When Dani's phone lit up with a call from an unknown number later that night, she couldn't help but grin. Though there was always the chance it was yet another spam call from a telemarketer, she couldn't help but hope it was from the stunning woman she'd met earlier that day.

"Hello?" Dani answered, her heart racing as she waited for the identity of the unknown caller to be revealed.

"Hey, it's Santana."

Dani couldn't help but grin that there wasn't any sort of explanation that followed - Santana was that confident that Dani would know exactly who she was despite only sharing a three-minute conversation.

"I was hoping it was you," Dani responded honestly, "I'm glad you decided to not wait too long on the rain check."

"About that," Santana said, her voice taking on a hesitant tone, "I have kind of a big favor to ask."

"Okay," Dani replied as her brow furrowed in confusion, "What's up?"

"You know how I was telling you about my obnoxious roommates? Well, they heard about my amazing performance earlier and totally freaked out like the annoying little goblins they are. They had this creepy 'family meeting' and kicked me out."

"That sucks," Dani responded, feeling bad for the woman.

"Yeah, so I kinda need a place to stay…" Santana continued.

"Oh," Dani said as she finally put the pieces together and realized what the favor Santana was hinting at. She thought about it for a moment, but knew that if she and Santana had gone out for a coffee or drink that day, she'd have been doing anything possible to get the beautiful woman to come home with her. The thought of Santana coming over was very, very appealing so she didn't hesitate to extend the invitation, "I know we only met today, but if you need a place to stay, you're more than welcome to stay here."

"Really? Thank you, that would be amazing," Santana gushed, though the lack of surprise in her tone made it clear that was what she'd been hoping for. "Where exactly do you live?"

Dani chuckled and gave Santana her address before ending the call with a promise to see her soon. As soon as the call was disconnected, she immediately started straightening up her room. It wasn't messy, per se, but there were clothes strewn over the floor and on top of the dresser and her bed definitely needed to be made. After spending a few minutes tidying, Dani knew it was time to tackle the second, and more concerning, item on her list of things to do before Santana arrived - give her roommates the heads up.

To say Dani was close with her roommates was an understatement; they were the closest thing she had to family after her parents kicked her out of the house for her same-sex attraction. In fact, her roommate Victoria had been one of the very first people she met after moving to the city. Dani had answered an ad looking for a young, female roommate and had been put through the wringer by Victoria, answering question after question, some very intrusive and others simply ridiculous. If Dani hadn't been so new to the city and had realized that level of interrogation was highly unusual, she might have walked out - she later learned many other applicants had. Nonetheless, she stuck it out and earned Victoria's approval, getting permission to stay in the minuscule spare bedroom in the two-bedroom place that Dani was convinced had originally been a one-bedroom with a walk-in closet that had been converted into a second bedroom.

Despite Victoria's quirks and strong Type-A personality that was the exact opposite to Dani's laid-back and easy going nature, the two ended up becoming friends. That friendship grew stronger over the two years they had lived together in the tiny two-bedroom apartment and they'd had each others backs through many relationships, job hirings and firings, friendship drama, and more. When they finally decided they needed more space, it was a given that they'd be moving together - just to someplace where it took more than five steps to get from the bathroom to the kitchen and then the bedroom.

When they found a place that was in the perfect location and offered plenty of space as well as checking off most of the items on Victoria's must-have list, they knew they had to get it. The only problem was it was a three-bedroom place and the rent was far too expensive to cover on their own. Dani finally convinced Victoria to give her friend Skye a chance. Like Dani, Skye was a lesbian, and they had actually become friends after a chance meeting in a gay bar where they got to talking and realized they had both dated or hooked up with at least three of the same women. Despite their similar taste in women, Dani and Skye had never been interested in each other - perhaps due to their intermeshed dating history or maybe because they both genuinely wanted a friend in the gay community and didn't want to make things complicated.

Whatever the reason, they had become close friends and Skye's free-spirited nature strangely fit in with the already weird balance of contrasting personalities between Dani and Victoria. Although Victoria had been hesitant about Skye at first, the trio soon became quite close and a harmonious balance settled over the apartment.

However, rent in the city continued to rise and at the start of the year, the three women were worried they would no longer be able to afford their place when their landlord hiked their rent for the year. Victoria's boyfriend, Bennett, offered to move in and the trio had mostly accepted because they didn't want to have to move from their place, though all three of them worried what it would be like to introduce another person, and a male at that, into the equation.

Fortunately, their worrying had been for nothing. Bennett settled into their odd and quirky dynamic seamlessly. He was already comfortable being quite submissive to women having dated Victoria for a year and a half, and he was as Type B as Dani, so he tended to go along to get along. Over the past five months, the roommates had really found their groove and become a slightly dysfunctional, but loving and protective family. Which was why Dani was nervous as she left her bedroom to go find her roommates.

She entered the living room to find Bennett and Victoria curled up and watching a movie while Skye was tending to her houseplants. "Hey guys," Dani said as she walked into the room and sat down on the loveseat.

Victoria glanced over and instantly seemed to pick up on the fact that Dani had something she wanted to talk about, so she paused the movie and glanced over expectantly.

"So, I just wanted to give you all the heads up that I have someone coming over…" Dani began, preparing herself for the onslaught of questions that was sure to follow.

"Oh who? Do I know her?" Skye asked as she set down her watering can and shifted to face Dani.

At the same time, Victoria narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Dani, "I didn't know you were seeing anyone."

"I'm not seeing anyone," Dani confirmed before shifting her attention to Skye, "And I don't know, maybe. But I don't think you've ever mentioned her and I certainly haven't ever seen you out with her, or I would have remembered."

"Ooh so she's hot," Skye said with a grin as she shifted closer, "What's her name? Where did you meet her?"

"When did you meet her?" Victoria added, " And why is she coming over?"

Dani felt as if she was being interrogated as she glanced back and further between her friends and tried to keep up with all the questions being thrown at her. "Her name's Santana. We, uh, we met earlier today at NYADA, and she's coming over because she had a fight with her roommates and they kicked her out."

"So she's coming here?" Victoria said, her volume rising as she expressed her disbelief, "Dani, you met this girl today and she's coming here after getting kicked out of her apartment, which means she has no other friends. Clearly there is something really wrong with this girl."

"You know I hate to side with Victoria," Skye spoke up, "But there's a really bad sign. In my experience, girls who have that much drama within 24 hours of meeting them have really bad energy and things only get worse the longer you're with them."

"You said you met her at NYADA," Bennett said, having merely been sitting back and observing up until this point, "That's a really hard school to get into, so she must have her shit together at least somewhat if she goes there."

Dani smiled at Bennett's attempt to help her out, but unfortunately she knew that wasn't exactly a helpful path to go down, "Well, she doesn't actually go there. She probably could though, she seems really talented."

"What do you mean she doesn't go there? Why was she there? And how do you know she's talented? And at what exactly?" Victoria challenged, taking no break between the rapid fire questions.

"Well, to be fair I don't go there either and I was there," Dani pointed out, "I mean, I was just helping out this girl I'd hooked up with a couple times, but she was being annoying and bitchy so I left. And I overheard someone singing and kinda stopped in to check it out; Santana was singing and dancing and she was just really hot, okay? I couldn't help but watch and we got to talking after, so yeah. She seems really cool, I promise."

"I don't get it, why was she singing and dancing if she doesn't go there?" Bennett asked, clearly confused as he tried to piece together Dani's explanation.

Dani knew she probably shouldn't admit the real reason, but she was always bad at making up lies on the spot and Victoria could always call her on it, "Well, she doesn't like her roommate's boyfriend so she was performing a Paula Abdul song to him so he would get the message to stay away from her roommate."

There was a moment of silence in the apartment, which Dani knew was not a good sign. She looked around at the expressions on her roommates faces, which ranged from confused to incredulous.

"Okay, what?" Victoria said as she shook her head, "That makes absolutely no sense. Dani, this girl sounds legitimately psychotic. You need to stay away from her."

"No, but she's really not," Dani said as she gave Victoria a look imploring her to hear her out, "I know it doesn't sound great, but she's actually really cool, and really talented, and I think I actually like her."

"She must be really hot for you to look past all this drama and still be interested," Skye surmised, "So how hot are we talking?"

Dani chuckled and shook her head, "I'm not looking past anything, the drama is just coincidental. But for your information, very hot. I'm talking most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

"Well I don't care how hot she is," Victoria replied, "I think you're an idiot for agreeing to let her come over. Just so you know, if she steals anything, you have to pay for it."

Dani rolled her eyes at her roommate's dramatics, even though she had expected the overreaction, "Oh come on, you've been dying to redecorate. If she steals anything, she'll be doing you a favor."

"I'm glad you think this is all a joke," Victoria scoffed, "You won't be laughing when you get murdered tonight because you let a psychotic stranger into our place!"

"Well obviously, I can't laugh if I'm dead," Dani pointed out with an amused smile on her face.

Bennett and Skye were laughing at Dani's antics, while Victoria simply glared at Dani, "I'm serious, just because you like to live a risky lifestyle doesn't mean the rest of us do. Bennett and I will be locking our door. Skye, I advise you to do the same."

"You're bringing such a negative energy, Victoria," Skye chided, "For all we know, this woman could be very good for Dani. I haven't seen her this interested in a woman in a long time, so I have a good feeling about this."

"Like I trust your judgment," Victoria scoffed, "The last girl you dated turned out to be an amateur pornstar who used our place to film when we were out!"

"Yes, I'm well aware. I had to deep clean the entire apartment every week for like, three months before you let me bring anyone else into the apartment," Skye replied with an exasperated eye roll.

"Okay guys, while I love the walk down memory lane and still cherish the hours we spent on pornhub trying to track down the videos featuring our apartment, Santana's going to be here any minute and I just really need you all to be cool, okay?" Dani pleaded as she looked around at her roommates, before focusing her attention on Victoria.

"I don't know why you're staring at me," Victoria huffed, "I'm always cool. And to prove it, I think I'll go put together a cheese plate to welcome your friend to our place."

"Not a cheese plate," Dani groaned as she looked at Bennett, who shrugged helplessly. They all knew that was Victoria's way of trapping guests that she wanted to interrogate.

"I'm just being a good host," Victoria shot back as she made her way to the kitchen, "Speaking of which, did you clean your room?"

"Yes, Mom," Dani joked with a smirk.

"Does that include clearing out the coffee mugs and dishes you've been hoarding in there and changing the sheets that I know you probably haven't washed for at least three weeks?" Victoria continued as she began assembling the platter.

"Oh shit," Dani said as she got up and scurried back to her room, hearing Skye and Bennett laughing at the predictable oversight. Dani hurried to get her sheets changed before walking out of her bedroom with an armful of mugs, cups, and bowls from the past week.

"Just put them in the sink, I'll clean them later," Victoria instructed as she put the finishing touches on her Instagram worthy cheese plate.

"Thanks," Dani said as she dropped off the dishes before turning to face her roommate.

"I'm just worried about you, you know," Victoria said quietly as she turned toward her roommate, "We both know you have a bad track record of choosing women who aren't good for you."

"I know you are," Dani replied, knowing that behind Victoria's uptight and neurotic demeanor was a kind heart, "But you don't need to be so worried. It's not like she's moving in, I hardly know this woman. Yes, she seems cool and I'd like to get to know her better, but you don't have to worry about me getting hurt. Just think of this as a casual hook-up…that might be staying here a few days."

Victoria sighed but gave a small nod, "Fine, but I still reserve the right to ask her some questions when she gets here."

"I didn't think avoiding that was even an option," Dani teased. They were distracted by the sound of a loud buzzing from the intercom. "She's here," Dani exclaimed, feeling her heart rate begin to pick up in anticipation of seeing the beautiful woman again. She made her way over to the intercom and pressed the button to answer, "Hello?"

"Hey, it's Santana," the voice crackled through the speaker, confirming the identity of the late-night caller.

"Come on up, third floor," Dani explained as she hit the button to allow her entry into the building. "Everyone please be nice, she's been through a lot today," Dani warned her roommates. She focused a final look of warning to Victoria, who gave an exasperated nod as she set down the cheese plate on the coffee table and settled back onto the couch.

Dani opened the door and took a step into the hallway to watch the elevator and wait for the other woman's arrival. After another minute or so, the elevator dinged and the doors slid open to reveal Santana, looking just as gorgeous, but noticeably more frazzled than when she'd last seen her. She had a rolling suitcase in one hand and a pillow and comforter tucked under her other arm. She stepped off the elevator and a smile quirked at her lips as her gaze landed on Dani.

"Do you have a thing for watching me from doorways?" Santana teased, and Dani realized this was very similar to how Santana had first seen her that morning.

Dani shrugged but a small smile appeared on her face, "Not really, I'd watch you from anywhere, I'm not picky."

Santana chuckled as she maneuvered her things down the narrow hallway toward the apartment.

Dani couldn't help but focus her attention on the fluffy comforter and pillow tucked under Santana's arm, "I know everyone likes to make jokes about how poor they are living in New York, but we are fortunate enough to have our very own bedding here, you didn't have to bring your own."

Santana finally reached where Dani was standing and gave a small shrug, "It's not mine, I stole Berry's comforter and Hummel's pillow. If they want to kick me out after everything I've done for them, I want to make sure they at least sleep a little less soundly tonight."

Dani chuckled at the explanation as she led Santana into her apartment; she knew her roommates had heard the entire exchange and she was certain Santana's last statement hadn't done anything to reassure Victoria that she wasn't crazy.

"Well, welcome to our place, these are my roommates Skye, Victoria, and Bennett. Everyone, this is Santana," Dani made the introductions before shutting the front door.

"Hey, thanks for letting me crash here," Santana greeted the others as she dropped the bedding by her suitcase.

"No problem at all, it sounds like you've had a hard day," Victoria said, her tone cheery and smile overly sweet, "We were just about to have some wine and a snack if you'd like to join us."

"That sounds like exactly what I need," Santana replied, glancing over at Dani who gave a small nod and led her over to the seating area. Dani knew Santana was playing right into the trap Victoria was setting to keep her there, but she also knew it was best to get this part of the evening out of the way and hope her roommate didn't scare Santana off.

Santana claimed a spot on the loveseat while Dani went over to pour them both a glass of red wine. She handed Santana a glass before taking a seat beside her.

"So Santana, I'm sorry to hear your roommates kicked you out. What happened?" Victoria asked, putting on her best expression of sympathy and concern.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," Dani told Santana, annoyed that Victoria couldn't give the other woman five minutes to settle in before the interrogation began.

"It's fine," Santana said with a dismissive wave as she took a sip of her wine and focused her attention on Victoria, "To properly tell this story, I need to start at the beginning - I moved to New York a couple weeks ago and have been staying with two friends from high school - Rachel, who is the most annoying, conceited diva I have ever met, and Kurt, who is only slightly less annoying, but every bit as arrogant, and definitely more feminine."

Dani chuckled at that assessment as she sipped her wine. As much as she didn't want Santana to have to face the third degree from her uptight roommate, she had to admit she was interested in learning more about the other woman.

"Sharing a large loft with only curtains for privacy with the two of them has been bad enough, but to make things even worse, Rachel has been shacking up with a guy who looks like a walking billboard for bad plastic surgery. I knew from the start there was something off about this guy," Santana said, pausing to take a sip of her wine, "As soon as I moved in, I went through the entire apartment while everyone was out…"

"Wait, you went through all your roommates stuff?" Skye asked, "That seems like a major invasion of privacy."

Victoria shrugged off Skye's comment, "I mean, it's important to know who you're living with. Personally, I think a lot of murders could have been prevented by people properly screening their roommates."

"Thank you," Santana said as she waved a grateful hand towards Victoria, "Anyway, I was going through Donkey Face's stuff and I found a wad of 1200 in cash."

"That's a lot of money to have lying around. What does he do for a living?" Bennett asked.

"It is a lot of money," Santana agreed with a smirk, "Especially for a 20-year-old NYADA student who has never mentioned having a part-time job. He also had a pager, I only knew what it was because my dad was a doctor. And Brody clearly hasn't been to med school, though I'm sure he's very familiar with hospitals with the amount of silicone he's had injected in to his body."

"He's clearly a drug dealer," Victoria said in a matter-of-fact tone, "Who else has a pager and stacks of cash?"

"My thoughts exactly," Santana said with a smile, clearly happy at having been validated, "I told Rachel as much and of course she thought I was lying and asked Brody about it and he said he's a 'cater waiter'," she put the job in air quotes and rolled her eyes, "Which is obviously absurd because if anyone could make that much money by slinging trays of hors d'oeuvres, it would be the most highly sought after job in America. It would also mean the show Party Down has been lying to me, and I refuse to believe that."

"Plus that doesn't explain the pager," Dani pointed out, "Unless catering emergencies are a much more serious matter than I realized."

Santana grinned at Dani and the blonde felt her heart race at how beautiful the woman's smile was, she returned it before taking a sip of her wine as she tried to collect herself.

"The lame excuse seemed like a total cover up, which is why I decided to confront him and tell him to stay away from my friend and our apartment," Santana explained.

"And you decided to do that through song at his school?" Victoria asked, her questioning tone indicating she still didn't understand the part of the story that Dani had told her earlier.

Santana shrugged, "In high school, everyone settled arguments through song," she explained, "Also, whenever Brody was at the loft, Berry was always practically glued to his side, so it wasn't like I could get him one-on-one to talk, so I had to go to NYADA and catch him at a time my roommate wasn't hanging off of him."

"Fair enough," Dani said with a nod, not needing any further explanation.

"So what's your plan now that your roommates have kicked you out?" Victoria asked, clearly trying to get a sense of how long Santana was planning on staying in their apartment.

"Technically, they didn't kick me out. They gave me the choice of laying off of Brody or leaving, and I obviously chose the latter because no way in hell am I going to sit idly by while he continues to do whatever shady crap he's doing," Santana explained, "So now I just need to figure out what he's up to so I can prove to my roommates that I was right."

"Will your roommates forgive you even if you prove that you're right?" Skye asked curiously, "It sounds like there's a lot of negative tension there."

"It's always been that way," Santana replied with a dismissive shrug, "We were mostly enemies in high school, at least, Rachel was my enemy. Kurt and I were pretty neutral. But after all that we've been through together, they still let me move in when I showed up in New York. And things have been going pretty well besides the whole Brody mess. I know that as soon as I find out what he's up to, they'll feel bad for doubting me and practically beg me to come back. Those two have absolutely no street smarts, I have no idea how they survived this long in New York without me."

"Well, I'm happy to help however I can with figuring out what Brody is up to," Dani offered. "It's really shitty of your roommates to take his side over yours."

"Right?" Santana said with a huff before smiling at Dani, "And thank you, I'm glad at least someone believes me."

"Oh, I definitely agree that guy is up to no good. I mean, he has a pager," Victoria said with a look of disgust before shaking her head and standing up. "I have an early day tomorrow, so I have to get to bed. It was nice meeting you Santana."

Bennett stood up and started helping his girlfriend clear the dishes and glasses from the coffee table, "Yes, it was very nice to meet you and I'm sorry for everything you went through today with your roommates," he added with a sympathetic smile directed at Santana before he followed his girlfriend to the kitchen.

"She certainly has him well-trained," Santana whispered to Dani, eliciting a laugh from the blonde.

"He really is, you should have seen him when she first brought him home. Couldn't even wash a dish, and now…" she glanced over her shoulder to see Bennett scrubbing the dishes while Victoria moved around the kitchen putting the leftover food and wine away.

Santana chuckled as she also glanced towards the kitchen before returning her gaze to Dani. As they held each other's gaze, Dani could feel the chemistry that had been there this morning returning full force.

"I think I'm going to head to bed too," Skye said, and Dani quickly glanced over, having nearly forgotten there was someone else in the room. The smug look Skye was giving her was a clear indication her friend was aware of the sexual tension between Dani and Santana and she gave a playful wink as she passed by the blonde.

"I suppose I should finish giving you the tour of the apartment," Dani offered as she stood up and Santana followed her lead. She walked across the living space to her bedroom and pushed open the door, "This is my room, where we'll be staying tonight…at least, if that's okay with you. I could always take the couch."

"I don't think that's necessary, I'm more than okay sharing the bed," Santana replied, her tone flirtatious.

Dani smiled at Santana, feeling excited at the thought of sharing a bed with such a beautiful woman. She continued the tour by pointing out the bathroom as well as the half-bathroom that was right by her room.

"I'm going to get changed," Santana explained as she headed back towards her suitcase, "I'll meet you in your room?"

Dani nodded her agreement, unable to keep her gaze off Santana as she grabbed her suitcase, leaving the pillow and comforter on the floor by the door, and headed into the half-bath. She couldn't be sure, but she felt like she was picking up on signs that she might not be getting much sleep tonight - which would be more than fine by her. She changed into a pair of sleep shorts and a tee shirt before heading into the full bathroom at the other end of the hall.

After brushing her teeth and making sure she looked good and was prepared should things go the way she was hoping tonight, Dani emerged from the bathroom and headed back towards her room.

She opened the door to see Santana already in her bed, sitting propped up against the pillows. She had a low cut tank top on, which offered Dani a generous view of her cleavage, and the bottom half of her body was obscured by the covers draped over her lap.

"You coming to bed, Dani?" Santana asked, her tone decidedly seductive as a smirk played on her lips.

Dani grinned as she made her way across the room, knowing the night was about to get a lot more interesting.

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Thanks to colour_outside_the_lines for reviewing/editing. Next chapter contains smut!