A/N: In which Tori and Jade finally meet (long distance),,

It had been a super long day. From waking up at the crack of dawn and not being able to fall back asleep, to the drive to the airport and worrying about if she'd forgotten anything, to finally flying; the layover at the halfway point airport, the moment she'd finally met Jade in the flesh at the airport (and managed to catch it on video to keep forever), and then went to meet her coworkers and her parents; and finally booking a hotel room for the night before the second part of the trip which started tomorrow, Tori was utterly exhausted, mind and body. It felt as if she'd been awake for a full 24 hours, but it was barely 8 pm.

As she stood under the cool water in the hotel shower, taking deep breaths and trying not to cry (she wasn't sad in the slightest; it was the exhaustion, and the way she dealt with being overtired was through crying, and always had been since she'd been young), it hit her that it really had been a day, but at the same time, it had been a wonderful day. She'd finally met Jade. She was here, in Jade's state, and tomorrow they were going to New York for their two week holiday trip that they'd booked about a year ago, completely on faith. The hard part was over; for her, flying alone was always harder than flying with a companion, and she knew and trusted Jade to get them through tomorrow's double flights and airports so she could let herself relax about that part a bit. At the same time it made her exhausted to think about the fact they had another whole day of travel tomorrow before they'd arrive in New York around exactly this time if all went well, and despite the water running over her hair and face she felt tears welling up in her eyes, but quickly blinked them away.

"You're okay, it's okay," she told herself, remembering her affirmations she'd always used to help calm herself down, shutting her eyes tightly, letting the water flow over her, cool her body and her mind down. "You're safe, everything's fine. Hard part's done. There's nothing to—"

"Tori? You okay in there?" Jade's voice came floating into the bathroom, and Tori's eyes popped open and she cleared her throat.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Just finishing up!" she called, hoping she didn't sound as close to tears as she felt.

"Okay," Jade replied simply, before Tori assumed she went away from the bathroom door.

She took another few deep breaths, feeling a little better already from her self pep talk, and reached down to turn the water off. She shivered a bit once the cool air hit her instead of the water, but shook it off and stepped out of the shower. She'd brought her own towel from home (for comfort) and wrapped it around herself. She looked at the pile of sleep clothes on the counter that she'd brought to change into after her shower, but just grabbed them instead of actually changing into them, another idea forming in her head. She looked at herself as best she could in the foggy mirror, took another deep breath, and stepped out of the bathroom.

"Hey," Jade said, looking up from her phone as Tori came around the corner. Tori almost had to pinch herself; she still couldn't believe she was here and Jade was there across the room from her, in the flesh. She felt a large, goofy smile appear on her face, her exhaustion almost forgotten.

"Hey," she replied back, coming to the bed. Jade kicked off her blanket and swung her legs off the bed and Tori stepped in between them. She threw her clothes to the side, where they landed in an even messier pile on the sheets, and brought her arms up to wrap them around Jade's shoulders. "Hey."

Jade laughed, and Tori's heart skipped a beat as Jade wrapped her own arms around Tori's waist. "Hey again."

"I can't believe I'm actually here with you," Tori said. "It feels like a dream."

"I know," Jade replied. "I can't believe it either, baby."

Something passed between them, as they got to look into each other's eyes not through a phone screen; see each other not through a phone screen, touch each other, smell each other, all the things couples who got to see each other every day got to do.

And on that note...

"Should I even bother to get dressed?" Tori asked after a moment, and Jade just smirked, which was all the answer Tori needed.

Their first time was different and special and extremely worth it after how long they had waited, but the afterglow cuddles and falling asleep in each other's arms were somehow even better.

It was going to be an amazing two weeks together.

A/N: Sorry, am having an 'I miss her and can't wait to meet' day so just projecting it onto Tori and Jade. Thanks for reading!