It was a morning in one very lovely, very sunny May when Santana woke up alone in her bed.

Well, her and Brittany's bed, actually... which is why she wasn't too pleased about not finding her girlfriend next to her like she would every morning for the last... Wow, she thought to herself and unconsciously smiled at the realization. Seven years. We've been together for seven years.

Not literally every morning, of course, because there were days when they had to be apart. When she was still bar tending in New York, Santana would sometimes spend the rest of her nights restocking the back room of Coyote Ugly, for example, and not come home until after Brittany got out of the apartment. Or, some days, Brittany would have to travel out of town for an audition, a show, or to represent her dance studio for a competition and all that. Then there were days when they had to visit Lima separately to see their parents because the moms and dads just couldn't bare to wait until Christmas to see their respective daughters.

So, yeah. Not literally every morning, not literally every day, but they had been together forever because, emotionally, they'd never spent a second apart.

"Britt?" Santana croaked with her pillow voice. When she didn't get a response, she reluctantly peeled the covers off of her and started to zombie walk towards the living room, scratching the back of her head as if it would get the sleep out of her.

It wasn't that big of a house, what they had. It was just adequate— compared to the lavish Hollywood lifestyle their celebrity peers seemed to have. The house had a main bedroom, two guest rooms (one for each set of the parents), a normal sized living room that doubled as a dining room (most of the time they just eat on the couch), and a big enough kitchen that both of them had often used to surprise the other on birthdays, anniversaries and other important days— like the "Make Santana Smile Day" that Brittany insisted on having when she realized it had been exactly 5 years since Santana's abuela last spoke to her granddaughter.

(Brittany made happy face pancakes for Santana in the morning, happy face sandwich for lunch and happy face spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. She made Santana feel so very loved the whole day that the darker girl actually cried that night, repeatedly telling her how much she loved her.)

It wasn't because they couldn't afford something bigger that they picked this particular house. Au contraire, they were actually making more than enough money to afford a much bigger place and then some. They just didn't want to. They liked living in a cozy bubble. It made everything feel more... domestic.

Brittany arrived in New York not long after her high school graduation day, knocking on the door of the loft where Santana was living with Kurt and Rachel. When Santana opened the door to reveal Brittany with nothing but the clothes on her back and a smile on her face, the other two people in the room, a.k.a. Santana's roommates, a.k.a. the Wonder Twins, thought Brittany literally brought nothing from Lima with her and came without preparation. But Santana knew better and explained to the other two residents of the loft that Brittany's plan to move had been brewing for a while. All the Skype calls they had been having were dedicated towards mending their relationship, now that Sam was out of the picture.

(Brittany realized that loving Sam didn't come as easy to her as loving Santana. She loved him, but not like how she loved Santana; which was more than she'd ever loved anybody in this world.)

Santana quickly explained to her roommates that Brittany already had a place to stay and she was the one who was actually planning to move within a month— to live with Brittany. Of course the news threw Kurt and Rachel into panic mode. They were both at the ends of their financial ropes. Both of them were still in NYADA, and that damn expensive school was eating up their bank accounts. Rachel couldn't and didn't want to ask for more money from her dads because she thought Hiram and Leroy deserved to still have their annual Dolly Parton cruise and all of their other annual traditions, while Kurt couldn't possibly ask Burt for anything because the poor man was still battling his cancer. Without Santana paying her portion of the rent, they wouldn't be able to keep the loft.

So Brittany ended up moving into the loft. But she couldn't break her own apartment lease yet. The sleazy, greasy landlord pointed out a fine print in his copy of the apartment lease (Brittany swore on Lord Tubbington's grave that it wasn't there before) that said she had to pay double the year's rent if she were to break the lease. So, Santana still had to shell out a portion of her monthly pay towards the loft's rent like before, while Brittany basically paid her own apartment just for her stuff to have a place.

It was a weird situation. Kurt, Rachel and Brittany all felt bad for putting Santana in the middle, but the truth is, Santana didn't mind. She would never admit this to anybody, but she wasn't really ready to pack and leave the loft (and leave Kurt and Rachel).

The 1.5 years the four of them spent living together were interesting. At first, Brittany had to keep up with how much Santana's behavior towards Kurt and Rachel had changed, but she decided that she liked how open, sweet and relaxed Santana was around their former high school classmates. And she let the pair know how grateful she was for taking care of her Santana by bringing home their favorite desserts every other night after her dance classes.

Like Santana, Brittany didn't feel college was the way to go. She knew who she was and who she was, is not a college student. Her parents weren't particularly fond of their daughter's idea of forgoing college education altogether, but they succumbed anyway and understood where she was coming from. Brittany told her parents that she could get into any college if she wanted to, and she proved it by getting a good SAT score (she ended up with the best score in McKinley High) and graduating with the rest of her glee club friends. But Brittany also told them that she wouldn't.

She told them that she (with a little help from Santana) believed in herself. That she was (is) a dancer, and she was going to go through life dancing. And that if her parents had an ounce of faith in her, they should let her at least try and do so.

They did, and Brittany spent almost all of her New York days in dance classes and going to auditions while her three roommates go about their daily lives. They were all struggling with their own things, but all of them cherished the rare nights when everyone got together to unwind in front of the TV. And just like how Santana came to held them dear, Brittany grew to appreciate Kurt and Rachel more than she had ever did before.

Mercedes Jones, who was in Glee club with them during high school gave both Brittany and Santana a call several years ago and asked if they would want to join her management in LA. At the time, her sophomore album, "'Cedes", was nominated for a Grammy award. She didn't win, but she got a lot of buzz surrounding the founding of her own recording company. The fierce powerhouse wanted to sign Santana as one of her new artists, and she told them right from the start that the offer was not because they were friends.

Well, okay, maybe it was a part of the reason. But Mercedes made it really clear that she wanted to sign Santana up because she thought— and she still thinks this way until this day— that Santana's voice was one of the best; and that she deserved to be in the spotlight.

Hearing the offer, Santana was extremely flattered. But it didn't mean that she didn't spend a lot of sleepless nights thinking about it. The night she got the call, she just got a raise and several extra vacation days from her boss. Sure, she was still working at Coyote Ugly and every now and then drunk old men would grope her ass before they got kicked out by security. But, at the time it was the only source of income available for her. It took a while for her to finally be in a comfort zone with what she was doing, and she really didn't want to let it go. Besides, the whole year of working and performing at Coyote Ugly really took its toll on her. She often wondered to herself if she really had what it takes to be a legitimate performer— and the answer had slowly regressed from "hell yeah!" to "who am I kidding?" because, guess what? A girl could only take so much rejections after going into so many auditions and not getting any callbacks.

Although, now that she could finally look back with ease, she probably was aiming at the wrong audience. As much as she loved the city, New York was probably not her scene after all.

It was a different story with Brittany. She didn't have any hesitation to accept Mercedes' offer of becoming the singer's studio dancer-slash-head choreographer except for the fact that if Santana didn't take the offer, they would have to be apart and living in opposite coasts.

She really really didn't want it to happen.

So she talked about it with Santana, carefully pushing her girlfriend towards believing in herself again— like how she convinced Brittany she could do anything. It was a very good thing that the two of them had grown better in talking out their feelings. Santana, especially. She had learned that the lack of communication was what essentially pushed them apart every. single. time. Even though Brittany and her had always had this magical connection that didn't require them to explicitly talk about everything, she had learned that there would always be moments when talking out loud is needed. Especially if Santana wanted to keep their promise of 'forever' that was etched on each of their promise ring.

When Santana, after careful conversations with Brittany, the Lopez clan, the Pierce family, Rachel and Kurt, finally made a decision to move with Brittany to Los Angeles, her two roommates understood that this was something they really wanted to do. Luckily, as if the universe had planned it all along, Rachel and Kurt's financial situation at the time had grown so much better. Burt Hummel was declared free of cancer, and both Kurt and Rachel had been recognized as new talents by NYADA's Broadway directors connections. They had gotten cast for small parts in various productions and they no longer needed Santana's and Brittany's contributions towards monthly rent money.

The goodbye was kind of bittersweet. Santana didn't think she had ever given Rachel Berry and Kurt Hummel longer hugs than those full 3 minutes that day. She felt like she owed Kurt and Rachel so much. After all, she did move in unexpectedly and lived there for free during her first months in New York. The many days of fights and insults seemed so little as she looked back. To be honest, she really didn't know what would've happened had they not sheltered her in the loft.

She loved them. Not like she would tell you, though. In fact, she also would never tell you that the reason why she woke up nearing noon that morning in May, was because she stayed up reading good reviews about Rachel's latest endeavor; a supporting role in the Broadway production of Dances with Wolves.

That's right.

Dances with Wolves.

It was a bizarre stage production in itself, but all the reviews praised Rachel's performance. One tough critic even wrote she was the next Barbra Streisand. Santana couldn't help but hearing an imaginary an ear piercing squeal in her head when she tried to picture Rachel's reaction upon reading those reviews.

"Britt," Santana called again. This time louder as she walked through the apartment. "Brittany, is this my punishment because I didn't get into bed until 4 last night?"

Still no answer and still no sign of Brittany. The house was empty, except for her and 2 pieces of paper that she found stuck on the fridge. The first one, which was a sticky note, said, "find me :) . Here's your first clue," and then an arrow pointing to a bigger piece of paper.

Santana took the "clue" off the refrigerator door and chuckled as she observed what was in it. Brittany had drawn a little scenery on it with markers. Two silhouettes sitting on a sandy beach, and the words "why don't we take a little piece of [insert the name of our favorite cafe by the beach here], hang it on a tree."

And then on the bottom corner of the paper is a lipstick mark she recognized as Brittany's lips— of course she knew Brittany's lips by heart— and a simple I love you that made her swoon before she scrunched her face in confusion.

A riddle? But Santana felt like she knew the words from somewhere. She was sure they belong to a song.

Favorite beach cafe? Santana traced Brittany's writing, mumbling the words as she read them. Why don't we take a little piece of...

Of course! Summer Sky!

"Why don't we take a little piece of Summer Sky, hang it on a tree," Santana started singing, smiling as she realized that the name was a perfect match.

The words belonged to an old song that Brittany had found by chance on Youtube, and when she looked up the lyrics, she fell in love with it so hard that she couldn't stop singing it for 1 week straight. She even started teaching a bossa nova class because of the song and now all her students are familiar with the rest of Sergio Mendes' discography.

Santana shook her head in amusement and got up to find her phone. She pressed Brittany's speed dial number (which is 2, because according to Brittany, 2 is 'the number of the duck') and stuck the phone between her right ear and shoulder as she changed out of her shorts into a pair of jeans. Unfortunately, she didn't get to hear Brittany's sweet, sweet voice greeting her as her call was left unanswered. She did, however, hear Brittany's voice message telling her to leave a message.

"Babe," Santana chuckled into the phone. "Really? A treasure hunt? You're lucky you're the most precious treasure ever and I don't ever want to live without you. OK, well... Guess I better run if I want to find you. Bye! Love you the mostest!"

And with that she put on a bit of makeup, zipped up her hoodie, put on her super huge sunglasses (hey, these days privacy is a luxury for both her and her girlfriend) and grabbed her car keys. She had one mission to complete and it was to find Brittany...

(who was totally planning a surprise, by the way).

A/N:

Wheeew.. what do you think Brittany's going to do? ;)