Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. But I'd like to think I own the mess of the world they live in.

Hey guise, if you didn't notice before, this is AU. Do try to keep up. My first multi-chapter. Isn't that fun? Also, this is dedicated to my big sister Emily who adores Jori friendship because it's "refreshing". LOLZ. Whatever.

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Lost and Found

Chapter 1

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"Mommy, when I grow up, I want to be an actress. I want to sing and dance and spin on stage like this," A little girl, no more than 5 stretched her hands around her, closed her glimmering diamonds and laughed as she twirled in front of her mother.

"Oh really? But you're already so shy, honey. Do you think you can?" Her mother laughed heartily at her daughter's antics and brushed some stray curls out of her daughter's face.

"Oh yes, mummy! I can do it. Don't you believe in me?" Lips as red a rubies, skin as white as snow, eyes as blue as the overhead sky on a long summer's day; the girl was the exact replica of her mother. The only difference being that her mother's hair was dirty blonde whereas hers was a deep caramel.

"Of course I do darling, I'll support you in everything you do." Her mother pursed her lips and smiled grimly. On her father's return, the little girl took off in a run, the blue ribbon in her hair loosening until it eventually separated itself from her mass of curls and fell to the floor.

"Daddy, today in school, we were talking about what we wanted to be when we grow up, and I said I want to be an actress. I want to sing and dance and have long hair and be pretty just like everyone else." She spoke giddily and clapped her chubby hands in excitement. One of her hands gripped unto her father's pants and pulled him over to her mother.

"No you won't," her father said quite suddenly. The girl stopped her chattering and gave her father an odd look.

"Why won't I?" The childish glee disappeared from her face; her mother never stopped frowning. A line of worry creased her forehead as she bent down to pick up the blue ribbon her daughter had long abandoned on the floor.

"I won't let you throw your life away on chances. You should become a business person like me, like your grandfather, or a doctor like your grandmother. Now, no more talk of this of this acting business." His words were short and curt. Concern gleamed through his eyes and he scratched his chin under his wife's harsh gaze.

"Don't you believe in me daddy?" She asked him, those blue pools ready to overflow with fresh tears. Her bottom lip trembled and she sniffled softly.

"Don't cry, now!" Her father sounded frustrated. He raised his voice and she squeaked and hid behind her mother's legs. "Why are you so sensitive? When will you grow up and stop crying all the time?" He was exasperated."

"Anthony, you're scaring her." His wife knelt down and rubbing their daughter soothingly on the back as the little girl hiccupped and spluttered. "Don't talk to your 5 year old daughter like that." His wife's blue eyes darkened and the father shifted his weight from one leg to the other.

"She needs to toughen up. If she's so nice like that all the time, people will walk over her. She's not dominant enough, she's too passive. She's always crying. Listen," he took his daughter's little, chubby hands and cupped them in his own larger hands, "I know it's hard for you now sweetheart, but I'm doing this for your own good. One day you'll thank me." His daughter stared at her shoes, avoiding looking at his face. "You're never going to be a princess, and you'll never be an actress or a dancer or a singer. It's impractical. The world doesn't work that way; it's better you know now than-"

"Anthony, that is enough!" The young blonde woman's voice grew shrill and she scooped her daughter back into her arms.

"I just want everyone to love me, mommy." The little girl sobbed.

"They won't; everyone isn't going to love you. Some will hate you and when they do, you'll thank me for making you strong enough to take them on." Her father spoke softly and sighed heavily as the little girl broke into another fitful sob.

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When Tori Vega was a little girl, she would have many dreams like that. This morning was no different. For as long as she could remember, she had yearned to befriend her porcelain friend; the little girl and her troubled family. It was never strange to Tori, she had been dreaming of this girl for as long as she could remember. Sometimes she would be 5 again, and other times she would be 14. Once, Tori dreamed of her being the same age as she was, but couldn't remember what she looked like in the morning. It was then she decided to buy a dream book and keep it under her pillow.

Every morning, she would turn the pages and write of her dreams. They were so real; she could feel the cold kitchen tiles under her feet. Sometimes, she swore the little girl with the wide blue eyes would look at her but she shook off her feeling. It was just a dream, after all.

She could practically write a book of the girl that haunted her dreams since she was 5. They had grown up together and as a child, Tori often told her parents many stories about her blue-eyed friend. And when her mother read her Snow White, one night before bed, she had squealed and pointed to the picture of the princess.

She would tell Trina about the day her friend's fish died, about the day her mother first put a ribbon in her hair, the day her grandmother baked her cookies for her birthday, the day she rode her first two-wheeler. Tori knew more about this girl than she did of her own self. She could never forget; she plagued her thoughts. Sometimes she would see her and call out "Snow, it's me, Tori!" That was when her parents got worried and sent her to the doctor with the big, soft sofa. It was then she learnt she should never speak of Snow to anyone, ever again.

Her parents thought the therapy worked; they thought she no longer had dreams of this girl. But Tori had simply mastered the technique of keeping a secret. Sometimes, she felt what the little girl felt. She was always afraid; of meeting new people, of her father when he raised his voice, of balloons, of crowds, of pointy objects and even of butterflies. This morning, she found herself shaking, fat tears streaking wildly down her face.

The dreams didn't really have any chronological order. She could dream of Snow at 14, with no ribbons and no fear. Tori wondered how she could dream of these people that she had never met; according to Google, a person can only dream of people they met or saw. The mind cannot conjure up faces. So, scientifically speaking, Tori knew she must have met this little girl before and she must have meant more to her than she remembered, because she never stopped dreaming about her.

She wiped the tears away and reached her a pen on her side table, opened up the blue notebook and scribbled down what she could remember.

"One day, I'll find Snow. I'll give her a hug and I'll say 'you don't always need to be so tough'; I'll tell her it's okay to feel so much, it's okay to be a nice person; not everyone was going to take advantage of her…"

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At 17, Tori had a lot more freedom than other kids her age. She supposed it was because her parents trusted her. They were never around a lot anyway; they were both busy with work, and when they weren't busy with work, they were always spending their limited vacation time travelling and sightseeing. Tori didn't have a problem with that; she knew her parents loved her. She knew a lot of things now, thanks to Snow. The little girl she dreamt about taught her so much about hard work and perseverance; Tori couldn't picture herself without Snow. She couldn't imagine who she would be without her friend.

Sometimes, she hated her. She must have been delusional, dreaming about someone else's life. She didn't even know if this girl was real and if she was, the earth was a pretty big place, who knew where she lived. It was ridiculous to even imagine herself stumbling across Snow. It was preposterous to even think about them befriending each other. Tori had replayed so many different scenarios in her mind about what she would do if she ever saw Snow. Maybe she would hug her, or maybe she would remember that Snow wasn't really a fan of hugs and give her a wide grin instead.

Tori would spend her Saturdays walking around town; her sister Trina had taken the car and she hadn't seen her since Friday afternoon. It was okay, Tori never liked to drive that much anyway. Walking helped her clear her mind.

Was it sad that everywhere she went, she kept an eye out for creamy, white skin, long caramel waves and gleaming diamond eyes?

She knew that she would probably never meet this girl (if she even existed) but, the thought still intrigued her. She liked to think of Snow as her best friend, her sister, her confident. So they were two different people; two opposites, but Tori knew she turned out to be so happy-go-lucky because of half of Snow's experiences.

Even if she never did meet her, or if she didn't exist; she was glad she had the dreams.

God knows she could have turned out to be just like Trina if she didn't…

Tori's brown suede boots stopped and she looked down in front of her curiously. The roads were empty, the shops were now opening and the clubs and bars were closing up. It was 6am, pretty damn early; but she had always been an early riser. After her dreams of Snow, she could never really fall back asleep.

She always had the notion that after her dreams, if she got ready fast enough and managed to find herself in town, she would be one step closer to finding Snow, you know, if she existed and all. It wasn't like she was serious about finding her; it was just something to keep Tori busy.

That didn't mean she didn't hold her breath every time she saw a girl her age with a blue ribbon in her hair.

No, she wasn't taking this seriously at all…

And speaking of blue ribbons, what did she happen to stumble across, fluttering in the wind down the sidewalk?

A blue ribbon.

It was a coincidence; naturally. What else was she supposed to believe? The blue ribbon from her dreams came rolling down her sidewalk because Snow was real? Tori laughed and shook her head, all the while casually making sure the streets were empty before she swiftly picked up the ribbon and held it in her hands. She ran her fingers down the smooth material; for something that had probably spent hours collecting street dust and germs, it was pretty clean.

It was stupid.

Her mind and her heart were running a race, trying to see which one could be the winner. Tori almost couldn't keep up. Her hands shook and the pores on her arms rose as the silky royal blue ribbon came into contact with her skin. She loosened her hair and fastened the ribbon.

It wasn't like she could have left it there; that was littering, right? She hugged her jacket tighter and tried to ignore the blood rushing to her face.

This was really sort of pathetic, wasn't it? Finding a blue ribbon on the floor and tying it in her hair, as if it wasn't probably covered in germs. It was even more pathetic how she was scouring the streets looking for someone; anyone to tell her who the ribbon belonged to.

It was stupid, suppose the person wanted their ribbon back; she couldn't just go around stealing ribbons like some sort of- of ribbon stealer! Tori shook her head and raised her hands to undo the ribbon when a voice startled her.

"Hey, hey you!" Her heart leapt and Tori started to breathe heavily, trying to compose herself. They could be calling anybody…on the deserted street. "Girl with the blue ribbon! Wait up!" She squeezed her eyes shut and put her hands back down.

Dammit. They probably wanted back the ribbon. She knew it was a stupid thing to do.

Footsteps thudded against the sidewalk, shoes coming into contact with cement yet Tori never turned around. She was trying to come up with a good excuse for having the ribbon in her hair. Maybe she could just pretend it was hers to begin with. Maybe she could-

"Oh sorry." A boy with short dreds appeared in front of her, out of breath and with an apologetic smile. He faintly smelt of cigarettes and alcohol but Tori brushed it off because he was clearly sober. "I thought you were someone else…" His voice trailed off and his eyes scanned their surroundings but they were alone, as usual.

Tori was generally a friendly person, even with strangers. This boy, his tired eyes, his kind smile and his wrinkled blue, plaid shirt kind of made Tori want to sit down and buy him some frozen ice-cream to drown his sorrows in sugary goodness.

"It's okay," she smiled softly.

"I could have sworn she was wearing that ribbon…" She heard him murmur softly as he rubbed his eyes.

"She?" Tori's lips quirked up and she couldn't help the smile from covering her face. "Who had this ribbon?" She prompted again.

"The girl last night. Maybe you know her?" He gave her a weird look that she chose to ignore.

"Describe her." She knew she was being particularly nosey and she knew there was no way Snow could ever be the one this boy was describing but hey, a little hope never hurt anyone.

"Um, pale, black hair, crazy streaks and blue eyes." The boy bit his lower lip and, it was then Tori noticed how nervous he looked. Her eyes lit up and she tried to fight her smile from growing into a wider one and somehow scaring the boy away, so she merely cleared her throat and tried to be as nonchalant as she could.

"Funny you should say that…" She found herself speaking before her brain actually found itself processing her words. This always happened when she froze; it was like Snow sort of took the wheel and got things done, "I'm looking for her too. But I don't know her name. She sort of…um. I just need to find her." Tori scrambled to find her words, her sudden boost of confidence diminished.

"She came in the bar I worked at last night, Crazy Nuts," he used his thumb and jabbed to the bar behind her, "she drank $300 worth of shots and left without paying. I was dumb enough to believe she would bring the money back but…"

"Maybe we can find her. I mean, she can't have gotten far." Tori shrugged her shoulders and waited for his response.

He regarded her attire; he glanced at his watch and then sighed deeply before answering. "Yeah, yeah that sounds like a good idea. It's the second time she's done this and I don't want to get fired for her." He paused, "are you sure about this? I mean, we don't even know each other."

"Are you a serial killer?" Tori asked him with furrowed eyebrows.

"No, I'm just Andre; Andre Harris." He laughed and rubbed his hands together.

"Well Andre, I'm Tori Vega. What do you say we find ourselves the girl with the blue ribbon?"

"Cool Tori, well I've gotta close the bar. You can come in if you like and then I can tell you what happened." Andre gave her a grin and Tori couldn't help but smile back. She knew it was stupid, trusting a total stranger like that but Andre seemed like a really nice person. Plus, he described Snow word for word, minus the 'crazy streaks'. Tori knew it was a long shot, but she had nothing to do right now, her parents were away again and she barely spent time with Trina.

She wanted adventure; she wanted something new, fresh and different. She wanted to find Snow to prove that she wasn't crazy. She wasn't just a lonely kid with an imaginary friend. And if she needed to do those things, then Andre Harris and Crazy Nuts was a great place to start.

"The owner's a little crazy, he named the place after coconuts, but you'll get used to him. Sikowitz is a nice guy." She heard Andre say before she slipped through the door and followed him inside the bar.

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(.x.)

Yeah, so that's it. Just an idea I'm trying to get out of my mind instead of writing a gigantic ass oneshot like I did with Remembering Jade. If you liked that fic, you'll probably end up liking this one too. This is going to have a lot of friendship, featuring Jori specifically. Romantically, it'll be Bade, maybe onesided Tandre and Cabbie. I dunno. Let me know what you think guise. :') Honey...where are you going without reviewing?