Final Project

XX.

The next few days flew by as different events arose out of nowhere. On Sunday, Shiori took them to see sumo wrestling, because "you can't come to Japan and not see one!" as Shiori so enthusiastically put it. Though Beck and Tori were a bit perturbed at seeing the huge, almost naked men at first, they soon found themselves cheering for the surprisingly agile men of their choice. Later that night, Shiori took them on a bullet train to Akihabara, which turned out to be a huge city that housed all the latest and greatest technology. They wouldn't get to look around at the stores until morning, however, since they didn't arrive in Akihabara until close to ten at night.

Shiori said she had a few relatives that lived there that would let them spend the night, but before they checked in, she wanted to take them to one of the best karaoke joints around. They were all amused at seeing a group of guys singing old school Backstreet Boys songs and a group of girls singing Spice Girls songs…with very broken English, or just in Japanese.

Shiori and Tori did a couple duets, and the crowd loved them…not only because they were both so good, but because Shiori only sang in Japanese, so each of their songs brought a bilingual feel to the place. Tori tried to get Beck to sing something with her, but singing wasn't exactly his thing. So she stuck with just dancing with him or sharing an iced chai tea with him.

Shiori's relatives welcomed them into their home, and since Beck's arm was always around Tori, or they were holding hands, everyone assumed they were a couple and gave them a single room to share. Which, of course, was no problem with them.

On Monday, as promised, Shiori took them around the city to see all the awesome technology, most of which the normal person would not be able to afford. Tori did buy a small, orange camera though, because despite its size, the image display on it was out of this world. She made sure to ask Shiori to take a picture of her and Beck so that it could be her first picture on there, and then asked Beck to take one of her and Shiori. She would forever remember her time in Japan.

They spent the whole day there, and even got to eat at a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant, where sushi just kept rolling around for them to grab whatever they thought looked good. Endless sushi, what's better than that?

Then they took the bullet train back to Tokyo, where Shiori told them to get good rest because they were going to climb Mount Fuji the next day. She said that it wasn't very often that tours to the top were given before July, but because the weather had been pretty good, the tour guides thought it was okay to take people at the end of May.

So when Tuesday came, Shiori brought over warm hiking clothes for the two of them before they set out on their journey. And of course, climbing a mountain is no easy task, but the view as they got closer and closer to the top was enough to push them all the way.

It took them over half the day to reach their destination, but once they were there, they couldn't have been happier that they got to experience this with each other.

"This is where we belong, Beck," Tori said as she stood near the edge with him, looking out into the foggy clouds and down at the mountain tips below, "At the top."

He smiled at her positive words. He put his arm around her and hugged her close to his side, her own arm coming around his waist, "This is where we belong," he repeated, though Tori caught the extra meaning behind the statement.

She looked up at him with a serious, yet happy, expression as they met in the middle for a kiss.

"You guys are so cute," Shiori commented as she came up beside them. She let out a long breath of satisfaction as she took in the scenery, "Believe me guys, you're never gonna have another moment quite like this. Even when you're both famous and performing on stage every night…being up here, unrestrained…it's unlike anything else." She smiled at them, "Wherever you guys go in life, don't forget to stop and remember this moment, especially when things get wild and hectic. It'll bring you peace."

Tori and Beck looked at her with wide eyes before Tori slowly nodded, "Wow…that was deep."

Shiori giggled and winked, which seemed so much more like her, "I can be deep when I wanna be." She held out her hand, "Gimmie your camera. I want to take a picture of you guys up here."

Tori gladly handed over her camera, and her and Beck turned around so that they could face Shiori with the mountains in the background. Shiori took one with their arms around each other, and then another when Beck put his finger on Tori's chin and turned her face toward him to kiss her.

"Kawaii!" Shiori yelled as she looked at the picture perfect moment. She gave the camera back to Tori, then put her hands on her hips as she smirked at the couple, "You two better remember to invite me to your wedding."

Tori felt her face heat up despite the cold chill that swept across the mountain and opened her mouth to counteract that statement (though she wasn't sure what words she was going to use) but got cut off when she heard Beck plainly say, "Will do."

She looked up at him in shock, wondering what in the world made him say that. But he only smiled and brushed some of her hair behind her ear after it got blown in her face.

Shiori smiled softly at the scene, then stepped forward to hug Tori tightly, telling her lowly in her ear: "I've never seen a guy look at a girl the way Beck looks at you. Hold onto it."

When she let her go and stepped away from her, Tori still looked shocked…why were Beck and Shiori saying all this stuff that…that…made her feel like she was in a movie?! Still, Shiori's words struck her heart. She looked back at Beck and saw him looking out into the distance again, his soft hair blowing back and the wind hitting his face.

"Beck?" she called his name, her breath hitching in her throat when he turned to her…and now that Shiori mentioned it, Tori could definitely see the light in his eyes that only shone when he looked at her. Her heart felt like it was nearly about to explode; there's just never anything quite like that feeling you get when you just know the person you're in love with loves you just as much. She grabbed his gloved hand and held it between hers, "I just want you to know that…no matter what happens…I'll always love you."

And as it goes, whenever she accidentally says a phrase that also happens to be the title of a song, that song starts playing in her head…

Bittersweet memories…that is all…I'm taking with me…So goodbye…please, don't cry, We both know I'm not what…you need…

Too bad that song happened to be the saddest, most depressing song out there, despite its title.

Beck stared at her for a long moment. He wanted to question what she was trying to get at, but something told him he already knew. He took in a deep breath, inhaling all the cool air that made his heart feel chilled, "You know...when we first met, I had no idea you'd be so important to me. If I would've known that…I might have tried to stop it. I guess that's why we're not supposed to know what the future holds."

Tori blinked away the cold air that kept smacking her eyes; the mix between the cool air and the warm tears that had a possibility of forming was making it hard to keep her eyes open.

"I've been wanting to tell you how I felt for a long time now. And I tried to during the music awards…but nothing ever goes as planned, right?" He gave a half smirk to humor the irony, "But you know what you taught me, Tor?" Beck glanced at her and saw her slowly shake her head, "You taught me to always tell someone how you feel, because opportunities are lost in the blink of an eye, but regrets last forever."

Tori closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against his shoulder. She wrapped her arms around his arm and sighed deeply, "I don't know how I'm gonna tell him…"

"But you're going to?" Beck asked. And though it was a simple question, Tori heard the hope in his voice.

But she didn't answer. And he didn't pry any further. But they were only given a couple more minutes to enjoy their feeling of being up so high that no one on Earth could bother them. The tour guides announced that they had to get ready for their hike back down.

Though they say that going down takes less resistance, Beck and Tori would have given anything to continue upward.

Why the hell is her computer still off?

Over in Argentina, a very frustrated Andre looked at the same message he'd been getting for the last six days:

[User] Tori Vega not connected to internet.

He knew that if she had her computer on, it would be automatically connected to whatever internet access she had in the hotel. So the fact that she was completely unavailable told him that she didn't have her computer on. At first, he thought that maybe her computer just died and she forgot to plug it in…but it's been six damn days! Almost a whole week!

What teenager goes that long without the internet? Okay, so she was in a foreign country with lots of cool things to do and see…but seriously? He knew she knew he was waiting to talk to her! So unless her computer got stolen or got a virus, or Japan lost all power, he could think of no reason why her computer needed to be off.

Andre talked to Cat and asked her if she had talked to Tori (or Beck for that matter…his computer had been strangely turned off for the same amount of time), but the red-head said no. He thought about asking Jade, but didn't want millions of accusations about what was secretly going on in Japan to get thrown in his face.

But he remembered that one of the last few times he talked to Tori that her friend, Shiori, said she got a record deal and Tori was doing a duet with her. And if she happened to already release a song, any song, then maybe he would be able to look them up. Maybe Tori was on a small tour with Shiori. Could that even be possible?

Andre really didn't care about what was possible right then. He just needed some sort of answer to fill the void until he got all the facts.

He didn't even know Shiori's last name though. How many Shiori's could there be in Japan? He typed in everything in the search engine that he thought could lead to something:

New singer Shiori…pop star Shiori…Shiori star in Tokyo…

After awhile, it felt strange to him that he was only typing in Shiori's name. But she was the only person over there that Tori knew…or that he thought she knew. Therefore, she was the only way he could find out about Tori…if there was any way to begin with.

But finally, he found himself typing in Shiori and Tori Vega and was surprised when an actual link came up saying: "Shiori Takahashi and American, Tori Vega, Release Duet and Perform at Club Dragon!"

That was the name of the club Tori told him about! Not that he thought it mattered for his current search…seriously, what would her singing at a club have to do with her "disappearance"?

When he clicked on the link, it led him to an all Japanese page, but he made a few adjustments so that he could get it translated. The translation was weak and the syntax was all off, but the headline was mostly just talking about Shiori and Tori singing a bilingual duet together on an upcoming CD release, and how Shiori is a regular singer at Club Dragon and that Tori was in Japan for a school project, blah blah blah…

So the story gave him nothing, but it was the small picture in the middle of the page that really made him squint and get as close to his screen as humanly possible. He saw a Japanese girl up on stage holding a mic, and he assumed it was Shiori, but there were two people at the bottom of the stage that looked familiar…

The picture was so small and even when he tried to copy and paste it onto a document, making it bigger only caused the picture to become blurry. There was a huge crowd of people surrounding the two he was trying to get a better look at, and it looked like many of them were staring at the two while they were applauding. So if they weren't looking up at Shiori and clapping, then it was because someone else just performed…

Andre's heart started to pound in his chest and throat and temples. He felt a wave of extremely hot blood pass through his system and for a moment, he honestly thought that he was about to have a panic attack.

Are those two people kissing? Either that, or they're extremely close and it just looks like…

Without thinking, he minimized the window and went to his video chat section. Though it was hardly a rational decision, he was calling Jade up. If there was anyone else that might have possibly heard from either of the two in Japan, it was her.

It only took her a few seconds to come up on the screen, her menacing glare making him wish he never even bothered.

"Asshole!" She yelled in his face, her eyes narrowed, "I thought you were Beck and made me come running in here like a stampede of antelopes getting chased by a lion!"

Hearing her say all this in one breath, he raised an eyebrow, "Wow, great analogy." But then his brain registered what she really said, "Wait, you thought I was Beck? That means you haven't talked to him?"

Jade crossed her arms, "Oh, you think that's bad? I know you haven't talked to Vega either. Her computer's been off all week, too."

Andre's shoulders slumped when it became clear right from the start that he was going to get no answers from her, "You're right. I was just wondering if—."

"If Beck and it are going behind our backs?" Jade nearly growled out her question, "You better start doing more than wondering."

Folding in his lips, he began to contemplate if he should show her the picture he found. But what if it wasn't what he thought it was? What if it just looked like what he wanted…or rather didn't want…to find. Either way, informing Jade of the picture would only fuel her wrath at everyone, himself included, and with everything else that was going on in his head, he didn't need her to bring him down any further.

"Okay, well I was just wondering if you heard from Beck. I'll let you go now," he was just about to close the chat when she stopped him.

"Wait!" She said it so loud and suddenly it actually made Andre jump away from his computer a little. Jade scratched her head and sighed with annoyance, "I don't know about you, but I'm feeling more than a little worried about this whole thing. Don't tell me you don't sense something's up…"

Andre's shoulders slumped. He couldn't avoid her now, because she actually sounded and looked worried. Not angry, not completely outraged, just…like a girl that thought she'd never hold her boyfriend again.

"You're right," Andre finally admitted, "I am getting a bad feeling. I really don't know why they're avoiding us."

Jade shot him an incredulous look, "Are you serious? They're avoiding us because they're too busy with each other!" She placed her elbows on the table and hid her face in her hands. For a moment, Andre actually thought that Jade was maybe about to cry, but when she uncovered her face, she just looked annoyed, "It's like a nightmare come true…and not the good kind of nightmare either."

Andre wasn't sure if there was a good kind of nightmare, but placed the statement in the "Normal Jade" category. He shook his hand back and forth to nonverbally tell her to chill out, "Look, I know what all this looks like…and I feel you on this whole nightmare thing, but maybe we should wait and ask them what's going on."

Jade laughed mirthlessly, "Oh yeah, wait! Wait until when? If they haven't contacted us this whole week, what makes you think they're going to this next week?"

Andre continued to try to keep her calm, "Well, if they don't, they won't have anywhere to hide once we all get back to California."

"Damn right they won't! They'll be getting an ass pounding and a half when I get my hands on them…Vega especially!"

Andre sighed, "Tori's not the only one in this you know."

Jade rolled her eyes, "Yeah, but the difference is, I actually like Beck."

Though so much in him was telling him that Tori was cheating on him, Jade's words were still making him angry, "I really don't know how you can say that, Jade. Tori is the one that rejected Beck before the music awards."

Jade looked up to the ceiling like she was fed up with his childish fantasies, "Yeah but it's an easy decision to regret."

Andre thought back to the time two years ago, and how utterly destroyed Tori was when she found out Beck and Jade got back together only a week after the Platinum Music Awards….

She threw her arms up in defeat, "I just think…you know, that we should try each other out! I mean, why not, right? We get along perfectly, we tell each other everything, we make beautiful music together…you're comfortable to be around."

Andre blinked a few times. He couldn't deny that she made some good points, but the thought of even dating Tori surprisingly never crossed his mind. And that's saying something, considering he even fantasized about dating Jade before. And as far as he could tell, it never crossed Tori's mind to date him, either…it was the most spur of the moment thing he's ever witnessed.

"Say something, please!" Tori exclaimed suddenly, breaking him of his racing thoughts.

"Um…whoa?" Was all he could offer.

Tori slumped forward to slight defeat, "C'mon Andre, why not? Look, I know you still have some feelings left for Jade that never really went away, and I have some feelings for Beck that need to go away. We're not mean, so we're not going to try to break them up again. Let's help each other."

Tori was so desperate to get over Beck as fast as she could that she just grabbed at a relationship opportunity. And she was wrong…he didn't have feelings left for Jade, those died almost as quick as they started. If his feelings were still there, he would have tried to get closer to Jade after her and Beck's breakup. But he didn't. Because it didn't matter to him…being with Jade.

But the hurt and sorrow in Tori's eyes and voice made him feel terrible for her. He knew that she regretted turning Beck down, and he had to wonder…was she making up for that regret?

If this whole final project thing happened a few months after him and Tori hooked up, he probably wouldn't have cared what she did with Beck in Japan. Deep, romantic feelings were not ingrained yet. But he could remember the exact night that his love for her came to fruition…

They had just gotten home from school when they saw a ping pong table sitting in the middle of the floor between the couch and the TV. Because they have come to expect the most random things in the Vega house (such as the dummy that got kicked in the groin by Trina), the table was not a huge shocker.

Tori challenged him to a quick game, but Andre remembered how she had beaten everyone when she wanted to try out for their ping pong "team". Although he didn't think he stood a chance at the Ping Pong Queen, he decided to have a bit of fun and play her anyway.

Of course, she beat him time after time after time. Finally, he had enough of losing and flopped the racket on the table and lifted his hands in defeat, "Okay, I'm done. I don't want to play you anymore."

"Aww, come on, Andre! One more time?" She pleaded, holding the paddle close to her chest.

"Uh-uh," he sat down on the couch, "Losing ten times in a row hurts my ego."

Tori puffed out her lower lip in feigned sadness, "Pleeeeaaase?"

He sighed, "Why?"

She smiled brightly and did a small, happy jump in the air when she thought she might get to him, "Because you love me." Though it was a simple statement, something that even friends say to each other, it seemed to click something in her brain.

Andre watched as her expression went from pleading, to thoughtful, to sly. He raised an eyebrow, "What?"

He watched her as she turned the ping pong paddle upside down to pretend it was a microphone, singing into it as she slowly walked toward him; "The situations turn around…enough to figure out…that someone else has let you down! So many times I don't know why…"

Andre smiled as he recalled the song they performed at the restaurant so they wouldn't have to pay for their overly expensive meal (no thanks to Robbie). He watched her walk behind the couch, but when she stopped behind him and rested her arm over his chest, his skin tightened and his smile widened as she sang next to his face:

"So tell me that you love me…yeah! And tell me that I take your breath away! And maybe if you take one more, than I would know for sure! There's nothing left to say—tell me that you love me…anyway."

He grabbed ahold of her hand and held onto it as she walked around the other side of the couch, continuing to do her rendition of the song that previously meant hardly anything to him.

"Show me, look what we found…turn it around everyday. I can hear what you sa-ay! Now I know why, know we can…make it!"

She did a couple overly dramatic moves against the ping pong table just to get a laugh out of him, but it was when she came back over to him and sat beside him in the couch, looking into his eyes as she sang the last part: "Tell me that you love me…anyway…" that that thing inside him snapped…the same thing that made him fall for Jade before.

"I think I'm in love with you."

Tori seemed surprised for a brief moment, but then smiled gently, "Love you, too."

"Andre!"

Andre snapped out of his memories when he heard Jade screaming his name. When she saw his eyes come back into focus, she knew she had his attention again, "I'm trying to ask you what you're going to say to her if she ends up calling."

Blinking a few times, Andre saw that she was impatiently waiting for a response. And the only answer he could give was: "I'll say 'tell me that you love me'."

()()()()()()()()()()()

I have a few things to say...

First, I feel very proud of myself. This story has made it to 21 chapters...never before have I been able to get this far. I have another story that's 20 chapters, but it took my 2 years to get there. And I needed to end it. I've been writing on this site for 12 1/2 years now, and I never had such strong inspiration for a story as I have for this one, and it feels awesome. And I have you guys to thank. Your reviews keep me highly motivated, and just seeing that over 200 people read this story is truly amazing to me. So thank you all!

Second, some of you have been asking for some Jandre. Though I have nothing against this couple (though I'd have to say I'm more of a Candre fan), there are reasons that I cannot put Jade and Andre together in this story. This is the main reason: Andre is starting to realize more and more that he was just the rebound man for Tori to get over Beck. If he were to hook up with Jade now, she would be using him for the same reason. I doubt he's gonna wanna go through that again. Know what I'm sayin'?

Third, for BigStuOU: you mentioned a scene in Karate Kid 2. I have never seen it, but I looked up the tea ceremony scene on Youtube. I'm not really sure if the tea ceremony is actually supposed to be a "love announcement" type thing, but the scene was very awesome. They did a good job on it. I'll try to get Beck and Tori into a scene like that before they leave Japan.

Fourth, I'm sure some of you are wondering why Tori is fighting so hard with her feelings when she obviously loves Beck more. But if any of you have ever been in situations like this, you know how tricky they can be. It's not like she can just say, "I love Beck! Sorry Andre, but you're outta the picture." Not only can she not simply say this because he's her best friend, but this stuff is NEVER that simple. Ever wonder why people in relationships ask for advice when the answer seems so obvious to an outsider? Because to that person, obvious isn't always obvious.

Fifth...I'm done! Review now! ;)