AN: I wasn't really happy with the lack of Brittana interaction the last chapter so when Rosetoast suggested some cuddling and froggy reiterated the need for Brittany/Santana cuteness I couldn't help but incorporate the idea into this chapter. So thanks! :) Also, huge thanks to everyone one who Reviewed, Favourited and Alerted this fic. It means a lot.

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own anything…

Santana

I rolled my eyes at her impertinence, ignoring the hand which was extended in my direction.

I was well aware of her name, just as she was well aware of mine. Quinn, similar to me, was far older than she looked. It was her father Quintus Fabius Pictor that had first come to despise me…

Flashback…

I was gliding along the sandy, dusty roads of Rome, the powdery dirt muting my footsteps as I moved.

I had noticed with little to no interest the glances of men and boys as I walked by, leering and crude. I also noticed the glance of a select few women, shy and cautious. It did not affect me either way; I did not share in their interest of sexual pleasures.

I reached up to my shawl draped over my silky hair, pulling it further forward to better shield myself from their intense stares. At this time in society there were very few who had thick, sleek hair such as mine. Those people where rich, something that would not be appreciated in these streets.

Also, there were very few people who were as beautiful as I was said to be and wished to flaunt it. Again, there were rich people who had all of the time in the world to look as beautiful as possible, it was expected of them to look presentable at all times in the hopes of securing a husband of a higher position than themselves. Next there were the prostitutes; they had to look as appealing and exotic as possible in order to attract clients. Lastly, the one which most closely resembled myself, and perhaps the most dangerous one to be identified as: the mystic.

It is a natural conclusion that someone as 'physically appealing' as I must be a supernatural being. And that type of conclusion will only lead to trouble – something that I did not need.

I looked around at the budding civilisation. The buildings which were in this area were assembled of simplistic and cold, unwelcoming stone were already the source of much heartache and pain for me. I remembered when the dirty, ugly roads were once blossoming flowers rising from a sea of green grass. It was magnificent.

I could not help the white hot anger which coiled in my gut at the thought that it was my own pups that had started this. They had betrayed me with their greed and selfishness. Their only concern was to create a name for themselves at the expense of everything I held dear. The only comfort I received was in knowing that their betrayal had ate at them like a parasitic worm writhing in their intestines until they destroyed each other in an attempt to right their mistakes.

I continued walking past the inquisitive people with their concentrated eyes and towards the street which would be a deciding factor in something which, at the moment, I had no solid knowledge of. I did not worry about my lack of information, I often gained hunches or feelings and would follow them blindly, willingly. There was always a reason to the little thoughts that were planted into the back of my conscious.

And this hunch seemed more important than any other I had experienced before.

As I turned the corner, I realised instantly where my feet had taken me. This was the corner upon which the prostitutes would await business. There was a man who was currently stood there, tall and regal, his eyes appraising as he studied the selection before him.

My feet instinctively took me towards where the sandy-haired man stood.

His eyes landed upon my own form as I drew closer. I was able to infer from the delighted look in his eyes that the thing which he had come here in search of – he felt that he had found upon seeing me. He could not be more wrong.

"Your price?" he asked once I was within hearing distance. The women who had previously been stood forward with their predatory gazes suddenly recoiled backwards. They knew who I was and respected my superiority. They respected me in a way that they were not prepared or inclined to respect royalty and noblewomen. They shot cautious glances between myself and the tall man who had mistaken me.

They were wondering how he would be punished for his disrespectful act of misrecognition.

"I do not sell my body." I replied shortly, now standing a foot away from him and wondering why he was important, wondering in which way he would contribute to Fate's plans. My head tilted to the side slightly, dark eyes narrowing as I considered him.

He did not seem fazed by my answer. He had now set his sights on having me. In his mind, that was all that mattered.

"That was not what I asked." He told me.

"And yet that is your answer nonetheless. I do not sell my body. For any price." I insisted, my patience already running thin with the mortal but realising that I had to let this play out in order to find the meaning behind my need to meet this man here today.

"You clearly do not know who I am. Or what I am willing to pay." His answer was cocky, and on the threshold of aggressive.

"Enlighten me on whom you are. But rest assured that I find no use for your human currency."

"I am Quintus Fabius Pictor, the patrician senator of Rome." He raised his body to its full height at this.

"Reveal your face fully unto me." He instructed me causing my eyebrow to travel up towards my hairline, behind the shawl still shielding most of my face from prying eyes and the unrelenting sun.

"Your commands hold no influence over me." I could not help but to be indifferent at this point. If it was not for the tingling in my limbs which told me that this man was somehow important, then I would have left already. Or killed him.

He was ridiculously annoying and arrogant.

"Now listen here slut-" he began, ripping my shawl from my head and gripping onto my hair.

I instantly grabbed the wrist of the hand gripping onto me and calmly dug the nail of my thumb into his flesh, releasing dark energy into his body.

His whole body went rigid for a moment before he collapsed to the ground. I vaguely heard the scuffling sounds of the surrounding street women running away.

My attention however, was focused solely on the man's twitching hand which was now firmly in my grip. More specifically, I was focused on the ring which adorned his marriage finger. There was a spark in my head which told me that this was why I had come here.

He had a wife.

It was her who I must see.

I left the unconscious senator, crumpled on the dirty streets outside of the prostitutes dwelling without a backwards glance.

XXX

I walked along the long winding path that led to the large building which belonged to the senator. I knew that his wife would be there.

The grandness of his abode was, to me, worse than the dilapidated slums from which I had just come from. The thought that all of this land had been destroyed, ravaged in an irreversible act, all for the comfort and the… the ego of one family, it disgusted me.

I held the cold wedding band comfortably in my grasp and knocked upon the large, heavy door at the entrance.

There was a skinny slave man who answered the door, his head bowing respectfully in his assumption that I was of nobility.

"I have come to speak with Lady Quintus Fabius Pictor." I did not know her name but assumed that my request would be sufficient through using her retched husband's name.

"I am afraid that my Lady is not well. She will not be taking visitors today." He told me, sneaking quick glances at my face before quickly diverting his eyes.

The next time he looked up I caught his gaze, rendering him unable to look away. His eyes glazed over momentarily before focusing on me again.

"I have come to see the Lady of the estate." I was more forceful this time.

"Of course." He replied straight away. "Please follow me."

He swiftly turned and entered the house, walking towards the marble staircase. I passed him, easily climbing the stairs and, not wishing for him to follow me, I told him to retreat which he readily did.

I easily found her sleeping chamber, knocking politely upon the door and sweeping into the room upon her strangled acknowledgement.

"Good afternoon my Lady." I spoke as I came to stand by her head.

She looked up at me in startled confusion from her position in the middle of her enormous bed, looking small and fragile in comparison, her blonde hair sticking to her skull as she breathed unevenly through chapped lips.

"Who are you? Who let you in?" she asked, panic lacing her feeble voice.

"I am known as Lady Larentia. And one of your slaves showed me to you. One of my own servants seemed to have gained possession of a rather expensive ring; they claim to have found it. Of course I have punished them for their withholding something which does not belong to them. I am of the belief that it is the ring of your husband, Quintus Fabius Pictor." I spoke to the semi-lucid woman with a confidence that disguises all lies.

"Oh, I see. May I have it?" her palm opened slightly on the surface of her bed sheets.

I gently placed the ring in her palm, closing her fingers over the item as she seemed incapable of doing so. She looked up at me with murky hazel eyes, misting in a way that I had experienced multiple times. Her breaths were shallow, I watched as her chest barely rose to accommodate the small bursts of air that did manage to crawl down her trachea.

I felt impossibly close to her at that moment. Not because I was stood next to her, gripping her hand, but because I could sense that she was reaching out for my help, my guidance – whether subconsciously or not.

I heard a whimper from across the room. I glanced up.

There it was, in a cradle. I glanced back at the ill woman again; the slight sheen covering her cheeks was a tell-tale sign of what was to come.

"Is this your baby? May I see her?" I spoke softly to the drained woman.

I received a weak nod in return. I swiftly turned and approached the cot to find a lifeless bundle in the cradle, cheeks pallid and forehead smooth. I lifted her out of her bed, cradling her limp form gently in my arms as I walked back over to her mother.

"Is she well? She has been poorly." Judith told me, eyes managing to focus with a will that can only be harnessed by mothers.

I looked down at the form in my arms. I felt the presence of its soul floating somewhere near me. This baby girl was the key to something important. I looked at the already plentiful locks of blonde hair that sprung from the motionless child's head.

I needed this child for something. And I needed it alive.

I grazed my thumb against the girl's smooth forehead, feeling a surge of warmth travel through my thumb and into her being.

A breath passed through her parted lips. The first one in minutes.

"Of course she is well. She is a fighter." I told the mother.

I gently placed the now slightly wriggling baby onto her chest, my hands resting on her sides so as not to put her full weight on her frail mother's chest.

Lady Judith's hazel eyes opened the widest I had seen them during my time in her room, trying to take in all of her small daughter at once. Her eyes held a look of pure joy and love and, most importantly, contentment. This is what she had been fighting for, to see her daughter alive and well.

"Good." She responded simply before letting her eyes drift shut, her expression calm in a way that belied the true nature of her slumber.

Lady Judith had passed away with a smile of contentment upon her face.

I felt it – when her soul passed through me and onwards to what was next. Usually I do not even notice when it happens. Souls pass through me so often that I forever have a low thrum of energy reverberating throughout my body. It was only with special souls, or when I had experienced a passing, that I felt the glowing energy heat my own form.

I picked up the child again, rocking her side to side to sooth her even as she showed no signs of being upset.

I was unsure of my steps from this point. I had instantly known that this girl was the one whose soul had refused to pass over, leaving it to cling to me, waiting to be given back. However this was a transaction that I had performed plenty a time and yet I had never felt the same sense of… urgency that I had when I had been led to find the girl's father and then again when I was taken to her mother.

There had to have been a reason for the way in which I had found her. And in the way I felt the need to stick around now. I just wished that I knew.

Why was this child so important?

Someone burst through the door at that moment.

I glanced towards the sound in an uninterested kind of way, already knowing who it was.

"Quintus." I acknowledged his presence. He was panting and his face was red with fury.

His eyes flicked around the room in order to make a clear assessment of the situation. His calculating, icy blue eyes froze on the lifeless form of his wife.

"You!" he seethed turning back towards me.

"I did nothing. I was simply here. Which is more than I could say for you." I responded coolly.

"How dare you, you… you whore!" I could not help the raise of my eyebrow at the irony of his choice of words.

"I will make sure that everyone knows exactly what you are. You and your little friends." He ranted, whilst I stood calmly holding his peacefully sleeping baby.

"And what is that?" I wanted to know what his warped mind had come up with.

"A… a she-wolf. I asked your friends. They call you Lupa. The name fits. You are nothing but a predator, preying on weak men." I must admit that I was slightly surprised that he was in the possession of my real name. I was not fazed by his threat however, I was aware that this was happening for a reason. Fate had its ways of working and I was not the one to question it.

"Very well. I wish you luck on your crusade and in raising your child. Good afternoon." I put the baby in the cot before exiting, feeling the anger rolling off of the senator as I passed him.

I exited the house and continued on, wondering idly of what importance that tiny baby would possibly serve…

End Flash Back

XXX

And that was how my former alias of Acca Larentia was soiled. Quintus went out of his way to pollute the minds of those around him into thinking the same way as him. And that is also how his young daughter, Lucy also came to despise the very thing which had saved her life.

It did not affect me in the least. I was not the least bit concerned with ridiculous human trivialities. My name was easily altered to escape any suspicion and was I only slightly upset with the linking of my original name, Lupa, with the skinny girls who roamed the streets and sold themselves for money.

Eventually his hate for his supposed nemesis drove him to an early grave when his daughter was but eighteen.

And that was when I came back into her life. This, I sensed, was what I had been waiting for. I saved her from a marriage to a troll of a man who was thirty years her senior and she had no choice but to follow me.

She and I travelled apart from one another for several decades and then one evening as I stood by, observing the death of an innocent which needed special attention in passing through, she returned back to me. She had realised that she was not aging. She demanded that I gave her the answers to her questions.

That night we sat for hours as I gave her all of the answers that she needed.

Soon she learned to trust me and that was when I told her that she would begin to work for me in order to repay the debt which her father had left. His hatred of me had created quite the disturbance in my life for a while, I had told her. Of course, the real reason that I had kept her with me was something that neither of us knew.

She was not concerned by my placing this responsibility upon her as it seemed that having eternal life had left her with too much free time and she was therefore in need of some form of distraction.

As a result, Lucy, or Quinn as she had named herself a few decades ago became probably the closest thing that I had to a friend in my existence.

But she still insisted on the same greeting every time I had not seen her in a while.

"I do not have time for games. I have more important places to be right now." I told her, hoping to get directly to the point.

"And do these places have anything to do with a certain blue-eyed, blonde mortal?" The question was asked lightly but I saw the intense look of curiosity in her stare.

"I see that Rachel has spoken to you of my visit with her?" I knew that I was avoiding the question. Quinn was aware of this too, but she seemed to be letting it slide for now.

"Sure. We do talk from time to time, you know. Why would she not tell me of this interesting development in your life?" She was being aloof, as she always was in relation to Rachel. I did not know the nature of their relationship, nor did I particularly care, but I was aware that they were… intimate.

"Perhaps because then she would have had to tell you that her insolence has lead to an extension of a millennia being added to your time of service." My voice was blank as I said this, I was not particularly pleased that I had to punish her, nor was I upset about the fact. I simply had no feelings on the matter at all.

"A millennia hardly matters to me, Santana. You know that." She was leaning back in her leather chair, looking as disinterested in the matter as she probably felt.

"I am aware of that fact, but Rachel is not." I could not stop the small smirk that spread across my face as the last half of the sentence slipped past my lips.

There was just something about the small girl that aggravated the souls out of me.

"Who is the girl then? I am guessing that she has a connection with Sally?" she ignored my dig at Rachel.

"Sally… is she the vacancy that you were alluding to?" I asked, thinking back to her earlier comment.

"The very same. Funnily enough she was quite tall – lanky, you could say; her complexion was rather pale, although that could have been the drugs; and her hair was blonde – dirty blonde, but still. There appear to have been a lot of similarities between her and the girl Rachel described to me a few nights ago. Of course, she did also mention that Brittany – that was her name was it not? – that she was quite beautiful."

"Enough." I stopped her from speaking any more of Brittany's similarities to some dead prostitute. The implications of what that entailed almost making me tear this office apart.

Quinn leaned forward, her forearms pressing onto her desktop, obviously catching the look on my face before I had been able to mask it.

"What is this about Santana? Who killed Sally? And what was their purpose?"

I took a deep breath, collecting my unusually hectic thoughts.

"They were foolish to kill that Sally girl. But the fact that they did could be seen as desperation on their part. I am not so naïve however. They killed her to send a message to us, a message saying that they are capable of working right under our noses. They are close."

"Who?"

"The rogue and his minions." I answered simply, watching as her eyes cleared in understanding.

"So, the judge? He is working for the rogue?" she questioned for clarification.

"He was." I confirmed.

"I still do not understand what this Brittany girl has to do with this."

I was glad that I could speak to someone about this; Quinn was the closest thing that I had for an equal. Besides Mercy, but we rarely spoke.

"I never told you why I saved you when you were a baby." I stated.

Her attention was focused on me alone now, her eyes narrowed.

"No… you did not." She spoke slowly, obviously wondering where I was going with this.

"Well, that is because I never knew. I simply knew that I had to. However, a revelation has occurred very recently and I now know what purpose you will serve to me. I know why you are so important, Lucy." The use of her name seemed to snap her out of whatever daze she was falling into.

"And this purpose… it has something to do with Brittany?" She looked suspicious, but I wasn't sure why.

"It does." I agreed, not giving anything else away.

"Why is a human so important?" She seemed incredulous and I guess that if I was in her position then I would have the same reaction.

I sighed.

"That, I do not know. Well, in concerns to me I do not know. However, concerning the rogue it is quite obvious. Now, you must swear to agree to everything which I tell you. Do you understand? You must swear."

She seemed a little taken back by my intensity but I had to make sure that she understood gravity of the situation that we had currently found ourselves in.

"Yes. I swear."

XXX

I was tired by the time I arrived back at the apartment. I had not slept for over a millennia, I had not needed to sleep, I was still able to run circles around the wolves, my brain speed was through the roof and I could do at least a billion vertical press-ups right now if I wanted. Yet somehow I was tired. Maybe it was the conversation I had just had with Quinn and what it would mean for me in the future, what it would mean for Brittany.

I felt like I needed to sleep. I was mentally drained for the first time that I could ever remember.

I made my way down to Brittany's room. What I really needed right now was to see her. It was strange; I had only known her for a measly seventeen years and yet, I only felt content when I was around her. I do not even know how I had survived before.

I felt the cool, polished floorboards soothing the soles of my feet as I made my way down the dark corridors. I did not need lights to see where I was going – I knew my surroundings like the back of my hand.

I stopped suddenly, immersed in the inky darkness surrounding me before raising a steady hand and pressing it, palm first, onto the hard material of the door. I took a breath as I often found myself doing these days. I did not merely swing the door open and march into her room in a wild impatience as I had done the first night she had been here.

No.

Now I would savour the moment before my eyes would once again rest upon her perfection. I felt my entire being almost vibrating in anticipation. I would let no one know it; I would kill anyone who found out. But the hours that I spent in here with her were amongst the darkest of my existence.

Even as I told myself that I was simply watching over her, protecting her from dangers, I knew that there was an ulterior motive on my part, I was aware that I received something more from watching her sleeping, at her most vulnerable. Yet the most frustrating thing was that I didn't know what.

The thought of there being something that I did not know was worse to me than knowing the most terrible secrets in the world.

Once the thought of being separated from her became too much I was through the door almost instantly.

I had never felt as… good as I did when my eyes would first land on her bundled up form. My lungs never felt quite so full, my head never as light. My eyes never felt as bright as they would once I saw the movements of her inhalations and exhalations and my stomach was never as happy.

That was another of the things that no one could know about. I was not supposed to feel different around her; my body was not supposed to react.

I slowly approached her bed, the one which looked like a burrow for small, cute creatures and held the most beautiful one of them all.

She was sleeping with her mouth wilting open yet again and her rosy cheeks flushed with slumber. Her brow was creased in a way that made my dormant heart clench. I wanted nothing more than to smooth the worry from her head with my thumb, but I feared that she would wake if I made such a move.

I was about to summon a chair to sit in so that I could observe her from a closer distance, wondering what new thing I would find on the canvas that was her face today. But she did something that she had never before done whilst I had observed her in her sleep.

She stirred.

I should have vanished there and then and not returned to her room ever again as punishment for watching over her without explicit permission.

That one time that she asked you to stay does not count as explicit permission, Santana.

I should have vanished, but I did not. I could not.

Maybe I wanted her to punish me for watching her sleeping like a 'creeper'. Maybe I wanted her to tell me to leave her alone and never return to her room again. Maybe I just wanted to see the cerulean blue of her eyes so badly that I would have gladly risked the first two.

Nevertheless, whatever the reason was, I did not disappear. I did not run away or hide. I do not fully understand why, but I just new that I could not bear to be away from her.

And when she slowly blinked open those stunning eyes of hers, in her sleepy cuteness; I knew that no matter what the consequences were, I had made the right decision.

I could not help but smile as her warm – if slightly unfocused – gaze landed on me.

She blinked a couple more times, her gorgeous eyes adjusting to the night time's darkness. When she finally realised that it was me there, her mouth lifted lazily into a half a smile, droopy yet still more radiant than any other person's smile I had seen in all of my years on this earth.

"Mmmm….. 'tana…" she mumbled, electricity slicing through my organs at the sound of her voice.

"Yes, Britt-Britt?" I spoke so softly that I barely even heard myself.

She shuffled under her covers a bit before the corner of her blankets flipped open, revealing half of the bed to me as well as half of Brittany's slim body encased in large, crumpled pyjamas. A t-shirt and sleep shorts.

My latent heart seemed to melt and speed up at the same time upon the sight of her delicate form.

She looked up at me with her precious, bleary eyes and I stopped breathing. I did not know why I had stopped breathing; I simply knew that air was, at that moment, a distraction that I could not have.

"…'tana….snuggle…" was then mumbled in that same woolly voice as before, inciting the same reaction within my being.

Once I had registered her words my stomach seemed to drop in the depths of the earth where it is fabled that I had derived.

"I really do not think…" I began, holding my hands up in a gesture that I had never needed to use before, taking half a step back.

But any response I could have thought to give would have been futile. She did not even seem to realise that I had reacted at all.

She merely rolled over so that her back was facing me, her crumpled t-shirt rising to reveal a sliver of pale skin that seemed to glow in the moonlight sneaking in through the gap in the curtains. I watched, enraptured as little bumps of skin rose from the surface as the cool air hit it.

I stood there, arms dropping to dangle by my sides as I contemplated what to do. Brittany was obviously not interested in carrying on the discussion.

I was unsure whether she turned around expecting me to get into the bed or in acceptance of my reluctance. I looked up, hoping that the answers were written somewhere above me. They were not.

I decided that, seeing as she had left the covers turned down, she must expect me to get into the bed… with her.

It was then, as I approached the inanimate object, that I experienced a very human emotion that I had never experienced before.

I was nervous.

My knee touched the plush mattress. I paused, staring at her back for long moments. She did not seem concerned so I quickly, yet carefully, slid into the bed.

As soon as I was fully under the covers I paused again, waiting for some kind of movement. I was frozen completely as I waited for any sign that she would move or suddenly jump up and scream at me to get out.

She did nothing.

I relaxed into the pillow that my head was resting on it and was instantly overwhelmed by the smell of Brittany. It was part fruity, part floral, part indescribable freshness, and all Brittany.

I could not help but to sigh as my senses were overwhelmed by everything Brittany. This dark, warm haven was my new favourite place in the universe.

I was almost completely relaxed when she turned around.

All I was able to register was a flash of blonde hair and pink skin and pouty lips before I was engulfed in a blanket of soft warmth and I felt a heated, squishy weight pressing down onto me. I had not been caught off guard in centuries and yet here I was, completely stunned.

I felt my breath shudder and break as I took in her body, its comforting presence pressing down into me. My lips parted to catch the breath that had been stolen from me as I felt her forearm graze across my ribs.

She had settled down almost straight away and I felt her gentle, rhythmic breath blowing over my neck as she snored lightly. I however, was more awake than I had possibly ever been before.

My eyes were wide open as I stared at the ceiling and tried to calm down my suddenly hectic senses. All I knew was that I had never been as awake as I had in that moment when Brittany was laying almost on top of me, her lithe form pressed against mine, heating me in a way that nothing ever had before.

My entire body felt alive with something that was not normal. I tried to get my breathing under control with a deep breath but all that did was push the protruding bones of my ribcage into something that was soft and most definitely not something that I should be thinking about whilst we were so closely pressed together.

My eyes became impossibly wider before I screwed them shut, hoping to stop my mind from thinking things that should just not be thought.

I concentrated on her breathing, the soothing inhaling and exhaling that allowed her to press into my body rhythmically. Soon I was relaxed enough to slowly raise my arms and place them around her, my forearms were resting against her shoulder blades and back, my palms pressing her into me.

I felt her snuggle further into me and I could not help the smile that spread across my face.

Snuggling is awesome.