AN: Thank you everyone for your reviews/favorites/alerts. Disclaimers, warnings and acknowledgements as before. Sorry I didn't upload on schedule, I got distracted. Hope you enjoy even if it is a day late.
Chapter 4: Brittany
When Brittany returned to the lounge after walking Santana out she expected her friends to be ready to leave. Instead as she pushed the door open she barely missed smacking Mercedes in the face with it and the rest of her friends were rushing to scatter away from the door.
Shaking her head Brittany muttered "Should have known." Then she noticed Mike trying to discreetly move away from the side of the door with a sheepish look on his face. "Even you Monkey!? I thought you were better than that!" she exclaimed.
Mike just looked to the floor guiltily while Mercedes and Kurt both protested.
"Hey! What are you implying about the rest of us!?"
"That you are gossiping divas? Is that not how you basically introduced yourselves to me when I first came round for the apartment?" Brittany said with a smirk.
"I'm pretty sure we never said anything about gossiping." Kurt tried to defend.
"No I figured that out all by myself." Brittany said with a light laugh.
"We were just curious." Tina tried to justify. "You were alone together for like three hours."
It was Brittany's turn to look sheepish. "Well you guys know I would probably just tell you anything you wanted to know anyway." She said with a shrug.
"Well where is the fun in that?" Mercedes asked with a smirk and the others chuckled.
"Hey! I might have been distracted by Santana but your aura is still sparking pinks and reds! Who's got you in a lovey mood?" Brittany asked Mercedes with a smirk of her own.
"Yeah, who were you texting earlier and giggling over?" Mike asked.
Mercedes seemed to lose her sass after that and refused to answer the question.
"It was probably that Sam guy. You know blond hair and amazing body but absolutely no style and a bit geeky with all those impressions and stuff." Kurt supplied.
"Hey! He is not geeky!" Mercedes defended him.
"Wait, the I.T. guy that set up our website?" Brittany asked.
"Oh yeah, he is super geeky. Nice guy though." Mike said when he realised who they were talking about.
"Yeah, nice and clear baby blue aura." Brittany added with a nod to emphasize her point.
"Whatever." Mercedes mumbled. "I thought we were trying to find out what happened between Rainbow Britt and Santana?" she tried to deflect.
"Britt is right. She will tell us everything eventually. You on the other hand." Tina said with a smirk.
"Fine! We got to talking after his Bieber performance and hit it off. He may be a bit geeky but he was nice to me. Made me laugh. We exchanged numbers and he just sent me a text to let me know he got home OK and is looking forward to our coffee date on Wednesday. Happy now?" Mercedes finally told them.
"Awww!" Brittany and Tina cooed while Kurt and Mike just smiled at her affectionately.
Just as Mercedes was getting tired with all the attention, a loud snore interrupted the group and they turned towards Rachel who was now on her back snoring a bit more loudly.
"Right, well that's our cue." Kurt said and moved towards Rachel to wake her.
"Wakey, wakey Sleeping Beauty." He said as he shook her shoulder lightly.
"Is it time for my solo?" Rachel mumbled slowly opening her eyes.
"You only just started rehearsals! And you aren't even a lead! You have no solos!" Kurt exclaimed.
"It is just a matter of time." Rachel replied snottily, now completely awake.
Kurt just rolled his eyes. "Come on, time to go home." He said pulling her up from her makeshift bed.
They all said their goodbyes and headed home after promising to be back tomorrow, well later the same day technically, to help clean up.
Early in the afternoon, once everyone had recovered from the party, the group was all gathered at the studio again for clean-up duty. Feeling guilty for abandoning her friends for most of the night and not really helping out that much with the set-up, Brittany tried to be less distracted and actually contribute. She managed to make picking up plastic cups and stuffing them in a trash bag look graceful as she timed her movements to the beat of the music flowing through the studio speakers. She made mopping up look like an elegant Waltz.
They finished relatively quickly considering the amount of people they had in the place last night. When they were done, Mike treated everyone to Thai food as a thank you for all their help. After they enjoyed their meal the group started to disperse. Mercedes mumbled something about a Skype date with Sam. Rachel stated she needed to run through her lines again before the next day's rehearsal and demanded Kurt go home with her to help and offer constructive feedback. Rolling his eyes he dutifully followed his roommate out. Brittany said she had some choreography ideas she wanted to work on so she would see them later at home. Mike offered to stay in the studio with her and help if she needed a partner but she shooed him away to enjoy the rest of the afternoon with Tina.
"I'm just going to burn off some excess energy." She assured him.
"No problem." Mike said with a knowing smile. "Come by the apartment when you are done if you want. We can watch a movie or something." He added.
"Sure. See you in a bit." She replied with a smile.
Entering her favourite rehearsal room Brittany turned on all the lights and headed for the sound system. She found the song she was looking for on her iPod, put it on repeat and connected it to the sound system.
The intro to 'Valerie' blared through the speakers around the room and Brittany started stretching out while watching the purple swirls and waves weave through the air. She closed her eyes when Amy started to sing and tried to remember Santana's raspy voice instead. Once she was done with her stretches she started following the colours around her for a bit and then started to move her body to mimic their motions. She spent about an hour coming up with choreography that encompassed the motions of the colours and her own emotions concerning Santana. Feeling satisfied with the result and having burnt off all her excess anxious energy she turned off the music and sat with her back against the mirrors lining the wall. Sipping some water she flipped through her phone seeing if anything interesting had occurred since she started dancing.
She realised that the only thing she was actually interested in wasn't going to happen if she didn't make the first move. When Mercedes had mentioned exchanging numbers with Sam it occurred to Brittany that she and Santana hadn't and if the impression she got from Santana last night was right Brittany would have to be the one to seek her out. Santana may have promised a next time but that didn't mean she would actually make the first move.
Stuffing her things in her gym bag Brittany turned off the lights and locked up the studio heading up to Mike and Tina's second floor apartment.
Brittany knocked on the door to their apartment twice and waited.
"Come in Britt, it's open!" Tina called from the inside.
Brittany let herself in and locked the door behind her. There was no one in the small living room so she headed back to the small study they had set up in the second bedroom. Tina was typing away on her laptop when Brittany entered.
"Hey." Brittany greeted.
"Hey." Tina replied distractedly with a small wave in Brittany's general direction without looking away from the screen.
Brittany just stood there watching for a few seconds until she started to feel a bit uncomfortable. "Uhm…" she mumbled.
Tina looked up at that. "Sorry." She said apologetically. "I'm just trying to figure out the right concentrations for my experiment in the lab tomorrow and it is turning out to be more complicated than I anticipated." She explained as she turned back to her laptop.
"Oh. No worries. Where's Monkey?" Brittany asked.
"I banished him to the bedroom 'cause he has been arguing with his mother for the past half hour and it was distracting me." Tina explained.
"Ok…" Brittany answered slowly wondering what she was supposed to do now. Tina was obviously busy and didn't want to be distracted and Mike's family arguments could be epic. He had been known to spend hours on the phone with his parents. On the plus side whenever that happened there was usually a care-package through the post within a few days from his mother full of homemade delicacies as an apology. "I'll just go entertain myself in the living room until you guys are done." She mumbled.
Stretching out on the couch Brittany turned on the TV and started flicking through the channels. She wasn't paying much attention until she stumbled across a documentary about hummingbirds. As soon as she saw the rapid flapping of the small bird's wings she rested the controller on her stomach and smiled. "Kurt!" she giggled to herself. That reminded her that she still hadn't figured out exactly what Santana's touch-sound was. She knew it was some sort of big cat but she wanted to know exactly what kind it was.
Looking around she spotted Mike's tablet on the breakfast bar. Technically it was the studio's since they got it to keep everyone's schedules and playlists on it but they had decided it would be best to not leave it lying around the studio when no one was there so it was usually in Mike and Tina's apartment in the off hours. Mike had offered to get one for Brittany as well, on the studio budget, but she usually left most admin things to him so he would have more use for one than her, plus she would probably just misplace it anyway, so she declined. She got up and took the tablet off its charger and turned it on as she moved back to the couch. Their password 'Rainbow Fusion' wasn't exactly original but it made it easy for all the instructors to remember so they could add details to their folders whenever they wanted and nothing really important was ever stored on it.
Since she was still waiting for Mike or Tina to be done and join her she decided she might as well do some research on big cats. Obviously she knew the most popular ones like lions and tigers but a quick search with the term 'big cats' made her realise that there were a lot more animals that fell into that category. She decided that since she could only actually hear it, looking at pictures and reading about them, wouldn't really help so she changed her search to 'big cat sounds'. After scrolling through some sites that didn't seem very helpful she finally found a zoology website that boasted the most extensive animal sounds library and it was all organised into types of animals for easier access.
Smiling to herself she quickly found the section she was looking for and scanned the list of animals. They were in alphabetical order and she decided she might as well just take them in order, listen to the sound carefully and try and figure out which one was Santana's. That is how Mike found her half an hour later, lying across the couch with her knees bent and the tablet propped up against them, her eyes shut and her hands pushing her earphones into her ears firmly.
He tried to call out to her to catch her attention but she obviously couldn't hear him so he padded up to her and put his arm on her shoulder. That made her shriek and jump up opening her eyes. Mike jumped back putting his hands in the air in the sign of surrender as Brittany whirled around towards him and the tablet clattered to the floor. Noticing it was Mike she took a deep breath and brought a hand to her chest to rest against her rapidly beating heart.
"Damn it Monkey! You scared me half to death!" She scolded him.
"Sorry." Mike said stifling a laugh. "I tried calling out to you but you obviously didn't hear me. What were you listening to anyway?" He asked while he bent down to retrieve the fallen tablet.
"Oh. I found a site that has an animal sounds library and I was going through that." Brittany said.
"Cool! Did you figure out what kind of monkey my touch sounds like?" Mike asked excitedly.
"Erm. No. I was actually just listening to the big cats section." Brittany replied with a light blush.
"Who sounds like a big cat?" Mike asked puzzled. But then he noticed the look on Brittany's face. "Let me guess. Santana?" He dragged out her name with a smirk.
"Yeah, she does. Did you know there are so many types of big cats? Like my first thought when I first heard it was lion or tiger but even they have different types, like mountain lions or Bengal tigers, never mind all the others I had never even heard of!" Brittany rambled.
"So did you figure out which one she is?" Mike asked as he smiled at his friend's excitement.
"I think so! I think she is a black panther, or more accurately a melanistic jaguar." Brittany said with a proud smile both for figuring it out and learning the specific name. "Listen!" She said enthusiastically as she snatched the tablet from Mike and found the right sound file.
"Cool!" Mike said as the various sounds a black panther makes filled the small living room. "Sounds pretty fierce." He added.
"Yeah." Brittany agreed with a dreamy expression.
Once the sound file had ended Mike dropped onto the couch and put his sock clad feet on the coffee table. "Can we try and figure out what kind of monkey I am?" he asked hopefully.
"Sure, why not." Brittany replied as she took a seat next to him and started looking through the site again.
About an hour later Tina wandered out of the office, finally done with her calculations, to find Mike and Brittany huddled over the tablet looking at something and laughing as all different animal sounds filled the air.
"Why does our living room sound like a zoo?" Tina asked getting their attention.
"At least it doesn't smell like one!" Mike cheekily replied.
Tina just gave him a steady stare which had him apologising and rushing to explain. "Sorry. Britt was trying to figure out what kind of big cat Santana's touch-sound is so that made me curious as to what kind of monkey mine is and one link led to another and we eventually ended up at the live cams from the New York zoo."
"Ok. Cool." Tina smiled and joined them on the couch making Brittany laugh at the relieved expression on Mike's face. Tina didn't really care she just liked to mess with her boyfriend on occasion.
"So what is Santana's touch sound?" Tina asked when Brittany stopped teasing and laughing at Mike.
"I'm pretty sure she is a melanistic jaguar more commonly known as the black panther." Brittany said excitedly.
"Don't you wanna know what kind of monkey I am?" Mike asked his girlfriend with a pout.
"I already know. You're a cheeky monkey." Tina said with a smirk and leant in to kiss Mike's pout away.
"I'm a capuchin monkey actually." He mumbled as their lips met.
"So what's the plan now?" Tina asked when she pulled away from the kiss. "I'm pretty sure the zoo animals will be going to sleep soon and that can't be too exciting to watch."
"I was thinking we would just chill out and maybe watch a movie." Mike supplied.
"Sounds good. You staying Britt?" Tina asked.
"If you guys don't mind. I really don't want to have to listen to Rach go through her lines again." Brittany answered.
The couple chuckled. "Sure, no problem. You guys pick a movie and I'll go pop some popcorn and get us drinks and stuff." Tina offered.
"I'll help!" Brittany jumped to her feet as soon as Tina got up making her friends look at her questioningly. "I trust Monkey's choice in movies and it's not fair to make you carry everything on your own!" Brittany tried to justify her behaviour.
"OK then." Tina said making her way towards the kitchen.
Brittany just leaned against the counter watching Tina find the popcorn bag to stick in the microwave. Once Tina was done and the appliance was running she turned to Brittany.
"So what is it you wanted Britt?" She asked with a kind smile.
"That obvious, huh?" Brittany asked sheepishly.
"You have never been one for much subtlety." Tina explained with a small smile.
"Yeah, I guess." Brittany admitted with a smile of her own.
"So?" Tina encouraged.
"Well, how well do you know Santana?" Brittany asked hesitantly.
"Should have guessed it would be about San." Tina chuckled. "I know her well enough. I'm probably the closest to her from college. Why?"
"It's just, I thought we had a really good time last night. And we are supposed to do it again sometime but we never exchanged details." Brittany started.
"OK." Tina said assuming there was more to come.
"I mean you know her better but she seemed really genuine when she promised a next time. So is us not exchanging details just an oversight on both our parts? 'Cause I forgot to ask for her number as well. So maybe it wasn't intentional on her part either. Maybe she does want us to meet up again she just has no way of contacting me to set it up…" Brittany drifted off at the end, a bit self-conscious in case she had just completely misjudged the situation and Santana was just agreeing to be polite or something.
"First of all, if San promised, she was being honest. She doesn't make promises lightly 'cause she hates to break them." Tina started. "So her not offering her number or asking for yours was either because she forgot or she was too self-conscious and scared of rejection to put herself out there. She would kill me if she knew I was saying this but she is a bit reticent and sometimes can seem downright antisocial. Yeah she can posture with the best of them but she is actually really insecure. So even if you had exchanged details you would probably have to make the first move anyway." She finished.
"I figured I would." Brittany admitted "Sometimes she seemed so skittish, like a kitten or baby rabbit."
Tina laughed. "Not animals someone who first met Santana would associate with her but I get what you mean."
"So you think I should contact her then?" Brittany asked while fidgeting with her hands nervously.
"Oh definitely!" Tina reassured her with a smile. "And I would recommend not leaving it too long because if she is interested, and she sure seemed like she was, she will probably drive herself crazy thinking about if and how she should approach you again." Tina said with an affectionate chuckle for her friend.
"OK. I will then. Thanks!" Brittany said with a bright confident smile as she hugged her friend.
Tina laughed again. "I assume you need her number then?" She asked as she leaned back from the hug and fished her phone out of her pocket.
"Please." Brittany said and took her own phone out to write down the number.
Once that was done they returned to the living room with all their snacks.
"What took so long?" Mike asked as they settled back on the couch.
"Girl talk." Both girls answered and they laughed at their synchronized reply.
Mike just shrugged and started the movie.
Brittany had a great night with her friends. After the movie they played a few rounds of 'Candyland', her favourite board game, and just chilled out together. She even managed to not think about Santana until she was back at home and getting ready for bed. She decided to just go for it and send her a message. Hopefully it wasn't too late at night and if Santana was actually asleep she wouldn't wake her. Getting comfortable under the covers on her bed she brought up the screen for a new message and quickly typed up and sent the message before she could overthink it.
She held the phone in her hands pressing the 'screen on' button every time it went dark so she could keep an eye on how much time had passed. After five minutes with no reply Brittany sighed, locked the screen, placed the phone on the bedside table and rolled over in bed to get comfortable. "Maybe she is already asleep. It is pretty late. She might have an early class or lab tomorrow." Brittany thought, trying to console herself. With another deep sigh she closed her eyes and tried to will herself to sleep.
As she was humming 'Valerie' to herself, not much help really in her efforts to not think about Santana, her phone chimed and she scrambled to get her hands untangled from the covers to check it. '1 new message' blinked up at her from the screen. Taking a deep breath Brittany opened the message and a big smile took over her lips at Santana's reply.
"Hey. No worries. It's fine. I was gonna get your number from Tina tomorrow at college. San"
"Really? Well I saved you the trouble. =D" Brittany quickly typed out her reply. She was surprised Santana said she was gonna ask Tina for her number. Tina didn't seem to think she would make the first move.
The reply came quicker this time. "Well I like to think I would have, but since you saved me the trouble I guess we will never know. :p"
Brittany laughed at that. "Maybe you could be the first to send a friend request on Facebook then. ;P" Brittany cheekily replied.
As Brittany was holding her phone, waiting for Santana's reply, the Facebook notification chime startled her. Checking the notification she saw it was a friend request from one Santana Lopez. Smiling she accepted the request but before she got a chance to explore Santana's profile she received a new message.
"Funny story. I have been meaning to do that all day." The message read.
"Well I'm glad you got around to it. Busy day?" Brittany replied.
"Same as every Sunday really. Caught up on any new articles or research papers I may have missed through the week and talked to my best friend for a while. You? Good day?" Santana explained in her message.
"It wasn't bad. We had to clean up the studio after the party. Worked on some new choreography then hung out with Mike and Tina. The night is turning into the best part. " Brittany bit her lip as she pressed send wondering if Santana would get her meaning and how the light flirting would be received. Her heart skipped a beat when Santana's latest message arrived.
"Tonight is the best part of my day as well. But as great as this is I'm afraid I have an early morning class and a busy day tomorrow… "
Brittany sighed as she read the end. She has a pretty busy day herself so she understood. And at least Santana seemed to have enjoyed their chat as much as she did. She just really didn't want it to end.
"I get it. I have a full day of classes as well. I'm glad we got to talk even for a little bit. And since I stole your thunder by getting your number first I'll leave it up to you to contact me first whenever you are free and want to. Good night Santana. Sweet dreams. xx"
"I'll text you as soon as I'm done from college tomorrow. I promise. Buenas noches Brittany."
Smiling Brittany put her phone back on the bedside table and tried to finally get some sleep.
The next day was full-on from the get-go for Brittany. She spent most of the morning working on choreography with one of her older students, Jacob, who was planning on auditioning for a dance company. She and Mike had had many long and honest discussions with him about the pros and cons of working for a company. And even though they both ended up quitting neither one of them could really discourage him from at least auditioning. They both acknowledged that there had definitely been some good times amongst all the bad.
After she was done with Jacob, that kid was gonna kill it at his audition she just knew it, she had her seniors jazzercise class to teach. Brittany loved that class almost as much as she loved the kids' class. She loved listening to their stories; they were always amusing and inspiring. And she loved that none of them let their age stop them from doing what they want.
The first real chance she had to think about Santana was at lunch. Brittany checked her phone while she munched on her grilled chicken wrap and salad from the deli down the street. She wasn't one for crazy diets, she just tried to eat as healthy as possible but she definitely indulged when she wanted to. She sighed when she saw that she had no new messages. She knew Santana was busy and she really hoped she did text her when she was free. She just wished it was sooner rather than later. Seeing the time Brittany decided it was probably best Santana hadn't contacted her yet because she had another class in ten minutes and she wanted to give Santana her undivided attention. She would probably miss her class all together if she started talking to Santana now. Sighing again she cleaned up her mess from lunch, stuck her phone back in her gym bag and made her way to prepare the rehearsal room for her next class.
Brittany's busy day finally came to an end at 6pm. The few times she managed to check her phone between classes she still didn't have any messages or missed calls from Santana, but she was trying to remain positive. It's not like Brittany had nothing to do all day so it makes sense that Santana would have been just as busy. Just as Brittany was saying goodbye to her last students she heard her phone ringing in her bag so she rushed to answer it, hoping she would finally get to talk to Santana. She rummaged around in her bag until she could find it and answered blindly hoping to catch it before the call got cut off.
"Hello!" Brittany said cheerfully trying to calm down her racing heart.
"Hey, Britt!" Came the excited reply.
"Oh, it's you." Brittany answered in her monotone voice.
"Nice! Is that any way to greet your little sis?" Her sister said indignantly.
"Sorry, Hailey-Bug." Brittany apologised.
"Ugh! Please stop calling me that. I'm fifteen now, I'm not a little kid anymore." Hailey complained, causing Brittany to laugh.
"Why? Do you no longer like to sleep "snug like a bug in a rug"?" Brittany teased.
"I hate you. It's bad enough Gramma used to say that all the time do you have to keep it going?" Hailey whined through the phone.
"Of course! It's part of my sacred duty as a big sister to tease and embarrass you!" Brittany justified, still laughing.
"Ugh, you suck! And to think I was calling to congratulate you about your new video clip. Everyone is going nuts over your choreography."
"Thanks, but it was the studio's choreography not just mine. Both me and Mike contributed equally." Brittany stated modestly.
"I know. I'm just proud of my big sis. And I make sure to rub it in the faces of all the losers around here who ever dared to doubt you." Hailey said smugly.
"Well, thanks." Brittany replied bashfully.
"So anyway, what's up? You aren't usually that disappointed to hear from me." Hailey questioned.
"Shut up. You know I love talking to you. I was just expecting, or hoping more like, that it was someone else calling." Brittany explained.
"What!? Have you finally met someone!? When!? What are they like!? Why do I know nothing about this!?" Hailey exclaimed.
"Calm down Hailey-Bug. We only met on Saturday." Brittany tried to calm her little sister.
"Fine. But I demand to know everything now." Hailey's pout could be heard through the phone and she was so distracted by Brittany's news she didn't even complain about the nickname.
"Well…" Brittany said hesitantly. Even though she had no issues with being attracted to a woman she wasn't quite sure how her family would react to that. Her sister had always been supportive of her though so she decided to take a chance and tell her. "Her name is Santana. She is a friend of Tina's from college and as I said we met on Saturday night at Mike's birthday party." Brittany rushed out.
"OK…" Hailey dragged out the word and paused, waiting for Brittany to continue.
Hearing her sister pause Brittany started to freak out thinking that Hailey was freaking out because she was into a girl. Brittany's mind started to whirl with different scenarios and memories, feeling sure this would be just one more instance she couldn't communicate and connect with her family.
After a few seconds Hailey begun to get impatient. "Those aren't details Britt!" She snapped down the phone jolting Brittany out of her own mind. "A girl named Santana isn't really giving me much. I mean you didn't even give me a description of what she looks like and you can sense so much more from a person than just their physical appearance!"
Brittany breathed a sigh of relief and chuckled while trying to calm down her racing heart and relieve all the tension that had built up in her. "Sorry, I got distracted." She tried to excuse her reaction to her sister. "Well, she's beautiful. Long dark hair, big brown eyes and smooth caramel skin. She has the cutest dimples when she smiles and her aura is rainbow coloured. She sounds like a panther when we touch and her voice is deep reds and purples. She is super smart and seems a bit shy. Like, we spent all night on the roof together but she somehow managed to keep me talking most of the time and she hardly told me anything about herself. But she promised we will meet up again and I'm totally gonna get her to do all the talking. And I texted her last night and we talked for a bit and she was supposed to contact me as soon as she was free today but she still hasn't." Brittany finished off her ramble with a pout but before she could think too much about Santana still not contacting her she heard Hailey laughing on the other end of the line.
"Now that's more like it!" Hailey crowed. "She sounds hot." She said with a smirk.
"It's not just 'cause she's hot! You know I'm not like that. She's just special. I saw colours just by hearing Mike say her name before I even met her. And she has the brightest rainbow aura. I have never, ever met anyone with a whole rainbow!" Brittany explained again.
"Well you sure make her sound special." Hailey said. "As long as she treats you right and you are happy, then it's all good with me. If she hurts you though she will have me to deal with!" She tried to sound tough and protective.
Brittany just laughed. "Easy there Bug. I'm not sure if we even classify as friends yet. I mean we've only really spoken a couple of times." She tried not to sound too optimistic that they would eventually be more than friends.
"Please! You are totally at least smitten with this girl already. I have never heard you so excited about someone except when you used to talk about your imaginary 'special person' that you have been waiting for since forever. It seems pretty likely that person is this Santana person. Plus you may act like very little bothers you but I can tell things hurt you much more than you let on. So if she ever does anything to hurt you, I repeat, she will have ME to deal with!" Hailey practically growled that last part.
"Whatever you say Hailey-Bug, whatever you say." Brittany laughed again.
"Stop calling me that!" Hailey shrieked again causing Brittany to laugh harder.
"Never!" Brittany stated. "Anyway, I'm just about to leave the studio and go home. It's been a long day." She continued.
"Whatever. I don't want to talk to you any more anyway." Hailey replied petulantly.
"Love you sis! Give my love to mom and dad as well and we'll talk soon." Brittany said cheerfully as she headed to the studio exit.
"We better. I need to know how things with this Santana girl go," Hailey said. She took a beat and then rushed out "Ok, love you, bye bye." and hung up the phone.
Brittany took the phone away from her ear and looked at her sister's photo on her screen before it faded and she chuckled affectionately. Hailey has been ending phone calls with her like that ever since she could remember.
Just as Brittany had finished locking up the studio she spotted Tina unlocking the side entrance to the building that provided access to a stairway that led directly to her upstairs apartment.
"Hey! You done for the day?" Tina greeted her when Brittany approached her.
"Yeah, I just locked up. How 'bout you? You only now finished from college?" Brittany asked.
"Ugh, yeah. Today has been a complete pain. Thankfully I had some experiments that could keep overnight so I got to leave. San is still working on hers." Tina replied.
"Oh, that sucks." Brittany said with a pout.
"Yeah. She told me that you talked last night." Tina admitted with a smile. "She also said that she would text you tonight when she is finally done so she can give you her undivided attention."
"Really!?" Brittany asked with a beaming smile.
"Yes, really. It might be a bit late but she will." Tina confirmed.
Brittany forgot about all her exhaustion from her busy day. She felt like jumping up and down in excitement like a giddy five year old. Seeing her friend's reaction Tina laughed.
"Well I better make my way up before I pass out, here on the doorstep." Tina said with a chuckle. "Hopefully Mike has cooked something or at least ordered in 'cause I'm starving!" she continued.
"Well he has been finished in the studio for over an hour now so he better have something organised." Brittany said with a chuckle of her own. "See you later." She said giving Tina a hug before turning to head to the subway to finally go home.
"See ya, Britt." Tina said with a little wave as she headed up the stairs.
As soon as Brittany got home she sprawled exhaustedly on the couch. She could hear someone puttering around in the kitchen and assumed it must be Kurt since Rachel would probably stay at the theatre rehearsing until late now that opening night was fast approaching. Her guess was confirmed when Kurt walked into the living room sipping on a fresh smoothie.
"Hey, Britt. Long day?" He greeted her when he spotted her lounging on the couch.
"Hmm." Brittany just hummed in the affirmative, lifting her legs for Kurt to sit down with her while she reached for the smoothie in his hands. She took a sip, resettled her legs in his lap and gave him back his smoothie.
Kurt patted her shins and turned on the TV to some mindless trashy reality show. They both watched in complete silence for a while until Brittany checked her phone and sighed.
"What's up, buttercup?" Kurt asked her with a smile not really taking his attention away from the TV.
"Nothing. Just waiting for a message." Brittany mumbled.
"Ohh, from whom?" Kurt questioned turning his body towards her to give her his full attention.
"Santana is supposed to contact me when she is done at college." Brittany replied.
"You guys are already texting? I thought you said you forgot to ask for her number." He said with a bit of surprise.
"I got it from Tina last night. We talked for a bit but we both had busy days today so we didn't talk for long. She said she will message me when she is done for the day but Tina said she will probably be stuck in the lab until late." Brittany explained.
"Well you'll just have to be a bit more patient. From what I understand from Tina, Santana is very passionate about her research." Kurt said mildly.
"I know." Brittany said with a huff. "I don't blame her or want to be the centre of her attention or anything. I'm just curious about her. It's all so new and exciting." She continued.
Kurt chuckled and patted her shins again. "Patience, grasshopper." He said in a silly voice making Brittany giggle. "You have plenty of time to really get to know each other. Just don't pressure her and let things evolve naturally." Kurt tried to reassure her.
"Yes, master!" Brittany replied using her own funny voice and they both cracked up laughing.
It was after 8pm by the time Rachel got home from the theatre and brought take-out for all of them to eat. They had just finished and were watching a musical that Rachel and Kurt had forced Brittany to watch a million times before. She liked musicals, don't get her wrong, but there are only so many times you can watch the same ones over and over again. Brittany was just dozing off, spread out on a mound of pillows and blankets on the floor, when her phone chimed by her head where she had placed it. Her roommates shushed her as she groaned and searched around blindly for it. As soon as she found it and checked her screen she bolted upright startling Rachel and Kurt. She rushed out an apology and a goodnight and was slamming her bedroom door before her roommates could even really comprehend what was happening. They stared blankly at her shut door for a few seconds before their attention was distracted by the action on the TV screen and they were soon engrossed in the musical fight scene forgetting Brittany's strange behaviour.
Once safely alone in her bedroom Brittany leaned back against her closed door letting out a deep breath to steady her racing heart and smiled at Santana's name under the '1 new message' notification on her phone screen. Taking another deep breath she opened the message and her small smile bloomed into a full-blown grin.
"Sorry for the really late message. I literally just got into my apartment. It's been a really long day and I wanted to give you the full attention you deserve when I finally messaged you. x Santana"
"No worries. I understand busy days. I'm glad you messaged me. If you are tired we can talk some other time. xx" Brittany sent back with a small frown on her face. She really wanted to talk to Santana but if she was tired she didn't want to drag out her long day even further. She moved to her desk chair and started spinning in lazy circles waiting for a reply. She didn't have to wait for long.
"I'm good. I still have to eat something and talking to you seems like the perfect way to end a busy and stressful day. =)"
Brittany stopped spinning and smiled.
"I'm glad. Hopefully I can be a good de-stressor. What are you gonna eat?" She quickly sent her message and decided to settle in for the night in her bed for what would hopefully turn into a nice little chat.
"It's too late to bother with cooking so I'm just gonna settle for a quick sandwich. How was your day?" Santana asked.
"Busy, like most Mondays. But I have two of my favourite classes so it's not too was your day so stressful?" Brittany replied.
"Nice. What are your favourite classes? And I was just having trouble with this line of experiments. I don't want to bore you with my geeky science stuff." Brittany pouted slightly at Santana's reply.
"I love all my classes but my favourites are the Seniors Jazzercise class and my Intro to Dance for 5-8 year olds. You wouldn't bore me! I might not understand it all 'cause you and Tina are super smart but I'm sure it's interesting." She hoped her message would convince Santana that she definitely didn't think her being smart and into her research project was boring.
"You like the two extremes huh? :P People just tend to look at me like I am crazy when I get passionate talking about my project. The actual details of what I'm working on right now really are boring but have to be done."
"They are the two ends of the spectrum yeah but they each have their own charms. And passion about anything is admirable and never crazy even if others don't understand it. What is your project actually on?" Brittany really did want to know all about Santana so asking about her project made sense.
"So what is it you like about each class? And that's a good way to look at things. But science still isn't really the sexiest or most interesting thing to be passionate about to most people. I'm researching ALD with a particular interest in screening and especially gene therapy treatments. It's a bit too long to try and explain through text but if you are actually interested maybe I can explain it a bit more when we next meet up. If you actually don't care and don't really wanna know I won't be offended or anything. Not the most cheerful or interesting subject, as I said. =)"
Brittany found Santana's self-consciousness about her science interests endearing. It was obviously something she really cared about and as such had Brittany interested in learning more. She was tempted to google it but decided she would probably understand better if Santana explained it rather than trying to read all those undoubtedly big and sciencey words. She also didn't miss Santana implying they would be meeting up in person again. She hoped it would be sooner rather than later. She started typing out her reply.
"Well the little kiddies are just so innocent and energetic and open to adventure, while the seniors are so inspiring and full of funny stories. Maybe you have been talking to the wrong people. 'Cause smart and passionate is definitely sexy in my book. ;P I really am interested in learning more about your research and I am absolutely holding you to explaining more when we meet up again. Now we just have to arrange for that to happen!" Brittany bit her lip as she sent the message hoping her light flirting would be returned. Thankfully Santana's reply didn't take long so hopefully she at least didn't freak her out.
"Maybe I've found the right person to talk to now then. And that's lucky 'cause passionate and talented dancers are sexy in my book. =p Unfortunately the rest of my week looks like it will be much of the same of today. =( But I will probably be free this weekend, if you want to meet up for like coffee or something."
Brittany smiled at the message and did a little happy dance while in bed. Before she got a chance to reply she received a new message and chuckled as she read it.
"I mean if you are free. I didn't mean to just assume that you wouldn't have any plans or something better to do on a weekend. Or even that you really wanted to meet up so soon or at all really. It was just a suggestion. It's totally up to you!"
"You are too adorable." Brittany thought as she rushed to type out a reply before Santana could completely freak out.
"I'm totally free and can think of nothing I would rather do than get a coffee or something with you. " she sent the message with a cheeky grin.
"Cool. Great. Well, whenever is best for you. I don't have a problem. You can even pick the place." Was Santana's still nervous reply.
"We will arrange the details later in the week. That way it's guaranteed we will have to talk again at least once before then." Brittany replied with more confidence now that she knew Santana definitely wanted to meet up with her again.
Unfortunately it was getting late and since they both had full days again tomorrow they decided they had better call it a night soon after that. Brittany had Santana promise to message her whenever she was free and wanted to since she had the more demanding schedule of the two.
Brittany fell asleep with a big smile on her face and dreamt all night of panthers slinking and prowling over rainbows with red and purple streaming behind them.