December:

After Ava's encounter with Santa Claus and the sadness Santana saw in her eyes when she told her that Santa wasn't very good at being Santa, Santana just felt awful. Truth be told, she'd felt awful since the day she moved out of the house, but every day it just seemed to be getting worse. She missed seeing the kids every day, she missed the routine they had gotten into, and though she would try to deny it to herself, she missed Brittany. Over the ten months they had been living together, they had rekindled something that had been missing in Santana's heart for a long time and she felt a little sick that it had all been thrown away.

Because they wanted to make Christmas a nice day for the kids, they agreed to do it together. Santana was going to come over on Christmas morning, they'd have breakfast, the kids would open their gifts and then she'd stay for the day. She realized that if there was one thing she and Brittany were actually really good at, it was co-parenting. Even if they'd had their spats in the time they were living together, the kids actually seemed to be well-adjusted and were in so much better shape than they'd been in the first months after John and Cassidy died. All Santana wanted was for that to continue…or really, all she wanted was for everything to feel right inside of her again. But she didn't know how to make that happen.

On Christmas Eve morning, she went out and took Daisy for a walk. She just needed to clear her head, even though it was cold outside, and she realized the one thing that she couldn't clear from her mind was Brittany. She thought about their eight-year relationship, she thought about how they'd never resolved their breakup, she thought about how even after two years apart, she hadn't been able to explain to Brittany how awful she felt when Brittany had assumed she was cheating on her. So much was left unsaid between them and she didn't know how she was ever going to feel like she was right in the head until she actually got it out. Then, she thought about Ava. She thought about her Christmas wish and how really, she was the only thing stopping it from coming true.

All afternoon, she stewed in her thoughts. Then, after eight-pm, she knew what she had to do. She couldn't wait any longer to talk to Brittany, she needed to lay it all out on the table and just…see where it went. When Brittany had almost kissed her back in September, she'd felt that the spark was still there. It was in Brittany's eyes, it was in her own heart as it thump-thump-thumped against her rib cage. She realized then that they were never going to be over, that all the breakups and movings out and everything else didn't stop the fact that she still loved her and she was never going to be happy until things were fixed. So, she went in her room to get something out of her drawer, she put Daisy in the car and she drove over to the house, knocking softly on the door when she got there so as not to wake the kids.

"Santana, what are you doing here?" Brittany asked when she answered the door, snow falling around them like some kind of cheesy Christmas movie. If she were in Love, Actually or something, she would have swept Brittany off her feet right there. She would have pulled her into her arms and kissed her, she would have dropped down on one knee and proposed, but they weren't in a Christmas movie. They were in real life and there were real life things between them that they needed to talk about.

"Can I come in?" Santana shuffled between her feet and looked down.

"Uh, yeah, sure." She stepped back and let Santana step inside, eyes never leaving her as she slipped off her coat and hung in by the door. "Do you want tea? I just made a cup."

"I'm good. No, that's a lie. I'm not good."

"What's going on? The kids are in bed." Brittany walked into the living room and sat down on the couch, the lights from the Christmas tree reflecting in her blonde hair.

"Here." Santana reached in her jeans pocket and pulled out the box she'd taken from her dresser. She didn't open the box, she just handed it over to Brittany and took a deep breath. Not letting her eyes move, she watched as Brittany opened it, her eyes widening as she saw the diamond ring inside.

"What…what? What are you doing?"

"No, no…I'm not…it's not like that. I just wanted to show you. You kept asking me to tell you and I kept refusing to talk about it. That's why I was so secretive. I just…wanted it to be a surprise."

"Santana."

"I know it means nothing years later, but I was going to propose to you. That's why it hurt me so badly when you thought I was cheating on you. I wanted to give you everything and…you couldn't even trust me."

"It wasn't you…it was me."

"That…explains nothing."

"You were doing so well in your career, I was still teaching beginner ballet for twelve dollars an hour. I wasn't doing anything that I wasn't doing in high school and all I could think of was that I wasn't good enough for you. Why wouldn't you want to leave me for someone else? It consumed me, Santana. When I felt you pulling away from me…"

"I never would have cheated on you, Brittany."

"I know. I knew it when you walked out, I was just too stupid to see it before I said something."

"You weren't stupid." Santana felt the walls she'd build up around this come tumbling down as she moved closer to Brittany on the couch. Just being in her proximity had the effect on Santana and she thought maybe the Christmas lights reflecting in her eyes were making it even more so. She wanted everything to stop hurting, she wanted everything to be good between them again. She never wanted to lose Brittany. "You were scared."

"So scared. The way I loved you…the way I still love you is the scariest thing I've ever experienced. I just don't know how I can feel so much for one person."

"You…still feel it?"

"I never stopped." Brittany shook her head, wringing her hands in her lap and Santana sort of thought it might be so she wouldn't reach out and touch her. "Why do you think I don't date? No one will ever compare to you."

"For the record, I have dated, and no one will ever compare to you either."

"What are we doing?" She whispered.

"I…don't know. I didn't think that far. I just had to come here and see you. I had to know whether or not we still had some kind of chance."

"Is it okay if I kiss you right now?"

"Please."

The Christmas lights on the tree flickered as Brittany moved in slowly, trying not to break the moment, Santana thought. When their lips pressed together, Santana felt like she was coming home. She felt like everything she'd done in the past three years didn't matter, it was all just leading up to the inevitable moment where they found each other again. It was Santana who deepened the kiss, Santana who wrapped her arms around Brittany, Santana who just wanted to melt into her and make everything magically better. It was Christmas, after all, shouldn't there be some kind of magic?

"I'm sorry." Brittany murmured. "I'm so sorry that I thought the worst of you when all you ever did was try to be the best. Will you ever forgive me?"

"I think…for the first time, I'm finally able to heal my heart."

"I love you, I don't know if that was clear."

"It was totally clear." Santana laughed. "And I love you too."

"Where do we go from here?"

"If you'll have me, I'd like to move back in. I hate living across town, I feel like I'm missing out on everything and now that I know you love me back, I don't think I can bear to be that far away. We can take things as slowly or as fast as you want. All I know is that I'm done being without you."

"And what about the kids?"

"I think Ava has more of an idea than anyone. She's been pestering me about you for months."

"What do you mean?" Brittany furrowed her brow.

"She point blank asked me if I love you."

"What did you even say to that?"

"I told her that I cared about you a lot. What else was I going to say? I do care about you a lot, I always have. I know that I didn't exactly show it the night of your birthday when I freaked out, I just didn't expect you to almost kiss me that night."

"I didn't expect to almost kiss you either, but I feel so much when I'm around you that it was so hard for me to control. As much as we were angry with each other when we first moved in here, I still felt things for you. Then there were all those complications with the movie premiere and the reunion and I was so jealous of you dating Wendy that I couldn't even stand it. I'm still jealous of you and Wendy…"

"Wendy and I aren't a thing. I broke up with her that night I didn't come home. My car got locked in the garage and all I could think about was getting home to you and the kids."

"I'm sorry I accused you."

"I know, I wish you wouldn't do that."

"I promise you, I won't anymore. Santana, you've seriously always been it for me. I know you stayed here for two weeks after we broke up, Cass told me, but I went back to Lima and stayed with my parents. I didn't know how to be apart from you and maybe, now that I do, I can love you better."

"You always loved me best, Brittany. That's why no one else could ever compare."

"I think of all the time we missed…"

"Don't think about it. Think about all the time we have ahead of us. I want you to hold onto that ring and think of it as a promise. I'd be crazy if I proposed to you right now, but one day, I'm going to ask for it back and I'm going to get down on one knee and ask you to love me forever."

"You don't have to ask me to love you forever, I already do."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

There was the patter of little feet on the stairs, but Santana didn't make a move to separate from Brittany. Instead, she took her hand and squeezed it, turning to see Ava standing there in her pajamas, hair a mess from bed and rubbing her eyes. She smiled at her as Daisy ran up to her and licked her feet and Ava blinked rapidly, trying to figure out what was going on. She looked at the Christmas tree to the gifts that Brittany had carefully arranged under there, then she looked to the couch where Santana and Brittany sat close together. A smile lit up her face and she kept blinking, as if her eyes would clear and she wouldn't see what she thought she was seeing.

"Did Santa come?" She asked, looking between Santana and Brittany on the couch. "Did he give me my wish?"

"That's up to Aunt Brittany." Santana smiled, though she was certain she knew the answer even before Brittany said it. Maybe wishes did come true, maybe Christmas magic was real. "If she'll have me back, I'll come home."

"Santana, I couldn't ask for a better Christmas present."