Author's note: I meant to update this ages ago; before I left for college. But, obviously, that never happened. So, due to the fact that this chapter was written in parts and rather sporadically, there's a chance that things might be inconsistent. Let me know if something seems a bit wonky!
The clock had just struck six in the morning, the sun had barely made an appearance over the horizon, and someone was knocking on Brittany's attic-bedroom door.
"Wake up, sueño de cabeza."
"Hm?" Brittany sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and yawned. "Isn't it kind of early?"
Santana merely shrugged.
"Well, shouldn't we wait for Gabriella to wake up and get ready?"
Santana shrugged again.
"Where are we going?"
Santana shrugged for a third time and Brittany briefly wondered if she would speak for the rest of the morning.
"I can't get dressed if you're standing there, now can I?"
Santana smiled this time. "Just be downstairs in ten minutes, okay?"
"Alright."
Brittany flounced downstairs in a pale blue dress, and was met with a smiling Santana holding a basket and blanket by the front door. She tucked a loose hair behind her ear and looked skeptically at the other girl's attire.
"You're not wearing overalls," Brittany commented. And, indeed, the other girl was not clad in her usual attire. Santana was wearing a pair of denim pants that were fitted and came up to above her waist with a blouse tucked neatly in.
Santana used her free hand to smooth a crease on the pants she was wearing. "They were Miguel's. Mami altered them to fit me better than the tattered overalls."
"I like it."
A blush made its presence on Santana's face and Brittany giggled. Awkwardness hung in the air as the two became silent, and Santana cleared her throat.
"We should, uh, get going. Vamos."
Brittany assumed that the Spanish word was some form of "let's go." She noticed Santana stick her empty hand in her pocket and said, "We're walking to wherever we're going, right?"
Santana pulled out a set of car keys from her pocket and grinned. "Marcos said we could use his car."
"Really?"
Santana nodded, knowing full well that it was lie. Before waking Brittany up, she had snuck into her brother's room and pulled the keys out of the pocket of his oil-stained pants from the previous day that were laying on the floor. He wouldn't notice; he was a heavy sleeper. Besides, Beiste's Auto Repair was within walking distance of their house.
Brittany was apprehensive about riding in a car with Santana driving. Where were they going that required a car ride to get there, anyway? Santana grinned again at her, dangling the keys in the air, and Brittany couldn't help but push her apprehension aside and smile weakly in return. She ushered Brittany out the front door, closing it with a muffled click, and then helped the blonde into the passenger seat of the car where the basket of food and the blanket sat neatly on her lap.
"So, uh, you know how to drive?"
"'Course I do." Santana started the car up with a low rumble. "I wouldn't take—I mean, um, Marcos wouldn't let me borrow his car if I had never driven it before."
They drove in silence. Santana was busy keeping her hands gripped on the wheel and her eyes peeled to the road while Brittany had her nose nearly pressed to the window. They passed through Lima, leaving the town with its homes and small shops behind, and made their way into Ohio's countryside. It almost reminded Brittany of Lancaster, how everything was wide and open, except the grass seemed patchier and the land was more flat.
"We're almost there," Santana said, breaking the silence as they passed by a farm.
Brittany nodded her head absentmindedly as she watch a cow grazing around the side of the red barn.
After another three minutes, Santana pulled the car over on the side of the dirt road, shutting the engine off and wiping her hands on the thighs of her pants. There were no more farms or any other buildings around them; they were alone. Brittany hopped out of the car, careful with the basket as she smoothed out her dress, and stared incredulously at the landscape before her.
"Where are we?"
Large, grey rocks littered the area where Santana had pulled off to. Bits of grass and wildflowers had sprouted through some of the cracks, peppering the limestone with greens and purples and yellows.
"If you keep stopping to ask question," Santana said, coming up next to her, "you'll never find out."
Brittany turned her head to the side and frowned. She didn't like not knowing what was going on and where they were.
"C'mon," Santana grabbed onto Brittany's free hand, directing her towards the rocks and away from the safety of the car. "Just be careful so you don't trip." She clambered expertly over the rocks, grasping on tightly to Brittany's hand so as to not let her fall, and managed to lead them to a small creak with trees on the other side.
The sound of the running water trickled throughout the air, dragonflies and gnats hovered over the tiny stream, and the purple wildflowers had bloomed all across the edge. It was so unvarnished yet nothing like Brittany had imagined it would be.
"Diego used to bring me here," Santana commented, bringing the blonde out of her trance. "No one else knew about this place."
"It's both simple and wonderful," Brittany said, looking bemused as a dragonfly buzzed around the water splashing on a rock.
"Here, have a seat." They were standing on a flat rock right on the edge of the stream and Santana took the blanket, spreading it out so they could properly sit. Brittany sat, tucking her legs beneath the hem of her dress, and placing the basket in between the two of them and opening it precariously. She pulled out two spiraled pieces of bread that were topped with powdered sugar and took in the sweet smell.
"Pastries?"
Santana nodded. "Mallorca."
"My...what?"
"My-your-ka." Santana said it slowly, emphasizing each syllable until Brittany could pronounce it correctly.
"It smells good," she said.
"It's a sweet pastry; I think you'll like it."
"I don't remember seeing your mother bake these, though," Brittany said, delving once more into the basket to find a thermos of milk; it was still relatively cold.
"That's because she didn't," Santana replied, almost smirking.
"Was it Gabriella, then? Your mother and I had stayed later with Father Hudson yesterday than her."
Santana scoffed. "I made all of this."
Brittany hesitated before speaking, her fingers in a pinched position, ready to pull off a piece of the pastry. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"
Santana's face heated up at the statement turned question. "I guess I am."
Brittany smiled, plopping the sugar-coated bread into her mouth. "Mmm. This is good."
"You doubted me?"
"No," Brittany giggled after swallowing. She ripped off another piece and ate it. "So, this is called mallorka, and we're drinking milk with it...how do you say milk in Spanish?"
Santana swallowed her own mouthful of the pastry and said, "Leche."
Brittany repeated the word under her breath. "What about basket?" She pointed to the basket between them.
"Canasta."
"Water?"
"Agua."
"Because we eat it all the time..." Brittany squinted her eyes, "How about rice?"
Santana chuckled. "Arroz. And there will probably be arroz con pollo por cena la noche. Chicken and rice for dinner tonight," she added upon seeing the befuddled look on Brittany's face.
"So...cena is dinner and noche is night?"
"Exactly!" Santana smiled.
They continued like this for a while; Brittany asking Santana how to say words in Spanish and then repeating them quietly under her breath until she committed them to memory. She had moved on from words like brother and sister (hermno y hermana, respectively) to phrases like, "I'm tired," ("Estoy cansado,") "Could you pass the..." ("Podría pasar el...") and even, "Ew, Marcos! Stop that!" ("Ew, Marcos! No hagas eso!").
The milk thermos had been emptied, there were nothing but crumbs left of the mallorka, and Brittany had now acquired a basic knowledge and vocabulary of Spanish (Santana had decided to skip out on the grammar lesson and ave that for another time). Brittany was adjusting her legs under the hem of her blue dress, brushing leftover powdered sugar off of the cloth and onto the rock, swatting at a gnat that had flown by.
"Okay," she said, looking directly at Santana. "How do you say, 'This was wonderful'?"
"Esto fue maravilloso," Santana answered, her cheeks reddening with anticipation of what Brittany would ask next.
"What bout, 'Thank you for taking me here'?"
"Gracias por traerme aquí."
Brittany leaned in close to Santana, her hand placed gently on the other girl's knee with their shoulders touching. "Esto fue maravilloso, Santana," she whispered. "Gracias poe traerme aquí."
Santana's heart was thudding louder than her father's shoes whenever he angrily walked up the stairs; she was shocked that Brittany couldn't hear it since they were so close together. The sound of the trickling creak had disappeared, along with the buzzing of the dragonflies; perhaps it was the intimacy of the moment that made Brittany and Santana ignore their surroundings.
"I overheard Gabriella saying this to her fiance, and I think I already know what it means..." Brittany had lowered her voice even more and had inched closer. "Te amo." She pressed her lips to Santana's cheek, kissing her softly.
Brittany had unknowingly used the wrong verb, but nevertheless, Santana melted.
Author's note: Te amo means I love you in Spanish. However, so does Te quiero. What's the difference? The former means it in a more romantic way, whereas the latter means it in a more friendly way. Of course, Santana would know this, but it's easy for Brittany to have no idea that there's a difference to begin with.
That being said...two more chapters. Two more chapters. No, this story isn't ending in two chapters. Shit is going to hit the primordial fan (a common phrase apparently used on my campus) in two chapters.
Guys. Prepare for more character introductions, plot development, and use of Spanish. Lots and lots of Spanish.
