Santana is not whipped. She's not. It's just that she has a really hard time not giving Brittany what she wants. But it's not because she's whipped. It is because she loves her.
And maybe she's whipped.
Maybe.
They've started this thing this summer where they go to the movies once a week no matter what. They're not delusional. They know it won't be possible to go no matter what once school starts back up but even then they've vowed to try.
Sometimes the movie is bad. Really bad. But the movie isn't the point. The point is to spend time together doing something outside of the house. The idea started after they discovered that unless pressed to do so, they spent two straight weeks inside with just each other and occasionally Quinn. They don't want to become one of those couples that burns out on spending time together. So date nights.
The movie theater just so happens to be at the mall. Which, on this particular night, also happens to be housing an ASPCA booth with lots of animals. They're doing an adoption drive. Which they almost managed to miss, but they walked past just as the woman in charge was cleaning up.
Brittany can absolutely not resist stopping to see animals. It's not a particular secret that she wants one. They've talked about it, and they both agreed that it was a discussion that they should revisit when they are both out of school. It makes sense and so while Brittany definitely still wants a pet, she is ok with not having one for right now. But that doesn't mean she can't stop to look, especially at the cats. Santana doesn't mind either. She likes animals. Cats don't bother her although she really wants a dog.
So they stop at this ASPCA booth and there's really not that many animals. A lab wondering around that isn't for adoption they are told after he greets them. He's the shelter boss apparently. A few of the crates have cats and dogs but most of them have homes. They just, for one reason or another, couldn't go home that night and were being picked up the next day.
Then they saw the crate with the little cream colored fluff ball pressed way in the back. "It's so tiny! I bet this one was one of the first to go." Brittany giggled as she pressed her fingers into his soft fur. He jumped a little but eventually settled into her gentle touch.
"Actually he wasn't adopted. We had a bunch of kittens here and he is the only one left." Santana watched Brittany's face fall a little. But her optimism wouldn't let her believe this little kitten would spend much time lonely.
"He's so cute though. I bet he'll get adopted really soon."
"I hope so. He's actually been in the shelter already for a few weeks, he's just pretty small for his age. Kittens usually don't ever stay a week."
"Then why doesn't anyone want him?" Santana could see Brittany's eyes getting shiny. She was showing all the signs that she was starting to get anxious. The woman reached into the crate and pulled the little kitten out and put him on the table. He wobbled a little before sitting down.
"He's only got three legs. He lost one of them due to an injury from a dog attack, that best we can tell, killed his mother and the rest of his litter. He also suffered an eye injury and now he can only see out of the one. His eyelid is permanently closed on the other. So he's not your typical cute little kitten. He's not as playful as the others because his balance is still kind of tricky and it takes him a little while to figure out his surroundings." Until the woman said something she hadn't noticed his eyelid but now that she looks it's pretty obvious. She had noticed his missing leg as soon as she put him on the table though.
She felt bad for the little guy. His life hadn't been so easy and it kind of sucked that he had to sleep in a crate. She looked over at Brittany expecting her to pick the kitten up but she was met with a very anxious and upset looking Brittany. "So people don't want him because he takes a little more work? He lost his whole family and now he doesn't even have a home." She looks over to Santana, lip quivering, before she excuses herself and runs to the bathroom.
Santana apologizes to the woman quickly before turning around and following Brittany. As soon as she gets into the bathroom she finds Brittany crying. She instantly takes her into her arms and tries to sooth her. Nothing works immediately and Santana just lets her cry into her shoulder. "I just don't understand." Brittany hiccups into Santana's neck. "It breaks my heart that nobody is there to love him. He's probably not as playful because he watched his mom die." And Santana's not exactly sure it works like that with cats, but it hurts her all the same because Brittany obviously believes it does. A few seconds later after her breathing has evened out a little, Brittany asks if they can just go. So they do.
Later that night they're laying in bed naked and Brittany is a little more fidgety than normal. Usually she's pretty calm and sleepy after sex, but not tonight. "What's wrong Britt?"
Brittany tells her nothing at first, trying to play it off but eventually admits "I can't stop thinking about how sad that little kitten must be. And I didn't even hug him, so he must not feel very worthy right now." She watches Brittany's face fall again and she wraps her up and holds her close. And then she gets a thought, which of course turns into a plan.
The next afternoon after doing a bit of research and having a sneaky conversation with Quinn, she tells Brittany that she has to go to the music building to check on some stuff for her professor. She tells her that she will be back in a little bit and Brittany looks like she's about to ask if she wants her to come with but then Quinn (who sometimes has amazing timing) comes out of her bedroom and asks if they want to go to the pool with her. Brittany looks torn between wanting to go to the pool and wanting to be a good girlfriend and ask if Santana wants help. Santana smiles and tells her to just go to the pool and that she'll be back soon. Brittany smiles and kisses her goodbye.
First thing she does after she leaves is stop in one of the parking lots on campus and pulls up her list of all ASPCA's in the area. Thankfully there are not a ton, and the one that had a booth at the mall they were at last night was the second one she called. The kitten was still there. She drives to the address she found online and the woman from the booth last night is the first employee she encounters. The woman does not look surprised at all to see her there. Santana tells her she would like to take the kitten home. They sit down and go through all of the necessary paperwork, and it takes a surprisingly short amount of time.
Before she knows it the woman is handing her a folder with adoption papers and microchip numbers and standing up to go into the back. Santana has no idea why she's nervous but she is a little. This is the first thing that's really theirs. She even wrote both her and Brittany's names on the adoption forms. Not to mention that this is kind of a big thing to surprise Brittany with (although she's not really worried about Brittany being mad). But when the woman brings out the little fluffy kitten, Santana is even more positive about her decision. He needs a home, and they have a very loving one to provide.
She goes straight home. She knows there are things she needs to buy. The little kitten curled up in her lap doesn't have food or bowls or a litter box. Essentials. But she can't think about picking those things out for their kitten without Brittany, so she goes home to surprise her first.
As soon as she gets home it became clear to her that she hadn't exactly thought this through all the way. She could see Quinn and Brittany were still out by the pool but she didn't really want to bring the kitten there. So she decided to take him upstairs and put him in her room and then just get Brittany to come upstairs. She was nervous about leaving him on the bed, worried that he would jump off and hurt himself. But the woman at the shelter had said he was perfectly capable of jumping on and off of furniture. It might not be graceful, but he was fine to go ahead and do it.
So Santana left him in the center of her bed and ran to the pool as fast as she could. She could tell Brittany was alarmed when she came crashing through the gate into the pool area. "What's wrong?" She nearly jumped up.
"Nothing." She took a breath. "Nothing. I just wanted to run. Also can you come help me with something really quick?" She saw over her shoulder that Quinn rolled her eyes and mouthed 'smooth'. Whatever. She was excited. She reaches out her hand for Brittany to take and pulls her back into the apartment. Once they get into the hallway of her bedroom she steps back. "Ok. Open the door." Brittany looks at her like she might have gone a little crazy, but she pushes open the door in good faith anyway. Santana holds her breath and waits for the reaction.
Which takes long enough that Santana has to take a breath or she might pass out. "San?" Brittany turns to her. Santana is busy though, looking at the center of the bed where she left the kitten. She's lost it already, and she starts panicking until she sees him. A little cream colored slightly surly looking kitten curled up between their pillows, almost camouflaged.
"Look right there Britt." Santana points to where the kitten is laying. Brittany's eyes move to the spot.
"What am I looking…" Brittany pauses as she sees the kitten and her mouth falls open. She looks back at Santana. "What?" Then she turns her head towards the kitten again. When she turns back to Santana one more time her eyes are starting to get watery.
"You were so sad last night you couldn't hug him and now he's right there."
"He?" Brittany squeaks out. Santana nods and presses into the center of Brittany's back, gently urging her forward. The little push is all Brittany needs before she hurries over to the bed and scoops up the kitten. She cradles him to her chest for a few seconds, kissing his little head. Santana can see her shoulders shaking just a little bit. Before she can ask Brittany why she's crying, she puts the kitten back down on the bed and turns around, and throws herself into Santana's arms.
Santana tightens her arms around her and lets Brittany cry for a few seconds. "Baby" she coos, "don't cry." Brittany tightens her hold on Santana.
"I can't help it. He didn't have anybody and you saved him. And I didn't have anybody and you saved me." She tries to sniff back the sob that is threatening to break her words. "I think I'm the luckiest person ever." Santana kisses her cheek but before she can respond they both hear a tiny meow coming from the bed. Brittany whips around and they see the little kitten standing shakily on his three legs looking at them. "That was the cutest thing I've ever heard." Brittany separates from Santana momentarily in order to pick up the kitten and cuddle him in between them. "What's his name?"
"He doesn't have one yet. The lady at the adoption place just called him Little Cat."
"That's not special enough." Brittany pouted.
"I thought we could name him together." Brittany's answering smile made her happy. "What about Tripod?"
"What?"
"You know like a camera stand. They only have three legs." Brittany laughed but shook her head no. She held the kitten out in front of her and studied his face.
"He's very noble looking." Santana wasn't exactly sure how she came to that conclusion but Brittany wasn't ever really wrong so she was sure she had just missed it or something. "He's kind of chubby." Now that Santana could definitely see. "I think his name is Lord Tubbington."
"Wait. How did you come up with that?"
"You can just tell. He looks like a Lord Tubbington." Brittany spun him around and held him up in front of Santana's face. His nose was smushed in like he had run into a brick wall and he had a look of constant grumpiness to him. But if Brittany said that's what a Lord Tubbington looked like, she wasn't going to argue.
"Can I call him LT for short?"
"I like LT."
"Lord Tubbington Lopez-Pierce." Santana announced.
"Maybe just Lopez." Brittany responded suddenly bashful.
"Why just Lopez?"
"Well, the Pierce part of my name will go away someday, so it makes sense right?" Brittany said mostly to Lord Tubbington even though Santana knew that had been directed at her. Brittany Lopez. Santana wanted it so badly.
"Genius." She whispered before hugging Brittany and inadvertently LT to her chest. After a second, reality came back to her. "We've got to go to the pet store and get stuff for him. I figured you'd want to help pick it. We can bring Tubbs with us."
"San I don't know if he likes being called Tubbs." Santana thought it was probably really hard to tell what he liked and didn't like because he mostly just looked annoyed. But she frowned anyway and patted his head in apology before grabbing her keys and ushering her girlfriend and their kitten out of the front door.
When they get back from the pet store they have, what Santana believes, to be way more stuff than any one kitten needs. But she couldn't stop Brittany (and maybe added a few things herself) so here she was trying to set up his water dispenser. By the time they got back Quinn was home so now she and Brittany were trying to get LT to play with them, which was half working. It was some playing, with a lot of stumbling. His pouncing skills needed some work.
Brittany sent pictures to everyone. Several pictures, actually. Santana's mother responded "My first grandson!" which made Santana happy and embarrassed at the same time. While he was cautious at first, he got steadily more brave about climbing on things and exploring on his own. Brittany swore he was perfect. Santana would not admit out loud that she agreed.
By the end of the day they learned they had to be careful because he had the terrible habit of wanting to stand exactly where you were about to step. Realized he kind of preferred to be carried anyway, and ate like every hour. Santana was sitting on the couch watching the end of a movie when Brittany kissed the kitten on the head and put him back down before walking over and standing in front of Santana. "I'm going to shower. And then you should shower and then we should go to bed."
Santana looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. That was an oddly specific plan. "Are you tired?" She asked.
"Not really. I just want to go to bed." That gave Santana a small idea of what was going on but decided to let things play out.
"Ok. You go shower. I'll hang out with LT for a bit." Brittany nodded and got up and went to the bathroom. Not long after, she emerged wearing a robe and telling Santana the bathroom was free. Santana took Tubbs to their bedroom and handed him off to Brittany before taking her own shower. It occurred to her that she hadn't taken many solo showers at all since Brittany had moved in.
When she was done she wrapped the towel around herself and went back into her room where Brittany was sitting at her computer still in the robe with LT purring away on her lap. Santana pulls boxers and a sports bra on before she asks Brittany what she's doing. "Surprise." Brittany mumbles back before looking over at her. Then she gets up, kisses LT on the head and tells him to have fun exploring, and closes the door. Without words she walks back over to the computer and pulls the chair into the center of the room.
"Sit please." She says. Santana, more than intrigued, does as she's told. "I wanted to do something for you, because you're so amazing. But it's kind of new for me too." Brittany stood there for a second longer before she bounced over to the computer and hit play. There was a few seconds where Santana was trying to figure out what song it was before the song was the least irrelevant thing in the world.
Right in front of her, Brittany had dropped her robe and was wearing a see through tank top and lacey panties. Santana's mouth dropped open as she moved to the edge of her seat. "Britt" She whispered. Brittany took a few steps closer and was within her reach. She reached out her arms to pull Brittany to her.
"No touching until I say so." Santana swallowed and nodded and sat back in the chair. Brittany's hips started swaying to the music and within a few seconds all nervousness that she may have had in the beginning was gone as she continued dancing. She turned around and dropped down right in front of Santana, slowly coming back up before sitting down on her lap and grinding into her now hard cock.
"B-baby" Santana whined out as Brittany did it again.
Brittany stood up and turned around facing her again, leaning in until their lips almost touched, it was torture. But just when Santana was sure Brittany was going to kiss her she whispered "Put your arms up." Santana did as she was told, and found herself quickly without her shirt sitting on a chair in extremely tented boxers, digging her nails into the chair to try and control her desire to just touch Brittany.
Brittany, for her part, knew Santana was suffering but was sure it was in the best way possible. She was also practically dripping she was so wet. So it wasn't like Santana was suffering alone. Brittany turned and faced away from Santana and seductively unhooked her bra and let it slide down her arms before turning back around. Santana whimpered at the sight. Brittany smiled at her before reaching forward and hooking her fingers into Santana's boxers and pulled them off before straddling her again. "Baby I need you so bad." Santana spoke through gritted teeth.
She was so turned on it was actually painful. She needed to be inside of Brittany. Or for Brittany to touch her. Anything. She couldn't stop her hips from rutting upwards as she spoke. Brittany could hear the need in her voice so she stood back up, and slipped her panties down before re-straddling Santana. "Is this what you want?" Brittany husked. Santana didn't even have time to answer before Brittany gripped her in her hand and dragged the head of Santana's cock through her dripping folds, nudging her clit. She bit her lip to stop the moan, and positioned Santana at her entrance before sinking down.
Santana thrusted up just a little as her eyes rolled back and she exploded into Brittany. It happened so fast, she had no way of stopping it. Brittany felt it too and she sunk down as far as she could, moaning as hot come filled her. As soon as Santana was done, her eyes widened and she looked up into Brittany's. "I-I" She started but Brittany silenced her with a kiss. She took Santana's hands in hers and pulled them up to her waist. She pulled back from the kiss, only slightly. "You can touch now." She whispered before kissing Santana again deeply.
A kiss like that can totally make you forget that you just came after being inside of your girlfriend for exactly two seconds. And when Santana strokes her thumb over Brittany's nipples, and she makes those desperate little noises into Santana's mouth, she starts to get hard again. She trails her fingers down Brittany's body to where theirs are currently joined and strokes Brittany's clit. Brittany starts moving backward and forward, grinding herself on Santana's semi-hard dick and into her fingers as she continues to stroke Brittany's clit. Their lips separate and Santana quickly kisses her way to Brittany's nipples and takes one into her mouth, sucking gently.
In no time at all Brittany's breathing picked up and Santana felt her muscles clamp down around her. Brittany's orgasm coupled with…well just Brittany and now Santana was completely hard again. After a few seconds of letting Brittany recover she stood up, causing Brittany to wrap her legs around her waist, and walked over to the bed. With her lips sealed to Brittany's she started thrusting rapidly in and out, angling so that she knew she was hitting Brittany's g-spot. She was muttering unintelligible things and trying to pull Santana closer when Santana felt Brittany tighten around her again, causing Santana to come even harder for the second time, before collapsing on top of Brittany.
Time passed that was measured in nothing but heavy breaths and sloppy kisses before Brittany finally rasped out "sleep." And Santana nodded against her. The shuffled up to the bed, not even bothering with blankets, just keeping each other warm. Santana was almost asleep when she heard Brittany giggle. "What?" She mumbled.
"Your face when you came the first time was so cute."
"I don't want to talk about that baby." Santana buried her face in Brittany's back and tightened her arm around her waist. She heard Brittany giggle a few more times before she felt her breathing even out. She smiled at the cute little noises Brittany was making and decided that as long as it never ever happened again, she could hardly blame herself for what happened. In fact, it was Brittany's fault. And with a resolute nod, she allowed herself to drift off to sleep.
The next morning they are still kind of in some sort of post orgasmic bliss. They can't keep their hands off of each other even as they get dressed because Brittany wants to go check on LT. They walk out into the living room, still holding hands and see Quinn sitting on the couch with the kitten in her lap. Quinn looks back when she hears them walk in. "Seriously guys? Could you at least try to be just a little quiet? I had to hold his ears shut." She mimes covering LT's ears. Both of the girls start to blush, Brittany more obviously. "At least they have the good sense to be embarrassed." Quinn stage whispers to LT. They get over it and eventually find themselves all sitting on the couch watching some trashy television show while Lord Tubbington makes his rounds, leaving none of their laps empty for long.
Later that afternoon Brittany approaches Santana in the kitchen. "Hey baby. Want to go for a run?" Santana almost immediately agrees but then remembers that she really needs to talk to Quinn about something alone. She doesn't particularly like Brittany running alone though.
"You go. But stay close ok?"
"Always." Brittany kisses her on the cheek and goes to get changed.
After Brittany leaves Santana knocks on Quinn's bedroom door before pushing it open finding Quinn, not surprisingly, laying in bed and reading. "Hey Q. Can I talk to you?" Quinn looks up and thinks briefly about saying no or making some kind of joke but Santana looks serious. She pats the space next to her on the bed. Santana comes over but looks like she's having a hard time figuring out the words.
"Just tell me San. I can tell you're thinking hard about whatever it is."
Santana is scared to say these words out loud. It's something she's been thinking about since Brittany moved in. It's not something, other than talking about how it will happen some day, that she's said to anyone. She takes a deep breath. "I think I'm going to propose to Brittany." She looks over at Quinn, expecting her lack of response to mean she's stunned into silence. But really she just looks bored.
After a second Quinn's eyebrow raises. "…Oh. That's what you wanted to tell me?" She watches as Santana's eyes widen. "I've known since pretty much that first day you met that you guys were probably going to get married San. Everyone has. I'm pretty sure even you did." Santana smiles because maybe a little bit.
"But I'm thinking about asking her soon. Like in less than two months soon."
"Ok?"
"But don't you think it's too soon?" Santana had expected Quinn to talk her out of it. Not that she wanted to be talked out of it. But that's just the thing Quinn would have done. Told her they were still young. Still in college. Brittany was still a teenager. But Quinn was just looking at her like this news was in last weeks paper and Santana is the only person who hasn't read the article yet.
"Maybe with almost anyone else. I'm actually surprised you haven't done it yet. You've been looking at her like 'That's my wife, isn't she perfect!' for months now." Santana laughs, because Brittany is perfect and she knows what look Quinn is talking about. "Do you have the ring?"
"Not yet. But I'm pretty sure I've found the perfect one, and I'm going to get it customized a little bit. But I need to put the order in like next week if it's going to be ready in time. I was kind of wondering if maybe you would come with me to look at it?"
"Of course I will."
The timing works out perfectly a few days later because Quinn is taking the train to go see Rachel. Santana offers to give her a ride right when Brittany is about to get in the shower. "Be right back." She kisses Brittany's cheek before exchanging I love you's and they head out of the door.
When they get to the jewelers Santana gets more nervous. She thinks the ring is perfect, that it's the only possible ring she could picture on Brittany's finger. And she has done a lot of research on engagement rings. But what if Quinn hates it? What if she thinks Brittany will hate it? By the time they walk in her hands are shaking.
Quinn had barely ever noticed this jeweler before. But when they walk in she knows she'll be back. They have beautiful pieces in here. She notices as Santana nods to the woman behind the counter before walking right up to where the ring is. She points to it in the case. "That's the one, I think. Except I want more of those tiny diamonds like on that one so it will really sparkle." She almost whispers, her eyes reverent. Quinn notices how the woman behind the counter smiles fondly at Santana.
"How often do you come here?"
"Almost every time I'm out by myself. I just wanted to be sure. What do you think?" Quinn takes a minute to look at it. This isn't the kind of best friend advice you can rush. She looks at it for a bit and starts to feel her eyes prickle with tears when she imagines Santana giving it to Brittany. It's definitely the one.
"Yeah. It's perfect." She tells Santana honestly. Santana looks at the woman behind the counter.
"Ok. I'm ready to buy." The woman smiles and doesn't even have to tell Santana a price. They've apparently already discussed it as Santana writes out a check, hands it to the woman and thanks her for everything. Sometimes it really is that easy to make decisions that will change your whole life. Although she suspects the decision has been made for some time.
The rest of the summer was spent how summer began. By the pool, going for runs, going to the park, sex, and sleep. It was perfect and neither of them would have changed anything. They went back to visit Santana's parents the weekend before school started. She spent most of it preoccupied with whether or not she should tell her mom and dad that she was going to propose to Brittany. She knew exactly how she was going to do it, but maybe talking it through with her mom would help?
No. She had never been more sure of anything in her entire life. She could do this. She didn't want everyone to know except Brittany. She wanted to be able to tell people together and have them be surprised and excited.
When school started up things quickly became busy. It was similar to last year when they really only saw each other during the day at lunch. The major difference being that they now slept together every night. Waking up with Santana every morning made every day better, Brittany thought.
On the Wednesday night after school started they were laying in bed when Brittany brought up something that she had talked to Kurt about earlier that day. "Babe? Do you want to go to LGBTA again this year? I know we kind of stopped last year because we got busy but Kurt wants us to go. I figured we could at least until we get too busy. But if you don't want to that's fine. You're telling Kurt though." Brittany smirked. Santana shook her head and laughed.
"No we can go. It's nice to at least see everyone a few times. And I know Kurt will be glad we come now that he's president and all."
The next day they met up after classes to have dinner and head over to the meeting together. They walk into the meeting room together laughing because Brittany just managed to trip over her own feet. "You're so graceful baby." Santana joked as she picked a seat and sat down pulling Brittany onto her lap.
"Mhmm. Kiss." Brittany demanded, and Santana obliged. As soon as Brittany pulled back she saw Anna walk in talking to some girls she recognized but didn't know their names. She was pointing towards them and she could tell by the way she was looking over at them and the look on her face that she was talking about Santana. She felt anger course through her. This isn't going to happen again, not to Santana ever if she could help it. So without a thought other than protecting the love of her life, she got up off of Santana's lap and walked right over to Anna.
"Listen to me right now. This is done. It ends here. I don't care what your opinion is of my girlfriend or our relationship. But if I hear anything else you're going to be sorry. I'm so sick of this." She managed to remain calm but anger bubbled hot under her skin. "I promise you don't want to know what happens when you hurt the people I love." Brittany gave it a second to sink in and then walked away. She had no desire to embarrass or scare Anna. She just needed her to know that she was incredibly serious. She walked back over to Santana and sat next to her taking her hand on her lap and lacing their fingers together.
If it had been anyone else Santana would have been so embarrassed. Mad even. Short of that one time last year when Mercedes yelled at Anna, which she wasn't even there for, she had never let anyone fight her battles. Not on purpose. Sometimes her brothers did it but she always got angry at them for a while until she could rationally figure out that they always had her best interests in mind. But it didn't upset her to have Brittany do that. It made her feel loved and protected.
A few days later and two weeks before their anniversary, Santana brought it up to Brittany. She insisted that she get to plan it, making sure that Brittany could take Saturday off. Santana felt lucky that at the very least their anniversary fell on a Saturday which made a very stressful situation, slightly easier. She wouldn't be as limited with her planning.
On Friday evening she checked the reservations for the restaurant and the hotel. She packed them a bag for Sunday, mostly just clothes to drive home in, and made sure she had everything else that she needed. She was desperately trying not to let her anxiety show but she knew Brittany could feel something was off.
Originally Brittany had been sad that she didn't get to plan their anniversary. Or at least help. But Santana promised she could plan next year and Brittany could tell this was important to her. So she let it go, and was just excited for whatever it was that Santana had planned. Regardless of her excitement she could feel Santana's anxiety, and she could tell that she was trying to sneakily check and recheck her plans. She was torn between hating that Santana was ever anxious, and finding it endearing how important this was to her. They could order pizza and watch movies and it would be perfect to Brittany. Being with Santana was pretty much always perfect.
That night when they went to bed Brittany could tell, even after the triple checking, that Santana was worried about tomorrow. She wasn't going to get any sleep if she couldn't calm her down. As soon as Santana took her clothes off Brittany pulled her down into her arms and held her close, feeling Santana sigh into her. "I'm really excited for tomorrow." Brittany told her, and Santana tensed. "No matter what you've got planned, we get to celebrate us. That's perfect." She felt Santana ease into her a little and after many I love yous and many goodnight kisses they both managed to fall asleep.
When Santana woke up the next morning she almost forgets that she's so nervous she could throw up. Brittany is laying peacefully, still tangle all up with Santana. Even when it's hot, while they're asleep, Brittany manages to always find a way to make as much of her touch Santana as possible. She ran her fingers up Brittany's back enjoying the closeness. But too quickly, the anxiety settled back in.
Santana was thankful that their dinner reservations were early. They had to be in order for everything to work out. But the other side of that is that it gave her less time that day to be nervous. She couldn't figure out exactly why she was so nervous. She knew how today was going to turn out. She knew that by the end of today all of this will have felt ridiculous. But right now, she was completely freaked out. Santana stood in front of their closet trying to choose what to wear. She had thought of everything but this. The evening isn't even complicated. Dinner and a walk in the park, then back to the hotel. But none of that makes her feel better as she pulls on her tightest pair of compression shorts.
An hour later and a text from Brittany saying she was ready (she had gotten ready in Quinn's room) Santana was putting on the last touches of her lip gloss. She took a step back and smirked. If nothing else, she looked hot as hell. Her hair was tousled, her eyes smoky, and her dress red and tight (Brittany's favorite). She slipped on her back heels and went out to met her girlfriend. Brittany was wearing a dress Santana hadn't seen before. Brittany had bought it specifically for that night after finding out that they were going to a "dress worthy" restaurant. She wanted to look nice for Santana. It was blue and silver and sexy without being skin tight. It was short and flirty and she looked so amazing. Santana almost didn't want to leave their apartment. Almost.
The restaurant was fancy and probably too expensive but Santana didn't care, and other than a look Brittany gave her when she first opened the menu, she didn't bring up the prices either. Everything was perfect. It felt like pre-celebrating. Brittany for the evening, Santana for the rest of their lives. After dinner Brittany asked where they were going next. Santana was tempted to tell her to wait and see but there was a big enough surprise coming. "The park. Is that ok?"
Brittany was slightly confused as to why Santana would want to go to the park while they were both still dressed up and wearing heels. But this was Santana's plan, so she just smiled gently and nodded. The closer they got the more nervous Santana got and it bothered Brittany that she could see it but couldn't fix it. She knew whatever it was that she was nervous about was probably silly, but telling her that would downplay the surprise. And she didn't want to do that. So she took Santana's hand and let her closeness comfort her as much as she could.
When they arrived, Santana parked and took a deep breath. "Ready?" She watched for Brittany's answering nod before grabbing her clutch and getting out of the car. As soon as they met in front of it, Brittany was quick to take her hand again. They walked on the path, careful not to trip as they both were really wearing completely inappropriate shoes. And so long as Brittany didn't break her ankle, Santana didn't care. She hadn't thought of this detail, and she didn't care. There was too much going on in her mind.
Brittany kept looking around for something. She didn't know what specifically. The reason they were here she guessed. The reason that Santana was clinging to her hand like a lifeline. They liked parks. They frequented parks. This one was a particular favorite because it was kind of where they had their first sort of date. The lake came into view and with the sunset it looked beautiful. Brittany felt Santana's grip ease slightly.
When they got to what felt like the perfect spot Santana stopped Brittany and pulled her to face her. "I brought you here because I'm pretty sure this is where I fell in love with you. Sometimes I think it was the day I met you. But here, when we were talking, the day after that party and the first time you kissed me? This is when I knew. This has been a mess of a year if you think about it. A lot of bad stuff has happened. But when I think about it, it's still been the best year of my life." Santana was starting to tear up and she could tell Brittany was too. But she pressed forward.
"All I know is that I think we could have a lot more best years. I know we can. And the idea of living a life without you is too painful and unrealistic to think about." Santana took a deep breath. "I love you Brittany. More than anything in this world. More than I have ever thought possible for me to love another person." She reached into her clutch and pulled something out. She slowly got down on one knee. Brittany's face finally changing for unconcealed love to shock. "Stay with me forever Brittany." She choked out grabbing Brittany's hand again. Tears now falling freely from both girls eyes.
"Marry me?"
AN: It's a fluff hanger. You can't even call it a cliff hanger. So… one chapter left. Then some one shots. Then the sequel. Please ask questions. Review and let me know what you're thinking. One of my goals is to get better about responding to reviews. As in…do it at all. Thank you for all the reminders that I need to update. I hope this sufficed. Thank you to my beta as always. Follow me on tumblr for updates, information, and easier access to my brain if you have questions. Klikeszombies . tumblr . com