Thank you for everything!
*Will now be updating this story regularly every other Thursday from now on! :)
Santana cannot believe what's happening right now.
She prides in herself for being quick on her feet and always the one to stay calm in certain situations. She loves challenges and sees it as nothing more than a little obstacle to get something rewarding. She thrives under pressure. Hell, she lives in it. Moreover, she's sure of who she is. She knows what she's capable of. That's probably why she's good at her job and is at the top of the corporate ladder.
But that's not the case here. This little fucker. This little challenge. It's certainly trying to make her think twice about everything she's come to know about herself.
Probably because she knows nothing about 'herself' right now.
"Jamie!" Gay Blaine's voice echoes through the speakers. Santana snaps out of it and tries to get a hold of herself on the bar stool while sending a little Hail Mary up there to help her and Brittany survive this. "So, how are you doing?" He adds.
Santana smiles sweetly at him. If there's anything she's remotely proud of in high school, it's being in Glee club and taking that awesome semi-lead in West Side story. And yes, she slayed 'America'. "I'm doing good. Thank you for asking."
"Awesome. How's the engagement been so far?"
"W-Well.." Santana glances beside her and sees Brittany somewhat encouraging her to answer how she sees fit. "It's been amazing. We've never been so happy right now, actually." She adds with a faux grin and blinking eyes thrown towards Brittany.
Instantly, the audience eats everything up with 'oohs' and 'aahs' coming from all directions. They're both pretty sure that this kind of audience reaction will be a consistent occurrence for the rest of this interview.
"You gotta help me out here, B." Santana adds through her fake grin as she pushes her microphone away from earshot for a second. Brittany nods, not entirely sure if she'll laugh at her friend's cute expression or just because Santana's being adorable. Basically, she looks like a kid that's done something bad and feels guilty about it. How freaking cute is that.
"So, I have a few questions here that our audience would like to know..." Blaine trails off without looking at them. They take a deep breath as they embrace the incoming onslaught of mass destruction. "For starters, how did you girls meet, Jamie?" He adds and turns to Santana.
"Oh. U-Uh..." The brunette forces a grin and turns to Brittany for a second with wide eyes, crying for help. "W-well, we met under romantic circumstances, of course. Right, Britt?" She mentions with faux confidence.
"It was at a Blockbuster, actually." Brittany chimes in and Santana almost wants to shrink and disappear forever. "But it was surely under romantic circumstances because as I was about to rent the last copy of 'Love, Actually', Jamie here, fought me for it. Long story short, she let me have the copy and I asked her out right there." She pauses and gestures for Santana to say or do something.
"Y-Yeah. T-Totally romantic. I fight my rent wars like how I fight for my woman." Santana replies with a little panic in her and quickly glances at Brittany to see her mouthing a big 'no' while shaking her head.
"How about that, ladies and gentlemen?" Blaine declares and the crowd cheers for them. "Another question here is, if the both of you were to have a dream wedding, what would it be?" He adds and turns to Santana again.
"Oh. Well, I don't really see myself getting married at all-" Santana replies nonchalantly but suddenly feels a sharp pain coming from her foot. She looks at her right to see Brittany glaring back at her with owl eyes.
Oh. Right. She forgot that she's Jamie for a while back there.
"U-Uh... M-Married at all l-like those celebrities out there with the public thing." Santana utters and turns to see Brittany sighing with a nod. "We'd prefer that the wedding be private somewhere on a beach since that's how we are." Not even fucking close, Santana thinks.
Blaine nods. "And you've gotten this a lot but everybody here wants to know, when's the wedding?"
"We haven't really set a date yet but we're banking on doing it by June. A few months from now." Brittany speaks out for the both of them and subtly nudges for Santana to take over.
"Y-Yeah. We've always talked about how June is the best month for weddings. I mean, a lot of couples do get married on that month then not long after be separated by-"
"Death." Brittany cuts Santana's rambling off and gives the girl a look before turning back to a slightly confused looking Blaine. "Till Death do us part, right?" She adds while holding on to her microphone with a killer grip and sighing after when the crowd seemingly agrees with her. Nice save, alright.
Blaine nods happily, seemingly oblivious to their distress. What an awesome host he is, right? Freaking awesome. "So, like what I said earlier, we'll be moving on to the first part of the show. A little game to start it off!" He exclaims and holds out two tennis racket shaped cardboards to each of them with the words "I HAVE" on one, and "I HAVE NEVER" with the other. As soon as they realize what's about to happen, a little internal panic ensues.
Santana literally turns a little pale. It almost makes Brittany chuckle because she didn't know Hispanic people could turn into that shade but then again, she's probably sporting the same color.
"Never have I ever!" Blaine declares and Santana almost punches him in the face for that when everyone cheers so loud that she thinks she might go deaf by the end of this broadcast. Oh fuck. She almost forgot that this is live and the fact that she's 'Jamie' right now. The Puckermans are listening, for sure. Plus, she can see a smirking Dani seated with the Hummels from the other side, probably rejoicing that her plan of sabotaging Brittany is seemingly working. But nope, this can't happen. She sighs deeply and gathers herself. She can't let this faze her.
While Blaine goes on about the rules that no one freaking cares about, Brittany tries to calm down a little and looks back on what she and Santana agreed on. Which is, to just go with the flow of everything and draw from their own experiences if the situation calls for it. She can't let Dani win. She's not gonna back down at this stage. She ain't no quitter.
"So, time to turn up the heat and spice things up, ladies.." Warbler pauses and grins at them while holding his own cardboard with the other. Oh right. Of course he had to play this game too. Anyway. "First one… Never have I ever had a one night stand."
Woah. So, no vanilla question first? No 'never have I ever done something romantic for someone'? Nothing like that? They had to go straight to the real deal before the foreplay. Oh god. A man probably came up with these 'never have I ever' statements.
For Brittany, this one is a 'I have never'. It's Santana who she's worried about and she's right to do just that because for the brunette, this is a no brainer about her. But what about the real Jamie? Santana thinks that the girl hasn't had one because honestly, she's kind of a loser in her eyes. Freaking home girl once told her that she dated a classical violinist for six months who said that she wanted to wait until marriage. Come on now. If it were Santana she'd be raising the 'I have' cardboard in a fucking heartbeat.
They turn to look at each other for a moment and slowly raise the 'I have never' card at the same time. Santana raises both eyebrows at Brittany as she does so, asking if she's right about Jamie in which, Brittany nods with a smile.
Santana fucking called it. Pat on the back, fellas.
"Aww.. How cute is that, right?" Blaine declares and says something irrelevant that the audience cheers on. Santana brushes it off and gives Brittany a wink. Just because.
"Next question, never have I ever had sex on the first date."
What? Seriously, what is this? A horny teenager's version of never have I ever?!
Brittany bites her lip to stop herself from saying something not appropriate. It's only the second question but the questions they're throwing them are not really done with good taste. But this is show business, what can a girl do? She glances at her left to see Santana seemingly praying or something. Well, that's what it looked like for her. She whispers the answer to the question and calls for the girl's attention but Santana's not really hearing it because of the loud commotion. Instead, she just sighs and slowly holds up the 'I have never' signboard. Santana knows this very well about her, actually.
"Lord, give me strength" Santana mumbles to herself before raising the 'I have' signboard after thinking about it for a moment. What? She thought that Jamie can't be that stupid and lame at the same time, right? She and Brittany look at each other at the same moment and see that they both have different answers albeit, correct.
"Aha! Now we see a little difference on that." Blaine comments and turns to Brittany. "I bet there are a lot of people who haven't done it on the first date too." He adds with a wink that makes the blonde feel a little awkward while the audience just agrees with him.
"Said every girl I've slept with before they met me." Santana whispers nonchalantly into the microphone. Brittany immediately throws her a hard glare but thankfully no one was able to hear her friend's comment.
"Alright. Never have I ever stole something."
Santana and Brittany actually laugh at this. This one's easy for the both of them because you'd be a hypocrite if you've never stole something in your life. They all hold up the signboard 'I have' in unison.
"No! What did you girls steal?"
"I stole a dog once from my neighbor because he was being bullied by the other dogs. I returned him on the same day though." Brittany rambles innocently, gathering sympathy from the audience. Charming and stunning as fuck. "How about you?" The blonde adds while looking at her with that gorgeous smile. If it weren't for this whole situation, she would have died and gone to heaven because of her and that smile.
Oh well.
"Underwear." Santana utters with a smirk and everyone laughs their asses off. "I'm pretty sure you stole my heart too, Britt."
Just like that, Brittany instantly turns bright red from that previous whitish hue a while ago. She only needs twenty two more colors and she could pass off as part of a Crayola set. Way to turn on the romance factor, Santana.
After everyone's done gushing about what the brunette said, Blaine takes a moment to read his cards before turning back to them. "Alright, on with the show and to a new game.."
Santana sighs through gritted teeth. She somehow wishes that Anderson here would say "Never have I ever killed someone", in which she'll of course reply with, "Where's the 'not yet' or 'after the show' signboard?"
Seriously. What is this? A freaking game show marathon compiled into one?!
With the way she's bouncing off emotions right now, from being all panicky then suddenly witching to her usual, awesome confident self, she'll never know. But she's sure that she'll probably be diagnosed with something later with the rate she's going. Thankfully, Brittany tries to calm her down by squeezing her hand and reassuring her that everything will be fine.
"A little truth or dare, anyone?" He smugly says and everyone roots for them. Here we go. "You will each only have one truth to spare so use it wisely. Okay, who goes first?"
Both women turn to face one another at the same time, using their seemingly telepathic powers that could only have been perfected through years of friendship. In the end, they both decide that Brittany should go first, signaling Blaine in the process.
"Brittany, truth or dare?" Blaine utters with a smirk and everyone in the audience eggs her on to choose dare. She's tempted but then again, a little suspense is needed.
"Truth." She replies, much to everyone's disappointment.
"Alright then. Who said 'I love you' first?"
Santana's eyes widen. Uh-oh. If all the incoming questions are of the same nature as this, well, fuck, because they're kind of fucked if that's the case.
"W-Well.." Brittany trails off and sneaks a glance at Santana, asking for a little back up. "I did, actually." She continues and Santana swears that her heart jumped a little for reasons she's not completely sure of.
"I'm sure everyone wants to know the story behind that, right folks?" Blaine follows up as the crowd answers in the positive.
Santana looks at Brittany who's hesitating to answer the question. Is there something she's not telling her or is it one of those things that she'd like to actually keep to herself? Whatever it is, Santana's crazy curious about it.
For Brittany though, maybe it's the fact that she feels a little off about telling the whole world how she and her ex fell in love or the fact that her best friend, who she seemingly has feelings for and actually pretending to be her ex at the moment, is right beside her. Either way, she's trying hard to convince herself that the reason is the latter.
"I believe it was Christmas Eve." Brittany finally says after a moment, without emotion nor batting an eyelid. "We were spending Christmas with my friends in New York and it just happened while we're cuddled up in front of the fire."
Oh.
Santana feels like someone just pricked her heart with a needle. She actually remembers that moment because she was sitting on the other couch beside them. Kind of eavesdropping while playing with Beth. She was nonchalant about it back then, maybe even the slightest happy that her best friend had fallen in love with someone who feels the same way. But now, she's not entirely sure why she suddenly feels the opposite about the whole thing.
The brunette snaps out of it. How ironic is it that she's trying to portray someone who is one way or another her rival for Brittany's affection? Wait. No, that can't be right. There is no rival because she and Brittany aren't a thing. She sighs and turns her attention to the smiling audience and return the gesture. Or tried to.
"I think we have time for one more question.." Blaine utters as Will signals him to do one more before finishing the segment. "So, Jamie. Truth or dare?"
It may be the feeling of wanting to prove herself for some reason or probably the plain desire to be seen as the better person in Brittany's eyes, but since there's no script at all between them, she decides to just wing it. Hell, Santana isn't one to back down from a challenge. She's gonna own this.
"Dare."
Blaine smirks and draws from a box containing supposedly various ''Truths' and 'Dares'. "Here we go. Sing for your partner."
"What?" Both women utter in unison and turn to look at each other in a haste.
"That's what it says. Besides, Jamie here is a great singer, right?" Blaine shrugs and they groan out loud. Granted, Santana can sing but it's kind of been a long time. It's been probably years when she's sung in front of a live audience like this. Well, that is if you consider a karaoke bar a live audience. "Come on now, Jamie!" Blaine adds and everyone else does so.
She looks beside her and sees Brittany smiling nervously at her. "If you don't wanna do it, it's fine."
Santana doesn't even hesitate one bit as she smirks back. "Nah, let's show them how it's done."
She turns to the audience and thinks for a second on how to address them. "Alright then. But just a tiny bit, okay? We don't want Britt's legs here turning into jelly." The brunette adds and swears that she saw Brittany turn bright red all over her face and ears for a second there while the audience screams in adoration.
Santana smiles to herself then gets up from the bar stool to face Brittany and grab her hand, making everyone almost go crazy. Wow. She's liking this. She feels so in control and- Ahem. Not rated PG. She starts singing a few words to 'Can't take my eyes off of you' by Frank Sinatra because if she's going to be cheesy, might as well go all out. She smirks to herself when Brittany tries hard to hide the blush settling on her cheeks.
Brittany, on the hand, well, let's just say that the struggle is very, very real for her. She has heard Santana sing countless times before. Whether it be at a karaoke bar, during downtime, or just the brunette singing for Beth, she's heard it all before. Or that's what she thought. Because now, with the audience melting by listening to Santana's raspy voice serenading her like this plus the fact that her best friend is staring and smirking at her, probably knowing that she's under her spell, she's not so sure anymore. Not sure at all.
"Wow. Now, that is something!" Blaine's voice isn't almost heard throughout the whole place because of the deafening crowd cheering after Santana has finished serenading Brittany.
Brittany tries to gather herself for a minute, unable to look at the brunette who she can see is smirking through her peripheral vision.
"You okay?" Santana leans closer to her and mumbles under her breath.
"Y-Yeah. I-It's h-hot." Brittany stutters and waves a hand in disregard. "I-I mean, it's a little hot here on stage. Don't they have a fan here or something?"
Santana chuckles and sees Will signaling the three of them to wrap it up from the other side of the stage. Blaine nods and shares a knowing look with both women who nod in acknowledgment.
"It has been a blast but unfortunately, we have to say goodbye for now. So, on behalf of the station, I would like to thank you Jamie for your special participation today. It's been amazing having you here." He exclaims and the crowd applauses. "But before we proceed with the live broadcast of Romantically Speaking, how about a little picture for the records?"
They face one another and smile. Why not? It's just a picture. No big deal.
Both women agree and position themselves in the middle of the stage. Shortly, a photographer follows and stands in front of them to take their picture. They are actually doing a pretty good job of acting like a real couple so far. Or that's what they thought.
"Uh... Sorry. But would you mind…" The photographer utters as he motions for them to stand closer to each other.
They stare at the other for a second, throw in a little awkwardness in there too for some reason. However, Brittany brushes it off with a smile and grabs Santana by the waist then pulls her closer unannounced, surprising the brunette a little. The blonde almost chuckles at how her friend is acting right now since it's one of those rare times that she's seen Santana flustered.
A few snaps later, the sudden chanting of the audience catches them off-guard. It wasn't until Blaine says something about a kiss that they freeze in their place and finally get it.
Fuck. It's just a picture, they said. It's not a big deal, they said.
Santana looks in panic at Brittany. "What do we do?"
Brittany turns to the audience for a second, noticing that the cheers are getting louder now. So, instead of stalling any further, she just shrugs and proceeds to kiss Santana quickly. On the cheek. In the most awkward fashion.
The freaking cheek, for crying out loud.
Almost instantly, the crowd erupts in disappointment and chants for another kiss. Brittany awkwardly forces a grin while Santana's blinking at nothing in particular and gritting her teeth.
"Aww... Come on, girls. You can do better than that." Blaine exclaims and Santana swears that there is nothing more she'd want to do but punch the hell out of Gay Warbler here. Brittany bites her lip, still thinking about what to do in the situation at hand. She glances at Will and sees him raising both eyebrows at her, as if motioning for her to do something about it and fast.
"Let's do it." The words softly come out of Santana's mouth, making Brittany turn her head almost instantly.
"W-What was that?"
"It couldn't hurt, right? And not to boast or anything, but they say I'm a good kisser. A great one at that, actually." Santana replies with a smirk, adding a little wink that makes the blonde chuckle.
Give it to Santana for lightening up the situation.
Brittany tries hard not to grin too much and have the butterflies in her stomach go into overdrive. So, instead of doing anything to embarrass herself even further, she just nods and lets Santana pull her closer. She stares into those brown eyes and allows herself to be immersed in them. The blonde thinks that it's actually the perfect contrast to her own blue eyes and she's pretty sure that the view in front of her is something that will carry on to her dreams later at night.
They lean closer towards each other, taking their time, and if they're going to be honest, trying not to get ahead of themselves because after all, they have to keep in mind that this is all for show and publicity.
However, all sorts of self-control and whatnot goes to hell the moment their lips touch. Because dammit. Fireworks and rainbows are an understatement of how amazing it is. And they both know it. It's as if everyone and everything around them had disappeared into oblivion. The kiss isn't even the sensual one or the type that makes you want to jump the other. It's one of those kisses that will make anyone weak in the knees. One of those kisses that will make your heart beat faster and slower at the same time. One of those kisses that almost actually makes you believe that forever exists between two people who are in love.
Well, the latter might not be something they're conscious of yet nor they are aware of having but one thing's for sure, there's definitely something there that they can't deny.
After what was actually only three seconds, they pull apart and stare into each other's eyes for a moment to breathe. That, or to get themselves together because after taking in what just transpired in front of them, both women instantly clear their throats and look at anywhere but the other.
"Now that's more like it! Give it up for our favorite couple!" Blaine declares and the audience goes crazy, all which seemed to get their attention. "Alright. We'll be having a five minute intermission and when we get back, Brittany will be right with you on her critically-acclaimed show, Romantically Speaking, followed by 'Straight Talk' with Dani. Stay with us and don't go anywhere!" He adds as Will motions that they're off the air for the time being.
"Great show, you guys." Blaine utters when he approaches them.
"U-Uh.. Yeah. Thanks." Brittany mumbles, still unable to look at Santana. The latter turns to face her and is about to say something but gets told by the stage manager to leave the stage so they can set up for Brittany's live broadcast. Santana almost goes ballistic for whisking her away from Brittany but then again, she really doesn't know what to say to the blonde. Before she follows the order though, Brittany smiles back at her and somehow reassures her that everything is alright between them with that simple gesture. Momentarily, she takes a seat in an area designated for VIPs and guests.
"That was amazing, Jamie." The unmistakable voice of Carole Hummel says beside her with Burt also grinning with a thumbs up directed her way.
"O-Oh. Thank you, Carole, Burt." Santana replies with a forced smile. She looks at the woman sitting beside the couple and sees Dani with a raised eyebrow looking back at her then rolling her eyes. Probably pissed that her plan of sabotaging Brittany backfired.
Shortly after, Brittany starts with her broadcast. As usual, her wit and kindness for helping out people with their romantic lives amazes Santana. She's not even going to lie about noticing the blonde sneaking a look at her every now and then. She looks down and sighs deeply. She tries to downplay it. She tries to discount the slight tension. But when she looks up again to see Brittany staring back at her in a way that she really can't explain, it overwhelms her. Scares the hell out of her. In short, typical Santana when it comes to confronting her feelings.
When she can't seem to bear it anymore, she stands up and excuses herself then walks away to get some air. If she's going to be honest, the thought of leaving completely brushed her mind. But she can't do that to Brittany. She would never leave her hanging like that. No best friend would do that. So, for lack of a better way to go about the whole thing, she goes on a long walk just to shake off everything and clear her head.
To get Brittany out of her head.
"Fuck off, you fucking shit!" Santana sneers at a clown who's trying to entertain her or in reality, annoy the hell out of her. Sure enough, the clown frowns and leaves her be as she continues to do her own tour of the whole event for almost half an hour now. Who knew this place could be that freaking big?
When she's finally had enough of walking, she decides take a seat in a nearby bench near a horror house. It's actually a good thing because the echoing screams of the scared people inside is deafening her thoughts about absolutely nothing. She just kissed her best friend. She thinks that an innocent kiss would be alright but the fact that there has been a slight romantic thing going on between them plus the tension of trying to hide and avoid it because they're friends isn't really helping the situation. Hell, it just made it all the more complicated.
She can admit it in a way now, she guesses. There is definitely something there. She's sure of it. But the thing is, she doesn't want to acknowledge it because if she does that, she's fucked. It would be like admitting defeat. It would be admitting that she really does have feelings for Brittany. Her best friend.
"You okay?" A soft voice catches her attention. A voice she knows all too well. She looks up to see Brittany looking back at her with a slight concern. Why does she still have to be so beautiful when she's not even trying to be? Ugh.
"Y-Yeah. Just taking a bit of a breather." She replies and forces a smile that doesn't go unnoticed by Brittany who nods and takes a seat in front of her.
"Where did you go? You disappeared halfway into the broadcast."
"Around. Tried to shake off the nerves of almost having a heart attack on stage because of Gay Warbler back there." Santana lies and it's just her luck that her best friend of more than a decade now knows her like the back of her hand. Thing is, Brittany doesn't really know how to go on about this too. And for once, lets Santana slip with a lie. With everything that's happened, now's not the right moment to talk about the kiss because if she's known the brunette like she had, the latter's walls would only come up and she'd go nowhere with this.
"But I thought we'd tour it together?" The blonde jests with a pout and finally gets a laugh out of Santana.
"We could tour it again. This time I could tell you the nice spots too."
"Nice spots, huh?" Brittany smirks and Santana rolls her eyes at the girl.
"That's supposed to be my line, asswipe."
"You know I do it better, you fugly bitch." Brittany counters and they burst in laughter.
"'Fugly bitch'?" Santana exclaims in between her laughing. "Who are you, Quinn?"
After a moment, their laughter dies down and they're once again left to stare and share a moment with each other. It was only when the screams of every coward inside the horror house echoes once again that they're pulled out of their trance.
Suddenly, Brittany smirks and wiggles her eyebrows at the brunette. "Wanna go inside the horror house?"
Santana's eyes widen and profusely shakes her head in protest. But of course, it's to no avail because the blonde literally drags her out of her seat and into the line for the attraction.
"Britt, no! Please, let me go! Horror houses are for cowards!" She begs and tries to get out of her best friend's steel grip on her wrist.
"I can see that." Brittany chuckles at her scared friend. When she finally calms down though, the radio host takes this moment to get something out of the way. "Hey, San." She mutters under her breath.
"Yeah?"
"That kiss. Did-"Brittany treads lightly only to be cut off by Santana.
"Let's talk about it some other time, Britt." The brunette tells her with a tight-lipped smile and somehow, Brittany can now breathe a little better as they stare into each other's eyes, silently agreeing that it's the best way to go.
Just like clockwork, the line moves and one by one, everyone is allowed to enter.
"San?" Brittany utters when they're almost at the entrance. Santana just looks at her but doesn't reply, possibly out of fear of what's coming. "What's your favorite scary movie?" The blonde teases, imitating Ghostface's voice. Instead of being amused, her best friend slaps her on the arm while she shrugs and laughs it off.
Brittany stares at Santana for a second while smiling and trying to stifle her laughter. She's probably the luckiest person in the world to have Santana in her life. Well, a terrified Santana at that right now but still hot and beautiful as ever.
"Hey, San?"
"Brittany, I swear to God! Stop imitating Ghostface! I'm scared out of my wits he-"
"I know. And don't worry." She tries to calm the girl down by grabbing the brunette's hand and intertwines it with hers. "I got you, babe." Brittany adds, echoing Santana's words while sporting the brunette's favorite smile, as they enter the horror house holding hands.
I hate to be a tease but the next chapter is what you've all been waiting for :D