Disclaimer- I do not own iCarly.
iKnow You
Sam's always known to much about Freddie. How else would she be able to insult him so well, so frequently? Everyone who has ever seen iCarly knows about how they can never get along.
Most of them don't think about it too much; for them, it's just part of the show, how it's always been.
All of them would be surprised to know the truth.
Sam didn't always know so much about him. For years, he existed on the outskirts of her mind, an easy target. She'd use easy insults, saying he was a nerd, in love with his computer. Then he "fell in love" (his words, not Sam's) with Carly. That only made him that much easier to hurt. Now she only had to see Carly (who she practically lived with) to come up with an easy insult.
She'd take a deep breath, look firmly into his eyes, and say, "Carly will never love you." She barely ever saw him, anyway, despite the fact that he tried to attach himself at the hip to Carly.
For almost a year, it went on like that. Freddie existed, sure, but was almost never thought about, a less thought about version of the punching bag that was Gibby.
Then iCarly started, and everything changed.
Freddie had his dream, Carly had a fun way to be famous, and Sam had a pest.
This didn't bother Sam too much; she had been getting bored of only teasing Gibby, and Freddie presented a new challenge. Not that Freddie appeared to be a very challenging target. He's a nerd, she told herself, and all nerds are the same. And he's got his psycho mom, which makes him even easier to annoy.
She thought that Freddie wouldn't be hard to tease, and she was right. He was a veritable sitting duck, impossible not to tease. And he could never insult her too badly, as she was Carly's friend, and heaven forbid he hurt perfect Carly's feelings. Still, she threw herself fully into the project, because she knew that iCarly would be part of her life for a long time, simply because she wanted him to be. Not him, she remembers correcting herself as clearly as if it were yesterday, it, specifically, iCarly, the best web show ever!
So she looked into his background, finding out all of his faults, everything he's ever done wrong, or right for that matter. Anything that he's ever done or still has to do that he's ashamed of, or that he never wants precious Carly to know. All of his deepest, darkest secrets, brought out in normal conversation. It's a occupational hazard of living with, or at least living near, Sam.
She doesn't know when, exactly, it got to this point. She knows that Freddie's always wanted, on a subconscious scale, at least, for her to notice him. He likes to think that she's always known, always cared. But he knows, better than anyone, except Sam herself, that she hasn't always known, or cared so much about him. He's always taken Sam's verbal abuse as a regrettable part of the job. The fact that she knew practically his entire life story has never really fazed him, or at least, not fazed him as much as her knowledge of him has fazed herself.
Recently, however, her knowledge has freaked them both out more than it normally does. Yesterday is a perfect example.
It had been a normal day in Carly's apartment. Spencer was cooking Carly was sleeping. And Sam and Freddie were fighting. A perfectly normal day for everyone. That is, until...
"Hey, Freddo!" Spencer yelled, being his normal, cheerful, self. "Want some... coffee!"
He yells coffee as if it were a sacred word, and Carly, currently resting with her head on the table, starts. Sam isn't sure whether Carly's sudden wake-up is due to the sudden stop in arguing, or Spencer's yell until Carly mumbles, "Spence, you're not having coffee, are you?"
Spencer puts on his "innocent face" even though Carly's eyes are closed. "Of course not, sister dearest!" He replies, stung, as he hisses at Freddie, "I repeat, Freddo, coffee?"
Sam smiles. She's taught Spencer well.
As Freddie opens his mouth, starting to say something like, "Well, my mom never wants me to have coffee, but..." Sam swiftly replies, "Freddork hates coffee," and goes back to the day-old chicken on her plate.
She seems not to realize the effect that her words have on Freddie and Spencer, both a little freaked out, as Carly snores on.
At least, she doesn't realize it until now, alone and half-asleep on Carly's couch after a long day recording iCarly.
She's alone, but she feels something odd, something that she's never felt about Freddie before. And, knowing Freddie as well, if not better, than he knows himself, she knows with a certainty usually relegated to matters regarding food that Freddie feels it, or at least, will feel it very soon, toward her, and not Carly, as he believes he does.
And that's the thought that gets her through the long night.
End