Brittana: cannon

Chapter 19: engaged

Touring with Mercedes over the summer was amazing. Santana met up with Mercedes and Brittany in Reno for the national mall tour, and she was ecstatic to be reunited with her girlfriend. Their separation wasn't the longest they've had or lacking in contact like when they were broken up, but it felt like it took forever and neither of them wanted to go through that again. They spent the first few days after their reunion nearly inseparable, maintaining contact with each other's bodies by holding hands or linking arms or laying a head on the other's shoulders, and cuddling and making love several times a night in the privacy of their hotel room.

Santana really loved being able to perform with Mercedes and Brittany in front of the crowds like they used to in glee club. She got a rush when the crowd cheered and applauded their performance. She didn't mind singing backing vocals or the occasional duet with Wheezy, and she enjoyed watching Brittany light up as she danced.

But as the weeks went on, and they kept moving from city to city, hotel to hotel, performing pretty much the same thing every day, she got burned out. It was kind of like the same drawback she saw with performing on Broadway, only without having a real place to call home to go back to every night.

Santana and Brittany talked about how that was the biggest thing lacking for them on the tour. Neither of them enjoyed the constant moving. They had wanted to start their life together and build a future, but this life wasn't really appealing to them.

The physical strain of traveling and performing wore them both down, and it naturally led to some small spats between them. They always made up and reconciled their differences, but Santana really hated the stress it put on them in the first place. They had planned to live in New York when they got back together a year ago, and they had yet to really find a home anywhere.

The closest they had come to truly living together and settling down was in Boston while Brittany was working. Santana thought back on those weeks and found that it was the most content both of them had been in about two years since Santana had left for Louisville.

Traveling around the world and the US was nice and all, but Santana was tired and wanted to settle down with Brittany. She knew Brittany wanted the same. And the more she thought about it as the summer was winding down, the more she realized that she wanted to truly find a home with the blonde.

She was grateful for the tour because she wanted to see if it was a life she wanted to live. She discovered that it wasn't. Santana truly loved performing, but she didn't like the life that performing brought. The constant traveling, being away from Brittany on location shoots, having constant scrutiny of their personal lives were all things she thought she could do but discovered she didn't want to.

The one thing she truly enjoyed doing and saw a future for herself in was being a publicist. So Santana figured that when the tour was over, they could plan to put roots down in New York so they could go to school and really start making a future together. She figured that they would both have ample opportunity to perform if they wanted to in New York, but they could at least start toward developing careers for themselves, too.

Being with Brittany was the best thing that ever happened to Santana. She knew it back in high school and she knew it now. Santana wanted nothing more than to find a home with her lover and make it permanent. She wanted Brittany in her life for as long as they both lived. She knew they were young, but she also knew that Brittany was the love of her life and they had already been through so much together. The past year had only reinforced their deep feelings and Santana knew Brittany wanted the same future for them.

That was why Santana started looking for engagement rings over the last few weeks of their tour. It was a great thing that she was in a variety of malls nearly every day with the tour, so she could find the perfect ring for her perfect girl. And she did. The only thing left was to find the perfect place to propose.