The alarm wakes Santana up, causing her to groan. She rolls over to turn it off, before rolling back to her original position, snug under the covers. She closes her eyes for a minute, enjoying the last moments of quiet and peace, before opening her eyes.
She is met with a furry face and yellow eyes staring back at her.
"Gah!" she jolts up startled.
The cat meows and looks away from her, but does not move from his position, as if too dignified to respond to her shock.
"Britt?" she calls out.
"Kitchen!" Santana hears her girlfriend's voice.
Santana gets out of bed and notices the bedroom door is left ajar as she moves the cat off her bed, placing him on the floor before she goes to find Brittany.
She's pouring coffee and looks like she's been up for a while.
"Hey," Santana greets her with a kiss.
"G'morning," Brittany smiles into the kiss.
"You know, I was expecting to see your pretty face when I woke up, instead I came face to face with that furry bastard."
Brittany giggles. "Sorry, I woke up early."
"Don't be sorry. You should've woken me up."
She shakes her head and plays with Santana's hand. "Just nerves before my audition." She was nervous. Brittany was going in for a choreographer role for a dance movie, elevating the stakes was the fact that the studio apparently had plans to do two sequels if it performed. "No sense in waking you up. Besides, you get grumpy when you don't get enough sleep."
Santana's about to open her mouth to protest, except she realizes that Brittany's right.
"Well..I could've helped take your mind off it," she teases and lets her fingers trail up under the back of Brittanys shirt.
Brittany hums. "That would've been nice. But then we'd probably pass out after and I'd miss the audition."
"Fair enough," Santana laughs.
"Speaking of which, I've got to go get ready and get my stuff, but I made you coffee and eggs, there's bread in the toaster cause I know you've got that meeting with Rachel and you'll get hangry if you don't eat before it. Oh and I put food in Charlie's bowl."
"You're the best," Santana smiles lovingly, pulling her in for another kiss. Brittany leans in and it almost makes her feel light headed.
"Good luck, I know you'll kill it."
"Kill what?" Brittany asks, almost in a daze.
Santana giggles. "The audition, Britt."
"Oh right, I better go then."
Brittany heads out the door and Santana watches, certainly looking like the smitten kitten that she is as her girlfriend gives her a last wave before closing the door. She's only broken out of it when she hears a meow. She looks over to find Charlie, seated in front of his now empty bowl and looking at her expectantly.
"No, no more second breakfast!" she chastises him.
She's relieved when Rachel gives her final approval on the promo materials and signs off. She even gives Santana two tickets to the opening night of Rachel! as thanks. Santana manages to smile and bite her tongue about all the things she'd rather do than go see this trainwreck of a show, long enough for Rachel to leave.
She calls Kurt later that evening and offers him the tickets. She tells him to take Blaine if he wants to punish him.
Kurt laughs and accepts anyway, shrugging and saying it could be kind of fun to watch a one-woman trainwreck. Especially if it was free.
It's a week later when she gets off work a little early. Santana goes to meet Brittany and Mike's dance studio. She passes some of the rooms, some with kids, others adults and heads to one of the smaller rooms by the back corner.
She doesn't say anything and just takes time to observe her girlfriend dancing behind soundproof glass. It still amazes her sometimes, watching Brittany dance. Her movements able to say everything she needs to without opening her mouth.
Santana's so caught up in it, that she doesn't notice a familiar face until he taps her on the shoulder.
"She's good, huh?" Mike says with a smile.
"She's incredible," is all Santana can say.
They make small talk for a little while, before Santana notices Brittany's finished when she's on her phone hitting stop on the music. Mike grins when he notices Santana's reaction and tells her he needs to go check up on something and bids her goodbye.
"Hey you," Brittany greets with a fond smile, when she sees Santana open the door into the room.
"Hi," Santana pulls her into a kiss, which Brittany is more than happy to return. "You're amazing," she says once they pull away.
Brittany blushes and looks away, bashfully.
"You are," Santana reminds her.
"Is that why I haven't heard back yet?" Brittany's smile turns a little sad.
"They're just going through the motions so they can see that you are the best candidate for the job."
Brittany obviously appreciates the sentiment, but looks a little doubtful still.
"Let's go out for dinner," Santana says. "Then we'll go...see a movie or something, take your mind off this."
"Ok."
"Ok?"
"Yeah," Brittany nods, her smile becoming less sad, when she's reminded once again of how much of a total sweetheart her girlfriend is. "Come here," she whispers, pulling Santana back in for another kiss.
Santana wraps her arms around Britany's neck, while the blonde lets her hands rest on her girlfriend's waist.
"So how was your day?" Brittany asks, their faces still close together, sharing looks like a couple of lovestruck idiots.
"It was good. Better now."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
They're interrupted by a knock on the open door and Mike clearing his throat.
"Hate to break this up ladies, but there's an advanced jazz class here in ten minutes."
They go for dinner and a horror movie.
It's a terrible idea really. Sam's terrible idea, that had come up when they had lunch the day before.
"If you wanna distract Brittany from the dance stuff, go do something that's totally the opposite."
Santana figured that "totally the opposite" was demons dragging people down to the basement of a house that a blind person could see was haunted. Now, Santana doesn't like scary movies, but she's certainly not afraid of CGI monsters and a set in Burbank that had probably been demolished already.
At least that's what she tells herself.
Except there are enough instances where she finds herself squeezing Brittany's hand or burying her head in her girlfriend's shoulder, that say that she's definitely scared.
"Are you scared?" Brittany whispers.
"No," she lies.
Brittany does the same things too, sometimes at jump scares or when the the son character of the family that was stupid enough to move into the godforsaken house screeches as demons drag him down to the basement (or hell, whichever. The movie is not clear on that).
Still, Brittany might be one of those people who actually likes getting scared. And she's definitely not thinking about her audition.
They hold hands on the walk from the parking lot back to the courtyard. It's quite obvious that they were both terrified of the movie and it makes Santana feel a little bad.
"I'm sorry about the movie," she says and explains Sam's awful idea. "I just wanted to take your mind off the audition for a little while."
Brittany chuckles. "Well it worked, now all I'm thinking about is basement demons."
"Yeah…" she trails off.
"It's ok, don't worry about it," Brittany shakes her head. "I mean..your plan did work and horror movies mean automatic cuddling so…" she shrugs. "I gotta ask...you don't like horror movies do you?"
"No," Santana admits. "There's enough scary shit in the real world I don't need to see those demon-goblin-things coming up from under the floorboards."
"Well, I definitely wasn't thinking about my audition so mission accomplished I guess."
They stand there for a moment, fingers still intertwined.
"You know...I don't really wanna sleep alone tonight," Santana teases with a glint in her eye.
"It's ok, the demon-goblins will be there."
"Britt!"
Brittany laughs. "I'm just kidding. C'mon," she tugs their hands in the direction of Santana's apartment. "I'll protect you."
Brittany wakes up feeling warm and at ease. Every muscle in her body feels relaxed as light peeps in through the curtain and no gobblin-demons appear in sight.
Santana's all cuddled up against her front, still fast asleep as Brittany blinks the sleep out of her eyes a few times.
She untangles herself from Santana when her phone vibrates on the bedside table and she picks it up.
"Hello?"
"Hi, is this Brittany Pierce?"
"Yes, speaking."
"Brittany, I'm Holly Holiday from Stage Left. I'm calling about your audition."
"Right, yes," Brittany stiffens.
"Now, while we were very impressed with what you showed us and what you can bring to the production, I should let you know we had a lot of really qualified candidates for the role…"
"Right, I understand," Brittany says, deflating with every word.
"...But we felt that you were the best for our production."
"I'm sorry?"
"We'd like to offer you the job. Production starts in March so we'd like to get all the paperwork and stuff out of the way ASAP. Do you accept?"
"Yes! Oh my God, yes! I accept!"
She hears Holly chuckle over the phone.
"Great! We'll email you the paperwork, it's all quite straightforward and I'll see you soon."
When Brittany ends the call, her elation at the news is palpable and it makes her feel like she's about to burst. This is it. This has been the gig she's been waiting for.
She lets out a loud squeal.
Santana jolts up from her slumber and flips over from her stomach to see what's happening.
"What? Britt, is everything ok?"
Brittany's nods quickly, still in a bit of disbelief.
"I got the job."
Santana's face immediately softens from alarm to happiness.
"Oh Britt, that's amazing!"
Brittany can't help herself and practically sprints back onto the bed, jumping onto it and bouncing up and down.
"I got the job! I got the job!" she squeals.
Santana grins and tugs Brittany's t-shirt by the front to pull her in for a kiss. Brittany's happily kisses her back, cupping Santana's face.
"I feel ridiculous," Santana says, holding Charlie's new leash.
Brittany shrugs. "You're the one who wanted him to lose that pound before Quinn comes back."
"Because otherwise she won't shut up about it!" Santana counters.
Quinn had called her a few days ago and said that the company was sending her back to LA in two weeks. She's also made it clear that she wanted her cat back in the same state she'd left him with Santana in.
"Do people even walk cats?" Santana asks, tugging the leash so Charlie wouldn't slip through a large gap in a fence.
"Some do. Lord Tubbington never went for a walk, though," Brittany admits. "One time I tried but then he wouldn't walk and just made himself dead weight and I had to drag him through the park. I almost pulled my shoulder."
"C'mon lazy," she says when Charlie decides he wants to sit again.
Brittany laughs. "Admit it, you're going to miss him."
"Am not," Santana says quickly. "I think you mean you. You're going to miss him."
"Well duh, of course I will, but you'll totally miss him too. I can tell. You're all prickly about it but he's like your furry adopted son."
"You think I'm gonna miss vacuuming cat hair off all my furniture? Or that big blue monstrosity in my living room? Or trying to figure out diet cat food?"
"I think you're going to miss all of that," Brittany says with a cheeky grin.
Santana scoffs at the very notion.
"The cat brought me you and you're my girlfriend now so I don't need him to find me another one."
After Quinn comes back to LA, it's two days before she tells Santana that she'll pick up her cat. She packs up his stuff, his toys and his monstrosity of a scratching post and his bed. Not to mention the additional accessories she's bought in the time he's been in her care.
She wonders what the hell she's gonna do with the cat door now.
For his part, Charlie doesn't seem particularly phased about the whole thing.
Santana sits on the couch, next to him and clears her throat.
"So...I guess this is it. You'll be going home to your mom," she feels slightly ridiculous but keeps going. "It's for the best cause you probably miss her and stuff. Or do you? Your loyalties seem to pretty much be to whoever feeds you the most so…" she trails off, tapping her fingers against the arm of the couch. "Anyway, you can go back to scratching up Quinn's furniture and coughing up hairballs all over her apartment."
He looks up at her and meows. And call her crazy, it feels like the first sincere meow she's heard since Quinn dropped him off months ago.
"It hasn't been all bad though, I guess," she moves to pet his head and scratch behind his ear. "Thank you for bringing me Britt," Santana says in a near whisper.
He meows again as if to say "you're welcome."
Quinn picks him up with little fanfare. Santana gives her old friend a hug and they promise to catch up soon, but Quinn is still jet lagged and tired and needs to get her cat settled in back to his old home life.
When Quinn leaves, she sits alone in her apartment, realizing that it somehow feels emptier without the presence of the furry bastard and all his stuff lying around.
"I do not want a cat," Santana says out loud to remind herself.
EPILOGUE
EIGHTEEN MONTHS LATER
"So Sam wants everyone to get drinks tomorrow, you coming?" Santana asks.
"Oh no I can't do tomorrow, I'm seeing a movie with Adam. Besides the rehearsal dinner's on Saturday right? So I'll see all you guys then."
"Seeing a movie?" Santana quirked her brow.
"Yeah...why?"
"Cause that's all the two of you seem to be doing lately. Kurt, don't you find it a little weird that you've been dating this guy for a couple of months and you haven't done any more than...than go to the movies?"
"No, you know what Santana, I don't think it's weird," she hears him getting defensive. "I am looking for a relationship, not a fling. Besides, how long did you know Brittany before you guys started...you know?"
"Umm," Santana ponders as Brittany comes back in through the front door with a small black and white kitten in her arms. "Baby, how many dates did we go on before we had sex?"
"Oh, I don't know," Brittany replies as she places the kitten down on the floor. "Uh..two?"
"Did she just say two?" Kurt asks from his end.
"Uh, it-it wasn't two exactly, we were already hanging out a lot..and…" she grins as Brittany greets her with a kiss on the cheek and takes a seat next to her on the couch. "And frankly, Kurt if you want something you have to just go for it, ok?"
"Ok, well regardless, we're just taking things slow. I don't need to jump headfirst into a situation where things are just on and off forever. Anyway, I'll see you on Saturday."
"Alright, we'll see you then."
"Bye Kurt!" Brittany says into the phone.
"Bye Britt," he chuckles before hanging up.
"So how did it go?" Santana asks.
"It was good," Brittany says, picking up the kitten off the floor since she was still too small to make the jump by herself and stroking the kitten's fur in her lap. "The vet said Oreo's all healed and normal. We're raising a very healthy kitty."
"That's good," Santana says as she reaches over and pets Oreo's head.
Oreo was a kitten they adopted a few months ago. Brittany had moved in after a year of dating, though it had always felt sooner since they lived so close to each other, she was over all the time. They decided to adopt a cat and fell in love when they saw Oreo at the shelter. She'd been found on injured and on the street, living mostly in dumpsters and the shelter had nursed her back to health. By the time they'd adopted her she was nearing recovery and the vet appointment had just proved she was fully recovered and healthy.
Santana knows Brittany is looking at her in that way. The way that makes her melt and makes her heart get all fluttery.
"What?" she asks, softly, looking up from Oreo, who affectionately rubs her head against Santana's hand.
"Nothing, I just like seeing you like this. I always knew you were secretly a cat person."
Santana laughs. "Oreo's just an exception. And mostly just cause I love you."
"Sure she is." Brittany places a kiss on the side of her head. "I love you too."
Sam and Mercedes' wedding is beautiful. It's not a massive affair, with Mercedes' growing fame in the last year and a half, the couple didn't want a huge press spectacle and kept the number of guests limited to mostly family and friends and only a handful of Mercedes' celebrity contacts that she'd grown closer with.
At the reception Sam and his groomsmen, Kurt, his brother Stevie and his best friend from work Finn do a small dance number for Mercedes. None of them are particularly well-coordinated and it's totally dorky and embarrassing, but charming in it's own way and Santana can tell by Mercedes' laugh how happy her friend is to have married the dorky, big lipped, love of her life.
"Come on," Brittany offers her hand to take Santana out onto the dance floor. "We'll do better than the groomsmen," she jokes.
Santana laughs and gladly accepts and Brittany spins her.
"Sam asked me to help them with the dance," she tells Santana.
"Really?"
"Yeah, he wanted it to be a surprise...looked better when I did it, though. But he told me none of them could dance so this was the best I could do for them."
They dance through the evening, through the fast songs and the slow ones. By the end of the night, Santana is still in Brittany's arms when a slow song plays. Brittany's looking at her in that way again. She knows because she feels fluttery when she catches those blue eyes.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You always say that," Santana says playfully.
Brittany chuckles and pauses for a moment. "I just love you. And...I'm really happy."
"Me too," Santana says. She looks over Brittany's shoulder to see that Sam and Mercedes are leaving for their honeymoon. "C'mon, let's go home."
Brittany nods in agreement.
"Awesome." she says and Santana catches a smirk on her face and a glint in her eye. She raises her brow, as if asking her girlfriend to elaborate and Brittany says "I'm gonna go home with the hottest bridesmaid at the wedding."
Brittany proposes on a Friday. She does it on the bench in the courtyard of their apartment complex where they first met.
Santana accepts, unable to stop nodding, long enough to say yes and Brittany pulls her into a big kiss, before slipping the ring onto her finger.
Neither of them can stop grinning when Santana pulls her new fiancee into her arms and tells her "I love you."
Their friends are all thrilled for them.
When Santana asks Quinn if she wants to have lunch with her and Brittany, she knows what's coming.
Quinn knows that Santana is going to ask her to be her maid of honor at the wedding. She figured she might have to battle Mercedes for it and as much as she loves Mercedes - they both do - Santana and Quinn had been best friends for years, there was history there. And granted, that history had involved some slapping, but they'd grown since then. She was the obvious choice.
She can't help feel just a little smug about it when she arrives at the restaurant.
Santana is doing that thing she does, dancing around a question she obviously wants to ask, but also not ask. Brittany nudges her gently and whispers in her ear.
This is it. Here it comes.
Quinn's mouth is left agape when Santana asks her if Charlie can be the ring bearer at the wedding.
AN: I know it's been a while, but here you are, it is a little short. Originally there was supposed to be the final chapter + an epilogue chapter but in the end I just decided to combine them. Honestly, I feel like I ran out of steam for this story, partially due to minimal planning and just drifted away from the original premise which itself changed from the very original concept I came up with 4-5 years ago.
I did want to wrap it up with a happy ending and I didn't want to leave you guys hanging and leave it unfinished for God knows how long. I did have fun writing it though and I hope you have enjoyed reading.
I do have plans to write more fic, it's just a matter of getting the words out of my head and onto the document, so stay tuned for that. There are things I wish I had done better with this fic, but at the end of the day I kind of just wanted something fluffy and fun and happy and I hope that's what you got out of it. At least for now, I bid farewell to this cat-sitting universe and it's on to the next one.
Leave a review if you feel like it :) Thank you for going on this little journey with me.