Title: Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend
Media:Fic
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Sugar/Brittany
Summary: Before Brittany, Sugar never had any real friends.
Daddy bought every teardrop she ever cried.
A tiara of sapphires and pearls for a birthday party that no one wanted to come to.
Two fat, dime sized diamond studs, which were gifted to her with a kiss on her forehead and the assurance that she was beautiful, no matter what the girls at school said.
There were ropes and ropes of saltwater pearls, that reminds Sugar of teeth, reminds her of the jeering laughter she received after confessing her love to a boy after class one day
She has a delicate necklace of diamonds that dangles like beads of sweat on her chest and glitters like chips of ice, that Daddy bought for her transfer to McKinley. He promises she'll makes lots of friends this year, for sure.
There are so many bangles and rings, delicate, opulent, all replacements for friendships that did not persevere. Opals and topaz to forget their apathetic faces, emeralds and rubies to heal cutting remarks.
And then there is Brittany.
She is posed like a masterpiece, lying unashamed and naked on the embroidered silk of Sugar's duvet cover, looking all the world like a portrait of Venus. Her hair is undone and glints like threads of gold in the trickle of sun coming through her window. The jewelry shines in the light, bedazzling Brittany's unmarred skin with prisms of color and highlighting the planes of her body.
Sugar can hardly breathe, hardly stand, the sight before her is so beautiful. So she sits on the edge of her bed, trying hard not to follow the necklaces down to the valley between Brittany's breasts.
Brittany has a Mona Lisa smile on her face, but it falters as the silence between them grows.
"What are you doing here?", Sugar asks, her voice tiny, too small in the expanse of her room. Brittany sits up swings her legs over the edge of the bed, their shoulders and knees bumping together.
"You looked sad during practice today, when Santana yelled at you and Mercedes stepped on your foot. I wanted to come cheer you up."
Sugar stared at her, disbelieving. Brittany tilted her head and elaborated.
"Because we're friends, duh."
Friends.
Brittany looked down at herself, and gave a sad little smile at her hands. Sugar is frozen, throat closed up and ears ringing in shock.
"But maybe this was just another stupid idea of mine." She took off the tiara, then fumbled with the clasps of the necklaces.
"Stupid me thinking you'd like lady kisses because lady kisses always cheer Santana up."
Brittany takes off each ring reverently, placing them down on the nightstand. Her hand lingers on the last ring, a flower design in diamonds. Sugar remotely catalogues that as the ring to replace her failed audition for New Directions.
Sugar takes Brittany's wrist, stopping her from sliding the ring off.
A friend for a friend.
"You can keep that," Sugars says, lightheaded and overwhelmed, the word friends still echoing around in her head.
"It's a gift. Because we're friends."
Brittany lights up, her smile growing and dazzling more than any jewel Sugar had received. It makes Sugar's heart beat a little faster, in an old rhythm she promised herself would never come along again.
Brittany whispers, "I want to give you something, too", and leans in to kiss Sugar softly.
It's not until Brittany's arms are looped around her waist that Sugar realizes her pulse is beating out 'I love you, I love you, I love you,' and it doesn't feel like a lie.