Santana and Brittany are Married santana works on her first album and brittany owns a Dance studio. Santana thinks brittany cheats on her with the new guy at the dance studio and gets insecure and jealous.
The first year of Brittany and Santana's marriage was pure bliss. They lived life in a daze of frequent kisses and daily reminders of each other's new titles, constantly showering one another with love and happiness. But as the years went on and work started to really demand their attentions, that honeymoon phase slowly wore off. It wasn't that they weren't overly affectionate anymore, they still had their moments but with work possessing their time, lunch time quickies just didn't happen as often and it was a miracle if they both were home for dinner at the same time.
As long as they still attempted to be with each other at the end of the day, that was all that mattered. As long as they tried..
With Santana hard at work on her first album, a long time coming for her, nights at the studio grew longer. She had spent a lot of time helping Brittany with opening the dance studio the blonde always dreamed of having, but now was time for her to work on her own career. She was a hard worker and knew how important it was for her debut album to be nothing short but amazing. She needed to be remembered, she needed people to want more of her. Her whole life had been building up to this moment, she couldn't let it go to waste.
As she looked at the time, she sighed and grabbed her phone. It was another day of getting caught up in the music and ultimately another lonely dinner for Brittany.
"Hello?"
Santana could already hear the sadness in her wife's voice, Brittany knowing well what Santana was about to say.
"Hey baby, I'm sorry..I didn't notice how late-"
"It's okay, I'll put your plate in the microwave."
"Britt, you know how important this album is to me." Santana sighed upon hearing the blonde's passive aggressive tone, "I need to make sure it's perfect."
"I know, Santana, but you haven't been on time for dinner in I don't even know how long. Our schedules are so different now and you're always so tired-"
"Well I've been working!" Santana snapped, something she did often due to exhaustion and long hours at work, "I'm tired and I'm stressed the hell out! I'm just trying to make it, Brittany, and no one's there to help me!"
"Because you won't let them! Mercedes offered and you turned her down knowing damn well she knows what it takes to be successful."
"And I don't?"
"You know that's not what I'm saying, Santana.."
Santana let out a deep sigh as she heard the blonde's voice dip into that tone she never used to hear but now hears way too much of, "What do you want from me?"
"I want you to be home on time for dinner. I want to have a conversation with you without it ending up in an argument or you falling asleep. I want you to see that I want to help you with whatever you need. I want you to be the biggest star out there. I want you to care about our marriage again because right now it feels like I'm the only one in it anymore."
With that, the phone clicked and Santana was left staring at the blank screen and a heavy heart: she didn't know having Brittany and having a career would be so hard to juggle.
That night, Santana came home with a bouquet of lilies and met her sleepy wife with a dozen apologetic kisses.
"I'm sorry about snapping on you earlier, Britt, I'll try harder to come home on time." Santana whispered, her fingers gently brushing blonde hair behind Brittany's ear while blue eyes slowly blinked awake, "I love you so much, I don't want to lose you." Brittany had been trying to wait up for Santana, but after that phone call she just went to the couch and tried draining out her thoughts with tv only to fall asleep shorty later.
"I love you," Brittany replied softly, noticing the darkening circles under her wife's eyes, "Come on, let's go to bed."
As promised, Santana tried harder and was successful for a good two weeks before things fell into its usual cycle again. This time, Brittany wasn't just going to wait around for Santana to come home, whenever that was, she was going to work just as hard because what's the point of coming home to make dinner and be with her wife when her wife was never there.
Santana noticed that Brittany's days at the studio were getting later and later when she'd come home to an empty house and empty microwave. She didn't mind that there wasn't dinner, but she did find her stomach churning at the feeling of being home before Brittany when it was already verging on ten at night.
She'd wander to bed, leaving the kitchen light on for her wife just as Brittany would for her, and try to fall asleep. It would be around midnight when the sound of the front door closing would startle her awake. She would hear Brittany pad into their bedroom and dig around their drawers for something clean to wear then go off to the bathroom where Santana would fall back asleep to the sound of the shower running.
Santana didn't really think anything of their new routine, with her schedule still super busy, she was a little happy that Brittany was keeping herself occupied rather than waiting around for Santana to come home. It wasn't until Santana smelled the distinct scent of men's cologne on Brittany one night after coming home late once again that Santana actually felt her heart break a little. She knew there were some handsome men at the dance studio and remembered the new dancer that had been a little flirty at first with Brittany and she knew they often had to do some pretty provocative routines, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions, she knew Brittany would never cheat on her and she would never cheat on Brittany, but the past few months have been rough and she started to doubt certain things.
That night, after her midnight shower, Brittany crawled carefully into bed not wanting to wake Santana up only to have her wife's arms wrap around her body almost instantly.
"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you.." Brittany mumbled, the sudden affection surprising after having so little for so long.
"I miss you so much, Britt-Britt." Santana replied, the sound of her whimper catching Brittany off guard.
"Santana.." Brittany was worried and leaned away to see tears in her wife's eyes, "Baby, what's wrong?"
"I-I just miss you," She mumbled and buried her face in Brittany's neck, "So much."
"I'm right here, San, it's okay." Brittany frowned, kissing the brunettes forehead then her cheeks and lips, "I'm always gonna be right here."
Despite falling asleep to Brittany's affectionate assurance, the next few days were anything but let downs. They had made dinner reservations, but for the first time, Brittany was the one who ended up cancelling saying that she couldn't leave her work. After that, Santana's mind began to jump to those conclusions she didn't want to jump to earlier.
"I think she's cheating on me.." Santana said to Mercedes.
"Are you crazy? Have you lost your damn mind?" Mercedes barked, arching her brow at the devastated Santana, "That girl loves you more than anything in the world, why the hell would you say that?"
"It's not the same, Cedes.." Santana frowned, eyes watering, "It hasn't been the same in awhile. It's my fault, I know it is, I let work get between us and now-"
"This is what happens when you don't get enough sleep, you start thinking the most ridiculous things. Have you even talked to her about this?" Mercedes shook her head, "You can't honestly believe she's cheating?"
"I don't know!" Santana huffed, her chin falling to rest in her hand, "I don't know anymore."
After the third night in a row of Brittany coming home late and that disgusting scent of men's cologne on her again, Santana had enough. The next morning, they went through their usual routine and they both went off to work only this time Santana made it her mission to get off early.
She rushed to the dance studio, preparing herself for the worst, but when she made it there she was surprised the studio didn't look like it had when they previously bought it. No matter, Santana stormed in ready to win her girl back and lay the smack down on any punk that thought they could take Brittany away from her.
"Santana? Hey, how are-"
"Where is she, Mike?" Santana growled, moving with determination. She could hear him calling for her to come back, but she was already headed for the back room, but confused to see stairs that weren't there before. Only working off adrenaline, Santana rushed up the stairs, the scent of that familiar cologne growing stronger the further she got, and caught Brittany in the act..of cleaning?
Santana's onslaught of insults readily aimed at whoever Brittany had been canoodling with for the past few weeks died as Santana took in the sight of her wife wearing paint splattered overalls and her hair tied up in a messy bun then all the new recording equipment and sound room.
"Santana!" Brittany gasped, her hold loosening on the spray bottle and clattering to the floor, "Wh-What are you doing off so early? I didn't-"
Santana just continued to look around the room in wonder, eyes brimming with tears, "What's going on?" Brittany saw her wife getting overwhelmed and quickly dropped her rag that she had been cleaning the window with too and slipped off her plastic gloves before walking to Santana.
"I know how hard you've been working with your album and all those hours you put in the studio and I just thought that maybe there wouldn't be such a strain on our relationship if we weren't so far away from each other all the time. I know you like recording at Mercedes' studio but maybe you'll like this too? You can work here instead and I promise I won't bother you all the time, though I'll be pretty tempted knowing you're just upstairs, but I know this is super important so it's important to me also. You put a hold on your music to help me open my studio and that meant so much, but now I think it's time for me to give you something of your own too." Brittany's hands smoothed up Santana's arms as she looked down at her worriedly, the silence scaring her, "Is that okay?"
"I-I thought you were cheating on me.." Santana admitted guiltily, "I thought you were finally over it and I thought you found someone better, you were gonna leave. I-I smelled the cologne.."
"Yeah, the whole street did." Brittany joked lightly, "I think the contractor I was working with bathed in that stuff, so gross. It's still pretty strong in here, don't worry though I'll open the window and we can air it out. Maybe light some candles or buy some of those air fresheners you like at home-"
"Brittany, I just accused you of cheating..that's not normal."
"You're right, it's silly." Brittany answered easily, she knew how her wife worked. She didn't need to tear Santana down for thinking something so horrible, Santana did a great job of doing that to herself already.
"God, I'm so stupid," Santana breathed out, the amount of love Brittany constantly showered her with drowning her, "How could I be so damn..I can't believe I thought you were cheating."
"Honey.." Brittany sighed, hugging Santana to her chest and kissing the top of her head.
"You were building a studio this whole time," Santana mumbled against her wife's chest, "You were building it forme so we could be together more a-and I thought the worst."
"You always do," Brittany chuckled and leaned down to kiss away Santana's tears, "But that's alright, that's just how you are. We can fix things now, we'll love each other better."
"I love you so much, Britt," Santana said as she cupped Brittany's cheeks, holding her face closer so she could kiss those lips once more, "Thank you for this."
"You're welcome, baby." Brittany grinned proudly, "Now go finish that album!"