March
to starve at a feast
…
"Ok, there's no way all of these things have different uses." Santana gaped up at the giant wall of gaming controllers. Santana and Brittany were on a mall trip, sparked by Brittany's need for a new Xbox controller and Santana's need to make herself scarce from the apartment in case one of Kurt's increasingly frequent hookups arrived.
"They do have different uses," Brittany reached over Santana's head to grab the controller she needed. "See?" Brittany gently placed the box in the shorter girl's hands.
"This one is compatible with my PS4. But which color, blue or red?" Brittany's brows scrunched together in thought, causing Santana to grin at her serious look.
"We couldn't have you going around with the wrong color controller now that you're famous, huh?" Santana teased playfully. The viral Tik Tok Brittany posted in February was up to 10 Million views, a fact that Santana wouldn't let her forget. Brittany had been ecstatic when she found out how many people were watching it and how many were finding her other socials from it.
She raked in almost double the viewers on Twitch than she had before the video, and nothing would stop her from using the momentum to build her audience even more. She'd been more active on all social media, but Tik Tok especially, and it was truly helping her gain traction in getting more advertisement deals.
"Go with blue, the red looks kinda tacky."
"You're right." Brittany took the box from Santana and reached over her head again to switch it out. The sweet scent of Brittany's body wash poured over Santana due to their close proximity, though she was actively trying to ignore it.
Brittany and Santana's friendship boundary was going… fine. Even though Santana tended to get distracted by soft blonde baby hair wisps and the smell of her honey soap, Santana liked being Brittany's friend. It was comfortable and the pair really did click together.
The last few weeks had consisted of Brittany and Santana slowly clearing away any residual awkwardness, and hanging out together even more than before. Unless they were in class or streaming, it was rare to see one without the other in tow. Still, neither girl had really brought up that day at the boba shop, continuing on like the plan was just to be friends all along. Close friends.
Brittany still didn't quite know what was up with Santana, but she thought less and less about it as she continued to act like everything was normal and fine.
When they finished at the gaming shop, they strolled by a dress boutique, and Santana stopped at the large glass window to examine the colorful gowns on display.
"Me and my friends used to go to the mall just to try on dresses like these when I was younger." Santana reminisced with a grin.
"For some reason, that doesn't surprise me." Brittany teased.
Santana was rolling her eyes in response when they caught on a beautiful bluish-gray layered gown on display.
"Look at that one, Britt." She pointed to the dress.
"It's pretty."
"It would complement your hair and your eyes," Santana observed offhandedly, glancing back at Brittany.
Then her face shifted into something Brittany could only describe as an "evil-plan-hatching stare"
"What?"
"You should definitely try it on," Santana smirked.
"Wha- no. I think I'll leave it to the mannequin. She's totally rocking it." Brittany balked.
Santana simply shook her head cheekily and dragged Brittany by the arm into the shop before she could protest further.
Brittany allowed herself to be dragged until they entered the threshold, where she planted her feet on the ground, effortlessly resisting Santana's attempts to yank her further into the store.
After a few more failed attempts, Santana finally relented. "Jeez, Britt, you're like a wall."
"Walls don't try on dresses, do they? But did you know, the love lock bridge wall in Paris wears 45 tons of padlocks?" Brittany blurted.
Santana ignored the deflection and dropped Brittany's arm to step closer. "Come on, Britt, It'll be fun."
Brittany's only reply was a disapproving head tilt, but she felt her crumble resolving rapidly. How could she say no when Santana was giving her the cutest, poutiest pleadingist look in mankind?
"Okay, but seriously, I've been thinking about doing a dress like that, I wanna see how it looks on a human model." A half-truth, Santana had technically been thinking of doing a dress like that since one minute ago when she pictured how it would look on Brittany.
Brittany loosened the rigid stance that kept her feet glued to the floor and sighed. "Well, I guess I could let you see how it looks for your project."
…
"I don't think I put this thing on right. Are the straps supposed to be slowly closing the air passages in my throat?"
"The hell is she doing in there?" Santana muttered under her breath. She'd been standing outside of the changing room for the better part of ten minutes waiting for Brittany to get the dress on.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she took it out and saw a new text from Valeria. Ever since she got her phone back from being grounded, her little cousin saw it fit to text Santana every day, about all of the details of her day, no matter how mundane. Santana complained about it, but she secretly looked forward to seeing what the girl was up to after missing such a large chunk of her life.
[Valeria]: hii! i'm at lunch rn, i'm so tired bc benny was crying all night :( gonna go to my friends house later so thats fun! wbu, como estas
Santana smiled and shot a quick text back.
"Wait, I think I got it, but I don't remember the mannequin having underboob showing?" Brittany shouted from the other side of the dressing room.
"Britt," Santana couldn't help but chuckle. "Do you just want me to go in there and help you?"
"No!" Brittany rushed out. She wasn't sure that they had reached the stage of friendzoneship that was platonic enough to handle all that. "I mean- no I think I got it, let me just- ugh-"
Santana wondered how the other girl could have possibly gotten tangled in a dress with two draped straps. After debating over the sounds of Brittany's struggle for a moment, she decided to help the girl.
She placed her palm on the flimsy changing room door. "I'm coming in."
All of the shuffling from the stall came to an abrupt stop followed by an almost inaudible "okay". The door slowly opened from the inside, causing Santana's hand to slide down and take its spot at her side.
Santana failed miserably at containing a chuckle at how twisted up Brittany managed to get.
"It was confusing." Brittany attempted to defend, her nose and cheeks coloring with blush.
Santana could only shake her head with an amused grin. She stepped into the tiny stall and closed the door behind her, leaving just under a foot of space between them. "Here." She muttered as she brought her hand up to work out the tangles.
Brittany shivered as steady fingers brushed her neck. She hadn't been this close to Santana since they kissed after their first date, which incited memories of that tender moment. The same perfumy scent wafted off of the dark-haired girl as it had that night.
Trying not to think about kissing Santana, because friends don't think about kissing their friends, stop being weird, she looked around the confined space to shift her attention. Her gaze fell directly in front of her, to the big mirror on the wall, where she ended up studying the reflection of Santana's concentrated face as she weaved the material into the correct position.
She was beautiful.
Santana finished fixing the dress, leaving her hand on Brittany's shoulder unconsciously. "There you go."
She's like a muse, Santana thought.
They exited the dressing room stall and went to the bigger mirrors.
"It looks gorgeous on you, Britt."
"Thanks," Brittany smiled coyly. "I don't think that I've worn a dress like this since prom."
"Whatt?" Santana dragged out playfully. "You mean miss 'let's go to the mall to buy video game controllers' doesn't have a closet full of ball gowns?"
They both laughed, and Santana couldn't help but feel like this definitely wouldn't be the last time she would be using Brittany as a dress-up doll.
…
The two roamed around the wall and window shopped for a while longer, until they decided to grab something to eat at the food court.
"Oh my God, all the lines are so long today," Brittany complained.
"Uhh, don't look but there's an old lady staring you down like you killed her entire family behind you." Santana pointed out rather loudly, not caring that the woman most definitely heard her while they stood in line for pizza. Brittany turned her head, ignoring Santana's warning to face the elderly woman who was surely enough, glaring at her offensively.
"I'm sorry ma'am, is there a problem?" Brittany asked genuinely, but Santana recognized Brittany's voice inflection that indicated that she was holding in laughter. She couldn't blame her, it was hard to take the woman seriously when she looked about as threatening as a slice of bread.
The woman scoffed and attempted to harden her glare. "Don't use the Lord's name in vain, especially in public, there are children around."
"Ma'am, this is San Francisco…" Brittany deadpanned. If saying "Oh my God" ruffled the feathers of the woman that much, Brittany concluded that she surely must be on vacation away from some southern hick town. A stifled giggle came from Santana behind her.
The old woman scoffed again and wagged her finger at both of them and left the line to walk away.
The two girls immediately broke down in laughter.
"Jesus, she was dead serious too." Santana laughed.
"Did you see how she was looking at me?" Brittany snickered. "I thought she was gonna start turning purple or throw her cane at me."
"Woah, I didn't think sweet little Brittany had it in her to make fun of old people," Santana smirked.
"Really?" Brittany retorted. She admittedly wasn't one to make fun of others, but Santana's presence brought out a playfully devious side of her. "Well, that guy with the rattail-pornstache combo over there is dying to be made fun of. What do you think his story is?"
"I think he was raised with possums and mimics how they look to help him feel closer to them." Santana snorted.
"Wait- do you think he has a possum wife at home?"
Santana doubled over in laughter. "Britt," She cackled. "Are you saying that he fucks possums?"
They spent the remainder of the time spent in the food court pointing out random people and creating outrageous backstories for them. Was it the nicest way they could have spent the afternoon? Not really, but Santana's naturally crude wit and Brittany's acquired taunts from being in video game lobbies made for amusing banter. By the time they left the mall, they had stomach aches from laughing and about a dozen new inside jokes between them.
…
If there was one thing that came stupidly easy to Brittany, it was dance. Whitney Pierce signed her up for her first dance class at the tender age of 3. Ballet. Though the class consisted mainly of toddlers jumping around and spinning in circles, it was clear to Brittany's instructors that she was a natural talent. She stayed in dance for years, but as they went on, she started to loathe attending her dance classes more and more. Ballet was too stuffy and serious, the classes she'd effortlessly leveled up to were suddenly centered around having perfect form rather than having fun. Besides, she'd often find herself wishing she could just be at home playing Mortal Kombat.
"Britt," Whitney wondered one day shortly after Brittany had expressed her disinterest in dancing. "You love to dance, and you're so good at it, why would you want to just up and quit?"
"It's too stiff and I hate wearing buns." Brittany responded simply.
And that was the end of ballet.
2022 Brittany was left with useless knowledge of obscure ballet positions, but also the ability to dance her ass off when called for. It would seem like a good thing to the average person, but right then in the specific moment where Brittany and Sugar were trying to learn the latest Tik Tok dance, she cursed her natural talent.
"Britt! You learned the steps before today so you could show me up now, didn't you?" Sugar grouched, tugging on her excessively feathered boa.
Brittany loved Sugar to death, but the fact that the girl was so spoiled and aloof that she threw a tantrum whenever someone was better than her at something was grating on her nerves.
"Sugar, why the hell would I do that? What would I gain?" Brittany sighed.
The pair continued to practice to get the dance right, Brittany having already mastered the quick steps in minutes while Sugar fell all over her feet.
"You know what, fuck this, I'm done." Sugar grumbled. She obviously had an aversion to being second best, especially when second best also means last.
Brittany would be lying if she said that the other girl's antics weren't slightly amusing. Maybe Santana's crude sense of humor was rubbing off on her.
"How about I record and you can tag me in the caption for video credits." Sugar reasoned, already grabbing Brittany's phone to begin.
"Oh," Sugar spoke with contempt. She held Brittany's phone out to her "She wants to hang out later."
Sure enough, when Brittany looked down at her phone, there was a fresh text from Santana, asking her to come over that night. She grinned unknowingly at the message. A glance up at Sugar's raised eyebrow confirmed that she didn't approve.
"What?" Brittany quirked an eyebrow back at her.
"Isn't this the girl who knocked your ass into the friendzone?"
"Well, yea-" Brittany tries.
"Who apparently has you at her beck and call if that big doofy smile on your face has anything to do with it." Sugar points out.
Brittany had no words of defense, so she opted to stay silent and listen to her best friend.
"This whole social media rebrand thing you've got going on- it's actually working! You wanna know why? Because you're taking control of your own narrative and doing things your way. Don't let some girl who won't even claim you distract you from that."
Brittany had to admit, her friend was right, yet;
"I know Sugar, but we're just friends. Both of us have agreed on that boundary, and we're both content with the decision."
Brittany hesitated when she thought about if it really was true that she was happy with the arrangement, but she figured she'd worry about that later.
"Okay," Sugar relented. "I trust you, B, I just don't wanna see you get hurt or anything."
Brittany smiled. Sugar may have been loud and a bit bratty, but she knew that she had her back no matter what.
"I know, and I appreciate it." She hugged Sugar tightly.
Pulling away from the embrace, Sugar added, "Well, Santana better know, because I won't hesitate to go off on her perfectly dressed ass!"
"Oh, by the way," Sugar continued, "My daddy is sponsoring this social media expo next month, and there's this fancy benefit dinner that he's making me go to. Why don't you come with and maybe you can meet connections for ads and stuff. Plus I wouldn't be so bored."
Brittany wasn't the biggest socializer, but she did promise herself that she'd start taking opportunities to build her platform.
"I'll think about it."
"No problem," Sugar assured knowingly. She changed her voice to an exaggerated British accent. "But if you say yes, we'd get to get all dolled up and wear fancy jewelry and such." Sugar removed the fluffy boa from her neck, ruffling it around Brittany's playfully, causing the blonde to swipe at feathers that stuck to her chapstick.
"Okay, okay, I'll go!" Brittany laughed.
…
Days later at Santana and Kurt's apartment, the former dragged the latter in the front door, blindfolded.
"Santana, what are you doing to me? I swear if you hired me a lady lap dance again, I'm leaving." Kurt warned.
"Nope, it's not that." Santana replied shortly. She had decided to go through with her one-on-one 'Tindervention', which she was admittedly having a bit too much fun with. She had a PowerPoint set up on the tv and sat Kurt down on the couch.
"Okay, you can take off the blindfold now." Santana tried to keep her amusement out of her voice.
Kurt removed the bandana from his head and looked at Santana with a puzzled expression. She nodded her head to the tv in response, and he shifted his attention to it.
"Tindervention: Kurt Hummel's Steps to Recovery." He read aloud. "Santana, what is this?"
"It's your Tindervention!" She punctuated with a flourish of her hands. Kurt let out a long groan and dropped his head into his hands.
Santana had had her fun, but she knew she had to get serious, she really was worried about her best friend.
"Okay," She said, flipping to the next slide which was labeled 'Sex addiction?'. "I ain't blind, Kurt, I've noticed that you've been hooking up with a concerning amount of guys in the span of a few months. I'm all for hoeing around, but it's gotten excessive."
"Jesus, Santana, you have nothing better to do with your free time? I don't need this." He scoffed.
"Fine, then tell me your body count." She countered.
Kurt said nothing, looking down at his hands in his lap.
"Body count from the last 30 days?" She raised an eyebrow.
His only response was the slight pink coloring his cheeks.
"Holy fuck, it's worse than I thought, isn't it?" Santana whispered to herself. If Kurt couldn't even divulge that information to her, who he told absolutely everything, then he must have had a serious problem. She clicked to the next slide.
"STDs" She read louder than she needed to. "Are you being safe? Are you talking about health status with any of these partners?"
"I can assure you, I'm being safe. For the most part…" Kurt mumbled.
Santana made a noise of displeasure. "When's the last time you got checked? At this rate, you should be going to the clinic so often that the doctors can recognize you by your junk."
"I dunno, beginning of last year?" Kurt cringed. Santana's jaw dropped, and in a split second, she was hovering over him aiming a sandal at his head.
"That's a hate crime!" He shrieked, covering his head from the impending attack. She threw the shoe at his hand-covered head anyway, and it landed on his fingers with a light thud.
"I just got a manicure." He spouted, inspecting the damage to his cuticles.
"Get up, Lady Lips, we're going to the clinic now." She demanded.
"Okay, what about you?" Kurt countered. "Don't think I haven't noticed you hanging off of Blondie all the time. When are we gonna have an intervention for you ignoring your feelings for her?"
Santana let out a short laugh. "Don't think that you can deflect against me. I'm the queen of deflections." She smirked for a second before quickly adding, "We're just friends anyway! Now haul ass, let's go!"
"Alright, alright, we can go." He picked up his phone and slipped it into his pocket. Santana had other ideas, wanting to nip the whole thing in the bud right then and there.
"Give me your phone, Miss Priss. I'm deleting that unholy app for good."
"Noo," He pouted. "I'll stop having hookups so often, I promise."
"Don't make me pick up the chancla again, I won't hesitate to put a dent in that perfectly moisturized, mousy, little face." She threatened. Kurt backed away slowly, barely containing a laugh- most likely at Santana's serious face.
"Oh, you think that's funny? ¡No será gracioso cuando tengas una huella de zapato incrustada en tu cara!" Santana spat, and although she knew Kurt had no idea what she just said, she guessed that the playful glint in her expression and the harsh tongue communicated that A) she wasn't actually that angry with him, and B) she was actually about to throw the sandal at him.
Which is how he was able to dodge it moments before it flew at his head.
"Okay, okay, I surrender." Kurt laughed breathlessly, handing his phone to his attacker.
"Now how hard was that?" Santana smirked, deleting the app.
…
Luckily, Kurt's results confirmed that he was negative for any illnesses down there, an achievement which Santana took sole credit for, claiming that he'd be disease-ridden by then if she hadn't stepped in. It had been a week since Tindervention, and Kurt surprisingly did stop creeping out of the apartment to meet up with some guy every night.
Santana barely noticed the change though; she had been up to her neck in working on submitting her portfolio for the internship. Santana turned it in, and she was fairly confident in her ability to secure a spot for it. There were just 20 slots in a nationwide application, but Santana didn't let those odds get to her head. She put her everything into it, but she wasn't the only one. It was all she heard about on campus, and many of her friends were waiting anxiously for acceptances just like her.
The thing about Santana, though, was that she refused to blend in. She took all of her struggle with being the family black sheep and reclaimed it as being something more; something extraordinary. Her passion elevated her craft, she put her heart and soul into her works and her unfiltered brilliance flowed through them. What really set Santana Lopez apart, though, was her image. She was beautiful, witty, confident, and explicit, and people were drawn to her despite how closed off she could be. It just made her more mysterious and intriguing.
Although Santana wasn't fully aware of the details and the whys, she knew that she was attractive in more ways than physical beauty. To her irritation, she also knew that Cora Langfield was attractive in more ways than physical. Cora was an adored student at the Fashion Institute of San Francisco, Santana's classmate. She was well known on campus for her talent and popularity, much like Santana. The difference between the two was that Cora grew up in the limelight, having famous actor parents. She didn't just bask in the attention, she expected the adoration of her peers. So when she didn't automatically kiss the ground at her feet, Santana suffered the force of Cora's icy disdain.
It didn't get any better when Santana started getting positive social attention herself, or when it became evident that she was very talented.
Which is why Santana let out a long sigh when Cora Langfield walked into what Santana thought would be a free empty classroom to work in.
"Hi, Cora." Santana bit shortly. She didn't bother with sounding too cordial, she anticipated the tall redhead doing the same.
"Hello, Santana." Cora hummed overly sweetly. turned to set her bag down at the furthest table, rolling her eyes as she turned away. "Who's your friend?"
Brittany sat awkwardly on the table that Santana was working at. When she agreed to tag along with Santana while she finished up an assignment, she didn't expect to be met with the thick tension between Santana and this Cora girl. They had been chatting idly about anything and everything while Santana sewed a shirt and Brittany played with her phone.
Brittany glanced down at Santana from her perch, finding her sewing away like Cora never asked her anything. When it was apparent that Santana wasn't going to introduce them, that she was done responding to the girl, Brittany spoke up herself.
"I'm Brittany." She smiled kindly. Santana looked up at her with an unimpressed frown before getting back to her work.
Cora smirked mischievously back at her, and the sight made Brittany wonder if she should have just stayed quiet as Santana had.
"Brittany…" She repeated, seemingly storing the new information for later. "So Santana's got a new girlfriend?"
Santana stumbled on her stitch, cussing quietly at ruining the perfectly straight line she was working on. Brittany looked down at her but Santana refused to lift her gaze to the blond, keeping her eyes on the fabric.
"Oh no, we're just friends," Brittany assured, glancing back up at Cora. Cora raised an eyebrow as a response and settled into her workstation.
"Whatever you say." She muttered, her back turned to the pair. Brittany noticed the way Santana's jaw clenched and made a mental note to ask her what happened between them later.
They spent about ten minutes in silence, Brittany keeping her eyes on her phone, trying to ignore the hostile air and Santana continued working. Her anger would have spiked to a place of no return by then, but something about Brittany's presence calmed her. She took advantage of the fact by focusing on the movement of Brittany's breathing. The motion of her stomach inhaling and exhaling through her tight shirt soothed Santana even though she could only see it from the corner of her peripheral vision.
After a couple more minutes of silence, Cora spoke again, turning towards them.
"So Santana, how's your submission for the CFDA internship going? Surely you're applying."
"Yup, I'm applying. It's going grand." Santana deadpanned. Cora's face flashed disappointment, but she threw on her smirk so quickly that Brittany wasn't sure if she had only imagined her look of displeasure.
"Well it's good that you say it's going well, there's a lot of talented competition out there, you know. Wouldn't want anyone to be disappointed." She smirked, obviously trying to get a rise out of the dark-haired girl.
Santana figured she had played nice (or at least civil) for long enough. "Alright, Cora, I'm not sure if you never realized because you're too busy hosting some ginger cult or trying to rid yourself of the coppery stench of pennies, but this isn't fucking high school so you can give up the mean girl act." Santana bit loudly. She tried to ignore the way Brittany's breathing stopped in an attempt not to laugh at her abrupt outburst.
"Damn you never shut the fuck up." Santana muttered, punctuating her outburst and turning back to put the last touches on her work. Cora huffed and turned back to her workstation. Brittany's breathing resumed.
Santana looked up at her and her gaze was met with a small smile. She smiled back guiltily and mouthed a 'sorry'. Brittany silently chuckled and shook her head.
Santana finished up and the two went to her car. When they got in, Santana made no move to start pulling out of the parking space.
"I'm sorry about her," She muttered, massaging her temples, still annoyed at Cora. "Bitch has had it out for me since the moment she heard our professor praise my stitchwork freshman year."
Brittany laughed, but then her face got more serious. "Don't worry, Santana, I could see that she was trying to push your buttons." She reassured. "She's just jealous because you're so talented."
Santana tried to ward away the heat from a blush blooming on her face from the comment. She was sure that the melanin in her skin would conceal her blush, but she second-guessed herself because of the amused smirk Brittany was aiming at her.
Her suspicions were confirmed when Brittany giggled, "Are you blushing?"
"What? No! I don't blush." She sputtered as her cheeks colored an even deeper shade.
"You do. You are." Brittany poked Santana's cheek, ignoring her attempts to swat her hand away. She cooed at Santana playfully, poking her face until the dark-haired girl broke into a smile. Satisfied at the bright grin she was rewarded with, she finally relented her attack.
Santana tried to pretend that she wasn't as pleased as she was as she buckled her seatbelt. As she put the car into drive, she realized that it was time to drop Brittany off at her apartment. Though she knew she'd probably see the girl the next day, or the day after that, she still wasn't ready to part ways with her.
"Hey, do you wanna come over later?" She blurted, glancing between Brittany and the road. "I have to go run a couple of errands, but I should be back at my apartment around 5:30ish."
Brittany smiled and accepted the offer. Something told Santana that she wasn't quite ready to leave her for the day either.
…
It was 5:37, and Brittany was waiting restlessly for Santana to answer the door to her apartment. She tapped her fingers against her thighs. Santana told Brittany to come over, and that she was on the way home from visiting her mother. Brittany guessed that she had beat her there, because there was no answer from the door. Just as she was about to turn around and go sit in her car for a while until Santana arrived, the door swung open to reveal a sleepy looking Kurt.
"Hi, Brittany, what a pleasant surprise." He smiled. He looked behind him in the apartment. "I don't think Santana is here now, but you're more than welcome to wait for her inside."
"Thanks, Kurt." She said while following him in. She hadn't talked to Kurt that much, all that she knew about him was that he was best friends with and went to school with Santana. She also knew that he was flamingly gay, which wasn't much of a secret to anyone who had laid eyes on him.
He led her to the couch and turned on the TV. "Do you want something to drink?"
"No, I'm fine."
Kurt sat down and the two fell into a bit of awkward silence.
"So, you and Santana?" Kurt spoke after a few moments.
"We're just friends." Brittany said like it was a line she'd rehearsed a million times over. Kurt raised an eyebrow at her.
"I see." He said. "Seems like you two are always together, I just thought there might be more going on there." He stated knowingly.
Brittany wasn't sure why Kurt was speaking to her about Santana like this, but she wasn't going to shy away from the topic.
"Nothing going on, Santana just thought that it would be better that we stayed friends." Brittany shifted in her seat.
"I wonder what excuse she gave you for that one." Kurt muttered more to himself than to Brittany. "Maybe she pulled out the old 'I'm not over my ex' shtick.
"Her ex?" Brittany wondered. She asked herself if it was appropriate to be this interested in her friend's love life, but brushed herself off when Kurt began speaking again.
"Oh yeah." Kurt said, sitting up, leaning into the conversation as if it was getting significantly more interesting. "Dani. She cheated on Santana half a year into their relationship."
Brittany frowned. How could anyone cheat on Santana? She couldn't see why this 'Dani' girl would go looking for something from someone else when she had Santana.
"She was kind of torn up over it for about a month, but she pretty much got over it at the beginning of the year." Kurt continued. "On second thought, that's when she met you, wasn't it?"
Kurt tried to hide his sneaky grin to no avail, Brittany could tell that he had ulterior motives in telling her about Santana's love life. She smiled at him, but started to think of ways to shift the topic of conversation. For some reason, it was starting to make her head hurt.
"Well it's a good thing she got over it. Did you know that a Thoroughbred stallion got over an 8-foot fence in 1949?"
Kurt scrunched his eyebrows together in thought, undoubtedly trying to figure out how the topic of conversation steered to horse athlete statistics.
"I… didn't know that. But I just wanted to let you know that if there was something between you, she probably just needs a little push after being burned like that."
Brittany sighed. Maybe that would have been useful information if there was actually something between the two. She hadn't even attempted to sort out her feelings for Santana, but it was impossible to miss the tension that simmered between them. How close they'd gotten in such a short amount of time. The strange nervous feeling she got in her chest when Santana took longer than usual to text her back. Acknowledging her feelings meant doing something about them, and Santana made it quite clear that she had no intentions of doing something about her feelings, though Brittany wasn't even sure what her feelings truly were.
Just as she was about to reply, the door busted open to reveal Santana, carrying more grocery bags than she could maintain. Brittany silently thanked the timing and swiftly got up to help her, earning a smile and a quiet "Thank you, Britt."
"Sorry I'm late." Santana sighed as she set the bags down in the kitchen. "I made the mistake of letting my mom tag along at the grocery store. I swear she puts shit in the basket just to work out her arm muscles. She somehow convinced me that I needed three packs of strawberries."
Brittany picked up a pack of said strawberries. There was no way Santana was going to be able to eat all of them before they went bad. She smiled at the thought of Santana trying to eat a bunch of strawberries before they got moldy. Brittany then wondered what Santana's mother was like, and she imagined an older version of the girl fussing over putting things in the basket, making her grin even wider.
"That sounds like it would be amusing to watch." Brittany giggled.
Santana rolled her eyes but couldn't not return Brittany's contagious smile. "Yeah, to you. I'm the one who has to figure out what to do with enough fruit to feed a small village."
"We should make strawberry shortcake!" Brittany perked up.
"Great idea, Brittany," Kurt added, walking into the kitchen to help put away groceries.
Brittany immediately went to work on pulling up a recipe and scavenging the cabinets and fridge to see if they had the ingredients for the cake. Santana watched as she dug around the pantry, and couldn't help but notice how cute her focused face was.
Thump Thump
Santana's heart skipped a beat at the sight of the blonde-haired girl rummaging around in her kitchen like she'd done it everyday for years. Her mind illustrated Brittany furrowing deeper and deeper into Santana's life, boundaries be damned. The entire reason she pushed Brittany into the friendzone was that she didn't want to get attached, but she could feel her control over that particular matter slipping out of her hands. She quickly pushed away the thought, but not before the girl in question noticed the way her eyes were glazed over in thought, seemingly looking right through Brittany.
"Earth to Santana?" Brittany asked, her eyebrows knitted together.
"Hmm?"
"I asked you if you wanted to use cow milk or oat milk. I saw both in the fridge."
"Oh." Santana frowned, trying to figure out how she missed that. "Use the oat milk. That lactose shit is Kurts. He's from Kansas, so he probably walked outside and drank cow milk straight from the tiddy when he was thirsty growing up."
"That's false." Kurt piped. "Also, you literally grew up in Texas. I'm not even completely sure you haven't been hiding a country bumpkin twang under your accent this whole time."
"I like Santana's accent." Brittany chirped as she placed a carton of eggs on the kitchen island.
"I don't have an accent." Santana cut in.
"Yes you do," Brittany spoke with a grin. "It isn't very noticeable, but you pronounce some of your words with a certain emphasis. Like I could tell you speak Spanish from it."
Santana rolled her eyes, the action undermined by the toothless grin creeping up her cheeks. Brittany couldn't help but try to make her smile bigger, adding "It's cute."
The blonde could only reap the benefits of her comment for a split second, getting a glimpse of Santana's teeth before she turned around and grabbed a dishcloth to start cleaning the counters. Brittany knew she only did that to hide her pleased smile, which only made her smile in turn.
Kurt must have caught it too, because he slyly commented on the fact that he'd never seen Santana wipe down the counters in all the time he'd been living with her, earning him a hard glare.
The trio gathered the rest of the ingredients and went to work on the cake. Santana was surprised at how much she liked hanging out with Brittany and Kurt together. Kurt seemed to be amused by Brittany's chirpy antics, but she also noticed a silent understanding between them, which was odd because she could only remember them meeting a couple times in passing.
They finished the cake and ate it for dinner on the couch, laughing at reality tv dating shows. Santana ensured Brittany went home with a good chunk of the cake, which Brittany planned to give some of to her neighbor, Mr. Clarke, to help make up for the noise she made while streaming.
As soon as Brittany left, Kurt raised an eyebrow at Santana, who already knew where he was going.
"No, Kurt."
"I didn't even say anything." He raised his hands in defense with a sly grin.
"Yeah, let's keep it that way."
…
The next time they saw each other, Brittany was picking Santana up from campus and dragging her to see some new movie that came out.
"Come onnn, Santana, hurry. We're gonna be late." Brittany whined as Santana finished packing up.
"Relax, Britt, you know they'll show trailers for like, a long enough time for most people to finish their big ass tubs of popcorn." Santana said but stuffed her folders in her bag a little quicker nonetheless.
"You better not eat the popcorn before the movie starts!" Brittany gasped playfully at Santana once she zipped her bag up. When Santana looked up at the blonde, she was met with a smile and blue eyes waiting for her contact.
Thump Thump
Santana's heart skipped a beat, similarly to how it did the other night when they were making the cake. She couldn't control how seeing the little crinkles at the corners of her eyes, having all of Brittany's attention on her caused her body to react. She discreetly recovered from the leap in her chest and nodded shyly.
Brittany's smile changed and her face softened. Santana was being too cute. It took everything in her not to reach out and take the shorter girl's hands in hers, to just share warmth with her.
Santana's eyelashes fluttered profusely, and Brittany could see the beginnings of a blush tint on her cheeks. She knew that once it got sunnier outside her blushes would most likely be hidden, so she relished in getting to see it then.
She gave in to the urge to touch, running her fingers down the side of Santana's arm, not daring to comment on the goosebumps she felt rise in her wake. Her fingers brushed down Santana's side until they reached her hand. She latched their pinkies together and looked down at their joined fingers.
They stood together for a short moment before hearing quick footsteps entering the classroom. Santana let go of Brittany's finger with a shaky breath.
"Hey!" Cora's cheerful, nasally voice rang through.
Santana rolled her eyes, letting out a loud groan.
"Brittany right? How are you?" Cora ignored Santana completely.
"I'm good." Brittany answered, already feeling uncomfortable by Cora's presence.
"You know, I have this guy friend who just got a huge raise working in IT and is looking to spend his money on someone. Now that I think about it, you two would be perfect for each other."
"Oh wow, that's crazy," Brittany muttered. Santana immediately noticed her discomfort.
"We should totally do a group date!" Cora gasped. Santana's levels of pissed-offery were getting dangerously high, but she didn't want Brittany to witness her go off on the girl for a second time, so she reluctantly tried to calm herself.
It wasn't until Cora shifted her eyes to Santana, smugly gauging her reaction that Santana lost it.
"Oh, fuck OFF, Cora," Santana growled. "If you really think I don't know what you're trying to do, you're slower than I thought. You're trying to get under my skin by, what? Trying to set my friend up on a date with some greasy ass IT nerd who probably lurks in 4chan chats and hates women?"
Cora looked taken aback, but quickly recovered.
"Everything's not about you, I'm not worried about you, sweetie. I just think that a nice girl like Brittany should be spending her time with someone who isn't the world's biggest bitch."
Santana let out a short sarcastic laugh. "Fuck you."
She pulled Brittany by the arm and stalked out the door, heading for the parking lot without slowing down. It all happened so quickly, but once the realization of what happened hit Brittany, a heavy feeling sunk to the bottom of her stomach. She stopped herself from being dragged, detaching her arm from Santana's grip.
Santana had rejected her before, but she didn't act like it by the way she told Cora off and grabbed her arm to drag her off. She didn't get to do that. She didn't get to be possessive if she was the one who friendzoned her. Brittany knew that she had no reason to be getting so upset, but it didn't stop the emotion swelling in her throat.
Santana turned around to see why she stopped walking.
"Britt… I'm sorry you had to see that." Santana apologized softly. She reached out to take her pinky but Brittany yanked her hand back wordlessly.
Santana looked confused for a second, but then something clicked in her mind.
"Brittany… I'm so sorry for answering for you. You could have accepted her invitation if you wanted."
"I know I could have." Brittany bit shortly.
Santana knew she had offended her further and scrounged her brain for words to amend it.
"I just meant, I wouldn't have minded it is all." She looked down pitifully.
Now it was Brittany's turn to bark out a humorless laugh. "Would you have?"
Brittany knew she was being harsh but she couldn't seem to stop herself. She just wasn't sure how much longer she was going to be able to put up with Santana's behavior. She said that she wanted to be friends but she didn't act like it. It wasn't just the thing with Cora, Brittany had eyes. She noticed how much nicer she was to her than to her other friends. She noticed how Santana would look at her, how she'd laugh hard at her jokes when they weren't that funny, how she'd smile at her like she was the best person she could ever think to hang out with. Her actions didn't match her words, and it was upsetting Brittany more than she ever expected it to.
"You know what, I'll go see the movie later." Brittany muttered and stalked away before Santana could get a word in.
Santana stood there with her mouth slightly open. The blonde had never spoken to her like that before. Did she deserve it? Maybe. But it made her realize that it was one of the only times she'd ever seen Brittany stand up for herself to anybody. She thought back to the mall, where she let that old woman chastise her. The boba shop, where she apologized to a man who bumped into her. Guilt simmered in her stomach from being the person to finally bring Brittany to a state of defense.
…
[Brittany]: im sorry
Santana read the text message she'd been staring at for ten minutes again. She'd been sitting at her desk finishing homework at around midnight when she received it. She still wasn't sure what Brittany had been apologizing for, she hadn't been the one acting like an asshole.
After typing and re-typing a reply, she finally hit send.
[Santana]: you have nothing to apologize for.
She startled as her phone buzzed in her palm, an incoming call from Brittany. She quickly answered and pressed the phone to her ear.
"Hello?" She spoke softly into the phone.
"Hi."
Santana swore she could feel a brush of air on her skin from the voice on the line.
"I just wanted to say sorry. I was being mean to you earlier. I never wanna be mean to you."
"No, I should be the one apologizing. I kind of went a little crazy." Santana rubbed the back of her neck.
"Well, still..." Brittany's words drifted off. The pair sat quietly for a moment, listening to each other's faint breathing.
"I'm kinda proud of you, actually." Santana broke the silence.
"For what?"
"Standing up to me- I mean, standing up for yourself. You should do that more often."
"So I've been told," Brittany mumbled grumpily, causing Santana to giggle.
"Confrontational Brittany is kind of a badass, I'd like to see her come out more often. But not directed at me again." Santana paused, her tone turning more seriously. "I'm sorry, Britt. I'll do better I promise."
She knew her promise was kind of vague, she wasn't even sure herself what she was promising. Brittany seemed to accept it anyway.
"It's alright. So, do you maybe wanna go see the movie tomorrow instead, then?"
Santana smiled. "Only if you let me eat some of the popcorn while the trailers are playing."
Santana heard the brightness in Brittany's voice, and knew she was grinning when she replied "Deal."
…
Translations
¡No será gracioso cuando tengas una huella de zapato incrustada en tu cara!" - It won't be funny when you have a shoe print embedded in your face!"
YALLL ik the chapter is late again, aurrrr i actually feel so bad. At this point the chapters are monthly just a month after what it's supposed to be. Kinda….. heh… The good news is I'll have more time to write during the summer :) I may have overestimated myself with the decision to make each monthly chapter around 8k words, especially considering that this is my first fic, but I hope the long chapters make up for the time in between them.
Also, I wanna make one thing clear. I am NOT going to abandon this story. I know some people say that and then it's 3 years later with no update but trust, this baby will be all cranked out by the end of the year. The fic is set up to take place over the span of a year along with the updates. I know i'm a little behind but again, i'll catch up this summer.
This isn't my favorite chapter but idk what do yall think? I definitely think that y'all will REALLY enjoy the next chapter. And I'm excited about it. Wink wink.