A/N: Hey everyone! Back with some more and finally letting Finn's news get out. Anyways, it's not super long, but I felt like it was kind of at it's natural stopping point for this chapter. Definitely have another coming hopefully soon hopefully to tie up some of this storyline and get onto some of the next ones! As always hope you enjoy! Thanks again for reviews/alerts/favorites!
"Stop following me." Santana said with a frown as she shut the fridge and made her way back to the couch where her books were laid out. Within seconds Sebastian hopped up onto the table and was staring her in the face. Meow She scowled.
"I just told you to stop following me."
Meow He moved to settle on top of her book. Meow
"Listen, I have to study. If I don't study I can't graduate. And then I can't get a job and afford to feed you. So stop following me." Meow
"What do you even want?" she asked before realizing she was having this one sided conversation with a cat. She sighed and reached for her phone. "I'm actually losing my mind. Talking to cats." she muttered, hitting Brittany's name on the screen with her finger.
"Hey, what's up?" Brittany asked, I'm kinda busy.
"Sebastian keeps following me." she whined.
"Santana, is this what you called for?"
"Yes! He keeps meowing at me and staring at me. And he's sitting on my books and I have to study!"
"Honey, move him. He's a kitten."
"He just goes right back! I fed him. I gave him water. I gave him toys. What does he want?"
"He wants you to pay attention to him. He's following you because he loves you." Santana looked confused.
"I don't even like him."
"Listen babe, I don't have time for this, it's really busy here. I've noticed he has a crush on you. Be nice. Just pet him, okay?"
"Whatever." Santana muttered.
"I love you, I'll talk to you on my break."
"Love you too." she grumbled, picking up the kitten and dropping him onto the floor. Within a half a second he was back. She moved him again, but it was no use. "UGH!" she said, picking him up once more and placing him on her lap. He nuzzled her hand and began to purr.
"You are so annoying." she said as he laid down on her lap and got comfortable, stretching his paws out before closing his eyes. She bit her lip. "Whatever. This doesn't mean I love you back or anything." she muttered as she turned her attention back to her books.
Two weeks after their first gig, the band was playing a Saturday night at Brittany's bar. The Thursday had worked out well and she'd manage to talk them into holding one of the two Saturday night slots, which was great for the band. As expected, the bar was packed, which was great and the crowd response was pretty positive.
A little more than three quarters of the way into their second set a few drunk guys in the front of the crowd began to heckle the band. They stumbled around, yelling things towards the guys and eventually moved on to Santana as well. One of them started to grab towards her and she moved back, but he caught hold of her arm before she shook him off hard.
"Don't touch me." she said away from the mic.
"What the fuck man?" Finn yelled slamming his drumsticks down and jumping up. He ran across the small stage and pushed the guy back.
"Hey, chill out!"
"You chill out!" Finn yelled, shoving him back.
"Lay off Finn I can take care of myself." Santana spat, before turning quickly and shoving the offender in front of her and shoving him in the shoulder. "Keep your hands to yourself asshole."
From the bar across the room, Brittany's eyes widened and she hopped over the bar quickly to get closer. She pushed towards people to see slow chaos slowly ensuing as eventually the drunkenness had patrons pushing others and she swallowed hard looking around for Rachel.
"Fuck you asshole. Don't touch me again!" Santana yelled as she threw her fist at the guy's face.
"Santana stop it!" Brittany yelled, as Finn pulled her back and Jeff jumped after the guy. Santana squirmed to get out of Finn's arms in a hurry.
"Let me go Hudson!"
"Calm down!" he yelled.
"What's the matter can't control your girl?" The guy's friend yelled and Finn's eyes opened wide as he let go of Santana and moved towards him.
"I'm not his girl!" Santana yelled, jumping off the stage as Finn landed a right hook on the guy's jaw.
"Asshole!" he screamed. "Learn some respect." Another friend landed his own fist on Finn's cheek, sending him stumbling backwards.
"Finn!" Rachel shouted and Brittany pushed her way to her side, pulling her back.
"Stay back Rachel." she said, standing in front of her. "Santana!" she yelled. Santana looked up at her as the guy shoved her backwards and she took a fall towards the stage. Brittany's eyes widened in fear but Santana popped back up in no time, springing back up to scuffle with her assailant.
"You stupid fucking prick!" she yelled, attacking him.
"Santana come here!" Brittany pleaded, moving forward to grab at her.
"No, Brittany stay out of this!" she yelled, pushing Brittany back towards Rachel as the melee ensued.
Finally Rick managed to make his way through the crowd and worked with a few other guys on staff to try and separate things out. They told the band to get back on the stage and keep back as they bustled rowdy drunk patrons out the front door and warned others to keep calm. Within 10 minutes everything was back to normal and the band looked up to see the next group waiting for the stage. They wrapped up with two final songs and cleaned up quickly to vacate.
Once she was able to escape the bar for a few minutes Brittany rushed around the bar and over to Santana.
"Did you have to jump right in the middle of that fight?" Brittany asked, marching past the rest of the band and pulling Santana into the back alley during her break.
"What else was I supposed to do? Those guys were harassing me! They were harassing all of us!" Brittany shook her head.
"You and your temper. One day you're going to end up in big trouble. This is the second fight you've gotten into here! How do you think that looks?"
"Okay, this was not my fault!" Santana said.
"No, it wasn't but you could have backed off and let Finn and Jeff handle it!" she yelled. "You just jump right into fights with people twice your size without even thinking! Do you have any idea how scary it is to watch?" Brittany yelled.
"Britt..." she said, grabbing Brittany's arm, but she shook it off.
"No!" Brittany said. "I hate watching you get into fights. You know I hate watching you get into fights." she swallowed hard and sighed. "And that one was scary."
"I'm sorry."
"No you're not. You'd do it again if it happened right now." Santana blinked, not knowing what to say. "This isn't Lima and it's not high school. Think about what you're doing sometimes." she said, before turning back and grabbing the door. "You are so sleeping on the couch tonight."
"Britt!" she yelled, chasing after her. "Look, I'm sorry I made you worried. I won't do it again!"
"Heard that before. You need to learn a lesson." Brittany shrugged and wiped down the bar and Santana groaned and continued to plead her case as Jeff walked by and chuckled as he pat her on the shoulder sympathetically.
"So, not bad for a soon to be rookie firefighter!" he said with a laugh, sitting at a table Rachel had been occupying close to the bar. Finn's face dropped and he immediately turned to Rachel, who looked dumbfounded.
"Ex-excuse me?" she said and Jeff snapped his head towards Finn with an apologetic expression on his face, signaling that he'd completely forgotten it was a secret. Finn closed his eyes and swallowed hard. "Excuse me?" Rachel asked much louder. Santana stopped arguing with Brittany and spun her head around towards the table.
"Rachel." Finn said calmly.
"Rookie firefighter?" she asked.
"I was going to tell you." he said.
"When?" she screamed, attracting the attention of other customers. "When you got to the academy? When you graduated? When you got hurt pulling people out of a fire?"
"Rachel." he said sadly. "No, I mean...I don't know...but..." he glanced towards Brittany who gave him a sad, but sympathetic look. "I was going to tell you." he said evenly.
"So you just thought you could keep this from me?"
"Hey!" Rick, the bouncer came running back. "Enough excitement here for one night guys. You two want to argue, take it out of here, especially if you'd like to play this place ever again." he said, looking between them. Finn took a deep breath.
"Come on, you can go to the office." Brittany said, pulling Finn along as she turned back to Santana. "You're still sleeping on the couch!" she scowled and Santana rolled her eyes, moving to pack up her things so she could get out of there as quickly as possible.
"Here, talk in here...but please don't break anything." Brittany said before turning to Rachel. "Rach, be easy on him. He has a good reason." she said before closing the door. Rachel's eyes widened.
"You told Brittany." she stated in shock.
"I-"
"No, wait, please justify to me how you told Brittany how you would be spending the next 20 plus years of your life but neglected to mention any of it to me?" she demanded.
"It wasn't like that Rachel. I knew you would freak out." he said. "I just didn't want you upset you."
"So you thought keeping it from me until the last minute and having me be the last person to know would be better!"
"That's not true!" he said. "You're not the last person! Santana doesn't know." he shrugged.
"Wow." she said sarcastically. "That really makes me feel so much better."
"Listen, the day Britt and I went to the park and got lost we were talking and I just kind of told her. I needed to tell someone and it was less pressure." he said.
"Less pressure? Where are you getting pressure from?"
"Where am I getting pressure from?" he yelled. "Are you kidding me? You pressure me more than anyone. You're so stuck on the fact that I need to go to school and have some picture perfect career. Not everyone is like you Rachel. Not everyone is born knowing exactly what they want to do."
"So you want to go put yourself in extreme danger every day? What happens when we have children? You expect to carry on with a career where they might not come home and see their father?"
"I want to do something noble!" he said, stepping forward to look her in the eyes. "I want to do something that I can be proud of. I'm not an army man like my father, but I want to do something that remotely follows in his footsteps."
"And what about me? How am I supposed to handle this?"
"Why does it always come back to being about you? Seriously, do you still never think about anyone but yourself?" he asked, exasperated as he turned and placed a hand to his forehead. "What about how I feel Rachel? It's my career. What about what makes me happy?"
"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked in a small voice, looking at her feet.
"I tried." he replied, turning to look at her as she glanced back up at him.
"What does that mean?"
"Just last week, I tried. But you went on some rant about how you could never be with someone who risked their life." he shrugged. "I chickened out."
"That's hardly an excuse."
"Well it's all I have. I didn't want to disappoint you. When you're proud of me you look at me with so much...love...and admiration. It's the best feeling in the world. But when I disappoint you?" He shook his head. "It's the worst feeling. No one can make me feel as good as you. But no one makes me feel worse sometimes either."
"It's not fair for you to turn this all on me Finn." she said, a tear rolling down her cheek. "Maybe I put pressure on you, but this is a relationship. We're supposed to be equals and you keeping this from me wasn't right. This isn't something stupid. This is what you're going to do with your life. It's your future – our future." she shrugged. "And you've just been planning it without me."
"It's not like that!" he yelled before stopping himself again. "Look we're not going to get anywhere with this right now." he said.
"What do you mean we're not getting anywhere?"
"I mean right now I'm angry and I don't want to have this conversation with you anymore and say something that I don't mean."
"You're angry?" she asked incredulously.
"Yes. I get that you're angry too and I get that you have a reason, trust me. But I have them too. So before I say something I really regret, I'm putting an end to it." he said reaching for the door. "We'll talk more tomorrow."
"Where are you going?" she asked, grabbing his arm.
"To get out of here and hang out with Jeff and the guys. I'll crash at his house tonight." A look of panic washed over her face.
"What? Why can't you come home? Now you're just running away from this completely?" she asked in disbelief and he sighed, shutting the door once more and turning to face her.
"No." he spoke gently. "No, I promise you I'm not running away from anything. I just think we need to take a night and cool of before we have this conversation. We've both had a few drinks and it was a crazy night. Wait till tomorrow and let cooler heads prevail okay?" She swallowed and wiped a tear.
"Fine." she said. "Go do whatever you want Finn. But you have to face this tomorrow." she shook her head. "You made me feel like a fool and I'm not going to sit around and let you do that to me any longer." He looked down guiltily. "You're right, we probably shouldn't have this conversation right now. But I'm not going to let you keep avoiding it either." He nodded.
"Okay."
"I'm scared Finn." she said. "I'm starting to think that we want different things."
"I..." he stopped and just shook his head. "I don't know Rachel. I don't know what I want sometimes. But I know there are some decisions that I need to make on my own. Some things I need to do for me." he shrugged. "We'll have to figure it out." he said, opening the door and turning once more. "Have a good night."
"Yeah, sure." she said after the door closed.
She pulled herself together, making a quick trip to the bathroom to wash her face before heading back to the bar and quickly paying her tab with Brittany's fellow bartender. Brittany, otherwise occupied by a surge of customers at her end tried to call out to her, but Rachel chose to ignore her, grabbing her things and heading out of the bar.
Rachel let herself into the apartment and threw her keys on the table to find Santana drinking tequila out of a bottle. She raised and eyebrow and tossed her purse aside
"What on earth are you doing?" Santana just looked at her and shrugged, before she turned back to continue playing with the iTunes on her compter.
"Getting drunk." Rachel put her coat on the rack and walked over to plop down next to her dejectedly.
"Seems like you had a rough night too Berry. Want some?" she asked, hold the bottle out to her and waving it in front of her face. Rachel looked conflicted for a minute before her anger overtook her and she grabbed at the bottle taking a long, hard swig. "There you go!" Santana smiled. "Feel better?"
"No." Rachel answered sadly, coughing and Santana sighed.
"Me neither hobbit."
"Can you please refrain from the derogatory nicknames for one evening Santana?" she asked, leaning over to skip the song.
"Hey!" Santana swatted at her. "Lay off my music!" she said, before smirking. "Here, have some more." she said, thrusting the bottle towards her and Rachel took another swig.
"Are you trying to get me drunk again?" she asked suspiciously.
"Maybe." she admitted. "You're much more interesting and tolerable drunk. Plus you look like you need it more than me."
"Why are you in a bad mood?" Santana let out a heavy sigh.
"Brittany's pissed I got into a fight." Santana shrugged. "She says I should have backed off, not jumped into the middle of the fight." she rolled her eyes. "She kicked me to the couch for the night."
"And you're just going to take it?" Rachel asked, gulping down on the bottle once more, before Santana grabbed it back.
"What the fuck else am I supposed to do?" Santana asked before Rachel started giggling. "What?"
"Finn's right, you really are pussy whipped." Rachel laughed, rolling to her side as Santana elbowed her.
"Shut up!" she said, handing the bottle back over to Rachel who grabbed at it. "Asshole." she muttered, before changing the song again. "So what did Lurch do?"
After a couple more songs and a couple shots of tequila Rachel had finished explaining in detail what had happened with Finn. Santana listened without commenting, formulating her own opinions as she went on.
"Well he's an idiot." she shrugged. "That's always been obvious."
"True." Rachel agreed, taking another swig. "I fell in love with an idiot."
"You're wrong too." Santana said bluntly. "You have him so afraid of you sometimes I see him looking over his shoulder when he eats a hamburger because he's scared your going to force him into being a vegan." Rachel pouted.
"I do not impress fear upon my boyfriend." she slurred.
"Yes, you totally do." she said easily. "You need to let him do what he wants with his life. His job is his own choice. It's like one of the only things you don't currently control about him and now you're trying to." she took a deep breath. "Look, I can see his point, but he definitely should have told you."
"Well apparently Brittany was helping him keep his little secret." she narrowed her eyes. "So much for relying on your friends to have your back."
"Brittany would always have your back." Santana snapped and Rachel looked up at her, squinting through the alcohol to see she was extremely serious. "Brittany is one of the most loyal people you'l ever meet and she considers that clumsy oaf you call a boyfriend a friend too. If he asked her to keep this quiet, she would never betray his trust." Rachel swallowed.
"Did you know?" she asked and Santana shook her head.
"No. It really has nothing to do with Britt and I, so if he asked her to keep that quiet from me, I would expect nothing but for her to honor that."
"I just feel so lost." Rachel said, grabbing the bottle from Santana, who grabbed it back and took another swig before handing it over.
"Why are you lost?" Rachel shrugged.
"If I can't even trust Finn to tell me the truth, who can I trust?" she sighed. "And this career, it's not what I saw for our life."
"Maybe it would have helped if you guys planned your life together...you know...together." Santana said and Rachel glared at her. "Just keepin' it real." she said, before turning back and finding another song.
Soon the conversation turned to music and lighter topics and an hour and much more tequila later, they were still on the couch laughing loudly about nothing in particular.
"You know Santana, I've always wondered what kissing a girl would be like." Rachel admitted with a smirk. Santana's eyes shot open and she jumped up, leaving Rachel to look up at her confusedly.
"No! No way, no way, no way!" she repeated firmly and Rachel sighed.
"Relax! God, sit back down, I'm not going to put a move on you or anything." Rachel said, with a roll of her eyes. "And you guys say I'm the overdramatic one."
"You better not." Santana said, eying her wearily as she picked up her laptop and sat back down, taking a long pull from the bottle. "Just because you're going through some relationship crisis with Hudson doesn't mean it's time to explore you're bi-curious side. Most especially not with me." she said with finality and Rachel giggled.
"Oh please, don't be ridiculous. I'm totally in love with Finn. I was just saying." she slurred, knocking over a glass that Santana luckily managed to grab.
"Whatever."
"Do you think Finn still loves me?" she asked, looking dejected once more and Santana threw her head back in aggravation.
"Berry, I know this is hard for you, but please don't be an idiot. Finn Hudson and you have some sort of super special loser love connection or something. You guys are like...perfect for each other. It's disgusting because just the thought of one of you alone is vomit inducing." she shuddered.
"Aw, Santana, I think that's one of the nicest things you've ever said." Rachel said, pausing to think. "Even though it was still extremely insulting." she frowned before smiling again. "You and Brittany are perfect for each other too."
"Duh." Santana chuckled. "That's obvious." Rachel just broke into laughter.
"Why did we never hang out in high school?" Rachel asked dreamily and Santana scowled.
"Cause you're a loser." she said bluntly and they both broke into a fit of drunken giggles after a moment of silence.
"But Santana, you're actually all kinds of awesome." she said, cuddling into Santana's arm and laying a head on her shoulder.
"Yeah. I know." she shrugged and sighed. "You're not so bad sometimes too Berry." she added and Rachel smiled. She thought for a moment, sipping at the bottle. "But if you tell anyone I said that, I'll tell them you're a psycho stalker."
"You like me. You want to be my friend." Rachel raised her head to look back at her. Santana scowled once more.
"Don't get ahead of yourself." she said nudging Rachel. "I don't hate you and I feel kind of bad for you tonight because Hudson is an idiot." She thought. "Plus, I need someone to drink with right now."
"You totally do." Rachel said laying her head back down with a yawn. "We're totally going to be best friends." she laughed.
"Did you take any drugs earlier that I'm not aware of?" Santana asked and Rachel chuckled sleepily.
"One day Santana, you watch. One day we'll be friends." she said sleepily before nodding off.
"Don't count on it." Santana said, taking one more sip of the bottle before putting it on the table next to her and letting her own head fall back as sleep overtook her.
An hour later Brittany walked into the house to find Rachel and Santana in the same position on the couch, Santana's head having fallen over so her cheek rested on Rachel's head. She had to contain her laughter as she put her things down and snuck up on them, snapping a quick photo on her phone before throwing a blanket over them and turning out the lights.
The next morning Santana blinked, her eyes feeling heavy against the sunlight coming in through the living room window. She swallowed dryly, wincing at the taste of stale alcohol in her mouth and twisting her head to see what the weight digging into her side was. Her eyes went comically wide and she yelled when she realized it was none other than Rachel Berry, snoring on her shoulder.
"What the fuck?"
"Ahhh!" Rachel screamed, as they both jumped backwards, Santana popping up off the couch.
"What the hell Berry?"
"Please stop shouting." she said wincing as she grabbed her head.
"How are you two lovebirds doing this morning?" Brittany asked with a smile, strolling out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen. Santana narrowed her eyes.
"Thanks for waking me." she answered sarcastically and Brittany shrugged, coming in and handing them both bottles of water.
"I told you that you were taking the couch. How you chose to sleep on it wasn't my problem." she smirked and Santana bit her tongue as she sipped from the bottle.
"My neck is killing me."
"Well the bedroom is open again." Brittany smiled and headed back inside. "Now that the screaming is done, I'm going to get a couple more hours of sleep. You can come...you know, if you're interested in cuddling with anyone besides Rachel now." she giggled over her shoulder. Santana glared at her retreating figure and shook her head.
"Don't ever pull that again!" she said to Rachel, who just rolled her eyes.
"Oh please, you were perfectly content being best buddies last night."
"We are not and will never be best buddies." she said, grabbing her phone that was buzzing on the table to read a text.
Quinn (9:02 AM) - Didn't know you had a thing for manhands :-)
Santana scrunched her brow in confusion, searching through her sent box for something incriminating. She frowned at seeing nothing before her mouth dropped open in realization and she clicked on Facebook. There, on the top of her newsfeed was a picture of her and Rachel cuddled on the couch fast asleep.
"Brittany!" she yelled running towards the bedroom, where Brittany erupted with laughter in the bed.
"Ugh...no more yelling." Rachel groaned before falling onto the couch and wrapping the blanket around herself, trying to fall back asleep.
"Brittany!" Santana yelled jumping onto the bed and pulling the covers off of her giggling girlfriend.
"Hey!" Brittany yelled, grabbing at her ankle so she fell to the bed with a thud. "Give those back." she said, throwing the blanket back over herself and continuing to laugh.
"Do not ever post incriminating pictures of me on Facebook like that!" she said and Brittany just shrugged.
"Punishment." she said simply and Santana narrowed her eyes, bringing her phone up to delete the picture from her wall.
"Deleted."
"Santana!" she swatted. "I'm just going to put it back." she smirked.
"I'm going to find your phone and delete it."
"I already made sure to save that in other places." Santana narrowed her eyes and shook her head.
"When did you get so evil?" she said, tickling at Brittany who chuckled. "And I am so nice to you." Brittany just kissed her quickly.
"Don't get into anymore fights okay?" she asked softly. "It's lonely in here without you." she said, rubbing the bump on Santana's head where it hit the stage. "Sebastian and Ariel aren't nearly as good at cuddling me. Besides I like all three of you."
"I'll try." she said honestly. "Those guys were just so obnoxious. I couldn't help it."
"I know." Brittany nodded. "They were assholes and they're actually banned. Interfering with the band is a big no-no. Rick should have been back there quicker but there was some trouble at the door. It was just a crazy night." she sighed. "Even still, please? Just try and stay out of it for me? It's like the scariest thing ever. If anything bad happened to you I'd go crazy." Santana smiled, and brushed a stray lock of hair out of her face.
"Nothing is going to happen to me."
"If you keep fighting big guys in bars it will." Brittany said. "Seriously." Santana nodded.
"Okay Britt. I'm sorry." she smiled. "But if anyone lays a hand on you all bets are off." she added seriously and Brittany laughed, hugging her tight.
"My little knight in shining armor." Brittany teased.
"That's right." she nodded. "If anyone comes at you, we've got problems." she sighed. "But I promise I'll try and control the temper."
"Just like count to 10. That totally works." Santana yawned, turning over and getting comfortable as Brittany cuddled up behind her.
"Whatever you say." she said, drifting back to sleep as Brittany smiled and nuzzled her head into Santana's neck, letting herself do the same.
A/N 2: I just wanted to add even though I'm hoping it's clear that in no way will this story ever go Pezberry in anyway that's not 100% friendship. :-) Rachel, as evidenced last time, is just a really loopy drunk. But, no third party interference in this fic, plenty to write about without it!