Work Text:
Santana walked into Tina’s bedroom unannounced, flung herself on to her bed and declared. “I’ve got a new idea for a song.”
Tina immediately crossed the room and removed her brand new jacket from where Santana was lying on top of it. It had only been delivered earlier that day and the last thing Tina wanted was for it to get wrinkled or for Santana to accidentally damage the spiked beading across the shoulders so she hung it on the coat hook on the back of her door.
Once upon a time Tina would have thought she was being set up for some horrific prank with the appearance of Santana Lopez in her home. Either that or she had eaten a bad batch of Puck’s special brownies. However things had changed since Santana had dubbed their collaboration on Trouty Mouth ‘the best thing to happen to music in this cow town’ and decided that they should extend their partnership. Tina thinks that slowly but surely they’ve become friends of a sort, not that she’ll ever say so to Santana. She’s pretty sure the girl is deathly allergic to genuine sentiment.
“What’s it called?” She asked.
“T-Rex and Hobbits.” Santana smirked triumphantly. "No prizes for guessing who this one's about."
Tina couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her mouth. Pretty much all of Santana's musical endeavors had a similar theme. First Trouty Mouth, then Vest Addiction which was followed by Wheels of Misfortune and now T-Rex and Hobbits. Part of Tina knew she should feel bad but there was something freeing about creating these songs, they helped her deal with constantly being overlooked every Glee practice. "Okay, let's see what you have so far."
They work hard for an hour or so honing lyrics and trying out melodies until Santana gets a text from Brittany and she barely pauses to make plans for them to continue their work another day before she's out of Tina's house like a shot. Tina gave their work a quick look over and thinks that they may have come up with what may be the most offensive song to be performed in Glee so far, and there's some strong competition.
It’s two hours later and she’s just about to go out for dinner with Mike when she realizes that bitch took her jacket.
~~~~~~~~~~
Tina would like to be able to enjoy dinner with her boyfriend who is trying to keep her mind off the fact that her supposed friend stole her jacket except that's rather difficult to do sitting in the middle of Santana's favorite place to eat. "Did we really have to come to Breadsticks?"
Mike shrugged good-naturedly. "Hey, it was either this or the Red Dragon."
Tina rested her head on her palm. "It took me three months to save up for that jacket."
Mike smiled understandingly. "I know. Maybe it's a simple misunderstanding. Maybe Santana mistook it for her own jacket."
"She didn't bring one."
Mike chewed thoughtfully and swallowed a rice ball (he brought his own). “You could ask for it back?”
Tina gave Mike a doubtful look. “You think that will work?”
“Probably not.” Mike sighed. “Santana borrowed a rare Pokemon card from Mike when we were in sixth grade.”
“When did he get it back?”
“The day he left town.”
Off Tina’s sour look Mike gave her a smile full of fake cheer. “You could always steal it back.”
Tina initially dismissed the idea but the more she thought about it the more she found it an attractive proposition. Santana could hardly object to her taking her own jacket back, in fact the other girl might even respect that kind of underhanded tactic. On the other hand she didn't want to jeopardise their fledging friendship. Perhaps it might be best to wait and see how things develop.
~~~~~~~~~~
She’s wearing the jacket at school.
Not only did Santana steal her ******* jacket straight out of her closet but now she’s wearing it at school before Tina even had a chance to do so.
Tina made a decision there and then. She’s not waiting until she goes to Santana’s house to get the jacket back. She’s getting it back before the end of school today.
~~~~~~~~~~
After several attempts at reacquiring her jacket Tina was getting desperate. She had tried sneaking up on Santana in the library, slipping the jacket off the back of Santana's chair in class without her noticing, sneaking into the Cheerios locker room (and all that had gotten her was some strange looks from some Cheerios) and she had even tried crouching outside the choir room window with a fishing line but nothing had worked. She had attempted to enlist some of the other members of Glee Club but anyone inclined to help her was too scared of crossing Santana, except Mike but unfortunately something he ate at Breadsticks on their date had disagreed with him and he was at home. She is incredibly close to suggesting to Mr Schue that he write 'Theft' on the whiteboard during Glee Club practice for the theme this week but she really doesn't want to make the whole club suffer.
Which was what led her to stalking Santana through the halls of McKinley to the girls bathroom near the cafeteria. Tina waited a few minutes after Santana entered to follow her in hoping that she'd have a better chance at retrieving her jacket if Santana was distracted. However when Tina entered the bathroom Santana was distracted but not in the way Tina was expecting, although maybe she should have. The bathroom looks empty and there's no sign of her jacket but there are little moans and groans and a great deal of heavy breathing coming from the nearest stall.
Tina instantly knows that she must be the only other person in this bathroom because there's no way Santana wouldn't check she had privacy before getting down at school, it's risky but she's not stupid. She hears Santana threaten whoever's in there with her not to leave a hickey and Tina briefly wonders if maybe Santana put the jacket on the coathook inside the stall and maybe if she and her makeout partner are really involved in what they're doing they won't notice Tina's arm reaching over the door and reclaiming her property. She discards the idea because there are way too many ifs in there and despite what people at McKinley might think (those that don't think she's an asian vampire) she does not have the ninja skills to pull it off effectively without getting caught.
Tina was just about to leave the bathroom when she heard Quinn breathlessly ask. "Before we get to class, I have to ask, where'd you get this jacket?"
Stunned hardly describes how Tina feels. She's just caught Santana getting it on with Quinn Fabray in the school bathroom. The sheer implications almost cause Tina's brain to short-circuit, fortunately Santana's reply admitting she swiped the jacket from Tina manages to snap her out of her shock. She's not too proud to admit that she briefly entertained the thought of asking Santana to return her jacket in exchange for her silence but she immediately dismissed the idea, doing something like that would have been out of the question for Tina even when Santana was one of the people making her life hell everyday. One thing is certain, getting her jacket back can wait. For now.
~~~~~~~~~~
Tina entered Santana’s house with a plan. It was a pretty simple plan: go up to Santana’s room, find her jacket, proceed to run home as fast as possible and then face the consequences much later secure in the knowledge she had her jacket back.
This was shot all to hell when after being ushered by Mrs Lopez up to Santana’s room Santana opened the door, greeted her and proceeded to shove the jacket into Tina’s arms with a quick. “Hey, I borrowed this. You can have it back now.”
Tina gaped at her. “You’re just giving it back to me.”
Santana shrugged. “Yeah. I liked the look of it last time I was over. Thought I’d give it a try.” She gave Tina a sly look. “Why? What did you expect me to do with it?”
Tina rolled her shoulders to ease the tension in her neck and replied. “I don’t know. Give it to Puck and set it on fire?"
Santana snorted in disbelief. "Pfff, I'd do that to one of Berry's animal sweaters and that'd be a damn public service. But this jacket's bitching and you're, y'know, one of my bitches."
Tina had spent enough time with Santana lately that she could decipher the girl's true meaning. "Really?" She smiled.
"Whatever." Santana said dismissively. “Listen I know Weezy’s usually my girl when it comes to duets ‘cause we kick ass at them together. But seeing as you’ve been such a help lately I was thinking you’d want an opportunity to roll with this.”
“Cool. Though if you’re looking to sing Quinn a moving romantic ballad, Rachel probably has some suggestions. You know how she's always encouraging us to express ourselves through song.”
Tina knew that in five minutes time Santana would threaten her within an inch of her life but the struck dumb expression on her face? Totally worth it.