Just FYI - I'm basing this entire interaction off of The Georgia Aquarium cause it's the biggest one I've been to.

Chapter 7. Afternoon Blues

"I'm driving on the way back." Jade stated as they piled out of the car at the aquarium.

"Just open the trunk, please," the muffled whine of Robbie's voice rang out.

Cat walked to the back of the car and pulled the release lever, effectively revealing the trapped teen.

"Ok guys, it is 12:04, and the aquarium closes at 6:30," Tori was looking at the pamphlet, "That gives us enough time to do almost everything."

They all made their way to the entrance, getting a picture in front of the wall of jellyfish. They set off in the direction of the Tropical Diver.

Cat took Tori and Robbies hands and ran ahead, the bright colors bouncing off of their skin.

Jade walked after them, a faint smile on her face.

Andre and Beck hung back, attempting to walk through the exotic tanks like men, with only mild interest.

Jade was secretly a huge science nerd, and she found herself stopping to read all of the informational plaques. It didn't take long for her to fall behind the rest of the pack.

She almost jumped as someone spoke next to her, "I would have never pegged you to be one for nature."

Jade snapped her head over to the masculine voice, and she was met with a charming smile from a bearded teen leaning towards her. She looked him up and down, semi alarmed, "Um, excuse me?"

The guy stood up straight, still smiling, "I said, I would have neve-"

Jade cut him off, "I know what you said, I just don't know why you're saying it."

The guy gave her a rude look, "What? I saw a hot girl and she's alone, most women would be excited."

"Ok, well I'm not so leave me alone." Jade said venomously.

"Jeez, whats's your fucking problem." He spat back, turning away from her.

"You are, obviously!" She glared as he moved away, all of a sudden realizing that Tori was standing a few feet away.

Jade's glare softened as she saw her, watching her walk closer.

"Nice," Tori said standing next to Jade as she continues,"he's right though."

Jade shrugged before she frowned, "Wait, what"

"I would have never pe-hmm no- I would have never guessed you were a nature person." Tori caught herself.

Jade grinned at the almost mishap, "There's a lot you don't know about me, Vega."

Tori held her hands up in surrender, "Yeah, not for a lack of trying though."

Jade jokingly mocked her inaudibly.

"No, but seriously, I was worried about you so I came to see what trouble you had caused and I was not disappointed. You really put fear into that guy."

"Oh please, he was horrible, and very much not my type." Jade looked at Tori with a smirk.

"Your type, huh?" Tori looked at the tank they were standing in front of, "Listen Jade," she paused, "I'm thinking we need to talk. I don't know if I can handle the whiplash of this until Nozu's, so what do you say we go to the shark exhibit while the others go to the dolphin show. I know dolphins aren't your favorite, and maybe we could take some food and sit for a bit."

Jade winced. Tori had said this was like whiplash, and she couldn't blame her. She risked a glance over to the brunette whose cheekbones glowed with the colorful glow of the lights. She saw a small smile form on her face.

"Take a picture, Jade, it'll last longer." Tori looked at her smirking, mocking her slightly from the morning interaction.

Jade's eyebrows shot up in surprise, the sudden lightness in the air was more than welcomed. She pulled her phone out, making quick work of pulling up the camera app, and snapping a picture of the startled face.

Jade stuck her tongue out, with a self satisfied face, "Don't mind if I do Vega."

Tori quickly stepped closer and shoved her, "Not fair!" she pouts.

"You told me to." Jade waved the phone in her face.

"God, you're infuriating." Tori stepped back, " I need food if I'm going to deal with you and your...you-ness. Let's go." She turned and started walking away, turning back to becken Jade.

"You're so bossy." Jade mumbled grumpily, fighting a grin as she followed her.

The Dolphin Show started at 1:30, giving them about 30 minutes to grab food as a group and still manage to make it to the theatre.

The line for the food court was ridiculous, but they were all starting to get hangry and decided it would be worth it to get eating lunch out of the way.

The line took 20 minutes, and they only managed to find a single two-seater table to set all of their food down on, but the rushed awkwardness of it made it almost unbearable.

Tori spoke up, "Hey, why don't yall finish eating here and then go watch the show. I think me and Jade are going to go hit up the sharks," she took a bite of her chicken tender.

Beck and Andre flashed her a surprised look, and Cat and Robbie paused their conversation about the penguins to look confused.

Jade just nodded, trying to play it cool, "Tori remembered I don't like dolphins."

Tori blinked at her, "Right, yeah, I didn't want her to freak about the dolphins."

Beck snickered sensing the truth, but tried to cover his outburst, "Jade, how do you hate dolphins, but like sharks?"

"Who are you, my mother?" Jade stiffened, "Maybe we should go ahead and go, Tori. The feeding is at 1:30 too, and it's a further walk to that side of the aquarium."

Tori frowned, "What fee-"

"Tori! Lets go, now," Jade grabbed her soft pretzel with one hand and Tori's arm in the other.

The singer's eyes went wide, grabbing a handful of her remaining fries as she was pulled away forcefully.

There was a lot of resistance at first as Tori fought her groaning, "Jaaaaaaaddeeeeeee."

Jade didn't slow down until they had gotten past the opening, finally relaxing her iron grip as the lighting grew darker and more ominous.

Mulling over her reaction after the fact, she slowly turned around to the glaring face behind her.

"Really. REeeeallly?" Tori shook her head and then blew past her, walking deeper into the dark blue tunnels.

Slowly, Jade followed her. She acknowledged that she definitely freaked in the moment, and she wasn't quite ready to hear Tori's, more-than-likely, level headed words about it.

When she finally caught up to her, Tori was sitting on a bench looking up to the slow sand tiger shark moving past. She walked up to the bench slowly, the sitting girl patted the spot next to her without looking up.

Jade sighed as she sat, "Look Tori, I-"

Tori cut her off with a hand, "Whiplash."

There was silence for a few moments. Another shark swam close again, this time a hammer head.

When Jade spoke again, her voice uncharacteristically wavered a little, "You ever feel like the antagonist in your own story?"

Tori looked at her immediately confused, "What?"

Jade stayed watching the sharks, taking her time to respond, and Tori waited.

"Every time I feel like I take one step forward, I take two steps back. I did it with Beck, now to you. It's like I'm incapable of not self destructing when things are good. If this was a play I was writing, I wouldn't want anything to do with me either." Jade sounded miserable in her own little pit of despair.

Reaching over, Tori grabbed her hand, staying quiet. She rubbed small, comforting circles on the back of her hand.

Another shark came and went.

"Does Andre know?" Jade asked bluntly, breaking the lack of conversation.

"About what?" The circles stopped.

"Me?" Jade barely whispered.

Tori laughed, and if it wasn't a shitty moment to do so Jade would have thought it sounded gorgeous.

"You were afraid I had outed you? Is that why you've been such a gank about all of this?" Tori was still trying to stop laughing after having realized it probably wasn't a good time for it.

"I'm serious Tori, does he know?" Jade questioned again.

"Of course not, that's yours to tell, and I wouldn't do that to you."

Jade exhaled in relief.

"But," Jade tensed back up at Tori's continuation, "he's known about me. And if I'm honest, he's mentioned several times that he thinks we'd be good together. Like a long time ago, back after our fake date, he was like," She gave her best Andre impression, "You know Tor, I could see it. Yeah, yeah I could see it." Jade laughed at that, and Tori felt fuzzy knowing she was why. "That was probably the key piece when it clicked for me though. I didn't hide it from him for long either, especially since I blamed his comments for the revelation that I totally had a crush on you. So no, I didn't tell him, but he's known you longer than he's known me. Him and Cat both, they may not know-know, but they might know. Robbie, not so much." She ended with a questioning look before pulling Jades arm closer to her, and laying her head down on Jade's shoulders.

A moment of thoughts lapsed before Jade inhaled dramatically, "That's almost exactly what Beck said." She sighed out the excess air.

"Smart man."

"Whatever," Jade rolled her eyes," I just wish knowing that helped me. But here I am being a little bitch about it."

"Which part? Which 'It' are we talking about?" Tori looked to her again.

"Eh, you know, all of it. But mainly me, and us, or rather the lack thereof."'

"You are the one going back and forth. Although I would be lying if I said I haven't enjoyed some of the banter. You backing down was the HIGHLIGHT of my date. Errr, day I mean." Tori blushed.

Jade squeezed the hand that held hers, and Tori feld better.

"I'm sorry I'm all over the board, emotional whiplash is the last thing I want to give you. I think I just really don't like the idea of having to come out to people. Friends or otherwise." Jade shrugged.

"So don't." Tori looked at her somewhat lazily.

"What?"

"Don't come out. Just be out." Tori said, "Let them figure it out, but don't….hide from yourself. It doesn't go away- Trust me."

"I don't know Tori, I'm not you. Beelieve it or not, confidence has always been a 'fake it till you make it' thing with me, and that sounds like a big dose of it.

"I will back whatever play you think you want to make in this, but the game isn't forever. I like you, you know that- I hope anyways- but I'm not going to just wait forever for you to figure it out." Tori felt like she sounded harsh, but this was Jade, and regardless of whether she was being a softie or not she was a big girl who could handle her shit.

Jade's face scrunched, "I know."

Tori bumped their shoulders, "All you need is 20 seconds of courage."

Jade rolled her eyes, "Barf, that is such a sappy movie."

"You know We bought a Zoo?" Torri squeezed her arm maybe a little too tight.

"Vega!"

"Ope, sorry. I got excited. I didn't know you had seen it. I didn' think you liked that kind of stuff." Tori apologized sheepishly.

"I already told you, there's a lot you don't know about me." Jade bumped her shoulder back.

"Maybe I want to know more then." Tori sat up leaning closer, peering at her with defiance.

Maybe it was the conversation, or maybe the blue toned environment, or the other girl's boldness getting to the goth, but Jade set her jaw with determination. She swallowed, and her eyes darted to Tori's lips.

Tori saw it happen, a smirk ghosted across her mouth, and she made a very slow show of licking her lips.

Jade got the hint, and in a moment they were kissing, eyes closed, transported far away from the aquarium.

It wasn't some passion filled, raging, over the top show, but it was enough to satisfy the itch of the moment. She felt Tori smiling into the kiss, and it was impossible not to return it. She pulled away, immediately noticing the sappy grin plastered on both of their faces.

"See, was that so hard?" Tori teased before she initiated another kiss herself.

Not long after, both of their phones buzzed.

Show's over- where y'all at?- Beck

Jade groaned at her ex-boyfriends message, "No, let's just ignore it."

Tori smiled and leaned to kissed her cheek, "Nah, we gotta. But it'll be ok, I still get to be with you later, so i'm not as upset as I could be." After the peck, she flashed an uncertain face, "There is a later right? You're not going to do and say all of this here just to dry me out again are you?"

Jade hesitated, "I...promise to try not to do that. I would very much like a later as well."

Tori seemed satisfied with this response, and responded to the text.

Meet y'all by the sea lions?

Jade pouted, not wanting to leave their secluded space.

Tori stood up, "C'mon pouty, we have friends to hang out with, too."

Jade stood up reluctantly, following Tori once again through the shark tunnels.

The exhibit ended right outside the Sea Lion Cove, and they immediately spotted Cat's red hair from the crowd.

Andre noticed them first, pointing the rest over to them.

'20 seconds West, like a bandaid, just do it, it's no big deal.' Jade thought to herself before taking two larger steps to catch back up with Tori.

Their friends were all now fully visible, and Jade resolved herself at that moment to rip off the bandaid.

She slipped her hand into Tori's as they continued walking, Tori glancing at her as soon as she did it, and Jade gave her a 'here goes nothing' kind of smile. Tori bit her lip subtly and intertwined their fingers.

"20 second, remember?" Jade whispered hastily as they closed the distance to their friends.

Tori had a big smile in response to that.

They slowed their walk on approach, seeing some raised eyebrows in the group.

"Freaking finally, Jeez. I was starting to doubt if it would ever happen," Robbie said first, successfully shocking the entire group.

"You knew, too!?" Jade exclaimed.

"Oh, for like, ever. You're not subtle in the slightest guys, what did you expect?" The shit eating grin stretched across his face was enough to make Jade want to kill him, but the relief of the moment quickly dissipated any of those thoughts.

NOTE:

Yay:D I think I'm satisfied with this.

So, unless I just get a lot of /want/ for me to continue- which is unlikely cause I feel like commenting on a fic is an old school thing nowadays - I feel like this is an ok-ish stopping point.

But yeah, Thanks for joining me!