Santana loves coffee. Santana loves coffee like a mistress, always returning to it. Eager for its taste. She drinks it every morning, and every lunch and if she can she even tries to sneak one or two in before bed unless Brittany catches her and she's forced to slink away without her hit. Something about it has always made her feel more mature, more sophisticated than she actually is. She doesn't admit it but walking away from a coffee shop, and taking the first sip of the bitter substance mid-walk makes Santana feel totally badass. She also doesn't admit that she's pretty sure Brittany knows by the smirk she sends Santana as she waits in the car, rolling her eyes as Santana pulls back on her shades and falls some-what elegantly back into the car beside Brittany.
Brittany never really enjoyed coffee. As a child she wrinkled and then turned up her nose at the heavy lingering taste her fathers coffee left on tongue, and as a teenager she did the same, albeit more dramatically, when Santana made her try a particularly bitter type of coffee by their lockers before their morning class.
(Santana laughed about that for ages, retelling the tale to anyone who would listen and trying to recreate the priceless face Brittany had pulled. Judging by Santana's imitations, Brittany looked a lot like a child scraping desperately at her tongue to remove the taste, and a bit like Lord Tubbington that time he had mistakenly eaten peanut butter and couldn't remove it from the roof of his mouth... Brittany eventually laughed about her reactions, but she was still a little irked by Santana and had pouted heavily for the rest of the day.
"You know fine well I don't like anything bitter... Oh yuck, Santana, please make the taste go away!" She had pleaded. While Santana's following kisses had been pleasant, they hadn't really helped since Santana was still drinking the foul liquid. She had eventually forced Santana towards a vending machine in the dining area, where she had made Santana buy her five different types of candy to share before Brittany quieted down, content.)
Despite her bad experiences with coffee, over the years there had been times where Brittany found herself enjoying the whole concept of the drink.
Falling into Santana's arms late at night, after whispering all the thoughts hurrying through her head, all of the little ideas bursting from her imagination, all the dreams she's more than ready to become reality, she takes the time to look into Santana's eyes. She really looks at her. She notes how tenderly those soft mocha (she settles on mocha because she's pretty certain any other one-word-description of Santana's eyes would simply fall short) eyes watch her, as the smaller woman listens patiently, nodding and smiling as Brittany whispers away. She finds it funny. Santana can be cold and bitter just like coffee can. But then she can also be strong and warm, and… passionate. Brittany frowns in confusion as she realises coffee can be strong and warm, she's not sure about how to fit "passionate" in with her comparison. When she realises she's stopped talking and Santana is still watching her with those big brown eyes, she smiles to herself and gently tilts her head to place a soft kiss to the other woman's full lips.
Some days, when Brittany comes out of the shower and wanders into their kitchen, Santana is already in a dressing gown, grasping a mug to her chest with half lidded eyes waiting for her. She mumbles a sleepy "Morning Britt-Britt..." and Brittany smiles broadly and gives her a chaste kiss in response. Coffee still lingers on Santana's lips and Brittany sighs happily to herself before slipping around Santana's sloth-like-morning-state, and gets down to making her and her woman breakfast. She secretly thinks that coffee has always tasted just a little bit better in small doses off of Santana's lips.
The smell of coffee can trigger headaches for Brittany sometimes, especially if she's around it too long. She recalls one of the many weeks that Santana had to go away on business. Alone in bed she found herself looking at the empty spot beside her and moved into it, wishing dearly for Santana to be holding her, and kissing her, and just being with her. Still feeling empty and alone Brittany had crawled out of bed knowing sleep wasn't going to arrive any time soon.
She sat on the edge of her bed, her bare feet feeling soft material below her. Her heart ached with gentle longing as her eyes adjusted to see the messy side of Santana's room, clothes lazily strewn on the floor without much care. She smiled sadly to herself, because that was just so Santana. Focussing her attention to the soft material between her toes, she wiggled her toes, enjoying the feel of it under her feet. She stopped and looked at it for a moment, mentally deciding upon something before slowly lifting Santana's favourite hoodie to her nose, feeling silly. If Santana could see her she'd probably laugh, but Santana wasn't there. Santana wasn't there, and Brittany missed her and she wondered, just a little bit.
As she inhaled slowly, warily, she wasn't disappointed the smell of Santana lingered there. Brittany could smell her vanilla perfume that she liked so very much (which Santana always denied borrowing, even though Brittany could tell she was lying a mile away) merging with the very unique smell that solely belonged to Santana. Inhaling again she smiled as she realised she could faintly smell coffee on her hoodie and wondered if perhaps the last time she had worn this she had lain in bed, her body wrapped around a mug of the hot steamy substance, enjoying the heat it brought. Slipping back under her comforter she hugged Santana's hoodie close to her chest, and let the smell lull her to sleep, almost able to believe Santana was there with her. The light coffee smell didn't cause any headaches at all, even after awakening. She wandered around the house the rest of the day in nothing but underwear and Santana's overly large hoodie that swamped even Brittany. (Brittany doesn't care. It's cute and baggy on Santana and that's all that matters.)
It got to the point that Brittany actually liked the coffee smell mingling with the Santana smell so much she went out of her way to stop at their favourite place and get some when the coffee and Santana smell on the hoodie began to fade into what Brittany presumed was her smell.
When Santana had been away on yet another business trip for the week and asked if it was OK to grab a coffee to wake her from her flight before they headed home, Brittany smiled brightly and said, "No problem!" Before Santana could open her mouth to order, Brittany slipped in front of her and requested Santana's usual before adding as an afterthought, "Oh, and a White Chocolate Mocha, please" smiling sweetly at the boy behind the till.
Brittany bit her lip shyly trying her best to ignore Santana's incredulous gaze and without looking responded, "It's stupid but drinking coffee made me feel closer to you." She glanced down at the still confused woman beside her before admitting embarrassed. "I know it's different to what you usually get but I tried that and I ended up spitting it out cause it was too strong." She wrinkled her nose at the memory of the taste.
Santana laughed fondly at the idea and concluded that, yeah, her coffee is kind of strong, and Brittany is sure she could feel her ears burning, embarrassed at how much she had missed Santana over as little as a week (even with constant text messages, phone calls, and even some pictures that left Brittany flushed, miss Santana more and at the same time be happy for the distance... Or else she wouldn't have had the opportune time to save them to her phone for the next time Santana was away...).
As they walked back to the car hand in hand, sipping at the drinks in hand, she doesn't fail to notice the giddy smile on Santana's lips, and Brittany is more than certain Santana is glad she's finally converted Brittany into liking coffee, even if it did take a couple of years.
A/N: Hey guys, my very first Brittana fanfiction... (well the first I've submitted and completed!) I don't know how I feel about it, because it sort of went out of control and I don't usually write like this... It seems OK for a start I guess, and I'm glad I got back into writing because any writing is an improvement than no writing at all. Feel free to drop critique (please try to be friendly, I want to improve, not cry!) and suggestions.
Sorry for any mistakes, I changed the tenses a couple times so hopefully I didn't miss anything. I hope you liked it :)
- Madi x