Present Day

Santana stares into space, deep in thought and breathing heavily. One hand rest on her thigh, stroking the creases on her dress in an attempt to self soothe. The other, wrapped around the stem of her wine glass tightly, but not tight enough to shatter the glass.

In just a few moments time she'd be expected to make her eagerly awaited 'maid of honour' speech, and all eyes would be on her as she followed the protocol of sharing precious memories made with her best friend, cracking jokes and entertaining the audience with embarrassing stories from the past, and toasting the happy couple for a happy future ahead, blessing them with lovely words. That was the part she worried about the most.

How was she going to do this?

"Take a deep breath and start at the beginning" Santana told herself "Tell them how we 1st met"

She cast her mind back to that day in Kindergarten

"Santana, this is Brittany, I'd like you to be her buddy and look after her this week." Said Mrs Melvyn, ushering a blonde teary child towards the confident, dark haired Latina.

It was Santana Lopez's 1st day at school, and like everything else she had taken to it like a duck to water. School didn't faze her. Brittany S. Pierce on the other hand was struggling with the adjustment and had started crying as soon as her mother stood up to leave.

Mrs Pierce had reluctantly left her precious daughter crying, and in the trust of Mrs Melvyn, a friendly but firm woman with years of teaching experience. Mrs Melvyn was able to tell immediately which children were going to settle in quickly like Santana, and which ones were going to take a little longer, like Brittany.

As she did every year, she would buddy up a settled child with a struggling one, in the hope the settled child would be able to pull the struggling one out of their comfort zone. Sometimes it didn't work, and the 2 children would clash, sometimes it did, and the children would become good friends. And sometimes, such as the case with Brittany and Santana, fate would lay a hand and a friendship would be built to last a lifetime.

Santana smiled at the responsibility suddenly stowed upon her and smiled at the girl in front of her, who was slightly taller than her.

"Hi Brittany, I'm Santana. Don't be upset, school is meant to be fun, would you like to go over there and play with the princess castle?"

Brittany chewed the sleeve of her jumper and eyed Santana suspiciously for a moment, before turning towards the princess castle in the corner with a hesitant smile. She loved princesses, and fairies and unicorns, and the castle did look pretty spectacular. As if she could read her mind, Santana spoke again.

"I hear they even have the Unicorn Barbie set'

Brittany turned back towards the pretty Latina girl and removed the sleeve from her mouth, as Mrs Melvyn stood behind her looking at the 2 girls expectantly, in hope that her plan had worked to coax Brittany out of her shell.

"Okay" said Brittany in a quiet shy voice.

And with that the two girls headed off to play, Mrs Melvyn heading off with a smile to "buddy up" her next set of children. As the girls sat down to play, Santana turned to Brittany.

"Don't worry Britt-Britt, I will take care of you now"

And with that Santana extended out her pinkie finger to make a promise to Brittany. It is something she always did with her Abuela, and now she was extending the gesture to Brittany, who with a hint of uncertainty reached out to link pinkies with her new friend. As their fingers linked, Brittany smiled at Santana. She believed her.

From that day on they always linked pinkies, and Santana always promised to take care of Brittany, no matter what.

Santana smiled at the memory; she had always been so protective of Brittany. She was her best friend since the age of 5, and Santana really needed to pull it together today to give her the speech she deserved.

"Tell them about all the dreams we shared" Santana thought to herself, still musing about the speech.

9-year-old Brittany and Santana were giggling together, high on sugar from all the sweets and chocolates they'd devoured, at one of their many sleepovers. Mr Lopez could hear their laughter from downstairs and had complained about the noise to his wife many times.

"Oh, George just leave them be. That sound is young innocence and we should enjoy it while we can. In a few years' time, Santana will be a moody teenager. You'll miss the sound of her laughter when it's replaced by slamming doors" said Maribel.

George sighed and shook his head, turning his attention back to his newspaper.

"San, I wonder where we will live when we're grown up"

"I'm not sure Britt-Britt, but what I do know is we'll live together. You and me, me and youuuu, both of us togetherrrrr'

Santana sang playfully, making Brittany laugh along with her. It was then Brittany realised the familiar mischievous glint in Santana's chocolate orbs.

"Let's see where we are going to live" she giggled, as she dragged Brittany over to the globe on her windowsill.

"Spin the globe Britt, I'll close my eyes and pick a place and the place where my finger lands on, is the place we will live together forever."

Brittany giggled as she spun the globe, time with Santana always meant so much laughter, and she especially loved her best friends' spontaneous side. She truly believed everything Santana said, so if she said this was where they were going to live when they were older, then that is where they would live. Brittany just hoped it wouldn't be too far from their home and families in Lima, Ohio.

The globe game to a stop as Santana's hand landed on it, and the two girls nervously looked at each other with a smile. To them, their whole fate laid underneath Santana's small hand. The girls dropped their gaze to the globe, as Santana counted down from 3 to reveal the mystery place.

"3….2….1"

"New York!" the girls excitedly squealed at the same time.

Again, Santana smiled at the memory. They had built on their dreams since that day, and their childhood games became real hopes and dreams. All through high school, they talked about moving to New York together. Santana would go to NYU to study law, and Brittany would go to Julliard to study dance. That was their big dream, and in-between that they shared small dreams and everything in between, even Brittany's weird dreams.

"I had a dream last night" said Brittany, as she turned towards Santana.

The two of them were huddled under a myriad of blankets in their homemade den. They were 13 now, and Santana secretly thought they were perhaps too old to be making dens, but it made Brittany happy, so she never said anything. Besides, she would never grow tired of huddling up close to her best friend, sharing secrets and dreams, and giggling into the early hours of the morning.

Santana looked at Brittany with a smile, indicating for Brittany to carry on, she had her full attention.

"You know rowing boats? And how they have that curvy thing that holds the ore?"

Santana nodded, confused as to where Brittany was going with this.

"Well… that was me in the dream. I was the curvy thing"

Santana let out a smile, this was just typical Brittany. She had such an eccentric way of thinking both consciously and unconsciously. At school she was often teased for this, with many people calling her stupid, but she wasn't stupid. She had a different way of thinking but she wasn't stupid, Santana knew this, and was one of the only ones to fully understand Brittany's mind. She thought Brittany's mind was beautiful, and she never let anyone get away with being mean to Brittany. Next year, the girls would be going to high school, and Santana had already began putting steps in place to secure their popularity. Nobody would be teasing Brittany.

Santana reached out her pinkie and linked with Brittany

"Sounds like a great dream Brit." She smiled.

"Maybe I'll keep that one as our secret" she thought, laughing silently at the memory. Suddenly the sound of a spoon clinking against a champagne flute brought Santana back to reality. It was Quinn, and she was looking at Santana expectantly, prompting her to stand up and do her speech as the room started to quieten.

Santana sighed. She had to pull it together, show how happy she was for her best friend, for her Brittany.

She stood up and cleared her throat, hoping the guests wouldn't see right through her and sense the nerves in her voice.

"Hi everyone" she started, glancing down at the tattered bit of paper that held her speech, with numerous annotations and crossings out.

"For those I haven't had a chance to say hi to properly, I'm Santana, Brittany's best friend." She offered a small half-wave to the crowd, before sucking in ready to say the next bit. Be authentic Santana, be authentic.

"And this has got to be one of the happiest days of my life…"


Hi guys- Hope you're enjoying the story so far! It's a slow burn, but it'll be worth it I promise :) Would love to know your thoughts!

I created a video trailer for if this fanfic was a movie if you wanna see what's to come. If you don't want any spoilers, don't watch it! If you search Brittana Invisible String Trailer on YouTube it should come up, or my channel name 'Brittana Videos' :)