A/N: I know this is so late, and I can't promise that the next chapter won't be this late... I'm in a bit of a Glee writer's block (if you read my PLL Emison stories, you might've seen me mention that)... I was determined today, however, to write out chapter 12 of this story so that I could post chapter 11 for you guys. c:

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Glee!

PLEASE enjoy, favorite, follow and REVIEW! All mistakes are mine xP

Once off the plane, we headed into the pickup area and Dani led me somewhere based off something she was looking at her on her phone. We didn't talk, though, as we made our way out of the airport. When we headed into the parking lot, I figured that Dani had driven herself to the airport.

"Here we are," the blonde stated as we approached a car. She popped the trunk and we both put our bags inside the small space, before she closed it and headed toward the drivers side. I slipped into the passenger side, and tried to calm my nerves. I knew that this would be weird, and it sort of all felt against my better judgment. But there really wasn't another option at this point, and it wasn't like I needed to be anywhere else.

"So," Dani started, as she started the car and pulled out of the parking space, "I don't really have a guest bedroom, but my couch does fold out into a bed."

"Okay," I answered, before swallowing thickly.

"Are you okay?" Dani asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm okay. This just… this feels kind of…"

"Weird? Crazy? Insane? Psychotic?" Dani asked. "Trust me, I know."

I took a slightly deep breath. "What do you have to be doing for the next couple of weeks?"

"Nothing," Dani admitted, "which I guess is another reason why I invited you here. I don't have to go back into the studio for a couple more weeks, but they haven't given me a completely set date yet."

"Are you recording another single?" I wondered, and she shook her head.

"Actually, I'm getting my album started," she admitted, shrugging. "But don't tell the press yet," she added jokingly.

"Your secret is perfectly safe with me," I promised, not able to help the smile that slowly grew onto my face.

"I hope so," Dani joked, giving me a half smile before gluing her eyes back to the road. We didn't talk much for the rest of the drive, and I mostly just stared out of the window and at the city around me. I'd never been to LA. Actually, I'd never really been anywhere besides Texas and New York. This place was definitely much more glamorous looking than New York City, which was, of course, amazing, just in a different sense.

"I can see how you could fall in love with this place," I finally said. Dani smiled, and suddenly we were pulling into a parking space in a small lot outside of a small apartment building. "This is where you live?"

"It's not a big high rise or anything special, but yep," Dani answered, nodding as she finished parking the car and took her key out of the ignition. "Come on."

So I followed suit as she got out of the car, and found that she'd already popped the trunk to allow us to grab our bags out. Once we had everything, she closed the trunk, locked the car, and we were heading for the building.

"What's your place in New York like?" she wondered.

"Well, it's in a building a lot bigger than this," I muttered. "The one I just bought it really small, but a couple weeks ago I had a bigger one."

"That one was for you and that Brittany, right?" Dani questioned, and I nodded in confirmation.

"Didn't need one so big without anyone to share it with. Plus, now I live in the same building as Rachel," I explained, shrugging. "Honestly, I'm really happy with how things played out after Brittany left."

"Why?" Dani wondered, and we entered the building, heading now for the elevator that would take us up to Dani's apartment. I was starting to get a little nervous again.

"Because if she hadn't left, I might not have gone to Texas. I would not have seen my parents again, or learned that my Abuela had died," I listed, swallowing thickly before adding, "and wouldn't have seen you again."

"Maybe it was all for the best then," Dani concluded casually, though I was pretty sure that I could sense her heart rate pick up. Or maybe that was just mine.

We got in the elevator and it took us to the top level, the fourth floor, and I followed Dani down the hall and to her apartment. After fumbling for a moment for her keys, she unlocked the place and let us both in.

"Home sweet home," she stated, dragging her bag into the apartment. I entered immediately after, looking around the apartment. It was small, but a little bigger than my new one. It looked newer as well, and homier.

"I like it," I stated, looking around the place.

"You can leave your bag by the couch if you want," Dani said, before disappearing into her bedroom for a moment. I nodded slowly, walking over to the couch and dropping my bag next to it. I sat on the thing and looked around carefully. I had no idea what exactly I was doing here. Suddenly, I blinked, and it was as though something brought me back in time for a moment.

"What is it?" I questioned, looking at Dani's laptop screen. The thing was sitting carefully on her lap, and we were sitting inside our hut in our spot.

"An apartment," she answered, rolling her eyes at me. "See?"

"They have programs that make apartments on a computer?" I asked, giving her a weird look.

Dani huffed, "You're missing the point, babe! Look, here's the living room, and the kitchen. Through this door is the bedroom." She was speaking as she clicked through a virtual reality apartment unit on her laptop. The bedroom she was speaking of was small, but there was a big double bed in the middle.

"Okay, what's it for?" I questioned.

"This is one of the basic layouts for apartments in New York," Dani explained, and I felt like I was starting to catch on. "And this program is a decorating program. So we can change things out, like paint and furniture. Like a decoration plan."

I nodded, understanding. "Well, we definitely can't have beige walls," I stated, assuring her that I now knew exactly what the point of this was.

"Obviously not," she agreed, before she grinned at me and pulled up a color palette. We started picking and choosing colors for the walls and different furniture to replace the default options on the program. We giggled and talked excitedly as we did so, meshing both of our wants and favorites into the decoration of our virtual apartment. When we were finished, we both leaned back against the wall of our hut and sighed happily.

"What do you think it'll be like to really live together?" I asked her.

"Well, it'll be a lot different than not living together," she answered, shrugging. "A lot better, of course. I can't believe we still have to wait a year, though."

"I know," I agreed, sighing. "I wish we could just skip senior year and go straight to New York. Which is crazy, because four years ago, I was only ever looking forward to senior year. I was oblivious to a future after high school. Now, all I want is that future."

"We'll have it all some day, you know?" Dani promised, turning her head to the right to face me. I gave her a small smile. "The apartment, the jobs, the money."

"We will, huh?" I asked her teasingly.

"You wanna know the best part?" she asked, grinning from ear to ear. I nodded and raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to tell me. "We are going to have each other. And we won't have to hide from anybody or pretend to be people we aren't."

"Sounds like paradise," I admitted.

"Tell me that again when we have it all," Dani instructed, winking at me.

"I'll be sure to do that," I agreed, chuckling and leaning my head on her shoulder as she looked back at her computer and saved our apartment project.

Blinking, I let out a little sigh. She had been so sure that summer. So sure that a year later, we were going to be in New York, together. Nothing would've been able to stop her from getting there. Nothing, of course, besides her parents. I still hated them for what they did.

I blinked back some tears and took a deep breath. It was going to be really hard to get through this time with Dani without crying like a baby in front of her. Being around her, talking to her… it brought up more and more memories. Things that I could remember with ease, but had always purposely avoided thinking about. I wondered if it was doing the same to her.

"Are you okay?" Dani asked me suddenly, sounding concerned. I hadn't heard her coming out of her bedroom.

"I'm fine, I was just thinking," I answered, taking in another deep breath.

"What about?" she wondered, sitting on the opposite end of the couch and facing me. I turned so that I was opposite her position.

"The summer before you left," I admitted.

She carefully wet her lips. "Anything specific?"

"Yep," I answered, glancing around her apartment again. "When you showed me that design program."

She smiled at the memory. "I remember that. I still have it somewhere on my laptop," she admitted.

I nodded. "It's so weird. You were so sure that we were going to have it all," I started, meeting Dani's brown eyes, "and a few short months later, it was all gone. Just like that."

She nodded in agreement, but her eyes stayed locked with mine. "It was the hardest part. Throwing away everything that we had."

I clenched my jaw and tried to hold back my tears the best way I could. I hadn't cried much since my senior year. When I went to New York, I steeled away all of the emotions that made me want to cry. I didn't want to ever be vulnerable again. I couldn't remember a time since then that I'd cried for longer than a few minutes. And I wasn't going to start up again now.

It made sense, though. I was sitting in front of the one person who I had ever been completely vulnerable with. "Santana, I'm really sorry," she said suddenly, and her throat sounded tight, her voice coming out choked, as though she were holding back her own tears.

"You don't have to—"

"Yes, I do," she countered. "I haven't said it yet, not about what happened. Out of everyone in Texas, you were the person that I should've kept in touch with. I still have your number from back then memorized by heart. I could've called you when I got to Austin, as soon as I had a new phone."

"Dani—"

DANI

I took a shaky breath and shook my head. I had to say all of these things, or else Santana staying here was going to get really awkward really fast. "I knew that I was throwing away my future with you when I left, but I was so sure that you would bounce back and create a new future. I didn't think hard enough about the fact that you loved me just as much as I loved you. Maybe at that time, I was doubting it a little bit, because you didn't want to run away with me. I don't know what was going through my mind back then. I was a mess, I was broken. I wish I hadn't had to break you, too."

"You don't have to lay it all out for me," Santana argued, "I understand why you left."

"You understand," I agreed, "but you can't forgive me unless I apologize."

"I already—"

"No, you haven't," I insisted. "Trust me. You won't ever really forgive me for leaving you, and I won't ever forgive myself either."

"I already forgave you," Santana promised me. "It took me a long while, but somewhere along the way, I dunno… I just realized that your parents could've sent you off to those stupid places were they try to convert gays or something. They could've made your life a living hell. We all have to think of ourselves sometimes, Dani."

"You don't have to defend me," I choked out.

"I'm not defending you," she insisted, "I'm just telling the truth."

I didn't mean to let a tear fall out of my eye, and I quickly wiped it away before it could call for more. I sniffed slightly. "Sorry. I just…"

"Don't apologize for crying, Dani," Santana insisted. "One of the things I've always loved about you is that you're not afraid to feel. So don't stop feeling now."

My heart began to race in my chest, and another loose tear fell from my eyes. I blinked in surprise, not expecting anymore to fall, only causing a few more to fall.

Suddenly, Santana wrapped her arms around me, holding me in a soft embrace. I cried into her shoulder, and even though she was silent, I knew that she was crying, too. She was just too proud to admit it. We held each other for a little while, until we were both free of tears. We pulled apart and Santana gave me a soft smile, and I saw the dried tears on her cheek. We both wiped our tears from our face. It was surprising how beautiful she looked even after she'd been crying.

Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the door. I inhaled sharply, surprised. "Davis?" I called, expecting no other. To no one's surprise, the door busted open to reveal my best friend, who was wearing a massive grin.

Aw aw aw aw Dantana c:

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Again, I am so sorry this is so late :c hopefully, my writer's block will go away sometime soon. (Writer's block is also responsible for me not updating my Quinntana story either)... In fact, last weekend when I finished California Dream, that was like me forcing my way through a bit of writer's block I had on that story too... which is what I had to do to get this up for you guys. :D

Have a great day my lovelies! Please review! c: