Brittana One-Shots

Happiest Valentine's Day

The phone rings, adding to the noise in the kitchen. Santana has gotten into a debate with our three year old son, Asher, and it's only 8 o'clock in the morning. I'm not even sure what they're arguing about anymore; he's definitely taken after Santana in many regards.

I pick up the phone just in time to answer it. "Hello?"

"Hi Brittany, it's Quinn. I'm really sorry, but I can't babysit today after all. I'm going on a date."

"With who?" I ask.

"Puck, but don't make a big deal out of it. We're not officially back together," she says.

"Okay. I guess we'll just have to find another babysitter, then."

"I promise I'll make it up to you. Bye, Britt."

I hang up the phone. Of course I'm happy for Quinn, but I'm also disappointed. It's Valentine's Day, and Santana and I had planned a date night with no kids. Of course, we could try to find someone else, but how many of our friends wouldn't be going out on Valentine's Day?

"That was Quinn," I say, interrupting the debate between Asher and Santana.

"What did she want?" Santana asks.

"She's busy tonight."

"With what?"

"A date with Puck," I reply, sighing. "Everyone else we know is busy tonight."

"Asher," Santana says, turning to face our son, "could you go wake your brother up?"

He nods and runs up the stairs.

Santana sighs. "What are we going to do about our plans?"

"Well, we could always stay home with the boys and go out tomorrow," I say.

"It wouldn't be the same, though."

"Did we really expect anything to be the same once we had kids?" I ask.

"I guess not."

I lean in to kiss Santana. Wrapping my arms around her, I pull her into me. She kisses me harder, and then we hear footsteps on the stairs and pull away.

"Where's Zachy?" I ask Asher as he's come downstairs by himself.

"He's not waking up," Asher complains.

It's to be expected. Our eldest son, Zachary, has never been a morning person. Ever since he turned five years old, though, it's gotten worse. He was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder around his forth birthday. He rarely responds to Asher. It's been hard on our family, but we love him just the same.

"I'll go get him," I whisper in Santana's ear.

When he was first diagnosed, I blamed myself. I'd been the one to carry him, so I must have done something wrong. But both Santana and I knew that wasn't the case; anxiety wasn't usually traced back to pregnancy.

I walk up the stairs to Zachy's bedroom. He's always been obsessed with music and has actually started taking one-on-one dance classes that have helped him a lot, so his bedroom is music-themed. I smile every time that I walk into his room because it reminds me how much we love him.

"Zachy, it's time to wake up," I say, turning on his CD player to help wake him.

I help him get dressed and ready for the day once he wakes up. It's slow like usual, but we get it done, which is better than I can say about some days.

We walk downstairs to where Santana is finishing making breakfast.

"Good morning, Zachy," Santana says, but he doesn't look up from his stuffed bear that he carried around with him everywhere. It's fine, though; we know we can't always get through to him.

---

We spend our morning and afternoon as we usually would, since we hadn't planned for Quinn to come babysit until suppertime anyway. Santana calls to cancel our dinner reservations. We haven't had a Valentine's Day just about us in probably three years. I wish tonight had worked out.

The boys watch TV while we make supper. I love cooking with Santana, even though the type of food that each of us makes is completely different; Santana really only knows how to make breakfast, spicy Mexican food, and pasta, but I like to experiment, which doesn't always go well.

We make spaghetti because it's red and red is the color of Valentine's Day. It's the closest it feels like we're going to get to a real date.

I hear Zachary crying from the living room as we set the table, and I run to check what's wrong. The TV show that they were watching had a picture of a shark in it, and it had scared him.

"Asher, turn off the TV and go help Mommy," I order as I kneel to Zachy's height and hold him close.

"Are you ready to eat?" I ask when he's calmed down a bit.

He nods, and we go to the dining room to eat supper.

---

After supper, I go to the fridge and take out the special dessert I'd made yesterday. It's a chocolate-covered strawberry cheesecake. It was meant for just Santana and me, but we have to share it with the boys because it would be mean to eat it without including them.

Once we finish eating dessert, Santana and I clear the table.

"Can we save the dishes for tomorrow?" Santana asks in a whiny voice. She's always hated cleaning.

"But then we'll just have more work tomorrow," I reason.

She says, "It's Valentine's day; we shouldn't have to do the dishes."

"Fine."

---

The boys pick a movie for what is now deemed "family night," and they pick "Cars." Both boys are obsessed with the movie franchise, so Santana and I have seen it probably twenty times. Still, we gave them the choice, so "Cars" it is.

The boys are small enough that all four of us can fit on the couch. Santana and I sit in the middle with a boy on each side. She has Zachy and I have Asher sitting beside me (to prevent arguments).

Santana leans her head on my shoulder as the movie progresses. The movie is practically engraved in her head, and I can tell she's not actually watching the screen.

Once the movie is over, Zachy asks Santana, "Mommy, how did you and Momma meet?"

"We met at school," she replies. "Do you want to hear the story?"

"Yeah," Zachy says, "'cause it's Valentine's, which is about love."

"Do you want to hear the story too, Asher?" I ask the almost sleeping boy beside me.

He doesn't reply, but instead he cuddles closer into my side.

"Okay," Santana begins. "Well your Momma and I didn't know each other when we were kids, but when we started high school, we both wanted to be cheerleaders. We both made it, so that's when we met."

"When did you fall in love?" Zachy asks.

"Well," I say, "she doesn't believe me, but I fell in love with your Mommy when we first met."

"But," Santana continues, "we only told each other when we were a few years older. Then, we started dating while we were still in high school." Santana stops talking when she realizes that Zachy has fallen asleep, just like Asher already had.

"Am I that boring?" Santana asks.

"Of course not," I whisper, "but now we can be alone."

We carry the boys upstairs and lie them in their beds.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Britt," Santana says.

"And it was the best one yet," I reply.