is it too late to remind you how we were?; pg; glee rpf; lea/dianna; naya/heather (2/2)
Title: is it too late to remind you how we were? (2/2)
Author: yesssirrr
Pairing,Character(s): Lea/Dianna, side Naya/Heather, Lea/Cory, mention of Chris and Jenna
Rating: pg (slight curse words)
Word count: 4,148 (IKR! IT JUST RAN AWAY FROM ME AND WROTE ITSELF)
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: The people portrayed are real BUT THIS NEVER HAPPENED. THIS IS NOT REAL. DO NOT TAKE ME SERIOUSLY.
Summary: This is the sequel to where i fall is where i land. That was obviously really angsty and wasn't supposed to have a happy ending, but that didn't fly all too well with me. I needed for them to have a happy ending. And this is what I got. It was definitely about two-three thousand more words than I anticipated, so sorry for the long read.
A/N: title from Snow Patrol's song "You Could Be Happy
PART ONE
;;
It's been a week since Lea broke off the engagement. She's moved into Naya and Heather's spare bedroom for the meantime, piling her belongings in a storage unit. There’s no doubt in her mind that breaking the engagement was the smartest thing to do - the right thing to do - but it doesn’t make her feel any less like a terrible person.
The pervading thoughts have haunted her in the past week, ruining any chance or hope of sleep she may have had. It becomes another one of those nights and it’s already close to one in the morning when she decides to get up and distract herself.
When Lea cracks her door open, she finds Heather sitting at the end of the couch with her legs propped up on the coffee table, Naya’s head resting on her lap, eyes closed. Heather’s reading silently to herself, one hand running through dark hair. Naya sleeps peacefully, one hand resting on the blonde’s knee. It’s an intimate moment that tugs at her heart. She tries to retreat back into the bedroom but Heather looks up and catches her, smiling. She can only smile back in embarrassment.
“Sorry I didn’t mean to-”
“No, no. It’s fine. What’s up? Can’t sleep again?”
Lea nods mutely, takes the seat on the armchair beside the couch closest to the blonde.
“Why are you up?” she asks, wondering why the couple isn’t in bed yet.
“Naya wanted to watch 500 Days of Summer…again. But she fell asleep midway…again. When I turned it off, I wasn’t sleepy and I didn’t want to move her, so here I am,” she says, waving a hand towards Naya’s sleeping figure. She smiles and Lea can’t help but smile back in return.
“What’s keeping you up?”
Heather asks like it’s always something new, but it never changes. Lea sighs heavily and slumps down further into the chair.
“Do you think I made a mistake?”
“It depends on which mistake you think you made,” Heather says seriously, though in kind, as she shifts a little in her seat and adjusts Naya’s head on her lap.
“I don’t-” she starts to say but stops herself after it registers in her head what the other girl just said. Heather raises an eyebrow expectantly. “What’re you trying to say?”
“Nothing more than you already know. Look,” she starts to say, the hand smoothing over Naya’s hair coming at a stop. “If you’re asking me if I think it was a mistake for you to break up with Cory, then my answer is no, I don’t. If you don’t love him the way you’re supposed to, then at the very least, you’re not right for him.”
“What’s the way I’m supposed to love him?”
“If you have to ask, then you obviously don’t.”
The two of them fall in silence, Heather continuing to run her hand through Naya’s hair and Lea staring at the corner of the coffee table.
“How’d you know Naya was the one?” she asks eventually, looking up. She catches a smile playing on the other girl’s lips upon hearing her lover’s name. Heather doesn’t answer at first, face scrunched up in thought. But she looks at Lea and offers a warm smile.
“You know when you’re looking for the perfect song to dance to or sing to for something and you keep searching for it but you don’t find it. But then one day it just springs up on you and you know it’s the perfect song because it brings something out of you - like this excitement, this passion - that no other song would. Or like you turn the radio on in the car on and your obscure favorite song from a long time ago plays and it puts you in a really good mood for the rest of the ride. Well, that’s how I know.”
The excitement and giddiness that fills Heather’s voice is enough to warm Lea’s heart, but it leaves her somewhat confused. She must not be hiding it so well because Heather laughs a little.
“It’s probably going to sound cliché, but I didn’t know I was looking for her, but then I found her and I wish that I had looked sooner.”
“But you didn’t know you were looking for her.”
“Yeah, exactly. She came in my life unexpectedly and kind of took over. She brings out something in me that I never knew I had. I didn’t know she was the one, but she sprung up on me one day and I knew she was perfect for me. That kind of happiness and contentment and just, I don’t know, good mood, that comes from things like finding the perfect song to dance to is what I get when it comes to her, but every day.”
Lea absorbs everything Heather says, nodding mutely. “What if she lets you down?”
“I don’t expect anything out of her more than what I expect from myself.”
The brunette is about to ask another question when Heather’s attention is pulled in by the girl on her lap stirring. Naya stretches out of her spot, extending her arms above her. Heather dodges the arm that’s about to hit her face and Lea can’t help but laugh.
“Baby,” Naya says softly. They think that she’s fallen asleep again but they hear, “let’s go to bed” before the sleepy girl groggily moves about on the couch, lifting her head from Heather’s lap, her eyes barely open from sleep. Lea watches Naya as she makes her way to the bedroom, not once glancing back at her girlfriend or even aware that Lea was there to begin with.
“I guess it’s bed time,” Heather says with a laugh, pulling her legs off the coffee table. Lea offers a smile but doesn’t get up from her seat.
The blonde girl looks at her wordlessly, a little hesitant. “So, I wasn’t technically supposed to say anything, but Dianna’s coming over tomorrow to have a word with you while Naya and I go have lunch with Chris and Jenna.”
Lea’s mouth turns into a small ‘o’ but no sound comes out of it.
“I thought I should tell you so you weren’t blindsided or anything like that.”
“Thanks for telling me.”
Heather nods mutely. Lea watches as the blonde retreats to her bedroom door before turning around to face her again.
“It’s not my business and I’m sorry if I cross the line, but try not to make the mistake with her that you did before. Or I’ll kick you out.”
Lea’s eyes widen but she blinks relief when the blonde laughs a little before closing the door with a soft click.
When Heather is gone, Lea moves from the armchair to the sofa and lies down thinking about what the other girl said. She doesn’t know if she can avoid making the same mistake, but she’s going to try. She knows that hurting all those around her is something she can’t do anymore.
--
Lea hears the knock on the door and steels herself. A part of her wishes Heather hadn’t told her, but she knows she would have no idea what to do with herself when Dianna came in and talked to her.
She opens the door without a word and tries her best to make eye contact with blonde. It doesn’t happen though as Dianna storms through past her.
“What the fuck do you think you're doing?” Dianna all but yells.
“I’m sorry,” she says softly, but she doubts Dianna heard her. The blonde whips around and continues to speak loudly at her.
“You can't just tell Cory you're in love with me and-what’d you say?”
“I said I was sorry.” Dianna narrows her eyes for a moment.
“Heather told you I was coming, didn’t she?” Lea bites her lip before nodding. The blonde in front of her rolls her eyes, letting out an exasperated sigh. “I should’ve told Naya instead.”
“Dianna, I’m sorry.”
“Cory was so heartbroken when he came over to my apartment,” is all Dianna says, fully ignoring Lea’s apology. “Why’d you do it? I thought you guys were in love.”
“For some time, we were, but then the love that I did have for him, that I still do, was overshadowed with how much I was lying to the two of us about who I really wanted to be with.”
“Lea…” Dianna warns.
“Look,” Lea says desperately, stepping forward, “I made the mistake of not following my heart once and when I thought I was protecting everyone, I ended up doing the complete opposite. I’m not asking you to take me back, but I’m asking for a chance for me to redeem myself, to correct my mistakes.”
Dianna’s quiet and Lea is fighting so hard to keep away from squirming on her spot.
“You know,” she says resignedly, “Cory asked me if I was in love with you too.”
“What-what’d you say?” Lea looks up, anxious to hear the answer. Dianna looks at her and shrugs.
“I thought about lying to him, but that’s what got him into this mess in the first place. So I told him the truth, I told him I was in love with you, that I am still.”
“Oh.”
Dianna shakes her head before letting out a bitter laugh. “You were the one that told me that we could never work. And now we’re here because you’re in love with me and not Cory.”
“I know.”
“You were the one that never wanted to give it a chance!”
“I know.”
“So why are you doing this now?!”
“I was scared! When we lived together, it was too perfect of a fit. It was too much of a good thing that I convinced myself that it was gonna fall apart sooner than later.”
“Didn’t you think I was scared too?”
“No because you seemed so sure of yourself, of us.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me any of this?”
“Because I was so scared that one day you’ll realize that I’m not good enough for you and I know that if I broke your heart, you’ll survive. But if you broke mine, there’s nothing I can do about it.” Lea clenches her jaw, exhaling deeply before blinking out the tears. Dianna’s already wiping the strays out of her own face.
“What do we do now?” Dianna runs a hand through her hair, her eyes roaming the apartment. Blue eyes settle on brown ones.
“We figure this - us - out,” she says waving a hand between the two of them, gesturing their current predicament. Lea sniffles a little bit before responding.
“Okay, I can do that.”
“Okay.”
Lea steps away from Dianna realizing how much space she had crossed between the two of them in the short amount of time. Dianna smiles back gratefully.
“I should go.” It’s not a request. When Dianna gets to the door, Lea calls out.
“This is it, isn't it?” she asks. The last time she heard those words, it didn’t come from her own mouth. The last time she heard those words, it meant the end of their relationship. But this time, this time it’s different.
“Yeah, this is it.” Dianna smiles enough that her nose scrunches up a little and Lea knows she means it.
It’s a start.
--
Lea moves back in with Dianna in their old apartment four months, one week, five days later after a lot of forgiveness, a lot of talking, and a cranky Naya that brings up a good point.
“Dianna!” Naya huffs like a petulant child. “There’s a spare bedroom in your apartment.” Dianna raises her eyebrows.
“Yeah, so?” Naya glares at her and Heather admonishes her with a gentle hand on her cheek.
“You have been over here for the fourth night in a row. But I miss having alone time with my girlfriend. Why don’t you take yours home with you? And keep her there.”
Naya looks at them expectantly. Lea and Dianna look at each other then back at Naya, speechless. Heather laughs before she leans in to her girlfriend and kisses her chastely on the lips. Lea and Dianna don’t say anything and Heather smiles at them brightly.
“Yeah, you guys. Go home.”
So they do.