AU Pezberry: Rachel finds out that she's pregnant and subsequently gets kicked out of her home. She manages to find an apartment and starts to prepare herself for raising her child alone. Santana lives in the apartment across the hall and for the first couple of weeks, they just greet each other in passing. That changes the day Santana comes home to find a distraught Rachel, locked out of her apartment and defeated. Santana invites her in and they talk for what seems like hours. Afterwards, Santana is determined to get to know the girl across the hall and asks her out on a date. And another. And another. Over time, Rachel begins to show and is forced to reveal her pregnancy.
Not only is it a Monday morning; but it's a Monday morning when Santana, of course, sleeps through her alarm and stubs her toe on her desk and then realizes she's got about 10 mins to get to work on time.
"Fuck!" She breathes out, throws on her coat and snatches her apron on the way out the door. She decides to shoot a quick text out to Gunther letting him know she's on her way and to please, please, please not fire her when she notices the one elevator of her shitty building is reserved and not only is she already late, but now she has to run down 7 flights of fucking stairs.
Who the fuck moves in on a Monday morning?
So now, not only is it a Monday morning, but she's late for work, she's pretty sure her toe is fractured and now she has to worry about a new neighbor on her floor. She makes a mental note to find out who the new tenant is; not because she's nosy, but she vaguely remembers the weird couple who lived next door and had crazy wild sex in the middle of the afternoon and had a crazy, loud dog who scratches at the wall in the middle of the night. Basically, she's had enough of annoying neighbors and if she has to deal with another one, she'll almost be tempted to take Mike's offer as his new roommate because the dude decided to move into a stupid, expensive apartment on the Lower East Side on his own. But she likes living on her own; she can walk around naked, and she never has to worry about anyone eating her cereal. Growing up is awesome for the most part.
She's digging through her purse looking for her metropass when she finally reaches the first floor and—
"Whoa! Watch it!" Santana's holding her arms out to catch whatever content could've fallen out of the big ginormous box that's being held by some tiny human in front of her.
A girl with long, wavy brown hair, who's not really that much shorter than Santana, cranes her neck and looks up from behind the box, "Ugh, I'm so sorry, I didn't even see you." She says, moving to the right at the exact same time that Santana's moves to her left and they do this weird step away dance thing for a second until Santana groans frustratingly and finally angles her body to the side so the other girl can walk by.
"Sorry." The girl says again, and Santana mumbles an "it's okay" as she kind of does a double take at the girl walking away from her and she kind of gawks at the long, tanned legs (how can such a short girl even have that much leg?!) for a second before shaking her head and checks the time on her phone again before cursing the world again for making her late.
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Three years ago, if you told her that she would be living in New York, working at a Broadway themed diner, playing into the stereotype of a hopeful actress and scraping by with tips so she can pay for headshots and go to auditions and—
Okay, that's a little bit of a lie. She's one of the lucky ones whose parents were totally supportive and actually cuts her a small check from her supposed college fund every other week. The thing was, Santana's plans three years ago included a full ride cheerleading scholarship to Kentucky, get through her undergrad and get her Masters in Law; she did end up being offered the full ride to the University of Kentucky at the end of her senior year. But then this stupid little glee club that Quinn made her join changed every aspect of her life and she realized how much she actually really loves performing and against her parents' better judgment, she spent an entire Friday night making a PowerPoint on why she should go to New York and chase her dreams to become the kick ass star she truly is.
"Santana!"
The brunette looks up from refilling salt shakers and sees Gunther at the other side of the bar, "Where's your head at? Table 4 still hasn't even been greeted yet." He says frustratingly, nudging his head towards the other side of the diner.
"My bad." She mumbles out, wiping her hands on her apron and making her way to table 4. She pulls out her notepad and pen and lets out a sigh, "Can I start you off with something to drink-
"Hey, it's you."
The tiny human with the nice legs puts down the menu in front of her and Santana notices her face for the first time and her mind goes blank for a second at this girl's smile because damn.
Santana blinks and mentally smacks herself for gawking, "It's me." She mutters out, and rolls her eyes at herself, "You're the new girl in my building?"
The girl giggles, fucking giggles at her and nods, "Rachel." She holds out her hand politely and Santana takes another second and decides she may as well play along. She can feel Gunther's stare from the bar behind her and she decides she can't really piss him off any more than she already has.
"Santana." She says, taking Rachel's hand.
Rachel nods again, the smile is still not leaving her face, and they stare at each other for a moment until Santana finally clears her throat and glances at the menu again, "So can I get you a coffee or something?" she asks, holding the pen against her notepad.
Rachel nods for a second and then, "Actually, just some water, please." She says softly, her smile slightly faltering, "And I guess just an order of your oatmeal and fruit."
Santana raises an eyebrow but writes down the order anyway, "You sure?" She asks; she may as well be friendly since they're like neighbors or whatever…and it helps that this girl is both cute and hot and that's too much of her weakness to ignore. "I would've thought you would be starving after moving all morning." Santana looks up again flashing the girl a smile, "Our French toast is actually pretty dope here."
Rachel's smile is back as she shrugs her shoulders, "Okay, sold." She says easily, handing Santana the menu, "Can I get that to go, though? I didn't realize the time and I'm supposed to meet my parents back at the apartment."
Santana's almost disappointed that the girl's not staying, but then she remembers she lives right across the hall now so…
"No worries," she replies, taking the menu from Rachel, "It'll be out in a second."
Santana walks away and notices Kurt leaning against the bar, arms folded across his chest, "Well, she's cute." He says, still looking over at Rachel's booth, "Didn't think she would be your type though, Satan."
Santana furrows her eyebrows and types the order into the system, "She's my new neighbor." She says, "And how do you know what my type is, Lady Lips?"
Chances are he probably does. Kurt moved to New York with Santana once they graduated high school. The hilarious thing is; they hated each other back then. And then sophomore year came along and Santana joined Glee where they were forced to get along and Lady Face ended up becoming one of her best friends. Kurt got accepted into NYADA and the two moved in together for a year until Kurt's boyfriend Blaine moved to the city and the two decided it was more convenient for Kurt to be closer to school and obviously, closer to Blaine as well.
Kurt smiles, "Well you usually go for blondes. Let's see…" he says easily, holding out his hands and counting fingers, "Brittany, Quinn, Dani—
"Quinn was from lack of better judgment and too many martinis," Santana rolls her eyes, "And Dani has blue hair now."
"She was blonde when you met her and when you first started dating." Kurt mutters, helping Santana with the last of the salt shakers, "Anyway, my gaydar is sensing some gay from your new neighbor," he says and that definitely got Santana's attention, "And you know my gaydar is always on point. So I say go for it."
The cook rings the bell indicating Rachel's French toast is ready so Santana gets up, "You think?" She asks absentmindedly, and then shakes her head realizing how pathetic she sounds right now. It's only been 5 months since her and Dani broke up; not that it was really that serious anyway, but still. She takes the container of food, idling by where Kurt was sitting and looking at the back of Rachel's head sitting in the booth.
"It's time you get your lesbian groove back, Santana." Kurt says, giving her a smack on the ass and pushing her towards the booth.
Santana glares at her friend over her shoulder as she walks away. She gets to Rachel's booth and puts down the container along with a glass of water, "French toast and some H2O on the rocks." Jesus fuck, Santana, can you be anymore lame right now?
Rachel lets out a laugh and takes a sip of the water in front of her, "Well thank you, Santana." She says before letting herself out of the booth, "I guess I'll see you around then?" The girl sounds pretty hopeful, so Santana takes that as a good sign.
"I'll see ya." Santana says and she smiles before Rachel starts walking towards the door. Fuck it, "Wait, Rachel." The shorter girl turns around and looks at Santana expectedly, "If you like, need anything," she's fumbling through her words and she wants Kurt to literally throw something at the back of her head right now to get her back on track, "I mean, I know moving sucks so, if you need help, I'm just across the hall from you." She finally finishes.
Rachel flashes another smile, "I might take you up on that offer." She says before nodding and then waves goodbye to Santana before walking out the door.