[[AUTHOR NOTE:]]

¤ To my old readers, who followed Paparazzi at its beginning two years ago, thank you for coming back to check out this new, re-edited, and improved version of the story. I had to make a couple of changes in order to follow the official FF guide rules, and I figured that since it had been over a year since i had last updated, you guys wouldn't mind if I started fresh.

¤ To my new readers, HIII! This is my first attempt at "unleashing my imagination" so it won't be as good as anything you may have found so far on this site, but we all started somewhere, didn't we? Please know that English is not my mother tongue, so you might encounter some spelling mistakes that I hope won't disturb your reading.

That said, I hope you guys enjoy your reading! I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback in the review or on Twitter at ShippingHeYa xox

-Lex.

Flashes and more flashes. Santana let out a loud sigh as she desperately tried to make her way through the mass of paparazzi outside her house. You would think she was used to it, after all it did come with the fame and her team had made sure she knew that before she signed with Sony. But no, two years later, 23-year-old Santana Lopez, hit star of FOX' hit series Glee, still couldn't believe that so many people would get up before the sun even rose just to take a few pictures of her. She internally cursed her PR team as she tried to reach her car. She knew why the paparazzi were there. For a couple of months now, her team had made it their number 1 priority to make her settle down and find her a "handsome fiancé". Hence why every week, a different guy was seen leaving her house after what Santana would call another catastrophic rendezvous. She was tired. Tired of her team trying to set her up when she just wanted to have fun, tired of the reputation these never-ending dates had brought upon her. And in case that wasn't enough, her team made sure she made it to the cover of every single magazine, showing much more skin than necessary. That's another thing she was tired of. Granted, she had a rocking body, but if she had to be honest, she really would have appreciated it if her team hadn't been using her body as a promotional campaign. It's "keeping the hype up," they had told her the one time she had tried to refuse an impromptu outing at the beach in only a black bikini. So Santana went with it, by fear to lose everything she had work so hard for. As she reached her car, something caught her eye. Shielding her eyes from the flash as best as she could, she looked at the woman who had pulled her out of her thoughts. Blonde-haired, with legs that seemed to go on forever, the woman was retreating from the crowd while looking at her camera, where the shots she had just taken of the Latina probably were. Santana absentmindedly stopped for a second to look at the blonde and only resumed her walk when she felt a paparazzo bumped into her due to her brutal stop. The commotion had been enough to attract the attention of the blonde woman, who looked up only to meet Santana's gaze. She rolled her eyes and went back to her business as Santana got into her car. Blinking a couple of times to get rid of the striking image of beautiful ocean eyes, Santana shook her head and turned on the engine before heading to the studios.

The crowd of paparazzi quickly disappeared from Santana's door-step along with her, and that included a very irritated young blonde woman named Brittany. She made her way to her agency's office and gave all her recent pictures to her boss who seemed pretty content with them according to the pay check he gave her. On her way back home, the blonde thought about how she got to the place she was now. See, she had always hated celebrities, especially the arrogant ones like Santana, who seemed to take everything for granted. The Latina had a very high self-esteem, she thought no one could resist her and there was nothing that was getting on Brittany's nerves more than that. She hated her job, but living in Los Angeles was expensive and those pictures were what enabled her to pay her bills. As she opened the door to her apartment, she was attacked by her roommate, who had also been her best friend for quite a while now, Quinn.

"BRITT!" Brittany couldn't help but smile at her friend's antics. Now, THIS would be why she was where she was now. Quinn and she had been best friend since middle school. Brittany was 4 years older than Quinn but the two girls had grown up together in the same neighborhood in Arizona, and when her best friend had offered the blonde to move to LA with her after her graduation, Brittany had packed her bags right away. They had been living in Los Angeles for over a year now, but Quinn was still starstruck whenever she crossed path with anyone famous in the streets, hence the fact that Brittany knew something had happened in glamorous Hollywood as soon as she heard her best friend squeal.

"Hey. What's up?" Brittany asked, though she knew she wouldn't care at all.

"Look at the TV," Quinn replied, gesturing widely towards the object of her excitement. "It's you right there taking pictures of Santana! SANTANA LOPEZ!" Brittany looked at the TV unimpressed, then back to her best friend, before shrugging her shoulders and letting out a simple "Oh." She headed towards her kitchen to grab food with Quinn on her toe.

"Oh?" the 19-year old repeated. "You see Santana Lopez and all you've got to say is Oh?" Brittany rolled her eyes for the second time that day. Quinn was still young and unlike Brittany, her fangirl self was still very much present. Brittany had had to sit her friend down several times and make her understand that no, she couldn't go up to whichever celebrities she was taking pictures of that day her and ask for their autographs. Quinn's fangirling was even worse when it came to Glee, for she was a huge fan of the show. For Brittany, seeing celebrities had become a casual thing, it was her job after all. Whether it was Santana or a Kardashian, it was no big deal to her, they were just people. "Q, you know I can't stand her," Brittany sighed.

"Maybe," the younger girl whined. "But you've got to admit she's hot," Quinn said wiggling her eyebrows, making Brittany laugh. Though her best friend was straight, she had always been very open when it came to saying whether or not girls were attractive.

"You won't ever change, will you?" Brittany smiled, shaking her head.

"Nope," Quinn laughed. "But that's why you love me."

"So, what are we doing tonight?" Quinn asked when Brittany emerged from a well-deserved nap later that day. Brittany shrugged saying she had no idea since she was probably going to be working all night. It was Friday night, and celebrities were going to go clubbing and get wasted again. Brittany would have taken Quinn along, but she was still underage, at least for these clubs.

"I think you know how to have fun on your own anyway," the blonde said when Quinn claimed she was bored. When the younger girl raised a perfect eyebrow as to tell her to elaborate, Brittany added, "Remember that hot guy I saw you with yesterday?" The blonde laughed as her best friend's cheeks turned red and she started stuttering that he was just a guy she had met at the diner she worked at down the street and that she may be seeing again soon. Brittany doubled in laughter as Quinn hid her face in her hands, completely embarrassed by her lack of coherence.

After her laughter had died down, Brittany dropped the subject and asked her best friend to order pizza for dinner while she quickly hopped in the shower. Once done, the blonde laid on her bed for a moment, thinking back to her life so far. She was trying to fight. Fight for her best friend Quinn, because she was everything she had here in Los Angeles. She had left everything else behind her when she had moved. Her roots were still in Arizona, her family, her sisters, her friends. Her job paid well, and Quinn was also getting some money out of her part time job as a waitress at the diner, but it was still getting harder and harder to pay for the bills, the food and just every day's utilities. She was working a bit more and more with every day, often during nights, to take pictures of Santana and sometimes of other people. Her boss wanted her to focus on Santana to try and get some inside scoop and Brittany hoped it would happen, because the girl couldn't be perfect after all. But nothing big had ever happened. Santana was getting in and out her house with a different guy every other night, but that was already old news. She had just gotten dressed when Quinn called her to dinner. As her best friend put the latest Glee DVD in the player, Brittany knew it was her cue to leave. She made her way through the crazy L.A. traffic and parked near Santana's house. It was a bit early when she got here so the place wasn't too crowded yet. Sitting in her car, she was hoping something would happen. But once again, she finished her night outside a club, taking pictures of random celebrities because there had been no sign of Santana anywhere. Tomorrow would be the day, that's what Brittany told herself as she put her camera back in its bag, sat in the driver seat and took off.

When Brittany reached her apartment building and parked her car, she noticed a shadow near her building's entrance. She frowned as she got out of her car. Who could be out there at such a time of night? She took her purse and her camera bag before locking her car. The closer she got, the clearer the silhouette was. Their shoulders were violently shaking and rather familiar sobs were escaping from their mouth. Brittany took her phone and used it to get some light. Sure enough, Quinn was sitting there, crying her heart out as she waited for Brittany. The blonde immediately crouched down and took the sobbing girl in her arms. Once the young girl's breathing had slowed down, Brittany stood up and reached for her hand, urging her to get inside where it was way warmer. The young woman sniffled and got in eventually. After a couple of stairs, the two girls reached their apartment. Quinn sat on the couch in the living room and Brittany soon joined her with a blanket, two pillows and two cups of hot chocolate. Quinn smiled through the tears. She was thankful to have found Brittany. She had always been there for her, through every heart break. Brittany snuggled against the short-haired girl and covered their two bodies with a blanket. It took some time and some more crying, but somehow Brittany managed to get the entire story. The guy Quinn had met at the diner had texted her earlier in the evening and she had told him to come over. The girl had been overjoyed to see him, as she had realized she had really taken a liking in the guy. They had watched some TV together and talk about everything and anything. But after a while, things had gotten serious and Sam –that was his name- had admitted that one of his motives when he had first talked to her was to get info on Brittany, for he knew they were friends.

"Me? Why me? I don't even know him," Brittany had objected mid-speech. Quinn had simply shushed her and asked her to let her finish. Sam was apparently a journalist and had been wanting to meet Brittany for a while about a project of his.

"He said you should meet him at the pub around the block at 2:00 PM tomorrow," Quinn shared. "Then he just got up, kissed my cheek and left, saying he had still a lot of work to do."

Brittany's first opinion of the guy was that he was a douche for using her best friend to get to her. She made sure to note somewhere in her brain to tell the guy the next day to be honest with Quinn if it turned out that he really was into her after all. Because yes, she was going to show up at this meeting and get to the bottom of whatever this was, at least for the sake of her best friend who now thought her new crush had a crush on someone else.

Once Brittany was sure that Quinn would be fine on her own, the two ladies went to their respective bedrooms to get some good hours of sleep in. Brittany got ready for the night and sneaked under the blanket. A lot of questions were going through her mind. Who was that Sam guy? Why did he want to see her? And how did he even know her? The blonde barely slept that night. After waking up for the fourth time at 7:30 AM, she decided going back to sleep would be useless and instead, fixed herself and Quinn a consequent breakfast. Her young friend got up a few minutes later.

"Please, tell me it's coffee and bacon that I smell so I don't kill you for making so much noise so early in the morning?" Quinn grunted as she arrived in the kitchen. If there was one thing that Quinn wasn't, it was definitively a morning person.

"Why, yes, ma'am, yes it is," Brittany replied in her best British accent. She smiled as she saw she hint of a smile appear on her best friend's face.

The two ate breakfast in silence, the blonde knowing better than to bring out the meeting with Sam into the conversation. Quinn was probably even more nervous about the meeting than Brittany was. As Brittany announced she was going to work, Quinn teased her about visiting her new best friend Santana. The blonde shook her head, knowing full well that Quinn's words had a double meaning. Her job was taking away all of her free time and she was now spending more time taking pictures of the Latina than hanging out with Quinn. It was killing her but she had no other choice. Brittany took her keys, kissed her friend forehead and left, closing the door behind her. It was an habit they had taken over the years, a way for them to show how much they cared for each other. It was only 10:30 AM when she reached Santana's house but there were already tons of photographers in front of the house. Brittany parked a few streets away, took her camera and walked the rest of the way. She sat outside the house with everyone else. She needed pictures to give her boss, yet Miss Lopez had apparently decided to sleep in. Brittany had been waiting for half an hour, she was fed up and all she wanted was to go home and have lunch. But she had to pay the bills, and so she had to wait longer.

After about an hour, Santana finally came out, quickly followed by a young man, who caught everyone's attention, including Brittany's. The young woman was sure she recognized the guy, but she couldn't confront him now though she and the other paparazzi had gotten closer to try and catch a glimpse of the pair's conversation. Santana and the blond man shook hands before parting ways. The brunette kept a straight face as she headed to her car. Chocolate brown met ocean blue as Santana spotted Brittany in the crowd once again. The Latina smirked at the blonde. Brittany couldn't help but wonder what Santana wanted and why she was looking at her like that. There was no way Brittany was going to smile back, so she turned away and went back to her car. Santana was surprised by the blonde's indifference but made sure not to show it as she got into her car and drove away. Brittany was fuming by now. Who did Santana think she was? She got to the agency to drop the new candids and came out with a check with a couple of zeros on it, probably thanks to Santana's male friend. It was getting late. Brittany made a quick stop by the grocery store to grab something to eat and headed to the pub Sam had set the meeting at, mentally going through everything she wanted to ask him.