The Price of Desire

Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious

A/N:

Chapter 2 (One Happy Family)

As the sisters entered the house, the tantalizing smell of chicken embraced Trina's nostrils. She shook her head and smiled as Tori hurried to the kitchen. Her eyes fell to the couch where Mr. Vega was, having returned home an hour ago, he called the girls to check up on them. He had his right leg resting on his left, and was reading the newspaper, which was surprising, considering he only read the paper in the morning. He looked up at her and smiled cheerfully. "Trina, how was class?"

"It was good. Look at the necklace Tori got me." She moved her hand to the necklace as David moved from the couch and walked over to her. He rubbed his chin and inspected the jewel, nodding with approval. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"Yes it is, your sister has good taste in what to get for you." That was true, Tori always knew how to make her feel special and happy. Even though she gave her a hard time sometimes, it was never meant to say she was ungrateful. Even the birthday song that Tori had sung for her was a special gift in every way, and she never meant to be ungrateful about it, but her jealousy got the better of her back then. Instead of seeing the song for what it was, she saw another display of Tori's 'remarkable' and 'flawless' talent being flaunted off before her. "I almost said no, but she went out and got all her friends to help chip in. It is a beautiful necklace, suits you well."

"I'm going to have to find an outfit to match it with." She started for the stairs when she heard her Mom call for her. She turned to see Holly moving out of the kitchen, removing her oven mitts and smiling. "Hey Mom, this is the necklace." She moved towards her and pulled her hair back so the woman could get a better look. Holly gushed at the necklace and put her hand to her chest, glancing over at Tori, who was standing behind her.

"That necklace is so expensive, tell me you didn't buy that out of your own pocket, Tori." Tori quickly shook her head and brought a cup of water to her lips. She swallowed and brought the cup down, her eyes beaming with joy.

"Andre and the others helped me with it. Anyway, you should have seen us out there. I've never gone rock climbing before…"

"Rock cli…Trina?" Holly's voice fell flat and her eyes narrowed onto her eldest daughter. Tori was only wearing a short sleeved shirt and shorts going slightly past her knees, it was very possible for her to get scraped up. "Did you take let your sister go rock climbing without any kind of safety gear?" Trina chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. It wasn't like she was going to let anything happen to her.

"It wasn't a high climb at all. The top was only about five feet above our heads." Holly's eyes widened and David started laughing. Their dad was always the lenient one when it came to dangerous stunts like this. "Tori was perfectly safe. Besides, she wanted to do the climb. She's seventeen, I don't think anyone needs to worry about whether or not she's going to get scratched up by a rock."

"I'm a mom, of course I'm going to worry." Holly circled Tori, inspecting every inch of her and dusting off her clothes. Tori met Trina's eyes with her own, as though begging for help. Trina smiled innocently and pointed to the stairs. "Dinner will be done soon."

"Okay. I'm going to go take a shower, I'm sweating up a storm." It was summertime, so she was naturally stickier than usual. It was times like these that she praised the fact that the only guy that she let see her like this was into martial arts too. "I'll be down in ten." She grasped the railing and ran up the stairs, heading for her bedroom. She glanced back at her family once she made it to the top and watched David and Holly start talking with Tori. She felt almost wistful watching them, a sudden sadness was overcoming her heart, and she couldn't explain it. So she did the simplest of things and ignored it, rushing off for the bedroom and grabbing her cell phone.

After a few seconds, she was on the phone with Christy while preparing for her shower. "What's up, Vega? How did your chat with Tori go?" Trina laughed lightly and carefully ran her index finger over the jewel in the necklace.

"Well, surprising actually. She and her friends got me this really expensive necklace." Christy gasped and immediately started ordering her to show her the necklace later. "Yeah, I'll have to do that, I mean…words can't describe how beautiful this thing is!" She put her fresh clothes on the bathroom counter and looked at herself in the mirror, groaning mildly. "Does it make sense that I don't like to sweat, yet I enjoy all forms of martial arts?" Her friend laughed and she quickly pulled a hairbrush from one of the drawers. "I mean seriously. Sweat makes me feel so…disgusting. My hair starts sticking, my armpits feel gross, and let's not mention the chafing in areas that I'm pretty sure aren't supposed to chafe."

"Oh believe me, they chafe. I actually don't mind the sweating, but I think what it is really is the focus. When we're up there, doing our thing in class, we don't think about sweat. Maybe for you, it's a matter of tolerating what you don't like for something you do like? You can always bathe afterwards, and then I'm pretty sure nothing else chafes that much." The phone started beeping and Trina meshed her forehead together while Christy checked her phone. "Jason's calling us, I'll add him to the conference."

"Go for it." She reached in and turned on the shower. It usually took a minute or two for it to warm up, as the water heater was all the way on the other side of the house. She heard Jason say hello and ask what they were talking about, so she could either take the opportunity to gross him out now, or wait and see what was going on with him. "I'm surprised your Uncle's giving you any time to talk, wouldn't he be having you doing more exercises or chores right about now?"

"Yes, and no he's not, I'm just calling you guys while I can get a moment. I come home and as you know, I barely broke a sweat, right?" He wasn't much of a sweater, a lot like Tori's friend Jade was. He did sweat when he got really into the workouts, but he didn't actually do much today aside from the formation and lesson. "So he assumes I slacked off today, gives me the riot act about whether or not I'm going to pass or fail martial arts, and starts making me do a bunch of laps around the house while he sits in a lawn chair sipping his blasted coconut milk!"

"And what's happening right now?"

"I slipped in through the backdoor and I'd say I have about a minute before he comes searching for me. What are you girls talking about?"

"Sweat, chafing, and girl stuff." Jason groaned and Christy started snickering.

"You know what? I see him walking around out back. I'd better run!" Once Jason hung up, the girls began laughing.

"Trina, that wasn't nice."

"I know, but I had to get him off somehow. I'm about to take a shower, so unfortunately I have to go. See you at class tomorrow?"

"Yeah, are you going in early?"

"Yep. All day practice routine for me. You and Jason should join me, I might get bored out there by the lake all by myself until class begins."

"You? Bored? By what, solitude?" Trina laughed and put her hand in the shower to see how warm it was, and it nearly scorched her hand. "We've tried to go up there on your 'early' days, when we get there, you're somewhere in that ten mile forest that we can never find you."

"Well that's when I'm not expecting you. I want to spar you guys."

"Well I'm sure Jason would have no trouble getting up, his Uncle might force him to get over here early. As for me, I might. Brian's home from college now and once again, I'm ignored." Her heart sank and Christy sighed. "Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow. Text me later?"

"Yeah." She hung up the phone and disrobed for the shower. She usually took fast as hell showers, unlike Tori, who took long thirty-minute showers. As much as she loved the water, she couldn't stand staying in for so long, it felt like she was missing out on life outside.

Staying true to self, she was out within six minutes. Her body glistened as if it were singing for joy, she wasn't sweating bullets anymore! She was wearing her purple bathrobe and painting her toenails when Tori came walking into the room, forgetting to knock. Which wasn't surprising. She looked up as her sister sat down on the bed and watched her. "What's up Tori? You've been acting different today, is something wrong?"

"No…I just wanted you to know that I really do look up to you. I always have." Trina scrunched her face and felt a jolt of concern strike her. She turned around in her desk chair and faced Tori, raising an eyebrow as her sister started looking around the room. She was purposely avoiding her gaze, something was up. "You know, I always thought the peach colored walls went well with your bedspread."

"Yeah?" She looked to the bed and lifted her eyebrows. It was a Queen Sized mattress with a long, crème colored comforter and brown diamond lines stretching out from top to bottom. "Hm. So what's going on Tori? Something's on your mind, and don't try to tell me there's not." Tori stopped looking at the walls and turned to her with a frown. "What's wrong?"

"Cat and Jade both got into fights with their brothers earlier. They stormed out and came over here, so we all went for a walk around town, but it just made me think…what if I never saw you again? What if we had a fight like that and something bad happened? I don't think I could stand it…you're my sister and I've always looked up to you. I love you Trina." Tori's eyes started to glaze over, which concerned Trina quite a bit. It must have been one hell of a fight with the girls' brothers for Tori to feel this bad. She reached over and took Tori in her arms.

"Hey, we're always going to be sisters. Even if something did happen, which I'm not saying anything ever will, we'll always be in each other's hearts. You have my back, I have your back, and that's just the way it is. Cat and Jade will probably make up with their brothers, simply because they're blood, how can they not make up with each other?"

"I don't know, but Jade says she's staying with Beck for a couple days and Cat's with Robbie overnight. Tomorrow we're all hanging out here. The boys want to try and convince them to make up with their siblings, but they seem pretty adamant with how pissed they are…Tell me it'll never be like that with us?" Trina chuckled and squeezed her sister.

"I wouldn't let that happen." She wanted to ask what the fight had been about, but it really wasn't any of her business. If the girls were able to confide in Tori, that was because they were Tori's friends, not hers. Tori smiled and hugged her back, then laid back against the bed.

"So those two friends that you were with at the martial arts class…was that Sikowitz's nephew and Robbie's old bully that Beck found a while back?"

"Yes. They've been there for a while now. In fact, that's where Beck found Christy to begin with." Tori sat up and grinned.

"I didn't know Jason was into all that stuff."

"He is, but his uncle seems more into it than Jason." Tori's eyebrow rose and Trina gently nodded her head, she couldn't wrap her mind around it either. "Christy is actually pretty cool, so is Jay, but you know how it goes."

"Do you like Jason?" Trina laughed and quickly stood up, removing her towel from her head. There was no way she was about to say anything regarding that, although she'd never really given any thought to it.

"Is supper ready yet?"

"Yes, but answer my question!"

"And with that, my dear baby sister, I'm going to race you to the kitchen." She took off and Tori gasped, quickly jumping off the bed.

"You are not avoiding my question!" Trina raced down the stairs, hearing Tori laughing behind her. She was gaining on her, and by the time they reached the kitchen, they were neck to neck. David and Holly watched with wide eyes as the girls rushed towards the table. The parents probably thought they were going to knock all the food off, which they were, if they didn't slow down.

They quickly jumped to their seats and grinned as their parents walked to the table. Holly stood, waiting to serve the food, and David took his seat on the other side of the table. He looked to his daughters with raised eyebrows and a funny looking half-smile. "You two seem rather excited for supper." Tori shrugged her shoulders and pointed her thumb to Trina.

"She won't answer my question, but besides that, yes I'm hungry." Holly started scooping up mashed potatoes and putting them on the family plates. She smiled at Tori and closed her eyes.

"And what question is that, dear?"

"Boy stuff."

"Oh."

Trina grabbed for the chicken and set it on her plate, the meat was her favorite part of any meal. "It's none of your business, Tori. Jason is only one of my good friends. That's it. Besides, you know his uncle as well as I do, try to picture Jason all grown up."

"Okay, that's his uncle. Imagine Sikowitz with a full head of hair, no beard, and with normal clothes." Once the image popped into her head, she shuddered the thought. David and Holly simply stared at their children with concerned expressions.

"Okay Tori, there's a line you don't cross. That's the 'looks good' line and the 'oh my god, that's my teacher' line. Don't cross that."

"Yeah, sorry about that." She laughed sheepishly and stared at her sister for a minute. Trina raised her eyebrow and looked back, wondering if something was wrong. She watched as Tori's lips curled upwards and she pointed over. "You're wearing the necklace I got you." She smiled back and nodded.

"Well of course, why wouldn't I be? I'm going to show Christy and Jason tomorrow."

"Awesome!" Holly finished serving the plates and took her seat next to David. Tori picked up her silverware to start eating, but set them back down. Trina slowly shook her head as she watched Holly take David's right hand. Tori took her mom's right hand while Trina took a hold of her dad's left. The two sisters grabbed each other's hands and the family bowed their heads to say grace at the table. A tradition that was never to be forgotten, even in the haste of hunger. Trina was more than satisfied with her family, what more could she possibly ask for?

I hope this was a good relaxing, and enlightening chapter for you. What did you think of it? Tori definitely looks up to her sister, it's a very good thing. Well, trouble starts brewing next chapter, so everyone be ready.