Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 48th cycle. Now cycle 49!

"Just Can't Help Yourself"
Sue & Brittany
Sylvesters series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

(A/N: Sorry it's a bit short, feel like crap today O:-))

Sometimes it was as though their roles were reversed. She was the mother in this, and yet she was the one waiting nervously for her daughter to arrive, like a child waiting on a scolding.

She wasn't doing it to hurt her, she hoped she knew that, only… She'd be there, and all she could think of was spiting Schuester and his lot – which happened to include her daughter. It had happened again, as she'd messed not only with their funding but also with their method to rectify it, this so-called 'night of neglect.' As always, things hadn't gone quite as she would have had them go, but still she had done them, and now she'd have Brittany to deal with, back home after being at her father's for the last few days. In that time they had never gotten time to talk, not outside of an ex-coach/ex-Cheerio capacity at McKinley.

When she came home, Sue watched her, waited… She didn't look too upset, which would be a good thing…

"Hi," she just smiled, going off to her room. Sue kept watching her until she had disappeared.

The evening would continue to unfold like this, with Brittany acting as normal as normal was, by her standards. She didn't look upset or angry at her mother, which really could mean anything, and she didn't know how to deal with it.

"Alright, look, about tonight…" she finally couldn't keep going with the mellow mood.

"No," Brittany had interrupted her though. Sue paused, while her daughter's blue eyes turned up to her. "I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to fight about it. So… no," Brittany stated simply, nodding to each step. "I'm not going to stop you, and you won't stop us either, so I don't care. Do you what you have to do. I know that when we're here, it won't be like that," she continued.

Sue didn't know how to respond to that. She was right on all accounts, if she was honest with herself. And now here was her daughter, her girl, showing a complete lack of anger. It could be a good thing, like she understood that despite it all, it never negated Sue's love for her. But it could be the other side, could be she'd just given up hope on her mother… No, it had to be the first.

Brittany looked to her, like she waited on the next topic for them to talk about, because it sure as hell would not be the night of neglect. "How… how's Wh… Artie?" she asked after her daughter's boyfriend.

"He's good. He's excited about Detroit… Me too," she smiled. "I can bring you a souvenir." Sue gave a small smile.

"Sure, that'd be great." She looked to her for a moment, then, "Listen, you've got… two trips coming up. If you want, I'll get you a new suitcase…"

"Okay," Brittany smiled. She didn't need it, hers was still in good condition, despite certain incidents with Lord Tubbington trying to sneak his way in to follow her… But she knew when her mother needed to do something, more than she wanted to do something, and she didn't stand in the way of that, not when she could.

And maybe there was a little part of her that didn't mind her mother being 'otherwise occupied' right now, with how confusing things could be for her, with her and Santana and the 'feelings' matter. She didn't know why it had to be so hard; it wasn't to her… She knew where she stood, it just wasn't necessarily somewhere the others could get to themselves. She could feel herself tipping into another one of those weird little places, keeping things separated, one world and then another… She didn't want that, especially with her mother, especially after all they'd been through together lately, but she wasn't ready, or she didn't know how to be ready…

Even then, she meant what she'd told her mother. She didn't want to be in that place anymore with her mother where she kept having to tell her to stop doing what she did, where she would get upset with her. If that was what she needed, then she should do it. Brittany had come to see over time that her mother couldn't get between them… The New Directions were stronger than her tricks, so she wasn't going to bother her head with it.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!