Anonymous asked: 75. "Do you have a problem with me?"


After Columbus, the tour is heading to Louisville, and Santana groans the entire cab ride to the airport (Brittany just fondly rolls her eyes and humours Santana with sympathetic nods and falls a little more in love with her all over again). Brittany's not quite sure what Santana has against Louisville, but she's sure she'll find out soon enough.

They make it through security easily, and Santana's heart flutters a little when Brittany takes her hand as soon as she finishes slipping her shoes back on. They wait beside their carryons for the rest of the tour members to make it through. Santana plays with Brittany's fingers and tries really hard to not blurt to the entire airport how much she loves the girl holding her hand. Brittany keeps smiling at Santana and it makes Santana's heart pound and she curls closer to her.

Mercedes make it through next, and she gives Santana and Brittany an affectionate smile, cooing over the two of them. It makes Santana's face flame with a blush and she turns her head to hide her face in Brittany's shoulder. For someone who acts so tough, Brittany knows, Santana's so easy to fluster.

Once everyone makes it through, they scatter to grab snacks and drinks and magazines for the plane ride. Santana and Brittany stop for a couple coffees before heading straight to their gate. They find a mostly secluded corner, only a couple of people scattered around, mostly all with their headphones in. Brittany drops their carryons on the seat beside them and collapses with an exaggerated groan.

"What's up, buttercup?" Santana asks, kissing Brittany on the forehead as she sits down beside her. Brittany lets her head loll back and gently grabs Santana's legs to draw them up into her lap. It takes a little bit of maneuvering, what with the bar separating their uncomfortable seats, but eventually they get settled; Santana's legs thrown over the bar and into Brittany's lap, one hand playing with Brittany's hair and the other one stroking over Brittany's arm, Brittany's fingertips playing with the hem of Santana's jeans and being incredibly distracting as she teases the skin of Santana's ankles and shins.

"I just hate," Brittany whines, drawing the word out until Santana giggles, "Louisville so much."

"Oh hush," Santana complains with a fond eye roll. "I have my reasons."

Brittany grins and tugs teasingly on the hem of Santana's pants before her face softens. "What reasons?" she asks gently, and Santana has to bite down on her lip so she doesn't announce to the whole airport that this girl is amazing and perfect and she's deeply in love with her.

"It's nothing serious," Santana quickly reassures her. "I just— It's kind of, um, dumb, I guess."

"I'm sure it's not dumb. And I won't laugh, if that's what you're worried about," Brittany promises earnestly and Santana wants to lean over and kiss her, but she's not quite that flexible so she settles for delicately tucking some stray strands of blonde hair that have escaped Brittany's ponytail back behind her ear.

"I know you won't," Santana assures, and she only hesitates for a moment about how to explain. "After I graduated I went to Louisville for a semester on a cheerleading scholarship. It was absolutely awful. My coach was a psycho, I didn't like any of my classes since I had to take them to maintain my scholarship and not ones I wanted to take, my roommate was crazy homophobic, and I didn't know anyone in Louisville so I spent most of my time in my room with said homophobic roommate."

"That really sucks," Brittany murmurs.

Santana just nods. "I thought I got over all that internalized homophobia in my senior year, but spending so much time with her, it just— It messed me up for a while. It took a couple years for me to get to a better place again but— I mean, moving away from Ohio is probably the best thing I've ever done. I'm really thankful to Mercedes for offering me a place in L.A., because I think I'd still be stuck in Louisville, or worse, in Lima."

Brittany studies Santana carefully, and asks a question with her eyes. Santana smiles, because this girl, seriously, this girl; this girl who's so careful and considerate and gentle with Santana's heart, this girl who's always reached out to steady Santana when she needs it and gently tease her back to herself when she loses it, this girl who loves Santana so well even though they've yet to say it out loud.

Brittany's soft smile stretches into a smirk and her eyes crinkle in amusement. "And here I thought I had to worry about a line of broken hearted exes," she teases.

Santana lets out a peel of surprised laughter and shakes her head. "I wasn't even in Louisville long enough to have a girlfriend, let alone a line of them you have to worry about."

Brittany's eyes trail suggestively over Santana's body, and Santana's suddenly even more thankful than she was earlier that her skin mostly hides her blushing cheeks. There are some things she can't hide though, like how she automatically ducks her head and averts her eyes and smiles until her cheeks dimple. "Not even one?" Brittany asks lowly, and the implication in her voice sends heat curling high in Santana's cheeks and low in her belly, "I find that hard to believe."

"Well," Santana hesitates and bites on her lip, watching adoringly when Brittany's eyes light up in curious mischief, "There was one girl, I guess."

"Oooh, do tell." Brittany releases Santana's ankles and rests her chin in the hand she has propped on Santana's shin with a wide grin.

Santana rolls her eyes as she reminisces. "I met her in the library, which was probably my first warning sign. Nothing good ever comes from me going to the library."

"Really?" Brittany asks, wrinkling her nose skeptically, and Santana can't resist twisting as far as she can to kiss Brittany on her nose.

"Remember Washington?"

"Of course."

"That's the least weird thing to happen to me."

Brittany puffs out a short, bright laugh. "Wow."

"Yeah," Santana agrees solemnly, until her face breaks into a smile again.

"So you just have an crazy ex, not a whole line of them?" Brittany clarifies, and Santana pinches the back of Brittany's neck in retaliation when she sees the teasing glint in those blue eyes.

Brittany swats at Santana but she just keeps smiling. "She was never my girlfriend," Santana laughs, "I went on one date with her and she just stared at me the entire time."

There's a glint in Brittany's eyes as she opens them wide and leers at Santana. "Like this?" she teases around a wide grin.

"Oh shove it, you goof," Santana complains, pushing Brittany's face away from hers. Brittany just keeps staring at her until Santana bursts into giggles. Brittany grins proudly at Santana as they relax, cuddling and quietly people watching.

"I gotta pee, babe," Brittany says suddenly as she gently pushes Santana's legs off her to stand and stretch.

"Gross," Santana laughs. Inwardly, she's fluttery and bubbly because she actually kinda really loves how comfortable her and Britt are, how much things haven't really changed since they started dating, how Brittany's still her very best friend, how she doesn't have to pretend to be somebody else with the woman she loves.

"You love me though," Brittany whispers, and Santana's heart jumps out of her chest like it's trying to crawl into Brittany's. There is bright hope and fear swimming in Brittany's clear, blue eyes, and Santana can't help the smile that spreads across her face, dimpling her cheeks until Brittany's own smile starts to grow.

Santana tugs on the strings of Brittany's hoodie until their lips are a breath apart. "I do," she sighs into Brittany's mouth. Brittany's eyelashes flutter against her cheekbones as her mouth moves over Santana's, and Santana can feel her heartbeat thrum in her fingertips as she brushes them over Brittany's jaw.

It's only after Brittany's heading down the hallway to the bathroom that Santana becomes aware of the woman sitting a couple seats down from her. She has a dark, heavy glare that makes Santana's skin crawl, and she keeps scowling and making this annoyed, huffing sound every time she catches Santana's eye. There's this awful, unfounded hate smouldering in her eyes and Santana already knows what her problem is, because she knows that she's going to be facing this particular brand of hate for the rest of, or at least most of, her life, and she wishes it wasn't so normalized. Her young son sits beside her, absorbed in whatever iPad game he's playing, completely oblivious to his mother's growing disgust.

Santana feels sick to her stomach but she takes a deep breath and scowls back at the woman. "Do you have a problem with me?" she snaps.

The woman's spine straightens and she huffs as she draws herself up. "Yeah, actually, I do. I don't think my son should be subjected to your sin. You're disgusting."

Santana hates that she feels tears spring to her eyes in response. "I don't think your son should be subjected to your ridiculous hate," she growls.

The woman's response is interrupted by an announcement for the plane's boarding. Santana stands quickly and grabs both her carryon and Brittany's before storming away. She quickly texts Brittany that they'll be boarding soon. Santana glowers at the entire airport as she stalks down the short stretch of chairs to the gate, and she feels something gross and dark fester deep in her stomach. No matter how many times she witnesses homophobia firsthand, it still manages to take her completely by surprise.

Mercedes catches her eye at the gate and her face contorts in confused worry as she makes a move to head over to Santana, but Santana shakes her head, because she's pretty sure if someone talks to her right now she might just completely snap.

But then Brittany's there beside her, slipping her hand into Santana's and grinning widely, and Santana feels the tension drain from shoulders and that dark thing in her stomach start to ease. No matter what some ugly, hateful stranger in an Ohio airport thinks, this girl holding her hand loves her, who became her best friend in the whole world from that very first smile, and who very quickly became Santana's whole world not long after that, and they have friends who support them and think they're adorable, and Santana knows that ugly, hateful hags will never be able to take that from her.