Chapter 35

(Flashback)

"Hey Santana?" Brittany said into the silence.

"Yeah?" Santana said, sitting up.

"Do you think Quinn's right? About the party?"

"I think Quinn's a bitch, and you shouldn't listen to her."

"So you think I shouldn't throw one?"

Santana sighed. "B, why do you care all of a sudden, you never used to care about being popular before."

Brittany sat up, but kept her eyes down. "I don't care about being popular, but we are popular…and Quinn said that being popular means you have to do certain things, like throw parties."

"Who cares what Quinn says? She and I can throw the parties, you should do whatever you want on your birthday."

"But it'll be my first birthday since moving to Lima, I feel like it should be special." Brittany admitted, still looking down.

"Is having a party where a bunch of jocks show up with alcohol and hit on you all night going to be special?" Santana asked, ducking her head to catch Brittany's eyes.

"No"

"Great. Then stop listening to Fabitch and plan a birthday that you'll actually enjoy."

"I don't even know what that is."

"Yeah you do. Just close your eyes and imagine your birthday."

Brittany closed her eyes. The truth was she knew perfectly well what she wanted her birthday to be like. She wanted a jumping castle that actually looked like a castle, lots and lots of cotton candy, a pool or water slides of some kind, and Santana. Most important of all was Santana. Her Santana that was goofy and laughed loudly and had an imagination that rivalled her own. She would prefer not to have anyone else there if she could have Santana and her family.

Santana smiled as she watched Brittany. She knew Brittany had an idea of what she wanted her birthday party to be, and she knew what some of the elements might be, but she didn't know why Brittany was being so secretive about it, and that made her nervous. What if Brittany wasn't telling her because she didn't want her there?

"Got it?" she asked, hoping that talking would keep her mind from going to horrible scenarios. She promised herself on New Year's that she was going to trust Brittany, now was the time to put her new resolve to the test.

"Yeah" Brittany said, opening her eyes. They looked at each other, the moment feeling heavier than it had seconds before. Brittany's smile faded as she registered a new look in Santana's eyes. It darkened her mocha brown to something so deep Brittany felt she was being pulled in by them, and she couldn't think of what she was supposed to be doing. Was she speaking, or was she listening? She tried to blink, but the command would not even form fully in her brain. All she could think of were those eyes and what they were telling her. They were calling her, but how was she supposed to answer? Santana licked her lips, and there was a jolt inside Brittany that seemed to emanate from her core. Was she misunderstanding, or did Santana want her to kiss her. Did she want to kiss Santana? Yes. The answer came to her so forcefully that she could not even doubt it. She had never thought about it before, but now that she had, it was clear that she had been wanting to kiss Santana for quite some time, and from the way Santana was looking at her now, maybe she had been wanting it too.

Santana could not take her eyes off Brittany's. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a voice was telling her to look away, to speak and break the moment they were sharing. This wasn't right, the voice said. This wasn't normal, and this was going to end badly. But the voice didn't matter. All that mattered was the love and tenderness in Brittany's blue eyes, which, Santana noticed, were no longer sky blue. They had darkened somehow, in a way that Santana had never seen before. In a way that made Brittany beautiful in a different sense. It was like she was looking at a different Brittany, a Brittany who wasn't her best friend, and who she hadn't shared a bed with dozens of times. This Brittany was breath-taking. All of a sudden she wanted to lean forward and touch this new Brittany, just to see if she was real. She raised her hand and brushed Brittany cheek gently with the back of it, and they both swallowed thickly. Santana's heart was pounding in her chest, begging for oxygen, but she could not take in a proper breath.

As Santana's touch left her cheek, Brittany's eyes fluttered closed. There was a swelling in her stomach, a tight feeling that was making it hard for her to breath. She was breathing slowly, trying to get as much oxygen from each breath as possible, hoping it would clear her head. Everything that was happening right now made no sense at all, yet made all the sense in the world. Santana had touched her thousands, probably millions of times. In fact the moments when they were not initiating some form of physical contact were so rare. So why did that simple, light touch feel so different? So monumental? She swallowed again, her heart thumping wildly against her chest as Santana leaned forward further. Was she going to kiss her?

The voice in Santana's head grew louder as she leaned closer to Brittany. She didn't know what she was going to do, but she just felt like she needed to be closer to Brittany, like that would somehow clear her head and allow her to think. She caught a whiff of strawberry and coconut, and it was too much. There were two voices screaming in her head now, one telling her that she had to taste the strawberry lip-gloss she was smelling, to get a proper smell of the coconut shampoo, and the other one was yelling that this was not what best friends did. Trailing her tongue on Brittany's lips, or even thinking about doing it, was gay, and she wasn't gay. That voice won and she cleared her throat.

"What is it then?" she asked, her voice quiet and forced. Brittany blinked several times, like she was being woken from sleep and straightened up.

"What?" she asked, having no idea what they had been talking about and still trying to pull her body out of the bizarre moment that had just passed. Santana smiled.

"What's the vision you have for your birthday?" She asked, her voice returning to full volume.

"Ohh" Brittany said, their conversation coming back to her. "You" she said without thinking. Santana raised an eyebrow and smirked. "I mean…uh…I don't really care what's happening, as long as I get to celebrate it with you." Brittany added quickly. Santana nodded slowly, still smirking. "I would love a pool party though, but not with too many people. Maybe just mum, dad and Ashley, two or three cousins….and you" she finished with a grin. Santana grinned back.

"You got it B" she said, lying back down.

"What do you mean?" Brittany asked.

"Never mind" Santana told her. Gay thoughts or not, Santana was going to give Brittany the best birthday she had ever had.

That evening, when Brittany's mum had picked her up, Santana set to work. She searched online for hours for a jumping castle that she thought Brittany would like, she booked a caterer with special instructions to go heavy on the sweet treats, and arranged for her parents to be away the week of Brittany's birthday. This wasn't something that was hard to do, because the only reason they stayed in the house at all was because of her. Whenever she told them she was going to be away, they would arrange work trips or conferences. So this time, she told her parents that coach Sylvester wanted them to be up to date with all the new cheerleading moves, and was taking them to a week-long seminar. She hadn't even gone to bed before she heard her mother saying that she was going to be out of the state that week.

Over the next few days, Santana made sure not to talk about Brittany's birthday anymore. She called the Pierce's to tell them her plan so that they wouldn't plan something as well, and to make sure they invited Brittany's favourite cousins, and after that, never mentioned it again. Brittany would bring it up every once in a while, but Santana shot down everything she suggested, saying it was too lame, or boring, or childish, until finally Brittany suggested that they just stay over at Santana's house after school, maybe swim for an hour or so, and then have a harry potter movie marathon.

When the day finally arrived, Santana met Brittany in the school parking lot as usual.

"Happy birthday Britt-Britt" she shouted, shoving a handful of balloons into her hands. Brittany beamed at her, and then looked up at the balloons. They were all pink, with glitter inside them and 'Birthday Queen' written on all of them in gold. She pulled Santana in for a hug.

"Thank you S, these are awesome. Where did you get them?"

"I had them custom made." Santana said proudly. Brittany raised her eyebrows.

"Really….I hope it wasn't too expensive." Brittany said, looking back up at the shiny balloons.

"Please" Santana scoffed. She took the ends of the balloons' strings and tied them together, then tied them around Brittany's wrist.

"How am I going to do cheerios practice with these?" Brittany asked, laughing.

"You won't need to."

"Why not?" Brittany asked. Santana just winked mysteriously, and linked her arm with Brittany's, steering her into the school.

"What are you up to? Why aren't you in your uniform? And where's your school bag?"

"So many questions" Santana said, shaking her head. "You'll see."

They walked through the corridor, turning the corner and finally stopping at their lockers, Brittany staring at hers in amazement.

"You like it?" Santana asked.

Brittany continued to stare at her locker. There were stickers all over it saying 'Happy Birthday,' '15', 'Queen' and a few stickers of crowns and sceptres.

"Open it" Santana urged her, and with one excited look at her, Brittany unlocked her locker. A glitter bomb went off, with rainbow and silver coloured sparkles exploding from the locker and showering Brittany. There was a small cupcake with pink and purple icing and a unicorn candle in the middle of the locker where Brittany's books were supposed to be, and a small banner that read 'Happy B'day Britt' hanging above a black rose. Brittany gaped at the locker for several minutes, unable to process what she was seeing, then it all seemed to click at the same time and she squealed. Throwing her arms around Santana, she squeezed her as tight as she could and yelled, 'you're the best' over and over again. Santana laughed and squeezed her back. "No Britt-Britt, you're the best, and I wanted you to have the best first birthday in Lima ever. I wanted it to be special like you said."

Brittany pulled back and stared into the locker again, taking out the rose. "It is special…this is so awesome Santana. Nobody's ever decorated my locker before." Santana smiled, noticed the group of football players walking towards them and grinned even harder. "What?" Brittany asked. Santana tilted her head.

Mike cleared his throat, making Brittany spin around.

"Hi Mike" Brittany said cheerfully, eyeing the other members of the team wearily. Mike smiled but didn't say anything.

"Your majesty" one of the boys to Mike's right said, bowing and giving her a small box. Brittany took it slowly, looking at Santana who nodded. When she took the box, the other boys all did the same thing, bowing their heads as they handed her the gifts. Brittany laughed.

"Happy Birthday Queen Brittany S. Pierce," Mike said, handing her a box as well, a black rose stuck to it. Brittany glanced at Santana, then looked back at Mike, taking the box.

"Thank you Mike" she said, giving him a hug.

"No worries Brittany" he whispered, kissing her on the cheek. There was now a small crowd around them, everyone looking in awe as Brittany stood with six gifts in her hand, two roses, and glitter all over her, making it look like she was shining. Mike pulled back and turned to the last of the boys. He was clenching his jaw and looked very unhappy to be there. Mike frowned at him, and he sighed, stepping forward and raising a crown.

"Excuse you" Santana said. The boy glared at her.

"A queen should never go anywhere without her crown." He said grudgingly, placing the crown on Brittany's head.

"With some feeling" Santana said. The boy exhaled loudly and turned around to face the crowd that had gathered.

"All hail Queen Brittany" he said loudly. Brittany burst out laughing, her cheeks turning red.

"Show your respect by wishing her a happy birthday" another boy said. There were loud yells of 'happy birthday Brittany' that filled the hall, amidst a lot of laughing. Santana nodded in content, and the football players left, Mike after giving her one more hug and kiss on the cheek, which Santana pretended not to see.

Everything was broken up by the ringing of the warning bell. The laughter and distant calls of 'happy birthday' were drowned out by students moving around, slamming lockers and rushing to get to class. Finally it was just Brittany and Santana left in the corridor.

"How did you manage to do that?" Brittany asked, opening Santana's locker and looking at herself in the small mirror.

"It pays to be me" Santana replied simply.

Brittany turned and looked at her, the urge to lean down and kiss her hitting her again. "You're amazing Santana. You're seriously amazing."

Santana smiled. "I'm not done"

"What do you mean?"

"I have loads more BSP. This isn't the end."

"But I have geometry first period, and Mrs-"

"We're excused from school today." Santana told her smugly, picking the cupcake and closing both their lockers. "It's why I'm not in my uniform."

"How the hell did you get us excused from school?" Brittany asked in astonishment, letting Santana lead her back to the parking lot.

"My dad called and said that we were ill, and that he'd be taking us in to the hospital with him this morning."

"I thought your dad was at some medical conference?"

"He is"

"So…" Brittany frowned in confusion.

"So it wasn't really him who called." Santana told her, a huge grin on her face. She walked up to the black range rover and pulled open the door for Brittany, who climbed in.

"Good morning Brittany. Happy birthday." The driver said cheerfully, handing her a card.

"Thank you Robert" she said sweetly, tucking the card into her bag where she was trying to stuff the boxes. Santana jumped into the seat beside her. "I'm assuming you're the one who called the school?"

"Oh yes, I'm afraid you both have excessive fluid in your oesophageal tracks that is causing them to contract and expand rapidly and painfully in an attempt to expel it, and can lead to terrible infections of the lungs and damage to the diaphragm." Brittany gaped at him as Santana laughed.

"Couldn't you have just said we had colds?" Brittany laughed, pulling on her seat belt.

"Yeah, but what fun would that be? Plus I had to make sure your coach didn't want you anywhere near the other cheerleaders. We couldn't have you spending your birthday in school could we?"

"No way" Santana answered.

"So where are we going then?" Brittany asked, feeling giddy with excitement.

"To get breakfast of course" Santana said, clicking her seat belt in.

An hour later, both girls were practically bouncing off the walls from the combination of the excitement of ditching school, Brittany's birthday, and the massive amounts of sugar and coffee they had consumed over breakfast. Brittany had ordered every single sugary pastry the Lima Bean had on the menu, per Santana's orders, and had washed down every one with a different coffee drink. Finally, with nothing left to order, and no room left to finish what they had, they decided to leave.

"Ok, where to now?" Brittany asked, jumping into the back of the range rover.

"The mall"

Brittany froze. It was only nine in the morning, so they could be going to the mall to simply waste time, but something inside her told her that this wasn't the case. She turned to look at Santana, who wiggled her eyebrows.

"Why the mall?" Brittany asked as casually as she could. Santana smiled, adjusting Brittany's crown.

"Two reasons. We need to get some birthday outfits." Brittany grinned.

"What for…if I'm not having a party. Who's going to see them?"

"Facebook. Just because Figgins thinks we're sick, doesn't mean the rest of the school has to." Brittany couldn't help thinking that the smirk on Santana's face at that moment was the most seductive thing she had ever seen.

"So we're going to buy clothes just so we can take pictures at home?" she asked, trying to distract her mind from the confusing sexual thoughts floating through it.

"Yeah. It'll be fun, plus it'll satisfy Quinn's crazy need for us to always look superior." Santana said, still smirking.

"How exactly? Just cause we skipped school and took some pictures?"

"It's all about where we take the pictures." Santana said. Brittany frowned.

"So you know some secret cool place to take pictures at on a Thursday morning?"

"Yeah" Santana said, looking out of the window. Brittany still had so many questions, but she also loved surprises, and so far Santana's surprises had surpassed anything she could have guessed, so she decided to just go along for the ride.

As they walked around the mall, Santana didn't let go of Brittany pinkie once. They had linked them when they got out of the car, out of habit more than anything, and since then, almost twenty minutes later, Santana had not let go. Brittany smiled to herself, giving Santana's pinkie a small squeeze, feeling that even if all they did for the rest of the day was walk around the mall like this, it would still be the best birthday she had ever had.

"Santana?"

"Yeah?"

"I only have my lunch money. How are we supposed to pay for whole new outfits?"

Santana frowned and looked at Brittany. "B it's your birthday. You really think I'm gonna make you pay for your own outfit?"

"Yes…?" Brittany said hesitantly. "How else are we supposed to pay?"

"I have my dad's credit card."

"But S you've already paid for breakfast, which couldn't have been cheap since we got everything. And you bought me the custom balloons and probably every gift in my bag right now, and the roses and the cupcake, and-"

"Ok Britt….look it's your birthday. Everyone deserves to be spoiled on their birthday. I won't buy you anything else for the whole year if it'll make you happy."

Brittany narrowed her eyes. "Liar" she said, but smiled.

"Yeah well…my dad gave me the card for a reason right? What's the point of having money if you can't spend it?" she winked and pulled Brittany into a store. Brittany shook her head, wondering how she got so lucky to be best friends with Santana.

An hour and a half, Brittany and Santana were packing the car with their shopping bags.

"I hope you didn't over-do it Mrs Lopez" Robert said, closing the trunk and shaking his head.

"Please Bob" Santana scoffed. "My dad wouldn't notice this. Last month Quinn and I threw a paint party for her birthday, and he didn't notice. We had machines spraying paint all over the place, do you know how expensive that was?"

"You used your credit card for that?" Brittany asked in shock. Santana shrugged. "Why, Quinn's dad is rich too."

"Her parents would never let her have a paint party, plus we needed to pay for the drinks and stuff. I didn't pay for everything, just the stuff her parents wouldn't approve of." Brittany was still frowning. "What B?" Santana asked, laughing.

"She's taking advantage of you"

"It's not taking advantage if I know it's happening. It's not like I think there's any reason she's friends with me beside the fact that I'm a rich bitch."

"Don't say that" Brittany said seriously.

"It's true though. It's why everyone's friends with me." Santana said, shrugging again.

"Not everyone" Brittany said.

"Yeah ok…not everyone." Santana conceded. Robert smiled. There was a short silence where Santana and Brittany just looked at each other. Brittany wanted Santana to see in her eyes that she didn't care how rich her family was. That there were a thousand reasons besides 'a rich bitch' that she could name for being friends with her.

"How long do you think you'll be?" Robert asked, breaking the silence.

"Uh…I don't know…two hours?"

"12:30 is a good time. I'll go run some errands, but call me if you finish early" he said, getting into the car.

"Wait, we're staying here?" Brittany asked, feeling her excitement build.

"Of course. I said there were two reasons we were coming here right?"

Brittany's eyes went wide. "The arcade?" she mouthed. Santana smiled and nodded slowly, laughing at the squeal she knew was coming.

"I knew it! We're going to spend two whole hours in there?" Brittany asked, as they walked towards the arcade.

"Yup. We need to burn off some of this energy." She said 'we' but really she meant Brittany. On a normal day, Brittany's energy level was already twice that of everyone else's, and now she was on a sugar high. For the rest of the day to be a success, Santana had made sure that there were activities scattered throughout the day that would effectively burn out Brittany's energy.

"You know where we have to start" Brittany said, skipping into the arcade.

"Of course" Santana said, walking straight to the dance dance revolution machine.

"Think you can beat me this time?" Brittany asked, removing her cheerios jacket.

"I beat you last time" Santana said. Brittany laughed.

"Once, out of five games."

"I still beat you though, and you said I couldn't."

"Yeah ok, just try not to hurt yourself."

"Ou…you get mean when you're competitive."

"I like to win" Brittany said, stretching her arms.

"Clearly." Santana laughed. "Let's do five games again, I think that's my lucky number."

"Sure S"

***

"TWICE" Santana yelled, punching the air. Brittany laughed. "I beat you twice Susan."

"Yes I know…I know…I beat you thrice Marie."

"So? That's not a surprise. What's a surprise is that you lost TWICE"

"You got better. Have you been practicing?"

"Maybe" Santana said, grinning.

"Well…I'm proud of you. Soon enough you might be able to keep up with me in cheerleading."

"Soon enough I'm going to beat you more times than you beat me."

"Never"

"I can smell your fear" Santana said, circling around Brittany and pretending to sniff her. She stumbled momentarily as she caught the smell of her coconut shampoo.

"Your legs tired form their over workout?" Brittany laughed.

"No, I'm just tripping over your shame" Santana retorted. They both burst out laughing.

"Come on, let's go play that basketball one. I've actually been working on my jump-shot with Eric."

"Why?" Santana asked, wracking her brain for which basketball player was Eric.

"Cause Mike told me he's the best shooting guard"

"Hhmm" Santana said. That hadn't been what she was asking, but she let it go. "I thought that was Michael?"

"Yeah me too. I guess he's good during practice, but have you noticed he hasn't been on the court in two games?"

"Yeah. I was gonna ask Finn about that. Maybe he's hurt or something."

"Mike said that since that game where he was checked by that tall guy…remember him?"

"Yeah…he was hot"

"He was hot" Brittany agreed. "Anyway, since then, he's been super distracted and misses shots he used to get."

"Pussy" Santana said, laughing.

"Santana" Brittany reprimanded.

"What B?" Santana asked, picking up a ball. "We get dropped from the top of the Pyramid all the time, and we actually get injured, but you don't see us being too scared to go back." She threw the ball, not even looking to see if it went in and picked another one.

"Yeah, but it's different. We don't have tall muscular guys running at us."

"We have tall muscular guys coming at us all the time" Santana said, throwing the ball.

"Wanky" Brittany said. Santana grinned at her proudly.

"Exactly"

Two hours later, Santana had to physically drag Brittany out of the arcade.

"Just one more Santana please" she begged, trying but failing to walk back in.

"B how the hell aren't you tired. I'm so tired. And I'm hungry. Aren't you hungry?" Brittany continued to struggle. "Don't you want to see the next surprise?" Brittany stopped. "Let's go to the car, we'll go to breadsticks, and then…next surprise here we come"

"Fine" Brittany said, feigning exasperation, though she was actually excited.

"We can change in the bathroom there" Santana said, looping her arm with Brittany's.

*********************************************************************************

"I don't think I'll ever get over my jealousy of that day" Quinn said, taking a sip of wine. Santana scoffed. "I'm sure that was how you planned it right?"

"How narcissistic do you have to be to think that I planned Brittany's entire birthday around what would make you most annoyed?" Santana said, rolling her eyes.

"Because you posted it all over facebook"

"Right, because if we hadn't it would have pissed you off less?"

"I found out about your epic birthday ditch at the same time as the rest of the school. And I had to answer all these questions about, why I wasn't there and how you managed it, do you know how stupid I looked saying I didn't know?"

"I don't think anyone ever believed you guys were all really best friends" Puck said through a mouthful of food, "but that day, we all kind of realised that you were barely even friends. Brittany's popularity sky rocketed though."

"Puck shut up, the grown-ups are talking and none of us need a reduction in brain cells." Santana snapped. Puck's eyes went wide.

"Quinn, we weren't really friends back then, and all the things you wanted me to do for my birthday were oppressive. You wanted me to throw a party with alcohol I didn't like and people I barely knew just so we could show them we were popular. You wanted to make my birthday about everyone else. Santana made it about me."

Quinn sighed, rubbing Brittany's hand. "Okay" she said, looking at Santana. "But tell me one thing…"

"What?" Santana asked.

"Why did you choose to go to Cleveland?"

"What?" Santana said with a sigh.

"You knew I always wanted to go there, you knew my dad said he'd let me have my sweet 16 there, you were there when he said it."

Santana looked at Puck in exasperation. He shrugged and stuffed another bite of his burger in his mouth.

"Quinn are you fucking serious right now?"

"Why did you pick Cleveland?"

"Maybe because-"

"No don't answer that babe" Brittany cut in. "Quinn why are you trying to ruin the memory of one of my favourite days? Why are you trying to make a day that Santana made magical for me, all about you? So what if we went to Cleveland and took some pictures? So what if we skipped school and went to the arcade? So what if we spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool with my family and ate nothing but cotton candy and cake? You wouldn't have wanted to do any of those things anyway. You would have been complaining the whole time, you would have called it uncool, or childish. So we didn't invite you. It was just me and Santana, just like a lot of our memories, so why can't you accept that, instead of trying to ruin it?"

"Cause she's a bitch" Santana said under her breath. Quinn glared at her.

"It's just a sore spot…I'm sorry Britt. I was still trying to get used to the fact that you and Santana were so close, and I did actually really like you, even back then, so it did kinda hurt that you didn't want me there. But I was more mad about the fact that you got to do exactly what you wanted for your birthday, and it made you even more popular, when I had to always do things I hated to get the same result. Plus I didn't have anyone who would put the kind of effort into my birthday as Santana did for yours. I guess it was the first time I realised that I would never be in on what you guys had."

"Have" Puck said.

"Tough fucking shit Lucy" Santana said.

"Don't call me that!"

"Babe"

"No seriously cry me a damn river. That day was literally ten years ago to the day, and it's time for you to get over it. In fact it's time for you to get over the fact that Britt and I are so close, or have this special connection, or any other way you want to describe it. I don't know whether you're just stubborn, or if you're really too fucked up to get the fact that we love you. We're your best friends who spend basically every day with you and you're our sons' godmother. There is very little I wouldn't do for you Quinn, but at some point you're going to have to come to terms with the fact that you're not Brittany. Never have been, never will be, won't even come close. There are things I'll do for Brittany that I won't do for anyone else, because I'm in love with her. If you want to keep comparing yourself to her and making yourself miserable, go ahead, but I'm officially over it." Santana finished speaking and sipped her wine, looking down at her phone. Brittany sighed heavily.

"Can we stop fighting? We're supposed to be having a fun baby free birthday lunch" Brittany said.

"No one is fighting B" Santana said, not looking up from her phone. "Lucy Q's just being her usual selfish whiny-"

"Stop" Brittany said sharply. Santana looked up. "You've made your point babe there's no need." Santana shrugged.

"Just thought I'd drive it home since not everyone here is so quick on the uptake." Her tone was laced with a nastiness that hadn't been heard in many years, and it made Quinn and Puck glance nervously at each other.

"Why don't you go take a walk" Brittany suggested, taking the glass of wine from her.

"She's the one being a bitch and I have to leave?" Santana closed her eyes and licked her lips. "You know what? Fine" she said, standing up. "Why don't you send me a text when I can come back from my timeout?" She said snarkily, waving her phone, then walked away from the table and out the restaurant door.

"I'm confused" Puck said, barely understandable over the food in his mouth.

"Why are you acting like you haven't eaten in years?" Brittany asked, grimacing as he licked his fingers.

"I haven't since yesterday lunch." He shrugged. "Will you please explain?"

"What?" Brittany asked, picking at her salad. Puck frowned and Quinn rolled her eyes.

"Why Snixx is in town." Quinn said.

"Is it that time of the month?" Puck asked in an annoyingly understanding voice.

"If you ever say that again I'll drown you in a pool of blood." Quinn hissed. Puck raised his hands.

"Ok…chill out"

"Well…she is on her period, and that isn't helping." Brittany said. Puck smirked at Quinn. "But it hasn't been all rainbows and sunshine at home, and it's taking a toll on her."

"What's wrong?" Quinn asked.

Brittany sighed heavily. "Well we both need to go back to work pretty soon, and she's not loving the idea, the paparazzi are driving us both crazy, Jesús is still being super clingy except now he actually is in a lot of pain because of his teeth. He's been crying for hours at night, sometimes he gets a fever, and I'm not really sure what's wrong with Kyler, he isn't sick, but he's just as fussy as Jesús, which is odd. We thought it was something with his stomach, like a bug, or colic or something, but the doctor said he's fine. Santana and I think it's some twin thing, like he can feel Jesús' pain and it's affecting him too, just not as strongly. I don't know. Anyway, we haven't been sleeping."

"You seem to be handling it fine" Puck said.

"Do I?" Brittany snapped.

"Ok…maybe not" Puck said with wide eyes, stuffing his mouth.

"So that's why we haven't been seeing that much of you lately?" Quinn said.

"Yeah. We don't really want to leave the house that much with them like this, and the paparazzi are seriously something else." Quinn pursed her lips sympathetically. "Anyway when Santana started her period she got a lot crabbier, and I told her I'm going to be suggesting she goes for a walk when she's being too much."

"Ohh" Puck said. "That makes sense."

"Can we help?" Quinn asked. Brittany sipped her wine.

"I don't know. I don't think so. We just need to get through a week or so, I think Jesús will be ok by then, and Santana will have finished her period." Brittany's phone pinged with a text that read 'sorry baby.' She sighed. "Actually there is something you can do."

"What?" Puck asked.

"Don't go on about her mood. Just let it go. When she comes back let's just continue with a different conversation."

"Fine" Quinn said. "But when everything's fine again, you can't stop me from goading her" she smiled.

"Fine" Brittany said, not returning the smile. Quinn frowned at Puck, who had stopped eating for the first time during the entire conversation and was looking worried.

"It's gonna be ok Britt" he said. "You guys are going to get through it, you're strong."

Brittany didn't respond, instead standing up. "I'm going to get some air too, I'll be back in a bit"

Quinn and Puck sat in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, both worried by their friends' behaviour.

"They'll be ok…right?" Puck asked. Quinn shook her head.

"I don't know" she said. "Normally I'd say yes, but I don't know. I've never seen them like that with each other. And Britt…"

"I know" Puck said. "I want to help but I don't know how."

"Maybe we should go stay with them for a couple of days, shoulder the burden so they can sleep a bit at night."

"I don't know. If Jesús is still being clingy, I don't think we're going to have much luck in that department. He's not so small anymore, we can't trick him with a shirt and some perfume."

"That was Kyler" Quinn said.

"No…I'm pretty sure it was Jesús."

"No…it was Kyler. Jesús knew us by our hair. So he used to think I was Britt." Puck frowned.

"Are you sure it wasn't the other way round?" Quinn frowned, trying to remember. "I'm pretty sure it was Jesús."

"Maybe you're right….but I swear…wait" she pulled out her phone. "I think I have a picture of me holding one of them in Santana's shirt…here" she tilted the phone so Puck could see.

"See" he said.

"What do you mean?" Quinn said loudly. "That's Kyler." Puck laughed.

"That's Jesús, Quinn" they frowned at each other, then looked down at the picture.

"Whatever, we'll ask them when they come back, then we'll see who's right."

"I'm so sure I'm right, that I'll bet you for it. Whoever's right pays for the other's lunch."

"You're on" Quinn said, staring at the photo.

It was twenty minutes before Brittany and Santana came back, Brittany looked like she had been crying, but neither Quinn nor Puck brought it up.

"Finally" Puck said, taking Quinn's phone and handing it to Santana. "Look at that picture, and tell us which baby that is…wait" he held up a hand as Santana began to speak.

"We want you and Britt to say it at the same time so there's no way you can be affected by the other's choice." Quinn said, passing the phone to Brittany.

"It's not a choice, it's a fact" Santana said. Her voice had lost the aggression it had held all morning, and Quinn and Puck smiled at each other.

"If you say so" Quinn said. "So you both know?"

"Yeah" Santana and Brittany said at the same time.

"Excellent. Then say your answer on three ok?"

"K" Brittany said, smiling despite herself.

"Ok" Quinn said. "One, two three"

"Kyler" they said.

"YES" Quinn yelled. "I told you Noah, I told you. I know my babies."

"Her babies?" Brittany mouthed to Santana, who smiled and nodded.

"How can you be sure?" Puck asked desperately. Santana motioned for the phone, which Puck passed her.

"Kyler still does this" she pointed to the face he was making in the picture. His eyes were half open, his nose scrunched up, and his tiny tongue poking out through his pursed lips. "Jesús never did that."

"Yup" Quinn said.

"Like you knew that" Brittany said, taking her first bite of salad since it had arrived.

"Well ok…no I didn't know that. But I knew who it was from memory, which means I pay more attention to which twin I'm holding, which means I'm a better god parent."

"No it doesn't." Puck said.

"To celebrate" Quinn said, as if she hadn't heard Puck, "I think I'll get another glass of wine, and maybe some dessert. How does that sound Noah?"

"Fuck you"

"Oh ho hoo" Quinn and Brittany said, while Santana laughed.

"Did you lose another bet Puckerman?" Santana asked. He scowled and nodded.

"When are you going to learn?" Brittany said, shaking her head. "What time is it babe?"

"Half past noon" Santana said, checking her watch.

"We should be heading back"

"For them or for you?" Puck asked with a knowing smile.

"I'm sure they'll last till you finish your salad Britt" Quinn said. Brittany looked down at her plate, then at Santana.

"If you want to go we can, but they'll be fine. Your parents have successfully raised two children you know."

"Yeah…I know…I just can't stop thinking about them. They didn't sound good."

"When?" Quinn asked.

"We called them when I went for some air." Santana told her. Quinn made a noise of understanding.

"How did they sound?" Puck asked, looking worried again.

"Jesús was crying. My dad had taken him out of the room so we wouldn't know but we could hear him."

"Ky?" Quinn asked.

"He was with my mum. He didn't look happy, but he wasn't crying." Brittany said dejectedly. Everyone was silent for a while after that.

"Do you want to go?" Santana asked. Brittany sighed and shook her head.

"We decided to do this so we could get out of the house for a few hours. We need this, even if we don't want it." Santana nodded. "We've been cooped up in that house long enough."

"Yeah. Ok, we stay then." Santana said.

"Excellent. So do you guys want to hear some crazy news?" Puck asked.

"Maybe" Brittany said.

"I'm not sure" Quinn said.

"Duh" Santana said, and Puck grinned at her. He raised his fist and Santana bumped it.

"Ok. Finn called me last week" Santana's eyes went wide with interest.

"What did he want?" Brittany asked.

"He had wedding jitters. Said he proposed to Rachel a few weeks ago, then they moved in together and he's not sure if he wants to marry her anymore. So he called me because I know him best and I'd know what to say."

The three girls stared at him with frowns on their faces.

"I know what you're thinking. When did they get back together? Well, apparently he just hopped a plane to New York and proposed. Kurt told him she wasn't seeing anyone, and he was tired of his life in Lima, and he missed her, so he just went with his gut and did it."

"What did everyone have to say about that?" Brittany asked, remembering how their old friends had taken her and Santana's engagement.

"Well…Mercedes and Kurt think it's a bad idea, just like when we were in high school, Sam and Artie are happy for them."

"Tina?" Quinn asked.

"She moved away. I don't remember where she went, but she hasn't really talked to anyone in almost a year."

"Finally realised Artie's a piece of shit?" Santana mumbled. Brittany looked at her, but didn't say anything.

"So what did you tell him?" Quinn asked, looking annoyed.

"I told him it's mental to marry someone you've never lived with, and that they've already tried to jump the gun in the past, and it didn't work, so they need to act like adults and follow the steps."

"Yeah, but he can't exactly take back a proposal can he? The best he can do is say he wants to wait a year or something, to get settled in New York." Brittany said.

"Yeah" Santana agreed. "But knowing Berry, she won't listen." They all nodded in agreement.

"God, this is why I don't like Finn." Brittany said. "He never thinks about what he's doing. He never thinks about anyone else. Even all these years later, he's still making relationship decisions based on the fact that his life sucks. Now he's gone and forced himself back into Rachel's life with all these promises, and then he wants to take them back?" Quinn shook her head.

"I always said he was an idiot. When I was living with Rachel, Kurt and I tried to tell her to find herself and follow her own plan. She knows what she wants, but Finn always tries to side track her. So when they broke up, we told her now was the time for her to start her plan, and she was beginning to. She was doing the Funny girl show and was heading places. Then I made the mistake of calling Finn, and I don't know what the hell happened, but I swear she went crazy after that."

"They do have a really weirdly intense toxic relationship." Quinn said.

"I don't know if toxic is the word. He makes her a more bearable person, and she makes him less of an idiot, but somehow, people always seem to get hurt. It's definitely super intense, and believe me, Santana and I get it, but they just need to figure out how to handle that intensity like adults." Brittany said.

"Like I told him" Puck said proudly.

"Do you ever wonder what our lives would be like if we stayed in New York?" Santana asked.

"I'd have probably gone back to Lima" Puck said. "When Britt called for your celebration lunch thing, my friend that I was staying with in L.A had given me two weeks to find a place to stay."

"Damn" Santana said. "You mean it's that easy to get rid of you?"

"Ha Ha" Puck said, throwing a fry at her.

"I think I'd still be in New Haven, just not at Yale" Quinn said thoughtfully. "I'm not sure what I'd be doing, but I definitely wouldn't be on my way to head chef at a bar and restaurant."

"Hhmm…I don't know." Brittany mused. "I think we'd be married, but other than that, our life would be exactly the same as before we left. I don't think I would have moved very far in my career. You might have babe, but I think we'd still be in the same apartment, and we'd still do the same kind of stuff. It has only been three years you know."

"I know. Every time that hits me I can't believe it. Just three years and we're now famous, we've toured all over the world, we have kids and we bought a house. It's so crazy." Santana said.

"Totally" Quinn said. "Honestly, you guys moving to San Jose was the best thing you could have done for all of us."

"Do you ever miss them though?" Puck asked.

"Do you?" Brittany countered.

"I miss Finn. He was my best friend for most of my life. Even after all the hurt and betrayal, he was still my best friend."

"I miss Mercedes" Santana said.

"Me too" Quinn said.

"She always made me laugh, and after the trouble tones she really became my friend. Plus she wasn't as crazy as the rest of you guys. She'd usually sit and judge you all with me." They laughed.

"I miss Mike. He was goofy, and he was a really good friend to me through high school." Brittany said smiling. They all sat lost in thought for a moment.

"If there was a glee reunion would you go?" Quinn finally asked.

"Yeah for sure. I went for the end of glee, despite the fact that I was in a huge fight with Rachel, and hadn't spoken to Britt in months. I was so scared of seeing her and it being awkward and horrible, but I still went."

"Yeah me too" Brittany said.

"They may not be my favourite people in the world, but glee club is what led me to the life I have now. I don't think I would have had the guts to confess my love for B if we hadn't joined, and I don't think I would have really discovered how much I love singing either. I'd have probably gone to medical school honestly."

"Yeah. Glee made us who we are, we'll always go back."

"Let's just hope it's not for a long, long time though" Puck said, fist bumping Santana again.

Brittany laughed, shaking her head. "What time is it?"

Santana laughed. "1:06"

"What?" Brittany whined.

"We need a better way to pass the time" Santana said, "just sitting here isn't gonna cut it"

"We could go watch a movie" Quinn suggested.

"Something less public" Brittany said, picturing the paparazzi and fans.

"OK…We could go play paintball" Puck suggested.

"Yess" Santana said excitedly. Brittany looked up in thought.

"That's not a bad idea actually."

"Ok, but I'll have to go home and change" Quinn said.

"Me too" Santana said quickly.

"Ok, we all go home and get ready, you guys meet us at ours in an hour?" Brittany said excitedly.

"Sounds like a plan" Puck said, jumping to his feet.

"Woah, where are you going Puckassaurus?" Quinn asked, grabbing his jacket.

"What?" he said, tugging himself free.

"You're paying for lunch remember."

Puck sat back down heavily, crossing his arms. "Fuck"