Author's note: So, I'm trying to make this as realistic as possible but, the military aspect of the story may not be entirely right! (Although I have been doing my research: Family who are ex-military, Google, etc.) Also, I changed up the "format" or whatever with the way I'm writing the conversations. They're more spread out instead of being in continued paragraphs. Let me know what you think. Thanks again for reading and reviewing!
One hour, and fourteen stitches later, Brittany's shoulder was finally patched and she was lying down on her bed. I went and got both off us breakfast and when I got back to our tent, Brittany had my How To: Removing Bullets & Dressing Bullet Wounds textbook opened in her lap which I assumed she was reading before she fell asleep. 'I never noticed how cute she is when she's sleeping, even with that little bit of drool coming out of her mouth.' I smiled and giggled quietly.
I know she needed sleep but, she also needed to eat to regain the strength from losing so much blood. I put down both bowls of oatmeal on my desk, lifted the book slowly out of her lap placing it next to the bowls, and sat on the bed next her. Placing my hand on her uninjured shoulder, I gently rubbed up and down her arm to wake her up.
"Hey Britt Britt, wake up," I combed my fingers through her hair. "I brought you some breakfast. I know you want to sleep but, I want you to eat a little something and then you can sleep the rest of the day." She stirred slightly, turning her body so her arm wound up around my waist, and nestled her head into my lap. She yawned, opened her eyes, and blinked a few times to get used to the light that was now entering the tent. I stroked her hair and then rubbed my thumb across her cheek. After her eyes adjusted to the light, Brittany looked up at me and grinned, happy to see that I was looking at her.
"Hey sleepy head." I leaned down and gave her a lingering kiss on her forehead.
"Hey beautiful…" Brittany spoke up while closing her eyes.
Her eyes shot open and her body tensed when she realized what she just said. I felt her gulp nervously against my leg, worried she shouldn't have said that. I chose not to say anything about it and instead, leaned down again and kissed her lips. Thankfully, she relaxed. I was definitely alright with her calling me that. It felt more intimate in our…whatever we had.
'She's not my girlfriend…yet. I want her to be but, I don't want things to get awkward between us if she says no. I'll talk to her later when she's feeling better.'
I was about to pull away from our kiss when the hand Brittany had wrapped around my waist made its way to the back of my neck, pulling me deeper into the kiss. Our tongues battled for dominance and just before things started getting too heated, remembering I was here to take care of her right now, not sleep with her, I kissed her cheek and then her forehead, ultimately breaking away. As much as I wanted to kiss Brittany and do more with her, she lost a lot of energy along with blood last night and she needed to eat and sleep.
I stood from the bed and went to my desk, grabbing her bowl of oatmeal. She rolled onto her side and propped her head up on her hand to stare at me, relaxing her other arm. The stitches wouldn't rip unless she put a lot of strain on her muscles, but I knew she was in pain. I started to hand her the bowl while ignoring her annoyed groans and complaints to me from breaking our kiss.
"Come on, stop complaining and sit up. You need to eat."
She fell back onto the thin mattress, throwing her arm across her face dramatically and peaking at through the crease of her elbow.
"But Saaannn…I don't want any of that nasty oatmeal. We've been eating that every morning for months! And I'm not even hungry so, you should just like, put that bowl down and come over here so I can kiss you some more."
She gave me the dorkiest, most adorable grin ever.
"As cute as you are and as tempting as that is, you need to eat. So sit up and eat. Please?"
She laughed and took her arm off her face.
I groaned and threw my head back rolling my eyes. "Now what? It's oatmeal…it's not that funny."
She grabbed my free hand and pulled me towards her to sit back down. Although I just wanted her to eat, I placed the bowl back down and gave in to her request.
"It's not the oatmeal silly, I just thought it was sweet how easily the way you called me cute rolled off your tongue."
I looked at her wide-eyed and tried to hide my blush.
'Shit…' "What? No, that can't be right. I never said that. You must be imagining things from all the blood you lost."
She saw right through my lie. There was no point in trying to hide it anymore and I hung my head in shame. She giggled and brought her hand to my chin to lift my head so I would look at her.
"Hey," she said as she cupped my face and ran her thumb over my cheek. "It's ok. I liked it."
Brittany smiled at me as I relaxed and leaned into her touch. I brought my hands up and took hers off of my cheek, bringing them to my lips to kiss her knuckles.
"Really?" I whispered, still so unsure. I didn't want to mess this up. I felt things for Brittany that I've never felt before. Her touch was like a fire so hot it felt cold. Her eyes pierced me every time like an assassin's dagger, never missing its target. Her lips…oh god. I'd die a million times just to look at the damn things. Kissing them is almost like being wrapped in hundreds of fluffy blankets on a cold night during the winter, surrounded by your favorite pillows with a cup of the world's greatest hot chocolate warming your hands while listening to the smoothest jazz. Only actually kissing Brittany is ten times better.
Brittany sat up slowly and put her arm around my shoulders, pulling me into her. I rested my head against her shoulder, but pulled away when she grimaced at the pain it caused.
"Sorry." I said, immediately pulling away.
"No, it's alright. Just put your head here." I placed my head higher on her shoulder and closer to her throat.
"You worry too much San," She started to rub her hand up and down my arm. Instinctively, I closed my eyes to the touch. "It's not a bad thing to be sweet you know. It's ok to let your walls down, especially around me. You know I would never judge you. Actually, I really enjoy listening to you and learning about the things you talk about. I just wish you did it more often."
"Is that why you were reading my textbook?" I was curious. Was she reading it to learn about some of the things I did? We never really discussed it before.
"Well, not at first. I was reading it so I could fix my shoulder. I didn't want you to find out about it because I knew you'd worry about me when you should be worrying about other things and people."
She had a point. Brittany has always been my number one concern since we met and I understand why she wouldn't want to tell me. I've always been protective of her. If she got a paper cut, I'd probably make sure she was alright before checking on another soldier.
"But then," she added, "when I actually started reading and learning about it, I thought it was interesting. Maybe one day we could sit down at night like we used to and we can talk about your doctor stuff and other things too."
I kept my eyes closed, humming in satisfaction. "That's a good idea Britt. I kind of miss our nightly talks. I guess we're just so tired lately and we know so much about each other that we just stopped doing them."
She squeezed me tighter to her. I never realized how much I enjoyed being around Brittany all this time until she said, "You know, when we get out of here, I'd really like to show you where I went and what I did as a kid. We lived in the same town for so long and never knew each other because my parents kept me so sheltered. Then we can hang out all the time, with no interruptions from people trying to kill us, and just live our lives."
When she said that, I shuddered. 'When we get out of here. All the time. No interruptions. Live our lives.' All of those phrases played over and over in my head like a record.
'A life outside of the military? One that didn't suck? A life with Brittany? Hells yes. I think I'd be perfectly fine with that.'
"I think that's a great idea too, Britt. Then I can show you where I used to go all Lima Heights on people." She giggled at me. "And then I can take you to the BEST restaurant in the world. Like for real, they have the greatest breadsticks ever. I always get the basket refilled like, four times, and wind up pouring the fifth into my purse."
This time, she let out a full blown laugh, shaking my body. It took her a few minutes to calm down. What can I say? I may have a slight addiction to those breadsticks.
She caught her breath, trying to stifle her giggles. "If the one and only Santana Lopez is that obsessed with it, then it must be good. What's the name of this place because I have to go."
"Well don't worry Britt Britt, when we get out of here, I'm going to show you all the things you had to miss because of your damn parents. And it's called Breadstix."
"Oh my gosh, of course it is. Why didn't I see that coming? It should have been obvious! Is it in Lima?"
"Yep. It's right around the corner of McKinley where I went to high school."
"I wish I had gone to school with you San. I'm sure we would've been the greatest of friends then. We could've gone to the movies and taken trips together. And of course we would go to Breadstix…every Friday night."
That sounded amazing. But one thing made me curious. "Why every Friday?"
"Oh…because that would be our date night." She didn't hesitate when she spoke
It went quiet, both of us basking in the comfortable silence. Brittany was so sure of everything she said so I just went along with it. Her confidence is one of the things I love most about her.
Being that Brittany seemed to have some energy, oatmeal or not, I figured it was now or never to have the talk.
Now, I've never been one to get nervous. In fact, I'm usually the one people are nervous about. But, once again, Brittany has turned my world upside down, making everything opposite for me when I'm around her. So, I take a deep breath, turn my head just a little to place an open mouthed kiss on her neck, and sit up so I can look in her eyes for probably one of the most important, life changing conversations I will ever have.
I looked at her for a few seconds. She has a look on her face, wondering why I just broke the moment we were sharing but she didn't speak. I took another deep breath.
'Well, now or never I suppose.'
"Can I talk to you about something?" I asked nervously as I looked down, noting the way my words caught in my throat.
She looked at me curiously. "Of course. You can talk to me about anything."
"Ok just…it's a lot alright? So unless it's really important, let me finish before you say anything. This is difficult enough already."
Brittany grabbed my hand, rubbing her thumb softly over my knuckles. I looked up into her eyes. She gave my hand a soft squeeze and gave me a quick nod telling me to go on. I looked down again and at our hands. I made a bold move and intertwined our fingers. She didn't object.
One more deep breath.
"Brittany I…I um…" I stuttered. I was sweating bullets and all I wanted to do was run out of this tent and forget about this. But I knew it had to be done.
"Brittany I…I really like you. I've like you for a long time. I don't really know when I started to; I just know that it happened. You're so sweet to me and you're the first person that's ever treated me like I was worth something to them. I'm not sure what it is but, I can never get mad at you. Somehow whenever I'm around you, all my anger disappears and I feel like I'm floating. You make me a better person. All those years at home I felt like I was no one, and then I met you, and I became a someone again. You deserve the world Brittany and I really want to be the one that gives it to you if you'd let me. So, I guess the whole purpose of this to ask you if you would-"
"Yes."
My head shot up. I hadn't realized I said all of that while looking at out intertwined hands. I also hadn't realized that she started crying.
"Yes?" I questioned her. Making sure she knew what she was saying yes to.
"Yes Santana, I would love to be your girlfriend."
I couldn't hold back anymore. I lunged forward and connected our lips. I've had girlfriends in the past but, none felt as real and as satisfying as this one did. Brittany was the girl of my dreams, and I wasn't afraid to admit it either.
'Finally, things are going my way for once.'
Author's note: Ahhhhh FINALLY. I mean, you knew it was going to happen. Things are going to get intense in some of the chapters to come. Unsure how many chapters I'm going to write though. I was planning on doing a Brittany POV of this chapter as the next chapter just to see what she was thinking through everything that's happened so far. What do you think? Oh! And if any of you have any ideas for upcoming chapters in this story or any stories you might want to see, feel free to let me know! I'm open to any suggestion! Thanks!