Work Text:
Santana Lopez was having a horrible, no good, very shit day. She woke up to find that her dick box of an apartment complex had lost power again meaning she was going to have to haul ass to get to work on time. And I thought not having coffee would be the worst part of my morning she thought now as the elevator gave a screech, coming to a halt, effectively sticking her in between floors of the law firm. Being alone wouldn’t have been so bad, she hated closed in places so the claustrophobia wasn’t exactly ideal, but the universe decided to make things worse for her by getting her stuck in an elevator with a stranger.
She had already tried to call for help, her phone didn’t pick up signal in the damn death trap anyway, paced the length of the elevator at least thirty times and contemplated just jumping up and down to try and get it unstuck. Through all of this the stranger said nothing, Santana would have thought that this person was stuck in elevators constantly with the amount of chill they were exuding. The Latina finally let out a huff of annoyance as she gave up and let herself slide down the wall and onto the floor, she sat in silence for a few moments before she chanced a glance towards her current partner in torment.
She was blonde, her shaggy hair cut short and close to her face, her skin was pale, most of her long limbs exposed out past the pale blue dress she wore . She didn’t even seem to notice the brunettes intense gaze, just continued to look down at the book laid out in her lap, her eyes following the words as she read. “How long do you think we’re going to be stuck in this shit box?” Santana finally said aloud, watching the women’s eyes stop moving along the sentence she had been reading, the brunette thought that she was going to ignore her completely but eventually she spoke.
“The last time I was stuck in here it took five hours”
Santana’s jaw dropped open in shock before she let out a groan and shot up, walking over to the door, banging on the metal frame with all her might. The blonde said nothing but when Santana turned around she caught her staring.
Her eyes were hazel, long lashes hanging over high cheek bones dusted with the slightest hint of freckles, Santana felt her breath catch in her throat momentarily before she crossed back to the spot she had been in and resumed her seat. “My boss is going to kill me” the Latina mumbled to herself, her head snapping over to the blonde when she let out a chuckle, “you aren’t worried about getting fired?”
The stranger simply shrugged as she nodded towards the still closed elevator doors, “hard to be worried about losing my job when they can’t even keep the damn elevator in working order”.
Santana felt her lips quirk up into a smirk, “very true blondie” the brunette remarked, the pair falling into silence. With no internet her boredom level was about to shoot thought the roof. Wonder if bookworm Barbie would read out loud to me? The brunette considered the thought for a moment before the silence surrounding her made her just ask outright, “so are you going to read out loud or does that require a library card?”
A blonde eyebrow quirked above a hazel pool at the question, the Latina waving towards the book. “if I’m going to be stuck in here for a couple hours I don’t want to be bored the entire time” she said in defense.
The blonde held her gaze before she looked down to the book, placing her thumb between the pages to keep her place she closed it to show the Latina the cover, flashing the tittle Lord of the Flies at her before she opened it back to her current page, “most people didn’t like this book in high school so I understand if you would rather I not”.
The Latina rolled her eyes as she laid down, stretching out her legs and using the blonde’s purse as a pillow before she gave the blonde an expecting look.
The blonde tried to cover her smile with an eye roll of her own as she turned back to the book and found her place and began to read aloud. She got through about five words before loud crunching broke her concentration and she shot a halfhearted glare to the Latina who had found a bag of pretzels in the purse she had commandeered from the blonde, “you know most people aren’t this open about stealing my stuff”.
Santana halted mid pretzel to mouth and rerouted the movement to offer the snack to the blonde beside her with a innocent smile, “sorry blondie, life or death situations make me snackey”.
“It’s Quinn” the blonde said before she took the offered pretzel which caused the Latina to stare at her in confusion, “my name. It’s not blondie”.
The Latina flashed her new companion a pout, “but I liked blondie” she whined which caused the other woman to smile and shake her head, “Santana” the brunette indicated with a point at herself before she continued her chomping, “where do you work? I haven’t seen you around….”
Quinn had focused back on her book but she answered regardless, “I just started a couple weeks ago, I work under Caroline Fabray.”
Santana let out a noise of surprise, “Fabray huh? I heard she’s pretty scary, my friend Kurt tried to apply for the position as her assistant and she flat out told him no.”
The blonde chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before she muttered, “she’s my cousin…. I just moved up here so she offered me the job and her old apartment.”
“Oh word that’s crazy, I just moved here too, where did you move from?” the brunette asked as she tipped the bag up to reach the crumbs that had settled to the bottom.
“Ohio” the blonde said simply, “needed to get away from my family for a while. I’m trying to start school soon.”
“Arizona” the Latina commented as she tossed the empty bag aside and began to dig around in the purse in search of more food.
“How did you end up here?” Quinn asked as she set her head in the hand not currently holding the book watching as the Latina rummage around in her bag.
“My parents wanted me to go to pharmacy school but I wanted to do law” Santana explained before she pulled out a wrapped candy. Quinn gave her a disbelieving stare to which Santana responded with a shrug as she unwrapped the candy and popped it into her mouth. The disgusted look that passed over Santana’s face was enough to make the blonde chuckle.
“Is this liquorish? Gah it's horrible” The Latina grumbled as she spits the candy back out into the wrapper.
“I bought that purse from Goodwill so there is no telling how long that has been in there. But that might kill you before the cables snap” Quinn jested as she sent a smile towards the other woman.
Santana’s stomach fluttered under the hazel gaze and she looked away to steady herself, she was Santana fucking Lopez for Christ sake, dropper of panties and stealer of hearts she wasn’t supposed to have a crush on some stranger no matter how pretty said stranger was. Her mouth suddenly felt too dry to speak when a clanking noise could be heard from outside the elevator door. The pair shared a confused look between them before the machine started to move again, finishing its mission to the next floor.
When the door opened the janitor for the building apologized to the pair for the issues then turned and headed off to their next train wreck of the day.
The blonde and brunette finally rose from their spots on the floor of the elevator, gathering their things before they exited into the hallway, “well this is my stop” Quinn said as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and pointed towards the right.
Santana hummed a reply as she rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, the blonde waited a moment before she offered a polite goodbye and she started down the hallway, “wait!” the Latina called suddenly causing Quinn to freeze before she turned and quirked an eyebrow at the women a few feet from her, “would you uh…like to get coffee sometime or something?”
Quinn smirked as she seemed to think about the offer, “a date?”.
The Latina felt her cheeks flare as she shrugged, trying to act nonchalant, “I mean it’s a free county you can do whatever you want.”
“A date then” the blonde said softly, causing the darker skinned woman to break out into a megawatt smile, “I prefer tea by the way” she finished with a wink as she finished her trek down the hallway.
Santana smiled after her until she rounded a corner and disappeared from view, proud of herself for taking a chance, she turned and started down the other side of the hallway towards her own cubical without a care in the world….until she realized she hadn’t asked for the blonde’s number. Fuck