They continue laughing as they load the dishwasher. Then, Brittany hops up on the counter and starts rifling through the cupboards, mentally noting snacks they should get. Santana comes and stands between the taller girl's legs. "I'm so proud of you, B. I can't say it enough. You are amazing." She looks up into Brittany's eyes adoringly.
Brittany presses her lips softly into Santana's and holds herself there for a moment before wrapping her arms around her neck and deepening the kiss. After a few seconds, they break the kiss but leave their foreheads pressed together, enjoying the closeness. Quinn comes back in and witnesses the interaction, watching the way Santana looks into Brittany's eyes. Reverent. The best part is that, as far as she can tell, Brittany feels the same way. Some small part of her is a little jealous, but the bigger part is just happy for her friends.
"We should shower and head to the grocery store." Santana pats Brittany's thigh.
Brittany giggles and wraps her legs tightly around her back. "Carry me!" Much more quickly than she anticipated, Santana pulls her off the counter, hands clutching and supporting her butt. Brittany screams and tightens her hold. "San, don't drop me!"
"I won't, baby. You barely weigh anything." They make it to the bedroom, where Santana plops her onto the bed and presses her lips to her laughing girlfriend's. "Shower together or separate?"
"Mmm, how much time do we have?" Brittany nuzzles her nose along Santana's cheek.
"Not long, but I can behave myself if you can."
"I can try." Brittany lays gentle kisses along Santana's jaw.
As Santana gets in the shower, she's definitely not oblivious to Brittany staring at her naked body. The blonde steps in and wraps her arms around her. Santana looks down at the pale hands flattened against her tan stomach, then rotates in her arms to put her arms around Brittany's neck, trying desperately not to focus on the way their wet bodies slip deliciously together or on what happened during and after last night's shower. Brittany is having similar problems as she feels Santana's mostly soft dick pressed against her. She wants to touch her and to be touched, but she also really likes the tenderness of the moment.
After the shower, which was mostly tame save for a few kisses that went on longer than intended, they get dressed. Without asking, Brittany grabs a hoodie from Santana's closet and pulls it on. Once she realizes what she did, she sheepishly looks at Santana, who just smiles. "Pretty soon, you're going to have all of my hoodies. Oh well, they look better on you anyways." Brittany makes a mental note to bring Santana one of her hoodies. Santana wraps her arms around Brittany once more, asking, "How do you make sweatpants look good? My girlfriend is beautiful."
"What a coincidence. My girlfriend is also beautiful. Actually, the most beautiful ever."
Santana smiles bashfully. "Come on, sap. Let's go grocery shopping."
When they get back, Quinn is vacuuming the living room, so they put the groceries away. They had slept late, so it's already almost time for people to start coming over. Brittany has been fielding random questions from Rachel all afternoon but is hopeful that everything will be okay. She really wants her friends to like Rachel enough to at least let her continue inviting her to things.
As Brittany finishes helping Quinn in the living room, she spies Santana holding a giant armful of blankets. "Watcha doing, babe?"
"Making us a bed to cuddle during the movie. I wants to get my cuddle on." Brittany loves how serious Santana is and watches adoringly as she lays down layer after layer of blankets. "Okay. Our spot. Claimed."
"Dork," Quinn coughs.
Before long, people start to show up. Sam and Mercedes bring wine and congratulate Brittany enthusiastically. A few minutes later, Mike and Tina arrive, and everyone laughs as Brittany and Mike jump around and scream about the solo. Mike promises to help Brittany as much as she wants, and Tina offers to help Brittany with her costume. After Blaine and Kurt show up, Brittany hears a knock at the door, which can only be Rachel.
When she opens the door, a slightly nervous-looking Rachel is standing there. "Hello Brittany. Thank you for inviting me to tonight's activity. Am I late? I got a bit lost."
"You're fine, Rach. Everyone's inside. You might know some people. They're in the same program as you, I think." Brittany leads her inside, where it turns out she does know Blaine, who introduces her to Kurt and Tina, who then introduces her to Mike. Everything seems to be going pretty well.
Santana and Quinn are still in the kitchen wrestling with a bottle of wine, and Brittany is about to go help them when they enter. "Yo tiny. You made it," Santana says by way of greeting as she walks by Rachel and takes Brittany's hand.
"Oh! Rachel, this is Quinn. She's Santana's roommate." Brittany pulls Rachel and Santana over to Quinn. "Quinn, this is my roommate, Rachel." Both Brittany and Santana notice the way that Quinn's eyes widen slightly.
She swallows before reaching her hand out for Rachel to shake. "Hi! I'm Quinn. Can I get you anything? Wine, food, anything?" Behind Rachel, Santana and Brittany watch the interaction, amused and intrigued, both heads cocked to the side. They've never seen Quinn act like this before. Could she possibly...no way, Santana thinks.
"I'm fine, thank you, Quinn. And thank you for having me over. I'm really excited to hang out."
"Me too. Excited, I mean. Did someone pick the movie?" She starts looking around slightly frantically. "Who picked the movie?"
Brittany steps in to save her. She's pretty sure Quinn is crushing on her roommate, which she finds adorable but slightly confusing. It's Rachel...who has the sex appeal of a kitten, in her opinion. "I picked Camp. It's about performing arts summer camp." They all settle down and take their seats.
"I haven't seen it, but I have been to several performing arts summer programs, so I'm interested to see how accurately they depict them. I actually started summer programs at the age of five, which is fairly young comparatively, but talent knows no age limits, you know." Rachel pipes in, and Kurt nods and starts talking about his performance history, which launches Rachel into another rant.
"This is going to take a while. I'm getting the wine." Santana kisses Brittany's temple and gets up. Looking around, Brittany notices that Mike and Tina are laughing at something on Mike's phone; Sam is examining Santana's movie collection; Mercedes, Blaine, Rachel, and Kurt are wrapped up in a conversation that mostly consists of them trying to talk over each other; and Quinn is simply paying rapt attention to every word Rachel says. She looks a little ridiculous, all nodding and wide-eyed anytime Rachel says anything, Brittany thinks. However, Rachel is beaming with delight at the attention and maybe a little at being around people who don't appear to find her annoying.
Except Santana, who returns from the kitchen. "Barbra junior, how do you talk so much without breathing?"
"I have excellent breath control, Santana. I thought that you as a singer would know abo—"
"It was a joke. No dissertation needed, thank you. Frodo called, though, said he and the other hobbits, your people, miss you."
Brittany snorts into the wine glass Santana handed her. "San, that's mean."
"I am well aware of my stature, Santana. Thank you for continually pointing it out. Anyways, as I was saying, I won my first monologue competition at the age of—"
"We're never starting the movie," Santana sighs as she dramatically flops back onto the blanket pile she's sharing with Brittany.
"Shut up, Santana. Let her talk," Quinn hisses through clenched teeth. "Go ahead, Rachel. You were how old?" she asks sweetly.
Santana mentally face-palms at Quinn's obvious interest. "Q, I need you to help me in the kitchen real quick."
"Can't Brittany help? I'm busy."
"No, you aren't, and no, she can't. Kitchen. Now." Quinn reluctantly stands up and follows Santana into the kitchen. "Oh my God, Q. Do you have the hots for little Jew-Berry?"
"Don't call her that." Quinn snaps.
"You do. You're crushing on Berry!" Santana tries to keep her voice down, but her amusement shines through.
"How could I not? Have you seen her?" Quinn throws herself into a chair at the table.
"Uh. Quinn, have you seen my girlfriend? Other women don't even exist. Plus, how do you see past the giant wall of sound that appears, because she literally cannot keep her mouth shut? She's annoying."
"She's not annoying! She's...passionate. And beautiful," Quinn says with a sigh.
Santana fights her laughter down. "Whatever you say, Q. Try sitting next to her."
"And torture myself? She's probably straight. She probably has a boyfriend."
Santana rolls her eyes. "She's not straight, and she doesn't have a boyfriend."
Quinn's eyes snap up to Santana. "Really?"
"Yeah. Just sit next to her or something. Now, I'm going to go start the movie, because this side of you makes me want to puke a little." Santana winks at her to let her know she's joking, then grabs the bottle of wine and goes back into the living room. There, she manages to silence people enough to agree to put the movie in and notices that when Quinn returns, she sits a very safe, platonic distance away from Rachel—but on the same couch, at least.
After the movie and several bottles of wine, she has a very pink-cheeked Brittany snuggled up to her. Reluctantly getting up, she and Brittany start saying goodbye to everyone. Rachel, who hadn't drunk anything, thanks them for inviting her, then walks over to Quinn. "Thank you for having me, Quinn. I really enjoyed myself."
"Thanks for coming. We should hang out sometime if you want. I know you're busy, but yeah, maybe? I can give you my number."
"Okay! Let me put your number in my phone, and I'll text you so you have mine!" Rachel pulls out her phone.
"I like your pink. I mean, your phone. It's pink." Quinn internally curses herself. Santana is biting her fist to keep from laughing. Brittany is just draped over Santana, half watching them and half falling asleep. Both halves are very happy, though.
"Thank you! I put the gold star on it myself. Stars are kind of my thing. Okay, I just texted you. I must be going, though. I signed up for an early session in one of the practice rooms. Thank you again!" Rachel waves as she leaves, and Santana shuts the door behind her, shaking her head in amusement.
"San-San, I'm like a koala," Brittany mumbles as she follows behind Santana, still draped over her.
"You are the prettiest koala I've ever seen. We'll go to bed soon. I just have to make fun of Quinn first."
"Nope, gotta go." Quinn runs into her bedroom and closes the door.
"Nevermind, then. Bedtime for us, boo. Give me your legs." Santana pulls Brittany's legs around her so that she's giving her a piggyback ride.
Brittany finds herself getting dumped on the bed and giggles. "Good wine."
"I figured you liked it. You had a lot. It was a very fancy bottle of two-buck Chuck," Santana jokes. "Want to put PJs on, or are you okay like this?"
"Take my pants off."
"My pleasure." The Latina winks and pulls off her sweatpants, then removes her hoodie as well. Brittany then, in a way that seems unnecessarily complex, pulls off her shirt, leaving her in just a sports bra and panties. Santana is quickly finding out that this is Brittany's preferred sleepwear and absently hopes that Rachel doesn't get to see her like this.
"You. Boxers. Sports Bra. Cuddle. Now," Brittany demands as she crawls under the covers. Quick to please, Santana undresses to the desired state, noting that she hadn't worn her compression shorts at all that day. She simply forgot; it was nice. She crawls under the blankets and takes Brittany into her arms. "I think I want to use the money I won to take us on a nice date. After things are less crazy, maybe," Brittany sleepily says into Santana's chest.
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Actually, my brothers gave me some money too, under the orders that I take you on some nice dates. They really like you."
"Good. I like them too." Brittany mumbles.
"What if we combine the winning money and the money from my brothers, and after the dance concert, we get a hotel in New York City? Maybe go to a fancy dinner or something? Fall break starts the weekend after the concert, so it's perfect. Unless you want to celebrate with your friends or save the money for yourself. I would understand completely."
"Nope. Just you. I want to celebrate with you. That sounds perfect," Brittany whispers. Then, in a less dreamy voice, "And then...I guess I can just fly out of New York to go home." Santana had forgotten that Brittany would have to go home over breaks. The idea of Brittany going back to those people, back to a place where her ex will likely be, does not sit well with her. She'll talk to her mother and see if she can bring Brittany home with her this break. If not, maybe she and Brittany can just spend it together here at her apartment. All she knows is that if Brittany doesn't want to go home, then she'll do everything she can to prevent that from happening.
She opens her mouth to ask Brittany but notices that the blonde's breath has evened out, and her body is free of tension—definite signs that she's already asleep. Closing her eyes and hugging her girlfriend tighter, Santana decides they can talk about it another time.
The next few weeks fly by. Brittany is busy preparing for the dance concert, while Santana is working as the rehearsal pianist for the Theater department in order to make some extra money and mostly to kill time when Brittany's not available. They continue rigorous study sessions at the library in an effort to keep Brittany's grades up.
One night, while lying on the couch, Brittany asks about Halloween plans.
"There's usually this huge Halloween block party and tons of house parties," Santana explains. "What do you want to be for Halloween?" Brittany just shrugs. "Hey Q, any Halloween ideas?"
Quinn sets her book down and thinks for a second. "We have those old cheerleading uniforms. Want to do something with those? Like zombie cheerleaders! Britt, you, and I could do that!"
"We could call ourselves the Unholy Trinity," Brittany mumbles, eyes still closed but smiling. "I like it."
"That's badass, B," Santana comments as she strokes her hair.
"Tina could probably help us with makeup. Can she and Mike come too? They're going to be vampires."
"Definitely. What's Shortstack doing for Halloween, Quinn? Made any progress there?"
"No," she sighs. "We've hung out a few times, but I just can't get up the nerve to say anything about feelings."
"Move on it, Q. She obviously likes you. Is she coming with us on Halloween?"
"Unfortunately, no. She, Blaine, and Kurt are going to some guy's party."
"Well, maybe we'll run into them during the night. I know Sam and Mercedes are planning on going to a couple different places," Santana offers. "Come on, baby, let's get you to bed." Nodding, Brittany hauls her sore, exhausted body off the couch and into Santana's room. She's been spending the night more often, finding that she sleeps better and her mind races less when she's with Santana. For her part, Santana's just glad to spend time with her girlfriend, even if they're almost always eating, studying, or sleeping.
On Halloween, the Unholy Trinity, Mike, and Tina decide to get ready at Santana and Quinn's apartment. After two hours of pregaming, makeup, and costumes, they head out into the streets. They spend an hour at the block party, then decide to check out one of the house parties.
After a few drinks, they are all officially drunk. Mike and Tina are dancing a few feet away, and Quinn is leaning against the wall watching her friends and drinking, wishing she were with Rachel. Santana and Brittany are dancing, pressed close together, when Santana feels Brittany pulling away. Eyes locked on Santana, the blonde starts taking her top off. Although Santana notices that lots of other people are starting to watch, Brittany only has eyes for her and doesn't notice. Or doesn't care. The brunette is torn. Brittany is clearly a stripper drunk. On one hand, she'd love to see a topless Brittany right now. On the other hand, all these people would see too. Her Brittany. Topless. People watching. Thinking bad thoughts about her. Tears begin to well in her eyes.
Knowing that Santana is an emotional drunk, Quinn immediately recognizes what's about to happen. She pushes away from the wall, but before she reaches Santana, she sees Brittany take a near-weeping Santana into her arms and pull her off to the side. "What's wrong, baby? Why are you crying?"
"I don't want other people looking at you. You're mine. And they all want to take you away," Santana sobs.
"Baby, I'm yours. Nobody can take me away. Just yours. Always."
"Always?"
"I hope so."
"Me too." Santana sniffs and hugs Brittany tighter. "I think I should stop drinking."
"I should probably stop too. Want to go home?"
"Not yet. Let's just hang out for a bit. But keep holding my hand." Santana tightens her hold on Brittany's hand to emphasize her desire.
"Wouldn't dream of letting go," Brittany responds and tightens her grip as well.
They walk back over to Quinn, who's finishing yet another drink. Noticing that neither girl is touching their drinks, she finishes those as well. Several minutes later, Quinn is drunker than Santana has ever seen her. "I love her! I love her sweaters and her skirts and her face and her hair and her mouth and her headbands, Santana. I love her," Quinn claims as she sways against the wall. "I need to find her. I need to quest to find Rachel Barbra Berry!" She storms off, clearly on a mission.
Santana runs to catch up with Quinn, while Brittany tells Tina and Mike that they're leaving. When they reach the house party that Rachel, Kurt, and Blaine had said they'd be at, they find Rachel almost immediately. She's drinking a Smirnoff Ice and standing next to Blaine, who looks decidedly sober.
"Berry, I had no idea you were such a lush," Santana comments as they approach the two.
"Santana I'll have you kn—" hiccup "ow that I…" Rachel looks around. "This tastes pink!" she exclaims and takes another sip.
"It's her third. She's completely drunk, and it's hilarious," Blaine comments good-naturedly.
Santana looks around for Quinn, who's just watching Rachel with a dopey expression on her face. She seems to have lost the bravado that led them here in the first place. "Gonna talk to her, Q?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I am." Quinn nods resolutely and walks up to Rachel, who immediately throws her arms around her.
"QUINN! I was hoping you'd come! I'm so glad you're here!" Rachel hugs tighter before letting go.
"I want to kiss you," Quinn blurts out.
Rachel's eyes go wide. "Oh. Okay. I've never kissed anybody."
Santana does an internal victory dance; her best friend is finally going to lay down the moves and stop pining over Berry. Any second now.
However, Quinn's lower lip starts to quiver, and the floodgates open. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. I have so many feelings, and I don't even know if you want to kiss me, and you probably hate me now!" Quinn slurs and sobs at the same time.
For a second, Rachel is taken aback. Then, she does the only thing that makes sense to her Smirnoff-addled brain and places a chaste kiss on Quinn's lips, effectively shutting her up. Surprised, Quinn touches her lips and smiles.
"Okay, Drunky Brewster, we need to get you to bed," Santana says, taking Quinn's arm and preparing to drag her home.
"WAIT! I need to—can I hold Rachel's hand? Just for two minutes."
Making eye contact with Brittany, Santana silently mouths "what the fuck" to her. Brittany just laughs and mouths "let her" back, so Santana lets go of Quinn, who holds her hand out to Rachel. They all stand there in very awkward silence as Rachel and Quinn hold hands, looking at each other. Santana can't help but think it's cute, but in the lamest way possible.
A few minutes later, Santana realizes that there really is no natural conclusion to this awkward moment brought about by fucking tequila and Smirnoff, so she finds a subtle way to end it. "Fabgay. We've got to go. You're drunk as fuck." Brittany laughs as Santana tries to pull Quinn away from Rachel, but the two just hold on tighter. Blaine steps in to help pull Rachel in the opposite direction.
"Goodbye Rachel! Par—" hiccup "ting is such sweet" hiccup "sorry, but I" hiccup "forgot the rest."
"Did she just try to quote Shakespeare?" Blaine asks. "You'd better get her home."
Finally, they manage to separate Quinn from Rachel and walk her home. After helping her wipe off her makeup, Santana sets her up on the couch with a bottle of water, some aspirin, and a puke bucket. "Good night, Q." She kisses her on the forehead and heads to her bedroom, where Brittany is already climbing into bed, wearing just her underwear. "I wish I could take advantage of how close to naked you are right now, but I'm so tired and I think my shoulder is numb from supporting Q for that last half mile."
"Sleep now. Sexy times another day," Brittany replies. Santana nods, peeling off her compression shorts and sliding a pair of boxers on before joining her girlfriend in bed. Brittany traces her fingers along the sore lines left by the shorts, hoping to soothe them a little.
They're both too tired to talk much, but just before they fall asleep, Santana chuckles. "I cannot wait to make all kinds of fun of Quinn tomorrow."
"Be nice, San," Brittany responds before kissing her cheek and falling asleep.
