Author's note: Hello my dear readers. I hope you're feeling better than I am. I'm going to try to update on a weekly basis, but no promises. I wanted to update some other things too tonight/today, but I am NOT feeling good and that has put a hamper on writing for the last few days. In the meantime, if you're looking for some Jade/Freddie until I get the next chapter of A Coffee and a Smoothie up, look to PD31's story: Kindred Spirits. He's updated it tonight.

Thank you for reading and reviewing:

Twilight Warrior 627: It has to do with policy changes as we speak about limited housing for them. I'm not making any political or cultural judgments, I'm just pointing out the real life situation UCLA is facing at the moment.

Challenge King: Thanks. I hope I don't let you down.

ArtisticAngel6: I hope you enjoy this new chapter.

Boris Yeltsin: I'm glad and hope you'll enjoy the story.

darck ben: I'm hoping it is a good story and I may take you up on that offer.

PD31: I found it a unique way to get them 'together' for the moment.

Jeremy Shane: I always assumed Trina was there because she wanted a full four years of education there as she probably didn't do her freshman year at HA, but at Sherwood High School. I think it is Sherwood Tori went to before HA.

Fanfic-Reader-88: I'm going to address how tightly they became in the story, maybe a little in this chapter.

The rooming thing is just a policy at UCLA and that is why in real life they are reexamining it so that say gays and lesbians can share a room to avoid the awkwardness of rooming with heterosexuals. I'm just fitting real life circumstances for a story.

That's an interesting idea for them to be fraternal twins, but then Trina complained with having to work with André, a tenth grader, before the showcase in Pilot. If she was in tenth grade too, why would she complain?

Agent-M-0167: It is isn't it? I'd like to add some more comedy for my usually serious leaning stories.

Protege16: Thanks. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Now on with the story.

Rating: T

Chapter 2

Apartment 316
Venice/Barry Apartments
11811 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
Saturday, September 17, 2012

Tori was the first one through the door, nearly skipping inside as the guilt she felt for messing up Freddie's room assignment was taken off her shoulders, albeit temporarily, but even that didn't concern her since she knew everything would be straightened out in a few days.

However, her new roommate was not nearly as thrilled as he followed behind her wearing a weary expression. He pushed the door closed behind him and looked to the back of the elated brunette as he commented, "I'm still not thrilled with this."

Tori's shoulders slumped as he had just burst her bubble. She turned around and dropped her hands to her sides as she answered with a pitiful tone, "I know, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have messed up your room assignment—"

He gave her a reassuring smile as he raised his hands up to show he didn't want to argue with her, "You didn't mess up anything. I don't usually write out Fredward, so I understand about writing a name shorthand." He took a step closer and put on his charming smile as he finished, "Look at it this way: if you would have written your name out, I'd still out of luck for a room, so it doesn't matter. Don't feel guilty about anything."

"But you're still upset," she pointedly countered with a confident smirk.

His shoulders were the ones that slumped this time as he glanced downward which would be down directly at her chest and immediately noticed how well the old Hollywood Arts Baseball-T outlined her chest. He immediately shot his eyes back up to meet her soft brown eyes and stuttered for a moment before spitting out, "Look, I'm just… uncomfortable with the situation because… you're a girl and I'm a guy… and I was raised a certain way and if mother found out that my roommate was not a guy, even temporarily… she'd probably have an aneurysm."

She let out a soft laugh and rested a hand on his muscular bicep. She gave him a reassuring and understanding smile as she countered, "My dad raised me and Trina Catholic, so I understand that concern."

Freddie rolled his eyes and muttered out with a hint of dread in his voice, "Oh, that would really make her feel better."

Tori's brow knotted and frowned almost in the form of a pout as her hand dropped away from his arm.

He blew out a tired breath and quickly explained, "My mother unfortunately has a—" he raised up his right pointer finger and thumb close together, "—tiny bit of anti-Catholic bias."

Tori glanced away somewhat embarrassed and crossed her arms underneath her chest.

He gently raised a hand to cup her right elbow and whispered, "One which I don't share."

She playfully smirked back, "I wouldn't think you would."

They shared a soft laugh for a few moments before Tori eagerly picked up and idly rolled her hands in front of him, "But this is different; we're not co-habituating, we're just crashing for the night or maybe two nights—like when you spent the weekend with us last year."

"That's was different Tori; your sister and your parents were home—"

She gently rested her hands on his shoulders and insistently pointed out, "But we have separate rooms and bathrooms just like last time; we're adults now and we can handle anything that comes up for a day or two, it's going to be fine."

Her points may have not completely dissuade his apprehension, but it was enough for him to nod his head and give her a soft smile to let her know he wasn't going to bring it up anymore. Tori's eyes lit up and her soft smile brightened into a full grin as she dropped her hands away from his shoulders.

He commented with a dry tone, "There's no point in unpacking; I'm out of here by Monday at the latest. I just need the essentials out for the next night or so… I guess we can just relax or is there any unpacking I can help you with?"

She softly laughed out, "Nope, I'm done unpacking everything before you got here."

A knock from the door interrupted caught the pair's attention and Tori throw Freddie a knotted brow confused expression. She walked over to the door and took a quick look through the peephole then over her shoulder to Freddie. "It looks like a store delivery man."

She called out, "Who is it?"

The middle age man called back out from the other side of the door, "Delivery from Wanko's Warehouse to a Miss Tori Vega."

She glanced back over her shoulder to Freddie then cautiously opened the door.

The store delivery man smiled as he held a thin rectangular box on a hand truck. "I have a delivery for Miss Vega?"

She cautiously answered, "I'm Miss Vega?"

He politely asked, "Could I see some ID?"

She pulled out her wallet to oblige him and show him her ID.

He smiled in return and held pulled an electronic PAD and pen from his belt and handed it over the box for her to sign and asked, "Just sign here."

She followed his instruction then handed the PAD back to him. He motioned inside and asked, "If I may?"

He rolled it inside while Freddie kept a weary eye on him. He quickly unloaded the box onto the floor than handed her an envelope. "Have a nice day ma'am," he bid farewell with a tug at the end of the brim of his baseball cap. He turned to depart with the hand truck and Tori closed the door behind him.

Tori opened up the envelope and pulled out a small piece of paper. She read over it out loud, "A little apartment warming gift, love Dad."

She looked up to see Freddie examining the brown cardboard box. He casually commented, "Just a wild guess, but I think your dad got you a TV, a pretty nice sized one too."

Tori let out a soft laugh as she walked to stand on the opposite side of box, "I guess so. I need to go home and get my Wii."

Freddie brightened up as he looked up from looking at the box. "Oh? You're a video game girl?"

She smirked as she playfully answered, "I enjoy my occasional game."

He nodded along. "I can't do anything about the Wii at the moment, but if you want to wait a little while, I could go out and get us something to eat then we can set it up. I haven't eaten since the flight and I'm getting hungry. What do you want me to get you?"

She playfully waved him off, "You don't have to buy me food."

He gave her his boyish smirk as they both knew he was kidding, "I'm not."

She gave him a coy smile in return as she answered, "Surprise me."

Freddie smirked and nodded his head then turned to head out of the door.

"And while you do that, I'm going to call my dad," she playfully informed him and pulled out her PearPhone and dialed her father's number.

"Say hi to him for me," he answered back as he opened the door.

She smiled and nodded her head with the phone pressed to the side of her head as he passed through the door and pulled it close behind him. Tori beamed as the other end of the phone picked up. "Hi dad." She smiled as he instantly went on in concern about her. "Yeah, I'm doing fine, but—"

She was quickly interrupted with his concern over the other end of the line. "No, I'm fine; it's just my roommate—"

She rolled her eyes as he started on about how it would take time to adjust living with a new person, but she cut him off before he really could get into his lecture, "It's not about getting along; it's who they gave me. There was a mix up in the room assignments and they thought I was a guy, so they gave me a male roommate." She pulled her phone away from her ear as her father raised his voice in alarm. She cautiously brought her ear back to her phone and continued a few moments later after her father finished speaking.

"I'm not kicking him out, he's Freddie, Freddie Benson, from iCarly… yes, the same Freddie… one that you let spend the weekend with us last year so he could come down and see my play. The weekend Trina was drugged up from the fall."

Her father paused at the other end of the phone and gave her a chance to continue, "It's my fault. When I was writing out the room application I wrote Tori instead of Victoria and missed checking the gender box. Whoever did the room assignments thought I was a guy, so they paired us up."

Mister Vega started again, but Tori forcefully interrupted, "I can't kick him out and make him pay for a hotel room. If I hadn't rushed filling out the application then he might have a room now. I can't do that to him. It'll be alright for a few days until you and mom get back to figure out—wait, you and mom are going to stay in New York for the rest of the week?"

She patiently waited as she heard his explanation as to why they wouldn't be back on Monday. "Okay, that's fine. I'd want to sightsee too if I was there. We can do a week—it won't be a problem with him staying that long. When you get back they'll probably find an opening for him and they haven't, I know you can figure something out."

The brunette blew out a soft breath as she listened to her father caution her about having a teenage boy under the same roof on a practical level as even he seemed to realize any kind of lecture about Freddie possibly doing anything unsavory towards her during his stay would be met with an argument from his youngest daughter. "Okay, I understand. We'll make it work… I love you too Dad, tell Mom and Trina I love them." She pulled the phone from her ear and tapped the end call button on the screen. She let out a soft breath and wore a soft smile as at least for the moment, everything was settled and was going to be alright… until Freddie got back and she had to tell him that he might be here for the rest of the week.

About half an hour later, Freddie walked back inside with a pizza box in hand and napkins resting on top. "I hope you like the pizza. I was hoping I remembered the toppings you like on your pizza." He closed the door behind him and locked it then sat the box on the small provided dinning room table next to the kitchen area. She opened the box and quickly pulled out a slice then took a bite. She smiled at him as he had remembered what she liked on her pizza.

"Did you get to stock up the fridge?"

Tori was in mid-chew, so she nodded her head and motioned to a cabinet with a finger. He got the message and walked over to the neighboring cabinet. He pulled out two colorful plastic cups to sit on the counter then went into the refrigerator. He found a two liter bottle of Classic Joke-a-Cola and pulled it out. He held it up for her to see to make sure it was alright to open it. After licking her fingers, Tori raised a thumb and he poured the pair a drink.

Freddie quickly put it up and then turned back towards the table and sat a drink in front of her. He grabbed a napkin and took a slice of pizza then took a seat across from her. The pair smiled towards one another as they enjoyed their respective slices.

After he finished his first slice, he casually asked, "So, how did your talk with your dad go?"

The lovely brunette wiped off her lips with a napkin and gave him an apprehensive expression.

He smirked at her and provided her the answer, "He wants me out, right?"

She quickly shook her head, but she was still hesitant in verbally answering him, "No… he's not thrilled, but he knows you're a good guy, so it's alright."

He slightly bowed his head and coyly asked with a soft tone, "So why do you look so worried?"

She looked down at the table and softly bit her bottom lip.

"Tori?" he asked with clear concern on his part.

She lifted her head just enough to lift her eyes to meet his and whispered out with a mouse like tone, "My mom and dad aren't going to be back until the end of the week."

Freddie blew out a breath and palmed his forehead with his elbow on the table supporting his head.

Tori's shoulders slumped and frowned at seeing his reaction. She whispered with a strange mix of regret hurt, "Freddie?"

Freddie raised his hands and quickly tried to dissuade her from getting upset, "Okay… a week. We can handle a week. Separate rooms and all that like you pointed out earlier and they could find a room before then. It's good, we're good."

A smile instantly lit up on Tori's face and Freddie would have to be blind not to see that her mood had turned completely around. Fortunately, Freddie wasn't emotionally blind and realized that he wasn't going to bring up that matter again to upset her.

He pulled another slice of pizza from the box and decided to switch to hopefully a more pleasant topic, "So where is everyone else? Are they going here too?"

Tori sipped from her colorful plastic cup then happily answered, "Jade's going part-time; she got some acting roles right after graduation, so she's taking a balanced approach to her career and school and Beck's doing the same thing. Cat's going to be part-time too, but she got an apartment somewhere. I've been meaning to drop by and meet her roommate. She was very cryptic about it who it is, but she said that I would know her when I saw her. I'm kind of curious about who it could be."

He let out a soft laugh then asked with a hopeful expression, "Well that should be an interesting surprise, but I'll get to see'em around?"

She nodded her head as her mouth was full with pizza. She quickly chewed that morsel so she could continue, "We're actually got together and made sure we could line up some of our classes the best we could with our schedules."

"What about the rest?"

"André got a record deal with RPX records, so he's busy working on an album, but since he's still in the city, he'll be around. I'm not sure about Robbie. I haven't heard what's going on with him."

"That's great. I'm glad they're doing great and can't wait to see them."

"It'll be good. We're going to stick together… at least for a while. I'll admit I don't want to let them go just because we might be going in different directions." Tori took a quick sip from her soda then asked, "How's Carly and Sam? Are they coming down for school too?"

Freddie put on a regretful expression then answered with a solemn tone, "No, Carly went to Italy to stay with her dad a few weeks before graduation—he's in the Air Force—and over the summer decided that she wanted to stay to go to college. A few weeks later Sam just took off saying she was going and probably wasn't coming back. I didn't have a real reason to stay after that, so I decided to try someplace different." He let out a soft laugh and shrugged a shoulder, "I got tired of the rain."

Tori didn't bother to hide her concern on her face as she questioned, "Have you thought about trying to find Sam? She is your friend and ex after all."

He bowed his head slightly to look at the table. "I've had the summer to do a lot of reflecting on my life so far and I've been doing a lot of reevaluating the definition of what friend really means… she didn't have the courtesy to let me know where she's going, so I'm not going to worry about her anymore… how much she's ever cared about me is up for debate. I really think now that with Carly gone, we didn't have to bother keeping up the pretenses of a friendship, so she didn't see the need to stay." Freddie shrugged a shoulder. "I guess I just had to start over."

Tori nodded her head. "I'm sorry."

He forced a smile and commented, "It's college, so a fresh start."

"And you'll have us," she tried to reassure him.

Freddie looked down at pizza held just above the table in his napkin.

Tori knotted her brow. "Freddie?"

"What?"

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

He looked up to meet her caring eyes and answered with an apologetic tone, "That I really didn't keep in touch with you or the others… I don't really have any excuse for it and I know I lost out on a chance to make some really good friends between then and now—"

She quickly interrupted, "But like you said, we all have a fresh start… let's not let what we did or failed to do bring us down. We've graduated and we're on our own and this is the time to make our dreams come true."

It was Freddie's turn to smile as she cheered him up. "Okay… that sounds like a very good idea."

Tori returned his smile and held up her cup and he took the hint for them to tap cups then drunk for new beginnings.

He softly laughed out, "Let me just finish eating then I can hook up your TV. It's probably a straight forward hookup, but I'm told I'm pretty good with technical stuff."

The brunette laughed at the lame joke then continued eating in pleasant company with her friend (and roommate) from Seattle.

The time was getting late as Tori was wrapping up reading a section in one of her textbooks to get ahead for class while curled up on the couch. She had turned off the TV an hour ago or so and changed into some night clothes with a fitting old T-shirt and short pajama shorts while Freddie had retired to his room.

She was on the last paragraph of her text when she heard the soft patter of feet on the living room carpet. Her brow lifted up in surprise when she saw Freddie walk back to the living room wore an old T-shirt that hugged tightly his muscular chest and biceps.

He smiled to her and called out, "Hey?"

Tori had to take a moment and clear her throat before answering with an awkward tone, "Hey. What's up?"

"I was about to head to bed and I wanted to give you something."

"Oh?"

He walked over to the couch and held up his set of apartment keys to her with an awkward smile.

She gave him a confused expression.

He patiently smiled to her as he explained, "If I'm going to stay the night… for the week, you should keep the keys… and make sure your door is locked."

She dismissively laughed as she gave him a playful expression with her eyes, "You're not going to slip into my room."

Freddie gave her a soft smile. "Thanks for the trust, but… just for appearance's sake?" He gave her a puppy dog expression which she saw was his blatant attempt for her to go along with his suggestion.

She blew out a breath and reluctantly took the keys from him which instantly brought a smile to his face.

"How do you know I won't slip into your room?"

Freddie smirked and whispered with an enticing tone, "I don't."

The pair shared playful stares then at the same time let out a surprising laughs.

Tori held the back of her hand to her mouth to help her calm herself then looked back to the former tech-producer. She stood up while closing her book and announced, "I was actually about to head to bed myself, so I guess it's a good thing you caught me or you would have had to slip into my room to give me the keys so you couldn't slip into my room."

Freddie chuckled and bowed his head at the point. "Good night Tori."

She lifted just the corner of her mouth and spoke barely over a whisper, "Good night Freddie." She turned and headed for her bedroom while Freddie caught himself staring at her rear in her short pajamas shorts then turned his eyes away in shame. He cleared his throat and shook his head then headed for his own bedroom for the night.

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Remember to catch the final episode of Victorious, Victor-Yes this Saturday, February 2, 2013 at 8 PM on Nick.