A/N: It's been two years since I've updated anything on FFnet and really, if anything at all, I ought to finish one of my many ongoing fics. I didn't intend to add to the already substantial (albeit good) quantity of Brittany/Santana stories, but I do like these characters and I do miss writing short things, instead of huge multichaptered stories that I tend to abandon. So this just kind of came out. And I will, I will, go back to finishing my other things.
What It Means To Be The Hottest Girl In School
The difference is that Artie's idea of a compliment is to assert that she is the hottest girl in school. And he'll say it with the force and passion of someone professing their purest, most unwavering love. He says she's the hottest and that's as good as it gets.
Santana doesn't often call her hot, unless straddling her flushed and writhing body on her bedroom floor. Then, maybe, she mutters it in a stream of words that fall from her lips in between pressing them onto Brittany's body. Hot... Fuck, Britt... So fucking hot... But she never wants it to mean the same as when she holds her afterwards and, after a pause, says - like an embarrassed admission, like a gruff confession - "There isn't anything that's more beautiful than you."
On the subject of who is the hottest girl in school, though, Santana will say - "We can't possibly expect the McKinley students to pick between me and you."
"Or Quinn?" Brittany suggests.
Santana sneers, "Stretchmarks Fabray? You're kidding me, right? No way, Britt. It's me or you and, honestly, I think it'd be impossible to call it either way."
When Artie says it to her, it's like he's won the biggest stuffed animal at the duckshoot game - the hottest girl in the school - and Brittany always hated those games anyway. Those poor wooden ducks - what kind of a life is that to lead? Always trying to swim one way or the other, just trying to make it to the other side, being shot at by children for sport...
The last time she went to the fair it was with Santana who knew well enough to steer Brittany away from the shooting games and instead used her pent-up temper and sharp eyes to knock three coconuts from the coconut shy.
Brittany squealed with delight and clapped her hands when the third one fell - three for three, much to the annoyance of the stallholder - and proudly linked arms with her best friend as they marched away.
"Come on," Santana said. "I think my brother stashed some rum in the garage - I'll make you a piña colada." and Brittany had just not been able to wipe the big grin off her face as she let herself be lead away, absently stroking the fuzzy coconut and thinking to herself how lucky she was to have such an impressive girl like Santana by her side.
Because though Artie says 'hottest' when he says 'stupid' - as though they were always synonymous - Santana says 'hottest' when she says 'fierce', and lists it under their many collective attributes.
And when Santana wants to compliment her, sometimes she'll say, "I don't know what I'd do without you." Or she'll say, "Are you kidding me? You're ten times smarter than those slack-jawed Neanderthals."
Or sometimes Santana just says nothing at all, but rests her hand on Brittany's bare thigh when she drives her home after practice, casting sideways glances at the blonde when she's stopped at the lights. In these glances, Brittany knows, are the softest, most gentle sides of Santana that nobody gets to see but her. And nothing gets said, but Brittany never much cared for words, anyway.