Bet you didn't expect us back this soon? We are very unpredictable. Maybe next time, we'll be in Africa 2056. Listening to Shakira.
The fic will finally get Quinntana together, but no. Unfortunately lions have mauled Kenmura's body, apes have shat on our laptop, while I lay dying from malaria. Who will make it, the last chapter. There's no other way, we have to trust that ape. Good luck all.
So many thanks to all the new readers, faves, followers, reviews, but especially we tip our top-hats in gratitude to the group of you, who've been waiting 84 years. We love you guys.
If you like it, please review. The reviews serve as our cocaine, a special kind of cocaine- the Quinntana coke.
-DementedPanda
*SPRAYS GLITTER ALL OVER THE FIC*
Santana arrives in Lima and Brittany is already waiting in the station to pick her up. The tall girl greets her with a tight embrace and a sweet kiss. Santana smiles, "I missed you too".
Leaving the bus station, they fetch Brittany's car and inside, the sweet girl kisses Santana's cheek before they drive towards the Lopez'. Time for another bi-weekly laundry time. Of course the laundry is just an excuse, because the only reason she keeps coming back to Lima every other week is to see Brittany. They easily fall back to their regular routines when Santana's in town. The whole ride in the car, Brittany never lets go of Santana's hand while driving as they catch up with each other. She only lets go when she needs to use both hands to make a hard turn.
Brittany fills Santana in on what she's been doing at school. It's sad that they haven't been able to keep in touch much lately, but both are trying to make up for the times they lost. Brittany talks about the new kids in glee club, the cheerios, and her failing in the school president campaign.
"Aw, I'm sorry that you didn't win, Britt. At least it's another unicorn who won it", Santana rubs Brittany's hand with her thumb trying to make her girlfriend feel better. She feels shitty that she hasn't known about the campaign until now and feels that she should've been there and supported Brittany.
"Don't worry about it. Sam made me feel better right after. I mean, yes, I felt really disappointed but his impressions of people are just too funny. He made me laugh", Brittany throws a smile at Santana.
"Guppy? Why him?", Santana is a little thrown off with this new information. She just feels something's fishy about the whole situation, no pun intended.
"Oh, he helped me with the campaign. I made him my vice president. He's so smart, he knew how to get me out of this stupid funk I had, when I was missing you really badly."
Santana squeezes Brittany's hand. The mentions of Sam being there for her leaves a dark pit feeling in her stomach, not only because she feels replaced in some way, but also because she knows it's her own fault. She can't stop the feeling that Brittany deserves better.
"San, stop loving my hand so hard - my other hand might get jealous."
"Oh", Santana loosens her tight grip on Brittany's hand, not realizing she was clutching to it like a fat kid finding a piece of candy at fat camp. "Sorry", She briefly looks at Brittany, offering her a weak smile.
They barely arrive alive at her parents' place, because of Brittany's insane driving skills. She claimed that she needed to avoid the unicorns on the road. Santana sometimes wonders if her girlfriend is high.
Brittany then parks the car on the street right outside, so she doesn't block the driveway, when Mr. Lopez' returns from work. "I'll help you carry your laundry inside", Brittany takes off her seatbelt and looks at her distracted girlfriend. Brittany is about to ask what's going on, when Santana's phone buzzes on her lap and both of them look at the screen.
Hey. –Q
"Is that Quinn? I didn't know you were still in contact with her after graduation."
"We're not. Like last night she drunk-dialed me on Skype. It was hilarious. She barfed all over herself", Santana laughs and shows Brittany the screenshots of Quinn passed out openmouthed, on her phone.
"Scandalous!", Brittany says, looking at the picture wide-eyed, playfully covering her mouth before laughing along with her girlfriend.
Santana opens the message from Quinn, while still trying to control her laughter and as she wipes a tear, she wonders why Quinn would suddenly send her a random text.
As Brittany's laughter fades, she opens the car door and suddenly blurts out, "I miss having everyone around. Back when we could just hangout and not use Skype."
Santana looks at her girlfriend, silently agreeing. Unsure of what to say.
"Uhm.. I'm gonna start the laundry", Brittany says, pushing away her feelings and decides that the sooner they do laundry, the sooner she will have fun times with Santana.
"Okay", Santana gives her a reassuring smile.
Brittany steps out to get the laundry from the back seat, and instead of leaving right away, Santana stays inside the car, brushing off the moment and occupies herself with trying to figure out how to reply Quinn's text.
Sober yet? –S
She settles for reciprocating the short text. Guessing Quinn is probably still not lucid seeing how she's sending Santana a random text. She waits for a whole minute for Quinn to reply, before she decides to get her stuff from the back of the car, to drop them in her bedroom.
Meanwhile, Quinn is quite annoyed that Santana just has to bring up last night's Skype.
No, I needed to down a bottle of vodka after hearing your screeching voice –Q
In her room, sitting on her bed, Santana is amused reading Quinn's reply. The other girl is biting back, something familiar for Santana to ease into.
First step to help you through alcoholism is to admit that you're an alcoholic –S
Why? Are you volunteering as my sponsor? –Q
If it means I get to capture more invigorating moments like last night –S
Like I captured the moment where you bended over naked? –Q
Surprised to hear you actually got taste, considering your past choices in guys –S
Are you admitting that you don't have any taste yourself, seeing how you slept with three of those guys –Q
..Well then again, you slept with everyone –Q
At least I didn't get pregnant –S
Of course, swallowing doesn't get you pregnant –Q
You probably should have thought of that sooner, shouldn't you? –S
Screw you –Q
Santana is laughing at the reply, when Brittany enters the room.
"Still texting with Quinn?", Brittany asks as she stands by the door frame.
Santana looks up and smiles at the blonde, "Bantering is the word."
Brittany seems unsure of whether or not to walk into the room and Santana doesn't fail to notice. She gives the blonde a loving smile, as she reaches her hand towards Brittany and puts away her phone. Miss Beauty Queen 2012 can wait.
"Come here, I haven't properly kissed you since I got here", Santana beckons her finger.
Brittany smirks shyly, before walking to Santana, cupping her girlfriend's face, and giving her a deep kiss. Santana instinctively starts roaming her hands under Brittany's shirt, caressing her soft skin, before settling her hands on the blonde's waist, and right breast, where she finds a perky nub to play with. She smiles when she hears Brittany gasp to her mouth.
"You've put the laundry in, right?", Santana asks between openmouthed kisses.
"Mhm and I didn't forget to turn the machine on this time. We got 45 minutes", Brittany pushes Santana slowly down on the bed, without breaking the kiss as she straddles the Latina.
…
Just like she hoped, texting Santana truly is distracting Quinn and she finds that her bus is nearing her stop. After the texts she remembers why Santana was the first name that came up. The way their friendship works is; there are no boundaries. Knowing how crazy and dramatic they both can be, Santana's friendship makes things simple and honest. And because of that, they both never seem to realize how they actually help each other. In a strange spiteful way.
She can't say a friendship with Santana has been easy, but the dynamic certainly is. They can go from superbesties to archenemies at the flip of a coin. They hadn't even spoken since that day they sent Rachel Berry on her merry way to New York, but they don't need that extra effort to catch up.
Quinn walks to her dorm and checks her messages, but she still hasn't gotten a reply. She tries to think up another insult to send Santana, before getting into her room. Now it's not as much about distraction anymore, she actually just wants to keep talking with Santana, but can't find anything callous enough to say and keeps on erasing and changing her text.
…
Santana and Brittany are in the middle of a heavy petting session, when they hear the front door open, followed by Mrs. Lopez' voice calling their names.
"Niñas! I brought some foods from Breadstix. Are you girls in the basement?", Maribel wonders after seeing Brittany's car upfront and hearing the washing machine working downstairs.
Brittany and Santana freeze mid-grinding and the blonde abruptly gets up from Santana. She hurriedly fixes her clothes and hair, while looking at her reflection in the mirror.
"We're coming, Mrs. L!"
Santana smirks at Brittany's choice of word, while still laying on her bed, "I bet you were."
Brittany slaps Santana's knee and they both giggle.
"Come on, I bet your mom got Spaghetti!", Brittany says eagerly as she exits the room and practically runs to the kitchen. Santana sits up and remembers her text with Quinn. She reaches for her phone and checks if she got any messages, but doesn't see any. So she sends a text instead, thinking that chatting with her - on and off - friend is not a bad idea.
I'm just keeping it real. So what are you up to, Quinn? -S
Quinn feels relieved that she can stop being neurotic on what to text Santana when she got the text. A surprisingly non-bitchy text.
The usual. Classes, papers, parties, secret society. You? –Q
Santana walks out of her room and rolls her eyes reading the last activity. She doesn't understand why, even after Quinn gets out of Lima, and doesn't have to answer to Russel, she still has this need to impress everyone. Last thing she heard about that awful man, was that he was kicked out of the house. Fortunately most of the Fabray's possessions are under Judy's name, so things are pretty great for Quinn and her mom (and Frannie) in the monetary department.
She makes her way to the kitchen, still busy typing. She glances up for a second, just to see what her girlfriend and her mom are doing. Brittany is helping Maribel setting the plates on the dining table, while Maribel takes out the foods from the wrapping, to be reheated in the microwave.
I guess just the same as you, but with extra cheer exercises and less secret society, because I'm actually happy being out of the closet. Something you should do too ;) -S
The Latina greets her mom by giving her a big hug and a kiss on her cheek, before sitting on her regular seat by the dining table.
Brittany keeps on eyeing Santana with her phone. She knows that the Latina is not really the kind who would care to text with people. Except for sexting. Brittany sits beside Santana after being done placing the plates and utensils, waiting for Maribel to finish reheating the Spaghetti.
"How is your college, Santana? Everything is ok?", Maribel stands across where Santana is sitting, pouring some Spaghetti on the plates. Brittany nudges her girlfriend who is still busy with her phone. Santana hasn't been sharing any updates with her parents lately. She actually hears her mother, but pretends like she's still busy with her phone. Maribel doesn't miss her daughter's telling, which is a twitch on her upper lip.
"Is there something you want to tell me?", The older Lopez asks again as she pours the reheated tomato sauce to a large bowl to share.
"Everything is okay, mom. I've been struggling, yes. But who doesn't?" Santana answers her mom in a nonchalant way, as good as she can fake it. She doesn't really enjoy the cheerleading practice anymore, because in high school it was just a way for her to stay on top of the social life. In college the activity turns into a freaking career. And even though she's not really bad in classes, she can barely pretend to care when she's not motivated.
Don't get me wrong, I'm totally grateful to Sue who helped me get the damn scholarship, but it's not what I really want.
She doesn't know what she wants yet. Not to mention that this feces has been affecting her relationship with Brittany.
Maribel can see that Santana is keeping something from her, but she knows that if she tries to push it, she will only get a snappy response. She knows Santana will talk eventually if she needs her.
"And you, Brittany, everything good at school? How does being a captain of the Cheerios feels like?", Maribel changes her subject of interview as she sits down and pushes the plate with spaghetti towards Brittany, signaling her to get them first. The question raises Santana interest and she finally sets down her phone on the table.
"I get a lot of singing parts in the Glee club, I have new friends and being a captain in the cheerios is awesome", Brittany's pour some Spaghetti to her plate while talking and her eyes are sparkling with eagerness talking about how good it seems the start of her repeated senior year.
Maribel smiles at Brittany's answer. She definitely feels glad that the blonde's answer is way better, than the last time she asked about college, several months ago.
Santana puts her hand on Brittany's, feeling proud and happy for her. "That's my girl."
Once they're done with lunch, Maribel tells the girls to finish handling the laundry while she will do the dishes.
The two girls brings all the washed laundry to Santana's room to be folded. Santana keeps being distracted, going back and forth between texting with Quinn and folding the washed laundries. Quinn discloses, that she got news about Kurt working in and that pisses off Santana. She's thinking, Here I am struggling to figure out what I want, while Lady Hummel got into his college of choice and already has a side-job in New York doing what he loves.
"Santana, can you please stop with the texting and just be here with me? What are you two talking about? Can't it wait?", Brittany finally pouts. The Latina puts her phone down, realizing that she's been a little bit occupied with Quinn but shares nevertheless, or to be exact rants about Kurt's new job and Brittany easily sees through Santana's insecurities, and calls her out about the money Maribel gave her for New York.
Sadly, Santana is not ready yet to admit that she's struggling at college. Especially not after knowing Quinn, Brittany, and even Kurt to be doing well. The thought of her dropping out from college and aimlessly wandering in New York, before knowing what she wants to do, is scaring her shitless. So she lies through her teeth that she loves cheerleaders and college, hoping that Brittany won't catches the gulp in the middle of her sentence.
She is not lying though when she says that she likes to be just a couple of hours way from Lima, so she can still come back and see Brittany. Fortunately Brittany looks so tired, that when the blonde yawns, Santana is able to change the subject. When Santana asks if Brittany is okay, she stops listening around the part where the blonde mentioned a Christian novel about the end of times. That's when Brittany tells Santana, they should go to the afterschool club called "The Left Behind."
…
Everything with Brittany actually goes well. They have their date night at Brittany's house watching The Matrix (Brittany claims that the rolling green numbers on the screen is actually readable and easier to read than the Biology textbook), continue with awesome sex and do a little jog in the morning. They spend the whole day just lying around on the bed, either eating some snacks or snuggling, sometimes both.
Although, things go downhill the next day, after she agrees to join her girlfriend at the freaky Jesus lover meeting that Brittany mentioned. She's not that eager to go back to Louisville anyway and she can probably catch a bus, that will make her able to attend the Ladybirds practice in the afternoon. Besides, there's something about the club makes her worry for Brittany and she wants to check it out.
Santana learns that The Left Behind club is lead by none other than a blonde cheerleader that eerily reminded her of a miniature Quinn on Vitamin D. Short people are not allowed to lead any group. There's supposed to be a written law about it. What if they need to fetch stuff on a high shelf or something?
The cheerleader, who introduces herself as Kitty, actually emotionally scars another student by re-enacting the rapture and says all kinds of offensive opinions, in less than five minutes.
What takes Santana by surprise, as the poor student cries on the floor thinking that she hasn't been chosen to be lifted into heaven, is Brittany dropping a bomb on Santana when she tells her:
"You don't get it. You left me behind and it hurt."
Santana feels like being slapped. But she understands what Brittany means, because leaving Brittany has been just as painful.
The drive home becomes unpleasant as their talk turns into an argument.
"We only have less than two days together this weekend and you're not even trying to make up all those times you cancelled! Yesterday you were busy chatting with Quinn."
"Brittany, it's Sunday night and I'm still here. We've been hanging out for two days now. You have no idea the things I have to juggle in college. And don't even bring Quinn to this, yesterday was the first time she texted me after months in college."
"If you didn't forget our Skype calls and actually shared your problems with me, I would know instead of making time for other people." There is a pause before Brittany continues in a defeated tone, "Things have changed, Santana, and I'm feeling really alone."
Santana doesn't have any response for that because she knows Brittany is right. Her girlfriend misunderstands about the little time she spent with Quinn, but then again she hasn't even told Brittany about that girl in the library. When did going back to Lima become a job?
The rest of the journey home is filled with silent tension. When Santana drops off Brittany at the Pierce's, she promises to visit her girlfriend tomorrow to resume their talk. She gives Brittany a goodnight kiss and goes home with her mind occupied, thinking how everything with Brittany just doesn't work the way they want it to.
She parks her car inside the garage and after making sure everything is locked, she gets in to her house, through the connecting door to her kitchen. She finds her mom sitting in the living room watching some reality show.
"What's wrong, Mija? Are you fighting with Brittany?", Maribel looks up when she hears Santana throw the car key on the kitchen island, and finds her daughter looking like she's going to cry.
Santana takes a deep ragged breath and Maribel tells her to sit beside her. The young Lopez walks to sit on the sofa, beside her mother, before hugging her, "I don't think our long distance relationship is working for us, Mami."
Maribel hugs her daughter and rubs her back as Santana starts crying. She knew this would happen sooner or later. Having a relationship is already quite difficult for people their age and the long distance seems to make it even more impossible.
"I'll take out the ice cream pint from the fridge and let's have a girl talk, okay? And maybe talk about your college too?" Maribel offers, feeling even more worried, knowing that Santana is not going back to Louisville today for her classes tomorrow.
"I'll agree just on the girl talk, because I'll need more than a pint of ice cream to make me talk about college. Don't worry, Mami. I'll figure it out. "
Maribel smiles at her daughter, who's evading another college talk, but she's not surprised. She remembers that Santana didn't really like the idea of Louisville and wanted to go to New York, but at the last minute, something changed Santana's mind and she still enrolled to Louisville. She let her daughter keep money in case she would change her mind. Maribel got a feeling that her daughter is actually scared of taking the big step to figure things out as an adult. She wants to help, but Santana doesn't seem to want to open up.
Santana lets her mother get up from the sofa to get the ice cream. She finally knows, what she need to do about her relationship with Brittany, but it doesn't mean that it's going to be easy. Not one bit.