Newest chapter, starting from just after the dinner they finished in the last chapter. Hope you all enjoy :)
"I love it here so much." Brittany tells Santana, leaning her head against the Latina's shoulder as they sit on the beach, watching sunset.
"Me too." Santana kisses her girlfriend and lets her fingers glide up Brittany's bare arms. "You're freezing baby." Santana takes her jacket off and puts it around Brittany's shoulders.
"Thanks San." The blonde pulls it tighter around her and kisses Santana on the cheek. "You look after me so good."
"I'll always look after you baby, just like you look after me."
"Like Lennie and George." Brittany says quietly, almost to herself.
"What's that baby?"
"We're like Lennie and George from that book you read me. You look after me like George looks after Lennie."
"But Lennie was mentally retarded babe." Santana laughs. "And you definitely aren't."
"But I'm slow." Santana opens her mouth to disagree but Brittany doesn't give her a chance. "I know I am San, I don't mind though because I'm good at other things, like dancing." Santana quietly watches the shadows cast by the naked statues on crosby beach.
"Lennie looks after George as well you know." Santana tells her. "Without Lennie, George would get lonely and then he'd turn into one of the bad guys. And George does the right thing because he knows he has to for Lennie. Lennie makes George a better person."
"You're a good person San." Brittany insists. "You like people to think you're not, but you are really."
"You know me too well." Santana laughs. Now, now's the perfect time, she thinks to herself. She reaches towards her pocket to get the ring out and...shit. It's in her jacket pocket, the one Brittany's currently wearing. She needs to get hold of that ring before her perfect moment passes.
She attempts to sneak her hand into the pocket, but Brittany notices and gives her a confused look.
"What are you doing?"
"Just getting closer to you." Santana quickly covers, pressing up to Brittany whilst still worming her hand into the pocket. She get feel the box but it's stuck and she can't tug it out without taking Brittany's attention.
"Are you cold? Do you want your jacket back?" Santana wants to say yes just so she can get hold of the ring before this perfect moment passes by, but she hates the thought of Brittany believing she puts her own comfort first, even if it would only be for a second.
"No." She laughs, pushing into a kiss to try and disguise the sharp tug she engages in to try and free the ring. It doesn't work, and they both end up tumbling back on the sand.
"San." Brittany laughs, lying back with her girlfriend above her, smiling into the Latina's eyes as they glitter in the darkness. "We can't have sex on the beach."
"I'll settle for a kiss." Santana promises, and Brittany sits up to oblige her.
"You must be so cold." The blonde notices. "Come on, let's go home."
"Okay." Santana agrees, knowing that the moment has passed and she didn't quite catch it. Next time, she vows, I'll get it right next time.
"San, you won't believe what happened today." Brittany pauses mid-sentence as she enters the kitchen, taking a minute to enjoy the aroma. "Did you order take-away?"
"No." Santana emerges from the kitchen, sporting oven gloves and looking stressed.
"You cooked?" Brittany's eyebrows shoot upwards. "But you can't cook."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence baby." Santana laughs, leaning forward to kiss Brittany. "It took me all day, but I got there."
"You spent all day cooking?"
"Not all day, just the afternoon. I got off work early so I thought it would be a nice surprise for you."
"You've been going all out with the romance recently." Brittany smiles, peppering the Latina's face with gentle kisses. "You're making me look really bad."
"Like that's possible. Come on, it's getting cold."
Santana's not scared like she was last time: she's spent all day reassuring herself, she's rehearsed her speech thousands of times in her head and knows it word for word.
She pours Brittany a glass of wine as they tuck into their food. Normally Santana's cooking tastes horrendous and Brittany has to force it down, but she's really gone the extra mile with this, and the blonde finds herself moaning with enjoyment.
"Did you get cooking lessons or something?" Santana just smiles and feels in her pocket for the ring, running her fingers along the smooth surface. "I was thinking about where we could go on holiday this year." Brittany starts, "And I kind of like the look of Wales."
"Wales?" Santana repeats, contorting her face. "Why would you want to go to Wales?"
"Because they have dragons." Brittany explains. "Big red dragons like on the flag." Santana opens her mouth to explain that there aren't actually any dragons in Wales, but decides she doesn't want to see the disappointment on her girlfriends face. Damn I'm whipped.
"But Wales is only about an hour away babe." Brittany's face drops.
"So we can't go?"
"We can definitely go." Santana hastens to tell her. "But maybe we can go for the weekend and then I'll take you somewhere further away for a proper holiday. You want to go to Ireland right?" Brittany's smile returns with full force.
"And meet the Leprechauns, I like the sound of that." She agrees. Santana's irritated to feel the kick of butterflies in her stomach. Right, I'm going to do it now whilst I have the guts.
"Britt, you're the best thing that's ever..."
"Do you smell burning?"
"What?" Brittany jumps up from her chair and races towards the kitchen, with Santana in hot pursuit. Black smoke billows out of the oven as soon as Brittany opens it and removes the would-be main course, which is now charcoal with a side of ash.
"Open a window." The blonde coughs, setting it down cautiously.
"Oh my God." Santana throws open the kitchen window, her heart sinking. "I must have got the timing wrong."
"Looks like it." Brittany agrees, laughing as she scrapes the remnants of the ruined dinner into the bin. She catches sight of Santana and squeezes her arm. "It's okay San, it's just dinner."
"I know." Santana sighs. "I just wanted it to be special for you."
"Everything's special with you." Brittany smiles. "Even when we order pizza because you burned the dinner to a crisp." That puts an idea into Santana's head, one that she knows Brittany's going to love.
"I'll order." She says, jumping up and running for the phone.
"Babe, what's with you? Will you sit down already?" Brittany stands up from the sofa and grabs Santana around the waist, pulling her down to stop her from pacing round the living room.
"I just feel kind of edgy." Santana mumbles as an excuse.
"You're that nervous about pizza?" Not the pizza, Santana thinks to herself, more the box it's coming in.
The pizza place were very helpful when she put in a special request, saying that it would be no trouble to carry out. When Brittany opens her box, the toppings are going to spell out:
Will you marry me?
Or is this too cheesy?
It's dorky and stupid but she knows that Brittany's going to love it, and it will make her laugh. It's not as expensive or fancy as some of her other plans, but this is the one she's most excited about.
The doorbell rings and Santana leaps up to answer it. She practically throws her money at the delivery boy, telling him to keep the change. The Latina carries the pizza in to the living room where Brittany's waiting on the sofa. She balances it on the blonde's lap, waiting for the perfect moment. Just as Brittany opens the lid, she decides to get down on one knee, just to make it that little bit more romantic.
"Oh." Brittany says quietly, actually sounds sort of disappointed.
"Oh?" Santana repeats incredulously. She can't see Brittany's face, and for the first time, she starts to wonder if the blonde might say no. She feels her world start to crash down until Brittany speaks again.
"They forgot the anchovies."
"They what?"
"They forgot the anchovies." Brittany repeats, turning the pizza round so Santana can see it. There's no sign of her proposal on the pizza, it's just a plain old ham and pineapple. If she wasn't so pissed off she'd feel sorry for whoever got her pizza and is probably wondering who's trying to propose to them.
"Right, they...they got the wrong pizza. They gave us the wrong fucking pizza." She runs a hand through her hair in pure exasperation, is this ever going to go right? It feels like the universe is trying to tell her something.
"San, why are you on the floor?" Brittany asks, looking down at her with a bemused expression.
"I was just...um, looking for my earring." Santana lies, pretending to search around on the carpet. "Have you seen it?"
"Yeah, it's in your ear." Brittany laughs, leaning down and tapping it with her finger. "Don't be upset about the pizza San, I don't even like anchovies that much."
"I don't care about the anchovies." Santana sighs, sitting on the sofa next to Brittany and leaning her head against the blondes shoulder. "Everything's just going wrong." She moans, hating herself for wallowing in self-pity.
"Aw, baby." Brittany coos sympathetically, putting an arm around Santana and working her slim fingers into the Latina's hair. "Burning dinner is no big deal, it's happened to me hundreds of times." Although Brittany's got a bit of a knack for cooking, she does tend to have accidents in relation to the oven.
"I don't just mean dinner, I mean..." Santana sighs out and makes a decision. "You know what? Fuck it." She sits up and takes Brittany's hand firmly in her own. "Brittany Susan Pierce, I've never known anyone like you, you make me more happy then words can ever say and..." The phone rings in the middle of her sentence. "Oh for fucks sake." She exclaims, rejecting the call and throwing it off to one side. She can't take another interruption. "Marry me Britt."
"I'm sorry what?" Brittany's jaw hits the ground as Santana goes into her pocket and pulls out the ring. She clasps her free hand to her mouth and forgets how to breathe for several seconds. Even though she and Santana have always planned marriage, she had never imagined Santana was really going to propose.
"I can never give you everything you deserve, but I'm going to spend my life trying." Santana finishes.
"Oh my God San." Brittany tackles her in the biggest hug she can imagine and holds on tight, tears of joy streaming down her face. "Yesyesyesyesyes!"
"Are you sure? You don't sound very convinced." Santana teases, hugging the blonde back as she kisses her repeatedly. Brittany eases up just long enough for Santana to slip the ring onto her finger. It fits perfectly.
"I love you more than anyone in the world ever." Brittany tells Santana, kissing her in between every word. "I'm going to be Brittany Lopez." She squeals excitedly. "I have to call Bethany. And my Mom. And everyone, I have so many people to tell. My Grandma's going to be so happy."
"Tell them tomorrow." Santana advises. "Tonight's for us." Brittany agrees eagerly, starting a trail of kisses along Santana's neck.
So maybe it didn't go to plan, Santana muses to herself, I wouldn't have had it any other way.