Sometimes little things matter more than big things. For Santana and Brittany the little things are all they got, but Brittany wanted more. She wanted Santana to stop caring about popularity more than her; she wanted them to be exclusive and not be a secret anymore.
"What do you think I should do?" a fed up Brittany asked Quinn and Rachel as she paced the Berry's living room and they sat on the couch holding hands.
Quinn shot her girlfriend a look before answering with a question, "Have you told Santana how you feel?"
Brittany threw her hands in the air and shouted, "Yes! And she just tells me she will tell people, but she never does."
"And you continue sleeping with her?" Rachel asked finally speaking up for the first time that night.
"Yeah." The blonde Cheerio said confused.
"Do you think you could stop until she starts telling people?" Quinn finished for Rachel.
"Yeah, if I avoid her; she's hard to resist when we're alone." Rachel let go of Quinn's hand as they stood and walked closer to Brittany.
"Here's what your gonna do." They said at the same time. When Quinn finished explaining the plan for the fourth time Brittany was smiling widely.
"Ok, I can do that, first thing tomorrow." The bouncing blonde left Rachel and Quinn alone and ignored her phone as she spent time with her little sister.
The next day at school Santana found her as she was standing next to her locker.
"Be are you okay?" the Latina asked sounding somewhat scared.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" the other girl answered trying not to pay attention to Santana's tone.
"You didn't answer any of my texts or calls yesterday."
"I was with my sister." Santana met Brittany's eyes. "Is something wrong? You seem weird."
"I'm tired of being treated horribly by you."
"What do you mean?" Santana looked around nervously and Brittany sighed.
"We spend all our time together, we have sex almost every day and we love each other, at least I love you, but you treat me like I'm a toy you can throw away when you don't wan it and will come back when you need it. You know what, I'm your yo-yo that's what it is and most days I don't care because I love you, but that ends now." Brittany felt relief when she finished until she saw Santana's face.
"What are you saying, B?" Santana's tone revealed she thought it was a joke which only made Brittany madder.
"I'm saying that until you show me you care about me I'll be hanging out with Rachel and Quinn." Brittany started to walk away, but Santana grabbed her wrist.
"How am I supposed to do that?"
"Figure it out." The blonde replied without looking at Santana as she continued walking toward Rachel and Quinn standing at Rachel's locker.
Brittany was smiling until Quinn asked, "You told her?" the Cheerio felt tears spring to her eyes as she nodded.
Rachel pulled her in for a hug and told her, "Everything will be all right."
"How do you know?" the girl asked in between sobs.
"Because I'm a little psychic and I can already tell she'll be crawling back to you in no time." Brittany smiled and let Rachel and Quinn lead her to their first class. Brittany ignored Santana as best she could and her two friends were there to remind her when she couldn't, but days seemed to pass slowly for the blonde and Latina. Separation made Santana realize how much she needed the girl by her side and had truly taken advantage of her. She knew she needed to prove to Brittany she changed, but didn't know how so she found Quinn in a rare alone moment and asked her.
"Figure it out on your own." Quinn said trying to walk past the other girl.
"Q, come on please." The desperation in her voice made Quinn stop.
"Brittany's biggest complaint is that she doesn't think you listen to her so prove to her that you do."
"How do I do that?" The blonde looked at her friend surprised.
"Seriously?" Santana nodded sheepishly. Quinn took a step closer to Santana and looked her in the eyes. "Sing her favorite song in Glee, buy her favorite candy, stuff like that. Anything to show her you know that stuff about her." Santana nodded and Quinn turned and kept walking down the abandoned hallway. Santana let what Quinn said marinate in her mind until she got home and was able to seriously remember everything Brittany told her. What she remembered came back slowly as she thought back to the many conversations they'd had in their twelve year friendship. As the memories started to come in she wrote them down and they came easier as the weekend went on spending almost her whole weekend remembering and writing.
When Santana got to school she looked for opportunities to show Brittany the stuff she remembered, but none came until Glee when she stopped by the vending machines for a drink and saw the blonde's favorite candy so she bought a bag alone with her drink and walked to the glee room and dropped the bag of Skittles in her lap as she passed to take a seat in the back next to Puck. Brittany shot Santana a confused look and she just smiled. Glee passed slowly, but when it ended Brittany caught Santana at the doors.
"Why'd you give me this?" she asked indicating the now empty bag.
"That's your favorite candy right?" the taller girl nodded and Santana smiled wider. "I was at the vending machines and saw it so I bought it." The Latina left the other girl still looking confused and walked home with a smile on her face. More opportunities came over the next week, but Brittany's demeanor didn't change so Santana thought back again to anything else Quinn had told her and then it struck her. One thing Brittany always said she wanted was someone to serenade her. Even when they were kids Brittany would tell Santana she would dream about someone singing her to sleep or in a crowd of people. It took another week for Santana to find the perfect song and by that Friday she knew she needed help so before school started she found Rachel and asked if she could help her with the song.
"Of course I'm always willing to help out a fellow teammate and friend. Ever since I started dating Quinn . . ."
"Berry!" Santana yelled interrupting what would have been one of Rachel's rants.
"Sorry. So, I'll see you at your house today after school." Santana nodded and left before Brittany and Quinn could join them. The rest of the day passed quickly for Santana as she worked to memorize the lyrics. Rachel and Santana didn't talk as they walked out of the school and headed to Santana's car.
"I told Quinn." Rachel said matter-of-factly as she got into the passenger side of Santana's car.
"Why?" Santana asked angry.
"She'd wonder why I was spending Friday with you and I couldn't lie to her. I made her promise to not tell Brit and I haven't told anyone else."
Santana wanted to yell, but thought of how Brittany would have wanted her to respond so she just simply replied, "Ok." Rachel shot a look to Santana and smiled. Santana practiced for two hours before she couldn't stand Rachel's critiquing anymore.
"Berry!" Rachel looked at Santana partially confused and partially annoyed at being interrupted.
"I think I've practiced enough." Rachel opened her mouth to object, but Santana cut her off by the raise of her hand.
"I don't have your voice and training and I think Brittany will like it despite it not being perfect, at least I hope so." The Latina's voice dropped to a whisper at the end and she looked at the floor ashamed at showing vulnerability. Rachel stepped closer to her and placed her hand on Santana's shoulder.
"She will." Santana met her eyes and couldn't help but smile. "I better go. I guess I'll see you on Monday?" Rachel said stepping away and grabbing her bag on the floor.
"Yeah, see you." Santana watched her leave and felt a loneliness she's never felt before Brittany said goodbye. The rest of the weekend she still practiced the song thinking it was her last chance or she'd be lonely for the rest of her life. She didn't start to feel nervous until she walked into Glee and saw everyone's eyes on her. She tried to ignore them, especially the big intense blue one's on the front row, as she walked to Mr. Shue and asked if she could sing. He replied of course and she walked over to the band to tell them what to play.
"Santana wants to sing so before we start our dance routines we'll let her start us off." Santana sighed and took Mr. Shuester's spot next to the piano.
"Ok, before I start I'd just like to say that about three weeks I didn't realize I was taking advantage of someone very close to me and now that she's gone I wanted to apologize through song because I remember you once told me you wanted someone to sing to you like Rachel sang to Quinn." Santana and Brittany locked eyes and Santana could see a smile on the other girls face. "And this song fit really well with how I was feeling, but I also remember you telling me they were your favorite band as a kid so B this is for you." The band started to play and Santana looked away from Brittany to sing.
There's a thousand words that I could say I've been sitting here I don't wanna make excuses, baby Yeah... What will I do
To make you come home
Seems so long ago you walked away
Left me alone
I remember what you said to me
You were acting so strange
and maybe I was too blind to see
That you needed a change
Was it something I said
To make you turn away?
To make you walk out and leave me cold
If I could just find a way
To make it so that you were right here
But right now..
Can't get you off my mind
I've tried my best to be a Lopez and be strong
I've drove myself insane
Wishing I could touch your face
But the truth remains..
You're gone..
You're gone..
Baby you're gone
Girl you're gone, baby girl, you're gone..
You're gone..
You're...
Won't change the fact that you're gone
But if there's something that I could do
Won't you please let me know?
The time is passing so slowly now
Guess that's my life without you
and maybe I could change my every day
But baby I don't want to
So I'll just hang around
and find some things to do
To take my mind off missing you
and I know in my heart
You can't say that you don't love me too
Please say you do
I've been sitting here
Can't get you off my mind
I've tried my best to be a Lopez and be strong
I Drove myself insane
Wishing I could touch your face
But the truth remains
You're gone..
You're gone..
You're gone
You're gone...you're gone.. you're...
Gone
Oh...
If I can't be with you
Tell me where will I turn to
Baby where will I be
Now that we are apart
Am I still in your heart?
Baby why don't you see?
That I need you here with me
Santana tried not to look at Brittany knowing it would only make her more nervous, but by the end of the second chorus she started to feel tears spill from her eyes and she realized she couldn't sing any more by the third chorus so she ran out of the room sobbing harder than she ever had. She ignored all the noise around her as she ran to the nearest bathroom and tried to calm herself down. She hadn't been in the bathroom for more than five minutes when the door opened. She turned around expecting to see Rachel, Quinn or both, but she saw Brittany standing in the doorway looking like an angel in a Cheerio's uniform.
"I'm so sorry, B. I'll tell everyone about us, even my parents; I'll be exclusive; I'll take better car of you; I'll even be nice to Berry. Please just take me back." Santana sobbed and Brittany stepped forward to let her collapse into her arms. No words needed to be said because with Brittany in her arms Santana knew she was home. Santana realized Brittany was crying as well when she felt wetness on her shoulder.
"Why are you crying?" Santana asked pulling away to look into Brittany's eyes.
"When you cry I cry and because I missed you." Santana pulled her in again until they had both stopped crying.
"Can we be birds, San?" Brittany asked quietly into the shorter girl's neck.
"What?"
"Two birds stay together their whole life so can we be birds?" Santana smiled and felt her whole body relax with the naturalness of Brittany's body against hers.
"Of course, B, we'll be birds." The blonde smiled the smile that could compete with the sun and pulled Santana in for a kiss that took both of their breath away and made Santana's heart beat ten times faster, but she didn't mind as long as they were together.
