Author's Note: Thank you guys all for your awesome reviews, and a HUGE thank you to ohvalerievalerie, who is clearly some kind of manip wizard, because how AWESOME is the poster she made of this story (and all of her other posters too, while we're talking awesome)? Anyway, here's the next chapter, hope you all enjoy!
Santana couldn't believe it, she couldn't believe that Brittany was actually kissing her, couldn't believe that the out of body experience that was happening to her was actually real. She felt like she was on the verge of something she couldn't fully explain, like all the air she was sharing with Brittany was bigger, somehow, than real air, and it was filling up her head with every breath, and that she might actually float away. Feeling the need to tether herself, she wrapped her arms around Brittany's neck, and Brittany responded by dropping a hand to her hip, pulling Santana closer, never breaking the kiss. Although she could hardly focus on anything but the taste of Brittany's lips and the intense, burning desire in the pit of her stomach, Santana swore that behind her eyes, saw real stars, bright and more colorful than any she'd ever seen.
When they finally broke apart, both girls only pulling away due to the necessity of taking in oxygen, they were left with racing hearts, gasping for breath. After Santana dropped her arms from Brittany's neck, she was so relieved when the blonde took both of her hands, that she leaned in for another quick peck. She was soaking wet, with sticky desert mud splashed midway up her calves, and yet she was so delirious off of the greatest kiss she'd every experienced, off of Brittany's kiss, off of Brittany herself, that she was fairly sure she could be drowning in the ocean and fail to notice. Brittany had kissed her, Brittany truly did return her feelings, and the skin below Santana's shirt burned like fire, nearly convincing her that the now faded handprint had, in fact, made a reappearance.
"Wow." Santana breathed, then felt her face flame at her unabashed joy.
"Yeah." Brittany choked out a thick laugh, her eyes never leaving Santana's face. "Are you okay?"
"So okay. You never have to ask me that after you kiss me again."
"Santana-"
"Britt, please don't say this was a mistake, because we both know that it wasn't."
"No, I definitely wasn't going to say that." Brittany promised, still holding tightly to Santana's hands. "I was going to say that I have so much I want to say to you, but we both have to go, before everyone wonders where we've gone. Your father, and-"
"Quinn and Sam, yeah. I know you have to go talk to them." Santana rocked up on her toes to press another soft kiss on Brittany's mouth. "You're going to be okay. I'm here for you, alright? You can call me later, or I'll leave the window open and you could-"
"I'd like that a lot, actually." Brittany smiled weakly, and Santana ached inside at how terrified that beautiful girl was about the fourth alien, about her feelings about the fourth alien. "I mean, if you don't mind."
"Of course I don't. You can come any time...I mean..." Santana blushed furiously again, but when she saw a real smile form on Brittany's face, she couldn't help but laugh. "I'll see you later. Good luck with them."
"Thank you." Brittany nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat, knowing she'd need a lot more than luck to deal with what was to come.
When Brittany finally released Santana's hands, she realized that hers were shaking, and from more than the buzz that still ran through her body after that kiss (or kisses, really, she thought it was sort of the cutest thing in the entire world how once it happened, Santana felt the need to keep claiming her mouth, a need Brittany felt absolutely no desire to put a stop to). Even with Santana's words, Brittany was still a little sick to her stomach about going after someone who had killed, about actually wanting to go after someone who had killed. But as much as Brittany wanted to be human, as much as she wanted to assimilate into the only world she'd ever known, into Santana's world, she knew that she wasn't, and more importantly, she knew that she had too many questions to keep from seeking out the answers. Turning her eyes back to Santana's retreating form, Brittany watched her shake her wet hair, watched the little bounce of her feet as she ran, watched as she rounded the corner back onto Main Street, to the diner, and she hoped, hoped more than she had ever hoped for anything in her life, that in seeking out someone so potentially dangerous, she wouldn't put that girl, the girl she loved, the only thing that ever truly mattered to her in the gravest danger.
Arriving back at her house, Brittany wasn't surprised to find Quinn sprawled out on the couch, closed eyes immediately snapping open at the sound of the door, and Sam pausing his video game with equal speed. As much as Brittany wanted to shower, wanted to wash away the mud, sweat and stress of the past hour of her life, she knew that two sets of expectant eyes wouldn't allow that. With a sigh, she kicked her sneakers off into the haphazard pile by the door and sank down onto the bench there, figuring her mother complaining about water and mud in the house would be the least of her problems.
"I ran into Santana." Brittany told them both, and Quinn nearly jumped up off of the couch.
"What did she do? Or was it the other one?" Quinn immediately accused, misreading the anxious expression on Brittany's face.
"Seriously Quinn, can you just stop with the paranoia about Santana and Mercedes? They're the ones who saved our asses-"
"The asses that only needed to be saved because of-"
"Here we go again." Sam stood up, tossing his controller on the floor. "Give it a goddamn rest, Quinn, everyone is sick of hearing you bitch about Brittany."
"And I'm sick of hearing about Saint Santana and Sister Mercedes. You two act like they walk on water, get over it already, they're human girls, that's it, they're nothing special." Quinn seethed, and Brittany and Sam exchanged a look, hearing the jealousy that Quinn probably didn't even know she harbored.
"Is it really necessary for you to fight with me about this every time I walk into a room?"
"Is it really necessary for you to have that stupid moony Santana face every second of every day?" Quinn spat back, mimicking Brittany's speech pattern.
"Maybe it is." Brittany felt her mouth curve into an unavoidable smile, and unconsciously, her tongue poked out just slightly against her bottom lip, imagining the taste of Santana's mouth against hers.
"You fucked her, didn't you?"
"What? No?" Brittany scowled, not that she didn't want to, she'd wanted that for years, probably, but when she was with Santana, it was so much more than that. She wanted to run her lips over every inch of her skin, she wanted to watch those dark eyes turn darker, she wanted to feel so completely surrounded by that perfect human being, but not just for the physical (as good as Brittany was sure the physical would be, since they could barely brush fingers without the world seemingly spinning off it's axis), but because Brittany loved Santana so much, she just wanted everything with her, especially now that she'd let go and kissed her. "The Sheriff showed Santana and Mercedes a bunch of pictures of dead bodies, to try to get them to tell him what they know about us, about me, really."
"What?" Sam nearly exploded, surprising Brittany, since it was typically Quinn who reacted so violently. "Now he's accusing you of murder?"
"There were handprints on the victims. And they're dated from the summer of 1947." Brittany told them quietly, surely, letting the implications of what she was saying sink in, rather than speaking further.
"So there are more of us." Quinn's eyes lit up in a way Brittany had never seen. "More of us who might actually know what the hell we are doing here."
"Seems like it. At least one more, or there was, sixty something years ago. I mean, we don't know if we are going to continue to age normally, if we die..."
"Exactly why we need to find them!"
"I'm not arguing with you on that." Brittany put her hands up, one of the rare times she and Quinn were not going to fight about something. "I agree with you."
"No way!" Sam shook his head emphatically. "Brittany! You want us on a wild goose chase following a trail of decades old dead bodies? That's ridiculous! And dangerous! I thought our entire goal here was to avoid getting into danger."
"Oh, of course this wasn't going to be easy." Quinn rolled her eyes. "It would be too much to ask that you both agreed with an intelligent idea."
"Shut up, Quinn. Think about Mercedes, think about Santana, Brittany, if you're not going to think about yourself. Are you really willing to risk her life to maybe get some answers."
"Stop, Sam." Brittany swallowed hard, trying to clear away the awful imagery his words had conjured up in her mind. "This isn't just some unimportant thing that we're talking about. We didn't get here on our own, and we obviously weren't sent to a foreign planet in egg sacs for no reason. If this other alien is out there, maybe we can finally find out the answers to everything."
"I thought you wanted to be human, Britt. Now you're alien chasing?"
"I did...I mean, I still do. But we aren't, Sam. It sucks, especially because it's come up now that I really feel a little like I am, for the first time in my life, but no matter what we do with whatever information we find, if we can even find it, I think we have to try."
"Well I'm outnumbered, so it doesn't really matter what I want." Sam sighed, not angry, just defeated.
"It does matter though." Brittany told him, feeling bad that she and her brother didn't agree, and Quinn shot a glare in her direction, assuring she was going to change her mind. "Can you just think about it tonight? We probably all should, before we do anything rash."
"And what if he does, Brittany? He's got pictures of dead people with handprints that look like yours, and your little girlfriend, by some miracle, didn't give him the answers he wanted. Waiting even a minute is a really stupid idea."
"Quinn, this isn't deciding whether or not to order pizza or Chinese, this is deciding whether or not to hunt down a killer." Sam huffed.
"Yeah, a killer who obviously saved our asses. Quit being such a fucking human, even Brittany is willing to do this."
"Enough." Brittany snapped. "We're waiting until tomorrow. But, you're right, Quinn. We don't know what Hummel is going to do, what lengths he's willing to go to so he can prove that I was the one who killed those people, and we need to watch him."
"I'll do it, take a night off from Judy's shit and maybe even get some kind of hint as to how we'll find an extra terrestrial in a haystack, once you come to your senses, Samuel."
"Don't hold your breath. Unless either of you come to your senses tonight and decide not to get us killed, I'm going to be stuck doing this, but don't think I'll be happy about it."
"You're an idiot." Quinn spit back. "If E.T. was going to kill us, they would have done it when we were defenseless."
"Whatever, you don't know that. I'm going upstairs." Sam grabbed his backpack off the floor and stormed out of the room.
"You know, you didn't have to call him an idiot. We're all on the same side, even if you hate us both."
"I don't hate you, Brittany Pierce." Quinn rolled her eyes, unwilling to show a lot of affection, but also unwilling to let Brittany believe that. "If I did, I would have been out of here a long time ago. I've got nothing holding me here but you two, and it would be a lot easier if I didn't."
"Quinn-"
"No, we're not having some heart to heart, paint each other's toenails and talk about whatever forbidden love you think you've got going on with Lopez. I'm bound to you, or whatever, but I don't want to talk about your cheesy picture perfect life and how you probably kissed your lover girl in the rain and saw stars like you're in some lame Julia Roberts movie. I want to go and watch Hummel, and rummage through his office a little, while I make sure he's otherwise occupied. As much as you love it here, I want to get us all the hell out, back to where we belong, so that's what I'm worried about, not the living, breathing version of Dawson's Creek."
"You know what? Fine." Brittany couldn't help but feel the slightest prickle at the back of her eyes, like in some bizarre way, she was constantly seeking the approval of Quinn, the approval she'd never get. "I just wish we could be like sisters again, like we used to be. You can say it was the whole thing with the Schuesters, but I remember you being mad at me long before that, and I know that you never actually wanted to go to Ohio anyway, even if it wasn't for Sam and me being here. I just wish you'd tell me what the real issue between us is, because-"
"Yeah, well, that sucks, because I wish a lot of things too." Quinn clicked her tongue, cutting Brittany off. She'd been pretending for years, since she was twelve and had the chance to be adopted by some guy with an ass on his chin and his insane wife all the way in some shitty town in Ohio, far away from her irrational anger towards Brittany, but she didn't go. It was true that she was bound to Brittany and Sam, and she resented them for it, resented that they were happy and she was miserable, but there was more, something that bubbled up in her stomach every time she so much as looked at Brittany, this sick, twisting anger that she knew went far deeper than her human side, and went far deeper than she could even begin to understand, like somehow, she was born with it and it might never disappear. "I guess call me when Sam pulls his head out of his ass."
"I know you want this to happen, and so do I, but please, please don't do anything rash and get yourself hurt." Brittany told her quietly, caring for her well being even after another sharp sting of Quinn's rejection pierced her. "We won't ever find them if Hummel gets his proof first."
"I'm not stupid, but thanks for your concern."
Before Brittany could anything else, Quinn was gone, and she was left standing alone in the living room, Sam mad at her for wanting to go after the fourth alien, and Quinn mad at her for existing, she assumed. She knew her parents would be home soon, knew that she and Sam would sit done to family dinner with them and pretend that everything was fine, but she couldn't help but ache for the one place she wouldn't have to pretend, the one place that she felt normal, the place she couldn't believe that she'd gone without until such a short time ago. Knowing that across town, Santana had her window left open, that Santana was probably thinking about her in the same way she was thinking about Santana was the one thing that would get her through another few hours of that dreaded pretending.
"Santana, you're filthy!" Maribel Lopez called out as Santana walked through the door, making her feel like she was still five years old and dragging a bucket of worms through the diner. "Tell me you didn't go see Hummel looking like that. You know how important your image is in this town."
"I'm aware, Ma." Santana rolled her eyes, looking around at the singular customer who sat by the front window picking at his French fries, the New Mexico rain scaring the usual steady stream of people away. "And no, I didn't go down there like this, I went for a run afterwards, Coach Roz is riding us hard this year, and I need to keep up my stamina. We can't have any mistakes at Regionals, Albuquerque recruited two new fliers, so I'm basically going to live and breathe cheerleading until then."
"Being captain of a winning team will look great for college, mija. University of Santa Fe has a great cheerleading squad. Make sure you tell your father if you need to get some of your shifts covered, he'll be thrilled to take care of it for you if it gets you one step closer to the dream."
"Of course." Santana controlled herself from rolling her eyes at her mother. The dream, not her dream, just another move in her father's ultimate goal for her. Attend his alma mater (their pennant had been placed above her crib before she was even born) major in business administration, come back to Roswell and die in the same town she'd been born in. Luckily, Santana had long ago learned how to manipulate her father's desires to her own benefit, and this was no exception. She didn't need extra cheerleading hours, there were no new fliers in Albuquerque, and her Cheerios were a shoe in for Regionals, and probably even Nationals, but she needed to set the stage for sudden time off if Brittany (after that kiss, she didn't feel the need to disguise her intentions by considering the others, she was in it for Brittany) needed her help in her fourth alien quest. Santana Lopez, one, Javier Lopez, zero. "I've got a bunch of homework tonight though, I'm going to shower and get started."
"Good idea, Nita." Maribel called her by her childhood nickname and kissed her cheek. "I'm about to leave for bowling with the girls, and I'll be home late. Have Noah make you something for dinner if you get hungry."
"Sounds good, I'll probably be asleep by the time you get in, so I'll see you tomorrow. Have fun."
Santana had barely made it into the back room of the diner before she ran into her father, who, understandably, had wanted to know how her meeting with Burt Hummel had gone. Giving him the barest of bones recap, after omitting all mentions of aliens, dead bodies and Brittany, he sent her on her way, and she took the stairs two at at time, eager to be away from questions and explanations, eager to just lay on her bed like a normal teenage girl, close her eyes, and squeal internally about being kissed by Brittany. It wasn't like her, not in the slightest, she usually kept a level head, she was usually mature for her age, and while she knew that what she and Brittany already shared was on some deep level that seemed to far surpass that reaction, the buzzing sensation that overtook her entire body had to be released in some way. If she'd kept a journal, she'd probably spend two hours writing down every detail about the impossible softness of Brittany's lips (they had to be entirely alien, there was no way there was anything human about them), the taste of her mouth, the way she held her so protectively, the way it felt like the entire world faded away, and when the kiss ended, she knew for sure that the rest of her life would be so different.
Once she'd showered, Santana did exactly that, sprawling out on her bed in short cheer shorts and a white camisole, leaving her hair down to dry naturally. When her phone rang, Santana grumbled at being interrupted from her thoughts. As she looked at the screen and saw that it was Mercedes, she made the split second decision to keep what had happened between her and Brittany to herself, at least until she (hopefully) came by later on, and they could (maybe) figure out what it all meant. Of course, Santana knew that there were bigger things to focus on, much bigger things. But with the taste of Brittany's lipgloss still on her lips (even though it really wasn't still there, Santana swore she could still taste vanilla mint), she couldn't help but have this inexplicable feeling that maybe, just maybe, this thing that was happening between her and Brittany, this pull, stronger every second, was somehow intrinsically tied to something far bigger than she could possibly understand.
"Did you talk to Brittany?" Mercedes asked, the instant Santana hit the answer button on her phone.
"Hello to you too, 'Ce."
"Please, I saw you like two hours ago. And I'm much more concerned with the life leeching thing than pleasantries."
"Don't call them that. We don't know what their motives were. If I've learned anything in this past week, is that nothing is so black and white."
"Wait, you're actually not freaked out about the dead bodies in the pictures? I mean, listen, I know it wasn't any of your aliens, or our aliens now, I guess, but that doesn't mean I want to share a milkshake with the other one."
"Hmm, so you do want to share a milkshake with one of ours?" Santana tried to tease. "Better be careful with who you choose, Lips might suck your whole face up right through the straw."
"I like his- no, don't distract me, this is serious. What did Brittany say about the fourth alien?"
"She wants to find them."
"What?" Mercedes screamed through the phone, causing Santana to pull it away from her ear quickly. "Does she want to get all of us killed? Hell no, Santana, this isn't what I signed up for! Do we at least get a vote? Because I vote absolutely fucking not."
"It's not really our thing to vote on. And even if it was, my vote is with Brittany, she deserves to know where she came from, they all do."
"Seriously, did she also lobotomize you when she saved you? You are literally insane and possibly suicidal right now. You, a human, a waitress, with no magical powers or skills, thinks hunting down a murdering alien is a good idea? You know what Brittany did to you with one touch, and you actually want to see what's on the other end of that?"
"Obviously she's not going to let me get killed. You should have seen her when she thought Quinn was going to attack me."
"Quinn was going to attack you?" Mercedes was on the very precipice of shrieking incoherently. "Remind me again why the hell I decided to be a part of this alien alliance."
"She wasn't, she was just going to slap me." Santana told Mercedes, as if being slapped by an alien was the most routine thing in the entire world, and she heard her friend suck her teeth, as if to say like that's much better. "And you agreed to be a part of this because you know they're the good guys."
"Yeah, they are, not Murdery McKillsalot."
"Stop. You don't know. Go ahead and google the '47 crash, and read about the sick accounts of aliens being tortured. Aliens like Brittany, like Sam, you don't know why the other one killed, okay? But I'm pretty damn sure the reason they did was to protect themselves, and maybe the defenseless kid aliens in their eggs, or whatever. Remember how old the Pierces and Quinn were when they started school with us. Do you really think it would have been okay if they got sliced open and experimented on?"
"No." Mercedes finally conceded after a long pause. "But that still doesn't mean I want to go looking for trouble."
"No one is asking you to, 'Cedes. But I'll tell you this right now, if they go, I'm going with them."
"You really are insane." Mercedes sighed, knowing that she'd never win that argument, knowing that even after such a short period of time, that her best friend was just as besotted with Brittany as Brittany was with her, and that when Santana set her mind to something, there would never be any talking her out of it. "And you know I'm not going to stand back and wait for you to get killed, so I guess all I can do is hope that they decide not to go."
"Well Brittany already made her decision, and since Quinn is the least human, you know how she'll vote, so really, unless your boy gives them a hard enough time, it's pretty much a given."
"He's not my boy." Santana could hear Mercedes' eye roll through the phone. "Do you think it's possible for a sixteen year old to get a will?"
"For what? You don't even own anything, I'm not sure it's really necessary."
"Oh, good, I'm glad that is the reason I don't need a will, thanks for all of your reassurance."
"I trust Brittany to keep me safe, but I'll tell you right now, I'm going to make damn sure she knows not to put herself in danger to protect me."
"Lobotomy, I swear to sweet Jesus, this girl has lost her mind." Mercedes muttered, and it was Santana's turn to roll her eyes. "Am I the only one with any common sense?"
"Are you talking to me, or to God right now?"
"Both, maybe. You've got it so bad for that girl that I'm still pretty sure it's skewing your opinion on life."
"It has nothing to do with my feelings for Brittany. I know where I come from, you know where you come from, imagine you didn't. Imagine you knew nothing about why you were here, like you just woke up in a desert one day and somehow knew you were from another planet, but that was it."
"It would suck." Mercedes admitted.
"Exactly. And that's why I'm on Brittany's side, not because I...well, whatever it is I feel." Santana told Mercedes, not quite ready to admit the full extent of her feelings to her best friend, not even understanding the full extent of her feelings herself. Hearing a tap, tap, tap on the window from the balcony to her bedroom, Santana looked up, and a big grin split her face as she saw Brittany behind the glass, a sheepish half-smile playing on her lips. "Listen, I've gotta go, 'Cedes, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Why the hell do you have to go? And don't tell me homework, because I know that's the excuse you use when you need to get out of something your father wants you to do."
"It's not homework, it's just stuff, and really, hearing you tell me I'm insane all night isn't my idea of a good time. We'll talk tomorrow, when we know more."
"Fine, whatever, just try not to get killed between now and then."
"I'll work on that." Santana moved to open the window, and felt her heart speed up exponentially as she looked at Brittany, realizing that if that girl kept having such an effect on her, she could make no promises about not dying, because even without potentially murderous aliens and prying sheriffs, she might actually perish of a mundane heart attack from how her body reacted. "Night."
When the window was fully open, neither girl said anything for a few moments, just taking each other in. Standing there, just about in Santana's room, staring at the girl who was hardly dressed (Brittany definitely didn't look down at her boobs, definitely didn't notice that she wasn't wearing a bra, not at all), Brittany suddenly wasn't sure what to do. Sure, she'd kissed Santana earlier in the day, sure, she wanted to kiss Santana in that moment (want was probably not even a strong enough word to explain the desire Brittany felt, need was probably a closer choice, absolutely will die if I don't might have been the most accurate), but she wasn't sure what was okay. Before she could speak, or really even fully process what she planned on doing, Brittany felt Santana's lips on hers, opening her mouth, giving herself over fully to her alien girl. Though the angle was more than awkward, all but Brittany's head still outside the window, crouched low, poised to climb in, she took all Santana had to offer, sucking her tongue into her mouth, threading a hand through damp brunette hair, and once again feeling that sense of calm that she could find nowhere else.
"Hey." Santana mumbled against her lips, not really willing to let Brittany go, feeling like they'd been apart for years, rather than hours, as her lower belly burned, both inside and out.
"Hi." Brittany let out a small laugh, relishing in just how adorable, and sexy, so, so sexy Santana looked, all dressed for bed. She was desperately trying to keep her mind from going there, they'd only kissed for the first time mere hours earlier (had it really only been hours? It felt like an eternity), Brittany was insistent upon taking it slowly, giving Santana an opportunity for an out, if she changed her mind, and the thoughts of throwing the human girl down on her bed and ravishing her were definitely not compliant with that. "I hope it's still okay that I came over."
"Of course it is." Santana smiled, making Brittany feel like she'd been subjected to her own powers and melted into a puddle of molecules. "Come inside, sorry it's a little messy, I've just been sort of busy."
"I have a brother." Brittany shrugged. "This is nothing, I see no pizza crusts or soda cans, so..."
"It's even the alien boys then. Definitely glad I'm into girls."
"Yeah, I'm glad for that too."
"Can I get you anything? I can go downstairs and have Puck make something for us, or get some chips from the kitchen, or we can order pizza..." Santana rambled, awkwardly tossing some clothes in the hamper (she had invited Brittany to come, she thought, why hadn't she done this earlier instead of daydreaming?), wanting to make sure that Brittany felt completely comfortable in her bedroom.
"I'm good." She nodded, following her internal pull to reach out and take Santana's hand, to still her frantic cleaning motions and just to touch her. "Relax, I just...I wanted to see you, I'm not worried about food, or your dirty clothes."
"Well, I really didn't want you to see my panties for the first time on my floor. I mean, God, I'm just going to stop talking."
"Is it okay if I sit?" Brittany asked, trying to take Santana's mind off of her embarrassment, before she had to save her from a fire caused by the heat of her own (adorably) blushing face.
"Yeah, yeah, totally." Santana gestured to the bed, and when Brittany sat down, Santana let her eyes flicker briefly over to her desk chair, considering, before Brittany pat the spot next to her and gave Santana another small smile. Their legs were still a hair apart when she sat, but Santana swore she felt an electric current flowing into her, swore Brittany's body was pulling her in. "So…how did it go with Quinn and Sam?"
"Not great." She sighed, the slightest pout forming on her lips, a pout that Santana felt a barely controllable urge to kiss away. "They're both pissed at me right now. Sam is sulking in his room because he thinks it's dumb to go on a hunt, and Quinn is stalking Hummel."
"Why is she mad at you? She's not all over this idea?"
"No, she is, it's the first thing we've agreed on in a long time, she's just being Quinn, I guess."
"Britt." Santana furrowed her brow, the sadness in Brittany's eyes causing her actual physical pain. "I know that I don't know her, and that there's a whole story there, but I really hate that she makes you feel like crap."
"It's fine, I'm used to it."
"Being used to something doesn't make it suck any less." Santana glanced over to her desk at the stack of UNM brochures that her father had so thoughtfully placed there. "I'm here you know, if you ever want to talk about it. I know you said...but..."
"I know." Brittany smiled a little, reaching out to touch Santana's cheek. "How is it possible that I already can't remember what my life was like before you? Sorry, that was really cheesy and lame. Maybe Quinn was right about me acting like we're on Dawson's Creek."
"Brittany, what are we doing?" Santana asked, her eyes swimming with confusion, a look that was mirrored perfectly in Brittany's.
"I honestly have no idea. I never imagined this was going to happen, that I was actually going to be able to kiss you, and that once I did, I wasn't going to be able to stay away from you, so I haven't really thought it all through."
"I want to be with you, I feel like I need to be with you, like you're under my skin and in my veins, and my body will spontaneously combust if I try to stay away. I'm not saying it to be cheesy, it's an actual physical need. But I'm so scared about what that means."
"I understand." Brittany's eyes darkened with a deep sadness, that fear that Santana was afraid of her creeping back up, and she slowly removed her fingers from Santana's cheek. Santana shook her head immediately, grabbing both of Brittany's hands in her own.
"No, no that's not what I mean at all. I'm not scared of you, or whatever being with you will bring, I'm willing to take all of that in a second if it means getting to be yours. I'm scared for you, I'm scared that you being with me, while Hummel thinks I'm hiding something about you, will get you hurt. I don't get to do anything low profile in this place, and you need to be low profile."
"Yeah, I know I do. I wish I could just throw all that away and walk through the hallways at school holding your hand, walk you to class, kiss you at your locker, meet you after your cheer practice, come into the diner and pick you up for dates, but you're right, I can't, and you deserve all those things."
"Those things mean shit to me, Britt. I'm not saying I don't want to be with you because of stupid high school crap, I'm saying that no matter what happens between us, we need to be careful. Just like you think your world isn't safe for me, I know that there are big parts of mine that aren't safe for you."
"So what so you want to do?" Brittany asked, confused by Santana's words, sort of confused by all of it, her feelings, her desires, her actual existence.
"I think we should just be, until we figure out how this is all going to work. I think whatever this is, what it's going to become between the two of us, is so much bigger than words and labels. It has to be, if I already feel this way about you and we hardly know each other."
"And we can still get to know each other in that human way, like you said last night?"
"I'd like nothing more than that." The corners of Santana's eyes crinkled in adoration of Brittany as she watched the other girl smile. She knew that no one else had ever asked Brittany those normal questions about herself, knew that Brittany herself had probably never thought of the answers, and in such a strong way, Santana wanted to change that.
"It's red." Brittany said quietly, and Santana's forehead scrunched in confusion. "My favorite color. You said it was something you wanted to learn about me."
"I did." Santana nodded. "I used to think my favorite was black, but now that I'm looking at you, I'm pretty sure that it's blue."
"I really want to kiss you right now. Now that we're just being, is that still okay?"
"Yeah." Santana inched closer to Brittany, their lips just a breath apart. "I think that's more than okay."
Again, when their lips touched, sparks ignited, but this time, Santana actually saw those brightly colored, foreign stars that her buzzing brain hadn't been able to process the first time. She wanted to open her eyes, to look into Brittany's, especially as she felt herself lying back on the bed, pulling Brittany down on top of her, but she couldn't force them to open. She was too preoccupied with the combined sensation of Brittany pervading every crevice of her very being, and those damn stars, so close, and in colors she didn't even know the names for. Santana needed to see more, needed to feel more (because really, it was an intense synesthesia that she was experiencing, she felt those colors burning in every cell of her body, like they were trying to tell her something), and she couldn't help the desperate gasps she released as her hands snaked up the back of Brittany's shirt and she pulled her closer, closer, and the exposed skin of her stomach, where her own shirt had risen up, pressed against Brittany's, dragging her deeper into the sensations. She had never felt so turned on, and more that that, she'd never felt so alive as her hips canted up and the lips that were on Brittany's silently begged her to continue the sensations, continue touching her, continue letting her see this distant world. If kissing felt this good, she couldn't even begin to imagine the heights her body and mind would reach as things progressed.
Brittany's head was reeling for entirely different reasons as she found herself above Santana on her bed, this place that admittedly, she'd fantasized about on more than one occasion. She was surprised at herself at way she seemed to lose all sense of control, all sense of time, all sense of anything but the gorgeous creature below her. Her eyes remained open, just wanting to see everything, see the twitching nerves in Santana's blissfully closed eyelids, see the way her lips parted when Brittany pulled away from her mouth and left hard, sucking kisses on her neck, down to the hollow of her throat (forgetting about low profile, forgetting that she probably shouldn't leave marks on Santana's dark skin), see the way her whole body shuttered when Brittany traced her tongue along her jawline and captured her lips again. Santana was offering herself up, asking Brittany to take so much of her, and at the same time Brittany took, she gave in return, providing a part of herself in this strange sort of energy exchange.
As they continued to kiss, Santana began to feel as if she were on a frenetic mission, like every touch led her closer to some mysterious thing that she was chasing, something out there in those distant stars. Brittany was desperately trying to keep herself from going too far, desperately trying to listen to her self-prescribed rules, but now that this world, this absolutely stunning world was opened up before her, she wanted to take in every lady inch of it. Santana released a throaty whimper as Brittany's right hand traveled higher, higher up under her shirt, not quite grazing the underside of her breast but so, so close, and she was sure that her body was so very close to the edge, even with so very little touch, something that would have embarrassed her completely had she not been in such a state of reverie. When Brittany wove the fingers of her other hand through dark locks, cradling Santana's head, trying to get impossibly closer to her, the heel of her hand brushed Santana's cheek, and she froze in alarm as she felt burning skin beneath it.
"Santana." Brittany rasped out, her voice still thick with arousal even as she felt panic rise in her chest. "You're so hot."
"You too, Britt." Santana murmured, completely lost in at all, and trying to reconnect their mouths. "So hot."
"No, seriously." She slowly raised her body up off of Santana (eliciting a groan from the human girl at the loss of contact), and once she was in a sitting position, placed both of her palms on flaming cheeks. "Your skin feels like it's on fire, God."
"What?" Santana's eyes were still glazed over from the celestial snapshots she'd seen, and bringing the back of her hand to her forehead, she furrowed her brow. Brittany's heart raced, not sure if that was normal or not, and she grabbed the mostly full bottle of water off of Santana's nightstand, pressing it against swollen lips.
"Drink, please, just drink this."
"Brittany." Santana sat up, pressing her forehead against Brittany's, needing to feel the contact of her skin again."I'm fine, relax."
"Is this...is it normal to get hot like this?" Brittany asked, her own face flaming as she realized that she was basically admitting that she'd never actually even kissed anyone but Santana (though it wouldn't come as a shock at all, and if this was the effect of aliens making out with humans, it was probably a good idea that she hadn't.)
"Nothing is normal with you." She let out a small laugh, and Brittany couldn't help the scowl on her face, because it wasn't funny.
"I don't ever want to hurt you." Brittany whispered, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth.
"You didn't, trust me, you didn't. I didn't even notice how hot I was, it was just everything was you, I felt like your essence crept inside my body, or something, and I could feel these stars, this whole galaxy, even, like I can't even explain it, but it wasn't just seeing them, and it was beautiful."
"You felt the stars?" Brittany asked, trying to verify that Santana wasn't still in some euphoric trance, and if she wasn't, it meant that they'd actually made a connection, one that she hadn't initiated, and one that transcended her own conscious memory.
"Yeah, like I was right there, like kissing you was transporting me to some..." Realization hit Santana before she spoke the words other world, and she gasped, eyes widening comically as Brittany's thoughts raced, trying to piece it all together. "Britt, do you think...?"
"I don't know, I have no idea. I have no memories of where I came from, so I don't know if you were actually seeing something deep inside of me, or if it's just this strange connection we have that's making you imagine it."
"It's not my imagination, I know that for sure. My body felt you, all you, like so much so that..." Santana blushed a little bit, embarrassed by how aroused she'd been, how close she'd been to coming just from kissing Brittany, and slightly uncomfortable as she shifted a little and felt for sure that she hadn't imagined that. "But my mind was on some different dimension, I swear. What if I can see things that you can't remember? What if I can help you figure it all out?"
"Santana, stop." Brittany took the hands that went to cup her cheeks and held them tightly in hers. "You were just burning up, as much as I really love kissing you, and as much as I would love the added bonus to be you finding repressed memories from this place I come from, we need to just stop for a second and think about the consequences for you. I couldn't live with myself if I hurt you at all."
"I'm fine." The whine in Santana's voice was evident, but Brittany didn't budge, even though she knew from where her forehead was still pressed to Santana's now cool one that she was right. "Look, I drank all of the water."
"I'm glad." Brittany told her, and Santana couldn't help but warm (in a very different kind if way) at how Brittany's sweet, tender care for her well being made her feel. "I'd probably feel better if you ate something too though. Isn't it feed a fever?"
"Really?" Santana rolled her eyes playfully, but when Brittany gave her a cute little half smile and a shrug, she felt her own smile grew, and she conceded. "I actually think it's starve a fever, but fine. Do you want some peanut butter and jelly? I'd rather just make that than go all the way down stairs and try to convince Puck that I'm so hungry I need two burgers."
"It's okay, you don't have to make me a sandwich."
"I make a pretty awesome PB&J. You'll totally be missing out if you don't take me up on this. I don't make this kind of offer to just anyone."
"Oh really?" Brittany laughed, appreciating the total normalcy and ease of conversation after something so intense. "Well in that case, do you have any hot sauce?"
"The Lopezes may have been in this town forever, but my mother is a first generation American. My Mexican grandmother would roll over in her grave if we didn't. And trust me, this stuff will put that crap we have in the diner to shame."
"Then peanut butter and jelly sounds perfect." Brittany beamed, and even though they were taking a break from there intense make out session, Santana couldn't help but place a sweet kiss on Brittany's lips before turning and walking out of the room.
When Santana returned with two sandwiches, a bottle of hot sauce and a half gallon of water (mostly because she figured Brittany would feel better if she drank a whole bunch of it and proved that she'd really cooled down), Brittany was still sitting on the bed with her legs crossed beneath her, deep in thought. She couldn't understand how it was possible that Santana was seeing what she said she was seeing, but somehow she knew that it wasn't some kind of weird hallucination, she knew that it had to be real. What confused her the most though, beyond how a psychic connection formed without her knowledge or initiation, was that she actually had memories from some other life at all. Part of her had always believed that the purple lake, the sole image she had of this far off planet was something she'd fabricated in her mind to make her feel like she actually knew something, but if Santana was seeing something entirely different from the same place, then that couldn't actually be the case. Whether it was for a day, or for a full lifetime, she had actually been, in living form, in the place where she'd come from, and she had absolutely no idea what to make of that information.
"Are you okay?" Santana asked, setting the plates down on the bed and mirroring Brittany's position as she sat down.
"Yeah, I'm just really shocked, honestly. Seems like I've gotten a whole bunch of brand new information today, and I'm still not totally sure what to make of any of it." She sighed, crinkling her nose, which Santana really thought was the cutest thing in the entire world, every single time she did it. "You seeing things, knowing there's another alien, it just all sort of reaffirms that we must be here for some actual purpose, you know?"
"We're gonna figure it out, Britt. And now we have something else that might be able to help."
"Santana." Brittany placed a hand over hers. "I appreciate it, so much that you want to help me, but I don't want you to feel like I'd ever kiss you just for information. I mean, not that I didn't really, really enjoy that, but..."
"Hey, I don't feel that way at all. I'm offering, and seriously, we get to make out and find out about your home planet? I think that's the greatest win-win of all time."
"You're the cutest person in the entire world." Brittany couldn't help but gush, and in the back of her mind, she kept hearing the worlds I love you repeat over and over again. "And when you put it that way, how could I possibly say no?"
"You obviously can't."
"But not tonight." Santana pouted a little, and Brittany couldn't help but put the back of her hand to her forehead, making sure she'd cooled down, and knowing that as much as she wanted to kiss Santana, for more than one reason, she needed some time to think, needed some time to convince herself that even though the girl's skin had gotten so hot, their activities wouldn't turn her into a pile of ashes. "But we could continue our getting to know you conversations, if you wanted, since there's really nothing we can do about everything else tonight, and it would be nice to sort of not think about it for a little while."
"I'd like that a lot, Brittany. Even though we're just being, and doing things all kinds of out of order, I think peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and talking is a pretty awesome first date."
