She'd felt Santana tense up when she pulled up to the gate, the Latina's fingers were now digging into her sides as they drove up the small paved road to the little pavilion. She was sure it wasn't the normal reaction one would give at the sight of an open field because it always made Brittany relax. Parking the motorcycle Brittany pulled off her helmet checking on Santana, the Latina was pulling off her helmet and nervously glancing around. "Are you okay?"
"F...Fine." Santana nodded handing the helmet to Brittany.
"No you're not." Brittany shook her head putting the helmet with hers "What's wrong?"
"B...Bad memories." Santana admitted still surveying their surroundings.
"We can go if you're uncomfortable." Brittany said softly, taking Santana's hand she tried to look in the brunette's eyes but Santana was looking somewhere else.
Staring at their clasped hands Santana swallowed, only Quinn had been able to calm her down from a past related panic attack, but holding Brittany's hand made Santana feel safe, grounded and braver than she had been in centuries. Shaking her head Santana looked up at Brittany with determination in her eyes "N...no, I want to know why this place is special to you."
"We can make some good memories here maybe you'll forget the bad ones." Brittany said grabbing the saddle bags from the motorcycle.
"I would like that." Santana nodded.
"This is my picnic and dance area." Brittany gestured around the small pavilion with the hand carrying the saddlebags, it had a short square wooden table set at one end with pillows on the wooden floor. Brittany helped Santana sit on the cushions before kneeling next to the table to unload her bag, "Pierce's is one of my favorite places to eat, so I asked him if he would help me with our date." Brittany said bringing out different plastic containers of food and two drinks from one of the bags, the other bag held a speaker, Santana watched Brittany connect it to her phone, soft music now filed the area.
Taking off her jacket Santana watched Brittany set up the table, the plates, silverware and napkins. "D...do you need any help?" Santana asked trying to keep herself busy.
"We can plate the food." Brittany said sitting next to Santana, pulling the food over in front of them Brittany smiled. "We should play 20 questions." Brittany said poking at her phone and putting soft slow music on. "That way I can get to know you and you get to know me."
"Okay." Santana nodded.
"I already know your favorite color, it's either black or red."
"Both." Santana admitted "And you said you like all colors."
"It's not fair to the other colors." Brittany shrugged, Santana smiled admitting.
"I just look hot in my colors, that's why they're my favorites."
"You do look really hot." Brittany agreed.
"So what am I eating?" Santana recognized some of the food.
Brittany explained what everything was as she opened the containers "So this is barbecued ribs, Pierce makes the best, and we have kimchi, steamed rice and cookies!" Brittany's voice raised excitedly at the sight of the flower shaped cookies, Santana chuckled. "These are really good but Pierce made these for you." Brittany handed Santana a darker cookie.
"Dessert before dinner?" Santana asked taking it.
"Always and these are awesome, he usually gives me them for my birthday, they have honey." Brittany said taking a bite of her own cookie. "That one has chocolate."
"Is he like a creeper or something?" Santana asked concerned.
"Creeper?" Brittany tilted her head as she dished out the food.
"Is he like after..." Santana gestured at Brittany herself.
It took a second before Brittany understood "No, Pierce is a nice guy, he'd be a great dad if he had any kids. He was married before, his ex wife is mean, she comes by and breaks things."
"Sounds like a bitch." Santana agreed.
"She didn't want kids and that's why they divorced and she got mad because she didn't get his money." Brittany babbled taking another cookie, this time one of the chocolate ones.
"I can take her out." Santana offered then corrected herself "I mean make her leave him alone, I can put one of my guy's at his place to scare her off." she'd noticed Brittany had trouble understanding some sayings.
"You would do that for me?" Brittany asked.
"Of course." Santana said finally taking a bite and moaning, swallowing she said "It may cost you the occasional box of cookies. These are really good."
"I told you, it's like a gift from the gods, best food in town."
"My Breadstix rank right up here with these." Santana said before shoving another cookie in her mouth.
"So 20 questions, I'll start." Brittany sat back studying Santana for a moment "Why do you keep looking around? That's not my question but you keep doing it." Santana hadn't thought she'd caught her continuing to scan the area, apparently she'd been wrong. "Is it that bad memory stuff? "
Clearing her throat Santana couldn't stop her smart ass mouth it was part of her defense mechanism "We need to work on your questions."
Brittany waited watching Santana wringing her hands in her lap, seeing how upset Santana was Brittany offered "You don't have to tell me, we can leave."
"N...no...I, what the hell is that, is that a dog?" Santana pointed towards the other end of the pavilion, it was the size of a cocker spaniel. Her fear was taking over by her curiosity, the beast was slowly lumbering towards them.
Brittany glanced over her shoulder chuckling "That's my cat, Lord Tubbington, Charity's at my mom's but he likes it here."
"Holy gato gordo." Santana watched the hulking cat slowly walk over to them. "That can't be a normal cat."
"He was a present from my mom's friend, he was visiting from Egypt, he said Lord Tubbington would watch over my park." Brittany explained putting a small bowl of food on the ground for him. "That guy." Brittany pointed at one of the different symbols carved into the closest pillar. Santana nodded recognizing the symbol as Horus an Egyptian god, she respected him, he was a protector. So the fat cat was definitely more than just a fat cat. It seemed Brittany didn't have her shitty luck with other gods. "You okay?"
"Yea." Santana nodded deciding to go with the truth "You and I just had very different up upbringings." Wanting to know more Brittany waited for Santana to continue. "My mom's family wasn't exactly thrilled to have a daughter of Ares in their mix, a few even tried to kill me on several occasions, and they almost succeeded once...in a field...very much like this one. Which is why open fields make me nervous, no place to hide."
"Oh no!" Brittany's hand shot to her mouth as she tried to cover her gasp.
"That was when Quinn found me, they'd ganged up on me, I fought the best I could but I was the hated half breed daughter of their love goddess so my best wasn't great. It was only a few minutes before I was on the ground getting kicked and hit in the head and stomach..." Santana shook her head, pausing she exhaled, Quinn had been her saving grace, it had happened in a blur, a kick to the head and then a scream that was not her own. "Flaming sword, coal black eyes, shiny golden flowing hair, her armor... I thought she was a Valkyrie." Santana admitted. Brittany couldn't believe how Santana described Quinn, the Quinn she met was a quiet, bubbly, love goddess. "I'm not sure what happened but when I finally woke up I was in Greece and banned from returning home. My ribs were broken, skull cracked, arm broken." Santana reached out taking Brittany's hand, the blonde was on the verge of tears. "My mom was with me and stayed until I was strong enough to walk again. Ares actually helped with that one, he brought ambrosia, it helped to speed my healing just not as fast as it would have if I'd been full Greek." Santana added, she'd learned early on she'd had a few strengths and weaknesses that the other Maya gods didn't and it was due her being part Greek. "It was also the first time I remembered meeting him, mom said he wasn't allowed to see me because he was banned from our lands but apparently he'd snuck in a few times to see me."
"That's mean, why were they mean?"
"Very mean." Santana agreed, though she was sure Brittany hadn't ran into any. "I was different and they didn't like it." Santana answered honestly. "Ares had me start training with his other kids once I had my strength back and Mom returned home but would check on me at least once a week, she didn't like me so far away but she knew the others wouldn't come after me in Greece. They wouldn't risk a war."
"That's so sad." Brittany shook her head.
"Training was a pain in the ass, I was the youngest and with Ares checking on me the others got a little jealous," little wasn't exactly the right word but she wasn't going to tell Brittany that her older siblings tormented her because Ares was giving her more attention. "but I had Quinn," Quinn had gotten into many fights with their older siblings protecting Santana, Ares had been pissed when Quinn told on their siblings, truthfully Santana had never seen him upset and it had freaked her out watching his eyes change to black and the flaming sword appear in his hand as he screamed at a room full of his children. "she's a total daddy's girl."
"But she's a love god." Brittany said confused.
"She was an awesome war goddess." Santana said truthfully "Once I was trained enough to protect myself Ares and my mom let me travel with Quinn, mostly Greek and Roman lands or those protected by the Greek/Roman gods. Quinn would handle the occasional skirmish it was during that time when my temper started getting the best of me, I couldn't believe these people were starting wars over something as stupid as what god to build a temple for, I mean really how difficult is it to build a temple and put a statue or bust of every god in it?" Santana rolled her eyes. "But Quinn did her job either making the fighting worse or stopping it all together."
"That's just weird." Brittany shook her head.
"We stopped when I had my first panic attack." Santana admitted "I could handle anything, the ransacking of a village, castles being seized, everything...except fields." Santana said softly. "All we were supposed to do was watch, make sure the other gods didn't cheat...Quinn had to call Ares in...I couldn't do it. I couldn't breathe...all it took was one soldier being knocked to the ground and surrounded and everything from that day came rushing back. Quinn said I was on my knees and breathing really fast, trying to take my armor off, I just remember my heart was beating so fast I thought it was going to explode, I couldn't breath...Quinn took me out of there, back to Ares temple." Brittany waited as Santana gathered her thoughts, she'd never talked to anyone about it before. "Quinn had me stripped out of my armor and almost breathing normal by the time Ares showed up, he was angry, not at me or Quinn but at my relatives the ones who had almost killed me in the field, he knew it was their fault."
"What did he do?" Brittany asked nervously.
"Nothing to them, he had to keep the peace, but he retired Quinn from the battle stuff because he knew she wouldn't leave my side and she hasn't. Quinn's been by my side ever since she rescued me, the quintessential over protective big sister." Santana added "She rarely lets me out of her sight, even to this day, her office is in the building next to mine, and creeper that she is her office looks into mine." Santana couldn't help but smirk at the last part.
"Should we call her? Tell her you're okay?" Brittany asked. "You are okay? If you're not we can leave."
"I'm okay." Santana promised giving Brittany's hand a squeeze "A little nervous, but it's not debilitating..." Brittany's eyes narrowed as she tried to understand, Santana explained "I'm not having a panic attack, I'm okay here... with you." Santana smiled at Brittany, Brittany smiled back.
"We should send call her."
"I'll text her." Santana said taking out her phone, quickly poking it a few times she tucked it back into her purse "Now," Santana cleared her throat "20 questions, go."