Working at Disney World in Florida was, by far, the best job that Brittany Pierce had ever had. Of course, she hadn't had that many jobs, but this one was far above pretty much anything else available to her at the moment, and she wanted to work exactly where she was for as long as that was true. Brittany would have been happy just to be a cast member, working to give kids Mickey Mouse ice creams or sending families off to go on the Small World ride, but instead her job was even better than that.
Brittany Pierce got paid to be a Disney princess.
Really, was there any better work? All day long, Brittany got to pretend to be some of her favorite characters in beautiful dresses and make the dreams of all of these little kids come true by giving them time to interact with their favorite characters. Most of the time, she got to be Rapunzel, which was a lot of fun to play. Brittany loved the spunky, bright, interesting character that she got to be, and she loved seeing little girls come running up to her with these big grins and flowers stuck in their hair.
Recently, Brittany had also starting doing afternoon shows as Anna, when they used the tall girl who played Elsa, which was a different kind of awkward-but-adorable character. She loved all of the cheers that roared up from the crowd (or shrieked, since the most excited members tended to be under ten). It was a lot of fun, too, to be able to work with another girl so closely, since Rapunzel tended to be by herself or with Flynn.
Brittany even occasionally played Drizella, which was a different kind of challenge, trying to be bratty and mean without doing anything that would hurt any kid's feelings. Brittany didn't play her much, though, which was probably because of the number of times slightly older kids, those just old enough to realize that the park characters weren't real, told her that she was too pretty for Drizella.
In all, Disney World was really the best place that Brittany had ever worked, and two years, four months, and seventeen days in she was still more than thrilled to get up and go to work every day. She had a bunch of rules to keep it that way, and one of those rules was that she could have all of the friends that she wanted, but her dating life had to be kept strictly off the Disney campus. Brittany knew the handlers would work around feuds between exes, but she never wanted to be one of those people. Her job was too important to jeopardize for what would probably only be a little bit of bad sex that petered out into tedium.
There was only one person who had ever made her think twice about that rule.
About two months before Brittany's two year anniversary on the job, in the staging area behind the scenes, she walked past a girl carefully brushing blush onto the curve of her cheek. She was obviously new, because Brittany had seen just about everyone, or at least those who played the princesses or other similar face characters. She was beautiful, but Brittany was in a rush, so she didn't think thrice about her.
Not until a few days later, at least, when Brittany was on a special meet and greet in Epcot. There had been a surge of people looking to meet with Rapunzel, so the staff had decided to have her pop over to the International Gateway, close enough to transportation back to Magic Kingdom to be believable for the kids were on the edge of understanding, but far enough away to pull some of her demand into a less popular park. From her place, Brittany could look one way and see into the bustling streets of the United Kingdom, and occasionally hear snippets of the songs that the piano player was banging out, especially when the crowds joined in singing. On her other side, she could see into France, which was a much quieter and calmer area.
That was why the music surprised her enough to look up from the autograph that she was signing. Suddenly, the sounds of tambourines, accordions, and violins filled the air, and Brittany spotted a flash of purple and a glittering red scarf. She focused back on the autograph long enough to finish the last few letters and wave goodbye, but she couldn't help but look again to see what was going on. That was when Brittany finally saw her. It was the same girl from a few days before, that much was clear. She was dressed as Esmeralda in a long purple skirt and a large black wig, but somehow she moved like it was nothing. The way that her hips swayed to the beat of the music, the quick and sure movements of her body, it all drove Brittany crazy.
She had never identified with Frollo until she felt the visceral pull of watching this girl dance.
Brittany took several seconds to shake it off and focus back on the next family that had come to talk to her, but her performance was lacking the whole time she could hear the heavy beat of the music coming from France, and, eventually, she signaled to her handler that she needed to cut this meet and greet a little short and let herself be escorted away.
After a little asking around, she learned that the new girl's name was Santana. Brittany had to tell herself over and over again that Santana was a co-worker, technically, and she didn't date anyone who worked on campus. It was just asking for bad news and fights and a whole world of unprofessionalism. She just tried to steer clear of Santana as much as possible.
It never helped when she was put near Santana dancing as Esmeralda though, which happened four more times that week. Then, Santana started showing up near Brittany's appearances in Magic Kingdom, too. It was only once in a while, and she didn't dance on those visits, but it was still enough to pull Brittany's concentration.
It all still would have been okay, though, and Brittany probably would have gotten over it, except for the time that she had come to her locker after working a long day and seen Santana standing with a group of other girls who also played face characters. She could pick out a Wendy, still in full costume, and a Mary Poppins, as well as a few others. She was about to greet them when she heard her name. It became pretty clear, a moment later, that Santana was making fun of her, going on about some of the antics that she got into with kids. Brittany was pretty sure that she heard the word "childish". For a moment, she was hurt and upset, but then she just felt indignant. After all, this was Disney World, one of the places where being able to engage with children at their level and play along was something that was celebrated, and if these girls weren't doing that, they weren't going to last long anyway.
After that, Brittany was a little disappointed to find that she still found Santana so hot, but her anger didn't cancel out Santana's attractiveness. Still, professional as she tried to be, Brittany was one to dish as good as she got in her own way, and it wasn't long until they'd had a handful of fairly loud spats in various staging areas, and then, regardless of the fact that they hadn't dated, they were put on the list of people who couldn't be scheduled in the same place at the same time.
Brittany wasn't sure that it really affected her all that much, because she pretty much still showed up at the same places and at the same times, but there were no more Epcot visits and no more Esmeralda meet and greets near her.
Honestly, she was glad about it.
And now, six months after their first meeting, Brittany only saw Santana backstage when they could send each other a biting comment, or in her mind at home, when she tried again to convince herself to stop being attracted to Santana.
Santana's number one goal for her time at Walt Disney World was to avoid getting in trouble as much as possible. She knew, when she was applying and auditioning for roles, that the rules were extensive and strictly enforced. She had probably spent more time pouring over the material that they had given her covering their policies than she had the movie to learn Esmeralda's character.
The end result was that she could quote the rulebook as well as she could quote The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Santana had loved Disney since she was a little girl. She had watched the movies over and over, danced around her room in her dress up clothes singing the songs, wallpapered her room in posters. Even when she got older and had to start dropping her childish things to try to fit in, Santana still spent many of her evening curled up with Disney films. They were the things that made her feel better whenever things were bad in her life, even when she finally allowed herself to wish for a movie where the girl fell in love with the beautiful princess.
It had been kind a long shot, getting this job, though, and Santana wanted to do everything in her power to keep it. The problem was that there weren't that many brown girls in Disney films. She had the choices of Esmeralda—a character who rarely appeared now—Jasmine, and Pocahontas. Technically, she was too short to be Esmeralda, but that was what they had asked her to try out for, so Santana hadn't even mentioned it.
And the truth was, none of her three options were close to what Santana really was. As she put on her make up or danced in Epcot, Santana's heart always ached a little know that she was playing a Romani character, and that if she got a chance to move up the character hierarchy, it would be to a Native American or Arabian princess.
Still, even with her moments of insecurity and heartache, Santana still loved being there. There was happiness in the air, and it was easy sometimes to believe that magic really happened. Esmeralda was only a part time position, and a pretty low ranking one at that, but Santana hoped that if she showed how hard she could work and how strictly she could follow the rules, she would be moved up soon.
That was why it made her so upset to realize that she had been put on the list of people who could not work together with Brittany. It didn't bode well for her if she was labeled difficult. After all, between perfect Brittany who already played three characters flawlessly, and semi-new Santana who came three days a week to play a character that most people didn't care much about, Santana knew exactly who would be the first person out on her ass.
Santana also knew that it was probably at least a little bit her fault that she was in this ongoing fight with Brittany. There were many times when Santana had led off their arguments by making the first nasty comment. But Brittany had really started the whole thing. She had been aloof and cold, probably all wrapped up in her princess life, working as the top tier and knowing it. It was like being back in high school, more than anyone else had probably realized.
When she was in high school, Santana had fallen for the head cheerleader, a bright and bubbly blonde, the type of girl who could lead a cheerleading squad to victory, win the state tennis tournament, and rank in the school's academic top ten, year after year. No matter how hard Santana tried, she couldn't shake her crush and she couldn't climb to the top of that ladder. She was always second-best, watching from the shadows as the girl that she loved dated football players and tennis stars and valedictorians, and every time, ended up crying to Santana after her heart was broken.
Disney was supposed to be her escape from all of that, so when she met bright, bubbly Brittany, who could play any character they threw at her and had some of the best rapport with kids that Santana had ever seen, it was frightening to realize that she might fall back into the same pattern of longing.
And Brittany also represented some pretty huge parts of the job that were the most painful and unpleasant for Santana. Brittany already held three character positions. If she wanted to, she could keep going and add another ten or more characters to her repartee without having to bend any casting guidelines. Santana was struggling to just hold onto one, and she had a lot of competition, with so few roles for girls who looked like her.
But Disney had always given her hope and something to focus on when everything else was hard, so every day Santana squared her shoulders, smiled for whatever pictures she was asked for, and hoped and hoped and hoped.
Brittany sighed in relief as the door closed behind her, and cooling blast of the air conditioning rushed over her. Brittany went so far as to gather up the long lilac skirt of her dress to let the air get to her legs better. It was one of those sweltering days, where the heat lay thick over everything, and Brittany had just spent almost two hours out in the sun, the first at a meet and greet outside and the second in a parade, with only a brief water break between the two. At least, she thought, the extra time in the sun would bring out the freckles that would help with both Rapunzel and Anna.
Brittany had started work before the park opened that morning, at a special character breakfast for the truly rich and famous, so she was getting off in the mid afternoon, which was a very quiet time backstage. Almost all of the people who were working were out at this moment, at a meet and greet or doing a parade or show. It was a relief to have a quiet minute, after all of the noise from the past few hours. No matter how much she loved her job, the heat and the noise and the wig gave her a headache on days as hot as this one.
Since there was no one else around, the woman in charge of Brittany's Rapunzel wig was available right away to get her out of it and only a few minutes later, she was scratching her fingers through her own blonde hair.
Brittany headed back to the lockers, so she could change out of her costume, but before she could pull anything off, she was surprised to see Santana sitting on the bench, her shoulders slumped low. Brittany braced herself for some vicious words, knowing that as hot and sticky as she was, she was going to say something really terrible back, even if she didn't mean it. But they didn't come. Santana barely glanced up.
With her eyes on Santana, Brittany reached into her locker and pulled out her shorts and shirt. She slid the shorts up her legs under her dress, waiting still for the snark. But it still didn't come, and Brittany's curiosity got the better of her.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
Santana looked up, a little startled. After a moment, she answered, "Do you actually care? I mean, you hate me." There was an edge to her voice, but Brittany could see something in her eyes, a flicker of some sort of hope, maybe.
"I don't hate you," Brittany protested. "I've never hated you. I just don't get hit without hitting back. Only not really, because I don't like violence. But with words, yeah."
Santana stared and then shook her head. "But if you don't hate me, then why were you so mean to me when I first started?"
Brittany suddenly felt very warm in her dress, even with all of the air conditioning. "Uh, hang on," she said, wiggling for a few moments, with her hands behind her back, until she got the zipper down and the sleeves off her arms. She threw the dress over a chair so it wouldn't wrinkle or get dirty and shrugged on her t-shirt. After a moment of hesitation, Brittany sat down on the bench with Santana. "I wasn't trying to be mean. I was trying to—" Brittany shrugged, not totally sure how to say it. "I wanted to keep my distance from you because I have this rule about not dating anyone who works here, and you were the first person I wanted to break that rule for. I couldn't concentrate whenever I saw you. I hoped that if I ignored you, it would go away, and it didn't. And then we argued all the time, anyway." Brittany shrugged.
"And you stopped," Santana took a breath, "wanting to break that rule? Because we argued."
Brittany looked at Santana. Her eyes were so deep and brown, and she didn't think she'd even been so close before, close enough to see the curve of her eyelashes and the tiny scar under her lip, unnoticeable until she was inches away. "I did not," Brittany whispered.
Santana let out a shaky breath and broke eye contact, looking down into her lap. "I was asked to start doing Jasmine in the show in a few weeks, and I wanted it so bad. I've wanted to play her since I auditioned the first time. It would be a full time position, instead of just part time. And it's not— I wish I could play someone who was like me, but at least Jasmine looks a little more like me. And all of the little girls that I would get to inspire and make them feel good because someone who looked like them was a princess. But—" Santana shook her head, and held out her phone. Brittany took it and looked at the screen, where there was a picture of an elephant.
"They want me to start with a show that uses a live elephant. Apparently, she loves to perform or something like that, but I'm terrified. I can't— I can't be Jasmine around an elephant. I'm not sure I can even be Santana around an elephant." Santana began to wring her hands.
Brittany looked up from the phone. "Is this Makemba? Is she in Animal Kingdom now?"
Santana looked startled again, but nodded. "I think that's what they said."
"Then, you don't have to worry," Brittany said with a grin. "Makemba and I are total buds."
"Wha— How?" Santana asked.
"Well, when I first started I was only Rapunzel part time, so I did a little bit of time in Animal Kingdom, too. I made friends with one of the animal specialist guys, and he let me tag along with a lot of his duties during my breaks. Makemba loves bananas, and I started bringing her one, so now we're friends." Brittany used Santana's phone to check the time and grinned again, handing it back to Santana. "You're off for now, right? Let's go meet her."
The walk to Animal Kingdom was actually a lot easier than Santana thought it was going to be. Brittany turned out to be really funny, which Santana probably would have realized earlier if all of her jokes for the last six months hadn't been at Santana's expense. Brittany kept her laughing most of the way, and the rest of it was spent learning Makemba's story, how she had been rescued from a circus that had been shut down, how she had been kept there since she was a baby and couldn't go back to life in the wild. Santana learned about how she got along with the other elephants at Disney World, but loved human contact and showing off, too. It wasn't until they were actually approaching the keepers' area that Santana felt her heart start to thump in her ribcage.
A floppy haired guy with a big mouth let them in, and if Brittany wasn't doing a really nice thing for her, Santana probably would have made fun of him. She only just barely caught back her golden retriever comment, especially when she was suddenly standing behind this absolutely tiny split rail style fence that was no where near big enough to stop an elephant, which was totally ridiculous, because then what was the goddamn point of a fence?
"Makemba, Brittany is here!" the goofy looking frog guy called. Brittany stepped up to the fence, actually standing on the bottom most rail to lift her body higher. Heavy footsteps followed, and an elephant came hurrying up to the fence. Santana shrunk back, but Brittany reached her arm out and rubbed Makemba's trunk before handing her a banana.
"I have someone I want to introduce you to, Makemba," Brittany said, still rubbing over the elephant's trunk as she sniffed over Brittany. Santana reluctantly inched forward until she was just out of Makemba's reach, her heart thumping so hard in her chest that it was hard to hear anything else. She could vaguely hear Brittany talking about Jasmine and the show and something else, but mostly, Santana could just see how huge Makemba's feet were and how strong her muscles were and how easy it would be for her to hurt them both.
Suddenly, she felt a warm weight against her whole back, and Santana let out a squeak of fear, before realizing that Brittany had moved behind her. Brittany wasn't quite hugging Santana, just pressing herself gently against her, for support and comfort. "Makemba won't hurt you. I promise. I'll keep you safe." Brittany paused for a second and then added, "Do you trust me?" Santana could hear the grin in Brittany's voice.
"What?" she asked, breathlessly, waiting to see if Brittany was really—
"Do you trust me?" Brittany repeated.
"Yes," Santana said, her heart slowing a little. Crazy as it was, she did trust Brittany, silly quotes aside. Brittany slowly walked them forward until they were almost at the fence. Then she pressed a banana into Santana's hand.
"Go ahead," she urged.
Santana slowly reached out her hand, startling for a moment as Makemba's trunk sniffed over her hand. Brittany ran a hand down her side, and Santana settled again. Makemba's trunk was warm and soft and a little wet. It tickled when she finally found the banana and grabbed it away, but tickled even more when she came back to sniff around Santana, looking for more. Santana couldn't help but giggle. Makemba was so gentle for such a huge animal.
Santana spent a little more time with Makemba, feeding her a few more bananas and losing that heart-stopping terror. She was still nervous but it was manageable, and a lot of it had to do with Brittany.
"Hey, Britt?" Santana said on their walk back.
"Yeah," Brittany said, turning to look at Santana.
"You said you had a rule about not dating people who worked at Disney World, right?" Brittany nodded, and Santana felt her heart thumping just as hard as when she had approached the elephant pen. "How do you feel about that rule now?"
Brittany got a far off smile on her face, like she could barely hold what she was feeling. "I think that I'd consider bending that rule for a special someone."
Santana paused and then asked softly, "For me?"
Brittany laughed and stopped walking. She reached out and tucked a piece of Santana's hair behind her ear. "Yes, of course. For you and only you."
Santana breathed a sigh of relief, her deep dimple smile bubbling to the surface. "Okay, good," she said, "I'd like that."
"Me, too," Brittany laughed. She cupped Santana's cheek and took a step closer. Santana held her breath.
And then, in the Happiest Place on Earth, Brittany kissed Santana.
(And they lived happily ever after.)