Author's Note: So this one is part of my Someone Like You verse. This whole thing is alluded to in Couldn't Stay Away, Couldn't Fight It, but I have feelings about Brittana, and in particular, the idea of Brittany getting a diploma, and apparently I use this verse to vomit them out. You don't have to read CSACFI or Out of the Blue, Uninvited to get this, but if you feel like it, I won't stop you!
There are a few big days that everyone waits for throughout their lives. Never, in a million years would I have thought that my graduation would be one of those days, but then again, never would I have imagined that there would even be a black robe hanging from the shower rod so it wouldn't wrinkle, the black robe that would be adorned in just a few short hours with honor cords, and definitely never would I have imagined that tucked in the pocket of that black robe were cards with a Valedictorian speech, my Valedictorian speech, carefully typed on them. Sometimes it's the best things though that don't really go as you imagine, I'd mused, as I moved through my small apartment, throwing some last minute things into the dozens of packed boxes, and then, when I looked up and saw the love of my life leaning with one hip against the door frame of my bedroom, nearly black hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, wearing just the t-shirt I'd hastily discarded the night before (which, I thought, seeing her wear an MIT-Brandeis Women in Mathematics Symposium t-shirt was so strangely hot), and a tiny smirk on her beautiful face, I remembered that even if the paths aren't what we expected, most things work out exactly the way they're meant to.
"Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to help me?" I teased, moving closer to Santana and being rewarded with her full lips against mine.
"I don't know Queen of MIT, I managed to pack up my whole apartment without your help, isn't it only fair that you do the same?"
"Oh honey." I laughed, flicking her ear. "I don't think we should start the beginning of our new life together on a foundation of lies. I am well aware that you paid Kurt a thousand dollars to do it for you."
"Yes, but I worked very hard to earn that money, therefore, it totally counts as doing it myself. And I did offer to help you last night, but you distracted me."
"Hmmm." I hummed against her mouth, feeling so happy, so excited, so in love. "I didn't see you protesting my distractions in any way."
"Have you seen yourself?" Her eyes raked over my body that was clad in running shorts and a cropped t-shirt appreciatively. "You're the rocket scientist, don't you know about probabilities, or inevitabilities or something? I'm pretty sure it can be mathematically proven that you picking me up in those things you claimed were shorts would lead to us spending twelve hours in bed."
"Maybe I should change my speech and include that little theorem of yours. Things I learned in college; spending three weeks apart from my girlfriend and picking her up from the airport in cutoff shorts that make my ass look fantastic has no other possible outcome than a night filled with nakedness and scissoring. It's as simple as a to the nth plus b to the nth equals c to the nth, only if-"
"B." She giggled (yes, Santana had learned how to giggle since we'd gotten back together,a sound I'd never get enough of hearing). "I love that you think that is simple, but you totally lost me at scissoring. But I do think your new Brittany's Ass Code would definitely keep those crotchety old men on their toes much more than a's and b's and n's. And it's not like they can kick you out for being inappropriate." I watched the adoring smile slowly spread across her face. The majority of the previous night's activities had been her unwavering efforts to show me how proud of me she was, until I breathlessly had to remind her that I needed to be able to walk across the stage at the ceremony. "You're graduating today, Brittany Susan Pierce. God, I'm going to put the rest of the people in the audience to shame with how loud I'm going to scream for you."
"I believe this is your line." I raised an eyebrow and looked at her expectantly. "But wanky."
"Hey, I was trying to be serious." Santana frowned slightly. "I always knew you were going to accomplish something amazing. And now you're going to be the youngest professor of Quantum Mechanics that Columbia has ever seen. You're Professor Pierce, that's so hot."
"Well, Miss Lopez, I think this fall, we are going to have so much sex on my desk."
"And even though you're a super genius, you're still my Brittany." She threw her head back, a deep belly laugh bubbling past her lips.
"I'll always be your Brittany, Santana." I promised. "You were the first person to believe in me, I couldn't have done it without you."
"You could have, but I'm glad you didn't have to. Go get ready, you need to leave before me, so I'll stay here and finish packing the boxes."
"Do you mean you'll call Kurt to drive up here and do it?"
"Nope. For you, I'll do it myself." She pressed another kiss to my lips, and when she bent over to throw my dance shoes into one of the boxes, I slapped her ass playfully. In response, she turned around and kissed me much harder than she had the first time, actually causing me to groan about needing to get in the shower. "You're not distracting me this time. You're like the star of this graduation, you can't be late."
"Fine." I pouted. "But later..."
"Later, in our apartment, where I've already put brand new, crazy expensive silk sheets on our bed, and where neither of us have to walk tomorrow, we'll have all the time in the world."
"Sounds like the best kind of night to me. Have I told you today how much I love you?"
"No, I don't believe you have." Santana smiled, intentionally backing us up toward the bathroom.
"I need a Steinhaus-Moser notation to express the amount."
"Well I have no idea what that means, but I'm assuming it means a whole lot."
"It does." I told her as she pushed open the bathroom door and nudged me through it.
"Good, and I love you that much too, and more. Now go. I don't want to be screaming to no one." I opened my mouth to say something else, and she shook her head, laughing before turning back to the packing.
Once the door was closed, the shower was running, and I was fully convinced that Santana wouldn't dare come through the door, knowing that seeing me naked would start something we both knew, despite our teasing, couldn't happen if I was going to be on time, I opened up the mirrored door to the medicine cabinet. From the very top shelf, so high that I knew Santana couldn't reach it, even on the very tips of her toes, I pulled down the bottle of vitamins, which for some reason Santana was highly opposed to taking anyway, and carefully unscrewed the top, letting the capsules fall out into my open hand, and the item hidden underneath was revealed. My breath caught in my throat when cool metal touched my hand, and all by myself in the bathroom, I grinned like a fool at the simple, elegant, and oh so classy antique gold band with the pear shaped diamond glittering in the center.
"Okay, Brittany." I whispered to my reflection in the mirror. "This morning you're going to graduate, this afternoon, you're going to move to New York with Santana, and tonight, when your limbs are tangled together, and she's all soft and sleepy and sated by expensive champagne, you're going to ask her to be your wife. You've got this."
Continuing my pep talk with myself as I showered, I felt the flutter of a thousand butterflies low in my stomach. Santana always loved to talk about the dreams she'd never dared to dream coming true, and that's exactly how I felt as I prepared for the day. Once I'd pulled on the green dress that hung beside the robe (I didn't really understand why I had to dress fancy underneath, because it would be covered anyway, but Santana's near swoon when I'd tried it on after buying it in New York was enough of a reason for me), I slipped the ring deep in my bra, fearing that in the hour between when I left and Santana did, she'd come across it, or worse, throw out the vitamin bottle while packing the last of the items in the bathroom. No, I couldn't risk either of those things, I ended to keep that tiny treasure close to me, just in case.
Once I was fully dressed, and I'd let Santana sweep back my hair and tenderly apply my makeup (she'd never admit it to anyone else, but she loved the intimacy of small gestures like that), I finally put on a graduation gown and cap for the first time in my life. My chest tightened as I looked at Santana looking at me, and I couldn't resist another kiss to her lips as she smoothed the black fabric over and over again, and she'd checked so many times that my hat was secured to my head that I was sure it would stay there even through a hurricane. We didn't exchange many words before I left, but the tears in her eyes and her soft hand cupping my cheek one last time as I walked out the door said it all.
I'd made it about one hundred feet from the door before my phone buzzed in my hand, and the Facebook notification Santana Lopez has added a new photo of you popped up on the screen. When I opened it, I laughed at what a goof she was, posting a picture I hadn't even caught her taking of me, fully dressed and taking a sip out of her coffee cup and reading over my speech one last time, captioned with the words, That's right, bitches, my girlfriend is smarter than yours. Laughing to myself, and also feeling all warm and gooey at how publicly proud she was of me, I typed a quick comment of and my girlfriend is a bigger dork than yours with a winky face before slipping the phone into the opposite side of my bra from where the ring rested. I loved how proud she was of me, loved how everyone in her building (and possibly on her block) knew that Columbia had given me the opportunity to work on my doctorate while teaching, and loved how she would write it in the sky if she had a chance. It wasn't about bragging, for either of us, it was her, so happy that other people saw the genius that she always believed I was, and it was me, thrilled that she'd become so comfortable with her own self that she wouldn't flinch slightly every time she used the world girlfriend. We were proud of each other, and it made my chest kind of hurt with those old heart-attack type pains.
It was long and boring, listening to the Dean drone on and on to me before it was time for the ceremony to start (it was always long and boring listening to the important MIT people talk, that hadn't changed even after four years), and I was thrilled when I was finally able to take my seat on the lawn of Killian Court. Peering quickly over my shoulder to the VIP section, my breath caught in my throat for the second time of the morning when Santana, who was clasping my mom's hand for dear life let a grin split her face before sending me a wink and blowing me a kiss. Taken by how beautiful she looked dressed in red with her hair all lose curls, I swallowed hard and gave her a small wave back, beside myself with joy over the fact that I was getting a piece of paper that would prove to the world that I wasn't stupid, and beside myself that the one who'd never needed me to prove it was right there to see it all.
"And now, I present to you, a woman who needs little introduction around here, the creator of the Brittany Code, and your class of two-thousand-eighteen Valedictorian, Brittany Susan Pierce." The chairman of my department called out, after I'd tried not to zone out for over an hour of speeches. Just because I had a natural talent for math did not mean that my attention span had improved all that much in the four years I'd been at MIT.
As I stood, careful not up tangle myself in the heavy fabric of my robe, I heard, above all the other noise, Santana shrieking, even louder than I'd ever expected. Our eyes met as I made my way up to the stage, and she'd begun nodding in the same way she had the first time I'd given a speech in front of an audience. I took a minute to adjust the microphone before letting my eyes scan the crowd, to the other students who'd probably known MIT was their dream since birth, the conventionally smart, and then over to the professors who'd taken a chance on me, even after I'd failed my first senior year of high school, even when my SAT scores were absolutely no match for the grades I'd received during my four and a half years at McKinley.
"Hi." I started softly, trying to find my voice, and trying not to read directly from the cards I'd set down on the podium. I was so nervous, my hands were sort of shaking, but I let my eyes find Santana again, Santana who was still nodding slowly, Santana who was silently helping me find my confidence, Santana who was, in every way, my other half. When I'd written the speech, she'd sat with me for hours on the phone, insisting that I throw away my thesaurus and speak from the heart ("you are the smartest one there, B, you don't need fancy words to prove that to anyone"). She was right, my heart had always led me in the right directions before, and even though I stood up in front of a place that thought of me just as a mind, my heart was always what I trusted most. "So I'll be honest with all of you right from the start, I've never been to a commencement ceremony before, and in watching about forty videos on youtube about what the Valedictorian is supposed to say, I've figured out that I'm supposed to stand up here and tell you about dreams and goals and the best way for you, for all of us, to make our way into the future."
"You're doing great." Santana mouthed from her seat, and I was so grateful that my family had been given their special seating, so I could see her lips move clearly, and I could process her reassurances.
"Before I can talk about the future, I need to talk for just a quick second about the past. A lot of you who know me here know me as the girl who wrote the code that not even I fully understand yet, or the girl who the funny shaped building on the west side of campus is named after, but most of you don't know who Brittany Pierce was before she first stepped through the doors of building E18, the Brittany Pierce that I still am, once I take my head out of a book and put down one of the four thousand pencils I've had to buy. Very few people know that I didn't graduate high school with the rest of my class, that I had a zero-point-zero GPA, and that the fact that I got a perfect score on my SATs was actually sort of a fluke."
I could hear a sort of mumbling among the audience, since obviously, no one ever really talked about sucking at these types of things, but I had a point, I just needed them to let me make it. Wiping my sweaty palms on my sides, I caught Santana glaring at anyone and everyone who she thought was among the noisemakers, and I was pretty sure my mother would have bruised, or possibly broken fingers, with how tight her hand was being squeezed (I knew when she was filled with emotions, Santana's grip was like a vice). Offering a smile to the people who sat before me, I continued.
"I know that no one really expected me to talk today about failure, or how I believed I'd end up working at a chicken processing plant, at best, if I ever even made it past high school. But that's the point I'm trying to make, that life is unexpected, even the dreams you think you know without a shadow of a doubt will come true may not happen the way you'd always planned them." At those words, I gave Santana a private smile, and she returned it, pursing her lips to send me an invisible kiss. "A lot of people in my younger years thought I was stupid, and none of them even would have thought to give me a complex math test, let alone have actually taken a chance and let me into one of the most competitive schools in the country, but MIT did, and for that, I owe this place my entire future. When I was first offered a spot here, I came very close to not accepting. I had come to believe that I wasn't capable of doing something so big, that I'd fail miserably, and embarrass myself, and part of me even thought that it was a joke that Dr. Langdon and Dr. Hauptman weren't doctors after all, but were part of one of those mean reality shows where they trick people. But there was one person out there who could see that I was hiding something, and when she found out about the opportunity that I was given, she was the one who convinced me to take a chance, she was the one who told me that just because something was different from everything I'd ever expected of my life didn't mean it was a trick, and didn't mean that it couldn't be amazing."
My voice cracked a little bit, and I could see the sparkle of tears in sunlight that were wet on Santana's face, her hand not attached to my mom wiping them furiously away. Pressing my hand agains my chest, both as a silent symbol of my love for her (which she'd stopped her face wiping to mirror) and to try to keep my heart from pounding straight out of my chest, I let my eyes scan lawn again.
"So the advice I'd like to give to my fellow graduates is to take chances, to embrace the unexpected, and to seek out great opportunities. We are people of math and science, equations and formulas, but there is no equation for life, it's ever changing, and full of twists and turns. Go with those twists and turns, because the things that are supposed to happen in your life will. We're all destined for super great things, and I, for one, can't wait to get out of this robe and get started."
I stifled a laugh when I realized what I said, and I watched Santana's eyebrow raise teasingly, and my mother cover her mouth to keep from giggling.
"Anyway. Thank you, MIT, for giving me the chance you did, and for giving me the opportunity to become the person I'd never thought I'd be. Thank you, fellow math department graduates for helping to make sense of my code. Thank you to my mom, my dad, my sister for loving me unconditionally, and for having the same outside-the-box way of thinking that I do. And thank you to Santana, for always, always believing in me, and for loving me more than anyone else in the world. According to everything I've read about these speeches, I'm supposed to quote someone famous, and apparently, the greatest doctor of all time-sorry, no offense to anyone here- Dr. Seuss seems to be a popular choice, so, in the words of the Cat in the Hat, look at me, look at me, look at me now. Look at yourselves, look at each other, and look at this whole field full of awesome people who are going to do awesome things. Good luck, class of two-thousand-eighteen, go out and do the unexpected."
There was clapping and cheering and a whole lot of noise as I walked toward the stairs that would bring me back to my seat. Santana had let go of my mom's hand to give me a double thumbs up, standing on her feet (her tiptoes, I was sure), and before I descended the first step, I brought my hand to my lips and I blew her a kiss. It was so overwhelming, hearing people clap for me for something other than dancing, it wasn't like every day in class I was given a round of applause for solving equations, and I soaked it all in, my pride in myself swelling to the point where I couldn't stop giggling as I took my seat. Figuring I probably should compose myself, I clamped my hand tight over my mouth, and stole one more look at Santana, who was reluctantly forcing herself to sit down at the tail end of the applause.
The remainder of the ceremony passed in a blur, and after called my name a second time to hand me my diploma, Dr. Hauptman was surprised when I'd pulled him in for a tight hug instead of a handshake. Looking back to where my family was, my eyes widened when I no longer saw Santana there, but my mother just shrugged her shoulders and pointed her chin to a confused looking security guard, and Santana pulling grass out of her hair and smiling sheepishly ten feet to the left of the stage. It took everything in me not to jump off of the stage, but I managed to maintain my grace as I walked down the steps, giving a final wave to my classmates as other names were called. The minute I was on the grass though, I ran to my girlfriend, and she lifted my up and spun me in circles before kissing me hard on the mouth.
"I. Am. So. Fucking. Proud. Of. You." She murmured between kisses. "You're amazing, you're beautiful, you're smart, I love you and I just couldn't wait another second to tell you all of those things."
"I can see that." I laughed softly against her mouth, and then looked at the security guard who'd decided it was just best to pretend he didn't see us, rather than try to remove her from the secured area. "How did you get past...?"
"I tried telling Paul Blart over there that I was your girlfriend and that you were basically the biggest deal ever. When that didn't work, I threw myself over that lame ass three foot fence." She whispered, making me aware that other people were still walking up on stage and we had to be quiet. "Not the easiest task in these shoes, or this dress."
"Well, the grass in your hair and the dirt on your knees is a good look for you." I teased, continuing to kiss her. "God, I love you so much Santana. I...there's something I don't want to wait any longer to do either."
Laughing at the appropriateness of doing something in an unexpected way thirty-five minutes after I'd given a speech about just that, I tucked my diploma under my arm and dug around inside of my bra to find the ring. After a quick second of thinking I'd lost it and almost panicking, because that would be such Alanis Morissette ironic situation, my fingers touched metal, and smiling at Santana's questioning look, I quickly dropped down on my knees in front of her (I forgot that it was just supposed to be one knee, and I was glad we were sort of hidden from view, because it might have looked like I was about to do something else). She didn't care if it was one knee or two, and with widening eyes, her hands flew to her mouth.
"Brittany, I..." She gasped through spread fingers. "Holy shit."
"I really had this whole plan that involved expensive champagne, and some cheesy gesture with sliding a ring down a piece of thread that I tied to your finger, because I know that you secretly love every single Julia Roberts movie ever made. But you just hurled yourself over a fence and probably risked being arrested just so you could tell me how proud you are of me. You're dirty, and your dress is ripped, and I swear, I don't think you've ever looked more beautiful." I rambled, taking her left hand in both of mine. "I graduated college today, something I never imagined would happen, I'm moving to New York with you, something a few years ago, I thought might be one of those dreams that just get pushed aside, and now, there's only one thing that could make everything even more perfect. Santana Lopez, I've loved you since as long as I can remember, I feel like I've loved you before I even knew you. I want to know that every morning for the rest of my life, I get to wake up with you holding me, I want to kiss you just because I can, I want to laugh with you, cry with you, fight with you, and have awesome make up sex with you. I know we are starting the rest of our lives today, and I want to do it all the way, no holding back. I want to know that you'll marry me."
"Brittany." Tears were streaming down her face, and she yanked me up so I was eye level with you. "I've never wanted anything as much as to marry you."
"Really?" A slow grin spread across my face and the power of her kiss was overwhelming.
"Obviously. Like you even had to ask." She rolled her eyes playfully as tears continued to fall, causing me to fight my own back. Drawing her left hand up to my lips, I kissed the inside of her ring finger quickly, and that's when the tears started for me, splashing down on her olive skin as I fit the ring onto her finger. "Britt. It's beautiful."
"So are you." I cheesed, and she threw her arms around my neck.
"You could so be in a Julia Roberts movie. And just this morning you were calling me a dork. I love you, so much. I'm stunned right now, I just, God, I don't even know. I've never felt so many emotions all at once. Is it physically possible that I could explode?"
"Well, anatomy isn't really my thing, honey, but if you're really concerned, I'm sure we could find someone in this place that could help us. "
"It might come to that, but any conversation I have right now will either be me screaming about how proud I am of my fiancé, or shoving this awesome ring all up in someone's face. Britt, holy shit, you just asked me to marry you." It was probably the most adorable thing I'd ever seen her do, get excited over and over again. It was like sunshine was radiating from her, and I knew if anyone looked at me, they'd be saying exactly the same thing. "You're going to be my wife. And that means that after you get your PhD, and you become the new greatest doctor of all time, I'm going to be Mrs. Doctor Brittany Pierce."
"Or Mrs. Doctor Brittany Lopez." I giggled. "Or Pierce-Lopez, or Lopez-Pierce, or Lopierce, or Piercepez, or-"
"And you make fun of me with the portmanteaus." She cut me off with what may have been our hundredth kiss.
"Can't help that I've been thinking about when you're my wife."
"Oh my God, I love how that sounds, so much, baby. But as much as I would love to stand here and kiss you, and call you my future wife, and not let you go for the rest of the day, I also really, really don't want you to miss standing up there and throwing your hat in the air, and being declared graduated, or whatever it is that comes next."
"You're right, you're right." I let Santana quickly wipe the running mascara from under my eyes and quickly apply some more from a tube that she pulled out of her bra (I probably picked up my habit of storing things in there from her), before reluctantly parting from her. "I'll see you in a few, future Mrs. Doctor Lopiercez."
Blowing her one last kiss over my shoulder, I hurried back to my spot as the last of the names were called to the stage, and I found Santana again, standing off to the side next to the security guard, doing exactly what she said, flashing her ring in his face and pointing insistently at me, her usual emotional reservations completely gone and her smile so wide that I was pretty sure you could see her beautiful dimples from the moon. I couldn't help but shake my head adoringly at her. Breathless with happiness, I turned back to the stage just as we were being presented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduating class of 2018, with a flourish, I ripped my cap off my head, sending hairpins flying in all directions and tossed it into the air. I had absolutely no idea what unexpected events would pop up for us in the future, but I knew that at the end of the day, we'd walk into our crappy six-floor walk up apartment, and the hours of distance would be gone, the long weeks apart would be over, and me, the girl who feared she'd never graduate high school, and the girl who'd once thought that she'd lost Santana forever would get into bed with a college degree hanging on the wall, and the woman I loved more than anything curled up beside me, wearing a ring that said soon enough (the coming October, I'd hoped she'd agree to) we'd spend the rest of our lives as each other's wives.