Kiss from a Moose

Or, in which Three Girls & a Moose actually has buildup and Beck finds out about the kiss.

Slight Beck/Jade

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The RV door swung open, startling Beck out of his reverie. He glanced up to see Moose in front of him. With a half-smile, he greeted his friend. "Thought you were coming to Karaoke Dokie," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, me too," Moose said nervously, not meeting Beck's gaze. "I, um, turns out I had previous engagements."

This confused Beck all the more. Deciding it was best not to freak out (not that he did too much of that anyway), he scratched the back of his head and inquired, "Uh, what previous engagements?"

"Sooo," Moose said, obviously trying to change the subject and arousing Beck's suspicions. "How was the performance?"

"What's going on?" Beck asked coolly, propping himself up so that he could stare at the obviously uncomfortable Canadian. It was really the first time he'd had to spend with Moose without the three girls hounding him; in fact, he thought, it was a wonder that they weren't there right then as well. And then it hit him.

Jade hadn't been there during the performance either. But no, Beck thought, Moose wouldn't. Beck had spent nearly of an hour of his precious time detailing his disastrous breakup with Jade to Moose. No way in heck would Moose go out with Jade. Or worse...

"Nothing's going on," Moose said, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. "I mean, I was just... I

got lost. While I was driving. Yeah, that's what happened."

"You were driving, huh?" Beck inquired. "Because, I mean, your car was in the driveway when I got home, so I just assumed..."

With a frown, Moose glanced up to meet Beck's eyes and, at last, he sighed in defeat. "Jade sorta drove me. Except, well, she didn't."

"Jade drove you?" Beck inquired, his mouth going dry. It was one thing to suspect his ex-girlfriend and his best friend of debauchery; it was yet another to have it confirmed. There was a reason that neither Jade nor Moose had shown up at Karaoke Dokie, but at the present moment, Beck wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know what it was. "But you guys... never showed up." He clenched his fists, bracing himself for the worst.

"She, um, claimed that she ran out of gas," Moose muttered, staring at the ground. "And then, we, um, kinda... you know..."

"You kinda what?" Beck said, gritting his teeth. Something in Moose's expression told him exactly what he needed to know, though.

"We kinda kissed," Moose told him in a low voice. "Look, man, I'm sorry. But she kissed me, and the one thing you neglected to mention about Jade is that she's actually really hot – "

"You kissed her?!" He didn't mean for his words to sound angry, but they did anyway. "You and Jade kissed." He repeated it, trying to make sense of Moose's words. What did Jade see in Moose, anyway? He wasn't that hot; at least, he wasn't hotter than Beck, and he didn't have much of a personality. Was there something he was missing?

"I thought you were over her," Moose said slowly. Had he really said that? He couldn't remember, oddly enough. It was like the whole idea of Moose and Jade and them kissing had consumed every brain cell, painting him green with ineffable jealousy. Was this how Jade had felt all the time?

"I thought I was," Beck mumbled, sprawling back across his bed and staring at the ceiling. Every other part of his RV reminded him of Jade, but the ceiling was metallic and completely void of decoration, of memories, of Jade.

"I'm sorry, man," Moose apologized. His words reverberated in the back of Beck's mind, the soundtrack to his misery. We kinda kissed. She kissed me. I thought you were over her.

He wasn't over her, not in the least. He could try to kiss Tori, he could try to find someone to fill that void, but he would never really be over her. She would always be there, lurking in the back of his mind. Somehow he'd thought that she would always love him, that she would never move on. It seemed he had taken her for granted, or at least gotten the situation completely wrong, because it was him who was stuck on her while she'd moved on and to his best friend, just to make matters worse.

Tentatively, Moose continued. "I would've pushed her away if you'd have just told me. I mean, I really had no clue." In a softer tone, he added, "And I really don't think Jade's into me. For the record and all. She hates Canadians."

"Yeah, she's made that clear." Beck chuckled humorlessly. "Look, I'm just gonna go to sleep, okay?"

"I'll head over to the guest room," Moose told him, jabbing a thumb towards the house. "See ya in the morning, I suppose."

"See ya," Beck called, his voice completely devoid of emotion as he watched Moose exit. Not even bothering to change into his pajamas, he switched out the light and buried himself in the covers. For a while, he just laid in bed, his head swimming with thoughts and ideas and memories that burned themselves into his brain.

He remembered the times they'd been alone, just the two of them, when they'd attempt to squeeze into his perpetually tiny bed. Jade would always take up over half the bed, sprawling out and making herself at home on his side as well, her head always finding its way onto his pillow. He didn't mind, really; it was nice having her so close to him, but he'd always tease her about it anyway. Sometimes she'd mutter his name in her sleep, too, which made him feel special in a weird sort of way, like he was the only person Jade truly cared about.

Was he really so replaceable? He'd never really considered the idea that Jade could be the one to move on. After all, Jade was terrifying; no guy would ever even think about asking her out. But obviously that wasn't true, and if he was wrong about that, he wasn't sure what else he'd been wrong about.

He needed to talk to Jade, that much he was sure about. He just didn't know how to go about it.

/

The next day at school, Beck was oddly sullen. He didn't feel much like talking to anyone, which seemed to make Tori annoyed, because she bugged him incessantly, asking if he was still mad at her or what was going on. With a roll of his eyes, he told her he was fine, he wasn't mad at her, and could she please go do something else because he'd really like to be alone right now. He avoided Moose especially, but he never quite caught sight of Jade.

It turned out that he didn't have to find her, though. She approached him after lunch, informing him, "You know, you've got Vega in a tizzy. She hasn't shut up about how you're mad at her or whatever." She was obviously hinting at something, though he couldn't imagine what. Did she want him to be mad at Tori? Something was off.

"I'm not mad at her," he said darkly, his voice unintentionally rough.

"Oh." Jade looked taken aback. He realized suddenly that she probably hadn't seen him this worked up in ages, since the fights before the breakup, really, and he had no real reasoning for his sudden fury, other than jealousy, that was. Quietly, she asked him, "You mad at me? Because I was actually going to... um, well, apologize, kinda. I already apologized to Andre. I refuse to apologize to Shapiro, though."

Shaking his head, he just looked at the ground. "I'm not mad at you, Jade." That, at least, was true. He wasn't really mad at her. He was mad that she'd had the nerve to kiss his childhood best friend, but then again, she had every right to. They were broken up, after all, and he'd practically implied to her in every way possible that he was over her. Why would she consider his feelings? She didn't consider anyone's feelings ever. That was just... that was just Jade.

"Well," Jade said simply. "You don't seem very happy." It was a simple statement, that he knew, but anger flared up inside him anyway.

"Yeah, but I mean, I'm sure you're just walking on sunshine, aren't you?" Beck spat bitterly. "You know, after swapping spit with my best friend. Not that you'd care."

"Oh, right," Jade retorted, obviously not going to take this sitting down. "So you're allowed to try to kiss Tori, but I'm not allowed to kiss Moose. Wow, great, do tell me more."

"How do you know about that?" Beck demanded, eyes dark now. Trying to kiss Tori had been a mistake, that much he knew. He knew he could like her, probably, in some universe where he'd never been in love with Jade West. But comparing Tori to Jade was like comparing granite to diamonds in the rough; they both shone, but one was more noticeable, more valuable.

"Like it matters," Jade said, glaring at him. "Just don't try to force standards on me that you can't live up to." The fire was back in her eyes again, that fire that had driven him to her in the first place and now was burning every inch of him.

"Jade..." he muttered, staring at her with those eyes that she'd never been able to resist. "I didn't think you'd find out."

"On the contrary, I hoped you would... find out, that is," Jade informed him, a glint in her eyes. "I mean, I guess I figured you would one way or the other. And... I was okay with that." She smirked, her hand finding its way to his shoulder and giving it a quick squeeze before she pulled back. "I am sorry about the show, though. Really."

"Okay," was all Beck managed to get out as he stared at her. "Okay."

They both stood like that, frozen for a moment in time, before Jade shrugged. "I should be going." And then she stalked off, as sudden as she'd come, leaving Beck alone with his thoughts.

/

Ironically, that day was Moose's last before he returned to Canada, and he happened across Moose and Jade hugging in the hallway after the last bell. Gritting his teeth, he stalked over to his locker, trying not to listen to what they were saying – but, well, it was sort of impossible, considering that they'd been swapping spit not twenty-four hours before.

"It was cool meeting you, Jade," Moose said in a completely friendly sort of way. Like, not romantic. Which was kind of a relief.

"You too," Jade replied with a very un-Jade-like grin. "We'll have to meet up again sometime."

He could feel his blood pressure rising the longer he listened, but he couldn't tear himself away. He had to know what was being said.

"That'd be cool," Moose replied casually, grinning at her before bending down to whisper something in her ear. Jade rolled her eyes, but then she nodded, waving at him as he walked away. Beck knew he'd be able to say his farewells to Moose later; after all, he'd be driving him to the airport. But he had to know what Moose had said to Jade. That was imperative.

So he decided to go about it casually and sneakily get the info out of her.

"What did Moose whisper to you?"

Okay, so maybe he wasn't too good at being sneaky.

Jade raised an eyebrow at him. "That's for me to know and you to never find out." She smirked over at him, obviously sensing his jealousy, which just made Beck all the more irritated.

"Come on," he complained. "What, did he tell you to come to Canada so you two could like, get together or something? Hook up?" He wrinkled his nose. "That's like, bordering on desperate."

Jade glanced up at him, clearly hurt. "If you must know," Jade said in a dark tone, "he said that I needed to make sure you treat me right."

"Oh." Beck said simply, staring at her. He wasn't really sure what else to say, so he managed a feeble "Sorry". But she gave a small smile, probably thrilling in the fact that she'd made the 'perfect' Beck Oliver into such a jerk, and nodded.

"It's fine," she told him quietly, in a voice that was too unlike Jade to be real. And then, in a snarky undertone, she added, "Guess you finally get what it's like to be jealous, hm? Just when I was starting to think you had no emotions whatsoever."

All he could do was watch her as she smirked at him, his jaw nearly dropping to the floor. Sometimes he really hated Jade West.

But most of the time, he kinda loved her, and that, in itself, was the root of all of his problems.

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A/N: this was REALLY BAD but I just wanted to write jealous!beck while keeping it realistic and SIGH okay. I'm sorry. Also go read imlaughingnow's fic 'One Moose and a Jade' because yes. I know it's fantastic. Please review & don't fave without reviewing. That is all.