#that’s the interesting part to me. and santana isn’t only mean she just struggles to express herself | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nnightskiess · 4 years

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r e q u e s t : Hi ! How are you ? I’m so sad as to what happened with Naya she was a huge inspiration in my life and It hit me really bad But I want to ask for an imagine where you are Santana’s little sister and you come in to join the glee club and you’re better then Rachel and she starts saying stuff but you pop off on her and Santana backs you up?? If you can, sorry if it doesn’t make sense

✫彡

Y/N sat cross-legged on a chair in the back row, texting one of her friends to try and pass the time. Mr. Schuester was late, as always. Her older sister, Santana, walked in with Brittany close behind her. They sat down in the chairs in front of Y/N and turned around to the younger Lopez to engage her in their conversation.

Their conversation was cut short when a loud clap of hands and an exciting yelp, coming from no other than Rachel Berry, interrupted them. Santana immediately rolled her eyes, knowing she was about to say something stupid again.

“You guys, I have amazing news!”

Y/N groaned loudly, knowing whatever Rachel had to say would probably only have interest to Rachel herself.

“I just made up my mind on what song I’ll be singing for regionals.” She went to stand in front of the group. If she had paid close attention, she’d seen that not all of them were pleased with her statement.

“What you’ll be singing?” Y/N cocked an eyebrow when Rachel stared at her for a few seconds. “We can all sing, we’re not your ensamble.”

“Didn’t you see how much everyone loved my solo at sectionals?! I want... I mean, we want that same standing ovation for regionals!”

“Oh, hell no.”

Puck cleared his throat, looking between Y/N and Rachel. “I kind of think Little-Lopez has a point.”

“Yeah, why can’t someone else get a solo this time? Sure, you’re an amazing singer but maybe you should give someone else a... chance... for once?” Artie tried to reason with her but his voice slowly died down after seeing Rachel’s disappointed expression.

The girl looked at Y/N for a split second only to see her with her arms crossed and a sneer on her face.

“So I’m taking you guys don’t want to win regionals then? Because we won’t if we’re changing our obviously, well-oiled, brilliant plan.” She took a deep breath and scribbled the name of the song down on the whiteboard- Always Starting Over from the musical If/Then.

“Listen here, Berry.” Y/N cocked her head to one side, “That obviously, well-oiled, brilliant plan of yours makes us look like your jazz hands, dancing oompa loompa’s who are just there to try and make you look better. Well, Willy Wonka, get this- I’m done being your background furniture that you picked up along the road just because we were free to take and have piss stains all over us.”

Santana whistled proudly at the insult her younger sister had just thrown at Rachel and it earned a few hums of approval from some of the other Glee club members.

Rachel was taken back for a few seconds but regained herself and cleared her throat, “Did you forget the cheering I got after my part? Why can’t you see that that’s exactly what we need to win regionals as well?”

“Ptchh, you should get your facts checked because they weren’t cheering for you. We all know I’m the better singer out of the two of us.”

Santana crossed her arms and gave Rachel a smirk, knowing who had won this argument. Everyone knew that the sassiness that ran in the Lopez family wasn’t only given to Santana. When it came to that, the two sisters were basically carbon copies of each other.

“That is so out of line! You talk the talk but when it comes to the performance you don’t walk the walk.” Rachel pointed a finger at the younger Lopez sibling and Y/N shot up, her fists balled up in rage. She was about to lounge at Rachel until Mr. Schue walked in.

“What is happening, guys?”

“Y/N is throwing a spanner in the works of our way to end up on top at regionals.”

Mr. Schue put his bag down onto the piano and eyed the younger girl for a few seconds, silently asking her for an explanation.

Santana rolled her eyes, “Hardiharhar, don’t be so dramatic. Y/N just expressed her displeasure and put her in her place- the lowest of the low in the hierarchy, where she belongs.” She shrugged.

“Santana.” Was all that Mr. Schuester said before turning to Rachel, who pointed to the song written down on the whiteboard.

“I’ve practiced this song for months and I think regionals is the right moment to finally sing it and show them what I got.”

He nodded, “Wow, If/Then is a great musical. Are you sure you can handle this song?”

Rachel nodded enthusiastically.

“Very well then!” He turned to the group, “I think we just found our first song for regionals.” He smiled his goofy smile. Mercedes and Kurt looked at each other before rolling their eyes while Quinn sighed and sank into her chair.

Santana furrowed her eyebrows again and shook her head in disbelief, hoping she didn’t just hear him say that.

“Um...hello?” She waved her arms around until Mr. Schue looked at her. “Okay, good! You do see us! For a second I thought you completely forgot about the rest of us existing.”

Mr. Schue sighed and looked down before eyeing his students, “Listen, I know everyone here works very hard, and each of you has an amazing and unique voice, but for now I think that we should just let Rachel sing the solo at regionals. However, that doesn’t mean that I render any of you unworthy of taking the lead another time. You will all get to sing a part in the second song, I promise.”

“How’s that fair? We didn’t even get a chance to tell you what we would like to sing or show you what we got.” Mercedes spoke up.

“Rachel practices every day. She deserves to sing.” Finn shrugged.

“No one asked you, Finn.” Y/N shot at the boy, who widened his eyes in response. “You don’t have a leg to stand on in this discussion, we all know you will probably get the male lead.”

Y/N then turned back to Mr. Schue. “Everyone knows Rachel is your favourite and I’m sick of it. You treat her like she’s the best thing since sliced bread.”

“That’s not true. I don’t do favourites.”

“Yes, you do. You clearly favourite that vest because it’s all you’ve been wearing for the past two weeks.” Santana shrugged.

Mr. Schuester rubbed his temple. Having to deal with not only one, but two Lopez girls was making him age faster. Especially at times when they let their minds run rampant.

Y/N crossed her arms. “I signed up for Glee club, not for ‘Sing-And-Smile-In-The-Background-Of-The-Rachel-Berry-Show’ club. Half the time, we’re not even on stage during her songs.”

“Wait, does that club exist?” Brittany mumbled under her breath.

“Guys, when have I ever steered you wrong? Please, trust me on this.” Mr. Schuester placed his hand on his heart.

“I think you’re just jealous.” Rachel’s tone was challenging as she sat down next to Finn.

Y/N shot up again.

“Yes, you might know how to sing, but you’ll never be able to leave the audience as impressed as I ever will.”

Santana now shot up as well.

“Qué acabas de decirme?” (What did you just say to me?)

Both girls made a move to lounge at Rachel but Quinn, Mike and Sam held them back. They struggled to do so while Y/N threw all the Spanish insults she knew at the girl in front of her.

“Enough!” Mr. Schuester tried but his voice didn’t stand out in the chaotic yelling. He sighed before clearing his throat.

“I want you both out.” He directed to the two sisters.

“Now!”

Everyone fell silent and it seemed to do the trick. Y/N slowly turned to him. Mr. Schue had a stern look on his face while he glared at the siblings. He kept pointing at the door.

“Fine.” Y/N grabbed her backpack, waited for Santana to dust herself off and grab her belongings too.

“You know what? I could use a break.” Santana huffed as both of them walked out of the room. Their heads held high, no dignity lost over what just happened.

They walked to the football bleachers where Santana immediately lit up a sigaret.

“Do you think he kicked us out... permanently?”

It was times like these, when it was only the two of them, where Y/N still depended on her older sister.

“Maybe.” Santana shrugged her shoulders, “If he can’t appreciate having you in the club then that’s his loss.”

Santana gave Y/N a playful nudge with her shoulder when the younger Lopez still seemed deep in thought. Y/N looked up to see Santana’s soft smile and she immediately sent her a goofy smile back.

“They can’t go to regionals without us. And if they do find a way, we’ll just have to start our own Glee club, huh?” She smirked. “I’m sure it won’t take long before Mercedes is sick of it as well.” She comforted her little sister.

“Yeah, but what will we do in the meantime?”

Santana furrowed her eyebrows, wanting Y/N to elaborate.

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this- but I actually really like Glee club and I was pretty excited for regionals.”

Santana nodded, “I know you do. I can see it in your eyes when you sing.” She took another drag of her sigaret. “Between you and me, I enjoy singing in Glee club as well.”

Y/N nodded softly and brought her legs close to her body so she could let her chin rest on her knees.

“San?”

Her sister hummed in return.

“Was Rachel right?” She looked up at Santana, “Am I really not giving that good of a performance?”

“Baby, no.” Santana gave her a stern look, telling her not to go there. “You might’ve only done one couplet by yourself so far... but even in the songs where you sing background vocals, you manage to outshine the rest.”

“But there must be a reason why I haven’t got the chance to lead a song yet.”

“Yup. And that reason is Rachel, dwarf, Berry.” Santana shrugged. “You know I’d tell you if you sucked.”

Y/N laughed at that, Santana so would.

“If Mr. Schue isn’t letting us show him what we got, then we have to come up with another way to get through that head of his how capable you are of leading a song.”

Santana suddenly stood up, put out her sigaret with her shoe and motioned for Y/N to take her hand.

It was a few days later and neither Santana or Y/N had attended Glee club after what happened on Monday. Rachel had made herself very clear to Y/N that she was very disappointed in her since Y/N’s jealousy caused the club to not be able to partake in regionals. Brittany had tried convince the two girls to join Glee club again with a clumsily, selfmade powerpoint and even Finn had kindly asked them to reconsider going back. But they simply couldn’t, at least not just yet.

But now that it was Friday, everything was ready to go.

The two Lopez girls decided to wait a few minutes until everyone was present before they walked into the room. Mr. Schue stopped talking and turned around, a disappointed look on his face.

“We’re not here for a pity-party and we’re definitely not walking in with our tails tucked between our legs,” Santana started as a few band members shyly shuffled their way into the room, instruments in hand.

“We just want to show you that we are fully capable of leading a song.” Y/N spoke as she shoo’d everyone to the side.

“Hit it.”

[glee performance of tina turner’s ‘river deep, mountain high’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82lYMlXB-fI ]

Rachel seemed unsettled during the performance, clearly noticing how everyone else was enjoying the two sisters sing. Mr. Schue, who had seem hesitant at first, was now visibly entertained and impressed and had already long forgotten what happened a few days earlier. Rachel sunk further into her seat when she noticed that.

Everyone knew the Lopez girls both had beautiful voices, but that they would sound so well together was news to them all. Mr. Schue now realised what a shame it was that he had never explored letting different kids sing together, and that all his attention had always been on the same people.

What topped the performance off, was the excitement in the sisters’ eyes. They were clearly having fun with the song and their minds seemed to have no memory of why they originally decided to perform. It was just them and the music they danced and sang along to.

But when the band played the last melodies, they suddenly seemed to remember and turned back around to the group with proud smirks on their faces.

On the last note, Santana held her hand up for her sister to high five.

Everyone started clapping and Mr. Schuester stood up, walking up to them.

“Ladies! That was fantastic!” He gave Y/N a pat on her shoulder. “Now that is how you sing a song! Well done!”

Rachel silently clapped along. She would never say out loud how much she had enjoyed their performance.

“I’m sorry, Rachel, but now that I’ve seen this-” Mr. Schue rubbed his chin, “I want to try a different approach at regionals. This is what will get the crowd’s attention!”

He turned to Rachel, an apologetic look on his face, “Do you mind giving your solo to Santana and Y/N?”

Rachel shrugged absentmindedly, trying to make it seem like she didn’t care, “It’s healthy to have some competition. It will push me to become a better performer.”

Mr. Schue nodded and turned back to the Lopez girls.

“Congratulations, you two. It’s yours!”

Everyone clapped again until Santana spoke up.

“No, no, no. I’m backing out.”

“W-why?” Confusion was written all over Mr. Schue’s face. “I thought it’s what you two wanted?"

“What I wanted was for you to realise that there are other people capable of leading a performance.” She turned to her sister, who had been confused at Santana’s decision up until now. “People like Y/N, for example. You take it. I know you can do it without me.”

Y/N tried to convince her otherwise, “But you’ve never had a solo either! We should-”

“Uh, uh.” Santana waved her finger, “I want you to take it.”

The two had a little face off for a few seconds, it was their way of talking to each other without words. Santana cocked her head to the side, knowing Y/N was about to give in.

Y/N rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

Santana smiled widely, grabbed her sister and planted a kiss on her head.

“I’ll always back you up.”

She winked at Y/N before the two of them went to sit down, ready for today’s Glee club.

#santana lopez imagine #santana lopez x reader #santana lopez / you #santana lopez one shot #santana lopez #naya rivera imagine #naya rivera imagines #santana lopez imagines #naya rivera x reader #glee imagine #glee imagines #glee x reader #glee preferences #glee one shot

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chooseyouovereveryone · 3 years

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Brittana Analysis Part 6: Love Languages

I'm a big believer in the 5 Love Languages. I discovered it all a few years ago and I truly think knowing your partners love language can help your relationship, because you know how to communicate your love to them, and also read their way of showing love.

It got me thinking about Brittany and Santana’s love languages, and in true yin/yang style, how different I believe their specific love languages are.

If you don't know about the 5 love languages maybe give it a google first. I personally find it really interesting. But anyway here's my take (a short novel be warned):

Santana

I think Santana's love language is predominantly Words of Affirmation and Quality Time. You can tell she values words a lot in the way she communicates with Brittany. The way she shows she loves Brittany is by encouraging her, assuring her and listening to her. She's always complimenting her with words:

"You really are a genius Brittany"

"You're the most amazing dancer i've ever met"

"You are the unicorn"

"You're my lady knight in shining armour"

"You're my best friend"

"You're my favourite person in the whole world"

"You make me so happy"

Also note that most of the time Santana is the one to initiate saying 'I love you'. This doesn't mean Brittany doesn't love her as much, we'll get to that in a minute, she just has a different way of showing it. But Santana definitely values words! You can also see as well as giving love that way, she likes receiving words back to make her feel loved. Examples of this:

"Please say you love me back" 2x15

"I said I love you. You didn’t say you loved me back." 2x17

"Are we dating?" 3x04

She needs concrete proof and words to solidify it, whereas Brittany is the opposite. She already knows, without the words being said. Note that she says "Of course I love you" like it should be obvious to Santana. It's not obvious to Santana, because she hasn't heard the words. But because Brittany's love language is different, she doesn't feel the need to 'say it' she's more 'show it'. Another good example is her reaction to Santana asking if they're dating. While Santana again seeks verbal proof, Brittany has assumed their actions meant they were dating all along, no questions asked.

Further proof to me that words are so important to Santana is that in 4x22, when saying goodbye to Brittany, she tells her not to say anything. In my head this is because Santana is so affected by words, that hearing Brittany say anything in such an emotional moment, would have made it too hard.

Words are so important to Santana, and what's also interesting is the way she is so anti words at the beginning. Whenever Brittany wants to talk, Santana shuts her down. This is shown in 2x04 'there's a lot of talking going on', and also referenced in 2x15 by Brittany various times, in that Santana never wants to talk. This again highlights how important words are to Santana. She didn't want to accept her love for Brittany at this point, so she couldn't communicate words because it's her love language. But the minute she did, boy did those words of affirmation spill out.

She also says in 4x04 that she liked to say things with music, when words just weren't enough, something that we saw her doing a lot (she sang a lot of love songs to Brittany). This is also highlights how important words were for her. She values them as the top aspects, and the only thing she can do better, when even that's not enough, is to sing.

Now onto the Quality Time, I think again this another one of Santana's love languages and something that's really important to her. The main example I have of this is when she breaks up with Brittany, due to struggling with the distance. In the cut scene, she talks about how hard it is to not be physically around Brittany, and that due to this she stopped calling and texting because it wasn't enough for her. It just made her miss Brittany more.

'Both couples are rarely getting what they need' is something she says, showing how important it is for her to have that time with Brittany. She doesn't say she wants it, she says she needs it.

It's very important for Santana to be physically in Brittany's presence. Before they break up, she deliberately does laundry at home so she has an excuse to come back and see her. After they break up, she comes back on a number of occasions to see Brittany again. She admits in 4x06 that she only agreed to play Rizzo in Grease to come back and see Brittany.

While it's obvious that the distance would have affected Brittany too (who wouldn't be upset going from seeing their girlfriend every day to hardly ever), and we get to see the impact this has on her as well, I think it affects Santana more so, because it's her love language. Hence why she's the one to call time on their relationship, while Brittany could probably power through.

When Brittana do get back together, Santana mentions Brittany moving to New York quite quickly, because it's important to her not to have distance between them. She raises this again in 6x03, showing it's obviously something that plays on her mind. It's evident they'd both want to live together, but it's always Santana who brings it up.

My final example of this, is 6x08, and the way that Santana can't stay away from Brittany even for a few hours.

'I'm really sorry that I can't go an hour without seeing you, because i'll just miss you too much"

It's all about the quality time and sweet words for one Santana Lopez. Now onto Brittany.

Brittany

In standard Brittana style, I think Brittany's love languages are the complete opposite to Santana's. I would say her main love languages are Acts Of Service and Gifts. I'll start off with Acts Of Service.

Brittany is helpful by nature, but she displays that sign most of all, with Santana. She shows she loves her by helping her and doing things for her. She'd do anything to lighten the load for her and make things less stressful. Here are just a few examples:

Getting Santana the scholarship to Louisville and trying to help her figure out what she wanted to do in 3x16

Going to Santana's Abuela to find out her opinions on love/marriage/family in line with wanting her to come to the wedding for Santana 6x06

Doing most of the wedding planning. We see it's Brittany who approaches Artie to plan the wedding and she does the invites in 6 x 06, and she's seen at the venue decorating it in 6 x 08

She offers to come out on Fondue For Two in 2x19, even though she doesn't really need to, it's purely to help Santana

She allows herself to be nominated for Prom King, in order for Santana to be able to be Prom Queen, because she knows it's important to Santana in 3x19

She leaves New Directions and joins The Troubletones to make Santana happy in 3x04

She also helps Santana come to terms with her sexuality, and while at the start pushing Santana to talk may have been for her own reasons as well, it's shown that she still encourages Santana to accept herself despite staying with Artie. She wants Santana to do it for herself, and not just to be with her. She gets her the Lebanese shirt, and she constantly brings it up, and calls her out for trying to hide back in the closet and use men to cover it up. Because she wants to help her accept herself.

"I do love you, clearly you don't love you as much as I do, or else you'd put this shirt on and you'd dance with me" is very telling of this love language, as it shows how important it is for Brittany to help Santana, in order to show she loves her. When she feels she's not helping, it upsets her.

Even down to the finer details of the wedding, where Brittany is trying to make everything perfect. She tries to stick to traditions of not seeing Santana, wearing Tina's underwear etc just to make sure their day is great and nothing goes wrong. While she does ban Santana from seeing her in her wedding dress, she doesn't ask her do the other traditions (the underwear etc). If it was about tradition, surely she would request Santana does it too. It is just an example of Brittany doing everything in her power to make everything perfect, whilst making sure Santana has to do very little.

I think this is definitely a very important love language for Brit, and now onto her other one. Gifts.

We see Brittany show her affection for Santana many times with gifts and grand gestures:

She makes her a playlist for valentines day in 3x13

She buys her lilies and tickets to Lesbos in 5x13

She makes her the giant heart out of mounds bars as an engagement present in 6x02

She gives her the Lebanese shirt in 2x18

She also puts a lot of thought into these gestures. With the playlist she creates the cover herself and makes it personal to them, she's researched that lilies are the lesbian of flowers, and mounds bars are the lesbians of candy, she chooses Lesbos thinking it's a lesbian island (note Brittany is bisexual so she's doing this solely thinking of Santana), she calculates the minutes they've spent together for the engagement present. She gets her the shirt, to help her come to terms with her identity, and show her that it's okay. They are all so well thought out and this is because gestures mean a lot to Brittany, and they are for her, an important way of showing Santana how much she loves her.

You can also see it means a lot to Brittany when Santana performs gestures like this for her. Santana purely does it for Brittany, since it isn't her own love language, and you can tell it means a lot to Brit.

When Santana gets the song for Valentines Day for Brit in 3x13, you can see how touched she is by it.

In 6 x 08, when they release the doves, Brittany turns to Santana and says 'You did that!?' with her hand on her heart.

Whenever Santana sings to her, she cries. Note how emotional she gets in Saturday Night Gleever. She is a sucker for a big gesture

Brittana

So we have Santana all about the words and quality time together, and Brittany all about helping and doing things for Santana, and grand gestures. One area I think they both cross paths is the final love language, Physical Touch.

Both girls are very hands on, and it's clear they show and receive love by touching, hugging, kissing, holding hands etc. This is a love language they share, although i'd argue it's slightly more important to Santana. I think Santana initiates touch more, and when she is upset, she leans on Brittany for support and needs to physically touch her.

But both definitely exhibit this one!

There's obviously some cross overs. Everyone has features of all 5. Santana displays Acts Of Service when she helps Brittany with Kurt's campaign, with her own presidential campaign and when she helps her learn her lines for Rocky Horror. Brittany shows Words of Affirmation when she tells Santana she loves her more than anything in this world etc. It's a great representation of a healthy relationship as they are both changing their love language to suit the other, whilst not fully neglecting their own.

I think it's interesting how as with everything, they both have complete different love languages. You don't have to speak the same love language to have a happy and healthy relationship, you just need to be able to communicate and understand the differences, and know what makes your partner happy.

As Santana says in 6x08 'you love me, and i love you' so it's clear they both have no doubt in their love for one another, despite showing and receiving it in different ways :)

& there is my super long analysis. Congrats if you got to the end hahaha!

#brittana #brittana analysis #brittanalysis #brittany and santana #santana and brittany #love languages #five love languages #glee analysis #santana lopez #brittany pierce #brittany s.pierce #brittanypierce #santanalopez #glee brittany #glee brittana #glee santana

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wheresmynaya · 4 years

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Lopez’s 8 Ch.2 | Brittana

I didn’t expect such a big response for the first chapter LOL I’m glad everyone’s here for this. Thanks for spreading the word! <33

Also available on ff.net (x) ao3 (x) & below the cut!

The next morning, Santana and Brittany are seated side by side in one of Santana’s favorite cafés. Santana’s stuffing her face with pancakes like she hasn’t eaten in days while Brittany tries to wrap her head around everything Santana has told her about the heist.

When the waitress comes around with Brittany’s hot chocolate and a top-up of Santana’s coffee, Brittany smoothly pulls a flask from her jacket and twists off the lid.

Santana watches as she pours a splash of peppermint schnapps into her mug and starts to stir before concealing the flask again.

“That’s new,” Santana comments with a chuckle, “Did you develop a drinking problem while I was away?”

Brittany rolls her eyes, “No, but I might if you insist on starting every morning like this.”

“Like what?” Santana smiles sweetly, “With breakfast and the pleasure of my company?”

Brittany squints and goes to correct her, “With you tricking me into having breakfast with you so you can bombard me with your dastardly plans on the way here.”

“Admit it, Britt,” Santana says smugly as she sticks her fork through a bite of pancakes, “You’ve missed this. You’ve missed me and all the fun we use to have. Tell me you’re not the least bit interested now that you’ve heard everything.”

Brittany sighs and goes to take a long sip of her hot chocolate.

Santana watches and waits, but Brittany remains quiet. It makes Santana smirk deviously.

“That’s what I thought,” Santana gives her a triumphant grin, “You can’t resist a good thing. You so want this, just say it.”

Brittany scoffs. If she didn’t find Santana’s confidence so damn attractive, she’d roll her eyes at it for the millionth time that morning.

“Okay, so you want to rob a museum…” Brittany clarifies hesitantly after taking another sip.

Santana shakes her head, “Not the museum, just someone in it.”

“That’s right,” Brittany nods, “You want to rob Rachel Berry.”

“Oh my God, Britt!” Santana hushes and eyes around them to see if anyone heard. When the coast is clear she turns back to Brittany with her voice lowered, “Could you be any louder? Who knows who’s listening, she’s like the biggest star right now.”

“I don’t know why,” Brittany scoffs, “You know she pays the paparazzi to follow her around, right?”

“Yeah, it’s ridiculous but so is she,” Santana shrugs, “She’s always causing a scene to get her name on the front page. Remember that one scandal involving a panty raid?”

“How could I forget! She was caught red-handed,” Brittany laughs before her tone grows serious, “Rumor has it that she once ate a bull testicle too.”

Santana frowns in disgust and pauses before taking another bite, “Can you not? I’m eating…”

“That’s her claim to fame, Santana, eating a bull testicle…like singular she didn’t even eat both of them!” Brittany says while she waves her hand around, “It’s such a waste.”

“Well the key words here are rumor has it,” Santana jokes, “Who knows what the hell goes on with her. And besides, why would anyone want to eat a fucking bull testicle in the first place? That’s gross.”

“It’s a delicacy in some places,” Brittany mumbles which earns her a quizzical glare from Santana, “So I’ve heard. People do strange things for fame.”

“Clearly,” Santana replies, “We all know Rachel Berry sucks but she’s the one hosting the Met Gala this year so it’s kind of out of my hands. She’s our mark by like…default.”

“Right,” Brittany nods and goes back to piecing everything together. Her face is cutely screwed up in deep concentration and Santana’s sure Brittany’s about to say that she’s the biggest pain in her ass which Santana’s totally use to hearing by now.

To her surprise, Brittany just let’s out an exhausted sigh.

“There’s no way we’d be able to pull this off with just the two of us,” She says, “There’s too many moving parts, we’d need like a group of 11 to 13 people – “

“Oddly specific,” Santana points out around a mouthful of pancakes while Brittany rambles on.

“ – At the very least and like a whole bunch of money which neither of us has,” Brittany gives her a look, “So how’s that going to work out?”

“Well for starters, we’d only need a team of seven and just a few grand,” Santana answers proudly, “That’s where the credit line I asked about comes into play.”

“Oh, just a few grand? Is that all?” Brittany quips, “You think money grows on trees or something? It doesn’t, I tried. Remember?”

“Yes, yes I remember. The pay-off is going to be big,” Santana jokes back as her voice dips down into a flirty tone, “And I’m sure you can work out something. Give yourself some credit, you can be very persuasive when you want.”

“Well one of us has to be judging by your failed attempt to seduce me yesterday,” Brittany smirks.

“Please. If I was going to seduce you, you’d know it.”

“I’m sure,” Brittany lets out a laugh before getting serious again, “Even if I could manage to get what you need, we’re working with such a tight schedule. We’d need to acquire a whole team like now. It’s crazy talk.”

“No, it’s genius,” Santana corrects her while Brittany takes a sip, “You have got to admit that this is some of my best work, Britt.”

She’s not wrong, it really is a great plan. It’s just that Brittany doesn’t want Santana to get herself locked up again, she doesn’t think she could last that long without having her around, but you only get locked up if you get caught and that has never happened when she and Brittany are together.

It really gets Brittany thinking though, what’s the hurry other than the obvious? Why does it have to be the Met Gala? What isn’t Santana telling her?

“Why do you need to do this?” Brittany asks suddenly and there’s this seriousness in her tone, “Tell me the reason and maybe I’ll consider it.”

Santana’s answer comes easily as she smirks, “Because it’s what I’m good at.”

“Babe, you’re good at a lot of things. Trust me on that, but this?” Brittany shakes her head, “I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Brittany says earnestly.

The old term of endearment falls so easily that Brittany doesn’t realize she says it. They’ve always playfully called each other names like that for years so it’s not big deal, even if Brittany sometimes gets a fluttery feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Santana lets out a long sigh and lowers her tone too, “There’s nothing to worry about. I have gone over this thing thousands of times, literally. It’s all I thought about when I was away and I have it perfected. If we get into a bind – which we won’t, probably – I can get us out. It might’ve taken me like three years to get it just right, but it’ll run like clockwork now. I promise.”

What surprises Brittany is the fact that Santana holds out her pinky to her.

“No. Don’t do that,” Brittany scoffs and points at Santana’s hand, “Pinky promises are reserved for promises that you can keep.”

“I know,” Santana replies and inches closer, “Why do you think I’m doing this?”

Brittany’s slow to answer and instead just stares down at her mug.

“Listen,” Santana adds in this husky tone and puts down her fork altogether to give Brittany her full attention. She has her serious voice on now too when she says, “I need you with me, B.”

Brittany bites her lip to keep from smiling as she peeks up at Santana. The brunette is staring back with these pleading big, brown eyes and Brittany struggles against the pull. She can feel herself caving the longer she stares back though, because feeling needed? By Santana? That’s Brittany’s kryptonite.

But Santana knows that too and Brittany can’t give into her so easily.

“Why can’t you find someone else if it’s so important for you to do?” Brittany asks but again Santana is too quick to answer.

“It has to be you and me leading this thing. That’s the only way this will work.”

“You’re just saying that,” Brittany brushes off with the shake of her head. She tries to make light of the situation, “You’ve found someone else before. That’s how Dani came into the picture, right? You can do it again. Maybe the next person will have green hair this time?”

Brittany sees that she has struck a nerve with the way Santana takes a sharp inhale at the blow, but the brunette remains persistent despite the waver.

“I can’t do this with anyone else,” Santana says simply, “There’s no one like you, Britt.”

Her words and her tone has Brittany’s playful smirk falling and the blonde looks to Santana almost in wonderment. Those words Santana said, she rarely hers them. Or rather, she rarely believes them but when they come from Santana it means something different altogether.

Brittany trusts her – well, they trust each other – and that’s rare in their industry. Con artists don’t trust anyone and they can’t be trusted either. That’s just how it is, but it’s always been different for them.

“Don’t you want out of the bootlegging biz?” Santana asks to fill the silence.

Brittany’s smirk returns, “That’s not what it’s called anymore…”

“Whatever, you know what I mean,” Santana shrugs and finds Brittany’s eyes, “You’re better than that watered down shit, that I know. Don’t waste your talents on it, Britt. Do this thing with me instead. Please.”

It takes Brittany a moment for Santana’s words to sink in, but then she’s letting out a telltale sigh of defeat. She doesn’t even have to say anything, Santana just knows she has won this round.

“Alright, I’ll do it,” Brittany finally agrees aloud and takes Santana’s pinky in hers, “You happy now? You’ve successfully corrupted me.”

“Don’t pin that on me! You were like that before I even met you,” Santana grins, “But yes, I’m very happy.”

Brittany keeps her pinky curled around Santana’s for a second longer as she says, “Good, but just know I’m only agreeing to this because I like how you sound when you say please.”

“I know you do,” Santana winks. She pauses there for a second, admiring the way Brittany’s cat-like eyes darken in a way that occasionally has one of them being dragged off to a bathroom stall. Santana stays focused though and goes to pick up her fork again before offering a bite to Brittany, “Now taste this before it gets cold.”

“But I’m not hungry.”

“Liar,” Santana accuses playfully, “You’re always hungry.”

“Yeah, but not for pancakes.”

Brittany gives Santana a proud smirk to which Santana rolls her eyes, “Just take a bite.”

Brittany looks down at the offered fork warily then back into Santana’s hopeful eyes. She rocks the fork from side to side like she’s trying entice her with it. Ultimately Brittany rolls her eyes and succumbs to Santana yet again. She lets Santana guide the small bite into her mouth and hums almost instantly at the taste.

“Tastes like clouds,” Brittany’s in awe and goes to grab her own fork.

“Told you,” Santana smirks and slides her plate closer so that Brittany can help herself.

“So this team you’re talking about,” Brittany mumbles with her mouth full, “Got anyone in mind?”

Santana bobs her head from side to side, “Possibly. That’s what I’ll need your help with first, partner.”

Brittany smiles deviously at her new title, “Let’s hurry up and get to work then!”

They’re back at the loft and have cleared off the dining table so that it’s now covered in headshots and resumes. Santana and Brittany have been rifling through the paperwork for hours now trying to select the perfect person for job.

“What about this one?” Santana suggests and pushes the fashion designer’s details across the table towards Brittany.

Brittany pushes her laptop out of the way and goes to take a look at the profile. After once glance, she quickly shakes her head and throws the paper off to the side with a, “Nope.”

Santana gasps and goes to pick it up, “Why not? She’s young, she’s well-known, she’s – “

“Got a record,” Brittany fills in.

“Don’t we all?” Santana smirks.

Brittany narrows her eyes, “Not the kind of record you want around this type of job. Holly Holliday is a flight risk. She rarely completes a job. I don’t want us to worry about whether or not she’ll stick around long enough to see this through.”

“Well, there’s millions of dollars in it for her if she does,” Santana replies sarcastically.

Brittany gives her a look, “It’s a big if, Santana. We can find someone better.”

“Okay, okay. We’ll keep looking,” Santana sighs and goes back to searching.

“Ah, how about him?” Brittany suggests a moment later and reveals a picture of world-renowned designer Kurt Hummel.

Santana waves him off, “No. No boys allowed.”

“Not even a gay one?” Brittany asks and goes to frown at the picture, “He’d be perfect for this. Impressive portfolio, easily intimidated yet highly motivated by the potential pay-off. Just look at his porcelain face.”

“Porcelain cracks with enough pressure,” Santana replies matter-of-factly, “If he someone gets picked up, we need to make sure he doesn’t start singing and with a face like that? I’m sure he’d sing his ass off.”

“True,” Brittany pouts at his picture, “I bet he gives really facials though.”

Santana fakes a gag, “Gross, Britt.”

“What? I was talking about skin care. See?”

Santana glances up to find Brittany looking genuine as she holds up his picture. She smiles apologetically and shakes her head, “It’s still a no. I’m going for all-girl here. We can’t have a guy in the group, even if his face does look baby-butt smooth. Besides, he’s rich already. We need someone who needs us.”

“Alright,” Brittany shrugs and sets down the picture.

A few moments later Santana plucks another profile from the stack and shows it to Brittany, “What about this one? Pretty sure we’ve worked with her before actually…”

Brittany reads the name April Rhodes and starts to chuckle, “I remember her! She got caught trying to smuggle a whole butterball turkey out from this banquet dinner…between her legs. ”

“Stuffing and all,” Santana recalls and goes to read the profile again, “She’s down for anything and she’s a talker too. Perfect for what we need. Now she’s apparently into fashion?”

“More like rehab,” Brittany corrects after doing a quick search on her laptop. She turns the screen to Santana, “Been in there now for six weeks.”

“Damn it! Third time’s the charm I guess,” Santana shrugs, “We’ll keep looking.”

A few more failed attempts later, Brittany starts to giggle to herself. Santana wonders how late it is and if Brittany is starting to get a little delirious.

“What?” Santana asks.

“I’m beginning to think you have a type,” Brittany teases while she taps away on her laptop.

“A type?”

“Mhmm,” Brittany hums without looking up.

Santana frowns, “I don’t have a type.”

“All your suggestions have been blonde and blue-eyed,” Brittany points out, “Hate to break it to you, honey, but you have a type.”

“My ex has blue hair, blue. That totally cancels out your theory.”

“But she was blonde when you met her,” Brittany grins and peeks over the screen of her laptop, “Admitting you have a type is the first step to recovery.”

“Oh is it?” Santana quirks her brow, trying to brush it off, “You sure that’s not addiction?”

“Same difference.”

Santana shakes her head, “Let’s just focus here.”

Although now that Brittany has mentioned, she’s become really aware of the last four people she has suggested. She didn’t know she was doing it – obviously – but now that Brittany’s pointed it out, she’ll just have to be more observant.

She doesn’t have a type, she just has standards and coincidentally those standards have been met by people who just so happened to be blonde and blue-eyed.

Does that mean she has a type? Of course not.

That’s when her eyes catch a profile she hasn’t suggested yet. She plucks up the paper and skims the details. Her smile grows the more she reads.

“She’s the one,” Santana mumbles and turns the paper to show Brittany, “This is our fashion designer and look, she isn’t blonde.”

Brittany scans the information and Santana watches her smile grow too.

“Let’s go get her.”

Brittany manages to gain her and Santana entry into the designer’s next fashion show which just so happens to be the worst hour and a half they have experienced in a long time. Santana actually feels sorry for the models because any outfit that consists of a gigantic, floppy bow tied around your neck paired with a buttoned-up cardigan that is the same color as mashed up peas and carrots is just a travesty.

“I don’t know, Britt,” Santana whispers as another model walks by, “I’m having second thoughts. This is horrible, just look at that one’s shoes.”

Brittany glances over just in time to see Santana cringe. She does her best to stifle her laugh as she whispers back, “She doesn’t have to appeal to us, remember? She has to appeal to Rachel Berry, the same Rachel Berry who coined the term Sexy Librarian Chic.”

Santana nods, “You’re right. We need someone with just as horrible taste as her.”

“Exactly,” Brittany smiles down at Santana encouragingly, “We’ve found our designer for sure.”

It’s hard for Santana and Brittany to sit through the entire show without screwing their faces up in disgust, but they manage to pull through and once the show ends they go off to find their designer.

It doesn’t take long though. When they find who they’re looking for, she’s huddled up in a corner surrounded by used disinfectant wipes. She’s in the middle of furiously scrubbing a high heel while she recovers from sobbing when Santana and Brittany walk up.

“Hi. Are you Emma?” Brittany asks softly, “Emma Pillsbury?”

The designer looks absolutely wrecked with her mascara running down her cheeks and this panicked look in her eye. It kind of freaks Santana out at first glance.

The red-haired woman hiccups as she looks to them, “Yes?”

“Awesome,” Brittany shows off that infectious, mega-watt grin and takes another step closer, “We’re big fans of your work.”

“You are?” Emma doesn’t look too sure.

“Of course,” Brittany shrugs casually and kicks away some of the used wipes so that she can perch herself on an upturned crate near the woman, “I would’ve never thought to pair a lime green cardi with mustard yellow loafers.”

“That’s because you have taste,” Santana jokes purely because she can’t help herself.

Brittany shoots her a glare and quickly tries to do some damage control before Emma starts to hyperventilate again, “You’re a fashion icon, Emma.”

“Tell that to the debt collectors,” Emma frowns, “I’m a failure. There’s no way I can come back from this. I put everything I had left into this show. It’s only a matter of time before everything’s taken from me.”

Brittany softens at Emma becoming increasingly distressed. Deep down, she feels a little bad for the woman. She seems like a nice person, genuine enough, and completely broke.

She’s the perfect person for the job.

“What if we told you that we can make this all go away?” Santana speaks up when she finds Brittany getting swept up in her feelings.

Emma blinks and glances between the two women skeptically, “I wouldn’t believe you.”

“Well start believing because we can,” Santana says through her smirk.

“What do you have in mind?” Emma questions.

Santana glances to Brittany and gives her a nod, almost as if she’s passing the mic.

“Dress Rachel Berry for the Met Gala,” Brittany supplies quietly so that only the three of them can hear.

Emma spurts out a disbelieving laugh, “You can’t be serious.”

Santana and Brittany remain stoic and it has Emma’s smile falling instantly.

“You’re serious,” Emma says gravely.

“We are,” Santana nods.

“Rachel Berry?” Emma pushes the idea away, “She’s…I’ve never dressed anyone with her kind of star power. How would I even be an option for her?”

“Come with us and we’ll explain everything,” Brittany offers.

Emma looks a little like a frightened doe but she stands regardless and agrees to follow them out to their car. It’s actually really concerning how little effort they had to use in order to get Emma to agree to a meeting, but they aren’t complaining too much.

Once they get back to the loft, Brittany pulls up a picture of the most blingiest bling that ever blinged: the Toussaint. Emma’s eyes go wide at that size of the diamonds encased in the necklace while Santana gives a vague rundown of how Rachel Berry, the Toussaint, and Emma all play an important role in the outcome of this heist.

Unlike Brittany, Emma only needs to hear the parts of the plan that she’s directly involved with so it doesn’t take as long for the designer to get her head wrapped around the opportunity.

“I still don’t understand how you expect me to get a hold of this necklace,” Emma says a bit later, “And frankly, I think it’s too gaudy for the work I’m known for.”

“Known for? That’s a reach,” Santana teases lowly but plasters on an encouraging smile as she turns to face her again, “This necklace has history. It’s perfect for this year’s theme and if it’s Rachel Berry we’re talking about…the bigger the bling, the better. They’ll lend it out if it’s for her.”

Emma sighs but ultimately lets Santana sway her, “Okay, I can do this.”

“Yeah you can!” Brittany cheers before glancing to Santana and sending her a wink.

Santana ignores how her stomach flips at the sight and goes back to explaining what they need Emma to do first.

Later that night, Santana and Brittany are back on the hunt again for their next recruit. Brittany’s eyes are starting to do that thing where they sting whenever she blinks, so she looks over to Santana who is fully immersed in her search.

“Can we take a break?” Brittany asks, “I’m getting snacky.”

“You’re always snacky,” Santana chuckles as Brittany goes to stand. She doesn’t even notice Brittany rounding the table until her warm hands squeeze tenderly at her shoulders. She feels Brittany’s thumbs dig into her tight muscles, working out the tension there, and she can’t help but moan at the sensation.

“Come on. Take a break,” Brittany husks as her hands continue to work, “We’ve been going at it all day.”

Santana can practically hear the smugness in her tone for that innuendo; Brittany can be the biggest tease sometimes and that’s coming from her.

She stays focused on the task at hand though, “I’m close, Britt. I can feel it.”

“I haven’t heard that in awhile,” Brittany chuckles darkly as she withdraws her hands and goes looking for a snack.

Santana raises a brow, “I find that hard to believe.”

“You’re right,” Brittany says as she goes to lean against the kitchen counter with an apple in hand. She looks back at Santana with this mischievous glint in her eye, “What I meant to say was that I haven’t heard that from you in awhile.”

Santana lets out a laugh but Brittany just takes a bite of her apple, never breaking eye contact. In fact, her smug grin grows as she chews.

“And I’m sure you want to change that?” Santana asks as her voice dips into that deliciously raspy-hot-as-hell tone of hers, “Don’t you?”

“Is that an invitation?” Brittany practically purrs after wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

“You find me a hacker and we’ll see where your luck takes you.”

Brittany sinks her teeth into the apple then snatches up a bag of chips and a beer before retuning to the search with a renewed enthusiasm. It takes her all of twenty minutes before she’s stumbling upon someone promising.

“Can I borrow your car?” Santana asks the next day while Brittany is busy at work trying to sift through potential people needed for other roles in the heist.

“Which one?”

“Any.”

The blonde shrugs, “Sure. Where’re you going? Paying another friend a visit?”

Santana smirks, “Something like that.”

Brittany gives her a questioning look before going to grab the keys, “Can I come?”

“Not yet,” Santana answers, “But I’ll need your help a little later.”

“Sure,” Brittany shuffles through the mix for Santana’s favorite and tosses them over to her, “I just filled that one up too.”

Santana smiles sweetly and comes over to press a chaste kiss to Brittany’s cheek in thanks, “I’ll see you later. Don’t get into any trouble while I’m out.”

“Speak for yourself,” Brittany chuckles although she can feel a blush blossoming at the feel of Santana’s lip on her skin. God, she’s so sex-deprived. If just a little kiss on the cheek gets her going, who knows what’ll happen if Santana leaves one on her lips next.

The brunette gives her one last wave of her fingers before she heads out, leaving Brittany to distract her wandering thought by looking up that possible hacker’s details and setting up a meeting.

Awhile later, Santana finds herself standing across the street from a jeweler she once tagged along with her father to when she was younger. Her father and the shop owner were close friends back in the day, and judging by her father’s reputation, she’s sure the shop owner must’ve dabbled into the business as well otherwise, why would they be so close?

Santana remembers playing with the owner’s daughter every once in awhile though when she and her father would come by. Word on the street is that the daughter took over the business after the owner’s passing, so it’s only natural that Santana returns now.

They both have followed in their fathers’ footsteps in a way and she’s sure they could be of use to each other.

Santana waits for the jeweler in the window to notice her watching from across the way. When she finally does, she quickly speaks to her colleague before making her exit.

Santana smiles politely as the other woman nears, she looks like she has barely aged since the last time she saw her.

“Hey Tina,” Santana greets.

“Santana, Hi!” Tina replies happily, “God, it’s been a long time. I haven’t seen you since the funeral.”

“Yeah, I’ve been busy,” Santana says vaguely, “How’s business?”

“It’s okay,” Tina shrugs as her smile falls, “We’re going through a little rough patch at the moment, but we’ll be okay. What brings you out this way?”

“Well, I kind of need your help with something,” Santana tells her.

Tina’s voice lowers, “Is everything okay? I heard you were in jail…”

“Yeah, I was,” Santana answers with a chuckle and goes to check her watch, “You got time for a walk? I can explain everything.”

Tina glances over at the shop for a moment before she nods, “Yeah, of course. What do you need help with?”

Santana breezes into the loft awhile later with the biggest of grins on her face.

“Got a jeweler!” She says proudly as she shrugs out of her blazer. When she doesn’t hear a reply she ventures in deeper and calls out, “Britt? You here?”

“Yeah!” Brittany answers back and Santana follows the sound of her voice around the corner.

She finds the blonde seated next to a woman she recognizes from Brittany’s pile of suggestions but she still has questions. The two of them are squeezed in on a loveseat that Santana totally forgot about and they’re both staring down as the woman’s fingers type furiously at her laptop.

“What’s going on here? Who the hell are you?” Santana asks, but her tone comes out way more aggressive than she intended.

Brittany looks up questioningly upon hearing the snap, “This is Mercedes. She’s our new hacker.”

“I didn’t agree to anything yet,” Mercedes corrects her.

Santana’s brow rises as she looks from the woman to Brittany, “You chose someone named after a car?”

Mercedes gives Santana a look, the first time she’s torn her eyes away from the screen, but Brittany cuts in before anything happens.

“She’s really great, Santana,” Brittany tells her and goes to pat her thigh, “Come sit, she’s already infiltrated the museum’s security system.”

“What?” Santana gasps and quickly comes in close, foregoing Brittany’s lap so she can see the screen. Sure enough, it’s all there: access to every camera in the entire building.

“Is this what you’re looking for?” Mercedes asks casually.

“Yup,” Brittany beamed and looked to Santana who was now pressed up against her shoulder, “What do you think?”

“Anyone can hack into some cameras,” Santana waves off as she pushes away from Brittany to stand, “What else can you-“

Suddenly all the lights in the loft went out and the three of them were plunged into darkness for a few seconds until the sound of a mouse click turned them back on.

Mercedes smirks at the dumbfounded look on Santana’s face, “It took me a matter of seconds to run this place. Whoever is in charge of your busted ass security system here should be fired.”

When Santana’s only reply is a dropped jaw, Brittany takes that as all the approval she needs and enlists Mercedes on the spot.

Once Mercedes heads out, Santana and Brittany set off on their next task for the day. This one is something Brittany’s been organizing while Santana was off meeting with Tina, so she fills Santana in on the way to the restaurant where they’re meant to meet Emma.

Brittany takes the lead on this one, telling the designer that the mission here is to make Rachel Berry as jealous as possible so that she’ll stop at nothing to nab Emma Pillsbury as her fashion designer for the Gala. Emma’s not so sure she’s following along, but Brittany tells her not to worry about it and just do what they talked about earlier while Santana was away.

Emma nods resolutely and heads inside while Santana and Brittany hang by the car.

“Who’s she meeting with?” Santana asks.

“You’ll see,” Brittany answers, “You aren’t the only one who has a few tricks up her sleeve.”

Santana tilts her head to the side in wonder, but Brittany just leans against the car with her arms crossed and rests her head back to soak in the warm sunlight.

Santana watches with awe, the way sunrays halo her makes Brittany look almost angelic. Santana knows that couldn’t be further from the truth though and the thought makes her smirk.

They stand there a moment longer somewhat watching from the window as Rachel Berry’s biggest rival, Sunshine Corazon, enters the restaurant and walks over to the table where Emma is seated. The singer and designer talk excitedly while Brittany pulls a camera from the car and pops off the lens cover.

“Hold this,” She directs and passes it to Santana before walking over to snap a couple pictures of the two carrying on. Santana watches curiously until Brittany returns to her side, “You know how much we can get for pictures like these? Could easily pay for nice meal and a few drinks.”

“Is that your way of asking me on a date?” Santana snickers as she passes Brittany the lens cap.

“Date?” Brittany feigns surprise, “You don’t date. At least that’s what you told me before you started dating Dani.”

Santana let’s out a deep sigh at another one of Brittany’s Dani-related jabs, “You’re never going to let that go, huh?”

“Nope,” Brittany grins, “Especially because she got you arrested once.”

“Not funny,” Santana huffs and goes to cross her arms.

Brittany’s quick to slip her hand between them though and slides down Santana’s forearm so that her pinky locks with the brunette’s, “I’m sorry. Don’t be mad.”

Santana rolls her eyes at the sickeningly sweet tone but she can’t help the smile that forms. When it comes to Brittany, sometimes she really can’t help herself. She’s like putty in her hands, but that goes both ways at times too.

“Oh look, Emma’s coming out now,” Brittany points out as she drops Santana’s pinky and goes to stow away the camera.

Santana hates how she already misses the closeness but pushes away the feeling and gets back into the car along with Brittany and Emma.

When the pictures of Emma’s lunch with Sunshine Corazon are released to the public it only takes a matter of minutes before Rachel Berry’s manager is calling to book Emma for the Gala.

“Mission accomplished,” Brittany smirks and pumps her fist in the air, “And I got a couple hundred bucks for the pictures!”

“Big money,” Santana teases.

Brittany continues to smirk as she closes the distance between them, “What’d you say we blow this popsicle stand and grab a drink?”

“Tempting,” Santana says as Brittany’s eyes linger on Santana’s lips, “But I’ve got work to do.”

Brittany let’s out a sigh and turns away, “You’re no fun.”

“Okay so here me out,” Brittany begins as she and Santana walk down a crowded street, “This girl is a little out there but she’s got the best hands I’ve ever seen.”

Santana quirks a brow, “I’m offended.”

“Hey, it’s been awhile,” Brittany replies with a wink, “You might need to refresh my memory.”

“Yeah, you’d love that would you?” Santana laughs.

“You have no idea. Come on,” Brittany smirks then grabs onto Santana’s wrist to pulls her through a crowd surrounding a busker.

It’s a tight fit so Santana hooks her fingers into Brittany’s belt loops and practically molds herself to the blonde’s back – you know, so they don’t get separated.

Brittany loves every minute of it of course.

Santana also doesn’t mind the closeness too much either.

“She’s there,” Brittany points out to the girl doing some trick with a few red solo cups.

Santana rolls to the tips of her toes to get a better look which makes Brittany chuckle.

“Come here, shorty,” She teases and pulls the girl around to stand in front of her instead. Her hands linger on Santana’s hips, “Can you see now?”

“Yeah,” Santana mumbles and watches the girl in front of them work her magic on some tourist.

She’s quick with her hands and just as charismatic as Brittany too but there’s something about her that’s a little too flashy. Maybe it’s the hot pink, furry vest she wears or the heart-shaped sunglasses sitting atop her head. Santana has no idea, but the girl’s swift nab of the man’s watch without him knowing has her interests piqued.

“See what I mean?” Brittany nudges Santana.

“She’s good,” Santana agrees and as the crowd starts to disperse she and Brittany head over.

“Hey hotties,” The girl greets and does a quick nod so that her sunglasses fall over her eyes. She points over to Santana’s watch, “That’s nice.”

“Don’t even think about it,” Santana smirks.

The girl tilts her head to the side and looks between them, “You 5-0?”

Santana and Brittany look to each other and laugh wholeheartedly.

“Fuck no!”

“Yeah, no way!” Brittany adds too, “What’s your name, kid?”

“Sugar,” The girl supplies and Santana’s sure the girl is lying, “Why?”

“Well Sugar, we were just admiring your special talents,” Santana says smoothly, “Got time for a chat?”

“Time is money,” Sugar replies looking skeptic, “So unless there’s something in it for me, the answer is no.”

“Oh, there’s definitely going to be something in it for you,” Brittany tells her with a grin, “Come take a walk.”

Sugar eyes the two warily, “I’ll go…but only if you buy me a bubble tea.”

“A what?” Santana frowns.

“It’s a drink,” Brittany chuckles, “You’ve never had it?”

“No?”

“Have you been living under a rock?” Sugar gasps.

“No, I’ve been in jail.”

“San,” Brittany hushes, not wanting to scare the girl off but to both of their surprise Sugar looks even more interested than ever before.

“What’d you do?” Sugar asks as her smile widens.

“You don’t just ask people that,” Santana scoffs, “That’s exactly how you get shanked.”

“Do you have a shank?”

“What.”

“Can I see it?”

“Anyway!” Brittany claps to get both of their attention, “So bubble tea, we need to get you one asap!” Brittany answers as she licks her slips. The movement of her tongue catches Santana’s eye which has her watching very, very closely, “I’m getting thirsty just thinking about it.”

“Yeah, imagine how I feel. I’ve been lifting things off tourists all day in this heat,” Sugar pulls out a wad of ones and starts to fan herself with it.

“Heat? It’s barely 70 degrees out,” Santana laughs, “Maybe if you’d lose that ridiculous vest-“

“The thirst is still real!” Sugar tells them then glances to Santana with a smirk, “I’m sure you know something about it judging by the way you just eye-fucked blondie here.”

Brittany’s brows shoot up as she turns to Santana. She presses her hand to her chest in surprise, “You did what now?”

Santana ignores Brittany’s teasing and narrows her eyes on the girl, “Fine. We’ll get you your dumb drink and then we’ll talk.”

Sugar beams, “Perfect.”

Later that night, Santana and Brittany are lounging on the couch with their feet propped up on the coffee table. They’ve both had the longest day ever so far and can barely keep their eyes open long enough to scarf down dinner. They have the tv on but Santana isn’t really watching, her head is too full of scattered thoughts and schemes to focus on anything else.

Brittany seems to notice and goes to turn down the volume.

“You don’t stop, do you?” She asks Santana.

The brunette is slow to answer but Brittany’s not sure if that’s because she’s so deep in thought or just exhausted. When she lets out a yawn, Brittany gets her answer.

“There’s only one more person that we need,” Santana tells her like Brittany doesn’t know, “One more and that’s the whole team.”

“Yeah, I get that but you didn’t answer my question,” Brittany replies softly. She moves to brush Santana’s hair behind her ear then keeps her hand pressed against Santana’s cheek, “You’re gonna burn out if you keep at it like this.”

Santana smiles apologetically and overlaps Brittany’s hand with hers, “I won’t. We’re almost there. Once the team is complete then we can breathe a little. I know what I’m doing, Britt, you don’t have to worry about me.”

“Hard not to,” Brittany shrugs as she pulls her hand out from underneath Santana’s.

Santana watches as her features harden a little and she wonders why that is.

Their dynamic has always been a little unconventional, especially when the casual sex became a thing, and maybe once upon a time they could’ve really been something but nothing ever happened. Santana doesn’t date – not really – and Brittany never voiced her feelings if she had them so here they are: just a couple of friends who are gay and do crime.

Is it a dangerous combo considering their past and the crazy amount of sexual chemistry?

Probably, but it works for them.

“Can I borrow a car again tomorrow?” Santana asks, wanting to fill the heavy silence.

“You know, you don’t have to ask every time right?” Brittany says with her head cocked to the side, “As long as you don’t crash any of them, I don’t care.”

“I was just checking,” Santana nods as Brittany turns back to the tv screen, “I’m going upstate tomorrow.”

“Let me guess,” Brittany replies, “To see a friend?”

“Yeah.”

“And you don’t want me to come.”

Santana sighs, “It’s not that I don’t want you to. There’s things to be done here and I don’t want both of us to be away if it’s not needed. We’re on such a tight schedule.”

“I know,” Brittany reaches over to squeeze Santana’s knee, “I just wish you weren’t so cryptic all the time. You’re my best friend, my partner-in-crime. You should tell me things.”

Santana bites her lip. Sometimes Brittany makes things sound so easy, so simple.

“I’m sorry, Britt. I didn’t realize…”

“It’s fine,” Brittany says earnestly, “I’m not mad. It’s just something I’ve noticed lately.”

“Yeah,” Santana mumbles as she starts to get lost in her thoughts.

“I’m gonna head to bed,” Brittany says a moment later and gives Santana’s knee one more squeeze as she stands, “Night, Santana.”

“Goodnight Britt,” Santana says back and watches the blonde make her way up the stairs. She feels a sudden heaviness but she isn’t what caused it. Instead, she just chalks it up to being tired and heads off to bed a little while later too.

Santana leaves at the crack of dawn the next day in hopes of beating the traffic. Brittany isn’t even awake yet, but she feels weird leaving the loft without saying anything so she scribbles down a quick note and slides the piece of paper under Brittany’s bedroom door before heading off:

Hey B,

Off to see that ‘friend’ I’ll be home before dinner. Have a good morning! Xo

– S

As Santana follows the winding road through a neighborhood of massive, cookie-cutter houses, she can’t help but roll her eyes at how basic it all is. If it weren’t for a familiar SUV parked in the driveway, Santana would’ve driven right pass her intended destination.

She parks her car a little ways down the road and walks up, already dialing the number.

It rings once, twice, three times but on the fourth someone finally answers.

“Santana?”

“Hey Q,” Santana smirks at the surprise she hears. She doesn’t think she’ll ever get over it, “How are you these days?”

“Uhm, good?”

“And the kid?”

“Also good.”

“That’s good.”

“Are you calling just to ask how I am? Because that’s very odd and completely unlike you.”

“Checking in on one of my oldest friends is unlike me?” Santana answers as she walks up the woman’s driveway and easily unlocks the side gate.

“Uh, yeah. It is.”

“That’s rude.”

“No, it’s accurate. I thought you were in jail.”

“I was. Got out on good behavior.”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s true.”

“Well, congrats. Now, what do you really want?

Santana wanders into her garage, “For you to come out for a chat.”

The woman laughs down the line, “I don’t even know where you live anymore, Santana.”

“That’s fine,” Santana says, “I’ve come to you.”

“What?”

“I’m in your garage, Fabray.”

“What?!”

Santana soon hears a door leading into the garage open and someone call out, “Mommy will be right back, Beth!” Then it closes and fast footsteps approach until the blonde rounds on Santana. She flinches as the surprise, “What the hell, Lopez!”

“Hey Quinn,” Santana grins as she hangs up the phone and slips it into her pocket.

Quinn shakes her head and laughs, “What the hell are you doing in my garage?”

“Like I said,” Santana shrugs while her eyes go to roam all of the expensive appliances surrounding the room, “I’m here for a chat.”

After knowing Santana almost as long as Brittany has, Quinn knows exactly what that means and goes to cross her arms, “I’m retired.”

Santana rolls her eyes, “People come out of retirement all the time and after you hear what I’ve got up my sleeve you’ll do the same.”

“No, no,” Quinn waves off, “I don’t want to hear what you have to say, Santana. I have to think about my – “

“Family because you’re a mother, “ Santana fills in sarcastically, “I know, I was there when you gave birth for some odd reason.”

“You and Brittany offered!”

“I was just being nice, I didn’t actually want to go,” Santana replies, “That shit scarred me for life! Like, is your vagina okay now?”

Quinn gives her a tired look, “You did not just ask me that.”

“I’m just saying,” Santana holds up her hands in defense, “That was the most fucked up thing I’ve ever se-“

“Mommy!” A small person suddenly cries out as the garage door slams open. The sudden sound has Quinn shoving Santana to the side out of her daughter’s sight, “I’m hungry!”

“Okay baby, I’ll fix you a snack in just a second,” Quinn calls out. She catches Santana mimicking her and slaps her shoulder, “Are you going to tell me why you’re here or not?”

“I need a Fence,” Santana says simply, “I’ve got something big going here and you’re the best of the best.”

“That might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Quinn eyes her curiously, “But I’m not doing it. Like I said, I’m retired. “

“Bullshit,” Santana scoffs as she looks around at all the stolen goods, “You’re bored with the whole Suzy Homemaker front because if you weren’t you wouldn’t have all this crap hiding in your garage.”

Quinn softens and eyes Santana analytically, “How much are we talking?”

“A lot,” Santana smirks and leans in to whisper Quinn’s proposed cut.

Quinn’s jaw drops at the sound of the amount.

“Sound good to you?”

Quinn sputters out a laugh, “Uh yeah, sounds very good.”

“Excellent,” Santana beams and calls over her shoulder as she turns to leave, “Team meeting is on Monday. Don’t be late.”

“Wait, you have a whole team?”

Santana smirks, “I do now.”

#soz forgot to post this earlier #Lopezs 8 #Brittana #Brittana Fanfiction #fanfics

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sugrmottas · 5 years

Note

why do you think people hold his cheating against blaine tho?

uhhhhh double standards???

maybe more like quadruple standards actually...

okay so like, fucking everyone in that show cheats, almost. rachel and finn both do (finn makes a fucking habit of it), so it’s not like our leads are our moral high ground. kurt doesn’t, though the whole chandler thing still squicks me out and i don’t totally remember how the mercedes/sam/shane thing went down but i don’t think she cheated either, so perhaps our secondary leads are more our moral high bar.

but let’s do a quick stroll through our main characters: quinn cheats (twice), puck helps both quinn and rachel cheat (which ties into his issues with finn more than anything i think but That’s A Different Talk), santana helps someone cheat (canonically she only helps brittany on artie, but i wouldn’t be totally surprised if there were other instances), brittany cheats (once i think?), sam cheats (once? i think? i might talk about that too here), hell tina cheats. mike helps someone cheat. jake cheats, too. so like, blaine isn’t an outlier here.

what makes him different is that we see him actively regretting it. puck, quinn, rachel and sam all show some regret over their actions but we don’t have episodes dedicated to them being sad. and i think that’s the issue, which is the worst thing -- blaine feels bad and he’s demonised for it. of course, it didn’t help that the fandom already didn’t like him and anti-klainers (which were just as plentiful as klainers back in the day) seemed to side with one boy over the other and i always saw more kurt supporters than those who sided with blaine, which like. i get. we knew kurt more, we went through his struggles with him -- we met blaine post-sadie hawkins, post-recovery, he was already well-adjusted (...ish) so there was less to grab onto if we wanted to connect with this character.

but that leads to this: blaine cheats because he’s being emotionally neglected by his partner, which isn’t a Good Thing and i’ll never say it is. but it’s not like he’s cheating for fun -- he’s alone and hurt and has tried to reach out but is rebuffed at every point. blaine cheats and immediately tells kurt (which is rare for glee actually, sam’s the only other person who came forward immediately and i think puck comes forward about rachel pretty quickly) and like, i don’t understand people who say darren criss is a bad actor (*points frantically at his emmy*) because the scene where he tells kurt the truth is genuinely heartbreaking. blaine looks fucking disgusted with himself.

and at that point, kurt’s definitely valid in pushing blaine away -- he doesn’t want to hear blaine’s explanations, nor should he have to. it’s all too new, too fresh, too volatile. they can talk another time.

except they don’t?

and that leads us to the next four episodes, where blaine struggles with his sense of self -- he doesn’t have closure on his relationship with kurt, because kurt wouldn’t talk to him. and so much of blaine’s identity is tangled up in kurt (which is an Issue obviously) that he just... loses himself. there’s definitely a point to all those metas where blaine coming to mckinley was a major step back for him as a character and we really see that here, and i think that might be where all the hate comes from? we see the fallout from blaine’s perspective, the Bad Guy of the situation (they’re both bad guys imo but it be like that sometimes) so people struggle to empathise with him. also kurt emotionally neglecting blaine was REALLY brushed over because while we only see two episodes of it (and it wasn’t shown in-depth or anything) blaine experienced at least a month of it (i lean towards more because we voted our class representatives two months into the school year but i know things are different) which doesn’t help matters.

i know people get annoyed with the “blaine probably has a mental illness” line of thought but there’s definitely something there -- kid joined 27 clubs, became senior class president and took over a nationals-winning glee club in his senior year. he was also salutatorian (i mean i’m sure he would’ve been bumped if artie and tina sorted out their issue but he still got second-highest marks in the class even if he technically ranked third). there is no way that kid didn’t have something leading him into mania (i have a lot of stock in the bipolar!blaine theory can u tell).

but if there is something there (ryan even admitted he thought blaine might have depression but there is so much more there), i think that explains his actions a lot. it doesn’t excuse them of course, but explanations are important.

anyway, people already hated blaine. this just gave them a canon reason to fire against him.

also, since i said i’d talk about it: sam cheats on mercedes in s5 and it’s shitty and our girl deserves better, but sam tells her immediately. i remember fucking nothing about how that conversation went, but it ended well. the fandom didn’t fire back against sam anywhere near as much as they did blaine (which leads us into a weird talk about how they [the fandom] will fight for kurt but not mercedes but i prefer to look it as the outcome of samcedes’ conversation was more positive), but i definitely remember people using that against him -- while people like brittany, quinn and tina got off without much flack.

(i also don’t really remember finn getting much shit over it but??? i feel like i just missed it???)

so not super sure what the fuck happened there (outside of pre-existing baseless hate for the characters but it’s not like people had a reason to love quinn pre-puck revelation so??? idk???). i do find it interesting though. i never really got why people hated blaine and sam so much when they were genuinely kind-hearted males, something sorely lacking from our tv screens at the time, but... idk, people just wanted to hate, i think.

like people blame them for the downfall of glee but lmao bitch??? that’s on the fucking writers??? chord and darren didn’t storm into the writer’s room and demand writing quality go the fuck down, chill out.

okay so rounding back to klaine again because i have fucking Thoughts on this mess: i do genuinely think that should’ve been the end of them. blaine would learn how to be by himself (which is a huge issue for him, i always found help! a way too fitting song when i took away the context-- my independence seems to vanish in this haze) and kurt would learn to take responsibility for his own shortcomings (which he never did which, thinking about it, may be why at the end of every watch-through i walk away not liking kurt despite fully enjoying him whilst watching the show) and they’d go be very happy.

i’ve mentioned my endgames for them before so i won’t talk too much about it but i don’t really think they’d ever be friends (so many fanfictions have them stay friends post break-up and??? what). kurt’s trust in blaine is too fractured and for blaine, kurt is an ugly reminder of a sad part of his life -- there’s too much history there. they play nice, of course, at reunions and parties and all that, but they never talk much. one day blaine will say i’m happy you’re happy and kurt will smile and say well, i’m happy that you’re happy too and that will be the end of it. elliott will come up and give kurt a big kiss and blaine will leave to go find sam (or sebastian? my endgames are shifting, i think). it’s not an apology and it’s not forgiveness, but it’s as close as they’re ever going to get.

#on that last point: i know sam had some weird moments in s5 #but they were really ooc imo??? so i kinda ignore them lmao #old dog new tricks is the only 5b episode that actually matters for sam n that's the tea!#asks #Anonymous

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spaceorphan18 · 6 years

Text

Finding Kurt Hummel: Bash

Masterpost

5x15: Bash

So - we’re here at our sorta Sondheim tribute episode. There isn’t much Sondheim in it - and it is, on a whole, probably the weakest episode in the New York Arc - but hey, there’s some good stuff in here, even if the episode feels a bit uneven.

No One is Alone

We open with a candlelight vigil for a guy who was assaulted because he was gay. The group comes in singing No One is Alone from Into the Woods - and it’s a song about no matter how much your life is screwed up - you aren’t standing alone in this world. A commentary to this group of kids coming from Ohio and struggling to make it together in this big bad world.

Vocally, this song is fantastic - it’s a capella and the balance of voices used between the four of them is done very well. If nothing else, it’s a solid song.

Also Kurt looks so solemn here - because his heart breaks for someone to have to go through things that he’s had to face himself. And he knows how hard and cruel the world can be. Kurt’s often inward when it comes to emotion - but that doesn’t mean compassion and understanding don’t come through. He feels things on a very deep level, and this hits hard due to his own attachment to the situation.

However - I do have a few issues with this scene. It’s the opening, and while lovely, it’s out of context and loses some of the emotional weight it might have had used if there was context around it. But also - this episode feels like there are two very different stories in it, and while I won’t begrudge Samcedes having a plot line - they should! This episode might have worked better having been split in two -- with Kurt’s gay bashing part of it given full attention because the whole plot line is held until the second half of the episode and therefore feels incredibly rushed.

Monday Night Dinner

This scene is so short! I love the idea of Monday Night Dinners - where they all get together and chill and enjoy each other. But this scene has so much exposition it has to get through it feels a little...clunky?

At the start of the scene - you can see Kurt lying on his bed, and Blaine is in there with him since they both come out together. If I had to venture a guess, even if Blaine’s ‘moved out’, I doubt he’s really that ‘moved out’.

Anyway - they explain that the dude in the beginning was gay bashed (and I’ll some more thoughts on him specifically towards the end). And Blaine explains that there are a ton of people in New York who don’t like the fact that the ‘gays’ are taking over and Artie throws out statistics about how it’s getting worse. While I think the conversation is good, I wish the writing had been a little stronger and not so heavy handed.

Meanwhile, Kurt’s not looking so thrilled at talking about people being gay bashed, so he changes the subject to the second point of exposition - it’s midterms week (so are we in March now? - whatever, ah man that messes with Tested being the Valentine’s episode...eh, not thinking hard about it), and they have their theme for their NYADA solos - Sondheim. Kurt’s only halfheartedly excited about it -- cause he’s upset about the dude being gay bashed? Something else? I have to wonder if there was more cut out of this episode - because I’m not entirely sure why Kurt is acting the way he is in this one.

And then, for the third point of exposition - we have Mercedes and Sam playing footsie, cause a majority of this episode is about them. And Kurt’s mildly - yeah, I don’t believe you when Mercedes tries to act like nothing’s going on.

Broadway Baby

Kurt’s sitting in the background while Rachel and Blaine sing Broadway Baby. There’s a bit of stuff you can pick apart for both Rachel and Blaine in this scene but... this meta isn’t really about them. Kurt doesn’t really get any reaction shots during the song, claps nicely at the end, and is the appropriate amount of stunned when Carmen yells at them for doing a duet instead of a solo. And...that’s about it. It’s kinda weird that they even had Kurt in the scene, tbh - is it because it’s a class? Or is Kurt just supporting Blaine? Idk, you pick.

(This episode, just, feels like there’s a lot of holes in it.)

Dinner Theater

Kurt and Rachel are meeting for dinner, I guess? I’m kind of sad they didn’t do more out and about scenes while the kids were in New York - but at least during this portion of season 5, they’re trying.

Anyway, news travels fast at NYADA - and Kurt’s learned that Rachel’s basically told of Carmen and quit school. Kurt thinks this is a bad idea - because you should have a foundation to grow from, and he thinks that burning her bridges is not the best thing to do. While I get Kurt’s sentiment, I side with Rachel in the first half of this argument. No matter how hard Glee tries to sell it (with actors who made it big not going to college, lol), being in the performing arts does not take a degree - and you can have a successful career by going alternative routes. (Hell - Sam is going to prove this right.) So as much as Kurt’s intentions are sincere and understandable from a kid who wants a solid foot to stand on in a rocky world, he’s not exactly right. However...

Rachel turns immature rather quickly - and her take down of Kurt is unwarranted and driven from the fact that she is insecure about her own stardom - especially in the wake of everything that happened earlier in the season with Santana. While she does make some interesting points about Kurt not going out there and taking risks -- she’s the one who really needs to grow up and not act like a child any time someone pushes against her.

Kurt all but tells her to ‘fuck off’ and would if this wasn’t a PG show. He’s had to deal with her shit in New York close hand for two years now, and really, the kid deserves better than her tantrums, but whatever.

You know, this scene brings some things to head about the overall arc that I’m interested in looking at.

Kurt, so far in the NYC Arc, hasn’t really been that happy. And it’s not Blaine. It’s not even Rachel. There’s something that feels deeper. (And no - I’m not going to assume it’s Chris and his feelings for the show.) Kurt’s having issues with himself and I find it unfortunate that it never really gets explored. I know that some of this leads to Old Dogs, New Tricks, and Season 6 (and my issues are that Kurt’s issues don’t satisfyingly resolve in season 6) but I wish that here the writers had developed more of an individual story for Kurt in this back half of season 5.

Kurt hasn’t had a whole lot to do in season 5 overall, and while Klaine is going to have some stuff, and ultimately be resolved by the end of the season Season 6, Kurt’s individual story hasn’t really gone anywhere since mid-season 4. And I find it a shame. There’s an interesting story here about a kid who’s struggling to go somewhere with his own career - and while they’ve lightly touched upon it with the whole band thing and will in ODNT slightly, there’s not a whole lot to go on.

It’s funny - Kurt’ll get more than most of the characters on Glee, but at this point, if you’re not Rachel Berry, you’re not going to get a fully fleshed out satisfying ending to your story. And I do think that’s one drawback to the second half of the series.

Bashed

So - next we get the actual violent scene (which is tame for even TV, but jarring when it’s a beloved character in a comedy). Kurt’s walking home, still feeling it from the fight with Rachel - and her words about not taking chances still ringing in his ears (though he’d have done this without that heaviness on him), and goes to help another gay man getting beat up.

So, hmm. First of all - even though one of the dudes yell that there are now two of them, they don’t really know Kurt’s gay - so Kurt’s not really the one being gay bashed here. Secondly, the show makes it a point to really show that the violent guys were drunk -- I think, because Kurt taking on sober dudes might have ended differently.

That brick, though, man.

A lot of this scene actually reminds me of the confrontation with Karofsky back in Never Been Kissed - though I think that scene was more emotionally resonant.

Look, here’s my thing. While I’m glad that the show (finally) chose to address this issue - I kind of wish that this scene had been earlier in the episode, that they might have dug a little deeper into homophobia aspect, and that the reactions were given more time to breath. This whole thing is a nice idea - and an interesting story for Kurt -- but the fact that it sorta takes a backseat to Samcedes (who deserved their own episode about racism) and Rachel’s drama kind of bugs me.

Oh, and then there’s the whole -- of course Kurt’s the one who gets beat up cause nothing nice can happen to him -- that fandom was on at the time. And, you know? Tbh, I think it works for Kurt’s story just fine. I just needed to be developed more.

After a really entertaining scene with Blam, we get the reaction shots to Kurt being in the hospital. And here I do wish there’d been a little more for Blaine. There’s an untold story here about Blaine being one of Kurt’s family - but, since this is before gay marriage, the fact that Blaine might not have been allowed to see Kurt because he wasn’t “family”. And Blaine’s so, so scared for Kurt -- there’s so much they could have explored here. Ah well....

I do find this moment, though, deeply beautiful. Blaine sings to Kurt Not While I’m Around -- Because Blaine, if he could, would do everything in his power to protect Kurt. Does Kurt need a protector? No - not in the way he seemed to way back in Never Been Kissed when they first met. (And this issue is going to be brought up next in Tested.) But there is something to be said, echoed in the opening song, that you don’t have to do all of this alone. Blaine is with Kurt through whatever life hands them - he’s there.

It’s just going to take Kurt a little longer to accept that he doesn’t have to do it alone and not feel stifled by others’ help.

I think, though, what really gets me is the intimacy of this moment. And how it’s allowed to be a m/m moment without being sexual and without commentary. It’s about two people who meaning something to each other in a struggle together, and I just kind of love that that’s always been the heart of Klaine’s story.

Kurt’s been alone for so long -- and in a different way, so has Blaine. But they have each other...

All The Other Ghosts

Burt shows up at the hospital for another Kurt/Burt scene that is nearly perfect. I love how Mike O’Malley plays a scared parent. Just love it. I love that Burt yells cause he can’t contain himself, and that he expresses that while he’s proud of Kurt -- points out how it was a really stupid decision, too -- that the guys could have had a gun, that he could have been killed.

At the heart of Kurt’s story, originally, was a story about a gay kid and his dad -- and I’m glad that late in the series they’re able to bring that back again in such an emotionally relevant way. Kurt and Burt have grown in so many ways -- but at the end of the day, Burt is still worried and deeply cares about his kid, and no matter how old you get -- a good parent will continue to do so.

Meanwhile - we get a little bit of insight into Kurt’s head but not enough. Kurt mentions that he’s been fighting these guys -- these demons of society that tell him that he’s not wanted in it -- for a long time. And instead of just taking it like he often did as a kid, he’s fighting back. That fight was always kind of there -- though through fashion and not fists, and then in season 2 it was more outwardly being proud of who he was. But yeah, the commentary of the episode (and another thing I wish had been developed better) is that sometimes it’s violent and sometime’s it’s not as pretty as singing a song about being Born This Way.

Kurt says he wishes he’d get a scar -- which, besides being a little morbid, is a way for Kurt to remember his continued fight.

There is on clunky bit, though -- when Kurt says he finally realizes who he is and that’s.... Burt’s son? Huh? I mean - I feel like they were tiptoeing around the whole ‘what a real man is’ that they’d mostly dropped after Finn died. But it also feels like they weren’t really sure what Kurt’s realization was? Something a little more explicit to what that means for Kurt as a character might have been nice.

I have to wonder, though, cause there’s some subtext here that I can’t fully read -- if Kurt going out and jumping into fights is a little bit like way back in End of Twerk when he was finding a way to be alive again. Like I said earlier -- Kurt just seems like he’s...not in a good place, and hasn’t been since Finn died, and I don’t know if it’s that, or a culmination of that with other things, but it feels like it’s hanging over this scene. I can’t quite pinpoint what I’m feeling here, though, and unfortunately the narrative doesn’t give us much to work on. Ah well.

Sidewalk

Oh this scene... I’d love to know what the original purpose this scene had in the script because I’m not fully feeling it the episode.

Kurt and Blaine meet near that sidewalk vigil and Blaine says that Kurt doesn’t have to do this -- do what? Go outside? Walk five steps? Place flowers on the sidewalk? I get that Blaine is concerned because Kurt’s just getting to his recovery and Blaine wants to make sure he’s okay. And I also get that part of this moment is about the two of them going out together to face the reality that even in a ‘safer’ place such as New York -- there’s still the reality that there’s a lot of hate for them in the world.

But I’m still not sure I get the dialogue here.

I also wonder, like many, if in the first draft of this episode the guy died from being beat up. I wonder if the censors (or whoever) thought it was too dark and they had to go back and change it -- Blaine’s line that he lived definitely sounds looped. But idk, I think the story would have been stronger had the guy died. Not only would it show the reality of what is going on -- and that hate has awful consequence, but then the scene itself would make more sense. I mean -- why would people have a memorial for a person who lived? Idk, show, idk.

This is also a where I take a moment and talk about how I wish Kurt and Blaine had had a conversation about this with each other. About how Kurt’s been hurt and how each of them are dealing with it. I suppose a lot of that goes into Tested, but it wouldn’t have hurt to give them something here, too. It does feel like there’s a little bit missing and we have to infer a bunch of stuff from subtext.

Also - can we take a second and talk about this production still from the episode?

I like it because it’s a closer angle of the two of them not shown in the actual episode. I wrote a whole tangent on it here. But mostly -- like the earlier scene, it’s quiet and intimate moment. And Kurt’s angry-sad and Blaine’s sad-sad, and there’s a whole lot to this picture that isn’t being said. But mostly, I just love everything that it says about their relationship, and how they’ve kinda flipped roles over the course of the years, but ultimately, how they’re in everything together.

No Apologies Needed

Oh Hummelberry scenes, I’m not even sure how I feel about you anymore.

Rachel comes into apologize for being awful - which is a nice turn of events, really. Kurt’s all pfft I’m over it - let’s talk about you getting back into school cause there are other more important things in life stupid fights and being mad at each other.

Idk. The scene works, it’s always nice when they let Rachel show a little humility. And I kind of enjoy that Kurt expresses how much he cares for her even if he’s not letting her 100% off the hook. Still -- sometimes I think Rachel gets the better end of the bargain, and maybe I don’t always want these issues to be resolved in under ten minutes.

Plus, I’m always side-eyeing when they use Kurt’s troubles to prop up Rachel’s character.

Using this really crappy still to show that, yes, Kurt’s happy to see Blaine. Suck it haters.

Kurt turns his head because Samcedes has arrived, but otherwise, he had been fully engaged and happy with the affection Blaine was giving him. Ah the small things.

Anyway - Sam and Mercedes proclaim they’re together. Kurt gives us a full history of their relationship and then claims he doesn’t see chemistry there (really Kurt? Way to be supportive) but then Sam and Mercedes just make out in front of everyone. And Kurt doesn’t even get a reaction shot. Sure, show. sure.

A toast to Kurt! Because he survived and now has to sing a Sondheim song about it.

Also, if you’re wondering why Blaine isn’t sitting next to Kurt - it has more to do with blocking, and line distribution, and camera angels then it does with anything said or not said about the relationship. Just sayin’.

I’m Still Here

Kurt’s last solo on the show. Oh man. Hmmm.

First of all, let’s just say that Kurt singing a song traditionally done by an elderly woman from the golden age of Broadway seems about right. This song is most definitely a Kurt-ish song, and a nice way to end his solo musical journey that doing something profoundly him.

Kurt (Chris) sounds nice on the track, even if he does botch a few of the pronunciations -- he’s good at this kind of thing, and with the added choreography of Kurt’s traditional dance method, it’s a fine performance. But then, I mean, go watch Elaine Stritch do it on YouTube and you can see why I’m a little - eh - about this performance. There’s a reason it’s meant for an 80yo woman and not for a 20yo guy. Sorry :(

The sentiment is nice though, and while I’m sad that we won’t get another full solo from Kurt, I like that he’s definite in his statement. Kurt Hummel is here -- he is who he is -- and after all the shit the show’s given him (plus a little bit more coming up) he’ll always be here. In our hearts. :D

As an aside - I like the little moments with Burt -- the fact that Kurt’s clearly been singing this song since he was a kid because Burt knows all the words. And I love that Blaine is sitting at the family table, and just beaming with pride.

And at the end of the day - Kurt’s triumphantly standing on a piano because there’s nothing more Kurt than that. The story might be a little wobbly, sure, Kurt ultimately gets the happy ending -- and that’s the message that Glee is really here for.

One More Thing

The story is pretty much over - but there is this one last thing I want to address because it was such a source of contention back when this aired.

There was this issue that Kurt was cold to Blaine during this episode. And -- I just don’t see it? Kurt’s having some issues, and yeah, I wish the narrative would have allowed for Kurt and Blaine to have a private conversation about things, but that’s more technical issues than actual problems within the narrative.

Speaking of technical -- this last scene. There’s a kind of goof, where Blaine moves in to kiss Kurt, but Kurt, not knowing turns away. But the still above is right after that happens - where Kurt looks to Blaine and is beaming. So here’s my thing. I think it was probably an improv’d moment from Darren, because when you watch the scene it’s very obvious that Chris isn’t aware it’s happening. Why the editors chose that take? I don’t know. I could have a full rant about how I think the editors weren’t great on this show. But no - I think it has no bearing on how Kurt and Blaine feel or even how Chris was trying to play the moment. I think it was a goof that made it’s way into the episode.

Kinda like that time Naya punched Darren in the face in the background. (DSB - New Directions, yes it happened) Does Santana not like Blaine?!?? No - it’s an accident.

And I think that’s what happens -- I know we all wanna hang on to every little second cause Glee spends a lot of seconds squandering them. And Glee had, in the past, a knack for having brilliant background moments. But sometimes a goof is just a goof, and a questionable directing/editing choice is just that. I feel like getting our panties in a twist every time something doesn’t go perfectly on this show is a waste of energy. Ah well...

#finding kh #Kurt Hummel

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xkurzel · 6 years

Text

Part 2 of this drabble, which is now apparently a series.

“This seat taken?”

Santana glances up to find Brittany standing there, backpack slung over one shoulder, thumb tucked around the strap, blonde hair messily draping over the leather jacket she’s wearing.

“Oh. It’s you again. The girl who stole, like, twenty dollars worth of stuff from the vending machine,” Santana says with an arch of an eyebrow.

Brittany narrows her eyes playfully, a smirk teasing her lips. She leans a hand on the desk next to Santana’s books, ducking her head a little to catch Santana’s eyes. “Don’t you mean the girl that rescued you and your Snickers bar?”

“Right, I forgot you have an interesting way of defining stealing,” Santana remarks.

Brittany throws her head back in a loud laugh, which gets both of them a few shushes and glares sent in their direction from around the library. Santana grabs at Brittany’s wrist, tugging her closer to get her to quiet.

“Shh! We’re in the library!” Santana rushes out in a whisper, but Brittany just raises an eyebrow, glancing downwards.

“Do you usually make a habit of grabbing at people or am I just lucky?” Brittany says lowly, an amused smile on her lips.

Santana’s face floods with warmth as she yanks her hand back to her side. Brittany giggles at the look on Santana’s face and Santana huffs, slightly embarrassed. “You’re insufferable, you know that?”

Brittany grins. “I’m going to pretend that means charming and say thanks.”

“It doesn’t.”

“Sure, it doesn’t,” Brittany says with a wink. Santana rolls her eyes in response, even if the heat hasn’t left her cheeks. “So, is this seat taken?”

“Yes, actually, I’m waiting on someone,” Santana replies, absently pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. The movement catches Brittany’s attention and blue eyes track Santana’s hand until they lock onto Santana’s eyes.

Santana struggles to keep her face impassive, but with Brittany a little closer and leaning over her, Santana has a better view of those blue eyes that have been intriguing her (to her dismay) since the last time she ran into Brittany. They’re the most gorgeous shade of blue that Santana’s ever seen and Brittany’s eyelashes are really long and fluttering lightly and—god, Santana’s staring again, isn’t she?

Santana clears her throat and looks away, flushing slightly, but Brittany takes pity on her and doesn’t make another remark, instead, her smile just grows bigger. “Well, since it looks like they’re not here yet...”

Brittany swings around to the seat next to Santana, plucking Santana’s backpack from the seat and setting it down on the floor. “Hey!” Santana protests.

Brittany waves a hand dismissively and Santana can only splutter out more noises of protest as Brittany shoves Santana’s law textbooks and notebooks to the side to clear the space next to her. Brittany hops onto the desk and takes a seat there, dropping her backpack onto the seat she’s freed up and leaning her boots onto the chair.

The commotion draws more attention to them and Santana mutters, “Oh my god,” under her breath in embarrassment, shielding her face with her hands. Brittany giggles next to her and Santana peeks out from underneath her hands to shoot her a glare. “Could you sit properly, please?”

Brittany grins and knocks her denim-clad knee into Santana’s shoulder, resting back on her hands behind her on the desk. “Nope.”

“Great. First stealing, now misuse of property. You’re going to get me kicked out of my favorite place on campus,” Santana whispers angrily, narrowing her eyes up at Brittany.

Brittany’s eyebrows shoot up and her eyes brighten with delight, that amused grin still on her face. “You and your law terms. You need to lighten up, San. Maybe starting with that date we still need to go on.”

Santana shakes her head. “I still don’t even know you.”

“Well, I know you. Apparently, the library’s your favorite place on campus?” Brittany asks, her tone teasing. Santana’s cheeks feel warm again and she pushes her glasses up her nose.

“Look, I really am waiting for someone, okay? I’m waiting on my math tutor and she should be here any minute. So you’ll have to try your whole,” Santana gestures vaguely towards Brittany, getting an arched eyebrow in response, “thing on some other poor unsuspecting girl.”

Brittany just stares at her, grin growing wider. Santana’s really starting to hate how infuriatingly charming that grin is on her. “What’s my thing?”

“What?”

“You said I have a thing. What’s my thing?” Brittany asks, but the look on her face is smug. Santana flushes at her slip-up. She is not going to give Brittany any satisfaction of admitting her growing affection for Brittany’s charm out loud.

“You’re insufferable, you know that?” Santana repeats instead, rolling her eyes.

Brittany giggles. “You’ve said that. Anywho, we might as well get started.”

Santana shakes her head. “I told you, I don’t know you well enough to go on a date with you.”

Brittany laughs. “I didn’t mean that, but glad to know I’m not hearing a no there. I meant your tutoring session.”

Santana’s eyebrows shoot up. “You’re my math tutor?”

Brittany grins, scooting off the desk and plopping into the seat next to Santana’s. “Yup. Funny coincidence, huh? I told you, we are so totally going to happen.”

Santana lets her head fall with a thud onto her textbooks.

#brittana #fic #what is this? definitely not aitc i know that! smh i need this to get out of my brain please #anyway i became suddenly obsessed with this version of them and couldnt help writing just a little more #might become an ongoing thing might not we'll see!!!#college!au #my fic

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yumi-michiyo · 6 years

Text

[The Shortest Distance] - extended author’s notes and meta

Watch this space! Instead of making a whole new post for each chapter, I'll be compiling everything here as I post the chapters. [Updated 27th January 2019]

Rating: M for language and explicit sexual content. TW for mentions of eating disorders and anxiety

Genre: Slice of Life/Angst/Friendship/Humour/Hurt/Comfort/Fluff/Romance/Friends to Lovers

Couples: Marley Rose/Quinn Fabray (main), side Santana Lopez/Rachel Berry, side Finn Hudson/Brittany Pierce, side Wade "Unique" Adams/OMC

Pairings: Marley Rose/Quinn Fabray, mentioned Marley Rose/Jake Puckerman, Rachel Berry/Quinn Fabray friendship, Quinn Fabray/Santana Lopez friendship, Marley Rose/Wade "Unique" Adams friendship, all the friendships okay

Summary: It starts with a friendship composed of books, lazy summer afternoons, and understanding; and blossoms into more. Slowburn Fabrose. Season 4 canon divergence!AU.

Links: FF.net | AO3

On the origins:

This. Work. Took. Too. Long.

Seriously, the plot got written, scrapped, revived and revised, scrapped, etc. far too many times to count. From being a slight supernatural!AU like For You I'd Burn the Length and Breadth of Sky, to a fic running parallel to canon, to a canon fix-it fic... I'd all but thrown in the towel on this. Most of it only existed in a scraps folder in my Google Drive, and I'd go add more unconnected scraps whenever I needed a break from other WIPs.

Eventually, the scraps accumulated such that there was some semblance of plot, and I got very fond of some long scenes; enough that there was motivation to turn it into a fic on its own.

On the writing process:

A few scraps and loose ends from my other Fabrose fic found their way inside, but quickly grew into their own thing. I think the reason why I've struggled so much with this fic is because I don't have a good handle of Marley's character. I'll be the first to admit that I don't even like many of the canon main characters, and that my headcanons are mostly derived from other fanfic, but there isn't much Marley in the first place, meaning I had to work hard lol.

Most of the actual writing took place in transit, on my weeny iPhone 6s screen, with my overworked thumbs. Not something I recommend to casual writers. I upgraded my phone! Now I have a much larger screen for on-the-go writing, and a new mechanical keyboard for editing/more stream-of-consciousness ramblings.

On the chapter titles:

A special mention! I don't think I've written much about how I choose my fic titles; I think it's because half the time it's a slapdash process, and the other half comes with a lot of thinking.

I love music, and it shows when I use plenty of song lyrics in fics and titles. My taste in music is pretty eclectic, but I can assure you that I actually like all the songs I pick for my writing, and I'm not just picking random profound-sounding lyrics off the Interwebs lol.

I do have a few criteria for picking song lyrics. One, it has to be relevant to the subject lol. Two, it has to have some depth which alludes to whatever hidden message is in the fic. Three, of course it's something I actually enjoy, as mentioned earlier. I think this is really important because I do pick up music recommendations from fanfic, and treasure them for the positive assocations brought from fic I've enjoyed. I think it's important to do the same.

Instead of linking endlessly, I've created a YouTube playlist collecting all the music used in this fic. Find it here.

Prologue: Title is from Marina and the Diamonds. I loved her first album Electra Heart and not because she was covered on Glee; Marina has this punchy, catchy style with awesome lyrics. She later released Froot, another genius work that needs a lot more attention than it's gotten.

Part One: Another Marina and the Diamonds lyric. Can I just take this opportunity to plug her album?

Part Two: Sam Smith, my love. His music always makes me want to write the angstiest, most heartbreaking things. He's one of the few artists out there now who writes the most obscure and complicated feelings into music.

Part Three: This was supposed to be the title of the entire fic, but I forgot lol. I like the Charles Bukowski quote better, but at the very least this wonderful song from Leonard Cohen gets a mention.

Part Four: Very different in tone from all the previous songs mentioned. I found the Arctic Monkeys' lyrics to be deep and intriguing, which is interesting compared to their melodies and catchy beat.

Part Five: This was a struggle! There are so many good songs out there with really great lyrics that could fit into the chapter and the themes I was going for, but in the end, I went back to Lea (as I tend to do for my fics). I wanted that aimless feeling Marley has for most of the chapter.

Part Six: I love Yellowcard. I've been a fan for more than a decade, for their excellent lyrics and wonderful melodies, their instrumentation and their creativity. Most of their songs deal with heartbreak, so it's rare that I come across a song of theirs that encapsulates so well what I wanted to convey in their early relationship.

Part Seven: One of my best buddies, IRL and in fandom, loves K-pop. She's been trying to brainwash me for years, and so far she's been having quite a lot of success; I've written a few things that are inspired by K-pop lyrics. The inspiration for this fic came from a new song from Mamamoo, which is made up of four very talented ladies.

Part Eight: I haven't been discovering music for a while, but Paramore's latest album was a pretty refreshing find. I was looking for something light that described the mood of this chapter.

Part Nine: Apparently, Vienna Teng's work has been something of a mainstay in fandom; which makes sense, with her poignant lyrics and soulful piano ballads. I discovered her through the Studio Ghibli fanfics written by Saddletank, who makes extensive use of her music with great effect.

Part Ten: I discovered the genius of Fleetwood Mac through Glee. It was the perfect time, now that I was going through things IRL that made the music relatable and meaningful. While not one of my favourite songs, the lyrics resonate best with the chapter.

Part Eleven: William Ryan Key (better known as the frontman of the pop-punk band Yellowcard) recently launched a solo career. He writes the gentlest, most profound acoustic ballads I have ever heard. Most of what I envision Marley's music to be is his work (with elements of Kina Grannis' artistry and Sara Bareilles' lyrics), and I would pay good money to hear Melissa actually perform his songs.

Part Twelve: Those who read my fics can definitely tell that I'm a massive Sara Bareilles fan. The woman is a delightful human being, and an immensely talented singer-songwriter (is it obvious I have a thing for talented people?). Again, the reasons for picking songs is really to set the mood and atmosphere for the chapter; the lyrics may or may not be directly relevant to the story.

Part Thirteen: Kina Grannis recently rose to fame performing a cover of Elvis' Can't Help Fallin' in Love With You in the movie Crazy Rich Asians. I love her style and interpretation of songs.

Part Fourteen: It's rare when canon and fanon intersect, and I'm always very happy to make a big production out of it. I loved Melissa's performance of this song, and I was actively looking for some way I could give it a nod. And so when I was writing this chapter, I listened to it on repeat.

Part Fifteen: It's always nice when things work out :) earlier I had a Marley song, and now it's Quinn's turn (conveniently ignoring Puck's part lol). While Marley's part was about taking the plunge, Quinn's was about getting over past hurts and building a stronger relationship.

Epilogue: I've used Sara Bareilles' music plenty of times in my work. Normally, I hate reusing music, but it was impossible to pass up the opportunity to use this beautiful song to wrap up a giant labour of love.

General Meta:

Prologue-Part One: These two chapters were intended to set the tone of the early relationship between canon!Marley and canon!Quinn, which then contrasts their new/old relationship when they meet again a few years later. They establish a friendship out of common interests (and a lack of anything better to do) which I think also gets them to understand each other a little better. I hope.

I took this opportunity to also set the friendship between Marley and Unique. Strong female (?) friendships are something always lacking in Glee, and I wanted to pay homage to these two awesome ladies. Also, Unique and Marley's friendship acts as a foil to the one Quinn and Marley start to forge here - because, clearly, the latter two are gonna end up together lol.

Part Two: Rachel gets introduced! Again, more comparing and contrasting: Quinn and Rachel's friendship vs Marley and Unique's, Quinn and Marley's friendship vs Quinn and Rachel's. Our girls also start to open up to each other. Recently, I've been following Chuck Palahniuk's writing advice (which I have printed out and stuck on my wall): Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it.

Part Three: A bit more background, a bit more development. In the previous chapter Marley opened up to Quinn about her eating disorder, in this one Quinn starts to open up about some of her past. It was hard writing this one mostly because Marley, unlike Rachel, wasn't privy to a lot of the things Quinn went through (this plays a big part in their relationship after they get together later down the line).

Rachel and Santana are together in this one! I would say more stuff about foils, comparing and constrasting, but by now you should've noticed it's something I do a lot. It's crucial that they're together in this fic because the girls do help our clueless pair move things along.

Also, I think y'all are pleased that I finally had Quinn dump her (off-screen) boyfriend lol.

Part Four: I loved writing this chapter. Now that we've established the friendship between our girls, I panned out a bit to cover more of the world they live in, and the people and events that shape their lives. It was a bit of a challenge since Quinn is now working, and Marley still a college student, but I hope I've done a decent job.

I get the feeling y'all hate me for putting Marley with some random man, but I think it's important. Marley is still very underdeveloped as a character herself, with loads of confused feelings. She needs to mature a little more emotionally, make decisions for herself, experience a little heartbreak, before she can be ready for an emotional minefield like Quinn Fabray.

It's not a coincidence that Quinn's ex is named Blake, and Marley's (soon to be ex?) is named Alex, by the way... Also, speaking of names, it will likely never be mentioned in the fic but Stan's full first name is Æthelstan (poor dude). Valentino is an arowana because of that fantastic expression. I headcanon that he's always judging the goings-on in that apartment.

Part Five: THEY FINALLY KISSED ALKSFHO

In which the girls take a step forward after nearly 60k+ words of slowburn - trust me, it was killing me almost as much as it was killing you guys. But I was trying to make it was organic as possible, and as y'all know Marley doesn't have much of a stable romantic background to draw from, and her closest role models are all certifiably insane.

There are a lot of challenges upcoming for them, which I will have to spend a good deal of time delineating. I am really invested in these two at this point.

Part Six: After all that slowburn, my brain kinda went into overdrive. The draft I had for this fic originally ended here, but I couldn't do that to you guys aren't you glad I didn't. So the first half came into being, with its gratituous fluff and their friends' reactions.

The second half came while I was developing Millie's reaction; I wanted to make a comparison between Millie and Judy as single moms. But to be a foil to how open Millie is, Judy had to be the bad mom. I hadn't intended her to come off as so cruel, but she's not truly evil. Quinn has to get her sharp tongue from somewhere LOL.

Also! Finn and Brittany! I gave them a brief moment in my other fic For You I'd Burn the Length and Breadth of Sky but killed Finn off uwu. I've been fond of this rarepair for a long time now, and it seemed fitting to put another rarepair into this fic. Additionally, I am such a sucker for couple angst, like the Rachel/Santana/Finn/Brittany dynamic. They really deserve a fic of their own, the poor things, but we'll see how it goes. This fic is primarily a Marley/Quinn, and will remain that way because I lack the mental capacity and patience to write a fic with two main couples without wanting to gouge my eyes out.

Some of you active and astute readers might notice a lot of mentions of stuff foreshadowed earlier in the fic, with extremely tiny throwaway moments being revisited in this chapter. I assure you this wasn't intentional, and I'm in no way the awesome and masterful writer all this makes me out to be.

Part Seven: Dear god, I was so busy with life I totally forgot to write the author's notes for this chapter... Anyway, the entire thing is about tying up loose ends. They're dealing with their problems while the shadow of Marley leaving hangs over them, and making the best of their time together.

And yes! I heard a lot of happy squeals when this fic finally earned its M rating. For those of you who are wondering about the sudden sexytimes in the middle of bigger issues, well... let's just say that it has consequences.

On a side note, I hope none of you out there were rooting for Marley to stay in NY. Don't worry, this is a romance fic, and there will be a happy ending.

Part Eight: When you don't have time to update the author's notes when you update the story... This was a pretty interesting chapter to write. Mostly because I was figuring out how they build up after the loose ends in the previous chapter have been taken care of.

Not really knowing Marley's canon character has been an obstacle in writing this fic, right from the beginning. She's also not a popular fanfic character but I do like a challenge.

Can you tell I watched La La Land as research for life in LA for this chapter? The music has been pretty stuck in my head too but none of it really fit the mood for this chapter, so I was forced to omit it. But yes, some of the bits and locales in the movie sneak into this fic.

Part Nine: Quinn's trip to LA, and the various things they get up to. Lots of indulgent fluff and smut, and a dash of plot at the end...

Part Ten: I love the friendship Marley and Santana have in this story. My headcanon for Santana is that she's the tough, worldly big sister type, and she's taken Marley under her wing. This is my attempt at advancing the plot by exploring the conflict in the long-distance relationship, with plenty of Marley-Santana-Rachel interaction (and throwing in loads of foreshadowing). Since there's so much heavy content, there's plenty of fluff to go around, padding the spaces between character development and plot. The Skype cooking idea was taken directly from my real life :)

Part Eleven: Mostly fallout from the drama in the previous chapter, and more advancement of the plot. It's intentional that there's so much drama, because it's something they both have (thanks canon) and I believe it's important for a healthy long-term relationship that they are able to resolve it. Also, Shelby is a convenient villain here, though I loved putting Beth into the mix, and having the characters react to the non-canon pairings in this fic. Doctor C makes a reappearance, as does Millie. Their growing absence from the main story is also intentional; Marley is growing into a character of her own, and she becomes less reliant on them.

Part Twelve: Initially I thought this chapter was going to be filler ahead of the big decision, but I was wrong. There was so much plot in this one ugh. I wanted Finn and Brittany to get their turn in the spotlight, but it had to be relevant to the plot as well. I wanted Marley to show us how much she'd grown over the course of the story, and from her canon self.

Part Thirteen: A lot of people thought they'd broken up in the previous chapter. I made them properly break up in this one >:) I wasn't going for a big dramatic shake-up or anything; the point was that people have relationship troubles. A lot of people have difficulty being an us, and this was supposed to be the result of the major cracks hinted at earlier, and the final part of their development as individuals before they can be in a relationship with each other. There's a lot of fluff and recovery; they have to break up to figure out how to be together, if that makes sense (but they do get their happy ending!)

Part Fourteen: The timeskip is important. It shows how far they've come, and the difference in how they now interact. While I can't show you how much Quinn's grown since this fic is from Marley's POV, I put as much of it into the story as humanly possible, and without making Marley into some mind-reading alien. Things are different now. The first break-up was necessary to put their past behind, and by getting together again, they're both prepared to work hard to grow from that. I do believe that it was absolutely necessary for them to break up to know exactly what they've lost.

Part Fifteen: The idea for this chapter came when watching Bones, and when talking to some friends. I needed to have them overcome what happened in the past, and symbolically walk forward together. Then I remembered a throwaway line about Rachel workshopping Jesse St James' musical, and the chapter pretty much wrote itself from there.

Epilogue: Not much in this one, honestly. I wanted to tie up loose ends, represent them moving forward without hesitation, and bring the story to a conclusion worthy of such a long journey. The smut was a bonus treat for everyone that's been following this.

On Marley Rose:

Confession: I don't watch Supergirl. There's only so much my poor heart can take from shipping non-canon lesbian couples who have a ton of onscreen chemistry, but who are paired off with guys. Bitter? Not I

So I take canon!Marley, pad her personality with a lot of extrapolation, add a hearty dose of logical explanation for inexplicable quirks from canon, and toss her into this fic to do a lot of growing up. If this sounds like a recipe, I think I'm too hungry.

Melissa's current turn on Broadway is inspiring a lot of the fic's direction.

On Quinn Fabray:

If it isn't already obvious that I'm in love with Quinn Fabray (and Dianna Agron for giving her so much depth), this fic should just help you reach that conclusion lol. no thanks to R*** M*****

The other Fabrose I wrote is from Quinn's POV, who basically spends the whole time sorting out her issues and stumbling into something she had never imagined could happen to her. This one is from Marley's POV, and also features her sorting out a ton of personal issues.

A lot of Quinn's character and experiences with her mother is taken from real life LOL.

#fabrose #quinn fabray/marley rose #quinn fabray #marley rose #fanfic #my writing #yumi_michiyo #the shortest distance #glee #fanfiction #music

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mercedesnameinlights-blog · 7 years

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Para: Samcedes Catching Up

WHO: Sam and Mercedes

WHEN: June 20, 2017

WHERE: On the Bus

WHAT: Reconnecting with Marvel Movie Madness

Mercedes was ready to chill for awhile. The group had spent the day Forest Park and then had drove to Sullivan to check out the Meramec Cavern and stay there for the evening at their campgrounds. It had been fun and very adventurous to say the least, but all she wanted to do now was kick back and maybe watch a movie. She and Sam hadn’t had much time to really talk, outside of regular chatter with the group as a whole, so she thought this would be as good a time as any to bond with her best friend again.

It took her a minute to find him since everyone had broken off on their own, some in pairs and others just enjoying the quiet time alone. She didn’t want to bother him if he was catching up with someone, but part of her was feeling anxious at the idea of getting to talk to him one on one for awhile. “Hey,” she smiled when she finally found him. “You busy?”

Sam had had a really fun day. It was still really weird for him to see Mercedes with Puck, but she seemed happy. So San was happy for her. Having the rest of his friends there was just like old times, and he realized he’d missed them more than he'd thought he would. He had good friends back home in Tennessee, but no one was quite like this group of people.

He was hanging back on the bus while everyone was off setting up camp and hanging out because he just needed a little quiet time. He’d decided to watch a movie because it was the first time he'd gotten a chance to because it was hard to focus on watching a movie when everyone around you was talking. He glanced up when he heard someone getting on the bus and hit pause on the opening Marvel logo. His stomach flipped at the sight of his ex, and he smiled when she spoke. “No, I'm not busy. I was just about to watch Thor. Why? What's up?”

Her face practically lit up at the mention of the movie and she gasped dramatically. “You were about to watch my Asgardian boo without me?” She put her hand on her chest for added effect. “I am wounded, Sam, truly wounded.” She laughed softly. “I was actually wanting to see if you wanted to watch a movie. If you’d rather be by yourself though, I completely understand.” She wanted to reconnect, but she didn’t want it to be forced or uncomfortable. Sam had always been the easiest person for her to talk to next to Santana, but maybe he wasn’t the same Sam anymore.

Sam hesitated, but only because he could already feel himself excitedly saying yes, and that was weird, right? She was engaged to his high school friend. He needed to cool it. “Nah, I don't need to watch it alone. ‘Sides, what kind of guy would I be if I deprived a pretty girl of her favorite Asgardian demigod?” He stood up and hooked his laptop up to the tv that Finn had put on the bus. “This way, we don't have to huddle together to watch it on my laptop,” he explained as he worked.

She smiled at him and did her best to ignore the ridiculous fluttering feeling in her stomach when he called her pretty. She was about to get married, that shouldn’t happen! She quickly pushed the feeling out of her mind, chalking it up to being an old habit rearing itself. Sam’s southern twang made his words ooze with sincerity, so any girl would feel slightly giddy. “Plus I need to see Thor in all his muscled and golden haired glory in full 1080p and optimum screen size.” She teased.

“True, he and I have that in common,” he joked, taking the couch after he’d hooked it all up. He pulled his laptop into his lap and hit play on the movie. It was quiet for a moment, and he kept trying to find something to say, but nothing felt quite right in the situation. They were familiar but strangers at the same time it felt. How did someone interact with someone who’d once been their best friend and love of their life after not really speaking in four years? “So, how’s...everything going? Are you...nervous for the wedding yet? Or has it still like not sunk in that in a few weeks you’re going to be the new Mrs. Puckerman?”

Mercedes couldn’t help but laugh softly. “I’m telling you, you’re missing out on making the big bucks by cosplaying as Thor for events.” She had always joked with him about that back in the day. She sat down on the couch next to him, but not close enough to touch. Being in this space with him was so...different. “Things are good. Hopefully the PMJ show next month will get some positive buzz going for me, so cross your fingers.” She bit the corner of her lower lip slightly. “I don’t feel nervous, but...I don’t know, maybe it is nerves, just not performance ones.” She felt something, but she didn’t want to bother Sam with all her mental workings. “It definitely hasn’t sunk in. I mean, I’m still learning about what he can and can’t eat and things like that. Part of me feels I’m gonna mess it all up.”

Sam chuckled. “I’ve done it before. It was fun. There’s pictures somewhere. I think they’re on my Insta.” He’d done well. Girls seemed to really love it. “You'll learn it all, and it's not gonna get messed up. That's the fun part of marriage, learning how the other person works. You have a lifetime to learn, right? You don't gotta know it all right away.” He couldn't really see her being with Puck forever, but that wasn't really his place because he knew really nothing about their relationship except that they seemed happy when they were together. So he was probably wrong.

“Oh you ain’t right for telling me that! I’m going to be combing through your Instagram like a stalker now.” She laughed, sobering slightly. “I know, but...I think I’m just being overly critical of things. It doesn’t help that my mom asks me every single day if I’m sure I want to get married now and stuff like that. But enough about me, I want to hear about how awesome everything is in Tennessee.” And it was true, she and Sam were friends on Facebook, but she didn’t get on there often because of work, and when she wasn’t working she was taking online courses to try and finish her degree so her dad would stop growling at her about it. She wanted to hear that he was happy and doing what he truly wanted to do.

“Don't let anyone try to talk you out of something you know is right in your heart,” Sam offered. He might not think that they made sense, but Mercedes had always been her own person, and if there was anyone he trusted to know what they wanted, it was her. “Tennessee is awesome. I'm really happy I went home for college. It was like I'd never left. I missed everyone, of course, but Lima isn't like home to me. How about you? Is New York everything you thought it'd be?”

She wasn’t sure anyone was trying to talk her out of things as much as they were worried there was a reason she had agreed to getting married so quickly and so young. She had assured them she wasn’t pregnant. “That is awesome. I’m glad you came to Lima, but Tennessee is definitely your home.” She smiled at him, thinking of all the good times they had back then. “New York is like no other place on earth. I definitely have a love/hate relationship with it at times. But I know this is where I need to be to make the dream happen. Even though it’s a struggle to not feel defeated everytime I get rejected.”

“Well, your songs are awesome from what I hear and that's not a surprise because you've always been really great at singing. Plus, I know you're working your butt off. But it's kind of like catching lightning in a bottle, but you're gonna do it. I have every faith,” Sam said easily. He knew it was a tough industry, but Mercedes was strong and brave. “And then I'll tell my kids that we used to date in high school, and they'll never believe me in a million years.”

“No chance you could be the real Thor and use the hammer to throw some lightning my way?” She shook her head, tucking a loose curl behind her ear. When he began to talk about kids, she felt...weird. She wasn’t even sure how to describe what was going on inside her head. “Whatever! Your kids are going to be too busy being amazing little artists and creating the next awesome cartoons and comics to care about some woman singing songs. When I finally do get a record deal I’m going to need you to design my cover.”

“I hope they're artists that like good music. So they will definitely know your music,” Sam assured her, his mind unable to stop from imagining the kids he thought he'd someday gave with her, but that was a long time ago. She was going to have kids with Puck. “Deal. I'll design the first one for free.”

“My cheeks are starting to hurt, I haven’t been able to stop smiling. It’s so nice to get to talk to you and see you. I’ve missed that. I’ve missed you.” It was an easy thing to say because it was true. She and Puck were close, but he wasn’t as into the superheroes and geeky things like she was, so they bonded more over music and the entertainment business in general. It was easy to talk to someone that was dealing with the exact same things and knew how crazy the hours could be. But at the same time, it created a bubble. Being together was easy because they didn’t have to explain work life. There was a familiarity and a sense of comfort to being with Puck because she knew him. She felt safe. “You are still doing your art right? Are you working on a graphic novel yet?”

Sam couldn't help but smile back even if it made him feel guilty. “I missed you too. Blaine’s pretty geeky, but it's not quite the same as when we’d hang.” And he didn't mean because they'd sometimes hook up. “But we're getting to hang now So that's awesome.” He let his attention drift to the movie for a moment before nodding. “I still do some art, but it's mostly just graphic art for school. I haven't really been illustrating lately.”

“Are you still interested in doing that? Or are you really into the schoolwork art?” It had been 4 years, goals changed just like people did. Something that hadn’t changed was the way his smile was contagious, or how his eyes could lock you in place if you looked at them too long. Which made it very clear she needed to be looking at the movie and not him. She shouldn’t be thinking about another man’s eyes, she was getting married! What was wrong with her?

“I don't get what you mean. What's schoolwork art?” He let his gaze return to her, his brow wrinkled a little in confusion. Had he just not been completely paying attention again? It happened sometimes. His meds didn't usually wear off so quickly, however. So it probably wasn't that.

“The art you do for school. Do you draw for yourself anymore? Or someone else?” She asked him, tilting her head slightly. She still had all the pictures and cards he had ever drawn her. They were in a binder on her bookshelf. She couldn’t get rid of them.

Sam’s cheeks flushed as he let out an embarrassed chuckle. “Ohhhh, not really? Because school was just like a series of projects, and I went digital. Sometimes I doodle in my notebooks, but mostly I'm learning to design for marketing and stuff. That's how I got the job I have waiting for me back home.”

She nodded her head in understanding. “Oh, okay! That sounds pretty neat. Do you like it? Will you have an office and have to wear a tie?” She liked finding out more about his life, she used to know everything about him, and with him being here now, she wanted to learn all she could about him.

“It’s pretty fun,” Sam answered, pausing again to watch a part of the movie. “I get my own cubicle, and I don’t have to wear a tie. That’s what I like about tech jobs. You can basically just wear a t-shirt and jeans.” His lips quirked a little. “You’re the lucky one. You don’t have to work an 8-4 like me.”

“But at least you get regular days off. Being a backup singer means crazy weird hours, and that’s just for recording in the studio. Being on tour was super crazy, but fun. And then when I’m not doing either of those I work at the studio, and sometimes I have to be there late into the night. But I have to put in the work if I want to put out my own album one day.” She smiled before turning her attention to the movie. “I’m glad you came, Sam.” She said softly.

Hearing her crazy schedule made Sam feel a little better that they’d ended their relationship before college. If he were dating her now, they’d never see each other. “Paying dues, right?” He had a few friends back in Tennessee that were trying to make it as country artists. He’d played a gig once when one of his friend, Trent’s, guitarist got sick. It had been great and really fun, but he definitely wasn’t meant for that life. “You’re going to do it. I know it.” He gave her a little nod and smiled wide at her soft words. “I’m glad I did too.”

#para #r:sam #backtrack

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sugrmottas · 6 years

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(this genuinely isn't judgey fodpsapid) but quinn, puck and santana having rachel's ambition is...a lot.

i mean, it is.

it also isn’t.

like, rachel definitely outpaces all of them, don’t get me wrong – rachel has lived her life being told she is going to be successful, and i think that changes things. quinn grew up believing she was doomed to live the life of her mother, puck grew up being told he was just like his father (which is mostly fan-canon but i feel like there’s enough Illusions in actual canon to back it up) and santana grows up in what qualifies for the Hood (adjacent) in lima, ohio – but like, rachel grew up with dads who worship her. who tell her she is going to be amazing because she has to be. her peers always say cruel things, but rachel trusts her fathers so much more than she does her peers, so girl grows up knowing she will be successful, if she works for it.

but then there’s puck, too. puck who is a young jewish kid in what is predominately a protestant state (on that line: i know quinn’s evangelical but what is mercedes actually? where we given anything more than just plain christian? also sam? why did glee never expand on anything??? ugh) so already feels like a fish out of water – but he (canonically, at least) only has two peers his age who share the same faith. jacob ben israel, who is disgusting, even from a young age (is it canon that puck’s always bullied him?) and rachel, who i truly do believe he grew up knowing, even if i don’t think they were the best friends fanon likes to paint them as. he grows up in a heavily jewish household but in a community that does not share his faith, or even respect it, and that’s hard. add to it a burning desire to not become his father (i’m not sure if it’s actually canon that his mother told him he was just like his father, but it’s a headcanon i hold very close to my heart) and a mother working her ass off to provide for him and his sister, and kid is fucking angry.

so puck has anger issues, which i feel is mostly backed up in canon anyway – which is his passion. his ambition blooms from this – a burning desire to prove everyone wrong, the need to get the fuck out of lima. i do think finn and puck have a very deep friendship, but it’s one that adds to both of their insecurities. finn is the Golden Boy, he is (seen as) kind and talented. puck is the Bad Boy, he is charming and capable. they spend their lives being compared and i think puck is mostly reserved to coming second (hence his anger at finn going off-book and joining glee) but he also maintains that he Wants to beat finn, wants to be the best. puck has selfish ambition (but really, what ambition isn’t at least a little selfish?), but he has so much of it.

remember his first Real line? i’m not like everyone else in this cow town, i got star potential. kid makes it very clear he’s getting the fuck out of lima, no matter what his peers think. i do hate how glee handled him in s4 (he got out of lima sure, but he didn’t do anything, which i feel was such a disservice to him – he struggled with school because he isn’t a learner, but he’s always been a doer, let’s not forget the kid had an actual business at 16) but i hate what they did with most characters in s4, so i tend to ignore it for everyone bar the newbies and finn. the unravelling of klaine was interesting too, if only because we saw how co-dependent they actually were. otherwise fuck s4. (santana and rachel both had Moments, now that i think about it.)

anyway, like – of the four, i think puck has the least ambition. i also think he has a lot more purpose than say, santana, so his ambition is a lot more Realised.

and then there’s santana, who i think has the clearest ambition in the show, even if it’s constantly overshadowed by rachel’s. i believe santana’s family is religious (her abuela definitely is but we don’t know too much about her parents actual lives despite actually meeting her mother, it’s of my personal belief they are religious but non-practising) but santana fails to perceive any proper value to religion.

(this is going somewhere, i swear.)

santana also doesn’t have a Great Big Dream, she eventually settles on wanting to be famous but that feels so much like a cop-out that i fail to see any value to it. she doesn’t particularly live for cheerleading or glee club either.

what i’m getting at here is that if santana has ambition (she does, i’ll get to it) she doesn’t have purpose to go with it. and ambition without purpose can be fucking dangerous and santana is such a good example of that.

onto her ambition: i do think it’s pretty clearly shown within the show, even from the beginning of her character, as underdeveloped as she was. of the three cheerleaders, she’s the one who wholeheartedly throws herself into sabotaging the glee club – we don’t see too much of her in the first half of s1, but i believe she was working away at some of the weaker characters (read: artie, because santana lopez genuinely does read super prejudiced, but i’m probably still salty about her biphobia) until the back half came along and girl turned it up, went after finn hudson and took his virginity (i have so many feelings about finntana, mostly in a platonic sense but there was a glee meta years ago on them sleeping together that still sticks with me) and took so much pleasure in quinn fabray losing her status (quinn and santana read weirdly similar to finn and puck, but i don’t think their friendship is anywhere near as deep so they have less reason to empathise with each other) and girl was fucking messy.

it was great. i lived for it.

then s2 happened and we met santana lopez, properly – the girl from the hood (adjacent) who was so angry and so scared and wanted so much. and the season was full of ambition from her, even if stupid little ways – wanting to win the duet competition and knowing her and mercedes would be the match-up, knowing she wants to keep sleeping with brittany so tricking her into thinking it’s not cheating (we can talk about who was the real bad guy of the two of them for that for days but the correct answer is both, because brittany pierce is not as dumb as she seems but santana lopez still had full intent to make b cheat on artie), rejoining the cheerios at the first opportunity because she wants to win, no matter the consequences (i’m not sure how i feel about the three of them ditching the competition because it’s just a weird situation but this isn’t a finn hudson meta). and she cares about glee club a lot, of course, for a lot of reasons, but you cannot tell me she’s so upset about finn and rachel losing them the competition solely because… what? they ruined it for the club? no, they lost it for her. fuck them for that.

s3 is really the season i point to to prove the girl lacks purpose, so we’ll skip over that to s4 – santana is on her own, for the first time. she’s on a scholarship to a big school relatively far from home and she doesn’t handle it well, of course. gets super untethered. and then visits home and remembers Santana Lopez, The Star. so she goes to new york and still lacks purpose, sure, but she has a stage. she just has to figure out what part she’s playing.

and this is where the danger comes in, because santana sees her friends succeeding – rachel mostly, but kurt too – and gets restless. does stupid shit like her yeast-i-stat commercial. but most importantly, decides her life’s mission is playing fanny brice. which isn’t stupid on its own, but like, for someone who cares so much about her friends it reads so strange that she would actively go after something that clearly matters so much to what we pretty much assume is her best friend. the deterioration of rachel and santana’s friendship was written awfully so i won’t go into it, but like. god. someone give this girl a purpose so she has something worthwhile to invest herself in and stops sabotaging all her relationships.

so santana has bucketloads of ambition (i’d rank her third of the four) but she has nowhere to put it and it fucks her over every single time.

and then quinn. oh, quinn. ohhhhhhhh quinn.

quinn has so much fucking ambition – she has a life planner from age six. she details every moment of middle school, every moment of high school, every moment of college, every moment of life. she’s going to go to an ivy league college (she thinks she’d like brown, her dad went there, but yale sounds nice and freeing) and she’s going to study law and she’s going to become a family lawyer. she’s going to help kids get away from abusive parents and she’s going to make sure everyone she comes into contact with is safe and happy.

on the flipside, lucy quinn fabray is already resigned to living her mother’s life. doing a short course in real estate and then becoming a realtor. she’ll marry a nice boy, maybe finn hudson, and they’ll buy a house with a white picket fence and have 2.5 children and a dog.

quinn fabray’s ambition is fucking tragic, because it was killed before even getting the chance to thrive – and it’s still there, of course. in some ways. when she tells finn she’s pregnant, she says i really thought i had a shot at getting out of here. when she’s wondering whether to give up drizzle or not, she knows she shouldn’t – her religion doesn’t look on the act kindly and i’ll never forgive glee for overlooking quinn’s faith post-s1 – but it would allow her to move on with her life.

quinn fabray is tragic, because she loses her future-husband to rachel berry, who has all of her ambition and none of her fear (or all of it, but quinn doesn’t get to see that, nobody gets to see that). she loses her husband to everything quinn wanted to be, and it’s awful.

s2 sees quinn not gaining her ambition back, as she hoped. or maybe as i hoped. s2 sees quinn getting back with finn. s2 sees quinn telling rachel that she’s wasting her time with lima because she’s going to be successful and they aren’t (or rather, quinn isn’t).

but it comes back, eventually.

i don’t know when. s3 fucked quinn over so bad. but it comes back.

and she writes so many fucking essays about her emotionally neglectful father and her child who she loves so fucking much but had to give up and her friends, her glee club, who helped her through fucking everything.

it comes back.

quinn gets accepted into yale.

rachel and kurt are (eventually) accepted into a prestigious performing arts school, which is perfect for them, but let me reiterate – quinn (and mike actualy) gains admission into one of the most prestigious schools in america.

quinn fabray is going to be fucking amazing, and she knows it – she’s going to live her own life, the one her mom wanted to life, but was always too scared to pursue. quinn knows how short life is, she also know she can’t let anyone drag her down – quinn is going to motherfucking yale and she is going to be fucking wonderful.

there’s a quote i’ve always used for quinn – i can’t abandon the girl i used to be, so i carry her. and quinn carries lucy with her every single fucking day – and lucy gets to see her ambition realised, gets to see herself succeed and become everything she dreamed of.

and it’s amazing.

so maybe nobody has rachel’s ambition, not really. but a lot of glee club have their own wild ambitions (mike, mercedes and tina all come to mind).

but i do genuinely think puck, santana and quinn all come very close to the standard rachel set, in such different ways.

and i think that’s wonderful.

#Anonymous #asks #i just have a lot of Feelings about these three okay they're my favorites #that's a lie it's sam but all top 5 #i'm just gonna become a glee meta blog lmfao let's go

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spaceorphan18 · 6 years

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Season 2 Wrap Up Thoughts (Part 3)

Okay - hopefully I can be more concise with the rest of it...

Sam Evans - The Introduction of White Chocolate

The funny thing about Sam is the fact that I don’t think the show knew quite what they wanted to do with him. At first -- he’s a foil for Finn, and obsessed with status - the only time (if I’m remembering correctly) that he really cares about that. He dates Quinn - which is more about Quinn. And it isn’t really until the second half of the season that we get a Sam, who feels more like Sam. I will say - it’s nice to know that his kindheartedness, though, is there right from the start (in the way he treats Kurt - but in the way he’s inclusive of everyone), which makes him a fresher character. And through his struggles with being poor, and his interest with Mercedes, while not huge plot points in this season, add some nice complexities to his character. There seem to be very few ‘good’ characters on the show - but Sam is one of them.

Puck and Lauren - <Insert Witty Tittle>

There wasn’t a whole lot of Puck in season 2 - which is completely fine. I think his character served the purpose he needed to in season 1 and I’m not sure there was much more to do with him other than graduate him off, which is why we’ll get an overabundance of Puck in season 3. The best part is hooking him up with Lauren. I am a little sad, though, that the writers couldn’t push it all the way though. While I appreciate Lauren having control over the relationship - it would have been nice to see an obese woman be in a sexual relationship with a conventionally attractive man. They always toyed with it - but never let it be consummated, which I find sad.

As for Lauren herself, I’m always back and forth on. On the plus side, I’m glad we have a larger woman who knows her own strength, and is not afraid to be the person she is. On the other hand, they couldn’t get out from under the overweight character tropes, such as lame jokes about food. By the time the season was ending, Lauren was really coming into her own, so I do find it a shame that there wasn’t another season to really develop her -- and her final appearance in season 4 just didn’t do the character justice, even if she was at least given some sort of wrap up.

Santana, Brittany, and Artie - Lots of Shades of Grey

Hm...where to start. Let’s start with Santana. I’m always so back and forth on Santana, because she’s a mean character for the sake of being mean, and I don’t like it. Like Quinn, there’s this whole deconstructing mean girls thing Ryan Murphy seems to enjoy, and I don’t really give a fig about that stuff. During the first half of the season - Santana is a bitch because, well, she can be.

And then they go forward with Santana being a lesbian, and I can get behind this. I hate to say it added depth to the character, because I feel like that’s diminishing being a lesbian to a novelty (which I’m not trying to do), but Santana became a better character when they add more layers to her. Stuff with Brittany aside (I’ll get to that in a sec) I do think Santana’s struggling with acknowledging that she’s a lesbian is one of the better arcs in season 2. And I like that it gives Santana some vulnerability that we otherwise don’t get to see.

The stuff with Brittany, though, I’m uneasy about. I don’t doubt that Brittany loves Santana (Brittany, uniquely, loves everyone), but I really do not like the lengths Santana goes to manipulate her and her relationship with Artie. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And while I’m all about the inclusion of f/f romance - I wish they just let them deal with being in love with each other on their own without the added love triangle bonus.

Brittany, meanwhile, I mostly like in the season. However, my two issues here are a) Heather Morris is a weaker actor - and while she has some fantastic lines to say, I don’t always feel it from her, and b) like @ckerouac pointed out on the podcast - they have an issue of creating an infantilized Brittany -- reducing her to a childlike state, often times within her romance with Artie, which feels icky, especially when they sexualize her at the same time. Brittany is an interesting character study - because I do enjoy how much she seems to be open about sexuality and love and seems to genuinely care about everyone! But let’s stop making her like a child, too, show.

And then there’s Artie - I do feel a sliver bad for him - in that being in a wheel chair makes him feel inferior. But I really feel like he’s using Brittany to make himself feel better about himself, which doesn’t feel fair at all to Brittany (and in this respect, I prefer Brittany and Santana - cause I think Santana thinks of Brittany as an equal and not as someone who will help her status). On top of that - Brittany and Artie spend most of the season in happy-ish couple land, which means to the background you go. Artie, especially, seemed to disappear unless it was semi-troubles with Brittany.

As an aside - show, why can’t you let Brittany straight up identify as bisexual? Ug, c’mon...

Mercedes - Always Second Place

If there’s someone who got the short end of the stick this season, it’s Mercedes. Seriously. She didn’t really have an arc, and the two(-ish) times she got something to do she was dumbed down or made out to be a bitch. It’s like the writers had no idea what to do with Mercedes other than make her sing, so they mostly just ignored her the entire season, which is really sad. The one bright spot is her burgeoning love story with Sam late in the series - which is unfortunately cut short and dropped until mid-season 3. Sorry, girl - you deserve better!

Mike and Tina - Happy Couples Don’t Get Screen Time

Mike and Tina spent a lot of time in the background making out. Seriously - I think they made out more than any other couple on the show, tbh. However, they had zero plot lines. Maybe some c-plots here and there. But they were the happy couple, and c’mon, we should know by now how this show feels about happy couples. I get that in an ensemble cast this big, you can’t focus on everyone equally, and season 2 tried it’s best - but there seemed to be zero interest in developing either of these characters. So they made out in the background. Which, to me, isn’t interesting. **Shrugs**

Kurt, Blaine, Klaine - and the best damn story of the season

Alright, so I’ve had an entire meta series and podcast dedicated to gushing about how much I love this, so I’m going to keep this short. I realize I’m biased, but, by far, the best part of season 2. And I will go as far as saying, had this arc not been a part of season 2, I don’t think I’d have continued watching. (In fact, when Kurt left during Furt - I thought they were writing him off the show, and I didn’t want to watch any further.)

And let’s be honest -- a question to you other Klainers out there -- take out Kurt and Blaine from season 2. Is it still the best? Do you still think of this as the perfect season of Glee? I really am curious about this...

But anyway - the thing that I truly love about this particular arc is how masterfully it’s woven throughout the season. We start with Kurt -- still dealing with stuff from his season 1 arc, at his lowest of lows, and adding on the bullying stuff as well. And gradually, throughout the season, he picks himself back up, finds love, finds confidence, and finds a way to say ‘fuck you world - i’m gonna be me’. And it truly is a gorgeous arc to watch. (Which, as an aside, I don’t understand just following the Klaine arc of the season, cause Kurt’s arc is so multifaceted)

Klaine (and Blaine) is this extra bonus. The Warblers are comedic gold, and entertaining in their own right. Dalton is this delightful little side world. But more so - Klaine gets to a gay fairy tale romance. And it’s such a beautiful thing on it’s own. And obviously, all the love...

As for Blaine -- isn’t as developed as a full character yet, but of course, we’ll get to see him do that in the upcoming seasons. For now - he works as what he is - Kurt’s romantic interest. On a random, shallow note - I kind of like this Blaine look out of all the others. Sorry. :P

Anyway - yes, just a lot of positive gushing for Kurt and Blaine - but I’m sure you knew that already.

Some Final Thoughts

I’ve often gone back and forth on where I place season 2 in my own personal rankings of the seasons. Is it the best season? -- Personally, no, it’s not -- but I can understand why it means so much to so many people. The first season, I still think, had the best writing - and was probably the funniest, but season 2 did something wise and focused in on what people wanted the most - the younger characters and their relationship dynamic. And when you add that to the the fandom experience -- this kind of golden age where everyone was more or less getting along, it seemed like this perfect time. So, I get that season 2 gets renowned the way it was.

But, for me, when you take away the stuff with Kurt and Blaine, there isn’t a whole lot of things for me to like. I do think there was some good stuff with Santana in the second half. I do think there were some overall strong ensemble stories. But most of it -- I find myself not really caring about. And I think, overall, season 2′s lows are lower than season 1s. There are some really bad episodes and plot lines in this episode that I think are forgotten because the highs are so highs. Season 5 might be a bit messier in its story telling, but I think as a giant whole - I prefer that one better. However - I will say that Kurt’s story arc in season 2 might be my favorite story arc in the entire show.

And I suppose that is how SO sees it ;)

#tdb rewatch #I could have rambled on more - but I kinda just wanted to be done with it

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spaceorphan18 · 7 years

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Finding Kurt Hummel: The New Rachel

Masterpost

4x01: The New Rachel

It’s a new year, and a new Kurt. Actually - it’s more like a new show entirely as Glee heads mashes up Glee: The College Years with Glee: The Next Generation. It’s a rocky start here at the beginning of season 4, where the show loses its identity a little, and struggles with what it wants to be. I’m not sure it ever quite figures it out, but we do get an entertaining second half of the series anyway.

I don’t know what BTS stuff happened to prompt it, and I’m not here to speculate, but this is the year that Kurt takes a back seat a lot. So -- among the facts, I’m placing my own interpretation of things, but the blanks are often so wide here, that just about any interpretation is possible.

So, settle in kids, because this is about to get bumpy.

Back from Break

Kurt’s first mention in Rachel’s inner-monologue, where she wishes he had come to New York with her. And I kind of roll my eyes at the story here. Because, essentially, Kurt didn’t get into NYADA so that Rachel could be alone in New York for --- all of one episode. So what was the point? Other than to give Kurt one episode of misery in Lima before heading out there himself? I’m not going to apply reason to any of this.

Meanwhile, Rachel’s calling him every three hours because she really doesn’t handle being alone very well. And we get our first glimpses of Kurt. And here’s the interesting thing. The outfit - it’s a very Kurt-ish outfit. But Kurt, well, he’s changed. I don’t necessarily think he’s taller, but his face is thinner, and more mature, and for the first time - it’s Chris Colfer does not look like he should be playing a teenager. It’s definitely a (welcomed) jarring physical change. Also, natural highlights, my ass, Chris.

Also worth mentioning - the fact that Kurt refers to a penis as a “twinkle tube”. You know he’s named Blaine’s. I mean, c’mon.

So, Kurt’s back at McKinley - and there is a little bit of, ah, c’mon Kurt, move on with your life lingering around. He goes back to visit Sue, who has just had her baby. Did anyone remember she was pregnant? Oops.

And then we are introduced to Kitty -- and the first thing the show does is introduce her as the New Quinn, and she insults Kurt. And the writers really thought this was the best way to get us to like the new characters? Really?

So - we learn that Kurt has signed up for classes at Lima’s community college. Sue still calls him a sad sack, but I mean, what does he expect if he’s going to go back and visit her? This is also interesting when you think about it - this scene is here to revisit both Kurt and Sue, but doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense within the character dynamics - other than adding another mark on my Sue and Kurt have a strange connection list.

Anyway - Kurt might be handling everything Sue’s throwing at him pretty well, but there is some truth to what she says. That he really shouldn’t be hanging around the past since it is holding him back. And Kurt knows this.

Lima Bean

So, we find that Kurt is working at the Lima Bean. Remember way back when - when Kurt was filling out an application? Makes me wonder just how long he’s been working there, though probably not long if his manager is yelling at him to refill things, as if he’s just learning. He is really adorable in his uniform though.

Here’s my thing about Kurt being still in Lima. I think there are relevant stories about staying in the place you grew up. I think you can go home again - as evident by Finn’s story, and how I think Lima fit him best (and in a way that doesn’t fit Will very well). But Kurt, Kurt isn’t really living right now. He’s hanging on to the past, is way more excited about glee club auditions than the two people in glee club, is being bullied by a girl still in high school, and getting yelled at to fill the biscotti. Kurt’s just kind of existing, and not pushing himself to be his best, in that Kurt-ish way he usually does.

It’s interesting - the only other time we see Kurt start a season being content with the sad state of his life is season one. Season four is about hitting the reset button on the show in a lot of ways, and Kurt, who has had a really great couple of years, is starting from the bottom again.

So, yeah, let’s talk about Blaine for a second. At the beginning of his scene Blaine and Brittany are chatting - about Santana, and how Brittany’s not having the greatest time. In a lot of ways Klaine and Brittana are going through the same thing, and it’s not easy for either couple.

Brittany misses Santana because she’s never there, and you get the feeling that even though Kurt is right there next to him, Blaine misses Kurt, too. I can only assume that the summer was kind of rough -- and that Kurt was in a deep funk for a lot of it not having gotten into NYADA. Blaine was already doom and gloom about their relationship before, but Kurt staying in Lima isn’t any better. He’s only a shell of himself, trying to pass the time any way he can.

Also worth noting - Brittany calls Kurt out on his patheticness, as Blaine tries to sugarcoat it. I kind of like that Brittany is never afraid to tell it like it is.

Anyway, Kurt and Blaine have been off kilter for a while, and there are tidbits in season three that show this, but here, they are really out of sync. And it’s going to be a long, long time before they’re back on the same page. It’s going to be really hard, but man, there will be a lot of great stuff to sink my teeth into.

Auditions

It’s funny that Kurt is so into auditions here. Also, it’s going to give him practice for when he comes back in two years and is running the club with Rachel. Interestingly, he’s sitting next to a way less than enthused Blaine.

Btw, why are all the glee club members there watching? That seems weird to me.

Anyway - this whole scene is for the introduction of Jake Puckerman, who is channeling his brother pretty hard here. Kurt declares that it’s rude when Jake purposely knocks over the music stand. But c’mon. Will was pretty rude interrupting him in the first place.

Also, Kurt’s still there for Marley’s audition - but we don’t really see him.

The New Rachel

You guys remember when a BTS still came out for this moment, and we all concluded that the higher Kurt’s hair got, the more gelled Blaine’s got? Yeah...

Also, nice to see that Kurt’s still got an insane way of organizing music. Who lays it all out on the floor? Also - he’s dividing it up this time between genres, Broadway, Standards, Top 40, which at least makes more sense than by emotion.

A big chunk of this episode is devoted to deciding who the ‘New Rachel’ is. And here’s where Will’s teaching style has done some damage - because these very talented kids are all fighting against each other in order to be the ‘star’ and replace Rachel Berry. I will say, one nice thing about the New New Directions is that they do kind of get rid of the whole New Rachel rhetoric pretty quickly and become a much more ensemble based group -- AS IT SHOULD BE. But, part of that is the difference between Finn leading the group and Will.

Kurt, meanwhile, is totally misremembering his time at McKinley, and claims that the glee club was about acceptance. And to him, it probably was, because it was the first time he felt like he belong, like he was a part of something. But that’s not necessarily true to others in the group. And, Tina does have a good point - Rachel, Mercedes, Santana, and Kurt fought all the time over who was the biggest diva.

Interestingly, there’s no reaction shot from Kurt when Blaine receives New Rachel status. I actually don’t think that was intentional. But it is interesting...

It’s Time

Okay, so here we go. The conversation starts out about Blaine being the lead soloist. And what Kurt says to him is kind of strange. First, that Rachel made everyone feel included. No she did not, what even Kurt? If there’s one thing that I don’t like about this season it’s Kurt drinking /all/ the Rachel kool-aide. Also, I’m not sure why the comment to Blaine about wanting to make sure everyone was included. If there’s one person who is going to do just that - it’s Blaine. But, I mean, it’s dialogue to fit the episode more than the character, so there’s that.

But then there’s Blaine to Kurt -- that he essentially says, you’re stuck, you need to move on. And he’s right. Kurt knows that he’s right. And I know Blaine gets a lot of flack for pushing Kurt to New York then being upset that Kurt left but A) Kurt wouldn’t have done anything he wasn’t ready to do deep down and B) Kurt, once he moves to New York, is not a model boyfriend, and that’s a whole issue I’ll be chatting about in later episodes.

But yeah, it’s killing Blaine to do this, because he is incredibly scared about their relationship going forward, and you know, Kurt is, too. He’s finally here to have the conversation he didn’t want to have in Goodbye. But Blaine just reiterates Kurt’s earlier words - that they’ll be okay (even though, now, they both seem unsure). But the important thing is that Kurt staying in Lima - would not be any better to their relationship, and I think they both know that, too.

Something I’ve never noticed before -- but Blaine singing to Kurt in the courtyard has always had to do with change.

Somewhere Only We Know - Kurt comes back to McKinley, and he and Blaine area separated.

It’s Not Unusual - Blaine comes to McKinley and they’re together again

It’s Time - Kurt goes to New York and Blaine stays and they’re separated.

Got to Get You Into My Life - They sing together, and Blaine goes to New York with Kurt, and (despite another break up inbetween) they’re together for good.

OMG you guys - I don’t know if I should credit Glee with this much cleverness.

Anyway - this song is about changes (and not changing), and while it’s very much about Blaine - it’s about Kurt, too. Because, essentially it /is/ his time to grow up and change and go down the scary path towards adult hood.

It's time to begin, isn't it? I get a little bit bigger but then I'll admit I'm just the same as I was Now don't you understand I'm never changing who I am

But thing I find interesting about this song, is the message of staying the same through that change. Kurt’s going to go through a lot of hard things, but he remains, as ever, himself. Which is pretty cool.

Also, I want to note the playful nature of this performance. The cups, the jumprope, the goofing around -- it’s very childlike. And, while that’s very Blaine, and I may be stretching this a little, it’s also a commentary about their relationship, too. Up until this point, they’ve had a very childlike, innocent, fairy tale romance. Sure, there were a few cracks in season 3, but things are going to fall a part very, very soon. And in that, the childlike nature is ending.

So yeah, this is all bittersweet, and a goodbye to Klaine as we know it. Which makes this scene a lot sadder in retrospect.

I wonder if it was intentional or not to have this moment mirror the Somewhere Only We Know moment. But yeah, all through this song, Kurt watches Blaine, and is amused, and delighted, and sad, and wistful, and very much in love. Kurt’s heart very much wants to go to New York - but it’d be disingenuous to disregard how much he’s going to miss Blaine, too.

Also - this scene cuts off quickly, and that’s because there are two bits of dialogue missing.

Kurt: I’m going to miss you so much. You really are a star. Blaine: And you’re mine. You always will be.

Why would you cut that, Glee? Why??

Leaving On a Jet Plane

There’s a thing where Blaine and Burt are somewhat alike. Because they both know that sometimes, you have to give Kurt the push in the ass that he needs.

Oh. That sounded better in my head.

What I mean, though, is this. One reason Kurt didn’t get on a plane and head to New York over the summer is because he’s scared. Because failure is a thing that haunts Kurt, even if he doesn’t always like to admit it, even if he presents himself with the best confidence. He is human, after all, like the rest of us. And, god, going to New York without a plan is, really, kind of insane. But Burt does have a point -- it is an adventure, it’s how you learn to make your way in the world. If you don’t go out there and try, then you’ll never know if you’ll be successful or not.

And the longer this scene goes on, the more hesitant Kurt is to go on. And Burt is just amazing. Because his heart is breaking to see his kid off, but he knows it’s in Kurt’s best interests. And he knows Kurt well enough to say just what Kurt needs to hear to get him out the door. It really is a fantastic, sweet little scene - that is the epitome of what these two have been through the past few years, and the strong bond they’ve grown since then.

Kurt: You really are the worlds greatest dad. Burt: I know, it’s written on the mug you got me for father’s day.

Burt tells Kurt he can always come home - but I think part of being a parent is letting your kids go - and go on to live their own lives. Burt breaks down a little, and Kurt looks back, but the path is already set.

New York

Oh this scene... Kurt arrives in New York, and naturally the first thing he does is find Rachel. It’s probably the smartest thing he does, because man, guys, just as an FYI - if you’re moving out to NYC, do plan a little. Kurt’s plan is seriously insane.

And, you know, I’ve kinda resented this scene for a long time. Because it has this rom-com feel to it, like you know, lovers who meet up at the end of the movie. And after not having much romantic Klaine, it was irksome when I first watched it. I don’t know if I necessarily feel the same way anymore. I mean, god, time, what have you done! Lol. It doesn’t feel as rom-com-ish, nor does Klaine feel not that romantic (geez, there’s some great Klaine stuff in this episode, you just have to look).

But -- I will say, this kicks off season 4 Hummelberry, which might be even more frustrating than season 3. Kurt’s less indulgent this year, though, and that helps.

So yeah -- Kurt’s in New York, ready to start this new portion of his life. Poor kid, it’s not going to be easy for him. But it’s going to be a fascinating ride...

#finding kh #kurt hummel

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