A/N: Sorry for the really long wait! I had tons of things to do and I couldn't fit writing this fic anywhere in my schedule up until last week :| Thanks for being patient... thanks for the follow, favorite and reviews!

Also, always, I apologize for the subpar writing compared to other stuff that's out there. This story was meant to be a way of dipping my toes back into the water cause I had spent quite a big chunk of time not writing anything at all. Hope you could still enjoy it :)

Alrighty roo, happy reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own, produce, or in any other way is affiliated with Glee. Therefore, Brittana is always on in my world. And it's such a pretty, pretty world.

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Is it strange to be nervous because you don't feel nervous about something crazy (but completely right) that you are about to do?

Yes.

But whatever. Brittany could feel whatever she wanted to feel because the night was hers.

Correction — the night was hers and Santana's. Her girlfriend just didn't know it yet. Or maybe she had an inkling after the treasure hunt Brittany sent her to — which was perfectly fine because she knew Santana definitely had a gift in dissecting certain things. Especially stuff that frustrated her. And boy, did Brittany knew Santana was frustrated because she had just sent her a text.

Incoming message (1)

From: My little snixx

it's seriously frustrating how u keep ditching me. omw home. u better b there. preferably wearing sth hot.

Yep. Definitely frustrated. Brittany shook her head with amusement reading the text message. Santana could be such a horn dog sometimes.

The first person Brittany told about her plan was her mom, who immediately squealed loudly through the phone like a fangirl who just won meet-and-greet tickets to see their favorite band.

"You call me as soon as you ask her, OK Britt? Tell me everything—wait! No! Don't tell me everything. I've already heard too much during your teenage years," mused Lily Pierce.

Brittany, who had been always open to her mother and somewhat immune to conversations other people would count as too much information, only grinned even though she knew the woman on the other side of the line couldn't see her. "I will, mom," she told the older woman before she promised the whole family a visit sometime in August, just like she and Santana had planned.

The second person she Skyped was Santana's mom, Maribel Lopez, who was surprisingly, not to mention suspiciously, calm about Brittany's plan. After a pause that lingered in the air for 13 Mississippis (Brittany actually counted as they passed and held her breath), the blonde woman finally realized that the reason of the silence was Maribel's attempt to keep her chuckles from surfacing into real laughter because- well, Brittany still wasn't sure why Maribel was laughing. But the Puerto Rican woman was quick to apologize and assured her that she had her blessing. Then she said something weird.

"I hope you win the race, sweetie," Maribel had told her and Brittany only responded with an okay that ended with a question mark. After that, Maribel wished Brittany a great day and hung up, leaving her hopeful future daughter-in-law scratching her right eyebrow in confusion.

The third person she told was Mercedes.

And Rachel.

And Kurt.

Oh. And also Sugar.

They were all in a video conference together because Mercedes wanted to spread the wings of her production company and do a bicoastal collaboration project. They were planning a crossover between popular art and musical theater — which the Motta family is happy to fund (still not in the mafia, by the way — or at least that was what Sugar insisted).

Right in the middle of a heated discussion about the obvious geographical issues they knew they were going to face by involving 2 different ends of the country, Brittany suddenly blurted her plan out in the open as a distraction. A mere second passed in silence before Rachel announced that she was going to be in charge of entertainment ("I'll sing at your wedding!"); Mercedes praised the Lord ("Praise the Lord!"); and Kurt squealed his plans ("We're going to have our own private Say Yes To The Dress event! I don't care if you tried on 47 or 2859 dresses, both you and Santana — and myself, of course — are going to find the perfect ones!").

Sugar? She excitedly jumped up and down, clapping her hands together as she listed names of the people who could help Brittany and Santana plan their wedding ("especially when you need to get rid of some people from your venue of choice's waitlist, if you know what I mean.").

Brittany didn't want to know what Sugar had really meant ("not in the mafia, my ass," she had thought).

The fourth (seventh) person was Quinn. After all, the Unholy Trinity stick together for always — even though she had to swallow a bitter pill when she learned about the interesting night Santana and Quinn had after Mr. Schue's non-wedding that one year.

She was the fourth (seventh) not because Brittany didn't want to tell her sooner, though. Brittany tried almost everything to get in touch with Quinn, but at the time the lawyer was just juggling too many things at once. It had always been an issue for Quinn to allow herself a little bit of time to relax. If she were given a choice between a fully blown balloon and another that's still flat, Quinn would probably pick the flat one just because she needed to busy herself and feel accomplished afterwards. Honorable, yes, and both Brittany and Santana couldn't be any prouder of their friend, but sometimes it hurts to witness how Quinn still felt like she wasn't good enough for anything, or anyone, anymore.

The many phone calls that Brittany made in effort to tell Quinn about her plan were answered by a previously recorded message that told her that the other blonde was going to call back soon. Those soon's only turned out to be 5-minute conversations that were mostly wasted on them greeting each other, asking about the other's day before one of them (it was always Quinn, actually) eventually had to hang up because of their work demands. But Brittany was smarter than to wait for Quinn to take a well-deserved break. She knew she had to give up calling Quinn at normal hours. She knew that the only way to reach Quinn was when she became an owl, sometime between 2-4 AM EST when Quinn was busy (of course) playing catch up with her emails and documents that she couldn't finish during the day.

When Brittany called Quinn that night (it was a little after midnight in California and she had to make the call from the guest room so she wouldn't have woken up Santana), her reaction was as expected. The lawyer was cool and collected about Brittany's announcement, actually proclaiming that she had been expecting the proposal to happen sooner. Then they started to talk about the details, the hows and whens and all the other details — which was how Quinn and Beth ended up keeping Santana company while Brittany made sure the whole house was perfect for the very, very important occasion.

Originally, Brittany considered scattering flower petals onto the floor. But then she thought it was too... romantic? Not that romantic was bad! Romantic was definitely good. But just for this time, she didn't want it to be something that she once saw in movies. None of that Serendipity scene with Annie Lennox playing in the background — she wanted it to be about them and only them. She wanted it to be true.

So, faithful to the nostalgic theme she had going on at Summer Sky, Brittany had reprinted the hundreds of selfies (well, technically, two-shots because they were always in the photos together) that Santana and herself had taken throughout the years and hung them all over the house. Birthdays, christmases, new year's eves, glee club, bathroom breaks, Cheerios practices, picnics at the park... every waking moment and even some sleeping ones.

A text alert from her phone snapped Brittany out of her daze.

Incoming message (1)

From: Beth's Mommy

U ready?

Brittany quickly typed a reply for Quinn.

Outgoing message

To: Beth's Mommy

I sure am. How much time until she's here? Ur not driving r u?

•

Incoming message (1)

From: Beth's Mommy

Just got back 2 the hotel with Beth. U got probably 5 mins left btw.

•

Incoming message (2)

From: Beth's Mommy

Good luck, hon. I love u both.

Brittany smiled at the last text message. She was really glad Quinn could be a part of this important point in their lives.

Outgoing message

To: Beth's Mommy

Love u too & thx for today. Kiss Beth for me :) See u soon!

As soon as she pressed the SEND button, Brittany looked around the living room to figure out what she needed to do next. She shrugged with contentment. It looked like she was finished. The pictures were hung (thank you, kind man at the craft store who helped her find the right string and pins), the lights were dimmed, her 54 battery-operated candles were also set and ready (thank you again, kind man at the craft store who reminded her that big numbers of candles and photos in one room were just asking for trouble).

There was really nothing left for her to do but wait.

And as if on cue, Brittany heard Santana's car enter the driveway. She took a deep breath and did a few jumps just make sure she still had control over her body.

This is it, Brittany thought as she heard the door knob being turned. She put her phone on silent and threw it onto the couch.

Brittany couldn't see Santana's reaction upon seeing the photos that she had hung up and down the hallway, but the way Santana gasped pretty much let her know that she did good.

"Babe?" Santana called to her, voice muffled by the hand that was covering her mouth out of surprised.

Brittany exhaled through the little 'o' that she made with her lips and answered. "In here," she called out to her girlfriend, and she couldn't believe how much emotion she was already feeling. Her voice was so small, she didn't sound like herself at all.

Brittany counted the sound of Santana's footsteps on the parquet flooring of their house and felt her heart was about to burst with each one. It took 17 steps to get from the front door to the living room and Brittany almost died when she reached 15. Evidently, she was too quick to claim that she wasn't nervous.

Santana appeared underneath the archway that connected the foyer to the living room still wearing the same too-casual-to-be-a-Grammy-winning-artist red hoodie and her favorite pair of jeans from this morning, but Brittany still found her the most wonderful, most beautiful creature in the whole wide world.

Brittany cleared her throat. "Hi," she smiled at the woman in front of her, whose feet seemed to can't step further into the room out of confusion (or something).

"Hi," Santana choked back and Brittany could tell she was already connecting the dots in that pretty head of hers.

Brittany offered her girlfriend a hand. "C'mere," she said with another smile and Santana hurriedly move to take the offer.

"Britt, is this —"

"Ssh," Brittany stopped Santana from talking more. "What do you see?"

"I..." Santana looked around the house from where she was standing. "I see us."

Brittany nodded. "Mm-hmm... I see us too. What else?"

"I see... our whole lives," Santana said, letting Brittany's hands bring hers up for the blonde to kiss.

"Me too," said Brittany with yet another nod and tugged Santana's hands down, silently asking Santana to come sit with her on the carpet. Santana obliged and they moved together in sync to their knees — without taking their eyes off one another.

"Santana... When we sang Landslide with Ms. Holiday back in high school, you sang that you built your whole life around me," Brittany started to talk. "At the time I didn't know what that had meant, and I had to figure out what it did. A little while after that I realized that it had meant exactly that — that you had built your life around me. You taught me how to tell right from left, you helped me read those confusing textbooks, you slashed people who were mean to me with your vicious, vicious words..."

Santana chuckled with Brittany when she heard that last bit. "I still do," she proudly stated.

"Yup," Brittany shook her head with amusement. "You still do. I believe that rude waiter the other night went back to the kitchen crying."

"He deserved it," Santana shrugged. "He gave us soggy breadsticks."

Brittany smiled simply. She gave her girlfriend's hands a squeeze and looked down. "Santana," she called out tentatively.

Santana gulped. She could feel the air changing. Into what? She didn't know yet. "Yes?"

"I..." Brittany took a deep breath and let it out again. "I don't want that anymore."

"What...?" Santana felt her heart stop. She couldn't believe the wonderful day that she just had ended in such a sad note. It was such a shock she couldn't even stop the tears from pooling in her eyes. "Did you do all this to break up with me? Whatever it is I did, I'm sorry! I'll make it right!"

Brittany's eyes widened because she didn't realize what her words had implied until she saw the tears in Santana's eyes, dropping one by one. "No!" she quickly shook her head and pulled her girlfriend into a hug. Way to not screw this up, self, Brittany cursed herself. "No, baby, I'm not breaking up with you."

"Then," Santana sniffled and pulled away. "Then what is it? You're scaring me."

"I'm sorry," said Brittany. "You know words aren't my forte. Do you remember that little speech I made about tornados? That was a disaster," she chuckled.

"I thought that was heartfelt and beautiful," with the back of her hand, Santana wiped her tears away. "Seriously, Britt. What's going on? I'm about to die from not knowing."

"I'm sorry. Just let me finish, okay?" Brittany said again and kissed Santana's temple gently. She wiped the rest of her girlfriend's tears with her thumbs and when she got a nod as a response, she shuffled closer with her knees.

"I love you," Brittany started. "I love you... more than anything and anyone — even more than I love watching stars, morning cereals and unicorns, and that's really saying something because I really, really love unicorns. And... as I was saying, I don't want you to do that anymore. I don't want you to build your life around me because," she took another deep breath and released it shakily with all the nerves that had been tugging her heartstrings — afraid to mess it up once again. "Because it shouldn't be that way. I want us to build our lives around us both. Together. Forever. Until we're old and wrinkly," a pause. "But definitely still hot."

As Santana was trapped between chuckling at Brittany's last remark and holding back her tears, Brittany reached into her pocket and took out a velvet box.

"I really hope you by now you know what I'm trying to tell you," the blonde smiled, withholding her own tears. "Santana, you have been there for me through everything," Brittany sniffled. "Even when we weren't together. You see me. Not just as a blonde dancer, not just as the weird girl who talked to her cat, not just a trophy girlfriend. You see me as a person. You take your time to really get me, and not a lot of people did — or do. You are... the best thing that's ever happened to me and I just —"

Somewhere along Brittany's speech, Santana had raised her left hand to cover her mouth to stifle a gasp because... well, for one thing, she wasn't stupid. She had seen this scene in a number of movies before. Hell, she had imagined this moment since... since forever (but even more frequently ever since she admitted to herself how much she was in love with Brittany). She had imagined being on her knees, popping a question as well as a ring to promise forever to this woman in front of her — the woman who had been with her since the very beginning, the one who had never once doubted what she was capable of.

"I just want you to keep me forever," Brittany told her. "Santana Lo — "

"Wait," Santana held up one hand and shook her head. "Wait, wait, wait. This isn't the way it's supposed to be."

Brittany looked at Santana with a little disappointment in her eyes and Santana quickly collected a similar box from her pocket; not wanting Brittany to assume anything bad was going to happen.

"That's..." Brittany stared at the velvet container for 1, 2 seconds before it registered in her brain that Santana had the same intention. "You're..."

"Ssh," Santana wiped her thumb across the wet skin underneath Brittany's left eye, just like what Brittany did to her a moment ago. "You've said everything you had to say, now it's my turn, okay?"

A nod was all that Brittany could give Santana at that moment, and the raven haired woman gave her girlfriend a smile back.

"Brittany... I have never been so in love with someone as much as I am with you now," Santana cleared her throat from all of her emotions. "I went through a period of time when I was just so scared of everything, but you were there to cheer me on the whole time. You pushed me through. You challenged me and I found out that I don't ever want to live in a world that has no you in it. I didn't use to believe in magic, in wonder, in fluffy things... but I believe in you," she sniffled. "You are all the magic and wonder in my world. I don't know anything else and I don't want to know anything else. Keep me forever, Brittany. Because I want what you want. I want us to build the rest of our lives together. Forever, until we're old and wrinkly — but definitely still hot."

"We will be the hottest old ladies ever," Brittany whispered after chuckling at that last bit.

"Does that mean you're gonna keep me forever?"

"Does that mean you will?"

"Why do I get the feeling this conversation is going to last forever?" Santana chuckled. Then she looked up straight into Brittany's blue eyes and took a deep breath. "Always. You?"

Brittany shook her head and smiled like it was the easiest question ever asked. "I'll never let you go," she leaned over and Santana met her in the middle for the sweetest of the sweetest kisses.

oOoOo

When Brittany woke up the next morning, the first thing she saw was the high ceiling of their bedroom. Then she felt something moving on the skin of her chest so she lifted her head up a little to see Santana's slender hand with a ring adorning one of her fingers. There was something too magical about the whole situation and Brittany was pretty sure she was still dreaming. But the pain that was slowly creeping up her cheeks from grinning too big convinced her that she was indeed awake.

She looked to her left, where her fiancee was still sleeping, and ran her fingers through Santana's hair. Both of them had trouble falling asleep after a few rounds of lady sexy times (hey, it's important to celebrate the good things in life) — and Santana really was still wired from her treasure hunt — that they ended up just talking until 4 AM in the morning. About nothing and everything, until one of them finally dozed off (Brittany could swear it was Santana, but she knew Santana would totally pin that on her).

"I love you," Brittany's heart told Santana's inaudibly. No real sound was needed because sometimes words are just that: words. And besides, judging from Santana's smile and almost silent hum, she could tell Santana had felt it.

"Morning," Santana mumbled with her eyes still closed. She was laying on her stomach, with one arm under her pillow — a position Brittany had always been familiar with since years before, when they were still high school cheerleaders.

Brittany got rid of the strands of hair that was covering Santana's lovely face like she always did everyday, and tucked them behind her ear. "Morning, honey."

"Mmh... I think that was the best sleep ever," Santana opened her eyes and squinted from the glaring light. "I don't know if it was because of the epic number of multiple O's or the fact that we're now... y'know..." she grinned, "fiancees."

"Mm-hmm," Brittany agreed, nodding slowly. "Any other mornings I would say it's the O's, but right now... definitely the second one."

"I still don't like the fact that you proposed to me first, though. I was so sure I was gonna do it first."

"Ohh," Brittany nodded slowly. "So that's why your mom said that thing about a race."

"Why were you talking to my mom?"

With a raised eyebrow, Brittany looked at Santana pointedly. "D'uh. I was asking for permission."

"Oh. Right. I called your mom too, actually."

"What did she say?"

Santana shrugged. "She went kinda crazy. She was like omigodomigodsantanaomigodomigoddoyouknowwhatthisme ansomigod. But your mom always gets hysterical whenever she gets too excited so I took it as a good sign. But anyway... yeah, I was hoping I'd be the one who asked you to marry me. But you," Santana hooped her fiancee's nose, "beat me to the finish."

Brittany smiled sweetly. "Did you like my plan? Did you enjoy the hunt?"

Santana nodded enthusiastically. "I loved it. Sheer genius."

"I was afraid you had forgotten about that song already," Brittany shuffled closer to Santana and nudged her nose with her own, hoping for a good morning kiss.

"Hm," Santana hummed and stretched her neck to give Brittany the kiss that she wanted. "There's nothing about you that I could ever forget. Plus, that song was like... written for you, or something. It's perfect. Just like you."

"Aw, keep sweet talking me and I might just drive you to the studio today," Brittany pulled the covers slightly to cover her body and propped herself on an elbow. "Go on. I'm all ears."

"Actually," Santana flipped her hair and mimicked Brittany's position. "I texted Mercedes. I'm not going to the studio today. You need to be punished for neglecting the most important line from the song."

Brittany furrowed her eyebrows. "What? What line was it?"

Santana leaned closer and whisper-sang right into Brittany's ear. Her raspy voice sent a shudder all over Brittany's body. "Nothing else to make but breakfast and love."

"Oh..." Brittany cleared her throat, reminded of the orgasmically majestic night they had just experienced. "That one."

"Yup, that one," Santana made a sudden move and swung her leg over Brittany's body that she was effectively straddling her fiancee. Then with the most seductive look — and a voice that was already too arousing for Brittany, she added, "and, if you're up for it... I'm willing to forgo breakfast altogether. So... what do you say?"

Without a doubt, it was an offer that Brittany couldn't refuse. And as Santana lowered herself for a kiss, Brittany couldn't think of a better way to start the rest of their magical lives together.

(Well... she might change her mind later when they could finally call each other "wifey".)

oOoOo

Why don't we take a little piece of summer sky
Hang it on a tree
For that's the way to start to make
a pretty world for you and for me

And for the sun we'll find a lemon bright balloon
You can hold the string
Oh can't you see that little world of ours
will be the prettiest thing

We can gather rain enough for the stream
To hold our happy faces
When we want a breeze, I'll blow you a kiss or two
Take me in your arms and
our little world will be the place of places
Nothing else to make but breakfast and love

We'll hang a little sign that just says
Paradise – Population: Two
I know together we can make
a pretty world for me and for you
It's what I long to do
To make a world with you