"School nerd Brittany, discovering that cheerleading co-captain is a secret nerd and romance blooming from there. Much to the delight of captain Quinn who is actually besties with Brittany and secretly ships them and has wanted to see them together for a while now."

Brittany stared at the beautiful 1963 Tales of Suspense issue #39 where Iron Man made his first appearance in wonderment. She had to have it, that was certain. She already picked a spot out on her shelf at home where it would be proudly displayed amongst the rest of her collection..she just needed $250.

"I don't know why you keep on staring at it," Sam said, bumping shoulders with Brittany, shaking her from her daydreaming, "I'm totally buying it first!"

Brittany just laughed at her best friend, "Oh yeah? How you gonna do that? You've got $250 hiding somewhere?"

"No.." Sam frowned as the two stared at the comic book together, "But it'll happen. I'm going to start helping Puck with his pool cleaning business and I'll stop buying so much chapstick and I think Ryder wants to buy that extra copy I have of Iron Man vs. Captain America."

"And at that rate you'll save up enough money by graduation..of college!"

"Whatever. You got any bright ideas?"

"Duh." Brittany smirked as she finally tore her eyes away to look at Sam, "But I'm not telling you!"

"Britt, come on! I'm your best friend!"

"Oh look at the time," Brittany teased as she glanced down at her Iron Man watch, "Gotta run, later Sammy!"

She rushed out the door of the comic shop and made her way over to Quinn's house. Though they both went in completely different directions after middle school, Quinn with joining the Cheerios and Brittany joining fandoms and really concentrating on her comic books, the two continued to be close friends. They weren't as close as they were at the start of their sixth grade year due to Quinn hanging out with more popular girls and a particularly pretty brunette, but Quinn still made attempts to bring Brittany into her world.

"She's actually really cool once you look past all the bitchiness and snark," Quinn said to Brittany as the topic of the pretty brunette came up once again. Brittany didn't know why, but Quinn just loved to bring the girl up whenever they hung out, "You should come with me to the party on Friday, everyone will be there and you can finally meet Santana."

"I've met Santana before, Q, we have English together but she doesn't even make eye contact with me." Brittany frowned. She had always thought the girl was cute, cutest girl on the whole squad in fact, but like Taylor Swift said she wears short skirts, I wear t shirts so Brittany knew she didn't have a chance. That's just how high school worked for nerds like her.

"School doesn't count, you have to hang out outside!"

"I don't know, Q, I'm not really a party kind of girl." Brittany shrugged, "I think I'm just going to go with Sam to this convention thing-"

"Does it involve Iron Man?"

"I..uhm..no?"

"Convincing." Quinn laughed, "Britt, I think you've got an obsession."

"I'm passionate about what I collect!" Brittany defended, "It's just comic books, it's not like I have a cardboard cut out or have Iron Man bedsheets or wear Iron Man underwear."

Actually, the last one was true but only because Brittany had a history test and she needed the luck.

"Just think about it at least?"

"I guess.."

The next day Sam practically sprinted to her, all shaggy hair and frantic. Brittany could barely understand him as he panted and flattened the brown paper bag he was holding to his chest.

"What's wrong?" She asked him worriedly, "Are you having an asthma attack?"

"I. Don't. Have. Asthma." He said between breaths then pressed the bag to her, "I. Need. You. To. Deliver. This."

"What? Why? I'm not a drug dealer." Brittany replied and tried pushing the bag back to him but he wouldn't take it, "What's in here?"

"Don't!" Sam yelled, catching the eyes of curious bypassers, but Brittany was too quick.

"What is #58 doing out of it's spot on your shelf?!" Brittany gasped as she quickly sealed the bag, "Who is this going to?"

"They'll meet you by the bleachers at 10:30." Sam said easily now that he had caught his breath, "Make sure you get an envelope back."

"But why can't you-" Brittany began to ask but Sam was already running off. She looked back down at the bag and wondered who could afford Sam's most favorite issue.

10:30

Brittany walked towards the bleachers slowly, wary of who was waiting or if it was all a joke and she was only coming out of this with a slushy facial. She shivered at the thought, but as she came closer, she saw the outline of someone standing, their head hidden under the hood of their sweater.

The figure turned at the sound of someone coming, but when Brittany saw who was standing there, she nearly collapsed.

"No way.."

"Where is Sam?" Santana asked worriedly when she saw the blonde's jaw drop.

"Uhm, I don't know? He told me to give this to you though." Brittany answered softly, pulling herself together long enough to take in the the softness of the brunette's lashes and the fullness of her lips, something she couldn't do from just looking at her from afar. She was mesmerized.

"Do you know what's in here?" Santana asked nervously, taking the bag in her hands.

"Would it make you feel better if I said no?"

Santana eyed her warily, "You wouldn't tell the whole school that..that I'm into-"

"I can keep a secret." Brittany replied easily, finding a weird comfort in knowing a Cheerio could be afraid of something so silly. She always believed in being true to herself even if that meant embracing some awesomeness that wasn't conventionally awesome. She also knew that some people had a harder time doing that than her and it seemed like Santana was one of those people.

"Thank you," Santana smiled softly, " I don't know many people that wouldn't blab on me if given the chance."

"Maybe you haven't been hanging around the right ones?" Brittany watched the brunette's smile double in size as brown eyes averted to the grass, "Have you read that one you got there?"

"Of course," Santana gasped, "Who hasn't? It's the best one!"

"I don't know, #63 was pretty awesome.."

"What? No..well, yeah maybe but that's nothing compared to #96!"

"Oh yeah, that one's a classic for sure." Brittany smirked, loving how well she could have a conversation with the girl about stuff she only thought she could talk to Sam and some convention nerds about, "I actually have the limited edition of that issue-"

"The one with the holographic lightning?!"

"Yup!" Brittany grinned proudly.

"I didn't think anyone had that.."

"Well, I do! Maybe one day you can check it out? I mean, Quinn comes over a lot and I know you two are good friends. Oh wait, does she know? She doesn't have to come if you don't want, I just didn't want you to feel awkward coming over not that you should feel awkward because why would it be awkward? It's just to fangirls fangirling about the same thing." Brittany rambled while Santana just laughed.

"I'd love to check it out." Santana smirked, "Maybe we can compare collections? But let's just keep that from Quinn, she gets a little funny around certain topics."

"No problem!" Brittany agreed. If Quinn found out she had Santana in her room alone, she probably wouldn't hear the end of it!

It took one week before Brittany finally felt what it was like to kiss Santana Lopez, the co-captain of the Cheerios. FYI, it was freaking awesome.

It was another two weeks before Santana invited Brittany over to her house to show off her own collection. It was there that Brittany found out she had three extra copies of the 1963 Tales of Suspense issue #39.

"That's right, you don't have that one." Santana mumbled as she lazily pressed kisses along Brittany's neck while the blonde continued to stare in awe.

"They're beautiful." She sighed, half because of the cover artwork and half because Santana's lips felt so good on her skin.

Santana couldn't help but pull her head away from lavishing Brittany's neck to watch the blonde's eyes glaze over. She loved how something brought so much joy to those eyes and she could only think of one other thing that could make it ten times better, "You can have one."

"What? San, no..they're so expensive!"

"It's okay, I don't need three of the same issue."

"You can't just give them to me though. Here, let me give you some money."

"Baby, I'm not taking any money from you." Santana chuckled, running her fingers along Brittany's jaw, "But if you really want to, I can think of something else I'll be happy to take as payment."

"Oh yeah?" Brittany smirked as she turned in Santana's arms and captured pouty lips with hers, "Thank you."

It took two days after that before Quinn finally caught Santana wearing a shirt she distinctly remembered seeing on Brittany because it was Iron Man, of course, and she was the one that bought it for her and Brittany's hand dangerously low on Santana's ass.

"What the hell is this?" Quinn gasped forcing Santana and Brittany's hands to freeze and their eyes to widen. Santana had Brittany pinned against the wall with her pants down and Brittany's hair was all over the place and her top completely missing.

"We can explain!" Brittany squeaked while Santana struggled to pull her pants up, but Quinn was already rushing over to hug the both of them.

"I always knew you two would get together in the end! It was only a matter of time before you both figured out you were complete dorks for the same thing! I knew it all along!"

"Quinn, your jacket is hurting my boobs.."

"Hurting Britt's boobs hurts me, Q, I need to make sure they're okay. Can we like postpone this for like ten minutes?"

"Oh yeah, no go ahead. Take your time!" Quinn nodded and quickly went for the door before poking her head in one last time, "Love ya, lovebirds!"