Shelter
Part One
Chapter Twelve: Good Love and Protection
Ships: Brittana with Sam/Brittany, Santofsky, Puck/Brittany, Quinntana friendships. Very minor Quick.
Summary: The only thing worse than being reaped is volunteering for someone you love. Because then they have something to use against you. Brittany and Santana learn that the hard way.
Other: This is a Hunger Games AU. Every chapter will be named after a line from a Glee song with contextual or sometimes more literal relevance to the chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or The Hunger Games.
Author's Note: So this is long overdue, but it's here! Exam time was horrible and that's why this took so long. As a thank you for waiting so patiently, here is a 7k word chapter. Enjoy :)
Santana's dark brown eyes darted around the empty hallway as she walked cautiously toward her room. She could feel her pulsing heart hammering in her chest and licked her dry lips nervously. She flattened her tongue against the tiny white pastille in her mouth and shut her eyes as she painfully swallowed it dry.
She hoped that no one would come out into the hallway. They would know just by looking at her. She thought she heard something move to her left and tightened her grip on the small leather bag in her right hand. It felt like it was taking a fucking lifetime to get to her room. When she finally did stop outside of her room, she let out a deep breath.
She felt her heart slowing down and the burning heat in her cheeks was starting to disappear. The pill was taking effect. She turned around and let the back of her head hit the wall beside the door as she waited for her body to fully calm down and prepared herself to face Brittany. It was just Brittany. That was what she repeated to herself. No one else but her and Brittany. She heard the door knob shifting and pushed herself off of the wall just as Brittany opened the door.
"Hey," Santana said, her smile not quite reaching her eyes.
"I thought you might've been… Never mind," Brittany shook her head. "What are you doing waiting out here?"
"I was just thinking," Santana replied, half-truthfully.
Brittany pushed the door open farther and Santana stepped into her immaculate room. She slid her coat off her arms and began to take her shoes off. The coat was immediately taken by Brittany who hung it in her closet with care. As Santana moved to sit on what Brittany had named 'her side of the bed', she tilted her head curiously at the blonde girl, who chewed her lip nervously still at the door.
"Britt? Something wrong?"
"No," Brittany said quickly. Her eyes darted to the side of the room and Santana followed her line of sight to the closet. "Sorry, I'm just… I'm fine."
"Whatever you say Britt," Santana murmured.
"What's in the bag?" Brittany wondered out loud.
Santana looked down at her clenched right hand. She had almost forgotten about the bag. She lay it out on the space on the bed in front of her and unfastened the clasp. She reached into the leather bag and pulled out six old fashioned DVD cases.
"These are video recordings of every Tribute's training sessions," Santana started off toying with the clasp on the bag. "They're for you to you know, check out the competition and stuff."
"Is that allowed? That seems like cheating." Brittany's forehead scrunched in thought.
"Well," Santana began, trying to think of a way to spin it. Technically, watching the videos wasn't not allowed, but having the videos was a different story. "You said you'd do anything to get back, right? I'd do anything to get you back. Just don't tell anyone you saw these."
"But, what about Puck? It's not really fair that I get to see these and not him."
Damn Brittany's good conscience.
"I know that it's not exactly fair but the more people who know about this, the more likely I am to get in trouble over this." The blonde seemed to be weighing the two options in her mind and Santana sighed watching her internal struggle. "Look, this is only a little bit cheating. Every one of the Careers has one and they've been watching them for weeks."
"Jesse did mention something about top secret videos…" Brittany trailed off.
"See? It's not cheating. It's just… Levelling the playing field."
Santana mentally cheered as Brittany tentatively opened one of the DVD cases, accepting the somewhat warped reasoning.
"Speaking of the Careers," Brittany traced the outline of the circular disk. "I kind of accepted Jesse's offer to join them."
"You accepted the offer," Santana repeated in disbelief. "To join the Career Pack."
"Are you mad?" Brittany asked tentatively. Yes. No. Maybe.
"No," Santana said. Brittany raised an eyebrow at her and Santana sighed. "I'm not. I'm surprised, but I'm not mad."
Santana's mind jumped to the other District Four Tribute. She had nearly forgotten about that deal that they made. Now that Brittany was supposedly a Career, things would get complicated with Puck. If Puck found out that Brittany ditched him, he would be livid. She would have no way of controlling what he did in the arena. She needed to reassure Puck that the deal was still on, just in different circumstances.
She looked down at her comforter and her eyes soon travelled to the various boxes splayed out in front of her. Even if Brittany now did have a huge advantage, only one person would come out of that arena. When the right situation would arise and Brittany wasn't prepared, one of those backstabbing Careers would try to take her out. It was awful to think of and brought all of those horrifically graphic nightmares to Santana's head, but if she didn't prepare Brittany for that, she really would have no chance of winning.
"I know you think you're set in the arena but the thing about the Careers, is that eventually one of them will end up betraying everyone else," Santana spoke slowly, careful not to frighten Brittany.
"I know," Brittany said. "I've seen the Games too."
"I'm going to go over all of the footage, but especially the Careers. You need to know which one is going to go for it first and you need to be ready for it," Brittany nodded, soaking in the information like a sponge dipped in water. "This could put you at a huge advantage, but if you're ignorant to your surroundings, these kids will be deadly."
"Do we need to do it today?" Brittany interrupted. "I've had a really long day and I'm not really feeling up for it. Can we just wait until tomorrow?"
"Yeah," Santana thought of the next day's schedule in her head. "You have a fitting with Kurt but I can come and get you right after."
"Awesome," Brittany grinned.
Without warning, she threw her body backwards so that she flopped down on her side of the bed. Brittany then lifted her long legs in the air in front of Santana's leering face and pulled the comforter from under her, so that it would cover her long body. Santana just watched her and held back the huge smile that was fighting to break out onto her face.
"Well?" The blonde said expectantly without shifting from her position. "Aren't you going to come lay with me?"
"Sure," Santana drawled out. "But it's pretty early to be turning in for the night…"
Truthfully, Santana didn't want to sleep at all. A part of her was terrified that the nightmares would come back and that she'd do something stupid like talk in her sleep and Brittany would know what she was dreaming about. Another part of her knew that she didn't have much time left with Brittany before it would be time for her to go into the arena. She wanted to spend every second of that time looking into those deep, blue eyes. Not sleeping and envisioning her perfect body being torn to bits by some mutt.
"I'm not that tired. I just meant we can lie here and talk," Brittany scooted over and patted at the place beside her. "I'm going to miss talking to you more than anything, I think, so I better get my time in now."
Santana bit her lip as a huge smile threatened to split onto her face. She nodded cutely, but when she didn't move from her seat on the bed, Brittany's head popped up again.
"Come here," Brittany commanded, patting the place next to her with more force than before. "Right beside me; I can hear you better that way."
Santana lay down beside Brittany and she felt her whole body stiffen. She was as straight as a board, ironically enough, with her hands glued to her sides. Although her body had been laser-treated three years earlier, it felt like the hairs on her arms and legs were standing. Her eyes shifted around the ceiling, trying to find something to look at when she felt the tips of Brittany's fingers trace down her forearm. She inhaled deeply when the back of her nails ran across Santana's palm before Brittany laced their fingers together. The brunette felt calmed immediately and her whole stature seemed to loosen with Brittany's actions. Brittany's head was moving closer toward Santana until suddenly, her blonde head of hair was nestled in the space between Santana's neck and shoulder, with Santana's arm around her. Brittany swept the blanket over Santana's torso and sighed in content.
They had been falling asleep in that exact same position every night since that night when Brittany came to Santana's room crying. Still, she never failed to have the same reaction just from Brittany's proximity. It had been an unspoken promise that they wouldn't do anything sexual until Brittany came out of the arena alive. There was still that nagging doubt in both of their minds that told them that Brittany would go in and never come back out, and that same doubt made a huge part of Santana want to shower Brittany in kisses and affection every time she had her in her sight. But before she could succumb to her true desires, her rational side would kick in.
"I missed you today. I know I still saw you but I've been seeing you so much lately and it feels funny when you're not around. Maybe, I'm just being weird though," Brittany whispered as she looped her arms around Santana's neck.
Santana knew exactly what Brittany was talking about. She had spent most of the past few weeks attached to Brittany's hip, whether they be training or cuddling or even eating. She couldn't even begin to imagine what she would do when Brittany was in the arena. Being in there was hard but at least she knew that Brittany was at home, safe. She would drive herself crazy watching Brittany in the Games.
"Where's your head?" Brittany shifted slightly so that she was searching Santana's eyes. "You're so distracted."
Santana was silent, but returned Brittany's intense stare.
Don't leave me, she wanted to say to her. Don't ever leave this moment.
Brittany seemed to understand exactly what Santana was trying to say. She snuggled deeper into Santana's neck and curled her body against the shorter girl. Santana felt Brittany's warm, steady breathing on her skin pulled Brittany closer to her. She leaned her head forward, screwed her eyes shut tightly and placed a tender kiss to the crown of Brittany's head.
"You know," Brittany murmured against Santana's neck. "I dream about you a lot."
"You don't get enough of me when you're awake?" Santana teased the girl and tried to ignore that her heart felt like it was about to jump out of her chest for reasons both good and bad. She hoped that Brittany's dreams were nothing like her own.
"Nope, I never get enough of you," Brittany bit cheekily. "Seriously though. It's really nice. We're just doing stuff like this, you know, hanging out, but in a whole different world. We're not in the Capitol or even back home in District Four. There's no Panem. We're in a whole different universe and everything is so different, but it's all so the same. Does that make sense?"
"Kind of," Santana replied, lifting their intertwined fingers in front of her face and toying with them.
"Like, everything was so different. There was no home or anything, but everywhere I dream of feels like home. The whole world is always so different but you and I are always the same. It's kind of stupid though."
Santana thought that she could literally feel her heart melting in her chest. Brittany always said the right things and Santana wasn't sure that the other girl even meant it. She just always knew what to say to her.
"That's actually pretty amazing," Santana whispered, dropping their joint hands on Brittany's upper arm. She lazily traced unintelligible shapes and letters on the smooth skin.
They remained like that for a few minutes. Santana was comforted just by Brittany's presence and Brittany seemed to be soaking in all of Santana. Santana could have sworn that she could hear the steady metronome-like pulsing of their heartbeats in unison.
"What about you?" Brittany spoke quietly after a few minutes of silence. "I hear you sleep-talking sometimes."
"It's nothing," Santana said reflexively. "I don't."
"You said my name once." Brittany said, quietly. "The other day."
Santana's fingers that were just tracing tiny letters on Brittany's arm froze with the rest of her body. She couldn't have. Santana hoped that Brittany would drop it. She didn't want to talk about it. Those nightmares were not something that she liked to talk about. They were something that she swept away into the deepest corner of her mind, only to be denied existence. She knew that Brittany was being so damn honest, but it's different. Santana didn't dream about happy things and being together, no matter what the circumstances. In fact, she dreamt of just the opposite. She didn't want to tell Brittany but she felt compelled to.
"It's not... It's not like yours," Santana cleared her throat as her voice cracked nervously. "I just have these bad dreams sometimes."
Brittany shifted against Santana's so that she was leaning back on her elbows and studying Santana's facial expressions.
"Bad dreams?" she said, tiny wrinkles appearing on her forehead.
"It's not that bad," Santana dismissed the topic, shrugging and shaking her head. "I just dream of, like, you in the arena."
"What am I doing?"
Santana felt her throat dry up and tighten. She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't form words. She couldn't even think of what she could say to Brittany. She couldn't possibly tell Brittany what she dreamed of. She couldn't ever recount the horrors of her dreams to Brittany. It was unimaginable.
Brittany turned her head away from Santana and tightened her lips together in a frown. Santana felt her heart begin to race. She knew that Brittany was putting together what went unsaid. She hoped that she understood, but in a strange way she also hoped that she didn't. Brittany shouldn't have to know about the disgusting images that terrorize Santana at night.
"I'm here," Brittany whispered, finally.
"For now," Santana said, fighting to hide her feelings of premature loss.
"Maybe," Brittany agreed. "But I'm still here."
Santana felt Brittany curl into her body. The blonde tightened her arms around Santana and tucked her head into Santana's neck again. Santana let out a deep sigh and once again, softly pressed her lips to Brittany's hairline. Brittany mimicked her action, lightly kissing Santana's neck and Santana smiled at the intimacy.
"Sleep," Brittany breathed out against Santana's neck. "I'm right here, holding onto you."
Santana nodded and swallowed the thick lump in her throat. Her eyelids fluttered shut and tightened her arm around Brittany, holding her closer to her body. She was right there.
Santana woke up with a quick sideways jerk of her head, hitting her chin on the top of Brittany's head. She cringed at both the fleeting pain and the thought of waking the tall blonde from her calm sleep, but she could not have possibly helped her surprise. She didn't have a nightmare. She looked over at the digital clock and saw that it was the early afternoon. She couldn't even remember the last time she had slept in this late.
She pressed her lips to Brittany's forehead apologetically and the girl began to stir. Santana could only watch in amusement as Brittany's facial expression began to change. Her eyes tightened and her forehead scrunched up and the corners of her lips turned downward into a frown. Then, brilliant blue eyes appeared and twinkled in recognition of the girl above her.
"Morning," Brittany said in a scratchy voice. She turned her head to the clock on the desk, chuckled and corrected herself. "Afternoon. Did you sleep well?"
"I slept amazing, Britt," Santana smiled in affection.
"Awesome," Brittany grinned lazily and Santana found a similar smile on her face at Brittany's effortless beauty. "How long until I have to be downstairs for my fitting?"
Santana shifted her gaze away from the beautiful girl below her to the large digital clock mounted on the desk.
"Technically, not for another hour, but you should probably get down there now. You know how anal Kurt gets sometimes,"
"Not really, and I'm not sure I ever want to know," Brittany quipped with mock-horror plastered on her glowing face.
"You're so gross," Santana jokingly pushed at Brittany's arm, which only made Brittany laugh and tighten her grip on her.
"Can't we just stay here and relax?" Brittany whined, burying her face into Santana's neck. "Seriously, is it really necessary for Kurt to take my measurements for every event I have?"
"No, we can't," Santana answered her first question before moving onto the second. "And I think he's doing it on purpose. You've had so many events for the Games and you're so blank in each one. It's part of our strategy, but Kurt doesn't know that. I think he might be setting up all these fittings to try to convince you to like charm the Capitol."
"That," Brittany frowned. "Is gross."
"Either way," Santana pushed at Brittany's back so that they were both seated. It was as if Santana's hand had a mind of its own. It came up in front of her face and tucked a few stray blonde hairs out of Brittany's face. "You better get going."
"Walk me down?"
When Brittany looked at Santana with her big blue eyes, her bottom lip pressed between her teeth and a cute smile on her face, it was impossible for her to say 'no'. Not that she had ever wanted to, anyways.
"Hey!"
Santana heard a hiss from behind her as she walked away from the dressing room and the familiar noise of Brittany and Kurt babbling. That better not be that fucking stupid nosy idiot, Jacob.
"Santana!"
She whipped her head around at the insistent voice. She was completely ready to cut Jacob's unattractive afro with her vicious words. Instead of a red Jewfro, she was met with the charming piece of roadkill that sat atop Noah Puckerman's head. The boy was hanging half-out of a service closet. When he caught her eye, he motioned with his hand, asking her to come closer to him. Santana rolled her eyes at how fucking sketchy he was being but still walked into the closet. Puck slammed the door shut behind her.
"Were you ever going to tell me that Brittany got recruited into the Careers"? Puck crossed his arms over his chest and Santana almost laughed at how ridiculous he looked.
"Why would I do that?" Santana said expectantly, mimicking his pose.
Actually, she had been thinking earlier that she would have to have this exact conversation with Puck. She needed to reaffirm that the deal was not off. She knew that Puck would be thinking that it was. Logically, Brittany was part of the Career Pack and she didn't need his protection any more. But Puck had never been in the arena and he had no idea how ever-changing it was. Santana still needed him to play his role.
"The deal." He whispered loudly, his eyes darting around the clearly empty room, and she rolled her eyes at him. "What's happening with it now?"
"The deal's still on. You go into that arena and go Jack the Ripper on anyone that seems like they could be a problem for either of you," she said, feigning nonchalance.
"Okay, but what if she gets killed? I won't be with her anymore so if she gets hurt, there's nothing I can do about it. Are you still going to… Is the deal still on if she-"
"She won't," Santana snapped in panic. "You just do what you're supposed to do."
"I've watched the Games every year since I was ten. I've seen your Games. You weren't supposed to win and you did. Expect the unexpected, right? Don't write anyone off because nothing's a sure thing in there, right?" He said it with hopeful eyes.
He was right. He could win if he tried. He could win if he had hope. But he couldn't win. So she knew that she needed to stop it.
"No," she snapped again. "If you really want something done, you do what you need to do to make it happen. Fucking make it a sure thing."
They stood in face-off, neither one of them even blinking. Santana stared intensely into deep hazel eyes, trying to force him into submission. He finally looked away with a disbelieving shake of his head and nodded.
"Fine." He said, voice dripping with contempt.
She let a tiny smirk play at the corner of her lips before she jumped at the rapping noise of the closet door. Her eyes darted from Puck to the door and then back to Puck. He shrugged, sharing the look of panic on her face, and gestured at her to answer it.
"I'm not answering it, you answer it," she hissed.
She tried to divert thoughts of Brittany being the on the other side of the door from her mind. She tried to think of a quick lie to tell that wouldn't hurt Brittany, but came up dry.
"Santana, are you in there?"
Santana let out a deep sigh of relief at shrill voice on the other side of the door.
"I'll be right out, Rach," she called out before turning back to Puck. "You come out in two minutes. No one can know about this, got it?"
"Got it," he answered immediately.
She was about to leave but a nagging feeling in her chest stopped her.
"One more thing, Puckerman," she started slowly. "Call Brittany stupid again and I'll rip your tongue out of your throat and shove it up your tight ass."
She opened the door, but only enough for her to slide out into the hall and smile at Rachel. Rachel's eyebrows were furrowed in confusion and although Santana had greeted her, she stared at the door like she could see through it.
"Who's in there?" Rachel said, ignoring the slightly taller brunette's greeting.
Santana rolled her eyes and grabbed at Rachel's elbow. She pulled her down the hallway and into the conveniently already open elevator doors.
"Puckerman," Santana whispered, although someone could hear them. She couldn't rule out the option that maybe someone was. She pressed at the button for their floor. "We were talking."
"About the deal?" Rachel clarified and Santana nodded. Rachel went from calm to angry in about half a second and hit Santana on the arm. "In a closet? A few metres away from Brittany? And Kurt? God, Santana, what if Dave happened to be strolling down the hall?"
"I don't know, okay," Santana said. "I didn't think it was that big of a deal."
"Not a big deal?" Rachel repeated loudly in disbelief.
The sound of the elevator pinging as it reached their floor broke Rachel out of her emotion-based rant. The two girls stepped out of the elevator and Rachel took a dramatically deep breath to collect herself. Santana scoffed at the other girl's dramatics and shook her head, leaving Rachel standing at the elevator as she made her way to her room.
She heard a familiar light patter of feet coming from behind her and prepared herself for what she was sure to be an incredibly irritating lecture.
"Santana, you know I don't agree with what you're doing. It's unfair on so many levels and I-"
"Unfair? Nothing about this shit is fair so don't give me your little Capitol girl bullshit about fair," Santana spat angrily. What the fuck did Rachel know?
"I'm sorry," Rachel responded carefully. "You're right, but I still don't agree with what you're doing and you know that but I just wished that you'd at least be more careful with your dealings because anyone could have really-"
"I get it, Rachel," Santana said, turning to face the girl as she reached her room. She turned to face the door again and with a quick motion of her card key, she opened her door and entered her room. "Did you go through the tapes?"
"Yes," Rachel nodded and followed her into the room. "I compiled a series of notes, about two pages long, for each Tribute. I've paid special detail to mental and physical components, but also paid close attention to their emotional capacities. I've also drawn pictures."
"I have never been so thankful for your creepy stalking abilities," Santana muttered under her breath.
"Note-taking abilities," Rachel corrected, unbothered by the familiar wittiness. Santana laughed as Rachel procured a thick red notebook, seemingly out of thin air. She held it out and Santana took it.
"Wow," Santana chuckled as she, now seated on the bed, flipped through the pages. "These are quite… meticulous."
"I'm glad you can find humour in such a bleak situation," Rachel commented.
"One-A, Jesse St. James," Santana murmured as she quickly scanned through the notes. "So…"
"He's very skilled," Rachel summarized. "As well as quite handsome and he seems to have made a very good impression on the people, but…"
"But?"
"He won't be the one to worry about. He seems to have been plotting the entirety of the Games so that he'll come out victorious but he seemed almost honourable in the tapes. Not to mention that he's a complete control freak. If things don't go his way, he'll panic," Rachel finished. Santana nodded in understanding. What Rachel meant was that she didn't think that he would be the first to betray the others. But honour could only last so long in a tribute. "The girl, on the other hand…"
"The orca whale? She's the one to watch?" Santana snorted in laughter, remembering the first time she had seen the overweight Tribute.
"One-B, Lauren Zizes," Rachel corrected. "She's very strong. She's obviously not the fastest and she doesn't have great stamina, but she's strong. Apparently, she won her school's wrestling tournament. And she competed in the male category. She'll be able to snap a bone with her bare hands."
"I could kill her," Santana commented. "If I saw her at the Cornucopia, I could rip her throat out before she has a chance to touch me. So could anyone else."
"Yes, but Santana, if she survives that bloodbath…" Rachel trailed off and Santana knew that it was because she didn't want to make her worried.
"I get it," Santana nodded. "But Lauren's downfalls are Brittany's strengths. Maybe Brittany can't snap a bone in the blink of an eye, but she can sneak behind her with a long-range weapon when she least expects it."
"And how do you suppose she would do that? She won't be able to use anything if you're only teaching her self-defence," Rachel pointed out.
"She'll know what to do when the time comes. She's a fisherman's daughter just like I am. She knows how to use a knife and a fishing pole is just like a javelin. Don't underestimate her," Santana advised, becoming defensive at Rachel's subtle attack.
"Can we move on?" Rachel sighed. Santana knew that the girl was smart and she knew how to pick her battles. She nodded in agreement. "Two-A, Mike Chang. Peak physical form, incredibly smart."
"Sounds like a typical Career to me," Santana muttered, reading through Rachel's colour-coded notes.
"What's different about Mike Chang is that he lacks the usual arrogance of Careers," Rachel explained, pointing at her pristine handwritten notes. "That puts him above the others. But he's been talking to a lot of the other Tributes and he doesn't seem to have bad intentions. He seems too sensitive to be the first to crack, but he'll see the signs and he'll know when to leave or strike before it happens."
"Okay," Santana nodded, taking in the information. "And the last one?"
"Two-B, Suzy Pepper," Rachel recited off memory. "I think she's literally insane. I actually called a friend that works in a hospital in District Two and asked them to pull her medical records just to be sure. She's not clinically insane, but she seems like it from the tapes. She's not fast or strong, but she's been excelling in survival skills. She has a huge knowledge of plants, both poisonous and edible. I wouldn't put it past her to drug someone. She's truly unpredictable."
"So what you're saying is," Santana trailed off, leaving the statement for Rachel to finish.
"Every one of them is a huge risk to be around," Rachel said grimly.
Usually of the four Careers, it was obvious who would be the top pick or at least who the top two were. There was always clearly a stand-out of the group. Knowing that Rachel, the most insanely particular person that she knew, couldn't pick out a definite number one concerned Santana. She hoped that Brittany just trusted her instincts and would act on them.
She continued to flip through the notebook, with Rachel looking over her shoulder and adding little insignificant details in as she read along. She let her mind soak in everything from the shockingly accurate sketches to mannerisms to physical abilities and mentally recorded a list of what Tributes were worth telling Brittany about. Over half of these twenty-four kids wouldn't last through the first night.
Santana let out a deep sigh and stretched her arms over her head, reaching for the ceiling. She looked over to her clock and saw that she and Rachel had been in her little room for over an hour.
"What do you even do here? Aren't you just supposed to like do my hair and stuff? Where could you possibly need to be?" Santana said flippantly, aware of how long the two of them had been pouring over the notes.
"Believe it or not, I have a very strict schedule that I diligently follow every single day and this little task that you sent me on, as well as this pointless conversation, has me behind by seven hours that I will have to get back by cutting down my allotted bathroom time," Rachel stood up and began to move towards the door. She recognized a dismissal when she received one.
"Keep the notes," Rachel said as she left the room. "I have a photocopies."
"Oh, I bet you do," Santana whispered under her breath, now alone in the room.
Santana was lost in the last page of Rachel's notes when she heard a beeping noise at her door. Her wary eyes shot up in panic and her whole body tensed up as she watched the door knob turn slowly.
"Santana?"
The girl sighed in relief as Brittany's head appeared in the doorway.
"Hey," Santana said. She glanced over at the clock and saw that it was almost seven in the evening. "Shit, sorry Britt. I didn't mean to forget you; I just kind of got lost in all this."
Santana gestured to the now ripped out papers spread around her and Brittany just laughed. She shed her coat and shoes and plopped down behind her. She reasoned that it was because the papers were taking up Brittany's usual spot but that didn't change the way her whole body shivered.
"It's fine, San," Brittany chided as she adjusted herself comfortably against the pillows. Santana felt a smile pulling at her lips when she heard the nickname. "I got to talk to Kurt and I saw Jesse, so it's cool. I even got to talk to Puck. He was being super-nice and he even apologized, you know, for yesterday."
"Good," Santana snapped bitterly but changed her tone once she remembered who she was talking to. She turned her head to look at Brittany behind her and smiled apologetically. "Sorry. I just don't want people to say rude things about you, Britt. Especially lies. You're not stupid."
"Thanks," Brittany mumbled shyly, looking down. She shook her hair out of her face and rested her head down on Santana's right shoulder. Curious blue eyes scanned the colour-coded writing. "What are you doing?"
"Just going through my notes on the Tributes," Santana explained as she began arranging the papers back in order.
"Your notes?" Brittany questioned with a cheeky grin.
"Okay," Santana conceded. "Rachel's notes. But she wrote two pages per Tribute so I'm condensing them."
"Rachel's pretty cool," Brittany observed aloud. "Are you guys close?"
Santana shrugged. She had an… interesting relationship with Rachel. At first she had loathed the girl, but some things just make people closer. For Santana and Rachel it was a drunken night in which Santana sobbed about missing Brittany and Rachel embarassingly hit on that one tall, awkward Avox guy.
"We are," Santana decided. "Sometimes I want to shove her down a toilet and feed her to the sewer monsters but most of the time she's good to talk to. It's hard to make friends here. Especially since it's so… somber."
"What do you mean?" Brittany spoke directly into Santana's ear.
"It's hard to explain," Santana said. The truth was she didn't want to explain it to Brittany. It might worry her.
"Just try," Brittany whispered. That had pretty much made Santana's mind.
"Kids come here every year and then they're gone in two seconds. I've met all those people, you know. That's about seventy people I've seen, talked to, and shared meals with. Then they leave on a plane and never come back."
Brittany didn't say anything; she just lay her head down so that her ear was pressed against Santana's shoulder and wrapped her arms around Santana's torso. Santana knew that she understood. She didn't need to hear it.
"Hey," Santana said softly, shifting in Brittany's hold. "We should go over this stuff."
"Later," Brittany deflected and tightened her hold on Santana. "Or tomorrow."
"That's what you said yesterday," Santana rolled her eyes.
"Okay, well, just tell me the most important thing today and then we can go over the rest of it another time,"
Santana knew that Brittany had won the battle. She shuffled through the papers until she found the first few and began scanning the information once again. She pressed the papers to her chest and turned to meet Brittany's eyes. She held her gaze and mentally prepared herself. She needed to go straight to the point. She couldn't soften the harsh reality of her new allies, but soon-to-be enemies.
"Okay, the Careers," Santana began. "You ready?"
Brittany nodded and straightened herself so that she could read the sheets over Santana's shoulder. Santana lifted the sheets from her chest and straightened them out.
"I like the picture," Brittany whispered and giggled at Rachel's extremely accurate likeness of Jesse. "It makes him look more like a retriever puppy than usual."
"Yeah, I guess," Santana frowned, tilting her head to the side and holding the sheet away from her face. She had thought that Jesse looked more like shockingly like a poodle in desperate need of a haircut. "Anyways, Rachel has, like, a whole essay on each of these chumps so I kind of cut it down to about five lines. Jesse is good. He's strong and fast and smart and pretty damn charming."
"Yup," Brittany added in at the end.
"He's also a major control freak. He's planned out the whole Games to work in his favour and if one thing goes wrong, which will happen around the first minute, he'll freak. He won't know what to do and that leaves him a sitting duck for everyone else. He may seem like the leader of the group, but he won't be by the end of the first night," Santana said, looking over the paper for anything she might've missed. Her eyes landed on the perfectly-aligned chart on the second page. "And his preferred weapon is a spear. He likes long distance weapons because, well, he doesn't want to get his well-moisturized hands dirty."
"Okay, so Jesse's good but kind of crazy," Brittany nodded in understanding. "Who's next?"
"Lauren Zizes," Santana recalled, flipping to the next page of notes. "She's definitely something. She's about the size of a prepubescent orca whale and her weight definitely slows her down."
"But she's a Career for a reason," Brittany noted and Santana smiled proudly at her recognition.
"She's ruthless, not to mention, she's strong as hell," Santana conceded. "According to Rachel's notes, she can bench press like 150 pounds."
"That's more than I weigh," Brittany whistled. Santana heard the concern in her voice.
"Yeah, but she's shit at distance," Santana tried to comfort Brittany. "You could run away before she could lift a finger. Don't even worry about her."
Brittany nodded again, but Santana knew that she was still thinking. She had the look on her face where forehead was wrinkly and her eyebrows were raised. She was worried.
"Next," Santana cleared her throat. "Is Michael Chang. Typical Career, preferred weapon is a good old machete. He's smart and strong and fast, like Jesse, but he's pretty sensitive. Rachel's seen him talking to other Tributes and being all friendly and stuff. She doesn't think it's an act. Other than that, he has everything he needs to win, including the drive."
When Brittany didn't respond, Santana first took it as a sign of understanding and started to turn the page, but when she took in the curious look on the blonde's face, she stopped her movements. Brittany seemed to snap out of her daze and finally met Santana's questioning eyes.
"I was just thinking," Brittany trailed off. "It's kind of stupid."
"No," Santana said, almost too quickly. "Tell me?"
"Uh," Brittany's cheeks turned a slight shade of pink. "I was just thinking that I should try to be friends with him. If he's sensitive or whatever, he won't kill someone he's friends with right?"
"Yeah," Santana nodded, fighting a smile to keep the mood serious. She cleared her throat again. "Suzy Pepper. She's a complete fucking nutcase, but she's also really freaking smart. Nothing special in terms of, you know, physical skills, but she's memorized the plants and stuff. She knows what's poisonous and what's safe. I don't want you to trust her."
"Why?"
"Because," Santana sighed. "She might poison your water or drug your food or something. I don't want to take any chances. Don't take anything they give you if you don't see it."
"So," Brittany began. "You're basically telling me that I can't trust any of them?"
"You couldn't really to begin with." She saw Brittany's lips twitch slightly, in resistance. "What?"
"They sound really dangerous," Brittany said. "I don't know, maybe I was safer with Puck."
Santana raised her eyebrows and her mouth fell open in disbelief. She scooted up the bed and turned around so that she was facing Brittany.
"You can't change your mind now," Santana said raising her voice a little bit.
"I know that," Brittany snapped, shocking Santana by matching her tone. "I was just saying."
She added the last part on in quiet, timid voice that immediately made Santana regret snapping at her.
"Brittany, I'm sorry but you have to realize that there's no turning back," Santana reasoned. She reached across and wrapped her fingers around Brittany's. For a second, she thought that Brittany would pull away and sighed in relief when she didn't.
"I know," Brittany whispered, looking down. "I told Jesse that I would join him and I can't take it back, but I didn't think that this would be so like complicated."
"Britt," Santana breathed out. "You don't deserve this."
"That won't stop it from happening though."
"No," Santana agreed. She tightened her grip on Brittany's hands, forcing blue eyes to lock on her own. "Britt, they'll offer you protection and shelter, but you know there's only one winner. You can't stay with them forever."
"I know," Brittany said, almost inaudibly.
"I trust your judgement and there's going to come a time when you're not going to feel right," Santana began, her heart filled with unease. She really didn't want to say it. "I need you to trust your heart and when it feels wrong, you need to leave. Run and if you can, you need to…"
She couldn't finish it. It was odd how troubling she found it just to say the words. She didn't know how the hell she would watch it.
"I don't think I can," Brittany admitted. "I know that I'll probably have to and I know that I technically can but I don't think I'll be able do it. I don't want to."
"Nobody wants to, Britt," Santana said.
They all did eventually.
So this chapter didn't really have a lot going on, but it really sets up part two of the story (which is coming soon). Sorry again about the long wait. Also, thanks to my awesome beta manatees-have-thick-skin. Tell me what you think in a review :)
Anonymous review replies
Brittana Freak: Yes, I am not at all fond of Will. He's just... No... I literally can't even watch his scenes.
hemomylove: Sorry for taking so long, but here it is :)
lara: Thank you :)