rolls her eyes again. Of course Jade decided to wake her up — she's evil for fun. Tori isn't that bothered, admittedly. She's been woken up by literally everyone in their friend group a million times, and this is Jade's first time waking her up. Andre has done it about fifty times, and honestly, his reasons have been stupider than just not being able to sleep. And, really, she doesn’t mind that much in the first place. Jade isn’t the worst, as much as Tori loves to act like she is. And they’re definitely friends, no matter how hard Jade denies it.

Tori yawns again, stretching her arms above her head. She mentally prepares herself for the fact that she's definitely not going to sleep, and the five hours of sleep that she got beforehand is going to have to be enough. "Clearly not."

"Clearly not," Jade agrees, beaming at her. "I'm writing a play," she suddenly says, and Tori can't help but perk up a little. "It's about a girl who falls to the bottom of a well and drowns in her own tears."

"Of course it is," Tori teases, resting her head against her hand. "How far along are you with it?"

Jade grins at her, looking very proud. "I'm basically done. I'm just finishing up some details about the scenes and then I'm done. I'm going to show it to Sikowitz tomorrow to see when I can put it on."

"Nice," Tori beams, wondering when Sikowitz will let her do it. "You'll have to let me know so I can be there," Tori says. "Send it to me, actually. I'll read it in my first class."

"You want to read my play?" Jade asks, sounding actually surprised. Tori rolls her eyes, giving Jade a look.

"Obviously I want to read your play, Jade."

Jade shrugs, holding up her hands. "I just didn't think you'd be interested in it, don't give me that look. It's not something I thought you'd like."

"That's because you think that I'm boring," Tori tells her, snorting when Jade just raises an eyebrow at her. "Just send me your play!"

"Okay!" Jade laughs, and Tori can't help but smile a little. Jade doesn't usually laugh, and Tori has honestly been appreciating it. She's glad that Jade isn't as miserable all the time. "Okay, there. I sent it."

As if confirming it, Tori gets a notification as soon as the words leave Jade's mouth. "Cool," Tori grins at her. "I'll read it in my first class like I said. How long have you been working on it?"

"Maybe a month?" Jade offers. "It's called Well Wishes, by the way. I've been working on it for a while. She falls to the bottom of the well and mostly drowns,” she continues. “She’s not actually dead by the end of it,” Jade says, and Tori does her best to picture the scene in her head. “It’s maybe like, an hour long?”

“It sounds good,” Tori says, because it really does. She’s interested in reading it and seeing just how the girl apparently falls into a well. Tori has seen wells before, and it isn’t like they’re really that easy to fall into. “You think that Sikowitz is going to like it?”

“Probably,” Jade grins, her eyes shining a little. “Hey, has Andre been harassing you more than usual, or am I just imagining things?" Jade suddenly asks, and Tori wonders for a second if Andre has been harassing Jade, too. She wouldn’t put it past him.

"He has been," Tori confirms, heaving a sigh. "He wants the in depth details of our relationship. He won't stop asking me about us. He’s actually ambushed me more than once!" Tori shakes her head. “It’s awful.”

Jade sighs, though she looks amused. "Beck's been doing the same with me," she says, and Tori literally could not be less surprised. If anything, she’s almost certain that Beck is way worse than Andre. “He won’t leave me alone, either,” she says, and Tori is also not surprised about that, either. “He’s more invested in our relationship than I am.”

“Wow, rude,” Tori teases, and Jade just grins at her, shrugging. “I think that they have sleepovers and talk about girls with each other,” Tori says. “Andre was totally kicking his feet and twirling his hair when he was asking me about you. They’re way too into it.”

“Thanks for that visual,” Jade laughs, and Tori watches as she grabs a notebook, flipping it open. Tori doesn’t ask what she’s doing, because she doubts Jade would actually tell her in the first place. “I’m shocked it only took me two tries to get you to wake up.”

Tori rolls her eyes, leaning back in bed, closing her eyes. “Going once a week without one of you guys calling me is a treat,” she says. “Andre likes to call me at four in the morning to freak out a little about something and then hang up. Sometimes he’ll just show up at my place. Robbie’s called me a few times, mostly about...” she sighs. “I don’t even want to get into all the times I’ve spent my morning researching if puppets can get diseases. Cat calls just to scream and then hangs up. I don’t even think she knows that she’s called me. Beck has called me before to ask if I could walk out to his place to help him change his tire.” 

“Beck called you to do what? You’re kidding me,” Jade laughs, and Tori opens her eyes, finding that the woman has suddenly leaned in, looking very interested. “He really did that?”

“Yeah!” Tori laughs, shaking her head. “He mostly calls me to come over and fix things for him. He’s surprisingly useless when it comes to having literally any skill that involves fixing stuff,” Tori grins. “He asked me to help him dump his fish tank, once. Those poor fish deserved so much better.”

“I’m sure the trauma they suffered from Robbie was unfixable,” Jade agrees, which makes Tori laugh. She remembers watching Robbie stick his head into Beck’s fish tank and then promptly vomit. She also remembers Jade stripping all of her clothes, and wonders just why that’s one of her key memories from that day. She definitely was not looking. Not even a little. “You really need to learn how to say no, Vega. No self-respecting person would research puppet diseases at six in the morning.”

Tori agrees with that more than Jade could ever possibly understand. “It really has taken up too much of my morning time,” she agrees, sighing. “Robbie is just literally inconsolable until I help him, and I’d feel bad letting him sob alone in his room. Rex isn’t nice to him.”

“Rex is a fucking puppet, and Robbie can deal with getting bullied by his puppet a little if it makes him less like that,” Jade tells her, rolling her eyes. Tori is inclined to agree, but she also doubts that Jade has ever dealt with Robbie in the same ways that Tori has. “Just hang up on him. And god,” Jade groans, running a hand through her hair. “I don’t think I can ever go to the beach again after the fucking hell we went through.”

Tori groans, nodding her agreement. “I think that I’d rather die. I don’t trust Cat anymore and I also think that I’d probably freak out if I stepped foot in Beck’s RV again,” she decides. “I still don’t even know how we managed to survive that.”

“Luck?” Jade offers, and Tori laughs, deciding that that’s probably the best answer that they’ll get. “At least it’s not as hot as it was,” she sighs. “I don’t like hot weather.”

“I’m sure that’s not going great for you,” Tori teases. “Given how you’re living in LA.”

“I’ve survived thus far,” Jade grins, holding up her hands. “I’d say I’m doing a pretty good job.”

Tori grins back at her, sitting back up. “Yeah, I guess,” she teases. Tori adjusts her glasses, already preparing for the fact that she’s totally going to try and push them up all day today, even when she switches to her contacts. She vows to absolutely not let Jade see that, because she knows that she’d never be able to live it down. “For now.” 

There’s a period of silence between the two of them, and it isn’t super uncomfortable. Jade is writing or doing whatever in her notebook, and Tori stares up at her ceiling, at her fading glow-in-the-dark stars that she needs to replace. She wonders if she should even bother replacing them, given how she has lights strung up around her ceiling. Tori decides that they’re a staple of her room, and makes a mental note to buy them the next time she’s out.

It’s almost weird being in silence with Jade. It’s not bad, not like how Tori expected. It isn’t even awkward. It’s kind of peaceful, actually, just being able to not be at each other’s throats all the time. Tori feels a little tired, though, and she does not want to fall asleep while having a video call with Jade West. God forbid that woman decides to do literally anything.

“Hey, how's convincing your new AP Lit teacher to quit going?” Tori asks, breaking the silence. Jade’s immediate look of disgust is enough to make Tori laugh, because that is a very clear not good. 

“I’m just going to, I don’t know, blow up her car,” Jade decides, and Tori snorts, rolling her eyes at that. “She’s such a bitch!” Jade continues, shaking her head. “She clearly doesn’t like me just because she hates that I’m better at writing than she could ever hope to be.”

“I’m sure that’s it,” Tori says, ignoring the dirty look Jade gives her for that. “Does everyone else in your class hate her too?”

“Yes,” Jade says immediately, barely even letting Tori finish. “Absolutely. I’m going to set her house on fire.”

“Okay,” Tori laughs, shaking her head. She doesn't entirely believe that Jade isn’t the only one in that class who hates the new teacher, but she doesn’t try to refute it. She glances over at her clock, her eyes widening when she realises it’s been an hour. What the hell? There’s no way that they’ve been talking for an hour. It’s all gone by so fast, wow. “I think that might just be a little too far.”

“I don’t think so,” Jade mutters. “I think she’s at the top of my hate list right now.”

“Oh, I’ve been demoted? I see how it is.”

Jade shakes her head, but she’s definitely smiling, Tori can tell. “Beck specifically told me I couldn't have my girlfriend at the top of my hate list. So you’re coming in at a solid second, Vega. Congrats!”

“You’re so ridiculous,” Tori laughs, rolling her eyes. “I can’t believe I’ve finally moved from my spot.”

“Yeah, you’re such a good girlfriend that it just had to happen,” Jade teases. “Obviously.”

“Well,” Tori smiles, leaning back in bed, closing her eyes again. “You deserve a good girlfriend.”

It’s more genuine than Tori meant for it to sound, but it’s too late to take it back, and it isn’t even like she’s lying. She’s not — Jade deserves to have a good person in her life. Tori thinks about it for a second, imagining Jade with someone else. She honestly can’t, which makes her frown a little, hoping Jade doesn’t notice that. For the life of her, Tori literally just cannot picture Jade with anyone else, not even Beck, and it almost feels wrong to try. 

Really, that’s not super surprising. Tori’s a great actor, and she’s just fitting into her, fake, role of Jade’s girlfriend. Obviously it’d be wrong to think of anyone else dating her, when Tori is supposed to be pretending to do that. 

“How sweet of you,” Jade says, and Tori opens her eyes, finding that the woman is not looking anywhere at her. “You’re not all that bad. Sometimes you’re tolerable.”

Tori laughs, tilting her head to the side. That’s practically the greatest compliment that Jade has ever given her, and even though it’s ridiculous, Tori feels a little warmer. “Thanks so much,” she grins, running her hand through her hair. “Hey, do you think you could pick me up?” Tori asks. “Trina has been way worse lately, and I don’t think that I can deal with her. Plus, you know, Andre did make a good point about how we should be doing that anyways.”

“Yeah, sure,” Jade shrugs. “Why’s she been worse?”

“I have no idea,” Tori sighs. “Sometimes she just has moods, worse than her normal moods. She’s just...you know. Insufferable.”

“I’m shocked you’ve survived as long as you have,” Jade comments, and Tori agrees entirely. “Hey, how’s your punishment been going?” Jade asks with a grin, and Tori rolls her eyes, shuddering a little as she thinks of all the literal torture and misery she’s been experiencing in the past week.

“It could be a lot better,” she offers with a sigh, letting her shoulders fall. “I’m glad that it’s not for a full month,” Tori says, threading her hands through her hair. “I think I would have genuinely died. I don’t think I’d have survived. I honestly don’t.”

Jade hums, nodding solemnly. “I completely agree. You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Whatever,” Tori sticks out her tongue. “You’re just as evil. You couldn’t have thought of anything else? You couldn’t have, I don’t know,” Tori waves a hand. “You couldn’t have tackled her? Why couldn’t you have said that we lived together in a magic sugar castle? I think everyone would have believed that one more.”

“Well,” Jade grins, holding up her hands. “Clearly I did not say any of those things. Come on, it’s not like they think we’re lying,” Jade shrugs. “They’re pretty clearly believing us, and apparently Beck had his bets on us for months. Which I still don’t fucking get.”

“Neither do I,” Tori mutters with a sigh. “Has he given you any reasons?”

Jade shrugs, looking away. “I mean, yeah. But they were all stupid and wrong.”

“Not surprised,” Tori laughs. “It’s almost seven,” she says, glancing at the time. “I should probably start getting ready.”

“It takes you that long to get ready?” Jade asks, raising an eyebrow. “Wow, Vega. I didn’t know you put so much time and effort into purposefully wearing bright, blindingly neon colours.”

Tori sticks out her tongue at her again. “Whatever, Jade. And no, it doesn’t take me that long to get dressed. I have to get into the bathroom before Trina, and if I forget anything in my room, I will not get back in. So I need to make sure I have everything, and then I might have to fight her. It’s a whole thing.”

“Clearly!” Jade laughs. “Well, okay. Get ready then. I’m going to have a great time in my bed, all warm and content, without a care in the world.”

“You’re so messed up,” Tori says. rolling her eyes. She picks up her phone, turning it around. “You get to look at my plants over there,” Tori helpfully informs Jade. “I’m gonna get my clothes ready.”

“Oh, wow! Lucky me!” 

Tori just grins, hopping out of bed. She stretches her arms over her head, twisting a little to the side to crack her back. She grabs the clothes that she had already set out last night, grabbing her bag of toiletries that she keeps in her room, because god forbid Trina gets ahold of them. “Okay, let’s go,” Tori murmurs, grabbing her phone again, her clothes lumped against her chest. She sets Jade up against a wall, laughing at the immediate “what the fuck?” that comes from the woman. “I’m not letting you watch me strip, Jade.”

“So you put me in timeout?” Jade asks, sounding incredulous. “That’s fucked up, Vega.”

“Oh, boo hoo!” Tori laughs. “You’ll be okay. I just have to put my clothes on. You’ll manage to survive not looking at me for a few minutes.”

Jade heaves a sigh, all too dramatically. “I might die. I can’t look at Tori Vega? How awful! How miserable! Oh, the horrors! I simply might perish!”

“You’re so ridiculous!” Tori says with a laugh, tossing her tank top to the side. “I’m absolutely positive that you’ll manage. Good to know you think I’m pretty.”

“Literally when did I say that?” Jade asks, and Tori grins at how flabbergasted she sounds. “How did you even get to that conclusion? You’re unbelievable, Vega.”

“I’m simply drawing an appropriate conclusion from your reaction,” Tori shrugs, pulling on her pants. She grabs her belt off of the counter, grinning at the way that she can hear Jade’s sigh. “Don’t sigh at me. I’m right and you’re just mad about it.”

“You’re not right, that’s why I’m mad about it,” Jade mutters. “You’re...acceptable. You could be worse.”

Tori snorts. “The epitome of kindness.”

“You know it,” Jade laughs, which makes Tori laugh, smiling widely. “And whatever, Vega. You don’t need me to inflate your ego.”

“I mean,” Tori shrugs, putting on her shirt. “You are my girlfriend. I think most people would want their girlfriend to be nice to them.”

“Oh, so we’re only really dating when it’s convenient for you?” Jade asks, clearly teasing.

“You do the same thing! And hey,” Tori shrugs, grinning. “If it works, it works.”

“Whatever, Vega.” 

Tori grins a little more, leaning over her sink to wash her face. She probably should have done that before she got dressed, but whatever, it’s too late for that. She finishes that pretty quickly and then moves onto brushing her teeth. After she does that, Tori finally turns Jade around, setting her on the sink, propping her up against the wall. “There, since you want to see me so badly.”

“I quite literally never said that. Also, really?” 

Tori realises that Jade is literally halfway through taking her shirt off, and promptly spins around, heaving the loudest and most dramatic sigh that she possibly can. “And you didn’t think to tell me?” She demands, reaching behind her back to grab her brush. “I am absolutely not taking any of the blame for that. No. Uh uh. This is entirely on you.”

Jade’s laugh fills her ears, and Tori is convinced that that woman is evil for real, and also that Jade did it on purpose just to try and fuck with her. “Sure, Vega,” she drawls, and Tori reaches behind herself again, flipping Jade off. Jade laughs again, sounding genuinely surprised. “You can’t try and sneak a peek and then—”

“I didn’t try to—” Tori sharply turns around, giving Jade the dirtiest look when she sees that the woman is entirely dressed, still hanging out in her bed. “You know what? I don’t want you to pick me up. I’m walking, actually.”

“Oh, I’m sure you are,” Jade teases, grinning so hard that it has to hurt, and Tori prays that it does. “Am I not allowed to have a little fun?” 

The words are similar to something Jade said a few days ago, and Tori rolls her eyes hard, making sure Jade can see her doing it. “No,” Tori decides, promptly turning around to continue brushing her hair. “You can’t. At all.” 

“Oh, never? Never any fun?”

“You don’t deserve fun,” Tori says as roughly as she can, though she can’t stop herself from grinning. As much as Jade is evil and cruel, Tori can’t help but have fun with her. Jade is somehow fun to hang out with, which is something that Tori has realised recently. So long as Tori doesn’t let Jade walk all over her and be a bitch, she’s good to go. And Tori has also learnt that shutting Jade up is easy enough — she just has to tease her right back and one up her. It’s not hard. “Stop looking at me like that.”

“Vega, you literally can’t even see me. I’m not looking at you at all.”

“Sure you’re not,” Tori grins. “If I turned around right now, I bet you’d be looking at me.”

“You willing to bet me coffee on that?”

Tori snaps around very suddenly, finding Jade staring at her, wide-eyed, her face twisting into disbelief. “Yes,” Tori beams, setting her brush down, heavily enjoying the sound of Jade’s furious grumbling. “Maybe just be faster next time, West. ”

“Oh, do not call me West,” Jade glares at her, and Tori swears that she’s smiling a little. “You’re actually fucked up, you know that? I’m going to start telling people that you’re the mean one between us.”

“I’m sure they’ll believe that,” Tori grins, taking off her glasses, setting them to the side. She starts to put her contacts in, sighing at the fact that Jade is totally leaning in way closer to her phone than necessary, staring her down. “Can you back off a little? I’m gonna put you in timeout again. Let me put my contacts in without you staring at me.”

Jade snorts. “The horrors of timeout,” she sighs, not even bothering to feign any mock terror, which Tori is incredibly disappointed by. “And whatever, I just think it’s interesting. Be a buzzkill.”

“You can literally watch videos of people demonstrating how to put in contacts,” Tori says, never breaking eye contact with herself in the mirror. She sighs again when she sees out of the corner of her eye that Jade is absolutely not moving. “You’re a weirdo.”

“You like that.”

Tori sighs, shaking her head a little, unable to stop herself from smiling. “I tolerate that. You’re tolerable.”

“Such a flirt,” Jade teases. “Does it hurt?”

Great, now she’s asking questions. Tori does her best to not roll her eyes, barely managing that. “It doesn’t feel great,” she answers, shrugging. “But I don’t normally think about it, because I’m so used to doing it. If your eyes are dry it’s not fun either. The first time is probably the worst. It gets easier. What, are you planning on getting contacts?” 

“Am I not allowed to be interested?” Jade shoots back, and Tori is opening her mouth to say no. “Don’t even start with me, Vega. You’re just boring.”

“That’s literally not true at all.”

“I will not be changing my stance. Anyways, you’re going in timeout. I’m gonna get ready.”

Tori finishes putting in her contacts, sighing very heavily when she looks at her phone, finding that it’s pitch black. “You’re the worst person I have ever met.”

“That’s so sweet of you to say, Vega.”

“Whatever,” Tori rolls her eyes, putting on her jacket, looking at herself for a few more seconds. She messes with her hair for a second before she picks up her phone, walking out of the bathroom, wincing when she can already hear Trina’s footsteps. Tori quickly escapes to her room, tossing her phone onto her bed for a second as she grabs her backpack, setting it by the door. “I’m gonna go outside and wait.”

There’s a few seconds of silence before Jade appears back on her screen. “Okay. I’ll be there in five. Bye.”

“Five?” Tori asks, but Jade has already hung up on her, because of course she has. Tori sighs, smiling nonetheless, and grabs her backpack, walking downstairs. She sits on her porch, finding that she isn’t really tired at all. While Tori definitely would have been happy to sleep another few hours, she’s finding that he isn’t that upset about spending her morning with Jade.

It was kind of nice, actually, even if Jade West is literally the most insufferable person that Tori knows. 

Jade is over at her house in four, actually, which Tori doesn’t understand at all, but whatever. And, even despite Jade clearly seeing her on her porch, she honks the horn until Tori stands up to get in her car.

Yeah, Jade’s not all that bad.

She’s still pretty bad, though. She’s definitely pretty bad, that’s for goddamn sure. That’ll never change.

But Tori finds that she doesn’t mind that much at all. 

Chapter Text

Jade is fucking furious. It's not fair that her play specifically can't be put on, but Sinjin's play where he eats his best friend alive can be. She breathes out, staring at the door in the janitor's closet. Jade's been hiding in here ever since her first class. She had picked up Tori, and that was...fine. Jade was in an arguably good mood up until her stupid fucking first period when she went to Sikowitz's class for a second and he told her that her play wasn't happening.

Jade groans, kicking out at the trash can next to her, jolting when the door very suddenly opens.

And, of course, there's Tori Vega.

"How did you—"

"You always come here when you're upset," Tori tells her. Jade rolls her eyes, thinking that that's entirely unfair. She also wonders who told Tori she was upset, though she's figuring it was probably Beck — he saw her throw her entire backpack at Sinjin. "What's upsetting you?"

Jade scoffs, shifting a little. "You don't have to pretend to be a good girlfriend here, Vega."

"Jade," Tori says her name with such conviction that it makes Jade stop moving. She looks at Tori, raising an eyebrow, willing her to continue. "I'm not pretending to be concerned. Come on. You know me. You call me annoying because I involve myself in everyone's problems. We're friends. So tell me what's up."

"We're not friends," Jade mutters, but she feels a little less annoyed. "It's just...my play, Well Wishes. The one I told you about last night."

"Yeah!" Tori beams at her. "I read it this morning, I thought it was really good. What's up with it?"

"Glad you thought so," Jade sighs, looking away, her face heating up a bit. "It's not happening is what's up. Sikowitz isn't letting me do it here. Apparently it's too weird and disturbing. So, yeah. It's not happening."

Tori looks genuinely stricken at that, something that surprises Jade entirely. She didn't think that Tori would look that beaten up about Jade's play getting scrapped. "Well, that's fucking stupid," Tori decides, looking irritated and annoyed in a way that Jade has never seen before. "I'm gonna go kill Sikowitz."

"Please," Jade snorts, shaking her head. "How chivalrous of you," she teases. "It's not worth it. He's not going to change his mind. And it'd take, like, three grand to produce my own play."

"Three grand?" Tori asks. "Okay. It shouldn't be that hard to find someone who'll fund you," Tori tells her, and Jade can't really do anything other than gawk up at her in complete surprise. "I mean, people love theatre, right? There's got to be some old rich person who'd love to see a play on their deathbed," she grins. "It can't be that hard."

Jade stares at her, an emotion forming in her chest that she doesn't quite recognise. "Vega. There's...that's still three grand. That's not cheap."

"Cheap for a self-produced play," Tori shoots back, shrugging. She takes a step forwards, reaching her hand out. Jade takes it, allowing herself to be pulled up to her feet. "And, plus, would I really be a good girlfriend if I let my girlfriend suffer? I think not!" Tori beams, squeezing her hand. "Come on. We'll figure it out."

"Why do you care so much?"

"Because it's your play," Tori tells her. "And it's just not fair that they won't let you do it here. People like weird and disturbing."

"Do you like weird and disturbing?" Jade asks, tilting her head to the side, feeling a little anxious.

Tori looks at her, looks her up and down, and smiles a little. "A bit."

Jade finds herself smiling, looking away without really meaning to. She walks out of the janitor's closet with Tori, finding all of their friends crowded around Tori's locker. She rolls her eyes at the way that they all look completely terrified, as if she was about to brutally murder all of them. She finds herself squeezing Tori's hand, pausing when she realises that she wasn't even aware she was still holding it.

"So?" Beck presses, raising an eyebrow. "What's up?"

"Tori's funding my play," Jade says, leaning against Tori's locker. "What are you all doing for lunch?"

"We're goin' out for Chinese food," Andre says, putting his arms around Tori and Robbie's shoulders. "You spend too much time together," he grins, tilting his head to the side. "Maybe you and Beck can do somethin' together."

Jade looks over at Beck, who shrugs. "Sure. Where do you wanna go?"

"I don't care," Jade waves her free hand, letting go of Tori's. "You're paying."

"Of course I am." 

The bell rings, and Jade watches as everyone scrambles to throw their bags away. She watches as Tori opens up her locker, promptly handing Tori her bag. "Jade. You have your own locker."

"And we're dating," Jade very helpfully reminds her, beaming. "Come on, Vega. I've had a rough day."

"Whatever," Tori rolls her eyes, but she does take Jade's bag, putting it into her locker. Jade grins, nudging the woman with her shoulder. "I can't believe we already apparently spend too much time together."

"They're delusional," Jade snorts, watching Tori put her own backpack into her locker. "Well," she says, grinning at Tori. "I'll catch you later, Vega."

"Have fun with Beck!" Tori waves, and despite herself, Jade waves back. She rolls her eyes at the way Tori blows her a kiss, returning her "affection" with a prompt raising of her middle finger. Jade can hear Tori laughing behind her, which only makes Jade smile.

Tori is calling her.

Jade looks down at her phone, raising an eyebrow. Tori normally texts her. She picks up, flinching when she hears screaming as soon as she does, holding her phone away from her ear, because what the fuck.

"J— Jade!" Tori's laugh comes through from the other side, sounding breathless. Jade tilts her head, wondering just what the hell is with her.

"Vega," Jade answers, adjusting. She's laying down in bed, tossing a ball against her ceiling. She's been fucking bored, mostly because she hasn't felt like writing anything. "Why are you so happy?"

"Because!" Tori laughs again, genuinely sounding thrilled. "Oh my god! Jade! I got the money for your play! We got you a theater and everything! Come pick me up!"

"You're fucking kidding. Vega, that's—"

"Come pick me up!" Tori repeats, giggling. "Bye! See you soon!"

"What— Tori! Oh my god." 

But Tori has already hung up on her, and Jade is left sitting there, unable to stop herself from grinning. Holy shit. Holy shit. Tori fucking Vega has come through for her once again. J ade wastes no time in throwing on a simple outfit, grabbing her wallet and her keys. She rushes out the door, nearly tripping and dying because of how fast she's going. Jade is in her car in record time, speeding off to Tori's house, which is only maybe five or ten minutes away. She's anxious the whole time, because what the fuck. Tori somehow managed to find three grand for her in one day, not even a full day. 

It's exhilarating, knowing that she'll be able to actually put on her play that she worked so hard on. 

She gets to Tori's house, also in record time, wondering if she should text or call or what. Jade doesn't do any of that, choosing to just slam her hand down on her horn. She only holds it down for maybe fifteen seconds before Tori is rushing out of her house, looking wildly happy. "That was fast!" Tori laughs as she hops into the car. "Okay, okay, let me put the address—"

"Tori!" Jade interrupts, shaking her head. "How did you manage to...how?"

"Well," Tori shrugs, grinning. "When we went out to this really good Chinese restaurant, we met the owner of the place, Mrs. Lee. And she really loves everything creative, and she was also really excited to help fuel some young love, so she offered to fund the whole thing!"

Jade stares at her, completely in shock. "So this woman, who you don't actually know at all, is willing to fund my whole play?"

"Yep!" Tori beams. "Now come on! I want you to see the theater I booked for you."

Jade drives, not really sure what else to do. She's absolutely buzzing with excitement, as well as disbelief, because what the hell? It’s almost impossible to believe, but then Jade thinks about the fact that it was Tori Vega who did all of this, and suddenly it’s a little less impossible to believe. 

Somehow, despite literally everything, Tori has always managed to crash in and save everyone else. 

It used to be something that annoyed Jade. She thought that Tori just loved being a hero, but now, she doesn’t think that’s true at all. The more she’s properly gotten to know Tori, the more that she’s realising that Tori just loves being nice. She likes to be helpful, she enjoys making people feel better. Not for any weird, fucked up reason. She’s just nice. She doesn’t have any secret agenda. 

“I can’t believe you got the money I needed.”

“Of course I did,” Tori shrugs, as if it's not a big deal. And, honestly, for Tori, it probably isn't. Jade didn't even ask her to do it, and yet she did it anyways. "I'm your girlfriend, after all," Tori teases, and Jade just rolls her eyes. "But seriously. It was stupid that they weren't going to let you put up your play that you worked really hard on. So," Tori continues, "fuck them. Your play was absolutely going up no matter what."

Jade laughs, still in disbelief. "You're unreal, Tori."

"Glad you think so," Tori laughs, leaning back in her seat. Jade shakes her head, wondering just how the hell that woman is capable of saving the day every single time someone even mentions it to her. "We're almost there! I'm super excited for you to see it — it's really good for how much it was."

Jade is also super excited to see it. She kind of feels like throwing up, actually, but she's managing to not do that. Barely. She blinks when she realises her phone is directing her left, and then they're there, just like that. Jade wonders just how it's possible that time flies by so quickly when she's with Tori.

She chooses to think about that later, parking, hopping out of her car. "You got me this? Vega. This is insane," Jade laughs, breathless, entirely shocked. "You're kidding, right? This is..."

"Come on!" Tori grabs her wrist, smiling so brightly at her that she really could outshine the sun. Really, Jade thinks, it wouldn't be the first time.

She allows herself to be dragged off to the inside of the theater, her eyes widening when she sees the sheer size of it. It's way bigger than what they have at Hollywood Arts, which should be obvious and it is, but actually seeing it is impressive. And Tori got her this, basically within a few hours. Jade marvels at it all, her mind immediately racing.

"I'll have to get Sinjin to do the sounds, maybe Robbie can do the lighting..." she trails off, staring at absolutely everything there is to stare at, Tori included. "And you're...you really managed to get this for me."

"Yep!" Tori beams at her. "It's nice, isn't it?"

"I mean, yeah," Jade laughs, looking around again. "It's definitely nice. And you— you got this because the owner of some Chinese restaurant you went to decided she wanted to be nice?"

Tori just grins even harder. "Yeah, that's basically what happened."

"You're fucking wild, Vega," Jade decides, jumping a little when she hears the door they came in from open. "Is that—"

"That's Mrs. Lee," Tori confirms, resting her arm around Jade's shoulder. "Hi, Mrs. Lee!"

"Hello, Tori!" Mrs. Lee smiles sweetly at her. "Ah! Is this our playwright?"

"She is!" Tori squeezes her. It's not uncomfortable, not really.

"Hey, it's so nice to meet you," Jade smiles, sticking out her hand. "I'm Jade, and you already know my girlfriend, Tori. It's super cool of you to sponsor all this."

"Don't even mention it!" Mrs. Lee shakes her hand. "I love theatre! And your girlfriend was just so sad about your play, I couldn't sit by and let you two suffer. I really loved your play!"

"Oh, you've read it?" Jade asks, raising an eyebrow, mostly directed at Tori.

"Yes, yes," Mrs. Lee confirms. "Tori gave me a copy. I loved it! Thought it was fantastic! I just have a few suggestions."

Jade feels her blood run cold. Tori's grip around her shoulders tightens, and Jade frowns, doing her best to not freak out before the damn woman has even said anything really.

"Uh, suggestions?" Tori asks first, which is probably for the better. She's always been way fucking better at not sounding angry when she actually is. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, just some little things to make the play better. Like, what if, when the girl was falling into the well, she sang a little song on the way down?"

Jade shrugs off Tori's shoulder immediately, taking a few quick steps to stand in front of Mrs. Lee. "No," she says, simply. "Who sings a song when they're falling to their death?"

"Listen, I'm just trying to help," Mrs. Lee glares at her, and Jade glares right back. "And, I'm paying for this. That means you have to listen to me."

"Oh," Jade laughs, scoffing immediately after. "No, it doesn't."

"Uh, yes, it does."

"No, it doesn't!" Jade sneers at her, feeling Tori's hand on her arm. "That's not—"

"Woah!" Tori interrupts, squeezing her arm. "Let's just calm down a bit. We can talk about this. Preferably without someone getting hurt," she mutters, and Jade thinks that's entirely unfair, because she's fucking pissed and would love to hurt the evil woman in front of her. "Right, Jade?"

Jade breathes out, squaring her shoulders. Fucking whatever. "Fine," she says through gritted teeth. "So she sings a song as she falls. That could...work." Jade practically snarls, feeling entirely murderous. She should have known there'd be a fucking catch.

"Well," Mrs. Lee smiles at her, and Jade genuinely wants to punch her in the face. She hates this woman. "If you don't like that idea, you don't have to do it."

"I don't?" Jade immediately jumps onto that, because she is absolutely not going to turn her play into a stupid goddamn musical.

"No!" Mrs. Lee insists, and Jade doesn't really actually believe her, feeling entirely uneasy. Tori's hand finds her own, and Jade lets out a quiet sigh, squeezing Tori's hand. 

The door opens suddenly, and Jade watches as a young girl steps into the room, wondering just why she's being punished for simply existing right now. "Mom?" She asks, and Jade thinks she's going to throw up, holy shit. Her play is totally going to be ruined, there's no way she can save this. 

"There you are!" Mrs. Lee beams, and Jade wonders where she went wrong in life. "Girls, this is my daughter Daisy! Daisy's going to play a big part in your play."

Jade grits her teeth, tightening her grip on Tori's hand, ignoring how Tori's rings dig into her. Jade looks at Tori, mouth agape, looking for some sort of fucking help. Tori squeezes her hand, giving her a nod.

"Wow," Jade laughs, looking down at her feet. "How great!"

Jade is already contemplating all the things in her room she can possibly light on fire by the time they're done talking for the day.

Jade stands in front of her locker, entirely exhausted and infuriated at the same time. She didn't sleep at all last night after watching Daisy swing from the ceiling and sing like a fucking banshee. Everything is pissing her off, and Jade is exhausted and angry and tired and so annoyed, and she swears to god she's going to explode.

Which probably won't end well for Tori, who's walking up to her. "Hey," Tori says, and Jade just gives her a slight nod of her head as a response. "Listen, I'm sorry that Mrs. Lee turned out to be a control freak," Tori sighs, leaning up against the locker next to Jade's. "I had no idea that she was going to pull something like that."

"Yeah, it fucking sucks," Jade mutters, scuffing her foot against the ground. "And I just...wanted it to not be ruined, because—" she cuts herself off, swallowing. "Whatever."

"Because what?" Tori presses, looking concerned.

"It's stupid," Jade shakes her head, sighing. "It's not—"

"Tell me, come on," Tori insists. "It's not like I'm going to make fun of you, Jade, you know that's not going to happen. What's up?"

Jade sighs, because she knows that's true. Tori isn't a super judgemental person in the first place, and the more that she thinks about it, the more Jade realises that Tori has never really judged her specifically. "Hold out your wrist."

Tori does, and Jade grabs it, marching them across the hall and right into the janitor's closet, shutting the door behind them. "Was that really necessary?" Tori asks, arching an eyebrow. "You could have just told me we were coming here."

"Whatever, it was funnier this way," Jade shrugs, leaning against the door. "I..." she sighs. "Okay. I invited my dad to come see my play on opening night."

"Ah," Tori sighs, seeming to understand basically immediately. Jade's appreciative of that, especially because that means she doesn't have to explain everything about her relationship with him. "That sucks."

"Yeah," Jade agrees, running a hand through her hair. "He hates me. He doesn't...he doesn't understand creative people. He thinks it's a fucking waste of time, and I wanted to prove to him that he was wrong with this play, and now that's not happening," Jade stares at the ground, clenching her hands into fists. "So it fucking sucks, and I'm going to murder Mrs. Lee."

"I can get behind that," Tori assures her, and it makes Jade laugh. "I'm sorry about your play," she offers, sounding entirely sincere. "Maybe..." she pauses, and Jade looks up at her. "Well, it's just opening night, right?"

"Right," Jade confirms. "Why?"

Tori grins at her, shrugging. "Do your play your way on opening night, then," she says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "We'll just, you know," Tori beams at her. "We'll figure out how to get Mrs. Lee to miss it."

Jade stares at her, her heart hammering in her chest. She actually almost feels like she's going to cry, what the fuck? "Vega, that's..." she swallows. "You're serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Tori asks, planting her hands on Jade's shoulder, a gesture Jade isn't made uncomfortable by in the slightest. "I'll talk to everyone else and figure out how to make sure Mrs. Lee doesn't even get there. We've got it," Tori shrugs, grinning at her again. "We've gotten this far."

"You're fucking unbelievable," Jade laughs, shaking her head. "You're being way too nice to me."

"Well, it'd be worrying if I was dating you and not being nice to you," Tori teases. "C'mon, we're gonna be late to Sikowitz's."

Jade doesn't think she can do anything other than follow Tori out of the janitor's closet, so that's what she does, feeling like she's on fire, her entire body electric. Tori Vega is fucking...she's incredible. Jade can't believe her at all, completely shocked at the fact that someone like Tori even exists, because what the fuck?

A part of her wonders how she managed to get lucky enough to have the woman as a friend. As a girlfriend, she reminds herself, grinning the entire time that Tori drags her to their next class.

The theater is practically packed immediately, something that makes Jade's super fucking nervous. She's never felt so nervous in her entire life, her leg bouncing as she stands on the side of the stage.

"Hey—"

"What?" Jade snaps at Tori without meaning to, wincing immediately after she does. "Sorry, I'm just— fucking freaking a little," Jade sighs, running a hand through her hair. "He's still not here."

"There's nothing to worry about," Tori assures her, leaning against her. "The guys are already at the restaurant, Beck texted me a few minutes ago. It'll be okay."

That's something that Jade is upset about, the fact that Beck couldn't make it. She understands why, they need all the people they can fucking get to restrain Mrs. Lee and prevent her from leaving, but it still sucks. She's already promised to have someone in the crowd record it for him, because god fucking forbid he watches it live, when Daisy is swinging from the ceiling like some sort of demon.

"Guys?" Cat's voice echoes behind her, and Jade immediately frowns at that tone. "I was getting into costume and I dropped my bra? In the toilet?"

Jade snorts, giving Tori a look. "Nothin' to worry about!" She pitches her voice up in that southern-belle accent, smiling a little at the eye roll Tori gives her in return.

"I don't talk like that," Tori informs her, a blatant lie. Jade watches as Tori also just grabs Cat's bra, wringing it out partially before handing it back to her. "There, now go get ready," Tori says with a grin, and Jade laughs a little. Leave it to Tori to fix literally everything for her. "Y'know, she's so—"

"There he is! There he is, oh my god," Jade's entire heart stops, and she swears to god she's going to faint. She leans against Tori even more, mostly just for support, because her legs are totally about to give out right from under her. "Fuck."

"Wow," Tori says, sounding unimpressed. "He looks..."

"Like he hates my guts?"

"I was going to say like an asshole," Tori supplies for her, and Jade snorts, because that definitely works too. "Listen, you have nothing to worry about," Tori says, and suddenly Jade is being swiveled around to face her, Tori's hands firmly against her arms. "I promise. Your play is going to go exactly how you want it to. The guys are going to make sure she doesn't get here."

"And daughter Daisy?" Jade asks, arching an eyebrow at Tori's sly grin.

"No worries!" Tori beams, gesturing up the ceiling. "She's up there waiting for a cue that's never going to come."

Jade laughs, rolling her eyes. "You're a menace, Vega."

"Anything for you, babe," Tori grins right back at her, bumping her with her hip. Jade ignores the 'babe', also ignoring how it took her a second to realise Tori even said it in the first place. "It'll be fine. If Mrs. Lee somehow gets in here, I'll take care of her, okay?"

"What, you're going to kill her?"

"Yeah," Tori shrugs, and Jade laughs again, feeling a million times less stressed. "But that's not going to have to happen. You trust Beck, at least. I'm sure he'll be willing to tackle her if she tries to leave."

Jade smiles, enjoying the mental imagery of that. "Yeah, okay. Okay, you're right," she admits with a sigh. "Thank you," Jade says, looking at Tori. "Seriously. Thank you, Tori."

"It's not a big deal," Tori shrugs, smiling at her. "Everyone here is going to love your play," she continues. "Trust me. It's a good play."

Jade smiles again, watching as the lights start to dim around them, her heart hammering in her chest. She finds herself leaning against Tori, their shoulders touching, their heads practically touching, too. It's...comforting, in a weird way  Tori doesn't move away, so Jade figures that she's fine to be doing it.

God, she's fucking nervous.

Jade feels the exact same as she did when she originally sent Tori the script. Jade had genuinely been convinced that she was going to die on the spot. She was fucking embarrassed, even. Jade has never felt embarrassed when it comes to her work, but sending it to Tori was enough to have her feeling dizzy. She shifts on her feet, watching as Cat appears on the stage. Jade breathes out, glancing at her dad, unable to tell what the hell is going through his head. Jade finds herself reaching for Tori's hand again, something that she's done way more than once. Tori grabs Jade's hand, squeezing it firmly, and Jade breathes out again, trying to let her shoulders relax.

She'll be fine.

Even if her dad hates it, so fucking what? Tori liked it, at the very least. Not like Tori's opinion matters that much to her or anything. Well, it kind of does? Jade doesn't fucking like to admit it, but she's realising that Tori's opinion isn't as unimportant as it used to be, for whatever reason. Jade sighs, watching as her play goes on, exactly how she wanted it to. It's good. She put so much effort into it — she spent countless sleepless nights just working on it for hours upon hours. 

Jade is proud of it, and getting to see it play out in front of her is exciting.

Tori's grip on her hand is way tighter for a second, and Jade frowns. "Mrs. Lee just left the restaurant."

Jade smiles a little as she sees the paramedics back away from Cat's character, the dad coming in. 

"She's too late."

And she is.

Her play is over just like that, and Jade is entirely taken by surprise when Tori fucking jumps her, hugging her, squeezing her so tightly Jade is convinced she's going to explode. But Jade laughs, hugging her back, and she's positive it's the roaring applause from the audience that's making her heart race. Jade wrestles out of Tori's grasp, rolling her eyes as Tori whoops and cheers quietly, clapping her hands, grinning so wide it has to hurt. Jade steps out from behind the stage, shaking hands with some of the audience members as she goes, Tori's arm looped over her shoulder. 

She feels her anxiety spike when her dad stands in front of her, clearly looking at Tori's arm. That's just another thing for him to disprove of, and it's honestly almost exhilarating.

"Dad."

"Jade."

The silence is uncomfortable, as it always is. It's a power play that Jade has grown used to. But clearly, Tori doesn't know that, given how she heaves a sigh. "Just say whether you liked it or not!" She demands, and Jade has to stop herself from laughing.

"Friend of yours?"

Jade smiles, shifting a little closer to Tori. "Girlfriend, actually. So?" She presses before he can say anything about that. "My play?"

"I thought it was excellent," he says. "It was very well written."

"Thanks," Jade says, a little stunned. "Anything...else?"

"Would you please take that jewelry out of your face?"

"No."

He nods, staring at her for another second. "Bye."

"Bye."

Tori snorts, standing in front of her once he leaves. "So?" She grins, her eyes sparkling. Jade can't help but smile back, feeling so much lighter. "You get what you wanted?"

"Yeah," Jade confirms, smiling a little more. "Yeah, I did."

"Good," Tori beams, reaching out for her hand. "Come on. I texted Sinjin that he needs to get Daisy down from, you know," Tori shrugs, making a vague motion with her hand. "Up there. Let's get ice cream."

Jade laughs, raising an eyebrow. "You taking me out on a date, Vega?"

"Maybe," Tori grins at her, already dragging her out the door. "It's been a long day! I think ice cream is a great idea."

"I never said I disagreed with you," Jade laughs again, feeling warm. There's something so... exhilarating about Tori Vega. Jade has never noticed it before, but now that she has, it's almost impossible to ignore. "Vega. Tori," Jade corrects herself as soon as they're outside, the moon already out. "Thank you. For all this."

"Always, Jade," Tori beams at her. "What else are friends for?"

"Girlfriends," Jade corrects, beaming back. "Okay. Come on, there's this little ice cream place I go to all the time with Beck. It's open all night, it's good, you'll like it."

They get ice cream and go back to Tori's house, sitting outside on her porch. It's quiet with the exception of crickets, but Jade doesn't mind at all, not even a little.

It's peaceful, even. She likes the silence with Tori — it's comfortable and nice. It's honestly what Jade thinks she needs the most after everything that's happened in the past few days. She eats her ice cream, staring up at the stars, leaning against Tori, their shoulders pressed together once again. Jade's other arm rests between her legs, and it's nice. All of this is really nice, actually.

Jade can see the Lyra constellation, smiling a little. Vega is the brightest star in that constellation, and she finds it a little eerie how fitting it is that Tori has the last name Vega.

"That's you," Jade says, pointing up at the star. "Vega."

"I didn't know you knew stars," Tori says, sounding a little surprised. "I always tried to find it but I never could."

"Well," Jade smiles, watching as Vega shines. "There you are. Twenty-five light years away from here."

Tori snorts, clearly rolling her eyes, Jade can tell. "I'm here, actually. Right next to you."

"Ooh, shocker," Jade teases, earning her a light shove from Tori, which just makes her laugh. "We're lucky to have seen it," Jade continues. "It's kind of late for it to be so bright."

Tori hums, saying nothing, and Jade doesn't mind at all.

She thinks that today has genuinely been one of the best days of her life, and it's entirely because of Tori Vega.

Jade wonders why that's not very surprising to her.

Chapter Text

Tori is staying late after school, entirely because of Jade, who's actually the one between the two of them that needs to stay late. Apparently she had a project to present the day that she blew off her AP Lit class to skip, and now she has to make it up. Tori made fun of her from the moment that Jade, begrudgingly, told her, which only made Jade threaten her in return. Tori isn't even bothered about the fact that she has to stay late, and honestly, it's just kind of nice. She absolutely refused to get a ride from Trina now that she knows what freedom feels like, and if she's being entirely honest with herself, she likes riding with Jade.

It's way more freeing and exciting than riding with Trina ever was. Tori actually feels like she can be alive when she rides with Jade, and it's just nice. That's something that Tori never thought that she'd say about anything relating to Jade, but she's kind of realising that there are a lot of nice things relating to Jade. Tori appreciates how they can have that peaceful silence between them, how they don't always have to be talking. While Tori originally was deathly annoyed because of it, she's starting to enjoy the banter and teasing that they have going on between them. She didn't realise how fun it was, and now she's kind of starting to understand why Jade constantly does it.

She also can't be mad about staying after school, because never in a million years would Tori undo the day that they ditched. That was arguably one of the best days of her life, and Tori would honestly love to do it again. She personally suffered no consequences from it, and she doubts that she would again if they skipped during the same time, given how her last class of the day is just a study hall. Though, to be fair, she'd probably face consequences from Andre, which would arguably be way worse than having detention with Lane for a week. God, she doesn't even want to imagine the horrors of dealing with Andre if she skipped more than once a month, and even that is pushing it. 

Tori sighs, smiling a little as she adjusts. She's sat underneath of her locker, mostly because she didn't feel like going up to the library just to have to come back down and leave. 

"Tori! What are you doing here?"

Beck is also apparently here, and is very set on giving her five consecutive heart attacks. Tori heaves a sigh, running her hand through her hair, trying to calm herself down, because good god. "Hi, Beck," Tori eventually breathes out, looking up at the man, giving him a dirty look. "You could have killed me, you know that?"

"Nah," Beck shrugs, and Tori rolls her eyes. She really has started to see exactly why him and Jade are best friends. They're shockingly similar sometimes. "So," he grins at her, looking all too excited just to be seeing her. Tori really does wonder just why Beck and Andre are so invested in her fake relationship with Jade. She's kind of wondering if they're both huge romance nerds and she's just never noticed. "What are you still here for?"

"I'm waiting for Jade," Tori tells him. "Apparently we ended up ditching on a day that she had a project due," Tori grins, fondly thinking back to a few hours ago when Jade unhappily told her. "So she's doing that, and she's also my ride back, so I'm waiting for her."

Beck nods sagely, sitting down next to her. "I can't believe you climbed that picnic thing," Beck grins at her, raising an eyebrow. "How did you even get up there?"

"It's called a ramada," Tori helpfully informs him. She told Jade the same thing, and Jade called her a nerd and a weirdo, because of course she did. "And there was a tree next to it," Tori says, grinning as she remembers that. That had to be a week ago, if not longer. It's been insane just how fast everything has gone by. It doesn't even feel like anything has changed, and honestly, nothing really has. Sometimes they hold hands, and that's about it. And that's not even remotely close to being a big deal. "Why are you still here?"

"God," Beck heaves a long sigh, dragging his hands down his face. "Sinjin. I'm still here because of Sinjin. When Sikowitz challenged us to say yes to everything, I was going to ask Andre if he wanted to come to a drag race with me."

Tori blinks at him, raising an eyebrow. "You're into drag races?" She asks, though it really only takes her a second to accept that completely and wholeheartedly. Honestly, Tori is pretty shocked that she didn't know that by now, or at the very least that she hadn't figured it out at this point. She kind of had a suspicion that Beck ran too good in those heels. 

"Drag racing," Beck says, giving her a look right back. "As in, cars? Drag racing. There's an '-ing' there, which is very important."

"Oh!" Tori nods, deciding that also makes sense. "My mistake."

"It's a common one," he shrugs, beaming. "Anyways, Andre hates it and thinks that it's boring. And I've been trying to get him to go to a race with me for months at this point, and he has very adamantly told me to fuck off every time," he sighs. "And then Sinjin overheard me talking about it to Robbie, and he asked to go, and then I went with Sinjin. And now I'm also apparently going with Sinjin to another race this weekend. I tried to tell him no, but he wouldn't stop following me," Beck mutters, rolling his eyes. Tori can relate entirely. The amount of times she's had to do laps around the school to escape that man has been insane. "Also also, apparently you sprayed him in the mouth with Windex?"

Tori groans, letting her head fall back against the locker behind her. "He was being weird! It is not my fault that the Windex was there," Tori very pointedly tells him, remembering that day vividly. She'd happily do it again, no doubt. "I hope you have fun on your date with Sinjin," Tori grins at him, which elicits a groan from Beck this time. "I'm glad that I managed to escape with Jade that day," she grins, closing her eyes. "We got Freddy's and hung out at this park, and I didn't have to go to a drag race with Sinjin." 

"Lucky you," Beck snorts. "I'm glad that you had fun on your date. I will also be having fun on my date, because I enjoy drag racing, and if I must hang out with Sinjin to drag race, then I must hang out with Sinjin. He's not as awful as I expected him to be," Beck decides. "He's just very annoying and persistent and stubborn, and also I totally had plans with Andre, but now I'm drag racing with Sinjin."

"Surely you can understand why I thought you were going to the other kind of drag race?" Tori asks, laughing as she looks at him. "You can't just say that you're drag racing with Sinjin and not expect the confusion."

Beck shrugs, clearly unbothered. "Even if I was drag racing with Sinjin, I'd still look good."

"I quite literally never implied otherwise."

"I just want it to be known," Beck grins. "I'd be a hot drag queen."

"I'm sure you would be, Beck."

"Good," he says, clearly proud of that. "How's everything been going with Jade? You two still all good? No big blowouts? No fighting? She's being nice to you?"

"She's being nice to me," Tori confirms, smiling a bit. "And everything has been fine, Beck. You need to stop harassing me, and Jade, for updates," Tori tells him, pointing a finger at his chest. "We're clearly fine and we have been fine this entire time. Nothing major has happened. No fights. No overt meanness. Just the usual teasing. She really is just like an elementary school boy, that's all," Tori grins, shrugging. Jade hated that comparison when she made it, so obviously Tori will be making it again. "She's just like that sometimes, as I'm sure you're well aware."

"I am indeed well aware," Beck agrees. "And okay! I've just been wondering," he says. "I'm just happy that you two are happy, and I just want to make sure that everything is going well. I don't want to be too uninvolved."

"You also cannot be micromanaging our relationship," Tori says back. "I'm not going to indulge your slumber party talk, Beck. You have Andre to do that with," Tori reminds him, and judging by the way that Beck grins, he definitely does have sleepovers with Andre. "I am so positive that our relationship is doing just fine," she sighs, thinking back on all of her recent interactions with Jade. She's been having a good time, honestly. She's basically been forced into spending more time with the woman, and she's finding that they get along shockingly well. It almost feels weird to think back on the fact that, before all of this, they barely hung out outside of school or group hangouts. "Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?" Beck asks, a sly grin stretching across his face. "I'm not looking at you like anything."

"You're definitely looking at me like something," Tori disagrees. She heaves a sigh when he doesn't let up, livid that she knows she's about to indulge his slumber party talk. "Fine!" Tori groans, planting her hand on his chest and shoving him as much as she can. "Fine! But only one question! You are allowed one. Okay? One."

"One," Beck agrees, looking all too happy. "Does she make you happy?"

It's not even remotely close to what Tori expected him to ask, and it makes her think for a second. Realistically she knows that she should have just immediately said yes, but it really does make her pause. Every time that she's hung out with Jade, she's been happy. Her impromptu phone call at five in the morning with Jade was more exciting than it really should have been. Tori never even considered skipping school before Jade basically decided for her that they were going to, and that was fun. Tori remembers just how much fun she had been having on the drive to Freddy's, and then how much fun she had been having under that ramada. It felt freeing and exciting in a way that was new to her, and still is. 

Tori remembers being deathly furious when Sikowitz wouldn't let Jade do her play, so much so that she didn't talk to the man for the following week after. She remembers feeling so happy when she managed to get Jade's play the exact way she wanted it. But that wasn't necessarily because of Jade. Though, the more she thinks about it, the more she realises that it kind of was. Tori was happy to see Jade happy. Jade being happy and proud of her play made Tori happy. Tori has been happy every single time they've hung out together. She's been happy riding to and from school with Jade. She's been happy getting coffee with the woman every morning. Tori has been more than willing to wake up a little earlier just to do that.

Tori really thinks that Jade makes her happy.

"Yeah," Tori nods, feeling a little warm. "She does."

"Good," Beck smiles, looking content with that. "Then I'll back off," he grins at her, though Tori doesn't believe him quite literally at all. "I'll just terrorise Jade instead," Beck says, and there it is. Tori laughs, nodding, deciding that that's a fair enough compromise. She already has to worry about Andre. "Speaking of," Beck nudges her, making a motion to Jade, who's closer than Tori expected, walking out from behind the lockers. "Hi, Jade!"

"Beck," Jade immediately says, looking suspicious. "Why are you harassing Tori?"

"Tori is my friend, in case you forgot," Beck rolls his eyes, and Tori snorts, elbowing him in the side. "Am I not allowed to talk to my friend?"

"You're not allowed to be friends with my girlfriend," Jade tells him, and Tori raises an eyebrow at her. "Vega, don't look at me like that. Quit it," Jade sighs. "You can't be best friends with my ex. You two are not allowed to talk without me present."

Beck leans closer to her, raising his hand to cup the side of his mouth. "She's afraid I'm going to tell you all of her secrets and tell embarrassing stories about her. And she's also afraid you're going to do the same," Beck stage whispers to her, and Tori grins, suddenly very on board with slumber party talk. "Like, for example— augh!" Beck immediately doubles over when Jade throws her backpack right into his stomach, letting out a sound of pure and utter agony. 

"Jade," Tori sighs, standing up, taking the backpack off of Beck. She hands it back to Jade, who looks entirely too smug. "You probably just killed him."

"I did what I must," Jade shrugs, unbothered. Tori laughs at that, feeling a little guilty immediately after, because Beck is clearly not doing too well down there. "His fault for not moving fast enough."

Tori rolls her eyes, bumping Jade with her shoulder. "You're messed up for that," she says, and she finds that she's instinctively reached for Jade's hand, which is now resting in her own. "Beck, you good down there?" 

"Just...peachy..." he groans, moving to fully lay on the floor, clutching his stomach. "My pancreas...it has burst..."

"Oh, whatever," Jade laughs, which makes her squeeze Tori's hand, and Tori can't help but ponder how normal it is for them to hold hands now. It's honestly kind of nice. She's been enjoying it more than she thought that she would — she likes physical touch in general, not just from Jade. "Yeah, he's definitely okay. I'm staying over at your house for a while, by the way," Jade tells her, and Tori gives her a look, arching an eyebrow. "I have another project I have to do. Your house has better connection."

"Who would have known that your basement would have bad wifi?" Tori teases, which gets her an eye roll from Jade. "Okay. Bye, Beck! I hope you have fun drag racing with Sinjin!"

"Thanks...so much," Beck mutters. "Bye!"

Tori practically drags Jade out of the building, just like she normally does at the end of every school day. They get in her car, and Tori throws her backpack in the back of Jade's care, also like she normally does. She didn't realise how routine everything has been, how easy it was for her to adapt to everything related to Jade West. Tori rolls down her window immediately, hooking up her phone to the aux a second later. "So," she starts, feeling the wind on her face as Jade starts to pull out. "How'd it go?"

"I'm burning down her house."

"You know, I feel like we've had this discussion before."

Jade flashes her a sharp grin, her hair blowing in the wind. "We have, and I am still undeterred. I'm burning down her house." 

"Whatever," Tori laughs, letting her arm hang out of the window. "Did she give you a bad grade?"

"No, but she is a bitch and I hate her, so she has to die."

"Of course," Tori muses, ignoring the dirty scowl Jade gives her. "What? I'm clearly supportive!"

Jade snorts. "Uh huh, clearly. You're such a bad girlfriend, Vega."

"Hm," Tori tilts her head to the side, grinning, feeling alive. "Maybe that's 'cause we're not dating?"

"I think you're just fucked up in the head."

"Whatever," she laughs again, rolling her eyes. "Says you."

"Yeah, says me," Jade counters. "That's how you know it's bad. You really have to fix yourself, Vega."

Tori just grins, feeling ridiculously happy the entire drive back to her place.

"So," Tori starts, coming over to stand behind Jade, who turns back to raise an eyebrow at her. "What's your project about?" She asks, glancing to Jade's open laptop screen.

"It's for my journalism class," Jade says, leaning fully back against the couch so that her head is hanging off of it, looking directly up at Tori. Tori grins down at her, feeling something close to fondness at the position they're in. "It's a paper. I have to write about some old famous journalist."

Tori pauses, laughing a little. "I did that exact same project at Sherwood. Do you want to see the one I did?"

"You're kidding," Jade snorts, no longer leaning off the couch. "I mean, is it good? Be honest, Vega."

"Of course it's good," Tori rolls her eyes. "Do you want it or not?" She asks, giving the back of Jade's head a dirty look. Tori feels like she might be betraying a part of herself, because she's opening her phone to find the doc it was on, even after Jade totally insulted her.

"I do want it!" Jade laughs, sounding entirely insincere. "Come on, Vega. No teasing allowed?" 

Tori smiles, leaning against the kitchen table. "Absolutely not. None. I've been collecting my Jade is nice to me five times a day times," Tori says, grinning as she finds the doc, immediately sending it to Jade. "So you have to be nice to me about thirty thousand times now "

"Shockingly enough, I really don't think it works like that. You can't collect them," Jade tells her, definitely rolling her eyes. "They're not collectable. They're per day, and if they're gone, they're gone. You did your project on Nellie Bly?"

"Great topic change," Tori laughs, walking back over, hoisting herself up onto the back of the couch. "And yeah, I thought she was really cool. She put herself in horrible situations just to get that story. I thought she was cool."

Jade hums in response. "I picked her, too. Huh. I guess you have some taste."

"I'm, fake, dating you," Tori points out. "I don't know if I do."

"Oh, okay. Wow," Jade drawls out, but Tori can absolutely see her grinning. "That hurts, Vega. Right in the heart. I don't know how I can move on from this. I guess I'll just die."

"Whatever," Tori laughs, grinning back at the woman. "I'm putting on music."

"Wow. You literally don't care about my death at all."

"I am so sure that you'll be okay," Tori grins, hopping off the couch, wandering back to her kitchen. She connects her phone to the speaker, immediately opening her Spotify. "Have you started it at all yet?"

"My project? I've gotten maybe a paragraph written so far," Jade says, and Tori watches as she scowls, looking completely stunned. "Vega. Did you just fucking put on frogs ribbiting?" She asks, incredulous, and Tori laughs at the complete and utter disbelief on Jade's face.

"It's just the intro! And it doesn't even sound like ribbiting, shut up," she grins, watching the look on Jade's face completely shift when the actual song starts playing. "See? You like it!"

"It's okay, for you," Jade shoots back. "Hey, did you know that you didn't format your paper right?"

"I'm going to forbid you from using it if you point out my mistakes I made a year ago."

"I'm just saying," Jade laughs, raising her hands in defeat. "I'm being helpful for your next paper. So you don't fuck that up, too."

Tori rolls her eyes, wondering just how and why she actually enjoys spending time with this woman. "You're unbearable. I got an A on that paper, so clearly the formatting wasn't a problem for anyone else other than you."

Jade grins, looking very happy with herself. "What other opinions do you really need?"

"Uh huh," Tori laughs, shaking her head. "I'm gonna make something for dinner. You want anything specific?"

"You can cook?"

"Jade."

"I'm simply asking!" Jade laughs, holding up her hands. "Is that so wrong?"

"Yes," Tori confirms. "It is. I'm making pancakes, by the way."

"I thought you just asked if I—"

"Nope. You blew it. You're getting pancakes," Tori says, grinning a little when Jade bursts out laughing. The more time she spends with Jade, the more Tori is realising that she's honestly really funny and exciting to hang out with. She's ridiculous, but that's part of her very unconventional charm. "How's copying my essay going?"

Jade snorts, as if she isn't doing exactly that. "I'm not copying your essay, Vega. I'm still pretty horrified by the formatting, honestly. I don't know if I can get over it."

"Whatever!" Tori laughs, shaking her head. She can't believe that she let this woman into her house. Jade West genuinely is completely unbelievable. She's a monster, even. "I try to help you and you do this. You're getting box pancakes for that."

"Oh, the horrors of box pancakes," Jade laughs, which makes Tori roll her eyes. She grabs said box pancakes out of one of her cupboards, grabbing the butter and milk. "Hey, can I put something on?" Jade asks, and Tori smiles a bit.

It kind of feels domestic, which is a weird thought to have when it comes to Jade. Tori has felt the same domestic feeling with a lot of her friends, but never Jade. But it's kind of hard not to feel like that when she's making them dinner with Jade on her couch doing an essay, a show about to be played. It's nice, and Tori honestly would like to have it happen more often now that she's thinking about it.

"Yeah, go for it," Tori tells her, crouching down to grab the griddle they have from one of her bottom cupboards. She stands back up, setting it on the stove, turning the heat up to high. "I can't believe the smallest serving size is still six to eight pancakes. That's insane."

Jade makes a noise of agreement. "That is insane. What's the max?"

"You'll love this," Tori grins, looking at the box. "Eighteen to twenty-two. Isn't that awful?" She laughs, wondering just how and why anyone would need that many Hungry Jack's box pancakes, but alas. While her griddle is heating up, Tori grabs a bowl, pouring in some milk, adding a bit of butter, pouring in her pancake mix. She perks up at the show that Jade's decided to put on, a little surprised by the choice. "You like America's Got Talent?"

"Oh, not even a little," Jade says, grinning widely at her. "This is a YouTube compilation of some of the worst auditions out there. I'm laughing at people."

"Of course you are," Tori laughs, wondering why she ever thought for even a second that Jade wasn't being evil and mean and awful. She mixes her ingredients together, glancing towards her fridge as she does so. She's pretty sure they have some fresh fruits in there, hopefully blueberries or strawberries. She'll have to check. "How do you like your pancakes?" Tori asks in the meantime, because she is absolutely not going to bother with cutting up fruit only to find out that Jade hated fruit.

"Anything, really," Jade shrugs. Tori can hear her typing, and while other people typing has absolutely always infuriated her in the past, this is kind of nice. She barely even notices it more than a confirmation that Jade is still there. "I'm not a picky eater like everyone else in our lives."

"Beck's picky?" Tori asks, raising an eyebrow as she goes to open her fridge. She kind of wonders if she could put chocolate chips into the pancakes without them melting horribly. They're obviously going to melt, but the last time she tried, it...did not go well. 

Jade groans, and Tori can't help but smile — Jade totally is about to go off on a tangent about Beck being picky, and Tori is absolutely all for it. "He's probably the worst after Robbie. He doesn't like sushi, he doesn't like most fast food places at all. Wendy's? Nope. Taco Bell or Taco John's? Nope. Burger King? Also nope. I bet he'd hate Freddy's. He doesn't like ramen places either. He's genuinely a nightmare."

"I did not know about Beck's apparent severe pickiness," Tori snorts. "Does he just refuse to even try anything?"

"Yes. That's the most frustrating part. And it's literally just because he's a man and has no idea how to properly function," Jade heaves a sigh. "And the worst part is that I know he'd like so many of those fucking foods! He would love sushi, I'm so willing to bet money. But no! No. Thank god you're not picky. I'd go insane."

Tori makes a noise, nodding her agreement. Trina, somehow, managed to turn out to be a picky eater. She's gotten better over the years, but she's still awful. Tori is completely overjoyed that she managed to avoid that godforsaken curse. "I'd also go insane. I love making food for people and love trying food. I'd have to make up for it in other ways. Imagine if I served you chicken nuggets, but, like, the plating was really good."

"Absolutely not," Jade laughs. "I think I would genuinely rather starve than eat your microwaved chicken nuggets with parsley flakes sprinkled on top of them."

Tori laughs, grinning to herself as she pours some oil onto her griddle, walking back to the fridge for round two after she didn't immediately see what she wanted and got distracted due to Jade. This time, she does find some blueberries and raspberries, smiling as she pulls them out, setting them on the table. She grabs a knife and a cutting board, pouring out a handful of both blueberries and raspberries. 

She's a little surprised by the horrendous singing she suddenly hears, followed up by Jade's laughing. Tori spares a glance to the TV, raising an eyebrow as she watches someone fully do the worm while attempting to sing something from Katy Perry. What from Katy Perry is unknown, because it's mostly comprised of muffled humming, and even Tori can't begin to make out just what the hell it's supposed to be.

She smiles, going back to her fruits, cutting them into halves. She does most of the blueberries before she decides that the griddle is probably hot enough now. Tori pours some of the batter into the griddle, setting the bowl next to the stove. She goes back to the table, starting on the raspberries. She keeps a few of them whole, too.

Tori realises that this really is domestic. She really never thought she'd be able to achieve that with Jade, but here they are, clearly having managed. It's almost unbelievable. Tori can't believe that all it took for the woman to be bearable was fake dating her.

Which is absolutely ridiculous, but whatever.

"Oh my god," Jade laughs, sounding entirely out of breath, probably from laughing ridiculously hard. "Vega. Trina should audition for this. Please get her to audition so I can make fun of her and so can the entire nation."

"You're awful!" Tori laughs, wandering back over to the stove, grabbing a spatula by it, flipping her pancake over. It's, thankfully enough, not burnt. "And absolutely not. Because then my name will also be completely ruined and laughed at by the entire nation. I can't have that."

"You'd be fine," Jade tells her, though Tori absolutely does not believe her even a little. She clearly doesn't know the damage Trina can do to her just by being related to her. "You're actually good at singing, Vega. It's not like it'd be difficult for you to disprove the whole, you know, Trina allegations."

Tori smiles, because that's a really sweet compliment from Jade. "I'm glad you think that I'm not as awful as my sister."

"Literally no one is as awful as your sister," Jade snorts. "I really have no idea how someone can be so fucking bad."

"It's kind of impressive, honestly," Tori muses, scooping the first pancake out of the griddle, setting it on a plate nearby. "A little horrifying."

"A lotta horrifying," Jade corrects her, which makes Tori laugh. "Hey, my laptop is totally about to die. Do you have a charger?"

"Yeah, there's one up in my room," Tori confirms. "It should just be plugged in by my bed."

"Cool," Jade says, and Tori listens to the woman's footsteps disappear up the stairs. She pours out the next pancake onto the griddle, moving over to one of her cupboards to grab the syrup. "Oh my god, Vega. What the fuck."

Tori is incredibly intrigued on just what it is that Jade hates about her room. Honestly, there's probably way more than just one thing. "Yeah?'

"Glow in the dark stars? Are you seven?"

"It'd be kinda weird if you were dating a seven year old," Tori muses, grinning at the groan that's practically ripped out of Jade. "Just saying!"

"Well, stop!" Jade says, but she's definitely laughing, so Tori will not be. "For the record, I would never fake—" she's cut off by the door opening, and Tori heaves a quiet sigh at the fact that it's Trina.

"Sorry girls, I won't be staying for too long," Trina announces, which Tori is very, very thankful for. "Actually. Why are you always in my house?" Trina very pointedly asks Jade, and Tori can only watch as Jade raises an eyebrow at her.

"I'm literally dating your sister."

"Eugh," Trina decides. "I forgot about that. Gross. Anyways. Bye bye!" 

She's gone as soon as she grabs her jacket off of the coat rack, thank god. Tori can't help but burst out laughing once Trina leaves, giving Jade a look. Jade looks absolutely stunned and flabbergasted, probably at Trina's general audacity, which Tori can relate to entirely.

"I don't think I've ever seen her shut up that fast."

"I'm glad that she did," Jade groans, running a hand through her hair. "I can't fucking believe you two are related. How did you manage to turn out so much more acceptable than her?"

"No idea, but thank god that I did," Tori grins, flipping her pancake. "Thanks so much for the compliment, by the way."

"It's not hard to compliment you when your competition is Trina Vega. Oh," Jade suddenly scowls, looking miserable. "Gross."

"What's gross?"

"She has the same last name as you."

Tori laughs, scooping the second pancake onto the plate. "Yeah, that's kinda how being related works and all. You're just now realising this?"

"I didn't have a reason to think about it before," Jade says, clearly rolling her eyes. "I don't like that."

"I also sometimes don't like the fact that she's related to me, yeah."

Jade sighs. "Make her pick a new last name."

"I literally can't do that," Tori laughs, but it's oddly sweet that Jade associates Tori's last name with exclusively her. "Just call her something different in your head."

"That's not enough," Jade mutters. "It needs to be legally changed."

"Whatever," Tori grins, watching as Jade stalks back down the stairs, plugging in her laptop. "Also, the stars are very necessary."

Jade groans, and Tori can only beam, knowing very happily that she's the cause of Jade's agony. She's had those stars for forever, and there's absolutely no way she's going to take them down. "You don't even have any real constellations. I don't know how you managed to have solely fake constellations."

"I refuse to believe that's true."

"Okay, be delusional then," Jade tells her, and Tori absolutely will be. Happily. "You should let me fix them. If you insist on having stupid glow in the dark stars, the stupid glow in the dark constellations should be right, at least."

Tori smiles, flipping the third pancake. "Okay. It's a date, then."

"It's not a date, don't be weird."

"We're literally dating."

"Not for real, Vega. Even though you obviously want to date me so bad."

Tori scoffs, incredulous. "You were the one who— you know what? Nope. Not engaging with you. Absolutely not. Your stupid pancakes are done, by the way."

Jade laughs, and it makes Tori smile, even despite her best attempts to stay annoyed. She finishes her pancakes pretty fast, adds the blueberries and raspberries, and comes to set both of their plates on the coffee table. Tori turns off the speaker and turns up the volume on the TV, immediately wincing at the second round of horrendous singing and worming, because apparently that person had more left in them.

It's a peaceful rest of their evening, and it's honestly something that Tori could see them doing more often. She'd like that, she thinks. Jade's typing is almost comforting to listen to, an audible reminder that she's there, even though Tori is literally sitting next to her. It's just nice. All of this is really nice.

They point out awful performances to each other, and Tori grins at the way that Jade will peer up at the TV from behind her laptop whenever Tori goes "ooh", laughing at how Jade winces before someone even opens their mouth to tell the worst jokes known to man. 

Time flies by pretty quickly, and in the middle of Tori washing off both of their plates, she hears Jade close her laptop. "Well," Jade clears her throat. "I'm finished with my essay."

"You're finished copying my essay, you mean."

"Nope, I said what I said," Jade helpfully informs her, grinning. Tori just rolls her eyes at the woman. "So I'm probably gonna head out now. Thanks for the pancakes, Vega. They were actually not terrible, which was pretty unexpected."

"Whatever," Tori snorts, quickly drying off her hands. She stalks over to the door where Jade is standing, smiling a little. "Send it to me before you submit it so I can read it over."

Jade smiles, giving her a look. "I didn't make the same formatting mistake as you, so I think I'm honestly pretty set."

"We'll see," Tori teases. "Well, okay. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," Jade agrees, looking at her for a few seconds. "Bye, Vega."

"Bye, Jade!"

Tori watches as the woman leaves from her window, only closing it when Jade's car is long gone from her sights. Tori sighs, sitting down on the couch, immediately turning off the TV, because it feels wrong to watch this when Jade isn't with her. Tori closes her eyes, smiling a little as she thinks of today.

Tori wonders if she can convince Jade to come over more often.

Chapter Text

Tori is grinning like a madman as soon as she gets in Jade's car, and Jade is honestly a little disappointed by Tori's complete lack of reaction to her holding down her horn for thirty seconds. But Tori is clearly undeterred and unbothered by it, so Jade assumes that she's just done it too much at this point. She'll have to change it up — maybe she'll just crash into Tori's house next time she comes to pick her up. 

"What are you so happy about?" Jade asks as soon as Tori gets buckled, immediately rolling down her window, just like she always does. Jade realises that it takes her a second to even process the fact that Tori has already hooked up her phone to the aux. It's fucking ridiculous just how normal it's become for her to have Tori in the car with her. 

"Your project," Tori says, beaming. "What'd you get on it?"

"An F," Jade immediately answers, waiting for Tori's face to fall. It doesn't, and Tori just raises an eyebrow at her, giving her a very pointed look that Jade does not appreciate even a little. Not even in the slightest. She sighs, pulling out of Tori's driveway, rolling down the rest of the windows in her car. "Don't look at me like that, Vega. I told you. The formatting was a killer."

Tori laughs, and Jade can't help but smile a little, glancing at the time. It's only about seven right now, and they don't have to be at school for another hour. Jade has been considering getting her first block off as a free block for her, and she's also been considering making Tori do the same. She doesn't like to admit it, not really, but Tori is actually fun to hang out with. And she's always down for literally anything. Jade attests that to the fact that she has Trina for an older sister, and that that woman probably has dragged Tori into no small amount of bullshit. Beck's insanely picky, Andre will not shut the fuck up for the life of him, Cat is Cat, Robbie is a puppet-lover, and god fucking forbid Jade somehow gets stuck in a car with just Rex. Tori is adaptable, she actually knows when to not talk, she's not as annoying as Jade originally thought, and she's also willing to do anything at all. 

"As if you'd make the same formatting mistake after you harassed me for it for hours," Tori says, and Jade can't refute that. She'd also never actually admit to making the same formatting mistake as Tori after said constant harassment. She'd very much so rather die. "So," Tori drawls out. "What did you get?"

Jade sighs, knowing that Tori isn't going to relent. That's also something that Jade has learnt about her. Tori has some sort of pure unwillingness to relent. That's also probably because of Trina. "I got an A," she admits, defeated. Jade heaves a sigh again, doing her very best to ignore Tori's immediate whooping and cheering, rolling her eyes. "Whatever, Vega. I only lied and used your sources you put down so I wouldn't have to do it myself. This was absolutely not because of you. Not even a little. Not even slightly. Not even remotely—"

"Ah ah ah!" Tori interrupts, grinning wildly. "I watched you write that essay. I saw you copy and paste— you know, wait a second. I literally read it over for you. Most of it was my paper! You're such a..." Tori rolls her eyes, and that makes Jade grin, pulling into the gas station parking lot. "You're evil and cruel and a horrible person," Tori announces to her, and Jade watches, mostly in shock, as Tori reaches into the cupholder and plucks Jade's wallet from it. "And I'm getting coffee. Bye." 

"Don't come back!" Jade shouts out her window, laughing when Tori flips her off, disappearing into the gas station. She grins, leaning back against her seat, wondering just when the hell Tori Vega decided to start being like that. Jade isn't really surprised that she got an A, especially not with Tori's paper. If that was from a year ago, Jade wonders just how much Tori's improved. 

That was a few days ago now, maybe three? Jade can't believe that shit has gone by so fast. She's been noticing that a little more recently, where everything has been almost speeding by. It's been at least two and a half weeks since Jade decided to save Tori's ass, though she's realising that it's probably been longer than that, which is insane to her. Normally, time passes by incredibly slowly.

Not recently, though.

Jade sighs, still thinking back on that night. It was nice. Well, it was more than nice, but whatever, Tori Vega's still her arch nemesis even if it isn't in the traditional way anymore. Jade's a little annoyed that all of her best days have been with Tori recently, but she's even more annoyed at the fact that it's not surprising. Because it absolutely is surprising — she shouldn't be having amazing days with her enemy, but alas, here she is, smiling in her car like a fucking idiot.

She's been happier recently, which Beck claims is "that new relationship glow", but that's clearly not true, given the fact that they're not actually dating. So it has to be something else. And Jade has not figured out what that something else happens to be yet. Probably because she spends too much goddamn time with Tori Vega.

Jade realises that Tori's phone has been playing music the entire time, which she only realises because that stupid fucking ribbiting song is playing. Jade rolls her eyes, running a hand through her hair. She peers into the gas station, not seeing Tori yet. She figures that the woman is probably blowing all of her money because she's a horrible and awful person. Which, realistically, should bother her. It does not.

Jade sighs.

Maybe Tori isn't necessarily her enemy. They're not-friends. Friends who aren't friends.

Jade's pretty happy with that decision — it makes the most sense, and it's the least damning conclusion there is. Jade glances at the time again, surprised that only twenty minutes have gone by since she picked up Tori. She glances up again, finding herself smiling without meaning to when she sees Tori, a bag on her arm, two coffee cups in her hands. Jade reaches over the center console, pushing open the passenger door.

Tori beams at her, handing her one of the coffee cups, putting the other in the cup holder. "I got snacks."

"With my money?"

"With your money," Tori confirms, grinning all too proudly. "Well, not entirely with your money. I used your money to buy coffee. The snacks were bought with my own money. I hope you like KitKats."

Jade does like KitKats. "I don't," she tells Tori, who gives her a look. "What? Don't look at me like that, Vega. When have I ever given you a reason to not believe me?" Jade asks, unable to stop herself from grinning at the way Tori looks so appalled.

"You did not just—" Tori sighs, rolling her eyes. "Uh huh, whatever, Jade. Then I'll just have all of them to myself. Drink your dumb coffee."

"I will drink my dumb coffee," Jade grins, taking a sip of said dumb coffee. She sets her coffee in the other cup holder, pulling out of the parking lot. "I'm thinking of getting my first block off for next semester," Jade says, casually. "So should you."

Tori hums in response, clearly taking a drink of her coffee. "I should, huh?"

"Because I don't want to have to still wake up at six in the morning to pick you up when I don't have to," Jade explains. "I'd just make you walk."

"No, you wouldn't."

"You're right," Jade says, grinning. "I wouldn't. Trina would start taking you again."

"Oh my god," Tori groans, sounding genuinely miserable. "Don't even joke about that. I cannot go back to that. I'd rather die. I would genuinely rather die."

Jade laughs, stopping at a red light. She uses that time to take another drink of her coffee, realising that Tori totally got her order right. She didn't even consider that. "Hey, how'd you know my order?"

"We've ordered coffee together every single day for at least a week," Tori says. "I've heard you order. It'd be pretty embarrassing if I didn't know your order by now." 

That's admittedly true, though Jade isn't entirely sure that she could, with confidence, say the same about Tori's order. "I think you might just be a stalker," Jade decides, driving again when the light turns. She beams a little at Tori's obvious eye roll, followed up by a loud sigh. "Talk to Lane about getting your first block off next semester in January."

"Demanding," Tori teases. "But I suppose I will. You owe me, though."

"Nah," Jade decides. "I'm disagreeing with that. Anyways."

"You know," Tori starts, clearly exasperated. "It's so obvious that you're an only child."

"Woah, okay. Rude. That's not true at all."

"It totally is."

Jade scowls, wondering if she should crash the car or not. It would be so incredibly deserved. "You're the worst person alive, you know that, right?" Jade asks, pulling into her usual spot in the school parking lot. "Like, genuinely the worst."

Tori laughs, and Jade watches as she grabs her coffee, hopping out of the car. She dumps her bag of snacks onto the passenger's seat, making a motion to them. "Would the worst person alive let you pick whatever you want?"

"Yes, because she's doing it right now," Jade announces, but she does swipe a KitKat or two. "I'm just going to start taking away from the amount of times I have to be nice to you. You're at a solid four today."

"That is absolutely not something that you're allowed to do," Tori scowls at her. "You know what? That's it. I'm gone."

Jade watches, completely in shock, as Tori starts to walk into the building before Jade has even grabbed her backpack. That woman truly is pure evil, plain and simple. Even despite herself, though, Jade grins as she stalks after Tori, swinging her backpack over her shoulder.

God, Tori Vega is fucking unbelievable.

Jade loses her grin basically immediately when she sees Tori at her locker, some random fucking guy talking to her. Jade frowns, carefully watching for a few seconds. Tori definitely isn't into it, that's incredibly obvious to anyone with a brain. Jade spots Andre coming around the corner of the hallway, and she can immediately see the moment that it processes in his head what's going on.

Jade starts walking faster than him, though, immediately getting in between the guy and Tori. "Hey, what's your fucking problem?" Jade demands, narrowing her eyes sharply at him. 

"What's your problem?" He asks back, but he's backed up a bit. "Am I not allowed to just talk to this girl?"

Gross. Doesn't even know her name and yet he's still trying to get in her pants.

"No," Jade says, taking a step towards him, then another when he takes one back. "You're not. That's my girlfriend, asshole," she sneers, kind of wanting to punch him in the nose. Jade feels nothing but disgust and anger, a cocktail of emotions she hasn't felt in forever. "So back the fuck off. She's not into you and never will be, you fucking loser," Jade snarls at him. "Get the fuck out away from her."

He does, which Jade thinks is a little disappointing, given how she wants nothing more than to beat him into nothing more than a pile of limbs, but whatever. She looks back to Tori, who's giving her a look that Jade has never seen before.  She quickly glances over to Andre, who gives her a quick pat on the shoulder when he passes by her. Jade sighs, running a hand through her hair, trying to push down the weird fucking emotion in her chest.

"You were really good at that," Tori suddenly says, laughing a little. "I thought you were serious."

Jade pauses for a second, looking away. "That's because I'm an actor, Vega," she says, as casually as she can. "I'm not talentless like Trina. Most people here actually are talented, believe it or not."

"Whatever," Tori snorts, giving her a nudge. "I know that you're a good actor, Jade. I've seen you act before. Thanks, by the way," Tori sighs, shoving some books into her locker. "I don't even know who he was. His opening line was, and you're gonna love this, 'do you have a map? Because I'm getting lost in your eyes'. Who even says that?"

"Ew," Jade gags, screwing up her face. "That's fucking awful. I can't believe he thought that would work. What the fuck."

Tori laughs, shaking her head. "I know! God, I couldn't believe it," she sighs, turning back to look at Jade. "Can I have a map? 'Cause I'm getting lost in your—"

"Absolutely not," Jade laughs, shoving Tori. "No. Not even a little. We're breaking up. Bye."

"I'm breaking up with you!" Tori reminds her as Jade starts to stalk off to her own locker. Jade flips her off in return, smiling a little when she hears Tori laugh at that response.

The weird feeling in her chest has mostly died down, though she's not entirely sure if it's completely gone. Jade sighs as she opens her locker, feeling weird still. It's definitely an emotion she's had before, for sure. Jade knows that at least. She just doesn't understand why seeing some guy try and get with Tori was enough to make her genuinely homicidal.

Maybe it's just because she knows that she hates dealing with men like that, especially when they're fucking braindead and don't understand when someone is so obviously not interested. Was she worried? 

No, definitely not. Tori is unbelievably fucking strong and fast, and Jade knows without a doubt that Tori could have easily kicked that guy's ass. Tori's nice enough that she probably wouldn't have, but if anything escalated, she definitely could have. Okay, so she wasn't worried. That's one emotion eliminated.

Maybe she really was just annoyed. But that doesn't really explain the pure rage and disgust she felt. She wasn't worried for Tori at all, she just wanted to murder that man for even attempting to get with her. Which isn't that abnormal for her. Jade has fought off several men and women who have tried to get with Cat, and she was angry all those times, too. Maybe not as angry.

Definitely not as angry.

Jade sighs, glancing to her side when she hears Beck's footsteps, wondering if she should admit defeat or not. As much as Jade does not enjoy admitting it, Beck has always been amazing at reading her, at knowing her generally. "Beck."

"That's not a happy tone," Beck immediately says, and Jade sighs again, regretting this immediately. "What's up?"

"I..." she groans, slamming her locker shut, letting her head thunk against it. "I'm going to ask you something, and I'm being serious, okay? This is serious. Answer me seriously."

Beck laughs, which is already a horrible sign. "Yeah, okay. Ask away."

"Tori just...okay. Like, two minutes ago, there was this guy."

"Oh no, a guy."

"Beck."

"Sorry."

He's grinning, so he clearly is not fucking sorry, but whatever, Jade'll be the bigger person and move on. "Like I was saying," she sighs. "There was this guy, and he was hitting on her. And..." Jade trails off, wondering if she should just back out or not. "I felt incredibly angry."

"I mean, I'm not surprised," Beck says. "What's your question about?"

"I just—" Jade groans, kicking the locker under her own. "Why?"

Beck stares at her. "You're asking...why?"

"I said this was serious. Don't be a dick to me."

"Okay!" Beck laughs, holding up his hands. "Jade. You felt angry because you were jealous. Not to bring up, y'know, but that was something we talked about a lot. You haven't felt jealous with her until now?"

Jade blinks.

Jealousy. That's what it was. Fucking jealousy.

What the fuck.

"Uh," Jade clears her throat, trying to regain her composure. "No. I haven't. Today was the first time."

"You should probably talk to her about it," Beck urges her. "I mean, you should probably talk to her in general," he laughs. "We really did not do a good job at that."

"Right," Jade confirms. "Thanks, Beck."

"Anytime," he shrugs. "I'll catch you at lunch."

"Yeah," she agrees. "Bye."

"Bye, Jade!"

Jade breathes out slowly, glancing over to Tori's locker, finding that, miserably enough, Tori herself is still there. Jade reminds herself that Beck is an absolute idiot who has never been right in his entire life ever, and starts to walk over to her, leaning against the locker beside her.

"You ready to go yet, Vega?"

"I've been ready for three minutes," Tori shoots back, grinning at her. "But yes, I'm ready to go. Are you? It only took you fifty years."

"I will hear none of it from the woman who takes five hours to get ready in the morning," Jade teases, feeling a little more relaxed. Tori just scoffs at her, starting to walk. Jade grins as she walks along with her, barely realising that they're holding hands. Jade wonders when that happened. "You want me to beat up that guy for you?"

Tori laughs, squeezing her hand. "I think you've scared him enough. Also, by the way, everyone in the school totally knows we're dating now. Do you remember how you said that wouldn't happen?"

"Well," Jade shrugs, not very bothered by that fact. "I think that you just aren't remembering right, Vega. That's not my fault. I can't help it if your memories are simply not to be trusted."

"Can you not gaslight me at eight in the morning?"

Jade grins, definitely feeling way less anxious and stressed. Beck was absolutely wrong, for sure. That's not what jealousy feels like. "I'll start gaslighting you at five in the morning."

"Okay, how about you don't gaslight me at all?"

"Hm," Jade pretends to consider that for a second. "I don't think I can do that."

"Whatever," Tori laughs, letting go of her hand. Jade barely even realised that they were at Tori's first class. "I'll see you later, Jade!"

"We'll see," Jade beams at her, waving a little. "Bye, Vega."

"Bye bye!"

Jade starts to make the trek to her own class, which is only down the next hallway. She thinks about how Beck was totally dead wrong.

He has to be, because there's literally  no reason why Jade would feel jealous. It's not like her and Tori are actually dating. Why would she feel jealous? She absolutely wouldn't, and she absolutely didn't.

Jade sighs as she enters her classroom, tossing her bag onto the ground. Beck was absolutely wrong, and she's going to delight in that later. Jade pulls out her phone, about to text Andre something stupid related to the fact that she totally saved his best friend from a situation faster than he did, but she pauses when she sees a notification from her gallery about a memory being made for her.

Jade wonders just what it could be, given how she hasn't really taken pictures in forever, and clicks on the notification. 

She's immediately met with pictures of Tori Vega, and promptly locks her phone, embarrassed. Right. She didn't delete those pictures of Tori on the ramada. Right. She forgot about it.

Jade, for once in her life, has never been so excited for her class to start.

Chapter Text

Tori sighs as she drags herself out of her study hall, Andre hot on her heels. "I thought she was gonna kill him!" Andre laughs, and judging by his tone, Tori wonders if he wanted her to. He probably did, given how he's never taken it well when Tori has been hit on by some idiot who couldn't take no for an answer.

"I also was pretty convinced he was about to die," Tori says, grinning a little as she manages to reach her locker, Andre leaning on the one to her right. "I think that if he didn't leave right away she would have."

"Absolutely," Andre grins, his eyes sparkling a little. "Maybe you Trina can take you home today so Jade and I can go beat that guy's ass."

Tori snorts, giving him a shove. "Absolutely not. Jade totally scared him enough already. I'd be surprised if he ever showed his face again," Tori muses, smiling to herself. She had never seen Jade like that before, and she was also entirely convinced that Jade wasn't pretending. She's sure some of the anger was real — Tori also gets angry when she sees her friends being hit on like that. But Jade's fury was on a different level, and it was ridiculously convincing. "Honestly, maybe he died of a heart attack right after."

"We can only hope," Andre sighs, and after a second, he suddenly raises an eyebrow. "Hey, Tor. Look at that," he says, pointing towards Jade's locker. Jade is there, and there's a guy approaching her. "What the fuck is up with this today?"

Tori raises her eyebrow as well, stopping what she's doing to fully face towards Jade. "No idea. Do you think he even has a clue about how screwed he is?"

"Definitely not even a little," Andre confirms, which makes Tori grin. She'd absolutely be more than happy to step in and tell him to go straight to hell, but she also knows that Jade can easily handle herself. She is annoyed though, because that man is Gilbert, and he's in her world cultures class. "You gonna go save your girl?"

"I don't think she needs saving," Tori offers, watching as Jade slams her locker shut, which makes Gilbert jump, immediately taking a few steps back. He says something, which makes Jade glare at him, and Tori genuinely wonders if she's going to kill him for a second. "Okay, maybe he needs saving."

"He for sure needs saving," Andre agrees, heaving a sigh. "Alright, girlie. Go rein her in."

Tori laughs, rolling her eyes at him before she stalks past Gilbert, making eye contact with Jade for a second. She stands right next to Jade, wrapping her arm around the woman's shoulders. "Hey, Gilbert. What's up?"

"Um, uh," Gilbert looks away, a mixture of very clear terror as well as sincere thankfulness. "I was— I was just telling Jade, um, you know. That her shoes looked nice."

"I'm taken," Jade snarls out, practically bristling. She's definitely not in a good mood, and Tori is a little glad she decided to save Gilbert's ass. He doesn't deserve to die for just trying to strike up a conversation with Jade. "If that wasn't obvious enough for you."

"Sorry, Gilbert," Tori says, offering him a look of fake sympathy. "Hey, maybe you could talk to Cat? You know, Cat Valentine? She's pretty nice," Tori offers. Gilbert and Cat would be a much better couple than Jade and Gilbert ever could be. "She's just over there."

"Uh, yeah— yeah, okay."

"Cool," Tori grins. "My bad for already stealing her."

And that's exactly when it happens.

It happens fast, so fast that Tori almost doesn't even notice it at all. But it does happen, and she does catch it after a second.

Tori gives Jade a peck on the cheek. Something small, nothing big, nothing dramatic. Just a casual peck on the cheek that, if they were actually dating, would mean absolutely nothing. Neither of them would probably even notice. 

But they aren't actually dating. Jade won't even admit that she likes Tori, even though Tori knows she does.

So it is a big thing. It is dramatic.

It is anything but casual.

Tori freezes up as soon as she does it, but she quickly reminds herself that she just has to push through it; she remembers that method acting lesson from Sikowitz. If Jade can scorch her entire hand, Tori can pretend for five more minutes.

Well, maybe. Her heart is beating out of her chest, and Tori isn't entirely convinced that she's going to even be alive for five more minutes, so she'll see.

Gilbert is, thankfully enough, gone in a few seconds. Unfortunately enough, Jade is not. Jade is still right there, right beside her, stiff as can be.

"Um."

"I'll text Trina to take me home today," Tori decides, her voice a little too high pitched for her liking, a little too squeaky. "Bye."

"Bye."

Tori furiously scrambles off about ten feet to her own locker, staring inside of it, at nothing. Her entire face is on fire, her whole body aflame.

Dear god. Oh god.

Tori doesn't even know why she did that. Maybe it's just— Okay. Okay, it doesn't have to be a big deal. She can chill for a second. Okay.

Cool.

Right.

Tori has done stuff like that in her actual relationships that were real. Her and Jade have been doing relationship-esque stuff, obviously, for obvious reasons. Tori accidentally slipping up and doing something that is also relationship-esque isn't that surprising. How else is she supposed to act? Like she hates Jade's guts? 

Definitely not.

It was just an accident. She didn't mean for it to happen, she didn't even want to do it. It just...happened. That's all. It quite literally just happened. Tori can explain that to Jade, and it'll be fine. It doesn't have to be a big deal.

Tori breathes out, pulling out her phone to text Trina. She's shocked when she gets a text back basically immediately, and is completely agonised when she actually reads it.

Trina is going on another yacht party. Tori is pretty sure that's a downright lie, but whatever, Trina isn't even there anymore.

Great.

Tori painfully swallows her defeat, stalking over to Jade, who's thankfully still there. "Um," Tori breathes out, rubbing the back of her neck. "Trina can't..." she sighs, looking away. "She can't take me."

Jade also sighs, but she nods, closing her locker. "Okay. Come on, then."

So Tori does, unhappily enough.

The walk to Jade's car is silent.

The car ride back is silent.

The walk to Tori's door is silent.

And, currently, they're sitting on opposite ends of the couch.

Which is also silent.

Tori thinks she might actually go insane.

She's never had a problem sitting in silence with Jade. She's actually learnt that she likes it as of late. Tori generally doesn't have a problem being quiet when she's with people, it's never an issue or a big deal or whatever.

It's definitely a big deal right now, a massive deal in fact, and Tori doesn't know how to handle it. Which is annoying, because normally she's really good at handling stuff like this. It usually isn't difficult for her at all, but clearly everything has to be difficult when it comes to anything related to Jade West.

Speaking of the woman, Tori is entirely sure that Jade isn't going to be the first one to talk. Which is so frustrating, because there is genuinely not a single part of Tori that wants to talk about this literally at all. But she knows that they need to, because talking actually really does solve almost every problem ever.

Tori sighs, not loudly enough that it'd come across as frustrated, even though she kind of is. "Okay," she says, turning to face Jade, pulling her legs up onto the couch and her knees up to her chest. "Let's talk."

"Do we—"

"Yes," Tori interrupts, because they absolutely do. They have to. Tori isn't going to let this fester between them, even if she genuinely thinks that dying might be easier than talking. She can manage. "It doesn't have to be a big deal," she says, something that she's said to herself about twenty times now. "It just, it was an accident. I didn't even..." she looks away. "I didn't even think about it, I didn't mean to do that."

"I didn't think you did," Jade sighs, running her hands through her hair, dragging them down her face a second later. "Okay. It doesn't have to be a big deal. I was just," Jade sighs again, also looking away. "I was surprised. And annoyed. Not at you, I guess," she says, teasingly, and it makes Tori smile. She feels like a huge weight has been lifted off her shoulders just from Jade's teasing tone. "It was weird."

"Yeah," Tori laughs, shaking her head a bit. "It was. Sikowitz's lesson in method acting really stuck with me."

Jade laughs, and Tori is so insanely happy that they're back to normal. "Sure it did, Vega. I think you just wanted to kiss me."

"I didn't," Tori rolls her eyes, reaching for the remote on the coffee table. She immediately goes to YouTube, putting on another compilation of horrible America's Got Talent auditions. "I'm sure you want me to kiss you."

"As fucking if, Vega," Jade snorts. "I think I'd rather spend a whole day with Rex with both my arms broken."

"That is way too harsh," Tori rolls her eyes, but she can't really help smiling when Jade grins at her, looking genuinely happy. "Hey, did someone ever record your play for Beck?"

Jade blinks at her after a second. "Yeah, someone did. Where did that come from?"

"I don't know," Tori shrugs, turning up the volume a bit. "I was just thinking of your play this morning."

"Why?"

"It was good?" Tori offers, laughing. She had been talking to the cashier at the gas station about it — she recognised them, she had seen them there. Tori was glad that they were there on opening night versus literally any other night. "Even with Daisy on the later nights," she teases. "She wasn't enough to ruin your play."

Jade smiles a little at her, looking way more relaxed than she had been, thank god. Tori also feels way more relaxed, which is nice. "Awfully sweet of you," Jade tells her. "Are you flirting with me, Vega?"

Tori laughs, giving her a look. "Am I not allowed to flirt with my girlfriend?"

"Shut up," Jade suggests, beaming. "I shouldn't have saved your ass when Trina was trying to torment you. You're annoying about it."

"Personally, I'm enjoying it," Tori beams back at her. "I think that it's only fair that you suffer a bit, too."

"I wholeheartedly disagree with that statement," Jade informs her. "And I think that you are severely fucked up for even saying something like it."

"Whatever!" Tori laughs, shaking her head. "You're the worst."

"Another compliment? You know, I think that you want to kiss me."

"Not even a little, Jade," Tori rolls her eyes. She's never thought about kissing Jade. Well, okay, she's never thought about kissing Jade up until two seconds ago. And now she is, because Jade put the thought in her head. Tori stamps those thoughts down as best she can, quietly sighing when she's not very successful. "I think that this guy just broke his arm."

"God, I hope so."

The distraction isn't enough to fully get Tori's mind off of kissing Jade, irritatingly enough. And damn Jade for doing this to her in the first place. Tori doesn't want to kiss Jade. She doesn't. Literally not even a little. She's so entirely fine with not kissing her.

And, quite frankly, she's pretty livid that Jade is making her think about it. 

Because Tori doesn't particularly want to be thinking about her hands in Jade's hair or around her waist, her lips pressed softly against Jade's. Tori doesn't want to kiss her, she doesn't want to imagine how Jade's lips would feel, or really any of the noises either of them would make.

Yeah, Jade sucks big time.

Tori tries her best to refocus on the TV, shifting a little on the couch, dragging her hand through her hair. She spares a glance over to Jade, who is pretty intently watching some guy try and pick a fight with one of the judges. Tori wonders just how screwed up it is of her to have had thoughts about kissing her. It's stupidly embarrassing, and Tori isn't happy about it, and she's especially not happy that Jade is entirely unaware, because it's Jade's fault.

God. Whatever.

"Why are you all huffy over there?" Jade asks, and Tori does her absolutely best to not be even more huffy and outright tell Jade that it's because of her.

"I'm not huffy," Tori decides to say instead. "You're imagining things."

"Oh," Jade drawls out, arching an eyebrow. "I see you've turned the gaslighting around on me."

Tori grins, suddenly not very annoyed at Jade at all. "I think it's super deserved."

"Hard disagree," Jade muses, smiling a little. "I can't believe Gordon tried to fucking hit on me."

"Gilbert," Tori corrects. "And I guess he's the second person at Hollywood Arts who didn't know we were dating," she shrugs. "He knows now."

"Yeah, 'cause you kissed me."

Tori sighs. "I gave you an accidental peck on the cheek. It wasn't a kiss. I didn't kiss you. I will not be kissing you. I do not want to kiss you. And I will not be kissing you."

"Damn, Vega, it sounds like you really want to kiss me."

Tori is going to kick her ass. Jade West truly is insufferable, and Tori is annoyed that she can't even be annoyed at Jade for it. Tori has basically just accepted it wholeheartedly, and she's grown used to it, and god, that just makes it worse.

"I'm banning you from my house."

"Nah," Jade decides, as if that's something she can actually decide. Tori sighs, rolling her eyes even despite the stupid burst of fondness in her chest. "I can't believe your parents named Trina Trina. It fits her so well."

Tori wonders where that came from, but she chooses to just nod. "It does fit her. I don't think Victoria really fits me."

"What?" Jade frowns at her. "Your name is Victoria?  You're kidding me."

"You didn't know?" Tori laughs, raising an eyebrow at Jade right as a man jumps over the table to fully attack Simon Cowell. "We've been friends for how long now? Oh, god, we're dating and you didn't know my name?"

Jade scowls at her, rolling her eyes. "We're not dating, and we're not even friends, so really, this is a perfectly normal situation to be in. Also, you literally only go by Tori!" Jade accuses, narrowing her eyes. "Which I thought was a stupid thing to name your kid, but somehow Victoria is ten times worse."

"Oh, so both of my names are awful to you?"

"Yes, without a doubt."

Tori laughs at the blatant ridiculousness of fucking Jade West, shaking her head. "Okay, so sorry for being born."

"Yeah, you should be," Jade grins at her, her eyes sparkling. "It's okay, there's a great solution here, and it's the fact that I simply only refer to you as your last name. Which is infinitely better than Victoria."

"You've called me Tori before," Tori accuses, giving her a look. "I think four times now."

Jade raises an eyebrow. "Yeah? You've been keeping track?"

"Because it's weird when you call me by my actual name!" Tori laughs, shaking her head. "Of course I've been keeping track! Imagine if I called you West randomly!"

"You have!" Jade shoots back. "Twi— ah. Shut up, Vega. Shut up right now."

Tori grins at her, which only makes Jade scowl even harder, giving her a very firm look that very clearly says do not even start. Obviously, that means that Tori must start, and so she grins even harder, feeling incredibly cocky. "Yeah? What was that about keeping track, Jade? Sounds kind of stalkerish to me!"

"Whatever!" Jade laughs, flipping her off with both hands. "Absolutely fucking whatever, Vega. You're the worst and I'm breaking up with you."

"I'm breaking up with you!" Tori reminds her for the second time today. "And my dad's a cop, you know."

"Oh, how scary," Jade teases. "David Vega is going to, what, arrest me for fake breaking up with his daughter? The horrors. How miserable and awful. I may never survive."

"We'll see if I even let him arrest you," Tori teases. "I'll get to you first. You've seen me scale that ramada."

"I have seen you scale that ramada," Jade sighs, running a hand through her hair. "But you're nice and kind of a pussy, so I think I'm good."

"Oh," Tori grins at her, feeling something insanely competitive awaken deep inside of her. "You think you're good?"

That's about all the warning Tori gives her before she fully tackles Jade, who yelps, a strangled noise coming from the back of her throat. Tori manges to get Jade slung over her shoulder in maybe ten seconds, probably less.

There's silence for a few seconds before Tori bursts out laughing, Jade's complete and utter silence almost enough to double her over. Tori happily carries Jade to their kitchen island, grinning when she sets her down, only grinning even harder at Jade's completely offended look. 

"Vega. Never do that to me again."

"Your fault for challenging me," Tori shrugs, beaming at her. "Maybe I should have, like, what's it called?"

"Suplexed."

"Right. I totally should have done that with you."

"I was unaware you were into domestic violence."

Tori laughs, resting one hand on her hip. "Uh huh, whatever, Jade. I can't believe that's the first time I did that."

Jade looks at her, absolutely haunted, which makes Tori laugh at her again. "And it'll be the last. No one can know about this."

"Sure," Tori beams at her, strutting off back to the couch. "I think this was all pretty deserved for everything that's happened today."

"You literally kissed me. I should get to suplex you."

"It was a peck on the cheek!" Tori protests, rolling her eyes. "And you clearly wanted me to, since you keep bringing it up."

"You know, I really don't think those two things correlate even a little," Jade muses, hopping off of the island. "For the record, I'd rather get shot in both feet and be forced to walk to Washington than kiss you."

"I guarantee kissing me would not be that bad."

"I guarantee that it would be that bad."

Tori rolls her eyes. "I guess there's only one way to find out, and it won't be happening, so you're objectively wrong. You don't have all the evidence you need."

"I'm making an educated guess," Jade flashes her a grin. "I don't need evidence."

"You're just a fake liar scientist," Tori sighs. "You totally do need evidence. I just won't be letting you have that evidence."

Jade snorts, shaking her head a little. "How awful. Tori Vega doesn't want me to kiss her? I may just die."

"We can only hope!" Tori teases, which makes Jade sigh, flipping her off, sitting down next to her again. Jade sprawls out on the couch, immediately putting her legs over Tori's lap. "Really?"

"Really," Jade confirms, grinning. "What? Do you not want your girlfriend to be comfortable? Come on, Vega."

"I don't," Tori confirms, but she doesn't make any attempt to move Jade or get her to stop. Unfortunately, Tori is actually pretty comfortable. The weight of Jade's legs on her is comfortable, everything about this is just comfortable. Tori can barely even remember how uncomfortable she felt an hour or two ago, back when she was so convinced she had ruined everything entirely by accident. But here they are — right back to their usual everything. "I think this is the worst one."

The audition happening right now has gone on for like ten minutes, and Tori's ears are in agony. "Probably," Jade agrees, adjusting a little. "Not as bad as Trina's."

"You never even saw Trina's audition."

"Vega. Do you really think that I'd have to have physically seen it to know that it's awful?"

Tori admittedly can't disagree with that. She doesn't even remember what Trina did for her audition, but she is well aware that whatever it was, it was awful. 

Tori finds herself resting her hand on Jade's leg, which is even more comfortable. She kind of realises that they've basically done a complete one-eighty when it comes to touch. 

Actually, that's literally not even true. Tori is also realising that Jade has always been fine with Tori touching her. That clearly hasn't changed at all. 

God, Jade is weird. Tori can't believe that she thinks Jade is charming. She can't believe that she finds the woman charming and funny and exciting to be around and nice to hang out with. Tori thinks that it's ridiculous that Jade is so clearly comfortable with her, and yet Jade is so insanely adamant that they're not even remotely close to being friends.

And yet here Jade West is, her legs in Tori's lap, laughing at every stupid audition that plays on the TV. 

Yeah.

And they're "not friends". 

Tori can't help but smile, finding that that's honestly just as charming as the rest of Jade. Her intensive stubbornness and general inability to admit defeat is charming. Jade is harsh a lot of the time, but Tori almost feels like Jade has become less sharp, that she's not as quick to jump to making fun of Tori over everything. Well, okay, she definitely still makes fun of Tori for literally anything and everything, but it doesn't feel like she means it anymore.

Tori thinks that this feels domestic too, just like it did a few days ago. "Hey," Tori says, glancing over to Jade, who gives her a look before she pauses the TV. "You said that you wanted to move my stars into actual constellations. You wanna do that now?"

Jade heaves a sigh, looking exhausted and annoyed, but Tori can see a slight smile tugging up on her lips, so she doesn't believe that Jade's annoyed for even a second. "I guess so," Jade sighs, swinging her legs off of Tori's lap. "Since you're clearly incapable."

"You literally—" Tori rolls her eyes, hopping up off the couch right after her. "You're awful, you know that? The worst. The absolute worst."

"You're clearly into it," Jade says, flashing her a grin, already half up Tori's stairs. "Given how you asked me out and then made out with me."

Tori is completely aghast at that, opting to stare at Jade with her mouth hanging open. "Nope, uh uh. You better get up those stairs faster than I catch you and suplex you."

Jade scrambles up the stairs immediately, which makes Tori laugh as she slowly trails on up after her, wondering just how the hell she got shackled to the worst person in the world.

And honestly, she wonders just why the hell that makes her happy.

Chapter Text

Jade can't believe she's fake dating a woman with glow in the dark stars, and she also can't believe that she's literally not at all surprised. While she's made fun of Tori every two seconds, she also can't help but feel a little fond, because it's just such a Tori thing to do.

"Okay," Jade says, clapping her hands together as she sits on her heels on Tori's bed, making a vague motion up to the ceiling. Tori is sat by her door, hopefully following the constellation guide Jade gave her. "This is the Lyra constellation," Jade tells her, pointing to each individual star. "And this one is you, Vega."

Jade points to that one, watching as Tori starts to smile. That smile quickly turns into a grin, and Tori points up to the star above her, raising an eyebrow. "Nah, I think that this one is me."

Jade truly wonders how she got herself into this situation. She was totally and utterly right to hate Tori, absolutely. She's regressed since then. Her past self totally knew what was up. Jade sighs, but she just hops off of Tori's bed, stands on her toes, and plucks that star specifically off of the ceiling. She then proceeds to replace it, moving the original off to the side.

"There," Jade says, grinning at the surprise on Tori's face. "Is that better, Vega?"

"Yes," Tori confirms, no longer looking surprised — her chest is puffed out and she's grinning wildly, her hands on her hips. "I definitely think that that is so much better than the stupid star you picked. That was more of an insult, in fact."

Jade rolls her eyes, though she's unable to stop herself from grinning even harder. "Whatever, Vega. Shut up and make your stupid constellations."

That just makes Tori laugh, which makes Jade smile, which is annoying and stupid. 

Jade takes a second to admire her work, staring up at the ceiling. Ursa Major is up there, and Jade fully expected Tori to call it the Big Dipper, because that's literally what it is, but no. Jade was stuck with that woman fully just calling it "The Bear" for about fifteen minutes before Jade threatened to throw all her stupid stars out the window. And, devastatingly enough, Jade is all too well aware that Ursa Major will never be Ursa Major to her anymore. No, it's been demoted to The Bear.

Ursa Minor didn't fare too well either — its new name is "Small Bear", which is technically almost what it's called, given how it's name is just "Little Bear", but Tori did not like that and rejected it fully. 

And now Jade gets to live with the fact that she'll never be able to escape The Bear or Small Bear. 

Great.

Jade also put up Aquila, Canis Major, and Cetus. Small Bear is still being put up by Tori, and Jade is intrigued to see how that turns out. For someone with glow in the dark stars, Tori has managed to barely even have a handful of said glow in the dark stars. Jade is going to have to buy more, because she's already committed to making constellations, and they only have six up there. That's pathetic and rookie numbers. And Jade West is absolutely not someone who will back down from a challenge, or from seeing something through.

"Small Bear is coming along amazingly, by the way," Tori helpfully tells her, and Jade spares a look over to her, then to the ceiling. Admittedly, Small Bear is turning out pretty well, all things considered. "Are you done with all of yours?"

"You don't have enough stars to make any more," Jade tells her, flopping onto her back. Tori's bed is shockingly comfortable and soft, and Jade has contemplated stealing a few of her blankets. "If you want your entire ceiling to be filled, I'll have to buy more."

Tori laughs, sounding genuinely excited. "Okay. We can put up the rest of them on, like, a weekend or something. You can stay over if you want."

"Sure," Jade shrugs, smiling a little. She's a little surprised when Tori turns off the lights suddenly, grinning at the fact that the stars actually look really good when they're actually organised into real constellations. "See? It looks so much better when they're real constellations, huh?"

"Whatever," Tori teases, flopping down next to her. Jade feels her heart jolt at the suddenness of Tori's hand on her own, but she quickly relaxes, not really that bothered by it at all. She hasn't really been bothered by Tori touching her the entire time that they've been pretending to date. Honestly, Jade doesn't think she's ever actually been bothered by Tori touching her. "Maybe we can add a glow in the dark moon."

"We'll see," Jade rolls her eyes, feeling warm and comfortable. She had been completely fucking losing it earlier — Tori kissing her on the cheek was genuinely nearly enough to make Jade spontaneously combust. She had never felt so nervous, so anxious, so confused, and it was barely survivable. "I still can't believe that you have these."

"Really?" Tori laughs, nudging her. "You can't?"

"I can," Jade corrects herself, sighing a little. "I definitely can. I just hate admitting it to myself. It's pretty miserable pretending to date someone who has glow in the dark stars, Vega."

"Uh huh, I'm sure," Tori snorts, clearly rolling her eyes. "And what does it say about you, hmm? You helped me reorganise them into constellations. Clearly you're into it."

Jade sighs again, shaking her head as much as she can. "You're just delusional, Vega. I did what I had to do for my own mental sanity. This was in my best interest."

"I'm sure it was, Jade."

"Shut up, Vega."

Tori laughs, and Jade is a little surprised when the woman adjusts, resting her head against Jade's ribs. It's shockingly not uncomfortable or painful, and Jade is pretty content to go back to staring up at the bright stars in Tori's otherwise dark room. Technically her LEDs are still on, but they're pretty muffled in comparison to the brightness of the stars, which Jade thinks is pretty ridiculous.

It's nice. It's quiet, peaceful. Jade almost feels like she's going to fall asleep. It's warm in Tori's room, too, and Tori's bed is generally warm, and Jade feels all too drowsy. She closes her eyes, deciding to give in just a little. 

Today has been weird. It's been good, but Jade isn't really surprised by that. She was stressed beyond belief for a while after Tori's accidental peck on the cheek, but that had been resolved way quicker than Jade could have ever expected. That kiss...Jade still isn't entirely sure how she even feels. She was anxious and nervous and a whole fucking wreck, but it wasn't awful. It didn't make her feel gross or anything like that, it was just...weird. 

Jade didn't hate it. She wasn't even really bothered by it. She doesn't exactly know what it was that she was feeling, but it wasn't disgust or anything.

Jade feels Tori shift, though it's not enough to fully wake her up. She can hear the music from the speaker, though it's significantly quieter than it was when they started to take down and put back up Tori's stars. The music is also way softer than it had been, and Jade's pretty appreciative of that. She can hear Tori's breathing like this, and it's surprisingly not infuriating.

Jade has always hated hearing other people breathe. She's also never liked hearing herself breathe, but she can normally drown that out with music or white noise or noise in general. Tori's breathing is just relaxing, a gentle reminder that Tori is still there, laying against her. 

"Hey, you awake?"

"I am now," Jade grumbles, sighing as she sits up, which makes Tori move. Jade glances over at the clock that Tori has on one of her nightstands, a little surprised that it's almost eight in the evening. "I guess that's probably a sign that I should go."

"Probably," Tori teases, hopping off her bed, stretching her arms over her head, her back turned to Jade. Jade looks at her for a few seconds, at her back, her arms. How she can easily see the fact that Tori is toned, even though she's wearing long sleeves. Jade looks away, pushing herself off of the bed when she does so. "My bed's a deathtrap."

"Clearly," Jade agrees, glancing up at the ceiling, at the stars. "It definitely doesn't help that your room is super dark right now," she continues, yawning a second later. "Okay. Walk me to my car."

"Demanding," Tori laughs, but she's already at the door, and then she's already down the stairs. Jade rolls her eyes, about to leave Tori's room, but she pauses. She walks back over to Tori's bed, hopping hack onto it. She grabs the star that Tori had insisted on being in the constellation, and switches it with the star she had originally placed there. Jade pockets the star without even really thinking about it before she scurries downstairs, almost running right into Tori. "Did you get all your stuff?"

"Yeah," Jade confirms, looking away for a few seconds. She slides on her boots pretty quickly, grabbing her jacket that's hanging from the coat rack a second later. "Well," Jade looks at Tori, beaming at her. "I'll pick you up tomorrow. Bye, Vega."

"Bye, Jade! See you tomorrow!"

Jade waves a little before she ducks out of Tori's house, stalking out to her car. 

She pulls out of Tori's driveway after a few seconds, starting the journey back to her house.

Jade lays on her bed, staring up at her ceiling.

At the one glow in the dark star that occupies the space directly above her.

Jade doesn't know why she did that — she doesn't fucking know at all, actually. She just...did it. She didn't think about it, she just decided that she was going to do it, and clearly, she did indeed do it.

Jade sighs, dragging her hands down her face, wondering just what the hell is up with her recently. First she's holding Tori's hand all the time, even when no one else is around. And then she's hanging out with her all the time, like genuinely all the time. Jade has only ever hung out with Beck this much one-on-one, and even then, she doesn't think that she hung out with him this frequently. Jade has also just been thinking about Tori a lot more recently.

Which is reasonable enough given the last two things, but still.

And then, the most recent and the most unbelievable of them all, Jade didn't care when Tori kissed her cheek. She wasn't upset or angry or disgusted or anything like that. She was stunned and incredibly bewildered, but she wasn't upset by it. Jade was confused and anxious and she felt weird, but it ultimately wasn't a bad thing.

Jade doesn't think she'd mind if Tori did it again. 

Which is so fucking weird to even think, and she would absolutely never say it out loud to anyone, least of all Tori Vega. It just...wasn't that bad. It wasn't even bad in the first place. It almost felt casual after Jade got over her whole borderline spontaneous combustion and all that. She didn't really mind. She wouldn't really mind if Tori did it again. Though it isn't like she wants her to.

Just that she wouldn't necessarily mind.

Jade thinks about Tori's lips without even meaning to, thinks about how they felt against her cheek. Tori barely kissed her for even a second, and so she doesn't really have any clear memories of them, but they were soft, Jade absolutely knows that for sure.

She groans, staring at the stupid star on her ceiling. "What the fuck am I going to do about you?" Jade demands, scowling at it, promptly feeling like an idiot for talking to a literal inanimate glow in the dark star. She sighs, narrowing her eyes sharply at the stupid star. "You're an asshole and I don't like you."

And that's just a lie — she does like Tori. Even if Jade absolutely hates to even admit it to herself. Tori is exciting and fun to be with and to hang out with. She's clever and funny and ridiculously compassionate and sweet. Tori is charming in her own weird way, and Jade doesn't think that there's ever really been a time where she hasn't thought that Tori Vega was charming. Even when she stumbled out on that stage, fighting and swinging like a madman, she was charming. Jade likes hanging out with her, she likes all the drives they go on, she likes their little established routine in the morning. Jade likes Tori Vega.

And that's so fucking annoying. Because if she didn't like her, at the very least, all of this would be so much easier. Jade wouldn't even have jumped in and saved Tori's ass — she just would have let the woman suffer. But no, Jade enjoys talking to Tori and hanging out with her, and she just likes Tori as a person.

Jade sighs. She can still feel Tori's lips on her cheek. It's been buzzing all day, a very clear and constant reminder that Tori Vega kissed her there. Her hands have been buzzing all day from where Tori has held them. Jade's side is buzzing, right from where Tori laid on her for a bit. Jade can feel Tori's hands on her, and now, she can feel Tori's lips on hers.

It's almost too much to handle. And it shouldn't be, but it is.

Jade has never been very good at convincing herself that she hates Tori. Even when she was trying incredibly hard, she still couldn't do it. Jade always found herself desperately trying to, though her attempts never actually went anywhere. The closest she got was when she almost hated Tori for being so unhateable. And even then that wasn't real hate.

Jade has been jealous of Tori, and god, apparently she's been jealous because...no. Absolutely not. Jade pushes that thought down very fiercely. She was not jealous. She was not. Beck made a stupid assumption and it freaked her out a bit, that's all. Jade was just annoyed, and that's it, and that's the end of that. 

She didn't delete those pictures of Tori. Jade doesn't know why, but she hasn't deleted them yet. She doesn't even think that she ever actually will, which is fucking embarrassing, especially because it's not like she has a reason to keep them. It's not like they're actually dating. Jade doesn't even think about Tori like that.

Tori is pretty and funny and smart, absolutely. She's hot, and the past few weeks have only really confirmed that for Jade. She's charming in her own unique way, she's incredibly caring and kind. Tori is outgoing and sweet and surprisingly fun to hang out with.

But that doesn't mean that Jade thinks about her like that. Tori can be all of those things without it meaning something. Jade is just...fucking tired, that's all. It's been a long day for her. Tori can be funny and pretty and charming, and honestly, anyone with a fucking brain would be able to see that. It doesn't have to be a big deal or mean anything, just like Tori said earlier. It's just insanely clear that Tori is all of those things. Jade thinks that she'd honestly be pretty hard pressed to find someone who didn't think that Tori Vega was hot as hell. It definitely doesn't have to mean anything, especially not when Tori looks like that.

It isn't even that Tori is just hot physically. She's incredibly strong, and that's something that's attractive. Not just to Jade, but to basically everyone alive. Tori's not outwardly muscular, but Jade has seen her arms enough to know just how toned she really is. Plus, Tori literally, physically picked her up.

That...that was something. Jade doesn't entirely know how she feels about it still, but that's just become a theme of her's recently. Jade has about a dozen unprocessed emotions floating around in her chest at any given time, which is infuriating, but it's more maddening than anything.

Jade stares at the ceiling, at the one star that's right above her. It's almost comforting, in a weird way. Jade has been comfortable with Tori for a while now, and this is just another reminder that the woman has managed to push her way right into Jade's life. As much as Jade never wants to admit it, Tori has wormed her way right into Jade's life, taking a foothold by force. Tori has always been stubborn like that, which Jade was pretty surprised to learn. She had always figured that Tori was just a giant pushover, and that's anything but true in reality. Tori Vega is insanely stubborn and unrelenting, almost entirely unwilling to back down. 

Jade doesn't really mind that Tori has shoved her way into her life. It's kind of nice, if anything. Jade never expected any of this to be nice. She never expected to actually end up liking Tori Vega. Jade was pretty dead set on not letting the woman into her life literally at all, and Tori clearly didn't care about that and managed to do it anyways. Jade thinks it's honestly impressive — she doesn't think that she'd have tried that hard if the roles were reversed. She supposes that she's lucky that they weren't.

There's a part of Jade that wishes she had stayed overnight, but she pushes that down, decidedly ignoring it.

Jade stares at the star on her ceiling for another few minutes before she starts to get drowsy again, and it isn't long before she actually falls asleep, her thoughts full of the brightest girl she knows.

Chapter Text

Tori stares up at the stars above her, something that she's been doing for probably two hours at this point. She sighs, wondering if she should just admit defeat and accept the fact that she's probably just not going to be able to sleep.

She tried so hard, but after Trina woke her up at midnight it's been virtually impossible for her to even feel tired. Tori thinks that she'll have to just kill Trina for that, because that's absolutely the only solution here. For now, though, Tori lays in bed, staring at all the stars that she helped Jade put up a few days ago. It's Sunday night, technically Monday morning, and Tori still is admiring the new constellations on her ceiling. Jade did the vast majority of the work, saddling Tori with Small Bear instead.

Small Bear does look good, and Tori is entirely convinced that she'll be able to put up more constellations on her own when they get together next to buy more stars. She’s been ridiculously excited for that — Tori has been looking forwards to that basically since the moment that Jade suggested it. Tori had a really good time with Jade when they put up her stars again, and she’s looking forwards to doing it all over again.

Tori thinks about that for a while. She can imagine it pretty well — Jade crouched on her bed, making some stupid quip towards her. It’s familiar, and Tori isn’t really sure why Jade has become so familiar so quickly, but whatever. She guesses that she’s not as surprised as she could be. Jade is basically over at her house every single day, they hang out all the time, obviously she’s going to get somewhat used to the woman. It’s just the fact that it’s Jade West that’s a little shocking and honestly a bit infuriating. It’s more infuriating that she’s not surprised. Tori has long since accepted the fact that Jade is familiar and all of that. But she definitely does not like it, not even a little.

Tori sighs, running her hands through her hair. She doesn’t think that she’s going to be able to go back to sleep. She glances over at her phone on the charger, pausing for a second. Jade called her that one time when she couldn’t sleep. At like, five in the goddamn morning. Tori glances over at her clock, staring at the 2am that glows in her bedroom. Tori grabs her phone without thinking about it, unlocks it, and immediately calls Jade.

She’s hung up on instantly.

Tori scowls at her phone. Honestly, she isn’t even upset that Jade immediately hung up on her. She’s more upset about the fact that it means Jade is very much so awake, and that Tori didn’t get to wake her up. Tori is also not going to be hung up on, not by Jade of all people. She calls again, grinning at the annoyed look on Jade’s face when she picks up.

“Hi!” Tori beams at her, tilting her head to the side, looking as sweet as possible. “How’s it feel, West?”

“Do not call me that,” Jade immediately says, jabbing a finger at her phone. “And you didn’t wake me up. So it feels just fine, Victoria.”

Tori wrinkles her nose in pure disgust, narrowing her eyes at the woman. Tori didn’t know that it was physically possible to hate her own name so much, but leave it to Jade West to figure it out for her. “You know, actually? I don’t want to talk to you. Bye.”

“Wait!” Jade laughs now, her eyes shining. “Come on, Vega! It was funny!” Jade grins, and Tori arches an eyebrow, because it definitely was not even a little funny, and she thinks that Jade is probably just delusional. Jade really is just the absolute worst, wow. “Why are you calling me?” Jade asks, her voice a little softer than it had been before.

Tori sighs, relenting without really meaning to. “I couldn’t sleep,” she explains. “Trina woke me up at midnight, and well,” she sighs again, shrugging. “I’ve been up ever since.”

“Poor you,” Jade hums. “Not getting your beauty sleep that you so desperately need, Vega?”

“I am not,” Tori agrees, running a hand through her hair. “Hey. Wait. Desperately? Jade.”

Jade laughs, throwing her head back, and while it’s quite literally at her own expense, Tori can’t help but grin right along with her. There’s something about Jade’s laugh that’s infectious, and Tori really just can’t help herself. It isn’t her fault, not even a little, actually. “I was wondering if you’d notice,” Jade says, grinning. “Did you talk to Lane?”

“Yes, Jade,” Tori rolls her eyes. “I talked to Lane. He said he’d let me have it off.”

She was pretty excited about that, actually. Tori had to remind herself that it was for Jade. And, unfortunately enough, that somehow didn’t curb her ridiculously intense excitement. Tori is not willing to accept the fact that she’s excited to spend her mornings with Jade. She thinks that’d be stepping over a line, and Tori will simply not do that.

“Cool,” Jade grins even more, looking a little too proud of herself. Tori rolls her eyes again, watching as Jade shifts in her bed a bit. “Well. What did Trina want?”

“God,” Tori groans, heaving a sigh. “She was mad that we’re using our old Christmas tree instead of the bright neon pink one that she wanted. That one apparently plays music and dances, and also has lights built into it. And she also wanted it in her room, and our parents told her no, so she made it my problem. As usual.”

“As usual,” Jade hums her agreement. “Can you still legally put her up for adoption or not?” Jade asks, raising an eyebrow. “Maybe that’ll fix it.”

“No,” Tori laughs, ducking her head. “No, I cannot. I mean, for many reasons, but I’m also not her legal guardian?” She offers. “Also, you know she’d come back. You know that no one would even consider it. It’d be a mess.”

“It would be a little funny,” Jade grins, tilting her head to the side. “For me. It’d definitely be funny for me.”

“I know it would be funny for you,” Tori says, rolling her eyes. “You’re evil. Pain and suffering is funny to you because you’re evil and messed up and terrible.”

Jade clicks her tongue, heaving a sigh. “That truly is no way to talk to your girlfriend, Vega.”

“Well,” Tori flashes her a grin. “I guess it’s a great thing we’re not dating, huh?”

“Even though you desperately want to date me,” Jade agrees. “Given how you made out with me. Full lip-on-lip action. Tongue and all. Right down the throat.”

“Right down the— oh my god,” Tori sighs, giving Jade an incredibly firm look. “You’re so messed up. I did not— okay, you know what?” Tori points a finger at Jade, narrowing her eyes sharply. “I will not be engaging with you. Not even a little. Actually, you know what? I’m gonna hang up on you. Bye, Jade.”

Jade grins at her, looking far too happy. “Bye, Vega.”

Tori stares at her, aghast. “Okay. You know what? I’m not going to hang up with you. You’re stuck with me.”

“Oh no!” Jade laughs, her voice light, airy. “How horrible! The horrors! I simply may not survive this!” Jade sighs, dramatically falling back onto her bed, her arm flying to lay across her face. “This is it for me!”

“You are the worst person alive,” Tori laughs, shaking her head at the ridiculousness of it all. Leave it to Jade West to be the most ridiculous person alive. Tori rolls her eyes at the fact that it makes her feel a strong fondness in her chest. It’s almost overwhelming how fond she feels for the woman, and Tori pushes that down pretty easily. “Good. I hope it is it for you.”

“It absolutely will be,” Jade says, sighing drearily. “Don’t even worry, Vega. This’ll kill me. This will absolutely be it for me. This is the last time we’ll ever talk. I’m going to die from this. This is—”

“Whatever!” Tori laughs, watching as Jade sits back up, grinning so widely it has to hurt. Tori is doing the same thing, though — her cheeks sting horribly. That’s been something that’s happened to her way more often recently. Jade makes her smile to the point that it hurts. “Why are you still awake, Jade?”

Jade shrugs, tilting her head to the side a bit. “No idea. I just couldn’t sleep. I normally go to sleep around this time.”

“No wonder you need coffee injected right into your bloodstream to survive,” Tori mutters. “That sucks.”

“It’s not that bad,” Jade shrugs. “Getting my first class off will probably help. I do not like waking up early.”

“I am so aware,” Tori teases. She pauses, thinking for a few seconds. “You know, since we’re dating, we should go on dates.”

Jade arches an eyebrow. “Where did that come from?”

“I was just thinking about it,” Tori shrugs. “I thought about it a few days ago. We hang out at my house a lot, but we could go on actual outside dates. Plus,” Tori grins at her. “We can use it as an excuse. I don’t want to be in the house with Trina? I’m just going on a date with you. You don’t want Beck to harass you? You’re going on a date with me. Easy.”

“I guess so,” Jade agrees. “Even though I’m pretty sure you just want to date me for real.”

Tori snorts. They’ve been “fighting” over that for weeks now. Tori has still remained undeterred, because there is not even a small part of her that would want to really actually date Jade West. No way. Yeah. Definitely not. “Not even a little. So take me out to sushi tomorrow.”

Jade laughs, giving her a look. Her eyes are shining, and Tori kind of wonders just how they’re doing that. Jade’s room is normally so unbelievably dark, and it still is, but there’s definitely something making light. Maybe Jade has a lamp on. “Okay,” Jade finally says, shaking her head. “I guess I can do that.”

“Great,” Tori laughs, running her hands through her hair. “Nozu’s, of course.”

“I know the sushi place, Vega,” Jade tells her, rolling her eyes. Tori just flashes her a grin, which makes Jade roll her eyes again. “What time?”

“Maybe like six?” Tori offers. “I have a project I need to finish before we go.”

“Cool,” Jade agrees. “We’re still getting coffee in the morning tomorrow.”

“Today, and I know,” Tori laughs. “You look tired already.”

“I feel tired,” Jade confirms. “I guess talking to you is just so unbearably exhausting that my body is putting a stop to it,” Jade suggests, and Tori scowls at her. That only makes Jade grin, and Tori has the distinct thought that she looks pretty when she smiles. Tori has never seen her smile so much, not until recently. “You also look tired, Vega.”

Tori grins at her. “Like you said. My body is simply giving out.”

“I’m sure it is,” Jade laughs, resting her hand on her face. “Okay. I’m tired. So I’m going to go to sleep.”

“Okay,” Tori confirms. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Wait,” Jade says, perking up a little. “You don’t have to hang up,” Jade continues. Tori raises an eyebrow at her, and Jade raises one back. “What if you wake up again? What if I wake up? I’m not going through the extra steps to make your life more difficult, Vega.”

Tori snorts, wondering just how she got into this situation with Jade West. She also wonders when Jade West didn’t strive to go out of her way to make Tori’s life more difficult. That’s definitely a new development. “Okay,” Tori says, even despite herself. “Well, you’re gonna go in timeout. You don’t get to watch me sleep.” 

“I don’t want to watch you sleep,” Jade protests, rolling her eyes. “But whatever. You’re also going in timeout. Because fuck you.”

“I know you want to make out with me, but really?” Tori asks. “You’re awfully direct, Jade.”

Jade stares at her, her mouth hanging open. Tori wonders if she’s imagining things, or if Jade West really is blushing. “Oh my god. Absolutely not. Not even a little. You are so fucked up. You are so fucked up in the head. Goodnight.”

And then Tori watches as she’s promptly flipped over, facing the bed. Tori laughs, throwing her head back so hard that it hurts. She grins at her phone, quickly tilting it up towards the stars, specifically the Lyra constellation above her. Tori grins even more as she lays down, resting her hands behind her head, staring up at the stars. 

She feels warm, a sort of domestic feeling that she’s been feeling a lot recently. 

“Goodnight, Jade.”

There’s silence for a few seconds, but Tori hears Jade sigh after a moment.

“Goodnight, Vega.”

Tori beams, and after Jade says that, she suddenly feels a lot more tired. Tori closes her eyes, and finds that she’s completely gone within a matter of minutes. She feels warmer than she has in a long time, and there’s a quiet thought in the back of her mind that kind of wants to do this more often.

Then, of course, she wakes up to Jade blaring an alarm right into her ear. 

And as much as it should be miserable, Tori can’t help but feel fondness and a sort of affection for Jade, even though she’s absolutely awful and horrible.

Tori kind of thinks that she likes that about Jade West.

Chapter Text

Jade is freaking the fuck out. 

She is not happy about it, but that is very clearly unimportant to her body and to her mind and just in general it’s pretty clear that it is unimportant because it’s still happening anyways and god.

Jade breathes out, forcing herself to dig her heels into the ground. It forces her to stop pacing for a few seconds, but that actually just makes the anxiety worse, wow, and so Jade starts pacing again. There is genuinely no reason for her to be this freaked out, but she is. Oh god is she so freaked out. 

It’s literally just a fake date. It is a fake date with the woman she’s fake dating. It’s not even an actual date, they’re just hanging out, but the label is a date, and that is apparently too much. Jade has no goddamn reason to be this nervous. Jade has hung out with Tori Vega plenty of times now. She’s over at her house basically every day. They’ve skipped class together, they’ve sat together every day in Sikowitz’s, Jade has hung out with that woman no small amount of times. 

And yet still, here she is, about to actually lose her shit. 

Jade groans, digging her nails into her scalp, letting out a long, pathetic noise of complete and utter misery. Jesus Christ. She needs to chill. Jade breathes out again, reminding herself that it is literally just Tori Vega. It’s just Tori Vega. So what if they’re going on a fake date? It’s just Tori.

That does not make it better. That makes it worse, actually. Way worse. 

Jade heaves a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. Okay. 

Okay.

She turns to face her closet, and is very promptly hit with another wave of anxiety. Right. She has to get dressed. Holy shit. Wow. That seems very impossible for the situation at hand. Jade groans again, throwing her head back, dragging her hands down her face. What the hell. She takes a few seconds to miserably stare at her closet before she stalks over to it, staring at the clothes she has hung up. There are several dresses, skirts, a couple of button downs, a few cargo pants. Her belts are corsets are on the wall next to said closet, and that’s another damn issue she’ll have to address.

Dear god. 

Jade turns back around, her back to the closet, her hands on her hips. She takes a few seconds to try and regain herself, to remind herself that there is quite literally no reason for her to be acting like this. Jade sighs, bringing her hands up to her face. There is no reason for her to be losing her shit. She is fine. It’s just...Jade sighs again, decidedly not thinking about who it just is. She glances back to her closet, wincing again. 

In a moment of pure weakness, Jade grabs her phone off her bed and calls Beck. 

As soon as he picks up, though, Jade lets out a miserable groan, wishing that he fucking hadn’t.

“Okay,” Beck immediately says. “Feeling kind of upset at that reaction.”

“Shut up,” Jade groans, tossing her phone back onto her bed. Jade sits on the ground, letting her head thunk against the wall behind her. “Oh my god.”

“Oh my god,” Beck agrees. “What’s up?”

Jade sighs, dragging her hands down her face again. “I’m going on a...on a date with Tori.”

“Ooh, shocker!” Beck laughs. “A date! With your girlfriend! Who knew that was possible?”

“You—” Jade breathes out, choosing to ignore him being a complete and utter asshole. She focuses on the fact that it makes her roll her eyes instead. Okay, maybe calling Beck was the right choice. He’s insufferable enough to distract her from the shit that’s going on in her head. “I don’t know what to wear.”

Beck is quiet for a few seconds, and Jade swears to god that she’s going to kill him when she hears him quietly laughing under his breath. “You don’t know what to wear? That’s what’s got you all freaked?”

“Beck, do not even fucking start with me.”

“I’m just saying!” Beck laughs. “Okay, well, do we have options?” He asks, and Jade groans again, because she definitely does not have options. “Okay, so that’s a hard no. What are you feeling? Dress? Not dress? Skirt, maybe? Where are you going, actually?”

Jade sighs. “The sushi place.” 

Beck hums for a moment. “Okay, so not super upscale.”

“No,” Jade agrees. “And I don’t know, Beck. If I knew, I wouldn’t have called you.”

“Sure,” Beck teases. “Okay. Do you know what she’s wearing?”

“No,” Jade shakes her head, even though Beck can’t see her. “I have no idea.”

“Well,” Beck snorts. “Hopefully you don’t show up looking insanely different,” he teases. “How about a dress?”

“No,” Jade mutters. “Absolutely not.”

Beck sighs. “Well, clearly you have some feelings,” he says. “Okay, how about a skirt? Are we feeling skirt? How do we feel about the potential of skirt?”

“I feel like I might punch you,” Jade informs him. She does stand up though, turning to face her closet. She stares at it for a few seconds, staring at a black skirt that doesn’t look awful right now. “I guess skirt is a decent enough choice,” she mutters, picking it out of her closet. She tosses it onto her bed, standing there with her hands on her hips. “Okay. Keep talking.”

“I can’t believe that you’re this freaked out,” Beck laughs. “You never were this freaked out for our dates.”

“Whatever,” Jade rolls her eyes, waving a hand. She peers into her closet for a few more seconds, pulling out a top that has mesh near the neckline. She considers it for a second before putting it back on the hanger. “I just didn’t like you.”

Beck snorts. “Ooh, shocker! I still can’t believe you’re this freaked,” Beck continues, and Jade sighs, carefully sorting through her tops. She slides some of them off to the side, sparing a glance at one of them that’s a little more flashy, yet still vaguely classy. Is that what she’s going for? Jade has absolutely no idea, but she pulls it out nonetheless, holding it up over her torso. “It’s a little funny. I never thought you’d be freaking out over Tori Vega.”

“I am not freaking out over Tori Vega,” Jade says, clearly freaking out over Tori Vega. She puts that top back, grimacing. Jade grabs another one, looking at it for far longer than the last one. “You suck and are so not helpful.”

“So sorry,” Beck snorts, and Jade can feel him rolling his eyes. “How are we doing on tops? Are we even on tops yet? Have we even found a skirt?”

“Yes, we’re on tops,” Jade mutters, rolling her eyes right back at the asshole. “What do I even go for? What’s my theme?” She groans, running a hand through her hair. “What the fuck goes with sushi date?”

“I mean,” Beck starts, and Jade sighs as she starts to sort through her tops again. “Probably not overly fancy. Maybe a leather jacket?” He offers. “It’s getting colder out at night.”

Jade hums, considering that for a second. He’s right, and she has plenty of leather jackets on hand. But Jade is not happy that he’s right, so she sighs. “Leather jackets are not tops, Beck,” she mutters, rolling her eyes. “Those are jackets. Overwear. They go over tops. Get your shit together.”

“My bad,” Beck snorts, and Jade grins, feeling a little more at ease. “Okay. Just wear one of your band t-shirts,” he offers. “You can zip up the leather jacket and then it won’t matter.”

“Absolutely not,” Jade scoffs, a little appalled. “It’s staying unzipped. And a band t-shirt does not..” she trails off, considering it for a second. “No,” Jade decides immediately after. “No band t-shirt. Try again.”

Jade listens to Beck drone off about different tops, and Jade responds in short hums, mostly focused on actually finding a top. She shoves all of her band t-shirts to the back, and is left with a selection of semi-revealing tops that she’s vaguely considering. Is it too risque? Does it even matter? Tori isn’t going to be looking at her like that, anyways. Jade pauses when that makes her do a double take, frowning when she wonders if that’s a good thing or not.

Obviously it is. She definitely doesn’t really want Tori looking at her like that.

Kind of? Jade sighs, wincing silently. She likes being looked at on her terms, and if she’s wearing something vaguely out there, she would like it to be noticed. It just so happens to be Tori Vega who will be doing the noticing. That’s something that makes her think. Does she want Tori to notice her? Does she want Tori to look at her? 

No.

Well, maybe.

No.

Jade is so incredibly thankful that she managed to have the foresight to not get on a video call with Beck, because she’s two seconds away from pacing and ripping out her own goddamn hair. Jade steadies herself the best that she can, carefully scanning her closet. There’s a top that’s vaguely sheer, and Jade considers it for a while.

Okay.

That one is fine.

“Found a top,” Jade reports, tugging off the shirt she has on, tossing it to the side. “No thanks to you, obviously.”

“Whatever!” Beck sighs, sounding incredibly offended. “Okay, so you’ve got a skirt and a top. Boots? Rings? How are we feeling about rings?”

Jade rolls her eyes, pulling on the shirt. “Obviously I’m doing rings,” Jade tells him, turning to look at herself in the mirror. Okay, that’s good. Jade tosses her pants to the side, grabbing a pair of black shorts and tights. She puts both of those on, grabbing her skirt afterwards. “God.”

“You’ll be fine,” Beck assures her, and Jade isn’t entirely sure if she will be fine. She adjusts her skirt, turning to look at herself in the mirror a few times. It works well enough. Jade grabs one of her leather jackets, pulling it on over her shoulders. “I’m sure she’s just as nervous as you are.”

Jade snorts, because she doubts that. She doesn’t have a reason to be nervous, and Tori definitely doesn’t have one, either. It’s not like they’re actually literally dating, and Tori has somehow handled all of this better than she has, which is fucking embarrassing. But either way, Tori is definitely not nervous, Jade is certain of it. “Well, let’s hope that it’s worse for her,” Jade mutters, turning to look at her little ring box. “Snake ring?”

“Snake ring is vital,” Beck muses. “Definitely go for snake ring.”

Jade grins a little, pulling out said snake ring. It’s a literal snake, but it’s broken in the middle. Jade still hasn’t gotten around to fixing it. She grabs a few other rings, alternating them between her fingers, but she eventually manages. Jade breathes out, looking at herself in the mirror. She just needs boots, and then she’s good to go. 

“Okay,” Jade nods at herself, adjusting her hair. “Okay, I think I’m good. Thanks, I guess,” Jade grins, still messing with her hair. “Even though you did literally nothing.”

“I—” Beck cuts himself off, and that only makes Jade grin even harder. “I hope you trip and fall, actually. Right in front of her. I hope it’s the most embarrassing moment of your life. Goodbye forever.”

“Bye!” Jade laughs, laughing even harder when Beck hangs up. She breathes out again after a moment, turning to the side, examining her outfit. She stares at herself for a while, hoping that she doesn’t accidentally clash with Tori too much. If it does, well, fuck. Jade can only pray Tori isn’t going to show up in neon pink.

Jade pauses for a second when she thinks of the fact that Tori is going to be looking at her.

Jade swallows, feeling her entire body suddenly get very, very hot at that thought. Oh. She feels like she’s about to die, actually, and Jade quickly turns away, putting her hand over her mouth as she desperately tries to calm down from the sudden something that’s just hit her full force. Jade closes her eyes, her heart pounding so hard that it’s almost loud enough to block every other noise in her room. She feels like she’s going to genuinely fall over. Tori is going to be looking at her.

It shouldn’t be that big of a deal. And it’s not.

Definitely not.

Jade breathes in, feeling like she genuinely might pass out. Tori Vega is going to be looking at her. Jade has never really considered that before, not before tonight. She doesn’t think that Tori has been looking at her. Not in any way that’s not just normal looking. She’s never really thought about it, because Jade has never really wanted Tori to look at her.

And she still doesn’t.

Probably. 

Oh, god.

Jade drags her hands down her face, not feeling any better. Because what the actual fuck. 

Does she want Tori Vega to look at her?

Jade doesn’t know. She can’t definitively say no. Which is worrying, because she should be able to say no easily. But she can’t. Jade looks at herself in the mirror again, blinking a few times, doing her best to chill the hell out. She doesn’t dress for other people. Jade dresses for herself, she always has. She’s never remotely cared about someone else’s opinion of her.

But all she can think about right now is if Tori is going to think she’s pretty or not. 

Jade swallows, letting out an all too shaky breath.

Okay. 

She can think about that later.

Jade spares a glance up to the ceiling, finding herself staring at Tori’s star.

And then thoughts of Tori flood her mind, primarily surrounding one question.

“Does she think I’m pretty?”

Jade grabs her phone, shoving it in her jacket pocket. She quickly puts on the boots closest to her, her heart pounding in her chest the entire time. Jade barely manages to grab her purse, quickly patting herself down, praying to fucking god that she has everything, because she cannot be in her room any longer.

Jade quickly escapes from her house and scrambles to get in her car, sitting there with her hands on either side of the wheel, staring dead ahead.

Holy fucking shit.

Jade takes a few seconds to chill the hell out, letting her head fall against the stupid horn, only sitting back up when she figures that she does not want to get a noise complaint right now. Jade breathes out, sparing a quick look at herself in her front mirror. She’s fine. She looks fine. She’ll be fine. 

Great. Okay.

Cool.

Jade groans, praying to god that the rest of tonight is normal.

Chapter Text

Tori stares at her closet. 

Her closet stares back at her.

She sighs.

She’s been struggling to figure out what to wear for at least ten minutes now. Jade dropped her off and Tori immediately decided to not do the project she was meant to do, and instead did her makeup. Tori thinks that was a great choice on her part, because that took like an hour and a half because she kept getting frustrated. This isn’t a real date — they’re not actually dating. But Tori likes to dress up and go out, and so she’s trying to treat it like one, and because of that, she’s used basically all of her makeup wipes and needs to buy more.

Tori runs her hands through her hair, resting the both of them on the back of her head. She isn’t entirely sure what she wants to go for. She’s been alternating between about ten tops, five pants, a few skirts, and has debated on a dress or not. But it’s a sushi place. But honestly, that doesn’t matter that much. Tori likes getting dressy, sushi place or not. She’s just nervous, probably because she’s decidedly labeled this hang out with Jade as an actual date when it isn’t. 

Tori sighs again, clicking her tongue a few times as she turns around, glancing at her phone. She pauses for a second, but after a moment, she grabs it, quickly unlocking it and calling Andre, who picks up immediately. Tori breathes out a sigh of relief when he does, because Andre has always been so good at helping her make decisions.

“Hey, girlie!” Andre greets, and Tori puts him on speaker, setting her phone on her nightstand. “What’s up with you?”

“I,” Tori starts, “have a date. And I don’t know what to wear,” she quickly adds on, sighing. “I already did my makeup. I just...I am really struggling, I will not lie to you.”

Andre laughs, and Tori rolls her eyes. It’s a little funny, but she doesn’t think it warrants him literally losing his mind, but whatever. She supposes this is technically on her for calling him. “Alright, well, what’ve we got so far?” He asks. “Anything picked out?”

“A couple of tops,” Tori tells him, looking at her pile of clothes on her bed, her hands on her hips. “I don’t really know what I’m going for. Should I be flashy?”

“Jade’s not gonna be flashy,” Andre offers, and Tori hums her agreement. “If you want to match her, then I’d go with, you know. Black. Emo. Darkness. All of that fun stuff.”

Tori snorts, tossing a few of her more brightly coloured tops to the side. She wasn’t strongly considering them, but she’s definitely not anymore. “I can do that,” Tori muses, setting her all black clothes to the other side of her bed. “Should I wear pants? A skirt?”

“Pants maybe,” Andre suggests. “She’ll probably wear a skirt. You don’t want to be her. You want to be with her.”

Tori rolls her eyes, grinning a little. “I am with her,” she says. “Do you think she’d like those combat boots I have?” Tori asks, pausing for a second. She doesn’t really care if Jade likes how she looks or not. Well, she kind of does. Tori doesn’t want Jade to think she’s hideous, but Tori generally enjoys it when people don’t think that, not just Jade.

“I’m sure she would,” Andre hums back. “She likes you, so.”

“I guess you’re right,” Tori laughs, grabbing a dark olive green button up. She tosses her old shirt to the side, tugging the new one on. “We’re going to the sushi place, by the way. In case that changes any fashion suggestions.”

“It does not, but thank you nonetheless.”

Tori rolls her eyes, buttoning her shirt. She glances to her pile of clothes, carefully scanning them for her black cargo pants. She finds them after a second, setting them off to the side. “Okay, I’m going with olive button up,” Tori announces, turning to look at herself in her mirror. She smoothes down the shirt, turning to the side a little. It looks good, and it’ll look better with the pants and the belt and the boots. “You know olive button up.”

“I do know olive button up,” Andre confirms. “It seems like you didn’t need me at all, girlie!” Andre laughs, and Tori laughs back, ducking her head a little. She had just been nervous. Tori is positive it’s because they both officially decided it was going to be their “first date”, just so they could say that they were going out on dates. Tori knows it’s just her hanging out with Jade, but still.

“I was nervous!” Tori admits, sighing a few seconds after. “Jade is intimidating, you know that. She makes people cry just by looking in their direction, Andre. You know that too. She’s terrifying!” Tori laughs, pulling on her cargo pants.

“She shouldn’t be that scary to you!” Andre shoots back, laughing a little. “You two are dating, Tor! You shouldn’t be that scared of your girlfriend, come on.”

Tori sighs, shaking her head a little, unable to stop herself from grinning. “I am not scared of Jade. She’s just intense, okay?” Tori laughs, reaching for the windbreaker on her bed. She pauses, clicking her tongue. “You know my windbreaker, right?”

“Yep,” Andre says. “I think it’d go well.”

“Cool,” Tori beams, pulling it on over her shoulders. “Should I wear jewelry?” She asks, pausing for a second as she looks at her several necklace hooks. “I only have like, twenty minutes left.”

“Is that not enough time to pick out jewelry?” Andre asks, and Tori scoffs, which makes him sigh in return. “I was just wondering! I don’t wear jewelry! And I am not about to ask Robbie Shapiro on how long it takes him to get ready,” Andre very helpfully informs her. “So don’t you dare even start with me, girl.”

Tori laughs again, grinning so hard her face hurts. Leave it to Andre to calm her nerves. Her nerves weren’t even really that bad in the first place, but still. “I suppose I’ll relent,” Tori heaves a sigh. “But just this once!” She adds, grinning when Andre lets out a bark of laughter. “And okay, it doesn’t usually take me that long to put on jewelry,” she admits. “But I did spend like, two hours doing my makeup and then redoing it because I was losing my mind,” Tori sighs. “So it might take me another hour. And I don’t have another hour. Jade is shockingly punctual, did you know that?”

“Only for you, girlie,” Andre sighs. “That girl has no sense of time management when it comes to anything else. She shows up so damn late that I’m always surprised she even came in the first place. And alright, well, I’d go with gold,” he continues. “That gets rid of a lot of options, right? It’d look good with your outfit. You look better in gold.”

“Very sweet,” Tori beams. She thinks about what he said a few seconds before that, though. Tori wonders if Jade really is only early for her, or if Andre is just lying to her. Jade has always been ridiculously on time if not ten minutes early when it comes to everything involving the two of them. It makes Tori smile. “And okay, I think you’re right,” she hums. “Necklaces, rings?”

“Both?” Andre offers. “Maybe one necklace. Several rings.”

Tori rolls her eyes, but she quickly finds a necklace that fits her outfit well enough. It has a gold chain with a little pendant in the middle of it. “Okay, necklace successfully acquired,” Tori says, clasping it around her neck. She scans her ring box for a few seconds, pulling out a couple golden bands. “God, Andre. I have so many rings.”

“Poor you?” Andre offers, and Tori groans, contemplating throwing her phone out the window. “Okay, okay, sorry!” Andre laughs, which does not make Tori any less homicidal. “I mean, you’re not being super flashy, right? You can go simple. You know how to do that?”

“I’ll kill you,” Tori threatens, rolling her eyes again when Andre just giggles like an idiot. “You’re annoying. I’m hanging up on you.”

“No!” Andre laughs, sounding absolutely miserable for a second. Good. “Come on, Tori! I’m just trying to be a good, supportive friend,” he insists, and Tori doesn’t believe him for even a second. “Okay. Come on. Let’s go simple. You’ve got this, girlie! I believe in you!”

Tori definitely does not believe that he's trying to be a good friend, but whatever. She stands there for a few seconds, adjusting some of the bands, swapping some of them out for her other rings. Tori groans, because god, this is way harder than she expected it to be. "I haven't been on a date in so long!" Tori huffs, setting a ring down.

"She's never taken you out before?" Andre asks, sounding surprised. 

"No, I mean—" Tori winces. "Technically yes?" She offers after a second, because realistically, she can consider their little hang outs as dates, and she probably would if they were actually dating. "We just didn't call them that. So, you know," Tori sighs, waving a hand. "It's different."

"Mm," Andre hums, very clearly not supportive at all. "Mhm, I see. That is stressful."

"Andre," Tori warns, though she can't stop herself from grinning. "You better knock it off right now."

Andre laughs, which only makes Tori roll her eyes, shaking her head a little. "Sorry!" He laughs again, very obviously not even a little sorry. "I can totally see how it's different. But it'll be fine!" Andre insists. "She's your girlfriend, you guys are together like all the time, you get along...shockingly well! It'll be totally okay, Tori."

Tori nods, picking out another ring. She's apparently decided on mostly bands, but whatever, she doesn't have time to second guess her options right now. She can do that in the car. "Okay. Okay, I think I'm good?" Tori offers, glancing over at her cargo pants, then to her belts hanging up on her wall. "Okay. Okay. Cool."

"Are you sure we're cool?" Andre snorts, and Tori groans in response. "Okay! So sorry for asking! But okay!" Andre laughs. "We're cool? You good to go?"

"I think I'm good to go, yeah," Tori confirms. "Thank you, Andre! I'll let you know how it goes!"

"You better!" Andre tells her. "Okay, girlie! Talk to you later, and I expect to be informed of absolutely everything that happens tonight!"

Tori rolls her eyes, grabbing her phone off of her nightstand. "Uh huh, for sure. Bye, Andre!"

"Bye bye Tori!"

She hangs up a second later, heaving a quiet sigh. Tori looks at herself in her mirror, sighing again. She is nervous, and she does not like that. Not even a little. Tori thinks that she’s just nervous because of the word date, and her dates have typically not gone well. Probably because she was never actually into any of them. Well, it isn’t like she’s into this one either. Definitely not. 

At least Jade is vaguely her type.

Woah. Tori blinks, frowning at that thought. She decidedly ignores it, turning to grab her pants. She quickly puts them on, grabs a belt after about thirty seconds of staring at her options so hard that her eyes started to blur, and pulls on her socks. Tori puts on her boots after that, and goes back to looking at herself in the mirror.

She looks good. She’s pretty confident about that. Tori can only hope that she matches Jade well enough, and she honestly thinks that she’s at least pretty close. Dark greens, blacks, a brown belt, she should be good. Tori breathes out, messing with her hair for a few seconds. She’s messed with it about ten billion times and it definitely no longer looks like it did when she actually styled it, but whatever, she’s nervous.

Tori gasps when she hears Jade’s horn going off, her heart very suddenly pounding in her chest. She is not supposed to be here yet.

“Oh my god,” Tori breathes out, quickly grabbing her wallet, shoving it in her back pocket. She stands there for a few seconds, very suddenly freaking out bad, but she eventually manages to get her feet to work. Tori races down the stairs, pausing when she stands in front of her front door. “Okay. Okay, it’s cool. It’s cool!”

 God, Andre would totally not be letting her hear the end of it right now.

Tori opens her door, breathing in and out slowly as she stalks off of her porch and down to her driveway. She pretends like she isn’t losing her mind as she tugs open Jade’s car door, sitting down in the passenger seat that’s become incredibly familiar to her. 

Tori looks at Jade, and feels her heart start to race again. The only thing that she can think of is just how pretty Jade West looks right now. Which is very. Jade West looks very pretty.

“You look good,” Tori says before she can stop herself, very unwillingly looking Jade up and down. She does look good, but Tori absolutely does not need to be speaking right now. “Is that a new jacket?” Tori asks, because if she can’t make herself shut up, she can at least say less incriminating things. 

Jade blinks at her. “It’s not,” Jade eventually says, pulling out of Tori’s driveway. “I guess you look fine, too.”

“Thanks so much,” Tori laughs, rolling her eyes. Okay, cool. They’re back to normal. Great. She can work with this. Tori is actually so okay with Jade immediately insulting her.  “I call you pretty and you insult me.”

“You didn’t call me pretty,” Jade informs her. “You said I looked good. That is not the same thing, Vega.”

Tori snorts, giving the woman a look. “Okay, you look pretty. How’s that?” She asks, and immediately realises that she should not be speaking. At least, not about how she finds Jade pretty. It’s not like it should be a big deal, and Tori is very much so of the mindset that you can compliment your friends. But it’s Jade. That’s somehow different. Tori doesn’t exactly know how it’s different, but it is, and she needs to shut up and honestly probably never speak again, just to be safe.

“Good to know my girlfriend thinks I look pretty,” Jade snorts, and Tori lets out a very quiet sigh of relief. Okay, she’s just freaking out over literally nothing. Jade is being normal and fine and really attractive and oh goddammit. “Is that a new jacket?” Jade asks, and Tori reminds herself that she is in fact wearing clothes and some of those clothes happen to be a windbreaker.

“No,” Tori says, willing herself to remember that Jade is literally being normal and she’s going to end it there that time, god forbid. She’s just freaking over nothing. It’s not her fault that the word “date” apparently just makes her act completely different. “I mean, to you, yeah,” Tori continues. “I don’t think you’ve seen it before.”

“I also don’t think so,” Jade teases, and Tori can’t help but laugh a little, trying to ease up. They’re just hanging out — that’s all. Jade is being normal, and so Tori can be normal, too. There wasn’t even any reason for her to be freaking out, and she’s seeing that pretty clearly now. They’re just hanging out. Easy. “I’m shocked you’re ready on time.”

Tori scoffs. “I’m very punctual, thank you very much. I’m shocked that you’re on time.”

“When have I ever been late?” Jade immediately shoots back. “That’s right. Never. Not once. So get fucked.”

“You’re insufferable,” Tori very helpfully informs her, which only makes Jade laugh, which in turn makes Tori laugh, unfortunately. “I’m putting on music.”

“It’s a ten minute drive,” Jade laughs, giving her a look. Tori gives her one right back, sticking out her tongue. “Okay, whatever, Vega. Be a weirdo.”

“I will,” Tori grins, connecting her phone. “We’ll get through at least three songs. It’ll be worth it.”

Tori swears that she can see Jade roll her eyes. “Yeah, okay, Vega. We’ll see.”

Tori grins, feeling much more relaxed. Somehow, Jade always manages to put her at ease. Which is a very weird thing to even think about, given, well, Jade, but somehow it happens nonetheless. Tori isn’t really complaining about finding some kind of comfort in Jade. 

It’s actually really nice. Tori smiles as she rolls down her window, feeling a little breathless.

For the first time in her entire life, Tori is actually excited about a date.

Chapter Text

As soon as they get to the sushi place, Jade feels like she actually might die.

Tori basically immediately called her pretty two times, and for some godforsaken reason, Jade cannot handle that. Jade also can barely handle how Tori looks. Jade has always thought that Tori Vega was attractive. Everyone does. That is a perfectly normal thing to think, and Jade thinks she'd arguably be the odd one out if she didn’t think that Tori Vega was hot and pretty and attractive and so forth. But right now? Tori is somehow extra pretty.

Which is a fine and normal thing to think usually. Jade thinks that it’s normal. Tori Vega can be pretty and she can also be extra pretty, and that’s fine. Sometimes people are just extra pretty. Easy. Not a big deal.

What is a big deal, though, is how her stupid fucking face keps heating up every single time she thinks of Tori. Jade finds herself looking towards Tori very often, examining her shirt and her rings and her windbreaker and also her eyes and lips and great, moving on. 

Jade is going insane. 

She’s determined that that’s the only reasonable thing happening to her right now. Nothing else makes sense, and Jade decides that she’s just losing her mind. 

Jade picks out a seat for them, ignoring the way that Tori sits. She sits normally. Jade is just fucking insane.

"I like your little," Tori waves a hand. "Your snake?" She offers, laughing a little. Jade reminds herself that she still has to breathe, and she isn't actually sure when she stopped.

"It's broken," Jade tells her, holding up her hand. "You can't really tell, though."

"I wouldn't have been able to if you didn't tell me," Tori muses. "He's cute. His face is kind of stupid."

"Like yours?"

Tori laughs, grinning at Jade with narrowed eyes. "That is absolutely no way to talk to your girlfriend. You know what? I'm breaking up with you here. In this sushi place. I'll be loud about it, too! Just watch me!"

"Don't!" Jade laughs, feeling a little less fucking crazy. "Don't you dare cause a scene, Vega. No one wants to deal with that," Jade says, grinning a little. Tori simply beams right back at her, clearly proud of herself. "Do you know what you want?" Jade asks, glancing down at the menu.

"Probably just..." Tori trails off. "Hey, are those two— oh my god," Tori winces, and Jade follows her line of sight, heaving a sigh at the two men who are very clearly approaching. "We should leave."

"Maybe they won't come over here," Jade mutters. "Maybe—"

Jade is painfully wrong, and is completely fucking miserable when said two men come and sit on either side of them. Goddammit. 

"Hey, guys?" Tori immediately starts, smiling. Jade can instantly tell that her smile is murderous and full of rage, and it's actually a little impressive how she does that. "We actually would like to hang out alone."

"Uh, we are alone," one of them says. "Just the four of us!"

Jade contemplates if she can reasonably kill both of them without getting caught. Jade determines that yes, she totally can. 

"You two can fuck off," Jade announces, glaring sharply at the man who's way too close to Tori Vega right now. "We're—" she hesitates, deciding against telling these two fucking losers that they're on a "date". Jade sighs, completely and utterly miserable. "Now."

"Aw, c'mon!" The one next to Tori, Chad One, as Jade decides to deem him, says. "Can I buy you a drink?"

"Nope!" Tori immediately declines, and Jade leans closer to the woman. Partially to get away from Chad Two on her side, and also partially to be able to strangle Chad One. Chad One has his arm around Tori's shoulders, and Jade is very close to beating him to death.

"Well, hey, where do you go to school at?" Chad Two asks, also getting a little too close. Great. Fantastic. Wonderful.

"Hollywood Arts," Jade mutters without thinking. "Will you—"

"Oh!" Chad One immediately starts to cheer. "I bet we've got us a couple of songbirds here! C'mon! Give us a little songy-song action!"

Jade snorts, but she very quickly realises that this is actually a great opportunity to escape this situation. "You hear that?" Jade asks, arching an eyebrow at Tori, who gives her a look back. "They want to hear a little songy-song action."

"Okay," Tori grins, her eyes lighting up. Jade can't help but grin back, a sort of excitement washing over her. "We'll sing you a song," Tori says, and then shoots out of her chair, grabbing Jade's hand. It's all Jade can do to not fall directly on her face, but she manages well enough, allowing herself to be dragged away by Tori. "Thank god you thought of that."

"Agreed," Jade groans, squeezing Tori's hand. "Maybe we should just make a break for it. You were totally right."

Tori laughs, squeezing Jade's hand back. "As I usually am, yes. And no, come on!" Tori beams at her in a way that makes Jade's entire body shudder. She kind of wants Tori to smile at her like that more often. "We've never gotten to sing together before! It'll be fun!"

"I guess," Jade shrugs, rolling her eyes. She follows Tori over to the list of songs. Tori starts to scan it as soon as they get over there, and Jade arches an eyebrow. "You're picking?"

"Uh, obviously?" Tori snorts, as if it was obvious, which it was not, let it be known. Jade rolls her eyes again, but she doesn't protest. "Hey, can we do T305?"

Jade grins a little when she sees the song, happily following Tori up onto the stage. "I guess your taste isn't all that bad, Vega," Jade says, laughing at the way Tori shrugs, puffing out her chest a little. "You should probably take off your jacket."

Tori gives her a look, grinning at her a second later. "Desperate for me to get out of my clothes?"

"Not even a little," Jade immediately says back, ignoring the hammering in her chest and the way she kind of feels dizzy and on fire at the same time. "It's actually so you don't overheat, but you know, I'm kind of hoping you do. And I hope it's awful, actually."

"Whatever!" Tori laughs, but Jade watches as she tugs off her jacket, tossing it onto an empty stool. "Are you gonna take off your jacket?"

"Why?" Jade asks, grinning at her. "Are you desperate to get me out of these clothes?"

Tori simply shrugs, grinning wildly. It makes Jade significantly more dizzy. What the hell. 

Jade does her best to ignore Tori's silence and opts to grab a microphone instead, tossing her jacket onto the same stool a moment later. Jade swears to god that she can see the moment that Tori fully recognises the fact that she's on stage, and the shift is almost unbelievable.

"Why am I always hit on by the boys I never like?" Tori sings, and Jade can barely do much more than stand there and look at her. Tori is barely doing much of anything right now, but there's still such a clear disconnect from her normal self to her when she performs. Tori very suddenly points to her, and luckily enough, Jade manages to recover pretty quickly.

"I'm not tryna be a priss, I'm just tryna be polite, but it always seems to bite me in the—"

Tori grins at her, bumping their hips together. Jade only shoots her a grin back, and immediately steals one of Tori's lines, grinning even harder at the scowl that she gets in return for that. Jade is the first of them to jump off the stage and start parading around the rest of the room, but Tori is hot on her heels.

"Get your hands off my hips, 'fore I punch you in the lips!"

Jade marches them over to the Chads, getting directly in the face of Chad One, making sure her microphone is right next to his ear. Jade shouts the "hey!" incredibly loud, grinning when he jerks back, his hand flying up to his ear.

Tori grabs her wrist a second later, dragging Jade until they're in front of each other. Jade can barely manage to not accidentally fuck up, but she somehow survives. Tori stalks off to two empty stools, easily sliding into one of them while she continues to sing, propping her legs up onto the other. Jade grins, stalking right on after her. Tori beams at her, laughing when Jade shoves her legs off of the stool, sitting next to her.

Jade grins a little more when Tori swivels her stool to the side, throwing herself across Jade's lap. Jade feels her heart racing as she starts to sing for their shared part, making eye contact with Tori, wondering just how the hell Tori Vega has suddenly become so painfully attractive that it makes her want to scream.

Tori hops out of her stool and consequently out of Jade's lap, and Jade does the same. They stalk off to different sides of the restaurant, and Jade immediately finds herself by the Chads again. She shoves Chad One this time when the beat allows for it, grinning at the way that he jerks around, very clearly terrified. Jade meets Tori's eyes from across the room, feeling a strange mix of excitement and nervousness. Jade stalks towards her, and Tori meets her in the middle of the room. Jade drags her off to be directly in front of the Chads, and Jade is all too happy to see them fully realise that they are so completely and utterly fucked.

"It's about time that you're leavin'!"

"I'm gonna count to three and—"

"Open my eyes and you'll be gone!"

Jade all but races towards the exit when the Chads get up and start to make their way there. Tori is by her side in a matter of seconds, their shoulders bumping together, and Jade can only grin as she blocks the door, watching as the Chads start to take several steps back.

"One."

Jade takes several steps forwards, a feeling of disgust overcoming her at the look on Chad One's face.

"Two."

She's very suddenly reminded of the asshole who was trying to get with Tori a few days ago. 

"Three."

Jade manages to corner Chad One against the edge of a table, and as soon as Tori sings "hey!", Jade punches him directly in the face.

It's admittedly more of an impulse thing than anything else and it hurts like a fucking bitch, but Jade feels a wave of pure adrenaline and satisfaction in the shock and surprise that overtakes his face.

Tori immediately grabs her hand, dragging her off to the other side of the room, pulling Jade up onto the stage as they finish the song. Tori grabs her hand, shooting both of their arms up into the air. The rest of the restaurant is seemingly unfazed by Jade beating the shit out of a man, cheering and applauding for the both of them. Jade is significantly more thrilled to watch the Chads sprint out of the place, grinning wildly at how fast they move.

Jade is promptly dragged outside after Tori plucks the mic from her hands and grabs their jackets, laughing a little at the suddenness of it all.

"Jade!"

"Vega!" Jade laughs, glancing at the sky, how it's suddenly so much darker than it had been. "What?"

"You punched a guy!" Tori accuses, narrowing her eyes. "And you are bleeding, oh my god! You're wearing rings! Jade!" Tori grabs her hand, and Jade winces, jerking back, because ow. "See?" Tori demands. "You didn't even punch him right."

"Oh, and you're an expert at punching?" Jade snorts, rolling her eyes. "I'd love to have a repeat, but I think he's already gone."

Tori heaves a sigh, and Jade realises that it's raining. She goes to grab her jacket, but Tori's is on top. Jade hesitates, but Tori only grins at her, tugging on Jade's leather jacket. Jade grins right back, pulling on Tori's windbreaker. "Come on, let's go back to my place. That's totally going to get infected."

"It is not," Jade mutters, rolling her eyes. But Tori is very obviously not listening to her, grabbing Jade's other hand, dragging her to her car. "I can't believe that Trina got into Hollywood Arts but they never had you audition."

"Yeah?" Tori asks, laughing a little. 

"Duh," Jade snorts, unlocking her car. "You're better than Trina, Vega. You know that. Anyone with ears knows that."

"So you're calling me a good singer?" Tori asks, batting her eyelashes. Jade rolls her eyes again, feeling her face heat up again.

"You know you're a good singer, Vega."

"Do I really, though?" Tori asks, clicking her tongue. "I don't think that I do, actually."

Jade sighs. "Yes, Tori, you're a good singer. You're a completely different person on stage. I think everyone knows that," she sighs again, pulling out of the sushi place's parking lot. "You're talented."

"Well," Tori laughs, and Jade takes a second to look at her as soon as they pull up to a stoplight. Tori Vega is breathtakingly beautiful, and it takes her way too long to actually remember how to drive. "I'm so glad you think so. You're a really good singer, too! You never do it, but honestly, I think you should more often."

"I want to be a director, Vega," Jade laughs, but she can't help but feel warm about that. "Not a singer."

"Who says you can't be both?" Tori offers. "You'd be good at either one of them."

Jade smiles a little, driving the rest of the way in silence. As soon as they get to Tori's house, Tori is all but scrambling out of the car, dragging Jade right along with her. She doesn't protest, though she rolls her eyes as she's practically forced inside of Tori's house. Tori Vega is unbelievably strong, actually, and Jade is reminded of that all too often. Which isn’t a bad thing, really. Jade finds it pretty impressive. Other than when Tori is fucking picking her up.

Jade did not like that. Definitely not.

"Okay," Tori says, pointing to a stool by her kitchen island. "Sit down."

Jade heaves a sigh, but she does eventually sit on the stool. "I'm sitting here because I want to. This was my idea."

Tori grins at her, arching an eyebrow. "I’m sure it was, Jade. I’ll be right back,” Tori says, and then she’s stalking upstairs. Jade rolls her eyes, doing her best to ignore the way her knuckles sting. Admittedly, that probably wasn’t a good idea. But Jade West is impulsive and he had it coming, so she doesn’t regret it. She’s just annoyed that her hand fucking hurts now. Jade looks up when she hears Tori’s footsteps, seeing the little medkit in her hand. “Okay, we should probably wash that.”

“How often does this happen to you that you need an at home medkit?” Jade questions, laughing when Tori shoots her a look. Jade stands up and wanders to the sink, taking off her rings, which hurts, and turns on the faucet. She rests her hands under the water, glancing at Tori, who hops onto the counter next to her. “Does Trina get into a lot of fights?”

“No,” Tori grins at her. “I mean, maybe? A lot of people want her dead, if that counts,” Tori laughs, sighing a little. “Also, it’s normal to have an at home medkit!” Tori tells her, and Jade gives her a look, arching an eyebrow. “Do not look at me like that.”

“I will look at you however I so please,” Jade grins at her, narrowing her eyes a little. Tori does the same, scrunching up her face. It makes Jade laugh, and it’s almost enough to distract her from the pain in her hand. “I guess. But that one’s clearly used.”

“Jade, I live with Trina,” Tori informs her, rolling her eyes. “She’s not exactly graceful. Also, you would be surprised at how often our friends come over,” Tori sighs, looking very miserable. “I don’t get how any of them are alive.”

“Neither do I,” Jade assures her, wincing a little when Tori reaches out, tilting Jade’s hand to the side. “Ow, Vega,” Jade drawls out, giving the woman a look. “No warning?”

“You’re fine, Jade,” Tori snorts, beaming at her. Jade can only heave a sigh and look away, not all too happy about how easy it is for Tori Vega to placate her. “This is probably going to hurt a little,” Tori tells her, grabbing a washcloth. Jade sighs again, bracing herself. Tori is gentle enough, though, and Jade is a little surprised at the fact that it only stings a little. “You know, you make this so easy,” Tori laughs. “Trina freaks out bad, Robbie passes out, Cat cannot sit still, and Andre genuinely shrieks in a pitch I did not know existed,” Tori says, and Jade laughs, ducking her head. “Beck is also a huge baby about this.”

Jade grins, nodding her agreement. “I know. I got into a lot of fights when we were younger and so did he. I’m pretty sure that asshole fucked me up more than the fight itself,” Jade says, rolling her eyes. Tori being gentle isn’t really surprising, but it still comes as a shock after the nights she spent with Beck, who basically used sandpaper against her open fucking wounds. “He does not handle pain well.” 

“Honestly, I’m not even surprised,” Tori laughs, shaking her head a bit. Jade watches as Tori turns off the faucet, drying Jade’s hand off. Jade lets her hand rest against the counter, watching Tori carefully. Tori barely even hesitates in opening the medkit, gently taking Jade’s hand again, pulling out some gauze. “Your rings probably made it worse, honestly,” Tori muses. “But I’m pretty sure you didn’t break anything, so, that's good!”

Jade laughs, rolling her eyes. “You’re only pretty sure?” She questions, arching an eyebrow. “That’s kind of fucked up of— ow!” Jade hisses out, narrowing her eyes when Tori bends some of her fingers back a little. “Okay, what the hell?”

“They’re not broken,” Tori grins at her, and Jade can’t help but stare at the woman, completely and utterly shocked. She shouldn’t, honestly. Jade rolls her eyes, ignoring the weird feeling of warmth in her chest. “So you’re fine. I am absolutely certain that you didn’t break your entire hand,” Tori helpfully tells her, starting to wrap up her hand. “Lucky you, because I would not have been happy if we had to spend our date in the ER.”

“God,” Jade groans, sighing a second later. “Our date got fucking ruined. We didn’t even get sushi.”

Tori sighs, and Jade completely understands. “Maybe we can have a redo?” Tori offers, and Jade looks up at her again. “Like I said, we can just use them as excuses,” Tori says, grinning. “Next time you don’t want to do something, call me and take me out for sushi. Easy.”

“Somehow I feel like this is just you trying to get me to buy you sushi,” Jade accuses, but she can’t help but grin, feeling a little too excited at the notion that she’ll go on more dates with Tori Vega. “But fine, whatever. I guess we can do that.”

“I guess so,” Tori laughs, patting Jade’s hand gently. “Okay. I think you’re good to go. You wanna order something to eat?” Tori asks, hopping off of the counter, grabbing her medkit. Jade stalks over to the couch, watching as Tori sets the medkit on the table, sitting down next to her a second later.

“Sure,” Jade hums her agreement, feeling her heart race a little when Tori immediately kicks up her legs, resting them across Jade’s lap. “Really, Vega?” Jade questions, but Tori only beams at her, looking way too proud of herself. 

“You did the same thing to me!” Tori reminds her, laughing a little. “And yes, really. Let’s get Freddy’s.”

Jade rolls her eyes, but she pulls out her phone nonetheless. Jade can’t help but grin when she hears Tori put on some stupid America’s Got Talent auditions, feeling almost at home like this. All of this is ridiculously familiar to her, and it doesn’t even feel weird at all anymore. It’s just nice. Comfortable, warm, easy. Jade feels like she doesn’t have to really pretend when she’s here with Tori like this. Not like she’s usually pretending, but she definitely prefers to keep up the persona she’s cultivated for herself, mostly so people will leave her the hell alone. It’s nice to not have to have that with Tori. Jade kind of wonders if she’s ever actually had that persona with Tori. Jade is sure that she did, but Tori is so ridiculously stubborn and persistent that it honestly probably didn’t matter. 

Jade places an order in a few minutes, setting her phone on Tori’s coffee table. She spares a few glances at Tori every now and then, unable to help herself from smiling. They’re both still dressed up, and it’s kind of funny, given how both of them are just laying on the couch now. 

Jade realises that she still has Tori’s windbreaker on. She realises Tori still has Jade’s leather jacket. That’s enough to make her stop looking at Tori, because her heart starts to race, and Jade is sure it’d only be worse if she continued to look at the woman. Jade messes with the sleeves of Tori’s windbreaker, letting out a content sigh. 

Their food gets there pretty fast, and Jade has to wrestle herself out from Tori’s legs to go and get it, ignoring how Tori’s laugh makes her heart speed up a little too fast. Jade steals Tori’s custard and they end up swapping it back and forth, just like how they did all those weeks ago.

God, weeks ago. Jade can barely believe it’s been more than a week since everything. Time has gone by so ridiculously fast with Tori that it kind of makes her head spin. Jade has just been excited, she’s been happy, and time seems to go by a million times faster when she’s happy. Jade isn’t complaining at all. 

Jade finds herself getting tired after she’s done eating, and she takes that as a sign that she should probably go. Jade is not going to fall asleep on Tori Vega’s couch. 

“Alright,” Jade announces, standing up, stretching her arms above her head. “I’m gonna go.”

“Okay,” Tori also stands up, beaming at her. “How’s your hand?”

“Fine,” Jade assures her, glancing at her jacket. “Do you want to switch these when we get back to school?”

Tori grins, adjusting Jade’s jacket a little. “Yeah, sure. It’s actually really comfortable.”

“I know it is,” Jade grins back, rolling her eyes. “Okay. Walk me to my car.”

Tori laughs, but she does lead Jade out of the house, and Jade can’t help but grin the entire time. She happily trails after Tori, hopping off the woman’s porch. Jade stalks towards her car, pausing for a second when she hears Tori calling out her name. 

“Thanks for the date tonight!” Tori beams at her, blowing Jade a kiss.

Jade has no idea what the hell comes over her, but she raises her hand, catching the kiss in her palm. She flashes a grin at Tori, opening her car door.

“Anytime, Vega!” 

And then Jade is driving back to her house, her entire body feeling electrified. The drive back to her place barely feels like it even happens, going by so fast that Jade is pretty surprised when she gets there in only a few minutes. 

Jade spends at least an hour laying in her bed, Tori’s windbreaker wrapped around her, staring up at the one glow in the dark star that occupies her ceiling. She can’t help but grin, feeling entirely relaxed, entirely content. Today has been great, even despite her brief twenty minutes of pure panic.

Jade feels warm when she remembers how Tori complimented her several times. Jade ignores that the best she can, but she can’t help but replay the memories over and over again, smiling at the tone of Tori’s voice, at the sound of it generally. 

God.

Jade can’t wait for their next date. She can’t wait to see Tori Vega again.

Chapter Text

Tori wakes up at eight in the morning and promptly freaks the hell out. 

She’s out of bed and halfway dressed before she remembers that her schedule has changed, and that she doesn’t need to go in for another hour and a half. Tori groans, throwing her head back as she fully realised that she’s just given herself a little mini panic attack over nothing.  

Great. What a fantastic start to her day. Tori loves giving herself self-induced heart attacks.

Tori heaves a sigh, slowly letting herself calm down, because Jesus Christ. Tori spares a glance over to her bed, spotting Jade’s leather jacket that remains in the spot where she had previously been sleeping. Back when she was content and happy. She was so happy two seconds ago when she was unconscious and now she’s panting in front of her door, which is so great. Tori pauses, staring at the jacket a little harder.

Jade.

Right. Jade.

Tori can’t help but smile, feeling a little warm at even the thought of the woman’s name. Which is ridiculous, but whatever. Tori has been noticing that more and more recently, and it’s been getting harder and harder to ignore. Tori barely is even able to go a day without thinking about Jade in some capacity. 

Like right now. 

Tori finishes pulling on her shirt, and promptly pulls on Jade’s jacket immediately after. She grabs her phone and unlocks it, quickly bringing up Jade’s profile in her phone. Tori calls her, and can’t help but laugh when Jade basically immediately picks up.

“You’re awake!” Jade laughs, and Tori heaves a sigh, which Jade clearly notices, given how she instantly starts to laugh even harder at her. “Oh, and you’re clearly not happy about it,” Jade teases. “Did you just wake up?”

“No,” Tori says, grinning a little at the silence that she hears on the other line. It’s pretty obvious that Jade does not believe her even a little. “How about we talk about how you didn’t call to wake me up?” Tori suggests, arching an eyebrow even though Jade can’t see her. Tori is pretty sure that Jade will be able to sense it well enough. Just like how Tori can sense Jade rolling her eyes. “Okay, stop that right now,” Tori grins, laughing even despite herself. “Don’t look at me like that, Jade.”

“You literally can’t even see me,” Jade helpfully informs her, though it really doesn’t matter. Tori doesn’t need to see Jade to be painfully aware of what she’s doing. Though Tori thinks that it’d be nice. She likes looking at Jade. Another realisation that she’s been trying, and failing, to ignore. For days now. “And you literally never told me to call you to wake you up. This is fully on you, Vega. This isn’t my problem. Not even a little bit. Not at all, actually. You did this to yourself. I will not be held accountable for your lack of ability to set an alarm.”

Tori scoffs, though she’s still grinning so hard it hurts her face. Her cheeks are starting to ache, and she fully blames it on Jade. “You were the one who made me change my schedule!” Tori protests, rolling her eyes. “I think that you should be held accountable for it, since this is because of you.”

“Nah,” Jade says back, and Tori rolls her eyes again. Jade West truly has such a way with words. “This is definitely your fault, so suck it, Vega,” Jade says, and Tori is painfully aware that Jade is grinning. She can feel it. “Also, you totally just admitted that you just woke up,” Jade laughs, and Tori immediately groans, which probably only confirms Jade’s point. “See?”

“Shut up,” Tori suggests, narrowing her eyes. “You’re awful.”

“Flattering,” Jade laughs again, and Tori sighs, though she’s still smiling. “Anyways. You called me? You missed your girlfriend, Vega?”

Tori snorts. “I’m going to hang up on my girlfriend.”

“No!” Jade immediately protests, laughing right after. “Come on, you can’t just call me and then hang up on me,” Jade informs her, though Tori thinks that she definitely and totally can, and she absolutely might. “What did you want, Vega? Did you actually need to talk to me, or do you just want to yell at me?”

“I think it can be a bit of both,” Tori decides, grinning when Jade laughs at that. Jade has a really pretty laugh. And a really pretty everything. Tori scrunches up her face, thankful that Jade can’t see her. Thank god for her past self. “We should go out again!” Tori says, and proceeds to wince directly after the stupid words come out of her mouth. Because of course they had to sound like that. Of course she couldn’t say it normally. Goddammit. “Like, you know,” Tori starts again, furiously backtracking. “Let’s get coffee. You know. Like normal.”

Tori holds her breath for all five of the seconds where Jade says nothing. Thankfully, Jade eventually laughs, and it floods Tori with relief and also some weird, messed up feeling of warmth, or something akin to it. “Yeah, okay, Vega. Let’s go out.”

“We already are,” Tori reminds her, thankful for the opportunity to just push past her struggle. “Okay. I’ll see you in ten!”

“You’ll see me in what—?”

Tori hangs up on her, tossing her phone onto her bed. She grins for a minute, just standing there in her room, all too excited to see the woman again. Tori promptly realises that she’s doing that and scrunches up her face again, doing her best to shove down whatever the hell is happening to her.

 It doesn’t work very well, and Tori resigns herself to the fact that she’s probably going to be excited the entire time she’s getting ready. She’s also resigning herself to the fact that she told Jade ten minutes, and has subsequently only given herself ten minutes to get ready. Which she can do. But she’s definitely regretting it now.

Tori adjusts Jade’s leather jacket, buttoning up the shirt that she chose to put on. Tori realises that her pants literally do not match at all, which is unsurprising given how she was practically half-delirious when she put them on. She quickly takes them off, grabbing a different pair that go much better with what she’s wearing. Tori grabs her backpack and sets it by her door, alongside the boots she plans on wearing. 

She messes with her hair for a few seconds, deciding that she does not have enough time to do her makeup, which is whatever. 

She’s definitely regretting that time limit she accidentally set for herself. 

Tori puts on her boots, spends a few seconds looking at herself, and stalks downstairs. 

Tori spends maybe three minutes waiting before she hears Jade’s horn blaring at her. Tori grins, another surge of excitement hitting her head on. Tori slings her backpack over her shoulder, quickly making her way outside, where she sees Jade grinning at her from inside her car. Tori blows her a kiss, laughing at the way that Jade rolls her eyes, her head resting to the side. 

She’s wearing Tori’s windbreaker. Tori kind of wonders if this is what it feels like to be literally set on fire.

“You’re early,” Tori announces as she opens Jade’s door, tossing her backpack into the backseat. “You’re always early.”

“What, do you want me to be late?” Jade snorts, giving Tori a look. Tori does her very best to ignore the fact that Jade is wearing her clothes. And the fact that she likes that Jade is wearing her clothes. “Maybe I’ll just make you late for school every single day. I’ll up it by twenty minutes every single time.”

“Uh huh,” Tori rolls her eyes, automatically hooking up her phone to Jade’s car. “I’m sure you’d do that. You’d die if you couldn’t spend your mornings with me.”

Jade laughs, giving her another look. “I think I’d be just fine, actually.”

“I disagree,” Tori says, grinning at her. “You’d miss me.”

“I would not.”

“You would!” Tori laughs, resting her arms behind her head. “You’d miss me so much.”

“Whatever, Vega,” Jade shoots back. “You know what I think? I think that you would miss me. You’d die if you didn’t get to hang out with me. And we all know that you want to hang out with me,” Jade tells her, all very matter-of-factly. Tori is a little infuriated that she’s right. Well, okay. Tori would not die if she didn’t get to hang out with Jade, let that be known. But she does like hanging out with her. Tori really likes hanging out with her. A lot. Like, way too much, actually. “See? You’re basically admitting it.”

“I’m doing no such thing,” Tori protests, rolling her eyes again. “I think that I’d be perfectly fine, in fact. You’d definitely miss me. You’d call me in the middle of the night and cry about it, actually. You’d cry.”

“Oh, I’d cry?” Jade asks, grinning at her.

Tori grins right back. “Oh, you’d cry.”

“You’re fucking unbelievable,” Jade announces, pulling out of Tori’s driveway. Tori can only laugh, grinning as she rolls down her window. She immediately scowls at Jade when Jade decides for whatever godforsaken reason to roll it back up, which only makes Jade laugh in return. Probably because she’s evil. And hot. Okay, what the fuck. “You wanna go to an actual cafe? Since we have more time?”

Tori rolls her window back down, and keeps her finger pressed on the button this time around. “Sure. You have a place in mind?” She asks, glancing out the window. It’s not cold enough for a windbreaker, she muses.

“No, but I’m sure we can find a cafe in LA,” Jade snorts. “Do you think the sushi place is open this early?”

“We’re not getting sushi,” Tori laughs, adjusting the collar of Jade’s jacket. She spares a glance to the woman, her heart immediately racing again at the sight of Jade wearing her windbreaker. “Not this early. Also, I don’t think I want to risk running into those guys again. How’s your hand, actually?”

“Fine,” Jade says. “It aches, but it’s fine.”

“Cool,” Tori beams, looking at Jade for a little longer. She realises she doesn’t really have a specific reason for doing that — she just likes looking at Jade. Which is something that she’s realised a while ago, but it’s definitely showing up right now. It’s not like it’s surprising. Jade is pretty all the time, and she’s especially pretty right now. Her hair looks perfect, her eyes are really pretty and so is her smile and sometimes when Jade laughs it makes Tori vaguely think about kissing her. Yeah. Totally normal. “You can come over later and I can look at it again.”

“Sure, Vega.”

Tori is silently thankful for the fact that the conversation ends there, mostly because it means she doesn’t have to speak anymore. Tori turns to the side, casually watching the buildings and street signs pass them by. Tori spends those minutes thinking about Jade. About her smile, about her laugh, about how she looks very pretty quite literally all the time. How funny she is, how she’s somehow charming even despite the fact that she should be anything but.  

Tori thinks about the fact that it’s almost been two months now since they started this entire thing. Tori’s punishment has long since been over. Tori also thinks about the fact that they’re kind of pretending to date even when they don’t have to. Like when they go to Tori’s house, or how they’re going on dates, even though no one is making them do that.

Tori thinks about the fact that they’re basically dating.

Just without anything physical. Well, no, actually. They hold hands all the time. Like, all the time. Like, constantly. They just aren’t kissing.

Tori thinks that she wouldn’t mind if that was thrown in there.

What would realistically change if they started to date? Nothing other than kissing, probably. 

They’re basically dating.

Tori suddenly feels very dizzy, and she can’t help but close her eyes for a few seconds. The thought of them actually dating doesn’t make her sick or fill her with rage or anything like that. Tori thinks that she would like it. If they actually were official. If this wasn’t fake. If she could kiss Jade. 

Great.

That’s great.

Tori slowly breathes out, hoping that it’s slow enough that Jade doesn’t notice, because god. Dear god. 

After the initial wave of holy shit, Tori has to admit that she’s not necessarily surprised. She should probably have expected this, actually. Jade is very pretty and funny and charming and she’s actually shockingly sweet when it comes down to it. Sometimes, at least. And, miserably enough, she’s definitely Tori’s type. Which isn’t that surprising, either. All of this is actually not that shocking, which Tori is a little miserable about, but whatever. 

Tori just didn’t think that it would last this long. And she definitely didn’t think that she would enjoy it. But she did, and she currently is, and Tori honestly doesn’t really want it to stop. At all. She’s pretty happy with spending every day with Jade. She likes hanging out with her and going on dates with her and calling her in the middle of the night. Tori has really loved all the time that they’ve spent together and she doesn’t really want that to stop.

And she also kind of wants to kiss Jade. Which is another miserable realisation, but ultimately not surprising. Tori thought about it way too much after she accidentally kissed Jade on the cheek. Like, way too much. and definitely in too much detail and depth, which she had been able to convince herself was just an accident. 

Tori is brought back to reality when they stop moving, and finds herself staring at a cafe. 

She’s fine. 

Yeah. 

She’s okay. She can do this. Tori has definitely done harder things. She can’t think of anything harder than this, but she knows she’s done them. Yeah. She’s got this.

Tori grabs her phone and hops out of Jade’s car, fully feeling the way that her heart kind of flutters when Jade grins at her. Tori grins back at her, unable to help herself. She holds open the door for Jade, who laughs, but stalks into the cafe.

“You’re such a gentleman, huh?” Jade asks, shooting Tori a look over her shoulder.

“We’re dating,” Tori says, beaming brightly at her. “Is that so wrong of me to do?”

Jade just rolls her eyes, and Tori can’t help but smile. She stands next to the woman, their shoulders touching, and Tori realises just how comfortable she feels with Jade. She had been surprised by it at first, but now? It just kind of makes sense.  

“They have boba, apparently,” Jade muses. “I didn’t realise boba was a morning drink.”

“Maybe you can put your fifteen shots of espresso in it,” Tori suggests, grinning at her. Jade rolls her eyes, but Tori can see that she’s also smiling, which makes her heart stutter all over again. Jade really does have a pretty smile. And a pretty everything. “I’m sure you’d like that.”

“And I’m sure I wouldn’t,” Jade snorts. “I don’t even like espresso,” Jade says, and Tori immediately gives her a look, arching an eyebrow. Jade sighs. “Not anymore.”

“There we go,” Tori laughs, nudging Jade a little. “Have you had boba before?”

“No. Have you?” Jade asks her, and Tori nods.

“Yeah,” Tori tells her. “I think you’d like it.”

Jade hums quietly at that, and Tori can feel her doing it. “Maybe we can come here later, then,” Jade says after a few seconds. “Because I want coffee right now.”

“Sure,” Tori grins, already excited for that. “It’s a date then, huh?”

“It’s not—” Jade sighs again, and Tori laughs, about to walk up to the register and start to order. “Whatever, Vega. Fine. I guess it’s a date.”

Tori hesitates at that, mostly because she feels like she might fall over. “Cool,” Tori eventually says, barely managing to regain herself. Barely. Tori grins at Jade, offering her hand. “Come and order with me, then.”

Jade rolls her eyes, and Tori laughs as Jade takes her hand, stalking over to the counter with her. 

Tori squeezes Jade’s hand, leaning against her a little. 

Tori knows she’ll have to face all of this head on at some point, and she also has to mentally prepare for if things go totally wrong.

But right now, Tori is happy to just be in this moment, Jade’s hand in her own.

She’d like to enjoy this for a little longer.

Chapter Text

“We’re setting such a bad precedent,” Tori mutters, and Jade can only laugh as they walk back into Tori’s house, very clearly not at school. “We cannot do this every single day,” Tori continues, turning to jab a finger at her. Jade simply beams at her, holding up her hands, because she’s very clearly innocent here. “Don’t look at me like that. You know that we can’t do this. Oh my god, I shouldn’t have changed my schedule.”

Jade snorts, rolling her eyes. She tosses Tori’s backpack onto the ground by the door, stretching her arms above her head. They got coffee and basically immediately decided that they were definitely skipping. Well, Jade decided that, and Tori looked at her all miserably before she ended up relenting. Jade has been doing her best to ignore the fact that she just wanted to spend more time with Tori and it’s been going well enough for her, all things considered. Jade shifts in Tori’s windbreaker, wondering if she wants to take it off. The answer is no, but it’s fucking hot in Tori’s house, and Jade kind of feels like she’s going to catch on fire if she keeps wearing it.

Maybe for several reasons, given how Tori is wearing her leather jacket and Jade can see how toned her arms are pretty clearly.

Jade heaves a sigh, tugging off Tori’s windbreaker. “Do you want this back?” Jade asks, bunching it up into a ball, offering it to the woman. Tori looks at it for a second, and Jade can see her look at the leather jacket she has on. Jade has at least five leather jackets, and she honestly doesn’t think that she’d care if Tori kept this one. She has other ones, and really, it’s not a big deal if Tori keeps one of them. Plus, they’re dating. It would just make sense. Yeah.

“No,” Tori says after a few seconds, shrugging. “Do you want this back?”

“You can keep it,” Jade says, smiling a little. She hangs up the windbreaker on the coat rack by Tori’s door, feeling a little too relieved at the fact that she doesn’t have to give it back. Jade would genuinely rather be shot fifty times than admit it, but she totally slept with Tori’s jacket on last night. And she’s also totally planning on doing it again. It’s comfortable. “I saw you eyeing my snake ring at the sushi place.”

Tori laughs, and Jade can’t help but smile a little, damn that woman. “He’s cute!” Tori helpfully tells her, flashing her a blindingly bright grin that has Jade’s heart briefly shutting down. Jade, luckily enough, is able to self regulate long enough for it to start back up again. “And I saw you eyeing my necklace.”

Jade blinks. She definitely was not doing that. Or looking anywhere at Tori, for that matter. Definitely not even a little. Jade’s mind immediately betrays her, pulling up memories of Tori, breathless, laughing. Memories of Tori vaulting over tables and chairs, the way she threw their hands up into the air at the end of it all. Jade has seen Tori perform several times in person, but that time was different. She’s never been a part of it before. It felt completely exhilarating in ways that Jade didn’t know existed beforehand. She definitely knows now, though, and Jade is pretty convinced that she would do anything to feel that again.

“So?” Jade responds, as cooly and as casually as she can. Jade stalks over to Tori’s kitchen, opening the fridge, grinning a little at the scoff that gets her. Jade basically lives here half the time, so she thinks that she has a right to literally anything in Tori’s house. “And I wasn’t, by the way.”

“Oh?” Tori asks, snorting after. “So you were just looking there for fun?”

“Vega,” Jade warns, feeling her face heat up, which is fucking awful and horrible and unbelievably annoying. Jade doesn’t know exactly when Tori Vega started to get bold with her, but she doesn’t like it. Well, okay, maybe she kind of does. Just not when it’s turned back onto her. “You’re pushing it.”

Tori laughs, which makes Jade smile again, miserably enough. It isn’t her fault that Tori has a pretty laugh. Or a pretty smile. Or really, a pretty everything , because everything about Tori Vega is pretty, Jade is coming to realise. Like, everything is pretty about her. Jade hadn’t realised just how pretty Tori really was until she started to spend more time with her. And now she’s definitely realised, and it’s been plaguing her thoughts way too fucking often for her liking.

“I’m just saying!” Tori tells her, and Jade glances to her side, finding that the woman has migrated over to stand next to her. “Are you just gonna keep my fridge open?”

“I am now,” Jade beams at her, feeling a burst of fondness in her chest at the way that Tori rolls her eyes. “I have the snake ring now,” Jade says, patting her pocket. “If you wanted him.”

“What?” Tori immediately asks. “Seriously? Don’t you wear that, like, a lot?”

Jade does. She definitely does. “Not really,” she says with a shrug, fishing the ring out of her pocket. She offers it to Tori, who pauses for a few seconds before she takes it. “You’d probably wear it more than I would,” Jade continues, even though she’s pretty sure that that’s not true, given how she wears it basically every single day. That’s how it got so fucked up and broken. “So?”

Tori grins at her, and Jade feels her heart flutter a little when Tori takes it out of her hand. The feeling of Tori’s hand briefly against her own sends electricity all throughout her body, which is stupid, given how they hold hands pretty much all the time. “Well,” Tori says after a second, and Jade watches as Tori reaches up, unclasping her necklace. “I guess it’s only fair for you to have this, then.”

“Really?” Jade asks, arching an eyebrow. “I know you wear that all the time.”

“And now you’ll wear it all the time,” Tori grins, and Jade can only freeze when Tori brushes away some of her hair, putting the necklace on her. Jesus Christ. Jade reminds herself to breathe, though she finds that it’s actually way harder than it really should be. “There. You look good.”

Jade looks away, internally freaking out. She doesn’t know what it is about Tori calling her pretty or even anything similar, but it fucks her up way too much. Way more than it should. “Thanks,” Jade eventually says, turning back to look at the woman. “You’re okay, too.”

Tori laughs, and Jade can’t stop herself from doing the same, grinning a little, feeling like she’s floating on air. “Thanks so much, Jade,” Tori says, beaming. Jade grins right back at her, glancing back to the fridge, that’s been open this entire time. “Oh my god. Jade.”

“You started talking to me!” Jade immediately protests, laughing at the scowl on Tori’s face. “This is your fault, Vega, do not even start with me,” Jade laughs a little more, reaching past her, shutting the fridge. “There. Is that better?”

“Barely,” Tori mutters, very obviously rolling her eyes. “You shouldn’t even be ransacking my fridge in the first place, actually.”

Jade shrugs, hopping up onto Tori’s kitchen island, feeling the weight of the necklace fully. Jade has worn necklaces a lot in the past — she wore a stupid matching promise ring one with Beck for a while. She prefers rings over everything, though. Other than this necklace. Jade thinks that she’s never going to take it off, actually. Why would she? “Well, we haven’t had breakfast yet,” Jade reminds her. “I was simply looking.”

“Well, simply stop,” Tori shoots back, which makes Jade laugh, rolling her eyes. “I can make pancakes again.”

“Sure,” Jade agrees, swinging her legs back and forth. “I’ll sit here and look pretty.”

“As you normally do,” Tori says, so casually that Jade almost doesn’t catch it. But when she does, Jade is pretty convinced she’s going to die. Jade blinks rapidly, letting out an all too shaky breath that she hopes she can pass off as just some normal exhale, though she doubts it. Jade places her hands in her lap, grinding her teeth for a few seconds, doing literally anything and everything to distract herself from that. She wants to think about it, but Jade also is very well aware that she literally cannot handle it at all. “How many do you think you want?”

Jade doesn’t trust herself to speak and she also kind of thinks that she can’t, but she takes a deep breath in. “Three is fine,” Jade manages to get out, surprisingly enough. “Like last time,” Jade adds on, and Tori only hums in response. Jade reaches for the speaker pulling out her phone a second later. “I’m gonna put on music.”

“Cool,” Tori says, turning back to beam at her. It makes Jade feel like she’s going to fall over, as fucking usual. “My phone is over on the table if you want to pull up the playlist I normally put on,” she continues, waving a hand. “It’s just your name.”

“How romantic,” Jade laughs, setting her phone back down. She hops off the island to grab Tori’s phone before she hoists herself back up onto the island, pausing. “Your phone is locked, Vega.”

“You haven’t obsessively watched me put in my password?” Tori asks, and Jade rolls her eyes when the woman holds her hand back without even looking at her, but Jade puts Tori’s phone in her hand anyways. “Because I know you do that. Beck’s told me that you do that. So has Andre.”

Jade shrugs, grinning when Tori hands the phone back to her. “It’s not obsessive, first of all. Fuck Andre for saying that.”

“How do you know it wasn’t Beck who said that?”

“Because Andre has said those exact words to my face,” Jade mutters.  “And it’s his fucking fault that it happened in the first place! If you put in your password in front of me, you should just expect that I’m going to see it. It’s not my problem if you can’t be secretive enough.” 

Tori laughs, and it only makes Jade grin a little more as she swipes through Tori’s phone. “Yeah, okay. Whatever, Jade. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work like that.”

“Well,” Jade shrugs, scrolling to get to the playlist Tori told her about. She ignores how her heart kind of sort of hitches when she sees her name, even though Tori literally said that that was what the playlist was called. “It works like that for me.”

“Clearly!” Tori laughs, turning around to face her. Jade watches as Tori sets a bowl next to her, along with the box mix and a few other ingredients. “Happy two months, by the way.”

Jade blinks at her for a second, and then she realises the date. Oh. Wow. “Happy two months,” Jade snorts, a little surprised that it’s apparently been that long. “I didn’t realise it was already that time. What the fuck?” She laughs, feeling a little weird about that. “I guess I should probably break up with you soon.”

“I guess,” Tori says after a few seconds. “Maybe in another five months. That’s reasonable.”

“Yeah,” Jade agrees, shifting a little. She doesn’t really want to do that. It isn’t like they’re actually dating, so it doesn’t mean anything, but Jade feels like it does. She enjoys all the nights that she comes over and hangs out with Tori. She likes spending time with the woman, unfortunately enough. Jade knows that once this is all over, that’s probably going to end, too. “Well. Happy two months.”

Tori laughs a little, giving her a look. “Here’s to two more!” 

“Amen!” Jade grins, feeling a little more at ease. She figures that they can handle all of...everything...when it comes to it. Right now, Jade is content on just hanging out with Tori. She watches as Tori washes her hands, feeling like this is all pretty domestic. Jade has never really experienced that before. She’s experienced something close to it, maybe, whenever she’s been somewhere with the rest of her friends. But not like this. Definitely not like how she experiences it with Tori Vega. Tori is just different in every sense of the word. 

Jade casually watches Tori, feeling herself smiling even though nothing is even happening. It’s just nice. Jade kind of wonders what it would be like if this was permanent. Jade can see herself doing this every day, which is something she could never see with Beck. There was never anything other than the moment that they were in. With Tori, there’s the current moment, and then there’s also everything after. Jade can see herself in this position for basically forever. She could see herself coming over here every single day, doing the same stuff. She doesn’t think she’d get bored of it. 

Jade sighs, feeling a little light when Tori looks over to her, beaming. Jade can’t help but grin back at her, feeling comfortable in a way that’s not exactly new to her. Jade figures that it isn’t new because she’s felt this before with Tori. This sort of domestic comfortability. There aren’t really any expectations here. It’s just the two of them, and it’s familiar and warm and Jade likes it a lot. Way more than she thought she ever could.

Jade likes Tori a lot. Also way more than she thought she ever could. 

Tori really is just fucking different. Jade thinks it’s pretty much impossible to hate her. Tori is just like that, and it definitely used to annoy Jade to literally no end, but at this point, it’s just kind of impressive. And she honestly kind of likes that about Tori — how she’s ridiculously nice and also ridiculously stubborn. 

Which she never thought she’d ever say or even remotely think, but alas. There are a lot of things that Jade never thought she’d think about Tori Vega. Like how Jade thinks she’s unbelievably pretty or funny or smart or charming. Jade definitely did not think that she would think about Tori in a positive light, let alone this positive of a light. At this point, Jade thinks it’s more than positive.

She doesn’t know what it is exactly, but it’s something more, almost. 

Jade watches as Tori starts her process, feeling a little too fond over everything happening right now. 

“Hopefully Trina doesn’t show up this time,” Jade muses, remembering the last time that Tori made pancakes. Everything had been going really well, and then fucking Trina showed up, because of course she did. “I think if you tried, like, really hard you could probably kick her out.”

Tori laughs, and Jade watches as Tori comes over to her, standing directly in front of her. Jade stretches out a leg and kicks Tori right in the leg, watching as Tori gives her a look, raising an eyebrow. “You make fun of my sister and then you kick me? You really are an elementary school boy.”

“Not true,” Jade scoffs, grinning despite herself. “And come on, Vega. Why wouldn’t I make fun of her when there’s just so much to make fun of?”

“I can’t argue against that,” Tori says with a sigh. “Can you move? I need to get a spatula.”

“No.”

Tori gives her a look. Jade gives her one right back, flashing Tori her best grin. 

And then Jade thinks that she might die, because Tori positions herself right between Jade’s legs, reaching over her shoulder. Jade swears to god that she is going to explode. She’s very fucking convinced that this is it for her, actually. Jade stops breathing entirely, her heart racing in her chest.

Realistically, Tori is only there for maybe five seconds at best.

It feels like ten hours.

Jade kind of wishes it was ten hours.

“Ha!” Tori shoots her a grin, pointing the spatula at Jade’s chest, where her heart is still kind of freaking the fuck out just for fun. “How’s that, West?”

The answer is not good.

Jade opts to roll her eyes instead, still feeling like she’s going to die even though Tori isn’t up against her anymore. “Do not call me that,” Jade manages to get out, jabbing a finger in Tori’s general direction. Tori only grins even wider, looking all too proud of herself in a way that makes Jade’s heart soar. “Also, you totally could have just gone around. You didn’t have to do that.”

Tori shrugs, still grinning. “Yeah, but I figured it’d be better that way. And it was.”

“Whatever, Vega.”

Jade feels her heart continue to pound in her chest when Tori blows her a kiss, smiling despite herself. Somehow, Tori is ridiculously good at making her do that. Jade swears to god she hasn’t smiled this much in forever. But of course Tori Vega has managed to draw it out of her. 

“You wanna put on a movie?” Tori asks. Jade lets out a content sigh, feeling almost like she’s home. Which is a weird feeling and also one she’s definitely never felt before, especially not because of another person. But once again, Tori Vega is able to just do shit to her. Jade finds that she doesn’t even really care. She kind of likes it.

“Sure,” Jade agrees. “What do you want to watch?” 

Tori lists off the names of some Hallmark Christmas movies that Jade is positive is going to be fucking terrible, but she finds that she isn’t really dreading it. If anything, Jade is actually excited to watch a shitty movie and eat pancakes with Tori. 

God, she can’t believe how much she’s changed ever since they started this whole fake dating thing. It’s ridiculous, but she doesn’t mind at all. She kind of likes it. Jade thinks that all of the changes have been positive, even if they’ve definitely been weird as hell. 

Jade spends another thirty or so minutes on the counter, just watching Tori make the both of them pancakes, and she can’t help but imagine if they could just keep doing this, for years. Jade thinks that she’d like that. 

Jade thinks that it’s almost a little too easy to see Tori Vega in her future — or, rather, being her future. 

She finds that that’s just another thing she doesn’t mind even a little.

Chapter Text

Tori is really starting to regret inviting all of her friends over to hang out for a few hours. She originally thought it'd be for her benefit, because she was kind of losing her mind being in such close proximity to Jade, but now? Now she wants nothing more than to punch past her in the face, because what was she thinking?

She thinks she'd honestly probably do anything to just hang out alone with Jade, but no. It's too late for that now, and it's entirely her fault, and she just didn't think it through, okay? Tori regrets it completely and it isn't even like she can tell them all to just... not show up. She knows that they'd understand, but they'd all somehow just know that she was doing it for Jade. Which, realistically, would be fine. They're dating. So it wouldn't be a big deal.

It's a big deal to Tori, so she can't do that.

Tori has already had her painful little realisation that has made everything significantly harder. Because now she can barely even look at Jade without feeling stupidly fond and happy. She can't even hold hands with Jade anymore, and the fact that she was just doing that perfectly fine beforehand is enough to make her heart pound a little too fast in her chest. So, no. She cannot just cancel on her friends no matter how much she wants to. And to be clear, it's a lot. Tori has never wanted to ditch out more in her entire life. She honestly thinks she might be a little deranged, because she thinks that if all of her friends suddenly got hit by a bus and couldn't come to hang out with her, that would totally be okay.

God, how can Jade West make her feel like that? Tori thinks that it's not fair literally at all, but whatever. She can't exactly do anything about it right now, and there's a really big part of her that doesn't want to. She can deal with telling Jade about... this... later. Definitely not now or this week or even this month. But later. 

In the meantime, Tori plans on desperately hoping that her friends are suddenly kidnapped for maybe two days or so, entirely because she just wants to be alone with Jade. She really wants to watch stupid America's Got Talent compilations, make something for them to eat, and eventually have their routine goodbye at Tori's door. Maybe tonight would be the night that Tori would finally ask Jade to sleep over. But now that's virtually impossible and Tori is maybe a little pissed off about it. Not like she'd admit that out loud, ever, but maybe she's just a little upset. More upset than she probably should be.

"Are they getting here soon?" Jade calls out from upstairs, and Tori can't help but smile a little at the sound of her voice. Jade wanted to change into something more comfortable and less dressy, and Tori offered up her closet. The thought of Jade being alone in her room is enough to make Tori unbelievably sappy. She really would love for Jade to stay with her for a night. Tori Vega has literally never enjoyed sleepovers until right now, damn Jade. "Vega?"

"Sorry!" Tori immediately calls back, rolling her eyes at herself. "Yeah, I think that they probably should be here soon," she continues, glancing down at her phone. Tori convinced them all to ditch, not like it was hard, and they should be on their way relatively soon. "You find anything you like?"

Jade is quiet for a second, and Tori takes that second to compose herself and to be normal again. She's been handling it well enough in her opinion. She's nervous half the time and finds herself staring at Jade way too much, but she's managed to keep herself relatively casual. It's been hard, given how Tori has basically exclusively been thinking about kissing Jade or touching Jade or making out with Jade or dating Jade for realsies, but she's been managing nonetheless. She's always been pretty good about crushes, though, to be fair, this is an entirely different situation. She's never exactly skipped the friend stage and gone straight into dating. Fake dating at that.

"I don't think that like is the word I'd use," Jade eventually says, and Tori snorts, rolling her eyes again. She'd like to say that she can't believe she has a crush on Jade, but she really can. It's not hard to believe. Jade is charming and ridiculously amazing in virtually every way imaginable. Which is also probably a little deranged to think, but whatever. Tori's okay with that. "But yeah, I guess so."

"You guess so," Tori grins, tilting her head back and off the couch when she hears Jade's footsteps. Tori immediately feels her heart catch in her throat at the sight of Jade in one of her shirts and a pair of her pants. Maybe offering her clothes wasn't a good idea, because Tori's not entirely convinced that she can be normal about this. "Oh, come on!" Tori laughs, deciding that's probably the best thing she can do. "That looks good! What do you mean you guess so?"

"I guess that it's not that bad," Jade continues, flashing her a bright grin that leaves Tori a little breathless, unable to help herself from smiling fondly. "For you."

"Romantic," Tori teases. "You're such a flirt, did you know that? I can't believe people aren't throwing themselves at you."

Tori knows that she basically kind of is. And honestly, maybe she has been this entire time. Which is a little embarrassing to accept, but whatever, she's fine. It's Jade. Tori honestly doesn't understand how people aren't actively loudly into the woman. Tori thought that she might be a little weird for having a crush on Jade, but that really only lasted maybe an hour. Both her and Beck have been wildly into her, so clearly it isn't that weird.

"Maybe because I have a girlfriend," Jade muses, and even though Tori knows she doesn't mean it, it's still enough to make her want to explode. "Gerald's the only guy who's even gotten close to me recently. It was kinda nice rejecting people again."

Tori rolls her eyes. Okay, maybe she is a little weird for having a crush on Jade. But it's really too late to change it, so whatever. "Gilbert," Tori corrects. "And you're so messed up."

Jade beams at her in a way that makes Tori's heart flutter. "I'm so glad you think so, Vega. Also, shockingly enough, most people don't want to be homewreckers. I'm pretty publicly in a relationship."

"I guess it's pretty mutually beneficial," Tori grins back, patting the spot on the couch next to her. "Maybe we shouldn't break up."

The words are out of her mouth way too fast, and Tori can only quietly sigh, hoping to god that her friends have been kidnapped and their kidnapper is about to call her to discuss ransoms so she doesn't have to deal with the consequences of her own actions. 

Thankfully enough, there's a knock on her door. Followed by Andre's voice. Tori can also hear Beck and Robbie's panicked voices and a very distinct lack of Cat's voice. Thank god. Tori has never been more thankful for literally anything in her entire life. This quite possibly might be the best thing that's ever happened to her. She'll have to really go all out for their Christmas gifts this year.

"Come in!" Tori calls out, ignoring how her heart races as soon as Jade sits down next to her. Jade is so painfully close, which usually isn't a bad thing and it's still not a bad thing, Tori is just nervous. Insanely nervous, actually. "I think they lost Cat."

"They definitely lost Cat," Jade agrees, nudging Tori a little. "They can't keep her fucking contained unless they have her on a leash. And she's chewed through them before."

Tori laughs, feeling a little less nervous as Andre struts into her house, looking blissfully unaware of the fact that Beck, Robbie, and Cat are absolutely nowhere to be seen. "I think you lost three of them!" Tori grins at the man, who just shrugs, looking entirely unbothered. "Did you all drive here together?"

"Technically?" Andre offers, glancing over his shoulder. "We drove in separate cars on the same road. They were outside with me five seconds ago, though. Them being lost is a new development."

"And you didn't notice?" Jade asks, arching an eyebrow at him. "Were you or were you not just out on Tori's front porch with them?"

Andre gives a very helpful shrug of his shoulders. "There is a chance that they were in the same vicinity, yeah. But most likely we were not out there together. I don't even think that Cat made it here, let alone made it to the damn porch."

Tori rolls her eyes, kind of wondering how they've all managed to survive for so long. "Would you just go and find her? It's a busy road."

"Whatever!" Andre laughs, raising his hands up in the air, sighing as he turns to stalk right back out that door. For a very brief moment, Tori contemplates jumping up and locking it, but she almost feels like maybe that'd be a little too obvious. Maybe not obvious enough. Either way, Tori forces herself to sit, doing her absolute best to remind herself that she can be normal. Jade is being normal. She's fine. They're both fine.

It's just a crush, and Tori has had a handful of those. No big deal. Jade's just Jade at the end of the day, even though Jade being Jade is the entire reason Tori has a crush on her. It's okay — she's fine. Tori can survive this, no problem. 

"Hey, how's your hand?" Tori asks, instinctively reaching out to grab Jade's wrist. She carefully lifts Jade's wrist up, observing the woman's hand. Her knuckles are a little bruised, but her fingers don't look puffy, so Tori's pretty sure she didn't fracture or break them.

"I'm assuming you can tell," Jade snorts, and Tori only grins at her, turning Jade's hand to the side. "It feels fine, Vega. Seriously. No big deal."

"I think it's a bit of a big deal," Tori disagrees, carefully scanning over Jade's hand again. She has really pretty hands, which is something that Tori has literally never once thought about anyone ever. "You could have broken your hand," she continues, mostly to ignore her stupid thoughts. "Mostly just because your punching form sucks."

Jade gives her a look that only makes Tori grin even more. "My punching form is just fine, thank you very much. I was just wearing a lot of rings."

"You were wearing a lot of rings," Tori agrees, smiling as she looks down at the snake ring on her own finger. She honestly doesn't think she's ever going to take it off. "And your punching form sucks. Two things can be true at once," Tori beams at her, internally sighing as she sees Andre and Beck stalk into her house, Robbie and Cat hot on their heels. "You found her!" Tori beams, doing her best to get over her very not-normal rage.

Andre gives her the most miserable look in the world, and Tori thinks that that probably makes up for him inadvertently cockblocking. He's not even really cockblocking, but whatever. He's definitely on the verge. "Barely," Andre grumbles, running his hands through his hair. "Girlie got about two damn blocks away before Beck caught up to her."

"Cat, what the hell?" Jade asks, and it makes Tori laugh. She can't help it — Jade's delivery is ridiculous and so Jade that it's impossible for her to not laugh. "And what the hell to you too, Vega?"

"It was funny!" Tori beams at her, grinning a little more at the scrunched up scowl that Jade gives her in return. "Whatever, Jade. Be a buzzkill."

"I wasn't—" Jade glares at her. "I'm gonna kick your ass, Vega."

Tori has learnt that that means absolutely nothing. She also knows that she could totally kick Jade's ass very easily, so she's not very put-off by that threat quite literally at all.

"Can you two stop flirting for a second?" Beck asks, and Tori almost feels warmth in the solidarity she gets from Jade when she realises that they're both glaring at Beck. Beck simply raises his hands, grinning like a madman. "My bad! I just didn't want to third wheel all day long. I did not ditch just to watch you two make out."

"There's currently no making out going on," Tori helpfully tells him. "So I don't know where you're getting that from."

"Currently?" Jade asks, giving her a look. Tori's heart pounds a little, but she puts on her best grin, giving Jade a casual shrug. Tori has always been very good with crushes. The adrenaline rush she gets whenever Jade looks at her is enough to temporarily shut down her entire brain and subsequently make her the most confident woman alive. A pretty good deal overall.

"Currently," Tori says, feeling a little like she might catch on fire, but she can handle that. Tori pushes herself off of the couch, taking a second to look at Jade. To look at Jade in her clothes. That only makes her want to ignite even more, but whatever. Tori stalks over to the kitchen, grabbing a few water bottles out of the fridge. "You want one?" She calls over to Andre, who nods.

She tosses him one of the water bottles and hands Robbie the next one, because she absolutely doesn't trust him to catch it. Tori takes those few seconds to chill out a little more. This is all fine. She's just hanging out with her friends who she kind of wants to force out, but she's okay. She's got this. All of this. Whatever this is, exactly.

"I'm putting on killer turkey!" Beck announces, and Tori stares at him, a little horrified by the words that just left his mouth. None of those words should have ever been said in succession.

"Killer turkey," Tori repeats, slowly. "Are you gonna elaborate on that one?"

Beck gives her a look, one of pure shock that only makes Tori even more worried. She locks eyes with Jade, who looks equally as horrified. "You don't know what killer turkey is?"

"You do?" Tori shoots back. "Do you see how you knowing what killer turkey is is worse than me not knowing?"

"It's only the greatest horror film of all time," Beck helpfully tells her, rolling his eyes. "You're gonna love it, Tori."

Tori has her doubts about that.

She sits back down next to Jade, figuring that her nervous system isn't really trying to kill her anymore. Jade flashes her a grin, and Tori can't help but beam right back at her. "For reference," Jade starts, nudging her a little. "I have no fucking idea what the hell killer turkey is. I think he's lost his mind. We might have to put him down."

"Old Yeller style," Tori agrees, grinning at the way that Jade throws her head back at that, laughing so hard that it gives Tori butterflies. To be fair, everything Jade does gives Tori butterflies. She has it pretty damn bad. "You probably shouldn't like that so much."

"It was funny, and he deserves it," Jade laughs, sounding a little breathless. "I think I'm going to fall asleep. Killer turkey is absolutely not going to be the pinnacle of horror. Wake me up when we're going out back to put down Beck."

Tori snorts, nudging Jade with her shoulder. "You're not even going to try to stay awake to make fun of it?"

"I struggle to stay awake during shitty movies," Jade shrugs. "Unless they piss me off, but somehow I don't think that the fucking killer turkey is going to manage to get me all bothered. So," Jade gives her a look, and Tori kind of wants nothing more than to kiss her. "Wake me up when we're killing Beck."

"Sure, Jade," Tori laughs, watching as Beck painstakingly takes about ten minutes to work her remote, and then takes another ten minutes to type out the words "killer turkey". It's excruciating, but honestly, all things considered, it could be so much worse. Jade is half-pressed against her shoulder due to Andre taking up half of the couch, and Tori's really enjoying that. She'll have to thank Andre later. Subtly. Or maybe not at all. Actually, on second thought, she'll just get him a gift card or something as a thanks so she can avoid the whole talking to him about her crush on the woman she's supposedly dating thing. "So. This is the killer turkey?"

On screen is currently the worse prop Tori has ever seen. And it's a turkey. And the title of the movie is Thankskilling.

Tori is suddenly regretting the fact that she's friends with this man.

The movie is pretty awful. But it's laughably awful, and Tori can't help but make fun of it as soon as it starts. Andre is way worse off, given how he absolutely howls with laughter every single time the turkey is even shown on screen. Robbie looks genuinely terrified, and that's honestly the funniest part of this entire movie. Beck proudly watches from his spot on Tori's kitchen table, grinning and letting out fake gasps whenever the stupid turkey kills someone. 

Jade is true to her word — she's gone basically immediately. Tori thinks that's also really funny, though her heart races a little when Jade's head rests against her shoulder. Her heart pounding in her chest very quickly stops when Andre shoots her a shit eating grin, and Tori flips him off with her free hand, scowling at him as hard as she possibly can.

"Didn't get much sleep last night?" Andre questions, and Tori is two seconds away from lunging over Jade and strangling him. He is absolutely not getting that gift card anymore.

"Andre," Tori warns. "I'll kick your ass. Shut up and watch killer turkey."

"Killer turkey is significantly more boring than this," Andre grins, and Tori glares at him even harder. She never thought she'd have to kill her best friend, but she guesses that that time has come. "Okay, okay!" Andre laughs, holding up his hands. "Watching killer turkey!"

Tori rolls her eyes and does her very best to pretend like she doesn't want to kiss Jade West at this current moment. It is shockingly difficult. 

At some point, Jade migrates from sleeping against Tori's shoulder to having her head in Tori's lap. Andre migrates to the floor, thankfully enough, and Tori does her absolute very best to not die on spot. She tentatively rests her hand on Jade's shoulder, holding her breath when the woman shifts to press against her even more.

Ah. Yeah, Tori thinks that she's probably really screwed. Like, big time.

Tori painfully sits through the rest of Thankskilling, and then she miserably sits through Thankskilling: The Sequel. She bans Beck from picking anymore goddamn movies, because there is honestly just no way in hell that Tori can handle watching Cocaine Bear on top of both Thankskilling movies. Which leads to Andre putting on Rango, which is completely and utterly different from what the mood originally was, but whatever. It's not Thankskilling, so Tori is totally fine with it.

It almost feels like a normal hangout. 

Tori teases Andre and Beck, carefully watches Robbie to make sure he doesn't manage to kill himself by forgetting to breathe, and keeps an eye on Cat, mostly so she doesn't randomly decide to escape. She insults Thankskilling and laughs when Beck very fervently and passionately starts to defend it. Tori laughs even harder when Andre accuses him of having a crush on the damn turkey, almost losing it when Beck very calmly says that maybe he does.

It's almost normal. It's so close to being normal, but Tori's breath keeps hitching in her throat every time that she remembers that Jade is asleep in her lap. It makes her heart race, and Tori honestly doesn't think that she's ever experienced anything like this before. She's had crushes, yeah, but she's never been this freaked out over touching before. But something about Jade laying in her lap is enough to make her feel dizzy and a little insane, and Tori isn't exactly complaining about that.

She's definitely complaining about the periodic grins that Andre and Beck will shoot her. Tori thinks that those two are damn lucky that Jade is in her lap, or else Tori would have already strangled both of them for their bullshit. But alas, she's stuck on the couch, and she can't really find it in herself to be that upset over it all.

At some point, Cat and Robbie leave. Then Beck leaves.

"Well," Andre announces, flashing Tori a grin. "I'll probably head out now. To leave you two lovebirds alone."

"You need to get out of my house right now," Tori demands, but she can't stop herself from laughing. Andre only grins even more, slowly sauntering towards the door. He gives her a look and then winks, and Tori scowls at him as hard as she can. "When I'm not trapped I'm totally gonna kick your ass."

Andre laughs, grinning widely. "Sure you are, girlie. Bye bye!"

"Bye forever!" Tori laughs, flipping him off as he leaves her house, letting out a quiet sigh when she's left completely alone with Jade. 

Realistically, she probably should wake the woman up so she can go home. But Tori... really does not want to do that. So instead, Tori shifts a little, just enough to get comfortable. She grabs the blanket off the back of the couch, setting it carefully over Jade's shoulders. Tori lets out a quiet sigh, letting her head rest on the back of her couch.

God, she's so fucked. And she can't even be mad about it.

Tori is the opposite, actually. She thinks that she'd probably kill to live in this moment forever. Tori focuses on the way that she can hear Jade breathing, how she can feel her warmth, and she can't be mad at all. Tori thinks that she'd happily do anything and everything to have this forever. She does her best to ignore the fact that this is eventually going to have to end.

But not right now.

For now, Tori traces small circles along Jade's arms until she eventually falls asleep right along with her, and it's the closest thing to perfect that Tori has ever experienced.

Chapter Text

Jade kind of wonders if Beck may have had a point.

She isn’t entirely sure if she thinks that he was right or not, because that would be admitting something that she does not want to admit in the slightest, but maybe he had a point. Jade suddenly isn’t all that surprised by the fact that half of the student body was entirely all too willing to bet on her eventually getting with Tori. Maybe it isn’t sudden — Jade has been having...speculations. She’s definitely been having thoughts. She’s been having a lot of thoughts and she’s also been doing a lot of pushing them down to the depths of hell, but they keep resurfacing, and...yeah. Jade has been having thoughts. She’s been having a lot of thoughts about Tori Vega specifically, and she’s thinking that Beck maybe had a point and maybe he wasn’t being all that unreasonable like she previously thought.

Because if Jade is being honest with herself, she probably would have bet, too. And she would have bet a lot of money.

Jade has spent about an hour and a half very closely examining her behaviour towards Tori and how it’s changed over the past couple of months, though she’s broadened that search to the past year or so. Jade has become increasingly more nice, though she would like to think that she’s not being that nice. But she’s definitely been a lot nicer to Tori, and she hadn’t even really realised it, not fully, until now. Or until an hour and a half ago, but whatever, it’s basically the same thing. She’s been thinking about how she lets Tori touch her, and how she kind of likes it a bit, but only barely, and how when Tori kissed her on the cheek she wasn’t angry, but instead she felt like she touched about fifty live wires all in succession. Jade chalked that up to shock and surprise, but then a few days went by, and then weeks, and now here she is, laying in Tori’s lap, and Jade is kind of sort of thinking that she liked it. And that the electricity throughout her body wasn’t just nervousness, but it could have, potentially, been something else.

Something like enjoyment. 

She doesn’t want to have to even think about the goddamn word for what it really is, and she’s been very carefully avoiding it, so she is not saying it now. Absolutely not. Jade is not going to admit anything, though she’s kind of already fucked herself over by not adamantly denying everything. She’s willing to admit a few things, but she is not willing to admit that there might be... something going on between her and Tori. Or maybe it’s just on her end of things, which would really fucking suck. Tori is a fantastic actor, and throughout this entire period of their fake dating, Jade swears to god that Tori hasn’t slipped up once. And it isn’t even like Tori has acted abnormal or anything like that. Tori has just been Tori.

Jade is also kind of realising that it might not be normal to pretend to be asleep for an hour so she could conveniently fall into Tori’s lap. 

To be fair to herself, she was asleep originally. She did not want to watch fucking Thankskilling under any circumstances, and she managed to pass out pretty quickly. And then she woke up about halfway through it, realised that she could lay in Tori’s lap, almost threw up with how nervous that made her, and then she womanned up and did it, and yeah. Then she spent the rest of the night in Tori’s lap, unbelievably warm and comfortable and content, and now here she is, still in Tori’s lap. She’s still pretty warm and comfortable, but she’s also so fucking stressed that she’s pretty convinced she might explode into a million pieces at any given moment. Jade isn’t sure if that would be a bad thing or not, because she really, honest to god, doesn’t want to deal with the , potential, consequences of her actions. 

She hasn’t managed to make herself move yet, mostly because Jade is pretty sure she’s just actually paralysed with fear. Tori is definitely asleep, which is quite literally the only saving grace that Jade has experienced in the past twenty-four hours, because god knows that Jade hasn’t been experiencing any peace within her own head. She’s actually been experiencing the opposite, where her brain is trying to kill her so bad, and she’s not happy about it. At all. She’s kind of pissed about it, but she isn’t even mad, and she’s just kind of nervous to the point of faux anger. Jade swears that she has never felt like this in her entire life. Not with Beck, not with anyone. She's never been like this before, and it’s such a surreal experience. And Jade isn’t exactly not enjoying it. 

It’s different. It’s really different. Jade thinks about all the times that she hadn’t even realised that Tori was holding her hand, or all the times that she barely even skipped a beat when talking about Tori as her girlfriend. Or even the time where Jade spent about an hour freaking out over if Tori would find her fucking pretty or not. All things that she previously was able to chalk up to the both of them just being good actors — because they are. But over time, with all of those things and more constantly happening, Jade is starting to realise that she can’t just magically conjure up fake feelings. She can’t just instinctively reach for Tori’s hand or lean against her or want to kiss her. 

Ah. There it is.

Jade has thought about that. Which in itself could be innocent enough, if it was a one-off kind of thing. But it was not been a one-off kind of thing, and it’s happened about twenty times, and Jade has spent way too much time thinking about it in great detail. Fifteen of those times have happened in the hour and a half she’s been awake in Tori’s lap. The first time it happened was directly after the time that Tori kissed her on the cheek. The second time it happened was in her bedroom, which is funnily enough where the third and fourth times happened, too. And the fifth time happened at some point during the drive back to Tori’s house yesterday, and that was arguably the worst. Jade was half-convinced she was about to crash the damn car because she had managed to work herself up so bad.

And now Jade is thinking about kissing Tori for the twenty-first time, and nope, she can’t do this anymore. Jade shifts slowly out of Tori’s lap even despite the fact that she wants nothing more than to just fucking roll onto the ground and die there. But she does manage, and as soon as she’s on her feet, Jade is all but sprinting to the kitchen. She grips Tori’s counters, breathing in slowly, realising that she hadn’t been breathing basically that entire time. Jade spares a very wary glance over to the couch, thankfully finding that Tori is still asleep, looking entirely unbothered by Jade scrambling out of her lap. 

Jade quietly opens the cabinet in Tori’s house that has all the mugs. She’s starting to realise that she has a specific mug that she’s been using for the past few months whenever she’s come over, and she’s also realising that it’s right next to the mug that she sees Tori use. Great. That supports Beck’s case a little too much. Jade pulls out the stupid mug, setting it carefully onto the kitchen island, turning to the side to mess with the coffee machine. While she’s doing that, Jade finds herself reaching up to touch the necklace that Tori gave her, running her thumb over the small pendant. She smiles a little, promptly letting out a quiet sigh when she fully becomes aware of what she’s doing. 

Beck was definitely right. He didn’t just have a point. He was right, and Jade is going to kick his ass for it, because what the fuck? How did he figure... this... out before she did? Jade doesn’t think that’s fair literally at all, and she’s going to kill him for it. 

Jade continues to touch the necklace even despite the fact that it’s fucking embarrassing, shifting on her feet as she waits there in Tori’s kitchen, as if she just belongs there. It’s a weird combination of both weird and normal, and Jade isn’t sure if it’s more one or the other. She’s spent so many days here in Tori’s house — on her couch, on the kitchen island, up in her room, on the stairs, sitting on her porch. Jade knows every single inch of her house. It’s familiar. She can navigate this place with her eyes closed, she’s entirely certain about that. And it doesn’t even feel awkward to just get up and start ransacking Tori’s kitchen or to just make herself coffee. It’s normal and warm and it really does feel like it’s only the two of them living here. That thought is enough to make her heart do something that is absolutely not normal, but Jade does her best to ignore that. 

It feels weird at the same time. Jade has been very strongly denying the fact that they were even friends this entire time, and yet still, Jade knows Tori’s house. She knows Tori’s room. She knows her kitchen and how she organises the mugs in the cabinet and she could easily tell anyone about how the condiments in the fridge are arranged. Jade is very well aware of how this entire house works, but she also feels like she shouldn’t. Yeah, okay, she’s fake dating Tori, but still. She’s been a dick to Tori for so long and that’s really only recently changed, and yet still, Jade knows this house. She knows Tori.

That’s another thing that she’s figured out. She knows Tori Vega. Kind of.

She knows that Tori has glasses, she did not know that prior to all of this. Jade knows that Tori loves plants and is pretty good at keeping them alive, she knows that Tori likes stars but knows nothing about them. Tori doesn’t have a usual order really and mostly just switches it up depending on her mood. She likes boba and is a decent cook even if she’s only ever cooked Jade box pancakes. She’s picky about how things are arranged. She’s cluttered but not messy. She has an okay taste in music, all things considered. Jade literally knew none of that prior to fake dating Tori, but now that she’s gotten a taste of knowing the woman...Jade wants nothing more than to know her even more. In every possible way. And that’s also new.

Jade jumps a little when she sees Tori adjust out of the corner of her eye, breathing out a sigh of relief when Tori doesn’t actually get up. Good god. Jade quietly grabs Tori’s mug out of the cabinet too, figuring that that’s the nice thing to do, and she doesn’t exactly mind being nice to Tori. It kind of just happens whether she wants it to or not, so whatever. She’s going to make Tori coffee and she’s going to be normal about it and not think about how she could do this for them if they were really together and living together. 

Jade sighs.

She leans against the counter as she waits, pulling out her phone from her pocket. It’s at fifteen percent, which is better than she was hoping for. She quickly pulls up Beck’s profile, pausing a couple of times. Jade bites down on her tongue, wincing when she tastes blood a second later. 

She types out a few messages, deleting them every single time. Jade lets out a quiet groan, setting her phone down on the counter, running her hands through her hair. She winces again when Tori shifts, doing her best to calm down when it becomes pretty obvious that Tori’s actually awake this time.

“Hey,” Tori says, her voice softer than it usually is. Jade does her best to ignore the pounding in her chest, though it’s pretty hard to ignore why it’s happening. She really has no idea how she managed to lie to herself for so long. “You’re awake? How long have you been up?”

“A bit,” Jade says back, swallowing. She’s been up for at least an hour and a half, but she doesn’t exactly want to tell Tori that. Mostly because she spent that hour and a half literally in her lap, awake, aware, and unwilling to move. “I’m making coffee.”

Jade can see Tori beam at her from across the room, and it makes her smile. She doesn’t exactly mean to, but it happens anyways, and she’s not that mad over it. Tori kind of just does that to her, and at this point, Jade is almost used to it. “I’ll be reserving my thanks until you verbally confirm that you’re making coffee for both of us.”

“You’re a fast learner,” Jade laughs, feeling like everything has suddenly gone back to normal. She can’t believe that Tori makes it so difficult for her to overthink, or really to think at all, actually. “Yes, Vega, I’m making coffee for the both of us. Feel free to applaud me at any time.”

Tori laughs, and it makes Jade feel a little too warm inside. “Thanks so much, Jade. What would I do without you?”

“Not have coffee freshly made for you,” Jade helpfully tells her, ducking her head a little at how that makes Tori laugh again. Jade grabs both of their mugs, turning a little to the side when she sees movement from the living room. Tori is stalking over to her in a matter of seconds, and even though Tori really isn’t all that close to her, the proximity is enough to make Jade nearly stumble over her own goddamn feet. “You’re running out of creamer.”

“You don’t use creamer,” Tori reminds her, and it makes Jade pause for a second. She’s been so caught up in knowing Tori Vega that it didn’t cross her mind to consider that Tori Vega knows her. Jade has never really had that before. She’s had it with Beck, but she doesn’t think that he’d be able to successfully answer if she used creamer or not. “Unless you’ve just been keeping that a secret?”

“I don’t,” Jade confirms, flashing Tori an easy grin. All of this is so easy that it aches. It’s so familiar, so disgustingly warm, and Jade likes it way more than she’d care to admit. “But you do. I thought you’d like to be informed of the fact that you are steadily going through your creamer. You might have an addiction.”

Tori snorts, giving her a look. “I think that the creamer isn’t the addiction I should be worried about. That might be the caffeine itself.”

“I don’t believe in caffeine addictions,” Jade tells her with a shrug, grinning at the way Tori laughs at that. “I do believe in creamer addictions, and you definitely have one of those. Maybe you should get some help over that.”

“Maybe you should stop talking to me,” Tori suggests, bumping Jade with her hip. It’s such a simple movement, but it still makes Jade’s stomach turn over in a million different kind of ways. Everything with Tori is like that. So unbelievably simple yet exhilarating. Maybe it’s not even simple — it’s just familiar. It’s different than everything. She’s different than everyone. “And I will absolutely not be getting “help” for liking creamer. It’s not my fault that you hate fun.”

Jade rolls her eyes, handing Tori her mug. “I just don’t need everything I consume to be disgustingly sweet to the point that it makes your teeth hurt,” Jade grins, laughing a little at how Tori rolls her eyes right back at her. “So,” Jade drawls out, beaming at the woman. “How was Thankskilling?”

At Tori’s incredibly pained groan of agony, Jade can’t help but laugh, throwing her head back when Tori drags her hands down her face as if Jade has just said the worst thing in the world to her. “It was fucking bad,” Tori mutters, looking unbelievably miserable. “I thought about killing Beck about ten thousand times. He’s lucky he’s still alive, because guess what else he made me watch?” Tori asks, only pausing for a second. “ Thankskilling: The Sequel. There are two of them. Two! I did not realise I had so much hatred inside of me until last night.”

“Really?” Jade asks, a little amused. “Didn’t you spray Sinjin in the mouth with Windex?”

“He was asking for it!” Tori groans, going from miserable to exasperated. “He tried to kiss me! And you have no room to speak,” Tori suddenly says, pointing a finger at her. Jade reaches out to flick it, grinning at how Tori scrunches up her face. She feels butterflies in her chest at how Tori’s eyes find her own, looking almost fond. “You punched a guy in the face.”

“He was hitting on you,” Jade says with a shrug, still proud of that one. She thinks that she’d happily do it again. “He was being a dick, and also, you know?” Jade laughs, tilting her head to the side. “I somehow think that spraying Windex down someone’s throat is a little bit worse than breaking some dude’s nose.”

“You didn’t break his nose,” Tori snorts, giving her another look. “But you did almost break your hand. Also, just when did you start considering Sinjin to be a someone? Are you getting soft, Jade?”

Jade thinks that she is. She knows that she is, actually. She’s getting soft and it’s all Tori Vega’s fault. 

She’s not even mad about it. Jade thinks that that’s the most worrying part of it all. She doesn’t mind this change.

“Absolutely not,” she says instead, rolling her eyes. “Sinjin is not a someone. You sprayed Windex down a creature’s throat. Is that better for you, Vega?”

Tori laughs, nudging Jade with her shoulder. “There she is! Big, bad Jade West!” Tori beams at her, and it makes Jade feel painfully dizzy. “Your hand is still feeling better, right?”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Jade says, feeling a bit breathless over nothing. “How’s your hankering bloodlust?”

“It’s sated,” Tori casually says, and Jade laughs, shaking her head. Tori flashes her a grin, leaning in a little, not close enough that she’s really in Jade’s space, but close enough to make Jade’s head spin. “For now.”

“Whatever, Vega,” Jade snorts, nudging Tori back. “Tell me about Thankskilling.”

Tori does, sounding incredibly upset and miserable and devastated the entire time. It’s almost enough to distract Jade from the fact that she, undeniably, has a crush on Tori Vega.

Almost. 

But somehow, the way that her eyes keep drifting to Tori’s lips as she speaks is enough to keep that fact right at the forefront of her mind until it’s almost driving her mad.

Chapter Text

Tori’s kind of convinced that today very well might be her last day on earth, and she’s pretty much entirely made peace with that. There’s a small part of her that’s freaking the fuck out bad, but for the most part, she’s actually pretty content with how her life has been and she’s okay with this being the end of it. 

The part of her that’s freaking out is making her continuously glance over at the steering wheel as Jade drives, all too tempted to suddenly grab it and crash them into the nearest building. But she’s doing her best to ignore those thoughts, telling herself that she’s being way too damn dramatic over something that realistically isn’t even that big of a deal. Well, it kind of is, but whatever. She doesn’t need to manually crash the car and kill both Jade and herself just because she’s a little nervous.

No matter how appealing that is.

It wasn’t very hard for Tori to admit to herself that she actually, for real, likes Jade. It was actually a little too easy, all things considered. But she was able to admit it, think it a few times, say it out loud once, and overall just fully come to the conclusion that that was a thing that was happening, and she could live with that. This, however, is arguably the hardest thing that she’s ever done in her whole entire life, and Tori is still pretty sure that she’s going to end up dead by the end of it.

She’s planning on asking out Jade today. For real. And she’s only a little nervous.

Tori asked Jade to take them to the park pretty close by Tori’s house, where they got Freddy’s that one time together. The fact that that was over a month ago is pretty goddamn insane to her, and it’s kind of embarrassing that she managed to fall in love with Jade West in one month, but whatever, it’s fine. Tori mostly wanted to come here so she could dead sprint away and quite literally flee the situation if Jade said no, but it also almost feels sentimental in a way. Technically, Jade “asked her out” at the Asphalt Cafe, but there’s quite literally just no way in hell that Tori is going to ask Jade out for real in that place. Much less surrounded by their friends.

So they’re going to the park. And Tori is still kind of thinking that crashing the car would really help with her nerves.

Tori lets out a quiet sigh that she passes off as a normal breath, resting her arm out of the window. She’s been trying her best to act normal this entire time, but that’s been proving to be way harder than she expected it to be. The logical side of her is trying to convince the far more worryingly terrified part of her that this actually, in fact, doesn't need to be a big deal at all.  She sighs again, turning to stare out the window as they drive, furiously ignoring the fact that Jade put on the playlist that Tori made for her. She's also ignoring the fact that there's a very thinly-veiled love song playing, and it's making her think about kissing Jade, and that's just making her head spin, which is making her want to dive out of this godforsaken window and hopefully get hit by a bus or two or seven.

"What's got you all fucked up over there?" Jade asks, and Tori resists the urge to sigh for a third time, forcing herself to look back at the woman. 

Which is a shame, because Jade is really pretty. And while Tori usually is able to keep herself pretty composed and not get flustered, she can absolutely feel her face heat up a little, embarrassingly enough. She takes a second to come up with some convincing lie as well as taking that time to stop being viable to spontaneous combustion.

"Nothing," Tori decides to say, smartly, obviously. "You're imagining things."

Maybe using the same tactics on Jade that she uses for Trina isn't exactly her best idea, it's what she's apparently decided to do, and she gets to live with that now.

Jade laughs, though, and it's enough to put Tori at ease. She smiles a little, relaxing back in her seat, feeling a good amount of the tension fading from her body. "Okay, Vega. Be like that."

"I will be like that," Tori helpfully informs her, resting her arms behind the headrest. She smiles a little, feeling like her nervousness is finally being dealt with. The urge to crash the car is no longer really there, thank god, and she's pretty convinced that she's got this, actually. "I was just breathing."

That's technically true. It's not a complete and utter lie.

"Well," Jade hums, going quiet for a second. Tori arches an eyebrow, giving Jade a look that she knows the woman can feel even despite the fact that Jade's not looking at her at all. "Maybe you should stop doing that."

Tori laughs, grinning as she closes her eyes, tilting her head back. 

Yeah, okay, she's totally fine. She's going to be just fine. This is going to go fine, it's going to be perfectly okay. Even if it doesn't go how Tori wants it to go, it's not going to be awkward, she's pretty sure of that. She knows Jade West well enough to know that everything is going to be totally okay, no matter which way it goes.

"Maybe you should stop," Tori shoots back, lazily turning her head to the side, grinning even wider at the small smile on Jade's face. "Have you ever thought of that?"

"It was funnier when I said it," Jade announces, glancing to the side. Tori makes sure to roll her eyes as hard as she possibly can in that brief second, grinning at how Jade laughs a second later, very clearly successful. "It's pretty obvious you're the younger child."

Tori rolls her eyes again, her heart skipping a beat when she realises that they're literally seconds away from pulling into the parking lot of the park. She pushes down her anxiety that comes soaring back, reminding herself that it'll be fine.

"And it's pretty obvious that you're an only child because you're incapable of sharing. Anyways!" Tori winces at how high her voice pitches up as soon as they pull into a parking spot. "Race you to the ramada!"

"That's—"

Tori doesn't even wait for the damn car to come to a stop before she's furiously manually pulling up the lock, diving out of the car, and sprinting as soon as her feet touch the ground. 

Which might be a bit of an overreaction, but it's a little too late to change anything.

Tori is at the ramada in a matter of seconds, and she's half-tempted to scale the goddamn thing just to get out some of her excess energy. It's fucking  insane how she's been flipping back and forth between feeling totally fine and like she's literally about to die, and Tori's really, truly not enjoying it at all.

And, if her nervousness wasn't already bad enough, Jade has apparently decided to walk to the ramada. Slowly. At a snail's pace, in fact. Arguably slower than that. 

Maybe Tori won't be confessing to her. Maybe she'll just kill her instead.

"Are you serious?" Tori demands, planting her hands on her hips as she watches Jade continue her slow stride, looking entirely unbothered. "Jade."

"Tori," Jade offers back as she saunters a few more inches, grinning so wide that it has to hurt. Her eyes are sparkling in a way that makes Tori's heart race all over again, and goddammit, Tori cannot stand this woman. "Slow and steady wins the race, right?"

"I literally already won the—" Tori cuts herself off, whirling around so her back is facing Jade. She slowly breathes in, rolling her eyes when she realises that she doesn't feel as anxious as she did a second ago. She still sort of feels like she might explode, but it isn't as god-awful as it had been. Seems like Jade West being utterly infuriating is enough to push all of her anxiety to the side. "I'm going to kick your ass."

"Sure you are," Jade taunts with a laugh, her voice quite literally not sounding any closer at all. In fact, it actually sounds farther away. Tori spins back around, and yeah, Jade's about five feet back than she had been. Tori really is going to kill her. "I'm waiting."

"For me to kick your ass?" Tori asks, a little flabbergasted.

Jade beams at her, far too innocently. "Sure."

Tori immediately is set into motion by those words. She takes long strides across the open field, only stopping when she's practically inches away from Jade. Jade only beams at her again, her eyes still sparkling in the sunlight. Tori takes a few seconds to stand there, contemplating on if she really should put Jade on her ass, but ultimately decides against it.

Instead, Tori grabs her wrist, dragging Jade towards the ramada. Jade is surprisingly warm, but Tori figures it's just from being out in the sun for a while.

"Sit," Tori demands, making a gesture to the bench directly in front of them. Jade stands there for a second, and Tori lets out a long sigh, which makes the woman laugh. Jade does eventually sit, and Tori wanders to the opposite side of the table, sitting on her own bench. "You're insufferable, did you know that?"

"You're into it," Jade shoots back, flashing Tori an all-too bright grin, looking genuinely happy. It's enough to make Tori's heart rate kick up again, and she forces herself to roll her eyes instead of doing something else, like diving over the table to kiss Jade right on the damn lips. "Given the whole dating situation."

Tori hums for a second, her anxiety hitting her full force all over again. She takes a moment to convince herself that she's not going to die if she opens her mouth, breathing out slowly for another second. She could do it right now. Jade’s just given her the perfect segway, and she could do it. Tori looks away for a second, staring at the table in front of them before she looks back up. 

"I wanted to talk about that," Tori manages to get out, ignoring how her heart is pounding furiously in her chest. "The whole dating situation."

Jade shifts a little, arching an eyebrow. "What about it?" She asks, and Tori is suddenly debating on saying nevermind and moving on. 

Tori doesn’t do that, biting down on her tongue instead, mostly so she doesn’t open her mouth and fuck this all up by pretending like she wants to stop talking about it. She takes another second to compose herself again, deciding to just bite the goddamn bullet and get it over with, because Tori is pretty convinced that she might die if she doesn’t start to talk soon. 

“We’re basically dating,” Tori starts off, internally wincing as soon as the words come out of her mouth. Okay, not the start she was exactly gearing for, but whatever, she can still do this. “So,” Tori clears her throat, feeling very much so like she’s going to die. Clearly talking didn’t help with getting rid of that feeling. Tori looks down for a second, shifting, taking in another breath. “Why aren’t we?”

Jade stares at her, and it takes a second, but Tori is pretty quick to realise that the woman is blushing. And Jade looks like she’s also on the verge of death, and suddenly, Tori is pretty sure that she might survive this, actually. Jade eventually blinks at her, opening her mouth a few times, closing it, opening it again, and eventually she just turns her head away for a second. 

“Oh.”

“Is that a bad oh?” Tori asks, though she’s half-convinced that she already knows the answer. 

Jade clears her throat, finally turning back to face her. Tori offers the most encouraging and sincere smile that she can physically manage, hoping to god that helps Jade from not spontaneously combusting on the spot. “Uh, no. It’s not...a bad oh. Just, you know. It’s, you know. An oh. You know.”

“Yeah,” Tori confirms, breathing out a little, feeling like every single one of her nerves have suddenly been lit on fire. “Yeah, I know. We should go out. You know,” Tori laughs, feeling significantly lighter than she had. “For real.”

“Yeah,” Jade agrees, still looking like she might ignite. “That’d be...” she breathes out, looking away, and Tori kind of wonders just why she was freaking the fuck out so bad. “Cool, yeah.”

Tori laughs, feeling a surge of excitement hit her at the ridiculousness of that. “Cool,” she grins, giddy enough that it’s making her chest hurt. “How long?”

Jade just looks at her for a second, very clearly processing that. “You cannot be serious. You’re fine?”

“I finished my freaking out in the car,” Tori says with a shrug, tilting her head to the side. “And on the run here.”

“Good for you, Vega,” Jade hisses out, throwing her head back a second later, groaning. Tori can only laugh at the very over-dramatic display, rolling her eyes a little. “I don’t know, like, yesterday?” Jade offers pathetically, not looking like she’s any less close to blowing up. “Maybe a few... a week ago?”

Tori hums, not entirely convinced by that. Maybe Jade realised yesterday. Tori realised a few days ago, but she also realised that she definitely has a crush on Jade for a few weeks at the very least, if not longer than that. While she’s not super certain that she just had a dormant crush on the woman before all of this, she’s not exactly throwing it out as an option. 

“I realised a bit ago,” Tori tells her, smiling a little. “Sorry. We don’t have to talk,” Tori offers, laughing a little. “I don’t want to keep freaking you out.”

“I’m not freaking out,” Jade shoots back, very obviously freaking out. Tori arches an eyebrow, offering a very unimpressed look, because there’s no way that either of them believe that’s true. “Tori.”

“Jade,” Tori says, beaming at her. “It’s okay to freak out. I was freaking out for weeks.”

“Weeks?” Jade asks, her eyes widening a little. “And you didn’t say anything?”

Tori rolls her eyes, giving Jade another look. “I was freaking out as bad as you, I didn’t exactly think that I could say anything. Not without literally dying,” she sighs, brushing her hair back out of her face. “Do you want me to say it more?” Tori asks, watching as Jade looks away at that.

And then she watches as Jade looks back at her, her eyes darting down to Tori’s lips. 

Ah. 

Tori knows Jade well enough by this point — and she’s already known her pretty well before all of this. It’s not exactly difficult to figure her out, and it’s definitely not difficult to figure this out specifically. So Tori pushes herself up off of the bench, slides herself over the table, and plants her legs on either side of Jade, leaning down a little.

It only talks about half a second before Jade is leaning up to meet her, and Tori feels her heart stutter as soon as she presses a soft kiss against Jade’s lips. She rests her hands on either side of Jade’s face, scooting as close as she possibly can without literally falling off of the table. 

The idea of being in Jade’s lap is appealing, though, so Tori’s half-tempted to just go ahead and do it. 

Tori grins against Jade’s lips, pulling away for a second to breathe, though she mostly just looks at the woman instead, feeling her heart race all over again. Tori leans forwards, kissing her again, feeling entirely breathless. 

Jade pulls back first this time, and Tori takes that time to sit on Jade’s side of the bench. She sits on her knees, resting her hands against her thighs. She feels a little dizzy, but she’s definitely not complaining about that, quite literally not at all. Tori lets out a breathless laugh a second later, not exactly meaning to, but whatever.

“Was kissing me as bad as you thought?” Tori asks, grinning at the way that Jade groans, burying her face with her hands. “Are you still gonna, what was it, shoot yourself in both feet?” She questions, laughing again at the second miserable groan that Jade lets out. “And then walk to Wyoming?”

“It was Washington,” Jade mutters, sounding even more miserable. “And maybe I should do that. You started it off good,” Jade sighs, eventually moving her hands away from her face. “And then you had to ruin it.”

Tori rolls her eyes, casually inching a little closer until she’s just inches away from the woman. She leans in all over again, kissing Jade for a third time. It doesn’t last very long and Tori is pulling away pretty quick, but judging by how Jade looks significantly less miserable, Tori’s pretty sure it did its job. 

“I remember seeing one of your videos,” Tori tells her, smiling a little. “About everything that you hate? I remember that someone asking to kiss you was like, one of the first things on that list. I didn’t want to immediately mess it up.”

“I wouldn’t have minded that much,” Jade mutters, looking away. “I still let you kiss me even when you brought that awful shit up and totally ruined the moment.”

“I think I fixed the moment, actually,” Tori muses, grinning when Jade still refuses to look anywhere near her. “We have a new anniversary date, by the way.” 

Jade laughs this time, finally looking back at her. “You’re fucking unbelievable.”

“You’re clearly into that,” Tori teases. “We’re not telling them about this.”

“Absolutely not,” Jade agrees, breathing out. “I guess Beck was right.”

“And I guess Andre was right,” Tori laughs, shaking her head. She should have figured, honestly. He’s rarely been wrong about things when it comes to other people. Tori just figured it was so goddamn outrageous and insane that she just vehemently decided he was wrong. “They’d be even worse if they knew,” she sighs, hopping back up onto the table. “Thus they will not.”

“Amen,” Jade breathes out, and Tori smiles when Jade hops up onto the table beside her. “You’re not a bad kisser, I guess,” Jade says, very pointedly not looking at her again. Tori laughs, tilting her head back, staring at the ramada above them. “But, you know. I might have forgotten in the minute and a half where we weren’t, you know.”

“When I wasn’t kissing you?” Tori offers, lolling her head to the side. She grins at how Jade very clearly clenches her jaw, somehow managing to not look at Tori even harder. “Well,” Tori sighs, feeling like this easily might be the best day of her life. “I guess I should probably kiss my girlfriend again then, huh?”

Tori laughs when Jade shoves her, grinning at how the woman glares at her. There’s very obviously no actual malice in her eyes, and the playful teasing is something that Tori’s been used to for months at this point. She’d be pretty surprised if that just changed in five minutes, and she doesn’t want it to change, either.

“You need to stop,” Jade announces, and Tori shrugs, holding her hands up in mock defense. “And yeah. Your girlfriend would like that, actually.”

Tori grins, still feeling giddy.  “Great. Because your girlfriend would also really like that.”

That’s all she says before she’s leaning in again, meeting Jade halfway, just like last time. Tori laughs against Jade’s lips, feeling entirely breathless, her heart pounding in her chest harder than it ever has in her entire life. 

And somehow, even despite the fact that this is their first real day as a couple, Tori can’t help but feel like it’s all so familiar to her already. As if they’ve been doing this for years at this point. It only makes her feel even more excited, it makes her want to kiss Jade like this for the rest of their lives.

“I think I might have a crush on you,” Jade admits, pulling back. Tori laughs at that, pulling the woman right back against her, kissing her for another second before Tori lets her pull back again. “Just by the way.”

“Really?” Tori asks, feigning surprise. “I would have never guessed. I also have a crush on you. Just by the way.”

Jade laughs, her eyes sparkling, and Tori kisses her again, mostly just because she can. 

Tori thinks that she’ll be doing a lot of that now, actually. Entirely because she can.

Because they’re dating for real, now.