A/N: Only a day later than I was aiming for! :-) This is another shorter one, kinda similar to the last one. Just a peek into their lives and a few parts to get the wheels turning on some other things. I'm excited for next chapter, the Finchel issue is finally going to come to a head and I have some other good stuff planned too! I'm really looking forward to writing it, so hopefully it'll be up soon! Enjoy and thanks for reading!
"Brittany!" Finn yelled.
"What?" she called, walking out into the hall and seeing him standing outside his own room.
"You told me you would be keeping the cats out of this room but they are in here constantly!" She just shrugged.
"Your allergies don't seem to be bothering you since you started taking that medication, I thought it wasn't a problem. You were even playing with Sebastian the other night. Besides it's like, really hard to control them, they kind of do whatever they want." He sighed and dropped his shoulders in defeat.
"For the past two weeks your cats have been wreaking havoc on this house!" Brittany scrunched up her nose. "I mean thank god that little one that never stopped talking is gone, but they're like a tag team determined to wreck this place."
"What are you talking about?" she asked, looking at him as if he were insane.
"Come in here." he said, motioning her into the room.
She walked in and saw Ariel playing on the floor with an entire box of tissues shredded around her. She continued to jump and hop around, ripping up more tissues and rolling around the floor. Brittany just giggled.
"She's so cute."
"No, Brittany this is NOT cute. This is a problem." he sighed.
"I'll buy you a new box of tissues." she said simply.
"Totally not the point." he said. "The point is they just do things like this, constantly."
"They're just babies Finn. They're curious and they like to play with things. You can't get mad at them. They don't know any better."
"Can we just keep them out of this room?" he asked and she just laughed.
"Tell Rachel, she was taking a nap with them yesterday."
"She what?" They were interrupted by a loud crash coming from the bathroom. They looked at each other, eyes going wide, before they ran into the other room. Upon entering they saw Sebastian standing on the window sill having knocked a candle onto the floor, glass scattered all over.
"Oh no!" Brittany said.
"See!"
"Get him Finn, I don't have shoes on. What if he steps on the glass or eats it!"
"What's going on?" Rachel said, walking into the room, her coat still on.
"One of the little demons broke the candle in the bathroom."
"Oh my god, grab him before he hurts himself!"
"You have got to be kidding me!" Finn said.
"Of course I'm not!" Rachel said, pushing past him to grab the little kitten off of the window and place him in the bedroom.
"Rachel, have you been bringing them in here?" she looked at Brittany who mouthed "sorry" and made a concerned face.
"I just took a nap with them yesterday. I felt like cuddling and you weren't home."
"Rachel!"
"Your allergies have been fine!"
"Not the point! The agreement was not in this room!"
"It was based on your allergies. Which I'm starting to think never really even existed in the first place!" she exclaimed.
"It was about the fact that I didn't want the cats in the first place!"
"Don't try to pretend you don't like them. I can tell you do. It's extremely obvious." Rachel said. "I heard you talking to Ariel in the kitchen." His eyes went wide at being caught.
"I was not!" Brittany looked at him skeptically.
"Look, I never said I don't like them, but I just don't want them in this one room." he said evenly. "They're actually cute and kind of fun to play with." Brittany and Rachel exchanged triumphant smiles at his admission. "But that's not the point. The point is...they keep ripping things up in here and I just want them out...at least unless they're supervised. They're even scratching the corner of the mattress."
"Weird, they're great in our room."
"Wonderful, they just picked mine to destroy." Rachel sighed.
"Maybe we can get them a scratching post or something...to deter them from ripping things up."
"That's fine."
"And keep this door closed." Finn added.
"I'll go to the store in an hour, I don't have more classes. Can you come Rach?"
"No, I have an audition for a part in this play at community theater." Finn sighed heavily.
"I'll go and help you carry stuff."
"Awesome!" Brittany clapped, picking up both kittens and heading into her own room.
"Where the hell were you guys?" Santana asked, as Brittany and Finn entered at quarter to 6.
"The pet store."
"For 2 hours? You texted me to say that at 3:30."
"It got kind of complicated...and expensive."
"Expensive?" Santana asked.
"Yeah, did you know that all cats in New York need to be registered citizens?"
"Excuse me?" Rachel asked, walking over to join the conversation.
"The guy at the pet store told us." Finn said. "There are all kinds of crazy laws in this state."
"Yeah, you have to get them like proof of citizenship or they could be like...deported or something."
"Deported?" Santana asked skeptically.
"I think he actually said that the ASPCA would take them into custody." Find corrected.
"Whatever." Brittany shrugged.
"And how much did he charge you for this...registration?" Rachel questioned, glancing at Santana.
"It was so much. 250 a cat!" Santana closed her eyes and put her hand to her forehead.
"Are you telling me that you just spent $500 on cat registrations?"
"Um duh, I can't let them take the cats away." she said.
"I felt bad so I gave her a hundred bucks. You play with them too." Finn added and Rache's eyes went wide.
"Brittany, there is no way that you have to register a cat as a state citizen." Santana said.
"Don't you think the guy at the pet store knows a little more than you?"
"I think you got scammed."
"Wait, really?" Finn asked. "He seemed like such a nice man. He said he ran his store for like 40 years. Are you sure this isn't just some weird NY state law?"
"Forty years of tricking people into giving him money for nothing." Rachel said.
"He gave me these little registration cards." Brittany said, digging in her bag and handing them over to a frowning Santana who couldn't help her lips twitching into a smile.
"Sebastian Pierce-Lopez?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and Brittany shrugged.
"Well he's ours." Brittany smiled and Rachel rolled her eyes and grabbed at the cards.
"These are ridiculous." she said, grabbing her coat.
"But it got them into the state database." Rachel shook her head.
"Come on. We're going back and getting your money back."
"What?" Brittany said. "He said absolutely no returns."
"He also falsely told you that your cats would be taken from you if you didn't purchase these things. I will get the ASPCA on the phone if I have to. Rachel Berry doesn't just let somebody lose money without a fight."
"Oh, wait up Berry, I'm in on this too. This fool scammed the wrong people this time." she said, putting on her own coat. "Cat registration" she muttered, "I'm going to go all Lima Heights on his ass."
"Don't worry, we will get that money back." Rachel said.
"Oh I know we will." Santana agreed, opening the door.
"They're kind of a scary combination when they're actually on the same side." Finn whispered to Brittany who looked on in confusion.
"Seriously, it's kind of terrifying." she said and then smiled. "But would be pretty unstoppable." Finn broke into a lopsided grin.
"Yeah, we're totally getting that money back."
"I'm kind of nervous." Santana admitted through the phone.
"Don't be nervous!" Brittany said. "You're going to do great! Besides you performed in front of people like all of the time. We all did, what are you nervous about?"
"That was different. It's just...this is New York and people are picker here. There's more attention on me and it's just...they could hate us."
"I'm sure you're going to do great. You have an awesome voice. Is Rachel there?"
"She got here a half hour ago." Santana frowned. "I know it's not your fault, but I'm pretty bummed out that you have to work the night of our first stupid gig."
"I wish I could be there too." Brittany said. "I'm going to come see you guys all the time, I swear."
"I know, I know. It's just this is the first one and it's kind of a big deal." Santana sighed. She was trying not to make a big deal because since their argument a few weeks back, Brittany had really made an effort not to let anything slip. "But I understand, it's not your fault."
"Big deal for a band that you didn't really care about, huh?" Brittany teased.
"Whatever." Santana muttered and Brittany laughed.
"I'm sorry baby." she said with a sigh. "Is Rach singing tonight?"
"Are you kidding? Do you really think there was any chance of Berry not taking this opportunity to sing in front of a crowd?"
"I guess you're right." Brittany giggled. "Well, I better get going, my break's almost up."
"Oh yeah, of course."
"Text me after the first set! Break an arm!"
"Leg!"
"Oh yeah, right, leg!"
"I'll text you in a bit."
Santana made her way back towards the stage where she chatted with her bandmates as she set up her mic. She gladly accepted a bottle of water and took a deep breath as she watched Finn tighten the bolts on his cymbals. Rachel ran up to the stage with an index card.
"Santana, this is a very important show for the band. Making a first impression is key, especially in a city like this. Word gets around very quickly. I've taken the liberty of printing out a list of tips to be certain you are prepared."
"Tips." Santana said, unimpressed.
"Yes!" Rachel said excitedly. "As much as he refuses to admit it, this band is extremely important to Finn. I can tell. You're the lead singer, which means you are carrying the bulk of the weight on your shoulders. It's crucial you put in a good performance."
"I think I know a thing or two about performing Hobbit and I don't appreciate your condescending tone."
"There's nothing condescending about it I assure you. I'm merely trying to use my superior performing knowledge and experience to help you be more successful." she shrugged. "Also, you're the front woman of this band and I do not want you to feel upstaged by the rousing applause I'm clearly going to get after my guest performances. You're confidence is crucial." Santana narrowed her eyes and thrust the card forward.
"Take the card."
"What?" Rachel asked, confused.
"Take the card, Berry." she said, waving it in her face. "Take the card and get out of my sight before I get myself kicked out of this bar before the show even starts!" Rachel swallowed and grabbed the card.
"Just remember to-"
"Go!" she yelled and Rachel ran off towards the bar where Finn was getting his own water bottles from the bartender. Santana stepped off stage and turned to Jeff. "How long?"
"Ten-fifteen minutes and we'll be good to go." She nodded and walked outside, walking over to the brick wall on the side of the building and lighting up a cigarette.
"I don't know how many times I have to tell you and Lord Tubbington that smoking is evil." Santana's head whipped up and she was shocked to see Brittany approaching with a wide smile.
"What are you doing here?"
"I changed for tomorrow day." she smirked. "It'll be a bit of a loss but it's worth it." she said, grabbing the cigarette from Santana's hand and tossing it aside as she wrapped her arms around her waist and kissed her slowly. "I couldn't miss your debut as a sexy rock star." Santana gave her a huge smile.
"You're a liar." Santana said grabbing her waist playfully.
"I wanted it to be a surprise." she shrugged. "Why are you out here smoking? You're about to sing!" She scrunched up her brow. "And don't give me the crap about the raspy voice." Santana sighed.
"I'm about to kill Rachel, that's why." Brittany laughed.
"What'd she do now?"
"She came up with some stupid tips for performing so I wouldn't destroy the band's credibility." she rolled her eyes.
"She's just trying to help."
"You'd never know it." Santana muttered but Brittany just kissed her once more and laughed.
"Well, I think you're going to do awesome." Santana grinned.
"I'm really glad your here. I feel better already." she said and kissed her quick before pushing them off the wall. "Come on, I gotta get up there. Let's find you a seat with the midget so I can get ready.
"That was awesome guys!" Jeff said, giving high fives out to Santana, Finn and the other guys in the band.
"It was really great of your cousin to set us up with this spot."
"It pays to know people who own bars." he smiled. "I think this was good though, there was a decent crowd and I'm hoping we can get some other spots."
"Actually, it pays to know people who work in bars too." Brittany smiled. "I talked to the manager tonight and you're good to play at the Station. They have an opening next Thursday and if it goes well they might be able to get you in on a Friday the next week. They had a cancellation and they're looking for someone."
"Awesome!" They guys said and Santana smiled brightly.
"Thanks Britt!" she said, kissing her quickly. Finn came over and and squeezed her shoulder.
"That's really cool of you Britt, thanks so much." he smiled.
"You guys were excellent." Rachel said, jumping up to throw her arms around Finn and he bent down to kiss her softly.
"So were you. You sounded great." he smiled, kissing her once more.
"Oh please, don't encourage her." Santana said with a roll of her eyes and Brittany just laughed.
"Come on, everyone was awesome, no arguing." she said. "Finn when you're done packing up we can head over to the Station, I want to get the band a round of drinks plus you can talk to the boss."
"Cool." he said, squeezing Rachel once more before letting her go to pack up his cymbals.
"Santana I have to say I was actually quite impressed by your ability to perform with consistency for the entire night. You were very good." Rachel said.
"Well thanks Hobbit, you made the most of your two songs too." she said.
"I was thinking perhaps we could put more thought into that duet." Rachel said and Santana frowned.
"I'll think about it."
"You guys would sound awesome singing a duet." Brittany said. "I think you should go for it."
"I said, I'd think about it." she said firmly. "But I get to pick the song." she added and Rachel smiled and clapped. "Still thinking about it." she said raising a hand as she went to put away her mic.
"She's totally going to do it." Brittany smirked.
Monday night Santana was lying comfortably curled up with Brittany as they watched TV in bed and relaxed from the tiring first day of a new week. A buzzing from her night stand caused her to sit up and peek over to her phone but she just sighed and lay back down on Brittany's chest.
"Who was that?"
"My mom." Santana replied with a heavy sigh.
"Aren't you going to get it?"
"No."
Brittany thought about adding something but decided she might be better off letting it go again until the buzzing began for a second time. Santana muttered something unintelligible that sounded like a curse in Spanish and sat up.
"What does she want from me?"
"Just talk to her Santana. Or she'll keep calling." Santana groaned in aggravation and hit the button to answer the phone.
"What?" she spat.
"Is that any way to answer a phone Santana?"
"Fine. Hi, what's up?" she asked with mock cheerfulness.
"I was just calling to see how you're doing. You've been in New York for almost two months and I think we've spoken 3 times. But I noticed you're content with taking our money for rent and whatever else you're doing over there."
"I'm fine. Things are great." Santana answered, ignoring the last jab.
"How is school?"
"It's good. I like it. My grades are good." she said.
"Wow, you're so talkative today. Please stop. I can't handle any more details." her mother responded sarcastically, causing Santana to roll her eyes.
"There's not much to say. You're not interested in the things I want to talk about. Do you want to hear about me and Brittany? Want to hear about my band?" she asked and Brittany nudged her, giving her a warning glance.
"Thanksgiving is a little over a month away. When can we expect you back?"
"Actually, I don't think you should this year."
"Excuse me?"
"Brittany has to work the night before Thanksgiving and the two days after. She's the new girl and she was only able to bargain her way into having Thanksgiving itself off. She's working on getting Christmas Eve off so we can spend 3 days in Lima."
"What does that have to do with you? You belong home with your family." Santana stifled a laugh.
"My family?" she shook her head. "This is my home. And I belong with Brittany."
"Santana, don't play on my patience with you." she sighed. "I can't wait until the day you grow out of this phase and realize you need to straighten your life out."
"Phase." Santana said evenly. "What phase are you referring to?"
"Don't play stupid Santana. You're a smart girl. Too smart for your own good, but you still make very stupid choices."
"I'm very close to hanging up on you."
"You'll regret it if you do." she said. "I want you home for Thanksgiving dinner."
"It's not going to happen." Santana said. "I'll see you at Christmas."
"How long will you be home for?"
"However long Brittany can get off."
"Ay dios mio Santana, you need to stop with this! It's ridiculous!"
"Stop with what mother?" she yelled and Brittany sighed, closing her eyes.
"This relationship you're letting ruin your life."
"This relationship is the best thing that's ever happened in my life. This relationship is why I wake up happy every day. Don't you want that for me? For me to be happy?" she pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Forget it, I don't want to know."
"Just make sure you're at my table on Christmas Eve." she said. "You may think you're going to skip Thanksgiving this year, but you will not miss Christmas in this house. The whole family will be expecting you...alone."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me."
"We'll discuss it later."
"It's not up for negotiation."
"If you want to see me it is."
"If you want your lifestyle to continue it's not."
"Daddy would never let you cut me off."
"Check in every once and a while Santana. Believe it or not we do want to know what our money is paying for."
"I called Daddy last week."
"Your father and I will be visiting in the beginning of the year when he has his conference."
"Wonderful." she sighed.
"I'll talk to you soon." she said and Santana promptly hit the button to end the call, reaching up to her forehead with a heavy sigh. Brittany looked over to her and bit her lip.
"You okay?" she asked. She knew this was a touchy subject with Santana and didn't want to push too hard.
"She's freaking out about Thanksgiving...predictably." Brittany frowned and crawled over to wrap her arms around Santana's shoulders, kissing the side of her head softly.
"Maybe you should go home for Thanksgiving." Brittany shrugged.
"I'm not leaving you alone." Santana said. "Berry and Hudson are going back on Tuesday night."
"I'm going to be working like the whole weekend." she sighed.
"Still." Santana shook her head and turned her head sideways to see Brittany. "I'm not leaving you all alone on Thanksgiving." she said with a sad smile. "Trust me I don't want to go home alone anyway."
"Is she still giving you a hard time?"
"Yes, she can't wait till I outgrow this phase that's destroying my life." Brittany's shoulders slumped and she sighed, tightening her grip.
"She'll come around."
"You give her far too much credit."
"I love you." Brittany said, not knowing what else to really say.
"I love you too." Santana said, closing her eyes and leaning into Brittany.
"It's going to get better."
"Christmas is going to be a blast." Santana said sarcastically.
"Just be careful. Your parents are paying for so much right now. You need to be careful and make sure they don't decide to pull back their money." she said.
"My dad wouldn't do that." Santana said.
"Just be careful." she said again with a sigh. "I know she's rough, but please try and be a little nicer to her. I want her to like me again. I want her to like us."
"They're coming here. In the beginning of the year for his conference. They'll be around for five days."
"Maybe we can warm them up a little once they see how good everything is here." Santana smiled and turned around in her arm, placing a kiss on her cheek.
"I love your optimism." she said sadly. "I wish I could have it when it too, especially when it comes to my parents." Brittany gave her a sad smile and brushed a stray lock of hair from her face.
"Come on, forget about it for now. Let's cuddle with the kitties and watch TV."
"That sounds perfect." she said, grabbing at Sebastian and cuddling back up under the covers with Brittany.
Finn and Rachel were also cuddled up but on the living room couch as the credits to the movie they were watching began to roll. Finn had told Jeff today about his plans to join the fire academy when he was called and the urge to get it off of his chest was eating away at him.
"Hey Rach? Can we talk?" She turned in his arms with a furrowed brow.
"Of course we can." she said gently. "Is something wrong?" she asked moving apart from him to face him more directly.
"No..not really...I just." he sighed.
"You're making me nervous."
"No, it's not...it's not like that."
"It's just. You know we've been here for more than 2 months and I really started putting some thought into my future."
"Oh!" Rachel said, her eyes lighting up. "That's terrific. Did you finally start filling out applications or decide where to go?"
"Well...not exactly."
"You should get started. Do you want to start looking around?"
"What? No...I mean, this isn't about college?"
"What is it then?" she said. "You said you wanted to talk about your future."
"In terms of possible careers. I've been thinking about it a lot. I mean, I think it's important for me to find something that I really want to do, something that I love."
"I agree. You know how strongly I feel about that based on my career choice."
"Exactly. Well, since we moved here I've been putting a lot of thought into that. I was thinking about what it is that I want to do. I mean a career is important. It's something I'm going to be doing the rest of my life and it should be something I feel passionate about."
"Of course." she said, frowning. "But you've never really seemed to have a strong desire towards anything in particular." she smiled warmly. "Has that changed?"
"Well I think I so...kind of. See, I was thinking a lot about my dad," he began, trying to find the right words to use to get the information he needed out, "and I thought about how he did something that really meant something. He did something noble and important and he devoted his life to fighting for people."
"What are you getting at here?" Rachel said, shaking her head. "I don't understand. Are you telling me...are you telling me that you want to join the army because I-"
"No!" he said, shaking his head profusely. "No, that's not it at all."
"Oh thank god!" she said, clutching her chest dramatically. "I could not have handled being an army wife for something of that sort. I couldn't imagine the stress."
"I was just trying to stress how much I wanted to do something that mattered. Something that had real value and that I could feel good about."
"So what, you want to be in the medical world or be a social worker or something?" she asked.
"Not exactly."
"Just as long as you don't have some crazy idea that's involving you risking your life or something like that. I could barely stand watching you play football in high school getting tackled and worrying about your health. I could never handle you in any kind of career where I'd have to sit and worry you weren't coming home to me every night." she said and he swallowed hard.
"I..."
"I mean, you're not cut out for that sort of thing anyway. You need something where you get a good degree and settle down into a steady schedule. We should explore your options." she smiled. "Just as long as it's something where I can carry on my days and not have to worry about you."
"Yeah..."
"So what was it?"
"What?"
"What was it you wanted to do?" she asked enthusiastically.
"Oh! Um...nothing really specific yet, but I thought maybe something like...yeah social work or something like you said." he lied, feeling his stomach drop.
"You'd be wonderful at that! You're extremely charismatic and are incredibly good with people."
"Yeah..." he said with a fake smile. "Well, you know something like that."
"We should definitely start looking into that and see what your options are." she said, kissing him softly. "I'm so proud that you finally started to put some thought into this. I was worried for a while there." she tightened her arms around his neck, holding him close.
"Yeah, well it's time to get moving on things." he said weakly, letting out a breath.
"I love you."
"I love you too." he said placing a kiss to a temple and swallowing hard.
"I'm going to go get a snack!" she said, kissing him once more as she jumped up an ran off to the kitchen. "You want anything?" she called over her shoulder.
"No thanks!" he said, sighing and throwing his head into his hands. "Wimp...you are a total, and complete pussy Finn."
"At least you finally accepted it." Santana said casually with a chuckle as she strolled to refill a glass of water. He rolled his eyes and sank further back into the couch.