A/N: Thank you guys for the reviews/follows/favorites. This one is a bit longer, I hope you like it. :-)
It's 10:52am when Santana finally meets Rachel at Soho House on Sunset for an interview with GQ magazine. Before the town car even pulls up, Santana sees Rachel pacing back and forth outside and frantically typing away on her Blackberry while yelling into her iPhone. She's quite the multitasker this one. The driver opens Santana's door and she thanks him while stepping out. She turns and prepares to face the wrath of Rachel Berry.
"About time! Santana, the journalist has been in there waiting for almost 45 minutes."
Santana just gives Rachel a dubious look and walks past. She understands Rachel's need for professionalism but Santana is a diva, or at least that's what vH1 dubbed her when she appeared on that show last year. Either way, she's a superstar and every once in awhile, it won't hurt the world to revolve around her.
"Hey, we need to prep." Rachel grabs Santana by the arm and proceeds to grab a ton of notes out of her bag. Santana rolls her eyes and breaks free of Rachel's grasp.
"Rachel, no we don't. I've done this interview a thousand times. They all ask the same questions. Plus, it's a men's magazine. I'll just smile and giggle at the end of every statement. Guaranteed good press, plus don't we have a photo shoot scheduled soon? It really doesn't matter what I say just you watch and see. Besides look at me, I'm obviously going to nail the photo shoot."
Santana gives Rachel a fake smile and proceeds to head into the restaurant to check in. Rachel hurries past her and insists on leading Santana to the table.
"By all means Rachel, feel free to run me over, goodness." Santana exasperates.
"Don't be stupid." Rachel shoots Santana a glare but quickly recovers as they reach a table in the far back corner of the restaurant. Waiting for them is a nicely dressed man who looks more like he should be seen on the cover of GQ rather than writing what falls in between the pages of the magazine.
"AJ, I am pleased to introduce you to Santana, Santana meet AJ." Rachel says.
"It is truly a pleasure to meet you AJ." Santana shakes his hand and makes eye contact.
"Believe me, the pleasure is all mine," AJ states as he looks Santana up and down. It takes all Santana has not to roll her eyes as she just shoots him a flirty smile. However, Rachel knows "the Santana effect" well, those who fall victim are putty in her hands.
It's a little while later and Santana's really enjoying AJ's company. It's the most laid back interview she's done in a long time.
"So Santana, one last question, just for fun. I hear you and Brittany S. Pierce got in a fight late last night at a late night after party." AJ asks as he quirks his eyebrow.
"O? I hadn't heard that one. Sounds juicy, care to give me any details?" Santana asks as she quirks her eyebrow right back.
"Well, I was hoping you would give me some." AJ replies and looks on hopefully for some scoop on a girlfight.
"Let's just say, if this were celebrity death match days- I would definitely be crowned the winner." Santana says as she winks and does a quick one two punch in AJ's direction. She smiles extra broadly when she hears Rachel choking on her water from the next booth where she's been eavesdropping the entire time. Geesh, no one in this town can take a joke. She can practically hear Rachel brainstorming about how to spin the story already.
"Now that I would like to see! Ok one more Brittany question. Is it true-"
"Ok AJ, so sorry but we really have to go, thank you so much for your time: Rachel interrupts and wraps up the interview herself. Santana says her goodbyes and Rachel ushers her quickly out of the club and back into their awaiting car to their next destination.
"Rachel, that was rude. The man had one more question."
"I told you last night to tone down the Brittany talk. We have a clear agenda in these interviews and you're letting this stupid feud take over!" Rachel replies.
"It was just a bit of fun, goodness lighten up" Santana scoffs as she takes her phone out.
"We'll see how fun it is when the media turns on you. You've been lucky thus far to have escaped the rough side of fame. If you keep not listening to me, you won't always be so lucky."
Just as Santana is about to make a snarky reply, a text comes through.
B: Hey Santana, It's Brittany. I'm looking forward to seeing you tonight. I promise I won't push you this time ;-)
Santana laughs and begins typing back. Rachel who can clearly tell she is being ignored decides to start ignoring Santana and just turns the other way scrolling through her phone catching up on the news she's missed from earlier that morning.
S: I'd so kill you in Celebrity Death Match, but that's another story. Where are we going tonight?
B: Hmmm, how about you guess, it's more fun that way.
S: Okay, can I have a hint?
Santana waits and waits for a reply. She finally gets on just as they get to their next destination.
B: Down by the beach, the windows are down, get there at 8 or I'll be wearing a big frown :-(
Santana has no idea what that even fucking means.
"Earth to Britt, goodness who are you even texting?" Mercedes Jones asks. Mercedes is the closest thing Brittany has to a songwriting partner. The two have worked together writing songs for the last few years and their work together has resulted in three Number 1 singles to date.
"Nothing Mercedes, let's just keep working on this melody" Brittany insists. The two are together for a writing session. They get together every week even when Brittany is not actively working on an album to continue to break material and to keep their minds fresh.
"Britt, girl who are you fooling?" Mercedes folds her arms. "I know that look and you know the rules." You see, there is one rule of songwriting with Brittany and Mercedes. They are an open book with each other when it comes to relationships. Their candor with each other is the reason they have such great careers. Their first #1 they co-wrote was based off Mercedes' boyfriend Sam, their 2nd was based off Brittany's short lived relationship with a stripper, their 3rd sprung forth from a crazy night out in Miami. Hence, the rule was born. Love, sex, or rock n' roll made it fair game for a song. This also means that there aren't many secrets between them, so Mercedes knows when she is not getting the tea.
"This one I think you'd judge me for though." Brittany replies back honestly.
"Girl, I find that hard to believe. There's so much other stuff I could have done that for in the past. Only God can judge, now spill it! Who are you dating?" Mercedes shoots me the evil eye that she knows scares me.
"I'm not dating anyone. I have a crush." Brittany immediately turns beet red.
"Oh yea? Who is it?" Mercedes asks.
"You know this person. I'm actually pretty sure you've worked with them." Britt says, trying to give this piece of information away as slowly as possible.
Mercedes takes a second to think about this, essentially running through her musical resume in her mind.
"Usher? No, too old. Bieber? No, I know he has that lesbian thing going on but gross. Don't tell me it's Pink... Britt, she's married." Mercedes looks to Brittany perplexed.
"As inspired as those guesses are Mercedes, it's probably the last person on earth that you'll guess." Brittany is super nervous, she's actually never told anyone about this one. "Pink is the closest out of your guesses, and the media would say that I think your collaboration with her is the world of all time." Mercedes thinks when suddenly a light bulb goes off in her head.
"NO! Santana Lopez?" Mercedes takes Brittany's silence as consent and proceeds to fall out on the floor laughing. "But Britt, you guys are like sworn enemies. It's like Game of Thrones for who gets to reign as the queen of pop, which let's face it, you both lost that one to Beyonce!" Everything is always a joke or jab to Mercedes. It's the reason Brittany fell in love with her as a person and also why she finds the woman insufferable at times.
"Thanks for the support Mercedes." Brittany's getting a little pissed and regretting letting this secret out.
"You know I'm just shocked. How did this happen?"
"Well it all started after she made that first comment. We were both new artists so my feelings were a little hurt and I retaliated. After that the media ran with it and we nor our reps ever stopped it because we both became bona fide stars in part because of it. Anyways, after that I started keeping tabs on her. I read magazine interviews, watched clips on youtube, and listened to her albums. It hurt when she said things about me, but there was always something there that I responded to. I want to know what it's like to have her in my life in more than a superficial way. I want to know her."
Mercedes snaps as if she's at a poetry slam.
"That's deep. So you know we found the subject of the song we're working on today right?" Mercedes just smiles her disarming smile and Brittany replicates it back to her.
After unsuccessfully getting Brittany to give her another clue, Santana is swept into interview after interview. For the rest of the day, things go so quickly that Santana doesn't even have time to think about meeting up with Brittany. In fact, it's 7pm before she gets back to her house and has time to contemplate the clue. She's getting dressed still pondering the line Brittany sent her. Normally, Santana would not really care to get this right. In fact, she's not really sure why she hasn't made up an excuse to not go, it's what she usually does when she finishes a long day of work. It's 7:30 before Santana decides to do what she and most young people these days go best... she googles. Santana sits down at her laptop and types in "Los Angeles beach window" - yes she's that desperate and simple. She clicks on the first link and scrolls halfway down the page when she sees it. Shutters on the Beach, she hasn't been to that restaurant in years.
"This has to be it" Santana says to no one but herself. Shutters... windows down... makes sense. Santana looks at her watch and realizes the time- 7:40 and she now has 20 minutes to get to Santa Monica from her Hollywood Hills home- great. She hops in her car and heads to the restaurant. She hops out of valet and heads inside. Before she can even approach, she's whisked off into a far back corner of the restaurant. Brittany looks up and sees her approaching, she looks down at her watch which reads 8:20pm and puts on her frown. It's the first time Santana's seen such a look and she's taken aback by how affected she is, she wants nothing more than to get rid of this frown.
"Hey Brittany."
Brittany stands up to hug Santana. She hugs her really tightly and drags her hands across her back, something Santana isn't used to. She normally goes around patting people on the back with hugs, but she has to admit that Brittany's way is so much better.
"I was beginning to think you stood me up." Brittany states unable to keep the frown in place in Santana's presence.
"Yea well, I would have been on time if you hadn't insisted on playing games." Santana retorts.
"Trust me Santana, I only participate in the games where the prizes are worth it."
It's after 1am when Santana gets home and she's shocked that her and Brittany stayed talking that long. She's baffled by not only how much they have in common but also how much she loved being in the woman's company. They talked about everything from family, to their careers, to their childhoods. It was everything Santana had always wanted a first date to be if she was being honest. Is she being honest?
Santana settles in for bed and flips on the television. She's extremely picky about what she watches while she falls asleep. As she flips and flips through the premium channels, she eventually reaches the late night erotic options. A guy hitting a girl from the back in a kitchen. Flip. A group of people participating in a gang bang. Flip. I guess the third time is the charm because when Santana turns to the next channel, as badly as she wants to look away she cannot. There is a blonde woman doing things to a dark haired olive skinned woman that Santana cannot even fathom and she's paralyzed. She doesn't even think she is blinking. The dark haired woman is completely under the spell of the blonde as she continually cries out in pleasure. Santana's mind goes to Brittany and she thinks about the lingering touches over dinner. It doesn't take Santana much to imagine that they were more and once she sees herself and Brittany as the two women on screen, she cannot unsee it and she doesn't know what to think. Santana turns off the television and gets out of bed. She goes and paces in the kitchen, pours herself a glass of water, gulps it down and then paces some more. She's really got to get a grip.
Santana gets in her shower and she still can't shake these thoughts, it's here when they begin to overwhelm her and the shower that was meant to wash away all these new feelings just makes her want to give into her body's needs more. It doesn't take long before she starts by teasing one nipple and slowly running her other finger along her slit. She closes her eyes and thinks back to the images she saw on her television and finds herself instantly transported there in her mind, her body being owned by Brittany. Santana gasps at how wet she is and plunges two fingers deep inside herself as she plays out the fantasy in her mind. It doesn't take long before she is tumbling over the edge, Brittany's name a whisper on her lips.
She opens her eyes. "What the fuck."