Author's Note: This one is... meh. But I had a huge test to study for! Please forgive me!

Character(s): Robbie, Tori, Trina

Pairing(s): Rori friendship, I suppose.

December 14th, 2011

"How is a machine that sprays artificial foam so heavy?" Robbie panted, yanking on the large device he had gotten to help Trina flock her tree.

He still thought it didn't sound right.

He was right outside the door, so he yanked on the hose a few more times so he could hold onto it and ring the doorbell at the same time. After a moment, the door opened and Robbie was greeted by not Trina, but Tori. "Um, hi Robbie." Tori's brows scrunched in confusion. "What are you doing here? And... And what's that?"

"This?" Robbie patted the large metal box and told her, "This is a flocking machine."

"... Do you not remember that my dad's a cop?"

Robbie shook his head and said, "No no, a FLOCKing machine! This is gonna put fake snow on your tree!"

"... Oh." Tori's horrified expression faded and she slowly stepped out of the way. "Come in."

Robbie tugged the heavy machinery into the Vega home, and Tori thankfully helped him push it in and lift it off the wheeled base before she shut the door. "So why are you helping my sister flock our tree?"

Robbie stopped playing with the hose and looked back up at Tori. "She asked me to help her."

"Why? Trina doesn't like you."

Yeah, sure. That didn't hurt his feelings. "I asked her to help me look for Rex the other day and this was the only way I could get her to agree to help me. That, and get her a tuna wrap."

Tori raised an eyebrow and sat on the couch, gesturing for Robbie to join her. "And why couldn't she have gotten her own tuna wrap?"

As he sat down, he shrugged. "Festus refused to give her one because of the time she yanked him out of his truck and broke his tamale making arm."

"... But you yanked him out too."

Robbie scratched his head. "Huh. Yeah, I did... Maybe he just likes me better than Trina."

"With Trina, it's entirely possible."

Speak of the devil, Trina Vega walked down the steps and, once she saw Robbie was there, stopped on the bottom step and let out a sigh of frustrated relief. "Finally! You're late!"

"I'm here three minutes earlier than you told me to be here."

"Well, you should have known I meant sooner!" Trina walked around the humongous tree that Robbie had somehow failed to notice and down to him and Tori. Her anger slightly faded as she noticed the foreign device that was in the middle of her living room. "Is this the flocker?"

"Yep!" Robbie got up and patted the machine. "I borrowed it from my uncle Charlie. That guy sure does love to flock."

"Okay, great," Trina said, inspecting the machine with great care, as if she thought it was going to explode. "We'll just get it up by the tree and then we can get started." With one last tap to the metal, Trina went back up onto the higher level of the living room and started up the steps again.

"Where are you going?" Robbie asked, holding his hands up in a confused and exasperated gesture. "You said we-"

"Well, I can't help with that part! I just got a spray tan and I can't do stuff that'll get me all sweaty when it's still fresh," Trina explained, running a hand along her perfectly tanned cheek.

Tori clearly wasn't buying it. "You did not just get a spray tan! And you're half-Latina, why would you even need-"

"I can't hear you over the sound of my spray tan!" Trina cried, running up the steps and down the hall as fast as she could. As if that wouldn't have made her all sweaty.

Robbie didn't look pleased, and Tori just looked like she had seen that coming. She was the one who had lived with Trina all her life, after all.

She hadn't really planned on helping decorate, since she wasn't really in the spirit to do anything jolly, but Robbie was sweet enough to come help and bring them a flocking machine. She'd feel bad leaving him to do all the work.

His life was already suckish enough.

They began scooting the flocking machine over to the steps and, as they did so, Tori decided to talk about something that had been on her mind since yesterday. "Hey, Robbie, can I ask you something?"

"Is it about the Spice Girls?"

"... No."

Robbie shrugged and tugged on the flocking hose once again. "I guess I could still try and answer it."

Tori, pushing the machine on the carpeted floors from behind, let out a groan of distress before saying, "So, I have this... friend. A really close friend. I think this friend likes someone that is off limits to them in multiple ways."

Robbie gave her a strange look. "Uh huh..."

"And if this friend keeps having these feelings for this certain person, then it could ruin an entire group of friends' relationships and just be plain janky." Tori gave a great shove to the flocker and looked back at Robbie. "What should I do about my... friend?"

"... Is this your way of telling me you love me?"

Tori probably should have looked more surprised by that, but she honestly wasn't. Robbie was such a... special guy. "No."

Robbie frowned, but didn't look all that disappointed. "I expected as much."

They had managed to shove it halfway up the steps and only needed to go a little further to get it up by the tree. But even though Tori was far stronger than Robbie, she was starting to have difficulty pushing such a heavy hunk of metal uphill. However, when she almost had it-

"Those had better be grunts of accomplishment I hear!" a voice cried from upstairs. She heard stomping and pretty soon, Trina was stomping back down the steps. "Come on, you two! We need to flock up that tree before Mom and Dad-"

While she had been lecturing them, Robbie had gripped tighter onto the flocking hose to get it to budge. In the process, he pulled the lever on the hose and launched a flocking lot of fake snow into her face.

Robbie instantly shut off the hose and looked as if he was going to pee himself. Tori almost thought he did.

At least she managed to get the flocker up the steps.

"Tr-Trina..." Robbie managed to stutter, looking absolutely mortified. "I am s-so sorry, that was an accident, please don't hurt me-"

Trina, who had been frozen in foamy horror, didn't move but slowly said, "Just get me a flock rag before I shove that hose in your pants and flock 'em up, will you?"

Robbie could only nod as he ran off into the kitchen to find a rag that would be appropriate for removing flock.

Tori just stood there, biting back laughter as her sister tried to wipe the flock out and away from her eyes.

At least that distracted her from freaking out over her thoughts of Andre being in love with Jade again.

If only she really knew what was going on.

And if only Robbie knew what a flock rag looked like.