Anonymous asked: 23. "Babe, I'm sorry." / "Suck my ass."


Santana is not really a runner, Brittany knows this about her girlfriend and she loves and accepts it, and she stopped trying to prod Santana into waking up before sunrise to go and do exercise long before they became girlfriends.

Which is why, after a couple days of being in Nashville, Brittany's surprised to wake up on one of their day off to a room still dark without the sunrise through the blinds and Santana hovering over her, waking her up with soft kisses across her cheek and jaw and nose.

Brittany hums as Santana realizes she's awake and kisses her with a closed mouth; Brittany doesn't really care about morning breath but it's cute that Santana is always mindful of it. "Why are you awake?" she mumbles against Santana's lips.

"I was thinking maybe we could go for a run?" Santana murmurs, and Brittany's suddenly wide awake. Santana hovers above her, and Brittany care barely see her so she carefully rolls Santana back until she can hover above her instead, the harsh, red light of the alarm clock cutting through the curtain of Brittany's blonde hair around them like it doesn't through Santana's dark waves.

"Really?" Brittany asks softly.

"Yeah, I mean," Santana mumbles, nervously playing with the tips of Brittany's hair, "Micah was saying how he never sees me do anything you, you know, like to do and he said—"

Brittany shuts Santana up with a firm, deep kiss. She's never listened to whatever dumb things come out of Micah's mouth, and she's not about to start now, especially when those dumb things don't even make any sense. "Who cares what Micah says," Brittany says breathlessly when she pulls back.

Santana's dazed and dreamy, but her eyes sharpen and grow small and Brittany knows she can't kiss it away this time. "It's just— He's right. I don't, like, go on a run with you every morning or whatever even though you always ask me to and I feel bad about it and I want to start doing stuff you like to do more."

"That's so sweet," Brittany murmurs, "But you don't need to. Micah doesn't know about all the other really awesome stuff you do for me or with me because he's an idiot with poor eyesight." Santana giggles a little and Brittany grins as the tension starts to drain out of Santana's jaw and from the creases beneath her eyes. "Our relationship is between us and I know you love me, so much, and I don't care what anyone else thinks about it."

"Really?" Santana breathes, and she's so shy and unsure that something deep in Brittany's chest flutters and brightens and she's pretty sure it's the feeling of falling in love with Santana all over again.

"Really, really," Brittany promises, ducking down until she can breathe her promises right into Santana's warm mouth.

"So we don't have to, like, be that couple that goes running together every morning, because I'd do it—" Santana swears, but Brittany cuts her off with another kiss.

"But you'd hate it," Brittany mumbles, and Santana relaxes completely.

"Sleep?" Santana suggests against Brittany's lips.

Brittany laughs and draws back with a sly smirk, Santana trying to follow her lips and whining petulantly when Brittany pulls out of her reach. "Oh no, you woke me up for a run. You're free every other time but you're not getting off the hook today."

Santana gives an exaggerated groans and flops back on the bed.

The sun is only barely hinting at rising when they step outside of the hotel, Brittany in her running clothes and Santana in her rehearsal clothes because it's the closest she has to exercise clothes she has, the city still and quiet in the early morning before it wakes back up. Brittany turns them in the direction of the park she found the first day here, and she quickly leads Santana in a couple of stretches; Brittany knows how important stretching is, but she maybe spends a little longer than usual so she can admire the distracting movement of Santana's muscles under her loose tank.

Brittany goes slower than she usually would, teasing and gloating Santana the entire way while Santana sends mock annoyed glares at her the entire morning. The sun is only just starting to peak over the horizon by the time they reach the park, bathing the city in murky pink light and starting to burn away the tendrils of fog clinging to the edges of the park where the trees grow close and gnarled.

"Race you to that big tree," Brittany says suddenly, pointing to the other end of the part and smirking at Santana while she bounces on her toes, "Loser has to do whatever the winner wan—" She doesn't even make it through her bet before Santana's sprinting towards the tree and leaving Brittany dumbfounded for a moment before she takes off after her, shrieking her "Cheater!" and only receiving wild, breathless laughter in response.

Brittany has the advantage of longer legs and the fact that she actually goes running a lot, and she quickly starts closing the gap between them but she doesn't quite have Santana's determined, competitive nature when it comes to winning bets, and Santana manages to stay just ahead of her. She doesn't slow down at all, and Brittany doesn't pay attention to the ground as Santana leads her across the grass and before she knows it her foot catches on a root and she goes tumbling into Santana in a tangle of limbs and shrieks. Brittany manages to catch Santana and pull her against her body as they crash to the ground, mostly absorbing Santana's fall against her torso, both of them groaning as they thud to a stop against the grass.

"Babe, I'm sorry," Brittany gasps, frantically running her hands across Santana's body and searching for broken limbs.

"Suck my ass," Santana wheezes as she rolls off of Brittany, and as soon as they catch each other's eyes they both burst into bright, uncontrollable giggles, made worse by the fact that both of them are still winded from their crash.

"Are you okay?" Brittany eventually manages to ask around her pants for breathe, and Santana quickly nods her head, still giggling.

"This is it," she gasps, "This is the the first and the last time we go for a run together."

Brittany just laughs and rolls towards Santana, draping her sweaty body over Santana's, blades of grass sticking to their skin and making it itch. Santana is over-warm with Brittany against her and still out of breath and her legs ache and her throat is painfully dry and it's still too goddamn early to be out of bed and, with Brittany's giggles in her ear, she's happier than she's ever been.