...8 years earlier...
Crouched behind the sofa in her flannel Hello Kitty pajamas, eight-year-old Ashley Pierce was alarmed. She was alarmed because the two people who were sitting on the couch behind which she was hiding were upset, and because those two people were her favorite two people in the whole entire world. And because Santana was crying, and Santana was the toughest person ever, so if she was crying, whatever had happened was bad.
"It's going to be okay," Brittany repeated soothingly to the backdrop of Tana's soft sobs. "I promise, it's going to be okay."
"Why can't she understand?" Santana cried. "Why does it have to be so hard? Don't we deserve to be happy?"
"Of course we do, honey. And we are. She'll come around."
"I don't think so, Britt. I really don't."
That's when Ashley popped up from behind the couch. "Who's being mean to you?" she demanded. Both of the older girls jumped, startled.
"Ash! What are you doing up?" Brittany asked, pressing a hand to her heart. "You scared me!"
"Who's being mean to Tana?" Ashley repeated. "I'll kick their ass."
"Don't say ass," Brittany scolded distractedly. "Go back to bed, Ash; this is grown-up stuff."
"You're not grown-ups," Ashley pointed out, then turned to the other girl. "Tana, why are you crying?"
Santana finished wiping traces of mascara from underneath her eyes and managed a watery smile at Ashley. "I'm fine, baby girl," she said. "I'm gonna be fine, don't worry about it. Britty's right; it's late and you should be in bed."
Ashley scowled. "Someone made you cry," she said, unwilling to be swayed from the issue at hand. "That's not okay. That's what you told me when that bitch in my class Caroline was being mean to me."
"That was different, Ashy," Santana said, taking a deep breath. "And don't say bitch either. God, the mouth on you; your parents are going to ban me from the house."
"Come on, Tana, you gotta show them how it's done in Lima Heights," Ashley insisted. "You gotta show them what happens when you mess with Santana Lopez."
"All right, Ashley, that's enough. Bed, now. Santana doesn't need this," Brittany said, and the slightly sharp edge to her voice surprised Ashley, who was used to nothing but gentleness and patience from her big sister.
Santana noticed the look of hurt that passed across Ashley's face, and she sighed. She couldn't bear either one of the Pierce girls to be sad, no matter how she was feeling. She leaned over and planted a kiss on her girlfriend's lips and then stood up. "Okay, come on, munchkin. I'll tuck you in."
"San, you don't have to—" Brittany started.
"We'll be right back."
Santana scooped up the little blonde girl and slung her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Ashley squealed in delight and giggled her way up the stairs. When Santana deposited her on her bed and sat down next to her, Ashley grew serious again.
"Who hurt you?" she asked.
"My abuela."
"Your … your grammy?"
Santana smiled sadly. "Yeah. She doesn't like the idea of Britty and me being girlfriends."
"Well that's dumb!"
"It's how she feels; what am I gonna do?"
Ashley sat up tall and grabbed both of Santana's hands in her small ones. "You're going to tell her that it's your life and you'll love who you want to love. Britty makes you happy, right? And you make her happy. And the two of you together makes ME happy. So we all win! If your—abu—abwel—"
"Abuela," Santana supplied.
"If she can't deal with that, then she's the one who's going to miss out, Tana, because you're the best."
The older girl's breath caught in her throat and her eyes filled once more as she studied the open, earnest, innocent face of the little girl who looked so much like her sister. "Nah," she said, pressing a finger to Ashley's nose. "I'm third. You and your big sister already claimed the first two spots."
Ashley smiled and let Santana pull her into a hug.
...now...
"Morning, sunshine," Santana greeted, nudging Ashley's door open with her toe and carrying in two steaming cups of coffee. "How's the hangover?"
Ashley groaned and pulled her pillow over her head. "Go 'way, Santana; it's too early."
"It's almost ten, and you're lucky Britt insisted that I let you sleep in. When I used to piss my parents off, my mom would get me up at the ass-crack of dawn just to be a bitch." She sat on the edge of the bed and placed one of the coffee cups on the girl's nightstand. "Come on, sit up. I even brought you coffee. How's that for better than you deserve?"
"You're not here to talk, are you?" Ashley's muffled voice came from under the pillow. "Talking will make me hurl."
"Well, I like to do most of the talking anyway, so that works out okay."
"I don't feel like listening, either."
"Too bad. Come on." Santana pulled the pillow off the younger girl, who groaned again and covered her eyes against the light.
"You look rough, kid."
Ashley ran her hands over her makeup-and-tear-stained face and tried unsuccessfully to smooth down some of her blonde tangles. "I feel worse."
"Aww, my poor Ashy," Santana said, smirking. "You know what would make you feel better?"
"What?"
"Not to have gotten wasted last night."
"Ha ha. You're so funny, Tana."
"I speak the truth."
"So, are you going to ream me out again?"
"I beg your pardon? That doesn't sound like something I would do."
"Oh my God, Santana, why must you make jokes while I'm dying?"
"It's called payback. And it's fun."
Ashley sat up with grunts and groans worthy of an arthritic senior citizen and then reached for the coffee cup on her bedside table. "Seriously, how long am I grounded for?"
"You think it's gonna be that easy, huh?"
"What do you mean?"
"We tried the grounding thing and clearly you didn't learn anything from it."
"Oh, so I'm off the hook, then. Awesome."
"Get real, Mini Pierce. You're not even almost off the hook. But I'm not just going to dole out a sentence and let it go this time. You scared the hell out of us last night, mija."
"I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
Santana raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. "You forget that I was your age not that long ago. You also forget that I sorta helped raise you, and you may not be related to me by blood, but you're nothing if not your Tana's girl. So I know when you're feeding me a line."
"I'll be more careful next time."
"Yeah, well, that one I actually have to believe, because if you pull this again, Ash …"
"I won't."
"All right. So now that school's out, you're going to have a lot of time on your hands, and Britt and I don't like that. Not with the way you've been acting lately. So we've decided you'll come to work with me. Be my assistant."
"What? No!"
"Yeah, I'm kinda not asking. This is in lieu of grounding."
"This is indentured servitude! This violates my human rights!"
"Oh my God, with the melodrama. You'll live. I've had several assistants, and almost all of them have survived."
"How long are we talking?"
"Well, you would have been grounded for three weeks if we'd gone that way, so I'm going to say three weeks. After that, if you decide you want to stay, I might toss in a little incentive."
Ashley cocked her head, suddenly slightly interested. "You'll pay me?"
"If you're a good assistant. If you show me you can be trusted. And if you make really good coffee. That last chick made the worst coffee ever. She's the one I killed."
Ashley smiled and took a sip of her coffee. "I'll consider it."
Santana patted her knee through the covers and stood up, fixing Ashley with her no-nonsense expression. "You start tomorrow."
Heyyyyy, beautiful people! Thanks to all of you who followed, favorited, and reviewed! Pretty please, keep it up; I am a shameless review whore and will write for kind words. It also keeps the ideas flowing. (P.S. There will be more Brittany next chapter, I promise. I wanted to establish more of the Santana/Ashley dynamic.)
(P.P.S. If you like this story, check out my one-shot from Santana's POV, "Lies Like This," in my profile.)
(P.P.P.S. Brittana is endgame.)