The Little Things
Title: The Little Things
Pairings: Santana/Brittany, Minor/Mentions: Quinn/Finn, Quinn/Puck, Rachel/Jesse
Rating: PG
Length: ~2,400
Summary: How Rachel Berry and a yellow crayon changed Santana's life.
Author’s Note: Idea is a ripoff/tribute to It’s a Wonderful Life.
Fanart: "The Little Things" by firecracker_x / ducksinthehat @Tumblr
Santana rolled her eyes as Rachel started talking about something related to her boyfriend and sex. Again. It had been like that on an almost weekly basis ever since Jesse joined New Directions. Santana finally had enough.
“God, Berry! Do you never shut up?! I really wish you’d never been born, you know it?”
Rachel’s mouth snapped shut and her eyes widened, she strongly resembled kicked puppy. Brittany snickered and Quinn smirked. Tina and Mercedes looked a little bit relieved as Rachel timidly walked out of the choir room.
“Seriously,” Santana huffed. “She doesn’t get that we don’t care, does she?”
There were mumbled agreements and Brittany leaned over and put her head on Santana’s shoulder.
“I can’t believe someone hasn’t set her closet on fire,” Mercedes said. “Did you look at that skirt?”
“I know, right?” Tina said. “If Kurt didn’t hate her then we could convince him to give her a real makeover.”
“Yeah but that last one was pretty funny.” Mercedes chuckled.
The rest of the hour Santana spent listening to the other girls and contributing to their Rachel bashing; Brittany giggled along with her and Quinn showed off her latest horrific drawings.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Finally in bed late that night after finishing hers and Brittany’s homework, Santana curled up on her side and let her tiredness transition into sleep. She was almost out when a loud crash from the vicinity of her desk jolted her awake and up out of bed. She grabbed the aluminum baseball bat near her bed and held it high above her head.
“Who’s there?!” she demanded.
“Whoa, whoa, calm down!” a deep voice said.
Santana screamed and swung the bat.
“You can’t hurt me, there’s really no reason to try.”
“Who are you!?” Santana screeched, hoping to wake her Papi.
“Look, just put the bat down and turn on the light.”
“Bull! Papi! Papi! Papi, help!”
“He can’t hear you.”
“What the hell did you do?!”
“I didn’t do anything. He’s asleep. So are you, actually. Look at your bed.”
Santana’s eyes moved quickly from the darkness down to her bed. There was a small light coming from somewhere that illuminated her sleeping form. She was curled up on her side just as she had been right before the intruder came in.
“Pretty cool, huh?” the voice said. “The afterlife freaking rocks. I can do some pretty awesome stuff.”
“Wait…am I dead?”
“What? No! I am, though. So you can totally put the bat down. You can’t kill me again.”
Santana carefully lowered the bat and fumbled for her lamp switch. She turned it on and the light hurt her eyes for a minute before they adjusted. A young man with jet black hair wearing baggy jeans, a white t-shirt and a leather jacket about her age was standing by her desk smiling. She dropped the bat to the floor and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Who are you?”
“Kind of a guardian angel of sorts, I guess? I don’t know, the boss just handed me a file and told me to take care of it. You made a wish today, Santana. You wished Rachel Berry had never been born. Usually I just take care of it and make it happen but I was kind of wanting to try something new. I thought maybe I’d show you what would happen if Rachel had in fact never been born. Then if you liked what you saw then you could make the switch.”
“I don’t get it.”
“I’m going to show you what life would be like without Rachel Berry.”
“So you’re going to show me paradise?” Santana smirked.
The young man shrugged. “We’ll see.”
“You have a name?”
“Tim.”
“Okay, Tim. Whatever. It’s all a dream anyways, right?”
“It is if you want it to be. Take my hand.”
Santana reached forward and when her hand touched Tim’s she felt a warm glow go through her body. A white mist settled on her room and she felt a little dizzy. When the mist started lifting she looked around. She was at school and people were walking around. She felt a little awkward seeing as how she was in pink pajamas with bunnies on them that Brittany had given her for her birthday.
“They can’t see you,” Tim said. “They’ll walk right through you. Watch.”
Tim jumped in front of Puck and the jock walked right through him without a second glance.
“Okay, so why am I here?”
“This is tomorrow. Tomorrow if Rachel was never born.”
“Right.”
“Look,” the young man said. “See that girl?”
Santana looked at the row of lockers and where hers normally was there was a girl standing there with her black hair cascading down her back blending in with her black t-shirt. Her jeans were a little loose and ratty and her converse shoes looked like they were about to fall apart. She watched as the girl slowly turned when she heard chattering coming down the hallway. Santana saw herself. Other Santana.
“Wait, what the hell? How come I’m not in uniform? Coach will kill me!”
“Watch.”
Santana turned her attention back and saw Brittany with a group of Cheerios giggling as they walked down the hallway. Other Santana smiled a little at them, Santana could see that Other Santana’s eyes were focused on Brittany, and every single one of them sneered and turned their noses up at her, Brittany included. The look on Other Santana’s face was one of pure devastation. She shut her locker and headed to class, Santana and Tim followed. Other Santana sat down in the back of the classroom and took out her book then glanced up at Brittany, who came in with the group of Cheerios and sat down in front of her. They all turned around and looked at Other Santana and snorted.
“Nice shoes,” one of the girls said. “Which dumpster did you pull those out of?”
Everyone chuckled.
“Loser,” Brittany said with a smirk as she turned back to her friends.
Other Santana dropped her head and Santana could feel her heart ripped to shreds. Even though there was a curtain of hair surrounding her face she could tell Other Santana was crying. Santana crossed and uncrossed her arms a few times and shifted uncomfortably as she listened to the further comments of Brittany and the Cheerios.
“She’s such a freak…I know she’s like dirt poor but those jeans need to be burned…”
“Can we go?” Santana whispered.
“Sure.”
The white mist settled again and Santana ended up back in her room. She watched herself sleep and sat down on the edge of the bed.
“What just happened?” Santana whimpered. “Why would Brittany say that?”
Tim shook his head. “You’re beneath her. You’re not a Cheerio.”
“How could Man Hands possibly have something to do with that?”
“Rachel is the reason you talked to Brittany in the first place. Don’t you remember?”
Santana shook her head and Tim reached out to her again. She took his hand. The white mist settled upon them again and then lifted. Santana found herself standing in her kindergarten classroom. She looked around and saw a much younger version of Rachel Berry at a table with a yellow crayon coloring in stars. A tiny Brittany was across from her and looking longingly at the yellow crayon that Rachel had in her hand.
“Rachel,” Little Brittany said softly, “can I use the yellow crayon? I gotta color in the sun and there’s no more in the bucket.”
“I’m not done yet! I gotta finish my stars!”
“But I’ll only have it for not very long! Please!”
“Watch over there,” Tim pointed to the corner where Little Santana was dismantling a fire truck.
Little Santana looked up and her eyes flickered back and forth between Little Rachel and Little Brittany. She immediately got up and ran to her desk and pulled out her box of crayons and picked out the yellow one. She cautiously approached Little Brittany with a small smile.
“Here Brittany,” Little Santana said. “You can use my yellow crayon if you want.”
Little Brittany’s eyes lit up and Little Santana dropped to the seat next to her.
“I like your picture,” Little Santana said quietly.
“Thank you!” Little Brittany said while she started coloring in her sun. “It’s a bird!”
“I think it’s a really pretty bird.”
Little Brittany smiled again and the mist started to fall in on the scene. Santana couldn’t help but grin before she turned her attention back to Tim.
“What’s that have to do anything?”
“Watch again.”
The mist lifted and Santana was in the same room and she watched as Little Brittany grabbed the yellow crayon out of the bucket and started coloring. Little Rachel was nowhere in sight. Little Santana was in the corner playing with the fire truck. Little Santana looked longingly at Little Brittany and the girl kept coloring. From the other side of the room Little Quinn approached Little Brittany and sat next to her. They started talking, Little Santana looked on from the corner with her fire truck and sighed.
“The moment that you gave Brittany your yellow crayon was it,” Tim said as the mist settled over them again and then they were back in Santana’s room. “Everyone has the moment when they fall in love whether they know it or not. That was your moment. But since Rachel was never born there was no need for you to offer your crayon. Quinn got to Brittany first and now you know you’re in love with Brittany but because you didn't talk to her, she’ll never know. Brittany won’t ever feel whole but she won’t know why and she’ll get married and have kids but she’ll never know true happiness.”
Santana swallowed hard. “And me?”
“You end up alone, Santana.”
“But I joined the Cheerios!”
“No you didn’t. You and Brittany weren’t friends. She was the one that talked you into joining. You never talked to her in kindergarten and you never got up the guts to talk to her after that because Quinn was always there. You never joined the Cheerios. You never kissed Brittany on a dare at cheer camp. Quinn Fabray took her under her wing and now Brittany barely cares that you exist. There’s plenty more if you want to see it. I can show you everyone else’s lives, too. Quinn and Finn stay together because Rachel never spilled about the true paternity. Finn walks out on Quinn when he finds out a few years later leaving her with a kid and a stack of bills. Puck becomes an alcoholic and spends most of his time in jail because he didn’t have Quinn to settle him down…”
“Stop! I get it, okay!? Treasure Trail…Rachel…is irritating as hell but she…”
“She made your life worth living.”
“Whatever,” Santana mumbled.
“So it’s your choice,” Tim said. “Either this is all a dream or you wake up tomorrow and put on your grungy clothes and go to school and get snobbed by the love of your life.”
“What…what’s it going to be like if it’s not a dream? Do B and I stay together? What about Quinn and Puck and Finn?”
There was a beeping noise and Tim pulled a phone out of his pocket and flipped it open. “Damn…uh…okay, apparently I wasn’t supposed to show you all of that and I’m kind of in trouble now. Look, it’s just something you’ll have to risk. So what is it? Is this a dream or not?”
Santana looked down at her sleeping self and then to her bedside table at a picture of her and Brittany.
“It’s a dream,” she mumbled. “It’s all a dream.”
“Gotcha. I gotta go get yelled at so I guess I’ll see you around sometime.”
Santana nodded and when she looked up from the picture, Tim was gone and her world started spinning. She tried to escape the dizziness but it wouldn’t go away and everything went black.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Santana sat up in her bed gasping for air when her alarm clock went off. It was 6:30. She slammed her hand down on her clock and jumped to her closet. Hanging in it was her freshly pressed Cheerios uniform. She looked around her room, the pictures of her and Brittany were still everywhere.
The first thing Santana did when she got to school was hunt down the blonde. She ran through the halls and around the school three times before she found her.
“Do you think I’m a loser?” Santana gasped as she tried to catch her breath.
Brittany furrowed her eyebrows. “No, you’re my best friend.”
“Oh thank God!” Santana threw her arms around Brittany’s neck and hugged her tight. “I have to go find Rachel.”
Santana sprinted away from Brittany leaving the blonde thoroughly confused. The Latina made her way to the choir room and pulled open the door. As expected, Rachel was sifting through stacks of sheet music on the shelves. Santana closed the door quietly behind her but Rachel still jumped when it shut.
“Santana…”
“Berry…look…I…” Santana looked at the ground and shuffled her feet and rubbed the back of her neck nervously. “I’m sorry for what I said yesterday. About wishing you’d never been born.” Santana looked up and a small smile had formed on Rachel’s face.
“I accept your apology.”
“Sometimes you’re really annoying, though…but like…uh…it’s hard to explain. But you’re important, okay? Not just for glee club. So…yeah.”
Rachel arched her eyebrow. “Thank you, Santana.”
“I’ll try to be nicer or something.”
“Santana are you feeling alright? Should you go to the nurse?”
“I’m totally fine. I’ll see you at practice.”
Santana turned and left before Rachel could say anything. When she stepped out into the hallway she saw Tim at the other end of it. He gave her a thumbs up and she smiled and sprinted to the art room. She dug around in the drawers and cabinets until she found what she was looking for then ran to find Brittany again. She found the girl at her locker and Brittany gave a huge smile when Santana approached her.
“Hold out your hand,” Santana said.
Brittany furrowed her eyebrows and stuck her hand out, Santana smiled and dropped a yellow crayon into it.
“San?”
“You’re not going to believe the dream I had last night.”
Pairings: Santana/Brittany, Minor/Mentions: Quinn/Finn, Quinn/Puck, Rachel/Jesse
Rating: PG
Length: ~2,400
Summary: How Rachel Berry and a yellow crayon changed Santana's life.
Author’s Note: Idea is a ripoff/tribute to It’s a Wonderful Life.
Fanart: "The Little Things" by firecracker_x / ducksinthehat @Tumblr
Santana rolled her eyes as Rachel started talking about something related to her boyfriend and sex. Again. It had been like that on an almost weekly basis ever since Jesse joined New Directions. Santana finally had enough.
“God, Berry! Do you never shut up?! I really wish you’d never been born, you know it?”
Rachel’s mouth snapped shut and her eyes widened, she strongly resembled kicked puppy. Brittany snickered and Quinn smirked. Tina and Mercedes looked a little bit relieved as Rachel timidly walked out of the choir room.
“Seriously,” Santana huffed. “She doesn’t get that we don’t care, does she?”
There were mumbled agreements and Brittany leaned over and put her head on Santana’s shoulder.
“I can’t believe someone hasn’t set her closet on fire,” Mercedes said. “Did you look at that skirt?”
“I know, right?” Tina said. “If Kurt didn’t hate her then we could convince him to give her a real makeover.”
“Yeah but that last one was pretty funny.” Mercedes chuckled.
The rest of the hour Santana spent listening to the other girls and contributing to their Rachel bashing; Brittany giggled along with her and Quinn showed off her latest horrific drawings.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Finally in bed late that night after finishing hers and Brittany’s homework, Santana curled up on her side and let her tiredness transition into sleep. She was almost out when a loud crash from the vicinity of her desk jolted her awake and up out of bed. She grabbed the aluminum baseball bat near her bed and held it high above her head.
“Who’s there?!” she demanded.
“Whoa, whoa, calm down!” a deep voice said.
Santana screamed and swung the bat.
“You can’t hurt me, there’s really no reason to try.”
“Who are you!?” Santana screeched, hoping to wake her Papi.
“Look, just put the bat down and turn on the light.”
“Bull! Papi! Papi! Papi, help!”
“He can’t hear you.”
“What the hell did you do?!”
“I didn’t do anything. He’s asleep. So are you, actually. Look at your bed.”
Santana’s eyes moved quickly from the darkness down to her bed. There was a small light coming from somewhere that illuminated her sleeping form. She was curled up on her side just as she had been right before the intruder came in.
“Pretty cool, huh?” the voice said. “The afterlife freaking rocks. I can do some pretty awesome stuff.”
“Wait…am I dead?”
“What? No! I am, though. So you can totally put the bat down. You can’t kill me again.”
Santana carefully lowered the bat and fumbled for her lamp switch. She turned it on and the light hurt her eyes for a minute before they adjusted. A young man with jet black hair wearing baggy jeans, a white t-shirt and a leather jacket about her age was standing by her desk smiling. She dropped the bat to the floor and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Who are you?”
“Kind of a guardian angel of sorts, I guess? I don’t know, the boss just handed me a file and told me to take care of it. You made a wish today, Santana. You wished Rachel Berry had never been born. Usually I just take care of it and make it happen but I was kind of wanting to try something new. I thought maybe I’d show you what would happen if Rachel had in fact never been born. Then if you liked what you saw then you could make the switch.”
“I don’t get it.”
“I’m going to show you what life would be like without Rachel Berry.”
“So you’re going to show me paradise?” Santana smirked.
The young man shrugged. “We’ll see.”
“You have a name?”
“Tim.”
“Okay, Tim. Whatever. It’s all a dream anyways, right?”
“It is if you want it to be. Take my hand.”
Santana reached forward and when her hand touched Tim’s she felt a warm glow go through her body. A white mist settled on her room and she felt a little dizzy. When the mist started lifting she looked around. She was at school and people were walking around. She felt a little awkward seeing as how she was in pink pajamas with bunnies on them that Brittany had given her for her birthday.
“They can’t see you,” Tim said. “They’ll walk right through you. Watch.”
Tim jumped in front of Puck and the jock walked right through him without a second glance.
“Okay, so why am I here?”
“This is tomorrow. Tomorrow if Rachel was never born.”
“Right.”
“Look,” the young man said. “See that girl?”
Santana looked at the row of lockers and where hers normally was there was a girl standing there with her black hair cascading down her back blending in with her black t-shirt. Her jeans were a little loose and ratty and her converse shoes looked like they were about to fall apart. She watched as the girl slowly turned when she heard chattering coming down the hallway. Santana saw herself. Other Santana.
“Wait, what the hell? How come I’m not in uniform? Coach will kill me!”
“Watch.”
Santana turned her attention back and saw Brittany with a group of Cheerios giggling as they walked down the hallway. Other Santana smiled a little at them, Santana could see that Other Santana’s eyes were focused on Brittany, and every single one of them sneered and turned their noses up at her, Brittany included. The look on Other Santana’s face was one of pure devastation. She shut her locker and headed to class, Santana and Tim followed. Other Santana sat down in the back of the classroom and took out her book then glanced up at Brittany, who came in with the group of Cheerios and sat down in front of her. They all turned around and looked at Other Santana and snorted.
“Nice shoes,” one of the girls said. “Which dumpster did you pull those out of?”
Everyone chuckled.
“Loser,” Brittany said with a smirk as she turned back to her friends.
Other Santana dropped her head and Santana could feel her heart ripped to shreds. Even though there was a curtain of hair surrounding her face she could tell Other Santana was crying. Santana crossed and uncrossed her arms a few times and shifted uncomfortably as she listened to the further comments of Brittany and the Cheerios.
“She’s such a freak…I know she’s like dirt poor but those jeans need to be burned…”
“Can we go?” Santana whispered.
“Sure.”
The white mist settled again and Santana ended up back in her room. She watched herself sleep and sat down on the edge of the bed.
“What just happened?” Santana whimpered. “Why would Brittany say that?”
Tim shook his head. “You’re beneath her. You’re not a Cheerio.”
“How could Man Hands possibly have something to do with that?”
“Rachel is the reason you talked to Brittany in the first place. Don’t you remember?”
Santana shook her head and Tim reached out to her again. She took his hand. The white mist settled upon them again and then lifted. Santana found herself standing in her kindergarten classroom. She looked around and saw a much younger version of Rachel Berry at a table with a yellow crayon coloring in stars. A tiny Brittany was across from her and looking longingly at the yellow crayon that Rachel had in her hand.
“Rachel,” Little Brittany said softly, “can I use the yellow crayon? I gotta color in the sun and there’s no more in the bucket.”
“I’m not done yet! I gotta finish my stars!”
“But I’ll only have it for not very long! Please!”
“Watch over there,” Tim pointed to the corner where Little Santana was dismantling a fire truck.
Little Santana looked up and her eyes flickered back and forth between Little Rachel and Little Brittany. She immediately got up and ran to her desk and pulled out her box of crayons and picked out the yellow one. She cautiously approached Little Brittany with a small smile.
“Here Brittany,” Little Santana said. “You can use my yellow crayon if you want.”
Little Brittany’s eyes lit up and Little Santana dropped to the seat next to her.
“I like your picture,” Little Santana said quietly.
“Thank you!” Little Brittany said while she started coloring in her sun. “It’s a bird!”
“I think it’s a really pretty bird.”
Little Brittany smiled again and the mist started to fall in on the scene. Santana couldn’t help but grin before she turned her attention back to Tim.
“What’s that have to do anything?”
“Watch again.”
The mist lifted and Santana was in the same room and she watched as Little Brittany grabbed the yellow crayon out of the bucket and started coloring. Little Rachel was nowhere in sight. Little Santana was in the corner playing with the fire truck. Little Santana looked longingly at Little Brittany and the girl kept coloring. From the other side of the room Little Quinn approached Little Brittany and sat next to her. They started talking, Little Santana looked on from the corner with her fire truck and sighed.
“The moment that you gave Brittany your yellow crayon was it,” Tim said as the mist settled over them again and then they were back in Santana’s room. “Everyone has the moment when they fall in love whether they know it or not. That was your moment. But since Rachel was never born there was no need for you to offer your crayon. Quinn got to Brittany first and now you know you’re in love with Brittany but because you didn't talk to her, she’ll never know. Brittany won’t ever feel whole but she won’t know why and she’ll get married and have kids but she’ll never know true happiness.”
Santana swallowed hard. “And me?”
“You end up alone, Santana.”
“But I joined the Cheerios!”
“No you didn’t. You and Brittany weren’t friends. She was the one that talked you into joining. You never talked to her in kindergarten and you never got up the guts to talk to her after that because Quinn was always there. You never joined the Cheerios. You never kissed Brittany on a dare at cheer camp. Quinn Fabray took her under her wing and now Brittany barely cares that you exist. There’s plenty more if you want to see it. I can show you everyone else’s lives, too. Quinn and Finn stay together because Rachel never spilled about the true paternity. Finn walks out on Quinn when he finds out a few years later leaving her with a kid and a stack of bills. Puck becomes an alcoholic and spends most of his time in jail because he didn’t have Quinn to settle him down…”
“Stop! I get it, okay!? Treasure Trail…Rachel…is irritating as hell but she…”
“She made your life worth living.”
“Whatever,” Santana mumbled.
“So it’s your choice,” Tim said. “Either this is all a dream or you wake up tomorrow and put on your grungy clothes and go to school and get snobbed by the love of your life.”
“What…what’s it going to be like if it’s not a dream? Do B and I stay together? What about Quinn and Puck and Finn?”
There was a beeping noise and Tim pulled a phone out of his pocket and flipped it open. “Damn…uh…okay, apparently I wasn’t supposed to show you all of that and I’m kind of in trouble now. Look, it’s just something you’ll have to risk. So what is it? Is this a dream or not?”
Santana looked down at her sleeping self and then to her bedside table at a picture of her and Brittany.
“It’s a dream,” she mumbled. “It’s all a dream.”
“Gotcha. I gotta go get yelled at so I guess I’ll see you around sometime.”
Santana nodded and when she looked up from the picture, Tim was gone and her world started spinning. She tried to escape the dizziness but it wouldn’t go away and everything went black.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Santana sat up in her bed gasping for air when her alarm clock went off. It was 6:30. She slammed her hand down on her clock and jumped to her closet. Hanging in it was her freshly pressed Cheerios uniform. She looked around her room, the pictures of her and Brittany were still everywhere.
The first thing Santana did when she got to school was hunt down the blonde. She ran through the halls and around the school three times before she found her.
“Do you think I’m a loser?” Santana gasped as she tried to catch her breath.
Brittany furrowed her eyebrows. “No, you’re my best friend.”
“Oh thank God!” Santana threw her arms around Brittany’s neck and hugged her tight. “I have to go find Rachel.”
Santana sprinted away from Brittany leaving the blonde thoroughly confused. The Latina made her way to the choir room and pulled open the door. As expected, Rachel was sifting through stacks of sheet music on the shelves. Santana closed the door quietly behind her but Rachel still jumped when it shut.
“Santana…”
“Berry…look…I…” Santana looked at the ground and shuffled her feet and rubbed the back of her neck nervously. “I’m sorry for what I said yesterday. About wishing you’d never been born.” Santana looked up and a small smile had formed on Rachel’s face.
“I accept your apology.”
“Sometimes you’re really annoying, though…but like…uh…it’s hard to explain. But you’re important, okay? Not just for glee club. So…yeah.”
Rachel arched her eyebrow. “Thank you, Santana.”
“I’ll try to be nicer or something.”
“Santana are you feeling alright? Should you go to the nurse?”
“I’m totally fine. I’ll see you at practice.”
Santana turned and left before Rachel could say anything. When she stepped out into the hallway she saw Tim at the other end of it. He gave her a thumbs up and she smiled and sprinted to the art room. She dug around in the drawers and cabinets until she found what she was looking for then ran to find Brittany again. She found the girl at her locker and Brittany gave a huge smile when Santana approached her.
“Hold out your hand,” Santana said.
Brittany furrowed her eyebrows and stuck her hand out, Santana smiled and dropped a yellow crayon into it.
“San?”
“You’re not going to believe the dream I had last night.”