”Come on, let’s go inside,” Brittany smiled, reaching out for Santana’s hand and leading her into the house. It was kind of warm inside; her parents liked to turn down the air conditioning when they were gone. Brittany hated it but she didn’t know how the air conditioner worked so she’d usually just wear a swimsuit and shorts around the house or something. “I’m sorry it’s hot - I think my parents forget that I’m still here when they leave,” Brittany said. Her smile reappeared quickly though and she said, “But that’s okay. Then I can wear my new bikini to keep cool!”
She wandered up to her room, hoping Santana was behind her. When she got there, she told Santana, “You can change too if you want. I’m going to go change in the bathroom, quick.” Brittany dug through a dresser drawer and pulled out a pair of shorts - Santana’s favorite although Brittany wasn’t sure why - and said, “There are shorts in here if you want a pair.” Brittany wandered down the hall to change, excited for what lay ahead that night.
Santana locked her car and followed Brittany into her house, instantly hit by the warmth as they walked inside. “You know, I can turn the air conditioning on, Britt.” She offered as they walked upstairs, pausing when Brittany mentioned wearing her bikini top.
That was the last thing Santana expected - maybe shorts and a tank top, or a dress or something, but… Santana was completely caught off guard, and a little stunned, by the fact that Brittany was going to be wearing just her shorts and little bikini top, so much so that she didn’t even realise when Brittany left the room. She nodded dumbly and walked over to the drawer that Brittany had left open, picking out a pair of shorts and changing from her jeans into the shorts. She pulled her shirt up over her head and glanced around to make sure Brittany was still getting changed in the other room before unhooking her bra and letting it fall from her arms onto the floor. She pulled her new bikini top out of the bag and put it on, looking down at herself and giving a small nod of approval, turning to face the door to wait for Brittany to come back.
Santana waited for a minute before walking over to the door of the bathroom and leaning against the wall, knocking lightly on the door. “Britt? You done?” She asked, because now that she knew what Brittany was planning on wearing, she was getting a little impatient to see her. Even if she couldn’t do anything, because of Sam and Mike, there was nothing wrong with looking. And maybe Brittany was right, maybe it didn’t matter, because the plumbing was different. Santana shook her head to clear the thoughts because with Brittany, everything mattered. There was no way Santana ever wanted to make an excuse to get to touch Brittany, or to kiss her, or anything else she could think of.
Brittany liked that Santana got the doors for her when they got into her car. Brittany had only really seen it in those romantic movies where the girl always gets the hot guy even if she isn’t that pretty, and it made her smile. Maybe that meant Santana liked her like that? Brittany nodded absentmindedly when Santana asked if they should go to her house, her thoughts still on Santana.
Brittany would be lucky to be able to date someone as awesome and as hot as Santana. She cared about Mike, but was that real, or just a crush? That part of the whole mess Brittany didn’t really understand, but she knew she liked being around Santana and that when it came down to it, Brittany would do anything to be with her because they were best friends.
When they pulled up to Brittany’s house she smiled and looked over at Santana, “I’m really glad you came to hang out. I’ve missed our nights like these.” Sure, a lot used to happen on nights like the one they were about to have, but Brittany really liked them a lot, and she’d been kind of sad when they stopped.
Santana stole glances over at Brittany as she drove to her house, her nerves growing by the second, fearing rejection from her best friend. “I’ve missed them, too.” Santana agreed, looking over at Brittany when they had parked up outside of the house. She leaned over to kiss Brittany’s cheek again, simply for the fact that she wanted to feel Brittany, and she was kind of convinced that it wasn’t real. Maybe this would be just like all her other dreams where she confesses her feelings, and she would wake up just before Brittany replied. Feeling Brittany’s soft, warm skin against her lips made Santana believe that it couldn’t be a dream, there was no way she could imagine that.
She stepped out of the car and quickly made her way around to the passenger side to open the door for Brittany. She felt a bit silly doing it - she was more used to guys doing that for her, not her doing that for other people - but she knew how much Brittany liked all the awful romantic movies, and Santana really hoped that if she did that, and made the night more like one of those bad movies, then maybe there was a smaller chance of rejection. or maybe that was just wishful thinking on Santana’s part. Either way, she wanted to make the night good for Brittany, even if that meant holding doors open for her and letting her choose everything they did.

Brittany was a little confused when Santana let go of her. There were some guys they knew from school walking by, but she and Santana used to hold hands and stuff in the halls before, back when they first joined glee club and stuff. It didn’t really make sense, but Brittany didn’t want to ask about it. Whenever she asked about what it meant when they kissed or cuddled, Santana would get kind of angry and Brittany hated seeing her that way.
“Thanks for the candy, San,” Brittany smiled, squeezing her hand as Santana reached out for her again. “I think I have everything I wanted. We can go back to my place and eat the candy and cuddle and stuff now if you want.” Brittany hoped that Santana would want to do that, because Brittany was getting hungry and these little teasing touches were driving Brittany crazy.
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s just go to yours.” Santana smiled, leading Brittany out to her car and putting the bags on the backseat before opening the passenger side door for Brittany to get in. When she had sat down, Santana closed the door and quickly made her way to the driver’s side, sliding into her seat and smiling over at Brittany as she put the car into gear.
“You wanna play the candy games when we get back? Then get our cuddle on after that?” She asked, trying to hide her excitement as she pulled out of the mall’s parking lot and taking the familiar route to Brittany’s house. Santana wasn’t entirely sure what was going to happen when they got to Brittany’s, but she knew whatever happened with the candy and their cuddles, she had to tell Brittany the truth at some point - probably when they were cuddled up before bed - she couldn’t hold back any longer. She had tried to deny it, dating Sam, staying quiet when Brittany said she had begun dating Mike, but she didn’t think she could anymore. Even if Brittany didn’t reciprocate her feelings, she couldn’t lie to her any more.
Brittany smiled and said, “I love M&M’s!” she pulled a bag of them off the shelf and looked down at them curiously. “I wonder if we can play the same game with these as we can with the jelly beans? Like, maybe I could try to guess the color or something?” Brittany asked. She felt this funny warm feeling throughout her body as Santana held her and kissed her shoulder. Usually they only did things like that in the privacy of someone’s bedroom, but this was nice and it made Brittany feel good.
“I have all the candy I want. Did you want to get anything, Santana?” Brittany pressed, looking around the store. She swallowed hard and tried not to get too cuddly with Santana in public.
“We can try, if you want to.” Santana nodded, grinning and moving to Brittany’s side, her arm still around her waist, as Brittany held the bag of candy. “I’m fine without candy. It’s just for you, Britt.” She smiled, pulling her over to the counter to pay for the candy. When they had bought the candy, Santana saw a group of hockey players from school walk past the store window and she let her arm fall from Brittany’s waist, immediately nervous about what people would think. She wanted to be able to be with Brittany, at least just holding her, but she didn’t think she could deal with it if people hated her for how she felt, especially when she couldn’t help how she felt.
As soon as they had passed, Santana took Brittany’s hand in her again, though she was a little cautious, leading her out of the store and looking around. She hoped Brittany wouldn’t notice anything too weird, not wanting Brittany to question her about it too much. “So… is there anywhere else you want to go?” She asked, looking up at Brittany with a small smile.