Title: Fifty
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Dani | Santana Lopez
Summary: Aphrodite's a big shipper of Dantana and when Brittany kissed Santana, she was none too happy about it. Now, Santana has to live through different situations, and has to make Dani fall in love with her in each one.
Notes: Obviously, I love writing about Aphrodite messing with Santana's love life.
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Prologue: Intervention
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"Aphrodite?" Santana scoffed as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You have got to be kidding me."
Aphrodite, dressed in casual mortal attire, simply sipped her coffee daintily. She crossed her legs underneath one of the rounded booth tables of the Spotlight diner before she raised her head to acknowledge her not-too-amused waitress. "My, my," she said. "Why in the world would I do that?"
Santana rolled her eyes. She wasn't getting paid enough for this job. This was the third nutjob she'd had to deal with this week. "Whatever. If you aren't going to order something, you better take your Starbucks and go." She pointed with her notepad and pen towards the door for emphasis.
The blonde woman before her wasn't fazed at all, and instead broke out into a sly grin. "What poor customer service this establishment has. I doubt your boss would be happy were I to file a complaint." Her smile grew when she noticed how Santana visibly stiffened at her words. "That would be unfortunate since you need the money to fund your impromptu travels to that small town Lima, Ohio," Aphrodite's voice dipped lower as her eyes narrowed into almost slits and her lips curled down into a frown. "Where you continue to cheat on you loving girlfriend with your ex-girlfriend."
That had Santana's eyes bulging out of their sockets. She gaped at the grey-eyed customer, mouth flapping open and close like a fish. "You– What– How– I didn't–" She couldn't form a coherent sentence and it only served to irk the goddess.
"Enough of your excuses, Miss Lopez. I know what I saw," Aphrodite harshly whispered. "Sit down."
Santana sat down immediately at the barked out order, only momentarily remembering to call out that she was going on an intermission. "I didn't cheat on Dani," Santana finally managed.
Aphrodite hummed, taking another sip of her steadily growing cold beverage. She sighed and pushed it to the side as she caught dark eyes on her own. "I am Aphrodite." When Santana opened her mouth, the goddess raised her hand. "You will listen, if you know what's good for you, mortal." Santana didn't say anything more, hoping to just get the crazy out and the kiss a secret.
"I am Aphrodite," the goddess repeated. "I have watched over you for a long time now, Santana Gabrielle Lopez. I've watched you since Brittany came into your life. While I loved the pureness of what you shared with the innocent young blonde, I saw that it was ruining you. That relationship was not healthy, and my son agreed to my sentiments."
Santana's eyes narrowed. She didn't know how this strange – albeit undeniably gorgeous – woman knew of Brittany, but she decided to go against her better judgement and kept quiet.
"Thankfully, you got out of it and came all the way to New York," Aphrodite continued. "Things went a little better. Danielle Raine Harper came into your life and I saw the change she brought. Good change, might I say." She brought the coffee back to her lips, grinning in mild victory when she realized it was reheated. She made a mental note to thank someone later, preferably after she's made Athena scream out her name for all of Olympus to hear. For now, she had to deal with the still unbelieving mortal in front of her.
"I saw Brittany kiss you," she continued. "You took the noble course of action and stopped it from escalating, but you reciprocated."
"I did not," Santana defended, her anger flaring up. That moment wasn't one of her best, and she wasn't proud of it.
"Yes, you did," Aphrodite stressed. "It may not have been physical, but I felt your heart waver. You wanted her again and for a moment, you forgot about your girlfriend."
Santana said nothing as her jaw tensed. This woman was right. It pained her to admit but there had been a moment when she wanted to kiss Brittany back – to have Brittany back. But she didn't act on her impulse. That had to count for something, right?
"You had no idea how heartbreaking it was to witness that moment. I couldn't for the life of me believe that my OTP was betraying me," Aphrodite whispered out, replaying the moment in her mind. Athena had comforted her relentlessly that day, but it still did not wipe away the hurt of seeing Dani be betrayed like that.
"OT-what?" Santana shook her hands wildly around her. "Never mind. Why are you even telling me this? For argument's sake, let's say you really are Aphrodite. Why are you invested in my love life?"
"It's very interesting, dear. For a while it had been fun to watch Rachel and Quinn pine over each other, but even that gets tired." At Santana's raised brow, Aphrodite grinned. "You have to admit, they have this sexual tension that seems to always hang like a cloud around them. I ship them, though I have to admit that when you slept with Quinn, my allegiance waned a bit."
"You– You," Santana floundered. No one was supposed to know about that bit with Quinn. And with all this woman knew of her and her friends, Santana was beginning to believe that she was who she says she was. Or a really, really devoted stalker.
"Yes, it was a moment of weakness. Your relationship with Quinn had always been a bit charged." Aphrodite waved her hadn. "But that isn't the matter at hand. You cheated on Dani."
"I didn't."
"You did, and I'm not going to stand watch while you ruin something amazing." The blonde pointed a perfectly manicured finger towards the stock still Latina. "You don't appreciate her enough. You still won't admit that you're in love with her." She cut off Santana before the girl even had a chance to speak. "No. Don't even try and deny it. Goddess of love, remember? You're in love with her, but you're going to cause her pain because you're too much of a coward to admit it."
Santana shook her head. "I'm done here." She moved to stand but found that she couldn't. It was like magic bound her to her position. She glared at the blonde who watched her with a steady gaze.
"I'm going to teach you to stop being a coward," Aphrodite stated as she waved a hand toward Santana. It was at that moment that Santana felt something shift inside her. Just what, she didn't know.
"What did you do?" she asked, her voice waning a bit in panic.
"I've simply bound you to a curse," the goddess answered.
"You don't do cursed. You're a goddess," Santana mocked.
Aphrodite gasped. "Now you believe." She let out a dry chuckle. "That curse is going to teach you the consequences, all that you would lose, if you remain to be the coward that you are. Dani will slip away from your fingers. I am going to free her of you. She won't remember you at all. She may not have her soul mate, but she won't suffer the pain either." She shot Santana a sharp look. "You, on the other hand, will constantly be haunted by her, by the images of your future had you been brave enough."
"Wha–"
"There is a way to dispel this curse. You must simply pass my test."
Santana gulped, an ominous feeling in her gut. "Test?"
"Yes. A number of situations." Aphrodite tapped her finger to her shin. "Fifty. Let's say fifty situations. These situations will all be a product of my imagination. Although for disclaimer's sake, they might include the works of mortal authors," she added as an afterthought. "Now, fifty situations. In each one, you must find a way to make Dani fall in love with you, no matter the odds. Even if she's the bad guy and you're the good guy, you must make her fall in love with you. Each situation, let's call them an act. Each Act will run a course of a week. Failure to finish your quest, that is to make Dani fall truly in love with you, by the end of the week will have dire consequences."
"Dire consequences?"
"The curse being enacted, my dear," Aphrodite clarified. "You will not have only lost Dani in the Act, but you would also lose her in real life. Now, an Act may have you fighting for life and death. Understand that your death or Dani's would mean a loss. Meaning curse enacted."
"That's just cruel."
"That just means you have to be careful, Miss Lopez. Oh, and any form of cheating will have the curse enacted. Do you understand?"
Santana shook her head before she glared at the blonde. "No! I don't understand why I have to go through this."
"You'll understand soon enough." Aphrodite stood. "If you excuse me, I have other matters to attend to. Worry not, dear, we will be speaking at the end of each Act. Do make each one memorable." And just like that, she vanished, leaving Santana to gawk in her wake.
It's after a few minutes that Kurt appraoched Santana. "Hey, you wanna get your lazy ass back to work? You're not getting paid to sit around."
"You didn't see her disappear?" Santana gestured to the empty space in front of her.
Kurt, for his part, stared at his friend as if she's lost her mind. "Okay? You weren't serving anyone. No one's sat here yet before you decided to be lazy. So get up. We need you at table twelve."
Santana gaped, her eyes flickering from the retreating form of the outlandish boy to the empty space opposite her. Could it all have been a hallucination? A fucked up daydream? She decided to shake it out of her system. She had work to do.
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Afternotes:
1. This is an idea that I've had for a while. I came upon my draft of this and decided that it could be a good help to get me back to writing fanfiction.
2. I will do my best to post at least once a week. I really need a schedule for my writing.
3. I have not watched anything about Glee after the 100th episode. I do know about the Brittana wedding, but other than that… Nothing.
4. Fifty is a pretty big number. I don't know if we're all going to have to suffer through fifty Acts and we'll just have to see where this goes. I will try to do some AUs I have saved on my laptop, but suggestions are still much appreciated.
5. I will ship Aphrodite and Athena to the ends of the Earth. That ship will often pop out throughout this journey.