Enjoy!
A couple of days had passed since Brittany met Santana, the two girls had had two conversations with one another, both of them about food. Well, more Santana asking what Brittany wanted to eat.
Brittany collapsed against her bed; she had pretty much kept herself locked away in her room for the two days that she had been here. Every time she happened to leave her room she managed to bump into Santana who would watch her with amusement and curiosity as the blonde girl would try and scurry past her or mumble under her breath.
"Why, why, why?" Brittany muttered as she stared up at the ceiling, her life had escalated quite quickly in the last week or so.
She had only just come around to the idea of an arranged marriage; Brittany was more annoyed that her dad hadn't filled her in on the fact that she was going to be marrying a woman too. Maybe if she had known in advance it would have been easier to accept the idea.
Being trapped in a summerhouse in the middle of a town you don't know anything about with her, Santana to be exact doesn't help.
The blonde stood and moved over to her window, it overlooked the rest of the neighborhood. The summerhouse she was in mirrored the rest of the houses in the small estate. Brittany wondered whether all the other people living in these houses where in fact teenagers that had been forced into an arranged marriage too. After waving the failed attempt to make herself laugh out of her head Brittany glanced to the ground.
Maybe she could climb down the pipe and go for a walk, it's not like anyone would notice that she was gone considering that Santana was the only other person in the house. Brittany decided against the idea, she didn't find the thought of falling from the pipe and breaking a bone comforting.
After an hour of sulking in her room Brittany decided to be brave and go downstairs. The blonde girl opened her door and stuck her head out; she could hear the TV playing downstairs. Brittany closed her eyes for a moment, giving herself a silent pep talk before closing the door behind her and heading downstairs.
The whole of the downstairs was open planned, connecting the kitchen, living room, dining room and conservatory together.
As Brittany came down the stairs, she saw the back of Santana's head; the smaller girl was watching the TV, seemingly oblivious to Brittany's presence. The blonde girl moved towards the door carefully, making sure that she didn't disturb Santana. Brittany had just opened the front door when Santana's voice interrupted her.
"Where are you going?" Santana asked, causing Brittany to stop in her tracks and turn to look at the brunette.
Santana was staring right at Brittany, her dark eyes bore right into the blonde's causing Brittany to shift her feet about and glance to the ground.
"I-, uh." Brittany stuttered as she found something interesting to look at on the floor. "I was going for a walk."
Santana sat up properly from the couch and ran a hand through her hair. "Can I come?"
"With me?" Brittany asked, raising her head to look at Santana.
"Well, yes. I mean there isn't anyone else here… Unless you've got someone hidden in your room. Is that why you've spent so much time in there?" Santana asked, a playful smirk curling onto her lips.
"N-no, there isn't anyone in my room. It's just me." Brittany replied, as her cheeks grew pink.
Santana's smirk shrunk and turned into a slight, just smile as she shook her head. "I'm just joking." The Latina said as she stood up. "Let me just get some shoes on." Brittany nodded as Santana moved over to the stairs and disappeared.
Brittany sighed and leaned against the wall by the front door. This was just getting worse by the minute.
Santana appeared after a moment or so, this time with a pair of expensive looking shoes on her feet. Brittany glanced down at her feet and at the worn trainers she had on and bit her lip.
Brittany opened the door as Santana approached her and allowed the brunette to step out first before closing the door behind the two of them.
Santana turned around to face Brittany. "I used to come here with my parents a lot, I know a bit about the neighborhood. I could show you where my parents used to take me for walks."
"Yes, okay." Brittany replied with a slight smile.
"Okay, we have to go this way." Santana said, indicating to go left with a flick of her head.
The girls had been walking for a little half an hour; Brittany felt a little more at ease but was still refusing to say much. Santana seemed to be trying her best to get the blonde girl to relax around her.
"What's your favorite type of food?" Santana asked as they approached the center of the town.
"I like Italian, I think it would be really cool to do the thing from The Lady and the Tramp." The blonde admitted quietly.
Santana allowed a smile to grace her lips. "I haven't watched that movie for years, but I do know some pretty good Italian restaurants around here, personally, I prefer Chinese food but you can't go wrong with an Italian."
Brittany smiled in return but didn't say anything.
"There's a small dance studio down the road, and when I say small I mean small." Santana said, attempting to start a conversation with Brittany, the blonde's head shot up from the mention.
"How did you know I liked dancing?" Brittany asked cautiously.
"I was curious about you," Santana admitted, giving her shoulders a loose shrug as she did. "So I got in touch with your dad."
"You what?" Brittany asked in a harsher tone than she meant.
"Well how else am I supposed to get to know you?" The Latina asked, her tone taking a defensive turn.
"You don't—I didn't ask for any of this."
"And you think I did?" Santana scoffed before crossing her arms over her chest.
"Well you seem to be settled in already." Brittany commented.
"Maybe because I've realized that there's nothing I can do about this. I know that there's no way out of all of this without losing my family or being cut off and trust me, I don't want that to happen." Santana replied, gritting her teeth in an attempt to keep calm. "I'm trying, Brittany. I'm trying to make you feel more comfortable around me, I want you to be happy."
"You don't know me, how can you want me to be happy?" Brittany muttered.
"I'm a decent human being, that's how." Santana replied in an annoyed tone before turning away from Brittany and walking three steps in front of the blonde. Brittany had nothing to say in return to the Latina so Santana, for the moment was victorious.
The two girls walked in silence, Brittany followed behind Santana, as she had no idea where they were. The brunette took them through the small town, which had a cute collection of cafes, restaurants and shops.
Brittany tried to remember the route they had taken so she could come here again, hopefully by herself, but she was finding it hard to. Her argument with Santana earlier was clouding her thoughts and since their argument, Santana hadn't even glanced over her shoulder to make sure the taller girl was still following her.
Brittany knew she could be stubborn, she wasn't angry with Santana—even if she cam across that way. However, she was a little angry with her parents for not telling her about Santana, well the fact that Santana was a girl.
The blonde had never defined herself as anything. Brittany certainly wasn't homophobic either, she probably came across that way earlier but she wasn't. The blonde girl just liked whom she liked, and most often it was boys, it was probably because she had grown up with a group of straight friends who always gossiped about "hot guys" and the football players. Brittany also wasn't going to deny the fact that she had checked girls out before either.
Brittany was so deep in her thoughts that she almost didn't notice that Santana had stopped walking and was now peering through the window of a small, cozy looking bakery.
"Those cupcakes look delicious." Santana commented as her eyes scanned over the small but tasty looking selection of cakes.
"…Santana?" Brittany said quietly.
"Hmm?" The brunette hummed in reply, still looking through the window of the bakery.
"I'm sorry." Brittany said, apologizing meekly.
"It's okay, I understand." Santana replied before finally glancing over to Brittany and meeting her sorry eyes. "This probably isn't going to be easy, and we already know that."
Brittany nodded in agreement. "But that doesn't make up for the way I spoke to you, I was just… Shocked?"
"Shocked?" Santana repeated with a raised eyebrow.
"I didn't expect you to want to get to know me." Brittany admitted quietly.
"Well you seem like a nice girl, and you're pretty… Really pretty actually." Santana stated, lowering her head a little in embarrassment as the last part left her lips.
Brittany found herself blushing from Santana's compliment, a lot more than she would have hoped to.
"Let's grab a couple of cupcakes before we head back." Santana said, changing the topic of conversation, as Brittany couldn't bring herself to say anything in reply to Santana's compliment.
Santana and Brittany exchanged few words on the walk home, but this time there wasn't any tense atmosphere between them, Brittany thought that it felt kind of… nice.
As well as buying a collection of cupcakes and cookies from the bakery, Santana bought a microwaveable meal for two on the way back as neither of the girls could be bothered cooking.
"The food in these microwave meals are always crap, but I'm exhausted. There's no way I'm cooking, and I don't think there's any food in either." Santana said as her eyes raked over the back of the microwave dinner's packaging. "Are you sure you're okay with having this?"
Brittany nodded in reply and watched Santana fumble around with the packet from where she sat at the kitchen table. "I could make something for dinner tomorrow if you like."
Santana looked up and glanced over to Brittany before smiling softly. "Yes, if you want to. I'll pretty much eat anything, I'm not a fussy eater if that helps."
Brittany nodded again and returned Santana's smile. The blonde was glad that the two of them had managed to sort things out between the two of them, Brittany wasn't completely comfortable around Santana yet, but who is around someone they've only known for a couple of days?
The blonde hoped that with a couple of day's effort, she would start to relax around Santana; she was already enjoying her company. She thought Santana was gorgeous, she seemed smart, and she was kind and actually wanted to get to know Brittany.
Maybe she would even fall for Santana, but only time could tell.
Thank you for reading, I feel like this re-write is already going in a different direction than the first version, which makes me happy!
For anyone who has read the first version of this fic, I hope this re-write is better and if you have any suggestions or something that you want to happen or you'd like to see then all ideas are welcome.