Title: Hidden Moments 4/5 – Sickness and Weakness
The loud bang of door hitting tile reverberated through the bathroom as someone swung the door open with excessive force, followed by the sound of a stall door also banging open. Tine hastily stood and readjusted her clothes as someone began to throw up in one of the toilets a couple of stalls down from her, her hand stilling on the lock when she heard someone else enter the room.
"San?" Brittany's voice sounded softly, her light footsteps echoing loudly as she no doubt crossed to the stall Tina now knew Santana occupied. After a few more moments the retching stopped and she heard someone, presumably Santana, slouch against the stall wall.
"Thanks." She murmured quietly
"Come on, you need to get off the floor, it's not hydraulic."
"Hygienic," Santana corrected absently and after a moment of shuffling Tina heard someone turn the tap on.
Deciding to just wait for them to leave she quietly moved back to perch on the toilet lid – chances were they wouldn't be long and it was never a good idea to give Cheerios more opportunities for mockery than they already had in the halls, even if Santana had toned down a bit since joining glee.
"Here," Brittany murmured, and, curiosity getting the better of her Tina gingerly climbed onto the toilet lid to peer over the top of the stall – she reasoned she was going to hear whatever they were saying anyway so she may as well watch too. Brittany passed Santana a stick of chewing gum while surveying her unblinkingly while Santana just gripped the edge of the sink tight enough to turn her knuckles white, her head bowed.
"Fuck it B." Santana exclaimed in frustration, hitting the edge of the sink with her hand, as though words were not sufficient to express herself. Clearly though, none of it was aimed at Brittany, who quickly went to lock the door to the hallway, causing Tina to mentally echo Santana's sentiment, since apparently this was not something anyone but Brittany was meant to be privy to.
"You're throwing up more often." Brittany commented
"Doc says if I'm lucky it'll only last a couple of months." Santana replied, finally looking up to watch herself in the mirror, allowing Tina to see that, despite her level tone, there were tears streaking down the latina's face.
"What am I doing B?" She asked without looking away, not bothering to wipe away the moisture flowing down her cheeks. "How could I have possibly been so stupid? And to make it worse my emotions are a fucking mess – I mean, look at me; I'm in tears for fucks sake." She roughly wiped away a couple of tears
Brittany just watched Santana with a quiet intensity, clearly thinking it best to just allow her to get it all out.
"This will ruin my life, and I can't stand the fact that it's going to ruin yours too." Santana muttered, finally breaking eye contact with her reflection and turning to look at her companion instead, apology apparent in her every feature.
"No." Brittany refuted, her loud, determined tone causing Tina to jump and almost loose her footing after Santana's quiet broken one. Crossing the room in two long strides Brittany moved to stand before Santana, her body radiating a quiet intensity she had never imagined Brittany even had the ability to experience.
"No." She repeated in a gentler but just as firm voice, her hands gripping Santana's arms firmly "This is not going to ruin your life, and it's not going to ruin mine. We're going to get through this, together, and everything will work itself out. I know you like to think you can do everything by yourself, but this time you can't, and I'm not going to give you the opportunity to try. So stop asking me to leave you alone, stop trying to push me away because I'm not going anywhere. Got it?"
Santana let out a half chuckle, and nodded slightly. "Got it."
"Good." Brittany chirped , her tone doing a complete 180 as she was once again her chipper self, and pecked Santana's lips lightly, confirming Tina's suspicions that they were more than friends, and, considering the conversation she'd just overheard, she'd wager more than friends with benefits too.
Separating, Brittany went to wet a paper towel and gently wiped away the tear stains on Santana's cheeks.
"There." Brittany murmured when she was done and Santana offered her a soft smile that was reserved specially for the blond "You better go if you don't want to be late for Math again."
"Not that I really care." Santana mumbled and Tina once again ducked out of site in case either of the pair decided to glance round the room before she left.
"You not coming?" Santana asked as the lock clicked loudly.
"I wanted to use the toilet before heading to Art."
The door swung shut a second later and Tina was alone with the blond.
"Tina, you can come out now."
Freezing, as though by remaining still could fool Brittany into believing she'd made a mistake she waited and a second later she was knocking on the cubical door.
"You're not locked in are you?" Brittany tried rattling the door harder.
"No," Tina called, hastily gathering her wits as she unlocked the door, coming face to face with the tall Cheerio.
"Oh good, I was worried you were stuck and I'd have to call Mr Johnson." Brittany said, looking overly relieved.
"Mr Johnson?" Tina questioned - there were no teachers with that name.
"He's the afternoon janitor." She replied as though this was something everyone would know.
"I see." Tina replied dumbly, wondering why she was surprised in the first place – this was Brittany after all. Deciding to put on an act of normalcy and pretending she had not just witnessed Santana Lopez, HBIC, in tears Tina brushed past Brittany and headed to the sink to wash her hands, jumping in surprise when she turned back around to find Brittany practically on top of her, and seriously invading her personal space.
Tina actually flinched at her hard expression, actually remembering for the first time in ages that Brittany was in fact a Cheerio.
"I don't know what you think you heard, or what you think you saw, but it didn't happen." She practically growled, and were it not for the deadly serious glint in her eyes Tina would have laughed at the blonds tough girl attitude. "No one, especially not Santana, will ever know you were in here. Got it?" The two words suddenly sounding much more menacing than when Brittany had said them to Santana a few minutes earlier.
Tina nodded furiously – Brittany could apparently be much scarier than people gave her credit for and Tina breathed a sigh of relief as she finally stepped out of her personal space.
"Well, okay then." Suddenly the ditzy cheerleader was back in full force "I'll see you in Glee."
Nodding mutely Tina watched the blond exit, realising for the first time how much more there was to her than the slow, slightly dumb Brittany that she had come to expect her to be.