Ficlet: Exhilaration
Pairing: Brittana, brief New Directions and Finchel
Spoilers: none (loosely based off 3x15)
Rating: T
Word Count: 1400+
Summary: Senior cut Day, Santana's afraid of rollercoasters .
Disc: I own nothing.
"…Don't stop believing
Hold on to that feeling,
Streetlights, People…"
The New Directions end the song clapping and cheering loudly. "I think that's enough Journey for this bus ride" Tina follows, she's with Mike who's not too occupied with his phone to chime in, "We should sing something from Footloose!"
"Okay okay, I say enough with the singing. We do enough of that on a daily basis, we don't need to spend our senior cut day rehearsing too." Santana objects from the back of the bus where she's sitting with Brittany.
"Yea, for once I agree with Lopez. Let us take a break Berry" Puck adds from his seat . He's seated at a weird angle and keeps peeking over to the back.
"Puck, as much as I appreciate you agreeing with me, I will ends you if you don't stop staring at my girl BrittBritt here." At the sound of her name, Brittany lifts her head from where she was nuzzling Santana's neck. She blushes when she realizes the mark she's left and quickly puts her head back down on her girlfriend's shoulder so maybe no one will notice.
"Guys, I understand you want to take some time off but I just thought that if we're going to sing one last song at graduation it has to be perfect." Rachel replies to everyone on the bus. She peers over the top of her seat, Mike and Tina are sitting close and staring at a phone, Rory and Sugar are resting their heads on each other sleeping . Sam and Mercedes are having some sort of silent tickle fight; Puck is straining his neck to look over at Brittany and Santana who're at the secluded back with their heads bowed down. Everyone's in their own little world and Rachel decides to cut them some slack. She turns her attention to Finn who's next to her playing Draw Something on his iPhone.
"You call that a radio?" Mike Chang yells to seemingly no one in particular. "It looks like a penguin on leash" Finn turns around "Hey, I told you I'm still figuring out how to play this game!" Deciding to ignore the pointless banter, Rachel takes her phone out . She's about to text Quinn to ask how her special cut day is going but she was reminded of what happened the last time she texted Quinn and so she stopped herself. Not wanting to get over-emotional again, she instead chose to finish the game of Words with Friends she started earlier with her Dads.
"Damn it, Puck! Turn the hell around !"
"What? No one's looking at you Lopez, stop being so damn bossy. What are you hiding back there anyway? Don't think I don't remember what you like to do on long bus rides" he tells her with a smirk as he finally looks away. Brittany's quick to hold the brunette back who had gotten up threatening the mohawked boy with a slur of Spanish words she didn't need to understand to know she probably shouldn't let Santana go. " San, don't worry . He can't really know what we're doing, or how talented you are with your hands even though we've gone over like a gazillion bumps on the road" Brittany giggles . Santana's anger quickly melts at the sound of her girlfriend's laugh. She's so whipped . She sighs and sits back down, making a mental note to remind Puck of just exactly what she could do to his man parts. "Okay BrittBritt, we've done numbers 1, 2, 3,49, 56, and 93. Which do you want to do next?"
"Are we talking sex positions here?" Puck interrupts and this time it's Brittany who quiets him and forces him to turn around using her specially reserved death glare. Santana was too distracted by this temporarily angry Britt to even get mad at Puck again and she places a sweet kiss on the girl's cheek and asks again, "So which one Britt?"
"Let's do the one on page 64! The Unicorn" they flip to the page. Santana takes a green crayon out of the deluxe sized box smushed between her thighs and Brittany takes a pink one . They work together to color in the picture as they've been doing with the coloring book the entire bus ride. After a couple of adorable minutes of playfully criticizing each other's coloring skills, Brittany asks "Are you still nervous about the roller coasters, San?"
"...a little" Santana responds honestly. Ever since she and her brother got stuck on the Superman ride for two whole days with nothing but a slushee to keep them company, she's never really been a big fan . Brittany pauses her hard work at what's sure to be the world's greatest masterpiece and meets her eyes with those chocolatey brown ones she loves so much. She sees the worry tugging slightly and she just wants to make it better so she leans in and gently presses her lips to Santana's. It's sweet, deliberate, full of affection and it makes Santana's eyes flutter close for a moment.
"Don't worry. I'll be next to you the whole time. You can squeeze my hand as tight as you want, okay?" Brittany takes her hand and squeezes it gently. Times like these Santana almost couldn't believe this adorable blonde was all hers.
They get through coloring 2 other pictures before they finally arrive at Six flags . Everyone gets off the bus yelling excitedly and Santana gets up to follow suit but she's held back by strong arms hugging her from behind at the waist. She turns around and is peppered by kisses. On her cheek, then the other, near her ear, the tip of her nose and lastly, Brittany places a lingering kiss on her forehead.
"Don't be scared, okay? I promise I won't let anything happen to you today."
Once inside the amusement park , everyone decides to tackle the biggest rides first . Unfortunately for Santana, that meant having to ride one of the most terrifying roller coasters. Brittany was there by her side the whole time holding her hand so she wanted to finally conquer this fear. There was no better time to do it than then and there. She was Santana Lopez for Christ's sake, she should be able to handle a little bit of height. As they approached the front of the line, Santana's nerves kicked in again. "We're gonna die. Oh god. Britt why are we doing this? We're too young to die. I want to get my life with you, Britt" Brittany couldn't help but laugh; she pulls her girlfriend into a tight hug and simply reiterates what she's been saying the whole bus ride and twenty minutes they've been on the line.
"I'm not letting anything happen to you , San. Anyway, after everything you've been through? This should be easy peasy for you Ms. Lima Heights. If we get stuck , I already told the stork to come by and rescue us. "
They're sitting in the rollercoaster and once the braces fall over them to ensure they don't go flying out of the cart, the full reality of what they're about to experience hits Santana . "We're gonna die." she repeats. She looks to her right, Brittany is holding out her hand and she takes it, squeezing it for dear life. She holds her breath as the coaster begins moving forward. She's ready, she's ready for this. She can do it.
Tock-tock-tock-tock
They reached the top of their first big drop and Santana only closes her eyes and is engulfed by the bliss and cool air, the yells of her classmates around her, and the one thing keeping her from screaming her head off. Brittany's hand . They turn to look at each other and it's as if nothing else matters, it's just them two and they automatically know everything's going to be alright. All too soon Santana feels the gravity take them down with such speed the butterflies in her stomach have butterflies. It's incredible and amazing and she almost cries from how happy she feels. The wind is whipping at her face and is making her numb but all the while she feels Brittany's hand in hers, as promised. They went around the track twice and by the end Santana had loosened up enough to let herself open her eyes and enjoy the rest of the thrilling experience. When everyone got off, they were filled with such exhilaration and elation they got on line for the next biggest ride with no hesitation.
"San, we don't have to go on if you don't want to . I understand."
"What are you kidding, and miss a chance to feel like that again? No way. " Santana replies and she takes a Brittany by the hand and pulls her along behind the rest of the glee club. She's surprised at first but she catches up and lets herself be dragged to the next ride over. Santana turns around and captures her girlfriend's lips in a kiss so soft and so happy, for a moment they forget where they stood. When they pull apart, San just looks into those mesmerizing blue eyes and whispers, "Thank you."
"I love you." Brittany replied with a silly smile plastered on her face. And they stand on the line arm in arm, though they know perfectly well they don't need to be on a rollercoaster to feel that blissful sensation all over again.