Special Abilities
Summer holidays are finally here; it's their last few months in Lima before going off to college, and Brittany and Santana plan on spending every moment of it together.
It's not like Santana's parents are here anyway, and the Pierces decided to take a small trip to Europe with Brittany's younger sister. Brittany preferred staying in Lima with Santana, and her parents trust them enough to leave them the house for two weeks; they say it's a good training for when they finally move into their own apartment in Los Angeles, in just a few months.
They spend the few first days in Brittany's bed, only getting up to eat something or get into the swimming pool for a swim or a hot make out session.
It's only on the fifth day that Santana decides to go shopping for groceries – they're running out of ice cream – while Brittany's on Skype with her parents.
When she comes back home one hour later, the house is completely silent.
"Britt, I'm back!" she yells.
No answer.
She thinks Brittany might have fallen asleep, and puts the new boxes of ice-cream in the freezer before going upstairs, heading for Brittany's bedroom. She's halfway through the stairs when she ears some muffled crying coming out of the room; she fastens her pace and practically runs to Brittany's bedroom. When she opens the door, she finds the blonde girl curled up on the floor, holding her knees and rocking back and forth, sobbing quietly.
"Brittany…" She whispers, before rushing to her, instantly wrapping her arms around her. Brittany surprisingly tenses at first, but then gives in into Santana's embrace and lets her hold her as she cries.
"Brittany, what's happening? Why are you crying?"
Brittany almost never cries, and the fact that she doesn't know why makes Santana's mind race. Brittany was totally fine when she left; now she's ghostly pale and shaking uncontrollably, sobs racking her body. Did something happen to her parents? Or to Lord Tubbington? Santana looks around the room and finds him laying on the bed, which makes her sight in relief. At least nothing happened to him.
Please, let it not be her parents.
"What's happening B?" she softly whispers in Brittany's ear. "Are your parents ok?"
Brittany nods softly before crying harder, and Santana cringes.
"San, I… I d-d-don't feel good…" Brittany whispers in a weak voice, and Santana realizes how hard she's shaking. She strengthens her grip on Brittany's body, and kisses her temple.
"Tell me what's wrong."
"I… I don't k-k-know… It h-h-hurts… It hurts too m-m-much…" As if echoing her words, Brittany's body convulses in pain, and she stops breathing for a second, her eyes shut.
"I'm going to call 911." Santana decides. She tries to wake up but Brittany clings to her, her eyes pleading her not to leave her even for a second. Santana feels helpless. She's not a doctor, and she knows she should call 911, but her phone is on the kitchen counter downstairs and she doesn't want to leave Brittany alone even for a minute. She holds Brittany tighter and kisses her temple. "I'm here Brittany. I'm not leaving you."
And that's only in this moment that she realizes something that makes her gasp. If Brittany looked pale before, now she almost looks translucent. It's like she's slowly fading away.
Is something like that even possible?
Brittany senses her tensing around her, and raises her head to look at her.
"San?" she quietly asks, her eyes worried and puffy from too much crying.
"It's ok, Britt." She answers, pulling her again into a hug. "I'm here." From the top of Brittany's head, her eyes widen with horror when she realizes that her girlfriend's hand is almost transparent now, and she can see the blue color of her jeans through it.
Oh please no. What the fuck is happening?
She definitely can't call 911 now.
It takes an infinite amount of endless minutes – even maybe hours – of unmeasured pain, uncontrollable shaking, desperate clinging to each other, countless tears from both of them, and a few songs from Santana for the pain to slowly go away.
Brittany finally relaxes in Santana's arms, her eyes still shut from the hardship she's just been through.
"It doesn't hurt anymore." She sights, her voice small.
When Santana doesn't answer, Brittany opens her eyes and looks at her, catching a terrified look from Santana that doesn't really focus on her face. It's like she's not really looking at her.
"San? You're ok?" she asks, worried.
Santana shakes her head, but her eyes are still not looking into hers when she talks.
"Brittany, I… I can't see you anymore." Santana finally says in a scared voice.
Brittany's eyes drop to her left hand, or at least to where it should be, but all she can see is Santana's hand gripping onto nothing. Just air. She gasps, and gets on her feet, running towards the bathroom with Santana's hand still in hers, while the other girl hardly trails behind her, trying to follow her without actually seeing her.
Brittany stops in front of the mirror, breathless. All she can see is Santana's reflection and the empty space besides her, where her own reflection should be. It's just too much to bear, and she starts crying again.
"I… I disappeared…" She cries. "I'm invisible San…"
Santana fumbles to find her and wraps her arms around her, holding her tightly against her. Even if her world is falling apart at the thought that she might never see Brittany again, she needs to be strong for both of them right now.
"We'll figure something out, B." she whispers softly. "We'll figure something out."
They decide they won't take life changing decisions tonight, and that they should go to bed. They fall asleep wrapped around each other, and in the dark Santana is grateful that she can't see the empty space besides her. She clings to Brittany like her life depends on it, figuring that as long as she can feel her body it means that she's still here, even if she can't see her.
Santana wakes up later that night, feeling worst than she has ever felt in her life. She feels like something is tearing her apart, twisting her, pulling at every side of her body like it's going to disintegrate into millions of pieces. Most of all she feels hot. Her skin is burning, her whole body feels like it's been lightened up on fire. Brittany is still sleeping quietly in her arms, her steady breathing breaking the silence of the room.
Santana needs to breathe. She slowly untangles herself from Brittany, trying not to wake her up from her deep slumber, and makes her way to the bathroom.
She closes the door and lights up the room, staring at her reflection in the mirror.
She's a mess. Her pupils are dilated, some strands of hair are sticking to her temple, and her whole body is covered in a thin layer of sweat. She comes close to the sink and tries splashing cold water over her face, but it's not enough. She's burning with fever, or something way worst that she still can't figure out yet.
She needs a way to cool off, and fast. She turns the shower on and slips out of her clothes and under the cold stream of water.
The cold water is a relief at first, but it doesn't last. Soon Santana feels the burning feeling come back again, and all she can do is sit into the bathtub, under the stream of cold water. She tries to turn it off, seeing that it's no use any more, but she can't muster the energy to move.
She just stays there, shivering in fever and convulsing in pain, feeling like she would rather die than continue to live through the pain and hell she's going through right now. It feels like her body is going to disintegrate.
She doesn't know how long she's been here before she hears the door creak open.
"San? Are you ok?"
Brittany has found her colors back again, and is now totally visible. Santana would almost sight in relief if the pain wasn't so intense. She can see her girlfriend's worried look through her blurry vision, but the pain is just too important for her to react.
"I… It hurts…" is the only answer she can get through her trembling lips.
Brittany makes her way to the shower, turns it off and gently pulls Santana's naked body out of the bathtub, frowning at how fast Santana seems to dry. The other girl whimpers in pain, and Brittany tries to soothe her as she helps her step into a tank top and some pajama shorts, before pulling her into a tight embrace in order to ease the pain, just like Santana did for her a few hours before.
"San, you're hot." She frowns as Santana's skin burns against hers.
"I… I know. You're hot too." Santana tries to joke weekly, but Brittany doesn't laugh.
"No, seriously Santana. You're burning."
Santana is so hot that she eventually has to pull away from her in order not to get burnt, even if she doesn't want to.
"I'm going to get you some meds for the fever, and try to find some ice to cool you off. I'll be back in a second."
3 minutes later, Brittany is climbing the stairs with a stack of icepacks, a glass of water and a few pills in hands when the deadly smell of burnt plastic comes to her nose. She drops all the items on the floor, not caring about the glass shattering into pieces, and runs the last few meters to the bathroom, scared for Santana's life.
When she enters the room, Santana is curled up in a ball in a corner, holding her knees into her arms, a horrified look on her face. Her eyes are fixed on the carbonized figure of Brittany's plastic duck, right in the middle of the room.
"San! San are you ok? What happened?"
Santana is shaking, and her eyes flicker quickly from the carbonized form to Brittany's worried face.
"I… I did this." She whispers as her dilated eyes fall again on the former duck. "I set fire to the duck with my fingers…"
Brittany runs to Santana's side, but the girl flinches and doesn't let her touch her.
"Don't… Don't touch me! I could hurt you, B…" Santana shouts, before breaking into sobs.
Brittany ignores her warning, and pulls her into a hug. Santana is still shaking, but her fever seems to have dropped and Brittany almost feels relieved.
"It's ok, Santana. We'll be ok." She softly whispers into her ear, kissing her temple and stroking her back.
Her eyes fall on the carbonized duck and she can't restrain a shiver.
What's happening to us?
It takes days of intense searching to try to understand what's happening to them. Days of comics reading, movie watching, internet searching, of X-Men and Fantastic Four and The Runaways to try to figure out what to do.
They send a group text to the other members of the Glee Club, saying that they're both sick and won't be able to attend any of the parties planned during the week that follows. They tell them not to visit them, that they're both highly contagious and don't want to risk making them sick too. Quinn texts them back telling them to recover fast, because a summer without her two best friends isn't a real summer. Mercedes wishes them a quick recovery, and Puck tells them that they can just tell them if they want to spend their whole summer having sex. But at least they don't have to worry about being disturbed any more.
They quickly learn how to control their newly found abilities. Santana learns how to set specific things on fire, and how to control the stream of flames coming out of her fingers. She also quickly learns how to control the temperature of her own body so that it doesn't burn Brittany when she touches her, or so that the swimming pool transforms into a boiling bubble bath when they want it to.
Brittany learns how to control the moments when she is or isn't visible, and how to make the things she touches invisible with her. Like her clothes, or even Santana.
They soon realize that whenever Santana starts to lose control of her power, when the tip of her fingers starts to become incandescent and she just can't stop it, Brittany just needs to look at her right in the eyes for her to come back to normal. Or that when Brittany uncontrollably disappears, Santana just needs to hold her very close for her to become visible again.
They're going to be ok.
They've only discovered their powers for 2 weeks when Brittany asks about the names.
"San, we should have super-hero names."
"What? Why?" Santana frowns.
"Because that's what people who have super-powers do."
"I don't know Britt. We're not really super-heroes…" Santana sights.
"Oh come on Santana! Please!" Brittany pleads, giving Santana that look she knows she can't resist. "Plus, even if we're not super-heroes yet, we might be someday..."
Santana looks at Brittany's adorable pout, and sights before smiling and kissing her softly on the lips.
"Ok. What's yours then? Any ideas?"
"Well, Super-Brittany is just too simple." Brittany frowns, thinking deeply.
"I like it, though." Santana says, kissing Brittany's cheek and slowly lowering her head to kiss Brittany's collarbone. "I think it suits you well."
"San, I'm trying to concentrate!" Brittany laughs as Santana's hands start to circle her waist.
"Ok. Then what about Invisible Girl?" Santana says, sitting straight and faking deep concentration.
"Already taken. I want it to be original." Brittany says, chewing on her bottom lip. "What about Lady Tubbington? Or maybe... Oh I know! The Unicorn!"
Santana laughs.
"Yeah, I like it. It's totally you."
"What about you?"
"I was thinking Snixxx."
"Isn't Snixxx like the bad part of you, though?" Brittany asks, worried.
"It's only the fiery part of me." Santana explains. "Which totally suits the fire that burns inside me, if you see what I mean."
She snaps her fingers and a small flame appears, proving her point. Brittany nods, before staring at Santana with a look the other girl knows way to well.
"Snixxx? I think The Unicorn is totally hot for you right now."
A few days later, when Quinn comes knocking on Brittany's door, shaking uncontrollably and her pupils dilated, they welcome her warmly.
"I… I don't feel good…" Quinn chokes, a fearful look on her face. "I didn't know wh-wh-where to g-g-go…"
They both look at each other knowingly and bring her inside, surrounding her and supporting her as the pain almost makes her collapse.
Maybe they're not the only ones with super powers in the end.