Mine Again

Coming Back

Aria has been running around her house like a headless chicken for the past three hours, unable to sit down and unable to focus on even the smallest of tasks. She has been battling the nervous butterflies in her stomach ever since she received the text last night. She barely slept, kept in an everlasting state of anxiousness and excitement.

Aria hasn't seen her friend in over two and a half years and to find out that she is coming into town to see her makes her want to jump for joy in the middle of her living room. The message itself was very vague but still lit a fire in her heart, she has really missed her childhood friend. 

Little Snixx, I'm coming back into town tomorrow so clear your schedule. I've been missing you like crazy! XOXO - San

Her heart is still fluttering from her old nickname. Santana had started calling her Little Snixx after she had seen her lose her temper for the first time and it had reminded her of a cuter version of her own alter ego. What she couldn't get her head around was why now? What is making Santana come back into town now after all this time they have spent apart? Surely she would have simply skyped her if she was missing her that much. Aria quickly pushes the thoughts away, after all she is getting to see her childhood best friend again after all these years. 

Her feet are automatic at this point, six steps, turn, six steps, turn. The stop the second a faint knock is heard against the wood of the door and she races towards the door with a huge grin painting her face. She flings it open and her smile immediately drops. "Oh, it's you." 

"Nice to see you to Aria." Alison laughs as she steps inside followed by the three other girls. 

"What are you guys doing here? Didn't you get my text? I told you that I can't do today." Aria asked confusedly as she closes the door and takes a seat on the arm of the chair as her friends scatter themselves around the room, finding seats. 

"We got your message but not your explanation. We've been talking about today's shopping trip for the last two weeks so you better have a good excuse Missy." Spencer chastises gently causing Aria to groan as she lets herself fall onto Hanna's lap on the chair. 

"My friend is coming into town and I only got her message last night so I didn't have time to see how long for. I haven't seen her in over two years so I wanted to see her." Aria explains to her friends firmly to show that this is her priority, not their pre-planned shopping trip. 

"Fair enough but get your fat ass off of me." Hanna jokes making Aria pout slightly. 

"What friend is this and why don't we know her?" Emily questions. 

"Her name is Santana and she moved to Ohio like six months after we became friends. "

"Yes, and the question remains, why don't we know her? Our friendship with you overlapped your friendship with her so why didn't you ever tell us?" Spencer asks softly. 

Aria glances over to Alison guiltily and they make eye-contact briefly before Alison sighs and looks away. "That's my fault actually." Ali admits. "I blackmailed Aria to stay away from her because I thought her friend was a geek." The other girls look between the two girls sadly. "However it appears that she managed to ignore me for those few months and keep doing it anyway without me knowing anything." She chuckled forlornly. 

"Honestly, I don'y know why you never questioned why I never had any Tuesday nights free so no hard feelings." Aria smiles. 

Emily opens her mouth to say something but is cut off by a swift knock at the door and a beautiful Latino woman entering. 

"Santana Lopez! What the hell happened to you? You got hot!" Aria exclaims as she stands up off of Hanna for the first time and makes her way over to Santana. 

"Says you Little Snixx, look at you!" They embrace each other in a giant hug that lasts for several minutes while Aria's friends sit in silence, unknowing of where to look. 

When the pain break way Aria looks toward her friends for a second. "San, these are my friends, Spencer, Hanna, Emily and that there is Alison." Aria points at each girl as she introduces them. "Guys, this is Santana." 

They all exchange glances, unknowing of what to say until Alison speaks up. "Santana, before anyone says anything I would like to personally apologise for what I did to you and Aria when we were younger." This causes Aria to smile at Alison discreetly. 

"Apology accepted although me and Ari will still refer to you as the 'bitchy one' forever." Santana laughs as Alison looks over to the short brunette with an eyebrow raised. "And if you're the bitchy one then the other blonde is the 'fashionista' and you are the 'sporty one.'" Santana looks at each of them, knowing that she is embarrassing Aria to no ends. " And that makes you the 'hot one' that Aria wants to bone." 

"Santana!" Aria blushes furiously.

"You know Spencer, I used to get so jealous that she wanted to bone you but I know she would bone me at any time I wanted anyway so why not let her get a bit more on the side? It's kind of wanky if you think about it."

The girls all laugh as Aria's face turns bright red and she buries her head in her hands. 

"Can you girls go now you know I'm not coming? go enjoy your shopping trip so I can stop being humiliated." Aria asks them but they all know that they don't actually have a choice because Aria is kicking them out to spend time with her friend. They gather up their things and give the two girls a wave as each of them leave and Spencer gives Aria a swift spank to the ass and a wink on the way out causing her to blush again and the girls to laugh. 

"Just me and you now Monty. What do you want to do?" Santana asks as she plops herself down on the couch, pulling the shorter girls down with her.

"It appears that you decided when you pulled me down here Sanny so tell me, what is new?"

"Well, I'm gay."

"I said new. I've known you were gay since we used to spend hours making out on the couch in your basement." Aria raises an eyebrow.

"What? And you never told me?" Santana looks appalled but quickly breaks out into a smile, unable to be mad at her friend. 

"I sincerely apologise but to be fair, I thought that you would know." Aria throws her head back and laughs boisterously once she finishes speaking. 

Santana quickly joins in laughing since Aria's emotions have always been infectious. 

"What about you? Any more lady kisses since I've been gone?"

"No lady kisses for me. No lady could compare to you." The dynamic shifts to sad, a shocking difference from the laughter that was emitted just a few seconds ago. "However I have dated a guy. He was my teacher but we broke up a couple of months ago. It got too risky." Aria speaks nonchalantly as she tries to pick the happiness level back up. 

"Teacher? I'm appalled but also very happy because those lips only belong to one lady." Santana points at herself causing Aria to smile and rest her head on the taller girl's shoulder, turning her head inwards to take in the smell of her childhood sweetheart. 

Santana pulls Aria closer and rests her head atop of Aria's. " I missed you like crazy Ari."

"Me too."

They stay like that, just clinging on to one another, unwilling to let go in fear that the other girl will disappear at any given moment. After at least 30 minutes of silence Santana finally speaks up. "My mom sent those brownies you like, it kind of pisses me off because she refused to make them for anyone else. She says they are for her true daughter-in-law only." This causes Aria to smirk. 

"i'm pretty sure that I missed your mom the most." Aria jokes causing Santana to gasp and push her away by her shoulder slightly. "Kidding, kidding." Aria holds her hands up in mock surrender.

They fall back into a loose embrace after that. "San?"

"Hmm?" Santana has closed her eyes, fully enjoying the feeling of being wrapped around Aria. 

"Why did you come back so suddenly?" 

"It's kind of depressing Ari."

"Come on San, it's just me. You know you can tell me anything, even after all this time."

A few seconds pass and Santana looks conflicted. "Alright, the reason I came to see you is..."