Hey guys! Sorry, life got a little busy there for a bit. I didn't ditch you I promise! This one's a little long so we'll just jump right in, yeah? Enjoy :)
Monday afternoon Santana and Dani decided to lounge around in Santana's room and be entirely unproductive, just goofing around and talking the afternoon away. The two were on the bed, Dani with her head in Santana's lap as the Latina ran her fingers through Dani's fading red hair, chuckling at her dumb jokes.
"Oh come on, it's not that bad!" Dani laughed, smacking Santana's knee.
"Why did the cookie go to the doctor, because it was feeling a little crumby? Really, D? That's pretty bad," Santana giggled.
"Fine. How about... where do frogs go when they're sick?"
"I dunno Dani, why don't you tell me?" Santana rolled her eyes, holding back a laugh.
"To the hop-spital!"
"You've gotta be kidding me."
"What?" Dani looked up at Santana and grinned, biting her bottom lip cheekily.
"You're dumb," the brunette shook her head.
"But you like the dumb," Dani wiggled her eyebrows.
"Sometimes," Santana teased.
"I think you like it more than you'll admit. Why else would you still be with me?"
"Good point. Dani, I don't think we should see each other anymore," Santana chuckled.
"The nerve," Dani rolled her eyes and sat up, holding back a smile. She moved onto the floor and crossed her arms, laying down and staring up at the ceiling. "Got dumped over a frog joke-"
"A terrible frog joke!"
"Quiet you! You just broke up with me, you don't get to say anything."
"Sorry babe."
"You don't get to do that either. You can call me Dani or 'the one that got away'. Those are your options." The redhead was trying so hard not to laugh, wanting to see how long they could keep this up.
Santana moved to the edge of her bed, laying down on her stomach. She reached her hand out, her arm just long enough to reach Dani's. She ran her fingers along her arm, huffing when Dani shuffled just out of reach.
"You lost touching privileges too," Dani grumbled, refusing to look at Santana.
Santana knew they were both just messing around, but the thought of Dani not being hers anymore made her heart ache. That was something she knew she never wanted to happen.
"I'm sorry baby. Come back to me," she pouted. Dani turned to face her, a look of mock anger etched across her face. "Baby come back!" Santana couldn't hold back her giggles as she started to sing. "You can blame it all on me, baby come back!"
Dani nearly cracked, but managed to keep up her façade.
"Why should I?"
"Because I miss you and you're beautiful and amazing and funny and smart and kind and talented and-"
"Flattery will get you everywhere," Dani interrupted, finally smiling over at Santana.
"Yes!" Santana grinned, fist pumping.
Dani got up off the floor and dropped herself on top of Santana, laughing when the brunette started squirming under her.
"Babe get off me!"
"But you're so comfy..." Dani mumbled, snuggling her head into Santana's back.
"My arm is crushing my boob!"
"Sorry boob," Dani giggled, reaching over and gently patting the side of Santana's right breast.
"DANI!"
"Okay, okay. Sheesh." Dani rolled off Santana, still laughing. The Latina flipped over onto her back, playfully glaring at Dani.
"You hurt me, D. You hurt me real bad."
"Consider it payback for dumping me over a joke."
"...Fair enough," Santana laughed. "That did hurt though."
"Should I kiss it and make it better?" Dani wiggled her eyebrows.
"It's the least you could do," Santana teased.
Dani rolled her eyes and leaned over, placing a gentle kiss on the top of Santana's chest. She cuddled into Santana's side, tucking her head under the taller girl's chin.
"I'm so glad I'm your girlfriend again," she laughed.
"Whoa, hey now. Who said anything about girlfriend?" Santana grinned, knowing Dani couldn't see her face.
"You just begged for me back, I assume that means we're together again."
"See, the thing is, I don't know if I want to put a label on us right now," Santana joked. "I wanna kiss you and hold you and spend time with you, but I also wanna play the field, you know?"
"Na-uh." Dani sat up, glaring at Santana. "I'm either your girlfriend, or I'm not your anything."
"I don't know if I'm down with that..."
"Let me put it like this." Dani got up and walked over to Santana's desk, plugging her phone into the iHome. Santana sat up as music started pouring out of the speakers. Dani stood directly in front of Santana, arms crossed; she meant business.
If you want my love
You gotta do what it does
If you want these sweet like sugar Gucci lips
You gotta give it up
I know you think I'm cool
But I ain't one of the boys
No don't be scared that I'm gon' tie you down
I need a little more
Santana was loving the sassy facial expressions Dani was making.
Baby don't call me a friend
If I hear that word again
You might never get a chance to see me
Naked in your bed
Dani quirked an eyebrow at Santana, causing her cheeks to heat up.
I know girls ain't hard to find
But if you think you wanna try
Then consider this an invitation
To kiss my ass goodbye
Give me that title, title
Come on give me that title, title
Better give me that title, title
Come on give me that title, title
Dani moved to sit next to Santana on the bed.
If it ain't no thing
I won't be hangin around
But don't blow up my shit at three am sayin
How you need me now
Santana leaned in to try and kiss her, but Dani moved away just before she reached her lips.
Don't call me boo
Like you're some kind of ghost
If you don't want me seeing other guys, well
Here's what you need to know
Santana pouted as Dani got up and stood in front of her. She reached out and grabbed her hands, holding them tightly as she listened.
Baby don't call me a friend
If I hear that word again
You might never get a chance to see me
Naked in your bed
Dani winked at Santana, making her blush again.
I know girls ain't hard to find
But if you think you wanna try
Then consider this an invitation
To kiss my ass goodbye
Give me that title, title
Come on give me that title, title
Better give me that title, title
Come on give me that title, title
Yeah
Dani pulled her hands away from Santana's and placed them on the brunette's thighs, leaning down and leveling their faces.
Yo, said I'm a special kinda woman
I'm loving what you got
But I'm hating what you doin
Gotta understand that I'm looking for a man
Who can get up on that bike
Look ma, no hands!
Dani backed away from Santana, using some of those ridiculous hand gestures Santana knew she loved to do when she rapped.
You gotta show me off off
But you embarrassed?
If that's the case I'm all gon
You gotta treat me like a trophy
Put me on the shelf
Or call me something else
Dani climbed back on the bed next to Santana, resting her head on her shoulder and looking up at her.
Baby don't call me a friend
If I hear that word again
You might never get a chance to see me
Naked in your bed
The girls smirked at each other, and Santana couldn't keep the grin off her face.
I know girls ain't hard to find
But if you think you wanna try
Then consider this an invitation
To kiss my ass goodbye
Lifting her head off Santana's shoulder, Dani looked right into her eyes as slow smile crept onto her face.
Give me that title, title
Come on give me that title, title
Better give me that title, title
Come on give me that title, title
Yeah
Dani was still singing the chorus one more time but Santana couldn't wait any longer. Abruptly leaning forward, she connected her lips to her girlfriend's, reaching her hand up to the back of her neck and bringing her closer. She pulled away smiling, studying every centimeter of Dani's face.
"You're all mine, Dani. Don't you forget it."
"I wouldn't dream of being anyone else's," Dani grinned. Santana waited for her to continue, but Dani simply stared back at her.
"What about me? Am I yours?"
"Well, here's the thing-" Dani looked down at her hands, holding back a grin.
"Oh fuck you!"
"Of course you're mine dumbass," Dani giggled, laying her head back down in Santana's lap. "I just wanna say you're mine you're mine. I just wanna say you're mine you're mine. Fuck what you heard you're mine you're mine. All I'm really askin for is you," she sang, grinning up at Santana.
"Good."
Santana shuffled them a bit, laying herself back with her feet hanging off the edge of the bed and moving Dani's head up to rest on her stomach. She reached out and held Dani's hand, running her other hand through Dani's hair.
"The red's getting kinda faded babe," she commented.
"Yeah. I either gotta touch it up or pick a new color before it gets too dingy." Dani picked up the ends of her hair and held them in the air, studying them.
"New year, new color?" Santana suggested.
"That's what I was thinking, but I don't know what color to do."
"I would kind of like to see you with your natural hair color. Don't get me wrong, you could rock absolutely any color you choose, I just think you'd look extra gorgeous natural."
"I dunno, my natural hair color is so boring. I kind of want to do something exciting," Dani shrugged.
"That blue streak you had looked really good. Maybe you should go blue."
"I'll think about it."
The girls fell into a comfortable silence, Santana running one hand through Dani's hair as Dani played with the other. After a few minutes, Santana spoke up.
"Are you excited for Saturday?"
"Yeah, but I'm also really nervous."
"Why?"
"I've never been to a fancy event like this before."
"You hadn't been to a dance before the one I took you to either, but that turned out pretty fun," Santana pointed out.
"True. I guess it's the 'fancy' part I'm worried about. I'm not a huge fan of dresses. I mean, I'll wear them no problem, but I feel so much more comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt."
"I bet you're gonna look absolutely amazing," Santana said honestly.
"Do you want to see it? I have a picture on my phone-"
"No don't show me! I want it to be a surprise when we meet up at Quinn's." The glee kids had all chipped in and rented a party bus to take them to formal, and everyone was meeting at Quinn's house beforehand for dinner.
"If you say so."
"I just need to know what color it is. My mom wants me to get you a corsage and all that stuff," Santana mumbled. Her mom had been bugging her about it for a while, but she was actually kind of excited to do the whole cheesy date thing.
"I totally forgot I'm supposed to ask you too," Dani laughed. "Mine's black."
"Of course," Santana chuckled. "Mine's red."
"Cheerio through and through, huh?" Dani teased.
"Yes, but that's not why. Red just looks really good on me."
"No arguments here."
"Speaking of the Cheerios, are you still coming to the competition next Sunday?"
"Hell yeah! I haven't gotten to see my girl in action yet," Dani grinned. "I guess I could just watch one of your practices if I really wanted to-"
"You can't!" Santana blurted out.
"Um, why not?" Dani furrowed her eyebrows, looking over at Santana.
"Because, uh, Coach has a no spectators rule for a couple weeks before competition. Says it distracts from practice."
"I don't doubt that's true, but that's not the whole truth. It's okay though, I'll just wait."
"I just want it to be a surprise," Santana explained.
"I totally get it. That's why I haven't played you my new song yet."
"What new song?" Santana propped herself up on her elbows, looking down at Dani.
"The one I'm writing for that music competition I told you about a couple weeks ago."
"Right. When is that again?" Santana asked, not wanting to miss it.
"Some time next week. I think it's next Saturday."
"When you find out for sure, let me know and I'll make sure to be there."
"You got it," Dani nodded, smiling up at Santana.
"Would you change your hair before or after?" Santana wondered.
"I wanna do it soon, so probably before." She paused for a moment, thinking. "If I went blue it would definitely be something for the judges to remember..."
"Yeah, who could forget a beautiful and extremely talented singing smurf?"
"Tana!" Dani reached over and smacked Santana's arm. "If I go blue you're not allowed to call me a smurf."
"But my little smurf!" Santana teased, bringing her hands down to tickle Dani's stomach.
"Babe no!" Dani laughed, trying to push Santana's hands off of her.
Her attempts were futile; Santana was stronger than she was. She tried curling up in a ball to keep Santana away, but the Latina attacked her sides, tickling her full force. Their laughter bounced off the walls, mixing together and creating one of the happiest sounds Santana had ever heard. She was distracted by it for a split second, allowing Dani enough time to get up and try to move off the bed. Santana caught her by the hips just in time, but suddenly there was only one laugh echoing around the room.
"Ah, shit," Dani hissed as she sat back on Santana.
"Fuck, what did I do? Are you okay? I'm so sorry-"
"Hey it's okay," Dani smiled back at Santana, moving to sit on her right side. "I fell yesterday and scraped my hip. Got some nice bruises too." She lowered the top of her jeans on her left side, showing Santana the dime sized cut on her hip and the colorful bruises surrounding it.
"I'm so sorry D, I didn't know when I went to grab you-"
"Tana I know you didn't, that's why I'm telling you now." Dani reached up to cup Santana's cheek, bringing her down for a kiss. "It's not your fault. I'm okay, I promise."
"What happened?"
Dani scooted back on the bed to lean against the wall, patting the spot next to her. Santana joined her, grabbing her hand and lacing their fingers together.
"I was riding around on that skateboard Maddie got me for Christmas, you know, the blue penny board with red wheels." Santana nodded. She wasn't a fan of skateboards, or anything with wheels in general except for bicycles. "I was going to the park over by Puck's house to work on my song cuz it's just not sounding right and I wanted to get out for a bit."
"My dad took Frankenstein to Walsh's yesterday morning to get it restrung and I hadn't been by to pick it up yet, so I had MJ with me. I put it in the padded carrying case, thank god." Santana furrowed her eyebrows, and Dani chuckled. "It'll make sense in a minute."
"So I was skating down the sidewalk, MJ in the case slung across my back, and one of the wheels got stuck in a crack and I went flying. My first thought naturally was 'I don't wanna land on my face', but I couldn't land on my back because I had MJ. So, and I'm pretty proud of this, in mid air I managed to shift my body so that I landed on my left side. My knee, hip, and shoulder took most of the damage, and MJ is perfectly fine. Not a scratch or dent or anything. I saved it!" Dani finished.
"Why are you proud of that?" Santana questioned.
"Because the whole fall took like three seconds! I don't know how I did it, but MJ didn't get hurt and I think that's awesome!"
"So you let yourself get hurt for a guitar? Dani, that's kinda dumb." Santana said seriously. "You could have hurt yourself a lot worse."
"Yeah, but I didn't." Dani paused, furrowing her eyebrows. "Why are you being like this?"
"Being like what? Worried about your safety? You hurt yourself so you wouldn't get a tiny nick in an instrument, sorry if I don't think that's a great thing. I just don't want you to unnecessarily get hurt."
"But it wasn't unnecessary." Dani scooted away from Santana, turning her whole body to face her. "That guitar means the world to me and you know that. I'd be heartbroken if I accidentally damaged it, and that wasn't a risk I was willing to take."
"So you risk yourself instead? Babe, I get that MJ means a lot to you, but you mean a lot to me."
"And I'm totally fine! So I don't understand why you can't just be happy with me. I'm really proud of what I did and you making it seem like I did the wrong thing," Dani narrowed her eyes.
"Falling off a skateboard can be dangerous! Do you know how many times Puck has broken bones falling off of those?"
"But I didn't break any bones, I got a cut on my hip and a scraped up knee! Why are you making this such a big fucking deal?"
"Because I don't ever want you to get hurt, and protecting a dumb guitar after falling off a dumb skateboard was not a smart thing to do!" Santana was getting a little annoyed. She just didn't want Dani to get hurt, was that so wrong?
"Newsflash Santana, people get hurt all the time. It's a part of life, it just happens." Dani's voice was escalating in volume, becoming more and more angry. "And it's not a 'dumb' guitar and a 'dumb' skateboard. They're gifts from my baby sister that I love a lot and really fucking care about."
"She should know better than to get you a skateboard Dani! Your skates are good enough, you don't need another thing you could fall on."
"So you know me better than my own sister?" Dani's voice got scarily quiet. Santana could practically see the fire in her eyes. "You know that it's hard for me to get places on skates carrying a guitar and whatever else and an extra pair of shoes when I don't want to waste gas using the car? You know that even though I've never thought about it before I got it, a skateboard was exactly what I needed? You've been there for me for a lot over the last five months, and I will be eternally grateful for that. But Maddie has been there for nearly sixteen years. She knows me better than anyone on this earth, better than I know myself." Dani stood up, grabbing her phone off of Santana's dresser. She turned back to Santana, anger still very much present.
"She has been my rock since she was born. Everything she has ever given me I treasure with my life, but that guitar saved me. So don't you dare insult it, or question my judgement in protecting my most prized possession."
Santana stood up, raising her voice.
"I just don't want you to put yourself in harm's way for it! Why is that so hard to understand Dani?!"
"Why don't you understand that I would gladly put myself in harm's way for it?!" Dani yelled.
Neither of them had ever raised their voices at each other before. Sure, they'd had little arguments here or there, but nothing of this size. Both girls stood practically shaking in their shoes. Dani shook her head and walked towards Santana's door.
"Where are you going?" Santana questioned, sounding more harsh than she intended.
"Santana I really really really care about you but I'm so fucking furious with you right now. I need to go home." Dani stopped in the door frame, looking back at the brunette. "Don't bother talking to me for the next couple days. I need time to calm the fuck down."
"Fine," Santana spat.
Dani left Santana in her room, the Latina cringing when she heard the front door slam.
She spent the next couple hours pacing in her room, angry at Dani. She had every right to worry about the welfare of the girl she was in love with. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized she might have said some insensitive things. She needed a second opinion. Santana picked up her phone to make a call, relieved when the other end picked up.
"Hey San, what's up?"
"I need your help."
It was now lunch time on Wednesday, and Santana and Dani hadn't spoken since Monday evening. Everyone knew that something was up, but only Quinn, Brittany, Kurt, Elliot, and Rachel knew what had happened. It killed Santana not being able to talk to Dani, but she was giving the redhead the space she had asked for. Thankfully, her couple days of calming down were over, and they needed to talk.
Santana walked in to the cafeteria with Quinn and Brittany, spotting Dani between Rachel and Elliot. She got up to throw something away, and Santana quickly made her way towards her.
"Hey." Dani looked up slowly, taking a deep breath at the sight of Santana in front of her.
"Hi."
"Can we talk later?"
"Yeah," Dani responded.
"Drive you home?" Dani simply nodded and walked away.
Santana took her seat next to Quinn at the table, giving her a discreet thumbs up as she sat down. Quinn and Brittany did their best to distract Santana, knowing she would be counting the minutes until school was over.
And she was.
When the bell rang at the end of her last class, she bolted out of the room and towards the front of the school to wait for Dani. The shorter girl showed up nearly ten minutes later, and the two walked in silence to Santana's car.
It was unsettling. Santana was used to comfortable silence between her and Dani, not this weird, uncomfortable, slightly angry silence. The drive to their houses seemed to take forever as they drowned in it.
Santana parked in her driveway and got out, not sure if Dani wanted to talk in her own house or at Santana's. Surprisingly, Dani walked to the sidewalk between their houses and sat down on the curb, staring out at the street. Santana cautiously joined her, not speaking for a minute. She knew she had to be the one to say something first, so she decided to bit the bullet and just go for it.
"I know I said some things that were out of line, and I'm sorry."
Dani sighed, still looking out at the street.
"You don't really understand what it's like to have something like that, something that you would do anything to protect. And I take the things you say to heart, so it killed me to hear you talk about my sister and my stuff like that."
"No I don't, but if I did would you want me to hurt myself to protect it?"
"Of course I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself, I'd never want that for you. But if it happened, I would understand why you did it." Dani clasped her hands in front of her. "It just hurt so much because you know my whole story, you know what that guitar means to me, and you just blew it off like it didn't matter at all."
"I'm sorry," Santana said sincerely.
The weird silence descended upon them again. Santana had no idea what to say to her girlfriend. She didn't even know if they were still technically together, and that scared the absolute shit out of her.
"We're not over, but I'm still pretty upset with you," Dani said quietly, reading her mind.
"I understand," Santana mumbled, rubbing the back of her neck.
"This sounds like an excuse and I promise it's not, but I have to go help my mom clean the garage."
"That thing is a death trap," Santana chuckled, giving Dani a small smile.
"Yeah, it really is," Dani returned the smile.
She stood up and brushed off her pants, Santana remaining seated looking out at the street. Dani placed her hand on Santana's shoulder and the brunette's own hand immediately covered it, holding it tightly. Dani leaned down and kissed the top of Santana's head.
"If we don't talk before, I'll see you on Saturday." Seeing Santana nod, she turned and walked back to her house.
Santana let out a deep breath, picking up a small pebble and chucking it down the street. She pulled her phone out and clicked on the most recent call, redialing the number.
"So did it work?" the voice on the other end asked as she answered.
"Not as well as I would have hoped," Santana grumbled.
"She's stubborn as hell."
"No, I genuinely hurt her this time."
"No, she's just got a massive stick up her ass."
"Stick up her ass or not, it didn't work," Santana rolled her eyes. "What do I do now?"
"Give up?"
"I'm not giving up on her."
"I know, I know, just checking. Looks like it's time for phase two."
"What's phase two?"
"I haven't thought that far ahead yet..."
"Maddie!"
Boom! Told you shit was going down. This chapter took longer than normal because I wanted to correctly get across what the argument was about. I don't think I did the best job, but it's better than what i had ready last week.
I know some of you are gonna say "why is santana always the one fucking up?!" don't worry about it. i have a plan. Dani isn't an angel either ;)
please let me know what you think, i love hearing from each and every single one of you (yes, even you)((even if it isn't always good. please, tell me when i screw up))
Song is Title by Meghan Trainor (love her!)
Stay golden, lovelies :)