Disclaimer. I still don't own Victorious or any of the characters. I couldn't even find a place to put in a bid, and I doubt they'd sell it for just a quarter.

:}

Trina got home to find her father sitting in the living room, waiting. 'Dad's here instead of clocking more hours with his unit, never a good sign.' she thought.

"So tell me why you felt the need to set your sister up with this Jade?" He said, using that fake calm voice that she knew meant he was upset, but was trying to portray control. It was strangely intimidating.

"I need her. I mean I need Jade. I mean, she's going to help me. I kinda talked to her last week, and we went over some chiz." Trina started. 'Why the fudge is it freaking me out that he's listening? I wish I could have found out what Tori told him this morning.'

The night before, when they got caught talking about what had happened with Jade, Trina told her father they'd talk in the morning, but at that moment she had to get some rest so she could be on time to help teach the her class. Tori was left holding the bag, explaining everything to their father. Then, this morning, Trina left early, just to avoid a lengthy discussion. She'd been hoping she could avoid this talk until she had a chance to confer with Tori, get their stories straight. Now she had to face her father without knowing what Tori had told him. In desperate times, she fell back on the only weapon she had that had a prayer of working. 'It's almost ironic, when the best choice of what to tell your parents is the truth.'

"Dad, I need you to understand, I was desperate. I had no one who I could trust not to judge me, or worse, placate me. Jade's mean, but she's often honest as well. Once she was assigned as my black belt trainer, and thus kinda my mentor, I decided to risk it and ask her some questions. She was so helpful, giving me options to chase my dreams that had a real chance of happening, but it also meant I was more dependent on her." Trina said. 'God, could I sound more pathetic?'

"So you decided to set her up with your own sister?" The Vega patriarch asked.

"Hay, I made sure there was a mutual attraction first. Jade isn't out of the closet yet, but she's definitely interested. I talked to Tori about it one day, asking if she was interested, and she kinda took the initiative on her own from there. And just so you know, I'm doing this to help Jade. She was so distraught about her personal issues she was actually scaring the guys at the center. They said she acted like she had nothing left to lose. I'm giving her a reason to live." Trina felt a lot of power in those words. Somehow, she was sure that the altruistic nature of her machinations would absolve her of all wrongdoings.

"I can understand that your motives are partially noble, but that doesn't excuse your lying and trying to trick Jade into dating your sister. The worst part is, we're in so deep the best thing is to keep going." David Vega said. "I know you think this is selfless, and I agree the selfish parts aren't as bad as they'd make you seem. I just think you should have talked to me, or your mother, or someone." He stood up, finally moving from his seat on the couch. "Trina, I wouldn't have approved of how you did it, but I would have given you options that I felt would have worked."

"Just to be clear, you're not freaked out by Tori wanting to kiss a girl?" Trina asked.

"No, not after all these years in the LAPD. While it was a shock, I can handle having a gay child. I had that whole conversation with Tori last night, and into this morning. No, I'm okay with it now. It's the other parts, the plotting and manipulation that worries me. Look, honey, I just don't think it's healthy to be playing games with other peoples emotions." He said. "I'm going to have to punish you, but not until I meet your new guy. In the meantime, just think about what your doing."

"Okay, I'll think about it, but I'm calling BS on your not plotting or manipulating. I'm pretty sure you and mom weren't an arranged marriage. That means you dated, and that means there were plots and manipulations and all kinds of mind games. So I'll take my punishment, cause I'm sure I let this spin out of control, and I probably started it out of selfish reasons. Just cut the Chiz about not playing games." Trina ranted.

"So what time will the victim be here?" Her father calmly asked.

"About Two. She's having lunch with her brother." Trina replied. "Scotty will be here by one, and so will Andre and possibly Crystal Waters."

"Don't invite too many people, keep is small, and have a good reason why everyone is here." David said.

'Is he helping me?' Trina thought. "Are you helping?"

"I'm just making sure my childrens actions don't piss off a world class MMA fighter." He said. "Besides, I've been getting great reports about the two of you from the Center. Gary says you had fifty people today."

'Does he sound...Proud?' Trina thought. She spent a few moments trying to remember the last time he'd sounded that way talking about her. Even her job for the Spanish Language Chanel hadn't made him proud. By the time she realized he was proud of her, he'd already gone. She vaguely remembered him saying something about a barbeque, and then he slipped away.

Jade was home getting changed, still going over her brothers offer. 'I get through school with no more fighting, and he'll make sure college is paid for.' she thought. 'I get to be whatever I want to be, but no more putting my life at risk unless I'm willing to play by their rules.' It was a tempting offer. 'Of course I'll take it. I should take it, just to guarantee Adams in my life.'

Jade finished preparing for her afternoon. She'd packed her gi, even though she'd rather run the exercised in sweats, because there had to be a discipline to the whole thing. Jade also brought her sweats, and a swimsuit, because she knew she'd need both. Finally, she had what was left of her homework, in case she had a chance to do it. Once everything was packed up, she took it to her car and headed towards the Vega household. 'Now we deal with the whole almost kissed a girl issue. If it works out, then maybe I'll tell big brother who I'm dating.' Jade was nervous. She didn't expect to win back her brothers affection so quickly, but was refusing to question that bit of luck. Now she had more to lose, and was heading into s situation where she could well lose Trina's help if it went wrong. 'The hard part is getting Vega alone to talk this out.' Jade glanced at her school work.

The Vega household was very busy trying to look inconspicuous. Andre was working with Tori on the next few songs for the musical. In a strange way it was perfectly timed, since these songs would probably need some input form Jade, her insight helping them fit better with her flow of the story. These were the comedy songs, and unless they risked asking Robbie, who no one thought was that funny outside of the times when he was willing to totally embarrass himself, they would need Jade. The two were still making some progress since Trina showed up, the elder sister seeming to have some grasp of comedy.

"It's kinda sad, once I'd have thought this chiz was serious drama." Trina said. Tori could tell that her sister had changed, just in the last two weeks. It wasn't much, but to family it was obvious. Trina was able to help them, just a bit, by tweaking the words to give the song more comedic punch.

Then Scotty showed up, and the songwriters were left on their own again. The future cop took the time to say hi, then went with Trina to introduce himself to Mister Vega. "Officer Vega? Hi, I'm Scotty Pierson, and I'm hoping you'll be willing to let me continue to date your daughter." He introduced himself. Trina sat their, far less nervous than she'd ever been before when introducing her date. Scotty screamed boyfriend material, and she knew he'd pass inspection. She listened as her father gave her boyfriend the quick interrogation, reminding the boy he was a police officer. Scotty spoke about his own desires to join the force. By the time Jade arrived twenty five minutes later, the two men seemed to be bonding.

"Trina, get dressed. We've got a lot to cover today, and we're going to be putting grass stains on your outfit, so get dressed and lets get going." Jade started.

"Jade, can we talk?" Tori asked. "I mean, while we're waiting for Trina to change?"

"I kinda need to get changed too." Jade replied.

'Get it over quickly. Andre told me, we almost kissed so it's best to deal with it now.' Tori thought. "Jade, I don't know how to bring this up..."

"She almost kissed Jade?" Scotty's voice cut through the conversation. Both girls looked towards Mister Vega's office, then each other.

"I didn't tell him. I mean, he put camera's out, surveillance, when one of us has a hot date. Trina had a hot date. Anyways, he recorded the whole thing." Tori said as quickly as she could. Then slower. "He's cool with it. We already talked it out."

"So this won't make thing awkward for you?" Jade asked. "I mean, we're working together on the musical, and I'm helping Trina, and it could be uncomfortablmmmffff."

'Oh my holey fudging CHIZ. Her lips are soft, and I'M KISSING THEM!' Tori thought. She couldn't believe she did it, even as she kissed Jade. It was like she just acted, and while it cut though a lot of the tension between them, they still had a lot to do.

Jade, for her part was initially shocked. 'What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?" Raced through her mind. 'I have to do something. I know!' Jade wrapped her arms around Tori's neck and deepened the kiss. Jade didn't think again, just focusing on the kiss, until the urgent need for air broke them apart. "Tori," Jade gasped, Then in a more controlled tone "I need to get changed. Can we talk about this later?"

"No. I mean yes, we can talk, but I need to ask you now, would you like to go out with me? Maybe even jump to being my girlfriend?" Tori forced out. "Think about it, and when your done teaching Trina, we can talk." Tori turned, blushing so hard she was afraid she was glowing. She swung her hips a little harder as she started to walk back to where Andre was sitting at the kitchen table, only to stop just shy of him. "Oh and Jade," She said, turning to look over her shoulder. "Andre and I could use some help on the lyrics to a couple of songs."

:}

A day late due to a guinea pig emergency, and it wasn't even my guinea pig.

Reviews would make me feel better.