A/N: Um... Hi? Long time no see. I don't even know if anyone is going to read this, haha. If someone is reading this however: thanks. :P

Anyway, this really isn't anything special and, I already know, not going to be very satisfying for most (if not all) of you, but... I had this sitting on my computer as one of the only Jori things I've written in a whle and thought, "Why not?" So... yeah.

I also know that a lot of people are still waiting for a new update on OS&SD and I'm really, really sorry, but it's just not going to happen anymore. I know, I know. But I can't force myself to write for it because I just... lost inspiration for it. :/ Believe me, I even disappointed myself by not being able to finish it but... it is what it is. Lately though, I've been in a bit of a Jori mood, hence why I wrote some things and found myself writing this. So... There you go.

Still love you guys lots and I'm sorry for being a letdown, haha.

Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious. Or anything, really.

"Hi, Jade! How are you doing? It sucks that I couldn't reach you… Oh, it's Tori by the way! I'm calling because I'm in New York right now and I know you're here too, so I wanted to ask if, you know, you maybe wanted to hang out. Um, so yeah… Give me a call if you want."

X

When Tori sees Jade already waiting for her in the bar area of the restaurant, a wide smile immediately takes a hold of her face. She quietly approaches the woman facing away from her, willing the utter excitement chasing butterflies through her stomach to simmer down at least a little, and presses her smiling lips together when she reaches her.

"Hey there, stranger."

She turns with a grace Tori always knew she possessed but found she used it way too seldom. Now, at 23, it's much more prominent, more mature too, much to Tori's delight. Her eyes flash brightly for the shortest amount of time when they fall upon her old frenemy, before a smile makes them soften. "Vega," she murmurs with a nod and slowly rises from the bar stool she was occupying, arms crossing over her chest. There is the momentary awkward tension that was always present with her and Jade, a crackling fire that no one was sure would stay harmless or explode into something much bigger in a matter of seconds. The thought of the latter possibility had never failed to make Tori's stomach ache with nerves.

Tori chuckles, although she doesn't really know why. "You look great."

"Thanks. You…" She makes a short pause in which her gaze quickly scans over her. "…don't look awful." She expected something a little cruder, something a little more disappointing, something a little more like the things that slipped past Jade's lips in high school, but Tori guesses her mouth got used to not spitting insults at her all the time. She takes a moment to think about what to respond, if she should thank her for this unusual compliment, when the roll of Jade's eyes stops her. "You look nice… is what I meant to say."

Tori's eyebrows shoot up. "Wow. Can you repeat that?" She abandons her at the bar with a dismissive sound close to a swallowed groan, quickly and without forewarning, and it feels just like old times. Tori follows her, shrugs out of her jacket and smiles at the waiter pulling the chair out for her, sinking down opposite of the woman who is already studying the menu. The waiter leaves right after Jade takes it upon herself to order them drinks. "So, is that the new you? A… kinda nicer version of the wicked witch?"

Unimpressed eyes flick up from the menu. "Because I paid you one mediocre compliment?" When Tori shrugs with a tight smile stretching across her lips, a hint of amusement starts glinting in Jade's eyes. "You're a moron."

"Hey!"

"Order." Tori stares at Jade, a smile threatening to break out but she bites her lip instead and picks up the menu card from the table. They sit in comfortable silence and Tori is busy trying to make a decision between the chicken and pasta. It's nice, she thinks. Eerily comfortable. "It's the leather jacket," Jade throws in casually, making Tori look up from the menu. Jade however still flicks through it, lazily scanning page after page. "It suits you."

"Oh… Uh… I… Thank you."

Jade shrugs, in a way that makes it seem like compliments out of her mouth, especially those directed at Tori, aren't something to mark your calendar for. "You're welcome."

Other than the occasional nice word slipping past her lips – Tori thinks maybe it's just a trick to make her feel safe and then whoops, she'll pour her drink all over her head – Jade is still the same as always. A little too honest, sarcastic, and sharp. She's extremely passionate and driven, as she always had been, tells Tori about the role on Broadway she auditioned for and, knock on wood, "my chances aren't looking too crappy".

"Broadway… I never pictured you on Broadway."

Jade clicks her tongue. "Me neither. But you take what you can get." A role on Broadway seems to be more to Tori than just something you take on while waiting for something else, but out of Jade's mouth it sounds like it's simply a project she chooses to do to pass her time until she finds that one thing that will catapult her to the place she wanted to be all along. "What about you? You were always planning to take the charts by storm," she says without any bitterness or spite, but rather genuine curiosity, "What happened to that?"

"Oh, well…" Tori sighs, smiles and shrugs her shoulders. "I'm still working on it."

Their conversation about Tori's career eventually drifts to Andre and how he's pretty much the only one both of them stayed in contact with, save for Cat and her random text messages that usually don't make a lot of sense. All in all, the evening turns out to be much more comfortable than Tori had expected. With every minute that her hair is spared from being drenched in wine Tori relaxes into her chair, and every time Jade speaks and she realizes she hasn't heard an insult out of her mouth in what feels like ages, the tension in her chest disappears a little bit more.

Although Tori does think this weird, new, nice side of Jade is slightly terrifying.

When they leave the restaurant and Jade holds the door open instead of letting it smash into Tori's face, Tori completely fails to remember what part of Trina's disastrous nail salon story she has stopped at. She blinks with her mouth still standing open and glances back at the door with furrowed eyebrows. "Okay, was I always really that horrible that me doing things that are completely normal makes you get a seizure?"

Tori's gaze snaps back to Jade's disbelieving face staring back at her. "You weren't horrible. But… you know…"

Jade shrugs. "I learned that being civil more often can lead to good things."

"Oh yeah? Where did you learn that?"

She is silent for a moment, Tori regarding her curiously as they stroll down the sidewalk. "I had a good teacher," she says eventually, in a tone that is light, but contradicts the tension stretching across Jade's forehead. Tori's smile drops, her lips pressing together. She wants to ask who that teacher was, where she met them, why she chose to listen to them but no one else who urged her to see the world a little bit brighter, to be a little lighter. But something about the look on her face makes her dismiss those questions immediately.

"Um, well, I'm glad."

Jade's lips curl into a smile when she looks at her. "You're glad?"

"I… am."

The look in her eyes is unreadable, stormy and wild and not quite fitting in with the amused smile on her lips. Tori doesn't know what it means or even what it could mean, so she stays quiet, stops when Jade does too. She takes a few steps forward, just small, tiny ones, so Tori doesn't follow. "So that crush you had on me…" She turns around with her head tilted to the side and doesn't let the wide brown eyes affect her. "Is that still a thing?"

"Wh- Wha- wha-" Jade's mocking deep voice of her stuttering makes Tori break out of it, a sigh leaving her as she rolls her eyes at herself. Clearing her throat, she frowns. "What crush?"

Her frown only deepens when she sees the unbelieving look Jade sends her. "Oh come on, Vega. Do you think I didn't know?"

"Okay, maybe I had one. A tiny one."

Jade's eyebrows rise as she looks off to the side. "I wouldn't blame you if it was bigger than tiny."

"Cocky much?"

A smirk pulls at her lips when she looks back into teasing brown eyes. "So…?"

"What?"

"You didn't answer my question yet."

"Yes, I did."

"I asked if it was still a thing."

"Uh… I didn't spend much thought on it?"

Jade laughs and Tori smiles and this is really weird but still really, really nice. "But you must know how you feel when you think about me."

"Would you believe me if I said that I feel scared and intimidated?" She does, sometimes, like right now, when she's on the receiving end of a glare. But even then, with piercing eyes drilling holes into her head, it's still more attractive than scary and- oh. There the answer is. "I don't know! I don't know what you want me to say."

"Just say the truth! What's so hard about that?"

"Maybe because you are kinda scary and intimidating!"

"So you do still have a crush on me."

A helpless breath rushes out of Tori's mouth. "But now it's not as big as before."

"You said it was tiny to begin with."

"And now it's teeny tiny."

Tori grins at the eye roll she receives. But then she's suddenly there, right in front of her, so close that Tori could see the different shades of blue and gray in Jade's eyes. "I'm going to try something," she murmurs in a tone that leaves no room for arguing or questions, and yet, Tori tries nevertheless.

"Wha-"

Jade tastes like alcohol and mint. Tori had imagined what kissing Jade would feel like plenty of times when she was seventeen and the first thing that came to her mind had always been coffee. She tasted like coffee, always, that was what was firmly implanted in Tori's head. If she ever got the chance, Tori had thought, it would taste bitter and a teeny tiny bit sweet and it would be warm, or maybe hot, depending if Jade was happy or angry or upset. And it is, warm that is, so wonderfully warm. But it isn't coffee, which isn't Jade, which… seems odd.

It doesn't make it any less incredible though.

A quiet sound vibrates in the back of Tori's throat, her hand hesitantly slipping up until she feels Jade's hard collarbone underneath her fingers. "Jade," she murmurs against soft lips and gently pushes her away. Her eyes are blazing underneath low lids, watching Tori's mouth open and close before a sound is finally able to escape. "What… is this?"

Her eyes flick up to Tori's. Locking gazes with her feels strange, because they were just doing something that… was strange all in its own. "It's called kissing."

"Why are we kissing?"

"'Cause it feels nice." And that is definitely something she agreed with. It did feel nice, even if it was a little strange. Tori finds her bottom lip captured between both of Jade's again and this time, it's a lot harder to pull away.

"But… it shouldn't."

A sigh hits her lips; impatient, annoyed. "No?"

"It's not what we do." Tori sighs when Jade takes a step back. She should be ecstatic, so extremely ecstatic that she finally knows what it's like to kiss Jade. It's all warm and soft and… not like coffee at all admittedly but still nice. But this is so sudden and unexpected that Tori doesn't know what it even means, why Jade chose this moment, why she chose her to kiss and why she chose anyone at all. Although, she guesses, putting so much thought into this isn't necessary at all. But still. Jade is staring at her still, quietly and with confused and impatient eyes. Another sigh escapes Tori, this time accompanied by a nervous hand running through her hair. "We… argue a lot! And you tease me. And…"

"So you want us to argue?"

"No," she says firmly, "It's nice when we don't argue."

Jade's face crumples in confusion. "Then what's your problem?"

"I…" She doesn't know what her problem is. Just that there apparently is one, for whatever reason. Or maybe she's just imagining it because this whole thing makes her want to breathe into a paper bag. Her shoulders sag slightly when she realized that her problem is that she's a complete and utter wimp. "I don't have one."

The impatience disperses quicker than Tori would have thought possible, a content breath slipping out of Jade's tilted up lips as she steps closer for the second time that night. Goosebumps erupt on her covered arms, a shiver running down her spine, when Jade's arms encircle her, and her heart flip flops in her chest when Jade's lips only slightly graze hers. "Go with the flow," she whispers. Tori takes the breath she releases. "Relax."

And then she's kissing Jade West again, in the middle of the sidewalk with the occasional person passing by, but this time Jade's mouth works quicker. Ditching the languid strokes of lips, it's now all demanding, all fast and hard and a little bit of tongue. "And if you miss the teasing," she whispers when they pull apart, breathless and into her ear, "I can tease you other ways…"

It takes all of Tori to keep herself from releasing a sound that would be way too inappropriate for the middle of the street, which would, guaranteed, be way too inappropriate to let out while kissing your friend and former nemesis. Although, Tori thinks as she's clutching Jade's shoulders and pulling her back in, this whole entire thing is somehow inappropriate in all of its entirety.

As quickly as it started, it's over again. Jade rips herself away – it's all cold and strange and not nice without her somehow pressed into her and wow, Tori never would have thought she'd ever think something like that – but before the fear of getting abandoned by her could kick in, Jade grips her hand, turns with a heavy breath and tugs her along the sidewalk. They leave the quiet little side road behind and Tori suddenly finds herself engulfed by a lot more noise that manages to drown out her quiet call of Jade's name. Everything is such a blur, Tori's heart pounding in her ears, lips tingling, fingers tightening around Jade's. Then there's a cab, Jade opens the door, and turns around to pull Tori into a fervent kiss.

"Come home with me," she breathes into her mouth, her fingers digging into her hips and chest rising and falling against hers.

Her hazy brain doesn't waste a second to think of an answer.

She pushes Jade into the car, pulling the door shut behind her before her sanity has a chance to get in too.

X

The first sound she hears upon waking up is the distant sound of a shower running.

She stretches, her back making a noise of protest. For a moment, Tori pulls the sheets tighter around herself to relish the feeling of the warm, dark blue comforter on her skin. It smells like Jade and that, along with the warmth and utter softness of the bed – she feels like lying on a cloud, it's amazing – makes Tori contemplate staying here for a little while longer.

But then her stomach growls, begging her to fill it up and ruining everything.

Tori sighs, shifts her legs one last time to feel the wonderful sensation of the soft cocoon she has engulfed herself in, before slowly peeling herself out of it, gasping quietly when her bare feet hit cold hardwood floor. She shivers, because without the sheets wrapped around her it is pretty cold. She is pretty naked after all. Biting her lip, the brunette lets her eyes travel over the room and lights up when she sees a small stack of clothes sitting on a chair propped against the wall right next to the open door. After shooting a quick glance at the closed door on the side and reassuring herself that the shower is indeed still running, Tori rises from the bed and quietly makes her way over to the chair. It stands slightly askew and Tori figures that it was one of the many things she and Jade had bumped into yesterday.

Tori swallows at the memory.

She slips into the clothes Jade had apparently laid out for her – that thought alone makes her feel really special – and she revels in the feeling of fresh clothes against her skin, the smell of lovely fabric softener and Jade traveling up her nose. She walks out, but shoots a glance back to get a glimpse of how the bedroom looks by daylight, then stops in the middle of the living room to take it all in.

It had been dark when they came in yesterday, not a trace of light whatsoever as Jade slowly but passionately forcefully steered Tori into the bedroom. Now, Tori gets the chance to take a closer look at Jade's life.

It's a fairly small apartment, with the kitchen taking up a corner of the living room and the bathroom, judging by the shower noises she heard upon waking up, adjoining the bedroom. Wrinkling her nose, Tori notices the collection of weird knick knacks Jade had collected over the past neatly lined up on a shelf above the sofa. She considers taking a closer look, but the hair rising on the back of her neck keeps her from doing so. Near the door, a relatively large dining table takes in a good portion of the room, but only two chairs, the same ones as the one standing in the bedroom, stand on either end of it. She steps closer to it, runs her hand over the smooth surface and wonders why on earth Jade needs such a big dinner table when her eyes fall upon an item of her own sprawled out in front of the door.

She picks her jacket up from the floor – "It's the leather jacket. It suits you." – and holds it in her hands, grins when she remembers Jade pulling it off of her in a haste last night and her not caring for the slightest bit to leave it hunched up on the floor.

Releasing a sigh, Tori hangs the jacket up on the back of one of the chairs, continuing on her way to finally make her stomach stop grumbling. However, a picture, framed and standing on the sideboard the television rests upon, catches Tori's eyes and makes her stop on her journey to the kitchen.

There weren't many pictures Tori can remember in which Jade was actually smiling. Maybe a smirk, a lazy tilt of her mouth, but usually it was always neutral, always a deadpan look at the camera. In this one, Jade is smiling. Not a toothy grin – Tori happens to know Jade doesn't really like her teeth, so that's probably why – but a soft and genuine smile that actually reaches her eyes and makes them sparkle.

A weird feeling, somewhat like disappointment, makes Tori's stomach tingle when she thinks of the possibility that the girl next to Jade, blonde and beautiful and looking equally as blissful, could be the cause of such happiness.

"Morning."

Tori's head snaps around at the sound of Jade's voice, seeing her – friend, lover, what? – former classmate walk out of the bedroom, a hand running through damp black hair.

"Oh! Uh, morning."

Jade shuffles past her, glances back with one eyebrow raised and a faint smile on her lips. "Why so surprised, did you expect someone else?"

Tori chuckles. For a short while, she settles for just standing there and watch Jade work the coffee maker, before she's reminded of why she got out of bed in the first place. "I was hungry, that's why I'm out here. I wasn't spying or something."

"Hm, you better not," she mutters in a teasing tone, keeping all of her attention on her task at hand, "Well, take whatever you want. I have cereal, yoghurt, whatever… Or I guess I could make us something."

"Cereal is fine." Jade motions to a cabinet on the right and Tori takes this as an invitation to join her in the kitchen area. Slowly walking towards the cabinet Jade pointed out, Tori clears her throat. "Thanks for the clothes by the way." A nod. The coffee machine starts humming loudly. "Jade, is it okay that I'm still here? If not, you can say so, I'll leave if you want."

The old Jade would have thrown her out, most definitely… maybe… possibly. Well, Tori isn't so sure but she still thinks Jade shouldn't look at her with those furrowed brows and disbelieving gaze, like it's so unrealistic to think she would actually be capable of doing that. "What? No, it's fine." She smiles, still a little hesitantly because maybe it's just a trick, who really knows. But then Jade sighs and walks closer to where Tori is standing. "Look, Tori, I wouldn't kick you out without feeding you first. Last night was pretty demanding, I wouldn't forgive myself if you fainted from exhaustion in the middle of New York." Tori rolls her eyes as Jade reaches up to open the cabinet to pull out a box of cereal and push it into the brunette's hand. "And then you would get eaten by a homeless person, imagine what a burden that would be for me."

"That's… so sweet of you…"

Jade nods with a smile on her face, pushing the cabinet door shut with a quiet bang before getting back to preparing her coffee. She doesn't offer Tori one, only mumbles the whereabouts of bowls and cutlery and Tori figures she should be content with that, because that's already more than she expected. They prepare their respective breakfasts in silence and although she doesn't know why, Tori waits until Jade takes a seat at the table before she herself follows her and sits down on the last free chair. The only sounds Tori's ears register is her spoon sliding against the ceramic bowl, Jade's careful sips and Tori's own heart in her ears. When it simply gets too much, unbearable even, Tori puts her spoon down and clears her throat.

"Jade?"

Jade doesn't look up from the spot she has fixated somewhere across the room. "Hm?" She should have thought about what to say before she opened her mouth, Tori realizes when no sound whatsoever leaves her mouth and Jade's eyes travel to meet Tori's frozen gaze. "Were you going to say something or is this supposed to be some weird staring contest?"

"Who's the girl in the picture?"

Her mouth blurts out the question before her brain can catch up and Tori knows it's none of her business at all but despite that, the reaction she gets upon such an innocent question surprises her quite a bit. Jade's fingers flex around her cup while her gaze, almost alarmed, immediately snaps to the picture in question. A breath rushes through her nose as she shifts, staring at the picture with one of those unreadable looks again. "Just… someone," she answers in a gruff murmur before getting back to focusing her entire attention on her coffee, leaving Tori's curiosity unsatisfied.

"A… friend?"

A glare gets sent her way. "I thought you weren't spying."

"I'm not!"

"It doesn't matter who she is. It's just a stupid picture, Tori."

But Tori is about to argue, it doesn't seem like a stupid picture if you're getting so upset over it, and who in the world has framed pictures standing around if they only find them stupid anyway? It seems to matter who she is, too, at least to Jade, because all of sudden she's not as light anymore and her eyes look more like the coffee she's drinking. For exactly that reason however, Tori chooses to get back to her cereal, in hopes of not unintentionally upsetting her even more. So she lets the uncomfortable air take the reign once again because what other choice does she have, really? But then Jade sighs and Tori already knows it will get even more uncomfortable and suddenly she wishes the silence to come back and swallow her up as a whole.

"Look," she starts while getting up from the table, coffee cup still tightly clutched in her hand, "About last night…"

"We really don't have to-"

Jade doesn't let her finish. "I'm not going to be your… Princess Charming, alright? It's not what this was. I'm not going to be that for you."

"I know that."

Jade leans against the side of the table. Her eyes look rueful when they look into Tori's. "I'm sorry if this was more for you."

"It wasn't." And Tori doesn't know if she's telling the truth or not because for some reason she hasn't spent a single second thinking about what had happened. She guesses something inside of her already knew it wouldn't go further than one single night. "I actually don't even know what it was for me," she admits with a shrug. Jade is still staring at her, with eyes that refuse to give away her thoughts and a calmness that makes Tori squirm. The brunette clears her throat, pushes the chair back and gets up as slowly as possible. "I should get going now," she mutters with a forced smile on her face, "I have a meeting at five and… I still gotta get ready for it."

Jade's sole reaction is a simple nod and only now Tori realizes, with a sinking feeling in her chest, that maybe a small part of her did expect a tiny bit more from last night. She swallows those weird feelings though, pulls at the sleeves of the dark sweatshirt she's wearing. "I'll… return your clothes as soon as I can."

Blue eyes blink before they travel over Tori's body. "It's okay." She makes a pause. Then, her lips flicker the slightest bit. "At least you'll have good clothes for once in your life."

"Gee, thanks," Tori replies amusedly, walks past Jade and pulls her jacket from the back of the chair. Slipping in, Tori smiles. "Thanks for the cereal."

It feels a little weird to thank her just for that, but she figures thanking her for the sex is… not really something she should say out loud. Jade nods again and Tori turns around then, walks towards the door. She bites her lip, because now she has to leave and what on earth is she supposed to do? A hug? A handshake? 'ThanksfortheyouknowwhatImean'? But when she opens the door and turns to see Jade stand behind her with crossed arms and averted gaze, Tori knows what to do.

"Jade?" When her eyes snap towards her, Tori shrugs. "Friends?"

For a moment, she stares. There's not a single thing Tori can see, no hint of what Jade is thinking, so Tori chooses to wait. Then – finally, thank God – she rolls her eyes but a smile tugs at her lips, only getting bigger when her gaze meets Tori's and the brunette is reminded of the Jade in the picture for the shortest of moments. She glances at the floor, nods, then looks back up with that soft smile still on her lips. "Sure," she says lightly, "Why not."

With a grin creeping up on her face, Tori retreats further into the hallway. "I'll see you around, okay?"

"See ya, Vega."

The smirk on Jade's face, the one Tori selfishly thinks of as her smirk, is the last thing she sees before disappearing around the corner.