A/N: For anyone who read this fiction when I'd first published the first few chapters roughly a gajillion years ago, as to the truly absurdly long gap since the last update, I can only say that life happens. Of course in that time Glee has progressed but since this is AU I don't think that has any bearing on this fic.

"You didn't!" Santana just shrugged with an amused smirk in reply and returned to her Phad Thai. They had fallen into an easy conversation from the moment they left their dorm room to walk to one of the ubiquitous Thai restaurants nearby, trading tales of earlier exploits back and forth, and pausing only when they had to direct their attention to their waiter to order.

"But how did you get away with it?" Brittany's eyes were bright as she took in Santana's stories of high school shenanigans. They'd shared the cliffs notes versions of their life stories with each other over the course of the several months they'd been living together, but Brittany had never heard about most of her roommate's more interesting adventures. Then again, she had never asked.

"I have many skills."

"Did you-" Brittany cocked her head at the woman sitting across from her. "Did you just make a Xena reference? Oh my god, you're like an uber-lesbian."

Santana looked surprised for a moment and then started laughing. "Did you just catch my Xena reference?"

"Maybe." Brittany bit her lip and grinned back at the laughing woman. Chuckling to herself, she turned her attention back to her curry until she recalled a question that she had been meaning to ask since that afternoon.

"So, are you guys, like, dating?"

"Who?" Santana looked puzzled for a second, which was not exactly the response Brittany was expecting.

"Who? Seriously? The girl you hooked up with this afternoon. Blonde. I think you said her name was Quinn?"

"No, we're not dating." Santana shrugged. "She's hot. I'm hot." She smirked. "Sex isn't dating, Britt."

"What about you? Dating anyone? I see you hanging out with that guy with all the hair gel a lot."

Brittany wracked her brain for a few minutes trying to think of who Santana could possibly be referring to. "Blaine? Always wears bow ties?" Santana nodded and she snorted. "Uh, no. He's capital G Gay. "

Santana shrugged, not looking particularly surprised at that revelation.

"And, yeah, I don't have a ton of time to meet new people given my course load."

"What, no engineering hotties to take study breaks with? In my experience, classes are a great way to meet people. Lots of courses should mean lots of options."

Brittany rolled her eyes. "Yes, that's becomes you're taking women's studies courses and cruising for lesbians. That's like...I don't know, shooting fish in a barrel. Which is an activity I've never understood. I mean, they're in a barrel. Why would you shoot them? It would just make a mess."

Santana laughed. "You know, I never really thought about that. Good point."

"I know, right? Anyway, the only people I meet in my classes are other engineers. You know what they say, with engineers the odds are good, but the goods are odd."

"Really?" Santana let her gaze rake over her companion, unabashedly checking her out. "The goods seem just fine from where I'm sitting."

Brittany choked on her bite of food and went bright red. After a few moments of coughing and sputtering, and drinking a few gulps of water, she finally turned back to her roommate.

"Are you always this subtle, Santana?"

This earned her a raised eyebrow and another appraising stare.

"Depends."

"On?"

"How much I want to be sure my message is getting through." She leaned forward, looking up at Britt through her lashes. "Is it getting through?"

Brittany gulped a bit more of her water and looked down at her food.

"You know, I never said thanks for, uh, being more considerate of my schedule when you're… you know."

Santana clearly did know, but that didn't stop her from prodding. "When I what?"

"When you bring girls back to the room."

"Sure. We both live there, after all. But it has definitely put some constraints on my end, I'm not going to lie. Like I said before, you're always welcome to stay." Santana gave her a wink.

Brittany suddenly had an image of the scene from earlier that day, when Santana and Quinn had been making out in the hallway, burned into her brain. She could only imagine what had gone on behind closed doors, but her ability to extrapolate from the hotness she had actually witnessed and the disarray of the room afterwards was more than enough to keep her fork halted halfway to her mouth for several long seconds.

Santana reached over and pushed her hand back down, her hand lingering several moments longer than strictly necessary for the act. Brittany glanced down, wondering at the tingling feeling that spread over her arm from the point where Santana's hand lingered.

"I, uh, I think you're just trying to go back to being able to bring girls over whenever."

Santana shrugged. "Well, that may be part of it. But even if that's true it seems like a win-win to me. After all, you just said you weren't meeting anyone through your classes. I promise you, any girl I bring by is very worth meeting."

Brittany just sat for a few moments, blinking at her roommate. Disbelief that they were actually having this conversation battled with an undeniable arousal at the thought of what it might be like to actually take Santana up on her suggestion.

"I don't think- can I - I think you mentioned something about ice cream?"

Santana took the hint and dropped that particular subject and soon enough they were back to the easy rapport they had started the dinner with. They paid the bill and wandered over to a nearby ice cream shop, embroiled for the entirety of the short walk in a heated debate over which was the superior ice cream flavor (chocolate peanut butter vs. cookies and cream). Unsurprisingly, each stuck to their guns and ordered their own favored flavor. Once they had their ice cream in hand they began a meandering walk back to the dorm.

"Mmmm, this is delicious." Santana took a long lick of her cookies and cream, staring at Brittany all the while. "Are you sure you don't want to try some?"

Brittany shivered and shook her head, trying not to fixate on Santana's tongue. The remainder of the walk was mostly in companionable silence as they finished their ice cream, though every once in a while Brittany would steal a glance over at Santana and more than a few times would catch her looking back. When they finally arrived back at the their room, the first thing Brittany saw once the door was open was her physics textbook on her desk, from where she had left it when she had been cramming for her exam. She turned to Santana and gave her a hug.

Santana hugged her back and then backed up slightly, still holding her loosely. "I'm not complaining, but what was that for?"

"You know, I completely forgot to stress over whether or not I did well on my test all evening. This was a great idea, thank you."

Santana grinned and leaned forward, giving Brittany a quick peck on the lips. "My pleasure! Glad to be of service."

She then grabbed her literature book and flopped onto her bed, a picture of nonchalance, leaving Brittany standing in the middle of the room, wondering at the spark she'd felt from such a small gesture. Slowly, Brittany shook her head to clear it, glancing over at Santana as she turned a page in her reading, apparently already engrossed. As that appeared to be that, she grabbed her math textbook and flopped onto her own bed, immersing herself in the relative simplicity of integral calculus.