Quinn centric. Explores Unholy Trinity friendship from the beginning, starting before "Glee." Will explore Faberry friendship later on. Canon unless you squint your eyes and tilt your head at it.
~ ~ ~ Summer Before 9th Grade
'Thank God Brittany's here.' That's the only thing Santana thinks as she look around at the damp woods surrounding her and at the blank expressions of the Cheerio hopefuls that she's sharing the dreary view with.
"LISTEN UP YOU BABIES, YOU ARE HERE BECAUSE YOU MAY HAVE AT SOME POINT OR ANOTHER ENTERTAINED THE IDEA THAT YOU'RE GOOD ENOUGH TO BE ON MY WORLD CHAMPION CHEERLEADING SQUAD. I AM HERE TO PROVE YOU WRONG. WE HAVE TWO WEEKS OF ELIMINATIONS OUT HERE. YOU ARE TO REPORT TO THE MAIN CAMPSITE AT PRECISELY 6 A.M. FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS ARE ON THE BULLETIN BOARD IN THE DINING HALL. DISMISSED."
'If that lady keeps screaming into that megaphone, she and I are going to have issues.' Santana thinks, then mentally backtracks when she realizes that even she's not badass enough to go up against someone as scary and arguably insane as Couch Sylvester.
"San!" Santana smiles as she recognizes the voice and arms now embracing her.
"Hey Britts" Santana turns around in the hug and returns it before looking into the bubbly blonde's cheerful blue eyes. "Are the room assignments up?"
"Probably, but I don't know where." Santana smiles as she links pinkies with her best friend, "It's all good Britts, it's probably in the dining hall. Plus, I wants to get my eats on."
Brittany giggles and they head off to the dining hall, disregarding the mindless maybe-Cheerios cluelessly standing around as though brains will randomly appear in the empty spaces in their skulls, or at least that's what Santana thinks they look like.
Brittany and Santana stare blankly at their options of... food? In reality, they're looking at red bottles with 'Cheerios' written in boldfaced white of what appear to be protein shakes, one for each of the prospective Cheerios.
"Man, I thought my sister was kidding when she said Coach starves you." some random girl Santana vaguely recognizes from middle school says.
"DO ANY OF YOU READ? IF YOU THINK A LACK OF SOLID FOOD AND BASIC NECESSITIES IS HARD, THINK ABOUT BEING IN YOUR FORTIES AND HAVING TO SQUEEZE A DECENT SQUAD OUT OF YOU PATHETIC BABIES, THAT'S HARD. STOP COMPLAINING." Sylvester screams through her megaphone, having seemingly magically appeared in the dining hall.
'Apparently the rumors of her almost inhuman hearing and appearing are true too...' Santana thinks as she grabs a bottle for herself and one for Britts, glaring at the girl that made the complaint. No better way to get Coach to see her as a top of the pyramid type of girl than to get the other girls to think themselves inferior to her from the get-go. Not to mention, she needs to get a spot up there for Britts too.
"Is Coach not having babies?" Britts asks seriously as they sit down. Santana can usually understand her best friend, but even she needs clarification sometimes.
"Coach isn't pregnant Britts." Brittany shakes her head.
"I know that, but don't woman usually get really mad when the stork doesn't visit them anymore. Like stork-pause but more like stork-stop? I think that's why Coach is so mad all the time." the blonde looks happy to have diagnosed the woman who is currently responsible for their lives with... Stork-pause?
Wait. Think. Stork-pause. Stork babies. Baby pause. Angry. AHA!
"You're talking about menopause!" Eureka. Okay, check for it. Correct! Britts is nodding.
"That's the word. So do you think that's why she likes screaming so much?" Britts asks. Santana thinks it's a valid question and perhaps probable, considering the woman's age.
"Maybe." Santana shrugs and smiles as they finish their protein shakes. "Let's go look at the bulletin board." Brittany nods.
Bulletin Board:
YOU WILL NOT GET A SPOT ON THE CHEERIOS IF:
You complain too much
You're annoying
You suck
You're late
You're weak
*Practice will start at 6 a.m. every day and will continue indefinitely. You are to be in your uniform, which should be maintained in pristine condition at all times. If you survive this two week Cheerio's boot-camp, you may be allowed to participate in the actual tryouts for the team.
'What a great introduction to high school.' Santana thinks before looking down at the random room assignments. The girls from her middle school were scouted by Sylvester for possible cheerleading ability and asked to come to this camp in the middle of no-where for two weeks to see if they actually had what it takes to be on the cheerios, and the only award for surviving is the ability to try-out for a spot? One would think these were the tryouts...
Whatever, room assignments...
And who cares about all these random girls, all Santana really cares about is if she's rooming with Britts. Apparently, there are ten bunkers and four girls to a room. Throughout the rest of the summer this place is an actual camp where people have fun, but the first two weeks immediately following the end of the school term? Its all Sylvester's.
Finally, Brittany's name. In a room with three girls, none of which are Santana. 'Great.' Santana thinks as she looks for her own name, 'Time to practice my HBIC face and get one of Britts' roommates to trade with me.'
She finds her own name, strangely enough with only one other person assigned to her bunker. Some chick named Quinn Fabray. Santana smiles wickedly.
"We're not together," Britts pouts. "Maybe Coach will let us change the room assignment?" The blonde asks hopefully.
"No worries Britts, I'm only with one other person and I'm pretty sure I can scare her out. We'll have a room all to ourselves." She grins, this is going to be too easy. Brittany grins back, hopping up and down excitedly. Santana's look softens to endearment and she takes the blonde's pinkie.
Santana and Brittany walk all the way to what will become their cabin with their pinkies linked. Santana is excited to be getting a room to herself with Brittany, all that needs to happen now is that she need to get this Quinn chick to leave. Santana pauses. Their middle school wasn't all that big, and she's pretty sure the name of someone who caught Coach's eye would at least register with her. As it stands, she's never heard of Quinn.
Santana schools her face into something intimidating before opening the cabin door. She knows Quinn is in there because Britts insisted on telling her would-have-been roommates not to be sad that she was ditching them because they were getting someone else instead, so Fabray must have found her way to this cabin by now.
She and Britts walk in, Brittany smiling and Santana somewhere between glaring and scoffing.
"Okay, so you're going to cabin three 'cause Britts and I want this place to ourselves." Santana states cockily in lieu of a greeting, before even looking at the girl she's kicking out.
Silence.
She looks up.
Full stop. Quinn Fabray has a cool look in her eye and a perfectly shaped eyebrow quirked up, unimpressed. She is easily the most gorgeous female Santana has ever seen in person with her long, wavy, honey-golden hair, full lips and piercing hazel-green eyes. Her face is almost perfectly symmetrical and her body is lean and toned. Fabray looks down and continues unpacking.
"Okay. Hello. You must be Santana and the person next to you must be 'Britt's'. Nice to meet you, though apparently you would like to kick me out. Here is how it is. I've been assigned to this cabin so here is where I'll stay. You do what you want." She continues to unpack.
"Oh really? Watch yourself Fabray because I'll be head Cheerio soon and you'd do well not to challenge me. Unless you want me to go Lima Heights on your ass, in which case, bring it." Santana answers combatively.
The eyebrow again.
"Really?" Quinn asks calmly. It's not a question. Weird, because there isn't much else that word alone could be, but somehow it's an assertion of an authority this girl seems to wield as though she's entitled to it.
"Britts stays." Santana concedes. A smirk, Fabray 1, Lopez 1/2. Oh shut up, she deserves at least half a point.
"Sure. There are two extra beds here regardless. Nice to meet you Brittany... Pearce? I think I saw your name on the bulletin board." Quinn addresses Brittany amenably.
"You're like, super-smart. But you kinda seem like one of those people San says have a stick up their butt. Doesn't that hurt?" Brittany questions innocuously. Santana suits up mentally because if this chick says anything even remotely mean back to Britts she's going to come into all kinds of problems.
"Thank you for the compliment, but the stick thing is a metaphor, I'm sure, and a judgement you don't know me well enough to make." Quinn answers, seemingly confused at Brittany's combination of tactlessness and innocence. She smiles at the other blonde, but her eyes are guarded.
Close Fabray, that cut it close on the mean-ness front.
"Why are you here? I don't recognize you from middle school, and all the other girls here are from my middle school." Santana asks the question that's been bothering her since before this room business came into play. She and Brittany drop their stuff on adjacent beds on the opposite side of the room from Quinn.
"I'm not from your middle school, I just moved into your school's district. I'll be attending McKinley in the fall." the corresponding blonde answers curtly. Wow. How specific. Open book that one.
"Heads up, Coach wasn't joking about the lack of bare necessities here, the bathroom's a joke, there's barely enough room for the door to close." Quinn noticeably changes the subject.
"Whatever," the darker girl smirks, "Why not complain to Coach, see where that gets you?"
Eyebrow up. "Okay, sorry for whatever I did to piss you off. I'm going to attempt to take a shower in that tiny stall." Quinn grabs her toiletries and makes her way to the bathroom in the corner of the room. Once the door closes, the other blonde in the cabin speaks up.
"I think we could be friends with her."
"Britts, I kinda don't get along with her already." Santana sighs.
"But she's really pretty, and she doesn't know anyone here yet. We've at least seen some of these girls around." the blonde looks hopeful.
"Maybe. We'll see. It depends if she comes correct next time she speaks to me." Santana decides.
"But you started with the whole angry eyes thing." Britts says, Santana sighs.
"Okay B." Brittany smiles.
Santana and Brittany take their showers and the two talk a bit before sleeping. Quinn doesn't participate in the conversation, but stays up until they're finished talking, keeping herself occupied with a book. Catch 22, Santana notices. Thinking of war this early in the game? Interesting.
Santana gasps awake. A human sized and massed weight just launched itself unceremoniously on top of her. Her bleary eyes open. She is not in a good mood.
"It's 5:30 S, time for breakfast." Brittany. Smile. God it looks forced, it's way to early to be awake. Brittany starts tickling her and the smile turns genuine, and soon morphs into a giggle which becomes an outright guffaw.
"You awake yet?" Brittany asks when she stops.
"Oh, man I almost overslept!" Santana realizes looking up at Brittany, who is still in tickling position, straddling her. Right then, something catches her eye. Fabray, in cheerleading uniform, smirking at them cooly.
"You're lucky I woke Brittany up then." Fabray says in lieu of good morning. Brittany turns to her and her smirk becomes softer, more genuine. "Thanks for that, by the way." the blonde on the bed tells the one standing.
"No problem," Quinn responds. "You coming?"
Brittany gets off the bed in search of her duffel bag, pulling out her Cheerios uniform. If we succeed here and in the tryouts, these will become our actual uniforms. Brittany starts changing, paying no regard to the fact that she's not alone in the room.
Santana looks at Quinn before grabbing her own duffel and uniform. Quinn is grabbing at a chain around her neck and looking away with a hint of a blush adorning her features. Santana starts changing in front of Quinn as well.
"I'd say get used to it because we'll have to change together in the locker rooms a lot, but I don't think you'll actually make it to the team, so don't worry about it." Santana says in mock reassurance.
"San, don't be mean because Quinn's a pressed lemon." Brittany puts in seriously.
Quinn and I stare at her blankly. Okay, what?
When we're all changed, the three of us go to the dining hall together. Quinn walks a bit ahead of Santana and Brittany, who have their pinkies linked. The three get their breakfast and chat idly with the other prospective Cheerios, Santana and Quinn clearly disinterested in what the other girls have to say, but participating in the conversation anyway considering these are the girls they'll probably end up having to spend a lot of time with throughout high school.
As opposed to her roommates, Brittany is as sweet and engaged as ever, though she's not saying as much. There's a moment after Brittany says something others would consider odd that one of the other girls looks like she's about to retort with something nasty. She backtracks, but strangely enough it's not Santana's glare that's making her think better of it. She's looking straight at Quinn.
Santana turns to look at her other bond roommate, there's the eyebrow, and an angry glint in the eyes underneath. Even Santana would probably shrink under that gaze. This girl has the HBIC thing down pat.
All the girls finish their breakfast and go to the main site, standing in rows awaiting Coach's orders. It's 5:59 a.m.
"ALRIGHT YOU BABIES, THEE LAPS AROUND THE CAMPSITE. IF YOU FEEL SICK, KEEP GOING. IF YOU GET SICK, CLEAN IT UP AFTERWARDS BECAUSE I DON'T NEED YOU STINKING UP MY CAMPSITE WITH YOUR WEAKNESS AND VOMIT. IF YOU'RE NOT BACK IN TWENTY MINUTES, YOU SHOULD RECONSIDER BEING HERE." Are Coach's orders the minute we get onto the field.
Lady's crazy. It's six in the morning, we just ate, and the campsite is at least 1.3 miles in circumference. She wants us to run almost four miles in twenty minutes? This early?
All the girls look around at each other, wondering if Coach is serious. All the girls except for Quinn. Quinn, who is standing right next to Santana, just nods at the orders and starts walking towards the edge of the campsite. She seems to pick the clockwise direction, and starts running. The girls that notice look confused.
"WHAT PART OF START RUNNING DIDN'T YOU UNDERSTAND?" Coach screams into her megaphone, and the girls including Santana and Brittany shoot off after Quinn.
It takes a while to get into the running mode, but soon Brittany and Santana are up front with Quinn, keeping a steady pace and easily faring better than the other girls, who tried sprinting at first but got tired and fell into place behind Santana and Brittany. Quinn is still taking the lead, deciding the direction and pace. She looks calm, sweating, but calm.
Santana is doing pretty well herself. She's somewhat tired, but that's from having woken up so early when her body was in summer mode. She and Britts aren't having problems keeping up with Quinn, since Britts has been in great shape all her life due to her numerous dance dance and gymnastics classes, all of which Santana had followed her best friend to. Santana is secretly impressed that Quinn actually seems too be in as good shape as she is.
The trio makes it back to the starting point after the three laps before any of the other girls. Coach then has them doing a variety of routine workouts: sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, wind sprints, and suicides in rapid succession.
"She's testing our baseline stamina." Quinn pants, visibly exhausted.
"She could be a general in the army with that work-out routine." Santana answers, bending over with her hands on her knees. They'd just been released for lunch and the rest of the girls are either vomiting or laying on the grass about to pass out. Brittany somehow still seems functional, whereas Santana is standing on sheer will power. Quinn looks as tired as Santana feels, but her eyes are clear and have an almost scary, steely determination to them. She might be physically exhausted, but she is still completely mentally present. For the first time, Santana feels she's in the presence of someone who might outclass her if she doesn't keep on her toes. Santana stands at her full height.
"Possibly true. Let's get lunch." Quinn says walking somewhat shakily towards the dining hall. Santana and Brittany link pinkies and follow her.
After lunch the girls all line up on the main field, awaiting Sylvester's orders. Santana stands next to Quinn who is in the first row, dead center. Brittany stands next to Santana on the other side. Coach come out yelling about how weak they all are and soon they're doing their first assisted lifts and running through basic cheerleading techniques. Santana is a natural flyer, and Quinn and Brittany are both part of the group that lift her.
Practice runs for about two hours after that. Apparently the morning work-out had simply been Sylvester's idea of 'warm-up'. It's only the first day and it's already clear that Santana and Brittany are two of the most athletic girls in the group, and Quinn is not only one of the most athletic, but seemingly a natural cheerleader.
"BLONDIE TRANSFER STUDENT, SEE ME IMMEDIATELY." Coach shouts into her megaphone.
Quinn looks at her two roommates with wide eyes. Santana raises an eyebrow and Brittany cocks her head.
"What'd you do?" Santana asks. She almost wants it to be something bad so that she would no longer have rough competition, but for some reason she doesn't want to wish bad things upon the blonde.
Quinn shrugs and jogs towards Coach. And Santana and Brittany lay on the grass, both physically exhausted beyond the point of functioning, though Brittany still seems kinda cheerful.
The girls meet up again in the dining hall.
"What'd Coach want?" Santana asks as soon as Quinn sits down.
"She said that I wasn't as pathetic as she expected. Guess I'm doing better than you thought I would." The blonde responds with a smirk.
The darker girl rolls here eyes and goes back to talking to Brittany.
The rest of the week goes along in pretty much the same way, and about half of the girls that were there initially had called home and left. The remaining 20 or so were improving, but Santana, Brittany, and Quinn were still noticeably the best, and Coach had taken a liking to Quinn particularly.
They're on the eighth day of cheerios camp now, and Coach wants the groups working on getting the flyers enough air for them to be able to successfully flip at their peak height.
Coach had made changes to the groups for assisted lifting and flying, but her preference for Quinn and non-dislike for Santana and Brittany allowed the three girls to stay together, though they do have to put up with two other random girls in their group. Santana is their flyer and Quinn and Brittany help lift her with the other two.
"Why does she get to be the flyer? She doesn't have to do anything while we're here literally pulling her weight!" One of the girls, Lindsey, grunts maliciously as they set Santana down after yet another unsuccessful attempt. Santana Was only going marginally higher than before,not high enough to flip.
"She gets to be the flyer because she's the lightest, and is far more acrobatic than you. Or do you think you could maneuver a flip in mid-air in the span of seconds while hoping to God one of the bumbling idiots below you doesn't falter and drop you?" Quinn nearly growls, rounding on the girl and managing to effectively back her into a corner on an open field.
Santana smirks at the compliment Quinn indirectly paid her. Somehow, Quinn had become a part of Santana and Brittany's group. She was always nice to and even defended Britts, and she could banter with Santana quite gamely, the two were always on the side of playful just shy of insulting. It was nice.
"Maybe. If you'd let me try it." Lindsey squeaks. Quinn's eyebrow lifts and she smirks. This girl just subconsciously deferred deciding power to Quinn by saying that she needs Quinn's permission. Quinn knows.
"You're too heavy. I'm not risking the other girls getting hurt just so you can try and fail to assuage your ego." Quinn answers haughtily. "Now let's go again, and let's do it right this time." She commands.
They try the lift again, and Santana feels Quinn putting more strength into it than she'd ever felt, and Britts matches her. The other girls only put slightly more effort than before, but it's enough and Santana does her flip flawlessly.
What happens next happens very fast, but on her way down Santana feels an impact on her shoulder and there's a pause, and then she's on the ground, and there's someone beneath her.
A groan. Another. Only one is Santana's. She's sore, but she rolls off the person under her. 'Whoever dropped me had better watch themselves.' Santana growls in her own head. Then, 'oh my God, BRITTANY!' Santana turns to the person she was just on top of, praying to whoever is listening that her best friend is okay.
It's Quinn. The girl's eyes are closed and she's groaning in pain. Her knees are bent awkwardly and her arms are bent up near her torso. She groans again and slowly starts to sit up. Brittany is by Quinn's side immediately when the latter sways slightly.
"San! Are you okay?" Britt's asks as she steadies the other blonde. Santana is a bit disoriented but nods, and goes to help Quinn. The darker girl's head clears and genuine concern for Quinn settles in.
"Quinn what happened?" Santana asks, positioning herself behind the injured girl and helping her up along with Brittany.
"Lindsey was distracted and tripped. Messed up the group. I stepped in so you wouldn't seriously mess up your back." she answers slowly, eyes closed and leaning heavily on Santana.
Full stop. Lindsey couldn't get her head out of her ass long enough to do things right. Probably pushed everyone out of place when she messed up, and while everyone else was trying to figure out what to do Quinn stepped in to keep Santana's injuries minimal? Injuring herself in the process? What?
Santana is about to tell Lindsey off for being so helplessly pathetic when...
"What the hell is going on here?" Sylvester's voice booms from directly behind Santana and Quinn and the girls all stiffen.
"Well Quinn told Lindsey she was too heavy to fly..." Brittany starts but Coach cuts her off.
"Did I ask for your random babble?" Sylvester turns to Lindsey. "That type of carelessness could have caused serious harm to the other girls! Not that I care but Figgins will annoy me to death if one of your parents starts complaining about medical bills and permanent disfigurements or disabilities."
Lindsey's cowering in fear by this point, and Quinn is making a valiant attempt at standing without assistance. She manages somewhat, but neither Santana or Brittany seem to want to let go of her, so she relaxes somewhat in both of their arms.
"We're fine coach. That lift would have been perfect." Quinn addresses the woman in the tracksuit.
"Except you and your flyer almost broke your necks." the woman retorts aggressively.
"That notwithstanding. Let us try it again. Girls! In position." Quinn commands, determined.
"Q..." Brittany mutters warningly.
"S, are you up to it?" Quinn asks with a raised eyebrow, though her expression is mostly friendly, the remnants of pain linger in her eyes.
Santana understands. She nods. If they don't do this, Coach will start to think less of them.
"Just don't drop me this time." Santana is facing Quinn, but obviously that comment wasn't meant for her. Quinn chuckles and the other girls seem to understand.
Sylvester doesn't say anything but she does step back to give the group room to try. Lindsey and the other girl don't get into position as quickly, but one rather potent glare from Quinn gets them moving.
Santana readies herself, and soon she's in the air and maneuvering her way into yet another perfect flip. Time seems to still and she prays nothing will go wrong. Scared, as always for Brittany and herself, but now for Quinn as well.
Soon enough, she's in the arms of the four girls who managed to catch her correctly this time. Brittany's arms linger around her as she's let down.
Sylvester nods, eyes lingering on Quinn.
"You're dismissed," Sylvester looks between Quinn and Santana. Quinn moves towards Brittany, grabbing her arm gently. The Coach sighs but nods, and the trio leaves for an early dinner.
"You two, wind sprints until the other sloppy babies figure out how to do the lift." The trio hears Coach address the two other members of their practice group. Apparently, none of the others had figured the flip out.
As Quinn, Santana and Brittany walk away, the latter two link pinkies, as is normal for them. This time, however, Brittany wraps her free arm around Quinn's waist, her head resting lightly on the girl's shoulder. Quinn turns her head slightly, looking first at the blonde who's now literally attached to her, and then at Santana, who nods, and she places a light kiss on Brittany's head. All three of them smile.
Quinn reaches her bed and plops down unceremoniously.
"Aren't you going to shower?" Britts asks.
"Gimmeaminute." She mumbles into the mattress.
"Can I shower first?" Britts tries again. Quinn grunts a yes and rolls over onto her back.
"God Santana, don't fall on me again. This sucks." Quinn complains. Santana chuckles, she would usually retort, but right now she's still kinda shocked that Quinn would do that for her. Sure, they'd gotten closer than they were the first night, but they weren't close enough for Quinn to literally be taking falls for her. Maybe they could actually become close friends. Santana smiles at the thought, she's always been somewhere at the top of the social hierarchy in school because no one would dare mess with her, but her only real friend has always been Brittany. It'd be nice to be able to count on more people, maybe it doesn't have to be so lonely at the top.
"Sorry" Santana replies belatedly, falling back on her own bed.
The two lay silently, the blonde nodding off every now and then. Santana isn't faring much better against sleep, but she's kinda hoping for some alone time with Britts once Quinn either goes to shower or goes to sleep. Sure, she's happy that she's getting closer to Quinn, but she still needs her Britts time, which hasn't happened all week.
Santana is pulled out of her musings by a grunt coming from the other side of the room. What she sees when she sits up is an image she doesn't even want to get out of her head. A fact that Santana really doesn't want to dwell too much on. A freshly showered Brittany in skimpy pyjama shorts and a tank top is straddling a startled, now awake, Quinn. Quinn has her hands uncertainly on Brittany's hips and is looking up at her with a questioning eyebrow quirked.
"Britts.. Huh?" Quinn inquires inarticulately.
"Turen over onto your stomach." Brittany requests without any further explanation.
"Wha-why?" Quinn asks again, baffled.
"Just turn over." Brittany grabs the other blonde's shoulders and tries to flip her over, since apparently Quinn isn't moving fast enough.
Santana has yet to say a word. She's kind of bothered by the physical proximity between the two blondes, but she's also enjoying watching it. She decides not to dwell on that either.
Brittany slowly start running her hands up and down Quinn's back, focusing first on the shoulders and then working her way down. She presses down here, squeezes there, works her thumbs in here, etc. And Quinn is enjoying every moment of the massage.
"Brittany, you are a goddess." The blonde facedown on the bed moans happily. And suddenly the room is a bit stuffy as Santana's mind wanders to how that came out.
"San tells me that all the time." Britts responds just as cheerfully, continuing her ministrations. That startles Santana out of her musings. She's about to clarify that ambiguous statement but Quinn shurgs it off. Santana hopes that's because Quinn is too distracted to read into that.
A few minutes go by, and Brittany gets off of the other blonde.
"You're really sweaty, you should go shower." Brittany tells Quinn matter-of-factly. Santana's head is really about to explode with the innuendo and she blames the exhaustion. She does not think of her blonde friend that way. Either of them. But especially not Brittany; she never has before. Santana shakes her head. What is she trying to convince herself of again?
"Thank you for saving San earlier." Brittany says, now launching herself bouncily to Santana's bed and hugging her. "She says thank you too. But quietly so you don't think she actually has manners 'cause she's from Lima Heights and all." Brittany says, backing away from Santana again who is still somewhat out of it.
"You're all sweaty too San, you should shower with Quinn." Brittany says, "I'll give you you're massage afterwards."
Santana's eyes go wide and she knows Brittany didn't mean it the way Santana took it but now the latter can't help herself.
"Brittany!" the darker girl gasps.
Quinn looks like she should be confused, but isn't. And is just looking between Santana and Brittany with a look in her eyes that's somewhere between knowing and amused. It irritates Santana and she feels cornered. She glares at Quinn.
"Do you two shower together?" Quinn is taking advantage of Brittany's innocence, something Santana does not appreciate. Then again, Brittany's innocence is more questionable than not on this particular subject.
"Yeah, but it's sorta mean that you're trying to make me admit something that makes San uncomfortable." Brittany says seriously. The room temperature seems to drop.
Quinn backtracks. Santana reads this on her face. Santana and Quinn mess with each other, but messing with Brittany is not allowed.
"Sorry Britt-Britt, I just meant that it saves a lot of time, which is useful if you're really tired." Quinn tries to fix whatever she messed up, she still doesn't know what exactly are the lines not to be crossed with Brittany.
"Or just want to get back to bed." Brittany adds cheerfully. Quinn smiles. Storm passed. Santana is still glaring and Quinn knows, and her smile turns into a smirk because she caught that innuendo same as Santana and she knows that Santana so badly wants to call her out on it but can't because it would just get Brittany upset again.
Quinn stops smirking and she actually looks into Santana's eyes more carefully. She pauses.
"Shower first S, I'm still too relaxed to move. Thanks for the massage Britts, and no problem about helping S out earlier." Quinn lays back down. I'm sorry for whatever. Santana catches the subtext to the offer of showering first.
"Sure." Santana answers curtly, but not unkindly. Apology accepted. Santana sees Quinn nod into her sheets as she steps into the shower.
When she gets out of the shower, Brittany is already asleep on Santana's bed, and Santana kinda wants to join her. She walks over to Quinn's bed, the occupant of which had nodded off again, and shakes the girl's leg a bit.
"Shower time, Q." The darker girl says, as she makes her way back to her bed and pauses. 'What would Quinn think if I jump in bed with Britts?' Santana shakes her head at how that thought came out, but ponders it anyway.
"You can sleep with her if you want." Quinn speaks up, gathering her toiletries. Santana's eyes widen, and shoot up incredulously to the blonde. "I can see you want to share your bed with her." She continues.
"What?" Santana asks sharply. It's a challenge and Quinn knows it. The blonde backtracks, not meaning what she said as it sounded.
"I didn't mean it like that. Get your head out of the gutter." Quinn scoffs trying to diffuse the tension.
"Why the hell would my head be in that type of gutter?" Santana whisper-shouts, trying not to wake the other blonde. Diffusion attempt failed.
"Don't be dense, San." Quinn sighs, seemingly resigned to the fact that Santana won't be reasonable at the moment. She goes to take her shower.
Santana walks over to Brittany's bed and lays down, falling asleep almost instantly, alone.
Santana feels very warm when she wakes up. Warm and heavy. Like twice her weight heavy. She tries to move but can't. She looks down and...
Brittany is nearly laying on top of her, quite cozily snuggled up against her side with a leg tossed across the darker girl's thighs.
'Huh?' Santana thinks. She knows she didn't choose to sleep in the same bed as Brittany last night, though she wanted to. She looks around, and realizes something about the room is different. 'Oh.' she thinks when she notices it. Brittany's bed and hers had been pushed together throughout the night.
"Rise and shine girls." Quinn says yawning. "Sylvester's suicide camp awaits." She smiles at the two of them.
"Oh, San. G'morning. We have a big bed now." Brittany says, getting up and grabbing her clothes. Santana looks up at Quinn from her now doublesized bed. Quinn smiles genuinely at her. Quinn looks even prettier when she smiles like this, with honest good emotion behind the smile, it's an expression the Santana had only ever seen the blonde direct to Brittany. But that's no surprise, how can you not smile at Britts? Santana grins at Quinn hugely.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Santana is happy to be able to relax now, but she still almost wishes Sylvester's pre-Cheerios camp would extend for another week. Sure, it was hell, but she was constantly with Britts and even managed to find a pretty good friend in Quinn.
"We should have a sleepover!" Brittany exclaims as we disembark the bus. 'Ugh, back in Lima.'
"Of course Britts, as always." Santana says, linking pinkies with the blonde. Quinn is distancing herself already, callling her father to pick her up.
"No, I mean all three of us." Quinn ends the call with her father after telling him where she'll be waiting. "We could have it at Q's house." Quinn stills.
"Sure Britts, sounds like fun. Q, we're coming over one of these days." Santana decides quickly, she's gots to keep her Britts happy, and it's not like she has any other plans at the moment.
"How about we do it at one of your houses?" Quinn asks nonchalantly.
Santana quirks an eyebrow. "But we've never been to your house." Brittany cocks her head to the side.
"And I've never been to either of yours." Brittany frowns at this. I let go of Brittany's pinkie and take a step forward.
"But if we go to yours then it's new for everyone, because you've never had us over." Brittany says cheerfully.
Quinn looks at Santana, who stares back at her discerningly. 'How far will you go Fabray? You're close to upsetting Britts.'
Quinn grabs the chain around her neck and smiles at Britts. "I'll ask my parents." Quinn smiles at Brittany. The latter blonde giggles and claps excitedly. Santana is somewhat torn, a large part of her is happy that Britts is happy, but there's also a part of her that's worried for Quinn. There must be a reason the girl doesn't want them to come over to her house, and now that Santana thinks about it, Quinn hadn't mentioned her house or her family once throughout the entire two weeks. Santana finds herself not wanting to go to this sleep over anymore.
She connects eyes with Quinn. 'This should be interesting.'