The Price of Desire

Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious

A/N: This story was inspired in a conversation with a friend, Trina's martial arts capabilities, and martial arts movies. It's a shame I can't place Jackie Chan in here.

Chapter 1 (A Sister's Gift)

Dust particles flew with the air as Trina pushed a strong arm forward with a powerful shout, holding her palm flat with her fingers curled inwards. Her right leg was spread in front of her, her left leg behind, and her left arm curled at her waist with her fist balled. She swung her torso to the left, pushing her left arm forward while pulling her right arm and leg back. Her hair swirled through the air and her eyes locked on the wall in front of her. Her white martial arts uniform shifted as she brought her left knee up and kicked forward. Her black belt bounced on her right leg as she performed several continuous kicks.

Next to her were two friends in the class, Christy Vic-Harris and Jason Sikowitz, both were high belts as well. Christy was a red belt and Jason was a Brown belt. Both of them had associated with her sister's friends at some point of time and both had asked her why she never spent any time with them. She never really had an answer for them besides their not wanting her around.

With a roar, their synchronized movements in front of the class echoed in the room. They performed a swift roundhouse kick, then pulled their legs back and threw a swift punch forward with their right arm. Trina closed her eyes as she performed the formation both in body and her mind. Dragon. You are a dragon. Unshakable, swift, fierce, steady. Immovable. None can dominate you, you are in full control. Queen of your soul. Her eyes flew open as they yelled out in sync, throwing their bodies forward with their movements, delivering a swift final punch while twisting their bodies back and kicking high into the air.

When they came to rest, they put their hands together and bowed. Trina slowly exhaled as the instructor began talking to the class, telling them how these three just performed a well structured formation with grace, efficiency, and proper posturing. Her breathing rose and fell rapidly and she threw her hand out to Christy. "Water please." Christy nodded and grabbed a bottle of water from the ground next to her, then placed it in her hand. "Thanks." She uncapped the bottle and brought it to her lips, drinking in large gulps.

The instructor had everyone break off into groups to spar with one another, so the trio simply went to a punching bag in the corner of the room. They decided simply to rest a bit, and then they would get started. "You know something I'm curious about," Jason started. He leaned up against the wall as Trina took another sip of her water. "You're always here, more than we are and more than anyone else. You practice more than anyone, even me, and my Uncle is always pushing me to practice for some reason…"

"Any reason why it's so important to him?"

"He never says. Back to you, though…" She pressed her lips together and shrugged her shoulders. She never thought much about why she was there, besides the fact that it was the one thing that she could be 'better' at than Tori. Her sister had it all. She was the princess, the angel, the do-gooder, the one with all the friends in the world. Here, it was as if Tori wasn't the topic of her every day discussions. She was Trina, not 'Tori's Sister'.

"I guess one could say I'm more comfortable here. Don't get me wrong, I love my sister to death. I'd go to hell and back for her, but here is where I don't constantly have to live in her shadow. I'm the older sister, even. Shouldn't she be following my footsteps?" Jason chuckled and Christy shook her head.

"It's not always the case like that, but I can understand. I mean, I have an older brother that I always looked up to."

"He's your older brother, though. He's already set the example that you want to follow." She set her water on the ground and turned towards the red punching bag, attached to a heavy black post that stood on the ground. Jason moved behind the bag and gripped the edges as Trina pulled her fist back and positioned herself in proper fighting stance. "So sometimes I get tired of feeling like she's setting the example." She delivered a swift right jab to the bag, then followed with a left hook. She didn't know what she'd do without Tori around, that girl was her entire world right now, but that didn't mean she couldn't complain, did it? "We are sisters, so I think I have every right to complain about her."

"Complain if you must," Jason remarked. He closed his eyes as the bag pushed into him. "It's times like these I'm glad I'm an only child living with my Uncle, where my only stress is 'excel at martial arts'." Trina raised an eyebrow and stepped back from the bag for a second, lowering her arms. She was always curious as to why Mr. Sikowitz would even be so concerned with the art, but then, he never did talk much about his past.

"I just can't picture it…why is he so concerned that you succeed in it?"

"I don't know. Honestly, he always talks about how he would have been a martial arts instructor if he didn't throw his back out when he was younger. Maybe it has something to do that." To see his nephew succeed where he failed? It seemed to make sense, but it was still somewhat funny to imagine the teacher delivering a can of whoop-ass to a bunch of villains. "But still, the way you carry on…I guess we all have our own reasons for being here, but, you never seem like the type of girl to practice martial arts." Trina smiled coyly and folded her arms over.

"Well you never know when it's going to come in handy." Her mind traveled back to when she had her mouth operated on, she was able to take on Beck, Robbie, and Andre all on her own. Sure that was one of her crazier moments and she'd been paranoid the entire way through, so she ended up kicking their ass whether she meant to do it or not. "I do everything I can to be at the top, and it feels good. I don't want to feel like I'm nothing."

"Well if it's any consolation, I don't think you're 'nothing'."

"I agree," Christy added. She kicked the bag with a right side kick while looking over to Trina. Jason let out a grunt of surprise and stared over at the girl.

"You could warn a guy."

"I don't get far in life by warning people. Warning grants opportunity, opportunity grants the right of people to misuse that wall I work hard to keep up." He raised an eyebrow as she punched the bag once more.

"What wall?"

"Just saying. We all have our own reasons for being here." Trina punched the bag with Christy, grinning as Jason pushed his foot back to try and maintain his balance. The sheer force was threatening to topple him to the ground. "Keep up Jason. If your Uncle is so big on the whole martial arts thing, what do you suppose he'd think if he saw you right now?"

"Well. I'd hope for some sort of empathy." He released the bag and quickly spun around, lifting his right leg off the ground and kicking the top of the bag with his heel. The girls lifted up their eyebrows as he jumped back onto his right foot, hopped in the air and kicked out with his left. Suffice to say, he did know how to fight, they just enjoyed teasing the hell out of him. "You know how hard it is to please that man? Did I say my only stress was excelling at martial arts?" He ended his swift fury on the bag with a scoffing chuckle. "No, that's the priority part. The rest is, excel at everything school, failure is not an option."

"You think that's tough? Try living with an older brother who has his foot in the door to being a successful doctor and parents that treat you like dirt because you're nothing like their first child." Trina shook her head as her two friends carried on, she didn't want to join in the comparison of how hard their lives were. Besides, as far as she knew, she did have it pretty rough.

She grabbed her water back and took a quick gulp of the cool liquid. She took notice of her hair sticking to her skin and her white uniform beginning to feel disgusting due to the sweat. She hated when this happened, but unfortunately, she was required to wear the uniform with the long saggy sleeves and long pants. She had her own thoughts on proper workout attire. She dashed the thought from her mind and turned her eyes to her friends, focusing on how they were still comparing their lives.

She wanted to interject and ask them to grade the difficulties of having an overachiever younger sister, who excelled at everything, had her parents satisfaction and fondness, and was practically handed the world on a silver platter. How did they grade going to school every day and having little friends there because everyone was more interested in said sister, even trying to mix and be friends with the girl's friends was impossible as none of them wanted anything to do with her. No. There was no grade, not for all of that. She recapped her bottle and lowered it beside her belt, her nostrils opened as she exhaled through her nose and cleared her throat. Her two friends stopped their bickering and looked over.

"If there's one thing that can be said about our families…maybe it's…just being glad that we have them. Right? I mean yeah, there are those times I feel like if I just disappeared, no one would care, or maybe I'd be better off without them, but then I realize how absurd that thought is. I'd be nothing without them, nothing without Tori. It's my family and my little sister that make me who I am, and I think I'm a better person because of Tori. Whether or not that's the case, I don't care. I'm just glad that she's around, I'm sure life would be pretty miserable if I were an only child." She stopped herself short and moved her gaze to Jason, who became suddenly quiet. She smiled at him and brought her hand to his shoulder. "I'm not saying that you should be miserable or anything, I know you actually enjoy that life, right?"

"Yeah, but that's just cause I've never had a younger sibling. Or an older one."

"Right, but I've never known my life without Tori. I honestly can't picture it." Jason slowly nodded his head and Christy bowed her head, closing up her hands.

"I don't think I could live without Brian, he's like the one thing keeping my crazy family together." She laughed and leaned her shoulder up against the punching bag. "I bet Tori thinks the world of you, you know. I mean I can personally say, being a younger sibling, I look up to my older brother no matter how much we would be at each other's throats."

"Yeah, I don't know about that." Trina moved her shoulders up and tried to imagine her sister admiring her. In order to do that, Tori would have to take time away from her friends, from being the number one 'superstar' at school, and actually show the slightest bit of interest in her older sister. She lifted her head as the instructor ordered everyone out of the facility, class was over. The group started walking towards the door and Trina gave them a final glance. Jason often drove home, Christy jogged, and she walked. Sometimes taking a long, scenic route just to think, and wouldn't actually get home for hours. "Once I see Tori take any remote interest in me as a sister, I'll let you know. It isn't like she has to involve me with her friends or anything, I don't care about that…she's just so busy being number one that-"

"You think she doesn't have time to consider you number one?" Jason interrupted as they walked out the door. She watched him point ahead and followed his gaze to see Tori standing by a tree, waving her hand in the air and calling her name. "I see Tori. I don't see Andre, Beck, Cat, Jade, or Robbie." He taunted her with a smirk and turned away towards his car. "Anyway, I have to get going. Uncle Erwin's going to want to know everything about today."

"Yeah, I'll see you guys later." Her eyes remained on Tori as her friends left the area. She was confused, Tori never met up with her here. This was her sanctuary, the place that her little sister never bothered to come. So what did she want? Tori's right hand was behind her back and a grin was stretched out on her face. She started walking towards her, keeping her arms flat against her body. She really didn't want Tori seeing her as a sweaty mess. "So what are you here for?" She tried not to sound condescending at all when she asked the question, but she couldn't help sounding surprised.

"Well I was just thinking. I know how you always like to go for those long walks after your classes and I didn't have any homework, so I was wondering if I could join you?"

"Really?" She chuckled and shrugged her shoulders once more. She was actually not planning on walking today. "I was actually planning on going straight home, hitting the showers and taking a nap. I guess we could go for a little walk." Home was about four miles to the north and behind the building, to the south, was about eight miles of forest, lakes, and grass. She loved hiking through that area, even the mountainous area towards the center of the large area.

"I've never been out here, it's kind of nice with the lake behind the building." Trina looked back and nodded her head. That lake was where she spent so many countless hours training with Jason, Christy, and the rest of the class. The woods and pathways circled the entire lake, really. There was no swimming allowed in it of course. Yet, whenever she got to the other side of the lake, off school grounds, she was able to take a dip in it if she wanted to.

"You sure you've never been here before? I seem to remember seeing you here a couple times." Tori chuckled nervously and Trina raised a curious eyebrow. "On second thought…" Perhaps the girl had been there before. Throughout the years she was pretty sure she recalled seeing Tori watching the class through the window, but at the end of the day, the girl was gone. "Yeah, let's go for that walk. There's about eight to ten miles of forest around this lake, if you're interested in walking."

"How long of a walk is that?"

"Oh about three hours if we walked the whole thing, but I say we cut that in half and get home in two hours." Tori's eyes widened for a split second and she quickly shook her head, her eyes became daring and confident.

"No, let's do the whole thing! Is this what you do every day?"

"Close enough. Usually some nasty hiking trails in there. I like to stop off and climb this mountain in the middle."

"Cool!" Trina chuckled and started walking, she figured they may as well begin now. Tori followed after her, trying to keep up as Trina walked rather quickly.

"You need me to slow down?"

"No, I'm fine." She raised an eyebrow as the girl picked up the pace and started walking in line with her. She was doing a power walk, so it was definitely a quicker pace than Tori was used to. "Anyway, Dad's still at work and Mom's at home working on cooking dinner. She said it won't be ready for a few hours, we got time."

"Sounds good to me. What's she making?"

"Roast chicken, meatball soup, mashed potatoes and green beans, then a pie to finish it off for desert." Trina practically choked on Tori's words, she couldn't eat all that. Hell, if the chicken alone wasn't fattening enough, the pie would be murder! "Dad's working overtime because he's been investigating that new gang that started up recently. The uh…Los Asesinos de Sangre, Spanish for the Blood Assassins." Trina blinked a couple times and brought her hand to her forehead.

"Gangs really need to work on their names nowadays. They get lamer every year. I guess they won't be around long."

"Yeah, Dad says they're a gang that's running drug trade."

"Tell me what gang doesn't involve drugs?"

"He says they think the gang's buying and selling from overseas though. They could have something worth millions as is, it would be a big blow to the gang organization if we found out the names of whoever was buying and selling drugs with them!"

"Yeah, too bad I'm not all that interested in my dad's career field." Tori bowed her head for a second, then brought it back up, shrugging her shoulders.

"What do you want to do after school? I mean, I don't think you've ever said."

"I don't really know. Maybe counseling."

"Counseling?"

"Yeah, like being a school counselor for troubled teens. I know I'd have to be a teacher first, and I'm really good with gymnastics. So maybe I'll coach gymnastics for a few years, teach English on the side of that."

"I think you'd make a great teacher! You're already great with martial arts, so I don't think there'd be any problem with you going into the gymnastics field. I don't know what I'd do…"

"Really?" She was stunned. She imagined Tori would already have her entire future planned out in front of her. "Are you absolutely certain you don't know what you want to do with your life?"

"Yeah…I don't know, maybe help people who aren't fortunate to have good homes? Maybe be a singer, actress, but I'm really not sure I want either of those careers. I like to sing, sure, but a career?"

"You're a great singer, Tori." She grabbed a stick from the ground and tossed it off to the side. She was purposely trying to find things to distract herself so that she'd walk a little slower and Tori wouldn't look like she was about to pass out from walking so fast. It didn't help that Tori still had her hand behind her back. "Okay, if you're going to walk, would you mind telling me why your hand's back there?"

"Oh!" Once Tori stopped walking, Trina had to stop and turn back. "I almost forgot, uh…I was walking by a jewelry store when I saw this…" Trina's watched as Tori pulled her hand into view and revealed a beautiful, breathtaking necklace. She moved her hand to her chest and examined the item. It was finely crafted with a gold diamond chain at least an inch long for the neck. Towards the front, the chain grew out and the fine metal formed a circle around a ruby and sapphire gem. "I thought of you and called Dad up, I absolutely had to get this for you!"

"T-Tori…how much was this?" She carefully took the necklace in her hand and inspected it. The jewel was indeed real and the necklace looked heavily expensive. Tori chuckled nervously and scratched the back of her head.

"Well. Dad had to spend half his last paycheck on it, but I called my friends up and they each were willing to contribute."

"Why? Why would you go through such trouble?"

"Because. You're my sister!" Trina smiled as Tori took the necklace and started to drape it around her neck for her. As she hooked the back ends of the necklace together, she pointed to the multicolored gem. "See the two colors? They reminded me of us. Ruby and Sapphire go together, even though they're opposites, they complement the other. That's just like you and me, we complement each other. Even though we're opposites and sometimes we argue, we go really well together." Trina's eyes began to water and she quickly turned her head away, not wanting her sister to see her softening up any.

"A lot of trouble, but I appreciate it. Thanks Tori…" She hugged her sister back and continued walking, at a much slower pace. "You know…I'm glad that you're my sister, and you can do whatever you put your mind to. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise."

"I won't. Thanks Sis…Have I ever said how much I love having you as a sister? I mean, I know I don't say it enough, but I am glad that you're my sister. I appreciate having you around." Her heart rose to her chest and she put her arm around Tori's shoulders. She had an embarrassingly silly grin on her face, but she couldn't help it. She would never forget hearing those words, no matter what.

I feel this was a beautiful start and a beautiful chapter. I hope you will enjoy reading this as it goes on. What did you think of Tori's gift to Trina, and maybe her eagerness to hang out with her sister? Let me know your thoughts on everything and hang around for the next chapter ^_^