"It's over."

"WHAT?" Puck yelled out to the bar. Mercedes shushed him and looked around with a smile, hoping to appear like nothing was wrong. Puck just shook his head before looking back at her. "Why?"

"I found someone else." Mercedes replied easily. She knew he had already cheated on her at least once so she wasn't too concerned about him. He'd probably find another girl by the end of the day. It was just his pride that hurt at the moment.

"Is it Sam?" Puck asked, looking at her with one eyebrow raised.

"No!" Mercedes gave him a look that said he was crazy. "He's my best friend's baby daddy. You really think I'm going go all up on that?"

Puck shrugged then looked deep in thought. "Finn?"

Mercedes shook her head. "Kurt?" That didn't even get a reply.

"You don't know him." Mercedes finally told him. "He's a guy Kurt hooked me up with. She stopped Puck before he could open his mouth. "He's not gay."

Puck just smirked and nodded. He knew this wasn't the relationship for him. He was actually happy for Mercedes though he had to admit he liked having her as his girlfriend.

Mercedes just let him think it all over, knowing that was his way of processing things. Just give him some silence and he'll come to his own kind of conclusion. After a few minutes he looked up to her. "So we are still friends right?"

Mercedes nodded. "I would actually really like that, Puck."

"And you'll totally be my wingman if I need you? Well, wing-lady?"

Mercedes just laughed and shook her head. "You would ask that. You know what? Sure, as long as you are a gentleman to whomever the poor girl is."

The two shook hands, happy to be able to hopefully stay friend after breaking up.

It was Monday morning. Santana woke up to a jostling in her bed and Brittany's thoughtful expression, which quickly turned to a smile when she realized the brunette was waking up. As Santana rubbed at her eyes and slowly blinked them open, she caught a flash of color that wasn't usually in her bed, unless of course Brittany was wearing hot pink underwear. Considering that last night they celebrated Brittany's agreement to move in, that wasn't an option this time. She had to laugh when she realized it was the lanyard she had given her girlfriend last night.

"Did you wear that to bed?" Santana tried to remember if she had seen it last night but her thoughts were quickly lost to ones of Brittany's soft skin and loud moans.

"San!" Brittany poked at a tan shoulder, hoping to kick the girl out of her daze.

"What?" Santana tried to look innocent but her guilty expression showed through and Brittany noticed.

"You were thinking about last night, weren't you?" Santana nodded with a smirk. "Aww that's cute. I was trying to tell you that I got up earlier and put it on. I really like wearing it." Brittany twisted it around her fingers until it was tight around her neck before quickly releasing it again.

Santana found the tiny smile the blonde wore as she picked up the key and pretended to unlock a door with her tongue poking out. Morning breath be damned. She reached up and pulled her girlfriend's lips towards her own, happy to have her kiss be eagerly excited.

"Are you ready for your day today, San?"

Santana took a breath and nodded. She actually wasn't sure if she was ready but her decision was made. Today was it.

"I'm proud of you."

"For?"

"For choosing what you did. I don't know what I would've done. I'm used to just doing whatever is easiest. It worked for me because that dancing but I don't think it works for everybody." Brittany said honestly, trying to think of an example where it didn't work out for someone. She remembered a cartoon she watched with Ariana about somebody who took the easy way out but then she got distracted thinking about other episodes and soon enough she was off track.

When she started to stare of into space, Santana just stared at the blonde. Somehow, just looking at her and knowing that she was hers made everything better. Suddenly, this day wouldn't be so bad. No matter what, she had Brittany to come home to now. It was their home.

"By the way I might not be home when you get back."

Or not, Santana thought in her head. "Why not, babe?"

"Rachel is helping me pack my stuff. I mean, since I'm moving in I can bring it over, right?" Brittany shyly looked down at the key still in hands. Maybe she had misinterpreted all of this, even though she was pretty sure Santana had meant it.

"Of course!" Santana smiled and put her hand on Brittany's cheek, running her thumb along the smooth skin. She waited for her girlfriend's smile to appear once again, which it quickly did. "I was just looking forward to coming home to you. If you are getting your stuff though, I'm more than okay with that because it means I can look forward coming home to our place."

"I like the way that sounds. Our place." Brittany grinned. She repeated the phrase over and over in different accents and voices that made Santana laugh at how silly her girlfriend could be. She even tried a few of her own. Pretty soon they were speaking sentences in weird accents, just enjoying the little amount of time they had before they had to get up and get ready.

"I never knew you could do a good Harry Potter accent."

Santana laughed at Brittany's wording, knowing she meant British accent.

Eventually the two decided to get out of bed. They took a joint shower. That allowed them some more time together but they were forced themselves back from any funny business. It wasn't exactly the easiest thing they'd ever done.

After they double checked very thoroughly that each of their bodies was clean, the pair got out and finished getting dressed and putting on their makeup. There were sweet kisses stolen every now and then but neither complained. I definitely wouldn't mind that for the rest of my life. Woah Lopez, slow down. Let's make it to a month first, yeah?

The girls shared a quick breakfast, just scrambled eggs and toast before leaving their separate ways.

When Brittany entered the gym that day, Coach Beiste noticed the good mood radiating off of the blonde.

"Still in a good mood from that day off?" Coach Beiste chuckled.

"She asked me to move in with her!" Brittany couldn't hold it in. If she was honest with herself, she didn't exactly try too hard.

"How long have you been dating?"

"Um…a little more than three weeks. Almost a month!" Brittany nodded her head as she counted off the days, double checking to see if she was right.

"Not that I'm some kind of relationship yoda, but isn't that a little soon?" Coach Beiste really didn't want to put down the good mood her assistant was in but she cared about her and wanted to make sure she was making the right kind of choices. It was hard not to grow kind of protective of Brittany.

"I don't think so. I feel really comfortable with her. See, my roommate Rachel pretty much owns the place I used to stay at. Now she kind of kicked me out, but I'm not mad at her because she just wants to play house with her boyfriend without me around. I even asked if I could pretend to be their dog. San took me out to look for a place so I didn't think she was going to ask me but then she gave me this-" Brittany pulled out the lanyard that was wrapped around her neck and tucked into her shirt. "and asked me to move in! It was sweet and we had really good sex afterwards."

Coach Beiste closed her eyes, as if that would erase Brittany's previous statement from her head. Didn't need to know that. "Well, I really hope it works out for you, Brittany. You're a good person. If you ever need a place to stay or Santana treats you badly, I have a guest room that's free. It's there if you need it."

Brittany could hear the sincerity in the coach's voice and she gave her a hug. "I don't think she'll ever treat me badly. Thanks, though."

Coach Beiste just nodded and soon enough they heard the excited chatter of small children.

Santana pulled up to the school. It was her first day back. It had been an on-going discussion in her own head whether or not she would come back. In the end, she decided it was something she had to do. It was one of the things she knew she was good at. Not only that, but nobody scares away Santana Lopez, especially not some snotty lying teenager.

She established some new rules for herself and her squad. No more one on one meetings in her office. They would either be on the field when the rest of the squad was present or in her office with her new assistant coach.

That was one reason why she was headed straight to Principal Jordan's office instead of back to her own when she arrived. Once again, she put on her HBIC face and walked through the doors all the way to the secretary's office. She confirmed that Mr. Jordan was, in fact, in his office and available at the moment. She quickly thanked the secretary and walked around to his door behind the desk. Boldly, she reached out and did a few quick, loud knocks.

"Come in." Mr. Jordan's voice could be heard through the door

Santana opened the door and walked in, head held high. Mr. Jordan actually had to hide his smile when he noticed the same confident woman walk in that he used to see stroll the halls and put an almost inappropriate amount of fear into most of the students.

"Ahh Ms. Lopez. It's nice to see you back in these halls."

"I haven't actually walked through any halls yet. I'm letting the rumors that my car is back in the parking lot have time to fly around."

"I'm sure it won't take long. That kind of stuff never does around here."

Santana just nodded, knowing that it was true.

"Please, sit down." Mr. Jordan indicated to the chair directly in front of his desk. It always made Santana smile when she had to sit there because it reminded her of the few times in high school she had sat in the principal's office. Usually it was just as Sue's posse but a few times it was for fighting or scaring her classmates. She never got into any real trouble, just half-hearted warnings.

"I wanted to talk about getting an assistant coach." Santana just got straight to her point.

"I see. May I ask why? Are your head cheerleaders not doing a good job?" Mr. Jordan asked, not realizing the subject was kind of an awkward topic.

"I just think it would be, um, more professional." Santana tried to emphasis the last word, hoping the principal would get what she was referring to. She thinks it worked when he froze for a second before nodding in agreement.

"Oh, yes. Did you have anybody in mind or do we need to put out an advertisement?"

"I think we could just put a notice in the paper and have interviews or something. I'd be willing to do the interviews personally but I don't want to do it without your permission." If it was a month ago, Santana would've done it without consulting the man in front of her. Now, she was careful to stay on the man's good side, especially after the support he tried to show during the incident.

"I will go ahead and make that happen then. Thank you for coming to me and discussing this."

Santana nodded and got up. She walked over to the door but before she could leave, the principal cleared his throat.

"Ms. Lopez?" Santana turned and noticed he looked nervous. "I know this may seem, inappropriate, but were any of the, um, undergarments that were in your drawer your own personal, um, clothes? We could return them to you." Mr. Jordan's cheeks turned a light pink.

Part of Santana wanted to yell at him for bringing it up but part of her wanted to laugh at him for his embarrassment. "No. I had never seen any of those before. I don't ever want to see them again." With that, Santana left his office.

She slowly strolled down the halls, no morning cheerleading practice today. It was odd to be back. She was gone a week but she knew that half of her squad would have new boyfriends and girlfriends, new routines if they practiced at all while she was absent, and possibly a new captain. Obviously, Tia would not be able to keep her position as captain. She accused Santana and lied just like Britney had and that couldn't go unpunished. She would be allowed to stay on the squad because she came clean, even if it wasn't for the best reason.

She was just wondering when the bell was going to ring when she heard somebody call out her name. "Ms. Lopez!" Santana turned around to find the voice.

"Mercedes. What's up?"

"Just wanted to say welcome back. It's nice to have someone here who I actually hang out with outside of school." Mercedes shrugged and started walking beside her best friend as they made their way down the hallways still walking slowly with the occasional stares and fingers being pointed at Santana. Soon enough, everybody knew the coach was indeed back. Santana nodded at a few of her cheerleaders that were giving her hopeful looks.

"So, I just want you to know that I asked Brittany to move in with me."

Mercedes gasped in surprise. Santana felt a hand being put to her forehead as if to check her temperature before she pushed it away. "I'm not sick!"

"I wanted to check. You, Santana Lopez, HBIC, No-Love-Lopez, Satan, asked somebody to live with you? A girlfriend, no less!"

Santana's mouth dropped open. She had never heard 'No-Love-Lopez' before. C'mon. Is it really that surprising that I asked her to move in? Santana closed her mouth and shrugged, trying to play it cool. "The Hobbit is making her move out. We couldn't find a place for her so I offered up mine. Plus, she's great with animals I have Ariana's cat now and that thing already freaks me out. It almost walked in on me and Britt-"

"Don't need to know that!" Mercedes quickly interrupted, putting her hand in the air for emphasis. "To be honest, I'm shocked, but I'm happy for you two. I'm glad somebody managed to melt the ice around your heart."

"Oh, Britt's definitely hot enough to do that." Santana smiled, getting lost in thoughts of her blonde, naked, just like she tended to do many times in a day. The day she got tired of seeing that was the day she thought Finn was the hottest man alive.

"Speaking of relationships, I broke up with Puck." Mercedes tried to casually sneak it, even though she wanted to talk all about it.

"What?" Santana asked, her brows furrowing in confusion. She knew the two weren't the kind of 'forever love' that movies showed but it still seemed kind of unexpected.

"I met someone else."

"Who? Why haven't I heard about this guy? Is he hot? Is her richer than Puck?"

"Well, you've been a little preoccupied with that situation and then with Brittany so I didn't exactly have sharing time with you. Yes, my new man is very hot and I don't know if he is richer than Puck and I really don't care. As long as he doesn't live in his mother's basement or is a serial killer or anything then I'm good."

Santana smiled and wiggled her eyebrows. "Alright. My girl's getting it! Somebody's a heart breaker and a love maker. Wanky!"

"I can't believe you still say that." Mercedes shook her head as they came up to her classroom.

"I gots to keep up my rep. It'll catch on yet."

"I've got to go get ready for these damn kids today. I'll talk to you later, Satan. Lunch?"

Santana nodded and said a quick goodbye before taking off towards her office. It was weird to have so many smiles directed towards her. Most of the kids and even the teachers seemed to be happy to have her back. She thought they would all be angry or sad that she had come back. Though she would never admit it, she was happy to see them, too.

When Santana opened the door of her office, she couldn't help but feel a small smile pull at her lips. It wasn't the most extravagant office but it had been her first and only. She walked over and sat down at the desk. The first thing she did in her new office was reach into her pocket and take out a picture. It was another one of Brittany and she grabbed some scotch tape off her desk and taped it to her computer monitor. She breathed out a sigh of content as she stared at the pretty blonde in the picture.

She turned her computer on. She didn't use it often, preferring to use just a pen and paper, but it was useful when she wanted to check her school email inbox. Another smile appeared when Ariana's smiling face looked at her from the screen. Santana had forgotten that she had put that as her background a while ago. It made her feel like this decision was the right one.

After taking her time relearning the feel of her office, it was finally time for lunch. She was able to meet up with Mercedes and the two talked about the details of how the break up was administered and how Puck took it. Santana also told the story of how she asked Brittany to move in with her after Mercedes' relentless prodding.

"Aww, that's cute. Who knew Satan was just the sweetest thing?"

"We had some really hot sex afterwards. It was totally worth it." Santana added.

"And then you ruin the moment. Way to be." Mercedes couldn't help but laugh.

"Like I said this morning, I have a reputation to keep." Santana winked and smirked and Mercedes couldn't help but notice some similarities between her best friend and her ex-boyfriend. Suddenly, the comfort that she quickly found in him and her ability to know how to handle him made so much more sense.

Lunch ended and Santana spent the rest of her day catching up on new competitions and requirements that were created during her absence. Soon enough, the time for practice had arrived.

She was nervous about how this was going to go but made sure that her face didn't show it. Now wasn't the time for weakness. She had to come back stronger than ever. Grabbing her clipboard and putting on a spare pair of aviators she had in her desk, Santana made her way out onto the field for the first time in a week.

"First things first, Tia, you are no longer head cheerleader." She ignored the girl's jaw drop and squeak of protest. "For now, there is no leader and you are all equals. I will be watching you closely, looking for my new head cheerleader. You will need to prove leadership, honesty, fairness, and other qualities that I don't want to go into detail about. I've already taken more time to talk then I wanted to. Show me what you've achieved while I was away. That's right, I'm back and I'm ready to roll. Now move!"

Santana smirked when the squad looked worriedly at each other. It would be a long practice, but damn it felt good to be back.

Santana entered her own house, exhausted from the terrible practice she had just had. It wasn't terrible because of the job. No, she had a new appreciation for it, in fact. It was terrible because her squad had apparently not had a real, organized, hard-working practice since she had been gone. She had previously had them on such a tight schedule that the week off had thrown them all completely. After three drops and near-injuries, Santana gave up on lifts and tosses. She was just happy to find simple moves could still be executed better than most squads.

She looked up and was surprised to find some new stuff decorating her place. There were a few pictures of her blonde with various people and animals. There was a bright multi-colored blanket hanging over the back of the couch. She saw a few new pairs of shoes and coats when she opened the closet to put her own away. This all made her exhausted frown grow into a pleased smile. She was surprised by the warm feeling she got every time she saw something of the blonde's around the rooms. She heard some rummaging around in the bedroom and she assumed Brittany was back there.

She smiled when her assumptions were proved right. Her girlfriend was stretching up to put some things on the top shelf of the closet. It was one Santana didn't use because she would always need to get something to stand on so she could reach it. It seemed just high enough for the blonde to reach if she went on her tip-toes.

When Brittany came back down flat on her feet, Santana snuck up and wrapped her arms around the girl and kissed her neck, exposed by a slightly curled pony tail. She chuckled when she felt the girl jump before immediately relaxing into the familiar touch. "Hey there, my gorgeous roomie."

"San!" Brittany spun in her girlfriend's arms so they could share a kiss. "I'm glad your home. I've been moving stuff and it has been going so fast. Rachel had packed most of my stuff for me and drove it over as soon as I was done with school. I think she was ready to have me out of her place."

"Well, I'm glad you're home." Santana smiled and leaned in for another kiss.

A*N – It's five in the morning for me, so here's an update? Just another reminder that if you go to deviantart(dot)com and look up an artist named watup2mycup, you'll find a great piece of fanart that relates to this story.

I'm thinking one more chapter for this story and it'll be done. It'll most likely be more of an epilogue chapter as well. I'm ready to start on a fantastic prompt I got a while ago that has been slowly working itself into an interesting story in my mind and it needs to be written! It's not like anything I've read before and it is Brittana centric so hopefully I'll see some of you again when I finally get around to writing it! I move in to my dorm this weekend and I start college next week so I hope you guys are okay with a small hiatus. I was told I need to get a tumblr to keep you all up to date but I don't know if I really should or not, yet. Anybody think it's a good idea?

Anyways, I need to get to finally go to sleep. If you have any more cat name suggestions feel free to share! It will be revealed next chapter! Thanks for reading and such as usual, I really appreciate each one of you!