Title: Where the Wild Things Are

Author: Rigby8

Pairing: Santana / Brittany

Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events is made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.

Rating: M (General rating not chapter specific)

Summery: Written from POV of Santana. She is at college in New York but after a bad break-up she is persuaded by her High School friend Quinn to go on a camping holiday. Quinn's new friends from college (who are characters from Glee) take Santana into their friendship group without hesitation and Santana finds herself being unexpectedly drawn to Quinn's quirky friend Brittany.

Chapter One

The cool breeze offered some relief from the stifling hot weather we had been experiencing over the past few days. I am a great lover of the sun, but it proved even too hot for my threshold, so the only thing for it was to give in, lie down and bask. So, being a sun-worshipper, I planned to do just that. I was probably supposed to be helping put up tents as Quinn's friends had decided the best way to enjoy the heat wave was to lock themselves up in nylon, but that all seemed far too much like hard work, so I'd sneaked off to enjoy a little me time before she realised that I was missing. I thought it was fair as personally I would have preferred to have a cocktail pool party followed by enjoying the wonders of sleeping in a comfortable bed with air-conditioning, however, not for the first time in the history of our friendship, Quinn had persuaded me to join her through a combination of puppy dog eyes and promises of alcohol and boys. So, I relented, packed myself a bag for the week and reluctantly climbed into the back of Quinn's car half asleep at six am in the morning to be driven to a campsite in the middle of nowhere. Since arriving I had been to check out the facilities, it is important to get your priorities right, and found that there was a shower block with cubicles, communal showering with a load of hippies would have definitely been the last straw and resulted in an instant taxi ride home, and manageable toilets; well by manageable, I mean that they had doors, locks and flushes, which was something.

So after checking out the surroundings and realising that Quinn was lying about the boys, there were no boys worth looking at, I had helped myself to a few beers and headed down to the waterfront for some alone drinking time. Settled on my back, with the water in front of me and the occasional yells of so called 'team work' behind me from the rest of the camping group putting up tents, I was ready for an afternoon of relaxation, drinking and the odd cigarette. Blades of grass tickled the soles of my feet and wheedled their way between my toes, the sun beamed down so hard that I had to close my eyes and cross my arms over my face. I had to admit, Quinn was right, this kind of relaxation was exactly what I needed.

I was half expecting Quinn to come hunting for me, but I think she knew better of it. I had hardly been the picture of sunshine recently and to be honest I was totally surprised she had even invited me away with her college friends for their summer gathering. I'd had a difficult time at college in New York and so she had persuaded me to fly back home and go camping with her and her new college friends. I was so proud of what Quinn had achieved since High School, although I would never admit it to her. She'd gotten pregnant at sixteen, decided to keep the baby and after an ongoing battle with her conservative Christian parents persuaded them to let her stay at home and bring up her child. On top of this she had finished High School with fantastic grades, captained the Cheerios and become senior Class President, the only title she has missed out on was Prom Queen, but that was a long story. With that kind of record she could have applied to the top colleges in the country, but she decided she wanted to stay home and take care of her child Beth as well as getting a degree. She'd managed to overcome so much and yet still found the time to help me out.

At the start of the last semester of my first year at college I'd decided to surprised my boyfriend by coming back a day early. I knocked on the door at his place, he was a sophomore so lived off campus, and was met by his rather terrified looking housemate. He tried to stop me from coming inside so I pushed past him and stormed into Cody's bedroom. He was naked on his bed, with the covers on the floor, spooning a just as naked redhead who was my roommate. The room stank of sex, alcohol and sweat and it make the bile rising into my dry mouth even worse. I got out of the house as quickly as I could, desperately trying to hold in the sobs that were inevitably going to erupt once I had stopped running.

When I got back to our room, I did something that I am not incredibly proud of; I trashed her stuff. I didn't do any permanent damage, that I know of anyway, but I made my point and felt a hell of a lot better for it afterwards. Next thing I packed my bags and walked as much of my stuff as I could to the student housing office and refused to move from their reception area until they found me an alternative place to sleep. I was there for about three hours until one of their Housing Officers took pity on me and found me a room that I could transfer to for the rest of the semester. I followed her down the hallways, looking like a drowned rat, dumped my stuff and went back to my old room to collect the rest. Four journeys later I had moved everything, and despite being mentally and physically drained I was so relieved that I had managed to do it before Erica had returned from her sordid rendezvous with my, now ex, boyfriend. For a week after it happened I played Adele's 'Someone Like You' on loop and dealt with a plethora of missed calls, texts and voicemail messages from the pair of them telling me how sorry they were and it was a one off drunken mistake, but I had already rebuilt the walls that I was so famous for having in High School and refused to answer any of their pleas.

Despite my strength of resolve, I was so lost. I had gone from having a caring boyfriend and close roommate to nobody except a few friends from my course that I didn't feel close enough to turn to. During my three-hour wait at the housing office I called Quinn and she stayed on the line the whole time. She hardly said a word, just threw in the occasional reassurance or agreement when I threw to her a semi-rhetorical question. She knew me well enough to know that when I was in one of my rages, it was just best to let me talk to out, even if I could go on for hours. She was there for me throughout the rest of the semester and without her support I doubt I would have made it through at all. When I was about ready to ditch it all in and come home, admitting that I couldn't make it on my own in the big wide world, she kept me grounded and forced me to stay.

I was pulled from my thoughts when the sun suddenly seemed to disappear. I was pretty sure that it meant Quinn had found my hiding place. I slowly pulled back my arms and looked up. She had her arms crossed, looking down at me with her eyebrow cocked and I'm pretty sure her toe was tapping on the ground - she always did like to be dramatic.

'Were you planning on joining us at some point this afternoon Madam?'

I gave her a cheeky grin and sat upright, giving my head a moment to adjust to the change in position. 'Well that depends, is all the manual labour complete? These nails cost a fortune to get done.'

Quinn exhaled a deep breath and pushed her previously tapping toe underneath me behind and started to nudge me off the ground until I finally relented and pulled myself up.

'You are unbelievable Santana! Yes your tent awaits your Highness! I even blew up your double air bed and setup the three double comforters you insisted on bringing along, despite being in the middle of a heat wave!'

I patted Quinn on the shoulder as I walked past her and towards base camp, 'You're the best Quinny.' As I walked off I'm pretty sure she growled before running to meet me, looping her arm through mine.

'All my friends are here now, I can't wait to introduce you to them.'

I nodded unenthusiastically. Since Cody and Erica cheated on me, I hadn't been real trusting of letting 'new' people into my life. It seemed like the only people you could honestly depend on were you childhood friends and your family; but I owed it to Quinn to make an effort.

When we arrived at base camp I was surprised by the awesome sight that met me, they had been working incredibly hard. The tents, of which there must have been about ten, were in a perfect circle, with a fire being constructed in the middle. There was a group of three guys and girls standing close together with beers in their hands, laughing and obviously very relaxed around each other. At first I felt a pang of guilt for having not helped out but my second reaction was to run away in the other direction and back to the solitary comfort of my waterfront base. I think Quinn must have felt my hesitation because she grabbled hold of my arm that little bit tighter and practically dragged me over to the group of awaiting friends.

'Hey Guys, I found her! This is Santana.' Quinn bellowed out whilst we were still about ten paces away, I'm pretty sure this was another tactic to stop me getting out of meeting her friends. Although I came across as being confident and feisty, Quinn knew that I found meeting new people in social situations really difficult and to disguise my awkwardness, I often came across as rude and unfriendly.

Their conversation stopped immediately and they all turned to stare in our direction as we closed the space. A blush immediately made it's way to my cheeks and I felt my body tense and my shoulders rise in self-defence. The first person to step forward was a toned and bad-boy looking guy, 'Puck' he said simply and instead of holding out his hand he picked up a beer from the cooler and handed it to me. I received it gratefully and managed to squeeze out a raspy 'Hey'. He nodded, obviously appreciating the fact that I took the beer without any qualms and stepped back for the others to introduce themselves.

'I'm Finn, it's nice to finally meet you. I'm here with my girlfriend Rachel, she's just gone to check out the bathrooms, apparently it is important.' He finished his sentence with a clumsy wave and indicated to the next person to introduce themselves and these next four came in quick succession, 'Mike', 'Tina', 'Lauren' and finally "Mercedes'. I tried to make a mental note of all their names but I knew I wasn't going to manage it.

There was an uncomfortable silence, until the last person to introduce, who I think was called Mercedes, asked if I was feeling better. I looked at her a tad confused, until Quinn stepped in and answered on my behalf, 'Yes, she's a lot better'. She covered my silence and lack of knowledge as to what Mercedes was talking about by saying to me 'I told the girls, I didn't think you'd mind'. The three girls all had sympathetic looks on their faces but the boys looked as confused as I did. Quinn reacted immediately; looking at them sternly and saying, 'Don't even go there'. They got the message instantly and turned away and started up an immediate conversation about football to reassert their manhood. So Quinn had covered for me again, saving me from them all thinking I was just a Class-A lazy bitch that didn't want to help set up camp, by telling them I had period pains. She really did have my best interests at heart, although in this instance I couldn't help but think she was also covering herself a little so that her college friends didn't think she had brought with her such a pathetic excuse for a friend, who refused to get into the 'team building' spirit of the whole camping experience.

Quinn looped her arm in mine again and led me away, 'I'll show you to your tent.'

'Okay', but then I registered what she had said, my tent? 'Don't you mean our tent?'

'Well Santana, there was something I was meaning to talk to you about but haven't quite found the right time.' She took me into a high domed four-man tent that just about fitted my double mattress and bags; it was probably a good thing I was staying in there alone. Once sat on the mattress she took my hand and wet her lips in preparation for a pre-rehearsed speech that she had obviously been planning for the whole day.

'I started seeing someone. His name is Sam and he is a really lovely guy. I've wanted to tell you for a few months now but we started seeing each other the same time that you and Cody broke up so I didn't want to upset you, but I fear that by not telling you all this time I have probably done that anyway.'

It took me a while to process what she was saying. Part of me was annoyed, another part wanted to pull her into a hug and tell her how happy I was that she had found someone, but being me I opted for a shoulder shrug and a suppression of emotions.

'Well that's cool Quinn, just try not to get pregnant this time.' She rolled her eyes, evidently annoyed at my lack of being capable dealing with emotional situations and went to crawl from the tent. But before she could leave I stopped her and pulled her into a tight hug. I may not have been good at talking about my feelings and verbalising exactly what it was I wanted to say, but I did know that a hug with Quinn would let her know that I approved and that I was so grateful to her. I felt her relax in my arms.

'I'll be in the tent next door if you need me.'

I sat cross-legged on my mattress, taking big swigs on my beer and sifting through my bags to find my pyjamas for under my pillow and my secret comforting cuddly toy that I still took with me whenever I went away. It was a zebra that my Dad had given to me when I was a kid. It had been through the wars a bit but was still perfectly cuddly. Very few people knew that I still needed it to help me get to sleep, Quinn being one of them. When I was a college, Erica knew and kindly didn't mock me for it as far as I know, but on the rare occasions when she was away and I had the room to myself and Cody stayed, Zibby the Zebra got hidden in the closet. I don't think I would ever have been able to admit to Cody that I still needed a cuddly toy when I slept alone. I found Zibby tucked in the bottom of my bag and quickly transferred it from there to under my comforter. I felt stupid trying to be so sneaky about it, but the last thing I wanted was for Quinn's new friends to find out about Zibby on my first day of meeting them.

With my cuddly toy concealed and my beer finished I decided it was time to stop hiding out in my tent and actually do some dreaded socialising. I looked over to the now healthy looking campfire that was encircled by a group of chattering people. Some of them looked familiar from our earlier introductions but there were a few faces I didn't recognise and I couldn't see Quinn. Not feeling quite brave enough to face the crowd alone, I thought I would track down Quinn for backup. However, I had failed to ask which next door tent she meant. As we were pitched in a circle, there were two similar-sized tents either side of mine. Just as I was about to take fifty-fifty chance, I saw a flash of blonde hair in the porch of the tent on the left. I headed over and pulled back the unzipped tent flap.

'Quinn, where are all the…'

I stopped myself mid-sentence. Not Quinn's tent, unless Sam was a blonde women and Quinn had something more she needed to explain to me.

'Shit, sorry! Wrong tent, I thought you were…' and so the verbal spew commenced.

Not only had I walked into the wrong tent, I has walked in on a complete stranger who was padding around the porch to their tent in not very much clothing. It was by no means an unpleasant sight. The woman obviously took great care of herself, her abs were to die for.

'… someone else. I'll go and let you get changed into some more clothes.' My ramble continued and by this point I was staring at the ground, slowly backing out of the tent and fumbling around behind me for unzipped entrance.

'You must be Santana.' Said a cheery and apparently in no way embarrassed voice.

I chanced a look up and noticed this scantily clad blonde was stood quite close to me now with her hand outstretched. I took her hand, it would be rude not to considering the circumstances, and shook it.

"I'm Brittany, it's great to meet you. Don't worry about the intrusion, I may be in my underwear but to be honest I don't see how someone seeing you in like this', she gestured towards her toned figure, 'is any different to seeing someone in a bikini. How comes one is socially acceptable but the other isn't?'

I wasn't sure if she expected an answer from me or not so I gave her a nod in agreement and she took that as a sign to carry on.

'I had unzipped the tent because it is so hot in here! So that is totally by bad, so don't worry. Anyway, I think you were looking for Quinn, she's in the tent on the other-side to you… although I wouldn't go barging in there just yet, I walked past about five minutes ago and I'm pretty sure I heard sex-noises.'

I was starting to feel increasingly uncomfortable and just wanted to run back to the safety of my tent and read the copy of Cosmo that I had already read five times on the car journey here.

'If you give me five minutes, I'll put on some clothes and we can go over to the campfire together. I think we're having sausages tonight, unless your one of those veggie vegan types, then you'll have to talk to Rachel about what tofu-delights she brought with her this time.'

I was starting to wonder when this girl took time to take a breath; words just seemed to flow out of her. I realised I was still staring at her when she has stopped talking. I guess she was expecting an answer.

'That would be great, I'll just, go wait, outside' I turned to leave.

My heart was beating so fast, the encounter made me feel even more unnerved than I already did and to make things worse, the only person that I knew and that I was relying on to introduce to me the others was too busy banging her new boyfriend!

I looked over to the group around the fire. The guy with the Mohawk I had met earlier was setting a guitar on his knee and started strumming. The group immediately turned towards him and started nodding their heads and moving to the beat. I should have guessed that Quinn had made friends with a load of music loving hippies.

White lips pale face, breathing in the snowflakes

Burnt lungs, sour taste

Lights gone, days end

I'm struggling to pay rent

Long nights, strange men

I was enjoying the mellow sound of his voice when suddenly Brittany jumped from inside her tent, one arm in the air and the other grabbing my wrist as she started to sing the chorus.

And they say she's in the class A-Team

Stuck in her daydreams, been this way since 18 but lately

Her face seems, slowly sinking wasting

Crumbling like pastries and they scream

The worst things in like come free to us

By this point Brittany has marched us over to where the others stood. They were all turned towards us, letting Brittany sing her heart out to the song.

Because we're…

And with that line she encouraged the others to join in with her. They completed the song with harmonies, adlibs and solo dances. I felt my spirit lift and although I barely moved, I felt part of the group instantly. At the end of the song they all clapped one another, congratulating them on their individual inputs and touches. I could see why Quinn was always raving about them, they were a fantastically supportive ensemble.

I felt a hand on my back and turned to see a slightly out of breath and hurried Quinn.

'Sorry Santana, I was just taking a nap.' She gave me a knowing smile. I turned in her grip and saw a blonde big-lipped guy standing next to her, looking equally as hurried. 'This is Sam.'

We all settled down in a circle around the campfire. I was nestled between Quinn and Finn, who were both holding on for dear life to their other halves. It made me feel sickeningly single. In fact, just looking around the entire circle made me realise how single I was! The Mohawk kid was snuggled up to, who I think was called Lauren, but is was confusing because they all referred to her as Zizzies or something to that effect, there were two guys holding hands and occasionally gazing lovingly at one another, who Quinn later told me was Kurt and Blaine, Mike and Tina who I had met earlier, and then three others perched together, Brittany in the middle with Mercedes on her left and a guy called Artie in a wheelchair on her right. Quinn had told me about Artie on the way to the campsite, apparently they had deliberately gone for this site because it was wheelchair friendly, they had all agreed that they wouldn't go away anywhere together that meant he couldn't come too.

Finn and Puck had made some fantastic food and I was well and truly stuffed. I felt as though I could have stayed there all night watching them chatting and singing, I could completely understand why Quinn was so content, they obviously all provided each other with a fantastic support network and no one was left out on any basis of difference. It made me feel tingly inside, not that I would ever openly admit that, but I think Quinn knew that a week away with this merry crew was exactly what I needed to get myself in a happier place.

The air was starting to get colder and I could tell we were going to be hanging out there until the earlier hours so I took the break in the musical entertainment to grab myself a sweater and some more beers which had been stashed in the front of Quinn's tent in a giant cool box. Brittany must have had the same thoughts as me, as she was heading out of her tent with a bottle of wine, a plastic cup and a blanket. She gave me a full smile and stopped in front of me for a chat.

'You better not be heading to bed, the night is young and I haven't even had a chance to test out your dancing skills yet!'

I promised her I wasn't going to bed, that I was just getting a jumper and a drink, but she claimed not to trust me. Instead she ran back to her tent, grabbed another plastic cup and led me back to where she had been sitting in the circle.

'I'm not saying I don't trust you, but I have everything you need right here. You can share my blanket and wine. Deal?'

Usually I wouldn't have let anyone boss me around like she was, but there something about her innocence and playfulness that made it impossible to disagree with her.

'Deal.'

She yet again gave me that full grin, which caused me to mirror her. I hadn't smiled like that at anyone in months. In fact I rarely smiled at all these days.

We got back to the circle and she led we over to where she had been sitting with Mercedes and Artie. There was plenty of space on the bench and at first there were a good few inches between us. However, as the wine flowed and it got later I found that we had got closer together. I put it down to being drawn towards her for body heat until I realised that the hand she had placed square on my thigh under the blanket hadn't moved for a good five minutes. I tried not to think anything of it, and to be honest I enjoyed having physical contact with someone after so long of not letting anyone get close to me.

The music, which had been quite upbeat, took a mellow turn, when Sam took the guitar from Puck and did a duet with Quinn of Jason's Mraz's Lucky. The decrease in noise and movement meant that I became aware of how tipsy I was. My cup and the bottle of wine were empty and I was starting to feel hazy. Halfway through their song I felt Brittany inch slightly closer to me and when I looked towards her I saw that her cheeks had grown rosy from the wine.

'Are you cold?' she asked, almost in a whisper.

'A little'

She instinctively placed her arm around my back and before I knew what I was doing I had placed my head on her shoulder. I felt more safe and relaxed than I had in a long time and I couldn't believe that someone I had only met hours previously was able to provide that level of comfort for me. Had Quinn told her what had happened? She must have done, otherwise why would Brittany have realise that I needed comforting and that I needed someone to make small gestures like she had done for me this evening. Perhaps I was just reading too much into it, Brittany did seem like an open and tactile person, so maybe it was just her way of making me feel welcomed into the group.

Once the song ended, the group had seemed to all settle into a sleepy and peaceful mood. However, I became increasingly conscious of how close Brittany and I was sitting, so in true Santana style, I panicked when I felt Quinn's eyes settled on us. I begrudgingly moved myself from Brittany's embrace and when she looked at me for a reason, I simply said that I needed to get some sleep. She gave me a sleepy smile and murmured 'Sleep well'.

I made the short journey back to my tent and couldn't help but feel that someone was watching me. When I got to the zipper I couldn't fight the urge anymore and when I looked back there was only one set on eyes on me. Brittany didn't look remotely embarrassed at being caught, it was as though she wanted to make sure I made it back safe, even if it was only a few steps away. Once I'd made eye contact with her she turned back to carry on singing.

In my tent I stripped off to just boy shorts and bra, I would usually sleep completely naked but that seemed a little risqué, and flopped on top of my comforters. When I closed my eyes, the image of Brittany sitting close against me with her rosy cheeks, asking if I was cold popped into my vision. My eyes flew open. What the hell was that about? But before I had time to think it through Quinn's head appeared in the entrance to my tent.

'Santana, have you had a good day?' Her voice seemed laced with apprehension, knowing that when asking me that kind of question the answer could really go either way depending on my mood.

'Yes, I did. Thanks Quinn.'

I could only just make out her face in the dimness of the tent, but it was enough to see the relief.

'Good. Night Santana.'