The Sun, the Moon, and the Sky

by Quinnlove202

Once Upon A Time AU. The beginning of the Unholy Trinity in Storybrooke. Eventual Quinntana.

13. Chapter 13

AN: Sorry for the long absence. It's awful of me to leave you on a cliffhanger, I know. But I promise I haven't lost interest or anything, I'm just trying to finish school this year and things are busy.

So yeah, here you go!

---

Santana breaks from the kiss first and falls back a step, her mind bombarded with hundreds of images.

Every moment —the happy, the painful, and everything in between — came rushing back at her. Things that were once fragmented visions or parts of distorted dreams were, she now realized, whole memories from a life forgotten.

The sensation was strange and disorienting, to the point where Santana feels unable to do little more than feel her brain pulse inside her skull. She's not sure how long the feeling takes to subside but eventually she comes back to herself. Back to reality.

Back to Quinn.

Hearing the name in her thoughts immediately snaps Santana to attention. She locks onto hazel eyes and, damn.

She'd just looked into these same eyes just a second ago but, looking at them now, it already felt like too fucking long since she'd last seen them.

"Guys?" a distant voice prompts, but goes largely unnoticed. Because suddenly it clicks together for Santana what had just happened.

She broke her curse.

She actually broke it.

All too fast Santana feels her chest swell with hope.

Did that mean that...?

Santana looks to Quinn but finds herself unable to accurately read the blonde's expression. The adrenaline of it all propels her to act.

Before Santana knows what she's doing, she's grabbing a hold Quinn's hand and leading the girl toward the nearest exit.

"Hey!" Sheriff Beiste calls after them. "I'm not done with you two yet!"

Santana doesn't pay the woman a second thought and continues walking. Once outside she picks a random direction to escape to.

She didn't know where she was going exactly, she just knew she needed to get away. To get to the bottom of things.

She needed to make sure that this was happening to both her and Quinn.

She ends up pulling Quinn into an alley right around the corner from the station. Shit, her heart's racing.

Santana stops and turns around to fully face Quinn. Her whole body feels like it's vibrating. "Do you..." The question catches in Santana's throat, her mind suddenly reeling with the possibility that her question would be answered differently than she needed it to.

Her hesitation has her anxiously searching hazel eyes until she can finally manage the words. "Do you remember me?"

Quinn stares at her in awe. Then nods her head ever so slightly. "I..."

Santana steps forward, breath hitching in anticipation. As telling as Quinn's response already was, she still needed to hear the verbal confirmation. To make absolute sure.

Santana's movement toward her breaks Quinn out of her stupor.

"I remember you." Quinn breathes out, finally. She holds Santana's shocked gaze and nods her head, more firmly this time. "I remember—" Quinn's voice cracks. "I remember us."

And with those words uttered aloud, the dam between them breaks.

Their bodies collide with startling intensity, lips crashing together and arms grappling. They kiss over and over again, relief fueling each exchange. Their hands, unable to stay rooted in one place, shift consistently, trying to hold all of each other at once.

At some point Santana backs Quinn up against the wall, mouths still firmly attached. They let themselves carry on with their frenzied dance, pushing into each other desperately, until the oxygen deprivation physically becomes too much and they're forced apart.

Quinn's head drops back against the brick wall to catch her breath. Santana pulls back just enough, keeping most of her body pressed against Quinn, and eyes Quinn's mouth hungrily, her own lips left tingling and aching for more. She resists the temptation though, her lungs seriously needing a minute to recover.

Damn. That was a whole other level of macking right there.

Santana's gaze pulls up when she hears Quinn sniffle. Despite the initial concern, she feels the corner of her mouth quirk up once again overcome by the sight of those familiar hazel eyes.

She takes in a fortifying breath.

Fuck. This kind of happiness was on a whole other level she'd never felt before. Never thought she could feel.

Santana reaches out and brushes away the few strands of hair that had fallen in Quinn's face. Her fingers linger and graze her cheek. "Hey snowflake." she murmurs softly. "Elsa."

Quinn's shining eyes just well up even more. She launches herself at Santana and throws her arms around her neck, a half laugh half sob escaping her. "Hey Red." she happily returns, her voice a soft cry.

A similar noise catches in Santana's throat as she wraps Quinn up in her arms again, briefly holding her up off the ground.

She couldn't believe it. She'd shared a whole other life with this girl but only just now remembered it.

Santana purses her lips against the wet, burning sensation in her eyes. The signs had been there but she'd denied them at every turn and pushed Brittany and Quinn away for no damn good reason.

Shame displacing her relief, Santana sets Quinn back down and reluctantly loosens her hold on her before pulling away completely. She turns her head with a sniff, stubbornly avoiding Quinn's gaze while she forced back any and all tears.

She knows she'd been cursed but that didn't make her feel any better about her actions. She'd let so much dumb shit get between her and her happiness. Between her and Quinn.

"Hey." Quinn's hand cups her cheek and with a deep exhale, Santana forces herself to meet the stare of soft curious eyes. "You alright?"

Santana contemplates shaking her head. No, she wasn't alright. Not at all.

She'd been taken from the world she knew and the people she loved. And, granted they ended up finding their way back to each other, that didn't erase the fact that they'd lost each other in the first place.

Santana tenses suddenly, those words hitting her hard.

Lost each other.

They'd lost each other.

"Santana?"

The words continue to echo inside her head like a sick taunt. It makes something inside her snap.

Next thing Santana knows, her feet are carrying her away from Quinn.

"Santana? Santana, wait!"

She abruptly stops when Quinn steps in front of her, if only just to avoid a collision.

"Where do you think you're going?" Quinn demands, looking both lost and hurt that Santana was trying to get away from her right now.

For a split second Santana's determination falters but then she remembers who was the real cause of that look, the cause of this whole fucking situation, and anger washes over her again, making her shake her head and push right back on.

"Where do you think, Quinn?" Santana sidesteps around the blonde, annoyed she even had to explain herself. "To pay our dear old mayor a visit."

Quinn's eyes widen. "What?" She whips around and grabs a hold of Santana's elbow to pull her back. "Santana no."

Santana looks back at her, honestly surprised by that response. "No?" Her brow shoots up incredulously. "Are you kidding me right now?"

Quinn's shakes her head. Her expression quickly morphs from concern to sheer disbelief. "Santana, you can't just confront Shelby right now."

Santana yanks her arm back. "Like hell I can't!"

No one takes from her and gets away with it.

No one.

She pushes past Quinn with a resounding scoff, finding the blonde's calm and level-headedness maddeningly frustrating. She didn't want or need rational Quinn. God love her but right now she could use the provoked blonde who'd gotten arrested attacking Cassie July at her side, so they could raise some fucking hell together.

"Santana, stop—"

Santana reels at the command.

"She took our lives from us, Quinn!" Santana rages, turning around so sharply it should've caused whiplash. "She kidnapped your sister, she hurt you, took your powers and fucking kept us apart!" Her anger is misplaced, deep down she knows, but this whole situation has forced too many emotions too fucking close to the surface for her to take. "We—" Her voice cracks with stress. "We don't even know how long we've been stuck in this place!"

How long had it taken before a stupid school project brought them together? Years, decades...longer?

An ache in her chest takes root at the thought, spreading through her veins, suffocating her.

"Santana." Quinn soothes, stepping forward. She wisely retracts her hand when Santana violently rears back from her touch, her breathing now short and uneven. "Take it easy. You're going to make yourself hyperventilate."

"How are you so calm?" Santana angrily shouts, her voice hoarse and indignant. "What, a woman who takes me back to her apartment you'll throwdown with no problem but not the bitch who puts a fucking curse on us and makes us forget about each other?"

Quinn's face reflects hurt and that's what does Santana in. Her hostility dissolves into a strangled whisper. "Fucking hell."

Santana turns away and squeezes her eyes shut, trying to block out everything that was overwhelming her—the frustration of feeling like a hot mess, the shame of unleashing her temper on the last person who deserved it, the guilt of letting go and actually feeling the pressure in her chest lessen because of it.

But knowing what they had, all that they could've had— should've had— was just too much for her.

Santana shakes her head, furiously wiping at the hot tears that couldn't be stopped. "Shit, I'm sorry." She swears in between rapid shallow breaths, her eyes blinking uncontrollably. It isn't until she raises her hand that she realizes how badly she is shaking.

"Hey. It's going to be okay." comes Quinn's gentle, knowing voice again. "I want you to focus on me, alright? Nothing else."

Vaguely Santana feels herself nod her head in agreement but she's unsure of her how successful her follow through will be.

"Don't think, just breathe."

Quinn moves her hand to rest against Santana's chest, over her heart, and Santana's breath hitches at the contact. "You're okay." Quinn continues with soft reassurance.

The silence that takes over is filled with nothing but her labored breathing and pounding heartbeat. Santana does as Quinn asks, focusing on the sight of her parted lips, the sound of her even breaths, and the feel of her calming hand against her body. Things that will help keep her grounded.

It takes time but eventually her breathing becomes less and less of an effort.

"Believe me when I say I would like nothing more than to give Shelby a piece of my mind," Quinn calmly says. She tilts her head gently, encouraging Santana to meet her gaze. "But being impulsive is not the way to handle things."

Santana grimaces slightly, both from her own dry mouth and the blonde's words.

"Mayor Corcoran is a woman who managed to curse several kingdoms into a small town." Quinn continues. "When we confront her we need to have a plan. If we don't it won't end well for either of us. I know from first hand experience what she's capable of, remember?"

Santana briefly nods. Oh she remembered. All too well.

"We need to know what exactly we're going up against."

"We're going up against the Evil Queen." Santana mutters, derisively shaking her head at the stupid title.

"She might not even remember who she really is." Quinn mentions and her hand slides from Santana's chest. "For all we know she got swept up in the curse too."

Santana shakes her head, thinking back to her one and only encounter with the woman and the things said, and felt. "I don't think so." She glances back at Quinn to find the blonde watching the few people in the area as they went about their business.

"Do you think we broke the curse altogether or did it just happen between us?"

Santana looks around. Nobody seemed to be having any kind of epiphany regarding their formerly forgotten lives. It looked like just another day in Storybrooke.

"I think it was just us."

Santana turns back around and quirks her brow at the awed, glassy-eyed look her girlfriend was sporting. "What?" she asks curiously.

Quinn just smiles at her cutely.

"We broke our curse."

Santana cracks a smile of her own and nods, feeling the emotion flood through her again. "Yeah, we broke our curse."

She steps forward and slips her hand behind Quinn's neck, pressing their lips together in a tender kiss. Quinn pushes back into the exchange, arms wrapping around Santana's waist. Santana lets her forehead rest against hers while their mouths unhurriedly reacquaint themselves. Up until a distant "Hey!" has them pulling apart.

Quinn jumps back first, her face quickly flushing, while Santana just glares over her shoulder and retains her hold on her girl.

(Because really, today was not the fucking day to interrupt her macking time).

"There you are!" exclaims Anna, walking over to them with Brittany right on her heels. Anna looks past Santana to her sister and her mouth gapes suddenly in concern. "Quinn you've been crying!"

Anna's gaze quickly turns accusatory as it snaps back to Santana. Meanwhile Santana, still annoyed by the intrusion, just narrows her eyes in return like, excuse you kid, I didn't do shit. Calm yourself.

"It's just allergies." Quinn assures with a smile, diverting both their attention when she moves away from Santana to wrap her little sister up in a big hug, catching the redhead off guard.

Though Santana feels the lost of Quinn leaving her arms, she doesn't blame the blonde for it, considering the last time she— well, Elsa— had last seen her sister, the girl had been bleeding out on the floor of their castle.

"Are you guys okay?" Anna wonders over Quinn's shoulder, accepting her sister's embrace but naturally a little puzzled by it. "What happened? Why'd you guys run off?"

"Uh," Santana chances a look at Quinn then quickly looks away. "No reason."

It's a lame response, yeah, but Santana honestly had no idea how to explain away their behavior off the top of her head.

Quinn reluctantly draws back to meet Anna's questioning gaze and attempt her own explanation of things. Santana doesn't hear what she ends up saying, though, distracted by Brittany suddenly throwing herself at her and squeezing her tight.

Chuckling at her best friend, Santana returns her bone-crushing hug. It felt good to remember her. Really remember her.

"It happened, didn't it?" Brittany whispers excitedly in her ear. She pulls back quickly, jolting Santana. "Your curse broke?"

Santana nods, admittedly still dazed by the fact. It felt so surreal. "Yeah, it did." She searches Brittany's eyes just to be sure. "So you didn't...?"

Brittany shakes her head, her smile dimming just a little before perking right up again. "But we'll figure that out soon enough."

Santana nods in agreement, sharing her smile. "Yeah, we definitely will."

Shortly thereafter they return to the sheriff's station. The woman herself looked none to pleased with their abrupt exit, (even if they did end up returning) forcing Quinn and Santana to offer up their best apologetic smiles.

"Sorry about that, Sheriff." Santana says first, her fingers now linked with Quinn's.

Sheriff Beiste just keeps her arms folded across her chest, waiting.

"It won't ever happen again." Quinn adds, for good measure.

"You're damn right it won't." Sheriff Beiste finally responds, stepping forward. "Now I don't want to see you here ever again. Either of you." Her pointed gaze falls to Santana before shifting back to Quinn. "And you little miss, I may not know you personally but I know just by looking at you that you're better than this kind of behavior. The next time someone gets your goat you tell them how the cow ate the cabbage without resorting to an ass whoopin', alright?"

Despite exchanging questioning glances to each other, Santana and Quinn nod their heads like they'd completely understood that uh, particular phrasing. "Yes, ma'am." they both say.

"Here." Sheriff Beiste hands back the bail money Santana had thrown at her earlier. "Keep your money."

Though frowning, Santana takes the outstretched envelope of money. "Uh, thanks."

(She might not understand but she's not stupid, she's not gonna argue with the woman on it).

"Now go home and stay out of trouble." Sheriff Beiste dismisses gruffly, returning to her desk without another word. "That's an order."

Santana exhales deeply once the Sheriff is out of her face —even she can admit the woman was kind of intimidating. She exchanges a quick look with Quinn, both in agreement that they'd gotten off easy and to not push their luck by hanging around here.

So they head out the front doors, trailing behind Brittany and Anna.

Once outside, and a safe distance away from the station, Santana gently stops Quinn, curious to know. "What kind of damage did you actually do to Cassie?"

Cause if Quinn really gave Cassie an ass whoopin', as Sheriff Beiste put it, you bet your ass she wanted the details.

"All I did was slap her." Quinn simply says.

In front of her, Brittany snorts at that response. "And threaten to do very bad things to her." she adds, glancing over her shoulder. "Or cosas malas as Santana would say."

Quinn turns an endearing shade of pink. "I did not!"

"Sure you didn't, Quinnie." Brittany humors.

Smirking to herself, Santana leans into her scowling girlfriend's side. "You yell at her in Norwegian, snowflake?" she teases, her voice low and for her ears only.

Though still pink in the face, Quinn remains firm in her resolve. "No."

Santana lightly narrows her eyes, unconvinced. "Don't you mean nei?"

Quinn's gaze snaps back to her in surprise.

"What?" Santana shrugs smilingly. "Red remembers a few of the words and phrases Elsa taught her back in Arendelle."

Quinn smiles a little at that. "Oh yeah?"

Santana nods. "Though it was Anna I got to teach me all the good swears."

She steals a sidelong glance at Quinn and grins at how fast the blonde's smile drops.

"What?"

Santana laughs.

She drapes an arm around Quinn and kisses her head. "Dork, I'm just kidding you." she teases.

(She's actually not but that can stay between her and Anna for now).

For the most part they end up walking back to Quinn's apartment in relative silence. Not because they didn't have anything to say, given all that had happened today, they had plenty to say but because a certain pig-tailed redhead remained out of the loop, they couldn't very well talk about the curse or anything related to it. That would just have to wait.

Not that Santana minded. She was still trying to wrap her head around this whole thing. It'd been so simple. A kiss was all it took. She didn't understand why that kiss, of all ones they've shared, did the trick— maybe because they finally admitted that they loved each other?

True love's kiss could break any curse, that's what people believed back in the Enchanted Forest. But Red had never really believed in that true love crap, let alone the idea that a single kiss between two people could undo even the worst kinds of magic. Her abuela, ironically, had always been the one to push the idea of true love on her, claiming that everyone had a true love and would find them eventually.

Funny how it all worked out. Red had never wanted a true love, never expected to find one, and yet here she was with Quinn.

And here her abuela...wasn't.

"What are you thinking about?"

Quinn's voice pulls her from her thoughts. Santana turns her head and answers honestly. "Us...my abuela."

Quinn's smile falters empathetically. "She'll come around eventually." she assures, gently squeezing her hand.

"Yeah, maybe on her deathbed." Santana tries not to sound too affected.

"She loves you so much, Santana." Quinn sighs. "I'm sure once she's spent some time apart from you and had to live with the consequences she'll realize how wrong she was to push you away."

Santana stops short, this conversation suddenly reminding her of the fact that all her things were still at her abuela's house. She'd never gone back for them. She'd meant to but with all the chaos of yesterday and today, it had completely slipped her mind.

Shit.

"Wait." Santana groans aloud, making the others stop and turn around. "I never got my stuff from my abuela's. I need to go and grab it."

It was the last thing she wanted to do right now but knowing her abuela, the woman probably already had her things sitting on the curb with the trash.

"Actually," Quinn begins and shares a noticeable look with Brittany.

Santana narrows her eyes at the exchange.

"Uh, we'll meet you guys back at the apartment." Brittany interrupts before Quinn can finish. She grabs Anna's hand. "Come on."

"Wait, what's happening?"

Anna is obviously just as lost as Santana was but is helpless to comply as Brittany begins guiding her along.

Santana watches them go, her frown deepening. She slowly turns to Quinn once the two were out of earshot. "What's going on?" she dares ask.

"Your things are actually at Brittany's house."

Santana blinks twice. "Oh."

She guessed that with all the truth bombs being dropped on her lately, and Quinn's sudden behavior, she'd expected something a little more upsetting.

(Not that she was like, complaining or anything).

But still she frowns. "Okay? Wait, when did you get my stuff?"

"While you were at my place napping earlier." Quinn replies. "I met up with Brittany with the intent of confronting Cassandra July but she talked me down from actually going through with it so we went to your house because I'd intended to get your things for you anyways..." Quinn shakes her head, her brow furrowing in that slightly self-conscious way, probably feeling like she was rambling. She clears her throat to compose herself. "Coming back from dropping your stuff off at her house is when we saw Cassandra walking out of the drugstore..."

"And when my snowflake pounced." Santana realizes, smirking as she pictured the moment. "Literally."

"Just seeing her made me lose my head." Quinn sighs, crossing her arms and looking none too proud. "Little did I know Sheriff Beiste was across the street getting coffee and saw it all go down."

"But why bring my stuff to Britt's house?" Santana still can't help but wonder.

She had assumed, maybe prematurely, that she'd be staying with Quinn now that she was out of a home. Or at least hoped to, anyways. Now that their curse had been lifted, she really wasn't keen on Quinn leaving her sight, not with an actual evil queen still running the town.

"Brittany thought it would be the best arrangement." Quinn explains, and Santana's brow furrows because what? "And I kind of agreed with her."

Okay, Santana wasn't expecting that part. "What do you mean?" she asks, trying to keep the hurt out of her voice.

"Living together is a big step for any relationship." Quinn utters softly. "And we're just barely getting ours back on track. Brittany raised some valid points to me... she said it might be too much for us too soon."

"Things are different now." Santana finds herself protesting. "We broke our curse. We're gonna be fine."

They had to be.

Right?

"I know you, Santana." Quinn sighs at her, not unkindly. "You like having your own space. Being able to shut your door and have your alone time. You need to not deal with people sometimes, even your friends, which is perfectly normal but—"

"At your place I wouldn't have that." Santana finishes, now understanding.

Quinn nods. "And I know we spend a lot of time with each other and have sleepovers but living together is a twenty-four seven thing. Not to mention you'd be sharing a room with me and you'd have to deal with Anna around too. And while I want you around, really I do, I also don't want us to crash and burn over something stupid like grated nerves from being around each other all the time."

Santana sighs heavily, knowing Quinn had a point. As much as she wished she could say otherwise, she did like having her space. And though she wanted to live with Quinn, she also wanted to avoid any circumstances that might break them up. She was tired of dumb shit getting between them.

"Are you mad?"

Santana meets Quinn's tentative gaze and shakes her head. "No, course not. You made the right call." Santana leans down and gives her a soft kiss on her lips. "Thank you for getting my stuff." Before she pulls back completely, she lightly bumps noses with Quinn, making her face scrunch up adorably. "I appreciate it."

"But just so you know, you're staying over tonight." Quinn informs, her lips giving way to a growing smile. "That's not up for debate."

Santana chuckles softly. "Oh no?"

Quinn shakes her head, sharing her smile. "Nope."

"Fine with me, snowflake."

Santana drapes her arm around Quinn's shoulders again and the two resume walking together.

They meet up with Brittany and Anna at the apartment and the four spend the rest of their Sunday hanging out as they usually did. But as the day wears on, exhaustion begins to settle in for Santana. She had a splitting headache but she figured that was just a side effect of having a lifetime of memories abruptly shoved back into her brain. Or maybe it was just from the hangover.

Either way. No. Me. Gusta.

Santana rubs a hand over face, unable to take it anymore. She can't focus on television, or pretend to anyways, for any longer. She knows she'd gotten in a nap earlier but right now it felt like as if she hadn't slept in days. She was groggy as fuck.

Santana leaves Brittany and Anna on the sofa and picks up her dirty plate, carrying it over to the kitchen where Quinn is starting on the dishes.

"How you've gone so long without buying paper plates is beyond me." Santana comes up beside the blonde and drops her plate in the soapy water.

Quinn rinses out a glass and places it on the counter to dry. "Paper plates are wasteful." she simply says.

"You'd recycle them."

"It's fine. I don't mind washing dishes." Quinn notices Santana moving around her to grab a hand towel to dry the dishes with. "You don't have to help you know. Just go sit down. Relax."

Santana shakes her head and picks up the glass Quinn had just set down. "I wanna be here with you."

Santana looks up in time to see Quinn glancing back at her. "Saying things like that just makes me want to kiss you senseless." Quinn murmurs, her lips pursed in a way that tells Santana she's truly tempted to do just that.

Santana raises her brow and smirks. "What's stopping you then?" she asks, despite already knowing her answer. Making out while your best friend and little sister are a few feet away is kind of an awkward thing to do.

(Not that that means she'd be opposed to Quinn pouncing on her here and now).

Quinn just shakes her head, knowing what she was undoubtedly thinking, and hands her another glass. "Behave."

Santana takes the glass with a sly smile. "For now."

Since it's just a couple plates and glasses that needed washing, they finish up fairly quickly. Santana puts away the last plate in the cabinet and comes up behind Quinn who's in the process of taking off her gloves. Her arms wrap around her waist and chin goes to rest against her shoulder. "How are you feeling?"

Quinn leans her head back against Santana and sighs. Her eyes close briefly. "Sleepy." she admits. It'd been a long day after all.

Santana hums in response and drops a kiss to the side of her neck. "Come on then." She straightens up and turns them both around. "Bedtime."

Quinn doesn't bother protesting. She allows Santana to lead her out of the kitchen.

As they head toward the hallway, Brittany calls out to them without taking her eyes off the tv. "Just a reminder, if you guys start doing it, we'll totally be able to hear you!"

Beside her, Anna makes a retching noise. "Gross!"

Santana rolls her eyes.

Dorks.

"Ignoring you both." she returns over her shoulder.

Brittany smiles and blindly waves them off. "Love you too!"

Quinn gently closes the door behind them once they're alone in her room.

"If we fall asleep now, we're probably going to end up waking up in the middle of night, you know." she sighs, glancing over at the clock and seeing how early it still technically was.

Santana flops onto the bed and closes her eyes. "Literally couldn't care less." she mumbles, burying her face into the pillows and wishing she still had those pain meds she'd been given for her hand. The aspirin she'd taken wasn't doing shit for her headache. Santana waits to feel Quinn settle beside her before blindly reaching out to pull her closer. "Here."

She rolls onto her back and Quinn tucks herself into her embrace, her head nestling under her chin.

Santana exhales deeply to get herself to relax.

The seconds begin to tick by and though she wants nothing more than to sleep, she's finding it hard to ignore how tense Quinn is in her arms.

"What's wrong?" Santana sighs, still with her eyes closed.

"It's ridiculous."

Santana scoffs a little at that. "More ridiculous than suddenly remembering your past life lived as a literal snowflake? I doubt it, babe."

Quinn is quiet for a long moment. Then.

"I'm afraid."

Santana blinks at that admission and frowns. She looks down at the blonde in her arms, confused. "Of what?"

Quinn doesn't meet her gaze right away. "I'm afraid that if I close my eyes, I'm going to wake up to find all that had happened was some kind of dream. Or that I'm going to wake up in some other reality where I don't remember you." Quinn buries her face in the crook of Santana's neck and tightens her grip on her. "I just don't want to lose you again."

Santana sighs at that whispered response. "Babe." She smooths a gentle hand over Quinn's hair, then places a kiss to the crown of her head. "That's not going to happen."

"You were taken from me once before."

Santana pushes herself upright, prompting Quinn to shift out of her arms and do the same. "That is never going to happen to us again." she says more firmly, forcing her gaze until Quinn finally meets it. "I promise you."

Quinn looks down and exhales unevenly. "I want to believe you."

Santana reaches out and stops the blonde from worrying her hands, a sign of stress. "Want to know how I'm so fucking sure of it?"

Quinn tentatively looks back at her.

"Because first thing tomorrow I'm going and making myself a Shelby Corcoran voodoo doll."

Santana cracks a smile at the quiet snort she gets out of Quinn. "You laugh but I'm serious."

Quinn shakes her head. Her gaze dips briefly before returning to Santana. "From what I remember your Rachel Berry voodoo doll didn't work out so great."

"Yeah, well it was a prototype." Santana scowls at the disbelieving look she gets in response. "Whatever." She sighs and lays back down. She waits for Quinn to do the same before rolling onto her side to face her. She leans forward and starts affectionately nuzzling the blonde's neck.

It doesn't take long for Santana to get caught up in her scent. "Fuck, you smell good." she murmurs, sighing into Quinn's neck, breathing her in.

Quinn shakes her head. A short laugh escapes her when Santana teases her skin with kisses. "Go to sleep." Quinn orders, lightly pushing her back.

With a dramatic sigh, Santana reluctantly settles back against the pillows, but not before gathering Quinn back up in her arms. She smiles when the blonde pecks her lips. "Silly wolf."

Santana feels her smile fade. Because in that moment she's reminded for the first time that, with being Red again, also meant being the wolf.

It's enough to keep her up the rest of the night.

Resigned to the fact, Santana gets up out of bed as quietly as she can. She couldn't take staring up at the ceiling for another second.

She goes over to the window and peers out from behind curtains, mindful of how much light she lets into the dark room. Her gaze, as always, gravitates to the shadowed form of the forest in the distance.

The curse on the town was still intact but hers and Quinn's was broken. They remembered who they were.

But what else did that mean?

Magic doesn't exist in this world — or at least she's pretty sure it didn't— but what if breaking their curse changed that? At least for them?

With her memories intact, she now knows that her wolf had been inside her cursed self this whole time. That her so-called "Snix" moments were just her wolf side when it reared its ugly head.

What she didn't know was what would happen when the next full moon came around.

Even now she could feel the the wolf lurking beneath her skin (an all too familiar sensation cursed Santana always managed to write off as something or other). The only difference now was that the animal felt oddly inaccessible compared to how she remembered it ever being with Red.

Regardless she was concerned. Accessible or not, god only knew what being caged up for so long had done to her wolf.

"Hey."

Santana jumps a little when she feels Quinn suddenly behind her. She'd been so preoccupied with her thoughts she didn't even hear the blonde get out of bed. She turns her head just as Quinn drops a kiss to her shoulder. "Sleep enough?" the blonde wonders, her voice still heavy with sleep.

Santana closes her eyes for a moment, enjoying the feel of Quinn wrapping around her. "For now." she murmurs.

"Liar."

Santana smiles weakly. Quinn knows her too well. "It's been a hell of a twenty-four hours." she admits, turning around. "I guess I'm still trying to process it."

"Sorry."

Santana frowns, not expecting a look of guilt to be reflected back at her. "What do you have to be sorry about?"

"If I had just told Anna about us." Quinn sighs, her gaze dropping and head shaking in frustration. "I told her all about us but the part about of us being a secret I forget—"

"It's not what defines our relationship." Santana cuts her off.

And she was glad Quinn didn't see it as such.

"But if I hadn't forgotten," Quinn says, needing to continue. "You'd still have a home with your abuela. Cassandra never would have happened..."

"Yeah and we would still be cursed." Santana gently interjects. She slides her hand behind Quinn's neck and brings their foreheads close enough to touch yet still be able to hold each other's gaze. "Don't go being sorry for something I happen to be very grateful for. Okay?"

Despite her sincerity Quinn doesn't look entirely convinced. "Then why do you look so stressed?"

Santana hesitates.

"It's nothing."

"No, don't go doing that." Quinn quietly pleads as Santana starts to pull back from her. "Don't push it aside and not deal with it like you do."

"There's nothing to deal with."

Quinn raises her brow incredulously. "With everything that's happened in the past 48 hours, you honestly expect me to believe that?"

Santana sighs. "Look, I already knew what my abuela would do if she found out about me and she did just that. Threw me out on my ass. It sucks but I knew going in what would happen." It didn't mean it hurt any less but she had known yelling and arguing with the stubborn vieja wouldn't have done any good. Besides she was trying to rein in her insane temperament as much as she could. "As for Cassie..." Her words trail off with a shake of her head. "Honestly I don't even want to think about her right now because she just makes me want to punch my hand through a wall."

"So it's not about them, then is it about us?"

"It's nothing you need to worry about." she assures, but meanwhile trying to think up an explanation that will satisfy Quinn without having to tell her what had really been on her mind. "I was just...thinking I should've told you I liked you sooner. You know, back in the Forest."

Which wasn't a lie, she had definitely been thinking about that while lying in bed not sleeping, too.

Quinn blinks in surprise, obviously not expecting that answer and Santana nods, explaining, "We could've had more time together."

She'd been in denial about it because at the time falling for a queen seemed like it was just asking for heartache. So she'd tried not to entertain those kinds of thoughts. But now, knowing what she did, she kind of wished she could go back and do things differently.

"If you had told me you liked me sooner it might've made things harder for us." Quinn quietly disagrees.

Now it was Santana's turn to be surprised.

"What do you mean?"

"I was still getting used to being around people when you came into my life." Quinn explains. "I wouldn't have been ready to handle someone having romantic feelings toward me. I mean, you remember how I reacted the first time you kissed me, I totally freaked out. If you had kissed me sooner, while we were still getting to know each other back in Arendelle, I might've set off another eternal winter."

Santana can't help but smile a little even though the blonde was being completely serious. "Still." She reaches out and tucks a loose strand of hair behind Quinn's ear. "I would've liked to have more time with you."

Quinn's expression softens as she leans into Santana's touch. "Me too." she nods. "Me too."

Santana steps forward and kisses her gently. Once they part they make their way back over to the bed. Now that they were both fully awake they decide to just lie down beside each other and contemplate things.

"Do you think it still exists?" Quinn quietly asks. "Our world?"

Santana shakes her head unknowingly. "I have no idea."

"The curse couldn't have gotten to everyone though." Quinn begins to reason. "I mean, when you think about all the kingdoms, there would have to be more people here if it had, right?"

"Maybe they are all here." Santana throws out there. "Maybe Storybrooke is not as small a town as we think it is. Maybe that was just something put into our heads."

Quinn sighs heavily. She turns and rolls onto her side to face Santana. "I have so many questions." Santana tears her gaze away from the ceiling and looks back at her. "I mean, what was the point in sending us to a completely different world and keeping us here? It's not exactly the purgatory I had in mind."

Santana nods in agreement. Aside from their memories being taken away, she could admit, being cursed wasn't all that bad. They honestly could've had it way worse. "Magic doesn't always work out in the way you expect it to, maybe that's what happened with the curse."

"Maybe."

Santana exhales deeply. "We are gonna be such headcases now, aren't we?"

Quinn looks at her curiously. "What do you mean?"

"We've got two sets of memories now. Two lives in our heads. It's like that one movie you made me watch. The black and white one, with the lady who has the multiple personalities."

"The Three Faces of Eve?"

Santana nods. "Yeah. That one." She throws a narrowed look at Quinn. "Tell me again why you felt the need to make me watch that damn movie?"

Quinn chuckles at her expression and shrugs. "It's a good film."

Santana rolls her eyes. "Weirdo."

"Headcase."

Santana scoffs at her indignantly. "Hey, if I'm one, then you're one too."

Quinn isn't concerned though. A small smile plays across her lips. "I don't mind being a headcase with you."

Santana shakes her head to herself, fighting a smile of her own. What a pair they were.

"Thank god we're hot."

Quinn just laughs.

—

Santana wakes up obnoxiously early the next morning, despite barely sleeping through the night.

Fucking hell will these shitty sleeping patterns be the death of her.

She would have thought regaining her memories would mean an end to the restless nights, but remembering who she was—what she was— kept her up just the same as the strange dreams and flashbacks had. Thoughts of the wolf just wouldn't leave her mind.

She knows living as Red she'd accepted life as a wolf but living a wolf-free existence as Santana has made her realize that she's experienced enough of that animal for one lifetime and she really didn't want it carrying over into this life.

(Not if she could help it anyways).

Sighing, Santana emerges from the bathroom and makes her way toward the living room. She expects to find Brittany and Anna passed out on the sofa or something, considering the redhead's room had been empty when she passed by it just now, but they're nowhere to be seen.

Apparently it was just her and Quinn.

And, well, Marshmallow.

Santana walks over to the kitchen counter and grabs the pink post-it note undoubtedly left there by Brittany.

Sure enough it reads, Kidnapped Anna for the day. Fed Marshmallow before we left. Love, B.

"If only they'd taken you with them." she murmurs, stealing a sidelong glance at the pup at her feet. She sets down the note.

Santana turns and looks around the room, trying to think of what to do with herself now. She's not hungry yet and she doesn't feel like watching tv. She probably has some homework left to finish but that's not happening today. Nope. She contemplates calling Brittany to find out where they ran off to but Marshmallow starts up with his annoying pup noises, effectively distracting her.

She looks down and, to her surprise, finds him with his leash in his mouth. What the—?

Santana sighs in exasperation. "God, you are so needy." With a roll of her eyes, she takes the leash from him and sets it on the counter. "Hold on."

She double-backs into Quinn's bedroom and throws on some non-sleep clothes. She comes out and pockets her phone, then grabs Marshmallow's leash again. She bends down to clip it to his collar. "FYI, I'm only taking you out because I don't have anything better to do."

(Well, that, and because doing this kind of shit always gets her brownie points with Quinn).

She ends up taking Marshmallow down to the park, figuring that if she wears him out now, he'll be too tired to bug her later while she's with Quinn. There she plays with him, chasing him around and throwing his favorite rubber ball across the grass and letting him go running after it.

It's Sunday and even though it's relatively early, there are already plenty of people are out and about with their families, kids playing on playground and whatnot.

It's kind of gross but whatever.

While she's waiting on Marshmallow's return, Santana squints against the sunlight. She really wished she'd remembered to bring sunglasses. She crosses her arms and turns her head, scowling at the probable wrinkles she's getting from being out here.

It's then that a glint of reflected light from across the street catches her eye. She narrows her gaze, naturally curious.

In that moment she quickly realizes two things.

One, she had a camera being pointed at her.

And two, she actually knew the person holding the camera.

(There was no mistaking that Jewfro anywhere).

Santana glances over her shoulder unconsciously. Though Jacob Ben Israel's camera is seemingly aimed at her, maybe, just maybe, he was taking pictures of someone else. Or something else. After all this was a park and there was a ton of photographable shit here, right?

But then again, knowing Jewfro, he probably was taking her picture.

Santana shakes her head in disbelief. She knows she shouldn't be surprised, given his reputation, but she was.

What a little creep!

Santana turns back around, ready to sic Marshmallow on him, only to find that the weasel had up and disappeared on her.

She frowns at this for like a second before ultimately deciding to shrug it off. Maybe it's her sudden need for food but she's not about waste her time hunting down the jew-fro.

She'll just yell at him the next time she sees him at school.

(At least then she'll have something to look forward to tomorrow).

When Santana returns to the apartment she finds the place just as quiet as she'd left it. She takes care not to make too much noise in the kitchen, knowing Quinn was still asleep. She's in no real mood to make herself breakfast so she settles for the leftover pizza Brittany had bought for dinner yesterday. She takes the half-empty box out of the refrigerator and walks it over to the counter. It's technically Quinn's leftovers but it's okay because Quinn is always telling her that sharing is caring.

(So it's all good).

While Santana has her back turned to pour herself a cup of coffee, Marshmallow takes the opportunity to rise up onto his hind legs and sniff at the food just out of his reach. She watches him out of the corner of her eye but she doesn't bother to shoo him away. She just grabs her coffee and takes it around the counter. Marshmallow naturally follows her lead and is settled at her feet before she can sit down. "Don't be giving me that pup face, dog." she says to him, pulling the pizza box closer to her and catching the way he licks his chaps in anticipation. Like he'd actually get some of it. As if. "You know you already had your breakfast."

Marshmallow gives her this pitiful whimper and Santana makes the mistake of making eye contact. "Ugh. Fine." She rolls her eyes. She hasn't gone soft or anything— she just knows the little brat won't leave her alone until he gets what he wants.

(He's like Rachel in that sense — though his fur coat isn't quite as shiny).

So she picks off the pineapple chunks and feeds them to him.

"Fruit doesn't belong on a pizza anyways."

That appeases Marshmallow well enough so Santana returns her attention to her slice and starts tearing into it.

But as she chews, something awful occurs to her.

Oh shit.

Her gaze snaps back to Marshmallow, suddenly panicked. "You better be allowed to eat pineapple, dog."

'Cause she is so not wasting her Sunday hanging out at the vet—fuck that.

After doing a quick google search Santana gets her answer and thankfully they're both in the clear. Still, she glares down at Marshmallow for the scare. "See, this is why pets are overrated. No me gusta."

"What don't you like now?"

Santana whips around at the sudden voice but quickly relaxes. She smiles. "Hey you."

Quinn's standing at the edge of the hallway, lightly rubbing at her eyes. "Hey." she breathes, her soft eyes crinkling with a still sleepy smile.

Santana watches as the blonde shuffles further into the room, her brow furrowing slightly in question. "Where's Anna?" Quinn asks.

Santana nods toward the pink post-it note left on the counter. "Out with Britt." she explains.

Quinn walks over curiously and reads the note for herself. Santana can tell by the purse of her lips that she's not exactly pleased with the lack of details. "What do you think they're doing?"

Santana casually sighs her response. "Oh, you know, Brittany's probably taken her to get another tattoo."

Quinn smiles faintly and puts the note down. "Again?"

Santana turns around in her chair and nods at her, smiling. She beckons the blonde closer.

Quinn moves to stand in between her parted legs. She greets Santana with a simple peck on the lips. Santana automatically leans in for more but Quinn pulls away with a shake of her head, grimacing. "Pizza breath." she explains, her nose scrunching up.

Santana lightly scoffs. "Yeah, well, you got morning breath." she teases right back.

Quinn steps out of her arms with a playful scowl. She walks around the kitchen counter and shakes her head, seeing the pizza. "Cold pizza and coffee, really Santana?"

Santana shrugs at the disapproval in her tone. "The breakfast of champions." she merely says, shifting back around.

Quinn goes over to the cabinets and begins opening them. "Would you like me to fix you a real breakfast?"

Santana takes a long second to answer. But in her defense Quinn had just risen up on her toes, effectively showing off those bare legs and that damn fine ass. Santana clears her throat and forces her gaze up a couple feet. "No thanks, babe." She pulls a face at the box she sees Quinn ultimately grab out of the pantry. "Granola is glorified animal feed you know."

Quinn scoffs over her shoulder. "Is not."

As Quinn closes the cabinet behind her, Santana gets up and puts the empty pizza box in the recycling bin. "Is too." She washes her hands and then grabs the bread out of the bread box, knowing Quinn would want toast too. She puts two slices in the toaster for her.

"So anything in particular you want to do today?" Quinn questions, pouring out some granola into a bowl.

"Nope." Santana says, firmly shaking her head. "We're not doing anything today. It's Sunday. Day of rest. And making out."

Quinn tilts her head in mild amusement/confusion. "But wouldn't making out defeat the purpose of resting?"

Santana turns away from the refrigerator to stare at Quinn, appalled. "Are you saying you don't want to spend the day getting our mack on?" When Quinn just laughs her off, Santana walks back over to her and promptly spins her around by the shoulders. She studies the blonde in all seriousness. "When you got your memories back you didn't forget what an amazing a kisser I am, right? Or do I need to reeducate you?"

Quinn shakes her head, trying not to blush under Santana's suggestive brow waggle. "You can reeducate me all you want," Santana grins excitedly at her sexy whispered tone, only to have her expression fade when Quinn sidesteps past her to grab the butter out of the refrigerator, stipulating at the last second, "After I eat."

Regardless Santana can't help but smirk to herself. "I can think of something better you can eat, snowflake."

Quinn nearly drops the butter dish.

"Santana!"

"What?" Santana blinks in wide-eyed innocence as she gestures to the butter in the blonde's hands. "I meant you could put jam on your toast!"

Quinn pushes at her shoulder, her face now adorably flushed. "Shut up, you did not!"

Santana concedes to a laugh. "You're right I didn't. I just wanted to see if your mind would go to the naughty place. And it did." She comes up behind Quinn, hands sliding to her waist. Her smile broadens in unapologetic triumph. "I've corrupted you more than I thought."

Quinn roll her eyes but accepts Santana's cheek kiss all the same. "Whatever." At this close proximity, Quinn gets another whiff of her pizza breath and is reminded, "Don't think you're off the hook for eating my pizza by the way."

Santana lightly scoffs. "You wouldn't have eaten it for breakfast anyways."

"So? That doesn't mean I didn't want it for lunch." Quinn grabs her toast the second they pop up and butters them on a clean plate. Santana watches her.

"Whatever. You weren't missing out on much. Canadian bacon is god awful."

Quinn looks back at her, mildly exasperated. "If it's so awful why did you eat it?"

"Because it was there and required no preparation." Santana easily replies. Meanwhile her hand sneaks away from Quinn's waist over to the counter so she can steal a quick bite of Quinn's toast.

Quinn huffs.

"Just be grateful I love you and I'm not pressing charges. Stop it!" Quinn slaps her hand away and promptly takes her food around to the other side of the counter.

Santana follows close behind and takes the chair next to hers. "I thought sharing was caring, babe."

"Not when it comes at the expense of your poor girlfriend starving to death."

Santana rolls her eyes while Quinn pulls the Sunday edition of the local newspaper toward her. "Such a drama queen."

Quinn just smiles and takes a large deliberate bite out of her toast, teasing her.

The jerk.

Santana sighs to herself and rests her chin in her hand, the sight of Quinn eating and reading just oh so riveting. "You know, if you weren't so young and hot I'd mistake you for a little old lady." Because, really, what teenager reads the newspaper?

"It's good to keep up with the news." Quinn merely says, keeping her eyes on the page.

Santana begins to tap her fingers against the counter out of boredom. It gives her a weird feeling of déjà vu. How many times had she been in this position as Red, impatiently waiting for Her Royal Majesty to finish working so she could hang out and entertain her?

(The answer: too many to fucking count).

"Sitting there with your knee bouncing up and down and fingers tapping away is giving me the impression that you plan on jumping on me the second I finish my food." Quinn glances back at her and Santana nods, having absolutely no problem confirming that theory.

"That's exactly what I plan on doing, Fabray. I wants to get my mack on."

Quinn shakes her head in amusement. "Well go brush your teeth then." she says, playfully shooing her away. "Honestly, you're worse than Marshmallow when he wants to play."

Ignoring that last remark, Santana hops down from her perch. (But only because brushing her teeth will give her something to do, not cause she's whipped or anything).

"And use mouthwash while you're at it."

Santana scowls at the command, even if it was kinda hot. "I thought you liked the taste of bacon. I mean, I know from firsthand experience that if you hear the words "Santana" and "bacon" in the same sentence, you will pounce and attempt to eat my face off. In the sexy way," she clarifies. "Not the Jeffery Dahmer kind of way."

"The taste of bacon by itself is one thing, the taste of bacon combined with bunch of different pizza flavors is a completely other." Quinn informs, looking up from the newspaper. "To quote my girlfriend: No me gusta."

When put like that, Santana could understand that logic...she guessed.

(Quinn was still weird though).

While in the bathroom Santana decides after brushing her teeth to just go ahead and shower too. It'd been warm outside and she'd kind of worked up a sweat chasing Marshmallow around all over the park.

Besides, knowing Quinn, she'd probably still be at the kitchen counter eating her breakfast all sloth-like when Santana finished.

Thankfully, that isn't the case. By the time Santana finishes with her shower, Quinn is back in her bedroom, talking on her phone.

"Just bring her back in one piece, Britt." Santana overhears the blonde say as she enters the room to change.

Quinn glances her way and Santana nearly laughs at how easily distracted the blonde becomes by her goddess-like nakedness. If dazed hazel eyes were any indication, whatever Brittany was responding with was clearly going unheard by Quinn.

Heh.

"Don't forget to breathe, snowflake." Santana hums knowingly, grabbing a pair of underwear out of the drawer and tugging it up her legs. Over her shoulder she hears Quinn end the call with Brittany.

"So where'd she end up taking Anna?"

Santana doesn't have to have eyes on the blonde to know she was literally looking everywhere but at her right now.

"Well first they grabbed breakfast, but now they're down by the docks hanging out with some of Dani's roller derby team." Quinn responds, sounding none too excited.

Santana turns around, and sure enough, Quinn has her back politely to her. Santana shakes her head fondly. "Ten bucks says Anna comes home begging you to let her join."

Quinn scoffs over her shoulder. "Over my dead body."

Santana shakes her head.

Even though she and Dani had never been anything more than friends, Santana knew the subject Dani was kind of a sore spot for Quinn. Quinn didn't not like her but she definitely didn't not not like her either. If that made sense. Santana's been meaning to introduce the two for a while now but with her relationship difficulties with Quinn constantly taking precedent, it always got pushed to the back of her mind.

Santana tugs down her tank top, chuckling. "Why because it's Dani's team?"

"No because Anna is fourteen years old and should not be spending her free time getting bruised and beaten alongside fully grown women in fishnets."

Quinn turns around only once she was sure Santana was fully clothed.

"Her derby name could be Tragedy Ann." Santana suggests, only half-joking.

Quinn just glares at her.

"Relax, snowflake." she grins, holding up her hands to appease. "I was only kidding."

Santana walks over and climbs onto the bed. She pats the newly made bedspread, encouraging the blonde to join her. "Speaking of my sister," Quinn sighs, settling down beside her. "I'm thinking of enrolling her in school with us."

Santana rolls onto her side and props her head up with her hand. "Already?"

"We've talked about it." Quinn nods. "She's adjusted far better than I ever could have imagined in such a short amount of time and as much as I know she enjoys hanging out with us, she should really be around kids her own age."

Santana nods in understanding. "Besides," Quinn continues. "She was cooped up in a castle most of her life because of me, I really don't want that to be the case this time around. One lifetime was bad enough."

"You don't keep her cooped up here, babe." Santana replies, idly rubbing her hand across Quinn's stomach. Ever since their curse broke she couldn't help but want to touch the blonde every chance she got. "But you're right, school will be good for her. And she'll love it, just like she loves everything else."

"That's what she says." Quinn nods, smiling a little. "I just don't want to push her too soon, you know?"

"If it ends up being too much for her, you just pull her out." Santana says easily enough. "Wait to try again."

"I guess." Quinn sighs heavily. "I'm just worried."

"Don't be."

Santana rolls over onto Quinn and props her upper body up, keeping her hands on either side of the blonde's head.

Quinn chuckles quietly. "Feeling frisky today, huh?" she teases, her arms slipping around Santana's neck.

Santana shrugs. "Just want to make up for lost time." She shifts her weight to one hand and uses her free hand to brush the bangs out of Quinn's face.

"Who, Santana or Red?"

Santana meets Quinn's curious gaze and dips her head lower. "Both." she murmurs against her lips, then closing the distance between them.

They exchange several short but sweet kisses that leave Santana's lips tingling like no other. She pulls away slowly, savoring the feeling. Her gaze darts up from soft pink lips to shining hazel eyes.

Quinn's smiling up at her with all the love in the world and fucking hell if it doesn't make her grin like a huge dork.

Quinn notices her cheesy smile and tilts her head curiously. A short, confused laugh escapes her. "What?"

"What do you mean what?" Santana chuckles right back.

Quinn just shakes her head and guides Santana back in for another kiss, hands cupping her face. They're still smiling and giggling, for who knows what reason, but they can't bring themselves to give a damn about it.

They kiss over and over happily but their smiles soon fade as the air between them shifts, their kisses becoming less playful and sweet and more sensual and intense. Teeth and tongue are quickly added to the mix of things and when Quinn grazes Santana's bottom lip with the right amount of pressure, a groan is ripped from her throat.

Goddamn. Santana bows her head and pushes more deeply into Quinn, greedily devouring her every kiss. In response Quinn slips one of her legs around the back of Santana's thigh, squeezing her even closer. Santana rolls her hips forward, unable to help herself. Oh fuck. The feel of Quinn pinned beneath her, with lips so soft and wet and pliant against hers was just driving her crazy. Never mind the noises Quinn was making beneath her.

"Mmm...Santana, wait." Quinn's hands slide down from Santana's neck to press against her shoulders. The firm pressure snaps Santana out her lust filled haze. She was really fucking enjoying herself but if Quinn wasn't ready for things to continue, she knew how to stop.

"Everything okay?" she checks, pulling back and making sure she hadn't gotten too carried away.

"Yeah, fine." Quinn nods, though short of breath. "I just wasn't sure we should...if that's where we were headed. Not because I don't want to." she clarifies quickly. "I just, I would rather not have to worry about Anna and Brittany coming back here and finding us in a compromising position."

Santana shifts off of Quinn and settles down beside her. For once she was glad Quinn had the tendency to worry ahead. She really wouldn't have wanted their uh, time together to get interrupted either.

"You sure that's all?"

She only asks because she wanted a better idea on where Quinn stood on the matter. If they didn't have to worry about disruptions the next time they found themselves alone like this, would Quinn be willing to take things further?

The way Quinn worries her bottom lip clues Santana in right away that her reservations went beyond being walked in on. Not that it was upsetting or anything. She wanted Quinn to be upfront with her, especially when it came to sex. "Well, I know we just broke our curse and I'm all for celebrating that but maybe we could..." Quinn trails off and begins anxiously trying to find the right words.

"We could take it one milestone at a time?" Santana easily finishes for her.

Quinn flashes her a grateful, if not a little embarrassed, smile. "Yeah." she shyly nods.

"I totally get it." Santana understands. Having their curse broken by itself was a lot emotionally and physically. And taking their relationship to the next level on the heels of that would just be more on top of it. Besides now they weren't just Santana and Quinn, they were Red and Elsa too. And with being them came all their old baggage.

Quinn looks at her uncertainly. "You're not disappointed?"

Santana shakes her head. "When the time is right, it'll happen." She leans forward with a cheshire cat grin and kisses Quinn's cheek. "And it will be epic."

Quinn sighs out a relieved smile, her worry melting away. She steals a kiss of her own before Santana completely pulls away. "Love you." she breathes.

"Love you too."

Santana settles back against the pillows and watches Quinn get up and go over to her vanity. "I think Brittany left this behind for us while we were sleeping." Quinn says, and Santana's hit with a slight stomach pang when the blonde turns around with the storybook in hand. The book was a reminder of the reality she really didn't want to deal with quite yet.

Quinn returns to the bed and places the storybook on her lap. "I guess she thought we might want to look at it now that we're no longer cursed."

Santana doesn't say anything to that, just nods and wraps her arm around the blonde. Quinn begins flipping through the pages.

"Why'd you take it back?"

To Quinn the question probably seems out of the blue, but the longer Santana stared at the book, the more she couldn't help but wonder it.

"You told me you believed Brittany and in the curse but then you took it back." she explains, seeing Quinn's look of confusion. "That day we saw each other at the beach?"

"I was worried I was going to lose you." Quinn admits, after a moment.

"So you didn't mean it."

Quinn's gaze drops a little as she shakes her head. "No."

Santana had figured as much. Quinn going back on her word was unlike her and therefore all kinds of shady. The only reason Santana didn't call her out on it at the time was because she, like Quinn, didn't want things to continue to be all strained between them. She had just wanted them to move past it.

"Are you mad?"

"I can't say I wouldn't have done the same if the roles were reversed." Santana shrugs, meeting Quinn's tentative gaze. "Not that it really matters now. I mean, we both know the truth."

"Regardless lying to you is not something I'll make a habit of." Quinn says seriously.

"Then can I ask you something?" Santana's hesitant to bring this up at all but she feels like they should talk about it. "Are you mad about what happened with Cassie?"

Quinn's brow furrows at the question. "You know I'm not."

"I'm just saying it's okay if you are."

Santana, of course, would rather her not be but it'd be totally understandable if Quinn was.

Quinn stares at her unsurely. "Do you...want me to be?" she frowns.

"No. I dunno." Santana raises her shoulders, trying to find the words. "I guess I just expected you be upset and yell at me or something. What I did wasn't cool."

"You're right it wasn't." Quinn agrees. "But like I told you yesterday, it's not like you intentionally set out to hurt me. I know you wouldn't have gone back to Cassandra's apartment sober. And even if you did I doubt you would have confessed to it right after it happened, looking utterly sick with yourself like you did."

Santana concedes to a nod. She guessed it just didn't sit right with her, getting away with such a stupid stunt without any real consequences.

(Not that she wanted Quinn to break up with her or anything).

"But just because I didn't blow up at you for your behavior doesn't mean I condone it." Quinn feels the need to add, continuing before Santana can respond. "When you're emotional you close up and get impulsive and when you get impulsive you—"

"Do stupid shit." Santana finishes. She makes a face, wishing her behavior wasn't such an obvious pattern. "I know, it's something I need to work on. Something I'm going to work on."

Quinn turns her head and kisses her cheek. "I'm here to help."

"And you do." Santana returns the kiss, thinking of yesterday when Quinn had talked her down from going after Shelby. "Fortunately for me."

If Quinn hadn't been able to calm her down, who knows what kind of trouble they'd be in right now.

Santana shakes her head, not wanting to think about it, and reverts her attention to the storybook.

"It feels like I'm reading a long lost diary entry or something." Quinn comments when they reach her own story.

"Yeah," Santana nods, "except someone else wrote it."

It was so fucking weird seeing their lives written out in detail like this.

Where did this book even come from?

Quinn flips the page and Santana immediately smiles at the snow queen illustration. "Your majesty." she teases, making Quinn lightly roll her eyes. "So does this mean I should start calling you Elsa again?" she asks, half-seriously.

"Since we're the only ones free of the curse I think it would be wiser not to get in the habit of calling each other by our real names right now." Quinn replies.

"But would you want me to call you Elsa?"

Quinn hesitates for a moment. "I don't know to be honest." she murmurs, shrugging a little. "I mean I know technically we're the same person but I don't feel like her anymore. And yet at the same time I still do." A sentiment that didn't sound like it should make sense but did to Santana. Somehow she understood the feeling perfectly.

"What about you?" Quinn wonders. "Would you want me to call you Red?"

Santana's answer is automatic. "I like Santana. I mean, Red was always just a nickname." she explains, not wanting to sound dismissive of her former self. "And it's kind of a dumb name to go by, especially here in this world."

Quinn frowns, clearly not agreeing. "I don't think it's a dumb name."

Santana cocks her head in disbelief and throws the blonde a knowing look. "You have to say that, you're my girlfriend."

"It's a cute name." Quinn maintains, smiling and chuckling when Santana just scoffs at her.

"Cute was not what I was going for when I chose it, babe."

"And yet." Quinn grins. She leans forward and kisses the side of Santana's scowling mouth.

"Should've just called myself Diabla." Santana murmurs. "What?" She frowns at the disapproving look Quinn gives her. "It's a good name."

"That's a terrible name." When Santana opens mouth to protest that Quinn cuts her off with a shake of her head, firmly stating, "You are not a devil."

Santana smirks to herself. "I dunno, babe." She pulls Quinn in between her legs and begins kissing along the side of her neck. "I'm a little devilish."

"Maybe just a little horny." Quinn admits with a laugh, squirming when Santana's hands wander toward ticklish territory.

"Same thing." Santana grins. Her palms flatten against Quinn's sides as she presses a quick kiss to her hair.

Quinn just shakes her head and reverts her attention. She reopens the storybook which she'd accidentally slapped closed. "Speaking of devilish people." she murmurs, all traces of humor suddenly gone.

Santana peers over Quinn's shoulder to the illustration of the Evil Queen now in front of them.

"You think she still has power?" Santana questions.

"She's our mayor." Quinn merely responds.

"No, I meant like, magical power."

Quinn shakes her head unknowingly. They both stare at the illustration quietly in thought. It was hard for Santana to believe she'd ever doubted the validity of the curse. This image alone proved so much, it was so obviously Mayor Corcoran.

"Until we have a plan no one can know we broke our curse." Quinn says, finally breaking the silence. "Not that anyone would believe us, still. Shelby can't find out about this. God knows what she'd do if she did."

The words hang there for a moment. Santana agreed with Quinn but she really didn't want to dwell on all the shit they still had to figure out how to deal with. At least not today anyways.

Sighing, she leans down and rests her chin against Quinn's shoulder. "You know something?" Santana shifts her gaze as Quinn turns toward her curiously. "I remember the first time I ever laid eyes on you."

Quinn chuckles at the memory. "You were jealous I was giving more attention to the animals in the stable than I was you."

Santana's mouth drops open. She pulls back indignantly. "I was not."

"Was too." Quinn nods, laughing.

Santana rolls her eyes. Then slaps the storybook closed and takes it out of Quinn's lap, setting it aside. "Putting it away because you know the truth is in there?" Quinn teases, watching her every move.

"No, I just don't want it in my way when I tickle you."

"What—no!"

Quinn scrambles to get away but Santana's reflexes are all too fast for her. She has Quinn pinned beneath her and giggling and squirming in no time at all. She's thoroughly enjoying herself - that is until Quinn decides to flip things around. Or flip her around, she should say.

"What the—!" Santana yelps in surprise when she's forced onto her back and wiggling fingers attack her weak spots. She didn't have many of them but of the ones she had, holy hell.

Fortunately, and none to her surprise, Quinn doesn't torment her as long as Santana had tormented her. Before Santana knows it Quinn is sitting back on her haunches, sweeping the hair out of her face, and smiling down at her triumphantly. "Not so fun when you're on the receiving end now, is it?"

"Normally I'd jump on such a wanky remark but I'm too traumatized by your brutality to function." Santana informs her matter-of-factly.

Quinn just laughs at her. "Drama queen." she teases.

"Bitch I will sit on you."

Quinn tilts her head in mild amusement, her eyebrow quirking. "Is that supposed to be a threat?"

Santana growls lowly and promptly returns them to their original position, making Quinn squeak her surprise. "Stop being wanky, babe. That's my job."

"I'm being wanky?" Quinn repeats from beneath her. She laughs incredulously. "You're the one who keeps straddling me."

Santana rolls her eyes, even if it is true. "Get your head out of the gutter, snowflake." She shifts down Quinn's body so she can rest her head comfortably against the blonde's stomach. She closes her eyes once she's settled. "And stroke my hair to make up for assaulting me."

Quinn lightly scoffs at the request. "Do you want a belly rub after, too? Or just a milk bone?"

Santana hmphs but doesn't bother opening her eyes to throw Quinn an added look. "If you're gonna be sassy at least massage my scalp while you're at it."

"You know you act more like a queen than I ever did."

Santana closes her eyes, enjoying the feel of Quinn's fingers in her hair. "What can I say? I was meant for the high life."

Quinn just laughs.

Santana smiles along with her. Fuck she enjoyed that sound.

Quinn leans over Santana and drops a small snowflake kiss to her lips.

Santana hums contently.

Now that she really enjoyed.

"My brain always felt like a discombobulated mess every time you so much as looked at me." Quinn confesses to Santana, later, when they've returned to the subject of their past life selves.

They're still talking on Quinn's bed, neither of them with any real desire to get up and do anything else.

Santana grins at her. Now she was laying down by Quinn's feet, her head propped up by her arm. "Is that why you kept yourself holed up in your office so much when I first got to Arendelle?"

Quinn's face goes flush. "That and I had a lot of work to attend to!" she says in her defense.

"Sure." Santana humors.

Quinn narrows her eyes. "I had an entire kingdom to run!" At Santana's eye roll, Quin lifts her head off her pillows and reaches over to smack Santana's thigh. "Jerk."

"Yeah, yeah." Santana waves her off dismissively. Quinn settles back down and holds one of her pillows against her chest. "So you've told me— now what was it about me that had you so lovesick?" Santana wants to know. "Besides, you know, my obvious awesome."

Quinn shakes her head at Santana's smug expression but chooses to humor her anyways. "Well for one your breathtaking beauty."

"Bet I looked pretty damn exotic to you and your kingdom of white bread folk."

Quinn laughs in spite of herself. "Your confidence was also particularly charming." she continues. "You just said whatever you liked and didn't care about people's opinions about you. I really admired that."

"As you should." Santana nods. She gestures her hand, beckoning Quinn. "Keep 'em coming, por favor."

Quinn rolls her eyes but does as she asks just the same. "But I think what really did it for me was the fact that you just walked into my life and treated me like I was normal."

"Cause you were normal." Santana responds, furrowing her brow. She raises her shoulders against Quinn's disagreeing scoff. "So you sometimes froze shit and made it hella cold. Big deal. At least you didn't fluff out at night like I did."

Quinn chuckles at her phrasing. "That sounds like something Anna would say."

"It is something your sister would say." Santana smiles, pushing herself upright. She crawls up the bed and lies down next to the blonde. Quinn shifts onto her side so that they were nose to nose. Her eyes have an affectionate glint to them.

"Thank you."

Santana frowns at first, not sure what she was being thanked for, before smiling in confusion and responding with, "You're...welcome?"

"Thank you for loving Elsa the way you did." Quinn clarifies.

"Most natural thing I've ever done." Santana says honestly, making Quinn lower her gaze. Her smile turns bashful. After a moment Quinn peeks up at Santana, her nose scrunching in realization. "We're getting really sappy, aren't we?"

"Yeah, we totally are." Santana agrees, making a face of her own. She hadn't realized it until now. "We should like, aggressively mack on each other to get our dignity back."

Quinn laughs. "Well, when you put it so logically..."

Santana's grins widens as Quinn allows her teasing words to trail off. She wastes no time in wrapping Quinn up in her arms and rolling them over.

She had every intention of making the most of their alone time while they still had it.

—

Cassie is stretching herself out in the middle of the dance floor, legs spread wide and arms extended forward.

She doesn't have any classes today so right now was her designated 'Cassie time'. Or it was supposed to be anyways. With Shelby here, pacing in front of her the way she was, things weren't really going as she would've liked. Cassie forces herself to exhale calmly. So much for making progress with the new choreography she's been working on.

"I told you to break them up."

God.

Cassie doesn't care what people say — friendships are so fucking overrated.

She resists the urge to roll her eyes. "You said and I quote to 'run interference'." she corrects, lifting her gaze. "And then some other vague nonsense I can't remember."

Shelby stops and turns on her heel to face her. "I asked you to do one simple little thing."

That time Cassie can't stop the eye roll. Shelby looked and sounded like such a mom right now. "Look," Cassie slowly straightens up. "I brought Santana back to my place, didn't I? It's not my fault she passed out before anything worthwhile could happen."

Which was a shame. If Santana fucked as well as she kissed, Cassie would've been in for a treat.

"It is your fault if you were the one buying her drinks." Shelby disagrees.

Cassie narrows her eyes and scoffs. Seriously? "How the fuck was I supposed to know her alcohol limit?"

Shelby just shakes her head.

"You should have planned things better."

"Yeah next time I'll be sure to remember to tap into my psychic powers before leaving the house." Cassie dryly retorts. "And to my credit I had a plan B." she then glares.

She'd planned to follow up the text she'd sent to Santana the morning after their night together and make it seem like there was more to their relationship than there actually was — she'd figured the girlfriend would eventually find out (like they always do) and things would fall apart from there.

But that plan went right out the window when said girlfriend came and confronted her yesterday, more pissed off that Santana had been 'taken advantage of' than she was concerned with being cheated on.

Which Cassie didn't understand at all, but whatever. Teenagers.

She rises to her feet.

"They're more serious than you thought." she says, walking over to the piano to get her water bottle.

"Yes." Shelby reluctantly admits.

While Cassie hydrates, Shelby goes on to say, "At the very least, you managed to get Quinn arrested. That was a welcomed surprise."

"Yeah." Her lips quirk. She'd definitely gotten a kick out of watching that girl get carted off in the back of a police cruiser.

"So why aren't you pressing charges?"

Cassie raises her brow. "Because nothing happened." she easily replies, leading Shelby to stare at her incredulously.

"She assaulted you, Cassandra."

"The kid slapped me." she corrects, after a dismissive eye roll. It was a hard slap, sure, but just a slap nonetheless. And, okay, yeah there might've been a small scuffle but it was hardly reason enough to get the law involved. Besides, if anything she'd been the provoker.

(Could she help it if that baby blonde was so easy to fire up? And fuck, it was so much fun.)

"A slap can still be easily classified as assault."

"Okay." Cassie heaves a sigh and sets her water bottle down. She fixes Shelby with an expectant but slightly exasperated look. "Cards on the table, Shelb. What exactly is going on? Did these girls actually do something to you or are you just so bored with life you've literally got nothing better to do than single out high school girls and meddle with their lives?"

Shelby's gaze hardens at the insinuation. "They know potentially damaging information about me." she informs, to Cassie's surprise. "And I'm just trying to see to it that they keep their mouths shut. I had figured if they were more preoccupied with their trivial relationship problems, the more likely that would happen. But now that my plan didn't work out, thanks to you—"

"Again," Cassie interjects glaringly, "Not my fault."

Shelby just shakes her head, muttering something that sounded like, "You used to be more competent."

Cassie narrows her eyes. She didn't know what the hell that was supposed to mean but one thing at a time here.

"What exactly do they know about you?" she asks, her curiosity winning out for the time being.

"I'd rather not say."

Of course. Shelby never let slip any information she didn't want known.

(So how a couple of high school girls managed to get dirt on her was beyond Cassie).

"I don't see what you're so riled up about." she veers instead. "You're the mayor. A respected figure of this godforsaken town—no offense." she adds, catching Shelby's frowned look and briefly rolling her eyes. "Even if they do decide to run their pretty little mouths it'll be your word against theirs."

Shelby doesn't say anything to that so Cassie sighs and continues, figuring she needed the reassurance. "Corcoran, you are a master manipulator." (Whether she owned up it or not). "A politician. Which means you can destroy their reputation a lot easier than they can destroy yours. So relax, would you?"

"Even those who are revered can have their image tarnished under the right circumstances."

Cassie internally rolls her eyes. She knows she won't get clarification on that remark even if she asked. So she doesn't bother trying. "Well, if it comes down to it just say they're crazy." she simply says. "Despite what you think, people will believe what you tell them."

"It's one thing to say it, it's another thing to say it with proof."

Cassie quirks her brow at Shelby's words before her eyes narrow in realization. "Is that why you've got some kid following them around?"

Shelby just looks at her, neither confirming or denying it.

But Cassie already knows. She scoffs a laugh. "Next time you might want to pick someone a little less conspicuous looking than a white kid with an afro."

She's seen this weirdo kid with a camera lurking around the community center for like, the past week. She'd originally thought it was Rachel he was tailing but now she realized it'd been Santana he had his camera focused on all along.

"As unfortunate as young Jacob's appearance is, he gets results."

Cassie shakes her head at Shelby's wry smile. "So what next? You gonna blackmail them with whatever dirt you find, if you can?"

"No." Shelby shakes her head. "Jacob is just my way of keeping an eye on them."

"So...then what?" Cassie asks skeptically.

"I should get going." Shelby diverts instead, prompting Cassie to uncross her arms in exasperation.

"If you're gonna drag me into your schemes again, Corcoran, the least you could do is give me a little insight."

Shelby stops and looks over her shoulder, her brow raised. "Who said I was dragging you into my so-called schemes again?"

"So you're not?"

Huh.

Is it weird she felt left out?

Shelby turns back around, explaining, "After the other night Quinn and Santana will be on their guard when it comes to you. I doubt Santana will even choose to stay in your class."

"So how else are you going to break them up?" Cassie wonders, in spite of herself.

"I'm not going to break them up." Shelby says, gathering her things. "A second attempt would likely raise their suspicions. Besides, I've decided the best course of action is to focus my attention elsewhere. Quinn and Santana are not the only ones I have to look out for." she adds, at Cassie's questioning glance.

"Someone else?"

Shelby nods and Cassie decides to walk her out.

"Yeah, well, you know what they say, trouble comes in threes."

—

So Santana and Quinn broke their curse.

Brittany definitely hadn't expected that to happen.

(Well, the way it did anyways— so unexpectedly and in the sheriff's station, of all places).

That's not to say she wasn't happy about it, she definitely was. She was thrilled. She'd totally be dancing around, celebrating the fact right now if it wasn't for all the unanswered questions she had still weighing her down. A kiss of true love may have worked for Quinn and Santana but how on earth were they supposed to break the curse over the entire town?

She couldn't just go around and play cupid for everybody in Storybrooke because, first of all, she'd have to know who they had been back in the Forest and then she'd have to figure out who belonged with who. (And that was assuming everyone had a true love to begin with!) Now normally Brittany enjoyed a challenge —at least one that didn't involve math — but the thought of going through all that was just too much for her brain.

There had to be another way.

Using Dani's borrowed skates, Brittany continues around the curve of the derby rink. She sighs heavily.

If only falling for a person was easy.

— she thinks before literally doing just that.

"Oi!"

Brittany trips over the pair of outstretched legs she'd been careful to skate around up until now and slams into the ground, knees first.

She groans lowly. Even with the pads on it felt like her bones just shattered.

Ow.

"Hey, you alright?"

Brittany feels herself being quickly helped up. She struggles with her balance, jarred by the pain shooting through her, but eventually finds her footing. Even while still on wheels. She turns her head to thank the person keeping her steady.

...only to completely forget what she was going to say.

Brittany blinks in surprise, not expecting to stare into such pretty eyes.

As the almighty Britney Spears would say, hit me baby one more time.

"Excuse me?"

Crap. She'd said that out loud. "What?" Brittany blinks quickly. "Nothing."

The redhead in front of her narrows her eyes, unconvinced, but cracks a smile in spite of it. "Okay, groupie." she teases.

Brittany lightly scoffs. "Hey, I am not a groupie." Sure she liked to come here whenever she needed a time-out from the frustrating Quinntana antics but that totally didn't make her a groupie.

"Are you not the one who comes and sits on the bleachers, drawing us in yer sketchbook?" the girl questions, raising her brow. "Or am I thinkin' of another blonde who wears leg warmers on her arms like you do?"

Brittany tries not to smile too dorkily at her cute accent. She's seen this girl around but never talked to her before. From what she's seen/heard though, she's been able to figure out at least three things about the girl: she was loud, unruly, and Scottish.

"How do you know I'm drawing you guys?" Brittany questions right back, after her mind excitedly processes that this girl already knows of her existence. "I could be drawing unicorns for all you know."

"Are you?"

"Sometimes." Brittany nods. "I mean, I like unicorns."

The girl doesn't look like she knows what to make of her, like most people Brittany first meets, but she can tell by the girl's smile that she isn't turned off by it. "So you've been watching me, huh." she lightly teases. "That's kind of creepy."

"No less creepy than drawing people without their permission." the girl retorts with her own grin.

Brittany raises her chin, informing, "I'll have you know I haven't drawn you once."

The girl crosses her arms. "And why not?" she smiles in amusement.

Brittany raises her shoulders, smiling back coyly. "Maybe because when I draw you I want it to be up close and personal."

Damn that was smooth.

The girl shakes her head at her, chuckling. "What's your name, lass?"

"Brittany S. Pierce." She holds out her hand. "But you can call me Brittany."

"Mackenzie Ferguson." She gives Brittany's hand a firm shake. Then furrows her brow slightly. "Are you...interested in joining our team?" she wonders.

Brittany crinkles her nose at the idea and politely shakes her head. "I'm not one for hurting people." Or getting hurt. "I'm a lover not a fighter." she informs.

Mackenzie smiles and unclasps her helmet. Bright red curls spring free, and Brittany means literally spring—she swears she heard the "boing!" sound to go along with it.

It's totally awesome.

Mackenzie pushes her hair out of her face and catches Brittany's smile. "You laughin' at my hair?"

"What? No way." Brittany shakes her head. Her eyes fall back to Mackenzie's hair. "It's like its got a life of its own." It takes all her willpower not to reach out and touch it.

"Hey!"

Brittany snaps out of her daze and turns her head.

Dani's skating toward them with Anna trailing precariously behind her. The sight of Anna with her arms extended in front of herself as she eased herself along reminded Brittany of Santana when she first learned how to ice skate. (Well, when Santana first attempted to learn anyways. She never did get the hang of it).

The former blonde, now blue-haired, girl rolls to a stop right in front of them. "Kenzie, what have I told you about knocking down civilians? They can sue you know."

Brittany raises her brow. "We can?"

"What? Course not." Dani says quickly, sporting an unconvincing smile. Brittany just grins.

"I didn't knock her down." Mackenzie protests, and Dani shakes her head at her. "She tripped over me."

"Well what do you expect when you're laying down in the middle of the track?" Dani exclaims with a laugh.

"The girl's were supposed ta jump over me!" Mackenzie explains, gesturing to the side. "It was an exercise in jumpin'!"

"It's really not her fault." Brittany interjects, shaking her head at Dani. "I wasn't paying attention and I kinda forgot about her being on the floor."

"Don't worry, Britt," Dani assures with a smile. "She's not in trouble."

"Like I ever could be." Mackenzie scoffs, crossing her arms.

Dani lightly rolls eyes at her. "Just go round up the rest of the team, please? It's time to actually practice." She turns her head and scoffs in exasperation. "And tell that guy with the camera to get outta here!" Brittany follows her pointed finger to the corner of the warehouse and frowns— Jacob Ben Israel? What's he doing here?

Mackenzie gives her teammate a mock salute. "Aye, Aye, Captain." She turns back to Brittany and nods smilingly. "See you around, groupie."

Sigh. Brittany really likes her accent.

(Even if it does make her kind of hard to understand).

"I swear." Dani huffs, still shaking her head. "Is this town's internet down or something? Talk about your old school method of perving out."

Brittany just smiles, watching over Dani's shoulder as Mackenzie chases Jacob out, shouting and swearing all the way.

"Help!" Brittany turns her head and reacts instantly, helping Anna to stop herself before the younger girl accidentally took her out. "So how'd the lesson go?"

"Skates are so not my thing." Anna confesses, struggling to stand upright on skates. Her grip on Brittany's forearms tightens almost painfully.

"I have a feeling Quinn will be relieved to hear that." Brittany smiles.

"Okay, I gotta take these off." Anna decides suddenly. "Before I have the chance to fall on my butt again. It's bruised enough as is." She looks back at Dani gratefully. "Thanks for letting me try them out anyways, Dani."

"No problemo, kid." Dani chuckles. "It's not for everyone."

Brittany offers to help Anna to the bleachers but the redhead waves her off, some of that Fabray stubbornness shining through. "No, no, I can do it. I think."

Brittany chooses to believe that and lets her go.

"So what's going on with you chica?" Dani asks, giving her full attention to Brittany now that it was just the two of them.

"Nothing much."

Dani quirks her brow. "When you got here you looked like you had a lot on your mind...Santana and her girl still having issues?" she guesses.

Brittany smiles and shakes her head. "No they're good."

Hopefully for good.

Dani grins, happy to hear that. "Took 'em long enough." she laughs.

"Tell me about it." Brittany sighs.

"So what's up?" Dani questions lightly. "If you don't mind my asking."

"It's complicated."

Brittany makes a face at her own choice of words. She always hated when people pulled that line on her.

But Dani doesn't seem to mind it, she just gives her an encouraging smile. It's enough to make her relent, just a little anyways. "I just have this impossible problem I need to figure out how to solve."

Dani nods understandingly. "Sometimes you can't solve a problem by yourself." she mentions. "Or at the least it's much harder to. Have you tried getting Santana's or Quinn's take on things?"

Brittany sighs heavily. "It's their problem too."

"Oh." Dani blinks. "Well. Then. As uncool as it might sound, sometimes talking to an adult, and I mean like a real one — one that doesn't still wake up at noon and eat poptarts for breakfast like I do— can really be helpful."

An adult. It sounded like a simple enough solution. Except for the fact that they couldn't go to any adult with this. And even if they could, who? Her parents would probably take this as a sure enough sign to finally send her to a shrink, Santana's grandmother wasn't talking to her, and Quinn's parents weren't alive. She guessed there was always Mr. Schue but she couldn't imagine him being very helpful. This wasn't exactly something that could be solved with a song.

"I'll definitely consider it." Brittany nods, despite knowing how limited her options were.

Dani, ever the smarty pants, seems to get that whatever Brittany was dealing with wasn't something she was comfortable sharing so she doesn't push any questions and shifts gears. "So you gonna hang around? We actually do have to practice but you're welcome to stay and like, join us when we go for grub after."

Brittany glances back to see how Anna was doing before answering. She was happily back in her sneakers and was now chatting animatedly with a few of the other girls.

"Yeah, I guess we could stay."

Anna didn't look like she was ready to leave anyways.

And, as many things as she still had on her mind, neither was Brittany to be honest. Besides, knowing Santana and Quinn, they're back home enjoying their Sunday, totally not worrying about the curse. So why shouldn't she do the same?

When Brittany turns back around she's surprised to find Dani with a smirk on her face.

"What?"

"Oh nothing." But Dani's grin says otherwise. "Just my suspicions being confirmed." Dani nods her head and Brittany follows the girl's gaze over her shoulder.

Mackenzie's looking their way, chomping on a green apple. When their staring registers, she nearly chokes as she sharply turns away.

"She likes you." Dani confirms gleefully.

Brittany bites her lip, fighting back a happy smile. "Enough to give me her number?"

"Maybe. If you play your cards right." Dani grins, looping their arms and skating them toward Anna. "Bribing her with food always works too."

"Does she like cats?" Brittany wonders instantly. She doesn't have many dating deal breakers but that would be one (for the obvious reasons).

Dani opens her mouth to respond but closes it at the last second, shaking her head and stifling a laugh.

Brittany shakes her head, smiling incredulously. She doesn't need to know what Dani had wanted to say to know it'd been dirty.

"Honestly, Dani, you're worse than Santana!"

—

It's a day of many firsts.

Her first day back at school.

Her and Santana's first day out as a couple.

Anna's first day of school, well, ever.

The hallways were abuzz with more chatter than usual but initially Quinn was in too much of a daze to really think anything of it. She was just so happy and relieved to have her memories back, to know for certain she wasn't just losing her mind, and to have Santana by her side again.

It isn't until she's left to walk the hallways on her own, however, that her feelings begin to dampen. Without Santana, or Brittany or Anna, to distract her, Quinn suddenly becomes very aware of all the stares and whispers she'd been blissfully unconcerned about earlier.

Her walking into school hand in hand with Santana had obviously not gone unnoticed. And though Quinn didn't care about what anyone thought of their relationship, she would admit the attention it brought was beginning to make her slightly self-conscious.

(She's pretty sure the last time she'd had so many pairs of eyes on her like this had been her coronation).

Quinn shakes her head of the unpleasant memory, knowing better than to dwell on it, and proceeds blindly around the corner.

She doesn't see the other student coming at her until it's too late. They collide. Belongings are knocked to the ground and mortification quickly washes over her.

She kneels down, murmuring her apologies, and hastily grabs the loose papers that now littered the ground around her.

Still as graceful as ever, Elsa, she thinks to herself sarcastically.

Quinn neatly stacks the papers together. She lifts her head to return them to their rightful owner but is caught by surprise at who she'd run into.

Kristoff.

(She would know those brown eyes and red cheeks anywhere).

Kristoff —or whomever his cursed identity was — notices her staring and flushes even deeper. He takes his homework out of her hand, then awkwardly gets to his feet. Quinn stands up as well and once she's upright, he hands her books back to her. "Sorry." Kristoff mumbles, apparently no less bashful in her presence in this world than he'd been back in Arendelle.

Quinn feels like she should say something but her mouth could do little more than say 'thank you' before the young ice harvester shuffled away from her.

Quinn watches him go until he disappears into the crowd of students. She stands there for a moment, a little dazed she'd just run into her sister's (former, technically?) boyfriend.

It leaves her wondering how many, if any, other students here originated from Arendelle.

Looking around, Quinn realizes with some guilt that even if they were, she probably wouldn't recognize them anyways. She'd spent most of her life holed up in her family's castle and even after the Thaw she hadn't ventured outside the castle gates as much as she wished she had. And those few encounters she did have with her people, she'd always been so chock full of anxiety, it made it hard to focus, let alone commit their faces to memory.

Quinn grimaces to herself. What a great queen she'd been.

(Selfishly she was glad no one else was able to remember this).

Shaking her head, Quinn forces these thoughts out of her mind. She had to get to class. She continues on her way but ends up pausing when she catches sight of another familiar face at the end of the hallway. Kurt is at his locker, readjusting his already perfectly coiffed hair in his mirror, when they make eye contact. He smiles at her and she returns the gesture. He beckons her with his head, encouraging her to take the interaction a step further. She makes her way over to him.

Along with Mercedes, Kurt was one of her good friends. Or she liked to think so anyways. Initially most of their interactions happened in the classes they shared outside of glee but now it was pretty much even between. They've hung out outside of school on occasion, though not so much lately now that she's had Anna to watch over, but when they did get together it was always a nice distraction from whatever troubles she was having with Santana. (That's not to say she was only using him to escape her relationship issues). She genuinely liked his company. She could always count on him for a good long book discussion — you know, the normal kind that didn't have to do with fairy tales, curses, or their former lives.

Kurt closes his locker before she gets to him and she turns on her heel, appropriately changing direction so they could walk together.

"So it seems you're the talk of the school today, Miss Fabray." he informs, sidling up beside her and linking their arms.

"You mean Santana and I are." she corrects. She had figured since she'd skipped the morning glee meeting to help Anna get her schedule situated, Kurt was bound to track her down for the details sooner or later. "I guess to the rest of the school our getting together was a surprise?"

"I actually wasn't referring to your and Santana's coming out." Kurt smiles. "But your Roxie Hart-esque jail stint."

Quinn flushes a little, not realizing her little altercation with Cassandra July was also public knowledge. She shouldn't be surprised, she knows, small town and all, but she can't help it.

Sighing to herself, she explains, "More often than not Santana's impulsiveness bites her in the ass. The other day some of that rash behavior rubbed off on me and well..." she trails off embarrassedly.

"Bit you in the ass." Kurt finishes for her.

Quinn ignores his wry smile. "Unfortunately."

Kurt narrows his eyes at her curiously. "Did you really hit a teacher? Or is that just something the rumor mill spit out?"

Quinn can't help her snort. "I wouldn't call Cassandra July a 'teacher'."

"That's not a denial!"

Quinn rolls her eyes. "It was completely warranted." she huffs out crossly. "I mean, she got Santana drunk and took her back to her apartment!"

Kurt looks back at her, obviously caught off-guard by that information. His smile drops in concern and his voice lowers. "She didn't..."

Quinn shakes her head, her stomach clenching at the very idea. "No thank god. I confronted her after Santana told me what happened and she was just so smug and nonchalant about it." Her jaw tenses just thinking back on it. "Like intoxicating and letting her underage student sleep over is no big deal." She exhales hotly. "She just made me mad and I lashed out."

"I would've paid top dollar to see that for myself." Kurt sighs longingly.

Scowling, Quinn and turns pinches his arm reproachfully.

"Just being honest." he laughs, shrugging away. "Seems Santana is rubbing off on you. Who knew Quinn Fabray had so much fire under that cool exterior." he teases.

Quinn just laughs him off. "Speaking of Santana," he says in a more tentative tone. "How's she dealing with...being out? I was tempted to ask her myself during glee this morning but..."

"But your self-preservation instincts told you not to." she finishes, glancing back at him knowingly.

Kurt grimaces apologetically.

"It's okay." she assures, shaking her head at Kurt's expression. "Santana hates when people show concern for her. It makes her uncomfortable."

Kurt nods in understanding. "She did look about ready to punch people out in glee. So I assume this means Santana's grandmother finally knows everything?" he questions carefully.

Quinn's smile fades, her gaze dipping briefly. "Uh, yeah. She does."

"She didn't take it well." Kurt states, able to read the fact right off her face.

"No, unfortunately." Quinn sighs. "Santana's living with Brittany now. She says she doesn't care." She and Kurt share a knowing look, "But I know she's hurting. I'm trying to be there for her as best I can but —"

Her words cut off when Dave Karofsky comes their way and unceremoniously shoves through their linked arms, making them break apart. Kurt sharply turns his head, watching as Karofsky proceeded on his way without a second glance. "Excuse you, neanderthal. Watch where you're going."

Karofsky stops and turns around. "What'd you call me?"

"Kurt," Quinn warns, grabbing his arm.

Karofsky looks between them both and shakes his head derisively. His gaze settles on Quinn. "Hanging around all those faggy boys in Homo Explosion, no wonder you've turned to girls, Fabray. They're the only ones with any testosterone in that choir room. A shame though it wasn't Berry or one of those ugly glee hags. You're actually hot."

"Straight or not you are the last person on earth she would ever go out with." Kurt retorts before Quinn can.

"So leave us alone." she adds, wanting this little moment to end before Karofsky undoubtedly got violent.

"Or what?" Karofsky challenges. "You gonna sic your carpet munching girlfriend on me?"

Quinn feels her back stiffen. It was one thing to insult her but it was a whole other thing to insult Santana, especially in front of her.

Quinn opens her mouth, ready to put him in his place with some very not nice words but at the last second decides to hold her tongue of them. She wouldn't let Karofsky of all people get the better of her.

"Get to class, Karofsky." she orders coldly instead. "I'm sure you have enough tardies on your record as is. Another one to your record and you'll be the only one left repeating senior year."

That comment must have some truth to it because Karofsky reluctantly backs down.

"Whatever. I'll see you later, Fabgay." he sneers.

"Stay up all night thinking that one up, did you David?" Kurt remarks, interjecting again. "Because let me tell you that one was just downright clever."

Karofsky shoves Kurt back into the lockers just for that comment and Quinn winces from the reverberating sound. She immediately helps Kurt to straighten up.

"At least he didn't have a slushie on him." Kurt offers, mustering a small, if not pained, smile.

Karofsky didn't have a slushie on him but Azimio Adams and his jock buddies did. Quinn learns this for herself, five minutes later, when they catch her off guard three steps from her classroom.

Her first slushie facial.

As it turned out, the other glee kids had not been exaggerating how awful, or painful, they were to receive.

Trying to blink the corn syrup out of her eyes, Quinn makes her way to the nearest bathroom. She's just glad she had parted ways with Kurt when she did otherwise he would have gotten slushied too.

The bathroom is completely empty, thankfully. Quinn walks up to one of the mirrors and grimaces at her reflection. She looked about as good as she felt. Her clothes were beyond saving and her hair—seeing the state of her hair, Quinn quickly gets to work on it, not trusting that the red food dye wouldn't stain it pink.

In hindsight she should've just gone to the girl's locker room to clean up, as it probably would have been easier to use the showers. But, then again, if she had tried to make the trek all the way to the gym she might have ended up with a head of permanent pink hair.

Like Frenchie from Grease.

Quinn's busy ringing out her hair in the sink when the bathroom door opens. Or is kicked open, she should say. Quinn jumps in surprise, the booming sound nearly giving her a heart attack.

"Santana?"

Santana walks in and stops short, obviously not expecting to find her here. Just as Quinn registers the unmistakable slushie stains on her girlfriend's clothes, Santana's shoulders drop in disbelief, her eyes roving over her body in the same way. "They got you too?"

Quinn nods. "Yeah, they got me while I was going to class."

Santana swears under her breath and shakes her head. She walks over and drops her bag on the floor haphazardly. "You should've told me." She lifts up the folded bundle of clothes in her hand, reminding Quinn of the obvious lack of spare clothes she herself had with her. "I just got some clothes from Brittany's locker. Here." Santana sets down Brittany's black p.e. t-shirt on the edge of sink next to the one Quinn was using.

"Thank you." Quinn continues squeezing the water out of her hair. Santana, unsurprisingly, doesn't bother with a stall to change out of her dirty clothes. She just starts stripping.

Quinn forces herself not to watch her girlfriend undress in the mirror.

"Who slushied you?" she asks, if only to distract herself.

"Karofsky's goons, who else? If he think I'm just gonna take this lying down, he's got another thing comin' to him. I'm gonna start carrying my crowbar around in my backpack."

Quinn smiles slightly. "Since when do you have a crowbar?"

She steals a furrowed glance at Santana through the mirror. The Latina was now wearing Brittany's paint splattered denim overalls with only her sports bra underneath, since she'd given Quinn the shirt she was going to use.

Quinn swallows hard against her mouth's sudden dryness. "You should just take Brittany's shirt for yourself." she says, lightly shaking her head to get brain function to return to her. Santana in any state of undress never failed to short circuit her. "I'll just grab my p.e. shirt from my gym locker."

"Nah, I'm good."

Quinn sighs at her. "The first teacher that sees you walking around without a shirt on under those overalls is going to write you up for violating the dress code, Santana." she points out, watching Santana roll up the too long pant legs and once again forcing herself not to stare at the view of cleavage being displayed. "And you're still working off detentions for fighting with Karofsky if I may remind."

Santana straightens up, clearly resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "Babe your shirt is soaked through. I'm not about to have you walking around in that mess. Just take Britt's shirt. I'll grab mine from my gym locker, okay?"

Quinn would rather Santana not miss class but she knows Santana wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. Sighing, she picks up the clean t-shirt and walks over to the nearest bathroom stall to change into it.

She doesn't expect Santana to follow her.

But there Santana is, pushing her way in before Quinn can comprehend it, nearly making her fall back into the toilet. "Whoops." Santana's fast reflexes easily catch and steady her. "My bad, snowflake."

Santana locks the door behind them. Quinn's heart begins to race, but not from the usual anxiety of being in confined spaces kind of way. "What are you doing?"

"Just lending a helping hand." Santana replies innocently, despite her smile being anything but, her fingers suddenly playing with the hem of Quinn's blouse. "I'm a good girlfriend like that."

Quinn feels her face grow hot, knowing well where that mischievous glint in her eyes usually leads to. Quinn bites her lip and immediately tries not to think about the warm rush of excitement suddenly flooding through her veins. "If we get caught," she breathes.

"We won't." Santana assures, her fingers now working Quinn's blouse open one agonizing button at a time.

Quinn wets her lips, needing to distract herself before she inadvertently made herself pass out. "You look good in overalls."

Santana stops shy of her last three buttons and Quinn nearly whines in protest. She's helpless to watch as Santana's gaze drops down to her own outfit. Damn it, why didn't she just keep her mouth shut?

"You know," Santana lifts her head and unhooks her overall straps. She pushes them back over her shoulders and lets the front flap fall to her hips, essentially showing off her delectable, nearly naked torso. "I think I look better like this, don't you think?"

If Quinn wasn't so transfixed by the expanse of her taut stomach she would have gladly kissed that smirk right off Santana's face.

"You are such a jerk." she mumbles. Santana totally knows the effect her teasing has on her and she's just exploiting it right now.

Santana's hand goes to her chest. "I'm hurt, babe."

Quinn just rolls her eyes.

With a sudden wolfish grin - there was no other way to describe it - Santana steps forward and pins her back against the stall with her hips. At the same time her fingers give a swift tug at the fabric of her blouse, making her last remaining buttons pop out.

"That shirt was ruined anyways." Santana explains before Quinn can attempt to cover up her insane arousal with indignation. The Latina continues to push her top down her arms until it falls to the floor on its own.

As Santana kisses her, all Quinn can think is that she would gladly start paying the bullies herself to give her slushie facials if it meant Santana ripping open her top like that again.

—

They're on their way to Arendelle, sailing on the ship Arthur was kind enough to lend them. It's well into the night and cold and Rapunzel's still on the deck.

She's laying on some cargo, wrapped up in Red's cloak, and staring up at the sky. Everything was quiet and still, like the calm before a storm. But right now Rapunzel was adamantly trying not to think about the storm part.

As optimistic as she generally was, the recent events with the Evil Queen had her uneasy. And as much she as hated to admit it, the feeling kind of made her long for days of her tower. Life was easier then. Carefree. She never had to worry about losing people there.

Rapunzel sighs up at the sky, hoping for a shooting star to pass, so she could make a wish on it.

"Beautiful night." comes a soft voice, startling Rapunzel out of her thoughts. She turns her head and smiles when she sees Shang standing there.

"Mind some company?" he questions, tentatively stepping forward.

Rapunzel scoots over, shaking her head. "Not at all."

Shang settles down next to her. "What are you doing up here alone?"

"Just taking in the stars." Rapunzel replies, her gaze drifting back up to the sky. She looks for a moment before pointing and glancing back at Shang. "That one's the little dipper, see?"

Shang follows her finger but she can tell by his furrowed brow he can't make it out. It makes her smile. Red could never tell either. She'd just nod along and take her word for it. Elsa was a little better at it, but still it took her a while to distinguish one mass of stars from another. "I guess I can see things others can't."

"You like astronomy?" Shang guesses, returning his attention to her.

Rapunzel nods enthusiastically. "I've been charting starts for as long as I can remember." She'd even made up her own names for all the constellations. It wasn't until she left her tower and got her hands on actual astronomy books that she learned their proper names and origins.

"That's impressive." Shang smiles.

Rapunzel returns her gaze to the stars and can't help but point out another constellation. "That one's the Corona Borealis."

"Like your kingdom, Corona?"

Rapunzel smiles faintly. "If you ask anyone from Corona about the name they'll say they're one in the same. The shape is supposed to be a crown. A crown for Corona's Lost Princess. When she, uh, went missing, the king and queen threw the crown up to the heavens to help guide her back home. But really the crown is linked to Greek mythology. Something to do with Dionysus. But personally I think it looks more like a smiling mouth than a crown."

Shang squints his eyes, trying hard to make out the shape but fails miserably. Rapunzel can't help but laugh. Shang laughs too. "Unfortunately the only star I know, and can see, is the North Star." he says, pointing out the most easily identifiable star in the sky.

"No judgement." Rapunzel assures, still grinning.

Shang looks back at her and for first time notices Pascal sitting on her shoulders, hiding behind her neck. "What about him?" Shang inquires gently. "Does he know all the constellations too?"

"Oh yeah. He's a regular Galileo." Rapunzel nods, casting a glance down at her friend. "But he's way better at math, that's why I named him Pascal."

Shang tentatively reaches out to pet Pascal, but her chameleon friend retreats into the safety of her hair, changing colors to blend in. "He's a shy one." Shang comments.

"He senses something in the air." Rapunzel sighs. "Something bad."

"It's quiet." Shang agrees. "Maybe even too quiet for this hour."

"Do you believe that a curse is coming?" she asks suddenly.

"Merlin is peculiar but if it's what she's seen..." Shang trails off for a moment. "She's usually right about the types of things. Of course the future is always changing." he quickly adds after noticing Rapunzel's disheartened look.

Rapunzel sighs. Shang's answer was the one she expected, but wasn't the one she wanted to hear.

"What do you think it will do?" she asks quietly, staring out at the water.

"When people are cursed their free will is taken away." Shang responds. "Sometimes that entails being physically transformed, being forced to do horrible things, or being kept from the people you love."

Rapunzel fiddles with her hair, unwittingly reminded of Mother Gothel, the woman who basically cursed her to a life of solitary confinement. Rapunzel shakes her head and quickly pushes down those memories. Sometimes she really wished she didn't have them.

Rapunzel exhales deeply. "Whatever the Evil Queen has planned, we need to stop her." she says resolutely. "She's gotten away with enough awfulness as it is."

"That she has." Shang agrees. "And we will stop her. But one mission at a time here." he says, stealing a side glance at her.

"I know." she sighs. "I just can't get that curse out of my head."

She wishes she knew the reason for her fixation. She's pretty sure no one else was freaking out over Merlin's little slip as much as she was.

"Worrying isn't going to change the outcome." Shang mentions, pulling her from her thoughts.

"If we only had an idea what exactly she planned to do, then maybe we could prepare, try to find a way around it." Rapunzel says.

"If this Prince Hans is working with the Evil Queen, maybe we can get some answers out of him when we arrive in Arendelle." Shang offers.

"Maybe." Rapunzel sighs. "If Red doesn't eat him first."

Shang's lips quirk a small smile. "Remind me to never get on her bad side." Rapunzel glances at him and his expression softens. "I get what you're feeling. We tend to generate fears while we sit. It's by action that we usually overcome them."

"Problem is we can't do much good out here in the middle of the ocean." Rapunzel sighs, mildly exasperated.

"Maybe not." Shang admits.

Shang chuckles quietly. His gaze drifts back up to the sky. He points up at the cluster of starts directly above their heads. "So what's that one?"

Rapunzel quirks her brow at his less than subtle subject change.

"Best way to solve a problem, I've found, is to focus on something else." he simply says. "Answers usually come to me when I least expect it."

Rapunzel decides to go along with it. "That one's Draco. It means dragon."

Shang grins. "I know a little something about those. Mulan more than I."

Rapunzel smiles as Shang talks about his life in the military, meeting Mulan. It's cute how he speaks about her. Naturally a reserved guy but with Mulan he just lights up and gets this sparkle in his eye and it's so heartwarming. Rapunzel hopes that one day she'll get to experience that too. Gush about someone to Red and Elsa.

She talks with Shang for a while. Longest than they've ever spoken. They get along surprisingly well.

Then she notices the sleepiness in Shang's eyes and shoos him off to bed. He only goes on her promise to get to bed too.

Rapunzel gets up and stretches, mindful of the sleeping Pascal in her pocket. She begins to head toward the below deck, tiredly musing that she should one day take Shang up on his offer to visit his home land. That'd be cool. Her parents were always badgering her about how good it is to intermingle with the other kingdoms and their alliances.

But then she remembers the curse. Would she ever get to do any of that?

Uncertainty sinks like a rock in her stomach.

Worrying isn't going to change outcome, she quickly takes care to remind herself.

Rapunzel shakes her head. Still there had to be something she could do.

She looks out at the water and sighs longingly. If only there was a way she could teleport off this ship.

Rapunzel stops suddenly, realizing something.

Rumplestilskin.

She had no trouble getting from place to place. And though she wouldn't help them defeat the Evil Queen, maybe Rapunzel could get her to help them when it came to the curse. Rapunzel quickly opens her mouth, only to close it just as fast. She purses her lip, wondering if she should wait to talk this over with Red and Elsa first.

Rapunzel hesitates for a long moment. Then shakes her head. This couldn't wait.

With a deep exhale, says the name three times into the night. "Rumplestilskin."

Rapunzel isn't left waiting long, though she quickly wishes she had been, because the glare Rumplestilskin fixes her with is fearsome enough to make her want to hide away in her own hair.

"You." Rumplestilskin sneers down at her.

Rapunzel swallows hard. "Me." she confirms needlessly.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Rapunzel winces at the older woman's harsh tone and unconsciously steps back when she moves forward. "You ever hear of off-hours?"

Rapunzel raises her shoulders sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Well, now that I'm here, what do you want?" Rumplestilskin snaps impatiently. She looks around and, realizing she was on a boat, her lip curls in disdain. "And where are the other two?" she demands to know. "Lady Winter and the Canine Kid."

Rapunzel frowns a little at the nicknames before replying with, "It's just me tonight, actually." She purses her lips and decides to keep talking before she loses her nerve, "You're friends with Merlin, right?"

"I believe that was established last we spoke, Blondie."

"Right. Sorry." She's nervous. "I just can't stop thinking about the curse she mentioned. The Evil Queen's curse."

Rumplestilskin waves Rapunzel off. "I already told you I have no intention in helping you defeat her."

"So you're not concerned by the curse at all?"

Rumplestilskin simply looks down at her, brow raised. "Why would I be?"

"So I guess that's your way of saying whatever curse the Evil Queen is planning isn't going to affect you?"

"You would be incorrect."

Rapunzel frowns deeply. "Then you just don't care about being cursed?" she questions, confused.

"On the contrary."

Rapunzel exhales, not understanding and a little more than annoyed with her vagueness. "So you don't see being cursed as a bad thing?"

"That curse will get me where I need to be." Rumplestilskin shrugs. "That's all that matters."

Rapunzel stops, taken aback. "Wait, the curse is going to take us somewhere?"

Rumplestilskin turns her head sharply. "I didn't say that."

"Yes you did."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Rapunzel scoffs. "Yes you do."

"Who are you again?"

Rapunzel huffs and shakes her head, refusing to back down. "Where is the curse going to take us?"

Rumplestilskin narrows her eyes. "You keep up with all the questions, Missy, and I'm going to have to ask for something in return."

Rapunzel feels her stomach clench uneasily as her mind starts jumping to conclusions. "Is it going to separate us?"

"Well it's not gonna send you on vacation." Rumplestilskin snipes.

"I just got my family back." Rapunzel responds despondently. "My friends. I've been alone seventeen years in a tower."

Being alone again was like her worst nightmare.

Rumplestilskin looks down at her. "What if I told you I could do something about it?"

"You just said you couldn't." Rapunzel frowns, meeting her gaze.

"I can't stop the curse and even if I could I wouldn't want to. But I can change how it affects certain parties." Rumplestilskin mentions off-handedly. "If they were interested."

"For a price of course." Rapunzel already knows, her eyes narrowing.

"Naturally." Rumplestilskin smiles.

"What do you want?"

Rapunzel follows Rumplestilskin's gaze and can't help but tilt her head in amusement. "What is it with you and hair?"

Rumplestilskin scowls at her. "It's not your hair I want. It's your magic."

"What for?" Rapunzel demands, immediately stepping back. Her hand goes to her braid protectively. Her magic's been a part of her since birth. "I mean, you already have the ability to heal, don't you? You did so with Elsa's hands."

"I know that." Rumplestilskin rolls her eyes in a long suffering way. "What I want with your powers is none of your concern."

Rapunzel raises her brow. "Uh, I kinda disagree!" she scoffs.

"Uh, I kinda don't care!" Rumplestilskin retorts in the same tone.

"But without my magic," Rapunzel frowns. "if someone gets hurt I won't be able to heal them."

"Boo-hoo for them." Rumplestilskin replies unsympathetically. "It's not your job to go around patching people up. That's my job. And for a price. If you had any sense you'd have been charging for your services this entire time too."

Rapunzel remains silent.

"A curse is coming whether you like it or not, Blondie." Rumplestilskin snaps. "Now I'm giving you the chance to take the necessary precautions because your hair, however lustrous it is, sure as hell isn't gonna protect you. So do we have a deal?"

Rapunzel looks at her outstretched hand and exhales deeply before extending her own.

"—Brittany?"

"Brittany!"

Brittany jerks awake. "Huh? What?"

She looks around groggily. In her disoriented state it takes a moment before she realizes that she was no longer on a boat. Or in the Enchanted Forest.

That'd just been a dream. Or a memory, she should say.

Brittany rubs a hand over her face, shaking her head to herself. Ugh. Her head really hurt now.

"Class is over, Brittany."

That time Brittany registers Rachel's presence. The short brunette is standing next to her desk and pointing behind her to the classroom that was emptying out around them.

"Oh. Thanks." Brittany stands up and quickly begins packing up her things. Out of the corner of her eye, she can't help but notice that Rachel is still there, waiting for her.

"Are you okay?" Rachel finally asks.

"Fine." Brittany nods, but is naturally wary of the other girl's lingering curiosity. This was Rachel Berry after all.

She shrugs her backpack onto her shoulder and turns around. She frowns, seeing the doubt on Rachel's face. "I was just up late last night." Which was true. She'd been up on the phone with Mackenzie, talking about literally everything and getting to know her better. It was so normal and...easy. If it was anything like what Quinn and Santana felt when they were alone with each other, it was no wonder those two were always so dang smiley after being alone with each other.

(Although sweet lady kisses might have something to do with those smiles too).

Anyways. Back to Rachel. She still doesn't look like she believes her. Which makes the air between them a little awkward. Brittany doesn't know what to say. She liked Rachel and all but they didn't really talk much one on one together. And of the few times they did, it was usually just Rachel wanting to give Brittany feedback on her glee performances.

But this time Brittany had the nagging feeling Rachel wasn't interested in talking glee with her.

"Well," Brittany purses her lips together, deciding that whatever Rachel was up to this time could wait. She steps to the side to move around the short brunette, interrupting whatever she was going to say. "See you in glee, Rachel."

She had more important things to deal with anyways.

Pushing Rachel out of her mind, Brittany maneuvers the hallways, trying to rack her brain for the rest of the memory she'd inadvertently unlocked while asleep. She was coming up empty-handed though. So when she gets to the stairs, she sits herself down off to the side and and hefts the storybook out of her backpack. Better here than a classroom.

She flips through the pages, searching for the memory written out in the text. She has the sinking feeling she isn't going to find what she's looking for, it would explain why the memory was so unfamiliar to her, but still she double-checks to make sure. God knows this book was always surprising her.

As it turns out, her deal with Rumplestilskin is mentioned, but no details are provided. Which was annoying but Brittany had figured a while back that all the stories in here had to have been condensed. Otherwise this storybook would be much, much bigger.

Brittany frowns to herself and turns back through the pages, once again looking for something she knows isn't there. The storybook contained many stories, and sometimes it was hard to keep track of them all (having no table of contents really didn't help that) but she knew for sure that Rumplestilskin did not have her own story in here. Any information on her was through her interactions with other characters. All that Brittany knew about Rumplestilskin was that she was powerful enough to alter the way the curse affected Rapunzel. And quite possibly herself too.

Which made Brittany wonder, what if Rumplestilskin has had her memories this whole time?

Brittany bites her lip in thought. Then the tardy bell rings shrilly overhead. She shoves the storybook back in her backpack. She gets up and continues down the stairwell but heads in the opposite direction of her next class.

Rumplestilskin helped them out in the past, maybe she can help them now.

When the time comes she turns into the corridor where most of the staff offices are. Her destination is at the very end of the hall. The closer she gets the stronger her sense of impending doom feels.

A part of her wonders if she should turn back and talk with Quinn and Santana, get their input first, before she does this. But she knows them. What they'll say. They won't like this.

But the way Brittany sees it, they weren't going to break this curse by only doing things they were comfortable with.

Brittany stops in front of Coach Sue Sylvester's door. It's propped open but somehow it feels just as uninviting as standing in front of a closed door would.

She takes in a fortifying breath. Then steps through the threshold, tapping her knuckles against the door. "Um, hi coach."

Brittany's fully prepared for the woman to take one look at her and throw her out, given how much she hates anyone associated with glee club. But Coach Sylvester doesn't bother to look up from her paperwork when she comes in. "Can it with pleasantries, young Jessica Simpson, and get to the reason you're here breathing in my imported Swiss mountain air."

Brittany can't help her frown as she steps forward. She might not be Einstein but she at least knew the difference between chicken and tuna.

"I wanted to talk to you." she says, pursing her lips and fiddling with the straps of her backpack. "You, uh, helped me out once before and I was hoping you could help me again."

She watches the woman carefully, hoping to make eye contact but Coach Sylvester had yet to lift her head.

"Don't know what you're referring to." Sue responds, before finally looking up at Brittany. "But I assume that's how most people feel when talking to you."

Brittany ignores that jab and sits herself down on the red folding chair opposite Coach Sylvester's desk. "I need some advice."

"Edith's office is down the hall."

Assuming she means Miss Pillsbury, Brittany shakes her head.

"No, I need help with something specific. A takedown."

Brittany looks back at Coach Sylvester closely, once again trying to gauge the older woman's reaction for anything telling.

"I must say I'm surprised." Sue removes her glasses and leans back in her chair, mildly intrigued. "I would never expect such a request from a girl with My Little Pony stickers on her binder."

"People love to underestimate me." Brittany shrugs, though frowning as to how Coach Sylvester knew what her binder looked like.

"So who do you want to eviscerate?" Sue questions, a malicious glint to her eyes. "Please say William Schuester."

"No, not Mr. Schue." Brittany hesitates. She's basically coming up with all this on the spot. "I can't reveal this person's identity unfortunately. It's classified information."

"A shame." Sue laments, getting that faraway look in her eyes as she undoubtedly imagined eviscerating Mr. Schue.

Brittany purses her lips, knowing she had to choose her words carefully. "How would you deal with someone who is in a position of power, someone who makes people believe in what she or he wants," she quickly adds, after catching herself. "Even if it's not the truth. How would you make them do the right thing?"

"Well, Elle Woods, I don't know anything about doing the right thing, my lack of a conscience has made sure of that, but if you want to get someone to do something the easiest way is through blackmail."

"What if the stuff you have on them, no one will believe?" Brittany questions.

She had a storybook filled with proof but if she couldn't even get Santana, her best friend, to believe in it, how was she supposed to get anyone else to?

"Fine something more concrete then." Sue easily replies.

"How?" Brittany sighs, a little more than desperate at this point for some actual help.

"You ever read The Art of War by Sun Tzu?"

Brittany is barely able to shake her head before Sue interrupts with mocking scoff, "Of course not, what am I thinking? You probably still struggle to comprehend Dr. Seuss. Well, if you did read The Art of War, you would know that the key to success is to know your enemy. Analyze them. Absorb any and every bit of information about their lives so that you can use it against them when the time comes. You think I have hidden cameras installed in Will Schuester's apartment because I like hearing him argue with his wife over his unhealthy relationship with high school adolescents and a ginger pygmy? No. It's because the more I know about him, the easier it is to pick on his vulnerabilities and make him miserable."

And yet she always managed to fail in destroying glee club, arguably Mr. Schue's main source of happiness.

Huh.

Maybe that was apart of her curse.

"So what you're saying is I should spy on my enemy?" Brittany clarifies.

Sue nods. "It works for the government."

"What if I get caught?"

"Think like that and you will get caught." Sue declares. "But if you have doubts just bring along your token lesbians, Hoda and Kathie Lee. They're a conniving bunch. Just look at their supreme leader: Ellen DeGeneres. She stole that talk show gig from me you know. I was supposed to be the next queen of daytime television. Then at the last second the producers decided they want a perky blonde who was half-hobbit and not half-Amazon warrior like yours truly." Sue shakes her head to herself, then after catching Brittany's perplexed gaze, narrows her eyes, suddenly very annoyed. "You still here?"

Brittany wisely takes that as her cue to get out of the woman's hair. And out of her chair. She stands up and shrugs on her backpack. "Right, sorry. Uh, thanks for the advice, Coach."

Sue nods. "You'll receive my bill in the mail."

Brittany smiles faintly and heads for the exit. But she stops at the doorway at the last second. She deliberates for half a second before looking back over her shoulder, "Coach?"

"What?"

"Does the name Rumplestilskin mean anything to you?"

There's a flicker of something in Sue's eyes but whether it's from recognition of the name, it's hard to tell for sure. But it's enough to give Brittany hope. "Pretty sure that's a 70's pop singer." Sue answers dismissively. "No. Wait. I'm thinking of Engelbert Humperdinck. Easy to mistake. Both are ridiculous names. Why do you ask?"

"There's a fairy tale character that goes by that name and she kind of reminds me of you." Brittany simply says.

Sue snorts. "You're a little old for fairy tales, aren't you?"

Before Brittany can answer, Sue instantly scoffs, reminding herself, "Look who I'm talking to."

Brittany ignores the jab.

"You're never too old for fairy tales, Coach."

"That sounds like something my mother would say, Pierce."

Brittany smiles slightly, thinking it a compliment. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yes. And it's those kinds of annoying, ridiculous sayings that make me regret not ever euthanizing her. Now get outta my sight."

Brittany nods and quickly leaves. "Thanks again, coach."

—

"Wait, you told her what?"

And to think, up until this point, Santana had actually been having a good day.

Granted the staring and whispering about her and Quinn had been annoying as hell and the slushie facials definitely hadn't been anything to smile about, but getting to hold hands with Quinn and kiss her freely in between classes (and lets not forget, totally feel her up in the girl's bathroom) more than made up for having to deal with all that shit.

So all and all the day wasn't great, but it was good.

Or at least it was, anyways.

Ironically Santana's standing in the most obnoxious, cheeriest looking room in the whole building — aka the art room — when she feels all her good vibes just evaporate into thin air.

Fucking hell.

"I didn't tell her anything about the curse, I swear." Brittany has her shoulders raised defensively to the incredulous looks Quinn and Santana were giving her. "I just went to ask for her advice as a pretense, I wanted to—"

"You brought up Rumplestilskin and the book!" Santana exclaims, forcing herself to yell as quietly as she can. (Because even if the door was locked, the walls to this place were definitely not soundproof).

"Just to get a reaction out of her." Brittany assures. "And it totally did. Well, at least I think it did." she amends at their skeptical glances. "I swear there was a flicker of light in her eyes when I said the name!"

Santana widens her eyes and throws her hands up sarcastically. "Oh, well if there was a flicker of light!"

"Brittany," Quinn calmly interrupts, after yanking Santana's hand down and throwing her a quick look, "I thought we agreed to keep this to ourselves."

"Yeah, if Sue tells anyone we're screwed!" Santana scoffs.

Brittany sighs and uncrosses her arms. "We need help, Santana. I figured since she had helped us back in the Forest, she could help us now. And she did...in a way. I mean I have an—"

Santana stares at the blonde like she's lost her mind. Which she definitely has. "Brittany, that woman was nuts back then and she's nuts now! I mean, hell, she makes Becky Jackson hide in the air ducts whenever we have glee practice!"

Brittany frowns at that apparently new information. "So that background heckling wasn't my imagination? Huh."

Santana shakes her head quickly, willing them to get back on topic. "The point is Sue, or Rumplestilskin, or whatever you wanna call her, can't be trusted."

Brittany raises her brow, as if to say oh, really? "You trusted her enough to heal Quinn." she reminds, gesturing to said blonde. "And we all trusted her enough to make deals with her, didn't we?"

Santana sighs heavily. "That's not the point, Britt. We were—" Santana stops herself, Brittany's comment just registering. Her eyes narrow. "Hold up. What do you mean we?"

Quinn's gaze shifts toward Brittany, just as confused.

"Quinn and I made deals." Santana says, gesturing to them both without taking her eyes off the taller blonde. "But I don't recall you making a deal with her."

"I did." Brittany confirms and Santana turns away, swearing her disbelief in Spanish. "It was while we were on our way to Arendelle, the second time. You two weren't around, obviously. And I never told you guys. I meant to, honestly, but we were a little busy at the time, trying to save Anna and then the curse came before we could do anything about it..." Brittany allows her rambling to trail off.

"So what was the deal?"

Santana's so glad Quinn was the one who asks that question because she's not sure she could bring herself to. She knows she'd be better off not knowing.

Brittany exhales deeply. "Rumplestilskin made it so that the curse wouldn't affect us the same as everyone else."

Quinn and Santana exchange concerned glances. "What did she want in return?" Quinn dares ask, looking back at Brittany apprehensively.

"My healing power."

Quinn's shoulders drop. "Brittany." she sighs.

"Wait a minute." Santana holds up a hand again, her eyes squinting as her mind slowly processed. "When Anna got hurt in Arendelle and I asked you to heal her, you said you couldn't remember the song because you'd hit your head fighting." Santana pauses, then shakes her head at the blonde. "Tell me that wasn't a lie."

Brittany dips her head briefly, guiltily. "I actually did hit my head, but you're right, it didn't make me forget my healing incantation. I did lie about that. But I didn't know Anna would get hurt like that." she adds, completely earnest. "If I had you know I wouldn't have taken the deal."

"Jesus Christ, Brittany!" Santana snaps, more out of frustration than surprise. She's never reacted well to the bombshells dropped on her and right now was no different. "The kid was bleeding out in her arms!" she exclaims, gesturing back to Quinn. "She would've been okay if you hadn't made any damn deals!" And fuck, what if Elsa had been the one to get hurt that day? Then Quinn would've been the stuck in the coma here and how long would it have been for them to find each other?

Her mind runs rampant with all the shit that happened, all the shit that could've happened, and before she knows it, it's all blurring together.

"Santana, hey—" Quinn, sensing Santana was working herself up again, tries to intervene but Brittany cuts her off, reasonably upset at Santana for jumping down her throat.

"You forget if you had just taken care of Hans while you had the chance, he never would've gotten the chance to hurt Anna!"

"Excuse me for trying not to add to my own personal body count!" Santana yells right back.

"Enough!" Quinn shouts, getting in between them and staring at them both incredulously. The look on her face alone was enough to get them to shut up, never mind her raised voice. "Anna getting hurt is no one's fault but Hans's." Quinn says in a significantly calmer tone, though her tone did have an edge to it. "And regardless of what decisions were made, we ended up being cursed. So rather than bicker and rile each other up, let's try something a little more productive. But first apologize to each other." When Santana glances back at Quinn, the blonde just raises her brow, practically daring either one of them to argue with her.

Santana, having simmered down as quickly as she'd gotten riled up, has no problem turning to Brittany and apologizing. "Sorry, Britt." she exhales deeply. "I didn't mean to yell at you."

"When people keep things from you it's kind of your go-to reaction." Brittany shrugs, obviously used to it by now. "And I'm sorry too, San. I didn't mean to throw that moment with Hans back at you like that."

Santana nods, accepting the apology, though feeling that Brittany had every right to call her out on that. She definitely should have taken care of Hans once and for all. It wasn't like she didn't have the chance. "It's alright, B." Santana shifts her gaze back to Quinn. "Seems like my temper is rubbing off on both you blondes these days." she comments, cracking a faint smile.

Quinn just shakes her head and sighs. "Let's get back on topic, shall we?"

Brittan nods in agreement. "We obviously can't use the true love route to break the curse over the whole town, so we have to find another way."

"And how are we going to do that?" Quinn asks.

"Well, I was talking to Sue and she gave me an idea." Brittany explains. "We need to spy on Shelby."

"Spy on her?" Santana raises her brow and scoffs. Beside her, Quinn throws her another look. Santana ignores it and turns back to Brittany, shaking her head. "Britt, come on."

Brittany frowns at her tone but nods anyways. "You know what they say, Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. And with that in mind, I was thinking we should probably bring Rachel into this. Not that I think she's our enemy or anything, but she is closer to Shelby than anyone we know and once she knows the whole story, she'll probably—"

"Rachel already knows the whole story." Santana interrupts with a small sigh. At the looks she receives, she shrugs, explaining, "I told her about it the day we interviewed Shelby."

"What, where?" Brittany raises her brow. "In town hall?" Santana tries to answer but it's apparently already written all over her face, which leads to a loud groan from Brittany. "Santana, really?"

"Hey, it was before I knew everything was real!" Santana crosses her arms and scowls at the looks both blondes were giving her. "I needed a second opinion to make sure I wasn't the crazy one of this bunch. Look, it's not a big deal." she quickly assures. "Rachel doesn't believe in any of it."

"It actually is a big deal, Santana." Brittany disagrees. "If Rachel already knows, what are the chances Shelby knows too? And if that's the case then there's no getting close to her."

"Well maybe that's for the best." Santana says.

When it came to Shelby, she was past wanting to get her violent fury on. Sure she was still mad as hell and low key wanted to strangle her but she knows better than to act rashly. They'd crossed that bitch once before and ended up losing everything. So yeah, she had no intentions of doing anything that might cause history to repeat itself. Even if Brittany's plan kinda made sense.

"I don't know, I doubt Rachel would mention any of this to Shelby." Quinn speaks up. "But then again," she begins as an afterthought, "Rachel does like to talk."

"We're gonna have to talk to her." Brittany decides. "Get her to believe us."

Santana sighs heavily. "The last thing Rachel's going to believe is some convoluted story about her birth mother, a woman she really cares about, is a ruthless psychotic bitch."

"But deep down she must know something is off." Brittany reasons. "I mean we can't be the only ones getting dreams and flashbacks about our past lives, she has to be experiencing them too, right?"

"Maybe. Maybe not." Quinn replies. "Us remembering our past lives may just be an effect of your deal with Rumplestilskin."

"Yeah and even if we sit Rachel down and show her the book and explain things as rationally as possible, she's not going to believe it." Santana maintains. She knows Rachel.

"But—" Brittany starts to protest.

"I'm telling you, she's not." Santana interjects, more sharply. "So let's just save ourselves the trouble and leave her out of it."

Brittany sighs, exasperated. "Fine. But if you aren't willing to bring Rachel into this, then we're gonna have to investigate Shelby ourselves. It's the only way we're going to find answers on how to break the curse."

"And what do you suggest? We break into her office?"

Santana's only kidding but Brittany smiles and nods at her like this was just another one of those times Santana was able to guess exactly what she was thinking.

"It's not like we wouldn't be able to." Brittany replies with a shrug. "Quinn's handy with a nail file."

Santana blinks at her, then turns to Quinn. "Tell me she's not seriously suggesting we commit a felony."

"We broke into the Evil Queen's castle." Brittany reminds, bringing back their attention. "Why is this so different? What, because no family members' lives are directly at stake, you don't want to do it?"

"No, because in this world there are consequences to doing shit like that." Santana retorts.

"There were consequences to breaking and entering back in the Forest." Brittany argues. "And the consequences there were a lot worse than they are here."

True, they didn't have flogging or a guillotine in Storybrooke, but still.

"We took the risk anyways." Brittany continues, looking between them and waiting for their rebuttal.

"She has a point." Quinn eventually admits, meeting Santana's incredulous stare.

"Seriously?"

Quinn drops her folded arms and sighs, turning around to face her fully. "Santana we need to find a way to break this curse and to be quite honest I don't have the slightest idea how to go about it. At least Brittany does. Of course that doesn't mean I support committing any crimes, especially considering my recent brush with the law but..." Quinn trails off distractedly, her eyes going above Santana's head. She sighs suddenly. "We have to go."

Santana shakes her head incredulously. "We," she stresses, throwing her girlfriend a sidelong look. "Don't have to do anything."

"No," Quinn shakes her head. "I mean we have to go otherwise we're going to be late for rehearsal." She indicates to the clock on the wall behind them and sure enough it was time for glee.

Santana rolls her eyes as the other two start to grab their things.

Fine. Pause this conversation for the sake of glee. It could totally wait.

God forbid they not attend practice.

Shaking her head to herself, Santana grabs her bag and follows them out the door.

On their way to choir room they end up going down the hallway where Quinn's locker is. Also there is a familiar, currently bored out of her mind, redhead. Seeing Anna leaned up against the lockers, Quinn immediately picks up her pace. She'd obviously forgotten about telling her sister to meet her at her locker after school.

"Hey! Sorry for keeping you." Quinn apologizes.

"No problem." Anna smiles and pushes away from the lockers. "You ready?"

Quinn hesitates. "Actually, do you mind hanging out in the library while the girls and I have glee rehearsal?" She was only just realizing the dilemma. "You can get started on your homework."

"Or I can do it at home." Anna suggests instead. "Where there's food and a tv." she adds, muttering that last part out of the side of her mouth.

While Santana cracks a smile, Quinn purses her lips together, obviously not wanting to be the bad guy here but knowing her response could make her out to be. "I just don't like the idea of you walking home alone."

"Babe, she's not a little kid." Santana sighs, coming to Anna's defense. "I think she can handle a five minute walk by herself."

"I so know the way." Anna reaffirms, nodding quickly. "And I have my key with me and everything."

Quinn doesn't look any less swayed. She's being a tad overprotective, Santana thinks, but it's Quinn's call ultimately. She's not gonna undermine her.

"Can you just wait for me in the library, please?" Quinn asks, her eyes gently pleading.

"Fine." Anna relents with a small smile. She respected Quinn too much to argue with her.

Quinn smiles appreciatively. "Thank you."

"Here." Santana whips out two five dollar bills from her bag and hands them to Anna. It's not like it was her cash anyways. (She'd stolen it out of Karofsky's wallet when he wasn't paying attention). "There's a vending machine in the teacher's lounge. Raid it if you get the munchies."

While Anna's eyes light up in delight, Quinn's widen in horror.

"Santana!"

"What?" Santana raises her shoulders innocently. "Would you rather I teach her your method of picking the lock with a nail file?"

Anna does a double take. "Wait, what?"

"Nothing." Quinn stresses, throwing a quick glare at Santana. "We'll come get you when we're done." she says back to her sister.

"Fine by me." Anna shrugs. She happily pockets the money and turns on her heel. "Have fun in glee club!"

"Don't spoil your dinner with too much chocolate!" Quinn calls after her. "I mean it, Anna!"

"Uh huh, spoil my dinner with lots of chocolate, will do!" Anna says, waving her off before disappearing around the corner.

Quinn suppresses a groan. Then sharply turns toward Santana. "She's going to be bouncing off the walls of the library now no thanks to you."

Santana rolls her eyes. "Babe, relax. She probably won't even use the money I gave her."

(If she's smart, she'll save that cash for some of the finer things in life, like breadsticks or alcohol).

"Besides, Quinn," Brittany says. "It's her first day, she probably doesn't even know where the teacher's lounge is yet."

Quinn just stares at them both. "Brittany, if there is chocolate on this campus she will sniff it out no matter where it is."

Quinn's so matter-of-fact about it that Santana can't help but chuckle. Brittany too. "C'mon, snowflake." Santana slips her arm around the blonde's shoulders and turns her around. "Little sister will be fine. I mean, the ancient librarian will undoubtedly end up throwing her out for being such a chatterbox, leaving her to wander the halls like a lost little orphan Annie, but she'll find a way to occupy herself. Maybe she'll stumble across the Skanks, they're always hanging around after school under the bleachers. You said you wanted her to make friends, right? It'll be a win-win."

Quinn pinches her side as they walk. "You're not funny."

"Who said I was trying to be funny? I'm just calling it as I see it." Santana taps the middle of her forehead. "Psychic Mexican third eye, remember?"

Quinn just rolls her eyes.

Brittany laughs and skips ahead of them into the choir room. Santana follows Quinn through the door.

No sooner do they get through the door that the rest of the club descends on them. Santana swears under her breath, suddenly remembering why she hadn't been looking forward to rehearsal and how she'd failed to give Quinn the head's up like she was supposed to.

You see, this morning's glee meeting had been full of annoyingly nice congratulations on her and Quinn's official coming out and ridiculously overeager inquires about Quinn's run in with the law. Quinn had been busy helping Anna get her schedule sorted so she'd missed out on all the excitement.

(Lucky her).

Now that Quinn was back among their ranks, though, the other glee kids planned to pick things up right where they left off.

"How was jail?"

"Did you have to wear a jumpsuit?"

"You didn't drop the soap, did ya Fabray?"

"Anyone try to shiv you?"

"Did you get a mugshot taken? You should see if you can use it as your senior photo in the yearbook!"

Santana, standing at Quinn's side, rolls her eyes at their friends' line of questioning. She wishes she could say their antics was just an effect of this shitty curse they were all under but she distinctly remembers them being just as a ridiculous bunch pre-curse too.

Ugh.

(How the hell she managed to attract these weirdos in not one, but two lifetimes was beyond her).

Santana glances back at Quinn, hoping to share a sidelong look but stops at the blonde's expression. She shakes her head to herself. While grateful these weirdos' interest was no longer with her, Santana wasn't okay with them overwhelming her snowflake. Which is what they were obviously doing.

Santana uncrosses her arms as the glee kids continued to bulldoze over Quinn's attempts to answer their dumb questions. She opens her mouth to tell them to calm the fuck down and back off but Mr. Schue ends up beating her to it.

"Okay, okay." he intervenes, clapping his hands to get their attention. "Break it up guys." He comes up behind them and clasps Mike, the closest person to him, on the shoulder. "Let's get on with our choreography for the day, shall we?"

The others reluctantly disperse from their huddle and begin spreading out across the floor.

"Everyone partner up." Mr. Schue directs. "Boy girl combos, please."

Santana narrows her eyes, thinking he really didn't need to clarify that, but turns around anyways. She scans the group for available partners. As per usual Finn had been commandeered by Rachel, just as Brittany and Mike naturally gravitated (or moonwalked in this case) to each other's side. On the other side of the room were best friends Kurt and Mercedes, and next to them were Artie and Tina. Which meant her and Quinn's only options were Sam and Puck.

Yeah, no.

Taking Quinn's hand, Santana bypasses them both and walks over to Kurt and Mercedes. "Congratulations Lady Hummel, you've got yourself a new partner." she says, releasing Quinn's hand and swapping her out before any one of them can protest. She then drags Wheezy away by the arm.

"Satan, what do you think you're doing?" Mercedes hisses.

Santana ignores the shorter girl and pushes her in front of Sam.

"Just remember, Bessie, don't dance too close to Trouty or he might accidentally inhale you."

The two of them taken care of, Santana turns on her heel and reluctantly goes to stand in front of Puckerman.

"Never thought I'd live to see the day where Quinn Fabray had a criminal record and Santana Lopez didn't." Puck smirks. "Am I dreaming?"

Santana resists the urge to roll her eyes.

"Nah, you're right." Puck dismisses just as fast. "If I were dreaming, you and Quinn would've made out in front of me by now."

Santana rolls her eyes that time, then cuffs him on the back of his head, effectively wiping that dumbass smirk off his face.

Puck rubs the back of his head. "So did Quinn really beat down on that crazy hot dance teacher Rachel has?" he questions, lowering his voice to whisper as Schuester begins to go over the group's choreography for the day.

Santana narrows her eyes skeptically. "How do you know about Rachel's dance teacher?"

"Rachel and I talk at temple sometimes." Puck explains. "When I've got nothing better to do." He makes sure to clarify. "We're not like, friends or anything." He steals a self-conscious glance back at Rachel, who happened to looking their way before sharply reverting her attention to Mr. Schuester.

"Anyways." Puck turns his head. "I wish I'd been there when it all went down." he says, referring back to the Quinn/Cassie situation. "Figures the one Saturday I don't come in for work something actually worthwhile happens. Beiste told me—"

"Wait, hold up, you work at the sheriff's station?"

Santana stares at him incredulously.

How did she not know this?

"I'm like Beiste's deputy." Puck confirms with a proud grin. "Or at least I will be once I graduate." he amends. "Everyone knows I'm not college material and I gotta do something with my life. I figured, why not be the one to drive the cop car instead of sitting in the back like I usually do?"

"A Puckerman on the right side of the law?" Santana could barely wrap her head around it. "Am I the one that's dreaming? Or is this just me having a stroke?"

Puck rolls his eyes. "Ha. Ha. Sheriff Beiste's actually kind of a cool chick." he shrugs, not thinking it a big deal.

"Where have I been when all this was happening?" Santana wonders, her frown deepening.

"Busy trying to seal the deal with that one." Puck chuckles, nodding over to where Quinn is practicing with Kurt. "Which, by the way, I could've done in half the time."

Santana ignores that comment, already distracted after following Puck's gaze. "Keep those gerber baby hands where I can see them, Hummel." she warns loud enough for the pair to hear.

While Kurt turns and gives her a blank stare, Quinn rolls her eyes at her and responds by pushing Kurt's hands down in a grand gesture from her waist to her backside. The others around them immediately bust up laughing at Kurt's comical bug-eyed reaction.

Scowling, Santana promptly whips her head around. "Mr. Schue, please tell Lady Hummel to stop groping my girl!"

Mr. Schue looks up unthinkingly from helping Finn and raises his brow when he sees Kurt's hands...where they were. "Kurt?" he questions unsurely.

Kurt snatches his hands back like they'd just been burned and flashes Mr. Schue a sheepish smile. Meanwhile Quinn's lips are pursed and her shoulders are shaking with suppressed laughter.

Santana shakes her head to herself, smiling fondly in spite of herself.

What a dork.

Glee rehearsal wears on. And as usual Santana finds herself enjoying herself even with all the crazy shit going on in her life. The happy, carefree atmosphere is almost enough to make her forget about her problems. Almost. (By this point she knows better than to let her guard completely down).

After an hour passes Mr. Schue gives them a break. Quinn ducks out of the room to go check on Anna while Brittany remains standing on the floor, laughing with the others. Santana takes the opportunity to go over to the risers and get the water bottle out of her bag.

She barely gets in one sip when she feels herself being approached from behind.

"Hey, can we talk?"

Santana looks over and lowers her water bottle, suddenly with the all too familiar sinking feeling that Rachel was about to make her semi good mood disappear. She eyes Rachel warily.

"About?"

Rachel casts an unsure glance back at their friends before reverting her attention back to her. "Outside?" she suggests.

Santana shrugs. "Yeah, sure." She reluctantly follows the shorter girl out into the hallway.

"So what do you want to talk about, Yentl?" she sighs, standing with her hands on her hips.

"It seems you and Quinn are back on track again." Rachel brings up, and Santana rolls her eyes, already wishing she'd just get to the point. "And you're talking to Brittany again. Last we talked you were very concerned about them losing their minds." Santana stiffens a little, remembering how she'd spilled her guts to Rachel about Quinn and Brittany believing in the curse. "Now I take it that's gone away?"

"It was a misunderstanding." she shrugs off, not quite meeting Rachel's gaze. "It's fine."

Unfortunately Rachel isn't deterred by her dismissiveness. "I overheard Brittany speaking to Coach Sylvester today."

Santana's gaze snaps back to Rachel. Then she silently curses her own quick reaction. "Overheard?" she questions doubtfully.

"She wanted Coach Sylvester's advice on taking out an enemy." Rachel nods. "And she brought up fairy tales, of all things. It just reminded of what you told me back at town hall. It wasn't hard to deduce that Brittany's enemy is my birth mother. Or 'the Evil Queen'." She does air quotes around the word.

Santana folds her arms across her chest and shrugs again, trying to play it cool. "It's Brittany, what do you expect?"

"I expect you to do something about it." Rachel retorts, raising her brow at Santana. "Now I honestly don't believe Brittany has the capability to hurt anyone physically but I don't want her going around saying untrue things about Shelby just because of some irrational fantasy that says she's some kind of witch."

"Brittany is far more observant than people give her credit for." Santana responds in spite of herself, looking away briefly.

"Humoring her on this is not the way to go, Santana." Rachel says seriously.

"I'm not humoring her."

Rachel frowns at her in confusion. "I thought you didn't agree with Brittany's crazy theories."

"I don't."

Rachel tilts her head, eyes narrowing skeptically. "Why don't I believe you?"

"Because we're mortal enemies?" Santana shrugs. "How the hell should I know?"

"Santana, please." Rachel throws her an exasperated look. "I'm obviously missing something. What aren't you telling me?"

Santana shakes her head. She refused to get into this now, here of all places. "You're being paranoid, hobbit." she declares easily. "I'm not keeping anything from you."

"I know you well enough to know when you're lying, Santana." Rachel disagrees.

Santana just shakes her head and turns on her heel, starting back to the choir room. "It doesn't matter." she says.

"It does matter, Santana." Rachel insists, trailing after her. "Just tell me."

Santana keeps walking. "You're not going to believe me anyways." she sighs, muttering under her breath to herself.

Rachel grabs a hold of Santana's arm and forces her to turn around.

"Try me."

Santana swears.

Damn Rachel and her big elfin ears.

Santana yanks her arm back. "Look, hobbit, I already know how this conversation is going to play out and I'm not interested in being a part of it." She couldn't imagine it going any better than when Brittany tried to tell her about the storybook so she's not even gonna bother with Rachel. "I've got better things to do with my time."

Santana is in the middle of walking away (again) when Rachel calls after her, realizing, "You believe Brittany."

Santana stops dead in her tracks.

"What?"

"Oh. My. God." Rachel storms up to her, her eyes wide with incredulity. "They got to you."

"Hobbit, you're losing your shit." Santana says quickly, trying to distract from the fact. "And we need to get back to rehearsal."

Rachel side-steps in front of her and keeps her gaze locked.

"Tell me I'm not right."

"You're not right."

Santana tries to move past her to no avail. She sets her jaw firmly. Hobbit was really pushing her patience.

"Santana." Rachel huffs. (And Santana could tell she damn near stamped her foot down in the process). "Just the other day you were telling me Quinn and Brittany were crazy for believing in such things and now you— "

Santana quirks her brow.

"Now I what?" she challenges.

To her dismay Rachel doesn't back down. "Just say it, Santana."

Santana's expression must have shone a flicker of hesitation, because then Rachel pushes, "This conversation is going to happen whether you like it or not. I don't care if we don't make it back to rehearsal, you are talking to me."

Santana snaps out of frustration. "Fine!" She grabs a hold of Rachel by the arm and drags her around the corner. The hallways are empty but a distant part of her is still paranoid. "You wanna know what's going on? Okay then." Santana claps her hands together. "As it turns out everything Brittany said about the storybook and about us being cursed is true."

Rachel opens her mouth to respond but Santana doesn't give her the chance to.

"I know. I know." she cuts off, rolling her eyes as she speaks. "Fairy tales aren't real. They're fantasy, make believe, yeah. I got that. But these ones aren't. They're true. There. Happy? Now you heard it straight from this bitch's mouth. I'm crazy. So can I go?"

For a second all Rachel does is blink and stare at her. By the looks of it questioning whether Santana was really just fucking with her after all or not.

"Why the sudden change of heart?" She decides to ask, not quite sure what to believe but determined to get to the bottom of things. "What could Brittany or Quinn possibly said to you to make you do a complete 360 on the matter?" Rachel raises her brow expectantly. "Are you really that wrapped around their finger?"

Santana resists the urge to growl aloud at that insinuation. "It had nothing to do with anything they said." she glares. "Brittany practically talked me until she was blue in the face and I still didn't believe her. It's what happened that changed my mind."

"And what, pray tell, happened?"

"I remembered." she says simply. "I remembered my life. My home. My family. My fucking obnoxious, royal pain in the ass, hobbit friend."

Santana sighs heavily at the lack of response she receives. Not that she blamed the girl. Rachel was way too smart and rational to just be able to believe her.

"Look, you've told me you have had weird dreams before. They actually mean something, Rachel. And not in the typical dream sense, I mean really mean something. They're memories."

Santana shakes her head when she's not met with much of a response. "I sound out of my mind, I know, but if you think about it long enough, it actually makes sense."

Finally Rachel reacts. "Santana," she starts off slowly, "We are not cursed. We have not lived past lives." Santana glares at her for daring to fucking patronize her right now. "Shelby did not curse us here. She is a good person who does a lot of good for this town. She's ambitious, yes, but she's not evil and she certainly doesn't have magical powers."

"There's more to her than you think, Rachel." Santana says cryptically. "Trust me."

"Trust you?" Rachel raises her brow and scoffs. "I think I know her a little better than you do, Santana."

"Keep telling yourself that, hobbit." Santana bites out, the subject of Shelby quickly making her irritable again. Shelby did not deserve Rachel's loyalty.

Rachel's gaze burns right through Santana as she shakes her head, a humorless laugh escaping her. She points a sharp finger at her. "You need help."

Santana bristles at that. "Yeah, no thanks to your psychopathic mother!" she nearly scoffs.

But of course, in true Rachel fashion, Rachel storms off to the choir room without a sparing glance before Santana can snap back any kind of reply.

Santana shakes her head, exhaling deeply. Even though she still felt inclined to go after the hobbit and shake some much needed sense into her, she knows it won't do any good.

Arguing with her isn't going to make her remember.

Santana sighs to herself, already regretting opening her big fat mouth. Now Rachel thought she was legit cray cray.

As if she needed that on top of everything else.

Santana moves to return to the choir room but is distracted by a sudden, unfortunate stank. Her nose crinkles automatically in disgust.

She turns her head. What the—

At first sight of that familiar fro peeking out from behind the lockers, Santana immediately goes tense.

Fucking hell.

She wastes no time in storming up to the little rat before he can think to scurry away. "Hand it over." she demands, holding out her hand.

"Hand w-what over?" Jacob says nervously, feigning ignorance.

Santana raises her brow. "You really want to play that game with me, Jewfro?"

Jacob shakes his head quickly and reluctantly hands over his camera.

Santana grabs it from him and hesitates only briefly. She had an idea of what she was going to find but that didn't mean she wanted to see the proof of it. Shaking her head of the thought, Santana begins clicking through the photos. The most recent ones of course were of her and Rachel arguing just now. Then photos proving Jewfro had been following her, Quinn, and Brittany around all damn day today appear on the screen. Further along were photos of them outside of school, together and apart, walking around town, doing ordinary things.

Santana's gaze lingers on some photos Jacob had of Brittany with some redhead she'd never seen before. (And okay, she was definitely gonna have a talk with Britt about that later).

Santana keeps clicking through the photos until she comes across a few personal selfies of Jacob gross enough to make a person lose their lunch. She looks away sharply. God, there was no burning that shit from her brain.

Santana turns back to Jacob and it takes every ounce of control not to Snix out on him. "Why?"

"I-I'm on the yearbook committee." he stutters. "I need candids."

"Yet you only seem to have pictures of me and my homegirls." she points out, holding up his camera and shaking it a little. "Half of these we aren't even on campus. So start talking, Jewfro. Why are you stalking us?"

Jacob pushes his glasses up his nose. "Stalking is such an ugly word..." he murmurs.

Santana clenches her jaw and reacts before she can stop herself. She grabs Jacob by the collar of his shirt and pins him up against the lockers with one hand. "You're doing this for a reason and I want to know why. Now tell me who has you following us around or I swear to God I'll cut your balls off with the razor blades I have hidden in my hair and force feed them to you."

"I-I don't know his name."

Santana lifts a hand to her hair threateningly.

Jacob squirms against her hold, his eyes wide and panicked. "J-Jesse. His name is Jesse. But that's all I know, I swear!" Jacob shrieks. "Please don't make me eat my balls! It's not kosher!"

Santana shakes her head in disbelief. She only knew of one Jesse in this world and she had a feeling he was the only one who mattered.

Figures he would still be doing Shelby's dirty work, even in this world.

Santana reluctantly lets Jacob go. She then hands him back his camera, despite wanting nothing more than to smash it into the wall. Or against Jacob's head.

Man, ignoring her impulsive tendencies fucking sucked.

Santana breathes slowly and fixes Jacob with a serious stare.

"Anyone asks this conversation never happened. Got that?"

Jacob nods quickly and takes back his camera. He glances up at her unsurely last minute. "Are you going to report me to Figgins?"

Santana felt like she was entitled to report him to the fucking Sheriff but she doesn't say that.

"Just get out of my sight, Jewfro." she orders instead.

Jacob doesn't look particularly convinced he was off the hook but since he really couldn't do anything about it, he just does as she asks.

Santana watches him go. Then turns her head at the sound of oncoming footsteps.

"Hey you." Quinn greets her smilingly. She's coming from the adjacent hallway so she's completely oblivious to the fact Jacob had been here. Her brow furrows slightly. "What are you doing alone out here?"

Santana looks back in the direction Jacob had just disappeared to and sighs. "We have a problem."

—

None to Santana's surprise, Quinn takes the news of Jacob following them around with her usual composure. Whereas Brittany kicks herself for not putting two and two together sooner. (Apparently Santana wasn't the only one who'd caught the Jewfro lurking and creeping).

They talk about what they should do about Jacob in the girl's bathroom while glee is still in rehearsal and end up reluctantly agreeing with what Santana had already done - allowing Jacob to carry on following them. None of them were keen on the idea but hey, it was better than Shelby figuring out they were onto her scheme.

It's times like this Santana was glad she was turning over new leaf.

Old impulsive Santana would've said screw that, knocked Jacob's teeth in, set Jesse St. James on fire, and started World War III with Shelby already.

That wouldn't have been good.

Now Santana was more of a think first, act second kind of gal.

Which was no walk in the park, let's be honest, but she was managing. As it turned out she just needed to take her Snix energy and put it to better use.

But much as Santana would rather keep as much distance between them and Shelby as possible, with Big Brother — er, Big Sister?— watching them that definitely wasn't going to happen. Shelby obviously sees them as threat, why else would she be keeping an eye on them, and Santana wasn't about to let her get away with invading their lives any more than she already has.

If Shelby wanted to play the spy game, fine. Santana could play the spy game too.

So the following day at the first opportunity Santana approaches Lauren Zizes, the resident AV geek/wrestling Honey Boo-Boo, at her locker.

"Hello, Lauren." she greets with all the sweetness in the world.

Lauren side-eyes her behind those thick, hideous grandma glasses. "Lopez." she acknowledges. "What do you want?"

"I require your services."

From behind her back Santana reveals the box she'd been carrying around and holds it out to the taller girl. Everyone knew the way into this girl's good graces was through candy. "I hear you like to be paid in Mallomars."

Lauren looks at the box, then at Santana, her brow quirked. She cross her arms and lifts her chin expectantly. "What's the job?"

—

Cleaning up after the dogs.

A job no one wants to do, if they can help it, but one that has to get done regardless. As a part time employee the job usually fell to Quinn and today was no exception.

Despite the not-so-fun task, Quinn can't help but find herself smiling. For the past half hour or so she's been listening to Anna rant on about a boy who's been driving her crazy at school.

Kristoff.

(Or Benjamin in this world, as she's now figured out).

"What are you so smiley?" Anna complains, diverting from her current cafeteria anecdote after catching sight of Quinn's expression. "Do you enjoy my pain?"

Quinn valiantly tries to suppress her amusement but can herself failing miserably. Her sister was just very endearing whenever she went on one of her melodramatic tirades.

Quinn stands up from laying out the fresh newspaper and sighs. "He likes you, Anna."

Anna is right on her heels as she moves onto the next cage. "What?" Quinn doesn't have to look over her shoulder to know her sister's gaping at her like a fish. "No way!" Anna shakes her head, protesting, "He's always mocking the way I do things and calling me feisty pants and telling me to calm down like I'm some crazy maniac! Which I am not, thank you very much!"

"Boys have a tendency to tease the girls they like." Quinn explains with a light chuckle. "And some girls too." she adds, thinking of Santana.

"Ugh." Anna pulls a seriously disgusted face. "I hope you're wrong. He can't like me. I mean, we just met and he smells like reindeer all the time and doesn't eat with his mouth closed. And I guess, okay, yeah, he's a little nice when he wants to be and is decent looking..." Anna trails off, realizes what she was saying, then shakes her head quickly. "Whatever, he's still a pain! A blonde pain!" Anna's brow furrows quizzically, suddenly wondering, "I am even allowed to date?"

Quinn blinks for a moment. Anna spoke so fast often times Quinn needed a moment to catch up to her.

"Well, yes. You can date." Quinn's eventually says, though her tone admittedly comes out slightly questioning. Anna was young but technically Quinn - er, Elsa - had allowed her to date Kristoff back in Arendelle. So she couldn't very well oppose it now, right? Of course not. Quinn had no desire to keep anyone apart, even if the idea of little sister dating still gave her mixed feelings.

"That is boys your own age." she stipulates, not wanting a Hans repeat, now or ever.

"Yeah," Anna holds out the trash bag so Quinn can deposit the soiled newspaper. "I think I should get a better handle on school before I start adding weirdo boys to the mix."

Quinn chuckles quietly, all the while silently relieved. Dating was hardly a subject she should be giving advice on so she was glad to put it aside for the time being. "Good idea."

"Hey, can I ask you a question?"

Quinn smiles to herself but pretends to sound exasperated. "Yes you can go play with the puppies now. I won't keep you."

Though Anna's face lights up at the prospect, she shakes her head, remembering, "No, not that." Anna crinkles her nose in that way that lets Quinn knows she's hesitant to ask her next question. "Are you okay?"

Quinn looks over at her, confused. "Okay?" she repeats.

Anna nods her head timidly. "I feel like something's going on with you. With you, Santana, and Brittany actually." she clarifies. "And sorry if it sounds like your annoying little sister is butting into your business but I just wanted to make sure everything's alright. You can talk to me, you know. I mean, I might not be much help but yeah, I'm here."

"Oh." Quinn hesitates a little, caught off-guard. And here she'd thought she was doing a good job of keeping things under wraps around Anna. Really though she should have known better. Anna was more observant than people often gave her credit for.

Ever since she broke her curse, she's gone back and forth about telling Anna. She felt obligated to tell her, obviously, but at the same time she felt hesitant to say anything. No matter how many times she went over it in her head, no matter how many times she tried to take into consideration how much of an understanding person Anna generally was, Quinn could just not see the moment playing out in her favor.

Maybe she was letting her doubts get the worst of her but after Santana told her what had happened when she confessed to Rachel, it was hard to be to optimistic about things. After all the very idea that they were living a cursed existence and their crazy mayor was having them tailed by a white kid with a fro sounded like a ridiculous conspiracy theory of a mentally ill whackjob. Which is the last thing she needed Anna seeing her as.

For the first time in what seems like forever they're in a good place and, even if it's not a necessarily truthful place, Quinn doesn't want that to go away. She's just sick and tired of things constantly getting in the way of them having a normal sisterly relationship.

Quinn breaks her silence before it can be seen as too suspicious. "I appreciate the concern, Anna. And you're not annoying. Far from it. But I'm not... I guess what with graduation getting closer and closer, the reality of it is really sinking in for us and it's kind of unnerving, not knowing what will happen in the future."

Not the explanation she owed her sister but at least it wasn't a lie. She was stressing about the future.

What was going to happen to them after they break the curse? Would they return to the Enchanted Forest or would they remain in this world?

What if they don't break the curse? Or rather, can't? What then?

"Aw, don't worry about that!" Anna brightly responds, inadvertently saving her sister from another anxiety attack. "You're like the smartest person I know. You'll kick butt at whatever you choose to do after high school. I mean, you could take over the world if you wanted!"

Quinn smiles faintly. "I don't know about that."

"But, you know, if you don't know what you want to do, you could always get a job at the candy shop in town." Anna mentions casually. "Bring home free chocolate whenever you want." Anna side-eyes with zero subtlety. "Just something to think about."

Quinn shakes her head and laughs. Always with the chocolate, this girl. "In your dreams."

Anna makes a sudden face, prompting Quinn to frown at her inquisitively.

"I don't like dreams." Anna explains.

Despite her better judgment, Quinn asks, "Why not?"

"Because my dreams are never fun or cool or just kooky. Mine are always scary and depressing."

Quinn's expression falters. According to Anna her memories of their past life were scary and depressing. Not that Quinn blamed her or anything - in fact Quinn pretty much shared those sentiments if she was being honest.

(It's moments like this that make her case against telling Anna the truth).

"And I feel like I'm always missing you in them." Anna continues. "It's like you're never around. It's super lonely." Anna shakes her head quickly, obviously not wanting to get into it. Good. Neither did Quinn. "Reality is so much better."

"Yeah, yeah it is." Quinn quietly agrees.

Never one to leave things on a somber note, Anna shifts gears and turns to her inquiringly, "Hey, can we have waffles for dinner?"

—

Santana is getting ready to head out.

She double-checks that she has everything she needs before slipping out of her—er, Brittany's guest—bedroom.

Being that it's the middle of the night, she tiptoes across the hardwood floor, mindful of sleeping parents down the hallway and those never-asleep-when-they should-be cats of Britts.

After a careful knock, Santana quickly slips into Brittany's bedroom before too much light can be seen, should anyone else still be awake. "Hey." she greets quietly. "You ready?"

"Basically." Brittany's by her bed with various AV equipment laid out before her. "Just making sure this stuff actually works."

"That shit better work." Santana says, stepping further into the room. "It's supposed to have the Zizes guarantee. If Lauren screwed us over, I swear to god I'll go all Danny LaRusso on her ass."

Brittany snorts, apparently tickled by the idea of Santana kicking Lauren Zizes' ass.

"Shut up, Britt." she glares. She could totally take on that white rhino if she had to.

Brittany just smirks and begins packing up.

"Tell me that wasn't in the box Lauren gave us." Santana says, stopping when she sees what Brittany's choice of bag was for tonight.

"What?" Brittany looks down at herself and frowns in confusion. "It's handy."

"It's a fanny pack."

Aka the most embarrassing thing to pass as a fashion accessory ever.

Brittany just rolls her eyes. "It's inconspicuous." Once she's got all her 'spy' gear, Brittany turns around to regard her fully. "Now are you ready to do this?"

"Not really." Santana confesses. And it wasn't just because of the god awful fanny pack.

"Having second thoughts?"

"Yeah." Santana nods. "I'm thinking we definitely should've sprung for those damn easter eggs Lauren likes so much so we could've had her do this shit for us instead."

Brittany smiles slightly. "I doubt Lauren would be willing to break into and bug Mayor Corcoran's office, even for Cadbury eggs."

"Wave enough chocolate in front of that girl's grille and she'd break into the White House." Santana disagrees. She pulls her phone out of her pocket, feeling it vibrate as she spoke.

"Hey." she quietly greets.

"Have you left yet?"

Santana switches the call to speakerphone so Brittany can hear too. "On our way to."

"Any chance I can talk you out of doing this?"

Santana exhales deeply. "Look, this plan doesn't exactly excite me either but it's like you said, we need answers. Shelby knows enough to see us as threats, but we don't even know if she knows we broke our curse."

"Are sure you don't want to come with?" Brittany asks over Santana's shoulder.

"As much as I feel I should, I have to mindful of the situations I get myself into, especially ones that could affect Anna if things take a turn for the worst. I've slipped up more than enough times in my lifetime and left her to pay the price. I can't go doing that again."

"You gotta stop beating yourself up for the past, Quinn." Brittany says softly, taking the words right out of Santana's mouth.

"Just don't get caught. Please."

"We won't. Now try not to worry yourself into a snowflake panic, alright?" Santana replies. "We'll be fine."

"I can't make any promises but I'll try. Love you both. Stay safe."

"Love you too." Santana and Brittany echo in return.

Santana ends the call while Brittany flips off the lights and makes her way over to the window. "Come on." She pulls up the window in one swift motion and jerks her head to the side. "Let's bounce."

After a careful descent down the trellis on the side of the Pierce home, Santana and Brittany head around front under the innocent guise of two friends just going out for a late night run.

Figuring now was as good a time as any to get to the bottom of certain things, Santana speaks up as they maneuver their way through the neighborhood.

"So I saw on Jacob's camera a few pictures of you with a frizzy-haired ginger." she casually mentions, stealing a sidelong glance at the blonde. "Looking awfully smitten."

A small smile creeps onto Brittany's face. "She's one of Dani's derby friends." Brittany turns her head and rolls her eyes at Santana's suggestive smile. "She's cool." she shrugs.

"Cool?" Santana snickers. "Does little B have a crush?" she teases, quickly reaching out and pinching her friend's cheek.

Brittany pushes her away with a playful scowl, but then admits, "She's kinda the little red-haired girl to my Charlie Brown. Or at least that what it feels like."

Though Santana smiles, she's still confused. "So why am I just hearing about this now? Does Quinn know?"

"Nope." Brittany says, her lips popping on the 'p'.

"So why all the secrecy, then?"

Brittany raises her shoulders again. "We've been a little preoccupied...and maybe I didn't want to jinx anything." she adds, after seeing Santana's skeptical glance. "It's all very new. I mean, I haven't even asked her out yet."

"And why's that?" In all the time Santana's known her, Brittany's never been one to shy away from doing something.

Brittany just shrugs.

"You afraid she'll say no?" Santana guesses.

"Maybe." Brittany quietly admits. "I just really like her."

Santana shakes her head. "No girl in her right mind would dare turn you down. You're epic. You're Brittany S. Pierce."

"What's her name?"

"Mackenzie." Brittany happily supplies, briefly rising up on the balls of her feet. "She's nineteen. And totally awesome."

"An older woman." Santana grins at Brittany appreciatively. "Nice."

"And Scottish."

Santana squints her eyes at that bit of information. "Can you even understand her?" she questions with a slight laugh. After all in one of their classes was this Irish kid and Santana knew for a fact Brittany couldn't understand a word out of the boy leprechaun's mouth.

"Like, half of the time." Brittany admits with a sheepish laugh. "But I'm getting better!"

Santana turns away with a fond smile. "You and Quinn are like weird ginger magnets." she comments, shaking her head to herself. "You guys are lucky you have a shitload of endearing qualities that outweigh that fact." Brittany just rolls her eyes. "But seriously, the day you two start smelling of second hand copper exposure, sorry but I'm out!"

Brittany scoffs a laugh. "Santana I think you've been around Anna long enough to know she doesn't smell at all like a copper penny."

"She smells like the inside of a damn piggy bank." Santana completely disagrees, side-eyeing the blonde. "I'm just too polite to point that shit out."

Brittany just shakes her head at her and keeps on jogging.

Once they're out of the residential area, Santana and Brittany split up to be on the safe side. They end up arriving at town hall within seconds of each other but once there they remain apart, each with their own task.

"You in?"

Santana nods, phone pressed to her ear, as she quietly moves up the stairs to the second floor. "Yep. It's a good thing Puckerman hasn't gone full boy scout on us yet."

It was thanks to Puck's connections with the Sheriff's station that they were able to get the details on the building layout so they wouldn't be going in blind for this little operation. Unsurprisingly, and fortunately for them, the place had no real security system set up. There was no need for it —no real crimes ever occurred in Storybrooke.

(Which was ironic considered how the town came to be in the first place).

"Do you see any cameras?"

Santana shakes her head, her eyes constantly searching for any signs of equipment. "Nope. What's your status? You good?"

"Yeah. You're the one who had the hard job." Brittany points out with a slight chuckle. "I just had to climb a tree."

Santana hurries up to the mayor's office, but is mindful of how much sound she makes. Technically there was a security guard downstairs, but the guy was probably close to a ninety years-old and snoring away at his post. "Anyone coming?"

"Nope. It's a ghost town out here. I think I saw a tumbleweed go by."

Santana picks the lock on the door. She keeps her phone wedged between her ear and shoulder. "That's probably one of Wheezy's weaves blowing in the wind again. I'm in."

"Good."

Santana carefully closes the door behind her and goes over and opens other set of doors leading into Shelby's office. She walks over to the window behind Shelby's desk and dips her head to get a look at the blonde with binoculars sitting up in the tree next to the building. She gives a slight wave.

"Dork." Brittany laughs, shaking her head at her.

Santana's wave quickly turns into the middle finger.

"Hurry up, would you?"

Santana steps away from the window and ends the call. She pushes back Shelby's chair and from her hoodie pocket, pulls out the small microphone she was to place under the desk.

"Can you hear me Britt?" she says quietly once the mic was in place. She looks back at Brittany and sees the girl nod and give her the thumbs up.

Just then her phone starts to vibrate. She answers it quickly. "What?"

"The microphone works. Now get out of there!"

Santana throws Brittany a look over her shoulder. "Hold your horses, B. You said it yourself we need to spy on you-know-who."

Santana walks over to the file cabinets and begins doing what she does best: rifling through other people's shit.

"Anything?"

Santana shakes her head. She closes one drawer and opens another. "This is all boring legal town crap." she sighs in frustration. She doesn't know what she was expecting — Shelby probably wouldn't be keeping her spell books (if she even had them still) where she kept city ordinances.

"Try her desk." Brittany offers. "And remember if you take something out to put it back exactly where you got it, Santana. Nothing can be out of place."

"Yeah, yeah." Santana mutters, straightening up.

She goes over to Shelby's desk and begins going through those drawers. Or at least she tries to, they end up being locked and not even her nail file can get the job done.

Bastard.

Santana continues to look around.

"Any statues or bookcases around?"

Santana frowns quizzically. "Huh?"

"You know in movies when a person tries to pull out a book or accidentally knocks over a statue and it reveals a secret passage? You never know with Shelby."

Santana goes over to the bookcase and begins randomly pulling out books. "I feel like a total idiot."

"Oh and check behind the paintings on the walls, she might have a safe."

Santana gives up on the books and does as Brittany suggests, going over to the nearest painting and gingerly lifting it away from the wall. "There's nothing here, Britt." she sighs. "Shelby probably knows better than to keep anything incriminating here." Santana looks away and inadvertently finds Jesse's desk. An idea quickly forms in her head. "Maybe Jesse is a different story."

She goes over to Jesse's desk and begins going through his things. She's in the middle of perusing his files when she hears a noise come from the hallway. Her head snaps up instantly. "Someone's here."

"What? The security guard?"

"No." Santana listens closely for a second, then swears quietly. "Fuck. Those are heels. Britt, I made you lookout for a reason!"

"Sorry! I got distracted by you—get out of there!"

Santana quickly puts away the papers and files back in their place, then rushes to the window. She hangs up the phone in the process. She goes to push up the window but it won't budge. "Oh come on." She frowns, then realizes these particular windows didn't open at all. Fucking hell.

She spins around, ignoring Brittany's motions for her to leave, and hurries back over to Jesse's desk. She no sooner gets under the desk that the door to the office opens and the voices carry through.

"Okay hurry up and get your shit, Corcoran." drawls a familiar voice and Santana's eyes widen in surprise. "It is still way too early in the night to be this sober."

Oh, what the hell?

Unable to help herself, Santana dares to peer out from behind Jesse's desk and sure enough there was Cassie July, as usual in all black and nothing but legs, standing and waiting while Shelby made her way over to her desk.

"You and I have very different definitions of sober." Shelby chuckles over her shoulder.

Meanwhile Santana's head is spinning with the realization that they fucking know each other.

"Why do you even have these?" Santana hears Cassie's voice again and it snaps her out of her daze. She steals another glance and sees the older blonde referring to the basket of apples Shelby kept on the table. "Why not just get fake ones?"

Santana looks over to where Shelby is. She's busy unlocking one of the drawers Santana herself had just tried to get into.

"Well, you know what they say: an apple a day keeps the doctor away."

"If the doc in question is Carl Howell, I wouldn't dare keep him away." Cassie smirks.

Shelby chuckles. "I thought you had your eye on David Martinez."

Santana idly wonders if they meant Mr. Martinez, the night school Spanish teacher.

Cassie groans appreciatively. "Now that one knows his way across a dance floor. And that smile."

Okay, yeah they were definitely talking about Mr. Martinez.

(Santana wasn't into the dude or anything, obviously, but she wasn't blind. The guy was fine).

Shelby laughs and closes her desk drawer, only taking away with her a manila envelope. "Come on. I'll walk you home."

Santana listens to the sound of their retreating footsteps and waits a good amount of time before attempting to leave her hiding spot. She meets up with Brittany outside at the base of the tree the blonde had been hanging out in.

Brittany drops to the ground with the stealth of a ninja. A move probably learned from Mike Chang.

"That was a close one."

Santana nods briefly, still in the midst of processing things. "You see Cassie?"

"Yeah. I didn't know they knew each other."

"Me either."

"By the sounds of things, they're good friends. Or at least drinking buddies." Brittany says. "I guess it makes sense. Shelby's not nice. Cassie's not nice..." she trails off, noticing the far off look in Santana's eyes. "You okay?"

Santana just shakes her head and keeps walking.

"You gonna tell me what's going on?" Brittany asks once they're back in the Pierce home, in safety of Brittany's bedroom. Santana ignores her and grabs the storybook out from under the blonde's pillows. She sits down on the bed with it and begins flipping through the pages.

"What are you doing?"

Again Santana doesn't answer, leaving Brittany to continue watching her. "Is it about Cassie?"

That time at least Santana nods so Brittany's able to put two and two together. "That book has hundreds of stories, you know." she says, taking off her shoes. "How are you going to figure out which one—"

"She has a dragon tattoo." Santana interrupts, without looking up. Two seconds later she finds what she's looking for and flips the storybook around to show Brittany.

Brittany looks back at the illustration and raises her brow. "Maleficent."

Santana nods and slams the book shut. She pushes herself upright and begins to pace back and forth, her emotions starting to get the better of her. "You know, I knew from the second I met Cassie that something about her was just off. I didn't know why or what it was, just that it was different from the vibes I got from Shelby. I could never put my fucking finger on it. Now I get it."

The blonde was a fucking animal. Just like she was.

"Figures Shelby would befriend a fellow villain from the Forest." Brittany moves around and takes out the canvas she's turned into her own display board. Like the ones seen on most crime television shows, it has pictures, names, known counterparts, and red string all over the place. It looks like absolute chaos at first glance but is actually very organized. Or at least in Brittany's own weird way it is. Santana watches as Brittany adds the name Maleficent onto the Cassandra July sticky note and moves it closer to the Shelby/Evil Queen sticky note.

Brittany takes a step back from the board, taking in the new addition. "Do you think they knew each other back then too?"

"I don't know." Santana glances back at Brittany. "You're the one who knows the storybook cover to cover, you tell me."

Brittany meets her gaze, reminding, "There's a lot that the storybook leaves out."

Santana exhales deeply. Her gaze flickers back to Brittany's board. "What are the odds Cassie taking an interest in me was just a coincidence?"

"Things that happen here are never just coincidences." Brittany says.

Santana just nods to herself. That's what she'd figured.

Brittany looks back at her over her shoulder. "You think Shelby had something to do with it?"

"Yeah, but why?" Santana wonders aloud. It's what she was trying to figure out the entire walk over here.

"Maybe she was worried about you and Quinn."

Santana's frown deepens.

"Why?"

"You two are true loves." Brittany says simply, moving and shrugging out of her hoodie. "Maybe Shelby knew about true love's kiss and what it could do. Maybe she wanted to break you guys up before anything could happen. As a precaution."

Santana stiffens, feeling that tight pressure in her chest again. Her fists clench at her side. Then, when she realizes her nails are digging into her hand, she moves her arms across her chest. She shakes her head, turning away and breathing deeply. "Just when I think I couldn't possibly hate Shelby anymore than I already do."

Sensing her distress, Brittany walks up to Santana and guides her away from her desk. "Come on. We can keep talking about this tomorrow. I'm beat."

Santana takes the hint and heads toward the door. She intends to return to her room but Brittany grabs her arm at the last second, pulling her back. "Oh no, you're sleeping with me tonight."

"Why?"

Santana didn't have a problem sleeping with Brittany, it was nothing new for them, but sleep was the last thing on Santana's mind right now. She was still reeling.

"Because you were fuming and muttering in Spanish all the way home and I know warning signs when I see them. I don't trust you enough to sneak out and do something stupid."

Santana yanks her arm back. "I'm not gonna do anything." she glares indignantly. "Least of all now. It's too late for that shit. "

"Simmer down then." Brittany orders, throwing her a pair of pjs. "Or I'll rat you out to your girlfriend."

Her eyes narrowing, Santana pulls off her hoodie and throws it back at Brittany, which she easily catches. "Snitches get stitches, B."

Brittany rolls her eyes but humors her with a smile. "Whatever, S."

Santana shakes her head as she watches the blonde climb onto the bed. Eventually she joins her.

The only reason she doesn't put up much of argument is because, if she's being honest, she doesn't quite trust herself to be alone right now either.

"Goodnight, Britt."

Behind her, Brittany exhales deeply. "Goodnight, San."

—

Worry.

That's all Quinn felt she did anymore.

Worry about Anna. Worry about Santana. Worry about Brittany. Worry about the threat that was Shelby Corcoran.

It was giving her awful flashbacks to her time in the Forest. Or the last few weeks of it anyways. It felt like history was repeating itself and she absolutely hated it. She hated not knowing what to do to make it stop.

Not even Santana and Brittany's little scheme had gotten them anywhere. And despite her reservations, she still had hoped it would at least get them somewhere.

Since bugging Shelby's office they've been listening to her conversations on the regular but had yet to hear anything even remotely incriminating. Which was frustrating to them all but as the days went by it was Santana who was taking it the hardest. Patience was never her strong suit and she was quickly being driven up the wall by the lack of information they were getting.

As a result Santana was jumping down everyone's throat. Glee club, teachers, — basically anyone who so much tried to say hi to her. Now Santana tried her best not to let that behavior carry over to Quinn, Brittany, or Anna but that didn't always work out. One time Santana snapped at Anna over something trivial and Quinn naturally went into defensive sister mode. She knew then that they had to sit down and talk things out.

Despite her mood, Santana didn't fight her on it. They talked. (Well, more like Santana ranted and Quinn listened).

Santana hated that Jacob was still following them around, even if it was her idea to keep things going as they were. It was a smart decision, Quinn thought. Discomforting, sure, but Shelby needed to believe things were going smoothly on her part. That they were unaware of what she was up to.

The matter of whatever Shelby was up to with Cassie July was another thing that was driving Santana crazy. Finding out they were friends and possibly conspiring against them together had only intensified Santana's hatred for them both. (Which Quinn honestly hadn't thought possible).

Then there was Rachel. Santana wouldn't admit it but Quinn knew Rachel not believing in Santana had hurt her, as much as she maintained otherwise.

And not to forget there was still the issue of Santana's abuela that had yet to be resolved.

It was a lot. And not being able to lash out at the people she really wanted to had Santana understandably steamed. Quinn just wished she knew how to help her without making things worse for themselves.

Quinn sighs tiredly. She wasn't sleeping much again, the stress of everything keeping her mind up at night. There were nightmares too but Quinn was actively trying not to think about them. There was enough stressing her out.

Despite all that Santana told her, Quinn couldn't help feeling like there was more to it. Something that remained on Santana's chest. What more could there be Quinn didn't know. It was just a gut feeling.

Maybe she was just overthinking things.

Quinn's staring across the room, lost in these thoughts, when she hears her name being called. She looks up just as her teacher's stopping by her desk with a note from Miss Pillsbury's desk. Quinn frowns immediately frowns but takes the slip of paper. She couldn't imagine why Miss Pillsbury would want to see her. She supposed it could have something to do with graduation but even then, it was strange for Miss Pillsbury to be the one to beckon her.

Regardless of the reason, Quinn gathers her things and leaves for the woman's office. She strolls down the hallway at a somewhat leisurely pace. Class is still in session so it's just her out and about right now.

"Quinn!"

Or not.

Quinn turns her head and is surprised to find Brittany walking toward her. Brittany smiles and picks up her pace to meet her.

Quinn no sooner stops at the hallway intersection than she hears another pair of oncoming footsteps. She glances over her shoulder and immediately furrows her brow when she sees Santana coming from the adjacent direction.

"Playing hooky, Fabray?" Santana questions with a slight smile before either Quinn or Brittany can voice their confusion.

"What's going on here?" Quinn wonders, looking between her two friends when they meet up with her in the middle of the hallway.

"I got a note saying Miss Pillsbury wanted to see me." Brittany explains, holding up a note identical to the one Quinn had just received.

Unease quickly finds its way into Quinn's stomach. "I got a note from her too." she says cautiously.

Quinn and Brittany both look at each other, then glance back at Santana. Judging by the Latina's expression, they were all in the same boat.

"Wanna just ditch?" Santana suggests.

Brittany stares at her questioningly. "Aren't you curious?"

Santana shakes her head. "Nope. Frankly I've had enough surprises for one lifetime."

Quinn glances between them. "We have to go." she says. If only to find out what this was all about.

"If we do, we're just gonna regret it." Santana sighs, shooting her a knowing look. "Watch."

"It's just Miss Pillsbury." Brittany points out. "She's nice."

"But also a little loca."

"Santana." Quinn scolds.

Santana rolls her eyes. Then heaves a relenting sigh. "Fine. We'll go see what this is about. But you two are buying me breadsticks after." she stipulates, pointing to them both.

Five minutes later, the three of them are sitting in Miss Pillsbury's office, each with a pamphlet laid out in front of them. They all read the same thing.

So You Think You're a Fairy Tale Character.

Oh how Quinn wished she'd taken up Santana's suggestion to ditch school.

"What the hell is this?"

Quinn tears her gaze away from the light blue pamphlet with the Disney princess knockoffs illustrated on cover. Miss Pillsbury's eyes are wide from Santana's harsh tone. Quinn takes pity on the sensitive woman and slips into her usual role of mediator. "What Santana means to ask—"

"What the hell is this?" Santana repeats, shooting Quinn a sidelong look.

Miss Pillsbury fumbles with her answer. "Well, I..."

"It's just that this is a weird thing to see us about." Quinn interrupts that time, holding the pamphlet and looking back at Miss Pillsbury.

"And oddly specific." adds Santana, her gaze no less narrowed.

"Well," Miss Pillsbury neatly folds her hands in front of herself. "There has been some concerns about your well-beings and it was felt that it was something needed looking into."

Quinn frowns skeptically. "Concerns about our well-being?" She exchanges confused looks with Brittany and Santana.

Miss Pillsbury nods. "From what I hear you've been having problems. And you've been getting slushie facials recently."

"Being gay and in glee club is a lethal combination at this school." Santana acridly throws out, sitting back in her seat. "Not that that's new information or anything."

"I just thought you girls might want to talk." Miss Pillsbury says, offering a sympathetic smile. "On top of what you're already dealing with, you're nearing the end of your high school careers and that typically causes a lot of stress and anxiety for seniors."

"But what does that have to do with these?" Brittany wonders, holding up her pamphlet.

Miss Pillsbury neatly clasps her hands together on her desk. "Well, Brittany, I've noticed you carry around a storybook around with you sometimes. It's not uncommon to want to an escape when you're on the verge of a big, potentially frightening, change in life. Fairy tales can be very comforting." Miss Pillsbury shakes her head, continuing in spite of the looks she's being given. "They take us back to our childhood, to a time when things were simple, uncomplicated. With adulthood comes a lot of freedom but also a lot of responsibility and it can be overwhelming. It's a natural feeling." Miss Pillsbury then hesitates, her brow furrowing slightly. "But, uh, believing you are the characters in these types of stories...well..."

"Did someone say something to you?" Santana interrupts, leaning forward in her chair. "Because you couldn't have gotten this idea," She holds up the pamphlet, her finger tapping the title, "From simply noticing Brittany carrying around a certain type of book."

Miss Pillsbury's eyes widen a little as she opens her mouth to respond, but that time Quinn is the one to cut in. "Miss Pillsbury this is just one big misunderstanding." she says assuredly. "We are not using fairy tales as some type of coping mechanism and we certainly don't believe we are fictional characters."

Santana stands suddenly. "What she said." She rips her pamphlet in two and sets the remains down on the desk next to Miss Pillsbury's ceramic mouse and pumpkin. "So thanks for the concern but we should get to class."

Santana's out the door before another word can be said. She doesn't wait for Quinn or Brittany but that doesn't stop either blonde from hurrying after her. Quinn calls after Santana, trying to maneuver through the crowded halls and keep pace with her very determined girlfriend. "Santana!"

Santana stops abruptly, nearly causing Quinn, and in turn Brittany to run into her. Santana casts a quick glance around, her eyes searching for something. Or rather, someone. She finds her target almost instantly. "Berry!"

Down the hall, Rachel startles at her locker and turns her head in confusion. Before either Brittany or Quinn can stop her, Santana grabs a hold of Rachel by the arm and proceeds to drag her away from her locker. Quinn and Brittany exchange worried glances while simultaneously picking up their pace.

"What on earth Santana!" Rachel huffs, whipping around after being unceremoniously thrown into the nearest empty classroom.

Santana snatches the offending pamphlet out of Brittany's hand and all but shoves it in Rachel's face. "You wanna explain yourself?"

Rachel's expression falters for a brief second. "I don't know what you're talking about." she says, her chin raised defiantly.

"Cut the crap, dwarf." Santana snaps. "Nobody but you has any clue about this, so where else would Miss Pillsbury get this fucking idea from?"

"Santana." Brittany sighs, trying to get her to ease up.

"Who else have you been running your big fat mouth to, huh?" Santana demands to know, ignoring Brittany altogether. "Does Shelby know too?"

Rachel rolls her eyes at the very idea. "Shelby is a very busy woman not to be bothered with baseless rumors and fantasies."

Santana raises her brow. "Yeah? Then why is she having us followed, huh?"

"Santana—" Quinn tries to intervene but Santana just holds up her hand, effectively stopping her. Quinn rolls her eyes and sighs.

"Who on earth would be following you?" Rachel scoffs, tilting her head up at Santana and resting her hands on her hips.

"Jacob Ben Israel has been following us around for god knows how long with that camera of his!" Santana responds, gesturing frenetically.

Rachel blinks, then frowns at this information. She crosses her arms. "Well he is a notorious pervert and you three of the most beautiful girls in school. That still doesn't explain his so-called connection to Shelby."

"Jewfro coughed up the name Jesse St. James, of all people, when I questioned him." Santana retorts.

"That is hardly what I call proof, Santana." Rachel frowns. "And why on earth would Jesse ask Jacob Ben Israel to take photos of you or anyone for that matter? He doesn't even know him."

Santana shakes her head to herself. She's been over all this already and she was tired of repeating herself. "You don't believe us? Fine. But shut your goddamn mouth and stay out of it. Or so help me I'll—"

Quinn didn't want to hear where that threat was going. "Why did you tell Miss Pillsbury about this, Rachel?" she asks, cutting off Santana's tirade.

"This is Rachel Berry we're talking about." Santana answers without taking her eyes off Rachel. "She couldn't keep her trap shut even if her life depended on it."

Though initially hurt, Rachel's gaze quickly narrows. "I had to do something. You three are exhibiting very unhealthy behavior. This I expect from five year-olds or Brittany," She ignores said blonde's indignant frown, "But not from fully grown teenagers such as yourselves. This. is. not. normal."

"So it's your job to rat us out?" Santana snaps. "See to it we get help?" Santana angrily steps forward but Quinn wisely turns around in front of her, blocking her path and putting herself between the two brunettes.

"Someone has to." Rachel nods, firmly standing her ground. "You three will only enable each other."

"We're not crazy, Rachel!" Brittany exclaims in utter exasperation.

Rachel looks back at her, arms still folded across her chest. "Unfortunately Brittany from where I'm standing that doesn't seem to be the case."

"Just wait until graduation comes." Santana interrupts, shaking her head and chuckling humorlessly, "Then you're gonna realize it all for yourself."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Rachel instantly demands.

"It means you're delusional if you think Shelby's ever gonna let you leave this town." Santana responds, her temper rising. "New York is never gonna happen for you, Berry."

Rachel just shakes her head at her, scoffing yet again. "If anyone's delusional here, Santana, it's you."

"Oh, fuck you, Rachel!" Santana fires back.

Above their heads the bell suddenly rings. Quinn silently sighs in relief. She's not sure what would happen if this back and forth continued.

Rachel recovers first. "Well then." she says, smoothing down her sweater. "I guess I'll see you all later in glee."

With a curt nod, Rachel walks out of the room.

Though she feels bad, Quinn figures it best to just let her go. She turns to Santana instead. The Latina's eyes are burning. Quinn sighs and opens her mouth to say something, but before she can, Santana is swiping up her bag and turning on her heel.

"I'll see you guys later."

Quinn quickly turns around, helpless but to watch Santana head for the exit. "Where are you going?"

"To get some air."

"Santana." Brittany tries to stop her but Santana tenses away from her touch. "I'm fine." She walks backward, assuring them, "I just need a second alone."

Quinn exhales deeply when the door clicks close behind her.

Brittany turns back to Quinn, sighing a little herself. "What should we do?"

"Get back to class." Quinn merely says. She'd rather go after Santana, of course, but if a little space is what her girlfriend needs right now, she will give it to her.

—

The second Santana gets outside all she wants to do is yell and kick things.

She ends up doing the latter to an unsuspecting freshman.

(It was an accident, alright? Acne face chose the wrong moment to walk past her.)

Anyways.

Santana storms off to the Pierce home, which she knows is empty right now, with plans to stay there until she can calm the fuck down.

Goddamnit.

She hated Shelby and her fucking curse.

She hated that she didn't hate Rachel for ratting them out to Miss Pillsbury because, even if it fucking hurt, it wasn't Rachel's fault this curse had its hooks in her deep.

She hated that all this shit kept happening to them and that spying on Shelby wasn't getting them anywhere.

Santana plops herself down on the edge of Brittany's bed, sure her pacing by now had worn out the floor.

Ugh.

She needed some fucking control back in her life. And stat.

Santana exhales deeply. There had to be something else they could try.

She stares across the way to Brittany's desk, where the box of spy equipment sat. She pushes herself upright and goes over to the box. Spying on Shelby hadn't worked.

There was only one way to get information out of someone. But Christ, it would be a ballsy move and god only knew what the consequences would be if things didn't go her way.

But it's like Brittany's always saying, they're gonna have to take risks in order to get what they want. And Santana wanted information. She needed it. Without it, she had no way of protecting her family from whatever Shelby's plans were.

Santana thinks this decision over for a long time.

Then, after one final moment of deliberation, she pulls out her phone to make the call.

Later Santana finds herself at the park. There are just enough people around to make Santana feel slightly more at ease about her decision. With witnesses around, she figures not much bad shit could go down.

Santana sits herself down on the bench over by the duck pond and waits. She'd seemed to exhausted out all her aggression on Rachel so she wasn't too keyed up. But considering who she asked to meet her, she doesn't expect the feeling to last.

As she stares out at the water, she loses herself to her thoughts. But it isn't long before she feels the presence at her side.

"I was surprised by your call, Santana." Shelby says. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

Santana ignores her. "Did you send Cassandra July after me?"

Surprise colors Shelby's tone. "Excuse me?"

Santana exhales deeply, willing herself to remain calm. "It's a simple yes or no question. Did you send your bestie Cassie July after me? Try to get her to seduce me, ruin my relationship with my girlfriend?"

Santana finally glances back at the older woman.

Shelby just meets her look with a faint, knowing smile.

"Despite what you might think, I'm not your enemy, Santana."

Santana scoffs loudly at that. "Yeah, you're not my friend either." She looks away for a moment, feeling the stirrings of anger in her stomach. "You took our lives from us."

"As far as I'm concerned I did us all a favor."

"A favor?" Santana narrows her eyes at Shelby before turning away again with a shake of her head, "Man, you're crazier than I remember."

Out of the corner of her eye, Santana can see the change in Shelby's posture. Obviously she'd struck a nerve. "I would have thought you of all people would have been grateful to get away from that life." Shelby responds coolly. "Considering your penchant for hurting and killing people."

"There's only one of us here who enjoyed hurting people." Santana corrects, throwing her an added look.

Shelby's mouth quirks up. "Is that right?"

"How long did you think you could keep it up?" Santana asks out of curiosity.

"Forever." Shelby responds. "Still do."

Santana stares at her and shakes her head. "You've got some nerve. You don't get to decide people's lives for them. People deserve to know the truth. They deserve to be with their loved ones."

"Look around, Santana." Shelby sighs, casting a glance around at their surroundings. "People are happy. People don't care."

"Because they don't know any better." Santana argues.

"You assume their lives were better before they got here."

When Santana doesn't answer right away, Shelby continues, "Didn't you hear? Ignorance is bliss."

Santana rolls her eyes and turns her head at that cliched saying.

"We're more alike than you think, Santana." Shelby says. "Even back then."

Santana bristles at the very idea.

"Last I remembered you didn't have an animal inside you." she scoffs.

"No." Shelby agrees. "But I had something worse."

Santana looks back at her, confused by that remark. But Shelby just stares ahead, looking haunted.

Santana quickly shakes her head. She wasn't going to feel sympathy for this woman. She refused.

"Regardless you don't get to decide for people." she says firmly. "Not anymore."

"You think anyone will believe you?" Shelby challenges, an amused glint to her eyes.

Before Santana can respond, Shelby shakes her head and continues, "You don't want this curse broken anymore than I do." Shelby smiles, finding satisfaction in Santana's caught off guard expression.

Santana quickly glares at her. "Don't tell me what I do or do not want. You don't know me."

"Oh no?" Shelby tilts her head at her. "Then tell me are you really ready to be the Big Bad again?"

Santana schools her expression that time but doesn't answer.

Shelby reverts her attention forward and flashes a smile to those in the park just realizing the mayor was in their midst. "Certain things about ourselves shouldn't be revisited. For the sake of the ones we care about."

Santana breathes out calmly. "So it's true then? If the curse breaks, magic will return and we won't just get back our memories, but our abilities too?"

"With magic, nothing is impossible."

Santana squints her eyes at that vague, bitter response.

"If you're worried, you should be." Shelby says to her. "I can only image what time has done to that side of you. No animal does well in captivity."

"I can handle the wolf." Santana snaps.

Admittedly there was not as much conviction in Santana's voice as she'd have liked and by the look on Shelby's face, she'd sensed it too.

Shelby smiles faintly and looks back at the park. "I hope for their sake you can."

Santana just watches her, unsure of what to even say to that.

"Breaking the curse will do more harm than good." Shelby eventually says. "I know it and deep down you know it too."

Santana shakes her head when Shelby looks back at her, annoyed she kept grouping them together. "You're just saying that because you don't want your perfect little bubble to burst. You don't want people to remember you for what you truly are. You're scared."

Shelby chuckles. "I think you're projecting Santana."

Santana just scowls.

"If you want my advice, Santana." Shelby begins, rising from her seat and gathering her bag. "I'd let sleeping dogs lie if I were you. I'll admit, Storybrooke drove me crazy in the beginning but now...well, it's not so bad." She looks out at the town fondly.

"It could be worse." Santana reluctantly agrees before promptly shutting her mouth. And why the fuck did she just say that? She's not supposed to agree with the Evil Queen. On anything. Ever.

Shelby smiles at her response. "Exactly." she gently nods. "So do yourself the favor. Finish school, get a job, and live out your happily ever after in peace."

Santana blinks at her.

Of all the things she'd ever expected Shelby to say, that was not one of them.

"Is that an order?" Santana questions skeptically. And if so, what kind of an Evil Queen order was that? It didn't make any sense.

Shelby doesn't answer her.

"Another thing." she says instead. "This I think is fairly obvious, but I want you to keep Rachel out of all this."

Santana bites back a scoff.

Too late for that.

"And if I don't?" she challenges, for the hell of it.

Shelby arches her brow and smiles. "What do you think?"

Santana rises to her feet, not liking being looked down on, and meets Shelby's gaze head-on. "I'm not scared of you."

"Never said you were."

So effing confused by this whole conversation and what the fuck Shelby's actual deal was, Santana is helpless but to let the former queen walk away despite her shit ton of questions left unsaid.

Shaking her head to herself, Santana waits until Shelby's long gone before slipping a hand under her shirt. She winces slightly as she pulls out the tape recorder she'd had taped to her underboob.

Well.

She might not have gotten all the answers she wanted, but at least she got her blackmail material.

---

AN: Aargh. So not where I wanted to cut it off but whatever. You'll get your answers next chapter. Hopefully soon!

Quick things to clarify: Cassie July- or Maleficent, now that you know - was not in the Enchanted Forest section. Someone asked about her and I never addressed it. I didn't slip her in while you guys weren't paying attention lol. I just didn't want every single character in this story to have had direct contact with the Unholy Trinity in the Forest so she's one of the few that didn't.

Also, Kristoff's storybrooke counterpart is not a glee character. I just gave him a name because I couldn't think of any glee character that fit him well enough personality wise and I didn't want to force a character into the role. Same with Mackenzie. She is obviously not a glee character, but I wanted her fairytale counterpart in the story so I added the character.

Anyways!

Big thanks as always to those who continue to support this story and especially those who review! I love that you guys are so into this story and share your thoughts. :)

Also, big thanks to everyone who reviewed and/or favorited the two Quinntana oneshots I dropped last summer! All that love was much appreciated!