First Bite

Red Sunshower

Santana's eyes flew open and she jerked up, almost flinging Brittany off her.

"What?" she gasped.

She looked around her house and saw that Brittany was right. There was an eerie, foreign light seeping over the horizon into the living room where they were sprawled out.

Santana felt her throat clutch with panic and her limbs seize, but as Brittany sent a powerful wave of calm onto her, she stopped. Quickly scanning her limbs, she realized she wasn't burning. She wasn't even warm. She just felt... Well, she felt sweaty and tired and good, if not stunned.

"The sun's up?" Santana gasped in disbelief, as though her eyes might be deceiving her.

"Yeah," Brittany hushed. Santana looked around, studying the way the gold light tinged the edges of her furniture and brought out the colors of the upholstery.

It was beautiful, once she could see past her panic. Things tinged with gold looked new and bright. She was seeing her house differently than she ever had before, as though alight with the glow of the biggest lamp in the world. She looked down at her naked body again, seeing the warmth of her skin glow. She looked around, in awe, for what felt like hours.

After Santana got over her initial shock, observing the way the sun lit up her skin and her house, she looked up at Brittany.

Brittany had never been more beautiful.

The way the sun glinted off her hair, the way her freckles were slowly rising to the surface with the dawn, the way she smiled down at Santana with her chocolate-stained face. Santana was entranced. She cupped Brittany's chin, bringing it to her face, and kissed her. She wanted to kiss the sunlight into her, so she would always look this radiant, this effervescent, this whole and good and light. Santana wanted to preserve her, exactly as she was.

She rolled on top of her, enveloping her, though not with lust, but with joy. She was no longer confined to the night.

And yet it seemed Brittany was even more joyous than she was. After a few moments of kissing, rolling about on Santana's floor, she sat up, then got onto her knees, giving Santana her hand.

"C'mon!" she said, elated. "Let's go!"

"Go where!" Santana asked, Brittany's excitement contagious between them.

"Everywhere!" Brittany exclaimed, yanking Santana up with surprising strength. "You have a whole world to see in the sunlight!"

She pulled Santana up and out the door, and they stood there on the stoop, frozen with wonder as the sun rose, casting its golden spell over them. The world seemed to expand dramatically in that moment. Santana felt huge and small at the same time. Her skin was warming, her heart was beating, and she was breathing in the sweet scent of dawn. Best of all, she was sharing it all with Brittany.

She watched the golden sparkles in the dew, listened to the birdcalls, and felt the way Brittany was feeling. Brittany's chest was bursting with happiness and wonder and love. She saw out of the corner of her eye that Brittany was watching her, in between glances around the trees and foliage around Santana's house. Brittany wanted to feel whatever Santana felt, to feel the miraculous experience of stepping out into the light for the first time in five decades.

Santana kept looking down at her arms and legs and stomach, amazed she wasn't burning or steaming. She didn't feel any discomfort. If anything, she felt more alive than ever. Her skin grew warm, yet chilled with the feeling of the dewy dawn.

Santana wanted to experience every blade of grass, every birdcall, every wonder that she knew Brittany noticed on a daily basis. This was the world Brittany lived in. For the first time, she felt that she could experience it.