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1.
Brittany and Santana are six years old when they first meet. Well, Brittany is six, but Santana makes sure to let her know that her birthday is not even a week away, so she’s pretty much six years old, too, not some baby five year old that Brittany can push around. Brittany is unphased by this information, and asks if Santana will help rebuild the block castle she knocked over. They’re at an after school program, which Santana goes to everyday while she waits for her abuela to pick her up, but Brittany is at for the first time since her mom just went back to work.
Santana watches her for a minute. She’s not really building a castle, more just individual stacks of blocks, and Santana had knocked over the largest one while chasing down one of the boys. She had only stopped to rub it in, and make sure the new girl didn’t tell on her, but Brittany hadn’t seemed mad at all, instead she introduced herself with a genuine smile that startled Santana into saying her real age.
The girl isn’t paying any attention to Santana now, fully focused on her towers. Santana considers walking away and going back to her chase, but then Brittany looks up at her with the bluest eyes Santana has ever seen, so Santana sits down and hands her a block.
By the time Santana’s abuela comes to pick her up half an hour later, they have built and knocked down the towers three more times. Santana waves goodbye and goes over to the cubbies without looking back, seeing her grandmother already impatiently tapping her foot by the door. She has just slung her backpack over one shoulder when she feels a tap on her back.
“Santana?” Brittany says, and Santana wonders if maybe Brittany has already started to forget her name or something so she nods. Brittany smiles. “Happy almost birthday!”
2.
“I don’t get what the big deal is,” Brittany says, before blowing on her still wet nail polish. Santana has taken her other hand and is working on her middle finger. Brittany loves when Santana paints her nails. She always holds her fingers so delicately, and sometimes she’ll run her thumb over the back of Brittany’s hand. “Lot’s of 13 year olds have never been kissed. Quinn probably won’t kiss a boy till she’s married.”
Santana scoffed. “I don’t want to be like Quinn.” Santana spits out her second best friend’s name like it's a bad word. They’ve been fighting recently, but Brittany can’t really remember why. Santana looks back down at Brittany’s hand, releasing her middle finger and grabbing the next one. “And that’s easy for you to say. You’ve kissed, like twelve different guys already.”
“Five. Three of them were during the same game of Spin the Bottle, so it barely counts.”
“Still.” Santana grumbles.
Brittany looks at Santana’s lips. She’s not sure why Santana has had any trouble at all finding someone to kiss them. Brittany has thought about it herself more than once – actually, the thought of kissing Santana has become a pretty major distraction every time they hang out lately, which is a problem since they hang out every day.
“You could have played, too.”
“And have my first kiss be in front of everyone? What if I suck at it? No, no way.” Santana hasn’t looked up from Brittany’s fingers, but Brittany is still staring at her lips. All this talk of kissing is making it harder than usual to push away those thoughts.
Brittany swallows as Santana moves on to paint the small nail of her pinky finger. “I could kiss you.”
Santana’s head snaps up. Her eyes are wide, and for a second Brittany thinks she’s going to be on the receiving end of some rage-induced, rapid fire Spanish, but Santana doesn’t say anything. Brittany looks from her eyes, which are wide and dark and deep in a way Brittany can’t understand, to her pink lips, shiny with gloss. When Santana still doesn’t say anything, Brittany lifts her free hand and places just her palm on Santana’s cheek, careful to keep her wet nails away from Santana’s skin and hair. Santana’s grip on her pinky tightens just slightly, and her eyes flutter shut. Brittany leans forward and presses her lips to Santana’s.
She leaves them there for a moment, feels Santana’s lips press back into hers. They are soft and full and taste like peaches. Brittany thinks her heart might beat out of her chest, so she pulls away, grinning wide. Santana offers a small smile in return.
“Happy almost birthday, Santana.”
3.
Santana is days away from her sixteenth birthday when she calls herself a lizard and breaks Brittany’s heart. It’s not the first time Santana has said she’s not in love with Brittany, it’s just the first time that Brittany believed her. She lies back down on her bed, watches Santana fix her ponytail, and she doesn’t let herself cry until after Santana leaves.
Normally, she’d make sure to plan something for the night of Santana’s birthday. Even though Santana always claims she doesn’t want to celebrate, doesn’t want anyone to know she is probably the youngest person in their grade, she never turns Brittany down. Last year Brittany had all the cheerios over for a bonfire in her backyard. She hadn’t told them it was Santana’s birthday, but she had pulled her into the kitchen at the end of the night and given her a new, silver microphone charm for her bracelet, and after they kissed the giant smile on Santana’s face had made Brittany fall in love with her just a little bit more.
Santana has told Brittany that they’re not in love, that sex isn’t dating, that they’re just best friends, almost as many times as she’s said she doesn’t want to celebrate her birthday. Brittany thinks maybe it’s time she starts listening to Santana about both. It would certainly be easier on her heart.
Santana’s birthday is on a Saturday. She is waiting by Brittany’s locker at the end of the day on Friday. If anyone else saw Santana Lopez at their locker with a slushie, they’d run the other direction, but Brittany accepts it and takes a sip. She used to think a gift like this was Santana’s way of saying sorry, but she also thought her sweet lady kisses were Santana’s way of saying ‘I love you’, so now she’s not so sure. She still drinks it, though, licking it off her lips and savoring the taste – cherry, her favorite.
Santana’s eyes flicker down to her lips as she licks them and back up again almost immediately. “So, um, do you need a ride home?”
“I drove today.”
“Oh, right,” Santana says, and looks away from her. “Do you want to come over this weekend? My parents are going to be out of town. I could help you with the Spanish essay.” Her voice is small and she doesn’t look Brittany in the eyes, and last week Brittany would have reached out for her pinky and left her car in the lot until Monday, but right now it sort of hurts to look at her, even though she’s still so beautiful. Especially because she’s still so beautiful.
Santana isn’t meeting her eyes, which is good because Brittany’s not sure she could say no if she did. “My family’s going hiking this weekend.”
“Oh, yeah, okay, no problem. I’ll see you Monday?” Santana says, and she’s trying to seem nonchalant but it's too high pitched and breathy. Brittany nods, and Santana starts to walk away, and somehow, as she sips what she’s now certain is an apology slushie, Brittany feels even worse than before.
“Santana?” she says before Santana has gotten too far away. The hallway is mostly empty, now, as everyone else rushed out of school to start their weekends. Santana turns, eyebrows raised and lips pressed together, and maybe she’s hoping Brittany will change her mind, and maybe Brittany sort of is too. “Happy almost birthday.”
4.
Santana is not quite 17, and she’s pretty sure she has a girlfriend. She’s made a list of all the evidence that she and Brittany are actually dating now, but her old mantra of sex isn’t dating keeps ringing in the back of her head, so she thinks there’s at least a 20% chance that if she asked, Brittany would say no, and she doesn’t think she can handle that kind of rejection again, so she hasn’t asked yet. Things are good right now. Why risk it?
She’s also pretty sure that her probably-girlfriend is planning some sort of early birthday for her tonight, because Brittany had apologized about seven times that she was being forced to go to some family reunion in Cleveland over the weekend, during Santana’s actual birthday, and then asked if she was free Thursday, instead.
She’s trying not to get her hopes up, though. For all she knows, Brittany wanted to know if she was free so they could take Lord Tubbington to the playground again and try to force him into exercising. That had not been a fun Saturday.
When Brittany finally pulls up to her house, Santana tries to maintain some dignity walking to the car, even though she would really like to run across the street and jump in. She also tries very hard to school her face into a casual expression, but she’s pretty sure she’s grinning like a lunatic and speed walking by the time she actually reaches the car.
“Hey,” she says as she slides into the passenger seat. Brittany kisses her cheek after she closes the door. Santana can’t quite help glancing out the front and side window to make sure no one is around, but if her skittishness bothers Brittany, she doesn’t say anything about it. “So, where are you taking me, exactly?”
“I told you, we’re going to investigate Lord Tubbington’s illegal dog fighting ring,” Brittany deadpans.
“Uh huh. And where are we actually going?”
Brittany grins without showing any teeth and looks at Santana through the front mirror. “You’ll see.”
Santana pouts, purposefully jutting out her lip and folding her arms over her chest. It draws a laugh out of Brittany, and she takes one hand off the steering wheel to squeeze Santana’s thigh. “Don’t worry, you’ll love it.” She leaves her hand there for the rest of the drive, while Santana asks her about Motocross practice and even when a Ke$ha song comes on the radio and they both sing along.
Santana realizes they’re going to Far Out park about five minutes before they get there, but she doesn’t say anything. They used to come here a lot with Brittany’s family, to hike or play Frisbee or just sit by the lake. It’s actually called Faurot park, but when Santana tried to tell that to Brittany, she had said that it was far out as in cool, the way old people say it, and also like, far out from her house. Santana hadn’t been able to argue with that logic, so she’d been calling it Far Out park ever since.
There are only a few cars in the parking lot – it's already getting dark and it's a Thursday night. After stopping the car, Brittany says, “Wait, stop, don’t move,” and Santana doesn’t have time to ask why before Brittany has hopped out of the car and slammed the door shut. Brittany grabs something from the trunk before opening Santana’s door and holding out a hand. Santana’s cheeks grow warm as Brittany helps her step out of the car.
“What have you got there?” she asks, nodding towards the grocery bag Brittany is carrying.
Brittany tilts her head to the side. “Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches, and some oreos for dessert. I tried to make cupcakes, but I confused the sugar with the baking soda. I thought we could have a picnic. What do you think?”
“It’s perfect.” She looks around the parking lot, but there’s no one there and in the growing darkness Santana feels like she and Brittany are the only two people in the universe. She takes a step closer to Brittany and kisses her on the lips.
Brittany pulls away but keeps her mouth close to Santana’s. “Happy almost birthday.”
1
Brittany wakes up early on the morning of Santana’s 21st birthday. If she were smart, she’d try her hardest to go back to sleep, because she has two math classes and a dance rehearsal today, and for the first time ever Santana is having an actual birthday party, with a few of their friends from NYU and some of the other glee kids who are in New York, so she’s going to need all the sleep she can get.
Brittany isn’t smart though – she’s a genius, so instead of going back to sleep, she watches Santana. Santana is curled into Brittany’s side, with one arm flung across her waist. She smooths away the dark hair that has fallen into Santana’s face and places a gentle kiss to her forehead, unable to help herself. She has her own plans for the day, which Santana doesn’t know about, that involve flowers and surprise lunch dates and some really awesome birthday sex. Watching Santana, so peaceful and so beautiful in sleep, she’s considering adding truancy to her plans, because she kind of never wants to move.
Eventually, Santana wakes. When she looks up and finds Brittany’s eyes open and watching her, a tiny smile crosses her face. “Morning,” she rasps, voice still thick with sleep.
Brittany tilts her head down to kiss Santana’s temple, and Santana lifts her head up for a proper kiss. It's a bit stale since neither of them have brushed their teeth, but it makes Brittany smile the same way she did the very first time they kissed. “Happy birthday, Santana.”