Final Project

XXVII.

The Jumbo Floating Restaurant didn't take long to get to the middle of the river, as it then began to slowly float down the body of water. Tori and Beck were amused by the people on land that were waving at them as they were going by, many of them screaming hello's in their native tongue.

Tori giggled after she blew some exaggerated kisses to the crowd. She turned to Beck to see him grinning at her silliness, making her quickly clear her throat, "So uhhh…is our table up here?"

He shook his head once, "Nope."

"Oh," Tori looked surprised for a brief moment, having felt certain that they were going to be eating dinner under the sky. She didn't want to come off too disappointed, however, so she quickly replaced her confused face with a smile, "Are we on the ground floor?"

With his grin getting deeper, Beck turned around so his back was against the railing, his elbows propped up on either side of him, "Kinda…but not exactly."

Tori looked really confused now and she let out a short chuckle, "Are we going to be eating in the basement or something?"

Beck pointed a finger at her, "That…is a very close guess."

Tori raised an eyebrow. She understood that he wanted their date to be private and just the two of them, but did he really have to make them eat in the boiler room? Before she could ask anything else, however, a soft beeping in a set of three came over the inner speaker followed by a broken English voice saying: "Oliver, special dinner for two."

Blinking, Tori cocked her head to the side, "I know it's hard to understand, but I swear I just heard your last name…"

"You did," Beck grinned, taking her hand and pulling her back toward the elevator. He pushed the down button, but the doors immediately opened for other guests that had their tables reserved on the roof. They waited for the other couples to exit before entering, and Tori watched Beck press the first button at the bottom.

"You really are taking me to the basement…" Tori said, her voice giving away her worry.

Beck put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him, still smiling, yet trying to sound offended, "Why Tori…you really have so little faith in my romance skills?"

"Heh…I dunno, were you ever able to actually use them?" Though she meant to throw the words back at him as a joke, she realized that maybe it was a bit too soon to bring up exes. She closed her eyes in embarrassment, "Sorry, that was a quip…"

He kissed her hair, "No need to be sorry. I thought it was funny." As he said this, the elevator doors opened up to reveal a red rope that tied off a large doorway that showed the water.

"Oohhh, we're gonna have dinner on a side deck!" Tori exclaimed, proud that she finally guessed.

"Again, not quite," Beck denied, walking her to the rope. When Tori looked down, she swore she had a mini heart attack. She saw a gangplank that was slanted down to connect to a large piece of wood…a raft. But on the middle of the raft sat a modest wood table with two chairs on either side; the table was set for two with a candle in the middle. But that wasn't the only candle. About thirty candles surrounded the table, all lit, sparkling the raft like a fancy diner. A man stood at the bottom of the plank, seeming like he was ready to help them board.

"Beck…are you serious?!" Tori turned to him quickly, but couldn't help but look back down at her surprise with wide eyes.

"It's awesome, isn't it? As soon as I saw a picture of a couple on one of those, I knew I had to take you," he smiled, taking the hook off of one end of the rope so they can start heading down.

The wind caught Tori's hair, making her grab a huge chunk of it to get out of her face, "What if I slip?"

"It's not that steep," Beck reassured her, grabbing her hand anyway as he began descending right behind her.

The plank was, indeed, short and fairly horizontal so they didn't have a hard time stepping onto their dinner raft. As soon as they were both seated, the man bowed to them before ascending the plank, then pulling the board up to lose connection with the raft.

Tori couldn't help but grip onto both sides of the table as the waves lapped gently against the raft, "What if one of the candles tip and catches fire?"

Beck chuckled, "Well, we're on water, so I think we're pretty safe."

"True…" Tori agreed, looking down at the delicious looking food that was on her plate. She glanced at the huge wine glass that sat fancily next to her plate, making her smirk as she picked it up between two fingers, "Wine, Beck?"

Beck shrugged modestly, picked up his own wine glass, took a sip, then exhaled refreshingly, "Sparkling grape juice."

Tori giggled and took a sip also, glad she didn't have to worry about getting off the raft later while being slightly intoxicated. She noticed that the Floating Restaurant began floating further away from them, "They gonna come back for us?"

He shook his head, "Nope. I'm keeping you on this raft forever."

She couldn't help but giggle again at his joking manner, tapping his leg gently with her foot from across the table. He brought his foot forward so that he could keep it next to hers, happy that their bodies were touching somewhere.

"The sun's gonna go down pretty quick now," Beck commented, picking up his chopsticks to begin tasting his food, "then this raft will look even better."

Tori had begun picking at her food, but when he said this, she looked up into the sky to see a red-orange sun that was sinking lower in the sky. She looked back at him, catching him staring at her, but instead of pretending like he wasn't, he only smiled as he continued to stare. Feeling her cheeks heat up, Tori put down her chopsticks and reached across the table to grab his hand, "Beck…this is the greatest…most romantic thing anyone has ever done. Like…ever," They both laughed.

"Don't say that," Beck said, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand.

"But it's true."

"Man! How am I ever going to top the most romantic thing ever? I still have so much I want to do for you," he smiled, but Tori could tell he was hardly joking.

"Well…if you can top this…than I'm gonna start calling you Casanova," she squeezed his hand lovingly before retreating back to her side to begin eating.

Beck shrugged, "If that's what you prefer."

Just as Beck predicted, the sun got lower and lower in the horizon, which made the candles seem to come alive all the more as they became the only source of light in the middle of the water, but there were still enough of them for sufficient illumination. They continued to chat idly, about other alterations and additions they planned on making for their final project, about the things they did in Japan and things they wish they could still do if they had more time (though there were only a few days left; days they needed to focus on getting their project together), about their food, about what could possibly be going on in California right now, and so on.

They were out on the water, just the two of them, for about an hour and a half before they saw the restaurant begin floating back to them.

"Well, I'm glad I found out that I could survive with you on a raft if that moment ever comes," Tori joked, though felt disappointed that their time was almost up. She had finally gotten used to the waves that gently rocked the raft, making her feel more at ease when it was moving. She liked the hollow sound of the wood when the water pushed against it, making her feel like it really was just her and Beck in the middle of nowhere.

"We're not gonna be saved quite yet," Beck teased, this time patting her leg with his foot, "Land's not quite ready for us."

Tori raised an eyebrow again, "Oh? We gonna spend the night on the raft?"

"Hmm…I never thought about asking if I could switch out the table for a bed," Beck put his finger to his chin in thought.

Laughing, Tori waved her hand in the air at him, "With our luck based on the past, it'd start raining."

"A waterbed then?"

Tori laughed again, feeling almost like she would never stop laughing. She couldn't remember when the last time was that she laughed so hard, but it definitely felt good to do it and not feel guilty about it.

The restaurant reached them within a few more minutes, stopping so that Beck and Tori can get picked up again. The couple strolled back onto the boat as another man walked down with a paddle, no doubt so that he could move the raft to shore. Beck placed his hand on Tori's lower back as they walked onto the elevator again, and this time, he pressed the button that was right above the bottom one.

"Yes! I knew we were going to the basement basement at some point," Tori exclaimed, sounding proud of herself.

Beck looked over at her, "If I didn't know better, I think you've been wanting to explore the basement."

"Mm," Tori shrugged her shoulders, leaning over to plant a kiss on his lips. The kiss didn't last long, however, as the elevator doors opened up to reveal a very decorative basement. Beck kept his hand on her lower back, gently ushering her out of the elevator and down the hall. Tori looked at the doors as they passed, "Are these…rooms?"

"Mmhmm. See? We are spending the night on the water," Before Tori could respond, Beck was pulling out a small key and opening a door on their right.

"Oh…but Beck, I didn't bring anything to change into and—," Tori cut her sentence off when she saw her pajamas and a pair of clothes neatly folded on a simple full bed.

"Already taken care of," Beck said, his hand gently ushering her into the room, "Shiori and I made sure to work out the little details ahead of time. If I really wanted to do something special for you, I knew it had to be all night."

Tori glanced at him before looking around the room. It wasn't huge, but still came complete with the bed, a large chair, a TV, and a bathroom. Her hands fiddled together for a brief moment as she began to wonder why exactly Beck wanted to make it an all-nighter. Was it to keep her distracted so she wouldn't constantly by anxious about a phone call that wasn't going to happen anyway?

"What if he calls while we're here…?" Tori heard herself asking before she could stop herself. And she winced, not only at her words, but at how Beck's shoulders drooped upon hearing them.

"Tori, I…" Beck sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair, "I really don't think he's going to. And because I think that, I was trying to do something that would take your mind off of it for awhile, 'cause I know how—."

"I'm sorry, Beck," she cut him off, placing her hands on each of his shoulders, "I didn't mean to come off as…I mean, this whole thing has been great. I love it!" She smiled softly at him, feeling her heart break, however, when Beck's smile didn't quite reach his eyes, "I love you. I'm sorry," she took a step toward him, tilting her head to press a feather-soft kiss to his lips. Her eyes remained half-lidded, loving watching his eyes flutter shut at their contact.

She pressed their hips together when she felt his hands rest on her waist. She had to admit, she missed being with him like this. She wasn't exactly feeling in the romantic mood the last few days…and she knew it was because of her damn laptop. Her mind went through crazy scenarios where her and Beck were in a heated moment when Andre finally calls. And in her messed up thoughts, his call somehow automatically gets answered and he catches the two of them in the act.

But there were no laptops with them on the restaurant. It was truly just the two of them and, Tori had to be honest with herself, she was ecstatic about that.

Tori felt Beck's hand crawl up her bare back, causing her to moan softly against his lips. When she felt his tongue on her bottom lip, she didn't even hesitate to open her mouth and invite him in, loving the heavy and content sigh that escaped from him. She tangled her fingers in his hair, and she had to wonder if he was making her feel lightheaded or if it was simply the rocking of the boat.

He broke away from the kiss first, both of them sucking in much needed air, though his lips immediately attached themselves to her neck, his fingertips brushing against her shoulder as he pushed her hair back. Tori gripped onto him, feeling her skin get tighter as the rush of warm emotions flowed through her body.

"Beck…" she moaned, sure she had something to say after, but whatever it was, was completely forgotten as soon as she felt him suck gently on a sensitive area of skin.

"I missed you…" Beck groaned against her neck, his hands pressing her to get closer to him, then roaming down to the curve of her hips, then all the way up to her shoulders. He pressed his lips to hers again, his hands slowly coming to the sides of her neck, "I missed you…"

"I'm right here," Tori whispered against his lips, repeating the parallel words they spoke to each other the night she finally confessed that she loved him.

"Thank God," he whispered back, continuing to kiss her so long as Tori kept gripping him against her like she was. His hand slid down to her shoulders, his fingers grasping onto her straps as he slid them down to her arms. He backed away from her for a moment, staring at her glazed eyes and swollen lips. He smiled, knowing that his face looked just as flushed, "Showing you our room wasn't meant to be the last surprise," he kissed her, "There's still something else."

"Can it wait?" Tori asked breathlessly, tugging on his suit to make him kiss her again.

He groaned hearing her talk like that, "I guess the boat does need to drop off most of the other guests first…"

"Uh-huh…" Tori agreed, though she had no idea what he was talking about. She kissed down his chin, dipping her head to reach his Adam's apple, kissing and nipping at the sensitive spot so he could continue talking.

Beck closed his eyes at the hot reaction passing through him, "And um…we have to pull back out into the water again before…"

When he didn't finish his sentence, Tori stopped her sweet assault and looked up at him, basking in the desire in his eyes. He saw the same in hers and it was driving him crazy.

He nodded, finally answering her question, "It can wait." And with that, he kissed her again, lifting her up to take her further in the room.

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

Wow, you guys...you really have been eager for more! My inbox got filled up super fast with all the review alerts, and I couldn't have been happier. SO I figured I'd give you another Christmas present...on Christmas this time. Yea! Plus, I happened to be looking through the Bori section on Tumblr and saw that some people were advertising my story on there and I felt super special. So I became motivated to write this chapter. Just as a fair warning though, their time in Japan is coming to an end...they're either going to be heading back to CA in the next chapter or the one after that.

Oh yeah, and I forgot to give my thoughts on the last few episodes of Victorious last chapter. Okay. So Tori Fixes Beck and Jade. For one, Tori, technically, didn't do anything to get them back together. Beck kinda did that all on his own. And...I dunno, maybe because so much else was going on in the episode, Bade getting back together didn't seem very realistic. I mean...I guess nothing about the show really makes sense (would Beck really give up on Tori that easily?), and since Beck never really showed signs of wanting to get back with Jade until the very last minute of the episode, I'm just like...okay, that was done just to be done. Nothing more.

So let's move on to One Thousand Berry Balls. I have to say that I LOVED this episode. The Cabbie was actually very cute (and since I really don't ship them, that's saying something). I also liked Tori and Andre's interaction this whole episode. It kinda made me really, really liking Andre again and it made me feel super bad for what I did to him in this story lol! But I think it's cause I'm still mad at Beck from TFBAJ. The song was also very nice at the end. Basically, if I was a hardcore Cabbie, Bade, and Tandre shipper, this episode would have allowed me to die happily.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Tell me what you think of the chapter! And uhhh...if you would like me to continue with the scene. ;)

-Enula