Guess what? I figured out the line breaks. Yes I am a fool, but it's fixed now. Enjoy ;)
Over the next week, Brittany and Santana were so busy, that the only time they saw each other was in the morning for less than ten minutes and in the evening for an hour if they both fought sleep. Brittany was having to wake up at six in the morning so that she could be at work by 7:30 AM to finish her pre-rehearsal warm up routine before everyone else came in. They would then run through choreography for four hours, take lunch for thirty minutes, have a three hour dance class in whatever style they chose, break for another thirty minutes, and then run through another four hours of a second routine. On good days, Brittany would get home at eight. On long days, it would be close to ten.
As bad as her own schedule was though, Brittany preferred it to Santana's. Santana would be up at 5:30 AM to be at the studio by 6:30 AM. She would have an hour and a half vocal training and warm up, then be in the studio for three hours. After that she had chosen to sit in with the people writing her songs. Though Santana could write her own music, the label wanted her to debut with their own writers and then depending on how it did, she could write the songs in subsequent albums. These meetings could take between three and four hours, sometimes longer, so they would often eat lunch while they worked. Once that was done, Santana would have a thirty minute break, which was only because that's how long it took her to get to the dance studio the label used, where she would have dance class for two hours. By 6 PM, Santana would be back at her office at the label, where she would work until Brittany texted that she was headed home. After that she'd be home within the hour.
By the Thursday of their first week with this schedule, Brittany was wearing thin. She missed spending time with her girlfriend, she missed going to watch the water jets thingy, and most of all, she missed not having an aching body. She had thought that she pushed her dancers hard in her old dance studio, but after working with her new choreographer Syth, for four days, she knew she had been wrong. Syth was a tall, muscular man with long brown hair that he always tied in a loose bun. He had a few tattoos along his arms and at the base of his back, and a few piercings in his ears, though he never wore any earrings. When Brittany had first seen him, she had thought that he didn't look anything like a dancer, and when she had found out that he was her new boss, she had decided to never get on his bad side. Syth was a tough man, but not unfair. He never really talked directly to Brittany, though Brittany soon realised this was a good thing, as the only time Syth talked was when he was correcting someone's movements. He never seemed to get tired, and it would always take people constantly making mistakes due to exhaustion for him to realise it was time for lunch. This is what was happening at the moment.
Brittany saw it before Syth did and could not suppress the groan that escaped her as she realised they would be stopping again.
"STOP" Syth roared. Brittany couldn't blame him. She was beginning to think that these people were messing up on purpose, and that irritated her thoroughly.
"What the hell is happening in that third row? Are you guys even listening to the music?"
His tone was laced with venom, and even though Brittany wasn't in that row, she felt a sudden urge to flee.
The man directly in front of Brittany, who had been fine, suddenly began to breathe heavily and clutch at his sides.
"Sorry Syth. We've just been at it for a long time you know? Maybe if we could break just for a bit"
Brittany rolled her eyes. This guy wasn't even a good actor. Any idiot could see what he was doing, and Syth was definitely no idiot. Brittany suddenly realised that everyone besides her and a boy in the left corner were doing some variation of panting and holding their stomachs. What worried her though, was that Syth was looking directly at her. She prayed he wouldn't call her out.
"Oh you're tired" Syth said in mock concern. "Have I worked you too hard? I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?"
Brittany wasn't sure what was wrong with the people in this room, but they actually all started to respond. Maybe it was because she had trained under Sue, and watched Santana and Quinn as head cheerleaders, but she couldn't help but thinking that replying to an obviously rhetorical question when the man asking it was clearly extremely annoyed was a death wish. Her thoughts were confirmed almost as soon as the first word left the first person's lips.
"No prob-"
"SHUT UP! Are you all really that daft? You want to take a break, fine. Get out. In fact go home, the rest of the day is cancelled. I'll tell you when you can return from your 'break'."
Everyone stood completely still. Nobody was panting anymore.
"Are you too tired to listen to me too now? Get. Out."
Brittany decided they had pushed Syth's buttons for long enough today, so she began to move towards her bag when a hand stopped her.
"Not you" Syth said. Then he turned towards the boy in the corner and yelled "kid, not you either. Everyone else better be gone in the next three minutes or they're fired."
There was a scramble to get to the door that would have made Brittany laugh any other day, but she was currently scared for her own career. When the room was empty, Syth walked over to the stereo and hit play. Turning back to the other two in the room he asked,
"Are you guys tired too?"
They both shook their heads.
"Alright well, we'll finish off the hour and then you can have an hour lunch."
When they had finished, Brittany was sweating heavily, but she felt great. She hadn't realised how little they got done with people constantly making mistakes to try and get Syth to call lunch. In the hour after he had kicked everyone out, they had run through the entire morning's choreography till they had it down pat, and had begun on the second one.
"That's what I'm talking about!" the kid exclaimed, before turning quickly to Syth, "Sorry, I didn't mean-"
"No kid you're right. That was the most productive we've been all week, not to mention that you two are probably the best two dancers I've taught since I joined this damn place."
Brittany was stunned. Syth was like a completely different person. He was smiling, and his entire demeanour seemed less imposing. Maybe this is what happens when he actually sees results.
"How long have you been here?" Brittany asked.
"Almost nine months now" Syth replied. "I've been dealing with these lazy dancers who think that because they went to Juilliard or some other haughty school they should be treated like they're something special. There were a bunch of client's that threatened to stop using the studio because of the dancers' attitudes, so they fired the previous director and asked me to come whip them into shape, but honestly I don't see the point. They're not good enough for the amount of energy it's taking me."
Brittany didn't know what to say to this. She agreed whole heartedly that the dancers had horrible attitudes. Just yesterday a group of the girls had tried to get under Brittany's skin by talking about her loudly enough for her to hear, while the boys tried to demean her by whistling and winking at her whenever they could. The whole situation had made Brittany so thankful for her high school experience because she was so used to mean girls and disgusting boys that their antics didn't even phase her at all. They did however create a tense atmosphere in the studio where no one really trusted anyone, and dancers were constantly trying to get each other to fail or look bad. It had been four days and Brittany was seriously beginning to fear for her safety. So instead of saying anything, Brittany just nodded.
"What's your name?" Syth asked her.
"Brittany S. Pierce"
"And yours?" Syth turned to the kid.
"Chad"
"Well, nice to meet you Brittany and Chad. I'm going to need your help."
"No way!" Santana asked as she rolled onto her side, her whole body shaking with the force of her laughter.
"Way" Brittany said, with a huge smile on her face.
"He made them all audition for you and a kid?!" Santana asked, thoroughly amused.
"Yeah. And he wasn't even there. He said it was entirely up to us who stayed and who was fired, that he'd just come back tomorrow morning and teach whoever he found."
"Oh my god that's hilarious. So how did you choose?"
"I got them to do the dance we were trying to learn yesterday when they all pissed him off. So anyone who couldn't do it from beginning to end without a mistake was immediately cut, then we asked them to do it again and the ones who were too out of breath or tired to do it were cut too."
"Damn B. You're an undercover Sue."
Brittany gasped, placing her hand over her chest in mock offense. "Take that back Santana Marie. Take that back right now!"
"Won't change the facts hon"
"I'm not a Sue, I just need to be able to trust that my dancers have the stamina to handle whatever a client throws at us. If you're out of shape and wheezing through the routine, what good is it if you can do a perfect pirouette?"
"True. You're so sexy when you're being hard core baby" Santana said, as she sat back up off Brittany's lap and kissed her. "So how many were you left with after your tyranny?"
"Five"
"What?" Santana burst out laughing again. "B you're telling me that out of almost forty dancers, only five were up to your standards?"
"Yeah" Brittany replied sheepishly. "I was fare though. It's a routine they should have known like the back of their hands honestly, and it's not even that hard, even you could do it without getting too tired"
"Yeah well, I've been having to keep up with you since we met, so that may not mean much really"
Brittany laughed at this.
"So now your studio only has seven dancers sans the director? Isn't that really few?"
"Not really. That's about the number that get signed to each client. Usually it's better to have more in case a dancer gets hurt, or if there are multiple jobs at a time. So the seven of us are just going to have to work a lot until they hire new people."
Santana leaned away from Brittany then, and was quiet for a while. After a very pregnant silence that was pressing in on Brittany's ears, Santana asked, "You're going to have to work more?"
Realisation hit her hard, and Brittany felt that she could have kicked herself in that moment. Today was the first day in five days that the two of them had been able to sit and enjoy each other's company. They weren't exhausted or in a bad mood because of a long day, and Brittany had just blurted out that they were going to see each other even less. As if it was nothing.
"Santana look at me" she begged, as Santana stared straight ahead at the TV. When she had complied Brittany looked between her eyes for a few seconds before speaking.
"It's only going to be for a few weeks while the studio hires some new dancers. I hate our crazy schedules so much baby but we'll find a way to make time for each other. We always do right?"
Santana sighed and looked down.
"Yeah, but I just wish that it wasn't so hard for us to see each other you know? We saw each other all the time in New York Britt."
"Yeah." Brittany didn't have anything else to say but that. It was true. They had lunch together every day, they drove to and from work together, and they were always both home by at least 8, giving them a couple of hours to hang out. Now though, they went to work and returned home at different times and they didn't eat lunch at set times, so they couldn't even set that aside as 'them' time. It was a sad fact that it was impossibly hard for them to find time to be just 'Brittany and Santana'.
They sat in silence for a while after that, just taking each other in. Brittany listened to Santana's steady breathing while combing her fingers through her hair. Santana, who had laid back down on Brittany's lap, enjoyed the warmth Brittany was radiating and the gentle scratching of the nails on her scalp.
"What if I wake up with you and we go to the coffee shop for breakfast together every day? Then I'll drop you at work and take the car with me."
"The breakfast sounds great B but I need the car to get to the dance studio"
"I know. That means I'll have to come drop it back and I can see you for a few minutes before we both go back to work."
Santana was quiet again, and Brittany was beginning to think that she hated the idea, but then she sat up and kissed Brittany softly and smiled.
"I love you so much, you know that? You're a genius BSP"
Brittany blushed slightly. "I love you too Santana"
Santana kissed her again, this time with more passion. As Brittany opened her mouth to allow Santana's tongue entrance, and she felt Santana's hands raise her shirt she knew one thing. Whatever happened, they would be okay.
For the next few of weeks, Brittany and Santana were busier than ever. With now complete songs, Santana was spending all of the time she wasn't in dance rehearsals in the recording studio, sometimes only coming home after fifteen or sixteen hours. Brittany for her part, was working even worse hours than before. Her bosses had decided that they would work with the seven dancers for a few months, because they were getting such great reviews from the artists they worked with. Brittany herself had been requested by three different clients, forcing her to start her day at 4 AM and only get home by 10 PM. They usually both had a day off in the week, mandated by artist unions or something like that, but as their days off were rarely on the same day, they would often find themselves at work anyway.
Halfway through the fifth month of this though, their loads were finally lightened. Santana had finished recording all of her songs, so she had two weeks off where the producers would listen and, hopefully, approve.
As she walked out of the studio into a bright sunny day for the first time in months, Santana was suddenly engulfed by two strong pale arms, and hit in the face by a cascade of long brilliantly blonde hair. Inhaling the all too familiar scent of coconut, Santana quickly shook off her surprise and wrapped her arms tightly around Brittany's waist. They stood that way, holding each other for almost five minutes, relishing the closeness before being interrupted by someone clearing their throat.
"Didn't you guys see each other this morning? You haven't seen me in half a year."
It was Quinn. Santana pulled back from the chaste kiss she had just placed on Brittany's lips to fix her old friend with her well-rehearsed glare.
"No actually, we didn't see each other this morning. Brittany left before I woke up. And who said I didn't want half a year to turn into a full one?"
Brittany looked between her girlfriend and best friend with a wide smile. To anyone else it would look like they were a second from ripping at each other's throats, but to Brittany, who could see the amused glint in both of their eyes, it was the familiar sight of her oldest friends reuniting.
"HA! As if you could go that long without needing someone to smack some sense into you satan"
Brittany cringed slightly at the old nickname. She had never liked it, but Santana's face broke into a wide smile.
"You always were a genius slapper"
Quinn shrugged, her own smile forming.
"Will you guys just hug already?" Brittany cried after a few more seconds passed.
Dropping the hand that had still been around Brittany's waist, Santana stepped towards Quinn, who opened her arms wide, tugging Santana into a warm hug.
"I missed you bitch"
"Yeah me too preggers"
"Really?" Quinn exclaimed, letting Santana go. "I haven't been pregnant for five years now. Can't you come up with another nickname?"
"Why would I do that when it always puts you in such a good mood?" Santana asked smirking.
"Briiiit" Quinn pleaded.
Brittany took a step towards Santana, placing a hand on her lower back and leaning in to kiss her temple.
"Baby please?" She whispered, between kisses.
Santana exhaled dramatically.
"Pathetic Quinn!"
"It worked didn't it?"
Santana just rolled her eyes, choosing to ignore the smug smirk on Quinn's face.
"What are you doing here anyway? Yale finally kick you out?"
"Please! I wouldn't be shocked if they begged me not to graduate, that's how much they love me there."
"Whatever. I give it a year before you're out of there."
"Okay guys…Not that we're not excited to see you Quinn, but what are you doing here?" Brittany cut in, knowing how easy it is for the two of them to get side tracked by useless arguments.
"Well, everyone in New York won't stop calling me asking if I've heard from you. Apparently since you moved you've been completely MIA. Last week Rachel and Kurt said they were planning to come up here to check on you guys and make sure that you actually are here and weren't murdered or something-"
"Always so dramatic" Santana cut in.
"Wouldn't be Rachel and Kurt otherwise" Quinn said laughing. "But I figured that you were probably ignoring them, so to save you the trauma I told them I'd come check instead."
"Why did you figure we were ignoring them?" Brittany asked nervously. "We've been really busy since we got here. First with unpacking and now both of our schedules are so insane that we barely even speak to each other. Usually I only see Santana when she's sleep-"
"Brittany I'm gonna just stop you there hun" Quinn said, raising one hand to cut Brittany off and then crossing it with the other one over her chest. "I know you guys. I know you guys better than I think even you realise. I knew you were in love with each other before you did, I knew when you started hooking up and I knew, even when you tried to fool yourselves and everyone else along with you with the Sams and Danis of the world, that you were still pinning after each other."
Brittany shifted uncomfortably at the mention of Dani, and Santana crossed her arms defensively.
"What's your point Fabray?"
"My point, is that you can't lie to me. When I asked Brittany why you were moving, she said, 'Unicorns don't live in packs', and then began telling me all these statistics on dancers and musicians in California versus New York."
Santana looked at Brittany with a small smile. She of course knew exactly what Brittany had meant by 'Unicorns don't live in packs' and she couldn't help but swoon at the sheer adorableness that was Brittany S. Pierce.
"Well they don't" Brittany said with a pout, prompting Santana to place a soft kiss on the corner of her mouth.
"No they don't B"
"Well it took me a few weeks to understand what the hell that had meant. Mercedes said that it was probably nonsense that only Santana could decipher like always, but I've always known that nothing you say is nonsense, even if I couldn't understand it."
Brittany smiled broadly at this.
"Okay maybe sometimes you do say some rubbish stuff, but I'm pretty sure you do it on purpose. This particular sentence felt like a hidden message."
"You have a lot of free time Lucy Q" Santana quipped, laughing lightly.
"Don't call me that" she bristled, then Quinn shrugged. "It was just really weird how you guys up and left." She eyed the women in front of her for any signs that they would just answer her unspoken question, but seeing the blank expression on Brittany's face, and the snarky grin on Santana's she knew she was going to have to pry it out of them.
"After about a month of constant calls and emails from everyone, I begun to think maybe they had pissed you off. But then Tina told me that you only got kind of annoyed the day you were announcing your move, so that couldn't be it. Then Sam called me saying some really stupid things about being worried about what Santana was doing to you Britt, and all of a sudden it clicked"
"Did it detective pregg-"
"Santana"
"Sorry B"
Quinn smirked and continued.
"It did."
"Well don't hold out on us now Nancy Drew. Please share with the class" Santana said, brandishing her hand as if to give Quinn the stage.
"You guys were leaving because you needed to move on from the toxic barely functional quote-unquote family that the glee club became. Just like me" she added with a smug smile, looking from the shocked look Brittany was trying to conceal to the impressed one Santana was giving her.
"That's some A-class sloothing Fabray. I'll give it to you, though anyone with half a brain who had spent any amount of time around those band of misfits would have got it. It's nice to know you care enough to connect the dots though"
Quinn smiled at Santana.
"How did you know we would be happy to see you though?" Brittany asked.
"We're the unholy trinity. Can't break up the unholy trinity, you told me that."
Brittany squealed, and pulled Quinn and Santana to her sides, jumping up and down.
"You're SO right Quinn! This is going to be so awesome! The unholy trinity take on San Jose kind of AWESOME"
Santana chuckled while Quinn shook her head, brandishing a toothy smile. The two women looked at each other, sharing a knowing look before both turning to the over excited blonde between them and saying
"Whatever you say Britt." Letting her drag them down the street.
"Wait, why don't you have to work B?"
"The big man upstairs finally decided to hire some more dancers after Syth told him how many hours we've been working."
"God?"
"No Quinn, she means her boss"
"Of course she does"
"Anyway Syth demanded that Chad and I take the next client off because we've been working the most, and it so happens to be a month long contract."
"Wow. I'm so glad B. That means you'll be free for my first week of touring"
"I was thinking the same thing when Syth told me."
The three girls had been sitting in the coffee shop a few blocks from their apartment for almost three hours. Quinn had insisted on being given the most detailed run down on their lives in San Jose, and though Santana tried to protest, claiming it was all boring work related stuff, Brittany had been all too happy to oblige.
"Okay so if all goes well and the label approves your songs?"
"Then I start playing gigs. The hope is that people like my stuff enough to start searching them up on iTunes or YouTube and so on, and then we'll start selling tickets to my own shows."
"OMG!" Quinn exclaimed. "I really can't believe this is happening for you Santana. Don't forget me when you blow up and have paparazzi chasing you."
"I plan on denying everyone I knew in Mckinely. Except for Britts obviously." Brittany whooped excitedly.
"Score!"
"And maybe Noah too" Santana added with a thoughtful look.
Brittany stiffened, and Quinn choked on her water.
"Noah who?"
"What do you mean Noah who?" Santana asked amused. "You forget your baby daddy so soon?"
Santana had expected Quinn to reply with something snarky, but Quinn wasn't in the mood.
"Noah…Puckerman?" She asked with a tentative look towards Brittany.
"Ok what the fuck is wrong with you?" Santana asked her, seriously confused by her friend's sudden awkwardness.
"Why is Puck getting remembered when you hit fame?" Quinn asked, hoping that Santana would say something bitchy or funny.
"Well, I don't say it often…or at all really, but Puck is important to me." Santana said shrugging. "We were there for each other when we were both being complete fucking idiots you know? We kinda just get each other that's all" She finished, completely unaware of the effect of what she had just said.
Quinn stared at her, shocked by both what she had said and the fact that she had said it at all. Brittany still hadn't spoken, but her eyes had narrowed.
"Q why the hell are you looking at me like that?"
"Santana what the hell do you mean 'you get each other'?'
"What? Why is that so hard to believe?"
"What do you get each other…about?"
"Stop being a fucking idiot Quinn. That's just how it is, we-"but before she could say what exactly they were, Brittany had stood up and walked out of the shop.
Santana stood up quickly to follow her, but a hand around her wrist stopped her.
"Just let her walk it off S"
"Quinn what the fuck is happening? What does she need to walk off, and why the hell are you looking at me like that?!" Santana asked loudly, feeling herself getting angry.
"Sit down and calm your titties. I'm just shocked that's all."
"What's so shocking about-"
"Shut up I'm getting there. Just let me process"
Santana sat back in her seat and crossed her arms. She was so confused that she didn't even mind the tone Quinn had just used with her. Clearly something she had said had annoyed Brittany, something that hardly happened, so she would sit and wait for Quinn's explanation.
After close to five minutes of silence, Quinn finally exhaled loudly and looked at Santana.
"Senior year 2.0, Brittany and Puck got into a fight."
"WHAT? WHEN? W-"
"Will you please shut the hell up and let me talk?"
Quinn waited for Santana to nod her head before she continued.
"Puck had gone to school to see his brother or kitty or something, and Britt overheard him saying how he was going to Louisville to visit you. He was bragging about all the cheerleaders he'd sleep with or something."
Santana smiled fondly at the memory. It had been an awesome week with Puck that she had really needed after breaking up with Brittany.
"Yeah he stayed with me for a week. So?"
"Well Brittany had apparently been trying to call and text you but couldn't get you or something…"
She trailed off, hoping Santana would give her a reason, but Santana just turned away, looking at the floor.
"Yeah…" She said, close to a whisper.
"Well…"Quinn continued after a moment. "She went up to Puck, asking him all these questions, and Puck just kind of…refused to answer."
She waited again for Santana to say something, but as she had yet to lift her eyes from the floor, Quinn decided to continue.
"Britt hasn't really told me what exactly he said, but from what I gather it wasn't that…nice" Finally Santana looked up. Her brows were deeply furrowed.
"What do you mean?"
"Well you know Puck, Santana. He's not the nicest person. I've asked him about it and even he won't say what he told her. I've gotten bits and pieces from both of them but the fact that they're so closed lipped about it tells me there's something bad that happened."
Santana closed her eye trying to remember her week with Puck. He hadn't been any weirder than usual. He had tried to get her to sleep with as many people as possible, had made her drink gallons of alcohol, had forbidden any talk of Brittany, and had tried to get into her pants.
"Okaayyy" she drawled out. "So Britt hates him now? Cause of a fight?" she asked. This didn't make sense. She had talked to Puck many times on skype. Britt hadn't expressed any anger towards him then.
"Not exactly. Britt doesn't hate anyone. I think It's more like she's scared of your relationship with him because she doesn't understand it. She called me a couple of times that year, before you came to get her back and she sent you to New York. She'd be crying about how you guys don't talk anymore and her missing you so much, but then out of nowhere she'd start asking me if I've talked to Puck and do I know where he is, do I know if you've talked to him and so on. I think she was scared that he had replaced her as your best friend."
"That's completely insane. No one could ever replace Britt."
"Well…she didn't, or I guess doesn't, seem to think so. Britt has always been used to being your only exception. You're mean to everyone but Britt. You hate everyone but Britt. Then there was a period of time when she wasn't a part of your life, and Puck was. Since then she's been worried that she may not be the only exception."
"And I just confirmed it" Santana said, slapping her forehead.
"Yeah pretty much" Quinn told her simply.
"Why the hell didn't she just tell me all this? Why didn't YOU tell me?!"
"It wasn't for me to te-"
"Why didn't you stop me? Why were you asking stupid questions!? FUCK"
"Santana, I was hoping you were kidding. Like you'd say something really stupid like 'his disgusting mowhawk would keep the paps away' or something. I didn't think you were going to say that he 'gets you'! Why the hell would you say that anyway?"
Santana was letting out a quiet stream of curses in Spanish. Running her fingers through her hair she said, "I didn't mean it like that Quinn. I just meant that we're both stupid afraid of feelings and shit so he gets why I do things and knows how to call me out on my shit. Fuck! What do you think Britt thinks?"
"I think deep down she knows what you meant, but honestly?" Santana nodded. "I think she think there's a part of you that you let Puck see that you hide from her."
"FUCK, why would you say that Fabray!" Santana asked, now on the verge of panic.
"You asked." Quinn was fighting the urge to laugh at the frantic look Santana was giving her. "Look, let's just go find her, and straighten this all out."
"Yeah okay. You go to the apartment and call me if she's there, but I don't think she will be." Santana stood up, tossing Quinn her house keys.
"Ok where are you going?" Quinn asked, standing up.
"To her spot"
And with that, Santana ran out of the shop.