You do a quick look down at your outfit, making sure your cropped black lace shirt looks okay and that your leather pants are zipped up and buttoned. You've had way too many incidents where they weren't and the last thing you want to do is embarrass yourself, especially before you've even had a drink.

Brushing your hair away from your face you push the door of the bar you're meeting everyone at open and walk in, thankful to be getting out of the cold air.

You see a few people you recognise in the far corner where there's a few tables saved for them. You notice Quinn and Tina talking, the latter wearing a birthday crown, and you hope that this is the night Quinn finally tells Tina about her crush because if that doesn't happen tonight then you definitely think that Tina will tell Mike that she likes him. Or Mike will tell Quinn that he likes her. That love triangle really hurts your brain.

Mercedes, Matt, Mike and a few others from work are also standing around talking with a drink in their hand. There's also a lot of people you've never seen before and assume they're Tina's non-work friends. You wish you had some non-work friends.

You do a quick scan around the room but you can't find the brunette with the cute dimples, who you've become so attached to in the past month. You know she's coming, she asked for outfit advice. Unless she changed her mind in the last hour? Or maybe she just got held up? You hope it's the last one, you've been wanting to spend time with Santana outside of work for weeks.

You see Mike give you a look that's asking why you're not over there with everyone else so you give him a small wave before pointing to the bar indicating that you're going to get a drink first. You're gonna need all the alcohol you can get before talking to new people.

Taking a couple sips of your vodka lemonade, you start walking over to everyone saying hi and smiling at the people you don't know. You need to make sure they know you're nice otherwise they'll end up bitching about you all night. At least that's what would happen in LA.

You take a seat at one of the small tables next to Mike and you give him a one armed hug in greeting. It's not long before he starts talking about dancing and your throat gets tight when you have to turn him down for a dance contest later in the night. You know you would have beat his ass on the dance floor but you haven't danced in months and honestly, you're scared to. What if you're not good anymore? Actually, you know you're not good anymore. Most days you struggle to walk after a long shift or physical therapy and tonight is your first time wearing heels again. You're not gonna risk anything.

He understands though and sees that you're upset by it so he tells you maybe one day, before changing the subject to Quinn. That's all he ever talks about, dancing and Quinn. You roll your eyes and glance at the other blonde who is at the bar buying the birthday girl another drink and wrapping her arm around Tina's waist. You're not sure if you should feel sad for Mike or happy for Quinn. You just hope the love octagon is finished soon.

"Hey, Britt, Santana just texted me to tell you that she's gonna be late. She got held up at home." Mercedes tells you as she sits down across from you and Mike.

"Oh, okay." You sigh in relief, "Thanks you letting me know."

Now that you think about it, you don't know why you were so worried about her being late, she's late all the time at work, but she always denies it and says there's a difference between, 'being late' and 'making an entrance'. You're not really sure the second one will be a good enough pass for her bosses but she has worked at Arrow for over five years without being fired so she definitely knows what she's doing.

You're giggling at the obvious and useless flirting that Quinn, Mike and Tina are doing to each other and you know that you would be rolling your eyes at their poor oblivious souls if you weren't tipsy. You've only had two and a half drinks but in your defence it's been a while since you last ate since you were too nervous about tonight to eat. It probably wasn't a good idea since you were nervous about being drunk around Santana and now you're going to end up even more drunk. You'll worry about that when she's actually here though.

Looking around the table you realize that this is the first time all of your friends from work, minus Santana, are all together, apart from during meetings where you don't get to talk, just sit around and listen to your boss moan about the mold and leaky ceiling in the clothing department. You're also always either on different shifts or have different break times to each other. Santana always makes sure you both have the same break so that you can actually see each other and gossip.

It's nice and you wish you could do this more often. You learn a lot about everyone too, like how they ended up working at Arrow, which makes you feel worse about the comment you made on your first day. It turns out that Quinn got fired from her old job as a photography intern because of budget cuts, Mike and Tina are only doing part time since they're also taking classes at the community college down the road and Mercedes, like you, was out in Los Angeles, but had to come home to help her mom.

You're too busy focused on the door waiting for Santana to walk in, probably wearing five inch heels always (she likes you to feel tall), you feel like everyone is staring at you.

"Wait, what?" You snap out of your focus when you notice that Tina asked you something and hoping it's not what you think she just asked you.

"Have you ever had sex in the photo lab?" She's giggling so hard at the question that her crown starts to slip down her face but in no time Quinn places it back onto her head and is looking proud of herself. You're not this hopeless with Santana right?

"Photo Lab? The one in the store?"

"What other Photo Lab is there?"

Wait, that's a thing?

"People have sex in the Photo Lab?" You scrunch your face in disgust. You've touched things in there, and ate in there.

"Everyone has sex in the Photo Lab." Assuming by the grin one Quinn's face when she says that, she's included in 'everyone', "It's dark and quiet, there's no cameras and there's a lock on the door. It's the perfect place.

"Everyone?" Your eyes widen as you look around the room and see everyone nodding. Even the people you didn't know who worked there. Actually you're pretty sure that they don't work there, you didn't even know they were listening to your conversation. "With each other?"

You knew there was a lot of love drama at work but you didn't think everyone had sex at work. Although you're thankful that everyone shouted 'no' at your last question. You applied at the store for money, not an orgy.

"So, I'll take it you haven't?" Mercedes asks you before downing the rest of her drink.

"No, I haven't. It's not like I have anyone to sleep, not even outside the store nevermind inside."

"I'm sure there's lots of people who would love to sleep with you, Britt." You would recognise that voice anywhere. You look up, your eyes widening as you find Santana standing behind Tina in a strapless black dress, a drink in her hand and a smirk on her face.

That's the part of the conversation she walked in on? Now she's gonna think that no one actually wants to have sex with you because you're gross or something. In reality it's because the only time you leave the house is to go to work.

She laughs at the look on your face and squeeze's around everyone to sit beside you but not before flicking Tina's crown of her head earning a pout from the birthday girl and a glare from the blonde sitting next to her.

"Hey." She whispers, her breath hitting your ear, "Sorry I'm late."

"Hey." You turn to face her, not noticing how close you are to each other, noticing that she looks a little stressed you ask if everything is okay.

"Yeah, totally fine. Just had something to deal with."

"Sure you weren't just being fashionably late and wanting to make an entrance." You tease, your eyes flicking to her lips, before focusing on her eyes again. You notice that she's wearing more makeup than normal. She usually wears a small amount for work that's casual and professional and really pretty, but tonight it's darker and her eyes are smokey. It's sexy.

"Oh, I mean always, I just got held up so it took longer to get ready."

"Well it was worth it. You look really beautiful, Santana."

She smiles and ducks her head, she does that a lot around you, and being so close to her you can see that her cheeks are turning pink. Holy shit you made Santana Lopez blush. Score.

"Okay, why don't we say what's the worst but also funniest thing you've ever done to someone?" Suggests Quinn, taking a drink from Mercedes, who had just come back from the bar and you smile in a thanks at her as you take your own drink.

"Oh, I'm going first," Tina demands with her arm in the air, "Okay, so one time in high school the guy I liked didn't like me back and totally humiliated me in front of everyone so I broke into his house and took his dog, and- and then when his family put out a reward for whoever finds it, I took it back and said I found it in a park and they gave me one hundred dollars and then he became obsessed with me but I got bored after a week and moved on."

All you, and everyone else can do is stare at the birthday girl in disbelief. You really hope Mike doesn't have a dog.

"How was that funny?" Mercedes asks, slightly creeped out.

"You-You had to be there." Explains Tina, shaking her head and taking a sip of her drink.

It's Santana who offers to go next and all you can do is look at her and hope that her story doesn't also involve dognapping.

"Okay, so me and my best friend had a huge falling out after graduation," She starts, "And a little while after I was bored and still pissed off about it so I catfished her pretending to be this guy from Australia and she totally fell in love with him, she ended up moving their to be with him. Totally dropped out of med school and everything he wasn't even there, but it's her own stupid fault for trusting someone she had never even met. I think she's still there."

You remind yourself to never piss Santana off, because as much as you love angry Santana, you're also terrified of the spiders over there.

"And that's funny because?" Quinn scoffs.

"Because she was a bitch. It's not that bad, last I heard she was working at some surf store on the beach."

"Wait, why did you fall out with her?" You ask softly so only the brunette can hear.

"Like, I said. She was a bitch."

You don't know what exactly happened between them but you know that Santana deserved better than her anyways. You're glad she has good friends now.

"Have-have you ever had sex in the Photo Lab? Be-because apparently everyone at work has had sex in the Photo Lab. Except me, I haven't had sex in the Photo Lab, or in months actually. I kinda miss it." You ramble since you're pretty drunk now and so is Santana, who has her arm linked in with yours as you walk along the sidewalk.

You lost track of time hours ago and everyone had said their goodbyes before heading off home. Quinn had offered to share a cab with you, Santana and Tina but Santana said that she needed to pick something up from work. You're not really sure what though, your brain was feeling funny when she was talking, all you knew was that you couldn't let her go alone so you offered to go with her, well that and you didn't feel like being a third wheel.

So here you are walking across the Arrow parking lot trying to stop a giggling Santana from falling flat on her ass since she thinks it's a good idea to go drinking in six inch heels that make her taller than you.

You don't like it when she's taller. It feels weird looking up. Especially because you know she's so tiny.

"Not-not for a long time." Her voice even, the giggles gone.

"So you have?"

"Yeah, it was a while ago, actually it happened a few times but I haven't done it since I became floor manager and since I found out that other people also have sex there."

"Yeah, that's pretty gross."

It's strange being here so late, or early, you can't see anything inside the windows because it's so dark and you've never seen it so quiet. It's actually creepy, you feel like you're in a zombie movie.

You go to walk upto the automatic doors but before you walk straight into them Santana laughs and pulls you to go around to the side of the building.

"Doors locked Britt, we have to use the side door. I have a key."

Obviously the doors locked, otherwise people could steal everything. Maybe you had more to drink than you thought.

"What did you need to get anyway?" You wonder as you follow Santana through the hallway, after she turns off the security alarms and cameras, and into your bosses office.

"Oh, I need to print off some documents. It's my day off tomorrow so I thought I better use the time to sort everything out and I don't have a printer at home."

Documents for what? You're debating on asking her, not sure if it's too personal or not, you know it is but the alcohol inside you is having an argument with your brain.

But, before your brain or the alcohol win, she answers anyway.

"They're application forms for college." She looks up at you from where she sits at the desk and shrugs, "Turns out you were right about me. I'm not happy with my life. This part of my life at least, maybe some others but that's a whole other problem."

You step towards the desk and sit next to the computer, looking down at Santana as she plays with her fingers. She does that alot. But only if she's nervous or uncomfortable.

"I mean I wasn't able to go to college when I left high school but it's never too late and there's nothing stopping me now."

"You're leaving?"

"No. I'm gonna talk to Will about dropping down to part time. I'm only gonna go to the community college down the road. I can't leave my family."

All you can do is nod, not really sure what to say.

"It's all thanks to you."

"Me?" You gasp, leaning forward on the desk with your legs swinging.

"Yeah, you gave me the kick in the ass that I needed. I probably would have been stuck here, miserable for the rest of my life, arguing with customers over stupid stuff. But now I can study law so I can argue with more important people over more important stuff." She does like arguing, she's good at it too, she doesn't even cry while doing it, it's really impressive.

You admire her for that. It's never too late to change careers, especially if you're not happy with the one you currently have. Maybe you should do the same. It's not been easy to accept that you're never gonna have a career in dance again but maybe you can go back to college to do something else that you enjoy?

"Is it bad that I don't wanna go home?" She asks, folding up the newly printed documents and putting them into her purse. "Like I'm literally here most of the time and I always want to leave but something about not supposing to be here makes me wanna stay."

"We can stay if you want?" It's not like you're gonna get into trouble, right? Technically it's not breaking and entering because Santana had the keys. "As long as you don't make me stock the shelves."

She laughs and grabs a hold of your hand and drags you out into the furniture section. "Okay so you get stuff ready, I'm gonna go get some supplies."

Ready how?

You stare at the furniture that's out on display and instantly know what you're gonna do. You're gonna do what you do best. You're gonna make a fort.

It was a lot easier to make these when you were younger, and sober, but it still turned out pretty good.

All you did was put a giant bed sheet over the couch and armchair that was out of display but it still looks impressive.

"This is awesome." The brunette breaths out, carrying a bag of chips and a bottle of something clear. Handing you the chips she ducks under the sheet and sitting down on the comforter and pillows you had set out.

"Well not to brag or anything but i'm like the queen of building forts." You're definitely bragging. You won that title when you were nine and it's still one of your proudest accomplishments.

"Well I could give you a run for your money, Pierce." She boasts, taking the cap off the bottle of sambuca and taking a swig. Oh God. "I build awesome forts."

"Building forts and winning on the claw machine? Where have you been all my life, Lopez?" That probably would have sounded better if you hadn't just stuffed your mouth full of chips.

"Britt, that's gross."

"You're gross." You argue, washing down the chips with the sambuca. Not a bad combination right now but you might be regretting it in the morning.

"Whatever." She rolls her eyes, "We should go easy on the chips anyway, we don't want to attract the raccoon."

"Raccoon?"

"Yup, we have a raccoon problem." She explains, "You haven't seen it? It's always wandering around."

"Yeah, I've seen it. I just thought it was our mascot. I named him Rodger." You pout, hoping that your boss doesn't call animal control. Rodger was your first friend here.

"First Dorris then Rodger?" Laughs Santana, "Wow, I really hope you have better names picked for your kids otherwise they're gonna be tortured in school."

"Oh, no way, my kids are gonna have cool names like Tank or Fender that makes them sound like a robot or something." You joke, obviously you're not gonna make your future children sound like a robot, you're scared of robots.

"Ah, little R2-D2. Adorable."

You giggle and scrunch your nose at that because why would your kid have numbers in? That's just confusing and a little nerdy.

"What, you've never seen Star Wars?" Asks Santana and is clearly shocked when you shake your head

"You have?"

"Of course I have." She scoffs like it's supposed to be a known fact or a right of passage, "How could you not have seen Star Wars?"

"How can you be so dorky?"

All that does is earn you a shove and a laughing Santana telling you to 'shut up' and that she's 'not a dork'.

She definitely is though. The biggest dork.

"Wait, we're not gonna get fired for this right?" You ask, now lying on your side with your head leaning on your hand with Santana's beside you laying on her back staring up at the comforter that's currently blocking you from the rest of the world.

"I mean we could but we won't, trust me. For starters, I'm their best employee and they would be fucked without me. Literally fucked like the store would probably be on fire or something, that has happened before when I went on vacation, and you…" She turns her head to face you before continuing, "Miss Pierce, will be fine, I won't let anything happen to you."

"Is that why I haven't been fired yet?" You joke, "Because I've done so many things that have been a fireable offence and yet I haven't even been, like, told off or anything."

"That's because no one else knows that you fuck up. I'm supposed to write you up but I don't." She confesses.

That explains a lot.

"I mean I do write it up otherwise the people that are higher than me would ask questions so I just blame it on other people." She chuckles. You don't know if you should laugh with her or just stare in shock, "Like the other day I said it was Fabray that hit that woman with the cart instead of you because she was being annoying and pouty that the Changs went on a break together."

"Wait, is that why Marcus got fired last week?"

That just makes her laugh even harder. You never really liked Marcus anyway.

"This explains so much. Like, I knew I would be bad at this job and I knew I should've been fired like five minutes into my first shift."

"Yeah, you're lucky I didn't kick your ass after that. But I could tell you were in a mood and it's best to get everything off your chest, no matter what it makes anyone else feel. That's what I think anyway."

"You wouldn't be able to kick my ass."

"I could totally kick your ass." Scoffs Santana, shoving you a little and taking the bottle from your hand.

"What's more surprising than me not getting fired, is me getting hired in the first place. Like I didn't even finish high school."

"You wanna know something?" The brunette whispers, moving her head closer to yours like she's going to tell you some big secret, "You were the only person who applied. That's why you got the job."

And just like that she's laughing her ass off again and all you can do is stare at her with your eyes and mouth wide open.

You're both at the sleepy drunk stage now, neither of you have spoken in a while, but you're both lying on your sides facing each other. Normally you hate people staring you in the eye, especially so up close but this feels good. You're comfortable around Santana and you feel at ease and happy. Something you haven't felt in a while.

"You are so beautiful." You whisper and love as she smiles at you, like she's all shy and embarrassed. In all honesty you hadn't meant to say it, it just came out.

"You are too, Britt-Britt." Then it's your turn to smile and Santana pokes your cheeks as they heat up. In return you poke at hers, on her dimple, what you've been wanting to do since you first saw them, "It's weird you know?"

"What is?" You breathe out, heart pounding as she brushes some fallen blonde hair from your face.

"We've known each other just over a month, yet I feel like we've always known each other."

"Maybe we were meant to know each other." You offer. You like the idea. The idea that fate exists and the two of you were meant to be in each other's lives.

"Yeah, maybe." She whispers, eyes focused on yours as she moves closer to you. You bite your lip in anticipation, the move making her brown eyes shift down to them and then moving back up to meet your blues. "I like you."

"I like you too." You whisper back and wait for her to come even closer. Which she does.

"Is this okay?"

All you can do is nod because you definitely know that if you speak nothing would come out. Either that or you'd shout it and scare her off. Definitely don't want to do that when she's staring at your lips again before closing her eyes and you can feel her breath hitting your face. .

Opening your eyes you notice that she's waiting for you to make the last move in making your lips touch. So you do.

It's soft and sweet and you can feel the butterflies in your stomach and hope it feels this good for her too.

You stay like that for a couple minutes, just lying with your lips moving against hers, her hand resting on your neck whilst yours is on her hip.

You're about to pull back when you feel her mouth open and she licks your lips, hoping for access and you give it to her.

You hear her moan when your tongues meet and she moves her hand into your hair trying to pull you even closer to her, while you take your own hand from hip and place it on her thigh, moving up and down, sometimes going under her dress.

You hope she can't taste the chips because that's really gross, but then again you can't taste them on her. All you can focus on is the way your tongue feels against hers.

"Fuck." She moans against your lips and you're pretty sure you just died. I mean you're pretty much in heaven right now.

Santana let's out another whimper when you place her thigh over your waist and move your hand to her ass and squeeze before rolling her onto her back and lying on top of her.

You pull back from her lips and smirk when she whines at the loss, "Are you sure?" You breathe out.

She just nods at you and grabs the back of your head to pull you into another sloppy kiss, before pulling back to answer.

"Yeah, Britt. I want you."