The Great Escape

Chapter 1

She landed at the Barcelona airport at approximately 11.15 am and the first thing she noticed was the heat. She pushed her sunglasses up higher on her nose and glanced around the tarmac at the other passengers disembarking the plane. Stretching, she realized that her right arm was almost asleep, most likely due to her awkward seating position in the plane during the long 9 hour flight from Ohio.

The cool blast of air conditioning was a welcome change for Santana and it soothed her already sweaty skin. She stepped into the customs and immigrations section and waited patiently behind the counters for her turn. Ruffling through her small hand carry purse, she took out her passport and arrival card and handed it to the bored looking officer looking at her wanly.

"Santana Lopez?" he looked up at her.

"Si." She answered in her mother tongue. "Espanyol?" he lifted his eyebrows and looked at her.

"No, American." She replied, glancing down at her passport.

He nodded, satisfied."Tourist." he mumbled, stamping her passport. "I hope you enjoy your stay in Spain, Ms. Lopez." he said with a heavy accent, finally returning her passport.

"Gracias." She stepped across her barrier and headed for the baggage pick up. Clutching her backpack and making her way over to the exit, she avoided the touts and made her way to the tourist office and took a few brochures.

Walking over to the bus stand and checking her purse was still with her, she stepped into the humid Catalanian air and finally smiled at her surroundings. "Hello, Europe." She murmured to herself and got onto the bus, looking around at the different scenery around her before finally settling on reading her many brochures while waiting to reach the city where her 2 month long European adventure was about to start.

Walking down the streets of La Rambla, the tourist street of Barcelona, Santana noticed that the entire street was made out of tourists like herself. In the hot early July afternoon, they were clothed in various stages of undress. Some wore bikinis, some wore khakis, some had shorts and barely there hot pants, short skirts and some were properly attired in sundresses for the heat. The typical Japanese tourist even had their knee length socks, complete with straw hats and a large DSLR camera hanging from their necks.

She glanced at the map in her hand and took a right turn that took her to the marked location in the map where her hostel was situated.

She was glad that she had chosen to wear a pair of shorts with a sleeveless top and that she had remembered to put sunblock in the plane before they touched down as the sun was mercilessly beating itself down on her Latina skin.

She readjusted her backpack's shoulder straps and cursed at the weight. 20 kgs worth of clothing and accessories were the only items she brought for her entire 2 month stay in Europe. She was however, glad that she had decided to pack all her meager possessions into the backpack as opposed to packing them into a trolley bag as it kept her hands free to touch and feel the cobble stones of the ancient buildings in Barcelona as well as touching the displays of souvenirs and trinkets along the streets.

"Ah, here we are." She spoke to herself while walking up the stairs that will lead her to her home for the next couple of days at least. She went through the door and looked around at the interior. The youth hostel was very cosy and she noticed a few other occupants who gave her a friendly smile from where they were seated as she glanced their way in the lounge area.

She cleared her throat. "Buenos dias." She said softly, and was greeted by the man behind the reception counter. His eyes twinkled, loving the idea of a tourist speaking Spanish. He introduced himself as Carlos, and she provided him the details of her booking she had made a few weeks prior to her arrival in Spain.

"Ah, yes, yes, one person, female dorm ensuite bathroom, si?" he muttered more to himself than to her. "For how many days?" he questioned.

"Just 4 days." She replied, while keeping back her passport. Carlos went back to punching some keys on the keyboard, leaving her free to glance around the hostel again.

From where she was standing, she could see the communal kitchen to the right and a hall leaving towards the lounge and the game room cum t.v. room at the end of the hallway.

"Ok. Here are your keys." He pushed a set of keys on the counter as well as an electronic keycard. "It's for the front door." He explained. "We close the doors at 12 midnight daily. "

She nodded. "Ok, thanks." She took the card and asked Carlos for a free map that she could spy lying behind the counter just out of reach.

"Sure." He replied, circling some areas of interest and pointing out to her where she should be going during her stay.

She took the card and went to the lift opposite the kitchen and punched in the 4th floor. She looked at her watch. 7 a.m. She shook her head, 'That's not right." And she reset her time to the current Spanish time and went out of the lift as it dinged her floor.

Her room was the third on the right after the lift and she had passed by a few other semi dressed tourist on her way to her room as well as the shared bathroom that was just around the corner from her room.

Sliding her room key into the lock, the door opened with a click and Santana slid herself in and the shut the door behind her.

The room was small, but big enough to fit 2 tables, 2 bunk beds on opposite ends of the other as well as a row of lockers in the middle that separated them.

The shared bathroom was on the other side of the door where she was currently standing. "Bed A." she mused, as she put her belonging down next to the bed on the bottom bunk. She looked at the room and realized that there were indeed 3 other occupants in the room with her and she was glad that she managed to book the last of the room with a bathroom attached instead of having to share outside.

She shuddered, setting herself down on the bed, feeling the effects of jet lag. She was just about to doze off when the main door opened and a tall blonde walked in, in only her towel and nothing else. Santana's brown eyes lazily followed her movements and debated if she should introduce herself but thought it inappropriate considering the stranger's lack of clothes.

The blonde stopped in front of the bed opposite Santana's and put down her toiletries. She was humming to herself, not seeming to notice Santana on the bed.

She sneaked a glance at the tall blonde and took in her legs that seemed to go on forever and her gaze went upwards towards the exposed cute butt and the strong shoulders and smooth back of the blonde. Santana blinked. Eh? Rubbing her eyes, she blinked and blinked and blinked again. But there it was still, the naked form of her blonde roomie right in front of her.

"Uhm?" she gurgled from where she was laying down. At the sound, her roommate's head whipped around and she was pierced with the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen in her life.

The naked woman's eyes widened comically and her mouth was a cute 'O' shape as she hastily tried to cover herself up with the towel that she had dropped earlier when she hadn't realized that Santana was in the room.

She turned and ran into the bathroom and Santana just stared at the closed door. She closed her eyes as her thoughts ran amok in her head. She opened an eye again as the bathroom door opened and the blond ran out to rummage though her bag and grabbed a few items of clothing before running back again into the bathroom.

Santana let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and closed her eyes again. She covered her face with a pillow and sighed into it. She wasn't really embarrassed, it's not like she was staring, for god's sake and she definitely wasn't a prude. It just caught her by surprise, that's all.

Well, she thought to herself as she was dozing off, the blond did have a cute butt …

The rustling sound in the room woke her up and she looked groggily at her watch. 5 p.m. it had been 3 hours since she last saw the blue eyes of the roomie. The blue eyes that were now eyeing her warily as she struggled to sit up and not hit her head on the low board of the bunk above her.

She stretched, just to prolong not talking to the woman she knew was staring at her. The same woman she had saw naked earlier. Not on purpose of course, she told herself.

She finally turned around and gave the blonde a small smile. "Um, hi?' she offered. The blond met her eyes and cleared her throat. "Hi." She offered her hand out. "I'm Brittany." She said.

Santana nodded and took her hand gently across the space between their beds. "Santana." She said. Well, that was awkward, she thought. "Listen…" she started, at the same time Brittany said, "'Bout earlier … "

Both women stopped and flushed slightly. "Yeah." Santana nodded. "Sorry about that. I uh … I thought you knew I was in the room."

Brittany shook her head, "No, no. I'm sorry I errr … flashed you?" she laughed shyly. "I totally forgot that this was a shared dorm." Her blue eyes twinkled embarrassedly. "Sorry." She murmured.

Santana laughed, just to ease tension. "No, no. It's fine." It wasn't like it was a bad view from where I was lying down. "It's something I gotta get used to as well, myself." The fact that this was a shared room, not the blonde being naked, obviously. "Brings back memories of college." She added for good measure.

Brittany laughed with her. "Yeah, it does, doesn't it?" she said. "First day?" she nodded at Santana's yet unpacked backpack and sat cross legged on her bed.

"Yup." Santana nodded. "You?"

"2nd."

"Guess we're both noobs here then." Santana got out of the bed and stretched again.

"How long are you staying for?" Curious blue eyes followed her movement around the room.

Santana looked up from where she was opening her bag. "In Barcelona, 4 days, in Spain, maybe a week longer and in Europe …" she shrugged and trailed off. "2 months perhaps?" She looked over at the blonde. "What about you?"

Brittany tilted her head to the side and regarded her carefully before answering. "Not too sure yet. I don't really have any concrete plans. Just see where the winds take me, you know?"

Santana nodded. "Yeah. I get what you mean. I don't have anywhere else to go after this." She swept her hand around the room. "Was thinking of going to Valencia next week though." She got up and took her bag of toiletries with her. "Umm, do you need the bathroom?"

Brittany shook her head. "Nah, I'm gonna head out soon." She cocked her head to the side. "Umm … hey? Do you wanna have dinner? I know this place that serves great seafood."

Santana paused midway to the bathroom and hung her towel on her shoulder. The Latina smiled. "Sure, why not? Gimme 10 minutes?"

The blond head nodded. "I'll be waiting for you, San." Blue eyes regarded her brown ones softly.

Her eyebrow raised at the familiar nickname from a virtual stranger but she didn't say anything. "Be right back." She said instead, disappearing into the bathroom and closed the door.

Santana took out her toiletries from the bag and started to wash the grime off her skin. She felt rather dirty, especially since her last shower was when she was still back in the States. Over 16 hours ago, in fact.

She washed the shampoo out of the hair and got out of the shower stall, looking at herself in the mirror. Her skin had already started turning a slight red colour from the little sun that she got today while looking for the hostel. She picked up her skirt and halter top that she left hanging on the counter and removed her towel from her body.

Although the bathroom was small, she was not going to make the same mistake Brittany had made earlier and had to make do with changing in the bathroom itself, even if it meant getting her clean dry clothes slightly damp. Checking her reflection in the mirror one more time, she unlocked the door and stepped out and went to her bed to take out her comb and started running it through her locks.

The glanced at the blond girl who was sitting crossed legged on her bed and fiddling with her camera while jotting down notes in what seemed like a journal. Santana took the opportunity to study the girl's features. She was really quite stunning, Santana had to admit, taking in the blonde's womanly curves and soft features.

Brittany had long dark blonde hair, reaching past her shoulders and her features were delicate and sharp, almost East European like in heritage and Santana wondered for awhile where her roomie was from. Brittany had an obvious American accent, but with the world's culture so accessible at your fingertips nowadays, it was hard to tell. She made a mental note to ask the blonde later where she was from since they were going to have dinner together.

"Hey?" She questioned softly. Blue eyes turned to look at her. "Dinner?"

Brittany smiled and closed her notebook. "Yup. Sorry, I assumed earlier that you do like seafood – you do right? I mean, the catch here is local and fresh from the Mediterranean and since we're in Spain anyway, why not?" She rambled on and Santana merely raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, I'm babbling, aren't I?" she asked, scrunching up her nose. Santana thought it was cute so she laughed a little. "It's ok."

Brittany laughed along. "I tend to get that way when I'm excited about things and really, what's there not to be excited about? We're in Barcelona, we're in Spain, we're on holiday and then there's you and I'm here as well and I …" Shy blue eyes met twinkling brown ones and Brittany laughed again. "Eh." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm doing it again, aren't I?" she shook her head and got out of bed.

"C'mon." She said, holding her hand out to Santana. "Let's go."

Santana looked at the girl's hand and took it, feeling a slight jolt at her first contact with Brittany's skin. It felt right somehow. "Where are we going?" She asked, keeping her hand in Brittany's as the girl led her out of their shared room and down the hallway towards the lift.

Brittany looked at her. "I'll show you. Trust me." She smiled her mega watt smile and Santana just nodded and with that, she realized that she could trust Brittany. Well, at least with matters to do with navigating around in Barcelona anyway.

So maybe Brittany shouldn't be trusted with navigating. The blonde had hardly any sense of direction. Santana realized.

Half an hour later found the girls wandering down the alleys of Barcelona, with Brittany stopping to take pictures of everything that caught her interest and Santana just walking behind her and soaking up the atmosphere of being in a foreign country. She wasn't overwhelmed, but it served as a rather nice change from the dreary same old that she was used to in Lima, Ohio where she had lived her entire life.

"Brittany?" she questioned, once again when the blonde stopped and looked at her map in what Santana now realized as confusion on her face as the blonde's tongue peeked out from between her lips. "Are we lost?"

Guilty blue eyes looked up from the map and she tried to hide a sheepish smile. "Err … not really?" she rotated the map in her hands and focused intensely on the map. Santana waited. And waited. Till Brittany sighed. "I guess so?"

She shifted closer to Santana and pointed at the map where an X was circled. "There, we wanna go there. The hostel guy recommended it and I vaguely remember reading about it in the Lonely Planet Guides that are littered around in the lounge area and I think we are here …" she gestured vaguely on the map. "… and we need to get there." She pointed, frustrated. "But the darn signs are all in Spanish and ergh, it's just my 2nd day here and I can't quite get my head wrapped around it all yet." She confessed.

Santana took pity on the girl and took the map of out the blonde's hands. "Here, lemme help." This was a case of the blind leading the blind, she realized. "I was a brownie once, you know?"

Brittany looked at her suspiciously. "Yeah? Me too." They eyed each other and paused. Both sets of laughter were heard as they stared at the map again. "I only remember selling mints, really, not quite map reading and things to do with directions … they're … confusing." She scrunched up her nose again as she spoke. "I get confused with my left and right, really." She laughed at herself.

Santana giggled. "It's ok. Here …" she pointed at the map. "We're here and if I'm not mistaken, where we wanna go is the market just around the street." She started walking and by instinct, she just grabbed the taller blonde's hand and led her down the street.

Stopping at the intersection, she realized the blonde's hand was still surprisingly clasped in hers and she awkwardly dropped it and looked at the street signs before stopping a random passerby to ask for directions. "Perdon? Como podemos llegar al Mercado La Boquiera?"

The kind lady pointed in the direction that they were headed anyway and Santana thanked her and grabbed Brittany's hand again and pulled the blonde slightly. "C'mon, Britt."

Brittany let herself to be pulled and followed Santana around the corner and lo and behold, there it was, the La Boquiera Market that had been elusive to her but was in fact just right around the corner from where they had been standing for 10 minutes. She shook herself out of the reverie and grabbed at her camera and snapped a picture of the signage that was the entrance of the market.

The flash of the camera made Santana turn around to look at Brittany before she got caught in another blinding flash as Brittany took a picture of her below the signs. "Say cheese!" A thin smile graced her lips and she stopped and folded her arms across her chest. "It's not fair." Santana raised an eyebrow. "You're not in the picture and it's your camera."

"Precisely." Brittany replied, her blue eyes twinkling with mirth as her fingertips went trigger happy on the camera as she walked over to Santana's side and stood next to her. Casually putting her arm around the shorter Latina, she angled the camera and made sure the focus was on the both of them while capturing the signage above their heads. "Say cheese!" she said again, smiling widely as the camera lens clicked and Santana merely rolled her eyes after the photo was taken. "Such a camwhore." She mumbled good naturedly.

Brittany grinned. "Of course!" she said proudly and actually puffed out her chest a bit. "C'mon, San, I'm getting hungry!"

They reached the restaurant in the market that had the biggest signage possible and Brittany looked at her notes and confirmed that this was indeed the restaurant that they had been looking for and Santana flagged down a passing waiter. "Mesa para dos, por favor?"

The water nodded at the table at the far end of the alley and they made their way slowly there, squeezing themselves through the traffic of people walking pass them. "Perdon."

Brittany situated herself at the table and looked around in awe, her camera clicking every so often at her surroundings and at the menu that was placed neatly in front of her. She looked at the menu and looked up at Santana and down at the menu again. "Umm …" She started. "San?" She waited for brown eyes to meet hers. "It's in Spanish." She flipped the menu over and realized that nope, there wasn't an English version to the menu and she sighed before giving Santana her best smile. "Maybe you could … translate it for me? Since you so obviously can speak Spanish unlike me?"

Santana laughed at the cute perplexed look on Brittany's face as she looked at the menu herself. "It's easy really, cerdo, pollo, gambas, pescado, cordero basically means pork, chicken, shrimp, fish and lamb. And there other variety of seafood here as well that I'm not even sure what they are in English." She gestured towards the front of the restaurant where a table was stacked with ice and some fresh seafood on display.

Brittany nodded and aimed her camera at the display and zoomed in. She showed Santana the picture she had taken and pointed at the funny looking clams in the picture. "Ok, I want that." And she pointed at another type of fish. "And that." And she pointed at the menu "And that."

Santana nodded and flagged a waitress over. "Hello." She said politely.

The red haired waitress smiled. "What can I get you ladies?" She winked at the both of them. Brittany smiled at her. "Oh, you speak English! Thank god!" she clapped her hands in glee. "Ok, here's what I want …" she said, listing down the items she had pointed out earlier and then looking at Santana for confirmation as she pronounced each of the unfamiliar names in her tongue.

The red head nodded. "Drinks? How about some sangria?"

"Yes please." Both women nodded in confirmation. "Bring a whole pitcher." Santana added when the waitress was jotting it down and absently nodded, "Si, si." She looked up. "Anything else?" she looked at both of them. "No?" when she didn't get a reply. "Ok, enjoy your date, you two."

Brittany blushed at her words and Santana chuckled. "Did she just say we were on a date?" Brittany whispered as the waitress left.

"Yeah, I guess she did." Santana laughed at the colouring of the blonde's cheeks. "I'm pretty sure she didn't mean it that way, Britt." She clarified.

The blonde smiled. "No, no, it's fine. It sorta is, though, isn't it?" she cocked her head to the side. "I mean, here we are, 2 strangers in a strange place, just enjoying each other's company, really not knowing anything else about the other, but wanting to find out more?" she mused.

Santana hitched in a breath and studied the honest blue eyes twinkling back at them. She opened her mouth to reply but was saved by the waitress as she brought back 2 glasses and a pitcher of the yummiest looking sangria she had ever seen.

Brittany cooed at the pitcher and grabbed Santana's hand across the table. "Oh San, look, it's so pretty." The fruits inside the red wine concoction added a pretty contrast to the drink as Santana sat opposite Brittany mesmerized by the blonde's brilliant smile and merry blue eyes.

She cleared her throat. "Yes, yes, it is." Smiling at the blonde, she raised her glass of sangria to toast the blonde. "Here's to us." She said instead, her eyes never once leaving the blue ones settled on her face intensely.

Brittany smiled and clicked her glass against Santana. "To us." She echoed and took a sip from the glass and lifted her camera to Santana's eye level.

Click.

"Wow, San, these navajos are awesome!" Brittany gushed through her mouthful of bamboo clams that were sautéed in garlic oil. She quickly swallowed. "You have to try one!" Blue eyes pleaded with the Latina.

It was about 30 minutes into the meal, with both parties making small talk and sharing the food that Santana had suspected they had over ordered. She eyed the thin piece of clam being offered at her by an anxious blonde and hesitantly leaned forward and took the piece neatly into her mouth. Her teeth delicately brushed Brittany's sensitive fingertips, as the blonde, as Santana had now realized really had no sense of personal space whatsoever and had been feeding the Latina by hand since dinner had started even though they had merely met a few hours ago.

Brittany looked over at the brunette and Santana chewed on the rubbery piece of seafood slowly, watching Brittany's eyes glaze over as she stared at her lips. Was it hunger reflected in those clear blue eyes? Santana wondered as she swallowed and cleared her throat a little. Picking up her wine, as they had now proceeded to red wine after finishing up the jug of sangria, she said. "Yeah, Brittany, that tasted quite good." She smiled politely at the blonde.

Brittany licked her lips as her eyes looked up to meet Santana's. "I'll bet." She whispered huskily, a slow blush forming on her cheeks as she realized her voice had betrayed her emotions.

Santana felt a blush coming onto her cheeks as well, not used to the familiarity and the ease of Brittany's gentle but obvious flirting. It's not that she minded it, she mused. Brittany was beautiful, her mind mused – wasn't she merely stunning earlier? – and she was really good company and it was nice that they had actually bonded just a few hours of being in Spain together. Santana decided she did in fact like Brittany and wanted to know more about the woman in front of her and wanted to spend more time together with the blonde.

"What are you doing tomorrow?"

Blue eyes blinked and Brittany shook her head slightly before cocking it to the side of her head. She ruffled through the little backpack she carried and took out her notebook and flipped it open to a few pages in the front. "Umm." She tapped her fork on the page and looked up. "I was thinking of going to walk around the city, take in the sights."

Santana nodded. She had intended for that as well. "There are some impressive Gaudi architecture around as well. And don't forget about the Sagrada Familia." She added.

Brittany nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, I wanna see that and …" she looked down at her notebook " …and as well as the Casa Battlo and the Parc Guell as well." She smiled at Santana while spearing a fork through a shrimp. "Mmm. This is nice. What about you?"

Santana swallowed her shrimp as well, not used to talking with her mouth full and seemingly enjoying life the way Brittany does without a care for the world. "Yeah, I was thinking of either that or the beach or maybe shopping or … I remember Carlos mentioning something about free walking tours around the Latin Quarter in the older part of the city."

"Mmm, I was there last night. It's really pretty." Brittany gushed.

"Oh." Santana was taken aback – she had forgotten the girl had already been to certain places before she had arrived in Barcelona. "Umm."

Brittany reached out and took Santana's hand in hers. "I would love to show you?" she cocked her head to the side again and Santana found it incredibly adorable and increasingly cute the way Brittany did that and she smiled subconsciously. "We could explore together, I mean." She clarified. "I mean, it's obvious I can't really read maps but you can and you can speak Spanish as well and besides, it's better to have company and it's probably safer as well and who will take pictures of you behind the gawdy – sorry, Gaudi buildings and besides, I'd really like your company." She finished in one breath.

Santana squeezed Brittany's slender fingers before releasing them. "Who would camwhore with you, you mean?" she chuckled. "And I'd like that. I mean, if you're free the next few days, anyway?"

Brittany smiled. "Ok, it's set. Sounds like a plan, San." She giggled. "Hey, that rhymed."

Santana rolled brown eyes at her and shook her head and stifled a yawn. "Hmm, think the alcohol and jet lag is finally doing something to me." She studied Brittany. "Shall we get the bill?"

Brittany nodded and reached for her purse in her backpack and signaled the waiter with an international sign for getting the bill. "We can plan more about our agenda later tonight." Her blue eyes grinned at Santana. "I know where you live." She said slyly.

Santana rolled her eyes at the girl again, not in annoyance but really, just at how adorable the blonde was making herself be in the brunette's eyes. "So do I, Britt." She reminded her and took a look at the bill when it was presented to them.

70 Euros for their meal and she watched as Brittany put down 35 euros for her share and she fished out a 50 note and handed it over to the waiter. When he left, she glanced at Brittany. "Do they require to be tipped here?"

Brittany shrugged. "I dunno? I suppose we can, if we wanna. I did last night when I ate out but then it was quite awkward coz I merely had a few sticks of tapas from a street vendor and he looked at me like I was weird." She shrugged again and pulled out a coin from her purse. "2 euros?"

The waiter returned with their change and Santana pocketed Brittany's coin and put a 5 Euro note in the receipt tray and closed it. "I suppose that'll do." She mused, getting her belongings and standing up.

The stars were already out by the time they walked into the street that lead them towards their hotel. Santana was glad that she had chosen to wear heels, so at least their height difference wasn't that obvious when she stood next to the blonde. As it is, she barely reached the blonde's eye level. She muffled a curse as her heel got caught in a cobble stone and she wobbled a bit, gaining her balance before a hand shot out to keep her steady.

Blue eyes looked over at Santana. "Careful there, wouldn't want you running that pretty face of yours, would we?" she smiled, showing Santana her pearly whites.

Santana grabbed at the offered hand and entwined their fingers together. It was a very comforting feeling, the warmth of Brittany's fingers between hers and the tall and lean body that she was leaning against offering her comfort the only way another human touch can. "Thanks." She said, standing up straight. "Must'ta been the alcohol." She muttered.

Brittany giggled and started walking without releasing the brunette's hand. "Yeah, we had quite a bit, didn't we?" She asked, pulling the shorter woman to her side as they walked along the streets, just enjoying the chill air of the Spanish summer night.

"Mmm."

They walked in silence down the road, both lost in their thoughts and just taking in the calm of the night and reveling in each other's quiet company and warmth. They only released each other's hand when they got into the comfort of the hostel and waited at the lift while making small talk with the new receptionist who introduced herself as Maria.

They both stopped when they heard chattering from inside the door to their shared dorm. Santana pocketed her keys and raised her eyebrow at Brittany before pushing the door open. "Have you met our other roomies?" she asked. Brittany just shrugged. "Not really." She hiccupped with a smile. "When I got in, they were already gone yesterday."

2 pairs of eyes looked at them from the floor between their bunk beds. They had out a map laid in between them on the floor and they looked to be animatedly discussing something. The shaggy blond with the green eyes looked up at them and offered a tight lipped smile. "Hi."

"Hello." They replied in unison.

The other girl, a petite brunette stood and dusted her argyle skirt and walked over to them. "Hi guys! You must be our roommates. My name is Rachel Barbra Berry and over there is my friend, Quinn. How nice it is to finally meet you!" She looked at Santana. "You must be our latest roommate." Then she turned to Brittany. "Sorry if we disturbed you last night when we got back so late. We would've introduced ourselves had it not be deemed rude as you were sleeping then." She gave them both a big smile. "Sorry about the mess."

Brittany stepped forward and plopped her bag onto the table nearest to her bed while Quinn shuffled the papers littered on the floor. "It's ok. Are you guys planning your agenda here?" She took out her camera from her bag. "Oh, sorry, I'm Brittany, by the way." She nudged her chin at me. "And that's Santana."

By this time, Santana had already sat on her bed cross legged, mirroring Brittany's position and gave the 2 new girls a small smile. "So you guys have been here long?" she asked the same question she had asked Brittany just earlier today. "I just got here this morning."

Brittany nodded. "Yeah, and I got in last night. First leg of my awesome European adventure!" she added.

The shorter brunette clapped her hands. "That is so exciting! Quinn and I got here about 3 days ago and we've been exploring what the city has to offer. Today, we went to the Sagrada Familia, and I'm sure you all are aware of that landmark right in the middle of the city and oh my god, guys, it was awesome! Makes me feel like just bursting into a song right in the middle of the church." She finally stopped talking and took in a breath.

Quinn just shook her blond head. "What Rachel meant to say was that, yes, we've been touring the sights and Barcelona is really quite a lovely place." She eyed the 2 of them. "Are you two friends?" She looked at them suspiciously with a knowing look in her eye.

Santana shook her head. "Oh, no, no. We just met today. Although …" she trailed off and looked at Brittany.

Brittany nodded. "But yeah, we're friends. We've got plans to look at the sights tomorrow." She gave Santana a big smile that the Latina responded easily. "Where do you guys suggest going? Since, I mean, you're familiar with the place already. We were thinking of doing the usual, the Sagrada and other Gaudi landmarks."

Quinn nodded and took a seat on one of the chairs in the room. "Yeah, we were there today. We've actually covered most of the tourist locations in Barcelona, really. We have a free day tomorrow before we leave to Valencia the day after. Have you guys been?"

Both heads shook and Santana spoke up. "I do want to visit after though – I heard it's a bus ride away?"

Quinn nodded. "Mmm, Carlos at the reception got us bus tickets this afternoon. I'm sure he'll be pleased to help you out as well." She smiled at them.

Brittany smiled at Quinn. "Thanks! I'm pretty stoked about this trip. I heard the paellas in Valencia are to die for." She nudged open her book and showed Rachel who was standing next to her a picture of what looked like a pan of rice with some seafood on top. "Look!"

Rachel just gave Brittany a look. "No, thanks. I'm vegan, myself."

At this, Brittany gave her an incredulous look and shot Quinn a questioning look. Quinn rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I love my bacon too much, thank you." Brittany just nodded dumbly at her as Rachel gave a mock glare at her friend. Quinn merely rolled her eyes again at the short brunette.

Santana looked around at her new roommates and regarded each of them. "Say, where are you guys from? I can tell from your accents that you're probably Americans?" She guessed.

Rachel and Quinn nodded. "Yup. We're from New York – well, we're studying there now actually. This is our summer break before our last year of uni. I'm at NYADA – I'm a performing arts major and Quinn here is a lawyer."

Quinn chipped in. "Not yet, but I am taking my law degree at Yale." Her green eyes looked at Santana questioningly. "What about you?"

Santana stretched out on her bed. "Ohio. Small town in the middle of nowhere, really. I just graduated from university last semester." She added. Almost as an afterthought, she said, "I have a degree in music production from Berklee." Now her brown eyes regarded the silent blue eyed blond who was just meddling around with her camera on her bed. "What about you, Brittany?" To be honest, the blond was the only person she was interested to find out more about and she wondered if her guesses were right about Brittany.

"Hmm?" Brittany looked up. "Oh, I'm Dutch." She gave a small smile to the rest of the group. "Well, not really, I mean, I'm American as well, but my parents are Dutch. Dual nationalities and what not, you know?" She gave them a big smile. "This is cool – I wonder if they put us all in the same room together? Being from the same country and all."

Rachel chipped in. "Actually, I'm pretty sure not. This was actually the last room available and we couldn't get any other rooms in town that didn't look like it was roach infested or filled with drunkards." Quinn nodded. "Yeah, we actually booked rather late." She frowned a little and muttered under her breath. "Our fault for leaving the booking to the boys."

Rachel gave a short nod. "Yeah, we're actually here with our friends. You'll probably meet them tomorrow. They were supposed to book the entire trip and well … boys."

Brittany chuckled at that. "I'm sure they're not so bad." She laughed at them, plugging her SD card into the notebook that she had perched on her lap.

Quinn laughed. "No, they're not, but it's the last time I'm trusting them with bookings for the rest of the trip. Are you guys here for the music festival as well?"

Santana's ears perked up – she had indeed heard about the concert, it was just a big rave really and had tried to get tickets to the concert but alas had found out that they were sold out before she could even try to find out more about it. "The Benicassim Fest? I heard of it, but couldn't get tickets." She concluded. It was just the kind of thing that she was itching to go to. She was a music major after all.

"Oh, bummer." Quinn said. Rachel continued. "I'm sure it wouldn't be that great though, I mean, it's a music festival, but all I see in the line up are rock bands and not a single mention of any opera or Barbra Streisand type artists! Why, I myself intend to make it big on Broadway one day. Now, that's real music."

Santana rolled her eyes at Brittany, who was quietly listening to the exchange and smirked at Santana's eye roll. Santana had met plenty of people like Rachel in her stint at Berklee – music and performing arts majors who dreamt of making it big in Hollywood or Broadway only to have life throw reality at them.

"Seriously, Rach? Why are you even going for this?" Quinn's exasperated voice cut in.

Rachel gave Quinn a pointed look. "Because, Quinn." She stopped and emphasized her point by gesturing with her hands. "Because a little exposure would be good for my vocal experience and I would be able to write about it in the later years about my stint at a rave party in Europe, nevertheless and besides, Finn wanted to go." She gave a dreamy look to the rest of the girls in the room.

"Finn's her boyfriend." Quinn explained.

"Yes, well, and Puck said that there would be other acts as well that aren't just all rock, so I'm looking forward to hearing that." Rachel concluded to herself. "Oh, and Puck is Quinn's sorta boyfriend." Quinn opened her mouth to speak but. "When is this festival anyway?" Brittany's voice suddenly cut in. "I overheard some people talking in the lounge about it and they said that you could actually get last minute tickets online for a cost."

Santana looked at Brittany. "Are you interested as well?" she asked.

Brittany chewed on her lip before answering. "Well, I guess if there are still tickets and the price is all right, there's no harm trying. Would be great to get some footage from it as well." She lifted her camera and snapped at the girls looking at her. "Smile."

Santana looked over at Quinn. "You wouldn't mind if we did tag along if we got tickets, I mean?"

Rachel and Quinn shared a look before Rachel answered for the two of them. "I don't see why not." She shrugged.

"In fact." Quinn spoke up. "Hold on a sec." She got up from her chair and left the room after taking her key card with her.

3 sets of eyes just watched as the blond left the room.

Rachel stood by Santana's bed. "Mind if I take a seat? My bunk is the one directly on top of yours." Santana scooted over and made space for Rachel on her bed. "Sure."

Rachel folded her hands on her lap. "So what kind of music are you into?" She asked Santana. "We were just at a local bar earlier and we found one that actually let us karaoke. It was quite epic." She smiled.

"I'll bet." Santana answered. "Umm, I'm all right with a lot of different types of music, really. More into jazz and soul. So, NYADA, huh?"

Rachel smiled. "Yes. It has been my dream all along. My 2 gay dads has always said that even when I was little, I'd be singing Barbra with them during musical nights at our house. So I joined my high school's Glee club and went on from there." She cocked her head to the side and regarded Santana. "Say, weren't you in your school's Glee club as well? I mean, music being your major and all."

Santana gave a little smile. "Yeah, we took the Nationals back in 2007. It was in New Yo-"

Rachel cut her off. "New York! I knew it! You're Santana Lopez! Carmel's Vocal Adrenaline! I knew I recognized you from somewhere!"

Santana's perfectly shaped eyebrows rose. "You've heard of us?"

"But of course. What sort of Glee club president would I be if I hadn't checked out our competitions before the Nationals?" Rachel replied easily.

Santana nodded. "That's right. We won Nationals that year and I graduated the year after."

"Mmm. William McKinley's New Directions won the year after. That was the school Quinn and I went to." Rachel added.

"Small world." Santana said.

"Guys?" Brittany looked at them questioningly. "Umm, what's a Glee club?" she asked innocently. "I mean, is it like a club where everyone is just gay and happy? I mean, that's what glee is, right?"

Rachel just looked at Brittany weirdly while Santana, being more used to Brittany's weird statements just laughed. "No, Brittany. It's like a high school choir. We sing and dance and perform." She explained. "And not every member is gay."

Rachel snapped back to reality. "Although, I'm sure at least half of them at Nationals were, one way or the other." She murmured.

Brittany's blue eyes sparkled. "You sing and dance? We didn't have that in high school. A dance club would've been awesome at my school. I just joined the AV club." She said instead.

Rachel narrowed her eyes at Brittany. "What did you say you were studying again?" she asked. Santana was glad that the loud brunette had asked the question instead of her.

Brittany's eyes twinkled. "I didn't." She smiled at them. "But, I'm in my last year of my video journalism course at Tisch. I'm actually doing a double major in dance and film. My trip …" she gestured at all her equipment on her bed. "… is to film my final thesis in order for me to graduate."

Before Santana could ask her more, the door burst open with Quinn entering with two guys that she could guess were Finn and Puck. The taller one, stood shyly at the door with a dopey expression on his face. "Hi guys." He gave a little wave.

Rachel squealed and got up from her seat and gave him a hug and a kiss to the cheek. She linked her hands with his. "This is Finn. My boyfriend." She pulled him in and stood in the middle of their room. "Santana, Brittana, meet Finn." She nodded at the both of them.

Santana could tell that the giant in the room was smitten with Rachel as he gave them a small smile complete with a dopey wave and stuck his hands in his pocket. Santana turned her eyes towards the other stranger in the room and thought that the two of them couldn't be any more different. There was a guy with a short cropped Mohawk looking back at her and Brittany. He gave her the once over and smirked, "Wassup, chica?" He leered.

Quinn just backhanded him in his stomach and he bent over. "Hell, Quinn! What was that for?" He rubbed his bruised ego.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever." Looking at Brittany, she mentioned the mohawked guy. "Brittany, meet Puck. Santana." She nodded at the Latina. "Anyway. I've got some news for you."

"Yeah." Puck came to the side of the bed and took a seat on the floor. "We were talking to these two guys who are our roomies this morning and they mentioned that they had extra tickets to the Benicassim festival if you guys are interested. I gave them a call and there's 2 if you girls want it." His gaze shifted between Brittany and Santana.

Santana smiled genuinely and exchanged a look with Brittany. "How much?" The blonde asked.

Finn cringed a bit. "We got our tickets for about 80 Euros, but we managed to get early bird tickets, and these guys are selling it at a 100 Euros. However, there's a catch. Yours is a 3 day pass while ours is a 5 day pass." He explained.

Puck nodded while scratching his Mohawk. "It's actually not that bad. I saw a couple of tickets online selling for above 150 Euros."

Santana nodded. "I understand. It's amazing that we can get tickets at all, actually. Hmm. So what do you say, Brittany? Do you have anything planned? It's for the 25th to 27th July?" she looked at Puck for confirmation. He nodded.

"Ours is till the 29th July." Quinn explained. "We've got about a week till we need to get ourselves to Benicassim."

Brittany opened her little travel journal and studied it for a bit. "Ok, I suppose I'm in then." She looked up and beamed. "Thanks, guys." She got up and did a little dance and went over to hug Quinn, catching the other blond unexpectedly.

Santana stood up as well. "Yup, count me in as well." She said while Puck just held his fist for her to fist pump.

"Yeah! Awesome, guys." Finn smiled. "Lemme just get the tickets from these guys. Be right back." He gave his signature dopey smile and left the room.

Brittany was digging through her bag that she was carrying with her and took out her wallet as Santana did the same. They both took out a 100 Euros and gave each other a smile as the 3 high school friends chatted amongst each other.

"So." Santana started. "A rave concert, huh?" Brittany just gave her a smile at that. "It's gonna be wild. College parties in comparison are gonna be nothing." Santana nodded.

"Hey you two." Rachel's voice broke in. "We managed to get one of the last apartments just outside of Benicassim – do you guys wanna share? It's a 3 bedroom apartment with basic facilities. I got a great deal from a friend of a friend. They're giving us the whole apartment for a week for 1000 Euros. That comes up to about …" She paused as Quinn cut in. "166.67 Euros per person for the whole week." Quinn showed the calculator application on her phone to Santana.

Brittany just nodded. "I don't have that much cash with me right now. Can I just pay you when we're there? I need to get my traveller's cheque cashed. I didn't expect to spend that much cash on my second day here."

"Oh, that's all right – we've actually only paid the deposit on it. Well, actually Puck did." Rachel looked at the mohawked boy for confirmation.

"Yeah. All we gotta do is put a deposit and then pay the rest when we check out." He stated. "We've got the place booked for the entire week that the festival is gonna be on. That's the 24th till the 31st July." He looked at them. "Are you guys gonna stay for that long or are you just gonna be there for the festival? There's a beach there that we're gonna be chilling at." he queried.

Brittany shrugged again. "I really don't have any plans and if I've already got accommodation, I don't see why I won't be staying the entire duration." She turned to look at Santana. "Do you have anything else planned or somewhere else to be?"

"Umm, no. Not really. I only know there are some other cities in Spain that I want to visit before I leave the country. Umm, do you want to travel together till then? Till Benicassim, I mean?" Santana asked, hopeful.

"Here you go, guys. It's a 100 Euros each." Finn entered the room and passed out what looked like 2 theme park tickets to Santana and Brittany. Santana studied her ticket and turned it over and noted the dates on the ticket. She looked at Quinn skeptically. "Are you sure these aren't fakes?"

"Lemme see that." Quinn took her ticket and examined it under the light while Puck dug out his wallet and held his ticket beside Santana's ticket for comparison. "Looks the same to me." He shrugged.

Brittany was looking at hers and nodded. "Yeah, aside from the days, ours is no different from theirs. I don't think it'll be a problem, San." She said, handing over the money to Finn. "Thanks, Finn." She gave him such a sweet smile that he blushed. "Oh, and thank your roomies for us too." She said.

Santana passed her note to Finn as well. "Yeah, thanks. I was actually really looking forward to it. Kings of Leon is in the line up, right?" Puck nodded. "They're one of my favourite bands. It'll be awesome to see them live."

Rachel looked at Finn. "Santana's a music major as well. How cool is that?"

Finn nodded and gave another shy smile. "We used to be in Glee club together in high school." He explained unnecessarily. "C'mon, Puck, let's go. The guys are waiting for us to watch the game in the lounge area."

Puck stood up and stretched. "Well, it was nice meeting you." He looked pointedly at Santana and smirked at Brittany. "I'll see you around, I guess."

As Rachel and Quinn said their goodbyes to the boys, Santana took the opportunity to grab her toiletries and kept her ticket inside her wallet and tucked it under her pillow. She approached Brittany who was doing the same. "Hey."

Brittany looked up from what she was doing and gave Santana a smile. "Hey."

Santana shuffled her feet. "Listen, do you maybe wanna plan out this trip together?" She looked at the 2 girls near the door. "I mean, those 4 are obviously gonna stick together and it's nice to have a friendly face on my team, you know?"

Brittany nodded. "I know what you mean. I'm glad I met you this morning, really." She offered Santana a sincere smile. "We can plan it out together tomorrow since we don't have anything to do."

"Sure." She smiled, relieved. "I have to tell you though – I'm not a morning person and with the jet lag, I'm probably only going to be awake past 9 tomorrow. Umm, is that gonna be a problem?" she asked while checking her watch. "It's already past midnight now."

"Won't be a problem. Like I said, I'm just taking things slowly – this is a vacation after all. We'll just see how it goes, from there?"

Santana gave Brittany a smile. "Great. Umm, I'm just gonna wash up and head to bed then. I'm kinda tired and all the excitement and alcohol has finally caught up in my system. Did you need to use the bathroom?" She nodded towards the ensuite.

"Nah, go ahead." Brittany plopped herself onto the bed and rummaged through her backpack on the floor. "I'll just go after you."

"Thanks." Santana excused herself and entered the bathroom and started on her nightly ritual. After washing her face and removing her contacts, she changed into some comfortable shorts and a plain tee and excited the bathroom.

"Oh, hey, Santana. We were just talking about you." Rachel said as she stepped back into the room. "We've exchanged numbers, so we can still keep in touch between now and Benicassim. We're leaving for Valencia the day after tomorrow. Perhaps we can meet you and Brittany before the concert?"

Santana returned her toiletries to her bag and sat on her bed. "I don't have a new line yet, but lemme take down your numbers just in case." She took out a notepad and wrote down the numbers that Rachel gave out. The other blond was about to enter the bathroom, so Santana made a note to ask her for her number later. "What are you guys going to do tomorrow?"

Quinn had climbed to the top bunk and was reading a book before she looked up. "Well, since we've covered most of what we want to see in Barcelona, we're just gonna be chilling."

"Oof." Rachel ungracefully climbed up the top bunk of Santana's bed. "Umm, yeah. Think we may do a little retail therapy as well. Shopping never hurts anyone."

The bathroom door clicked open and Brittany stepped out in the cutest pajamas ever. It was a matching pajama set with animals all over it. Santana hid a smile behind her hand. Quinn, on the other hand just gave Brittany a look over. "Nice jammies, Brittany."

Brittany's smile lit up the room. "Thanks! I like ducks!" She cheerfully said, keeping her toiletries. "Do you want me to switch off the light, guys? Quinn?" Brittany looked up to see the blond girl put her book down.

Rachel plopped down on her bed. "I'm gonna turn in as well. Quinn, do you mind switching on the light on your side if you wanna read some more? It's already almost 1 am and I need my beauty sleep, if not my voice would be affected and you know how important that is to me."

Santana just gave the top of her bed a look. Does she always talk that much, she wondered. "I'm ok with the lights on if you guys wanna stay up to chat some more. I'm turning in though – jet lag." She explained. "Goodnight girls."

Brittany looked at Quinn expectantly.

Quinn just lifted her eyebrows. "Thanks for getting the lights, Brittany. It's a pain to have to climb down the bed again once I'm so comfy here." She snuggled under the covers. "Goodnight all."

Brittany crossed the room and flicked off the switch, plunging the room into darkness. "Sweet dreams, ya'll." She responded. A muffled reply could be heard from both the top bunks and Santana heard Brittany shuffle to her side of the room.

Turning around, she felt the bed dip and she squinted in the dark to see Brittany on her bed.

Brittany regarded her silently and gave her a smile. "Goodnight, San." She found Santana's hand and gave it a squeeze. "I had fun tonight." She whispered. "I'm really glad we're gonna be traveling together for awhile."

Santana returned the squeeze and locked eyes with the bluest eyes she had ever seen. "Likewise, Britt. See you tomorrow?" she whispered back. "Sweet dreams."

Brittany nodded and stood up and crawled into her bed. "You too, San."

She turned to set her alarm for 9 am the next day before she thought she heard "Dream of rainbows and unicorns, all right?" coming from Brittany's side of the room. Shaking her head, she closed her eyes and let the gentle ambient sounds from the room drift her to sleep, her thoughts filled with rainbows and unicorns and a pair of blue eyes belonging to a certain blond from across the room.