Disclaimer;

Victorious still don't belong to me, I don't reckon.

Warnings;

This fanfiction contains femslash - Jade and Tori. It's rated M and for a reason. If you're not into this kind of thing, it's cool, but please don't read this.

Author's Note;

Back again with part seven.

I wanted to put a chapter out before I'm completely enveloped in papers and studying for finals, as well as helping my dad during the day, (he's having his knees replaced,) so I put a couple nights' worth of work into this one. Call it a contribution to Holiday Cheer, or just another chapter; but I knew needed to hit lucky number seven before the new year came about. I'm only a little superstitious, but the number seven is a strong, meaningful number for me, so I'm glad I could reach it.

I'll be going to school every night of the week through the month of January and four nights a week after that for the rest of the semester. That gives me two days a week to focus on things unrelated to school, as I work all day Sunday. So from this chapter on, I'll only be able to update when I can find the time between work, school, and personal matters - but this fanfiction's nowhere near done, and I don't plan to let it die anytime soon. Just try to bear with me as I work my way through a new semester and some changes in my life.

Sorry this update is a little short, but I feel like I wrote what needed to be written, so I stopped where I felt it was right to do so.

As usual, thank you for all the reviews, messages, favorites, and watches I get - really, just thank you for reading this. I say this every time I post an update, and I plan to continue to do so, because I mean it.

Let's get to going.

Can't Stop

Part Seven

Since the day before, Trina had been too incredibly, suspiciously quiet. Whenever Tori looked at her, the older girl would avert her eyes from her sister, as though she hadn't been staring at her neck in the first place, and for a while, things continued like this in absolute and heavy silence.

Having walked in to find her sister and Beck sitting on the couch the previous evening, watching them talking as they watched some sitcom on the television, a sense of secretive curiosity and scheming had come over Trina, and she decided she would put together the pieces of this wildly entertaining mystery that were being presented to her in sporadic, unrhythmic timing.

At least, in Trina's mind, this is how things had happened.

In reality, she had blatantly walked up behind them and moved between them to get a closer look at the dark mark that still stained the skin of her sister's neck. There was that dark, circular mark left on her skin, and as Trina later tried to pass it off as pulling a loose string from Tori's shirt, neither Tori or Beck believed it.

The rest of the night, Trina spent her time on her PearPad, searching through her sister's friend list to see if anything new had begun between her Tori and Beck, feeling something close to intense curiosity and jealousy boiling in the pit of her stomach.

x-x-x

Tori absently stabbed at the spaghetti on her plate with her fork, uninterested in eating. She was too caught up in the thoughts that kept swirling around so madly in her head that she couldn't bring herself to take but only a bite or two, although she hadn't eaten since the day before when she and Jade had sat across from one another in that lovely - strange - cafe on the other side of town. However, as she sat there, she listened passively as Andre and Cat sat across the table from her, talking to one another about one of the redhead's wild stories of her brother's strange (and sometimes implausible) experiences.

Honestly, her mind was slipping, even as she tried her hardest to be at least somewhat attentive - nodding her head when it seemed appropriate, saying things like "that's crazy" or "are you serious?" Everything she said and did she knew wasn't anywhere close to being genuine, so after a few minutes, she'd begun to keep to herself more openly, and the words that were being exchanged all around her became nothing but white noise off somewhere in the distance.

Tori's mind was elsewhere - it was where it had been for the past few weeks, and as though it was all she could focus on, she simply could not find herself to be interested in what went on in the affairs of the others around her. Her world, at least for now, was centered around the girl who was probably thinking about her current "other half" as well.

She'd seen Jade in the hallway earlier. The dark-haired girl had been stalking around the corner like some sort of strange animal - alert-looking and graceful with each fluid movement she made - when she caught Tori's eye. They held each other's gaze for a moment, as if, (from opposite sides of the corridor,) sizing one another up; gauging each other's potential reaction to whatever they should decide to say. And when the brunette smiled at the darker-haired girl, the latter quirked a brow, almost impatiently. Tori had watched her move for only a moment longer before Jade's eyes shifted to the locker a few feet down from her own, and Tori's eyes followed the other's, to where Cat and Beck had stood talking, Beck's eyes quietly and inconspicuously surveying the two girls as they exchanged their glances.

In absolute silence, Jade had given Beck a hard stare that relayed a message Tori could read, even as she stood several feet out of the line of fire.

Watch your step.

Even as she sat here now, almost two hours later, Tori could understand why Jade would want to put some distance between the two of them at the moment, with Beck (and perhaps even Cat) keeping a watchful eye on the two of them - but even so, she still couldn't grasp the reason why Jade would so deliberately look to Beck as she had earlier.

She subconsciously faltered in her movements and her breaths.

Beck knew. Cat was close to knowing. Andre and Robbie - they were smart enough to see something was definitely going on with at least Tori herself, (although neither of them seemed to be too close to Jade, and Robbie didn't seem all to fond of her himself.) So why were things required to be so surreptitious between herself and Jade? And how had that illusionary necessity to keep things under the radar made sense to her only moments before?

Tori considered this for a moment, letting her mind drift further, back to Jade and Beck when they'd been together - how they had so openly displayed their affections for one another wherever they so pleased. How they'd kissed, and touched, and how one of their heads would end up on the other's shoulder or lap. For a moment, Tori couldn't help the unsettling, barren feeling that formed in her chest from these memories.

Why couldn't it be this way with herself and Jade?

She knew half of the answer. Unfortunately, it was almost inevitable that they would be met with negative attention and potentially outright hate; whether or not it spawned from her friends, she was unsure, but by the people who looked on without having the slightest idea of who either of them were, the two were naturally bound to be judged.

But Jade didn't seem like the type to give a damn about what other people thought of her - either that characteristic about her was legitamate, or she played this persona of hers pretty damn well.

And once more, back to their friends - surely they would understand, right? If anyone, Beck would have been upset - but he knew, and he wasn't upset in the slightest. Tori could guess that he'd known about Jade's sexuality for some time, (and perhaps he had been the one to help bring it out in her - which was a thought that she wished wouldn't have crossed her mind in the first place.)

And the others. . . It was 2012, and they lived in LA. Surely her friends were much less closed-minded than she feared. She was certain Andre would be alright with it - he'd probably think it was hot, for all she could guess, and Robbie never did seem to be one to judge all too quickly, (sad as that was, for as quick as people were to judge him.) As for Cat -

What about Cat?

It was all so strange. The other night when they were supposed to have been working on their project - which, as far as she knew, they'd failed, - the little red-headed girl had been so eager to open up to Tori; to tell her how strange things had been not only between the both of them, but between herself and Jade as well.

Cat may not have been the most outwardly intelligent person Tori knew, but she realized something as she sat there at the table, watching the girl take Andre's hands in her own as her lips opened into a large smile.

The girl might not be half as simplistic and unintelligent as she seemed to be. And for a moment, Tori couldn't help but wonder if Cat was actually something more of an actress than she would ever claim to be, or ever rise to be in the ways of a career - an actress on a much higher level than she ever could have guessed, had she not seen the crack in the facade those few nights prior.

Yes, something had been different about Cat. There was something absent in her voice, and her words were spoken fluently - unbroken. And although Tori's mind had drifted at the time the words were said, she began to recall little bits and pieces of the one-way conversation that had ensued between the two of them, and although vague, Tori could recollect enough of the words to realize that for once, Cat had been significantly present.

Present. Not as though her mind was somewhere else; not as though she was the ditziest little thing on the face of the earth. As though she was completely and genuinely there up inside her head.

And what had she talked about in her little flood of audibly-spoken thoughts and emotions?

Jade. Only Jade.

She'd been so quick to talk about Jade, and by the way she'd spoken of her - and the way her hands trembled, and her voice quivered, her eyes threatened tears - it was all something Tori found incredibly familiar, in some strange, inexplicable way. However, as she thought further, she had just about placed her finger on it, and -

Jade lowered herself into the seat beside her, and without so much as looking in the brunette's direction, she plainly said the word, "Hey."

The girl's eyes eyes looked over to the new arrival in subtle disbelief. Jade had just taken a seat between Tori herself and Cat, and for a moment, all she did was look down at the salad before her with a detached and disinterested look about her expression.

"Hey, Jade," Andre said from across the table, looking almost nervous as his eyes shifted between the dark-haired girl and the redhead beside her. Obviously, he knew something of their - of their what? Tori settled for calling it something of a falling out of sorts. "Haven't seen you in a while."

"I was sick," Jade said, so smoothly and effortlessly that Tori had to remember that she wasn't just the girl she was beginning to look like - she was still also a cunning and skilled liar when she felt it was necessary, almost to the extent of potential criminality. And then, taking Tori by surprise, (although it honestly shouldn't have,) the blue-eyed girl glared daggers at him and continued, "I guess that's illegal now or something."

Andre sputtered, "No, I didn't mean it like -"

"We were worried," Cat whimpered, her voice louder than she'd expected it to be.

The silence that ensued went uninterrupted for several moments. It was heavy and cold, and the brunette felt she might choke on it if something didn't happen sometime soon - although whether she'd rather choke on the silence or suffer through the fight that was sure to be the alternative, she was unsure.

But Tori watched in near horror as Jade's pale gaze settled on the smaller girl to her right, looking at her as though she could quite easily rip her throat out without the slightest sense of remorse about it. For a moment, Tori was frozen, watching the two look at each other, and all she saw between them was a brewing storm of hurt and anger and what looked like betrayal.

Finally, when Jade opened her mouth to speak, Tori quickly raised herself from her seat and caught Jade by the arm.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked, trying her hardest to sound calm, though the request came out somewhat strained and shaky. Jade's eyes came up to meet hers, and for a fraction of a second, Tori felt as though she was burning alive in the fire of the rage burning within the girl.

"Why?" the dark-haired girl spat. "What do you want?"

The venomous way Jade spoke to her felt more like a slap across the face than anything else, and for a moment, Tori was tempted to call her out on it. However, as she matched Jade's stare, she noticed the girl's eyes shift toward the other two at the table - and immediately, she realized what she had meant.

"You're being mean," Tori began carefully. "I know you're" - she swallowed quickly - "not feeling good, but don't take it out on everyone else."

Jade's brow quirked, and with her lips curved into an uneven (and rather genuine-looking) grin, she continued, "Fine, I get it. Now sit down and shut up."

And without hesitation, and for no actual reason to do so other than Jade's insistence to keep up appearances, Tori complied.

x-x-x

The door closed behind them as Jade roughly shoved the other girl into the closet. Before Tori could so much as make a sound, Jade turned and attacked the girl's lips with her own. Her movements, and her hands and lips, and the heat on her cheeks showed such anger and frustration and hunger that Tori couldn't bring herself to stop the girl, and instead, she simply allowed herself to become completely enveloped by the feel of the girl moving against her so forcefully.

"God, Tori," Jade growled against the girl's thinner pair of lips, moving in closer once more and kissing her again before continuing, "you're an idiot."

The words should have stung, but by the way Jade's hands were slipping down Tori's back and to the top of her jeans, something about her words inexplicably seemed more concerned than angered.

Jade's fingers slipped beneath the hem of Tori's shirt, and the brunette nearly moaned against her, already feeling the excitement she had the last few times she'd been in the janitor's closet with the other girl - but she restrained herself, trying her hardest not to let herself revel in the feel of the girl's hot fingers touching the small of her back; trying not to get lost in the sensation of a warm, wet set of lips closing themselves around a particularly sensitive spot of skin on the right side of her jaw.

She'd come in here with her for something - what was it? It was a question, right? But the feel of the girl's mouth hungrily trying to devour her was so distracting and so easy to allow herself a slip of the mind, if only for a moment. . .

But she couldn't allow herself to become so effortlessly distracted by the girl.

"Jade," she said, trying her hardest to sound firm.

The message was received. The blue-eyed girl's lips faltered, and she retracted herself, her pale eyes meeting Tori's darker pair. For a moment, they stayed like that - each looking at the other, each wondering what the other was hiding, each feeling somewhat betrayed in some form or another. They could see the hurt in each other, in the way the other's brows were slightly knitted, and in the way their fingers tightened around the other's skin - as if clutching to hold on to whatever connection they did have among all the lies and the mistrust and the quiet disloyalty.

Naturally, Tori was the first to look away.

"What?" Jade asked, her hands removing themselves from the brown-eyed girl's waist, causing Tori's skin to go cold. "What did you do?"

"What did I -" Tori sighed stopped herself, sighing and dismissing her own words. After shaking her head, she continued, "What's up with you and Cat?"

Jade's reaction, as usual, was completely unexpected.

The girl froze, her eyes watching Tori carefully as she stood there in silence, her arms crossing themselves over her chest. Tori was quiet, trying not to look away as the girl's eyes scrutinized her own, and she couldn't help but shift uncomfortably as Jade's brows furrowed, her lips curled downward slightly.

Tori didn't know what else to do, so she simply continued on.

"I mean, you looked like. . ." The brunette paused, thinking for a moment. "You looked like you were about to punch her or something. You looked really mad at her."

Jade shifted her weight over to her other leg, and looking away, she contemplated the girl's words, trying not to allow the worry that was beginning to flood within her to show on her face.

She knew it had been obvious that she wasn't pleased with Cat, but for some reason, she got the feeling that Tori was more aware of why she was upset with her than she should have been.

With a sigh, she said quietly, "It's nothing." With a quick glance in another direction, she continued, "She's just - she's mad that you and I are spending so much time together."

"That's not what she said - why are you ignoring her?"

In the silence that followed, Tori became aware that she'd said her thoughts aloud, and she couldn't help the look of shock that came over her face as Jade took a step closer.

Jade watched as the girl blatantly cowered away from her, and she stopped dead in her tracks as she realized that she'd tensed her shoulders and clenched her fists as though she was about to strike the girl.

For once, she restrained herself, just as she had failed to do in her previous relationship - and goddamn it, she had been doing so well to not think about him in that sense for the past two days. She couldn't stand the thought of losing her to him. And yet, here she was, about to make the same mistakes she'd made with him in the first place - and although he'd tolerated it, he hadn't for long, and she suspected that Tori couldn't handle her rage like he could.

That thought caused a pain in her chest that felt as though she'd just been struck by something heavy.

Focus, she told herself. Focus.

And then, as though looking through all the thoughts swimming in her mind of herself with her ex-boyfriend and of the girl they'd been talking about, she remembered just who she suspected had sent Tori that text the day before during lunch. For the first time in what seemed like quite a while, she decided to outwardly put the blame on Tori to keep from losing her mind in all these regrets about the people she was trying her goddamn hardest to forget.

"Why were you with Beck yesterday?" she asked, though the words sounded more like a demanding statement from the clenched teeth through which they were spoken.

With her back against the clear spot on the other side of the closet, Tori's face still showed slight distress, and as her fingers clawed at her own sides, she tried her hardest not to look the other girl in the eyes. She knew why she'd been with him yesterday - and why should it be a secret? Like this - this whole thing going on between herself and Jade - why should any of this be kept under wraps? Why should there be dishonesty in this strange, beautiful little world they were creating with each other?

But her words betrayed her thoughts completely.

"What are you talking about?"

Jade moved toward her, put her hands on her shoulders and pressed her hard into the wall behind her, her breath coming to her ragged, as though she'd been running, due to the pressure of her anger rising from her core and spreading throughout her chest like some sort of poison in her veins. The anger in her eyes was unmasked and completely obvious to the girl now pinned beneath her grasp and Tori couldn't help the whimper that escaped her.

"Don't lie to me," Jade growled, quieter than she would have said it had they not been where others could hear them. She had to stay quiet, keep under control; she'd be expelled if she got caught pommeling the poor brunette to death; and honestly, she didn't want to do that in the first place. Old habits just wouldn't die. In a more even tone, she continued, (still unsettlingly quiet,) "Don't stand there and fucking lie to my face."

The brown-eyed girl could never honestly say that in that moment, she was not truly afraid. This girl - this predator, as she'd come to think of her - was so wildly unpredictable that, even while it was incredibly exciting and somehow incredibly enticing, it was also undeniably, terrifyingly dangerous. For a moment, the girl thought back to the words that Beck had said to her - how he'd warned her to be careful. How Jade "doesn't let go."

Doesn't let go.

Why had she left Cat alone? Had she let her slip away, or the other way around? And what did she have to let go of in the first place-?

Tori swallowed hard, took a breath, and said, "You're not any better than I am. You won't even answer a question!"

Jade's face burned hotter. Her nails dug into the backs of Tori's shoulders, and she found that all she could do was stand there, holding her, challenging her. Tori held her gaze as strongly as she could manage, although she was sure she was going to lose this battle, if not this war. However, when the dark-haired girl allowed herself to think on the words, she realized that the other had made more reasonable of a point than she would have liked. Her eyes softened, and she released her grip on the girl, backing away slightly and running a hand over her hair, as though it would cool her off - something that she'd picked up from Beck, (who she was certainly not going to think about in that moment.)

Sighing, the pale girl looked down to the floor as she spoke.

"Why should I trust you if you won't trust me?" she asked, although there was no venom or hate behind her words.

"I do trust you," Tori said too loudly. Collecting herself, she moved forward slightly, trying to close the distance between them that she had been praying for only moments before, confusing herself in her own actions. "I do. Let's just. . . Let's work this out."

Jade looked over the other girl, taking in every detail of her expression. Her eyes looking as though they were threatening tears; her trembling lower lip; the shakiness in her breaths. . . Although she'd meant to intimidate her, she hadn't meant to scare the hell out of her, as it looked like she had by the way her cheeks were flushed and her forehead doused in a light sheet of sweat.

"Alright - Look." No apologies; not now. "If you'll be honest with me . . ." Jade paused closing her eyes as she continued the rest of her sentence. "I'll tell you what you want to know. But we can talk after school."

"Right," Tori said quickly, shifting slightly uncomfortably as she tried to dig for her cell phone in her pocket. "I think - I think we're already late for Sikowitz' class. W-we should. . ."

"I know," Jade said, and slowly, (carefully,) she moved to Tori, closing what space there was left between them. And as though she was trying to convey some sort of apology in that strange, vague way of hers, she placed a kiss on the other girl's lips, gentle and lingering and still heavy enough to tell the brunette that she was just as eager to get through all of this as Tori was, although they still burned with the heat of anger that had risen in her face only moments before.

And they left for class, each acting as though none of this had ever happened. However, before they opened the door to Sikowitz's classroom, Tori's hand slipped itself into Jade's for a short, fleeting, sensational moment. Jade's eyes flickered to Tori, and there in the barren, lonely hallway, they allowed the feel of each other's fingers entwining themselves to stir up a mixture of feelings - of hurt and comfort, anxiety and hope - in both of their chests. Tori was tempted to take it further; to step forward and capture Jade's lips, and to tell her just how she was beginning to feel about her, right there where anyone could see them had they just been poking their heads around the corner.

But the moment was over, and Jade had to break off their contact. She murmured to Tori to walk in right after her and to look upset as she did so, and Tori agreed, her lips pursing at the feeling of the chill from the lack of contact with Jade's.

And then, as if it was only natural, they went back to hating each other in front of all of their friends and classmates.