It's You and Me
Cancun was the dream - Yerba was the nightmare. Faced with family, friends, and an enemy country which all aim to tear them apart, Beck and Jade are given the choice to band together, or to stand alone.
There was only one bathroom on their floor, so everyone lined up in the hallway to take their turn before retiring for bed. Trina insisted on the first turn, which lasted far longer than anyone had anticipated – leaving everyone standing silently, sleepily, in the hall. Beck stood beside Andre and Cat, across from Tori and Robbie, but his eyes were set on the far end of the hallway, leading to the girls' bedroom. Jade was busy changing her clothes behind that door, which was nothing to be concerned about; but this was the longest he had been away from her all day.
He'd made a point of keeping in her vicinity as consistently as possible – not necessarily since their arrival, but certainly after the hotel had been invaded… by soldiers. The entire situation had left everyone in a state of shock, and now, they barely spoke to each other. Aside from a familiar expression of horror, they shared nothing.
Since it became increasingly apparent that Trina would not exit the bathroom in the near future, Beck wandered away from the group and their quiet chatter, toward the girls' bedroom. He was curious to see how Jade was handling their situation. She had always been a fan of the morbid, and their spring break getaway certainly seemed to be hitting that morbid area…
He knocked lightly on the door, trying not to alert the others with the sound, and waited silently at the door. When he received no answer, he whispered through the door, "Babe? It's me."
The door cracked open, and he peeked inside. The room was barely lit, so he did not see her until he had entered completely. He found her shadowed figure standing by the window, pulling a shirt over her head; and he approached her slowly. "Hey."
"Hey," she said, a bit sharply. Beck didn't know if this anger was directed at him or at Tori – and either was likely. Just in case, he made the assumption that she was upset about the foreigners' flirting with him. "I'm sorry."
She looked up at him, and he caught a glimpse of her eyes, reflecting from the hall light. "Tori's the one who should be sorry." Straightening out her sleeves, she added under her breath, "This country's a wreck."
In hopes of lightening her mood, he moved closer and slipped his arms through hers, around her waist. "It's not a total wreck," he lied, glancing around the destitute and strangely scented bedroom. "It's a bit dirty, and a little violent – but a little violence is always fun, right?"
"Yeah," she admitted with a sigh. She turned to fit into his embrace, and peered up into his eyes. Strangely, though no one was around to hear, she lowered her voice. "This is more than a little violence, Beck. The whole country's at war."
Beck, who had apparently been the last to hear this news, raised his eyebrows questioningly. "At war?" he clarified.
She nodded her head slowly, furiously. "Yeah, yeah. Tori thought she'd finally tell us that now that we're all trapped here."
Still stunned, he tried to reason through this. "I'm sure she didn't know about it before now."
Her body stiffened, and though he could not see her face but in dark shapes, he could sense those same annoyed and disapproving narrowed eyes. "Why are you always sticking up for her?" she asked angrily though her voice was hushed.
He swallowed. "I'm not always sticking up for her."
"Yes, you are!" she insisted. "And I'm not being 'jealous girlfriend', here, okay? We are in a strange country, with weird people, at war, and it- it's crazy, and right now, I need you to be on my side."
"Babe-" he tried to interrupt, but it was no use.
"Whatever." She pulled out of his arms abruptly, her voice taking a strange tone. "I know you think I'm ridiculous, but it is hard for me to be in a relationship with you when you're always fighting me. I need you to stick up for me!" She inhaled loudly, betraying the emotion behind her words. "Even if I'm wrong, or if I'm being silly, I need to know-"
As her words broke off, and as she angrily threw her shirt on the bed, and as she focused all her attention on attempting to pry the window open, Beck began to understand that this outburst had very little to do with their current situation, and a lot more to do with the reason they weren't in Cancun right now. That was a much more difficult discussion to have.
Approaching her from behind, he reached around her and set a hand over hers, until the incessant jerking came to a stop and gave relief to the windowsill. "Hey," he whispered in her ear. "I'm sorry about my aunt. She just likes to cause drama."
She didn't even look back at him, but calmly pulled the window up. "Your family's always gonna hate me."
"They don't know you."
"I don't want them to," she muttered, and finally turned toward him. "Why can't it just be you and me? Screw your aunt. Screw Tori. Screw everyone else."
The heat of their discussion was interrupted at the sound of the bathroom door, finally opening. The hallway broke into loud conversation, mainly consisting of groans and complaints, as someone else occupied the restroom. By the time they had settled down, Beck had sneaked his arms around her again, and she allowed him to stay.
"Well, for the time being, it's not just you and me," he eventually muttered, and squeezed her. "Are you going to be all right with all the girlies?"
She elbowed him in the stomach at his teasing. "Do I have a choice?" When she caught him smiling, she added lowly, "Maybe you shouldn't laugh so much. I can't imagine what Robbie's like in bed."
He might have shot back some joke, but he was far too invested in her cheek, which he kissed up to the corner of her lips. She smiled, likely for the first time that evening, and leaned back against him.
"Don't get too comfortable," she warned. "We've got a long…"
Her voice trailed off as a sound pierced through the stillness of night, unusually loud and far in the distance. They paused, looking out the window, and noticed a reddish hue come over the rooftops. It was a siren.
She looked back at him quickly. "What's that?"
Without hesitance, Beck pulled her back from the window. "Get back," he warned her, and stumbled back from the window. She spun around to face him, eyes wide in confusion, but he did not have time to reassure her. The ground trembled, speaking for him, and a loud noise followed closely behind. The trembling grew violent, forcing them to grab around for their balance.
Once the quaking subsided, Jade asked again, loudly, "What was that?"
"Are you all right?"
"What was that? Was- was that a bomb? Is that what that was?"
"Calm down," he implored her, reaching out to take her shoulders. He tried to check on her, but she flew past him and into the hall, rage in her eyes.
"Was – that – a – bomb?" she shouted into the hallway, uncaring of whom she might wake. Beck ran after her, finally arriving behind her when she reached the others outside the bathroom. "Can we talk about this? Huh? Toriii?" She glared at Tori, who had fled the bathroom in wake of the frightening occurrence. "Huh?"
"I don't know what that was!" Tori cried in terror, glancing around at the others as they flooded into the hallway.
There was a high-pitched noise, which Beck had thought to be some hearing loss from the loud noise, and it revealed itself to be Cat's screaming. The redhead flew toward them, hair like a streak of flame, with ears covered. She asked loudly, "Why did the ground shake?"
"Good question, Cat!" Jade snapped, and Beck saw her muscles tensing. He reached out without asking and began to rub her shoulders, hoping to calm her down. Temporarily, she did stop yelling.
Trina, however, interrupted her peace with a screeching cry: "We're gonna die!"
And Cat started to cry. And Jade started to tense up.
Thankfully, since Beck was still in shock and Robbie was Robbie, André took the initiative and reined them all in together. "All right! We all need to calm down!"
"Yeah! Calm down!" Robbie echoed him.
Jade's head snapped toward the pair of glasses and she said in equal volume, "We're calm! Thank you!"
André and Tori stepped between her and Robbie before an argument sparked. "Okay," Tori interrupted gently. "Okay, I'm going to go find Sgrodis, and we'll find out just how serious-"
Screams erupted as another explosion sounded off, and the lights flickered, and the building shook violently. Jade stumbled back into Beck, and he stumbled back against the wall; Cat and André clung to the walls while Trina and Robbie flailed; and Tori ran down the hallway to find Sgrodis, falling over a few times in the process.
The shaking finally subsided, though in its shock they were all frozen for a good minute afterward. The explosion grew fainter, suggesting that the origin was farther away now - but only once the air was clear did the six of them spring to life again. All but two huddled together to discuss finding a flight back to America overnight; and the two leftover made their own group aside.
"They're never gonna find a flight," Jade muttered, and glanced toward the open bathroom. "I think I'll take my turn now."
"Be careful," he warned as she walked off.
"I know how to pee," she said over her shoulder. The door shut loudly behind her, causing the entire group to jump again.
He sighed, left alone, and leaned back against the wall by the group.
"-a country at war! I can't believe I came with you guys!"
"I can't believe it either."
"Rex!"
"Who are we even at war with?"
"Yerba, silly."
"Cat…"
"-my fault my parents forced me to come with you guys!"
"You threw a golf club at your parents!"
"Like you've never been angry at your grandma?"
"She's got a medicalcondition."
"Hallo, buddies!"
Every head turned at the foreigner's voice, and they stepped back to allow Sgrodis to enter the hallway. Beck stood up straight to see the man shuffling up to them, all nervous smiles and sleepy hair. "I hear you have some qualms about the safety of our country, ah?
He proceeded to run them down with a long speech about explosion radius, war zones, soldier stations, and virtually anything else that could possibly calm them down. Although the girls, and even André, seemed to be more put at ease by his words, Beck was not appeased – but perhaps this was because of the girl in the bathroom.
Soon, Sgrodis had convinced them to try to ignore the explosions, as they would only be sporadic and in the distance – so they continued their routine, and once Jade was finished in the bathroom, Cat took her place.
"What's going on?" she asked, stepping into the hallway. Most of the teens had scattered into their rooms, though Beck and Robbie remained. She glanced between the two curiously; and when she caught Beck's stare again, she added under her breath, "Beck, what?"
He looked at Robbie, who now slid away slightly, and muttered, "We're not leaving."
She sighed. "Great."
"Are you gonna be all right?" he asked nervously, stepping closer.
She shook off his question. "I'll be fine."
Beck didn't respond, but narrowed his eyes in concern. His serious fear disturbed her, and she set her hand on his arm lightly. "I'll be fine," she reiterated. "I'm starting to worry about you, though."
They fell very silent, and as Beck moved in even closer to her, they became very aware of Robbie's presence in the hallway. Beck's plan was to ignore him, but Jade sent an intimidating glare toward the boy and his puppet, until they both averted their heads. Beck had to chuckle at her strategy, and pulled her in for a kiss.
Jade sighed against his lips and slipped her arms around him, drawing him closer; they held onto the moment, and were a few kisses deeper before they were interrupted by the bathroom door. Cat tumbled out into the hallway, catching them there and receiving quick, sharp looks. She blinked at them widely, smiling, and tiptoed past them, to the girls' bedroom. But before she entered, she turned back, and tapped Jade's shoulder. "Jade, are you coming to bed?"
"Yeah," she sighed, looking back at Beck. "Don't sleep next to Robbie," she warned him quietly, and kissed him quickly before releasing him.
Beck winked at her, and let her hands go. "Goodnight."
And he watched her go, leaving him alone with Robbie. Beck turned toward him eventually, and nodded at the empty bathroom. "Go ahead," he offered.
Robbie made some unhelpful comment about how this could be his last pee, but Beck was out of the hall before he could hear the end of it.
Morning would not come swiftly for Beck, although Jade slept like a log. Many times throughout the long night, as bombs fell from the sky and shook the building, Beck wondered how she was doing, and if she was awake. And the moment he woke in the morning, he was determined to get her home as soon as possible.
Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious or its characters.
Dear fandom,
I have returned from the depths.
It's Songbird341 again, after years of absence. In this time, I have written three full-length novels, and am proud to soon release my currently-150,000-word project online in the coming months (under a different account). But I wanted to return to my roots, and I had some old fanfiction I'd never posted – so, unedited and at least a couple of years old, enjoy It's You and Me, a Beck/Jade story which taps into the untapped plot bounty which is Yerba. Expect a few more installments in the coming days, and don't forget to leave reviews! I'd love to hear what you guys think :)
**-Songbird341-**
