So, it's autumn here in the English countryside and I cannot even begin to describe to you how excited I am about this. Everything's turning orange and people are starting to sell pumpkins on the doorsteps of their little shops and I keep squealing every time I wake up and it's frosty outside. There's also this really magical place that I live close to that inspired this little one-shot. Plus, I listened to Ronan Keating's song The One You Love and he talks about a sunrise and I was just like, so bouncy about it being Autumn that this small Brittana-ness was born.
Enjoy x
"Come away with me."
"What?"
"Come away with me."
"San, what do you mean? Come away wh-"
"I wanna go away with you."
"I haven't got any money and Dad's taken my car to the city with him, I-"
"I'll pick you up in five, baby."
The phone clicked off and the line started buzzing in her ear. She stared at it for a good solid minute as it lay cradled in her palm and wondered why on earth her girlfriend was calling her at 3am to go away with her. Brittany didn't even want to go away, especially when it was Santana's reading week and she'd be going back to Louisville soon. She needed to stay here in Lima and not run away with her girlfriend, because she needed to graduate so she could join her.
They needed to be in New York together.
(Although running away with Santana feels like the most important thing she could ever do.)
She tried to call the brunette back but she didn't pick up and so Brittany assumed it because she really was on her way to her house.
At 3am in the morning.
To go away somewhere.
Somewhere. Where was somewhere? Santana hadn't mentioned anywhere. What if she had tickets for flights to, like, Antarctica and she was planning on them lodging with a family of penguins for the rest of their lives?
(She likes that she feels this would be the best plan she's ever thought of.)
You can't even fly to Antarctica anyway.
Brittany placed the phone back on the holder and sat on the landing floor for a while. Having a room in the loft of her house with a separate phone line meant even when her cell got confiscated by her parents, Santana could still call her and they could still chat about everything and nothing for hours and hours and hours.
And hours.
Brittany giggled. She loved talking to Santana for hours.
Hours were her favourite thing. They were better than minutes, because they let you take things in your own time, without a deadline or a rush. They were better than seconds, because when you wanted to listen to someone (Santana's) voice, you could listen to it without waiting for it to stop.
And they were better than days, because days were the thing that kept her and Santana apart.
She glanced over at the city clock on her wall and realised Santana would be there in a minute or too. She had said five minutes after all.
When her girlfriend had asked told to come away with her, she hadn't told her what to wear. So Brittany stared at the mess around her – the mountains of worn clothes and the oceans of dirty socks scattered over every inch of her floor – and sighed with irritation. She had nothing clean.
She was still sighing with irritation when she heard the click of the window catch slip open on the opposite side of her bedroom. As she usually did, Brittany skipped across her floor and pulled open the window before her girlfriend even had a chance to undo it.
"San," She breathed, pressing her lips to the cold ones in front of her. "You're freezing,"
Santana giggled and clutched onto Brittany tighter. "Then let me in."
Brittany grinned as she helped Santana crawl through the gap in the window and hugged her closely when they reached the other side. She didn't want to let go because letting go meant losing another precious second with her girlfriend.
She really hated seconds.
"Baby, you're in your PJ's." Santana commented, whispering into Brittany's neck.
The blonde grinned even further. "You were too quick."
She felt Santana smile against her skin before answering, "It's okay, I'll give you my hoodie to wear. It's in the backseat of my car."
"Oh, shit, where did you park? My parents might have heard you." The blonde pulled back, her worried eyes trailing across the brunette's face.
"Britt, it's okay, I parked down by Puckerman's." She lifted her ice cold hand and pressed a palm to the girl's cheek. It made the blonde smile, turning round to kiss the cold skin there.
Brittany released a sigh of relief. "Let's go then."
Santana smiled as they both helped each other out the window and down the ivy trellis on the side of Brittany's house. They walked huddled and hand in hand to the Latina's big red Trailfinder, exchanging kisses to the cheek and nuzzles to the neck all the while.
Brittany retrieved her girlfriend's University of Louisville hoodie from the backseat and snuggled into it whilst the brunette turned the heat up to the top.
"San?" Brittany asked, as they set off. "Where are we actually going? We're not going to Antarctica are we?"
Santana turned to the blonde and giggled, taking her hand in her own. "Where did you get that idea from?"
Brittany shrugged and began playing with the end of Santana's hoodie. "I dunno, I guess I just want us to be together, that's all."
Santana frowned, facing the road. She squeezed Brittany's hand. "Britt, we're always going to be together, you know that." She squeezed again. "You know that."
Brittany smiled to herself and thought how lucky was to have someone like Santana. She smirked even bigger as she said, "So where are we going? It better not be any place dumb."
She could feel Santana's grin as she continued to toy the sweater.
"It's the waterhole."
"The waterhole?" Brittany fake gasped, pulling imaginary hairs off the hem of the hoodie. "What's so great about the waterhole?"
Santana slowed to a halt as they got to some traffic lights and leant over to her girlfriend. "I'll show you when we get there," She whispered against Brittany's temple, before kissing it and moving back to her seat.
They remained silent for the rest of the journey, stealing glances and catching smiles. Brittany couldn't imagine where they were headed, but being with Santana in the glimpses of the early morning, driving somewhere unknown was exactly where she wanted to be.
Exactly where she wanted to be.
(She knew this from the butterflies going crazy in her tummy.)
When they pulled up on the edge of the darkest forest Brittany had ever seen, she instantly turned to Santana and said, "We're not really at an elephant graveyard are we?"
Santana laughed really hard then and didn't stop until Brittany pushed her lightly on the shoulder and asked her again. After putting her girlfriend at ease, she got out the car and opened the door for her, still giggling every so often. Brittany kept asking her to stop but she couldn't, even as they walked hand in hand through the blocks of trees.
"San, really, where actually are we? Because I'm starting to get really scared even though you're holding my hand and singing under your breath."
Santana stopped almost instantly because she hadn't even realised she'd been doing that.
"Britt," She breathed, leaning closer to the blonde and whispering into her ear. "We're on the top of the world."
"Really?" Brittany asked, looking unconvincingly around her.
Santana stilled. "Well, we're walking there."
"Oh, cool!"
She led them through the smallest path Brittany had ever seen, slowly leading upwards towards the early morning sky. There were still a few stars out, but Brittany was sure she could count them all if she used Santana's fingers and toes as well as her own. Especially the ones grouped together in mini clusters. She thought they looked pretty and when she looked over at the brunette beside her, she realised it was because they were the same clusters of stars as the ones in her girlfriend's eyes.
Always pretty and always there.
"You keep looking at me, Britt-Britt." Santana whispered into the silence.
Brittany squeezed the hand held in hers and exhaled deeply into the crisp morning air. She swung their arms in tandem to a silent beat in her head and replied, "It's because you're so beautiful, San."
Santana grinned. "Britt,"
"But it's true,"
"Maybe,"
The path turned sharply to the left and they had to duck under a fallen branch before turning sharply to the right. Santana slipped a couple times, but Brittany managed to hold on to her before she hurt herself. They giggled about it and Brittany told her girlfriend several times how much of a klutz she was and how she couldn't understand how she ever got a cheerleading scholarship. Santana had hastily replied with a reminder that she was some "serious hotstuff", but then stopped their walking and told the blonde that it was because she wrote the application letter and that she was so much more perfect than Santana could ever be.
Brittany was quick to disagree.
(The stars in Santana's eyes would always be perfect to her.)
Upon reaching a small green gate, Santana let go of Brittany's hand and held it open like a Prince would a Princess. Through the archway of overhanging maple trees, and over a small hump of dewy moss, the couple found themselves staring up at the clearest morning sky and the vastest view of Ohio they had ever seen.
Brittany gasped. Never had she seen such a clear, unadulterated sight in her life.
Behind her, Santana pressed their bodies together and fixed her fingers in front of Brittany's stomach, resting her head on the comfort of the blonde's shoulder.
Brittany wasn't sure why Santana brought her here, but from the blinking stars of a waking dawn to the silent calls of the faraway interstate, she felt everything as perfectly as she knew Santana did.
The Latina smiled into Brittany's shoulder. "You like it?"
"San?" Brittany blinked, placing her arms on her girlfriends and pressing her closer. "It's beautiful,"
Santana breathed softly onto her neck as a reply before kissing the skin there gently. "Come sit with me,"
They moved forward a little to a soft grassy patch, Brittany nestled in between Santana's legs, her head resting on the brunette's chest.
Santana began to unpack the small backpack she had taken with her, making Brittany raise her eyebrows at the blanket she pulled over them and the two beanie's she placed on their heads. She even had a carton of orange juice which made Brittany giggle and lean up to kiss the underside of Santana's chin.
"Perfect," She whispered.
Santana smiled to herself as she rested her head atop her girlfriends. "Like you,"
They stayed that way, Brittany taking Santana's fingers in the palm of her hand and blowing warm air onto them, kissing each finger until all the brunette could feel were the same tingles on her fingers as the tingles in Brittany's belly. She was just about to kiss Santana's left pinky when a ray of light caught her eye and made her blink several times.
Santana kissed the top her head as even more rays blossomed out from above the hill in the distance. There were thousands, shining like rainbows of golds and yellows and whites. Brittany was certain she'd never quite seen anything like this before.
(It was somehow similar to the way Santana woke up in the mornings.)
"Brittany," Santana whispered, pulling the girl closer to her. "I love you,"
Brittany shuddered, the rainbows from the sun spotlighting every tree in the world and making them shine like a thousand suns touched it and not just one.
She gasped when she saw the colour of the spotlighted trees. Everywhere, to her left and to her right, straight ahead and right behind, the trees were covered head to toe in the brightest orange Brittany had ever seen. Some were red and some were even yellow, but most of them were the colours of pumpkins and it was then that Brittany really decided she loved the Fall the best.
And she loved it the best because Santana had taken her there.
"Santana," She breathed, intertwining their fingers and pulling them closer to her body. "You can't imagine how much I love you too."
The Latina giggled into the blonde's hair and exhaled warm air into it. Brittany sighed in thanks and leant back further.
"Santana, this is amazing. How did you even find this place?"
"When I was looking for you."
Brittany frowned, amused. "What?"
"When we were about eleven, your mom told you that you were no longer allowed to come to tea at mine after school and so when I went round to your house to ask if I was still allowed to your house, she told me you'd left ages ago and she thought you were with me." Santana paused to grin to herself before pressing the softest kiss to Brittany's hair and continuing. "I went running around town and down all the back lanes, thinking you'd wondered off without really thinking about where you were going and I stumbled upon the path that led us here. I don't know what it was, but I just felt compelled to follow it. I didn't find you at the top, but it led me you no less."
Brittany smiled, knowing exactly where her girlfriend found her. "And where was that?"
Santana squeezed her. "The lake at the bottom of the hill."
Brittany turned around in Santana's arms, so she was resting in between the girl's legs. She softly pushed her down to the grass and rested her chin on the Latina's chest. "How did this lead you to the lake?"
Santana grinned, tucking a strand of Brittany's hair behind her frosty ear. "Because this is the hill."
"Really?" Brittany lifted her head and raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah," Santana smiled, cupping the blonde's face.
"Oh my god, how did I not know this?" She shook her head and looked around her. "I've lived in Lima all my life and, like, how many times have we gone to that lake?" She looked at Santana who whispered a quiet, "Countless," before adding, "And, like, I have never known that. What is wrong with me? This is amazing; It's like Heaven."
Santana leant up, pushing the blonde up with her. She placed both her arms around Brittany's neck and brought their foreheads together, their cold noses touching right at the tips. "It's because the path is hidden."
"You found it," Brittany countered back.
"When I was looking for you," Santana replied just as quickly.
They stayed quiet as they looked into each other's eyes, each daring the other to speak first.
Brittany broke it.
"So I guess what you're trying to tell me is that you'll find Heaven whenever you're looking for me."
Santana chuckled, pulling Brittany impossibly closer. "That too."
"Then what, San?"
The brunette took a moment to really look at her girlfriend. She wanted to memorize every fleck of every part of the blonde's face before she left for Louisville in two days time. She never wanted to forget it.
"Then you are my Heaven, Brittany."
The blonde frowned. Santana giggled.
"You are my heaven, baby. I just want you to know that. And if you ever forget it, I want you to come right back here and remind yourself of that. Of how beautiful you are and how much I want to make you my Mrs Lopez one day. Of the way your eyes dance with all the morning skies and the way your nose crinkles every time I kiss it." She leans forward to prove herself right and giggles when she does. "This place is you, Britt-Britt. Where the sun peeks over the Lima Hill and meets the golden maples. Where the Autumn leaves fall on frosty green grass and the city lights glisten reassuringly across the interstate. This place is where I feel like I'm with you the most when you're not here and so when I'm not here, you must take my place." She blushed at the words she was saying and looked down into their laps. "Does that all make sense?"
Brittany smirked and brought Santana's lips to hers. "Yes Mrs Pierce,"
Santana gasped against the blonde's mouth but before she could question it, Brittany had enclosed her tongue around her own and they were making out on the morning hillside, a carton of orange juice left quietly abandoned beside them.
It was one of those moments in which Santana really felt complete and it was one of those moments in which Brittany really felt needed.
"San?" Brittany whispered against her girlfriend's lips.
"Yeah, Britt?" Santana whispered back.
"I'd really love to be your wife one day."
Santana smiled as she pressed her lips back onto Brittany's. "I'd really love to be yours too."
When Brittany pulled back smiling and plucked one of the fallen leaves from off the ground and stripped it into a string size and began wrapping it round Santana's ring finger, the brunette knew she'd done everything okay. There was nothing that could take away the overwhelming love and gratitude she felt in her heart in this moment.
Looking into Brittany's eyes as the blonde tied the pumpkin glowing leaf into a secure knot around her finger, she felt for what she knew would not be the last time, the greatest and purest sense of connection there ever was.
Like the falling autumn leaves as they dropped continuously onto the growing pile of other fallen leaves, Santana knew that Brittany would always be there to catch her.
Brittany was, after all, her Heaven on Earth.
To the girl I am in love with, (my beautiful Little Caterpillar), I am so in love with you and I am so sorry for being the biggest pain in the butt recently, so this is for you. I can't imagine my life without you and nothing in my life would make sense if I ever lost you. You're perfect.
Thanks for reading! Poppy x