Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"
A/N: So I was going to write another chapter of "Doing it Right" and depict their first date (and I may yet) but I've written like four first date stories in the last couple of months and I wasn't coming up with anything interesting for them so I decided that with this series I'm going to hop around the timeline and just write whatever part of the relationship I feel like. So for this we're skipping ahead a year and covering several months.
Planning on Prom
Santana offered up a small package wrapped in white paper and tied with a red ribbon. The size and shape of the box leave little doubt as to what was inside. It was too big to be another pair of earrings like she got for two Christmases in a row, too small to be a necklace like she got for her birthday. Rachel guessed it was most likely a bracelet or perhaps an anklet, however the later was unlikely since it was really her style and Santana knew it. "Happy Anniversary, Babe," Santana said. The girls had successfully navigated the travails of their first year together. They were in Rachel's living room exchanging gifts before going out on the date that Santana had planned out for them. Rachel had made Santana a huge collage of pictures of themselves and Brittany from age six all the way up to last week in a big beautiful frame which Santana loved immensely.
Rachel accepted Santana's girt and quickly untied it. She opened the box to reveal a diamond tennis bracelet from Tiffany's. Her mouth dropped open at the overwhelming gift. "Santana, this… this is amazingly beautiful, but it's too much. You just got me diamond earrings for Christmas two weeks ago. I cannot accept this."
"Nothing's too good for you, Rach. How many times do I have to tell you that? Here," Santana said taking the piece of jewelry out of the box. Rachel held up her left arm for Santana to adorn which she did. Rachel looked at it in place and smiled a sad little smile. "You don't like it," she said at Rachel's expression.
"No," Rachel said then shook her head, "I mean, yes… I mean, it's beautiful. I love it."
"Babe," Santana lifted Rachel's head to look her in the eyes, showing a world of concern to her girlfriend, "after eleven years, I think I know when you're not happy. Please, talk to me."
Rachel, looking back down at the bracelet, was silent for a long moment before sighing. "I was just thinking that I saw a really great dress that would go with this and they even had it in my size."
"Great," Santana said, "let's go buy the damn thing. We'll put your hair up and you can wear it to dinner. You'll turn every head in Columbus. I'll get jealous glares all night. It'll be fucking awesome."
"It's not an evening dress, Tana," Rachel corrected softly. "It's a prom dress."
"So you're saying you want to go to Prom?" asked Santana still not comprehending the problem.
Rachel dropped her head back down and just barely audibly said, "Yes."
"Okay."
"REALLY?" Rachel snapped her head back up her face lit up with joy.
"Of course," Santana said, "Why wouldn't we?"
Rachel slammed her tiny body into Santana's and wrapped her in a hug so tight it verged on painful. "Thank you, Tana. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." Rachel's whole body shook with excitement and anticipation.
"You're welcome, Babe," Santana chuckled not quite sure what she'd done to warrant this reaction but certainly not complaining about it. "We'll call Britt and Q and we'll go as a big group." Rachel's grip on her girlfriend went slack and behind Santana's back her enormous smile disappeared. "What? Is it Quinn, because I'm pretty sure Finn has given up trying on you?"
"I don't want to go to prom with our friends," Rachel explained letting go of the hug and looking Santana dead in the eyes, "I mean, I'd be more than happy to share a limo with them but I want to go to prom the way you are supposed to go to prom. Groups of friends are fine for those without boyfriends or girlfriends, but I have a girlfriend. I have the most amazingly wonderful, beautiful, talented, and sexy girlfriend in the world and I want to go with her to the prom."
"Babe..."
"Please don't babe me right now, Santana."
"Rachel… you know I love you," Santana said evenly.
"And I love you...so much," the diva's voice was thick with emotion, it was clear that this had been on her mind for some time, "and I just want to be able to share that love with everyone. I hate being in the closet. I hate lying, Tana, and I feel like I'm lying to everyone, all the time."
"I know, Ba-Rachel," Santana took Rachel's hand in hers stroking the top of it with her thumb trying to soothe the smaller girl. "I know, and I'm sorry. I really am but I gotta go at my own pace."
"I know you do," Rachel replied glassy eyed, "that's why I brought it up now. Prom is still months away, there's still plenty of time for you to be ready. We can come out in baby steps. Start with just the Glee Club."
"Babe," Santana said pleadingly.
"I don't want to rush you, Santana," Rachel said firmly, "but I feel like I've been very patient and accommodating up until now. I know you're scared of what people are going to think and say...and do."
"I just don't want anything to happen to you, Babe. You saw what happened to Kurt. If someone did anything like that to you..."
"They won't," Rachel interrupted, "Firstly because I have you, my big scary protector and secondly it's different for girls than it is boys. It's not right or fair, but it's true. The same stupid meatheads that pushed Kurt into locker and threw him in dumpster will just think that the two of us together are hot and make lewd comments which you can bite back against and I can happily ignore." Santana sat silently eyes cast at the floor. "I love that you want to protect me, baby. It's one of my very favorite things about you, but I also know that there's more to it than that. Coach Sylvester couldn't reasonably kick you off the squad. Brittany and Quinn would quit in protest and you three are her stars. She doesn't stand a chance without you and she knows that. Everything else out of her mouth is just bluster." Rachel gripped Santana's hand tightly and the Latina gripped back. "I just want to stop lying to our friends, Tana. When we go back to school I want to be able to tell Sam the truth about why I can't go with him to prom."
Santana looked up quickly and said, "Sam?"
"He asked the other day," Rachel said.
"And what did you say?" Santana asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It caught me completely off guard," Rachel explained, "I didn't know what to say. If I'd just said no, he might have asked me why and I didn't have an excuse prepared so I told him that I would think about it."
"I'll go explain it to him upside his head," Santana said standing up off the couch.
Rachel pulled her straight back down. "No, Santana," she said firmly, "You don't get to do that. You don't get to keep our relationship a secret and then get upset when someone else takes an interest in me. Sam is perfectly nice guy and from his point of view I haven't had a date the entire time he's known me."
"Maybe you should say yes," Santana said.
"Tana," Rachel said pleadingly.
"No, think about it. You go with Sam. I'll get some guy to be my date. I'll buy you that dress you want and when the punch bowl inevitably gets spiked, we can both get drunk and dance together and then we can blame it on the alcohol."
"Firstly, I do not wish to get drunk at a school function. Secondly, I don't want to lead Sam on like that. I don't want to go with Sam, or anyone other than you, for that matter. And finally I want to actually remember our first dance together fondly. I want it to be a beautiful memory that we can look back on happily, not some embarrassing half-recalled event that neither of us really wants to talk about."
"Babe, Rach, I… I don't know," Santana folded in completely on herself, perched on the edge of the couch, an entirely closed posture.
"God, I'm ruining our night," Rachel said to herself. She moved behind her girlfriend, wrapped her arms around the Latina's waist, and pressed a kiss against the back of her neck. "I love you, Santana, so much. I love this beautiful bracelet you got me, not because it's expensive but because you care enough about me to buy it for me. You are an amazing girlfriend. You're smart and beautiful and kind and caring. You're worth waiting for, Tana. I just… I need to know that I'm not waiting on something that isn't going to happen."
"So either I agree to this or we break up?"
"NO!" Rachel said emphatically "No, no, no, no, no, God no. I'm not trying to give you an ultimatum. I don't even want to be fighting about this anymore. Will you just promise to think about this, so we can go do whatever amazing thing it is you have planned for the night and enjoy our anniversary? Please?"
Santana nodded her head slowly. "Okay, I'll think about it. I'll think long and hard, Babe. I promise."
"That's all I ask," Rachel responded. She then stood calling on years of dance training to do so gracefully around a still seated Santana. The tiny diva offered both hands outstretched towards the Cheerio. She accepted the hands and pulled herself up by them. "I love you, Tana. Happy Anniversary."
Santana smiled genuinely for the first time in several minutes and said, "Happy Anniversary, Babe. I love you, too." The two girls kissed briefly before Santana lead them off on their date which consisted dinner at vegan café in Columbus followed by tickets to a traveling production of Chicago for which the performances were the perfect level for Rachel's enjoyment: good enough to be entertaining but not so good as to make the diva feel threatened about her future. All in all both girls would classify the night as perfect.
Unfortunately, perfect wouldn't last. Two weeks later, Rachel had almost had Santana's confidence built up enough for them to come out to the Glee Club when Coach Sylvester announced her plans to fire Brittany out of a canon at Cheerleading Regionals. Neither Rachel nor Santana would stand for that and got an injunction filed against her to stop her, and while Brittany was immensely grateful, Sue was majorly pissed and demanded the three girls either quit Glee or lose their spots on Cheerios. Brittany and Santana walked away without a second thought. Quinn waffled for a couple of days but eventually quit Cheerios as well.
Rachel had hoped, futilely as it turned out, that them being off Cheerios meant that there was nothing left standing in the way of them being out together, but Santana said that she wasn't sure she had the juice to protect Rachel anymore and she had to figure some way of making sure she would be able to stay on top of the social ladder. Santana joined forces with Dave Karofsky to form an anti-bullying club that eventually paved the way for Kurt to return from Dalton for which all the Glee Club was appreciative but Santana used the club as an excuse to withdraw from Rachel, or at least Rachel was convinced that it was an excuse. Santana spent seemingly every waking moment with either Kurt or Karofsky and claiming to be tired any time Rachel tried to make plans for just the two of them and would try her best to deflect attention in any group setting.
Rachel wrote Santana a song and sang it at Regionals, which they won, and things seemed to start heading back to normal between them over the next couple of weeks but it was clear to Rachel that Santana was never going to be ready to be out come prom. She accepted that they wouldn't dance together this year and hoped better for next year.
The next day at school she saw the Karofsky/Lopez Prom Royalty posters in the halls and it felt like a knife to the heart. She made a mad dash for the nearest ladies room to lose her breakfast into the toilet. A confrontation with Santana resulted in the Latina telling Rachel to trust her and that she had a plan without further elaboration. Rachel couldn't help but notice when Santana didn't say that she loved Rachel when they parted, and once again they were back to never being alone together.
Rachel hated watching Santana parade through the halls pretending to be in a relationship with Karofsky. Even worse she hated having to worry whether or not they were actually pretending. She wanted to believe that Santana wouldn't cheat on her. She knew that Santana's reputation was all a smokescreen and that she'd been faithful to Rachel since they'd gotten together, so when the rumor mill started churning about Santana and Dave, Rachel did her best to ignore it.
On the prom front however, she decided it was time to get proactive. She found Sam at his locker one day about a month before the event and marched straight up to him and said, "Hello, Sam, how are you this afternoon?"
The floppy haired boy smiled his gigantic smile and said, "I'm okay. What's up?"
"I was wondering if you were still without plans for prom," said Rachel.
"I, uh, yeah kinda, but I don't even know if I'm gonna be able to go. Money's kinda tight at home right now," he said.
"I am nothing if not resourceful, Sam," Rachel smiled, "I am absolutely certain that we can pull together a prom on a budget, if that's your only concern."
"It's not," he said.
"Okay," she said determination in her voice, "talk to me about these concerns, and let's see if we can't come to some sort of arrangement."
That afternoon Sam and Rachel performed a duet of Lady Antebellum "Need You Now" in Glee Club while Santana shot daggers out her eyes at the blonde boy to no effect. After that day, Sam effectively took Santana's place in the trio and Rachel, Sam, and Brittany were seemingly always together. She never saw them doing anything overtly couple-y. They didn't kiss or even hold hands. Sam frequently escorted Rachel to class carrying her books, Rachel taking his arm, but he the Latina told herself that it doesn't necessarily mean anything. Santana tried to find out what was going on but Rachel was tight lipped and Brittany who had been sympathetic to Santana's reluctance to come out was absolutely furious with her for the whole Karofsky thing, so they weren't speaking either. Sam refused to answer any of her questions. He seemed curiously immune to all her intimidation techniques. No one else was privy to any details so without another in Santana was forced to assume the obvious. Rachel was moving on.
At the prom, Santana and Karofsky mostly mingled and tried to pick up last minute votes. Rachel arrived in a group with Sam, Brittany, Quinn, and Finn. They had arrived fashionably late. Rachel was going to be a star someday so the girl knew how to make an entrance. The diva looked amazing with her hair up in a loose bun and a beautiful black dress that was elegant and classy but just clingy enough in the right places to be sexy as hell.
New Directions was the band at prom due to some deal worked out with Mr. Schuester and Figgins to help pay for their impending trip to Nationals in New York. First off the band formerly known as The Justin Bieber Experience covered Rebecca Black's "Friday" and even Santana had to admit that the guys managed to make the silly song fun. Blaine, Brittany and Tina followed that with "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You" which was very fun. The Glee Girls reprised their gender swapped mash-up "Start Me Up/Livin on a Prayer" which conjured up memories for both Rachel and Santana of the sight of each other in leather and of the rather intense make out session that followed.
Then it was Rachel's turn to sing, and that was all anyone knew. She hadn't rehearsed the song with the club like most of the other numbers they were playing tonight. Rachel had assured Mr. Schuester that it was appropriate for school and that she would be prepared. He'd had no reason to doubt her so he let it go. The brunette handed out sheet music to the band. Most of them just nodded and didn't even mess with looking through it, seemingly already knowing the song. The song started and almost everyone recognized it immediately "The Only Exception" by Paramore which Santana had heard Rachel sing along to a time or two at home, but not in public. Santana was standing in the back off the dance floor. She hadn't danced with Karofsky yet and she wasn't planning to. She could see Rachel looking at Sam who was standing a couple of feet in front of the Latina. "When I was younger I saw my daddy cry… and curse at the wind. He broke his own heart and I watched as he tried to re… assem… ble it. And my momma swore… that she would never let herself forget. And that was the day that I promised I'd never sing of love… if it does not exist." Rachel's gaze lifted a little and now Santana wasn't sure if Rachel was looking at Sam or at her. "But darling, you are the only exception. Yoooou are the only exception. Yoooou are the only exception. Yoooou are the only exception."
Curious to know the truth, Santana moved about five feet to her right and watched where Rachel looked for the second verse. Much to her chagrin Rachel looked towards the back wall when she started again. "Maybe I know somewhere… deep in my soul that love never lasts. And we've got to find other ways to make it alone." Rachel's gaze finally drifted back over to Santana's general area once more. The ex-Cheerio couldn't help but be a little excited. "Or keep a straight face. And I've always lived like this keeping a comfortable… distance. And up until now I've sworn to myself that I'm content with loneliness. Because none of it was ever worth the risk. Well you are…" Now Rachel was looking right at her, and Santana's heart leapt for joy. "the only exception. You are the only exception. You are the only exception. You are the only exception. You are the only exception." Then Santana heard the a familiar laugh and turned to see that Sam was standing right behind her and cursed herself for getting excited.
Santana contemplated moving across the room again, but that would seem weird and she wasn't sure she could deal with the answer if Rachel continued looking in the place she moved from. Instead she took two steps forward putting a good four feet between her and Sam, but the divas gaze remained inscrutable. "I've got a tight grip on reality, but I can't… let go of what's in front of me here. I know you're leaving in the morning when you wake up. Leave me with some kind of proof it's not a dream. You are the only exception. You are the only exception. You are the only exception. You are the only exception. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, you are the onlyyyy exceptioooooon!"
After Rachel's performance, Principal Figgins took to the stage and called up all the nominees for Prom King and Queen. Santana and Karofsky were first to the stage followed quickly by Quinn and Finn, Puck and Lauren, and some other people that Santana didn't care enough about to recall their names. Santana was so nervous that she could hear her own heart beating in her ears. The throbbing was so loud that she nearly missed Figgins announcing the Prom King as David Karofsky. She breathed a huge sigh of relief. Her plan was going to pay off. Watching Rachel hang all over Trouty Mouth for the last month hadn't been for nothing. "Ladies and gentlemen, the 2011 McKinley High Junior Prom Queen… Kurt Hummel."
"WHAT?" said every girl on the stage all at once.
"What's wrong with you, saying that," Santana said to Figgins. He wasn't exactly quick to respond and Santana heard Kurt's hurt sob followed by someone running for the door. She turned her attention to the group before her and quickly shouted, "KURT, WAIT!" just as the back door to the gym was pushed open. The well groomed boy was standing in the doorway looking back, Blaine just behind him. "You're going to want to hear this." She turned her glare on everyone. "You assholes think you're funny? I don't hear any of you laughing. We'll all vote for the gay kid for Prom Queen. It'll be hilarious. If you think it's funny, you'd best get to laughing it up, because this is it. After this there will be no more picking on gay kids at this school. From now on you mess with any gay kid, you're messing with me because I'm gay and I gets mine's backs." She paused to let that little nugget set in. "That's right, morons. Santana Lopez is a lesbian, and just so we're clear the terms are gay or lesbian. The words fag, dyke, queer, lezbo, homo… all out of your vocabs starting now." Santana scanned the crowd for the one person she really hoped was enjoying this speech and finally found her. "That beautiful girl in the amazing black dress over there, Rachel Berry, she's my girlfriend," Rachel smiled at this word and Santana couldn't help but be emboldened at it, "or at least she was until I let fear of what you stupid mouth breathers were going to say or do. Yeah, I'm an idiot. I'm in love with my best friend and I'm scared of what you toolboxes think. Rachel, I love you and I'm so sorry about all this. I don't know what the deal is with you and Sam, but if it's at all possible can you please give me a chance to make it up to you? I'll do anything, Babe."
Rachel pushed her way through the stunned audience making it to the stage quickly. She stepped up onto it and crossed to stand in front of the Latina and said, "Kiss me right here in front of everyone." Santana didn't hesitate for even a second to crash herself into Rachel's soft full lips cupping both of Rachel's cheeks in her hands. Passion poured from Santana into her kiss, just in case this was the last time. Rachel pulled back a minute later and after making sure they were still close enough to the microphone to be picked up said, "I love you, too, Santana."
After they took a minute for themselves, Santana took to the microphone, "So this is the part where we're supposed to have the traditional King and Queen Dance but don't have a Queen… and our King seems to have abdicated," she said noticing Karofsky's absence by the crown lying on the floor.
"Excuse me," said Kurt as he joined the girls on the stage, "I believe that crown belongs to me. I won it fair and square." Kurt picked up the Queen's crown but was stopped by Rachel.
"You can't coronate yourself, Kurt," the diva said picking up the crown instead. Kurt smiled and bowed his head so Rachel could gently place the crown on his head. "I hereby dub thee Queen Kurt."
"Thank you, Rachel, and for my first act as Prom Queen, I say that if Karofsky is going to abandon his post then it is only fitting that the obvious brains behind their campaign serve in his place." As he talked he walked over to the abandoned crown on the floor, picked it up and said, "All hail, King Santana!" as he placed the crown on Santana's head as she smiled and laughed. There was a smattering of applause mostly from the Gleeks. "So how about a non-traditional King and Queen Dance?"
"Are we really gonna do 'Dancing Queen' now?" Santana asked privately to Kurt.
"Yes, to show them that their words can't touch us," Kurt replied.
"Kurt, I'm sorry I didn't have your back before," Santana said, "I should have."
Kurt cast a glance over at Blaine then back to Santana and said, "I think it worked out for the best. I'm very proud of you, Santana, and thanks for standing up for me… for us tonight."
"No prob," she said, "So do you want to dance with me or would you rather dance with your boy?"
"If it's all the same," Kurt said, "I'd rather dance with my boy."
"Good, cuz I really wants to dance with my girl. Mercedes, Tina, hit this shit. Let's get our dance on." The girls stepped up on stage as Kurt and Santana stepped off. Just as Santana held out a hand to ask Rachel to dance, Brittany grabbed both girls in huge hug. "Britt, I love you to pieces but I'm trying to have a moment with girl here."
"I know," Brittany said releasing them, "I just wanted to say that I'm super proud of you King Santana, and also I need to make sure it was okay with Rachey if I dance with my boyfriend, now."
"Boyfriend?" Santana echoed.
"Of course, sweetheart," Rachel replied, "Dance with him, kiss him, make use of that hotel room if it pleases you to do so. Just please be sure to thank Sam for going along with tonight's events and thank you as well. I owe you both so very much."
"You're totally welcome, Rachey," the blonde replied, "That's what friends are for. Love you guys." The bubbly blonde bounded across the dance floor and leapt into Sam's waiting arms and kissing the blonde boy deeply.
Santana looked at the sight, confused. She looked down at Rachel and said, "Wait, Sam's with Brittany?"
Rachel just shrugged, "Apparently they wound up paired in a game of Spin the Bottle and Sam was harboring a bit of a crush, so in return for him agreeing to tonight, I played matchmaker between them, which I'd say was an excellent deal for me since all I had to do to convince Brittany to go out with Sam was to say that he wanted to take her out… and besides, it's not like I was interested in him."
Santana hiked an eyebrow and said, "You bitches played me."
"Perhaps a bit," Rachel admitted, "Are you mad?"
"Mad?" she responded surprised, "Fuck no! I'm impressed. My girl is devious as hell. Who'd have thought? Not to mention a damn good actress, but then we knew that already."
Rachel smiled and said, "Thank you, thank you."
"Hey, Babe," Santana said. Rachel looked adoringly up at her girlfriend, "I should have said yes that night. I should have bought you that dress you wanted and picked you up in the limo and bought you a corsage and all that. This Karofsky-Prom Queen thing was supposed to give me the courage to come out but it was stupid. I'm sorry I ruined your big night."
Rachel snorted in laughter, "Tana, Love, look around you. In what way is this night ruined? I'm wearing that dress I wanted. I look great, you look amazing. We're at prom, we're together, we're dancing, we're out at long last and…" Rachel fixed Santana with a lustful gaze, "I may or may not have a hotel room keycard in my purse."
"And what would we be doing in this hypothetical hotel room?"
"Something that end in you screaming my name," Rachel said, "whether that results from a tickle fight or something decidedly more intimate has yet to be determined."
Santana chuckled, "It's your night, Babe. Whatever makes your happy."
"Thank you, Love," Rachel said resting her head on Santana's shoulder and smiled at Brittany doing the same with Sam. "For now, dancing with the Prom King is doing a very good job of that."
"So is our first dance a beautiful memory to be looked back on happily years from now?" asked Santana.
Rachel smiled and said, "The most beautiful, Tana. Thank you so much."
"It was absolutely my pleasure, Babe," Santana said, just noticing something, "Are you wearing the bracelet I gave you for our anniversary?"
Rachel nodded against Santana's shoulder. "I have been all night."
"I'm so damn blind."
"No," Rachel countered, "You are the only exception."