"Ugh…"
"Naya, you need to relax…" Lea laughed, patting the taller woman on the shoulders, smiling brightly. "Things are going to be just fine!"
"Lee, I am terrified!" she mumbled into her hands, cradling her forehead in her palms. "How do I do this on screen? It's not just anybody today it's-"
"Yeah, I know…" Lea nodded and wrapped her arms around Naya's shoulders, bringing her into a hug. "But things will be fine, trust me."
Naya gave one last, heavy sigh before getting up off her chair and walking to the trailer door. Lea followed, tagging close to her heels. As they walked past all the other trailers, towards the studio, Naya felt her chest start to pound with the beating of her feet against the tarmac.
Step, beat, step, beat. It was like some sort of insane war drum rhythm.
It was an hour later that she was on set, the lights all on, the cameras trained on her, and Eric Stoltz standing to the side.
"OK, so I need you both to lean in, just sort of stop a few inches away and then, Naya, you dive in for the kiss, OK?"
Naya nodded.
"OK! So, lights, rolling and…"
The pause that followed was an eternity of hours crawling by…
"Action."
"Look, Britt, I can't do this…"
"Yes, you can!" Heather laughed, so obviously in character, though her eyes said another story, and only Naya knew that. Her eyes were driving into Naya's searching for the fear, the anticipation, she knew Naya had.
"You'll be fine, Santana…"
"I can't kiss you in front of the whole school, Britt! I'm just not that ready yet!"
"Why not? You've done it a bunch of times, with Puck, with Sam…"
"They didn't mean anything though. With you…" Naya choked. She wasn't acting this, not at all. "With you it's different…"
"How different can it be? We kiss all the time."
"Yeah but this time…" Naya felt her nerves rattle in her brain as she leaned forward, Heather's lips coming so close to her own, so dangerously close…"this time it's…in front of everyone…"
She dived in, their lips moudling together perfectly. Of course they did, though, this wasn't just Santana and Brittany, this was Heather and Naya, the two women who'd done this so many times before…
And now it was before a whole platoon of rolling cameras.
"OK, cut! That's perfect!"
Eric's voice was far away, an ocean between them as he spoke. Nothing mattered right now but Heather, and the fact that even though everything had stopped rolling…
She was still kissing her back.
"Guys?" she thought she heard Eric call. She paid no attention, merely cupped Heather's neck and pulled her in closer.
"Guys? We're done now…"