Disclaimer: The show Victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.

Frustrations and Assumptions

No one's POV

It was just past 3 in the afternoon on a Saturday and Tori was sitting on her bed, fully clothed, just staring out the window. The normally happy Tori, at this moment, looked anything but. In fact, to anyone observing, she'd look quite depressed.

A second later, her phone began to ring. Looking down she could see it was Jade.

"Might as well." Tori, sighed.

Picking up the phone, Tori paused for a moment and then answered.

"Hey."

"What the deal Vega. Your audition ended hours ago. You didn't call or text me, telling me how it went."

"I have a name you know!" Tori quipped, somewhat bitterly. "It's Tori if you don't remember. But you're my girlfriend, so I shouldn't really have to remind you of that."

Jade paused for a moment, to consider her next words as it was now quite clear that things had not gone as well as Tori hoped.

"Tori." Jade said calmly. "You sound upset. Please tell me how it went."

"Went?" Tori said with a scoff. "I went, needing Trina to drive me as you wanted to get that book signed by that horror author who was going to be appearing at that bookstore this morning. Of course, her price was that I have to do her chores for a week."

"Look Tori, I'm sorry, I shou…."

Tori cut her off. "I went. I auditioned, having practiced my lines and had it down perfectly. But you know who got the part?"

"No."

"TRINA DID!"

"What?"

"What do you mean what? Didn't you hear me Trina got the part."

"She wasn't even auditioning for that tv part."

"No. After I auditioned, they saw Trina in the hallway, bragging about something, to some fool girl who was even dimmer than she was and the producer pointed at her and says, hey you. Let's see you read."

"How in the hell did she get the part?"

"Because they thought she was funny? She hadn't practiced the lines, she's never watched the show, she knew almost nothing about the character, but for some bizzarro reason she got the FUCKING PART. All I know, is that I heard them laughing hysterically from the other room. SHE GOT THE FUCKING PART AND I STILL HAVE TO DO HER CHORES."

Jade was astonished, as she knew that Tori had practiced hard for this tv part. It was only for a single episode of a sitcom, but it was one of Tori's favorite shows.

"I am so sorry. I was trying to say I should have driven you instead of going to that book signing."

"And you know what's topping it off."

"What?"

"I just got my grade from that song for music class, I turned in last Tuesday. I got a fucking C. He said that the lyrics didn't fit the melody and the bridge was weak. I worked over three weeks on that song. And what do I have to show for it, a god dam C"

"How about I make it up to you, I'll come over."

Tori quickly started to rant as her frustration boiled over. "Jade, I don't feel like having sex, I don't want to bicker, I don't want to go to Nozu, I don't want to watch horror movies, which is all we ever seem to watch anyway. It's always the same fucking thing and I don't feel like any of it So, there isn't any reason for you to come over anyway, Lord knows I'm not good for anything else. And besides, I have chores to do. See you Monday!"

Before Jade could say another word, Tori hung up the phone and turned it off.

"Great. Now Jade will be pissed at me. I'm probably out of a girlfriend now too. What else could go wrong?"

She hadn't intended to rant at Jade, but it just came pouring out. She had worked hard on both the audition and the song and neither turned out for her. She also felt that they were starting to drift into a rut, doing the same things all the time and some of that frustration came out as well.

Tori sighed and lowered her head, very much wanting to cry. All she had to look forward to, was doing Trina's chores, Jade blowing up which would be followed by a one-way ticket to dumps Ville.

Instead, she suppressed her tears and walked downstairs to start her chores. Coming downstairs, she found the house deserted, which she thought was probably the only good thing that had happened today. Dealing with Trina or her parents was not something she wanted to do.

About 20 minutes just as she was in the middle of scrubbing the sink, the doorbell rang.

Tori lowered her head and paused. "Great. Here comes the executioner."

She started towards the door and with each step, she not only felt more down, she became more and more confident that it was over between her and Jade. After all, she had blown up at Jade and she fully expected to get it back and then some.

Reaching the door, she unlocked the door and for an instant, stood there with her hand on the door knob. It was then she realized she was on the verge of tears.

Flinging open the door and seeing the person she fully expected to see, Jade, Tori bellowed. "Fine, go head dump me. I know that's what you're here for. Why not, everything has gone to shit today."

After briefly scrunching her face, Jade walked in and closed the door behind her. Wordlessly, Jade walked over and pulled Tori into a hug. Being hugged by Jade, while it was the last thing Tori expected, it was the thing she needed most. Feeling safe and warm in Jade's arms, she just let it out and began to cry.

After a few moments of crying into Jade's shoulder Tori looked up at Jade with now bloodshot eyes. "You still love me?"

Jade smiled and wiped a tear running down Tori's cheek. "Yes."

"And you're not mad?"

"Despite my reputation for being a perpetually angry and volatile psychopath, which is not totally undeserved, I'm not."

"Why, I yelled at you?" Said Tori with a sad sounding sniffle.

"You're angry and frustrated and when we're that way, we frequently lash out at the people we care for most. Anger is something I understand, believe me. You worked hard on both that audition and the song and you've had a very bad day. I came, not to have sex or watch horror movies. I came because you needed me."

Jade, who still had Tori in a hug, kissed Tori briefly on the lips.

"When I said I love you, I meant just that. I love you. That means not only sex and cuddling watching horror films, it means emotional support. That said, I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't tell me that you felt that kept doing the same things all the time. You should have told me. We're radically different people, but you need to let me know things, instead of bottling them up and just blowing up at me."

Tori lowered her head slightly. "Sorry."

"I am partially to blame as well. I need to realize that a relationship is a two-way street as well. I was the one that didn't bother to think of anything different or even take the time to ask what you felt. And I'm sorry I didn't drive you."

Jade then released Tori from the hug, but kept her arm around Tori. "But first things first. I can see you've started cleaning the kitchen. What else needs to be done?"

"They're…They're my chores."

"Vega….er…Tori. There's nothing I can do about the audition or the song, but I can help you with your chores. So shut up and let your girlfriend help you. If you needlessly argue about it, then I really will get angry. That's something you don't want to happen. Because then I'd have to make some random person suffer. So, are we going to have problems or is Andre's uber paranoid., freakish grandmother going to get a call from the Mushroom people announcing they've infected all her spoons? That should freak her out quite nicely. Last time I fucked with her mind; she threw the vacuum cleaner out of the window, but that was immediately after she set it on fire."

Tori opened her mouth and stood there for a moment with a somewhat perplexed expression. She couldn't help but notice the look of pride on Jade's face, as she had described what she'd done to Andre's grandmother. Finally, she nodded. "I need to clean the kitchen and the bathroom."

Jade smirked, "I assume the bathroom cleaning supplies are under the sink."

"Yes."

"Good. You get to work on the kitchen and I'll clean the bathroom. Then afterward, we'll do something different. What would you like to do?"

"I'm not really sure?"

"Why don't you think about it when we clean. Let's get to work."

Tori gave Jade a quick kiss, then went back to scrubbing the sink. Jade, without another word, headed towards the bathroom.

A moment later, Jade walked into the bathroom and shook her head. "Things I do for love." Muttered the Goth. "Certainly, would have never cleaned Beck's bathroom."

45 minutes and a lot of grumbling later, Jade had finished in the bathroom. The worst part was the hair caught in the bathtub drain, which she had to pull out. That, in itself, caused not only grumbling, but some cursing as well.

Walking out of the bathroom, Jade took a deep breath and briefly glared at her girlfriend.

"What?" Said Tori as she put away the last of the cleaning supplies, feeling her stomach drop again.

"I'm going to buy you one of those, bathtub drain covers. You know, where it will allow water to drain but to stop all the hair from going down it. That was disgusting. But It's clean."

Tori ran over and gave Jade a hug, feeling herself tear up again. "Thank you, you're so wonderful."

"I know I am. If you really want to thank me, this will NEVER be mentioned to anyone, ever. Especially your sister. It took every ounce of control I had to not fill her herbal shampoo with Nair."

"It's kind of good you didn't, the herbal shampoo is my mom's."

"OK then. So are you feeling better?"

The smile that quickly came to Tori's face answered Jade's question nicely.

"Good. So have you figured out what you'd like to do?"

"Yes. I've never been to the Bennett-Gillies art museum. I've heard it's nice. They have a Picasso, I hear. I've always wanted to see one."

"Sounds good. Let's clean up and go."

"You sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. We need to do different things or we'll really get stuck in a rut. In this case, it's sounds nice. We won't always agree, but that's life."

An hour later, the pair was walking through the art gallery, holding hands and quietly enjoying the paintings. The gallery itself was mostly modern art, but had a small, but nice collection of classic paintings.

On their tour they stopped in front of a landscape, depicting a lone figure standing on a windswept beach as a storm could be seen distance. "I wonder what that figure's thinking about. That person looks so lonely." Tori mused.

"Well, the obvious answer is, that they're thinking about how bad the storm's going to be. But I'd say this person and we cannot tell if it's man or woman, they're pondering their place in the universe. In contrast to the vast sea and huge storm, this person looks rather small. It's like when you look at the stars at night, you first realize how big the universe is. Then you realize just how small you are. He or she feels dwarfed by the sea and the storm, but they admire their power, their vastness. It makes their own problems, whatever they are, seem small in comparison."

Impressed by Jade's rather unique analysis of the painting, Tori kissed Jade on the cheek. "You're just full of surprises. First you're understanding and second you wow me with your thoughts on this painting."

Not saying a word, Jade walked with Tori onto the next painting. It was a formal portrait of a woman in some sort of 18th century formal dress. "Glad I could surprise you. But I guess that stresses your point about doing the same things over and over. We learn nothing new about each other. I look at this painting and could make certain assumptions about he, from her dress and the time period it was painted in, but it's only an assumption based on a visual inspection."

"I think I see what you mean. Assumptions are frequently wrong. And unless we truly get to know each other, we keep just making assumptions. Such as you assuming that I was happy just doing the same things. Or me assuming that you'd blow up, because I yelled at you."

"Exactly." Jade said with a nod. "We assume and as someone once said, if you assume, you make an Ass out of you and me. But enough philosophy we need to do different things, explore our interests. Not get stuck in a rut, which is deadly to any relationship."

"Tori smiled and pulled Jade into a hug. Once there she whispered in Jade's ear. "Only then, can we fall deeper and deeper in love. As close as two people can be. Thank you for being my girlfriend, thank you for being wonderful, thank you for being beautiful, thank you for being there for me. I love you Jade West."

Jade, feeling more wonderful and beautiful than she could ever had, couldn't help but shed a single tear. "Thanks for putting up with my bullshit. Thanks for making me feel a woman. Not just that, but a beautiful woman, a loved woman. You're everything to me. I love you Tori Vega."

The pair, kissed for a moment and quietly gazed into each other's eyes.

"Vega." Said Tori.

"What?"

"I do have a name and it is Tori. But you call me Vega. Only you do that. That means I'm special to you. Call me Vega!"

Jade grinned. "OK, Vega. Let's enjoy our day together."

"And every other day after that?" Said Tori with a hopeful smile.

Jade quickly squeezed Tori's hand. "Damn right Vega."

As they walked on to the next painting, Tori whispered to Jade. "I know I said I didn't want to do those things, we always did, today. Can I make an exception?"

Jade quickly raised an eyebrow. "I hope you're going to say sex?"

Tori couldn't help but turn beet red and giggle at the same time.

"You're such a goof, Vega. Oh yeah, the answer is yes. by all means yes."

Just a little tense and ultimately fluffy Jori story. Hope you liked it. Thanks to Invader Johnny.