This isn't for any challenge, just a little side fic I came up with a few days ago. Shout out to Spikedpillows for being so lovely and encouraging (and also for coming up with the title, since I'm so bad at that)!

"Wow, could it be any hotter in here?" Jade asked Tori as she stepped into the Vega house, removing her sweater as she did so. Tori sighed and shut the front door.

"It's because of Trina," Tori said, gesturing to her sister sitting at the kitchen table. "She thinks the heat is better for her skin. Trust me, if I had it my way, it'd be freezing down here, like my room." Tori pressed her lips together, regretting having said that last part. She didn't mind that she had to work with Jade on an English project. She didn't even mind that Jade had insisted on coming to her house that Friday to work on it. But she didn't want Jade to go in her bedroom. It was her private space, and she didn't want Jade making fun of it, or snooping around.

Jade raised her eyebrows.

"Excellent." She hung her sweater over the back of the sofa and began climbing the stairs, Tori following suit.

"Ugh," Jade said, a look of disgust on her face.

"What?" Tori demanded.

"Your room is so... childish." Jade took a final look around and sat herself down on Tori's bed, shoes and all. Tori crossed her arms defensively.

"I didn't ask you to come here, you know, Jade," she said, her voice dripping with uncharacteristic poison. Jade was surprised, but didn't let it show. It only spurred her on.

"And I didn't ask to be paired up with you. I must have done something really terrible to end with you as my partner for everything." She saw the hurt flash across Tori's face, and it was enough to make her feel some remorse. She was about to apologize, tell Tori that she'd play nicely, but it was too late. Tori had already picked up Jade's bag and thrown it at her, telling her to leave, and that she'd finish the project herself. Jade was taken aback, but said nothing. She swept down the stairs and out the door without a sound, leaving Tori alone with hot tears pricking the corners of her eyes. She refused to let them fall, though a few managed to escape anyway. They weren't tears of hurt, not really. They were more from pent up anger (and okay, a little hurt) than anything else.

Jade sat in her car for a few minutes before leaving, wishing she could take back what she had said. She didn't particularly find joy in hurting Tori emotionally, not anymore, anyway. But it was like she was on autopilot around the girl, her mouth saying terrible, hurtful things before her brain could catch up and process it. She reached into her bag for her phone so she could text Tori an apology, and it was then that she realized she'd forgotten her sweater inside the house. Momentarily, she contemplated going back inside to retrieve it (and possibly use that as an excuse to try and apologize), but figured maybe it was better to let Tori cool off on her own. Never had she seen Tori get so angry as to kick someone out of her house. So she decided to forget about it. She had other sweaters. She drove away, feeling worse the further she went.

Trina came upstairs with Jade's sweater in hand and a confused look on her face just moments after Tori had wiped her face of tear tracks and makeup.

"Didn't Jade just get here? Or was I meditating for longer than I thought?"

Tori sighed, eying the piece of black clothing resentfully.

"She was insulting me so I told her to leave," Tori answered simply, not wanting to go into details.

"Well, she left this here," Trina said, holding up the sweater. "I figured it wasn't yours, judging by the color... and the skulls."

Tori took it and flung it onto her bed, making a mental note to bring it to Jade the next week.

"Thanks, Trina," Tori said solemnly, still upset by what Jade had insinuated. Was working with her really so bad that Jade would call it a punishment? Trina eyed her carefully, a protective older sister feeling coming over her.

"Are you alright, Tori?" Trina asked sincerely, touching Tori's arm.

"I'm fine, Treen. Thanks." She smiled and hugged her sister, a little relieved when she finally left the room. She really wanted to be by herself for a little bit.

It seemed silly to her to be so hurt by Jade's words. Tori had, after all, done Jade wrong just the second day she'd known her. Kissing Beck that day in class had been totally inappropriate, Tori had realized, and she'd tried multiple times to apologize, but Jade had just shot her down. Maybe having Jade hate her was punishment. It seemed fitting.

Tori shook her head to rid herself of all the negativity and sat at her computer, hoping Andre was online. Maybe they could video chat and get her mind off of everything. She checked her buddy list, relieved to see that Andre was available, and they talked for a few hours, effectively making her feel better.

That night, though, things once again went sour. There was a huge thunderstorm upon them (which Tori had been terrified of ever since she was little), with a flood warning to match. The wind blew the trees around, their branches tapping and scraping along the windows like long, bony fingers. Tori was home alone (Trina at a friend's house for the night and her parents visiting relatives in San Diego), huddled on the sofa when the power went out.

"Ugh... great," she muttered to herself, trembling. It was bad enough hearing the thunder, which sounded so menacing on its own, but what Tori hated the most about it was when it crashed right over the house, making her feel it inside of her, like a hammer knocking against the inside of her rib cage. She pulled herself off of the sofa, teeth chattering wildly, and raced up the stairs like a flash. Finding her dresser in the dark wasn't hard, as she'd almost walked into it, but what was difficult was trying to find a pair of pajamas. She kept grabbing either two shirts, two pairs of shorts; it was a relief when she finally found what she needed.

Changing quickly, she jumped into bed, curling herself into a ball under the covers. Her hands found something foreign in the dark, and it was a few moments before she realized what it was, Jade's sweater from earlier. It was soft and Tori was cold, and without really thinking about it, she pulled it over her head. It smelled of Jade's perfume, providing some comfort for Tori, who was so scared of the storm outside. It was strange, and not something Tori realized at the time, but the warmth she felt from the sweater, and the strong scent of lilac coming off of it comforted her because the girl it belonged to was far scarier than any storm. Tori closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, finally feeling safe.

It was the next Wednesday when she finally spoke to Jade, having dodged her in the hallways, and sitting as far away from her as she could in classes. She was embarrassed, to put it simply. Embarrassed to have woken up in a piece of someone else's clothing (Jade of all people!), embarrassed that she had thought to put it on in the first place, and embarrassed that she'd slept with it on for the past three nights as well because of the almost constant thunder they were getting at night.

Jade approached her in the hallway carefully; she had been giving Tori space, which was very unlike her to do, but enough was enough. They had a project due soon. She would use that as an excuse to talk to her.

"Tori?" she called, her voice unusually soft.

Tori flinched, but turned to finally face the other girl.

"What is it?"

Jade tried consciously to keep her expressions soft. It was harder than it sounded.

"I'm... sorry. About the other day. Really. I was way out of line."

Tori was a little stunned to say the least; the last thing she had expected Jade to do was to apologize without having to have one drawn out of her. She smiled slightly.

"I forgive you. But-" Just then the bell rang, signaling the last period of the day. "Come over later, okay?" Tori said as she closed her locker door and began down the hall. "We can finish our project."

Jade was relieved that Tori had forgiven her, but she was also quite annoyed with herself. Since when did she apologize for anything? Especially to Tori. Why did she suddenly feel it was something she had to do? She realized, of course, that for the past year or so, she had been warming up to Tori, even though she hadn't let on. Tori still thought Jade hated her, and that was how it was supposed to be, right?

Wrong, thought Jade bitterly to herself. Of course it was easier to act like she hated Tori than to admit that she actually sort of liked her. She sighed and went to her class, completely and horribly confused.

Later, when Jade arrived at the Vega household once more, Tori answered the door smiling brightly, as if the events of the week before had never happened. That almost infuriated Jade. She hated how Tori could so easily forgive and forget when she deserved to be angry.

"Do you want to go upstairs?" Tori questioned. "Trina's controlling the thermostat again."

"Sure," Jade replied, feeling uneasy.

When they got upstairs, Jade couldn't help but smirk at the sight of her sweater among Tori's tangled sheets.

"Tori?"

"Yeah?"

"Why is my sweater in your bed?"

Tori immediately flushed magenta, her face catching fire.

"Um... It's just... I mean, uh, you know, um..."

"Were you sleeping with my sweater, Tori? Why?" Oh, Jade was going to have fun with this. There was a voice in the back of her head telling her, Stop! You've put her through enough already! But she ignored it.

Tori gulped.

"Well... It was in my bed on Friday night, because Trina came upstairs to give it to me after you left and I just sort of tossed it there..."

"Uh huh," Jade urged her on.

"And, you know, we had that thunderstorm, and you know how much I hate those..."

"Right."

Tori looked up, an almost helpless look in her eye.

"Jade, please."

"Come on, Tori, tell me why you were sleeping with it. I just want to know."

"I was scared. And I was all alone in the dark, and I felt it on my bed when I was trying to go to sleep, and I put it on because I was cold." Tori really didn't want to continue, but she did, hoping maybe Jade wouldn't tease her for the rest of her life. "It smelled like you, so I thought of you, and I wasn't so scared anymore, because..."

"Because...?"

"Because you're scarier than thunder and lighting," Tori finished quietly, her eyes on the floor. "At least to me," she added even quieter. "And it's been storming out the past few nights so... I just left it there."

Jade didn't really know what to say. Her first thought was that it was a little creepy, but she knew Tori, so it wasn't so creepy.

"That's-"

"I know, it's really weird," Tori interrupted, running a hand through her hair.

"Actually, I was going to say that it was kind of... sweet. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you had a crush on me, Vega." At those words, Tori went from magenta to a deep crimson, and Jade noticed, but she didn't say anything.

"Listen, Tori, I'm not... all bad. When I was here last week, I really did regret all those things I said after I said them." Jade shifted uncomfortably; sharing her feelings definitely wasn't one of her strong suits. "I could tell that I'd really hurt you, and that just made me feel bad. I don't like seeing you sad, even though I told you that I did. And I really don't like being the one to make you that way."

Tori was touched, a smile spreading over her face once more.

"If you want to keep that," Jade continued, gesturing to the sweater, "you can. If it stops you from being so scared."

"Thanks."

"Or, you know," Jade stammered, looking down and fussing with the hem of her shirt, "you could call me or... something."

That caught Tori off guard, but she didn't comment on it, not wanting to ruin the moment they seemed to be having.

"Thanks, Jade."

"Yeah yeah," she replied, getting back to business. "How much of this thing did you actually work on?"

Jade sat at Tori's desk, busying herself with pulling out her notebook and a pen. Tori just smiled a stupid smile to herself. Jade really wasn't as mean as she made herself out to be, and Tori was grateful that she got to be one of the people who saw that.

Fin