Summary: Four Vignettes about the Four years Santana was at USC and Brittany was working her way up as a dancer. Part of the Trains verse, but you don't have to read that to understand this. For Brittana Week Day 6.

IV.

She's surprised when it ends.

(She's been told too many times that it's going to be over before she knows it, so she really resents feeling that way now)

She has her black robe hanging over the closet door, and she really can't imagine anything more uncomfortable than wearing it in this kind of heat.

The whole thing seems totally anticlimactic anyway. She's just coming back here in the Fall for Law School, but she knows that this, whatever this last four years was, will not be the same in Law School.

Quinn's pregnant.

Santana doesn't even know what to do with that piece of information. Quinn has changed so much during college. She guesses they've all changed, but she half-expected Quinn to become a professor or write the next great American novel.

Which could still happen, but Quinn is still Quinn and Quinn feels defeated. She's engaged to Justin now, so instead of backpacking through Europe or taking an entry-level job as an editor, she's going to try her hand at being a stay-at-home mom.

Santana tried to talk her out of it, but Quinn is still Quinn and Quinn's going to do what she wants to do. Plus, apparently they're grownups now.

(Or so her mother keeps reminding her when she calls to ask them to borrow money. She certainly doesn't feel like a grownup. She feels like less of a grownup than she did when she was graduating from high school)

"Are you almost ready?" Brittany asks, tapping on the door to their bedroom. Santana just stepped in to touch-up her makeup. "We're getting hungry out here!"

"I'll be right out!"

They're going to a vegan restaurant for dinner. Rachel Berry recommended it when they saw her over the holiday's at their annual Glee Club reunion party. Santana doesn't know how or why Rachel knows of a vegan restaurant in LA, but she knows better than to ask Rachel questions anymore. Rachel just makes it her business to know a lot of things, and Santana doesn't need to know more than that.

Her dad isn't eating any meat. Apparently it's good for the treatment, so the whole family has stopped eating meat in solidarity. He's doing better, a little thin, but well enough to decide to drink since his only daughter is graduating from college.

Santana barely listens during dinner. Her parents mostly ask Brittany questions about dancing and choreography and her mother is overly enthusiastic about every pop star Brittany has danced for in the last few years.

"So, are you girls going to stay in that apartment?" Her father asks.

"I think so," Santana says, "I mean, I'm still in school so I'm not going to be making any more money for awhile."

"Plus, I like it. It's kind of cozy." Brittany says.

"A little too cozy," Santana adds.

"You know, that place is twice the size of the first place you're mother and I lived in."

"I know, Dad, you've told me a million times," Santana says. He laughs and they talk about other subjects. They make her feel thirteen and thirty at the same time. Talks about movies Santana shouldn't watch because she's too much of a baby and talks about Brittany's benefits with the dancer union.

(Santana can't believe she's here, so she just doesn't say anything. She can't tell if it's over quickly, or if it's just beginning. She doesn't want to think about it too much)

She knows that Brittany is worried about her silence when they get home that night.

(She's feeling weird about even calling it her home, tonight. When did she get grownup enough to have her own home?)

Brittany doesn't push it though, because Brittany knows her well enough to know that Santana needs to deal with this herself. She ignores the phone calls from her friends trying to get her to go out because she doesn't know what she's feeling right now, but she thinks she needs to be in her home.

Brittany helps her get her hair just right the next day to fit under her cap. She gives her a kiss on the nose, and she drives them to school because she knows Santana is too anxious to drive without needing to ask.

"You'll do great," Brittany says as drops her off. She places a light kiss on Santana's lips. She climbs out of the car, her gown on but swinging open due to the heat. Brittany grabs her hand before she can walk off to the alphabetical line they're meeting in.

"I'm so proud of you, Santana," Brittany says. "I'll be cheering for you."

"Thanks, Britt," Santana says.

(There are tears in her eyes and she's not sure why. Those are the worst kind of tears. She's not sure if it's because Brittany is proud of her, or because she's going to miss this place, or because she's scared of what life is going to be like. She focuses on not letting the tears fall)

She doesn't remember much of the ceremony. Her name gets called at some point in the string of hundreds of names, most of which she doesn't recognize. When her name is called, nearly midway through, she hears Sasha on a bullhorn, having made a special trip back to LA for Santana's graduation. She cheers at the top of her lungs when Tamara walks across the stage, wearing both her Lavender Grad and Black Grad sashes.

She cheers the loudest for Quinn, trying to ignore the way she takes her diploma as though her world is ending here as opposed to just beginning.

She doesn't remember receiving her own diploma, although her mother will put the picture of her shaking the president's hand on the mantle for years afterward.

There are parties afterward. First there are parties with family, and once family goes to bed there are parties with friends that go on into the night. Santana is pretty sure she has heatstroke and she can barely keep her eyes open as she's encouraged to take shot after shot.

She wakes up the next day next to Brittany. Brittany is still sleeping and smells a little like sugar and vodka. Santana kisses her on the cheek, on the spot that the sun always hits when they wake up in the morning. Brittany slightly grins through her sleep and snuggles closer into Santana's side.

She expects the morning to somehow feel different than every other morning in the last four years. She is a college graduate; she has a Bachelor's Degree. She gets up and turns the teapot on and opens the refrigerator to see if there's anything to make for breakfast. She puts her graduation cards in a stack on the desk and tries to ignore the post-it note her mother put on them the night before to remind her to send Thank-You notes. She's Twenty-Two and a college graduate and she can remember these things on her own, thank you very much. When the teapot starts hissing, she fills the French Press and lets the coffee brew. She walks out of the apartment, onto the balcony to get the newspaper. Her mother insisted that all college student's need their own paper ages ago, even though she and Brittany usually only flip through for the crossword and recycle the rest.

The day is sunny and oddly not too hot, considering yesterday's sweltering heat. It's the first day of summer, at least in the world of a college graduate, and it smells amazing. Like flowers and chlorine and grilling.

The air in Los Angeles definitely smells better as a college graduate than as a student.

"San? You outside, baby?" She hears Brittany calling from the house.

"I'll be right in," Santana calls. She takes a deep breath and walks inside.

(She thinks she's going to get used to this)