So I took a weeks break from updating to write my Halloween one-shot but now I'm back with another chapter! Thanks to everyone who read and liked, followed, favorited and commented on the latter.

Thanks also for your views on the little debate happened in the last chapter. I respect all your viewpoints and understand that people see things differently. But I do agree with the comment of a guest that I tend to write Santana in the 'protective, traditional male position' - I blame that on canon Brittana. It still sticks to me even when I'm writing AU, so sorry if anyone is put off by that.

Anyways, enjoy this chapter and keep shipping Brittana!


"Hi Mom," I held the phone between my ear and shoulder to keep it in place. "Of course I'll be there. I would never miss Christmas."

…Which was why I was busting my ass writing this book. December had officially started yesterday and ever since that night I took Santana to the airport my head has been buried in my laptop. I can't even remember if I had dinner yesterday, probably not.

"Yes mom, you don't have to remind me. I won't make that mistake again; I've had my flight booked for a month now." I reassured her. She was worried that I wouldn't be able to find a flight back to Lima because this one year I forgot to book it in advance and tried getting a ticket the week before Christmas. Long story short, I missed Christmas with my parents that year.

"It's going good," I took a sip of what must have been my fourth coffee of the day. "I'm starting on a new book and I've really been in the zone these past two days. Of course I'm happy mom." That was the first time my mother mentioned that I sounded happy. It could only be credited to having Santana back in my life.

"I'm sort of dating someone," I admitted. Her next question was how could I not be sure if I was dating?

"We haven't been on an actual date yet, but she promises to take me out next week." I skillfully avoided telling my mom that I was talking about Santana. She knew how Santana had treated me in high-school and didn't have a very high opinion of her.

"Oh my god, mom I'm not answering that!" My face heated up when my mom asked me if I was doing it in the right order this time. She was insinuating that I usually sleep with girls first before I date them. I definitely couldn't answer her because I did sleep with Santana before our first date.

"I promise to be careful mom," I said. "I'll see you in two weeks, now I have to get back to work. I love you!"

I hung up the phone and stretched my back a little. Scrunching my shoulders over a keyboard all day was super unhealthy. I learned that from an infographic pasted on the bathroom wall at the office. So every two hours I got up and walked around my apartment or went downstairs for a change of scenery.

I'll admit that during my breaks I would read through the texts Santana sent me from the previous days. She usually sent messages during her early mornings, late afternoons, and before bed.

I never imagined Santana to be a 'cute texter' which is a name I give people who sound less serious in text than their real selves and who like to use a lot of emoticons.

Santana was one of them.

The first text she sent from Paris was that she landed safely and that she had been taken to her hotel in a Rolls Royce. She added a sticker of a French flag and a boggling eyed emoticon.

That night – for her – she texted me 'nite nite dream of me tonight' which I was totally going to do anyways and then there was a sleepy emoticon, a drooling one, a moon and a star. I'm sure if there were stickers of the constellations Santana would have used all of them.

She hadn't called me yet but four hours ago she told me that she'd Skype me before bed. I punched Artie's number immediately and asked him to come over and set it up for me.

Needless to say, at two o'clock, I wasn't getting very much work done. I was constantly distracted by the time and waiting for the button besides Santana's Skype name to turn green. Her profile image was of her and another girl behind the bar at Slash, faces rather close. They seemed to be having a good time.

I suppressed the urge to feel jealous. Santana and I didn't have any pictures together much less smiling like the world was made out of cotton candy.

Once again I minimized the program and set my mind on writing. The second chapter of the story was nearly complete. I just had to find the right ending to the scene.

"Yes!" I did several fist pumps in the air as I tapped the full stop. I was done for the day. The need for sleep was creeping up on me and I was tempted to fall into bed and close my eyes.

But Santana was going to call. I would get to see Santana again after two days apart. I didn't know I could miss her so much.

A bleeping sound startled me out of my half-sleeping daze. The little light besides Santana's name was green! Any thoughts of sleep were totally gone as I accepted the video call in the pop up window.

Santana appeared on my screen and I couldn't help smiling. She looked like she had just come out of the shower. Her hair was still wet and she wasn't wearing any make up. In actuality it seemed like she wasn't wearing much of anything at all. I could only see her top half but the spaghetti strap she had on wasn't covering much.

Her boobs looked glorious. I was kind of mesmerized by them and I don't know how the camera thing works or if it could pick up the fact that I was blatantly staring at her chest but Santana didn't call me out on it.

"Hi," She said cutely as she settled in front of the camera. I replied in like manner. She looked rather tired but also happy to see me.

"Your place is really bright," She commented.

"It's only afternoon here but…" I had a brilliant idea. I jumped out of my seat and closed the blinds leaving only a small slit for the light to come in directly on my desk.

"There is that better? Now it's like we are in the same time zone – Almost."

Santana giggled at my antics. "I don't really care as long as I get to see you before sleeping."

"Same here," I said, "I was just going to take a nap but I didn't want to miss you."

"It's funny that we're on the same schedule even with the time difference."

"How was your day?" I asked.

"Busy. I was with the interior designer all day drawing up plans for club layout but I don't want to bore you with my work. How have you been? How's the book going?"

"Hey, I want to know about what you are doing," I pouted. "It's much more exciting than what I'm doing."

"It's not that exciting Brittany, I've just done a lot of talking and advising. And schmoozing."

"I bet you're good at that," I said playfully.

"Well he's doing all the investing. I'm just along for the ride and getting 30% ownership. There is no way I'm not going to make this the best damn strip club in Paris."

"Tell me more," I encouraged. I loved listening to her talk not only because she had such a nice voice but she sounded really intelligent and that was a big turn on for me.

"Okay, so on the first day here I had lunch Mr. Niall which is the guy who sought out my advice. Afterwards we went to check out the venue for the club downtown. What's funny is that I was starting to suffer jet lag so I was stumbling all over the place like a complete klutz." She laughed.

"Anyway, I got through that without embarrassing myself too much and practically blacked out when I got to the hotel."

"Did you like the location for the club?" I asked.

"Yeah it's a good area that attracts a lot of business tourists and high level executives which are the target groups we're going for. There are a lot of other entertainment parlors around though, so there is competition. I think we can bring something new to the table though as we're going for class and extravagance."

"See, you had no reason at all to doubt yourself."

"It should all work in theory, but who knows what will happen once the club really starts to operate. I still have my fingers crossed."

"Don't worry about it Santana, you're already on the right path. What else happened?"

"Let's see," Santana took a minute to recollect yesterday's events. "There wasn't much to do yesterday. Mr. Niall mostly did paperwork and the legal stuff so I had most of the day off."

"Did you go sightseeing? And what about shopping?" I asked eagerly.

"I did do some shopping and saw the city a little bit. I also bought you something but I won't tell you what it is."

"Awwww," I pouted playfully. I didn't expect her to tell me and I liked not knowing what she'd bought. I liked being surprised.

"Well, for future references," I said, "you don't have to get me anything fancy. Like, I don't expect you to spoil me with expensive things. It's always the thought that counts more to me than anything else."

"Noted," she smiled mysteriously, "but I think you'll really like it."

"Now you're purposely making me want to know what it is even more," I whined.

"All in good time ba…Brittany. You know? I'm counting down the days till I can see you again."

"Are you?" I teased, "And how many days are left?" I was partly asking because I tended to lose track of time when I focused on my work. Today could possibly be Saturday and I wouldn't have known that time had gone by so fast.

"Three days," she replied.

"That's three days too many."

"I know right? That's exactly what I was thinking." She said and tried to stifle a yawn.

"It's been a long day for you, you should get some sleep." I said.

"But I don't want to go yet. Is it weird to say that I really miss you?"

"No," I replied, "I miss you too. Although I don't think much about anything while I write, you are constantly at the back of my mind. And to be honest, I'm always waiting for you to text me."

"Okay, well maybe we could do this again same time tomorrow?" She bit her lip.

"Sure! I'd love that!"

"Alright, see you tomorrow then. I'm really sorry I'm falling asleep on you already."

"Don't be, I'm kind of tired too," I rubbed my eyes which were starting to feel sore from viewing the screen too long.

"I'll text you in the morning."

"Okay, goodnight." I said.

"Good nap, bye."

I giggled as she did a cute wave with her fingers and blew me a kiss. I caught it as it came through the screen and put it in my heart. The whole exchange was ridiculously sappy but I didn't care one bit.

I had the best sleep since the start of my book project.

The days passed like a blink of an eye without much incident. Artie came by to check on my progress and Tina called to see if I needed anything. The best distraction came on a particularly troublesome day. Writers block was no stranger to me; however it was certainly not welcome during the only free weeks I had to write.

My hands were stretched over my head as I shut my eyes, hoping to pick out a string of sentences to continue on.

A knock came to my door, the perfect chance to stop thinking for a bit. From the peeping hole I could see that it was a very pretty girl. I stood shocked for a moment, my brain taking the liberty to go through every face and named stored in my mind. Unfortunately, nothing came up.

I still had no idea why this attractive girl was at my door. She seemed harmless so I took my chances and opened the door slightly, just wide enough that I could slam it in her face if she attacked me or something.

"Hey, ummm do I know you?" I also wanted to ask how she got up here. Is security letting anybody with a nice face through these days?

"No, and I don't know you either." The girl said not in an unpleasant way but rather like stating a fact. "But I do have a reason for being here, this is for you."

From behind her back, she produced a present wrapped in royal red.

"Uh, thanks." I muttered, half surprised to receive a gift from a stranger.

"It's not from me," The girl continued, "and I'm not supposed to tell you who it's from."

"It's from Santana isn't it," I blurted having just found the unsuspecting clue.

"Oh shit, how'd you know?" She drew back in alarm.

"Your shirt has an emblem of where you work." She quickly looked at her chest to see that under her large coat, a part of the 'Slash' logo was visible.

"Please don't tell Santana I gave it away, she's going to be so mad at me."

"Don't worry, I won't. Besides you didn't tell me or intentionally hint at anything."

"Thanks," The girl heaved heavy sigh. "The boss is quite scary and I'm still new at Slash. I don't want to give her any reason to kick me out."

"She won't and just to reassure you, I'll personally talk to her if you get in trouble for today."

"Thanks," The girl smiled. She was beautiful and so young. I wondered what fate had led her to take up stripping for a living.

"I better go now that I've finished my messenger duties"

"Bye, and thank you for bringing this all the way here" I waved to the girl as she disappeared into the elevator.

The door had barely clicked shut before I was carefully undoing the wrapping. Whatever Santana had sent was from Paris and probably something nice, heck even the wrapping paper had roses scent.

My fingers brushed over a small card that I hadn't noticed. It was written in Santana's excellent penmanship and read:

"I miss the smell of home – S."

Inside the box was the exact perfume I used.

"Santana, I can't believe you know what perfume I wear." I said the minute she video called me.

"It was on your dresser," she just shrugged. However, I could see how pleased she looked. I must have had 'you are amazing' written on my face.

"I'm not even going to ask why you were paying attention to my dresser; I'm just awed that you are so thoughtful."

"Don't blame me for always thinking of you, I miss you like crazy."

"Hey, we don't have to wait that long. How many days left?"

"24 hours until I can smell that perfume on you again Brittany."

"It should seem like a short time, but 24 hours seems so long," I complained. It had been increasingly difficult to stay focused on writing when I had Santana at the back of my mind.

"I know. I didn't think I could miss you this much." Santana echoed the same sentiment I found myself experiencing.

Passing out and then burying myself in work was the only way time I could make time fly the fastest. Santana had texted me the time she would be landing and I was hurrying to put the final touches on yet another chapter. From the outline, I could see that I had completed about one – fourth of the novel, not too bad.

It was already noon when I slipped on a big, furry coat and zipped on my high-boots. The weather had turned cold and white as it usually did in early December.

I had to stop myself from losing patience on the crowded streets. When I finally broke through the traffic, I threw caution to the wind and sped towards the airport.

Inside wasn't quite so cold. I arrived ten minutes later than Santana's landing time. I was waiting for an annoyed call from Santana but there was none. I figured that with the snow and everything, the flight might have been delayed.

Sure enough the incoming board displayed that Santana's flight was late. I found a seat where I could see the arrivals come in and waited eagerly for the influx of passengers.

"You are the cutest Brittany Pierce," I heard a voice and startled awake. Santana stood in front of me with her luggage and with her phone in hand.

"Falling asleep at the airport is not cute," I grumbled mad that I had missed the exciting moment of spotting Santana in the incoming crowd and waving at her.

"I and this photo disagree," She showed me her screen. Sure enough I was cuddling into the arm of the sofa, deep in sleep.

"How long have you been here? I swear it felt like I just shut my eyes a second ago. I'm sorry for not giving you an awesome welcome home."

"Just you being here is welcome enough." Santana said. I got on my feet and cuddled her in the biggest hug.

"Brittany, I can't breathe," she pushed at my chest through my layers. I forgot how tiny she was and how much fur I was wearing.

"Oh, sorry. I just really wanted to hug you." I replied bashfully.

"You and me both, but maybe we could do it at your place? I'm kind of tired."

"Of course!" My brain finally caught up with me and I realized that Santana was carrying a lot of stuff – much more than what she had brought with her. "Here, let me help you."

I offered to drive Santana to her home and help her put her things away but she shook her head. "I'd rather go to your place. I don't want to see other people right now."

That was fine by me.

I was just paying for my meal of Thai food when Santana walked out of my room hair tussled and looping in her face. It was rather late in the evening and I hadn't expected her to wake at all. When I woke up from a short nap, she was deep in sleep.

"Hey Santana, do you need anything?" I put my food in the kitchen and grabbed some water from the fridge. I handed it to her as she leaned her butt against the counter.

"Is it morning already?" She asked accepting the bottle.

"Not quite, it's only nine." I said taking my turn to drink.

"I feel like I could sleep for another ten years,"

"You should go back to bed; I'll be there in a minute after I eat. Unless, you're hungry too and we could eat together?"

"What did you order?" She didn't wait for me to answer and opened the box. "Phat Thai, yummm" Her saying it like that made it sound even more delicious. She took a deep long sniff.

"Come on, we can share it." I grabbed the box and headed to the dining table. I was forced to make a turn for the living room when Santana twisted my arm.

"What are you doing?" I laughed, not minding one bit to follow Santana's lead.

"Sit," she commanded and pointed to the love seat. I lifted my eyebrow silently saying, really? But I obeyed and got comfortable on the sofa. I didn't expect her to abandon me and walk away.

"Hey," I complained. Who did she think she was to order me around and then leave me clueless?

A second later she came back with a Dr. Pepper. "You forgot something," She shook the can lightly from side to side and then set it down on the glass table.

The next thing I knew, she was settling on my lap. She wiggled until she found the best position, all the while I sat stone still. I was surprised at her boldness. She wanted to eat and cuddle with me and with a snap of her fingers she made it happen.

"Do you want me to feed you?" She teased my bottom lip with her finger. "You're mouth is hanging honey."

I turned from frosted to flaming. How could one person have such a powerful effect on me? I cleared my throat and tried to gain my senses.

"Well, unless you're using your fingers, you'll just have to open your mouth and let me feed you." I smirked. I held the only pair of chopsticks in the air and snapped them together a few times.

"Are you asking me to beg?"

I rather enjoyed this little back and forth we had going.

"Open your mouth," I told her and she did immediately. Strangling a few noodles, I brought them to her lips and let her draw them in with her tongue. Food had never been so sexy.

"Hmmmm, delicious," she hummed. I took the chance to take a mouthful of noodles myself.

It was good.

I alternated between feeding myself and Santana until there were no noodles left. Santana popped open the can of Dr. Pepper and put it to my lips and then hers.

"Are you still hungry?" She asked. "I feel guilty for stealing half your food."

"Nah," I shook my head. I hadn't been that hungry. I was feeling quite full and sleepy at the moment. "You?" I asked back.

"Nope, but I want something else." She had a coy glint in her eyes.

"What?" I feigned oblivion to what was on her mind.

"This," She said before quickly claiming my lips. I held onto her tighter as she gripped behind my neck. I would never get over the feeling of being so close to her.

For long moments lost to time, we stayed conjoined in the most tasteful embrace. She never moved to wind her hands over my skin under my shirt or touch me in any other way than with her lips and tongue.

It was such an intense sensation that started in my mouth and spread all over, especially my heart. It thumped like a thrilled teenager would head mosh at their first concert – wild, uncontrollable, crazy.

And just from kissing her I realized I was crazy for her – ignorantly and irrationally so.

It was senior year all over again but this time I got the girl. No matter what happened after this, I knew, I would always live in that time and in this one – lost in her touch.

I hadn't felt the tears trickle out of my eyes until Santana's thumb caught them one by one.

"Why are you crying Brittany?" She asked quietly perhaps not wanting me to rudely awaken from whatever trance I was in. I shook my head. The part of me that was strong and resilient made me harbor my secret from her – the secret that she was my weakness and my Achilles heel. Only I would know how much hold she had over me, – that she always had over me. There was no way I was putting the power to break me in her hands. I wouldn't let her have that knowledge.

I may have been weak for her but I had thick skin from the experiences of the past.

"I'm just happy to have you," I gave, what I felt, as honest an answer as I could.

"Brittany, I know I have a lot to make up for but there's one thing I never want you to doubt." She held my face in her hands and somehow I felt safe. "I feel so blessed for this second chance and you won't regret giving it to me. I promise."

I let out a breath. She didn't promise to never mess up or disappoint me, but she promised that with her I would be happy. That was the best I could hope for in this life anyways no matter who it was with and I sure as hell wanted it with Santana.

"Okay," I told her and let her lead me back to bed.

The morning after dawn had made its full entrance, I found Santana in my kitchen scratching her head vigorously. Was she looking for something or wondering where she was? Maybe she was sleepwalking even though it was day time already.

"Santana?" I said quietly, not wanting to wake her up if she really was sleepwalking. You can never be too sure.

"I keep forgetting you have nothing in your kitchen Brittany," She blurted. It was so silly I laughed.

"Seriously, you never cook in here?" Of course she should have figured out my skills were seriously lacking because I didn't have one kitchen utility in here apart from the stove that had no gas hooked to it rendering it useless.

"I know it sounded really immature for Artie to tell you that day. But it's the honest truth, I can't cook and I created terrible incident to prove it."

"What happened?" She asked curiously.

"I'm going to tell you, even though it's super embarrassing, because I like you a lot," I pointed out before telling the terrible tale. "Recipes confuse me, so one day I was baking a carrot cake and I didn't see that the carrots needed to be thinly grated. I had cut them up into strips but not thin enough. By then I had made the batter and turned on the oven. I figured it wouldn't take so much time to grate the carrots and mix it in. So I was happily doing that when the fire alarm went off and I realized that the oven was way over heated with smoke pouring out of it. I couldn't turn it off because the smoke was too thick so I ran into the hallway and got the fire extinguisher. I dosed the whole kitchen with foam partly because I couldn't handle the extinguisher very well. Later Artie came by to help me fix up the kitchen and he told me the oven was a few minutes from exploding which could have killed me. So I've been banned from using anything flammable which rules out cooking or baking. Such a shame, I love baking and have all my mom's best recipes just decaying in the cupboards."

"Well," Santana looked lost for words. There wasn't much that could be said to a cooking hazard besides 'it's a good thing you aren't allowed to cook anymore' and I doubted Santana wanted to say that to my face. "I'm sure Artie was being overly pessimistic of the situation. You probably aren't as hopeless as he thinks."

"Oh, I'm pretty okay with my ban Santana," I told her so she wouldn't think it was only Artie who was wary. "I'm not very confident around ovens and stoves."

"Obviously because Artie told you that you were a danger to yourself," Santana scoffed. "I highly doubt you were minutes away from exploding your kitchen."

"You can never know Santana," I said solemnly. It was true that ever since that incident I had been afraid to touch anything that could cause flames.

"I'd love to prove him wrong," Santana huffed.

"Come on," I tugged on her shirt, "I know you're just grumpy because you're hungry. How about we get dressed and stop someplace for breakfast before I take you home?"

"Fine," Santana followed me to my room.

We got dressed and hit the streets.

There was a cute little couple's diner a block from my apartment which I liked to eat at. It was a very romantic little place clearly trying to attract duos in love but I went there regularly along with a lot of other single people. I hoped Santana didn't think I was trying too hard.

Jason Mraz's 'Lucky' was playing softly as Santana and I sat down.

"Miss Brittany!" the waitress, Lucy, greeted me looking surprised that today I wasn't alone. For some reason I had never brought Artie to eat here and I definitely didn't bring my one night stands.

"Hi Lucy," I said and looked intently at the menu hoping she wouldn't say anything about this particularly unusual situation.

"Do you want the singles deluxe breakfast or will it be different this time?" She asked. If it was in any other restaurant that sentence would have been appropriate but here it had a certain implication.

"You've got such a variety here," Santana looked up from the menu, "what do you recommend?"

Lucy did not hesitate to recommend 'the couples' special. "Of course, if you want two single dishes we can arrange that too!" she chirped. She really covered all the bases didn't she?

"I kind of like the couples set," Santana said looking directly at me. I could feel my face heating up knowing exactly what she was trying to say.

"I'm not opposed to trying it," I said to Santana. Lucy must have taken our order and put it in at the kitchen while Santana and I finished our staring contest.

In her own way Santana had alluded to us being together, a sort of hint at what stage of our relationship she believed we were at without actually labeling it. And I had responded by accepting it.

After a hearty breakfast of buns, bacon, hashbrowns, coffee, and orange juice we walked back to my apartment. Several times Santana's hand brushed against mine. I didn't know if she did it intentionally or if we were unintentionally walking so close to each other that it was natural for the backs of our hands to find each other.

I finally mustered up the courage to link my fingers with hers the next time our knuckles made contact. All it took was for my fingers to extend and slip in between hers. The moment our fingers made the connection and stayed hooked together I could see a grin form at the corner of Santana's mouth.

Neither of us said anything about it but we both knew that we had taken another small step forward.


Fluffy ending, good? I know you like it :P