Clockwork | Brittana

Chapter 16

When Brittany made it into Clockwork, she was surprised by a few different things. First, Santana had beaten her to work. She was standing in Brittany's usual spot near the front desk, balancing gracefully on her heels, her eyes focusing on the tablet in her hands. Brittany watched her fingers work efficiently along the screen, typing one handed, opening files, enlarging displays. Santana had such nimble fingers.

She tried not to think of the things she could do with those fingers.

The second thing she noticed was that she didn't realize how much she missed Santana until she was only five feet away and it was still too far. She closed the rest of the distance, careful to keep a professional buffer between them, and smiled when Santana looked up without prompt.

"Hey," Santana smiled, closing the cover of her tablet and tucking it under her arm.

"Hey," Brittany echoed and passed Santana's usual coffee to her.

"Thanks, Britt."

It was a brief touch, just a trail of a fingertip along her thumb, but Brittany's pulse fluttered. She knew the contact had been on purpose. Santana had always been too careful about keeping a professional distance to let something like that slip. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling too broadly, and the glimmer in Santana's eyes told her she understood. The Latina tilted her head towards the elevators and they stepped towards them in unison.

Santana could safely say that she hadn't noticed a single person in the lobby that wasn't Brittany S. Pierce. She didn't feel the wandering eyes, or the lingering gazes. All she cared about was the shy glances from that beautiful blonde next to her. It was difficult to keep the giddy smile off her face, and she was grateful to finally duck into the maintenance hall for the privacy it offered.

She looked over, and caught Brittany's eye as she did the same. They shared a blushing smile and wondered how they were going to keep this up.

"How long have you been in the lab?"

Santana's eyes blinked curiously, "How did you know I've been in the lab?"

Brittany shrugged, a stray thought in the back of her head told her that they were walking slower than usual down this hallway, probably to conserve the time they had alone.

"Your sleeves are rolled up."

"You could tell I've been in the lab by my shirtsleeves?" Santana quirked an eyebrow and didn't believe it.

Brittany glanced at the sleeves in question, rolled snugly around Santana's elbows. Naturally, Brittany's focus moved over the rest of her outfit. She hadn't seen Santana in those heels before, the pencil skirt was flattering, and Brittany just loved that vest, it accentuated everything... perfectly. She was just glad Santana was too busy punching in the code to the elevators to notice her staring.

"I don't know another reason you would come to work early," she mused aloud.

Santana laughed, "You're right."

"What are you working on?" Brittany asked as they crossed the threshold and entered the elevator. "Your big project?"

"Yeah," Santana's face lit up as she said it. "I had this thought last night and had to get it out as soon as possible."

"You should have called me," Brittany almost pouted, scuffing her pump across the floor, "I would have come in with you."

"I've been here since five," Santana chuckled and hoped she didn't look like she was running on four hours of sleep. "There was no way I was going to wake you up at four in the morning because I need to get to the lab."