A/N: This Chapter goes into the first meetings of B&S. Thanks to the reviewer who pointed out my present/past tense straddling. I used to always write past and now I try to write present-tense because I like it more, so i literally mixed it up without noticing and i'm pretty sure it's not the first time lol. As for the 'arm' thing… can i be a bitch and postpone it longer? yes i can! lol hope you enjoy this chapter y'all

(Also, to JRRS, thanks for always reviewing. I haven't replied to your reviews in a while because your PM is disabled!)

Professor Pierce


Flashback, five years prior...


The University of Earth Quad 1:

The University of Earth had a huge campus, but despite how large it was to wander wherever Brittany went her entourage was able to find her and stick to her side.

Those annoying suck-up nerds wanted to be near her genius in hopes of mental orgasm (in Brittany's personal opinion).

But it was cool because they worshipped her and she amused herself with experimenting on the lengths of their worshipping.

"Can I carry your books for you?" Says Subject A.

"No, allow me-" Subject C's voice drowns out since Brittany stumbles into someone (because she was too busy trying not to roll her eyes) and 'oofs' at the same time they 'oof.'

"Oh my God Brittany are you okay?" Subject Weird Jaw aka Subject B rushes his skinny ass to her side and starts screeching from his weird jaw. "Watch where you're going, do you realize you just hit THE BRITTANY PIERCE!"

The person in question turns out to be an unimpressed (incredibly gorgeous!) Army student. There were quite a few enrolled at The University for general classes, but this one was higher ranked than the usual young cadets Brittany spots around and had her hair down instead of up in the uniformed do, her jacket unzipped to show some cleavage, and her leather boots not quite buffed or polished as they should be.

"A Commodore hanging around the business building?" Brittany asks when the young woman stands up after collecting her own fallen book bag.

"A genius making an obvious observation?" Snipes back the Commodore before walking away from them quickly – hitting the shoulders of Brittany's annoying nerd-tourage on the way in an intimidating (scowling and glaring) fashion.

Brittany feels her face flush. No one at this University ever talked to her like that except the patients in the psych ward, and even that was because they were crazy people who didn't know who she was.

Ignoring her nosy followers, Brittany jogs after the Army Official and tries to get her attention, "hey! Wait!"

The woman stops walking and raises an eyebrow after turning around, "Yes?"

"Um…" Brittany sucks her lips in before letting out, "last time a Commodore, or really there were seven Lieutenants, five Commodores, a couple Admirals, and fifty recruited Cadets – anyways – last time, right, within a square foot mile of where I just ran into you it was because of a severely dangerous bomb threat to the University so I mean, as a civilian in possible danger you have an obligation to report your reasons for attending this part of the school and why."

"…" The Commodore's eyes narrow at her, and her lips part ever-so but don't say anything in response like she's still trying to grasp all the words Brittany said.

Brittany grins at the dumfounded face and continues, "failure to follow citizen protocol means I'll have to report you Miss… Lo-pez-zzz."

Her finger points to the name stitched on the tight jacket, and the Commodore huffs before straightening her back and saying, "there is no known danger – oh wait. Yes there is. This Commodore is at The University to attend a scheduled lecture for Galactic Corporate Finance for which she will be late. For the safety of the civilian Pierce, this Commodore must inform her that she's making me late and over thinks too much and should carry on with her own day. Cool? Bye."

With that, she walks off and leaves Brittany dumbfounded. And a little turned on.

Brittany ended up thinking about that Commodore for the rest of the day, the day after, and even the day after that.

Obviously the woman was attending a lecture, her relaxed uniform even supported that…

But Galactic Corporate Finance? That was an elective no Armed Officer would ever need to study. Unless Commodore Lopez had a personal interest in that subject – which Brittany was felt was unlikely – then there was a reason.

Sure the woman was rude and made sense, but Brittany knew she was right. Commodores, no matter how young and sexy, made no habit of taking classes at The University.


Boiler Room Z of The University of Earth:

"Wow," Brittany narrows her eyes in astounded horror, "this is why you took Corporate Finance? I mean, I knew there was no way you were taking it for interest because you don't appear to have the patience to go through all those equations… but this I did not see coming. It doesn't suit your tough attitude at all."

Commodore Lopez is scowling from where she is hanging upside down in one of the University's many boiler rooms. The chain swings with obnoxious creaks and she closes her eyes in irritation at Brittany's arrival.

"So," Brittany sits down cross-legged with a smirk instead of offering to help get her down, "Professor Dicks is getting his students to unknowingly double pay on textbooks for not only his classes but all of their classes and you were supposed to be investigating him but instead found out he was working for that psycho power-trip Von Dwinkle and got bested by his goons and stuck here so they can come back in ten minutes after making sure you're alone without backup and beat the crap out of you."

Santana ignores her and uses a pocket lazer blade on the chain around her ankles to cut it and free herself before falling down into a handstand and smirking at Brittany's awed face before she flips herself into a seated position opposite her.

"Not quite. You got the bad guys right, but getting caught was part of my plan because now I have recorded evidence from the nano-chips in my earrings of their discussion." She gestures to the earrings with a tiny grin, a grin Brittany finds more twinkling than the jewelry.

"Those aren't admissible in court though," Brittany counters. "And where did you hide that pocket lazer? I saw them body-search you before they left."

"In my hair," Santana got the rest of the chains off her ankles and stood up, brushing her attire free of the ground's dirt. "How did you find out?"

"I hacked Corporate Finance to find out your name," Brittany admits casually, "and then noticed the discrepancies from the student accounts with other student accounts and realized millions of dollars had been cheated so cleverly but I've met Dicks and I don't really think he's that smart so then I looked into his bank stuff and realized he's paying off a debt smaller than what he stole and realized he has a lone shark and found out his loan shark was Von Dwinkle."

"It's Von D'Vingle," Santana said as they started walking out of the boiler room, "Not Von Dwinkle. Plus, since my life was in danger The Army uses the audio from my earrings as proof of death threat. Loopholes."

"But… the Vingle is of Martian origins and it fluctuates with Gaff's 'wuh' sound so it could be Dwinkle."

"You just made that up."

"... no I didn't."

Santana raises an eyebrow in challenge, so Brittany relents with a pout, "okay yeah, I did."

It was the start of a beautiful friendship.


The University of Earth Quad 7:

Brittany isn't really surprised when, four months after the Von Dwinkle-D'Vingle-Schminkle thing, Santana contacts her for help with another case. Santana finds her on campus.

"Sup Pierce, can we talk?" She greets Brittany in civilian clothing, the latest galactic fashion of a skin-tight long-sleeved top and short skirt combo. It was all the rave these days, only somehow Santana looked ten times better than others Brittany had seen trying the look.

Brittany ignores her entourage and lets Santana guide her to a secluded tree for privacy.

"Commodore," she taunts with a grin, "I don't do second dates."

Santana chuckles, "very funny. Listen, I need a favour. An illegal favour."

Brittany is intrigued, "for the greater good I hope?"

"Yep. Remember how you illegally got into student records last time we met?"

"Of course," Brittany nods, "I also remember how you took all the credit for Dingle-face getting arrested."

"I kept you from being charged with illegal activity," Santana corrects, rubbing what looks like a headache from her forehead. "Look, you in or not? Otherwise I need a new plan."

"You haven't exactly elaborated what it is you need my illegal help for?"

"There was an explosion on Ming'harz-"

"Heated acid mixed with yuniger gas, caused that planet-quake."

"Exactly. I think it was rigged."

"But I looked at the official report after the press release," Brittany said, shaking her head, "everything checked out – it sounds like a plausible accident. They really should have been careful is all."

"Look," Santana whispers quietly, "one of my superior officers, Admiral Janex Stevenson. Look her up for me like you did D'Vingle. Please."

Brittany sees how serious Santana is about it, and really she's impressed with Santana as a person – someone, probably the only someone, she's met who appears capable and rational and remotely intelligent.

Plus, it was kind of hard saying no to that cleavage. Deep neck's were back in, just like air lifted bra-wires.

"I'll do it. Come with me," she says, deciding to skip her next class on Hyper-Quantum-Physics to go to her dorm room instead and do the favour being asked.

Santana follows her on the ten minute walk along the gardens and says, "thanks."

"Don't thank me yet," she tells Santana quickly because she feels weird about doing someone a favour. No one has ever asked for one before, and the kids from her primary school days that tried to bully her into doing their work don't count.

"It's just," Santana starts saying before ending with, "nevermind. I got a question… how come you haven't fucking graduated here yet?"

"I have graduated. Like, four times."

"No but for real graduated. You've got degrees in everything, right?"

"Four degrees is not everything. I'm getting my masters in 'everything' now, though. Literally made my own field of study called 'Aggregate' which is an older word from Earthlish, when it was called English, rarely used these days that means 'whole' so…"

"Oh. Cool." Santana gives her a weird look and then adds quietly, "depths under depths of thefts."

Brittany stops walking, her jaw dropping open and her eyes popping in surprise.

"Did you just quote Myths of Pinkies?!"

Santana's eyes also pop open and her body jolts, "you know Myths of Pinkies?!"

Brittany squeals, "YES! Only the best scan ever!"

"I didn't realize you read good shit," Santana is smiling wide, "I thought you only read textscans like a nerd!"

"Everyone says it's a bad read but it's so, so good!" Brittany goes off in her excitement.

"It's epic," Santana agrees whole-heartedly, "I've read it over and over again."

"Smiles are the prize of everybody's skies-" Brittany starts, waiting for Santana to finish the line.

Which she does immediately, "but frowns are the crown of my demise."

Brittany grabs Santana's wrist and tugs her towards her house, "I so need to show you my original signed scan before hacking your boss."

"No way! How'd you get it?"

"I found it in a library and like, took it." She realizes she's admitting theft of property to an Officer of The Army, but it was Myths of Pinkies and no one cared (except them, apparently).

They enter the dorm, which is actually a whole student house given to Brittany by The University for her continued attendance and research, and Brittany is so pleased that Santana knows Myths of Pinkies (a scan scribed over a hundred years ago by a man on his last-day living that no one else seemed to know existed), that she offers Santana something to drink.

"I also need to introduce you to Kiki," Brittany says enthusiastically. "My household interface that I'm trying to surge into an accompanying assistant."

Santana looks incredibly confused, but Brittany is undeterred with excitement that she's got something in common with Commodore Lopez, of all random people.

"It's super cool. Come on!"

When Santana accepts her offered drink, admires her Myths of Pinkies scan, and listens to her discuss the engineering of Kiki, Brittany thinks she's finally found like, a friend or something. Which is an awesome feeling.

When Santana stands behind her and watches Brittany hack University records, Brittany pays more attention to the heat of her body than the projection in front of her.

"Well?" Santana asks.

Snapping out of her trance, Brittany clear her throat and tells Santana plainly, "looks like that Admiral boss of yours purchased a large supply of yunigar grass."

"And?"

"And yunigar grass can be cooked to produce yunigar gas. Basically, you thought she was behind the explosion and yeah it looks like she was behind the explosion. Clever."

Santana doesn't seem to share her impressed mood, looking gloomy and thoughtful.

"Fuck," Santana eventually says.

"How about… you sleep on it."

"Fuck."

"Want another drink?"

"Like, fuck. People died in that explosion. If she was behind it…"

"She totally was," Brittany nods seriously.

"That means she had a reason."

"So what are you going to do?"

Sighing, Santana makes her face hard and serious (clearly not in the mood to giggle over scans anymore), "get to the bottom of it."

Brittany wants to spend time with her and this is much more interesting than her ongoing studies so she immediately offers, "can I help?"

When Santana rolls her eyes, Brittany knows she's in.