Archive of Our Own

Jade finds that it’s actually pretty easy to get into Tori Vega’s house. 

Obviously she doesn’t go through the door. She can see that Tori’s window is open from her place behind the house, and she only takes a couple of seconds to size up the building in front of her. Jade tilts her head to the side, nodding to herself after a couple of seconds. She rubs her hands together for a few moments, and then she takes a couple of steps back. 

She races towards the house, her feet hitting the side of the house a couple of times, and then she’s successfully hoisting herself up into Tori’s windowsill, grinning at the gasp she gets from the woman, who is very aware of her sudden appearance. 

“Jade!” Tori gasps, staring at her, her eyes huge. Jade shifts a little, pulling herself up so that she’s properly sitting in the window. “What the hell?” Tori demands, making a few furious motions with her hands, and Jade only offers one of her best grins, resting her head on the palm of her hand. If Tori didn’t want her coming in through the window, she shouldn’t have left it open. Really, this is entirely Tori’s fault. “You...”

“Me,” Jade confirms, carefully scanning Tori’s room from her very comfortable position in her window. Tori’s walls are covered in shelves, in ivy and in plants, full of pictures and framed artworks. She also has glow in the dark stars that trail up her walls and eventually find her ceiling. Jade is arguably the least surprised by that, but the plants? Those are a little shocking. Jade definitely didn’t think that Tori Vega of all people would be able to keep anything alive, least of all houseplants. Jade has, admittedly, killed her own fair share of houseplants. Those fucking things are pretty set on killing themselves. “Your room is...interesting.”

“Why are you in my window?” Tori demands, and Jade rolls her eyes, because of course Tori is going to ignore the more important conversation that they could be having. But whatever, Jade isn’t super surprised by that.

“Why wouldn’t I be in your window?” Jade shoots back, easily hopping onto Tori’s floor. She stretches her arms above her head, grinning as she saunters further into Tori’s room. She plops down onto the woman’s bed, carefully taking off her boots. She sets them by the window, figuring that that’s also probably the route she’s going to go out of when she decides to leave. “Your snake plant is dying.”

Tori stares at her, her mouth entirely agape. Jade only raises her hands up in her defense, eventually pointing over to said snake plant, just in case Tori doesn’t know which one that is. “I know what you’re talking about!” Tori snaps, and Jade has to force herself to not grin. She shrugs, slowly putting her hands down. “Why are you even here? I didn’t invite you here!”

Jade rolls her eyes, because Tori is dumber than she thought if she thinks that she has to invite Jade into her house. Jade shows up whenever she feels like, whether or not anyone else wants her there. “You didn’t have to. And I was bored,” Jade shrugs again. It really is that simple. She was bored and she didn’t really feel like doing anything by herself. “So here I am.”

Beck was busy, Cat’s out of town for a week, Jade would rather kill herself than talk to Robbie, and she didn’t bother to ask Andre because she knows that he would have said no. That man has been avoiding all of them like the plague recently, probably because he’s been obsessing over writing a song. Jade honestly is kind of realising that she doesn’t think she’s seen him leave his house in a week, but whatever, she’s sure that he’ll be fine. Anyways, that ended up leaving Tori Vega. And while Jade isn’t particularly interested in hanging out with Tori more than she really has to, she was bored.

And what better way to cure her boredom than to casually show up in Tori’s room? Really, it’s beneficial for her health, and Jade kind of figured that it would make her feel better. Which it did, and it currently is, given how Tori is staring at her, still very clearly aghast, as if she couldn’t possibly have expected this. Jade is almost certain that Beck’s given Tori a whole spiel about locking her windows, not like that really matters, and yet still, here they are. This is completely and utterly Tori’s fault, and now she gets to deal with the consequences. The consequences being Jade, of course.

“You know I have a front door, right?”

“Correct,” Jade agrees with a nod. “I do not care.”

“I can see that,” Tori heaves a sigh, running her hands through her hair. “You almost gave me a heart attack, Jade. You can’t just—” Tori groans, scrunching up her face in a way that makes Jade grin without really meaning to. “You can’t just break into my house! That’s not cool!”

Jade shrugs, beaming as sweetly as she can at the woman. “I thought it was pretty cool.”

“Because you’re awful and evil,” Tori mutters, scowling at her. “And now you’re just going to sit here?”

“I was thinking we could get coffee,” Jade disagrees. “But if you want me to just sit here, then sure, I can just sit here. But I think I’d prefer coffee, and I also think that you’d prefer coffee, so let’s get coffee.”

Tori stares at her for a few seconds, and Jade is almost wondering if she’s going to say no, but then she sighs. Jade grins, happily hopping off of the bed. “You’re paying!” Tori says, and Jade just waves her off, pulling her boots back on. “You are not going back through the window.”

“No, I think that I am,” Jade laughs, already half out of the window. “I’m parked in your driveway. See you soon, Vega!”

And then Jade is dropping to the ground, landing flawlessly. She brushes off her knees and hands, turning back to grin at Tori, who is very much so staring at her. Jade winks, and laughs a little more when Tori scowls at her, disappearing from her sights. Jade happily stalks to her car, leaning against the driver side door as she waits for Tori to join her.

Maybe she’ll do this more often.

Jade finds herself at the bottom of Tori’s window pretty often after the first time she breaks into her house. And it’s pretty obvious that Tori has not learnt anything, given how the window is still open. Jade saunters around Tori’s lawn for a few seconds, picking up a small rock. She tosses it up and down in her hands for a few seconds, tilts her head, and sends it soaring right into Tori’s room. She can hear it clatter against the floor, and grins when the music coming from Tori’s room very promptly stops.

And then, less than a second later, there’s Tori Vega herself, scowling down at her.

“I still have a door!” Tori helpfully reminds her.

“And I still don’t care!” Jade helpfully reminds her. “I’m coming in, so you might want to move.”

Jade laughs at the loud groan, taking a couple of steps back before she launches herself at Tori’s house. She’s in the windowsill in a matter of seconds, casually digging her heels into the side of Tori’s house as she hangs there for a couple of seconds. Tori stands directly in front of her, her hands placed on her hips. Jade only maintains that position for a few more moments, and then she’s dragging herself up into a sitting position.

“So?” Tori demands. “Were you bored again?”

Jade actually didn’t want to be in her goddamn house for a second longer, lest she blow up the entire planet. If she had to listen to her parents fight over the phone for another minute, she was liable to do something incredibly awful, such as blowing up the entire planet. And while Beck is her best friend, he knows the shit that goes on with her, and Jade didn’t want to talk about it. She still doesn’t. Cat would just annoy her right now, she would once again rather kill herself than spend time with Robbie, and Andre is fine, but he’s not...Jade doesn’t know, exactly. She doesn’t know why she didn’t immediately pick Andre.

She kind of just found herself in Tori’s backyard without even really meaning to go there. It just sort of happened. And now she’s in her room, which also just sort of happened.

“Something like that,” Jade agrees with a shrug. “You wanna get sushi?”

Tori gives her a look, and Jade gives her one back. She very suddenly does not like how Tori is looking at her. “Sure,” Tori eventually says. “You’re paying?”

“I guess,” Jade rolls her eyes. “Meet me down at my car.”

“It’s cold,” Tori muses, and Jade gives her a look, arching her eyebrows. It isn’t that cold. It’s arguably pretty warm, all things considered. Jade is a little surprised when Tori tosses her a windbreaker, holding it in her hands for a couple of seconds. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m pretty sure you know how to put on clothes.”

“I don’t need this,” Jade counters. “It’s not that cold. You’re really gonna give me this after I broke into your house?”

Tori shrugs, offering her a soft smile. “I’m, like, way nicer than you, so yeah. See you in a second!” Tori beams, and Jade is even more surprised when Tori stalks out of her room. 

Jade laughs, shaking her head as she pulls the windbreaker on. She hops out of Tori’s window with ease, adjusting the windbreaker as soon as she’s back on the ground. Jade stalks towards her car, not super shocked to see that Tori is already there.

Suddenly, all of Jade’s problems seem to be practically nothing. She finds herself grinning and laughing the entire drive there, and then during the entire time that they eat. 

Somehow, it’s enough to make her forget the shit that’s going on in her life, and Jade kind of likes that feeling a lot more than she thought she ever could.

Tori’s window is closed.

And, with a very quick glance, it’s also fucking locked, for some godforsaken reason.

Jade paces underneath of the window for a few seconds once she’s back on the ground, glaring up at it. She briefly considers throwing several rocks at it and shattering it, but Jade doesn’t want to accidentally get glass in her hands when she gets up there. 

She is also absolutely not going back to her house. Jade heaves a sigh, scuffing at the ground for a second before she stalks towards Tori’s stupid porch. She knocks on Tori’s stupid front door, crossing her arms as she waits. 

Jade isn’t sure if she’s more surprised or if Tori is more surprised when that door opens. “Why aren’t you in your room?” Jade demands, pushing past her. “And why is your window fucking locked? What the hell, Vega?”

“First of all,” Tori starts, closing the door a second later. “This is my house. Like, a full house? I don’t just live in my room,” she says, and Jade scoffs, rolling her eyes. “Also, it was open when I came down here,” Tori tells her. “My mom probably went up there and closed it. She was grabbing a bag I borrowed from her.”

Jade stares at her for a couple of seconds, deflating after she sees the look of sincerity in Tori’s eyes. “Whatever,” Jade mutters, almost feeling like an asshole. Not quite, though, and definitely not enough to make her feel guilty for it. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?” Tori asks, and Jade is a little surprised when Tori just...puts on her shoes. Just like that. It makes Jade’s chest tighten a little. 

“Dunno yet,” Jade says. “I guess we’ll see.”

Even that doesn’t deter Tori, and Jade is more confused than anything when Tori just laughs, grabbing a coat off of the coat rack by her door. “Cool,” Tori beams at her, walking towards the door. When she gets there, Jade watches as Tori turns her head over her shoulder, raising an eyebrow. “Are you coming?”

“Yeah,” Jade breathes out, shaking her head after a second. “Let’s go, Vega.” 

They end up driving around, listening to music. They don’t talk really, or even go anywhere specific. But Jade thinks that it might be one of the best nights of her life. 

Though she can’t really stop thinking about how willing Tori was to just go somewhere with her. It makes her feel warm in a way that Jade doesn’t think she’s ever felt before. 

It also makes her feel fucking weird, but whatever, she’s doing her best to ignore all of that.

Jade finds herself escaping to Tori’s house more and more often. She mostly goes so she doesn’t have to deal with the problems at her house, but at some point, she finds that she just...likes going over there. Jade enjoys their back and forth, she likes how she can just break into Tori’s house. She also has always been a pretty big fan of climbing shit, and this also just lets her do that, so it’s a win in her eyes either way.

Jade hoists herself into Tori’s room with a very practiced ease. She sits on the windowsill for a second, raising her eyebrows when Tori doesn’t even bother to turn around and look at her, only vaguely waving. Jade can’t help but laugh a little, kicking off her boots as she goes to sit on Tori’s bed, watching as the woman continues to do whatever it is she was doing before Jade showed up. Which seems like redecorating, though Jade honestly isn’t sure, because Tori’s room still looks the exact same. It’s still disgustingly Tori.

“Bored?” Tori asks, finally turning to look at her. Jade gives her a half-hearted shrug, flopping down fully on her bed, staring up at the glow in the dark stars on her ceiling. It’s admittedly only noon, but it still seems like they’re fading. “I need to get new ones.”

So she was right. Jade hums for a second, studying the stars. “You probably needed to get new ones months ago. Do they even glow?”

“Very faintly,” Tori says with a sigh, and Jade snorts, rolling her eyes. Jade spares a glance over to Tori’s phone, watching as the woman unpauses the music she was listening to. It’s shockingly not awful, and Jade returns to observing the ceiling, her hands tucked behind her head. “Any plans for today?”

“You seem busy,” Jade muses, though she didn’t really actually have anything planned. She mostly just wanted to climb into Tori’s window, for whatever godforsaken reason. She was bored and didn’t want to be at her house, unsurprisingly enough. She also has fucking writer’s block, and she’s had to put a hold on her scriptwriting, because everything she’s been trying to write has turned out like shit and it’s been pissing her off. Which obviously was a sign for her to come and harass Tori, because that always makes her feel better. “I might take a nap in your bed.”

Tori laughs, and it makes Jade smile a little. “Yeah, okay. I will be using a staple-gun pretty soon, so just be warned of that,” Tori tells her. “Also, would it really matter if I was busy?”

“No it would not,” Jade happily confirms. She can feel the sunbeams coming in through Tori’s window, hitting her just right. She feels scarily warm, worryingly comfortable. Jade hasn’t felt like this since those nights that she’d spend in the bed of Beck’s truck, mostly just staring up at the sky. “Has your snake plant died yet?” Jade asks, though she’s pretty sure she already knows the answer, given how she did not see it when she climbed into Tori’s room.

When Tori sighs again, Jade gets all the confirmation she needs. “Yeah, he died,” Tori heaves another sigh, and Jade can’t help but laugh, shaking her head a little. “I don’t know how! I literally did everything right!” Tori continues, and Jade doesn’t even need to look at the woman to know that she’s waving her hands around like a madman. “My last snake plant didn’t die! None of my other plants have died! Okay, well, not in a while. I have no clue why he just decided to die.”

“Houseplant,” Jade says, waving a hand. “Your first mistake was assuming that you could actually do anything to keep it alive. They just like to die. What other plants have you managed to kill, Vega?”

“A succulent,” Tori mutters, and Jade laughs, sitting up. She grins at the absolutely miserable look on Tori’s face, waving her hand, prompting her to continue. “I overwatered it, okay?” Tori says with a sigh. “And I also killed a fern. But I didn’t know that ferns were difficult to keep alive, so that doesn’t count. Otherwise!” Tori claps her hands together, beaming. “I have done a stellar job at keeping my plants alive.”

Jade shakes her head, grinning a little. “I don’t think anyone who kills a succulent is allowed to act like they’re good at keeping plants alive.”

“I was twelve!” Tori protests, glaring at her. “And whatever, Jade. Who made you the expert of plants?”

“Probably the fifty plants I’ve had over the span of a year and a half,” Jade offers, beaming at the look of total shock on Tori’s face. “What, Vega? Can I not have hobbies? Who made you the dictator of hobbies?”

“Well, excuse me for not thinking that you’d be into keeping things alive,” Tori shoots back, and Jade rolls her eyes again, sticking out her tongue. “Real mature. What kind of plants do you have?” 

Jade grins, laying back down. “All of the ones you have. I have a cactus, also. Philodendrons, staghorn ferns. I also found some random plant on the side of the street once and brought it in,” Jade continues. “So there’s that one, also. What’s the plant on your desk?”

Tori snorts, and Jade can’t help but wonder what about that question was apparently so amusing. “You don’t know?”

“Vega. Why would I have asked if I knew?”

“I was just wondering! It’s kind of funny,” Tori laughs, and Jade is pretty inclined to disagree, but whatever. “It’s a jade plant.”

Jade sits up again, frowning. “You have a plant named after me?”

“It was probably named before you were born,” Tori disagrees. “But yeah, I have a plant vaguely named after you.”

“When did you get it?” Jade asks, getting off of Tori’s bed. She stalks over towards her desk, staring at the plant. It’s in a black holder, and it seems to be in pretty good condition, all things considered. 

“A few months after I met you?” Tori offers. “I have stuff for all my friends in my room,” she continues. “Like there’s that cat stuffed animal for Cat,” she says, pointing at said stuffed animal. Jade sees it tucked away on the floor of Tori’s room, beside a couple other throw pillows. “There’s that keyboard for Andre,” Tori continues, and Jade sees that, too. Also tucked neatly into Tori’s closet. “Honestly, I didn’t know what to get for Robbie, so...” Tori shrugs, pointing vaguely at some piece of art on the wall. “He said he liked abstract art once, so there’s that.”

Jade snorts, shaking her head a little. “And Beck?”

“The little tiny RV is for Beck,” Tori says back, grinning. Jade spots it sitting on a shelf by Tori’s door. It’s not hidden by anything, but there’s a few other rocks and little cars that take up the space with it. “So, yeah. I have stuff for all of you.”

“And you got that a few months after meeting me?”

Tori sighs, ducking her head for a second as she does so. “Yeah. I mean, I kind of figured if I killed it, then I guess that would mean that we’re not friends.” 

“You’re fucking weird,” Jade laughs, brushing her fingers over the leaves. “Was this around the same time you killed that succulent?”

“Did I or did I not tell you that I killed that succulent when I was twelve?” Tori demands, and Jade beams, holding up her hands. “I haven’t killed a plant since the fern,” Tori says, though Jade definitely doesn’t believe her. “I was pretty confident I could keep it alive.”

Jade snorts again, looking the plant over. “I guess you’re doing a good job at that.”

“Since you’re in my room?” Tori asks, beaming at her so brightly that it momentarily makes Jade’s heart stutter. “I think I’m doing just fine.”

At some point, Jade stops coming to Tori’s house to escape her own house. At some point, it becomes more or less Jade showing up because she just wants to be there. Jade isn’t really sure when that change happened, but she’s kind of realising that it happens all the time now.

She’ll show up at Tori’s house at nine in the morning on a Saturday for no reason other than she wants to. Which isn’t that big of a deal — Jade does whatever she wants literally all the time. It’s just weird that she wants to hang out with Tori Vega, of all people.

At some point, though, Jade can’t even find it in herself to care. She just knows that Tori is shockingly good company, Jade likes being in her room, and they also get coffee most of the time.

So really, it could be a hell of a lot worse.

Jade hoists herself up into Tori’s room, finding that the woman is sat at her desk. 

“Hey, Vega.”

“Hi, Jade,” Tori says back, turning to look at her. “What’s up?”

Jade kind of wonders when this became their normal. She kind of wonders why it doesn’t bother her that Tori is just...totally fine with her breaking in. Though at this point, Jade isn’t entirely certain that she can even call it breaking in. Tori expects her basically every single day. It doesn’t bother Jade that she’s no longer scaring Tori absolutely shitless, which is weird. 

But whatever. Jade didn’t come here to deal with issues, she came here to actively escape them. Tori has always offered that. Which is also weird, but whatever, not dealing with issues.

“Didn’t want to be at my house,” Jade says, not fully meaning to say it. It probably isn’t exactly a secret that her home life sucks ass, but Jade isn’t particularly keen on sharing that detail of her life so openly. “So I’m here.”

“So you are,” Tori agrees. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“No,” Jade rolls her eyes, tossing off her boots, sitting on the edge of Tori’s bed. “What are you working on?” She asks, decidedly changing the topic before Tori can pull some stupid bullshit like making her talk about it. Or offering any kind of pity. Jade’s not interested in that at all.

“A project for one of my classes,” Tori tells her. “For my chem class,” she clarifies after a second. “And it sucks.”

Jade laughs, shaking her head a little. She already feels better, which is kind of ridiculous, given just how pissed she was only about thirty seconds ago. She wonders what it is about Tori Vega that does that to her. That pacifies her so much. It’s unbelievable how easy it is for Tori to do that. 

Right. Not thinking about her issues.

“I liked chem when I had it,” Jade muses, laying down on Tori’s bed. The glow in the dark stars have been replaced, and are significantly brighter than usual. Probably because they’ve been replaced and also probably because it’s close to eleven at night. Jade honestly didn’t expect for Tori to be awake. “Sucks to be you, Vega.”

“It does,” Tori mutters, and Jade snorts, grinning a little. “It really, really does.”

Jade closes her eyes, smiling a little. “Yeah, I’m sure it does. Tell me about your shitty project.”

Tori scoffs at her, but Jade would say that she’s pretty successful in convincing her, given how Tori starts to talk not even two seconds later. Jade lays on Tori’s bed for at least an hour, and definitely keeps the woman awake the entire time, but she’s pretty sure Tori doesn’t mind.

When Jade eventually slinks back through Tori’s window at five in the morning, she kind of wonders what it would be like to spend the night.

Jade pops up into Tori’s window very easily, immediately resting against the side of it. Tori is singing some stupid song, though Jade supposes that it isn’t that stupid, since she knows all the lyrics to it. She’s more than content to just hang out there without really doing anything, but then Tori points to her, a wild grin on her face. 

“Absolutely not,” Jade immediately says. “I’m not singing with you.”

Tori frowns, and Jade opens her damn mouth and sings. 

She has to admit that it’s not the worst thing that’s ever happened to her. And she even ends up laughing as she belts out the dumb lyrics, swaying as much as she can from her position in Tori’s window. She laughs even harder at how Tori goes all out, throwing her hair around, shooting her arms up into the air. It’s all ridiculous and so, so Tori that it’s impossible for Jade to feel anything other than happiness. 

Jade would be lying to herself if she said that she didn’t have a good time. 

She would also be lying if she said that that stupid song wasn’t stuck in her head for the next week.

And she would also be lying if she said that she minded. She kind of likes it, all things considered. Jade figures that it’s just because the song isn’t actually that bad.

In the back of her mind, though, there’s a soft voice that says that it reminds her of Tori. 

Jade does her best to ignore that entirely.

“What do you want to bet that I can get into her house from her balcony?” Jade asks, her hands on her hips. She peers up at Tori’s balcony that she apparently has, a little offended and betrayed that literally none of their mutual friends told her about that. Beck heaves a sigh next to her, giving her a look that Jade returns fully. 

“I don’t want to bet, because I am well aware that you can do it,” Beck shoots back, arching an eyebrow at her. Jade grins, tilting her head to the side as she scans the wall beside the balcony. There’s ivy going up it, and Jade is pretty convinced that she could scale that. She could definitely get a good foothold, at least. The balcony isn’t super high off of the ground, and Jade is almost a hundred percent certain that she could honestly just jump up and grab onto it. She’d have to swing her legs around and situate herself, but she could do it. She could totally do it. “Do you have to break into her house?” Beck asks, and Jade scoffs, because that’s a stupid fucking question. “You know that she’d just let you in.”

Jade shrugs, taking a few steps forwards. She stands on her toes, reaching her arms above her head. Her fingertips almost graze the bottom of the balcony, but not quite. If she jumped, she could totally latch onto it. Jade eyes the structure of it for a few seconds, clicking her tongue. It looks old.  

“I know,” she says after a few seconds, turning back around to flash Beck the brightest grin imaginable. “But I think that this is significantly funnier, and also I want to remind her that I’m capable of breaking and entering,” Jade says, beaming even harder. It’s been way too long since she’s fucked around with Tori Vega, and she thinks that she really needs to go back to doing that. “So, yeah. I’m totally gonna break in.”

Tori has started to expect her through the window. Jade has gotten so comfortable doing that that Tori has gotten comfortable with her doing it. And as nice as that, for some reason, makes her feel, Jade is still Jade. She loves causing problems on purpose, and she especially loves fucking with Tori, and it’s just been too long since she’s done that. 

Will she go through the balcony every time? Definitely not.

But right now? Absolutely.

Jade backs up a bit, pauses for a moment, and then races towards the balcony. She grabs onto the bars, managing to get her hand onto the top of the barrier. She then hooks her leg around the lower half, drags herself all the way up, and tumbles unceremoniously onto the balcony. Jade immediately springs back up, grinning down at Beck, who only rolls his eyes at her.

“Well, I’m going to be normal!” Beck shouts up at her. “And will be going through the door. Like a normal person. Bye!”

“Like a boring person!” Jade calls back, but he’s already waving her off and disappearing. Jade rolls her eyes, flipping him off behind his back. She takes a couple of seconds to brush off her pants, wiping the grime off of her hands. Jade goes to open the balcony door, pausing for a second when she realises that it’s locked. Ah. 

Well, okay. That sucks.

Jade heaves a sigh, hoisting herself up to sit on the ledge of the balcony. Goddammit. Of course the balcony is locked. Why wouldn’t it be locked? Jade has gotten so used to Tori leaving her bedroom window unlocked and open that she just completely forgot that other places in Tori’s house would probably not be unlocked and wide open for her to come in. Which Jade definitely thinks is stupid. She’s going to have to tell Tori that she just needs to keep her entire house unlocked all the time so Jade can come in whenever she so chooses.

She ignores the grin on Tori’s face when she eventually comes to save Jade. Jade honestly contemplates just jumping off of the balcony and going into Tori’s bedroom, but she eventually is eased into the house. 

All things considered, it’s not that humiliating. And Tori’s smile, for whatever reason, is burnt into her mind. 

Really, Jade thinks as she sits on Tori’s couch and rolls her eyes at the way that Tori and Beck mock her, it could all be so much worse.

Jade is pissed.

She hoists herself up into Tori’s room, fucking angrier than she’s ever been in her entire life. Normally she can just avoid her mom, but no. Not today, because of course not. It wasn’t even like Jade was doing anything, her mom is just a fucking bitch who can’t fathom the idea of Jade being happy. Jade stormed out and found herself in Tori Vega’s driveway, and now she’s in Tori’s room, and—

Oh. 

Jade hesitates, snapping her jaw shut. Tori is sleeping. Oh. 

Right. It’s five in the morning. Jade stands there for a few seconds, swallowing as she realises that she totally should not be here right now. She turns to hopefully clamber back out of Tori’s room unnoticed, wincing at the way she hears Tori shift.

“Jade?”

“Sorry,” Jade is immediately saying, already halfway out the damn window. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t...I wasn’t thinking, I didn’t realise the time, I—”

“I’m assuming you’re not just bored,” Tori muses, sounding way too awake. Jade winces again at that, turning back around to face the woman. She feels unbelievably guilty, every single part of her body aflame. She swears to god that she feels like she might die of fucking shame. “Are you...gonna get out of the window?”

Jade blinks at her. “I was going to leave.”

“You’re already in here,” Tori reminds her, which only makes Jade wince for a third time. “And I’m also awake, so why would you leave?” Tori questions, giving her a look. “Come on. What’s up?”

“I just...” Jade trails off, breathing out, trying to feel literally anything other than guilt and shame. God. “I just got into a fight with my mom, that’s all. I didn’t want to be in the house, so, you know,” she mutters, waving her hands for a few seconds as she tries, and fails, to find the words. “You know.”

“You’re here,” Tori says, easily filling in the blanks. Jade watches as Tori sits up fully, grabbing the glasses on her nightstand. It takes Jade a second to fully realise that those glasses are Tori’s, a little surprised at that. She didn’t even know that Tori wore glasses. Or contacts, for that matter. “You wanna drive around for a bit?”

“We have school in two hours,” Jade says, frowning. “Do you not...” she waves a hand, gesturing to Tori’s bed. “Do you not want to, I don’t know, go back to sleep?”

Tori rolls her eyes, giving Jade a look. “I’m not kicking you out of my house, Jade,” Tori tells her. “Come on. Let’s get coffee or something.” 

“You’re—”

“Jade,” Tori laughs, arching an eyebrow. “Get out of my house and start the car so I can get dressed and get coffee with you.”

Jade doesn’t have to be told twice.

She scrambles out the window and into her car in a matter of seconds, finding that her heart is pounding in her chest a little too loudly for her liking. Jade swallows, letting out a shaky breath. What the fuck. Jade doesn’t think that she’ll ever understand Tori Vega. She doesn’t think that it’s possible. 

But she’s wildly thankful nonetheless. 

Jade watches as Tori trudges out of her house, beaming at Jade so brightly that it makes Jade’s chest ache. She really doesn’t get her. Jade doesn’t understand her at all. 

Maybe that’s unimportant, though, Jade thinks as she watches Tori get into the car, immediately pulling out her phone to put on some stupid playlist that Jade is no doubt going to hate. Maybe understanding her isn’t really that big of a deal. Tori Vega is sweet and that’s all there really is to it. 

Tori is unbelievable, and Jade finds that she really kind of likes that about her. 

And maybe, that she really kind of likes her.

Jade clambers in through Tori’s window, not bothering to say anything as she kicks off her boots and collapses onto Tori’s bed. Tori also doesn’t say anything, just continuing to type on her laptop at her desk. Jade is pretty content to listen to whatever music Tori is playing, laying face-down onTori’s bed. 

She lets out a quiet sigh, feeling all the tension leave her body after a few moments of her being up there. Jade eventually flips over onto her back, staring up at the stars on Tori’s ceiling.

She closes her eyes as she listens to Tori’s typing, the soft music playing from her laptop. It’s shockingly peaceful in a way that Jade is honestly pretty sure she’s never experienced before. Sure, she’s felt warm like this during those nights she’d hang out with Beck in his truck, but not like this.  

This is different somehow. Jade isn’t exactly sure how it’s different, but she knows that it is. And she doesn’t exactly hate it, either. It’s nice, even. It’s peaceful and warm and if Jade was a fucking loser, she’d say that it almost feels soft. There’s another word that’s echoing around in her mind, though Jade can’t quite make out what it is.

But it’s nice. Jade likes it more than she’d care to admit. It’s nice and peaceful and warm, and Jade enjoys it. Probably a little too much, but whatever. She likes it, and that’s all that matters. Even if it’s a little questionable on why she likes it. She’s sure that they’re all reasons that aren’t Tori Vega-related, obviously. 

She glances out Tori’s window, seeing the sunbeams that fall onto the floor, onto her arms. Jade looks over to the jade plant on Tori’s desk, seeing that it still looks like it’s thriving well enough.

“How difficult is it?” Jade asks, watching as Tori turns around to face her, arching an eyebrow. “To keep that plant alive?”

Tori looks back to the jade plant, giving Jade a blindingly bright smile that has Jade smiling back without even meaning to. “I think it’s pretty easy,” Tori says, turning back around. Jade watches as she runs her fingers over the leaves, adjusting the plant. “It mostly just needs a lot of sunlight, but other than that? It’s a pretty easy plant to take care of,” Tori muses. “I mean, it’s a succulent, so you just have to know how they work.”

“Yeah, you can’t overwater this one and kill it,” Jade grins, laughing a little at the very indigent scoff she gets from Tori at that. “Like you did five months ago.”

“I was twelve!” Tori immediately protests, and Jade can only laugh a little harder, rolling her eyes at how high-pitched Tori’s voice suddenly becomes. “And whatever. I know how they work now. I’ve figured it out pretty well.”

Jade gives her a look, turning her head to the side a bit to rest it against her shoulder. “Yeah?” She asks, arching an eyebrow. “Have you?”

Tori beams right back at her, touching the jade plant again. “Yeah, I think I’ve got it down pretty good.”

“I’m coming in!” Jade shouts, taking about three seconds to pause before she starts to hoist herself up and into Tori’s window. The last time she did this, Tori was changing. Jade very nearly fell backwards out of the damn window, but Tori grabbed her hand and pulled her out, and Jade furiously had her eyes closed, and yeah. Not good. Not good literally at all.

Which sucks, because now Jade is deathly terrified of accidentally clambering right on in while Tori is fucking naked, or something. 

“I’ll just close the window when I change,” Tori says, laughing at her. Jade rolls her eyes, sticking out her tongue basically immediately, because fuck her. Jade was too damn embarrassed to talk to the woman and could barely even breathe, let alone function like a normal human being. “I’m sorry!” Tori laughs, grinning at her in a way that implies she is very much so not sorry at all, actually. “I’m just used to having it open!”

Jade groans, already feeling her face heat up at the memory. It’s not like she saw much, Tori was basically done, but good fucking god. Even the thought is too much for her to handle. Jade slowly breathes out, reminding herself that she needs to chill. “Definitely close it,” Jade eventually manages to agree, nodding. “I can’t do that again.”

“Oh, you can’t do that again?” Tori teases, grinning wildly at her. Jade scowls in return, rolling her eyes all over again. “I’d say it was probably way worse for me.”

“I’m gonna disagree with that,” Jade mutters, shaking her head. It probably was worse for Tori. But it was worse for Jade in the sense that the mere notion of Tori was enough to make her flustered for the next three days. “Are you doing anything right now?”

“I think that I very obviously am not.”

“Vega,” Jade warns, internally sighing at the way that her chest tightens when Tori beams at her. It’s stupid how Tori can do this shit to her. “Since you’re not doing anything, we’re getting Chinese. Now. Come on.”

“Race you there?”

“Always!” Jade shouts as she’s already halfway out the window and dropping back to the ground. She can hear Tori’s laughter from above her, and it makes her grin. She scrambles to get to her car, laughing at the way Tori slams open her front door as soon as Jade makes it to the car. Jade laughs a little harder when she sees that Tori is literally still in the process of putting on her shoes.

Somewhere, distantly in the back of her mind, Jade thinks that Tori is pretty. 

She ignores that the best she can, opting to tease Tori the entire drive to their favourite Chinese place, grinning the whole time as Tori only scowls at her and gives her very scathing looks. 

All in all, it’s a really good day. 

(And so what if Jade gets a little flustered by the way Tori’s hand lingers on her own when they reach for the menu at the same time?)

“Do you ever think about how different things would be if I didn’t get into Hollywood Arts?” Tori asks, and Jade glances at her from her position on Tori’s bed. “I’ve been thinking about it a little. You probably wouldn’t constantly be getting into my room via my window.”

Jade snorts, propping herself up a little. “No, and if I was, it’d just be weird. That would be some weird stalker bullshit.”

“And this isn’t some weird stalker bullshit?” Tori questions, and Jade only grants that question with a very dramatic roll of her eyes.

“You know damn well that it’s not,” Jade helpfully informs her. “And no. I don’t think about it,” Jade says, pausing for a second immediately after. “I guess...not anymore. I used to. I think that was probably my top fantasy,” she continues, grinning at how Tori shakes her head a little. “But no, not really. I guess your plant really worked some magic, Vega.”

Tori laughs, and Jade watches as she touches the jade plant’s leaves, adjusting it a little. “I guess so. Well, I for one, am glad that it did,” Tori tells her, her eyes shining a little in a way that makes Jade’s heart stutter again. Tori has really pretty eyes, and Jade is just now noticing this. They look really good when the sun hits them. Soft, warm. It makes Jade want to look at her more. “I like hanging out with you.”

“I wouldn’t consider this hanging out,” Jade quickly says, clearing her throat a little. “It’s definitely not hanging out.”

“Oh no?” Tori asks, giving her a look. “What is it, then?”

“Breaking and entering,” Jade beams at her. “Obviously.”

Tori rolls her eyes, and it makes Jade smile. “Obviously,” Tori repeats, her voice light. “Well. I guess I’m thankful for the breaking and entering, then.”

Jade laughs a little, some stupid breathless feeling in her chest. “Yeah. whatever, Vega. I’m sure you are.”

And if the brilliant smile Tori gives her a second later makes Jade’s mouth go dry, then it’s just because she hasn’t had anything to drink today. Not because she thinks that Tori’s smile is unfairly pretty.

Jade sits in Tori’s window, her back against the side of it. She has her legs propped up and a notebook in her hands, and she’s pretty content with staying there for the rest of the night. Jade quietly writes out some scene ideas that she’s had in her mind for a few weeks, detailing the script underneath of them. Tori is typing something on her laptop at her desk, and it isn’t the first time that they’ve done this.

They haven’t done it a lot and Jade is usually on Tori’s bed, but it’s definitely normal enough for them. Jade finds herself sneaking glances at the woman every now and then, dutifully ignoring the way that her heart pounds in her chest whenever Tori catches her. 

Of course Tori only grins at her, and Jade does her best to also ignore how that makes her heart race a little faster. Jade finds herself sketching the interior of Tori’s room, casually drawing out the plants and the stars, doodling a small version of the shelf that Beck’s tiny RV is on. 

At some point, Jade finds herself sketching Tori. It makes sense, given how it’s Tori’s room and Tori is in her room. Jade draws her at her desk, studying the woman for a few seconds at a time. She’s just wearing a tank-top and some sweatpants, and Jade spends a few seconds detailing the folds on her clothes. She pauses for a second, scanning the jade plant beside her.

In a moment of impulse, Jade starts to sketch herself in the scene. She draws herself sitting on Tori’s desk, presumably talking to her. She takes up the space of where the plant is meant to go. Jade stops after a couple of minutes, staring at the drawing she’s just created. 

She didn’t realise just how happy she made herself look.

Jade blinks a little, quickly turning to the next page in her notebook. She finds that it’s suddenly become a lot harder to actually focus on what she was trying to write. Jade shakes her head, also finding that she’s unable to wipe her stupid smile off of her face, some weird feeling of excitement and familiarity bubbling up in her chest over that dumb drawing. 

“Hey,” Tori says, and Jade looks over to her, another stupid smile forming on her face as she really, really looks at her. “Can I read this paragraph out loud to you? I think that it sounds weird but I don’t know.”

“It probably does,” Jade assures her, grinning at the scowl that very quickly forms on Tori’s face. “But sure, go for it.”

Tori reads, and Jade tells her what sounds wrong, because it does sound weird. They talk about it for a while before they fall right back into that comfortable silence, and Jade finds herself turning back to her sketch page. She studies the two of them on her paper, noticing just how warm everything feels there, even though there’s no colour.

Jade can’t help but stare at it for a few moments, kind of wondering what it would feel like to make it come to life. What it would feel like to take the place of something permanent in Tori’s life.

Jade stretches as soon as she throws her legs over Tori’s window, touching down to the floor. “You wanna get coffee?” She asks, grinning as Tori looks over her shoulder, very clearly in the middle of something. “Come on, Vega. Do you really want to do that project, or do you want to hang out with me?”

“You’re such an awful influence,” Tori says with a sigh, looking completely and utterly defeated. “You know I’d pick you over anything, Jade,” Tori tells her, and it’s enough to briefly render Jade speechless. “It’s not like it’s a very hard choice.”

“Cool,” Jade swallows, feeling stupidly nervous all of the sudden. “Then get coffee with me.”

Tori laughs, and it gives her butterflies.

“How’s your script going?” Tori asks, and Jade peers at her from her usual spot on Tori’s bed. 

“It’s alright,” Jade says after a moment. It could definitely go better. She’s managed to get out of her writer’s block, but only barely, and she’s doing her best to not overdo it and burn herself out immediately. “I mean, I’ve written two lines of dialogue and feel like I might explode, so whatever. It could be worse.”

Tori laughs, and Jade finds herself smiling. “It could be worse!” Tori agrees. “Tell me about it?”

Jade does. She doesn’t usually jump on the chance to go into an insane amount of detail about her work, but right now, in this moment? Jade spills absolutely everything. She details the plot, the characters, the dynamics. She goes into depth about the title and how she came up with it. She talks about how she imagines the set will look, how the characters will look, who she’ll probably get to play them. Jade rambles on about every little intricacy, and when she’s done, she finds that Tori is looking at her with a stupid smile on her face, some look in her eyes that Jade can’t fully name.

“What?” Jade laughs, suddenly feeling a little nervous. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Tori only shrugs, her eyes crinkling a little at the sides. “I like when you talk,” she says, as if it was obvious. “I like your voice.”

Jade swallows, blinking a few times. “Yeah?” She asks, internally cursing herself as soon as she does. It was just the only damn word that she could get out.

“Yeah,” Tori confirms, still smiling. “I do.”

“Cool,” Jade clears her throat, staring down at her notebook. “Cool.”

Tori’s laughter fills the air, and it’s almost enough to drown out the noise of Jade’s heart hammering in her chest.

Jade finds herself sitting on Tori’s desk a few weeks later. 

She pushed the plant out of the way, saying that it’d just be easier to talk like this. Tori is working on some stupid essay from some stupid class, and Jade isn’t really doing much other than sitting there, her hands on either side of her. 

“You’re gonna wanna use a comma there.”

“And you’re gonna wanna get out of my house if you keep micromanaging me,” Tori mutters back, and Jade can only laugh, feeling very proud of the reaction on that one. “You’re like the least helpful person I know when it comes to this.”

“You like my help,” Jade shoots back, tilting her head to the side, beaming down sweetly at the woman. Tori only rolls her eyes, but the look that she gives her is enough to make Jade’s heart race. “And whatever, Vega. If you want to get an F on this project, that’s totally cool with me.”

Tori snorts, flicking her knee. “I’m not going to get an F. I might get an F if I take your advice, though.”

“Ohh,” Jade drawls out, narrowing her eyes. “I’ll kick your ass if you aren’t careful, Vega.”

“I’m sure you will,” Tori laughs, grinning up at her. “Oh, hey, you have a string.”

Jade looks down to her pants, sighing at the fact that she definitely does, in fact, have a string. Miserably enough. Jade is about to grab the knife out of her belt, but Tori’s hand is very suddenly on her thigh, and suddenly Jade doesn’t know how to be a real life living human being. Jade watches as Tori grabs a pair of scissors, snipping the string. 

And then her hand is gone, just like that.

Jade can feel it still. She feels the warmth, the buzzing.

“Thanks,” Jade says, barely able to breathe. “I could have gotten it.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t have to,” Tori tells her, shrugging. “I was there first. It was easier for me.”

Jade stares down at her pants, at the spot where Tori had been touching her. “Yeah,” she eventually murmurs, feeling like she might die. “I guess it was.”

Jade doesn’t even bother to fully climb into Tori’s room. She rests her head on the windowsill, watching as Tori turns to give her a look, arching an eyebrow at her.

“Come on,” Jade says, beaming at the woman. “Let’s get sushi.”

“You’re paying,” Tori says back, grinning. It makes Jade’s heart flutter a little. “See you in a sec?”

“As always!” Jade shouts as she drops back to the ground. 

And in the five seconds it takes her to get back to her car, Jade West thinks about kissing Tori Vega.

Jade sits in Tori’s windowsill and silently colours in the sketch she made a few weeks ago. She watches as Tori dances in her room, singing to some god awful song that makes Jade want to tear her ears off. Tori’s singing is enough to pacify her though, which isn’t that surprising. Tori is a really good singer, and Jade isn’t really shocked that she can make some awful song sound good.

Jade spares a few looks towards Tori, unable to stop herself from smiling. She also can’t stomp down the disgustingly intense feeling of fondness that she feels whenever she looks at the woman, unfortunately enough. 

It’s been maybe two weeks or so since Jade has accepted the fact that she probably sort of maybe kind of definitely has a crush on Tori Vega. And it was absolutely a very humbling experience filled with a lot of denial and bargaining, but alas. Here she is, sat in Tori’s windowsill, watching the woman dance and sing and laugh as she does some vague redecorating. 

Jade does her best to ignore the way that she gets butterflies every single time Tori even looks in her direction.

Jade finishes shading her drawing, adding the highlights to her hair, along with Tori’s. She coloured it in solely soft, warm colours. It felt fitting. Those stupid, soft, warm colours are basically all that she can imagine whenever she thinks of Tori Vega. Soft yellows, gentle oranges, warm reds. It’s almost too fucking cliche, but whatever, she can’t help it. And if she could help it, well...

God, Jade doesn’t even know if she would change anything. It’s not like she wants to have a crush on Tori Vega. She just does. But is it really a bad thing? 

Yes.

No.

Okay, well, Jade doesn’t mind it. Not really. Tori isn’t the worst person she could have started to like. Tori is sweet and funny and kind and ridiculously charming in every single sense of the word. She’s undeniably talented and very smart and she’s actually pretty skilled at coming up with good comebacks to the shit Jade says to her. Plus she’s also really pretty, and Jade can’t even begin to count the amount of times she’s thought about any of Tori’s features. 

Her eyes, her hands, her jaw, her smile, the way that she laughs, how her voice sounds, how she sings, the way her body moves like water whenever she dances and performs, as if it’s just so natural to her.

Yeah, she probably wouldn’t change it. Tori isn’t a bad person to like. She’s arguably the complete opposite, and Jade can really, honestly see why so many people end up being attracted to her, whether it be like that or just in the literal sense. Tori is hard to avoid, and she’s even harder to want to avoid.

Jade honestly doesn’t know how she managed to do it for so long. 

“Jade!” Tori’s breathless laugh sounds in her ears a second later, and it’s all Jade can do to stop herself from snapping her notebook closed. “You wanna come help me reorganise my plants?” 

Jade truly doesn’t believe that there is a world in which she can possibly say no to her.

“Sure,” Jade says, closing her notebook. She carefully sets it on the windowsill, praying to god that it doesn’t randomly flip open to that ridiculous sketch. “Are you moving your me plant?”

“Nope!” Tori beams at her, her eyes shining and sparkling, reflecting perfectly in the sunlight. “I think that it belongs there.”

“Right on your desk?” Jade asks, her heart already beating a little too quickly for her taste. But that’s how it always is. She completely loses any and all control of herself when it comes to her being in close proximity to Tori Vega. 

Tori smiles brightly at her, her eyes still sparkling. “Where else would it ever go?”

Jade spends most of their nights thinking about kissing her. 

Jade climbs up into Tori’s window and immediately thinks about kissing her, and she also immediately nearly tumbles right back out of the window. 

Because of course.

It’s ridiculous, but she can’t exactly stop herself. Tori will laugh at all of her jokes and touch her and hold her hand and it’s too much in the best way possible. Jade lays on Tori’s bed and listens as Tori rambles on and on about the project she’s working on, about the play she’s trying to get the lead in, about the stupid shit that Trina has done to her.

Jade shifts to sit in the window, propping her legs up just like she usually does, laughing at the ridiculous stories that Tori tells her. 

It’s domestic. 

That’s it. That’s the word she was looking for, all those months ago. This is all so domestic. It makes her heart race when she realises it, and it’s almost enough to make her fall out of the stupid window.

But it doesn’t make her uncomfortable, and if anything, it just makes her long even harder for Tori. It’s stupid and unbelievable and it makes her heart speed up in ways previously unimaginable, but it’s not uncomfortable. It’s the opposite, actually. 

It’s so comfortable that it aches.

And Jade wants nothing more than to feel that ache deep within her chest.

At some point, Tori starts to sit in the window with her. 

The first time it happens, Jade very nearly throws herself out of the damn window. She considers doing it the entire time, but she manages to get through.

Now, though, Jade really only kind of wants to be even closer to Tori. It almost feels like her body isn’t her own with how desperate she feels. After a few seconds of sitting with maybe half a foot in between them, Jade scootches to the side a little. After a few more seconds, she cautiously leans her head against Tori’s shoulder, wincing as soon as she actually makes contact.

Much to her surprise, though. Tori is suddenly resting her head against Jade’s. 

And then Tori’s arm is around her shoulders, pulling her even closer, and Jade can barely manage to get herself together.

Jade has never particularly enjoyed being touched. She never liked Beck touching her beyond things like holding hands, and even then it was a gamble on if she’d be down for it. With Tori, though? Jade can only think of all the ways Tori could touch her. She can only imagine her hands intertwined with Tori’s, Tori’s hands on her face or in her hair or on her hips or waist or anywhere, god she wouldn’t care so long as Tori’s damn hands were somewhere on her. 

She lets out a quiet sigh, closing her eyes as she focuses on Tori’s warmth against her body, against the arm wrapped around her shoulder. She can hear Tori’s heartbeat, and while it’s definitely not slow and steady, Jade is convinced that it has to be calmer than her own. 

“It’s really nice out,” Tori murmurs, and Jade reminds herself that she still needs to breathe. She’s never struggled this much when it comes to liking someone. She’s never felt so...weird about it. Jade has never been this nervous before, this terrified, this needy. It’s fucking ridiculous. “Jade?”

“Yeah?” Jade murmurs, hardly able to actually make herself talk. “What’s up?”

“I’m really glad that plant didn’t die.”

Jade laughs a little, taken aback by that statement. She pulls back a little, studying Tori’s face for a few seconds, getting lost in her eyes, in everything that makes her up. “You know,” Jade starts, voice low. “I think that I’m also pretty glad you managed to keep it alive.”

“Yeah?” Tori asks, her eyes sparkling. Jade swears that she can see all the stars in the world shining in Tori’s eyes right now. “Are you?”

“Yeah,” Jade confirms with a whisper, her heart racing in her chest all over again. “I am.” 

Tori smiles at her, and it makes Jade want to scream. All of this makes her want to scream. She’s wanted to fucking scream for months now, and that urge has only gotten stronger and more intense in the past couple of weeks. It isn’t fair that Tori can do this to her. None of it is even remotely fair. 

“You’re really pretty,” Tori says, as if that’s just something that she can say. Jade blinks at her, even more taken aback by that statement. “What?” Tori asks, laughing a little. “Don’t look at me like that, Jade.”

“I just didn’t expect that,” she shrugs. “What’s up with the compliment, Vega?”

“I’m looking at you,” Tori easily tells her. “It’s hard not to say it.”

Jade stares at her for a few seconds. “You could say it in another way.”

Tori looks right back at her, and Jade thinks that she almost dies when Tori is very suddenly leaning in, her hands cupping Jade’s face. Tori kisses her softly, and Jade can barely fathom that any of it is happening at all. She tightens her hands around the hem of Tori’s shirt, electricity shooting throughout her entire body at the way Tori’s hands comb through her hair, pulling her even closer.

For a brief second, Jade is pretty worried she’s going to have the both of them falling out of the goddamn window. But she does her best to ignore that thought, focusing on the way that Tori kisses her softly, how Tori’s hands feel against her.

By the time Jade pulls away, she’s panting unbelievably hard. Tori is doing the same, a ridiculous grin plastered on her face. “Was that a good way to say it?”

“I don’t know,” Jade whispers, still convinced she might fall out of this stupid window. “How about you say it again?”

Jade only sees Tori’s blinding grin for half a second before Tori is kissing her again. It’s fierce in the sense that it’s loving, soft, gentle. Tori’s hands trace her cheeks and trail down to her shoulders, up to the back of her head, winding down her arms, cupping Jade’s hands within her own.

Jade has never been kissed like this before.

Jade thinks that she would die a thousand times over just to get the chance to have Tori Vega kiss her like this ever again.

And this time, after everything, Jade doesn’t find herself slinking back off to her car. She finds herself in Tori’s bed with Tori’s hands cupping her face, kissing her into the darkness, kissing her until she can barely take it. 

Jade spends the rest of her night in the moonlight with Tori’s hands on her, and it’s enough to make her believe that some form of devotion can be felt towards her.

“You’re still going to come in through the window, huh?” Tori asks her.

Jade only beams at the woman in return, swinging her legs over the ledge. “Why wouldn’t I?” Jade asks, tilting her head to the side. “I see absolutely zero reason to break tradition. In fact,” she continues, grinning widely. “I think it’s even more reasonable for me to come in here via window.”

“Oh?” Tori laughs, giving her a look. “Because our relationship is totally a secret.”

“It could be,” Jade shoots back, winking at her. She doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to the thrill that goes through her entire body when Tori rolls her eyes, a soft smile on her lips. “You like it when I come in through the window.”

Tori laughs, patting the bed. That’s all it takes for Jade to take off her boots, easily settling in beside Tori, beside her girlfriend. “I do like it, but I’m kind of failing to see your logic on why it makes more sense. Do you really have to sneak in through my window to kiss me?”

“If you’re into that, yeah,” Jade grins at her, shrugging. “So. Are you?”

“Jade!” Tori laughs, nudging her to the side. “You’re ridiculous.”

Jade grins, feeling unbelievably warm. Unbelievably happy. She flops down on the bed, feeling the sunlight on her body as she does so. “Yeah, well, you’re into that. And it’s such a cliche, Tori. People sneak through windows to have sex. You know that cliche, you have to.”

“I guess,” Tori mutters, and Jade can’t help but snort, rolling her eyes. “We’re definitely closing the window if you sneak in for sex.”

“I would hope so,” Jade rolls her eyes again, shifting so she can rest her head against her girlfriend’s thigh. “But just so you know, I am not exclusively sneaking in through the window to get fucked by you.”

Tori laughs, a bright sound that fills her with a stupid amount of love and joy and every other dumb, mushy feeling. “Really? You could have fooled me.”

Jade can only roll her eyes, though she can’t even pretend to be mad at her. 

Jade happily spends the rest of her day with Tori, alternating between sitting on the bed and in the window and on Tori’s desk, replacing the plant once more. Jade comes to realise that she kind of likes being the focal point of Tori’s room, and tells her as much. Tori only laughs at her and responds that that’s why the plant was there. 

It makes a lot of sense, and it makes Jade blush when she realises it. 

And by the end of the night, Jade finds herself in Tori’s bed once again. She feels Tori’s weight settle onto her, and she laughs when Tori kisses her immediately. Jade closes her eyes and is all too happy to let Tori kiss her breathless, to kiss her until she can’t think anymore.

Jade thinks that she could spend the rest of her life like this. She thinks she could spend the rest of her life with Tori. 

Jade feels unbearably loved when Tori trails her fingers down Jade’s arms, down her spine, following the path she’s marked for herself with soft kisses. 

For the first time in Jade’s life, she’s convinced that she would love to spend the rest of her life being touched endlessly, so long as it was Tori Vega doing it.