Short One-Shot
Disclaimer: I own nothing. None of these characters are mine. I wish they were. I'd treat them way better than the one that actually owns them. We'd all live in Happyville. Sadly I can only borrow them.
"Lopez."
"Pierce."
"Lopez!"
"Pierce!"
The couple had been having this argument from the moment Brittany said yes to Santana's proposal six months ago. Now their wedding was a mere two days away, and they still had not agreed upon whose last name they were taking.
Brittany had tried playing dirty. Withholding sex from Santana was always a sure fire way of getting what she wanted. Of course that was a double edged sword because denying Santana was denying herself, and she never could get enough of Santana. It was especially bad when Santana was extra stubborn and held out longer than she anticipated.
Santana also tried her own tricks. Buying Lord Tubbington a new wardrobe, wearing her tightest, shortest dresses around the apartment, but nothing. Neither women fell for the others manipulations, and now here they were, making the last preparations for their big day, and still no resolution to the most important decision.
"Why don't you guys just hyphenate your names and be done with it?" Mercedes chimed in from her place on the couch. She had witnessed more than one of these arguments, but this was the first time she had offered a suggestion because seriously, they needed to get their shit together.
"I'm sorry, is your name Mercedes Jones-Evans?" Santana snapped, turning her attention to a new target. Mercedes looked away from the irate Latina, sorry she had said anything in the first place. Santana always was feisty, and usually Mercedes gave as good as she got, but this was one argument she wasn't going to get into with the other woman. It wasn't her business anyway. She was only a bridesmaid after all.
"Or you could merge them. Lopierce sounds awesome" said Sugar in her eternal optimism. Mercedes surreptitiously tried to shake her head in the girl's direction, but as usual she was off in her own world, oblivious to the fiery brown eyes now glaring at her. Seeing the spaced out look on Sugar's face however, Santana simply scoffed and turned back to Brittany, intent on resuming their "conversation". Brittany had other ideas.
"Quinn!" she exclaimed, turning in the other blondes direction. She could have sworn she heard a "Damnit" but she couldn't be sure. "What do you think?" she asked, when the other woman reluctantly looked at her.
"I think this is something you two need to figure out for yourselves considering it's the decision of a lifetime" she answered primly, mentally congratulating herself on such a diplomatic answer.
"Well if you both want my opinion, I think it all depends on who the dominant one in the relationship is. The top you could say. I think it's pretty obvious that it's Santana, and therefore it's only fitting that Lopez be the name agreed upon." Rachel intervened, feeling pretty confident that once again, she had solved a major problem.
The smile fell from her lips when she saw Quinn struggling to contain what was obviously a laugh. Looking towards Mercedes in confusion, she saw that she had a pitying smile on her face. Even sugar had joined them back on earth and was staring at her open mouthed. Thinking she had unintentionally insulted the couple, she chanced a glance in their direction. Her confusion increased when she saw the serene smile on Brittany's face, and Santana shifting awkwardly, and upon closer inspection, red faced. She had no idea what she said wrong or funny for that matter.
"Tina, do you have an unwanted opinion to add to everyone else's?" Santana turned to the only quiet occupant in the room, having recovered her wits.
"Nope." Tina said simply, smiling in her friend's direction.
"And that's why you're the only one I like." said Santana with an approving smile at the Asian woman.
"Look it's getting late, we should go," Mercedes said, getting to her feet. "Tomorrow is the last day to sort this out you two. I don't want to be standing next to you when the Justice asks you for the name you chose and you still don't know."
"I agree with Mercedes. Work it out. Tonight preferably." Quinn said, following the other four girls heading out the door.
"Bye girls, thanks for all the help" Brittany waved with a grateful smile. Santana simply glared and mumbled "good riddance".
After the door closed, Brittany turned to her fiancée. Even in her grumpy mood, she couldn't help but notice how beautiful the other woman was. She had always been very easy on the eyes, but as each year passed, she seemed to get even more beautiful if that was possible. Theirs was a love that had seen many obstacles. There was the usual high school drama, then Santana's personal struggles with coming out. Also, the strain on their relationship when Santana had gone off to college, but Brittany had to repeat her senior year, had resulted in their "unofficial" break up as Santana would insist. Inevitably, they always found their way back to each other.
She would never forget the night she had come home after cheering on their school's football team to victory. High on the team's win, the players and cheerleaders had all decided to go to Breadstix to celebrate, but Brittany wasn't feeling it so she decided to head home and watch Friends reruns with Lord T. She remembered walking up her driveway, and seeing Santana sitting on her doorstep, staring at her with a look Brittany could only describe as fearful. She briefly wondered what the other girl could possibly be afraid of. Sitting next to her Brittany had smiled hoping to put her at ease.
"Hi. Are you visiting your parents for the weekend again?" she had asked, because Santana had made a point to visit her family at least one weekend every month.
"No. Actually, yes. But that's not the main reason I'm here." Brittany could hear the nervousness in the other girl's voice.
"Oh? Is everything alright?" she asked in concern, noticing how fidgety Santana was.
"No everything is horrible actually." The brunette said softly, looking anywhere but at Brittany.
"San what's wrong? Is it school?"She asked, trying to get the other girl to talk.
"Partly" Santana answered, finally looking into the blondes eyes.
"What happened?"
"I'm an idiot. A selfish idiot. I came here a few months ago and ruined everything. I sang that stupid song and broke your heart. The thing is, I thought I was doing you a favor by setting you free. That night at Breadstix, I saw how unhappy you were and I thought the only way to fix that was to let you go. Let you be happy since I wasn't doing that anymore. I thought we needed space and time to grow up, to see what's out there, but the truth is I've been miserable. There hasn't been a day that goes by that I don't miss your smile, the sound of your voice, the beautiful way you taught me to see the world. I miss everything about. I know I have no right to say this after what I did, but I couldn't go another day without letting you know how I feel. I don't expect you to just forgive me Brit, but I-", the Latina was suddenly cut off by the press of soft lips against hers.
Brittany knew she shouldn't have forgiven Santana so easily, because the other girl had really broken her heart. But as usual, it takes Santana a while to realize when she's being an idiot. Truthfully Brittany had been close to driving up to Louisville and, well she wasn't really sure what she would have done, but she knew she had to at least try to get her girl back. So the fact that Santana was there in her arms, that was the only thing that mattered to her.
Now five years later, here they were in New York City pursuing their dreams together. Santana had surprised everyone when she had turned down the chance to go to Nyada and instead, had chosen to follow in her father's footsteps in becoming a doctor. If Santana's decision was surprising, then Brittany's had practically given everyone a heart attack. Instead of pursuing dance like Mike Chang, which everyone except Santana had expected and secretly thought was the only thing she could do, Brittany revealed her love of journalism.
Santana, despite what everyone including her parents thought, did not go to New York right away. She stayed in Lima to do things the right way, as she had lovingly informed Brittany. She helped Brittany study for her classes, making sure she understood everything on her own, sometimes translating the really hard topics into Brittanese as she had jokingly called it. Everyone was surprised when Brittany joined the school's journalism team, but as a serious journalist this time. She had done an amazing job of making the news more mainstream and less gossipy like JBI's blogs. She was pleasantly surprised one day when Coach Sylvester had called her into her office, and after congratulating her on her improved grades and overall commitment to bettering herself, had given her letter of recommendation to any college she was interested in. Both she and Santana had applied to NYU and both had gotten in, Brittany in Journalism and Santana in Pre Med. After Brittany graduated, they had packed their bags and had set off to New York on what Brittany had dubbed their Next Great Adventure. Brittany loved her new life, she loved her job as an assistant editor at the New York Times, but most of all she loved this stubborn, gorgeous woman who was just hours away from becoming her wife.
Smiling softly, she approached the brunette who was trying her best to stay annoyed. The subtle twitch on her lips gave away the smile she was fighting though. Gathering the smaller woman into her arms, the blonde pressed their foreheads together.
"I'm tired of arguing about this. The girls are right, we need to figure this out before Saturday." Brittany said softly.
"I know babe. I don't know why I'm being so difficult. I didn't even realize it would be such an issue until you said what you did. You know, that you couldn't wait to be Mrs. Brittany Lopez." The brunette replied, just as softly.
"I'm sorry. I guess I just took for granted it would be what we both wanted."
Sighing, the smaller woman pulled away slightly. "Look B, if it really means so much to you then I don't mind keeping my name. I just figured that since your name was already out there, and that's what everyone knows you as, you'd want us to use it instead." Santana said.
"San, the only thing I care about is becoming your wife. I don't care if we dropped both last names. I've been waiting for this moment ever since we were eight and we watched Titanic. I remember thinking I would totally be Jack and you would be Rose because there was no way in hell I'd ever let anything happen to you. I didn't realize it then, but I'm pretty sure that's when I became completely yours. Now I just want to stand next to you on Saturday and be pronounced your wife, so that everyone can know it too." The blonde said lovingly.
Hearing those words Santana melted. Brittany always did have a way of saying the most romantic things as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. At that moment she felt a surge of love for this woman who had put up with her for all these years, through all her fears and doubts and anger. Through all her failures and success. Basically this woman had walked through hell with her, and had not once let go of her hand.
"I can't wait to marry you." She said simply, before pulling the other woman into her for a kiss that contained all the love and gratitude she felt.
Pulling away, Brittany smiled at her fiancée. "We'll definitely figure it out before the big day, but for now I want to skip all that, and give you a preview of what to expect on our honeymoon."
Santana smirked at hearing this. As the blonde pulled her towards the bedroom she heard a wicked chuckle. "If you play your cards right, I might even let you be on top this time." She said, as both suddenly remembered Rachel's earlier remarks. Santana blushed again as Brittany continued to laugh.
A/N: Ok I think I rushed the ending a bit. I think. I started writing this a few weeks ago, when Glee was making an ass of itself and all my favorite fics weren't being updated cos whole fandom was depressed. Then I stopped cos I was depressed as well. But now there are lots of updates and I'm losing interest in my own stuff, but I figured I'd finish this one because I liked the idea, hence the rush. Still hope you guys like it though. Reviews and critiques are always welcomed.