when the lights go down

[thegraduate09.livejournal.com]

Title: when the lights go down
Author: thegraduate09
Words: 429
Fandom: Victorious
Pairing: Beck/Jade, Jade/Cat
Rating: T.
Summary: Beck ponders the boundaries in his relationship and the appeal of red hair. Andre gets a little pervy.
Author's Note: Set after Freak the Freak Out. Entry for New Year, Old Ideas, at dreamsin_action, my claim was: ""friends-with-benefits" for cat/jade/beck."

Okay, so, yeah, he guesses that it’s not exactly normal that his girlfriend is ‘friends with benefits’ with someone else, but he’s okay with it. How much of their lives is normal, anyways?

Even on awkward occasions like this, when he’s walking out of Karaoke Dokie after settling the bill, and Jade’s got Cat pinned to the brick exterior, and Andre’s resolutely not looking.

...Maybe it being common knowledge makes him a little less okay with it. But, really, what’s new about Jade emasculating him?

♪

Okay, sometimes he’s not okay with it. Sometimes it bugs him a little, when the two of them disappear for hours or (once) days, and maybe the way she makes that cat-that-got-the-canary face is a bit of a blow to the ego, but he’s secure in what they’ve got, really, he is.

He knows where he stands, knows he’s important to Jade, end of the day, and he can understand the temptation in Cat and the way she never gets any less innocent. He knows Jade sees that as a challenge - and it’s also a challenge for her to handle this fragile being and she loves challenges (what else is new?).

But, yes, sometimes, when Jade sends him a picture of herself in Cat’s bed with the text ‘jealous?,’ it bothers him a little.

♭

He knows no one else understands. Sometimes, he doesn’t either.

But most of the time he gets it - and even if he’s not allowed to speak of it, it’s true that she talked it over with him before she ever touched Cat. He has to give credit where it’s due - if there’s one thing Jade isn’t, it’s a cheater.

Weird as it may have been to hear his girlfriend blurt out “I want her.”

He knows, though, with absolutely certainty, that when she’s with him, she’s not thinking about anyone else - and maybe friends-with-benefits isn’t the right label, there is caring there, but labels don’t matter all the much, in the grand scheme of things, he thinks.

♯

End of the day, he sighs and walks over to the girls, calmly taps Jade on the shoulder and inquires about who she’s going home with tonight, and the smiles he gets from both of them are honest, even as he’s resigning himself to the Spanish Inquisition from Andre again. (“Dude, I guess I could understand if you got to watch or something, but...”)