Santana's steps were light and quick, and she felt as though there were no weight to them, no weight to herself, for that matter, at all, despite the heaviness of her knee length high-heeled boots. She walked with her head upturned towards the evening sky, her hair swaying with the night's faint breeze, dark strands loosened from the clip holding back her bangs occasionally brushing her cheeks, and yet despite her sleeveless waitress uniform and the shortness of her skirt, she didn't feel cold at all. Indeed, Santana felt warm from head to toe.

It was a good thing that she lived such a short distance away from the diner and from the neighborhood she had walked to nearby it, because she was incapable then of any sort of logical thinking skills that might be required for her to get herself home from a further and more complicated distance. As Santana nearly floated up the steps of her shared apartment entranceway, then fumbled for her key, she realized that her hands were unsteady, and each key she tried in the lock was the wrong one. Rather than growing impatient, swearing, or kicking things, as she normally would have in a similar situation, she continued to fish absently for the correct key, and the soft smile spreading itself across her face didn't waver.

As it turned out, she didn't have to open the door herself, because Rachel did so for her. Santana could have almost guaranteed that the other girl had been hovering around the doorway, frequently peering out the peephole hoping to catch sight of Santana, and possibly Dani with her as well, coming towards the door, and she clearly couldn't contain herself any longer for the time it might take for Santana to open it on her own. Throwing it open and almost hitting Santana in the shoulder in the process, she reached out a hand and grabbed hold of Santana's upper arm, yanking her inside and nearly slamming the door behind them in her haste to bring Santana near. She was already beaming, her eyes wide and way, way too bright with earnest excitement and anticipation, and she kept hold of Santana's arm with both hands as she gave her a gentle shaking, her voice several decibels too high and enthusiastic for Santana's usual tolerance level.

"Well?! So you and Dani finished cleaning up…?!"

"You mean, "you and Dani finished closing the store while you jetted off sticking us with all the work?"" Santana rephrased, trying to scowl or even raise her eyebrows at her, but she found the scowl getting stuck and reforming back into a helpless grin before she could stop herself, and she ducked her head, feeling a flush come over her face in spite of herself. Somehow, despite Rachel's obvious over enthusiasm over this, she couldn't seem to get too embarrassed over it, though- not when she felt this good.

For her part, Rachel brushed this aside as Santana had known she would, not even taking time to roll her eyes as she squeezed Santana's arms again. "Oh, please, Santana, you needed a push in her direction in a major way, kickstarted nicely with a kick in the backside as well. I did you a favor trapping you into something you would never have had the courage to initiate on your own within anything approaching a timely fashion."

"Backside, Berry, really? When are you gonna start saying ass like the rest of the world?" Santana rolled her eyes, finally able to at least briefly twist her lips into a smirk rather than the goofy smile that she couldn't seem to turn off even for Rachel's benefit, even as Rachel shot back at her.

"Perhaps I feel you behave enough like one at times that you need no further encouragement…Santana Lopez, you are GLOWING!"

"I am not…and you're totally bruising up my arm, Berry, loosen the claws, why don't you?" she shoved at Rachel's hands, still clamped around her arm, half-heartedly, but Rachel seemed in no rush or concern whatsoever to let her go and entirely ignored her. Breaking out into her own wide smile, Rachel gave a little bounce on the toes of her shoes, giggling aloud happily.

"You're DIMPLING, Santana! This is so adorable!"

"Shut up, Rachel," was the only and rather feeble comment that Santana could come up with, and it was not lost on either of them that she had finished it by calling the other girl "Rachel" rather than "Berry." Rachel appeared to take this as considerable encouragement, because she gave another excited little hop and started to propel Santana towards the living room area by her arm, still talking with entirely too much enthusiasm for Santana's comfort level, her face turned close towards Santana's.

"So you guys talked then? What did you talk about, what did you say? Please tell me you didn't inadvertently insult her in any way, because even someone as nice as Dani can only take that so many times if they haven't yet got a full understanding of you-"

"We…it wasn't so much with the talking," Santana started, which was more than enough information for Rachel to erupt in a rather shrill squeal as she pulled back from Santana, eyes even wider, if possible, than before.

"Oh my god, Santana, did you make out with her?! "

"Damn, Rachel, chill out, you look like you're on the verge of a heart attack here- or maybe just a decent orgasm for once," Santana snickered, her dimples showing now for an altogether different reason than previously, and as Rachel shoved at her shoulder, she laughed, not minding the physical contact now at all.

"Don't be disgusting. So if you didn't talk, and you weren't making out, then what were you doing? Santana, I swear if you tell me that after all my plotting and after Dani gave you every single possible green light communicable, that you just stood there and stammered and stared at her or said something incredibly crass or cruel-"

"Damn, Berry, down, girl," Santana shook her head, still smirking, but as she began to describe, sitting down finally on the couch, with Rachel immediately sitting beside her and turning to fully face her, she found herself smiling again, unable to suppress it. "No, we just sort of walked together…and sang."

She turned her head away from Rachel's newly pleased expression, trying to avoid meeting her eyes, even as she heard Rachel's voice climb higher in pitch again.

"You sang together?! What did you sing?'

"Um…"Here Comes the Sun…" Rachel, stop. Don't-" Santana started to warn, but it was too late. She practically cringed as Rachel's already high-pitched voice hit a new octave.

"You sang "Here comes the sun" while walking home together at sunset?! Oh my god, Santana, that is SO ADORABLE!"

She clapped her hands excitedly, then grabbed hold of Santana's upper arms again, giving her yet another affectionate shaking even as Santana attempted to ward her off.

"Bruising me, Berry, give it a rest!"

"Dimpling, Santana, no way, this is way too cute!" Rachel squeezed her arms again, then slid her hands down Santana's wrists to take her hands instead. "You walked her home while singing as the sun set…I knew you were a closet romantic!"

"It was her idea," Santana tried, but she was still smiling, not even trying to pull her hands away, and she knew Rachel knew it.

"And you loved every second of it," Rachel pointed out accurately, knowing very well that she couldn't deny it. "And then what? When you got to the door, what did you do? Did you tell her you had a good time, did you tell her she was pretty or she sounded good or that you would see her again, what did you say?"

And that was when Santana had to think back and realized…" Um…I sorta didn't say anything?"

Rachel stared at her, releasing her hands abruptly, something akin to horror crossing the previous glee in her expression. "You didn't say ANYTHING?"

"Uh…"

"Santana! After all that set up…" she shook her head, appearing disappointed beyond words as she sighed aloud. "You clearly need assistance. What we need to do-"

"Oh no, no way," Santana held up both hands as though to ward her off, already shaking her head. "No way am I getting romantic advice from RACHEL BERRY of all people. I can handle myself perfectly fine without your "expertise" considering you've slept with, what, two people in your life time and both of them were giants who basically sucked and not in the good way?"

"Finn doesn't suck," was Rachel's automatic reply, "he just required a little, um, helpful instruction in the bedroom area, but…but we're not talking about me, we're talking about the fact that you stood there and said nothing after being part of the most romantic experience I have heard now in a few months, since New York City, if you have not noticed, is not exactly reknown for provoking romance in its young inhabitants-"

"She kissed me," Santana blurted, as much to stop her from talking any further as to share, and Rachel stopped in her tracks, blinking, before turning to fully face her again.

"She…she did?"

"Yep," and there she was, blushing all over again, fighting not to smile. "So shut up, Berry."

"She…and it was-" Santana could see her struggling not to press for details even as it clearly killed her not to ask, and she took pity, leaning back against the couch cushions.

"Fast. No tongue. But still, it was…" she was grinning again and lowered her head quickly, trying to gruff up her voice to disguise this. "Probably doesn't count without tongue."

"It made you dimple up, and it's making your eyes glow," Rachel observed, "it definitely counts."

And then she startled her with a tight hug, speaking into her ear. "This is so exciting, Santana! I'm so happy for you! I'm such an amazing couple-maker!"

"Waittt a second here, Berry," was Santana's first though as Rachel drew away, beaming at her, eyebrows raising. "Is this really about you being so thrilled for me…or is this about you being all self-satisfied at being a friggin matchmaker?"

"Does it matter?" was Rachel's reply. "It can be both, right?"

And Santana supposed it could be. Whatever the case, it got the same result.