"I have a proposition for you," Santiago spoke into the darkening room.

They had showered and changed after Brittany sheepishly asked him if could she borrow a top now that hers was more or less ruined. She was wearing a red McKinley High Football Team jersey and it was swimming on her. He was already getting horny just looking at her with the word LOPEZ printed in bold white over her shoulders. Damned teenage hormones.

Brittany shuffled around to face him, they were spooning on his bed and talking about everything and nothing. They had mostly ignored the Quinn situation but he knew they couldn't ignore it forever.

"If your proposition is about anything like we did earlier, I'm going to need another t-shirt," she smirked with a wicked glint in her eye, teasing him.

He ran his hands up and down her back and she wrapped her leg around his waist, pulling him closer.

He tried to fight of the blush threatening to spread on his cheeks. He was never embarrassed about sexual things but Brittany managed to make him shy all of a sudden.

"It's not….but now I wish it was," he pecked her lips, just because he could.

"What's it about then?" she scrunched her nose and bit her bottom lip.

"It's about Quinn."

Brittany sighed and shook her head; "I don't want to talk about Quinn please, it'll just make me a sad panda."

"I know it's not a nice thing to talk about but I think I have a way to make things work out for you."

He had been thinking about it while Brittany was in the shower. He had a plan and he had no reason to believe that it wouldn't work.

"I think things have worked out pretty fine for me tonight," she hugged him closer, the front of their bodies mashed together and Santiago tried not to focus on the feel of her breasts against his chest.

He couldn't help but grin at her. Why did she make him feel so good all the time?

"It worked out better than fine for me," he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at her.

"You little playa," Brittany brought her hand up for a high five, which he delightedly returned.

"Total playa. Told you I could be gangsta!"

"I do remember that there was some mutual enjoyment going on so that makes me a playa too. And

I'm more gangsta than you'll ever be," she poked his dimple and stuck out her tongue at him.

He just rolled his eyes and brushed her hand away; "You wish, you look more like an angel than a ganster," he said before his eyes widened and she laughed at his revelation.

"An angel? That's not a very…gangster thing to say, is it Mr. Lopez?" she brushed her nose over his Adam's apple and her breath ghosted over the skin of his neck.

"Whatever." He dismissed, knowing that she won this time.

"Hmmm, you're cute," she kissed him lightly where her nose had been, it made him squirm.

"I haven't forgotten about the Quinn thing," he leaned back look at her face.

"Ugh…. fine. Let's talk about Quinn and what a poop of a friend she is," Brittany caved in.

"Ok... I was thinking that maybe I could pretend to Quinn that I told you I didn't want to see you anymore and you took it surprisingly well given that I'm a total stud and you're obviously a smitten kitten and then when we're in school we can just play it cool and when we're not we can…well…you know, be a bit more hands on," he playfully squeezed her butt for emphasis, causing her to squeak in surprise and hit his arm.

"Keep your hands off the goods," she told him, moving his hand to her hip.

He nuzzled her neck and she yelped, batting his back with her fist. He took her wrist and put it above her head, rolling his body on top of hers and doing the same with the other hand, crossing them at the top and bracketing her hips with his knees.

"These hands have a mind of their own when they're around you. It's like they can't control themselves," he playfully wiggled them and started tickling her, causing her to laugh uncontrollably and beg him to stop.

After a few minutes of torturing her, Santiago eventually gave in and lifted himself off her, she just cuddled into his side like it was the most natural thing in the world before catching her breath to speak; "I like that you're willing to that for me San, but I don't want to act like we're strangers in school."

"We won't act like we're strangers Britt, we'll just act like friends…. Which we are anyway." He tried to reassure her.

"I still don't like it. I don't want Quinn to think that you'd give in to her demands, you're so much better than her."

"I don't care what she thinks of me."

"Maybe if you want to try it for a day or something and we'll see what it's like and if we don't like it then we can tell Quinn the truth." She suggested, although she sounded like she wanted to do anything but.

"Yeah, we'll do that." He agreed, already dreading the thoughts of having not being able to show the entire school that Brittany was his….sorta. Which made a thought pop into his mind and he spoke before he gave himself any time to chicken out;

"Britt?"

"Hmmm?" she mumbled into his chest, stroking her fingers along his stomach.

"I was thinking that maybe if you wanted to we could just sorta only do things like we did earlier with each other…. But only if you want to. I know maybe you don't, which is cool, I was just-"

"Yes Santiago, I would love that." She cut him off before he could continue fumbling over his words.

"You would?" he asked her, genuinely surprised and ridiculously happy.

"Of course. You really are a silly goober sometimes." She lightly slapped his stomach.

"Hey, I take offense to that"

"I speak the truth though."

He didn't answer her, just watched as her hand trailed over his lower stomach, willing himself to stop being turned on.

"You have such a toned stomach, it's amazing," she said before pulling his top up to feel his bare abs, the sensation caused him to hold his breath and swallow the moan that threatened to spill from his lips.

"You're one to talk," his voice was strained and it was then that Brittany's hand stopped their movements.

"Sorry," she said bashfully, all too aware of the effect she was having on him.

"It's not your fault I've turned into a 13 year old boy," he laughed awkwardly, quickly changing the topic and they carried on their conversation as normal.

Eventually his mom texted to let him know that she was staying at his Abuela's and he walked Brittany home so she wouldn't miss her curfew again.

They had talked more about their plan for tomorrow and while they both felt miserable at the thought of not being able to be together-together in school, it was worth giving it a shot anyway.

As he was starting to fall asleep he was woken by the sound of his phone chirping on his night stand.

"nite nite San, tnx 4 walking me home. I had a luvly time wit u xx"-Brittany

The text made him smile and even though he wasn't sure if Brittany was his girlfriend, he was

positive that he didn't want anyone else and she had said so too and for now, that was enough for him.

He fell asleep easily with a lightness in his body that he had never really felt before.

Santiago walked into school with his head held high on Tuesday morning, prepared to tell Quinn his tragic story of how he wasn't going to see Brittany anymore.

He had texted her to meet him under the bleachers to reveal the news so he went straight there, ignoring the lingering looks he received from some random Cheerios as he passed them.

Usually he threw them a wink and a smirk but now that he had Brittany, he couldn't care less about which girl he would randomly hook up with this weekend because the only girl he wanted to hook up with was her.

He made his way to the old couch that the Skanks usually occupied but as usual it was too early for them to even consider being in school, instead sat Quinn Fabray looking as stoic and cold as ever.

"I did it, ok? So there's no need to kick Brittany off the squad and you can now stay the fuck out of my business," he announced from behind her, causing her to turn her head sharply and stand up.

"That's it? It was seriously that easy? Excuse me if I'm feeling a little sceptical Santiago but I'd like a little more information," she snarled at him.

"I'm not going to give you a second by second account of what happened Quinn but I can tell you that she now thinks I'm a total dickhead, so I'm sure you'll be happy." He went to walk away but not before she told him to sit down or the deal was off.

He reluctantly took a seat beside her and waited for her to speak up;

"I hope you'll keep your sexual fantasies away from my team from now on, although I do kind of feel bad because I know how much you seemed to like Brittany. You paid her more than five minutes attention, possibly a record for you." She certainly didn't look like she felt bad, she looked ecstatic.

"I'm sure you do, can I go now?"

"I suppose, but I'll be keeping a close eye on you Santiago." She warned him before standing up and brushing invisible lint off of her Cheerios uniform.

"I'll still be tutoring her though. But don't worry your calculating little mind about that, it's strictly a financial arrangement."

"She needs all the help she can get as her grades are just about good enough to stay on the squad, she can barely tell her left from her right. She's like a little puppy, a bit stupid but cute nonetheless," Quinn raised her eyebrow, waiting on Santiago's outburst. He certainly didn't disappoint;

"Talk about her like that again Quinn and I'll tell Puck about the time you begged me to fuck you at Natalia's party all the while feeding him some bullshit line about the chastity club. That little song and dance you do about being an innocent little God fearing girl is just as fake as the smile you wear every day to cover up what a complete and utter bitch you are. Brittany's fifty times the person you'll ever be and the only one idiotic enough to fall for your act is Puck because he's so far up your ass he can't see the real you. Imagine how pissed he'd be that he's been following you around for the best part of a year and you haven't so much as let his fingers roam under your skirt and I barely had to speak to you to cop a feel." Santiago looked her up and down with disgust before walking off without waiting to see her reaction.

Yeah, Quinn was a bitch but even he felt the sting of his words.

Whatever. She deserved it.

He sat down beside Mike at their usual lunch table and tried to stop looking over at Brittany who was sitting with the Cheerios. It was the first time he saw her all day and he had only texted once to tell her what happened between him and Quinn (the important details at least).

"What's up with you?" Mike asked him, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Nothing," he dismissed him, hoping to avoid answering all questions during lunch.

"You've been acting way moodier than usual dude. I hate to bring it up, but is it to do with Brittany?" Mike was hesitant but Santiago admired how brave he was to ask the question.

"I guess so. Things didn't really work out, you know how it is." He wanted to be as vague as possible.

"Aw man, that sucks. There's plenty of more fish in the sea though, right?" he patted his back awkwardly, a little like approaching a tamed lion afraid that he would strike at any given moment.

"Uh huh, that's true. Speaking of which, how's Tina? Still looking for a real man to service her?"

"Fuck you. She's a one man woman." Mike spat back.

"Last time I checked, I was only one man. Unless she's including my dick in the equation, in which case I could be considered a man and a half." Santiago grabbed his crotch and stuck his tongue out at Mike.

"You bastard," Mike threw a fry at him.

"Hey, I can't be blamed for my above average size man. I was just blessed." He laughed while skilfully dodging the airborne fry.

"I'll show you blessed," Mike pulled his fist back ready to punch his arm when Puck walked in between them and wrapped his arms around their shoulders;

"Hello pussies, what's going on here? A bitch fight?"

"Santiago is pissed that Brittany blew him off, and not in the good way," Mike told him, lowering his hand and busying himself with the fries on his plate.

"Yeah dude, Quinn told me. Tough break. On the plus side though, she's back on the market for us more eligible bachelors," Puck punctuated his sentence by whistling and blowing a kiss over at her. She just glanced at Santiago and ducked her head; he could almost see her blush.

He grabbed Puck by the back of his and wrestled him over the table;

"You won't go near her or I'll shave that squirrel tail off next time you're passed out at a party." He threatened.

He realized with a sinking feeling in his stomach that he wasn't going to be able to wrestle every guy who came onto Brittany and instead he'd have to grin and bear it.

Fuck. Maybe this wasn't going to be as easy as he thought.