Fandom. MikeTina-centric featuring others
Disclaimer: Glee © Fox/Ryan Murphy
1. Candles
He is surprised when her room isn't a shrine to her style. (Her parents drew the line when it came to Goth reflecting in her bedroom décor.) But the surprising thing for him was that there are candles in her room. A bunch of them—all different earthy colors with different Chinese characters, some he recognizes, others he doesn't.
But he does realize she is missing one character he knows very well.
So when he sees her at school the next day, he drops a small box into her hand and tells her to open it. Inside is a red candle with a distinct character.
Upon realizing what it said, she blushes. "W-What's this for?" But he just shrugs and dismisses it as a small gift.
The character is love.
2. Snow
She had never been too big a fan of snowfall. It wasn't that she particularly hated it, but she didn't particularly like it either.
So when it's winter and the snowfall is a bit more on the deeper end in Lima this time around, she sits with Kurt on the sidelines to avoid being hit while rest of their friends are in the midst of the most intense snowball war she has ever witnessed.
Of course, Mike decides otherwise.
She squeals as she feels the snow being crushed to her head, shuddering. "Mike!"
"Happy holidays, Tina."
And so her new objective has less to do with staying dry and more to do with turning Mike Chang into Frosty the Snowman.
3. First Kiss
The cold, she decides in the back of her mind.
Her mind is too numb from the cold to process things, despite the fact that his house—with cinnamon rolls cooking in the oven and the open fire crackling from the fireplace a few feet away—felt like the inside of an inferno. What else would be a proper explanation for making out with Mike Chang on his couch, even if his lips tasted of fresh hot chocolate and marshmallows?
4. Rules
Tina used to live by one main rule: never let anyone get close enough to hurt her.
But that was pre-glee.
That was before she went on all-day shopping sprees with Kurt and Mercedes and midnight premieres with Santana and Brittany and sang karaoke with Rachel and her dads and baked cookies with Quinn. That was before Artie taught her to edit a video and Matt and Puck taught her to play basketball and Finn taught her to play the drums.
That was before Mike Chang was more than just a passing face in the hallway. It was before she knew what it was liked to be loved.
So now she lives by a new rule: to live her life and to love everyone that was in it.
5. Confusion
"Are you adopted?" he blurts out to her one day during glee.
She looks at him like he'd just told her Sue Sylvester had made him the head cheerleader. "What?"
"Well, your last name is Chang sort of, so I—"
"Mike, Chang is common surname, so I highly doubt we're related, if that's what you're suggesting." Shaking her head, she adds, "And no, by the way, I am not adopted."
He grins at her like a child. "Well that's a relief. I was never a fan of incest anyway."
6. Chocolate
She says she'll punch him if he gives her a heart-shaped box of chocolates for Valentine's Day.
When he shows up to the school the next day and hands her one, but tells her to open the box first, she sees that he's arranged the chocolates on the inside to resemble a (somewhat lopsided) skull instead because "you always wear them."
She decides not to punch him. Not this time.
7. Secret
"I'm sorry," he says for what must have been the hundredth thousandth time since school started. (That is the last time he asks Puck for advice on anything. Ever.)
"Just a few more, Mike, and then maybe I'll squeal."
"Sorry," he mutters and he feels like a fool. "I didn't—I guess I shouldn't have—ugh, I'm just a complete idiot and I don't deserve you to forgive me. I'm sorry."
She just rolls her eyes and leaves the library. He puts his face in his hands, wondering if he should chase her down, but as he was weighing the repercussions of such decision, a voice that very much sounds like Quinn whispers, "She likes white roses. And if you can get your hands on some black and red paint spray, that wouldn't hurt your cause either."
So, at least the next time when he screws up because he turned to Matt, he'll have a secret weapon.
8. Study
"Dark chocolate?" he offers to her during Spanish while Mr. Schue isn't looking. He laughs as she nearly snatches it from his palm, especially as she questions how he knew it was her favorite. "I do a lot of studying," he says, and with a smirk, "because you're my favorite subject."
Her hand twitches like she wants to hit him. "Not even close."
Mike snaps his fingers, feigning disappointment, but knows that he will find a pick up line that will work on her.
9. Diary
Tina was not necessarily a typical girl, which meant that whenever someone asked her if she kept a diary, she'd laugh so hard her cheeks turned pink.
Mike quickly figured out that she didn't need a diary. She just sprawled whatever was on her mind in the back of her notebooks, rip it out, and dispose of it in her fireplace at home. But how did he find this out? Well, let's just say she wished she hadn't lent him her history notes.
"Tina, why is my name written so many times in this little corner?"
10. Car Wash
Now, Mike was modest and pretty shy, so to say he wasn't as perverted as Puck and Matt would be appropriate. But to say he wasn't perverted at all would be dead wrong. So when the girls practically force Tina to wear a red and black bathing suit with shorts for their car wash for glee, he is reduced into what could only politely be called a stare.
"How awesome was it to get Santana to get the girls to talk Tina into wearing that?" Matt asks.
Puck laughs. "Judging by the look on Changster's face, I say it was genius," and the two idiots exchange high-fives and forget that Mike is standing two feet away.
(Needless to say, one of the cars probably has two dents the size of Puck and Matt's heads somewhere in the side.)
11. Home Coming
She misses him. They all do.
They know he had to leave because his dad was injured on a business trip in a different state, and that they weren't sure how long he needed to be bedridden, so Mike and his mom put in their notices and flew out to be with him as quickly as possible. They know that. She knows that.
But she still misses him, or else when she sees him back at his locker at school that morning she wouldn't have felt the urge to run up to him and kiss his cheek.
And she does exactly that.
12. Pajamas
"Aren't you too old for a sleep over?" he questions her when he overhears Rachel and Mercedes talking about the all-girls sleep over Quinn was hosting at her house that night. Tina just laughs and shakes her head patronizingly at him.
But, across the room, he sees Puck and Matt high-fiving and he knows that they were going to get caught and then get their asses kicked tonight by the girls in their pajamas.
(And, yeah, only when he's sitting with them on Quinn's couch a few hours later with Tina standing there, her arms crossed and glaring at him, will he realize that he needs to get better friends. Or that he needs to stop getting involved with their Friday night plans.)
13. Water
Were they considered officially dating if she brought him water after football practice and didn't mind sitting in the stuffy locker room waiting for him when most of the football team (and by most she means anyone who was not Mike, Finn, Puck, Matt, or Kurt) has already left the building? It was hard to say.
"Yeah, you kind of are," Matt tells her when she curiously asks the question one day.
When Mike walks back, he finds Matt drenched in water and Tina sitting there with an empty water bottle in her hand, Puck and Finn and Kurt snickering in the background.
"I'm not even going to ask."
14. Dreams
They're talking about their dreams in glee one day, and Tina asks Mike what his was. He tells her that he wants to become a dancer, and that he'll marry fairly young but only once he's out of school, and when his dance career is well underway, he would like to have kids fairly younger than the average parent as well. It was not very much to ask for, he tells her.
And when he asks her if maybe, quite possibly she'd like to be part of that dream, she laughs lightly and tells him that it doesn't sound half bad.
15. Nightmares
She's been having these strange nightmares, different some nights, the same others, but it startles her awake. Often she wakes up with her legs entangled in the sheets, her heart pounding heavily in her chest, and the blood drained from her face. But when she accidentally falls asleep at his place and is awaken in the middle of the night, this time it's different.
This time she feels a strong arm around her waist, another hand squeezing hers comfortingly, and the voice of Mike Chang whispering softly into her ear that it's going to be alright.
"Don't worry. I'm right here."
So she shifts to lean her head against his shoulder and, as she's drifting between consciousness and semi-consciousness, she realizes that she could get used to this.
16. News
"—oh, and Tina," Rachel says as she and Mike walk into the choir room, "are you still going to be joining us for brunch on Saturday?"
"I, uh," she stammers. "I'm sorry, something came up."
She doesn't get it at first, but Mercedes and Quinn gasp in surprise and Santana has a wide smile on her face and Brittany is kind of staring at something, so Rachel follows Brittany's stare to where Tina and Mike's hands are laced together between them. And then the news sinks in. "He asked you out!"
17. Dress
They're wearing white for one of their routines and it's kind of an odd sight for him considering Tina usually wears black all the time. So as they're waiting there and Mr. Schue is going over the girls' choreography with Brittany and Santana he walks up to where she's staring at her reflection with an uncomfortable look on her face.
"If you can't even stand this dress," he begins, "what are you going to wear on your wedding day?"
"Please, Mike, I'll need to be engaged first before I worry about that stuff—if I ever get proposed to someday."
"Oh, I can think of someone who is already planning to."
She blushes.
18. Engagement
She won't remember that conversation until a few weeks later. "Happy birthday," he tells her as he slips the ring onto her finger.
She smiles genuinely at him and admires his gift, though this is only for a fraction of a second because, across the hall, Brittany exclaims, "Mike and Tina are engaged!"
19. Ring
She glares at him. "You planned this didn't you?" The entire hallway is already bustling with whispers and hushed conversations.
And when he protests his innocence, she is tempted to throw the ring at his face.
20. Love
He's babysitting his little cousin while his parents go out with his aunt and uncle, and he calls her up to come over—mostly because he just wants to be with her, but partly because Baby Jake hasn't stopped crying since he'd woken up from his nap.
She comes to his rescue, expertly changing his diaper and spooning food into his mouth and playing with him, not a single cry of protest leaving his mouth since her arrival. He smiles to himself as he watches her a while later humming a Chinese lullaby, her hair messily pulled back into a ponytail and her eyes wide and sparkling as she stares down at the baby cradled in her arms.
It is in this moment he realizes she'd make a perfect wife, and an even better mother.
So he realizes now is a better time than ever to tell her.
"Tina," he says, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. She smiles at him before returning her gaze onto Baby Jake. "I…" He takes a breath. "Wǒ ài nǐ."
Her breath catches.
She turns to look at him and her eyes are glistening. "Yeah?"
"Definitely."
And, even though she is breathless as she says it, he hears the words perfectly.
"Wǒ yě ài nǐ." I love you too.
A/n. Mike and Tina. Enough said.
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