Summary: Brittany's earliest memory is of finding her tiny crescent moon just below her collarbone. Her mom tells her that her soul mark will glow and turn a different colour - a special colour that represents her inner self - when she is in love with her soulmate. Falling for Santana was never part of the plan. Slowburn Soulmates AU. Part II
*Alternate Universe - Genderswap
Boy!Santana/Brittany
This is a childhood friends to lovers AU and Santana is a boy in this but to clear up any confusion, he has the same name (Santana is a unisex name).
*Don't like, don't read. If genderbend!Santana stories are just not your thing then you might want to give this one a pass.
*Just a warning that this is also a coming of age story and they're both dealing with some puberty-related issues as they grow up. So if you find any of that uncomfortable then this isn't for you.
I write these Brittana stories for fun because they are one of my favourite ships and I love their dynamic. This anthology is dedicated to them as a ship.
It goes without saying but if any particular storyline/trope is uncomfortable for you, then it is not the story for you. There are many other fics out there available - or you can always write your own if something does not appeal to you.
I want to thank everyone who commented positively on previous chapters.
To the one guest reviewer who asked about it, personally I am not interested in writing about boy!Brittany (The only exception might be in an AU with both characters as guys as a mlm couple perhaps but I have no plans currently and boy!Brittany in general isn't really for me). Moreover, as Santana is a lesbian, I would never want to romanticize her with a guy when she's a woman as it is highly offensive to me and squicks me out.
There is some brief Bike (Mike x Brittany) in this when they're young but they're ultimately just friends. I wrote the Bike parts when I was new to Glee and didn't know their characters as well as I do now but I do not ship Bike romantically and neither of them are into each other in this story. Bike is one of my brotps but I don't see them romantically. Brittana/Tike are way better matched romantically imo.
If you're interested in this particular story and want to see more, please review and let me know.
When they're thirteen, Santana always wants to be at her house and he still climbs up the tree outside her window most nights, asking to be let in. She doesn't ask why and just holds him when he lies beside her on her bed. She knows he's depressed because of the divorce, even though he always tells her he's glad his dad has finally packed up and left because now the screaming matches are over.
The Lopez home, which was always closer to being a small mansion, is far too big and too lonely for just Santana and Maribel. Even though his parents will buy him any absurdly expensive toy he asks for, they rarely have any time for him.
They're officially teenagers now. Brittany and Santana don't hold hands anymore when they're walking together in public. He slips his hand away from hers with a blush staining his cheeks when she reaches for it and she looks at him curiously but doesn't question it. Sometimes he lets her hold his hand and play with his fingers when they're alone at one of their houses.
She doesn't understand why it's wrong to hold his hand and intertwine their fingers like they always used to. They still have sleepovers every Friday, only without the nakedness and the make-believe weddings.
Santana has to have a plan for everything now, like some kind of villain from one of the cartoons they still watch sometimes, even though he grumbles that they're too old for them. He schemes and plots everything they do strategically - there's a motive behind everything they do at school.
Santana wants to win because he's sick of being pushed around, he says. He explains that the two of them are going to finally become popular and Brittany will never get teased again after that. She doesn't understand what's so important about being popular but Santana talks about it like it's the best thing that could ever happen and she goes along with it because if he says it will work out, she believes him.
Brittany has had her period since she was ten and Santana still doesn't know. He doesn't understand when sometimes she doesn't want to hang out at her pool with him or when she skips several of their sleepovers without much of an explanation, or why she sometimes gets mad at him out of nowhere when he hasn't done anything.
It's so unlike her to mouth off at him and he stares at her as if she's been replaced by an alien or a clone version of herself but doesn't argue with her.
"Are you okay?"
It's probably written all over her face that she's ill. She's almost doubled over in pain, feeling like all of the blood has been drained out of her face by the time she leaves school one day, a wave of nausea hitting her that makes her grit her teeth.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She manages, not knowing how she would explain this particular sickness. He looks at her in disbelief.
"Here, let me take those for you," She allows him to carry her books without further argument and he leads her out to the car park. "I'll ask my mom to drop you off, Britt. You look really pale."
Maribel gives her a sympathetic glance and seems to immediately understand without her having to explain anything when Brittany clutches her stomach as she stumbles into the car but she doesn't say anything about it.
"Poor thing. Do you have any medicine to take for that, Brittany?"
She affirms that she does and Maribel doesn't ask anymore questions, which Brittany is beyond grateful for as she doesn't want to talk about it in front of Santana but the older woman tells her to call if she needs anything.
Even though she expects him to leave, Santana wants to help when she gets to her house. She thinks it's probably better if he left her alone because of how embarrassing this is but her parents and sister aren't home and he insists that he can't leave her alone when she looks this ill.
"What's wrong really, it's only your stomach, right?" He asks, pressing a hand to her clammy forehead to see if she has fever. "Did you eat something weird? Is it your dad's cooking experiments gone wrong again?"
Brittany moans, rolling into a ball on the couch and hugging a cushion to her stomach. He watches her with so much genuine concern. She must really look like she's in agony and it seems to be killing him to have to watch her and not be able to do anything.
"You're scaring me, Britt," He sucks in a breath, pacing the floor. "C'mon, please, just tell me what's wrong."
"It's okay, Santana," She decides to just tell him the truth even though he's a boy because he's her best friend in the universe and she can't really hide anything from him. "It's just… I have my period."
Brittany is mortified and covers her face with her hands, not wanting to see his expression after she says it. She expects him to look disgusted but when she finally looks up he just blinks a few times with his lips parted, finally processing this and doesn't seem to be grossed out. In fact, he just looks relieved.
"Oh... oh. Can I get you anything?"
He eventually brings her a hot water bottle and sits beside her on the couch, even rubbing her back. She starts feeling a little better eventually and he brings her the chocolate bars and hot tea she begs for later, relieved when she finally smiles at him for the first time that afternoon.
It becomes their ritual every so often for him to be the one to rub her back and bring her whatever she wants to make her feel better whenever her cramps get really intense.
Everything is changing so suddenly and rapidly.
Brittany always had crushes on both boys and girls from as far back as she can remember. She crushes on a lot of people. She always likes slim people with dark hair, eyes, and skin. Even the actors and singers she likes look like that.
Somehow they always look and act a lot like Santana.
She's pretty sure she crushed on Santana from the moment she saw him when they were both children but that innocent crush is becoming a growing attraction she can't stop thinking about now.
She never needed to learn how to flirt because that was just something about as natural to her as dancing but all she can think about is how much she wants to try flirting with Santana and make him flustered.
She knows Santana is noticing girls too a lot. She found a stash of Playboy magazines and some Victoria's Secret catalogues under his bed that he stole from his dad. She still teases him about it and remembers how red his face got when she found them. She sees him checking out the cheerleaders when he thinks she doesn't notice. She tries not to feel smug that the girls he likes are almost always tall dancers with long legs and long blonde hair.
Brittany is still so much taller than Santana until they're fourteen and then suddenly something weird happens. Santana starts growing and his once scrawny body is filling out. When she sees him again in the last days of summer after his annual Puerto Rico trip with his parents - one of the few she didn't join him on since they became friends - he has gone through a growth spurt. She hasn't seen him in three weeks and it is as if he has grown six inches taller overnight.
He isn't tall enough to tower over her but he is tall enough to look her in the eyes now and she's sure he would be able to win their wrestling matches more easily now than ever. He's now only three inches shorter.
She doesn't know how that happened as she has been the tallest girl in her class for a few years now - but then she gets over it quickly and feels strangely captivated by him instead. He catches her staring at him when he's mowing his lawn or cleaning his pool shirtless in just a pair of shorts.
He's darkly tanned after spending so much time at the beach, skin glistening with sweat and he's all bronzed sinewy muscles now where there was once only skin and bone.
He has this wiry, compact frame but he's not the small boy he once was. His limbs aren't as lanky now, his arms becoming just a little brawnier - they're bigger than hers now and his chest is getting broader.
When she wears the ridiculous four inch high heels that she has taught herself how to walk in without stumbling, she becomes much taller than him again and it makes her giggle.
"What?" He squeaks and stares at her strangely, frowning when he feels her eyes on him for a few moments longer than necessary. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
He's clearly so confused but she says nothing, not knowing how to explain and feels her cheeks turning pink. She doesn't know why his body is so fascinating to her now.
His voice is different now too, it goes comically high sometimes when he's shy or excited. Sometimes it sounds like it did when he was a child and at other times it's deeper, smokier and it gives her chills. He's embarrassed when the kids in their class tease him every time his voice cracks.
He sings in private, only around her. She walked in on him singing when he was a child and discovered that it was something he did whenever he was feeling strong emotions that he couldn't process any other way.
He's embarrassed at first and doesn't think he's good but she convinces him that he is.
Brittany likes to sing too but his singing is precious to her. His voice when he sings has always been the most beautiful one Brittany has ever heard but now it's growing raspier, darker, and deeper, full of raw emotion.
He's becoming better at singing by the day, his control is getting better and he has more power in his vocals. She thinks he should be on a stage being heard by everyone but he dismisses the idea, embarrassed at the thought. He thinks it's not cool to sing the old timey R&B ballads and pop songs he likes.
Brittany can't help but be captivated by the sound of his singing just like he always watches her like if he's seeing an angel in human form when she dances around him.
Sometimes he sings to her when she can't sleep and Brittany wishes she could bottle the sound of it and keep it forever.
Santana is the same Santana he always was but it's as if some new, even better aspect of him has been revealed that she didn't know of before and some feeling she had towards him has shifted into something new and overwhelming that she doesn't fully understand. All she knows is that she can't get enough of being in his presence.
They're still best friends but they don't spend almost every waking moment together like they did when they were six. Santana makes friends with some of the other jocks in the class who think he's badass.
He even sort of befriends the ones he used to fight with a lot. He reluctantly tags along with Matt, Finn, Mike, and Puckerman, even though Santana always complains that Finn is too fat, dopey, and slow to be cool.
Santana sometimes spends so much time hanging out with the guys that Brittany gets a little sad but then he always comes back to her after. He tells her he secretly likes her the best and the others are just annoying. He just needs to hang with the jock dudes to boost his popularity. He tells her he hates everyone who isn't her.
Brittany has made closer friends now with other girls - girls with perfect long, blonde or brunette tresses, who are perfectly tanned and wearing clothes that look way more grown up than hers. The girls have perfectly manicured nails, super thin bodies and plan to be cheerleaders the following year.
The more she's friendly with them the more she drifts apart from Tina and Rachel and the other unpopular kids she used to play with all the time. Santana says it's for the best; it will be better for her to be seen being friends with these popular cheerleaders in training because it will make Brittany popular too and then that will guarantee that her high school years are perfect.
Maybe he has a point because Brittany does notice that she isn't getting bullied anymore. Though part of the reason for that could also be because if anyone ever dares to call Brittany stupid within his earshot, Santana goes after them so viciously that they don't ever dare to try it again.
When one of her new girl friends finds out that she has sleepovers with Santana, she looks at her bewildered. It occurs to Brittany that maybe she slipped up by revealing this out loud but she hadn't seen anything wrong or unusual about it.
"I can't," She says to Missy Gunderson when she asks if Brittany wants to come over to her place on Friday night with the other girls. "San and I have our sleepover."
"You can't have sleepovers with a boy."
"Why not? He's my best friend."
"Cause you just can't," Missy says it like it should be obvious. The other girls agree with her. "Boys our age are gross. Plus, you guys are way too old to be having sleepovers anyway."
"Santana isn't gross." Brittany insists, rolling her eyes in annoyance at the very thought of it.
Maybe some of the other boys in their class are kind of gross and always sweaty and smelly but Santana is different.
"Besides, Santana is a sun person. Even if you are best friends, a sun and a moon person being all close like if you like each other will make people get the wrong idea about you two…" She continues with a sigh, "I'm just looking out for you, Brittany."
She doesn't get any of this. Being with Santana feels as natural to Brittany as dancing did when she first figured out how to do that around the same time she was learning how to walk. She ignores their judgmental looks and says nothing more because she won't be skipping any of Santana's sleepovers.
Her parents don't mind Santana spending the night and they don't act like there's anything weird about it. They say he's part of the family and they have an air mattress set up for him in her room. They offer to let him sleep in their guest bedroom but he prefers to be with Brittany. Whitney and Pierce, who are free-spirited about most things in life, turn a blind eye to this despite their genders, their age, and the symbols they each have on their skin. Instead of sleeping on the air mattress, he always ends up snuggled together with her in her bed.
Brittany thinks it makes sense that Santana with his always hot skin and fiery personality is born at the height of summer while she, who feels cold to the touch, was born in the dead of winter.
Brittany and Santana are always holding and touching each other like they did when they were little but now he's taller and all hard angles. Hugging Santana is no longer just soft and comforting; now every touch also feels increasingly charged and intense, like a little electric current passing through her skin. It's like something is building inside of her when he holds her.
Their legs and arms tangle together so tightly that it's hard to tell where his body ends and hers begins but she just wants to get even closer. Brittany feels as if she's fading away when she's away from him for too long, like she's missing the other half of her. She remembers seeing the symbols of Yin and Yang. She thinks of the two of them, always needing each other and revolving around each other, swirling together.
She keeps expecting something to happen between them as they grow closer but she doesn't know what.
In that same freshman year, she looks at herself in the mirror and notices how much her body has changed. It's fleshier, curvier, her breasts and thighs are fuller now and her hips are rounder. Her waist has narrowed. Her body becomes toned and lengthened from constantly dancing and cheerleader practice. Her curves embarrass her at first but then the boys at school are all really nice to her and stare at her when they think she isn't looking. She doesn't get bullied anymore.
Santana stares at her too when he thinks she doesn't notice. It's as if he's staring at some kind of angelic being, his eyes wide and a startled look crosses his face, as if he's in awe. It's similar to the way he has always looked at her but his now smouldering stare is much more intense and he's quieter around her, always holding back his thoughts. He looks away when she catches him watching and blushes, fidgeting, and pretending to be texting on his phone. She wants to ask him what he's thinking about when he looks at her like that. It makes her feel powerful somehow that she can make him look at her.
He hides his sun mark everyday now with concealer he asked her to buy for him and he never lets her see it anymore, pulling his shirt down over it or backing away with a playful laugh when she tries to peek at it.
She starts teasing him that he has a secret girlfriend because she loves how he blushes and his voice gets all nervous when he denies it. Secretly, she's scared. She doesn't know why thinking about him actually having a real girlfriend actually makes her feel like she has been punched hard in the stomach by that wrestler girl Lauren and all of the wind has been knocked out of her.
One afternoon it's just the two of them swimming in her parents' pool like they always do in the summer. Her parents are away at some conference so they'll have the house to themselves for the weekend. They can both think of nothing better.
Brittany's skin is newly freckled, even more than it always has been, and turning pink where she's about to burn on her shoulders and cheeks, her hair bleached at the ends from the sun. She does impressive flips and dives into the pool while she splashes him with water just to make him laugh. Santana watches her splash around in her tiny pink bikini that she just picked out at the mall with him days before and laughs.
Sometimes she tackles him and wraps her arms around his neck with her legs around his hips, just letting him hold up her weight. He doesn't put up any fight and instead, it's as if he can't take his eyes off of her form as she spins around.
She feels his gaze on her again as she sits on the edge of the pool, threading her fingers through long waves of hair to push it back off of her face and kicks her legs in the water lazily, leaning back on her arms. He has this intense way of staring at her whenever they're alone together that makes a little shiver run up her spine.
She smiles at him breezily like she always does but he doesn't smile back this time like she expects him to. He freezes up, visibly nervous and flustered, as she gets in and wades over to his side of the pool again curiously. He leans up against the wall, all tense, scowling like he's angry, with his jaw tightened and fists clenched.
Brittany tries to cajole him into another splash war but he ignores her. It's so unlike him that her eyebrows raise in surprise.
"San, what's wrong?" Brittany frowns as he only shrinks back towards the deep end as she moves towards him. "Are you feeling sick?"
"I'm fine." He replies but his voice is sharp and hard. He only gets like this when something is scaring him or he's about to tear into someone at school with his vicious words. That only makes her more concerned.
"San?" She moves in closer to his personal space again and he gets irritated now, his dark eyes flashing warningly in a way they never have toward her before.
"Just... don't. Okay?" He holds up his hand and his jaw is so tense. "Don't come closer right now."
"Why?" She tilts her head in confusion. Santana is usually constantly touching her and wanting her close, so this isn't like him. "You're acting kind of weird, Santana. Almost like Lord Tubbington when he ate my panties that one time. Are you feeling okay?"
"Just don't!" He snarls and she retracts her outstretched arm quickly. She feels a foreign cold, tight sensation in her chest replacing the giddiness she felt earlier that she associates with him but confusion more than anything else. He never usually speaks to her this way, all frazzled nerves and irritation. Without thinking, she gets closer again because her instinct is to wrap her arms around him when he's upset but he flinches back.
"God, didn't I just tell you not to do that, Brittany!? I can't do this."
"What's wrong?" She frowns, recoiling when he snaps at her and his voice cracks. He looks mortified and she's frozen, tears coming to her eyes because she's so shocked and confused that he's mad at her. "Why are you being mean?"
He's never reacted like that before and him being angry with her because of something she did wrong is her worst nightmare come to life. She feels a tightness in her throat and she almost sobs. She ducks her head under the water for a second and he practically squeaks when she does this.
"Just leave me alone! D-don't look at me, okay?! Please."
He turns away with a grunt of annoyance and climbs out of the pool. He backs her the whole time, reaching for his towel to wipe his body off and grabbing it roughly to hold it in front of him, another thing she hasn't really seen him do much before either. He storms off in a huff, ignoring her watching his retreating form as he slams the glass doors behind him.
Being a teenager is so weird.
Brittany feels guilty, thinking maybe she overstepped a boundary somehow. The last thing she ever wanted to do was hurt him. She frowns, wondering what she did wrong or what happened to him in the pool to make his mood change so abruptly. He has been doing that a lot lately- getting all quiet and running out of rooms without an explanation when they are alone together. He is acting almost as skittishly as Lord Tubbington does when he just gets back from a vet visit.
Sometimes Santana will get like this when they're watching movies, or if she's got her arms wrapped around him. He'll pull away as if he has been burned and shy away from her touches for the rest of the time when they hang out.
Santana and Brittany have had fights before. Not many - in fact she can probably list them off on one hand - but a few blowups over the years of their friendship that often ended with them both in tears. They never usually lasted more than a few hours as they both can't seem to hold a grudge against the other.
This fight at the pool is different somehow. They go back to hanging out but there's a strange tension in the air that hasn't been there before and it's as if Santana is keeping his distance from her all day after what happened earlier. They don't talk about it. She doesn't dare to ask him why he's acting this way because she's terrified that he will get mad at her again and go home.
Brittany pouts sadly. This isn't at all how she imagined the weekend alone with him that she was so excited about planning would go.
He takes forever in the shower and Brittany looks at him in confusion when he brushes past her with a weird look on his face, still not meeting her eyes. Lately he's acting like she does when she's PMSing, so she tries to be as patient with him as he is with her mood swings.
"Wanna watch Sweet Valley High?" She asks softly when they have both showered and changed, combing out her long hair that is still damp after she just washed it. Santana really had taken forever to finish showering and for some reason she felt like she needed to look perfect for him, making sure her legs were perfectly smooth and putting on makeup when she was done.
The show is their guilty pleasure now, along with One Tree Hill. Brittany introduced him to them and Santana would never admit that he likes this kind of series but she knows he secretly got caught up in the drama. It's not exactly macho to admit he likes so many of the same things she does.
"Okay." He nods and shrugs, his voice is gentle compared to how it was before as if he's ready to forgive her for whatever she had done but he sounds hoarse and doesn't quite meet her eyes.
Brittany pouts at him with what must be a hurt look on her face as the noise on the TV blares on. She just wants her Santana back. He stares off into the distance from the other side of the couch leaving lots of space between them and it's clear that he's paying no attention to the show.
"I'm really sorry," He sighs after a long while, finally getting up and walking over to her side to wrap his arms around her with a guilty expression. His voice cracks with emotion when he apologizes and he sounds like he's about to cry as his lip wobbles. "I'm so so sorry, I didn't mean to be such a jerk to you out there... You didn't do anything wrong, Britt. I'm such an ass."
She smiles and forgives him easily, leaning into his warm body and nuzzling into his neck for a second, his familiar rich, musky scent invading her senses. She instantly feels calm because of it.
"Aw, San. It's okay, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable."
"You didn't. I never meant to hurt your feelings... I just... Never mind."
Brittany shrugs, thinking this must be some kind of boy hormone thing she can't figure out yet. She boldly kisses his cheek - the first time she has done it since they were little - and feels his skin heat up against her lips as his face turns visibly redder.
"It's really okay. Let's just have fun. I'm glad to have my best friend in the world back."
Santana grins at her when she says this and visibly relaxes when she beams at him.
"You're my best friend too," He admits. "You always have been."
He shivers when he feels her breath against his skin and she feels his gaze on her legs as she stretches out beside him, encouraging him to get closer to her. They don't talk much as they continue watching TV, Santana occasionally responding to her comments about the characters.
That night they fall asleep in each other's arms as usual, despite Santana being so unusually aloof and keeping his distance for most of the day. They always end up entangled in each other's arms. She loves the brief moments when he falls asleep before she does as he looks more like the soft part of Santana she has always known when he can't hide behind any masks.
Her twin bed is almost too small for both of them to fit comfortably together now. He feels so warm and comfortable against her, his breaths slow and rhythmic lulling her into dreamland. She smiles and drifts off into a peaceful sleep as she always does pressed against his chest but then it seems almost like as soon as she's fallen asleep, a sound wakes her up.
She glances at the clock on her nightstand and sees that it's after 2 a.m. Santana is shifting against her and mumbling, his thigh pressing up between hers. She gasps at the sudden pressure against a sensitive area and he pulls away from her roughly, rolling over to the other side of her bed and still talking in his sleep and laying face down on his stomach. Not really talking. Moaning would be more accurate.
She can barely make out what he's saying in her groggy state but then she hears him saying her name clearly. "Britt... Brittany…"
That makes her eyes open wide and she sits up alert. She glances over at him and he's still clearly asleep, face down against a pillow, hands clenching the sheets. She's suddenly conscious of a distinct wet warmth against her upper thigh so she pulls back the sheet and there's a sticky feeling all over the bedspread as well.
"Santana?" She whispers into the darkness.
He finally wakes up after a moment and turns to look at her. He seems to be still not quite coherent and looks at her as if he's not sure whether she's real or not. Then he sits up quickly, pulling the sheets back carefully and staring down at his own lap.
"I don't remember buying a waterbed. Did you wet the bed?" She asks dreamily, rubbing her bleary eyes.
Santana says nothing but there's a nervous, restless vibe coming off of him and she can't get back to sleep knowing he's awake. His breaths quicken.
"San? It's okay if you did, you know?" Brittany says kindly then starts to babble. "I won't tell anyone… Were you dreaming about swimming with Ariel? You don't have to be ashamed but maybe you shouldn't drink so much before bed-"
"I didn't wet the bed, okay?!" Santana interrupts and it makes her wake up fully out of her half awake state and stare at him, perplexed. She sees that he's terrified and maybe that's why he's getting so aggressive. Santana only gets angry like that when he's very afraid of something.
Brittany looks down at her bedspread again curiously, feeling the unfamiliar stickiness and flips on her lamp as Santana gets out of the bed. She's so tired and just wants to get back to sleep and forget about all this but Santana is obviously upset and there's the issue of the sheets to be dealt with. There's a strange smell, almost musky and a little like... bleach.
She suddenly remembers everything they learned in health class - the hushed whispers of girls giggling about boys and their body functions. The earthy smell triggers something in her and it hits her.
She looks over at Santana's trembling back.
Oh. She really feels as stupid as other people think she is now. How could she be this insensitive and make Santana feel so uncomfortable? She realizes what's on her sheets and the thought makes her feel like her whole body is burning up from the inside out, her heart beating fast.
"Oh," She says. "Oh, Santana... so you? You had a wet…"
She trails off not needing to say anything more. He looks completely ashamed and still purposely avoids her eyes, his shoulders shaking like if he's about to cry and she can't stand seeing him like this anymore.
"It's alright," Even if she's not good at much else, Brittany considers herself to be the expert in cheering up Santana Lopez. "It's just me...you don't have to be embarrassed, okay? I'll throw these sheets in the washing machine... no one will ever even know."
"This is so humiliating," He sobs after a while but allows her to come close and hug him from behind, her arms around his back and he leans back into her, "I'm so sorry, Britt."
"Don't be," She whispers softly, "It's not something you can help."
It's not as if he ever makes a big deal about the embarrassing things that happen to her when she has her period.
He clears his throat awkwardly, "Brittany, I kind of need…" He trembles against her, looking down and he doesn't have to say anything more as she quickly catches onto what he's talking about.
"Check the bottom drawer. There's a pair of your old shorts from last time you slept over and forgot them. My mom washed them."
It's a mortifying experience for Santana but Brittany tries to make light of everything, ignoring how she secretly feels this strange heat consume her whenever she thinks of the way he was grinding against her in his sleep. She wonders who he was dreaming about... Who appears in Santana's hidden fantasies?
After he's back in her bed on clean sheets from her cupboard, he looks up at her and sighs, still self-conscious and tense. She rubs his shoulders and arms soothingly. They're lying on their sides, facing each other.
"Do you want me to go home?"
"Why? You just got here today?" She looks at him, bewildered. "I really want you here with me."
"I can understand if you're creeped out by me after this and never want to speak again."
Brittany resists the strong urge to roll her eyes at how dramatic he is being and give him the lightest of playful smacks on the shoulder with a soft giggle.
"Santana, don't be silly. You're so silly sometimes. You're my best friend for life and you're stuck with me."
He smiles at that and she can see the relief pass over his features but his eyes still betray his underlying emotions. He's worried.
"You should get some sleep."
"I can't. Suppose it happens again when you're right here?"
"Then it happens again and it doesn't have to be a big deal," She says softly and means it. "We're both super tired and we can just sleep. It's really okay, Santana. It's not like you can help it. It's really okay."
"Please don't tell anyone…" He's practically begging her. She shakes her head in disbelief that he would think she would.
"Of course I would never. I promise," Brittany holds up her little finger to pinky swear with him. Even though he won't ever do this with her in public, secretly Brittany and Santana have been linking pinkies since they first met. "As your best friend, I have to keep all your secrets and you have to keep mine. It's like the law or something."
Santana chuckles and she knows he trusts her as his little finger and hers lock together. Just like that, his walls come down around her again and the tense atmosphere is mostly gone. After a few moments when they're both almost asleep again she asks him the one thing that's been haunting her because she can't resist.
"So, who exactly were you dreaming about, Mr. Naughty Dreams?" She pokes him in the side gently.
"What? N-nothing," He stutters, clearing his throat and shuffling away from her slightly. "No one. Just random girls. Pretty ones."
"Oh? Anyone I should know about?" Brittany teases.
"No!"
She looks at him skeptically and giggles again.
"You were saying my name, you know? You kept saying it like this... Oh Brittany!" She mimics him, pretending to moan in an exaggerated way like how some of the people do on that one weird porn channel she found on cable that she watches out of curiosity.
"Brittany!" He yells, flustered and she swears if she could see his face in the dark, his cheeks would be bright red. He's dead silent for a moment, processing this and she knows she has totally overwhelmed him. It never seems to take much for her to make him a flustered mess. She smiles, bopping him on the nose to let him know she's only joking around and pressing a kiss to his cheek apologetically.
She laughs and rolls over finally to get some sleep, ignoring her racing thoughts.
She feels her soul mark burning against her skin and pulls the covers up closer to her neck, quietly rolling to face away from him to make sure it's hidden.
They never talk about his dream again but she constantly thinks about the way he groaned her name and his body shifted against hers. It makes her feel like not just her mark but her entire body is overheating from the inside out.
Santana and Brittany go on their first date, one that's actually a date and not just a "date" that consists of their parents chaperoning one of them and some kid from their class, when Brittany is fifteen.
One of the jocks - a friendly one who hadn't bullied her before - called Mike Chang asks her out casually after school one day.
Mike is thin and really tall, somehow even taller than she is and even though she never thought about dating him before, she likes him as a person. He's sassy and soft-spoken like she is, really smart, the best male dancer in their entire school probably and he has never been one of the boys who called her stupid. At least not to her face…
She knows she definitely isn't the first girl Mike has asked out. He is rumoured to have dated most of cheerleaders. Yet it doesn't feel as if he's a bad guy.
It's around the same time that she watches secretly as a leggy, pale-skinned girl with long, light ginger hair, pale blue eyes, and freckles in their class asks Santana out boldly.
Emily is about the same height as Brittany and a cheerleader. Only no one ever calls her "stupid" or "weird" like what they call Brittany.
All of the girls in their class now look at Santana differently, with appreciative glances and whisper about how hot he is. Brittany feels weird about that for some reason. She wants to tell them to stop talking about him even though they haven't said anything that isn't technically true. Santana is so hot.
He has a reputation for being snarky and mean so that scares most people off. The tall redhead, Emily, is the only one of them who's brave enough to ask Santana out. Brittany can tell Santana thinks she's pretty because of how his eyes linger on her legs and long hair.
It's the same way he usually looks at Brittany when he thinks she doesn't notice.
Brittany feels this pain well up inside of her. Her chest hurts.
The four of them go on a double date together to the movies - because of course, as best friends, Santana and Brittany have to do everything together and this is no exception.
So the four of them go on a double date together to the movies and arcade. They're alone without any parents around so it feels very official. It's Santana's idea because he says it will be good for them both to be experienced with dating now that they've just started high school.
Plus Emily and Mike are both really popular, she's a cheerleader and Mike is a footballer. All of Brittany's friends think their date is a perfect idea because Santana and Emily both have sun marks while her and Mike both have moon ones.
Mike is incredibly sweet and holds her hand the way Santana normally would the whole time.
Santana is excited at first when they leave together, Mrs. Lopez taking pictures of the four of them, but becomes increasingly sullen and moody, not paying much attention to his date even though he has his arm thrown around Emily's shoulders.
Santana glares at Mike and doesn't speak to him even though they were sort of friends before the date.
For once, Brittany ignores Santana. He's one of the most temperamental people she has ever met so his irritation doesn't seem that unusual to her.
She genuinely likes Mike and while she's not in love with him, he's a friend. He makes her feel good and being on a date with an actual high school boy is fun. It's the most fun she has had in a while.
It's a good distraction from watching Santana hold that girl's hand as she leans close to him. Brittany can't bear to look at them.
Mike gives Brittany a little chaste kiss on the lips when they're outside of the cinema after Emily says goodbye to the three of them.
It's not much and last for three seconds but it's Brittany's first official kiss with a boy. Well, second official kiss, if you don't count Santana. She closes her eyes, waiting for those fireworks and butterflies that all of the romance movies talk about but they don't ever come.
It feels kind of weird and wrong. He's like her family or something.
He's good-looking but he's just not her type.
Santana walks by right as it happens and she doesn't understand why she feels so guilty that she pulls away instantly.
Santana looks like all the blood has been drained from his face and his frown deepens.
He doesn't speak to either of them for the rest of the night, grumpily watching the two of them make jokes until Mike finally leaves with a small smirk on his face as he glances at Santana and shakes his head.
"Did you have a good time?" She asks finally when the two of them are alone.
"I guess," He grunts, noncommittally. "Emily was pretty. Why wouldn't I?"
"Did you like her?" She asks even though she kind of fears the answer for some reason.
He shrugs.
"I don't know. She's hot."
"You ignored her almost the entire time," Brittany points out in a flat tone. "It didn't seem like you liked her as a person. Maybe you just like her body."
She wants to point out that he spent most of the time sulking and watching Brittany instead.
"What do you care so much?" He snaps defensively. "Are you always going to be spying on me on my dates? It was a really good date."
"Okay, Santana." Brittany replies doubtfully, drawing out the words slowly but doesn't press any further.
He shoots her an annoyed look as they continue walking together in the darkness and she eventually gets fed up with his silent treatment. She can feel frustration rolling off of him in waves.
"What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I'm not," he denies, scowling and crossing his arms over his chest defensively. "Nothing's wrong, Britt."
"Then why are you acting like this?" She starts feeling irritated even though very few things can make Brittany really lose her temper. "You've been really grouchy for the entire night for no reason. Like grouchier than normal. I miss normal Santana."
Santana rolls his eyes at her and pops his neck.
"Did I do something wrong?" She takes a deep breath and softly continues, trying for a sweeter approach that always seems to get her further with him. "You're acting like Lord Tubbington when I trim his nails, all growling and sharp fangs."
"Nope." He says, popping the P. He's all sassy attitude as they walk back to Brittany's house, more menacing like how he acts around the kids in their class instead of the sweet, warm person she's accustomed to when he's alone with her.
It just makes Brittany so frustrated that she grabs his arm and tries to spin him around when he keeps walking fast in long strides ahead of her. She knows he's trying so hard to avoid this conversation. She hates fighting with him.
"What?" He snarls, stepping towards her and her face softens, still holding his arm.
"Santana," She says in a deadpan tone. "Stop it."
"Whatever! Maybe you'd rather be making out with that loser Mike Chang," He retorts viciously, with a dramatic eye roll like if it's the worst thing in the world she could do. "He can't even sing."
"Huh?" She's so confused. "Why would I want to do that?"
They both are breathing hard when they stare at each other. She keeps noticing his lips. They're full and she's never seen anyone else with more attractive, pouty lips before in her life if she's being honest.
"I don't know why you're in such a bad mood but I'm not arguing with you anymore. This is dumb." She says firmly. She feels close to tears now. They haven't had an argument this bad since the time he set her Ken doll on fire.
"Fine," He huffs bitterly, "Whatever, I don't care if you're into him."
Brittany has had it up to here with his attitude at this point and does the only thing she can think of to bring him back to her when he gets like this. She grabs his face and turns it towards hers, holding his jaw to force him to look at her and stop walking away.
"What you're seriously just going to act all mean like this for the entire night just because you're jealous of Mike?" She blurts it out before she can even think about what she's saying but she knows all at once that it's the truth. It's confirmed by the way Santana immediately looks at her in outrage and rushes to deny it, stuttering.
"I'm not- that - that's ridiculous... Why would I be jealous?"
"Aren't you?"
They inch closer again and she's suddenly faced with his pouty lips and impossibly dark, hooded eyes again and she forgets how to breathe.
Before she can figure out what's happening, they're kissing. He instigates it. He's tentatively pressing his lips against hers and they're both trembling. She lets out a little gasp of surprise, not expecting it but suddenly wanting it so badly like she never wanted anything before and her eyes slip closed, tilting her face. She lets him set the pace.
At first it's messy and they're both completely inexperienced but then he presses in again, sucking her bottom lip gently. Everything changes with that little movement and she feels that tingle, the sparks and fireworks that she didn't feel when Mike kissed her.
They keep kissing, for probably way too long for two people who are just best friends and for people with opposite soul marks who definitely shouldn't be doing this. It's like an electric shock shooting up her body and she shivers against him.
Everything makes sense suddenly. They're Santana and Brittany and this is what they were meant to be doing. She loops her arms around his neck.
He pulls away quickly and she can't stop touching his jawline and his neck and running her fingers through hair. For one peaceful moment He smiles at her, but then he's fearful again, rigid against her when he seems to realize what they've done. He glances around nervously as if he expects someone to have caught them. But they're all alone in a deserted lot they sometimes trek through to get to her house.
"You were my first kiss, you know," She whispers, tracing the shell of his ear with her fingertips and making him tremble. "When we were kids, remember? In my backyard when I was a princess."
He says nothing like he can't trust himself to speak, breathing hard, squeezing his eyes shut and she presses her hand against his chest comfortingly. He leans into her touch. If only she could get into his head and make him stop worrying.
"Of course I remember," He admits in a shaky voice. "I could never forget that."
She reaches for his hand and intertwines their fingers. He lets her and his face softens but he still has that nervous frown.
"What about Mike Chang?"
Brittany laughs because she can't imagine Santana even thinking that anyone else she dated would mean more to her.
"I don't like him the way I like you."
He looks relieved but then he sucks in a nervous breath when he remembers that this isn't supposed to happen.
"Did you like it? When we kissed?"
"Brittany." He bites his lip and blushes at her shamelessness, avoiding her eyes. She knows he likes it because he wouldn't stop kissing her and even now he's staring at her lips.
He's holding back and has his serious frown on now.
"We can't tell anyone about this, Brittany."
"Okay." She sighs. She thinks she would do anything to be able to feel his lips against hers again even if she can never tell a soul.
"I'm serious," Santana insists, though his gaze keeps drifting to her mouth and his eyes are glazed over. "Never. I'm just trying to protect you."
"Okay..." she says softly again, frowning. That bubbly bright feeling she just had is starting to wither away again.
Santana stays in her room, already asleep when they get back to her house while she takes off her shirt in front of the mirror in the bathroom, her soul mark glowing bright pink again when she thinks of their kiss.
She sees Mike again a few days later at school and she wonders if this means her and Mike are dating. He goes to kiss her on the cheek but they both start giggling and agree that they're better off as friends. Mike admits to Brittany that he thinks Tina is really cute and she encourages him to ask the goth girl out.
To be continued
Thanks for reading. If you are interested in how this story is going so far and would like to see more of it, or are interested in any of the stories from previous chapters, please review and let me know. I'd love to know your thoughts.