Before They Were Two

- a oneshot -

It's hard to believe (and she'd never admit it to anyone, not even herself) -

- but they were friends first.

.

"Pass me the popcorn," Beck says.

They're lying on his ratty old couch watching re-runs of the Jetsons and she finds it sort of-kind of nice. He's wearing dark jeans and a t-shirt and she's wearing sweatpants (because around him she doesn't have to care) and it's so simply right. And God, now she sounds like a soap opera.

"No," Jade says.

He looks at her through the darkness - and it's kind of like one of those horror films she loves so much when you say 'don't go in the creepy house'. His eyes are kind of beady and she wonders what he's thinking about.

"Why not?" Beck asks slowly, as though he's thinking about each word.

Jade shrugs, tosses a handful of popcorn into her mouth. "I want it," she mumbles through chewing popcorn.

For a moment they just watch George lecture Judy on the flickering T.V. set and then he's leaping across the couch towards her. Instinctively Jade lets out a screech and hits him in the head with the wooden bowl; popcorn flies everywhere and she's laughing - laughing so hard tears are running down her face and her side hurts.

"Dude," Beck groans, "you got popcorn ingrained in the carpet. My mom is going to kill me."

"One, your mom doesn't care," says Jade, "and two: grow some balls and shut up."

His lips quiver at her remark and then they're laughing again and Jade can't remember the last time she's felt so free.

.

She invites - well forces, he would say - Beck to a dinner with her family.

"You like nice," he says, straightening his lilac colored tie.

Jade clenches her teeth and hisses, "I feel like a freakin' barbie doll."

Beck eyes her up and down - in that protective, brotherly sort of way - and shrugs. "I don't see it."

"Of course you don't," Jade says. Normally she's above rolling her eyes but his stupidity calls for it. "You're a guy."

"And here I thought you weren't any different," Beck retorts, but he's not mad; never mad with her.

She snorts through flaring nostrils and he's pinning her against the wall gently and those big brown eyes of his are searching her face (she doesn't allow anyone else to touch her-control her like this, just him.)

"What are you really worried about?" Beck asks softly. "Your parents?"

Jade glares at him - because he's not supposed to bring that up, damn it. "I shouldn't have told you about that," she snaps.

"I'm glad you did," says Beck. His thumbs are stroking her cheeks now, making little circles down towards her jaw and then back up towards her forehead. If she was any other girl she would be flushing right now, but as it is she's only steaming with rage at how utterly out of control she feels right now.

"Are you coming down?" he asks, beginning to let go of her.

Her nails dig into his back and she sees him wince but she doesn't - shouldn't, is there a difference? - care.

"If they start telling me I'm worthless again," Jade spits, "then I'm gone."

Beck follows behind her, smiling slightly at the way her eyes steam with anger she keeps cleverly concealed (except from him; he gets the brunt of it all.)

(and maybe, somehow, that's just how he wants it.)

.

Jade pulls a prank on him (and god, it's like they're in second grade again with the crayons and the ABCs.)

"Cat," Beck asks, "have you seen Jade?"

Cat looks at him with eyes sparkling and then they widen to the size of saucers as she takes in his form covered in glue and feathers.

She giggles. "You look like Big Bird," she says, skipping away, and she never did answer his question.

Beck spots her during lunch - she's sitting right in the middle of the cluster of tables outside because she knows he'll follow her, knows he'll humiliate himself and let the glue dry on his skin just to eat lunch with her - and pulls her away from the crowd of laughing teenagers.

"What the hell is this about?" he snarls, waving to himself.

Jade looks at him, fakes a yawn and checks the time. "I dunno," she mutters, taking a bite of the taco she'd shoved in her hand.

"Why on earth would you pull something like this?" He's beside himself and the fact that she's just sitting there isn't helping his mood.

Jade smirks ever-so-slightly and says, "Felt like it, I guess. Maybe I wanted to see what you look like tarred and feathered." Then she's walking back to her table as though she expects him to follow like a puppy dog or something.

(the worst part is: he does, because she's his best friend and that's just how it is.)

.

Later, after he's taken a shower to wash off the glue and feathers - and now the drain is clogged, thanks to her - they're swinging together in his hammock just because.

"You missed a spot," says Jade, picking at a little piece of glue on his arm.

Beck sighs, holds her closer and wishes for once that she was nicer-sweeter-innocent, take your pick (before realizing that he loves her just the way she is.)

She's looking up at him now and those eyes are shining with a tiny bit of - of what?

"I suppose I could have just skipped the glue," Jade says, her voice a bit subdued.

"That might have been nice," Beck says, but he's smiling again, because he knows that was her way of apologizing.

.

Jade's the first one he calls when it happens.

"I told you so," are the first words to come out of her mouth.

Beck remembers beer bottles cracked, gleaming, strewn across the floor; he remembers his mom's drunken laughter and the wailing of police sirens.

"I know," he says into Jade's dark hair. He loves her hair.

"So -" Jade says. She pats his cheek several times, watching as her finger leaves a pale print on his skin. "I guess you need a new place to stay, huh?"

"I guess so." His mom will bail out soon enough - they can't hold her forever - but when she comes back home he won't-can't be there.

(Beck wonders at the scheming tone of Jade's voice; it usually signifies something he'll regret.)

.

It's Jade that finds his RV.

Beck runs a hand over the cheaply painted exterior, finding that he kind of likes the raw, insignificant feel of it. It reminds him of times when words like 'emancipation' and 'responsibility' didn't exist.

"Here." Jade slaps a wad of bills in his hand and he's speechless. "I was saving up but I guess I could lend it out to you for, eh - indefinitely."

(she's lying about the whole saving up thing, because Jade spends money like a junkie at a drug sale, but the thought that she'd give up this for him...)

Beck pulls her into a hug and she squirms uncomfortably in his embrace, even though it's sort of-kind of nice (because Jade West doesn't do physical contact.)

"Thanks, Jade."

"Yeah, whatever."

.

He buys two tickets to this band that only Jade has heard of and only Jade would like.

They stand in the front row - although at these gigs the rows don't have chairs and everyone just sort of melds together - and Jade is jumping up and done and screaming the lyrics right along with the lead guitarist and swinging her dark brown hair in a wide arc. Beck is pretty sure her hair hits several innocent bystanders, but whatever.

At the end of one song, Beck finds himself sort of staring at her, but he really wouldn't call it that. More like checking to make sure she's not giving herself a seizure or something.

(and in this bluish light Jade kind of looks beautiful with beads of sweat rolling down her face and those eyes lit with a fire; the thought scares him.)

.

The thought doesn't scare him so much now, because she's Jade.

She's Jade with her crass attitude and her inflaming pranks and the sharp edge to her voice that makes him wince sometimes. She's Jade with the black t-shirts she wears and the chipped black nail polish she puts on every day just to show that she doesn't care (he knows she cares.) She's Jade with the moments every so often - just sometimes - when she does something that's nice and tries to cover it up by being gruff. She's Jade, with all her imperfections and many layers.

And, Beck thinks, she's always going to be his best friend.

(but he's pretty sure best friends don't look at each other in this way.)

.

-fin