Story: Snowbird

Author: theevilsmurf88

A/N: The basic premise of the story is blatantly stol...(cough) pays homage to miseradreamer's The Things Only You Know which I have read an unhealthy amount. The premise is that Brittany has a secret and Rachel finds out. Other than that though the story is completely mine. If you like Britberry and you haven't read miseradreamer's story I highly recommend it, it is extremely well written and romantic. My story heads off in an entirely different direction.

This story is Canon up through Season Three's Yes/No with one small exception. Tina and Artie are seniors along with the rest of the original glee cast.

Enjoy

Disclaimer: I own your soul.

Chapter 1: Arrival

Brittany sat in a rather uncomfortable airplane seat with her pinky intertwined with Santana's and the girl's head laying lightly on her shoulder. They had broken up a few months before but Santana Lopez was a selfish woman and she wasn't about to let her best friend and her girlfriend go at the same time. Things had been awkward at first between the girls when Brittany told Santana that she loved her but wasn't in love with her. Santana didn't come to school for days and when she came back she was distant and sniffly. Eventually she was able to be in the same room with Brittany again without bursting into tears every time either of them spoke. Not too long after that they started talking about trivial things, and a month later you would never have known they ever dated they were inseparable again, just this time without the sex.

Damn Brittany missed the sex with her though, in fact she loved sex with Santana. She always knew exactly where to touch her, but she just couldn't find it in her heart to lead the fiery latina on anymore. She tried not to care too much about the people of New Directions but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't stop herself. It was just going to make things that more difficult when the time finally came. One way or another that time would be soon, her deadline was rapidly running out . She was on a plane to Los Angeles for her senior year Nationals. They only had a few more weeks until the end of the school year. Twenty three days to be exact and if she couldn't figure out the solution to her little problem, four years of her life will have been completely wasted.

The rented earphones were placed lightly in her ears and the volume was turned down so that she could only just barely make out the dialogue of the in flight movie. Her training told her this was a mistake but she really did want to see the Avengers and she had been in the middle of her Santana break up when it hit theaters.

Brittany wanted to see it because she was a huge Joss Whedon fan, especially Buffy and Dr. Horrible. She had found it extremely amusing when Brian Ryan had come to talk to the glee club because of his uncanny resemblance to Neil Patrick Harris. Even if the douche was a Grade A asshat.

She felt Santana sigh while laying on her shoulder and she pulled one side of the headphones out of her ear. This didn't feel at all like Santana's sigh of contentment more like one of frustration. Brittany ran her fingers through her hair softly before speaking and she felt the girl move into her gentle touch and realized instantly that it was a mistake.

"What is it San?" She asked softly so as to not disturb the other passengers.

"Nothing Britt?" She said with a bit of pain in her voice.

"You know I can totally tell when you lie to me right?" She responded a little more harshly than she had originally intended and Santana flinched at the anger in her voice and began to move away from Brittany. "Sorry." Brittany says releasing her pinky to wrap her arm around her and pull her back into her body. When Santana relents and allows herself to be pulled in, Brittany lays her cheek on the top of the girl's head. "Please tell me what's bothering you."

Santana takes a deep breath. "Why didn't you want to stay with me this weekend? The club had enough money to sleep two to a room. We could have had a hotel room all to ourselves for a three day weekend in L.A. and instead you decide to share a room with Awfulberry Shortcake."

It took some pretty serious will power on Brittany's part to not laugh at Santana's newest, and with the end of the year fast approaching probably last, Rachel nickname. She loosened her grip on Santana slightly knowing that the girl was going to pull away from her after this conversation and she didn't want her to hurt either of them in the process. "San, Lord Tubbington told me before I left that if we stay in the same room it will be nothing but hot lady kisses nonstop for 3 days."

"Still not seeing the problem Britt." Santana says mischievously with a smirk slowly forming.

"The problem is that what I said before was what I meant San. And yeah sure a weekend in bed with you would be amazing, but I don't want to hurt you like last time. It killed me to do it once and I don't wanna do it again. I can't do it again." She said all this as honestly as she could if not as verbose as she was capable. Like clockwork she felt physically Santana's walls go up and she starts to pull away from her arms.

"Fine! Have fun with Rachel, see if she will go down on you for 3 hours straight." She looks out the window and Brittany sees a tear run down Santana's face. She could fall in love with this girl so very easily but she can't allow herself to become attached when she is leaving in less than a month. She was beginning to realize also, that it was hard to allow someone to bond to her that didn't know the first thing about her. Santana was in love with a woman who didn't exist and knowing the woman if she found out the truth she would never speak to her again. So knowing all of this she resisted the incredible urge to just reach over and kiss the girl until she couldn't over think the situation anymore.

She put the other earphone back in her ear and continued watching the movie. She learned a long time ago the best way to deal with Santana's attitude was to allow her to deal with it herself, she always came around eventually. The next hour of the flight was awkward, she had had worse moments with the dark haired girl though so she just powered through it.

As soon as the plane finished taxiing Santana roughly pushed past Brittany grabbed her carry on from the overhead compartment and disembarked the plane without so much as glancing at the blonde. Brittany let out her own sigh of frustration and then went over to help Tina and Mike get Artie off the plane. After gathering up their luggage and a hectic cab trip for sixteen they began the organized chaos of check-in at the hotel which had all of the other choirs arriving about the same time.

Brittany saw Rachel smile and wave at Sunshine Corazon who did not look nearly as confident as the year before and the year before Vocal Adrenaline had only placed second. Brittany really shouldn't have cared about winning the competition but she figured it was an extension of her caring about the people in New Directions and for a normal person that was a completely healthy attitude to take. For Brittany it was downright stupid.

She silently chided herself for getting lost in her thoughts and not realizing that Rachel had been talking to her for nearly a minute.

"...and then I think we are going to do the Walk of Fame and then we will head on over to Grauman's and put our feet into the star's feet." Rachel said practically bouncing in her excitement. Rachel could be annoying a lot of the time but there was no denying that she was a bit adorable when she was excited. Due to the warm weather Rachel was wearing less clothing than she usually did and Brittany was enjoying the view of her bouncing.

"Okay," she said tentatively, "I have two questions Rachel. Stars have feet? And if they have feet wouldn't putting our feet inside of the stars burn them up?" It wasn't one of her more brilliant idiocies, she loved that oxymoron, but she felt it was sufficient for an on the spot "Brittanyism."

Rachel quirked an eyebrow but quickly schooled her features into a soft loving expression. "No Brittany, movie stars. Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood is where movie stars go and they make impressions of their feet and hands in drying cement. We would go there and put our hands and feet in the impressions."

She knew all of this of course but allowed her expression to brighten as the false realization hit her. She starts bouncing up and down and throws her arms around the tiny girl's neck shoving her head into her breasts. "Ooo That sounds like fun we should totally do that I wanna put my feet in Bugs Bunny's." When Brittany pulled away from her, Rachel was blushing lightly at the somewhat intimate hug and Brittany resolved to make her uncomfortable again over the weekend because she looked cute as a button when she was candy apple red.

The look on her face was completely flustered and she says shyly "Um, I don't think Bugs Bunny has a stone but I am pretty sure Donald Duck has one. Also Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers have one too, which as a dancer I would think you would appreciate as well."

The smile that graced Brittany's face was completely genuine both because Rachel knew that Donald Duck somehow ridiculously has an impression but also because despite all of the deception and lies she has doled out over the last few years Rachel knew enough about her to know that yes she would very much like to put her hands in Fred and Ginger's hand prints.

"That would be absolutely amazing." She said, her vernacular slipping for the first time in years to its more eloquent form and normal accent even if it was only a small slip. To quickly distract Rachel she kisses her cheek allowing her tongue to slip out slightly, not enough for Rachel to notice but enough to make it a little wet. Rachel reddens again but this time even more furiously. It seemed to do its job as Rachel seemed far more occupied with her burning cheeks and shooting shy glances at Brittany because of Brittany's tongue slip rather than the slip of her tongue. Rachel wasn't with Finn anymore, not that that would have stopped her, but maybe this weekend wouldn't be as sexless as she initially thought.

"Come on Rae let's go put our stuff in our room, shower and change and then we can head down to the Welcome Ceremony at the theater." She grabs her rolling bag in one hand and Rachel's hand in the other pulling her lightly behind her. When they reach the elevators Brittany purposely hits the down arrow. Rachel reaches over and hits the one going up.

"Our room is upstairs Brittany." She says not unkindly. Brittany allows her face to make an O. They step into the elevator along with about a dozen other teenagers none of whom are part of the New Directions. They hear a conversation going on between two of them that perks both of them up immediately.

"Did you hear about Vocal Adrenaline?" A tiny sophomore looking African American girl says in a southern accent to a taller girl with alabaster skin and blonde curls.

In a southern belle accent she answers somewhat exasperatedly. "No sugah, what about those glory stealing yanks."

"They went through 4 directors this year and just barely won their regionals. The director they came to nationals with has only been with them for 4 weeks. They fired the last one after he was caught having sex on campus."

"HE DID NOT!"

"With a freshman." The blonde gasps and then laughs.

"Well deary we took 11th last year and we are better this year. This is the Peaches' year to become the national champs." She high fives the sophomore.

"Well they aren't the only threat there are still a few groups to worry about. New Directions are back," Rachel smiles at this, "they would have placed way higher if not for that idiotic kiss. They might have even won." Rachel's smile disappears as the Peaches get off the elevator. Rachel's cheeks redden again but she doesn't look adorable so much as humiliated. Brittany put her hand on Rachel's shoulder and squeezed and she seemed to feel a bit better. As they leave they hear the girl say. "Also Teenage Scream, Soundsplosion, Jefferson City Airplane and the Blazers are all back this year and they all placed in the top 10 last year. I for one..." She is cut off as the doors to the elevator close again.

"Don't worry Rachel we are going to rock this like a hurricane." Brittany whispers in Rachel's ear.

"Darn right we are." She says this time, pulling Brittany behind her as they exit the elevator on the 11th floor. Their room is seven rooms down the hallway on the right next to Tina and Mercedes' room. Brittany can hear Mercedes practicing through their cracked open door and she vaguely wonders how she beat the two of them up there. She lets the moment pass and Rachel pulls Brittany over to show her how to work the door and give her a key to the room. She pretends to watch Rachel's movement's carefully and when the door is open she steps inside.

The room is pretty standard hotel fare. Two Queen size beds with three night stands flanking them. The television is a 27 inch flat screen firmly attached to the wall. It was the first hotel room she had seen with a flat screen instead of an old tube style television but she hadn't really been traveling much in the last 4 years. Over near the window is a small table with two chairs neatly tucked under it. On the table is a small pad of the hotel stationary along with a pen. There isn't a mini bar but there is a mini fridge that has been emptied of everything.

"You can take the first shower if you want Rach, I don't take all that long to get ready." Brittany says plopping down hard on the bed nearest the window.

"I don't take very long to get ready myself, the majority of my routine is at night, but I appreciate the gesture nonetheless Brittany." Rachel throws her suitcase up on the bed and opens it before pulling out a bag of toiletries. Brittany watches her legs and ass as she walks into the bathroom.

The instant the door closes she jumps off the bed and heads over to her own suitcase. She pulls out her SLR camera and lenses out of her camera bag. She pulls apart the false bottom of the camera and all three lenses and drops the hidden kit onto her mattress. She assembles the small .380 and puts the clip in and silencer on in less than a minute. She sets it in her purse gingerly after turning the safety on. She grabs her own bag of toiletries and turns on the television laying back on her bed to wait for Rachel to get out.

Brittany idly flips channels until she comes across an early episode of Angel on TNT and happily watches Angel fighting with Faith. She briefly considers who is hotter David Boreanaz or Eliza Dushku when Rachel walks out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel and the TV stars are knocked right out of her head. She unconsciously licks her lips at the sight of Rachel's long legs and the short hotel towel that only barely covers her despite her small stature. Rachel obviously notices the leering and the blush starts at her cheeks going all the way down to her chest which just serves to draw Brittany's eyes in that direction. She smiles wickedly at her, not unlike the cat that ate the canary right before Rachel clears her throat drawing her attention back up to her face.

"Shower is all yours Britt." She says looking rather pointedly at the bathroom.

"Thanks Rach." She says while standing and grabs her shower supplies. She is a little disappointed by the lack of free show but not in any way surprised by it. She grins cheshirely before making a split second decision to disrobe in the middle of the room. Someone should get a show might as well make it Rachel. She takes off her blouse and bra and hears Rachel gasp without looking in her direction. She decides to do the rest in the lavatory so as to not kill the girl from embarrassment.

She quickly dismissed the stray thought to spy on Rachel while she changed because she wanted Rachel to show her body to her willingly. She finished removing her clothing and stepped in the hot shower. She keeps her face pointed towards the door at almost all times and is done in less than 5 minutes. She vaguely remembers when she would take long showers, but that seemed like it was another lifetime. The last long shower she remembers taking was when she was twelve. She uses the towel to dry off her body and then gathers up her clothing. She can't stop herself from messing with Rachel again and instead of wrapping the towel around her body she wraps it around her head and walks out of the bathroom stark naked.

Rachel lets out a squeak and averts her gaze and Brittany chuckles to herself. Even if she didn't get any this weekend it would still be a blast if only for Rachel's reactions. She pushes open the top of her suitcase and gets dressed slowly grabbing her most eye catching thong, a hot pink number with the word POW on the front, and pulls them on slowly occasionally catching Rachel sneaking a peek at her. Well either she is bi-curious or she is jealous of my body, she thinks to herself, either way I think I have a shot.

She grabs the matching bra and pulls on a knee length flowing white skirt of light cotton and a light purple baby doll T-shirt with the Potter Puppet Pals on it with the tag line saying "We're ALL Wizards!" and in the bottom right corner it says "Even Ron"

Once Brittany has all of her clothes on Rachel clears her throat. "Brittany, I would really appreciate if you would wear clothing while in the shared areas of our room."

"Why?" Brittany asks knowing full well the reason but wondering if Rachel can actually put words to it.

"Because it is improper to walk around others while not wearing anything at all as it is both unbecoming as a lady and it makes others uncomfortable."

"Oh okay." She says a little dejectedly. She was hoping she would have had difficulty articulating the issue so that she could continue doing so however that was far more succinct than she had planned. "Sorry Rach it's just my parents aren't home much and I usually walk around my house naked and being in the cheerios has made me kinda used to nudity. I can't promise I won't forget but I promise I will try."

Smiling brightly Rachel sits down on her bed to finish her light makeup. "Thank you Brittany."

Brittany like Rachel has always gone for a more natural look to her makeup so she is also quickly finished and it gives her a chance to appraise Rachel's outfit which is one of her 50's style dresses in a light green with small white polka dots. It's material seems to be a bit lighter than the dresses she normally wears in Ohio; she is obviously well prepared for the California weather. With this and the outfit she was wearing earlier in the day she was going to have to keep track of her wandering eyes with the amount of skin being shown. Being practical though Rachel grabs a light white button up cardigan sweater and her purse throwing both over her arm as Brittany opts for a black jacket made for mild weather and snatches up her purse as well.

They head out the door and towards the elevator and Brittany hits the up button. Rachel kindly says "No Britt we are going down this time."

Brittany throws her hands up in frustration. "I'll never get this right." Getting a sympathy hug out of Rachel. Just because she couldn't walk around naked didn't mean she was giving up on her plan to spend some of her weekend naked. The elevator opens and it is pleasantly empty, they step in, the doors are closing when they hear Quinn call out to hold the door. Brittany sticks her foot through the door and catches the sensor so that it opens again. Quinn and Santana both step in and it's obvious that Santana is still giving her the cold shoulder. She resists the urge to roll her eyes because it is just such an un-Brittany thing to do.

Quinn and Rachel began chatting about the upcoming performance as the two had become much closer this year not to mention that they had the duet in the qualifying performance. While this is happening Santana keeps shooting the occasional kicked puppy look at Brittany before it changes back so fast if she weren't so observant she would have missed it in the first place. Santana starts muttering under her breath in Spanish and Brittany only catches about every third word but it seems to have to do with Rachel's nose getting in the way of giving head.

About two floors down they pick up a few passengers a short good looking boy with spiky green hair and an average looking brunette girl around 5'8".

"You guys here for the competition too?" Green Spikes asks them.

"Yes we are, where are you guys from?" Rachel asks probably more to learn about the other teams competing than an actual interest in the people in the elevator.

"Our team is called Noises On and we are from Daniel Wake High School in Arizona. We placed 27th last year. We are hoping to do better this time around." He says offhandedly.

"We are New Directions from William McKinley in Ohio. We got 12th." Quinn said in response.

"Oh I heard about you guys." The spiky haired boy said with a bit of snarkiness tinting his voice. "Heard you blew your chance last year with some make out session on stage. Nice Job." His voice dripping with sarcasm and he gives a double thumbs up when he says it.

Rachel stomps her foot on the ground. "God am I never going to live that stupid kiss down. Also it was one kiss, one I was not making out on stage."

"Look she and the ogre aren't even together anymore so unless you got some more game from last year yous is gonna lose. Cuz that girl right there can beat you by herself and she ain't by herself." Santana says actually standing up to the boy and defending Rachel. She was oddly protective of a girl she used every opportunity to put down but no one ever really commented on it. Brittany just assumed it was a repressed crush.

Rachel blushed before muttering a soft, "thank you Santana," that just got a grunt from Santana in response. The elevator dinged on the bottom floor. Rachel, re-composed, looks at the two and says, "Despite your rude behavior I bear you no ill will and will just say to you 'break a leg,'"

The boy looks her dead in the eye and says acidly. "Good luck." Rachel gasps at his remark putting her hand over her heart and shooting daggers at him with her eyes.

"How dare you." Rachel says and storms off the two blondes and the latina following in her wake. They head out to the designated meeting spot and Mr. Shue, Miss Pillsbury and Carole Hummel are already there with most of the guys who didn't bother changing. They seemed to be waiting on Sugar, Kurt, Mercedes, and Tina so they comfortably chat awhile and their higher maintenance performers show up within ten minutes.

The walk over to the theater is short taking only about fifteen minutes. The theater is in a beautiful old style building. Obviously it isn't actually an old building, it is Los Angeles after all. Old things in L.A. just rot with age until they are no longer useful and then are broken down and replaced. Brittany silently muses that it is a sad commentary on both the city and the movie industry that built it in the first place.

The theater seems to be decorated in dark blues and silver giving it a somewhat ethereal quality. It has a feeling of class while still being comfortable and Brittany can see that Rachel instantly adores the place. All of the choirs are slowly meandering into the theater seats for the orientation and Mr. Schuester quickly finds out they are seated in the upper balcony near the front center. The theater gets progressively louder as everyone files in to the fairly comfortable seats. After about 20 minutes the din looks like it's starting to hurt Rachel's sensitive ears and she presses on the inside of her eyes before gently covering her ears. Brittany starts rubbing the top of Rachel's head softly which gets her a quick smile. Fortunately, after another minute music starts playing and the house lights go down. A fast hush sweeps the crowd and Rachel takes her hands off her ears while Brittany smooths down the hair she disturbed and then returns her hand to her lap. Rachel looks at Brittany likes she wishes she hadn't stopped.

"Everyone please put your hands together for your Master of Ceremonies, from the hit T.V. show How I Met Your Mother, Mr. Jason Segel." The crowd bursts into applause.

Brittany hears Kurt ask Rachel "Why would Jason Segel be here? We usually get has beens for this kinda gig."

"It's my understanding that he is a huge patron of the theatrical arts and Nationals would be just the kind of thing that he would enjoy. He did write The Muppets after all ." Kurt makes a grunt of acknowledgement and the crowd dies down a few moments later.

"Welcome everyone to the 2012 National Show Choir Competition. YEAH." He says to thunderous applause. "We have 44 choirs from around the country set to compete. We have many returning choirs as well as a whole bunch of new faces. We have everything from Catholic church music to Pop from Jazz to Rock and everything in between. With such diversity of music it should be an amazing show this year.

"Now Each choir will have fifteen minutes allotted to them, which with forty-four choirs that comes to eleven hours, so obviously we are going to have to spread the preliminary round out over two days. Your directors have been given a schedule with your time slots. Being more than five minutes late to the stage will constitute an immediate disqualification which...would suck. So that's easy just don't be late. Each choir will have to perform a solo, a duet and a group number. You can use up to five minutes of your fifteen for prep time and this may be used to get yourselves in any positions and set up any props if you have them but at least ten minutes of your time must be allocated to performing.

"This next rule is important so listen up. We ask that when you are waiting backstage that you are as quiet and courteous to the choir on stage as you would want them to be for you. If you try and sabotage an act they could hang around and do the same to you. Also you will be disqualified so SHHHHHH.

"The third day will be for the ten choirs who Showcase who will perform a second time. The top five from Showcase will come back a third time and will compete in a battle to THE DEATH." The crowd laughs and someone pokes their head out from backstage. "Huh, really? Apparently it will actually be yet more singing and dancing. This will also be the day of the awards ceremony where we will announce the winners.

"Is that everything?" He says looking off stage. The head from before pokes back out and nods vigorously and is greeted with raucous laughter. "Well then I guess that's it, have a great day and we will see you tomorrow." He walks off stage but the house lights don't come back up. After about ten seconds the guy pushes him back on stage and starts miming yelling angrily to him. "Huh." Jason Segel says into the microphone. Turning to the audience he starts speaking again. "Wow, you're never going to believe this but apparently this stage is where the L.A. cast of Wicked performs and the National Show Choir Board has managed to get them to give you all a late matinee performance." He pauses to wait for the explosion of applause to die down. "What did you think we would make you walk over here just to listen to me ramble for five minutes? Oh Please. Enjoy everyone."

The orchestra moves into the pit and starts tuning their instruments. Rachel and Kurt are both on the edge of their seats and there seems to be excitement coming off most of the people in there and the ones who aren't super excited at least recognize the fact that it is a free Broadway quality performance. When the curtains start to rise the applause reaches tumultuous levels and Brittany thinks that this is going to be their weekend to win it all, this was a sign.

After the performance, which they all raved about at length, Carole, Mr. Schuester and Ms. Pillsbury take them to get some food at a restaurant with at least a few vegan options for Rachel's benefit. He informs them while they are eating that the group has drawn a day two after lunch performance slot. They will be fifth from last so they will be spending day one sightseeing in Hollywood. Brittany got up to use the restroom which would normally be Santana's cue to follow her, but seeing as they were still fighting Brittany walks to the restroom alone. After she is done using the facilities she walks over to the sink. She starts washing her hands and smiles at a woman in her mid thirties wearing a nice business cut jacket and skirt. The woman without looking at her starts speaking while washing her own hands.

"It's a wonderful day today, the sun always makes me want to sing." Brittany's back immediately stiffens and her senses go into hyperdrive. She glances around the bathroom to make sure they are alone.

"I personally have always preferred dancing under the moon light." Brittany responds. The woman straightens her spine and dries her hands.

The woman then pulls out a cell phone and hands it to Brittany. "The phone is secure and will ring at precisely midnight. Make sure that you are alone and able to talk."

"I was told I still had until the end of the school year." Brittany says her obvious worry showing through her tone.

"This is not about that we have something else for you to take care of."