Fic: Yeah, right, that'll happen (1/2)
Rating: PG:13
Pairing: Brittany/Santana
Length: 1123 words
Disclaimer: I don’t own the Glee characters. Wish I did, but I don’t.
Spoilers: None
Summary: Santana stands up for Rachel.
Author’s Note: Please comment! This is only my second fic ever!
If somebody had told Santana Lopez a year ago that she’d be protecting Rachel Berry from a slushy attack, she’d probably have laughed until her stomach hurt. The only reason Berry had ever even been on her radar was because seeing her face dripping with the cherry ice was just hilarious. That Rachel never retaliated, never broke down and cried in front of her…well, that made Santana begrudgingly respect her. It also made Santana try harder. There were days when she made damn sure that Rachel got a fresh slushy until she had nothing left to change into. This was what being on the Cheerios had taught her. If at first you don’t succeed, attack until you do.
But the freaking Glee club was making her soft. He teammates were all so…annoyingly vulnerable. They knew not to be outwardly victimized - the Cheerios and the jocks thrived on that - but having spent so much time with them, Santana was now noticing the little things. She saw the briefest flicker of humiliation on Kurt’s face every time Karofsky pushed him against a locker. She saw the way Tina closed her eyes, steeling her nerves, before singing a solo. And she noticed the grim determination in Rachel’s eyes after each slushy attack. Santana pretended not to see it, of course. She still doled out insults and sneers. But she saw it.
Brittany, who never really cared about the social distinction between popular and freak, was only making it worse. She had actually become friends with the Glee kids, letting Kurt give her makeovers and having karaoke sleepovers with Rachel. She cared about them. It made Santana nauseous. Though, granted, not as nauseous as it would have made her last year…which made her nauseous.
It also pissed Santana off because, seriously, how was she going to keep her distance from the Glee kids when Brittany didn’t? She and Brittany were always together, especially after they started officially dating. And there was no way in hell that Santana was giving that up.
But more than that, Santana was terrified that she wouldn’t be able to protect her girlfriend. She was damn sure that nobody would dare to actually target Brittany. To do so would be to face Santana’s personal retribution and that was something that few people attempted. Santana had made a pretty good example of Karofsky when he had called Brittany stupid in the hallway. She smiled, thinking fondly of the sound of his nose cracking.
But the more Brittany opened up to the Glee kids, the more upset she got when any of them suffered. And that was something that Santana couldn’t always prevent. She’d warned Karofsky in no uncertain terms that Kurt was off limits. And, though he had nodded slowly and backed away, there was always going to be somebody else lined up to throw a punch. Or a slushy. Whatever.
So she couldn’t protect Brittany because she couldn’t protect everybody. And, seriously, the Glee kids were such ridiculous freaks that they had made themselves into huge, glow in the dark, pine scented targets. Especially Rachel.
Santana grimaced when she spotted the artist formerly known as Smurfette by her locker as she and Brittany walked to their last class of the day. She was wearing head to toe argyle. Even her knee socks. And she had a sheet of toilet paper stuck to her left shoe. Santana pictured a technicolor “I want to be harassed!” sign painted onto Rachel’s forehead.
“What is that girl thinking” she hissed.
“Hmm?” Brittany responded, looking around. “What is who thinking?”
“RuPaul, who else?” she snapped, then corrected herself when looked over to see Brittany frowning. “Sorry. Rachel.”
Brittany smiled and nodded, pressing a little kiss to Santana’s cheek.
“Seriously, though,” Santana continued. “That girl is just asking for it.”
“Asking for what?”
“Asking for...” Santana trailed off when she saw Karofsky and three of his meathead friends walking past them towards Rachel with a giant blue slushy in each of their hands.
Brittany followed Santana’s gaze and gasped.
“Rachel, watch out!” Brittany yelled, but Rachel was too busy rummaging through her locker to notice. Brittany whimpered and covered her eyes.
Groaning, Santana made a split second decision and ran, jumping in front of Rachel just as she turned and closed her locker door. Unfortunately, Karofsky and his buddies didn’t have time to adjust and, a moment later, Santana felt a wave of ice hit her body. It knocked the wind completely out of her.
She wiped her eyes and glared at Karofsky who had, in the space of a millisecond, completely blanched. His friends, who had been laughing hysterically, saw the look on his face and immediately stopped.
Karofsky put his hands in front of him in a sign of surrender and backed up.
“Santana, I didn’t mean…you weren’t supposed…it wasn’t -‘ he said, his voice trailing off as Santana took a step towards him.
“I’ll tell you what, Karofsky,” Santana said in a dangerously calm voice. “I’ll give you a head start. 5…” she counted, advancing on him.
“4…” Karofsky’s eyes widened in fear as he continued to retreat.
“3…” His friends ran away as fast as they could.
“2…” Karofsky tripped, falling backwards onto the floor.
“1.” Santana hovered over him for a few seconds and then, with strength of someone three times her size, kicked him swiftly between the legs.
Karofsky’s opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out and his face turned more shades of green than Santana had ever seen. Santana fleetingly thought it was a neat trick. She smiled, winked at him, and walked away. She wasn’t worried about a teacher finding out; there was no way Karofsky would be stupid enough to tell anybody.
Santana turned to Rachel who was staring with her mouth hanging open.
“Listen up, Berry,” Santana said, pointing a finger at Rachel’s chest. “When somebody yells for you to watch out, you pay attention and you duck. And, for the love of all that’s holy, make sure you don’t have fucking toilet paper sticking to your shoe when you leave the bathroom.”
Rachel looked at her with huge eyes, too shocked to argue that she hadn’t heard anybody warning her. As Santana started towards Brittany, Rachel softly grabbed her arm.
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
Santana hesitated for a moment and nodded, then walked to Brittany who had a huge grin on her face.
“I’m not sure why you’re so happy,” Santana remarked. “Coach Sylvester is going to bury me alive if I can’t get all this blue shit off of my uniform.”
Brittany chuckled and steered her away from their class room.
“Come on, San. Let’s just skip last period and go get you cleaned off.”
Santana didn’t have to be told twice and followed Brittany to her car.