Chapter Title: Shower
Author: Stargirl888
Word Count:Approx 3000
WARNINGS: Consentual Domestic Discipline Relationship
Pairing: Brittany/Santana (/Rachel)
Summary: THe pressure is getting to Santana
AN: Righty oh, here is the next chapter for you.
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The first week of work and college was a new experience for the girls; their bodies were still adjusting to the new schedules so they were worn out and tired by the end of most days.
"I officially cannot move another step." Rachel announced as she plopped onto the sofa, on day 3, having just arrived home from her dance class orientation.
"Join the club." Brittany replied from where she was sprawled out on the rug, apparently having not even made it to a chair before coming to a stop. "I've been on my feet for the past eight hours peeling and chopping and cleaning. You'd think they'd at least give me a chair or something to sit on."
"Yeah, well I've never danced so much in my life, and I'm pretty sure my dance teacher has it out for me. She was nowhere near as critical of the others."
"Well tomorrow we can swop and I'll go deal with your instructors and you can go do my work at the restaurant." Brittany joked to which she only got a half hearted thumbs up in reply.
"I guess we should probably think about making supper or something." Rachel muttered half heartedly, forcing herself into sitting up but Brittany just waved a hand. "Wait for Santana to get home, she's been sitting at a desk all day just listening to lecturers talking – she'll have the energy to move."
"Do you know when she's planning to get here?"
Brittany shook her head; no. "I would text her and ask but my phone is in my bag somewhere over there." She waved vaguely towards the entry way. After a couple of moments Brittany forced herself to get up. "And to think I'm starting night shift next week." She groaned as she went out of the room and returned a few moments later with her phone; this time electing to actually sit on a chair rather than the floor. "San say's she'll pick up Chinese on the way."
"Great." Rachel replied in a subdued voice.
The pair were still in the same position when Santana got home, although one of them had roused herself enough to grab the tv remote and flick it on. Santana couldn't help smiling at the sight of them. She was admittedly tired too; but it was more of a mental exhaustion.
"Awww, are you guys tired." She teased, putting down her things and going to give Brittany a quick kiss and a wink before sneaking closer to Rachel who had her eyes closed. The small girl let out a shriek when Santana pounced, pinning her down and tickling her mercilessly . Rachel fought her off, giggling all the while and shrieking for Britt to help. Brittany laughed but made no move to get up. "You still half asleep?" Santana asked when she stopped, laughing as Rachel tried valiantly to look miffed.
"That was mean." Rachel complained "And you were no help either." She added to Brittany, leaning around her girlfriend to give the blond a disproving look.
"Come on," Santana said, getting up and offering her hand to Rachel "I bought you guys dinner.
"It doesn't count if it was from the house account." Brittany retorted to which Santana just stuck out her tongue.
"I went through the effort of fetching it." She argued "If it wasn't for me, you guys would have starved to death on those couches."
"You're right, thank you." Rachel interceded, leaning up to give her girlfriend a peck.
"Yeah, thanks honey." Brittany added.
With their new schedules, the girls next couple of months were busy. Brittany and Quinn, being the new people at the hotel, were being allocated a lot of the late night shifts while Santana was adjusting to her new, ten times larger, workload, and Rachel to both her heavy theory work coupled with some strenuous dancing and singing classes. Due to their different schedules, Brittany and Santana had very little time together, and even Brittany's off days were normally during the week when Santana was at college. Rachel and Santana on the other hand were spending more time together than ever since they were both home most evenings – turns out that being at college didn't mean going out every other night. For this reason their sleeping schedule had become more relaxed so that when Brittany was working nights, Santana would be with Rachel and when Brittany was home Santana would be with her, it did mean it was slightly uneven in Rachel's favour but they all agreed to it and hadn't found any major problems. One thing Brittany did find she was enjoying with their new lifestyle was that when she was off work, she was off work – she didn't have any homework or studying to do, her sister wasn't there needing to be looked after; her time was literally her own. It was taking some getting used to though and the first few times she didn't know what to do with herself. She was also spending more time with Quinn, particularly when they were both on night shift and it was 3am with not much going on in either the kitchen or reception. Brittany would make coffee and go keep the other blond company at her desk – their bosses didn't seem to mind though since they both focused when there was work to do, and Brittany was always back in the kitchen in seconds if there was a late night room service order. It provided surprisingly good learning opportunities too as Brittany found that the Chef on duty was more open to giving her a chance to experiment and had time to teach her more than the essentials at night when they weren't constantly filling orders.
Thanksgiving came and went without much fuss since both Brittany and Quinn had to work; although Brittany did bring home some of the restaurants buffet left overs and the girls had a late night picnic dinner to celebrate the holiday.
Over those first few months Brittany began to become aware that something was going on with Santana. She had noticed her girlfriend was getting more and more stressed as time went on and her attitude and behavior was deteriorating apace. Brittany let it all slide though; figuring that Santana was just adjusting to a college workload; which was what Santana herself had put it down to that whenever asked and not wanting to argue during the few hours of free time they both happened to have together.
She hadn't realized how bad Santana had gotten though until Rachel actually approached her about it one night after Santana had once again made a snippy comment and withdrawn to her room to study.
"She's becoming downright unpleasant." Rachel observed calmly
"She's just adjusting."
"How long is that excuse going to last?" Brittany raised an eyebrow "I'm sorry but you only get half of the comments that I do, she's better when you're around but at times it's starting to remind me of pre-glee Santana. I can't seem to talk to her anymore and when I do try she blows up at me or I get some sarcastic remark she disappears into her room."
Brittany thought for a moment. "Santana's always lashed out when she feels pressured.'
"The thing is, I don't see why she'd feel pressured, I mean, yes there's a lot of work, but she's studying practically every night to the point that she should actually be far ahead of her classes."
"I've been avoiding talking to her about it." Brittany admitted "It's just that our schedules don't coincide that much so when they do…"
"You don't want to spend it…well…"
"Yeah." Brittany agreed.
"I'm not telling you this to get her in trouble." Rachel added; feeling guilty about talking about her girlfriend behind her back; particularly with Brittany.
"No, I know that,"
"It's just, I think that there is more going on and she won't talk to me."
"Well she'll talk to me." Brittany said with sudden determination as she realized she had been letting it go on too long. "Just give me a couple of days to think how best to approach it?"
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The next day things came to a head literally hours before Brittany had planned to speak to Santana. She and Quinn had both had the day off and Brittany had invited her over. They were in the kitchen in the rather messy dough and flour stage while Brittany tried to experiment with a pastry recipie one of the chefs at the restaurant had taught her when Santana got home from college. She was already in a bad temper from some perv on the subway hitting on her, and a rather tedious lecture before that so walking in on her girlfriend and best friend laughing while they rolled dough did naught but sour her mood further.
"Welcome home." Brittany greeted her as she entered.
"Mmmm," was Santana's response. "Have I ever told you how much I love coming home to find the kitchen in the same spotless state I left it in."
"Aww, did someone have a bad day?" Quinn teased, setting Santana's teeth on edge.
"No, it was wonderful. I listened to a wonderfully entertaining lecture, was practically groped by this hot guy on the bus and came home to find some freeloader in my kitchen making a mess."
"Freeloader?" Quinn repeated indignantly; covering hurt.
"Ignore her, she's been in a bad mood for months now." Brittany said lightly, pointedly not rising.
"Yes freeloader;" Santana ignored Brittany's comment "you're always hanging around here eating our food, watching our tv and generally getting in the way; you do have your own place Q, it might be a good idea you start using it before your Super forgets what you look like."
"Fuck you, Santana." Quinn bit out and made as if to lead but Brittany grabbed her arm to stop her.
"I invited Q over to bake. I want her here and I'm sorry you had a bad day but that can't be helped now so stop trying to ruin everyone else's day and either let it go or go sulk in your room because I'm not in the mood to listen to you ranting."
"I am not in a mood; although I will tell you one sure fire way to put me in one is making comments like that."
Rachel chose that moment to walk in. "Oh great, I guess you also think I've been in a bad mood for months too?" Snatana rounded on the shorter girl who looked like a deer caught in headlight; having not realized she what she was walking in on. Thankfully Santana didn't seem to feel the need to wait for a reply. "Of course you do because I'm also the bad girlfriend who has to spend her evenings studying"
"I've never once said that you're a bad girlfriend." Rachel defended, still slightly bewildered. Groaning in fustration; SAntana stormed out. "San, you need to calm down." Rachel pleaded; following her into the living room.
"No, you know what Rach, I'm tired of this, I'm tired of always being the bad guy who's ruining everyone else's time, and I'm well aware you tattle taled to Brittany about me."
"I didn't tattle tale; there is something going on with you and you won't tell me what it is so I thought you might have told her."
"Don't be mad at Rach just because you're hiding something." added Brittany who had followed the pair.
Santana's phone took that second to start ringing. Glancing at the screen and seeing the caller identity, Santana had finally had enough and uttering a curse, she flung the phone across the room, clearly aiming for the corner but catching a mug that was sitting on the coffee table in the process, causing both to shatter as they met floor.
"Right, that's enough." Brittany's tone took on the commanding authority that Santana hadn't heard since Lima "Santana, Bathroom, now." There was a distinct pause, before Santana found her words again.
"You don't get to start giving orders now, not after months." Santana retorted dismissively, although her countenance wavered slightly as though she wasn't fully convinced of her words. Brittany stepped around Rachel and went to stand directly in front of girlfriend.
"Think carefully how you want this to play out." Brittany said lowly, meeting Santana's glare head on. She could practically see the wheels turning in the other girls head as she weighted up her options. A moment later Santana turned on her heel and strode out of the room, not looking at anyone. Brittany glanced at the others who had watched the interaction silently before following the latina out of the room and upstairs to the bathroom that was en suite to her room.
Once there Santana turned to face her girlfriend with her arms crossed.
Closing the door behind her, Brittany she raised her eyebrows; clearly daring Santana to explain. The stubborn set to her jaw told Brittany that no explanation would be forthcoming.
"Fine." Brittany replied to the silent refusal. "Clothes off."
Santana was clearly battling with herself not to say anything in retort;but she also made no move to follow the order.
"Santana; you really don't want to push me on this." Brittany hissed; close to loosing her own temper. Santana hesitated; but knew better than to push her any futher and after a moment she began to unwrap her scarf.
By the time Santana was down to her underwear she was starting to regret her behavior and was becoming nervous about whatever Brittany was planning, knowing the blond had a knack for creative punishments. Brittany herself had calmed down slightly, now that she knew Santana wasn't going to fight her.
"Britt, what are you going to do?" Santana asked cautiously, while undoing her bra
"I'm going to help you to cool down from your temper tantrum." Brittany explained as though it was obvious. Her wording sent a chill through Santana because if there was one thing she hated, it was cold. Her pride was also stung by at her behavior being described as a 'temper tantrum'
"Okay, look Britt, I know I over reacted but…"
"Don't even try." Brittany stopped her protests. "Get in."
Santana; now having an inkling of where things were headed, reluctantly climbed into the shower,dreading the cold – normally she would wait for the water to heat up before even getting in. Reaching around her, Brittany flicked the tap on, turning it slightly towards the hot side before withdrawing quickly. Santana let out a string of curse words as the cold water gushed on top of her, falling silent when she caught Brittany's eye. To Santana's relief the water started warming up quite quickly. Holding one hand under the water to check the temperature, Brittany told Santana to make it colder. She wasn't cruel enough to make Santana endure the completely unheated cold water, but a slightly luke warm was still cold enough to make her point while not risking her girlfriends health. Santana's expression was so pitiful Brittany almost changed her mind and let her get out but she didn't. Knowing how Santana was about cold things though, this was definitely more than a little unpleasant for her.
"How long do I have to stand here for?" Santana asked after a moment. Brittany shrugged nonchalantly before taking pity on her.
"That depends, have you cooled down?" Brittany asked sternly and without the slightest hint of teasing in her tone
"Yes." Santana replied sullenly.
"Are you going to fly off the handle and fling things around the room again?"
"No." Santana bit back a retort about how at least she didn't throw it at anyone, which was her first impulse.
"Will we actually be able to talk reasonably without you loosing your temper or walking off or making snide comments?"
"Yes, fine, whatever you want; just let me get out."
"Okay."
Brittany grabbed a fluffy towel from the rack and held it up for the latina to step into as she all but jumped out of the shower, enveloping her when she did. Once Santana was in a warm tracksuit she climbed onto the bed where Brittany was sitting waiting and silently snuggled into her side. Brittany wrapped her arms around her comfortingly, knowing that that punishment had been a lot harder on Santana psychologically than she would admit. They sat like that for a few minutes before Brittany spoke again "Just now we're going to talk and you need to tell Rachel what's up with you as well, it's not fair of you to block her out, so I want you to think about if it'll be easier for the three of us to sit down together or if you want us to talk alone, but before that you need to apologize to both Rachel and Quinn."
Santana nodded against her. After a long silence she spoke in a small voice.
"Lets just talk you and me first."
"Alright." Brittany agreed; and Santana heavily forced her self to sit up "Go apologise to the others first."
Walking down to the kitchen and facing Rachel and Quinn was hard for Santana. She was embarassed both about her behaviour and that they had seen her being subservient when Brittany stepped in; even if only momentarily. And now she was obviously appologising because she had been told to; though it was also genuine. It only slightly helped knowing the others had been in similar positions in the past and would never dream of teasing her aout it.
Both girls accepted her appologies gracefully, and Rachel had already cleaned up the broken mug and smashed cellphone which now sat on the kitchen counter with a cracked screen.
Heading back to Brittany's room, Santana's stomache twisted nervously. She knew that she would have to finaly explain things but while a part of her was relieved that things would finally be out in the open a part of her dreaded it too.
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AN: Thoughts? I got the shower idea off a DD forum but I'm still personally iffy about the idea so I'd be curious on everyone else's opinions on it.I know a lot of you are waiting anxiously for Quinn to come back into the picture in more than a side role and it won't be long now; one or two chapters and we'll be there and there's going to be a lot of baggage and drama for everyone to work through surrounding that.
Anyhoo, hope you all enjoyed and as always please remember to leave a review so I can know what you thought about it.