[Santana copes as best she can when the Pierce family; including Brittany's North Korean grandpa, come and stay with them.]
She padded deftly across the cold floor with the towel wrapped around her in that expert quiet way that always caught Brittany off guard; the steam billowed from the shower like a train engine and although she tried hard to temper the smirk that inched into her cheeks, determined to be at least a bit annoyed that there was never any hot water left for her in the morning, it did mean she got to start her day in her most favourite of ways.
"Morning," she pulled back the curtain with a grin and earned a little shriek.
"Santana!" Brittany rolled her eyes and picked up the sponge, "Quit scaring me like that!" she scolded her wife as she climbed in behind her.
"Sorry," she whispered with a rogue little smile and leaned in to kiss her shoulder, she wrapped her arms around her belly and pressed herself into the contours and sinews of her wife's back as the hot water woke her up and it was as blissful as the day could possibly get. "You excited about today?" Santana yawned and stole another kiss against Brittany's shoulder.
"Mmmm," Brittany made a thoughtful noise and stretched with the sponge to reach the spot on her back she could never quite reach, "A little."
"Liar." Santana chuckled and took the sponge out of her hand and lathered up the bit of skin between her shoulder blades, "Firstly, it's officially five days until Santa comes and secondly, we haven't seen your parents since they got back from travelling."
"Oooh, speaking of which have you thought about their invitation?" she turned to peer over her shoulder with those big blue puppy eyes that always melted and ebbed the Lima Heights Adjacent right back into the chasm of Santana's gut.
"Britt, we're not going on a family vacation to Afghanistan."
"—But it has such a vibrant culture!" she turned all the way around until they were face to face and the sight made the breath in Santana's throat catch, "You always said you wanted to travel before we start trying for a baby." Brittany pouted.
At that Santana laughed and shook her head, "Okay yes but, like, somewhere with a beach." she locked her fingers behind her wife's neck and caught a tiny wisp of hair in her finger's that had escaped her messy bun, "Ideally a country we're not at war with too." she hummed and moved her fingers up the backs of Brittany's thighs in that playful way that made her wife shiver but this time her hands were quickly swatted away. "Okay, no sex this morning then..." Santana quietly muttered.
"Okay, but, America has caused much of the global economic disparity and civil uprising witnessed in collapsing foreign nations so really—isn't every country secretly fighting a war with us?"
"It's too early in the morning for this." Santana blinked and pressed a kiss to her wife's lips with a little sigh, "I'm going to get dressed and get your parents from the airport, you need me to grab anything whilst I'm out?"
"Oh shoot! I forgot to tell you," Brittany huffed and clutched her brow in that way that made Santana's stomach tie itself knots with nervous anticipation. "Can you head over to the supermarket and grab some bean sprouts? Grandpa Kyung-soo is staying with us for two days before they repatriate him back to Pyongyang and he only eats egg rolls."
"Way too early in the morning for this!" Santana clutched her brow, "Next time your grandpa escapes the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for an impromptu visit and plans on crashing on my couch; give a girl some warning, okay?" she huffed and stormed down the corridor.
There was a comfortable silence between them whilst they got ready. It was an acquired thing. Santana brewed in the bedroom rubbing in her lotion and pulling on her jeans and stomping backwards and forwards for different bits of make up. Brittany hummed from the kitchen cooking breakfast and the sound vibrated through the apartment in that way that stopped Santana being mad for too long.
"You still angry?" Brittany finally poked her head around their door, "Made your favourite just in case." she nodded down to the plate of maple pancakes and bacon and smiled sweetly.
"Sorry," Santana flashed her a little apologetic look and sighed, shrugging her leather jacket on and grabbing her car keys. "You know I love your family." she moved and pressed a little kiss to her wife's cheek, "I shouldn't have been so mean."
"You weren't," Brittany rubbed her arm and cupped her cheek. "Besides last time you met Grandpa Kyung-soo—"
"We got banned from Sea World because he stole a ray fish from the touch and feel pool."
"I love it when we finish each other's sentences." Brittany leaned in and eskimo kissed her nose. Santana rolled her eyes and did her best to temper her smirk though there was no use.
"I gotta go if I'm going to head to the store and make it to the airport in time." she hummed and pressed her nose into the bit of Brittany's shoulder that inexplicably always smelled sweet.
"I'll have to think of a way to reward my kind, amazing, selfless wife before she get's home…"
"You know what Daddy likes," she murmured and earned a little giggle, before grabbing her butt. "Okay, okay, I gotta go!"
"I love you, Mrs Lopez." Brittany leaned on the door frame as Santana scooched past her.
"Love you too, Mrs Lopez." she blew her wife a kiss back.
…
The blustery winter winds of New York battered their apartment windows and rattled the glass, though nobody except for Lord Tubbington cared much, he sat on the ledge near the bookshelf and licked his paws and watched over the street below whilst everyone else bustled around each other in the kitchen reaching for plates and oven mitts and talking over one another.
"Stop being anti-social," Brittany whispered to her cat and gently shooed him off the ledge towards her family, though he only made it halfway to the island before flopping down in defeat. "That is the last time I let you eat cheese fries, sir." she muttered before stepping over him.
"Brittany! Your father's locked himself in the bathroom again!" Whitney hollered and narrowed her eyes at her phone screen, "He says the batteries in your back massager have ran out too."
Brittany pinched the bridge of her nose and breathed in a deep breath, "Mom, we don't have a back massager—"
"It's okay, I'll handle this." Santana rubbed her shoulders.
"Thank you," she mouthed at her wife as she disappeared down the hallway screwdriver in hand.
With that she joined the chaos in the kitchen and served up food on everyone's plates, stacking pans in the dishwasher and stirring the macaroni and cheese. It was blissful chaos. Steam billowed high from the pans on the oven top and immersed in this and her family was her favourite pass time.
"How are things with you and Santana?" her mom asked as she bit into an egg roll.
"Amazing… perfect." she sighed, "Wonderful even."
"Finally, does that mean I'll have some little grandbabies soon?" she bit her mouth hopefully.
"Brittany's pregnant?" Pierce stood in the doorway with his mouth hung open, "It makes so much sense now, I thought your butt was looking a lot bigger and around your—"
"Pierce, don't." Santana leaned in and warned him quietly.
"She's not pregnant, is she?" he said with a deflated tone and suddenly looked very guilty.
Grandpa Kyung-soo talked from his seat in the corner, eyes narrowed, gnarled finger pointing at his son in his own language though it was clear enough what he meant.
"Your father's right, Pierce, you can be such an idiot sometimes!" Whitney exasperated with hands that clutched air, "Go sit down and don't say another word. I'm sorry about that," she offered a little apologetic glance at her daughter.
"It's fine, right baby?" Santana saddled up and squeezed her.
"Mmhm," Brittany nodded. "Go sit down at the table Mom I'll bring everything over."
"For the record, I love your juicy patootie." Santana raised her brow and threw the dish rag over her shoulder, "Go sit down with your family babe, I'll bring the food out."
"You're the best, baby." she whispered in that quiet little soft voice and wrapped her arms around Santana's neck and held her tight.
…
"—And that, is how we helped bring down the ISIS encampment in the village!" Pierce grinned proudly and passed around the iPhone with a picture of himself holding an AK47 in his crocs and cargo pants.
"Sounds like you guys had a blast travelling." Santana said with a mouthful of potatoes in the side of her cheek before setting down her knife and fork.
"I've never been one for travelling, but I read that article in your fancy magazine about saying yes to every opportunity and when Pierce suggested a hiking vacation in Syria, I thought: Whitney! Now's your chance to try something new…" she nodded along and grinned.
"Why don't we every do anything exciting like that." Brittany nudged her arm.
Santana forced a smile and kept herself in check. Dusk had settled over the city and turned into night and Kyung-soo Pierce was already asleep and snoring in their recliner with his wrinkled bare feet stretched out on the ottoman. The finish line of the night was in sight and so she kept herself in the race.
"Well, babe, we do have some exciting news after all…" she cleared her throat.
"I knew it! Pregnant!" Pierce wagged his finger at his daughter.
"Shuttup." Whitney growled in his ear.
"Nobody's pregnant, not yet at least." Santana chuckled and bit her tongue, "Do you want to tell them or should I?" she peered at Brittany as she gathered everyone's empty plates to take back to the kitchen.
"Mom you're gonna be so happy!" Brittany scrunched her face in anticipation. "We're moving back to Ohio!"
"Oh! Honey!" Whitney jumped from her chair and bounced on the spot with Brittany in her arms as they dissolved into squeals. "The house next door is up for sale, you and Santana should put in an offer and then we can do this every night!" she gestured to the dinner table.
"Yay," Santana forced an uncomfortable little noise.
"How come you guys are moving back?" Pierce sat back in his chair.
"Well, the magazine has been doing really well this last year and I want to start working from home more," Santana sat a little taller and Brittany was quickly at her side to press a little proud kiss to her temple, "Plus we always said we'd come back to Lima when we're ready to have kids so, now seemed like a good time." she bit her lip and grinned.
"Does this mean—"
"No, dad!" Brittany rolled her eyes. "Still not pregnant."
"Working on it though." Santana winked.
"Oh! Your mom must be so excited too!" Whitney clasped her hands.
"She's the one who looked like Gloria Estefan, right?" Pierce whispered in her ear and received a little nod. "Good, I couldn't remember whether it was her or the woman in the tracksuit." he shook his head.
…
Santana laid collapsed out on the bed with her arms and legs far away from her body; the sounds of Grandpa Kyung-soo snoring from the living room radiated through the walls of their apartment but Brittany was moving around the room taking off her clothes to change for bed and somehow she didn't seem to mind, not even a tiny bit.
"Thank you for today, baby." Brittany crawled up the bed in her underwear and sat over Santana's hips. "You were my hero."
"Mmhm," Santana blushed and felt her eyes wander over the vast planes of her delicious body, right from the mole she loved so dearly that lived beside her bellybutton to the tiny scar on her hip she earned on the jungle gym when they were six years old. "One day our kids will have days like this when we come visit." she chuckled and Brittany grinned in turn.
"We'll be better behaved."
"Nuh-uh." Santana shook her head and wrapped her arms around the small of her wife's back, "As soon as I hit fifty that's it; I'm wearing a pair of chanclas and I'm playing dominos with my girlfriends and I'm never talking about anything other than our neighbours, telenovelas and my future grandchildren."
"You sound a lot like Grandpa Kyung-soo."
"Oh yeah," Santana nodded and brushed the tip of her nose against her wife's.
Brittany hands snaked up the lip of her t-shirt and glided over her skin, gently and reverently rubbing all the bits of her, "Good job you're only halfway to fifty." she hummed and leaned backwards until her butt was riding against Santana's hips.
It drove her wild as it always did, the way she moved, the way she felt, the way her shoulders dipped and her chin drove up and her thighs squeezed her sides.
"Yeah, means I've still got enough energy to do this." Santana purred and flipped her on her back.