A/N:

I'm soooo sorry for this subpar writing! Thanks for reading it anyway x)

NYABG: Helloooo, Little Whale! :D

For some reason, Summer Sky wasn't as crowded as Santana had expected. In fact, it was completely deserted. If it weren't for the valet guy who politely waved his hand at her when she drove passed the empty parking lot, she wouldn't have known the place was open.

"Nice to see you again, Ms. Lopez," the valet greeted as he opened the door for her.

Santana gave him a smile as she stepped out and glanced at his name tag. "Thanks, Josh. The cafe's open, right? It's so empty out here."

"Oh, don't worry, Ms. Lopez. The cafe will always be open for you," Josh said with a wink and a big smile. He took the car keys from her hand and got into the driver's seat, but he didn't drive away before he told her to have a nice day and to enjoy Summer Sky— and wished her good luck.

Santana watched him drive away in her car with confusion, and suspicion. Luck? Why would she even need luck? She was only there to see Brittany. It wasn't like she was there to conquer a marathon or something.

A warm wind brought the scent of the ocean to her senses and she was brought out of her daze. Maybe Josh was just one of those... special people. And by special, she meant creepy. Santana shuddered at the thought and shook her head, and as she made her way closer to the cafe's entrance, she made a mental note to double check her glove compartment later for missing things. She really didn't want a repeat of last years stalker case when a super friendly barista from her neighborhood's coffee shop ended up digging through her trash for anything she could get her hands on (and that included discarded sheets of tissue Brittany used when she had a nasty bug).

Oh... and while she was at it, she made a promise to herself to also spray the whole interior of the car with cans of disinfectant. Yes— cans.

The glass walls of the building made it easy for Santana to notice that the parking lot wasn't the only thing that was deserted. One look through the thick, clear barrier, she immediately found out that aside from the greeter and a few waiters going about their businesses, there was practically nobody inside. She began to wonder if she had guessed the riddle wrong— though it was unlikely. That was exactly how the song went.

"Miss Lopez," a greeter, a woman in her late mid 30s, opened the door and and held it for her. "We've been waiting for you."

Once again Santana took the time to look at the woman's name tag and memorized the name; Sarah. If there was one thing she took away from her time spent with her PR agents, is that it never hurts to be kind to your hosts. You never know when you're going to need them to show you the back door.

(Those pesky paps could be such a pain.)

"Hi," Santana smiled. She stepped inside and took off her sunglasses. "You've been waiting for me?"

"Uh-huh," Sarah smiled and made a little gesture for Santana to follow her to the stairs. They walked in silence and for some reason, Santana got nervous. There was this nagging feeling that she was lead into a trap. As if someone was going to ambush her and take embarrassing photos of her or something. But once they got to the bottom of the stairs, the thought was dismissed by the mention of Brittany's name.

Sarah stepped aside and let the famous singer through. "Miss Pierce is waiting for you upstairs in our sun deck area. She's ordered for you too, so everything is already taken care of, but if you want to order anything else, just let me know."

Hearing her girlfriend's surname, Santana instantly relaxed. She had forgotten that she was here because Brittany wanted her to be. There was no way Brittany's plan was to shame her.

Santana looked at the flight of stairs in front of her and unconsciously smiled with the prospect of spending the day with Brittany out in the sun. "Thanks, Sarah. I'll be sure to holler for you if I need anything," she told the waitress politely before climbing up the stairs.

The moment Santana opened the door, she was greeted by the beautiful day that it was. Above her a few seagulls flew freely across the blue sky and, even though she was kind of nervous about any... droppings, she took off her hoodie anyway to allow herself be enchanted by the atmosphere. She closed her eyes afterwards, enjoying the fresh air and the sound of the waves crashing into the beach. It had been quite a while since she last had the freedom to do anything without some sort of interruption from the management or some infuriating paparazzi who made money out of her invaded privacy. She knew it was an inevitable consequence of being famous, but if she was being completely honest with herself, sometimes it felt like she was constantly suffocating.

"What, I don't even get a hello?" a voice came from a near distance and Santana found herself automatically smiling hearing it.

Brittany.

Santana opened her eyes and found her girlfriend sitting (well, half lying down, actually) on one of the sun beds to her right. The sun was shining bright and Brittany's blonde hair was glimmering under it— and Santana couldn't help but sigh. So beautiful.

"Hey baby," Santana walked closer to where Brittany was and gave her the smile she reserved only for the blonde. "I missed you this morning."

Brittany stood up and met her girlfriend halfway to give her a kiss and offer her a hand. "You were snoring so I had to get out of the house," she said with a playful grin.

Santana's eyes widened. "I do not snore!

"Yeah, you do. You were super loud. Like, remember how Lord Tubbington's belly used to make that sound when he was hungry?"

"I did not! Britt, there's no way I made that kind of noise," Santana scrunched her nose, offended from the comparison.

Brittany tugged Santana's hand to walk back to the sunbed she occupied before. "Yes way. It's okay though cause I still think you're cute."

Santana shook her head. "I still don't believe you."

"Fine," Brittany raised an eyebrow challengingly. "The next time you do that I'll record a video."

Santana was about to protest when Brittany put a finger against her lips.

"Baby," Brittany gave her a look. "I love you and everything, but I've booked the whole cafe just for us today. So, as much as I would love to argue about your snore, how about we enjoy this beautiful day together, hm?"

Santana's whole face softened hearing the request. Now she knew why it was the cafe's so empty. She should've guessed it right away that it was something that Brittany had arranged. The girl did have a thing with surprises (a certain sex tape— spliced with a tubby cat doing house chores— came to her mind).

Santana gave Brittany's finger a little kiss and nodded.

"I love you too. And yes, let's do that," agreed Santana, lowering her back to lean against the sunbed.

As if on cue, Sarah, the greeter from downstairs, appeared at the door with several other waiters who had covered plates in their hands. With just a nod, she silently commanded all of them to set everything down on the table that was in front of the celebrity couple. Santana and Brittany watched in silence as they worked, and thanked everybody when they were done. Sarah then dismissed her co-workers and reminded the blonde and the brunette that she was just an intercom away.

"Wow," Santana breathed out when she saw the number of plates in front of her. "That's a lot of stuff, Britt."

"Mm-hmm."

"1... 2..." Santana started counting. "Nine!"

"Yep," answered Brittany, popping the 'p' at the end.

Santana chuckled. "Britt, are you really that hungry? Cause we both aren't big eaters and I can tell you right now that we're going to have a lot of doggie bags later."

Brittany didn't say anything back. She smiled, though, and gave Santana a quick peck before she reached for a plate that was closest to her. There was a reason why the table was set up the way it was.

"Open it," Brittany brought the plate closer and motioned for Santana to take off the lid.

Santana did, and she laughed. Brittany would order chocolate pudding from Summer Sky's kitchen—

Hooold up.

Santana furrowed her eyebrows. "I didn't know they have chocolate pudding."

"They don't," Brittany smiled softly. "I asked them to make it."

"You asked them to make you chocolate pudding?"

Brittany grabbed a spoon and scooped a small amount of the pudding to feed Santana (who blushed and mentally rolled her eyes at herself for being such a schoolgirl).

"The first day we met, we were freshmen at McKinley," Brittany started her story. "I didn't know anybody and I arrived late at school that day because my dad had to drop off my little sister at her school. I ended up eating alone at the cafeteria 'cause I haven't made any friends yet."

Santana only nodded at Brittany's words, slightly confused. She already knew all those things and she wondered why Brittany was retelling her the story.

"Some kid— who later became one of our best friends, Puck— accidentally knocked my tray while he was getting up and my pudding cup fell off the table. And then, right before the bell rang," Brittany scooped another spoonful of chocolate pudding for Santana, "out of nowhere this girl placed her pudding cup as she walked behind me."

Santana couldn't help but grin. "That was me."

"That was you," Brittany nodded, grinning as wide. "And I secretly followed you everywhere that week until I finally got the courage to talk to you during the Cheerios tryouts."

"Aw," Santana planted a kiss on Brittany's lips. "My little stalker."

Brittany smiled into the kiss. Santana's lips tasted like chocolate. "That's right. Your little stalker— even though I'm taller and you're like... tiny."

"Technicality," Santana shrugged. She tried to deepen their kiss, but Brittany pulled away much too soon for her liking. "Baaabe," whined Santana.

Like before, Brittany only give her a simple, yet playful, smile. She put down the pudding, grabbed a second plate from the table and told Santana to open the cover again.

"Britt," Santana covered her mouth as she laughed. "You did NOT just order dinosaur chicken nuggets from them."

"I did," Brittany grinned so hard that there were lines forming around her eyes and nose (and Santana fought hard not to kiss every single one).

"Any particular reason why? Or do you just want to be like... 9 again?"

Brittany picked a nugget up and lifted the T-Rex to Santana's mouth. Santana bit off a chunk, and as she started to chew, Brittany spoke again.

"One year after that, we became... a different kind of friends," said Brittany, and Santana blushed and smirked at the same time. If she didn't have a story to tell, Brittany would've smacked her arm for being so sexually smug all the time. So she ignored the look on Santana's face and continued. "It all began when you asked me to come for a sleepover one weekend. Your mom and dad had to travel somewhere so they left us alone with the house. Then, for some reason, we thought cooking would be better than ordering a pizza— even though neither of us really knew how to cook."

Brittany didn't take her eyes off Santana's and the latter girl couldn't stop looking at the twinkle in Brittany's eyes as they bore into hers. There was something hidden in them. If not in those blue eyes, then in the mellow, nostalgic way Brittany was talking. She just couldn't tell what yet. She just hoped it was a good thing.

(God, she really hoped it was something good.)

"I remember that day," Santana said softly, nodding her head slowly. "Those nuggets were the only thing we knew how to cook- and we almost burned them."

"And the house," Brittany chimed in to remind Santana.

Santana nodded again with a chuckle. "Yes. And the house. Luckily I knew where the extinguisher was. Come to think of it I think I was more upset because most of those nuggets went completely black."

"That's so racist," Brittany deadpanned.

Santana gave a little slap on Brittany's arm. "Shut up," she laughed. "You know what I mean. I was more upset because I couldn't be a good host to you."

"Oh," Brittany looked at her girlfriend with a realization. "And there I was thinking you were crying because you were afraid of your parents' reaction."

"Well, I guess that played a part too. But seriously, I was kind of trying to impress you the whole weekend you were there."

"All this time I thought I was kissing you to calm you down," said Brittany with mock disappointment. "You mean I wasted all those kisses for nothing?"

"Well," Santana husked and nuzzled into the crook of Brittany's neck. "Not really for nothing. I'd say we've gotten lots of awesome sweet lady kisses out of it, right? Not to mention the other stuff."

Brittany swallowed the drool pooling in her mouth. That husky, raspy, delicious voice of Santana's really could kill her someday. Not that she would mind, but she had something important she would like to do that day. So the blonde cleared her throat and put down the nuggets. Santana wasn't very happy about that ("hey! I want some more of that!") but she quieted down anyway when she saw Brittany reaching for another plate.

"Not long after that, you realized that being a unicorn could be hard," Brittany continued. "But then you told me you loved me in front of our lockers one day— and I broke your heart."

Santana gulped uneasily. She could still remember exactly what happened that day and the days leading to it. She remembered talking about feelings (something that she sometimes still struggle with), and she remembered singing Landslide with and for Brittany in front of the Glee club (something that she would never ever regret of doing). She remembered yelling at some girls to leave the bathroom the day after so she could have her space to nervously prepare a whole speech for Brittany— which ended up discarded as her emotions (and tears) got the best of her.

"I broke your heart and you wouldn't let me hug you and my heart broke with you," Brittany continued and she tucked a strand of Santana's hair behind her ear with one free hand. "Watching you walk away is always the hardest thing for me to do."

"Britt—"

"Here," Brittany interrupted Santana with a smile. It wasn't a time to be sad at all, so she urged Santana's to open the dish in front of her.

Santana quietly pulled the dish cover off the plate to reveal... a stack of pancakes. The relevance lost to her— until Brittany carried on with her memory.

"We went through a rough month without talking to each other, and I thought I'd lost my best friend. But when Artie called me stupid, it didn't take even a second before you tried cheering me up. You drove me off campus that day and we ditched our classes to share pancakes," Brittany looked up at the sky as she recalled that particular day. "And I asked you why we were eating pancakes, and you said—"

"I said pancakes are the best way to start a day, and that we can just pretend the day hadn't happened yet," Santana smiled; very much relieved that their third plate didn't turn out to be a sad reminder of an almost forgotten rough patch. Santana put a hand on Brittany's arm when the blonde was about to feed her again. "Why are you doing all this, Britt? Why are we reliving those years?"

Brittany shrugged. "I'm celebrating."

"Oh my God," Santana gasped. Her eyes widened from worry. "Did I miss an anniversary or something? I did, didn't I? Oh my God, I can't even remember what anniversary it is! Is it the first-time-we-took-a-bath-together anniversary? No, that can't be right," Santana lowered her voice as if she was talking to herself. "We just celebrated it with a bath together last week..."

"Ssh, Santana," chuckled Brittany. Her girlfriend could be so cute sometimes when she was panicking. "You didn't miss anything."

"I didn't?" Santana scrunched her eyebrows. "So what's all this about? What are you celebrating?"

"I'm celebrating..." Brittany paused and gave her answer a thought. " I'm celebrating our life together. I'm celebrating the years we've been through, and all the years I see ahead of us," she gave her girlfriend a kiss on the temple before she whispered into Santana's hair with all her heart. "And I see thousands of them in my mind."

oOoOo

About two hours later, Santana was full and happy. Her stomach and heart were immensely satisfied because Brittany kept feeding her food and wonderful memories.

She found out that the nine plates stood for the nine years they had spent together since that first day they met. During the 4th plate, which was an order of shrimp cocktail as a reminder of their first dinner as an official couple, she realized how amazing her girlfriend was. Brittany waited for Santana time and time again until she was ready. And then they broke up and played the push and pull game— with noble intentions— but ultimately, it was Brittany who told her that they really needed to learn proper communication instead of making one-sided decisions.

Luckily, both of them were fast learners. They got a lot better at really talking and listening to each other. All the heartaches and sleepless nights spent with crying were worth the bond that they presently have.

It didn't mean that they were indestructible, because nothing is, but both of them knew that they would do anything to keep the beautiful thing they had going on from breaking.

Santana looked around and her gaze fell on a menu sheet on the table. She couldn't imagine what Summer Sky's kitchen staff must've thought when Brittany made the (seemingly random) requests. She was particularly fond of the of spaghetti and ketchup plate, because it reminded her of the tough days in New York when she and Brittany had to eat nothing but boiled pasta and McDonald's ketchup— which they had saved in a jar every time they bought takeout.

Ah. Good times.

Well, okay, maybe not that good. But now that they could actually look back, Santana couldn't help but realize that it never mattered. Whether or not they had money, just waking up next to Brittany made her happy. She didn't care much about what they were going to have for dinner. As long as she got to snuggle on the couch with her favorite blonde at the end of the day, she was content to sleep with just a few Ritz crackers in her stomach.

Speaking of the blonde, Santana was a little bit upset that Brittany wasn't sitting next to her anymore. She was more upset with herself, though, because she agreed to resume playing Brittany's game of treasure hunt. That damn pout could really make anybody do anything.

Right after the ninth plate (which was just a plate of whipped cream because... well, because of reasons too hot to mention), Brittany excused herself from the table. She made Santana promise to wait for Sarah before coming after her, and after Santana (very reluctantly) hooked her pinky onto hers, Brittany sauntered away towards the exit.

Santana couldn't keep still. Her right knee couldn't stop bouncing up and down with anxiety even though she already knew whatever game Brittany was playing, it wouldn't have been designed to hurt her (or them, for that matter). Besides, the last time she decide to play along with Brittany's treasure hunt, it had ended with the two of them revisiting the best years of their lives— something Santana was sure she would want a repeat of.

"Miss Lopez," Sarah gave Santana a little tap on her shoulder and Santana glared at the poor woman because, according to her, Sarah sure took her sweet time to get there. "Miss Pierce wanted me to give you these."

Santana eyed the envelope in the woman's hand, and the pair of flip flops in the other, before she took the items. She then set the flip flops on the ground and took out the card from the envelope only to be met with Brittany's handwriting. It wasn't anything elegant, her girlfriend's writing. It was just cute and soft and the letters looked like they were written by a teenager. Kind of like her own, except Brittany didn't heart her i's like she still did sometimes.

(Well. Guess that further confirmed her as the hopelessly romantic schoolgirl in the relationship.)

"Hey, Love," oh, how the butterflies in Santana's stomach fluttered fiercely to the walls when she read the greeting. She could even hear Brittany breathe the words out. "Sorry I couldn't stay with you, but the hunt is still on. So... no cheating, put on the flip flops, go to the beach and for the sun we'll hang a (insert your best guess here, babe), you can hold the string."

What? Santana scrunched her face in thought. That doesn't even make sense.

The confused woman looked towards Sarah, whose clueless and sickeningly sweet smile got really annoying now because Santana just wanted to be with Brittany, for God's sake. But even if she asked Sarah, she was sure the hostess didn't have a clue about the hunt she was taking part of.

"Miss Pierce wanted me to show you the back door that leads directly to the beach," Sarah told her and gestured towards the bottom of the stairs from which she came from. "Whenever you're ready, Miss Lopez."