"Da fuck?" Santana mumbles at 5 AM, waking up with a start to a strange noise. She can't identify it or turn to see what it is, because Brittany has her trapped in her endless limbs (she has no regrets).
"It's her routine, baby. Try to go back to sleep." Brittany kisses her and pulls her tighter.
"Huh?"
"Rachel's routine. Sleep. More. Now." Brittany runs her hand up and down Santana's back, knowing it soothes her.
"So weird," Santana mutters as she drifts back to sleep.
The next time she wakes, it's to Brittany's alarm. Brittany rolls on top of Santana to turn it off, and the Latina circles her waist to prevent her from rolling back after shutting it off. Brittany leans down to kiss her thoroughly. "Mm, good morning to you," she whispers into Santana's mouth. "I don't want to get up."
"Don't." She chases Brittany's lips upwards. "Stay here."
"Don't tempt me. I have class, and so do you."
Santana nods into the kiss, acknowledging Brittany's words, then gently rolls them so that she's on top. "Two minutes." She slides her tongue gently against Brittany's, and the blonde moans into Santana's mouth. After a few more seconds, she pulls away and sighs. "Okay, we do have to stop now, because if we don't, then I'm not sure I'll be able to." She leans down and pecks Brittany's lips once more before pushing herself off her. As they get ready for the day, they continue to steal little kisses here and there.
Brittany manages to get a good chunk of studio time from 6 PM to 10 PM that night. She's grateful, since she knows this won't always be the case. As soon as she gets to the studio, she locks herself in and starts warming up. While hip hop is her favorite style, she likes the idea of doing a lyrical piece for her audition, so after warming up, she puts her iPod on random and tries to find a song. After skipping through dozens of songs, she hits one that makes her smile. She listens to it for a few seconds, thinking that it reminds her of Santana. The song might be perfect; it makes her feel all of her very big feelings for Santana, and big feelings often lead to beautiful dancing.
While Brittany's busy at the dance studio, Santana is watching trashy TV with Mercedes and Kurt and valiantly trying not to text her girlfriend. To distract herself, she asks, "'Cedes, you're singing at the talent show, right?"
"Mhmm."
"What song?"
"I don't have time to prepare anything, so I'm just going with 'And I Am Telling You.' And I am telling you, I'm gonna kill it." They high-five.
"What are you doing, Kurt?" Santana asks him. "No, let me guess. Phantom of the Opera with that damn sequin cape you have."
"How did you—I mean, no. I'm going to sing Blackbird. It's one of Blaine's favorite songs. How about you, Santana? You gonna sing to Miss Brittany?" He starts making kissing faces in her direction.
"No! Yes. I don't know. Is it…if I sing a song about love, will she think I'm in love with her? It's too soon for all that, right?"
Mercedes looks at Kurt with a raised eyebrow that clearly says, "Who does she think she's fooling?" However, they both stay silent, knowing that Santana works through things on Santana's time. Plus, neither wants to bring out her bitchiness. She's been kind of pleasant lately.
"Don't overthink it, San. If you want to sing a song about love, you don't have to tell Brittany it's to her. Or you could always do something else."
Santana slumps down into the couch, unsure what to do. She just doesn't want to do anything that might scare Brittany away.
By Saturday morning, Santana is pretty sure she's going through Brittany withdrawal. She misses her so badly. She misses spending time with her, the cute way her nose scrunches up when she laughs, her bright blue eyes, her body pressed against hers, everything. Even worse is the fact that she thinks Brittany is seriously overworking herself. The only time she's seen Brittany has been lunches, where Brittany eats and does homework with Santana's help, and Thursday night for three hours, because Brittany was so behind on homework that she panicked and left the studio to go to the library.
At 8 PM, Brittany leaves the studio and goes back to her room. She's happy with the progress she's made but not very happy with what's happening in the rest of her life. She's behind in homework, she isn't sleeping very much, and she hasn't eaten more than lunch every day since Monday. Most importantly, she's barely seen or talked to Santana. Back in their room, she waves vaguely in Rachel's direction before setting her things down and collapsing on her bed. She needs a second of rest before she goes to the library.
As she tries to stand, she feels her leg start to cramp. She reaches down and squeezes her calf, hoping the pain will stop. Despite her best efforts not to, she just starts crying. She tries to muffle the sound, but between the pain, her frustration, and sheer exhaustion, her sobs reach Rachel across the room.
Rachel pauses her movie and quickly runs over to Brittany. "What's wrong, Brittany? Are you hurt? Can I help you?" Brittany just shakes her head and continues squeezing her cramped calf muscle. "Do you need to go to the doctor? Do you need ice? Do you want me to sing to you?"
"N-no, I'm fine. I just...I'm hungry and tired and stupid and I m-miss S-Santana."
Rachel sighs. She knows how busy Brittany has been and also thinks that Brittany is overdoing it—which, coming from her, is really saying something. "I think you need a night off." Brittany starts to shake her head no. "If I had someone that special to me, I'd want a night with them, especially if I was as tired as you clearly are."
"She probably has plans."
"Call her?" Rachel picks up Brittany's phone from the desk, finds Santana's name in her recents, hits call, and puts it on speaker.
Taking the phone, Brittany sniffs back a few tears. Rachel rubs her back as they wait for Santana to pick up the phone.
"Hey B! What's up? On your way to the library? I can come if you need help." Truthfully, Santana just wants to see her and doesn't mind if helping her with homework is the only way to make that happen.
"S-Santana? Can I stay with you tonight?"
"Brittany, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Santana's tone turns slightly frantic.
"Yeah. Just tired. I need you."
Santana's heart melts at these words. She's already walking to the door. "I'll be there in five minutes, B. Can you walk down, or do you want me to come up?"
"I'll come down. See you soon."
They both hang up, and Rachel knows she's helped her friend. She hopes that Brittany thinks of her as a friend too. "Let's get you some pajamas, okay?"
Brittany nods, wiping her eyes and starting to throw things into her bag. As she grabs the LOPEZ hoodie, she notes that it doesn't smell like Santana at all any more. She wonders if the Latina will trade her for a new one.
"I'm going to walk you down and keep you company in case she's not here yet. Is that okay?" Rachel asks as she opens the door and starts to head out before she even receives an answer. Even though Rachel is pretty sure that Santana will be there—she probably broke all kinds of traffic rules in order to get here as fast as possible—she wants to walk Brittany down, because the blonde seems exhausted.
When she leads Brittany out the front door, she immediately sees Santana's car. The Latina spots them, quickly jumps out of the car, runs over, and pulls Brittany into her arms. Brittany's head immediately falls to Santana's shoulder. "Is everything okay?" she asks, worried. Brittany just nods. "Thanks Rachel," Santana says as she takes Brittany's bag from the other brunette.
Brittany pulls herself sluggishly away from Santana and turns to her roommate. "Yeah, thank you for calling, Rachel. You're a good friend."
Rachel's face lights up at the word. "Can I hug you?" Brittany smiles and opens her arms, and Rachel hugs her, then gently pushes her back towards Santana. "I hope your night gets better, Brittany. Get some rest." With that, she turns around and heads back inside.
Once they're back Santana's apartment, Brittany sits on the bed, while Santana kneels in front of her, pushing the hair out of her face. "Please tell me what's wrong, B. Did something happen?"
"No." She sniffs, still a little teary-eyed. "I'm just so tired, Santana. And I miss you so much. I just needed to be around you."
Santana softly kisses her lips, barely letting them touch. "You're here now. I missed you too."
"Can I trade you hoodies?" Santana quirks her eyebrow, confused. "This one doesn't smell like you anymore."
The Latina smiles. That's the best reason ever to trade hoodies. "You can have this one I'm wearing. Put your arms up." Brittany does, and Santana pulls her hoodie off but accidentally pulls her tank top off with it. She looks down and hopes she's wrong but is pretty sure that Brittany has lost a visible amount of weight. The blonde was already thin to begin with; Santana didn't think she could afford to lose any. "When's the last time you ate, B?"
Brittany takes a moment to think. "Lunch? I had cereal. I was late for tutoring."
"Go shower, baby, and I'll make us something quick for dinner."
After Brittany gets in the shower, Santana heads to the kitchen. Opening the pantry, she finds some chicken and rice and gets to work, listening for Brittany all the while. Soon, Brittany comes wandering in, wearing nothing but her hoodie and underwear, but the overwhelming need to take care of her girlfriend wins out over desire. Nonetheless, she's glad she jerked off today because, well, that ass.
Brittany looks a lot better now. "Can I have a banana? My leg cramped up really bad in my room earlier, which is what led to the cryfest. I think I need potassium and water."
"Anything you want." Santana grabs two bottles of water out of the fridge and hands them to Brittany. "Here's some water."
"I hope I didn't mess up any plans you had for tonight," Brittany says around a mouthful of banana. She didn't realize how hungry or thirsty she was—or how embarrassed.
"Britt, if you need me, I'm there. No matter what. Okay? And for the record, all I wanted to do tonight was see you, so everything worked out in my favor. Tell me why you were so upset. What happened?"
"Honestly, just what I told you. I missed you and was tired, but I knew I had to go to the library. I stopped by my room to get my books and laid down for one second, and my leg started cramping. I haven't been drinking enough. Or eating enough. I don't know."
Santana looks at her girlfriend, who seems embarrassed. "Well, dinner is almost done, but B, you need to work on that. Just because you're busy doesn't mean you can stop taking care of yourself. Promise you'll try and not let this happen again, okay? Bodies don't work right if you don't give them enough food and water. It was probably making you even more tired."
"I promise."
She blows the blonde a kiss, then portions out and serves the chicken and rice.
"Oh my god, this is so good," Brittany moans as she takes a huge bite.
"Thanks, I think? It's just stuff from a box. I need to cook for you for real sometime soon. Maybe Christmas break, I'll make you a whole dinner with dessert and everything." Still chewing, Brittany nods. While the blonde definitely looks better, Santana can still tell how exhausted she is. "Movie in bed tonight?"
"Yes, please. Nothing scary." After Santana picks out a movie and Brittany finishes her dinner, they head into the bedroom. Brittany watches Santana remove her top and bra and stares openly at her naked chest. "I'm mad that I'm so tired," she practically growls to herself.
"What was that, babe?" Santana slips a tank top over her head.
"I'm just mad that I'm tired. I hate that I literally have no energy in my body. Everything hurts, and my abs are killing me, but all I want is to touch you. I want to do the things we did last weekend...and it sucks that I'm too tired. I feel like a terrible girlfriend."
Santana's shaking her head before Brittany finishes speaking. "You are the most amazing girlfriend in the entire world. You're the only one I ever want. I understand that you're tired. I would also love to touch you, but more than that, I want to know that when you go to the dance studio tomorrow, that I did everything I could to make sure you're well-rested and feeling better than you did today. Okay? That's all I want. Now take off that hoodie, and get in bed. I wants to get my cuddle on."
Brittany kisses her and mumbles thank you against her soft, full lips. Then, Santana pulls away and walks to her desk to slip the DVD into her computer. The opening screen pops up. "Finding Nemo? I love this movie!"
"I had a feeling." As Santana smiles and replies, she turns around to see that Brittany is now in bed, wearing nothing but panties and a sports bra. She can't stop her eyes from roaming up and down her girlfriend's body, taking in the toned muscles and soft curves. However, the blonde's tired eyes bring Santana's thoughts back to something more innocent. After turning the lights off, she climbs in behind Brittany and wraps her arm around her waist. She starts lightly stroking Brittany's abs, remembering that she had said they were sore. "Do you want me to rub your back, baby?"
No answer. Brittany fell asleep in less than five minutes. Santana buries her nose in the blonde's hair and pulls her body in as close as she can, relishing in the fact that Brittany is back where she belongs.
