A lot can happen in ten years.

After high school everything got better for Santana and Brittany. They were on the first flight from Lima to New York just like their other glee club who had spent so long yearning for something bigger and better. Santana, Brittany, Kurt, Blaine, Rachel, and Quinn pooled their resources and managed to afford an apartment in Manhatten together. It was cramped but not only were they living the dream they were living it with their best friends. All of them agreed that it was the best way to transition to their new lives.

Santana, Quinn, Kurt and Blaine were all at NYU for their respective courses of study while Rachel was at Julliard and Brittany was studying privately with a well known choreographer who had all but promised her fame after a few years of his teachings. Things were perfect in that year as they adjusted to the city and got their bearings. But after a year in their apartment things were changing and they all knew that it was time to go their seperate ways. But only in terms of living arrangements, there was no way that they would stop seeing each other constantly.

The chain of people gradually moving out started with NYU's winter production of Chicago during everyone's second year at the school. Blaine had been cast as Billy Flynn and Kurt as Amos (which, despite his feminine qualities, he was able to pull of marvelously). A broadway producer for that very plays revival had been in the audience and was absolutely enthralled by the boys' respective performances. He approached them and told them he wanted them to audition. The producer had been even more excited to find out that the two men were a couple ("The press! Think of the press! That alone will be enough to draw in the audience!"). They moved out so they could live closer to the theater district for work and have been getting roles in on and off-broadway shows consistently ever since.

The next person to go was Rachel. Towards the end of her second year at Julliard she and her co-star in the final production of the year found themselves to be falling for each other. Cameron Peters was quick to sweep her off her feet and into his spacious apartment just blocks from Julliard. They soon joined Kurt and Blaine on the big stage after graduating from Julliard and became Broadway's heterosexual it-couple. After the opening night of Rachel's first perfomance on an on-Broadway show Cameron was on his knee in her dressing room and they haven't looked back.

That left Santana, Brittany and Quinn in the apartment. Santana graduated from NYU with an bachelor's degree in law and was quickly accepted into a master's program at Columbia. Brittany, on the other hand, had earned herself an injury that would keep her from professionally dancing. But being that Brittany was Brittany, she took it in stride and quickly found a well-paying job as a dance instructor for children. Everyone knew that the bubbly blonde was heart broken about her career setback but she quickly found that she loved teaching and was damn good at it. Between the money from the teaching job and Santana's payed internship at a prestigious law firm, they were able to afford their own condo atop the New York city skyline.

That left Quinn alone. She couldn't help but feel like an ant in the apartment that just a few years ago had seemed so small, but it was home. Her friends were skeptical about her being there by herself. It wasn't a matter of safety or anything, they all just couldn't help but feel that she was lonely. Santana had Brittany, Kurt had Blaine, and Rachel had Cameron. But Quinn never had really found a solid relationship, just a few hook-ups here and there. They all learned to just trust her in what she was doing because regardless of the amount of suprises she threw around for them she always seemed to be standing tall.

The biggest suprise of all came when everyone was still living together, year one. It was a Saturday morning and the house was just beginning to wake up after a night of heavy drinking. It had taken eight months for them to find a bar that would look the other way when it came to minors and they had celebrated that just a little too hard. Rachel, being Rachel, however, still managed to be her perky self in the morning and was knocking on everyone's door to inform them that she'd made a hangover breakfast. Everyone had gathered around the cramped kitchen island and was digging into pancakes and bacon when Kurt noticed that Quinn hadn't joined them. Grabbing a plate of bacon to wave in her face, Kurt set out for her room. When he came back he had a look that said something between "I don't even know what to do with myself right now" and "this is the best day of my life". Everyone, of course, begged him to tell what he'd seen but he said they'd just have to wait and see. Ten minutes later, Quinn was showing a girl to the door and kissing her goodbye. When the stranger had left you could have heard a pin drop as Quinn finally turned to face her roomates, all of whom had shit-eating grins plastered on their faces. She just smiled and shook her head before joining them.

So, aside from the occassional girl being brought home for the night Quinn was flying solo and quite frankly no one knew why. Blaine had asked her why she didn't try something long-term once and she'd mumbled something about commitment and Beth and too much work. Everyone left it at that because they knew Quinn was strong and would be okay. Everyone knew that even though they didn't see each other everyday that everyone else would be okay.

But sometimes things change, things that no one can do to prevent. It's no one's fault and no one can fix it. That doesn't mean that the guilt wasn't there, because it was there and it made the air around everyone grow thick. They had no choice but to watch as things got worse and worse. It killed each and everyone of them to feel so helpless as they watched two of their dearest friends crumble before their very eyes.

Santana and Brittany had been rolling in the sheets and giggling as per usual when Santana suddenly stopped and felt a knot in the pit of her stomach. Her hand had come to a rest on Brittany's left breast where a lump was screaming at her fingertips. Brittany, the eternal optimist, had kept her head and promised to get it checked out. It was probably nothing anyway, right?

But it was something, something big and bad and confusing and terrifying and a million other things that refused to go away no matter how hard everyone begged them to. December 4th, 2020, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. No one knew why the healthy and young woman was sick but they did know that there was a good chance she would get better. Everyone tried not to worry as doctors told them over and over that they would do everything in their power to get rid of it. A month after the diagnosis the friends could still all get together and laugh easily; Santana and Brittany could still be together without the cancer looming over their heads.

The next month, Brittany had to start chemotherapy and everything got very real very fast. The first time she showered and a clump of her shimmering blonde locks came easily from her head Brittany had cried in Santana's arms for hours. The next day Santana had gone and cried to Quinn, she had refused to cry in front of Brittany because she had to be strong. Eventually, all of it was gone and the wigs started happening. Kurt and Blaine had gotten high-quality ones from the wardrobe folks at one of their shows and given them to Brittany. They looked just like her old hair and it made pretending a little bit easier.

But the hair was only half of it. Eventually she started to look tired and simply didn't have the energy to keep teaching. She left her job and stayed home. Santana soon left school to take care of Brittany. She was a semester short of her masters but she couldn't afford it, what with all the medical bills. Thankfully, Brittany's parents had been keeping a steady stream of money flowing towards the couple to keep them afloat. Times were hard but they were about to get harder.

A month after Brittany's twenty-seventh birthday the cancer still hadn't gone away. The chemo wasn't helping, nothing was helping. August 17th, 2021, Brittany was given terminal status, less than a year to be precise. Pretending was impossible now but everyone tried so hard. The friends of the couple would spend a lot of time with them, taking them to shows and dinners and all sorts of lovely places in the city. They wanted them to be happy and to laugh, but laughing was exhausting after a while.

Quinn, Rachel, Cameron, Blaine, and Kurt were helpless as they watched Brittany get thinner, weaker, and less lively every day. The glimmer in her eyes was flickering out and everyone knew it. They also watched Santana try to be strong for her first love and best friend but her eyes always betrayed her. In the dark brown pools was defeat, anger, sorrow, fear, and the wetness of tears that she had been holding back for months. But Santana would be damned if she ever let Brittany know she felt that way, she was doing everything in her power to make the ending seem not so bad for her love. She tried to take Brittany out and do all sorts of fun things together but it all got to be too much and soon they found themselves spending their days at home, just being together while they could.

June 26th, 2022, Brittany fell asleep in Santana's arms and never woke up.

A/N: Just incase it seemed like it was, this isn't a one shot. It's going to be a full story. The title of this story is also a My Chemical Romance song that gave me this idea so give it a listen, it's a fantastic song.