You Are The Solution by Loving Caliber and Lauren Dunn


Santana's POV

The way her friends and family care about her is on one hand touching and on the other almost exhausting.

Every other day she gets to spend time with someone that's not herself or Brittany. She gets invited for dinner, a movie night, a cup of coffee here or a walk outside there. It's not that she doesn't like it. She appreciates the fact that Kurt spends his rare free time these days with her and that Loretta calls her on a daily basis just to chat a bit. She's positively surprised to hear from friends she hasn't hung out with in forever. They're all trying to contribute something to the rebuilding of her life and it's definitely helpful.

To some degree.

What helps even more is the time she gets to spend with herself though. Next to working, she is for example exploring the world of pottery. After her first and miserable attempt a while ago, Brittany encouraged her to use the pottery wheel and who would have thought that Santana would actually like it that much.

It's soothing. To do something with her hands and see the outcome right afterwards. Also the process of painting the vases and plates calms her nerves.

Whenever she's creative on the pottery wheel in the kitchen, it always looks like a bomb exploded in there. But she'll have everything cleaned up before Brittany comes home for dinner. She always compliments Santana for the progress she's been making. Her vases are straight now and no longer look like they're about to pass out any moment.

So next to spending time with friends and family, those are the things that really help her process.

But tonight she's glad to be sitting at a table of a fancy restaurant instead of the pottery wheel. Dom and Kurt asked her and Brittany to come check out this new restaurant. It's wonderful.

Not only the restaurant but also the feeling of being part of something great. Kurt's friendship means the world to her and here they are… both with someone special by their side. She found Brittany but she also found a new friend in Dom. He's perfect for Kurt. She always wondered what kind of guy it would have to be to match all of Kurt's ideas and facets. He's picky.

Yet she can't find another word other than perfect if she had to describe how well these two fit. Dom meets all of Kurt's definitions of a prince charming.

"Hello? Earth to Santana? Why are you staring at my man with those dreamy eyes?" Kurt's hand is waving in front of Santana's face, bringing her back to the present.

She has to laugh when Kurt gives her that funny look and demonstratively puts a hand on Dom's arm.

"Sorry Kurt… I just had to admire him. I remember when we were younger and you always described your future boyfriend." She explains while dipping a spoon into her ice cream since they've already reached dessert.

Brittany is sitting opposite from her and munching on a piece of apple pie. Next to Santana Kurt shares a huge bowl of chocolate mousse with Dom. All three of them are looking at her expectantly.

"Now you have to give us the details." Dom challenges Santana with a wiggle of his eyebrow. Kurt grins embarrassedly. Santana tilts her head to the side.

"Oh that's easy… it's you. Seriously, I always pictured exactly your face when Kurt gave me one of his speeches. He always hoped to meet somebody quite a bit taller than him with short blonde hair, a deep voice and a cute smile. He had to be funny and preferably a craftsman because Kurt gets wobbly knees when he sees a pair of strong hands. Somebody must have heard his prayers and sent you along, Dom. You're so pretty that even I can't help but have a little crush on you but then Brittany came along and you know… she wouldn't stop asking me out so…" Kurt and Dom burst into laughter while Brittany gives her an upset look. "It almost got a little annoying so after a while I decided to just give it a try in order to make her shut up."

Brittany's mouth hangs open while Dom and Kurt applaud her for the diss.

"Excuse me?" Brittany gasps with an expression of faked outrage. A piece of her apple pie falls down from her fork. Santana presses her lips together, trying not to join the boys' laughter. "You just talked a whole lot of crap and just for the record-" Brittany points her fork at Santana. "I met you first. You had never even seen pretty Dom until we were at The Surface for the first time! So don't say that I was just the second best option – you totally wanted me and I wanted you."

At this point Santana doesn't know if Brittany is still just joking or if a hint of desperation is creeping through.

"Aaaw" Kurt mutters and puts a hand on Brittany's across the table. It looks like a sweet gesture at first but then he takes the fork away from her which she had still pointed at Santana. "Don't hurt her. She's just messing with you."

Brittany still holds her gaze, having locked eyes with Santana a long time ago. Her mouth twitches.

"It's nice to see you get a little possessive in public." Santana cares to explain with a shrug and a smirk that she knows Brittany can't refuse. "But just for the record – the first time I saw Dom was at the beach when you two went surfing. Kurt and I literally couldn't keep our eyes off you two… but I was still in denial. I didn't want to admit that I fancied you."

Three seconds later the blonde grins back at her.

"I still don't like you that much right now." She mumbles in response before winning back her fork and finishing her apple pie.

Santana lets her leg rest against Brittany's underneath the table, hoping to be forgiven for messing around but Brittany won't make it that easy on her. She silently eats her pie.

"To change the subject…" Dom steps in after a while with a chuckle. "Is everything going well with the insurance and so on? Brittany told me you have all kinds of documentations to do."

Santana thankfully picks up the topic and tells Dom everything she had to do in the past two weeks and that things are ok so far. When she tells them how glad she is to not live with her mother and stepfather, she remembers the talk she had with Kirk about the fire and how he had been so convinced it was arson.

That's when Brittany seems to have forgiven her and rejoins the conversation. She looks at her lovingly and backs her up when Santana brings up the danger of wildfires linked to global warming.

"He doesn't want to see it but one day people will no longer be able to deny." Brittany says and takes Santana's hand. "I'm just sorry it took everything away from you."

Santana gazes at Brittany. She shrugs after a moment of thinking.

"I'm not." She says. "Not really. It shook me up. Because I can no longer say or think that I'm not affected by climate change, right? If this is what it takes to change people's minds, then maybe that's how it's going to be. I just hate that it takes so much time. Time that we don't have. I wish there was something I could do to speed up the process, you know?"

Brittany nods before replying.

"That's what I've been telling myself, too ever since I went to those summer camps and Ms. Gordon made us promise to use our voices in the future. To change things. I just haven't figured out how to do so, yet."

Santana narrows her eyes when she watches how Brittany lifts her shoulders and drops them again right after.

"Huh" Santana mutters, lost in thoughts.

A couple of silent seconds pass before Kurt seems to have heard enough about that topic and starts babbling something about a scene he filmed the other day. He's got all of Dom's attention and also Brittany looks at him with a smile on her lips.

Meanwhile Santana studies the blonde's face.

Sometimes she doesn't know what is going on behind Brittany's head. It's not a band thing anymore. It just made it kind of tricky in the past to fully get her sometimes.

Tonight she feels like she gets her. For the first time she really gets Brittany. And she doesn't quite understand why.


Hours later when Santana is still lying awake in bed, gazing at the ceiling of Brittany's bedroom, she wonders.

There has to be something she can do.

Something that will bring a sense to this. To why she lost her home.

Brittany's warm hand is resting on her thigh. She's fast asleep right next to Santana. Once again she has sneaked under the cozy duvet.

The warmth will soon become too much for Santana but she'll compensate it by exposing one of her legs to the cool air in the bedroom.

Santana lets her eyes wander over the wall until they rest on the painting that's now hanging there. The different kinds of blue shades get shined on by the streetlamps from outside.

The ideas start spinning inside of her head.

It's all just a blur so far.

But she knows there is something she can do.


Just a short update but I'm working on the next one.