Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 54th cycle. Now cycle 55!

Favorites cycle - It's that time again, where I gather a list of my fifteen favorite characters, relationships, friendships, etc of the moment! It's constantly evolving, and if I did it over today, as the list was selected weeks ago, it would already be different. But oh well, there'll be later opportunities ;) So then, here we go!
At number 1 - Brittany S Pierce

"From the Ashes"
Brittany (+ Santana, Brittana, etc)
Boston Britt series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

1. What She Needs

They had been in that apartment together since the night before and up until the time where Brittany had to leave for the train station, so it wasn't like they had been away or apart for too long, and yet… Now that she wasn't just back but had gone and decided to stay, everything looked and felt different to them. This had gone from being Santana's apartment to being… their apartment.

Once they'd gotten through the shock and the joy of being reunited and deciding that she would stay, Brittany had gone and sat on the couch, staring into nowhere. From her face it just seemed like all of it was sinking in at last, and she was realizing what it would all mean. Santana came and sat with her, looking at her for a while, waiting to see… "You alright?" she asked, and Brittany shrugged. "Second thoughts?" Brittany shook her head.

"I don't know what to do," she admitted. "I didn't know before, still don't know now…"

"What were you going to do once you got back to Lima?" Santana asked, and Brittany thought.

"I don't know, go back to school, I guess."

"Okay, well that's one thing right there." Brittany looked back to her. "I'm taking classes so I get my diploma, you can do it, too," she explained, and the blonde sat up.

"Like we'll be in school together again?" The thought of it looked to be the best thing Brittany had heard in a long time, other than the fact that she could stay with Santana.

"Well we'd have to look into it, but you might," Santana nodded. "That's something you should be doing anyway, getting your diploma."

"What if I can't though? I mean I flunked out of…"

"That was different, they wanted too much," Santana told her. "But I know you got better these past few months, and you're going to do just fine in my classes. Better than fine."

"Okay…" Brittany looked to be accepting it, and Santana gave her a smile.

"There, see, now you've got one thing. What else?" she encouraged, and Brittany thought again.

"Well I guess I'll need to get a job so I can have money," she spoke eventually. "I can pay you half the rent and all that," she turned back to Santana.

"Don't worry about that right now," Santana assured her. "What kind of job?" she asked.

"I don't know," Brittany was clueless once more.

"What about… I mean I know it's kind of a rough spot right now, but you could teach dance…" Brittany shook her head immediately.

"No." She said no more, no less, and Santana left it alone.

"Well we'll find you something," she went on. "In the meantime we can manage. So school, work… what else?" she asked, and now the blue eyes turned anguished.

"I have to call my parents. They're supposed to come and get me at the train station…"

"Except you won't be there," Santana continued, and Brittany leaned against her shoulder.

"They're gonna be mad," she stated.

"Maybe… Probably…"

"It's not their fault though, it's mine. I told them I was coming home, and then I changed my mind. They won't speak to me anymore…" she sounded on the verge of a panic attack, and Santana wrapped her arm around her to bring her closer.

"That's not going to happen, okay? Not to you."

"Happened to you…" Brittany had to say, and Santana sighed. "I'm sorry…"

"No, don't… It's true," she shrugged, and now she could feel Brittany holding on to her all the same. She didn't know that this turn of events would exactly help matters with her own parents, more likely it would make it worse, and they'd say this whole madness had gone and wrecked things for the Pierces as well. She wouldn't say any of this to Brittany though. She had plenty on her plate without her having to add the idea that this action would cause her problems with her family.

"Most of my stuff is already going to Lima, maybe they won't send it back."

"We'll deal with that later," Santana told her. "At the worse, we'll get you new things."

"With what money?"

"Like I said, we'll deal with that later." The further they went it just seemed like the picture was getting worse, and Santana didn't want to think about that. She wasn't delusional enough to think that this would all be easy, but she was still just so happy to know she wasn't losing Brittany, and she didn't want to wreck the moment. "You hungry?" she asked, brushing blonde hair from her forehead before pressing her lips to it. Brittany made a noise she interpreted as 'no.' "Tired?" This noise meant 'maybe.' "If you fall asleep, I've got you, okay?" 'Yes.' Within no more than two minutes, Brittany had dozed off.

While she was asleep, Santana had to think. She didn't know if she'd just sleep for twenty minutes or for hours. The minutes were ticking by, and that train was on its way. No one but the two of them knew that Brittany wasn't on it even though she was supposed to be. If her family got to the train station and saw it arrive, unaware of what was happening, it would be worse. She couldn't stop it from here, and in everyone's best interest, she had to do something. Calling them would probably lead to something ugly, so she had to circumvent that.

She'd called Quinn and told her what was happening. If anyone could handle this the way she would have done it, if she was over there, it would be Quinn. She promised she'd keep her posted, and that was it. After she'd hung up, she had looked back down to Brittany, sleeping against her. All she needed was for her mind to be at ease again, and it hadn't been, for so long it seemed. They weren't out of the woods, not yet, but Santana would do her absolute best to get her there. Hopefully a little sleep would give her some much needed relief.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)