Welcome back quite quickly this time to a one shot I actually wrote within these last few days.
As I posted my last one shot and told you to keep save, I thought, you know... Let me turn to art in a more direct way in this situation. Let's have Beck and Jade go through this too.
If the Corona virus already scares you a whole lot and you can barely read the news etc., don't read this fic. It's a scary situation for a lot of people, and that's okay. If it scares you, keep away, watch and read things that have nothing to do with it.
But if you're going crazy at home and want to know that you're not alone, this might help a bit. Because your favorite couple goes through the same thing and tries to cope. ;)
For this one shot I quote this list a few times and refer to it: usatoday com /story/life/health-wellness/2020/03/16/coronavirus-quarantine-100-things-do-while-trapped-inside/5054632002/
If you don't have to work or study a lot at the moment because of the circumstances lists like these might help you to not go insane. Just giving you ideas what to do.
If you have to work or study, do so in the safest way, please.
They skype with their high school friends. They wanted to meet, after months of not spending time all together.
They are at college for about one and half years now and while five of them ended up at the same college (staying in LA while Robbie went to San Francisco), they still have different courses and don't see each other all that often.
They were happy to have found a time for all of them – and then they went into quasi-quarantine. They aren't exactly forbidden to completely stay home, but definitely encouraged. There are no concerts anymore, every shop is closed and only food market are open, there aren't gatherings or alike. College classes got suspended, but they have materials for home. At least a few.
It has only been two weeks but it isn't all that easy.
They don't talk about it at first. They talk about the Corona virus in general, how crazy the world hat gotten, and then about what happened other than that in their lives since they last talked all together.
And then it obviously goes back to the virus because, well, that's what controls all their lives.
"I'm just happy to get to see you all again," Andre says after talking about how an event of his got cancelled because of the situation. He would've gotten paid to play a few of his own songs in a club which is pretty cool. Well. Would've been.
"Yeah," Tori says. "It's too bad we couldn't do this for real. I also have to go now, I think. But this was so nice."
"Are all of you holding up okay?" Beck checks. He guesses they will end the call now and that's the last thing he wants to know. He just wants to make sure, everyone is actually alright and not just pretending.
"Yeah," Robbie answers while Andre shrugs: "We kinda have to, don't we?"
Tori sighs quietly. "Well... I'm happy that I don't live alone but... Me and Matt had a big fight yesterday. We're just going on each other's nerves."
"I get that," Andre says. Beck does too. Gosh, does he get it.
Jade and he live together ever since they moved out of their parent's home (and the RV). They have a nice apartment. That's obviously rather small. They're happy they have a seperate bedroom but it's even smaller than their living space and kitchen which are in one room together.
He loves sharing an apartment with Jade. It never has been too small. Until they suddenly haven't been leaving anymore.
Well, they go grocery shopping and jogging, also apart from each other, but other than that, they are constantly in close proximity to each other. And while they love to have time together, to be close... to suddenly not be allowed anything else, is an awful experience. Like... They do a lot of things. It's not like they are constantly close to fighting. But Beck long noticed both their fuses to have shortened significantly.
Their friends of course also know that Beck and Jade can easily fight on good days, so it's natural for Tori to comment, obviously meaning them: "I'm happy to see you two are doing well."
They're sitting on the couch together, the laptop on the table in front of them, propped up on some stacked books, to give the camera a nicer perspective. Jade's legs are draped upon Beck's lap, they're sitting close together like they so often do.
Yeah, of course they're doing well. They're both happy to talk to their friends, to get a bit of a distraction and another thing to do.
"Who says we are?" Jade retorts. "We're already planning how to kill each other."
It's obviously a joke and it makes everyone chuckle. Beck also grins though maybe he isn't too sure it really a joke. Maybe Jade already is planning on how kill him.
Cat's the one who then confesses abruptly: "I'm just scared."
She has behaved like usual before but does look scared now, terribly.
And it's Jade who's immediately there to calm Cat down, because she loves Cat: "Don't be scared. Just behave smartly. You and your family are staying inside, yes?"
"Yeah," Cat says with a nod.
Her brother, on top of everything else that happened to him, is immunocompromised. They are all worried for him, and for Cat of course. She can't loose her brother.
For a moment, it's silent, before Robbie says, seeing in Cat's face that she might've mentioned it herself but doesn't want to talk further about her fear, now that Jade... reassured her in one way or another: "We just don't know what to do anymore in our apartment. We've done everything we wanted to do."
"Matt actually found a list today with fun things you can do," Tori tells, now getting a bit excited again. "I'll send it to all of you."
"Sounds good," Andre says and he means it. Just having a list with suggestion of things they might not have thought of yet...
Beck and Jade also pretty much already did everything. They watched and rewatched movies they wanted to watch for a long time, they read books that have been waiting on their bedside tables for forever, they made music, exercised with youtube exersising videos, cleaned the apartment thoroughly, played video games and wrote a bit.
They both want to be more creative, write more, maybe draw, take photos. But Beck can't seem to find a good motif to shoot inside the apartment anymore though he usually finds it easy to take great photos of day-to-day things. Jade doesn't feel any happiness or passion when she draws these days. And both don't feel inspired at all to write, though they'd like to do nothing more.
It only has been two weeks but boy, can you get a lot done in two weeks if you have nothing else to do and trying everything to avoid going on each other's nerves.
"Sure," Robbie says, also wanting the list. "We can also make this a regular thing. We all have time on our hands now."
Which is true.
"I'd like that," Cat says, smiling.
"Okay. We'll all text anyway, yes?" Beck checks and everyone can agree on that before they hang up.
.
.
Jade stares at the screen, even after the chat has ended.
Beck knows what she's thinnking about. They're all worried about the others but especially about Cat and her family. And Jade likes to act all disconnected sometimes, all cold and non-caring, but she really isn't like that, not when it's about the people she cares about. And damn, doesshe care about Cat and her family.
"Cat's brother will be okay," Beck tries to reassure her. He has to be. And the Valentine's are doing everything to ensure that. Worrying doesn't actually help them.
He wants to pull her even closer, though she already is sitting on top of him, but she pulls away, taking her legs from her lap and scooting down the couch. "You don't know that," she says, viciously
Okay, he doesn't. He can't. Nobody knows it and he knows that Jade hates him acting as if he does. She hates people pretending everything will be alright when she's sure it won't be.
He also hates it at times, but is still so used to speaking like this, even after being together with Jade for so many years.
Jade usually still knows that he means well and isn't directly reacting like this, so viciously.
But there is her short fuse.
He takes a deep breath to not react badly too. They can't fight. Not really. They still should be home at the end of the day and have to be in this apartment most of the time. Together.
And they sometimes just spend a few days in the apartment and barely leave, even when there is no apocalyptic virus going around, just because they want to. But it's a totally different thing to choose this kind of life or to be made to live like this – especially as neither of them likes to do as they are told. They can totally spend days and days alone with each other and enjoy it – but not if they can't really choose anything else.
And they tried to do all the things they love already, to distract themselves from the situation. They had great times in between. But it's getting harder.
So he's glad when both their phones vibrate for an incoming massage and he finds that Tori has texted the promised list of things to do into their group chat.
Jade doesn't even pick up her phone, can already guess it's a message in a group they're both in and that Beck'll tell her what it's about as he takes his phone from the couch table and checks it.
"Ah, here's the list Tori wanted to send," he says. "Okay, let me see..." He clicks on the link and quickly reads the introduction before he starts with the list, reading aloud for Jade to hear: "First: Complete a puzzle."
There's more to the first point but he doesn't get any further. Jade already interrupts him: "Ugh, no."
Okay, then no kind of puzzle. Not that he particularly likes puzzles...
"Second," he continues down the list. "Start a journal or blog."
Again, he gets interrupted: "Ugh. What could we write? Today, I stayed inside again?"
Yeah, okay, she has sort of a point. "I guess there's nothing else to write." He gets to the next point that asks them to practice an instrument.
Jade doesn't look sold on that idea either. "We've already made a lot of music."
"Which was fun," Beck notices because it was. Maybe they could make more music. Maybe they could compose something, learn new instruments or challenge each other on piano, guitar and singing.
But Jade's mood seems to worsen and... well. It's not a totally new idea.
He continues reading from the list: "Fourth: Text all your exes..."
He hasn't even finished the word 'exes' fully, when Jade already cuts through, harshly: "If you get the idea to text any girl you ever went on a date with, I'm out." And with that she means, she's out forever, she'll break up.
Yeah, okay. Honestly: If she would suddenly start texting other guys she ever has been interested in, like Moose, he would also raise hell.
So he doesn't comment and instead reads the next point with suggests poetry, especially a haiku.
"No," Jade says but she at least has waited for him to finish reading the whole thing.
"It's an idea," he says. They haven't tried writing poetry yet.
Jade rolls her eyes though and speaks, again, very harshly and counting the syllables of her haiku on her fingers: "I'll give you a haiku:
Haikus are so dumb
Everyone gets bored by them
You are boring too."
"Great, thanks," he spits out.
Why does she have to be like this? Why does she have to insult him? And why can't she just... work with any of these suggestions?
Jade presses her lips together for a moment, they glare at each other, then Jade pointedly says: "Just get to the next point." Yeah, because they can't talk any more about that haiku thing or it would get out of hand.
So, he reads the next point about watching movies you've avoided until now.
"Been there, done that," Jade notices in a bored tone of voice.
Which is true, but... They could watch more movies. Maybe could ask their friends for their must-sees.
But he won't argue with her right now. There will be a suggestion on this list that she'll like, right?
The seventh point is about learning a language and she doesn't look excited about it but she also isn't protesting.
He makes a mental note for later that this could be something to do, before he reads aloud the eigth point which is about reading books like "Les Miserables."
She also doesn't comment on that but she does roll her eyes. He gets it. They did already read a lot.
He continues: "Ninth: Meditate."
This time, she interrupts again before he can read the whole point: "No! I will die bored!"
Well, okay...
"Tenth: Face masks, moisturizer, oh my! Treat yourself to a 10-step skin care routine" – "Did that," she cuts through him.
Yeah, she actually has done a lot of face masks lately. He did a few with her to do something. It was relaxing and they had fun. But yeah, it's also not a new idea for them.
The eleventh point is a short one: Looking a pictures of puppies.
"Then what?" Jade asks and as Beck doesn't have an answer to that, also doesn't know how that will fill any noticeable amount of time, he just continues with the list.
The twelvth point is about putting together the most attracive charcuterie board possible.
Jade only shrugs when he looks at her after reading that aloud. Okay, so that's another idea to save for later, he guesses.
The thirteenth point refers to activities from Tangled's Rapunzel, the first one being ventriloquy, and of course Jade has to immediately interrupt: "I will kill you!"
Obviously he won't do ventriloquy. That had enough of that with Rex (who started to stay home during their senior year and then suddenly was never to be seen again, luckily). Robbie still does ventriloquy every now and then and it's funny but... yeah, they don't need that in their home.
There are other suggestions in this point though, other activties of Rapunzel, but with Jade's reactions, he gets unnerved by this whole thing too and he jumps directly to the next point: "Fourteenth: Write actual letters to family and friends."
And Jade has to interrupt him again: "Why? We talk to them too much already? Ugh!"
They do talk too them a lot, more than before this virus. Everyone is worried and also bored at home, so they talk a lot. Which totally is annoying. Beck loves his parents but also finds it encasing to talk to his parents half an hour every day. He still does with the situation being as it is. He therefore gets how Jade is feeling but...
"Can't you just... like..." he starts, exhausted by this whole exercise. "These are ideas, okay? We aren't supposed to take up everything but maybe we can get inspired."
Jade isn't having any of it: "These are stupid suggestions!
Well, and Beck also has enough. "Maybe, you just have a stupid attitude!"
"Fuck you, Beck!" Jade spits out before getting up and leaving the room altogether for the bedroom, throwing the door shut behind her.
He sighs. He isn't following her. They both need to cool down. Usually he would follow her, usually she probably wouldn't even have left, and there would be a good chance of them actually fighting for real before one of them would leave the apartment. As soon as they would come back, they would probably fight some more before somehow getting into a hard make-out session.
But neither should leave the apartment, so they can't do it. They both know they can't get into it like that at the moment.
.
.
After a while, Beck takes up his laptop and goes online for a while. He doesn't look at the news. Both Jade and he decided to only look at the news twice a day – after waking up and after dinner. It just got too much with both of them looking at their twitter feed the whole day, reading all the bad news every minute.
Well, but as he's thinking about the news and how they'll look at them after dinner, he notices it's almost time for that. He can already start cooking. They make a plan what to eat for a week, to not have to go grocery shopping every other day. So he doesn't even have to ask Jade what she's in the mood for.
He puts the laptop back on the table and wants to stand up when Jade comes back into the room.
She doesn't really look at him but drops a folded piece of paper into his lap before walking to the kitchen area, saying: "I'll go start dinner."
He looks after her before picking up the piece of paper and unfolding it. It reads like a letter.
"Beck,
"I know that you're just trying to make the best of the situation and really try finding us something to do. I know the situation is going on your nerves as much as it's going on mine. Thank you for dealing with it better."
Beck can't believe she actually thanked him. Even on paper for it to be seen forever. Though, honestly, he wouldn't say he's dealing with all of this better than she is. He has definitely said a lot of things over the last week that were bad and that Jade took in her stride like she normally wouldn't.
He even recognizes a 'sorry' in between the lines, a sorry for the actually bad attitude about the list.
"I get that you keep us from killing each other. But honestly? What I would really enjoy doing is actually thinking of ways for us to kill each other."
Beck immediately grins. Okay, yes, that would be fun. It was a throwaway comment by Jade in the video chat with their friends but they are both into gory things and... why not? Other people would surely be horrified but they both know that they would never actually hurt each other.
"I do like the idea of getting more into poetry. Maybe some really dark one. And you know what I would like to read? A twisted script by you."
Beck has tried to write over the last few days and didn't feel able to, just like Jade. But seeing her words about how she wants to read a twisted script by him... he suddenly feels much more motivated to write one, feels even a bit inspired.
"I also liked the idea of learning languages, but only fun or bad words. So we're able to say 'fuck you' in 100 languages."
His grin gets wide. Why not? That sounds like a fantastic idea to him.
"I don't want to do stupid things to have anything to do. I want us to do things we actually enjoy. How about you come into the kitchen with that stupid list and we take each point and twist it into something fitting for us, like dark things, weird sex stuff and activities that actually make us laugh.
"Jade"
He looks up and to her but she doesn't return his look. She's standing in the kitchen now, cutting up vegetables, acting like he isn't even there. Well, because she opened up to him and that's still not easy for her.
He puts the piece of paper aside, picks up his phone instead, gets up and walks over to Jade. He hugs her from behind before whispering: "I love you so much." He does. He does love her so damn much.
"I love you, too," Jade gently responds, leaning back into him.
He nuzzles his face into the crook of her neck, then kisses it, before he asks with a smirk: "So... What will we twist the puzzle one into?"
Jade actually thinks about it as she slowly responds: "Well, puzzles are about piecing things together, right? A jigsaw puzzle is about creating something. Huh... How about we piece all our pillows and blankets together to build a pillow fort?"
Oh, really?
He claims: "And I was thinking you would think of our bodies as puzzle pieces and turn it into some sex thing."
Jade turns around in his arms, smirking. "You wish."
"I do," he nods with a grin. "But a pillow fort sounds awesome! You really wanna build one?"
"Hell, yes!" Jade says.
Beck never would've guessed that Jade would be into building a pillow fort. Seems like they still learn new things about each other, and great ones at that.
He can't wait to find even more great things to do with the help of this list while staying inside, keeping save, not just themselves but everyone around them too.
It's not easy but Beck knows they'll get through it. Because they are not alone in this.