Slow down now, the secret's out
And I swear now I can make this perfect
What you want, what you need has been killing me
Trying to be everything that you want me to be
I'll say yes, I'll undress, I've done more for less and
I will change everything 'til it's perfect again

Perfect by Marianas Trench

Trina Vega flashed a brilliant, albeit slightly forced, smile at the camera just as her director called to start filming. "Good evening America! I've got an amazing episode of Trina! lined up for you today – later we've got Ryan Gosling on the show, but before that, we have Hollywood's most talked about new couple: Beck Oliver and Jade West!" The camera panned out from Trina's face to side-stage, from where Beck and Jade appeared, greeted by the cheers and applause of her studio audience. Jade walked ahead of Beck, her hand entwined in his as he followed and waved to the crowd. Trina took the opportunity that the camera was not focused on her to make a face at Jade, whose lip twitched in wry amusement but otherwise revealed no sign of her irritation.

"Some things never change"was the theme of the evening, it seemed.

Trina sat down on her chair just as the couple took a seat on the couch across from her. She flipped her hair over her shoulder as she gestured to them. "So let me just say, wow – I can't believe you two are together again!" The look on her face certainly was disbelief, mingled with something else. She hoped the camera was far enough away from her to not catch it, because it really wouldn't look good for her reputation. She paused to look at her audience and explain, "For those of you who didn't know, these two went out in high school, and here they are again six years later. Funny, huh?"

It was a little funny, even to Beck, who barely agreed with Trina on anything. Six years after graduation, here they were, a tangle of limbs on Trina's couch. His arm wrapped tightly around Jade's waist, and her hand was on his knee, and they looked perfectly happy with the arrangement – although Beck had to admit that he was betting on Jade blowing up on Trina before the interview was over. He could practically hear her counting one to ten under her breath like her anger management counsellor advised her to do.

"Yeah, working on our new movie together really reminded us how great things used to be between us," Beck volunteered helpfully. His grip on Jade's waist tightened just a little, reminding her to keep smiling as long as the camera was rolling. Really, tolerating Trina was not that difficult. They were all mature adults now, after all.

Trina smiled brightly at Beck. "That's so sweet of you to say," she gushed.

Jade managed to smile as she said, "Isn't it? Beck's the sweetest boyfriend ever." Her own grip on his knee tightened a little as well, and he took that as a sign to stop with the little helpful hints for the rest of the interview.

Their host seemed disinterested as she deadpanned, "Is that so." She turned her attention to Beck again as she said, "So, about your new movie – The Perfect Mistake. Tell us about it."

"It's set in post-apocalyptic America. Basically two survivors find each other and try to keep each other going even after all they've lost," he said, summing up the movie in two lines, hoping to get the interview over and done with, because he could see that his girlfriendwas almost at her breaking point. Hastily, he added, "We're both really excited for it. We're only about two months into filming so there isn't much to talk about yet, but we're hoping it'll be ready for release early next year."

Trina gave him a nod, a mischievous smile spreading across her face. He felt sick to his stomach. He didn't like where this was going. Turning to Jade, she asked, "So Jade, what's it like dating one of Hollywood's most sought-after bachelors?" As she was about to respond, Trina added, "I mean –" She flipped her hair for dramatic effect and continued, "There are so many beautiful and talented women in Hollywood, you have –" and she flipped her hair again, "So much competition."

Some things never change, indeed.

Beck cast a nervous glance to the director, who was obviously just as worried about it and had been cueing Trina to stop talking from the start of the question. But Trina was dead set on getting a reaction from Jade, who was sitting calmly across from her. Somehow, she managed a wide, seemingly genuine smile as she replied confidently, "Oh, Trina, the beautiful and talented women of Hollywood are certainly welcome to try."

He gave her a sidelong glance, the smile on his face completely unrehearsed. Even ten years after they first met, she still managed to surprise him.

Trina's director motioned frantically for her to end, and, unable to think up a comeback to Jade's veiled threat, stood up and said, "Beck Oliver and Jade West, everybody! Stick around, we'll have Ryan Gosling in the hot seat." The director gave an obvious sigh of relief as he instructed the cameraman to pan the focus out to the audience.

Safely out of view of those cameras, Jade leaned in until Beck could feel her warm breath in his ear. He struggled to keep the shiver at bay. "Babe," she whispered, bemused, "I think your hand's someplace it shouldn't be."

He raised an eyebrow at her as he whispered back, "I'm dating you, and not another beautiful and talented woman of Hollywood, so I think it's right where it should be." Okay, his hand was a little low on her waist to be normal for Trina's PG-13 audience, but…

Speaking of Trina, the woman had rounded on them now and all but shooed them away with, "What are you two waiting for? Get off of my couch, Ryan Gosling's going to be in it!" They took that as their cue to exit side-stage, but not before Jade, who was by now safely out of view of the audience, made a face at Trina as she followed Beck to the dressing rooms. When they got to theirs, they found they weren't alone. Sitting on the couch were their managers, who were positively beaming with glee.

They realized they were still holding hands and hastily let go.

Alice, Jade's manager, was a petite, dark-haired woman in her late twenties, all grins and excitement as she wrapped her arms around her. Jade struggled, but eventually gave up. The woman was more muscle than could have humanly fit into her tiny frame. "I'm so proud of you, Jade! That went so well. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought you two were genuinely in love!" she said as she finally let go. "And that you didn't hate talk shows or think they were just for tourists! … Or Canadians. No offense, Beck."

He shrugged. "None taken, Alice."

Jade ignored him, instead letting out a sardonic laugh. "Yeah… no."

The truth was Beck and Jade were in a relationship for show.

Beck, a household name in entertainment for his dramatic roles and messy celebrity breakups, had just been freed from a particularly terrible relationship when he signed on to work on The Perfect Mistake. Jade was hand-picked by the director for her work in (suspiciously tragic) indie films. Imagine their surprise (horror was probably more like it, since they hadn't so much as spoken to each other since their unofficial breakup at graduation) when they sat down together to have the first reading of the script.

Their managers, however, seemed extraordinarily pleased to find out that there was history between them. It was juicy press or something like that, and Beck's manager Joey was only too eager to erase the horrible scandal that broke out after Beck's last girlfriend walked out on him. One way or another, they were roped into pretending they were going out, at least until the movie was released. And the rest, as they say, was history.

He ran a hand through his hair as he said, "For a moment there, I thought you were going to yell at Trina."

She scoffed. "Oh, please. I was closer to yelling at you for copping a feel on national television."

Alice and Joey snickered. It was no secret that they loved seeing the two fight, to quote Alice, "like an old married couple." They seemed to think that they were each other's best and most potent punishment, and really, they weren't wrong.

Beck crossed his arms over his chest, more amused than he was angry. "If I'm going to have to be in a fake relationship with you for another seven months, I'm going to make the most out of it," he countered, a grin on his lips as he did so.

"And that gives you the right to molest me?" Jade asked, her mouth agape in bewilderment.

"Jade, honey, can we just –" Alice started to say.

"Stay out of it!"

"… Okay," the woman squeaked in response.

Walking over to her, Beck laid a hand on her shoulder. "Listen, Jade. Think of it this way. We're just acting. It's just work," he said, in the calm, soothing voice he'd always used with her whenever she was in a particularly bad mood. "You don't have to like me, but when the cameras are rolling, you're going to have to play this part and you're going to have to do it well if anyone's going to believe us."

She pouted and reluctantly answered, "… You're right."

"Besides, you agreed to this, so the term 'molestation' is a little much, don't you think?" Beck added, unable to resist the urge to get the last word in edgewise.

Joey cleared his throat, keeping Jade from edging in another protest. "As much as we'd love to continue this, it's getting late. We're going to have to drive you both home, if you don't mind. You guys have a five a.m. call time tomorrow, don't forget."

Home. Right. Well, that was a joke. When they first broke the news to the media a month or so ago, no one was buying it – if they believed it at all, they wrote it off as one of Beck's infamous one-week-conquests. After all, to date, Jade West had not been in a relationship for years, and the public was starting to speculate as to which way she swung. So as an added bonus to this whole arrangement, their managers thought it would be cute and more believable to subject them to having to live together for the duration of the movie filming. Beck knew that Jade probably fought tooth and nail to keep it from happening, but they had already pitched the idea to the director, who thought it was brilliant. After all, they had to feel comfortable with each other if they were going to play the last two people on earth, right?

It was almost ironic that this often resulted in fights intense enough to bring about the apocalypse.

It was a quiet ride back to their apartment, and they said their goodbyes to Joey and Alice before they went up the elevator together. Most days they wouldn't speak a word to each other, instead just heading off to their rooms. It was like this every night, and Beck thought that if he was going to have to take any more of this, he was going to go crazy.

This particular night, though, Jade changed the routine.

"What happened to us?"

Beck blinked, as if not quite sure he had heard the question right. He turned to look at her, the expression on his face as if he was seeing her for the first time. She was still Jade, long dark hair, pale skin, piercings, full lips – but the look on her face let him know that she was serious. This wasn't her provoking a fight; this was her wanting to know. All of a sudden, it didn't feel like they were movie stars in a publicity relationship anymore. It felt like they were Beck and Jade, six years later, wondering what they had come to.

He heaved a sigh. "I don't know, Jade. After we graduated, you were busy, I was busy – we just grew apart, that's all." It was. The once-a-week get-togethers with their friends turned into once-a-month Skype sessions, and then even that turned into the odd Christmas or birthday card.

"If that's all there is, we shouldn't be like this. We shouldn't be fighting all the fucking time. I mean, we're friends, aren't we?" she asked, as if she were unsure. To be fair, he was never sure where he stood with Jade, either. They had never been "just friends", having always wavered between on and off in the spectrum of their relationship. Who was he kidding? He didn't know how to fake a relationship with Jade. He had the feeling that the moment he was pushed too far, he'd forget he was acting, and that was a really dangerous place to be in a situation like this.

"We've always been fighting," he replied quietly.

Jade was silent, as if mulling it over. Beck wondered what she was thinking about as she let them into their apartment. The atmosphere there often shifted between anger and awkwardness, but that night it was neither. Not that he could put a name to it if he tried; that was never really what he was good at. To be perfectly honest, he couldn't even give a name to what he was feeling right now. He shut and locked the door behind him and turned to say good night to Jade.

Before he could, she reached up and grabbed him by the collar, planting a quick, chaste kiss on his lips.

As she pulled away all too quickly, Beck looked at her, bewilderment in his brown eyes. What was that? Her blue eyes looked up at him, her expression unreadable. "That was…" he began. Amazing. Perfect. All I needed to let me know how stupid I've been all these years. "… Weird." Not the word he was looking for, but it was the first one he actually managed to get out.

Jade laughed at that, a note of bitterness seeping into it – or was that just his imagination? "Yeah, it was, wasn't it? Letsneverdothatagain," she replied too quickly, almost so that it sounded like she said it all in one breath. She took a tentative step back and then turned around. "See you tomorrow, Oliver."

Standing there watching her leave, Beck wondered what she would have said if he had chosen any other word to describe what just happened between them.

Author's Note: Hey there, I'm back again after what seems like forever. I've been adjusting to work and stuff but I think I've got everything under control now. This was written a long time ago, and has been looked over by the marvelous Khay. I said I wouldn't put it up until I had more chapters finished, but I'm towards the tail end of chapter two right now and I figured I'm too impatient for that sort of thing. That said, I'm hoping you guys motivate me to update and not flake out like I usually do, haha! Hope you enjoyed reading it, it was... pretty interesting to write.