6
Santana woke up to find a smaller body curled in to hers, the other girl had burrowed her head into Santana's neck, letting out a soft sigh. Santana had her arms weaved around the other girl, she could feel that at some point in the night their legs had become entwined with each other's. Dani's arm was wrapped around Santana's waist, her fingers resting gently on the small of Santana's back. The brunette was yet to open her eyes, she had felt too comfortable where she was to think about allowing herself to wake up fully. Her first instinct had been to warp her arms even tighter around the other person, pulling them, if possible, closer to her. The movement made the other girl stir awake.
"God morning." Dani said groggily opening her eyes slowly, a lazy smile found it's way to her face as she spoke. Upon hearing Dani's voice Santana opened her eyes and looked at Dani with confusion. Dani moved away from Santana slightly, and ducked her head avoiding eye contact with the other girl. "S-sorry." Dani stuttered out, moving further away. Santana felt a small amount of panic edge it's way into her system. Obviously, Dani knew that Santana was a lesbian and it had never worried Santana before to think about how Dani might feel about this fact. But she had only just started to consider the girl a friend and she'd hate to think that she had made her feel uncomfortable.
She had never heard Dani sound so nervous, usually the girl was bursting with confidence.
"Why are you apologising?" Santana asked, she could admit it, waking up in that situation with Dani had been a shock, but the bigger shock for Santana had come from the fact that she didn't hate waking up with Dani in her arms.
"I-I honestly don't know." Dani said pushing herself into a sitting position.
"Wait, what are you doing?"
"Getting up, I have responsibilities that I need to face... You don't have to get up yet, but I do." She said.
"You're seventeen, what responsibilities do you have?" Santana asked.
"A few... Especially on Sundays. My mom and dad will be home tomorrow morning at about ten-ish, so I'll have to make sure the house is immaculate for when they get back."
"Your house already is immaculate."
"No, the house is clean... But not to my parent's standards." She replied.
"Oh." Santana replied. Still unsure as to weather Dani was making excuses to be away from her. She hadn't seemed to care about Santana being gay before, but maybe things had gone way to far for the blonde girl. "Don't get up yet, just stay here a little longer." Santana said, "I want the company." More than anything she wanted to test Dani in that moment, she wanted to see how the girl would react to her request. Though it wasn't a complete lie, she did want Dani's company, it seemed to be the only thing that had helped her since Friday night and she wasn't quite ready for that to go away just yet.
"...Okay." Dani agreed only slightly reluctant. She laid herself back down on her bed and faced Santana. Who had her eyes closed again.
"I'm not ignoring you, by the way." Santana said yawning, "I'm just resting my eyes. You can still talk to me."
"Okay." Dani said smiling uneasily.
oOoOo
When Santana woke up, the space beside her in the queen sized bed was empty. She sat up slowly and let out a big yawn. She looked around Dani's room, taking in all of the little things about it that she hadn't noticed yesterday. Like the nail in the wall above the foot of her bed that had a teal coloured dream catcher hanging on it. The dream catcher had been over lapped by small programmes and passes from music festival that you wore around your neck. It was the little things like that that Santana thought made the room that much more 'Dani'
Santana ran a hand through her hair before she pushed herself out of the bed, she stretched out her limbs slowly. She noticed that Dani's side of the bed had already been made to perfection, the cover pulled around it tightly so there was nary a crease in the material.
Usually, Santana would leave her bed, she never saw the point in making it when you were just going to get back into it again that night. But after seeing how neat Dani kept things, it felt wrong for her to not make the side of the bed she had slept on to the same standard.
She walked down the stairs slowly, keeping a look out for any other member of Dani's family. She didn't want to have an awkward run in with William, or either of her parents, Santana didn't know when they would be back. She heard a pan clang to the floor in the kitchen followed by a, "Fuck." She smiled slightly and decided to follow the sounds.
She walked into the kitchen to see Dani picking up a large frying pan from the floor. "Morning." Santana said, Dani looked up and smiled at the other girl. Dani's smile made Santana feel slightly easier about what had happened that morning, she wasn't being negative towards her she wasn't showing anything other than politeness.
"Good morning to you... Again. Do you want some food?" She asked, she swung the pan around, narrowly missing hitting herself in the face.
Santana suppressed a laugh as she watched the other girl dodge the pan. "Yes please." She said nodding and making her way over to the kitchen island.
"Great, how do you feel about bacon?" Dani asked.
"I love the stuff."
"Good because it's what we're having." She said.
"What if I had said I didn't like it? Would you have still made me eat it?" She asked smiling.
Dani shook her head, "No. I'd have offered you some cereal." She replied grinning slightly. There was beat of silence while Dani placed the rashers of bacon in the pan, "How are you feeling today?" She asked, glancing up at the girl.
"Better, thank you..." She said, "How are you?" It occurred to Santana, that over the past two days, she hadn't ever really bothered to ask how Dani was, she had been too self involved and Dani had been far more focused in making sure that Santana was okay to say anything about herself.
Dani sighed, "I'm great...Thanks for asking." She said, "Looking forward to school tomorrow, obviously." She added sarcastically.
"Me too. It's only the biggest thrill of my life." Santana joked. She watched as Dani cooked the bacon, "Can I ask you something?" Santana said quietly, she looked down to the surface of the kitchen island, and ran her fingers across it slowly.
"Yeah, sure." Dani replied cheerfully.
"I didn't make you feel awkward this morning did I?"
Dani shook her head, "No, why would you have?" She asked.
"Well y'know, me being gay and all that and being that close to you this morning. I mean, when I woke up I was cuddled up against you." She sighed. "And the way you reacted was a little, I don't know..." She could feel a small amount of annoyance filling her tone of voice, though more than anything, she felt panic stricken.
"No. I think more than anything it was shock." Dani said, "I just didn't expect us to be so cosy with each other when we woke up." Dani informed her. "I also didn't know how you'd react." She shrugged. "I can be a pretty nervous person sometimes. But, it was nothing to do with your sexuality."
"So it's not the gay thing?" Santana asked, trying to clarify things between her and Dani.
Dani shook her head. "I promise you now that it had nothing to do with the fact that you're gay." She said, "If I had felt awkward because you're gay and we were all cuddled up to each other, I would be the worlds biggest hypocrite." Dani admitted with a shrug.
"Why?... Wait, are you gay?"
"Santana, I'm ecstatic." Dani replied with a small smile.
"Seriously?"
Dani nodded. "Yeah."
"Is this like a well known fact about you? Am I the last person to know this?"
Dani shook her head. "Nope." She said, "You're not the last to know, but the only people who do know are people that I am pretty close to... And now you." She added with a smirk. "I think that other than me, four people know; you being one of them."
"Oh." Santana said.
"Yeah." Dani said, she smiled weakly, "Sorry, if I made you feel bad with the way I acted." Dani said turning her mouth down slightly. "It wasn't my intention." She said.
Santana said, "Well I know that now. And I am sorry for just assuming the worst."
Dani shrugged. "It's easily done. I guess we never really know how people are going to react with this type of thing. That's why hardly anyone knows about me. I've only told people that I know for a fact won't judge me for it."
Santana smiled, making Dani feel at ease almost instantly.
oOoOo
"I really want to do something today." Santana said before she bit into a piece of bacon.
"Like what?" Dani asked, she sat down on the stool next to Santana's and handed the other girl a cup of freshly brewed coffee.
"Honestly? I don't know." Santana admitted with a shrug. "I'll leave that part up yo you..."
"Wow. Assuming that I want to spend my time with you, much?" Dani said cutting the other girl off.
"Well no I wasn't... I mean you don't have to... I just thought that..." Santana stuttered turning a shade of pink.
"Oh my god, I'm totally kidding." Dani said, her eyes were wide with panic. "I thought that you'd get that."
Santana let out a deep breath feeling relieved. She slapped Dani lightly on the arm. "No. No I did not get that." She said, a small smile finding it's way onto her face despite herself. "You know, you're on a roll today with almost giving me heart attacks."
Dani shrugged, "Oops." She said.
"Anyway, like I was saying before you decided to be a bitch," Santana said, "I don't care where we go. All I know is that, I don't want to sit here and bore you any more with talking about my feelings and my recent breakup, I also don't want to mope around about it any more." She sighed, "I think I've done enough of that over the past couple of days." She chuckled, "Plus, I really don't want to waste a day like this being cooped up in the house, I mean, look at it, it's a beautiful day." She continued, "And it's our last day of summer vacation, I feel like we should do something, y'know? Before school and all the stress that comes with it starts."
Dani nodded her head and took a sip of her coffee. "Yeah, I know what you mean." She said looking out of the window at the bright morning light. "But, I don't want you to be sat there thinking that you've bored me with all of the talking; you really haven't." She said, "I did tell you that I was willing to sit and listen to whatever you had to say and that statement still stands. I haven't suddenly revoked it." She shrugged. "But, if you do really want to go and do something, then we most definitely can."
"Thank you." Santana said, "If I suddenly feel the need to break down again, I will make sure that I do it around you." She continued with an edge of sarcasm creeping into her voice. There was a beat of silence while the two girls ate their breakfast before Santana said, "So then Mitchell, what do you have in mind for us to do, because I have absolutely nothing." Santana took a sip of her coffee and sighed in appreciation.
Dani thought for a moment before saying, "How do you feel about taking a drive to Cincinnati?"
"Being stuck in a car with you for a little over two hours? Sounds like a dream." She said sarcastically. She shook her head slightly, "No that actually sounds pretty fun. I don't think I've ever been there." She smiled, "So what are we doing once we get there?"
Dani shrugged, "I don't actually know yet, I am thinking that we just go to Cincinnati and then just do anything, like, we just pick something to do once we get to where we're actually going."
"...Okay." Santana said, she nodded her head slightly.
"You sound really unsure."
"No, it's nothing like that it's just... Whenever I have done something like that, everything has been planned down to the finest detail, like, even the times that we would be stopping if we needed to for food, everything has been scheduled, especially when Brittany and I did stuff together."
Dani shrugged, "I guess I just prefer to be spontaneous." She said, "Knowing that I am driving us both down to Cincinnati is as much planning as we need."
Santana sighed, "Yeah I guess but..." She opened her mouth to argue her point but Dani cut her off.
"Santana, you said that I could decide what we do and I decide that we take a day trip to Cincinnati and just pick something to do once we actually get there. It'll be fun, I promise you."
Santana screwed her face up slightly, "Urgh fine." She said, "But I am not giving you any money towards gas."
"And I'm not asking you to." Dani said, "Finish your breakfast and your coffee and then go home to get ready, I am only giving you an hour. Okay?" She said smiling.
"Sure." Santana said, she quickly finished her food and her drink. She ran back up the stairs into Dani's bedroom pulling on the clothes she had been wearing the day before.
"See you soon." Dani called as Santana walked back into the kitchen. She waved once at the shorter girl and left the house.
oOoOo
"Well, sandbags, you are finally starting to look more like yourself again." Dani smiled, Santana walked out of her house wearing a pair of tight black jeans, high heeled boots, and a low cut red t-shirt.
"Oh so 'sandbags' is back now?"
Dani smiled at Santana and nodded her head, "Yes, I went too long without calling you it."
Santana sighed and nodded her head slowly, "Ahh that's right, you went a full day." She sarcastically, a small smile played on the corners of her mouth.
"I did and it was hell." Dani joked.
Santana smiled and said, "So then, Daniellaaar..."
"Daniellaaar?" She asked, mimicking the high pitched voice Santana had used just moments before, "Seriously?"
"Yeah as in Daniella."
"You do know my name's not Daniella though, right? It's just Danielle."
Santana nodded, "I'm aware." She said, "I just thought it would annoy you more."
"Okay then." Dani said quirking her eyebrow at the girl as the brunette climbed into the car. "Oh by the way, I've actually picked something for us to do in Cincinnati, I hope that's okay with you."
"It is." Santana said nodding her head slightly, "So can you tell me?"
"I could."
"Are you going to?"
"Nope." Dani said shaking her head.
"Urgh, just tell me."
"No, it's a spur of the moment thing." Dani said, "The only reason that I know where we are going is because I have to get us there." She said typing their destination into the GPS system. She held it at an angle that Santana couldn't see what she was doing.
"Fine." Santana sighed.
Dani smiled at the other girl, knowing she had won. "Can you get me my iPod and plug it into that thing?" She asked, pointing to a wire leading from the CD player in her car's dashboard.
"Er, yeah sure. Where is it?"
"Glove box."
Santana opened the glove compartment and frowned slightly, she thought about how bad her car would look compared to Dani's; inside Dani's glove compartment was a small, neat stack of CD's, with her iPod laid on top of them. Inside the glove compartment of her own car, all you would find were empty packets from bags of potato chips and chocolate bar wrappers.
Santana plugged it in and handed the iPod to Dani once the blonde had placed the GPS in a position that only she could see what was on the screen. The blonde scrolled through all of her playlists and artists lists multiple times before she settled on something. She hit play and put the playlist on shuffle. She turned the volume up and pulled out of her driveway.
Santana furrowed her brow and frowned slightly as an unfamiliar song started to play. "Who's this?" She asked nodding in the direction of the iPod.
"Transvision Vamp." Dani replied.
"Who?" Santana asked.
"They're a British band from the eighties." Dani informed her. Santana leaned her head back against the car seat and listen to the lyrics of the song, as a female voice started to sing.
Well you can give me all your love
And anything else you got too
But don't pay it any mind
If it seems like I'm acting cool
Dani began to sing along quietly, she mumbled the words and drummed her fingers gently against the steering wheel while she watched the road ahead of her. Santana found herself wanting to focus more on Dani's voice instead of the woman singing on the actual song.
"Well you can dress me in your mirror
Give me kisses forever and a day yeah
But there's just one thing
You don't have to say"
Santana looked out of the window next to her and sighed slightly, "Hey, are you okay?" Dani asked.
Santana nodded her head, "Yeah. I'm just listening." She said.
"Oh. Do you not like it? I can turn it over."
Santana shook her head "No, it's fine." She said.
"Well let me know if a song comes on that you don't like."
"Don't worry, I have every intention of doing that." Santana said smiling. Dani glanced at the other girl returning the smile before an easy silence fell between them as they listened to the music on Dani's iPod.
oOoOo
Two hours. That's how long it had taken them to get where they were going. It was also two hours of Santana relentlessly saying 'are we there yet?' just to annoy the shorter girl. It was two hours of Dani getting mildly annoyed with the GPS, mocking the sound of it's voice as she got more and more stressed with it as it would take her the wrong way. Two hours of Santana complaining about most of the music on Dani's iPod. But they had finally reached their destination.
To say she was a little disappointed with Dani's choice of location would have been an understatement. She had thought that with Dani being so secretive that it was going to be something exciting, Santana couldn't have been more wrong.
"Dani, why the hell are we stood outside of the American Sign Museum?" Santana asked, she had a disgusted look plastered on her face as she looked up at the building. "Seriously, if this is your idea of 'fun', then I am getting on the next piece of transport that will take me straight back to Lima."
Dani sighed and rolled her eyes, "No, this isn't my exact idea of fun, but it has gotten up away from Lima for a little while and it got you out of your house, just like you said you wanted."
"Yes, but I also told you that I didn't want to waste my last day of freedom before the stress of senior year kicks in. This, is a very big waste of a day."
"Oh my god. Would you please, just stop being so grumpy?" She asked smiling slightly at the taller girl, "Come on." Santana shook her head, staying rooted to the spot. Dani sighed and grabbed the other girl's hand, beginning to drag her towards the museum. Santana had tried to fight against the shorter girl, but all of her attempts were to no avail.
"You are freakishly strong for a midget, do you know that?"
"Hey." Dani glared at Santana jokingly, "I might be shorter than you, but you are aware that there isn't that much of a difference in our heights, right?"
Santana shrugged, "There's still a difference."
"Santana, just please stop relenting and enter the god damn museum, so I can stop dragging you around." Dani said, "You're making us both look like asses." Eventually, she gave in and fell into step with Dani, allowing the other girl to pull her gently in the direction of the building. Dani dropped her hand as they walked through the doors.
Dani and Santana were stood in the American Sign Museum, there was barely any noise around them, the building was practically empty that day. They had tried their best to remain quiet, but the boredom had gotten the better of the brunette. At some point, the had occurred to both of the girls that they were without a doubt the youngest people in there that day.
"Dani, can we please just go now?" She said, "I honestly feel like we have seen everything this place has to offer."
"No." Dani said, shaking her head.
"I hate this." Santana said, "I hate you."
Dani sighed and rolled her eyes at the taller girl, she started to walk away from Santana who groaned and followed her. Dani stopped in her tracks when she heard an elderly couple talking about one of the signs. The couple sounded thoroughly enthralled with what they were seeing. Dani couldn't help herself.
"Oh, Santana, would just look at the lovely sign." Dani said in a sarcastic manner. She put on a mocking voice. Santana's eyes widened as she looked at the shorter girl standing next to her (who was being anything but quiet).
"Dani, shut up!" Santana whisper shouted.
"No." She replied, keeping the same mocking voice she had used before she said, "I especially love this one." She pointed to the large neon sign that the elderly coupe had been talking about just moments before. he elderly couple looked over their shoulders, scowling at the blonde girl.
"Dani, stop it." Santana hissed, trying not to laugh, as people around them had started to watch the blonde girl
"It's soooo pretty!"
Santana smirked and let out a small breathy laugh as Dani turned to face her, with a beaming smile in place, making the small dimples in her cheeks appear. Santana found it hard not to laugh at Dani, the animation she put into what she was doing had brightened up her day slightly. Up on hearing the shorter girl's words a woman approached them, she was dressed smartly, wearing a mint green blouse with a black skirt and black blazer.
She smiled at the girls, Dani and Santana's smiles disappeared when the woman approached them. She looked them both up and down, "Hi." she said in an overly happy tone.
"Hey." Dani replied, mentally cursing herself for her prior actions. All she had wanted to do was make Santana see the fun side of it and to make the other girl laugh. She hand't thought that her sarcasm and jokes would attract the attention of one of the employees, she hadn't wanted them to attract the attention of anyone else either.
The woman leaped into a conversation with Dani, about all of the signs in the museum feeding the girl random facts that she didn't actually care about. Dani tried to maintain an interested look on her face, though, as the conversation progressed the task became harder. Santana stood beside her with her hand covering her mouth, hiding her laughter, she moved her hand away from her face and mouthed 'karma', at the shorter girl. Who stood nodding and smiling, being as polite as she could be.
"Fascinating." Dani replied sarcastically once the woman had finished with her rambling.
"I thought so too." The woman said, smiling brightly at the short girl. She turned her head to look at the sing, still smiling widely. Santana furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Dani, who had her signature quirked eyebrow in place. 'Wow' Dani mouthed, Santana shook her head head slightly at the fact that the women hadn't caught on to Dani's obvious sarcasm. There was a beat of silence before she turned to the taller girl and said, "Are you enjoying it?"
Santana nodded her head slowly, somehow she didn't have it in her to be harsh to the woman when she saw the hopeful look on her face. "Yeah." She said, "I am so excited about all of this," she said sarcastically, "I am loving it all."
Dani nodded, "She really is. She's so excited, she just can't hide it." The shorter girl replied, "She's about to lose control and I think she likes it."
The woman seemed to stiffen at Dani's words, glaring at the blonde before she sighed and turned on her heel, walking away from them to the elderly couple Dani had been mimicking before hand. Dani and Santana both broke down laughing.
"See that is what being an asshole get's you." Santana said pointing at the woman. "I tried to warn you about it."
Dani shrugged, "So, that was fun." She said, "And really, her facts were just fascinating." She joked.
"Are you quite done with all of this? Or do you have something else up your sleeve that could potentially offend someone?" Santana asked smiling slightly.
Dani shook her head, "No, I'm done now." She said.
"So we can leave?"
"Yes, we can leave." Dani nodded.
"Thank you." Santana said, before leading the shorter girl out of the museum.
oOoOo
Santana sighed as she buckled herself into Dani's car, "Seriously, that was beyond boring."
"Oh come on, you had fun." Dani said. She punched in her address on the GPS and pulled out of her parking space.
"No, I didn't."
"Yes you did, Santana, just admit that you had fun.." She said, "Come on, best part of the day?"
"When we left." Santana said bluntly.
Dani rolled her eyes, "I am being serious... My favourite part of the day was the woman's story about the sign," she shrugged slightly, a small smile appearing on her lips. "What was yours?"
"When you pissed that woman off." She admitted. "In all honesty, that was not only the highlight of my day, but was the highlight of my week."
"Awww, I'm the highlight of your week." Dani said mocking the taller girl.
"No, you being a douche was the highlight of my week. Deciding to talk to you on Friday was my low point." She joked.
"Erm, okay ow!" Dani said sardonically. "Usually for something like that I would just kick the person straight out of my car, but since you are in a very fragile state right now, I am going to be nice to you... I'll slow down a little for you and then kick you to the curb."
Silence feel between the two girls, "Dan, do you mind if I put some music on?"
Dani shook her head, "No go for it." She said.
Santana sighed and looked through Dani's iPod. "What type of music do you have on your play list called 'Car music'?" Santana asked.
Dani shrugged, "A little bit of everything, but I have some music that I just won't listen to when I am driving so I tend to keep it separate and I have an additional play list for when I take long drives." She explained. "That's what we were listening to earlier." Dani shrugged.
"Car Music it is then." Santana said before she clicked on the play list and put it on shuffle.
As the first song started playing Santana's eyes widened, "What is it?" Dani asked, she glanced at Santana to see the girl watching her. "What?"
"Nothing, I just didn't have you pegged as Burlesque type of girl."
"Why?"
"Because, look at you." Santana said, waving a hand around in front of the other girl.
"What's wrong with how I look?"
"No!" Santana said, "I didn't mean like that, I just meant with the way you dress I wouldn't have you down as a musicals type of person. It just shocked me a little, I suppose."
"Well... I guess you should never judge a book by it's cover."
"Clearly."
oOoOo
Dani and Santana were stood by the shorter girls car, "Well today was..." Santana said, trailing off trying to find the word to best describe how she felt the day had been.
"Fun?" Dani said smirking slightly.
Santana nodded her head and sighed, "Yeah." She chuckled, "No matter how much I want to deny it, I did have fun today. But the museum wasn't fun. I want to clarify that."
"You enjoyed it just admit it." Dani said.
"No I did. I had fun with you today, so thanks."
"Any time." The blonde replied, "My day wasn't so terrible either, y'know?" She said.
"Well, good." Santana said smiling at the other girl, Dani returned the smile, both of them stood awkwardly for a moment before Santana spoke up, "Well, uh, bye then." She said, she stepped forwards and pulled Dani into a hug, the other girl wrapped her arms around Santana's waist. Dani was the first one to pull away from the hug first.
"I'll see you tomorrow." Dani said, Santana gave her a confused look. "At school?" Dani said.
"Oh right yeah, that." Santana said, she nodded her head slowly, "I'll see you tomorrow, Daniellaaar." She chimed as she turned on her heel.
"Bye, sandbags." Dani called after her.
The song used in this chapter is Baby I Don't Care by Transvision Vamp
So, the chapters will probably be staying at similar lengths from here on out, so I hope the longer chapters aren't going to be a problem. Thank you to those who have read this story so far, and thank you to those of you who have reviewed, favourited and or added this story to your alerts.
P.S: Couldn't help but make and Imagine Me and You reference in this chapter.