August:

Things grew incredibly chilly between Santana and Brittany after the dog incident. It was obvious that Brittany loved the dog, but Santana guessed that wasn't the point. It hadn't been that awkward in the house since Santana had first moved in and truth be told, Santana kind of hated it. As much as it was hard when she was closer with Brittany, it was easier than when she wasn't talking to her and she kept trying to figure out how she could just make things normal again. She wondered if her dating Wendy didn't have something to do with Brittany being so pissed at her about the dog, but then she thought maybe that was just wishful thinking, maybe she just wanted Brittany to be jealous, even if she wasn't.

Ava's camp had a family beach day one weekend and though Brittany was hardly talking to Santana, because they were trying to keep things normal for Ava, they both agreed to go. Once the kids were ready, Santana got in Brittany's car and they drove in silence, only peppered by Ava's occasional excited comments. When they got to the beach, Ava immediately found her friends and Santana spread out her towel on the beach to put JJ between her legs.

"This has to stop." Brittany said to Santana, sitting down on a towel beside her. "I hate not talking to you."

"You did it for two years." Santana shrugged.

"You think I loved it then? Santana, I never didn't miss you. You think you were the only one hurt by our breakup, but that's just not true. Being able to have you as my friend again made me really happy. Now we're just…I don't even know."

"Look, I'm sorry about the dog. I should have talked to you first."

"I know you go into things with your heart, really, but I'm afraid that Ava takes advantage of you sometimes. She knows better than to ask me for a dog, but with you…It's not ice cream for dinner, it's a fifteen year commitment."

"Kind of like agreeing to raise two kids."

"I was going to say." Brittany laughed. "We're still kind of in the middle of the last big commitment we took on. But let's just put it behind us, the dog is ours now, there's no use continuing to be mad at each other."

"Okay." Santana nodded. "I mean, it has kind of sucked watching TV up in my room, the living room TV is way better. And so was the company."

"How's…Wendy?" Brittany asked and Santana tried to detect if there was some kind of jealousy there.

"Good. I'm keeping it super casual, you know? I don't have time for a committed thing."

"Yeah…" She trailed off.

"So what about you? For real no dates on the horizon? You know I could be in charge of the kids on my own if you wanted to go out. You never really do anything for yourself."

"I'm just not into it right now. I haven't dated in a while, so…"

"Hmm." Santana nodded, looking out at the ocean.

"I haven't dated since you."

"Not at all?"

"Not at all. There's been no one I was into enough to put my heart on the line. I don't even know why I'm telling you this."

"You can tell me things." Santana told her, then looked away uncomfortably. "I mean, you asked about Wendy."

"Well who knows what's going to happen. If things get serious between you two, she's going to be part of the kids' lives. I may as well be in the loop now."

"It's going to be a long time before she's involved with the kids' lives. I have no desire to complicate things for Ava by introducing someone else. I'll keep my things to myself."

"Okay…I mean, I want to say that I appreciate that, but I don't know how that sounds."

"It sounds like you're being a good parent. You're worried about what happens with them, right?"

"Right." Brittany nodded, though Santana kind of felt like there was something more she wasn't saying. Maybe it was just wishful thinking on her part, maybe she was just desperate for Brittany to be jealous of Wendy so she didn't feel like she was the only one who still had feelings for the other. That had to be it. Brittany was so cool calm and collected, she obviously couldn't have still been harboring something…even if she hadn't dated in two years. Needing to take a break, she took a look at JJ and she kissed his belly, making him laugh.

"JJ, what do you say we go in the water for a little while? I bet we can get Ava to come."

Santana went and collected Ava from her friends and then she held one kid on each side as she took them into the water. It felt good on her skin after sitting in the hot sun even for just a little while and she loved how excited both kids got from the splashing of the waves. When she brought them out of the water, she saw that Brittany was taking pictures of them and she smiled at the camera, waving when she put Ava back onto her feet.

"Hi Aunt Brittany!" Ava called out, skipping toward her. "Why didn't you come in the water with us?"

"I figured I'd watch for a little while, come over here and have some lunch though, I don't want you to get too hungry."

"I wish you would swim with us, like a family!"

"We're going to have lunch together like a family." Brittany looked over at Santana, who just gave a small nod. No matter what, that's what they were and it felt so much better to be acting like it than to be avoiding each other and being mad.

"So you're not mad about my Daisy anymore, Aunt Brittany? Because Aunt Santana was super nice to let me get a dog."

"I'm not mad about Daisy anymore, I promise."

Santana was surprised that Brittany had packed her a sandwich. She was never really a fan of eating on the beach and getting sand in her food so she hadn't packed anything, but when Brittany handed her a turkey sandwich, she wasn't going to be rude and not eat it. The four of them ate lunch together and the silence was much more comfortable than the cool silence in the car that morning. If she and Brittany could just stay in a place like they were in right in that moment, then the next sixteen years shouldn't be that hard. There were movies about people raising kids with their friends, right? She made a silent vow not to do anything else without having a conversation with Brittany, figuring they'd function much better if they were on the same page, and then she turned to her and smiled.

"Aunt Santana, why are you smiling at Aunt Brittany?"

"I'm just having a nice day, kiddo." Santana shook her head. "I'm smiling at you and JJ too."

"You look like you're smiling at Aunt Brittany the most."

"I think she's just happy." Brittany jumped in, though Santana hoped she didn't think she was staring at her.

"So you're not gonna kiss?"

"No, Aves." Santana laughed, even as she blushed. "We're not going to kiss."

"I'm just making sure. I still think kissing is gross."

"May you think that for a long time." Brittany leaned over and kissed her head, though she met Santana's eyes and something passed between them.

After lunch, Brittany took Ava for a walk to look for shells and Santana sat with JJ while he took his nap. When they came back, they had a whole bucket full and Santana promised Ava that they would paint some the next day. Ava played with her friends for a little while more and then, after JJ woke up, they started packing up to go home. To make up for the hours she lost during the week, Santana had begun working on Saturday evenings and she really needed to have dinner and get to it. Balance was so much harder than she had expected, but she was really trying and she just didn't want to be passed up for any kind of promotions because her productivity was low or let any clients down.

To make things easier for Santana, after dinner, Brittany brought the kids upstairs so she could work at the kitchen table. She had nine calls to make and by the time she was done with them, the kids were long asleep. Just as she was finishing up, Brittany came downstairs and Santana was shocked to see how red her face was. For all the years they dated, Brittany was so cautious about sunscreen, but it was obvious that she'd completely forgotten to put it on and Santana felt really bad, knowing how badly it hurt.

"Brittany—"

"I know." She rolled her eyes at herself. "I'm an idiot."

"Are you burnt everywhere?"

"Everywhere my bathing suit wasn't. Now that the kids are in bed, I'm going to run to Walgreens and get some aloe."

"Let me go for you." Santana offered.

"You don't have to do that."

"I know it sucks being sunburned, jeeze, remember Hawaii when I was burnt for half the time? I'll be right back."

Santana took Daisy to walk with her and got to the store as quickly as she could and grabbed the closest bottle of aloe vera. She had no idea what the difference was, and she figured fast was better than anything, given how burnt Brittany was. Brittany was sprawled out on the couch with a glass of ice water when she got home and Santana handed over the bottle, feeling the heat that was radiating off of Brittany's skin. She was definitely going to blister from it and Santana pursed her lips.

"God, this feels so good." Brittany moaned a little as she rubbed the aloe on her chest and face. Santana pinched her thighs together, thinking that she really couldn't think about what Brittany sounded like when she moaned in pleasure. She was being too much for her own self but being in the presence of Brittany, she just couldn't help it. "Seriously thank you for going to me. I probably would have taken an hour to get there and back."

"It really wasn't a big deal, I needed to take Daisy out anyway."

"I can't believe you brought her into Walgreens again. Ava said they almost kicked you out when you did it the last time."

"Ava seriously lets me have no secrets." Santana laughed. "They didn't almost kick us out, they just asked us to bring the dog outside. The people at night aren't so uptight, they just want to go home."

"I mean I don't blame them." Brittany squeezed the bottle of aloe again and then looked over her shoulder again, clearly trying to figure out how she was going to get the gel on her sunburne back.

"Do you…um…?" Santana started, then trailed off.

"Is it weird if I need you to?"

"I mean…I've touched you in more—"

"Let's not do that." Brittany shook her head. "That's going to make it weird. Just please rub this on my back."

Holding her breath, Santana squeezed some of the aloe vera into her palm and gently applied it to Brittany's back. She couldn't think about how weird it felt to be touching Brittany again because the whole time, she made hissing sounds and Santana just felt totally awful about it. When she was done, Brittany took the bottle back and spread the aloe everywhere else before sitting on a towel on the couch and taking another sip of her water. She felt really weird, but as she'd learned after the reunion, she wasn't going to make things weird no matter how weird she felt.

"Thank you for that. I was thinking I might have to wake up Ava to do it."

"It's no big deal." Santana swallowed. "That's what friends are for."